#still kinda throwing designs at the wall for how i wanna draw her but a friend mentioned her having a buzz cut and i think she deserves one | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ecto-american · 4 years ago

Text

Prom Season

Phic Phight Oneshot for Rikaleeta and ghostgothgeek: As Prom draws nearer, Danny finds that he has competition in asking Sam to prom. Danny/Sam

Read on AO3 and FFN

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dude, you're staring again," Tucker nudged him. Danny blinked, snapping out of his daze, and he stood up straight, tapping his fingers anxiously on the counter.

"Sorry, dude, it's just. What the hell would Dale want with Sam?" he scowled.

The jock was standing near Sam, the two chatting idly by Sam's favorite part of the comics store, the vinyl section. Sam was smiling, nodding and agreeing with whatever Dale was talking to her about.

"Dale's been eying Valerie lately, maybe he's asking Sam about her?" Tucker suggested. He smiled politely at a customer who came into his line, promptly beginning to check them out. "Even so, why do you care? Sammy's a big girl."

"Prom season's coming up, somebody might ask her," Danny argued lightly.

"And why's that matter?" Tucker asked. In no time at all, the customer had paid and left, and the two were left standing in the mostly empty comics store.

"Dude, you know guys!" Danny grumbled, throwing his hands up as if it was obvious. "They only want one thing, especially after prom! You should know. Don't you and Star plan on finally doing it after prom?"

"Probably, but mostly because we've already been doing it," Tucker shrugged. Danny choked on nothing.

"Wait, what? How come you didn't tell me!?" Danny asked. Tucker opened his mouth to reply, only to jerk his head to Sam.

Dale had left the store seemingly, and Sam was already at the counter, clutching a new vinyl. Danny chuckled.

"This is why we can't visit Tucker at work, you'll always end up with something," he teased her. She rolled her eyes.

"But Tucker works here now, so he'll be sweet and let me use his employee discount?" she half-asked hopefully, staring at Tucker with a bright smile. He sighed, and he entered his employee discount code as he rang her up. "Thank you!"

"Anytime," he assured her. He handed her her bag. "So did Dale ask you to prom?" Sam snorted in amusement.

"Oh hell no," she replied. "He wanted to know if anybody had asked Valerie, and if I thought his plan to ask her would go over well."

Tucker sent Danny a sideways "I told you so" smirk, and Danny made an annoyed grumble.

"Either way, you ready to drag me to Hot Topic?" Danny asked.

"Only every day," Sam said. She turned to Tucker. "You close tonight, right? Do you want us to swing by and take you home?" Tucker shook his head no.

"Nah, it's okay!" he assured her. "I have my uncle's old car now, remember?" Sam lit up a bit.

"Oh yeah! Well, just drive careful!"

Tucker waved her off with a grin.

"Don't worry about me. You two lovebirds have fun," he teased. "But not too much fun."

Danny could feel his cheeks burn. A glance at Sam, and he could see her own face flushing some. However, she rolled her eyes and jokingly flipped Tucker off, getting one in response as they walked out and into the mall.

"Do you want me to carry your bag?" Danny offered, holding his hand out.

"Sure!" Sam agreed, and she handed it over. "Have you thought about the piercing? I'll buy you one if you're going for it."

"Eh, I'm still trying to figure out how badly my mom would flip if she saw that I got my nose pierced, and if it'd be worth it lecture," Danny shrugged.

"You should totally do it, then deflect it by coming out as Danny Phantom," she joked. Danny snorted. "Come on, we could match!" Sam had gotten her left nostril pierced almost a year ago, currently occupied by a tiny black skull, as well as four total piercings per ear. As expected, her mom nearly lost it over the nose charm. She poked his nose. "You could get a little white ghost charm." He couldn't help but smile.

"Now you're tempting me to risk it," he admitted.

He gestured to the Hot Topic, and Sam went inside first, him right behind her. She went right for the piercings display, looking. After a moment, she tapped on the case, looking over her shoulder for Danny.

"See? Right there, you could get that cute little silver ghost," she told him. Danny peeked over her shoulder. She pointed at another charm, one in the shape of a laptop. "Oh! And Tucker could get that one! We could all kinda match!"

"Pretty sure Tucker's mom would actually kill him if he came home with another piercing," Danny replied. Sam had already convinced Tucker of getting his ears pierced, and his mom was Very Unhappy about it. "Just like my mom would kill me if I came home with a nose piercing."

"You're already half dead though," Sam pointed out. Danny gave a half shrug and smile.

"Got me there. Alright, I'll get it," he said. Sam grinned widely, going to the counter to immediately ask for an employee to retrieve it.

They only browsed a bit more before they finally left. No sooner were they out the door…

"Sam!" a familiar voice called out excitedly. The not-lovebirds glanced over to see Paulina and Elliot coming up to them, Paulina a few steps ahead as she excitedly half-jogged over to Sam. Elliot was carrying two Starbucks cups, taking his time following. Paulina threw her arms around Sam, hugging her tightly, the goth only giving a half smile and lightly patting her back. "If I knew you were coming to the mall, I would have invited you to get your nails done with us! Look, Elliot and I match!"

Paulina pulled away to show off white nails with pink details.

"Oh they look nice!" Sam complimented. "It's okay though. Coming today was kinda a last minute thing." Or rather, they decided to hang out here after catching the Box Ghost, who was making himself home in one of the new stores that hadn't quite opened yet.

"You got me Starbucks?" Danny joked as Elliot finally came close enough to properly hear him. Elliot rolled his eyes. "How sweet."

"If you wanna give me the four dollars it costs, sure," he joked back. He handed Paulina the clear pink drink, and she took a long sip from it. Danny noticed that he did kinda match her, with black nails and matching details, only in a pastel blue.

"What are you guys up to?" Paulina asked. "We were just about to see if Macy's had any cute prom dresses out yet." The mentioning of prom made Danny's stomach feel a bit weirdly queasy.

"We're gonna go get Danny's nose pierced!" Sam replied, pointing to his nose. Danny snapped out of the feeling.

"Wait, what? We're doing that today?" he asked. Sam grinned.

"You're eighteen, they'll let you!" she replied. She reached into the Hot Topic bag to pull out the piercing. "I gotta make you put it on before you change your mind." Oh, a bit too late already.

"Ooh, that's a lot more interesting than prom dresses!" Elliot mused. "I can drive us." He put his free hand to his ear. "I've been thinking about getting another piercing anyway." Paulina hummed thoughtfully.

"Spike should be working today, so I might see if he has my new tattoo design ready," Sam mused.

Another thing that her mom, if she were to ever find out, would flip out over. Sam already had two that her family were oblivious to. Danny knew that she had a spider on a web on her ribcage; he had held her hand while she got that one done (and nearly ended up with a broken hand). The other was a black and deep purple rose and vine on her thigh, which he had only seen right after she had gotten it. Jazz, out of everybody, had gone with her to get it, and even came back with a tattoo herself. Though Jazz, like a nerd, had opted for a book tattoo. Danny had never seen it before outside of the photo Jazz took of it, but knew that it was on her ribcage and something Spike gave her as an anniversary present.

"I guess that settles it!" Elliot grinned. "Let's go to the tattoo and piercing shop!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After somehow surviving Elliot's crappy little car, only somewhat affectionately called "the shitbox", they were huddled in the waiting room area of the shop. Paulina, already filling out the usual safety and health and consent forms, was standing and staring at the wall of previous art done.

"You gonna get a tattoo instead?" Elliot teased her as he handed the receptionist his own filled paperwork. Paulina shot him a smile, but still slapped his shoulder.

"Papa would kill me," she insisted.

"So? Get it where nobody will see," Elliot replied. Paulina playfully slapped him again.

Danny rolled his eyes, continuing to fill out his form as he drafted all the excuses he'd have to give his mom when she inevitably chewed his ass out when he got home. Whelp, he was already bound to be grounded sooner or later cause of the ghosts. Might as well spice up the grounding reasoning once in a while.

Sam appeared from the back, clutching a piece of paper up. Spike was behind her. Sam made a beeline for Danny.

"Dude, look at how nice it is!" she told him, holding it out for him to see. Danny glanced up. It was a skull with flowers growing out of it.

"Oh, that's sick," he commented.

"I know, right?" Sam grinned. Danny smiled, returning his attention to the paperwork.

"So you wanna get that this Saturday?" Spike spoke up.

"Uh, Danny are you free Saturday?" Sam asked. Danny glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"After today I'll probably be grounded," he joked, signing his name for the last time on the forms. Sam chuckled.

"True," she replied. "Hmm, ah whatever. I can tough it out." Danny quickly looked up again as it suddenly hit him why he needed to be free. Sam had already turned to Spike. "Yeah, let's go for Saturday."

"Oh, if you want somebody around, I can come," Elliot popped up.

"That'd be awesome!" Sam grinned. "This one's going on my back, so it's supposed to hurt."

"Well, you can break my hand, I don't care," Elliot assured her. Danny's chest squeezed a bit as he felt a hot flash hit him.

"No it's okay, I can just sneak out!" he said immediately. Sam glanced at him.

"Nah, it's okay. I don't wanna get you into anymore trouble," she assured him.

"I don't care," Danny quickly blurted out. Spike chuckled.

"Man, Mrs. Fenton's scary when she's pissed, your best bet is to just obey her," Spike told him. He nodded at Danny. "Did Jazz tell you about how she nearly got into a fistfight at the bridal shop a few days ago?"

"No?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"Basically when Jazz went in for her dress fitting, she had apparently gained a little bit of stress weight since the last fitting, cause she's been driving herself insane over grad school applications," Spike explained. Danny nodded understandingly. "and the lady fitting her dress kind of gushed over it cause she thought Jazz got pregnant. It made her cry, and man. Mrs. Fenton went off on her, and apparently nearly began throwing hands with the manager."

"Oh man, poor Jazz," Sam said somberly. Danny couldn't agree more as he gave a low short whistle at the audacity. Between graduating early, grad school applications, and getting married, he had never seen Jazz look so stressed out. "Why don't you guys push the wedding back a bit?"

"She'll get more money from FASFA and scholarships, plus better housing, if we get married sooner, and she doesn't wanna just elope and have a party later," Spike shook his head a bit. "But uh, either way though, I got some numbing cream for ya Sam if you're worried about pain." Spike shot Danny a reassuring smile and a wink. He felt a little better. Sam sighed with relief.

"Please," she confessed. "It's not too bad when Danny's here, but if I'm alone I know I'm going to get a little anxious."

"Aw come on, I'm not reassuring?" Elliot teased. To Danny's relief, Sam also playfully slapped Elliot on his shoulder.

"Are you kidding me? You'd probably actually ruin my tattoo by making me laugh the entire time," she told him. Danny's heart squeezed again, and he got up to silently hand the receptionist the forms.

"I think I might get a tattoo," Paulina finally spoke up. Elliot's interest was immediately piqued.

"Oh?" he asked. Paulina nodded, pointing to a tattoo on the wall, a pretty collection of flowers.

"This is sooo pretty, I think I'd get something like this," she said. Sam glanced at it.

"That'd be like, what? Four hundred-ish dollars, Spike?" she guessed. Spike glanced at the reference photo and nodded.

"Yeah, give or take," he replied. Paulina made a face.

"Maybe one day in the future," she decided. "I need money for a prom dress." Sam waved a hand.

"Prom dresses are temporary, tattoos are forever!" she told her. Paulina made a noise of disinterest, and Sam shrugged.

"Danny, did you wanna go first?" the receptionist asked as she glanced at the three stacks of piercing requests.

Danny coughed a bit nervously. He glanced at Sam, and he nodded.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thanks again, Spike!" Sam beamed. Spike smiled fondly at her, offering her a hug. She gladly accepted it.

"Anything for my favorite future sister-in-law," he teased. Sam's face instantly burned. Danny scoffed as he lightly touched his new piercing anxiously.

"Sam isn't related to us, dude," he told Spike. Spike gave him a weird look, then shook his head.

"You're lucky you know how to do math, man," he told him. "Also let me know if Mrs. Fenton kills you." Danny gave a nod.

"Don't worry, you'd be invited to the funeral," he joked. Spike chuckled. "Also I give you permission to tattoo my corpse before they put me down."

"Sick," Spike grinned. "I'll give you some of those lil blob ghosts the float around."

Elliot and Paulina were chatting a mile a minute outside the shop. When the not-lovebirds came out, Paulina immediately pushed her hair behind her ear to show off her new helix piercings. Danny could already see Elliot's singular orbital piercing.

"Look! I feel so punk!" Paulina gushed. Sam snorted in amusement.

"Girl, I'm gonna have to get you into a lot more black and leather before you're anywhere near punk," she teased. Paulina giggled.

"Maybe some leather pants," she mused. She shrugged. "Anywho! Elliot and I were gonna go look at the prom dresses! Wanna tag along?"

"Yeah, sounds fun!" Danny agreed.

"Yeah! I still need to get mine," Sam agreed. "I really want your opinion on a dress anyway," she said to Paulina. "Cause you know I'm going to customize mine no matter what I get."

"Yeah, I might ask you to do the same to mine, like help me tailor something if needed," Paulina mused. "I need my dress to be absolutely perfect. But we need to make another Starbucks run."

"Really?" Elliot raised an eyebrow at her. "Boo, this is your third trip today." Paulina pouted cutely at him. He playfully chuckled. "Alright, alright. I kinda want another iced coffee anyway."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, has Elliot talked to you about it yet?" Paulina asked, taking a long sip of her drink as they waited near the door to the popular coffee chain. Danny made a confused "hm?" noise as he took a sip of his own. "That he wanted to ask Sam to prom?"

Danny's heart stopped, and he instantly returned his attention back to the pair of goths. They were customizing their Starbucks drink at the counter, smiling happily and chatting casually about something he couldn't heart.

God, of course! Fuck, he was so focused on every other dude that he forgot that Elliot wasn't gay. God damn it, and Sam would potentially actually say yes to him too.

"Uh. Um. I-uh." Danny coughed into his elbow as he tried to think of some way to respond that sounded normal. "No, he, um. Hasn't said anything to me yet." Nice response, Fenton.

"Oh, well, be prepared I guess," Paulina replied, taking a sip of her fancy-looking pink drink in the clear plastic cup.

Danny took a huge gulp of his coffee as he tried to process it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He needed to think of how to reply to Elliot if the guy were to actually confront him or talk to him about it. His gut twisted. How was he supposed to reply? Elliot didn't deserve to go out with his Sam. What the fuck was that moron thinking? They were just friends.

"You guys ready?" Elliot glanced over his shoulder at them.

"Yup!" Paulina chirped. Elliot walked over with them, Sam quickly behind.

"You got your hourly Starbucks?" Elliot teased her.

"Mhm!" she hummed.

"You almost need to start working at Starbucks," Elliot told her.

"But then I'd just spend the whole paycheck on Starbucks," Paulina playfully protested.

"Fair, fair," Elliot hummed.

They exited, and they all piled into Elliot's car. Danny and Sam in the back, Paulina in her normal position in the passenger's seat.

"Do you know what kind of dress you're looking for?" Paulina asked as Elliot pulled out of the parking lot. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, definitely something black or purple," she said. "I'm really into long dresses lately, so probably a long dress, but I dunno! Short dresses are cute too."

"Oh short dresses are sooo in right now," Paulina agreed. "I want a short dress! Definitely pink, I want a really cute pastel pink maybe? But any shade of pink, I think it looks best on me."

"Hmm, yeah but greens look really good on you too," Elliot spoke up. "Like pastel and light greens?"

"They do but it's prom so I really want something pink," Paulina replied.

"Hmm, I think I look good in purple and black," Sam mused. "What do I look good in Danny?"

"Purple, black, red, and green, but like? An ecto green if that makes sense?" Danny said. Sam thought about it.

"Yeah, I really do like ecto green," she agreed. She shot him a sly smile. "Reminds me of Danny Phantom. And well. Ya know. I think he's really cute." Danny flushed, shyly smiling back.

"Ugh he's sooo cute," Paulina gushed. "His eyes are the most beautiful shade of green I've ever seen. Elliot, why are your eyes so dark." Elliot chuckled.

"Cause both of my parents have dark green eyes," he replied. Paulina huffed.

"I think that was rude of you. You should have bright green eyes like the ghost boy," she said.

"Yeah, it's pretty rude," Elliot agreed. "I'll fix that tomorrow."

"Do you actually think Danny Phantom's cute?" Danny asked Sam. She smiled, giving a half-shrug.

"Absolutely one of the cutest guys I've ever seen," she confirmed.

Danny took a long drink of his coffee, hoping that chugging some of it would help explain why his cheeks were beginning to burn.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh, this is sooo your color!"

"Oh my god! I love it! Do they have it in my size?"

"Hmm, um, lemme see...yeah! They do! Here!"

"Ugh I cannot wait to try it on! Oh! Oh look! Look at these sleeves, it's like a princess dress! I'm going to grab one to try it on."

"Ooo, that's going to look so good on you. Hm, I think I might try on that one too, cause it comes in dark purple and those sleeves kinda look witchy...Danny what do you think?"

Danny snapped out of his zoning out to look at Sam. The goth was holding up a short dress with long, flowy sleeves. It was a mid-dark purple and plain, though he had no doubt that Sam would likely customize it to her liking. She did that a lot with clothes.

"Yeah, looks good," he said neutrally.

"Oh, that'll look so good with your bat heels!" Elliot pipped up. Danny nearly forgot that the dude was sitting with him on what was dubbed the boyfriend bench near the dressing rooms. "Especially if you wear a corset over the midsection. Like if you found a purple version of that red one you have, with the black lace over it."

"Oo, that would potentially look so cute," Sam mused. She put the dress over her arm on top of two others. "I'm gonna go try these on."

"Oh, I should too," Paulina mused. Unlike Sam, her arms were overflowing with four, five? Danny counted at least ten different potential dresses if he went by the different looking fabrics alone.

"Yeah, you need to narrow some down," Sam told her.

"They're all just so pretty!" Paulina complained. "I wanna wear them all!"

"Well, let's just eliminate some," she suggested.

The girls went off to the dressing room, and Danny leaned back against the boyfriend bench. He pulled his phone out, and he replied to a message from Tucker and another from his mom. Man, was he not ready to face her later.

"So, Sam huh."

Danny glanced at Elliot.

"Uh, yeah. She's great," Danny replied shortly.

"She is, she is," he agreed with a slight hum. Elliot shifted to rest his elbows on his knees. "Ya know I was thinking about asking her to prom." Danny felt a lump stick in his throat.

"Really?" was all he could think to reply.

"Yeah!" Elliot smiled. "I mean, yeah. I wasn't the best dudes four years ago, but I feel a lot better about myself, ya know? I think I finally know who I am now, and I still really like Sam. She's funny, smart, really pretty. Love hanging out with her. Kinda wondering if she feels the same, and if she'd be down to go with me. What do you think?"

Danny bit his tongue to avoid an unnecessarily harsh reply, but he did get anger. How dare he. After all the lies he told Sam, and the way he lied and manipulated her. Sam deserved better than that.

"I um. I don't think you should go for it," Danny said hesitantly. Elliot raised a curious eyebrow.

"Why, did she tell you something?" he asked. "Or did somebody else ask her?"

"Um. Well, not exactly," he hesitated. Danny bit his lower lip. "I mean, I know she likes you. As a friend!" he quickly added. "But uh, I dunno man. Just don't think it's a good idea."

"What do you mean, is somebody else going to ask her?" Elliot asked.

"Why does it matter?" Danny nearly snapped. "You asked me what I thought, and I said it."

Elliot snickered in amusement, rolling his eyes. It only served to irritate Danny even more. Foreign phony. God, why did they even hang out with Elliot? Paulina and Elliot made sense, cause they were both huge prep kids and did cheerleading and soccer respectively, making them both jocks. But why did he have to hang out with Elliot. Well, because Sam and Paulina were friends now, and that meant that Danny also had to be friends with Paulina's friends. Of fucking course.

