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technically-a-kiwi · 5 months ago

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Okay guys, time to correct and rewrite some stuff about the cosmic AU

I've read my older post developing on the story and this was basically my reaction

So yeah my older posts are full of off details and inconsistencies, brace yourself for some redcons and new concepts

Starting with :

Redcons:

• Cosmic entities are allowed to interact with other mortals ,because I'm sick of the trope of "powerful being who shape the universe must stay out of site at any cost or else it's the end of the world" or whatever, it's just drama for the sake of drama in my eyes and it doesn't add much of a mysterious vibe. Besides it adds more possibilities story wise :) .Let's say that it's something very discouraged among cosmic entities, it's okay if they fuel legends and folklore, but if an entity actively tries to get well known and mediatised in a universe, only then will they get in trouble.

• Stars are no longer needed for someone to turn into a Cosmic entity, basically I put stars in the mix to seem more cosmicy (if that's even a word...) and I didn't really knew what a star was myself, for now on stars are the sparkles you see floating around cosmic entities and are the physical manifestation of said entity's emotion, appearing in different shapes depending on how the cosmic entity feels.

•Cosmic entities are no longer bound to travel in the universes they're assign to, I put this to make their power not too OP. It's useless to restrict them to some universes and it doesn't really add much to anything relevant.

• The Noise is allowed to have more than his TV show as a form of media (such as journals, radio stations and more, although his most popular form of media is his TV show), limiting The Noise to only having a TV show really contradicted with the idea that he's his own boss, he's free, he can now do as he pleases and shoose what he wants to do in his show ( in his universe The Noise was forced to do what his higher ups told him to do, such as filming ads, promoting stuff he didn't necessarily like, and things that generaly bothers and annoys him), nonetheless his show is still limited to the cosmic realm (he does break this rule sometimes and bring random people in his show to torment them and satisfy his sadism but shhhh no one has to know this okay 🤫)

• There's no such thing as a title of ultimate prankster anymore, I just put this notion to solidify the idea that The Noise is an asshole, but does he really need an official title? The Noise is a little shit and his actions are enough to prove that.

• We don't know how old Peppino and The Noise are, honestly I shared their age to solidify the idea that they are older, more mature, and also to prevent people from thinking they were thousands of years old (seriously I hate this fucking trope. You're telling me you lived several times the age of the Earth yet you still act like a 10 years old, like do you live at the same paste of a snail for years to go this fast ?!!!) they both are very recent cosmic entities and are not super old, but you know, you can tell by how they act that they're more experienced and mature (the same goes for every cosmic entity by the way.)

And finally

• Cosmic entities don't have the power to manipulate their environment, this was the first thing that threw me of, like what? No they can't, that would be a huge loop hole ! I guess I put this in there to make them seem more powerful somehow? Cosmic entities can only travel between realms (mortal, cosmic etc, the afterlife is the only realm they are not allowed in) and between universes, they can stitch a ripe in reality but ONLY with a special thread provided by the court, they don't make it themselves. Only far more older and powerful cosmic entities have the ability to manipulate their environment as they pleases (more on older cosmic entities later)

Okay I think that's it for the redcons, if I want to redcon other stuff I'll reblog this post with those modifications.

Now brace yourself for

The new stuff :

• the difference of power and look depending on a Cosmic entity's age : there are three very distinct stage in a cosmic entity’s life: dwarf (they arbor a red color scheme in reference to young stars, it's the stage any cosmic entity starts at, only having the ability to travel between universes), minor ( in reference of smaller constellation, is the state our cosmic duo is at right now as well as most cosmic entities. After some years as a cosmic entity, roughly 20 years, they arbor a more colorful color palette and gain the ability to hear thoughts, feel what other beings feel and summon objects they own, that already exist.) and the last is major (reference to bigger constellations, idk they get bigger, sparklier and more colorful? I haven't figured that out yet... After several hundred years, cosmic entities gets tremendously stronger and gain several abilities, on the physical plain they can create or fix a ripe in reality through shear will, manipulate things around them, twisting and reshape reality as they pleases and create anything on commande [the only thing they can't create are living beings tho], on the spiritual plain, they can see things that are invisible for the average mortal being, that earlier stages couldn't see, such as ghosts, angels, demons and the soul of mortals, and also [this is the creepy part] they can manipulate not only other beings emotions [including their own] but also manipulate others memories, changing events in others mind, create new fake memories or erasing them completely. Basically they become a discount version of Discord from MLP... But they have more ✨✨✨ you know ?)

• How the Pizza Tower cast is seen in the cosmic realm : (Before I start this, keep into your mind that Pizza Tower is the only media in the multiverse, yes it brings down the idea of infinite universes, yes it restrict a lot of possibilities, but I think it's better to work with a smaller scale and focus on stuff that specifically interest me story wise, besides I really didn't want to go on a crossover kind of story 😓) When you think cosmic entity, you think of beings like you see in marvel comics right ? Huge menacing individuals, wise and intimidating, well that's exactly what were cosmic entities before the PT cast arrived. You see since most people in the tower absorbed cosmic particles, some of them became cosmic entities. At first the court didn't like this, what are those cartoon looking creatures doing in a society of grand powerful being? Of course they are some entities who are "cartoony" but not to the extent of Pizza Tower characters. Thankfully the first people of the tower were quite efficient as cosmic entities and set a good image for their "kind", so the court kept turning people of the tower into cosmic entities thinking they were still promising individuals (for most of them at least). In general the cast is considered like the babies of the realm, most of the other cosmic entities are completely fine and interact with them as if they were equals, it's only with the higher ups and oldest cosmic entities that you see they're kind of looked down upon, considered as not really inferiors, but kind of like idiots, not worthy of the title.

• The constellation system: After accomplishing several tasks, cosmic entities are rewarded with stars, but not any kind of stars, these stars appear directly onto the entity's body and serve as some kind of merit badge, gain enough stars and you get a constellation, gain enough constellations and you get your ticket to complete freedom and you can stop watching over universes, giving your spot to younger cosmic entities. It's kind of a retirement system, entities tend to get enough constellations around the end of their minor stage. You'll see on some designs that constellations are not the same depending on'the individual (it's gonna be a huge pain in the butt to keep track of who has what but anything for consistency ✊👁️👄👁️)

And finally and probably one of the darkest aspect of the AU

Loss of memory: To make sure cosmic entities eventually get rid of what attached them to their universe and former life, the court enabled a memory wiping system that will make all cosmic entities forget where they come from, who they knew and what experience they lived, only conserving memories regarding who they are and what they did in life. Things like memoirs and diaries are forbidden and if the court finds out an entity has any of this kind of things, it will be immediately destroyed an the entity will have their memories wiped even faster. Major cosmic entities all have forgotten who they used to know in their earlier life, family, friends, all experience that shaped them into the person they are, with who they are and what they do in life being the only memories they have left.

And that was it for the new stuff, if you made it this far congratulations ✨✨✨. Like for the redcon part if I want to modify this part I'll reblog the modifications.

And now comes the part I shall call

Random trivia ✨✨✨

Like the title suggest, it's literally just random trivia I couldn't efficiently put in the post, regarding anything and everything.

The way someone turns into a cosmic entity is simple, after death, the higher ups of the court propose you to either go to the afterlife or become a cosmic entity, only one version of a being can become an entity (to put that in practice, if Peppino from a random universe decides to become a cosmic entity, it won't be possible for other Peppinos to become a cosmic entity), there can only be two cosmic entities per universe, the entity will start off as a dwarf entity and as time goes on their body and power will evolve.

Cosmic entities may have the ability to hear others though, they generally don't use this power as often as you may think, most of them prefer not to do it because it's a huge violation of privacy and for entities that don't care about privacy, they often find out the "downgrade" of hearing others thoughts... If you know what I mean. Cosmic entities generally prefer just sensing the emotions of other beings around rather then hearing their thoughts expressively.

Here's the main PT cast as cosmic entities, in the chronological order of when they turned into cosmic entities

John & Gerome

Brick

Mr. Stick

The Vigilante & Pepperman

Gustavo

Pizzahead

Noisette

F. Peppino

Peppino & The Noise

( Beings after our cosmic duo will be shown later in the story)

Of course there are far more beings from the tower but this is why I call them the main cast, most of them have yet to be properly designed but they'll all appear eventually I swear.

All cosmic entities arbor a "scar" on their body hinting toward what killed them in their earlier life. For example the dark gradient you see flowing down cosmic Noise's head hints toward the fact he passed away from a head concussion, or if you were to look at Peppino's back you'd see a huge burn mark looking scar hinting toward the fact that he passed away from a bomb exploding inside of him. In most cases the scare is a warmer color than the rest of the skin ( Watch out tho, the color is warmer in the scientific definition, where red is the coldest and purple is the warmest ☝️.)

The cosmic realm is composed of multiple environment, expending as far as the eye can see, the most populated place is of course the main city : Cosmopolis, a city so huge it's surface equals our Moon ! It's basically your very populated cyberpunk city with huge buildings and bright light, with floating roads and boutiques at every corner. Outside of the city you have the Lux plain, very chill and on the country side, it's the perfect place if you like silence and stargazing, it's also where Peppino's pizzaria is located. Also outside the city you have the Firefly park, like the name suggests, it's a huge park with benches you can sit on of course, lakes you can admire or fish in, everywhere where the grass is a little high you'll see little fireflies fly by. And anything outside the plain and park is not mapped out, all we know is that it seems to go forever and there are several extraordinary places yet to be found and recorded.

Peppino can summon his scooter just by whistling and it will appear out of nowhere and go directly next to him, as if it had a mind of it's own, that goes for Noisette's umbrella too that she uses like a mode of transport like a witch's broom. The Noise tho has to snap his fingers and a limo will appear, crushing anything in it's way in a comically absurd way

Despite being forbidden, very few cosmic entities keep a record of their earlier life with everything they remember, for example Peppino keeps a diary with the name of everyone he knows, what's his relationship with said people and memories of his past life. As long as no one finds those records, he can keep what attaches him to his mortal life.

And finally

The only way to kill a cosmic entity is by saturating them with cosmic particles, too much cosmic particles is very dangerous, if an entity has too much cosmic particles inside of them, their body will slowly melt into a puddle of star and will eventually evaporate into cosmic particles. After that the soul of the entity will go to the afterlife, without the possibility to turn back into a cosmic entity.

And that's all folks!

Congratulations to all the mad lads who made it this far ! , I'm sorry this post has no illustration whatsoever, you had to eat consecutive paragraphs with no yummy colots, I am aware that most people like this AU because of the art, today was not an artsy day alright 😓 !

If you have any questions feel free to ask them,with that being said, remember that lasagnas are pasta cakes and see ya ✌️

#pizza tower #cosmic au #pizza tower au

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pocketramblr · 1 year ago

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Ask Game: Manuel brutally but accidentally kills All For One for good.

You have clocked my niche perfectly

1- "how the heck does that happen" well, during the Hosu chaos when it's all going very badly, another hero (mostly underestimating how much an asset Manual the Water Guy is at fighting fires) tells him to focus on finding his student and getting Izuku evacuated. Obviously Izuku will not evacuate, but he will get Manual to Tenya faster. So now there's two teenagers and the most chill pro hero in an alleyway fighting Stain, while Tomura and Kurogiri watch. And Tomura "fan of heroes with no merch" either recognizes Manual and knows he doesn't want to risk an actual pro ruining his fun with Stain, or doesn't recognize him and finds that even more suspicious as he has no clue what power level this npc is at. So while Manuel is trying to first aid Tenya and Native (oh yeah I guess there's a second pro in the alley too lol) while Izuku keeps Stain occupied and gets backup, he's also trying to figure out the Nomu thing. And then kurogiri appears, and Tenya yells because he recognizes him, but he can't move to shove Manual out of the way of the warp.

2- Manual is dropped in a very spooky lab with more nomu and some faceless creep on a throne. Manual does not judge the faceless thing, whatever some people look different. He does, however, Judge His Vibe. This guy clocked murderous intent from a teenager he barely saw on tv before it even happened, he Just Knows this guy is bad news. And in charge of the LoV, clearly, since Shigaraki didn't make sense as a leader and Stain just seemed mad about it. But Manual is also careful, and does not act on his vibe checks without further investigation. So he asks the suited creep "oh my god, are you the one that made the Nomu? Like the villain factory five years ago?" And AfO is just so pleased to be recognized as such a threat and confirms this, wondering what quirk he's about to steal from Manual.

And then Manual uses his quirk, and well, there's a lot of water in the Nomu labs. In the Nomu tanks. Running through the building, through AfO's medical equipment.

A lot of water.

3- Without the life-support equipment and half drowned, it is really really easy for Manual to hit him on the back of the head with a broken bit of pipe. This was not supposed to kill him- Manual saw a shape moving and thought it would not do much against a nomu, plus AfO is supposed to have a million quirks but- ah well. He's super dead now. And Manual is also surrounded by half finished nomu, also fairly dead now. And he's got to find the exit.

4- when Manual radios in that he's been warped under the Jakku hospital during the league attack in Hosu and he needs hero backup, now, he didn't expect all the backup he'd get. But all the heroes in Jakku were watching the news in Hosu and feeling useless, so they rush over and well. There's not much for them to do but cleanup nomu stuff and file reports. Manual appreciates the support anyway. And the blanket a nurse got him, and a coffee. And that everyone lets him focus on updates from Hosu, almost dropping his phone in relief that Stain has been taken in and the three -why are there three? There were two when he left!- teenagers are fine. The heroes offer to get him a ride to Hosu asap, but Manual stands up, pauses, and goes "wait, what about the mole? AfO had to have people working for him in this hospital to keep a lab like that under cover, right?"

5- with that terrifying thought, the Jakku heroes rush him out faster so they can figure that out, and Manual is on a train to Hosu. Once he gets closer to the city and two train switches later, he finds himself alone in the car with a tall, thin blond man. He knows the guy has to have some hero connection, because they were literally the only two people allowed on this train right now but he does not expect the guy to take a phone call, anxiously ask about a kid, get cut off, start swearing profusely in English, and then repeat "All For One? Are you sure????" about a dozen times before demanding around the clock watch until he can get there, and hanging up. The guy goes "Manual, huh?"

Manual looks up and answers, thinking he's being addressed, and the blond guy realizes it's him, and suddenly he's All Might and All Might is thanking Manual, bowing low. And that's just too much for Manual after the stressful week he's had. He passes out.

#msk29fan #pocket talks to people #ask game

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shares-a-vest · 1 year ago

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tw: the mildest of reckless driving. psa don't show off with some speedy driving as a flirtation tactic (nothing bad happens, trust me). idk, I just think Steve would be like this with his car on a date.

Steve focuses on the road ahead and gently pushes further down on the gas. He taps his fingers on the steering wheel while placing his other hand directly on the window rolled all the way down.

The late afternoon spring air is warm on the back of his hand as he travels along the one road out of Hawkins.

He contemplates turning the radio up or fiddling with the dial, but it's either Madonna currently playing on the radio or whatever rural station he can tune in, preaching god knows what. It's not like a mixtape is an option either, considering Eddie is sitting right next to him.

He really doesn't want to spend the car ride on their way to their first date arguing about each other's music tastes.

Instead, he looks in his rearview mirror to find no cars in sight. He speeds up more still, setting a nice pace that feels like he is gliding as his baby purrs around him.

Because he needs to focus on something.

Anything to stop him from practically shooting out of his car seat and straight up through the damn roof with anticipation as Eddie – his date, Eddie – sits quietly beside him, appearing far too relaxed.

So, driving along like a movie star trying his luck at Le Mans it is then...

He flexes his hands on the steering wheel as he licks his lips, readying himself to get up some real speed in his pride and joy –

"Easy there, Steve McQueen," Eddie says, as he reaches his hand over to pat a lot closer to the inside seam of his jean leg than anywhere else.

Steve jerks the steering wheel and slams on the brake as he veers into the middle of the road. He and his passenger jolt forward and then back again into their car seats, the poor things squeaking from the sudden movement.

"Sorry," he splutters, white-knuckling the steering wheel.

"Stevie, get off the road," Eddie chuckles, reaching over again.

But thankfully, as Steve braces himself, Eddie is placing a controlling hand on the wheel. He bats him away and lifts his foot off the break as he catches his breath.

The clearing stops a ways ahead, giving way to another dense swath of trees on both sides of the road. There's a small dirt patch not too far in. A popular make-out spot he has used on more than one occasion.

