#we got. a pretty sea themed one. a pokemon one. a um really really cute halloween dragon one!

[nordicbananas]

whenever i see those like "i don't often smile" things in the get to know you games i. like i want to say that i'm not so transparent about my feelings but no i crack so easily KJHSDFKHDF

[junietuesday]

Michael is walking down the beach at sunset, headphones connected to his phone in his pocket, breathing weed smoke into the air on the day that he meets Jake.

Well. “Meets” is a strong word. But the point stands.

The waves crash rhythmically against the soft sand, audible even over the soft music playing through Michael’s headphones. Since his area is shit, there’s too much litter to walk barefoot, but he can tell through his sneakers that the sand would be soft under his feet. The sky is pink along the horizon, the sun a gentle orange as it sinks beneath the ocean’s surface—it’s already seven PM, but obviously, sunsets are always late during the summer.

This beach is comforting, after so many years of coming out here to walk, listen to music, and, later, smoke. On bad days, it can feel horribly lonely out here with only the waves and the sand as his company, but usually, coming here is like receiving a warm hug.

Michael kicks an old soda can along the shore as he walks, the lyrics of “You Happened” from The Prom (thank Christine Canigula for trying to turn him into a theater kid) playing through his headphones, the upbeat tune contrasting with the quiet serenity of the rest of the beach. Nothing much ever really happens here, but in Michael’s opinion, that’s a definite plus.

Until he sees a head poking out of the water, far out from the coastline. Like, “is it safe for someone to be out that far?” far out. Michael’s never seen anyone swim out that distance, anyway.

He makes to call out to the figure. But just as fast, the figure dives down and disappears, a bright green tail that sparkles in the light of the sunset breaking the surface of the water, before it, too, vanishes beneath the waves.

Michael runs to the water, where the waves soak his sneakers and tug at his socks. The ocean is as always. There’s no sign the mysterious figure ever existed.

~

Jake slips back into his bedroom, flopping down onto his bed and closing his eyes against the light of nearby bioluminescent fish that streams in through his windows, reflecting off the sparkling blue crystal of his ceiling. He can still feel the after effects of adrenaline thrumming through his body, lighting him up from head to tailfin.

It feels like only moments later when someone crashes into the room with a thump of the door falling shut behind him.

“Jake!” Rich’s voice is all beams. Jake groans into his comfy, comfy pillow, pulling his comfy, comfy sheets tighter around him. (It’s a sensory thing, okay?) “Jake, I’m—oh, shit, dude, you look like ass. Are you good?”

“Stayed up way too late,” Jake says, looking up. He’s greeted with the familiar sight of Rich’s deep sun-colored scales, fading from orange at the hip to red at the tailfin, and the dyed-red streak in his hair. “I’m so sleep-deprived, save me from this hell.”

“What?” Rich tilts his head. “Why? I mean, all power to you if you wanna pull a random all-nighter, but—”

“Uh.” Jake propels himself upright, the sun beating hard into his eyes. “There was a reason. And you have to promise not to tell anyone if I tell you what I was doing.”

“Oh shit, this is serious,” Rich says, at Jake’s grave expression. He spins around, sending ripples through the water around them. “Lay it on me, dude! I swear on my life I won’t snitch.”

“Okay.” Jake takes a deep breath, sinking down to let his tail hang over the edge of his bed. “I was at the beach. Watching a human.”

Rich’s expression flashes from earnest to shocked. “What? For reals?”

Jake understands why he’s concerned. For all they know, this could be one of those humans that would turn them over to a—what’s the word?—an aquarium in a heartbeat, never to see the ocean or any sort of freedom again. Or the human could even kill Jake and keep his body instead. God knows there have been mermaids that have done the same to a human, after luring them from their ships into diving into the sea.

“Yeah,” Jake says, tail flipping with nerves, ripples pushing at the particles of sand on the floor in front of him. “He’s so handsome and cute and he seems so nice when he’s there with his friends, I think they’re his friends I mean, and like, I can’t see him as the type to murder someone senselessly! And either way, I haven’t let him see me—um, well, until…”

“‘Until’?” Rich repeats, lying on Jake’s couch at this point. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re in love with him?”

