#the goofy transformers road trip

[welcometomybraincomics]

Texting between the gang

Frostbite: *centipede in the sink.png* be gone foul creature, bringer of evil Frostbite: you stain this house with your vile presence Molotov: A lover! Steeljaw: Why'd you stop to take a picture of it!? Frostbite: To spread the curse Specter: Holding up a crucifix. PNG Subway: KILL IT Frostbite: I'm trying! Frostbite: ... Frostbite: It has escaped Frostbite: Moly, Can I stay over at your house? ___________________ Texaco: how do you stop a grease fire again? Frostbite: gasoline Molotov: water Steeljaw: How did you set grease on fire??? Subway: More fire Specter: *Someone being suffocated with a pillow.png* Texaco: This is the last time I ask you guys instead of just looking at Google Molotov: Each consult is a fee: $5 Frostbite: 25 Subway: 30 Specter: *An itemized list of all Texaco's debts to Specter.png* Texaco: You're the worst Frostbite: But you love us 🫶✨️✨️✨️ [left on read for 2 weeks] _____________________ Steeljaw: help Steeljaw: My leg is stuck Steeljaw: *Steeljaw's leg stuck in an upward position caught between some high object like his wall and the top of the fridge.png* Texaco: How.. how did you do that? Steeljaw: You don't want to know Frostbite: Hmmm flexy Molotov: bendy boy Steeljaw: I can't feel my toes Specter: *ambulance.png* Subway: tip over the fridge Steeljaw: can't, leg's too stuck Specter: *speeding ambulance.png* Steeljaw: it's not that bad yet Specter: *faster ambulance.png* Molotov: chainsaw Steeljaw: no Frostbite: chainsaw *molotov Holding a chainsaw. png* Steeljaw: No Molotov: chainsaw Steeljaw: DON'T CUT DOWN MY DOOR! Frostbite: buzz buzz Steeljaw: DO NOT Texaco: What's going on?????? Frostbite: *Steeljaw's foyer.png* Frostbite: We're in *mission impossible.mp3* Texaco: oh my god Steeljaw: FJGKJDGFJUFCSXWSHJYJVTSSC Frostbite: Steel boy saved! *selfie of Frostbite, Molotov, and a Steeljaw red eared, with his face in his hands in front of his tilted fridge.png* Subway: Epic Fridge Takedown! Steeljaw: NOT epic Steeljaw: they are paying for my door

So apparently, Steeljaw is the straight man of this circus

[acceleracers-baby]

Acceleracers HC’s! Road Trip Roles! Teku Edition!

Teku

(Nolo Pasaro, Vert Wheeler, Shirako Takamoto, Kurt Wylde, Karma Eiss)

+Bonus Round

(Brian Kadeem & Banjee Castillo)

Teku

Nolo Pasaro - Nolo is in charge of picking the movies- assuming whatever big ass van they renovated comes with one of those little movie player things. Who am I kidding- these guys probably would have just installed one if it didn’t come stock. Unfortunately, Nolo’s movie choices are always pretty predictable. It’s either going to be one of the now TEN Fast and Furious movies, Pacific Rim, Transformers, or The Losers. That being said, Nolo DOES take bribes. Vert once washed his car for a week just so they could watch Surfs Up.

Vert Wheeler - Speaking of Vert, he’s the snack guy! At first, he gathered up everyone’s requests a few days before they got on the road, but now he practically has everyone’s snack preferences memorized. Let it be known that he takes this job very seriously. He genuinely goes out of his way to ensure everyone’s got at least one or two things to munch on. That’s also why he starts shopping a few days out from the actual trip, so that way if he has to run by different stores, or cut up fruit and divide them up into little ziplock bags he’s got enough time to do it. I also like to imagine at some point Jack comes home early from one of his missions and sees his son just surrounded by a shit ton of food like “are we doomsday prepers now??? What the hell is going on???”

Shirako Takamoto - I feel like I don’t even have to say it, but I’m going to anyway. Shirako is the DJ. Like Vert, he is very serious about this role. He starts curating a playlist as soon as he knows a road trip is going to happen. It doesn’t matter if he’s learning about it months in advance, he starts on it immediately. Despite always having headphones on and seemingly vibing in his own little world most of the time, Shirako is an astounding listener. He never fails to add the perfect mix of everyone’s favorite songs to the playlist. Not only that, but he has it sectioned out by hour. He wants to make sure whatever music they have playing, whether it be background noise for group conversations, or loud sing along sessions, it’s perfect!

Kurt Wylde - Spoilers for Karma, but they’re the two drivers. They work in shifts, switching off every few hours to (1) make sure they’re making the best time and (2) prevent any unnecessary road fatigue. Kurt is also practically the group big brother, so before any trip he’s sending everyone checklists to make sure they don’t forget anything. It’s ridiculous how in-depth they are. Obviously, he trusts them to fulfill their individual road trip roles but he’s on their asses for literally anything else. They’ll be ready to go at like 4am- everyone’s tired asf and he’s going around like “wallets? phones? chargers? toothbrushes???” making sure they didn’t forget any last minute items.

Karma Eiss - Like you read for Kurt, she is one of the designated drivers. On top of that though she is also the group navigator. She has like Waze levels of finding the best routes. With her at the helm, they’re able to make a 12 hour drive in a fraction of the time. Karma also has his uncanny ability to pick the best rest stops. Want to use the restroom but also take a quick breather in a nice scenic area? Good thing Karma was able to find the most beautiful truck stop you’ve ever seen with the cleanest bathroom ever. It’s honestly a little scary.

Bonus Round

Brian Kadeem - With Kadeem, it’s all about the journey, not the destination. When this guy road trips, he ROAD TRIPS. What I mean by that is you will be stopping at just about every cite to stop and smell the roses. It doesn’t matter if it’s some tacky tourist trap or one of the seven wonders of the world, he wants to see it, learn about it, and appreciate it. And if anyone one deserves to be able to relax a little, it’s Kadeem. Let this man enjoy his goofy little side quests. Especially, cause he ends up finding the greatest hole in the wall places to stop at too.

Banjee Castillo - Banjee quite literally never runs out of energy, so you HAVE to give this guy something to do or he will be miserable the entire ride. Thankfully, he is absurdly versatile. Obviously, his preferred role is to be in the drivers seat, but when he is not doing that he is the king of road trip games. 21 questions, I spy, and trivia are child’s play compared to the shit that Banjee brings to the table. Don’t get him wrong, he loves the classics, but they get old pretty fast on long road trips so he’s had to get creative in the past. It’s not uncommon for there to be three games going on at once half way through the drive. Usually two “spot em” games like Punch Buggies & Cows on my Side, and one actual game like Mafia or Song Quizzes.

——— Thanks for Reading ———

[tracichee]

Happy paperback day to A THOUSAND STEPS INTO NIGHT! I am so proud of this spooky/goofy/beautiful little folktale; this road trip through a magical Ghibli-esque world; this critique of American patriarchy in the guise of a rollicking adventure involving spirits, demons, and gods; this zero-romance fantasy about friendship and allies and embracing the parts of yourself that everyone told you were unworthy of love. 👹🌙 To celebrate, I'm finally releasing the playlist I used while writing the book! It's got a wide variety of eerie/lovely/fantastical soundscapes, and most often I'd just hit shuffle and let the music take me away to the world of 1000 Steps! Listen now on Spotify.

Here's the official book description:

A Bank Street Children’s Best Books of the Year

Longlisted for the National Book Award

From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a fantasy perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli. When a girl who’s never longed for adventure is hit with a curse that begins to transform her into a demon, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life, but along the way is forced to confront her true power within.

In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.

But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.

With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.

Find it on Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indigo, or at your favorite local retailer!

[devil-doll13]

I made a new Oc! I hope you all like him. He’s been sitting in my drafts for a while so I wanted to get his profile out. It’s still pretty rough and subject to change though. Anyway I present:

Maxwell “Max” Holt 🐺

Name: Maxwell Holt

Meaning: ‘Mack’s Stream’

Alias(es): Max, The Wolfman

Pronouns: He/Him

Age: 24

D.O.B: December 13th

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

Current Residence: A small but cozy bungalow. He lives in Downings, a small (fictional) town in Montana.

Occupation: Mechanic, maybe future Author?

Appearance Description: He is a young man who has fair skin, sky blue eyes, shaggy blonde hair down to his shoulders, with usually a bit of fuzz on his chin. he looks like a young James Hetfield

Style: Band/Fantasy/Sci-Fi Shirts, Tank Tops, Jeans, Denim/Leather Jackets, High Top Sneakers/Boots, The Occasional Flannel, basically like if he time travelled from the 80s lol

Height: 6,0ft

Eye Colour: Blue

Hair Colour: Blonde

Notable Features: Wears glasses for reading. Quite a bit of body hair on his arms/legs/chest etc. He has a few ear piercings: mostly thin metal rings hanging from his earlobe. Jiggles his leg constantly. The cologne he wears unfortunately can’t really hide the smell of dog…

Personality: Friendly and enthusiastic, (although maybe not as much as he was when he was younger, before everything happened.) Kind and very loyal, manages to be quite intelligent with certain things and a himbo at the same time. Like he is sort of oblivious at times yknwim? Also a nerdy guy, likes to read a lot which surprises a lot of people, even more when they find out he’s a pretty good writer too! He’s passionate about stuff he likes. Sorta goofy too, likes to joke around and have fun! Stands somewhere between introvert and extrovert. He secretly has a darker side to him, though he speaks about it to no one, even those he trusts with knowledge of his lycanthropy. He’d rather ignore its existence altogether. His worst habit is definitely ignoring all his problems until they hopefully ‘go away.’

Likes: Dogs/Wolves, Bears, Motorcycles, Plaid, Denim, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, D&D, The Stars, The Sunset, Vinyls, Crowdsurfing, Rivers, Bacon, 80s/Retro Vibes

Dislikes: Animal Print (he thinks it looks a bit tacky), Broccoli, Silver, Formal Clothes, Littering, Spiders, The Full Moon/His Forced Transformations

Hobbies: Reading, Writing, Playing Videogames, Playing Drums, Tinkering/Fixing Cars & Motorcycles

Rough Backstory

Tw: Death, Angst, sorta toxic friends/betrayal?

Max was born on a chilly December morning in Detroit, Michigan. He was the youngest of 3 brothers, and their working class status meant he tended to receive hand-me-downs a lot and depended a lot on his brother’s interests. His mother was a nurse and his father was a construction worker.

When Max was very young, his father got into a car accident and passed away from his injuries in the hospital. He was too young to remember much about his father at the time, but he did know his mother worked to the bone to provide for him and his brothers.

While he was an excitable kid, he was always the quietest of his brothers. He loved reading, generally fantasy and sci-fi books and always had the idea of writing his own stuff even from a young age. It didn’t take long for him to get involved in fandom in his teenage years, and he wrote for some time in online spaces. He also befriended some kids who he played d&d campaigns with for a good bit.

The brothers inherited their father’s music taste; classic rock and metal was the soundtrack to Max’s childhood and teenage years. He quickly became passionate about music and enjoyed playing drums the most. He ended up joining a metal band as well as a drummer.

He also got pretty good at taking apart cars and bikes, although he would nurture this talent more later on in life.

Max was 19 years old on the night when his life changed forever. He was travelling on a road-trip to go to a metal show with his friends and then girlfriend, having the time of his life. That night it was a full moon. He ended up separated from his friends, but he didn’t mind. He liked to stargaze. But then alone in the wilderness, he was attacked. All he remembered was it was huge and covered in fur, but he managed to escape with only a bite on his shoulder. He was rushed to a local hospital who assumed it was maybe a coyote or wolf, be he swore it was more than just a normal animal. Despite this, he tried his best to continue on as normal, both for himself and to not worry his friends and girlfriend. They insisted it was nothing, so he felt pressured to do so.

However Max started to experience changes he couldn’t explain. No matter how he tried to ignore it, it kept creeping up on him. Particularly the physical changes he was getting, he felt his sense of smell and hearing especially become very heightened.

The first transformation Max had he thought he just had a hangover. His memories were so fuzzy, he wasn’t sure why he was (he assumed he was) getting blackout drunk but it was the only explanation he could think of. The disappearances from last night on the news didn’t connect to him, surely they couldn’t be related anyway? He kept on ignoring the strange feelings he was getting as well.

Eventually this caught up to him and his friends and girlfriend discovered he was a werewolf who had been behind the killings. They struggled to fight him in his lycanthrope transformation and eventually defeated him, leaving him for dead. They believed they killed and buried him, but he was actually still alive. He woke up confused and very disoriented, only remembering some time afterwards what had actually happened to him. But by then it was too late.

For maybe a year and a half he spent in a limbo, terrified of himself and of his transformations. Every full moon he would have to find a place to chain himself up to prevent himself from getting out of control again. His previous skills in fixing up cars and motorcycles became useful and he got a lot better at it, using them to get himself around. He had a hard time holding down a job or really sustaining any sort of stable lifestyle.