He gets them there in one piece, pointedly ignoring Eddie's snickering as he helps himself to rifling through the glovebox to occupy himself.

In one swift move, Steve places the car in park on the dirt patch, kills the ignition and unclips his seatbelt – all so he can launch himself over the centre console.

It's more awkward than he'd expected (his dang sneaker catches on his seat) as he more stumbles into Eddie's lap than carefully straddles him.

"Steve," Eddie warns, manoeuvring around his legs, "I thought we were seeing a movie first," he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and gives his hips a tight squeeze.

"You like Steve McQueen?" Steve rejoices, looping his hands around Eddie's neck.

"Please don't force me to sit through The Great Escape," he whines, dry-sobbing at the car ceiling, "Wayne watches it every time it's on TV! And that other one with the... the... uh..." he gestures at his black shirt, "That boring one where he has the butterfly chest tattoo?"

"Papillon?" Steve guesses, already insulted and feeling a lot less enthusiastic.

Eddie clicks his fingers, "Yeah, that one."

Steve rolls his eyes, forever frustrated (and confused) by Eddie's movie tastes. Somehow the guy only likes new nerdy stuff, bloody horror of any kind and those weird old black-and-white films Robin loves too.

"But..." Eddie continues, biting the 't' and jolting Steve straight out of a need to bicker about film preferences, "He does have that pretty spot on his face."

Eddie's doe eyes fill with mischievous glee as he lifts his index finger and presses against the duo of moles on Steve's left cheek just off his nose, "Boop."

As a rush of heat travels right across Steve's cheek and melts into his ears to fry his goddamn brain, he reaches down to pull the lever on their seat to send them back as horizontal as the thing will go.

#i think there would be an overlap between steve's fave older movies and wayne's go-to faves #aka eddie hates that his boyfriend and his uncle have the same interests #follow up question: is there an au out there where steve is a racing car driver??? (i need to devour it)#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie ficlet #lilys ficlets #steve x eddie #steddie headcanon

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mintchanniemint · 2 years ago

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≫ A stolen frappuccino, a stolen kiss.

pairing: Lee Minho x (fem) reader wordcount: ~3.3k -fluff, it gets a bit chaotic lmaoo

It’s a lazy afternoon, you luckily got a day off and it was quite surprising that it wasn’t raining, since the weather has been quite cold and cloudy for the past few days. You were cleaning around your apartment, your phone on the kitchen counter as you left a random playlist filling the place, becoming the background music to your chores. You were quite absorbed, holding the broom as if it was your mic, when suddenly the hook of the song got interrupted by a loud ring and buzz– someone’s calling you. You snort, walking closer to the counter, peeping at the screen of your phone. Minho is calling. You let it ring a few more seconds, before he would decide to end the call, and pick up, clicking quickly on the speaker button.

-Hello?–

-Why does it always take you so long to pick up!

-Yeah, it’s really a great day, isn’t it? What do you want, I have a lot of stuff to do–

-Oh, c’mon. We both have a day off, let’s go somewhere! It’s so sunny outside, let’s go to that one cafe close to the park.

-But Minho–

-I’ll come pick you up in… fifteen minutes? I don’t care what you wear, you look like you’re in your pajamas no matter what anyway.

You gasp at his comment, making him giggle in response. You agree to the meeting, quickly ending the call and sighing.

-What a guy…- you mumble to yourself as you finish sweeping the floor before heading to your room and changing into a pretty cozy outfit. No matter what you’d wear, you knew Minho would have shot a random sarcastic comment just to irritate you, before complimenting you properly.

Since you were quite used, at this point, to his antics, you mastered the ability to get ready in no time. You just grab your bag when suddenly, an insufferable knocking starts at your door.

-Just a second, Minho! I’m ready, stop it— You whine loudly, as you quickly approach the door and open it, welcoming him: his soft, purple dyed hair is a bit messy but looks cute anyway. You notice he started wearing more dangling earrings after you once said that they looked quite good on an actor you saw on TV. His T-shirt was hidden behind a warm, burgundy hoodie and he looked even cozier than you did–

-As I said, you look like you just woke up.

-Thank you, Minho, you’re always filling me with compliments. He grins and nods, satisfied at your reaction, and follows you as you walk outside, closing the door of your place behind his back.

The drive wasn’t too long, the two of you were singing along to the songs playing on the radio, sometimes interrupting the singing to curse at other drivers, sometimes making up silly radio ads whenever one was playing.

You arrive at the cafe, the usual one, the one where you either spent desperate evenings preparing for exams in university, or where failed dates happened– you had to admit, though, that going there with Minho started to make you associate happier moments with it. You sit at the usual table, next to the glass window, having a pretty view of the park right in front of the cafe. You order your usual, you were in the mood for some cookie frappuccino, and this time Minho copied your choice, too. You look at him, raising an eyebrow.

-The first order that arrives is mine.

-Minho, they most likely will arrive at the same time.

-Same thing, same thing.

You shake your head, not able to stop a smile from appearing on your lips, and you look away, your eyes focusing on the pink trees that are adorning the nearby park, not able to notice how piercing Minho’s eyes are, looking at every single feature of your face. Your orders arrive, of course he had to pretend that both drinks were for him, then make you choose which one you wanted and, once you picked a random one out of the two (they are, again, the same exact order) he acted all dramatic, as if you stole his order.

-You’re so silly, sometimes.

-Mh, I guess that’s my charm.- he winks at you as he takes a sip from his drink.

-Is it, though?- you fire back, as you start tasting your drink as well.

You spent nearly an hour, if not more, in that cafe. You chatted about your job, his job, and how lucky it was for the two of you to have a day off on the same day. You had to admit you were quite happy to see him again, although you talk nearly every single day, it feels like the last time you saw each other was barely a day ago.

-Okay, I have an announcement- he interrupts your train of thoughts, sighing loudly and playing with the straw in his drink. You look at him, already trying to predict what he would say.

-I am really, tremendously, bored. We have to go somewhere else before I order another five of these drinks.-

Of course, of course he’s bored.

-Minho, you were the one that decided to come here.

-Yup, I sure was! And I’m the one that decides that it’s now time to go!

-Go where, though? Are we going home already?

-Aw, “already”? Darling, just say you love my company so much! I won’t get offended by that!- he giggles, dramatically resting his hand on his cheek, as he looks away, pretending to be shy.

-Pft, stop it. Let’s go, then.- you fight the urge to throw your bag at him before you stand up and leave the cafe with him.

-Oh, those trees are so pretty, give me a second– I need to take a picture!- he gets his phone and quickly snaps a few shots of the park. You look at him, smiling, and can’t help but try to ruin his pics by photobombing, either by throwing peace signs or jumping right in front of him.

-Stop, you’re ruining it!- he whines, frowning and looking at you, shaking his head in fake disappointment. You stick out your tongue at him and shrug before you pull on his arm.

-Let’s go somewhere else, though… You made me leave so quickly I don’t wanna go back and do chores.

-See, just say I saved you earlier!- you hit his arm lightly, and look around while walking with him right next to you.

-Oh, wait. Let’s go there, then?- he points at a store on the other side of the street.

Arcade Games Station

-Why not! Let’s go, Minho, let’s go!- your eyes sparkle at the thought of playing some of your favourite games, though when you enter you’re welcomed by new arcade cabinets you’ve never seen before.

-Why did your energy fade so quickly, what– he comments as he stands right next to you, checking all the various games in the room.

-You like rhythm games, right? Let’s go try that one! It looks like it could give me an epileptic fit with all those colours so I guess that’s one of those games you like.-

You elbow him in the arm because of his comment. Sure, you did like arcade games and you admit you used to neglect your studies by spending an inhuman amount of time at the local arcade games station playing rhythm games, yet you didn’t want your legacy to be that.

You have to be honest, though, and admit that the game he pointed out did, infact, look like something you’d play. You’ve never seen it before, but it looked really cute: you could choose the cute anime idol to be in your team and even see the whole group dancing throughout the whole song! How cute is th–

-Can you stop staring at it? I’m gonna get you a coin, I got it.- Minho taps on your shoulder, destroying once again your wall of thoughts that slowly built in your mind. You shake your head, thank him and walk in front of the arcade cabinet. You’re not familiar with the system, though, the buttons are all around the screen so, the wisest choice was to surely start with a song in Easy Mode.

Minho quickly walks close to you, his eyes examining the colourful, cutesy screen right in front of him nearly stunning him. You didn’t mind him too much, you got the coin and inserted it, being now able to play. You looked at every idol and chose one with purple hair, realising that she had a way-too-cute way of talking, ending all of her sentences with a meow-like sound.

-This is hurting me.-

-Minho, which song should I choose? They all sound so good–

-Let me do this.- he pushes you aside, his hand now on where yours was just a few seconds ago. He plays just two seconds of each song, mumbling random comments until he accidentally changes the difficulty of the songs.

-No, hey Minho, I don’t know this game so go back to Easy Mode!

-Hey, hey. Take it easy, darling, I’m just looking!

You start bickering with each other: Minho does not move from his spot, he actually starts checking the higher difficulties sections, going through all the songs, without even letting the previews play properly. You sigh desperately, and accidentally elbow his arm.

“Okay, let’s go meow!~”

Minho and you look at each other, horror gradually filling your faces. None of you dare to talk, you just– look at each other, the cutesy energetic beat playing in the background as Minho’s eyes slowly fill with desperation.

-Minho what… what did you choose– you catch a glimpse of the screen before it fades to black, the words “Expert mode!♡” in bright orange are burning your eyes. The screen is now on loading mode, those few seconds were long enough to let despair spread between you and Minho.

-This is your fault!- he complains, laughing a bit too nervously.

-What do you mean my fault! If it wasn’t for you checking the Expert Mode, I would have finished four songs already!

-You elbowed me, though!

-Not on purpose!

“Are you ready, meow?♡”

-Do I look like I’m ready?!- you yell at the screen, obviously going through it.

-Okay, okay calm down. Uhm… you’re the expert here, how do you play?- he tries to click some of those big white buttons but nothing happens, only a faint tambourine sound playing at each press.

-I… I have no idea!

-What?!

“Everyone, let’s go, meow! Five… Four…♡”

The two of you have always been quite tight-fisted. Although one coin wasn’t that expensive, it was still money and it couldn’t go to waste.

“Three…♡”

-Minho, you play those buttons, I play these–

“Two…!♡”

-I could leave you do everything by yourself, though, since you were the one that kicked me so violently and–

-Oh no, no. You’re already changing the narrative!

-It’s your fault, though!

-Whatever, whatever! The song won’t take too long so just… focus on those buttons!

“One…!♡”

-I want something in return to this, since I’m also the one who paid!

-Sure, whatever you want! Why do you have to be so annoying at times like this just shut up–

“Here we go meow!♡”

-Okay then, I want a kiss.

You didn’t have enough time to process his words because the song started playing and you had to do your bestest best to clear the level. It probably lasted less than two minutes, but it felt like that game sucked nearly four years of your life.

-Oh well, we did it.- Minho stretches his arms, checking the bright screen in front of him. You are at an arcade games station, so why is it feeling like you just worked out for a whole forty minutes?!

-At least it wasn’t an instant game over, that’s good.

-Let’s see who other weirdo decided to try this song.

-No need to check the rank list, I doubt we’re in anyway… I couldn’t keep a combo to save my life! All those years of rhythm games… for what?- you sigh, dramatically, while Minho was furiously tapping on the menu buttons.

-Just let me add a name, we’re 18th in the rank, but look! We beat whoever this “Dwaekki” dude is. Pft, by one point! Bet the guy is gonna be so mad at this, heh.

-How the hell can you get competitive with someone you don’t even know…

-Yeah, yeah. Next game, you pay! Give me some money, we need more coins! More coins!

-Sure, sure, here. I guess this will be enough.- You give him your coin purse and look at him walking to the exchange machine. His eyes move from the screen in front of him to you for a split second: he just smirks, raises his eyebrows and looks back at the machine, leaving you blushing a bit and looking away out of embarrassment. Dork. He comes back and drags you to one of the car racing games cabinet.

-You’re gonna eat my dust this time.

-Says the one who doesn’t even have a license–

-Shut it! You know I have it.

-Oh, right, my bad: the one who has a license but always makes me drive her around.

-Gosh you’re so annoying.- he laughs and hands you a coin, wishing you good luck before the two of you start choosing characters and cars and get ready for the race. Silence falls between the two of you, so focused on your game, the synthwave music filling your ears as you skillfully drive past the other players. You notice you overtook Minho and you smile, proud of that little achievement. The lapses were done quickly, and, as you predicted, you came in first.

-Woohoo, I won! Eat my dust, eat my dust, eat my dust!

-Yeah, it was just luck, don’t worry, I’ll get my revenge soon!

-I have to claim my reward first, though!

-Wait, when did we start doing this?

-You started, silly. I want to take some photos at the purikura photo booth later!- you point at the photobooth in the corner, a bit far from where you are, and then point at Minho. He looks at it and sighs.

-But isn’t it expensive? That’s like… eleven coins…

-So what? If we gotta spend the whole day here, we have to take at least some cute pics! I don’t care, we’re doing it later!- you smile at him and drag him around, trying some more games together and challenging each other.

You had so much fun you didn’t even realise it was nearly evening. You’re starting to feel a bit cold, the light spring breeze is now quite freezing. Minho, noticing how you were shivering like a leaf, leaves his jacket on your shoulder, covering your eyes with the hoodie. You accept it and wear it, fixing your hair with your fingers.

-Okay, you might be annoying as hell, but I had a lot of fun. Thanks, Minho.

-Mh mh… say it better!- he shakes his head, his hand now right in front of you, mimicking some sort of mouth. He tries not to laugh, suggesting he is most likely going to do something stupid. He starts opening and closing his hand, clears his throat a few times before starting to talk in a really high-pitched voice.

-Thank you so much, Minho, for making me leave my own hideout during such a pretty and sunny day, and for being absolutely amazing, fun, entertaining and– You blow a raspberry at him in response, interrupting him. A giggle leaves your mouth as you drag him closer to the photobooth, your pinkie locking with his. You insert the coins, hearing Minho sighing dramatically, and enter the booth: as expected, there’s not enough space so you find yourself sitting on his lap. You look at the instructions on the screen, skipping everything as you’re quite familiar with it, and decide to go for six photos in total. The robotic voice starts the countdown for the first picture.

-Okay, smile!!- you look at the camera, excited, and close your eyes as a wide smile paints your lips. Minho takes the chance and decides to sign bunny ears right behind your head.

-Oh, now the second one!- he giggles and, hurried by the countdown, pokes your cheek. You laugh and poke his, too.

-Okay, another one!

-Hey, Minho.- you smile, your hand now caressing his cheek, inviting him to get his face closer to yours. You did catch him a bit off guard, but he didn't want to make it that obvious. His soft lips are curved in a light, gentle smile, his eyes are half closed, as if he’s anticipating that moment. He did ask for a kiss earlier, so you assumed the best moment to give him that reward would be now.

The countdown for the third shot starts, and at the last second, you pull him closer, letting your lips meet in a soft, gentle kiss. You could feel your cheeks getting warmer and warmer, Minho’s hand now gently stroking your cheek, the fourth countdown starting for another photo.

-Silly.- he mumbles, a smirk not able to leave his lips, his cheeks probably as red as yours. You can’t even process such a pretty image you had right in front of you, the fourth photo was already taken.

-Gosh, I’m gonna look absolutely ugly in that one!- you whine, and try to pose cutely for the fifth one. Minho laughs, now jokingly keeping you in a headlock and ruffling your hair.

-Minho!- you scold him and laugh at the same time, before you could say anything else, his warm lips were gently pressing on your cheek. Click. Last photo taken.

You leave the booth, now checking the screen in order to edit the photos you just took. They were a complete mess, but it was fun. You two took the tablet pens to doodle on the pics: you started by adding little evil horns on Minho on the first pic, while he scribbled a “stupid!!” followed by an arrow, pointing at you. You moved to the fourth one: you had your eyes closed, Minho a really stupid smirk on his face. It was right after you kissed him, you could feel your heart beating so fast as you look at it again, and shyly add some cute blushing lines on both of your faces. You finish with the doodling and you each get a copy of the photos taken. You leave, the fresh breeze gently caressing your warm face, your hands now in the pockets of Minho’s jacket you're still wearing.

-The day flew by.

-It sure did, Minho.

-And–

-Do not start with the bragging!- you jokingly kick his leg.