“Yeah.”

Rich looks at Jake.

“Are you gonna go back?” Rich says. “Just based on ‘he seems so nice’?”

Jake sets his jaw, and nods.

“Yeah,” he says, hands clenching into fists against his mattress. “Yeah, I am.”

“Got it,” says Rich briskly, without even moving from his relaxed recline on Jake’s couch, as though he was expecting that answer. “I’m coming with.”

“What?” Jake stares at him. “No way. I can’t ask you to risk that just ‘cause I’ve got a crush.”

“It’s not just a crush if you’re willing to risk it,” says Rich, and the resolution in his tone tells Jake that he may as well just accept it, because Rich won’t back down. “I trust you, dude. So we’re both going.”

“Fine,” says Jake, but inside, he’s extremely grateful. “And…thanks.”

“No prob.” Rich flashes a grin. “Hey, at least I get some eye candy out of it, right?”

~

The day after the beach incident, Michael tells Jeremy about it over lunch at an old 50’s-themed diner, literally named “The Diner” according to the neon letters above its entrance. It’s their favorite because of the arcade machine in one corner and the jukebox in the other. While Michael definitely doesn’t want to go back to the actual 50s—what with all the racism and shit going on—the aesthetic this place pulls off is pretty cool. Plus, the food is amazing.

“You’re serious?” Jeremy says, his pastel pink iPod long paused and abandoned on the plastic table in front of him. He hasn’t even taken out his earbuds. “Really?”

“Yeah!” Michael says, slightly defensive. Because sure, seeing a mermaid on a random stroll on the beach does sound like some kind of clickbait and/or hoax, but what reason does Michael have to lie? “I promise, its tail was the clearest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“You wear glasses.”

“You wear glasses—!”

“And like,” Jeremy goes on, ignoring Michael’s protest, “I don’t think you’re lying deliberately, but, y’know. You could’ve been just high.”

“Who says I was even smoking weed?”

Jeremy just looks at him. Michael sighs, disgruntled.

“Okay, fine, I may have smoked a little,” says Michael, “but I’ve never gotten hallucinations from weed before. It was totally a mermaid. It had to be.”

Absently, Michael wonders what the others in this restaurant think of their debate. Michael’s never pretended to be a totally normal human being, but this is a whole new level of slightly batshit crazy. The lady at one of the stools at the bar sips her banana juice from the vending machine, staring at her phone. Does she know the two teenagers sitting in a booth a few feet away from her are having a discussion about one of them apparently having seen a mermaid at the beach yesterday? Does she even care?

“Besides,” Michael continues, grabbing a fry off his plate. “If the fucking Quetzalcoatlus can be real—”

“Michael, are we really gonna go over this again?”

“Yes! I mean, it’s a fucking bird-dinosaur the height of a giraffe—which, by the way, is also a strange as hell creature—that could still fly—”

“Anyway,” says Jeremy, around a swallow of milkshake. He’s definitely used to dealing with Michael’s rambles by now. The Chuck E. Cheese pizza conspiracy (in which they re-plate uneaten pizza slices, accounting for the uneven crusts of pizzas), the history of the mitochondrion (an ancient cell absorbed an ancient bacterium and they ended up in a symbiotic relationship), the random superstition of knitterly grandmas (you have to put a mistake in your work for the soul to escape through)—you name it, Michael’s probably rambled about it. He prides himself on the vast amount of useless knowledge his brain contains. “Mermaid. I can’t.”

“I can,” says Michael. “I’m gonna go see if I see them again tonight. It’s gonna be a whole proper stake-out with like, snacks and shit. I’ll see them again if it kills me.”

“It probably will,” Jeremy says. “You can’t do that every night until you see this mermaid, who knows when they’ll come back. And who says the mermaid is even coming back at all?”

“Shush, Jeremy, have faith,” says Michael. “It’s totally, like, The Little Mermaid. The mermaid’s gonna come back ASAP to stare at my beautiful face and then we’ll meet on the beach and—”

“You really want your mystery mermaid to lose their voice and tail in a deal with a sea witch and then be unable to communicate with you whatsoever and then they’ll die if—”

“It’s the idea, not the details,” Michael says. Jeremy just doesn’t get it. “Okay? Come if you want, I don’t care.”