This was until he met Jack Silver, an older lycanthrope. The older man sort of took Max under his wing and taught him not to be so afraid anymore. It was the fear that made it worse, instead he had to accept it. Once he learned to do that, Max began to heal again. At some point he started working as a mechanic in Montana and has kept it up for a few years. He’s pretty good at it, and the income allowed him to settle down in a small trailer and support himself.

It’s been difficult for Max to drag himself out of the dark place he’d been in, but he’s been working toward essentially restarting his life. Of course, despite this he is still a lycanthrope at the end of the day. He’s still got blood on his hands. And Max and found himself becoming far more comfortable with that fact. Accepting it. So now and again there are times when certain people still go missing on the news…

Fun Facts

His favourite book (series) is Lord Of The Rings

His favourite film is a difficult choice between Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and Terminator 1

His favourite bands are Metallica, Dio, KISS, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne

His favourite colours are blue, red and yellow

His favourite food is pizza (bacon and pepperoni)

His favourite drink is beer

Due to his Lycanthropy he’s gained a few… quirks even in human form. For one thing the very heightened sense of smell, and to a lesser extent hearing. Next is the extra body hair, which only grows back if he tries to get rid of it. His nails get long/sharp quickly if he doesn’t stay on top of them. He has sharp little canines too.

Max always loved dogs, but now he sort of has an innate connection with them. It’s the same with wolves too, although there aren’t many about in the wild anymore. He’s found himself becoming quite passionate about wildlife conservation now as he’s learned this. It helps that he lives closer to nature now.

He absolutely was/is a part of fandom and writes fanfics of his own. Mostly Star Wars because Luke Skywalker is like a self-insert for him lmao (blonde hair, blue eyes?)

Max now has his own book on the go, although it’s more of a collection of manuscripts so far. He has a lot of other things to occupy his mind, but he definitely still has his times where he’s obsessed with his writing and can be seen at his laptop focusing hard.

He’s lived in the city for most of his life as a child and teenager, but he actually prefers being close to nature now. He likes being able to see the stars better with less light pollution, and it’s just a lot safer for everyone with his werewolf transformations and all that.

Speaking of, he can control his werewolf form and transformations more now, and doesn’t suffer from memory issues anymore. Now he can actually transform and go back to being human at will, but the full moon still forces him to do so regardless. It can still be difficult to control his wild impulses at times though. That’s when he goes into the forest and just lets loose. It is always a pain the next day of course.

Max’s ‘victims’ are typically not good people, and generally men. It’s sort of been hard to admit to himself that there’s a certain hunger he has as a Werewolf that only killing can satisfy, so he chooses those that would probably be better off dead in his eyes.

He still hasn’t dared to contact his family or friends from his ‘past life’ so it’s an uncomfortable subject.

Max can play a bit of guitar too but he’s better at the drums by far.

His current vehicle is a motorcycle he picked up and fixed himself. He’s pretty proud of it! It’s definitely his baby lmao.

I literally heard Bark At The Moon and based his whole character concept off of that LMAO

He deserves the best this is a FACT

(Taglist: @rottent33th, @slaasherslut, @the-pinstriped-hood)

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Goosebumps (TV) - Game night with my friends turned into watching goofy childrens media once we got tired. In this case we watched the 2 part werewolf episodes from the 90s goosebumps show, which sure was nostalgic. I would not call them good, but they sure were fun. The acting was over the top, the effects were lovingly corny as was the music, the fashion was so early 90s that it gave us ptsd, the story line had a child transform into a fully adult hilarious werewolf costume and 'scientists' with unexplained green boiling liquid. Also it was set in a Florida swamp, what more could you want. 10/10 would recommend for game night again.

- Blue Eye Samurai (TV) - I talked about this before back when I first watched it, and recently finished a rewatch with my friends. Akemi's is overall my favorite storyline and overall I adore the character designs and presentation. I do have my issues with it, standard opening, odd sound choices, kind of meh humor mixing oddly with the tone, but overall I still think it's a really good first season with some really interesting developments, great fight choreography, and some killer dialogue. Season 2 will be interesting, it could go a lot of different directions.

- Barbie Epic Road Trip (TV) - Also a game night watch, we clearly were not the target audience for this choose your own Barbie adventure mini movie, but it was fun nonetheless. The idea of making your own choices was pretty fun, though my friends and I kept trying to go the career/friendship route rather than the romance route and it really felt like the show didn't want us to do that which is kind of a messed up message for kids if it was intentional. Since we were just messing around we found it funny how pathetic Ken was whenever we cockblocked his date attempts with Barbie, but from a story perspective man Ken, chill out a little, Barbie doesn't hate you just because she won't drop her plans with her friends to do whatever impromptu date you decided to spring on her. Maybe the Barbie Movie had a more accurate Ken than I thought.

- Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) -I think I may have read more fan-fiction for this series than any other fandom I've been in, at least within such a short time frame. I honestly could not tell you why, as my issues with the series proper are still numerous, but the hyperfixation has made me an unwilling hostage forced to endlessly look through fan edits, art, and stories in all my free time. Geto Suguru is my blorbo now. Free me.

- Steins;Gate (Anime) - This one has been an odd experience. Given it's consistently been in the Top 3 All Time best anime listed on MAL, is about one of my favorite sci-fi tropes of time loops, and has frequently been sighted as a favorite anime by the media analysis community, I've had Steins;Gate on my to watch list for quite a bit with some high expectations. My sister and I finally decided to start watching it and uh. wow. those first few episodes sure were something. Not something good but. Something alright. The awful yellow overly, annoying characters, pointless otaku/conspiracy babble, and stock standard anime women archetypes were honestly painful to sit through, though pure curiosity did win in the end. While not offensively bad it was definitely boring enough for my sister to prod her bf on when it was supposed to get good, to which he replied episode 12, which is an insane thing to say about a 24 episode series. We are past that hurdle now and I will say it definitely is more interesting once the meat on the sci fi plot kicks in, as the memory/message time traveler combined with the changing world lines is a pretty neat plot setup, but given the still mostly bland characters and presentation I wouldn't say it even makes it out of the decent tier, let alone int 'greatest of all time'. I suppose I'll wait to see if the ending blows me away but for now the difference between the hype of a show and the actual quality is one of the biggest I've seen.

- Malevolent (Podcast) - Well this has just been a grand time so far. I'm really liking the continuing trainwreck that is Arthur's life, they really do keep putting this guy into Resident Evil situations, give the man a break. His dynamic with John is obviously the best part of the show, it's great to see how it shifts between enemies to alarmingly co-dependent to sweet and back again, truly what I wanted out of the original Venom movie. It's also pretty funny how more and more John, the eldritch entity, is the more reasonable one who has to continually remind his human partner to maybe chill out and show a little empathy maybe. Season 3 seems to be a favorite of a lot of people so I'm pretty hyped going into it. For now I'll say that Kayne is fun, John is adorable, and honestly I think it's fine that Arthur ate that guy actually, he's earned going a little feral.

- Tiger Tiger (Webcomic) -I don't have anything new to say about this lovely webcomic with it's endlessly charming characters, amazing art, and intriguing setting, but the updates have been fun recently.

- House (TV) - Still in season one, the case writing is still solid, the misogyny makes me wish Cuddy would drop kick House thrice an episode at least.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - 5.0 update coming soon, I really need to get a move on on catching up.

Listening To: Good Luck Babe, Red Wine Supernova, My Kink is Karma, Casual, and HOT TO GO! by Chappell Roan, Harpy Hare by Yaelokre, The Mind Electric by Miracle Musical, Dial Drunk by Noah Kahan, Save a Horse, Ride a Cowgirl by Chloe Breez and Annapantsu, Too Sweet, Lunch, Bitter, and Stick Season covers by Reinaeiry, Tounges and Teeth and Metaphor by The Crane Wives, Espresso and Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter, Like a Prayer by Madonna.

[arguablysomaya]

i know you gave recs literally just yesterday but if you have any more batfam fic recs i’d certainly love to see ‘em (you’ve got good taste, what can i say)

aww thank you!! just for that yall get some more underrated batfam fics <3

by @ema--vee

No, no, no. Dick doesn’t want him to see this. Not Damian. Anyone but Damian.

Whumptober Day 3: manhandled, forced to their knees, held at gunpoint

hurt comfort fic thats deeply underrated but that made my heart squeeze

by @wearealltalesintheend

"An entire week away from Bat-related stuff, it's all Jason wants.

Just one week. That’s not asking too much.

It’s pretty reasonable, if you ask him.

And yet.

And yet."

or, alternatively, one does not simply walk into Spain, peer pressure is a real danger, and catching a plane to Yemen might have been preferable to this.

WHAT?? you're telling me not everyone has read this fic???? HIGHLY reccommend this fic as well as through different colored glasses, in the same series

by @keeptogethernow

Jason's not sure which is more annoying--working with his "brothers" or the fact that they can't seem to keep from blowing things up.

rough night, huh

by @crowlows

Tim struggles with Bruce's decision to send him back to high school. Really, they were all lucky that he only had the one suspension.

in which tim drake is a teenager and that really, really shows

by @NightOwl1600

Normal AU. Bruce is still a billionaire and single, but he also has six kids he’s taking care of: Dick-16, Jason-13, Cassandra-12, Tim-10, Duke-8, and Damian-6. While taking Alfred to the doctor, Bruce leaves Dick in charge of his siblings for a few hours, but when a group of home invaders seize the opportunity, its up to Dick to keep his siblings safe—whatever it takes.

in which my bias for kid fics shines through <3

by @prettylittlebrownskingyal

“When do you want to do it?”

“I was kidding,” she says, shaking her head, goofy smirk fading fast. “We’d kill each other.”

“Maybe,” Dick hums. “But maybe it would be good for us. We deserve to get out of the city for once.”

road trip fic pog? and nobody even dies

[catmiint]

Talk is Cheap ch 1 & 2 of ???

Prompt from @danphanwritingprompts [post] with additional inspiration from the tags of @coffeecakecafe [post].

currently only planning on posting further chapters on ao3 because I don't show up in tags here. if there's enough interest to read on tumblr specifically, I can put together a mentions list for new chapters posted on tumblr. (also I updated my tumblr theme to be better for reading fics)

Summary: When Vlad Masters claims to all of Amity Park that Danny Phantom is his late son, Danny plays the game and confirms it as the truth–adding the small detail that his father Vlad killed him. The two halfas tangle themselves in their own web of lies, and the consequences are more far-reaching than Danny could have ever expected.

Gen, Read [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] on ao3

Chapter 1

Danny Fenton was on top of the world in the months following restabilizing his clone Dani. His powers had been steadily growing to a point where he didn’t break a sweat during fights with his standard rotation of ghostly enemies. Some had even stopped attacking Amity Park as frequently due to a begrudging respect that began to form between him and the ghosts. The most he had to deal with was patrolling for a few hours at night to round up some of the more mindless ghosts that drifted through. Most of the time it was for their own safety to protect them from the Guys and White and his parents rather than because the ghosts had done anything wrong.

With all that extra time on his hands not spent fighting ghosts, he was able to focus on getting his grades up at school. He still had to deal with Dash from time to time, but he found that the bullying really didn’t bother him anymore. The verbal abuse the jock tried to throw at him didn’t land the same way it used to, and any physical blows healed up by the end of next period.

Danny was even able to go on a road trip with Sam and Tucker for spring break without spending the whole time stressing about Amity Park’s wellbeing. There was no warning that everything would come crashing down around him after his return to Amity.

It was early in the afternoon on Sunday when Sam dropped him off at Fenton Works. There was no response when he entered and called out that he was home to an empty living room, but Danny shrugged and made his way upstairs to throw his duffel bag in his room. He had an itching to go flying and see if there were any ghosts to deal with after his weeklong absence. Jazz also didn’t seem to be home judging by her empty room, but she usually spent her weekend afternoons tutoring kids.

Danny placed his duffel bag on his bed and transformed into Phantom with a flash of light. He made sure he had his phone and a Fenton thermos, then intangibly flew through the window and into the warm spring outside. A quick flight around Amity Park only turned up a few blob ghosts that he sucked up with the thermos to return to the zone before any ghost hunters nabbed them to experiment on. Satisfied that things had been quiet while he was gone, he leisurely floated above the city streets to watch people and enjoy the weather. When citizens noticed him and excitedly pointed or waved, Danny would wave back with a smile or give them a goofy salute.

What caught Danny’s attention was a familiar figure waving him down from where she had pulled her car over to the side of the street. It was Harriet Chin–one of his parent’s old classmates and the only Amity reporter that he bothered talking to. She was the only one of the bunch that was respectful of both his time and his non-living status. Curious, he flew over to her. Harriet was getting out of her car to greet him, pulling some sort of voice recorder from nowhere.

