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messedupfan · 3 years ago

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Should've Told You (Leigh Shaw x Reader) Chapter 13

Summary: Leigh and Y/n have split up. Jules tries to get them back together but it might be too late. Someone has already started to move on.

A/N: Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Only one chapter left.

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You flop onto your current bed, exhausted from the long day of working when the phone rings. You groan loudly, annoyed that you can’t relax for five seconds without something disrupting your peace. “Hello?” You mutter grumpily into the device.

“We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty,” Jules snickers into the receiver giving away her identity.

“Jules, do you have any idea what time it is for me?” You complain in a childish and whiny tone. “Or the kind of insane and exhausting schedule I have? You better have a good reason for this.”

“I have news.”

Your insides twist at the line. She used those exact words to tell you the terrible news about a month or so after you had left for work. “If you ruin my night by telling me they got engaged or worse, I will hurt you.”

“They broke up!” You sit up with a new wave of energy and request for more details. “I don’t know the whole story. Uh they argued and now there’s a hole in a wall at the house and she doesn’t seem upset about it being over. Honestly, I don’t think she liked him all that much.”

“How’d the hole get in the wall?”

“He put his fist through it and then she took him to the hospital. Oh! Did you know that Matt almost left her for another woman? How crazy is that?”

“Crazy,” you say, a little distracted. “Danny wasn’t trying to…”

“No! It wasn’t like that. She said she was already halfway up the stairs when it happened. The hole is right by the front door by the way.” Jules explains and you regain the ability to breathe. “Anyway, the important thing here is that Leigh is single and she misses you. So book the next flight and propose to her,” she half jokes.

You tiredly fall on your side, “Goodnight Jules.” She tries to stop you from hanging up the phone but you do it anyway as you fall asleep. It has been a couple months since you last spoke to Leigh. You reached out to check on her after reading her makeup review that was posted shortly after the fall out. She admitted to having a breakdown, she was late on her deadline so she recorded herself while sitting on the floor of a high school bathroom. Leigh didn’t mean for it to actually be published. You asked her if she needed you to come back and she said yes but that you weren’t allowed to return. Not until you were ready. You didn’t argue. Then she wasn’t answering calls or texts and eventually Jules told you that Leigh was a mess and ignoring everyone. A couple weeks after that Jules calls to tell you that Leigh was seeing Danny. It was a punch in the gut. It didn’t occur to you that when she let you go, she broke up with you. Part of you thought that she did, but you didn’t want it to be right.

Now her mom was in Alaska, you were in the UK, and Jules was planning a trip to Vietnam. Soon enough she was going to be all alone and as much as that thought killed you, there wasn’t anything you could do about it. You weren’t ready to go back and even if you were, there’s no way the director and producers will let you leave. There was very little time off because of how much traveling that is being done. Of course, there were exceptions but you didn’t have children and no one in your family is terminally ill or dead. At least not recently. It was going to be very difficult for you to leave. Besides, you haven’t forgiven her yet for not directly telling you that the two of you were broken up. Why should you go running back and begging her to take you back? She should be flying to you, pleading her case. She should be the one on her knees asking for forgiveness and for you to take her back. It was that kind of petty and childish thinking that made you realize it was better that neither of you contacted the other for a while.

~~~~

“Our mom is back from her trip and apparently wants to sell the house and Leigh is freaking out and wants to take a page out of your book and run off somewhere for a bit. She is either joining me on my trip or she could meet up with you if you tell me where you are and I can convince her to go there instead.” Jules rushes out as soon as you answer the phone.

“Thank you for the update but it will be better for both of you if she went to Vietnam.” The woman you spent the night with struts out of your room only wearing the shirt you met her in. It was one that Leigh had gifted you once but you don’t let your mind dwell on the real reason why you want the girl out of the shirt. Instead you let the much more fun and dirtier thoughts take over. Your sole focus is to undress her and lose yourself in the lustful haze. Ridding yourself of the painful reminder of Leigh, if only for a moment or two. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Have a safe trip, and text me when you land so that I know you’re both still alive.” Jules is reluctant to hang up the phone because she wanted to keep fighting for a relationship that you weren’t even sure was ever going to work out. “If she misses me so much then she can call me herself. So please spare yourself the burden of trying to make your sister happy and let it go. She clearly did. Bye,” you hang up the phone just as Isabella falls into your lap. She grabs your face and aggressively kisses you. There was nothing romantic about what you were doing with her. She was well aware of that and treated you as such.

~~~~

Throughout the rest of filming, among many other unhealthy habits, you stalk Leigh’s and Jules’ social media accounts. Leigh did end up joining Jules on her trip to Vietnam. There was a week of sightseeing posts and then there was two weeks of nothing. Followed by a new article about the importance of self discovery from Leigh and a new daily posts series from Jules. It became part of your routine and every day you hoped to see or read something mentioning her sister. No matter how hard you tried to forget and move on, you couldn’t.

About a month before the movie was set to wrap Leigh made a post about flying back home. It wasn’t anything special, just an image of her view from the plane with the caption “Thank you, Vietnam,” and a bunch of nonsense emojis. You were sitting in a decent hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia, sipping a glass of wine, decompressing from the day, when you scrolled on it. You knew that she wouldn’t have posted that unless she was already at home. She wasn’t the type to post along the way. For all you knew, she’d been home for a week or so. The only way to know, however, was to talk with her. That was when you decided it was time to call her. Surprisingly, she answered on the first ring.

It started with soft greetings and a long awkward pause that you had to break because it didn’t seem like she was going to. “So…” you drag out not knowing where to start. “You and Danny dated for about five seconds. How did that go?”

“Lots and lots of sex and arguing.” You take a sharp breath at the thought of them being with each other and clench your jaw. It stung in a few ways, jealousy and betrayal to name a couple. “I’m sorry that I did that to you. There’s no excuse for it.”

“Can I know what you were thinking?” You ask calmly.

The line goes dead and you check your screen to make sure she hasn't hung up. A goofy picture of her and the Lollipop caller ID was still there. “I wasn’t sure where we stood and I was feeling lonely and rejected. Then all of the sudden, he was just there and it seemed like things would be easy. I don’t know why I thought that. Things with Danny have always been complicated. But I realized that we were just trying to get back at you and Matt. Speaking of which, I think Matt cheated on me with one of his co-workers. She told me that nothing happened. That he was the only person that saw her for her or whatever. But they had a connection, they felt something more for each other, that has to count. Right?” Leigh rushes a sloppy explanation but it was dripping with guilt and regret so you choose not to give her a hard time for it.

“Yeah, I think it counts. But if that counts, what were we doing to Matt?” It gets quiet again, this time with a strained silence. It wasn’t right for either of you to be angry with Matt for his mistakes when the pair of you have made plenty. It wasn’t right to judge him. Except, you’ve known about this for much longer. This anger is newer for her, well it’s been several months since she found out but it took you two years to get over it. So you can understand why she is still upset. You hoped that you could help her get over it much sooner than you did. She didn’t need to be carrying that around for much longer.

“I saw that you got around. A lot.” Because of how hurt and angry you were, you made sure that photos were taken of you with as many girls as possible. Most of the time they were girls taking a selfie next to your sleeping body and posting them on their profiles and tagging you. Some of them were paparazzi photos because you let them know exactly where you were. Your publicist wasn’t happy about it and pressed you to open up about what was going on with you but you refused to talk about it. Now, you were embarrassed by the way you acted and there was no erasing the evidence.

“Uh huh, that’s what happens when a person gets their heart broken and doesn’t know how to properly deal with it. They drown their sorrows in booze and sex and try to move on.” You chuckle softly to show that you weren’t upset.

“Were you successful?”

The corner of your mouth lifts up, “You really think I would be able to accomplish in a few months something that I failed to do for over fifteen years?”

“I don’t know, anything is possible.” At this your fears begin to creep in. This time, however, you chose to ignore them and continue talking to her instead of living in your head where a false image of her with someone else lives.

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Successfully move on?”

Once again she goes quiet and you brace yourself for her to say yes. The anxiety rises through your chest and the images only get worse as you wait. Your mind was preparing your heart to hear that Leigh, the love of your life, was seeing someone else and they were happy and everything was amazing between them. “No, but I wasn’t trying to. I don’t want to and I’m sorry that I made you feel like you had to.”

Relief floods through you as you take another sip of your wine. “You are forgiven. I just have to kick this chick out of my bed and then you and I can totally start over.” She laughs at your joke and your heart reacts accordingly to the sound. “Seriously, though. I do forgive you.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“Too bad, I already did.”

“I love you,” her tone is soft and you close your eyes to bask in the memory of her telling you those words months ago in bed wrapped in her arms.

“I love you too,” the words come out easier than you thought they would. This time, a comfortable silence settles in. It was much like those moments throughout the many years of your friendship when nothing had to be said. There was only you and her side by side and that was enough. You finish your glass before she speaks up again.

“Did you doze off?” You snort as you tell her that you didn’t. “It got so quiet. I almost did,” you can hear her smile and warmth fills you. It could have been from the alcohol but you chose to believe it was just the effect that she had on you. “Where do we stand? Do you think that there is still a chance for us?” That seemed to be the million dollar question.

Jules had texted you every so often wondering if there was a chance you would try with her sister again. For a while there, the answer was hell no. That was the residual anger from her fling with Danny. Then one afternoon, when you had a three day vacation, you woke up on the floor of a bathroom, in a place you didn’t know, with a fresh lollipop tattoo you didn’t remember getting living on your wrist. You still don’t remember. But it felt like a sign that you needed to cut back on the drinking and random hookups and let go of all of the anger that was eating you. Then you had to work through all of the guilt because letting that eat the other parts of you was just as bad as the anger. Through these last couple of months you have done just that. Of course, it wasn’t some miracle, there were a few things that will take some more time. You’ll still take that time because the best thing you can do for anyone is constantly improve yourself. But you didn’t need to do it alone anymore. You have never been this at peace with yourself and with life. Now you felt free and relaxed and as you stared at the lollipop tattoo, you smiled and gave her your answer.

“Do you want to move in with me?”

“Are you serious?”

“I am, and before you–”

“Yes!” Leigh cuts you off as she practically shouts her answer. Maybe she did, it was over the phone so it was hard to tell. “Yes, I think we should move in together. That sounds like a great idea.”

“Yeah, I can have someone clear out that guest room and then you can move right in. I really think being roommates will be fun.”

“Oh,” she says with disappointment. “I thought–”

“I was kidding, but with how sad you got it’s no longer funny.”

“Dammit! Don’t do that! It really killed the whole thing!”

You chuckle at her admonishing tone. “I apologize, love. I don’t know why I thought it would be funny to mess with you like that. I am serious about us living together. Although, it won’t be for another month or so… Has your mom sold the house yet? Amber was supposed to keep me updated with that but she’s on maternity leave. She adopted the most adorable toddler with her partner. They took time off of work to bond with him.”

“I didn’t realize Amber was the one helping my mom sell my childhood home,” Leigh says in a cold tone.

“Come on, you can’t still hate her. She helped us get the building for Beautiful Beast at a fair price so that there was enough money to start the renovations in the budget. Not to mention I’m yours, I’ve always been yours. So your hostility towards her is pointless.” You defend your friend because she made it clear to you that she wanted to be part of your life again. The two of you were better off friends anyway.

Leigh’s entire mood seems to have shifted again. “Can you say that again please?”

You thought about playing with her a little but decide against it. “I am all yours, Leigh Shaw, I have always been yours.” You stand up from the sofa and walk over to the window to gaze at the sun as it sets. The display of the various colors painted across the sky was mesmerizing. If she were here with you, you might’ve proposed. But she wasn’t and as romantic as it sounded to do it over the phone, it wasn’t the right time. She asks you to repeat it one more time and you happily do so.

“Okay, I won’t be a bitch about or to her anymore. You have my word.” You thank her and ask if she has any word on her mom’s progress. “Oh, right. She hasn’t sold it yet but there’s an open house like twice a month. It’s irritating. Why?”

“I just wanted to be sure that you’re not stuck with a lease and that you have a place to live until I can come home and help you move in.”

“If it comes down to it, I’ll be fine moving in while you’re still gone.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I want to be there for the whole experience. This will be my first time cohabitating with someone. Not to mention the conversation we have to have with our families to explain the entire situation.”

“So we’re telling people this time?” There was an energy of excitement from her that passed onto you as you confirmed your intentions. “Wow, okay. So, we’re really doing it this time.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I’m definitely more ready for it this time. We’ve been apart for almost a year now. I’ve learned, I’ve grown, I’ve found myself again, and I don’t want to be separated from you for that long ever again. You’re stuck with me forever from here on.”

“I wish I could kiss you right now.” She agrees and the phone call switches to a video chat. The two of you catch up, sharing stories of the adventures the both of you had been on without each other. You, of course, leave out the nights you spent with other women, but you show her the tattoo and come up with a cuter story that she knows isn’t the real one but she doesn’t press for the truth, she’s sure you have your reasons. She tells you that she loves it but that she isn’t getting a tattoo for you. You make a joke about her getting her ears pierced instead and wearing gumdrop earrings. She crinkles her nose at the idea and shakes her head. You let it go.

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Every night after that, you come home, collapse on the bed and thirty minutes later, Leigh calls you. With only a three hour difference, she was calling you between seven and nine her time. Which was between ten and midnight for you. It was more reasonable for her but it was worth it to lose a couple of hours of sleep to talk. Really talk this time. The way you guys chatted it was as if the past few years hadn’t happened and your friendship resumed from where it left off. Except this time it was with a lot more pet names and declarations of love. Then came the amazing day when the movie wrapped and you were walking through the airport searching for your ride.

When you spot her she hasn’t found you yet but you take off running. It’s difficult because you have to drag your luggage with you. As you run towards her like some lunatic she hears you before she sees you and as soon as she does, Leigh sprints towards you to meet you halfway. You trap her in your arms and kiss her as soon as she is close enough. The world gets blocked out as she kisses back and holds on just as tight. Tears of joy and relief fall from your eyes once the kiss ends, foreheads touching, and the two of you are holding each other in the middle of the crowded airport. “I have a surprise,” Leigh whispers, her breath tickling your lips.