“Nah, I’m coming,” says Jeremy. “I don’t have anything better to do. But don’t be disappointed if nothing happens, alright?”

“Something’s gonna happen,” Michael insists. “I can feel it.”

~

The night after Jake was spotted by the human, he and Rich swim as quietly as possible through the halls of Jake’s house, light from bioluminescence filtering through the blue-stained glass of the ceiling shining blobby shapes on their skin. Jake’s parents are home for once, and they wouldn’t take too kindly to seeing their son and his best friend sneaking out in the middle of the night.

Jake lets out a breath once they make it out the door, then turns to Rich.

“You can still back out,” he says, but Rich rolls his eyes.

“I told you, you’re stuck with me,” says Rich. “Now show me the map.”

Jake shows him the map. He got lucky to have made a friend like Rich.

~

“Michael,” Jeremy says from the hood of Michael’s car. The crescent moon shines above them, the light reflecting off the ocean’s waves. “Come pokemon battle me, I brought your DS.”

“No,” says Michael, staring out into the water, sitting right by the water on the folding chair he’d brought. “I need to make sure I see the mermaid if—when they come.”

He checks his watch. Ten o’clock. It’s been three hours since the sun set, and so far, there’s no sign of the mermaid from yesterday. Not even a single stray ripple in the water.

Jeremy sighs at Michael’s words. Michael hears the crinkle of a chip bag being opened. He turns.

“Hey, let me have some!” he says, getting up to grab some chips.

But as soon as Jeremy hands him the bag, he’s back to watching the water.

~

“Are you sure we went the right way?” Rich says, consulting the map. They’re close enough to the surface that sunlight is properly reaching them, far higher than their town is located, but there’s no sign of the ocean floor rising steadily anywhere. “I don’t see a beach.”

“It was definitely this way,” Jake argues. He points at a sunken car, bits of gray peeking out from beneath the green algae covering its surface. “I always pass this thing a few minutes before I get to the shore.”

Rich makes a disbelieving noise.

“Alright, dude,” he says. “You better be right, my tail and arms are dead.”

“I’m right,” says Jake, though he can’t blame Rich for his uncertainty. If the situation were the other way around, Jake hates to admit it, but he might have turned around long ago. “I’ve made this trip, like, twice every week. I know the way.”

~sort of but not really fin (eyy!), i’m gonna finish this another time but for now i’ve gotta submit for the bmq

Word Count: 2010 Team: Michael Prompts: all main, 9 bonus Points: 76 (30 game points, 46 for the fic itself) @bmc-gift-exchange

[mostleemorethansmut]

That was twenty-eight years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-x7GcwT-Tk

[A/N: Well, if you want a spoiler for this story's plot, go ahead and listen to the song. If you don't want spoilers, still listen to the song, just don't note the lyrics. Anyway, this one came to me when I was watching the Fran Bow stream where he describes going to a dance at a catholic school. The framing device of where they met came initially from a ShAmy fanfic I was meaning to write, but then... GTLive happened. I don't think there's much more to add. Also, Matthew describes his first kiss on one of the Higher or Lower streams, but I'm going to say he's lying]

Matt was fed up with his life. Not in a bad way. He wasn't so fed up that he wanted to go jump off the roof of a dorm building[extremely unsubtle Life is Strange reference], but he was fed up. No, fed up wasn't the right word. Bored. Yes, he was bored. He was bored with his life.

Sure, he'd just finished the eighth season of Game Lab, and on his 40th birthday he'd happily handed down the Game Lab torch to his protege, Quinn.(Actually, they'd be splitting the next season to help the viewers get used to her) The team had just added the tenth show to the main channel and officially were releasing daily. Film Theory moved to posting every other day, and, though they hadn't announced it yet, Matt and Steph were hoping to have a kid soon.

He was bored because every day was the same. It'd gone from running around constantly trying to catch up with life, but soon it'd gotten routine. A literal routine. Get up, have food, research til lunch, get exercise, record script, livestream, more research with dinner, translate evidence into script, go to bed. Sometimes they stayed up late together because they wanted to work ahead for traveling, but he never had to record while away anymore. He almost missed recording in a foreign closet now. He even missed recording in a closet, ever since they started paying for a professional recording studio. Their getaways felt routine now, too.

