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orangeoctopi7 · 4 years ago

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Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Suspicious Crash of Stanley Pines

The theme for @stanuary week 3 is Crime... what about... TRUE CRIME? I started watching Buzzfeed Unsolved this last summer, so I’ve been wanting to do something like this.

If you don’t watch Buzzfeed Unsolved, this is probably gonna seem like a lot of rambling.

On the morning of July Fourth, 1982 in the sleepy logging town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, there was a firey explosion that wasn't part of the fireworks and festivities. A car had gone over the edge of the town's famed floating cliffs.

"Floating cliffs?" Shane asked

"They're like, giant overhangs. They're not just floating up in the middle of the air like Pandora or something." Ryan explained, showing Shane a photo on his phone.

"Oh, that's pretty."

"It is really pretty."

"What a beautiful place for a car to careen over a cliff."

Ryan cracked up.

"You get a lovely view as you plummet to your death." Shane imagined.

Between 6:15 and 6:20 PM, the Gravity Falls Police Department received six separate calls reporting seeing a yellow car in flames drive off the edge of the cliff and crash to the valley below.

When investigators arrived on the scene, they found the remains of a crushed and burnt 1971 Subaru DL Coupe. The police report notes finding that the brakes were cut, and evidence of gasoline being poured into the driver’s seat to start the fire. Strangest of all, no body was found in or around the crash, only a few burnt strands of hair.

“So, right off the bat, real suspicious.” Shane commented.

“Yeah, and it only gets more suspicious from here.” Ryan assured his co-host.

“And I’m assuming there’s no chance that they guy, y’know, got up and walked away from the crash?”

“Oh, no, no way. You saw the picture of the cliffs.”

“Oh yeah, no way.”

“There’s no way anyone in the car would have survived that fall.”

“And it was on fire.”

Despite the lack of a body, the police determined from the few burnt strands of hair and an anonymous tip they received at 6:15 PM on the day of the crash, the driver of the car was one Stanley Pines, a 31 year old man from Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. Allegedly, he had been coming to Gravity Falls, Oregon to visit his twin brother, Stanford, who lived just a ten minute drive from the cliff Stan’s car had driven off.

“Wait, wait, wait--” Shane interrupted Ryan’s explanation, “Twin brothers. Named Stanley and Stanford.”

“Yeah.”

“Who the f___ names their kids like that?”

“I know, right?”

“Were they identical twins?”

“Uh, I couldn’t find anything saying they were definitely genetically identical, but, uh, with the way this case goes, it’s safe to assume they were identical enough.”

“Yikes, I feel sorry for them growing up, can you imagine how often people got them mixed up?”

“Yeah, but imagine the kinds of shenanigans they must have gotten up to!”

“Oh, that’s true. There would have been plenty of shenanigans. Lots and lots of shenanigans.”

“If you had twins, would you give them cutesy twin names?” Ryan asked.

“No.” Shane answered firmly.

“I think I’d just do like, alliterative names. Nothing too similar.”

“Yeah, no I think twins probably have to deal with enough confusion bull___ without having to throw similar names or the same initials into the mix.”

“Interestingly enough…” Ryan started.

“Yeah, I’m guessing from your comments that the twin thing plays into this.”

When interviewed by the police, Stanford claimed his brother never arrived at his house. However, testimonies of other townsfolk reported seeing a red 1967 El Diablo with a distinctive “STNLYMBL” vanity license plate driving up the road to Stanford’s house earlier that winter. The house is out in the woods, isolated from the rest of the town, so no one would drive up that way unless they were going to see the cabin.

“Well what if they just wanted to take a walk out in the woods?” Shane countered.

“It was in early February.”

“Snowshoeing.”

“In a blizzard.”

“Ok, you do not have a weather report for the exact day they saw this car!”

“Two of the testimonies mention there was a snow storm that day. Plus, the license plate says STANLEY MOBILE.”

“Well, Stanley is a fairly common name.”

“You-you’re just being contrary to bug me now, aren’t you?” Ryan accused.

Shane just grinned.

What’s more, that same red El Diablo was the car Stanford now drove.

“What!?” Shane laughed with disbelief for a moment before putting on a mocking tone. “Uh, yeah, he never showed up, but, uh, I have his car. I’m still driving it. Y’know, seemed like a waste to just let it sit in the driveway.”

“He didn’t even change the license plate.” Ryan added.

“Oh, of course not!” Shane said sarcastically. “Why go through all that trouble?”

Upon further inspection, the car that crashed was registered to Stanford, and had been reported totaled almost seven years prior.

“It’s interesting that they say it was totaled.” Ryan commented. “Because totalled just means that the damage is more expensive to fix than the car is worth, so it could have still been drivable.”

“And if you’re trying to fake a car crash, what better to use than an already worthless car?” Shane agreed.

“Exactly.”

Stanley Pines was declared dead by auto accident and the case was closed in September of 1982, due to lack of evidence and quote: “A lack of interest from the involved parties”.

“A lack of interest from the involved parties!? What the h___ does that even mean?” Shane asked in bewilderment.

“It’s odd, to be sure.”

It’s when we look into the background of the presumed dead Stanley, and his brother Stanford, that this case becomes truly bizarre.

Stanley Pines left home at the age of 17, and had brief but unsuccessful careers as an amature prize fighter and as a salesman, before he turned to a life of crime. Prior to his reported death, he had been in prison five times, in three different countries, and had lived under at least eight different assumed names, with several others that were never confirmed. He had known ties to the mob and drug cartels.

“Quite the shady character. That might explain why the police didn’t look too closely into his ‘death’.” Shane put air quotes around “death”.

“Well, does it? I mean, if they thought his death might have been related to the mob…” Ryan argued.

“They know better than to mess with the mob, even in Oregon.”

“I mean, we have seen in several past True Crime episodes, what can happen if you mess with the mob.”

“Oh yeah.”

“You don’t wanna do it.”

“Nope.”

His brother Stanford was no less strange. He was born with fully-functional polydactyly, meaning he had six fingers on each hand. It’s worth noting that after 1982, Stanford no longer had 6 fingers. He claims that he had them surgically removed, because, quote: “I was sick of people staring.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.” Shane said doubtfully.

“You don’t believe that explanation?”

“Let’s just say I find it highly suspect.”

Stanford was also a certified genius, graduating with the most PhDs Backupsmore University had ever awarded. As a graduate student, he worked as a researcher and inventor for the US Government. Some sources say he worked on top-secret experiments.

In 1975, he received a $100,000 research grant, which he used to move to Gravity Falls and become a Paranormal Researcher. When he arrived in Gravity Falls, he was the subject of many rumors throughout the town, due to his reclusive nature and strange area of study.

“Oh, so this guy was basically you.” Shane pointed out.

“He’s basically me if I didn’t have you.” Ryan agreed.

“Awww, that’s sweet!” Shane placed a hand over his heart.

Many residents reported seeing strange lights coming from Stanford’s home in the woods starting almost as soon as he moved in, as well as strange sounds.

“Well, it seems like Gravity Falls is a pretty small town. People gossip.” Shane reasoned.

“Ok, yeah, but people gossip about who’s cheating on who, or what business secretly sells drugs out the back. They don’t gossip about strange lights coming out of the new neighbor’s basement.”

“They could. It’s gossip. Gossip can be about anything.”

Reports of the lights stopped in late January of 1982. Just four months later, in March, Stanford began opening up his home for tours, and in a matter of weeks, transformed his home into a tourist stop called the “Murder Hut.”

“Oh my g__.” Shane stifled a laugh. “A little on the nose there, don’t you think?”

“He did rename it to the Mystery Shack about a year later.”

“Hmm, yeah I wonder why?” Shane asked facetiously.

Stanford also exhibited paranoid behavior on several occasions before the crash, especially in the early months of 1982.

One local reported seeing Stanford screaming “No it isn’t, you creeps! I can see you just fine!” down an alleyway. Several other eyewitnesses reported seeing him fall out of his seat at the Triple Digits Truck Stop Diner on Route 14 and scream for something to “get out of his mind” before fleeing the building.

“So, he definitely seemed to think something was out to get him.” Ryan commented.

“Not the words of a sane man.”

“Unless something really was out to get him.”

“Eeeeh, even then…” Shane wiggled his hand in a so-so motion.

Dan Corduroy, one of the few people who had regular contact with Stanford before he opened the Mystery Shack, had this to say about the sudden change from research lab to tourist trap:

“Oh, he’s definitely been acting differently. He was really shy before, hard to talk to even. He seemed uncomfortable spending a lot of time with people. I’d invite him over to one of my family’s cabins to visit, but he only ever wanted to visit the haunted one while we were all out of town. I’d say it was a good change, though. It wasn’t good for him to be alone all the time like that. I’m glad he’s finally spending time with other people.”

“He only wanted to visit our haunted cabin.” Shane repeated with disbelief. “Hey, do you wanna come over to visit one of our cabins?” He put on a voice. “Uh, that depends, what kind of cabins have you got?’ ‘Well there’s one by the lake, one with a nice view of the valley, and one that’s haunted.’ ‘Oh, I’ll take the haunted one!”

“What gets me is he only wanted to visit the haunted cabin while everyone else was out of town. We’ve stayed in our fair share of haunted places, and it was bad enough staying overnight, just me and you, but there is nothing that could convince me to spend the night in one of those places all by myself.”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure none of the places we’ve been to have actually been haunted, but I see what you mean. It’s not fun to go to a haunted house by yourself. It’s kinda boring.”

“Um, we’re not gonna get into this discussion now, because we still haven’t even gotten to the theories yet, but you’re wrong.”

The case came to light again in August of 2012, when Federal agents arrested Stanford Pines, and detained him for several hours for questioning. By the next day, he had been released, and officials stated that his arrest had been due to a false lead. What exactly that false lead was, however, was never stated.

Now that we’ve gone over the extensive background of this case, let’s get into the theories of what really happened that 4th of July in 1982.

Theory #1: The theory put forth by the police, that Stanley Pines died in a fiery car accident.

“So then how do they explain what happened to the body?” Shane asked.

“It doesn’t say.” Ryan.

“And why were the breaks cut?”

“No explanation given.”

“That’s a stupid theory, those cops ought to be fired.”

Ryan stifled a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”

Theory #2: That Stanley killed his brother, made it look like his own death, and took over his brother’s life. This would explain the loss of his extra fingers, the sudden change in behavior that led him to open up the Mystery Shack, and his sudden acquisition of Stanley’s car. It does not, however, explain the lack of a body in the crash.

“He could have disposed of his brother’s body somewhere else, and then just like, left an ice block on the gas pedal and let the car run itself off the cliff.” Shane theorized.

“That’s possible. I was also thinking, maybe the body was gone. Maybe Stanley didn’t necessarily kill Stanford, maybe they met up in the woods, Stanford got eaten by a bear, and Stanley, who was already in trouble with the mob, took advantage of the situation, and faked his own death.”

“How--why did you work your fear of bears into this?”

“That’s just my variation on this theory.”

“Then why all the secrecy? Why not say that he was the one who got eaten by the bear? Why fake the car crash and then say his brother never showed up?”

“Because if the mob knew he’d talked to his brother before he died, maybe they’d come question him?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a possibility.”

Theory #3: That Stanford killed Stanley and made it look like an accident. People who support this theory say the psychological trauma and guilt of killing his own brother may have driven Stanford to change his appearance and behavior to more closely resemble that of his dead brother.

“That’s… kind of a stretch.” Shane said slowly. “I feel like, Occam's Razor, theory 2 is more plausible.”

“What makes you say that one’s more plausible?”

“I dunno, just saying ‘He killed his brother and took his place’ seems a lot more likely than ‘The other brother killed him and the guilt drove him to act like his brother. I don’t think that’s how psychology works.”

Theory #4: Both brothers are still alive. Stanley, on the run from the mob, came to his brother Stanford for help. Meanwhile, Stanford was worried about someone or something that was out to get him. They came to a solution that would solve both their problems: switching places. They would fake Stanley’s death, throwing the mob off of Stanley’s trail. Then, Stanley would take Stanford’s place in the public eye, while Stanford went into hiding.

This theory is supported by photos that surfaced on Facebook in 2012. Several photos of Gravity Falls after a series of earthquakes did extensive damage to the town show what is supposed to be Stanford. However, another man that looks just like him is seen standing in the background. Interestingly enough, both mens’ hands are obscured in all of these photos.

While the photos haven’t been analysed by any professionals to definitively determine if either of the men are Stanley Pines, it has been determined that the photos are not edited.

“Would the whole photo recognition software even work on identical twins?” Ryan wondered.

“I don’t think so?” Shane answered unsurely. “I mean, my Facebook facial recognition auto-tag doesn’t even recognize my mom half the time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if twins throw it off.”

“Just looking at some of these photos yourself, what do you think?” Ryan handed a few print-outs from his folder to Shane.

“Oh wow, yeah, they do look alike.” Shane nodded. “Alright, yeah, I’m convinced. We solved it, guys! Video over!”

“We actually do have one more theory.” Ryan informed him.

Theory #5: Stanford was abducted by aliens.

“Oh for f___’s sake--” Shane threw his hands up in frustration. “We have four perfectly good, plausible explanations, and you have to throw that in!”

“This one actually does have some evidence behind it.”

“Bull____, but go on.”

Stanford was a professional paranormal researcher. Although he was very secretive about his research, even to his grant committee, some of his research notes do list looking for proof of ancient aliens visiting the valley before European contact. Could it be the thing he was afraid of was aliens?

“... That’s it?” Shane asked. “When you said this one actually had some evidence behind it, I thought you meant there was a UFO sighting in the same area around the same time.”

“The negative space between the floating cliffs kinda looks like a UFO” Ryan pointed out.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean a random researcher in the 80’s was abducted by aliens! That’s like, if I found a ransom note for you in the office, but I said ‘Well, Ryan was afraid of bears. Bears used to live in California, there’s one on the state flag outside our building. He must have been eaten by a bear.’ That’s the kind of leap in logic we’re talking about!”

Was this a case of fratricide? Or is this the longest and most elaborate twin switch of all time? For now, this case remains… UNSOLVED.

* * *

“It was really hard for me to stay on topic while I was researching this one.” Ryan admitted as they wrapped things up. “There is a lot of weird stuff related to Gravity Falls, we should go there for an episode one of these days.”

“I’d love to do that, it looks like a beautiful place to visit.” Shane agreed. “Are you sure you wanna do that though? It seems like the place is crawling with haunted cabins and bears.”

“Well, one could argue this entire series is about me conquering my fears, so… Why not?”

#Gravity Falls #Fanfiction #Buzzfeed Unsolved #Stanuary 2021 #Stanley pines #My Writing

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florrickandassociates · 3 years ago

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TGF Thoughts: 5x08-- And the détente had an end...

I did not like this episode! I had many problems with it! More under the cut...

A purple line is painted on a curb and then we’re watching footage of Wackner’s show. Question: do they only wear the costumes when it’s a low profile case? It was very noticeable they didn’t have them on in the cancel culture episode, and they don’t have them on in the Julius scenes in this episode...

Also, can I pretend that the horse and cat wearing tiara are meant to be BoJack and Princess Carolyn?

Del is remote-watching a focus group about Wackner’s show when Liz walks in. He refers to Wackner as “your guy” and Liz replies, “Must not be going well if you’re calling him my guy.” Sounds like “why is she my stripper when she does something bad?”

The focus group is in Vegas “where the real Americans live.” The clips from Wackner’s show being tested seem to be only the most ridiculous ones. Unsurprisingly, the focus group hates the show.

And here is my first question: Why are they testing a version of Wackner’s show that seems to be exclusively silliness? I know, you know, the writers know, and Del knows that that’s not funny.

Wackner Rules is not a good title.

I love Liz being amused by the focus group going poorly.

Why don’t people like Wackner Rules? Well, the cases are stupid—fights over barking dogs, shoes that don’t fit. They’d rather see burglary or robbery. This is silly, because while I’m sure most of Wackner’s cases are silly, we've seen a fair number of cases with a little more substance (or at least zaniness that makes them less mundane), including the one with the high profile comedian that was filmed explicitly to be part of this reality show. So is Wackner Rules, despite its cases financed by David Cord, just the most boring shit possible? And if so, why? Again, everyone involved here knows better than that.

Also is this just Del’s pet project? Is that why he is producing it, testing it, and approving it?

Liz rolls her eyes at the “wisdom of the crowd” on display. Then she shuts the laptop without realizing what she’s doing and jokes around about it.

If I were Del and my partner had just disparaged my work and then shut down my laptop while I was working, I would be furious. However, this is a bad episode of a television show and I love Liz so I am amused.