“Hey Harriet, did you need something?” Danny asked.

She nodded eagerly. “I can’t believe my good luck that I finally spotted you. I wanted to follow up on the mayor’s press release and get your statement.”

“Vlad had a press release?”

“Were you not around? I suppose we take for granted that you always seem to be on hand at a moment’s notice.”

“No, I was in my lair–ya know, in the Ghost Zone.”

“Mayor Masters announced–wait, can I record this?” She paused and, after Danny nodded, turned on the recorder she had and continued, “Mayor Masters announced that he has uncovered that you are the ghost of his late son and publicly pleaded that Amity Park help bring you home to him.”

Danny froze.

Vlad said that he was Phantom’s father?

The idea was ridiculous, but terribly clever and in line with one of the twisted games Vlad would play. The older halfa was trying to back Danny into a corner where the public good-will he had finally garnered would become a weapon against him. Vlad played the part of a mourning father who just wanted his son back, revealing to Amity Park that Phantom was not just their savior but a child. The love that Amity had for Phantom would oblige them to ‘help’ the child hero reunite with his so-called father. That kind of play from Vlad in their constant game of chess turned the entire board into a minefield for Danny. He just had to make the situation as fraught with danger for Vlad.

Danny had only seconds to formulate a plan in his head. It was impulsive and dangerous, but would land Vlad in hot water he’d struggle to find his way out of without admitting to the public he was a liar and charlatan.

Harriet Chin was about to break the silence when he finally spoke up. “Yes, Vlad Masters is my father–who do you think killed me?

“You’re saying that Mayor Masters–your father–is responsible for your death?” She clarified, eyes wide with shock.

He mournfully nodded and continued speaking in a somber tone, “I thought in the afterlife I’d finally be safe from his lies and abuse, but not even death is a refuge for me anymore.” He pretended to be examining his gloves with great interest before turning his gaze back to Harriet with a wide, owlish expression. “Surely they can’t be thinking of handing me over to that monster?”

Harriet’s grip on the recorder tightened, her expression drawn. “Can we schedule a more formal interview–perhaps one on air? I know you’ve said the idea of being on camera makes you nervous, but the people of Amity Park deserve to know the kind of man their mayor is.”

He fought the urge to smirk in victory. “I think that would be the right thing to do. He must have hoped that death would wipe my memory clean of his sins. My father should be brought to justice.”

Harriet told him that they’d get him on primetime news tomorrow night and, after confirming he knew where the news station was, thanked him for his time. Danny watched her get back in her car and take off, making sure her car turned the corner before he let his expression morph into one of pure, mischievous glee. This was going to land Vlad in so much trouble. The man’s life would crumble around him, all while Danny got to watch on the sidelines. Plus, there was the added bonus that with Phantom having an established backstory, people would be less likely to associate Phantom with Danny Fenton.

Danny launched himself back into the sky to float high above the streets of Amity Park. Lying on his back as if floating over a pool of water, he pulled his phone out and opened up the group chat with Sam and Tucker.

Danny: u will NOT believe what just happened!!!

Tucker: shit did you hear about Vlad saying he’s your dad? I was just about to call you

Sam: Vlad said what?

Danny: vl*d (derogatory) told the news he was phantoms dad so i told harriet that he killed me its the PERFECT revenge

Sam Manson is calling.

He hesitated before answering the phone call, making sure to hold it a few inches away from his ear in case Sam was mad and about to yell at him for being stupid.

“Are you nuts?!” Sam shouted.

Danny cringed at the volume but pulled the phone closer to his face to respond. “C’mon, I think it’s a great idea.”

“This is going to bite us in the ass. It’s going to bite YOU in the ass!”

“No, listen, it’s great! Vlad either has to admit he’s a filthy liar or get thrown in jail for murder,” he explained.

There was a moment of silence before Sam spoke again. Her voice lowered, concern creeping in, “I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into Danny. I’m getting the feeling that we’re in a world of trouble.”

- - - - -

Chapter 2

Danny really should have expected that the next day at school would be hectic. The entire student body was buzzing with gossip and speculation. It seemed everyone had heard about Phantom’s supposed heritage and the followup Harriet Chin released of Phantom’s supposed death. Even though the talk wasn’t about Danny Fenton, he still froze after stepping foot into the school hallways. His sensitive hearing could pick up all of the frantic conversations between his peers, but they blurred together in a jumbled of words.

“The mayor is Phantom’s dad–”

“–years of abuse, I heard–”

“–never liked Masters–”

“–only died 2 years ago, he’s our age–”

“–called him a monster–”

“–wonder how Phantom died–”

The fragments of conversations flooded his head as Danny stood, petrified. Everyone was talking about him and this web of lies Vlad and he had made. Most students walked around where Danny was at a standstill, muttering angrily at him and telling him to get out of the way. There was one student, lost in thought, that didn’t notice him and crashed into his back with a startled yelp. That was enough to pull him from his minor panic.

Glancing back, he saw Valerie cursing and collecting the textbooks she had dropped. Danny knelt down next to her to help her collect them. She glanced at him, a bit of surprise crossing her face, before she quietly thanked him. It seemed like she hadn’t gotten much sleep if the weary expression and bags under her eyes were anything to go by.

“You know Masters right?” She murmured under her breath, as if not wanting to be overheard. Her voice almost blended into the unpleasant buzz of gossip Danny was trying to tune out.

“Yeah, he’s a family friend,” he cautiously answered, watching her face for a reaction. Curiosity had him answering truthfully in hopes of wiggling out any indication as to Valerie’s thoughts on ghosts and ghost hunting after the experience with Dani months ago.

“Can we talk?” Valerie asked, then continued, “During lunch. Meet me in the library.”

Danny agreed and handed her the last textbook that had been dropped. They both stood up from their kneeling position and shuffled awkwardly. Valerie and Fenton were by no means enemies, but things had remained strained after she dumped him. He didn’t hold it against her, but he still had the emotional maturity of a teenage boy that died because a cute girl goaded him into something dumb. After a few tense moments of silence, Valerie nodded at him and pushed past to walk down the hallway.

He was grateful for the interruption that Valerie had provided. It was enough to break the tension of entering into the war zone of Casper High, so he made his way to his locker to drop off his backpack and gather what he needed for first period. Sam and Tucker had their first period together, plus their lockers were on another floor, and so the trio didn’t meet up during the school day until they had third period English with Lancer together. He wasn’t sure if he’d make it to third period without someone to commiserate.

Get it together, Fenton, he scolded himself. He’d fought not only the damn Ghost King before but also his evil self from the future–he could handle some gossip.

- - - - -

When Danny was looking forward to his third period with Sam and Tucker, he had forgotten to consider that most of the A-Listers were in that class as well. They also seemed like they had been desperately waiting for their third period so they could talk to each other. When he walked in, none of them paid him any mind unlike how they’d usually glare or sneer. Gathered around Paulina’s desk, they were deep in whispered conversation.

Danny sidestepped the cluster of A-Listers to slide into his seat in between Tucker and Sam.

Tucker immediately leaned forward towards him. “Things are crazy, dude. Everyone is talking about Phantom and his ‘death’.”

“Some of the speculation is really getting out of hand, Danny,” Sam added, that same concern and worry edging into her voice.

“I-I have it handled. Phantom has an interview on the news tonight,” he muttered.

“Phantom what?” Came Paulina’s shrill, surprised voice.

There had been a lull in the A-Lister’s conversation the moment before Danny spoke, and apparently that had been enough for Paulina to overhear his comment.

Tucker and Sam shared a look with him that was somewhere between annoyance and horror.

Danny cleared his throat to speak. “Er, nothing, Paulina. Go back to whatever it is you all were talking about.”

“No, it sounds like you were saying Phantom has an interview tonight. How do you know that?”

There was no way he could see out of this unless he canceled the interview with Harriet and played it off as Fenton spreading baseless rumors. He glanced to Sam, who was trying to communicate something with him through her expression alone. It was undecipherable though–a mix of too many things at once to convey a clear message. Danny looked back to Paulina and the A-Listers, who were all watching him impatiently.

“Because he told me?” It came out more like a question than an answer.

“There’s no way Phantom would talk to a loser like you,” Dash sneered.

Kwan spoke up, “No, wait, Fenton has some weird family thing with Masters. Remember the election?”

“You know Phantom’s murderer!” Paulina accused.

Star, on the other hand, failed to stifle an exaggerated gasp as she seemingly put pieces together. “You knew Phantom when he was alive!”

Now the entire class’s attention was on him. Danny prayed to whatever gods there might be for Lancer to walk through the door and start the lesson already to free him from this conversation. His mouth was dry and his tongue like lead in his mouth. He knew that anything he would say would just be another lie to dig him deeper.

Danny wasn’t sure what whim possessed him in the moment as he dug his heels in and lied like his life depended on it. “Yeah, I did. Vlad–Mayor Masters–he’s my godfather, so Phantom and I were treated like cousins.”

“Danny!” Sam hissed under her breath.

“That’s so cool, how come you never said anything?” Kwan asked.

To Danny’s credit, he was able to keep up with the lie without much hesitation beyond a bit of stuttering that could be passed off as nerves. “Phantom, uh, didn’t want Vlad to find out he was a ghost, and I could tie Phantom back to the identity he had when alive.”

Dash looked like he bit into something sour. “Are you–are you friends?”

Danny glanced back at Tucker and Sam. Sam was shaking her head and Tucker was nodding his.

“How do you think he gets Fenton tech?”

That “revelation” caused the A-Listers and the rest of their classmates to break out into scandalized whispering. The overlapping voices were starting to give him a headache. The universe took mercy on Danny, however, as Lancer picked that moment to walk into the classroom. He placed his messenger bag down on the desk at the front of the room and looked sharply at the chattering students.

“Hello, class. I know there’s been some exciting news going around, but we are here to learn. Now, turn your books to page 147.”

The talking amongst students died down as, grumbling, they turned their attention towards A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Danny let his head fall to hit his desk and groaned. He was starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, he was going a little too far.

[klunkcat]

Stepping over the line

💫steddie

💫 rated M

💫 meet-cute, flirting, getting together

💫 14827 words

Road trip story based on my goofy au idea here

Read here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43091853#work_endnotes

[souperbulous]

Heyyo!! I would like an Encanto Matchup!I'm Castiel, A He/They fella, and a trans bisexual! I'm a minor and I love playing chess, theories, opera, theatre, music, and art! I am very ambitious and dedicated to learning things, idealistic and clever. Though I can be a bit immature, short-tempered and I have a fear of being alone and beingworthless or useless. I also don't really know where I belong so yeah..I'm 5'0 and I have short, black hair and I'm a mixed race!

WHO'S THAT POKEMON?!

IT’S CAMILO MADRIGAL! ✨👑

A/N: Sorry it's a bit short, this is my first time doing a matchup. Hope you like it!

WHAT CAMILO LIKES ABOUT YOU:

Camilo would seriously appreciate your love for theatre and opera. It would honestly give him a huge ego boost knowing you were interested in something he did, even if your interest in theatre wasn’t related to him whatsoever.

He loves that you’re shorter than him. He’ll rest his elbow on your head while he talks and pretends he doesn’t know he’s doing anything wrong. He loves the face you make when you’re annoyed.

He likes how curious and ambitious you are! He’ll often ask you to tell him all about the newest subject you’ve decided to study up on… even if he isn’t taking in a word you say. He just loves the sound of your voice.

Last but not least, he likes that you’re clever. Camilo may or may not use your brains to his advantage to help him pull a prank on Dolores.

HOW YOU MET

“(Y/N)! If we’re going to get moved in by the end of the night you’ll need to hurry up!”

You sighed, picking up a large box. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

You began walking towards your new home with the heavy box, trying to see past it to no avail. While you were blindly wobbling towards the direction you assumed the house was in, you didn’t even notice the rock in the middle of the road. You tripped over it, yelping as you nearly fell right on your face.

Before you hit the ground, though, someone grabbed you by the back of your shirt, holding you up. You looked up surprisedly, seeing an unfamiliar older man standing over you.

“Hey there,” he greeted with a smirk. He pulled you to your feet, spinning you around and now transforming into a completely different person. This time, it was a young boy, around your age, with curly, brown hair and green eyes. Wait, how had he just done that?

Oh, now you remembered! Your father had told you about this before you moved here. He must have been one of the- what were they called? - Magicals? Mardigras? You couldn’t quite remember what they were called, but you knew they were known for their magical abilities.

The boy began circling you, examining you, breaking you out of your thoughts. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. You new or something?”

You nodded, showing him the box you held in your hand.

“Yep. Just got here, actually- I’m unpacking right now,” you explained.

He shook your hand, smiling widely. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Camilo Madrigal.”

“(Y/N) (L/N).”

