#see you in like. several months!

[theminecraftbee]

The room is a dim basement room. It has no windows. There’s a liquor cabinet, though, and a bookshelf full of notebooks, and a table and chairs, and a candle lighting the place. The candle doesn’t let off much smoke, but it’s steadily alight, indicating that the room’s oxygen content is still acceptable. A small, blinking device next to it confirms that any other electronic device in the area is well and truly dead. There’s tape sealing the door, so that no one can see the flicker of the candle inside.

There’s a bottle of brandy on the table. The glasses suggest neither party is bothering to savor it. It’s not a brand worth savoring, anyway; for all Scott could easily afford the expensive stuff, that’s not what he feels like he should drink while he’s down here.

He’s slumped forward on the table, hair askew. The hoodie he’s wearing doesn’t fit, because it isn’t his; neither are the sweatpants. He knows for a fact his contact is laughing at him for that. Whatever. She’s one of the only people who gets to know he has enough of a personal life to steal sweats from someone else anyway. May as well take advantage of that while he can. It’s not all impeccably-designed bulletproof suits out here.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” Pearl says from across the table.

“Fuck off,” Scott says.

“...are you already drunk?”

Scott huffs. “So what if I am, huh? It’s not like I need to be alert while you’re out here in full costume.”

Pearl peels herself off the wall. She’s a relatively muscular woman wearing red and black. Her face is masked with a simple red circle. A lunar eclipse. Scott still has no idea how she sees through that thing. He’d made fun of her, back when she chose the getup for her criminal activities. Told her she looked like an evil dinnerplate or something. She’d told him in turn that he looked like a pretentious dork in his chosen costume. Judging by the whispers through the Hero Association about the two of them, though—

God. Through his Hero Association, or just about his. 

“Promoted to Vice Commander, huh?”

“I’ve sold my soul,” Scott says, and he takes another deep swig of his brandy. 

“You already did,” Pearl says.

“God, I hate you,” Scott says.

“It’s a good thing the feeling’s mutual,” Pearl says.

“I wish we’d never fucking met,” Scott says.

“I killed someone yesterday,” Pearl says.

Scott’s quiet.

“You can’t go telling me that,” Scott says. “That’s another thing to hide. You can’t just—Pearl.”

“I know,” Pearl says. “I know. But for all everyone’s scared of me, I normally manage to avoid—”

“Hah. We were both there when—”

“I know,” Pearl says. 

Scott sighs. He pours Pearl a glass and pushes it across the table. Pearl takes off her mask. Her eyes are rimmed red, and her face is covered in splotches. She’s always been terrible at hiding she’s been crying. She’s been terrible at it since they were ten, and had both quite suddenly realized that if it had been hard to have their powers alone, it was even harder once there was evidence they weren’t both just going crazy.

He’s hated her since he was eleven, really. Took the year to realize he probably would have always seen what his powers gave him as useless nightmares, otherwise, but after that, well. The feeling’s mutual, at least. He wouldn’t have been able to stand it, if the feeling hadn’t been mutual.

(A girl who can see deaths, and a boy who can see alternate universes. They make quite the pair.)

“I probably kill more people,” mutters Scott, halfway between a consolation and a competition.

“Not with your own hands.”

“Yeah, does that make it better? I’ve sold my—you know this. You know this.”

“Yeah,” Pearl says. “Yeah, I know. Thought I should congratulate you on succeeding.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!”

They’re both quiet for a while. Pearl takes a drink from her own glass and grimaces. “You can afford better brandy than this,” she says.

“Fuck off,” Scott says. “I can buy the cheap stuff for this.”

“Your taste is stupid,” Pearl says primly. “Next time we come down here to plan, I bring the drinks.”

“Right. Planning. Because we’re doing so much of that today.”

Pearl sighs. “Does Jimmy know you’re here?”

“Jimmy doesn’t exist, as far as you’re concerned,” Scott snaps. “I buried the man’s documents myself.”

“Eclipse will make anyone exist for the right price,” Pearl tells Scott.

“Jimmy doesn’t, or you don’t,” Scott snaps, voice low.

“Oh, now you’re sounding like a Vice Commander.” Scott gives her a two-fingered salute. Pearl shrugs. “Just saying.”

