#the same way he uses it to turn invisible. Does it make real sense? dude none of jojo does. don't look too closely.
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dark-side-blog3 · 11 months ago
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Not sure if I would be intimidated or turned on by Risotto Nero's tall height and combination of black scerala and red eyes.
I think the black sclera and red eyes are a bigger factor of attraction to me than the height. Maybe it's just because I'm too tall to really get that height difference kink aspect out of it, sadly... But also because his eyes look like he's gotten them done professionally. They look dyed or tattooed... Though it could be that he's born with those eyes, or even that his stand somehow affected his eyes. Can you imagine being in a room that's brightly lit by the overcast daylight coming in from broken windows in the newest hideout, and he turns to face you with those eyes? Piercing, calculating, and hauntingly beautiful.
There comes the idea of Risotto giving you matching eyes... Tattooing your sclera to the same inky blank as his. Whenever you're left to your own devices while Risotto works, should you be allowed to roam the hideout, or if you manage to escape, then your own reflection will remind you of him.
And any complications from the procedure, such as blinding you, will simply make you less independent. Leave you more vulnerable to his attacks, as you can't hope to know where he is, or if he's even in the room with you. Circling you silently for hours like a shark, waiting for the moment you let your guard down enough for him to take a test bite.
The intense heavy stares Risotto will give you will be burned in your brain, something you'll always see, regardless of if you actually can. And if that isn't intimidating, it's at least beautiful.
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sevsbestfriend · 2 months ago
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I usually write fics here but I just wanna rant rn.
Sometimes I got to old posts and stuff, either to get new ideas or just see what the fuck is going on with the other side of the fandom.
The people coming to James defense or crazy, like on one hand they are like 'oh he was only human, he grew as a person otherwise how would lily love him?'
We literally have cannon confirmation that the fucking prat didn't stop hexing people, he just learned to hide it better. Sirius and Remus confirmed this when they called Severus a 'special case'. I don't give a shit about them saying he attacked first, you better believe I am attacking first if I come across a guy who has stripped me naked in public when I didn't do shit to him. (Or the other guy who tried to get me killed by bloody werewolf) Like wtf are you even talking about at that point???
Also, Harry comes across a detention report of them hexing another student in their 7th year. So uhm...yeah.
Then they are like 'oh Severus hates him so his memories are biased'
Did you morons even read the books?? Pensive memories are unbiased, any manipulation is extremely apparent as we saw in Slughorns case. So NO they aren't biased that extremely uncomfortable read of SWM? it's fucking canon in its truest sense.
Also, how in the ever living hippogryph does a guy who strips people naked for fun change so much that he becomes head boy??
It's pretty simple, he doesn't. He learns to hide it better and given the fact that this person has always been given the benefit of the doubt, it is very easy for them to their nature.
Dude had a map that showed him everyone's real time location and an invisibility cloak, he could damn well harass anyone in isolated corners of the castle if he wished. Which is exactly what he did.
Also, these people love to claim how 'lily only approved of him cause he changed.'
To that I say, Who the fuck is Lily?? Mother Teresa??
How is she the ultimate decider of what is good and bad and at the same time, completely right in dating someone who stripped another student makes after a year (or 2) of the event??
Don't get me wrong, she doesn't owe Severus anything, really, but seriously this is just ridiculous. Like if I was a woman, I would be genuinely terrified of someone like that, especially when they got away with no real consequences what so ever.
James was a prick with a very good PR team for friends and teachers. That's really it, it is often said that good looking people can get away with a lot of things and James is just a prime example of that.
---_---_---_---_---_---_---_---_
Also...BRAVE?? Dude had 2 cheat items and the advantage of a Pureblood upbringing and was still too PUSSY to face Severus alone. Yeah..what a real Gryphindor that one. Scrams bravery to you doesn't it? He did this all the way till 17, so yeah he definitely was super important in the order right??
---_---_---_---_---_---_---_---_---_
Dumbledore invested quite a bit in the Marauders with his blatant favoritism and letting a werewolf in the school risking his own position as a headmaster.
And...they all turned to be bloody useless. With only James being useful because of his participation in the birth of Harry Potter.
Sirius in his madness derailed a murder investigation for a fucking decade.
Remus, I genuinely can't remember anything substantial Remus did, except for letting someone he believed was a murderer into Hogwarts and never telling Dumbledore that they were Animagus to begin with.
---_---_--_---_
Seriously, the most useful person in the war had to literally beg on his knees for the man to use him. Even fate was like, for fucks sake, just give this guy a chance already.
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tragedytells-tales · 1 year ago
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What if: Masked Event Moment
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Notes - No MC, angst? A bit of angst in Ajays section, headcanons, based off of the masked Halloween event, Feat. Gidorah, Luka, Candy, and Ajay
Summary - What would happen if my OCs were to have the cursed masks on and how would they act? Demon/half demon kids edition, because I'm bored.
Warnings - For the sake of convenience let's say Gidorah has on a cursed headband that forces a dragon to give in to their basic instincts. Not proofread.
TW - Demons being demons, talk of "hunting" and "prey"
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Gidorah:
- Gidorah only acts on their instincts in minor ways such as hoarding things their friends like to have presents on hand or hunting down random objects for fun. This child would never hurt a fly, so when that cursed headband gets placed on them, they'd hurt more than just a fly.
- "It's about drive, it's about power, we stay hungry, we devour-"
- Their magic mainly manifests in their claws when they're in their second form, so they're mostly just in a destructive rage. Completely opposite from their normal gentle and calm demeanor. But they aren't following orders or listening to anyone, they're just hunting. And if the treasure they're hunting just so happens to be the soul of a demon to keep in their stash or a human to eat, then so it shall be.
- Due to having wings, they're also mostly in the air and circling the area and won't land on the ground unless they're diving for their prey. So staying inside of buildings and underneath things would be best in this situation. Their hearing is still the exact same, but their eyesight is slightly better to spot things from higher up, so moving around is safe as long as it's quick and swift.
- They're doing all of this while dressed as a lady bug btw.
Luka:
- He's wearing a bunny mask for no other reason than Candy convinced him to dress up like a bunny vampire.
- Also this mf can PERCEIVE‼️
- His magic manifests in his eyes when he's in his second form so hiding from this dude when you're within seeing range is impossible. Not because his eyes make it so he can see through things or use heat signals, oh no no no. His eyes specifically look for weak spots. So this guy is able to see a weak spot on someone as long as they're within his range of sight. You stumbled your toe? This guy knows.
- Due to not having wings, he mostly stays on the ground. But due to having the ability to turn invisible, he is able to hide in plain sight, the only way to know he's there is by having the ability to sense magic or have an impeccable vibe radar. Anyway, this guy also takes pride in his friends and family, so if you see him you should probably know that he isn't alone.
- He, unsurprisingly, doesn't act like a demon all that often unless he's defending himself or he's fighting someone. Other than that, he barely purrs, hardly wags his tail, will not wiggle his ears, and does not growl. He's not expressive in the slightest. So when that mask gets placed on him, he is as silent as a mouse.
Candy:
- "Ding dong, I know you can hear me, open up the door-" She just sees it as a big game of hide and seek.
- She's also dressed up as a fairy, like Maleficent. So her mask is really just a full faced Maleficent mask.
- Also, earthbender.
- Candy's magic mainly manifests in her vine-like hands in her second form, but the real magic is when she manipulates her surroundings. She can make plants, rocks, metal, anything that can come from the earth, appear from anything having to do with the environment. She can make a mace out of a log of wood if she so chooses. However, this also makes fighting her rather dangerous as she can and will attack with nearly anything and everything within her line of sight.
- Due to having wings, Candy will often hover or fly to places to get there quicker. But unlike Gidorah, Candy won't circle the sky or area, instead she'll weed out her prey from the ground. Hiding from Candy is rather easy if you catch her on her own, her sight and hearing range don't change and she tends to hum to give her prey a chance to hide. The issue is that she's never on her own. Gidorah and Luka will always be somewhere nearby Candy.
- Unlike Gidorah and Luka, Candy is the only one of the three who acts more demonic even without the mask. Not to the point of actively causing chaos, hating angels, or picking on humans, but she's more open to playful mischief and play fights than the other two. She even allows herself to keep her sharp teeth and eye slits in her human form. So when the mask gets placed on her, it just gets cranked to eleven.
Ajay:
- "Close to me-" moment.
- They're also dressed up as the jellyfish version of Ursula, so their mask is a masquerade mask with led lights in it.
- Anyway, this child is DIFFICULT.
- Ajays magic is funky and can change at the drop of a hat or the snap of their fingers. But the real magic is the souls the magic is tied to, or vengeance. Their magic mainly manifests in two ways, the normal way where they can bounce between abilities using their arm, or vengeance where their power is sourced from the angry souls within them. They likely won't actually use vengeance or even go into their second form with the mask on, so they'd probably just resort to using whatever ability fits the situation. If they need to catch someone who's running then it's teleport time, if they need to confuse someone in a small area then it's smoke cloud time.
- Due to not really going into their second form at all, they'll stay on the ground unless they have to teleport to a higher area or climb up somewhere. They're extremely quiet and have very good hearing, which makes hiding from them or sneaking up on them a task and a half. However, unlike the three pact rats, Ajay is more likely to be found alone and away from whatever group they're with, so they're the only one to worry about.
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- Ajay, being the traumatized child that they are, never acts like a demon because they don't even know how. They just go off of their human side more often than not and their demonic instincts are entirely nonexistent to them. At least to their knowledge it is. So when the mask gets put on them, they’re likely freaking out and losing it inside and will be afraid of everything for a hot second afterwards. An extra bit of trauma for flavor.
AN - I randomly got in the mood to write for the gremlins, and had a brainwash scenario in my head which birthed this.
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chidoroki · 2 years ago
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Heavenly Delusion EP3
 aka: body swap
“September 12, 2034: Ten years since the calamity.” Ah we’re a little bit ahead of the Promised Neverland timeline hm? No wonder pfftt but at this time the fullscore trio is born, huzzah!
The electric go kart profession from last time was actually true?
Who’s this nice looking Robin dude? ..Was that the same guy Kiruko was looking for? Either way, he’s got a nice kick.
Hold up! The white jacket Kiruko wears is the same as Robin’s!
Okay well, now this Haruki kid has it. I’m still so lost on what’s going on and who all these new people are.
We get to see more of Kiruko’s doppelgänger Kiriko as well. Is she from the same place as Tokio?
My memory is so bad right now, but is this doc guy the other person Kiruko is trying to find?
“Currently in use by Funayama Orphanage.” ...Do I need to say it? HMMM???
“Ten years ago, Robin had a sister my age. He lost her in the Great Disaster.” So wait.. the calamity and great disaster are two different things, right? Because we’re still currently in a flash of some sort with Haruki? Or are they just two different names for the same event?? Y’all if I don’t get answers soon about what’s happening in this world I’m gonna go insane.
These man-eaters can turn invisible? That’s troublesome.
Wait wait wait, while this creature is absorbing Haruki, does it have any relation to that other Hiruko monster from last ep? Asking only because Kiruko and Kiriko have similar names and there’s something going on there.
Oh damn, the boy really got eaten.. halfway but still.
Um I need more info about that random gunshot please??
So now we got a flashback within a flashback.. and some head surgery. Fantastic..
OHHH.. they put Haruki’s brain in Kiriko’s body, which gives us our main protag Kiruko. Am I understanding that correctly?
“I think that the shock of her brother’s death has led her to believe that she is her brother.” Or maybe not?? Fuck man I’m so lost.
No but it really is him in her body, isn’t it? Did she sacrifice herself to save him? That must be it.
Ah, good, so it was indeed Robin and the doctor Kiruko mentioned she was looking for.
“I won’t find a girl I get along with this well.” “That’s because we’re both guys.” Alright well that all makes a lot more sense now, thank you Kiruko. Feels nice to understand something in this series for once!
What a coincidence we got both Hell’s Paradise and this ending their third episode with our heroes encountering a strange fish looking to kill them.
Oohh post credit scene though.. again with Kona’s strange drawings.
“Real babies don’t have faces. Want to go and see it?” I beg your pardon??
… oh. OOHHH! Is it gonna be that weird one from one of the last trailers? Ah shit.
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makeste · 4 years ago
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BnHA Chapter 304: The Council of OFA
Previously on BnHA: Hawks and Best Jeanist were all, “what up Todofam, we are here to apply for the positions of ‘son #4’ and ‘weird uncle’, respectively,” and then proceeded to insert themselves into the family drama without waiting for an answer. Hawks briefed Endeavor on the nation’s current status of “totally fucked”, promised to help him sort that out, and then asked him about OFA. Endeavor was all, “oh do you mean One For All, the mysterious thing that my intern Deku was apparently being targeted for?” and then we cut away, presumably before Endeavor could clarify that it never occurred to him to follow up on that, and Hawks was all “no of course not, why would it occur to anyone other than me to follow up on any of this super weird and ominously important shit.” Anyway so meanwhile Bakugou was all “LET ME SCREAM AT DEKU UNTIL HE WAKES UP” and the other kids were all “NO”, and then the chapter ended with All Might being all “I wonder what the vestige!me is currently chatting with Deku about.”
Today on BnHA: Deku drops in on the Vestiges, who are all “sup Deku, how do you like our fancy chairs.” OFA II and III are all “if you need us we’ll just be standing here silently in the corner pretending to be invisible and sparking endless discourse with our mere existence.” OFA IV is all “and now I will explain to you in a very convoluted way that you being quirkless was actually a good thing, since it means that you are probably not going to suddenly drop dead at the age of twenty. But also you’re probably going to be the last user of OFA for that very same reason.” Deku is all “that is wild. I’m just gonna stand here and stare at my hand.” Nana is all “so now that that’s settled could you please do me a small favor and kill my grandson for me”, because having just one topic to discourse about this week WASN’T ENOUGH, apparently. Thanks so much Horikoshi.
(ETA: okay so just a note before I start, this week’s RHA translation was a huge mess, so I followed up this chapter by reading a couple of other translations. the main one I’m using for reference is the one by @hanashimas​, whose weekly posts I highly recommend. anyway so you’ll see a couple of ETAs in this post in places where the initial translation was off.)
how many layers of bandages did they wrap this poor kid’s fucking hand in omg
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jesus Deku. are you holding onto a bouquet of flowers under that thing?? or a tennis racket??
omg yes, finally
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is he reading these names off a teleprompter lol. and if so, what has Jeanist ever done to slight you, Deku? “god bless Kacchan and Aizawa-sensei and Todoroki-kun and everyone else in the whole wide world... except for Best Jeanist. fuck that guy.” actually this joke would be funnier if half of tumblr didn’t legit feel that way lol but anyway
OH MY GOD
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I NEED TO HAVE A TALK TOO. ABOUT, OH, EVERYTHING
I got immediate KHR vibes from ALL OF THIS. this is seriously such a Vongola aesthetic. “let’s use the luxuriously cushioned chairs with the seat backs that are ten feet high, and arrange all of the handsome ghost people in a big circle” like come on
that said there are also some slight LoTR vibes as well. “bring forth the ring, Deku”
I like how Six is sitting there with his feet drawn up all casual, but with his arms inexplicably sticking STRAIGHT OUT IN FRONT OF HIM and dangling over his knees like he’s doing some sort of zombie walk
apparently the Fourth wasn’t a big fan of shoes huh
interesting that All Might is the only one who’s still faint/indistinct, and and that Two and Three are fully visible
(ETA: the rest of my speculation about Two and Three has been moved into a separate post, the better to focus on the shit that’s actually happening in this chapter lol.)
and lastly, interesting that all of them are talking now, except for All Might (and I guess the Second and Third as well). to the best of my knowledge Deku hasn’t unlocked the Sixth’s quirk yet, so I guess the quirks don’t really have anything to do with it
oh and it looks like Deku’s mouth is still covered. I guess that’s convenient for the vestiges since we all know it’s hard to stop Deku once he gets going. but on the other hand it’s very inconvenient for people like me who wanted to see some interaction. alas
so First says that OFA’s power has grown a lot in the last four months (i.e. since Deku unlocked Blackwhip), and now the vestiges can communicate with each other as well as Deku
so even when Deku’s not around they can all just chill with each other. this is such a weird thing to me lol. like it’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also strange as hell to know that you’ve got eight other people hanging out in your head spying on everything you do and having conversations with each other about it. it would be like if Dark Shadow had someone to hang out with other than Tokoyami. good thing you weren’t triplets, Tokoyami
First says that it’s become easier for the vestiges to interact with Deku ever since TomurAFO barged into the OFA Domain back at Jakku. huh
(ETA: apparently this is because AFO forcibly pulled out OFA’s power when he was trying to steal the quirk, so I guess that makes sense.)
okay thank you Banjou for addressing this concern which I initially brought up as a joke, but which was apparently real enough for you to reassure Deku about
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“don’t worry, even though we’re awake and hanging out inside of you at all times, we’re definitely not secretly watching and making fun of every single thing you do” hmmmmm
(ETA: “not that you could do anything about it even if we were, since you’re probably going to be the last OFA holder ever!” I don’t trust anything this asshole says lmao.)
OH SHIT??
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YESSS DEKU now you can hold them accountable for all of their bullshit! because I do not doubt that there will be bullshit lol but let’s see how that goes
oh damn
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well okay then. you didn’t have to stand up and walk over to him and loom all threateningly like that but okay sir
this guy has kind of a Kimimaro vibe to him. remember? that bone-growing guy from Naruto? except I’m pretty sure he had eyebrows. and wasn’t twenty feet tall. speaking of which, that explains the chairs
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why are you wearing only 3/5ths of a shirt
lol what
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someone’s gonna have to explain this to me. is he just redundant or something lol, or is he strangely poetical or what
(ETA: apparently HE’S MAKING A PUN omg. I immediately gained +10 love for him lol. also it flows a lot better in Japanese. this is one of the things Caleb is usually good at, so we’ll see what he does with the wordplay.)
omg the hermit theory is true!!
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“I’M NOT WEIRD, IT’S SOCIETY WHICH IS WEIRD.” lol whatever you say buddy. also love how Banjou tried to give him a big hearty slap on the back but Hermit Boy was not having it lmao
IS HE TRYING TO CAPTURE HIM WITH BLACKWHIP
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AND ACTUALLY, NO, SIR, AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE ARE NOT AWARE. SO SPILL!!
?!!?
