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Pine
The needles crunched under Lena's shoes, her hands deep in the pockets of her red jacket. Around her, the pines stretched toward the cloudy sky and a dusting of snow coated the ground. Snow caught the world's noise like the sound-cancelling headphones Lena used when alone.
It's why she loved the first snow. The silence wrapped around her, and she disconnected from her reality.
Snow here in California felt strange, but hadn't everything been off-kilter since she woke in her penthouse, her brother suddenly alive again?
Her thoughts bounced between the new reality her brother had somehow crafted. One where he was a hero instead of a villain. One where he'd tripped over backward to manipulate her into working for him, but he'd forgotten one detail.
Sam.
She still worked in L-Corp's financials, and she was Lena's friend still. But it had been a friendship prior Lena kept from Lex for reasons that Earth-38 had yet to understand, considering how cryptic some entries became during the worldkiller crisis, and how a few had been in a code that Lena struggled to decode.
Lex didn't know how close prior Lena had been with Sam. Nor had he known Sam had been a worldkiller. Lena had hid from Lex to avoid Lex killing Sam too like he did the other worldkillers.
The place he'd lured Purity and Pestilence became an inhospitable, irradiated wasteland, but the nuclear bomb had obliterated those worldkillers. A massive clean-up effort had been under prior Lena's jurisdiction, along with research of the worldkillers' effects on the climate and how to stabilize it.
Her boots crunched on a twig, and Lena slowed her walk, reluctant to reach her destination.
The world saw Lex as the hero who saved them, but Lena knew the truth. Written in prior Lena's journals, Kara, prior Lena, Alex, J'onn, and Nia had all worked to save Sam and destroy the terraforming machine in totality. A fight that nearly cost them their lives.
Prior Lena hadn't hesitated in asking Supergirl for help, but then prior Lena knew Supergirl's true identity. She'd been trusted from the beginning by Kara.
Earth-38 Lena had tried to do it all alone, scared that whatever secret government group worked with Supergirl would kill Sam instead of save her. She had not been trusted from the beginning by Kara.
Prior Lena knew how to trust. She had faith in her friends. She hadn't been painfully betrayed again and again and again. Most of her sour experiences lay in arguments with Lex about use of military weapons and the buying of the DEO.
Oh, and apparently Andrea had betrayed her in this reality too.
So here Earth-38 Lena existed as an interloper. Someone who shouldn't exist in this reality. Prior Lena had been erased, and Earth-38 Lena walked under pine branches in prior Lena's shoes.
Bitter, distrustful, and wrapped in pain -- Sam had noticed immediately the difference, and no amount of hiding from her worked. She'd been relentless in showing up to check on Lena. To find out why Lena was in such grief and pain.
Lena hunched in her jacket as she approached the center of the park. She thought of Sam's talk last night, of how it'd gone off the rails rather quickly, and she'd ended up confessing everything.
She hadn't realized how badly she'd needed a sounding board.
"Sam, I don't know what to do. Work with Supergirl or my brother? It's not like I can trust either. Both have used me in the past." Lena pressed her hands against her forehead. "I've been just a tool..."
"No, you're not going there," Sam interrupted as she sprinkled more flour across the cutting board, where she worked her gluten-free dough with expert fingers. In the living room, the music from Ruby's game drifted into the kitchen. "I get that it feels that way, but from what you've said, Supergirl tried to fix things, right?"
Lena shrugged. She still wasn't sure if Kara's actions were guilt or truly her trying to engage in repair.
"And your brother somehow made this reality..." Sam shook her head. "Which is a little hard to believe, but..." She studied Lena for a long moment. "But you aren't yourself."
"Oh?" Lena sneered. "Then how am I supposed to act?" She hadn't meant to sound so defensive, but Sam's words hurt.
Sam sighed and waved her hand vaguely at Lena. "That right there isn't you. The Lena I know laughs more, believes in the goodness of humanity, works toward a more equitable world."
"Equitable world. That's what I'm trying to do!" Lena crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Sam.
"Is it?" Sam punched down into the dough with far more force than it warranted. "We used to go to activist events about the climate and alien rallies together. But the last few weeks, you've become a bitter recluse. And now this new project? This sudden turn from disaster relief and climate studies to mind control? Honestly, Lena, I don't know what to say."
"It's not mind control," Lena protested, but it was a weak protest. Exhaustion soaked her bones, and she wondered if Sam was right. "It's just an algorithm to prevent people from hurting one another. It'll be a more equitable and safer world."
Sam frowned. "Right. And how is that not a violation of free will?"
"Sam." Lena looked at her pained. "I'm trying to free humanity from suffering."
"Are you?" Sam's beating of the dough grew more pronounced, the flour dusting the marbled counter. "Lena, my suffering is what molded me into who I am today. Yes, it sucked at times, and some of them were my fault. But I learned and did better."
"But wouldn't things be better for Ruby if she didn't have to suffer like you did?" Lena knew it was a weak argument, but part of her felt so hollowed by Lex's actions, by this new reality, that her heart wasn't in fighting for this project. She'd become disillusioned since waking up in hell.
"Of course I don't want Ruby to suffer!" Sam flipped the dough and dug her knuckles into it before rolling it into a ball and repeating the gesture. "But I won't let anyone, even you Lena, take away from Ruby her ability to choose."
"It's not about--" Lena's words died at Sam's glare.
"Keep lying to yourself, hun." Sam wiped her hands on a hand towel that hung from the stove's handle. "Lena, I've always had your back, right?"