Scott considers arguing harder. Instead, something in his stomach shifts, and he pours a full glass of brandy. It’s not how you’re supposed to drink the stuff. He might have a good tolerance by now, but he fully expects to wake up with the worst hangover he’s had in years tomorrow. He deserves it.

“You uh… got enough alcohol there?” Pearl says.

“Got unclassified access to the Black Ops files when I was sworn in,” Scott says.

“Jesus,” Pearl says.

“I sold my soul,” Scott says. “I’m in charge of that now.”

“Jesus,” Pearl says again.

“And I kept thinking about the plans we had to—I can’t just dismantle that, Pearl. I can’t just—what are we doing?” Scott realizes his shoulders are shaking. “What are we doing, Pearl? The best of all possible endings? Don’t make me laugh—I can’t see this universe once we’re in it. Who are we to decide, huh? Who are we to, to try to…”

Pearl watches him for a while.

“I could have told you it would be bad,” she said.

“Do you think I didn’t know that?” Scott snaps.

“I killed someone yesterday. It’s not uncommon,” Pearl says.

“Great, so we both deserve to be executed!” Scott says, throwing his hands up. “Some of them started in the scholarship program, Pearl, they were scouted at sixteen!”

“And we were eleven,” snaps Pearl, and Scott shuts his mouth and looks away.

“Yeah, well. That’s not the Association’s fault, is it.”

The air hangs heavy. It smells like booze and candlelight and misery. Distantly, Scott wonders if Pearl was maybe right, asking if Jimmy knew where he was. The only other person on the list of people allowed to know Scott has a personal life, and he’s going to be disappointed in Scott again. Great. Scott’s lucky that, legally, the man doesn’t exist; if someone who legally existed was mad at Scott, he might just finally have to do something about it.

“You’re right,” says Pearl, finally. ”What are we doing?”

She slumps forward in her chair. She knocks back her own drink, but doesn’t pour herself another. Scott isn’t surprised. It’s not safe for both of them to be drunk. If the newly-promoted Vice Commander of the Hero Association is caught drinking with an infamous information broker, it’ll be the end of their house of cards. Scott’s powers helpfully decide to show him what happens at this juncture in that universe. Scandal, collapse, corruption—the worst part is, he thinks, is that it can’t even be all that different from this universe, only that the guy on the inside trying to change anything won’t be in power to do so. Maybe it would even be better.

Pearl ‘slits her throat’ in the night, his powers inform him. It’s not a suicide.

Scott can be selfish about that much. So can Pearl. They can’t be caught.

“I already knew most of it,” Scott says, finally. “But I’m in charge now. I sign the orders, right next to the Commander. I sign the ones his name can’t be caught on, too. I’m in.”

“Who better to lead than a man who can see the future?” Pearl says.

“You know that’s not how it works,” Scott says.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taunted you,” Pearl says.

“Jesus. Don’t apologize. You’ll make me think you’re an imposter,” Scott says.

“Yeah, well, the plan goes forward,” Pearl responds.

“Sure. Yeah. The plan goes forward,” Scott agrees. “The plan goes forward.”

Pearl reaches her hands across the table. Scott looks at them and, after a moment, reaches his own across to grab them. They sit there, holding each other’s hands, for a while, and it’s almost like they’re ten, and every horrible future the two of them can see flash by as possibilities is the end of the world, instead of another messy quagmire of maybe-just-as-bad-as-this-one. It had seemed much clearer then, really. It had seemed much easier. Scott doesn’t know. Maybe they were just stupider as kids.

Then again, he’d hated Pearl by eleven. He couldn’t have been that stupid.

He squeezes her hand tighter.

“Do good by them?” Pearl says, and it’s quiet and pained.

“Yeah,” Scott says.

“Okay,” Pearl says. “Okay.”

Slowly, Scott lets go of Pearl’s hands. He grabs the brandy again. He pours another glass. “I’m gonna get blackout drunk now,” Scott says.

“Sure. Just for tonight. I reserve the right to be sad and drunk next time,” Pearl says.

“Great planning,” Scott says.

“Yeah, well, we’ve still got a few hours,” Pearl says.

“I hate you,” Scott says.

Pearl smiles, for some ungodly reason.

“Yeah, me too.”