“Dammit, I just wanted to hold you forever and ever.” You sigh against her. “Why must you always torture me like this?”

She giggles, “I’m sorry, love. I promise, it’s worth it.”

“Okay then. Let’s go,” you release her and she helps you with your things. Thankfully, the people that recognized you allowed you to have the moment before they tried to come up to you for autographs and pictures. Pictures, damnit! Suddenly your eyes widen and your heart dips. Pictures equals phones. Phones mean videos and social media. It probably wasn’t the smartest choice to have her pick you up instead of your usual service of bodyguards to get you past the paparazzi but you needed to see her. This couldn’t have waited any longer. You didn’t warn your publicist that you planned to have Leigh grab you from the airport. Or that you were dating Leigh. Or what you intended to do the second that you saw her. Not to mention, the news was going to hit your family faster than you would be able to get them.“We need to run, Leigh.” Without question she lets you guide her through the crowding people and paparazzi until you reach her car. It takes forever to leave the airport but it’s such a relief once you do. “I don’t think I should ever turn my phone back on,” you let out a hollow laugh as you rub your hands on your thighs to work through the anxiety. That part of the job never got easy. It was fun when it was at an event but at the airport, it was this entire other level of terrifying.

Leigh reaches for you again with a trembling hand and you begin to apologize to her but she tells you that it’s fine. After seeing you work so hard at your career for so many years, she didn’t want to complain about something that you already struggled with. You pick the playlist she uses to calm down and she thanks you softly. Throughout the drive, Leigh receives multiple phone calls that you immediately hit the ignore button on. You were too scared to answer any of them. Then messages appeared on her dashboard, from your mom, demanding that she get you to turn your phone on. “We are in so much trouble. I wish we had thought of that before I planned a whole surprise welcome home party at your house.”

“Shit! They’re all at my house?” You cover your face and clutch your hair as the stress tightens your shoulders. “Okay, this will be okay. We were going to tell them anyway. So this is better because this time we can’t chicken out,” you reason more to convince yourself than her that everything will be fine.

Leigh nods her head beside you, “Exactly, and it’s not like they’re going to be mad at us for being together. Just upset that we kept it a secret from them. We’ll throw Jules under the bus if we have to.”

“Oh! I like that plan. Wait, Jules is back?”

“Yeah, she flew in last week. I thought I told you,” Leigh tries to recall the conversation as you shake your head no. “I guess I must’ve forgotten. I’ve been so busy with everything. My articles going viral, the move, the plans for my book which I’m still not sure I should even be writing, helping my mom get rid of and pack things, setting up this party that I no longer want to attend… Gosh, it must’ve slipped my mind, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, she could have told me herself. We talked last week and she didn’t say a word about being back,” you shrug. “Thank you, for planning a surprise party for me, love. That was very thoughtful of you, even though I screwed it up with our cheesy romcom reunion,” you lift the back of her hand to your lips and place several light kisses along her knuckles. She smiles at you for a few seconds before returning her attention to the road. The traffic was lighter than usual but it was still a lot of traffic and by the time you get home, the sun is lower than it was when you arrived at the airport. It was hopefully plenty of time for the people to either calm down or leave.

The two of you lace your fingers together tightly as you brace yourselves to enter your home. “Here goes nothing,” Leigh mutters as you open the door. She flips the light switch on and everyone, instead of yelling out surprise, yells out congratulations. Your little brother and Evie pop confetti cannons and Jules tugs on a string that drops a welcome banner from the ceiling. Your mom and stepfather are there, so is Amy. You’re not surprised to see that neither Sabrina nor Richard could make it. When you got updated about that whole situation you could not believe Amy and Richard did that to Sabrina. Drew and Ryan are also there along with a few other friends that have joined the group over the years. You’re a little surprised to see Frankie, especially after how upset she was after Leigh’s birthday party last year but it also made you happy that they patched things up. All of the friends were making a lot of ruckus with the blowout noisemakers and you wanted to cover your ears but you didn’t want to drop Leighs’ hand.

You and Leigh stand there, speechless from their excitement. This wasn’t what you expected, but you also didn’t know what to expect. Your cheeks warm up when they chant for the two of you to kiss. It was such an annoying request. Leigh looks at you with a shrug and you nod before pulling her in for a sloppy and exaggerated kiss for the cheering audience. The second you pull away you turn to everyone and finally tell them the truth. “I am in love with this woman. I have always been in love with this woman. Turns out she feels the same way and she’s moving in this weekend. No further questions please. Someone put some music on and let’s enjoy ourselves!” They cheer once again before everyone disperses.

Once the party was over and everyone had gone home you were feeling sentimental and put on a slow song. Leigh was already getting a head start on cleaning because the place was a mess but you come up behind her and take the trash bag out of her hand, stepping away to place it off to the side. You roll your hand out and wait for her to accept the invitation. A slow smile grows on her face as she does and you twirl her under your arm so that her back rests against your chest and her arms cross over hers as both of her hands grip yours. Leigh turns her head to the side in order to gaze into your eyes as you sway the two of you side to side at the tempo of the melody. Nothing in the world compared to the way it felt when she looked at you with so much happiness and love. This time there wasn’t a layer of guilt hiding in her eyes, this time she was free to feel everything that she wanted. When she goes in to give you a kiss, you push her away and spin her again to have her entire body facing you.

You release her hand and place the free one on her lower back as you pull her against you again. She places her hand on your shoulder and leans her cheek against yours while closing her eyes to savour the moment. You shut yours as well and hummed along with the song until it ended. Leigh joined in on the humming and once it was over you pulled back just enough to see her pretty face again and smiled softly. “This is our happily ever after,” you declare before passionately kissing her.

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“Oh shoot, my shoe is untied.” You snap your head in her direction as soon as you hear the complaint. Your heart begins to race as your hands clam up and get shaky. It’s now or never, you think with a gulp. “Babe? Can you…?” Leigh sticks her foot out in front of her and you check the time on your smart watch. Damnit! Of course, she was early, you panic as you try to figure out how to stall. It’s not like she was a mind reader and was supposed to just know that she wasn’t allowed to ask that until close to midnight. Then again, it’s not as if you could script a surprise for her, make her read it, and still expect her to be surprised.

Leigh tugs on your sleeve and asks if you’re okay, pointing out that you look a little pale and suggests returning to the hotel to rest. You shake your head, “We did not come out to New York City to spend New Years Eve in a hotel room–”

“Technically, you’re here for work but go on,” Leigh interrupts. You only had a short break before you had to start working on another project that unfortunately had you in the east coast. Luckily, you have the holiday off and as soon as you found out that you would, you asked Leigh if she wanted to spend it with you in the Big Apple. Of course, she said yes.

“Right, but you’re here on vacation. And we’re not spending it in the room. I’m fine, let’s just… I’ll tie your shoe.” You pull her off to the side so not to be in the way of everyone else on the crowded sidewalk. Maybe this should wait until next year. We’ve only been living together for a couple of months. This might be too soon. No! No more waiting. As you drop to one knee and rest her untied shoe on the standing knee, you carefully pull the ring out of your pocket. This is so stupid, you repeat over and over in your head as you tie her laces with the ring included. “O-Okay. How uh, how does it l-look?” You ask nervously.

She gives you another weird look. “Are you sure that you’re okay? I’m perfectly fine with watching the ball drop from the comfort of our warm hotel room.”

“I’m fine, would you just please…” you gesture to her foot that was still on your thigh. Not understanding she tells you that it’s fine and not tight at all. “No, look at the shoe. Does it look okay?”

“Since when have you been worried about the appearance of my shoelaces? I’m sure it looks fine. No one will notice anyway.” Leigh removes her foot which only increases the anxiety.

You sigh, this was probably the dumbest way to propose anyway. “Give me your foot back. I did it all wrong.” Without question she returns her shoe to your thigh and you quickly remove the ring from the laces and retie them. You stand up and swiftly pocket the ring.

“They look fine, I don’t know what you were fussing about.” You deflate and do your best to not be upset with her. It wasn’t her fault that she ruined the surprise.

“Oh sure, now you look,” you retort sarcastically.

Leigh giggles at your annoyance, “Come on grumpy. Let’s get some food into ya.” She pulls you along so that you’re not late for the reservations. But your appetite has wavered because of the failed marriage proposal attempt. Now was not the time for food, you were too nervous. During the walk you decide to let the frustration go, there was still time to propose and many other cheesy ways to do it. You perk up again, getting chatty and making your new mood fairly obvious. Leigh is well aware of what was causing your mood swings and has to bite back a smile because she knew what she was doing.

Earlier when you were in the shower she accidentally knocked your bag off of the chair and the first thing that rolled out was the small red velvet box. Her heart almost burst from excitement but her mind was annoyed that you had the same idea. She quickly returned everything to the spot you left them and went over to her things to grab the ring she had gotten for you. Game on, she thought to herself as she put it in her interior coat pocket. She had to deliver the ring and quickly left the room to do it. Leigh knew you well enough to know that you were going to try something cheesy and romantic so when you stuck your hand in your pocket when you didn’t think she was looking, she knew she had to annoy you into taking back the proposal. This was something that Leigh wanted to do. You were always showing that you chose her in some way, shape, or form. Now it was her turn to show that she chooses you.

It wasn’t going to be easy because when you were determined to do something you got frustrated when you couldn’t. Which would mean that you would be in a sour mood. Before leaving the hotel, Leigh made sure to call and tell the restaurant ahead of time to not allow you to request that you hide the ring in something. They thought it was an odd request but when she explained to them that she was trying to be the one to propose they decided to follow along. The girl on the phone was nosy and wanted to know what she planned to do and because she wanted them to cooperate she made something up to appease her. It worked like a charm. So when you rejoin her at the table with a frown after excusing yourself to the restroom, she couldn’t help but poke fun at you. “Did things not go as planned in there?”

“What?” You ask as you jump out of your disappointed thoughts. “Oh, yeah, I mean… no? I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay. Hey,” she reaches for your hand across the table. “Is everything alright? You seem a little… distracted.”

“Yeah… yeah… yeah, I’m fine. Just got something on my mind. It’s nothing to worry about though.” You nod as you speak and try to remind yourself to stay present. If you lived in your head for too long you were going to ruin this proposal completely. That was not allowed to happen. “Everything is fine.” You squeeze her hand and smile, “It’s been a long year, I’m just… reflecting. This time last year I was not in a good place and now I’m here. On a sort of vacation with you. Out in the open, as a couple. We live together. We’re happy… you are happy, right? I’m not just speaking for myself?”

Leigh beams at you, “Of course I’m happy. I haven’t been happier.”

“Thank goodness,” you finally feel relaxed for the moment. “My point is, things have gotten so much better and they’re only going to continue getting better. My future is with you, Lollipop.” As you talk, you start thinking that maybe you should just propose now. A certain look crosses over your eyes that warns Leigh and she quickly changes the subject.

“This place smells amazing. Do you know what you’re going to order because I am stumped. Everything sounds so good.” She lets go of your hand and lifts the menu to hide behind. The disappointment on your face was making it difficult for her to follow through with her plan.

Leigh ends up having to check her phone throughout the meal and normally you would’ve asked what was going on but you are grateful for the moments of distraction. The meal was decent enough, nothing special, though you couldn’t really focus on anything else besides the proposal. This had to be perfect. You only had one shot to make a story that you’ll share with your future kids one day. It was a lot of pressure.

After, the two of you stroll around the area before going over to the big celebration. Times Square was chaotic with the amount of people excited about watching the concerts and the ball drop. There was confetti everywhere, most people were in ridiculous party gear, and the energy all around was high. Actually being surrounded by this many people made you see that any plan you had before just wasn’t going to work out. Especially if you wanted to keep the engagement private for as long as possible. So, you relieve yourself of the pressure you were putting onto yourself and enjoy the event with Leigh.

Unfortunately, one of the producers spotted you and asked that you would be in the frame for the midnight kisses. You were reluctant at first but Leigh agreed to it for the both of you. Just as it always does when you kiss her, the rest of the world disappeared and it didn’t matter that you didn’t get to propose. She wasn’t going anywhere. You are hers and she is yours.

It was around two in the morning when you and Leigh returned to the hotel room. You were exhausted from the emotional roller coaster that you put yourself through and of course because of the big party, all you wanted to do was crash on the bed with Leigh. However, when you walked in there was a trail of roses that led from the door to the bedroom. This wasn’t anything you came up with. “What is this?” You asked with a yawn.

Leigh shrugs as she yawns, “It’s a surprise.” She guides you to the closed bedroom door, “Go on, love.” You smile at her tiredly and open the door. The lighting was low due to the fake candles that were laid out through the room. The trail continued all the way to the bed that was covered with more rose petals in the shape of a heart. In the middle of the heart was an open box with a ring. Leigh took both of your hands and got down on one knee in front of you. “Y/n Y/m/n Y/l/n, I could sit here and tell you all of the reasons I love you and all of the reasons I want to spend the rest of my life with you but I think we can both agree that I don’t have to. And it's pretty late and we’re both tired. Besides, you already know how much I love you and why. So I’m not going to declare my love in some grand speech. Instead, I’m just going to ask you the question I’ve been keeping you from asking me all day.” You scoff through your happy tears which makes Leigh laugh. “I’m sorry, babe, but you can be predictable sometimes and I already had all of this planned out. It was not easy either, but I’ll tell you all about it another day.”

She clears her throat and wipes her eyes with the back of her wrists, attempting to blink away the oncoming tears, straightens up, and locks her eyes with yours. “Will you marry me?” Finally hearing the words makes you drop to the floor and wrap your arms around her. You say yes and seal the acceptance with a kiss. “I love you so much,” she says against your lips. You repeat the words to her and pull out her ring from your pocket to place on her finger. She grabs your ring from the middle of the bed and puts it on your finger and through all of the tears and kisses the two of you manage to collapse on the rose petal covered bed in each other's arms.

