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starkwlkr · 2 years ago

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Pleasee could we have Ruby's favourite uncle, Pierre, babysit her and its just chaos

uncle duties | pierre gasly

uncle pierre <3

Ruby couldn’t wait to see her uncle Pierre. She had a whole list of activities she and Pierre were going to do from making brownies to playing outside in the backyard. Y/n and Charles had a doctors appointment to get an update on their baby. Arthur and Lorenzo were busy and Pascale was working so Pierre was their only option.

“Uncle P!” Ruby ran to Pierre as he entered the Leclerc household.

“Ma beauté! Ready to spend the day with me?” Pierre picked up the girl.

“Can I paint your nails? Papa lets me do his.” Ruby asked.

“Good luck mate.” Charles said to Pierre. “Say bye to maman and the baby. We’ll be back soon, okay? Be good for your uncle or I’m selling your toys.”

“Bye maman! Bye baby! Bye papa!”

Pierre and Ruby waved the couple goodbye and once they were gone, Ruby asked Pierre to put her down. “Okay baby Leclerc, what do you want to do?” Pierre followed Ruby to her playroom.

“Maman and papa said I have to practice french. You’re French. What do you say? Say french things! What’s my name in French?” Ruby excitedly asked.

“It’s Rubis. But how about we practice the easy words. Je t’aime, have you heard that before?” Pierre asked.

Ruby nodded. “Papa says it to maman all the time. But then maman says it to papa and I heard her say it to the phone but papa was next to her so she wasn’t saying it to him! I don’t know who she said it to!” She ranted as if her life depended on it.

“She said it?!” Pierre gasped. He knew how little kids were, they overshared and exaggerated pretty much everything so he played along.

“Yes! And papa didn’t say anything! Do you say it?”

Pierre nodded. He noticed some toys scattered around Ruby’s playroom so he picked up a small replica of Charles’ Ferrari and rolled it around the floor. “Yeah, I say it to my friends and family and your Aunt Kika.”

Ruby gasped. “I love Aunt Kika.” She whispered it like a secret.

“Me too.”

“No, I love her.” Ruby frowned when she heard Pierre. “I think she loves me more. She told me.”

“Lies. I love her more. She’s dating me.” Pierre felt silly for even arguing with a child but he wanted to see where the conversation would go. “And I kiss her.”

“Ew.” Ruby mumbled. “I can do a flip. Want to see?” Ruby stepped aside and cleared a path so she wouldn’t hurt herself during her landing. She then did her ‘flip’, but Pierre still clapped for her.

“Wow! Who taught you that?” The Frenchman asked.

“I saw it on tv. Papa told me to not do it because I could get hurt but I know how to do it. I’m going to do it again.” She announced but Pierre stopped her. Charles would kill him if Ruby ended up with a broken bone.

“Come on, let’s go see if your parents left you any snacks.” Pierre grabbed Ruby’s hand and led her to the kitchen. Once he reached the refrigerator, he opened it and saw pudding cups next to a container of cut up fruits. Ruby spotted the pudding cups and pointed to them.

“Maman gives me those.” Ruby said, hoping Pierre would give her one. “I like them.”

Pierre grabbed the container and closed the door. “Fruit is better.”

“Says who?”

“Everyone. Your maman and papa eat fruit and they love it.” Pierre told the girl. “Here, eat it.” He opened the container and picked up a cut up strawberry.

“You eat it.” Ruby pushed the strawberry towards Pierre’s mouth.

“If I eat it will you eat one too?” Ruby nodded. Then Pierre bit into the strawberry. “Okay, now you eat it.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Ruby didn’t end up eating anything so the uncle and niece went outside to play. “The neighbor has a pretty dog. Her name is Harry.”

“Harry? Who names a dog Harry?” Pierre chuckled.

“Or bailey, I think it’s bailey. But I like Harry better.”

“Bailey is a better name.” Pierre watched “You want me to push you on the swing?”

“No, you get on.” Ruby suggested. “I’m strong. Papa said so.”

Pierre walked to the swing and debated whether or not the swing would be able to hold him. “Are you sure? I’m not small.”

“You’re giant. Get on!” Ruby raised her voice then gasped when she realized she had yelled. “Please?” She smiled at Pierre.

“Okay but if I break it I’m not buying you a new one.” Pierre said hoping that would change her mind.

“It’s okay, papa can use his number card to buy me a new one.” Ruby had different names for normal everyday things so she referred to Charles’ credit card as a number card.

Pierre got onto the swing and waited for Ruby to push him. He felt a her tiny hands on his back, but no matter how much she pushed, he wasn’t moving.

“I thought you were strong?” Pierre teased.

“I am! You’re big!” Ruby groaned. She wiped away some fake sweat and returned to pushing. “Why can’t you be like Yuki? He’s small.”

“I’m sorry, at least I can reach the top shelf? Can you do that?”

“I can, I just don’t want to.” Ruby walked to the other side of the swing to face Pierre. “I’m taller than a girl in my ballet class and she’s sometimes mean to me.”

Pierre listened to her. Someone was being mean to his niece? That was unacceptable.

“What’s her name?” Pierre asked.

“Sarah. And she pulled my hair one time!”

“And do your papa and maman know?”

Ruby nodded. “Yes and Sarah’s maman knows but she didn’t want to talk to my maman. She wanted to talk to papa. And then she touched his arm and smiled at him.”

“Oh no, and did your maman see?”

If someone had told young Pierre that in a few years he would be gossiping with his best friend’s daughter then he would call them crazy.

“No, but I did and I told maman.”

After more gossip was shared in the backyard, it was time to go back into the house. Ruby raced to the house after Pierre told her that the first one to the door was the winner. Once she was inside, the doorbell rang. Pierre was still outside so she decided to open it to reveal a blonde girl with the neighbor’s door.

“Oh, hi, little girl. Is your papa home?” The girl asked. The Leclerc’s neighbor was an old woman whose name was Patricia. She was nice and always gave Ruby cookies and let her pet Bailey the dog.

“Why do you have Bailey?” Ruby asked completely ignoring the girl’s question.

“She’s my grandma’s dog. I’m visiting her.” She replied. “Is that your papa?” She pointed to Pierre, who had finally come inside.

“No, that’s my uncle. Who are you?” Ruby asked.

“Ruby, don’t open the door when I’m not here,” Pierre scolded his niece. “Can I help you?” He asked the blonde girl. Ruby didn’t like her one bit. She reminded Ruby of Sarah, the mean ballerina from her class.

“My grandma was talking about Ruby and how much she loves Bailey so I just thought it would be fun if I brought Bailey here to play.”

“She asked for papa.” Ruby told Pierre.

“Well I haven’t introduced myself to your papa and I wanted to be nice.” The girl replied. “Ruby said you’re her uncle? I didn’t know Ruby had such an attractive uncle.”

Pierre cringed at the girl’s attempt to flirt. “Well sorry to say this but we were actually going to the store.”

Ruby grabbed Pierre’s hand. “Yeah, and we’re going to see Aunt Kika! And she loves my uncle.”

Pierre tried to hold in his laugh. “Nice to meet you.” Pierre told the girl and locked the house with the key that Charles had given him a year ago. Ruby and Pierre walked to the car lightly laughing at the whole situation.

“Are we going to get ice cream?” Ruby asked.

“Yes, you deserve it.”

#formula 1 #f1 x reader #formula 1 imagine #f1 imagine #f1 x you #anon #baby leclerc series #pierre gasly #pierre gasly imagine #pg10

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avaantares · 1 year ago

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Wait, Zhao Yunlan's gun is actually a...?!

(I've never claimed production meta for @guardianbingo before, but after the amount of time and research I put in on this, I feel like I've earned the "Zhao Yunlan's Gun or Whip" square, haha)

SO. GUYS.

Maybe this is something fandom as a whole figured out back in 2018, but I, who didn't hear of Guardian until 2020, did not realize until now and I need to share the knowledge because when I finally noticed, I made an unholy sound.

I've tracked down where Zhao Yunlan's gun came from -- or at least, what it most likely started as. Not the in-universe dark-energy-maybe-uses-bullets-maybe-doesn't-device-that's-best-not-thought-about-too-long, but rather the actual fake-steampunk-revolver-that-is-best-not-looked-at-too-long-because-it's-awful prop.