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okay my first response was LOL ARE YOU SERIOUS, THAT’S THE BIG SECRET!? -- and then it hit me what the significance of “died from old age... AT AGE FORTY” meant. at which point it was like “!!!!!” and then “OH, SHIT”
(ETA: there’s also an Iida joke here somewhere but I’m just too tired to make it.)
oh my god oh my god
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did he somehow get a copy of the coroner’s report or something? like how does he even know that he died from “old age” as opposed to any number of other natural causes? ??
but anyway. so this is the quirk singularity coming into play then I guess. but then how come All Might is still alive and ticking?
(ETA: so this is one example of where this week’s translation is a mess lol. apparently the Fourth explains here that he didn’t know what the fuck he died from until All Might researched it. and it turns out there actually was an autopsy lol so there you go.)
so Fourth says he held OFA for eighteen years, and since he knew he would never be strong enough to defeat AFO on his own he basically just spent all his time punching rocks in the woods and training to power the quirk up
oh shit
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is he implying that his body literally fell apart?? like that’s how he got the scars on his face? -- IS THAT WHAT KEEPS HAPPENING TO TOMURA, THEN. oh shit
DUDE
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so you’re telling me that this quirk actively shortens the lifespan of anyone who uses it?? and my little boy here has had it now for a year already?? fuck me, I have immediately have a TON of thoughts about all this but let me save it until he’s done with his explanation
THANK YOU, DEKU
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right?? how come All Might didn’t die then. even after he got injured. please don’t tell me he actually is dying still and is just being slow about it because I SWEAR TO GOD
what does this mean??
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so what you’re trying to say is you all have NO FUCKING IDEA how long Deku’s gonna be able to hold this quirk before he SUDDENLY DROPS DEAD?! five generations ago this dude was able to hold it for eighteen years, and then four generations later All Might was able to hold it for thirty-odd years or so, and now Deku has it and you all have no clue which way it’s gonna go? actually this makes it sound like it really wasn’t OFA that killed the Fourth at all and you guys are just really bad at forming hypotheses. but since you’re making a big plot point out of it I guess it must be true
and don’t think I didn’t notice the part where you said you didn’t have OFA very long and then “died while fighting”, Firsto. I want to hear more about that. specifically who you passed the quirk onto before your death
and yes, if we are agreeing that OFA was the cause of the Fourth’s death, then the conclusion on this next page is the natural one to draw
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so that’s a bit of a relief then, because Deku is quirkless too. so it means he won’t be able to hold OFA forever (and will probably have to find another quirkless person to pass it on to), but at least he won’t be randomly dying out of the blue next Tuesday or something
oh my god now he’s talking about OFA and AFO and user consciousnesses and all sorts of good theory stuff but it’s so much exposition. you’re really gonna make me read all this lol
wait what. why would All Might being quirkless have anything to do with the presence of his vestige in OFA Outer Space Party Land
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but Deku is also quirkless and he’s clearly visible and chatting with you guys. so what gives. like how much of this is verified fact and how much of it is you guys just shrugging and making stuff up lol
SERIOUSLY, GUYS
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BUT DEKU IS ALSO -- you know what, never mind sob. none of this shit makes any sense but whatever
(ETA: seriously, this all seems like an awful lot of speculation on their part. for Deku’s sake I sure hope they’re right.)
FSSKDJFLSKLKJLKJL ALL MIGHT IS FIFTY-FIVE?!
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lol that’s a full ten years past my closest estimate, wow. but this pretty much confirms his age now at last! or at least confirms it within a couple of years, because we know All Might and Nana met when he was in middle school, and he presumably had the quirk by the time he took the U.A. entrance exam. so yeah. gonna go with fifty-five
so they think that because All Might was quirkless, OFA was better able to adapt to his body and became his true quirk, as opposed to being an extra quirk that stacked on top of the one he already had and overwhelmed him. ties in back to the whole “AFO used to bend people to his will by forcing quirks on them” thing, as well as the “Noumus are all mindless because of the strain of having multiple quirks”
Two and Three are really ruining the serious vibe of this scene here lol
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they look like they’re doing the counting for hide and seek
and is this Deku talking now? I was about to get mad at First for implying that quirkless people are somehow freaks, as opposed to “normal” people jdslk
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so in other words, don’t go giving it to your best friend all casually for shits and giggles, Deku. even if it would make a really cool climax for a movie. well shit. maybe that’s why they were so quick to nope back into Deku’s body afterward
so First says that because quirkless people are becoming rarer and rarer, the fact that All Might just happened to stumble upon Deku is “nothing short of a miracle.” which, yeah, that was definitely a stroke of luck there. being quirkless saved his life. but being quirkless is also part of why he was chosen in the first place, and we’ve always known that much
“in other words, kiddo...”
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looks like there was some hurried clone stamp usage going on here lol. but props to RHA as always for putting this scan out so fast, especially given how exposition-heavy this week’s chapter has been
“anyways, that was the main topic” ARE YOU SERIOUS. there are like ten other topics imma need you all to get to here, people
(ETA: seems like this is a mistranslation; the line should actually read something more along the lines of “and now for the main topic.”)
FFFFFFFFF
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“ENJOY YOUR CLIFFHANGER THIS WEEK.” dskfalkjlkjwlgkjl you really went and dumped this discourse on us yet again. fucking...
(ETA: forgot to mention, but as several people mentioned, this seems to be another mistranslation -- rather than asking Deku to kill Tomura as though it’s doing her a personal favor, Nana is asking “will you be able to do it.” in other words more of an “are you capable of doing it” type of thing. which is a very reasonable question to ask given that Deku is, well, Deku.)
anyways, and the answer is obviously going to be “no” of course. this isn’t going to end any differently than when the previous Avatars all told Aang to kill Ozai. but I guess it means we’re in for a fun conversation next week
so Nana looks pretty grim here though (nothing at all like the person who once taught All Might the importance of saving people with a smile), and I’m wondering if this means she believes that her grandson is already beyond saving. as in killing him would be a mercy, as opposed to him continuing to live with AFO bending his mind and body to his will. except if that is the case, I think she’s underestimating Tomura’s own will. and definitely underestimating Deku’s will to save
and also, just... I’m so fucking sick of AFO screwing the Shimura family over, honestly. this is exactly what he wanted. well fuck you, guy. you don’t get to have what you want. go out there and save Tomura, Deku. for his sake and for Nana’s. give them some hope. do your thing, boy. can’t wait for your big speech all about it next chapter lol
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sunflowergirl522 · 4 years ago
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Stuck in Westview
Pairing: Peter Maximoff x Reader
Request by Anon: Okay, okay, so I had an idea and idk you'll do it but it's worth a shot. Plant mutation reader x Peter where they both get stuck in Westview? I haven't really thought about it past that, so the rest is up to you!
A/n: The more I wrote this one the less I liked how it was turning out but I didn’t want to leave you hanging so I tried my best. I hope you like it.
Warnings: Language
Word Count: 2689
Masterlist
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You didn’t remember much when the two of you first arrived in Westview. But you were with Peter and he seemed to know where he was going so you felt fine about it. You were ecstatic when the two of you walked up to the door and Wanda answered it. You’ve always wanted to meet Peter’s sister and now that you were, you felt like you were in a dream. Actually the whole time you’ve been in Westview has felt like a dream.
“You alright baby?” Peter’s voice breaks you out of whatever trance you were in and you look at him.
“Yeah, I’m good just lost in thought I guess, sorry.”
“You’re fine dear.” Wanda speaks as Peter wraps an arm around your shoulders and Vision comes down with a blanket and some pillows. “I uh, hope the couch will be fine for the two of you. The spare room still isn’t ready; we weren’t exactly expecting company.”
“The couch will be just fine Wanda.”
“Yeah sis, just gives us an excuse to be pressed against each other all night.” Wanda scoffs at Peter before bidding the two of you a goodnight.
“She’s nice.” You tell Peter as the two of you settle down to sleep.
“Yeah. I’m glad the two of you get along.” He yawns and kisses the top of your head as he pulls you into his chest.
In the morning you wake up well before Peter like normal. Though it was more the afternoon than the morning, you may always wake up before your boyfriend but you did end up adopting his poor sleep schedule. You lay next to him relishing in his warmth for a while before getting up and making your way into the kitchen for some cereal. Tommy comes down first and heads to the kitchen before Billy comes down dressed in a costume. 
“Halloween’s a magical holiday. All about family, friends, and the thrill of getting to be someone else for a day.” You think that he’s speaking to you at first but very quickly realize it’s like he’s talking to an imaginary audience. Your eyebrows scrunch together in confusion as you watch him from your spot on the couch at Peter's feet. You shake your head assuming it was just a kid thing and pick up your bowl to put it in the sink. “Where’s your costume Tommy?” 
“This is my costume. I’m the cool twin.”
“Then what does that make me?”
“Hmm, a dorkasaurus rex.” You hold in the chuckle that wants to escape as the joke seems to fly over Billy’s head as he tells his twin that it's not a real dinosaur. You high five Tommy when Billy leaves the kitchen with a smile before he follows his brother. The two of them bicker about Billy being scared of Peter not realizing that they’ve woken him up. 
“Blood is thicker than water! I show you!” You laugh as you watch Peter chase the kids around from the kitchen doorway. When Wanda comes down the stairs complaining about the noise you walk over to them and take your place next to Peter, who immediately wraps an arm around you bringing you closer to him. 
“I’m a Sokovian fortune teller.”
“Wow. That is so…lame.” You elbow him in the ribs when his statement causes Tommy to change his own from rad to lame. 
“I think you look great! If you didn’t have a husband I’d leave this doof and try getting with the better twin.” Wanda blushes slightly and laughs at your words. 
While Peter and Wanda talk about old Halloween’s you follow the twins to the couch to play video games with them. When Billy starts to talk to the invisible audience once more you look at him confused again before looking to see if Tommy noticed it too but he’s either too focused on the game or doesn’t see anything weird about it. Peter makes his way over eventually chuckling at something that happened. You give him your spot on the floor and sit behind him on the couch. 
“Hey babe you wanna go get 4 sodas from the fridge and we’ll teach these rugrats how to shotgun?” You just shrug and nod before getting up. “Get out of here, get out of here.” Peters trying to slap Tommy’s controller out of his hands to distract him as you juggle the four cans to the couch. You hand them out to the three boys before taking your spot again. Peter makes the holes in the bottom of their cans so they don’t hurt themselves trying and goes to do it for you just to find yours already done. “Alright when I give the signal you bring the hole to your mouth and open the can.” He makes sure they understand before exclaiming a ‘go’. Wanda and Vision soon start to fight and Billy once again speaks to the audience and Peter and you share a look after he scrunches his eyebrows up and looks to see if Tommy’s reacting. 
You must have zoned out after that though because the next thing you know Peters scaring Wanda at the door and Visions gone. When did they talk about shaving cream in water balloons you find yourself wondering as you overhear the conversation. It must’ve just happened when you were in your head again. 
“You don’t even have a costume.” Peter scoffs and then speeds off somewhere with Tommy to return in matching costumes that go with his power perfectly. “If I see any funny business, I am going to magic you into a pickled herring.” 
“Y/n I got you a costume too!” Peter speeds in front of you and drops a bag in your lap.
“What is it?”
“Just go put it on.” He pulls you to your feet and starts to push you towards the stairs. You can’t help but laugh after you get into the bathroom and open the bag up to find a Poison Ivy costume. Once you finish putting it on you notice part of an ivy plant still in the bag with a note from Peter reading ‘To make it more realistic ;)-P’. 
“Are you boys ready?” Wanda’s voice greets your ears as you make your way back downstairs.
“Yeah mom.” The twins speak at the same time and rush up to their mom who places her hands on their shoulders. 
“Pietro, you better not be bringing any shaving cream filled water balloons!” You don’t dwell long on the fact that Wanda’s been calling him Pietro, he’s already told you that when he and his mom moved to the states she had him start going by Peter. And now only his family really calls him Pietro even though they’ve gotten into the habit of using Peter instead.
“I’m not! See empty handed.” The sound of your laughter as Peter appeared in front of the family holding his hands out as proof drew all of their attention to you. “You look great babe. I dig the crown thing you’ve got going on.” You had decided to grow the ivy around your head and then around the rest of your body randomly from there.
“Thanks.” You blush a bit at the attention as you join the four of them in front of the door. 
“Woah aunt Y/n, who are you supposed to be?” Tommy asks as he takes in all the green.
“Have you guys really never seen a Batman show or read the comics? She’s Poison Ivy also known as Mother Nature, it fits Y/n a lot considering her power.”
“Her power?” Wanda asks as Billy asks you what it is.
“I can control plants.” You shrug it off because it’s not a big deal, there were plenty of cooler mutations than yours anyway (even if Peter would yell at you for thinking that).
“That’s so rad!” Peter high fives Tommy in agreement excited that his nephew likes it as much as he does.
“How did you get it?” Before you can tell Wanda that you were born with it, Peter gives her some bogus story that’s really similar to Poison Ivy's origin story. You’re confused because it doesn’t make sense for him to lie about it but you don’t have a chance to correct him before he’s taking your hand and pulling you out of the house to ‘get this party started’.
You watch smiling as Tommy and Billy race from house to house to see who can get the most candy and tune into what Wanda and Peter were talking about in time to hear him say she’s testing him. Why would she be testing him, for what?
“Hey, it’s cool. I know I look different.”
“Why do you...look different?” Look different? You turn to really study and look at Peter to try to see what she means. The only thing that’s different is that his hair is more blonde but that’s about it, it’s not some major change or anything. When the twins come back ready to keep moving down the street Peter brings you into a side hug and places a kiss on your temple before running with them to get more candy. Though you notice that Billy holds onto Tommy and Peter doesn’t even try to hold onto the backs of their necks. What happened to whiplash? 
As everything starts to feel off to you and you try to figure things out your head starts to feel hazy and it’s like your body goes on autopilot as you strike up conversation with Wanda. It’s like an out of body experience as you basically just watch the conversation happen without knowing what’s being said. You feel so lost and empty right in this moment and it only fades a little when Wanda starts to talk to someone else. You don’t fully snap back into it until Peter laces his hand in yours again.
“Pete,” you say to him when Wanda and the kids walk ahead of you, “I feel strange.”
“What kind of strange?” He places a hand on your forehead to check if you’re warm. “You don’t have a fever. Are you queasy? Do you wanna go back to the house?”
“No, it’s not that I feel sick. I just, I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like a prisoner in my own body.”
“I think I know what you mean. It happens very suddenly right? And then something snaps you out of it and you feel better?”
“Yeah that’s it.”
“Uncle P are you coming?” Tommy’s voice pulls the two of your attention to them and Peter plasters a smile on his face.
“Sure am little dude, just had to tell your aunt how hot she looks again!” He pulls you behind him as he catches up with his family. The five of you make your way to the town square scare as it starts to become night.
“It’s so lame that you’re making them return the candy.” Peter says after a moment of silence passes from when Wanda scolded the twins for stealing it in the first place.
“I can’t believe what a bad influence you are?” You start to think about her words, you know it’s been a while since they’ve seen eachother but surely this is what Peter acted like growing up. It’s definitely how he’s acted the whole time you knew him.
“It’s what you wanted isn’t it?”
“What happened to your accent?”
“What happened to yours?” You watch as they seem to have a mini showdown challenging the other. “Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all and next thing I know I hear you callin me. I knew you needed me.” His words don’t sit well with you, they don’t sound right but something in the back of your head makes you trust them.
“Uncle P, guess what?” The twins run up and semi break the tension in the air with their excitement.
“They’ve got full size candy bars a few blocks up. Can we go Mom?” Tommy then speeds away and comes back with some of the bars in his hand. You and Peter look at eachother shocked and you can see the excitement on his face that his nephew has the same power as him.
“Right on, little dude! Chip off the old Maximoff block. You got super speed!”
“I do?”
“Yeah!” The two of them high five with big excited smiles on their faces and you stand back with an adoring one. Peter may be a bad influence but he’s really just so good with kids. When Tommy starts to speed around whooping in joy you step closer to Peter and wrap your arms around his stomach smiling up at him.
“If you’re gonna break the sound barrier at least take your brother with you.”
“Really?” 
“Yes really. And please just remember-”
“Don’t go past Ellis Avenue. We know mom.” After the twins run off and Wanda yells after them to be careful the three of you continue on your way to the town square where kids are running rampant and hay bales have been set up.
“This is so nice.” You say as you look around.
“Isn’t it?” Wanda responds and smiles over at you.
“Damn it, if Westview, New Jersey isn’t charming as hell.”
“I know that you guys must think that I’ve gone full soccer mom. But it really is nice right?” The three of you sit down on one of the hay bales in the center of town square. You smile and agree with her as Peter brings your legs over one of his and squeezes your thigh.
“I think mom and dad would’ve loved it.” You want to speak up and ask if Wanda knew about Erik but suddenly you couldn’t speak, it was like your lips were being forced closed. You started to feel that sense of being a prisoner again and as if he could sense your panic Peter squeezes your thigh again as he and Wanda talk about the kids in Westview. “I’m impressed seriously, it’s a big upgrade from giving people nightmares and shooting red wiggly woos out of your hand.” Leave it to Peter for being impressed when his family members do something people consider wrong. “I’m not some stranger, and I’m not your husband. You can talk to me, and Y/n too. She’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”
“I don’t know how I did it. I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. I just...endless nothingness.” She looks away and sniffles a bit before looking back over and gasping while covering her face.
“Are you okay?” You finally find your lips free in time to worry about Wanda and ask if she’s alright.
“I’m fine.”
“Uh huh.” Peter glances over at you as he hums not believing her.
“Mom!” The twins then rush over with Billy yelling for her over and over again.
“What is it Billy?” 
“I hear dad in my head. He’s in trouble. I don’t understand. What’s happening to me?”
“I think Billy might have powers too.” You whisper to Peter as the two of you get up and walk over to the trio. 
“Where is he? Where’s your dad?”
“Hey, don’t sweat it sis. It’s not like your dead husband can die twice.” Wanda’s quick to force him into the fake graveyard after he speaks.
“Oh my god!” You run over to Peter as Wanda’s attention goes back to her kids.
“God why did I say that?” Peter’s rubbing his head when you make it to him.
“Peter, Peter I think we should go.” You see Wanda getting ready to use her power again before looking back at Peter. “Now!” He grabs onto you and runs back to Wanda’s street. The hold that was in your mind is gone now and you can remember getting pulled into this city before not remembering anything. “Shit, Peter I don’t think we belong here.”
“I think you’re right baby. Let’s find a way out of here.”