In the morning you wake up to see the ring on your finger and smile. Seeing hers right beside you only made your smile grow wider and the excitement built up painfully in your chest. You wake Leigh up by kissing the palm of her hand and she first responds by kissing your cheek. “I can’t believe you want to marry me. I thought thirty was too young to settle for me,” you crack a joke as you recall the conversation the two of you had many years ago.

Leigh shakes her head at the mention of the old pact that she was so incredibly happy to make at the time. “Obviously I was trying not to appear too excited. I’m pretty sure when we made that deal I was thinking that you should’ve just drove me to Vegas and married me right then and there.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? I would have done it!”

“No you wouldn’t have!”

“Okay, you’re right, maybe I wouldn’t have,” you agree. “How long do we want to keep this to ourselves?” You say as you rub her engagement ring.

“Not long, I had to recruit Jules and Y/lb/n to help me with all of this. I’m sure they’re going to want to have lunch or dinner with us to find out.” She explains as she lays her hand on your cheek and plays with your hair. You run your fingers with a feather-like touch along her forearm. “When do you want to get married?”

“Today,” you respond, half serious.

“And have your mom want me dead? I don’t think so.”

“That’s right, my mom,” you had completely forgotten that you had to consider her when it came to this. “Oh yeah, she would definitely try to kill you. Hell, she’d try to kill me too.”

“I know. One of the first things she said to me after finding out about our whole situation was that keeping our relationship private was fine but if we ran off and got married, that would be the last thing we ever do. Come to think of it, we should probably start thinking about a strict budget so that she doesn’t rob us blind.” The two of you share a laugh, your mom really loved weddings. She was always daydreaming about weddings for you and your brothers. Anytime any of you had a decent relationship with someone that lasted longer than a couple of months she was already planning a wedding. It wasn’t even that she wanted her children to be married, she just wanted to throw a big party. You tried to convince her to become a wedding planner but for some reason she chose to be a miserable receptionist instead.

“How about in two months?”

“Oh that won’t be enough time for her.”

“Damn you’re right... I just thought because that’s when I can come back home and I’m off for a month before my schedule is crazy with reshoots...” You sigh with a frown because you would much rather be married to Leigh as soon as possible instead of having some big wedding. “We’ll look through the calendar and figure it out. But that can wait. I just want to be with you right now and celebrate. We can stress about everything else later. How does that sound?”

Leigh smiles and brushes her nose against yours, “I like that plan.”

Chapter 14

Taglist: @imskyefallen-blog @wandavisionmoot @elenaguarnieri @mionemymind @wwheresmymindd @madamevirgo @cristin-rjd @simplethoughts07 @dizzy4lizzie @awkwardmandalorian @lezzzzbehonest @royalityofmultifandom @chillin-like-a-villain @ilovemiddleagedwomen @cantcontroltheirfear @zairaaaa @when-wolves-howl @olsensnpm @franfineashell @aniyaaaaa1 @iliketozoneout @liver-casserole @evenbeingcrazy1998 @kiwiana145 @womenlovingwomen-imagines @resilientpendragon @trikruismybitch @imapotatao @lostandsearching @diaryoflife @yeetus-thyself @raqelacevedo @abimess @lavi-27 @idiotegirl @7thavenger

#should've told you #leigh shaw imagine #leigh shaw #fanfiction #leigh shaw x reader #leigh shaw x y/n #sorry for your loss #leigh shaw x you #sorry for your loss imagine #messedupfan

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poohwhin · 2 years ago

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𝐌𝐲 (𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬) 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐕𝐨𝐥. 𝟒 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬

I’m putting them under the cut not only because they might be long but also so those who don’t care abt this can scroll. SKSK. (and also because I’ll be using images)

also if you wanna see my “real time” reactions i have a thought dump post.

anyways i’m not a theorist or someone smart enough to analyse anything i just have a lotta thoughts.

To start, I really enjoy the inclusion of the creation story from the bible— and how it confirms that Gabriel’s been here from the START. Man honestly said “if you want something done, hit it at the source.” And ofc we have the signature forbidden fruit event, and Eve becoming painfully aware of “the man in the sky.” Tbh I just love any edition with Gabriel because he’s literally the root of everyone’s problems so I want more of him.

I also really love the background that we get for Thatcher, and the BPS crew. Thatcher’s life after Ruth’s death, the melancholy and SADNESS he’s feeling— all the while alternates are invading his home as well as impersonating him. As for the BPS crew, i love how they were just a couple of high school kids who formed a club, yet were not prepared for the actual demons adam was exposing them to. (and come to find out that Adam may be an alternate himself? or SOME OTHER ENTITY? ever since the age of 4?? man)

let me spin back to thatcher real quick because his letter to ruth had me SOBBING. and CRYING. he was so scared, and that got her killed. and even his alternate is taunting him (with his face i might add) like “alive or dead you serve no purpose.” god.

Adam’s memorial video for Jonah was so goofy but also the edited in(?) scenes were pretty inch resting. I’m intrigued about the drawing of the preacher?? the messenger?? im a fake fan i barely know these alternate names. but i wanna know who drew that and what they wrote beside it. Also Adam my sweet boy adding “rate 5 stars and subscribe” was FOUL.

Anyways on to my most jarring experience from this video because I am. FLOORED. Face studio. Face Studio 2. Where the hell is the first one, and how the hell did alternates learn to code.

they’re sitting at their little desktops kicking their feet and twirling their stolen hair as pick which face mask to put on.

but then it transitions to footage of lynn’s home with an alternates face speaking on screen. and if i heard everything correctly, it was like:

“a thriving society of followers of the true saviour. his entangled (?) limbs danced around my bedroom. i held my breath. and waited for it to stop. i was too scared.”

but it glitched out after that, plus i could barely make anything out. anyways i think this is cryptic is cool.

then the moment that everyone and their MOTHER was talking about is dave’s encounter with gabriel 🫶this entity literally SPLIT THE HEAVEN’S AND DAVE’S MENTAL STABILITY IN HALF. (rip dave. i’ll box alex logan paul style and avenge you /j )

he just wants to talk about his car’s extended warranty <3

i hate the fact that this mf is stanley. why couldnt stanley have just been a silly little rubber band man. nah but i love how, even though the previous images were just a photoshop choice alex made for scare factor; i love the thought that his face looks different each time you see him being a result of his “contorted flesh and broken bones.” but please somebody get this man a friend so he stops stealing people’s children.

also his conversation with Adam really has me thinking more than i’d like to admit. and has me wondering if adam is already an alternate, and if he is: how long has he been one? it’d be interesting if a drastic change like that was happening to the children the intruder abducts (unless its an adam specific thing). but then his images being shown at the end make me question that. SKSKS.

i dont even KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THIS. HGGGGGGG. and adam’s photos presumably to be uploaded onto Face Studio being shown right afterwards? man.

an already cataclysmic situation is about to become an intergalactic problem 🫶

also;

remembrance. the action of remembering something. the action of remembering the dead, especially in a ceremony. a memory or recollection.

correspondence. a close similarity, connection, or equivalence. communication by exchanging letters with

malignance. the quality of being malign. (evil in nature or effect; malevolent.)

these three words appeared in pretty distinct spots so i think thats cool. i love alex’s usages of SAT words SKSKSSK

ANYWAYS. THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS. i really enjoyed Vol. 4, and was glad to get some more information on the world Alex’s creating <3 (as well as the buildup to the climax?) anyways ty for coming to my rambling. 🫶

#; poo talk #; tmc rant #mandela catalogue

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makeste · 4 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 294: A Half-Assed Escape

Previously on BnHA: Mirio was all “SURPRISE I’M BACK THANKS TO OUR RESIDENT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WHO RECENTLY EARNED HER BACHELOR’S OF BEING A TOTAL BADASS.” Kacchan was all, “you know what, Dabi’s been trending long enough, time to remind the fandom what a real G looks like,” and he blasted his little bleeding body back into the fray and was all “FROM HERE ON OUT CALL ME DYNAMIGHT!!” Mirio was all, “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, you’re serious,” and Kacchan was all “!!”, and so that’s the story of how my son got murdered twice in one day. Meanwhile in the Todoroki Drama Zone, Deku was all “STOP MURDERING MY FRIEND” and Dabi was all “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” and fandom had a whole big debate about Whether Or Not Dabi Trying To Murder Deku’s Friends And Mentors Is Any Of Deku’s Business, which went exactly how you think it went. Anyway, so then Deku yelled at Dabi, and Endeavor was all moved by his manly words and randomly went to go uppercut Machia in the chin. And, seeing as how the Momoserum finally chose that exact moment to kick in, Machia is now down for the count.

Today on BnHA: The Miriosquad handles the Nearly High End Noumus, freeing up Jeanist to jasphyxiate (okay that one doesn’t really work so well) the rest of the League. Compress is all “TIME FOR THIS MILD-MANNERED SIDE CHARACTER VILLAIN TO SHINE”, except that by “shine” what he actually means is “use his quirk to punch a literal hole right through his own ass to free himself.” The rest of the chapter is basically just a back and forth between him and Jeanist, with Jeanist trying to recapture him, and Compress repeatedly thwarting him by chopping more holes out of himself because HE’S FRESH OUT OF FUCKS, AND THE ONES AT THE STORE ARE ALL SOLD OUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. Anyway, so with Compress basically dying and all, Horikoshi is all “you know what that means”, and delivers a freshly-baked villain flashback revealing that Compress is a descendant of Harima Ouji, a.k.a. the Peerless Thief, a.k.a. some famous guy whom Gentle mentioned this one time for like two seconds back in the day. The chapter ends with Compress finally demasking himself and dumping Tomura back onto the ground, a.k.a. The Worst Possible Place For Tomura To Be. ( •﹏•)

WHY IS CRUST HERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

-- OH WAIT, SHIT. OH

AIZAWAAAA you’re alive and receiving medical help thank GOD. HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HAVE. AND MIRKO!! HOW MANY LIMBS DO YOU HAVE, OMG

so is this Aizawa dreaming about Crust’s final moments, then?? jesus. with All Due Respect to Crust’s memory, does Aizawa not already have enough misplaced guilt on his conscience as it is?? “nope, we’re gonna keep piling it on. that’s all he is now. three limbs, an indeterminate number of eyes, sexy hair, and Guilt” well shit

motherfucker y’all really out here placing an oxygen mask on Gran Torino’s corpse. fucking shounen characters. each one comes with a lifetime warranty

DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THESE CLOSE-UPS OF HAWKS’S UNCONSCIOUS FACE ALL WHUMPED OUT AND EXHAUSTED. HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS ARE WE GOING TO GET. ARE YOU PLANNING ON KILLING ME WITH THE UPCOMING CONVALESCENCE ARC, BECAUSE IF SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME AHEAD OF TIME SO I CAN MAKE A WILL

for a moment I considered going back and checking my previous recaps to count how many times I’ve already made a joke about Dabi’s fire incinerating Hawks’s wings but not touching so much as a hair on his five o’clock shadow, so that I could calculate whether or not I could possibly get away with making that same joke one more time. but then I realized I could just do it in this kind of roundabout way I’m doing right now instead. so there you have it

FFFFFFFMT LADY AND MIDNIGHT NOOOOO

PLEASE BE ALIVE. PLEASE RESPECT THE SIGN ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THE ONE THAT SAYS “NO LADY CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO DIE”, WITH THE FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM “AT LEAST NOT UNTIL HORIKOSHI GIVES US LIKE TWENTY-SIX MORE OF THEM FIRST IF THAT’S THE WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY IT.” IT’S A GOOD SIGN, PLEASE RESPECT ITS WISHES!!

so anyway though, Jeanist is giving a speech about how god knows how many people all worked together to bring Machia down. and now RHA is getting in on those fabric puns too, I see. “A SINGLE STRAND MAY BE THIN BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A STRONG ROPE” oh so you think you guys are funny eh? I’m a frayed knot

MEANWHILE EXCUSE ME BUT WHY ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING BLOOD, HOLY SHIT

fffffff. so much for him taking over as the Number One once all this is over. so let’s just recap real quick, because Horikoshi has long since made it clear that one of his plot goals for this arc is to wipe out every single member of the Billboard Top Ten. so how we doin?