"What's so funny?" he demanded to know.

"I think I get why," Elliot smirked.

"What do you mean?" Danny questioned. Elliot just shook his head. Danny opened his mouth to question again.

"Hey! Whatcha think?"

Danny shut his mouth as Paulina bounce out in her first dress option. It was a bright pink dress that came to her knees, the skirt incredibly puffy and reminding Danny of a ballerina tutu, with inch wide straps.

"Oh, it looks so good on you boo," Elliot cooed to her. Paulina beamed, twirreling. "But that may also just be you, you look fabulous in everything." Paulina put her hands over her chest.

"Thank you," she gushed. "Can you take my photo? I wanna compare all the dresses I wear."

"Of course," Elliot agreed, pulling his phone out. He snapped a photo of her.

"Oh Sam!" Paulina squealed.

Danny noticed the goth coming out in a fully black dress that also came only to her knees, with a much slimmer skirt and short sleeves. It looked fairly plain, but man. Sam still made it look great. Danny was glad he was sitting, because he knew he was weak kneed.

Sam was smiling brightly, giving Paulina a light wave.

"I take it you like it?" Sam questioned, doing a quick turn around.

"Girl you always look so good in black," Paulina praised.

"She's sooo right," Elliot agreed. "It just looks so good on you, no matter what. Just." Elliot made a chef kiss motion. Sam flushed a light pink, and Danny glared at him. Dude, shut up. "No wonder you're goth. You were just made for black."

"I dunno, I think you're exaggerating," she replied. Sam glanced down at her outfit. "I mean, it's fairly simple. What do you think, Danny?"

Danny swallowed hard.

"Oh uh, I think it looks great!" he said, smiling brightly. Sam returned it. "I mean like. It's kinda? Plain but I know you'd make it something great. You always do." Sam hummed.

"Mm yeah. It's pretty plain, but I dunno if I wanna put in the amount of work it'd take to make this dress really poppin'," she mused. "I'm gonna go try another one on."

The two girls went back to the dressing room, and Danny could hear their lighthearted conversation. Soon as they turned the corner, he spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Danny demanded to know. Elliot snorted.

"Bro, just admit that you like her, and that you don't want me to take her to prom," he said.

"Where on earth would you get that idea!?" Danny scowled. Elliot rolled his eyes.

"Dude, you've been crazy about her since like, what? Ninth grade at the earliest? Paulina says you two have been making googly eyes at each other since like third grade," he said. Danny felt his cheeks flush. It had not been since the third grade. Had it?

"It's not like that," he insisted. "I just, you know. Really love and worry about her, she's my best friend."

"Best friends don't get worked up like this, this much, over a mutual friend asking them out."

Danny just glared at Elliot before rubbing his face with the palms of his hands. He took a deep breath, exhaling hard.

"How's it look?" Sam's voice asked. Danny glanced up, and his heart just absolutely flipped.

She looked amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Like a plant goddess, a model, an angel. He felt like there wasn't a flaw to be found, and he had never seen somebody look more enchanting. Her dress made her look even more divine, emphasising and showing off the best parts of her. The purple matching her eyes, the dress fitting her absolutely perfect as it flowed almost to the floor and the strapless feature making her hair flow smoothly over her shoulders. This dress was perfect for her.

But none of those descriptors came out. Instead all he could do is nervously swallow, tongue tied as he felt his cheeks burn up. He struggled to pick just one of those adjectives, and his brain settled for just saying nothing at all and simply staring at her instead.

"Oh, you just look so lovely!" Elliot spoke up. He stood up, going over to walk around her. "It fits you perfect, like it hugs your hips just right and really shows off your-"

"Pretty!" Danny suddenly half-yelled. The group looked at him oddly, and he felt his face flush harder. "It makes you look pretty!"

"Thank you," Sam replied, pausing a bit as she raised an eyebrow at him.

"...Uh, yeah. Um, yes!" Elliot clasped his hands together. "Just stunning. I love this purple on you, it's such a beautiful color. This dress specifically was made for you."

"Dude, chill," Danny grumbled. Sam gave him a Look, and he flinched.

"Danny, can I talk to you for a moment?" Sam asked through gritted teeth.

He had no opportunity to respond, as she grabbed his arm, painfully hard owwie, and began to drag him away, towards another boyfriend bench near a jewelry display counter and out of earshot.

"What's going on?" Sam demanded to know. She finally let go of his arm, and he huffed for a moment. Instead of responding, he put his hands behind his head, pacing back and forth. She quickly grew impatient. "Well? Say something!"

"Elliot wants to ask you to prom!" he blurted out, letting his hands fall. Sam blinked.

"He does?" she asked, sounding clearly surprised and...not angry. Sam smiled a little. "Really?"

"Oh don't tell me you're gonna actually take that foreign phony up on the offer!" Danny snapped. Sam instantly glared at him, crossing her arms.

"Elliot's our friend, dude," Sam reminded him. "Why do you care?"

"B-b-because!" Danny's arms were moving wildly as he talked. "He lied to you for months, and you're just going to ignore all that!"

"That was years ago, and he apologized," she said. "He's more than made up for it. And he's a super sweet guy. I like him."

"You like him!?" Danny nearly shouted. Sam slapped his upper shoulder with the back of her hand.

"Calm down and lower your voice," she told him. "And well, yeah. As a friend. Maybe I kinda like him more than that too."

"What the fuck, Sam!?" Danny, in fact, did not lower his voice. He dry-heaved for a few seconds, briefly making Sam start to watch him worriedly. Finally, he took a deep breath, and he returned to a normal inside voice. "What does he have that I don't?"

She went from worried to a blank stare.

"Apparently liking me enough to say or do something, especially when I've dropped so many hints or made moves myself," she replied. She brushed past him and left, returning to their friends.

Danny found himself taking a seat on the bench as he tried to collect his thoughts and the wide range of emotions that accompanied them. He put his head in his hands, rubbing his face. God he was so fucking stupid.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And it's just! Why him! Why Elliot?" Danny continued to vent after spilling the whole story. Jazz gave a small hum of acknowledgement as she finished writing another name out on the envelope. She set it aside for Danny. "I've liked Sam for so long, and I thought she liked me too."

"You're an idiot," Jazz immediately concluded. Danny glared at her as he folded another wedding invite, slipping it into an already addressed envelope before putting the sticker on the back to keep it sealed shut, and a stamp on the other side. Both were sitting on the floor of the apartment she shared with Spike, with each sibling on the opposite side of the coffee table, with Jazz resting her back against the couch and Danny sitting within reaching distance of their TV.

"Hey!" he protested. Jazz gave him a Look, grabbing another envelope.

"I mean it. She does like you, and she has for a while," she told him. She began to write out another address. "You just always never responded. You pushed her off in favor of another girl or because of some weird commitment issue that you seem to have going on. So be honest with me, and yourself. What's the problem?"

Danny silently folded two more invites, repeating the process of putting them in addressed envelopes and putting the sticker and stamp on.

"...I'm scared," he finally admitted.

"What of?" Jazz asked, not looking up from her activity. Danny had to really think. He casually tossed the finished wedding invite into the 'finished' basket.

"I guess just...it not working out. What if it doesn't work out? What if it drives us apart, and we lose each other?"

"You won't know that until you try," Jazz replied.

"She might also reject me, cause of the same mentality. What if she still likes Elliot more, and-"

"Danny," Jazz interrupted. She finally looked up from writing. "You will never know what the future will and won't hold. Just talk to her, and let her be part of the choice rather than blowing it all off due to fear."

He thought about it, and he gave a small sigh.

"Yeah...I think she's kinda pissed that I haven't been letting her be part of the choice anyway," he mused. He glanced at the pile of envelopes next to her. "How many invites do you have left?"

Jazz checked her list.

"Least a hundred more to go," she sighed.

"What the fuck, you have like no friends! Who are these people!?" Danny cried out. Jazz glared at him, reaching behind her to grab a pillow to hit him with.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knock knock knock.

Danny floated awkwardly outside of her window. She didn't answer, but he could tell that she was there. Her light was clearly on, and he could hear her music playing.

Knock knock knock.

"Sam?" he called out. "Sam, can we please talk?" He knocked some more.

The longest minute of his life passed before he heard the music turn off. The curtains opened, and Sam was on the other side, staring incredibly annoyed at him. She gestured for him to come inside, and he did. His feet landed on the floor, and she reshut the curtains.

"What do you want?" she snapped. Danny exhaled deeply.

"Sam…" He took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry about how I've been acting. I've just been…"

"Stupid?" she suggested.

"Yeah. But more importantly. I." He paused. "I've been honestly such a huge coward. Still kinda am, actually. Like…" He swallowed nervously, glancing at the ground. "I've been too afraid to bring it up or to really even talk to you about it."

Sam cocked her head to the side. She took a few steps back, sitting down on her bed and patting the spot next to it.

"Talk to me," she encouraged. Danny plopped down next to her, turning human as he did so.

"I want to be with you," he said bluntly. "But just...I get so caught up in all these what-ifs. What if it doesn't work out? What if you get tired of me? What if you eventually realize that it sucks being with somebody who has to cancel dates or who ditches you because I have to stop Skulker or Technus or Ember? What if you get hurt because of me? What if…" he trailed off, not even wanting to get into deeper thoughts.

"I wish you had told me this sooner," Sam spoke softly. "We could have talked about it." Danny sighed.

"I know, I know. I just." He rubbed the palms of his hands up and down his thighs as he tried to provide some kind of a rational answer. "I'm afraid. Even now. I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me," Sam reassured him. She put her hand on top of one of his, and he stopped. "You're one of my best friends, and I love you so much."

"...I love you too," he confessed. He turned his wrist, moving to intertwine their fingers together. "I can't imagine a future without you being there in some way. And I just...I guess I've always been worried about you not wanting to be there anymore."

"I'll always want to be there," she smiled. She leaned in, lightly pecking his cheek. He sighed deeply in relief. "Even if we tried, and we found that it didn't work, that doesn't mean we can't still be friends after. But we'll never really know unless...you know. We tried."

"So, I guess that means that um...you'd be interested in maybe going to prom with me?" he asked.

"Of course, ya dingus." She lightly tapped his new nose ring. "So. How much trouble are you in with your mom?" Danny flinched.

"Man, let's just say I'm surprised she didn't fully kill me."

#phic phight 2021 #danny phantom #amethyst ocean #phics #my phics

45 notes · View notes

moonlit-imagines · 4 years ago

Text

Headcanons for being Peter Parker’s Younger Sibling

Peter Parker x sibling!reader

warnings: bullying mention, blood mention

a/n: a fuckin reach, its been a WHILE since ive seen tasm

prompt: y/n is peter’s sibling

peter and you were playful kids

you were just a year and some months younger than him, so you had a harder time remembering your parents than him

but he always told you stories about them that made you miss them a little more

peter was a genius, we all know it

he was the one helping you with your homework most nights

“peter i cant do it!”

“that’s okay, y/n. look, start with two times four, that’s eight, then four times six, twenty-four, right?”

“can i say a cuss word?”

“sure”

“math is shit”

you would cry during homework a lot

you’d also pass out on his floor after talking for hours

and you’d either wake up facedown on the floor or in your room since uncle ben would pick you up and put you to bed

peter took it upon himself to take you back to your room, but he usually dragged you by the arm, sooooo

you’d play action figures together

he was batman, you were robin always

“can i be batman?”

“oldest gets to be batman so im batman”

“but i wanna be batman!”

peter walked you to your school before taking off on his skateboard

and he’d pick you up on his way home

on half-days your brother taught you how to skate

you fell a lot

aunt may had to patch you up

“how many times do i have to tell you those skateboards are dangerous?!”

peter got you your own skateboard so that you could practice without him

you would text him after you did a trick and he’d always say hell yes! show me when i get home!

being his photography assistant

really you were his assistant constantly

science fair was the most boring day of the year

“y/n, stand right here, i need to get something from my locker”

*judges walk up while youre left unattended and in a state of PANIC*

you were bullied in middle school, same as peter, he’d always stick up for you and get beat up instead

it made you very mad but it was scary, too

“how’d you get into this fight, peter?”

“oh, you know, just happened”

“peter was sticking up for me, uncle ben”

“was he now? you’re a good brother, peter”

lonely when he moved onto high school :/

but you got there soon enough

you guys were kind of loners, just ate lunch together, lugged around your skateboards, you were an artist, he was a photographer

just spectating the chaos of high school, rolling your eyes at the drama

“i have two bucks, do you want anything from the vending machine?”

“uhh, a coke?”

you saw peter get bullied by flash and lost your shitttt

you actually started a food fight after throwing mashed potatoes in his eyes

“what the hell, parker?!”

“sit down and eat your goddamn food, flash, or next time it wont be potatoes”

peter was half-proud, half-embarrassed

trying to see how long you could skate through the halls before any authority figures stopped you

sometimes......you guys got sent to the office together :)

*phone ringing* “hello, is this ben parker?”

“which one of them is it this time?”

the principal’s office was a trip sometimes

you and peter exchange your glances and wait to get scolded

“ah, the parkers, come in, lets have a chat...why do you two always feel the need to get in trouble together?”

“we just happen to get along really well for siblings”

no you fuckin dont lmaoooo

it was always something with you two

like always

*banging on peter’s door* “I KNOW YOU HAVE MY BROWNIES, PETER, GIVE THEM BACK”

*peter through a mouthful of brownies* “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT, YOURE CRAZY”

“is that my jacket?” -peter

“you mean my jacket?”

“y/n, i swear to god if you steal any more of my clothes it’s over for you”

“well, aunt may keeps giving me your clothes, so take it up with her”

and then there was just the little annoying things

“peter, can you stop clicking your pen?”

*clicks pen faster*

“you’re the worst”

and my personal favorite

“peter, open the door”

“why?”

“emergency”

*opens bedroom door* “what?”

“aunt may is making meatloaf”

“shit, uh...get your board, we’ll skate to mcdonalds and tell her we already ate”

peter and you RARELY ever brought your parents up until he found your dad’s briefcase, you didn’t have much to say

soon he was flooding his room with conspiracies and pulling you in to explain them

he began acting REALLY weird, but he was pretty open with you, he told you he went to oscorp

“YOU SNUCK IN??”

“your standards for me are way too high, y/n”

soon you started to feel not-so-good and weird things started to happen

“peter??”

“yeah? whats up?”

“this is gonna sound really weird...my hand is stuck to the door”

“it happened to you, too??”

“happening, pete. wait—this happened to you?? what is this???????”

yall done fucked up and got bit by spiders peter had so carelessly brought back into the house

it was an adjustment to say the least

and this adjustment got a whole lot harder that one night...you can remember peter just...so upset

you tried to chase him out to make sure he was okay, but uncle ben told you to stay with your aunt

maybe if you’d have been there...it would’ve been different, but when the cops got to your house you were at a loss for words

peter was covered in his blood still

“hey, hey, just breathe, okay? it’s not your fault, peter. just hop in the shower, yeah? i’ll take care of your clothes”

when peter took your advice and you were left alone, you just cried, you cried until he finally found you curled up in a ball in your room

then he cried, you just hugged each other sobbing your eyes out

peter got distant for a while, which was rough since the two of your were mourning for your uncle and dealing with these newfound powers

sooner or later he came around and helped you out, designing webshooters and a suit for you

“we match?”

*sigh* “yeah...yeah, we match”

ah yes, spider-team

you really tripped out new york at first, they thought spider-man was a teleporter

peter was still talking about your dad, but you really didn’t care, uncle ben was always going to be who raised you

you and peter would be covered in bruises after going out

“uh—peter punched me”

“y/n???!!!”

“I PANICKED”

just being dumb scared teens that cant function to save their lives until they get a little bit lucky

seriously like, every big villain you guys fought was just the worst

peter didn’t help all the time, he was good at provoking them sometimes

“hey, spider-man, you mind shutting up for a minute? for my sake?”

“sorry, sorry, just couldn’t help myself!”

he gushed to you about gwen stacy, he actually dragged you to her apartment to be patched up by her SEVERAL TIMES

yadda yadda yadda peter graduated high school! how cool is that? but he was late (what a surprise) even though you put off spidering today just for this

but he made it and you clapped the loudest for him

“thats my brotherrrr!!!”

cute family picture! (aunt may printed a bunch of them and gave them to you two and peter pinned them to his wall)

you and peter actually have a lot of pictures of the two of you just goofing off

he has one of you stuck in a trash can that cracks him up every time

seeing harry osborn again after YEARS

“wow, y/n, last time i saw you i just thought you were peter’s annoying little sibling”

“aww, it’s good to see you, too”

electrooooo

this guy really worried you bc like, bzzzz shock

you and peter weren’t equipped for that

it took a while, but you were finally able to deal with that

and several other problems

including peter’s breakup, which was a whole ordeal of its own

*peter laying upside down on your bed* “i dont know, y/n, you know? i wanna be with her so bad, i love her...but her dad is haunting me”

*you, drawing on your notepad with your legs propped up on his* “yeah, makes sense”

you actually had to tap out during the end of electro, you were hurt pretty bad

“y/n, hey? yeah, you’re okay. stay here, just stay right there, i’m gonna be back for you”

*thumbs up to show youre still alive*

but when peter came back for you there was bad news, he’d lost gwen

he ripped his mask off and fell to his knees, you could barely move but you powered through it, giving him a hug while he cried

“we...we better get home before aunt may starts to worry”

she was at work, so you two had the place to yourselves to clean up and mourn before the official news was revealed

“i should have listened to her dad, y/n, this is all my fault”

he was a mess, you couldn’t bare seeing him like this. it’s been so long since you’d seen him like this

the funeral was rough, peter was grasping onto your shoulder the whole time

he insisted that he was going to stick behind and stay with gwen for a while

“okay, i’ll see you at home...love you”

“love you too”

you gave him a hug and left him to his business, the next few months you were the only spider-person operating in new york...until rhino popped up

“im coming with you”

“you’re sure?”

“yeah, im sure”

(these are kinda ass but anyways im tagging my marvel ppl even tho ik this isnt mcu so just ignore this post if you dont care, sorry!!)

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @allthecreativeonesaretaken // @frostedgiant // @praellee // @emygirl // @lotsoffandomrecs //

#peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker #spiderman #spiderman imagine #spiderman x reader #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #andrew garfield #amazing spider man #amazing spider man x reader #amazing spider man imagine #parker!reader #peter parker x sibling!reader #peter parker x sister!reader

536 notes · View notes

entityskillcount-archive · 3 years ago

Note

Thoughts on everyone in the realms?