-Oh, no, she’s now anticipating my moves! This is dangerous.

-Shut up, silly.-

-My bad, my bad. Wanna go grab a bite somewhere?

-Or maybe we can order something and eat at my place?

-Oh, whatever the lady wants!- he winks at you, smiling.

-Pft, okay, okay. The lady asks for your company for dinner, then.

-Oh, that’d be an honour, reall–

-And for a drive!

-Look, here we go again, you taking advantage of me, as always!- he laughs, trying to keep a dramatic act, following you as you walk back to his car.

-Shut up and drive me home!- you laugh, holding his hand as you walk across the street.

Yep, you did spend a great day with him. And you were so grateful that you could share such little moments with him. Your fingers gently intertwine with his, and he leaves a gentle kiss on your forehead before he gets in the car.

-Make sure to choose what to order already! Or we’re gonna starve for hours before you make up your mind.- he jokingly scolds you, as he turns on the engine.

-Oh, stop it!

#stray kids imagines #lee know imagines #stray kids fluff #lee know fluff #lee know x reader #stayhavennet #stray kids x reader #skz imagines #stray kids #lee know #skz

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measuringbliss · 4 months ago

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Spider-Man Read-Through 077 Vulture, Wings of Vengeance (ASM 240-243, Ann 17)

MASTERPOST

Ah, my favorite moment: going to sleep at 9pm and waking up at 1am. Welp, I guess it's Spidey time!

You know, when I think of the Vulture, two stories come in mind. The first one is the murder mystery in the middle of the Harry Osborn New Goblin saga, and the second one is a more recent one, when the Vulture is at a care home and gets influenced by Nathan.

Which type shall we see today?

Vulture backstory! I don't know if I'm fond of this cover or if I hate it. The blue is gorgeous though. Still, in this post, the Vulture slays 💅 And he's not the only one. Everyone's bisexual here!

Also: the return of Mary Jane! Which is a problem, given that Spidey has just entered a relationship with Black Cat...

Aww this is a really cute way to credit the team! (+ colors by Bob Sharen and Shooter as editor in chief).

When Toomes gets an offer to play gin rammy with fellow old people, he thinks, "Gin rammy? I wish my generation displayed a little more ambition." Like killing people and stealing stuff.

Learning that Gregory Bestman, a guy he doesn't like, is working in NYC, Toomes is pissed off and asks for a flight. So he won't use his suit? That's surprising, but oh well.

Meanwhile, Peter's having a nightmare.

I like how his hair's drawn!

Amy Powell wants to get a hold of him, but he's already left.

The Vulture thinks to himself he would have been just as fast flying to NYC alone, which, yup, absolutely.

After a nostalgic trip near Midtown High, Peter learns that Anna is about to visit May. Yay! Nathan's elated because he finally has cable TV. Ah, technology! And this is how Peter learns that the Vulture is back. Tired of letting all his foes (him, Ock and the Hobgoblin) get away, he very much intends to fix things.

The fight is nice, and it ends with Spidey being shocked and Bestman being an idiot.

Oh I love that panel.

The comments tell me this issue had "Lonesome" Pinky's last appearance, which is sad because he was a real highlight.

In #241 (already!), MJ's back in town with Anna.

Meanwhile, Spidey steals a radio from Keating to track the Vulture, and track him, he does...

What does he find?

OH. He's Toomes's ex! I had a feeling and almost made the joke, but I didn't expect so much closeness. Hell yeah, we love to see it.

In his flashback, Toomes says "The months of slaying have paid off!"

...Okay, he says "slaving", not "slaying", I misread that. But still!

The backstory isn't anything special, Bestman betrayed Toomes, Toomes got his revenge, but now he wants more revenge because Bestman being successful is outrageous.

Interestingly, the issue features a lot of low-ground action; it's on Staten Island, and then there's this:

You don't see Spidey on that level that often.

The Vulture is caught, Keating decides Bestman will be investigated, all's well that ends well.

Later, at the Bugle, Amy speaks to Petey.

Yeah, let's deal with that!

In the letters, everyone's enthuastic about Monica Rambeau (as I am!) and praises the Romita team-up (me too!).

In #242: "The menace of the mad thinker and his awesome android"! I'm never fond of robots in Spider-Man comics...

Today's the day Peter finds out if ESU will still have him! But the final results are posted for everything, except biophysics...

Sloan gets antagonistic again (I'm starting to think I preferred Miles Warren!), but he explains that since Debra's no longer here, he doesn't have a secretary and needs another day to correct the exams. Peter asks if Debra's alright (that's a first!) and Sloan answers that it seems so, but she has a lot of things to think about.

I'm annoyed that we don't get to see Peter's date with Amy (it's still not clear why he would even entertain her...), but I love those dice on Lance's car.

Peter's so gorgeous.

So he's clearly on a date with Lance, because Lance takes him out in his car, he buys him a drink and confides his deepest desires.

Dear readers, I'm kind of digging their relationship and might ship them. I'm happy that Lance's not so antagonistic and actually asks for Peter's help (kind of). If it'd been written earlier, they would have come to fists.

Relatably, Peter doesn't care about these mind games and decides to settle the thing right here and there.

HAHAHAHAHA. Peter's faces are priceless.

Peter leaves and thinks, "I thought Amy was just a sweet lady" hahaha you dumbass. Come on.

In Chelsea, MJ asks Ms. Muggins if Peter's home, and leaves unsuccessful.

In his cell, the Thinker, a F4 foe, has been doing some thinking and has decided to confront Spidey for the lulz with his psychic robot commanding power or whatnot.

That last bubble... Hahaha.

Spidey stops the robot, wonders about who commanded it, meanwhile the Thinker is now certain Spidey can sense incoming danger.

Later, at Peter's appartment...

Peter's top is kind of nice.

Oh.

And then...

Oops.

MJ looks snazzy. Is there something to say about gender here? It's not the first time she has a semi-masculine outfit...

What a stellar issue, it would have been even greater if the villain was more compelling but it's alright.

In the letters...

Awwww!

Dear readers, I'm here for whatever messiness we can see in #243!

I mean, were they? MJ didn't accept the proposal, so...

Amy's pissed off that Lance's here, so she storms off.

Lance is SO funny hahaha

When MJ asks if she missed anything, Peter answers, "not much". Which is true. Not a lot has happened in six years of publication...

Anyway, Peter quickly explains the situation and she's amused. Still, she only came here to tell Peter she was back and give him his keys back.

Amy didn't take back her basket of food, which has a "Château Armando" wine from 1966. The year is vaguely significant for being when Romita took over Ditko, but aside from that...

Anyway, Spidey ends up going out (the narration says he's the "Spectacular Spider-Man", which is usually kept to its respective magazine, and ditto for "Amazing Spider-Man"...) to ESU to find Connors (haven't seen him in a while!) to get more info about the piece of the robot he retrieved last issue. Connors can only say it comes from a robot (no shit, Sherlock), then Sloan arrives, Spidey says they did meet (in SSM 34! I sure didn't remember before he mentioned it) and discreetly checks out his grade. It's an A. He passed! Good for him.

Thanks to Roger Stern, Spidey's consistently funny again. This is excellent.

You know, I'm happy that Connors hasn't been the Lizard in years, it feels great to know that at least some evolutions have staying power.

In a café, Lance and Amy rekindle. Aww!

Because we need action in Spidey comics (I can do without, but not the audience apparently), some goons attack a church or something.

I couldn't get a confirmation, but it looks like the same church as the first page of ASM #153. Anyway, the right panel is great.

Hahaha.

After a quick visit at the Bugle, Spidey goes to see Felicia (remember most of their story has been in SSM, so it's surprising!).

Oh, MJ's positively hideous here.

I have a feeling I'm developing something for that kind of kiss. Not sure what does it. Look, I'm even gonna have to make another post to review the annual, can you believe it?

Such a great panel, once more.

As Spidey swings, we get all kinds of reminders that time exists, which doesn't sound good because this is very TASM2-like. Spidey's worried about the usual, + Black Cat's medical bills. Maybe she should return to thievery...

Later, at ESU, fellow student Roger Hochberg finds Peter...

It's hilarious how ugly the faces can be suddenly, but also... poor Roger, he looks so sad :( We basically never saw him, but baby did nothing wrong.

Such a good idea, what the hell. I love this page's composition, and the close-up in particular. Extremely solid.

In the letters, everyone loves the Hobgoblin (unsurprising!), and one letter lists every clue... and concludes it must be Jameson. Hahaha, I don't think so! (Watch it being him and me being blindsided.)

In the comments, I learn that the robot question is dropped. I'm fine with that.

For Annual 17, Bill Mantlo and Roger Stern write together! Stern plots, Mantlo scripts! How interesting.

For Kingpin lovers, we see him in a tight G-string, if that's your thing.

So Peter's invited at a Midtown reunion, and who else is there but Harry and Liz, yay! And Liz is pregnant. Ooh, here you go, little Goblin Jr.!

Everyone at the party looks like they're 50 or 60, which isn't exactly encouraging.

You can bet your ass people will stay similar things to me when I'm thirty. "Still translating video games?!"

That barista is not only gorgeous, but also very likely bisexual.

Peter thinks they admire him, but I'm not so sure.

Flash's here too. He and Peter are besties now, yay! They reference a future plot (SSM 85, haven't gotten there yet).

C.J. Vogel arrives, and Peter remembers him as his first gay crush his classmate who would distract his bullies with jokes. He may have inspired Spidey's constant joking...

Later, Peter sees C.J. and Louie Minelli chatting very mysteriously about one Remington Colt... Hmm!

At the Bugle, Ned and Betty helpfully inform Peter that that name is actually a pen name used by dozens of writers of... unchristian stories.

Also, Milton Farr was abducted by the mob. Farr is the publisher of the raunchy stories.

No way I'm summarizing that.

Spidey saves C.J., and when C.J. wakes up, he explains the situation to Peter. He wrote under the Remington Cole pseudonym, but he's now about to write for a children's TV show, and Minelli knew about the previous fact. Minelli threatened C.J. to tell people if he didn't take the package to the warehouse.

C.J. soon leaves Peter's appartment, and thinks that Peter, being "a newshound", might betray him. Consequently, he decides to get Farr's evidence on him by himself.

Spidey finds the file and leaves, but C.J. gets there and is held at gunshot by Louie. Turns out Louie was also a Remington Colt and was tired of hearing praise about his predecessor.

C.J. ends up burning the files, to Spidey's dismay, who wanted to use them to get the Kingpin in prison. As if! He gets faux philosophical about it.

Later, at the reunion, C.J.'s jokes make his classmates uncomfortable. And while Minelli gets arrested for the murder of Farr, Peter calls out C.J. in the backstage.

Lmaooooo Peter, you look frankly ridiculous. Bill Mantlo, that issue was oddly preachy and unsubtle.

The concept was neat but I wasn't very fond of it in the end.

Oh well, they can't all be winners!

#peter parker #spider-man #comics #comic books #amy powell #mary jane watson #lance bannon #the vulture

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unapologeticallyzayn · 1 year ago

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I still think the promo wasn't clever tho. Bradford is zayn's hometown what they did there wasn't promo, it's not a big town people there already know zayn and it's not a tourist destination no one outside of bradford (and zayn's fans who already follow him on socials) saw what happened there, i think it was more something zayn wanted to do out of fond memories. Even the billboard stuff isn't enough on it's own, it's not the first time he got billboards, maybe not as many but he still had them, that's more something people will distractly look at it's not a motivation to listen to the actual song, fans did a better/more useful promo by asking to many reactors on youtube to make a video about the song. The social media was a good start considering his presence online sucked before but if they want people,as in gp, to actually listen to him they needed to pay for less billboards and posters around and more for big plylists on spotify and of course big radios even booking him radio interviews would've been a better move (at least for capital and i heart radio) but till now they did none of that. Zayn was away from the radar for so long that they need to bring interest about him again, i'm not saying it's easy partly for rca and partly for zayn's fault too the situation now it's not the best, they can't just put something out and hope for the best, zayn has not the same support of taylor swift for example,( who still by the way went on tv shows/made an appearance to one of 1975 conerts ecc) to promote her last album. What they need to do is something more similar to what Niall Horan's team did, booking him different radios/podcasts ecc interviews, giving him good playlisting and getting constantly his songs on radios, another very good thing they're doing his making him do a festival summer tour, to that add his place as judge on the voice and you'll see how clever their promo is compared to zayn's one.

Yeah, for real Zayn's stans went all out! They really came through for him.

Oh definitely Z needs to do more physical interviews and just keep the GP's mind on him but that also depends what they've all agreed on.

His interview on CHD was a HUGE, MASSIVE step for him, so when it comes to physical interviews, I guess we gotta give this time.

Also Niall and Zayn have different personalities so they really cant plan for Z what they did for Niall.

I've seen Zayn on soooo many playlists though, which ones do you think are better for him?

#And there's also a possibility Z doesnt care about any of this😭#zayn #and promo #playlisting #interviews

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 1 year ago

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So, I’d somehow managed to never have heard the Flight of the Conchords radio sitcom before. I first watched their TV sitcom in about 2009, I think. And got into their music from there. I’ve re-watched that show many, many times in the last fifteen years, it’s probably one of the shows I’ve watched the most times in full. Yet somehow, never bothered to hear the radio show that came first until this week, when I was gathering Daniel Kitson radio things like, to borrow a phrase I’ve heard someone else use, a comedy magpie. Kitson was only in one episode, but I listened to all six, deciding that’s long overdue.

Here are some thoughts:

- Interesting (to me) that the only actor, besides the main two, to reprise his radio role in the TV show was Rhys Darby. I guess that should be obvious – he’s the only other Kiwi main character, he’s the one who started out with them. But for some reason I hadn’t thought of the fact that he had more history with the band than just being cast in their TV show. That’s cool.

He plays almost the same character. Different name, and in the radio show he was still with his wife, though only barely. And no useful job outside the band. That’s the difference between British radio and American TV for you – America and TV make their characters have glamourous jobs like working in the New Zealand consulate office.

- On that subject, the big and obvious difference is that the radio show is on the BBC and about a Kiwi band trying to make it in England, while the TV show is on HBO and about a Kiwi band trying to make it in America. That may reflect the band’s actual growing success – in 2005, they were trying to get somewhere in Britain, and by 2007, they were breaking America.

- Daniel Kitson plays a novelty music guy for whom the Conchords do support work. His character performs with a panda puppet. This is funny to me because about a year and a half earlier, Daniel Kitson was ranting to at least one audience about his dislike of people who perform with puppets (the immortal line “If you want to say rude things on stage, take the sock off your hand and start losing friends, you fucking chicken”), based on a radio show he had to do with ventriloquist Nina Conti.

- This also makes it amusing to me that Nina Conti appeared in that radio show, though not with her puppet and not in the same episode as Daniel Kitson. She played a slightly different version of the character played by Kristen Schaal in the TV show, and Jimmy Carr played her husband. I think Jimmy Carr was the only guest star to turn up in more than one episode, and I hate to say this, but he was quite good.

- I find it very funny that they still did a storyline with Bret being self-conscious about being too skinny, even in the radio version. Because we can’t see him there. They could have had any character self-conscious about anything. But they still decided to pick on Bret McKenzie by making it a plot point that what he actually looks like is a terrible thing to look (even though it’s definitely not… I mean, I’m not often attracted to men, but I very occasionally am, and when I am, they tend to look like Bret McKenzie).

- Other plot points common to both versions: they have a Yoko Ono (different name, very similar character, her episode is probably the most similar between the radio and TV versions), Bret quits the band, Rhys Darby struggles to get them bookings.

- Actually, I was wrong about Rhys Darby being the only one to reprise his role. Greg Proops plays the same character who sends them off on basically the same plotline.

- Writing this post got me looking at the Wikipedia page for their TV show, and it is quite cool to just look at that list of guest stars, keeping in mind that this was all pre-2010. Look at all the stuff the guest and recurring stars have gone on to do, in addition to Kristen Schaal and Rhys Darby’s careers.

I’m pretty sure Bret and Jermaine count as official Chocolate Milk Gang members, as does Demitri Martin (who’s billed on the Wikipedia page as a guest star in that TV show because he’s only in one episode, but he has such a significant role in that episode that I tend to think of him as a major character). And a number of the other names on that page are people I think of as CMG-adjacent for various reasons. The Flight of the Conchords TV sitcom is basically a gathering of the NYC wing of the CMG (yes I realize it may not be entirely accurate to define the New York alternative comedy scene as merely a branch of some stuff that happened in Britain, but this is how I choose to see the world). See, this sort of thing is why I have described the Chocolate Milk Gang as “an international crime syndicate that sometimes organizes soccer matches” (that is a quote from John Oliver, even though he may have been actually talking about FIFA when he said it).

