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coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe · 6 months ago

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[Ghostbusters] Brainwaves (Part 1/?):

Around 2000 Words, under the cut due to length, untagged for now, but I hope this finds a supportive audience. Kind of a why-choose story, multiple potential ships. Alternate universe that mainly follows just the 1st movie.

TW: Smoking, Mentions of psych wards, References to Mars being overprotective

Bios: Venkman Spengler Stantz Zeddemore (Doesn't appear in this part, but I gotta include Winston) Nieto-Jorge Nova Teufel Keaton Wada Mars Teufel (Only referenced in this chapter) Ira Freud

January 9th 1984 (Tuesday):

The bell rings, signifying the end of the workday, Nieto-Jorge huffs out a sigh as she walks into the shared office, "I'm surrounded by idiots." Her Panamanian voice drips with hatred.

Nova cocks an eyebrow, humming out a small 'Mmn?" in response.

"You would expect a class of thirty students would understand what Agriology is before they sign up."

[Note: Agriology is the comparative study of primitive, illiterate or 'Savage’ cultures.}

"Did ya explain to them what it is?" Nova offers.

"Seven times, Nova, seven times!" Heather yips.

"What did they think it was?"

"Obviously something other than what it is!"

"Calm d-… chill out, Nieto, chill out." Nova goes quiet.

Nieto-Jorge takes a deep breath and sighs, picking up a pack of cigarettes and taking one out with her teeth before lighting it, "So, Eschatology, how did it go?"

{Note: Eschatology is the study of how different religions believe the world will end.}

"Small class, barely more than fifteen students in total." She shrugs, "Mortuary Science has twenty and Criminology is full, all fifty spaces filled in the lecture hall." Nova murmurs.

Nieto-Jorge nods, as she puffs out the thick white smoke in the direction of the office door, "Any news from the others?"

"May's busy and Ally's out on another jog."

"Ay, Dios Mio, what's that now, seven times, again!"

"Not ya lucky day, huh, Nieto."

"No, I am," she pauses, looking for the right word, "I am cursed by that number."

Nieto-Jorge grabs her handbag, placing her pack of cigarettes carefully into an inside pocket, "Hasta Mañana, Nova."

"Hasta Mañana, Nieto." Nova nods as Heather leaves.

As the Panamanian shuts the door behind her Nova huffs out a sigh and goes back to her notebook, a young professor, aged only thirty-one, Nova was always much quieter than her colleagues, having little to talk about most of the time.

Nova had grown up in a slew of different psych wards, the first being when she was only five and being let out the final's custody at eighteen.

Her hand trembles as she writes 'January 9th 1984, the first day of work for the new academic year, woke up to the taps in the bathroom turned fully on, could've sworn I turned them off before sleeping last night, Mars denies turning them on, says he was out like a light the moment his head touched the pillow.'

She huffs out another sigh, taking a swig of her coffee and letting her long, blonde hair down for a moment. As she flips through another one of her books, she hears a knock on the office door, "Come in." As soon as the door opens, Nova regrets inviting them inside.

The Dean, Harold Yeager, Nova wouldn't admit it, but every time he steps into the office, she feels as if he were about to fire her. She quickly re-fixes her hair back into a ponytail and places the empty coffee in the bin.

"Professor Teufel, I have a job for you… Well, more than just 'a' job."

"Yes, Dean Yeager?"

"Could you run the paranormal society? You are the most experienced when it comes to strange cases."

Nova kept her feelings to herself about her 'experience' with 'strange' cases, "Sure, Dean Yeager, I can, ah, I can do that."

"Excellent, the club starts tomorrow at five, and considering your classes end at four, I assume you will be fine."

As Dean Yeager leaves, Nova heaves a sigh of relief, cursing under her breath as the ramifications of the Dean knowing her past, or rather, who was in her past.

"Who hurt you?" A sarcasm-filled voice whispers as she leans over Nova's desk.

"The universe did May, the universe did."

"C'mon Nova, lighten up a bit, ya big, gothic, grump." May smirks.

"Dean Yeager's put me in charge of the 'paranormal society'."

"Oh no, why the hell is he doing that?"

"I have the most 'experience' with 'strange cases'." Nova and May share a knowing look.

"That bastard! I mean, how wonderful our boss is."

Nova stifles a laugh, waving Allison into the office.

"Why's Dean Yeager a bastard now?"

"He's given Nova, of all people, the 'paranormal society' job."

"That… That asshole!" Allison snaps.

Nova sighs in contempt, knowing full well that she was on the chopping block if the club fails to achieve at least one student a minor in criminology or parapsychology, "Why's he given me the club when we have a parapsychology department."

"Oh, yeah, give Spengs the chance to bore students to death." May smirks.

"Or Venkman any chance to flirt with girls." Nova sighs.

"Or Sta- … Stantz has no downside. Why give it to Nova and not Stantz." Allison murmurs.

The three girls stare, wide-eyed, at each other for a moment before running to catch up with the Dean before he leaves for the evening.

Instead of running into Dean Yeager on their way to question him, Allison (followed by a very out-of-breath May and a very peeved Nova) bumps shoulder first into 'Spengs', sending both Allison and the much taller man sprawling to the floor.

"Nice way to make an introduction, Ally."

"Shut up for a second and help me up, May."

"Blondie." May whispers.

"What?"

"Help her up."

Allison stares daggers into the smaller female as their only 'tall' friend launches her back onto her feet. 'Spengs' gets back to his feet seconds after, helped up by Venkman and Stantz.

"Well done Ally, you head, head first into 'Spengs', only a romcom would be so violently, non-violent." May jokes.

"'Spengs'?" The tall professor raises an eyebrow.

"Doctor Spengler," Nova stands between the trio of parapsychologists and her two smaller friends, "my friends here, aren't the brightest. You'll have to forgive and forget them and their ridiculously bad nicknames."

"And you are?"

"Professor Teufel, Eschatology. Mortuary Science. Criminology."

"Dean Yeager said something about you before he left. Something about the 'Paranormal Society'?"

"He's made her the head of the club." May interrupts.

"Oh, I thought you didn't like people that much." He raises an eyebrow and pushes his glasses up.

The way Doctor Spengler said it made it sound a lot worse than the reality of the situation, as if Nova couldn't stand people, when in fact, she'd rather have a small group of friends than be the most popular person in the universe.

"Trust me, I'd much rather go through Ragnarök than teach the fifty kids that signed up for Criminology."

"You got fifty people to sign up for Criminology? Professor Teufel, are you aware of how rare the opportunity is for us to teach a full lecture hall?" Stantz pipes up, his face full of excited energy.

"Uhh, no." Nova's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"What my buddy Ray here's trying to say," Venkman began, "Is that you are so lucky to be able to teach that many students."

"Oh, well, I don't exactly feel lucky." Nova murmurs, "But I'll go talk to Dean Yeager… alone, excuse me."

Due to the distraction, Nova just misses the dean as he leaves for the day. As she makes the slow walk back to her office, she trips over a discarded pencil, snapping it and narrowly avoiding ending up on her face on the floor.

"Professor Teufel? Are you alright?"" A friendly masculine voice asks.

"Yeah, I…" Nova falls silent as she looks up.

Black Oxford shoes, black socks, cream khaki trousers, a thin black leather belt, a dark-green polo shirt covered by a denim shirt, a softer jawline than the other two parapsychology professors, full lips and the faintest hint of a five-o'clock shadow, a snub nose, Nova avoids eye-contact, thick eyebrows and a purposely accentuated widow's peak, or so it would seem due to his incredibly voluminous hair.

"I'm okay Doctor Stantz. I should be going." She mutters as she rushes to her feet, avoiding looking Stantz in the eyes.

Stantz can't deny that he's doing the same to Professor Teufel, especially with her unique appearance, bouncy blonde hair nearly obscuring her thin light-brown brows and bright blue eyes, eyes surrounded by dark makeup and equally dark lipstick shading her plump lips. An espresso toned duster jacket covers a long navy blue shirt and a hint of bandages underneath, below that is a pair of black-blue jeans and black three-inch platform boots.

"Are you sure, I could walk you back to your office, I know how tough it can be when the Dean gives you bad news."

Nova looks at Stantz's eyes, noticing the dissimilarity in colours between the right and left, "Uhm, Doctor Stantz?"

Stantz raises an eyebrow, "Yes, Professor?"

"Are you aware of the psychic heterochromia theory?" Nova smiles softly.

"You know, I'm not too familiar with that one." Ray smirks in return.

The two scientists walk and talk their way back to Nova's office, the basement now empty of other people.

"You know something, Doctor Stantz," Nova reaches for her pack of cigarettes in the top drawer, "you really are a breath of fresh air."

"Thanks, you're quite refreshing yourself." Ray smiles softly, leaving to gather his things.

Nova gets ready to leave, slinging her bag over her shoulder and lighting her cigarette as she walks out of the office.

"Hey, Professor Teufel, it's getting late, would you like me to walk you home?" Ray offers as they walk upstairs.

"I'm not actually going home yet, I'm meeting up with my brother and a couple of my cousins for coffee."

"You have a brother? I heard rumours that said you were an only child."

"Yeah, Mars Teufel. He-"

"Works for that German news channel, the one that was featured in last week's 'New York Times'?"

"Yeah, he's a politics and economics correspondent, usually films on Wall Street, though we both try to avoid bringing our work home, me more-so than him."

"You teach Eschatology, the study of the religious end of the world, that's gotta be tough, all those debates and no proof to back anything up?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Doctor, hey, if you want, you can join us, have you met Gil and Remi?"

"Professor Gilbert Teufel, and Professor Remus Teufel? I've crossed paths with them a few times, never really talked to them for very long."

"Well, it's just dinner, I'm sure they'll be fine with it."

When they reach the bench outside the building, Ira's sitting there waiting for Nova.

"Hey, Nova, are we still on for dinner?" His charming grin fades when he looks over at Ray, "Who's this guy, wait, don't tell me he's of those three basement-dwelling paranormal geeks."

"I'm Doctor Raymond Stantz, and you are?" Stantz glares at Ira.

He looks, as he always does, academically casual, grey slacks, dark grey jumper and a black leather blazer jacket, at this point it's become his uniform.

"Professor Ira Freud, mortuary science, criminal psychology, and the campus psychologist. I work with Nova." He tries to look menacing.

"Hey, Ira," Nova pipes up, "I thought that dinner was on Friday. Anyway, me and Doctor Stantz were just going to see Gil, Remi and Mars for coffee and maybe a bagel or two, nothing important."

Ira leans in towards Nova, kissing her cheek and whispering to her, "I'll see you Friday, same time, stay safe Teufie." He scowls at Ray as he walks off.

"What was that about?" Ray cocks an eyebrow as he and Nova start walking again.

"Ira? He's somewhat of a jerk when it comes to other guys being around me, he's truly harmless though, just a bit of a jerk, it's because he thinks of you as competition, me mentioning my brother scares him though, Mars likes making him squirm."

"Does your brother like making every man you hang out with scared, or just Ira?

"Just Ira, Mars doesn't mind Jacob, you know, Blumenthal."

"I know Jacob, he's actually a close friend of mine, terrible habit of eating in lectures."

"Tell me about it, right before the holidays I had to lecture him on eating in lectures."

Ray chuckles softly, Nova looks at him and the duo share a gentle smile at each other, she takes a drag of her cigarette, breathing the smoke away from Ray.

"You got any spares?"

Nova grins, keeping the cigarette between her teeth, she reaches into her bag and fishes out her pack of cigarettes, offering it to Ray, "Didn't know you smoked, you know there's a bench behind our building where I go for a smoke break every now and then, maybe you could join me, enjoy the view of the city, tell a ghost story or two."

Ray smirks as he lights his cigarette, watching as Nova breathes out a smoke ring, "You know something, I think I might take you up on that offer."

"I'll try to talk Ira into being nicer to you."

"Don't worry about that, Venkman says a little rivalry is psychologically stimulating to some people."

"You don't have a psychology degree?"

"No, engineering or metallurgy, I'm your man, but not psychology."

"Got it, if I ever need the coffee machine tuned up, I'll knock on your office door." Nova smirks.

#brainwaves #ghostbusters #ghostbusters 1984 #ghostbusters oc #ray stantz #nova teufel #egon spengler #peter venkman #ira freud #heather nieto-jorge #may keaton #allison wada

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danthediamondminecart · 1 year ago

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Made references for all the ‘main cast’ in the TMA AU!

This is just the characters who recur a lot and / or have lots of importance in the story, minor characters will be drawn up later, maybe :3

The Institute is called the Robloxian Paranormal Institute, but is shortened to the RB Institute by the general public, hence me using both names. The story's not set in total stone just yet, but I have a vague idea.

This reference style was based off the lovely refs by @/theellipelli, check em out! Information under the cut, I’ll add the transcripts later I’m tired while posting this rn

EDIT: Took me like a month (i am so sorry) but I got the transcripts!

Kreek Craft

The [Beholding’s Special Little Boy] Head Archivist

Workaholic, obsessive over anything mysterious/paranormal

Was promoted after the ‘death in the line of work’ of his

predecessor, Dan Minecart

Feels responsible for the safety and health of his employees

Refuses to talk about why he believes in the supernatural

Dummy

Devoun Monarch

The nicest guy in the Archives Lied on his CV

Jackeryz bullied him and trapped him in his apartment for 7 days

The longest out of the OG Archive crew to not get traumatised

Until the Collective get their hands on him that is

Super loyal to his friends

Tries to stay optimistic at all times even when he Absolutely Shouldn’t

Denis Daily

Literally only joined the Archives because of the pay raise, does not care at all

The Distortion loves to mock him

After an interaction with an Avatar of the End, he loses his ability to feel fear

Brings his cat to work sometimes (he really shouldn’t)

“Hey boss can I make memes”

Night-Foxx Nebula

Other than Kreek, has the longest tenure at the Institute

‘The Reliable One’, used to work in Storage

Super strong

Overworks himself a LOT

Joined the Institute to try and find his missing brother, Ominous Nebula

Unknowingly is part of the Nebula family who worships the Vast

This leads to his inevitable downfall

Ends up becoming an Avatar of the Vast

Dylan ‘Hyper’ Plays

Host of the YT Channel ‘Bloxburg Ghostbusting’ with Poke

The ‘Hyper’ stands for ‘Hyperventilating

First came to the institute to look for darker cases to film

Already anxious, suddenly becomes super paranoid in Arc 2

Later joins the Archives, though not out of free will

Poke is his best/childhood friend, becomes friendly with Tanqr and Ashley

Zachary ‘Poke’ Diger

Host of the YT Channel ‘Bloxburg Ghostbusting’ with Hyper

The ‘Poke’ stands for ‘Poking his nose where it shouldn’t be’

Had the idea to use the institute for darker cases

Though him and Hyper are locked out of the ‘real’ stuff until they happen to be there when Night-Foxx goes missing / Jackeryz attacks

Overconfident but also easily scared

Tanqr Titanium

Works at the Arsenal Activity Range

Is marked by the Slaughter, is slowly turning into an avatar

Hair dye and guitar enthusiast

Bandites is his best friend

Also later joins the institute (not by choice)

Immediately starts plotting to kill Russo

The later in the timeline, the longer his hair

Bandites White

Works at the Arsenal Activity Range

Tanqr’s best friend

Dragged Tanqr to the Institute to make a statement after being attacked by Jackeryz

Expert at survival, so helps out when the Institute is attacked

Excellent at conflict de-escalation

Becomes Tanqr’s Morality Chain

This attracts Sabrina’s attention (in a bad way)

Lego P.G.H.L Films

Begins working in the Archives after Night-Foxx disappears

Has 4 middle names. His parents were weird.

Also lied on his CV, he’s like 18

His family were Hunters, they were killed as a result

Finds comfort in the Dark

Shy and feels under appreciated at first, comes out of his shell with time

Bella Cinder

Interning in the RB Institute’s Library

Wants to join the Archives, instead she resorts to providing the Archives with information and hangs around there

This means she’s a bystander to A Lot Of Things

Best friends with Pink Leaf & is Booshot Mistr’s cousin

Looks after some random kid calling himself ‘Timmeh’

This turns out to be a mistake

Ashley Unicorn

Substitute Teacher at Royale High School

Comes to the Archives to make a statement, ends up befriending Hyper and Tanqr

Becomes ‘allies’ with Peetah Bread, hence her connection to the Buried

Tries her darndest to stay out of trouble

Ends up throwing herself into trouble to save her friends

Will not take any of your nonsense

Sabrina Brite

Avatar of the Web

Doesn’t actually work at the Institute, just hangs around

Tends to tease the people she’s manipulating a lot

Works alongside Russo with all the Archives nonsense

Filled to the brim with spiders

Dresses up in Vintage clothing because why not

Has villainous flair down to a science

Russo Talks

Director of the RB Institute and Avatar of the Eye

Pretends to be a nice friendly boss at first, reveals his malicious intent later

Has the ability to read minds and is vaguely omnipotent

The Big Bad of the story

Still makes so many puns even after he’s revealed he’s evil

Quite a hammy guy honestly, how on earth did he end up as the Director of the Institute

There’s a chance he’s not actually Russo

Deejay Monopoli

Avatar of the Hunt

Not officially employed at the Institute but acts as Russo’s bodyguard

The only ‘not evil’ one of the hosts, but he’s still an avatar/murderer

“I miss my wife, Russo”

Has tried to kill Russo before, now is unable to due to blackmail

He’s not given up on trying to get his wife back, has given up on everything else though

Listens to music all the time to distract himself from the horrors

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tojisun · 3 years ago

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submission from: @llawlietslut

hii!! i hope ur doing well :)

i wanted to request a sweet n cute fluff of toji and baby megumi and fem! reader taking baby megumi trick or treating. ik halloween passed but i love this idea

have a good day <3

HIII im so sorry this took too long!! and aahhhhh this is so adorable omgggg i hope you like this <333

word count: 1.3k

megumi wanted to be a ghost for halloween.

you and your husband thought he’d be a werewolf for the holiday given his affinity for wolves, but little megumi just wanted a plain white blanket with eye sockets.

“there’s our little ghost boy!” you say, securing the popper buttons of his hood and brushing at his spilling hair, tucking them back inside the hood.

his costume could pass off as a poncho with how simple it is: consisting of a hood with a low quality smiley face drawn on it, and the hems adorning jagged cuts. it isn’t the best halloween costume megumi’s ever had but your little blessing is smiling so wide, bouncing lightly as though to contain his excitement, and it’s like. who cares about how it looks? your blessing is adorably happy with it.

“i’m a ghost and mama an’ papa’s gon’ catch me!” he says excitedly, shifting his weight from one foot to another, giggling when his costume swishes around.

toji chuckles beside you. “that’s right, gumi, papa and mama’s going to catch our little casper boy,” toji responds, reaching to ruffle at megumi’s hooded head. megumi giggles again and you turn to toji, beaming in happiness.

if megumi’s the little ghost, you and toji are the ghostbusters.

the idea came to you when megumi announced that he wanted to be a ghost for halloween during breakfast, then pouting when he said that he still wanted to match with you two. you told him to not worry; that he can still be the little phantom, and mama and papa are going to be the ghostbusters instead. he didn’t know the reference so you had to pull up a picture and only then did his moping stop, excitedly rambling about being ‘uncatchable’.

“you have your pumpkin bucket?” you ask, turning to secure his shoelaces.

“here!” he says, swinging his candy holder for emphasis.

“and i have his bag here,” toji chimes, “and your purse.”

you smile at him, standing up to press a kiss at his cheeks. “thank you.”

toji reciprocates by planting a kiss on your forehead before crouching down to pick up megumi.

“me too!” megumi says, presenting his chubby cheeks. you and toji laugh, hearts full, before smooching both of his cheeks at the same time.

when the three of you finally make it out of the house, the neighbourhood is brimming with life. so many children and teens are already filling the streets, dressed in cartoon characters or american movie characters. front porches are intricately designed with different decor and fairy lights, and you turn to see megumi gazing at everything with awe.

you chuckle, remembering that megumi’s usually asleep at this time.