"Short Answer; I made a chart. Not a well drawn chart, mind you, but a chart. Sometimes you don't wanna put effort into drawing 50 something faces"

"Long answer, uh....well lemme go down the list"

Claudette: My Starflower~!! She's so sweet and kind and amazing in trials and every time I see her I swoon a little- I love her so much~ Dwight: He's cute- And he's a good leader, despite his nervous personality, he knows how to bring a group together. Final guy potential. Ash: ....Don't...Tell him I said this? But uh....Evil Dead was one of my biggest comfort series, the thing that got me through losing both my parents....the thing that helped me transition, pick my name, and fueled my FX hobby. And I'm still attached, even realizing he's a real person and all- But...it's weird to just, be upfront with something like that, so I'm just...burying it as best as I can. David: He's a little rough around the edges but he’s good to have in a trial, plus when you can get past the walls, he’s nice to talk to. Kate: Her music by the campfire is calming and she’s such a sweetheart. If we were in a better situation I’d love to learn Guitar from her, but, it’s hard when you’re a moment away from a trial at any given time. Amalthea (@askthewidowstars OC): She judged my entire vibe but jokes on her I’m the one who snagged a cutie for life- Meg: If I had a dollar for every time she left me for dead I would have enough money to paint the entire campfire in solid gold. The only time we’ve ever properly talked was about SAW traps and 90% of it was her admitting she could beat every single trap because she was ‘built different’ Jeff: He’s a sweetheart and really nice to be around. Sometimes when we’re by the campfire in our downtimes I’ll let him draw on my arm. it kinda makes me want a tattoo, honestly. If we ever get out of here, I might get one. Steve: Bros!! We kinda make up team ‘Altruistic Himbo’, Plus the ‘Babysitter/Brother’ Vibes mesh really well. I kinda wanna re-style his hair though, mostly because it looks fluffy, and nice to play with. Quentin: Bros!! We’re gonna make matching T-Shirts about committing Arson on Freddy in particular. He’s fun to hang around in our downtime, and I hope there’s a chance he can get some actual rest, even in here. He deserves it. Adam: If Dwight wasn’t the leader I feel like he’d take over the Reigns. I feel like he’s the calm type that doesn’t handle energetic types well though. Which, y’know, makes things hard. Nea: Anytime I see her she’s either sneaking around the map and watching everyone get killed, or doing something stupid to get herself killed. I’d get grey hair if We were actually friends. Feng: Gamer bros- I got to find out we actually played a lotta the same stuff before we were taken by the Entity. We get a chance to nerd out in between trials- Laurie: Best Final Girl hands down. I kinda hope she can teach me Decisive Strike one day- I feel like its also just a little awkward since again, still a fan of Myers Nancy: She doesn’t agree that Demo’s a good boy, which makes sense, but we but heads over it. Also I’m pretty sure she wants me dead for touching the bones around the map one too many times. They’re just too tempting.... Jake: He’s pretty quiet, but he’s helpful in trials. I heard he’s been to a convention a few times, but I don’t think he’s actually into it as much as I thought...Which kinda sucks. I’d love more cosplay buddies y’know? Yui: Kinda makes me want a motorbike. We don’t talk but she seems really cool. A little too cool to me around if that makes sense. Yun-Jin: She benefits off of throwing everyone else under the bus. And 90% of the time she will throw everyone under the bus. Even if she needs actual help to escape the trial. Cheryl: Cheryylll!! She’s really cool and honestly would add her to the ‘Can kill god if she was not nerfed’ Squad. Especially since y’know, she has- I bet if we got enough of the kids together we could just beat the Entity’s ass. I know she could. Tapp: Always been a fan of Tapp before I was taken, although I feel like he’d wanna arrest me if we weren’t in the Entity’s Realm. I might be a little too excited for my own good about Kramer’s work. I don’t think he’d believe the fact its a movie either. Ace: He’s kinda like the Uncle of the group around the campfire, but, coming into trials, He’s still for saving his own skin- You can also only stand dad jokes for so long. Especially in an eternity like this. Leon: He’s cool!!! I got so excited first realizing He and Jill were here, and I wanna get a chance to talk to him about everything that went down, but Haven’t got the chance. He’s nice inside of Trials though, usually doesn’t leave anyone behind. Not a fan of getting blinded though. Jill: She knows how to lead the trials well, and I look up to her a lot. She’s always been such a badass!! Bill: If Bill gets his hands on a weapon the entire Realm would be fucked. Badass as hell and Kinda scary. Another one on the list of ‘Entity needed to Nerf’ Felix: You’d think a Childless Father and a Fatherless son would be able to bond a bit more, but, I think we each kinda get the same vibe of homesickness from one another. He’s kind though, and it’s neat to see his work whenever we’re by the campfire. Elodie: She’s better at helping out than most of the others, but she’s still in a survival of the fittest mindset. I loved hearing about her studies from before she was taken though. I feel like if we had more time we could dig deeper into this whole world and what its about. But we don’t get that- Zarina: We just don’t really click as much, honestly. I’d love to get to know her better but I think she’s more into digging into the killers and what she can find out about this place. Which y’know, could be better done with a team. Sage (@askthewidowstars OC): HUSBAND!!! My husband. I love him to the Moon and back. He’s amazing and I miss him even when we’re five feet apart- ...I need a hug now- Amanda: Best girl hands down!! We vibed a lot in between Trials talking about her traps and old designs, she was impressed by my knowledge, and we hang out in Gideon sometimes! Ghostface: He’s pretty cute- Also fun to be around, even if he’s kind of a dick when he’s actually at work, it’s better when you’re outside of a Trial. It’s also neat to see he’s not just two idiots in a halloween costume and his own person, as much as I love the Scream Series, too- Leatherface: Bubba!!! Honestly I’d handle being chainsawed. Fuckin Love Bubba- Huntress: I wanna learn how to throw hatchets but I know I never will. She’s kinda scary, but also I feel like if she could adopt some of the others in the Realms, she totally would. Oni: The only times I’ve ever really seen him is just before my skull gets bashed in. All I really have associated to him is the splitting headache. Twins: I’m gonna punt Victor into the sun. I haven’t been good around kids beforehand and this tiny gremlin motherfucker just makes it worse. Pinhead: I was so excited to see him!! He’s one of the few that talks more often than not in a trial, and he’s always had this air of elegance about him which makes it so much cooler! I’d be tempted to grab the box to solve it, but, at the same time Dwight’s already been hunted. I just...want to see how it works, really. Maybe if I ask nicely? Nah, probably not. Pyramid Head: He’s so fucking COOL!!! He’s always just been really fucking cool and I still get stars in my eyes. I wanna re-create his weapon one day. Joey: Joey’s one of the chill killers to be around, probably my favorite amongst the legion. Also Cosplay gang?? Hello? Susie: She’s cute!! I like her vibes whenever there’s not violence involved. I wonder if she’d ever get into costume making, she has the artistic eye for it. I also wonder if she’d ever dye other people’s hair...I’d kinda want green tips one day- Frank: Still wanna throw a palette at him. He’s one of the more serious of the Legion, and usually the one you’d find with a Mori. Not as Serious as Julie but only because he has the cocky god complex to go with it. Julie: She’s definitely the most serious out of the Legion. There’s no real rest whenever we’re in a trial against her. Scary as hell and less of a bastard than the other three. Hillbilly: I know he deserved a lot better than this, especially after hearing more about him. I...Haven’t gotten to see much than the end of his chainsaw though. Blight: This dude’s singlehandedly bringing back my fear of needles and I thought I lost that with HRT- Also like, dude spits up orange fuckin everywhere. Michael: My Mans!! I always get a little excited knowing we’re up against him. It’s habit- It’s kinda weird to see him easily affected by like, palettes or flashlights though. Spirit: She seems like she could be nice when there’s some downtime. I’m also one of the few that can understand her well enough, which probably makes things easier. I found out she’s basically my age when I survived a trial by myself. I’d hope to hang out more sometime. Nemesis: God he’s so fucking tall. Kinda surprised it was Nemesis out of everyone that could’ve been brought, and also, kinda terrified? Still am kinda terrified. I’m surprised he hasn’t just torn up an entire map yet. His zombie minions are also annoying. Wraith: All this motherfucker does is roll up to pull me off Gens and Exist as a problem. I don’t see much of him outside of a Trial. Trapper: Motherfucker Incarnate. If the Entity lets us throw hands I’m fighting him first. Freddy: ....Gross. I liked the Nightmare on Elm Street series a lot, but...Freddy as a person? Ew. Especially this iteration. Demogorgon: Demopuppy!! He’s a good boy and he deserves to get treats. Even if the Treats are flesh....I wonder if he likes candy though. Trickster: Pretty!! He also Gives me DIO vibes because of the Jacket and the Knife throwing...Imagine if a killer could stop time...that’d be terrifying. Deathslinger: I wanna sit down and look at his gun more but I also feel like if I ask I’d just get shot on sight. Intimidating as hell but also cool. Mary: ....Still on the very complicated ‘Ex Girlfriend that murdered me’ State. It’s hard to avoid her though. Especially since she wants to get back together since we’re stuck here. Nurse: She does not help my fear of Hospitals, honestly. While she’s easy to go up against, it’s still eugh. Plague: I really, really hate her power. The Sickness and the Vomit is just- Eughhhhh- It just hits every bad sensory issue at once. Clown: ...I get killers are Killers and aren’t supposed to be good people but also like....Disgusting. Please Remove from the Realm. He’s just- ...Ew. Doctor: NOPE. NO. NEVER. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.

#asks #anonymous #God this was so much to write out

9 notes · View notes

maybemarvelbaby · 5 years ago

Text

Freckle

A/N: So, this is my first work on tumblr, I hope you enjoy it! <3

Paring: soulmate!Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings: Strong Language, Angst, Fluff

AU: Soulmate (tattoo)

Notice:

(Y/N) = Your Name

(Y/H/T) = Your Hometown

(Y/H/C) (Y/E/C) = Your Hair/Eye Colour

Everyone has a tattoo that they are born with, well almost everyone. There are a few unlucky souls who are born without the privledge of the universe giving them a permanent marking. ‘What is the importance of a silly tattoo?’ You may be asking, well it’s a lot more important than you might think.

In this world, people are born with two halves. One is you and the other, your soulmate. If you are fortunate enough to be given a soulmate (although it is more uncommon to not have one) you will bear a unique tattoo somewhere on your body. The only copy of said tattoo with be on the body of your soulmate in the same place that it is on you.

You’ve lived your whole life wondering where your tattoo was, that was until your parents broke the news to you. You didn’t have one.

Needless to say, you were devastated. You had spent almost 15 years of your life assuming your tattoo was somewhere you couldn’t see it, but it wasn’t anywhere on you. It crushed you to know that all of the fantasies you had about meeting your soulmate would never come true. But, as time went on, you learned that it was okay. That there are other people without a soulmate that still need love, so you decided that the universe had actually blessed you, instead of giving you a curse.

Three years after you discovered you had no soulmate, you had finally accepted it, and decided to find someone like you.

“(Y/N)!! Come sit over here!!” The calls from your best friend, Michelle Jones (though everyone called her MJ), echoed across the cafeteria, snapping you from your thoughts. You quickly made your way across the cafeteria to sit next to her.

You and MJ had been friends since diapers, until in the third grade when she moved from (Y/H/T) to Queens. You two still communicated often and your parents set up countless play dates.

Needless to say, you were estastic when your father landed a new job in Queens and received the news that your little family of four would be moving there. Your little sister, on the other hand, was not as excited. She had just found her soulmate, they had a matching set of white daisies tattooed on the back of their right hands, and she was not too keen on leaving her. Though family came first, and she had to leave her love behind.

“Hey MJ! It’s been what, like, 6 months since we last hung out?” You asked, easily striking up a conversation.

“Yeah, now that you live here though, hanging out won’t be as expensive.” She laughed at her own joke, the laughter soon doubling as you remembered how expensive it was to get plane tickets once a month.

“I’m so glad I’m here.” You smiled.

“Me too, oh! By the way, I want you to meet a few people.” Her eyebrows lifted and her eyes grew wide as a big smile etched across her face. She turned your attention to the three boys that sat across you.

“Hey there! I’m Jason. MJ has told us a lot about you, it’s good to finally put a face to the name.” The first boy said, his blonde hair and blue eyes barely catching your attention as soon as he stuck his hand out. You noticed a small rose tattooed across his upper arm. You gasped when you noticed the familiar sight.

“Oh my god! MJ! You didn’t tell me you found your soulmate!” You exclaimed, faking frustration with your friend. She scoffed and rolled her eyes affectionately.

“Yeah that’s him, now hurry up and meet the other two.” She replied.

The second boy perked his head up and smiled widely in your direction, the outline of a thin heart, full of complex designs was located right below his jaw.

“Hi! I’m Ned.” He said extending his hand like the boy before him did. You shook it smiling.

“(Y/N), nice to meet you.”

The last boy was seemingly distracted by whatever he was writing in his little notebook. A small, black spider marking sat on his left thumb. Ned noticed the boy’s lack of attention to the current situation and nudged his friend in the side, before nodding his head in your direction.

“O-oh, sorry. Hey, umm, I’m Peter. You must be (Y/N). MJ has been crazy about you moving here all week.” He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. You smiled at him warmly and his anxiety seemed to fade.

The five of you spent the rest of lunch together, talking about god knows what and making the stupidest jokes. MJ seemed to notice the quick friendship that you and Peter managed to form, smirking lightly to herself.

Soon, the bell rang, signalling it was time to head back to classes. You stood up and walked out with MJ, the boys insisting that you two go ahead and that they will clean up the table, allowing you to get a much needed five minutes of girl time.

“So...” MJ started, “No tattoo still?”

You shook your head scoffing to yourself. “Nope.”

“I’m sorry, (Y/N)... I know how bad you wanted a soulmate.” MJ said sighing.

“It’s okay, MJ. There are other people like me who don’t have one, I’m just gonna do my best to make do with what I got.”

MJ nodded, before leaning in to whisper in your ear, “Word of warning, you might wanna tattoo something on yourself with a pen or something because Flash Thompson loves to pick on people who don’t have soulmates. He’s pretty brutal about it too.”

You nodded in agreement as the two of you walked into your shared chemistry classroom, sitting at the same lab table. You pulled out a pen before quickly drawing two lines encircling the ring finger of your left hand. You showed it off the MJ.

“That’s kinda cute, honestly. Simple, but cute.” She said taking yo ur hand to admire it. Peter soon walked in and noticed the two of you, walking over to stand in front of your lab table.

“No soulmate?” He asked, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” He mimicked a sipping motion across his lips and you chuckled, muttering a quiet ‘thanks’ as he left to go sit at the table behind you.

Before you knew it, school was already over. It was faster than you originally thought, and you assumed it has to do something with how much fun the people you made friends with were.

Everyday you were in school for seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, and before you knew it, it was already the end of the second quarter. You and Peter’s friendship had grown fast. You learned about how he had no idea who his soulmate was, and he often seemed uncomfortable talking about soulmate business, so you often did your best to not bring it up.

Because it was almost the end of the first semester, midterms were coming up. You were a straight A student, with over a 95 in every class, except for one, Spanish. In said class, you had a 90, and it was killing you. You weren’t bad at Spanish, in fact, the language came almost naturally to you. You could write and understand it with ease. The part you had trouble with was speech. You knew how to pronounce each word and how to properly for sentences, but your teacher was a little bit over enthusiastic. He made it a point to give you a partner each week, and the two of you would have to present a little skit (spoken in Spanish of course) in front of the rest of the class. The stage-fright that you got was almost ridiculous. You would freeze up and stumble over your words, often throwing your partner off course and ending things badly for the both of you. The midterm assignment was no different.

Instead of a test, your Spanish teacher decided to pair everyone up and have them prepare a 15 minute conversation that each group would present privately to the teacher. Luckily, you managed to get the one person you trusted most in your Spanish class, Peter. He was practically fluent in the language and he didn’t give you the same anxious feeling when he was around you.

The two of you decided that it may be a good idea to head to his apartment after school and begin working on the project. So, that’s exactly what you did.

The two of you raced to his apartment complex, and you beat his to the elevator, holding onto the wall so you could steady yourself and catch your breathe. No less than three seconds later, Peter was in the elevator, hand on the opposite wall and chest heaving. He glanced at you and the two of you make eye contact. A light laugh erupted from the both of you as you humoured yourselves at your shared childishness. The elevator opened as soon as your heart finally stopped racing, and you two went down the hall and into his apartment. A young looking woman stood in the kitchen, scraping burnt food off of a nonstick cooking pan.

“Hey Aunt May! This is (Y/N), we’re gonna be in my room practicing for our Spanish assignment.” Peter called out. Aunt May whipped her head around and a wide smile spread across her face.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Peter’s Aunt May.” She greeted.

“Hello ma’am, it’s nice to meet you. Peter talks very affectionately about you.” You replied with a polite smile, extending your hand. She blushed and chuckled.

“Honey, please. Call me May.” She chuckled, ignoring your request for a hand shake and wrapped her arms around you instead. “We don’t do handshakes, we give hugs.”

You stiffened for only a moment before relaxing and accepting the hug.

“Dinner will be ready soon, if I don’t burn it again.” She said, drawing back from the hug and allowing you and Peter to go back to his room and get to work.

“Sorry about her, she kinda touchy.” Peter chuckled nervously.

“It’s alright Peter, I don’t mind.” You replied comfortingly, a small sigh of relief escaped his lips, and you giggled.

“Let’s get to work. Shall we?” He asked, clasping his hands together.

“Sure,” you nodded, “where do you want to start?”

“Umm... I’m not sure. Why don’t we just say whatever comes to our minds in Spanish.” Peter suggested.

“Alright sure ummm.....” you tapped your index finger on your chin, thinking of what to say, “Mi pelo es (Y/H/C) y mis ojos son (Y/E/C)?”

“That’s works okay, umm... Me gustan tus ojos. Son muy bonitos.” You blushed at his words.

“Gracias. Me gusts tu cabello rizado, es muy lindo.” His cheeks flushed with pink when you spoke and he cleared his throat.

“Me gustan muchos tus labios.”

“Me gustan tus labios también.”

Peter face grew hot and he shifted nervously before speaking his next words. “¿Puedo besarte?”

Your face flushed bright red. The quiet ‘sí’ you tried to say barely left your mouth before his lips were on yours. For a moment, it felt right, until you realised that it wasn’t. You suddenly pushed his off of you. He looked back at you, eyes wide in shock.

“What the hell are we doing Peter?!” You squeaked, “What the fuck was that?! I don’t know what you’re doing but you need to cut it out, now!”

“(Y/N)... what are you talking abou-”

“No, shut it, Parker,” You snapped, regretting it slightly as he winced at the way his name left you lips. “You know I don’t have a soulmate! We both know that you do! What kind of friend are you that you lead me on like that?!”

“(Y/N)... I-I ne-”

“I don’t care Peter. I’m going to talk to Mr. Valdes tomorrow and ask to switch partners. I can’t work with you if your gonna do that shit... I’m sorry Peter. I don’t belong to you...” You grabbed your bag and grabbed te handle of the door, but before you could turn the knob, a sticky string stopped you. You whipped your head around to see Peter, looking at you determined and hopeful.

“(Y/N)... there are a couple things I have to tell you.”

You sigh, and decide maybe it was in the moment and that he just wanted to apologize or something, so you stopped fighting the web on your hand and nodding, signaling him to go on.

“Okay uh... the first one is that I uh... I am... umm...”

“Spit it out Parker!” You said, frustrated.

“I don’t have a soulmate.”

Your eyes grew wide, “W-what?”

“This isn’t my tattoo...” he stated as he grabbed a tissue and wiped the small spider tattoo off of his thumb. “I don’t have a soulmate either.”

“P-Peter... I am so sorry... I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. I was kinda happy that you didn’t have one either... I kinda like you a lot.”

“I like you too Peter. Now, care to explain what this is?” You asked motioning to the web with your free hand.

“Oh yeah, I’m also kinda Spider-Man.”

“You’re just full of surprises aren’t you Peter Parker?” You asked affectionately. He chuckled before grabbing you left hand, since it wasn’t glued to the door knob. You looked down at them and suddenly another surprised gasp left you lips.

“Peter? What is that?” You asked, pointing to a small dot on his left thumb, under where the spider was.

“Oh, that? It’s just a freckle in think. I was born with it.” He shrugged.

“Peter... I don’t thinks that’s a freckle.” You smiled, shaking your head. His eyebrows creased in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think that’s your tattoo.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because Peter,” you looked up again, catching his eyes in an affectionate gaze, “I have the same ‘freckle’ on my hand as well.”

An excited gasp left his lips.

“Y-you mean?”

“Yes, Peter, we are soulmates.” You laughed and his smile grew wider and he hugged you tight. He pulled back from the hug before capturing your lips in a loving kiss.

The next day at school, you told MJ all about the previous night’s events.