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randomvarious · 20 days ago

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Today's compilation:

Rare on Air, Volume 1: Live Performances 1994 Singer-Songwriter / Acoustic / Adult Alternative / Alternative Rock

MTV Unplugged, the TV program and album series that casted popular musicians in much more intimate, stripped-down, and acoustic lights, ended up leaving such a big, indelible mark on the 90s that it appeared to spawn a couple other important things as well: one, the female-centered Lilith Fair singer-songwriter boom, and two, an onslaught of radio station compilations.

Pretty much any radio station that was worth their salt during this time period got in the habit of putting out CDs and cassettes that contained performances by artists that were recorded live on air from their own studio. And because most of those studios tended to be relatively cramped, artists were forced to usually just bring in an acoustic guitar and sing.

And sometimes this ended up yielding pretty terrific results. A popular band with a big, catchy hit would stroll in to promote their concert date in town and then they'd play this different version of their song live on air. And if you were a big enough fan of them, you'd have to get your hands on that performance, which radio stations would make easy by including on their own CDs.

But another thing that made these particular CDs extra special is how regionally exclusive they were too. If a band performed live on air for some radio station in Colorado, the likelihood that you'd be able to find it on CD in Pennsylvania would be close to nil. Only record shops within the station's own broadcasting radius would typically stock their shelves with these ephemeral releases, which means that there are probably literally thousands of albums out there, from a long list of different locales, that contain one-of-a-kind, live on-air performances by acts who were popular enough to be invited to go on these radio stations in the first place—a total goldmine to be plundered by someone like me, who has a handful of these types of releases in their own collection from all across the country already 😊.

And all that context now brings us to today's compilation, the first installment in the Santa Monica-based KCRW's Rare on Air series, which makes a bunch of recordings that'd been performed live on air in their own studios up until 1994 a whole lot more accessible than they previously had been. As one of NPR's most well-known affiliates—I have no idea what my own local NPR station's call letters are, by the way 😅—I'm not sure that this series' distribution was limited to just its own broadcast radius, because the North Carolina-based indie stalwart Mammoth Records was the label that actually put this album out. And because the KCRW brand is so revered and recognizable, I have a feeling that this album was sold in plenty of other places outside of southern California too, but I can't say that I know for sure.

But anyway, regardless of how rare and exclusive this album may have been, there's still a pretty formidable list of acts on it, most of whom hail from those adjoined NPR-appealing worlds of singer-songwriter, adult alternative, Americana, roots, and alternative country. We've got Tori Amos, John Cale, Nick Cave, Juliana Hatfield, Beck, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Natalie Merchant, Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, and even co-ed LA punk legends X too.

But guess what? Despite all that apparent starpower, this album actually manages to falter; which really begs the question that rolls around in my mind from time to time: was the 'unplugged' era actually a net good? Because, sure, it'd naturally produce more alternative versions of songs, which record labels would pounce on to sell even more music; and sure, you'd ostensibly get to hear an artist pour more of their 'soul' into their stuff too. But does that really make the song better than the original studio version that came with a whole lot more fuss on it? It's hard to say, but an album like this would seem to suggest, no, not really 🤷‍♂️.

But still, it's not all bad. Lindsey Buckingham sports a hushed, tender voice and picks at his guitar strings unlike anyone else does on this entire album with the folky "Never Going Back Again;" Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance provides some very full and warm strumming on "The Captive Heart," as his voice comes with some affective reverb on it too; and Natalie Merchant, who'd recently departed popular alt rock band 10,000 Maniacs, indicates the direction in which her own solo sound was heading with the heartstring-tugging and piano-led "How You've Grown," the original version of which appeared on her final album with the band, 1992's Our Time in Eden. Even after she'd left 10KM, their unplugged cover of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith's "Because the Night" would deliver them their biggest ever hit, with a peak at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in '94, and that success might've helped to solidify her own push towards more of a singer-songwriter style even further. A few years after that, she'd also end up gracing us with one of the single-biggest songs to ever come out of that massive adult alternative/female singer-songwriter era as a whole: "Kind & Generous"—to which I guess I'm bound to say, 'thank you, thank you; thank you, thank you; thank you, thank you; thank you, thank you...'

So, I guess if you were a stan of any of these artists to the point of being a total completist, you'd have to buy this album on the spot if you'd ever come cross it. However, while there are a lot of notably talented names that're sure to have the NPR set classing this album as an instant cop, I'd probably advise them to hold off, because unfortunately, even though these performances are pretty rare and exclusive, I don't think very much of them are actually all that interesting. And actually, maybe this album wasn't as widely distributed as I think it might've been, because for the few highlights that I came across, I can't find two out of three on them on YouTube. And for acts like Lindsey Buckingham and Natalie Merchant/10,000 Maniacs, who've had pretty big and dedicated fanbases over the years, I'm pretty surprised that that's currently the case 😯.

Highlights:

Lindsey Buckingham - "Never Going Back Again" Brendan Perry - "The Captive Heart" Natalie Merchant - "How You've Grown"

#singer songwriter #acoustic #adult alternative #alternative #alternative music #alternative rock #rock #alt rock #alt #alt music #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music

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shrinnirs · 1 year ago

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December 17, 2010 interview for the Shrinnirs "Early Singles" collection Josh Burkett put together and released on his Mystra record label in collaboration with the Father Yod record label.

Byron = Byron Coley

Josh = Joshua Burkett

Joe = Joe Malinowski

Byron: What’s on this LP?

Josh: The first three singles, plus some unreleased stuff from around then.

Joe: Some of it’s from a 10” that never came out.

Byron: Who was doing the 10”?

Joe: Charlie Krich. He had a label in the early ‘90s, Vandal Children Records. Our !Me da Una Rabia! 7" from 1992 was released jointly by Tulpa and Vandal Children.

Byron: The Bimbo Shrineheads more or less mutated out of Eclectic Bitch?

Joe: Yeah. Well at that time Eclectic Bitch was a name that dawn liked for herself. I just wanted to call the band the dawn cook band or dawn cook, but she said if we were going to do that, her pseudonym would have to be Eclectic Bitch.

Byron: The earliest stuff was done as a duo?

Joe: It started out as a duo, then we went through a bunch of bass players in a real short time. None of them recorded with us. We had one guitar player -- William Stuart – for a while, then after he left, Josh joined on bass and sax for a couple of years.

Byron: Did you already know Wayne & Kate by that point?

Joe: We met them at WHUS radio, sometime around then. When Josh was with us we opened for the Laughing Hyenas and Crystalized Movements at the Populous Pudding. That was a great show.

Byron: What was Josh’s hair like when he was in the band? Did he have that big Euro he had in Vernonster?

Josh: That was the biggest hair I ever had.

Byron: It was like John Sinclair’s. How much sax did you play with the band?

Josh: It was just occasionally.

Joe: He preferred bass, but dawn and I were always trying to get him to play more sax.

Byron: Did you jam much at live shows?

Joe: We mostly played songs. There was a lot of visual stuff. dawn had put together a slide show. dawn and I jammed when on our own recording the type of stuff that appeared on the Liminal Switch LPs, but usually stuck to the songs when working with Josh or other people.

Byron: What was dawn's stage presence like then, and what was her most outrageous costuming?

Joe: dawn brought some of her artwork with her like a car windshield she had smashed up and painted. She was in to rummaging through junked out autos for raw art material. In retrospect, I guess we were an on stage car wreck of a band. dawn would wear a lot of make-up applied asymmetrically, the left side of her skull was shaved and painted in a checkerboard pattern, and she had skirts made of duct tape and used to add tin foil here and there. A lot of her clothes were held together with staples or duct tape or occasionally nuts & bolts for heavier fabrics. She wore men's boxers for shorts during the summer. The first show I have a photo of has dawn playing guitar in front of a Knights of Columbus bingo display board, wearing a mesh Boston Bruins jersey and ripped up long-johns for pants which she had decorated with several crayon drawings. None of it seemed all that outrageous to me, since she wore the same type of stuff off stage. She had a TV set with the picture tube removed. She sometime wore that on her head on stage. I remember her wearing it at the El'n'Gee Club in New London, near the submarine base, while she played Tuli Kupferberg's "Go Fuck Yourself With Your Atom Bomb" on accordion. She also used to play "I'm Going to Kill Myself Over Your Dead Body If You Fuck Anyone But Me". She loved Tuli. During our first few years of playing out, dawn would usually start the set solo on acoustic guitar, or just acapella, and occasionally on accordion. She only played accordion in public a few times because she didn't feel very confident on it. She used it more like a harmonium. dawn also used to bring onstage artwork Colette Butterick had left behind in the Populous Pudding, lifesized standup figures of Caspar Weinberger, Oliver North and other Iran-Contra characters prettied up in frilly pink ballet tutus. Colette was an intriguing presence in Willimantic. During the early 1980s her son played drums in the White Pigs and the Separates. Colette put out the Separates 7" single and turned her basement in to a punk rock show space with a tiny stage. I didn't know Colette well, but appreciated her rare appearances at the Pop Pudding, particularly the night she strung herself like a tree in Christmas lights and plugged herself in to an electrical wall socket for a poetry reading.

Byron: Seems like you guys got a lot of good opening slots.

Joe: Well I was working at Platter Connection Record Store. It’s where I first met you and Jimmy Johnson. You stopped in while on a visit to Ziesing Bros book shop. It wasn't all that great of a record store, but I met a lot of bands there, and as music director at a college radio station, and by booking shows in Willimantic. It was just fellow bands helping each other out.

Byron: When Willimantic was a hotspot still. Before Ziesing moved.

Joe: Yeah, I spent one depressing birthday helping Mark Ziesing move his bookstore, hauling boxes of books down flights of stairs to the 18-wheeler. A sad day for Willimantic.

Byron: Lili still has her shirt from there – Radical Lesbian Feminists from Outer Space.

Joe: Our friend Joey Zone did the art for that.

Byron: It was a weirdly happening nexus. I was never there when the anarchist Ziesing brother was still around...

Joe: Yeah, he moved to Thailand. That store was where I found my first record by the Ex in 1982. Mike Ziesing used to have punk bands there on occasion during the early to mid 1980s. The store was divided in to separate sections. Mark Ziesing used most of his for sci-fi stuff and other lit, Allison Meyers owned the feminist and poetry section, and Mike Ziesing sold records along with 'zines and anarchist books. Plus, Wayne Woodward’s comics section. After the Ziesing Bros. closed up, Allison opened Everyday Books, first in her house and later as a cafe in downtown Willimantic. Allison published Mary Ellen Meikle's poetry. dawn used Mary Ellen's words on a couple of songs. One of them is on this record.

Byron: Did you guys have a lot more songs than you recorded?

Joe: We just have live tapes of them. That’s why we reissued the Live at Charlie’s cassette from 1992 on CD-R a few years ago. There are lots of songs dawn wrote that we never properly recorded.

Byron: It’s interesting. It seems like the band’s basic sound has stayed relatively stable throughout decades of activity and inactivity.

Joe: Well, ever since we first started playing together we were just making it up as we went along.

Byron: dawn’s basic sound had been folk before that?

Joe: Yeah. She was very briefly in a group called Bruce Bayne and the Dawn of the Living Dead Band. Otherwise, her background was in performing folk music at coffee houses, street protests, and fund raising potluck dinners.

Byron: How did she decide she wanted to go freak?

Joe: We were listening to early Sonic Youth and the Ex. We both dug the heck out of the Minutemen. Eventually Dawn really got in to the few ESP albums I had. I remember Patty Waters made a big impact on her. She also liked Frank Lowe's Black Beings album. Most frequently I'd find her listening to my old Nonesuch Explorer and Folkways ethnomusicology LPs when she was home alone with my records. But what stands out in my memory is how she enjoyed God & The State, that Ruins album with the Urinals drummer. She was crazy about that record. She still sings those songs in the car.

Byron: So you were the bad svengali record scum guy. Well every band story needs one.

Joe: We met at a college radio station in 1985 about a year before we first started playing music together. Dawn hosted a show that concentrated on articles she would share from underground newspapers and 'zines, along with interviews with fellow activists. She would mix in anti- authoritarian songs here and there. Whatever she could find, from Victor Jara to Gil Scott- Heron. The packaging on a Maximum Rock'n'Roll comp caught her eye and she grew a little curious about punk rock as a vehicle for expressing her political views. I just offered suggestions like, "if you're in to Gil Scott-Heron, maybe you would like the Last Poets," or "if you're into political punk, you might appreciate Crass and KUKL." Then from there, "since you like that stuff, you should definitely check out The Ex."

Byron: You later got to play some shows with the Ex. How were they to deal with in those days?

Joe: They were great. They stayed with us for a few days on their first U.S. tour in 1989. We opened for them in Storrs along with 76% Uncertain and Azaila Snail. The Ex didn’t have many shows outside of New York. They made a trip to Montreal and came back to Willimantic. They’d bought a beat up old station wagon for their tour. It kept breaking down. So they were stuck with us.

Byron: And you got to feed them for a week.

Joe: Actually, they fed us. Their sound guys even fixed dawn’s car for her. They were amazing. Just really nice people. We didn't even blame them when our beloved indoor cat was run over after the band talked us out of imprisoning him inside.

Byron: Did you play out of town much?

Josh: They did a U.S. tour.

Joe: We played New York and DC for Riot Grrrl shows even though we were much older than most of the people there. We played Providence a lot, Albany once, North Hampton, and another show in NYC at ABC No Rio. And we did tour across the States a couple of times, but that was mostly camping out with shows that were a thousand miles apart. We had a few on the West Coast between Los Angeles and Portland. We played Minneapolis and Buffalo. And we opened for the Orthotonics in Richmond, VA after a show in Chicago. There was a huge crowd that kind of hated us, particularly a really angry German dude who after the gig let Dawn know how exactly brutally offended he was by "Rape Poem." At least we got to play Richmond, stay with Michael Hurley for a couple of days, and have a great time in an amazing swimming hole with Rebby Sharp.

Byron: Where did the Bimbo Shrineheads name come from?

Joe: It was something our late friend Rob McDonald blurted out while we were watching the tv news. Around that time George HW Bush picked Dan Quayle as his running mate, and Rob said, “He’s a Bimbo Shrinehead, just like Vanna White.”

Byron: So you’re named after Dan Quayle?

Joe: Yeah, or Vanna White. But I have no problem with Vanna White. I just really didn’t like the name Eclectic Bitch, so we compromised and settled on the Bimbo Shrineheads. Eclectic Bitch grew out of a regrettable joke I made when dawn and I were first hanging out and she was hoping to find people to start a band. dawn was describing how her dream band combined feminism and political revolution with poetry, theater and a wide variety of music; everything from jazz to folk to rap to reggae to heavy punk rock mixed with Segovia. I teased her that she should call her band Eclectic Bitch, sarcastically suggesting she reclaim the word "bitch" as an act of empowerment. She should have punched me in the face, but instead took a liking to it. I would have preferred getting punched.

Byron: Why did the name keep mutating?

Joe: We never really liked any of our names, including Bimbo Shrineheads and Shrinnirs. We figured we didn’t have any kind of following so it wouldn't matter. We've been kicking around the idea of changing it again, but with all the time and money Josh has put into this singles collection, we should probably stick with Shrinnirs for now.

Byron: Did the band start up before the Tulpa label?

Joe: The band came first.

Byron: How many releases did you end doing on Tulpa?

Joe: Not many,

Byron: Must have been about 15.

Joe: Yeah. The Flaherty/Colbourne stuff was about the end of it. There was a Footprints 4 comp that never came out. That had Sun City Girls, Galloping Coroners, Snake River and Brian Johnson. Snake River were from Michigan. They had submitted music to Tulpa. Brian Johnson ran an art gallery in Hartford. He played percussion for Vernon Fraser. dawn modeled for the cover of Vernon’s album Sex Queen of the Berlin Turnpike. I think the Sun City Girls and Coroners stuff eventually came out on other labels. I’m going to put out a Colbourne/Flaherty recording with Mike Roberson on guitar soon on my Withdrawn Records label. We released a live Shrin 7” in 1997 with artwork stolen from an Alan Lomax Columbia World Music LP. The covers were hand stamped "Withdrawn" to look like the deacquisitioned records we bought from library sales. Since I still had the stamp, I used it a few years later when I gave out cd-r mixes of some of my 78s to a few friends, and when I put out Randy Colbourne's Clarinet Works recording.