“is gumi ready to trick or treat?”

megumi looks back at you and nods, tiny head bobbing quickly in excitement. toji chuckles at megumi and you study them, both of your beloved boys, feeling so much joy and love rising in your chest almost like it’d drown you.

so many years of dancing around each other, followed by a tensed period of adjusting with megumi, feeling like time will never stop for you—all those years are now left in the past. and while it wasn’t easy, you will never exchange it for anything in the world. there’s no other place that you’d rather be at.

toji turns to you, wondering at your sudden silence. “darling, you okay?”

“yeah,” you say smiling, “let’s go.”

megumi starts trick-or-treating at yoshida-san’s house. it’s a little far from your guys’ home, but you remember that yoshida-san loves to dress up his dogs for the holiday and you know megumi would love to see them.

he does.

when he ran to knock at yoshida-san’s door, you and toji following behind him, you watched as megumi gasped excitedly after seeing sora, an orange and white akita, and ame, a pure white samoyed, dressed in a matching bumblebee costumes.

the two puppies jumped at megumi, licking at his cheeks and barking in response to megumi’s continuous happy squealing. yoshida-san was chuckling at the back, holding onto a bowl filled with chocolates. megumi seemed to forget that he was out trick-or-treating as he continued to just play around with the dogs.

you snapped countless of pictures of the three, laughing when megumi’s hood fell and his hair became a mess again. toji’s chuckling beside you, an arm wrapped around your waist as you two watched your son lose himself in a laughing fit.

“time to trick-or-treat somewhere else, gumi,” toji called and only then did megumi totter back to yoshida-san, holding out his pumpkin baggy for chocolates. sora and ame stood on either side of megumi, and megumi patted them on their heads as a farewell before running beside you and toji again.

“thank you, yoshida-san!” megumi exclaimed before you three walked out of his porch and began knocking on other homes.

some of the houses had moving decorations that scared megumi so much that he refused to walk in, hiding his face on toji’s neck and refusing to be put down. some had many fairy lights that extinguished megumi’s fear, allowing him to knock on the door on his own while you and toji stand behind him. in all these ordeal, you learn that megumi’s such a cute boy that they’d give him more than one candy bar. it’s barely been ten minutes of going around the neighbourhood and megumi’s bucket is already full.

when megumi turned his puppy-eyes at you and toji, saying that he still wants to trick-or-treat despite his full bucket, you both easily agreed. toji put half of the candies in megumi’s bag, huffing when your precious boy cheered and hugged toji’s leg, the only thing he can reach, before running to the next house already.

the three of you meet the itadoris later. yuuji is wearing a dracula costume, with fake blood dripping from the corner of his lips.

“it’s from my wife’s lipstick,” jin says, rubbing at his nape and chuckling when yuuji and megumi began exchanging candies.

“he looks cute,” toji states and you hum in agreement, still focused on taking pictures of the boys.

from then on, yuuji and megumi did their trick-or-treating together, with yuuji pattering quickly and megumi trying to catch up. yuuji’s the shorter of the two and yet he has the most energy, and you stifle a laugh when yuuji turned around to pull megumi along, exclaiming that megumi’s walking slow.

the boys tire quickly, after. yuuji returned to jin, leaning on him to support himself up. likewise, megumi’s back in toji’s arms, resting his head on toji’s shoulders and fighting his drowsy eyes.

“thank you for tonight,” jin says quietly, rubbing at yuuji’s head. “my wife couldn’t make it so yuuji’s pretty bummed out until we met you three, so i’m really thankful for tonight.”

“don’t worry about it,” toji replies, “megumi’s being shy, but he’s also really happy to trick-or-treat with yuuji-kun. isn’t that right, gumi?”

megumi nods, sleepier than minutes ago. you coo at him, pressing a kiss at his forehead and huffing a short laugh when he scrunches his nose.

“say bye now, yuuji,” jin says, smiling when yuuji can only manage a tiny wave.

megumi, too, only waves in goodbye.

on your way home, megumi finally succumbs to sleep, softly snoozing with his face tucked on toji’s neck.

“baby, did you have fun today too?” toji mutters, shifting megumi a bit so that he can look at you.

“i did. how about you?”

“very,” toji replies, “i love you.”

you smile. “i love you too.”

what a beautiful halloween it turned out to be.

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crazycookiecrumbles · 3 years ago

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Ooooooo I have a fic for you!!!

How about Shang chi is in a relationship with a fem shyreader who’s powerful and legendary superhero and popular member of the avengers who has the power to control the weather, please! Thank you 😊

I can definitely see Katy always requesting her what kind of weather she wants, especially Katy demanding y/n taking her to fly. Also I can definitely see that Bucky Barnes and Sam wilson are jealous Shang chi is “stealing” their best friend. They all watch, even Shang chi in amazement Everytime y/n uses her powers

Okay, I hope it turns out how you like it! (also I hid a ghostbusters reference in here because I'm a dork I'm sorry; and references to Storm ,the best of the best for obvious reasons)

The Soft Tempest

Shang-Chi x Shy!Reader

"So can I request a white Christmas?" Katy asked. "But, like, super white? Not in a racist white people way, but with snow."

Shangqi groaned and covered his face with the palm of his hand. Katy smiled happily at you while you looked up from your book and tilted your head to the side as you studied Katy's excited, adorable face.

The three of you were currently waiting at the airport for Sam and Bucky to arrive. They had just finished a trying, emotional mission involving the new, but also former, Captain America, John Walker, and they decided to drop in and pay their favorite Avenger a visit, given that you waere on leave and trying to live a quiet life for as long as you could.

This meant that Katy was sitting on one chair playing a million and one questions. Shangqi was in the seat next to Katy, your legs draped over his lap as he mindlessly ran his hand up and down your shin, and you were reading and only partially paying attention to all of Katy's crazy ideas for the week to come.

"Katy," Shangqi groaned. "Part of keeping a low profile means her not using her powers."

Katy narrowed her eyes, "Excuse me but you told me you kissed her in the rain and she made it rain because she wanted to recreate some cheesy scene in one of her dumb movies -- no offense they're so cheesy and cute but so dumb -- and you thought it was the coolest thing. Also, you're dating what's basically a god, so, who is being subtle here?"

"I'm not a God..." you began as you folded a page in your book and shut it. "I just happen to have been struck by lightning on a ship, drowned, had a very strange vision while underwater, and woke up with really weird and strange powers. and half of my hair turning white."

Katy stared at you and sighed, "Y/N. When someone says that you're a god, you say, yes. So, anyway. White Christmas?"

You chuckled, "Of course, Katy."

"Thank you. See? She's the best. You seriously dated up, bro."

Shangqi glanced at you and shot you a wink, "I know I did. I think about it every single day."

You beamed at him. You smiled, eyes darting between him and the book on your lap as your cheeks burned hotly. You quickly grabbed the book again to hide your embarrassed face. Shangqi grabbed the book, tilted it down slightly, and leaned forward to kiss you. You returned the kiss, a soft, sweet peck on the lips that had him humming satisfaction while you blushed even more.

Your soft moment with your boyfriend was ruined when someone recognized you, and then another, and another. You couldn't say no when they came up to you. A little boy wearing a t-shirt of you asked for a picture. A teenager with her parents and hair designed just like yours was too shy to ask for a picture. Her parents did it for her, and you couldn't say no. You all took the picture together.

And the more that this happened, the more people began to notice you and share the news that the Tempest herself, Avenger, a true force to be reckoned with was around, well, the floodgates opened.

Shangqi took your hand in his when there was a brief reprieve. He took hold of Katy's arm, and the three of you rushed to a different section of the airport. Katy hid with you in the bathroom for a little while before the three of you gathered together and went to wait by the gate.

"Y/N! Baby girl! Light of my life, the rain on my window, the snow on my trees, the breeze in my hair -- "

"What hair?" Bucky snickered, cutting off Sam.

"Fuck off with your emo-lookin' ass," Sam scoffed as he approached you, dropped his bags, and lifted you in the air in a bone-crushing hug that grabbed the attention of too many people. "How are you doing baby girl?"

You giggled "Hi, Sam. I'm good. How are you? How was the flight?"

"I mean, it'd be better if Bucky didn't snore, but it was good."

"I don't snore," Bucky rolled his eyes at Sam and shoved him to the side. With his metal arm, he wrapped it around your waist and pulled you in for a tight hug. He could see Shangqi staring with the slightest hint of jealousy. Bucky rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at him. "How are ya, kitten? Do I need to beat up the boyfriend yet?"

Be nice," you scolded Bucky and lightly slapped the top of his hand. "Shangqi is nothing but a gentleman to me."

"Sure, but once he slips up..." Sam shot Shangqi a warning look.

"Good to see you guys too," Shangqi sighed.

"Hey, next time, don't steal our girl," Bucky said easily.

Katy nodded, "Makes sense. I agree with the partial robot. That's totally an appropriate response. So can we go now? I'm starving and I want to see some snow."

"It's not even Christmas, Katy," Shangqi reminded her.

"But it's so cool," Katy whined as you all walked away. "Bro, have you gone flying in the rain? It's amazing."

"Yes, I have," Shangqi said. "Katy she's my girlfriend."

Katy blinked, "Yeah. So?"

~*~

Eventually, when Shangqi stopped fighting Katy over custody of his own girlfriend, you all went out to eat. Katy looked at you, bouncing on her heels, asking for you to do the thing. You laughed and shook your head. Standing still, you stared ahead. Katy watched with pure joy on her face as your eyes clouded over and were completely white. In front of their very eyes, you created a rainstorm that took over the one block where the cafe rested. Then, just as suddenly, a windstorm picked up at such a violent speed that it dried the outdoor seats.

Katy squealed in delight, screamed that you were awesome, and ran across the street. She claimed the table she wanted for all of you, and the rest of you joined her.

"That is still so cool," Shangqi whispered to you and kissed you on the cheek.

"Hey, hey, hands off, man. You get enough of her!" Sam said as he wrapped both of his arms around you and ripped you away. "It's our time with the little weather map right now. "

"Yeah, buzz off, man. Bad enough you stole her across the world. Now you keep her while we're here? Sheesh!" Bucky wrapped his other arm around you and the two took you away from your boyfriend to grab your seats.

Shangqi shook his head to himself as he walked behind you three, "How long are you guys in town for?" He asked out loud.

"Longer than you'd like," Bucky smirked as he pulled out your chair. All the while, Sam took the other seat next to you before Bucky could get it.

"You guys are ridiculous," You laughed and pulled your hat down further on your head to hide a little.

"And you're ridiculously awesome," Katy said. "Now we've got the outdoor part to ourselves. God, you're the best, Y/N."

"She really is the best, isn't she?" Shangqi mused in addition to Katy, watching as you turned red and looked around for a menu to hide your face with. "Come on babe, admit it, you're the best."

"No, no, I'm not," you said dismissively.

Sam scoffed, "One time, I saw her fly up in the air, lift her hands, and all of the sudden, a hurricane came and lifted a Hydra facility right outta the ground, and dumped it off the side of a cliff."

Bucky scoffed, "What, you think that's cool? One time, I saw her create a lightning tsunami."

"The fuck is a lightning tsunami? Now you're lying just to outdo me but you can't outdo my experience that I saw with my own two eyes!"

"I saw it with my own two eyes and she struck this massive tsunami with lightning and it's still, by far, coolest thing I've seen. I'd like to see Tolkien write that," Bucky added proudly, arms crossing over his chest.

You shook your head and looked to Shangqi who was beaming.

"See that, babe? You're so amazing they're fighting over how good you are."

"Yeah, yeah, so cute," Katy nodded. "Can...can you do thundersnow?"

#shang-chi x reader #shang-chi x avenger!reader #shangqi #shang chi x avenger!reader #shangqi x reader #avenger!reader #shang chi imagine #fluff #request #anon #crazycookiecrumbles masterlist

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birlcholtz · 5 years ago

Note

25 - 50 - 80 for the angst/fluff ask. Ship of your choice. ^_^

25. Karma is a bitch.

50. It’s not safe here.

80. You have no idea.

Prompts from this post!

i had no idea if you meant these separately or together, so here’s 2k of a charmer… kind of monster hunter kind of ghostbusters au! they fight things and cait has a truck that’s the vision here. and here it is on ao3!

Caitlin has seen a lot of weird things. She kind of gets paid to go around looking for weird things and, well, stabbing them, frequently. (She tries to communicate first, but… usually, if communication is possible, the sixteen-year-olds who make supernatural creatures angry in the first place can manage the situation themselves.)

But this is the first time that someone else has beaten her to the site where the last interaction took place. This time, it’s an empty lot, mostly weeds and dead wildflowers, bordered by trees on every side except the side with the road.

The teary, fear-quickened voice on the other end of her work phone had said that the thing, whatever it was, had six legs. So Caitlin is pretty sure that a person in black jeans and a teal sweatshirt is some sort of bystander, stumbling into something they are not equipped to handle.

“Stop!” she calls out, just loud enough that she can be sure the person hears her. They stop walking, and she can see their back stiffen just before they turn towards the source of the noise, but she’s already running towards them. If the thing comes out, this person will be a lot safer next to Caitlin than far away from her. “It’s not safe here,” she adds once she’s within a few feet.

The person gives her a small smile and says, “Oh, you have no idea.”

Okay. Fuck. That’s ominous.

At least they don’t immediately grow four more legs and attack her, which dismisses her immediate thought of shapeshifter, but Caitlin braces and puts her hands on her weapons— coiled rope on one hip, knife on the other, gun under her jacket but let’s hope that’s not necessary, and says, “Tell me what you know.”

“It’s a giant venomous tarantula. I haven’t seen it myself, though.” They shrug, hands still in the front pocket of their hoodie, which Caitlin can now see has a San Jose Sharks logo on the front. “Sorry!”

“So are you going to help me deal with it, or am I doing this by myself?” she asks. Which might be rude, but they’ve got bigger problems.

The person blinks, and then lets a bigger, close-mouthed smile spread across their face. “You’re going to help? ‘Swawesome! I brought these.” They pull their hands out of their pockets, revealing a knife between each finger like Wolverine or some shit. They’re an interesting color, not silver or gray or anything, dark and viciously sharp-looking. “So what’s your name?”

Caitlin sizes up the knives again, and then says, “Are you fae?”

“Nope! I just don’t know many people outside my house. Are you a monster fighter?”

“Yes,” she answers slowly, and decides not to reveal any more personal information until she’s figured out who the hell this person is.

“That’s cool,” they say cheerfully, and Caitlin notices dark hair, mostly hidden under the hood of their sweatshirt. “I’m learning how to do that. Usually I’m supposed to have an escort for the first five years so nothing bad happens but my team decided to send me out here while they work on something over in Worcester, I’m not sure what? Anyway. I’m glad you’re here too though! To be honest, I was a little nervous about doing this by myself, but you know.” Another shrug.

Caitlin most definitely does not know whatever this person is referring to, but she keeps that to herself. “Do you have any idea where the tarantula is right now?”

“Probably the trees. I wouldn’t be in the open right now if it was me, it got a pretty bad scare! Not as bad as those kids did, though, I guess.” And the person giggles. “Oh, well.”

This is definitely weird, and Caitlin has decided not to rule out any possibilities on why, exactly, this person is here right now and how they seem to know so much about what’s going on. Better to probe for information. “How did it get scared?”

“Well, they’re burrowers, you know? Someone just took a stick and— get ready! Try not to hurt it!”

And with that, the person springs forward what has to be at least six feet in the blink of an eye, settling into a crouch, knives in hand, almost before Caitlin sees the first pair of legs emerge from the trees, followed by the second, and then the third.

The tarantula is, indeed, giant. It’s brown, and furry, and has lots of eyes, and overall looks kind of like every other tarantula Caitlin has ever seen in pictures and terrariums, except tall enough to make solid eye contact with her shoulder. And Caitlin is tall.

She grabs her rope. It’s already set up to be a lasso, which is probably ideal in this situation. At least, if the whole ‘try not to hurt it’ thing is actually a good idea.

The tarantula approaches, and Caitlin wishes they were somewhere with streetlights, but all she has to go off of are the stars, sparse in a sky artificially brightened from light pollution, and the waxing moon overhead. It’s enough to see by, barely. The tarantula doesn’t actually seem super interested in attacking them, which is a good sign, but it’s also coming directly at them, which is a bad one.

She readies her lasso, but it’s still well outside of lassoing distance when it stops and starts doing something.

“Burrowing,” the person still crouched about six feet away whispers. “It probably just wants its home back!”

That does actually look like what’s going on. Caitlin can see the tarantula digging, even pushing some of the dirt farther away from what must be a decently sized hole. But she doesn’t dare move.

They wait there for at least twenty minutes. Caitlin’s abs hurt from how hard she’s clenching them to stay still, and she cannot believe this person is still maintaining a crouch. They haven’t moved at all from what she can see, and she was so proud of herself for managing a five-minute wall sit yesterday, too.

Finally, the tarantula stops digging. It starts walking again, and Caitlin tenses even more, but it just walks in a circle around where its hole must be (she can’t see exactly, because the weeds are tall enough to block her vision), and then it must crawl in, because all of a sudden it’s vanished.

The other person stands up immediately and says, “Woohoo!”

“Uh, what?”

They’re already putting the knives back in their sweatshirt pocket (which does not seem like a good place for them, but whatever). “Okay, so I didn’t hear everything that happened earlier, but I’m pretty sure someone like, poked its burrow and ruined it. And it got really, really big to retaliate— I bet if the people hadn’t gotten away so fast, it would have tried to destroy some houses or something. But it’s got its home back, so it’s back to normal size. I’m Chris, by the way!” They stick out their newly knife-free hand. “I’m from a monster hunting team outside Boston. Who are you?”

“Uh, I’m Caitlin,” she says, and shakes their hand. “I’m a loner.”

“Oh, that’s too bad! Unless you prefer it that way, then I guess it’s better? I really like being around other people, though, so it would be worse for me. The other guys on my team— we’re not all guys! Just, like, I am, and a bunch of other people are, but not all of us, don’t worry, we’re not like some weird misogynistic monster fighting group or anything— anyway, some of the other guys on my team have worked together forever and they bought a really big house a few years back so they could all live together! And once I joined I moved in too and it’s been great, I’ve never had so many roommates! But um. Anyway. How’d you hear about the tarantula?”

She shrugs. “Someone called me. Probably one of the people who was there when it happened, but I have no idea. I usually don’t bother to find out, because I’ve got a private patron anyway, so I don’t need to get paid for each job.”

“Oh, us too!” Chris says. “Does yours have a really weird name too?”

“Mine calls himself Fry Guy?”

His jaw drops, just for a moment, but Caitlin notices the glint of white teeth before he closes his mouth again. “That’s what ours calls himself too! I bet it’s the same person. You should totally come join our team, then! Wait, but you’re a human, aren’t you? Never mind.”

“I’m half banshee,” Caitlin says.

Chris beams and reveals a full set of fangs. “Great! I’m a vampire!” That explains the leg muscles. And the speed. And Caitlin is guessing he heard whatever happened with the tarantula— she hasn’t met any vampires, but people have told her their senses are very good. “I just got turned, like, two years ago, though. We were fighting this demon and it was the backup goalie from my high school hockey team, and we didn’t know that but he totally had it out for me, because I was goalie too and he was a senior when I was a sophomore and I guess he was mad because he didn’t get as much ice time because of me and then he didn’t get scouted or anything, and I definitely would have died so my friend Justin had to turn me, like, right then. Um, and then the demon guy kind of burned himself up because he wasn’t supposed to use that much power at once?” He frowns. “I think he might have been a warlock, actually. But he wasn’t very good at hockey.”

“Karma is a bitch,” Caitlin offers, because that whole speech was a lot and that’s about the only thing she can muster.

Chris (Chris? For a vampire?) says, “I think the real problem with karma is that usually people don’t live long enough for it to come around again.”

“That sounds really jaded for someone who says they’re a new vampire.”

He shrugs, smile back in place, although Caitlin notices it’s just a little crooked— she can see his fangs on his left side a little more than the ones on his right. It’s surprisingly endearing. “April says I’m learning to fit in with the team really well!”

They wait in the empty lot for a few more minutes, just to make sure the tarantula doesn’t get back to giant size, and then Chris graciously accepts a ride in Caitlin’s truck back to his house. He’d run to the lot, apparently.

“You really should consider joining our team, you know,” Chris says once Caitlin’s started the truck. “We have enough different people that we can choose who we send to deal with different things. And also we have collective bargaining power.”