Del goes to fill Wackner in on how the focus group went. Wackner does not care about the opinions of twelve people. (This is funny, given that he has decided he is the most important person when it comes to making decisions and also that juries have twelve people too.)

No, dear god, no, please do not make me sit through tiny office jokes again. Have we transported back in time to season seven of TGW? I hated the door slamming against Eli’s desk then and I hate the sudden addition of this “joke” to Wackner’s chambers now.

The calendar says February 2021. Is it supposed to be February?

Apparently, the focus group likes the court, the costumes, and, mostly, Marissa. Just not the cases.

Marissa’s all, “well what do they want, a murder case?” and Del gives her a look like, “Can you???”

Again, the cases weren’t so silly they were boring in any other episodes and we know that Del/Wackner/Cord were meeting to discuss the best test cases for TV. So, like, how did people waste their time and energy making this obviously awful episode of TV for the focus group? No one involved is that clueless and it makes me dislike this plot.

AND RIGHT AFTER LAST EPISODE WHERE THE CASE ESCALATED TO THE POINT OF PRISON? I think that’s maybe my biggest complaint about this plot, and this episode as a whole. The last episode gave the this season a lot of momentum. Prison! Stakes are raised! Will Marissa say anything!? How much power is too much power for Wackner?! And then we get this episode, and it’s like, jk, forget about all that, now Wackner’s cases are drying up and everyone involved has zero critical thinking skills and we’re going to forget the prison thing ever happened!

“His court needs this show. Look at Trump. He wasn’t shit until The Apprentice,” Del tells Marissa after Wackner exits. Marissa does not react to the Trump reference, which may be the low point of this episode. Does Marissa Gold want to build the next Trump!? Is Marissa Gold not concerned that someone has just suggested that the goal of her show is to make someone in to Trump!? Hello?! This is not a reference you drop casually! I would be concerned about partnering with Del if I heard this! Marissa would be too! So why isn’t she?!

Also, this line + the “real Americans” as the target audience for Wackner’s show + the USA! Chanting at the end make me think the point here is somehow supposed to be about Trump and, like, cults of personality? I don’t really see it but I’ll reserve judgement until I see where Wackner’s arc ends up.

Julius heads to Wackner’s court to meet with Cord. He pitches them on his new firm. How is Julius going to start a new firm already? Wasn’t RL the only place that would take him? And pitching Cord on a firm with the 20% of staff that was laid off is a stupid idea, too. As Cord says, hiring the people laid off means hiring the “B-Team.” I dunno if that is actually true, but I know that Cord and anyone else who knows those were the people who were laid off will see it that way. Why is this in Julius’s business pitch? Like, is Cord wondering where Julius would get employees from? Is that a question?

Reddick & Lockhart, Julius says, is no longer eligible for no-bid government contracts. I want to know why: is this because RL is actually STR Laurie, or is this because Diane is white? If the latter, then you’d think we’d hear a little more about it...

Why is Cord calling the Copy Coop somewhere near the courthouse in a business district in Chicago “the middle of nowhere”?

Anyway, Cord passes on the new firm because it is not innovative and it does not disrupt anything.

Then Julius pitches the firm but with known-innovator Diane Lockhart and her client list. Cord is kind of interested. Cord cares that much about Diane? Alright.

Julius, after involving Diane, calls her to tell her what he’s done. When he gets back to his car, he is being given a ticket for parking in a purple zone. A purple zone is, apparently, court staff parking for Wackner’s court.

Julius rips up the ticket, then gets another ticket for destroying the ticket, and another ticket for destroying that ticket.

Wackner asks Marissa to find out how he can get out of the reality show. Marissa refuses and says she’s going to find out how they’re portraying Wackner, since the show benefits him. This is because he has “fewer cases this week than the week before, and fewer than the week before that. This court goes away unless more people know you’re here.” What? Where did that come from? I’m so confused. Last week Wackner had infinite money and a prison and was dealing with cases with settlements in the millions and famous comedians. Now his audience is dwindling and I’m supposed to care about this plotline? Thanks, but I cared about the plot you already sold me on, writers!

Hey, wasn’t there a thread at some point in this season about David Lee bugging Liz’s office? Odds we ever hear about that again?

Diane does not like Julius’s new firm idea. “David Lee is insisting that I stay,” Diane says, as though David Lee actually has that kind of power over her.

Julius points out that all the other partners are threatening to resign unless Diane is replaced, and “at a certain point, it won’t matter what David Lee says.” Diane says she’ll think about it.

Julius tries to talk to Cord again and finds that his car has been towed. This scene is too long, and watching Julius get confused by shifting, fake rules feels a little too much like the first Memo 618 episode. This episode only has a 40-minute run-time and we spend a lot of it on building up this plot. I don't really get why. Sure, it’s fun to watch people act incredulous, but we already know Wackner’s court is trying to put some muscle behind its authority (violence to encourage compliance, literal prison) so I don’t know why we need to spend so much time on what feels like a lower key bizarro version of a theme we are already aware of.

Just, like, do a boring ass case of the week episode if you don’t have ideas. Don’t regress the plotting and kill the momentum.

SPEAKING of killing momentum, remember how Carmen got a stellar introduction, a few episodes of development, and then pretty much disappeared for several consecutive episodes?

Then there’s another one of these scenes where Julius tries to get his car and more and more people enforce Wackner’s fake ticket.

I do not like “Wackner’s City of Chicago” being on the seal. I think he'd have something more clever than that on the seal.

David Lee calls Cord in to pitch him on bringing over all of his business. This scene confuses me, because you’d think Cord would be a big get for giant corporation STR Laurie. But no, David Lee wants Cord to bring his West Coast, East Coast, and Europe business to boutique firm Reddick Lockhart. Or, at least, that’s what Cord’s hesitance suggests to me.

Cord tells David Lee that Diane is leaving and that he won’t go to a firm that is breaking apart. David Lee denies it.

THIS sounds like the Hitting the Fan score.

David Lee insists that Liz and Diane drop what they’re doing and come up to his office. They do.

David asks Diane if she’s leaving. She says she was asked to join another firm, and that she was told that the equity partners are planning to resign unless she resigns, so she’s considering it.

“No one is threatening to resign without my permission,” David responds. Those must be some contracts if he is this powerful...

David warns Diane about poaching clients and she’s all, they’re free to leave if they want (ah, so they’re free to leave when you’re leaving but they’re your clients and can be stolen when YOU’RE losing them, I see). Liz is irritated by all of this and pre-accuses Diane of stealing clients after what she’s already done to keep her position. Fair.

David asks Diane what her issues are. “I’m a name partner being squeezed out of the decision making process,” she says. “And why is that, Diane?” Liz asks. “Because of my race!” Diane insists. “Because no one respects your decision to stay in your position. It is not yours by right,” Liz says.

“I’ve fought as hard as anyone here to keep this firm solvent. And I didn’t inherit this firm. I was invited in, and I earned...” OOOH FINALLY WE ARE GOING TO ADDRESS THAT LIZ HAD NO EXPERIENCE RUNNING A FIRM BEFORE THIS ONE FELL INTO HER LAP. Shame it’s a throwaway line.

STRL’s presence both adds and removes tension here. I wish they pushed this a little further. Sometimes David Lee seems to be functioning as an outside mediator; sometimes he has more power. What’s the point of all of these dilemmas and battles if at the end of the day, STRL owns and controls everything? How much can RL really mean to them? There’s even an RL in their name that doesn't stand for Reddick/Lockhart. I just don’t understand what it means to be a name partner in a black firm when that firm is actually controlled by some giant company. The way I see it, Diane should want out of RL because she’s past retirement age and being controlled by David Lee and that can’t be fun, and Madeline et al should want out because the mandate to focus on profit over social justice is not mostly coming from Diane or even Adrian’s legacy... it’s coming from the giant power and profit hungry corporation that owns you!

David has Diane and Liz stand on opposite sides of his desk. “Are you gonna spank us?” Liz says. I love funny Liz. Funny Liz is my favorite. But you know what I wish we also got more of? Liz’s thought process in general.

David’s point with this is that David is going to “come live and work with” Diane and Liz if they don’t figure it out themselves. I know they can’t easily get out from under STRL but Adrian did it so there’s surely a way to resign... this feels so demoralizing... I can’t believe Diane just takes this.

As they walk downstairs, Liz says, “If you’re going to leave, there’s nothing to talk about. “Liz, I don’t want to leave this firm. And you don’t want me to leave. So why don’t we hire a partner to replace Boseman?”

(1) I like that they’re acknowledging that Liz and Diane clearly want to work together and like working together and are having this fight mostly because they have to have this fight, not because they actually want to. Pretty much nothing Liz has done suggests she actually wants Diane to step down and pretty much nothing Diane has done suggests she actually wants to switch firms. So good, that’s text instead of subtext now.

(2) Weren’t they going to hire a partner to replace Boseman in the first place? Why didn’t that just... happen then and avoid all this?

Liz says she’ll think about it, but we all know that this is what she and Diane both want. This is where they should’ve been weeks ago.

OMG okay I knew they had talked about it before! In 5x02 Diane suggests this strategy from the start! Why does it go away!? It’s clearly the right strategy and doing it that early could’ve prevented a lot of conflict and tension. At this point, it feels almost too little, too late. What’s it going to do other than smooth things over with Diane and Liz?

They really are keeping the cameras rolling for Julius’s dumb parking ticket thing? Guarantee this does not make Wackner look good. As trivial as parking spaces seem, this feels like the sort of issue that would really piss off a lot of people. Maybe that would make good TV, but you want people to like and trust Wackner to keep people coming back to a reality show...

Julius, being Julius, refuses to apologize to Wackner and make the whole issue go away. I think why this rubs me—and so many others; I have seen nothing but negativity about this episode among friends and on the internet—the wrong way is that this feels like power for the sake of power. It is trivial, self-important (“Wackner’s City of Chicago”), disconnected from anything resembling reality. That’s not to say anything else about Wackner has been realistic, but the writers have been walking a very fine line between surreal, allegorical storytelling and straining credulity. This feels so mundane and unneeded that I actually have an easier time accepting that Wackner has created his own prison system than I do accepting that he’s tried to reserve parking spaces for his staff. At least with a prison, I see the larger-than-life point the writers are trying to make.

The parking attendant tells Wackner she wants to add more reserved spaces up the street and Wackner is like, oh, good! I don’t understand! Who is this lady that just wants to enforce Wackner’s rules? Does she want more spaces because it’s kind of a powertrip to give people tickets? Why do they need more reserved staff parking when cases are dwindling? Who is Wackner’s staff? Why do they need more parking?

And like, it’s one thing when Wackner’s antics affect people who are part of his little bubble, since they all have agreed to be there. How can he just reserve street parking? Wouldn’t this get shut down in a day? Julius would NOT be the only one furious.

Then Julius decides to steal Wackner’s book of seals so he can make it look like his ticket is paid.

So if they have footage from the cancel culture episode of Wackner Rules, why wouldn’t they have used it? We see it here, in the editing room, so why are the cases so boring again? (I’m sorry, I know I've said this like 1000 times, but it’s bothering me so much that this episode isn’t even internally consistent.)

(This whole plot is a time-filling detour tbh. I have no problem believing Wackner Rules could be an interesting TV show seeing as how I am watching it as part of an interesting TV show, so I don’t get why we need to spend all this time on how this obviously bad first draft of the show is bad and that it can be improved by fixing a non-existent problem? Also, there are zero stakes because Del owns the show and is also the one deciding whether or not to air the show.)

(Like, there could be a version of this where the focus group really helps us get into where Wackner’s stuff does and doesn’t translate and the changes he’s asked to make and how the fact it’s television changes the court, blah blah blah. Instead, the premise seems to be that the show is capturing what Wackner’s court was like in the days before Marissa or Cord or Del became involved, which makes no sense and is also boring!)

They’re mentioning Marissa being in the IDF again. This comes up because the re-edit of Wackner Rules is all about Marissa. This is kind of fun and meta! Marissa would definitely be a favorite on a reality show!

It turns out this re-edit is mostly about how the editor has a huge crush on Marissa.

I know that these tv writers know the process for tv writing and production better than I possibly could. I still do not believe that this reality show has one producer (Del) and an editor who is making executive decisions about the content of the show, and that this is for some reason happening in a mobile trailer parked outside of the court. Surely there would be meetings about what direction to take, not just a vague instruction to “make it better”?

In case I needed more evidence that the writers did not bring their A-game for this episode, we get Diane talking to RBG, again, because apparently now there are no other ways to clue us in on what Diane’s thinking. This is just lazy.

The RBG thing worked for me in 5x06 because it felt like a novel way for Diane to get to talk out loud, and that episode that wouldn’t have worked if we didn’t have a way to see what Diane was thinking. Here, it feels like the writers are doing it because they did it before and it worked and it’s thematically connected and it’s easy.

Doesn’t this entire scene just radiate laziness????

I know not every episode can be great but just don’t try to do something interesting and innovative if you’re going to half ass it.

I’m not even bothered by the thought that Diane daydreams about conversations with RBG. I buy that. I just don’t need this conversation (which feels way too much like it’s supposed to be an actual conversation for my taste).

OMG please stop talking about how RBG and Scalia were friends, I beg you, if you’re going to do this device again can you at least have a different conversation.

So much exposition. Diane knows someone named Allegra through EMILY’s List and thinks she’ll be a perfect choice for the third partner. Diane did hear she had a meltdown, though.

Julius gets arrested for stealing Wackner’s sticker book. When he starts shouting about how it’s a fake court, the officer is like, “As real as Officer McFinely’s death?” calling back to the last episode. I do find it interesting the police would be willing to overlook Wackner’s complete disregard for the law because of a grudge involving the law firm, and I like that choice.

Allegra is basically a slightly more toned-down version of Elsbeth. She has a messy, rented office, and trails off mid-thought. Since she’s kind of a familiar character type, I’m not overly impressed by her, but she’ll be fine to add some little bits of humor to the office drama, I think. My hope is that they use her in small doses, because I have a low tolerance for quirk.

Allegra’s office has tons of books. I can’t see what most of them are, but she has a copy of The Nix, and I liked that book! It’s the only fiction title I can spot; the rest seems like political commentary or pop sociology/business stuff.

Diane mentioning her RBG hallucinations to Allegra is probably a very smart way to win over Allegra.

Marissa encourages the editor, whose crush is so obvious it’s uncomfortable, to put Wackner’s outburst in the show. The one about how Del is using the show to rehabilitate the comedian!? Why would Del air that?! How does this help anything?! If the goal is to get Wackner’s court more cases, why would this make anyone choose to take their case there?

The police bring Julius to Wackner’s court, which I have a slight bit of trouble believing (not that any of this is believable, but you know what I mean—I don’t feel like it’s logical given everything else I know about this premise) but I'll roll with.

Now there’s some ridiculous, awful fake lawyer who was “devil’s advocate” with devil horns in the last episode and David Cord is prosecuting Julius and... what the actual fuck is going on in this scene? This Devil’s Advocate man would not have lasted a second in what we’ve seen of Wackner’s court before this point—he is an obvious liar and showman who Wackner would have no patience for. And if Cord has a bone to pick with Julius, this is an odd way of showing it, because it feels like Cord is there as a familiar face and not for a story reason.

Like, does Cord actively HATE Julius? Is... that supposed to be the point of this?

Seriously though, Devil’s Advocate would get like two sentences into his story about how Julius grew up poor before Wackner would make him stop, and if he got farther than that, Julius interrupting to ask “What are you talking about?” would’ve prompted Wackner to hold up that “cut the shit” card.

This humor is so fucking lazy. In the worst moments of this show, they take gags that have previously been successful and run with them until you can’t believe you ever found them endearing. That’s this scene.

Also it just occurred to me when I referenced the “Cut the Shit” card that we’ve seen Wackner be able to get audience responses to his cases. Seems to me like you pretty much already have your focus group results, no? You do more of the things that make the live audience excited and fewer of the things that make them get up and leave. The things that the live audience plays along with and reacts to are the catch phrases you’re going to put on merchandise. I’m not a TV producer and this is very obvious to me.

Instead of telling this lying lawyer to stop, Wackner instead asks the court musician to play “This is Us like music.” Make it stop. I don’t know who finds this funny but it’s not me!

Can you IMAGINE the fake reality show airing any of this? I dislike it and I know all of the players and context.

There is a shot of Del looking excited to see what’s going to happen. I’m sorry, but if Del’s instincts are this bad I just do not believe he runs a streaming service. Maybe his main role is to do the business stuff, not the content stuff? (But if so, why’s he always hanging around Wackner’s court?)