Byron: What was Tulpa named after?

Joe: The name grew out of a discussion with Joey Zone, a graphic artist from Willimantic. It wasn’t named after the Magazine song.

Josh: What does it mean?

Joe: Joey Zone described it as being like a doppelganger, an evil spirit twin who does your dirty work for you. A year or so after the first Tulpa record release Joey gave me a tulpa themed Detective Comic and a Tulpa logo he put together. I've since learned a tulpa is quite a bit different than my understanding of a doppelganger, but at the time my knowledge of Tibetan mysticism was largely limited to what I picked up from UNESCO LPs and Batman comic books.

Josh: How did you get together with Flaherty?

Joe: It was through Rob McDonald. I'm not sure how Rob came in to contact with Flaherty. Paul may have mailed a Flaherty/Colbourne record to the Populous Pudding. It was right around the time of their first Cadence LP. Rob thought I would be into what Paul and Randy were doing, and he was right. They had no gigs. They either played under bridges in Hartford or they would sneak in to the UCONN Art building. When security would come in, Paul would claim he was an art instructor. He completely played the part. I remember an art student pretentiously critiquing the music and offering the advice, “Sometimes less is more.” And Paul said, “No. More is more.” Bimbo Shrineheads had a song with lyrics from a book of words and drawings Paul Flaherty self-published about 20 years ago. dawn pulled the lyrics to the song "Corporate Prostitute" out of there. I think the title of the book was The Corporate Bored. I loaned out my copy and never saw it again. Flaherty claims to be out of stock, but maybe he could dig one up for you. He wrote it while working at one of the Hartford insurance companies before he started painting houses.

Byron: The records you did with those guys put them on the map in a whole new way. For a lot of people that was some of the first free jazz they’d ever heard.

Joe: Aside from the Tulpa comp, Kevin Kraynick helped spread the word, when he featured Flaherty/Colbourne in Damp Magazine. Rob McDonald and I booked Paul and Randy at the Populous Pudding whenever we could. It didn't matter what the other bands on the bill were like. The Pudding was an arts and music collective located in an old fur locker, basically a loud cement box with a single entrance/exit, large bank vault type door. It was a dangerous violation of fire codes, and the perfect setting for Flaherty/Colbourne. They were stunning. Every gig transcendent. Unbelievable.

Byron: What was dawn’s stuff like when she was a folkie?

Joe: She had just started writing originals shortly before we began playing together. It seemed like she was listening to that Silly Sisters album whenever I went over her house, just a huge Maddy Prior fan, but she mostly performed Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Ralph McTell and Buffy Sainte Marie covers. She had the Wobbly songbook. She also had learned a lot of Irish traditionals from singing with her friend Gordon MacDonald. She also covered a lot of Joan Baez. Once we started playing the Populous Pudding, Charlie Krich saw her and Charlie would give her sheet music and order her to learn other Buffy Saint Marie songs: "Here, play Cod'ine next show."

Josh: She could read music?

Joe: Yeah, a little bit, just enough to struggle through working out the chords.

Josh: I remember she was into that first Ricky Lee Jones album.

Joe: The first time I played with her, she used to play coffeehouses all the time, and this was a coffeehouse type setting. She came in with her untuneable electric guitar and I had an industrial oil barrel like Neubauten or something. And we played "I Will Die in Willimantic", "Slabs of Stone", and Dylan's "Masters of War". It was funny to witness the reaction. It was not what people wanted to hear. Actually I'd rather hear dawn solo on acoustic guitar, too. Whether playing folk standards or her own songs, everything sounds better when she slows things down and plays and sings solo. She knocks me out at times. I've always felt lucky that she puts up with me.

Byron: How did your Swedish release come about?

Joe: A Swedish band mailed a tape and wanted Tulpa to put out a record. I think they’d read about us in Maximum Rock & Roll. We decided to do a split. I’ve never met them, I don’t think they’ve ever been to the States. It was a co-release with Fetvadd in Sweden. But 16 B.U.H. sent the material hoping one of the bands on the first Footprints comp would want to do a split.

Josh: Did they have other releases?

Joe: Yeah, they have a few albums out.

Byron: What happened to the proposed Twisted Village LP?

Joe: It was mostly live to cassette recordings from various basements. On some of the songs dawn had home made contact microphones taped onto her bouzouki and balalaika and it sounds like it’s really noise genre stuff, but it’s just her pulling the mic off and retaping it. I was never sure if Wayne & Kate, from Twisted Village, were just being nice because we were friends or what, so I never pushed them on getting the record out. I put together the tape and I couldn’t tell if they were genuinely enthusiastic or not. After a while it just fell by the wayside.

Byron: Some of that’s what got recycled on Limnal Switch?

Joe: Yeah.

Josh: What about that Twisted Village compilation on Shock?

Joe: Wayne put that together when we were talking about releasing an album on Twisted Village. He used a song from one of our old 7" eps. His mix is better than the original. Stefan, from Shock, hates that track. He was pissed our song ending up on his label. He just doesn’t like that kind of music.

Josh: But for a lot of people, that’s how they first heard about the band.

Byron: You were in Wormdoom also.

Joe: Yeah, that was around ’95.

Byron: How many gigs did Wormdoom play?

Joe: Two. Twisted Village had just opened as a store and we did one there to celebrate and one out here at the Amherst Unitarian Church with Flaherty/Colbourne.

Byron: Were there plans for more shows?

Joe: I would have liked to play more, but Wayne & Kate were busy with Magic Hour and the new store.

Josh: I played on the Wormdoom album, too. It was just basement jam stuff.

Byron: Did they credit you?

Josh: There were no credits. It’s the same with that B.O.R.B In Orbit CD. There were no credits on that either.

Byron: Are you on any of this stuff, Joe?

Joe: I’m on some of the Vermonster stuff.

Josh: You might be on that B.O.R.B. CD, too. That was just basement jams too.

Joe: I don't think I'm any of the B.O.R.B. stuff, but the band did make nice use of my Radio Shack Moog. Josh and I played on some of the last Crystalized Movements gigs. We played CBGB.

Josh: That was the only time I ever played there.

Joe: And Providence and...I think there were three shows.

Byron: That must have been when they were more together. Their early shows featured a lot of tuning.

Joe: Bimbo Shrineheads did a lot of that too. We got tired of it and started doing entire sets with no breaks at all. Saving up to buy Dawn guitars that would hold a tuning was the key.

Byron: Were you still doing songs?

Joe: We’d have five short songs in a row, but we would leave spots open to improvise if we felt inclined, then we’d play some more songs. We were back to the duo line-up by then. Sometimes Josh would join us at the end when we played in Cambridge. He would play sax and dawn would sing in to an mbira plugged in to the distortion pedals on her guitar amp. She often used an old throat mic built for airplane pilots and ran that through her amp, too. It looked like a beat up leather choker around her neck. That was probably '93 to '95.

Byron: What was the worst band you ever played with?

Josh: Maybe the Reverb Motherfuckers. That show was not a very good. They played for like two hours.

Byron: What was your best gig?

Josh: I remember a really good one at the Middle East.

Joe: I think Fire in the Kitchen headlined the show you are thinking of. Steve Erickson, from Cut 'Zine, put that bill together with Billy Ruane.

Josh: That was great that night. Fire in the Kitchen were a much better live band than their records ever let on.

Byron: What was the horrible show in Worcester I’ve heard you refer to?

Joe: That was with Eugene Chadbourne at the Worcester Artists Group in ‘91, but we had plenty of other horrible shows. Chadbourne was great. We were terrible. We spent too much time creating our most elaborate props ever for performance pieces. dawn worked very hard on set design and stagecraft for that gig. We suffered technical problems throughout. It stifled the music. After that show we cut way back on props and slide shows. That freed us to just go up and play with room for improvisation when we felt like it. dawn still did things like occasionally shave off chunks of her hair on stage, but we left the slide shows and most of the props at home. It was also disappointing because we had just started playing with Jeff LeDoux on guitar and vocals. He fit in perfectly from the very first practice. That one bad show with Chadbourne was Jeff's only show with us. A few days after, he broke the news that he was following his girlfriend to Minneapolis.

Byron: What happened to the scene in Willimantic? Everyone just move away?

Joe: Pretty much, but not entirely. There was punk rock music in Willimantic long before the Populous Pudding, and today there are still dedicated people putting on art and music shows in empty Main Street store fronts. After the Populous Pudding closed, Charlie Krich started doing shows in his basement. Charlie had initially gotten involved in the Pudding as an outlet for his poetry. He didn't seem to have had much contact with punk rock prior to the Pudding, but maybe I'm wrong in assuming that. The enthusiasm and DIY spirit of the touring bands impressed him. He’s a human rights lawyer with a beautiful old Victorian home which he opened up to a young crowd of hardcore bands and underground music fans. After a while there were too many noise complaints, so he worked with Jay Forklift and a few of the other kids to open the Willimantic Arts Collective. That space didn't last long. They had better luck with the landlord and police in Studio 158, which they founded soon after. It a was great place for shows. Charlie is an extremely generous and humble guy who truly deserved the Saint Chuck and SuperChuck nicknames the kids gave him. A lot of younger folks were shaped by Charlie’s shows – throughout the early ‘90s he was booking hardcore punk and all that. He had Green Day at the Norwich VFW. We played there with Spitboy. We opened an Econochrist show Charlie helped a kid put together in a condominium complex in Manchester. At Studio 158 we played with Bikini Kill, Universal Order of Armageddon, Avail, Devoid of Faith and a bunch of other touring bands, as well as local friends like Mi6.

Byron: How did it go over when you played with punk bands.

Joe: Usually confusion.

Josh: But I’ve also heard over the years that there were people who really got changed by seeing you. It was beyond their comprehension at the time, but it made them realize there was something else possible.

Joe: But a lot of the young guys were really intimidated by dawn too. They didn’t know what to make of her face paint or whatever. She could sometimes lose herself and unknowingly glare intensely at people while she played. She scared some of the boys. Overall, it seemed like we were tolerated. There was a difference between our earliest shows in the 1980s and the shows say '92 to '95. In the 80s a faceless male voice from deep in the crowd would often heckle. After about 1992, we didn't get much of a reaction. For the most part, people sat on the floor, politely clapped, and waited for our set to end. I know dawn is always surprised when women tell her things like how they were effected by seeing her chop up her hair or when people speak about certain songs and shows from years ago.

Josh: On one of the songs she’d just scream for like ten minutes. It was her anti-child abuse song, “Mother Goose and Mr. Hyde". Even severe hardcore bands were not that severe.

Joe: We did it one time on WRIU radio and it was just psychodrama. I don’t know what the kids at the radio station thought. Listening to the tape, I can hear why Josh left the live version off this collection. The words and visceral screaming can be a stomach sickening bum out to hear, and musically it is a mess since my drum kit actually fell apart, but I thought the live radio recording was one of the most accurate documents of what we were doing.

Byron: Where was the gig you were supposed to open for Suckdog & Costes?

Joe: That was at UCONN. Lisa called the promoter to say they were delayed. Costes had jumped out of their car and runaway. The promoter kept coming up on stage and whispering, “Play more.” I think that was my least favorite show along with the time in Chicago when I cracked my head on a low hanging monitor and later puked between songs. My favorite show was the one in New Haven where we got kicked off before we even finished the first tune.

Josh: We played at this diner, opening for St. Johnny.

Joe: Who didn’t even play. The owner said, “If you’re like them, here’s $25, just go away.”

Josh: We played one song and they turned the mics off and turned the jukebox on really loud. There was no one there anyway.

Byron: And then you left Willimantic, rendering your best known song more or less untrue.

Joe: We’ll see.

Byron: You went to Boston.

Joe: Yeah, for 14 years and then New Haven. Boston got too expensive so I moved. And dawn went to Worcester to go to school. Now she’s in Manchester, CT.

Byron: Do you guys have any plans to play more?

Joe: Well, if people ask us we’ll play. dawn loves playing out. I prefer jamming in her art studio. We haven't played music together much over the last few years. I'll play out if that is what it takes to get her motivated.

Byron: Can they pick the line-up that plays?

Joe: Maybe.

Byron: Has dawn done any musical stuff subsequently?

Joe: Not much.

Josh: She paints.

Byron: But she didn’t go back to her folk roots?

Joe: No.

Byron: You kind of ruined that forever.

Joe: I hope so.

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dearyallfrommatt · 5 months ago

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DC produced a comic adaptation of the TV show which featured a lot of characters that for this reason or that couldn't be included in the show. Blue Beetle was one of them, along with Firestorm and Power Girl just off the top of my head. I remember reading some folks thought he was barred from the cartoon because of the Blue Beetle character on The Electric Company from PBS, but that's not so. Worse luck, he was free and clear to use.

Anyhow, Ted was featured in a couple of issues. One, he went up solo against the Gen. Eling version of the Hairy Man (this was after the Patriot Act episode that brought together the Seven Soldiers of Victory), and another featuring him and Booster Gold. It was classic Blue & Gold "Bwah-hah-hah" written by the late Kieth Giffen, author of those classic Justice League International stories.

You probably know this, but allow me to nerd out. The Ted Kord Beetle's adventures - along with, among others, the Question and Captain Atom - were published in the '60s & '70s by Charlton Comics, one of the many Number Threes that have come and gone. They went out of business and DC bought up the properties, introducing them to the universe (and readers) during the Crisis On Infinite Earths. Later, they provided readers with some of the best comics of the late '80s/early '90s. Seriously, check out Dennis O'Neil's Question run. Top notch.

Anyhow. Charlton didn't invent the character of the Blue Beetle, though, and he wasn't originally techno-wizard Ted Kord. The original Blue Beetle was one of the earliest costumed do-gooders, first appearing in 1939's Mystery Men Comics by Fox Publications. They were an interesting company, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to horror and sleaze.

As far as memorable characters go, they're best known for two of the silliest: The Bouncer and Stardust the Super Wizard. They also published Matt Baker, one of the few pre-WW2 African-American comic artists, and his "good girl" work with Phantom Girl acquired from Quality Comics (Plastic Man, The Blackhawks, etc.) and a take on Thor I know nothing about, but the rest was pretty much "rip off something popular and see what we can get away with."

Initially, Dan Garret was the son of a police officer slain in the line of duty. So he pulls a Bruce Wayne, runs around in a bulletproof costume, and takes a vitamin that makes him faster and stronger. Typical Golden Age stuff. He sort of did a Green Hornet/Phantom thing by marking his folks with a scarab-shaped whatzit and had the normal supporting cast (blonde reporter in love with the hero but scornful of the secret identity, comic sidekick, old guy, etc.).

He became a U.S. agent during World War 2 and his super vitamin started giving him real superpowers like flight and X-ray vision. Later, when superhero comics fell out of vogue, he became the host of a horror/crime anthology, not unlike Captain America did in the '50s. Still, Dan Garret was pretty popular. He had a radio serial produced by CBS that made him out more like the Shadow and a daily comic strip drawn by, among others, Jack Kirby (under a pseudonym).

After briefly being published by Holyoke Comics (no one of note apart from a Batman rip-off, Cat-Man & Kitten (yes, she's a she)), the character was picked up by then-young Charlton Comics in the '60s. They made some changes. This time around, Dan Garrett (they added an extra "t") was an archeologist who found a blue scarab on a dig. When saying the magic words "Kaji Dha!" Garrett was transformed into the Blue Beetle, with super strength, flight, X-ray vision, the ability to shoot energy beams, and whatever the story called for.

The stories were actually pretty camp, even for '60s comics, but Dan was replaced in 1966 by Ted Kord. I don't know how the story's been changed, but Ted was a favorite student of Dan (even though Ted's an engineer and, well, comic books, I guess), and answers a call for help. He finds his teacher mortally wounded and vows to take up his mantle. However, he can never make the scarab work, so he turns his engineering genius into a weapon against crime. He was created by Steve Ditko, so bonus points there.

Dan's made a couple of background appearances in the DCU and was once brought back to life by the scarab to fight his successor. Ted Kord's been a favorite since I was a kid and I fell in love with Jaime Reyes from the get-go, though I didn't care as much for the Blue Beetle series where Ted tries to play the mentor role for Jaime. I don't like it when comics portray Ted as considered a loser among the rest of the heroes, though I know continuity's been flip-flopped a couple of times since he went down in the most badass way possible.