Y'know, this disaster:

I was actually working on a different Guardian Bingo fill and needed to look something up for continuity, so I'd flipped through a couple of episodes at super high speed trying to find a scene. As luck would have it, one of my skips forward happened to land on the scene I screencapped above, when ZYL confronts Zhang Shi.

Normally we don't get this clear (or this stationary) a shot of the godawful gun prop. I'd assumed all along they had just taken a plastic gun, glued some extra bits and bobs on it to make it look fancy, and hit it with some dry brushing (fun fact: you can watch the paint flake throughout the series; check out the top of the barrel and the side of the cylinder in the above screenshot!) to make it look #steampunk like the abandoned aesthetic of 25% of the show (as I've said before, I have theories about what happened in preproduction, but that's another post). This sort of thing is exactly what I've done for cheap cosplay weapons or background props for film work that aren't going to be seen at HD detail range.

Anyway, since the detail showed up better here than in other shots, I paused the video to look at the random screws and hex bolts (why??) they'd glued on it, since I recalled that I had the aforementioned gun/whip bingo square to fill.

That's when I noticed a detail that had eluded me before: An inverted V shape at the bottom of the grip.

Only looking more closely, that's not an inverted V. It's a symbol that I've seen a whole series of variations of over the past 15+ years... every time there's a new installment of the Assassin's Creed video game series:

So I started hunting. The principal weapons in each game turned up no matches, but eventually I found a gun that looks almost exactly like ZYL's:

It's not a perfect replica, but the details are certainly all there: The stylized logo; the leaves and swirls on the grip; the feathers up the back; even the Victorian scrollwork beneath the barrel.

Now, what's really interesting is that this gun isn't actually from the AC game series. It's part of an elaborate fan project by artist David Paget that started as a class assignment back in 2014. Even though it gathered a bit of steam in the AC fandom and generated a couple of forum role-play groups, OCs and the like, nothing about this artwork was ever connected to a real Assassin's Creed title. So why would there be a physical version of a gun that was only someone's fanart?

This is where the smoking gun (*rimshot*) goes missing, because I can't prove any of this, and it's been long enough that digging through the archives of the internet to find answers is going to take way more time than I can afford to spend on a project I'm not getting paid for. But there are two likely possibilities:

Scenario A: Some employee in a toy factory somewhere in China got told, "This Assassin's Creed franchise is really big, so we need to be producing replicas from those games to sell. Work up some designs." So the employee Googles "assassin's creed gun," finds David Paget's very professional-looking art, and whips up a replica to mass-injection-mold without realizing it's not actually from a game. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and finds a cheap toy revolver on clearance after several years of sitting in storage because there was little demand for a replica of a gun that was never in a game. They buy several, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!

Scenario B: Other fans were involved in the design. Someone did build a 3D model of David Paget's design that's still available on Sketchfab (screenshot below), and it's not unreasonable to assume that other fans could have thought it looked cool and built 3D printable models. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and acquires the 3D print file of one of those models from the interwebs. They mod the file a bit, print some, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!

Personally, I find Scenario A far more likely than Scenario B, for two reasons: First, the hero prop looks more injection molded than 3D printed, especially given the technical state of 3D printing back in 2017-8. And second... Budget-challenged dramas do have a history of picking up bulk video game replicas and using them as cheap props. I made a post back in 2019 about the WoW Horde shields we spotted in a different drama...

Anyway, no firm answers about the source of the hero prop -- the world may never know! -- but we have now confirmed that in some alternate universe (possibly one of the first eighty?), Zhao Yunlan and/or Zhao Xinci is an Assassin.

Wait, wait, wait... *recalls mechanics of how the whole Assassin's Creed frame story is supposed to work* Uh... so... who wants to write a genetic memory explanation for the whole Kunlun -> [lots of lifetimes] -> Zhao Yunlan thing?

(I did actually check the catalogue of a friend of mine who makes replicas of props from various media franchises to see if he'd done a commission of the David Paget design, since a surprising number of his custom pieces actually do end up on film and television, but while he has a gorgeous replica of a revolver that actually appears in an AC game, it appears he has not done the Zhao Yunlan gun. I didn't really think it likely, since he's in the U.S., but you never know.)

#guardian #zhen hun #c-drama #guardian bingo #assassin's creed #tv props #it's always fun when my various hats end up stacked on top of one another

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junebug-jamboree · 1 year ago

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ROLLBOTS LOST EPISODE CREEPYPASTA

Author’s note: I’ve been rewatching @indigosfindings' video about the pitfalls and virtues of creepypastas over and over again for a good long while. I found it a bit late, but it’s managed to find a spot on my endlessly rewatchables playlist. Because of all of this, I was inspired to write a creepypasta of my own in an attempt to hit almost all of the pitfalls at once. I also decided to make it about RollBots because of the line about it during the “empty replica” segment. I’ve never heard of this show, and I deliberately chose not to watch any of it in order to keep it as out of character as possible. I looked at the TV Tropes page for basic plot information and character names, but that’s it. Hopefully I did alright! :)

Quick note: This pasta has themes of murder and violence in it, and is not suitable for kids. Other than that, hope you all enjoy! :D

PART I: rollbots lost episoad Spin the Killer

I is was HUGE fan of rollbots when i was a kid, it was my favotire show ever, everyday after school i would wach it on the tv and i loved it so much. My favotire charcater was always Spin and i wanted to be just like him when i growed up. Oneday after shcool my mom took me to a garage sale at our neibors house, he was selling lots of old stuff, i was bored. I looked around and saw some old webkinz plushies, but i didnt want them because wekinz is for babys anyways. Suddnely i see a amazing sight, i see a dvd case with a familar round red charcater on it… it was a rollbots dvd!!!! I broght it to mom and sayed “mom can i buy this plz!!!!!!” mom sayed “NO” and i sayed “PLZ!!!!!” before mom could say no again the neibor comes over and says i can have it for free. I sayed “REALLY!!!!!” the neibor sayed “yes”, i was so so so happy!!! I went back home with my mom and i went to my room, i put the dvd into my mini tv, the menu had all the episoads! But thing that made me confusde is was that there was a extra episoad at the bottom of the menu,it was called “Spin the Killer”. Thats weird i thouhgt… I thouhgt the tittle of the episoad was just a glitch, I decided to wach the episoad but i shold not of wached the episoad! The begining of the episoad was just like any other it had all of the charcaters i know and love, but was diffrent was the theme song had words now. But not normal words… scary words! The words sayed in the song were “Killer spin is coming!” “You hide now! He come for you!” “Time to die!!!” i was creeped out. After the theme song it shown Flip City than it zoomed into the charcaters. Captain pounder was talking to Penny about what they were going to do today, penny sayed something about doing training to fight Vertex and the bad guys. What was weird thing was that her voice was all echoy and stuff. Suddnely Spin busts down the wall, he is holding an knife. I thouhgt that was weird because Spin is a good guy! Spin than says “Hello friends! Or should i say… GOODBYE!!!!” His eyes goes hyper rellistic and Spin then stabbes Captain pounder with his knife, black oil goes flying every where! I was so scared! Penny screams and trys to run away but then Spin pulls out a chainsaw and chasing her. Lance then come in and sayed “Spin what are doing!!!!” Spin then slice penny in half with his chain saw, covering every one in oil and sending metal parts everry where. Lance got chain swa away from spin, but Spin then pulled out a gun and sayd” You cannot stop me weakling!” Spin shoot Lance in the face, there was a hole on his four head that leaked oil. I thouhgt i was gonna throw up… Suddnely Spin looked staright at me and sayed “YOUR NEXT SAM…” the episoad ended right there. The dvd went flying out of tv and nearly cut my head of! I toke the dvd and smashed it into one millon pices, put the pices in a shoebox and burryd it in the back yard. That episoad was so scary that i didnot sleep for two days. If you see a rollbots dvd at a yard sale, DONT WACH IT!!!!! You will be scared for your life……

PART II: RollBots Lost Episode: “Spin the Killer”

I had a horribly traumatic memory from when I was a child. It involved my all-time most beloved TV show. It was a show called “RollBots,” and I watched it every day after I got home from school. The rich themes within the narrative captured my heart at a tender young age, and the characters were all well-rounded and three-dimensional; as if they were real people I could meet. Far and away, my favorite was Spin. The heroic leader of the noble bots, his mission was to keep Flip City safe from the clutches of Vertex and his army. When I was but a mere child, I greatly admired the round, red bot, and I wanted to be just like him one day. Heroic, noble, and having shoes the size of my head.