This episode is full of extremely essential scenes, like Marissa and the editor having sex as they watch footage of Marissa. Good for Marissa, I guess? This could’ve really easily just been implied. And if you really want to give Marissa more material, give her an arc, not a hookup where the focus of the sex scene is the editor dude. Or, like, just let her react to the whole prison revelation from the last episode. WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT HOW WACKNER IS SENDING PEOPLE TO PRISON?

Liz and Allegra meet. Allegra makes it sound like it is about her book but then she’s extremely (and intentionally, I think) obvious that she’s there to be the third partner and that Diane scouted her.

What is the point of Allegra asking if Liz has a view of Willis Tower and misidentifying the building? Presumably Allegra lives in Chicago, so you’d think she’d know its most recognizable building by sight (and would probably also call it the Sears Tower).

Liz likes Allegra.

Now there are a ton of cops in court and Del is loving the drama. Sure, it’s dramatic, but is this really want you want to air? Some convoluted thing where a bunch of police officers intimidate a lawyer who works at a firm that was unfairly linked to a cop killing because that lawyer refused to pay a parking ticket issued by a fake court? Who... who is this for?! What’s the angle? Who is amused by this?

Marissa sees Julius is the defendant and jumps into action. She asks Wackner why he’s prosecuting Julius and he says it’s his job. She argues that Julius is from their firm and this is bullshit. Wackner still won’t let him go.

If Julius is from the firm and Wackner employs the firm, is Julius NOT covered under the court employee banner? Why do I even care.

Wackner acts like he’s just not bending the rules, just like Marissa wanted. I’m not interested in this enough to decide whether I agree that this is consistent or think this is actually a different scenario. I just want to be done with this episode so I can forget about it.

I imagine—maybe hope is a better word—that this episode is bad because it’s hard to write five great episodes in a row without kind of phoning one in. I wish this episode didn’t kill the momentum coming out of 5x07 but I’m hoping that it is an isolated issue and not a drop in quality that will also spoil 5x09 and 5x10.

Wackner closes the door on Marissa, which I think is supposed to be meaningful, and Marissa calls Diane down to Wackner’s court to help Julius.

Diane and Liz both go to court. “I’m about to be sent to prison for parking in a purple zone,” Julius explains. “What does that mean?” Diane asks. “If I explained it to you, it wouldn’t make any more sense,” Julius says.

Oh so now we remember that Wackner’s prison exists. When I said I wanted more about it, I didn’t mean that I wanted it looming as a threat... I meant I wanted to explore what it meant that Wackner was promoting prisons...

Diane asks if they should call the police, “the real ones.” I like that it takes her a second longer than Liz and Julius to understand the cops are real. Liz also notes that the SA’s office won’t help either because they might be happy with anything that fucks with RL. This scene is decent. Some of the themes in here are decent. It just feels poorly timed and with the emphasis in the wrong place. I imagine the goal here is to show that Wackner is now more concerned with enforcement than with the process for trials, and that enforcement brings with it a lot of uncomfortable questions. I wish that we’d spend less time on the incredulous reactions and silliness and more time reckoning with those questions.

The next focus group likes the Wackner anger outburst, because, in Del’s mind, they want to see Wackner care about something. Does Del have the worst judgment ever? Wackner looks invested in every single thing he does—how could anyone accuse him of not seeming like he cares? His whole thing, the whole thing that got Del’s attention, is that he pays each case the kind of individualized attention it deserves. Now he only looks like he cares if he blows up? Even if the thing he’s caring about in the explosion in question is his own reputation? Is Del trying to make Wackner into a mid-2010s anti-hero? And if so... why?

Wackner’s outburst that accuses Del of corruption is apparently so good it got an unprecedented “95%” from the focus group. Sure. Why not.

Then Del tells him to keep doing cases “just like this” and they’ll keep the court going. Does that mean just like the ALREADY HIGH PROFILE AND ALREADY HAND PICKED FOR TELEVISION cancel culture case, or cases like the Julius case? If the first, well, duh, that’s why they picked that case in the first place. If the second, again, why?

“You and your colleagues think you get to decide when and how justice is determined. You think it is your right to make and break the rules as you see fit,” Wackner says to Julius. UM, WACKNER, THAT IS LITERALLY YOUR ENTIRE DEAL???????????????????????????

That’s the point, right????? Please tell me the point of this is that Wackner is supposed to look totally hypocritical and like an egomaniac who thinks his own judgment should not be questioned but everyone else’s should be????????????????????????? If this line isn’t meant to be supremely ironic I... I wouldn’t even know where to start.

“The law belongs to the people,” Wackner says, and the cops start chanting, “USA!”. What?!

And then we cut away from this and suddenly we’re welcoming Allegra to the firm and... did I miss an entire episode or something? What happened with Julius? Why are Liz and Diane smiling? How did Diane and Liz’s conversation about Allegra go? Did the other partners agree to this? Did David Lee? This is a very big development! I need more!

Madeline seems welcoming towards Allegra. She and another partner are still suspicious of Diane because they have seen right through this strategy. So... I guess we aren’t done with this arc yet.

Aw, Liz has a picture of herself with her son when he was a baby on her desk.

Diane and Liz drop Wackner as a client. It takes longer than it should for Marissa’s name to come up in this conversation.

If you were wondering about the Julius case we spent most of the episode building up, it’s resolved off screen by Wackner releasing Julius with time served. Why? Don’t know. Did it seem like it was headed that way during anything we previously saw? Nope.

Wackner won’t let Diane and Liz back out, saying he gets to choose his representation (does it REALLY work this way?) and also, probably more importantly, that they won’t be able to get all of Cord’s business if they piss him off by dropping Wackner.

Wackner also notes that they picked up his pilot. I’m sorry, what? Del didn’t just decide that the series he created for his streaming platform would be straight to series? That whole little “Wackner doesn’t test well” plot was resolved by showing an episode with the COTW they obviously should’ve shown from the start and then Wackner made a total of zero changes to his behavior or attitude and now the show is a huge success? What was the POINT? Why did I just watch that?!

“Fuck,” Liz says as the episode ends.

I’ve kinda always thought this, but it’s worth saying again: Madeline and company should resign from the firm. BOTH RL and STRL care more about profit than anything else. Liz and Diane want to work together. Liz and Diane both take the threat of losing Cord’s business seriously. If Madeline wants a firm that’s focused on social justice, it doesn’t matter if Diane is name partner or not. Liz is probably even faster than Diane to decide things based on money, and even if she weren’t, STRL owns them! Plus, I have a feeling that Diane, her clients, Liz, and Cord are probably individually worth more to STRL than Madeline and the other partners combined. If Allegra is down to pursue profit and deal with corporate overlords too, then Madeline and the others matter even less to STRL. Just cut your losses and start the firm you want to start. At this point it won’t even compete with RL.

Don’t get me started on this absolutely idiotic title sequence for Wackner Rules. I’m sure this is someone’s idea of a joke. If I take it seriously, then I have to write about how it is even worse than all of the things I just complained about for the entirety of this recap, and honestly, I’m exhausted.

#tgf thoughts #the good fight

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seungmoroll · 4 years ago

Text

Heather | Lee Minho

Word count: 3.8k

Genre: one-sided love au, slight angst, mentions of Weki Meki Doyeon

A/N: this is the second part to the Heather series. you can read the others here. I hope you guys enjoy reading!

“Fergalicious def-

Fergalicious def-

Fergalicious definition make the boys go crazy

They always claim to know me

Comin’ to me, callin’ me Stacey –“

“What the heck are you doing?” That’s when the broom you’re holding drops.

Clutching your chest, you look at the owner of the voice with a shocked and embarrassed face. “Gosh, Minho. You can’t interrupt someone when they’re in the middle of a concert.”

Sniggering, “Concert my butt, you sounded like a train going off its rails.” You glare at him as he leans against the doorway, giving you his signature smirk. “You know, you’re supposed to attract customers, not scare them away right?” Grabbing the closest thing to you, you throw and wet rag at Minho, who manages to dodge it.

“There are no customers, we’re closed anyways. Did you finish cleaning everything in the front?” You had applied to your local boba shop six months ago in need of money, but not only did you get money out of it, you got a co-worker who annoyed you every chance that he got.

“Yep, everything is all spick and span. Practically shining like my visuals.” Rolling your eyes at him, you go and put the broom up, ready to lock the doors to the shop.

Minho waits out in the front for you, taking selfies on his phone with his crazy snow app filters. “Took you long enough. Got so bored waiting for you I had to take selfies.” Whacking the back of his head, you turn around to lock the doors. “I wasn’t even gone for long, you’re just impatient.” Putting the keys up in your bag, you turn back towards Minho, but your vision becomes white as the flash of his phone goes off. Showing you his phone screen, he says, “Look, you’re a strawberry.” Thinking you look hideous, you tell him to delete it, in which he responds with a laugh.

“We should get going, don’t want you to miss your bus.” Looking at the time on your phone, you see that you have 10 minutes until your bus arrives, but the bus stop was a 5-minute walk from the boba shop, so you and Minho began your mini trek. Minho actually had a car, but whenever you guys worked the night shift together, he always made sure to walk you to your stop, not wanting anything bad to happen to you. The first few times he offered to walk you, you told him that he didn’t need to, but he didn’t listen anyways. So eventually you gave up on telling him he didn’t have to, and it became routine for you guys.

This night happened to be particularly windy, but you didn’t have a jacket, so you decided to endure the wind for a few extra minutes, but you guess that Minho had notice your slight shivers because he pulled out his sweater from his backpack and handed it to you. “Aigoo, what would you do without me?” You try to give back his sweater, telling him that you didn’t need it because your bus was coming soon anyways. “Now Y/n, I’m just trying to be a gentleman and you won’t let me. How sad, but seriously though, just take it. You can always give it to me tomorrow.” Hesitantly, you retreat your arm holding the sweater, and hold onto to it, waiting for you to arrive to the bus stop to put it on.

“You know, I don’t mind driving you home after work, right?” You did know, but you didn’t want to hassle him, plus you enjoyed the time you spent on the bus. It gave you time to yourself to think about your day, and more importantly, it gave you time to daydream about Minho.

“I know, I just don’t think I could survive more than 10 minutes after work with you.” Gently pushing with his body, he chuckles. “What do you mean? I think it’s a blessing you get to spend extra time with me.”

Giving him a side eye, you say to him, “You think too highly of yourself. Someone needs to knock you down from your pedestal.”

“Give it all you got, but you can’t knock me down from my high horse.” That was something about Minho that made you like him. He wasn’t afraid to be himself, even if it meant that he arrogant, scratch that, he wasn’t arrogant, it’s more like he was confident in himself; it was just that he has an arrogant, beautiful face.

By the time you’ve reached the bus stop, your bus was already there. Not wanting to miss it you quickly run towards it, bidding Minho a goodbye. As the bus starts to drive, you see Minho’s retreating figure, and hold onto his sweater a little bit too hard.

The next day.

“Oh hey Y/n.” Looking up, you see one of your favorite customers, who just so happens to be one of your very good friends.

“Hi Doyeon, you here for your usual?” Doyeon often came by the boba shop after her dance lessons once you started working there, so you ended up memorizing her order pretty quickly. However, this time around, she seems to be acted a bit odd, eyes not meeting yours, but instead watching, no looking, for something or someone behind you. Before you could ask her, Minho comes up behind you, bringing a finished drink for another customer. Once he’s given the customer their drink, he sees Doyeon and says hi to her.

“Hey Doyeon, how was dance practice? You getting your usual today?” You watch as she shyly tucks her hair behind her ear and fiddle with her bag. “Practice was great, but so tiring, and I was thinking of getting something different this time. Got any recommendations?” Your eyes slowly drift to Minho and see that he’s got that look on his face that you’re afraid of.

“I got the perfect drink for you. This will give me the chance to make a new drink that’s not on the menu. Don’t worry it’s on the house.” He immediately heads to make the drink as you yell out to him, “Nayeon said you can’t keep giving away free drinks!” You don’t see it, but you know he stuck his tongue out at you. Turning your attention back to Doyeon, you see that she’s already slid a five-dollar bill on the counter, and before you could object, she urges you to take it.

“Like you said, he can’t keep on giving away drinks. Hey, if you’re free, want to sit down and catch up?” You motion to the empty shop and say, “I think I have some time.”

Once Minho comes out with Doyeon’s drink, he patiently waits beside you as the two of you watch her take a sip of it. Her face doesn’t look like she’s disgusted with it, so you ask Minho what he made. ”It’s ube milk tea with cheese foam.”

“It’s actually really good, thanks Minho.”

Pumping his fists in the air, he lets out a cheer. “Yes, now if you two need me, I’ll be in the back, admiring pictures of my cats.” After he heads to the back room, you motion for Doyeon to pick and table to sit at and follow her.

“So Y/n,” you watch as she slowly takes a sip of Minho’s drink, “Anything new in your life? Perhaps a new romantic interest?” Surprised by her question, you frantically shake your head no, sputtering on your own drink.

“Me? Love interest? You know I don’t have time for that.” Too be honest, that was a lie, you and Doyeon both knew that, but you weren’t going to admit to her that you had feelings for Minho. “What about you? Anyone catch your eye?”

She fumbles with the plastic lid as she shyly admits to you, “Maybe.” Eyes wide, you urge her to tell you. “Maybe? C’mon you have to tell me. Do I know them? Oh my gosh, I do know them. Is it Bang Chan? Please tell me it’s not Bang Chan, I heard that he finally got with someone.”

Nodding her head no, she says, “No it’s not Bang Chan, plus I already knew that. I was there at the outdoor movie when I saw them together.” Wanting for her to continue, you give her your best puppy dog eyes, but her response isn’t what you were looking for, “I’m sure it’s just a fleeting crush, it doesn’t really matter who it is.”

Not wanting to push any further, you respond, “Okay, if you’re sure, just know if you want to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

“See, that’s what I like about you Y/n. You always offer your time and advice to people. That’s why I’m surprised you’re not taken yet.”

You scoff at her statement, “You’re surprised? I’m surprised you aren’t, like you’re beautiful, talented and you have a great personality.”

Sighing, she says, “I could say the same about you. I guess we’ll just be lonely together.”

Just then, the door opening alerts you of new customers. Getting up from your seat you head back to the counter. Doyeon gets up as well and bids you a goodbye, explaining that she should get home. Waving Doyeon a goodbye, you focus your attention to the newly arrived customers, three boys that come to the shop often.

Once you and Minho had began to close up the shop, it started pouring outside. “Great, it’s raining, and I left my umbrella at home.” Minho sneaks up behind you, peering out the window, “Let me drive you home, you shouldn’t be walking out in the rain.” Turning around and trying your best not to redden from the sudden closeness between his body and yours, you say to him, “I don’t want to bother you. You can just drop me off at the bus stop.”

“Nope, no can do. If you get in my car, it’s to take you home, not to the bus stop.” You look between him and the window, contemplating your decision, “Oh c’mon Y/n, you can’t seriously be contemplating your choices right now. Me driving you home for one night can’t be the worst thing in the world.” The look you give him makes him think otherwise.

In the end you agree to let him take you home. The two of you quickly run out from underneath the awning into Minho’s car, laughing as you try not to get soaked, which you ultimately did because Minho had left his umbrella in his car. Once the two of you were seated in Minho’s car, he had turned up the heat and reached in the back to grabbed something. Emerging from the back, he hands you a shirt. Eyes going back and forth from the shirt and him, you give him a confused look, “Your shirt’s soaked and I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

“One, my house is only a 20-minute drive from here, and two, I won’t be changing in front of you.” He rolls his eyes at you, which you realize is a common action between the two of you. “One, can’t you see I’m trying to be nice, and two, I’ll close my eyes,” he says, mocking you. Taking the shirt, you mumble, “You better.” Once you’re sure his eyes are closed, you change into his shirt, and then flick his head to let him know you’re done. Looking down at the shirt, you question what’s on it.

“It’s from back when I was in high school. I usually wear it out to the gym.”

“Minho, I swear-“

“Don’t worry, it’s clean…I think.” Secretly taking a whiff of his shirt while he reverses out of the parking spot, you smell the fragrance of his car and a hint of his…cologne?

“Minho, why does this shirt smell like febreze?”

Shrugging, “I prefer it over cologne.”

You chose not to question it any further. ‘Electric Love’ is playing softly through the speaker as you look at the window, watching the raindrops race each other on the window. Snicker escapes from Minho, “Is this what you do on the bus? Act like you’re in a sad music video?” Turning your head, you glare at him, “No…maybe, just sometimes. It’s more like I daydream while looking out the window.”

“Ah, Y/n is a little daydreamer. Hmm, I wonder what they could possibly be daydreaming about? Maybe…someone they like?” Your eyes widen from his last question. It made you wonder if he knew about your crush on him. ‘Impossible, I’m not that obvious. Am I?’ Speechless, you try to find something to say, “What? No. Nope. Not at all.”