He wanted to break from the norm.

*

Matt jumped up and down in the backseat. It was so exciting. "Mom, are we there yet?" he asked.

Mrs. Patrick laughed from the front. "We won't be there for several more hours," she called back. "But we are almost to New York."

"Don't you have a game-boy back there?" his father asked. "Two of them in fact?"

Matt sighed and fell back into the seat. It was true, he had the games back with him, but could you blame him for being excited? It was his first time out of Ohio. He had never gotten to the national science fair before. He sighed and reached back to his Pokemon red. After a few failed attempts at finding Missingno, he set it down. There wasn't anything left to do. Wait, he hadn't beaten the game using only the first Pokemon he'd captured. He'd try doing that.

*

The word "ahead" didn't even begin to describe the two theorists. In fact, they were so far beyond their work load, Matt almost wished for the days when they'd pull all-nighters trying to write a new episode.

Matt sighed. He pulled up the N-Switch and decided to go for a retro night with another run-through the remastered Subnautica. Stephanie took the seat across the room from him and pulled open the newspaper. Matt stared at her for a few seconds, remembering the days when she'd cuddle up on his lap, no matter what he was doing. Then he focused on the game again.

Matt was zooming through the game, and was almost ready to build a base when Stephanie interrupted his thought process. "Hey honey," she called. "Listen to this:

"I'm a middle aged man who is waiting for life to stop running by him. Yet all attempts of kindling a new lustful flame have failed. And I want another chance at the past. So, probably hopelessly, I put out this ad. I call upon a woman; a girl when I met her. I met her at a national science fair in New York. We were young, but it was there that we kissed. It's unlikely that she lives in Los Angeles, but I'm willing to try to put out a call.

Sincerely,

Pokemon."

"Do they still have letters like that?" asked Matt, absentmindedly. He knew the answer very well. He was the one who put the letter in there.

"Apparently," responded Stephanie.

*

"Time to get up," called Mrs. Cordoto. "We've got a big day ahead of us."

Stephanie refused, wrapping herself up in the blankets. "I don't wanna," she responded.

"You don't?" her mother called. "You've been looking forward to this science fair for the past months. You wouldn't stop bothering us. You're seriously telling me you don't wanna go."

"I wanna sleep," Steph playfully whined. "I'm still tired from last night."

"Now what did we tell you about going to bed late. If you're going to got to bed late, you're gonna have to live with the consequences."

Stephanie understood her mother. She was already getting up and trying to stay awake while warming up the shower. They'd traveled to her cousin's house last night and the whole of the day was spent partying. She was still pretty pumped for today's performance. She wanted to show everyone her science project.

*

Matt frowned as his wife walked back into the house. "Where did you go?" he asked, giving up on the pages he was looking through.

"I went to mail a letter," she responded.

"What for?" he asked.

"Oh, you know," she dodged, "stuff."

"Steph, what's up."

Stephanie avoided eye contact by looking to the ceiling. "I was just... contacting a friend." MatPat gave a dubious look, but she continued. "I've been wanting to make a decision now for a while, but before I did, I wanted an old friend's advice."

"And you couldn't call her."

"Some things just have to be written down," she replied, directing her gaze to the computer, trying to absorb herself in that day's work.

"Okay then," Matt agreed, dropping the conversation.

*

Matthew crawled through the sea of early students. It seemed that everyone except him knew to show up early. They'd arrived when the letter had told them to, but the room seemed to be filled with overachievers. Matthew finally saw two open spots. He decided to choose the spot at the end of the table.

Matt set out his experiment. He'd chosen something video-game-themed. It was, "How much damage would Pikachu's thunderbolt do?" 'TotPat' helped compare size and facts that he could collect from the video game. From what he found with the size of pokemon and how much damage was dealt, relatively.

This was all decent, but, after finding a power strip, he pulled out his final product. There were two buttons that he'd rigged up to show Pikichu's weaker and stronger attacks. The second one was able to kill a person, so he just rigged a pretty shocking button and told everyone to imagine it 20 times worse.