Taglist: @amourtentiaa @simpforquicksilver @loveyou3000-mcu @quickparkers @buckysbeloved @elaineygrace @practicallylivesonline @stars-of-clarke​ @b3d0fr0s3s​
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fanficparker · 4 years ago
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If opened: Request for Harrison Osterfield In which Harrison is madly in love with the reader but is to scared to bring up his feelings for her due to her being very shy and quiet but the reader accidently let’s it slip that she likes him or something idk
Cute... I had a lot of fun writing it. Also it got LOADS OF TOM HOLLAND IN THIS and you are basically asked to choose one of them in a fun way 🙈...Also, I flew away with it and now it’s 1.6k words, so basically it’s an actual one-shot. Let's see where it goes:—
MONOPOLY | H.O., T.H.
Harrison Osterfield x Reader, Tom Holland x Reader
Word count: 1.6k words
Warning: Swearing...
Summary: You are stuck in the game of monopoly with two idiots and there’s no escape. Shit is about to happen...
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Harrison was not exactly your friend. Your friend was Tom and Tom's friend was Harrison, so as maths works, his relationship with you could be best described as a friend of a friend. Yeah, friend of friend, nothing more. Period.
But then he always tagged along with Tom, so you were subjected with big doses of him in your life, much more than what you had anticipated. Whenever you would open the door for Tom, there was always a Harrison waiting patiently at his back, waiting till you both had finished interacting.
And when you were done with hugging and mocking Tom as friends do, Harrison would smile at you and offer a small wave, fingers running gently in the air. He wouldn't say hi but mouth it. It was always just his lips moving without a real sound. You could read it though. You reciprocated the same. And that became your little greeting.
You were shy and quiet, the stereotypical introvert, so there wasn't ever a proper conversation with Harrison without the presence of Tom. Tom always forced the words out of you. He was good at it and had a big mouth but Harrison... He just went with your natural form. Although he was full of jokes and occasional flirting, which you could never complain about. That was how he was and you had also accepted him in his natural form.
On a normal Saturday evening, the three of you were sitting on the sides of an international monopoly board. Tom was sitting beside you, while Harrison was sitting opposite to you but beside Tom.
"Woo Woo Woo... I owe the whole of London now!!!" Tom squealed, doing a little dance with his hands, shoving his token over the block and dramatically throwing the paper currency at Harrison's lap.
"Take my money, banker!" He growls, lurching forward at Harrison as if the word he addressed Harrison with was wanker instead of banker. Or maybe he actually said wanker; he is Tom after all. Harrison rolled his eyes at his best-friend, dumping the fake currency to the side and tossed the dice.
"Eight!" Tom yelled, reading the numbers.
"I can count," Harrison said unimpressed as he moved his token eight blocks ahead and made it land over 'Income Tax'.
Tom laughed loudly, patting his friend's back while Harrison cursed, putting some of his money aside. You watched their interaction with an ear-to-ear smile, occasional giggles leaving your lips.
"Your chance, Y/n," Harrison says, picking up the pair of dice in his hands and giving it to you. His fingers brushed over your palm, sending little chills down your spine.
Oh yeah, Harrison was after all your crush too. How convenient? That definitely meant tons of awkwardness. But how could you ever resist? His smile, the shape of his face, his sweet voice, his eyes, his laugh, the stuff he talks, his playfulness, his dumb jokes, his knack for helping everyone in need, those curls and now just imagine all those things at one place.
You looked down at the board, tossing the dice.
"Twelve..." Harrison whispers, looking at you through his lashes and smiles. Your heart does that little flip-flop thingy. You move ahead and end up at Jakarta which luckily was your own property. Tom lurches forward, picking up the dice and rolling them over.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" He curses, finally landing over Rio De Janeiro, now owing Harrison a sum of two-hundred pounds. A smile spreads across the blonde's face as he jokes —
"Looks like a billionaire is crashing down." He winks at you. You force out a laugh, more like a cough mixed with fake giggles to counter the warmth sweeping in your chest and on your face.
"I need drinks!" Tom growls, submitting the money to Harrison and laying back on the floor.
"Get 'em yourself..." Harrison throws back, counting the notes and tossing the dice.
"Karma!" Tom mumbles, sitting up, seeing the token landing over Lagos.
"Ah... Y/n will surely give me a discount, right?" He asks, looking at you hopefully but in an amusing way.
"Nah... You gotta pay extra taxes instead!" You laugh, slowly feeling connected with the game. Also, the drinks that Tom brought from the fridge were working their way in your system.
Then the game went on for several minutes in which Tom had already showered himself with the fake currency two times.
At one point Harrison frustratingly threw the only twenty pounds he owned at the middle of the board.
"We should play UNO instead. This game is shit!" He declares, hands folded across his chest.
"Why? Cause you are almost bankrupt?" Tom taunts.
"Oh, it's because you are cheating!" Harrison replies, rolling his eyes.
"Dude you are the banker!" He exclaims as you chuckle.
"Whatever. I don't care," He shrugs, trying to get up.
"You can't leave before ending the game!!" You whine and he looks at you.
"Okay. Just because Y/n is saying..." He gives Tom a dirty glare, plopping down on the floor again.
"Just because Y/n is saying..." Tom repeats in a poor Harrison's voice impression.
"Shut up, cheater!" Harrison grumbles and shifts the bank from between them to the other side.
"Ugh, kids..." You groan comically, getting back into the game.
"Y/n... Y/n?" Harrison whispers after two turns.
"What?"
"I invite you to be my business partner," He clicks his tongue while Tom's eyebrows narrow.
"What? No wayyy! That's cheating!!!" He bounces on his lap.
"Says who? One who's in jail? And it's not cheating. That how businesses work," He spat looking at Tom and then looks at you, expressions softening within nano-seconds, "Also Y/n. I have so many properties and you got so much cash in hand. Imagine how powerful we both would be together? We can become the biggest business tycoon in the world!" He completes looking up dreamily with hands stretched out.
"Y/n, don't listen to him. He is an idiot."
Harrison ignores Tom's words and slides from his spot, sitting beside you, knees touching.
"I am not. You know what's best for us. Right na?" Harrison asks softly, leaning his head to the side and close to you, his slightly wet curls falling over his forehead. And those amazing eyes were staring deep into yours. The knot in your stomach tightens making you feel nauseous and pleased with his close proximity simultaneously.
You need more alcohol.
"I-I think... Yeah. It's a good idea..." You speak slowly, hiccuping mid-sentence, breaking the lethal eye-contact with Harrison, while Tom's eyes grew wider.
"Seriously Y/n, you have better options!" Tom says, pointing both his index fingers at himself.
"Rubbish. Everyone knows Y/n likes me better than you." Harrison smirks, glancing at both of you periodically.
"You wish." Tom dramatically whips an invisible ponytail resting over his shoulder to his back, looking confident as ever, "Y/n darling, why don't you bless him with facts..."
For the first time in your life, everyone's eyes were on you. Well, at least these two handsome boys...
You were already nervous.
"It's not fair," You try to change the topic, "You can't ask me to choose between you both. Tom is my friend and Harrison is my crush. I can't---" You instantly clamp your mouth shut.
"What?!" Tom spits the beer in his mouth to the floor.
Your mouth opens and closes, unable to find words. You don't even dare to face Harrison—
"Holy shit!" Harrison mutters under his breath. You can hear it, he's sitting next to you, skin touching. As if everything else wasn’t great already.
Don't look at him. Don't look at him. And then you are looking at him.
He's biting his lip, his Adam's apple is bobbing in his throat.
"You like me?" He questions as if he was making sure. There was no escape...
You suck in a breath, "Yeah... I do..." You instantly avert your gaze to your thighs.
"Oh my god! OH MY GOD! I LIKE YOU SO MUCH!" Harrison yelps like a high-school teen and grabs both of your hands in his bigger ones, jumping up and pulling you to stand with him.
"I am seriously leaving. This is going awkward," Tom says and gets up to leave but then he shoots you a wink before shutting the main door.
Little shit.
He knew. Of course, he knew!
Now it's just you and Harrison. Alone... for the first time. What an awfully pleasant experience...
Harrison squeezes your hands and you look at him.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I would have taken you to the best of dates, feed you with the best delicacies..." He says, shaking your hands lightly.
"Y-you could have told me..." You manage to say, feeling a bit confident now that things weren't unrequited.
"Dude. I seriously never guessed. I just had this secret crush on you and you talk more to Tom and we never talk in a bilateral way. The boat looked imbalanced from my side, I was seriously freaking out!" He rambles.
"Oh..." You look at your interlaced fingers. They feel good...
Harrison senses your disappointing expressions, so he steps onto the pedestal himself, "No worries. I can take you out now... So, will you go on a date with me?"
You were looking into each other's eyes. His eyes were basically pleading.
"It's not even a question. Of course!" You say, grinning and he's quick to grab you into a warm hug.
You can't thank Tom enough for getting him bankrupt with his great skills... at cheating in the game of Monopoly.
Can you?
___________
P.S.: Requests are open :) Anyone who wants to request, just shoot me an ask. Response time will be between 1 to 5 days. Also you can send me an ask to get tagged in future fics :) or even ask to get removed :)
Taglist: @asmilinghopefullromantic // @just-a-littlebit-of-everything // @xximaweirdoxx // @jjasalem // @spidergirl007 // @wizliar // @justasmisunderstoodasloki // @veronicas-littleworld // @acceptance07 // @ghostspf // @screeching-student-unknown // @fanficscuziranout // @miraclesoflove // @trustfundparker // @tikapollak // @yourmum792 // @skymoonandstardust // @httplayer // @starlight-starks // @silverwolf-sama // @riz-holland-osterfield // @multifandomdoodles121 // @serendipitous-amor // @viagracex // @halfblood-princess-505 // @parkerpeter24 // @god-knows-what-am-i-doing // @hazardosterfield // @the-crazy-fanfictionist // @lost-aesthetic-of-past //  @lizzyosterfield // @tomhaz
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mst3kproject · 4 years ago
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The Equinox
'Aleczilla51297′ appears to have made a tumblr purely for the purpose of telling me I need to review Equinox and Godzilla vs Hedorah.  I decided to do Equinox first because I’ve already seen Godzilla vs Hedorah, which is one of the preachier Godzilla movies but does have that hilarious bit where the big guy flies by using his atomic breath as a rocket.  If Equinox turns out to be a #fuck this movie entry, then Godzilla can act as a sort of a palate-cleanser.  And so, without further ado:
Something blows up, a woman called Susan dies, and a dude gets run down by a driverless car.  My Dad would feel vindicated – he finds the whole idea of self-driving cars untrustworthy.  The victim, whose name is David Fielding, ends up in a mental hospital, where he tells his story to a psychiatrist.  Seems that Dave, his pal Jim, Jim’s girlfriend Vicky, and Vicky’s friend Susan, headed up into the mountains for a picnic with their old teacher Dr. Waterman. These people are all idiots.
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The four young people arrive to find Waterman’s cabin destroyed and a creepy old man living in a cave nearby, who gives them a locked book. Because the characters don’t know they’re in a bad movie, they don’t realize that the book is clearly the fucking Necronomicon, and decide to crack it open and read it while they eat their KFC. To nobody’s surprise, they’re soon being chased around the countryside by dumb stop-motion monsters.  At the end everybody’s dead but Dave, who’s in the mental hospital waiting for the fulfillment of a prophecy that said he would die a year and a day after the original events, but that’s not a spoiler because it was the opening scene.
Let’s go over the shit that happens when these four clowns arrive at Dr. Waterman’s.  The cabin’s destroyed and the park ranger who discusses it with them says his name is Asmodeus.  Does that sound like a signal you should get the hell out of there?  No?  Okay, how about when they find a castle they can’t remember being there before?  Still no?  Well then, on their way to the castle (which later vanishes behind a wall of invisibility, probably because they couldn’t afford interior sets), they come across a cave with Green Goblin laughter echoing out of it, and weird velociraptor footprints all around.  Would you leave, or would you light up some torches and go check it out?  What about when you find a partially-mummified corpse in the cave?
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The whole first ten minutes of the flashback that comprises most of the narrative is a litany of things I’m pretty sure anybody would flee from in real life.  I don’t believe much in the supernatural but if I saw all that I would be sure that multiple crimes had been committed and that I wanted no part of it.  The characters of Equinox, however, insist on investigating themselves, and continue to make stupid, stupid decisions for the entire run time.  Yes, let’s all go in a group to check and make sure the monster is dead.  Let’s hang around and bury the bodies ourselves instead of getting back to civilization for a police report and a good stiff drink.  Let’s collect the picnic stuff before we leave because that basket cost at least $15 at Wal-Mart.  It’s the kind of movie where you start to get annoyed that the characters aren’t dying fast enough.  When we finally get back to the opening shot I mainly felt relief that the movie was almost over.
The MST3K movie Equinox most reminds me of is The Day Time Ended: there are people in the middle of nowhere and, for some reason, a bunch of random stop-motiony things happen that never actually add up to a story.  Stuff comes and goes without serving any purpose other than to be creepy.  Who was Crazy Cave Guy?  I at first assumed he was the missing Dr. Waterman but Waterman turns up later and immediately dies, so what’s going on with this other guy?  What’s about the cave mummy… who was that?  Was the man who showed up to snatch the book actually Dr. Waterman or just a demon in his form?  Why is there a random graveyard in the middle of the woods?  Why does the psychiatrist have a creepy monster mask on his wall?  What’s up with Asmodeus apparently trying to rape Susan without even unbuttoning his pants, and later possessing her so that she does the same thing to Vicky?
Dialogue specifies that Dr. Waterman was a geologist, which seems an odd choice for somebody to be translating ancient documents.  I mean, there’s no reason why a geologist can’t have a side interest in ancient manuscripts, but when a movie takes the trouble to tell you something like that there’s usually a reason why.  Geology is never important to the plot, even tangentially.
It must be said that Equinox makes slightly more sense than The Day Time Ended, in that we’re actually given a reason why these events are happening.  Dr. Waterman had acquired and translated the Necronomicon and could not control the demons he summoned (I am convinced that Sam Raimi saw Equinox when he was around twelve and thought, shit, I could make a better movie than this!).  A huge tentacle creature destroyed his cabin, and then there’s the sabre-toothed ogre, the giant green caveman, and of course, the devil himself.  These creatures have a motivation: they are determined to get the book back, whether through force or persuasion.  The events could still happen in any order, but it all has a common core, rather than being just a collection of Concepts.
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In capable hands this story could be made to work (see previous parentheses), but sadly none of the hands involved in making Equinox were remotely capable.  The acting is abysmal, mostly just people standing around awkwardly reciting their lines. All the dialogue was then dubbed over in post-production, which makes it even more stiff and awkward.  There’s a bit where a guy reads a letter as if he has to sound out each word.  The direction and music are bland.  Even the costumes are awful.  You’d think it would be hard to fuck up costumes in a movie set in the present, but it looks like everyone just turned up to set in their street clothes and they went with that.  Good costuming can tell us a lot about characters but the outfits here say nothing. Also, both Vicky and Susan are blondes in blue shirts, and once Susan’s hair falls out of its bun they’re basically indistinguishable.
The characters have no discernable personalities.  How they react to things changes from scene to scene, with nobody’s motives clear.  The only thing that remains constant is Jim wanting to leave while Dave always wants to stay and take care of something or other.  Stuff happens that could result in character development but none of it is ever followed up.  The most notable example is when Dave feels terrible guilt over having apparently killed Dr. Waterman, but this is forgotten a few minutes later and we never even find out if the dead man were really Dr. Waterman.
The effects are uniformly bad, but not usually enough so to be entertaining in themselves.  The castle is an obvious matte painting and the stuff on the other side of the portal, whether it’s Hell or the Dark Dimension or I don’t even know, is just the same spot in the woods with an orange filter over it.  There’s a stupid spinning thing used to represent Asmodeus exercising assorted dark powers.  The devil and the sabre-toothed ogre are both stiff and shitty stop-motion puppets.  The animation is surprisingly competent for a movie with the budget of Jr. High drama club, but they’re still not good.  The one exception is the giant green caveman, which looks dumb but is quite convincing as occupying space and interacting with the characters.
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One might expect that this movie would be about the temptation of evil.  The monsters in it are summoned using a book of dark knowledge, and in trying to get the book back Asmodeus offers Jim anything he wants – money, prestige, women, you name it.  Problem is, there’s never any sign that the main characters are in fact tempted.  The crazy guy in the cave wants nothing from the book except to get rid of it.  He passes it on to Dave and Jim with evident glee.  Dr. Waterman’s interest in it, according to his notes, was purely scientific.  He summoned demons just to see if he could do it, but he doesn’t appear to have gained anything thereby except the knowledge that it works.  The main characters never even attempt to use the book, even to get themselves out of this mess, they just run around trying to keep it out of the hands of the monsters.  I’d say it’s like if every character in The Lord of the Rings was book-Faramir, but only a colossal nerd would use an example like that.
Honestly, I think this movie was about the wrong characters.  Dr. Waterman’s process of discovering the book and learning to use it, only to realize he’s unleashed things he cannot control, would probably have been a much more interesting story.  The characters from this film could have shown up at the end to fish the book out of the mess, with the implication that they will be its next victims.  This would have been a much better way to explore the ideas of temptation, making a Faust-like character out of Waterman as he is tempted not by riches or fame, but by knowledge and power.
Equinox is not quite #fuck this movie bad.  In order to earn that tag, a film has to be unwatchably dull and/or morally repugnant. I didn’t have any trouble sitting through Equinox but I also didn’t really enjoy the experience.  As movies about demonic forces go, it’s pretty bland and nothing much really seems to happen.  I guess that means I have to forgive Aleczilla51297 for sending it to me, but I’m still looking really forward to a Godzilla film or two.
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jq37 · 4 years ago
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The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 8 Deep Bleu Sea
That Sinking Feeling
Welcome back to A Crown of Candy, the show where you’re forced to come to terms with a possible PC perma-death every single battle episode, no exceptions.
We left our five PCs in an extremely sticky situation last week--on a sinking ship, in open ocean, with two House Bleu ships gunning for them. The only real move here is to abandon ship and commandeer one of the enemy ships to make their escape.
This is one of those eps where a LOT happens in a very short period of time so, rather than a straight play by play, I’m going to make sure you get the mood of the fight along with all the key moments.
Amethar makes for the closest enemy ship while Ruby unhooks the grappling hooks that were going to be used to board their ship. Liam--newly christened war guy--has a HELL of a turn, fully killing one of the enemy ship captains, ignoring the difficult terrain that stymied Amethar to leap to the next boat, and not only can he see in the dark--the ship is largely in darkness--because the enemy pirates are using alchemy to get night vision, Liam is invisible to them. They hear him land on the ship but they can’t see him. Rage is apparently a good look on Liam.