“Well, show me the tattoo then.” She said. You lifted up your left hand and pointed to the little black dot on your finger. She scoffed lightly and rolled her eyes affectionately.

“That is the dumbest tattoo I’ve ever seen.” She teased and you just laughed with her.

“The universe works in mysterious ways.”

100 notes · View notes

twitchesandstitches · 5 years ago

Text

Three Tides Turning

Odina was, perhaps against her preference, an expert on magical things of all kinds. Academic knowledge, with a lot of firsthand experience, and the joke was that she had approximate knowledge of pretty much any magical thing.

She was very surprised to have Toast, of all people, asking her advice; she was pretty certain the little robot hated her guts, and would in fact have been happy to SEE her guts spread all over the wall. It wasn’t personal, he simply hated every single human to ever exist. It was a democratic sort of loathing, an almost genteel hatred that ignored cred and origin and country and deeds, all in favor of resenting the great teeming mass of humanity and proclaiming them all equally guilty of being absolute bastards.

She’d never asked why he hated her species so much. She had her suspicions. The magic that powered him was fueled by his own hatred and anger, but the special kind that came from pain. Emotion magic had its own flavors, and he reeked of suffering, and in his impassioned rants she heard the echoes of absolute despair so painful the only sensible response was to make it into kindling. He had suffered, and given the reputation of humanity among its mechanical offspring, and the optic that had been torn out of his head, she could guess what KIND of suffering he had endured.

Even at his most sociable and miserably lonely, when he had no choice but to seek out company that might include humans, he tended to avoid her. So seeking her advice out was, well, a really big damn deal!

Toast hunched over on a small overturned table, a little red robot apparently designed for a quadrupedal stance. Here and now he looked a lot like a mechanical dinosaur, but one that was oddly cute. He was just so… small, and compact. His wiry tail lashed around, and his boxy head tilted around, his single remaining eye blinking as he twisted his head around to see her.

Both his arms articulated as he tried to explain himself. One arm was slender and ended in a kind of paw. The other was a massive taloned gauntlet, larger than he was, the obscene mass built around an elemental fire core that fueled his various powers. It made him a truly fearsome heavy hitter, but it also severely hobbled him, and only now did she appreciate just how awkward he moved with it; his claws alone were a painful sight, when all his other movements were fluid, if so jittery you could expect he was impatient to finish moving and making little gestures.

“It’s… it’s my friend,” he managed, and pointed, and some of the things he had been telling her clicked. Ah, she thought in the back of her head.

Looming behind them was a monstrously huge figure, apparently the size of a house, draped in a tent crudely worked into a rough cloak. Atop it was a feral head, snout poking out of a projecting head but still obscured by a massive set of puffy lips.

God, it was so big. No, she was so big. Femininity radiated from it, like the psychic tide you couldn’t help but hammer you with pleasant vibes and sudden surges of hormones, and the desire to… do things. Animal things, rutting and breeding and delighting in the most basest of pleasures...

Odina’s absorbing powers sucked away the worst of it, so that she was a whirlpool of negated essence right there. Her total lack of interest in sex of any kind also provided a defense. The great mother-monster noticed this somehow, and turned to see them. A massive pair of breasts, big enough for Odina to fit inside them, shifted behind the cloak, and were so large they dominated the heft of even this hulking frame.

An aberrant hand, or perhaps a paw, raised its two webbed fingers. Claws longer than Odina’s arm wiggled playfully at her. “Sup, hun,” she rumbled, her voice deep, resonant, like an echo of the primordial sea.

Odina waved back nonchalantly. “Hey, terrifying monster lady.”

The eldritch monster mother - Tiashar was her chosen name, according to Toast, who had made himself an expert on her - chuckled at that. It was hard to make out details with that big cloak she wore; Odina could make out a massive mane of hair, or perhaps feathers, growing down her neck and shoulders and expanding outwards into a huge floor-dragging cloud several times larger even than she was. Some bits of it had become little tentacles, or tongued mouths. There were eyes, many of them, beneath it, but were quite invisible behind the long bangs. She did see a hint of multiple floppy ears, tweaking vaguely in response to stimuli no mortal senses were capable of perceiving.

Most of the exposed body was deep black. The shade differed; upon her face and the smoother parts of her skin, it was the color of ancient tar. On the patches of scales, a blue-black like the deepest parts of the sea. The armored plates on her shoulders, forearms, or the enormous tube that was her tail? It seemed to be even darker than all that, oily and rich. And oh yes, there were patches of other colors here and there; the gills lining her neck and sides were the same magenta as her mane, her huge lips and various other parts were a brilliant green… and in fact green seemed to be a secondary color, as if to offset her other shades.

Pebbly scales, slabs of chitin, features of ten thousand different phylums all mashed together in a strangely ideal form with her, and she suspected that was the key to understanding her. So many things that didn’t seem to belong, but with her, they did.

Presently, she seemed content to now ignore Odina and laid down, cooing at the dirt. Apparently whispering to the bacteria.

“...I’m worried about her, “ Toast said, his smaller hand rubbing its claws against a single digit of his big hand, his normally grouchy expression winding up into something forlorn and distressed. “She’s being so… so weird lately!”

“Weird by what metric.” Odina indicated her vaguely. “This is the same lady who spent half a month living in an attic, eating our garbage cans and screaming at mega-possums.”

It was amazing how Toast instantly shifted into hostility; he flared up, flames exploding around him, and a fireball appeared in his hand. “You talkin’ shit about her!?” he snarled, embers flying from his mouth like spittle.

Odina let herself instinctively eat the magic he was throwing off, but if he noticed his flames dying, he didn’t notice. They just flared up again, and her butt expanded, shelf rising over her waist and her skirt creaking in protest at it slid up, her hips expanding sideways. ‘Do NOT push him,’, she reminded herself, he absolutely would try to kill her instantly if he felt even slightly irritated, regardless of needing her help or not.

It didn’t come easily to her to play nice, but she would do her best. “I’m not making fun. I’m just saying, she’s kinda weird. Like the rest of us?”

He grunted, depowering. The local magical quotient went down, though her backside scale remained embiggened. “Yeah, okay.”

“So what do you MEAN, she’s acting weird?”

“I don’t know. The other day, she’s all calm and serene, hanging around with the men and women that wanna be around her all the time. Y’know, she feeds ‘em, gives ‘em baths in her milk and stuff, sometimes they feed themselves to her and she pops ‘em out as monstery versions of their old selves, but mostly they just… adore her?” He shook his head. “I don’t know, its weird. It's like… she needs it?”

“Sounds like they’re worshiping her,” Odina said vaguely, an idea coming to mind.

“Seems legit.” he tweaked his fingers, popping them off and chewing on them anxiously. “Then the next few weeks, they do none of tat, they just hang out with her and we go exploring? Fighting monsters together? The other folks, they fuse together and stuff, its like its a big adventure party? And it's fine, but then, just a few nights ago, she got hungry. Really hungry.” he looked uncomfortable. “And horny. Like, even more than usual.”

“Sounds like a lot of effort,” Odina said, who regarded all things sexual as an alien endeavor way more trouble than it was worth.

“She just wanted nothing but sex, twenty-four/seven, for almost a solid week! With all of them! And then they let her gobble them up, and now…” he gestured at her. Odina noticed her belly was very ripe, round and projecting outwards. A gravid, super-pregnant belly, with both the offspring sired with them, and the cultist’s reborn souls. “She just did nothing but eat continuously, barely speaking a word. I tried to talk to her and she looked at me like… like she couldn’t remember how.”

He paused.

“She kissed me.” He hugged himself, looking faintly lost, like he couldn’t quite understand how anyone would want to do that to him. “She couldn’t talk anymore, but she was happy to see me.”

“She’s talking now.”

“Yeah, I mean, she’s back on her regular mindset, where she’s being a chill mom and stuff but… shit. She keeps going through these phases and! And! And I’m really freaked out, is something wrong with her, is she sick, is she going to go away and ascend or something!?”

He shook Odina by the neckline desperately. “I can’t deal with that, okay!? How do I help her!?”

She gently but firmly pushed his claws off. “Calm down, she’s okay. She’s just trying to balance herself out. It’s part of what she is, okay?”

Toast stared at her. “Part of… what she is? What, a chimera monster girl?”

“No. You… do know she’s something else altogether? One of those things that…” she gestured vaguely. “Come from Outside?”

He stared blankly.

“The far realms?”

His optic blinked, slowly. “Nuh uh.”

“The parts of the multiverse that exist outside the set that has anything at all to do with mortals or our understanding of reality?”

“I’m drawing a zero here.”

“...The mad things that were here before the gods?”

“Still nothing.”

“...Okay, she’s an eldritch abomination that decided to be like a mortal, okay!?”

He nodded. “Ohh, right. Like that. Got it.”

“...You really get it?”

“Honestly, no.” He shrugged. “Could not give a shit, to be honest.”

She sighed. “It’s like this. Creatures like her tend to develop certain traits in common, because they’re forming minds like ours, but they’re still working in a totally different way. They’re not exactly elder beasts, they’re a little bit like gods, but they’re something a bit in between. And SHE is learning her way around that. Every day, and sometimes backsliding or losing her sense of what she is.”

Toast seemed to understand that, at least. He nodded.

Odina sighed. “Right, okay. So, if she’s like the other sorts of things I’ve heard about, she’s basically formed a mental state made out of three different parts that influence her in different ways.”

“What does this have to do with her being weird?”

“Because these are giving her contradictory urges, and she has no impulse control! She IS her desires!” Odina snapped her fingers, producing a little magical sign that said ‘get it??’. “Firstly, what you probably think is her ‘regular self’ is really just the parts of her mind she’s forced to think like a mortal.” A troubling idea came to her. “Or… what she thinks mortals are like. But she’s so different that even that is just guessing games, and she’s forced her brain into patterns completely unnatural to her, and it's always shifting around and trying to become something else. Because change is what she DOES.”

Toast looked baffled.

Odina tried again. “Look at it like this. When she’s worked out some kind of balance between her natures here, this side of her is the one that probably wins out and makes a happy medium. She wants to please herself and please other people, in moderation; it comes off to us as weird and constantly hungry, but that’s just what happens when godly hungers get curbed. That’s still moderate, by HER standards. The kind of things she doesn’t really get, like abstract causes, and long term stuff; she’s able to deal with those things more easy. She’s able to think more like you can.”

“Okay, I get THAT, at least.” Toast scratched his metal ears sheepishly.

“Now, you probably noticed her gathering people to her. That’s just a function of what she is; she’s a sort of proto-god. Gods want to be worshiped and admired; she needs a cult, and it's her nature to build them. So that's the bit of her that’s the most divine coming out. Probably also why she goes off and fights monsters; she probably sees it as protecting her people.” She paused, thoughtfully. “Or maybe she’s just getting into the ‘guardian kaiju’ vibe. She does have the look.” Another pause. “And getting people to breed with her might also be a god thing; she’s probably compelled to do it, as a function of what she is.”

“And you said something about a beast, earlier?”

“Right, her third nature. That’s the part of her that’s… well, monstrous and ravenous. A beast, nothing but hunger and desire. Not that its bad or evil!” she said hurriedly, noticing Toast’s temper starting to rise on Tiashar’s behalf. “Just… she’s already impulsive, but that part of her is literally nothing but instant gratification and satiating herself! Like…the bit of her that wants to be pleasured and satisfied all the time, that wants to be constnatly gestating monsters and having sex whenever she’s not eating? And then eating them right afterwards, and turning their souls into MORE things to gestate so they can stay with her forever in new bodies. ITs the part of her that runs on instinct and animal hunger, forever.”

He nodded, in a dour sort of way. “Okay, I think I get it. So…” he tried to process it all. “She acts weird because she’s got a whole bunch of competing drives and urges, some of them at odds with each other, constantly changing how she thinks and feels?”

Odina shrugged. “Her actual feelings are probably pretty, uh, consistent. The way she responds to them and acts on them does change, depending on which way her brain is working. Like if she likes someone and she’s pure beast, she probably wants to just jump on them and rut until the sun goes down, and them nuzzle them for a full month. And when she goes full god, she wants to shower them with blessings and love. And if she balances it out and can think properly? Then she just wants a friend, or maybe a tiny spouse. As long as she can hold onto that scale.”

He looked uneasy. “God… and she has to live like that…?”

“I don’t think it bothers her,” Odina said, not sure if she was actually trying to reassure him, or herself. “It’s just the way she sees the world and prioritizes stuff changes. She probably doesn’t really notice her perspective shifting. It’s just part of what she is. The tide turns, because that’s what it does; same thing with her.”

Toast looked troubled. “But..”

“Most eldritch entities, the ones that are making an honest effort to really understand us, wind up something similar. Plenty of them strike up a balance. The trick is them holding onto it.”

Toast wiggled. “So… Mama Tiashar…?”

She noticed, but didn’t say anything about it, his use of the honorific.

A small slip of the tongue, but a big, big deal for someone so miserably spiteful and suspicious of the whole world.

“Nothing’s wrong with her,” Odina said. “Her nature is just to change to different extremes. Sometimes she’ll be wild and ravenous. Sometimes she’ll be weird and think like an old goddess. And sometimes, more often than not, she’ll be like a regular weird mortal thingy. Just depends on the way her tides are turning.”

He whimpered. “But I want her to be happy.”

Odina looked at him, with something she didn’t dare admit might be pity.

It was a hard thing, to find out what love was at this point in his life, and to be afraid to know it.

There was a heavy stomping noise nearby.

Tiashar had stood up and slowly approached. Her massive tail lashed around, her enormous thighs slapped together as she approached, and slowly she leaned down, her head looming over Toast’s body. Her mouth opened, and she whispered softly.

“Toast, buddy,” she said, the words sounding distant and carefully picked. “Something bothering you?”

He shivered, and suddenly hugged her lip. One arm too skinny not to just sink in and instantly vanish, the other a huge and awkward club that started to fall on its own weight. “I’m just worried about you,” he whimpered.

She giggled, and gave him a soft kiss, pulling him right off the ground. She stood up, to her full height, and with another smooching pop, deposited him neatly into her cleavage, where he immediately snuggled up. “Aww, you’re a sweetie, little buddy. Don’t you worry. Mama Tiashar has herself figured out.” She gave her gravid belly a hug. “Be chill, my little dude, and don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“Can’t,” he said shortly. “I just worry a lot about you…”

She chuckled. “I don’t worry about nothin’, and I’m totally chillaxed forever. Try it some time, sweetie. It’s fun.”

She nodded at Odina. “Later, short stuff.”

Odina waved vaguely at her, trying not to instantly butt-bloat up to the size of a building just from being in her presence. “Later.”

Tiashar skipped off, her gargantuan butt jiggling like literally all the gelatin there ever wars, her tail even smacking it possibly by accident, as she cooed gently to the still fretting Toast.

And Odina thought about the tides turning, and how they were fortunate to have wound up with an eldritch horror that seemed perpetually stuck on the ‘be a sweetheart’ side of things, regardless of her current flavor of impulses.

#my writing #fics #my OCs #twitchy!tiashar #twitchy!toast #twitchy!odina #queued

1 note · View note

sylvasthesnowfox · 6 years ago

Text

18. fate

Naomi is obviously thrilled to be accompanying Rei to explore the far tower, so much so that she bounds several steps ahead of Rei on the balcony and right up to the tower's enormous double door before she thinks to turn back in confusion. "Wait," she says, "isn't this place supposed to be - "

Rei assumes that the next word was meant to be 'sideways', but Naomi's seized by vertigo and too disoriented to finish, and turning back, Rei doesn't blame her. From here, the world is very strange. Gravity is pulling them the way it seems like it should be, relative to the tower itself, but it's not as simple as a mere perspective shift; the shading of the clouds seems backwards from here, like the light is coming from below or behind the clouds somehow, and the clouds themselves have not turned to match the orientation of the tower. Rei has never imagined what a "sideways" cloud looks like before, but now she doesn't really have to imagine.

"Oof," says Naomi, clutching her head. "Boy, that's a trip."

"It's unsettling," Rei agrees noncommittally. Safe to say that she is distracted at the moment. "Let's get inside."

In contrast to the tower where Gwen and Naomi are waiting - which Rei is tentatively calling the "old tower" - the far tower is cold and lifeless. There are no plants on its stone balcony. When they push open its doors they open into an impenetrable darkness. Rei's first steps inside echo in a seemingly infinite void. She's walking - she doesn't feel comfortable using her Spark here without knowing what lays ahead of her. She's not sure what effect it might have on her surroundings.

Not that that's any comfort against the inky black infront of her. She remembers, against her will, space ripping open into an unfathomable maw of eyes and legs and rocky darkness, swallowing her reality. It's not hard to refocus on her surroundings, but she can't ignore that it's left her shakier than before. "Naomi," she says, as evenly as she can manage, "could you - light things up a bit?"

"Of course!" Naomi's undeterred. She fires several rounds from her handgun - they turn to flares, casting brilliant red light against stone walls around the central room. Sure enough, this tower's layout seems to mimic the old tower, opening up into a huge cylindrical room and some kind of glass monument in the center. "Looks kinda like the monitoring room," Naomi observes, mirroring Rei's thoughts. "Wanna check out the console up front then?"

"If it turns on," Rei hums. She advances slowly, cautiously, feeling the static humming of the Spark around her hand. The flares continue to cast their dancing light, shadows reaching up from the floor and rippling against the far walls all around her. She still hasn't entirely cast off the feeling that she's dangerously close to that numbing void again, and it's hard to deny how uncomfortable the feeling makes her.

To her surprise, though, the console does turn on. A single panel alights as Rei tampers with the nearby controls; a dim electronic glow illuminates her face as Naomi draws near to her again, and violet monospaced text appears on the screen:

CONCEPTUAL SIMULATION ENGINE [MAINTENANCE CONSOLE] v.0.1.597.463.0.0.7

FATAL - ILLEGAL INITIALIZATION PARAMETER 0x00000000000000000000000000000000

CHECK YOUR PARAMETERS OR PROVIDE A NEW CATALYST, THEN PRESS [ENTER] TO TRY AGAIN.

"This seems important," Naomi hums, whipping a phone out of her pocket and taking a picture of the screen. Rei stares at her dumbfounded, and Naomi glances back, innocently confused. "What?"

"Where did you get that?" Rei says hoarsely.

"What do you mean, where did I - I've always had it!" Naomi pouts. "I mean, it obviously ran out of battery back at the remnant, and I couldn't ever find another charger, but when we got here it was full charge!"

"You had a phone all this time," Rei sighs, "and you never told me or showed me because it was out of battery?" Naomi shrugs theatrically, looking only further distraught.

"What did you want me to do?" she cries. "I didn't know it would matter! I just kept it on me cause - I just - I felt sentimental, or something. Shut up."

"I'm not upset at all," Rei laughs, raising her arms. "I'm just - "

"Hey, shh - "

Naomi's gasp silences them both. The room is quiet, except for the hissing of the flares; neither of them are breathing.

"I don't hear anything," Rei breathes. Naomi scowls.

"I could swear I..." She shakes her head, stepping away from the console and raising her gun. "Whoever you are, step into the light, now!"

come here.

"Okay, that I definitely heard," Rei gasps, her heart suddenly pounding. "What was that?"

"Outsider," Naomi mutters darkly, and Rei can't help agreeing with her. If she were to try to place the sound, it would sound like steel cable rubbing against sandpaper, maybe? Like something soft and yet terribly heavy, straining against something coarse and firm, a sound on the edge of ripping into pieces. But it's not hard to believe that such a sound has no real source. It's her imagination trying to parse input it was not designed to interpret.

And despite that, somehow, Rei cannot shake the feeling that she's heard this sound before.

"Last chance!" Naomi bellows. But she's answered with another distant rustling. It seems to be coming from several directions at once, but all leading deeper into the tower. Naomi glances back at the Curator. "Maybe we should leave," she murmurs.