Endeavor - was just figuratively eviscerated in front of the entire nation by his homicidal zombiepunk son. also burnt half to death and possibly down a lung. will almost certainly be forced to retire after this one way or the other

Hawks - lying prettily in a medical tent. wings status: gone. hair status: still perfect

Jeanist - WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS FINE BUT APPARENTLY HE’S OUT HERE DYING, JESUS CHRIST

Edgeshot - MIA, last seen fighting Re-Destro. I really want him to have kicked RD’s ass because fuck that guy, but realistically they probably fought to a draw at best

Mirko - alive but in critical condition and missing something like 1.5 limbs

Crust - dead, currently haunting Aizawa’s traumatized dreams. now he’s gonna be triggered the rest of his life by people giving him the thumbs up, THANKS A LOT

Kamui Woods - was set on fire which is His Weakness. thoughts and prayers

Wash - last seen floating hospital patients to safety as Tomura’s wave of decay descended towards him. probably dead ffff

Old Man Samurai - haven’t seen this fucker in a hot minute, who even knows where he’s wandered off to

Ryuukyuu - currently being treated for her wounds, looked pretty bad off. but it’s hard to tell how hurt she is since most of the injuries were acquired in her transformed state. SHE BETTER GET WELL SOON

anyways, so yeah. so much for the top ten. guess that’s another reason Horikoshi brought Mirio back now, huh

so there’s a big panel of everyone fighting the Noumu while Machia lies there all “blurgh.” good riddance my dude. it took like twenty chapters and a hundred people to stop this guy so I really fucking hope he stays down. you’ve had your fun

anyway so Jeanist is sending another steel thread towards Dabi! and he’s all “just a bit more!!” fklklj this is gonna go real well isn’t it

meanwhile Mirio’s fighting a Nearly High End with all of these weird rock formations jutting out of its skin. go on and kick his ass then, Mirio

“each of these guys is probably just as strong as the Noumu from Kyuushuu” hold on I thought Ujiko or Tomura or someone said that wasn’t the case? not that Mirio would know I suppose. anyways let’s just hope he’s wrong cuz if not these kids are probably screwed

kLSDKFHLSKHGLKLK OH MY GODDDD

IIDA FUCKING TENYA YOU’RE A PEACH. THINKS THE NAME IS OUTRAGEOUS, CHECK. USES IT ANYWAY, CHECK. “JUST BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE SUPPORTIVE.” WHAT A CLASS ACT

AND KACCHAN IS RESPONDING WITH AS MUCH DIGNITY AS HE CAN MUSTER

WOW, SON. IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO, OR SOMETHING!! although listen up, real talk, the fact that Kacchan of all people can’t muster the energy to yell at someone questioning his ability to kick ass is HIGHKEY troubling and we may be in need of an intervention here soon :/

now Jeanist is finally turning his attention to the League! was... was it not already on the League. omg

ACTUAL SCREAMING AHHHHHH FUCK FUCKLK LK AHHLKHKFFFF

hey so um. what the actual fucked up hell. my soul left my body. imagine if you saw the reflection of this panel on your bedroom window. you would never sleep again

OKAY RHA TRANSLATORS ARE YOU HAVING YOURSELF A LAUGH AGAIN

THIS CANNOT BE WHAT HE’S ACTUALLY SAYING RIGHT. BUT IT’S RIGHT IN THAT UNCANNY VALLEY OF NOT BEING QUITE SURE, THOUGH... (　ﾟдﾟ)

(ETA: just a next-day clarification here, apparently my sleep-deprived ADHD word-skipping brain completely skipped right over the “a” in that last panel, so what I read was, “and Shigaraki’s limp noodle.” so yeah, the moral of this story is always read the speech bubble carefully before you start making running jokes throughout the rest of your post, folks.)

oh wow he’s really freaking out lmao

to be fair though, I’d argue that Dabi has gotten pre-tty close at this point :’) thrilled for him, really I am

but anyway, well then figure something out you big dramatic robot-armed fiend. didn’t you just say you could touch your own ass? can you not just Compress yourself to break free?? does it not work on you? or would you be stuck afterwards lol

(ETA: I was picturing him compressing his entire body at once, not just chunks of it. ghhhlkh.)

holy shit Jeanist. are you stupidly trying to cut off their air, or are you going for more of a sleeper hold (jleeper hold??) thing instead. the latter would be way smarter and faster and probably safer as well just saying

but unless Spinner is just being super dramatic, it sure looks like he’s fucking strangling them djslkjlk. this will certainly cement his popularity among the villain stans. good thing you’re not running for office any time soon bud

anyway so I have no idea what these guys are trying to do now. what is this

do you even have till the count of 5 at this rate. I mean

OH MY GOODNESS

HE’S REALLY FUCKING DOING IT!! HE’S COMPRESSING HIS BUTT!! OMFG. TOMURA HIDE YOUR NOODLE!!!

WHAT THE FUCK

DID YOU COMPRESS A PIECE OF YOUR OWN ASS. FUCKING WHAT. PUT THIS MAN’S PICTURE IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE WORD “LOYALTY”, HOLY CRAP

HOLY SHIT COMPRESS

“HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH HIS OWN ASS IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS VILLAIN PALS. FUCK IT, HE DESERVES TO ESCAPE”

jeez, talk about... A HALF-ASSED ESCAPE ATTEMPT :D :D :D hahaha. but real talk though, Horikoshi has clearly never tried to leap twelve feet straight up in the air multiple times in succession with only half his glutes though. everyone, I regret to inform you that this panel right here on the left may be slightly unrealistic

also where the hell is he going to go?? did you pack a jetpack away in one of those little marbles sir. and what about Dabi?? and Skeptic too, I guess, but we don’t really care about Skeptic

(ETA: at this point I had to stop reading for about two hours because I had to go out and take care of something; that’s also why this is being posted later than usual lol. anyways so where were we.)

oh my lord

the existence of a translator’s note here implies that the earlier line about Compress being able to reach Tomura’s junk was not, in fact, ad-libbed. hmm. hmmmmmmmm

anyway so now he’s grabbing Compress again because OF COURSE HE IS, so now we’re right back to square one! except now Tomura and Spinner are secured inside of little marbles, and presumably Compress is the only one who can release them

oh nevermind he’s just maiming himself again instead, SHEESH

Skeptic a man is dying please have some goddamn respect

so, uh. is he gonna die, though??

I really can’t tell wtf is going on here, this is the most confusing the art has been in a while. Horikoshi put all of his spoons into that creepyass close-up panel earlier, that bastard

OMG WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS

DON’T FUCKING TELL ME THE “COMPRESS IS RELATED TO THIS THIEF GUY FROM OLDEN TIMES” THEORY IS ACTUALLY TRUE WHAAAAAAT. OH SHIT

so apparently Harima was a Robin Hood type guy who stole from... heroes?? wtf. are heroes the 1% in this scenario. y’all didn’t have any Fortune 500 CEOs to steal from?

THAT’S THE BLOOD THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOU, OH SHIT. and in a related oh shit, the fact that we are getting a Compress flashback now of all times doesn’t bode super well for him. ffff

MEANWHILE THE TODOROKIS ARE STILL TODOROKI-ING

listen here boy if you touch one freaking hair on Shouto’s candy cane head I swear to god --

WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY!!!

SHOUTO NOOOOOO. WTF YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONE GUY WHOSE WEAKNESS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIRE. DABI YOU SHIT, YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF!! I’M PRINTING OUT A COPY OF THAT COMPRESS PANEL!!! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THAT BEDROOM WINDOW YOU PUNK!!!

SO NOW POOR SHOUTO IS UNCONSCIOUS AND FALLING!! SOMEONE SAVE HIM!! WHO CATCHES THE CATCHER

COMPRESS LITERALLY HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS HAPPENING

PLEASE DON’T CALL TOMURA LEADER OF THE “PLF” YOU KNOW I CAN’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU DO THAT. ARE YOU DYING. ARE YOU JUST A FUCKING HEAD NOW WTF

(ETA: “masks are removable, makeste” you know what it’s been a long day okay lmao. or I suppose Compress is really the one who is lmao.)

GASPPPPPP

okay. okay. looooool okay then

WHY WERE YOU COVERING THIS SEXY MOP OF HAIR UNDER THAT HOOD YOU TOOL. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SO GOOD WITH THE TOP HAT. I’M SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW

as if it wasn’t enough for him to demask himself, he also had to get all shirtless and then do this weird attempt at a sexypose too huh

hard to say exactly how much of his torso is currently missing, but safe to say that’s proooooooobably not good. :///// fuck

on the other hand, Kacchan also has a torso hole and he’s still flying around like he just drank a dozen red bulls, so

this man lost his ass and he’s still out here monologuing like it’s the last two minutes of The Prestige. one might say he is monologuing his ass off

so he let Spinner and Tomura free, but is Dabi still trapped in his marble?? wasn’t he all on fire and stuff?? hopefully he can still turn off his quirk in there because if not that’s a pretty fucked up way to die. somewhere out there Snatch’s ghost is all “YEAH I’LL SAY.” oh how the turntables

last but not least, sooooooo. Tomura. back on the ground. that’s. um. ...shiiiiiiiit

#bnha 294 #mr. compress #...and actually that's pretty much it lol #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #sorry this is up later than usual (and mostly unedited as well)#just one of those days

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vagrantblvrd · 4 years ago

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Okay, so I can’t stop thinking about the AU where Jaskier somehow ends up working in a Geek Squad-esque department and has to deal with these witchers who bring in mangled/otherwise destroyed phones and the whatnot AU?

Like, the witchers aren’t completely technologically impaired right because the thing about living through who knows how many innovations and whatnot over the years but they really don’t make stuff the way they used to.

(Jaskier maybe sit through a semi-rant on the subject a time or two while processing whatnot for the witchers who have brought him yet another mangled bit of tech orth a fair bit of money and did he know they used to make them of sturdier stuff???)

Anyway.

Geralt is Geralt, all hm’s and hm’s and usually :( although there have been moments of >:( and an especially rare :| which is the closest to the teeny tiny smile Jaskier gets on a good day or when he says something that amuses Geralt enough to visibly show it. (An actual :) is something to be treasured for days afterward and gets Jaskier gentle ribbing from his co-workers because his relationship with the witchers and Geralt in particular is high entertainment for them, but yes.)

Lambert is a delightful asshole who came in all >:(((((((((( after Geralt mentioned there was a new face in the Geek Squad-esque group, one who got him a new phone in spite of the most recently mangled one being out of warranty and suchlike. Didn’t even ask why it smelled of swamp water and may or may not have had bits of swamp...gunk in its insides and anyway.

Jaskier clearly made an impression on Geralt and he’s like but why, though, and comes in intending to be That Customer - and indeed is through the entire ordeal.

Makes Jaskier go over the fine print in the warranty and whatnot when he brings in some horribly mangled bit of shiny tech - a tablet or some such that clearly cannot be saved and is just barely under warranty. A day later and he’d be out of luck, right?

And while it’s covered by the warranty it’s also just old enough the store doesn’t carry it anymore - been discontinued or whatever - which should be fine, right? Jaskier can set Lambert up with the newest model or other equivalent and everything should be fine, but no, no.

Lambert gets this glint in his eye and is like, oh, I’m not going to make things that easy for you, buddy, and goes off on this...whatever about how he liked the version he had - doesn’t want or need the added features on the new one even though they actually are pretty nice, just because he can.

And of course he came in on one of the days Jaskier’s usual supervisor is off and the one who’s had it out for Jaskier since day one is working. Positive Jaskier has done nothing to deserve being moved from overnight stocker to Geek Squad-esque team member and looking for the smallest reason to get him fired. (Or at least kicked back to overnight stocker and then fired for some other reason no one can call them on.)

This supervisor who is hovering, just waiting for Jaskier’s Retail Voice and whatnot to slip so they can pounce and Lambert might not know the details about it all, but it’s pretty damn obvious the supervisor doesn’t like Jaskier.

So he’s like, “Okay, but...” whenever Jaskier brings up a new avenue of convincing the asshole to just say he’ll take the new tablet and gtfo already, pls you asshole, pleasant smile on his face and gritting his teeth the whole time.

Just as the supervisor has had enough of watching Jaskier dealing with this stubborn customer and clearly failing to meet their needs, Lambert is like “Well, I really did like my old tablet, but I suppose this one you’ve been trying to sell me on for nearly half an hour will be adequate, probably,” like Jaskier’s got him at gunpoint or something.

Jaskier is like oh, excellent, sir, what a wonderful choice sir, you are totally my favorite customer sir!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD while also being like >:(((((((((((((((((( to Lamert’s clear amusement and whatnot.

After the deal is done and the bastard’s on his way out, Jaskier is like !!! when he sees Lambert stop in front of the assole!supervisor sure he’s going to complain about Jaskier. To his surprise though, Lambert’s just, all “Oh, he was so helpful! Answered all my questions!” and so on and both Jaskier and the asshole!supervisor are taken aback because that was not what they were expecting?

And then Lambert’s like “I only want to deal with him when I come in here,” to which Jaskier is ah, okay because he gets Lambert’s game now, and the supervisor is just okay, well, I have no control over that unless you come in on days he’s working, but you can bet I’mm make sure it happens if you do, haha.

Which more or less seals Jaskier’s fate on that angle, and absolutely what Lambert intended, and anyway, asshole.

Later on, after they’ve had enough such encounters that Lambert isn’t suspicious of this oddly helpful person at the store where they buy most of their consumer electronics he’s like, >:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD when he comes in nd Jaskier’s like >:(((((((((((((((((((( if you really wanted to help me out here with the asshole!supervisor you’d buy an extended warranty or whatever and Lambert rolls his eyes and scoffs because those are scams and he’s not an idiot, and anyway, he knows Jaskier doesn’ really want to shank him out back behind the store with a rusty knife the way he threatened one time because Lambert is a delight, okay, an utter delight.

Jaskier side-eyes him so hard for that and is like, oh????? So then Lambert won’t mind meeting him out back on his break? Asking for a friend, you know, no other reason. Strangely, Lambert does not.

(Mostly because of that time Geralt fondly told the others about Jaskier shanking a monster out back by the store’s loading dock when Geralt was a little bit bleeding out and in a bad spot and anyway, yeah, no, thanks, Lambert wasn’t born yesterday okay.)

But you know who is an actual delight that Jaskier loves to see come into the store?

Aside from Geralt???

Eskel.

The man is sweet and polite and holds actual conversations (not a slight against Geralt by any means, it’s just. Sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone at work who isn’t a coworker or a horrible customer and so on) and otherwise doesn’t give Jaskier headaches.

(Though there was the one night after closing and rare time when the store would be clsoed the next day for a holiday or whatever so no night crew coming in. Jaskier was trying to get his car to start when Eskel showed up all bloody and half-dead and Jaskier was closest. Also his phone was broken and no way to contact Geralt or anyone else and how was Jaskier at first aid, asking for a friend and all.)

Anyway.

Jaskier’s favorite encounter with Eskel at work is when he calls Jaskier asking if he can help with a tech issue. Mangled laptop and files he wants to get off the harddrive you know, but ~sensitive file that have to do with the witchers and their work.

They all pretend Jaskier knows absolutely nothing about any of it, even though he’s patched all of them up at some point or they’ve saved his life from some monster or other and there really shouldn’t be any pretense about it all?

AND YET.

It’s one of those days where work is slow and the other Geek Squad-esque people are out on house calls and won’t be back for a few hours or called out sick or whatever.

And this, okay, this is something Jaskier convinced one of them to teach him or he taught himself through Google and YouTube and anyway, he can do the file transfer magic stuff for Eskel, no problem.

Tells him as such and to come by before anyone gets back from the calls so he can handle it himself without anyone looking on and all, so he does, right?

Jaskier lets Eskel in the back room with him while he works, and they have a nice little chat and catch up on what’s new in their lives and all that.

Jaskier is like oh, ew, gross because some of the files he salvages for Eskel are photo documentations of past hunts - for science!!1! - but also ooh, what was that hunt like???

(Accidentally clicks on some or some other reason for him seeing what the files are or just file names and anyway, shhhh, let me have this.)

