#you know... short and easy little stories that let me fake productivity
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In all the Good Omens stories I'm currently working on, the child Crowley eventually ends up with (having it, not romantically involved with a child) is a girl. He strikes me as a girl dad (and mom), really. Yes, imagining Crowley as a parent at all is wild, but that's a different can of worms.
Thing is, I have to come up with a story where Crowley has a son named Aleister. You... Understand why, don't you?.. Right.
It could be Fem!Crowley x Hastur (I feel it would be Hastur's idea), or Crowley x Fem!Reader (definitely Reader's idea).
I think, this may open some doors for comedy? Reader (or Fem!Crowley) could have a mental breakdown, fearing a snake may slither out of her when time comes. Though, admittedly, a snake would likely cause less discomfort than a human.
...If the previous paragraph made you think of a certain song, I like you.
Hell, even if the child is born in human form, it might shapeshift, no? I guess, you could pretend you're taking your pet snake out in a stroller (I bet there are reptile owners that insane in reality). Only, when the "pet snake" starts crying or babbling, you'd have a real problem, because... Reptiles don't do that. There wouldn't be any religious people around, hopefully.
Damn, this made me laugh. I'm sitting at my desk, drinking my coffee, laughing like a maniac. Let's be serious, I'm probably incapable of writing comedy, just angst, gore... Romance, but not comedy.
Just some thoughts while I âšprocastrinateâš.
#diary pages#writing journal#i should be writing what do i do instead?#talk to myself about snakes slithering out of folks' uteruses in writing and posting it... like a normal person of sound mind#tbh making up ocs is one of my favorite aspects of writing fanfiction... just creating characters in general#that's the reason of why I like making characters have kids so much... that and I just want to put them through bad situation#good omens#fanfiction writer#good omens fanfiction#ao3 writer#crowley x hastur#crowley x reader#aleister crowley (oc)#good omens fandom#pestilence you have better things to do what the fuck is this#and you already have a MYRIAD of wips#no crowley x hastur is marked as a must and i said i'll write x readers#you know... short and easy little stories that let me fake productivity
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King of my heart (part 4/finale) | Tom Holland x Reader
Summary: You get the role of MJ for the new Spiderman movieâŠaka, the classic trope of co-stars falling for each other
Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader
Word count:Â 1.7k
Note:Â I am sincerely sorry for the long wait. My interests have moved to other fandoms/characters and this story got pushed to the side... I hope you enjoy the final part!Â
p.s. This is the last of Tom Holland you will be reading from me. He is now removed from my âpeople I write forâ list (I donât write for actors anymore)
â
''Cut!'' the director called, his voice echoing on set. ''Everyone take five.''
''Y/N, please, some serious,'' Tom warned with a fake scowl, as if he wasn't the one making a funny face at you and making you laugh for the past seven minutes.
You narrowed your eyes at him and he grinned.
Filming had begun very early for Tom today so you hadn't had the chance to talk about your date yet. He had a lot of scenes that involved stunts and those took a long time to film. You didn't see him until late evening in your only â and very short â scene together.
Tom walked over to his chair and took a sip from the paper cup next to it, filled with what you assumed to be tea. ''Last scene of the day, then we're off.''
You made a cheerful sound and reached for your hot drink too, taking a long sip and using the warmth of the cup to warm up your fingers. If only you could do the same for your legs. You had been standing outside for a little over an hour and your fingers and bare legs were beginning to get cold. That's what happens when you're filming summer scenes at the beginning of October. You wished they would allow sweatpants underneath like they did on the set of Gossip Girl, your legs would be thankful.
''Is that coffee?'' you asked, smelling the distinctive bitterness of coffee coming from Tom's cup.
He hummed, taking another sip. ''Yeah. Tea isn't strong enough to keep me awake right now,'' he explained with a tired chuckle. ''I'm barely standing on my feet.''
Ah, the perks of being an actor.
Tom laughed from the tiredness. ''The second my head touches my pillow, I'm gone to dreamland.''
.
The next day, you knocked on Tom's trailer door. You had gotten a few silly memes while you were in the makeup chair and phones were not allowed on Marvel production sets, so you knew he was there.
''Can we talk?''
Tom nodded, letting you in his trailer. ''Do you want anything? Tea? Coffee?'' He looked at the kitchen area with pulled eyebrows and rubbed the back of his neck. ''I don't really know what else I have in here.''