Stopping at a red light, Minho turns to you with a smirk on his face, “So you do daydream about someone you like.” You smack him in the chest causing him to laugh. “Don’t worry I won’t ask who. Though I’m sure it’s me because who could resist me?” ‘Huh. You’re not wrong.’

You scoff at him, “In your dreams Lee Minho.”

“Oh? How’d you know?” Though you may sometimes act like he annoys you, you really enjoy the playful banter between the two of you. He was the first person you were able to get comfortable with at CuTea because of his playfulness, and for that you were thankful for him. Even though you wished you were more, you were happy to say he was your friend.

“So how do you and Doyeon know each other?” That’s odd, of all the times Minho has met Doyeon, he’s never asked about her.

“We went to high school together. We were in the school play together and after we graduated, we kept in touch.” To be honest, out of all your high school friends, she was the only one you kept in touch with. Everyone else seemed to have started their new lives, and you just weren’t a part of that, but you didn’t mind. Doyeon was enough anyways.

“I see. Is she…dating anyone?” His question catches you off guard. A wave of apprehensiveness overcomes you as you watch him focus on driving. Wondering why her could be asking about her status, unless…

“She’s single.” You work the nerve to ask the simple question you’re afraid to hear the answer to, “Why?”

“Just curious that’s all. Of all the times I’ve eavesdropped on your conversations she’s never mentioned anyone.” His answer leaves you unsettled, but you don’t want to push any further in attempt to avoid getting your feelings hurt. You don’t bother to respond to him, leaving the two of you riding in a slightly uncomfortable silence, sans the music and the rain.

By the time you arrive at your house, the rain has stopped pouring. Minho pulls up to the driveway, and before you can begin to speak, he tells you, “Keep the shirt, I got plenty at home.” All you can do is simply nod. Once you’re out the car, you turn around to see if he was leaving, but you see Minho motion for you to get in your house before he can leave. When you get inside your house, you peek out the window and watch as his car drives away.

Heading straight to your room, you plop into your bed. The unsettling feeling is still there, but once you’ve showered and done your nighttime routine, you choose to ignore it. Slumber takes over you, the second you hit your bed, and if anyone were to ask, you only slept in Minho’s shirt because it was comfortable, not because it smelled like him.

A few days later.

“Hey, Y/n.” Minho calls out to you as you’re making a drink. “I got plans tonight, so my shifts ending earlier than usual. You can walk to the bus stop by yourself, right?” Nodding your head, you tell him that you’ll be fine, though you’re curious about his plans since this was the first time since you’ve started working here that he’s left early, so you ask him about it, “What plans could you possibly have tonight?”

Leaning against the counter, he says to you, “I got a date.” The spoon you’re holding drops from your hand onto the ground, and you scatter to pick it up. Minho’s laughter fills your ears as he watches you. “Dang Y/n, is the idea of me going on a date that surprising?”

Stuttering, you say, “N-no, not at all. You’re you, so of course you’d be going on a date.” Your sentence fades as it goes on, and a slight blush is now forming on your face.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Playfully bumping him with your hip, you go back to the front and give the waiting customer their drink.

Hearing the bell to the door, you see Doyeon come in wearing a pretty white flowy dress, “Wow Doyeon, you look gorgeous.” Looking at the clock on the wall, you notice it’s two hours early for Doyeon to be here. “No practice today?” Shaking her head no, she explains, “Thank you Y/n, and no, the instructor wanted to give us a break.”

Nodding, you ask, “So why’re you all dressed up?”

“Actually-“

“Oh hey, I didn’t know you were here. Just give me a second and we can head out.” Looking between Doyeon and where Minho disappeared to, you make the small connection. Focusing your attention back on Doyeon, you slowly ask, “You’re going out with Minho?”

Noticing the small blush on her face, she shyly answers, “Yeah, he asked me out the other day after practice.” It must’ve been when you took your day off, you realize. You wonder why neither of them told you beforehand.

Maybe that’s why he’s been so distracted these past few days.

“Oh, I see...is he the one you were talking about the other day, and do you know where he’s taking you?”

“Uh, yeah, he is. He’s taking me to this little Italian restaurant. We wanted to get to know each other better, so we’re just going to talk over dinner.”

“You ready?” Minho is no longer wearing his apron and black t-shirt, he’s now clad in a white t-shirt with a black leather jacket, hat hair gone.

“Yeah, just making small talk with Y/n.” You watch as he finally takes his attention off Doyeon and focuses it on you. Acting like your usual self, you roll your eyes at him and say, “You better treat her right. If I hear of anything bad, I’m going to spit boba from a straw at your car.”

Placing a hand on your head and gently shaking it around, he says, “I preferred if you didn’t, but you don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll make sure she’s treated like a princess.” His attention goes back to Doyeon, who displays a flushed face.

‘I want you to treat me like a princess.’

Checking the watching on his wrist, Minho says, “We should get going if we want to make the reservation.” He walks up to Doyeon and before they head out the door, he turns back around, “You’ll be okay with closing, right?”

Nodding your head, you shoo the pair away, “Yes, don’t worry about me, I have Nayeon. Go have fun.” Minho gives you his signature playful wink and heads out with Doyeon. You don’t miss the way their hands shyly intertwine as they make their way to his car. Pitifully sighing, you clean the counter to distract yourself from your sad thoughts. You should be happy for them, Minho seemed like he was really happy, and so did Doyeon, but you couldn’t help but wish that you were in her place instead.

Even though cleaning was supposed to distract you, you couldn’t help but let your thoughts consume you.

‘Of course Minho likes Doyeon. She’s prettier than me. She’s Ms. Popular. She’s got the kindest soul. She’s everything a guy wants in a partner. I’m just plain me. Minho wouldn’t want me.’

Your thoughts are interrupted when the bell to the door alerts you of a new customer. As he approaches the counter, he asks you, “Are you okay?” You didn’t realize that there were tears falling down your face, so you quickly turned around and said to them, “Oh, yes. Could you give me a second?” Quickly making your way to the back room, you grab a tissue to wipe your tears and take a moment to recollect yourself. Your manager managed to catch a glimpse of you, and walked up to you asking, “Hey what’s wrong?” Waving her off, you tell her it’s nothing.

“It doesn’t have to do with the fact that Minho just walked out with a pretty girl, does it?” A sob comes out of your mouth, “Gosh, I look so pathetic. I’m crying over Minho, when I never even had a chance.” She gentle gathers you in her arms and gives you a tight squeeze, “You’re not pathetic, you’re human.” Enjoying her embrace for a bit, you remember that there’s a customer waiting outside for you. Breaking the warm embrace, you go to clean your face again, “I got to go, there’s a customer outside.”

“No, I’ll take their order, why don’t you go home early?”

Shaking your head no, “Then you’ll have to close the shop by yourself. I’m fine, Nayeon. Anyways, if I left early, I’d just be wallowing in sadness at home.” Doing one last check up on your face, you make your way back to the front. Luckily, for the business the customer is still there, but unfortunately for you, he saw you crying.

“Sorry about that, what can I get for you?” It takes him a moment to respond, and when he does, it’s not an answer to your question.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” The look he gives you is full of genuine concern, and that’s when you finally realized that you’ve seen this customer before. You couldn’t remember his name, even though he came quite a bit often with his two friends.

“Oh, please don’t worry about me, I’m fine. It’s just allergies.” ‘Allergies, really Y/n? Is that all that you could come up with?’

A small chuckle comes from the customer, “Allergies…sure. If you say so. Well I do hope these allergies stop because someone as pretty as you shouldn’t be crying.”

‘Oh. That was quite bold.’

“Yeah, I thought tonight I should be a bit bolder than usual.”

Cringing you ask, “I said that aloud didn’t I?”

“Yep.” Before he could add anything else, you ask him for his order, even more embarrassed than you were before. He orders a winter melon milk tea with tapioca, and when you ask for his name, he says,

“Jisung.”

A/N: I'm sure that wasn’t the ending you guys were expecting right? maybe it’s a little hint😏 I hope you guys are enjoying the Heather series so far, let me know what you guys think of it! Also, who do you guys think are the “Heathers” of kpop?

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im-a-simp1 · 4 years ago

Text

More Than Meets The Eye: pt. 2 Hooded

Word count: 3.8k

Warnings: in the beginning Peter is a little cheese but it gets better, mention of death, death (bring snipped), worried Peter

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Peter’s POV

I had lost track of time and it was about 6:30. Well to be fair I just finished helping an elderly lady find the city library. She gave me a churro. But when I went to go find my backpack, it wasn’t where I left it. Damnit, I thought I had a better hiding spot but I guess not. Thankfully I always kept my phone on me. I had to call Ned. I dialed his number.

“Hey Peter are you going to be here soon?”

“Um hi yeah I am. Hey I have a question, is y/n there yet?”

“No why?”

“Oh okay good. Someone stole my bag and I don’t have a change of clothes. I will be there soon.”

“Alright get here fast, I don’t know when y/n will get here.” Ned hanged up after that. This was the best possible situation at the moment. I’m glad she wasn’t there yet, her finding out that I’m Spiderman is too soon. Now that I think of it, I don’t know if I will tell her, or maybe someday, no I can’t. The more people that know, more lives are at risk. He didn’t want to put that on her. He has only known her for a day and he already had the thought of telling her that he was Spiderman. She was driving him crazy. She is all he could think about. Shortly after he pulled up to his apartment and entered through his window. Ned was getting the lego pieces of the millennium falcon organized.

“Hey Peter” Ned said, without looking up at him continuing separating the pieces. He knew that Peter was changing and if he looked up it would be awkward.

“Hey Ned” as he was getting his shirt on which was the last article of clothing he needed to put on. “Any word from y/n?”

“First off no and second I don’t have her number I’m pretty sure you are the only one that has her number”

“Oh right” Peter pulls out his phone. No texts or calls from her, just Aunt May asking if I wanted pizza tonight. Hmm, maybe she was just running late, it was only 6:50 and Peter was late by 20 minutes. He just sent her a message. ‘Hey Ned and I were just wondering if you were still coming. We just want to make sure you are okay. New York can be a big place. If you are lost just let us know. Or if you don’t want to come that’s okay we totally get it. We just want to make sure you are okay.’ Peter had sent her a message. He was just hoping that she wasn’t lost and she was safe. He felt stupid because she was new to the city and had assumed that she knew her way around. 30 minutes later, no sin of y/n. Peter was pacing around the room waiting for y/n to reply back.

“Peter, I’m sure she is okay. Sure she is an hour late but maybe she just stayed home.”

“If she did why wouldn’t she just text me that she was going to stay home?”

“I don’t know Peter. But you need to stop pacing around your room. You worry too much.”

“Ned I can’t sit down. If I sit down I am just going to end up pacing the room again. Maybe I should put the suit back on and look for-”

“Okay Peter what is going on?” Ned interrupted Peter

I stopped for the first time. He was caught surprised by his question. “W-what do you mean?” with a nervous laugh following.

“Don’t think I haven’t see you staring at her all day, from the start of the first period. You could not keep your eyes off of her. Now she is having you stressed out and worried about her, where is most likely she is just at home. Peter you have only known this girl for one day and you act like she is the only girl you have ever seen.”

I run my hand at the back of my neck while closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I mean Ned is right but he is off by a couple words, she is the MOST beautiful girl I have ever seen.

“I don’t know what to tell you Ned, I can’t stop thinking about her.”

“I thought you liked Liz?”

“I do like Liz, well not so much anymore. I don’t know, it was just when y/n steps into a room, she is just so memorizing. She is driving me crazy Ned”

“Clearly” he stated. We both end up on my bed and start to speak up again.

“Peter I’m glad that you are interested in someone but just be careful. I’m sure it’s dangerous to have a girlfriend and be a superhero. I mean at least that is what it’s like in the films”

“Your right Ned”

“I know I am. Now this is what we are going to do, we are going to build the millennium falcon and have a great time doing it. Then I am going to go home and you're going to go to bed and get sleep because I’m sure y/n is home and safe.”

“I guess you're right” I caved in.

“Again, I know I am. Now let’s start building.”

We build for the next hour or two building this millennium falcon. It was pretty sweet. It was also good to spend time with just Ned. Sometimes it can be hard for us to spend time with just us together. A lot of the time I would be patrolling, taking up most of my free time that wasn’t being used for homework as well. Once we finished, Ned left and I got ready for bed. As I got into my bed trying to fall asleep. My thoughts of y/n were circulating my mind if she was safe or not. I knew I was not going to get sleep tonight. I would go looking for her to make sure she is okay but I don’t know where she lives and that usually helps narrow down the possibilities of where she is but I don’t so she could be anywhere. I needed to put my mind to rest so I could sleep but my thoughts of y/n refused to let me. Eventually my exhaustion took over my thoughts which I was grateful for but at the same time, wasn’t.

Third POV

Next day Peter wakes up and does his normal morning routine, takes a shower, brushes his teeth, puts on his school clothes along with his school’s crewneck and starts to pack up his spiderman suit. When he starts to pack his stuff for patrolling, he realizes that his backpack was stolen. Great. Peter thought. He didn’t know what he was going to put his suit in. Then he remembers that he had this old backpack that he used more when he would sleepover at Ned’s house. He grabbed the bag and gathered his school work and his suit along with his new webs that he made yesterday. It seems that it would be risky to have his suit in his school bag but he feels paranoid if it is away from him, someone is going to find it and steal it and try to figure out who Spiderman is. He finishes packing and goes out to the kitchen and makes some toast. His aunt was sitting on the couch watching the news like how she usually does every morning but she has this worried look on her face while watching the news. I go over to see what was wrong and it turns out that a man was murdered last night in Queens but the cops didn’t have any leads. Peter feels sort of guilty, that’s why he doesn’t watch the news as much. He doesn’t want to see all of the crimes that happen when he can’t be there. He understands that he can’t be there all the time but still seeing this stuff does not help.

“This just makes you realize that this can happen to anyone” Aunt May spoke bringing Peter out of his thoughts.

“Yeah I guess so”

“Peter let me know when you are leaving and arriving at places. I want to know where you are. I just need to make sure you are safe at all times”

“Aunt May, you have nothing to worry about. I will be okay. Trust me” I mean after all, I am Spiderman. But Aunt May doesn’t need to know that, Peter thought.

“Still let me know, for my own sanity”

“Okay Aunt May. I’m off to school now”

“Alright let me know when you get to the school!”

“Will do,” Peter shouted. He shut the door and plugged his headphones in. Peter was lost in his thoughts on his journey this morning. Peter kept thinking about the murder case.He didn’t really want to but it was the only thing on his mind right now. He could really stop thinking about how the cops didn’t know how the man died, which Peter found odd. Most cases they know but they didn’t say in this case. Peter tried to shake off the subject and focus on other things. The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt. He knows that he can’t help everyone but he couldn’t help feel that maybe if he was there he would have been able to stop it. Upon arriving at school, he almost forgot to text Aunt May that he got there, he knew if he forgot to text her, especially after just talking about it, he would have been in big trouble. He went to his locker to get a couple of his textbooks when Ned meet him at his locker.

“Hey did you see the news this morning?”

“Are you referencing to the person that died last night?”

“Yeah, did you come across that person by chance?”

“No” Peter said. In his mind regretting get off patrol so soon. The more he thought about it the more he regrets it. Both Peter and Ned walk into class and sit down at two desks in the back “I’m pretty positive it happened after I got done patrolling”

“Oh well, I just you knew something”

“Nope. Not at all.” The more Ned tries to talk about it, the closer Peter is going to snap. As soon as he had the last straw of Ned continuing on about the murder, Y/n walked in, more like ran in. As her body entered the class the bell rang.

“Please take a seat, miss L/n, and let’s not have anymore close calls, alright?”

“Yes sir” she replied, hanging her head with her arms crossed with her binder in between them. She still had those gloves on. She walked to an open seat that happened to be right by Peter. Before could even speak a word, Ned tugged on her sweater.

“Hey where were you last night?” Ned whispers in hopes that the teacher doesn’t catch him talking.

“We were concerned, I thought you got lost or hurt trying to get to my apartment. Why didn’t you respond to my messages?” Peter stepped in, he wanted to let her know that he was more worried than angry with her.

“Guys I’m so sorry I didn’t respond to you guys. I really do feel bad. I was doing my homework and I passed out. I slept for 13 hours somehow, I even slept in and was running late for school. I guess yesterday was a lot for me and I needed sleep. But I saw your messages Peter this morning and I’m so sorry I didn’t reply to last night or this morning, again I was running late and I would rather apologize in person than over the phone.” Peter could see the genuine in her eyes but her heart was stil pounding a little faster than normal but she just ran to class so he overlooked it.