Matthew had just set out a sign to check with your medical details before touching the buttons; when a girl set down her project next to him.

*

It was Matt's turn to read the newspaper tonight. Stephanie had claimed the television a while back to play Silent Hill 2.

Matthew scanned the paper. "Say Steph, do you know where that article from last night is?"

She raised an eye at him. "I didn't know you were so into the personal column all of a sudden. It's on page 8C, if memory serves correctly."

He flipped through the paper. "Hey, it seems someone answered."

"Oh?" asked Stephanie, clearly uninterested. "what did they say."

"Dear Pokemon,

I'm surprised to hear from you. I almost didn't even remember when I first heard the story. Now I remember. I am a now middle aged woman who would love to try to re-kindle her lustful flame again. How about we meet. Kennedy, two days from now. Same place we hid all those years ago.

See you then,

Doom."

*

Stephanie set out her cardboard display. It was a pretty cool project she had in mind. She had done a research project into the natural resources on Mars and weather or not it would be feasible to have a base there.

She had gotten the idea from the video game Doom and had used a lot of comparisons to the game world and how accurate it was. She went through and showed how the levels were mapped, how big they would be in real life, and what technology it would take to get there.

She looked over at the boy next to her. He was slightly taller than her with glasses and a strange hair-do. He was pretty cute. "Hey," she called, "my name's Stephanie." Steph held out her hand nervously. "What's yours?"

The kid took her hand. "Matthew," he introduced, "What's your project about?"

"Well, um," Steph stuttered. She was always embarrassed to tell people that her project was based on a video game. "It's about building a base on Mars." She gestured at the tri-fold.

Matt examined the board. "Oh my gosh, this is all about Doom. That's cool. I haven't gotten to play it because I only own a console. Have you played it?"

Stephanie was surprised at the kid's response. "Um, yeah. Lots of fun. I really enjoyed it." She looked at the boy's presentation. "Say, you like Pokemon?"

"Yeah," he responded, turning his attention back to her. "Do you?"

"Don't have have a Game Boy."

"I have an extra one. You wanna play some?"

*

Matthew put on his jacket. It was a bit chilly outside today. Stephanie had to run to the store, so now was the perfect time. He got in the car and drove to Kennedy Elementary School. The building was buzzing with activity. It was a science fair, after all.

Matt took a deep breath. Was he seriously going through with this? Cheating on his wife for a girl he barely remembered? Deciding that there was no time like the present, he got out of the car and headed inside.

He wandered through the dozens of science fair projects. After roaming through the sea of children and mediocre projects, he finally found the back door. He stepped out and glanced back and forth. Then he saw someone there. The woman had shown up.

*

Matt and Stephanie were sitting right next to each other. They'd snuck out of the science fair and escaped out a door in the back. "I don't get it," little Stephanie swore. "Why are all of my grass types unable to even harm your one fire?"

"Stephanie, that's the whole point of Pokemon. An extreme game of rock, paper, scissors." Matt grinned and patted the top of her head. "Video games can be hard sometimes."

Steph glared at him and sent out a water type. Matt gulped and tried to escape. Stephanie grinned as the tide suddenly shifted in her favor. She still lost, but it became fun by the end.

They were laughing and discussing their last match when someone said something over the loud speaker. "Sounds like they're about to announce the winners," Matthew said. He stood up and they shook up.

"This was a lot of fun," Stephanie thanked, "thanks Matt." The little girl leaned in and gave the little boy a kiss on the lips. Then she skipped off inside.

Matthew stood there, stunned at what had just happened.

*

The couple's reunion was a bit awkward at first. Stephanie stared at Matt and vice versa. "I remember now," she figured. "I can't believe I never figured it out."

"Me neither," laughed Matt. They both burst into a giggling fit. "C'mere," directed Matt, pulling her into hug. They happily snuggled together.

Stephanie chuckled as they separated. "I guess everything worked out in the end."

"Almost," Matt joked, "we have yet to re-kindle that lustful flame."

"Well that's pretty easy to do," she smiled.

Matt nodded, then his expression changed to panic. "Wait, you don't mean here?"