#sorry. the puter making me go insane again

[anothermonikan]

Electric Dreams is making me go so insane I literally want to ask everyone ever if they've watched it or if they would like to watch it, my nan who's like so work-focused and christian it's kind of annoying, I want to ask if her dvd player supports blu-ray so we can watch it, my online friends who don't follow me here, so we can watch it together, grrrr, WATCH ELECTRIC DREAMS EVERYONE

[willowser]

Hey hey Willow heyyyy ✨ I'll apologize in advance for coming with silly tots only!

But you know when you admire someone and you like the way they think and everytime they say something you're like !!!!!!!! YES EXACTLY!!! and you giggle at silly lil things they've said or how they've said them cause it makes you feel so pffttt 💓 and you live up in your silly lil head like ah yes I'd love to be their friend, and all that?

I know you know where I'm going lol but yeah that's how I think of you because I apreciate you and what you do so!! much!! and it's insane? I mean cause I'm just an internet peep (lol) and we dont know each other and that's wild to my silly lil head!!!

Art and love for it can do so much I'm sighing big sighs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you for sharing what you do and the way you do it and and and for being so kind as you do it. And yeah also I'll go to war, bake a cake and even do the laundry for you.

Also sorry I'm being so INTENSE!!! And basically writing a love letter under candle lights lmao I just never do this talking to ppl I think are cool kinda thing lol

I hope you have a great day/night forever and ever. Mwah!

oh, my heart and my soul — you are so correct !! art and the love for it !! how it connects across this great big world, across time-zones and reservations and insecurities and blooms fully in the great volume of our joy !!! you mean so much to me. you really, truly do.

you know, it's not just about our fanfiction, our blorbos and our 2d men and even our little stories; it's about the community and the love it brings ! especially in the wake of my little upset LOL my heart is so full at those of you that came out of the wood works to be there for me — those of you that have ALWAYS been there for me, on my worst days. i'm just an internet peep too ! just a guy on my puter !! and yet here we are ! how far we've come ! the love we have !

this little space is just such a haven of joy for me, and, again, it's not even necessarily about the writing itself or bakugou, especially not about the notes or refrogs or any of that; i say this all the time and it probably sounds childish and silly, but i really view this little corner here, with all of you, as our little space to sit together and hold hands and take turns talking about the things we like, what excites us, what nestles into our hearts and lives there, what pains us — all of it ! i feel so connected to all of you ! and as someone that was shamed and made to be embarrassed of fanfiction when i was younger and growing up — i'm so happy we've all managed to find each other here !

i want this to be a safe space where our creativity can flow together ! i want us all to be included, i want us all to be appreciated, i want us all to be heard, and it means so much to me that yall have done that for me as well ! day in and day out. rain or shine. this is our clubhouse ! and negativity isn't allowed in ! there's no place for it, i won't acknowledge it, i enjoy living my life trying to be as kind as i can, and i want to spread all of it to you, as best i can !

i sound so unhinged !!! LOL !! i am writing furiously in the candle light in my return letter to you, so quickly that ink is getting everywhere and that my handwriting is illegible akhfakhfa but i am always so grateful, to all of you ! and whenever i get such heartfelt messages like this — from those of you that have said before that you don't usually reach out, that this is the first time you're sending messages — i'm so honored that you would trust me with that ! that you deem me worthy of your vulnerability !! i have just so much love in my heart for all of you he he and thank you for being here with me 🥺

and thank you to YOU especially, dear. your message will live inside my lil brain forever. you are my friend. we do know each other, in ways that transcend identity and physical presence ! we are baking the cake together. we are folding the still-warm laundry side by side 🥺

[amalgamgooze]

amalgam stew ii

“When I woke up this morning, I saw the whole world staring back at me. Bored, I went back to sleep.”

=====================

It’s that time again where I feel so much all at once that it becomes a delicious thought soup. I’ve found writing helps with it.

My classmates really like my writing so far, at least in the excerpts from the story I’m sharing with the class. They claim it makes them think, and that it’s so outrageously unique that it’s hard to believe I wasn’t on drugs when I wrote it.

Hah. I wish I was.

Pretty much everyone around me has told me that if they didn’t know me better, they’d assume I was on drugs. I’m not sure how to feel about that. I’m also not sure how to respond when it’s a teacher telling me that. The drug changes every time too—this time it was psychedelics. Welp. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when I finally do end up drinking and all that fun stuff.

But not yet. I still have a reputation to uphold. I think many people around me really like me for some reason, though I can’t say what I’ve done specifically to earn this respect.

Tomorrow I read my commencement speech in front of the Panel of Judgement, something my parents have already familiarized me with extensively. That is, my parents are very judgmental. Now look at me. I’ve assumed my reader is a moron. I’m sorry, reader.