Lena wasn't sure exactly what Sam had done in this reality, but the prior Lena's journal entries -- since when did she write in a journal anyway? -- her, Sam, and Kara had met up often for drinks or board games.
So this Sam had no idea what Lena went through, nor what Kara had done. How the hurt between them soured everything. Her attempt to explain had failed; the words just wouldn't come out; her thoughts and emotions a bundle of pain and fear.
Lena had used Kara, trapped her in kryptonite, and still failed. All her plans for naught, and she, honestly, should have stayed dead. She didn't deserve to be here. This should be prior Lena's life, the person who was a true hero, not like herself.
"Lena?" Sam grasped her shoulder. "You got that haunted look in your eyes again. What is it?"
"You don't know what I've done," Lena whispered. "Or what Kara did on that prior Earth. You weren't there. I -- I shut you and everyone out after the betrayal."
"Then don't do it here. Don't push us away for a project that would steal our free will."
Lena laughed, but it turned into a sob. The walls of Sam's kitchen, which had felt so comforting at first, folded in on her, and she needed air. She turned to run, but Sam caught her arm.
To her surprise, Sam spun her into a hug. "I said I'd always have your back, Lena, so how about this." She murmured into Lena's hair, her arms warm and comforting -- something Lena hadn't felt in months (lifetitmes?). "How about this. Let's explore options. I'll get my hands on a truthseeker, and we'll put it on Kara. You'll get the truth you want, and I'll be there this time."
Despite not remembering Earth-38, Sam acted remarkably like the Sam there. Lena sunk into Sam's embrace, and a few tears escaped. "Okay," she said, quietly. "We'll try your way."
So here she was, walking in the climate-change snow toward the meeting place. She'd let Sam pick it, let Sam reach out to invite Kara, to act the neutral party.
Sam didn't have Lena's history with Supergirl and Kara, and Kara had no reason to suspect Sam of villianry. Yet Lena wondered if Alex and the others were watching somewhere, ready to judge her, condemn her, maybe even nuke her.
Because she wasn't a fool. On Earth-38, she'd seen Claymore change it's orientation. Hope had calculated the trajectory, and it had pointed at her.
If that was Alex or Kara, Lena didn't know, but her heart suspected Alex. Kara had been too desperate to convince save her despite Lena trapping her in kryptonite.
This was a detail she hadn't told Sam. How could she?
Sam was all she had left, and she was the loophole in Lex's plans. Because whatever he planned, it might be worse than the red sun incident or Red Daughter/Kaznia. Prior Lex had been too free with his military toys during crises, but he'd been far kinder and more accepting than Earth-38 Lex.
No, trusting Lex, even after his truthseeker confession, was a dangerous situation. Lena had seen Lex's tells when the truthseeker sat on his arm. He'd omitted things, said only what he believed was true to convince her.
But what had he omitted? What did she fail to see?
A cold breeze ruffled the branches of the vines, and needles shook loose to drift softly into the snow. Ahead the clearing where benches loomed before a fountain. Lena stopped at the edge or the pine forest and ducked behind a trunk.
There, sitting on the central bench, Kara sat watching the sky, where a few snow flurries danced above the fountain, it's water shut off and a thin layer of ice over what remained in its marbled bowl.
Her golden hair hung loose, and the wind whipped to the left, locks drifting across her face. She looked ethereal in the light of the setting sun, her skin almost aglow. Her glasses were in her hands as she cleaned them with a white cloth. She wore no protective gear for the cold, no scarf, no winter coat, no boots, just a navy blue jacket and jeans with sneakers.
The grief and pain in her soul pulsed with the love that she'd failed to exorcise. Her urge to walk over, push Kara against the bench, and kiss her haunted her thoughts. Nothing had exorcised that desire from her traitorous heart.
She leaned against the rough bark, and nibbled on her bottom lip. Maybe she should leave now, before anyone noticed her.
But the thought of the truthseeker on Kara kept her rooted in place. She needed the truth, all of it unfiltered. No more omitting facts, no more lying, no more half-truths.
Part of her dreaded what she'll find, another part urged her to push forward with the plan, and yet another part burned with a desire to just run from everyone. To leave this cursed city and disappear from everyone.
Footsteps caught her attention, and she sighted Sam on the opposite side of the clearing. No, she'd ghosted Sam once already. Of all the people in her life, Sam hadn't ever betrayed her. She didn't deserve to be hurt again by Lena.
Sam rounded the fountain, a duffel bag over her shoulder, and her winter coat a different color than what Lena remembered. On Earth-38, Sam wore darker colors, often navy blue, black, or brown. Here she wore a forest green winter coat with brown cuffs and collar.
"Hey Kara! Thanks for meeting." Sam waved with a smile. "I know you've been really busy lately."
"Yeah." Kara brushed off snow. "It's weird to see snow in California."
"Polar vortex dipped too far south again." Sam shrugged. "Lena was studying it by the way. Had an idea on how to stabilize the climate, but..." She dropped onto the bench next to Kara, her duffel at her feet. "It's been a weird few weeks."
"Yeah. That's for sure." Kara's laugh sounded forced. "Was anyone else meeting us?"
"Yeah, one more." Sam scanned the clearing. Lena tried to keep out of sight in the pines, but her friend was far too observant. "Lena, stop hiding, girl. I can see that red jacket."
Lena sighed and stepped out from behind the pine. She tugged on her fingers nervously. "Hi." She didn't know what else to say.
"Lena?" Kara shot to her feet, her eyes wide. "What -- what are you doing here?"