''I'm good,ââ you said. ââIf I drink another coffee, I'll have to take a pee break during my next scene. I've already taken too many since we began filming in London, the crew won't be happy with me.''
''It's always the wardrobe's fault.''
You could only agree.
''Blame it on the cold weather and the summer wardrobe my character is in.''
''When I was filming Spiderman: Homecoming, I learned about coffee and peeing the hard way,ââ Tom explained, thinking back to three years ago. ââThat suit was easy to get in and out of, but it was so damn annoying. The wardrobe assistant never said anything, but I could see in his eyes that she was not happy with me.''
You pulled at the cardigan you had over your shoulders, feeling a chill. ''I know it's only October, but they should bring out the huge puffers. Last night's shoot was brutal. At least I have pants today.''
''Do you want something to warm up?'' Tom offered next, always thoughtful. ''I got a blanket and a jacket if you want.''
''That would be appreciated. I'll take you on the offer.''
You watched as Tom went to the small couch and gave you both options. As tempting as it was to take the jacket â which he wore this morning coming to set and would smell of him â, you took the blanket. You wrapped yourself in it like a cocoon. You probably looked silly, but at least you were warm.
''Does that feel better?''
You nodded. ''I had an amazing time with you the other night. It was nice to experience London from a native citizen's side.''
''I had an amazing night too. My only regret is, I didn't kiss you when I should have.''
You bit back a squeak of surprise, the beating of your heart picking up its pace.
Tom continued. ''When you closed the door and I went back to my room, I got hit with immediate regret. I spent the next hour cogitating and cursing myself for not kissing you.''
''You could do it now? We haveâŠtwenty-three minutes before we get called on set.''
A chuckle left Tomâs lips and he gently grabbed your chin, tilting it as he closed the space between your mouths and kissed you.
*
The change of status of your relationship made it to the tabloids shortly after wrapping up Spiderman: Far from home.
You and Tom were having dinner in a pub with some of his best mates when a âfanâ took pictures of Tomâs hand behind your back and kissing your cheek. In a matter of seconds, the pictures were all over twitter.
You felt violated.
Although you had chosen a career that put you in the spotlight, you deserved privacy. It was important for you to have control of what you wanted to share or not, but that control had been taken from you by that âfanâ, turning your and Tomâs every outings into an invasive game of hunters against foxes.
*
Doing promo for the movie was overwhelming, tiring, and sometimes boring, but it was unfortunately part of acting. The last few days, you and Tom have been carried from one interview to another and asked the same questions over and over again.
It was your first time doing a tour to promote a movie you were in and you were exhausted from all the traveling and constant time-zone changes. How do actors do that all the time? Your sleep schedule was all over the place and your face felt like the Sahara desert from the constant exposure to airplane air and wearing a cake-face of makeup for over fourteen hours every day.
Having Tom with you through the whole tour made it all more bearable. He squeezed your hand three times before getting on the red carpet.
A chorus of screams from fans outside the premiere greeted you. You waved to some of them as you were being guided to your first interview.
ââY/N, weâre so happy to have you here. The movie is called âFar from homeâ and a lot of filming happened outside in Europe, how does it feel to be home after being away for a few months?'' she asked, tilting the microphone toward you.
You knew the interviewer meant Los Angeles, but although you owned an apartment here, was it really your home? With all the constant traveling of the past two years, you've been living in hotel rooms and don't really know where home is anymore.
''Iâve been asked variations of this question a lot these past months. I think home is vague and can hold different meanings. Did I miss my family and my best friends while I was away? Yes. Of course. Itâs hard to be in a different time-zone from the people who used to be a twenty minutes drive away from you,ââ you explained, remembering the nights youâve spent curled in your hotel bed in Italy, missing your mom. ââBut I personally donât consider home to be a specific place. Itâs more of a feeling. I feel at home when Iâm with the people I love, wherever I am.ââ
You regretted your choice of words immediately, knowing the interviewer would pick up on the âpeople I loveâ part and use it to get you to talk about Tom.