In a world where gods clash and men can run faster than the speed of light, a guy who dresses like a bug and uses a gun that's expressly meant not to kill has the biggest balls in the DC universe. Plus, he's probably the only billionaire superhero who isn't carrying a boatload of baggage.

Kaji Dha!

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Elseworlds Addendum

Blue Beetle / Ted Kord

A brilliant industrialist and designer, Ted Kord decided to use his acumen for mechanical engineering to fight crime as the masked vigilante known as The Blue Beetle. Along with a levitating hover-car aptly named ‘The Bug,’ Kord devised numerous non-lethal crime-fighting weapons. This ranged from an incapacitating strobe-light gun to bug-shaped flying surveillance drones.

Although Ted had inherited the extraterrestrial scarab from the original Blue Beetle, the scarab never bonded with him and he remained unaware of the awesome powers this item could bestow. The scarab ultimately ended up bonding with young Jaime Reyes who was able to unlock the full potential of the alien weapon and operated as the third Blue Beetle.

The Blue Beetle was not included in the original DCAU due to licensing issues. The production company was unaware of whether or not they owned the intellectual property rights to produce cartoons and toys based on the character and hence he was left out. Which is a true shame in that an episode dedicated to the madcap high-jinks of Blue Beetle partnering up with his best buddy, Booster Gold, could have been a highlight of the series.

#Blue Beetle #Ted Kord #Booster Gold #Justice League #DCAU #cut-out #Dan Garrett #Jaime Reyes #Fox Comics #Holyoke Comics #Charlton Comics #comic books

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lebenspurpur · 3 years ago

Text

AN: Helloo, wrote this because I spent today suffering through my post-drunk-vandalism hangover. Guess it's deserved but still, it sucks. After eating chicken broth my dad made, unsalted if I may add, for an hour straight I am now ready to be creative. I really don't know what this is.

Have the link to my Larry playlist while we're at it:

Pairing: Larry Johnson x reader

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of alcohol

Wordcount: 1744 words

🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓🔪🏁🕷🤍🧷💀⛓

Larry looks really, really stupid right now. Stupid and sick.

His tall form slumped over in defeat, big blanket wrapped around him but not too tight, otherwise he'd feel too hot, too feverish, he still needs some air. There are tissues scattered across the couch as well. Fucking hell.

Usually, this would disgust you but it's Larry, you think you've seen worse.

Small sniffles come from where he's laying, whenever he clears his throat hoarse croaking leaves his mouth and he cringes every time he hears it. He can feel your judging gaze on his body, hear your arched eyebrow without even lifting his head.

His radio is blaring some kind of metal music, you don't recognize the band. Technically, the music is useless since the TV in front of Larry's bed is playing an old horror movie, bloody screams only adding to the grimy ambiance in the room.

"I-", you start but Larry lifts his hand before you can even consider continuing.

On any other occasion, you would've noticed the rings adorning his slender fingers, the metal accessories leaving a trail of dark smudge on his hands. Damn, did he have some nice hands.

Thankfully today wasn't a normal occasion. The metalhead in front of you had worse problems than you drooling over his fingers right now, one of them being the sickness he caught.

"Don't you dare say 'I told you so.'", he croaks out while he finally lifts his head, bloodshot eyes meeting yours. He looks immensely tired. You can sense his annoyance at this sickness, this hellish treatment he's in and can't seem to escape.

You take a deep breath in and drop your bag next to his opened front door.

"Alright. I won't."

You close the door quietly and deposit your jacket as well as boots next to it.

His mom always screams at Larry to finally get something for visitor's shoes and bags but he never does. Too busy, too lazy, he figures his visitors get it. Who even visits him, anyway?

The floor is, as usual, covered in stuff he hasn't cleaned yet. Unfinished drawings, sketchbooks, take-out cartons, empty booze bottles, you keep wondering how he manages to create that kind of mess in a timespan of not even two days.

You tiptoe over them, careful as to not to step into something. Earlier experiences have taught you to never mistake one of these seemingly empty cartons as really empty. Just last week you stepped into a fucking pizza the man in front of you didn't finish.

You sigh as you sit down next to him and Larry tiredly raises an eyebrow.

"Dude, I know you don't want to move but Jesus, we really need to get you to bed.", you then state, voice comforting yet firm. You use the moment to stare into his eyes, adore the brown, thick, deepness of them.

Larry groans loudly, voice breaking from how raw his throat is. His head falls back and he closes his eyes, a pained expression on his features.

"Don't wanna.", he grumbles quietly and you involuntarily crack a smile. Larry always managed to do that, even in the most unbelievable moments.

"I'll join you if you do."

One of his eyes slowly creaks open, observing your face to look for any kind of sarcasm or irony. As soon as he doesn't find any, the other eye opens as well and he leans forward again, blanket clutched tightly in his fists.

"Alright."

You grin at his quiet answer, hand reaching over to pull him with you. He obliges, warm, slightly clammy hand tightly grabbing yours. He follows you through the messy room, his blanket leaving a trail of destruction behind the two of you.

You kick open the door leading to his bedroom. Immediately, the familiar images of various album covers greet you. The air in his room is colder and less damp and you hear him take a deep breath.

Turning around, you mention for him to wait while you walk over, grabbing the blanket on his bed. You shake it a bit, readjust the sheets as well the pillow, all while Larry's eyes never leave your back.

"There you go, sweets.", you add as you finish, quickly turning around to see Larry standing the same way you've left him. Tired, slumped, and emotional. The need to hug him starts boiling inside of you but you try and hold yourself back. First, you have to make sure he gets into bed.

Larry slowly stumbles past you. During the last few baby steps, he drops the blanket around his shoulder, faceplanting right into the freshly made sheets. He's not even wearing a shirt and you huff at his stubbornness.

Larry's back looks strong like this, muscles contracting beneath his skin as he tries to get more comfortable. Your eyes glide over his spine, his wide shoulders, the small bumps where his ribs encase his organs. His olive skin is sweaty and long, brown hairs cling to it.

You cringe at that, knowing the feeling all too well.

Softly placing a hand on his back, you move closer, forehead scrunched together.

"Larry, darling."

He grunts into his pillow, a muffled questioning sound.

"I got a hair tie here. Mind lifting your head real quick?"

Larry obliges and lifts his head quickly, taking a deep breath while he does so.

Your fingers find his scalp and start collecting all the strands, securing them afterward with the tie around your wrist.

The man beneath you hums in appreciation as the cold air hits his neck, sweaty skin finally being able to breathe. You kiss the small space beneath his neck real quick, a short sign of comfort before you stand up again, hands leaving his skin.

Larry whines the second you do so, all while quickly turning around, sending you a pleading look.

"You said you'd stay.", the whiny tone only makes his voice sound more hoarse and you can't help the small grin from appearing on your features.

"In a second, sweetie. You need some water and medicine first, alright?"

He whines again but the thought of something fresh and cold going down his throat is enough to soften the pleading look in his eye. You blow him a kiss and then quickly walk into the kitchen, which is right across from the brunette's room.

It's surprisingly clean but what did you expect? Larry never uses his kitchen unless he has to. Which isn't all too often.

Grabbing a water bottle and placing it on the counter, you keep searching for the small broth packets you'd bought exactly for this kind of scenario. You find them in the fridge, the only thing in this room that Larry actually uses.

Chuckling you get some water cooking, all while pouring the powder into one of the giant cups Sal has gifted Larry a while ago. According to the masked man, everything tastes better if it's being eaten out of a cup and so, everyone has their own sets of cups, a premium gift from Sal Fisher.

Soon, everything's done and you maneuver your way back into Larry's room. Said man is awaiting you, eyes still opened as he watches you creep towards his bed, hands full with water, soup, and medicine.

First, you feed him the medicine. Normally he'd do this himself but you know that he'll just ignore the bitter juice unless you force it down his throat. Stubborn motherfucker.

Larry's sitting up now, back propped up against one of the many big pillows he has. You hand him the broth and he inhales it in less than two minutes, apparently, this is the first thing he's eaten today. Shaking your head at the thought, you tug a few strands of hair out of his face, smiling at your lover's appetite.

Finally, after gulping down half of the water bottle, the brunette leans back and smiles, for the first time this evening.

"Thank you.", he croaks out and you touch his arm as an appreciative gesture, "Does that mean you're allowed to join me now?"

You're about to nod as you notice the faint traces of eyeliner on his skin.

"Did you take off your makeup when you got home?", you ask, throwing a teasing smile his way.

Larry clears his throat, embarrassed that you caught him. A faint blush raises on his cheeks and you feel your heart swell at the sight.

"I might have forgotten about it.", he answers, gaze slowly meeting yours again, "But please, let's just do this later, dude. I am so fucking tired."

Huffing, you roll your eyes at his answer but you nod anyway. He'd be fine with the makeup for a few more hours. You just have to remember taking it off tomorrow.

"You're lucky I love you."

Larry grins at that, the usual wide, blinding grin, that makes your stomach tingle with fuzzy feelings inside of it. His fingers find your arm and he tenderly pulls you down to join him. Soon, your head is placed on his chest, and his arms cradle your shoulders, pulling you into his body.

You can hear his relaxed breathing as he finally settles down, nuzzling his face into your hair.

His skin is warm against your cheek and you smile into it. It doesn't matter how often you've done it, laying on his nude chest always makes you flustered.

Larry's fingers start to draw stuff on your back, the feeling more than a delight for you. Humming, you snuggle closer and the metalhead next to you smiles.

His eyes already start to close slowly, lack of sleep finally catching up to him. The quiet sound of the ongoing movie in his living room, as well as the metal music, make for a great background sound and you both listen intently.

You notice the way his heart beats, slow and steady, beneath the tanned skin. Unknowingly, you start to synchronize your breaths with his. In and out. In. And out.

Soon, your eyes close as well. Damn it, you don't want to fall asleep. Though, you suppose it doesn't matter as the man next to you pulls you closer, his breath warm against your ear. He wouldn't let you leave anyway.

The thought makes you feel giddy, excited, in love. Smiling widely, you try to press yourself closer into him, and soon, you too, fall asleep, enveloped by the arms of the boy you love most. Your favorite boy.

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anaiswriterr · 4 years ago

Text

For the sake of our relationship

Pairing: Fem!ProHeroReader x Hawks

Rating: M

Authors Note: This story contains subjects that may not be suitable for a younger audience, warning: Blood, fighting, swearing, the word rape is used and sexual content. This is an angst story. Inspired from the story, “I’m your Salvation.” Also the readers quirk is: Electricity, you can control electricity. Hero name: Elytra. Also this story is extremely long!

Synopsis: When Y/N loses her quirk and possibly her career all in one day, she’s faced with hard decisions, and grief. Keigo just wants to help but what if you just don’t want his help? Will the relationship crumble?

He didn’t know if it were the cuts, scrapes, burns, gashes and the deep dark bruises that covered your body, that shook him to the core. Or if it were the ventilator that was placed in your throat that made him boil and shake in his seat in anger.

His lips pressed into a thin line, rubbing the tears that spilled over his cheeks away every few minutes. His uncontrollable sobs that shook his body, and the constant whispers of encouragement he’d give to you through his choked sobs.

“Come on kid, just fight it.”

He held onto your hand, rubbing over the bruise on your wrist lightly, waiting for you to wake up. His teary eyes wondered all over your beaten body and landed on your neck. A large imprint of a hand was bruised, painting the area in black and blue, the cuts all over your face only made him want to go out and find whoever did this to you.

You had been gone on a mission for only a couple of weeks, saying, “Stop worrying, I’ll come back home like normal and you’re gonna see how silly you were.” You’d teased, sticking out your tongue at him and kissing him goodbye. He knew the work you two did was dangerous, sometimes one of you would come in the early hours of the morning with bruises and cuts that weren’t there the other night. And sometimes it’d be burn marks and for him shorter wings. But he never knew it’d be like this, to the point you were in a hospital room fighting for your life after a mission that went horribly wrong. Nobody had word of the incident, and the Hero Commission would make sure of that till you were fully healed.

It only made Keigo angrier. The fact that they only thought of your return, and jumping right back into hero work.. Not giving a damn if you were just holding on by just a thread. Life was different now. It had been now, two weeks since you were admitted into the hospital. Keigo would only leave your side to shower and come back, dismissing all his hero work and leaving it to his sidekicks; instructing them to only call him if it’s absolutely necessary.

He’d only hope that he wouldn’t have to leave. Your state had only seemed to worsen, it was later when a doctor had come in to discuss an important and life changing conversation with Keigo.

There was one word that rung continuously in his brain, one word that made him sit down.

“Quirkless.”

***

You wished you were dead.

You wished your body would’ve given out and that you would’ve died. Not wake up in a lifeless hospital, with guilt rushing over your body. Staring lifelessly at the blank ceiling, you woke up after another week of being admitted into the hospital. You didn’t cry, you didn’t mutter not even a single word.

Your voice wouldn’t let you.

It was hoarse and raw, your body ached and throbbed and yet you still didn’t cry. You couldn’t, they’d dwell but wouldn’t fall

You didn’t even acknowledge your longtime boyfriend Keigo; sitting there.

‘What kinda hero am I if I couldn’t even save those people?’

The screaming and yelling, the sound of innocent children being slaughtered. It was your fault, you couldn’t save them.

And now it appears you can’t ever save people.

When the doctor informed you about no longer having your quirks you remained lifeless, laying your body right back down and turning to face the wall.

“Leave.” You mumbled.

“Babe, you need to listen he’s-“

You gripped at your pillow even tighter, “Tell him to get the fuck out! Or I’ll tell you too next!” You shouted into the pillow, not looking at his hurt expression. He looked towards the Doctor, with an apologetic look. And returned back to sitting next to you, watching you. It was the first time you expressed something, it was cruel.

Innocent people died and now you’re quirkless? You don’t even know how, it was all so fast. So was it a sick game, to be forever punished. But you guess you deserved it, karma after all.

You haven’t spoken a single word to Keigo, not wanting to face him as the ‘Pro hero who couldn’t do her job.’ It was shameful. Embarrassing to even be linked with him. He was perfect, like an angel. And you were just like the rest of the hero’s who burnt up too fast.

***

You were discharged a week after, with an assortment of prescriptions and medications. Even creams for the deep scars on your body.

Keigo insisted the first thing you should do was take a bath when you got home, he was helpful. Making sure you were all set to go and even brought you clothes for when you were finally discharged, your attitude towards him remained the same:

Cold and quiet.

It was like radio silence between you two, with slight static from his end as he’d try to reach with with kind eyes and soft kisses. But like a painting, you remain the same.

When you two got home he quickly helped you inside by grabbing your bicep. And closing the door behind you with a small kick, “Let’s get you out of these clothes.” He says softly, but you wave him off.

“I can do it myself, I’ll take a shower tomorrow.” You argued back, but his grip only got stronger. He arches a brow, you instantly decided to let him help you this once. You nod, and make your way to the bedroom. He grabs you a pair of panties, and a nightgown.

Seeing at it was a more comfortable option, and would make it helpful to change your bandages without having to strip you.

He later sat you on the toilet and ran the hot water of the bath, making sure to add your favorite scented bubble bath soap. You smiled weakly, for the first time at him.

He kneels down in front of you, and pulls your shirt off and pants, his glorious wings touch the tile floor beneath him. He strips the rest of your clothing off and helps you in the bath, washing your body off with its hot water.

He leans down to kiss your forehead, “You okay?” He asks, pouring water over your hair and scrubbing it gently with his fingertips unto your scalp with the shampoo. You don’t answer, but instead grab a handful of bubbles in your hands. Blowing them away, he pours more water over your head; and scrubs your back.

The cuts and gashes burned in the water, but the sensation gave a small calming effect, it was something you could finally feel.

Keigo is mindful of the wounds and only goes over them gently, cleaning off the area like instructed; earning a small hiss from you as you lean forwards in pain.

“I know it hurts kid, but you're gonna have to endure for just a little while longer.”

He continued to clean you off, and suddenly you felt a wave of emotions.

Here it is, the after shock had finally dissipated and here it was, your emotions. “Keigo..” you finally say his name after so long, he stops, “Yes Angel?”

“A-Are they really gone?”

He didn’t know if you were asking about the people or your quirks, but one thing is certain, it was still the same answer. He nodded.

“Yes.” He simply says.

A tear escapes your eye, and then another, till eventually you’re full out bawling in the bathroom tub.