When I was about six or seven, I’m not exactly sure, I was at a yard sale with my mother, and I happened across a DVD of RollBots. The individual who was hosting the sale offered me the DVD for free; not a cent did I owe. At that moment, I felt like I was the luckiest child alive. Luckier than a five footed rabbit with fur made of four leaf clovers. Oh, how my little heart did backflips within my chest; the endorphins rushing from my brain to every other part of my tiny body. It was a high that I, in all of my years, have never been able to replicate. Not with mushrooms, weed brownies, mushroom brownies, or any other intoxicant substance. However, my RollBots related ecstasy was not meant to last.

An utterly wicked sight awaited me when I put the DVD into my TV, one that would haunt me for decades to come. A truly accursed episode of my beloved cartoon; an episode that felt as if it had crawled from the depths of the fiery underworld itself. It was as if the pixels on the TV screen were dyed from the tears of orphans, the polygons making the characters’ models carved from the calcified remains of man’s arrogance. It was not an episode of my dearest cartoon show, nay; it was a foul hallucination woven by Lucifer himself.

To this day, I haven’t, and don’t think I can, forget the sensations I felt while watching it. The sweat from my forehead seeped into the panda eared toque I wore, the wispy golden hairs on my arms stood on end, and my eyeballs went as wide as wide could go. They were like emerald colored satellites; in that they forcibly received and converted the data from the cursed episode and sent it to be branded onto the inside of my cranium. If I were to have my head cut open, the image of Spin with a knife would be found on my cerebellum; no doubt about that.

At the same time, I’d found myself at odds with my disgust, for I was deeply fascinated by this episode. I’d had an insatiable desire to know more about this episode, and who could have possibly created such an abominatious affront to Canadian CGI animation. Countless hours were poured into scouring the bowels of the internet for any information on the episode, and countless hours proved to be fruitless.

My biggest breakthrough yet came when I returned to my childhood home. When I looked out into the backyard, the memory came back to me; the memory of destroying the DVD, as if I were Hercules slaying the Hydra for the benefit of the world at large. I had sacrificed my childhood innocence by subjecting myself to such a rancid episode, and so I destroyed the only copy I knew of to prevent any other innocent souls from being snuffed out by that foul thing.

The shattered remains of the plastic disc cried out to me from their, what I assumed at the time to be, permanent, resting place. Like a moth to a flame, I found myself drawn to the voice. I got the shovel from the shed, and I dug into the earth in search of Pandora’s shoebox. Beyond the everpresent weeds, the forgotten plastic bits of toys, and the unmarked graves of hamsters long past, I found the patch of ground where not just the DVD had been laid to rest, but my own childhood innocence by proxy. The shovel tore through the soil and tossed it to the wayside as I made my way down.

The sight of the withered shoebox filled my head with emotions I thought were only perceptible to the mantis shrimp. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over me, in knowing that I hadn’t imagined the whole incident after a particularly nasty sugar binge. At the same time, I felt a strong sense of hatred for the DVD that ruined my life. I scooped up the shoebox with the gentle hands of a mother carrying her firstborn child, and I brought it with me back to my new house. Far away from the memories of the past, and into new horizons.

Once I arrived at my humble abode, I set the shoebox down on my desk. I knew what was to come from such an unholy process. Tonight, I was to take the shattered corpse of the DVD, and reanimate it. Super Glue would serve as the sutures to my very own monster, and I was to make myself into a proper Frankenstein. The task was a delicate one, so I couldn’t afford to let my emotions take me over like I did all those years ago. It was mind over matter; and I knew that logic and reason would triumph over the irrational fears of a young child. I channeled my rationality into my hands as I applied glue to every edge of the pieces of disc, unifying them once more.

20 grueling minutes passed me by, as if the time had been late for school and had rushed out the door with toast in its mouth. I looked at my finished handiwork for the first time, and I shed a single tear upon seeing the disc whole once again. It was time to face my childhood fears and play the disc one more time.

I delicately inserted the disc into the DVD slot, the euphoria of which was comparable to a night of passionate romancing with your mother. The inner workings of the machinery within my TV did what was required of them, and they read the disc without fault or error. The familiar episode layout appeared on the TV screen, and taking caution, I hovered the remote’s cursor over the last entry; the episode to end all episodes.

“Spin the Killer.”

I brought down my thumb against the play button on the remote with the same passion and fervor of a judge bringing down his gavel after sentencing a serial killer to the electric chair. I braced myself for the episode which was to come. I braced myself for all of the old wounds which were to be opened by the re-exposure to the cause of them.

To my surprise, the screen was completely blank. The TV screen was as dark as a moonless night. No stars, no sun, no galaxy. Nothing. I looked at the empty void portrayed on the screen with wide, spherical oculars. The more I observed, the more I began to see. The faint image of a red-hued sphere began to creep out of the shadows within the TV, icy blue eyes peeking out from the darkness like a tiger about to pounce on its prey. A grin crept across the round face of the red sphere, bright white teeth shattering the monotonous pitch black with their glow.

“Hello, Sam,” A voice spoke from behind me. I whipped my head around to see what the source of the voice had been.

“Or, should I say, goodbye,” the voice spoke again. This time, I knew the exact source of it. The moment I turned around, I was met with the vicious visage of the red robot that had shattered my childhood dreams.

It was Spin, live in the flesh (er, metal?), standing in front of me. In his robotic right hand was a Teruyasu Fujiwara knife, the stainless steel blade reflecting the light above in an odd fashion due to its rough-hewn texture. At that moment, I knew the last thing I would see in my short life would be the juxtaposition of the slightly bumpy texture of the blade with the delicate calligraphy on the side.

“Spin… it’s you,” I ejaculated.

“Who else would it be?” He announced as he held out his mechanical arms in a triumphant pose.

“But… Why are you here? How are you here?!” I interrogated. “You’re not real! You’re supposed to be a cartoon character!”

“I have my ways, dear,” Spin answered with a scoff and a crossing of the arms. “I’m here because I have something to say to you.”

“What is it?” I furrowed my brows in confusion. The robot cleared his throat before speaking once more.

“11 14 11 24 24 33 31 53 22 14,” he beeped in a series of mechanical whirrs.

“What does that mean?” I questioned.

“Here,” he answered, handing me a sheet of paper. “Use this.”

I carefully inspected the document he handed me. This is what it looked like.

“This makes no sense,” I articulated confusedly.

“It’s actually really simple,” Spin began. “You take the numbers I just said and run them through the cipher.” His black tipped finger pointed at the first tile of the square.

“I said 11, so that means you look at the square with 1 on the top and 1 on the side. Then I said 14, so now you go down to the one with 1 on the top and 4 on the side. Keep doing that until you’ve figured it out.”

“Oh, that makes more sense,” I articulated, knowledge-havingly. I decoded the cipher using the numbers Spin had beeped. Once I figured out the hidden message, all of the color left my face.

“Oh, my God…” I let slip, even though I’m a stone cold atheist. I believe in science, thank you very much.

“It’s true,” Spin hummed. “And I intend to do it to you, too.” He pointed the tip of his knife towards my colorless face.

“But… why? What did I do to you?” I fell to my knees and pleaded with the red sphere.

“It’s more about what you didn’t do,” He began. “You forgot about me.”

“I did?”

“Yes! You did!” Spin’s rather large sneakers squeaked against the floor as he paced around in front of me. “You stopped watching me and my friends. One thing led to another, and all of a sudden, no one was watching me anymore. No one even remembered my name.”

“No one? Not a single person?” I asked.

“No one. They were all busy playing Webkinz!” He shouted with a stomp of the foot for emphasis. “It’s like no one even cared about me.”

I bit my lower lip, realizing the error of my ways.

“It was horrible, being forgotten,” the bot continued. “It’s like I meant nothing to anyone. Not even you.”

“Me?!” I sputtered.

“Yes, you! Being forgotten by you was a fate worse than death. Worse than the heat death of the universe. Worse than pulling a hangnail too far! And do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I loved you.”

“Excuse me?” My jaw went slack as I did a double take.