His eyes lit up and he quickly took the opportunity. ââDo you have a specific person in mind? A certainâŠco-star, perhaps?ââ
ââEveryone was away from home during filming, whether it was in Atlanta or in Europe, so we were all in the same boat. Weâve spent so much time together that we became a new family. Seeing them today at the premiere makes me feel at home.ââ
You mentally patted yourself on the back for this one. Itâs not that you didnât want to talk about Tom â he was your co-star, it was inevitable. You just didnât want all the questions to be about your and Tomâs relationship. Itâs a movie premiere, your first big screen production, not a personal interview on a late night talk-show.
You were moved to the next interviewer and, unfortunately for you, the guy from E!News complimented your dress and how stunning you looked, using the good old flattery method to get you to answer his juicer questions.
ââItâs Zuhair Murad,ââ you informed him, plugging your dress designer. The shade of maroon matched with Tomâs, but you didnât mention that part.
ââWell, it looks stunning on you,ââ the interviewer added. ââWeâre all excited to see the movie, but a lot of us want to know about the spiderman curse. We know itâs a thing for Spiderman actors falling for their co-star. Will you and Tom be the ones to break the curse?ââ
ââMaybe.ââ You laughed nervously. There was no getting away with this one. ââWe didnât mean to fall in love â it just happened â, but when you find love, you take it. You grab it with both hands and you do everything in your power not to let it go.ââ Your eyes searched for Tom, a smile curling on your lips when you saw him talking and laughing with an interviewer.
*
After the premiere, you and Tom went to your apartment, exhausted from the premiereâŠand a little bit tipsy from the drinks. You got unready, removing all traces to todayâs red carpet glam, and slid into bed. While waiting for Tom to join you, you scrolled on your phone, looking at some pictures you took at the premiere and stopped at the one where you and Tom were getting ready in a hotel room. You had rollers in your hair and half of your makeup on, but your lips were on Tomâs cheek a golden glow was coming from the window.Â
You smiled at the picture and posted it on Instagram, giving the world the first official selfie of you and Tom since you began dating, with the caption: I once believed love would be burning red, but itâs golden đâš
â
Marvel taglist: @xenasolos @chrizzierbsstuffâ @ayamenimthiriel @alina02 @turtleshavesoulmates @staygoldsquatchling02 @daemonslittlebitch  @wetwilliam02 @haileyismoo @manofworm @rhydianissuperior @supersanelyromantic @nicangel13 @mxxny-lupin  @sweeterheartxamerica @viridwityy @izzy-laufeyson @kenzi-woycehoski @arunaposeidondottie @liidiaaag @katsukis1wife  @amithesimpoffandoms  @acornacreacure   @chaotic-fangirl-blog  @hawkegfs @mommyruuetrue @youdontneedtoknowthisinformation  @aabananaa @starrrslove  @angeliod @nmedina8611 @1stevelacyfan
All and more taglist: @spiokybirdstarfish @kenqki @liidiaaag @hawkegfs  @gillybear17  @areaderinlove @acornacreacure @black-rose-29 @fudge13 @cece05 @rosie-cameron
#tom holland#tom holland imagine#tom holland x y/n#tom holland x reader#peter parker#peter parker x reader#marvel#marvel imagine#king of my heart#the end
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Fake News
First tumblr Story Ever
As the newest Avenger it seemed that Tony Stark and Captain Rogers were more than comfortable sending you out on all of the shit missions, granted, you could use the time in with your new teammates to learn their little quirks and start working to meld your abilities with theirs so that you could start working together seamlessly, but it was getting ridiculous. You were half expecting to start getting told to go out and help the NYFD rescue kittens from trees and helping the NYPD direct traffic on Broadway in Manhattan during rush hour. Y/N was a technopath, which was a fancy name for someone who could control technology and anything mechanical with their mind, or if you wanted to be technical about it, according to the official S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier:
Y/L/N, Y/N: Main Ability: Technology Manipulation
User can manipulate technology, the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and
processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment
of objectives. However, most users only can exert control over technological
constructs, such as computers, robots, hardware, and other devices that can be
termed as "technology", in any way. Manifested as a special form of electrical/telekinetic manipulation, a special form of "morphing" which allows physical interaction with machines, or even a psychic ability that allows mental interface with computer data.
Also Called:
· Cyberkinesis
· Cyberpathy
· Mechanokinesis
· Technokinesis
· Technopathy
Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, spring was coming to a close and summer was just around the corner. Tony asked me and Sam Wilson, you may know him as Falcon, to head to midtown
Manhattan because there were some âunsavoryâ characters hanging around Grand Central Station.