“It’s okay Y/n, we just wanted to make sure you were safe” Peter gently puts a hand on her shoulder to show comfort. Y/n’s face broke out in a slight brush when Peter’s hand was on her shoulder.

“Thank you for understanding you guys” She said softly. She was glad that they didn’t pursue any more questions. She didn’t like lying to the people that had welcomed her with open arms. She didn’t lie to them because she was hiding anything, she just didn’t want them to worry. Clasping when she was about to leave her home and waking up in her bed was something that she didn’t understand herself and needed to figure out before others ask her about it. She already had enough people giving her weird looks and what happened yesterday was something that people didn’t need to know. People have already been giving her a hard time about her gloves. She gets weird looks as she passes people, girls laugh after she has walked by them, and have had people shout ‘prude’ and ‘be risqué, take the gloves off!’ at her. It was only the first day. All she could think about is the day that her dad could say she could go without the gloves. She looked over at Peter when she realized his hand was still on her shoulder. Her and Peter made eye contact when he realized his hand may have been on her shoulder for too long. Peter whispered a sorry while awkwardly readjusting himself in the chair.

Ding! Ding!

Thank God Peter thought brings out of him of this awkwardness that just happened between him and Y/n. Peter looked down at his phone and saw it was Mr. Stark who texted him:

After school come to the tower

Right after, ASAP!

Peter had a slight smile to his face after reading the message. It was most likely that there was trouble which isn’t good but the fact that Mr. Stark wanted his help, made him feel valued.

“Who was that?” Y/n had asked

“Oh um it’s Mr. Stark, I am doing an internship with his company”

“Oh that’s so cool. My dad works at a big bio-company that has interns all the time.”

“Oh where does your dad work?” Peter asked. Y/n froze for a second. She just realized she talked about her dad and now people are asking about him.

“Oh um he um works at Oscorp, you might now have heard of it but did you guys get the answer to number 3?” Y/n tried to quickly change the topic before Peter could ask more questions knowing more than he should. He noticed the quick change but didn’t push it.

“Oh yeah um I got 39, what about you Ned?” Peter included Ned back into the conversation.

“Same. What about number...” as all three were checking their answers with each other.

—————-

As school finished up, Peter headed out to the Avenger Tower to see what Mr. Stark needed him to do. Once he got there he saw all of the other Avengers circled around a hologram.

“Ah great!” Tony seeing that Peter made it. “Now that we are all here, let me tell you why I have all brought you here today. Recently there was a murder that was committed in Queens parking garage late last night.” Peter knew he was referring to the one that was on the news. But Peter was confused, why was Mr. Stark talking about that, that is the stuff that cops can deal with is always what Mr. Stark said.

“Now I know what all of you are thinking, cops can deal with that but the way he died is the problem.” Mr. Stark plays a security footage of a man walking to his car, minding his own business when another person appears in front of the man. The person was in black combat suit that had a hood on top. The person approaches and the other man gets scared and tries to get into his car faster, the person in all black quickly denies the man getting into the car by kicking them in the side and the man smashes into the wall. But then you can see that the figure in black takes down their hood and the footage shows that the person was a girl and it seemed that she said a few words to the guy and he begs for his life and she simply touched him on the cheek with a hand and the man starts to struggle to breath because he seems to be choking for a bit to than be seizing for a bit while color in his face is being drained to a lifeless gray and eventually his body goes limp. In that moment it dawns on Peter that the news never said how the victim died, but know he now why they didn’t.

“Did she just touch him and he died?” Banner asked

“After she touched him he died within a matter of a minute” Mr. Stark commented, “Fury had called me down to the morgue and there were no stabbings or any other possible ways she could have killed them that could have possibly happened that we didn’t see. But it was clear that where she touched him was the cause of his death. Now how did she actually kill him? I don’t know, it just seems like it was some kind of venom”

“Where do we go from here?” Nat asked

“First question is if this is a space mutant” Tony said looking at Thor.

“I have never seen anything like this before and I have seen a lot of weird species but nothing I have encountered have this whatever this is.” Thor answering Tony’s question.

“I mean have you seen every species in the universe?”

“I mean I have seen a lot and-“

“But not every single one” Tony asked interrupting Thor

“Possibly not”

“There how do you know it’s not a space mutant? It could be a species that you have not encountered yet”

“I seriously doubt it Tony”

“Why not? This seems like the kind of thing that could be a space mutant”

“Because if it was Heimdall would have notified me of an inhabited species came to earth”

“Oh um well alrighty then. I guess it’s not from space” Tony tried to brush pass the fact that he was provided wrong but everyone would never forget the time that Thor proved Tony wrong on the spot.

“Well then if it is not from space than another educated guess is that they were given this ability. Wouldn’t be the first time.” Tony said looked between Banner and Steve. Tony was sassy today. “Banner and I will go to the morgue to see if we can sample from the victim. Nat and Steve see what you can find out about our victim. See if there are any connections that could be related to the situation. Hawkeye is if there is any other information on the suspect. Peter and Wanda, I want you guys to go to the location of the scene, see if you guys can find any kind of information there. Everyone good?” Everyone nods “good now shu” and people disperse.

—————

Peter and Wanda go off to the scene of the crime which was in a garage parking lot. They start to look around got any clues but it seems pointless cause the suspect walked in and out, not leaving anything behind but they had to check.

“Is your senses picking anything up spidey?”

“Not at the moment and please don’t call me spidey please” Wanda cracks up a bit. She loves teasing Peter, it’s easy to get under his skin

“No can do spidey”

“Well, can your powers help right now? Wanda-ey”

“First my powers can’t detect anything and second nice try I know it bugs you more to say that then it bugs me to hear it”

“Damnit, I thought it would-“ Peter stopped. Wanda noticed.

“What is it Peter?”

“Someone else is here” Peter and Wanda we’re prepared for whatever was going to be thrown at them. Then all of a sudden a car pulls up. A guy quickly gets out and points a gun at them but doesn’t fire.

“Who the hell are you guys?!” He shouted

“The question is who are you?!” Wanda replies back

“In just a guy who is trying to figure out who killed my buddy”

“So are we” Spiderman replies to the man “just lower your weapon and let’s talk”

“How can I trust you?”

“Because if we were against you” she shows him her red power hands, “You would be dead right now.” The man sees that there was no way he was going to win, ever if he didn’t know of they were against him. He lowered his weapon.

“Good now let’s talk.” Both Wanda and Peter talked to the man how he knew the victim.

“He’s my best friend. We have been best friends for 13 years now. I guess now he was.”

“If you knew him so well, do know if anyone that would want him killed?” Wanda questions him

“To be honest, probably a lot of people. You see he may be my best friend but he owed a lot of people lots of money. He liked gambling too much. Whenever he owed someone a bunch of money, he would disappear. And he was very good at it too. Well until now.”

“Do you know of the names that he owed?” Peter asked

“Like I said, he owed a lot of people, I don’t know all of them.”

“Is there maybe one that would want him more than the others?” Wanda chimed in

“Well there is this one guy. Scrawny guy, in his 50s, I think, brown hair, glasses, andhad the presence of a billionaire. He is a very powerful and wealthy person, you could just tell by the way he carried himself and dressed. I told him that he should borrow money from this guy, the consequences were more likely significant than he had previously come across but he didn’t listen.”

“Do you know the name of this guy?”

“He didn’t give us a name but he had a name badge that had what it seemed to be a company he probably worked for.”

“What was the company?”

“It was O-” all of a sudden his head quickly leaned backwards as the rest of his body followed behind crashing to the ground. Wanda and Peter were shocked what just happened. Snapping back to reality real fast they looked to see who had sniped the guy and they saw the assassin with hood standing on top of another building with a sniper in her hands, who had gotten a perfect angle to shoot into the parking garage.

Thank you so much everyone for waiting for this part. It took me a bit to do some fixings and to get it to a point that I liked what I wrote but I hoped you guys enjoyed😊💖

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x reader #spiderman #spiderman fic #tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x reader #x reader #more than meets the eye #part 2 #finally #marvel #marvel fanfiction #hooded

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acanvasofabillionsuns · 4 years ago

Text

(you hit the) restart

They did my girl Violet wrong. I aim to fix this.

Summary: Tony keeps figuring out Violet’s identity. Violet just wants to go more than a few months without having to reintroduce herself to her boyfriend. Warnings: uhhhhh none? Wordcount: 2,615

“Hi, Tony,” a feminine voice says, and Tony turns to see a girl—vaguely familiar, pretty cute—smiling up at him hopefully.

“Uhh, hi?” He offers, fiddling with his backpack strap to give his hands something to do as he flips desperately through his memory to try and recall the girl’s name. He comes up empty.

The girl’s expression flattens for half a second before her smile returns, this time determined rather than hopeful. She sticks out her hand to shake. “I’m Violet Parr.”

“I’m Tony,” he replies, smiling back at her and taking her hand. Then he cringes; she’d already said his name and he’d just told her it like she didn’t know.

Luckily Violet doesn’t seem to mind, laughing and saying, “Okay.” She settles next to him and strikes up a conversation.

Half an hour later, Tony opens up his phone to get her number and maybe a date (he might not be reading the signs right, but she seems interested, and he definitely is, so) and then jumps up when he sees the time.

“I’ve got to go,” he tells her apologetically. “It’s almost my shift at work and I’ve got to use the time I have to get there.”

“It’s fine,” Violet says, smiling understandingly. “Same time, same place, tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Tony grins, before turning and running.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Violet sighs as she texts her mom for a ride home. She’d hoped he would remember her, especially because it had been three months and she’s really wanted this one to stick, but also because she hadn’t actually taken her mask off this time.

“Violet, watch Jack-Jack!” Mom called as she handed him off to her. Dash raced by before she could saddle him with the toddler.

Though technically Jack-Jack had powers and he could be part of the team, neither he nor the rest of the Parrs were very good at controlling when he used them or which one he used, so he still got watched by someone while the rest of the family went out and heroed.

“Violet?” She turned to see Tony and held in a groan. “Violet Parr?”

“Um, no?” She squeaked out the lie, then cleared her throat and said more confidently, “You should get out of here; it’s dangerous.”

“But I’m looking for my girlfriend,” Tony joked, grinning at her. “I’m sure I saw her around here, and I’m concerned for her safety. We’ve got a date on Saturday and I’d hate for here to miss it.”

“Tony,” Violet said lowly, glancing around to see if anyone was listening in, but it didn’t look like it. “Please, you need to go. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?”

“I want all the details then,” he told her, and she nodded.

“Don’t tell anyone about me, okay?”

Tony nodded his agreement, and she pushed him on his way with a small force field. He laughed and started walking off.

“Good luck, Miss Superhero!” he called. She waved at him over her shoulder as she hurried to join the fight.

She hadn’t actually told anyone this time, and so unless Tony had actually said something to someone, she should’ve been good. So why... Jack-Jack.

Her phone buzzes with a text saying her ride is in front, and she stomps down the school steps fuming.

Violet throws herself into her seat and sulks the whole ride home. She can’t actually do anything to Jack-Jack, that’s the worst part. Never mind the fact that he has 20 odd powers, he’s just a toddler.

Once she gets home, she storms over to her dad and announces, “I refuse to babysit Jack-Jack for the next ten times.”

“Why?” Her father looks up at her in confused concern. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“That snitch,” —she throws an accusing finger towards Jack-Jack, who babbles his version of her name in response— “made Tony forget me again!”

He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. You can be part of the fight the next five times, okay?”

“Eight,” Violet counters, “for the eight times Tony’s forgotten I exist.”

Her dad grimaces and nods.

“Thank you,” Violet says, before flouncing upstairs to her room and shutting the door not quite forcefully enough to be considered a slam. She spends the next hour distracting herself from boy troubles with music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, it’s Friday, and Tony’s texting Violet whenever he’s got a few seconds’ lull in serving.

They’ve fallen quickly into a comfortable friendship, and Tony is glad it’s so easy to talk to her. He wishes it was that easy to try to fit asking her on a date tomorrow into their current conversation. It’d be a little late notice, sure, but she’d mentioned something about being busy next weekend and he’s pretty sure she doesn’t have anything else going on tomorrow.

Their current topic is winding to a close and he takes the opportunity.

Tony: So um

Tony: I’ve been wanting to ask you a question

Violet: Yeah?

He can also see her looking at him expectantly, and he’s about to send the message when he’s handed a tray of food and pointed to a table.

He serves the people their food, smiling politely and taking the necessary time even as a part of him is antsy to ask Violet on a date before he chickens out or she gets offended by the amount of time he’s taking to ask.

Once he’s done with that table, he spends another 15 minutes going around taking orders and serving food before he gets enough respite to pull his phone back out quickly.

Violet: You there?

Tony: Yeah, sorry

Tony: Had in upswing in work

Tony: Anyway I was wondering if maybe you’d go on a date with me tomorrow?

Tony: I know it’s short notice but I though you said something about being busy next weekend, and there’s this movie that I think you’ll like playing—

Tony: Okay hold on

There’s another upswing in customers, and it’s not until his shift is over that Tony can start texting again.

Violet: A date tomorrow sounds great :)

Tony sighs, relieved and pleased, and texts her the title. They confirm a time, and 20 minutes later Tony’s home and wondering how he get so lucky with this girl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So you broke up again, but you made up in time to go on your date?” Ann asks.

“Yeah.” Violet grins.

As far as her friends knew, she and Tony were dating and they just “broke up” every time he forgot her. Somehow this time around she’d gotten lucky enough to go on the same date they’d had planned before Tony guessed her identity. Just, as a “first” date rather than having gone out for three months.

“It beats me why you keep breaking up and getting back together,” Ann comments. “Like, you’ve been dating on and off for over a year now! And then every time you get back together you act like a new couple again.”

Violet shrugs. “That’s just the way we work, I guess.”

Ann shakes her head in bewilderment and lets out a fond sigh. “Whatever works for you, I suppose. Bye!” She jogs backwards a few steps and then turns and hurries to her bus.

“Bye!” Violet waves after her. She hears footsteps behind her and turns.

“Hey,” Tony greets her, grinning.

“Hey,” Violet grins back. Tony’s smile shifts to nervous and his hand tangles in his backpack strap. When there’s a pause, she prompts him, “What?”

“What?” He echoes, looking at her in confusion.

“It looked like you wanted to say something.”

“Oh, uh.” He fiddles with the strap for another moment before asking, “I just, uh— I was wondering, are we, like, dating now, or...?”

“Dating.” She lest out the breath she’d been holding. “Boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Tony nods, looking relieved. “Boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Before either of them can say anything else, someone bumps into Tony, who stumbles forward into Violet. Balance lost, she falls backwards and ends up on her butt and bright red in the face.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” the guy says, reaching down right at the same time Tony does, which knocks their heads together. “Sorry again—oh, hey, Tony.”

“Hi, Collin,” Tony replies. Collin is one of Tony’s friends on the football team, all of which had been introduced to Violet at some point, and she’d gotten to know them well enough to manage damage control when Tony forgot her.

“Hey, Violet.” Collin reaches down and helps her up.

“Hi, Collin. Thanks.” Violet dusts herself off. Nervous about things being accidentally said and messing up the careful balance of lies, she isn’t sure if her being there would help or hurt the situation. Her decision is made for her when her dad pulls up in front of the school.

“Bye, Tony! Bye, Collin!” She waves as she descends the school steps. She buckles her seat belt and prays neither will say the wrong thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony and Collin wave after Violet until the door of her car closes. Once it does, Collin elbows Tony and grins. “So how’d the date go?”

Tony turns to look at him in surprise. “I told you about our date?” He tries to think back, but he’d asked her the day before they went on the date, three days ago, and that didn’t leave a lot of time to talk about his new girlfriend before they went on the date.

“Yeah, you’ve been looking forward to it for a couple weeks now, haven’t you?” Collin asks, oblivious to Tony’s puzzlement. A new bus pulls up, and Collin tells him, “Oop, gotta go. Bye!”

“Bye?: Tony calls weakly after him. How could he have been looking forward to a date with Violet for a couple weeks when he’d only know her for one?

He pulls out his phone, not entirely sure what his plan to use it is, but startles when he sees the clock. There isn’t time to try and sort out his confusion now, not if he wants to get to work on time.

He stuffs his phone back into his pocket and hurries towards the bus stop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her phone buzzes, and Violet glances at the screen to see a text from Tony.

Tony: Are you free tomorrow afternoon?

A quick mental run through of her schedule says yes, and she texts him as such. Her stomach twists with nerves, wondering what Tony wants.