“It sounds great,” Caitlin admits. “I’ve been working by myself the whole time. It gets kind of lonely.”

“Well, we don’t take humans at all, so you’ll need proof that you’re part banshee, but you’re super qualified! And I’ll vouch for you.” He smiles at her from the passenger seat, and Caitlin wonders how a creature of the night can smile so earnestly that it lights up his whole face.

She drops him off at a huge colonial-style house with a long driveway, and he puts his phone number and the landline for that house in her phone, and Caitlin watches him leap up to a second story balcony and casually step inside and wonders if this time next year, she might be able to call this place home.

She drives off, remembering Chris’s last smile from over his shoulder, and she smiles too.

#my stuff #randomnoteforfuturereference #fic #charmer #omgcp #quarantime

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spartanguard · 6 years ago

Text

(no) bigger on the inside

Summary: When there's only two Whovians in the bar on Halloween, it's inevitable that they'll meet. And flirt. And have sex in a closet. Unlike the TARDIS, it's actually not any bigger on the inside.

A/N: Just some Whovian fun in honor of @cscocktoberfest. And because I love Thirteen even if I’m way behind on watching. Lots of Doctor Who references lay ahead but It should be enjoyable even if you’re not a fan. Allons-y!

rated M | 4.4k words | AO3

Emma hadn’t planned for her night to go this way. It wasn’t at all what she thought would happen when she agreed to go out for Halloween, and honestly, she might not have if she’d known it would happen.

What was that saying, though? “We’re all stories in the end; just make it a good one.”

Well, this one—and the man she was presently making out with in a lonely hallway at the Rabbit’s Hole—was shaping up to be a great one.

She’d noticed him right away from across the bar. It was hard not to, really, when they both stood out from a crowd that was filled with bro-dudes being bro-dudes and girls dressed as all manner of sexy somethings. Even Emma’s friends fit the mold—Mary Margaret and David were a sexy Snow White and her equally attractive (and scantily clad) Prince Charming, and Elsa was a sexy...well, Elsa.

So the fact that he wasn’t topless, or dressed as something idiotic or offensive (like Skeleboner, ugh—she had to fend off one of those just to get a drink) stood out like a beacon. She hadn’t even seen his face, but she could already tell he wasn’t one of those guys.

And that was partly because she’d recognize his costume anywhere. While there were a lot of costumes that mandated a suit, there weren’t a whole lot of brown pinstriped ones in pop culture.

Then her friends called her back, and their drinks were up, and she lost sight of the man in the throngs of people. Damn.

She tried to cast aside her disappointment as she dodged the douchebags through the crowd. That wasn’t why she was here—she was just having some fun with her friends while her son was out trick-or-treating with his. (And maybe attempting to reclaim some of her lost youth, after spending the bulk of hers raising Henry, who had looked way too grown in his Ghostbusters getup tonight.)

But, damn, did his shoulders fill out that jacket well, and it hugged his trim form perfectly. And what she could tell from the back of his head, his hair looked like it would feel great between her fingers. Granted, she was still imagining his front as David Tennant, so he might be letdown there—few guys stood a chance next to him.

Still, she was curious. And, glancing down at her own trench coat, they kind of went together.

Once she got back to her friends, Mary Margaret and Elsa decided that they really just wanted to dance, so the dance floor it was; she and Elsa danced together to avoid having to look at the sloppy makeouts from Mary Margaret and David. Her eyes scanned the crowd to see if she catch a glimpse of that suit, or even a man with dark hair and the glasses she noticed propped on his ears, but her search came up empty.

At some point, the True Love couple headed home to get some “privacy”, but Emma and Elsa weren’t quite ready yet. Call her obsessed, but Emma really wanted to find this guy. They both needed some water first, so Elsa headed back to their table while Emma went to the bar.

Though it was later in the evening, the place was still packed, so she squeezed into an empty spot and waited for the overworked barkeep to make his way over. She cast a few glances around to see if her mystery man was nearby, but still no luck. So she pulled her lone prop out of her pocket and fiddled with it while she waited.

Another person came up to the bar and took the empty space next to her, but she was too busy playing with the sound effects on her toy to really notice—at least, not until he spoke.

“Well, it looks like I’m not the only 10 in the room.”

She rolled her eyes at the dumb pickup line, even if his British accent was a bit enticing. “Please,” she started. “I’m a 13,” she threw back as she turned to face him—but then anything else she could have said got caught in her throat.

It was him. Ten. And oh god, he was even more attractive than she could have imagined. Someone extend her apologies to David Tennant—she might have a new favorite Doctor. (Well, aside from her other new favorite Doctor.)

Her assessment of the fit of his suit had been spot on: it hugged him in all the right spots, but still left a fair bit to the imagination. His tie and collar, however, had been loosened, teasing at the bit of chest hair that lay underneath. There was a mechanical hook in place of his left hand, but hey, even the Doctor lost his hand at one point.

And his face—holy hell, his face: the thick-rimmed glasses did nothing to hide the sparkle of his bright blue-gray eyes, even in the dim light. His sharp jaw was a little scruffy—very un-Doctor in that regard—but damn did he rock it. And his hair was indeed the perfect amount of mussed; she could easily see him at the TARDIS’s helm, running his hands through it frustratedly, and she was suddenly aching to do the same.

“I can see that,” he said with a smirk.

Wait, what? Could he hear her thoughts? Oh, no—that would be mortifying. “See what?” she blurted, almost panicking.

“That you’re a Thirteen,” he said matter-of-factly as he nodded at her own costume.

Oh, duh—right; she was the Thirteenth Doctor. It was kind of thrown together at the last minute, but she had on the new Doctor’s trademark shirt under a borrowed pair of suspenders, David’s too-large trousers, and her own tan trenchcoat. Henry had bought her the Sonic Screwdriver she’d been fiddling with as a birthday present.

“Yeah, right; sorry. It’s just—you look—” she stammered, tripping over her words.

“I know,” he smirked.

What even was going on? Thankfully, she had a decent excuse. “Well, maybe I’m nervous, or just socially awkward. I’m still figuring myself out,” she offered, quoting Thirteen.

His smirk became a full-on grin as he recognized the line. “In that case, I have something to divulge,” he said, leaning against the worn wood of the bar and leaning in closer. His breath was hot on her ear and she had to suppress a shiver. He said, in a low voice, “You make both of my hearts skip a beat.”

She couldn’t help it: she snorted. “Has that worked yet, or had you been you saving it for the right moment?”

Adorably, he scratched behind his ear. “Uh, yeah; I’d been sitting on that one for a while,” he admitted, glancing away. But then he looked up through his (ridiculously long) eyelashes. “Did it work?”

“Maybe,” she answered, giggling.

He smirked again, and she noticed the dimple it cut into his beard. She didn’t even know this guy’s name but she could tell this was headed to crush territory very fast—possibly more. “Can I try another one?” he proposed.

She shrugged. “Give it a go.”

“Are you a Weeping Angel?” His face softened and his eyes bored into hers, nearly overwhelming in their sincerity. “Because I can’t take my eyes off of you.”

It was so effing cheesy, but she just let out a sigh; she was being swept right off of her nerdy butt. “Yeah, it worked,” she finally breathed.

“Would it be too forthright of me to tell you that I meant it?” His intense gaze hadn’t let up, and she could tell he was telling the truth; she could spot a lie a mile away, and this Doctor was being completely honest.

“Only if I can confess that I’ve been watching for you all night.” She wasn’t usually that forward, either, but something about him was bringing out that side of her. Maybe it was because they were the only Whovians here, but a gut feeling told her it was deeper than that (and had nothing to do with them technically being dressed as the same person).

He gave a small smile back that crinkled the corner of his eyes. “I’ve got one more line, but it doesn’t seem quite appropriate for this conversation.”

“Oh? What is it?” She was curious.

“You’ll really laugh at this one,” he prefaced. “Do you have any Gallifreyan in you?” Then, leaning in closer again, “Want some?”

“Mm, nope, doesn’t work here,” she decided, even if the low timbre of his voice was doing things to certain parts of her body. “Can I try one, though?”

“Of course.”

She shifted herself into his space as much as she dared. Then, standing on tiptoe and lightly placing her hands on his firm chest, she murmured into his ear, “Is that a Sonic screwdriver in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

He threw his head back, a genuine laugh bursting forth—but she got distracted by the cords of his neck on full display. And the little constellation of freckles on the side that she wanted to trace (though with her fingers or tongue, she couldn’t decide). And the fact that he smelled divine.

His eyes were back on her a moment later. “Yes,” he quipped.

“Which one?”

“Both.”

She studied his face for another moment, seeing the challenge written all over it, and then did what was possibly the boldest—or dumbest—thing she’d ever done: she fisted her hands in the lapels of his jacket and hauled his lips to hers.

He froze at first, making her immediately doubt her actions, but a second later, he pulled her tight to him and responded just as fervently. The music and chatter from the bar around them disappeared as she got lost in the kiss; he tasted like rum and she wanted to get drunk on him—which wouldn’t take long with her already being tipsy. The buzz from her previous drinks sped up to a full-on vibrate as his lips and tongue pressed against hers, sparking through her body and settling deep within, making her a different kind of warm.

And, judging by the way things felt when he rutted into her, he was feeling the same.

“Oy! Not out here! I don’t want to see that!” The jarring, angry voice of the bartender made them jump apart, though Emma was still holding onto him—she couldn’t make herself let go that easily. The curly-haired man was staring at them with arms crossed and a disapproving glare, mainly aimed at the other Doctor (she should probably figure out his name at some point here).

He just sighed, threw a withering look at the bartender, and then faced her again. After taking another deep breath, he looked at her almost imploringly and asked, “Do you wanna come with me?”

She was taken aback a bit, and tempted to ask what he meant by “come,” but he continued.

“'Cos if you do, then I should warn you—you're gonna see all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past. Aliens from the future. The day the Earth died in a ball of flame.”

Now she was grinning as she recognized the quote; god, he was such a perfect nerd.

“It won't be quiet,” he assured her, “it won't be safe, and it won't be calm. But I'll tell you what it will be.” He leaned into her ear again and she did nothing to hide her shiver this time. “...The trip of a lifetime!”

How on earth—or space or time—could she say no to that?

“Well?” He had an eyebrow quirked in question and expectation.

“That was a Nine quote,” she tossed back.

“And?”

“You’re full of it.”

“Sort of, yeah.”

She just grinned and took his hand. “Lead the way.”

He beamed back, tossed a (frankly terrible) wink toward the bartender, and pulled her away from the bar towards the back hallway of the place. It looked like it led to the kitchens or an office—not the restrooms, thankfully—but she hardly got a decent look before he was pressing her against a door and picking up where they’d left off.

So, like she said: not where she planned tonight going at all. But who was she to complain? (“Who” indeed, if you pardon the pun.)

Interrupting her train of thought, his left arm wrapped around her while the right braced on the wood behind her. Her hands gripped his waist as he gently leaned his body against hers and found her lips again. There was no holding back this time, though—between the rum and the way he kissed, she wondered why he wasn’t dressed like a pirate. They wouldn’t be here right now if he had, though, would they?

Her hands drifted to the button on his coat and undid it, then worked their way to his tie to do to the same, untying the knot just enough to pull the thing apart and toss it aside. She pulled him closer, noting how much warmer he felt under her palms with fewer layers in the way.

“Does the lady get to have all the fun?” he grumbled playfully, pulling off his fogged-up glasses and sticking them in his coat pocket, then resting his forehead against hers as they took a moment to catch their breaths. If he hadn’t said anything, she might have asphyxiated—and unlike the actual Doctor, Emma had no regenerations.

“Nothing’s stopping you,” she panted back.

He replied with another kiss, but then his lips traveled down her chin to her neck, and his hand and hook slid into her jacket and up her sides, tracing the curve of her breasts as they went. When they found the collar, they started to slide the coat down her shoulders as he sucked a mark into her neck, making her arch away from the door and into him while also making it easier to get the coat off her body altogether.

She felt a small bit of relief at shedding the extra layer, but whatever coolness she felt quickly went away when she brushed against the bulge in his pants, drawing a stuttered groan from him. There was only one way for tonight to end, and she was starting to get anxious for it.

“What do you say, darling?” he breathed, then nodded at the door behind her. “Shall we see if this thing is bigger on the inside?”

She giggled and felt behind her for the knob, twisting it open when she found it. Thank god it wasn’t locked, but she did have to push herself into her Doctor again to step forward and open the door. He didn’t seem to protest the further closeness.

Quickly, he slipped through the doorway and she followed, closing it behind her. Of course, it was pitch dark in there and she felt immediately claustrophobic. So she pulled her Sonic Screwdriver out and turned it on; it cast a dim light over what was quite clearly a storage closet.

She was facing away from her Doctor and turned around to find him again—only to be met with the light from his own Sonic Screwdriver. “I guess it’s not,” he said, shrugging, but he didn’t sound upset at all; even in the dim light, she could see his smile.

“You’ve redecorated; I like it,” she glanced around and assessed in-character, drawing a snort from him. Then, wordlessly, he took both Screwdrivers and set them on a shelf, leaving them on to give some light—but otherwise, the tiny space was still pretty dark. At least they didn’t have to worry about any carnivorous shadows.

“Now where were we?” he wondered, but Emma knew they were both keenly aware of where they’d hit pause and promptly jumped right back in. Her fingers started to work on the buttons of his shirt, unfastening them one by one and trying not to rip any off while he kissed her senseless once more, hand buried in her hair.

She managed to get it undone somehow and tugged it out of his trousers, then threw it open. His chest and abs were just as she’d expected based on touch: firm yet soft, covered in the perfect amount of body hair that dusted his pecs and drew a line down his stomach. Damn, he was gorgeous all over.

He wasted no time following that up by reaching for her waist, she thought to bring her close again, but instead his digits went right for the clasps of her suspenders. She wasn’t sure how he unclipped it with his hook but she wasn’t going to ask questions—and didn’t have a chance to when her pants were suddenly falling down to her ankles. Guess that was an unseen perk to wearing too-large men’s pants. (That and they were super comfy.)

He really did grab her this time, hand sliding up her side and bunching her shirt with it, his palm leaving a path of heat on her already flushed skin. He stopped when he got to her bra and she almost whined. “Are you sure about this, love?” he asked, suddenly sounding unsure. But she adored that he cared enough to ask.

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Okay.” That was all he needed to hear to continue, thankfully, and she helped him make quick work of her top—actually noting where this garment landed, though, because that was totally her favorite shirt. (And probably her lucky shirt now.)

She stepped out of the pants as much as she could, not bothering to remove her ankle boots, and then gripped his shoulders and pressed him against the opposite wall. As much as she could, she straddled him, pressing her overheated core against his erection and drawing a gasp from both of them.

Then she reapplied her lips to his and borrowed a move from his book: she worked her way down his chin, enjoying the scratch of his scruff against her lips, until she found the soft skin of his neck. For a hot second, she just breathed him in; his scent was just as intoxicating as the rest of him. And in the dim light, she found that little line of freckles from earlier, and proceeded to suck and lick her way down it, one spot at a time. More than once, he shifted up into her as she worked, and she could feel the muscles of his sides as they moved under his warm skin. He tasted salty and sweet under her tongue and was just as delicious as she expected.

His grip on her tightened when at last, she nipped at the juncture of his neck and shoulder before coming up for air. “Bloody hell,” he mumbled. “You’re incredible.”

“So’re you,” she said quietly as she nuzzled the crook of his neck. His hand was gently brushing up and down her bare side, continuing to stoke her arousal, to the point that she found herself starting to grind against him, needing some sort of friction against the center of her arousal. His breath hitched with every press.

“I—are you—fuck,” he stuttered and cursed, but she knew what he was saying and moved to take off his pants. He didn’t protest, but did say, “I know I said earlier this wouldn’t be safe, but—“

“We’re good,” she told him, “assuming you’re clean.”

He nodded, then sighed as she unzipped his pants. She tucked her thumbs into both his pants and underwear and shoved them down, freeing his erection from its confines. She couldn’t help it—she reached out and carefully gripped his cock, stroking his generous velvety length until his breaths were staggered and her panties were soaked.

Enough was enough. She needed him inside her.

She released him and stepped back to tug her undies off, but he must not have been able to see what she was doing in the faint light. “I didn’t take you for a tease, darling,” he called out; she could hear his smirk in his voice.

She responded by shoving her panties in his hand. “I’m not.” And then she pressed herself against him once more. “There’s just one thing I need.”

“What’s that?”

She hitched her leg around his thigh, pressing her folds against his erection. “I need to know your name.” She could tell right away that this wasn’t going to be a one-time thing, like her lovers usually were; if they were gonna do this, they were gonna do it right.

“I’m the Doctor,” he answered cheekily, and she wanted to kiss that stupid adorable grin off his face.

“Really though.”

His smile softened. “I’m Killian.”

“I’m Emma.”

“Well, allons-y, Emma.” He grabbed her ass to pick her up and press her against the opposite wall, making her squeal in surprise, then grabbed his cock and stroked. “Forgive me, love, but I can’t see—“

“I’ve got it,” she cut in, then gently took his hand and lined his tip up with her entrance, circling it a few times in the evidence of her arousal. And he pressed in.

Oh god, he felt amazing, stretching and filling her so fully. “Brilliant,” she gasped.

“Darling, you’ve seen nothing yet.” He sounded just as wrecked as she was; how could things possibly get more intense?

And then he moved. Oh, that was how. Slowly, he pulled back and then pushed back in, dragging his cock against her inner walls so carefully that she felt every inch. “Lord,” she breathed, laying her head back on the wall.

“Aye—Time Lord,” he quipped as he did it again.

“Nerd,” she threw back; it was the only thing she had the mental coherence to come up with.

“Yeah,” he agreed, breathlessly. He didn’t say anything else then, focusing only on her, finding her lips again as he thrust in and out. She gripped his back tight for purchase, probably scratching him even though his shirt but he didn’t seem to mind. The leg she wrapped around him was digging into his firm ass for the same reason, and the other barely touched the ground, but she felt secure in his hold and matched him thrust for thrust as much as she could.

The familiar tingle of coming release started, low on her spine and spreading with every move. She ached to stroke her nipples, even if they were still encased in her lacy bra, but was afraid they’d fall if she tried it. So she pulled his chest to hers as tight as she could, gasping when they made contact and at the delicious extra friction his chest hair added to the whole thing.

Despite the change in angle, he didn’t slow his increasing pace and it was all she could do to keep up. Her lips found his constellation again as he rapidly shifted in and out, until she was teetering on the edge and it was all she could do to just breathe, pleasure threatening to take her away.

“I’m—I’m—” she stuttered, but couldn’t come up with any other words.

“Me too,” he breathed back. “Come for me, love; come—Emma—”

And with a shout, she did, throwing her head back as her orgasm peaked, all of time and space flying past behind her closed eyelids as it felt like stars exploding all over her body. (Appropriately, the strains of “Toxic” were coming through from the bar.) She was gripping his firm biceps for dear life, it felt like, but if he noticed, he didn’t say.

He followed quickly, his own loud moan accompanying his stuttered release; he had promised her it wouldn’t be quiet, after all.

Maybe this thing was actually a TARDIS, because she completely lost track of time as they stayed there, coming down from their shared high. It was probably only minutes, but could have been eons as she continued to breath him in, only moving so he could pull out of her.

Eventually, though, her legs began to shake from the strain of the awkward semi-stance she’d been in, so he gently helped her get steady on her feet, but stayed close.

“You’re amazing,” he whispered. “Bloody fantastic.”

“You too,” she replied, and placed a kiss on his defined collarbone. Whatever this was—or was turning out to be—she wanted more. And if the grin he gave her, and accompanying peck on the lips, said anything, it was that he did, too.

They cleaned up with some paper towel they found in there—not the softest thing in the universe but it would do—and redressed as best they could in the minimal light from their Screwdrivers. Once they were mostly decent again, Emma peeked her head out of the door; the coast was clear, so they slipped out and picked up their jackets from where they’d piled on the floor.

“I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to make love to myself,” Killian said, far too casually as he put his blazer back on.

“Oh my god, don’t be weird.”

“I’ve been called far worse.”

“What, like ‘nerd’?” she teased.