Turns out it was some low-level HYDRA minions that were basically trying to see what kind of trouble they could cause, they had planted a pipe bomb in a waste bin in the middle of the station and it was a Friday when thousands of people would be traveling through the station heading to and from work and school. I think that HYDRA was more or less just testing us Avengers out to what abilities we had and see if there are any hidden capabilities we possessed before they come at us for a full-scale attack.
Sam and I arrived and were able to find the pipe bomb relatively quickly, part of my ability is being able to read the signatures of different technologies and mechanics, and if you donât think that a bomb countdown timer throws out a red flag, you are mistaken. Anyway, we found it, and rather than call bomb and arson with New Yorkâs Finest, I was able to manipulate the mechanics myself using my mind. I shut down the detonator without ever touching the bomb and made the whole thing inactive within a few minutes time.
Easy peasy, 10 minutes, another fast sweep which took an additional 30 minutes, and Sam and I were finished and ready for our close-ups from the media that always, inevitably followed. We had a small group of media that always showed up whenever a call went out that an Avenger was âworkingâ and there was almost always a small fan base at Grand Central or where ever we were working who would come up to thank us, like we were some sort of rock stars, and as per usual some of the younger men and women took the opportunity to do some flirting with us. Tony told us, unattached Avengers, that any publicity and light flirting and playfulness with the fans was good publicity and would help for the public to relate to us and see us in a positive light. I am not going to lie, I may or may not have had a little thing for our resident speedy Sokovian, but our little flirting in the compound never seemed to go beyond that, flirting. I thought there was a possibility he liked me also, but, so far, nothing. Although I did catch him staring at me quite often and Wanda and some of the guys were always talking to him and then immediately looking in her direction like they were just discussing her. Pietro did seem to always try to be around me and sit near me as often as possible as well. Also when the âfansâ would flirt with him, I noticed he never really showed much interest in them, always watching to see what I was doing.
Oh well, time to spend a little time with the crowd before Sam and I headed back to the compound. The New York Times was talking to some travelers about the pipe bomb that was found in the wastebasket and what their thoughts were and how they felt about us being there to âsave the day, yet againâ when an overzealous âfanâ started to get a little handsy with me in the background. He had followed me around and asked me to dinner a few times, flashing cash and his business card a few times, trying to press it into my hand multiple times. I explained I was really bust and thanked him but said I was not interested or available, but he kept perusing me. He was leaning over my shoulder with his hand around my waist from behind, body pulled directly flush with my back and he was in an excited state if you know what I mean, and he was whispering in my ear about some of his fantasies and things that he has dreamt of doing to me. Of course, the camera flashed right as he started to kiss my neck and I had a smile on my face because I was focusing on a sweet 10 year old in front of me asking for my autograph and telling me I was her favorite avenger. If the camera had waited all of 5 seconds more, they would have caught me performing a minor assault on the prick and another 5 seconds would have caught Sam pulling me off of him and flying us out of the station and back to the compound with his hand over my mouth because I let lose a string of explicativeâs that would put Wade Wilson to shame.
The next morning I woke up and took a shower, went down to the kitchen and made my normal toast and juice and bowl of fruit, and could not help notice that the Avengers that were there were looking at me strangely, I thought it was because I was still in a sour mood because of that jerk from yesterday and the icky feeling he gave me that I was assaulted by scum. I knew that Rogers, Wanda, Sam, and Nat were on their way to Lagos on a mission. Thor and Banner were MIA since Sokovia, which left Stark, Rhodey, Vision, Pietro and I still here.
âY/N, so, how was the pipe bomb incident yesterday?â Tony asked seemingly hinting at something
âUneventful aside from a slight annoyance in the crowd, is there coffee left?â Y/N responded looking at him while rising to get a mug and pour a hot mug to clear the remaining sleep from my head.
âNothing happened? Nobody special you want to tell us about?â Rhodey chimes in.