They stay there until Scott’s too drunk to stand up straight, and then Pearl lifts him around her shoulders and gets him outside to a cab. In the clothes he stole from Jimmy, no one can recognize him anyway. He’d think the hair would be distinctive enough, but apparently not. He won’t be caught today.

He muddles forward into the one future he can’t quite see.

[naamahdarling]

You know what? You know what I think?

I think that if we lived as we were meant to, in larger intimate ("extended family") groups and with more shared labor and time to do it (UBI NOW) people like me would not feel so useless and burdensome because there would be people around to help and to do what neurodivergent people can't while making valuable space for the neurodivergent to do what they ARE good at.

The way we live right now, all right, the way we live right now forces units of two adults to be able to do EVERYTHING or PAY to have someone come do it for them. I have to do the housework. I have to do it! But I am having to do a million different things and most of them I am not good at. I suck at them.

I wouldn't feel like shit, okay, if I had more than one other person around who was not a child and who could do the things I can't, like do the yard and cook and do repairs and basic maintenance; and someone else to split everything else that I like but is too much for me. It would free me to do what I am good at and enjoy. Cleaning, as in the sink and toilet, the windows, the blinds. Taking out trash. Folding, hanging, and sorting laundry.

But because all the shit I can do often relies on other shit being done first, and I can't do or have trouble doing those things, the shit I can do often can't be done. And even the shit I can do, I can't do ALL of it. So I can't keep up, and things get very bad.

We aren't meant to live like this. We are not meant to live like this.

That thought hurts so much because being able to flee the birth family is integral to survival for so many people. I'm so afraid that living in larger family groups would create more opportunities for, say, queer kids to be isolated, rejected, bullied, and abused. But if we gave people enough money to survive, and stopped considering children the property of their parents with no system in place to help them escape bad situations except a system that is often just as bad, just different.

I'm aware that communes and collectives aren't all that successful and are kind of a joke. I don't mean that. I mean a fundamental shift to multigenerational families where taking in "strays" (which my family did) is also normalized so people escaping abuse into existing households was accepted, with these families centered in maybe a couple of different larger residences so not everyone has to buy and maintain their own fucking washing machine and vacuum cleaner, and so people can benefit from large group meals that yield leftovers, and so child and elder care can also be centralized.

Then disabled people and the neurodivergent and sick and injured people, and pregnant people, and grieving people, would not have to either labor through all those stressors or consign themselves to living off an unlivable pittance or being put under legal guardianship.

I'm not saying anything new. People live like this in other parts of the world and maybe it sucks and I am wrong. But I'm just really mad right now because I can either do laundry or clean the sink but not both, and I really think we could improve society somewhat by making it so I did not have to choose one without sacrificing the other.

[themathomhouse]

this disability pride month, stop making jokes about people in wheelchairs standing up or walking.

can I stand and walk? sure, for a short while and with pain. the consequences for trying to be out all day without a wheelchair are that I'll be in bed for the rest of the week, too tired and in too much pain to move.

but the government won't give me my own wheelchair because they have the same attitude as these jokes - I can stand up, so I don't need one. exercise is good for you, you should walk!

it keeps me trapped in the house, unable to do anything more than short stints anywhere without borrowing or hiring a wheelchair - one that causes me pain to sit in and relies on someone to push me (usually with difficulty), because they're not going to have a high-end chair for that sort of thing.

it's not a miracle that a wheelchair user can stand or walk. it's something we should aspire to see more often.

[lil-lemon-snails]

"I can't ignore what's under dancefloor boards, The rhythm of my heart a dead-as-disco beat, But I still move my feet, to slip out of this groove, I'm free" ~ 2econd 2ight 2eer, Will Wood, The Normal Album

I have been plagued with visions of LDR Sun every time I listen to this song and I NEEDED to get this out of my system @spadillelicious when do we get to smooch the boy pLEASE

v textless version and close ups under cut!! v

[jakeperalta]

defining a "comfort album" as whatever feels right to you :)

[aroaceleovaldez]

since Hades/Pluto is heavily associated with volcanic vents (locations with noxious fumes were considered entrances to the underworld and so most ploutonions were placed on those types of sites) what if Nico and Hazel get healed/power ups from hot springs water like Percy does with just water in general.

just like. get Nico in an onsen and it'll fix everything wrong with him.

