#he's a monster

[haikyuu-moments]

his hits were getting blocked and everyone thought he must be upset but he fuckin smiled!!!!!

the goosebumps i get from this moment 😵‍💫😵‍💫

[hannahssimblr]

Seven on the button, and the doorbell rings. I hear it from the garden as I empty the contents on the lawn mower into the bin, grass stains on my new shoes, sweat on my brow. Dad comes to the back door. 

“Bell,” he says. 

“Is it someone for me?”

“I assume so. A young woman.” 

“Didn’t you let her in?”

“No. I spotted her from my office window.”

I scoff. He’s so weird. Why wouldn’t he just answer? I wipe the grass from my hands onto the sides of my shorts, kick my dirty shoes off on the patio, and head down the hallway to the sounds of Ivy plonking on the piano. 

It’s Evie, in her usual denim shorts and a thin green cardigan, hair straight and shiny and wearing a shy smile. Despite seeming slightly frazzled, she looks so nice, like she’s put in effort, unlike me, all grass stains, sweat, and hair that is no doubt sticking up at some wild angle. I run my fingers through it. 

“Oh, hi,” I say. “I didn’t think you’d come so early. I… still have to shower.”

“Oh, God, sorry, am I the first one here?”

“Yeah, but come in, anyway. My sister is just practising for her piano lessons. She hasn’t played all summer.” I roll my eyes as the door clicks behind us. “In case you can’t tell. She’s a bit shite.”

Evie doesn’t respond, but looks around her with those big green eyes taking in her surroundings, skating up the panelled walls to the Georgian coving, the ceiling roses around the lights, all restored, faithful to the original house. It occurs to me to wonder, for the first time, what her home looks like, and the differences between our upbringings that didn’t matter an ounce on our little escapist slice of the beach.

“Do you want tea or something?”

She nods, and I take her through to the kitchen. There, she perches on a stool at the island and rests her elbows, trying not to be so obvious to her gawking. This time, she takes in the kitchen, this bespoke, perfect show-house-like kitchen with all of its integrated appliances, the state-of-the-art hob that’s barely used, the skinny cupboard made specifically for all the herbs and spices that still have the plastic wrap on them. It’s nice, sure, it’s like something from a magazine, but I would prefer this was the type of house that had magnets on the fridge door instead. 

“I’m sorry I’m early,” Evie says with a rueful smile. “I thought you said seven.”

I drop a tea bag into a mug for her. “Yeah, I said seven in the text, but I suppose I should have been more specific.”

“More specific about…?”

“That seven doesn’t actually mean seven, you know? That it means, like, sometime after eight.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you expected me to decode your text.”

I laugh. The misunderstanding was my fault, really, and if I’d thought about it for even a minute, I would have known that Evie, a girl who likely doesn’t go to a lot of parties, wouldn’t know the procedure. I don’t mind that she’s here at all. I am happy to see her, but the fact that she is in my house at the same time as my family is awkward. Every time I hear someone moving about in another room, all my muscles tense up. I cannot bear for her to meet them, and be able to make some kind of judgement about who I truly am through the encounter, or worse, expose herself to their judgement and scrutiny. 

As though on cue, my mother’s heels clack through the hallway, increasing in volume until all I can do is mentally prepare myself for her entrance. I curse under my breath while I fill Evie’s cup with boiling water. 

In freshly pressed trousers, she strides into the room. All jangling keys, and an air of busyness about her, so self-absorbed that it takes a moment for her to realise we have a guest. She stops dead, and surveys Evie in dull surprise. She’s like some kind of wild, feline predator, and witnessing her interactions with people who don’t yet know her ways is excruciating. 

“Oh, hello.”

“Mom, this is my friend Evie. Evie, this is my mom,” I say. 

Evie fidgets in her seat. “Hello missus Turner,” she says, and it’s so polite that I squirm.

Mom lets out a short, percussive laugh. “Oh, no, darling. It’s just Colette. Are you one of those girls from the Holy Faith school?”

“No, actually, I’m not. I’m from Tullamore, in Offaly.” 

Mom’s eyes glaze over so immediately and obviously that I cringe. 

Pulling the tea bag out, I clarify, “She’s one of my friends from holiday.”

“Ah, Shane’s sister.”

Evie picks the mug from the counter and cradles it in her hands. “No, um… No, I’m not.”