âNot that I am aware of or worth mentioning now that itâs done and over with, is there something you would like to tell me about?â Y/N asks looking back and forth to them. âHey, whereâs Speedy, heâs usually down here eating everything that isnât trying to eat him first.â
Tony looks at Y/N and smirks, âIt is strange that you should mention that, he came in about 20 minutes ago, I assume you were in the shower or I am sure you would have heard him, saw the cover of the New York Times, flipped out and, well, here you are, please take a look, we are on pins and needles to know what you think. And I hope you know that all suitors must meet the full team before you becoming an âitemâ and pass Avenger inspection, and Rogers is particularly tough.â He slid the paper across the kitchen island to where you sat, both he and Rhodey watching your face for a reaction. You unfolded the paper confused and looked at the front cover.
There in black and white at you was a close up of the stranger with his arms around your waist from behind, you leaning slightly forward smiling and the stranger kissing your neck, the little girl you were smiling at was covered by the person being interviewed in the foreground. To someone who was not there and did not know the story, this definitely looked bad, like a very intimate moment caught on film, the headline read âNewest Avenger Moving Fast With New York Wall Street Traderâ the article went on to talk about how you just met the guy and did not bother to get his name, but just let him put the moves on you, yadda, yadda, yadda. Apparently, after Sam got you out of there, the âgentleman: in question decided to make a name for himself and gave a short interview making it sound like you approached him and started the whole flirt fest, lead him on, and then abandoned him, with the promise to return. You looked at Tony and Rhodey with wide eyes and a sick feeling in your stomach, âThis is the biggest load of shit I have ever read in my life, this is not anything at all what happened. About 3 seconds after this picture was snapped, I basically slapped the taste out of his mouth and would have continued to do so had Sam not gotten me out of there. Flirting? More like this guy assaulted me. This was not consensual or wanted. I told him multiple times I was not interested and refused his advances and invitations to dinner and he kept bothering me. I was talking to a little kid and he pulled this crap when I had my back turned to him.â
Tony went from joking to serious almost instantly, âOkay, we were just going to bust your balls on this a little bit, but this has just become a non-joke. Iâll have Pepper contact someone in Stark Industries legal department to get in touch with the paper to track this guy down, heâll have had to sign a waiver for publication and weâre going to go after him for liable and harassment. If he tries to come after you for battery for the assault, well, weâll call that defense, Avenger or not, no one gets to touch you without permission. Y/n we really didnât know, we were just going to play around with you about this a little, and we had no idea. He didnât do any weird stuff, right?â
âNO, I mean, I slapped him and Sam pulled me off of him and flew me out of there, anything beyond what he did to me and you would have been getting a call from New Yorkâs finest about bail or my court hearing for homicide. I was shocked, but if it had gone beyond what it was, I would have raged a lot harder than I did. The headline in the paper would have read a lot differently today.â Y/N responded.
âAlright, I know that yesterday was weird and I know that Nat and Wanda have had to deal with crap like this from time to time, unfortunately being an attractive woman on the team seems to let the guys out there think that it is open season to treat you ladies like meat. It is unfair and it sucks and if any of the men on the team are around just say the word and well step in and make sure the guys know itâs not okay, or step back and let you take care of it yourself, whatever you feel more comfortable with. In the meantime, take the weekend off and go to a spa or go shopping or to the movies or whatever you need to do to feel better, charge everything to Stark okay. Just let us know if you need anything alright.â Tony hugged you with one arm and kissed the top of your head. âOne thing though, Lightning Legs. He flipped out when he saw this. He thought it was true and got hot and bothered. I would suggest finding him and letting him know what is really going on because the last thing you need right now is a crazy Sokovian kid acting like a jealous boyfriend right now.â
You look us at Tony and across the island to Rhodey, âWhat is that all about, what is he flipping out about, he brags about all the women he is into and dated back in Sokovia all the time, what does he care about what happens to me?â
âY/N are you serious? That kid has been crazy in love with you since Sokovia. I swear I was coming close to sending you both on a mission that involved a tropical island and a case of rum soon. If heâs not staring at you, you are staring at him. Itâs sickening.â Tony finished with a sarcastic eye roll. Go relax in your room, we'll take care of this. Just try to put it from your mind and well talk soon. With that, you left and headed to the elevator bank to the sleeping quarters level, feeling shitty, but better because you knew Tony would do what he could to help.
You were only in your Bedroom Suite for about half an hour when there was a somewhat frantic knocking at your door. You got up from your bed, put down the book you were currently reading, and made your way to the door, opening it, you found a seemingly tormented Pietro, he entered your quarters without an invitation and started to pace the length of your room, looking at you, Y/N could tell he needed to speak, but he was not sure where or how to start.