[al-luviec]

something simple to try to get out of art block (it didn't work)

[zaacoy]

Your art gives me so much life, and your hot takes on canon (bc it is, no one can tell me otherwise) freenoodles is just,,,, perfection

They are in love your honor

!! :O Thank you!! :D

Good to know someone found my ramblings amusing and true-ish to canon, and thank youu!!

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

How do the girls get along

Pretty great actually!

Jenny and Kim are very good/close friends, since they met relatively early compared to others (they actually met each other first out of everyone, then others at one point and another) and had a shared adventure sometime after the ends of their respective shows (wink wonk).

But, their first meeting was not actually very um, positive. There was some conflict, but after it was resolved both of them gained a very solid friend for life!

Jenny, was glad to meet someone else (beside Brad) who treated her like a person/normal teenager (instead of an 8th wonder of the world or a freaky robot) and not to mention she got a fellow superheroine girl friend! After Misty, she kind of missed having someone like that to kick butt with (considering that like, 70% of her friends are dudes) or just hang out.

Kim was fascinated by Jenny, not because she is a robot (tho she does think its pretty cool) but because it kind of gave her a contrast to her own life in a weird way? Like, Kim was a normal teenager who got into superheroing on accident and just went with it, while Jenny was created with a goal of being Earth's defender but rebeled to have some sort of normal life. And now they both live those weird semi-normal lives, that led them to meeting each other.

Jun is around 5-6 years their junior and while they met each other much later on, when Jun was a little older (like not 11-12 age of the show), she still kind of looked up to them and both Jenny and Kim felt an instant kinship with the girl.

Before she met Jenny and Kim, Jun only knew a couple other guys as fellow heroes/magical protectors (guess who ;D lol), and while she had plenty of female role models (Ama/Jasmine being the most prominent) and friends, she kind of enjoyed meeting some cool older superheroines to bond with! It also helped that despite the age difference, both Jenny and Kim never looked down at her when it came to superheroing/fighting, but respected her abilities and expertise (considering that Jun was practically an apprentice to her Ama since at least 8-9ish of age, when her powers first awakened, she has a lot of experience).

They both are kind of like cool older cousins to her, who travel a lot for their work and come visit to hang out often and tell/share stories about their adventures. Their and her lines of work while similar, also run in completely different circles (human/interplanetary vs magical/supernatural), so its always a treat to hear about the things they do.

(And yes sometimes she feels jealous about the fact that both of them get to travel all over the world, and despite the developments, more often than not she has to stay town locked and limit her excursions to magical realms.)

Silly thing, but Jun absolutely adores Jenny, for one simple fact that she can travel to space just like that (she and Danny, fellow astronaut/space fans, share that, despite the fact that Danny kinda can travel to space just like that too.)

[rebouks]

Wyatt’s stomach was still churning too uncomfortably for him to think about dinner, nor did Brynn seem too bothered either; she was far more interested in taking herself to bed. He’d been too distracted to notice earlier, but he suddenly realised she hadn’t even brought a bag along with her.

Wyatt: You didn’t bring anything with you? Brynn: I not really have anything… Wyatt: If I knew you were going to set out with nothing, I might not have been so keen to let you leave. Brynn: It was important to me. Wyatt: I know. Brynn: You came to find me, didn’t you? Wyatt: Perhaps-.. but I changed my mind in the end. Brynn: Before or after you fail? Wyatt: [snorts] In between. Brynn: I not mean to ghost you-.. I hoped to get a new phone, but something more important popped up. Wyatt: It’s okay.. I have your phone, by the way. Brynn: Oh-.. is Gael still breathing? Wyatt: Unfortunately. Brynn: Maybe you knock some sense into him. Wyatt: I doubt it. Brynn: Hm, me too-.. I would have liked to see his face. [Wyatt snickered lowly; he should’ve taken a picture]

Wyatt: Would you still have come back? You know, if it weren’t for-… Brynn: I always plan on coming home. Wyatt: I take it you were busy saving your money? Brynn: Yes! Though your friend Darien helped me in the end. Wyatt: I’ll have to pay him back then. Brynn: Pfft, I pay myself! That’s why I take so long. Wyatt: I could’ve helped you, if you’d asked. Brynn: I not think it fair. Wyatt: What do you mean? Brynn: Is so expensive. Wyatt: And? Brynn: I not want to bankrupt you. [Wyatt squinted, realising he’d never mentioned the fact that his lifestyle didn’t quite match his bank account] Wyatt: Brynn, I could buy us a private jet if I wanted-.. several, in fact. Brynn: Really..? Wyatt: Mhm. Brynn: You live so modestly; I never would know. Wyatt: Well, at least you’re not after my money.