He isn’t very forthcoming with details, simply asking her to meet him in the band room after school the next day. Violet agrees and spends the rest of the time leading up to then worrying over what he wanted to meet with her about.

Finally, the end-of-school bell rings, and Violet dawdles while students flood outside all around her. Once the school is mostly empty, she hitches her backpack slightly higher up on her shoulders and makes her way to the band room, trying to ignore the growing feeling of dread.

Violet pushes the door open slowly, and Tony stands up from a stool. Her stomach swoops at the mixture of confusion, concern, and what looks unfortunately a bit like betrayal on his face.

“Sooo,” Tony says. “I think we need to talk.”

“Oh?” Violet asks, internally cringing at how high her voice rises. “What about?”

“Yesterday, after you left, Collin said something about me having looked forward to our date for weeks?” Violet cringes, knowing what’s coming and helpless to stop it. “And then later, he said we’ve apparently been dating for a year.” She risks a glance up at Tony’s face and immediately regrets it, but she can’t pull her gaze from his again. He looks like someone kicked his puppy, a combination of why would you do that and hurt. “But I’ve only known you for a week?” He finishes softly, his eyes begging for an explanation.

She teeters between owning up and telling him everything or just bolting, but before she can stop herself she says, “I don’t know why Collin would lie like that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t know why Collin would lie like that,” Violet says. It’s a weak lie, and they both know it, but Violet doesn’t take it back, doesn’t do anything but stay frozen where she is, barely inside the door, looking like she’d been contemplating running ever since they started their conversation.

Tony hesitates, sighs, and tells her, “I like you, Violet.” Her breath hitches. “...But I just don’t think I can be with someone who won’t tell me the truth.” It hurts to say, but not as much as it hurts that she won’t just explain.

Violet sighs softly. “I understand,” she tells him, and then she tilts her head in a way that causes her hair to fall in front of her face, and gives him a sad smile, and she looks so incredibly shy. “See you around, Tony.” She slips out the door, and Tony sinks down onto the stool he’d been waiting for her on, wishing the encounter could’ve been less of a disaster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple weeks pass, and wouldn’t it be just Violet’s luck if this round was the one to stick, the one where she couldn’t give Tony an impossible explanation and they stay a broken up couple. Maybe it’s a sign.

“Have you two still not made up yet?” Ann asks. “A fight so soon after the last one?”

“It’s more like we didn’t fully work out the last fight, and this is a continuation of it,” Violet explains sadly.

“I’m sure it’ll work out,” Ann tries to reassure her. “You’re such a rocky couple.”

“Yeah,” Violet sighs. “This time it really feels like it might be permanent though, y’know?” Ann frowns sympathetically and pulls her into a hug.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks pass since Tony broke up with Violet, and he can’t help but feel guilty when he sees her in the hallways. Sometimes, they meet each other’s eyes, and she gives him this regretful smile and he smiles back tightly at her, and maybe they’ll say hi, but that’s about it.

Then, another supervillain attacks—one Tony doesn’t quite catch the name of but he thinks it might be some sort of pun—and he runs across a superhero.

There’s this overwhelming feeling of deja vu as he takes in this super girl, but he can’t for the life of him remember meeting her before. She’s got sleek black hair, and the black domino mask on her face makes the blue of her eyes stand out in the glimpse of them he sees. She gives him a shy, sad smile, then seems to catch herself and makes it polite, and says, “You need to get out of the area.”

But Tony saw—he recognized that smile, and he’s sure his eyes are huge as he asks, tentatively, “Violet?”

She doesn’t seem to hear him, summoning a force field to push him and a few others out of the way, and then taking off towards the villain. He stares after her, stunning by this revelation, until his parents find him and drag him away from the fight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That afternoon, Violet dithers in her bedroom. It’d be so selfish of her to tell her parents and have Tony’s memory taken from him, to take her second chance instead of earn it from him.

But on the other hand, that was what got her into the mess she was in, and she’d probably still be dating him if his memory hadn’t been erased. It’d be a do-over, just another tally on the list of times he’d forgotten her.

...that she’d have caused, this time.

part 2! alternate part 2! part 3!

#incredibles 2 #violet parr #tony rydinger #viony #jack-jack parr #multiple chapters can you BELIEVE it #someone poke me to post the other ones tomorrow #saving this now because i typed this all by hand and edited as i went and i will actually curse if it deletes but this DOES need a title #my fics #my writing #you don't need to read both part 2s if you don't want to i just liked both ways so i wrote and posted both

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larissaloki · 5 years ago

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Pleasure to meet you chapter 3

Author note: as you can see? I'm not dead!!

Sorry it took so long guys!! @fangirlfannning

Tony looked out of his window, recalls the conversation that he had last night with Alpha Diana.

They had spent hours talking about the stuff Howard had said to each of them, clearing up the misunderstanding that Howard had created; believing that neither needed to know about the other. He only cared about the alliance being made.

Upon seeing how upset the pretty Omega was getting, fists clenched and wringing them in agitation, Diana shifted closer and tries to keep herself calm. Therefore keeping her scent soothing, using her calming scent to try and ease the poor Omega’s mind.

It had worked thankfully.

After that they switched to talking about themselves, telling each other small stories and facts about themselves. Diana laughed at the antics Tony and Rhodey got into at MIT and the various unbelievable stories. Her favourite had to be the baby alligator that Tony found in a storm drain, convinced it was some type of pet lizard. He had brought it back to the dorms, scaring the hell out of Rhodey at 3 am.

No amount of puppy eyes could convince Rhodey to allow him to keep it, so Tony sent it back home asking his mother if the alligator can stay there. Thankfully his father thought it would make for great robbery deterrent and kept it in an enclosed pool at the back.

Not realising that it could climb fences.

Poor Jarvis nearly had a heart attack when it moseyed on by, taking a leisurely walk to the much bigger pool. Though he didn’t have long to stay shocked, when Bernard Stark caught sight of him. The flamingo calling out as it flaps it wings and starts chasing him across the garden.

Diana had likewise shared stories of her own, how her mother at first was resistant to Diana learning to fight; but when she caught Diana learning from her aunt, Hippolyta had given in but demanded that Diana train harder than anyone else. Leading to the warrior queen that she is today.

“Could you.. Possibly teach me some moves?” Looking nearly half terrified that his Alpha-to-be may be offended at him asking, Tony leans back subtly. Only to be surprised by Diana’s eager agreement.

“I would love to teach you, it would make me feel more at ease knowing you could defend yourself should you need to. Do you have any weapon or style you are most interested in?”

Shocked but delighted, Tony had requested time to think on that, to happy that Diana hadn’t been offended by him asking. Even more delighted at her response to his next question.

“How strong exactly are you?” Curiously, Tony leaned against the balcony barrier with his head tilted to the side slightly, unconsciously barring his pale, smooth, Mark free neck to her. Inwardly, Diana had thrilled and cooed at the sight, wanting nothing more than to sink her alpha fangs into his neck.

Dragging her eyes away from the tempting sight, Diana just grins at him before easily lifting him up with just one arm under the backs of his knees. Yelping in surprise and a small pleased blush dusting the tips of his ears and some on his cheeks, Tony had grinned like a loon as he put his hands on her shoulders to steady himself. The feel of her muscles tensing under him as she locks her arm in place, not even looking phased by the exertion, did things to his heart. Up close to her beautiful face, her calming, sweet yet strong scent lured him in as he gazed upon her from above. Heart jackhammering in his chest, he thought for sure she could hear and feel it.

Someone cleared their throat behind them snapped them out of their staring match, faces just inches apart now at least a foot apart. Their heads pulling back away from each other and to the side so fast, it’s a surprise that Diana and Tony didn’t get whiplash.

In the curtained doorway; the actual curtains mercifully pulled shut, stood Hippolyta. A small knowing smile gracing her lips as watches them, mirth growing when Diana hurriedly puts Tony down to stand. Both looking like kids who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“Things seem to be good out here, I came to check on you both as you’ve been out here for 2 hours” Walking towards them slowly, looking out at the trim and perfectly kept garden, Hippolyta moves to stand on Tony’s other side.

“Mother, we didn’t realise that we had been away for so long”

Waving away her daughters concern, Hippolyta turns her head slightly, enough to catch Tony’s eye.

“I actually came to bring you somewhat good news, should you be agreeable to it”

The news ended up being great news, Tony recalls as he rearranges his suitcase that lays on his bed. A roomy queen size bed, with the softest red and blue covers he had ever felt. The news ended up being that; Howard would agree to let Tony leave with Hippolyta and her group, see where his potential new home will be and live life there for a few weeks with his Alpha-to-be, letting them see if this union would indeed work out. It would give Tony a few weeks to adjust before the wedding. A few weeks that Tony was grateful to have; and surprised that Howard agreed to, to learn the customs and what would be expected of him in his new home.

To sweeten the deal, Hippolyta had promised to open trades with Stark Industries. No outsider has ever stepped foot in Themyscira before, let alone have open trade with them. This would give Howard massive bragging rights.

Tony was honestly excited to leave and had even managed to get permission for Rhodey and Pepper to accompany him, as a sort of a security group to stop his mother from worrying about him going alone. Both of his best friends had been ecstatic to be invited and said yes immediately, no doubt eager to go on a paid holiday courtesy of Maria.

Zipping up his 5th bag, Tony moved it to his door ready to be taken down later. Hippolyta informed them all last night before she had left after the party ended, that they would be leaving on the 17th, early to avoid as much traffic to the closest port as possible, it means Tony having to be up and ready by 6 am. But it was worth it

In just over 15 hours, Tony will be leaving this place and hopefully be free from his father’s suffocating presence. He would miss his mother of course, but Tony could no longer tolerate Howard and his backward Alpha views.

The day dragged by as Tony made sure he had everything he needed, following poor Jarvis around to make sure his favourite clothes were washed and dried for him to pack, no way was he leaving without his favourite ACDC band shirt! This would force him to pack a 6th bag, but he was adamant to take everything he loves with him.

Checking every 20 minutes to make sure he didn’t miss any new messages from Diana or Hippolyta. Tony was a bundle of raw energy as he bounced around the Manor, getting under poor Jarvis’s feet frequently.

Jarvis could barely hold in his relief when Rhodey and Pepper arrived just after dinner, bags in hand as well for the journey. They would be spending the night at Stark Manor before leaving with Tony early in the morning. Rhodey especially was staying to make sure Tony got up on time and didn’t accidentally over sleep.

With them there to distract Tony’s manic energy and nerves, Jarvis was free to actually do his usual jobs as well as move all the bags down to the door, all ready to go in the morning. He then prepared some hot cocoa with honey to help the young sir sleep. Rhodey and Pepper were in Tony’s room sat on his bed as they chatted when Jarvis knocked to come in.

“Young sir, I have drinks to help you sleep. You should be getting ready to sleep soon”

Perking up at the sound of Jarvis’s voice, Tony grins at the elder Beta.

“Hey Jarvis, thanks for the drinks”

Rhodey and Pepper give their thanks as well as they take their cups, Rhodey already proceeding to drain the delicious drink. He’s nor sure what Jarvis does, but he has never had such an amazing hot chocolate before, his own mother’s being the only exception.

“I trust you are all fully packed and everything down stairs ready for the morning sir?” Jarvis enquired as he picked up a few machinery parts and tools, the odd note-book as well and placing them back into their rightful spots.

“All packed and ready J!” handing back his now empty cup, the trio settle in the massive bed. Tony ending up in the middle, being that Omegas love a good cuddle pile.

Smiling, Jarvis takes the tray with him as he goes to leave, “That’s good, get some sleep and I shall come and wake you in the morning. Good night sirs, ma’am”

“Night Jarvis!”

#larissaloki #tony stark #omega tony #omega tony stark #omegaverse #alpha diana #Wonder women

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libraryofrewrita · 6 years ago

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Chapter 20: Finishing Things in Present Harrisville

After spending half an hour on the train, ten minutes waiting for the bus, and five minutes on the bus, they watched as the sky turned from gold into a mixture of lavender and dark purple. It wasn't until they arrived at Harrisville that the stars started to come out and although they wanted so badly to free at least one statue here, they knew it wouldn't be good to go forward blindly without a plan.

"Let's just head up to the house, eat dinner, and get some rest. Tomorrow, we'll have the whole day to plan things out."

Not wanting to see if the risk of Terror Time existed in a small place like Harrisville, everyone agreed to the plan and they headed up to the house. They politely greeted Lucy and Kelly, explaining that they had been spending the day helping someone up in San Fantasico, which was technically true, and although they would've prefered to head home, they found that it was simplier to just stay the night in Harrisville and continue on their way home the next day. Thankfully, no other questions were asked and after they had dinner, everyone retired to where they were going to sleep.

Hopefully, an idea will come to us while we sleep...

*****

The next morning, they got up, got dressed in their regular outfits, and ate breakfast.

"Oh, Nate, Katie. We're going to get some things that belonged to your grandfathers. I'm sure you'll be interested in them."

"Oh, thanks! Do you need us to help you get them?"

"It's alright, it's just a few small boxes. You three go spend some time outside until lunch."

The kids helped clean up and when they were finished, they went outside and started whispering among themselves. Kelly and Lucy went to a small shed towards the back of the house near and opened the door, which gave out the squeak associated with years of being unused. They walked in and found what they were looking for and sighed sadly.

"I hope they can put these to good use..."

*****

As they walked to the river where Faux Kappa's statue was, they talked for a bit, but no one had managed to come up with a decent plan to free Gnomey and to explain his statue's disappearance to Nate and Katie's grandmothers.

"We'll have to leave him for last unless we can think of something..."

As much as they hated the idea, they knew that it was the only thing they could do until an idea would come to them. The group walked along the trees in silence, finding it hard to believe that there had been more Yo-kai roaming the area decades ago and now they would be lucky if they could even get a glimpse of a new Yo-kai that was native to Harrisville.

Curse the Wicked Yo-kai...

They eventually reached Faux Kappa's statue near the river and Whisper, who had been looking through the trees at the time, looked at the statue and did the usual routine of sprinkling the Rock-Away Extract on the statue and they watched the statue start to glow.

*****

Faux Kappa's Flashback:

He hummed as he wrapped some fishing line around his trusty water bottle and put some weights on it to make it easier for it to sink and gather water. He threw the line into the river and he gleefully watched as the bottle sank. He started to reel the bottle back towards him, only to realize that he might have made a mistake in making the bottle heavier. Just as he realized this, the fishing line snapped and he saw his precious water bottle trapped at the bottom of the river.

"This shouldn't be a problem. I'll just dive in and..."

However, as he was about to dive in, the top of his head dried up, and in typical kappa fashion, he was stuck in place, which made him remember why he had tied his water bottle to his fishing line and tossed it out into the river in the first place.

"I couldn't have just done it normally, could I? I should've just did it like every other kappa has done it, by getting in the water myself..."

He thought to himself for a moment and if he could, he would've just shrugged as he said,

"Eh. It was worth it. I just need to find some stronger fishing line...or just take it easy on the weights on my water bottle."

He heard footsteps walking towards him and to his surprise, he saw two human boys walking with three Yo-kai out of the corner of his eye. He was able to identify Gnomey and Pallysol since they lived in the area, but the elderly nekomata riding on the shoulder of one of the humans wasn't a Yo-kai he wasn't familiar with. Come to think of it, he didn't even know who the humans were either, but that was due to him not really caring to just explore Harrisville and get to know the area better.

"It's so miserable out today...I hope the river hasn't gotten hot from this weather."

"Don't worry, Kenny. The river is always the right temperature...in fact, it might be the work of a Yo-kai~"

He heard the human with the elderly nekomata on his shoulders laughing as the other human waggled his fingers in a clear attempt to seem mysterious. It was clearly a common joke between the two humans and Faux Kappa felt a mysterious pang of jealousy, which he found to be odd, considering that he had never had a reason to be jealous before.

"Umm...are you okay?"

Faux Kappa snapped out of his temporary daze and said causally,

"Oh, I'm just stuck like this until water from my water bottle is poured on my head and I'm unfortunate enough to have lost my water bottle in the deep end of the river. Other than that, I'm having a fantastic day."

He heard the group muttering something among themselves and the two humans suddenly left, saying something about getting some help since none of the Yo-kai they had on hand would be able to get the water bottle and given the selection of Yo-kai that they had with them, he couldn't blame them. Even though they were Yo-kai, they each had their reasons to not dive into the deep end of the river. Gnomey was terrified of any depth of water that went above his head, Pallysol was still an oil-paper parasol that was lucky enough to have been granted immunity from the rain and doubted that his immunity would still be in effect if he chose to dive into the river, and even if the nekomata, who he learned was name Master Nyada, hadn't been elderly, there was still the fact that he was still a nekomata that refuses to risk having his tail flames go out.