ROMANTIC HEADCANONS

When you aren’t looking, he’s always staring at you. He’ll hold his head in his hands and look at you with a goofy smile on his face. If any of his family members try to point it out, though, he’ll deny it.

When you are feeling worthless or useless, he’ll do whatever it takes to cheer you up. He cares about you so much, it pains him to see you hurting. He’ll hold you so close to him you two might as well be in the same body, and he’ll quietly reassure you that you are enough and that you are anything but worthless.

Camilo loves cuddling. He likes laying beside you in his bed with his record player playing in the background ( he may or may not have gotten it just to impress you ), and he’s especially happy when you play with his hair.

Anytime you need a muse for your art and you aren’t quite sure how to draw a person in a certain position, he’ll shapeshift and stand in the position for you.

He had never been interested in learning chess before he met you. Now, he’s constantly playing against everyone he comes across to get better so that someday he’ll beat you.

Camilo is usually the more flirty one out of the two of you, so anytime you flirt back, he’ll shapeshift uncontrollably. You give him so many butterflies it’s absolutely insane.

He’s always stealing flowers from Isabela’s room to give to you.

If anything ever happened to you he’d go into full panic mode and he wouldn’t leave your side, not even to sleep.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 206

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 08 - “Syrup and the Mysterious Letter" Date watched: 7 April 2021 Original air date: 23 March 2008 Screenshots Transformation Gallery Project info and master list of posts

this is not important

How do you follow up that epic trip to the Palmier Kingdom? With some shenanigans and a mystery. Let's take a look.

The Plot

Syrup has a nightmare that he's trapped in a dark room, with only one doorway to the outside that's closing and a hand is keeping him from getting out. He screams that he doesn't want to be alone. He screams aloud in his sleep as well, and then the bell of the clock tower strikes six o'clock and then Syrup and Mailpo both dart awake. A startled Mailpo then spouts out a letter for the Precures. Meanwhile, Scorp surveys the city from on high and notes that the clock tower is a part of the collection. He decides to capture it to keep some clout within Eternal after his failures in retrieving the Rose Pact.

Later that day, at school, the girls are hanging out at Otaka's restaurant. Nozomi, Urara, and even Rin are wolfing down hotcakes (etymology note: depending on the region, hotcakes may be different from pancakes) when Syrup walks up to deliver the letter. They open it and discover, rather than a written note, it contains a piece of a flier, a flower shoot, and a piece of hotcake.

They are all perplexed by the contents. Rin identifies the shoot as coming from a tokeiso (lit. clock grass, known as a blue passion flower in English), and Nozomi takes this to mean that someone wants them to go to Rin's flower shop and eat hotcakes. Instead, they all gather at Natts House after school and continue to pore over their clues. Komachi notices the items each have a V-shaped imprint on them and thinks it might be a code, but none of the v-words they come up with make sense. Suddenly Nozomi, in her own Nozomi way, identifies that the piece of paper smells like crepes and she leads them to the new crepe shop that just opened up, called Clock Tower Crepes. They grab a flier and wouldn't you know, it matches their piece. At this point Karen notices a theme, between the clock tower restaurant and clock grass flower, so they suspect the mysterious messenger is telling them about the clock tower. A bird flies by as Syrup comments that he hasn't seen anyone here, and then Scorp shows up and informs the sextet that the clock tower's bell is in the collection, so he's taking the whole thing for Eternal and he turns a nearby fire hydrant into a giant Hoshiina.

and I do mean giant

The girls transform but this time, the Hoshiina isn't really interested in them. It's mostly focused on tackling the clock tower and it only swats the Precures away as they try to attack it. At the same time, a bird attacks Scorp, who similarly flicks it away, and the girls notice a bird's nest high in the tower, threatened by falling rubble and just outright falling. Mint surmises that the bird sent the letter as a request to protect their nest. Scorp mocks the girls for protecting the tower for some birds and they retort that his idea of what's valuable doesn't matter. Then Scorp turns his attention to Syrup, telling him to come back and work for Eternal again, marking the first time this is mentioned. However, Dream butts in and says that he can come to the Cure Rose Garden with the Precures and be much happier than going with Scorp, and he obviously sides with them. After rescuing the bird nest, she hands it to Syrup and then performs Shooting Star on the Hoshiina, destroying it.

Afterwards, in a beautifully lit twilight scene, the girls place a protective cage around the nest, and comment on how unexpected it was that the bird sent the letter. Komachi, Karen, Rin, and Urara are still unsure how the piece of hotcake fit in, though, and Nozomi thinks for a minute before concluding that "hotcake" has "tokei" (clock) in it, the same as the other two clues. Rin is spectacularly unamused.

As the girls admire their work and note how happy the birds seem, Syrup decides to open up to them a little bit. While leaning over the railing, looking out into the sunset, he admits that he sometimes has nightmares about being alone in the darkness, trapped and unable to escape. Nozomi tells him to send her a letter whenever that happens and no matter where, when, or what, she'll come into his dream to rescue him. Despite his protests she insists she'll respond earnestly to his feelings. At that moment, Mailpo unleashes a torrent of letters from Milk, some of which come open to reveal their contents, and the girls notice a picture of Milk watering a glowing blue sprout. They decide to all deliver the letters to Coco and Nuts together and the episode closes on a still frame of everyone rushing along with arms full of letters.

The Analysis

Stuff like this is why I love Nozomi as a character. She's goofy and isn't quite on the same page as the other girls, but she's trying her hardest to solve the mystery, and her unique experiences and knowledge help them find the answer. She wants to help the birds and protect the clock tower from Eternal, but she also doesn't miss a beat emotionally supporting Syrup when he opens up about his troubles. It's not her strongest showing, it's not quite the Nozomi we get during major plot episodes, but she's earnest and heartfelt and I like that. And that's a good description of this episode overall: it's not as strong as a major plot episode but it's earnest and heartfelt. It is on the upper end of middle-of-the-road, and that's fine. The only thread of character development here is Syrup opening up to the Nozomi a bit, which is a plot largely ignored until after the fight. The rest is mostly filler and doesn't contribute to the ongoing plots and mysteries surrounding Syrup's past, his connection to Eternal, the hunt for the Four Monarchs, Coco and Nuts developing as kings, the Blue Rose, or the Cure Rose Garden.

Looking at the here and now though, this episode is satisfying, well-paced, and has lots of gags. Nozomi repeatedly acts the fool, causing the other girls to react a lot.

She's very gung-ho about finding the sender and addressing their problem, and the other girls have to struggle to keep up with her. Coco and Nuts talk to Syrup about this as well, admitting that Nozomi is the type to act first and think later, but that aspect of her has saved them in the past and they're indebted to her enthusiasm. I talk about Nozomi being central to this and in hindsight she is, but when watching the episode it feels more balanced. I guess it's the illusion of words vs actions. Everyone talks a lot but Nozomi is the one that figures out two of the three clues, and the one who takes the lead in defending the birds once they recognize them. She's the one that suggests Syrup should stay at Natts House and the one that encourages Syrup at the end. Rin contributes information about the flower, Komachi and Karen speculate about the imprinted symbol, and Urara...... doesn't really have anything meaningful to add now that I think about it, other than some exasperated faces (see above).

As I said though, there's some good gags along the way. My favorite is them mistaking the impression left by the bird's beak as a "V" and trying to figure out words that start with "V" that it might represent.

(if you’re not familiar, b and v are phonetically similar to begin with and basically blend together in Japanese, hence this mistake)

There was also a funny gag at the start with Rin acting so shocked that Nozomi and Urara were eating hotcakes after lunch..... only for the camera to show her eating them as well. Komachi and Karen’s reactions were priceless. And the first half of the episode has much of this jollity, it’s pretty upbeat. The second half is more serious, as they deal with the threat against the clock tower and the birds’ nest, but it doesn’t get weighty until the end.

Syrup is still kind of an enigma up to this point. All we really know is that he's a delivery boy who wants to visit the Cure Rose Garden, and he's got a strained relationship with most of the other fairies. He mostly keeps to himself, considering Mailpo as his only friend, and just floats between spaces delivering letters and putting up kind of a stand-offish front to keep people away. However, his nightmare sheds a lot of insight on his situation. This time we learn that he's haunted by dreams of being trapped alone in the darkness. He's younger in his dreams, which is a visualization of vulnerability. The force restraining him is a claw, and based on what we learn later about his time working for Eternal, this dream could be a representation of that period, compounded with his ongoing sense of loneliness and his lack of belonging. Even the fact that he sleeps in the clock tower is because he doesn't have a proper home and he doesn't trust other people enough to provide him one. However, he's been getting to know the girls over the last several episodes, seeing what drives them and what kind of people they are, and he's beginning to feel like he can trust them, so he opens up about some of his fears to Nozomi at the end. She understands that he's afraid and alone, and promises she'll rescue him in his dreams if he asks her to, because she cares. The practicality of this doesn't matter, Syrup is her friend and she'll protect him, that's all there is to it in her mind.

Minor note, the significance of two out of three of the clues actually gets lost in translation. The common thread is that they all have “tokei” in the name, which means “clock”. The clock tower is pretty self-explanatory. The plant called “tokeiso” in Japanese is called a blue luster in English, losing the descriptivism of its Japanese name that describes its clock hand-shaped sprouts (Google it, it’s very pretty). Lastly, although the Japanese word for the pastry they’re eating is “hottoke-ki”, derived from hotcakes, and there is technically a difference between pancakes and hotcakes (and flatcakes and flapjacks) English speakers are most familiar with the term “pancakes” and that’s what the subtitles translate it as.

Lastly I want to remark on the art. This is a good art episode... mostly. Scenes of the Hoshiina notwithstanding, because for some reason they really dropped the ball on that. The art isn’t amazing or anything, but they play with proportions for comedy in a way that makes it fun, cute, and endearing.

look at this goof

I’ve commented before on reused music I think, well in this episode I picked up on a villain cue from way back in FWPC. It’s by no means a bad thing, but I primarily associate reused music with the period from Fresh through Smile, and now I’ve noticed some in the Star Twinkle-Tropical-Rouge period. It’s nice to demonstrate to myself that this has been happening all along and isn’t a phenomenon exclusive to on part of the series.

Full disclosure: when I first watched GoGo back in 2013 or 2014, I skipped this episode (and the next one) by accident, due to a naming bug.

disclaimer: those are not the files I’m using now, these are. Only the best.

Due to the way people came and went from this project, the filenames changed a lot, so by a quirk episodes 8-9 happened to be alphabetized between episode 40 and 41. I had my player set to auto-play the next episode and I was working on a project at the time and not giving the binge my full attention, so after episode 7, the next file in the folder was 10. I bring this up to theorize that skipping these two episodes initially may have influenced my opinion on their relevance. I jumped straight from the Palmier Kingdom to Milky Rose's introduction and didn't wind up watching the episodes that bridged this gap until well after the fact. I may never know what impact this had on my overall response, and maybe I’m overthinking it, but as I view these two episodes as kind of filler or padding to get to Milky Rose, it’s a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I only dismiss them because I experienced it without them first.

I know this review is all over the place, so to summarize my thoughts, it’s a solid episode with some genuine moments, but overall it feels like padding or filler, since I know what’s coming in a few episodes. That isn’t a bad thing but it doesn’t do much for the characters or their relationships with each other, except for Syrup as he’s new around here. Coco and Nuts, surprisingly, are barely in this episode. It is not bad, but it’s not one of the better episodes the show has to offer. And that’s fine.

Next time on Precure Daily, there’s another mystery to solve, and this time Komachi goes full detective to find the cake caper. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 2 Kettei!