Because curiosity and also songs and Geralt enjoys being difficult on purpose and Jaskier’s never sure how much Lambert tells him is complete bullshit, and anyway. Eskel’s the nice one. Usually.

Also, though, also.

There are so many photos of Geralt and Lambert, Vesemir and Ciri and certain sorceresses and suchlike, and it’s adorable and sweet and wholly expected?

BUT.

To Jaskier’s forever joy and delight there are at least two entire album’s worth of freaking goat pictures.

(Well, okay, goat and horse and whatever other animals these withcers have in their lives and so on.)

It’s adorable as hell and Jaskier makes these little squeaky noises of pure awww at the sight of them, okay, because Lil Bleater and whatever little terrors Eskel has known and clearly adores.

He’s like staring straight ahead and all everything’s fine and normal and whatnot while Jaskier is like omg and she’s so cute and omg Eskel, omg.)

Withcers may not be able to blush or whatever, but you can sure as hell bet he would have been blushing up a damned storm if he could and Jaskier also knows that and is just.

Charmed, okay, he is utterly charmed by this big soft dork and swears he won’t tell anyone even though the people who matter obviously know as well, and anyway, anyway, he gets this soft little smile for it and his heart is like oh, oh no, because Jaskier’s kind of gone on these idiot witchers okay.

(After the discovery of the goat pictures Eskel starts sending new ones to Jaskier who always gets that look people get when presented with adorable pictures of animals and this warm squishy feeling because oh, oh no, indeed and anyway, yes, because idk what pairings/ships i even want this to be anymore but just soft feelings all over the place even with Lambert, the bastard. XD)

#witcher nonsense #technically not a fic #vagrant fic #jaskier's adventures in retail au #long post #¯\_(ツ)_/¯#the witcher #pairings? ships? idk anymore friends pick your own i guess???#geralt x jaskier #eskel x jaskier #mayyybe lambert x jaskier #all of the above???#idk anymore #all jaskier knows is everyone thinks he's the wither whisperer #and he's like lolol omg no #they're all assholes #of varying degrees on different days #eskel's the least assholish one #usually #and lambert's an asshole all day every day #but yeah no #he's fully lost control of his life #and they're to blame for it #he has no idea what to expect when vesesmir comes in #but all he does is take one look at this poor bastard who has to deal with his idiot kids #and is like #would you like to know how to keep them from running roughshod over you?#to which jaskier is like dear god yes #so jaskier has running appointment for brunch with vesemir and other assorted asshole wranglers every weekend #it's lovely

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mari-vargas · 3 years ago

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Ok so I’m sitting waiting for my car to get an oil change (yes…the alert popped up Monday afternoon…just a day after my whole tire adventure), and since I just told this story yet again recently (to my tow truck driver on Sunday) I figured I’d share one of my “when it rains it pours” stories about my car. This is the story I mentioned in the teaser/reminder post, about my car transmission.

So I was headed home from university for winter break one year, and I had my two cats and a friend from high school that wound up eventually following me to university. Wow I just realized how much I’d love to tell the story about this friend of mine, but it’s a whole thing in and of itself so I’ll get into that another time…maybe soon so I’ll make a bit more sense…idk it’ll be fine I’m sure.

Anyways, we lived about an eight and a half hour drive away from our university. We were about an hour and a half to two hours in to our drive, in an area looking just like any other on the main stretch of the journey and I had no clue where precisely I was. All of a sudden, my car started making a weird noise. I’m not even sure I can describe it, but I absolutely will still recognize it to this day and am terrified of hearing it. When my tire was about to blow out it started making a similar noise and it’s only because it was missing the next few things to happen that I didn’t freak out as bad as the first time my battery died. ANYWAYS after it started making a sort of…clunking sound, it started revving (which I will be perfectly honest, happens sometimes with my car especially going at higher speeds with resistance like air or a slight incline or a slight decline), but the next two things were especially weird. The needle on my rpm meter started hard swinging back and forth like a pendulum on a grandfather clock even though I was keeping a steady pressure on my accelerator…and then my acceleration started rapidly declining.

I was in the far left lane of a three lane section of the freeway, and I was rapidly decelerating without any idea why or any ability to get myself to go faster. Also couldn’t find my hazard lights because it wasn’t in the same place as the car I had learned in. Anyways…somehow, miraculously, and with an awful lot of anger on other drivers parts (mostly towards the end because I was freaking out and didn’t just stop) I managed to get all the way over before the next exit, exited, waited at a light to turn left like an absolute dummy, and very very slowly made it into the parking lot of some sort of mall or shopping center thing. Where I then parked, and proceeded to freak the heck out. My friend was freaking out too and honestly I think I had more knowledge about what to do than he did, which considering the near white out panic I was in for at least a moment there is kinda saying something. I didn’t know what was wrong with my car. I tried to compare it to things I’d seen happen and just…didn’t know. My gas was full, the battery seemed to be working, tires all fine of course (don’t even remember if I’d even thought about tires at the time). All I knew was that my car had stopped accelerating at all. Maybe there was something wrong with my accelerator? I just didn’t know. It was out of my depth for what I knew how to deal with.

I started messaging everyone—texting because autocorrect could carry me through the worst of my hands shaking, fingers slipping, and eyes blurring which were all getting in the way of my ability to call anybody. I remember talking a lot with my sister, and a bit with my dad, probably even my mom at some point (who would’ve had a significantly leveler head and some more info than my dad). My sister meanwhile was talking and relaying information back and forth with my niece’s dad who was a mechanic at several points before and during the time we knew him (honestly don’t know if he currently was or wasn’t at that exact time but knowledge and skill like his doesn’t just go away). But whatever I’m amongst all that my sister was also the first to remind me about the AAA our grandma has gotten for all of her grandkids as soon as they start driving (yes, same grandma I travel with all the time. Makes sense, no? Always glad she’s able to do that for the five us).

So I call AAA and my friend is on the phone talking with his mom. My dad, knowing I could get a tow up to 100mi, sends me the address for a steak house exactly 100mi from the shopping center I was in (and had a decent sized parking lot for trucks). Tow truck pulls up, finds out I actually really am aiming for the full 100mi, calls his boss to get clearance for the long distance tow rather than the in town tow he was told he was cleared for because he didn’t want to pass us off to someone else since I guess he was sorta attached to making sure we got through this after hearing probably a full blown spiel from me, gets the OK and loads up my little red spark which I had cracked the windows of for my cats. We all hop into the cab of the truck and he goes and gasses up and as we’re pulling out of the truck gas station, I realize where I am. My car had died just past the exit I usually would stop for coffee at. Needless to say I was a bit superstitious after that and always stopped at that coffee shop either direction after that, whether I needed coffee or not.

So he tows us to the steak house a hundred miles away and it’s dark and the tow truck driver is concerned about leaving us in the middle of nowhere but I reassured him that I have someone with a car trailer on their way already. In case you’re wondering, that would be my sister’s coparent (here on referred to as B) with mechanic experience who would also fix up friends’ cars on the side and even had a couple of project cars.

So yeah we’re waiting there my cats are fine, frustrated over not being done with being in a car yet but seemingly understanding something unusual and out of my control had happened. It’s dark and around late dinner time. There’s a chain restaurant of some kind across the way, so my friend and I walk over there to get some dinner. Before that though, we had a talk because well…we’re wandering around in the dark. Now my friend, he’s tall like super tall and has a face that would at least warn away casual glances. However. He cannot throw a punch or literally defend himself in just about any way whatsoever. Me on the other hand, I unfortunately look like easy pickings. But I can throw a punch and otherwise escape an attacker and potentially help others get away too. So we had an agreement. He’d be there looking big and tough and warning away people, but if anything actually happened I’d be the one throwing fists and feet and getting us out.

I mean, we were fine. Got our food, got back to the car, no problem. But fact remains we had to have that conversation. Anyways it was another 2-4 hours before B showed up with the trailer. But show up eventually he did and he got us loaded up and into his truck (with my cats WITH me this time) and we hit the road, dropping my friend off with his mom at around 0100 and I finally made it home about half an hour after. He left my car on his trailer to get in the morning to take to the dealership.

So the dealership takes a look at it and says “well the transmission is completely dead, good news it’s still covered under the factory warranty.” It took a good while to be replaced but it was and again it was all on warranty.

Now I said “when it rains it pours”.

I could’ve just meant it was something major, out of nowhere right? But no…unfortunately, no. This was the winter break I’d been volunteering at that museum (have I mentioned this before? Eh….) and since I didn’t have my car I borrowed my mom’s. When I finally got my car back, we decided to keep having me use my mom’s car because I’d had to register it with security so they’d know not to charge me for parking. So my car sat in the driveway for the next…let’s say two weeks before I had to head back to university (again with my friend and cats in tow).

So it’s now I think the day before I leave and my dad takes my car to the grocery store and to gas it up for me while I’m working. Only…it doesn’t start. Or gives him problems or something I don’t even know the specifics. B can’t look at it before I have to leave, so we decide to just have my mom and I swap until spring. B came over maybe halfway through my drive and found a rodent nest in the engine compartment (rabbit or rat, we’re not entirely sure). Abandoned, but it looked like they’d chewed through some wires and other connectors to make room for their home. B got it taped together just enough for it to be taken back to the dealership to be properly fixed. It was.

BUT THEN (oh you thought it was over? Haha eh… almost)

It’s not quite spring break yet so my mom and I still have each other’s cars. My mom went to turn the key (on or off I honestly don’t know) and it broke. It was apparently a bit of an adventure for her involving at least three different shops but she got it replaced.

My little red car was running beautifully by the time I got it back 🤣

#story time #mari’s life #life after mari #car trouble #chevy spark #Chevy sparks are shop queens #shop queen #transmission #transmission died #when it rains it pours #stay safe #never go alone

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yeahhiyellow · 4 years ago

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First Lines Meme

List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Thank you so much @emiliaf25 for tagging me!!! I've seen a lot of fun writing tag games going around, but I haven't been tagged in any before now. This is probably due to the fact that while I write a lot, I don't publish most of my stories so like no one knows lol. I tried to put these in chronological order from newest to oldest, but they're not perfect, as I do not keep accurate time of when I write things (and probably should). Anyway, here are mine:

1. Blasting heavy metal so I can't think

"Heavy Metal": Detroit: Become Human (This one is in the form of a poem, so that's why it's a bit weird.)

2. Markus's head popped out of the last bedroom.

"Family": Detroit: Become Human (I still have to finish this one and publish it so I can't provide a link... yet)

3. I know I'm not enough.

"Enough": Detroit: Become Human (listen this is one of the angsty ones I never published so uhhhh)

4. CHRIS: Hank! Connor! What are you two doing here?

Unnamed: Detroit: Become Human (This one is formatted as a script soooo... yeah. It's also another one I am working on and have not and probably won't publish)

5. Crowley stood by the side of the road, his arms tightly coiled around his waist.

"Alone": Good Omens (aaaaand another really angsty one I never published, I have problems)

6. "What's wrong, angel?"

"It Started in 1957": Good Omens (currently not finished and has not been worked on for over half a year... probably should get on that at some point)

7. Every dystopian novel ever has some random teenage girl save the world. Unfortunately for the world, I don't think I can do that.

This was just an original story I started back in January that I wrote like a page of and never finished because I had way too many wips. Figured I'd put it in here anyway though

8. Finally, after 17 years of work, I had made it to the most prestigious school humanity had ever created.

This is another original story, however one that I have actually worked on for more than a page lol

9. RENATA: Oh, shit. This can't be good.

Function (Free Will): original. I have been working on this story for nearly 2 years now, and I'm still nowhere even close to done. It's formatted like a script and also has the same type of rpg choice-based storytelling as Detroit: Become Human. Add to that the fact that this story is meant to critique our current political and social society, systems, and structure and touches on a variety of incredibly heavy topics, and you have the recipe for writing a story that feels like it just. Never. Ends.

10. Demons aren't supposed to feel love.

"I Love You Too": Good Omens (I wrote this one a whiiiillleeee ago, as to why it's down here on the list. I only published it a few days ago, though, a little after I first saw you tagged me in this. So thanks for finally motivating me to do it lol)

11. "You obey or he's dead."

"Exit": Detroit: Become Human

12. "Come closer. Don't be scared."

"First Kiss - The Traci's - DBH Rare Pairs Week": Detroit: Become Human

13. If I broke that shotglass, I bet it could hurt me.

"Help": Detroit: Become Human (Essentially, I published this one on Tumblr and then proceeded to take it down later the same day. It was another angsty one.)

14. "Shut up, dipshit."

"Expectations: Shut Up, Dipshit": Detroit: Become Human (This one was actually from a zine I took part in that fell apart before anything could really happen. I never finished it, so I probably won't publish it, but I guess if I finished it I could. Will that happen, however? I doubt it.)

15. "You're back."

"Hannor Week: Living Deviant Prologue Compilation": Detroit: Become Human (*sighs* Now we're getting into the old stuff. Hang on, for I have no idea what atrocities lie ahead. Or behind?)

16. System Instability. Deviancy Detected. Contact Cyberlife for a inexpensive replacement, only $2000 with your warranty!

"Living Deviant": Detroit: Become Human (I wrote this story years ago and as a result it is so cringeworthy and has so many grammar mistakes I hate to even link it so I'm not going to lol)

17. "I'm just so glad we're alive, personally."

"Who I Thought I Was": Detroit: Become Human (Surprisingly, this one isn't actually too bad. I mean, it's definitely not good, but I don't facepalm and curl up into a ball when reading it, so that has to be a good sign.)

18. I heard a gunshot from around the corner.

"Dbh Revolution Week ~ November 13 ~ Connor, Hank, and Sumo": Detroit: Become Human

19. RK900 visibly shook as he looked into the mirror.

"Scarred": Detroit: Become Human (Another one that I never published, surprise, surprise. Given how old this one is and subsequently how bad and also utterly angsty it is, I don't think I'll be publishing it unless I, like, rewrite the whole thing, so.)