“Actually, I quite like that one,” he tossed back, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “Particularly when you say it.”

She turned in his arms to give him another kiss, then lamented. “I should probably get back to my friend; so much for getting her water.”

“Aye, I suppose I should do the same. And apologize to my brother.”

She tilted her head. “Apologize? Why?”

“Well, he’s the bartender, and this is his bar. It’s probably bad form for the younger brother to desecrate the storage closet.”

She chuckled. “What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him. Shall we?”

She tried to pull him towards the bar, but he didn’t move. “I don’t want to go.”

Oh, he didn’t. “No. You do not get to make me cry tonight!”

He smirked. “So, no burning up of suns, either?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Alright then. How about...to a new adventure?”

She smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

And arm-in-arm, they headed back out into whatever lay ahead.

(The first thing they saw was Elsa flirting with Killian’s brother. She’d gone up to find Emma when she hadn’t returned, and instead found Liam, and apparently they hit it off.)

(The next year, Killian repeated his Ten costume while Emma dressed as Rose Tyler. The year after that, they switched it up as Han and Leia—with Henry as Chewbacca—and Westley and Buttercup the next. Eventually, their daughter joined in on the cosplay fun, too.)

(One part of their tradition always stayed the same, though: finding their way into that closet at some point, because even if it wasn’t a TARDIS, it was still the start of their greatest adventure.)

thanks for reading! tagging some friends (but feel free to ignore)! @kat2609 @thesschesthair @optomisticgirl @fergus80 @xpumpkindumplingx @shipsxahoy @selfie-wench @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @annytecture @wingedlioness @fairytalesandtimetravel @word-bug @pirateherokillian @bleebug @its-imperator-furiosa @queen-mabs-revenge @initiala @distant-rose @flipperbrain @sherlockianwhovian @laschatzi @ive-always-been-a-pirate @jscoutfinch @nfbagelperson @stubble-sandwich @killian-whump @lenfaz @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @kmomof4 @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @jackieorioncat

#cs ff #cs smut #ouat x doctor who #ish #cs cocktober #my ff

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alleiradayne · 6 years ago

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SPN MinnCon Day 3

You know what, I’m pulling the I-just-gave-birth-to-a-tiny-helpless-human card. That’s why I didn’t get back to this sooner. Also my mom and aunt were in town helping out a ton but it also kept me away from Tumblr most days.

So. MinnCon Day 3. This day was the day for me. I had been looking forward to the whole weekend for months. But truly, this day was something that I had been freaking out about for about two weeks for two reasons. 1.) Jared Photo Op. 2) Jared 30 Minute Meet and Greet.

I’ll preface this with the fact that I am a dyed-in-the-wool Jared/Sam stan. I cannot get enough of him and his smile and his sense of humor and his hair and his compassion and his empathy and his brain and his eyes. Okay, yeah, I love the 6′4″ mansuit he inhabits, too.

When you read this, you’re going to see a lot of Jared. A decent bit of Jensen, too (I took a lot of pictures of him). But I’ll be writing a lot more about Jared. Except for the meet and greets. Which... ugh, I wish I could tell you guys about his 30 minute meet and greet as well as his 10 minute for VIP. But I can’t. :(

Buckle up bitches, this shits long...

It was the first picture I took.

The day started out with the Gold Panel. If you haven’t seen it yet, my fellow VIP’er, Sue, gave Jared a thing of cupcakes when he called on her for a question and she didn’t have one ready. So she asked him if he wanted a cupcake. There’s rules about giving them food; I guess they’re not supposed to take it, but Jared was like, “Uh shit yeah I want a cupcake.”

He was only supposed to take one for each of them. But I don’t think he could hear her very well. So he took the whole thing. I was supposed to eat one of those fucking cupcakes.

And then:

CUPCAKEPOCALYPSE

It went on for several minutes. Jared dropped the cupcakes (THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO EAT) and made a giant mess. A creation staff person came out to help, a fan offered baby wipes, and Jensen had to help clean Jared’s face.

“Help a brother out, man.”

“You are beyond help.”

Brothers. I swear.

Questions were fun and it was during this panel that I could tell that the day would be distinctly different from previous con’s Sundays. We all know Jared is quite a bit more talkative than Jensen. But today, that would not be the case. Someone put a quarter in Jensen...

He’s so pretty.

Again, I’m not sure what someone said (I know I could go watch the video but, time) but Jensen busted out the imaginary popcorn.

And then there were more wonderful pictures of Jared.

See. Lots of Jared.

If you want to see ALL of the pictures I took (and edited) from the entire weekend:

GO HERE

The flicker album will be available until flickr decides to get rid of free accounts or whatever nonsense Yahoo wants to do with flickr.

After the gold panel I had Jared’s 30 minute meet and greet and his photo op. I was hoping that by waiting to post this, I’d have my .jpg from Chris, but I don’t. The meet and greet was fantastic. There were 20 people in that session, and we drew numbers for seats. I got number 6 which ended up being right in the middle of the front row. I don’t know how I got so fucking lucky...

I got to ask my very weird question and got a very cogent and incredibly self-aware answer that kind of blew me away. And we even had time to sneak in my follow-up, which also resulted in another ridiculously self-aware response. And he remembered these questions because he later brought the topic up again at the 10 minute VIP.

Now the photo op. I’m pretty sure this interaction tops the entire weekend (just sneaking past his autograph and getting a smooch from Rob Benedict). Remember the fact that I’m 37 weeks pregnant. I had no clue what the hell to do for this photo op. I was wearing my self-made maternity “Love Yourself First” t-shirt, all black, with red/black buffalo plaid. I don’t know if it was entirely obvious that I was pregnant as I walked up to Jared for my op.

The VIP folks with his op got to go first. I opted, out of the four of us with his op, to go last. I walked up as Bang A Gong (Get It On) played, and whenever there is music playing, I cannot help but dance a bit. So my dumbass does my white-girl shimmy up to him and he laughed as he did his own short dance, but then proceeded to damn near do the splits to take the picture. I’m 5′4″. He’s 6′4″. I definitely didn’t want to take a picture with my face at his sternum. He knew that.

But other than that I didn’t know what to do. So I told him that. Here’s the conversation:

“Hey. I really don’t know what to do because she’s in the way,” I said as I pointed at my very-much-in-the-way-pregnant-stomach.

Jared’s eyes popped when he looked and then immediately started rubbing my stomach. Now normally, I would not have been okay with some rando touching my pregnant stomach without asking.

Jared Padalecki is not some rando. And he asked, “How far along are you?”

I laughed as I said, “I’m due in three weeks.”

If I thought his eyes popped before, they damn near fell out of his head at that. He replied, “Holy shit, how the fuck are you on your feet?! That is so badass, I can’t believe you’re here!” He held up his hand for a high-five, which I did, and he grabbed my hand to hold on to it. He then asked me my name. I told him and mentioned I’d been to the con last year with my sister and she was sad she couldn’t make it this year. And he then said, “Jeanna, awesome, I’m so sorry your sister couldn’t be here. But, how are you feeling? Do you need anything?” I told him I was great and that I’d been looking forward to this for months even though I’m huge and was really nervous about this photo op.

He then pulled me into him, wrapped his arms around me (like he does for most of his ops) and we took the picture. With his arms still around me, he looked me in the eye and said, “It was wonderful to meet you again. I am so glad you are here and that you’re doing so well. Is this your first?”

“Yup.”

“I am so happy for you, that’s awesome. I remember Gen had the pregnancy glow, you look absolutely stunning, you’re rockin’ it hard. Thank you again for being here. I’ll see you again later in VIP.”

I thanked him and hugged him once more and he kissed the top of my god damn head.

And then I left the photo op room. As I was walking out of the room, a fellow VIP’er was waiting for me and saw me walking out. I think I had the worst dead-eyes face on because she said, “What happened?! Did something go wrong with your op?!”

And I said, “No. It was amazing I’m fucking speechless and don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m forgetting something. I... don’t know what to do all of a sudden.”

“Breathe, honey. You’re forgetting to breathe.”

You’re god damn right I was forgetting to breathe. I mean, this just happened:

I couldn’t have asked for a better photo.

Moving on...

Next was Mark Pellegrino’s panel which was stellar. I love him.

Rob came out eventually and was giving Mark the Dad stare. I kinda wish Rob would look at me like that... eh, @atc74?

And then there was some funny God and His Children interactions.

Such a stellar cast.

And then there was the Jensen and Jared main panel.

Guys. Gals. There are so many fucking pictures I took. Here’s a random sampling:

It was an amazing panel. Like I said someone put a quarter in Jensen and he was just on point this year. Compared to other cons and videos I’ve watched, he really came out of his shell at this event and put on an amazing show with Jared. I absolutely recommend watching all the videos from this convention because they are so worth it.

After the main panel was Mark’s, Jensen’s, and Jared’s 10 minute VIP meet and greets. Holy shit were they great. Again, can’t really talk about them, but I got to sit next to Jared and he doesn’t understand personal space. I’ll leave it at that.

The night ended with autographs. I hit up Jared’s first, which in hindsight wish I’d done last but oh well. I hopped in line and when he saw me he said, “Remind me how long you’ve got?” as he reached out and touched my stomach again. I told him it was three weeks out and he smiled and shook his head as he said, “Damn, you are a fucking trooper. Congratulations again. Keep kickin’ ass.” He signed the photo, thanked me, and I thanked him. Right as I stepped away, he said, “You tweet that baby’s picture right away! I wanna see her face!”

I did tweet a picture, but I don’t think he saw it. That’s okay, I didn’t really think he would.

Jensen was next, who I had sign my J2 op from the previous year with my sister. While signing, his mala bead bracelet got stuck on the table cloth. My first thought was to say, “What did you do, Ray?” in my best Winston impression. And Jensen didn’t miss a beat. “I couldn’t help it. It just popped in there...”

Thanks for knowing your Ghostbusters references, Jensen.

Last but not least was Misha. Aside from his 10-min meet and greet, I’d never really interacted with him. There was a short wait for him as he finished up his Castiel photo ops. My VIP liaison and I were waiting together because she had an op for his auto too. And then he arrived, got settled and waved us over. I had him sign the first op my sister and I ever got from 2016 with Misha and Mark Sheppard. Mark had signed it last year.

And Misha remembered from VIP on Saturday that I was pregnant and asked me about it. When I told him it was a girl, he said, “Oh yeah, you’re gonna love it, it’s stupidly fun. Picked a name yet?” and I told him we decided on Elizabeth. His response was, “How cool, my sister’s name is Elizabeth. You have fun with that baby and don’t listen to anyone. Follow your gut. Science, too. But trust yourself. You got this.”

And then we were done. I went back to the VIP room, helped clean up a bit, gathered my stuff, and headed for my car. The second I walked out of the room, I started crying because... it was over. Everything was done, all the things I’d been looking forward to for months were... done. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, the weekend was behind me.

I’m still not over it. I’m waiting for the next opportunity to meet them all again. I called my sister in that moment of sudden sadness and told her that we absolutely had to do VIP together at Chicago, or hope they come back to Minneapolis soon. I can’t imagine doing a con without VIP again.

And the weekend wouldn’t have been what it was without all the people I met and new friends I made. You’re all wonderful and amazing and I can’t thank you enough for how welcoming you all were.

I hope you all enjoyed reading these. I think I’ll put a master post together to link to all three parts/days and add a link to the flickr album there as well. Thanks again for reading!

#spn minncon #minncon #spn minncon 2018

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bravemccalll · 6 years ago

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some princes don’t become kings .2

| ao3 |

chapter two – love, what a fickle thing

Hajime remembers watching videos about people who went into haunted houses and claimed that they saw a volatile spirit.

He wonders if he can technically say that he met an aggressive spirit after living here.

“If you fucking accuse me of eating your fucking Cheerios one more time,” the ghost haunting his apartment says, “I’m going to take a pipe and bash your skull in with it.”

Hajime just sips milk from a bowl devoid of any cereal.

“I can’t even eat anything,” the ghost, Fuyuhiko, snaps.

“That’s what they all say,” Hajime replies. Fuyuhiko throws a cushion at him.

Well.

Fact: the man who lives with Chiaki has fluffy white hair that reminds Hajime of cotton candy. Or a cloud. He isn’t sure yet.

Not a fact: he isn’t human. Hajime just thinks he might not be of this world. Nothing confirmed as of yet.

“Hello, my name is Nagito Komaeda,” the man who lives in apartment 13 along with Chiaki says. “I think,” he adds.

“You think?” Hajime asks. Nagito is very tall. His head almost brushes the top of Hajime’s doorway.

“I’m like, 98% sure,” Nagito says.

“Do you attract crazy people or something?” Fuyuhiko asks from beside Hajime. Hajime can only shrug. Nagito looks curious.

“Is the ghost here right now?” he asks. There’s a camera looped around his neck with a rainbow strap.

“He’s always here,” Hajime sighs. “Wait, how do you know – “

“Chiaki tells me everything. We’re best friends,” Nagito says. “Well, I’ve got to get to work. Ciao!” With a cheery wave, Nagito turns and disappears down the hallway.

“He isn’t wearing shoes,” Hajime says. He turns to Fuyuhiko to give him a disbelieving look. “Fuyuhiko, he’s not wearing shoes.”

“I noticed,” Fuyuhiko drawls.

“Why am I attracted to him?” Hajime asks, half talking to himself.

“Jesus Christ,” Fuyuhiko groans. Hajime can only agree.

Fact: Chiaki, from what Hajime has seen, always wears dresses. They usually have some wild and bright pattern on them.

Also a fact: Hajime likes them.

“How can you see ghosts?” Hajime asks her once when she’s over at his apartment. He’s only known her for a few days but already she has made herself at home in his space. There’s two mugs on the drying rack, the one with the slogan Pugs Not Drugs is Chiaki’s and the one that reads Pugs And Drugs is Nagito’s.

“Well, I’ve talked to other people that can see ghosts and they said that you can only see spirits if you’ve seen someone die.” She’s sitting at his Writing Desk That He Never Actually Writes At while he lies across his couch. She’s stretched her leg out and he’s cupping her ankle with his hand. He can feel her pulse through her skin.

“Oh,” he says. Her dress has pineapples on it today.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks and he thinks that this is the first time that he’s seen her not look completely consumed with happiness.

“Do you?” he asks in return.

“Not particularly,” she replies and turns back to his laptop. She’s reading the novel he’s working on and he finds that instead of tensing up, he doesn’t really mind.

“Can I come out now?” Fuyuhiko calls out from the bathroom.

“No, we’re still having sex,” Chiaki replies. Hajime snorts and she grins at him like she usually does.

Fact: Fuyuhiko does not understand any references that Hajime makes in front of him. Hajime finds this hilarious.

Lie: Fuyuhiko never gets irrationally angry about this.

During the night, someone must have crashed their car into the pavement. The fence at the front of their apartment complex has been mangled.

“Oh,” Hajime says when he sees it. “Mood.”

“What.” Fuyuhiko squints at him in confusion. Hajime only nods sagely and sips his coffee. “You weird me out sometimes, man.”

“Mood,” Hajime repeats.

“Stop!”

Hajime laughs.

Fact: Hajime has had strange dreams before. He usually forgets them by the time he gets up.

Also a fact: he doesn’t forget this one.

Hajime is in a bar. He looks around. The place is seedy and rowdy. Someone slaps a hand onto his shoulder, hard enough that he stumbles. Laughter rumbles from behind him. He turns around and sees a muscular man with a light-brown perm grinning at him widely. Hajime thinks he looks like a biker, and a dangerous one at that.

“Sorry there little man,” the biker guffaws. “Forgot you’re fragile!”

“Fuck off,” Hajime says before he can stop himself. He’s grinning. He doesn’t know why, but this feels familiar. This feels like muscle memory.

“Aw, leave him be,” another man says as he sidles up. His hair is bright red and his lip is pierced. He reaches out and pinches Hajime’s cheek. Hajime bats the hand away without any real aggression.

Another man comes up but he looks sweeter than the rest, with a rounder face and a soft disposition. Beside him is a woman with lilac hair and a passive face. “We’re due up on stage in eight hours. We have to do another sound check,” the woman says.

“Ugh,” the biker groans. “Another one?”

“I’d rather not,” the red head whines.

“Well, when your equipment stops working on mid-song, don’t come crying to me.” The woman pauses to give the sweet man a quick glance before she turns on her heel and leaves. The biker watches her walk away and Hajime punches him in the arm.

“Have some respect, dick,” he chides. The biker simply grunts before all of them follow the woman out the bar.

The sweet man turns his head and gives Hajime a grateful smile. Hajime opens his mouth, to say something, he doesn’t know what because the next moment –

he’s awake.

He blinks at the ceiling. He tries to understand his dream but he finds he just can’t.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Fuyuhiko asks. Hajime lifts his head and sees his ghostly roommate sitting, slouched in the wicker chair in the corner of his bedroom.

“Sorry, little man,” Hajime says.

“What did you just say?” Fuyuhiko asks. He looks pale. He always looks pale, a side effect of being dead he had once said, but now he looks completely white, as though Hajime has brought up the ghosts of the past that should’ve been left alone.

“Nothing,” Hajime says. “Ignore me, I’m just tired.” He turns around and closes his eyes, determined to go to sleep. He can feel Fuyuhiko’s stare on his back for the rest of the night.

Fact: another man and woman have moved in but this time it’s next door to Hajime. They call themselves ghost hunters.

Lie: they are completely professional.

“Show us the ghost!” the man who lives next door exclaims after he waltzes into Hajime’s apartment without knocking. Hajime is sitting on his old couch, eating Cheerios in his Cookie Monster pyjamas. He feels exposed.

“Gundham!” the woman says as she walks in as well. “You need to knock first. We talked about this.”

“Ah, yes. My apologies,” he says to Hajime and the two of them leave, closing the door behind them.

There is a beat of silence. Someone knocks the door.

“I swear my life was peaceful before you showed up,” Fuyuhiko sighs from the bookshelf.

“’Life’,” Hajime replies, using air quotes. Fuyuhiko scowls at him. Hajime answers the door.

The man – Gundham – grins wildly at him. He has a third eye drawn on his forehead in sharpie and multiple runes tattooed on his arms. “Greetings, mortal! We heard there is a ghost problem around these parts. You will aid us!”

“We hope you will, is what we’re saying,” the woman interjects. She also has runes on her arms. Her blonde hair swings around her shoulders as she bounces on the smalls of her feet. “I am Sonia and this is my life partner, Gundham. We are the Ghostbusters!”

“Oh,” Hajime says. “Like the movie?”

“The what?” They say in unison. They’re wearing matching outfits – black v-necks and dark skinny jeans. He is holding an old looking book and she has a utility belt around her waist. Hajime feels so tired.

“Never mind. Besides, there’s not a ghost here so – “ As though Fuyuhiko had waited for Hajime to say just that, he knocks Hajime’s cereal bowl off the coffee table and it clatters on the floor. Hajime turns around and glares at Fuyuhiko. Fuyuhiko smiles back at him sarcastically.

Gundham has narrowed his eyes at Hajime, suspiciously. “Unless…” he says. “You are the ghost.”

Sonia gasps and looks delighted. “Wow! I’ve never met a real ghost before!”

“Worry not, my dear, I know what to do!” Gundham tears through his book with a passion while Sonia watches on.

Hajime closes the door.

“I’m going to bed and I’m not speaking to you for the rest of the week,” he says to Fuyuhiko. Fuyuhiko just grins at him.

Fact: Peko owns the apartment complex they all live in, Raven Housing. Hajime doesn’t know where she got the money and sometimes he’s too scared to ask.

Not a fact: she’s probably a princess from some foreign land. Not confirmed yet. Yet.

“I have a date,” Peko says.

Nagito gasps from where he has clambered onto Hajime’s kitchen counter. “But you can’t.”

Hajime glances over and sees Fuyuhiko staring at Peko with a down-trodden look. It makes something itch in his chest.

“Why can’t I have a date?” Peko asks Nagito.

“Because the ghost who haunts this apartment complex has a crush on you,” Nagito says, stretching out until his feet are in the sink. Fuyuhiko makes an angry noise but Hajime doesn’t look over.

“Ignore him,” Hajime sighs. “I think he’s on drugs.”