Gingerly, Lena stepped out of the pine's safety and onto the stone tiles of the clearing. "I -- I was asked by Sam to come as well."
Kara frowned. "Last time we talked you almost threw a wine glass at my head."
"Wait she did?" Sam looked between the two. "Well, I suppose that's better than the microscope at Jack's head."
That was another weird thing about this reality. Jack still lived, but prior Lena had never dated Jack. Instead, she'd dated a lot of women, no men at all. Another major difference -- prior Lena was a lesbian, but Earth-38 Lena was a bisexual.
"A microscope?" Kara repeated. "What did he do?"
"Irritated me," Lena said, with a shrug. "His testing plans were ridiculous, and he wasn't listening to me." She walked to the bench, but didn't sit down. "Um, so, did Sam tell you what this is about?"
Kara glanced at the dufflebag. "Sort of? She said she'd bring a truthseeker to help mediate between us."
"Both of us will take turns with it," Lena said. She sat down on the armrest of the nearby bench. Cold seeped into her clothes. "The full truth, no holding back."
Kara nibbled on her bottom lip. "Okay."
Lena frowned. "Just okay? No self-righteous speech about how I should trust you without it?"
Kara sighed. "I don't want to fight you, Lena. If this helps you then I'll do it."
Sam unzipped her bag and pulled out a silver cylinder. "I admit, this is weird. Both of you are not acting like the Kara and Lena I knew." She settled the cylinder on her lap and shook her head. "Lena had been panicking over whether she should ask you out before-- before whatever caused this weird change."
Lena looked down at her hands. She'd read that in prior Lena's journals, and it had hurt so much. Prior Lena had confidence in everything but love, and yet, she'd still been more courageous than Earth-38 Lena. Prior Lena admitted to her love, while Earth-38 Lena hid from it.
"Wait, you were going to ask me out?" Kara leaned closer to Lena. "Really?"
"Prior Lena," she said flatly. "It's in her journals. She was a meticulous record keeper. Better than even myself."
Sam shook her head. "Comments like that sure make this surreal. So who wants to go first?"
"I will." Kara pushed up her sleeve and held out her arm. "Do it, Sam."
Lena said nothing, only watched as Sam carefully keyed the code and opened one end. She tilted it into Kara's lap.
The unnerving creature slipped out and wrapped its appendages around Kara's arm. The hiss of not-quite pain escaped Kara's lips, and a hint of redness blossomed around the tentacles.
"Ask away," Kara said, her voice trembling slightly as she looked at Lena.
"Did you ever trust me?" Lena couldn't meet Kara's gaze, so she picked at her cuticles instead.
"Yes. I did."
Lena frowned. "Are you immune to that thing or what? How can you say you trusted me and yet you used me."
"Lena," Kara said, fervently. "I did trust you. It's myself I didn't trust. I made a big mistake by using James to go behind your back and search for kryptonite. I'd been so wrapped up in pain at seeing my people harm Earth again, that when I heard synthesized, all I saw was red. And red would have doomed us."
"Red what?" Lena demanded. "It sounds like you're just making up excuses."
"Red Kryptonite," Kara said, her voice strangled almost. "Max Lord made it on Earth-38. It... it brings out the darkest parts of me, and people almost died. Alex and J'onn had to use everything they had to subdue me enough for the cure."
Red welts appeared along the edges of the wrapped tentacles. Something she'd never seen on Kara's skin before -- her always flawless skin, always flawless hair, always perfect in every way. More signs that she was not fully human if Lena had been more observant.
Or maybe more honest with herself.
"Is that your excuse? Past trauma giving you the right to use people I cared about and my name against me?" Lena wanted to slap Kara, but that'd likely break her hand.
"It's not an excuse, Lena. It's my truth. I fucked up, and I'm sorry."
The curseword stole all the angry accusations from Lena's lips. She'd never heard Kara curse ever.
"So," Sam said, cautiously. "Lots of bad blood between you two. My question is, what is real? This Earth-38 or our current world?"
Kara slumped against the bench. "Earth-38 and the multiverse at large was destroyed in the antimatter wave. It took all of us paragons -- and there wasn't many of us honestly -- to end that threat and restore the multiverse. I don't think Earth-38 will ever exist again." Pain coated her voice. "I couldn't save them."
"I couldn't either," Lena pointed out. "I build that massive portal, evacuated who I could, and yet we still died on Earth-1, didn't we? So all our actions were pointless."
"Never," Kara snapped. "We still thought we had a chance to win when that happened. You saved so many, Lena. You didn't have to do that. You could have turned Alex away."
"I'm not a monster," Lena said. She dropped onto the bench proper, and rested her arms on her knees, her hands clasped. "All I've ever wanted is to do good."
"Then do good now!" Kara said, earnestly. "Help us against Leviathan and Lex. Don't --"
"Stop." Lena struggled against an urge to cry. Why was she doing this? It felt like torture. Her heart ached, and she didn't deserve this second chance at life. "I manipulated you for months, Kara. Used you to finish my project. I encased you in a kryptonite prison."
"Yeah, that was awful." Kara winced. "More than awful. Like lava in my veins, but you didn't leave me there. It melted the moment you left, and you'd programmed a drone to saturate me with the sunlight I needed to recover," Kara pointed out. "You could have killed me, but you didn't."
Lena didn't say anything. She couldn't kill Kara.
She was capable of killing her own brother, but she couldn't kill Kara.