[spelviin]

nick close, home alone while glenn is out/on tour, watching a goofy movie by himself: man i wish i could go on a transformational road trip with my father that will bring us closer together as a family 

*monkey’s paw curls* 

[welcometomybraincomics]

Sam, bringing Whiplash home

Frostbite: *picture of Whiplash in alt mode on the side of the highway* Stealth mission? Steeljaw: What? Subway: holy shit are you gonna steal it? Texico: Don't steal it! Frostbite: ✨️it's not stealing if it's abandoned✨️ Texico: Don't do it! Molotov: do it Frostbite: hm, it's pretty far... *image of the street it's on and how far down it goes* Texico: FROSTBITE NO! Frostbite: Frostbite yes! *mission impossible.mp3* Molotov: Frostbite Yes!!! Steeljaw: what if you get arrested? Molotov: only if they can catch them Steeljaw: Frosty can't drive, how could they escape??? Specter: *Frostbite outpacing a car on a bike.png* Frostbite: no plates, no identifiers 😘 Frostbite: am speed Subway: fuck da police! do it! Frostbite: *mission impossible baseboosted.mp3* [Several hours later] Frostbite: *image of whiplash inside his garage* Stealth mission 🙃 ----- Steeljaw: wait, you don't have a car Steeljaw: how the fuck did you get it home Frostbite:... Texico: OH MY GOD DID YOU STEAL A TOW TRUCK!? Frostbite: 🙃 Texico: FROSTBITE!!!! Frostbite: Tex 🙃 Subway: holy shit did you really??? Molotov: wouldn't be surprised Molotov: the real question is whether or not it's been trashed yet Subway: lol tru Frostbite: I'm not that bad 🥺 Molotov: Frosty Molotov: You fell into a sinkhole yesterday Frostbite: It could happen to anybody! Subway: You nearly got trapped under a landslide two weeks before that Frostbite: a freak accident! Texico: 🤮 spider rain Frostbite: is a completely normal phenomenon that- (information on spider rain) Specter: *erupting volcano with Sam's town in the foreground.png* this wasn't there last week Molotov: face it, your cursed Frostbite: I'm not!!!😭 Steeljaw: you totally are Steeljaw: but wait, there's no way Frosty stole a tow bc they can't fucking drive Steeljaw: so how Frostbite: ✨️magic✨️ Specter: *Frostbite pushing Whiplash down the road.png* Frostbite: Don't out me like that!!!! <:'( Frostbite: now how will I make my career as the world's greatest magician!? Texico: how do you keep getting all these pictures??? You don't even live around frostbite???? Specter: Specter: ✨️magic✨️

[letterboxd]

Fantasia 2020.

We emerge from the depths of Fantasia Festival 2020—the largest genre fest in North America—with the ten best things we saw this year.

Fantasia Festival aced this weird shitstorm of a year with one of the best online film festival experiences of 2020 so far. Sure, we miss that unique, zombie-like, end-of-fest haze brought on by midnight madness and inappropriate mealtimes, but quarantine breeds an adjacent kind of mental fog that made Fantasia’s online offering a weirdly natural place to be this year.

Tuning into Montreal from London and Auckland, our Fantasia team (Kambole Campbell, Aaron Yap and Gemma Gracewood) watched as widely as possible, and we recommend most of what we saw—but these are the ten films that stuck out.

Chasing Dream Directed by Johnnie To, written by Wai Ka-Fai, Ryder Chan and Mak Tin-Shu

Hong Kong master of genre Johnnie To once again links up with screenwriter Wai Ka Fai, the writer of Drug War and Romancing in Thin Air. Their new feature Chasing Dream finds itself somewhere between those two, telling the story of an MMA fighter with gang ties named Tiger (Jacky Heung, winner of Fantasia’s Best Actor award) who falls in love with an aspiring singer named Cuckoo (Keru Wang).

To and Wai Ka Fai’s incredibly goofy sense of humor is still totally intact, as they make a complete farce out of the singing competition that Cuckoo enters, with her greatest competitor continually performing so hard that she accumulates injuries, until she ends up in a full-body cast. As Michelle writes: “It’s Rocky meets A Star is Born, with a dash of American Idol, a pinch of musical, and a huge dollop of romance.” This is all to say that Chasing Dream really is a hell of a lot of movie at once. (KC)

Labyrinth of Cinema Directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, written by Kazuya Konaka, Nobu Obayashi and Tadashi Naitō

“It’s time to revisit our history to build a better future.” So begins Labyrinth of Cinema, the final film of Japanese experimental legend Nobuhiko Ōbayashi. Following a trilogy of films contemplating modern Japanese history and war (including the ravishing Hanagatami), Labyrinth is a metatextual and metaphysical trip through the history of Japanese cinema and its intersection with war.

A handful of young characters are quite literally absorbed into the screen of the cinema they’re sitting in at the film’s beginning, jumping through different eras and genres of film, tackling everything from war and propaganda, romance and musical, to chanbara and back again. Jake Cole notes the film’s surprising optimism, writing “even as Ōbayashi grows more sober, the film conveys more and more his strength of belief that cinema is still a force for good, and that if the past cannot be helped, perhaps movies can be rethought and re-crafted to produce a better future”. (KC)

Lapsis Written and directed by Noah Hutton

Noah Hutton (son of Timothy Hutton and Debra Winger) makes his narrative feature debut with a sci-fi-that’s-barely-sci-fi film, which dives into robotics, capitalism and unionization. Not a million miles away from the activist documentaries the director already has under his belt, Lapsis is a low-key, mordant film that captures gig-economy drudgery and the arcane fog of big tech. “Honestly really fucking cool,” writes David, of Hutton’s world-building on a shoestring. “An intelligent and peculiar concept expertly executed and thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end.” Dean Imperial’s surliness is a treat. (AY)

Bleed with Me Written and directed by Amelia Moses

Not one of Bleed with Me’s 79 minutes is wasted. If any of the following sound good to you—micro-thrillers, Robert Altman's Images, Rodney Ascher’s The Nightmare, mumblecore Bergman—add Amelia Moses’ debut feature to your watchlist now. It’s an assured start from Moses, who crafts an unsettling, tantalizingly ambiguous atmosphere from the three-hander, cabin-in-the-snow confines, with Scrabble, gaslighting, bloodletting and sleep paralysis thrown in.

“Lee Marshall anchors the film with a deeply moving performance as Rowan,” writes Finhorror. “With every facial expression, movement, and line reading, she sells vulnerability and discomfort while showing a minimal amount of effort.” Would pair well with Mickey Reece’s Climate of the Hunter (florid dinner conversations, immaculate food-porn and psycho-sexual tension) for an ace double feature. (AY)

PVT CHAT Written and directed by Ben Hozie

New York filmmaker Ben Hozie examines online relationships and modern sexual fantasies with PVT CHAT, starring Uncut Gems breakout star Julia Fox as Scarlet, a cam-girl dominatrix. The film splits its focus between Scarlet and Jack (played by Peter Vack), an internet gambler who mostly remains inside his NYC apartment as he becomes fixated on her. While there’s palpable discomfort in Jack’s increasing obsession with Scarlet, the film doesn’t mock the practitioner nor the customer, and it doesn’t moralize over either of their actions—it simply leaves them plain to witness, as though a normal element of contemporary digital living.

The genuineness of the relationship between Scarlet and Jack is ambiguous—the line between performance and sincere emotion distorted via pixels. As they continue to open up to each other the line blurs further, and PVT CHAT becomes a fascinating observation of how online communication has changed and commodified the ways in which we interact with each other. (KC)

Tezuka’s Barbara Directed by Makoto Tezuka, screenplay by Hisako Kurasawa

Speaking of obsessions, Japanese filmmaker Makoto Tezuka might have chosen his father’s strangest work to adapt into a live-action film. As it says in the title, Tezuka’s Barbara is an adaptation of ‘godfather of manga’ Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara, his most hallucinatory and sexually explicit work. Opening with a Nietzsche quote about madness and love, Tezuka’s Barbara more or less conflates the two, as the main character Yosuke, an author who specializes in lurid and trashy paperbacks, falls obsessively in love with Barbara, a homeless drifter he meets in the street.

Beautifully lensed by Christopher Doyle, legendary cinematographer of Chungking Express and In The Mood For Love, Tezuka’s Barbara takes on a magical and ethereal quality, particularly in its sex scenes. Yosuke’s increasingly deranged obsession with Barbara and the young Tezuka’s depiction of it is compellingly weird, from its vivid colors and almost antiquated costuming to its Eyes Wide Shut-esque rituals of the wealthy. Deranged, perhaps opaque, but a riveting visual journey, especially with its context in mind. (KC)

Special Actors Written and directed by Shinichiro Ueda

Special Actors is the new film from Shinichiro Ueda, who turned heads with his bonkers cult film One Cut of the Dead. It may appear a little less surprising to those already familiar with his tactics, but it’s no less entertaining for it. Special Actors starts one way, as the tale of an aspiring actor looking for work, and ends somewhere else entirely. Brought into a company named ‘Special Actors’ by his estranged younger brother, Kazuko embarks on a different kind of performer’s journey, not just restricted to film and commercials, but also playing implanted mourners at funerals, fake boyfriends—whatever the client desires.

This is an Ueda film, so of course it takes a huge swerve, transforming into a bizarre and entertaining caper as the Special Actors are hired to infiltrate a cult. Ueda is more than aware of the classic conflation of film with “fakery” (as Orson Welles would call it)—the structure of a caper and its layers of illusion, truth and everything in between aligning with the requirements of stagecraft—and he has more than a little fun with it. As a result, so do we. (KC)

Feels Good Man Directed by Arthur Jones / Available on demand now

The internet was a mistake. Even if you try to stay out of the digital trash-fires, you’ll likely have heard of the ‘Pepe the Frog’ meme. Turns out, we need to pay attention to these things, particularly with another US election looming. In Feels Good Man, Arthur Jones introduces us to Matt Furie, the humble cartoonist behind the original Pepe, and then takes several wild and weird side-roads, with the most unexpected-but-entertaining talking heads, as we learn just how 4Chan and the alt-right adopted, weaponized and took the frog all the way to the White House, earning official hate-symbol status. “I came in expecting a solid documentary about a meme, and I ended up getting that and a compelling narrative about today’s troubling world,” writes Zach. (GG)

Sheep Without a Shepherd Directed by Sam Quah, written by Yang Weiwei

Dare we say “Letterboxd meets Parasite”? Sheep Without a Shepherd, Sam Quah’s debut feature (based on Jeethu Joseph’s highly rated film Drishyam), is a cinephiliac feast about have-nots taking on upper-echelon corruption. Lead character Weijie (Xiao Yang) is a working-class, obsessive cinephile who vomits his movie knowledge any chance he can get. When his family is pulled into a case of police corruption, this same cinephilia may be the only thing that gets them out of it. It’s a sturdily wrought Hitchcockian homage, with a well-calibrated balance of suspense, humor and pathos.

“What a gut punch of a movie in the best way,” writes Amanda. “A little messy at times, especially in the end, and some questionable forensics, but this is something I’ll definitely be revisiting.” The jury is still out on whether the ending—make that the many endings—worked, but for the most part Letterboxd members enjoyed the cat-and-mouseness of it all, along with its moral questionability. (AY)

You Cannot Kill David Arquette Directed by David Darg and Price James / Available on demand now

You Cannot Kill David Arquette is a rousing, eye-opening and mostly upbeat gawk at the life of the Hollywood star whose fortunes have lately run dry. Although he is out of shape and has very young children (and very cute Basset hounds) to think of, Arquette is desperate to reignite his love of pro wrestling. In a quest to prove to his heroes that he’s serious about the sport, the actor participates in backyard wrestling matches in Virginia, joins street-fighters in Mexico, and goes down a K-hole at the hands of health professionals.

“Arquette is searching for a shred of legitimacy in a world that’s always made him feel like a fraud, and by the end of this loveable, hilarious, and ineffably heartfelt doc it’s almost impossible not to believe in him,” writes David Ehrlich. As compelling a look at mental health as physical, the film benefits from the inclusion of conversations with those closest to Arquette (both of his wives feature), and there’s a heart-skipping scene involving the late Luke Perry. (GG)

Lastly, our team wanted to shout out to Daria Woszek’s Marygoround for the best end credits dedication of the year. Thanks, Fantasia! Roll on 2021.

[sapphicsaro]

morgan + anya, five years

@vicapuleti requested: “Morgan and I guess 5year old Anya ? You knew this one was coming 😍”

apparently i can’t write a fluffy story about two five year olds lol, so here’s some angst with hints of fluff about our two favorite ballerinas. feat. hints of bucky and sam!

-------

“How do you spell it?”

“N-A-T-A…S?”

“Mhmm.”

“S-H-A. Natasha?”

“Good,” Clint replied, both hands on the steering wheel of his truck, eyes on the road ahead.

“Next one, papa!”

“Let’s go back to Russian, okay? You want to be ready for later.”

“Okay,” Anya fiddled with her small bear, and glanced at her father. “Should I start?”

“Yes, pigeon, lemme hear it.”

“Okay, um…Самолёт построим сами (We build an airplane)…Uh, Понесёмся над лесами (We'll soar above the forests), Понесёмся над лесами (We'll soar above the forests)…Um…”

“А потом (And then)…”

“Oh yeah! А потом вернёмся к маме (And then we'll come back to mama)!”

Clint smiled, “Good job, pidgey.”

Anya giggled, “Are we almost there, papa?”

“Actually, we are,” He answered, pulling the truck into the long driveway of the cabin. “Are you excited?”

“Yeah, I miss Morgan.”

“I’m sure she missed you too, baby.” Clint got up to the oh-so familiar cabin, parking close to the entrance. He hopped out of the car, slamming the door shut, before heading to the rear passenger door to get Anya. When he opened the door, she had already unbuckled her seatbelt and was smiling at him widely.

“I did it all by myself, papa.”

Clint shook his head, “Oh my gosh, you’re practically an adult…” She giggled. “C’mon, sweetie,” He held his arms out and she reached for him, letting him pick her up and place her on the grass. He grabbed her tiny backpack from the back seat, and slammed the door behind him. “Ready?” he held his hand out to her.