âY/N, I âŠâŠ. The newspaper, I saw the picture andâŠâŠ Who is he? Do you like him? I mean does he make you happy? I want you to be happyâŠâŠâŠ I know that no one will ever be able toâŠâŠâŠ. Not like I doâŠâŠâŠâ Pietro kept starting and stopping sentences, never actually completing any, and getting agitated. You had never seen him this disconcerted before, he was always so unruffled when he would flirt with you before and this was a whole new side to him that you had never seen before. It was like he was unsure of himself and it was not something he was sure of how to process. You walked towards where Pietro was walking seemingly carrying on an argument with himself and reached out for his hands.
âPietro, please stop, okay, please. It is not what you think, I donât know that guy. It was fake, it was false, I donât know him, I did not ask for that, I did not tell him it was okay to touch me or kiss me like that, I was not alright with that, He did that without my permission, and the photographer took a picture and they wrote some fake story to make it seem like I was into it. I did not want that. I donât know him, I feel disgusted by that.â You start to rub your neck where the creep kissed you, sat down on the plush cushioned ottoman bench at the foot of your bed and start to curl into yourself to make yourself as small as possible as Pietro looks at you taking in your words.
âWait, moja bohyĆa (my goddess,) some guy you do not know came up to you and started to touch you and kiss you without your permission? No, I will not allow this, who is this man; I will go fight him right now. Ćœiadny odpadok sa nemĂŽĆŸe dotknĂșĆ„ mojej bohyne bez jej sĂșhlasu. Nikomu by nemalo byĆ„ dovolenĂ© pozeraĆ„ sa na Ću bez toho, aby sa poÄakoval bohom, ĆŸe bola stvorenĂĄ. (No trash can touch my goddess without her consent. No man should ever be allowed to look on her, without thanking the gods that she was created.) Are you okay?â He sat on the bench next to you giving you plenty of space, not wanting to crowd you. âI will kill this man, why would he think he could touch you, BohyĆa (Goddess,) if I had been there, I would have stopped him immediately, I am so sorry I was not there with you. â Pietro sat staring forward with a look of disappointment in himself. You leaned over towards him putting your head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around you pulling you into him. You snuggled your face into his chest drawing designs on his stomach and chest with your finger as he kissed your head and held you close.
âTony is going to get the Legal department of Stark Industries to look into the paper and find out who the guy is and get him charged with harassment, and I may or may not have given him a good slap as soon as I got over my shock and realized what was happening, so I figure I should let the cops know everything in case he decided to try to press charges later for battery saying I attacked him. But I promise Pietro, there is absolutely nothing at all going on with that guy or any other guy in my life because I was sort of waiting for someone I had a sort of thing for to maybe make a move, but I didnât think that he was interested, so I had basically given up hope and just accepted that we would only be friends, and that was okay, but I really was hoping he would let me know he felt the same.â You continued tracing symbols on Pietro's chest with her fingers nervously
Pietro put his hand gently under Y/Ns chin and raised her face so that his clear blue eyes were looking directly into Y/N/E/C, âDo I know this guy?â He asked finally deciding to go with the advice the rest of the team when they told him that Y/N was definitely into him, and Wanda assured him that yes, Y/N thought about him often and was only too nervous to make the first move, but if Pietro would, she would be receptive.
Y/N looks from Pietro's eyes to his lips and back to his eyes again and states âI am sure you have seen him around here, sometimes heâs hard to spot because heâs pretty fast, but when he stops or slows down and doesnât try so hard to impress everyone heâs really an amazing guy. I have to say to, he is sexy as hell too, and he has this accent when he talks, uggghhh, it does things to me.â Y/N just smiles at him teasingly.