Her nightmares about Lex's death had returned with a vengeance since she woke in this hell world. She could feel the heft of the pistol in her hands. The stench of gunpowder as she shot her own brother. Her ears still echoed with the gasps of his breaths between his rants. He had checkmated her, and the truth he'd revealed about Kara obliterated Lena's heart.
"Why try to save me?" Lena watched the snow blow across the fountain's ice. "I saw Claymore reorient itself to face my location. You could have fired it."
"No! I would have caught caught it, taken the blast myself."
Lena's eyes darted to the truthseeker still on Kara's arm. The red welts had grown. Next to Kara, Sam sat silent, her eyes on the truthseeker, and a troubled expression on her face.
"Why?" Lena leaned closer to Kara, one arm against the bench's armrest. "Why are you so damn determined to save me? I'm not worth this effort, Kara. You should have let me die that day."
"Never. I can't lose you, Lena. I can't." Pain etched into Kara's voice.
"Why? Why can't you?" Lena snapped. "Why do you persist? You didn't care before! Lying to my face over and over again. And I, the lovesick fool, fell for it every time."
"Lena, when I was just Kara with you, I wasn't ever lying." The pain in Kara's voice echoed with a deep grief. "I can't lose you because I love you." Her face reddened, and she looked at the truthseeker.
Lena breathed in sharply. "Love?"
"Yes," Kara said, weakly. "I love you. And I wanted to protect you. But I was a coward. I couldn't be just Kara with you, even though I tried so hard. If either of us should have died in Crisis, it should have been me."
The red welts crept up Kara's arm. Lena couldn't take her eyes off it. "What's happening to your arm?" She pointed to the affected areas.
"I think I'm allergic to it," Kara whispered.
"Okay, that's enough." Sam double tapped the creature, and it unwrapped from Kara. It's slimy skin glistened with a soft blue glow, and it slithered back into its cylinder. "I'm sorry, Kara. I can go run and grab some Aloe Vera for you?"
"No need, Sam." Kara smiled, tiredly. "Time in the sunlight will heal this."
Lena stared at Kara's arm, the confession rattling against the sight of the allergic reaction.
Sam closed the cylinder and shifted to tuck it into her bag. "If you're allergic, then I don't think we should risk anyone--"
"Do it, Sam." Lena tugged her arm out of her coat and held it out. The cold bit into her arm, and she steeled herself. "I said both of us, and I, unlike some, follow through on promises."
"Lena..." Sam frowned. "What if you're allergic too?"
"I don't care. Just do it."
Kara looked back and forth between two, her brow scrunched with worry. She stayed silent, one hand lightly rubbing her sores.
Sam grumbled but walked over and opened the cylinder above Lena's arm. The creature slid out and wrapped around Lena's arm, and a rush of chemicals seethed into her veins.
Lena gasped at the mixture of pain and an intense desire to speak bloomed within her.
"Ask your questions, Kara," Sam said, sharply.
Kara stared at the truthseeker. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes. No. yes." Lena struggled against the urge to scream her truth. To hold herself back somehow, but whatever the truthseeker slipped into her blood overcame her. "I trust you to keep me alive. I trust you to come to my rescue. But I don't trust you with my heart. You broke it."
Kara took a haggard breath, her eyes haunted. "I'm sorry, Lena. Truly I am."
"Stop apologizing!" Lena snapped. "Ask me why! Ask me why it hurt so much, Kara!"
Kara flinched. "Okay, okay, why did it hurt so much?"
The words exploded out of her. "Because I'm in love with you. All I wanted was you. It's why I bought Catco. For you. It's why I led it and gave Sam L-Corp's CEO position. To be close to you. Why do you think I filled your office with flowers?" Tears stung her eyes, and she gulped back a sob. "To learn you never trusted me with your true self?"
"But I did! You saw me, the me I wanted so badly to be, and if it weren't for you, I would have lost myself after losing Mon-el." Kara darted to her feet and dropped down in front of Lena. "You are my light, Lena. My heart. And I'll never stop fighting for you." She started to reach for Lena's hands, but Sam intervened and pushed her back.
"How can I trust that?" Lena blurted. "I'm scared. I'm scared to trust again, scared to love you. I should have died, Kara." Tears blurred her vision, and yet she couldn't stop. The truthseeker pulsed its toxins into her, pushing her to spill her truth. "I erased prior Lena, who was a much better person than me. I'm a murderer, a villain, a monster that should have died."
"No!" Kara shouted, frustrated. "You deserve life."
"Okay, that's enough." Sam tapped the truthseeker and collected it in its container. It left slight red marks on Lena's arm, but nothing compared to Kara's. "No one deserves death, for God's sake." Sam ran a hand through her hair and tossed it over her shoulder. "You two have apparently gone through hell on Earth-38." She locked the lid and stowed it in the bag. "But this is getting ridiculous. I want you both to talk, while I return this. When I get back, you two better have talked this out, or I'm gonna lock you two in a room for a week. Don't test me."
Lena shoved her arm back into her warm coat, and zipped it shut. "Fine." She felt raw, exposed, but the truth had been laid bare. The truthseeker had done it's duty.
Kara clenched her hands into fists but said nothing. True to her word, Sam slung the bag over her shoulder and marched to the south, the far end of the park.
"Would Sam really lock us in a room?" Kara said after a long moment of silence.
"Yes." Lena chuckled softly, but it felt hollow still. "She locked me and Jack in a room to force us to talk through a rather ridiculous fight. I was being stubborn. She even barricaded the door."
"Well then." Kara sat back on her heels, her hands on her knees. She looked up at Lena. "I suppose we should talk then?"