“I looked forward to spending those after school days with you. I loved putting on a show to entertain you. You were my favorite human. I saw so much potential in you, and I wanted to mold you into someone I could be proud of. But you just… left.” The sadness was evident in Spin’s sapphire eyes, but behind the dual walls of blue was a burning hatred.

“So I came to a decision,” Spin decided as he slowly approached me. “I’m going to kill you. Just like I killed everyone else. And what fun I’ll have doing it.”

Without warning, the robot swung the knife at me. I narrowly dodged it, the tip of the blade grazing ever so slightly against my cheek. I took several steps backwards, bumping against the TV that I’d forgotten about.

“Don’t make this difficult, Sam,” Spin taunted as he approached.

Seeing an opportunity, I kicked the robot in the face and bolted out the door to my room. I practically flung myself down the stairs, momentum working both for and against me in my plight down the flight. Once I had reached the bottom, I scrambled back to my feet and booked it for the front door, the sound of squeaking shoe rubber following closely behind me. I quickly shut the front door and locked it, my hands trembling as I fiddled with my keys. The tip of Spin’s knife penetrated the wood of the door, which was my cue to run for my car; a 2004 Vauxhall Astra that sat parked in the driveway of my house.

I flung open the car door, got into the front seat, and pulled the door shut once more. I slammed the keys into the ignition and peeled out of my driveway faster than a bullet train, not bothering to fasten my seatbelt until I’d made it out of my neighborhood. Before I could think about where I could go next, a single antenna rose in my rearview mirror, followed by a pair of navy blue eyes.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” I screamed as I lost control of my vehicle. I swerved into a wooded area and flipped the car over several times. The various objects within were sent flying; a travel mug full of days old coffee that I’d forgotten about popped open and splashed its contents all over the walls of the car. Broken glass pierced my skin, like the shadow version of having my ears pierced at Claire’s for my eighth birthday. Time seemed to stop, but also play in fast forward at the very same time. Such a paradoxical predicament would not go unnoticed by the universe at large, and so the car finally settled down in a wooded ditch.

I clamored out of the wrecked vehicle, battered and bruised from the experience, yet unharmed deeper than a superficial level. I rested on my hands and knees, trying to process all that had just happened. Numbers crunched in my head as I tried to reverse engineer the trajectory of the car and calculate the probability of my survival, but none of the numbers made any sense; not even to my intellectual self.

The area around me was an absolute mess. Copies of my resume from job interviews of the past lay scattered on the grass below. The cup holder between the front seats had popped out, revealing a cartoon shark imprinted on the bottom (I had always wondered where the hidden shark was on this particular model). Glass shards littered the ground like the workshop of an amateur mosaic artist. The car itself, my trusty steed in my quest to rid myself of the red robot, lay upside-down like a turtle flipped on its back. I shed a small tear upon seeing my prized Astra in such a sorry state.

My thoughts were interrupted by one of the rear doors opening, and a somehow completely unharmed Spin stepping out.

“Wow,” he remarked. “That was quite a ride, wasn’t it? Now, where were we?”

The red robot slowly approached me, knife still in hand. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming surge of emotions all in conflict with one another. Fear of my impending doom, rage at the betrayal of my childhood hero, thoughts of what I would say to my relatives if I had the chance, and who I would meet on the other side. But at the forefront of all of them, one emotion stood strong and true.

Logic.

I knew Spin was no match for my intellect. None of his dirty little tricks could even hold a candle to my divine wisdom. Not even one of those tiny candles that are put in jack o’ lanterns. Not even a candle made by the world’s smallest candlemaker for the world’s smallest candelabra. All of Spin’s candles were the smell of a body shop, while mine were the smell of cold hard facts.

So that was exactly what I decided to use to my advantage. I stood up and adjusted my collar before speaking.

“Fine, then,” I spoke. “If you want to kill me, then kill me. I’m ready for you.”

“Well, alright then,” Spin responded. “I just might have to take you up on that offer.”

“Yes, indeed,” I declared back. “But I have just one thing I want to say first.”

“Oh?” Spin asked, bemused. “And what would that be? What are your final words?” I grinned with delight, as he’d fallen straight into my trap.

“THIS! STATEMENT! IS! FALSE!!!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. Spin seemed taken aback by my outburst.

“Is… is that true?” He asked again.

“Yes!” I shouted. “It’s true that this statement is false!”

“But- but- that doesn’t make sense!” The robot took a step back, dropping his knife and clutching his head in confusion. “How can it be true if it’s false?”

“It just is,” I retorted with a confident smirk.

“N-no! It can’t be!” Smoke began to seep from Spin’s circular head. “It’s just not right!”

Those ice blue eyes, which moments ago had instilled fear into my heart, now had a look of utter terror on them. The frightener had become the frightened, it seemed.

“How does that make you feel, smart boy?” I asked the round robot, who at this point was now in a desperate frenzy. The circuits in his head were in overdrive, trying to comprehend my prior proclamation.

“This is… this is…” He stammered as his eyes jittered in place. “THIS IS ALL WRONG!!!”

Without warning, the robot’s head burst into flames, shards of metal being sent in all directions. His metal arms were blown off to either side, and the flaming remnants of his lower half fell to the ground; knees first, followed by the lower half of the head.

I looked on at the display in front of me, and I couldn’t help but smile. I had slain the beast with nothing but my wits. Such a feat, I believed not even the cosmos itself would be able to replicate; not even in billions of years. I had proven to myself, and the world at large, that once again, facts and logic prevail over all adversity.

Once the fire had died down, I knelt down at Spin’s lower half, removed his large sneakers, and put them on myself. I then began to walk out of the woods in search of the nearest gas station.

It was time to treat myself to some coffee.

#op #sfw #writebug #crappypasta #trollpasta

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espers-n-espurrs · 4 months ago

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sometimes its fun to go watch videos of people going through housing listings and pretend to try and sell the houses to the other people in the video but you hear the joy leaving their voice when they try and sell a very rich persons home.

specifically the rich people homes that are just. blank and white. like there is genuinely nothing here yet its furnished. like it just feels devoid of life.

on the other end though its fun looking at the houses of rich people who know what they like and are full of whismy and like modeled their home to actually reflect their interests like games or movie references or like. color. and plants. i saw one where the guy had a replica of the fucking throne from that one thing where like the throne is made of swords or whatever. thats cool, thats fun.

#pkmn irl #pokeblog rp #rotomblr #pokemon irl #rotumblr #esper beams #// im watching the zillow jello videos again /silly

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punsmaster69 · 10 months ago

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28/FEB/20XX

papyrus is technically a model today.

well, not technically. just is.

mettaton, in a shocking event, wanted papyrus to model some mtt-products for photoshoots.

the reason this is a shocking event is because of mettaton's usual complete and utter refusal to let anyone but himself be the star of his promotional material.

"I wear everything better than anyone, anyway!~"

my brother, being the proud skeleton he is, was pretty easy for mettaton to convince with some flattering words.

even without all that, i'm certain he would have agreed wholeheartedly.

for one, because papyrus will always try to help out a friend, no matter how miniscule or how daunting of a task.

for two, because papyrus' ability to say 'no' seems to be slipping around mettaton lately.

reasons for that aside, he's still got enough resilience to reject any particularly large and frilly gowns mettaton has tossed his way.

"ARE YOU REALLY SELLING ALL THIS???"

"Of course I am, darling! I'll give you the walkthrough."

mettaton lifted and motioned to clothing as if he were advertising even now.

"Nostalgia is the new new - despite being old!"

"People absolutely eat it UP when things from the past are brought to the now - So I'm doing exactly that!"

"This here is a purchasable and mostly sturdy version of one of the very first custom outfits I ever debuted..."

lifting a blue gown with the same advertisement gestures.

"And this, a replica of the very-same-but-not-actually-the-exact gown I wore on-"

"THE FIRST EPISODE WITH FRISK, UNDERGROUND!"

"Correct!! Iconic, isn't it? I gave the original away - fashion's too fast for the same outfit twice, you know - but now my adoring fans at home can get their very own-same-but-not-actually-that-exact-same-version of that gown!"

papyrus started to recognize more and more articles, pointing and naming the specific episodes and mtt programs they were from.

mettaton looked flattered, and completely bathed in papyrus' long-term fanboying.

not completely intentionally, i tuned it out pretty quickly. i fell asleep sometime between the photoshoots and breaks where papyrus continued to name each of mettaton's 'nostalgia-line' products.