"Maybe," Rei murmurs, a hand over her chest as she tries to calm herself down. Maybe they should. But maybe they shouldn't?

The doors to the tower slam shut. Both Naomi and Rei whirl around - one or both of them yell in alarm - but Rei's eyes are swiftly drawn back to the console, which has changed color. The text is now gold and it now reads:

NOT YET.

"Show yourself!" Naomi roars, now raising her gun and pointing it into the shadows. "Whatever or wherever you are, come out, let me see you if you're brave enough to threaten us!"

Rei looks up again. The room seems somehow darker than before, but just as she's wondering if she should say something, the darkness recedes - whipping away all at once from the walls and through the seam of a door at the far end of the room, which until then she hadn't noticed somehow. "Something's here," Rei gasps, as the door lazily swings open - showing only gaping dark beyond. "Yes, something is definitely here."

"I saw it," Naomi growls, swiftly putting herself between the door and Rei. Rei glances back at the console, but it's blank now. The flares behind them, closer to the huge doors to the balcony, are burning low. The darkness is overtaking them from behind, and as it draws in, that familiarity of the void grows only stronger...

"Okay, we should leave," Naomi urges her, but Rei shakes her head slowly, standing fast.

"There's no need to panic," she replies, raising her hand. She can still feel the Spark. The assurance is aimed at herself as much as it is at Naomi. "I have control over the Seed, don't forget. I can get us out whenever we need to. If there are Outsiders here, we should investigate. They could be Spirits, or otherwise important to recreation."

"Yeah, what with how they're threatening us," Naomi growls.

"I'm not threatened," Rei replies imperiously, crossing her free arm over her chest. "Let's go."

The flares behind them quickly recede into darkness once they pass through the doorway. Naomi fires more ahead of them, but they fade into the black void immediately. Even when they turn as though to fire them at the wall, the hall seems to turn with them. Rei's vague discomfort is starting to take a more definite shape. Naomi is growing more and more tense. They are reminded of Outsider attacks in the remnant. They are reminded of the Outside itself. Reality is breaking down around them.

"We should go back," Naomi says, slowly and firmly, trying to hide that her voice is shaking. But Rei shakes her head. She can see movement ahead of her. It's hesitant, and it's making that noise that is so uncomfortable and yet so familiar to her. Like she's heard it in a dream somewhere before. Maybe she literally has!

"I can still get us out any time," Rei whispers. "Let's play along."

"It's not that I don't trust you," Naomi murmurs. She doesn't have to finish her sentence. Rei admits, she understands how Naomi feels.

They keep advancing. It's hard to tell they're in a hallway. It's hard to tell they're inside; it feels more like they're walking on a stone path through an impossibly dark night, but Rei has never experienced a night so dark before. Her old world was full of light and color, even at night, so that one never lost themselves. But she knows that sort of thing used to exist in ancient history, when people didn't have electricity. You could walk into a field without a lamp on an overcast night and lose any sense of direction except Down. She tries not to dwell on how lucky she is to still have that frame of reference.

Naomi stops. "I feel like we're not in the tower anymore," she says, her voice a bit louder than before. But only a bit.

"Me too." At least it's not just her. What Rei's feeling isn't exactly... fear, or at least she doesn't think it is. But it's certainly true that she feels better for having Naomi at her side. And yet, as she thinks about that, at the same time... she wishes Naomi wasn't here. She wishes Naomi was not facing this danger, and the thought that a threat might appear that Naomi might throw herself into again is...

No... no, the more she thinks about it, the more she wishes Naomi was not here. Her skin's crawling at the thought. This place is dangerous, this journey is dangerous, in a way that Naomi might not fully understand. Maybe they really should go back, just so that Naomi is somewhere safe...

Naomi fires a flare straight up. Rei gasps as she does it - she didn't think of that! The hall can't turn and orient itself upwards without them falling, right? As they follow its arc overhead it flickers and flashes, but nothing catches its light; it's a solitary gleam like a shooting star rushing further and further away... at first.

But then there are other flashes all around it. Rei mistakes them for enormous glass panes, light rushing through them in bands as the flare passes by at the right angle to reflect that light back at them. But that's not what is happening. Suddenly what was one flare, traveling straight up, becomes a dozen, and then a hundred and then more, streaking past each other in many directions like a firework. And illuminated by their baleful light are hundreds of humanoid figures in a great distance above them, standing in pairs, watching the display just as Rei and Naomi are.

"What the fuck?" whispers Naomi, because this is an unbelievable thing to see, and the lingering light of the flares allows her plenty of time to take it in. But Rei knows what this is, or at least she understands what it is symbolically. What it represents. What do you see when you look into a void where there is nothing but yourselves to see?

"Close your eyes," she instructs. Her voice is more bitter than she expected. She glances over and sees that Naomi is looking back at her like she's crazy. "I mean it," she says impatiently.

So, Naomi closes her eyes. Rei threads her fingers through Naomi's and tightly clasps her hand, then closes her own eyes, too. The flares fall silent, because they are too far away. Rei thinks of the remnant. She thinks of the top of the apartment building where she and Naomi caught their breath after many fights, held each others' hands after many arguments and shouts of hopeless frustration, shared little kisses and smiles while talking about what they might do with the future they would build for their new world.

"Open your eyes," Rei instructs. She opens her own. Beside her Naomi screams.

"How are we back here?!" she cries. Rei stares into the abyss surrounding the apartment rooftop with a dull resignation. She knows what this is. She understands where they are. "No," Naomi continues, horror filling her voice, "no, this isn't - there's nothing else here. What happened to everything else?"

"It's just this building," Rei murmurs, "becuase this is all I thought about." She turns around; there is no skyline, no skyroad, no other towers crumbling after two years of decay, no shimmering barrier between the end of the world and their tiny bubble of existence. There is nothing shielding this place from the void. Or rather, there is no separation from 'this place' and the 'void'. They are the same. "Hold on," she says, "I'll get us back."

And she does. She doesn't even have to use the Spark; it's just a matter of remembering where she wants to be, and demanding that she is there. They walk back along a stone floor, through a hallway they can barely see, until the faintest glimmers of dying flares finally comes into view on either side. Rei doesn't even wait long enough to take them through the door; the spark rips through the world and they are standing on the balcony, Rei shielding her eyes from the light while Naomi sputters and blinks in desperation to recover.

"Okay, well, we're back," Naomi says blankly, turning back to her with a sigh of relief. "Man! That was... pretty spooky, huh? It felt kinda like we might get attacked by something in there, you know?"

Rei doesn't answer. She's deep in thought. It's supposed to be very hard to reach the Outside. Even in the remnant Rei could only get there by dreaming. How did they simply... walk into it?

What does it mean that they could walk out of the Seed if they wanted?

#wishes from oblivion #wfo sky arc #sky iteration 2

1 note · View note

salmon404 · 7 years ago

Text

I’m gonna regret posting this but uh have a story

(it doesn’t really have a name so if you think of a name plz plzplz tell me)

Chapter 1

: Long Lost Somethings

Baboom Baboom Baboom The bass was going insane in this song, causing me to bounce around even more than I would normally do. A young man I was dancing with accidentally touched my boob, normally I’d let it slide but he lingered a little too long. So I slapped his hand playfully and gave him a smirk. I turned to another boy and ground my hips against him whilst drinking from my wonderful bottle. From under the haze of vodka I heard the boy from my Last dance call me a slut. Normally I’d let that slide As well, but, I was under the influence so… I beat the shit out of him. I awoke On a couch Not my own, It was probably Some guys, I looked Around and saw I was Surprisingly still at the party. God, I was wasted, I prodded My face remembering the fight, It Appeared I only had a small black eye People were still dancing, I looked around and Remembered that this was my party, and this couch Was mine but covered in everyone's jackets. I saw on The couch across from me there was the boy I beat up, he Was not much older than me, probably a senior, I got him Good… One of his fingers was at an awkward angle… cringing I turned away from the carnage. I tried to sit up but Sera pushed me down. “You got really drunk Svea…” “Lemme up, and I’m sure you know by now, that’s not my name.” “What isn’t? Svea.” Cringing again as she said the name, I turned away. “Please…” Pity filled Sera’s eyes. “I’m not her anymore, so I don’t need you to say her name, nor do I need your GOD DAMN PITY!” I shoved away the nausea and Sera, and got up. I grabbed a bottle from a nearby counter “I think it's time you leave my party, Fina.” I told her looking over my shoulder slightly but not at her. It was a low blow at what her mum used to call her, but at least she knew her mum had loved her. “Please stop drinking Sam.” Then Serafina walked out the door. Normally I would regret what I said and run after her. There was a lot of stuff I normally did that I didn’t do anymore.

I walked away even though it hurt, She had been drunker than I had ever seen her, her accent so thick I could barely understand her words even without her slurring. Svea truly wasn’t the same person as she used to be, the person I climbed up on top of those bleachers with. I walked through the bushes to the house next door. We were no longer what we were, we weren’t even acquaintances. I didn’t know what we were before, but now… I didn’t know her at all. “How was it?” Myla asked, we had been having a sleepover before the Bjornar party started. “I saw an old friend,” Myla was the only friend I had since coming back from Britain. “You make it sound as if that's a bad thing.” “Yeh…” “What. What happened? Okay, something happened.” “Naw, I’m fine, Just really really really stressed.” I plopped down on the side of the bean bag chair Myla was using. Myla shoved me off so I laid on the floor. And gazed at the pocked ceiling. “Don’t worry, we can figure it out!” “She isn’t t' same person as before.” I moaned dejectedly. “Who was it?” I hesitated but decided to tell her. “ It was… ugh, it was Sam.” “Oh..” I couldn’t understand the look on her face, how did she know who Sam was, I mean she was always pretty popular, but Myla was a new student who knew the last name of maybe a total of ten kids. “Yeh…” “Well, you did miss a lot of st-” “Yeah! I see that,” I suddenly snapped, who was Myla to know anythin' about Jo! She didn’t know her! “Sorry, sorry, I’m just saying that I think you should find out about what you missed before trying to be her friend again.” “How do you know I want t' know her again? Say I did though, want to be her friend again, I should find everythin' out from her. N' sorry I snapped, I’m just really stressed. ” It was hard to stay angry when everything was this sad. “It’s ok, and I can tell by the way you said really three times. So what I was saying is that she will not trust you anytime soon, if you did want to be her friend again. Shit happened, I heard she's basically an orphan now. She drinks. Hangs out with like all the bad people. She’s got a drug addict as a best friend. You’ve seen her.” She made a hand gesture, that I was pretty sure meant I have a ton of other gossip about her, but I’m guessing you don’t really wanna hear it now, but don’t worry I will find someway to gossip with you soon, Damn, how can someone convey a whole compound sentence with just their hands? Without using ASL of course. But I hadn’t heard about any of this “What happened? And how d' ye know this about her? Last I checked you never talked to Sam.” “Honestly, everyone’s heard the rumors about her, even the new kids like me. Also we have band together!” She smiled cheekily, I sighed. I originally wanted to avoid her when I came back. But she was a black hole. Also it’s kinda hard to avoid her when we have nearly all our classes together, pass each other all the time in the halls, and live next door. “Ehhhh…” I moaned “...Maybe I should’ve just stayed in Britain.” “Then you wouldn’t of met me! Silly!�� I laughed and we went to our sleeping bags. It was hard not t' be optimistic with Myla, but tears still pricked my eyes as I listened to the bass thumping through our neighbourhood... I didn’t know what to do. I had spent two whole years trying to forget about Svea, Sam. And now here I was, already basically stalking her and trying to figure out how to get her to like me again. I deserved her hatred though, I abandoned her. The splotchy purple designs around my room did nothing to calm me, and I drifted off to a fitful sleep.

I hate her I’m just trying To console Leah but I keep seeing Sera staring At me. I purposely ignore her And look down at the shit lunch the School hands out. Too stressed I throw Away my lunch and focus on Leah She’s having a bad day today, she Doesn’t touch her food and I Feel scared. I hate myself More than I hate Sera. I can’t even help My best friend. Leah starts to shake For seemingly no reason, I look around and see A teacher with dark Hair, it wasn’t Her dad who’s walking by, But Leah is terrified of him anyway. Her PTSD taking more control of her, I want to hug her and comfort her, rather than worsen it I Gingerly touch her hand and draw her attention. She looks at me and I motioned my head towards The bathroom across the hall. Leah nods and I get Up, thinking that I was going over to her Sera giddily Hit Myla and Myla gestured for us to come over as well. I turned away, not even being able to look at Sera for More than a moment. I thought I was over her, I guess I was wrong, I need to work on myself More, I don’t have time for feelings. The first time I had seen her in two years had been when she barreled into me after turning a corner. I had instantly tried to help her before realizing who it was. She never even hinted she was coming back from Britain, I guess she didn’t have my contacts anymore, but still. We realized who the other person was at the same time as I handed her her notebooks, we stared at each other for what seemed like forever, everything was still around us. Then in a flash I got up and ran.

I got up, I thought Svea had been heading over to me but instead she went to the bathroom. I knew I shouldn't follow her, but I just couldn’t stay here anymore, I needed to talk to her. I felt Myla try to pull me back down but it was too late I was already getting up. I could smell the smoke before I even got in the bathroom, someone was smoking some major shit. I prayed that it wasn’t Svea. I walked in and saw a sallow faced kid and Svea standing on the toilets passing a blunt over the stall walls, when they heard me they both ducked. “You smoke now, too, Sam?”I put as much emphasis on Sam as I could, I immediately regretted doin' that, I was better than that, but Svea just caused my brain t' go haywire. “Fan ni Sera.” “Vad hände?” “I see you learned some Swedish, ya kuk.” “Just that, I googled it t' period before because I wanted t' ask ye in yer own language.” “Pronunciation sucks.” “I’ll just go, it was a mistake for me t' come in here. it’s clear you don’t care about me…” “Helvete Fin, you are the one who doesn’t care!” The door to her stall opened up and Svea was fuming. “You left ME!” Her face crumpled as she realized she said the thing she had been trying so hard not to say. A whimper sounded from the other stall and Svea looked down and saw that she still had the blunt. Glaring at me, Svea knocked on Leah’s door, she waited a bit while glaring even harder at me. The door opened and Svea gave the weed to Leah before stepping into the stall and closing the door behind her. “Det ar dags att lamna.” “I’m guessin' you just asked me t' leave?” I got no response. “I missed you Sam.” I sort-of whispered, but I knew she heard. I stood there a little too long. I finally walked out of the bathroom only to run straight into Myla. “JESUS, SERA! You can’t run off like that! You need to control yourself! Come with me.” Myla grabbed my hand “ We are going to make a plan.” Myla dragged me into the empty swimming pool room thing, and then into the locker room. She still didn’t think this was enough and went to the storage room where they store… stuff… sorry I didn’t inspect the room from floor to ceiling, I was busy trying t' figure out what Myla was doing. “You're gay.” She didn’t ask, she just said it matter of factly, like that wasn’t my whole life. I had tried to hide it but clearly not well. “What? No...“ I said too sheepishly “Don’t try to deny it. I know it. And I know that you and Sam used to be more than friends, don’t ask me how I know that you are gay, I just have a really good gaydar for some reason. “But how did you know about me and Sam?” It still felt weird to say Sam. “I’ve seen you staring at that short haired, high cheek boned goddess all day. You also left our slumber party to go to her party and then were sad that you saw her.” Svea was some kind of Nordic Goddess, she was even more beautiful than when I left, she had grown into her little body and looked more like a small viking finally, instead of just a really short blond haired chick. I was surprised to see she had cut her hair into a boys style and bleached it when I first saw her, but it looked fantabuloso on her. I still had my black bob and green eyes, my body was still fairly lanky. She looked so much hotter than me. “Frick.” "Yep, I got you good girly.” “How are you ok with me bein' a lesbian when we live this far down south?” “Not everyone down here is religious and backward.” “Just most…” I said half joking. “And my family is originally from Hawai'i, and they never really had an opinion on gays.” “So what was it that ye wanted t' plan or whatever.” “Well it's clear that the both of you are still soulmates so I want you to woo her back.” “But what if she hasn’t come out?” “I mean she never specifically said it, but I’m sure no one would be surprised.” “What about t' incident?” I remembered how Myla had heard tons of rumors about Sam already, had what we had done gotten out to everyone? “What incident? I only moved here a year ago so I haven’t heard about any ‘incident’.” She used air quotes when she said incident. “ That's good, that means that it didn’t spread everywhere.” I breathed a sigh of relief and gagged as I smelled the rancid jerseys probably growing mold in the back of the room. “But what is this incident? “ When we were freshmen, fourteen year olds. We kissed on top of t' gym bleachers once and we got caught. It was my first kiss with a girl, same with Sam. T' gym teacher screamed at us about bein' sinners. He shouted about us bein' faggots and dykes and whores, that we were goin' t' hell and would burn there for eternity, we were mistakes and God hated us. “I ran away and convinced my parents t' take us back t' London, we were already going to be moving back at t' end of the school year, but I convinced them t' do it right then. I was too scared t' even think about what would happen t' us. We lived there for two years before comin' back here again this year. “I didn’t even think about Sve-Sam until we were on t' plane, on our way t' Britain. I abandoned her.” I slipped on her name almost calling her Svea, it didn’t matter t' Myla but I felt I should respect her wishes “When I got back she was like this and I don’t know what t' do, I don’t know what happened t' her. I almost didn’t recognize her in t' halls, especially when she goes by a different name.” “fuck.” “Yeah.” We sat there for awhile just staring at the musty old storage room around us and the old swimsuits before eventually starting our plan of wooing Svea back.

I was Walking down The hall like normal Heading to class again, Leah was to my left, I noticed Someone else next to me, I turned Slightly and saw beautiful Raven hair I walked a little faster I did not want to talk to her Now or ever, she didn’t get it. I Saw that she also picked up speed So I slowed down, she also did. “Ok, what do you want?” “To talk to you.” “I don’t want to.” “Please? We haven’t talked in two years Sam.” “Oh, and that's My fault?” “No.” I pulled at my hair and rushed away from her and waited At the next class for Leah. I hate her.

“Plan doesn’t work, time t' give up.” I said to Myla, eye-fockin' Sam from across the lunchroom. “ Stalking her in the halls once doesn’t count as a try.” “Yeah it does! I did a lot of hard work!” “You walked next to her for two minutes and then asked to talk, then she turned you down and you left. Hmmm, yes, I see, you just won over her heart.” “Grr.” “ Just say hi, give her a friendly wave. Start out platonic and work from there if she ever bothers to talk to you, and that's how it should be, her talking to you. Please don’t go up to her and start a heavy conversation again.” “I technically never really had a conversation with her.” I said with a smile “Or try to.” Myla responded not moving an inch (figuratively, we were walking). ”Also don’t go crazy, you are really awkward around her. Don’t go overboard on a simple wave.” “Come on, have some faith in me!” “Ok, she is looking over right now, just smile at her.” I tossed a smile over t' Sam but Myla smacked me in the back of the head. “You look horrendous! What kinda smile is that?” I rubbed my neck and glared at Myla. She didn’t have to do it so hard. Myla gestured back at Sam again who was holding back laughter. I made a face at Sam and she quickly tried to look serious. But we both ended up laughing. It seemed like a great start but then I saw the druggie whisper something to Sam and she immediately stood up and carried both of their stuff as they left the lunchroom. The next days were mainly the same, sometimes Sam never seemed to see me, or anyone besides the druggie. Just staring, into the void, the blue in her eyes was silent and screaming at the same time. It hurt me to see. On other days she just glared at me. But slowly the days where she smiled back, however meekly, started t' outnumber the glares. I still didn’t know what t' do about the void though, no matter how much progress I had with the glares, she was still fifty-fifty with the darkness. It was my fault that she was like this, we shouldn’t have kissed, I shouldn’t have left her to herself, to the world. She faced it by herself and lived, she did not overcome it though, and it was all my fault. We should have faced it together, but instead I left her. I abandoned her.