Stilton, on his turn, wastes zero time. He swings over to the crow’s nest of the Colby and, on a Nat 20, runs Primsy through with his sword to the genuine horror of everyone at the table. Primsy drops to death saves instantly but he fails his rolls to strike again, failing to finish her off. Primsy has to make her first death save right away which she fails. Thanks, I hate it. The only silver lining is that Jet (owing to a Nat 20 stealth check last episode) is nearby, concealed, and ready to spring into action. 
New Kid on Deck
A rowboat comes to collect Stilton and bring him back to his ship and one of the rowers clocks Jet and yells, “Archers, archers! The princess!” Jet gets the sense that she’s about to be riddled with arrows when, all of a sudden, there’s a puff of swirling pink and red fog, out from which pops a pink and blue cotton candy monk--the same cotton candy monk from Theo’s flashback last week--Cumulus Rocks! He slams down onto the rowboat and declares “The Hungry One must feed,” doing a knockback attack that knocks all the soldiers into the yogurt (something that has already been established as pretty lethal considering the downsuction of the sinking ship and also the current). Welcome back Zac Oyama! Jet wants to know who this dude is and he says he’s a cousin to Amethar and he’s arrived to protect the magic of Candia. 
Not to be outdone, on her turn, Jet hits a Nat 20 to attack Stilton (with a soft, “For Lapin”) and not only pushes him into the ocean (already a death sentence) she also throws a dagger at him on the way down to the very bottom of the ocean. The dude is fully dead. She also tries to stabilize Primsy and fails (but does get her to do some more strong woman affirmations, which is something). She holds the rest of her action (which she intends to use to get herself and Primsy into a rowboat) until Ruby can send Yak to help her.
Theo gets a Nat 20 to throw his sword at some rope in the ship’s rigging and call it back so he can grab it and use it to get to Primsy. Brennann is gonna give him a hard time about doing it in full armor but, guess what? Bam! Another Nat 20! He makes it straight up to the crow’s nest with Primsy, no sweat. But, unfortunately, when he tries to stabilize her the classic Murph rolls come back and he gets a Nat 1.
Amethar jumps to the boat with Liam (doing 14 damage to the captain) and most of Annabelle’s sailors follow him. This is not at all relevant to the plot but I would be remiss to not mention how hyped both Amethar and Lou are about the concept of this squad of bad-ass lady sailors.  
Ruby, Mage Hand’s the rope from the enemy ship and ties it to herself like an aerialist so she can shoot from above and sends Yak to help Jet. Then she aims for the same captain that Amethar just attacked and guess what? Nat 20 Baybee! That’s 8d6 and she plugs him in the head, taking him out. 
Jet takes her held action now and brings Primsy into the rowboat with Cumulus. Liam continues to be Peppermint Batman and does a bunch of damage to help clear the ship. 
Primsy has another death save which she fails but, thankfully, not with a Nat 1 which would have been fatal. 
The marauders still on the Colby jump into their escape rowboat and square up with the other rowboat where Jet/Primsy/Cumulus are. The last Cheddar sailors make it off the boat but Theo is still on deck and Annabelle won’t leave anyone behind so she goes to help him. 
Cumulus jumps into the enemy rowboat and kicks ass. We also learn that he has the ability to, after killing someone, siphon their life energy in the form of temp HP. Theo yells and asks if someone named Lazuli made him and he says, “In a sense, yes.”
Jet uses Yak for advantage and stabilizes Primsy with a 19 medicine check. Annabelle sees her actions from her spot on the Colby and, once again, salutes Jet.
Into the Drink
Theo knocks a dude who’s been griefing him into the ocean and then jumps into the party rowboat, from there to the enemy rowboat, and then Action Surges so he can knock some heads.
Since Annabelle used her action to help Theo and not steady the ship, the ship starts sinking faster. Jet--standing in the nearby rowboat--has to make a Dex saving throw to not get jostled by the suction and she fails, falling into the ocean. Cumulus steadies the rowboat they’re in but Annabelle fails her save as well. The top part of the crow’s nest falls into the ocean, Annabelle along with it. Brennan has everyone (except Ruby) roll Strength saves to weather the storm and not only is Annabelle pushed underwater, Theo (who is wearing full plate mail armor--famously not buoyant) falls in.  
Amethar tries to maneuver the ship so it will be positioned to stop his friends from getting washed out to sea and, when it fails, runs and jumps back onto the sinking Colby. There is one last sailor on there that steadies the boat on his order and gets the broken mast of the crow’s nest near Theo.
Ruby, on a Nat 20, swings over to the enemy ship and Mage Hand’s Jet a rope. 
The big Bleu ship that they haven’t commandeered starts sailing away since the fight clearly isn’t going their way. (Sidenote, extremely wild that the big bad of this fight got unceremoniously taken out literally in round one and was really the least of everyone's’ worries.)
One of the cheese dudes tries to attack Cumulus. Murph, the genius, asks if he can use his reaction from Swirlwarden to move to take the attack--move from the ocean where he will for sure die to the safety of the rowboat. Brennan bestows upon him the title of motherfucker but lets him take a DC 20 Athletics check with disadvantage (cancelled by Sprinkle to a straight roll) to do that shenanigan. He hits it! As he’s drowning, Swirlwarden glows and Theo knows a member of House Rocks is in danger. He springs out of the ocean, and takes 13 points of damage for Cumulus, absolutely saving his life.
Annabelle nails three checks in a row so she can get her head above water and start making her way back to safety. Jet, on her turn, pulls herself back into the boat and then attacks a dude with a dagger so she can spend a superiority die to give Annabelle some extra free movement (which is a very wild thing to do--to kill someone incidentally so your friend can walk a little faster somehow--the mechanics of D&D are wild). Theo holds an oar out for Amethar to help him get off the sinking Colby.
There’s another round of saves and Ruby rolls a Nat 1 (so does Theo but he’s in a position of safety so it doesn't matter). She not only falls into the ocean, she falls off on the side of the boat where there’s no one to help her. 
Amethar needs to swim to the commandeered ship but Lou first tries to figure out if there’s anything he can do for Ruby. “I’m so far away,” Siobhan says, “There’s nothing you can do.” Lou fully disregards that and Amethar swims to the boat, rages, and starts chucking cheese dudes into the ocean, one of which he (on a Nat 20) throws into a piece of the ship which knocks down to where Ruby is so she can grab it. Ruby then throws a rope to Liam and calls Yak back to her to help. She pulls herself back onto the ship and throws the rope to Annabelle (though it goes a little wide).   
Liam continues to kick ass (fully clearing the ship) and also sails the ship closer to the sinking Colby to help the sailor still on it. Annabelle jumps onto the ship with Liam and takes the helm. Cumulus and Jet commit some quick war crimes and kill the two remaining cheese bandits from the rowboat that had already surrendered on their turn. The other big Bleu ship continues to sail away and they don’t chase it. There are some medicine checks and only one of Annabelle’s sailors ends up dead (which I’m sure is sad for her crew but, on a macro level, is frankly a miracle).
Rocks Family Reunion 
The fight over, they’re left to figure out what’s going on with this extremely clutch, Keanu Reeves-y, Cotton Candy monk who poofed in out of nowhere.  
On a Nat 20, History/Family Tree check, Ruby knows that Cumulus is a distant cousin who disappeared (not left, disappeared) 25-30 years ago, before the war. She Messages that info to Jet and Theo (interesting that Theo is in the inner circle now). Theo clocks a Lapiz Lazuli pendant around his neck and asks how he got it. Cumulus said he got it from the lady herself, that he’s an Order of the Spinning Star monk, and that he was created by her to protect the magic of Candia. 
Theo knew that Lazuli was doing a lot of cool/crazy experimental stuff but is a little taken aback by Cumulus. Lazuli never really talked about the monks and also didn’t call on them to help in the war, saying that they were doing plenty already, something that annoyed him at the time. She said that the war would preserve the kingdom but the monks would preserve Candia (which she also didn’t explain because what kind of Divination Wizard would she be if she was straightforward about things? That was meant to be rhetorical but as I type, the answer is Adaine/Ayda). 
He also knows that she had “different servants” to help her with different things. Theo’s not sure where the monks get their magic from but he knows it’s not wizard magic and he knows that Citrina got into a big fight with Lazuli once after visiting the monastery (which is a pretty big clue). Theo tells everyone all of that. Cumulus says that he was sent to help when Candia went to war and makes it seem like he was in some kind of suspended state (or maybe confined physically) until he was needed because of Candia’s war with the Concord. He doesn’t really get the specifics. He also doesn’t get why he hasn’t gotten any of the Rocks Family Christmas High Frosting’s Eve cards over the past 30 years. And, wildly, that’s where we end our episode!
Before I get to the normal post-recap segments, I have some business to take care of. There is an anon who I like to think of as my Angel of Death anon, who called Brennan’s shot on Preston before it happened and then called Primsy’s death before this episode. I said that if Primsy so much as went down and had to roll death saves, I would invent a Crown of Candy version of detention just for them and, as it turns out, she did, immediately. So, because I’m a woman of my word:
1 Million Years Dungeon!
Congrats anon! You get to be the first occupant of the dungeon and you’re not even an N/PC! Honestly, kinda impressive. 
Sunny Side Up
Not that I doubted them for a minute, but very gratified by the obligatory Gilear shout out while in the Yogurt Shoals.
“I’m trying to kill you Brennan, personally. I’m trying to make you die.”
(to Brennan who just claimed he’s being bullied on his own show) “*YOU’RE* being bullied?”
“Do I get an opportunity attack on Theo?”
“Do you think reality is being strained by the fact that a bird is helping you perform surgery right now?” (And then Siobhan’s assertion that Ruby and Yak have a telepathic connection so it’s actually Ruby--an 18 y/o bandit with no medical training--who is giving the help. So much better.)
Brennan says something like, “Kids, don’t try this at home,” about the absolute insanity happening in the battle and then Siobhan goes, “Yes, because they will definitely get the opportunity to do so.”
Whatever the hell was going on with Dome cheese.
Things I’m Concerned About
Like the whole attack at the cathedral, this is another fight that doesn’t look good on the Candians from an outside perspective. I mean, they’re already fully persona non grata but Stilton is a known man of the church. No one else really has a reason to suspect him of treason. So it just looks like they’re sniping Bulbians. Plus they left some of his men alive which means they get to tell whatever story they want when they get back. Like, maybe in their version it’s actually the evil Candians and their traitorous Dairy Island allies who ambushed the poor dearly departed Lord Bleu. They might have given the church a martyr.  
OK, so between the fight Lazuli and Citrina had about the monks and Cumulus fully declaring, “The Hungry One Must Feed!” before doing his life drain mojo, it seems pretty clear where his powers are coming from. We don’t yet know if the Hungry One is like the Bulb in being powerful but mindless or if it has motives--sinister or benign or anything in between--but, either way, fraternizing with an affiliate with the direct antithesis of the State Sponsored Deity™ (who also sometimes does war crimes) seems, como se dice, problematic.
What’s going on with the rest of the House Cheddar fleet? Were they given bad orders from Bleu that they had no reason to mistrust or were they in cahoots?
I, generally speaking, trust Lazuli but mmm, making full people (assuming that’s what Cumulus meant), dealing with entities beyond mortal comprehension, and keeping secrets from everyone aren’t things that have a history of going super smoothly. I’m getting Princess Bubblegum vibes and I always found PB so shady. Also, if you create someone in  lab, is cousin the title they get? Is that how that works?
This isn’t something I am concerned about so much as something I was concerned about but a Cotton Candy monk in an ocean fight is just a recipe for anxiety.
It seems like Caramelinda is gonna be in next episode and that just activates my fight or flight in a way I can’t fully articulate. 
Five More Things
Extremely funny that Lou, who plays a pirate’s son in Fantasy High, is truly just guessing when it comes to all ship words but Siobhan sounds like she moonlights as a boatswain.
Zac was the party healer, he died, and he decided actually? Only heals for myself from now on. And you know what? Valid. (He’s a Way of the Long Death Monk btw) Very interesting that Zac’s last character unlocked all this information about the Bulb and now it looks like he’s playing someone who could do the same for the other side of the coin. I think it was very smart for him to show up in the middle of a tense battle where the mood would be, “Is he helping? Great. Welcome aboard,” and not, “We are fugitives, we shouldn’t be trusting anyone right now.” And him apparently being a Rocks also helps. (Also, shoutout to everyone who called Cumulus as being his new character!) 
I swear, these fights keep getting more and more tense. A near insta-death mechanic like the ocean currents pulling people away really makes things crazy. At the end when it seemed like the fight was turning in the PCs direction and then people started falling into the ocean! I was already writing Ruby’s eulogy when Amethar made that amazing save. And Theo using Swirlwarden to take that damage and get out of the much deadlier ocean was Galaxy Brained. I get what the cast was saying about Nat 20s not even being exciting. They got what felt like ten Nat 20s this episode and that was the bare minimum they needed to just get everyone out alive.  
That being said, the Nat 20 to drop Primsy followed by Jet’s Nat 20 to double kill Bleu was pretty rad and cinematic. Just instant karma. 
Very curious about what the Dairy Islanders’ position on helping the Candians is now. About half of them almost died helping them survive--and this had nothing to do with them. This wasn’t trouble that followed them due to their fugitive status. This was all Cheese Drama. If the Candians hadn’t stowed away, they’d be dead. I have to imagine that makes a person more receptive to some light treason. And if they get implicated by the surviving marauders, they might not have much of a choice.  
One More Thing
On a serious note, everything is bad right now or rather, everything has been bad for a while and it’s all come bubbling to the surface. To speak for myself, I am black so these issues are pretty inescapable on the regular but they’re extra inescapable right now and it’s stressful as hell. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post about it here and cross the streams but it’s important and also this is the show that also brought us Bud Cubby and rats fully eating a crooked cop so the streams are already well crossed. 
Anyway, Black Lives Matter, stay safe if you’re out protesting, and, if you wanna donate, D20 style, twitter user @sofiabikes is doing a donation/giveaway on her twitter so hit her up (update: more info on her tumblr here). Also, dropout is donating all June merch sales to BLM and Pride orgs so if you wanted a t-shirt or whatever and you’ve been holding off, now is the time. 
Edit: No new C.O.C. this week. Instead, there’s going to be a charity livestream for protester bail funds on YT, just an FYI. 
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lnfours · 6 years ago
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ghosted⎜p.p
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summary: you’re in love with him, but he’s in love with her. not my gif!
warnings: angst, fluff, swearing, just all the feels.
wc: 990
masterlist⎜insp.
you made your way down the halls of midtown, bumping passed the people who took up most of the hallway. you made your way passed peter’s locker, spotting him and ned. you smiled, making eye contact with ned. you started making your way over, but mj arrived next to the pair, taking all of peter’s attention. 
you glanced back and forth between ned and mj, ned sending you a soft smile as you walked passed your three friends, opting out on standing with them. ned nudged peter’s foot, which caused him to look over at his best friend.
“what?” peter asked.
“what’s missing here?” ned asked, gesturing at your lack of presence. peter shrugged, attention turning back to mj, smiling as she talked to him about the latest book she read.
ned rolled his eyes, leaning over and flicking his forehead,”dude!”
“ow! what?!” peter asked, scrunching up his eyebrows.
“you’re serious right now?”
peter sent his friend a confused expression. 
“uno,” ned pointed to himself,”dos,” he pointed at peter,”tres.” he pointed at the empty air next to him.
“what does that mean?”
“dude, c’mon! you’re seriously that fucking oblivious that you don’t even realize y/n isn’t standing with us.”
he shrugged,”maybe she’s running late.”
the bell cut the pair off and peter wrapped his arm around mj’s shoulder,”i’ll catch you at lunch.”
ned rolled his eyes, walking down the hallway to where you were watching behind your locker door.
“he’s becoming a real asshole.”
you chuckled,”well, that’s not surprising.”
“i mean, seriously! he didn’t even realize that you weren’t there!”
you felt the lump in your throat grow, nodding softly,”yep..”
“y/n-”
“i’m gonna be late to english.” you sent him a reassuring smile, but ned watched with concern as you walked down the hallway, hand coming up to your cheek to wipe the tear away. he sighed, turning on his own heels to walk towards his own class.
by the time lunch rolled around, you were convinced that peter parker had thought you were invisible. when you went to go sit in your usual spot in chemistry, mj was sitting there, peter watching her with love filled eyes.
you were happy for him, you really were, but there was this jealous ping that struck your heart anytime you saw the two of them together. it made your blood boil but made you want to sob at the same time.
you loved peter parker, but he was in love with michelle jones.
you took your usual spot next to ned, the next seat over being peter’s. when he walked up to your table, mj’s hand in his, he frowned before looking at you.
“hey, do you mind sitting on the other side of ned so mj can sit?”
ned looked back at his best friend, disbelief written on his expression. you swallowed, feeling everyone at your table watch you get up from your spot, slamming your lunch tray down on the other side of ned, lettuce from your salad flinging onto flash.
“yo, keep your school lettuce off the gucci-”
“shut the fuck up, flash!” you yelled, blood boiling at this point. it was the small things that ticked you off, from the fact that he didn’t notice you this morning, to your seat in chemistry, and now your seat at lunch. yeah, you were pretty ticked off.
flash swallowed, nodding as he watched you pick at the greens. you finally threw your plastic fork down, grabbing your backpack from the table before taking your phone out of your back pocket.
“where are you going?” ned asked.
“anywhere that isn’t near peter fucking parker.” you mumbled, peter’s head snapping up at your mention of his name. he watched as you walked off, leaving the cafeteria. 
“hold on, mj,” he said, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence,”i’ll be back, alright?”
she nodded, watching as her boyfriend ran after you. he watched as you wiped the tears from your eyes, making your way down the hall quickly.
“y/n!” he called,”what’s wrong?”
“why the fuck do you care?” you asked, spinning around so fast that your backpack flung off your shoulder. he watched with wild eyes, seeing the mascara form at your undereyes. 
“because i’m your best friend...?”
“doesn’t feel like it, peter!” you were yelling, not really caring about the fact that teachers could probably hear you,”you’ve been ignoring me since you got the balls to ask mj out! don’t act like i haven’t noticed because i have! jesus, you’re so far up her ass i’m surprised you’re even standing here right now!”
he pulled his eyebrows together,”what’re you talking about?!”