Pietro chuckles and smiling leans in but says softly before he kisses you, âPrednesiem vĂĄm bĂĄsne a texty, ak ma chcete poÄuĆ„ hovoriĆ„, poviem vĂĄm vĆĄetky veci, ktorĂ© chcem s vami a s vami urobiĆ„, ale nikdy vĂĄm nebudem mĂŽcĆ„ vyjadriĆ„, ako veÄŸmi vĂĄs milujem a uctievam. Teraz si mĂŽj, ako ja tvoj, navĆŸdy. (I will recite you poetry and lyrics if you want to hear me speak, I will tell you all the things I want to do to you and with you, but I will never be able to express to you, how much I love and worship you. You are mine now as I am your, forever.)â He then lays the softest and most soul-baring kiss on Y/N that she has ever felt. It was as if all the passions in the world could have been transferred to her through that kiss and as he softly caresses her face while peppering gentle kisses on her face, Y/N thinks that maybe this stupid picture is not the worst thing in the world to ever happen to her if it is what FINALLY brought her and Pietro together, she figures if nothing else, this will be a brilliant story to tell their kids someday.
Slovakian substituted for Sokovian
Y/N = Your Name
Y/L/N = Your Last Name
Y/N/E/C = Your Eye Color
#pietro marvel#pietro x reader#pietro x you#pietro x y/n#pietro maximoff#pietro fluff#Pietro jealous#slight dubcon#fluff
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I simply have to write down my thoughts for anything to have meaning, so here are my awtwb opinions in no particular order (spoilers ahead!!!):
- the break up absolutely needed to happen, and also frankly it was very tasty
- "you're crying from simon/baz?" "the 'weâre not made of pieces that come apart' got to me"
- the last ditch effort sentimentality on bazâs part and ill-conceived sacrifice on simonâs........ such a lovely lil piece of angst. hurt stokes honesty and vice versa
- why did they get back together literally the next day though. it was like watching someone tear down an old condemned building and then OVERNIGHT an identical building has been rebuilt in its place. the dust hadnât even settled yet. can we sit in it for like a minute.
- it definitely IS in character for simon to look at the emotional mess he just made and be like wait. I hate this actually. Iâm immediately going to fix it despite the fact that I havenât thought it through and have no plan :)
- this sure is a horny book huh
- actually very tonally appropriate that simon sees intimacy as too much to possibly grapple with. sex is easy when it's prescribed, and he's not really invested in it, but when he wants things very very badly he knows he can never truly have them. he can only host power or love or acceptance for a while before it's taken away.
- (something something orphan something something instability/insatiability)
- he always used to have one clear path, and now he canât tease apart all his options. he wants everything or nothing. no embarrassing in-betweens, no gentle half-touches, no one foot in and one foot out of the magickal world
- also he wants to be manhandled and told what to do and bitten and consumed. sub behaviour
- every minor character in this book rules. ent bartender, butch legend niamh, cake-maker ruth, tracksuit fox. demon bear lady please wife me.
- sapphics kissing over the birthing juices of a fresh goat? come ON
- I think itâs fitting that goatherder agatha found her own productive, unconventional niche just outside of the place where she felt so constricted and misunderstood. like she wandered out of her ivory tower and found all of these sprawling open pastures
- shepard is so supremely & unbelievably likeable. so delighted and delightful. a mover and a shaker and a monsterfucker. spin-off when
- penny & shepard were also such pleasing complementary colours, and I like that they were both highly self-assured (in contrast w baz/simon's insecurity) and highly impressed with one another
- thereâs a lot of awkward pacing in this book, which does feel (possibly by accident) like a testament to the non-linear, unexpected way that people deal with trauma. like itâs realistic that emotional pitfalls and relationship turmoil will always clumsily insert themselves into your ânarrative,â you know?
- the demon bride storyline felt like a (super fun) short story nested within the book rather than an important element of the overarching plot itself
- some of the interpersonal groundwork laid in wayward son definitely paid off, but there were also a lot of superfluous plot points, and not a lot of fall-out/consequences? no real stakes (pun intended)
- so much good relationship stuff though! the communication is bantery and productive and tender and sometimes uncomfortable. it all feels like growing pains
- itâs so clear that simonâs innate sense of self is completely hollow; heâs petrified of self-identifying (and thus committing to a label which might turn out to be false again), and heâs afraid of smothering people with how much he wants and relies on them so he ghosts them instead
- the way he self-sabotages just for the rush of fixing things afterwardsâŠ. baby let me study you
- he constantly kind of has to reassure himself that heâs normal and also that heâs a Normal (this is what regular people do. this is what healthy affection looks like. And alsoâI have to remember that I donât have or deserve magic. Iâm not the person I thought I was.)