“Right,” Peko says. Fuyuhiko has stopped looking at her like a sad puppy and has disappeared into the bathroom.

“Who is the date with?” Hajime asks.

“Some rich guy,” Peko says, reaching past Nagito to grab a handful of Cheerios from the box and munches on them. It’s the most human thing Hajime has ever seen her do.

“Do you like him?” Nagito asks. He reaches over and links his arm through her’s.

“Honestly? No. I just feel like every guy I go out with is…missing something.” She frowns at the cereal in her hands. “I just don’t know what.”

“How about this,” Nagito says. “You cancel the date and hang out with me, Chiaki and Hajime here. We can play Mario Kart.”

Peko looks over at Hajime with pursed lips. He smiles at her in a way that he hopes looks encouraging and supportive. It must work because she smiles back at them. “Alright.”

Hajime watches her walk out as she brings her phone out. He stands up and reaches past Nagito for the Cheerios as well. Nagito wraps his arms around Hajime’s waist lightly.

“Is she gone?” Fuyuhiko asks from the bathroom.

“She’s not going on the date,” Hajime calls back.

He pretends not to hear Fuyuhiko fall over and knock down a shelf.

Fact: Hajime has more friends than he’s had in a while. Even though one of them is dead.

Also a fact: he can’t remember the last time he was this happy.

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leighlikesthing · 6 years ago

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Supernatural season 1 disk 2

Disk 2 of Supernatural Season 1 is…

Well, it’s not filled with memorable all-stars.

And that’s not to say that the episodes are bad. Bloody Mary and Skin are completely serviceable episodes. Bloody Mary is a great Monster of the Week endeavor, and Skin giving us Shifters for the rest of the series to come.

Hook Man winds up being wholly forgettable, and Bugs…

Well, I think Bugs is the only episode of Supernatural I well and truly can’t deal with.

But each of these episodes have their moments.

Bloody Mary, I feel, suffers from focusing on a larger cast of one-off characters a little too much. But that’s not surprising. We’re five episodes in, and the show isn’t leaning into its mythology nearly as much as it will in later seasons.

It is nice to see the boys at work, though; a clean case, no attachments to their own history or issues, but in the same breath, our one-off characters are a little...annoying.

The real connection to the overarching plotline is Sam’s recurring nightmares about Jessica, and Dean’s concern over Sam’s mental state regarding her death. And we really see that parental side of Dean here, but we also know that he’s also not looking to die because Sam is off his game.

In the end, Sam offers himself up and summons Bloody Mary. And Props to show, the after effect is very creepy. The bleeding eyes, and the admission that Sam had had dreams of Jessica’s death days before she had actually died is unsettling, and Sam’s insistence on not telling Dean through to the end of the episode is...not a smart move on his part. Privacy is one thing, and feeling shame is understandable. But if Dean had known about his prophetic dreams earlier, he could have helped earlier.

But I suppose that would involve the boys showing some common sense. And at this juncture...eh. Not so much.

Dean’s eyes bleed too for what it’s worth. But it’s never addressed. Ever.

As low-tech as Mary crawling from the broken mirror is? It’s pretty effective all things considered. It doesn’t feel cheesy, or too much. Just...eerie. Dean’s idea to turn her on herself is ingenious, and shows us that Dean is a very craft hunter.

In the end, Dean comments that they’ve given themselves 600 years of bad luck…And he’s probably right. Because 14 years later, and there have been very few real, untainted wins for the Winchesters.

Skin is a tough episode for me to watch. Harming innocent women so goes against everything that Dean Winchester is that it makes me feel uneasy.

But it brings us a brand new monster: shapeshifters. Creatures born with the ability to change their appearance by pulling off their skin. They take on the memories of the people they imitate. We’ll see them through years and years to come, including a particularly enjoyable romp in season 4.

In watching it again, I honestly don’t have a lot to say about the episode. It mostly feels like an excuse for the show to cover scared, crying women in blood, and that in and of itself, is a rough watch.

We get some good moments between Shifter!Dean and Sam, though.

“You don’t think I had dreams of my own?” Shifter!Dean asks. He talks about being ditched by John, and we get a sense that that’s affecting the real Dean more than he’s letting on.

A running theme of the show, at least for Dean, is that everybody leaves him, and he’s not sure why, but he suspects it has something to do with him.

We also see that Dean has always had a grenade launcher in the trunk, and it’s been a running gag in more recent seasons that Dean would like to use it, and Sam tells him to calm his titties. Dean also references Star Trek for the first time, hinting that Dean is, in fact, a giant dweeb like the rest of us.

We get a truly disgusting scene of the shifter losing his Dean skin, and the shifter almost killing Sam. Dean is first wanted by the police, but then Dean kills the shifter, and now he’s legally dead, and we never see Becky again.

And then there’s Hook Man. Which starts out with a frat boy who was about to presure his girlfriend into having sex with him dying horrifically.

Hook Man killed a whole bunch of prostitutes and is now killing people he deems as being...well…

Slutty.

Yep. It’s an entire episode of slut shame.

Which is not only troubling,but a little boring to boot.

We get some spectacular Dean hair, and some good brotherly ribbing, but on the whole, it’s not a terribly thrilling hour of television. It is interesting to note that the boys get to tell the truth a couple of times in this episode. Dean gets them released from the cops with nothing but a fine by telling them they were out hunting ghosts...as frat pledges.

And Sam is truthful with Lori about watching over her house because he’s worried.

Sam and Lori have a good connection here. Sam understands how she feels, that people around her keep dying. He feels that deeply, and their kiss feels rushed, but genuine.

It’s an early attempt to address faith and religion in the show, but it’s done better further down the line in episodes like Faith and Houses of the Holy. We’ll see the Hook Man again in the Real Ghostbusters episode in season 5.

For now, let’s just be glad we’re done with him.

And now we come to Bugs.

I hate bugs. And I don’t like this episode very much. I have a deep, deep fear of bees. So this is not an easy watch for me.

What we get that does not make me avert my eyes is watching the tug of war between Sam and Dean about their upbringing. Sam is pretty sure their upbringing was fu-hucked up. Dean’s not convinced at this point in the show. He’s feeling like hustling pool and running credit card scams is awesome.

Dean’s memory here is short, but it gets longer as the show goes on. It’s interesting to watch their perceptions of their upbringing shift over the years.

“I respected Dad,” Sam says. “But no matter what I did, it was never good enough.”

We see a real rift between Sam and Dean here, caused by their divergent relationships with their father. Sam clearly thinks that Dean was the golden child, but the look on Dean’s face as they talk tells a different story: That John, as scared as he was for Sam’s safety, and as angry as he was about Sam’s leaving, still treated Sam as a son.

And not...whatever John has treated Dean as all these years. Which, mostly is a soldier, and a co-parent for Sam.

And maybe that’s just my perspective, looking back on this after fourteen seasons.

We also now have to take into consideration that since this episode came out in 2005, John has already had his “Dream” of the future from the 300th episode. Meaning that John probably went to check up on Sam at Stanford after that, as much as he could.

But since John never realized how poorly he treated Dean, Dean will continue to be treated the same way John has always treated him. Soldier. Co-parent.

I have feelings.

We also get a running gag about a steam shower, and the boys being pegged as a gay couple instead of brothers.

And...well…

A lot of bugs.

In the end, it’s a Native American curse on white people who deserve to be cursed because we are, in fact, all terrible. It’s thwarted, and the boys move along, but not before a moment of understanding.

Sam’s turned around on John for now. Their father did the best he could, Sam says.

Dean, for hi part, is so tired of their fights he can’t even anymore. With good reason.

#Supernatural #SPN #Sam Winchester #dean winchester #john winchester

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malunedyne · 7 years ago

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¿Creíste que no te iba a encontrar? Quiero todas las respuestas del ask list de canciones de los 80 pero rapidito. (ay no perdón por no preguntar antes pero no tuve tiempo gfsgsfsdfsgfds)

rapidito :3 *se tarda más de una semana* !oof, perdona que el puente se me cruzó xD D:

billie jean: what do you notice more in a song - the drums or bassline?depends on the song! I find funky basslines sweeter to spot than drums sometimes

sweet dreams (are made of this): what’s the best dream you’ve had?maaaaaaaan, that is totally not something imma share here (lol) but I often find lot of peace when I dream of seashores….. it gives me a sense of tranquility and worth for some reason

africa: favourite 80s music video?you’re gonna murder me because I don’t truly watch music videos tbh jdkfkjsdf sorry

every breath you take: who’s the first person your mind goes to when you hear a love song?currently? no one, really

should i stay or should i go: how many languages do you speak?i barely speak spanish, a glimpse of english i have japanese and chinese abandoned atm and i’m interested in bengali too

uptown girl: what’s your favourite book trope?long ass nice paragraphs describing something with a short sentence at the end contradicting the whole paragraph (see Douglas Adams or Lemony Snicket djkfds)

don’t stop believin’: what’s the longest journey you’ve been on?longest in the road? perhaps some 10 hours in bus. as in time spent, a week or so when i was younger

i wanna dance with somebody (who loves me): who was the last person you danced with?uhh….. 5 years ago in college because of a stupid team work? i’m not good at it tho

maneater: where did you spend your last friday night?at my grandma’s backyard, staring at the sky

jessie’s girl: what would you do if you found out your best friend was seeing your ex?I guess I would feel jealous but since i’d have nothing to do romantically speaking with him, i guess i would let it be, people are free to do whatever

born in the u.s.a.: what’s your home town like?a fucking hell. i hate it. i wanna move somewhere else

wake me up before you go-go: how did your last date go?it’s been 84 years….. I guess, as always, nothing happened, or i would remember

girls just want to have fun: relationship with your parents?p good, but the wide generational breach it’s hard for them to understand some of my ‘millennial ways’, since i spend lots of time in the computer, working or watching anime, playing videogames and alla that for further reference since my life is kinda plain at this point, all they think is ‘i’m wasting time’ and they also think i’m talking 24/7 with strangers only when i’m only writing gay shit lmao

beat it: opinions on the police force?fuck the police

never gonna give you up: how old were you when you joined the internet?old enough to troll horny men online, perhaps….. 12 or so? (man, i surely am unforgivable lmao)

faith: when was your first kiss?2012, the cursed year. i was 17

i’m so excited: where was your first kiss?in my high school’s classroom….. remembering the context makes me feel like a bad person though

take on me: could you reach the high note?only with a great amount of effort

footloose: favourite musical?The Rocky Horror Picture Show

9 to 5: do you like country music?it’s not bad, but i’m not very into it either

back in black: what makes a good rock song?catchy riff, a good combination of everything: lyrics, bassline, drums….. a sick solo of any instrument

material girl: are you sentimental?oh hell yeah, i’m actually crying rn (jk but yeah i am lol)

walk this way: what was the most expensive thing you bought in the last six months?I was gonna buy a custom amiibo figure for 71 dollars (aprox.) but i cowered back, might actually buy it but then i wanted to buy some other stuff that is aprox. that price

you shook me all night long: are you seeing anyone at the moment?i was telling my friend the other day “the problem isn’t me being exigent, annoying or just plain weird anymore; the real actual issue here is the lack of men in my surroundings, lol"

thriller: favourite film genre and why?I don’t know, I don’t think I have a favorite, the only requirements i ask for is a fresh and not-predictable narrative; with those elements, i can even watch a romantic comedy movie gladly

i want candy: chocolate or sweets?c h o c o l a t e

ghostbusters: how far do you believe in the paranormal?I DO believe in alla that. For real. And thus, it deserves respect, since those are things that we can’t comprehend

the power of love: does true love exist?true cosmic love is accepting things and people for what they are and be willing to support them when needed

hungry like the wolf: what’s your crush’s favourite music genre?I don’t have a current crush so it’s a relief I don’t have to go facebook-hunting rn lmao

walk like an egyptian: favourite song currently in the charts?i, uh….. don’t know? i’ve been listening to videogame OSTs and my old songs only for months now lmao

(i’ve had) the time of my life: if you could relive any ten minutes of your life, what would you relive?perhaps 10 minutes on high school after the love triangle drama incident….. all in sake of having the clear, vivid memory and sensations to finish my story…..

just can’t get enough: what’s your guilty pleasure?shipping characters and dedicating time to write and read about them, since most of people i know sees it as a super weird hobby

i’m gonna be (500 miles): how far apart do you and your best friend live?i’ve saying i don’t like using honorifics, but FUCK you do live 7,353 km away from here

you spin me round (like a record): favourite modern cover of an older song?I fucking love Arctic Monkeys cover of All My Loving performed in one of their concerts

we built this city: if you were president, what would your first ruling be?sweeping away all of those lazy ass bastards at the chamber of deputies, cutting their salaries and invest more money in education, culture, arts, science and health services since we’re fucked up in almost every aspect

how will i know: do you believe everyone is deserving of love?loving, in the wideness of the meaning, someone else who we think does not deserve it and doing it anyway is the ultimate challenge, but i think everyone deserves love. no one is completely black or white, they just have distorted desires and hearts yet that doesn’t make them less worthy or human

nothing’s gonna stop us now: what’s been the biggest hurdle you’ve faced in your life so far?fucken dysthymia and self-doubt, man

come on eileen: have you ever written a song? if so, what was the genre?oh hell noo, writing songs is a whole challenge

living on a prayer: which was the song of your childhood?Penny Lane - The Beatles. coincidentally enough, my dad used to play that song a lot back when we lived in an apartment, so it was marked as that place’s song

sweet child o’ mine: describe your perfect first date.well, it involves a quiet place so we can chat, i instantly feel the chemistry with the person and an actual interest for them; we can jump from topic to topic and i don’t feel like being ‘someone else’ just so i’m liked

don’t you (forget about me): is there anyone from your past that you regret cutting ties with?not really, i’m okay rn. i lost some friends in this last year but i think i don’t even care anymore

eye of the tiger: favourite 80s movie?THE PRINCESS BRIDE, YOOOO

under pressure: give an example of a world event that occurred the year you were born. uhhh i had to google this one, so um: December 7 – NASA's Galileo Probe enters Jupiter's atmosphere, yay.

with or without you: what would you value most: a relationship or a job?this doesn’t specifies what kinda relationship but i would say it depends on that, actually

another one bites the dust: where did you achieve your biggest accomplishment?may 2012, cdmx. i went to my first therapy session. that’s my biggest accomplishment: care about myself so i can care about others

pour some sugar on me: turn ons?dude!!! long hair, kind aura, guys with submissive attitude, cultured but also willing to admit they don’t know everything and accept new knowledge

in the air tonight: do you enjoy flying?what.oh, no, i have never been in a plane tho !oof

tainted love: thoughts on synthesisers/electronic drum kits/technology based music?g r e a t. a good example? vaporwave, i love that shit

like a virgin: share a controversial opinion. if she breathes she a thot lol no i think all people deserve love. no matter what. but in this site, my most controversial opinion would be my posture that minorities are taking a defenseless posture, as well as being total intolerant to any kinds of frustration and depending of others for self-validation of themselves /you can’t change my mind meme.jpg/

karma chameleon: what do you like most about your appearance?not just yet, but it looks like i’ll inherit my mom’s tuft of gray hairs

@electroma89 a ver cuando traes más :ojitos:

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dannyphantomrpg · 7 years ago

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Visual Aid: 107 Danny Phantom Facts

So I did this again.

(It’s what keeps me occupied when my husband’s asleep and the tablet pen is charging~)

((This one was barely longer than the 10 Years Later, Part 2, but it took all day for some reason...))

Let’s get this thing started~

Hey everybody, Butch Hartman here. I am so excited today because I'm teaming up with Channel Frederator today to talk about my show, Danny Phantom. Can give you the inside scoop.

You guys remember the fandom? Are you kind of curious about the show? Well, relax, we've got something for everybody here as we talk about the 107 facts about Danny Phantom.

For example, did you know that the 2005 Michael Jackson trial was actually features on Vlad's TV on one episode? It's there.

107 Facts: Danny Phantom.

001 Danny Phantom was created by me, Butch Hartman, after I had previously worked on the Fairly Odd Parents with Nickelodeon.

002 When making the show, I drew a lot of inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghostbusters.

003 The title Danny Phantom was inspired by the titles of 1960's cartoons like Jonny Quest. More specifically, I wanted to create a title with a real first name, followed by a last name that was also kind of an action word. Some of these alternative action words were "Danny Thunder" "Danny Lightning" and "Danny Power". "Danny Phantom" was the name I went with cause I thought it sounded the coolest.

004 Some of the alternative first names I had for our hero included "Billy Phantom", "Kenny Phantom", "Jackie Phantom", and "Davey Phantom". I think you'll agree they don't quite have the same ring as "Danny Phantom" does.

005 I came up with the concept for the show Danny Phantom while driving a moving van from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with my mother. Unfortunately, she was more fascinated by the sight of a desert tortoise, than the birth of a new, awesome Nicktoon.

006 Before settling on a superhero show, one of my first concepts for Danny Phantom was a bit more in the main Ghostbusters. It was called Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors, and it would have focused on a powerless Danny and his friends hunting down ghosts, using an array of ghostbusters-like gadgets.

007 Danny Phantom was pitched to Nickelodeon executives over dinner. Execs treated me after they ordered more episodes of Fairly Odd Parents, and they happened to ask me if I had any more ideas for TV shows. And, yes, being treated to nice dinners is definitely an appreciated perk.

008 There's some early concept art of Danny showing a surprising design. I originally drew him with the Superman-type body, which was basically a lot of unrealistic buff muscles. I reverted to the slimmer design when I decided it's be more interesting to portray Danny as a fourteen-year-old kid.

009 I decided Danny should be fourteen years old because that age is kind of a bridge between childhood and adulthood. It's more of a period of self-discovery which certainly fits the theme of Danny learning to live and control his ghostly abilities.

010 Danny's skinnier, final design, was the collaborative effort of character designers Steven Silver, Shannon Tyndall, and - surprise - me.

011 Unlike many other cartoon characters, Danny has five fingers. Take that Timmy Turner.

012 You may notice that when Danny goes ghost, only his hair turns white and his eyebrows stay black. They're actually meant to be white as well, but we all thought the white brows made Danny look like an old man so we, uh, kept 'em.

013 Sam and Danny were originally meant to share a psychic connection, so one would know where the other one was at all times. But I scrapped this to keep things simple. Only Danny was finally to have the superpowers.

014 Danny was originally gonna have a pet owl named Spooky that would be able to track ghosts. I scrapped the concept as Harry Potter rapidly gained popularity. I didn't want his series to be constantly compared to the boy wizard.

015 I wanted to give Danny a really cool ghost motorcycle to use as his primary means of transportation, but then I realized that giving a motorcycle was pointless because, you know, he can fly really fast.

016 The father-son duo of Jack and Danny Fenton are a reference to Jack and Danny Torrance from The Shining, which explains why Jack Fenton constantly accuses his children of being ghosts.

017 I gave Danny an older sibling because, unlike Timmy Turner, I felt that Jazz Fenton would make Danny feel less in control at home and give him somebody to contend with. I thought this lack of control would make Danny's experience with his superpowers all the more satisfying for him.

018 Jazz Fenton was named after a character in John Byrne's 1990's comic book Next Men. I always thought the name Jazz was cool.

019 Tucker Foley's name is a combination of actor and comedian Chris Tucker and Eddie Murphy's character from Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley.

020 Danny's teacher, Mr. Lancer, is named after a family restaurant in Burbank called, you guessed it, Lancer's.

021 Vlad Masters was originally going to be a vampire, but Nickelodeon execs thought making him a Vampire could lead to some pretty violent territory and I thought that too. So he was changed into a ghost.

022 A remnant of this scrapped concept can be found in his villain name "Vlad Plasmius". Plasma is found in blood which, you know, vampires kind of have a thirst for.

023 I refer to Vlad Masters as Danny Phantom's Lex Luthor. Like Luthor, Vlad uses his wealth to exert his power, or at least some of it. He also has a personal connection to Danny that gives him the upper hand in most scenarios.

024 Danny's love interest, Paulina Sanchez, is a parallel to Superman's love interest, Lois Lane. Both characters have no romantic interest in the protagonist because they have a crush on the protagonist's superhero alter ego. Lois loves Superman, but not Clark Kent, and Paulina loves Danny Phantom, but not Danny Fenton. Paulina: But you still have no shot with me Oh, the cruel irony.