“you know what i’m talking about!” you said, running a hand through your hair,”ned’s been trying to get you to even acknowledge my existence lately and all i get in return is ‘hey can you move’? really peter?”
he finally realized as he watched you storm up to him,”y/n-”
“and to think,” you laughed,”i was actually falling for you, peter.” 
his eyes widened, his heart twisting as you admitted your feelings for him. 
you let out a sob, hand weakly shoving against his shoulder. you wish you weren’t so vulnerable when it came to him, but you couldn’t help it.
he grabbed your arm, pulling you into his chest,”y/n-”
you wrapped your arms around his torso loosely, sobbing into his sweater,”i love you, dammit.”
he frowned, leaning his head on yours,”i know, i’m sorry, y/n.”
his voice was softer than a feather but it shattered you like glass. you buried your face into his chest, hiccuping after sobbing for a couple minutes. you pulled away, cheeks turning hot in embarrassment,”god, i’m sorry, i’m so sorry-”
“don’t even think about apologizing to me,” he said,”never apologize for your feelings.”
you stayed silent for a moment,”promise me something, pete?”
“mm?”
“treat her right,” you said,”she’s a great girl, don’t fuck it up.”
he nodded, pressing a kiss to your hair,”i promise.”
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meltedhorror · 5 years ago
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“Are you sure this’ll work?”
The ghost hunter duo had found their way to one of the hallways of the hotel, now setting up some weird contraption of different tech. Or at least Simon was, while Emmet was mostly leaning over his shoulder watching him set everything up.
“Oh yeah, of course! I’ve talked to lots of people who’ve used this set up, and it works wonders from what I’ve heard!”
Simon smiled up at his friend, who just returned a slightly amused but still very confused look. He connected the last few wires, before connecting it all up to a small laptop, which revealed what he had set up was two cameras aimed further down the corridor.
“Alright, so you’ve… Set up cameras. Great. How exactly does this help us?” Emmet sounded skeptical, looking tiredly at the screen.
“Well, as you can see this one -” He points to one of the camera views on the screen “- It senses heat! With this we can see coldspots and whatnot, y’know, like the ones ghosts cause!”
Emmet just silently nodded, patiently waiting for the other to continue, which he quickly did.
“Now this other one here, THAT’S the real interesting stuff! Oh! Oh! I have to show you it, stay right there-”
The young brunette quickly got up and jumped out in front of the set up, gaining yet another amused look from Emmet as he watched him walk off a bit further. When he felt he had backed off far enough, he eagerly started pointing to the laptop again.
“Now if you look at that screen, I should have a stick figure tracking me, right?”
“Mm… Yep, you do. Is it a kinect that you’ve connected up or something?”
“Not sure, might be, I bought it from another investigation team a while back” Simon shrugged “Anyway! It’ll track people that way as you can see!” he starts waving his arms around and jumping a bit to demonstrate “And it’ll track ghosts as well when they go in front of that camera! The same way! Cool isn’t it?”
Emmet just shook his head slightly and chuckled, looking down at the floor for a moment “Yeah, sure… Sure, why not. Why the hell not. This might as well work, so yeah that’s pretty cool.” when he looked back up Simon was already on his way back with a big smile on his face.
As Simon came back and sat down besides him, he looked around a bit in the corridor which they appeared to be completely alone in. “So… Now what? We just wait?” to which Simon just nodded a bit absentmindedly as his focus seemed to completely aimed at the screen. “Mhm… Or we could call out to something…”
Emmet sighed and messed a bit with the sleeves on his hoodie, glancing at the screen and suddenly noticing on the heat camera a few cold spots that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He looked at Simon, who seemed completely oblivious to that, probably mainly focusing on the stick figure camera, and then he looked back at the heat camera. The cold spots that had appeared were slowly turning back into their previous neutral colour.
He looked up and down the corridor to where those spots would roughly be, and realised there was nothing there that could’ve caused that. He thought about it for a moment, still sitting in silence. Maybe there was something in the walls that caused it, after all they had no idea what runs through the walls of this place…
But his thoughts were quickly interrupted by a sudden cold feeling right behind them, enough to send him shivers. He quickly turned around in a moment of what’s best described as slight panic, resulting in him inches away from something disturbingly cold and purple.
The surprise of this all caused him to throw himself back and accidentally falling off his seat and landing on the floor with a slight yelp, and during this Simon had looked to see what was happening, and also threw himself back a bit but being lucky enough to stay in his seat and more leaning back on the table.
They both stared at the purple being, who seemed a bit confused and looking back at them both. Not being that close up to it made Emmet quickly realise it was a person, letting out a shocked “Who the hell are you!?”
Simon just stared wide eyed at the purple being, who had now shifted his full attention to Emmet “Why, I thought you guys were the ghost professionals here”
“G- Ghost!?” Simon exclaimed, earning a glare from the tired looking being.
“... Yeah. Did it take you that long to figure that one out? With all that fancy stuff you got there I thought you’d know a bit more, but guess not” He replied snarkily, floating back a bit allowing for both investigators to regain their postures a bit better with Emmet standing up and Simon leaning a bit more comfortably on the table behind him.
“Oh come on, you’re NOT a ghost, you’re just some dude hiding somewhere and creating a hologram or something complicated like that. Good party trick, but won’t work on me.” The longhaired man crossed his arms and straightened up a bit, sounding clearly annoyed.
“Hologram? Party trick? Golly, now THAT'S an insult! Aren’t ya supposed to be respectful towards the dead or something?” He was flicking his ghostly tail back and forth, and almost hitting the floor doing so, before mimicking what Emmet was doing and crossed his arms as well. “Where’s the manners? Or are “holograms” not deserving of them?”
“Nonono PLEASE don’t fight! I’m sure my friend here didn’t mean it like that!!” Simon interrupts the two, leaning forwards a bit and waving his hands “Please don’t be mad!”
The tired looking ghost raised a brow at that, looking at Simon and then squinting slightly at him “Hm… You. You I have talked to before.”
Simon looked confused but didn’t say anything.
“You’re that kid who brought one of those Ouija boards in here, right? We’ve talked. Sort of.”
Still looking confused, he had to really think about that for a moment. But as he slowly started to realise what the ghost meant he started to light up, excitedly pointing to him and almost bouncing in his seat “Y- yeah!! Yeah that was me! Then you’re Micke, right?? Oh my god this is so cool!!”
He then froze as he started remembering the conversation they had had on the board, now instead looking absolutely terrified.
“... BUT YOU’RE A DEMON-”
Emmet sighed deeply as Simon started to freak out even worse, gently rubbing at the space between his eyes with a hand and trying not to lose his temper at this point, which might be easier said than done.
“Simon. He’s not a demon. He’s a human. A PERSON. How many times do I-”
“Well you’re right about me not being a demon, but I am very much dead and a ghost…”
“SO YOU LIED?!”
This time both Micke and Emmet sighed, Emmet probably ready to give up trying to reason with Simon and Micke more surprised over how little Simon seemed to know about the paranormal.
Micke just stared at Simon, who genuinely looked hurt besides being completely freaked out at the moment “... Sure. I lied. But maybe you shouldn’t believe everything a board game for kids tells you”
“But so wait, what kinda magic trick did you use to pull that one off? Cause I was watching and recording the entire time and I never saw you even CLOSE to where we were” Emmet cuts in, tilting his head. A genuine question.
“Oh quit it, how many times do I have to tell you that I am dead?” Micke let out a frustrated exhale, feeling it was a mistake approaching them both. “You know what, I have better things to do than argue with YOU whether or not I’m actually a ghost. Your friend at least has some sense in that head of his, even if it’s little”
He then floated past them both, deciding he had enough of this. He set off a bit further down the corridor roughly to where the cameras were aimed, but neither of the two investigators were looking at the screen but rather watching him float, Simon in pure amazement and Emmet with skepticism.
He stopped and turned around, making eye contact with Simon “Oh also, you should know that device of yours won’t pick us up. You can catch us on tape but you stand to chance if we’re invisible.”
Before he disappeared into the wall, the terrified young man stared down at the screen and managed to catch a glimpse of the ghost before he disappeared into the wall, leaving a cold spot where he had entered. Just as he had said, the stickman figure that should’ve tracked him on the other camera didn’t show up, but there was another thing…
His appearance was different, and there was a weird visual glitch around where he was, rendering him black and white with clear distortion and seemingly more cartoon looking than human.
But before he could yell for him to wait, Micke had already disappeared and was probably far off by now.
Wide eyed he turned to look at Emmet, motioning to the corridor almost as in complete disbelief
“We caught that! On tape! We have evidence!”
“No, you caught a visual illusion.”
He sounded harsh as he said that, just shaking his head at the other “You didn’t catch anything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really need a smoke.”
“Wait!-”
But it was too late, Emmet was walking off and probably wasn’t gonna listen to what he had to say anyways as he shoved his hands into the front pocket of the hoodie.
Simon was left on his own, worrying over his friend going off alone but unable to follow due to the equipment still being completely set up.
He could only hope he wasn’t too upset about that all...
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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years ago
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November 13: 1x23 A Taste of Armageddon
Feeling pretty tired now, and it’s been a rough day, but I did rally to watch, and enjoy, an episode of Star Trek.
A diplomatic mission today. The Enterprise comes with friendly intentions!
I don’t entirely get this Ambassador or the back story here. They want to set up diplomatic relations with this solar system, because Federation members somehow get killed there a lot. But the Eminians don’t ever leave their solar system, so if the Federation is having problems with them it must be because the Federation is messing around in their space. So perhaps you could just no go there?
Mmm love Kirk being A Captain. “I’m thinking about this ship, my crew.” He’s not a fan of Ambassadors or people usurping his power.
And Spock seems very interested in all of this.
Aw yeah another cool 50s sci fi background! There are more of these than I remembered.
All of the interior hallways, as well as the exterior painting, are all nice and bright and multi-colored for those new color TVs.
It’s hard to pinpoint why, but I feel like this is an effectively Alien culture. Like maybe it’s the weird hats or the colorful hallways or the initial mysterious nature of them, but they just feel very not human, in a way ST alien guest stars don’t always manage imo.
Those annoying colonists lol. Sent them to a new planet and now they’re attacking us.
“If this is an attack... where’s the attack?”
Everyone in Star Trek does a lot of scanning and surveillance.
“Our civilization lives--the people die--but our culture goes on.” Literally America’s COG plans.
“I do not approve. I understand.” I love Spock so much.
The target has been “classified destroyed.” Kirk is confused and rightfully so.
Hmm, is Spock meditating?
Oh, there’s McCoy! Guess he didn’t get the memo yet that he and everyone else is dead.
Scotty know when Kirk’s voice isn’t Kirk’s voice. I love Scotty also and appreciate that he’s getting a bigger role at this point in the series.
I guess Spock is still a “Vulcanian.” Ngl... kind of wish they’d stuck with that. It has a certain ring. I feel like this is the first mention of their telepathic abilities--aside from the mind meld specifically. And they’re “limited” abilities. But not so limited that he can’t control that dude’s mind without touching him--and through a door. Mom suggested the ability is stronger with touch, which makes sense, especially as they do have psychic bonds with each other. But still. That looked pretty powerful to me.
Kirk is so apologetic about possibly being forced to kill.
“I’ll cover you.” It’s probably because of STXI that that affects me so much lol.
I can’t believe “there’s a multi-legged creature on your shoulder” worked! I remember seeing this ep for the first time and just completely losing it at that.
No one’s even gonna talk about the Prime Directive today, I guess.
So it’s already escalating as Anan said: real weapons used to destroy their weird suicide machines, now real weapons to attack the Enterprise.
Scotty’s not impressed by their fire power though.
If only Spock were here to be reminded of his father.
“The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank.” But they’re not military lmao.
Kirk is so turning up the charm again with Mea. But she’s not very susceptible to it and he’s getting kind of impatient, so it���s like Aggressive Charm.
I feel like this ambassador isn’t very smart. He’s too trusting, doesn’t seem to have great instincts. As opposed to Scotty, who is also Brave and Good, taking a stand.
“The haggis has hit the fan.” Please tell me that is not a real Scottish saying.
I know Kirk and Anan are supposed to be, like, tense and dangerous and threatening in this scene, but it’s reading almost flirty. “Would you...like a drink?” Kirk’s little finger crook thing.
You can tell he already has a plan at this point, which is kind of unusual in terms of Star Trek structure imo. Like usually you’re more with Kirk as he develops a plan, and here you’re watching him hint at the plan. “I don’t need my ship to destroy your whole planet” and so on.
“A man like that would have preferred to die fighting.”
How’d the diplomats get down to the planet? I thought the shields were still up.
They’re really giving Fox the Cliff’s Notes version of their society, huh? “Nice to meet you, you’re off to die now, sorry, really.”
Spock’s like “Oh, no, an Ambassador being killed?? How terrible...”
“Keep her from leaving. Sit on her if you have to.” Unexpectedly hilarious like wtf kind of order is that. And then the Yeoman like trying to look all fierce and Mea’s like “Yeah, okay,” eye roll.
“I’m practicing a peculiar variety of diplomacy.” Spock is such a bad ass. And he’s having a good time being action hero.This is why Vulcans think he’s weird.
Now he needs to find the Captain!
Kirk and Spock both using schoolyard tactics to win fights: tripping someone, the old spider trick. And they’re effective!
Quite possible even better than the spider scene is this ‘Spock comes to rescue his boyfriend and Kirk already has two guns trained on the room’ scene. “I thought you needed help.” / “Oh, I need the help.”
“We’re not going to kill today.” Honestly this one speech is deeper than all 7 seasons of the 100. Also more optimistic and nicer.
Kirk versus the computer again lol. This time, with firearms!
“A feeling is not much to go on.” IT IS IF IT’S A SIMPLE FEELING AMIRITE FELLAS?
“You almost make me believe in luck.” / “You almost make me believe in miracles.”
Honestly where the fuck is EITHER of those things coming from? Like no one was talking about luck and they definitely weren’t talking about miracles!! No one mentioned any miracles, Jim!!
He always gets so flirty after the danger is over, though. Every single time. “Ah, yes, all is well, now time to say something romantic or suggestive. As a treat.”
And then they play that weird comical music over Spock’s confused face as if that made it less queer.
So anyway this isn’t the official Vietnam War Episode but it’s kinda giving me Vietnam vibes. (According to the amazon trivia, I’m right: the computer tallies of the war dead was inspired by Vietnam causalities being shown on tv at night.) From an American perspective, it’s far away, it’s largely invisible, but it’s also long, it seems to exist for its own sake.
Also interesting that no one ever mentions why the two sides are fighting--probably because after 500 years, they don’t know. They just continue on in this mechanized, unceasing way.
That was a really good episode, and even though the actual danger of computer isn’t really what they predicted, I think it holds up regardless, in a different way.
I mean first of all technology has done a fair bit to sanitize war--the use of drones, for example, that allow the aggressors not to see their damage.
But also, and this is like only a half-thought really, but... One thing I think about a lot that the show didn't predict is that the internet allows us to see so much more than any other group of people in history. everything is very close, and there are pictures and videos and so on, from all over the world, available to you at any given time. I think this is very hard to deal with psychologically. So thinking about that in relation to this...it's a different balance but for the Eminians, war was both very real and close--it's constant, and people die all the time in huge numbers--but also very far away, because it's happening essentially hypothetically. So the dichotomy doesn’t line up in the same way but it still exists, imo.
And wow, that “we’re not going to kill today” speech. That was an interesting little wrinkle: that part of why the Eminians continued warring was because they felt like it was just inherently who they were. Their nature. Same philosophy espoused by all the grimdark showrunners of today. “I’m smart and brave and deep because I’m showing a mirror to humanity!! A MIRROR!”
And then here's Kirk, a Classic Hero, coming in and saying, "Yeah, wow, deep, you've determined that your species has a violent history. That's cool and all but have you considered that every single day you can consciously choose to make different, better choices?"
This was a good Kirk ep, a good Spock ep, and a good Scotty ep. It bums me out that he’s seen as comic relief now I guess... as my mom said, Scotty liked a joke but he was never comic relief.
I think it would be interesting to hear more of Spock’s thoughts in this ep, though. He’s the son of an ambassador and his people also had a warlike history that they dealt with in a way different to how humans do. But the method of problem solving of the Enterprise Captain and crew today was very martial, much more about brute force, and strategy as well, than peaceful talking--an overall plan I doubt many Vulcans would like. It would be interesting to hear how he thought of it all to himself.
Anyway, it’s getting late! Next up is a very decidedly good Spock ep, This Side of Paradise. Might be watching it on Wednesday so..not too long to wait!
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thatssonano · 5 years ago
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Hey, remember the research paper about why TV fails to represent female muslims? Well here it is.
Hey guys,
So I'm finally gonna try to write a real little thing about how TV fails to write muslim women. I thought about doing a real research paper and I wrote the introduction and got really anxious because it reminded of my very stressful master degree lol so this is much more simple. Anyways, let's get to it. 
As a kid, I was very hungry for representation on TV. Mostly because I had no models, no one to identify with. As a very introvert and self-conscious kid, I didn't know what to be or what to do. At some point, I started looking up to my sister, very beautiful, very intelligent and very ambitious girl. So I thought "I ought to be like that, that's what a muslim girl like me should be like.” 
Thing is, I wasn't as smart as she was, my grades were not as good, I wasn't as pretty or as popular at school, and there was not a single box I could fit in. I ended up being the "weird but nice little sister". But I was so invisible everyone would nickname me "Sarah 2" (my sister's name being Sarah.) And you know what? For the first time, I felt like I existed. Because I was "the little sister". Dude, how sad is that?
I was too white for them, not muslim enough, too weird for them. So obviously, it was tough to pave a way for myself when I was the only girl like me. 
The first time I was finally not nicknamed was when I got into college at the age of 17. Only because we didn't choose the same college. And I understood I didn't have to be as smart or as ambitious as her, I understood that I didn't have to get the life she had when I was 22. 22, guys. 
I'm turning 26 in one month. And I chose my own life. But God, how much time it took me to realize that there wasn't only one type of "the muslim girl"? 22 years.  
I'm not saying that to share about my life or whatever, I just want to show the consequences of not having representation on TV. And for sure, many people don't care about representation, my sister doesn't, my brother doesn't. But I do. Maybe that's because I'm hypersensitive, maybe that's because I believe art should mirror reality. All I know is that it's necessary for many. 
I met Sana Bakkoush on a random fan video about several fictional couples on youtube. I didn't know Skam then but there was this second in the video where I would see Noora and William staring at each other or whatever, and there was this beautiful hijabi girl in the back. I had to know what this show was about. So I did my research and binge-watched it. With much luck, I got to the end of the whole show before episode 3 of season 4 came out. So I learnt to grow with Sana, I fell in love with her, and I just felt like I could understand her. I was her. I finally was validated with her. Up until episode 5, all was well. And then,… it just broke? Still today, I'm trying to understand how they could let that happen and I guess there's one obvious reason. The writing staff was white. Julie Andem is white. And to me, if you're not from that community, you should not try to write about this one. 