Back to the speech. I’ve practiced it a bit, but not in front of anyone yet. That’s less-than-ideal. Oh well. I’ve seen one of the other kids practicing it obsessively. I wonder how they’ll feel when I beat them anyway.

Hah. Like I’ll win anyway. It’s hard to be confident in your own speech when you’ve gone through ten-ish years of speech therapy and still never officially “graduated” from it.

…

Then again, I did ace all of my Environmental Geoscience presentations last year, as well as doing lots of public speaking in front of important people with lots of money convincing them to donate to hospitals and schools.

But I’ve started bragging again. Look at me again. I’ve never done Model UN or Mock Trial, which many of these other candidates have done. All I do is sit on my ‘puter and do some science. And volleyball.

I embarrassed the opposing team at practice today with a series of incredible blocks and plays. It was honestly a great feeling. I feel a sadistic nature growing in me—I took pleasure in watching that team endure their punishment for sucking so bad against me. This isn’t the me I’m used to, but maybe it’s something that needs to be explored more.

Why am I publicizing this? Why am I willingly publishing the fact that I’m evil sometimes? Here’s a good answer—nobody I know will likely ever read this, or care enough to act on it. And anyway, it’s a prankster sort of sadistic as opposed to a psychopath sort of sadistic. Not that I’d ever intentionally plan to make anyone suffer—it’s just that my actions, which were applauded, also directly led to the compounded punishment of my victims, which also gave me guilty pleasure.

Whatever. I didn’t really have that much power in that situation. “My” “victims” are literally just players on my volleyball team that had to run sprints because I blocked them a million times. I’m no evil mastermind or “king of the shadows” or anything edgy like that.

…

It’s weird actually caring about winning this commencement speech contest and being stressed about speaking. Every other speech I’d ever done had seemed so low-stakes—why’s this one bothering me so much? I suppose I just have to like, embody clarity or something like that.

…

Again, I’ve got a funny feeling that my speech is probably gonna win, but still… it’s just this sort of like, 70% chance of success (in actuality, if they pick at random, it’s a 20% chance, but I’m feeling confident right now) where I can’t really say “ah, well I’m probably not gonna win anyway” or “I’m definitely going to win!”.

…

This speech is driving me peanut-butter-jelly-sandwich insane.

[kingfallshistoricallibrary-blog]

Episode Eight: Electrolocaust Now

[KFAM music]

Sam: Good evening King Falls, you’re listening to 660 on the radio dial, and I’ve gotta tell you, we’ve got a  heck of a show this evening. We’re paying tribute to King Falls musical legend and Ben's old boss, jazz meistro Chet Sebastian. We’ll be discussing 40 years of-*static, sound of things powering down*

B: What the hell?

S: What’d I touch?

B: I don’t think it was you.

S: Sorry ladies and gents, it seems we’re having a slight technical difficulty here. Um, yeah, hey my computer’s down Ben.

B: Mine too. Sammy, I dunno if they can even hear us. We might be out out.

S: Well okay then, uh, we’re live and we’re winging it folks.

B: Au contraire my friend. You should know I’ve got a backup plan, and a backup for the backup plan.

S: Uh huh.

B: Let me just pull out the trusty smartphone aaaaand…

S: And?

B: It’s off.

S: Well, good thing you’ve got a backup for this.

B: It’s...an expression. We’re flying blind, Sammy. Check your phone.

S: It is off, uh, lemme guess, the ghost, sorry, apparition,-

B: Thank you.

S: Of Marconi just visited the station just decided to start yanking wires.

B: Maybe Merv forgot to pay the electric bill.

S: The lights, the mics, it’s not electricity, this is selective. But, y’know, thanks for being so cheap and old, Merv. It may have spared 660 from the wrath of skynet.

B: Yeah, the board’s lit up, and so are the phones, I don’t get it.

S: King Falls, have you gotten whacked by this random and seemingly mischievous power outage? You’ve heard our story, let’s hear uh, wait can they hear us?

B: Good call.

S: I don’t understand why some of this stuff is working, and some of it is out. What’re we doing, Ben?

*quiet buzzing in the background*

S: Now’s not the time to go rogue.

B: Radio’s are working, Sammy. We’re live

S: Well, you’re hearing our story right now King Falls, let's hear yours. If you’ve got a phone that’s working, give us a call or tweet us @kingfallsam.

B: Can’t check the twitter.

S: Dammit. *sigh* Let's take a call, Ben.

B: But, the schedule?

S: Dude, what schedule? The one locked in the computer that’s zoinked out, or the one that’s locked in our iphone that won’t power up?

B: Damn your logic. Line 1!

S: You’re live on the air with Sammy and Ben, hope you’re well on this weird ass evening.

?: Hey Shotgun!

S: Hey man. What’s your name again?