Keigo is smart enough to know that anything he says, or does can not bring you back what was lost. And it killed him, so all he did was simply hold you, your wet hand gripping onto his forearm and sobbed. He knew nothing he could say would help you, so he did the next best thing:

He sat down, and took it. He remained quiet, and did not bring up the situation any longer: even going as far as to shield you away from hero related stuff, and would only take missions at night. Even making sure the TV was never on the news channel.

He’d help you out of the bath and would help put back your clothes on, you cleared your throat when you noticed his eyes wandering on the wound near your gut for too long. You hated how he looked at you like some sort of sick child, you hated the way he’d constantly treat you like a porcelain teacup. He aided with your bandages and helped you towards the bed; still not uttering a single word to each other.

He just wrapped you in the warm sheets and left you with a blanket that smelled like him, remembering the silly arguments you’d two would get in when he cleaned the old thing.

Arguing, “Now you have to sleep with it cause it doesn’t smell like you anymore.” But of course he’d smile back at you and oblige to the order.

Now it has just provided you the small comfort of better times, he tucked you in and handed you the remote. He leans down, wiping the last of your tears with his calloused thumbs and glancing at you with a sad smile.

“I’ll be in the kitchen making dinner, I’ll be up in a few.” He said weakly, before standing up and heading towards the door. But you reached out for his hand, catching it at the last second. The movement made you wince, but you needed to say it.

“I love you, Keigo.”

He deserved to hear it, he needed to hear it after weeks of radio silence.

“I love you too, songbird.”

***

The relationship wasn’t always the healthiest, before losing your quirks the two of you would never raise your voices at one another, and swore to never lay a hand on one another. You two swore at the beginning of the relationship, that if you guys had a problem or if something was bothersome then you’d speak out about it.

But of course, even after being together for three years and seeing each other rise to be the hero’s you were today; the two of you found different sides of one another; sides neither of you knew existed. You never realized how scary and intimidating Hawks could be; you never realized how his eyes could darken and narrow as if a real Hawk would watch its prey. A warning sign as he glared at you from across the room.

And he never realized how cruel you could be, just how your words could cut so deep. People say behind angry voices, lies a little bit of truth behind it. Even when you said you didn’t mean it; he also never realized how quick you were to anger.

Not even a week after you left the hospital, the relationship felt like the two of you were walking on eggshells. Yelling at one another, as you poured the pills down the sink. He grabbed your bruised hand roughly, and turned off the faucet.

It was early in the morning, too early for him to even fight, he thought.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He looks at you sternly, and then at the empty pill bottles you had successfully drained.

You remained quiet, too weak and tired. Lately all you felt was anger, you barely left the bedroom the both of you shared and you’d push away Keigo when he attempted to feed you. Turning your body around to not face him, “I’m not hungry.” You mumbled.

You return back to reality, his sigh of disappointment bringing you back.

“You can’t keep doing this! This I won’t allow, just talk to me? What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours. You won’t talk to me, unless we’re arguing, you won’t eat, you won’t let me touch you. You have to talk to me, I can’t keep playing this game where you ignore your feelings and emotions and just push me to the side. I’m trying to help you-”

You interrupt him with a laugh, his soft eyes turn dark, he hated when you mocked him.

“That’s the problem Keigo. You’re helping is just a reminder of how fucking useless I am. You treat me like I’m glass, I know you do your hero work at night. You don’t have to hide it away from me. We get it, poor little Y/N, right? I never asked for your help.”

His grip on your wrist tightens; he looks down before glancing back up at you.

His gaze on your E/C eyes hardens, “Fine.”

***

He left you for the rest of the day, cooling off from the argument and leaving you too cool off as well. It was the first time he has left in the daylight since you were discharged. You only sat in the living room, wrapped in your blanket watching TV. Segments of heroes speeches came on, and all you could do was stare aimlessly at the silver screen.

The announcement was made public that you won’t be able to come back to the hero scene, explaining all the details of the incident.

The Commission already had you booked with interviews with the press. But how could talk to them when all they’ll do is remind you of your failures as a hero.

Like they didn’t care that you were grieving, that you weren’t the same anymore and here you are being forced to fake a smile and laugh it off as if this job meant nothing to you. Years of training to be perfect, the people you’ve saved, the people you had to kill, the families you reunited; it suddenly meant nothing.

‘I have no reason to be here anymore.’

What was the point of living if you weren’t the same anymore, you have nothing to lose.

***

Keigo came back in the dead of night, his lips pressed into a fine line as he wiped the look of tiredness off his face, he noticed your body laying out on the couch, your hair draped over the pillows; he crouches down in front of you. Noticing an even darker bruise on your wrist, he cringed at the memory of his tight grasp.

He never meant to hurt you.

He came back with the pills you threw away, he realized without your painkillers and antibiotics that your healing process would be even more grueling. And he refused to watch. No matter how much you spit, hit, and cry; you have to take it.

***

He had finally had enough.

Another two weeks passed and here you guys were, again, fighting in the kitchen. His voice rising even louder than yours, and his eyes narrow in warning. Your eyes water, and your voice trembles.

“Just talk to me! Please!” He begs, he pleads.

You stare at him blankly, and try to feel something. But there’s nothing, there’s no feeling anywhere in your body. You pull at the sleeve of your sweatshirt.

“I-I can’t.”

He tilts his head in confusion, “I don’t know how..”

***

“After running multiple tests and asking Y/N Y/L/N an assortment of questions, it appears that you,” The doctor in the room turns to look at your blank face, she looks at you apologetically, “Are showing signs of depression. Now there are treatments, and I’ll prescribe you some medication to help aid her during the healing process. But I do suggest therapy, and just talking more. Surround yourself with positivity.”

Keigo nods and thanks the doctor before she leaves the two of you alone to discuss the options.

He stares at the variety of pamphlets stacked in his hand, sorting through them. “We’re gonna fix this, bird. You just gotta help me help you.” He glances at you hoping for a reaction, but you shrug. “A new pill to add to the loads that I already take.” You say sarcastically, shrugging your shoulders, “Yay me.”

***

The relationship had its ups and down, there were times when you’d let Keigo help you, you’d also apologize for treating him poorly, But he’d just brush you off with a kiss and a simple sentence, “I’m here till the end, angel.”

The little blue pill had seemed to help.

For the first month, that is.

But slowly, oh so painfully slowly, you went back to your old post-accident bitchy no emotion self. Keigo would drop you off at therapy and pick you up to drop you off back home.

But like all good things come to an end, the somewhat normal life you were finally starting to settle into shattered, you were made to go to interviews and you’d come home crying. You were completely gone and empty. You and Kiego stopped having sex (though the last time was the night before you left for your mission), that bothered him the most. Not you not wanting him, it was your urge to be as far away from him as possible, not letting him even touch you.

It hurt the Pro Hero.

Seeing as you no longer wished to even look at him; the love he had held onto slowly dissipated as time went on; like two ghosts living in an apartment full of memories.

***

You looked at yourself in the bathroom mirror, noticing all the deep cuts that once scattered your skin were finally all healing, turning into light scars and the bruises were finally gone. It was as if it never happened, you sigh and turn on the shower. Setting it to the hottest setting.

Keigo was out at work again, and you still haven’t talked to him. It ate away inside of you, it felt like you no longer had control of your body and it’s emotions.

‘Was it the pills?’ You thought, the doctor informed you of the possible side effects and this was definitely one of them. But you couldn’t just stop taking them, the last time you tried to throw them away it ended bad.

You entered the shower and allowed the hot water to fall off your shoulders.

There was something you were depriving him of.

And you knew what it was.

You haven’t touched him. You haven’t talked to him.

The words I love you, haven’t left your mouth in such a long time it felt like you were forcing yourself to feel something that you couldn’t feel.

He stopped trying after a while longer, and would leave before you could wake up and came home when you were asleep. It was now a routine that he had grown accustomed to.

You wash your body with the raging thought that rushed to your brain, ‘maybe if I try.. tonight. I can’t get some sort of feeling.’ You forced.

You rinse off the soap and dry yourself with your towel. Changing into a nightgown and making your way to your bedroom.

You waited for Keigo to come back home.

***

You could hear the shower head turn on and the door close shut behind him. Only briefly seeing his winged silhouette in the dark, you turned to face the door that connected your room to the bathroom. You say up and wait for him to come out, Keigo never took long showers, unless the two of you were showering together.

Which hasn’t happened in awhile.

He came out after a ten minute shower, in loose sweat pants and white tank. His wings falling behind him, dragging against the tile.

He stood at the doorway when he noticed your eyes on him. He cleared his throat and refused to share eye contact with you. He couldn’t look at the shell of the woman he had so desperately fallen in love for, he could feel his heartbeat rattle against his chest.

“Why are you up kid. It’s late.” He finally said, glancing up towards you.

Your body is numbed by his glance, but you ignore it. It was worth a try, you had to see if what you had was still there or if it was long gone by now.

He cocks his head to the right and relaxes his gaze, “What's wrong?”

You remain quiet and only look at him. You point a finger at him, and curl it towards your direction.

“C-Can you come here, please.” You whisper, he nods and slowly walks towards you, his strides are smaller than usual. His look is cautious, when he gets to the edge of the bed you get on your knees and scoot towards him. Wrapping your arms around his neck, and gazing into his eyes. You feel his hands slowly make their way to your hips, giving them a gentle squeeze.

He looks down at the sheets, and then back at you.

“What do you need?” He asks. Eyes almost asking permission to touch you, you push aside the feeling of disgust with yourself.

“You.”

***

Your leg hooked onto his waist loosely as he pumped in and out of you, what you feared was real. It wasn’t the same anymore, it felt like nothing.

The love behind it didn’t even feel like it existed. It just felt like you were having sex to get it over with it.

He groans into your shoulder. Shuddering on top of you, his forearms barricade your sides. Your arm hooks over his back, with each stroke you scrunch your nose staring blanking at the ceiling over you.

“Ouch.” You say quietly.

It hurt more than usual.

You yanked hard on his feathers, causing him to duck his head into your shoulder, “Don’t do that.” He warned.

His pace increased and all you let out were small groans, still yanking at his feathers, your head up in the cloud, ignoring the annoying thoughts that floated in your head.

His thrusts abruptly stop, “What the fuck are you doing?” He asks.

You ignore his question, and let out another groan. Pulling again at his wings, “Okay! Stop, what the fuck are you exactly doing? You don’t wanna have sex?”

You stare blankly at him, and pull him closer with your legs. “S-Stop! No I’m not gonna do this! I’m not gonna do this when you clearly don’t want too.”

Again, you ignore him and try again, this couldn’t be happening. Did you really stop loving Keigo to the point your body was physically rejecting him, refusing to be aroused at the mere simplistic action that had before had you screaming out his name so loud the neighbors could it.

You raise your hips before being met with a stern gaze and hands now pinning you to the bed.

“Y/N stop!” He yelled, “What do you want me to do? Rape you? I’m not doing this. No, I wanna make love to you, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Everything.

Your body finally allows you to look at his dark golden eyes, he was angry. And rightfully so, your body just finished telling him you didn’t love him anymore. And here you were trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal when it was.

You hit him first, your hands slam against his bare chest. “Fuck you.” You spat.

“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you! Why can’t you ever just do something without having to ask so many damn questions huh! I don’t know what’s wrong with me! I was trying to see if I still loved you!” You yelled, he slams your body into the mattress, “So you decided the best idea was to see if I could still fuck you right? Huh? You wanted me to use you even though you’re clearly in pain! Is that how you like it? When I hurt you!” He yelled, his grip on your wrist loosening and letting you go. His feathers bring you back your underwear and nightgown from the floor as his other feather brings back his clothing.

After he quickly puts back his clothes on he turns to face you, “Honestly Y/N, the last thing I’d ever wanna do to you is hurt you. In any way shape or form, I understand you are still grieving but now you’re just being cruel. You want me to be the bad guy so bad don’t you? Fine, your wish is my command.” He glares, picking up the rest of his stuff and leaving for the night.

***

You stopped referring Keigo to his name and started referring to him as Hawks.

Just like he stopped acknowledging your existence at all, you followed in suit. He decided that the two of you should have space; for the sake of your relationship you agreed. Though, it would’ve been easier just to break up.

But you knew it had to be done, your body physically was rejecting Hawks. Your mind was now thinking for its own and you had no control, all the memories somehow mysterious meant nothing to you.

Now all the times the two of you would share a rare shower, have living room dance parties, eat dinner together on the balcony. The talks of the two of you possibly even starting a family before seemingly slipped your mind and the ring he fingered in his pocket still sat in a velvet box hidden from view.

It was all crashing down. It’s been barely four months and now you lost your quirk, your relationship was in shambles, the pills you took seemingly increased the more you talked to your therapist, and now you sat in the living room looking for apartments across the city and far away from him.

Eventually you found a match, it was the perfect size so you decided to place a down payment on it and move as soon as possible. He came back to the apartment before you moved out, he avoided you, but sometimes you’d catch the sense of his eyes wandering over you.

You packed your bags, folded your clothes, and took everything that was yours.

“Look, I just think, if we weren’t in the same place and took time for ourselves we could.. be better.” You said, scratching the back of your neck sheepishly as he eyed you down as if you were prey from the end of the hall. He crosses his arms over his chest, “Do you still love me?” He asked curtly. It was a simple yes or no question, he needed to know, the timer was running out.

You wanted to simply say no, not anymore. Because then that would be the truth, but your body wouldn’t let you say it. You look at the coffee table, and see a picture frame of the two of you, “I-I don’t know Hawks.” Your grip tightens on your suitcases handle.

“Do you still love me?” You ask. Gripping your suitcase even tighter. “I don’t know, either.” He sighs, a sad smile paints his face. His eyes water as he looks down to the tile floor, his hands deep into the pockets of his sweatpants. It was an intimate moment for the two of you, filled with raw emotion. You were given the privilege to see Hawks in such vulnerable moments for the past three years despite his training, when it was about you, he'd drop all the walls he built just for you.

You couldn’t help but wipe a tear yourself, it was a confusing time for you. He glances up at you, glossy eyes sparkling in the light. “I don’t really want to do this.”

You nod, and hold in a choke sob, “This is just as hard for me as it is for you, but we need time apart. We need to be separate for a while and see new people. I-I hate the idea-“

“So why are we doing this!”

You sigh, “Because, we can't even look at each other without raising our voices. I wanted to be able to love you the way you need to be loved, and for three years I did.”

You look down towards your feet, chewing your bottom lip.

“I loved you more than anything, Hawks. But right now. We shouldn’t be together.”

Keigo doesn’t face you, he crosses his arms over his chest. “So that’s it? We’re breaking up?We’re separating.”

“Yes.”

He shrugs as his hand goes to cover his mouth, his lips pressing into a line, he sends feathers to open the front door and help you with your bags. They follow you to the front door and out, Hawks gives you one last look from the doorway, and waves you goodbye.

***

It had been three months since your move to the new apartment, and you saw improvements in your life. You attended therapy and soon dropped all your pills, noticing you didn’t need them anymore since you were physically healed.

After much pleading and much needed talking, you finally were able to slowly get off the antidepressants. Your therapist had made a discovery as to why you may have been having erratic mood changes, the hero commission had still paid your therapy and bills and eventually you were given a job to teach at UA High as a science teacher (due to your incredible skills and hands on learning from your quirk, and besides it came naturally to you), you were also teaching kids how to master their quirks, joining the group of teachers that would teach the next generation of heroes.

Life was starting to get back on track, you even bought a dog. It was out of the spur of the moment, you decided to adopt a little dog and named it Birby after walking by the nearby shelter and seeing him wag his tail in joy, attempting to grab your attention.

Hawks would occasionally pay a visit to you, and catch up. The two of you decided that during the separation it would be best to at least make time to see each other one day out of the week.

He’d stop by every Thursday during your lunch break, he helped you grade papers and even met your dog when he came over to your apartment. Which ended with him playing on the floor with the pup the entire evening.

It was a healthy separation.

“I’m glad you’re doing much better, you’re smiling like you used to.” He said, in between laughs as he cooed at the dog. You stick your tongue out at him and continue to grade papers.

“Oo a smiley face, let me guess the kid got an A?” Hawks guessed, suddenly appearing by your side. You nod and hand him a stack with an answer key and blue and red colored markers.

“Correct you are Hawks, my class rarely fails which means I’m a good teacher.” You applauded yourself, he lets out a laugh.