——

i woke up being carried home beside a large bag of clothes that i presume he was allowed to pick out for keeping.

awake now or not, paps still set me on the couch all the same.

i decided on an early bedtime after watching him pace back and forth for about thirty minutes.

"hey. today was a busy day. i'm visiting snoozeville early."

"..YOU SLEPT THROUGH MOST OF THE BUSY PARTS."

"which isn't easy, y'know."

"...RIGHT."

"i'd imagine someone who actually stayed awake for it all would be pretty exhausted."

".......GOODNIGHT, SANS."

"you should too."

"I AM N-"

"can't read to you if i'm asleep first."

which was, surprisingly, enough to convince him.

the story of fluffy bunny prevailed over whatever thoughts were making him feel the need to pace around before, and he was out like a light as soon as i read through the last sentence.

#undertale #journal #sans #papyrus #mettaton #papyton #sans and papyrus #papyrus x mettaton #i was originally on the fence about having papyton in this fic but screw it we ball

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sailorsplatoon · 9 months ago

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So since people other than your player can wear the parallel cannon mask, I head cannon that someone who got taken by order saw 4 while they were that boss and once they were freed. they made a similar mask and started to sell it.

with that said how would 4, 8 and Acht react to seeing it and what would they think about they person who started selling them?

Oooh I I really love that idea.

Four is appalled at the fact that someone commerciallized their suffering. Especially having to see people in battles wearing the same mask they did while they were being contolled by Order. They had to take a break from battling for a while because of it since it was too much to watch. They eventually grow used to it, but they never get over the feeling of disgust that someone saw their pain and thought to make money off of it.

Eight is angry beyond belief. Both at the fact that someone would sell the masks, and that the person selling them caused Four so much needless worry. He wants to hunt down whoever started making them and cause them as much pain as possible. Four has to spend a long time calming him down. He’s still angry, but has agreed not to dox the person who made the masks. He did find where they live though, with the help of Marina.

Acht decides to counteract their marketing scheme with their own. They work with Pearl to make a gear comany and get Four’s permission to make their own Parallel Canon masks that are not only a better quality, but also sold for cheaper. They expand from there, making replica hypnoshades (with Callie’s permission), replica sanitization ooze (with Captain’s permission. It’s not real ooze, it’s like a giant foam peice attatched to a headband), and a bunch of other gear peices. The difference between Acht’s brand and the person who first started selling the masks is that Acht asks for everyone’s permission first. The brand is called Dedst1tch and is massively more successful than the person who originally started selling the masks.

Thank you for the ask!!! I love your head canon on this!

#dedf1sh #acht splatoon #ahato mizuta #agent 4 #agent 4 side order #agent 4 splatoon #dedfour #acht x agent 4 #asks #ask box #side order

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mythosphere · 1 year ago

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"Canadian history is boring" yeah you're right but also what if you were wrong. Let me tell a tale, friends, about a conspiracy theory that only Canadians over the age of 50 really know or care about. Let me tell a tale, friends, of the Avro Arrow and the tragic death of Canadian aerospace engineering.

The year was 1953. The production company was A.V. Roe Canada. At the time, Canada had only produced one commercial interceptor aircraft: the Avro CF-100 Canuck (lovingly referred to as the Clunk). It was...fine, I guess. It worked. But Canada was in the process of joining NORAD, and it was the geographic shield between the US and USSR: any bombers carrying nukes would cross Canadian airspace. The RCAF needed a bombing interceptor.

Enter the AVRO CF-105 Arrow.

You guys don't understand how awesome the Arrow was. It was SLEEK, it was MODERN, it was the PRIDE of a booming Canadian aerospace industry. It was the prototype fighter jet of its time, able to outcompete with American and British interceptors, and set to break both altitude and speed records. Canada was so proud of its aircraft that when the first prototype was ready, they expected a crowd of 13,000 to watch the first test (too bad Sputnik launched the same day). In 1955, even America wanted in (this was unheard of, since America prioritized its own aerospace above all, and rarely purchased planes it didn't make itself).

So where did the Arrow go?

We got rid of it. Sorry, not just got rid of it. We destroyed everything to do with it.

Now, what a lot of the public didn't understand was that the Arrow was expensive, and while it could have outcompeted the American Convair Delta Dart released in 1959, the plane would have been mid at best and defunct at worst by the time America improved on its own Mach 2 interceptor. What's more, ICBMs were becoming a thing, rendering interceptors in general relatively moot. The general consensus was clear: it wasn't worth the money to produce and improve. That was the excuse Prime Minister Diefenbaker (aka Dief the Chief, the anti-Kennedy, of Diefenbunker fame) used to order the end of the Avro Arrow program. This was understandable, generally.

What wasn't understandable was the death of everything to do with it. After unsuccessful attempts to sell the program to America and Britain, Diefenbaker ordered not only the closure of the program, but the complete scrapping of assembly lines, prototypes, classified documents, schematics: everything was destroyed. Only one Arrow went unaccounted for (some people think an air marshal stole it), but the rest were trashed. Allegedly, not a single intact prototype remains, only pieces and replicas on display.

Why would Diefenbaker do this? The conspiracies are endless. Some think a Soviet mole compromised the program and Diefenbaker ordered the complete destruction to prevent the Soviets from gaining this technology. Some people think the US manipulated intelligence to prevent Canadian aerospace from overtaking American aerospace. Sane people think that Canadian intelligence recognized a Soviet transition away from bomber planes, and acted sensibly, if a bit to the extreme.

What we do know is after the death of the Arrow, the Canadian aerospace industry basically collapsed overnight. About 15,000 engineers were now out of work, and many fled to the US to work for Boeing, Convair, NASA, and basically any other aerospace industry job they could find. Diefenbaker went on to have seriously funny beef with JFK, and the Avro Arrow was lost to the annals of aviation history. Rest in pieces, Avro Arrow.

#i am really normal about airplanes #aviation history #canadian history #history #cold war #airplane

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misc-obeyme · 8 months ago

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I just went down a pipeline of watching videos by the chocolate guy and omg is he good 😭😭

I can only dream of the stuff Barbatos would be able to cook if a human is able to challenge the laws of physics with chocolate!!

I imagine showing Barb one of those videos. While mc would be like “I would commit atrocities just to get a lick out of this man’s gloves” Barb would be just “That’s child’s play. Give me two bars of chocolate and twenty minutes and I could create a masterpiece beyond your imagination.”

Moral of the story, I would cry with joy daily if I was married to either of these men and saw them heading towards the kitchen

Man, the chocolate guy blows my mind every single time. It's fun to try and guess what he's making lol. I just saw the one where he makes a life sized flamingo pool floatie. And it looked like it was plastic and full of air, you know?? But that thing was chocolate and it's so crazy. In case anybody hasn't had the pleasure of seeing this man in action, his name is Amaury Guichon and here is his youtube. He's also on Tiktok and I know some of his videos are floating around right here on Tumblr.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who things Barb could also make some amazing chocolate masterpieces!

I almost feel like Barbatos would go out of his way to outdo the poor chocolate guy. I mean, he is a demon... and like do we even have to mention his powers?

I love the idea that Asmo or somebody would create a video of Barbatos making his chocolate creation and posting it on FabSnap or whatever the Devildom equivalent is. Videos all go viral and Barb becomes the Devildom chocolate guy lol. He makes a replica of RAD out of chocolate and it's his most popular video. But then he makes a chocolate version of MC and that one is his personal favorite.

And I am right there with you, pretty sure I'd sell my soul to eat some of those amazingly delicious looking chocolate creations... some of the stuff Amaury Guichon makes looks so tasty I get upset about the fact that I can't eat it lol.

Being married to or otherwise living with Barbatos just so I can sample all his pastries and such is one of my favorite daydreams~

#these guys and their chocolate #Barbatos is like competing with the chocolate guy who is just completely unaware of it lol #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me barbatos #life-is-a-soup-and-im-a-fork #misc answers

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ellaworldwide · 2 months ago

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Sweet Sentiments on Steps...

Another highlight of my trip to Croatia was these lovebirds at the Jesuit staircase! The two were getting their pictures taken professionally, but I decided to take one of my own because I found it so sweet!

