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#this shit tooks months because i am noob
neo-neos · 2 years
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Getting to know your BL mutuals - 2022 Edition
Simple, answer the questions. @ some people. Include the tag 'g2ky BL mutuals 2022' on your post so we can find everyone's answers!
tagged by the lovely @chimerasinourskyline - and @aleng-neng and @dont---just-dont Thank you so much for this <3 It's my first time really interacting with the community in this way and I feel legit honored <3
DISCLAIMER -> I started watching BL literally last month, I am fully 110% new and have been literally binging everything I can get my hands on to get on everyones level of knowledge and passion. If I fuck up a date (aka: came out last year or something) pls do not lynch me it is hard to keep up. I also have not seen everything yet, I am trying to keep up but I can only watch so much in a day. Okay thank you &lt;;3
What has been the BL that took you by surprise this year?
To be fair, ChocoMilkShake -> (I am aware it is still airing but I am pretty sure it will finish airing before the year is over) When I heard the concept I was kinda like ???? Dog??? Cat??? BL???? But I was so happily surprised omg.
Roommates of Poongduck 304 -> I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I DOUBTED THIS IN THE BEGINNING BUT OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH NOW
What has been the BL that you felt a bit disappointed with this year?
To be very very honest... And hear me out here... Big Dragon -> The first episode I was like: OH SHIT LET'S GO??? The spice, the drama the bdsm... but then I was like... Where...Where did that go? I LOVE the couple, like MosBank are hawt... But I feel like MosBank has more chemistry than MangkornYai does and... Idk? Season 2 redemption????? Idk
Cutie Pie -> was a little hard to get through for me at times... Sorry? The couple is great, the story wasn't my fav
The rest of the slightly more disappointing shows are from before 2022 so I won't go on a rant lmfao
What has been your favourite BL this year?
KINNPORSCHE -> Oh my god, this show changed me... Like, I can't even explain in words how... But I literally consume every piece of content I can about the cast because I cannot get enough. I'm gonna rewatch it another 10 times probably?
Love in the Air -> I don't even know how to explain this one tbh, I just love the cast, the characters, the storyline didn't even matter that much to me as long as I got to see them doing their thing.. It had some deeper messages here and there too which I loved.
Blueming -> Do I need to explain this one?
Semantic error -> My first BL, again do I need to explain this one?
(I know it's not done airing but...) Between Us -> as long as it does not take some really hectic turns... It's def a fav for this year at least!
Favourite BL couples (not just of 2022)?
MileApo, Payurain, Prapaisky, WinTeam... I am not really big on remembering ship names yet.. I am trying but I legit forget names in daily life too, and then having to remember IN SHOW ship names and then they also come up with REAL NAME ship names and I have 2 working braincells pls do not do this to me lmfao
If you had to suggest a BL for someone what would it be?
(This didn't have to be 2022 right??? I'm just going to go with no)
Kinnporsche -> this one is mainly a little selfish because I just want more people to see it so I can make more friends lmfao
Not me -> I mean come on... That shit was a masterpiece
Blueming -> Good story fr fr fr
Life - Love on the Line -> Look I loved this so much and I kinda related a lot to this show and that shit HURT but also brought so much comfort????
My beautiful man -> Same as above really lmao
Bad buddy -> I mean it's just good
What's your non-BL favourite for this year?
WEAK HERO CLASS 1
OH MY GOD this show has me in a fucking chokehold and I want to consume everything that has even a VAGUE mention to this show
It is so insanely good
It has some bromance going on so not fully "non-bl" but still.
AnYWAY any questions about this feel free to hit up my askbox or the comments to this thing. Again excuse the noob mistakes if there are any, feel free to point them out kindly to teach me because I love to learn but pls don't come for my throat lmao &lt;;3
I would like to tag: @sunf10wer8 @irishtwinmags @keithblguy
(If ^^^^ any of you already did this and I missed it, I am very sorry, feel free to @ me on the post so I can see it! <3)
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little-virus-sasha · 1 year
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FFG VINET ARC TRANSLATED S1 EP3, NINJA ATACC! (wow, a actual title)
months later... ???: ugh... oh! well, the time has arrived, please call the ninja to enter!
ninja: poof smoke in Konbanwa ???: oh! how you arrived in here?!?!? ninja: I used my secret ninja powers, ninjutsu! ???: did you used the door? ninja: uuuuuh... no ???: greeeeat! that is greeeeeat! well, I have a mission to you......... not a talker huh? I need you to cut the internet of a asshole... ninja: mr wilson? ???: yeah, that DIRTY RAT!!! ninja: understood, consider it done! ???: evil laugh mr wilson will not know what hit them... evil laugh hm... this is making me want a paçoca... ninja: teleports into mr wilson house, and throw a surikan on the wifi wire mr wilson: god damnit it gusang! SHIT!! gusang (form the channel, blow Cartridges): HA YA BIG NOOB- engineer voice: INTERNET DOWN!
DISCORD: lags mr wilson: gusang? wha? internet down warning WHAT? THE INTERNET IS DOWN???? AGAIN? N- gusang: that internet of mr mr wilson justs down a lot... TUMBLR INTERNET I TELL YA! mr wilson goes outside to see what happened...
mr wilson: ... oh goddamnit! they cutted the wi-fi again! ugh! I didn't even saw them doing it! .... this can only mean... tech ninjas! mr wilson noticed the ninja hiding in the bushes... the ninja try to hide more in the bushes mr wilson: le gasp as the ninja starts to roll oh I will destroy ya! try to punch, the ninja blocks, and run away OH YOU WON'T ESCAPE SO EASILY! *follow them to the back doors* ninja: *enters battle stance* mr wilson: ... HELL NO! NOT DYING AGAIN! Archimedes! I choose you! archimedes, use fury swipes! archimedes: MEOW! *archimedes uses fury swipes, archimedes infinite combo ativates* *archimedes hitted for 37 hits, it's super effective! ninja fainted...* cut to ??? watching videos ???: oh yeeeeeah, now this is legendary! oh yus... ninja: teleports in Kon...banwa...
???: WHAT THE- OH! WARN ME BEFORE COMING IN OUT OF NOWHERE! well... since you are here, did you dealt with mr wilson wi-fi? ninja: yes master... but I lost my honour... ???: from you I want to fuck it, I only care about the status of mr wilson internet!.... you still here? go away now! ninja: hai! *teleports away* ???: great, now with the paper work... intermediary: boss! ???: GAH! DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT! intermediary: the wi-fi of mr wilson, it's back! ???: WHAT!?!?!?! WHY? intermediary: he payed the bills ???:HOW ON EARTH HE PAYED THE BILLS??? I WANS'T SENDING THEM TO HIM! intermediary:he took a day off to calculate taxes and noticed that he didn't receive any bills, and he go to pay them ???: damnit! then send the ninja back in! intermediary: y-you can't sir... not while his bills got payed ???: so I guess I will have to change up strategies... I will find a way to kill them diractly! BECAUSE I AM! the figure stands up, revealing his face BOB: BOB! THE BOSS OF VINET! ninja: bob? bob: yeah, bob ninja: really? bob? bob: yeah! bob! and if you have something against it, I will cut your internet! got it? ninja: oh shit noise sorry master... bob: now fear me! bob! the boss of vinet! the biggest internet company of the world! evil laugh bob: wait up! this reminds me that I want a paçoca... WHERE'S MY PAÇOCA???
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chibzilla · 5 years
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Sometimes I make stuff.
My friend @brainlessbunny has lots of jewelry and trinkets but she didn’t have a SPECIAL NICE CUTE LITTLE BOX LIKE THIS to keep stuff. So I made her an EXTRA CUSTOMIZED UNIQUE MUSIC BOX one to shove, at least, a quarter of her blingblings inside. 
This features her gemsona Azurite (wood-carved by hand uwu), in an awkward pose that didn’t work as expected, as the ballerina/figurine THAT ROTATES WHEN YOU WIND UP THE MECHANISM TEHEHEHEHEHE <3
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1bootyyyshaker9000 · 2 years
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Rottmnt
Leo and y/n. G/n rock star becomes friends with Leo via discord part 1 Platonic or romantic up to the reader. 
Leo wouldn’t stop stealing Donnie's game set so Donnie created/bought a switch lite (the cyan one) for him
“There, Nardo, now leave me the hell alone”
It took 2 days for Donnie to regret that decision because Leon is completely sucked into it, not only that, he’s joined a discord group chat- A DISCORD GROUP CHAT. 
Y/n uses a switch to relax after a big show, being a rockstar is exhausting but hey at least you have DaVinc1 to make you laugh on the more stressful days. 
Does Leo treat you like a noob despite the fact he’s had that switch for less than a week? Absolutely. 
Do you kick him to the zombies in minecraft for his disrespect? OBVIOUSLY. 
Homeboy once got kicked out of the sewers cause of how harshly he cursed your mario kart skills. 
He still won though.
Your trash talk could use work though bc it’s basically: “Your mom” “>:O” 
But don’t worry because the Champion of joking at the worst times is here to teach you.
Leo once got Mikey to play with you both but kicked him fast when he realised how quick you two would gang up on poor leo. 
Mikey and Y/n are merciless. For the sake of the world you two will never meet. 
Leo is the king of verbal key smashing and your band mates are begging you to wear headphones
They love that Leo is helping you relieve stress and that you’re making friends but do you have to play at 4am?????
basic things that can be heard from your gaming sessions:
"Do you think the demon baby can actually feel pain?" [chucking the thing in the oven] "I don’t think babies are real."
"I know you cheated, you fuck, I will find you…and I will kill you." [in the comfort and safety of the actual fucking sewers] "I’ll roll out the welcome mat, Liam Neesan." 
You’re??? only one to understand??? and laugh at his jokes????
He is floored when you send him the most cursed memes out of nowhere at the most random times. 
His favourite is the kwispy one.
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Leo will pay you to stop sending him sonic memes. 
Donnie will pay you to keep sending the sonic memes and even supply a few he’s been saving.
After months and months of chatting, killing zombies, killing each other and tormenting virtual babies, you both start wishing you could meet in real life.  
I don’t want him to be intimidated by who I am :( What if they’re  a l l e r g i c  to turtles!!!!!!
both the mad dogs and your band mates are tired of hearing this
Ahhh but fate moves in cunning cold bitch ways. 
Touring to New York City proves difficult when fans break into your room for reasons beyond comprehension, and Leo just happens to be patrolling near the hotel. 
Takes him a second to recognise you in your pj’s and hoodie, and Holy fucking shit balls- Y/N FUCKIN L/N crawling out a window on the 55th floor!!!!!!!!
inching towards the window of the room your manager’s in, and you’re doing a good enough job of it that Leo considers leaving you to your escape, which is too bad he really would have liked to meet-
-your foot slips 
Leo portals to you so fucking fast you have no idea what happened. “Don't freak out, don't freak out” panic-whispers a familiar voice, his hand covering your eyes while he leads you somewhere.
When you do open your eyes you’re on the roof of some pizza restaurant. “What the actual fuck????” 
Your manager was nice enough not to ask why you ran away to get pizza instead of hiding with them.
the restaurant owners were nice enough to get you a ladder.
your manager also upped the security.
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nevaryadl · 3 years
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Bi-Han fluff
“Don’t. Say. It.”
Kuai Liang just smiled.
“No… no… don’t…”
Kuai Liang kept smiling.
“Listen here you little shit…”
“I have not said anything, brother,” Kuai Liang said, still smiling insufferably. “... But…”
“Elder Gods help me,” Bi-Han groaned, putting his face in his hands.
“For someone that was so pessimistic about his recovery from being resurrected in such a poor state as you had been, you have made a near complete recovery,” Kuai Liang noted, poking his arm.
His arm that was no longer spindly, no longer excessively prone to bruising, arm that no longer wavered as it tried to hold any weight at all. His arm was about as thick with muscle as it had been before he went into that fateful tournament. Strong too, able to hold his weight when he did pull ups from a bar, or hold his weight when he did pushups, or when he carried bags of grains and such for chores around the temple.
It was not a feat done overnight, either. It had taken months, upon months, and honestly almost two years of ups and downs and falling back into bad and destructive habits and clawing his way back into healthier and better habits. But he had done it. He had fucking done it. Bi-Han, who had been resurrected half a step above being a corpse, was now almost the same strong and healthy man that he had been many, many years ago. He stood tall and proud, broad and thick with healthy muscle and once again a point of pride for the Lin Kuei.
“Yes, yes, fine, fine, you were right and I was wrong,” Bi-Han said, rolling his eyes as Kuai Liang snorted and just grinned like the little shit that he was. “I made an adequate recovery just as you said. You were right and your big brother was wrong. Enjoy the victory, little brother.”
“I shall!” Kuai Liang beamed, much to Bi-Han’s grumbling. Kuai Liang leaned over, putting his head on Bi-Han’s shoulder. Bi-Han was grateful that the worrying five centimeters that he had shrunk after being brought back had been recovered and that he was once again notably taller than his younger brother. The one thing he had to gloat about, all things considering, and perhaps the least offensive without going into their turbulent and bloodsoaked history.
“I am proud of you, Bi-Han.”
Bi-Han tried to keep a neutral face, even as his chest squeezed tight in overwhelmed joy. He was still… working on that. Being praised for something other than killing and fighting. Accepting softness, love, affection, peace, comfort, accepting that there were people in his life that loved, cared for and worried over him because they cared for him. Like his little brother that good-naturedly ribbed him over his recovery because he truly was happy that Bi-Han was recovering and truly was happy to see that Bi-Han had recovered most of his peak physical health.
“... It took some time but… I am glad,” Bi-Han settled on. He was getting better at that too, allowing himself the small victories and small self praises. His ego had died with Noob Saibot and what vanity he had died in his first death. Now he was just… him. Described as ‘an asshole, but a likable one!’ by Cage.
The wet mud-like sound behind him was ample cue to snap around, grab Saibot and drape them across his shoulders.
“HA!” He yelled, “YOU CAN’T PICK ME UP ANYMORE, MY LITTLE SHADOW!”
Saibot just made a happy squealing sound while Kuai Liang wheezed with laughter.
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Fic Writer Questions!
Thanks for the tag @venhedish dont mind if I do darlin'! Loved reading your answers too!
1) How many works do you have on AO3?
17 and I started May 2020
2) What's your total AO3 word count?
84,430! Sooooo close to that 100k milestone I just need to get off my writing hiatus since I have a beefy one shot WIP and a couple kink-meme prompt fills started that will get me to the finish line!
3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
On Ao3/as an adult, just Supernatural.
4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Well Jung – This was my first and I’m still super surprised it took off so well considering all the head-hopping. I also hadn’t written fiction since high school so it’s pretty technically rough!
I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met – Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned double amnesia fic! This was a SPN Masquerade fill and it was super fun to write!
Kiss the Cook – Another SPN Masquerade fill inspired by Dean in an apron in S15. Kitchen fucking is fun fucking!
Iodine and Stitches – 3/5 SPN Masquerade fills that I did fall 2020. Seriously such a fun event to participate in I cant recommend it enough. This is one my only fics with a serious tone throughout which is tough for this clown.
Double Jeopardy – Written for my buddy after finding out she has an intelligence kink! Cut to us giggling about Sam losing his damn mind when he plays Jeopardy with clever Dean!
5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
Listen…I can’t fully express how much comments give me LIFE! I want to know what you liked about my silly musings, I want to know your fav part, I want to know that I gave you a boner! I'll take a button smash, I'll take an emoticon. Anything, everything! I make a point to always respond back to show my appreciation for people taking time out of their day to make my day.
6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?
Without a shadow of a doubt Yesterday Don’t Matter if It’s Gone about what would happen if Sam and Dean hooked up during Mystery Spot and exacerbated Sam’s downward spiral during the months of Tuesdays. I write a lot of humour and this sucker is humourless PLUS has an unhappy ending! Weeee!
8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?
Never have but not opposed to the idea.
9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Nope, I’ve been pretty fortunate but I also write pretty tame shit. So if I start dabbling more in the archive warnings it may change. I do have a fun multichap wincestiel non-con WIP in the works 😈
10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?
AHAHAHAHAHA I’d say a good 90-95% of my 84k wordcount is smut! All M/M all explicit! Fun times over at Casa Scissors 😏. I do have some upcoming stuff that’s more plot heavy though which I’m looking forward to.
11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I fucking hope not that would be a big bummer.
12) Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes! And as a noob I had to pinch myself, it still fucking blows my mind! A lovely Ao3 user Yigelulu translated I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met into Chinese. It was so incredibly cool to see my words in another language and a great honour that they liked my fic enough to put in all that work!
13) Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yup! Turn Your Head and Cough with my budbud Wearingdeantoprom. Dean gets his prostate rubbed for the first time at the doctors office.
14) What's your all time favorite ship?
Wincest wincest all the wincest! My brain is infected and there is no cure! I am a pro-shipper though ship and let ship my dudes. I also dabble in wincestiel and LOVE any combination of winkline and may write it one day. I don’t really read much from other fandoms. I’ve read some George/Fred (I like brother fucking ok?) and I love me some Jess Mariano/Dean Forester over in the Gilmore Girls camp (the perfect enemies to lovers) but its unfortunately such a small ship. Any souls reading this who like those ships, please drop any recs into my box!
15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?