*****

After waiting for a few minutes, the two humans came back with another cat Yo-kai, although he lacked the twin-tails associated with the species and a female Yo-kai that they introduced as Mermaiden. Mermaiden hopped into the river and picked up Faux Kappa's water bottle, swimming back to the shoreline to hand to one of the human boys. Faux Kappa felt the cool water being poured on his head and felt his limbs loosen up until he was able to move.

"How did you manage to do this to yourself?"

Faux Kappa just shrugged.

"I don't know what else to do with my life. I just wanted to follow my own path, do my own thing, and I became a Faux Kappa in the process. I haven't really spoken to anyone else in a while since I left my group, to be honest."

Faux Kappa was starting to wonder if the jealousy he had felt towards the two humans earlier had been connected to loneliness. Sure, he chose to leave his group, but he just wanted to be independent, not turn into a different Yo-kai in the process. He looked towards the humans and after looking at the Yo-kai hanging around them, he extended his hand to them.

"Would you two like a kappa Yo-kai on the team?"

He felt both of their hands grasp his hand into a firm handshake as they said,

"Of course, Faux Kappa. We're Nathaniel and Kenny."

*****

Faux Kappa blinked his eyes and stretched his limbs as he groaned.

"This is really becoming a bad habit...how long was I stuck for?"

The group gave him an abridged explanation of what was happening and he suddenly hopped up.

"I'm not going to just sit back and let this happen!"

He jumped into the river and swam away very quickly before he stopped mid-stroke and swam back to them to give them his medal.

"Please don't bring this up to anyone when we meet up again...especially Mermaiden. She'll never let me hear the end of it."

Acting like nothing happened, he went back to swimming away quickly, leaving the group confused.

"Okay then...let's go rescue Pallysol..."

They walked up to Mount Middleton and after making sure that the vines were safe to climb again, they went up and went to where they had saw Pallysol's statue the last time they had climbed up here. Sure enough, they found him, but then it started to lightly drizzle. To their surprise, they saw the statue give off a weak glow and they saw Pallysol as he gave them a weak smile and wave.

"Hey, kids and Yo-kai I met a while ago. You guessed my secret. I was turned into a statue about sixty years ago, although about eleven years ago, I was able to move again, but only when it was raining. Unfortunately, I also learned that two dear friends of mine had died sometime after I discovered that the curse had started to wear off."

The light drizzle started to end, but Whisper was not having it. He pulled out the Rock-Away Extract and sprinkled it on Pallysol and the glow surrounding him grew brighter.

*****

Pallysol's Flashback:

He hopped along the path of Mount Middleton as the light rain fell around him. He didn't mind since as a Yo-kai, he had been granted the immunity to rain that the normal oil-paper parasols didn't have. However, it didn't mean that he could just jump into any body of water he felt like. He only made that mistake once and he didn't like to be reminded about it. It had taken a day for him to get dry and another day to fix himself up.

"But still, the rain is nice. Even if it rained really hard, it wouldn't take me a day to dry...it would be a few hours at most."

He hopped along the path as he saw a group made up of two human children and three Yo-kai in the distance, not seeming to mind the light rain too badly, although the two humans were clutching bags to their chests in what looked like an attempt to keep them from getting wet. Pallysol hopped towards them and opened himself up, shielding the group from the rain.

"What the...wasn't it raining just now?"

"It's still raining around us, though..."

The two humans stepped just a little out of Pallysol's protection to get a better look and were surprised to see him.

"Oh! A Yo-kai!"

"The name's Pallysol. I saw your group as I was hopping around and felt like being helpful. Would you like me to stay with you until you get to where you're heading safely?"

"We're going to be out for a while. Can you handle that?"

"Of course I can! I'll even be your friend if you asked me!"

"Do you want to be friends?"

"Yep!"

"That was certainly very easy. Well, we're Nathaniel, Kenny, Hovernyan, Nyada, and Gnomey. Glad to be friends with you, Pallysol."

*****

Pallysol shook his head as he moved his fingers, unable to believe that he was truly free again. He shook Whisper's free hand vigorously as he said,

"Thank you, Whispocrates! I never thought I would actually see the great tactician of legend!"

Whisper's face was a bright pink as he said,

"A-actually, it's Whisper now...and it's not a problem, really."

The group quickly explained what was happening and Pallysol gave them his medal.

"I've been waiting to get revenge on the Wicked Yo-kai! I never got to reunite with Nathaniel and Kenny thanks to those jerks!"

He flipped and disappeared into a puff of purple smoke and as the group headed back down, a question formed in their heads.

"Hey, Whisper? Why did you change your name from Whispocrates? Was it because of what happened with Shogun Waitington?"

"Oh no. Nothing like that. I was stuck in that stupid capsule for so long that I wasn't sure if everyone had forgotten about me as Whispocrates, so I decided to change my name to something that was less of a mouthful and see if anyone could make the connection between me and Whispocrates without me telling them."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Well, I haven't really changed that much since I was Whispocrates. The only differences are my appearance and my job."

"Fair enough, we suppose. Come on, it's getting close to lunch and our grandmothers must be done getting those boxes they keep talking about."

"It's strange that they didn't want us to help though. They normally let us help them carry things."

"They did say that they were small boxes. Maybe there wasn't that many things in them."

"Maybe...but the fact that they actually asked us about our Yo-kai Watches during our last visit still bothers me."

*****

They walked into the living room and saw some unopened boxes. They knelt down and carefully opened one of the boxes, seeing a thick journal that had been hastily strung together with two years written on the handmade covers, the first one being smudged and the last year being the year that Nate and Katie had been born, and random bookmarks sticking out of them. Nate picked up the journal carefully, opened to the first bookmark, and read it out loud,

"It has been four years since our Yo-kai friends had been cursed, five turned into statues and Hovernyan stuck in the shed with no way of getting him out. We've spent the past four years going to any libraries we can find to look up curses and any way to reverse them, which unfortunately has labeled us as the weird kids in school, not that we weren't weird before. However, nothing we found has helped in the slightest. Even with our only remaining Yo-kai Master Nyada getting the materials that we can't get in the Human Realm for whatever reasons, we still can't find a way to free them."

Nate flipped the page and continued,

"We had thought that by sending the Wicked Yo-kai into the Infite Inferno would break the curses, but these curses seemed to have been built to last even after the defeat of the caster. Nyada has been trying his best to find something, but not even the resources he had found in the Yo-kai Realm were of any use. We can only hope for the best at this point."

Nate flipped to the next bookmark and saw that the entry was written about two years after the entry he had just read.

"Today we went on a proper date with Lucy and Kelly. We still don't know why they want to be with us, considering our reputation as the weird kids, but then again, we've had mutual feelings about each other since we were eleven and at this point, we haven't even spoken to any Yo-kai other than Nyada, so we're not missing much. It hurts so much to remember the happy days when we were carefree."

The next bookmark Nate went to skipped a few years.

"A small part of us didn't want to get rid of the Model Zeros, hoping that we could give them to Arron and Jason when they were old enough, but we have to face reality. After what happened all those years ago, we can't expose our sons to a world where Yo-kai and humans can be hurt just for being friends. Besides, no Yo-kai have actually lived in Harrisville since then, or so we assume. We haven't exactly been searching for Yo-kai for a while. In the end, we decided to just hide them away from the world in our shed, figuring that in the off chance that our sons could actually see Yo-kai without any outside assistance like us, we could at least give them some sort of protection."

The next bookmark skipped two decades.

"Today is the day that our sons are getting married. They lived a normal live and while they didn't inheirt our ability to see Yo-kai without outside assistance and we never had to dig out the Model Zeros to give to them, we can at least take pride in the fact that they were raised safely and happily. After the wedding, they're moving to Springdale to set up their new lives with Lily and Rebecca."

Noticing that they were almost running out of bookmarks, Nate continued reading.

"Today we learned the genders of our grandchildren. Arron and Lily are going to have a boy, which they're naming Nathan and Jason and Rebecca are going to have a girl, which they're naming Katie. We hope that we can enjoy having time with our grandchildren as they grow up."

The next to last bookmark brought up concern as Nate read it,

"We never thought we would end up spending our final days in the hospital. Both of us had been hit with a wave of dizziness and we fainted in our house. The next thing we know, we wake up in the hospital with no memory of what happened. The doctors just wrote it up to us being old, but we're not entirely sure. It pains us to admit this, but there might not be much time left for the both of us."

The final bookmark brought tears as Nate managed to read the final entry,

"We had Kelly and Lucy bring the boxes to us and while they were talking to the doctor about something and as we were binding the papers making up this journal together, we saw Nyada again for the first time in months. He gave us the necklaces we had been hoping to give to Nate and Katie when they were born, but we doubt that we'll live long enough to see them and the box with the Model Zeroes, which have unfortunately seen better days after years of not being used. We're not really sure why we decided to give our grandkids necklaces that had been made in the Yo-kai Realm, but Nyada assured us that the charms would help them when they need it the most."

Nate paused a moment to wipe his eyes due to the stream of tears and continued.

"In return, we gave Nyada the Model Zeroes and told him to do what he wanted with them as long as they never got into the wrong hands. He promised us this and after we asked him he helped us with our final task. He helped us put one of the marbles from the Model Zeroes on Lucy's glasses and the other marble on a necklace for Kelly. We won't be here to protect them from Yo-kai if any bad Yo-kai decide to attack Harrisville, but at least they can see them and make the proper arrangements. We just have to leave them the Yo-kai guide we made when we were younger, but never finished. Hopefully those items, along with the items we stored away for Nate and Katie, should they ever need them, will help our wives understand what's been happening for the past sixty years and why we felt the need to keep it all a secret from them. We just wanted to protect our loved ones."

Nate closed the journal and the group got together and hugged each other as they cried. Even though Lucas and the other Yo-kai had no familial ties to Nate and Katie, they were such good friends that they couldn't help but weep with them. Nate and Katie clutched their necklace charms and felt some sort of energy coming from them. Of course, it took them a moment to realize what the final entry had mentioned.

Wait...that means...our grandmothers must know about Yo-kai! They've had those marbles in their possession this whole time, but we never once questioned it, not even when we were younger!

They found their grandmothers in the room where Nate and Katie slept whenever they were staying over and managed to get out what was on their minds,

"How much are you aware of?"

"Your grandfathers used to own watches that were similiar in design to the ones that you own when they were younger, but they eventually put them away when your fathers were born and during their final days, they gave us the ability to see what their lives were truely like. It wasn't until your last visit that we realized that you were also part of the life that your grandfathers were once a part of."

"We have to free the statue on the table near their shrines so that we can fix the past. Can we do that?"

"You can. Truthfully, the statue always made us sad even before we learned the truth."

They quickly thanked Lucy and Kelly and went to free Gnomey. Whisper sprinkled the Rock-Away Extract for the final time and they saw the bright glow surround Gnomey.

*****

Gnomey's Flashback:

Gnomey had no clue how he got here. He just appeared in this house from out of nowhere, although he would admit that the house did have a nice and homey aura. He got up and decided to explore the house, hoping to find a clue as to how he had gotten here in the first place. As he walked, he heard a conversation that after walking closer to investigate, was between two human boys and two nekomata Yo-kai, although the blue nekomata lacked the twin tails associated with nekomatas.

"I have to admit, I'm starting to feel at home here. I'm just surprised at how quick it took for that to happen."

The elder nekomata summoned a mancala board and placed it between him and one of the human boys.

"To be fair, Kenny, we did manage to find someone around your age that is also able to see and communicate with Yo-kai here, so that would probably be the reason why you would be able to feel at home quicker than back in that other town. Care for a round of mancala?"

Kenny nodded and the other boy, the other nekomata, and Gnomey watched the two played.

"Definitely like when we used to live in that other town and the one of the few ways I had to entertain myself during the rainy days was to play mancala with...Nyada, it's your turn."

The elder nekomata snapped his eyes open and after a mumbled apology, he made his move and turned to look at Gnomey, who was nervously gripping his net to the point of it almost breaking.

"You're allowed to come closer, you know. We won't mind."

Gnomey hesitantly walked to the group and Nyada made a mental comparasion of how similiar Gnomey's behavior was to Kenny's whenever he was nervous.

"Have you always lived here? Kenny, your move."

As Kenny made his move on the mancala board, Gnomey answered,

"No...I just appeared here. I'm Gnomey, if you really want to know."

Gnomey was now looking at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in Harrisville.

"I usually live on Mount Middleton, but then I showed up here. Usually, when one of my kind disappears from Mount Middleton, it's because someone has finally felt at home in a new place, but this is the first time it happened this quickly."

"Are you going to be around here for a while then?"

"More or less. Why are you playing mancala anyway?"

"We've already played every card game under the sun and the Moximous Mask Card game isn't out yet."

"Oh, you like him too? I've only been able to read his comics whenever I find a copy near Mount Middleton, but it doesn't happen that often, so..."

Gnomey trailed off, embarrassed to admit that he doesn't have that much knowledge about Moximous Mask.

"It's fine. Nathaniel and I have the entire collection of his comics up to this month's issue between us, so if you want to..."

Gnomey smiled and after they gave each other proper introductions, he relaxed his grip on his net, placing it down and settling down to watch as Kenny and Nyada played their round of mancala, which eventually turned into a day-long friendly competition to see who the ultimate mancala player was between the newly formed group of five friends.

*****

Gnomey leaned on his net as he adjusted to not being a statue and he looked at the group after they gave him the abridged version of what was happening. He looked concerned and he asked,

"Can you guys do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Please find my treasure. I'm not sure if the Wicked Yo-kai decided to destroy it after they cursed me."

"Where is it?"

"I hid it behind the chimney just so I would know where it was and have Nathaniel and Kenny try to find it when they felt like being competative again."

The group went to the chimney, found a small deck of cards, and handed it to Gnomey.

"Thanks! I was hoping to play the Moximous Card game with them and now that I'm free from the curse, I can go back to the past and see them again!"

Gnomey handed the group his medal and happily walked out of the house, cards and net in hand. The group went to see Lucy and Kelly and said,

"Thank you. Things should start to improve soon and as much as we want to tell you both the whole story, we can't. We have things to do to make sure that things stay improved."

"We understand. Take the rest of the things in the boxes if you think that they can help you. We trust that you'll visit again?"

"We will, once things have calmed down. Hopefully before summer ends."

Whisper quickly went to the boxes, pulled out some random items, and placed them into the bottomless bag.

"I checked the train schedule and we can leave after we have lunch."

*****

Meanwhile, in the past...

Nathaniel and Kenny had been swinging their pepper bats at the practice dummies for at least two hours and had stopped to get some water.

"Hey! Did you guys miss us?"

The two humans spun around and saw a familiar group of five, along with Nyada and Hovernyan. They teared up and the Yo-kai rushed up to the humans boys and tackled them into a hug.

"We thought that...oh, it doesn't matter anymore! All of us are going to get stronger together so this doesn't happen again!"

Previous Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/181116269639/chapter-19-mermaiden-rescue

Next Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/181624469564/chapter-21-resolved-uncertainties

#yo-kai watch #yo-kai watch au #rewrite au #rewrite #au #booktwo #chapter 20

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xxmadsxoxo · 7 years ago

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How to get on Santa’s nice list.

{Part Five}

Pairing: Buck Barnes x Reader

Pre warning: Fluff, Fluff, and some more fluff

Warnings: Swearing, Bucky, a small bit of masturbation but nothing too detailed, and probably bad punctuation because I’m using my phone.

Summary: you moved in with your best friends apartment around 3 years ago, and found out she has one hot neighbor. Only problem is he is a huge smart mouth, and he always has jokes. Worst thing of all is he is a huge flirt, the boy could make your face warm up with a look. One day he gave you a snarky comment (to no surprise.) but you decided in spirit of the holiday to challenge him. No, smart mouth, or dirty jokes for the rest of November lets see if he can get on Santa’s nice list.

This is for (@lovelynemesis) Sam’s rockin’ around the Christmas tree writing challenge!

Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.

____________

Day 4

Bucky has become way too good at keeping his snarkiness locked away. I’m beginning to worry that he’ll win, and if he wins I’ll have to dance half naked in front of him. Which is terrifying, because just sleeping next to him drove me nuts.

The morning after

The sun shines through his window, and I struggle to open my eyes. Being as cozy as ever wrapped up in his big comforter, and his body heat next to me. It was such a nice feeling, I wish it could happen over and over again. He stayed a good distance away through the night, which worries me a bit. Maybe my hair doesn’t smell good, or maybe he just doesn’t wanna take it to far. Who knows? I hear him groan, and feel him shuffle around behind me.

His rough and husky voice from just waking up is all I ever wanna hear. “Morning doll, or good afternoon. I have no clue what time it is.” He is such a dork.