Brynn chuckled sleepily; she hadn’t returned with the intent to sit idly on her hands, but it was nice to know there was no rush to find employment, or to make money. She was beyond exhausted after the past few months

Brynn: Does that mean I not have to get a job? Wyatt: Not unless you want one. Brynn: Will you keep yours? Wyatt: Probably not. I just wanted to know what it felt like-.. mundanity. Brynn: Is kind of rewarding, no? Wyatt: Oddly so. Brynn: I think we have something more rewarding to spend our time on soon. Wyatt: How long do we have to, uh.. prepare? Brynn: I not know exactly. Wyatt: You haven’t been to the doctors? Brynn: I not able to just walk in without being registered! I feel fine, anyway. Wyatt: We’ll sort it out tomorrow-.. get you some clothes n’ stuff afterward. Brynn: You are soft. Wyatt: Only for you.

With no worries left unsaid and no more secrets between them, Brynn draped herself over Wyatt and crashed-.. hard. Some people clearly didn’t understand her choices, but she’d never felt so loved, seen, or safe with anyone else before. She was finally home, and for the first time in her life, she was truly content…

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[dkettchen]

[benoitblanc]

making an emily-arc gifset and screaming internally. why the fuck did they do that to scully

[faeriekit]

One underrepresented genre in Star Wars fics seem to be individual clone-centric narratives, especially in time travel fics, which are my favorites. Not just clone culture- and I LOVE speculative takes on clone culture- but picking your favorite guy in particular, separating him out from the whole of the brotherhood of the clone army and going "okay, what will he do now?"

[ratatatastic]

oh like... you know...🫳?

Panthers Championship Parade | 6.30.24 (x)

[dontkissmenat3am]

Tbh i dont understand the way some ppl are acting completely hopeless about dinos hiatus

When dino said they were going on hiatus, everyone was like "yes ofc dino we'll be waiting take ur time 🥰🥰" but now thats it been like two years some ppl are like "omgg wheres dino 😭😭 chapter 5 is never coming out"

What did you guys think when dino said they were going on a "longer break from game dev"? Like 5 months?

They said they are focusing on their education and that they need a basic source of financial support. In this perspective, 2 years is basically nothing, extremely reasonable if anything.

Also they themselves said that the online expectation of constantly working on games had started to make them question if it consumed their life, and that they were under a lot of pressure trying to make chapter 4 in as short amount of time as possible. And yet people are pressuring them again?

Like i want chapter 5 as much as the next fan but dino is one person

They also said that they do not want to have chapter 4 as the last chapter, that they hope to return in the future to continue and that they never intended to give up game dev so i dont understand why people think its never coming out. Its been 2 years not 10 lol

And even then it is their decision

Btw I've seen some ppl also say that maybe we should make/write chapter 5 and 6 ourselves instead, which, though i dont agree with the "canon is discontinued forever!!!" thing, i do think its a decent idea to try to predict what might be the rest of the story based on what we already know and then in the future see how much we got right or not. I think that would be neat

I just dont like some's attitude shift

[bugsbenefit]

don't know if i've mentioned before why i personally want s5 to be in winter so bad but it's not actually because of the sweaters and so on (even though i like sweaters i will admit, i get it)

i mainly want it because it'll make everything harder for the characters (sue me i like conflict okay, give them the worst possible season to be in during a collapse of the town infrastructure)

because having supernatural gates open in town is already bad enough, the threat of creatures crawling through the streets and a giant monster with a gaping mouth like Nancy describes is also bad. but now have all of that happen in Winter?

potential spoilers of there being posters about an energy conservation and a food drive just makes the apocalyptic situation due to the supernatural worse

now you're not just struggling with monsters, you have to worry about the temperature and energy and food. the town that's already started a religious fearmongering movement in s4 won't back down as easily if their living conditions are actively worsened by the fallout of s4 either. things aren't just going back to normal post the earthquake and people can't move on and forget

there's so much potential there to create more conflict that wouldn't be possible if it was nice and sunny and warm out