Anything I am passionate about I will finish. I’ve only killed one thing because I got bored with it but I posted my fav part for a fic challenge. I hate not having something to show for my spent time (I know it's a hobby but it's the principle damnit!) and I hate unfinished things. Those damn little ao3 red circles haunt me 🚫
16) What are your writing strengths?
Christ uhhh I’ll say I’m most consistently praised in comments for my dialogue and it’s what always flows the smoothest for me. I think my humour is also a strength, it comes very naturally when I write which is why I have a hard time keeping it out of my fics! Times are tough I just wanna make y’all giggle ok?
17) What are your writing weaknesses?
Frankly, my greatest weakness is that I don’t take it seriously enough to look at my past writing critically for improvement. I also write (non-fiction) for my job and had extensive training to do so, so when its for this hobby I honestly whip it out, edit a couple times, and slap it up ‘good enough’ styles and I don’t go back to re-read once posted. I think if I looked back, I could see lots of opportunities for improvement and could go from a fine writer to a good writer. I’d also say that I’ve written pretty fun fluffy cracky smutty stuff so I guess another weakness is a lack of depth of plot and subject matter. I do want to explore this stuff more though.
18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
My concern is if you don’t speak the language fluently, then native speakers reading your fic might feel a big disconnect if you get colloquialisms and euphemism etc. incorrect. It could take them out of your fic if its not authentic enough. I don’t speak any other language fluently so it would END BADLY. I can speak and read French VERY POORLY and that’s it so no, I will never write in another language unless its jibberish I invented myself!
19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
The only fanfic I wrote before SPN last year was a handful of super cracky, gen Gundam Wing fanfiction in high school!! They are on a broken USB stick which kills me I want to read them so badly! All my other creative writing was original fiction mainly horror/thrillers. I stopped when I started my undergrad cause...that shit is a lot of work yo.
20) What's your favorite fic you've written?
My first love is my first baby Well Jung. I love the plot, I love the humour in it, I love the heart, and it’s still some of my fav sex I’ve written. And the title makes me giggle too who doesn’t love a bad pun? I'm so thrilled it was so successful but it would still be my favourite even if 3 people read it. It made me rediscover writing as a hobby and helped me explore this wonderful (yet insane) fandom. I love all my babies and I even think the writing is stronger in other fics, but he will always be #1 in my heart.
OK this was fun I love talking about fic writing! If any of you read my stuff and want to know more, hit me with an ask; I love making new frans! Tagging @oddsocksandstuff @samanddeaninpanties @raidens-realm I think my other writer mutuals have been tagged by Ven!
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auriel187 · 3 years
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10 Things I Hate About You. (Supernatural Remake Sam x Reader)
A/N: I am a noob! This idea was inspired by an old conversation had with @thinkinghardhardlythinking
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1936
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Sam (POV)
“Well, Mr. Winchester. I see we’re making our visits a weekly matter.” The Guidance Counselor said with a snide smile. She spoke almost bitterly, causing the young brunette to roll his colour shifting eyes in reply.
He honestly couldn’t be bothered by her at this point. “Only so we can have these moments together.” He bit back with a forced smile. He stole a glance at her open computer. It was a widely known fact amongst the seniors that Ms. Perky spent most of her time writing her “romance” novel instead of, well... doing her actual job. “Should we get down to it, or should I turn off the lights?” He asked jokingly, adjusting his hold on his backpack.
The shorter woman sent a glare his way as she reached for his discipline sheet from her desk. “Very funny, cowboy. It says here that you exposed yourself in the cafeteria.” He then huffed humorlessly. Did he even need to explain himself, it’s not like he’d get into trouble, he’s been living alone for the past four months.
“I was joking with the lunch lady. It was a bratwurst.” He said not really ashamed of his actions but weirded out. It seemed more like something his brother would do.
“Well, a bratwurst. Aren’t we the optimist.” She quipped, with her eyes leveled to his crotch through his baggy blue jeans. ‘Gross’ he thought as his face contorted in disgust. She was still looking, even after a few seconds of awkward and impenetrable silence. “Next time, stick to the saddle, Texas. Scoot!” I left the room with an eye roll, I could have corrected her, told her I was from Kansas but I kinda had a feeling she didn’t give a shit and honestly, neither did I.
I walked down the hallway, towards my English class. Nice class if I was in the mood to listen, sadly that was rarely the case. There are too many things distracting me about that class. Mostly that fuck boy model making some off handed comment that would get his ass flattened if people actually had the balls to stand up to him. As I made my way to class one thing I noticed is the fact that everyone is either blatantly staring or flatly avoiding looking at me. I caught the eyes of some of my schoolmates standing outside Ms. Perky’s office, watching as they all began whispering the rumors that somehow spread at the sound of my name. I turned to glare at one of the guys staring at me. Another trust fund kid who wore their cardigan as a necktie. Those idiots who think they’re brilliant just because their dads donate to the school and they can’t pass a class no matter how simple the shit we’re learning is.
I seriously despise this school.
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y/n (POV)
As much as I loved English class, I really would rather shove pins into my eyes rather than sit here with these flaming imbeciles. Being one of the six girls in the class of almost thirty didn’t help. Our teacher walked in with a look on his face that told me he was already done with all our crap. It was honestly quite funny. I took my seat in the middle of the class, Mr. Morgan chose to separate the girls from one another. It mainly had to do with the fact that they were vapid, slow witted brats who didn’t read anything without a steamy sex scene and a muscle bound long haired Adonis on the cover. It was stuff like that that made me glad I was nothing like them. All these girls sitting around with their ‘I’m-not-like-other-girls’ crap just to drop their pants at the first guy to give them attention. And then there’s me, avidly avoiding contact with most people or completely annihilating the rest, what does it say about me that I’d rather have everyone hate my guts rather than change everything about myself to have friends who’d just talk shit about me when my back was turned?
“Okay class. What did y’all think of ‘The Sun Also Rises’?” Mr. Morgan began the second the bell rang. I saw one of the girls raise her hand with a fanciful flare and flick of her hair. I promise I’m not gonna internally barf if she ever does that shit again. “Oh, I loved it. He’s so romantic.” She melted at the thought, what an idiot. “Romantic? Hemingway? He was an abusive, alcoholic misogynist who squandered his inheritance following Picasso trying to nail his leftovers.” I mumbled aloud as I knocked lightly on my desk. I really needed to stop doing that. I could almost feel the eyerolls of my classmates. This’ll be good. “As opposed to a bitter, self righteous hag who has no friends?” Joey chastised me from his seat a few desks away from mine.
“Pipe down, Chachi!” Mr. Morgan bit back, in my defense.
I knew it was just because Joey pissed him off as much as he did myself. I slouched in my seat as I practically growled “I guess in this society being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time.” I heard some chuckles from my classmates. Mr. Morgan just looked at me. “Can’t we read something different? What about Angie Thomas or Charlotte Bronte? Sylvia Plath?”
“What about them?” A voice echoed through the class, everyone turned their attention to the door, where two guys stood. The first one walked in and took a seat next to Joey, the other stood filling the doorway. “What did I miss?” He asked, leaning against the door post. He was wearing around four layers right now and all I could think of was how the hell has he not melted?
“The whitewashed patriarchal values that dictate our education.” I said quickly, noticing the slight head tilt and small smile on his face before I turned back around.
“Mr. Morgan, do you think it’s possible to get y/n to take her Midol before she comes to class.” Joey and the douche brigade all laugh like that was the funniest shit on the planet.
Mr. Morgan just deadpanned, looking Joey dead in the eye and saying “One day you’re gonna get bitch slapped, and I’m not gonna do a thing to stop it.” The class erupted in laughter and I just sunk in my seat knowing exactly what was coming. “And y/n, I wanted to thank you for your opinion. It must be tough growing up with the struggles of upper middle class suburban oppression. It must be tough. But before you storm the PTA for better...lunch meat or whatever you well off girls fuss about, ask why they can’t get books written by a black man.” He finished his rant, staring at me. Waiting for a rebuttal possibly, so I gave him one.
“Angie Thomas is a black woman. And I ask for curriculum adjustments for more diversity in the books we read. I’ll be sure to specify my wishes next time. Anything else?” I had a few chuckles at my reply, most likely due to my overabundance of sarcasm and smartass clap backs.
I wanted to know who it was but before I could, Mr. Morgan kicked me out. “Yeah, go to the office. You’re pissing me off.” I groaned, grabbing my bag and heading to the door. As I walked, I felt a pinch on my ass. Before I could really think about it, my textbook was connected to the culprit’s face. I lost all sympathy when I saw Joey rubbing the side of his face and glaring at me from the ground. Mr. Morgan was laughing hysterically in the front of the class while some of my classmates were gasping for air in their seats.
It was always interesting to me how I became this force to be reckoned with over the past few years. I remember walking down the hall dressed the way every other teenage girl dressed and laughing at the expense of others. I was a Barbie doll for the jerks at school to dress and play with however they saw fit. Now, I’m not that perceived little angel. I doubt angels would sit by and watch as people who usually kept their head down suddenly had their heads in toilets. I think this is my way of apologizing for all my old bullshit, I knock the bullies off their pedestals and watch as they fall off their egos down to their IQs. Does that make me a bitch?
I was standing in the hallway just outside the guidance counselor's office when I heard her scream from her office for Ellen, the secretary. When she asked for a synonym for the word ‘engorged’ I KNEW she’d been working on her ‘romance’ novel for at least an hour. She didn’t really call on Ellen until she’s in the zone. Ellen gave me a pointed look as she passed me. She has the same look as her daughter when someone does something weird. Despite her pointed look, I still entered Ms. Perky’s office, who was still trying to find synonyms for ‘engorged’ . “Tumescent?” I offered with a smirk as I walked towards the chair in front of her desk. “Perfect!” She offered before checking her computer. “I see you’ve been terrorizing Mr. Morgan’s class...again.” The again was redundant though considering I’ve only been sent here from his class once before. “Expressing my opinion is not a terrorist action.” I mumbled.
Ms. Perky tried to suppress her smirk when she said, “The same way you expressed your opinion about Bobby Ridgeway? By the way, his testicle retrieval operation went well, if you’re interested.” She knew I wasn’t. That pretentious asshole needed to be suspended at the very least. Maybe put on a list of people who should never be able to talk to a woman again. “I still maintain the theory that he kicked himself in the balls.” I put on my best I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-on-about face. My eyes connected to hers for a second before I looked down at my shoes. I heard her sigh and knew what that meant immediately.
Another lecture. Yay. “Y/n,” she began to which I replied with an eye roll. “People perceive you as somewhat…” She narrowed her eyes in an attempt to find the right word. I narrowed my gaze to her laptop. ‘Gotta love a woman with a verbose vocabulary who probably couldn’t spell verbose.’ I thought as stray braids fell over my eyes.
“Tempestuous?” I offered, utterly bored.
“Heinous bitch is the term used most often.” She quipped and I felt an odd sense of pride at that. She looked over at me before she whispered “You might want to work on that.” and I laughed. Genuinely laughed at that suggestion. I picked up my bag and stood up.
“As usual thanks for your excellent guidance.” I mumbled sarcastically. I was just outside the door when I called back in. “I’ll let you get back to Reginald’s quivering member.” And with that final bit of snark, I’m out.
I made my way to my locker where I grabbed my ‘Mr. Morgan’ stamp of approval to head to the library. I noticed that everyone I walked past made an effort to not be in my way or to look away. Everyone but that tall kid from English class. Not only did he turn to look at me, but his quick hazel eyes dragged over my body in a nanosecond before he was smiling down at his book.
Feedback is welcome
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renaerys · 4 years
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PPG One-Shot: Under the Stars (Brick/Blossom)
Written for the inaugural challenge prompt on PPG Challenge Hub on AO3 for the prompt “things you said under the stars,” hosted by @kiebs, @carriedreamerx, and me. Also functions as a Part 3 to the Shooketh, Not Stirred series. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 here on Tumblr or on my AO3. 
Summary: In which Blossom decides she is definitely girlfriend material, and so does everybody else.
***We are welcoming more submissions for this prompt for the month of July! If you want to participate, please check out the PPG Challenge Hub collection on AO3.***
xxx
Nothing short of witchcraft could have held Buttercup’s 1997 Ford F-Series pickup truck together as it ambled over rocky switchbacks and through dense, Redwood forest to the Vista Lakes campgrounds for the Townsville High Junior and Senior classes’ biannual end-of-semester party. Blossom kept a stranglehold on the passenger door and hissed her displeasure over every dip that lurched the old truck too close to the edge of the road. The drop to the bottom of the mountain was a good thousand feet, a death knell for the Normies riding along with them.
Mitch and Harry, however, did not seem to mind as much.
“Oh shit!” Mitch whooped when Buttercup went over a particularly deep crag in the road and rocked the whole truck.
“Buttercup, please slow down,” Blossom pleaded.
“Don’t you fuckin’ dare,” Mitch said through the sliding window that opened up onto the truck bed, where he and Harry rode with the sleeping bags, food, and extra blankets.
Harry laughed. “We’re cool Blossom, don’t worry.”
“Yeah Blossom, don’t worry,” Buttercup drawled. “Besides, it’s not like a fall from this height would kill us.”
“I’m sure Mitch and Harry feel super reassured to hear you say that,” Blossom said snidely.
“Super duper!” Mitch said. He flashed the rearview mirror a sign of the horns and winked.
Blossom forced herself to ignore his goading and kept her eyes firmly on the road ahead just in case. “I should never have agreed to this.”
“Well, tough shit, Leader Girl. You could’ve gotten a ride with Bubbles earlier if you’d left your Winter Break homework until the last day like everybody else, but noooooooo.”
“Not everybody waits until the last minute to get the homework done, for your information.”
“They totally do.”
“They totally don’t.”
“Do.”
“Don’t—ugh, no, I’m not arguing like this with you.”
Buttercup smirked like she’d won the argument (she definitely did not). “Whatever. We’re basically here and no one’s fallen to their death yet, so you can chill.”
The road emptied out onto a clearing overlooking the side of the mountain. Three deep, blue lakes sat still and tranquil, each surrounded by clusters of gnarled Redwoods and camp sites. A lot of people were already here considering the late hour, and a few campfires blazed bright along the shorelines. The gloaming crept over the horizon, casting the valley below in shadow and the skies in dusky, bleeding streaks of red like spilled wine. High above, blues deepened to blacks, but it was still early for stars.
Buttercup parked off the main campsite and the boys began unloading the truck bed. When they struggled with a cooler crammed full of ice, Blossom lifted it effortlessly and floated it over to join others that had already been packed with cheap beer and grill meat.
“Eyyyy there she is!” Boomer opened his arms and pulled Blossom into his letter jacket for a big hug. “I’m glad you decided to come.”
Blossom returned his hug with a smile. “Me too.”
“I told you she would,” said Bubbles, and she nudged Butch who was busy putting away a plate piled high with four hamburgers. He took one look at Blossom and grinned.
“Hey, Highness,” Butch drawled.
Blossom shot him a withering look. “Hi, Butch.” Ever since she’d beaten him in a not-so-friendly spar while Buttercup was out of commission, he’d mellowed out and taken to nicknaming and weirdly friendly ribbing.
“Comin’ down from that pretty throne to hang with the cool kids, huh?”
He stuffed an entire burger in his mouth, while Blossom threw up a little in hers.
“Shut up, Butch. You sound like a creepy old man.” Buttercup arrived carrying two twenty-four packs of beer that she dropped in Butch’s lap. He caught them with a grunt, and Bubbles caught his plate of uneaten burgers.
“Bitch, you love every glistening inch of this.” Butch stood up shouldering the enormous beer crates like they weighed nothing, because they did.
“I love cold beer, so move your glistening ass.” Buttercup snatched one of his uneaten burgers and stuffed it in her mouth.
Somehow, Buttercup got Butch up and helping, and when Mitch and Harry joined them, it was short work to unload everything from Buttercup’s truck. Blossom rolled out her sleeping bag on the grass amidst all the others, but no one would be sleeping tonight. It was merely a courtesy for the too high or the too passed out.
Around the campsite, Juniors and Seniors lounged with beers and blunts, enjoying their last night together before Winter Break. Among them, Wes had his arm around Kim as he flipped hot dogs on a standing grill and chatted up Mike and Robin. Blossom watched them a moment, debating whether to interrupt the conversation to say hi.
Bubbles slipped her arm around Blossom’s waist and squeezed affectionately. “You look a little lost.”
“No, just hanging out, you know.” She returned the half embrace, and they stood there a moment enjoying the cool night air.
“Hey, Blossom! You wanna sit with us?” Harry called. He and a few others had set up some lawn chairs by the shore and were passing beers.
Bubbles giggled. “You know he likes you,” she said.
“What—He does?!” Blossom sputtered.
“For sure. And, you know, since you’re totally not with anybody else, you could have some fun talking to him.”
“You mean, flirt with him.”
Bubbles was as innocent as a lamb. “I mean, be nice to him. That could be fun, right?”
Blossom had nothing to say to that. She was not, in fact, “with” anybody else. And she had every right to talk to whomever of her friends she wanted, so technically Bubbles had a point, but…
Blossom searched the faces gathered. In the encroaching darkness, it was getting harder to pick out profiles and bright colors to see who was here and who hadn’t yet arrived. “I don’t know.”
But Bubbles was already dragging her over to Harry’s circle and waving back to him. Seated in between Harry on one side and Kim on the other, Blossom was handed a burger and a beer and encouraged to participate in the conversation.
“My folks’re taking me to our cabin in Tahoe to go skiing over the break,” Harry was saying.