I chuckle a bit before answering. “It’s 10.”

“Ah, okay so I was right the first time.” I roll over to face him, and the sight is perfect. His bed head is the best, I just wanna mess with it. He’s so relaxed, and calm. It’s definitely a new side of him, that I haven’t seen. I mean yeah I’ve seen him sleep on our couch, but he never looked this relaxed. “Well I better go get dressed, I’ve got plenty to do today.” Buck opens his eyes and looks over to me as I sit up. “What do you have to do today?” I grab my water bottle and keys, as I stand up. “Oh, well I’m going to see if tony would be willing to hire me for something, hell anything.” Bucky sits up and brushed his hair back. “Well he’s been looking for an assistiant recently, maybe you could do that.” I smile and walk towards the door. “Yeah maybe that could work, if he’d take me of course.” I open the door before waving goodbye. “I’ll see you later buck.” He waves back. “See ya doll, good luck.”

_________________

Today 11:26am

I hadn’t seen him when I got back yesterday, so it was easy for him to pass through the day. I am going to dedicate the day with the boy, because I need to win. I miss going to clubs, I miss the music and the people. It was the only way to escape the time of year, but now it’s been ripped from me by Natasha. This has to go right.

1:34pm

“Hey Nat, wanna come with me and Bucky to get late lunch?”

She keeps her eyes on her book as she answers. “Eh, I’m good I had a sandwich not long ago.” I grab my keys and smile. “Alrighty well we won’t be long.” I open the door walking out as she says “Okay.” I close the door, and walk into buckys apartment. “Hey buck!” I don’t hear a response for a bit, which means he must be showering. I walk to his bathroom door about to knock before I hear a faint….moan? No it couldn’t be. I go to know again before I hear it louder “uhhgh, Jesus doll you’re so good to me.” I cover my mouth and try not to freak out. I just quickly run to his living room and wait for him there. He comes out not 20 minutes later in sweats, running a towel through his hair. He sees me on his couch, and looks confused. “Hey y/n/n, How long you even out here?” I look at him with a smile. “Not too long, just was gonna see if you wanted to get a late lunch.” He throws the towel over a dining chair as he reply’s “Sure doll where were you thinking of eating?” The nickname can never be thought of the same. “I was gonna ask you where we should go.” He nods and smiles at me. “Alright let me get dressed and we can catch a cab.”

2:03pm

I am becoming more, and more attracted to him each day we spend together. Which is crazy! I mean I know I just heard him jacking off, but who’s to say he was thinking of me? God I hope he was thinking of me. I like him, he’s a good guy. Why did I start this bet? Because now I like him more than I did before, and if he wins I have to get nak-

“That okay with you doll?”

I look at Bucky for an answer as to what he was talking about, is what okay with me? Was I thinking so much that I heard none of what he said??

“What?”

“Is Isabell’s okay with you?”

“Oh, yeah that’s fine!”

Isabell’s is an amazing hidden little resturaunt, that isn’t exactly a restaurant it’s more of a cafe. It’s my favorite place to eat, and it my favorite place to get hot tea before I start my day. Damn it how did he know of my favorite place? Is he stalking me? I know I’ve never talked about Isabell’s in front of him before. Bucky notices my distance from him, and squeezes my wrist lightly to get my attention. I hum “Hmm? What’s up?” He smiles and hold my hand. “You seem to be somewhere else right now Hun, are you alright?” I smile back reassuringly. “Yeah I’m Good buck, just thinking about the new job.” The cab driver stops and puts it in park. “Thank you sir” Bucky pays him, and we both get out of the cab.

____

We finally get our food, and our drinks. Bucky has talked about the wiring and, what he know about the works of his metal arm. It’s been great to learn more about it, and it’s actually kept me calm. By the time he’s halfway through his burger, he looks up at me chewing before he mumbles out something. “Mmso..” I chew on my fry waiting for him to continue. he swallows quickly. “What’s tony having you do?” I set the half eaten fry down, and pick up my cup. “Well he’s having me keep his files in order the first couple weeks, then I’m goin to basically be his waitress.” I take a few sips of my iced tea. “Oh okay, that’s kind of odd.” I set my cup down and tilt my head “What’s odd about it?” He sips his coke before answering. “Well I thought you’d wanna do something different.” I chuckle a bit. “When I was about 15 I dreamt of owning a bar of all things. It didn’t exactly pan out considering I got kicked out of everything. School, my house, and every job ever.” I shake my head looking at my food. “This is gonna be the best job of my life, Hell I’ve even got a good place to stay. I’d say life is going as good as ever.” Bucky sets his burger down once again swallowing what he chewed. “Well alright, if it’s good enough for you.” I nod. “It really is.” I pick up two fries at once before asking “What were your dreams?” I shove the fries in my mouth waiting for his answer. “Well I wanted to become a scientist.” I look up curious for more. “I don’t know why, but it really sparked my interest. By the time I could even start my dream, I got drafted.” He half smiles and eats more of his burger waiting for my thoughts. Except I have no thoughts, because what do you say to that. Well I’m sorry you never got the chance to live out your dream, all because you got drafted. Now your 75 or so years into the future, with a metal arm? Like honestly what should I say? “Well maybe its for the best, you know?” Oh he spoke for me. “Yeah maybe.”

______

3:56pm

Walking into his apartment with Christmas presents, he runs them to his room. He says I can’t see them because some of them are for me. While we were out I got Nat some more hair products. Bucky comes back and grabs a couple water bottles tossing one to me, I catch it and set it on the coffee table to take off my coat. “Can we watch friends?” Bucky smiles chucking his coat onto the arm chair. “Sure doll.” I toss my coat on top of his before sitting next to him. “Awesome!”

6:07pm

Bucky ended up laying his head in my lap comfortably, just so he could nap. Let me tell you I’m 100% tempted to play with his hair. He moans and re-adjusts his head and his pants. I can’t help but look, and if course I’m regretting looking because now I can’t stop. I look back to the tv hoping Joey will distract me. Bucky starts mumbling in his sleep, and I can’t do it. I shake him attempting to wake him. “Hmmmmm? What?” I move my legs a bit. “My legs are falling asleep Mr. Barnes wake up.” He sits up slowly, groaning with his eyes still closed. “You haven’t watched any of this with me.” He looks at me with a sleepy smile “I don’t watch tv much doll, it’s not my thing.” I nod. “Oh okay, than it’s perfectly fine.” He nudges me with his elbow. “Oh come on don’t be mad sugar.” I roll my eyes. “I just remembered no nicknames Barnes.” He groans “Oh come on it’s not the same as me flirting and all.” I give him a stern look. “You’ve let doll slide all this time, but once sugar came out you’re mad?” I scoff “You call anyone doll.” He sits on the edge of the couch and shakes his head “No I don’t, I only call you doll.” My eyes blow wide in realization, and buck gives me a confused look. “I’ve gotta go, I’ve got papers to finish for work.” Buckys stands as I do. “Wait, what just happened?” “Nothing, just realized I have stuff to do before bed.” He grabs my coat and hands it to me. “Well alright, good luck. Don’t forget Nat’s gift.” I smile taking my coat, and grabbing the rest of my things. “Thanks for having lunch with me Bucky, see you later.”

_________

Maybe it was a bit too much to walk out like that, but my mind was running with crazy thoughts. You heard him right? He only calls me doll, and when I heard him in the shower the one nickname he called out was doll. I don’t exactly know how to handle this, do I tell him I heard him? Or that I have feelings for him growing stronger? No, I can’t I have to keep this in line. I finally have something going for me, and I’m not gonna screw it up because of my feelings.

____

9:25pm

I finally finished all the work tony gave me to start with, and I had time to make dinner too. Now I’m laying in my room listening to old music from the 20s or so, and I don’t know why but it calms me. Helps me think better too. Nat kept to herself all day, so maybe an upcoming mission has occupied her thoughts. I won’t bug her about it, I know when she needs her space. Let’s hope work goes well tomorrow. I shut off my lamp, and try to sleep.

_______

10:23am

Tony had me skip filing because, F.R.I.D.A.Y helped him do it last night. He’s having me get him coffee as we speak, luckily I don’t have to go too far. His kitchen in the tower is only 1 floor down from the conference room. I finally make it back to the conference room with his coffee, and set it on a coaster. “There you go.” Tony picks it up while still reading his papers. “Thanks Hun.” I stand with my hands behind my back, waiting for any other requests. He looks up at me with a small smile. “We’re going to have a conference meeting around 11:00, so if you could stick around make sure everyone has everything to stay content.” I smile and nod understanding. “That would be great but, I’d also love if you could help me with something in the lab before hand.”

“Oh Mr. Stark, I’m not exactly qualified for anything in the lab.” I try to explain.

“It’s nothing too serious, just need a hand with a small project. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist, I promise.” He smiles and sips on his coffee.

“Okay, well until then I’ll sit here.” I pull a chair to sit beside him. I scroll through my phone waiting for things to do. It’s going to be a long morning, and it’s only 10.

_______

•••••••••••••••••••

Part 6 is comming soon!

Hey guys! I really like this chapter, and I hope you do too! Thanks for all the support so far, I am already working on part 6 for you guys! Xoxo

Tag List: @starkxpotts @ailynalonso15 @boyzines @buckysforeverprincess @of-rin-and-carlile @isnt-the-blog-youre-looking-for @libbymouse

#samsrockinwritingchallenge #bucky barnes au #bucky au #bucky imagine #bucky fluff #bucky barnes x reader #natasha romanoff #fluff #fluffy #mcu imagine

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usashirtstoday · 4 years ago

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Back Cat I Actually Dont Need To Control My Anger Everyone Around Me Needs To Control Their Habit Of Pissing Me Off

Excited to be coming back to arthur ashe kids’ day at the Back Cat I Actually Dont Need To Control My Anger Everyone Around Me Needs To Control Their Habit Of Pissing Me Off usopen on august 26th in new york playing for the roger federer foundation get your tickets to join the fun aakd. Bruce and the e street band recorded two of the tracks from chimes of freedom on this day 30 years ago this live ep is back on vinyl exclusively as part of the album collection vol 2 1987 1996 available next month. Tag a mom friend who s the only got 20 minutes to shop on my lunch baby shower gifter bundles baby place has got her back with our coordinating outfit sets multi packs shop girls bundles baby place Back Cat I Actually Dont Need To Control My Anger Everyone Around Me Needs To Control Their Habit Of Pissing Me Off

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So this is going to be a Back Cat I Actually Dont Need To Control My Anger Everyone Around Me Needs To Control Their Habit Of Pissing Me Off bit long but bear with me I had what I believe to be a pointless and incredibly frustrating experience with the assistant manager jamie at your auburn hills great lakes crossing location today I have been coming here for three years I frequent your orlando san marcos and new jersey locations as well at least once a year when we stop we usually spend 5 to 10 thousand dollars on your products the system is simple I go in park in a corner and bring bins to my corner sort them bag them move them to the front register and repeat today I brought a personal duffel bag as it holds about 8 to 12 of your bags worth of stuff I get told that i’m not allowed to use it because it’s policy not a big deal at all I say okay i’ll do that for the rest rather than rebag all of this i’ll just go up in line and pay for it and it can sit behind the counter seems pretty reasonable to me nope I got obstructed suggested that I might be stealing something and not allowed to pass stating if I don’t want to follow the system I can leave he then takes my entire duffel dumps it onto the floor and then rebags it into victoria secret bags then moves it to the front counter so it can be rang in I thought this was a little odd but hey he was doing all the work rebagging it so whatever i’m like dude i’m going to be spending about 8k today all I want to do is come in spend some money get out without any drama what’s the problem whoevers in charge should be thrilled with a sale like this we’re spending 8k keep in mind that I told him that I would do what he wanted and it wasnt’ a big deal and the response was to the effect of stop being lippy and just listen I told him what do you want from me I just agreed with you and said I would use your bags i’m not being lippy at all I know this because I said okay dude not a problem i’ll use your bags his response was maybe if you get to buy it i’m like what are you suggesting that an 8 000 order is something you guys don’t want he’s like yeah if you buy it i’m like dude we are spending 8k today why would I bag up a bunch of stuff and spend 2 3 hours picking our your fabulous product to not buy it anyway so I had 4 credit cards one card had 2 000 one had 3500 one had 2000 and one had 1000 because I am buying for multiple people I had 4 different cards all in my name I wanted one receipt for each card not a big deal to me right wrong again he cited some policy and said if the order is more than 750 items that they aren’t allowed to ring in under 750 items on any one receipt id like to point out that that amount is higher than your employees said they could take as a cash payment I asked him to please show me that I would understand better if I could just read it he was willing to do so he brought out the policy book and to my surprise what it actually said was words to the afffect of cash payments cannot be split up or over 750 items I forget the second half my immediate reply was so what’s the big deal im using credit not cash he snatched the policy book away from me at that point and said you know what you can just listen to me or I don’t have to let you buy anything it’s up to my discretion I then called your orlando outlet and your new jersey outlet and talked to the store managers and cited your policy I was given I asked them to confirm if that was accurate and both said if it was a policy it was news to them I then asked if they would let me buy my order using 4 cards and 4 receipts the woman at orlando said oh my gosh yes we do that every single day I asked if I went to her store if I would have any trouble with this in the future and was told no then she said you can always come down here if you’re in the area and i’ll be happy to take your order after that phone call I tried again here’s the video of that attempt I said listen I have 4 credit cards your register girl said you told her she can’t ring up an order under 750 items that’s 3500 if it’s 5 items not all of my cards have that much I have done multiple receipts every time I came here heck I can even supply them to show it he tells me that because I am order so many items that I can’t have less tan 750 items per receipt so I point around to everyone else and ask what about everyone else you aren’t forcing them to spend a minimum of 750 items what about the final charge i’ll have 750 items for two tickets but the leftover isn’t going to be 750 items you’re not going to let me buy them he shrugged his shoulders to say no at this point I haven’t yelled ive been a bit snarky and sarcastic because I know he’s just giving me a hard time two people ring in our order almost every time I am up there and we were there 3 times in the last 6 months spent a bunch each time so at 730 8pm or so we are done shopping assuming that two people could ring us up ended up being a fantasy he forced one employee only to ring us up later on he comes up when its now close to 9pm and says hey you mind if we ring you up on both registers I chuckle and say no I don’t but you do you don’t want to be breaking that 750 rule do you he glared at me and then sent the employee away and walked off after blinking a few times I laugh because after telling me over and over he couldn’t do it he just got caught trying to do what should have been done to begin with a short while later after 9 I find out that everyone is standing uip front except for the one girl and another associate because none of the rest of them are allowed to help her ring us up the only two people left in the store with about 700 more items to be rang in if that’s not enough since it was a holidy all of these employees are apparently being paid overtime to stand around and wait at a bit after 10 all but two girls leave and one girl is waiting to count cash while the other girl sits and keeps ringing stuff in we apologize profusely we expected two employees to ring us up like always and timed our visit to be out around 9 if this had happened instead of having one literally stand there and watch her for 1 hour and 47 minutes after close we would have all been out on time and no overtime or extra hours spent so finally at 10 47 pm our orders are done we thank the lovely girl lauren and jasmine who got stuck staying 2 hours past close because a manager made up some random policy and had to double down when I pointed out he really needed to follow that 750 rule when he was going to toss another girl on the register if this is policy fine it doesn’t seem to be no manager at your other outlets knew what he was talking about the orlando one insisted that the only restrictions are on cash payments and verified I was paying cash or credit it’s a pretty humiliating experience to get hassled trying to buy panties and bras by someone who’s on some type of power trip the only thing I said sideways to him was that I flat out didn’t believe his policy and that credit absolutely is not the same as cash I didnt call him any names scream at him or did anything to disrupt the store beyond what you see in the videos if this is not policy i’d like an apology from that manager in person or over the phone admitting he was mistaken I would hope that the next time I go there I am not hassled but if not I guess there’s always orlando or new jersey who seem to be quite friendly I also want to give recognition to jasmine and lauren lauren is the poor soul who got stuck ringing everything in alone because of the manager’s silly rule and not allowing anyone to help because it would be in violation of the 750 item rule jasmine was the cash counter who had to wait until we were out of the store to count cash even more interesting is that I had a former employee with me helping me buy and she said she never heard of this policy either but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t added since she left she was just as confused because the manager spent over 30 minutes trying to explain and defend this when that time certainly would have been more efficiently spent doing productive things instead of hassling someone who literally sits in a corner and speaks to no one while sorting through your products one bin at a time id love a call back about this or to find out what exactly is going on ive never been hassled like this before and it was a little frustrating and very trying to keep my cool joe rossetti alexandria gunn. 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