025 Danny's ghost sense is identical to Spiderman's spider sense. Both senses alert their respective heroes whenever danger is nearby.

026 The parallels of Spiderman don't end there. Dash Baxter is a parallel to Peter Parker's football playing bully, Flash Thompson. Not only do Flash and Dash bully the protagonists of their universes, but they idolize the protagonist's superhero alter ego without realizing the hero is actually the person they bully. Their names both words that describe their quick movement and rhyme with each other.

027 The ghosts of Danny Phantom's world aren't the spirits of the deceased as ghosts tend to be in pop culture. Instead, they're monsters from another dimension. We call them ghosts because it's easier to say and it's more appealing than saying monsters from another dimension.

028 Danny's hometown, Amity Park, is a tribute to the settings of a few famous horror stories. Amityville, Long Island is the location of the famous haunted house known as the Amityville Horror. But Amity Park is also named after Amity Island, the location of the book and Steven Spielberg film Jaws.

029 Danny's high school, Casper High, is named after Casper the Friendly Ghost. Hey, if we hadn't added all these paranormal references, you may have forgotten the show is about ghosts.

030 Quite a few key members from the Fairly Odd Parents had a hand in making Danny Phantom, including writer Steve Marmel and art director Bob Boyle.

031 One of the major differences working on the Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom was the latter series' more serial format containing everything from character arcs to recurring story lines. Danny Phantom embraces storytelling angle by making the episodes 22 minutes long as opposed to Fairly Odd Parents whose 22 minute run time consisted of 2 eleven minute episodes.

032 One of the most challenging aspects of creating a superhero show like Danny Phantom, was giving all the superhero tropes a unique and interesting twist. We wanted to keep the series fresh an unique.

033 I originally wanted to cast a fourteen year old boy for the role of Danny, but I couldn't find anybody that sounded heroic enough. That heroic voice I searched for was ultimately provided by David Kaufman. Before playing Danny, Kaufman broke into the realm of voice acting when he played Marty McFly in Back tot he Future: The Animated Series.

034 David Kaufman kept his audition for Danny as a CD in his car that he would listen to towards the beginning of the show whenever he drove to the studio to record. He did this to remember what Danny sounded like in order to immerse himself into the character efficiently.

035 I wasn't the only one Kaufman's performance left a deep impression on. His daughter, Grace, calls him Daddy Phantom.

036 Sam Manson is played by actress Grey Griffin. I basically made an effort to include her in every show I created back then. Thus far, she's played Vicky in the Fairly Odd Parents and Kitty Katswell from T.U.F.F. Puppy.

037 Tucker isn't the first loyal friend Ricky D'Shon Collins has played. Before hunting ghosts with Danny, he helped TJ Detweiler keep balance and order on the playground as Vince LaSalle in Disney's Recess.

038 Maddie Fenton's voice actress, Kath Soucie, has essentially crafted a career out of voicing cartoon mothers. She played Dexter's mom in Dexter's Laboratory, Betty DeVille in Rugrats and Miriam Pataki in Hey Arnold.

039 Danny's father, Jack, is played by legendary voice actor Rob Paulson, who's played iconic roles like Yakko Warner, Pinky, Carl Weiser, Experiment 625, Donatello in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Raphael in the old one, and way too many more to mention here.

040 Although Mr. Lancer is far from hardcore, his voice actor, Ron Perlman, has played quite a few characters throughout his career that redefined the word, He played Hellboy in the Guillermo del Toro films of the same name and he voices Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke, on Teen Titans, as well as the Lich in Adventure Time.

041 Valerie Grey was originally played by Grey DeLisle for the episode My Brother's Keeper before renowned voice actress Cree Summer was chosen to take over the role. If her name doesn't sound familiar, you've probably heard her voice as Penny on Inspector Gadget or maybe even as Susie Carmicheal on Rugrats.

042 Valerie isn't the only one that's had a change in her voice. Dani, that's Dani with an I, was voiced with two different actresses through the series. She was played by AnnaSophia Robb in her debut episode Kindred Spirits. The role was then taken over by Krista Swan in the episode D-Stabilized, which was Dani's second and final speaking appearance.

043 Tara Strong plays two of the show's recurring villains: Ember McLain and Penelope Spectra. This is definitely not the first time I've worked with her. You probably know her best as Timmy Turner in the Fairly Odd Parents, which proves she can effectively play both the hero and the villain.

044 Every celebrity guest in the show was cast as a ghost, similar to how celebrity guests would play villains on the 1960's Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Some of these celebrities include Particia Heaton from Everybody Loves Raymond as the Lunch Lady, and Matthew St. Patrick from Six Feet Under as Skulker, and Will Arnett from Arrested Development as the Ghost Writer, and Martin Mull as Vlad Plasmius.

045 These celebrity voice actors typically played their ghosts for a limited time before different voice actors took their roles. Sometimes as soon as the ghost's second appearance. Series Kath Soucie took over the role of the Lunch Lady and Kevin Michael Richardson became Skulker.

046 Tucker's dad, Maurice Foley, is voiced by Phil Lamarr who voices Hermes Conrad on Futurama and Samruai Jack on Samurai Jack.

047 Mark Hamill plays Undergrowth. He's, of course, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but also as countless voice acting credits, including the Joker and Fire Lord Ozai.

048 The ghost child Youngblood was played by actor Taylor Lautner when he was just nine years old. Lautner would later be featured in everybody's favorite love story Twilight. Wait, who wrote that? Do I have to say that?

049 Danny's ultimate enemy, Dark Danny, is played by Oscar-nominated acting legend Eric Roberts. His impressive resume includes everything from the Dark Knight to the Cable Guy.

050 The first recording session for Danny Phantom took place on November 21, 2002, about a year and a half before the show premiered. The first episode to be recorded was also the first episode to air: Mystery Meat.

051 In fact, Danny Phantom premiered on April 3, 2004, right after Nickelodeon's annual Kid's Choice Awards.

052 Unlike many other animated shows, the cast of Danny Phantom recorded their dialogue in the same room together. David Kaufman described the experience as something akin to a stage play.

053 It takes the actors around 3 hours to record dialogue for a single episode. David Kaufman knows that shouting "I'm goin' ghost!" so many times made his voice hoarse by the end of the day.

054 In the episode What You Want, I voiced a football announcer that also looks a lot like me except he's, you know, a cartoon. I mean, he looks a lot more like me than Dr. Bender does. I hope.

055 The theme song we hear today wasn't the only one recorded for the show. An alternate version got so far into production that an alternate opening sequence was storyboarded all the way around it. The alternate song sounds very similar to the final product with different lyrics that focus more on explaining Danny's abilities.

056 The theme song was changed because Nickelodeon wanted it to tell Danny's origin story. This way, new views wouldn't feel alienated when watching the show for the first time no matter what episode they started out with.

057 Luckily, changing the lyrics wasn't an overly complicated, make-10-calls, logistical nightmare since I wrote the lyrics of the theme song. Both of them actually.

058 I based the show's theme song after the song The Invisible Man by Queen, one of my favorite bands.

059 One thing I learned from working on the Danny Phantom theme song is that your first idea isn't always your best idea, and to never stop pushing yourself until you've made something truly awesome. You're welcome for that halfway through burst of inspiration.

060 I also co wrote another fan favorite song Remember, performed by Ember in the episode Fanning the Flames, which also happens to be my third favorite episode. Yes, my third favorite. I am very, very specific.

061 Danny Phantom was the first show to be produced by my very own company, Billionfold Inc. which was co-founded with my wife. Billionfold comes from a biblical term, hundredfold.

062 A single episode of Danny Phantom took approximately 10 months to produce, stretching all the way from pre-production to post.

063 While the pre-production phase took place in Burbank, California, Danny Phantom's animation was done by a Korean animation studio called Rough Draft. Rough Draft's resume includes work done on other animated classics like Futurama, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

064 The individual villains found within Danny Phantom's rogues gallery was based on ideas that I had. Ember McLane stemmed from a pitch regarding an episode about music fads, and the effects they have on teenagers. The Lunch Lady was generated from my very astute knowledge that students tend to hate school prepared lunched.

065 Vlad is a Green Bay Packers fanatic because Danny Phantom's story write, Steve Marmel is a cheesehead himself. We nearly got sued for this, but luckily Marmel was smart enough to make the team colors of the Danny Phantom Packers gold and green instead of green and gold.

066 One scrapped running gag Marmel wanted to incorporate was that Vlad's home would be blown up after every encounter he had with Danny, but this recurring joke was mainly lost in editing.

067 Had the series gone on, Danielle would have been taken in by the Fentons, effectively becoming the younger sister of Danny and Jazz.

068 Technus was intended to have another upgrade, Technus 3.0, in the episode Identity Crisis. The design was scrapped after we decided the upgrade didn't really fit anywhere in the episode's story.

069 The addition of Danny Phantom's logo later in the series was the suggestion of Nickelodeon executives, who thought he needed a symbol akin to heroes like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. But perhaps more honest reason was because the execs wanted to make the hero more marketable.

070 Danny officially became 99.99% marketable in the season 2 episode, Memory Blank, in which Sam gives him his D logo.

071 The series score was composed by Guy Moon, who is also responsible for the music heard in the Fairly Odd Parents.

072 When Guy Moon and I met to discuss a soundtrack of an episode, I would usually sing over the episode in progress to give Moon an idea of how I wanted the music to sound. Moon would bring a camera to these sessions and record my, admittedly, unskilled singing to remember my instructions.

073 Not everyone can become a half ghost, half human. If Sam or Tucker had gotten caught int the middle of the Fenton's malfunctioning Ghost Portal, it would have likely killed them.

074 Wulf is fluent in Esperanto, a language created in 1887 by Dr. Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, perhaps better known by his pseudonym of Doktoro Esperanto. Esperanto was created in the hope of replacing every language in the world as the one universal language. Judging by the fact that this video is in English, you can probably guess how that plan worked out.

075 The episode titled Shades of Grey is obviously a play on Valerie's last name, but the title could have a much deeper meaning. The term "shades of grey" refers to an unclear position on the scale of good to evil, usually somewhere in between. This certainly applies to Valerie, as she doesn't necessarily fight ghosts for good or evil. but for her own personal reasons.

076 During Shades of Grey, Danny names the ghost dog Cujo. Cujo's also the name of a horror novel by Stephen King about a dog bitten by a rabid bat, which turns the dog into a cold-blooded killer.

077 The green glowing, double bladed melee weapon Maddie uses to slay the legion of Vlad's monsters in Maternal Instincts is practically identical to Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber in Star Wars Episode One, save for the red color.

078 Because I know everyone loves multiple Episode One references, the the title of the second season's 9th episode The Fenton Menace is obviously a play on the title of everybody's favorite Star Wars film, the Phantom Menace. Yes. Everybody's favorite Star Wars film.

079 To continue the Star Wars nods, the Danny Phantom universe has its own line of popular toys called Space Wars featuring characters that resemble Chewbacca and R2D2.

080 Some of the computers in the Danny Phantom world have pears in the back of them which you probably guess was a nod to Apple computers. Timmy's dad in Fairly Odd Parents has the same symbol on his laptop.

081 Save for the creepy pictures of Maddie, the programs and icons on both Danny and Vlad's computers are exactly the same, in the exact same order.

082 Skulker's hunt for Valerie and Danny in Life Lessons closely resembles the plot of Richard Connell's famous short story "The Most Dangerous Game". Much like the story, Skulker kidnaps two very skilled humans on his property for the sole purpose of hunting what he considers to be the most challenging prey out there, or, the most dangerous game.

083 Mr. Lancer spouts the titles of books in place of shouting swear words. Some of these exclamations include The Great Gatsby, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Moby Dick, which is about as close as we'll be getting to colorful language on a Nicktoon, except for maybe Ren and Stimpy, or Rocko, or SpongeBob. We're slick here at Nickelodeon.

084 In the episode What You Want, Paulina transforms into a popular anime cat names Sayonara Pussycat, who resembles the character Hello Kitty. But Sayonara is actually a rather dramatic and final sounding word for "goodbye" in Japanese.

085 In Teacher of the Year, all 13 levels that Tucker shows Technus are based on the eight worlds from the 1990 NES classic Super Marion Bros. 3. The level 0 glitch is a reference to the infamous Minus world from the original Super Mario Bros.

086 Before sending Danny into the Ghost Zone in the episode Prisoners of Love, Tucker can be seen playing Space Invaders on his PDA.

087 Valerie Grey lives on 461 Elm Street, an obvious reference to the classic horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. She'd probably stand more of a chance against Freddy Krueger than the other kids in the Street as well.

088 Johnny 13 and Kitty's voice actors, William Baldwin and China Phillips, are a married couple in real life. The knot has been securely tied since 1995. Way before they were cast.

089 In Fanning the Flames, Danny quips "Do you take requests? How about Beat It." in addition to telling Ember to hit the road, Danny's referencing Michael Jackson's classic song Beat It. Good one, Danny. And good one, me.

090 Michael Jackson makes a more obvious cameo in the episode Infinite Realms where he's seen in at his 2005 trial while Vlad is flipping through channels.

091 When we see Tucker's report card in What You Want, we learn that Tucker is not only highly proficient in computers, but sewing as well. If Danny ever needs a suit redesign, he who he can call. Not the Ghostbusters, they'll likely kill him. He should call Tucker.

092 The Groovy Gang and Scaredy Cat from The Million Dollar Ghost are an unsubtle jab at Mystery Inc and Scooby-Doo. An additional fact fact for you guys, I actually worked for Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio that created Scooby-Doo.

093 The secret government organization dedicated to eliminating paranormal entities known as the Guys in White are obviously a parallel to the Men in Black who essentially do the same thing but with evil extraterrestrials.

094 I've gone on record saying the reason Danny is not shirtless when he's at the water park is because he gets sunburned very easily.

095 We can all infer that Sam has good taste in films. For instance, a poster for Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange can be seen in her room.

096 In Memory Blank, Sam wants to see Trinity of Doom, a movie starring Femalien, the female version of Alien that’s a Predator, not a Xenomorph, you uncultured swine!, Terminatra, the female Terminator, and Nightmerica, the female version of Freddy Krueger. I'd still go see that.

097 Danny has a birthmark that's shaped like the state of Florida.

098 Timmy Turner's favorite comic book hero, The Crimson Chin, appears at the Ember concert as one of her many adoring fans in the episode Fanning the Flames. I officially sanction your conspiratorial speculations.

099 In the episode What You Want, Danny and Tucker can be seen playing an arcade machine titles Crash Nebula. Crash Nebula is one of Timmy Turner's favorite heroes of the Fairly Odd Parents. The plot thickens!

100 The cross referencing continued over into the Fairly Odd Parents, too. In Poulter Geeks, a wanted poster for Danny Phantom can be seen in the ghost hunting basement of Timmy's parents.

101 Or you guys could be thinking about this all wrong, and Danny could just be a fictional hero. In the Fairly Odd Parents Crash Nebula special, Danny can be seen on the back cover of a comic book. The truth is out there.

102 If Vlad were real, Steve Marmel would have made him the happiest half man/half ghost on the planet. The writer purchased a brick at Lambeau Field, the home of the Packers, and engraved it with "Someday I will rule - Vlad Plasmius".

103 David Kaufman's favorite episodes tend to be the ones in which Danny spends time with one particular member of his family and the plot strengthens their bond and understanding of each other. He cites the episodes Maternal Instinct and My Brother's Keeper as prime examples.

104 Like every great superhero, Danny Phantom has transcended into the realm of video games. His first outing was a Game Boy Advance adaptation of The Ultimate Enemy, a 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up ordeal.

105 The second was called Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle, which was released for both Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS and it was a side-scrolling shooter.

106 There was once a Danny Phantom themed ride at the indoor Nickelodeon Universe theme park at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Danny Phantom: Ghost Zone's design was that of an Ali Baba. In other words, it consisted of a stationary horizontal gondola with a 360 degree swinging pendulum. Unfortunately, the rise was taken down in 2015.

107 Danny Phantom ran for three season, from 2004 to 2007. A total of 53 episodes were created for the series. The news of Danny Phantom's cancellation was not well received by the fans at all. The Danny fandom took to the streets of New York City and protested outside of Nickelodeon's building to bring the ghost boy back into production. Unfortunately, to no avail. But thank you. Seriously, thank you.

Ok, guys, thanks so much for watching. Hope you guys enjoyed it, 107 facts about Danny Phantom. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the Frederator Channel.

#yt closed captions kept putting dash's name as - and i thought it was hilarious #and fact 27 is where it all goes downhill #fact 27: it's not a show about ghosts #fact 29: it's a show about ghosts!#if I misspelled any of the names i'm so sorry #there are just so many of them #huh only 106 facts #i wonder what happened to fact 94 #it is a mystery #i was gonna do images too #but they weren't anything special #enjoy your wall of reading voice actor's wiki pages #butch hartman #channel frederator #107 facts #danny phantom #reference

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cavehags · 8 years ago

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annie edison after greendale

@swordwlw i was writing this in response to your post but then you deleted the post i guess? anyway here’s my interpretation

it’s july 2015 and annie has just scored her dream internship (since recently) with the FBI. DC is as far as she can get from colorado emotionally and geographically and she thinks it’ll be good for her. she likes the work, but socially she’s always feeling outmatched. the stories the other interns (nearly all of them identical 21-year-old white men) tell about their college experiences are fun to listen to and full of naked girls and fraternity adventures, while annie’s stories always fall flat. she realizes the other kids think she’s full of shit after her second paintball story and she realizes how she’s coming across - like a small fish in a very large pond who’s desperate to be liked. she stops talking about herself after a while and tries to imitate what the guys do, complete with the clubbing and the shots and the throwing up in the backs of ubers, but he efforts to be “one of the guys” never pay off like she wants, and she never feels like they want her there.

but that’s okay. before greendale, no one wanted annie anywhere. being alone sucks but she knows how to get through it. and if her solitude comes with much more bitterness and gritted teeth and angry determination to succeed in spite of everyone else than it ever did in high school, maybe that’s just what happens after you’ve spent so many years in places that don’t fit and you finally shake off the pretense.

it’s september 2015 and annie doesn’t want to go back to school. she knew when she left that this was it, even if she couldn’t say it. but her internship is over and it costs too much to stay in DC without a definite plan so she applies for a ton of jobs, all over the country. she had to sell some of her clothes to make rent after the internship stipend ran out, so she has one top and one blazer that she wears for all of her skype interviews.

she finally gets offered a job with a private investigator in new jersey. the firm is run by two brothers in their late forties and the main one annie talks to over the phone is so arrogant and slimy that she almost would rather spend another month eating microwaved rice and cheese in a bare apartment than work for him, but even a crappy opportunity is better than nothing, so she packs up her limited amount of stuff and gets on a bus to newark.

it’s december 2015 and the new job isn’t so bad after all. the bosses are sexist creeps, but the scope of annie’s job doesn’t involve much interaction with them. she interviews clients, processes the billing, and does some office administration that she actually wasn’t ever asked to do but their chairs are falling apart and someone has to. she actually is really interested in the work - she loves asking clients questions and following hunches that will guide the direction of the investigation. when they solve something successfully, she puts a little pink star next to the client’s name in the ledger and makes a note for herself to follow up with that client later for a job reference as soon as she decides she’s ready to move on to bigger things. at night, she gets to go back to a relatively spacious apartment over a noisy commuter highway, where she does sudokus until the commuter noise dies down enough for her to sleep.

it’s march 2016 and everything is changing for annie. there’s a client at the firm that she can’t stop thinking about. her name is jennifer and she has a tattoo in the style of a maze on her collarbone that annie is always trying to solve whenever they’re talking, mentally drawing a line from point a to point b until she catches herself and stops, red-faced. jennifer has enlisted annie’s bosses’ services because she thinks her own boss is stealing from her company, and she’d rather be a whistleblower with evidence. annie asks her questions in their information-gathering sessions and has to remind herself to be professional, to keep the awe and shock out of her tone, so that jennifer thinks they’re actually capable of getting things done instead of just gawking at her case. but it’s hard to look jennifer in the eyes and not feel emotionally affected.