“That sounds fun,” Blossom said.
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure, if you count me eating snow every five feet when I can’t stop falling.”
“Come on, I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”
“Oh, yeah? I bet it’d be a cake walk for you, Miss Snow Queen.” Harry grinned, and the corners of his dark eyes crinkled cutely.
“Just because I have ice powers doesn’t make me a Winter sports maven. I’ve never skied in my life.”
“Psh, can’t be that hard, right? You start at the top of the mountain, and you end up at the bottom.”
Blossom bit back a smile. “I mean, I think it’s a little more involved than that.”
Harry laughed and leaned over the armrest closer to her. “Well, consider us both noobs. Anyway, most of the time’s spent hanging out at the cabin drinking hot chocolate anyway, right? Best part.”
Blossom tugged on her long, red ponytail as Harry continued to smile at her. She imagined the scene: a cozy ski lodge surrounded by snow, and a smiling boy content to ignore the blunt their friends were passing just to talk to her some more. She would like that. It would be easy, simple, and soft. Normal.
“Um, you know, I was thinking of inviting a few friends for a weekend. Just, like, a small group, and uh, well, I was wondering…” Harry stumbled in the dark looking for the question he meant to ask.
She could say yes, and she could have fun. With him, with any nice boy, it could be fun. How silly that just a few months ago, she had let herself believe she wasn’t the desirable type just because some mean girls said so. It all seemed so absurd now, and yet Blossom could not bring herself to give Harry the easy, simple, soft “yes” he wanted.
“Oh hey! You can have my seat, I’m grabbing more food,” said Kim on Blossom’s other side.
“Thanks.”
Like a hand to the stove, that voice hit her with a searing demand to be acknowledged. Old habits perhaps, or new ones. He wasn’t one to be ignored, not by her at least. Not these days.
“Brick,” Blossom said, half a question, half a sigh. She pulled back from Harry to look at him properly.
He’d taken Kim’s vacated seat directly next to her and nursed a solo cup of beer. Like her, he was dressed for the December chill in long sleeves, and his trademark red cap sat backwards over his short hair, as always. Red eyes held hers in a look that lingered.
“Blossom.” He spoke her name like a secret.
He was late. Why was he late? It wasn’t like him. She hadn’t seen him since third period yesterday. Was it only yesterday, or years ago?
“Hey, Brick,” Harry said, leaning over so he could see around Blossom. “Butch said you might not make it tonight.”
Blossom worried her lip between her teeth, and Brick took a long sip of beer as he slowly averted his gaze to Harry on her other side. “Here I am.”
“Uh, yeah, so Blossom,” Harry said. “About Tahoe…”
xxx
Blossom tugged on her ponytail as she turned back to Harry. Brick watched her twist her anxious fingers through her hair and narrowed his eyes.
“Hm? Oh, right,” she said.
“Yeah, so like I was saying, my parents’ cabin has a few extra bedrooms, so we could make a whole weekend out of it. Skiing, hot chocolate, the works. It’d be cool if you came. What do you say?”
“You throwing a rager?” Brick interrupted.
Harry leaned forward to see Brick again like he’d forgotten he was sitting there at all. “Nah man, just a couple friends for a weekend trip.”
“Cool. Who’s going?”
“Uh, I mean, I don’t have a list or anything. Sorta just came up with it now, so…”
“So you still have space. Count me in,” Brick said.
Blossom and Harry both looked at him like he’d suggested they all go jump in the lake.
“You want to go skiing in Tahoe?” Blossom asked.
Brick shrugged. “Sure, if it means a weekend away from my idiot brothers. Thanks for the invite, Harry.”
Harry gaped, and Blossom ceased pulling at her ponytail to stare at Brick.
“I mean,” Harry said, and nodded super obviously towards Blossom while she wasn’t looking.
“How many others could we invite?” Blossom asked. “If it’s okay with your parents, I mean.”
Harry looked at Blossom, and then he looked at Brick, who sipped his beer like the oblivious, teenaged simpleton he one hundred percent was not. Giving up, Harry sighed and rubbed a hand over his buzz cut. “There’s room for two more if you’re both going to be there.”
Blossom lit up. “How about Wes and Kim? Or Pablo and Hanout?”
Harry sat back in his chair and nursed his beer. “Yeah, fine, whatever you want.”
She was smiling now.
“Wes and Kim,” Brick said. “Pablo snores like a motherfucker.”
“That’s true,” Harry said forlornly.
“Well, either way,” Blossom said, clearly torn between telling them both off and the desire to finalize plans.
Brick got up. “Let us know what weekend. I’m free whenever.”
Pleasantly yet unsurprisingly, Blossom got up too. “Me too. Thanks Harry, this’ll be fun.” She smiled genuinely at him, and he returned it.
“Yeah, the best,” Harry said dejectedly.
Blossom followed Brick as he led her away from the main campsite along the shoreline in the direction of the drop-off.
“Okay, what was that?” she asked when they were away from the roar of the music and the campfires.
“What was what?” Brick asked. It was dark now, and the farther they wandered from the center of the party, the harder it was to see the shoreline as his eyes adjusted.
“You invited yourself to Harry’s. Are you even that close?”
He paused and looked at her. “Are you?”
Blossom clutched the ends of her jacket as she blinked up at him. “We’re friends,” she hedged. “He’s a nice guy.”
Brick smirked. “Uh-huh. Real nice.”
“What does that mean?”
“You tell me. Am I intruding?”
Blossom studied him through the gloom. She was close enough that he could smell her perfume, silken and subtle. “No,” she said at length. “There’s nothing to intrude on.”
He watched her walk along ahead of him, her long ponytail a bloody lash under the cover of night. He chucked his beer and went after her.
“This way,” he said, breaking from the shore and heading into the trees.
“Where are we going?” Blossom drew close. “It’s so dark tonight.”
“I think it’s a new moon. Here.” Brick found her hand so they wouldn’t get separated in the pitch black of the canopy.
Blossom’s hand was cool in his, and she slipped the other one around his arm as he walked deeper into the forest. The walk wasn’t far, and soon the trees thinned as they emerged onto the shore of the lake nearest to the precipice overlooking the valley below. Brick had set up his sleeping bag in the grass far away from the rabble where he could have the best view undisturbed.
“Wow.” Blossom approached the black waters, so still they reflected the night sky back flawlessly. Flurries of stars as far as the eye could see scattered above and below like snowflakes frozen in flight. The Milky Way ripped through the firmament, bleeding more stars clustered so closely together they glimmered ice-bright. “I feel like I just stepped into another world.”
Brick jammed his hands in his jeans pockets and drew up next to her. “Consequence of being away from all the city lights for a change.”
“Mm.”
They lapsed into silence for a bit as they watched the nightscape unfold above and upon the water. Brick’s eyes fully adjusted to the lambent starlight, but it was a cold light, and he wore only a thin, red hoodie to stave off the chill. Blossom noticed him shuffle beside her.
“Do you want my jacket?” she teased.
“Ha ha,” Brick groused. But it was fucking cold out here, now that she mentioned it. He had always been particularly sensitive to it in a way she wasn’t. “My sleeping bag should do the trick.”
They retreated to his makeshift camp, where Brick shimmied into his sleeping bag and Blossom sat on the mat next to him, perfectly at ease in the cold. She leaned back on her hands to admire the stars, content like she could watch them all night. Their gossamer light draped her like a veil, softening her edges and igniting her colors. Brick had the sudden urge to touch her, to prove she was no pearlescent dream, that the cold cornering him now was hers and not just the darkness.
“Why were you late tonight?” she asked out of the blue.
Brick lay back on the mat and looked up at the jeweled sky. “Finished the homework.”
Her laugh was as soft as the starlight, and she grinned at him over her shoulder. “Me too.”
Obviously. He wouldn’t put it past her. It didn’t matter, only, he didn’t want to have one more thing to worry about over the break while also spending way more time than usual around his brothers with nothing to keep their focus for eight hours of the day. But the knowledge seemed to please her, which was just as well.
“I told you I was coming tonight,” he said.
And yet, Boomer had blown up his phone texting him all evening wondering where the hell he was, why wasn’t he here yet, and didn’t he realize people were waiting for him? The last text was one he received when he’d touched down at the edge of the campsite and it was already dark: a candid picture of Blossom talking with Harry by a campfire, and she looked happy. Brick had not responded to it or to any of the other annoying texts. Kim had been more than happy to give him her chair the minute she saw him approaching.
“Here you are,” Blossom said, hushed and half-lidded.
Here we are.
Brick curled an arm under his head. “View’s better from down here.”
She worried her lip—did she even realize she did that? That he noticed?—but ultimately lay down next to him on the mat. “Oh, wow…”
The starscape shimmered far and above, and Brick began to pick out patterns in the cosmos. “There, Cassiopeia.” He pointed to a cluster of stars.
“You know your constellations?” she asked.
“A few.”
He could practically feel the aura of challenge she exuded like a pheromone.
“All right. Perseus,” she said.
Brick pointed to a long line of stars near Cassiopeia. “Right next to Andromeda.”
“That was a freebie to test the waters.”
Brick chuckled. “Sure.”
“Okay Star Lord, show me Gemini.”
Brick swept his hand south and west of Perseus to a pair of star lines facing each other. “A couple of gossipy bitches.”
She shoved him playfully, and he caught her with his free arm, pulling her close. “You’re terrible.”
“I’m right. Next?”
“Let’s see… How about Leo?”
With one arm anchoring her to his side, Brick traced the patterns she called out with the other. Dead heroes and their monsters rose from glittering graves with every sweep of his fingers and kept them company in the dark.
She tugged at his sleeve as he searched for the elusive Pyxis constellation. “Hey, we should probably get back to the party.”
Brick let his hand drop. “Why?”
“Because we’ll be missed, obviously.”
He chuckled. “I bet someone’s missing you.”
Blossom rolled onto her side to face him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”
He’d taken her to breakfast. It wasn’t a date; he hadn’t technically asked, and she only came because she was hungry and didn’t want to go home yet. It was the first time he’d ever seen her cry—no, sob because of what some dumb girls said to her at a party. Just the normal high school bullshit, and she’d fallen apart. Breakfast was the fucking least he could do after the ignominy of seeing her like that. It just turned out that it wasn’t the last.
Too many breakfasts and long hours spent prepping for finals turned into expectation, expectation turned into anticipation, and anticipation became the new normal. They weren’t together no matter what rumors Bubbles and Robin started and stopped. They weren’t not together either, considering they usually were, in fact, together. It had only been a few months since she’d handed Butch his balls wrapped up in a pretty pink bow and left Brick speechless to behold her, a few months since he’d found her insecure and vulnerable on that rooftop and called her beautiful because she was, holy fuck she was, and so much more.
Blossom was old wounds that should have healed long ago, that he should never have opened again, but she was still so new and he didn’t know, he didn’t know.
She slipped her hand over the cover of his sleeping bag and curled her fingers in his shirt. “Brick,” she said in a voice full of galaxies and longing.
He’d always liked the sound of his own name, after all.
When he kissed her, she tasted like starlight, cold fire. He pulled her closer, kissed her deeper, a step into the unknown, but the unknown was where she was and she was everything. Her breath hitched and she opened for him, just like that day on the rooftop, but he didn’t look away this time and she kissed him back like it had been her idea all along. Chemical X crackled on their flushed skin as he rolled onto his back and brought her with him, her weight on his chest a warmth and a fantasy.
Blossom’s long bangs fanned his cheeks as she hovered above him and he held on to her. He dreamed she might fall back into the sea of stars and he would dive in after her should he let her go. He didn’t let her go.
“I don’t actually want to go to Tahoe,” Brick said.
She laughed, light as a moonbeam. “Neither do I.”
He threaded his fingers through her hair, pulled her down again. “Good.”
She smiled into the kiss and wrapped her arms around him.
xxx
No one took much notice when Blossom and Brick popped up at the campsite after a protracted absence. No one except Bubbles, who passed Butch her perfectly roasted marshmallow, which he wolfed down right off the stick without waiting for it to cool. She discreetly got out her phone and snapped a few pictures of Blossom leading Brick by the hand to a couple empty chairs near Wes and Kim. When Brick leaned back in his chair and put his arm around the back of Blossom’s so she could lean into him, Bubbles had to work very hard not to squeal.
Clearly, Boomer sending Brick that picture of Harry chatting up Blossom had had the intended outcome.
She fired off twenty pictures to Robin.
[Bubbles: Yearbook?? 👀]
Robin, who was on the other side of the large campfire with Buttercup, Julie, Mitch, and the Floyjoydson twins, spat out her beer when she saw the pictures.
Bubbles snickered to herself.
“What’re you so happy about?” Butch said halfway through a game of Chubby Bunny.
Bubbles poked his mallow-stuffed cheek and winked. “It’s a secret.”
He rolled his eyes and stuffed another marshmallow in his mouth. “Laaaaame.”
Bubbles stole another glance at Blossom and Brick. She was laughing at something Kim had said, and he turned to whisper something to her. Bubbles bit her lip to hide her smile.
“But not for long,” she sang to herself.
Boomer came up behind Blossom and Brick and threw his arms around them both, laughing and pulling them close. Brick didn’t even try to push him off.
Not for long at all.
xxx
Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my writing and are looking for more PPG/RRB content from me, please check out my ongoing multi-chapter over on AO3 called Beyond This Morning. 😊
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moderndayshinigami · 4 years
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Here's chapter 2
So. All Might," She smiled over the top of her coffee cup. They were perched atop a building, watching the traffic below them. He glanced over, taking a sip as she collected her thoughts.
"Hhmm. I'm trying to think of things I can ask you that I can't just google... Umm... Favorite color?"
"Yellow. You?" He smiled.
"Mm, blue. How does your hair stay up like that?" She queried
"I lather rinse and repeat every time," he joked. She punched him in the shoulder.
"Why are you such a freeaboo?"
"A what?"
"What's with the American antics?"
He took another sip of tea and shrugged, "i grew up with a American hero movies. Thought it would be great."
"And?" She prompted.
"And?" He asked.
"Is it great? Being a hero?"
"...The best," he beamed. They sat in silence for a few moments, enjoying the sunshine and street noise. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and plugged in headphones.
"Am I being boring? Is she gonna leave? Oh shit, I blew it." All Might thought, panicking.
"Here," she offered a tiny earbud to him, scooting closer. All Might blinked and accepted it, confused.
"I love music, can't go a day without it," she sighed, scrolling through miles of playlists. She found one she liked and hit play, an unfamiliar American song played gently in the background as they returned to people watching. It added a touch of romance to the scene, All Might thought, leaning closer. She smiled and kicked her feet as they dangled over the edge.
"I used to be afraid of heights," she said suddenly, peaking down between her feet, "well, of falling from those heights, I guess."
All Might looked down too, all he saw were people and cars, nothing to be afraid of. He did spot a purse snatcher though. He gently handed her the earbud, "I'll be right back, don't move," he said, settling his drink next to her. He dropped to the street and apprehended the hooligan with little effort. Handing him off to an officer on the next block, he jogged back to their perch. He looked up. Her feet bounced in a rhythm while she listened to her music and sipped her drink. He jumped up to retake his place. She handed him his drink and shuffled closer than before, so he leaned back on his hand, casually placed just behind her far side. She offered him the earbud again and he accepted.
"Shit," she spat a few moments later, jerking out of the calm they had created, "what time is it?"
"Umm, 3:30?" All Might asked, checking his phone. She stood, earbud falling from his ear as she gathered them both together.
"I gotta go. I'm supposed to do this panel for new creators. Um. Hang on, here" she offered him her phone, "put your number in, we can chat." He hesitated.
"I'm not supposed to give out my number... Fans and all that..." He mumbled, smile fading. She looked away and replaced her phone in her pocket.
"Oh. Sorry. Misread... The... Um situation," she cleared her throat, "anyway. I guess then I'll see you later. Some time. You can look up my channel, Valkyrie Cosplays. I usually read the comments so... Maybe we can... Yeah. Anyway. It was really nice to meet you, All Might," she babbled, shaking his hand before turning and running for the far edge of the building, leaping out into the air. A few seconds later, All Might saw her rise far above the buildings and shoot off into the distance.
"Good going, Toshinori. Can't give out your number? What an idiot," he mentally kicked himself for blowing it, "the first girl you talk to in months and you blow her off because of some silly rule." He shook his head and lept of toward the agency to file his reports for the day. He thought about music the rest of the night.
The next morning All Might turned on the radio during his morning workout. The trainer gave him a look, but said nothing as All Might added weights to the bar.
"Goooood mooorning, ladies and gents! I'm your morning host, Present Mic. And heeree we go, kicking off another ten songs in a row to get you through that early morning commute. But first, let's take a caller! Hey, you're on with the Mic! What's your name?"
"Hey. Can I request a song? Can we do this again by NightOwl? Going out to a certain big hero I worked with yesterday. If he's listening, I left you something where we had coffee. Thanks!" The caller said, hanging up.
"Well, looks like some hero's got a secret admirer! Good luck to him and to you, caller! Hey hero! Don't let that one get away! Here's Can we do this again by Night Owl kicking off our ten in a row and maybe somebody's love story," Mic said as the music began. All Might smiled as he lifted to the bouncy pop song. Maybe he hadn't completely blown it yesterday. He'd just have to go find out.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Ok, if he doesn't show up by 9, he didn't hear it and isn't coming," Valkyrie whispered to herself from her perch across the street. She was watching the building they had sat on the day previous hoping to catch a glimpse of the big blonde hero again. She had called the local radio station at 6, hoping to catch him working out.