“Ah.” She’s already rifling through her handbag. “Jude, have you seen my reading glasses? I haven’t been able to find them all afternoon.”

“Did you check the office?”

“Why would they be in there?”

“I’m just asking, did you check?”

She huffs. “Why would you suggest the office? Why on earth would I have left them there?”

“Because this is your house, and you can go into any of the rooms you like. Sorry if that’s an outrageous suggestion.”

“You know I’m never in there.”

“Well, maybe dad mistook them for his and took them in. I don’t know.”

Evie stares into her mug. I am aware of the atmosphere we’re generating here, my mom and I, but it’s hard not to descend into this childish bickering every time we speak to each other lately. Even seeing her ignites this rage in me, as she is a reminder of the injustices thrust upon me, and every time I see her smug face, I think about the position she has put me in. Dad too, obviously, but I mercifully don’t have to see him outside of occasional mealtimes, and whenever someone makes a noise that disturbs him.

Eventually, mom struts out of the room and flings open the door to the living room, curtly calling on Ivy to get ready to leave, and I thank God. I won’t relax until they do. 

“How’s your tea?” I ask Evie, and she responds with a grateful smile. “It’s lovely, thank you.” I know she’s lying. I don’t know how the nuances of creating drinks I don’t enjoy. There are rules about the correct amount of milk, and how long to brew the tea bag. Maybe I shouldn’t have bashed it around in the cup with such vigour, as though transferring some of my contaminated energy into it. I wonder if she can taste it. 

“That’s good,” I say, and we lapse into a long silence.

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[shroom-lord]

He's gonna be one of those kind twisted psychopaths in scream movies or horror movie plot twist

[mixterglacia]

"AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. He could merely be."

-Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

[scoutsurge]

Cringetober 15! Song lyrics!! oh goly its almost the 31st- WO

[theksourmoon]

Not enough appreciation for the weird ass mothman out there, so here. Have a spam of old old old old valentino pics from the tumblr accounts that have been mostly lost to time.

[soubi122]

Y'all... I created a monster in character.ai

Welp, time to draft a news chapter for How Long. I'm tossing the previous draft....

[desiderium-eden]

You put on a pointy crown possessed by an evil queen that will give you the power to become a god...

But you're also stuck with this psychotic m-fer who may or may not believe you are now his wife.

Worth it?

[dranger78official]

toguro's a MONSTER

[eyes-above--the-waves]

I think every season should be a Nylander contract season.

[spotlightstudios]

I haven't posted about AEB in ages, but I think that my favorite part about how I characterized the y/n (on a whim mind you) is that:

If they hadn't had Amnesia, they would understand the severity of their situation. They'd know that the were forced to commit atrocities on people, in order to avoid committing atrocities on others. They destroyed their ship by mistake, but in the end it prevented those people from harming life on a planet that wasn't theirs to harm. They didn't act out of good for everyone, but they refused to keep committing horrible acts in the name of science. They were prosecuted, first and foremost, for not doing as they were told. When they rebuttaled, it was the system's downfall because they had to take drastic measures.

But because they have amnesia, and their audio logs were either destroyed on purpose or glitched from planetary interference, y/n has no idea. They know that there's blood on their hands. They see the wreckage of the ship float past on an average basis. It's nothing *new*. They just don't know why they did it. Why they killed people. They're under the impression that *they* were the root of the problem. The bad seed. The only thing keeping them from giving themselves up is a desperate feeling of belonging on the planet. Belonging to the Entity that they so fear just below the surface. They don't understand that what they did saved its life. And in turn, it would save theirs.

[oldmanyaoi-jpeg]

i don't envy any large insects that get into my house bc porkchop has been decimating this years fruit fly crop

[wimbledon2008]

NOVAK DJOKOVIC FAIL TO RETURN A SERVE CHALLENGE

[woozymitts]

We’ve got tons of snow here and my mom got us some new boots. They’re WARM but the bottoms are shitty and they slip in the snow, I was out in the yard and I slipped and fell and Maxwell saw me

His way of “helping” was to run over, jump up, and then put his paws on my back to push me back down onto the ground 😭

[impetuoustrait]

uh oh

[xx-hail2theking-xx]

I think I'm either misunderstanding, or missing context.

he's a liar.

you can't trust a word he says. what he eats, what he is- any of it.