may 2016 and jennifer’s boss is behind bars. she wants to celebrate and she asks annie to join her, never once thinking to invite the actual investigators (she never met them and personally doesn’t think they do much around there anyway). after five months of being incredibly lonely, annie doesn’t even think about declining, but she does spend an hour trying to decide if she should wear make-up or do her hair any particular way, because it’s been a while. when jennifer picks her up, annie bites her lip and feels her stomach do a somersault when jennifer tells her she looks nice. later she won’t remember the details of their night out, but not because she drinks too much - because she spends almost the entirety of it in her own head, working through the fact that she is definitely in love with this former client.

june 2016 and annie and jennifer kiss for the first time in the theater while ghostbusters is playing. annie initiates it and when she draws back she forgets to keep her voice low and asks at full volume, “was that okay?” jennifer’s eyes are surprised but her smile is undoubtedly content. she wipes popcorn butter off her hands and touches annie’s hair, softly, making annie’s heart do another flip.

august 2016 and annie realizes that it wasn’t just sex with jeff that didn’t appeal to her.

october 2016 and annie and jennifer are in the middle of a passive-aggressive argument about who should take the responsibility for driving the other one to work when annie unexpectedly bursts into tears from frustration. she didn’t realize she was about to cry leading up to this moment, so she waves jennifer away and rejects any attempts to comfort her until she can sort out her own feelings. it’s the election, it’s the shitty job working for exhausting men who never acknowledge her work, it’s the fact that she’s leaning on this one (admittedly pretty terrific) woman for all of her social needs in a city she doesn’t like. she’s happy with her relationship but she’s not happy. it takes her a few weeks to figure all this out and when she does, she cushions it in apologies as she relays it to her girlfriend, saying over and over that she wishes she just knew what to do.

it’s december 2016 and annie and jennifer are over. annie needs her career to come first now, or so she tells herself while she’s trying not to cry on her flight to boston. it is different than last time she moved because she does not have a job lined up yet, but she has a contact there, a client from the investigator’s office who works for massachusetts general hospital. she liked annie, even told annie in certain terms that she wished annie was working for her, and when annie called her and said she was leaving, mrs. galavey invited her to come see the hospital and see what appeals to her. it’s a gamble, following such a preliminary lead, but annie has her sights set on being less lonely and living somewhere that feels more navigable than newark, and boston is as good a place to try things out as any.

it’s february 2016 and the best perk to working in a hospital is the subsidized therapy. talking to someone once a week has helped her cut down on the crying and feeling sorry for herself that made her feel like such a failure in newark. on top of that, working in an office with lots of other people her age and eating in a cafeteria every day makes her feel less like she’s all on her own. she makes friends. the first day she signs a birthday card for a co-worker, she can’t stop smiling for twenty minutes.

march 2016 and annie doesn’t know where she’s going next. she’s content for now, doing work she thinks makes a difference and very tentatively flirting with a nurse she sees in the cafeteria sometimes who has a purple streak in her hair. the nurse’s name is elise and she runs an employee affinity group for LGBT employees, and annie has marked the date and location of their next meeting on her calendar, posted in her cube, written in the one purple gel pen she managed to hang on to from greendale. elise’s purple hair reminds her of another social activist she knew and she thinks she’ll skype britta sometime soon, maybe to tell her about jennifer and moving on from jennifer and to ask britta what she’s up to these days, whether she’d like to come for a visit. she emails with frankie and abed occasionally too, exchanging memes and quick snapshots of their respective lives away from colorado. she knows they were worried about her for a while while she was in DC and then in new jersey and she hopes they feel good about her chances now, her ability to succeed on her own. she feels better about her own chances, anyway.

#asodgihpoasih i hope this is decent #og post

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generallyspecificblog · 7 years ago

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I watched episodes 1 & 2 of the new season of Stranger Things on Netflix this weekend, its been a long time coming. I’ve been waiting patiently for this season since the last one ended. The show grew on me in a big way, i did not like it initially. Something about it is mysterious and innocent and this season looks to have more of a suspenseful and scary vibe. I’ve only watched two episodes thus far so this is an incomplete project but I felt I needed to write about it because i haven’t blogged a long one in a few days. What follows are my hot takes, conspiracy theories, and honorable mentions of “Stranger Things” Season 2.

Ah, the ’80’s, things were slower back then i’m sure, i wouldn’t know though because i was -10 in 1980. The fact that in one of the opening scenes the boys are scrambling for quarters to go play arcade games just tells me that those were the good days. Reminds me of the movie/documentary, “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”, if you haven’t seen that i suggest that you stop reading this blog and go watch that documentary, you will not be let down, you will also have your masculinity tested by a man named Billy Mitchell. Also that is probably the only time i’ll suggest that you stop reading the blog so you know its worth it. Anyways, quarters are king and Mike robs Nancy of her piggy bank which i think is just great, but also i feel like Nancy is a bit too old for a piggy bank.

So the boys (Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin) rally at the local arcade room, Those for sure were only around for laundering money i imagine, and get to playing. At some point Will hears something and wanders off and somehow he is pulled into the upside-down place, his home pretty much the whole 1st season, and sees a dark sky with red lightning and a shadow demon thing with tornadoes for arms and then snaps out of it. First off i would like to say that i do not completely understand what the show writers are going for with the existence of the “Upside-down” place. I guess the easiest way to explain it is an alternate dimension that’s evil and terrible, but i just don’t know how it all works. I will admit that i think that if i were to somehow be instantly teleported to a place like that, i would for sure only be able to cry and close my eyes until i inevitably died because that place, and that monster thing seem completely terrifying. With all of that being said i think that calling it “The Upside-Down Place” is a rookie move and who ever came up with it needs to go to prison. It’s like calling it “Creepy Avenue” or “Elm Street”, how about a better name for the place that your main characters fear and where pure evil resides. As a matter of fact i will no longer refer to it as the “Upside-down” place and from here on out it will be called the “Thunderdome” or “Satans Basement” or “Oklahoma” ANYTHING but “Upside-down” place. So, Will snaps out of it somehow and his excuse to his friend for being outside is that he needed some air, I found that funny because this show is set in the 80’s and no chance kids were as messed up and snowflakey as they are now. “Needing some air” in the 80’s was just something you said when you wanted your 3rd cigarette from your 2nd pack of the day, i assume. Be more dramatic Will.

The cameos in these first two episodes were very interesting and i didn’t hate them, i’d actually be excited if they all stayed on as regulars. First we have Brett Gelman playing Murray Bauman, aparrently some kind of private investigator with suspicion of Russian assistance in the events that transpired last season. Gelman is killing it lately with the cameos and honestly is just a really funny guy, i will never forget him in The Other Guys as the Arnold Palmer obsessed wanna-be swinger who begs Will Ferrels character to bang his wife.

Next and my favorite so far is the incomparable Mikey Walsh, the lovable Samwise Gamgee, Rudy HIMSELF, Sean Astin playing Bob “The Brain” Newby. Sean Astin is top 10 in my favorite actors, all around good dude, and just as lovable as they get. His character in Stranger Things is Joyce Byers’ new love interest it seems, and he does a fantastic job. The dynamic between him and Joyce is weird but i am fully invested after 2 episodes. Sean Astin nerding out about video cameras and radio shack is grade-a television folks.

Other than that there is a new pair of sibling characters in the show, Billy and Maxine AKA MadMax, that i just don’t know about yet. Billy is an absolute psychopath that resembles a younger Zac Efron who is fond of younger Zac Efrons who drives like a bat outta hell. This Billy dude is like a cross between Kurt Cobain on a bender and Jack Nicholson from The Shining. Pure crazy, but an entertaining character. His sister, i’m assuming, Maxine (or Max as she so rudely corrected the zany teacher at the school) is a very boyish little girl who is apparently good at arcade games and skateboarding, possessing some of the same crazy traits as her aforementioned brother. Some subtle yet understandable misogyny is featured in a scene where the boys are spying on her and say something along the lines of “girls cant play video games”. There is a new psychiatrist guy that talks to Will too but he is very boring and on the bad guys side so i don’t particularly care for him. Out of the new characters i mentioned above i would rank them accordingly: 1. Bob 2. Murray 3. Billy 4. Maxine 956. Doctor Boring D.O.

As for our returning characters a lot has changed in good ole Hawkins and its nearing the one year anniversary of the finale of last season some time around Halloween, obviously. The iconic Reagan Bush ’84 Campaign signs make an appearance in these episodes a couple of times in peoples yards and i love it, shout out Rowdy Gentleman. The boys are still up to their nerdy shenanigans riding around on bikes and talking on their giant walkie-talkies. An exciting part is that they dress up as Ghostbusters for Halloween and being the season is set in 1984 i give 1,000 kudos to the kids for being such trailblazing fans of the film, and 2,000 kudos to their parents for making the costumes from scratch. There is a pretty comical argument between Mike and Lucas on who gets to be Venkman, Bill Murrays character, with an awkward reference to the only black Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore played by Ernie Hudson, being lame because he was late to the team.

Mike is emotionally invested in 2 boxes of toys for some reason and misses the hell out of his superhuman girlfriend, 11, just being an emo little baby pretty much the whole time. Will and Mike make some weird pact while trick-or-treating where Mike says “If you’re weird, I’m Weird” kind of like Ryan Gossling does in the Notebook (If you’re a bird, I’m a bird). Lucas and Dustin fight over who is gonna date Maxine.

Our guy Will, who spent the majority of last season in the Thunderdome, has turned into a monster in the eyes of the kids at school. He gets bullied a bit, being called “Zombie Boy” and getting notes put in his locker saying the same thing, thank god Twitter or Facebook didn’t exist back then or this dude would of 13 Reasons Why’d his way through the rest of this season, probably. He takes it with stride though, animating his new nickname pretty artistically, wouldn’t be surprised if he creates a comic book about his Zombie alter ego and becomes a millionaire.

Steve and Nancy are still an item, probably my second favorite couple behind Johnathan and crippling loneliness. Nancy has become annoying because out of the clouds she starts actually caring that her friend Barb is dead, probably because she feels guilty, i mean you’d have to be an idiot to not blame Nancy for the demise of our homely heroine, Barb. There is a scene where Nancy and Steve go have dinner with Barbs parents and enjoy some KFC #fingerlickingood. Barbs parents are delusional at this point, in denial that Barb is dead. They are not in good health, mainly because of the fried chicken, and have plans to sell their home to fund a wild goose chase led by the wacky ex-journalist, P.I. Bauman. That should be successful. R.I.P Barb. Some how Steve has become more likable. Probably because of his hair which has some how become bigger, the higher the hair the closer to heaven, i see you Steve. Nancy and Steve go to a Halloween party together where she gets tipsy on some jungle juice, or as the raging toga bro, who is later seen yakking his brains out, calls it, “Pure Fuel”. Nancy, in typical white girl wasted fashion, says “bullshit” 9 million times after getting a cup of hunch punch spilled on her and brings up the past (Her and Steve basically murdering Barb, gone but never forgotten). Surprisingly Steve peaces out instead of taking advantage of Nancy like he did last season. Johnathan, in typical lonely guy fashion, swoops in like a sad pigeon and saves the day by taking her home and tucking her in. I feel it is necessary to say that i think Johnathan looks like an anorexic Bill Hader from SNL and i hope other people see that too.

My favorite character, 11, or Elle as Chief Hopper adorably calls her, has taken up residence in a cabin out in the sticks. Chief Hopper is my 2nd favorite character in the show and he has become some type of father figure to 11 letting her stay in his cabin and is keeping her safe from the Russians or whoever is trying to get her. 11 is still a super hero and controls stuff with her mind. She has grown her hair out lookin like a jerry curl gettin real high up there, watch out Steve. Hopper is still whippin around in that dope ass Trailblazer and totin that 6-shooter like a rootin tootin cowboy, they should call him Sheriff instead of Chief. The interaction between Sheriff Hopper and 11 is perfect and comical. 11 is still very robot-like and says “five one five” instead of 5:15 at one point alluding that she hasn’t become much more normal than the first season. There are a few flashbacks to season one including one where 11 is breaking through some gooey womb-like substance out of Thunderdome and it reminds me of Jim Carrey being born from a rhino in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. In another scene 11 kills and begins to cook a squirrel to eat and then beams it at some hunter dudes face in the woods because i guess that’s what Russian cyborgs do. Sheriff Hopper misses hanging out with Elle for Halloween and that broke my heart, do better man.

As usual the soundtrack for the show is the absolute best, the beginning credit song that sounds like Daft Punk time traveled back to the 80’s is up there with Game of Thrones intro song. So far the show is fantastic and there are a lot more witty references and noteworthy things to say but i have just realized that i have written 2,000+ words and most of this was just mindless stammering on and so with that i give my superlatives and predictions thus-far:

Most likely to die alone: Jonathan Byers

Worst Father of the Year: Sheriff Hopper

Most likely to Smash for sure: Hopper and Joyce

Most Improved: Barb

Best Hair: Steve

Probably Gonna Finish Last: Bob “The Brain” Newby

Most Athletic: The Bike Boys

Life of the Party: Yoga bro

Most Likely to Become President: Reagan Bush ’84

Biggest Twist: Barb is alive!

Token Black Guy: Lucas

Least Likely to do Anything, Ever: The dumb psychiatrist guy

Most likely to end up in jail or an insane asylum probably: Billy

Most Likely To Confuse The Millennium Falcon with the Starship Enterprise: My Fiance while watching the show with me.

Stranger Things: Season 2 Return of Barb, Maybe. I watched episodes 1 & 2 of the new season of Stranger Things on Netflix this weekend, its been a long time coming.

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spartanguard · 6 years ago

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something in the water, part 1

Summary: Emma is sent to investigate a supposed sea monster appearance in her hometown. Thankfully, her family there knows her secret: that at night, she transforms into a swan. And she knows that whoever the universe thinks her soulmate is, as dictated by the tattoo on her side, won't be there. Though maybe she was wrong to assume that. And when did a merman start hanging out in the ocean near Storybrooke?

rated M (eventually) | 5.5k | AO3

A/N: Here it finally is—my story for @cssns!! I came up with the idea ages ago but never really found time to write until this event came up. It should be about 7 chapters, but of course I was silly and signed up to post on the first day of band camp, so the next chapter won’t go up until next week, and probably once a week from there on. Hope you like it, and thanks to @kmomof4 for organizing this! I’ll be posting accompanying art as well!

When it came to belief systems, Emma Nolan wasn't what most people would call normal. (Actually, in most regards, she wasn't.)

She didn't place much stock in things like having luck or wishing on stars. Neither had ever really been on her side.

She hadn't quite made up her mind on God (or gods, or goddesses, or whatever). She took care of herself just fine.

The supernatural, though—vampires, zombies, magic, et cetera? There wasn’t much choice when it came to her belief in that, given the way her life had gone and the people she tended to hang out with—even if society as a whole still thought it was all fiction.

But the one thing that everyone believed in—and that Emma remained skeptical on, despite all the proof she'd seen—was soulmates. The idea of a predestined love dictated by some higher being before you were born and only verified by a random, tattoo-like birthmark seemed forced at best and unreliable at worst. It's not like the marks spelled it out—there was plenty of room for interpretation of the symbolism of each soulmark, which also meant plenty of room to have a heart broken.

She had trusted in them, once upon a time, when she met a guy named Neal who’d spent a great deal of his childhood on a ship. The mark splashed across her ribcage made sense with that, and his—of what looked like a feather on his bicep—seemed appropriate for someone like her, and with a secret like hers.

But then he found out what she was hiding, and things got awkward. And then he met Tamara and the feather turned out to be a palm leaf (apparently, that’s what that name means or something). And then things were said—tame things like, “it’s not you, it’s me and my destiny and blah-blah,” and hurtful things like “I couldn’t love someone like you anyways. Who could?”

Which meant Emma was the one left with the broken heart.

So what she’d once thought was a curse actually helped keep her heart safe, and since not everyone had a soulmark, it was easy to pretend she didn’t either.

And like he said, who could love someone like her, anyways?

Actually, she lied; there was one more thing she didn’t believe in, as presented to her by her boss one quiet Thursday afternoon.

“A sea monster? You can’t be serious, Regina.”

“Hey, I didn’t come up with it. I’m just the one who took the call.”

“Well, did you do a sanity check on the caller?”

“I didn’t have to; I know she’s insane. It’s Cruella Feinberg.”

“As in Crazy Cruella from back home? The one obsessed with dogs?” Emma and Regina both hailed from the tiny Maine town of Storybrooke—the definition of quaint. It was really no wonder they’d both escaped to Boston as soon as they could.

“The very one. And while she may have lost touch with reality, her money certainly has not.”

Emma sighed and leaned back in her desk chair. “How much?”

From where she was perched on the corner of Emma’s desk in the office of their bail bonds-slash-private investigation firm, Regina slid a folded up sheet of paper to her. Emma quirked an eyebrow with curiosity; Regina wasn’t typically one to keep things on the down-low like this, unless it was an exceptionally large payout. And this did not seem like the kind of case with one of those; usually, the people who hired them for this kind of situation were broke and/or not mentally sound, so they just played Ghostbuster—convinced the banshee or whatever it was to quit being weird, and charged the client only half of the original amount.

Emma picked up the slip and opened it. Boy, was she wrong this time. “Holy shit!” She exclaimed at the almost-six-figure sum. “This can’t possibly be real.”

“It is; I made her put up half up front to make sure she wasn’t joking. She did it without batting a heavily lined eye.”

Emma checked her desk calendar—was it April Fools or something? “What’s the catch here? This is too good to be true.”

“No catch. Unless me forcing you to take some paid time off counts.”

She scoffed. “This hardly seems like something to use my vacation time on.”

“It’s not. But it’s a two-week assignment in Storybrooke, and I’m not expecting this to take much effort on your end. Actually, I think it will end up being kind of perfect for you. Plus: you deserve it, Emma.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her desk chair, huffing; there was a reason she threw herself into work. It left less time for thinking, or being social, or any of those other things that tended to put Emma outside her comfort zone or onto things she’d rather not focus on.

It had been a while since she’d been home, though, and it might be nice to see her brother and sister-in-law...but it also seemed like she was taking advantage of the situation. “Are you sure, Regina? I know you’ve been busy with the Gold case; don’t you want me to stay and help with that?”

For the past several months, Regina had been investigating the disappearances of various supernatural beings—occasionally, they did get hired on legit cases from within their hidden community—with the most recent being an acquaintance of theirs, Tinkerbell, a fairy. A surprising number of her kind had gone missing, along with a werebear named Merida, a couple vampires, and a jeweler with a Midas-like touch. They had yet to find any solid leads, but all of the cases seemed to have a tie to the mysterious Mr. Gold. Emma had never met him herself, but his reputation alone had her worried for Regina’s safety whenever they met; there was no telling when a witch as gifted with magic as Regina was would be next.

(Having a boss that was also a member of the more mythical side of society—and aware of any potential limitations that might put on one’s available working hours—was certainly a perk to this job on its own, odd cases like the one currently in front of her notwithstanding.)

“I’ve got no leads right now, so there’s not much to help with,” Regina answered with a shrug. “Seriously, go spend some time with your family; have a girls night or two with Ruby; air out your feathers a bit.”

Emma gave a hard side-eye at that last comment—Regina could never resist a good bird reference around her—but she was out of arguments against taking the assignment.

She chewed on her bottom lip a bit before saying, “Promise you’ll call me if you need me back here?”

“Promise,” Regina answered, going so far as to draw an x over her heart with her finger. For Regina, that meant business.

“Then I guess I’m off to Storybrooke.”

After a quick call to her sister-in-law Snow, a fleeting trip to her apartment for some clothes and necessities hastily shoved in a threadbare duffel bag, and a stop at the gas station to fill up the tank of her 1972 yellow VW Bug, Emma was off on the 5-ish-hour drive up the coast. It wasn’t quite tourist season yet, but the snow had melted, so she opted for the slower route that kept her closer to the ocean, enjoying the panoramic views of the Atlantic as she drove.

The sign by the side of the road informing drivers that they were “Now Entering Storybrooke” eventually greeted her warmly as it had so many times before, crisp white on kelly green.

Before heading into town, she detoured down a dirt road to Cruella’s place. The Feinberg mansion was certainly more ostentatious than any other house on the road, towering over the smaller coastal cottages, but wasn’t the ridiculous display of wealth Emma had expected—it was more like an oversized bungalow made of light-colored brick.