"A guy like that had to workout, right?" She scowled. "Maybe not; maybe his quirk was just that good."
She sat on the roof, back against an air conditioning unit, waiting, headphones in her ears. At five to nine, she stood, dusting herself off, frowning.
"Damn. Guess he didn't hear it," she grumbled, stretching her arms above her head and packing away her music, "should I take it with me?.... No, just in case." She thought, turning back briefly.
She turned away, taking off from the to roof with a great flap of her wings. All Might watched her soar out of sight and smiled. He stood from his own hiding place down the block and lept over to their spot. He found a flash drive sitting on the wall, "For AM" written on the edge.
He flipped it over, finding a phone number written on it. He smiled, tucking the drive carefully into a pocket.
When he returned home that night he grabbed his laptop and crashed on his couch. He skimmed his official message boards and agency email before turning to yo_tube finding his new favorite channel.
" Hey, Feathered Friends! I'm still here in beautiful Tokyo for the Tokyo Blast fundraiser! I met sooo many cool creators here! Lots of new cosplay ideas too, so new videos should be rolling out when I get back home. I also met someone my Japanese fans probably know, All Might!" She held up a tabloid magazine featuring a photo of the two.
"He was super cool and awesomely nice! Maybe I'll do a fem-cosplay for next year's Blast. It would be awesome to represent such a cool hero. Leave your thoughts in the comments! Any other heros to meet or cosplay?" She looked at the magazine. "I have no idea what this says. Someone translate for me? Thanks so much! Here is the video of the Create and Craft for Noobs panel I was on today! Lots of great tips for beginners! Also, today's tweet along song, Can we do this again by NightOwl, check it out in the description below. I hope a certain hero is watching. He should totally message me on my social media. Byebye! Catch you on the fly!" She winked and gave a peace sign again before the video went to her panel video. He backed up and paused on her face, studying it. He pulled out the little flash drive looking it over again before plugging into his computer. He navigated into the drive's contents, finding a group of mp3s and a video file. He clicked the video.
"Um... Hey! I guess my plan worked, you found the flash drive! I couldn't stop thinking about you, so," she cleared her throat, looking away and blushing, "I made you a playlist." She was sitting in a hotel room, cross legged on the bed, dressed in shorts and a tank top, hair a little messy, like she had been asleep just before. He studied her face as she gathered her thoughts before speaking again, still looking away from the camera.
"All Might? It would be.... Um... Do you think we could.... I want to see you again. Maybe we could take some time to... I dunno, see the sights? Maybe just get another coffee and chat? You're easy to talk to. It's been awhile since I felt like I had someone to talk to like that..." She looked at the lens, giving a small smile. He felt a small flutter in his chest as she ran a hand over her hair, swinging her legs off the bed to take the camera over to the window of her room. She turned the lens to view the Tokyo sky line, just as the sun began to rise. He had watched that same sunrise on his morning run.
"It really is beautiful here. This city is amazing. I wish I could see more of it," she sighed off camera, her profile barely visible in the reflection on the window.
"I... Sorry, I'm rambling. Anyway, there is my cell phone number, so text me. If you want. I'll be here... waiting. I hope to hear from you. Um, bye? I guess for now." She turned the camera back toward her face, smiling before the video cut off. He replayed the video again, watching her closely. She seemed... Sad? No... Lonely. That was it. He played through a couple of songs. He recognized the one they'd listened to the day before, and the song from the radio, and a few more popular songs from the States. He pulled out his phone as he listened, pulling up the contact he had made for her earlier in the day. He opened his messaging app, pausing to think of something to write.
It's fine now, why? Because I am texting you!
He hit send before he could rethink the message. He stared at the phone, waiting. Nothing happened. He pulled out the flash drive and checked the number again. It was correct. He refreshed his messaging app. Still nothing. He laid his phone down on his leg and went back to yo_tube.
"Hey, feathered friends! Tokyo Blast is drawing to a close! Just one more day! I almost don't want to come home, I love this city! The food is soooo amazing, and you all know how I feel about seafood"
She made a sour face and laughed. "I might have to extend my trip by a day or two to see some sights! Would you guys mind too terribly? I promise lots of pictures and cool videos? If this video gets 10000 likes, I'll even eat one of those live octopuses" she shuddered and made another face.
He clicked the like button while she continued on
"So, I got someone to translate the magazine headlines for me. Apparently, All Might and I are secretly dating. To be honest with you guys, I would not mind that," she winked, "you know my type."
A few images of her pointing at muscular blonde men photoshopped onto the screen flashed by, obviously cropped from previous videos.
"But unfortunately, we are not an item. Even if it would be great, I have to come home to you all and make more videos! If we were dating, what would All Might and my ship name be? Anyway, my plan is to take a couple extra days after Tokyo Blast finishes up to sightsee and then I'll be flying home, so videos should be going up in a week or so with new props as well as a gift opening vid when everything ships home. I'll also live stream a couple sights as well as the octopus if you guys are feeling mean! Leave your thoughts in the comments! Here is a quick video of some of the awesome people I met today! Today's tweet along song is Zero to Hero from Hercules. Check it out in the description below. Byebye! Catch you on the fly!" She said, with the wink and peace sign. He sat back as her video from the convention played. He had seen the magazines during the day, but no press had bothered him about it. He scrolled down to the comments.
Take all the time you need! We love you!
Show us ur b00bz
Winged Victory!
Val Might
Eat the octopus, valkyrie! >:}
Vallmight
Wingd vic0ry
God leave All Might out of this your just lookign for subs
You 2 wuld b so cut 2gether! Val Might 4eva
He snorted at a couple, frowning at the more rude comments. All Might shifted checking his phone again. Still no response. Maybe he should just text her again with a 'hey, it's me'?
His phone buzzed with an incoming text. His hands spasmed and he flung it onto the chair across from the couch. He took a deep breath, gathering his wits before setting his laptop aside and grabbing his phone. He unlocked the screen.
Hey, AM! U up for a nite out? New club opening 2nite downtown
~Mic
He sighed harshly. It wasn't even her. He left the message unanswered and went back to his laptop. He clicked through her page, looking for popular uploads. He watched a couple of videos before he worked up the courage to search the name he wanted. He pulled up a new tab, typing in "Val Might" to the search bar. Several links popped up. Mostly news shots of them together after the robbery. There was one still frame of them sitting together on top of the building. They were dangerously close together, closer than he had remembered. He felt the flutter in his chest again. He went to images, most were the news shots, the dangerous picture featured prominently too. What he didn't expect was the fan art. The fan art made him blush. He closed the tab and went back to his fan site message boards, answering a couple questions and listening to his new playlist.
"Maybe she can make me a workout playlist," he mused out loud, bobbing his head to the rhythm. He closed his laptop, standing and stretching. He changed into workout clothes and went for his nightly run. He returned and showered, trying not to think of her sleep shorts and tank top as he did. Failing that, he cranked the water to cold half way through the shower. He toweled off, falling into bed with his phone, scrolling through her videos again. He found her liked videos, most of them being music. The most recent liked video was an old video, the face in the thumbnail all too familiar. He clicked it
I can't believe it! It's only been 10 minutes! He's already saved 100 people!
HAHAHA!
There he is!
It's fine now! Why? Because I am here!
He rolled on his side, stopping the video and staring into space. She went searching for him online the same way he had been. She found THAT video too. Why that one? He started to doze off, thinking about saving her from some faceless evil. The way she would look at him as he swept her up in his arms and kissed her. Her arms wrapping around his neck. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he pressed her against the wall and he--
Jerked himself awake from the dream, taking a deep inhale and releasing a shaky exhale. He looked at the time on his phone, 1 am. He also had a message.
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The Blue-Haired Minnie Mouse/ Purple Hoodie Guy
September 14, 2020 (6 months after Hellish pandemic break loose)
The situation is not getting any better in the Philippines. Everything is just being a huge joke here and we’re not actually getting proper response from the high ranking officials. Hence, I cannot help but feel quite hopeless with the situation. Also, the toxicity of my fandom has been getting to me at one point in time. So I have decided to go away for a bit, and go back to what soothes me at hard times, Music.
Truth be told, I liked his former band’s music, but I’m not in to the point that I will be stanning them as hard as I am doing right now. (I’m really not into KPOP except for Blackpink so I don’t have much reference... And I usually like ballad and relaxing songs.) I didn’t have the time to watch series then because I was too busy in my former job. Also, I have been into writing way before, so I would be satisfied with listening to their music from time to time.
However, by the time that I have fallen in love with their band, 9by9th, I found out that their “End Route” means the end already, no more renewal of contract of 1 year. I was quite devastated with the news and I kinda took it hard and tried to go fan girl over series instead. *SOBS*
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(9x9th members: L-R: Thanapob, Ryu, Captain, Porsche ^^, JameyJames, Third, Jackie, Jaylerr, IceParis)
When Trinity debuted, I was really focused on Third and I can remember that I cried over their MV (Hater’s Got Nothing) because I thought that Third will be able to continue with what he’s passionate about. (Third is originally from Kamikaze group but the company disbanded, and his second group is 9x9th but disbanded as well after one year). I kind of followed them for a bit but then I started managing Philippine Fan club bases of my favorite series, with everything that happened, I got too busy... but all I can remember then was the old me crying because I cannot buy the merchandise from before. (Quite a noob then and I didn’t know about pasabuys and stuff.. so yeah). T_T.
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(Trinity members: L-R: Jackie, Porsche <3, JMJ, Third)
Before hell broke lose in the whole world, I had the opportunity to go back to Thailand for the second time and I met those artists that I am following. I actually wanted to meet Trinity but there was no opportunity for me to do so because I didn’t even check their schedule then and I think there wasn’t any update regarding their work, so yeah... T_T. (Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my stay in Bangkok)
So yeah.. After probably taking in shit from the govt for about 7 months already, and toxicity from something that I really used to enjoy and made me smile, I started to distance myself for a bit because what I really need now is not stress, but something that will probably lift up my mood. So what I did was to stress myself even further... watch mystery series that will probably make your head burst into thinking... so in the end, I actually stopped watching BL series and stumbled into their first series together as 9x9 boys, In Family We Trust.
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So an excerpt from Wikipedia says,
The Jiraanan family is a wealthy ethnic Chinese business family, whose extended family spans three generations. Grandfather (A-gong) and Grandmother (A-ma) have four children. Prasoet, the eldest son, heads the family business, Jirananta Hotel, and manages its main Bangkok location, while Phatson, the only daughter, manages its Pattaya branch. Met, the second son, is a single stay-at-home parent, while the youngest son Konkan lives a playboy lifestyle. Among them (and a deceased fifth sibling), they have nine third-generation children. The family members seem to get along well as they celebrate A-gong's birthday, but when he dies of old age shortly after, and his will is revealed to exclude Phatson from inheritance of the hotel, she gets into an argument with Prasoet regarding its management. Prasoet is then found dead from a gunshot in his bedroom, and Phatson becomes a prime suspect. Prasoet's wife Chris also becomes suspected when it is revealed that Prasoet had been seeing a mistress for twenty years. The grandchildren, especially Prasoet and Chris's son Pete and Phatson's eldest son Yi, become involved as each family tries to prove their innocence and uncover the mystery of the case.
This was the first time that I started to look at him. Porsche played the character of Kuaitiao, the orphaned grandson who lived with Grandpa and Grandma. Kuaitiao is actually an art student here and he’s passionate about his drawings.
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What probably captured my attention is his ability to lighten up the mood around him. Even at awkward situations he was able to make me laugh. And probably the fact that he’s close to his grandma and a sweet grandchild even if he’s an adopted one. It kinda got into me. I’ll be honest. There was a scene where Grandma wouldn’t eat, and he pretended to be angry and did not eat as well. I found it cute and smiled at first, but after few moments, I was sobbing already. He made me miss my grandma who passed away last July 15.
Over all, I loved his acting here. Rating 4.5/5
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(But please, don’t make him cry because I’ll end up crying as well).
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(He’s such a precious person guys, pleaseeeee... make him smile a lot, okay?)
So, of course, once you’re interested in your new bias wrecker’s work, you’re going to check his latest and previous works, right? So what I did next is watched their latest series (still with 9x9 boys, but this time, it was 7/9 only. I just found out that Thanapob cannot join the series anymore because he’s busy filming another series and Ryu is actually an actor of another channel. Hence, his few appearances as Macao in In Family We Trust) entitled as, Great Men Academy.
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(Great Men Academy Cast: Porsche as P’Good <3, Third as Nuclear, JameyJames as Love, Jackie as Menn, Captain as Sean, Jaylerr as Tangmo, and IceParis as Vier)
The excerpt of the story is as stated below,
Love (Chanyapuk Numprasop) has always been a fan of the popular guy Vier (Paris Intarakomalyasut) of the famous all boys high school Great Men Academy, but she has never had the chance to meet him. One day, she sees the mystical unicorn rumored to fulfill wishes and wished for her love for Vier to get a chance.
Unfortunately, the unicorn interpreted her wishes in a different way and Love wakes up to find herself in a male's body. She is able to switch between genders under the condition that she must return as a girl before midnight each night. Love attends Great Men Academy as a guy, and works through the complications of winning Vier's heart and meeting new people while trying to keep her identity a secret.
I actually fell in love with P’Good’s character here because he’s such a stern but doting brother. Good is kinda strict when it comes to Love at first because he has to be strong for their whole family because his dad passed away. He’s a very smart guy, yet clumsy fellow. He can also be shy when it comes to Me. (His crush in the series. Why can’t it be “me” instead? Just kidding).
Over all, I loved how he brought to life my favorite glasses ikemen on this series. He made me cry with the way he handled the vulnerability of his sister, Love. His acting for me in this series is a complete 5.0/5.0! *For the love of Good, Please?*
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I rest my case. I’m dying again of spazzing to Phi Good. (Okay. I have a huge crush on this character. The character, okay?!) hahaha
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Wait... let me breathe for just a bit... *hyperventilates in Good’s name*
Then after watching the said series, I started to rewatch their Elements MV. And that got me hooked. I noticed his talent in rapping, singing and dancing that I wouldn’t have normally seen in the first place because I have a bias of my own before.
It’s like the more that I watch him, the more I fall for this person (in terms of being a fan of his). I kind of accepted that he’s my bias on Trinity now when I saw this video. (ปาว ปาว (Shout) – V.R.P kamikaze)
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I’ve been reading articles about him when I came across the interview of Bangkok Post with Third and Porsche regarding their new work. (being 9x9th members and In Family We Trust). I found out that Porsche was actually a member of VRP of Kamikaze and I watched all his previous work. So when I saw the video Paw Paw/ (Shout), I burst into laughter. I knew from that time that he’s such a funny guy and he’s giving me positive vibes.
As I continued watching, I saw him with a Minnie mouse headband, and I lost it... I laughed a lot, which I rarely do these days. So by then, I wasn’t able to help it, I started to love this kid more.
I continued to watch all the showcases, the fancams, the v-live videos, the vlogs about him and goodness gracious, I am really swoon. This kid is such an interesting person and I really regret not knowing him right away.
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As I get to know him, the more I admire him. I mean... for real, it’s even funny knowing his quirks. Like he likes to draw stuff, he likes to play the piano, he loves Anime and his favorite anime is Hitman Reborn! (I wonder if he likes Hibari Kyoya too). Anyway aside from his talent, another selling factor of him to me is his positivity towards life.
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“Don't worry na krub, all TWILIGHT. No matter what will happen in the future or the situation, we are always TRINITY and we will do better than before krub.” #XXSIVK #PorscheSivakorn 
His positivity and his ambition would inspire you to do well and go on no matter how difficult things may be.
Thank you Porsche, you are indeed a good source of a breather in my life. Things have been quite difficult in the Philippines and no matter how much I wanted to take a vacation now, I can’t. Your music makes me smile a lot and at times, I forget my worries when I watch you dance. It’s like watching someone you idolize do what they love to do and give it all with passion makes you motivated as well and keeps you going.
Truth be told, you remind me of one of my favorite persons. He used to be brimming with life. But covid made things difficult for him... well it made things difficult for everyone. I really hope he gets his footing soon.
PS. I might not be able to get to know you in person in this life, but I really wish you success. I will always be watching from afar. :)
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I’ll be waiting for your come back again. Thanks a bunch XX :)
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starker-stories · 5 years
Text
Iron Man
Also on AO3
Another of the moodboards by @starker-sorbet​ inspired this one. Whenever I'm looking for a bit of inspiration, that's where I go. There are moodboards there that just talk to me. Amazing work. The best moodboards in the fandom.
Click on the link to go see the pretty pictures :) Young, rich & promising app developer!Peter x ex hacker and now struggling homeless middle aged!Tony for anon. Peter takes pity on the man and gets him in his house to shelter him on rainy/snowy night.
Tags: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Hacking, Alternate Universe - Homeless, Homeless Tony Stark, Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Pre-Slash, Ex-Con Tony Stark, Rich Successful Peter Parker
------------------------------------------------------------------
The man didn’t ask for anything. Didn’t have a sign or a cup or his hat off and upside down on the ground in front of him. He was just leaning against the wall of a little delivery drive between stores near Grand Central. Something about his look, maybe the amount of snow he had on his cap, said he’d been standing there for awhile. He was wearing an old, frayed woolen top coat. The sort worn over a suit. Beneath it only a ratty t-shirt and baggy jeans. None of which would keep the man warm enough. Not when it was already in the teens and going to drop below zero that night.