20. LAUREN: 8:51, hmm? I've already been here for 11 minutes, and no one else has shown up.

"Choices": a horrible original romantic comedy I wrote as a script 5 years ago. Tbh the idea wasn't even that bad, it was the execution of it that just... really sucked. So it's a good thing we're stopping here, as if I went any farther back in my writing history, I think I might just cringe myself to death.

---

Woo, thank god we're done with that! XD In all seriousness though, this was quite a bit of fun and got me to revisit pieces I hadn't seen in years. Thank you again for the tag!!! :DDDD

Now for which one is my favorite... there are some that are definitely good, and others that are definitely bad. I like numbers 2 (cute opening line for a fluffy fic), 5 (wordplay with "coiled" and Crowley being a snake), 7 (twisting of an expected trope), 8 (brings in scifi element and introduces the character's personality while hooking the reader in), 9 (set up for the tone of the rest of the chapter and immediately introduces tension), 11 (same as previous), and 12 (also attention-grabbing), so we'll just let those make up for whatever atrocities 16 (horrible imitation of corporate writing), 20 (just plain boring), and the attempt of 18 (I had the right idea of it being a hook, the execution however was horrific) were. I start a lot of my pieces with dialogue, or at least I used to. I became aware of that within the past year and tried to work on introducing stories in other ways, which I think I've done a pretty good job on. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with 7. I just really like the subversion of expectations that you get right away from it. It announces the trope loud and clear, but plays with it instead of following it.

While I'd love to tag lots of other writers, I unfortunately don't know many at all (listen I would love to read more fics but also tiiimmmeee). I'll just tag @konami-code-ao3 for now. However, if you see this and want to hop in, feel free!

#yay it's another tag gameeeee #tag game #dbh #good omens #writing

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loquaciousquark · 5 years ago

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I hope you're doing well! I know you posted about a stressful situation last month, and I hope it's resolved itself. Sending good wishes you you and Hamlet!

Thank you so very much for checking in on me! I really do appreciate it. An update to that post under the cut.

Carol, who moved in with me on May 28, is still here. Right now, we have set a tentative move-out goal of the first or second week of August, but this is pending an apartment application that she hopes to finalize on Monday and a job situation that is a complete mess.

Basically, according to my limited understanding, Carol is licensed to teach in Florida. Alabama has a reciprocity clause with Florida, but it must be applied for. Carol has recently begun this process, but her teaching license(s?) is (are?) set to expire in December unless she passes certain exams. She’s already passed one for...general middle and high school teaching, I think, but failed a math exam. She has an art history exam Monday afternoon and expects to pass. I hope so, because she’s been doing nothing but watching Netflix and shopping for houses for the last few days in her new 2017 Jeep Cherokee.

I remain unspeakably grateful to my parents for teaching me financial literacy, because until I witnessed Carol’s decision-making, I had no idea how hard it was for some people to not spend money unwisely.

As a reminder, Carol is dead broke. She has $153,000 in debt across student loans, medical bills, Czech and US taxes, and some personal loans she would like to repay to friends for helping her. She is unemployed and has no support from her family and has relied on couch surfing at friends’ and acquaintances’ homes since last summer for housing. Since moving in with me, she has been trying to find somewhere to live that would accept her with all her debt and her nonexistent US employment history for the last ten years. Based on what she’s said, I think she has about $9k in the bank--or did, until last week.

In short, she needs a car, a job, and a home, and as far as I can tell she doesn’t care which order they come in.

Two weeks ago, she was offered a position in a rural town about 30 minutes from where I live. It’s a small, very country town which desperately needs a special education teacher, something I think Carol really does have a passion for. However, because she hasn’t finished the reciprocity licensure application yet, they’re having a lot of roadblocks with her paperwork, compounded by the fact that when she left Prague last year, she left all her important documentation behind: things like her birth certificate, her social security card, and her letters of recommendation, which for some reason she did not have electronic backups of. The principal has been trying to get what she needs from Carol for two weeks. Carol is constantly saying that things are “in process” but has nothing to show for it.

As far as we can tell, the job is still hers, but the school year starts August 13th and she still hasn’t been approved by the Board of Education because the paperwork is still not finished on her end. She did not attempt to replace her birth certificate or social security card until they needed it for the application. (Her friend in Prague--and I am beginning to realize she uses the word “friend” for anyone she’s met longer than sixty seconds), who frantically packed up all her belongings when she realized she would not be able to go back to the city, cannot ship her belongings or go through them for the important paperwork until next summer, as she and her husband are currently vacationing in Rome for a year.

Carol decided last night she is also going to apply for some online Department of Defense position--I didn’t understand the details and don’t really want to know, except that it’s also teaching and some administration. We’ll see how it works out. She is growing increasingly annoyed at the principal’s requests for paperwork completion, which baffles me.

So, job: shrug? Maybe?

Car next, then, but this whole mess also goes back to the financial literacy thing. My parents have always been extremely frugal (pennywise, as my dad would say), and from childhood they made it very clear to us to not buy things you couldn’t afford. They’ve never had a car payment in my memory, and they paid off their house about ten years ago. This means they drove a lot of junkers for a very long time, and for a very long time we had very few vacations, but now they’re fully financially stable and debt-free and my mom has a car that she drove off the lot brand new that they paid cash in hand for.

If I had been in Carol’s situation, I would have found a cheap, mostly reliable used car that probably wasn’t going to explode on me and drive that as long as I could while saving up for housing. I did in fact drive her to look at several used cars, most of which would have been even outside my expected budget (hers, as it happens, is larger even than that, because one of her overseas friends was willing to contribute $5000 to the cost of a vehicle). (I paid $6500 for my current car, a 2004, in college in 2012 with 70,000 miles on it at the time, and have driven it ever since.)

She rejected all of them because they did not have good “energy” and “feelings.” One she was willing to buy at $3700, but told the seller to go pay for his own inspection (once I explained to her what mechanical inspections were as a concept), so they ghosted her. She also is extremely afraid of head gasket failure--I don’t know why, since she knows nothing about cars--and has assumed all vehicles she has driven are on the verge of it, so after the first week she refused to even look at a vehicle without a warranty.

This means she exclusively limited herself to used dealership options, which I’m just going to come right out and say was monumentally stupid. I don’t know if any car dealers follow me, so I’m sorry if I am misperceiving this, but in my experience almost every dealer I’ve gone to has been aggressive, manipulative, and extremely predatory in their interest rates. I cannot think of a riskier course of action in abject debt than to try to cut a deal with a car dealer for the sake of a warranty I doubt will cover that much truly expensive failure in the long run anyway.

On Thursday, Carol bought a $20,000 2017 Jeep Cherokee from a dealership down the road. I don’t know what she put down. I do know she did not use her friend’s money (why not??) and I know her interest rate on the car loan is 4%, which she is extremely proud of and which horrifies me. She also “persuaded” them into a limited warranty that will cover the vehicle up to 100,000 miles (currently at 42k, and they ~only offer it for cars under 40,000 miles~). I can’t tell you how bad an idea I think all this is.

Thursday night, as she was regaling me with stories of her negotiating prowess, she also tells me she has decided to buy a house. She’s sick of renting, and somehow, someone somewhere managed to get her approved for up to $120,000 in a home loan. She already has $150k in debt, another $20k from the car, and now wants to buy a house. She was delighted that she could make the minimum 7% down payment, even though it would wipe out every cent she has left and leave her less than $500 to her name for moving expenses, utilities, food, title registration, etc. afterwards.

She doesn’t even have a secure job yet.

However, this plan seems to have fallen through. She went out with a realtor several times this weekend and came home the last time in great, heaving sobs, because she can’t find the 3bed 2bath she wanted in her price range. (For reference, most homes in this area go between 200k - 250k right now for 2-3bed 2ba, and the closer you get to the city--I have about a 20 minute commute--the higher it gets. My next door neighbor sold her 3bed 2.5ba for >300k three months ago, and Carol knew this.) She was absolutely devastated that the only things in her range were “tiny little ugly flipped houses” and “the ghetto.” The realtor basically said she wasn’t going to waste any more of her time. Carol repeatedly told me how grateful I should be that I got in at the price point I did a few years back, because no “normal people” could ever afford to break into the market again.

I tried to tell her that it was because I lived in with a roommate in very cheap housing and then a cell of a 1bed 1ba apartment for eight years while I saved money, but if nothing else, I’ve learned I’m not allowed to compare our situations or histories or offer advice of any kind except “go ahead and buy what you want,” because that only makes her cry harder. In the end, she has decided to give up on the house for now and settle for the absolute last thing in the world she wanted, an apartment with a lease.

To be honest, until she has a signed contract in hand, I half-expect this lease to fall through as well. I have tried to offer what I think is sensible advice and been ignored or rebuffed. I have tried to offer a sympathetic ear and ended up with her sobbing uncontrollably on me--heaving, body-wracking sobs--over and over again with me trapped in my own home, providing endless emotional support for a girl I don’t even like. I have tried to encourage her to do the things she wants to do, since she’s going to do them anyway, and when she gets “negative energy” after the purchases (buyer’s remorse, I think, that one little inkling of sense saying maybe it wasn’t a great idea to buy a $20,000 car or an $1100 brand new iPhone without a job), she blames it on the exact thing I said I thought might be good and makes me feel like I have now directly contributed to a negative outcome after poor decision-making.

For the record, when she says these things to me she is not saying, and has never said, them directly at me. She has never blamed me in any way for a negative outcome. She is not consciously trying to manipulate me or abuse me or take advantage of my help. She has never once asked me for money or job connections or for me to use any of my stability to unfairly or unethically get her something she needs. She is just completely absorbed in her own (rightfully absorbing) mess of a situation, and I think just completely unaware of how much of an emotional black hole she has become. There are no problems except her problems. There are no needs except her needs, and everyone around her has to understand how hard she has it at all times.

So, we’ll see. I am praying that the apartment works out next week. The owner seems to want to work with her, which is a hopeful sign. Good thoughts would be appreciated.

Aside from all of this, work has gotten extremely complicated. I’m not going to go into all of it now, but one of my jobs is to create an extremely detailed schedule for students in clinic. This is used to schedule patients in each service--if we have this many students, we can have this many patient slots per half-day, etc. Last week, two students were out unexpectedly, one who broke her arm the day before she was supposed to begin, and one who had a terrible anxiety attack and thought the symptoms were actually COVID. That student was tested and cleared negative, but Student Health requires a two-week quarantine anyway, so she was not allowed to return.

This meant that we now had multiple patients per day with no one to see them. We tried to reschedule as many as we could, but we still ended up with multiple overbooks. This is extremely stressful for me as both a provider, an instructor, and a human being who hates having other people wait on her in a professional capacity. We got through the week, but not without several painful bumps, and it’s looking like there will be more soon.

I also woke up to an email this morning that one of my favorite students (yes, I have favorites, I’m sorry), had a completely unexpected death in the immediate family and had to rush home. This is a very, very sweet, very smart girl who has worked unbelievably hard over the past year to do well in this program and in my courses, and I am just devastated for her. One of her friends is willing to cover her clinic, so the impact will be minimal on that side, but to have this happen during this country’s hellhole handling of this pandemic...I can’t even imagine it.

All of this isn’t even touching COVID. The President’s side has won in that sense--I don’t even register the numbers anymore--but as of last week our dean sent out messaging that implied that with our state’s failure to contain the spread, new discussions were going to be happening soon regarding our August start. We already had committed to full hybrid scheduling: all lectures online, in-person labs only where absolutely necessary to continue advancement in the program, and those labs limited to two per room with full PPE, but if they decide even that can’t happen, I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do. I cannot make competent doctors over Zoom. I can’t. At some point they have to touch other people and look at other people’s eyes. They have to be able to check real, in-person blood pressure. They have to look at genuine eye movements and ocular surfaces in person and I cannot and will not let them enter clinic until they have the practice and the time and the practicals behind them. I fucking refuse to endanger the public for sixty years because someone in an office somewhere decided a timetable is more important than a patient keeping their ability to see, and I’m ready to fight administration on this if they try to push it.

But if I win the fight, what next? They just...don’t enter clinic next year. They don’t enter my program. I don’t know what they do in the meantime, as this lab meets four mornings a week and the lecture twice. The course is delayed until next year or whenever we have the virus under control again, and suddenly my fall semester sure looks like I’ll be being paid to stay at home and count carpet fibers. I don’t think they’ll fire me--no one else wants to teach my course anyway--but if I win this fight I might put myself right into furlough in the process.

I could be borrowing trouble, I know. They could come back and say that after review, our system and safety protocols (all extremely conservative) are indeed safe enough and we can proceed as we want. They could say that our limited in-person option for lectures (we have several gigantic lecture halls that could easily socially distance) is the only thing that needs to go. They could say that we just need to have smaller lab groups--hellish on me, but doable.

But it’s one more element of stress in my life that I just can’t handle worrying about right now, which is why I’ve been bouncing back and forth between random fics and oneshots (that mermaid one was feverishly written on a single evening Carol spent at her mom’s house) and pouring an ungodly amount of hours into Animal Crossing. At least there I have some control over what happens next.

Sorry, guys. I know this is not the happy update I was hoping for. I’ll try to check in again next month and we’ll see where things end up.

#quark rambles #carol #coronavirus for ts #covid-19 for ts #update post #not a happy one for those who can't handle that right now #anonymous #quark replies

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scriptflorist · 4 years ago

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I have customers in my story complaining about flowers that die way too early. When is it simply bad luck or when it is improper customer care or in fact improper florist care? What about customers who want to raise more hell than simple complaining, when would it be a trouble customer or legitimate requests?

Hi there,

This might not be the answer you’ve been looking for, but it can always be bad luck. Both the customer and the florist can do everything in their power to make the plants survive and they still die. To give an absolute guarantee on mother nature just isn’t possible. However, there are a few things which might have gone wrong on either end.

If the florist is in any way at fault they might have not changed the water when it was due, however more than likely they cut their bouquet with a pruner instead of a knife. Now there are some things in bouquets that require a pruner, namely any wooden stems it contains, all flowers however should be cut, diagonally, with a knife before being put into water.