“I’m going to regret this aren’t I?” “OMGOMG! No! Of course not! Sit, sit!” “Sera, you need to stop. I’m Myla by the way.” I shook Myla’s hand “Sam, but you probably’ve heard About me before…” I trailed off, I knew I had a reputation. “I’ve missed you so much!” the normally really still Sera Bounced a little in her seat for some reason, “She’s Been waiting for this for a while.” Myla explained “Hey! Have not! I just finally got my friend t' Sit next t' me at lunch!” Sera tried to say. “Exactly Sera.” Sera frowned and looked Down at her lunch “What happened to you Sera, I was always the hyper one. You look like You downed two coffees!” I joked even though it Hurt that she wasn’t the same little girl hiding in a corner with A book. “Speak for yerself! I barely recognize ye!” I smiled with Sera even though it was the truth. I didn’t even recognize myself in the mirror. “How’s yer family doin'?” Myla kicked Sera under the table and she immediately tried to take it back, but my face still crumpled and fell for a moment, I recovered as fast as I could, Feelings are for the weak. I interrupted Sera before she could stumble around for five minutes trying to think of something to say, I was always the talker and when I was quiet, she tried to Be the talker but she would always fuck Up just like this. “Ma and Papa are in Sweden right now.” I weakly smiled and forced myself to make it look real. I hurt again as I realized I had Become quite good at this. “Leah decided to stay Home today.” “That’s yer Friend wh-that's the Friend you normally sit With right?.” Sera almost said The one who smokes. I used to get mad Whenever someone said anything like that but By now both Leah and I had gotten used to it. “Yeah she is, she always sits next to me, And yes she does marijuana.”

#story #my own work #shitty stories #lesbian #lesbian story #romance #i dunno

3 notes · View notes

ladyseaheart1668 · 7 years ago

Text

Endless Summer Fan Novel (Book 1, Chapter 2)

Notes: See, one thing I love about the prose format is that I am not constrained by the games one-or-the-other choices. Alodia can play Marco Polo with Sean AND talk to Estela! Such intoxicating power! In case anyone was wondering, I have actually finish rough drafts of the first two books. (I have been working on this fan novel for quite some time), so I can post chapters quite quickly. Content Warning: Strong language because I have the mouth of a sailor. Also mention of bullying in this chapter.

The geometric-printed carpet that covers the Celestial's expansive lobby is dotted here and there with suitcases and luggage racks. A half-finished glass of wine sits on the table. But the concierge desk is deserted. The suitcases are abandoned.

“Where is everybody!” Michelle taps the concierge bell impatiently. “I mean, helloooooooooo!”

No answer.

Sean puffs up his cheeks and blows out the breath through barely parted teeth. The noise sounds bewildered. “Sooo...this'll make for one weird-ass Yelp review.”

“The hotel staff knew we were coming this week, right?” Grace says nervously. “This is not good.”

“What are you complaining about dweeb?” Craig snorts. “We have the whole hotel to ourselves! This is sick!”

I shake my head. “This is totally creepy. I'm with Grace on this one. Something like this doesn't just happen. We should try to figure out if something is seriously wrong.”

Grace smiles gratefully at me. “Thanks for backing me up, Alodia. I don't want to sound like I'm raining on everyone's parade.”

“But you are raining on it!” Craig insists. “You're going full-on monsoon on my parade.”

Raj pops up from behind the bar, grinning. “At least the booze is still here. Who's up for a mai tai?”

Diego picks up the half-finished glass of wine sitting on a table beside a lounge chair. “Check it out, Allie. Fresh lipstick on the rim. It's like everyone just suddenly up and left.”

“But without their luggage,” Quinn chimes in. “Why?”

I'm noticing something else, something that's making me that much more nervous. “Hey...guys? Check your phones, will you? ...Because I'm not getting any service.”

Diego pulls out his phone and frowns. “...I'm not getting service either.”

“Not me, either,” Quinn says. One by one, my classmates confirm it. None of us have cell phone service.

“Maybe they don't got any towers here,” Craig suggests.

Aleister groans. “Of course the island has cell phone towers, you colossal buffoon!”

“And how would you know that?” the girl with the undercut asks warily.

Aleister looks taken aback. “I...well...of course, I...” Abruptly, he regains his composure, features settling into a cold sneer. “Perhaps because I'm not a complete imbecile? They were plainly visible in the distance on our approach.”

“Allie, what do you think's happening?” Diego asks.

“...I'm thinking there was some kind of incident.”

“An incident?”

“Yeah. You know, like a gas leak or an outbreak of plague or something, and everyone had to leave.”

“That's...not implausible actually,” Grace says. “This is a volcanic island, after all.”

“Lila, what do you...” I stop, looking around for our guide. “...Uh...has anyone seen Lila?”

Slowly, we wander outside, where we find Lila pacing like a tiger in a cage.

“Lila?” Grace approaches cautiously. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, me? I'm perfect! I'm sure this is positively nothing to worry about! I bet it's just a fire drill.” She flashes a far-too-bright smile at us. “Or maybe even a hotel-wide beach picnic!”

Jake snorts derisively. “Yeah, or maybe the Care Bears came down from the clouds and took everyone to Happy-Happy Land.”

“That's not helping,” Sean growls.

“Have you even watched an episode of Care Bears,” Raj mutters. “You just sound ignorant.”

Jake ignores Raj, turning to glare at Sean. “Not helping? You're the ones sitting around playing story time. How about getting some real answers? Truth is, I'm not here to help. I'm here to get paid. And right now, ain't nobody here to pay me.”

“We're only getting answers if someone around here shows some leadership,” Sean shoots back. “Looks like you're not up to the task.”

“You throw a ball around and you think that qualifies you to talk to me about leadership?”

Sean draws himself up and takes a step closer to Jake. Jake responds, squaring off. For my part, I've had enough, and push in between them.

“Will both of you quit puffing your chests?” I snap. “The only thing that's getting us nowhere is this stupid macho display!”

I admit, my ego is rather tickled by the surprise fighting contrition in their faces, as if I were a teacher pulling apart two boys wrestling on the playground.

“Whoa, hang on--” Sean protests.

“Captain America here's trying to--”

I raise my hand sharply, cutting them off. “Don't wanna hear it. Shake hands. Then put your heads together and help us figure this out.”

The two of them size each other up. Then, grudgingly, they shake hands.

“Better?”

“Yeah,” Sean says. “We're good.”

“Sure, whatever,” Jake grunts.

“Great. We've got the power of friendship,” Diego quips. “Now what are we supposed to do, Allie?”

I suddenly realize Diego isn't the only one looking at me for guidance. ...Everyone is. Even Lila. I hesitate, but only for a moment. Someone has to step up here.

“I...Well, there has to be something around here that will tell us what happened, right? I say we split up and search the hotel.”

“Oh, wonderful idea, Alodia!” Lila says, back to her perky self.

“Hmmm, maybe I'll find something by the pool,” Grace suggests.

“The pool, huh?” Jake says. “I like the way you think. I'll go with Brain Trust.”

Raj turns to Craig. “Yo, Craig, if things were normal, what would we be doing right now?”

“Uh...eating?”

“Exactly. Let's check the restaurant.”

“Perfect!” Lila turns to the girl with the undercut. “Where would you like to look Zahra?”

“Don't care,” Zahra mutters.

“Well...how about we check the ballroom?”

“Still don't care.”

“Where are you headed?” I ask Diego.

“I thought I'd check out the pool.”

“I'll go with the ballroom group then.” I grin. “We'll spread the dynamic duo out. Lets more people benefit from our superpowers.” ...Besides that, it kinda looks like Quinn is drifting towards the ballroom group.

He catches where my gaze is lingering and grins back. “Yeah. Good plan, Batman. Meet you back here in a bit.” I start off when something makes me stop.

“...What is it?” Diego asks.

“That girl...the quiet one in the hoodie.” I do a quick head count just to be sure. “...She's gone.”

“...You're right...but...hey, let's worry about one thing at a time, okay?”

“...Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'll catch up with you later.”

But I can't shake the electric feeling that fizzes in my veins when I remember the way that girl held my gaze.

Lila leads me, Zahra, and Quinn to the ballroom. It is as beautiful and ornate as I expected a ballroom at a Rourke International resort to be, with crystal chandeliers, skylights, ivory painted walls, and soft blue carpet with an elaborate interweaving design like Celtic knotwork. The dais at the head of the room features a wood archway decorated with irises, lilies and roses of all colors, and some flowers I don't even recognize. More flowers, ribbons, and garlands decorate the walls and the chairs surrounding the tables set up on the carpet that surrounds the dancefloor like the sea around an island.

“...Looks like they were in the middle of a wedding.”

“Oh, good,” Zahra mutters. “Alodia is here to state the obvious. Dunno how we would've coped without that.”

I feel a smirk tug at the corner of my mouth. “You like being the jerk, huh?”

“Wow, two in a row. You're on a roll.”

“What could've happened here?” Lila murmurs. “Everything's perfectly intact. The champagne's poured, the flowers arranged...”

“Just no people,” Quinn finishes.

“Maybe the bride realized that the institution of marriage is a joke and hightailed it outta here,” Zahra says. Lila gives her a look that is almost wounded.

“Marriage? A joke?”

I cast my eye over the beautiful set up. “Weddings like this don't mean a thing without true love,” I say almost to myself. “It's nice to have a big, beautiful ceremony, but as long as you're with your soulmate, who cares?”

Quinn smiles at me. “You really think that?”

I smile back. “Doesn't everyone?”

Zahra snorts. “At first I thought you were a captive of the marital-industrial complex, but it turns out you're even more of a sap. You believe in soulmates.”

“Guilty as charged,” I say with a shrug.

Zahra reaches for a bottle of white wine from the table nearest to her and pops the cork.

“Zahra!” Lila chides her, “that does not belong to us!”

“Gonna report me?” Zahra asks, pouring herself a glass. “To who exactly? Gimme a break. Last I checked, this was still a vacation.”

She fills another glass and offers it to me. I shrug and take the glass, clinking it against hers and taking a sip. Delicate, fruity sweetness floods my mouth, resting gently on my tongue before slipping down my throat with a warmth that just slightly tips into alcoholic burning.

“Woooah...I did not realize wine could be that good...”

“That is some seriously good stuff,” Zahra agrees. “They must've spent outta control on this.”

I offer Quinn my glass. “Wanna sip?”

“Oh, what the hell. Might never have the chance again, right?” She takes the glass. For a moment she tips it back and forth, watching the golden-yellow liquid ebb and flow against the sides of the glass before taking a swallow. She pauses, considering the flavor with a thoughtful expression, looking like an experienced vintner. After delicately smacking her lips once or twice, the takes the bottle from Zahra. She studies the label, and her eyes go wide.

“Look at this label! This wine was from 1922!”

“Zahra!” Lila shrieks. “You just uncorked an eight-hundred-dollar bottle of wine!”

Zahra burps. “Meh. It wasn't that good.”

“Hang on! Look!” I am already darting from table to table examining the other wine bottles. “Every bottle on every table at this wedding is pre-1924!”

“Who would spend that much on wine?”

Zahra raises her index finger like a cartoon detective. “The answer, as for most baffling questions, is 'crazy rich people'.”

Quinn looks askance at her for a moment before shaking her head dismissively. “Not sure what else we're going to find here, but we should probably head back and see what the others found.”

“Whatever,” Zahra says with a shrug. “But I'm bringing the booze.”

Everyone is already back in the lobby when we get there. I rejoin Diego.

“Find anything by the pool?”

“Nope. No one there. So much for the cabana boys,” he sighs. Then he grins. “But Aleister totally freaked out when Grace was nice to him.”

“We found something in the restaurant!” Craig annouces. “Well, kind of. It was on the volcano. But it was there...and then it was like...not!”

The rest of us stare at him for a long moment. Then Sean clears his throat.

“It was a light. Or something reflecting sunlight. It must have been rotating because we saw it in intervals.”

“We basically stumbled onto a wedding straight out of the Roaring Twenties,” Quinn says. “But...no people there, either.”

I notice Aleister standing off by himself. He is looking up at a towering painting of a goateed man in a brown suit, holding a sword of emerald. I feel my blood tingling in my veins again. I know his face. ...I've seen it leering down at me as I teetered on the edge of a volcano.

You don't understand, do you? Of course not. But you will...in time.

“Aleister...who is that?”

“Hrn? Oh...Alodia...That's Everett Rourke. C.E.O of Rourke International. The man who built this resort.”

“Rourke. ...I think I've seen him before.”

“Hmmph. Who hasn't? Visionary...genius...conquerer of every industry...” He looks up at the painting with what can only be described as bitter disdain. “I still think he looks like a fool.”

He turns and marches off, bumping right into Grace.

“Grace, I...uh...” He scowls. “Just watch where you're going!”

He brushes past her. Grace watches him go with such a wounded look that I can't help putting an arm around her. She looks up at me.

“Alodia, can we talk for a second? You seem like someone I can trust...”

“What is it? If it's about Aleister, I don't think you should take it personally. He--”

“No, no, it's not that...it's...” She shakes her head. “No...never mind. Sorry. I should go.”

I take my arm off her, studying her for a moment.

“...Alright...But if you've got a secret, I'm pretty good at keeping secrets. ...But if you don't want to share it, that's all right, too.”

“...It...it is?”

“Sure. I trust if it's something important, you'll share it eventually.”

Grace pauses, biting her lip. Then, she pulls something from under her sweater.

“...I found this out by the pool. It was right by the fence. And the bars there were...twisted.”

I look at what she's showing me. It's a tooth. A massive, pointed tooth that she can just barely close her small hand around. My breath catches in my throat.

“Oh, my God! It's gotta be a foot long!”

“Whatever this came from, its big. ...I didn't want to share it because I was afraid it would scare everyone. The way it scared me. But...we're all in this together, and everyone should know.”

We gather the others to show them Grace's find.

“No way,” Jake breathes. “There's nothing with teeth that size these days. It has to be a fossil, right?” He looks around for confirmation from the rest of us, but no one is quite sure what to make of it.

“So...after all this,” Sean says, “we're saying we still have no idea where the staff and guests went?”

“All we've got is more questions,” Quinn concedes.

“So...what do we do now?” Zahra asks.

“You go to bed.” We all turn at the voice coming from behind us. The girl in the blue hoodie has reappeared. “Night is falling. You should all get some rest.”

“What is she?” Deigo whispers to me. “The Cheshire Cat?”

“Nope. Not nearly smiley enough,” I whisper back.

“Estela!” Lila exclaims. “There you are! Where have you been?”

“Looking around,” she says in an accent I can't quite place. “Same as you.”

“Did you find anything?” Michelle asks.

“Nothing that matters to you people.”

“Shouldn't you let us decide that?” I mutter.

She pins me with her piercing gaze. “...We've all got secrets.” She turns away and vaults the check-in desk, where she snatches a room key off the wall. “Like I said. Night is falling. I suggest you get some rest. You will need it.”

Without another word, she marches down the hall, leaving the rest of us in bewildered silence.

“...What the hell was that supposed to mean?” Sean mutters.

“Think she means it's nighttime, bro,” Craig quips.

“Well,” Lila says, “it is getting late, and we'll want to be ready to greet everyone when they return from...wherever. Please take the key to your assigned room from behind the desk.”

“Assigned?” Zahra scoffs. “Yeah right!”

She climbs behind the desk and selects a key shaped like a queen chess piece from a higher spot on the wall. She grins at us and twirls the keyring on her index finger.

“Hotel's empty, right? I'm taking a penthouse suite!”

Jake shrugs and grabs a decorative key for himself. “Don't mind if I do.”

Some of the others follow suit. Diego looks thoughtfully at the wall of keys.

“Gonna give yourself an upgrade, Allie?”

“Ah, what the hell.” I grab a key with a palm-tree shaped head. “You only live once, right?”

“Guess so.” He grabs one with a head shaped like a fish. “...What do you think this one is?”

I grin. “Only one way to find out. Come on, let's stash our stuff.”

We ride the elevator to the penthouse level and head towards our respective rooms. I turn the key in the lock and push open the door. I am immediately hit with the scent of clean linen and carpet with just a touch of dust that permeates every hotel room I have ever been in. But there's another scent on top of it this time, something fresher and more natural. When I turn on the light, I see it probably has something to do with the tree in the center of the room that runs through the middle of a circular wooden table in the center of the room, and the vine garlands that run over the stone walls and wind around the pillars. Two rope hammocks form a right angle of sorts around the table.

The bathroom is done all in stone, making it look like a cave. Even the toilet is made to look like stone, although thankfully the lid and the seat are properly sanded wood. The shower is stone on all sides, except for the frosted glass door. There's also a deep hot tub, also decorated to look stone so that it resembles a pool at the bottom of a waterfall.

Slipping off my sandles, I let my feet sink into the plush mottled green and brown carpet and make my way into the bedroom, where amidst more vines and what looks like tribal masks hanging on the walls, a queen-sized canopy bed and stone nightstands wait for me. The whole suite's ceiling is a painted canopy of leaves, permeated by soft golden light that leaves dappled patterns on the objects beneath.

A knock on the door makes my heart quicken. I take a moment to peek at myself in the mirror and smooth my shirt before I open the door.

Deigo waits on the other side. “What's up?”

“Oh! Hi, Diego.”

He grins that knowing grin of his. “Expecting someone else?”

“What? No, I...”

“Yeah, uh-huh, sure.” He slings an arm over my shoulders. “I know you too well, Allie. If you're crushing on someone here, I'm gonna figure out who it is eventually. So you may as well tell me.”

“Oh, why would I spoil the fun of trying to figure it out for you?”

“Fair enough. Well, from the way you were making eyes, the gorgeous redhead is the most likely candidate right now. But the heart-stoppingly handsome Sean Gayle could also be a contender. Or...maybe the pilot with the bedroom eyes? He seems keen on you.”

I poke his temple. “Not telling. Too early to tell.”

When I shut the door, he seems to remember that he is in my room and looks around, whistling lowly.

“In the words of that old dude from Indiana Jones, you chose wisely. Is it too late to trade?”

“You snooze, you lose, pal. ...What did the fish key give you?”

“Coral Reef room.”

“That...actually sounds pretty cool.”

“It's not bad. The walls are aquariums. I like aquariums.” He wanders into the bedroom and bellyflops onto my bed. “Ohh, but this is nice. Especially at the end of a day like today.”

I flop down beside him and ruffle his hair. “Hey...what do you think is going on here?”

He rolls over onto his back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Well, I know this is only because I watch an unhealthy amount of movies...but remember how I was saying I wanted this week to be an adventure? One that will stay with us forever? Maybe...just maybe, the universe is finally listening.” He shakes his head, laughing at himself. “Of course, given my luck with the universe, I'll probably be back to reality, getting bullied again come morning.”

His words make my heart squeeze. Diego puts up a goofy, irreverent front, even with me, but I'm also probably the only person who's ever allowed to see how vulnerable and insecure he really is—how much the years of vicious bullies, cruel slurs, and more than one broken heart have made him afraid to reveal too much of himself. All our lives, I've seen them mock him. I've heard them call him every ugly name in the book, attacking him for his race, his class, his sexuality, his shy and gentle nature. All our lives, I've been the one who's had his back when the bullies laid into him, and I've been the one to hold him when he's cried afterward. And these days, I think I'm the only one who really gets to see that beneath that layer of fear and insecurity, there is a kind, courageous, loyal, talented, creative, fucking beautiful soul that the world should be a lot more grateful for. Without Diego, I wouldn't have made it as far as I have. Without his pure love, loneliness would have crushed me a long time ago.