Peter took a twenty out of his wallet and put it back. He folded the bill so it could be passed discreetly, but had the value showing. He didn’t want any other homeless people to see how much money the man had. Peter had read that thievery and violence was endemic to that class. He stopped just before he got to the man, standing off to the side of him, not directly in front, not threatening.
“For whatever, dude,” he said, holding out his hand as if to be shaken, but with the bill showing. The man shook his hand and nodded his thanks. “You need to get to a shelter. The city’s opening warming centers.”
The man scoffed. “It’s safer out here.” He started to walk away. “Thanks for the donation,” he said with another nod.
“How much to get an SRO for the night?” Peter asked, falling in to walk beside the man.
“Only by the week and only if there’s room and only if you have about a hundred.”
“The money’s not a problem…”
The man muttered, interrupting, “Wouldn’t think so.”
Peter passed it off. He was exceptionally well dressed. A coat like the man himself wore, only not frayed and this season’s style. Beneath it a suit. He’d been heading back to his hotel after a meeting, or else he’d be dressed down, Silicon Valley style.
“Okay, then let’s solve the other problem.” Peter always thought in terms of problem solving. Breaking a matter down into segments, creating an algorithm to work towards a solution. “Availability. How do we do that?”
The man shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Got a real California boy genius problem solver here. We walk, rich kid, we walk. Spoil those Louboutin’s with the salt and slush.”
Peter furrowed his brow. “How do you know I’m from California. I don’t tan.” The man smirked and kept on walking. There was something familiar about the expression.
Against his better judgement, Peter kept walking beside the man, even as he led him down a winding path, the blocks getting progressively worse in appearance. It was a very long walk. “What’s your story?” he asked just to fill the silence.
“Want me to sing for my supper? Don’t think so.”
“You weren’t panhandling.”
“Not there. Too close to the terminal. They move you on immediately if you put your hand out. Holding up a wall? You can get away with that for a bit.”
“Why waste your time there, then?”
The man shrugged his head to the side and spread his arms a little, hands upturned. Again, Peter was struck with an odd familiarity in the gesture. He watched the man move, falling a step behind to see his walk. Unlike most homeless, there was no slouch, no shuffle. He walked upright, steadily forward, with surprisingly confident, hurried steps.
The man gave a little chuckle and fell back to walking beside, not ahead, of Peter, but didn’t change his gait. “My time to waste,” he said. They walked silently for another block. “How was the 7 line to Queens today? Riding for old times’ sake instead of taking an Uber?”
Peter reached out and took the man’s sleeve, stopping their progress. “Do you know me?”
“Peter Parker. ParkerSoft.” The man brushed Peter’s hand off his sleeve and kept walking. “Another block. They usually have rooms.”
Peter stopped them again. “Do I know you?”
The man smirked again. “Nope.” He started walking again. “‘I don’t associate with Star Wars twerps and noobs’,” he said, giving Peter the same line he’d sent when the kid was a ten year old exploring corners of the web he didn’t belong in.
That time Peter grabbed the man’s arm, turned him away from the street and pushed him against the wall. “Holy fuck, you’re Iron Man!”
The man snorted. “WAS Iron Man. Now? Just being near that particular brand of phone,” he nodded towards Peter’s pocket, “is a violation of my supervised release.”
“Shit. I remember reading about your trial. Iron Man is Tony Stark.” The pieces were all falling together. The place where the man was leaning had a good view of Osborn Tower, formerly Stark Tower. And the phone in Peter’s pocket was made by Stark Industries.
“That, I still am, for all the name’s worth.”
“It’s still worth something.”
Tony laughed. “The board locked me out. And even if they hadn’t? Try running my business without going near a computer. Tony Stark’s as dead as Iron Man. You getting me this room or what?”
“Come back to the Langham with me,” Peter said excitedly.
He shook his head. “I mean it, kid. I’m not going back to prison so you can tap my brain and get me to do some work for you,” Tony said.
“I thought if you got caught at your level of hacking, the FBI or the NSA offered you a job.”
Tony laughed uproariously. “Still a noob. You believe that shit? The only thing they offer you is a six by eight room for fifteen years. And not at some country club estate.”
The problem solving wheels were spinning in Peter’s head. “Okay. Room first.” Peter grabbed Tony’s hand in his and headed into the SRO’s lobby. He paid for a month.
“Lose your bag, kid,” Tony said before they left the desk. “You’ve got my phone, you’ve probably got the tablet and I know you’ve got the laptop with the severely dumbed down version of JARVIS in there. He, I most definitely am not allowed near.” Tony smirked again. “’Course neither is anyone else.”
Peter put his phone in his messenger bag, and with a couple hundred incentive, left it with the desk clerk, hoping it would still be there. If it wasn’t and someone tried to access any of his electronics without his biometrics, everything would erase and the batteries would overheat, literally frying everything inside. He followed Tony up the stairs to his newly rented room. He plopped himself into the one chair in it.
Tony sat on the end of the sagging double bed. “So… TANSTAAFL. What do you want from me for the room?”
“I don’t want anything.”
Tony snorted. “If you didn’t want anything, you’d’ve upped that twenty to a hundred and walked on to your next meeting.”
Peter fell silent. “I want to test the limits of your cage. See what I can do to get them expanded.”
He chuckled harshly. “Easy for you to say from where you’re sitting. Before I lost it all, I threw everything I had at this problem. I had the best lawyers. Paid politicians at the highest level in my pocket. I was too damn high-profile for them to do anything. All the favors suddenly dried up because everyone knew I’d be in prison and be unable to make good on any deal. I’m worthless, Parker. This is it.” Tony spread his hands expansively, taking in the small room. “The limits of my cage, as you put it. It’s bigger than six by eight. And I can walk out that door whenever I want. After fifteen years, I count myself ahead.” He leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “I have nine more years of my ten supervised release to do. I am not spending that time back in prison. The limits of this cage don't get tested.”
“I thought you completed your sentence; you were free.”
“Fuckin’…” Tony shook his head. “Yeah, I got sentenced to fifteen, served fifteen. I got caught in defense systems. Federal time. No parole in that system. And after? They can do whatever the fuck they want to you. God, you’re naive, Parker.”
“Okay. So there’s no getting around the electronics restriction…”
“Nope.”
“Do you need access to code?”
“You are a piece of work,” he said shaking his head. “I am not coding for ParkerSoft. You can’t afford me,” Tony said, arrogantly.
Peter shrugged and looked around the room.
“Bye, Parker,” Tony said, standing up and heading for the door. “Better hope they never catch the Spider. Or I’ll be sharing a street corner with you.”
Peter’s eyes went wide. “How did you…”
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Tony turned and leaned his back against the door. “You were ten when I met you in the warez channels. And as you got older, you went everywhere bragging about every system you walked around in. You wrote lazy, distinctive code — still do. Anyone who looks at your old code and compares it to the shitty apps your company puts out would catch you in a minute.” “You don’t get it. I didn’t get it. How… ephemeral… this all is.” He crossed his left arm low across his body, holding his wrist.
“There’s nothing solid in the world, no matter how much we pretend there is. There are a million ways for you to end up like me, even if you never get caught. ParkerSoft has employees living in their cars, and you won’t even let them stay safely in your parking lots much less pay them a living wage for the area. Stark had them too. Living in places like this because the cost of living in New York is mad. At our lowest level, we had people taking sponge baths in McDonalds and sleeping wherever they could.
“I had no idea. Even if I did, I would’ve thought it was their own fault for lacking ambition or skill. You need to get it through your head. This is it for me. Maybe in nine years, if I live that long, I can manage to build a little something again to carry me through my sixties. Probably not.” He sniffed, scrunching his face.
“Then why not work for me?”
“Because, kid, I don’t trust you. You are going to brag about having Iron Man or Tony Stark writing your code. You can’t shut your fuckin’ mouth. I’m too big a get for you to just sit on that information.
“Second, not only can’t you pay me what I’m worth, you can’t pay me at all. I can’t have income without a job. I can’t get a job. Getting this place? I can say I got lucky panhandling. More than that?” Tony shook his head. “Not risking it.”
“C’mon, Tony. It’s a system. It can be gamed,” Peter said, enthusiastically. “You and me? Best in the business.”
Tony snorted at the kid putting himself in his category.
“Don’t judge me by my apps. That’s money.”
“What else do you have to judge you by? Certainly not your hacking skills.”
“I do games…”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Everybody does games. Thrill me.”
“Security.”
“Walk me through it.”
Peter explained the companies that he personally provided security for and how he did it. Tony grudgingly gave him a side nod. He went back to sit on the bed. “Interesting, but, eh… not exactly…”
“I’ve reverse engineered JARVIS,” Peter spluttered out.
“The OS on your computer may have his name but…”
“Not the OS. That was just the starting place.”
“Impossible.”
“Okay. I haven’t done it completely…”
“No shit.”
“But I’ve gotten farther than anyone. JARVIS is the big get our world right now. Has been since you went away. No one else has gotten past the OS.”
“But you have,” Tony said skeptically.
“I have his visual manipulation systems. The true natural language, not the crappy OS version.”
“Personality?”
Peter shook his head. “None of his personality or on-the-fly problem solving. Not…”
“So none of what makes JARVIS, JARVIS. Just a slightly more advanced OS that you’ll never be able to use because Stark still owns the rights to him even if they can’t get to him.”
“I’m looking to put together a buyout of Stark. Not just their computer division. The works.”
“You don’t have the resources, kid.”
“It’s not worth what it used to be.”
“I know exactly what my company is worth. Without me, it’s been rushing for the bottom. Pepper can’t salvage it, even though she’s good.
“Exactly. A decent offer, the board wouldn’t turn it down. They’re looking to cash out while what’s left is still worth something. A little manipulation…”
“You’ll get caught.”
“No I won’t.”
“Not gonna argue with you. You still don’t have the resources to buy Stark, even at a bargain.”
“When I turned twenty-one five years ago, I inherited my parents’ estate. Including my father’s chemical patents.”
“Okay,” Tony said, nodding once. Richard Parker had done some groundbreaking research. Stark had tried to hire him and failed. “But none of what you say, none of your ‘gaming the system’ gets me out of my situation. You can’t ‘game’ your way out of supervised release.”
“Your connections, give them to me.”
“Wow. You’ve got balls, kid. Anything else of mine you want in exchange for a three fifty a month room?”
“Yeah.”
Tony snorted. “Go on. Tell me. You want me to code. You want JARVIS. You want my connections. What else?”
Peter stood up and walked closer to Tony. “I want you to put me on this bed and fuck me brainless.”
Tony threw his head back and laughed. He looked up at Peter, ran his gaze up and down him, then laughed some more.
“What!” Peter said, offended at the apparent rejection.
“I’m far more than twice your age. I look like shit. I haven’t had a shower in a year. I’m fifteen kinds of filthy. And you want me to fuck you. What the hell kinda kink you got, kid?”
“You are still as fuckin’ gorgeous as ever. And brilliant. But I can’t fuck your brain. There’s showers down the hall, the guy said.” Peter took off his overcoat. “I’ll wait.”
“And you get to fuck your sexual-awakening crush. Bet you had pictures of my Iron Man icon on your wall along with the Death Star.”
“Nah, but I did have Tony Stark’s Rolling Stone cover,” Peter said, grinning.
“Shit. You always this direct?” Tony a.
Peter shrugged. “In business or fucking, it gets me what I want or gets me out quickly. You’d know. I took the play from your autobiography.”
“Kid, you’re killin’ me,” Tony said with another shake of his head. “Fuckin’ fanboy since you were ten. Why the hell should I put you in this bed?”
“I’d imagine you haven’t had any for awhile,” Peter said slyly.
“I’ve always liked them young and pretty and I’ve stayed in shape. This past year, not so much. Before? Plenty.”
That took Peter aback.
“Christ, Parker, I never raped anybody,” Tony said, seeing Peter’s reaction. “Stop watching bad movies.”
“Well?”
“I am not fucking you.”
“Okay.” Peter said down on the bed, next to Tony. “Can I take you to dinner?”
“You get nothing for it.”
“I’m okay with that.”
Tony looked at him skeptically.
“I’d just like to get to know you,” Peter said.
“Still a fanboy.”
“A little, maybe, but I’m a bit old to be just that. You’re hot and I’d like it if you fucked me. You’re brilliant and I’d like to get to know you.”
“Gonna take me on a date, kid?”
Peter smiled. “Maybe.”
“The clothes will still reek, but I’ll take a shower.” Tony smiled. “You figure out the best place that will let someone dressed like me into it. I’ll let you buy me dinner.”
“Unh unh. You’ll let me take you on a date.”
Tony laughed genuinely. “Okay Pete, I’ll let you take me on a date.”
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arcanesupern0va · 5 years
Text
Down With The Rickness; Ch3: Scene Of The Crime
Summary: Vindicators 3: The Return of World Ender? Never heard of him either.
A/N: Thank you for reading this far and thank you so much for your continued support. ♥ So I think the next one is gonna be a Halloween inspired one. I watched a movie last night that I really wanted to just force Rick into so I think that's what's going to happen. Probably won't be anywhere near as oooey gooey as this one was but I can't resist making Rick a goshdang sap because it's my god given right. Hahaha. Be sure to let me know what you think! Unless it's mean and just generally not constructive in which case pls don't because I am soft and my feelings bruise easily.
CW: Thar be Drunk Rick here. And blatant use of an episode.  Pairing: Rick Sanchez/Reader Word Count: 6704
My ao3
Masterlist
~Rick In The Water~
|Ch2: Silhouettes|
Surprisingly, it was a horrid stench that woke me up, along with Morty gently nudging me into consciousness. I groaned, rolling over and bringing the blanket up to cover my nose and save me from the horrendous smell that had permeated the room.
“C-Come on Aunt Nova, we gotta go,” Morty murmured, shaking me again before standing up and moving away from the bed. “Rick, uh- He had one hell of a night last night.”
Whatever I had been imagining didn’t match what I found in the conference room. Rick was splayed out, completely coated with shit and sleeping peacefully despite it. I clasped my hand to my face trying desperately to purge the image from my brain before it made itself at home. I turned to focus on Supernova and Morty, turning my back on Rick completely.
“Good morning. Looks like your boyfriend had a long night,” she remarked. My cheeks burned as I peeked around her despite myself, seeing the full extent Rick’s mess went to. “Crocubot, why don't you escort Mr. Sanchez to a more comfortable spot so that someone can… clean up his diarrhea.”
“Whoa, I'm nervous about my first mission,” Noob Noob declared proudly, entering the conference room toting multiple weapons.
“Actually Noob Noob, you have a new mission,” Supernova told him coldly, flicking her wrist to replace the weapons with a mop.
“Got damn,” he said sadly, resigning himself to his new “mission”.
“Vindicators, prepare for arrival. Worldender dies today, with or without Rick’s help.” She ordered, leading us to the ship we would be descending to Worldender’s hideout planet in.
My head was still reeling as the ship took off from the main ship and soared down to Worldender’s planet. Morty kept me calm, explaining the different Vindicators to me before we were forced to drop down onto the planet from midair. Vance grabbed my waist with a sly grin, pulling me uncomfortably close to him before jumping out of the back and landing safely on the ground below. I pulled away from him quickly, only to be confronted with the pungent smell of burning flesh and rotting corpses as I surveyed my surroundings. Most of the planet seemed to be composed of corpses and bones and it just reinforced my assumption that the vast majority of space was just disgusting. Vance offered me a handkerchief to cover my nose with but I politely declined, not wanting to offer him any more of an ‘in’ than he already thought he had. I used the sleeve of my shirt instead, pressing it against my face hard enough that the skin ached around my nostrils from the pressure.
“A-Aunt Nova, are you okay?” Morty asked, looking up at me with concern plastered all over his face but noticeably unbothered by the smell.
“Y-Yeah,” I coughed, unsurprised the air tasted as bad as it smelled, “how are you so relaxed right now? This place fucking reeks.”
“Oh, Rick implanted me with a scent filter for my nose. There was a planet that smelled like burnt tires and rotten eggs and he got tired of hearing me complain about it,” Morty explained, “Sure, it’s based off Rick’s preferences so I haven’t smelled lavender and sweet pea in over a month but whatever you’re going through looks like it sucks.”
“So you can’t smell anything right now?” I asked, astonished.
“Nope,” he shrugged, “right now all I can smell is your shampoo and Vance’s cologne.”
“Must be fuckin’ nice,” I grumbled, staring at the ground ahead of me as we followed behind Supernova.
Drones approached us at an alarming pace but Supernova made quick work of them using the powers of whatever the “Star Mother” was. We advanced, only to come to a total dead end. This time it was Alan Rails’ turn, somehow creating a train to blast through the wall so we could advance further.
“Is it just me, or are their powers a little… stupid?” I whispered under my breath to Morty, only to earn an annoyed sigh.
“You sound just like Rick. These are actual superheroes, Aunt Nova. Most people just get movies but you’re actually in the presence of people that do everything they can for the better good,” Morty chastised.
“Like, I get that but even you have to admit they’re pretty lame. I mean, sure Supernova uses powers from some ‘Star Mother’ but like, the one guy is literally just an amalgamation of ants? And Alan can just call on the power of trains? Ghost trains? In what way could that possibly be helpful other than complete and utter destruction?”