?: Not important, I just wanted to check in with my favorite AM radio host, and tell you you’re coming in loud and clear on my end. Loud and clear! Heheh. Am I on the air?

B: You’re live, sir.

S: So how’re things in your neck of the woods? Any technology issues, things not powering up and on for you?

?: Not a problem in the world, Shotgun. Heheh.

B: Is he going to keep calling you-

?: Shotguuuuuuuuuuun Sammyyyyyyy.

S: *Sigh*. Was there anything in particular you needed?

?: That’s it. Love the show. Shotgun Sammyyyyyy!

*hangup noise*

B: What did you do in your past life, Sammy?

S: You don’t even wanna know.

B: *sigh* Line seven, good evening you’re on King Falls AM.

Doyle: Hey Ben, hey Sammy, you dudes doing okay up there?

S: All things considered we’re doing well, and who’re we speaking with?

D: *stoned sounding laughter* Oh, this is Doyle. Doyle Bevins, out in Hollybrook Estates.

B: Hey Doyle, you having any issues with your computers, smartphone, what have you?

D: Oh yeah, about five minutes ago all my toys just shut off. TV, ‘puter, phone, sounded like a transformer just shut down.

S: Oh! So you had a transformer blow up by you? Could that have caused that way up here, Ben?

B: I-

D: Oh no, no, nothing like that. Like it was Bumblebee powering down, like uh kachuhuh, kachuhuhuh.

B: Oh. Right. Regardless, Hollybrook is a good five miles outside of town, I dunno if that would have hit us.

S: Doyle, thanks for calling in and letting us know what’s going on with you.

D: Oh, sure thing bro, but that’s not why I called.

B: Oh, uh, okay?

S: What’s on your mind tonight, Doyle?

D: Well, before all this new age funky junk started, I was having some really crazy stuff going on here in the apartment.

S: Crazy stuff, what kind of stuff?

D: Supernatural stuff.

B: I got nothing, I’ve never heard of anything going on in hollybrook.

D: *stoned laughter* It is insane, Ben. It’s like I'm living in some sort of cybertronian spacecraft.

S: Cybertronian? I'm not familiar, Ben?

B: It’s a transformers reference. It’s not real.

D: Hey. It’s real, Ben.

S: Can you give us an example?

B: Without referencing a Mike Bay movie.

D: Sure thing bro. So, I got this toaster, right?

B: Mmhm.

D: Sometimes, late at night, BOOM! It’ll pop up the scariest damn thing you ever laid eyes on.

S: So it makes the noise like when the bread is done?

D: Ghost toast boys. It pops, but ain't nothing there.

B: Doyle. *long pause* We’re gonna take another call.

D: Ohoho, not good enough for you Ben? Not spooky kooky enough, huh? I’ll do you one better.

B: You’d have to.

D: Sometimes, late at night, my fridge start making this scary humming noise, like hummmmmumumumum-

S: Doyle.

D: Humumum.

S: Doyle.

D: Hummumumum *clears throat, coughs*. Ahem. You get it.

S: Doyle. Are only experiencing this phenomena with your appliances?

D: Can, can I finish Sammy? Is that, is that cool? Can I finish?

S: I'm sorry, of course.

D: Alright. So like I said, it’s just a herming, so I sneak in the kitchen, all vatican assassin like, and I fling open the door, acrackachow! Ain't nothing happening boys. Mayo and mustard just looking to me like they wanna hop on a sandwich.

S: Alright, Doyle. We’re gonna take another call. Please be careful out there, with the appliances and such.

D: Hey, do you all want me to make you a video and send it? *scoff* Duh, maye the electronics are zapped so I can’t prove it, man? It’s a big old vicious circle, bros.

*hang up noise*

B: Dear god.

S: Take care, Doyle. Line 9 you’re on with Sammy and Ben.

?: Long time listener here. Second time caller.

*hangup noise*

S: Nope, not tonight. I don’t want that. Lets go ahead and take line-

B: *drawn out throat clearing noise*

S: Yes, Ben?

B: *sigh*, Uhhh, we, we uh, we need to play an ad, Sammy.

S: Play an ad? You know the computers are off, right?

B: Mmhm.

S: Don’t look at me like that. Don’t even think it.

B: God. *singing* When you’re hungry and you know it come to Rose’s.

S: No.

B: *still singing* If you’re starving and it’s showing come to Rose’s.

S: Ben, please.

B: *still singing* We’ve waffles and cranapples-

S: Ben!

B: I’m just trying to make sure the clients get their money’s worth.

S: I understand that, but you know there’s no better way to do that then talking about just how delicious Rose’s Diner can be. Personally, I'm one for the country breakfast. What do you get down there at Rose’s?

B: Uhm, well it’s a fact that you just can’t beat Rose’s fresh donuts.

S: And from what Troy’s told us, they make a mean bagel as well.