Dogs started barking as soon as she rang the doorbell, and a shrill voice called at them to “shut it!” before the door swung open. Cruella looked much the same as she did in Emma’s memory, just with a bit more Botox: dramatic two-toned hair, a zealous amount of dark eyeshadow, and clothes just a touch too revealing.

“Oh, Emma darling, thank you so much for coming! I was thrilled when Regina told me you’d taken the case; none of those city types would ever believe me!” Cruella shouted, pulling Emma into a tight hug despite the fact that they’d hardly ever exchanged more than a few words (and that Emma had totally TP’d her house once with Ruby, but they had never been caught).

“Glad to...help…” Emma stammered, stunned at the contact. She had to take a deep breath once Cruella released her, before continuing, “So, can you tell me anything about what you’ve been seeing?”

“Oh, yes, yes—right this way!” The eccentric older woman turned on a dime and led Emma through her house, past the large painting of her now-dead husband (whose death had only been mildly suspicious), through the kitchen, and out to the massive deck that overlooked a semi-secluded cove.

“I see it almost every night when I’m having a nightcap, but only at night, so I think it’s nocturnal,” Cruella started explaining, gesturing dramatically toward the water. “It seems to be dark-colored, but it’s so hard to tell when there’s only a bit of moonlight.”

Emma wondered how strong those nightcaps were mixed, but continued on with a few more questions: how big was it (“Hmm, bigger than a dolphin, but smaller than a whale—but it has a tail like both of them.”), how long had she been seeing it (“A few months, give or take”), and why she’d hired them to investigate (“Well, I need to know what it is so I can be a hospitable host should it ever come ashore! I’m sure my friends would love to meet it!”).

None of it did anything to convince Emma that Cruella wasn’t still a few olives short of a martini, but she assured the widow that she’d get right on it.

“Let me know if I can help at all, and my property is certainly available to your use. I’m always open to some evening company,” Cruella added as Emma headed out.

“I think I’ll be okay, but thanks,” she answered, kind of quickly. “I’ll be in touch.”

She endured one more too-tight hug before hopping back in her car and starting the drive into town. Something told her it was all just the gin-fueled hallucination of a lonely old lady, but Regina was right—this case would probably work out perfectly for her, whether she found anything or not. She already spent most of her nights on the water; might was well get paid for it.

She’d get back to that later, though; now, it was time to see if the town rumor mill still worked like it used to—or at least to see how many people Snow had told of her arrival. Her old bedroom was already waiting for her, based on the last text she received, but it pretty much always was.

First things first, though: food. She easily navigated the all-too-familiar backroads and side streets that led to the center of town, one of the tiniest and most stereotypical little seaside villages known to man. Finding the diner was second nature, and her Bug looked right at home parked in front of it, almost like she’d never left. She actually recognized most of the cars nearby, but especially the two she’d parked in between; she smirked at knowing what—or rather, who—was likely waiting for her inside.

The same old bell rang against the door as she pulled it open, but was quickly drowned out by a high-pitched yelp—the only warning Emma had before being engulfed in another massive hug, but she was expecting this one. Still, she hadn’t quite braced herself enough.

“Ah, Emma! It’s really you; you’re HERE!” her best friend, Ruby Lucas, was shouting in her ear while proceeding to squeeze the life out of her.

“Let her breathe, Ruby!” a gruff voice barked from behind the counter. Despite the asphyxiation, Emma smiled at how little things ever changed.

“Sorry, sorry!” Ruby apologized as she let go; she always forgot her own strength, and now that Emma was free, she could see Granny behind them, hands on her hips and shaking her head at her granddaughter’s energy. “You know how I get around the full moon,” Ruby added quietly.

“It’s fine,” Emma assured her, even though her voice was slightly strained. Despite her friend’s lithe form, few would guess that both she and her grandmother were members of the local pack of apex predators: werewolves.

(To say Emma had grown up around the supernatural was an understatement. Maybe that was why the two of them got on so well, even if they probably shouldn’t have.)

“But once that’s past, we HAVE to have a girls’ night, okay?” she continued, gushing and taking Emma’s hands in hers. “Oh, I’m just so glad you’re here!”

“Ruby, I’m not paying ya to block the door from the paying customers!” Granny shouted before Emma could reply.

“Granny, we both know you won’t let me pay,” Emma threw back, teasing.

“Well, maybe this is the day I do!” The old lady was known for her fierce temper and penchant for orneriness; but just like any she-wolf, she was also fiercely protective of those in her pack, both the ones who actually were and the ones she’d decided were.

Emma and Ruby both just rolled their eyes, still holding hands in the entryway, when she heard the clearing of a familiar voice.

“Ruby, are you trying to hog my sister?” David, ever the big brother, was standing there with his arms crossed, trying to give a stern look that they all knew was forced.

“Yup,” Ruby threw back without missing a beat. “I’m taking her home and locking her in my house, so she’ll be all mine!”

“That’s creepy, Rubes,” Emma protested, but David spoke over her.

“Oh? And what would your new girlfriend say about that?”

Emma’s jaw dropped and Ruby looked ironically sheepish. “Ruby! You didn’t tell me!” Emma scolded, lightly shoving her friend’s shoulder.

“I was getting there…” she answered. “It’s not the sort of thing you say over text!”

Emma was going to challenge that, but Granny cut them all off. “Ruby! Let that poor girl sit down and make her some food!”

“I’ll tell you later,” she said quickly, then dashed to the kitchen in her impractical red high heels.

“Aha, my plan worked; I have you all to myself!” David proclaimed, tugging Emma into a headlock.

“Seriously?” Emma complained, though it was muffled by her brother’s ridiculously muscled arm, covered as always in plaid flannel (today, it was blue; she was pretty sure he owned the full spectrum). “Aren’t we too old for this?”

“Never!” he answered, and started tugging her farther into the diner. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

“You’re gonna have to let go of me, you know.”

“Nah.”

She could at least tell that they were near the end of the counter, where she and David almost always sat. She still couldn’t see a damn thing and the way David was pulling her was starting to put a strain in her side, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Emma, meet Killian; he’s new in town. Killian, this is my sister, Emma.”

Blindly, Emma held out her hand, hoping the yet-to-be-seen stranger would take it. “Nice to meet you!” she called out from the confines of her brother’s grip.

Moments later, warm, rough fingers lightly gripped hers, followed by the sound of a sinfully accented voice. “The pleasure is all mine, milady.” And then she felt soft lips on the back of her hand.

Holy crap, who was this guy? Did David tear him out of a Jane Austen novel or something? Granted, that wasn’t a power she was aware of anyone wielding, let alone her brother, but damn.

(Another question would be, “why do you even care about a guy you haven’t even seen?”, but Emma was really too stunned by their thus-far incredibly brief interaction to give that much thought.)

Enough was enough; she couldn’t breathe and David’s shirt smelled like the vet office he worked in. And she was also kind of super curious to see what this guy looked like.

Thankfully, David didn’t put up a fight when she pulled his arms off of her, and only whined a little bit when she smacked him in the chest. Then she turned to this Killian guy, and it was like time stood still.

Killian was easily the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. High cheekbones and long, thick lashes framed the bluest eyes she'd encountered, and gingery scruff canvassed a jaw chiseled from stone; a dark thatch of chest hair teased from the unbuttoned vee of a shirt just tight enough that little was hidden of his built upper body; and tousled dark hair hung artfully in his face while his perfect full lips smirked at her, cutting a dimple into his cheek.

The only thing she could think was that there was no way someone so attractive was human. (But she found herself eagerly hoping he was.)

“Emma; earth to Emma.” Suddenly, a hand was being waved in front of her face, pulling her out of her gaping—oh, crap, she was actually, full-on open-mouthed gaping at Killian. David was chuckling as she slammed her mouth shut, and she could feel heat rising on her cheeks, making them as bright red as the streaks in Ruby’s hair.

“I think she likes you,” David whisper-yelled to Killian as he took a seat next to him on the last stool.

“I tend to have that effect on people,” Killian answered in the same manner, throwing a poor excuse for a wink her way (but it still made her blush even harder).

Wait—what the hell was going on? She never got her feathers ruffled by a pretty face like this, and David never encouraged it. Regardless of her reaction, this was a setup if she ever saw one, and she wasn’t going to take the bait.

Trying to look cool (and probably failing but whatever), she brushed her hair behind her ears, smoothed her red leather jacket, and slid onto the empty stool next to Killian’s. “So, how the hell did you end up in Storybrooke? There really isn’t much here.”

“Well, there was a job,” he started, with a shrug and a chuckle—a deep, light thing that vibrated through her; she shivered involuntarily. “England didn’t have anything for me anymore and...this seemed like the place to start anew.” His smile didn’t fade, but his eyes softened a bit; she could tell that there was more to it than that, but she was the last person (or whatever she was) on earth to pry. So she kept it light.

“Really? You came here to start over? The US has so many problems right now.”

“So does the UK. Brexit and all.”

“Trump, though.”

“True. You might have that one.”

She was about to ask about his job (and was a little surprised at how quickly they fell into banter) when Ruby was in front of her, with her usual order and a wolfish grin.

“Don’t mind me; just dropping this off and I’ll get out of your feathers.” She cast a glance over at Killian, licked her lips at Emma, and then slunk away nearly as quickly as she’d shown up.

Emma just shook her head; seriously? Five minutes in town and everyone was already shipping her and the new guy? It was almost painful, but then again, that was Storybrooke.

Actually, something was kind of painful—her side. After her first (delicious) bite of grilled cheese, she set it down to stretch out, holding her arm over her head as she did.

“Are you taking up ballet now?” David teased. “Trying to learn some grace, finally?” Sometimes, he was such a big brother.

“Ha ha. No. We both know that's not possible,” Emma scoffed back. It really was ironic how clumsy she was, all things considered, but she didn’t think that had anything to do with this. “I think you pulled one of my muscles when you decided to drag me halfway across the diner. Thanks,” she deadpanned, then turned to Killian. “Sorry that you’re caught in the middle of this.”

He waved it off. “I had a brother; I know what it’s like.”

She didn’t linger on the fact that he used past tense, but still asked, “Was he as much of a ridiculous jerk as this guy?”

“Probably worse.”

The three of them fell into a combination of teasing and actual conversation over their meals. They discussed the differences between where he’d lived on the English coast and life here on the other side of the Atlantic. He explained that the proximity to the ocean was part of what drew him to their quiet little seaside town. For a moment, the mention of the sea sent up some Neal-related red flags, but then the conversation drifted into books and she forgot about it. That was his job—he’d taken the assistant librarian position in town, and was training to run things while the head librarian, Belle, went on a sabbatical to travel. And she catalogued the impressed, almost aroused way he arched an eyebrow when he found out she was a bounty hunter.

“You certainly strike me as a tough lass,” he observed, smirking wryly. “Remind me not to cross you.”

“Don’t skip your bail and we’ll be fine,” she teased back. “I’d hate to have to press that pretty face against the wall as I’m cuffing you.” She immediately blushed; she only ever flirted like that when she actually was trying to nab a skip—it had been years since she meant it.

He grinned, a devilish thing. “If you want to get close to me, you only have to ask. No need to use a hypothetical crime as an excuse.”

“Guys, I’m right here,” David protested, but his immediate smirk in Ruby’s direction told her that he really didn’t mind that much. (And honestly, it was kind of payback for all the sickeningly sweet scenes she’d been forced to witness between him and Snow over the years.)

Despite her embarrassment, she couldn’t hold back the smile that took over her features. She attempted to hide it in her last onion ring, but caught Ruby grinning at her from the kitchen. So she hid behind a napkin instead, clearing her face of any potential crumbs and—wait, why did she care? It wasn’t like she was looking to date him or anything….right?

Oh, but it was so fun flirting with him.

He’d returned his focus to the few remaining fries on his plate (“chips,” he called them), and she noticed his brow furrow as he rubbed at his chest.

“Oh, I should have warned you; Granny’s will give you heartburn if you’re not careful.”

“I heard that!” Granny shouted from the far back of the kitchen; of course she did, wolf hearing and all.

He chuckled. “I’ll remember that next time.” The weight of “next time” hung over them as they shared somewhat coy half-smiles; normally, she’d refute anything further, but something told her she couldn’t avoid Killian if she tried.

Just when she’d worked up the nerve to give Killian her number—even though something told her David had already put it in his phone—said older, annoying brother broke the moment. “Killian, don’t you have to get back to work?”

His eyes grew wide and flashed to the clock on the wall. “Oh, bloody hell, yeah,” he cursed, jumping up off the stool. He tugged some cash out of his back pocket (which Emma couldn’t help but watch; it turned out that he had an incredibly attractive back pocket), threw it on the counter, and grabbed a black leather jacket from where it had fallen on the floor.

“It truly was a pleasure, Emma,” he said as he slipped it on, giving her a genuine smile. “Until next time.”

“You too,” she replied, almost breathlessly, and then watched as he said “Later, mate,” to Dave and headed out the door. (She may have once again taken the opportunity to admire his back pockets, and everything they held.)

Once he was gone, she swiveled around on her stool to glare at David. “What the hell was that?” she demanded, but David answered by taking a massive bite of his tuna melt and studying the ceiling tiles.

She knew this game, though, and continued to stare at him while she munched on her onion rings. No way was he getting out of this conversation.

Dramatically, he swallowed and then feigned looking at his watch. “Oh, man, the time. That’s my lunch break; I better—”

“You better explain why you were simultaneously trying to set me up,” she commanded, putting her hand on his shoulder to keep him in place, and then added with a confused tilt of her head, “but also not?”

“You noticed that, huh?” he replied, scratching the back of his neck self-consciously.

“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t?”

“Think, no; hope—maybe?”

She just shook her head. “God, you sound just like—”

“Emma!” Speak of the devil, there she was; the shout of her name pulled her attention to the door, where David’s wife Snow had just arrived. Although, there was absolutely nothing satanic about Snow—in fact, she was quite the opposite: in addition to her pure-sounding name (her parents were definitely hippies), she practically exuded rainbows, unicorns, and all things angelic. (As far as Emma knew, she wasn’t actually an angel, but she wouldn’t be surprised to be proven wrong.)

Even the sun behind her made a halo in Snow’s pixie-cut hair as she practically ran across the diner. “Ah, I’m so glad you made it!” she basically shouted in Emma’s ear as she attacked her with a hug. “You’re supposed to text me these things, you know?”

“Yes, I know, Mom,” she answered, putting emphasis on the title; Snow might be her sister-in-law, but half the time, she acted more like a parent. But a parent you could get drunk with. “I was going to, but I went to Cruella’s first to find out about the job, and then got distracted here by a couple of fledgling matchmakers.”

Snow pulled back wearing a look of recognition, and turned to David. “Oh, was Killian here?”

“Ugh, I should have known you were in on it, too,” Emma grumbled, leaning back against the counter. “I expect this from you; but now you’re dragging David into it?”

“It was his idea!” Snow protested.

“Seriously?” Emma complained, and both ladies turned to him, but he was once again conveniently too interested in his meal to answer.

So Snow launched into an explanation. “A few weeks ago, he said, and I quote, ‘Don’t you think Emma and Killian would make a cute couple?’ I told him that neither of you would really appreciate being set up, but agreed that I could totally see it. And several times since then, he’s said he can’t wait for your next visit so he can introduce you two and, again, I quote, ‘watch the sparks fly’.”

David choked down his sandwich to throw back at Snow, “Okay, but you’re the one who said they’d have pretty babies.”

Now Snow was the one acting embarrassed. “It was just a hypothetical!”

Ruby was surreptitiously taking away her empty plate, but Emma always had a sixth sense where she was concerned, probably because of Ruby’s predator status. “And what’s your excuse?” she enquired.

“I just think you need to get laid, and Killian is sex on legs, so you better effing tap that.” She didn’t even bat an eye, giving her confident response and then taking the dishes back to the kitchen.

“You guys, seriously,” Emma whined, physically facepalming. She knew they meant well and just wanted to see her happy with someone. But they also all knew why she wasn’t keen on that idea, given what had happened with Neal. At least no one had brought up the “S” word; soulmates were a big deal to Snow, since she and David were, but she’d long since stopped trying to sign Emma up for a soulmate-finder service.

(She’d never admit it, but sometimes, when she watched her brother and sister-in-law’s relationship and thought of their matching marks—his a snowflake, hers a shepherd’s crook—she did truly long for the kind of companionship and support that they gave each other.

But then Neal’s words—Who could love someone like you?—would trickle back in, and she’d quickly give up that line of thinking.)

Her complaints apparently didn’t stop Snow from whispering to Dave, “So, how did it go?”

“Answer that and die,” Emma interrupted, still holding her face in her hand.

She could almost hear Snow’s grin. “That’s all the answer I need, I think.” Emma just groaned and pushed herself off the counter to standing.

“Well, I’m gonna head out before you start wasting your time planning a wedding that will never happen.” Snow looked like she was about to protest, so Emma cut her off. “I’ve gotta do some reconnaissance for my job, but then I’ll be back at your place by dinner, okay?”

“Okay,” Snow conceded, sounding almost defeated. Emma hated doing that to her but her friend had an overactive imagination; it was always best to put a stop to things before her dreams regarding Emma’s love life got out of hand.

“Alright; see you later.”

Later that evening, Emma was curled up on the bed in her childhood room. David had inherited the house and the sheep farm that they grew up on after his mother (and Emma’s adoptive mother) passed away, so she always had a place when she came to Storybrooke. Despite what it may have seemed based on the warm reception earlier, she did actually make it home fairly regularly; this trip was just a bit out of her typical once-every-few-months schedule.

After figuring out where she’d best be able to do surveillance out by Cruella’s—in other words, where she could park near the water and not get noticed or caught in the tide—she’d headed back here for dinner and some Netflixing before they all went to bed. Emma wasn’t all that tired yet, though, so she was reading an old, worn out collection of fairy tales. Even if her life would never be one, she always enjoyed the stories and guessing at which ones were real. Though with this specific book—by Hans Christian Anderson—she’d never been able to decide.

The alarm on her phone went off at 10:50, startling her from her reading (and her musings on just how much of her life resembled The Ugly Duckling). The familiar tune of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake played out of the tiny iPhone speaker, letting her know, like it always did, that she had 10 minutes to figure things out. A quick glance at her weather app told her it was supposed to be a dry, if cool, night; but she’d be fine out there.

Quietly, she headed outside and down the well-worn path to the pond on the farm. Her phone read 10:55, so she walked a bit quicker to get there on time.

An ancient-looking but incredibly solid dock jutted out into the pond, and at the end, a less-old but still worn box was built in. Emma’s footsteps thudded as she hurried to it, and she flipped open the makeshift cabinet. As quickly as she could, she pulled off everything she wore (eternally grateful for the relative privacy of the farm) and threw it in, dropping her phone on top of the pile. 10:59.

She’d just closed the lid and stood up straight when she felt it: the familiar tingle that started in her spine and spread. In the near-full moon, the merman-shaped mark on her right side stood in stark contrast to her pale skin. Her hand pressed down on it; she never really paid it much thought nowadays, but it was odd that the muscle she’d strained earlier was directly beneath it.

The tingling feeling intensified, just like it did every night; by now, she had this whole thing down exactly.

Her lone graceful move was this: she raised her arms overhead as feathers covered her skin and flowed down from her limbs to make wings. Then, she took a running leap off the end of the dock, gliding on those wings for a brief moment as her neck lengthened, her legs shortened, her nose and mouth became a beak, and her whole body rearranged itself.

When it was done and that tingling feeling stopped, she smoothly landed on the surface of the water—as a swan.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more, and let me know what you thought! Tagging some friends who might like it: @kat2609 @thesschesthair @optomisticgirl @fergus80 @xpumpkindumplingx @shipsxahoy @selfie-wench @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @annytecture @wingedlioness @stubble-sandwich @fairytalesandtimetravel @word-bug @pirateherokillian @bleebug @its-imperator-furiosa @queen-mabs-revenge @flipperbrain @laschatzi @ive-always-been-a-pirate @jscoutfinch @nfbagelperson @lenfaz @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @jackieorioncat

#cs ff #cssns #cs soulmates au #swan!emma #something in the water #my ff

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