“You don’t get it-”
“Aah! Gun Turret,” Million Ants interrupted us.
“Are you alright?” Supernova asked, concern flooding her voice.
“Yes. I only lost 400 ants. My queen is laying more,” he assured her as the holes in his chest mended in front of us, “I am back to one million ants,” he announced proudly as a look of relief flashed over Supernova’s features.
“Someone wake up Sanchez,” she demanded, glaring as she watched Crocubot toss Rick gracelessly onto the ground as Vance bent over him.
“H-Hey, wait- What are you doing?” I started nervously, as Vance pointed a finger at his face. Supernova shook her head briskly at me, holding up a hand as the tip of Vance’s finger opened and a blue gas emerged from it.
“Ugh,” Rick groaned, his bloodshot eyes taking in his surroundings as he familiarized himself with his location. “Oh, christ.”
“Oh, good. You’re up,” Supernova remarked sarcastically.
“Barely,” Rick growled, pulling himself to his feet.
“Rick, we're taking fire from an automated turret. Can you bring it offline?”
Rick grunted in response, pulling out a thermos as we watched him mix chemicals to produce a small creature. He held the plump creature over his eyes, squeezing it and relishing in the relief the liquid it produced offered.
“Ahh, that’s better,” he sighed, blinking away the bloodshot in his eye and looking around the room. His eyes fell on me and for a moment, a look of fear passed through them. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Rick!” Supernova shouted, irritated by the delay.
“I can’t help if I can’t see,” Rick shot back, shaking away his concerns for a moment and pulling out a small roving device that scurried over the floor into the line of fire. The top opened to allow a transparent disc to absorb the bullets before it spit out three compact discs that morphed into small robots. They climbed on top of each other, propelling themselves up onto the turret and fixating themselves over the barrel. Rick winked at me before jumping in front of the turrets in a ‘ta-da’ pose and I felt my heart drop as the turrets began shooting. I’ve moved to go after him, to pull him out of what I assumed to be certain doom but he turned to face me, grinning like a madman as the turrets fired until they exploded.
“And that’s how you do it, baby.”
“I could've just used a ghost train,” Alan grumbled, shoving past Rick and continuing through the door.
“Really? You don't say. You would have used a ghost train?” Rick gloated, rolling his eyes as he looked around the room. “H-Hey, everybody, the ghost train guy would have used a ghost train!” The rest of the Vindicator and Morty pushed passed him, mumbling under their breath and shooting looks of disgust and irritation at Rick as they passed.
“Is there coffee?” Rick asked, stopping Morty as he pressed on past his grandfather, the disgust and irritation even more prevalent on his face than the rest of them, “H-Hey, Morty, can you be a pal? Grandpa left his coffee maker on the ship. Y-You know, the French press thing?”
“Get it yourself,” Morty shot back, going around his grandfather to follow the rest of the team. As I passed him, that same look of fear covered his face as he looked me over, making sure I was okay. Once he seemed satisfied, he turned away to follow the group silently. We navigated the halls to Worldender’s lair in silence, Rick focusing in on Morty to avoid having to face me.
“You’re sni-uuuuurp-ppy this morning,” Rick remarked, following closely behind Morty while also keeping a watchful eye on my progress behind him.
“Just focus on the mission, alright,” Morty snapped, not interested in anything his grandfather had to say at this point.
“Oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry. Oh, you're right. Ooh, real serious. Gotta take it real serious, huh?” Rick said mockingly, glaring at the back of the Vindicator’s heads.
“Rick…” I called out gently, trying to relieve Morty of the punishment of dealing with his hungover grandfather. Rick turned to face me finally, a bit too eagerly for his liking it seemed as he groaned and stopped in his tracks to wait for me to catch up.
“H-Hey, Nova,” he grumbled as I caught up, “You shouldn’t have come.”
“And what, miss out on all the fun?” I chuckled. “Seems like you’ve had one hell of a night.” I watched him carefully, trying to ignore the part of me that was simply relieved that he was awake.
“Yeah, I got, uh, upset,” he shrugged, sidestepping a corpse as we entered a large room.
“I didn’t mean-”
“It’s fine,” he said, cutting me off. “What are you even doing here? You know this is supposed to be incredibly dangerous right?”
“I figured you’d be here,” I shrugged, holding my arm against me and rubbing it.
“Jesus,” Rick muttered, shaking his head.
“Son of a steam engine! They're all dead!” Alan interrupted before Rick could say anything else. I took the room in only to find it littered with corpses, posed in various sex positions.
“Why would Worldender do this to his own men... and several women?” Crocubot asked, confusion leaking into his robotic tone.
“Well, he is the Worldender. The guy ends worlds. Kind of his thing,” Vance said, rolling his eyes. Rick kept moving forward, not interested in the massacre only to step on a hidden panel on the floor. A large hook bearing a corpse swung down from the ceiling in front of us, leaving Vance to cry out in horror, “What the fuck?!”
“It’s Worldender!” Supernova exclaimed, “What happened to him?” Worldender let out a weak moan, alerting us that he was still alive. I stared in horror as the monster on the hook gurgled in agony at us, unable to form any true speech.
“I sense his life force is fading,” Million Ants remarked, moving closer to take a better look.
“Million Ants, ladies and gentlemen! The ant colony with the power of two human eyes!” Rick snarled, unable to help himself. Worldender sputtered some more before an organ flew out of his mouth. “All right. Short mission, good mission. Remember when Alan wanted to use a ghost train? See you guys in Vindicators 4. Morty, Nova?”
“Rick, whoever did this is an even bigger threat than Worldender! We can't leave now!” Morty exclaimed nervously, looking to me for assistance.
“He's right. This is far from over,” Supernova insisted, hovering over to Rick.
“Well, have fun with that. But we have a comet girl, a monorail man, two assholes, and a full alligator to meet in, like, an hour,” Rick dismissed her, ready to head back through the door to the lair. As he turned to leave, however, a large shutter descended in front of him. It missed him by a hair as all of the exits sealed up immediately and left only one remaining door. The Vindicators and Morty prepared themselves for a fight but Rick grabbed my arm and dug into his lab coat for his portal gun, only to come up empty.
“Shit,” I murmured, the real terror of the situation descending on me quickly, realizing whatever had locked us in here truly had us stuck and Rick didn’t have a way out.
“I sense the presence of a greater evil,” Million Ants remarked looking around the room as if whatever it was would pop out at us immediately at his revelations. A large monitor descended from the ceiling, much to my surprise and it immediately cut to a video of a very drunk Rick.
“Check, check, One, two. Okay, is it recording? Good. Hello, Vindicators. Welcome to your reckoning, babyyyyy,” Drunk Rick held the last word out as we all turned to look at him.
“Well, it's official. I had too much to drink last night,” Rick remarked sheepishly, not quite meeting my eye.
“Rick, what did you do?” I asked nervously, my eyes darting around every corner.
“To be honest with you, I don’t really remember,” Rick admitted quietly, his eyes still trained on the monitor.
“ If you guys are watching this, you're, you know, the Vindicators,” Drunk Rick slurred, adjusting the camera to assure he was in the frame.
“R-Rick… buddy…” Vance started, training one of his wrist-mounted pistols on Rick as he looked him up and down cautiously, “What’s, uh, what’s going on?”
“Obviously, I came here last night during a blackout,” Rick told him flatly, gesturing up at the screen.
“Obviously?” Supernova demanded, exasperated, “You came here and defeated our arch-nemesis while so drunk, you don't remember doing it? That's something ‘obvious’ to you?”
“Look, I'm a lit-little more complex than you guys and, no offense, but I've always suspected that a lot of what you do in a year could be knocked out in a couple of hours,” Rick replied nonchalantly. Supernova opened her mouth to speak again but instead trained her attention on the screen.
“...So I thought, why not just do your job for you so we can have a little fun game,” Drunk Rick mumbled, pointing to the left where a spotlight flashed on and illuminated a large board with each of the Vindicators on it along with a defining trait for each of them.
“Rick, what did you do?” I demanded again, eyeing him nervously myself now.
“Is this a ‘Saw’ thing?” Morty asked angrily, moving closer to the board to investigate closer, “Are you ‘Saw’-ing the Vindicators?”
“I’m a drunk Morty, not a hack,” Rick snapped, looking around the room nervously.
“I certainly hope you idiots didn’t bring Nova with you because if you break the rules, lose the game or try to leave, you will die. Like in *uuuuurp* ‘Saw’,” Drunk Rick finished clumsily. Rick’s eyes met mine nervously and my mouth went dry.
“Well, I-I-I think we've seen enough. I'll just figure out how to unplug this,” Rick hurried off quickly looking for a plug while the rest of us stared up at the screen as Drunk Rick continued his tirade.
“Okay, here we go, room number one. The Vindicators are known throughout the galaxy, but do they know yourselves? Do you know yourselves? Match your... your shit, your... your gimmicks with your faces and y-you get it, it's a matching thing. And do it in three minutes, or you'll *uuurp* all die.”
“Screw this, I’m not playing his game,” Vance declared. “I'm gonna find us a way out of here.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, Vance. He said we'd die if you tried to leave,” Rick reasoned, stepping in front of Vance, “I really don’t give a fuck about you but I can’t let Nova die, why in the hell did you assholes let her come again?”
“I informed her of the risks yesterday, she seemed assured that you would keep her safe,” Supernova told him coolly, much to his irritation.
“Th-this guy probably knew she’d be too stubborn to listen to any of you assholes so here’s hoping he didn’t go too crazy with the booby traps.” Rick was trying to convince himself as well as the rest of us as paced back and forth.
“Why are you acting like that's not you?!” Vance demanded hysterically.
“What part of ‘blackout’ don't you understand? I thought you drank?” Rick snarled, looking up from the floor.
“Like cool drinking! Like sexy drinking, not this psycho trailer-park shit!” he bellowed, looking around the room for some kind of reassurance that he was in fact not the crazy one.
“Vance, stay calm…” Morty said cautiously, bringing Vance’s wrath down on him instead.
“Oh, so you're the leader now because we gave you a jacket?! You're the learning-disabled kid we do photo-ops with!” Vance reamed Morty, his breathing quickening with every syllable. I moved to step in, to defend my godson against the sudden onslaught from his heroes when he shook his head at me quickly and swallowed his hurt.
“Okay, ouch, but-”
Vance began hyperventilating fully again, fanning his face against the red that was inching its way up from his collar. “Okay, this... this is triggering me. I need space. I-I need SPACE! FROM THIS!”
Before anyone could stop him, Vance engaged his rocket propellers after eyeing a conveniently placed vent in the ceiling. He shot his way up to it, ripping away the grate and flying into it. Sounds of saws and gunshots echoed as we could do nothing but watch as Vance’s legs contorted in agony before plummeting back down and landing in front of us. We stared in abject horror as one of the rocket boots kicked back to life and started flying around the room leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
“I really wish I could say I was sorry about that one,” I murmured numbly, staring at the rocketing foot until Crobubot finally took aim and shot it out of the air. “What the fuck is going on right now?”
“H-Hey, Nova,” Rick started, moving closer in an attempt to comfort me but I winced away from his touch, “it’s gonna be okay, I’m not going to let-”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush your windpipe!” Alan interrupted, grabbing Rick by the throat and holding him against the wall.
“Wait, no!” I grabbed Alan’s arm, trying my hardest to pull him away from Rick. I may not be able to reconcile all of this away right now, but I still couldn’t bear to watch him hurt. Alan looked over his shoulder for a moment, pushing me down to the ground with a malicious glint in his eye that was all too familiar before returning his attention to Rick.
“Because my epidermis is laced with a nanofiber defense mesh,” Rick answered coldly, strange electricity covering his body before Alan was launched back away from him. “And because, like I said, I don't remember last night.”
“I told you not to invite this mummified motherfucker back!” Alan bellowed from the ground, shooting a dirty look over his shoulder at Supernova.
“Alan, I'm not proud of what's happening here, but if you keep coming at me or if you touch another hair on Nova’s head, there's gonna be another passenger on that ghost train,” Rick snarled, taking a step toward him and leaning down to really drive his point home.
“Guys!” Morty called over to us, “I figured it out.” While Rick and Alan had been fighting, Morty had taken to solve the puzzle Rick had set up for the Vindicators. “I figured I didn’t want to die so I better actually figure this shit out before this asshole gets us killed.”
“Congrats! You did i-uuuurp-it!” Drunk Rick slurred proudly when the monitor flashed back on. The door opened, revealing our path forward.
“It was a bit. All of the descriptors apply to all of you,” I murmured, reading the descriptors and matching them up to what little Morty had told me about the Vindicators, “Drunk Rick's point is that none of you are very special or different.”
“That's always his point,” Morty affirmed, despondent.
“Let's just get through this as quickly as possible. Then, we'll deal with the three of you,” Supernova said contemptuously, hovering past Rick and me.
“Th-Three of us?” Morty exclaimed, looking heartbroken before he turned his ire to Rick, “I hope you're proud of yourself!”
“Uh, I kind of am. I saved the goddamn universe.”
“That's not the issue, Rick!”
“Ahh, it would've been if I hadn't.”
*+*
We made our way through the next room, losing Crobubot in the process. Drunk Rick appeared on another monitor again, this time sporting a deerstalker cap and presenting a large map for the puzzle of the room. Crobubot’s confidence had chosen to reveal even more questionable backstory about the Vindicators from when Rick hadn’t been with them. This time it was concerning an entire planet they had to destroy because they couldn’t locate their target at the time, something called Doomnomitron. I was stuck watching in real-time as glimmers of hope and respect Morty held for the team started to rapidly deteriorate. Rick pointed out that he could’ve just created a device to seek out Doomnomitron but apparently it had been Alan’s call not to call Rick back.
Morty solved the puzzle yet again and the in-fighting only worsened as we made our way into the next room. This time Drunk Rick was wearing one of my old Hawaiian t-shirts, holding up a coconut filled with more booze.
“Aloha... means hello and goodbye in Hawaii. But, uh, aloha means... has nothing to do with this room,” Drunk Rick sputtered as his head rolled around loosely on his shoulders. “I'm so fucking drunk. Nova’s going to be so mad at me in the morning. Jesus Christ, she better not be in here with you.” Rick’s eyes met mine, unspoken apologies and frustration boiling over. “Ugh, okay, here's the deal. I-I want to rest my eyes for a little bit. I'm--I'm not going to sleep. I just... just need to rest my eyes, so let's make this one simple. Just try to hit some three-pointers.” Lights came on to light up a basketball hoop and a small bomb rigged to blow. “Let's say... you have to hit... five three-pointers in... five minutes or, I don't know, the whole place--the whole planet will get blown up with a n-neutrino bomb. And try to make it a-a lesson about yourselves like, like how... selfish you a-are, or something. Also, Hawaii,” he rambled, his head resting on the desk for a moment. This time, however, the video didn’t cut out and just continued playing as Drunk Rick struggled to keep the contents of his stomach within.
“Jesus Christ,” Rick murmured, staring at himself on the screen before Morty grabbed his arm and dragged him over the neutrino bomb.
“M-Maybe I should take N-Nova to Hawaii,” Drunk Rick mused, stifling down the urge to vomit as he rolled his head back and forth on his workbench, “She thinks I hate her… The fuck is she thinking? I can’t even get up in the morning without thinking about her.”
“O-Oh,” I blurted out, my eyes glued to the screen as Million Ants and Supernova made quick work of the Three Pointer Challenge and Alan Rails started accusing them of some alleged infidelity. Rick’s eyes were still trained on me, however, much to Morty’s chagrin as he continued disarming the bomb without Rick’s help.
“I mean, s-she’s not the brightest when it comes to my work but sh-she’s just brings me so much peace. Like a stupid amount of peace that I don’t deserve,” Drunk Rick continued almost incoherently, “She doesn’t expect me to be the s-smartest guy in the room and sh-she’s never wanted me to solve all of her p-problems even though I’ve tried like hell and p-p-put more effort into her problems - oh, fuck I’m gonna puke - th-than I’ve put into anything else in my life. I-I-I don’t know, sh-she’s just so-so-so special to me. And sh-she keeps asking me what’s wrong and I-I-I don’t know how to explain it to her. I-I-I can’t get drunk and tell her, I mean look what do when I’m just mildly irritated with Morty,” he rambled. I couldn’t stop the watery giggle from falling out of my mouth as my eyes flicked to Rick again. He and Morty were struggling with the drunkenly improvised bomb but my small outburst didn’t go unnoticed by Supernova behind us.
“Something funny to you, girl?” she hissed, her voice wavering. I tore my eyes away from the screen to find Alan, well, everywhere. While I had been enraptured in the drunken ramblings of the emotionally closed-off man I’d fallen in love with, Supernova’s affair with Million Ants had come out into the open. The fight had turned deadly when Supernova had confirmed Million Ants’ superiority in the bedroom, leaving the sentient ant colony to defend the woman he loved. The fight ended when Million Ants possessed the Ghost Train Conductor or whatever the hell he was and exploded him from within, surprisingly killing the “undead” man.
“I-I-I wasn’t- I-I-I didn’t,” I stammered as she descended towards me at an alarming pace.
“You think you can just wander through here while all of my friends are killed at the hands of your… boyfriend,” she spat the word out as though it left a disgusting film in her mouth. “Who’s to say you deserve to live when my team has reduced to shambles.”