“Ha! I bet the only reason those kids pay attention is because they got a hot teacher. Hell I’d stay after school if it meant more time.” He joked, adding check marks to the correct answers and grading the papers accordingly, he’d even put a smile on the page like you.

You stay silent, it was like it all hit you at once that you and Hawks were separated. The thought had slipped your mind, it wasn’t like you didn’t appreciate it coming from him, but it was the fact that you guys haven’t spoken about each other like that. He senses the tension and cocks an eyebrow at you, “You're doing it again.”

You scoff, “What do you mean I’m doing it again? What am I doing?”

He points and waves the marker near your face, “The face you make when you're thinking about something really deep.” He says, before going back to grading. You place the pile of graded papers on your coffee table and turn towards him. He catches your gaze before placing his pile beside yours.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

You wave your hands in front of your face defensively as he inches closer to you, “N-No it’s nothing! It’s just-“

He scoffs, “Are you seriously mind fucked because I said you’re hot? Damn, I know we’re in separation and stuff but if I wanna call you hot I’m gonna call you hot.”

You wave your hands even more and slap them on your cheeks, “Hawks!-“

“That’s not my name.”

You roll your eyes, “I don’t say your name anymore because of how personal it is too you-“

“And what? It makes you sound like all the rest, I allowed you to know my name for a reason. I don’t just hand it out to whoever. Again, just because we aren’t together doesn’t mean you can’t call me by my name.” He says, leaning back into your couch. You sigh in defeat, he was right.

“Soooo, Y/N, it’s been awhile since you’ve really talked to me. You haven’t told me much, so how’s the dating life?” He asks.

A frown appears on his face and you mentally facepalm yourself. ‘Way to get to the damn point.’ Keigo would only ever visit on Thursdays, which was part of the reason why he looked forward to Thursday’s. But even after you moved out, you guys remained close seeing as it would be impossible to forget one another and just called the split a separation though it was truly a break up. You never really opened up to him when he came over, during your lunch breaks he’d just help around and listen to your complaints about “How will this even prepare them in life? I don’t even fucking use this!” As you looked over your lesson plans. He’d admire you from afar, and watch you. He cringed each time you called him Hawks, but still carried on with life. You just never really told him about what was going on like you used to.

“Keigo,” you say, earning a smile from the winged hero, “There’s nobody, I don’t really wanna get into another relationship.” You mumble, he shrugs.

“How about you? How’s the dating game?” You ask, crossing your legs. He arches a brow at you and almost laughs, “I don’t got time for another chick, not in my interest surprisingly.” You nod, and squint at him.

“I’m sure you are busy, bird boy.”

A silence falls in between the two of you, creating an almost awkward tension in the air. You clear your throat, hoping he’d say something. But he doesn’t, he just grabs the pile of papers off the coffee table and continues to grade.

“What have you been up to, since you’ve moved here.” He asks, finally looking up to meet your eyes.

“I-I well, I go to therapy twice a week, I finally dropped all my pills, I got a job, I got my dog, that’s really it Keigo.” You said, shrugging your shoulders and giving a content sigh, you looked around your place and crossed your arms.

He nodded and smiled, “You stopped your pills?” He asks excitedly, it was a huge milestone and a big deal to him, and you understood why; the pills drained you and drain who you were as a person. It was just time to finally let them go.

“yup.”

A grin plastered his face. He looked like he was proud, “I’m so happy for you, Y/N.” You thank him, and glance at his eyes. It’s been awhile since you looked at his eyes, which only reminded you of something you’ve been meaning to speak to him about.

“Keigo,” you grab his attention as he arches a brow, “I was wondering, I know this is sudden but I want you to know that at the time I couldn’t be with you because I was scared I didn’t love you anymore, I know we’re still in a tough spot but.. I want to at least try again.”

A silence falls between you two, he smirks after a couple seconds. “You wanna give this relationship thing another try?” He asks, widening his grin. You smile back, “Yes. But I think the only way we’re gonna survive this is with counseling. We can’t just jump back in like when we first started dating.” You say, it was a good option.

There were still things left unsaid, sometimes old rotten memories would come up, it wasn’t going to be easy, and you finally came to terms that if it wasn’t him. Then it wasn’t anybody else.

The best idea was to have a mediator. He agrees with you and you notice his wings twitch slightly, he was happy. And so were you.

***

“Now, before we start our first session I wanna make sure what my chart says is indeed true,” The counselor states, she crosses her legs and pulls at her glasses; adjusting them.

Keigo sits on one side of the couch meanwhile you sit on the other end, your palms are sweating in nervousness.

“Is it true that the two of you are in a state of separation currently? Meaning that you two no longer live together or see one another on a daily basis?”

You both answer, “Yes ma’am.”

“Alright, is it true that the both of you have been in a relationship for three years?”

Again, the both of you nod and answer, “Yes, ma’am” The middle aged woman claps her hands, flipping through her chart. “Alrighty you two, I usually start my counseling with a series of questions of basic getting to know you two, before we can truly get to the root of the problem.” You both nod in understanding, your hands clammy as they rub together.

“Now, Hawks, may you please retell the story of how you two met in the first place.” She smiles pointing at him with a pen. “It usually helps remind the clients why they fell in love in the first place.”

He clears his throat, “Well, I met Y/N when I was twenty years old, she worked for another agency at the time and I first heard of her when I realized she was climbing the hero charts pretty fast. We met at a Heroes Convention and she was wearing a red dress. The whole night I kept looking at her and eventually I introduced myself, a week later we found ourselves on the scene in a villain attack together, and I just asked her on a date. She said no,”

You laugh at the memory, he looked so rejected but instead of taking the no and dropping it, he’d asked every time you met till you finally said yes.

“She said yes after asking her twenty times.”

The counselor nods, opening her mouth to ask another question, “Who said I love you first?” She asks.

You answer this time, “Hawks, we had been dating for a month and he blurted it out when I was in the shower.”

Ah yes, he was ranting about something while you showered when he said, “I hope you know I love you, because if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be sane.” You had peeked your head out slowly pulling back the curtains and stared him down. Stumbling on your words as a warm blush creeped onto your neck.

“Say that again?” You asked him, he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I love you?”

“Yeah, say it again,” you smiled at him. Nodding for him to continue; “I love you.” He said it more confidently, you gave him a peck on the cheek and retreated you head back into the shower; “I love you too, birdbrain.”

It was a beautiful memory that you had forgotten, and now, it came back in a lightning strike. As if talking about it opened a whole cabinet of memories in your mind with him.

You had blamed him and treated him like nothing during that cold turmoil time in the relationship. Who knew the two of you would end up in an office trying to revive it.

Doctor Marie (the counselor) nodded, and proceeded to ask questions of the relationship.

“When did you two notice the relationship was coming to an end, in other words when and why did you guys decide to separate?”

That was a very loaded question.

It struck a nerve in you as you clutch onto the hem of your skirt. The two of you didn't respond nor answers.

Keigo simply said, “After her accident she started to take a boatload of pills but we didn’t know of the side effects. Not to mention she lost her quirk and Y/N really did cherish her quirk, that with also losing lives,” he mutter yet continued when you nodded for him to keep going. “It was a boat load of things, but I genuinely think for me we separated because we couldn’t handle it anymore. Every time I’d try to help her, or talk to her it just ended up in a screaming match. I loved her so much, but it’s hard to love somebody and be happy when the person doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

He turns to face you, nodding that it was your turn.

You sigh, “Well for me.. I was jealous of Hawks.” You say, it was true it was a feeling you hated. You felt like a stupid schoolgirl when that feeling over powered you, it was the first time you admitted it. “I was jealous because he still had his quirk, he still had everything. And every time he helped me it felt like he was treating me like a fragile porcelain doll he found from a vintage store. He’d look at me like a wandering puppy, and then on top of that it was like my head was just clouded with nothing. I started taking so many pills for pain, depression, sleep, you name it. Pretty irresponsible on my part, but I let it take over me to the point my body was just physically rejecting him. All I wanted to do was just leave and not have to face him anymore. And it hurt. Hawks was my first everything, we always talked. But now, or may I say then, it felt like he wouldn’t understand.” You confess.

Doctor Marie nods and takes notes on her small pad, “Interesting, when you say your body felt like it was physically rejecting Hawks what do you mean by that?” She asks.

You shrug sinking deeper into the couch, “I didn’t wanna see him, feel him, smell him.. touch him.” Your voice trailed off, it made your stomach churn.

“How’s that make you feel Hawks?”

Again, very loaded question.

Keigo shook his head, racking up his thoughts before he spoke, “I-I felt shitty, like I was doing something wrong. I use to go to work and think I was missing a step, it wasn’t the fact that she didn’t wanna touch me that bothered me, I understand at that time sex can’t fix everything. But when the person who shared everything with you just doesn’t even want your presents around them anymore - it hurts. It made me feel like she didn’t love me anymore. There was a time I didn’t even love her, I couldn’t look at Y/N in the same light.”

Your heart broke as you stared at the mahogany desk in front of you. The whole session was filled with more questions, some going ever deeper till eventually it was over.The sessions were two times a week, and it got easier for the two. Slowly their relationship fell back in place, but the house they shared once felt different.

The first time you stepped back into Keigo’s apartment you had to stop yourself. Looking back at the kitchen sink where most of your fights occurred, you dropped your bag off at the door.The place was filled with good and bad memories. But it was the bad memories that infested the place, eating away at the beautiful ones. And reminding the two of you why you hated each other.The both of you agreed on moving after couples therapy ended.

***

You hug your old hero costume tightly to your chest, the fabric nuzzled up into your neck as your racked sobs fill the nearly empty bedroom of your apartment. Birby nuzzled at your feet whining.

“Songbird are you - babe are you okay?” Keigo rushed to your side, and held you close. Noticing your costume in your quivering arms, as you started to slowly calm down he reaches for the costume with a concerning look, quietly asking for you to hand it over to him. You push the fabric lightly into his hands and wipe away your tears. “If it makes you feel better we can put it in a nice box full of other things, you can always look back at it. Or if it’s too much we can-“ you interrupt him and give him a reassuring smile. Your hand clutching onto his, rubbing small circles around his knuckles. “Throw it away. I had to come to terms that it’s over, I’m not crying because of my hero days being over. I’m just mourning the people I couldn’t save. That’s all babe.” You give him a peck on the cheek and a gentle squeeze on his hand.

A box full of those memories would simply just be a painful reminder, besides, being a hero was in the past for you. Now, you were entrusted with teaching the new generation of heroes.

You feel his strong arms tighten around you.

***

Time passed and the two of you eventually moved in all of your belongings and furniture from the old apartment.

Now laying breathlessly beside one another underneath the cool bed sheets covered with sweat, slick and cum. This was the first time in a longtime, the two of you made love to one another. Breaking in the headboard against the wall, you wince at his touch.

“Keigo..”

“Our neighbors are gonna hate us in the morning.” He chuckles, a small smile grazing your lips. You allow his finger to trace circles over your shoulder blades, allowing them to wander over the small bruises that littered the base of your neck. “They probably already know your real name..” You giggle, pecking his lips. “That's bad.. because then I’d have to kill them.” He reminds you of the strict rules he must follow, but he was mainly joking. He made sure to find a place with soundproof walls.

“Well, I’m sure you're right..” You feel his fingers run down to the curve of your thighs, stopping in between your legs. “Fuck..” You moan into his shoulder, “Fuck, songbird. I wanna hear you sing that song even louder. So wet for me, still so tight.” He growls into your ear.

It had been so long since the two had any sort of intimacy, you apologized deeply to him.

“I’m never gonna leave you again, Kid. It’s always going to be you.”

***

Months passed and your relationship was now at its best, you smiled as he eagerly kissed your cheek.

“Whoa birdbrain! What’s the hype.” You giggled as he lips peppered down our face, he only smiled and showed off his back. Pointing his thumbs at the now small wings, you gasped. “Kei! What the fuck happened!?” You exclaimed, he brushes you off and picks you by the thighs. “No time, don’t worry about it. No wings means shower sex!” He cheers, rushing towards the nearest bathroom. You sigh, throwing your arms around his shoulders.

“Why can’t we just have a peaceful shower instead.”

He stops and gently places you down on the bathroom counter, stepping back from between your legs and reaching down to the hem of his shirt, pulling the black and yellow fabric off. He looks like he is thinking when he smiles and kisses your forehead, “Tomorrow?”

Holding out a pinky for shower sex, you smile back at him, wrapping your pinky around his. “I promise tomorrow.” You begin to strip off your clothes for the day, watching as he turns on the shower head, tapping at the modes and setting the temperature to hot.

Later on as you feel his hands run through the roots of your hair you feel the sense of calmness, smiling and humming at his actions. You start to feel a tickle in your nose, “Babe. I’m gonna sneeze..” You warn, who knew a sneeze would be so... deadly that day.

In a matter of seconds the electricity in the apartment complex went out, and the water short circuited. Keigo stood behind you, dazed at the sudden shock.

“Babe! I’m so sorry!” You apologized, tugging at his puffed hair. He laughed in shock, before stuttering out the words, “Y-your q-q-quirk.. paid a-a v-visit.” You gave a weak laugh, wrapping a towel around him and you as well.

“Guess it did.”

***

You made a doctor's appointment for the next day and was told indeed your quirk came back, that the possible medication had something to do with it’s delay. But you were also given extra news; you were expecting.

You smiled down at your tummy awaiting for Keigo to come back from his agency, though he was out of commission still didn’t mean he didn’t have work. He came back through the door with a smile, “So songbird, what’d they say.”

He pecks your cheek pulling off his jacket and gloves, “Well they said that the lab results do say that it’s positive that my quirk came back, it also says that it decided to probably show up now because I off all those medications and don’t have much stress anymore from after the accident. They themselves don;t know exactly how, initially the reports stated that there were no signs of my quirk. So I must be lucky!”

“Well that’s great! That means you can come back and kick some ass again!” He cheers walking towards the kitchen, though he still wasn’t keen on the idea of just throwing you out to the public again. Because you worked at his agency before he’d probably have you doing small work. He couldn’t lose his songbird again.

You shook your head though, “Actually, I think I might just fully retire from all hero work. And stick to teaching, besides the doctor says it wouldn’t be good for the baby.” You grin, hoping he’d catch your drift.

He stopped dead in his tracks, processing your words. And slowly turning back to face you, a huge grin plastered on his face.

“It wouldn’t be good for the baby. You’re pregnant?”

You nod, “Three weeks along. Besides, I love my job teaching, I just love my kids.”

He runs out to you and engulfs you in a large hug, you feel tears start to stain your shirt. Your hand caressing his soft hair, running your fingers through his locks to calm him, “I thought I lost you.” His words tremble, you smile softly. “Never.”

BONUS:

Five years later…

“Alright kids! Have a good weekend, I’ll see you all tomorrow!” Y/N exclaimed, waving goodbye to her students for the weekend. She pulls out her chair from behind her desk, finishing up her work, when she hears the click of her door opening. The person behind it seemed to be having trouble opening the door, cocking a brow and tilting her head to the right, she smiles.

“You need help?”

She grins when small feathers appear, and a small five year old boy waddles in. A bouquet of flowers covering his face, as he makes his way towards his mom.

“No mommy, I got it! We got you flowers!”

You gasp, “Oh baby! Thank you, what are you doing here? I thought you were still at school?” She gathers the flowers out of his small hands and admires the boy, he was a blessing. With his father's quirk, and hair, even his eyes. He was a carbon copy of your husband (That’s right the two got married after the birth of their son) and oh how much you loved the two of them.

“Daddy picked me up early because I had a tummy ache, and then he gave me medicine when we got home and now I feel better! So we decided to get you flowers and visit you!” He grins, sipping from his red sippy cup in his hand. Drinking away at the juice his father poured for him, Y/N grins, “Well where’s daddy now?”

At that exact moment, in appeared her husband. Opening the door to her classroom once more and placing a small kiss to her forehead. “Hey bird.” He grins picking up his kid and balancing him on his hip, “We missed mommy so we came to see you.” He pouts, earning a giggle from the boy.

“I missed my boys too.”

“Mommy! Daddy even taught me how to fly, he dropped me off the balcony and at first I was falling-”

Keigo’s eyes bugged nearly out of his head, placing his gloved hand over his son's mouth. Muffling his words, “Well! Would you look at that! It’s time for us to leave, sorry we gotta cut this short-”

“YOU THREW MY SON OFF A SEVENTY FOOT BALCONY BY HIMSELF!?”

“He was fine!”

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