Lena wiped her eyes. "I guess."
"Lena," Kara reached out, but her hand hovered between them, uncertainty on her face. "Can we start over? This time honesty and trust will be our cornerstone. And we can rebuild from there?"
This was the one difference between Lex with the truthseeker and Kara. Lex didn't love her. He'd chose his words carefully for maximum manipulation. He hadn't worn the truthseeker long, only enough for him to say the words he knew Lena wanted to hear.
He refused to keep it on for her questions.
But Kara had worn it long enough to blister her skin.
Lena reached out tentatively and grasped Kara's hand. She tugged Kara closer, her other hand gently running along the edge of the red welts. "This is new to me," she said softly. "I -- starting over feels overwhelming. Can it really be that easy?"
"Who said it'd be easy?" Kara settled between Lena's legs, her face upturned. Her gorgeous blue eyes met Lena's emerald ones, and her hair hung in soft ringlets around her beautiful face.
Lena's other hand betrayed her and tucked a lock of Kara's hair behind her ear. She bit her lip, and tucked both her hands under her legs. "I'm tired, Kara. Tired of fighting." She bowed her head, her hair cascading around her face. The snow seeped into her pants, and the wet spread its coldness to her skin. "I'm in hell. Lex masterminded all of this, and that makes us what? Pawns on a chessboard? I murdered my own brother for you. I stained my soul forever. Only for him to somehow survive." She laughed bitterly. "I'm a monster, Kara."
"No. No you're not." Kara gently tugged Lena's hand free and rubbed her thumb over her skin. Warmth radiated from Kara's hand. "You did what you needed to keep us all safe. You deserve care and love. Rebuilding will be hard, I know, but I think you're worth it. I wouldn't have agreed to come if I didn't believe that. Nor would I have tried to warn you about Lex once I woke up here."
Lena thought of the prior Lena's journals. Of the projects she'd been doing, projects Earth-38 had forgone to focus on Harun-el-- her hubris nearly destroying what she'd hoped to save. Or her revenge, once again abandoning projects that could have really helped people out of her delusions of grandeur.
"I'm not better than Lex," Lena said. "Sam's right. Non Nocere is just another mind control project. One Lex will definitely find a way to twist and pervert."
"Then don't do it. Work on other things." Kara leaned closer, her face inches from Lena's own. "Let me work with you. I was the youngest in centuries to be accepted to Krypton's Science Guild, at least before it died." She took a deep breath. "So maybe earth science uses odd units and programming languages, but I can learn it. You don't have to do it all alone, Lena. Please, let's start over. This time on the right foot."
Lena leaned her forehead against Kara's. The warmth seeped into her, and she took a shaky breath. "Okay."
#This turned into a much longer fic than I planned#lena luthor#supercorp#kara danvers#supergirl#After Crisis#Honestly the show didn't really give us how much Lena would be haunted by killing Lex#Plus this new world would have histories that differed from Earth-38 and I'm sure Lena would research that#And what she found likely haunted her too.#Plus I really wanted to bring Sam back because I love Sam. She's Lena's ride or die friend#Sam would talk Lena out of the mind control project easily I think#Also the messing up the climate from worldkillers would take much longer for the Earth to recover so I wanted to play with that
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sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'
#red said#recent events have reminded me that my life has involved like. a LOT of other people's psychosis#like not in a way where i have been Beset By Terrifying Crazies bc that's not like. a thing.#but a lot of people in my life have had a lot of really severe psychotic episodes#and i FORGET sometimes. that actually that is an Unusual Amount Of Experience With Psychosis for someone who's not#for somebody who has not really personally ever had psychotic episodes (unless severe PTSD flashbacks count)#actually i tell a lie i have maybe had One psychotic episode but because it was very situational and i knew what was happening#i was able to ride it out. because i am literally only psychotic Inside Hospitals and so that's all fine#as long as i LITERALLY NEVER HAVE TO HAVE INPATIENT CARE. Very important to me to never ever ever require surgery i think.#i can handle the amount of psychosis i get from a 1-4 hour stopoff in hospital#as long as i know I'm leaving soon then i can just Cope with the fact that the walls are moving and reality is thin#ANYWAY that's not the point the point is i forget! that most ppl i know have experience of at most a handful of severe psychotic episodes#some people i know have experienced more for sure. especially if the episodes were mostly theirs.#but people really seem to expect me to be more freaked out by their symptoms of psychosis than i am#bc i don't think i really register it as frightening unless they're in actual danger or Currently Aggressing Actually At Me#like i WORRY about them bc it can super suck but it's not SHOCKING or WEIRD#there have definitely been times ive been frightened. one time i woke up in the night and my friend was standing over me with a knife#but also like he was still HIM he was just having a moment. and as soon as i got the knife off him he just came back and broke down.#and we were fine and he was safe and i learnt the valuable lesson that even when people seem like they wanna kill you they probably don't#tbf now I'm thinking about it it's honestly a tossup whether he was there to threaten or because he felt a need to guard us#like to be clear probably don't try and take a knife off someone having a psychotic break. i was 17 and it was 3am and i knew him very well#i probably did not make the smartest call but nobody got hurt is the point#anyway you know there's that kind of psychotic episode and my granny got very violently angry a few times. buuuut you know there's also#been plenty of other times I've been with somebody having an episode and it's been chill as hell.#my ex saw and heard monsters so much that eventually she just got sick of being scared. we used to watch TV with them#i would sometimes have to sit on a bit of sofa that wasn't haunted and we might not be able to watch certain things bc they didn't like it#most of the time she was hallucinating there was absolutely nothing to worry about we just had a few extra variables#honestly of everyone i know who's had psychotic episodes or schizophrenia the amount of times it's been a material risk#is like. low single figures? maybe low double if you include self harm but idk what the cause and effect is there.#idk why you would need to be frightened like 99.99% of the time it truly is usually just Oh No That Seems Distressing For You I'm Sorry
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and if i wrote about rose and her weird uncle (?) getting into shenanigans around town, what then?