“You touch her and what happened to your friends will seem like a day in the park after I’m done with you,” Rick threatened lazily, barely looking up from the bomb as Supernova drew closer.
“Rick!” I squeaked, trembling as the cosmic grew closer, the energy from her righteous anger pulsing around her.
“She’s not going to do shit,” Rick said dismissively, focusing in on the bomb as Morty’s attention was drawn away. “There we go. Disarmed.”
“Y-You’re supposed to be heroes!” Morty bellowed, standing up to face the cosmic atom bomb in front of me. “She hasn’t done anything to you! Leave her alone!”
“Morty- Don’t,” I urged him, as he moved closer to the ticking time bomb in front of me. His words seemed to have an effect, however, and the pulsing around Supernova shrunk as she stood down.
“You will all pay for Rick’s crimes,” she declared coldly. With a flick of her wrist, cuffs appeared around our wrists. “I don’t want you three disappearing once this is over, all of these deaths are on your hands.”
“Oh, come on, maybe a couple of them, but definitely not the train guy,” Rick scoffed, quickly searching the black bands around his wrists for a way out but coming up empty.
“All of them,” Supernova hissed, launching one of the planets hovering around her into Rick’s groin. I moved to rush to his side, only to be launched away from him with another of her planets. “Not so fast. Rick won’t leave you behind, judging by his drunken ramblings, so you’re what I like to call… insurance.” Million Ants made the final three-pointer, allowing the door to open to one final room. It was a simple room, only a small pedestal sitting in the middle of it.
“All right, by now, I've been pretty clear that I think the Vindicators are full of shit,” Drunk Rick slurred on the monitor, taking a bite out of his piece of pizza, “But... you do have one thing I'll never have and probably another that I probably won’t have much longer. The first is the only part of the Vindicators that has any value to me and the second the most amazing thing in the room, besides me. So if you know what they are, place them on the platform. Guess wrong and the pla-planet will explode. And probably the solar system, 'cause I kind of fucking eyeballed the neutrino bombs on this one.”
“So what's the trick? Morty, you're the Drunk Rick expert,” Supernova asked callously, looking between Morty and me.
“I think for the first one... no matter what we put on there, we die. He said it's the part of the Vindicators he values. That means nothing. He wants our last moment alive to be spent knowing how few fucks he gave.”
“Jesus! Okay, open to second opinions!” Supernova glared, looking around at each of us.
“I-It could be Morty,” Rick admitted reluctantly.
“What?!”
“Hey, I don't know,” he shrugged. “I mean, look, when I get drunk, I get stupid and emotional and there's no logic to it. We all heard all that shit from the last room. It's, like, possible I got so drunk, I felt like I was losing Morty to the Vindicators, and maybe this is my way of saying ‘Okay, you can have him, but only if you know how important he is, otherwise I'll kill you.’”
“That is a... really specific guess,” Million Ants remarked.
“Look, I... there's nothing in the room but us. I'm just using logic to connect some dots. It's the best guess I've got.”
“But you're betting our lives on it,” Supernova said accusingly.
“I'll cover that bet. I get it,” Morty said smugly, heading for the platform.
“Wait, Morty, I think you're making that smirky face because you're misinterpreting the moment,” Rick said urgently, “I am not being coy about some hidden love for you. I want to be really clear that, if anyone has a better guess, like, if I gave you an amulet last night, or-” A loud ding rang out and everyone let out a sigh of relief before a chair shot up and scooped up Morty.
“Oh, shit,” Rick swore, staring at the now-empty platform.
“Alright. The second one?” Drunk Rick demanded expectantly.
“Well, go ahead, Nova.” Rick nodded at the platform in frustration.
“M-Me?” I stuttered. “I just watched that thing eat Morty. I don’t think I’m in a hurry to hop on up.”
“Look, he said the most amazing thing in the room. It’s definitely none of these assholes. Do you really think I’m going to hurt you, drunk or not?” Rick said flatly. I walked up to the platform hesitantly, glancing at Rick one last time before another seat appeared, dropping me into a cardboard Tunnel of Love.
“Jesus Nova, couldn’t just stay out of the line of fire could you,” Drunk Rick chuckled, twisting his hands over as I floated down the long tunnel. “Look, I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick and I’m really sorry you had to go through all of these hacky shenanigans to prove my point to the Vindicators and Morty. I brought you down here because I just didn’t know how to tell you how much I was struggling with all of this. Watching you hurting- Seeing you walk out into that lake and not come back up. Jesus Nova, you know you’re everything to me, right?” His voice cracked and the tears welled in my eyes instantly. “It’s not like I can’t relate though, believe me. When I came back, it was just to give Beth some closure before I killed myself but when I saw you- when I saw the way you looked at me, something changed in me. For once, I can’t explain it.
“I’m sorry for leaving you with these assholes too, by the way. I thought you were going to come with me like you usually do and when you didn’t I just- I don’t know, I took it personally I guess. I got about twenty minutes away before I shut my damn ego up and flew back.” The cart pulled up to the final monitor and much to my surprise, Drunk Rick was crying. “I can’t do this without you, Nova. Please, despite all of the logic in your brain, please don’t give up on me.” I bit my lip, fighting back tears as I stared at the broken man on the screen in front of me. “So just, you know, think about it okay? Whatever you want, I’ll accept but I don’t want to lose you. I’m sorry I couldn’t just say this to your face. I’m just… so sorry. Alright Nova, I’ll, uh, I’ll see you later.” The cart sped back up the track and soon I was being raised back up through the platform. Morty looked less than amused standing next to his grandfather but I started to rush into his arms, only for one of Supernova’s planets to launch me back to her side.
“Not so fast, girl,” she hissed. The room shuddered and the entire platform began rising from under us.
“I sense this means we’re not dying,” Million Ants said, surveying the room.
“Not all of us,” Supernova said darkly, using her telekinesis to hold Rick, Morty and I up by our throats.
“Sweetheart…” Million Ants started gently, moving toward Supernova.
“Just let Titty-Bean do this, Snuzzles. It's for the greater good,” she replied irritably.
“Titty-Bean?--”
“Greater Good?--” we sputtered under her force-grasp that grew tighter with each movement.
“It's like you said, Morty: there's no right or wrong,” Supernova hissed, hovering closer to Morty.
“Never said that!”
“It's the galaxy's faith in the Vindicators that keeps the galaxy secure!”
“Yeah, I feel safer already,” Rick muttered sarcastically.
“No doubt. Who do we make the check out to?” I replied, meeting his gaze for a moment.
“Titty-Bean, listen to me. When you came to me, I was merely a sentient colony of ants. It was your beliefs, your pursuit of justice, that taught me to be a man,” Million Ants said soothingly, pulling her closer to him. We fell to the ground, sputtering for air as Supernova became distracted with Million Ants. Rick pulled me into his arms, desperately clinging to me for dear life as he patted my hair down.
“When did it get so complicated?” she asked mournfully, nuzzling into his hand.
“Who knows? But we can make it simple again.”
“You were always the romantic,” she remarked sadly before taking a step back from him, her eyes narrowed. “Which is why you can't leave either.” We watched in horror as she dug her hand into his chest and extracted his Queen Ant, crushing it in her palm. “Goodbye, my love.”
“Damn! She double-crossed Snuzzles!” Rick exclaimed, pulling away from me momentarily as she descended upon us.
“Silence! I'm going to enjoy this,” she hissed, raising her hands in front of her. As I buried my face into Rick’s chest, airhorns interrupted her attack as the platform finally reached its destination.
“Let's give a huge thanks to Rick Sanchez for killing Worldender, putting this awesome party together, and for booking one of the hottest talents out there: Logic!” an announcer called out and a spotlight descended upon us. Supernova lowered her hands, realizing the sheer volume of witnesses surrounding her.
“Look at that. Geez, I must've planned a whole party. Invited a bunch of people. Not bad, Drunk Rick, not bad,” Rick said, pulling himself to his feet before extending a hand out to me and pulling me to my feet. As Logic started a song about the Vindicators, Supernova slipped into the crowd, much to Morty’ dismay.
“Rick! Supernova’s getting away!” he shouted, pointing at the section she disappeared into.
“Oh well,” Rick shrugged, dancing along to the song.
“But… she was trying to kill us!” Morty retorted.
“Morty, twenty people try to kill me every week. I end up getting high with half of 'em,” Rick assured him flatly. “J-J-Just enjoy the festival, alright? I’ll worry about her later.”
It looked like just about everyone had gotten an invite as Beth, Summer, and Madi squeezed through the crowd over to us. I hugged Madi tightly before Summer pulled her into the crowd to introduce her to some of the friends she’d made adventuring with Rick.
“So, I’ll just assume nothing is going to happen to her here?” I asked Rick nervously, watching her hair bounced as Summer pulled her behind.
“Look, I invited Beth to this, she should be safe.” I narrowed my eyes at him, unconvinced but he just groaned, grabbing my hand. “Come on, let’s party.”
*+*
When we finally got home, the exhaustion from being in a life or death situation hit me like a truck. The moment I fell into my bed, I was out like a light. When I finally woke back up a day later, I was surprised to find Rick sprawled out next to me, sleeping peacefully with his arm draped over me. I carefully extracted myself from underneath him and made my way to the bathroom, desperate for a shower. As I opened my door, I found Morty headed in the same direction.
“O-O-Oh, hey Aunt Nova,” he mumbled, his eyes trained on the ground in front of him. “W-Were going to take a shower?”
“Y-Yeah, but you go ahead. I waited this long, I can wait a little bit longer,” I assured him, moving to head back into my room.
“I-I-I heard what Rick said, in the Hawaii room,” he said quickly, grabbing my wrist. “I’m not saying I was wrong about him, but I get what you see in him, I guess. A-A-And, I guess how he feels about you too? He’s still a dick and piece of shit a-a-and you deserve better but-”
“It’s okay Morty, I understand,” I assured him quickly. He looked relieved, waving as he headed for the bathroom. I went back into my room to find Rick stirring, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as he looked up at me.
“I was starting to think you were in a fucking coma, you know,” he yawned at me.
“I don’t know, something about almost dying just makes me really tired, not sure what that’s all about,” I shrugged sarcastically. “Speaking of which, we should probably talk about all of that.”
“Yeah, I get a little… dramatic when I drink. Sorry about that,” he groaned, standing up and stretching.
“Well, yeah. That was something else, but I’m talking about what happened when I got up on the platform,” I said cautiously, watching his face for a reaction.
“What about it? I don’t remember anything from that night? I probably just called you like, super pretty for five minutes,” he said defensively. “Did I say something fucked up? Morty was not happy with me after coming out of his.”
“N-No, not quite,” I chuckled. “No, it was more along the lines of you being worried I was going to leave you or whatever. You know that’s never going to happen, right? A lot of bad shit has happened since you’ve been back. I’ve been kidnapped, you killed my husband and maybe even my parents but you haven’t fucked up nearly as bad as you may think you have. I probably wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you.”
“Well, I mean, if that Rick was going to come kidnap you then you would probably just be stuck living on the Citadel and hella fucking confused,” Rick argued awkwardly.
“So not the point,” I groaned, rolling my eyes at him. “Look, all I’m trying to say is you don’t have to worry about that. I’m not going anywhere. Effectively, you’re stuck with me.”
“Are you okay? With everything that happened?” he asked hesitantly. “Being with me, it’s not a normal life and it never will be.”
“Rick, not to sound cliche but my life has literally never been normal. As long as you bring me home now and then so I can see Madi, I could literally care less. Just don’t leave me, okay?”
“Nova, I told you already, I don’t think that’s possible,” he assured me. “Even that twenty minutes I left you with the Vindicators and Morty was hell. I tried to get back as soon as I could but by the time I got back, you guys were gone.”
“Look, I get it. I’m not going to say it was okay because it wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination but I get it,” I reasoned. “I was drunk and being a dick.”
“Welcome to the club, sweetheart,” Rick laughed, holding his flask up in solidarity. “We’re gonna be okay, right?”
“Oh, I hope not. Putting my neck on the line all the time is half the fun of being with you.”
“I love you too, brat.”
+Ch4: Every You, Every Me+
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So, very accurate.
My sincerest apologies for being mostly absent from posting. Mental health and being a good human to myself took a long slide in the wrong direction.
Self care means taking your meds and turning off the phone.
I've also been trying to make sure 3rd noob gets some actual training. Though I learned tonight that he knows everything. So no amount of help will get him past his belief in his abilities being far superior to what is reality.
Plus i had a guy at work pull a prank on me. I already didn't like the guy. After the prank, I value him less than I did. Who the fuck goes to a coworker you don't know very well,tell them you quit, wave, grab your stuff and leave...as a motherfucking prank?
"He was just joking."
"Yeah. Real fucking funny."
I spent 25 minutes having a full blown panic attack in the isolation of the bathroom. I'd already had a long ass week,worked 4 - 10hr shifts, had almost no sleep and creepy guy thinks he's funny.
Then he tried to apologize for the joke by BLAMING his mental illness. "I have really bad social anxiety disorder and really bad generalized anxiety disorder. But it's okay, I don't rely on the crutch of medication. I am the practical joker, but nobody here knows me well enough to know that."
Dude blamed his dumbass behavior on his illness for which he's not medicated...
That's what sent my anxious ass into a panic attack. Because he had to mention the 'crutch of medication.' I'd already got called out for snapping at an older female coworker who is nosy as shit. I'd been doing good with my meds and then she started commenting that I am too young to need "all those drugs."
I asked her what age is old enough to need those meds, in her expert opinion. "How about the friend whose 3 month old has stage 4 neuroblastoma?" "How about a friend I had growing up with epilepsy and EDS?" "How about my grandfather at 102 who didn't need anything?" "How about you mind your own health and stop withe ageism when it comes to chronic illness or disease?" I laid out the meds and told her what each is for.
Iron - I'm anemic - I don't absorb from food in large enough quantities.
B12 - I'm slightly deficient.
Flomax - I have chronic kidney stones.
Gabapentin - I have neuralgia in my arms and hands. Working here doesn't help.
Tylenol - this is what I use for pain.
Wellbutrin XL - seasonal (and) general depression
Buspar - anxiety - from worrying about busybodies and my job.
Vistaril - anxiety (for attacks more than maintenance) and allergies - because it's the precursor to Zyrtec.
Magnesium chelate - because I'm deficient.
Folate - because I'm deficient
Vitamin C - because it helps me absorb the iron.
Calcium - because I'm very deficient
Tramadol - for days when tylenol isn't enough.
Mobic - because I've had open joint knee surgery and I have numerous issues with various joints.
Things I carry but don't take daily - Toradol (kidney stone pain help) Percocet or norco (pain - kidney stone passage help), zofran (anti-nausea) Benzonatate (cough suppressant)
Tell me again which ones I DON'T need.
She complained to our boss that I was rude. I told him that her telling me I'm too young to need medications is what's rude. She is in her 60s. She doesn't take anything. Great for her. I don't have that luxury. She's since been placed on medical leave for slipping and breaking her leg. She's apparently in a lot of pain. Gee.
So yeah and I had to sort shit every day for the last 12 working days.
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purplesurveys · 5 years
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517
Do you currently own any teddy bears? No, I was never big on stuffed toys so I didn’t really like teddy bears to begin with. I had always found it more comfortable sleeping with just more pillows. Have you ever used a fax machine? No. It used to be a mainstay in hotel rooms up until a few years ago, but there was never a reason for me to use them. I wouldn’t know how to work them if I had to, either. Aren't they fascinating the way they work? Like I said, I don’t have the first clue on how they work. How many cd's have your burnt over your lifetime? Maybe a couple. I didn’t use the computer a lot as a kid, and my dad took care of the techy stuff, burning CDs included. What time is it right now? It is 10:08 PM. My parents’ Lea Salonga show is supposed to be done in a few, but I guess Lea’s having a lot of fun still haha.
Are you currently enrolled in school? Yep, I’m in my last year of college. Still blows my mind every time I have to say this. Name one number in your phone number? 5. If you had a baby girl, what would you name her? Olivia. Do spiders scare you? Not really, but this is purely because our spiders aren’t nearly half as big as the ones y’all have in like Australia or the States. Are you a n00b? Welp, noob can mean a lot of things but I don’t think I’ve ever been called one. How many online accounts do you think you have? Too many. Is Myspace an important thing to you? No, and it wasn’t even when I made an account. Who is your favorite celebrity and why? Kristen Stewart. She’s genuine, raw, passionate, and she doesn’t give a shit. Who do you hate the most and why? Are we still talking about celebrities? Chris Brown and Amber Heard are high up on my list. How many texts do you send a month? Eh, too many. It’s my main mode of communication with Gabie. Have you ever caught fireflies? No, I’ve always been scared of insects so even though fireflies are relatively harmless, I was never interested in playing with them. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? I don’t have a favorite letter... Can you speak another language? Man, this question is on EVERY SURVEY. Yes, my first language isn’t English. Do you believe in true love? Sure. 
Do you have a job? I don’t. How many fingers am I holding up? Are you straightedge? LOL I used to claim that I was because all my idols before were. Then I slowly grew out of that phase and realized after my first sip of alcohol that I was going to continue drinking. I stopped claiming that I used to be edge because I still believe in their saying: if you’re not now, you never were. Give me a definition of happiness: It...differs for everyone. For me, it’s someone/thing that makes you want to keep on keeping on. Are you allergic to anything? Nope. Have you ever been swimming in the ocean? I don’t thnk I’ve swum in any oceans per se, but I’ve gone swimming in a lot of beaches and maybe several seas. What is the closest blue thing next to you? A piece of my dress is blue. Do your parents yell at you in front of your friends? My mom once yelled at me for a half hour in front of Gabie. I cried, and Gab was just helpless. It was one of the worst experiences. How many times have you been to the mall in the last month? Maybe like 7-10. I’m there during the weekends and would sometimes be there too on school nights. How do you feel about the way the world is today? Frustrated.