...I hate his bullies. I am terrified that they will break him one day. And I swore a long time ago that I would never let that happen.

“I think sometimes you've got to force the universe to listen,” I say. It's as close as I can get to voicing my true thoughts right now. ...And if you can't force it alone, Diego, I'll help. Always. You are my brother. You were my family when no one else would be...

He laughs. “And you say I'm the ridiculous one.”

“You are.” My retort earns me a pillow in my face. Probably well-deserved. But I still grab a pillow to retaliate. As I do, I hear the soft sound of something small falling behind the bed. I pause and turn to see what it is. I bend over the side of the bed and pick up a folded piece of paper.

“...Was that under the pillow?”

The paper is yellowed with age, and the edges are worn. I unfold it carefully and find a note written in elegant, looping script:

I must see you one last time before tomorrow. Meet me at our spot in Neptune Cove. Midnight.

“Sealed with a kiss,” I say, pointing to the lipstick print beneath the writing.

“Intriguing. Sounds like a steamy rendezvous. Neptune Cove's on the other side of the island. It's supposed to be real secluded and romantic. ...Hey, could that be where everyone went?”

“Wouldn't be much of a steamy rendezvous with an entire hotel's worth of guests watching. Besides, this letter looks like it's years old.”

“...But it was just sitting there under your pillow. ...This room doesn't look like it's been empty for years.”

“Maybe it belongs to one of the housekeeping staff? A memento from a grandparent or something that got dropped.”

Diego opens his mouth to respond, but he's interrupted by more knocking at the door. I get up and open the door.

“What up, what up, what uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!” Craig bellows, striding into the room. Followed by most of my classmates carrying bottles. “Wooooooah, sweet digs, Alodia!”

“We're heading to the pool for a rage,” Raj announces. “That's right! It's a Raj Rage!”

“...I thought we were all going to sleep.”

“We've got all the time in the world to sleep,” Zahra scoffs.

“Shots up!” Raj crows.

Diego nudges me and points out the window. I look down and see the rest of our classmates out by the pool, stringing up party lights. He grins at me.

“Hell yes. I was so hoping this would happen.”

“I don't know. It's pretty late...”

“Come on, Allie. We promised we would make the most of this trip. Every moment's a chance to find love, find a new adventure...maybe even find yourself.”

I can't help grinning. Affectionately mussing his hair feels like satisfying an itch. “All right, but only because you're too damn charming when you get philosophical.”

“All riiiiiiiight!” Raj yells, and starts chanting, “Alodia! Alodia!”

Craig picks up the chant. “Alodia! Alodia!”

Zahra rolls her eyes. “Fine...Alodia! Alodia!”

“Enough!” I laugh. “My name doesn't exactly make for a graceful chant!”

“It's a very graceful name, though,” Sean remarks, smiling at me.

“All right, stud,” Diego laughs, moving to usher everyone out, “save the flirting for when she's gotten into a bathing suit. And on that note, we should give her some privacy so she can do that.”

I swap my shorts and tank top for my black bikini with the neon firework print. Not my most elegant, but one of the sexiest I own. I run a comb through my honey-blonde hair, debate for a moment whether to pull it back, and decide against it. I head down to the pool, where Grace and Quinn are nearly finished stringing up the party lights all around the pool area. Like my bathroom, the pool is decorated all in stone. It even has a waterfall at the deep end. Upbeat pop music floats out from the speakers, loud enough to get in the blood without drowning out conversation.

“Oh, look who's come to join us!” Grace waves to me. I head over, admiring the job they've done with the lights.

“Love what you've done with the place. Where did you find the lights?”

“In the supply shed by the towels,” Quinn says. “And Grace rewired the circuits to make the lights sync with the music!”

“Not bad. Not bad at all.”

Behind the poolside bar, Jake is shaking up cocktails. He slides a bloody mary over to Diego and gets started on the next one.

“How'd they rope you into tending bar?” Diego asks after taking a sip. “You lose a bet?”

“Ha! As if I've ever lost a bet! You should have seen the kind of drinks these maniacs were pouring.” He jerks his head at Craig. “Drax over here just filled his to the brim with cinnamon whiskey.”

“What? I call it the Aggro-Craig. It's my go-to.”

Jake finishes the cocktail he's mixing and slides it to Craig. “Try that.”

Craig eyes it suspiciously for a moment before taking a swig. His eyes go wide. “Wha...Woah! That just blew my mind!”

“It's called a Sazerac. Consider yourself enlightened.”

I put my elbows on the bar. “Can I get something?”

“I'm gonna be pouring drinks all night, aren't I? Okay, Princess, what's your poison?”

“Here's a challenge for you. Make a new drink inspired by me.”

He smiles thoughtfully. “Inspired by you, huh? Hmm...” He gives me a long, searching look. “Okay, I think I've got something.”

He turns around and gets to mixing, preparing it under the bar so I can't see what he's adding. He brings up a martini glass filled with a multicolored liquid, garnished with sugar on the rim and a slice of orange. I take a sip and smack my lips.

“Huh. That's all over the place. Salty and sweet, tangy and bitter, dry and fruity...”

“Yeah. It doesn't know what it wants to be just yet. But I think it has the potential to be anything.”

In spite of myself, I feel myself blush. “That's...surprisingly thoughtful.”

“You had to qualify that with 'surprisingly,' huh?” he teases. “I can't be 'typically' thoughtful?”

“Nope. Now it's your turn.”

“My turn?”

“Other side of the bar, Top Gun. I'm making you a drink now.”

“Ah, hell. I have a bad feeling about this.”

But he comes around the bar and takes my seat. I slip behind the bar and salt a martini glass. I grin at Jake as I mix a bit of this and that and top the concoction off with an olive. I slide it over to him. He picks up the glass and looks at the cloudy mixture inside.

“...Looks okay.” He takes a sip and coughs. “Gah! Looks good, but wow, is that bitter. That's a drink that has people making very bad decisions.”

“Exactly. Why do you think I call it the Jake?”

He grabs the bar towel and flicks it at me. “Oh, you think you're funny, do you? That's it! You're cut off! Get out of here!”

I laugh and scoop up my drink, wandering over to the lounge chairs where Diego has made himself comfortable. He passes me a skewer of grilled shrimp and vegetables.

“You've got to try one of these. Raj made them.”

I slip a mushroom off the end and pop it into my mouth. I squish it between my molars, and tangy juice floods my mouth, blending with the perfect mix of spices that coats its surface. “Oh, my GOD that is amazing!”

“I know, right? Next Memorial Day, let's get Raj to cook the burgers.”

“Oh, come on! That was weeks ago! Am I ever going to live that down?”

He grins. “Sure you will. When I stop finding bits of charred burger meat on my dental floss.”

I point the skewer at him like a sword. “En guarde! You'll pay for such slander, knave!”

“Hey! Who's up for Marco Polo?” Sean is in the water with his arms propped on the edge of the pool.

Diego points at me. “She is! She is! Seriously, make her play before she skewers me!”

“Well, Alodia? You in?”

“...I'm in.” I put down my skewer. “Diego, you're spared for now.”

“You'll never hurt me. You love me too much.”

I stick out my tongue at him and slip into shallow end of the pool beside Sean. The water temperature is perfect, and I take a moment to savor it as it laps at my belly.

“Fair warning, I'm basically considered the Sean Gayle of Marco Polo.”

“That's high praise,” Sean concedes. “But don't get cocky. I could win this game with my eyes closed!” He mimes a rimshot and strikes an exaggerated pose, waiting for my reaction. I can't help it. I laugh.

“You're lucky you're cute. That's the only reason you get away with bad jokes like that.”

“I made you laugh,” he says triumphantly. “That's all I wanted to hear.”

“Well, Mister Smooth, you can be 'it' then. Let's see if you've got the moves to back up your mouth.”

He obligingly closes his eyes. The rest of us swim around him, evading his outstretched hands. A few “Marco! Polo!” calls and responses lead him in my direction. He dives at me. I lunge right, but he's too quick for me. He slips under the water and wraps his arms around my waist, eliciting a shriek. He brings his head back above the water.

“Gotcha!”

“You got lucky!” I protest.

“Is that so? Think you can catch me?”

“It is so on!”

I swim to the middle of the pool and close my eyes. “Marco!”

“Polo!” comes the chorus of answering voices. I focus on Sean's smooth baritone, coming from my right.

“Marco!”

“Polo!” His voice comes from behind me this time. I turn towards it.

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

There is movement right in front of me. I lunge. My hands slide over Sean's broad chest, slick from the water.

“Ha! Got you!”

He laughs. “All right, all right, you win!”

“Thought you were supposed to be this elusive star quarterback, but I tackled you so easy!”

“Guess you just know how to read me,” he says, giving a smile that makes my knees feel weak. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Michelle glaring at us from a poolside lounge chair.

“...Michelle doesn't look too happy. What's the deal with you two, anyway?”

“We're...” he trails off, closing his eyes. He is silent for a long time.

“...You...don't have to tell me.”

“Look, don't get me wrong. Michelle's great. She's a lot nicer than she comes off. But...” He opens his eyes. “Alodia, have you ever been with someone who's dating an expectation of you, instead of the real thing?”

I think back to a few lovers I left behind at Hartfeld. “...Yeah...I think I know what you mean...”

“It's not her fault. I think she was just raised to care about status. And that means dating the quarterback. Whoever he is.”

“She's lucky he turned out to be a great guy like you. Seriously, the quarterback at my high school in California was an asshole.”

He chuckles. “...Still...I need something different in my life. I don't want to be a symbol. I want to be a person. That's why I wanted to go on this trip. I didn't realize she'd be picked too. But I'm not going to let that stop me from being the real me for a week...from making real connections with people.”

“...How's that going so far?”

He reaches an arm around to scratch the back of his head and beams at me. It's not the TV-ready grin I've seen him flash before. ...This is a shy, genuine sort of smile. This smile does a lot more than make my knees weak.

“Promising,” he says softly. “I'll keep you posted.”

I try to swallow, but my mouth has gone totally dry. “...Promising.”

“...You all right? Your eyes just went really wide all of the sudden.”

I put on a winning smile of my own. “I'm great.”

“Hey, Allie!” Diego calls from the bar. “Come here a sec, will ya?”

“Gotta run, Sean. See ya later?”

“Absolutely.”

I swim over to the side of the pool and hoist myself out. Diego passes me a towel.

“What's up?”

“Look who's kinda sorta shown up.” He directs his gaze to a spot up and over my shoulder. I turn to look at see Estela sitting on a cliff side overlooking the party. She catches my gaze and holds it for a moment, but this time she's the one who looks away.

“...I'm...gonna go talk to her.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I wanna know what she's about.”

“Good luck.”

I slip on my clothes and flipflops and exit the pool area through the gate. I head towards the beach, passing the supply shed and shelves of towels. Back here, the overhead lights flicker, leaving wide pools of darkness. Something else catches my eye. Not only are there towels on the shelves, but there are also at least two dozen woven blankets. Probably for picnics and the like. I grab one and drape it over my shoulders before heading up the path towards the cliff where Estela is sitting with her legs dangling over the edge. She turns sharply as I approach.

“Who's there?” she growls.

“Woah! Hey! It's just me.”

“What do you want?”

“Just thought you might like a little company.” I sigh. This was probably a bad idea. “Sorry to have bothered you.” I turn to leave.

“...Wait. ...Stay...”

I turn back. Her long hair obscures her face, but I think I can see her eyes shimmering. I shrug and come to sit beside her. For a moment, we sit in silence, watching the sea roll against the rocks below. I take the blanket off my shoulders.

“I brought you a blanket...if you're cold.” I hold it out to her, but she recoils, eyeing it suspiciously.

“...Why?”

“...I don't know...to be nice?”

She accepts the blanket and wraps it around her shoulders. “...Thank you.” She turns her gaze skyward. I lean back, propping myself up on my elbows to gaze with her. The stars seem to go on forever here.

“...Where I am from,” she says after a moment, “people don't do things for you without expecting something in return.”

“...Maybe people just want to be liked in return.”

“Isn't that pathetic? How lonely we all are? But at least you're honest about it...”

We sit together in silence for a moment, gazing up at the infinite ceiling of stars. The air is balmy, but a cool breeze blows in from the sea. Cool enough that it makes me shiver.

“...You're cold, too.” She scoots closer and drapes half the blanket over my shoulders. I nestle close to her.

“That was nice of you.”

She smiles in a manner that can only be described as cautious. Two lights that might be shooting stars streak across the sky.

“...Beautiful sky tonight,” I remark. Estela abruptly abandons her place under the blanket, standing sharply.

“I have to go.”

“What? Why? What's wrong?”

“...Look, Alodia. People in my life usually end up being hurt. And I don't mean their feelings.”

“Estela...”

“You seem like a good person. I don't want that to happen to you.” She walks off without another word, disappearing into the darkness.

I am not sure how long I sit there in stunned silence before getting up and wandering back towards the pool. I don't see Estela at the party when I get back. I have no idea where she could have gone.

“Woo! Let's do this!” Craig's bellowing snaps me back to the present. I look up to find him perched at the edge of the nearby gazebo, poised to jump into the pool.

“Craig!” Aleister cries. “That is clearly against pool regulations!”

“Oh, yeah? I don't see anything that says, 'No Badasses Allowed'!”

He takes a flying leap and tucks into a cannonball, slamming into the pool. A tsunami explodes from the spot and soaks everyone standing poolside.

Diego spits out a mouthful of water. “Blah! Pool water!”

I immediately dissolve into helpless giggles. Craig pops his head above the water, whooping triumphantly. That only makes me giggle harder. I double over, clutching my sides.

“I...I'll go get everyone some towels,” I say when I can breathe again.

I go back to the supply shed, stepping carefully in the half-light. I drape one towel after another over my arm, carefully counting out enough for everyone.

Something rustles nearby me. I pause and turn, peering past the fence into the dark rainforest. The bright moonlight can't penetrate the thick canopy. I don't see anything right away. But the rustling comes again. I step a little closer. And then again. I sense movement. A ripple of muscle under flesh and fur, a sinewy shadow...and a pair of golden eyes piercing the darkness.

I scream, staggering backwards. My foot catches something and I tumble hard onto the sand, landing on my back. I hear the sound of rushing feet, and voices calling my name.

“Alodia!” Sean kneels beside me, helping me sit up. “Are you okay?”

Diego is at my other side, his hand on my shoulder. “What happened?”

I can't answer right away. I point a shaking finger at the rainforest past the fence.

“Did you see something?” Quinn asks.

Jake steps a little closer to the fence. “...What was it?”

I am silent a moment. ...Whatever it was, it's not there anymore. The gleaming pair of eyes have vanished.

“I...I have no idea...”

#play choices #choices stories you play #pixelberry choices #Endless Summer #Diego Ricardo Ortiz Soto #jake mckenzie #sean gayle #quinn kelly #estela montoya #raj bhandarkar #michelle nguyen #craig hsiao #zahra namazi #aleister rourke #grace hall #book 1 chapter 2

7 notes · View notes

dancing-sword · 7 years ago

Text

Ixalan Adventures: Stranded

Story time again! Another thrilling part in @circlesmadeofglass‘s and my fanwalkers adventures on Ixalan (which I might continue. Asking circles questions while writing this gave me some ideas). I wanted to get a drawing for this, but I kinda got sidetracked with some other things. Maybe later in the week.

Ixalan had been a bit more surprising than Bica, Halona, and Nireta had first anticipated. They had spent the first half of the morning exploring the jungles, collecting various plants and herbs for Bica, and watching the majestic, towering dinosaurs wander the land. They had then spent the second half of the morning running from said dinosaurs after Halona got a little too friendly with a nest of eggs. Halona cut a path back through the jungle, her boar umbra smashing through trees and brush, while Nireta’s song distracted the larger reptiles and Bica’s plant magic scattered the smaller ones. It was a race for their lives full of shattering wood and thundering roars and by the time they broke through the treeline and hit the shore, they were sweaty, hungry, out of breath, but most of all at least finally safe.

All in all, it was just about your average Tuesday for Halona.

“Bica, your beans still safe?” Halona asked, after catching her breath and wiping the sweat from her brow. Bica, still a bit winded, could only give her overfilled bag a light pat and throw up a thumbs up. “Good. You doing good, Blue?”

“Tired,” Nireta said, landing next to the two and ruffling her feathers to shake out the dirt and dust. “You guys wanna call it for today? I think I’m done with this plane for now.”

“I don’t know. Heading home only after one chase? Seems a little lazy to me,” Halona joked.

“Well, my bag is pretty full. How about we meet up tomorrow with a more solid plan? More than just ‘pop in and see what’s happens’?” asked Bica.

“Oh! You want to grab lunch with us then? There’s this place by our apartment-”

“My apartment.”

“-Yeah, our apartment. We should be right on time for their lunch special.”

“Sounds great! Let me get cleaned up and I’ll be right there.”

With that, each member started their walk back home. Ixalan pulled away from Halona as if it were all just paint waiting to be washed away as the blurry image of Nireta’s apartment was revealed underneath. The smells hit her first, the worn pages of Nireta’s vast book collection was combining with the freshly baked breads from a bakery down the road. Then came the noise from the streets down below, filtering in from a window they had left slightly cracked open. For a split second she thought she felt a slight tug grasping at something deep inside her, but it slowed her no more than a spider’s web would stop a baloth.

She was halfway between worlds, when the cries of her friends brought her crashing back to Ixalan. Halona spun to her right, one hand reaching for her machete while the form of a bear spread swiftly from her other hand and up her arm. Nireta was bent over slightly, as if she had stumbled, her wings spread out for balance. Turning to her left, Bica shook her head as she swayed from mysterious vertigo. Ominous glowing runes hovered over the two, bathing them in a golden glow.

Halona rushed to her winged friend’s side, grabbing her shoulders to help steady her when Nireta attempted to planeswalk again. Her form faded and her outline blurred as Halona watched her essence reach out once again towards Ravnica. For a moment, Halona was relieved and let go of Nireta, only to watch her body shift almost violently back to solidity, the glowing rune shining only more brighter.

“I...I can’t...” Nireta sputtered out, eyes locked to the sandy ground.

“Me neither,” Bica said, moving in closer.

There were more words and a voice called out to her, but Halona had spun back around without a word or thought looked out in the mid-distance. She reached out into the world looking for that thread, that tug, she had felt moments ago only to find nothing. She was by no means an elementalist or shaman, but even with what she could spy of the leylines, she couldn’t find anything out of place. No detention spells, no heiromancy, nor anything that would disrupt any form of conjuration. The world was as it had been when they arrived and remained as it was when they had tried to leave. So what was stopping her friends?

The voice was now shouting at her and a second one was trying to play diplomat, but Halona continued to keep her focus elsewhere. She tried walking again, aiming for no world other than out. She inched towards the unknown, slowly moving towards the proverbial half-step into the Blind Eternities until she caught a glimpse of something. Strings pulled taut and hidden gears slowly clicked into place behind the noise of the world and the tug, that infinitesimally small tripwire she had brushed through without a care earlier, appeared. She reached out while she stepped back into the plane, pushing on the trigger before the magic feel back into nothing, and the rune burst into life over her head. She watched it for a second, examining the frozen spell to get a grasp of how it worked.

The voice broke through to Halona this time as a hand dug its fingers into her arm.

“Halona!” Nireta barked, her voice somewhere between anger and determination, but her eyes awash with worry. “What is it?”

She turned towards the spell again to find the right word. Nireta was not one for the mysticism or dramatics of magic and mana like Halona was, but this meant that Halona just had to make a game of finding analogies.

Wall? Flypaper? Funnel? Fish trap-

“Fish trap.”

“What.”

“It’s like a funnel. Fish goes in one big end, but gets stuck at the smaller end because it can’t turn around or its rigged so it can’t swim back through or something. We’re the fish and Ixalan’s the trap.”