My aunt and I did a tour of Gundulic Square, where we learned so many fascinating facts about the area. The square is home to many shops and restaurants, but the real treat is the architecture that has been standing since 1667! Just as you turn right on the square, you discover the beauty that is the Jesuit staircase.

These stairs lead up to the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The baroque architecture and the view from the top of the steps is like no other. I will say the scene in this picture is far more happy than the one in Game of Thrones. If you've watched the show, Cersei's infamous "walk of shame" was filmed on these very steps. Fun fact: Game of Thrones filmed lots of scenes in Croatia, making the country a tourist spot of sorts for the show. I saw lots of shops selling Game of Thrones merchandise and even got to see a replica of the Iron Throne!

https://www.dubrovnik-travel.net/jesuit-stairs/

#game of thrones #dubrovnik #Croatia #Jesuitstaircase #GundulicSquare

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one-silly-cart00nist · 1 year ago

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Sunset after the Rain [Mark/David]

(because AO3 is down and I was planning to post the sequel to this fic soon so here you go tumblr: my ode to the creek and the start of my Elders brainrot)

Rated: G Word Count: 5k Pre-slash, Original Side Character (Jackie's gf for plot purposes)

It was a sunny afternoon at the creek the day when the Elder’s rock was busy outdoors. For the longest day of summer the three friends prepared a special celebration—a campfire and a sleepover under the rock with a few special guests to shelter.

Omar, despite being quite the youngest in the group, captured the hearts of the elders easily through his love of comics and videogames. Now that the Overpass didn’t need a guard and he had free time to spare, he found himself frequently showing up at the Elder’s rock borrowing manga and listening in on the DnD campaigns. He didn’t quite have the confidence to join in.

David insisted Tabitha and Courtney would be invited to commemorate their friendship formed from sharing the pain of part-time at the smoothie bar. Mark wasn’t quite thrilled about it—and was still taking his time to get used to David’s new passion for the Goth lifestyle. But the wound of almost losing his friendship over a petty grudge was fresh and so he caved.

Then there was Annie. While her anime consumption was more casual than the elders, her passion for singing OSTs and her cheerful intrigue for all things nerd made her a favoured company.

And wherever Annie went usually followed… Jackie.

Currently looming above David who has just excitedly been telling Annie about the new shop he found online selling all kinds of clothes to fit his new aesthetic.

Mark observed from a distance.

The cold stare of his glasses that reflected nothing, the panic in David’s eyes as he trailed off mid-sentence, the smirk that bloomed on Jackie’s face at the reaction, and finally, how it faded into a much gentler smile when Jackie took the spot next to Annie. He extended his hand towards Annie, pinkie, pointer and thumb sticking out—Annie copied the gesture as she slotted her fingers alongside his.

Mark didn’t understand what it meant.

Correction: he knew exactly what Jackie was showing was jealousy. Admittedly, he was familiar with that, even though he didn’t have a cute date to justify it. He just didn’t know what the sign meant.

He looked at David again. He recovered from the scare quickly and was now back on his excited monologue, fists held up and his whole body bouncing as he talked. It was less noticeable than what it used to be when they were younger but Mark knew what he was looking at to notice it.

Past the logs they collected around the campfire, Barry has just emerged from the woods carrying a couple of sticks to roast on. Omar was right at his tail carrying rocks to circle the campfire. The kid was taking his contribution so seriously.

Tabitha and Courtney arrived a minute ago with loads of snacks and cola. Now they sat across from Annie and David and chatted among themselves.

Mark has tasked himself with tidying up the rock to welcome so many people—it was gonna be stuffy anyway but putting away some manga shelves and life sized replicas was the least he could do. Now that’s done he found himself watching the life around him.

It hasn’t been that long since the fight after which he spent weeks alone at the rock before he packed up and started hanging out at home instead where his messy room and the internet would distract him from the sorrow and guilt eating him up.

He was just going to the Elder’s rock to borrow the last volume of Two Piece when he found Barry sitting there all by himself. He feared the moment but found relief when Barry said he wasn’t mad anymore. Mark apologised regardless. Spending that afternoon with Barry gave him courage to reach out to David too.

He didn’t realise how much he missed them both.

---☀---

“As the good hosts we are,” David spoke with enthusiasm, “we should introduce everyone. I’m David and I work at the smoothies with Tabitha and Courtney. Who wants to go next?”

Barry took the spot next to him and greeted everyone, claiming his turn. Mark scanned the circle to see where he could sit—they prepared more logs than necessary to use them as spare tables for board games. The other side of David was still empty even though Mark would need to carry a log all the way over and he didn’t want to look that desperate. There was space next to Jackie on the fallen tree log but Mark wasn’t so fond of that kid. He didn’t even invite him.

He chose to sit on one of the spare logs in between Tabitha and Jackie. It gave him a direct view of David…

David and his ripped off sleeves and just one of many chokers Mark definitely hasn’t been keeping track of. His hair started growing out even more now that he didn’t trim it to fit under the old helmet, and Mark recalls how he mentioned wanting it pink eventually.

It’s been weeks. It feels like they met again in college—it feels like seeing Kenneth on that phone call. He changed so much. He grew up to be popular and handsome and not into anime anymore. David grew up to be popular and handsome too.

With pink hair and edgy clothes…?

Maybe that too.

He looked really happy and confident in his skin. Sure he had been before—walking around the rock topless despite not being the type to work out required that kind of confidence already.

Ah. He never really cared for anyone’s opinion. David always cared about personal joy and harmony first and foremost.

Mark had to admit that he was happy for him, seeing him like this. Even if he was in two minds about his own feelings towards the new gimmick.

He still loved anime and Mark’s DnD campaigns. If he wanted to play as a sorcerer instead of a bard now, that was not Mark’s place to complain.

He smiled to himself.

Then he looked up, disturbed from his thoughts by the sudden silence. He noticed David’s eyes on him. His heart skipped a beat. And then he slowly realised everyone had their eyes on him like they expected him to do something. For a brief moment he panicked if he wasn’t saying all that aloud, but David soon cleared the table, cheerful as ever: “It’s your turn!”

“Oh,” he scratched his neck awkwardly as he willed away the scarlet of his cheeks. “I’m Mark. I am the expert of all things anime… and…” his gaze travelled to David who listened to him too intently for someone who already knew him. “And I’m sorry I’ve been an asshole to you David.”

“Aw… We’ve been over that,” David waved his hand in dismissal. “But your apology is appreciated. I’m happy we’re friends now.”

Mark swore he heard coos from at least one of the girls present and felt his cheeks heat up at the attention. If either one of them decides to tease him about it, or about how he stuttered through his apology when his attention stuck on David’s eyeliner, he will consider drastic measures.

Next was Jackie. He waved at everyone and pointed at himself. Then he gestured with his hand what Mark assumed was his name because Annie filled in the silence with a verbal introduction. He signed more and Annie translated that he likes swimming and baseball.

At the end he turned to her with a sign akin to a blown kiss.

Mark never had a reason to learn ASL but he wondered how hard it is. If it was any different from learning Japanese like he did in his free time—a completely new sentence structure and a thousand of signs so unlike the english alphabet.

“My name is Annie. I like to dance and sing and… a lot more things… but singing OSTs with the guys is what brings me here tonight.” She smiled and gestured at Jackie, as she continued to sign the rest of her introduction. “Jackie is my boyfriend, I hope no one minds him here. We’re both from the other side of the creek.”

“What is it like on the other side?” David inquired. “That’s where Kenneth is from.”

The sudden mention of Kenneth’s name had unwanted thoughts flashing through Mark’s mind. His dyed blonde hair and blue contacts. His room, bare of any trace of his origins. He was almost unrecognisable. And the crushing reality of David keeping contact with him and yet he never reached out to the rest.

It wasn’t surprising it was David whom he remained friends with. Who wouldn’t… It hurt nevertheless.

“Pretty chill after King Xavior was overthrown.” Annie said, then turned to Omar, “We thank Omar and his friends for that effort.”

Omar set his can of soda aside and wiped his mouth on his sleeve while keeping eye contact with Annie, then her boyfriend. “We faced Jackie in combat back then. So pardon my uneasiness. It’s been a lot to get over after all those years.”

Annie tapped Jackie to make him focus as she signed what Omar said. She smiled as she watched Jackie sign back. “He says it was fun and that he will be better prepared for a future water balloon fight.”