What kind of computer are you on? I’m on a Macbook Air. Could you see yourself working at Hollister? I don’t think so. Do you think it's fun to make these surveys? I don’t make surveys so I can’t relate. But it is fun to take them :) What is your dream car? I just want a Mini Cooper and I’d be as happy as can be. What is your goal in life? To have kids or to have my dream house; I don’t know which is the bigger dream. Can you go out of the house without doing your hair? No. I absolutely have to at least comb through it or part it properly before heading out. How high have you counted before without getting bored? Like, 50. Do you know the muffin man? I never understood this reference and would never care to find out, honestly. Is life really that bad? Sometimes. Would you like to own a dinosaur? I don’t think they’re meant to be pets, so as much as I’d want to, no thanks. Have you ever seen a Hello Kitty toaster? Doubt it.
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meanderings0ul · 6 years
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Philinda & Timelines
I wrote most of this in a more disorganized form a few months back, but now I’ve fleshed it out and done some more calculations. I hope it might be interesting to fans of these characters or useful for those who write fic for them. I personally like to have some dates and characterization timelines to look at when writing fics set in a “real world” type show, so I generally keep some notes for myself in word docs. Here I just kinda dove into it. 
I don’t go into plot timeline details here because I just don’t care. Marvel does an incredibly shit job of taking travel time and medical times into account. They can try and convince me something happened in two weeks, but I’m always going to ignore it. This uses info from the show itself and from an online date calculator. I am mostly not pulling from the various wikis. The wikis are great for trivia, but they are massively self-contradictory due to tie-in comics, stuff said in various interviews, etc. It’s Marvel. [Edited 03/20 to finally include workable theories for Captain Marvel]
*
Phil Coulson was born July 8, 1964. This makes his sun sign Cancer and his Chinese zodiac year the Dragon. He was an active and outgoing kid who wished he had a brother to play with. His dad died or was killed in 1973. Coulson was only 9 years old. They’d either finished restoring Lola together earlier that year or in 1972. It is implied in season 2 that he and his mother moved after the death, either to a different part of the town or somewhere else entirely as he did not attend the high school his father worked at. Coulson finished high school and went to college to study history, both because that was the subject his dad taught and because he was always a giant history nerd. He worked as a lifeguard as a teenager. We do not know anything about his mother’s work or their relationship when she was alive. A research project into the S.S.R. brought him to Shield’s attention. He was recruited from college by Nick Fury, an agent at the time.
Melinda May was born November 20, 1965 (a reference from the scanned back-page of a tie-in comic I cannot find again - Fury’s Secret Files from somewhere I think). Obviously, they’ve just used Ming’s birthday with a different year to parallel the actors. Her birth location is always listed as classified, so it’s possible her mother was involved with something for the CIA at the time. Her sun sign is Scorpio and her birth year in the Chinese zodiac is the snake. May always picked up new physical activities quickly according to her dad in S3. She started ice-skating at 7 and quickly began skating competitively. At 12 she switched from skating to martial arts. May has a trusting relationship with both her parents. We don’t know anything about when they seemingly separated, decided to live separately for Reasons, or got divorced. There is around a year unaccounted for between when she most likely graduated high school and when she likely joined Shield. She might have joined against her mother’s wishes. We know nothing of how she was recruited.
Star Wars Episode IV came out in May of 1977. Coulson was 12 and May was 10. This is totally relevant information.
These dates mean May is just shy of two years younger than Coulson. More precisely, Coulson is 17 months older.
We know they were at the Academy together (Comms and Ops shared some classes and electives) and graduated at the same time because of 2x4. Comms and Ops would have been in different facilities, though reasonably close together for logistics purposes. There would be a significant amount of overlap for field agent hopefulls. They probably wouldn’t have seen each other every day. They probably usually saw each other multiple times a week, depending on their classes.
They also shared classes with future Agent Blake and Agent Garrett. (It’s important to remember that Agents Hand, Hartley, Sitwell, and Hill are younger in the MCU and did not attend the Academy until the previous four Agents had already left.)
From common practices in American educational law, Coulson very likely started school (kindergarten) in the fall of 1969 (at 5). He would have graduated in 1982 and started college that fall. It is also possible he started school in 1970 (at 6) and graduated in 1983. May likely started school in 1971 at 5 and would have graduated in spring 1984 at 18 or she possibly started school at 1970 at 4 and graduated in 1983 at 17. (At the time, starting kindergarten at 4 years old was common if you would be turning 5 soon. Start ages were lower in the 70s.)
Here’s where a couple different things could have happened.
I’m going to move forward here with the (imo) more likely graduation ages for them both. These aren’t official. These events could have happened a year earlier or a year later, but anything more than that would be very unlikely.
It’s spring 1984. Coulson just finished his sophomore year of college and is about to turn 21. May just graduated high school at 18.
We know the Shield Academies at this point were legitimate in the eyes of the U.S. Government, though mostly under the radar. There was enough of a structured curriculum schedule in place we know they had a yearbook (as of season 5). Taking on recruits under 18 generally requires parental permission, as Shield is still paramilitary.
Option 1 - Coulson’s research has already drawn Shield’s attention and he is approached by Fury. Someone recruits May or she becomes aware of Shield some other way. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1984. They are 21 and 18 when they join.
Option 2 - Coulson continues through his junior year of college. His research into the S.S.R. draws Shield’s attention. Fury goes to recruit him. May spends a year doing any number of things. Her mother might want her to pursue the CIA. May picks Shield. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1985. They are 22 and 19 when they join.
Option 3 - Coulson is about to finish college when he draws the attention of Shield and is recruited by Fury. May is an unknown for two years. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1986. They are 23 and 20 when they join.
Star Trek IV (the whale movie) came out in November of 1986. Coulson was 23 and May was just 21. This is also totally relevant information.
Let’s say MCU Shield’s training program lasted 3-4 years. (Fitzsimmons strongly implied in season 1 Seeds that Scitech usually took about four years.)
The absolute earliest (3 years) May and Coulson (and Garrett) should have been in the field was 1987/1988/1989. Their most likely brand-new Level 1 Agent year was 1988/1989/1990.
Coulson and May were most likely Level 1 agents at 23 and 21/24 and 22/25 and 23.  
The Sausalito mission mentioned in episode 2x4 probably happened later in 1988/1989/1990.
John Garrett, who they were trained with, was injured in Sarajevo and became a Project Deathlok subject in 1990. He probably was only Level 2. He’d only been an agent 2-3 years maximum.
We knew from season 1 that Coulson’s mom Julie was long gone. The wiki puts her death as September 22, 1992, exactly 19 years after her husband’s death. Coulson was only 28.  
This is where I take issue with one of the semi-official dates. Big issue.
We got a flashback to a younger Agent Coulson and Agent May in season 4. May was a Level 3 specialist and Coulson was recently Level 4. We know they knew each other pretty well at that point, enjoyed each other’s company, and also frequently went weeks or months without seeing each other. They worked on missions separately and together and kept track of each other through company gossip. It’s at this point in their lives that a little, badly-kept-secret, mutual crush is going on that is ultimately not pursued for multiple reasons. They stay close friends and work partners for the next 10-15 ish years.
Parts of the wiki claims this flashback was to 2003. However, this is basically a retcon and in my oh so professional and classy-sounding opinion is just dumber than fuck. (Also, that date was never used in the episode.)
The absolute latest Coulson and May started as field agents was 1990. So *13 years* later they’re still Level 3? I don’t think so. Level 1 is your entry level. Anyone who is performing well is only going to stay there 1-3 years max. Level 2 is your no longer a noob level. If you’re doing great work let’s say people stay there 2-5 years. Agents would stay longer in Levels 3/4/5 than Levels 1 and 2.
Let’s be generous and give them 5 years at Levels 1 and 2. It could have easily been 4, maybe even 3 depending on how fast they got their groove after the whole “in the bay for five hours” thing. Coulson and May logically made it to Level 3 anywhere around 1993/1994/1995.
The Captain Marvel movie makes dubious use of existing aos canon, but if we use the perspective that Phil is a brand new Level 3 field agent instead of one fresh out of the Academy (which is completely incompatible with aos’s timeline) than we can say Phil and May were new level 3 agents sometime early in 1995. 
A sensible placement for the Russian 0-8-4 mission would be anywhere from late 1995-1997. With Phil having recently made Level 4 (strongly implied the the flashback), I would suggest 1996 or 1997 as the most likely placement. 
From the tie-in comics, MCU Agent Barton is recruited by Nick Fury around this same time, Agent Romanoff “recruited’ by him a few years later.
By 2003, both Coulson and May should have advanced a Level again and be taking on more complex missions. Strike Team Delta is part of Shield now. Fury is Director.
The Bahrain mission happened in 2008. Coulson was likely a Level 6 operative and May would be Level 5. Coulson took a lot of orders from a lot of people in episode 2x17. I highly doubt he was Level 7 at that point. The agent in charge of the operation, Agent Hart, was one of the ones Katya took over. Big Shield headquarters forbade Coulson from sending May into the building. He gave her the clear to go anyway and covered for her. May was 42. Coulson was 43 or 44.
May worked on administration for mostly Level 3s in the basement of the Triskelion for the next 4.5 years. This does not mean she became a lower ranking agent; you would likely want a higher-than-3 managing your level 3s.
Coulson is sent to make contact with Tony Stark later in 2008. At some point he advances to Level 7 then 8. Given Shield viewed the Bahrain rescue as a legendary success, not knowing how it unfolded, it is reasonable to think Coulson was promoted to 7 shortly afterwards. 
Coulson died on the Helicarrier on May 4th, 2012 during The Incident. He was 47. May was 46 when she found out he was dead.
When we met them in season 1, Coulson was recently 49 (technically…) and May was 47. May is a Level 7 agent and Coulson remains Level 8.
After season 5 they are on a beach in Tahiti. Coulson is 54 and May is 52. They’ve known each other 34/33/32 years.
*
Now, I’ve tried to structure this whole thing in a way that should you want to change their school-dates and use any of the three options you should be able to go through and add/subtract from the existing numbers pretty easily. So I hope that’s useful if you’ve been trying to math and write fic or if there’s just been general confusion.
I greatly prefer to write from the Option 2 set, with adjustments made for Captain Marvel. That just makes the most sense to me as far as events we know about from season one and the other life events for these characters. So if you’ve read any of my stuff, this is generally where I’m coming from.
I really hope this was useful and interesting. I spent far too much time on it.
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To All The Boys I’ve “Loved” Before
I must be one of the very few 21 year old’s with access to the internet/uses it frequently that doesn’t have their own Netflix account. Or at least uses someone else’s. I had considered subscribing to the service to see TATBILB but thought against it, for the sake of my productivity. I already have Tumblr, Youtube and Instagram to sap it. 
What I do have access to, however, is Wikipedia. So I think if this post ever managed to find its way into the hands of the guys mentioned below; just like Lara Jean, I too would faint. Or at least feel that awful sense of embarassment. 
I have used the world love so that I could add this nice pop-culture youth reference into the post. What I have felt, for most of these boys,however, is some deep feeling at a point in my relationship with them, whether that was an intense infatuation, a burst of friendship warmth , or bitter hate.
MI - you were the first person I ever talked to online. I was just this 16 year old girl with a low self-esteem, unsure about how she felt about herself and her friends and boys. And then, there was this guy, this guy who loved books. I will never forget that flutter I felt when you named one of your bookshelves on Goodreads after mine. Late NYE we exchanged New Year’s greetings and thousands of miles away, it felt to me like we shared a special moment. 
Later on, I think you eventually got bored of me. I did something I was ashamed of to grab your attention (still didn’t work). You drafted into the army but I feel like we had drifted apart before that, and we haven’t really spoken since. I have no regrets at all - because that relationship ultimately led me to another friendship, which remains to this day. I will always cherish the comfort that your messages gave me and that sweet friendship that we once had. 
CDR - I have never been in a romantic relationship but you were the only boy to have ever broken my heart. I will never forget that feeling when I realised you unfriended me; my heart seemed to skip a beat, my breath hitched in my throat and my stomach fell , all simultaneously. Do I wish you badly? Of course not. This post is not the post for that digression but what we had, had to come to an end.
By this time I was older, and more comfortable with guys i.e. I actually used to talk to them/hang out with them. Not so cloistered in my all girls school any longer. Sure, they liked me (I’d like to think I’m a good sport, and funny). But, there was never really any depth. Then we were talking and one day, out of the blue you told me that you liked talking to me because you felt that there was no one else intellectual that you could talk to at school. What you didn’t know was that you happened to address one of my insecurities; I wasn’t athletic, and I didn’t feel like I was good-looking. In that moment, I think I fell for you - you were the first guy to appreciate me for my intelligence, which is the only strength I felt I had. For 6 months of multiple daily messages to fall away was a literal shock to the system, but I understand why it had to happen. It seems childish to say it now, but you taught me that boys really can like girls for their brains.
CERJ - You taught me that some people are a magnet for hate and negativity in their lives. However much you try to be a light, if anything, YOU will be extinguished.
Oh, how I tried. How I tried to make you happier, to be that friend you claimed to desperately want. But you moaned, and dithered and suddenly the only reaction I could elicit from you was when I became hurtful myself. Only then would your anger rear its ugly head. It was almost as if...you were just consumed by the negativity and now that was all you could ever be.
I literally had to stop myself after sending an email to you because I was shocked at how toxic I felt, how toxic I had let you make me. This isn’t me, I thought. And I finally became exactly the girl you’d warned me I’d become; blocking the hell out of you, lifting a great weight off of my shoulders.
SI - I hope you’re alive but the reality is that you’ve probably ghosted me. It was so promising at first - and then you said we’d exchange letters. You gave your address (but not your zip code, which I was able to deduce thanks to Google. My secret talent - working out Israeli zip codes without speaking Hebrew). I don’t know what was wrong - did you even get my letter (which is the first I ever sent to a penpal btw) ? You taught me that sometimes people ghost - and perhaps it’s not to do with you. And that’s fine.
GJH- You will always be the first boy (ever) that has said to me: “you’re cute”. For days after I would scroll up to your message, not quite believing it. It’s different coming from a boy your age than it is coming from your mother.
When we just about to part ways, for a few minutes...I couldn’t believe it was happening. I was typing unconsciously. Why? Because I had imagined our relationship to be something it could never be, something it never was. I painted an image of you in my head and blamed you when you didn’t live up to it. Fell in love with my mind. For that, I’m sorry.
And now, saving the best till last...
Forgotten; I can’t remember your name, sorry. But what I do remember was that I was feeling down, and you called yourself my hype man (numerous times.). That you were there for me. You just made me happy. It taught me the power of a kind word, even to strangers on the internet (especially so) and it’s how I met one of my best internet friends today.
VT: I literally do.not.deserve.you. My messaging patterns are so out of whack and they do not do you justice. I wonder why you still talk to me, really.
But I love talking to you, on the occasions that I do. It makes me happy. I know that you’re one of the guys, probably the only one actually since there’s a certain freedom to online relationships, who I can rely on to provide a solution to my problems. But also be one to whom I can send a meme, or share a joke. And that’s fucking priceless.
ERO: My emails to you took HOURS to write, and I never asked you if it took just as long for you to reciprocate. It’s charming though, thinking that across an ocean and six (six?) time zones there was someone like me, hunched over their laptop, sharing their thoughts, their dreams, the mundane (because the mundane is the best) putting aside a substantial amount of time to a relative stranger, who I hope became a friend in your eyes. Like you became in mine.
When CERJ was being a dickhead and I didn’t want to admit it to myself, you told me the truth full on. I wouldn’t have had the courage to stop it without you. 
I think I would have been able to reply more quickly to your emails had we not had the habit of recommending songs to each other, but our correspondence wouldn’t have been the same without it. “Want You Back” by HAIM, “Missing You” by John Waite and “Together in Electric Dreams” were liked by you, because by then I had gauged your taste and knew you would be a fan. Those songs, whenever they come on shuffle, throw me back to those times, will forever remind me of you, and I am GLAD.
JM: You hear people say Kik and one tends to assume...but we didn’t use it for that. We were friends, plain and simple. You asked me for love advice (me, a romantic love-less noob). You and her are still together years on, and man, I’m taking a little bit of credit for that ;)
But the real nugget is that I stopped talking to you. It was me. Shit happened and I messaged you on Kik months later, but you’d deleted it. Then I remembered your name (obviously) and the college you said you’d been accepted to (thanks freaky memory). I found your email. Taking the plunge was hard. But I took it, and gingerly sent a message; “hey, do you remember me?”. And then you said, which I nearly would have forgotten were it not for writing this post; “but of course, I could never forget you.”
JM, I don’t know if you felt like you forgave me in that email reply, but it definitely felt like you did. You taught me to give people a second chance, and perhaps even a third. And I can’t thank you enough for that. 
Thanks to all of you, who have shaped me or taught me in some way or another. You’ve all impacted me and my life in some way. Thank you. 
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