As the plot thickened, you could feel like it was unbalanced, incoherent, and that many things didn't make sense. But that's pretty normal, because if you don't live the problem, you can't understand. Now I won't curse Julie Andem for not trying, but I guess what should have been done was to hire a muslim writer. And God, people can't tell me it's too tough to find. Even if it was not Iman Meskini's job, she could have asked her. God, this girl taught more about ramadan through her ig story than Skam ever did. 
Now I'm not saying she didn't do us all dirty when she gave us 9 episodes instead of ten and it all broke us on June 17th 2017 (Yep, this day is a national holiday now). And honestly, I've got not one good explanation for this except they didn't feel her story was that important. Unconsciously, I hope, because it would be too evil otherwise.
The reason, to me, that Sana was so many people's favorite character was because Iman Meskini gave her so much realness. Sana was strong yet vulnerable. Everyone, muslims like non-muslims could understand her, and I think she inspired so many people. Her life is amazing, and she's what now? 22. I really hope she gets a Nobel Prize in the future, she deserves it. 
Now let's talk about the others. I think it'd be a bit faster. 
Imane Bakhellal. Uhm. Well the main issue is the same, she was written by a white man. So obviously, it was 1. wrong. 2. wrong. 3. wrong. The story barely focused on her faith and whenever we'd see her pray she'd be interrupted. Look, I've been praying for 13 years and the only times I've interrupted my prayer were because I had just realized I had not done wudhu. Or I was too jet-lagged so I was praying in the wrong direction.  
Thing is, Imane didn't make me feel anything. And it was even sadder, because I am a muslim living in Paris. To me, her story wasn't focused on her, it wasn't even focused on religion or her struggle living between two cultures. I didn't learn a thing. And God, that hurt. That hurt even more when the director didn't acknowledge it was poorly written and was actually proud of it. It hurt that white people get the right to write our story and we're there, not having any voice. It sucked. But I guess, she had ten episodes, right, even if the last episode was within the same day. 
It didn't really bother me that she kissed him. The speech she recited did though. I got really frustrated about it. How hard would it be to find a muslim writer? Honestly, I would have been glad to join them, even as a volunteer. 
I'm not actually mad at the actress, I guess it was just a reflection of her relationship with islam. And I know many people got the representation they wanted, but to me, it remains poorly written. To me, it remains hypocrite because they don't get it. Being a muslim woman of color in France sucks sometimes. But having at least her story focused on her would have been great too. 
 Ok, let's move on. 
Amira Mahmood. I love her a little less than Sana, but I mean come on, that's understandable, right?
Amira is strong, she's beautiful, kind, smart. And her season was going well, until it wasn't anymore…. Because, well, it ended. I keep on wondering why it happened and I came with no logical answer. So maybe it was lazy writing, maybe it didn't matter to them, maybe the writers were just tired. I don't know, honestly, I don't know. But it pissed me off bad. (Honestly it was the third character I was let down on, lol, it started to be a lot to handle). Also, the other seasons were so greatly written, they had depth and understanding, it was soft and beautiful. And to me, season 4 just felt… lazy? Sure, I loved Mohammed but the Australia plot wasn't even that important it actually got fixed over text? And how hard would it be to find exciting plot for a muslim character? What? Everything should be about kissing, hair and sex? Well, no. I mean, I would have loved to see her actually working, I would have loved to see her actually bonding with her dad, I would have loved to see her at a boxing game… The summer and fall after I graduated high school was a very hard time to me, mostly because it was a time of discovery and transition. Everything was changing. God, they should have explored that more. So I don't know, I just felt detached then, and I think that's more sad, actually.
But I do believe the actress did a great job, and I wish Tua all success. 
Shall I give a little paragraph on Nadia from Elite? Hell yeah I'm going to. Well, the show is focused on sex so, I mean, are we even surprised the writers did this to Nadia? Not really, but we're still mad. Again, it was written by white people; who focused on all the stereotypes people spread about muslims. The strict dad? Check. The very quiet and invisible mom at the mercy of the dad? Check. The muslim girl who does not actually know why she's religious and only follows her parents' footsteps like a sheep because islam is just way too strict so no one in their sane mind would ever venture in such a religion? Check. The hunger for having white friends and doing the same? Check. Falling for a white guy and giving up everything she ever "believed" for him? Check. I hope the writers heard about what people had to say about it. 
Honestly, I know some would say "there are muslim girls like this". Well, ok. But what about us? We've been invisible to society for years and years. I grew up without having a single fucking idea about who I was and I just always felt like I was the odd one out. Too white, too Algerian, too muslim, too girly, too boyish, too into traditions, following too much her parents' rules… Well, growing up I just decided, I will never be enough of something, because I’m a little of everything. So yeah, some muslim girls do that, but some others don't. And we want to see these girls too. We want to normalize their way of life, so they can just live. And we want them to have the same screen time than the rest of the cast. And we want them to have exciting plots too. 
God, I've been smothered by the fucking veil debate in France for weeks and weeks and I couldn't breathe anymore. That's why we need visibility. To be acknowledged. To erase ignorance and hate. To create a homogenous society in this globalized world where everyone is different and it is okay. Because as long as your liberty isn't in danger, then the other can live as he wills. 
To finish I guess some of you would be like “if you’re so eager to criticize the work of others, just write your own story” Well I did. I actually finished one scenario in French and I have just started one in English. But how can I actually make it into reality if I don’t know anyone in the business bold enough to work with me on it? 
Honestly if you've read all of that, congratulations, thank you so much, love you all, peace out. 
I didn’t write everything I wanted but I believe it’s long enough already lol. Be safe, well and kind. (that’s what Bob Morley says and he’s a king).
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phantomphangphucker · 5 years ago
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Ectober Day 5: Radiation - Septicemia
Ectoplasm isn’t exactly known for being safe to handle. But Danny handles that problem like he does everything else, with a dose of humour and ignoring it.
"Goddammit”, Danny looks down at his vertically sliced open arm, bone slightly visible. Speaking thick with annoyance, "why, out of all ghosts, did it have to be the Box Ghost to give me my first serious injury?". Coming to float just slightly above the ground in an alleyway, pinching closed the wound, as Sam and Tucker come running towards him. Tucker sidestepping and gagging at the little splashes and one large puddle of Danny's ectoplasm. While Sam just steps over it, not really giving a shit.
Danny looks up at the two as they plop down on the ground next to him, giving the two of them a loose smile, "took long enough huh?". While both of them frown at him, clearly unimpressed.
Sam digs in her backpack, pulling out the mini-medi kit they had all decided all three of them should carry around. Handing Tucker a cloth and little water bottle to clean off the wound while she sets up a needle with ectoline.  
Danny gives his arm to Tucker while Tucker responds, “would have preferred it never happening, dude”, smirking slightly as he wipes off the wound, “but with your terrible dodging of course it did”.
Danny flips him off with his other hand, “hey fuck you Tuck. It was going to happen eventually because I am constantly getting into fights. It would be weird if I constantly came out of getting thrown around, sliced, bitten and whatnot, with nothing more than bruising, small cuts and scrapes”.
Tucker rolls his eyes as he goes to ball up the cloth only to yelp and drop it. Green steam coming off his hand slightly, making everyone look at him worriedly.
Danny squints at him, “what’d you get on you? Obviously ghostly, but don’t think we’ve seen that before”.
Sam just grabs Tucker’s hand, grumbling all the while, “gimme that”, before inspecting his hand. Nodding mostly to herself, “it’s an ecto-burn”.
Danny looks around for a source, “but from what?”.
Tucker just frowns and looks back to the cloth and scrunches it up in the same hand, only to drop it; having been burned by the contact again.
All three mutter, “weird”.
Danny clears his throat, hoping his guess is right, “well it is one of my parents specially made cloths, so maybe it has some weird reaction with ectoplasm”.
Sam snorts, “well here’s what we get for thinking your parents crap would be better to use than regular shit”. While both Danny and Tucker laugh, before Tucker goes about treating his ecto-burns.
Sam motions for Danny’s arm, and grabs his wrist. Resting her forearm on his elbow to begin. Only to jerk away from him after getting some of his ectoplasm on her forearm, the ecto-burn visible. All three stare at it, before Tucker mutters, “dude, it’s you. it’s your ectoplasm”.
Danny clears his throat, pushing down the mild horror and grasping for another reason, “well, I mean, it could be from wiping my arm with the cloth?”. Sam grabs his other hand and pricks his finger crudely enough to get him to bleed. Touching the bubbling droplet only to hiss and cringe. Wiping her finger off on the ground and inspecting the ecto-burn. Looking at Danny and shaking her head.
Danny groans, ruffles his hair with the same hand, “great, that’s just great. So my folks are right on ectoplasm not being safe to have skin contact with. Wonderful. I’m fucking corrosive or some shit”. Meanwhile, Danny is really really damn glad that he’s not hurt by his own ectoplasm.
Sam digs in her bag, looking for gloves, but frowns. Looking back up to Danny, “no gloves. No way I can fix you up then”. All three groan and Danny motions for her to give him the needle with a sigh, which she does.
Danny grunts, “has to be done though”, as he clenches his teeth and gets to work. Sam and Tucker patting his shoulders in comfort and support. Though Tucker occasionally cringes and can’t watch. Tucker talks while looking at a wall, “guess spandex gloves are something we need to carry from here on out”, poking Danny, “too bad we can’t just borrow yours. Being attached to your suit and all”.
Sam rolls her eyes, “pretty sure ghost clothing is made of ectoplasm, Danny’s suit included”. All three pauses and Danny looks from his arm to where his friends are touching his suit. They exchange confused glances before collectively shrugging.
Danny grumbles as he gets back to work, “the stuff inside me must be more concentrated”.
Danny hands back the needle after wiping it off on his leg and Sam wraps his arm, maintaining a safe distance to avoid getting any ectoplasm on her. Tucker gets up and starts mopping up the spilled ectoplasm on the ground with his foot, none of them wanting anyone to get burnt by it or for his parents to find and collect it. Frequently having to change what part of the cloth he’s touching with his shoe, as it steams from the ectoplasm contact. But after a while he starts feeling rather nauseous, the acidic lemon-lime scent starting to feel overpowering. Coughing and gagging before having to walk to the other side of the alleyway. Putting his hands on the wall and dry heaving. Pointing towards Sam and Danny, who are staring at him with concern from their spot on the ground, “dude, ugh, I think it might be more than-”, heaving again, “-just unsafe to touch”.
Sam pauses in her wrapping and leans over Danny’s arm to sniff at it. Getting hit by a wave of nausea after a bit. Sitting back and giving Danny an apologetic frown. Clearing her throat and shoving down the desire to gag, “he’s right. It’s probably because ghost ectoplasm sheds off free-floating ectoplasm”.
Danny nods with a frown, it made sense, “so inhaling that is bad”, speaking with sarcasm, “gReAt. I JuSt LoVe ThIs. PeRfEcT”. Both of them send him sympathetic smiles while Sam goes back to wrapping and Tucker continues cleaning up, just with his arm sleeve over his mouth and nose. Which just serves to make Danny feel guilty. His ectoplasm was basically toxic and corrosive for everyone in town. There was no way he wasn’t going to wind up getting his ectoplasm spilled on things, or get hurt badly again. He was actually going to have to make sure to clean his bed sheets more often now. He knew for a fact there was ectoplasm smeared on them.
Sam clips the end of the bandaging before the two get up, bags repacked, and Danny wraps his arms around his friends. Looking at Tucker, who has Danny’s injured arm around him, “you good? Not burning you?”.
Tucker smirks, “you’re good dude”. Making Danny smile as he floats up and takes the three invisibly to his house.
Flopping down on his bed after transforming back. Tucker lays across his legs and pokes him, “bleed again”.
“Um, what?”.
Tucker snorts, “dude, don’t you always have a little ectoplasm running through your veins? That shit’s in your blood too”.
Danny blinks into a blanket, “oh fuck”, before sticking his hand out towards where he can smell Sam, sitting in his desk chair. Who pokes him with a pin he had lying on his desk, smearing his blood on her wrist. Nothing happens for a bit but then she cringes and wipes it off with a Kleenex. Glance at Tucker while Danny grunts, “you’re being awfully quiet”.
Sam glances down at the mild ecto-burn, it took longer and was much more minor but it was an ecto-burn all the same, “sorry Danny”.
Danny can tell by her tone that she’s not apologising but instead feeling slightly bad for him. Which obviously means she was ecto-burned. Lovely. Danny groans into the blanket, before turning his head to actually look at her, “goddammit. So my blood’s an issue too”, Danny snorts, “Ancients fuck, it’s like everyone’s allergic to me”.
Sam and Tucker exchange a glance, Tucker poking him again, “you probably should pass it off as that actually. If anyone notices that Danny Fenton’s blood burns people”.
Danny squints at Tucker, give him his best ‘are you fucking shitting me?’ look, “and how would that even make sense Tuck? No one's allergic to just one cat or just one bee...or just one human. That’s not logical”.
Sam sighs as she sits down next to him, “blame ecto-contamination, it’s covered all the other general ghostliness. Wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say it poisoned your blood”.
Tuck smirks and gives him a pat, “or made it a poison”, shrugging, “just make a habit of not bleeding”.
Both Sam and Danny stare at him incredulously before all three start laughing. Because as if that would ever happen!
Tucker pats Danny again, “but for real, just don’t bleed on people. It’s not like people make a habit of touching other people's blood, in-fact people emphatically avoid doing that. And it’s only the ghosts who are actively out for Fenton’s blood”.
Danny pushes himself up slightly, going a bit wide-eyed, “guys, Dash”.
“Oh shit”.
Tucker shrugs awkwardly after a while, “well, at least he doesn’t make folks bleed. When he does it’s usually on locks and shit, not on himself”.
Danny sits up fully and slices his wrist, smearing the blood on the wooden side table. Sam grunting, “that’s one way to do gothic home decorating”.
Danny points at her, “also would have scared the crap out of anyone if they had happened to walk in”, pausing and turning his head back to the table as it starts faintly smoking. Danny groans and tilts his head back, “goddamnit”.
Tucker pats his shoulder, “well, that’s a check on you having to clean up any bloody messes with the level of haste that’ll make you seem like you’re some kind of clean freak”.
All three look around Danny’s horribly messy room and start laughing. Danny parting Tucker as they laugh, letting the guy know Danny’s thankful for the little cheer up.
Sam hops over to the bed, “though really, it’s more like you’re radioactive than just corrosive or toxic. Cause you seem to affect everything, with or without direct contact”.
Danny hits her with a pillow while Tucker doddles a little radioactive symbol on Danny’s neck, earning him a hit from the pillow as well. Even if it’s more humoured than genuinely bothered.
——Cut to tomorrow at Casperhigh——
Danny closes his locker with a slight smile before turning to his friends, “guess what son of a corpse actually got to sleep the night away?”. Both of them give him high fives with Tucker near shouting, “fuck yeah dude!”.
“What the Hell do the losers three have to be happy about?!?”. All three groan at the sound of Dash’s voice. As they turn to look at him slowly.
“What do you want Dash?”.
Dash shrugs before smirking, “my brother’s visiting the school today, gotta impress”, digging in his pocket, “and since you’re so cheery”, Dash menacingly flicks out a switchblade knife, “you get to be my target”.
Danny just looks at Tucker, highly unamused, “I hate you, I really really hate you”, before booking it. Sam and Tucker quickly following after him. Tucker grumbling, “I fucking jinxed it”.
However, in a rare show of intellect, Dash had planned for the fleeing and really was going to target Danny anyway. But it wasn’t any fun if he just jumped, didn’t instigate the chase. Scaring the crap out of people was half the fun, which is why Danny pisses him off. Dash damn well knew what fake fear looked like, and faked fear was the only kind he ever got from Danny. The ghosts didn’t even seem to scare the loser, and they absolutely did scare Dash. And that was an insult that Fentailbone wasn’t getting away with. Dash smirks devilishly as Kwan, Dale and Todd corner the three pathetic losers.
Danny makes a point of covering his friends with his arm and body, as the three jocks smirk and stare down at them. Danny turns his head slightly behind him, seeing Dash walking up slowly with a smirk and flipping around the blade. Danny grumbles, “asshole”, before trio back up against the lockers, Danny in front.
And really, that just annoys Dash more. The weak loser acting all protective, like he’s really capable of anything. HA. It doesn’t take much for Kwan and Dale to get the goth and geek pulled away, while Todd basically holds Danny against the lockers. Dash doesn’t even have to look around to know James is watching in one of the small doorways, smoking out of sight from any teachers.
Danny glares at Dash, not even bothering to pay attention to the knife. It was a small thing and Danny had accidentally stabbed himself with larger things. Hell, the thanksgiving turkey attacked him with bigger knives. Plus, stab wounds weren’t all that bad so long as the blade wasn’t jagged. It was Dash who was the actual threat, obviously looking to do some real damage for a change. Instead of just generalised aggression and trying to humiliate.
Dash waves the knife in Danny’s face, “now to skin the rabbit”.
Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “wow, you actually made a somewhat intelligent joke for once”. Todd squeezes Danny’s shoulder, hard, for that. But again, Danny’s gotten worse from his own house. So he ignores it entirely.
Dash meanwhile frowns, this is exactly what he’s talking about. The clear ‘go ahead and hit me, I don’t give a damn’ attitude, even if the little loser covered it up with fake fear half the time. “If you want to play it so tough then maybe I need to give you a mark to show who you and this school belong to”.
Danny snorts, “kinky”. Which Dash instantly punches him in the gut for, before slice his cheek and stabbing him in the shoulder. Grabbing that shoulder and squeezing the wound, as he slams Danny back upright and into the lockers.
Danny coughs, completely ignoring the injuries but forcing them not to heal, “wow fuck, you actually did it huh? Good for you Dash”, smirking up at Dash, “you proved you’re old enough to play with knives”. Dash punches the lockers next to Danny’s head while Danny forcibly rolls the injured shoulder, “missed the bone, try harder next time”.
Tucker grumbling, “I actually forgot how much more witty he is when he’s not sleep-deprived”.
Dash side-eyes the geek, “you think he’s witty huh?”, looking back at Danny, “well maybe he should cut that out”.
“Wow, two jokes, you’re on a ro-”, Dash shoves the knife into Danny’s mouth and makes a point to cut up his tongue before pulling it out. Making Danny cough again, he was going to spit at the ground but blinks, remembering last night's bullshit.