She grabbed it tightly, “да (Yes)!”

Hand in hand, the daddy-daughter duo made their way up the porch steps to the front door of the cabin.

“Can I please ring the bell?”

Clint smiled at his little girl; her hair went from strawberry-blonde as a baby to a deep red like her mother’s. It was loosely braided as requested by her this morning. Her eyes were a soft green, and every time Clint sweared they were exactly like Natasha’s. Her outfit today was all picked out by herself and she had on a tiny gray jumpsuit with her favorite light up sneakers.

How could he ever say no to her cute little face?

“Go ahead, baby.”

She let go of his hand and went on her tiptoes, pressing the button to hear the ringing in the home. Anya went back to her father’s side, grabbing his hand again before the door opened.

“Is that little Anya?”

“Aunt Pepper!”

Pepper laughed, bending down so Anya could leap into her arms for a big hug. “I swear, I see you every couple months but you just keep growing!”

Anya, with her arms still around her aunt’s neck, giggled. “I grew one more inch!”

“Wow! You did? I’m so proud!” Pepper pulled away from Anya, pushing a loose strand behind her ear, “Well, little ballerina, Morgan is in her room…Think you can go up and say ‘hi’?”

Anya nodded excitingly, “Mhmm!”

Pepper stood up, releasing the five year old from her hands, “Okay, be careful on the stairs!”

Anya zoomed past and made it to the stairs, looking back at her aunt and father before carefully taking the stairs one at a time. How disciplined.

“Hi, Pepper,” Clint gave her a small hug, the glitter backpack still clenched in his hands.

“Hey, Clint. So glad you guys made it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

——

Anya made her way to the bedroom down the hall, knocking softly on the door, “Morgan?”

The door flung open to reveal five year old Morgan Stark, dressed up in a flowy yellow dress covered in little daisies. Her short hair was pulled back with a matching headband and she had on white sandals to go with the floral ensemble.

“Anya!” Morgan jumped into the redhead’s arms, “Come here! I have to show you what I got!”

The two little ones went into the pink bedroom, where Morgan’s toys were all neatly tucked away. “Close your eyes!” Morgan said as she grabbed Anya’s hands and put them up to her face.

“Okay…” Anya wasn’t one for surprises. Maybe that was hereditary.

She heard some shuffling around before Morgan shouted, “Open!”

Anya placed her hands by here side, opening her eyes to see a frilly pink tutu in her friend’s hands. “Mommy signed me up for ballet! I’m going to be just like you!”

Anya smiled, “Really?”

Morgan nodded, “Yep! I’m still doing tap. But now, I’m in ballet too!”

“I can help you with the first steps so you can know them before you go to your first class!”

A soft knock at the door caught their attention. “Hey, ballerinas, we don’t want to be late. You got an hour to eat and finish up your cards,” Pepper said.

Morgan ran to her bookshelf, grabbing her box of crayons and construction paper, “I’m ready!” She ran past her mother out of her bedroom.

“Slow on the stairs, remember, Morgan?”

“Yes, mommy!” She took the stairs one by one, her tiny sandals clacking on the wood.

Anya didn’t move from her spot in the bedroom, instead her eyes stayed locked to a spot the ground. Pepper looked at her, she knew Anya was much quieter than Morgan, but something seemed off. “Honey, are you okay?”

The redhead shrugged, “Yeah.”

Pepper walked closer to her “niece” and knelt down in front of her. “What’s wrong?”

Anya chewed at her bottom lip, a trait she definitely inherited from her mother. “I’m just nervous.”

“There’s nothing to worry about, sweetheart. It’s going to be so nice today. I promise.” Anya nodded slowly, still looking down at the floor in front of her instead of at her aunt. “C’mon, I got a peanut butter sandwich with your name all over it.” Pepper held out her hand and Anya took it, smiling slightly, as they headed downstairs.

Clint was at the kitchen table, sitting across from Morgan who was excitingly telling him a story. “He did what?”

“Jackson pulled my hair! But I told the teacher on him and he couldn’t go to recess,” she told him, spreading out her colored paper and emptying her crayons. “Miranda said that he’s mean to me because he likes me, but I think that is dumb.”

Clint laughed, “It is dumb.”

“Is this the Jackson story, again?” Pepper asked, letting go of Anya’s hand and heading into the kitchen.

“Yes!”

Anya slowly walked over to her father, looking up at him with her big green eyes. Clint smiled, and bent down to give her a kiss, “You gonna make a card with Morgan?” Anya nodded, still hesitating. “Come here,” he picked her up and made his way over to the other side of the table, placing his daughter down in the chair next to the brunette. “What color card would you like to do?”

Anya thought for a second, “Red?”

“I’m doing red too!” Morgan shouted, holding up her paper.

Clint smiled, “Red’s a good color for them. Here, give me your paper and I’ll fold them.” The two girls obliged and he returned their sheets, ready for them to decorate.

The two sat and colored away, Morgan taking up most of the conversation while Anya sat quietly alongside her. Clint was throughly entertained, as was Pepper. After the loss of their spouses, an unlikely friendship formed between the two single parents. They both felt alone, overwhelmed, and broken after losing the love of their lives, and no one quite had a shared experience like the two of them.

Tony and Nat were much more similar than anyone would care to admit. They were both stubborn as hell, would risk their lives for a mission, and never heard the word ‘no’. Clint and Pepper had many similar qualities as well, as they were the more domesticated ones in the relationship.

When their loves died, the two felt alone.

But, at Tony’s funeral, little Anya Romanoff-Barton gave Morgan H. Stark a hug, telling her that “her daddy was up in the sky and was watching over her, just like mama was.” And the rest was history.

The two girls became inseparable, ultimately making Clint and Pepper closer, too.

So, every three months, one of the pairs would make a trip to visit the other. It helped keep the adults from cooping up in their home and never leaving, which was really easy to want to do after you lost your spouse. It also helped keep the Avengers family together, even though most of them were split apart to do their own things.

However, almost all of the Avengers made time for the girls. Clint couldn’t speak for Pepper, but he had someone over almost every other week, checking up on him and playing with Anya.

Last week, Sam and Bucky were in town, an unlikely pair to want to visit a five year old. But they immediately transformed into goofy uncles, playing tag and making Anya laugh with their failed attempts to copy her gymnastic moves. Anya would whisper to Bucky in Russian when Sam wasn’t looking and he would flashback to seeing young Natasha, except Anya was free from the confines of the Red Room.

The visits helped keep Clint from falling back into his depression. The dusted were brought back, but his wife could never return. After he would tuck Anya in every night, he would lay in his bed and begin to cry, as it felt empty without Natasha. He needed help. As did Pepper.

So here they are, reconvening again, two single parents of two little ballerinas.

Today was not like the other visits, though. Today was a year after the dusted returned, and Thanos was destroyed. This also meant it was a year since the loss of Tony and Nat.

It was a particularly difficult time for Pepper and Clint, but when you’re a parent, you have to find a way to get through the sadness to take care of your child. Both parents already had to do the difficult task of telling their child that their mom/dad had died, which was not a one time thing when your child was young. 

Anya would ask about her mother all the time, and it pained Clint to think about her, as he always flashed back to her hand slipping from his and her lifeless body at the bottom of the cliff.

But, his therapist told him to think of her smile first. Think of her smiling on the porch bench, baby Anya in her arms. Think of her smiling when they finished their mission in Lagos and flopped on the bed, laughing about how quickly they completed their assignment. Think of her smiling on their flight in space; how mesmerized she was by the universe around her. Think of that instead. Don’t think about what happened when they landed. No, remember her hands entwined in his while they laid in the hospital bed, eyes never leaving their teeny newborn sleeping in the plastic basinet.

That’s the Natasha he has to remember.

So when Anya asks about “mama”, he tells her about the good times, and how much she loved her “маленький (little one)”. He tells her about her bear, the first stuffed animal Natasha picked out for her baby because it reminded her of Budapest, where she saw the same one in the window of the village shops. He tells her about the arrow necklace, which she had left in her locked jewelry box, something Bruce had miraculously rescued after their building was ambushed. It was too big on Anya, but she still wore it every day, never taking it off.  

And for Natasha, he enrolled their child in ballet and gymnastics, and kept up her Russian lessons. Anya enjoyed them, always telling her dance teachers and gymnastics instructors that she was going to be just like her “mama”.

Clint hoped so. Clint hoped to god she would have her mother’s determination and heart. She already looked so much like her, why would she need anything from him? 

“Papa, can you please check my card?”

Anya handed him the folded construction paper, the outside decorated with a “⧗”. Clint traced his fingers over the symbol, memories of its owner flooding back to him. He swallowed the lump in his throat, opening the card to reveal a stick figure drawing of Anya and her mother holding hands.

Fuck.

“It’s beautiful, sweetheart.”

Anya smiled, “Can you check my spelling?”

Clint chuckled, “Of course, baby.”

And there it was was, scribbled across the red paper: “Dear mama”.

God. 

It broke his heart. His eyes welled with tears, but he continued reading:

Dear mama, I miss you! Papa does too. I wish I could see you, but papa says you’re in heaven. I hope you can see me from up there. I’m sending lots of hugs and kisses! Я люблю тебя (I love you), Anya

Sure, her handwriting wasn’t the best, but she had been practicing writing this card for the past couple of months and Clint thought it was the best thing he had ever seen. “It’s absolutely perfect.”

Anya smiled as Clint handed her the card back, and she finally took a bite out of her sandwich.

“Mommy, is mine good?” Morgan asked.

There were tears rolling down Pepper’s cheeks as she held her daughter’s card, a beautifully done Iron Man helmet on the outside with the inside containing another drawing (this one showed Morgan and Tony, each holding a cheeseburger), and a small note that ended with “I love you 3000!”

“It’s wonderful, sweetie. Daddy will love it,” Pepper said through her tears.

Clint checked his watch, “Uh, Pep, it’s 1:30, should we get going?”

“Shoot! C’mon girls! Anya, you can bring your sandwich in the car, Morgan, put the crayons away.”

The four of them made their way outside and into Pepper’s car, strapping each of their kids into a car seat. Clint offered to drive, and Pepper gladly took him up on it. 

The drive was lengthy, and the two adults were stuck with listening to Disney music on a loop. Morgan loudly sang her heart out, Pepper encouraging her fun, while Anya sat and listened, playing with her bear and checking her card over and over again. Clint swore he could see her mumbling her Russian poem under her breath, but he stayed focused on the road.

When they got there, the music turned off and Morgan calmed down. 

Seeing the graveyard made Anya curl up into her carseat. She hadn’t been here before. When her mother had her funeral, she was at Morgan’s cabin, where they did Uncle Tony’s service too. It was a shared funeral, and her father spoke about her mom, calling her “Natasha”. Anya was sad, missing her mama, but everyone around her tried to make her feel better, telling stories of “the Black Widow” and how awesome she was.

Anya missed her a lot. Anya missed hugging her mama. She missed seeing her come home from a mission really late at night to sneak her a kiss goodnight. She missed helping mama make dinner. She missed family movie night. She missed their secret midnight snacks, usually sneaking chocolates into their mouths before heading back to bed. She missed doing ballet and gymnastics with her. She missed everything.

When Anya met Morgan, it helped a lot.

Morgan talked about how much she missed her dad, and it was very similar to how Anya felt. They bonded quickly, and even though they only saw each other every three months for the past year, the two were inseparable. Morgan asked her mom if she could FaceTime Anya, and Pepper would let her, hearing the two girls giggle through the phone.

The graveyard, as eerie as it may seem, was very pretty.

Clint parked the car nearest to the headstones they were looking for. They were close to each other, with no one in between, and a constant amount of flowers laying by their names. Fans would visit regularly, thanking the two for saving the dusted, but Clint and Pepper made sure their family would be the only visitors right now.

“You ready girls?”

They both looked scared, sad, and uneasy.

Pepper took off her seatbelt, turning back to face the girls, “Hey, there’s no need to be worried. Nothing scary is here, it’s just us. We’re going to talk to your daddy and your mom, read them your pretty cards, and then spend some time here with them. We will be with you the entire time, okay?”

Anya nodded, while Morgan answered, “Okay mommy. Let’s go.”

The adults got out of the car, unbuckled their daughters, and grabbed their hands.

Clint and Anya went to the right, while Pepper and Morgan went to the left.

Morgan ran right up to the headstone coated in Iron Man memorabilia, and sat crossed-legged in front of it. Pepper knelt down, before taking a seat on the grass next to her daughter, who immediately began talking and showing off her card.