#the ? is bc no one is really sure if that’s her uncle or maybe a family friend?#but he’s very strange and likes to talk about himself like he isn’t human#think 12 as the janitor of coal hill#i just think it would be fun to write about how they look to outsiders#14 picks up rose from school and is like ‘rose. rose! i finally got your mother to agree to let you have one (1) tardis ride.#‘to anywhere?’ ‘ah well. she specifically said i could pick you up and take you home so. no. but! i’ll stop and get us fish and chips :)’#‘don’t tell your mother’#doctor who#14th doctor#rose temple noble
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He said "Fuck this shit, I'm out" I'm crying. Toriyama's Vegeta was so top shelf 🤌
(From Neko Majin Z Chapter 5!)
#dbtag#Idk why Toei didn't lean into Vegeta being a version of Piccolo you could put in funnier situations like Toriyama wrote#He's reserved and professional and proud but JUST immature enough to bite down on a gag that Piccolo would readily swerve#But they take a lot of Goku's chaotic comedy away too in favor of Hero(tm) writing and that is why I keep pulling my hair out aklsjdlas#Toriyama was sO funny and it bums me out so much that the anime derailed how lighthearted and straight up silly the humor is#and replaced it with Misogyny Is Funny and humiliation kinks asjklfhadjk and it's not just my complaints about Vegeta and Bulma!!#“Goku is running away from his very reasonable wife because he is a goofy little guy who doesn't want to do his chores” becomes#“Chichi is Cruel to Goku who is Trying to be a good husband because she doesn't relate to his passions and vilifies him for having them"#which is not their dynamic at all but dudes in the writing room are like “being married is fucking awful amirite fellas hahaha”#but Toriyama was like “Being married is not for everybody but it can be really great if you and your partner are on the same page”#Chichi's reasonable! And Goku isn't romantically wired but Goku can enthusiastically consent to sex and still not enjoy kissing#those things can be and are true for a lot of people! And it makes even more sense if you hc Goku to be aspec (and audhd coded) like I do#Kissing can feel gross and can be a sensory overload for many folks. Doesn't mean they're stupid or innocent.#(although Goku CAN still ride nimbus so idk what Pure entails in this universe askljad)#Like I am the FIRST person to joke and drag Goku about his marriage as an aspec myself but like legit Goten is a Last Night On Earth baby#He knows what sex is. But also between how socially removed Goku is and how Shy and Conservative Chichi it's not out of line#to assume the actual words sex and kiss have never been spoken in that house skljdlajdf I FULLY believe Chichi uses code words#Chichi thinks her son being blonde makes him a delinquent and still uses honorifics with Goku like it is fully reasonable to assume#that the joke of Goku's naivetè centers around the fact that his wife is too embarrassed to talk about Certain Matters in a normal way#While Bulma and Vegeta are slutty hedonistic cityfolk who need jesus (according to chichi probably...and me but I support them)#anyway. point is. Toriyama was funny as hell and Nekomajin is absolutely ridiculous and goofy and has a fully amoral main character#which just reminded me that toei is allergic to letting goku be a gremlin and so vegeta's not allowed to be a gremlin wrangler#even though that's been his job since the day he met raditz alksdjaskljd
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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
↳ Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games // The Gang Goes Bowling
#iasip#it's always sunny in philadelphia#dennis reynolds#sunny sweet 16#LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN TO ME. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME DENNIS. HE WAS NEVER EMOTIONLESS.#YOU JUST HAVE TO WATCH HIM.#the ONLY reason he didnt react during chardee macdennis is because their win was riding on it#the sunny wiki for so long saying this was proof of him being emotionless or somehow Immune To Pain#when he is LITERALLY WINCING AND SAYING OW AFTER THE FACT#it's the exact same thing as what mac and charlie were talking about with dee during emotional battery#she can get through that and then cry once theyve won. dennis can take a dart to the hand and be visibly in pain afterwards#and also i imagine breaking every bone in his hand is probably more painful than a dart jdsfkjsv#ada speaks#ada's gifs#I DIDNT WANT TO REBLOG SUNNYKEYSMASH'S POST IN CASE IT CAME OFF AS INFLAMMATORY BUT IM HAVING FEELINGS ABOUT THIS COMPARISON SO UH SHOUTOUT#EDIT: CONTEXT WAS NOT THAT SUNNYKEYSMASH CLAIMED HE WAS EMOTIONLESS I JUST WAS INSPIRED AFTER SEEING A POST#i was mad at dudebros using the dart scene as evidence for him being a sociopath and it just reminded me jshvfkjsd
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OC Smash or Pass
Tagged by the ever so lovely @carlosoliveiraa @adelaidedrubman @socially-awkward-skeleton @strafethesesinners thank you!!
RULES: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).