If it’s the customer, both of them apply as well as not removing any leaves/foliage from the stems in the water. All those are the most common mistakes so to say that your characters could make that would lead to the flowers generally not lasting as long as they should.

Flower food is a bit tricky, because it is not meant for all cut flowers – primarily roses, peonies and lilies – however it seems to work under the same rules as green thumbs do. Somehow it seems to work with everything for some people. Your character might as well be one of them. The rule of thumb however is that no gerberas or spring-flowering plants should receive it, in general no cut flowers that require little water also require flower food.

Another thing that could go wrong on either end, but more likely the customers if they lack the knowledge is that some cut flowers need a quick foot bath in hot water. About ten-ish seconds. This applies to sunflowers, peonies and hydrangeas for example and what is does is help the flowers drink more water. Now simply not sticking them in hot water and being taught better a day or two after usually still saves the flowers, if they receive a fresh cut as well. However the customers in your story could very well get creative with that. In German we generally refer to the process as “ankochen” (to parboil) which is… sort of true given what the process entails and is supposed to do. Now I’m telling you this because I had a customer look me in the eye and tell me that what they thought they were supposed to do what hold the stems over an open lighter. They even brought the flowers so the evidence was right in front on me. There is nothing in the instructions that suggests taking a lighter to the plants, however it is a valid wrongful interpretation given that it happened.

I haven’t really had customers raising hell in my time as a florist, however the store I worked for was very accommodating. We had like a week long warranty so to speak, customers didn’t even need to bring in proof of purchase or the flowers themselves. Their word was good enough. Now it was big company so they could away with it, but generally we got them their money back and let them buy new plants on the spot if they wanted to. Anything that was within that one week of purchase was considered a legitimate request when it came to cut flowers.

Potted plants are a different kind of scheme. They live longer so of course there is a bit more leeway when it comes to their death and getting money back. Generally, the one week rule still applied because outdoor plants are supposed to last 2-3 weeks indoors and everything else should live longer anyway so it is definitely more a case-by-case situation for your characters. A hydrangea that died half a year wouldn’t get refunded, a month I think is about the longest period that could be chalked up to circumstances out of the customers or florists control.

While nobody raised hell, we had a kalanchoe lady. We called her that because it was all she ever bought. I don’t remember what size she bought them in I think the tiny ones that make great decorations. I do however remember that my colleague noticed that she would be dead on time about two or four weeks later and return with the complaint that her plants had died. She would then proceed to exchange them for new ones in the exact same size. Which cost her nothing because the prize was always the same. That, of course, was not a legitimate request anymore.

– Mod Jana

I’m going to add on one thing that has always stuck out to me as potentially bad florist care. Well, it’s not really bad care, but it’s using flowers already at or past their prime in order to recoup the cost. Flowers are expensive even for the florist, and they are perishable goods, so that can be a lot of money in the dumpster if they don’t sell things on time.

The most notorious that I’ve seen for this is roses. Because roses have so many layers of petals, and florists often remove the guard petals anyway (they are the most likely to have discoloration, bruising, or tears), some florists will remove more petals to make a rose that’s already pretty open look more like it’s just past the bud stage. This leads to customers that are frustrated that their roses only last a couple of days.

While it’s true that the roses might have died early because the customer didn’t give them enough water, fresh water, floral food, or other proper care, sometimes it’s because the roses were already past their midlife to start. I’ve notoriously seen this at grocery stores and big box stores that just have a flower case and people grab the pre-grouped bunches of flowers. Those roses are cheaper because they haven’t been prepped at all, and also no one is checking if they’re really still fresh for selling other than water and food. On the other hand, the actual florist shops I’ve worked in have had a regular task of gently squeezing the roses near the base of the petals to make sure they felt firm. If it was firm, then there were still plenty of petals in there so that the rose would open and give over a week’s worth of blooming and beauty to the customer. If it was squishy then the inner petals had all already started blooming outward and it was probably past it’s prime. (One of those owner-florists would let me take the old roses home with me rather than throwing them out. That was nice.)

- Mod Den

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

#floristry #writing advice #floristic business #ask answered #mod jana #mod den #Anonymous

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gold-and-rubies · 4 years ago

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In It For Th Long Haul - Chapter 9

Mac’s POV

They stumbled into Goodneighbor just after sunset. They would have Gotten there sooner had they not run straight into a horde of Super mutants. They had miraculously gotten through Kellogg and his synths without any injuries, but the mutants had left them pretty banged up. Flynn had a new scar on her chin.

MacCready let himself relax a little as they approached The Memory Den. He knew Goodneighbor well, and the people, most of them, knew better than to mess with him.

His eyes widened when they entered The Memory Den. He had never actually been inside before. It was quite hard to get in, and cost more caps than he was comfortable spending on something like this. The high tech loungers contrasted the ornate, red drapes and rugs. They were in surprisingly great shape despite everything. A woman in a fancy dress was lounging on a couch in the middle of the stage at the end of the room. Valentine walked up to the woman.

“Mr. Valentine, I thought you had forgotten about little old me,” she purred.

“May have walked out of The Den, but I’d never walk out on you,” he flirted back. MacCready’s nose scrunched up a little in disgust.

“Hmph. Amari’s downstairs, you big flirt.”

Valentine led them behind the stage, and down the stairs to a makeshift lab. There were several tables and cabinets with several different medical items. There were two different loungers, several different kinds of technical equipment that MacCready had no idea about, and a computer the doctor was using. There was an office chair between the loungers, and a couch against the wall. He wondered about the couch.

“Doctor Amari?” Valentine said.

“Yes? I take it this isn’t a social call.”

Flynn walked up to Valentine, and stopped next to him. She clutched the blood stained medkit in her hands.

“We need the memories from a man named Kellogg,” she explained, “But he’s dead.”

Amari got a horrified look on her face, “Besides the fact that you’re asking me to defile a corpse, the memory loungers require living brains to function.”

“This dead brain had inside knowledge of the Institute, Amari. The biggest scientific secret of the Commonwealth. You need this, and so do we,” Valentine argued.

Amari sighed, “Fine. Do you… do you have it with you?”

“This is… what we have,” Flynn said, handing over the medkit.

She popped it open, and exclaimed, “What’s this? This isn’t a brain! This is… wait…” she picked up what was inside, “This is the hippocampus! And this thing attached to it. A neural interface.”

“Those circuits look awfully familiar,” Valentine muttered.

“I’m not surprised. From what I’ve seen, all Institute technology has a similar architecture.”

“Go on, Doctor,” Flynn said.

“Mister Valentine is an older generation synth,” she explained, “Institute technology being what it is… The brain implant could fit him. But that’s… an incredible risk to take. We’re talking about wiring something to his brain.”

Maccready watched as Flynn’s face became swamped with worry.

Before she could say anything, however, Valentine said, “Don’t worry about me. I’m well passed the warranty date, anyway.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. Her worry was practically tangible.

“The Institute is responsible for who knows how much of the things that go wrong out there. I’m sure about this,” he assured her as he walked over to the office chair to sit down, “If I start cackling like a grizzled mercenary, pull me out, okay?”

“Let’s see here…” Amari muttered, “I need you to keep talking to me, Mister Valentine. Any slight change in your cognitive functions could be dire. Are you feeling any different?”

“There’s a lot of… flashes… static… I can’t make sense of any of it, Doc.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. The mnemonic impressions are encoded. It appears the Institute has one last failsafe. There’s a lock on the memories in the implant.”

The defeated look was making it’s way back on to Flynn’s face. MacCready could see her becoming exhausted by everything. Her voice was getting close to being there too, “please tell me there’s a way past this.”

“Let me think… The encryption is too strong for one mind, but… what if we used two?” she suggested.

“What do you mean?” Flynn asked.

“We load you two into the memory loungers. Mister Valentine here will act as the host, while your consciousness drives through whatever memories we can find.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” MacCready asked. He was not about to lose Flynn to a technical failure that could be avoided.

“I have to do this. We don’t have any other way,” she said. Despite the softness of her voice, he knew he was not going to change her mind.

“I’ll be okay,” she reassured. She sounded like she was talking more so to herself than him.

He frowned at her. He had been more than okay with Valentine sacrificing himself for this, but she was different. He had seen her put herself in harm's way before, but he knew how to nurse a bullet wound, not whatever this might do.

“Whenever you’re ready, please take a seat in the memory loungers,” Amari instructed.

Flynn looked at Valentine and nodded.

“See you on the other side,” he joked.

She looked at MacCready one last time with a soft smile before she climbed into the lounger. Once she was settled the The glass top closed.

Amari turned from her terminal to MacCready and Piper, “YOu to may want to come over here to observe what they are experiencing.”

He nodded and stood behind her where he could see the screen. He glanced at Piper, who had been quiet this whole time. She looked as worried as he felt.

“Initiating brainwave migration between the transplant and the host,” Amari announced. MacCready assumed that meant she was starting everything.

He looked at the screen. It was a lot of technical jargon that he did not understand.

“Mnemonic activity coming from the transplant! It’s deteriorated, but it’s there! We are going to load you into the strongest memories we can find. They might not be… stable… Just hold on!”

He wondered how they could hear her.

The screen changed. Now it showed a webbing of, well he did not really know what they were if he was honest.

“Ah, good. The simulation seems to be working,” Amari explained, “although the memories are quite fragmentary. I’ll try to step you through the intact memories, and hope we find one that gives us a clue as to the Institute’s location.”

She did somethings on the terminal until she found a memory for Flynn to walk them through. It was a bedroom with a child on the bed and a woman sitting in a chair next to it. A man could be heard yelling at them from outside the room. A radio was on. MacCready assumed Kellogg was the kid.

“Wait,” Piper said, “is the radio talking about the NCR forming?”

He gave her a confused look, “Wouldn’t that make him around a hundred years old?”

Their side conversation was interrupted by the next memory. They were now looking at a young adult Kellogg in a kitchen with a woman and a baby in a crib. His wife and child. They were talking about having to move, because of his new job. It sounded like mercenary work, or something like it. MacCready felt himself starting to be overcome with a sad sense of Déjà vu. He looked away before his mind started to wander too much. The scene was far more familiar than he liked.

When he looked back they were on to the next memory. He was being taunted by some mysterious voice. When he realized they were taunting him over the death of his wife and child. He knew the look on Kellogg’s face all too well. He was starting to feel more and more uneasy.

The next one made his blood run cold. He was sat in a bar discussing a mercenary job with two guys. The situation by itself was practically nothing. Bars were common places to pick up clients. It was attitude, the way he spoke, and the look on his face that threw MacCready off. It was like looking at himself from just a little over a month ago. The night before he had been hired by Flynn. There were so many similarities. Too many. He started to quietly panic. His mind raced as he thought about how similar they were, and if he might end up like him.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by the sound of Flynn’s muffled yelling and screaming. His head whipped around to look at where she was laying in the memory lounger. Her breathing was faster and she had a pained look on her face, but she was quiet. He looked at the screen instead. He was met with the scene of a row of odd looking pods inside of what looked like a vault. He quickly realized what this memory was. He heard her and the other vault dwellers banging on their pods and yelling. He watched as Shaun’s father begged desperately for them to not take him. He watched as Kellogg shot him without a second thought. He saw the horror on the mother’s face after the gunshot.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that again,” Amari said, “I found another intact memory… Whenever you’re ready.”

He glanced over at Flynn. She was still taking ragged breaths. He could not imagine what she was going though right now. She was living through what he figured was one of her worst memories again.

It took a few moments for the next memory to start. He did not blame her. This one was in a shack. He was sitting in a chair while a child sat on the floor. It took him a moment to realize this was in Diamond City, and that was Shaun.

They watched as a man walked in an odd leather getup and sunglasses.

“One of these days you’re going to get your head blown off just barging in here like that,” Kellogg said.

“Minimizing my exposure to civilians is a prior-”

“Forget I said anything,” he said, cutting the man off, “So, what’s the big crisis this time?”

“New orders for you. One of our scientists has left the Institute,” the synth siad. MacCready assumed he was a synth.

“Left? As in?”

“He’s gone rogue,” he explained, “Name is Doctor Brian Virgil. We know he is hiding somewhere in the glowing sea, here’s his file.”

Kellogg took the file and said, “Guess you’re taking the kid back then.”

“Affirmative. Your only mission is to find and eliminate Virgil.”

“You’re taking me home to my father?” Shaun asked. MacCready felt his heart twinge at that. The kid did not even know about his real parents.

“Yes, stand next to me and hold still,” the synth affirmed.

He then said some things MacCready could not quite understand, and with a crack of blue lightning they were gone and the memory ended.

“Did they just…” he began to ask.

“Teleportation,” Amari confirmed, “Now it all makes sense. No one can find the entrance, because there isn’t one! Let me pull you out of there, as soon as you’re ready.”

After a few moments of her working on the terminal the simulation ended. Valentine woke up before Flynn did, which worried MacCready a bit. He slowly got up from the lounger, as Amari asked him various questions. MacCready ignored them. He was too worried to listen.

After Piper led Valentine upstairs with Dogmeat’s help, Amari addressed MacCready, “It’s normal for one to not wake up immediately… especially if they witnessed a traumatic memory.”

He simply nodded in response.

“When she does wake up,” she continued, “I’m going to need you to keep a close eye on her.”

“I already do,” he muttered.

After a few moments her eyes opened, and so did the pod. He felt relief wash over him.

Amari helped her out of the lounger, asking if she was alright.

“I’m fine,” she tried to assure them. She sounded a little pained and tired, but okay. She looked the same.

“That’s good, but I want you to keep monitoring yourself. We have to be sure there’s no long-term side effects. Are you… ready to talk about what happened in there?”

She took a deep breath, “We got what we needed. Now we know how they get around undetected.”

MacCready frowned at her, but he did not say anything. He was not surprised that she was focusing on what needed to be done.

“Yes,” Amari agreed, “Their greatest secret has finally been revealed, but that only leads to more questions. How does it work? Where do we go next?”

“That scientist Kellogg was supposed to track down. Virgil? We should track him down,” MacCready suggested.

“You’re right! A rogue Institute scientist could answer all kinds of questions, but didn’t they say he was in The Glowing Sea? That doesn’t make much sense. No one goes there. Not even if they’re desperate.”