B: I’ve been going to Rose’s all my life. Never had a bad meal there, not one.

S: Y’know I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped by for a great meal and good conversation. So if you’re in the neighborhood, just passing through, or wanna feel at home away from home, stop by Rose’s Diner. Right off the interstate.

B: Exit 44.

S: There you go.

B: You’re good, and I'm hungry. Man I could go for the signature pancake puppies.

S: Whatever stops that singing.

B: Okay, please, I’ll, uh, I’ll have you know, Mr. Sheffield cast me as the lead in King Falls high school’s rendition of Grease

S: Alright Zuko, let’s take some calls. Good evening, you’re on with-

*static, feedback*

B: Tim!

S: Can you hear us, Tim?

*feedback fading*

Pete: Sorry, sorry, let me turn my radio down.

S: False alarm.

B: What do you want, Pete?

P: This isn��t Pete, my name is...Escobar. And I want to tell you that this is the absolute worst broadcast in the history of radio. You two oughta be ashamed.

S: We’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation, Pete.

P: Escobar.

B: I thought you weren’t ever listening to King Falls AM again, Pete?

P: I'm not listening...I'm assuming.

S: Well, you know what they say when you assume something, right Pete?

P: Esss-cooo-bariiita.

B: Don’t you have some mowing or clipping up to do up at Beauregard’s manor?

P: Racist! You know dang well no one goes up there after sundown. Ese.

B: So you admit your employer is a vampire. Hmm. Interesting.

P: I didn’t say, I didn’t, I didn’t say that. I just don’t wanna whack a weed that ain’t a weed. Ben, start living right. All that scary stuffs frying your brain.

S: Pete. Escobar. Do you have a reason for call-

P: Alright, pushy. Alright, you know what, I swear I ain't listening to you ever again, you browbeating ruffians. Nunca, nunca I tell you.

*hang up noise*

S: It’s gonna be a long night.

*sound of equipment powering down*

B: Look at the phone lines, we dropped all the calls. Line one? Hello? *silence* You’re on with King Falls? Nothing. We can’t fill four hours like this, Sammy.

S: I’ve got an idea. Give me your keys, Ben.

*sound of Sammy getting up*

B: This can’t be good.

S: Be right back.

B: Sammy. *moment of silence, followed by a door opening and closing* *singing* Stranded, at the drive in, branded a fool. *in normal voice* Yeah, I still got it. Okay folks, just, uh, lemme just check to see if our regular phones are working. Make a little call out. What’s this, a rotary phone? *dialing* Yeesh. *still dialing* *ringing*

Emily: Hello?

B: Hey Emily, it’s Ben. I hope I didn’t wake you?

E: Not at all, I'm listening. What’s going on with the show? And the electronics?

B: I know, right? I just wanna make sure you are, oh, uh, hey, we’re live by the way.

E: As live as can be, right?

B: Right. But yeah, I just wanted to make sure you were okay with all the weirdness happening tonight.

E: I'm fine. Thanks for thinking of me. Good thing I’ve got a landline, I guess.

B: If you didn’t, I would have had to come over to check.

E: Oh really? That’s an interesting thought.

B: Um. Yeah. Y’know. To make sure that you’re safe and sound. Like a gentleman.

E: Oh, of course.

B: Oh, uh, so, the other reason I called, um, in all your studies or research, do you ever recall any kind of electronic or, or, electromagnetic pulses here in the Falls?

E: Not to my knowledge. Obviously I’ll dig more into this later today at the library, but it’s new I think. Lucky us.

B: Lucky us.

*door opening and closing*

S: Alright, what’d I miss?

E: Hi Sammy!

S: Hi Emily. Hope you’re doing alright tonight.

B: Hey, I’ll call you later, okay?

E: Sounds like a plan.

B: Night! *hang up noise* Don’t look at me like that, Sammy.

S: I didn’t say a word. Crazy power outages and electrical malfunctions. Do you call your mom first? Your brother? Nope. you call your local librarian, Emily Potter.

B: So?

S: So it’s cute.

B: Whatever. What’re you up to over there?

S: Well, this is a record player borrowed from Mr. Chet Sebastian's office. This is not how we planned the evening, but, thank you Chet.

B: And?

S: Well, I figure since our fancy new high and mighty tech is out, that we’ll just have to bring back some old trusty reliable stuff to pass the time.

B: It’s a little telling that most of our broadcast equipment hasn’t gotten shut down.

S: Merv, take a note. Upgrade our WKRP radio shack so we can take a night off when everything goes belly up, huh?

B: Lemme mic that thing up.

S: Alright ladies and gents, you’re listening to King Falls AM, that’s 660 on the radio dial, with me as always my cohost Ben Arnold and this, this is a little Chet Sebastian jazz to help you through this weird ass night. Thanks for being a legend, sir.

*jazz music played on a record*