Anya wasn’t as excited as Morgan; in fact she was extremely worried. But, Clint knelt down, gave her a big kiss on the cheek and touched her arrow pendant. “When mama got nervous, she would play with that arrow right there. It was a reminder that I was always there with her, even I wasn’t physically there. Now, it’s a symbol of both of us. Mama is always with you, including right now. Don’t be scared, baby, it’s just us, your family.”

Anya nodded and slowly walked over to the headstone decorated with flowers, cards, and small notes. It wasn’t nearly as covered as Tony’s, but it definitely had more heartfelt notes written for the woman who gave her life for all of the dusted. She sat down, much like Morgan, and fiddled with her bear.

“Привет, мама (Hello, Mama).”

Clint sat down next to his little girl, turning to the headstone, “Hey, sweetheart.”

Anya looked at the headstone, “Natasha…”

“Remember, that’s mama’s name,” Clint said, resting a hand on his daughter’s back. “N-A-T-A-S-H-A.”

“I like it.”

“Me too,” he smiled back at her, giving her a small kiss on her head.

“I made you this, Mama. I drew us, and wrote you a little note. You can read it later though. Papa checked my spelling.” Clint let out a little laugh; Anya placed the homemade card on the headstone.

Anya turned to her father, “Can I talk to mama alone for a second?”

Clint nodded, “Of course, pigeon.” He stood up and walked back to the car, leaning against it as he watched his little one. He peeked a glance over at Pepper and Morgan, who were giggling and snuggling as they talked to Tony’s headstone.

Anya continued to play with the bear in her hands, unsure of what to say, before her eyes welled with tears and she said, “I miss you. I miss you a lot, mama. I don’t know why you had to go. Papa said you saved me, and Kate, and a lot of other people, but I want you back...Is that bad?”

Anya wiped a tear from her cheek, “I don’t know what heaven is like, but I hope you have a place to dance and do gymnastics. And there’s lots of chocolate.” 

She paused, “Mama, I remember the poem you would tell me before bed; Papa helped me. My Russian isn’t as good, but I’ll say it to you. I hope it helps you feel better up there, like how it helped me feel better before bed. Oh yeah! Here’s my bear too, you can hold him while I do it, okay, mama?”

She placed the bear gently on the headstone, next to the card, “Самолёт построим сами (We build an airplane), Понесёмся над лесами (We'll soar above the forests), Понесёмся над лесами (We'll soar above the forests). А потом вернёмся к маме (And then we'll come back to mama).”

Anya placed a hand on the headstone, “I love you, mama. I hope I can see you soon.”

——

author’s note: wow i’m an asshole, but who doesn’t love angst? also, pepper/clint is a friendship i love a lot, okay? plus, morgan and anya would be polar opposites, but they definitely would be best friends. let me know your thoughts about this heartbreaking chapter that i’ll probably go to hell for, along with your head canons about clint and pepper or morgan and anya (or even the other avengers visiting anya bc that's so cute tbh)

[sinfullystanning]

Believe In Me

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Summary: You’d given up on love until you have a chance encounter with a mysterious man at an old friend’s wedding who makes you want to believe again.

You sighed as you slid into the wooden pew, wishing you were anywhere else except for there. This was the tenth wedding you’d been to in the last few months. On the bright side, at least today you didn’t have to plaster a fake smile on your face and pose like a porcelain doll amid a sea of bridesmaids, cursed to haunt the most important photographs in someone’s life. It wasn’t that you hated your old college friends, you were happy for them, you really were, but the green face of jealousy demanded to rear her ugly head every time another obnoxiously fancy invitation arrived in the mail and migrated to its glaring spot on your refrigerator. It wasn’t like you were the only single person at these things, but there was definitely something up when you were in your late twenties, old enough to be married and you’d never been asked out, let alone gone on a date before. You’d sat through four years of college telling yourself that you had time, that your special person was waiting for you somewhere. Then you’d started working and still, no one had ever bothered or even seemed to notice you. Then, suddenly, like a cruel reminder of your predicament, the invitations had started to pour in and here you were, sitting in the back of a church, wishing you could disappear.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a voice and you looked up as it said, “Is this seat taken?” You blinked blankly several times as you adjusted to the view in front of you. The voice belonged to a tall guy with the most piercing blue eyes.

“Huh? Uh, no, no it’s not.” You broke eye contact, trying to look anywhere but at those eyes, as you awkwardly patted the spot beside you. “Yeah, um, you’re welcome to, um, no it’s not taken.” You collected your hands and gripped them in your lap, your face burning red. He chuckled softly before sitting down next to you.

“So,” He turned to face you, but you didn’t look up from where you were suddenly very interested in your hands. “Are you on the bride’s or the groom’s side?”

“The bride’s.” You mumbled, sneaking a peek at him through your hair, hiding your face from view.”

“Nice, I’m on the groom’s, we’re colleagues from work. How do you know the bride?”

You swallowed before sitting up again, using all your will-power to turn and face the mystery man, as if you hadn’t just fallen flat over your words a few moments ago. “We were friends in college.” You pushed a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “I’m surprised she even invited me, to be honest, I hadn't heard from her in years.”

“You never know.” He shrugged. “People remember each other differently. To you, your friendship could have been forgettable, but for her, it could have been something else. For example, after today you might forget the random guy who talked to you at some girl’s wedding, while I’ll be wondering what someone as pretty as you was doing hiding in the back of the church like some old widower.” He paused brow furrowing before raising a concerned eyebrow. “Wait, you’re not an old widower are you?”

You had been caught off guard when he called you pretty, but his ridiculous question made you giggle before answering, “No, no I’m not an old widower. I’m just a disillusioned romantic that’s done with love, which isn’t too different, to be honest.”

“Ooo, disillusioned, big word. What has you so disillusioned? A bad breakup? Left at the altar? Cheated on? All of the above?” He leaned imperceptibly closer, slinging his arm over the back of the pew.

You had no idea why you were about to share all your problems with a complete stranger whose name you didn’t know, and maybe it was the way he had called you pretty, something another guy had never said to you, or maybe you just wanted someone to rant to, but you took a deep breath before answering. “Nope, none of those. Quite the opposite actually. I’m twenty-eight years old and I’ve never been noticed by a guy before. Never been asked out, never gone on a date, never been kissed, et cetera.” You mentally scolded yourself for letting that last one slip.

Mystery man raised a surprised dark brown eyebrow but didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well then, I think it’s time we changed that don’t you?” Your eyes went wide, your brain shifting into full panic mode. “Let’s start over.” He continued, extending his hand out to you. “I’m Bucky, it’s nice to meet you.”

You shook his hand nervously. “I’m Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N, and now I’d like to ask if you’d like to be my date to this wedding?”

You were speechless at the proposition. You had just met this man a few minutes ago and only learned his name seconds ago, and now this? “But we’re both already at the wedding.” You said, confused.

He pulled out his phone, checking something before putting it away. “Well if it’s the technicalities you’re hung up on, the wedding doesn’t start for a few more minutes so we could walk outside, I could ask you again and then we could come back. It’s up to you.” He shrugged nonchalantly. You gaped at him like a beached fish. Before you could say anything he broke the silence. “I’m serious, you know. Be my date to this wedding, I promise it’ll be way more fun for both of us.” When you were still silent he sighed. “Look, I know this probably isn’t what you envisioned for your first date, but how about we consider tonight a trial period. Free of charge, and then at the end, you can decide whether we leave as strangers or something else.” He smiled. “Come on, let me illusion that disillusioned romantic. You don’t have to believe in love, just believe in me.”

Finally, you sighed, and smiled shyly you nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.” His smile spread into a big goofy grin and you couldn’t fight the giggle that bubbled past your lips. Before Bucky could say anything back, the organ in the balcony began to play and the doors behind you opened as the wedding began.

***

After the wedding, Bucky and you were swept up in the crowd of guests, being called up for various sets of photos before finally escaping out the doors into the breezy evening air. You were about to go to your car to head for the reception when Bucky grabbed your hand. “Come on,” He beckoned towards the other side of the parking lot. “I’m your date until the end of the night, remember? You’re riding with me, I’ll drop you off here afterward.” You hesitated for a second before following Bucky to an old vintage car that made you stop and stare. It seemed almost comically anachronistic to see the ‘65 Ford Mustang Convertible in a lot full of the twenty-first century SUVs. Meanwhile, Bucky was already in the front seat, leaning out to call to you, “Aw, don’t diss the princess.” You laughed before closing the distance to stand beside the car, peeking inside to appraise the blue leather interior that screamed of midnight rendezvous to deserted beaches and road trips with the music all the way up. You couldn’t hide your grin as you walked around to the other side of the car and climbed into the passenger seat. Bucky turned the key in the ignition and the probably ancient motor rumbled to life. You closed your eyes, drowning in the sound as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

***

You were looking for Bucky. As soon as you’d made it to the reception venue, you’d excused yourself to freshen up in the bathroom after the wind had tossed your hair every which way on the drive. Turning another corner, you finally caught sight of him. Bucky was leaning over a table covered with place cards, a pen in hand. You walked up to him, peering over his shoulder to catch a glance at what he was doing.

“Hey, do you know her?” Bucky didn’t look up, gesturing to a place card he was holding. You frowned, racking your brain.

“I think so, another college friend, maybe? Why?”

“Is she single?”

“What?! What, I don’t know!” You exclaimed at Bucky’s unexpected question.

“Well hopefully she is, but either way I think she’ll enjoy the company of some hot, well-to-do for tonight because we’ll be switching seats.”

“Wait, what?” You asked, your brow furrowing in confusion.

Bucky finished what he was doing and straightened up, finally looking at you. “Just switched up the place cards.” He dangled a pair of place cards in front of you. “I wouldn’t be a very good date if I didn’t sit with you, would I?” Relief washed through you as you understood what Bucky had been doing before blushing at the casual way he’d just referred to you as ‘his date.’ “Shall we?” Bucky extended his arm to you and you took it, the two of you entering the lowly lit reception hall where celebrations were already in full swing.

No sooner had you found your seats that the waitstaff swarmed the table to serve a particularly sad looking salad. You were inspecting a droopy leaf warily when Bucky pushed out his chair, standing up. “Where are you going?” You asked, arching a curious eyebrow at him as a grin spread across his face.

“Well since I’m suddenly no longer hungry,” you giggled at that, “I think I’m ready to dance, how about you?” You hesitated. You weren’t much of a dancer in general and the dance floor was pretty empty at the moment with the exception of a few already-drunk uncles. Before you could answer, the familiar electric guitar riffs of ACDC’s You Shook Me All Night Long blared out of the speakers and Bucky’s grin widened as he backed onto the dance floor, eyes never leaving yours as he began to comedically play an air guitar along to the iconic intro, transforming into a goofy rockstar before your eyes as he lip-synched the words at you as he danced horribly along to the music. When the chorus came around he stopped in his tracks, pointing straight at you with both hands as he mouthed, “You shook me all night long!” You couldn’t hold it back anymore and burst out laughing, one hand over your mouth and the other holding your stomach as you doubled over in your chair. When you caught your breath, you straightened to see Bucky standing in front of you, hand outstretched. You only hesitated a second before muttering, “Oh, what the hell,” before you grabbed his hand and followed him onto the dance floor.

***

When the night was finally over, Bucky pulled his car into the now-empty church parking lot. You stepped out of the car and suddenly you barely remember even getting here earlier today, the morning seemed like a lifetime away from the magical night you’d just had with Bucky. You stood there beside the car, lost in your thoughts when Bucky’s voice called you back to reality. He too had vacated the car, coming around to stand in front of you.

“So, I guess your trial period is all used up.” He was smiling softly, almost wistfully.

“I guess it is.” You said, smiling back. You paused for a second that felt way too long. “So how do I subscribe for more?”

Bucky’s smile grew into a goofy grin and you couldn’t hide the one spreading across yours to meet it. His eyes glittered with mischief. “There’s just one thing you need to do.”

“And that is?” You shot back, more than happy to match his banter.

“Well it goes a bit like this,” Bucky said as he leaned in and placed his lips on yours. At that moment, it felt like your brain experienced a blackout and a power surge all at once. You were stock still and electrified one second and the next you were soft and malleable and he drew you into his arms, gently deepening the kiss. When he pulled away, you were speechless. He finally broke the silence, “As much as I don’t want to be the responsible one, it’s already late and I don’t want you driving alone at night, so you should probably go, but I think there’s one more thing I need before you go.” You sighed before smiling ruefully, you really weren’t ready for the night to end. You turned ready to leave when Bucky grabbed your wrist. “Wait, I told you, I need one more thing-” You cut him off, turning around and quickly reached into the breast pocket of his shirt, fishing out your place card with your number written on it in neat print.

“You mean this?” You teased playfully as Bucky gawked. “Let’s just say I made my decision a little early.” With that, you turned and began to walk backward toward your car. “Call me?” You asked as you clicked the remote and heard the doors chirp open. Bucky chuckled and rolled his eyes before getting back into his car and you did the same. You leaned back in the driver’s seat as you watched him drive away, unable to shake the smile on your face. Maybe, just maybe, you were ready to believe in love again.