“Why? What’s The Glowing Sea?” Flynn asked.

That took MacCready aback. At first he worried that the simulation had messed with her head, but then he remembered that she’s only been out of the vault for a month and a half. Sometimes she emulated so much confidence, and she was such a quick learner that he forgot.

“It’s essentially a sea of radiation. It’s rumored that’s where the bomb dropped here, so if you’re going to go there you’ll need a way to combat the radiation,” Amari explained.

She nodded, “I’ll find a way to get through the rads. Don’t worry.”

“If you really are going to track him down, be safe, and good luck.”

“Thanks Doc,” she nodded, “Come on, MacCready.”

“Valentine and Piper are upstairs by the way,” he informed her as she turned to the entrance to the lab.

She nodded. Her steps were slow, but she did not stumble at all. He still followed her closely in case she did.

They found the other two sitting on a couch. When they approached there seemed to be something off about Valentine.

“Hey, how are you holding up?” Flynn asked him.

“Hope you got what you were lookin’ for inside my head. He he. I was right. I should’ve killed you when you were on ice,” the words from his mouth said. Although it came from his mouth, it was not his voice. It was Kellogg’s.

“Nick?” Piper exclaimed.

He blinked, “What?”

“You just sounded like Kellogg,” Flynn explained.

“I did? Well, I feel fine now. Amari did say there will be some mnemonic impressions. How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine, just need some rest.”

MacCready had a feeling that was not the whole truth, so he held his tongue on. Instead he suggested, “We should head to The Rexford then. See if they have any free rooms.”

“Oh God. I forgot we are going to have to stay here overnight,” Piper burst out, as they left.

He did not really blame her for that, as much as he appreciated Goodneighbor.

Luckily for them The Rexford had two empty rooms for them. MacCready retrieved the keys for the rooms, and he and Flynn wished their new allies goodnight.

When they reached their room Dogmeat immediately curled up at the end of the bed closest to the door. MacCready could not help the small smile that appeared on his face, but it quickly melted quickly when he looked at Flynn. She had discarded her pack at the foot of the other bed. She sat on the edge facing the other. She stared at the wall with a glassy look. It was the same one she had the first two times the vault was brought up with him.

He set his pack on his bed, and then sat next to her.

“You did the right thing today,” he said, trying to comfort her.

“I know I did,” she sighed, “I just wish I could’ve done more then.”

“You can’t think like that. It’s not your fault.”

She did not say anything. She just kept staring.

MacCready stared down at his hands. He thought of the memories he was reminded of. He thought maybe, just maybe, a similar story could comfort her. He took a deep breath and hoped he was not being selfish.

“I know what it’s like to have someone die, and to blame yourself for it,” he confessed, his voice a little shaky, “a few years back my wife and I decided to hole up in a metro station. We didn’t know the thing was filled with ferals.” He could feel his eyes start to sting, and he knew his voice would break, but he continued, “They were on her before I could even fire a shot. They tore her apart, and there was nothing I could do. I blamed myself for her death. I… still do. Don’t do that to yourself.”

He closed his eyes when she rested her head on his shoulder. It had been awhile since someone had touched him that gently other than patching up a physical wound. He did not need to have his eyes open to know she was close to tears too. They had both been through a lot, and everything that had happened that day hurt like a punch to the gut.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

“I am too. There’s nothing I can do about what happened, but you can still find the kid… and I’ve got your back the whole way,” he promised. After that day it was more to himself than to her.

He craned his head awkwardly to look at her. He could not get a clear look of her face due to the angle, and her red hair being in the way, but he could see she was exhausted.

“You need to get some sleep,” he suggested, gently nudging her off his shoulder. It felt oddly cold when her head moved away. When she sat up fully he realized she had a light patchwork of freckles on her face. He was not sure if they were new, or if he had just not noticed before. He stood up awkwardly when he realized how close they were.

“Thank you for not running off on me,” she said.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Boss,” he teased.

He fought back a smile when he earned a scoff from her.

They went about their routine for when they didn’t have to take turns keeping watch, which ended with him laying on his back and her laying on her side facing away from him.

MacCready reached his hand into his inner jacket pocket, just above his heart. He produced the small, wooden toy soldier Lucy had given him. He had wanted to mention Duncan, but he was not ready for that. He did not have enough caps to buy a proper team, and he did not think there were enough Minutemen to spare for what needed to be done either. No, that would have to wait a bit longer as much as it pained him.

Thoughts of Kellogg crawled back into his brain, as his thumb ran over the figurine. He wondered how similar they really were. How close…

No, he thought, cutting himself off, I’m going to be a better man. I promise.

Read it on ao3

#fallout #fanfiction #fanfic #fallout 4 #fo4 #piper wright #nick valentine #maccready #sole survivor #claudia flynn #maccready x sole survivor

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duhragonball · 6 years ago

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Dragon Ball 242

You know, if you had asked me a year ago, I would have said the Majin Buu Saga was better than the Babidi Saga, mostly because the Majin Buu Saga has Buu in it, along with Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Vegeta blowing himself up, Gotenks’ first appearance, etc.

But now I’m starting to think the Babidi Saga was the better of the two. It set up a clear goal and the heroes completely failed to prevent Babidi from reaching it. The Mr. Satan/18/MightyMask stuff kind of got in the way at times, but it was never boring to watch. It made good use of eleven episodes.

That’s not to say that the Majin Buu Saga is bad at all. It’s really good too, just not as good as Babidi, or the Fusion Saga that follows it. You can break it down into these segments.

232-237: Buu clobbers everyone at Babidi’s spaceship.

238-244: No one really knows what to do about Buu.

245-253: The good guys finally settle into a general path forward.

It feels a lot like driving on an interstate highway in Indiana. Not I-65, though. I mean a good highway, like I-64 with no traffic. And you’ve got some good stuff to listen to on the radio. Actually, this may not be an analogy at all, because I used to have a mix tape with the opening audio from Episode 245 on it, and I listened to it on a lot of long drives through these same roads.

The point I’m trying to get at is that this title card could apply to any one of at least six episodes. Goku doesn’t actually teach the boys fusion until episode 247, which continues into 248, and the boys don’t succeed until 251. I guess “Gohan revived” is a fairly unique event for this episode, but the Kai’s been hinting at his “other method” across multiple episodes, and that concept doesn’t really pay off until Episode 250. The Majin Buu Saga is very good, but a lot of it, especially this middle section, is like fifty miles of road surrounded by cornfields.

I will say this, Buu’s much more direct about his reign of terror. First, he kills all the people in a city by turning them all into candy. Now we have a completely empty town, which is very reminiscent of Imperfect Cell’s early appearances, except Cell only hit small towns, and it took him a while to kill everyone, and he had to suppress his ki so the Z-Fighters wouldn’t gang up on him and kill him. Buu did this in a matter of seconds, in full view of the entire world.

Then he blows up the city with a blast of super breath... that makes things explode. Still haven’t figured out how that works.

Babidid announces to the world that Buu will continue doing this until Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks show themselves. He estimates that at this rate, it’ll take five days to kill everyone on the planet. Then he’ll just have Buu blow up the Earth, so if his enemies don’t come out of hiding, they still won’t escape his wrath. So there’s shades of Android 17 and 18 from Future Trunks’ timeline, except they spent twenty years terrorizing the world this way. But those two needed the world to live on. Buu doesn’t. I’m not sure how Babidi plans to travel to the next planet over without his spaceship, but that’s his problem.

If it were me writing this, I might have worked the angle where Babidi was stranded on Earth, so he would focus on subjugating the planet’s population and forcing them to build him a new ride out of here. I might have a scene where some engineers are worried about getting the thing built quickly so they can get rid of these two, but then another engineer points out that they mustn’t build his ship, because once Babidi has a way off the planet, he’ll just have Buu destroy it. So the Earth is kind of screwed either way.

But that would take too long, and really, this is better. Babidi isn’t a long-term strategist. He’s apparently spent centuries on this Majin Buu project, but now that he has him, he doesn’t seem to have any particular plans on what to do with him. All he’s thinking about now is getting revenge on Piccolo for chopping him in half, which has completely clouded his judgment. He should be concentrating on Buu, and figuring out how to control him, since Buu is the key to what he wants, and the only thing keeping him alive, and the only thing that can stop him.

Anyway, the point of this telepathic address to the world was to get someone to rat out Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks. Babidi invites anyone who knows where they are to simply think at him, and he’ll pick up his psychic phone and listen. But barely anyone knows those three at all, and even fewer know where to find them. Hell, does Piccolo even have a permanent home?

In desperation, one of the officials from the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai recalls seeing those three at the competition, and he looks up their names on the registration forms. He contacts Babidi and reads them off, although Piccolo used “Majunior” as an alias, so even that turns out to be pointless.

So Babidi angrily makes the guy’s head explode, because he doesn’t care who they are, he wants to know where they are. This is what I’d like to do to the robocaller who tells me the warranty on my car is about to expire.

Piccolo’s so upset by all of this that he resolves to show himself, just to try to get Buu to cut it out, but Goku convinces him that this would be useless. Babidi would just be doing something like this anyway, and besides, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d killed Goten and Trunks to. As it is, Goku needs all of them here, because he wants Piccolo to train them on the fusion technique after he leaves. The irony is that Piccolo was just saying that they would have to endure mass genocide while they trained the boys, and Goku already has to remind him.

That’s the big thematic difference with the Buu arc. With Frieza, nearly all of the Namekians were wiped out before the heroes got there, and while they had to keep a low profile, they could at least do something by securing Dragon Balls and hiding them. With Cell, this is a lot like the period where the Saiyans were using the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and Cell and the androids were basically running loose on the Earth, but Piccolo was still actively searching for them. Here, there is literally nothing they can do about Buu’s rampage while they prepare their counter attack.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Kai has brought Gohan to his world, the Sacred World of the Kais, or the Supreme Kai Planet, or whatever else you want to call it. Kibito finds this unthinkable, since not even lesser Kais or Kami are permitted to come here. I’m not sure why Kibito is so bent out of shape over this. It’s like he really wanted to invite the Grand Kai over some time for beer and pretzels, and he knew it was against the rules, so he’s pissed that he respected that for so long just to have a mortal show up.

As for Gohan, he assumes he must be dead, but the Supreme Kai explains that he’s still alive, and that he brought him here to retrieve the Z-Sword. This makes Kibito even more apoplectic, because even the Kais can’t use the Z-Sword, so how could any mortal being do anything with it? The Supreme Kai takes a lot of lip from this dude. Then again, he seem to recognize that his orders must be very nonsensical to someone who doesn’t know what Gohan can do. And Gohan’s confused himself, because he doesn’t know what the Z-Sword is.

Meanwhile, Trunks and Goten wake up in Kami’s Lookout. They don’t know where they are, so they start checking out the place, then discover a table with a huge dinner just laid out for them. Is that yellow blob an omelet? That’d really hit the spot.

Then Mr. Popo shows up and hassles them, and Trunks panics because he thinks he’s in trouble for stealing food. Okay, so why is all of this here in the first place? The only explanation that makes sense is that Popo set it up for the boys when they woke up, but he seems genuinely surprised and a little miffed that they made there way here and started eating.

Then Popo tries to stop them from running, and they fight him as Super Saiyans, and Mr. Popo blocks all their hits. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Team Four Star handles this scene with their version of Mr. Popo.

Anyway, Goku finally catches up to them, and we’re finally ready to start teaching them how to fuse.

Back on the Supreme Kai Planet, Kibito uses Clothes Beam on Gohan to make him a suit more in keeping with the dress code. “If I gotta wear a tablecloth around my waist all day, then so do you.” Personally, I hate this look for Gohan, but his Great Saiyaman suit was pretty much shredded, so I can’t complain too much.

They fly over to this tall butte surrounded by a lake, and that’s where the Z-sword is kept.

The sword is embedded in the rock, and no one has ever been able to pull it out. No Kais, I should say, because lesser beings aren’t even allowed on this planet. The Supreme Kai figures that since Gohan is far stronger than any Supreme Kai, he ought to have a better chance.

Of course, this all resembles the Excalibur legend, and Gohan himself points this out, because he’s a huge nerd. Of course, with Excalibur, the whole point was that you had to be a specific person to be able to draw the sword out of the stone. It was a matter of fate more than brute strength, but this is Dragon Ball F’N Z. The Supreme Kai figures that if the sword won’t come out, that means we just need a stronger guy to pull on it harder. Either that, or he thinks Gohan can just blow up the whole butte and get it out that way.

Back at the Lookout, Goku tells the boys about Gohan and Vegeta’s deaths. Well, Gohan’s alive, but they don’t know that. The boys take it hard, but Goku tells them to stop crying, because it’s up to them to stop Buu, and they don’t have much time.

bUt gOkU iS tOo SoFt oN hIs kiDs tO tRaIn tHem

This is how you can tell those “Piccolo is a better dad” nutbars are full of it. They only watched the early Z stuff, and they ignored the part where Goku trained Gohan for an entire year and made him vastly more powerful than Piccolo ever did. And now he’s literally repeating story beats from when Piccolo first met Gohan. Remember? First he told him that his father died, and then he told him that he’d have to train to save the world. That’s what Goku is telling Trunks right now.

Piccolo brings up the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, since that seems like a good way to solve their time crunch, but Goku declines. You can only use it for two days out of your whole life, and he figures that Goten and Trunks may need it for some other battle later in life.

More to the point, I’m not sure Goku would have more time on Earth this way. I guess it depends on how Baba reckons his 24 hours. The key thing here is how long the boys get personal instruction from Goku, since he’s the only one who knows the technique.

And that’s the course we’re on. While Goku prepares Goten and Trunks to use Fusion, the Supreme Kai prepares Gohan to use the Z-Sword. So it looks like there’s two separate paths to beating Buu. I suppose this sort of thing happens in DBZ a lot, but usually one of the multiple paths is Vegeta, who sort of makes the whole thing into a competition. It’s weird that one (or both) of these groups might have to step aside for the other, and they’d have absolutely no problem with that.

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