As if on cue, Dash jerks his hand off Danny’s shoulder, steaming green and with a forming ecto-burn. Danny, spotting the green steam on the knife, uses the jocks shock to snatch the knife and book it. Though unable to resist a joke as he does so, “yoink!”.
Sam, being more of a planner and ballsy enough to do said plans, maneuvers around Kwan, whose startled enough by everything to have pretty well lost his grip, and punches Dash in the face. The guy might be a bully but he’s one of those fuckers who ‘won’t hit a girl’, but also doesn’t expect a girl to be doing the hitting. Taking Dash’s furthered shock to wipe off his hands with her jacket, “the only person you can impress by trying to beat up Danny, is Danny”, before elbow him in the back of the head and running off. Catching Danny running backwards and waving the, cleaned off, knife at the jocks, “thanks for the knife! Pleasure doing business with ya!”.
Which only pulls Dash out of his shock, “FENTON!!!”, and gets him chasing after them.
Now what Dash didn’t know was that Danny liked the chase and hunt just as much as Dash did. Expect Danny got far more fun out of the ‘getting away’ part. Danny chuckles from their hiding spot inside the stairs, “getting out from under the wolves teeth and taking a tooth as a trophy prize”.
Sam uses a medical cloth from her bag to wipe off her jacket before it gets burnt, while Tucker elbows Danny, “maybe you should sleep less”.
“Fuck you Tuck”.
“Dude, you were treating him kind of like a ghost”.
Danny rolls his eyes and huffs, “well excuse me. Normally ghosts stab me, not humans”, shrugging, “besides, wit’s kind of my knee jerk reaction”.
Sam sighs as she starts wiping off Danny’s t-shirt, which is noticeably smoking and has a patch of the shoulder slowly burning away, “you can’t be fighting back against Dash, Danny. It’s too risky. Mocking him is practically the same thing”.
Danny waves her off as he takes the cloth and wipes off his cheek. Choosing to just swallow whatever’s in his mouth and letting those wounds heal up. Course he can’t do that with the cheek or shoulder. Y’know, in case Dash checks. Plus other people saw the cheek shit.
Tucker holds up a bandaging kit, “what ones you want? Space for your face?”.
Danny snorts but shakes his head, “it’s not deep and I’ve already cut off the bleeding. Having a bandaid on my face would just make Dash happy”.
Sam grabs one of the large square ones, “well regardless, your shoulder’s getting this”, before motioning for Danny to take off his shirt; which he does.
Sam seals the bandage around to stab wound, which normally would have been healed up in half an hour or so, while Tucker sticks a bandaid on Danny’s face; reading ‘Thy wit’s as thick as Tewksbury mustard’.
Danny glares at him and pulls out his phone to see what one Tucker put on while Tucker speaks, “we can see muscle in the wound dude, it should logically be bleeding”.
Danny rolls his eyes, “well I can’t let it, now can I”, point at the bandaid, “and really? That one?”.
Tucker smirks, “you deserved it”.
Danny snorts as he pulls back on his t-shirt, glaring at the obvious burn hole, before digging in his bag and pulling out a patterned dress shirt and throwing it on; leaving it unbuttoned though.
The three get up and Danny makes them intangible and invisible, before flying them out and into an empty hallway.
Dash, meanwhile, gave up on chasing the weird loser. Instead going to the bathroom with a huff and staring down at his burnt? hand. Seriously wondering how and when that happened. There’s no way the little loser had done that, was there? Hugging and glaring at the mirror, “maybe Fenton’s more of a freak than a loser. A freak loser, even worse than the rest of those pathetic weaklings”. Before leaving the bathroom.
Danny can’t help but give Dash a shit-eating grin as the trio spot him while leaving the school. Pausing all three’s walking and tossing up the knife a few times. Grinning even more shit-eatingly when Dash clearly notices the knife.
At first Dash smirks at seeing the noticeable bandaid, talk about embarrassing, until -due to wanting his damn knife back- he gets close enough to read it; which Fenton obviously wanted. “Why you little freak!”, chasing after the three as they all run off. Only to lose them near instantly. It was really starting to piss him off how good the little freak loser was getting at escaping him.
Danny laughs in the alleyway, patting Tucker’s shoulder, “Tuck, you do realise I was insulting his ‘wit’ earlier and you put on a bandage that insults a persons wit!”.
Tucker smirks, knowing full well he’s about to be an asshole, “well you know what I realised? You could kill or destroy everything just by bleeding everywhere”.
Danny smacks him over the head as he stops laughing, “fuck you, you’re right and that’s horrifying, but fuck you”.
Sam smirks, “maybe you should get dePhantomed again so I can add a radioactive symbol to your back as a warning”.
Danny blinks and tilts his head at her, “you know...that would actually look kind of cool”.
“...I was joking”.
Danny just gives a shit-eating grin.
“Danny no”.
Danny gives the most shit-eating smug smile he can possibly manage. Effectively making it clear he won’t actually do something like that while also being a Jack ass.
Over the next few days, Danny wore an assortment of different insulting bandages and wound up getting a mild amount of respect for getting cut and stabbed but seemingly shrugging it off. While Danny just made a point to clean up after himself more and his two friends always had industrial-strength gloves on hand.
End.
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alphawave-writes · 5 years ago
Text
Play me a memory--A sigma fic
Summary: Sigma hopes to transcribe the universe's melody, in hopes of awakening his true powers, but gets more than he bargains for when the government facility he has escaped from has found him once again.
Read it here, or find it on AO3
-
Sigma sits in front of a piano. Not the Bechstein studio grand piano that used to sit in his apartment in The Hague but a cheap, upright Yamaha instead. He knows it is old just from the touch, the damp thud of the keys and the slow responsiveness of the pedals. Most aggravating of all is the tuning, the way the notes sound off to his ears. He does not have perfect pitch, and he never will, but if he concentrates hard enough, he can feel the shape of a note. Middle C is a yellow circle, and if he rises it up to a D, it transforms into an orange triangle. He hypothesizes that his abilities over gravity have given him a sensitivity to the electromagnetic waves that make up sound, but he cannot test this without rigorous testing. The beauty of these powers is that there are so many potential experiments and possibilities.
It’s been a long time since he’s played. Or at least, he thinks it’s been a long time. The last time he had touched a piano was one week before he went up to the international space station that caused his accident, but time is no longer linear and memories no longer make sense and he cannot say how many years have already passed since then. Has it been three years or longer? He cannot say.
He very much prefers listening to music rather than playing it, but he does not have that luxury. Talon is many things but it is not a musically inclined organization. His previous request for an parabolic microphone must have fallen upon flat ears for the next day he gets a regular microphone, the kind used for karaoke parties. It didn’t even have the batteries in it. So it is a miracle of sorts that his request for a piano got through. It was probably salvaged from a nearby dump, but it is still in working order, and he is grateful for whatever gifts Talon bestow upon him.
His body suddenly stiffens as he feels a shift in the air. He turns his head slowly, eyes wide as he finds himself staring back into his face. Only it’s not his face but another version of him, decked out in the orange jumpsuit that government facility crafted specifically for him. His copy smirks sinisterly.
 “Gravity is like sanity. All you need is a little push.”
“W-w-what?”
 “They called the geniuses of old insane back in their times.”
He is frozen in fear, staring into a face that is his but not his. The other approaches him and places his hands on his shoulders. He can feel the energy being sapped away from his body, his twisted mirror image growing larger, impossibly larger than him. As the energy leaves his body, he can feel his mind clearing. As his mind clears, he can see this twisted alter ego for what it truly is. It is sin, the devil in disguise. And behind that disguise is the black hole that destroyed his career and his mind. And it laughs. It laughs so viciously.
He feels his body suddenly being rattled back and forth, and his mind is clouded once more. The cloned image of him is gone, replaced by an annoyed woman with chocolate skin and purple lips. Her hair is parted to one side, showcasing the cybernetic implants glowing on her skull.
“Are you OK, old man?” She huffs.
Sigma is about to say “no” but he shakes his head and clears himself of the hallucination. It is easier to keep the fractured pieces of his mind together when he has a familiar face by his side. “Y-yes, I’m OK. Sorry if I scared you, Miss Olivia.”
“Ay, don’t call me that. Call me ‘Sombra’ like everybody else.”
“Sorry. I’ll…try and remember for next time.”
“I give myself a cool name and no one takes it seriously anymore,” she mutters to herself. Her eyes fall on the piano. “We have a piano? When’d we get one?”
Sigma smiles, relieved for the change of subject. “I asked Talon to provide it for me. I told them it was necessary for my experiments.” He raises his eyebrows. “I guess you could say this is an instrument in more ways than one.”
Sombra makes a face that is a cross between a cringe and a wince. A lot of people make that face when he tells jokes. So many years later and people still do not appreciate a good pun.
“A-anyway, I had a breakthrough last night,” he continues. “I have harnessed the harness that is gravity, but I have yet to maintain it in whatever shape and form I desire. I was at a roadblock. Then, it hit me! I’ve been thinking about it all wrong, you see. I’ve been trying to use my equations and quantum instruments to further my research, but I’ve yet to use the most important tool at my disposal.” He smiles in excitement. “I’ve got the universe’s melody in my head, playing on repeat. I’ve heard it so many times before, so I must be able to play it in the real world. If my theories are correct, it is as simple as transcribing a piece of music by ear.” He plays a chord and frowns. “Unfortunately, it seems music appreciation does not equate to music composition.”
“Wait wait, so you’re telling me that playing the piano,” she gestures wildly at the object, “is going to help you create a black hole again?”
His eyes brighten. “Yes. That’s precisely it! I knew you would understand.”
Sombra raises her eyebrows in disbelief. Out of all the Talon operatives that Sigma has encountered, she is the least judgmental—or rather, she is the least likely to dismiss his ramblings completely. She can be rather judgmental when she wants to be, often when it comes to Reaper and Widowmaker, but she makes no remarks about him. Perhaps she thinks it is bad taste to make fun of a man crippled psychologically like he is. Or maybe she doesn’t care enough to say anything about it.
He turns back to the piano and starts playing discordant notes. It has been years since he played but he remembers how to lie his hands, where the keys were, how to make his fingers glide over the faux ivory. He’s almost startled by the ease in which he remembers, because he knows he cannot account this for mere muscle memory alone. There are some things people do not forget, he knows that, but it’s unnatural how comfortable he feels in front of the piano.
It’s almost as if he is supposed to be here. Like the universe is calling to him from within the hidden strings. His fingers fly across as if in a trance. He hears the whispering in the air, but he’s not sure if it’s the benevolent universe or the demonic other or some other creature outside the confines of time and space that have decided to play their games with him. He listens and copies their words. A dark expanse of his own creation surrounds him as his eyes turn cloudy.
He hears someone snap their fingers impatiently in his ears, and turns to find Sombra next to him. She looks annoyed but there’s a familiar shimmer of pity in her eyes. It betrays her, just like his mind betrays him.
“Earth to Sigma.”
He winces. “My apologies.”
“I don’t know what goes on inside your head. You have the thingy on. The pedal. You’re pressing on it.”
He glances down at his feet, which are currently covered in pink wooly socks. They are expensive, and currently his only frivolous purchase since joining Talon. He does not remember putting them on, or when he bought them, or why he chose pink of all colours. On closer inspection, he sees that his foot is firmly pressing down on the right pedal.
“Oh,” he says, surprised himself. “So I have.”
Sombra groans loudly. “I don’t know why they tell me to watch you. I just wanna go back to my computer and watch some videos. Play some games. Hack some dudes or something.”
Sigma frowns. “You do not have to supervise me if you don’t want to, Miss Oli—I mean, Sombra.”
“Nah, the boss will kill me if I do that. I gotta make sure you don’t get yourself into danger.” She walks over to the side and leans dramatically over the top of the piano. “C’mon, piano man. Play a song.”
“This piano is for research. It is certainly not to be played with.”
“But I’m so booored.” She rests her head on her arms. “You must know some song, right? Play me one.”
“I shouldn’t…” he begins to say, but his mind is already buzzing with the songs of his past. One sticks with him, imprinted in his soul. A song from his past that spoke of simpler times.
He looks up into her eyes and falls victim for her doe eyes. He takes a deep breath, composes himself as best as he can, and begins to play Erik Satie’s Gnossienne 1.
It’s not long before he gets lost in the melody. Music is a language as easy to speak as English and Dutch. Sentences flow from his fingertips, time condensed into notes and sounds. Dark magic threads and twists from his wrist as gravity lifts up and away from his body. His mind drifts away to become one with the song, splinters of his childhood resurfacing. Images of his piano instructor in his majestic home, stern and imposing. His father falls asleep for the last time in his study, the sky outside the window going from day to night, the stars twinkling in rhythm to the invisible song.
Objects float and fly above him. Particles transform into one-dimensional strings that ascend into higher dimensions. The piano rises with him. There’s a yelp of surprise. “Let me down, let me down!”
His eyes widen as he finally notices Sombra, flailing her arms as she floats helplessly in the air. In that instant the spell is broken and the world returns to clarity. Gravity returns with a shuddering thud as the two of them crash back down into orbit. He is able to land gently. Sombra does not have the same luck.
“D-Dios mio, you’re going to kill me!” She hisses, rubbing her backside painfully. He doesn’t want to tell her how lucky she was. A few centimetres to the right and she would have been trapped under the piano. On one or more occasion, he has commended Talon for having the mindfulness of nailing everything in his lab down. It has prevented more than a few accidents due to his ever shifting powers.
She looks at him sternly, fire in her eyes. He shrinks a little.
“I’ve theorized for a while that my abilities are linked to my mental and emotional state. It seems music is able to amplify my abilities.” Sigma puts his hand on his chin and frowns. “Perhaps later I can determine the source of this ‘amplification’ and utilize it myself. Right now, however, it is an unfortunate complication to my experiments.”
“I’ll say. You’re going to hurt yourself at this rate.”
“I realise that, but I am close, I can feel it.” His hands glide over the dusty top of the piano. “If I can just find the correct song, I might be able to harness the fullest potential of my abilities.”
“Then maybe put the piano in a different room? So you don’t destroy everything in this room if you do find it?” She suggests.
“No, I…it’s better that I am here, where I cannot hurt anyone.”
Death has unfortunately become the new norm in his life. As payment, Talon tasks him with going on missions with their officers, and that often leads to a battle to the death. No one expects an old man like him to fight, and they definitely do not expect to be flung around like paper ragdolls in the wind. It’s frightening how the guilt washes away easier the more blood he must spill. During one such mission, he almost found himself enjoying the violence.
He places his fingers back on the keys. Sombra takes her place in the far corner of the room and watches warily, away from danger. There are no more fluctuations in gravity that day.
-
He plays and he plays, morning day and night, but he is no closer to his goal. He has continued his normal experiments, with the piano experiments continuing during his break. He eats and drinks and sleeps, but it is at a bare minimum. Why is it now, when he seeks out the song does it decide to run away? Why is this silence louder than noise, overwhelming him with nothingness? Why is it when his mind has never been clearer does a part of him yearn for the spark of insanity?
There is madness in his actions, but it is controlled and tempered. His equations are correct, as they always have been. He has ripped out a bit of paper to write sheet music on and has done his best to interpret the song. He can only work through sound. If only he knows an expert in music composition, or sound engineering. His understanding of sound is limited to his extensive knowledge of electromagnetic waves. Tonality, timbre, chord structure, they are patterns he hears but does not understand.
It’s late at night but he presses onward. He’s close, so very close, and he must work now while his mind is still whole. The pieces never hold together for this long, and sooner or later it will fracture, but he must press onward while he still has control. He wants to feel normal, and to feel normal is to surround himself in his research, pushing forward to new limits and new heights. The stars call out for his name. First he must understand and master his abilities. Then he can continue his original dream to see the stars outside their humble galaxy and walk on the surface of planets that are not his home.
He doesn’t hear the thudding footsteps approaching in the dead of night. He doesn’t notice the red light on the security camera suddenly go dark or the crack of his lab door breaking open. It’s only when he hears the unmistakable sound of a gun’s safety being taken off that he finally notices that he’s no longer alone. Three men stand before him, each training their guns on him. The sigil of the government facility he escaped from is displayed fully on their uniforms. It taunts him in a way that a gun to the head cannot. His heart leaps out from his chest.
“Subject Sigma,” one of them barks. “Come with us quietly, or we will shoot.”
Despite every instinct in his body, he cannot move. He is frozen in place in front of the piano, trapped, as if he is still tied down to that accursed bed, like his freedom and everything since is a dream he has conjured. He can imagine their hands forcing him into horribly itchy orange jumpsuit, the unprofessional way they injected their sedatives into him, the way they talk about him like he’s beneath humanity, a hideous creature without thought or intelligence.
“Didn’t you hear what he said?” A second soldier growls. “Get a move on!”
His eyes glance around, desperate for a way to escape, but there is none. The exits are watched by more soldiers. The very safety features within this room, designed to minimize the harm he can cause with his powers, are now the portents of his doom. In this section of Talon’s HQ, no one will hear him if he screams, and even if someone does, he will have less than a second before he’s shot dead. He might be able to block or absorb most of the bullets, but it will be futile. It will buy him seconds, maybe a minute. It’s not enough.
Even the voice that screams for violence in his ear is unnaturally quiet. It knows that taking the offensive will not help them survive in this situation. They’re trapped.
The third man steps forward, a curious smile spreading across their face. He orders the other men to stand down. As Sigma watches, he sees that this man is not dressed like the others. He wore glasses over his eyes instead of the tactical masks everyone else did, and his uniform has the markings of a combat medic rather than a soldier.
“It’s good to see you again, Siebren.”
The realization floods him with a feeling of terror but he hides it behind his gritting teeth. This is the doctor that was in charge of him back then. This was his torturer above torturers, Satan amongst the demons. “Dubrovnik,” Sigma spat.
“You’ve done well for yourself, haven’t you? A nice fancy lab, some powerful friends on your side,” His eyes glance down. “Loving the socks. Really sells the old man look.”
“What do you want?”
“To finish my job, and that is to keep you contained,” Dubrovnik said.
“You cannot stop progress.”
“You are a threat to humanity.”
“I am in control.”
“Until when?!”
Sigma stiffens. Dubrovnik puts his gun away and approaches slowly, the hunter coming to collect his prize. Sigma doesn’t react when Dubrovnik tugs his chin forward, jerking his head up to look into those cold, black eyes. Dubrovnik is significantly shorter than him, but in his seated position, their heights are roughly equal. It’s a frighteningly familiar feeling, being manhandled like this, like he is just a piece of trash on the ground.