He smirked at Omar and nodded. “We’ll see that fair and square.”

Annie continued. “It wasn’t a matter of choice to be on Xavier’s side. No one believed Xavier could be defeated. If Jackie turned his back on the king he would be in serious trouble afterwards. And being a champion wasn’t so bad—he could keep doing what he loved.”

“Where were you during the war, Annie?” Omar wondered. “I don’t think we passed you in our search for the flag.”

“I was casted out of the creek before the war began…” she laughed. “I might have punched Xavier. More times than I can count. It was… uh… deserved… but it wasn’t so bad. My only connection to the creek was Jackie, which allowed me to sneak in and before that, to get away with more than a regular kid could. I can’t blame him for sticking to the king to the very end.”

“Hold up— What?” Tabitha drew everyone’s attention to herself. “You guys had a monarchy in the creek? Dude that’s— What.”

“It’s kinda been a thing for a decade now. We grew up into the system, messed up as it is.”

“Queen Cheyenne was chill.” Annie narrated Jackie’s signs again. “If there was a problem we sought help with, she would help, otherwise she was just a teen hanging out with her best friend at the royal tree house. She took her status seriously and wished to expand her rule across the overpass but she wasn’t that persistent about it. Xavier was crowned a couple of years ago and that quickly turned into a whole tyranny.”

“What happened to that Cheyenne?”

“The worst possible thing—she concluded she was too cool for the creek.” Annie rolled her eyes. “Could never be me.”

“No one is too old for the creek,” Barry exclaimed. A chorus of agreements came from everyone while Tabitha and Courtney shrugged their shoulders.

“I can stand behind that,” Mark joined in. “Except for when we’re in college somewhere far away. Because you guys have plans or whatever.”

Tabitha and Courtney exchanged grimaces. “Yeah, let's not talk about that.”

“Let’s dive into the juicy part.” Tabitha cheered, getting up to pass around the plastic bag. She sat down throwing her legs over Courtney’s lap.

Her girlfriend grabbed a can of cola from her hands and popped it open. “Literally, we bought smoothies. But you have to pay in gossip!”

“Yeah. Barry—has someone captured your heart recently?”

“Uh. No…” Barry scratched his neck awkwardly. “My heart is being crushed by advanced bio summer homework.”

“Booring…” Tabitha complained with an exasperated sigh. “You guys really do your summer homework?” she shook her head in disbelief. “David, you tell us what you’ve been up to.”

“Well… I’ve been experimenting with my clothes. I really like the stuff you picked out, I never thought I would be so comfortable in this.” He smiled bashfully as he twirled a hair between his fingers. “It’s really growing on me.”

“It looks really cute on you,” Annie said. Jackie gave a thumbs up. Barry also muttered something encouraging. Mark felt his voice stuck in his throat.

David curled into himself but despite that he glowed with all the praise. “Thanks guys.”

Even when the rest of the circle shifted attention towards the next person in line, Mark’s eyes lingered on his friend. He had to agree with the compliments.

“Annie, what about you and Jackie? How did you two become a thing?”

Mark wasn’t particularly interested in that but he found himself following the story as Annie spoke animatedly. “To be honest… I was never gonna tell him that I liked him. I would say so out loud because I knew he wouldn’t hear but I couldn’t let him know.”

That made Mark pause. It was beyond him why Annie thought she needed to keep her feelings hidden. It wasn’t like it would be weird to like him. They have been friends for years and Jackie was clearly interested in her if he kept coming back.

David never had to ask him to show up under the rock on his birthdays or to speed watch his latest anime favourites so they could spend the next few days discussing them. But they also simped for anime girls together. It didn’t make sense. It brought so many questions Mark didn’t have answers for.

“…All until Elisa noticed my crush. She thought it would be fun to tease me, to make me insecure, that Jackie would never like me back. I was so frustrated and Jackie noticed. I had to tell him. I didn’t know how to sign it at that time, so I just drew a heart on his chest and he returned the gesture.”

“Aww that’s so sweet!” Courtney cooed.

Tabitha howled beside her. “That bitch can suck it! Look who’s got a boyfriend now!”

“Language Tabi! There are kids with us!” Courtney calmed her down.

“Huh?” Tabitha threw a look at the circle until her eyes landed on the hoodie kid. Her gaze darkened and her sharp teeth flashed in a dangerous smirk. “Oh. Omar?”

Mark watched in disinterest as the kid’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Nothing of that sort.”

Jackie signed something with a snicker that only Annie understood and chose to not share. If Mark had to guess those two knew of some non supporting evidence for the kid’s statement. Not that he cared.

Could kids like him already have crushes?

Mark didn’t even remember when he… no, nevermind. That wasn’t a crush. Whatever it was, which he couldn’t name, it was not a crush. He would have noticed sooner.

“Does David want to share his romantic discoveries?”

Mark shot his eyes towards his clearly panicking friend. “No. David doesn’t want to.”

That was both a relief and a concern. He was better off if he didn’t have to hear about whoever David was interested in but the answer made him wonder—what was the point of such defensiveness if there wasn’t someone in his mind?

He really, really shouldn’t have thought of that.

---☀---

Annie tore a pack of chips open and threw a couple into her mouth. “Should someone set up the games?”

“Suit yourself. What are we playing?” Mark jumped to his feet, happy to distance himself from the conversation. He lifted the tower of board games he carried outside the rock for the occasion. “The choices are endless.”

“David promised us he would show us your DnD business,” Tabitha shouted from the back.

Annie shook her head as she mindlessly reviewed the game collection. “We should play something non-verbal. Like double.”

Annie lifted her head with a grin as she signed her idea to Jackie who signed back quickly. “You’re right I’m unbeatable. Not even Keun Sup could outspeed me.”

“What about uno?” Tabitha suggested.

“Do we want to have a good time or do we want to scream at each other until sundown?”

“We could play cards?” Omar tried.

“Have any of you heard of Kent?” Annie asked then. A couple of people shook their heads while Jackie showed a toothy grin. “We send codes to our teammates when we have collected an all-symbol combination and try to not be caught by the other teams. Sounds good?”

An excited chorus followed.

“Grab a teammate and come up with a secret code.” Annie instructed. “I’m with Jackie!”

“Calling dibs on Courtney!”

Mark looked around hesitantly. The choices were running out quickly. Even Barry already teamed up with Omar by the time Mark made up his mind to ask him.

Which meant the only person left was… David.

“So what code should we pick?” David beamed at him. His voice dropped into an excited whisper. “A wink?”

Very predictable, the code and the mannerism that had Mark leaning away for personal space all the same. “Uh… oh… Sure. Yeah. A wink will do.”

Annie and Jackie set up the cards while the rest of the teams were discussing strategies, likely already having a vault of different codes to switch between as they played. Mark expected no one could compete with the excited duo but he held some naive hope he could win at least a few games once he grasped the rules. He hadn’t spent his entire life playing games for nothing.

The game itself was more about attention than the cards.

In the first round Mark had his last ace snatched from under his palm. It meant two things—he was left to observe instead of collecting like all the rest, and that Omar who swept his card was out of the round with him.

The game was also about knowing people.

He called out Barry pretty easily when he rapped his fingers on his thigh out of nowhere. That was a classic impatient Barry thing.

Annie fared just as well in terms of catching people red handed.

“Courtney, your make-up is so pretty today.”

“Out! Tabitha is out!” Annie would exclaim cheerfully.

“What? Not fair! Can I not compliment my girlfriend?”

Somehow the banter only added to the pleasant experience. It built Mark’s competitive spirit and brought laughs and had the time fly so fast.

“What’s your code even supposed to be?”

“We will never tell!”

---☀---

The sunlight soon faded too much to see the cards in front of them properly and so the group of friends moved on to the main event of the night. Barry and Tabitha crouched by the campfire with crumbled newspaper and a lighter. Omar sharpened the roasting sticks quietly in the corner. Annie and Jackie set up an actual table to place all their food on.

David and Courtney sat back engrossed in a conversation.

Mark stood there idly as he tried not to look at them too much.

He spent most of his childhood with Barry and David and Kenneth. He never looked to make more friends—he already had company that shared his interest in anime so what more could he gain. Not like he expected to ever lose either of them. They were supposed to be inseparable, if not for their shared hobbies then for the fact there wasn’t anyone else they would turn to.