[the-energon-hole]

Could I request some fall/autumn/halloween headcanons with tfp Smokescreen and Bee with their s/o's?

((A/N - I got stuck on this one, so I’m sorry if it seems a little off in anyway I had to adjust it so many times.))

Bumblebee

-”Oh, do you like that picture Bee?” You asked as you sat in an old lawn chair in the garage next to him. You were wrapped up in a nice warm blanket sipping a nice warm cup of coffee in your pajamas, it was a little self indulgent to do this with Bee, but the two of you decided that a night in could be relaxing and fun. No Decepticon Autobot War, no patrolling around the dusty old desert to keep watch for danger, and absolutely no one else but the two of you just sitting around and having a good chat. It was becoming a rarer and rarer commodity that the two of you would get time to yourselves beyond the little sneaks of affection you could squeeze in when there was down time at the base- it was nice to just sit and relax and talk to each other the way normal domestic partners were able to do, even if your relationship was far from normal. Bee beeped quizzically at you as he found one of your old photo albums lying on one of the workbenches in the small concrete room, you let him go through all your old photos… even if some of them hurt to look at and remember. The one he was asking about though was a fond memory you had from when you were younger and much more entrepid than you were now. It was a picture of you wrapped up in a warm and colorfully knitted scarf with mittens to match that were covering your hands, and as you had them thrown over your head there were leaves of so many varying colors flying around you in a messy fashion, some even sticking to your flushed looking face and to the dark beanie that covered your head. “That picture? Hmm… I can’t remember who took that one, but it was a trip I took up to the mountains so I could see the changing of the leaves for the first time. You don’t really experience seasons out here in the desert, so it was nice to be able to experience it at least once in my life.” Bee beeped at you quizzically again with a lot of inflection in his tone, and it finally hit you what he meant through his words… he had never experienced Autumn either. He hasn’t been able to see the world beyond the desert and the city the resides within it. It was then that you vowed to take him on the most amazing road trip once this whole war was over, you were going to show him the most amazing and beautiful places that the world has to offer.

-You sat cross legged on Bumblebee’s yellow and black hood as you examined a medium brown shipping box that was surprisingly light for its size. Bee beeped quizzically at you as you rotated the box in your hands as you shook it a little to try and guess what was inside. It was a package you ordered months ago and completely forgot about due to the fact you got swept up in an alien war between a species that consisted of giant robots- you argued that was a pretty fair reason to forget about your mail delivery on a consistent basis. Bee beeped at you again a little louder, which pulled you from you thoughts enough to chuckle and answer hks question- “Sorry, Bee, it looks like a package I ordered a while ago. I forgot what it was that I bought and I was trying to think of what it was that I could have ordered.” Bee responded with a noise of understanding as you adjusted yourself on the top of his hood so that you could properly open the box without making to much of a mess that you would have to clean up later. “Oh! This is the knitted Fall Ware I bought from that online designer I like” you exclaimed as you pulled out a plush looking scarf that was very soft to the touch, the next item you fished from the box was a sweater made of the same material that had a beautiful and artistic depiction of a tree losing its leaves that had changed to all different kinds of colors as they almost appeared to sway in the breeze on the still image on the piece of outerwear, and the last thing you pulled from the box was a cute little beanie that had a similar pattern to that of the sweater that was made of equally soft material. Bee beeped at you again as you wrapped the scarf around your neck in glee as you strokes at the fabric with your fingers, “These were fashion accessories that were apart of a bigger fall line by this internet designer, aren’t they cute? It’s a little too warm to wear them out here in the desert, but I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to snag myself a set when the time came.” Bee didn’t understand what you meant by fashion, but he was happy that you were happy about getting clothes that were meant to match the season of autumn. Besides, he thought you looked nice with all your new pieces of clothing- the warm colors matched your personality in a way he couldn’t describe, it was like a reflection of not only the changing of the season but also of who you were on the inside. 

-You sat in your driveway in your new Halloween costumes as you watched the sun orange and yellow sun begin to dip down over the horizon. You’d be surprised at the fact that this small town does have quite a population of children, young children specifically- the ones that like to dress up in fun costumes and run around and collect as much candy as their bags could carry. You always loved Halloween and being able to celebrate it when you were little, and now that you were older and able to give out sweets on your own, you found it endearing and cute to see all the little ones running around asking for candy. You had the driveway decorated in a small way- a few body parts here and a few spiders there, but the big focal point of your decorations was none other than the bot himself, Bumblebee! He stood there nervously as the first group of kids of the night ran up to him and marveled at the “decoration” while the parents asked how you managed to accomplish such an amazing feat of engineering. “How did you get it’s eyes to glow so bright?” “It makes sounds just like a real machine!” “Oh, wow! It’s so warm and not cold at all!” After the night went on for awhile, you noticed Bee was actually having a good time receiving so much attention- you knew he would like pretending to be a statue more than he thought, olus, it was a good reminder for him about what it was that he was fighting for here on earth. These kids, these families, these people all called this floating rock their home and had nowhere else to go in the entire universe- this was a good way to not only see what he was fighting for, but for him to feel appreciated by civilians without giving away the fact he was an alien machine from another galaxy. so many kids dropped by that there was almost a party there on your block, but as it grew later and passed their bedtimes the crowd of people began to dissipate as they all waved goodbye to both you and the “statue” you let out a sigh of relief as your street was once again empty with all the houses that had light in them begin to grow dim. “How’d you like your first Halloween, Bee?” You asked as he transformed back into a car so you could usher him back into the privacy of your garage. He beeped happily at you as he began to describe all the kind things those kids said about him when they came up to place their hands on his frame- he felt so warm and loved as they spewed kind words at him in a way he had never experienced before. It made you smile as he continued on and on about his whole experience as if you weren’t there to see it, and it warmed your heart so much as you politely sat and listened to him speak with great passion and love.

Smokescreen

-You sat inside Smokescreen’s quarters that was located in the Autobot base doing nothing more than making a huge mess out of the project you had began just a few hours ago, but then again, the whole fun of this project was to get messy and mushy while teaching him the wily ways of humanity on the side. “So, why are you making a big mess again?” Smokescreen asked you as you sat on his desk covered in orange stringy pumpkin guts as you were trying to make the most traditional Jack-O-Lantern you could from this small one you picked up from the grocery store, you sighed at his question again as you tried not to touch your face out of frustration because you were still very sticky, it was literally about the third time he had asked that question- “It’s an old Hallow’s Eve tradition that dates back generations of humanity. Some people say that these little guys are supposed to protect your home from the undead, and others say they are meant to light the way for the good spirits to come and find you and give you blessings…” You explained as you finally began to carve into the surface of the pumpkin with your carving knife. “And… You believe that?” He asked in a rather crude tone as he cut you off before you could even finish your story, but you know he didn’t mean it on purpose- he just didn’t understand human customs and traditions quite yet, so it was only natural for him to think that what you were doing was rather… alien. “Does it matter if I do or not?” you shot back at him in a lighthearted tone as you placed a small tealight candle into the now hallowed and carved out shell of the tiny pumpkin “The point is that it’s tradition- and this tradition in particular can bring a lot of happiness to people. It’s a fun family activity that helps everyone get into the mood of the season, you know?” You light the candle and closed the pumpkin up  to show Smokescreen what it was that you were trying to teach him about. It was nothing fancy, just your run of the mill goofy face with triangle eyes and a jagged mouth, but it seems Smokescreen just made a strange noise as he just couldn’t wrap his mind around the concept as he looked down into the face of the Jack-O-Lantern you just carved. “C’mon, help me with the next one you big grump.” You snickered as he made a face at you calling him a grump- you pulled out another round pumpkin that was much bigger than the last one that could really use a face- the point wasn’t for him to understand really, the point was for you two to finally spend some time together doing the things that you wanted to do instead of having to worry about the war that was going on outside of these walls, and he was just happy to be spending one on one time with the one person who understand him… even if he doesn’t understand you completely yet. Hew was trying to understand, and you really appreciated the effort, even if he did fall flat sometimes.

-”Thanks for taking me all the way out to the nearest coffee shop, Smokescreen” you said as you swirled the hot cup of liquid around in your cup as you sped down the freeway to head back to Jasper. You felt a sense of comfort when you felt the warm liquid swirl around in the paper cup that was in your hands, it was a little sappy, but you knew that this little cup of coffee guaranteed that you were going to have a great start to the new season (even if you didn’t really get to experience it due to living in a desert climate). “Anything for you, though, I have to say- it smells a little funny but also a little familiar… funny in a good way, I think?” He responded as you took a big whiff of your coffee through the small ventilation  hole on the top of the cup. Pumpkin Spice, for you it was the perfect sign to let you know that it was the changing of the season, a perfect way to remind you that the rest of the world is experiencing cooler and cooler weather while beginning to prep for the upcoming holiday season. “It’s a special kind of spice that uses seasonal vegetation to celebrate a successful year of harvest- it’s a very popular scent on top of flavor. I use it all the time in the house as a candle because it’s kind of comforting.” You told him as you took a sip of your slightly too hot coffee- you might have to wait for it to cool off just a touch before you can really enjoy all of the flavors in the bitter liquid. “That must be why it is familiar! It’s comforting for me too… it reminds me of you, and anything that reminds me of you always makes me feel better.” You made an ‘aww’ noise at his words ad you put your hand on his dashboard. You could hear his voice stutter a little bit as he made a noise of sucking in air “I-I mean, you know- I like you and stuff but I- ummm.” He was stumbling through his words as he was trying to articulate his thoughts- he was so bad with words and it was so endearing and adorable to you. “You care about me and it’s very sweet, but don’t worry, just because you spill your guts to me it doesn’t make you any less of a macho mech.” You heard him sigh in relief. “Good! I mean- not that I think that kind of thing matters or anything. I mean- it does matter, but it doesn’t also… I mean-” “Relax, Smokescreen your emotional secret is just between you, me, and this cup of coffee.” You cut him off as you raised your cup a little to signify a mock toast as you took another sip of your seasonal drink. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” You just chuckled as you got comfortable in the driver’s seat once more as you opted to just watch the dry scenery pass you by once more- you reminisced about never being able to truly see the colors of fall, but that was ok, so long as you were surrounded by the people and bots that loved you nothing else really mattered.

-You jumped in your seat as you placed your hand over your chest in a way to try and quell the dramatic beating that you could feel inside of it. Smokescreen made a surprised noise as well, but his reaction was less dramatic than yours, which made you laugh harder at your own silliness. You both sat in front of a projection screen in his room just watching old classic horror movies from the 80s, you have seen all of these movies so many times as they aired as reruns on TV or they are always playing in the background during this time of year in shopping malls and movie theaters alike. “This is pretty gruesome! Why would those two teenagers stop in the middle of the woods to exchange fluids?! There is a guy trying to kill you!” Smokescreen emphasized as he was having a hard time understanding why humans would willfully do sexual things when there is a crazed serial killer on the loose. “You know Smokey, though this is a fictional movie, it has been known that adrenaline can increase the libido in humans- so scary things can make humans a little frisky.” You explained as you watched the killer hack up the poor teenagers who were screaming and begging for their lives. You didn’t really think beyond the words that came out of your mouth, as you were pretty much used to explaining things like this to Smokescreen, but when you caught him staring at you it made your face begin to flush as you asked him what he was looking at you like that for. “Are you watching this movie to… get your… libido er- going?” you nearly choked on your own oxygen as you coughed and almost panicked at what it was that he was implying. “Of course not! It’s nearly Hallow’s Eve and I was simply trying to get into the spooky mood!” you exclaimed as you put your hands on your cheeks to feel just how warm your face hard really gotten. “Ah…” He replied as he shifted a little in his seat on his berth. “Does that disappoint you?” you asked in a stoic way as you saw your opportunity to try and force Smokescreen into being more open and honest with his feelings. “I-I mean… I don’t- I don’t know. Yes? No?” He stammered as he too tried to cover his face in embarrassment “I mean- I like you. I think you’re attractive and I mean- who wouldn’t want to lay with you? N-Not that I want to right now! I mean, if you want-” You just chuckled as your face began to return to it’s normal color as you watched him struggle to find the words that were stuck in his audio box. “I know what you mean Smokey, I was just teasing you, you big goof.”you said as you gave him a gentle punch on his his servo- it was the closest appendage to you that you could reach to emphasize that you were just playing around with him. “Ok, good! Good” he sighed as he tried his best to turn his focus back onto the movie and to not try and think about the jarring conversation he just had with you where he nearly let his whole spark just puke out all of the deepest thoughts he had locked up in his processor. It wasn’t the right time to talk about that yet, but when it will be, he hopes that he doesn’t stammer and lose track of his words like he did earlier.

(02/11/2019)