For further propaganda, here's her tag on my oc blog
QUICK FACTS:
Full Name: Sidra Navros Height: 5'7 Age: 27 Gender: Female Pronouns: She/Her Sexuality: Bisexual
PROS:
- High libido/Kinky (sex is life changing) - Devoted/Romantic - Painter (will paint you like one of her french girls) - Animal & Nature lover - Protective (if someone wrongs you, she'll take that personally lol. she'll fight your fights) - Likes to gift things to her partners/friends (if she sees something and it makes her think of you, she'll pick it up. i.e. something you mentioned liking or whatnot)
CONS:
- Jealous/Petty/Vindictive (plays the long game w/revenge) - Unhinged/Low sanity (sometimes, mostly she's toootally fine!) - Has a handful of vices (smoking, drinking, occasional substance abuse, likes to fight, likes to party, etc) - Doesn't trust easily/Has more than a few secrets (doesn't like when others she's interested in has secrets though) - Sometimes develops feelings for a fwb/one night stand (says she won't, is usually lying) - Lots of admirers, probably has an a few unhinged ex(es) out there
Tagging @clicheantagonist @tommyarashikage @alexxmason
@inafieldofdaisies @la-grosse-patate @direwombat (no pressure ofc!)
#i struggled to think of all of these pros & cons even though i know sid like the back of my hand so. sorry if its a bit shite. also late soz#it was a big debate on who i was gonna use for this but Sid won. out of all my ocs; shes basically the show pony lolol#bisexual as in gender doesnt matter to her. as long as you vibe w/her you're all good#sidra is the FREAK of all freaks. she'll introduce you to things you've never even thought of. come into this smash w/a safety word bestie#keeps saying she'll quit smoking (she is trying but like. is it her fault that a cig just ENDS UP in her hand during stressful situations?)#also makes a top tier bff if you dont want to smash. takes ride or die literally
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🚲
#random personal stuff#my boss is offering me her bicycle which she can't take with her when she moves#I never learned to ride one (it's complicated please don't mock me) so I have no immediate use for it#but part of me is wondering if this is a sign that I need to finally learn#not a good day to make decisions though#socked with stupid emotions and very cynical about any self-improvement efforts right now#so I don't know#would much rather have her around a little longer than the bicycle
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rtc oct day 3!
prompt: oc
i don’t have any rtc ocs so i decided to cast some of my ocs into rtc! destiny “dt” tan, the most successful girl in town
ezel zorlu, the most romantic kid in town
monroe mcgrath, the angriest boy in town
hugo katz, the most imaginative boy in town
cassandra butler, the nicest girl in town
joan doe (devon singh), a mystery
#would like it noted that ezel doesn’t have long hair and i was trying to do the noel costume#if this were fr them in rtc the vibes would be so wild#dt’s repressed queer energy and ezel’s openly queer energy mixing and then THEM being the one’s to kiss in noel’s lament???? wild#the song talia would be about monroe’s massive crush on cassandra and she wouldn’t even know bc he’d be using a code name#hugo and devon would just be sitting and vibing together whenever they could#bc you can take the memory out of the kids but you can’t take the 8+ years out of friendship out of the kids#nnnnnnnngh i could rant on and on about these dynamicsssss but will stop here for now unless someone wants to hear more#ride the cyclone art#ride the cyclone musical#ride the cyclone#rtc#rtc oct#aster does art#aster’s ocs
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THE BEST OF PRIORITY: SUR'KESH
Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Lt. James Vega, EDI, and Urdnot Wrex With: Lt. Steve Cortez, Dr. Mordin Solus, Major Kirrahe, and Urdnot Bakara And a Special Guest Appearance by: Adm. Steven Hackett Alliance R&D has officially begun construction on the Prothean device. The team has dubbed it: "Project Crucible". We're throwing everybody who knows how to throw a hammer at it. This is gonna be the most ambitious undertaking in human history. I'm not saying it won't be a challenge- but we can do this, Shepard. You can do this. Never doubt that. Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)
+BONUS (the smirk™️)
#mira makes gifs ✨#sophie shepard#james vega#EDI#urdnot wrex#steve cortez#mordin solus#mass effect#mass effect 3#me3#mass effect legendary edition#dailygaming#i feel like i probably should have split the actually sur'kesh set in half like i did with mars#but i got lazy after i split out the normandy summit gifs and i wanted to keep the rest of the mission together lol#wrex having small conversation moments with james and EDI was everything to me#bc with both of them it felt like wrex passing on some of his old kid on the block knowledge to the new kids on the block and i just 🥺#like i didn't get it in the gif but the second part of that convo with james he says something like#'you're one of shep's new recruits? hang on kid- it's a hell of a ride!' and when i tell you i SOBBED#like the entire first half of this playthrough is soph taking her newer squadmates out to help her build the army for the reaper war#so running into all these old friends/teammates and hearing them share their wisdom with james and EDI as new recruits is everything to me!#also EDI and james look very cute in their armor (ESPECIALLY EDI IN HER HUNTER HOOD I LOVE HER YOUR HONOR)#i'm just gonna say wrex's little tongue out at the salarians in the background of padok's gif sent me so hard i had to include it LMAO#and i'd write something about the mordin cameo but the mordin cameo on tuchanka is better so i'll save my thoughts for that one#ig thanks for being wrex's inside man mordin you were real for that one#the real salarian homie of this mission was kirrahe and i love him (he's my favorite and i adore him thank you for coming to my TEDtalk) :)#and i will also say that i adore bakara and she's the highlight of this mission for me bc of the lines but also like???#her grabbing the shotgun from wrex to take out the cerberus troops is everything and his expression afterwards is *chef's kiss*#and SOPH'S LITTLE SMIRK LMAOOOOOOO i had to include it bc i saw it in the back and it sent me to the next dimension lol#and since i just use the tags to share all my annoying little thoughts on a final note:#i included the elevator bomb scene bc in soph's canon she gets injured during it for the shenko angst pre-coup bc i'm an angsty bitch :)
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I think that to boost morale after especially large disasters the ninja should host pokemon contest-esque shows.