He wants to choke him, make him suffer, make him hurt in all the ways he has been hurt, but he can’t and Dubrovnik knows this. Dubrovnik relishes in it. He was, and still is, a sadist.
“Out of the oven and into the fire, right, Siebren?”
“What are you talking about?” He rasped.
“You don’t know what Talon is?”
“They saved me!”
“You never thought why?” Dubrovnik’s lips curl. “I’ll tell you why. It’s because they want a weapon. They want Excalbur, and you happen to be the one who pulled it out of the stone. They want war, Siebren, they don’t care about you. As soon as they can wield Excalibur for themselves, they will throw you away like trash. And when they have Excalibur, no one will be able to stop them. They are terrorists. You know this.”
He wants to tell Dubrovnik that he’s wrong, that Talon is an organization of intelligent men and women who want to help humanity take the next big step, but he sees the heat in Dubrovnik’s eyes and he cannot help but take pause. Dubrovnik truly believes this. But why? He is needed, he is important. They will not go through the trouble of saving one man unless he’s important. They have been so kind to him, provided so much for him. They will not abandon him…right?
Dubrovnik takes a step back, Sigma rubbing his neck self-consciously. He’s not sure he imagines it but there’s a flicker in Dubrovnik’s eyes, almost like he pities him.
“If you come with us, we will help you subdue these powers. No one will hurt you or use you. I promise.”
“How can you promise that, you Croatian hypocrite?” Sigma snarls.
“Because no one should wield the powers you wield. Not you. Not Talon. No one.”
Dubrovnik puts his hand out and Sigma is left dazed. He glances around at the guards, emotionlessly watching the exchange. As far as Sigma can tell, Dubrovnik is sincere. And that terrifies him, because Dubrovnik knows something he doesn’t. About Talon, probably.
Sigma realizes in that moment how little he knows about Talon. All he knows is that they support cutting edge research, and have a private military to protect themselves. What is Talon’s goal? Why did they bother with an old man like him?  
He almost reaches for that hand, but Dubrovnik’s form swirls and shifts and suddenly his mirror image is standing there, orange jumpsuit and bitter smile and all.
 “Will you really submit yourself to him again?”
“What else can I do?”
 “You know what to do.”
The mirror image gestures behind Sigma, pointing at the piano. His skin pales.
“I-I can’t. I need to hold it together.”
“A little push,” they say as Dubrovnik appears once again from the smoke. The mirror image is no more.
“If you’re done with your muttering, would you kindly come with me, Siebren?”
Sigma turns back to the piano, his eyes wide. He can hear the melody again. The universe is speaking for him again. It asks him to play its song. It shows him the chords. It tells him the price it will wreak upon his mind.
It’s a price he is willing to pay this time. He turns around and opens the lid for the piano.
“What are you doing?” Dubrovnik asks.
“Let me play one more song before I go,” he says. “It’s my final request.”
He sees the blank faces looking at him in the reflection of the lacquered wood. In the darkness he finds his place on the faux ivory easily. He presses his foot lightly down on the pedal, spreads his fingers on the keys, and pushes his fractured mind off the cliffside. With perfect precision he plays a song of his own creation, a tribute to the song the universe sings.
Memories of his past resurface. The bitter judgment of his academic rivals, the callous disregard of his piano instructor, the stars in the sky, the sorrow of losing his home, the rage of knowing no one cared enough to find him. Dark emotions coalesce into space as gravity releases itself from its chains, sending everyone in the lab flying. There’s screams and shouts as guns are ripped from people’s grasps. Dubrovnik is saying something to him. A plea, a beg, something along those lines, but all Sigma can see is the cosmos expanding, with him at the epicenter. He’s no longer playing the piano; gravity is doing the work for him. He flies above everyone else, his hand outstretched. With every bit of himself he loses, he gains control. The dark voice in his brain laughs in murderous glee.
“D-d-don’t do this, Siebren, please! You’re better than this! You’re not a murderer!”
Alarms are going off above his head, painting the room a bright red. People are holding onto each other, trying to hold on. They know what is coming before he does. Despite the chaos and turmoil before him, he is strangely at peace. The universe sings its lullaby to him from the piano. There is no time signature, no bars, no rhyme or reason. It should not work, but it does.
A placid smile escapes his lips as he brings everyone crashing down. The crunch of broken bones is followed shortly by the bellows of pain. The dark voice takes over, grabbing one of the guns, still hovering up in the air. He shoots—not accurately, but he shoots. There is silence, save for the klaxon above his head and the whimper of one more person.
Dubrovnik crawls towards the door, broken. His left shin bone is sticking out from his pants, trailing blood. Sigma calmly floats forward, the dark voice in control as he pushes the might of gravity upon Dubrovnik’s head. There’s a gasp of air, and then the crunch of bone, and finally a squish. Red liquid oozes out of every hole of Dubrovnik’s head.
It’s not long before Talon realizes the reason for the breach in their HQ. Reaper and Widowmaker are the first ones there, guns at the ready. They round the corner to Sigma’s office down, ready to fight, only to discover the aftermath of a bloodbath. The entire lab is splattered in crimson, dead bodies lying in crooked angles and twisted postures. A pile of guns are stacked in one corner, all crushed and broken. By the door, a man's head looks to have been squeezed together.
Sigma sits alone on the piano stool in front of the cheap, upright Yamaha piano. He is perfectly clean, as is the piano. As they tiptoe over the bodies, careful to not step on the blood, Sigma turns to them with a stern but relaxed expression.
“You’re late,” he says, before waving dismissively. “It’s fine, though. I handled it. I think I even learned a new trick or two.”
If Reaper is not wearing his mask, they would see his mouth open and shut. He’s speechless.
“Since you’re here, how about a song?” Sigma cracks his knuckles and places his fingers on the keys. “How about ‘Piano Man’ by Billy Joel? An old classic.”
No one says anything. Reaper and Widowmaker stand there while Sigma plays and sings along from memory. They do not move. Their eyes are concentrated on the swirling dark energy hovering over the piano, bopping in tune to the beat of the song.
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nicolasnelson · 5 years ago
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Sebastian/MG fic - Mystery Never Breaks
Title: Mystery Never Breaks Relationship: Sebastian/Milton Greasley “MG” (Legacies) Additional Tags: Enemies to lovers Chapters: 1/? Words: 2,555
Summary: Sebastian tries to charm MG into helping him. It almost works.
[AO3 LINK]
“No, I am very real. And I need your help...”
MG couldn’t think clearly. Too many thoughts were crashing through his head at once. Sebastian was real. Lizzie wasn’t crazy. He’d made her think she was seeing things. And now his competition, who he should hate by definition, wanted his help. No freaking way.
“We can talk somewhere private if you are concerned that fellow over there will think you a madman,” Sebastian said, smirking.
“I don’t want to go anywhere with you!”
Wade stood up and glared at him, shoving his belongings into his bag.
“Sorry, West. I didn’t mean you. I meant my friend Lizzie. She did a spell to turn herself invisible. See?” He gestured vaguely at Sebastian, who wore an amused expression.
“Whatever. And how many times do I have to tell you, my name is Wade.” He stormed away from him.
MG turned to glare at Sebastian. “Look what you’ve done.”
“I believe that was entirely your fault,” Sebastian said, raising an eyebrow. “Now if you would show me to your quarters, we could avoid another such encounter.”
“Quarters? You know I’m not a servant, right?” MG said, highkey offended. “I’m a student here, just like everyone else.”
“Of course. My apologies. I should have said chambers instead. I merely meant the location in which you sleep.”
MG groaned. This guy was really starting to bug him. But he didn’t want rumors to spread that he was talking to himself, and the invisible Lizzie excuse wouldn’t hold up if she was mute too.
“Follow me.” He led Sebastian through the halls towards his dorm room.
The old-fashioned vampire’s eyes roved over the paintings on the walls, the candlesticks, everything, like he was studying this place, trying to memorize it. MG wondered if it would have been smarter to take Sebastian somewhere else. He didn’t know what his intentions were or how much he could do while he was invisible. Hopefully he was as harmless as Lizzie believed him to be…
They reached MG’s room. Sebastian glided in after him, and MG shut the door, clicking the lock shut.
“Why are you asking me for help?” MG demanded, crossing his arms.
“You are friends with Elizabeth, yes?”
“Well, I was before you decided to go out with her without mentioning she was the only person who could see you. You made her think she was hallucinating. Now she won’t even talk to me.” MG picked up his jacket draped over his desk chair and put it on, unable to bear looking at Sebastian for a moment longer.
“That was not my intention, I assure you. I thought we were quite alone all the times I spoke with her. I was not expecting a hooligan to be lurking in the trees.”
MG raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I’m the hooligan? That’s funny because I’m not the one who lied to her.”
“Deceived,” Sebastian corrected. “And it was not without reason. I only needed to get close to her, to gain her trust, so I could ask her for this favor.”
“The same favor you’re asking me now. Without getting close to me or gaining my trust. Can’t you see how that makes no sense?”
“Well, I am getting quite desperate. I have been trapped a long time, and I am eager to be free again.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. Why me? Are you planning to use me to get close to Lizzie?”
“Ah.” Sebastian had this look on his face like he understood MG on a deep level. His mouth twisted into a sly smirk. “Elizabeth is indeed a charming woman, but I do not have my heart set on her. After all, there are many dance partners at a ball. Why spend your time dancing with only one?”
It felt like his eyes were boring into MG. He wasn’t sure what Sebastian meant, but it sounded a bit flirty. But, no, that was stupid. MG must be imagining things. It was that old world charm that made everything he said sound like a proposition.
“Okay then,” MG said. “But you could have asked literally anyone else at this school.”
“I made a connection with Lizzie. It broke, yes, but I thought I would do well to reach out to someone who knew of my existence. That way I would not be starting all over again.”
“Lizzie’s already blabbed about you to all her friends. Why didn’t you pick one of them?”
Sebastian grinned, looking quite pleased with himself. “I never had the pleasure of meeting her other friends, and rather than go with the unknown…”
“You went with the known?”
“Precisely. And I do not regret my choice. You are quite the specimen.”
“Can you stop talking about me like I’m some science project?”
“As the known variable, it seemed to be a fitting word to describe you, but I can see how it could be dehumanizing. I did not mean to offend you in the least. I could just as well have said you are quite the Adonis .”
MG gave him a funny look, unsure whether that was an insult or a compliment. Adonis was someone from Greek mythology, wasn’t it? MG couldn’t remember anything about him though.
Sebastian frowned, looking a little bit hurt. He seemed to be expecting some reaction from MG that he wasn’t getting. He smiled tensely and spoke again, laying on the charm even thicker this time. “Someone with your gorgeous mane and your fine-cut figure must be used to attention, yes? I am sure you are very popular with people around here.”
MG snorted. Was he making fun of him again? “I don’t see anyone lining up to be your friend. And it’s pretty dumb of you to ask for my help. I don’t know anything about you.”
“Forgive me. We have not been properly introduced. My name is Sebastian.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”
“MG. Look, I still don’t know if you’re actually real, or if my head is just messing with me. You’re going to have to tell me more about yourself than just your name.”
“I am a vampire, as I’m sure Elizabeth has already told you. I was born in the fifteenth century. I led a simple life before being turned. My family became afraid of me and sought a way to hide me away. They succeeded, and I have been hidden for hundreds of years, locked away in a box somewhere, dessicated. I only seek an escape to this unending torment.”
MG gripped the edge of his desk to steady himself. That was a lot for him to process. He had been convinced he was imagining Sebastian, but he wasn’t sure his own mind could make this up.
“Hypothetically, if I were to help you, what would you need?”
“That depends,” Sebastian said, his gaze flicking to MG’s mouth. Or wait, that couldn’t be right… MG was definitely tripping. “What manner of creature are you?”
“I’m like you.”
“Ah, I thought you were a witch.” He looked disappointed for a moment, and MG could swear he saw him lick his lips. “Oh, yes, Elizabeth did say some of her closest friends were vampires. I take it that would include you.”
“You take it correct,” MG said, then shook his head. “Wait, that came out weird. I just mean, yes, I’m a vampire. And you’re a vampire, but your parents locked you in a box and starved you, so now you’re like extra dead or something like that.” He made a disgusted face, looking Sebastian up and down.
“Something like that,” Sebastian agreed, his voice lofty.  “I would need you to find my body in that box somewhere around here.” He waved vaguely. “And with some human blood, I shall be restored.”
“And where is this box?”
“That is for you to discover, my friend.” It was clear MG wasn’t getting any more answers out of him. Damn mysterious guy.
“You know broody vampires aren’t really popular anymore. It was great ten or twenty years ago, but now girls prefer vampires who are straightforward.”
“Have you considered that I might not be trying to impress a girl at the moment?” Sebastian lifted an eyebrow. “But I am curious to know what you would suggest in order to impress someone.”
MG didn’t really know what to say. “I don’t know what you should do. But you need to get with the times, bro.” He punched Sebastian’s shoulder, trying to act casual, even though he was lowkey freaking out at Sebastian’s comment.
Sebastian grabbed MG’s wrist and twisted it behind his back. Pretty fast for a vampire, and that was saying something. “I am not your brother,” he said between gritted teeth.
“No, that’s not what it means. It’s like saying ‘dude’ or ‘man.’ Like hey, man, let go of me.”
Sebastian released his grip. “Ah. So this ‘dude’ and ‘man’ are the modern day equivalent of ‘good sir’ then?”
MG rubbed at his arm. “Yeah, that sounds right. Wow, you are really strong for an invisible guy.”
Sebastian inclined his head. “Why thank you, bro.”
MG suppressed a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand.
“What? Did I use it incorrectly?”
“No, it just sounds weird to hear you say it with all the formal speech. Maybe hold off on the slang for now.”
Sebastian nodded, looking relieved. “That is perfectly agreeable for me.”
“How long were you a vampire before, you know, the box thing?” MG asked. “If it was for a long time, then you’re really creepy. You know Lizzie is only sixteen, right?”
Sebastian rubbed his chin, considering. “I was a rather new vampire. I would say I was only roaming freely for about a year before I was locked away. I was eighteen when I was first turned, so even with my year of roaming, I am still a teenager myself.”
His shoulders relaxed. “Well, that’s a relief.”
Sebastian walked around the room, studying all of MG’s belongings before settling on his video game system. He pressed every button except the one to turn it on. “This thing you want me to call you... Emgee. What does it mean?”
MG snorted. Sebastian said his name like it was some mystical title. “It’s my initials. Didn’t you have those in the fifteenth century?”
“Ah, yes, we signed many a letter with them. What is your first name, if I may ask?”
“Milton.” MG made a face.
Sebastian smiled, displaying all his teeth. It was honestly a bit dazzling. “Milton. That is a marvelous name. Why do you choose not to use it?”
MG shrugged. “It sounds so old-fashioned and ugly.”
“Quite the contrary. Your name is beautiful, Milton. I knew a lovely place in England that bore the name. But if being called by your name makes you uncomfortable, I shall endeavor to call you MG.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind too much.” And he really didn’t. It felt okay when Sebastian called him that. It would feel stranger for him to call him MG. “What about you? Do you have any nicknames?”
“Oh, yes, my friends call me Sebastian the Insatiable. Or they did…” His voice trailed off as his gaze shifted to the floor.
“That’s kinda long for a nickname,” MG pointed out, ignoring the fact that it was a terrible nickname. Who wanted to announce that they were hungry all the time? Or maybe it was a sex thing… No way was he calling Sebastian that. “Usually people pick something shorter. Like Seb, Sebby, or even Bash.”
“Bash. I quite like the sound of that. All right. You may call me Bash if you so desire.” Sebastian grinned at him.
MG itched his head. “Sorry, I, uh, I need to go clean my shoes. See you later, Bash.”
Sebastian gave him the most alluring smile and a wave. “Until next time, Milton. I shall fiddle with this interesting contraption some more.”
“Sure, just try not to break anything.”
“Got it,” Sebastian said, smiling. “When you return, we can work out the details of our arrangement.”
“There is no arrangement. I still haven’t decided if I’m helping you yet. Look, I’ll ask my friend Kaleb in the morning for advice. If he thinks we should help you, then we will.”
“Ah.” Sebastian’s fist closed around the remote, shattering the plastic. He dropped it to the floor. “Well, that might be a problem. I am not the best at waiting. You see, I have done far too much of it in my time.”
MG bit his lip. It was taking everything in him not to attack Sebastian. This guy was pinching his last nerve. “You better learn fast then. ‘Cause we’re doing things on my time.”
A nerve feathered in Sebastian’s chiseled jaw. “I have tried to be civil, but you make things very difficult,” he said, his voice strained. He looked two seconds away from tackling him to the ground. “Milton, you are insufferable.”
MG scoffed. “Yeah, well, you’re instandable.”
“That is not even a real word, is it?”
“Sure, it is. It means I can’t stand you.”
Sebastian rubbed his forehead. “Goodness, the English language has suffered greatly in my absence. And you do realize that insufferable means the exact same thing, don’t you?”
“Yeah, of course I knew that. That’s why I said what I said.”
Sebastian laughed, looking like he’d finally cracked some big mystery. “Oh, I see. You’re an idiot. No wonder you need the aid of your friend to decide whether to help me or not. You cannot make the decision for yourself.”
“That’s not true,” MG said, his tone biting. “I could make a decision myself. If I wanted to.”
Sebastian pursed his lips and shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
“No, I see what you’re doing here. I’m going to let you trick me into agreeing to help you. Asking a friend for advice is the smart thing to do. It would be stupider--more stupid--for me not to.”
“Ah, not as dumb as I thought.” Sebastian closed the distance between them with one stride, getting right in MG’s face. “But not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” He smirked, wicked, teasing.
MG fought a strange mix of urges in his stomach. “I’m gonna go fix my shoe. When I get back, you better be gone. We’ll talk in the morning, okay? Otherwise I’m not helping you at all.”
Sebastian leveled him with a glare, his eyes cold and sharp. All the charm had gone out of him, and he just looked like a viper, poised to strike. “Well, you no longer have permission to call me Bash, you bloody turnip.”
MG rushed out of the room and slammed the door shut, hoping Sebastian wouldn’t follow him. When MG reached the bathroom, he closed the door behind him and leaned against the cool wood. He tried to shove down his feelings to where the sun don’t shine, but they kept clawing their way up as he remembered Sebastian’s brilliant smile, his subtle hint that he might be interested in someone other than Lizzie. How the hell did Sebastian manage to simultaneously infuriate him and allure him?
MG knew without a doubt this boy would be the second death of him.
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