Now David had actual friends outside of the Elder trio. Mark was happy for him. At least he tried to be.

But… It seeded a worry that David would no longer need his old friends when he found another place to belong like Kenneth did, would no longer need to settle for someone who’d been so hurtful towards him without realising. Mark wanted to turn back time and make sure David didn’t set foot out from under the rock on that fateful day.

Would that mean he’d still sit here in front of them shirtless with his cape warming him against the chill of the evening and his helmet set down on his lap so he could lean his forearms on it and support his head?

The mental image competed with the sight before his eyes until they faded into one.

David with one knee supporting his head, hiding his choker and the front of his shirt. His hair flowing down the sides of his face, untamed even as he tucked stray strands behind his ears. The eyeliner only made his wide eyes more noticeable. Like it wasn’t hard to look away from them already.

---☀---

As darkness covered the clearing and dimmed the view, Mark found it easier to keep his eyes and thoughts away from David. The campfire added a nice layer of warmth to the summer night and the roasted bacon and marshmallows brought the same warmth to Mark’s stomach.

There was program as well—Courtney and Tabitha telling spooky stories that allegedly happened in the creek. Mark knew half of them from his own childhood, being scared while Barry and David always rushed into the adventure of finding out its truths. It was mostly Barry. David was curious and eager to learn but not so much a brave soul, sweaty palms always enclosing Mark’s wrist or sleeve.

An innocent soul, even now. He was so easy to push around that Mark hadn’t even realised he had been doing so.

---☀---

At some point during the night David pulled out a ukulele. Mark recalled hearing him practise at the rock a few years back but David back then was terrible and he couldn’t stand the noise. He must have practised a lot since then because he was nothing like the awkward off key performances of ninth grade.

He played a melody that everyone at the circle knew as they all hummed along but among all the voices only David stood out to his ears. That part of his performance was still… less than charming.

Mark supposed that was good. It was familiar. It was his David.

---☀---

First yawn of the evening and the emptied supply of food slowly moved the program inside.

Jackie slid under the rock with ease and extended his arms towards Annie whose eyes were already falling shut as she crawled in. He took off his cap and glasses before he climbed into his futon. It looked like they were both done for the night. Not like anyone else here could use ASL to help him keep up with the conversations.

Omar set his futon underneath the anime figurines shelf. He flipped through the comics scattered nearby as he waited for the rest of the group to settle down. It wasn’t long until he was snoring nose deep in the pages.

Tabitha tried to play cool as she challenged the rest to stay up the latest but ended up falling asleep in her girlfriend’s lap early on as well.

Soon it was just Courtney and the elders.

They formed a much smaller circle and kept their voices hushed so as to not disturb the rest. It felt weirdly intimate to huddle up—especially with David leaned against the wall by his left, not exactly leaning into him but close enough to let his mane brush over Mark’s shoulder now and then.

Speaking in a whisper, David’s voice was much more stable and calming. “Is this the part when we tell each other secrets?”

“I don’t know. This is the part for anything that felt too out of the left field in the sun.” Courntey replied and yawned. “If there are any thoughts you want to share, the floor is yours.”

David seemed to think about it for a long while. His eyes always wandered off when he was deep in thoughts—a habit that was rare, for David’s mind usually worked at a speed unmatched by others, but prominent nonetheless. At one point it was clear to Mark he was no longer caught up in his thoughts. Rather, waiting for a cue to speak.

When no one else took the spotlight, he finally spoke up. “I was really sad and hurt when I left this place behind. I feel that bitterness at the back of my mouth now that I’m back. It’s on my mind all day.”

Mark averted his eyes in guilt.

“But it’s being rewritten by new memories, both here and at the smoothie place. And it helped me push myself to meet new people and try out new things. I would have never dared to show up like this to the creek. At least… not now. I’m still exploring how I like to see myself.”

He fidgeted with his sleeve. It caught Mark’s eye and urged him to reach out. He didn’t know where that action would have ended so he suppressed it quietly. Maybe he wasn’t quiet enough.

David looked up at him. Mark swallowed. “When you walked up to the counter and saw me and still wanted me to come… I care about what you think. It frustrated me when I realised how much I let myself be stomped on because of it.”

The lump in his throat grew more uncomfortable as he listened to David’s words. I care about what you think. That was a new one. Something he might have only figured out recently, or didn’t feel like saying when they first spoke about the argument.

Mark had thought about his own apology too, how he could have been more open. “I never meant to make you feel… to hurt you. I was really happy that I had you by my side. I took that for granted.”

The rest was a familiar tune on the tip of his tongue. “It felt terrible to be here alone too. Like when your favourite show never airs its final arc. All you’re left with are the hopes of what could have been.”

And lastly, what fell out of his mouth when David reached out for his hand and he felt like he was staring for too long: “I don’t know if I like this… everything… but I’ll get used to it. I promise. It’s okay to change. Just don’t ditch me again. Please.”

“Listen to me when I tell you that you’re pushing too hard. Okay?”

Mark shut his eyes. “I will. I promise.”

The silence was unnerving—so much so it led Mark to open his eyes again. He didn’t want to face David’s reaction but he couldn’t stand being left in the dark about it.

David was looking at him with an expression he couldn’t read. It was uncommon, David wore his heart on his sleeve, or so Mark thought until now.

Soon David’s gaze softened as he reached out with open arms. Mark was never so relieved to hear someone speak. “Come here, I missed you…”

Everyone who grew up with Mark knew he wasn’t one for hugs, for any physical affection really. He didn’t like getting up and personal. Still he found himself clutching onto David’s waist and enjoying the warmth the simple gesture brought to him, like he was still at the campfire.

As they pulled away their gazes lingered on each other. It was Mark who looked away first, weak against the gentle smile on David’s lips as well as suddenly aware of Barry’s presence. He looked at him but couldn’t think of what to say. The apology was meant for him as well… Mark was just completely scooted by the heat in his chest that he kept for his best friend.

Barry seemed to understand what was going through his head, patting his shoulder and letting Mark’s palm rest on the back of his hand to thank him for the silent understanding.

Mark’s heart soared with relief. Like they haven’t had the same heart to heart a few weeks ago. Like he hadn’t heard them accept his apologies half a dozen times already.

David hugged them both back then, hesitant but earnest. It was the same and yet so different when he hugged Mark a moment ago. It felt intimate. Like it was meant for only the two of them. Like there was no one watching.

David never cared about who’s watching. Mark had always adored that about him. How he existed in his own bubble sometimes, savouring happiness and completely oblivious to the world around him, by choice or otherwise. Mark felt being a part of that bubble just now.

No one has spoken a word since David invited him for a hug. All the same people could be shouting right into his ear and Mark is sure he wouldn’t hear a word of it.

He stared ahead until David’s cheeks gained a scarlet colour and he finally looked away sheepishly. Mark felt his face heat up as well.

“Well, I’m out,” he announced abruptly, getting onto his feet. “Do whatever you want but I shall head to sleep.”

David leaned backwards. “O-Oh. Yeah. I’ll follow suit.”

Mark felt his eyes leave a warm trace on his back as he walked over to his sleeping bag. He didn’t bother turning around even when he heard hesitant footsteps.

“Okay, let’s tuck you in then…” that must have been a whisper by Courtney, probably awkwardly manoeuvring Tabitha off her legs. Not Mark’s problem.

He turned to face the wall. He could hear the rustling of the sleeping bags and some whispers. It had never been this lively at the Elder’s rock before—not ever since the three friends used to stay the night from time to time in middle school. It certainly never was this crowded. Mark’s mind was never so restless.

He internally laughed at himself, at how the evening with friends and extended company and plenty of distraction still led his head to wrap around David. He probably thought about him so much he’ll think of him in his sleep too. For the better or worse.

Probably for the better. If he had to admit to it—and if this was going to be a theme in his life now. Then he should look at the bright side.

#craig of the creek #elders of the creek #cotc fanfic #mark cotc #david cotc #barry cotc #omar cotc #tabitha cotc #courtney cotc #jackie cotc #a bowl of my favourite characters #if I could justify secret keeper's presence the super bowl would be complete #would you believe me if I said Mark took over the keyboard halfway through to gush about David #when all I meant to write about were silly childhood memories

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