Nireta huffed, but at least she got the point. Regaining her composure, she said, “So can you get us out?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can. It’s not like ho-” She caught herself. A memory flashed in her mind, a story and an unspoken bond to its secret between the two. Her eyes flickered towards Bica for moment and she hoped the satyr didn’t catch the misstep. “It’s not like- um- not like its anything special. I just need some time to prep.”

“How much?”

Halona locked onto the space passed the rune, far behind the inner glow and the mystic symbols, towards the underlying magics of the spell and thought of home. The ward around her home, around Balatog, while much stronger than she could comprehend and extremely heavy handed in its purpose, but was quite simple in its design; a ban that kept all out without ever making its presence known. Here, however, there was certain craftsmanship that she could admire. It was less of a wall and more of a trap like she said before, an intricate mix of small locks and tiny triggers that kept the world safe. Therein lied the problem though. There was a subtle depth and complexity to it all and despite her curiosity, Halona was no scholar and this kind of work would take time to decipher.

“Less than you’d think, but more than you’d hope,” she said, letting the golden circle fade into nothing and turning to her companions, “I can get out no problem, but getting making it safe for you guys might need some work. I’d like to stay- just a bit- so I can make sure we don’t end up completely stuck or, you know, dead.”

Bica and Nireta didn’t say anything, only sharing a glance. Halona could already tell what they were thinking. Sure, both of them had lives outside this plane that they’d love to go back to, but making sure their ticket out of here didn’t die helping them was a lot better than being stuck forever.

Bica was the first to speak up, “Well, its not perfect, but at least I’m not gonna be going through this alone.”

Nireta relented with a sigh, “Well if we’re gonna be here a while, we should set up camp. I think I spotted a shipwreck further down the beach against some rocks. I’ll scout ahead to make sure it’s safe.” With a few wing beats she was off, leaving her two friends to watch her fly away.

“...Is she going to be alright?” Bica asked.

“She just needs to blow off some steam. She doesn’t like feeling trapped is all,” Halona reassured, “But we should really catch up, just in case.”

Chin up, guys, Halona thought to herself as the two jogged after Nireta, It’s only maybe a couple of days at worst. What’s the worst that could happen?

#Writing #Halona #Nireta #Bica Aracoff #Admittedly like a lot of the stuff I've written here #the beginning and end are a bit rushed and feel a bit choppy to me

13 notes · View notes

huge6s-blog · 7 years ago

Text

RANDOM FACTS ABOUT THE MUN.

Repost, not reblog! Tag 6 muns you would like to get to know better when done!

Name: Kaitlyn! Please, for the love of god, never use it.

Nickname: Katy, Kat, variations; (Katydid, Katybug, Kitkat, etc.) But if you wanna call me something else, that’s fine too!

Age: 22! Simultaneously too old and a wee bab, lmao

Faceclaim: Not something I do! I could never pick just one, besides maybe my own face! (I’d thought about using Shuu Iwamine or Rize Kamishiro before, if that says anything haha)

Pronouns: Your highness/My liege She/Her! But “they/them” is good too.

Height: ~5’6”-5’7”; I can’t remember the last time I checked.

Birthday: Poppin’, obviously March 30th.

Aesthetic: Purple and black?? EGNautilus scientists tittering excitedly over adorable or exciting sea creatures. Omnipresent Mountain Dew cans, fast food and colorful kneesocks. 2AM adventures on clear nights in summer that last until dawn starts sending it’s first beams into the sky. Spacey FPS games and cutesy RPG and Pokemon games interspersed throughout. Weathered frames and tired eyes. ROBOTS… I have no idea, man. A lot of things!

Last song you listened to: “The Thief and the Moon” by Shawn James!

Favourite muse(s) you’ve written: kfkjdf. Sixes definitely counts,, Uhh. My first was a canon-divergent Eridan, who I’d played before Act 6 was even close to being a thing! And he was a lot of fun. Accidentally made a “do not that” meme that still sometimes plagues me to this day ldkfdk A dream-bubble/dead Karkat who’d been murdered in his timeline’s Gamzee’s rampage and only had one eye, he was a biiiig favorite. I loved having enough energy for that all; typing that much shittalk??? Was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in roleplay, holy shit. Entire fucking PAGES of just these absolutely USELESS rants because that nubby little shit had so much passion for it. Fuck. I loved Karkat. A bloodswapped, cobalt-blooded Karkat who was also post-game for a pre-established timeline where trolls and humans co-existed on the same planet(s). He was a Thief of Blood and a massive asshole; at his worst, he was manipulative, isolative, vengeful, restless… But also, he was a really big dork??? He LOOOOOVED spy movies and probably popped boners regularly for Black Widow and James Bond or the Kingsmen. Fucking nerd. He fancied himself a spy; his best friend was a badass hacker, and they’d (F)LARP together as a stereotypical “you hack, I’ll infiltrate” team. Before Earth, he never cared about Christmas, but one year his richass neighbourhood started putting up flashy decorations and he got jealous, so he stole a shitton of them to make his own house look the best. He’s so… So stupid. I love him so much. And of course, jumping off the Homestuck bandwagon; I have Lv/Hadz! My dorky, sadsack pun machine. A (sort of, mostly) secret post-genocide Sans; the Bad Run™ had been reset after completion, but something went wrong, so he remembers it. Still, he’s been running for like, two years now! So he’s had a lot of time to go and bury all that as deeply as monsterly possible lmaooo. He’s distrusting, paranoid, and isolative himself; but he’s probably the most all-around good guy on this list. He just wants to get on with his life and never have to fight anyone ever again, lmfao. I… I also have a few OCs, but you’ll have to pry those out of my cold, dead hands. … Carefully. With lots of reassurance. (I’m very shy…)

What inspired you to take on your current muse (that you are posting this on): I like… Undertale. And I like Underfell enough that once the idea was presented to me, my mind kinda ran away with it, haha. It started with Hopper, my weird UF Sans! But it feels like every time I approach the AU I have slightly different ideas for it, pfft. I guess with Sixes, I wanted to step away from the skeletons for awhile! I was really excited about messing with Mettaton for it, because I… Really liked listening to the radio for awhile, haha. I thought it’d be kind of cool if instead of being really excited to be seen flaunting himself across a television set, he wasn’t so happy with how he turned out physically, and made his influence a little less directly visible. It fit in well with the seemingly common theme of conflict in Underfell, and things just really exploded from there! It’s hard to summarize in just a few short words. That said, Sixes probably wouldn’t have a blog at all if it wasn’t for tumblr user wibler’s- Sixes’ Sans!- mun coaxing me into giving it a shot! She has a lot of faith in my creative abilities. I dunno what I’d do without her support through the past few years, heheh. She’s neat.

What are your favourite aspects of your current muse: LOUD ANGRY ROBOT LMFAO Shit though, I dunno! I like writing a character who goes through the bipolar disorder motions, the manics and the depressives. I love watching him go hot and cold on characters as he flipflops through his impulses and subsequent regrets. I love that in his timeline, everyone knows him while he himself actually… Hardly knows anyone at all. He’s made himself untrustworthy, and in turn doesn’t trust anyone, either, so he hardly ever opens up beyond… You know. Angry screaming, or shameless flirting and flattery, ignoring personal space bubbles… I love that his Sans being absent kind of smacked him on the nose, because that was someone he was actually making a connection with, but tried to play it off like Sans was just another moment in his life so he kind of treated him like a dick lmao. Deadass knew the poor little dude had anxiety issues and scared him on purpose, made joking death threats, joked about flirting with his shittyass brother… Sixes was such a prick. Fuck. And he realizes that! And after ditching his family just to have a cataclysmic fallout with his other BFF, Alphys, Sans disappearing… It’s something he blames himself for. It kind of sobered him up a little to the way his actions affect people. AND DESPITE EVERYTHING, HE STILL USES HIS CAMERAS (THAT HE STOLE FROM ALPHYS IN A PETTY FIT) SCATTERED ACROSS THE UNDERGROUND AND HIS SHITTY TRAP ROOMS IN HOTLAND TO PUBLICALLY HUMILIATE RANDOM CITIZENS IN A WIPEOUT-ESQUE PODCAST ON THE UNDERNET. At least that assholitude earns him money, though! Fuck. I also reaaallly love how different AUs bring out different aspects of his character, but that’s a rant for another time or place! Hoo. I dunno, man. I could go on about Sixes for like, ever. He’s a really fun muse.

What’s your biggest inspiration when it comes to writing: I’m… I’m not even gonna lie, a lot of it is the positive feedback lmao. I don’t, uh. Do much these days, creatively or recreationally speaking, and I don’t really have a lot of friends IRL… Er, any, actually, if you’re only counting closehand. All my friends live hundreds of miles away, and it sucks. But this is… Simultaneously social and creative. I get to talk to people, and make friends, and toss creativity back and forth with people, and it’s really fulfilling. I love to be a part of other people’s creative processes! I love seeing what other people do with THEIR characters, and when we all??? Interact??? Mother of God, it’s such a treat! Everyone’s so creative and impressive and inspiring… And hearing/seeing us all go back and forth about what we admire in each other… I’m pretty happy with just being a part of writing, and telling other people that I love what they do! But every now and then it comes back around to me in little ways, and it feels really special. It’s hard to imagine anyone liking my stuff past a “they’re pretty cool I guess, yeah” sentiment, despite my glittering impression of a lot of the writers in the community; so when someone DOES say they like my stuff, even just by saying they like a drawing, or like the way I described something, I go OFF THE WALL LMAO. Straight up dissolve and slip through the floorboards a la Gaster style with how lovely it feels. Shucks… And, you know. Watching characters develop in general- whether they be mine or not- is really fulfilling and inspiring. A good cycle.

Favourite types of threads: Anything that feels meaningful! I love it when two characters make any kind of connection, despite the context. That said, typically “angst” and “fluff” style threads are a big favorite, but there has to be, like… you know. Meaning to it. It feels really… I dunno, cardboardy to just throw a muse into a woodchipper for no particular reason just to have them drag themselves to another muse begging for help or to have a chance to explain some kind of deep, edgy feeling or story. Baseless fluff has a lot more wiggle room lmao, but that can get really monotonous really quick if something more significant fails to spark somewhere along the line. Just so long as something’s getting achieved somehow, I guess! If it feels like nothing’s changed between the two at the end of the thread, it feels really unfulfilling and hollow.

Biggest struggle in regards to your current muse: URRRGH. IMPLEMENTING THE RADIO SHOW/PODCAST THING… On one hand, Sixes has kind of collected the idea that the multiverse is a very indifferent place towards the goings-on within his timeline! And, he supposes, that that suits him fine. Hurts his pride a little, but it’s something he’s just going to curl up and lick his wounds for, pfft. But still! I wish I knew how to make it a little more obvious and prominent- The same could go for his growing industry, too! I guess I’ve just been jobless too long to really have a feel for it like I should, oof… Additionally, drawing him is reALLY HARD… He’s in his classic box form most of the time because he’s really insecure about his EX form, and yet I draw his EX form more than anything because the box is frustrating to draw??? And despite it all, I’m still not sure I’m terribly happy with how his EX form looks!!! He’s supposed to be a little closer to a NEO design than initially planned, as Alphys fully intended him to be a KILLING MACHINE from the start without telling him! But he caught on early on, and they kind of bullied each other into compromising a bunch of things until he was just this “hideous” mess that neither of them were terribly happy with… So, you know. The indecision carried over to me too, evidently! Ugh.

Tagged by: nah! Just stole it was all. (from slobbyseconds/coolskeletonsdontcry forever ago, but just got around to now. kfjf)

Tagging: Anyone who wants to! @ me back if you do it, though; I love reading these things!

#q #ooc #repost dont reblog #long post //#ooc about #these r fun. i love talking #munday

10 notes · View notes

buckykingofmemes · 8 years ago

Text

Closet Softie

Or, How Bucky Barnes Nearly Ruined His Tough-Guy Rep

(On AO3)

The trail mix was gone.

The nice, expensive trail mix, with twelve kinds of nuts and the big sunflower seeds and dried fruits, the kind Tony only rarely left sitting on the common floors for everyone to get at, was gone.

Clint had been looking forward to that stuff all morning.

All the way through a hellish morning “jog” with Steve, all through Nat handing him his ass on the training mats, all through firing the same batch of misweighted arrows over and over so Tony could take scans and fix the design, he’d been thinking, when this is done I get to go upstairs and hang out on the couch and watch Dog Cops and eat the good trail mix, guilt-free.

And it was gone.

Clint was gonna shoot somebody.

Just as soon as he figured out who’d taken the trail mix.

kingofmemes posted:

yesterday i saw a sad duck in the park who kept getting picked on by the other ducks so today i brought some trail mix and we had a nice lunch together. also i think he might be the duck who pooped on sam last week. if so, he is officially my new best friend.

Posted at 3:29 PM, 24379 notes

(Read More Below)

Was...was that Barnes? No way was that Barnes. There was zero chance that the huge guy teaching a swarm of kids how to throw a baseball in the park was the Winter Soldier. That was ridiculous. Barnes was probably back in the Tower, brooding or something. Definitely not throwing crazy curveballs while a six year old with a broken arm rode piggyback. There were a dozen or so kids of varying ages clustered around, trying to mimic his throw. And while the big guy did have hair about the same length as Barnes’s, Barnes’s hair definitely wasn’t done up in sloppy child-made braids and topped with a dandelion flower crown. And Barnes would rather loose his right arm than deal with a bunch of kids, right? Even if these grubby little monsters were being remarkably well-behaved.

Had to be somebody else. Clint kept walking.

kingofmemes posted:

today i learned that i can throw a baseball hard enough that it will explode on impact. and also that if you do that, you better be prepared to teach a bunch of kids how to do it, because they wont ever leave you alone otherwise

Posted at 4:47 PM, 26658 notes

Clint actually tripped over the package left in front of his door. Avenger he might be, but it had been a long day at the end of a longer week, and he was tired. And usually there wasn’t anything left in the hallway to trip over, what the hell.

Clint grabbed the box and dragged himself into his apartment. Hopefully it wasn’t a bomb. If it was, he was totally gonna get blown up, because he was too tired to check before he opened it.

It wasn’t. It was a bizarre knit shirt-thing, big enough to fit him and with a hood and hoodie pocket, but without sleeves.The whole thing was made of a soft dark purple yarn, and it seemed unbelievably warm. It was...kinda perfect. He’d just been complaining on the last op about how hard it was to find warm clothes he could wear that didn’t restrict his arms so he couldn’t shoot.

He pulled it on. It was even warmer than it looked, and softer than Thor’s godly hair. Clint loved it.

But who the hell had given it to him?

kingofmemes posted:

i dont care what anyone says, knitting is a combat-applicable skill, and if you disagree i will fight you. with my knitting needles.

Posted at 3:42 AM, 47292 notes

There were cupcakes on the counter. Beautiful, glorious, still-warm cupcakes on the kitchen counter, and Clint was gonna eat all of them before anyone stopped him.

Well. Maybe he would share with Nat. Otherwise she might make him regret it. Nat was kinda the worst.

Wait, were these cupcakes for him?? They were lavender. With purple frosting. And the other half were little dark chocolate and red velvet sandwiches. Maybe it was a coincidence? Clint mused it over as he shoved a third lavender cupcake in his mouth. The red-and-black ones had some kind of dark red filling leaking out between the layers. It looked like blood. Nat reached past him and snagged two of them. He’d jump, but he’d gotten used to her sneaking up on him all the time. She was the worst. Clint refrained from commenting by stuffing a fourth cupcake in his face. They were really good.

Nat made a little muffled moan noise. Clint reached for one of the red cupcakes, and she slapped his hand down. “Those are mine,” she grunted around her mouthful of cake, because she was only ladylike when it suited her.

“Says who?” Clint asked, even as he took another purple cupcake.

Nat pointed to the paper plate. Where Clint’s cupcakes had previously sat, there was blocky sharpie lettering: Have fun on your mission & dont die. Below was a little drawing of an arrow and a spider. There was no signature.

Huh.

Nat swallowed. “We need to leave now if we don’t want to be late for the pre-op briefing.”

Aw, no, cupcakes. There were still so many left, Clint didn’t want to leave them. They wouldn’t last a day in the Tower.

“Take the cupcakes with.” Nat ordered, sweeping out of the room.

Nat was the best.

kingofmemes posted:

cupcakes are great. you could have one really big cake or 40 tiny cakes, thats so fantastic. im gonna die if i keep making this many cupcakes somebody help me eat all these

Posted at 5:43 PM, 23749 notes

Barnes had a death wish. It was the only logical conclusion. There was literally no other reason for him to suddenly yell “Motherfucker!” during a debriefing, while Nick Fury was talking.

That was the kinda thing that got you keelhauled. Clint would know, he was a human disaster. Barnes was apparently worse, though he seemed to have balls to match, because he sat still and maintained eye contact as Fury glared him down. Weaker men and some brick walls had crumbled under that glare.

Barnes waited him out, and endured the following dressing-down with respectful yes-sirs no-sirs and sorry-sirs. And then promptly dashed out of the room as soon as the debriefing was over.

Weird.

kingofmemes posted:

ever get clawed in the stomach by the secret kitten you rescued and stashed in your hoodie pocket? because let me tell you. it 1. hurts and 2. hurts emotionally, because i love her and she hates me

Posted at 4:47 AM, 37294 notes

Clint staggered into the common room. A bad op gone worse had not at all been helped by a stint in medical, which he hated, and he’d gotten home to discover that Lucky had knocked a houseplant over and somehow gotten dirt through the whole apartment and needed a bath. And Lucky did not like baths. Plus he was still dealing with a nasty cold. So now Clint was tired, injured, sick, wet, and somehow still covered in dirt.

Aw, life, no.

Barnes was on the couch, watching with raised brows as Clint stood and contemplated the disaster that this week had been. Possibly also he might be judging Clint for being such a human train wreck.

Clint sneezed pathetically.

Barnes stood up. Clint watched him, too exhausted to be concerned.

“You look like you could use a hug.” Barnes informed him.

It took Clint a moment to separate out what he’d expected Barnes to say and what he’d actually said. And then he said, “What?” Because, no way.

“A hug. Want one?” Barnes repeated, like Clint was slow. Which, to be fair, his brain was basically operating at the pace of a drunk slug.

“I...thought you were a no-hugging friend.”

“Mostly yes, but I’m in a good headspace today and you look like you could use either a hug or a mercy killing. And I don’t wanna get blood on this knife, I just cleaned it.”

Huh. That was...huh. Should he be touched or terrified? Clint didn’t think he had the emotional energy for both.

“So. Hug. Want one?”

“...yeah, please.”

Barnes was a weird hugger. He came in slow and careful like he was expecting something to detonate, but once he was there, it was like being wrapped up by the world’s nicest bear. Strong and steady and taller than Clint, damn him, but nice.

“Thanks.” Clint mumbled at his toes.

“Yeah, yeah. Sit on the couch, I’m gonna make you some soup before you pass out.”

Barnes was such a softie, Clint thought, splayed on the sofa, and slipped into sleep.

kingofmemes posted:

it turns out that the best way to cure grumpiness is with hot food and niceness. or maybe it was the murder threat that helped.

whichever. ill keep doing both just to be sure.

Posted at 4:47 AM, 5392 notes

Mod Hell note: Please note that Bucky did not feed bread to the duck. That is because bread is BAD FOR BIRDS and you should never give it to them, as it can cause serious health problems. Nuts and veggies are good. Google it.

#sometimes sams bird telepathy #just means birds understand him when he calls them assholes #Clint and bucky get along #still not shipping but you can take this as you will #sniper bros #special thanks to Nimitz #who just clawed me in the gut.#verisimilitude #bucky barnes #clint barton #Team Naptime #bucky king of memes #Tales from the Tower

3K notes · View notes