Just them showing off their powers in fun ways, they can occasionally get a few of the other elemental masters in- usually it's Skylor. They let audience members come up too. Just something to keep spirits up a small bit
#lloyd taking some energy and twisting it into the kids favorite animals#kai lighting small fires and changing the colors of them#nya making water pillars and having zane freeze them#jay being able to add a little crackle of electricity in them that make them sparkle#cole giving piggyback rides because his powers are too destructive to be flashy#skylor coming in and borrowing everyones powers#and letting the kids play a guessing game of what she's going to use#also she'd probably donate food#i just think it would be cool#lego ninjago#ninjago headcanon#ninjago zane#ninjago kai#ninjago nya#ninjago jay#ninjago lloyd#ninjago skylor
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if you consider Hermione in the films a Mary sue consider yourself an opp
#edit: don’t take this insanely siriusly it was made because I was annoyed#SHE IS SO FLAWED SHUT UP#yes yes not as flawed in the books yes yes she took some of Ron’s lines but oh my good literally shut up#if I say movie ron was very realistic with the cards he was dealt I’d get burned at the stake probably so I won’t#ron and Hermione were ride or die for him in both the books and movies#Mary sue is also a term not inherently wrong and useful in some writing circumstances but it IS often used in a misogynistic way#I personally find the term kinda stupid but I understand it’s use#I could also yap about the books and the misogyny riddled in each woman character but I won’t rn lol#anti jkr#edit: not THAT flawed compared to her book counterpart but she was NOT a Mary Sue please
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mhmmm thinking of biker! Simon 'ghost' riley and his amazingly smart gf who's a woman in STEM
#im thinking#im a powerhorse with the amount of aus n inspo n ideas i have rn#like biker ghost n his nerdy lil gf studying for post grad/phd#him coming to pick her up and taking her on a ride around town cuz he knows how overwhelming postgrad studying can get#and how she needs a break sometimes#he'd be so gentle too#like#'c'mere lovie let us get some fresh air'#so warm so fuzzy so nice#everyone deserves a biker bf like simon fr#call of duty#cod#cod:mw2#simon ghost riley x you#simon ghost riley x reader#char.simon ghost riley#celena.rambles
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I’ve been going in circles thinking about how Mei would 100% take it upon herself to initiate Macaque into the group.
I mean we’ve already seen her interact with Red Son with little to no fear or trepidation of him being “a bad guy.” So Macaque’s brooding “leave me alone” shtick isn’t going to work on her.
I’d imagine she would just keep showing up out of nowhere to socialize him like a feral cat.
#lmk#lego monkie kid#monkie kid#he warms up to her eventually#she teaches him how to ride a motorcycle#he in turn shows her how to cook cause I mean#do you /think/ Mei can cook?#also she definitely read a book that Sandy lent her on socializing feral cats and used the tactics on macaque#I will die on the hill that Mei is the first one to kinda sink into a new normal with him#she’d totally poke fun and tease him in a way almost nobody else could get away with#and he takes it and teases back cause he likes her
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My 93 year old Korean grandmother just danced the Gangnam Style 💀
#god I love her#this is the same woman that woke up at 2:30 AM this morning to pick up miscellaneous sticks in our front yard T-T#she’s 93 as of the 23rd and still rides her bike every morning and picks up the sticks in our front yard#well actually it’s a tricycle#not because we ask her to#but because she just… is bored and wants things to be clean djdjd#I was baking a pumpkin pie yesterday#and she was taking all the dirty dishes and washing them 💀#and whenever I’d try to be like ‘oh I can do those halmeoni’#my mom would be like ‘no… give her something to do; she’s bored’ T-T#but she loves it I guess#oh also this is her first time spending Christmas with us#so it’s been wonderful <3#Izzy bitty slice of life
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Lexapro sucked but I feel like it did prevent me from feeling severe work anxiety......now Im lowering my dose and I can hardly stand the stress. 🫠
#i used to show up 20 minutes early so i could have time to calm myself at the train station#and when i left for the day I'd completely fall apart on the ride home#that was several months ago and overall I've gotten better at Coping with my boss#but now im regressing I can feel it#Same old fears and stresses#I don't like being alone with my boss she makes me very anxious even though she doesn't mean to#i keep FORGETTING i have anxiety because the depression really takes the front seat most of the time#by being. life threatening.#vile-wizard.txt
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does anyone else's mom think they are "mean" for having boundaries? or is that just my mom?
#me: maybe there is a reason none of his 4 daughters speak to our cousin anymore. should we really invite him over to christmas?#my mom: i'm not ignoring red flags. i just don't feel the need to be so mean and not invite him over anyway!#me: okay.#she is so completely attracted to weak and failed men#the more they use her the more she wants to be around them#it's like... have you not noticed that this man only calls when he needs money or rides or a free caretaker???#she will literally ALWAYS find the money to take care of men like this but will happily screw me and my credit score over if she doesn't#feel like paying a bill that month#literally my score is a 542 right now and i have mommy dearest to thank for that along with my own stupidity in trusting her not to be#an idiot when it comes to money but she will never change on that front#lol but she found a way to give thousands to my dad this year#it's honestly like she HATES any woman who is competent and not serving men#it's like she thinks it's her duty to harm herself financially to care for men
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