- he was the chosen one, and it turned out to be fake. and now heâs another kind of chosen oneâchosen by Baz, by his friends, and later by the Salisburys, but he doesnât really trust the sensation of being important to people anymore. he thinks that everything good he has or will ever have has been stolen or coerced somehow, and too much feeling is always inevitably going to be followed by total devastation. doesnât that make you insane
- the excalibur thing was such a neat little piece of world-building (ancestral magic swords? yes maâam) although I definitely expected agatha to have a hand in that reveal
- wings y/n?????
- no real resolution for the magic immunity. okie dokie
- I wanted to linger with that mage paternity reveal a bit longer. the upgrade simonâs daddy issues just receivedâŠâŠ astronomical
- I liked that penny and simon had a little bit of independence from one another actually, because simon had to think through his problems like a Normal, and penny had to fact check herself when no one was nodding benignly along with all of her ideas. growth!
- a society of chosen ones? cult-leader villain obsessed with empty symbolism? mages seduced not by the promise of power but of acceptance and healing? delicioso
- the climax of this book lasted about twelve seconds, but I enjoyed the continued chapel motif, and the fact that every villain ends up being a shade of simon snow
- the conclusion for daphne, prof. bunce, etc, wasnât super fulfilling, I was half-expecting a reveal that they were all under some kind of thrall, but since they were just like.. insecure and ostracized by their community, I wanted a denouement where their respective spouses meet them where theyâre at, and the world of mages pledges some kind of fundamental change in attitudes/policies towards differing magickal proficiency. maybe! idk!
- so much pop culture in this book. (the yeetsâŠâŠ the vibe checksâŠ..) this oneâs going to age like milk, ladies
- itâs cute though! I like a book that is a little parcel of the time that it was made, and I like how un-embarrassed it is of itself
- I love the way all three couples had a really clear, âoh this is what itâs supposed to feel likeâ momentâthe transformative potential of being loved the way you want and deserve to be loved
- so many fab individual moments that I'll think about for the rest of my life, and overall so indulgent and fun to read, but a little messy and out of balance for the final book of a trilogy. the end ïżœïżœïżœïž
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Tropetember Day 2: Coffee Shop / Tattoo Parlor / Flower Shop / Other Retail AU
Coffee and other ways to heal the soul.
Pairing: Spencer Reid x GN!Reader
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Rating: General Audiences
TW: Valhalla arc (mentioned), coffee, NCIS cameo
AN: Day 2 of @tropetember. I was really struggling with the coffee shop AU but once I got going, really got way too into it and could probably pad this out into a short series. Is that something people would be interested in?
Also, not really sure if I managed to capture Spencer but remember this is an AU and that's my excuse!
Enjoy!
Find this story on Ao3 here.
Word Count: 2.4k
One of the biggest advantages of owning one of the few coffee shops in Quantico that wasn't part of a massive chain, was the constant stream of senior FBI and Navy personnel desperate for high quality, well made coffee. It had become such a lucrative venture in fact that you could afford to hire enough staff to rarely even have to be behind the counter at all.
The surge in popularity has even allowed you to convert one of the spare upstairs rooms into a meeting room. In hindsight, you should have converted more because once your regulars found out about it, there had been outright war between the Navy and FBI to try and get meetings booked in. A couple of your regulars had even managed to get both institutions to hardwire connections so they could host even more briefings and meetings in the friendly, comfortable space.
Today's winners were a Unit from the FBI, who had booked it out for a whole day. Aaron Hotchner, the BAU chief, came in most mornings and was a real sweetheart. You'd been trying to get him to drink something other than his normal americano since his return from Afghanistan a few months ago, but had not been successful so far. You were excited to meet the rest of the legendary team. He always spoke fondly of them when he bought extra coffees to boost morale.
With that in mind, you quickly throw together the pastries and beverages he'd preordered for the start of their session and head in to do a quick check that everything was ready.
Like any meeting room, there was a large table in the center but you'd made sure to surround it with comfy and artfully mismatched chairs. The floor was a deep walnut colour and matched the numerous floating shelves which were covered in plants and books. The place was homey and extended the cosy chic look you had been trying to achieve throughout the shop.
After a little bit of organising, including making sure the FBI cables were accessible and tidying any of the Navyâs equipment, you head downstairs to the main space.
Charlotte and Jessica were behind the tills this morning, making quick work of the line and exuding friendly helpfulness out of every pore. They were both grad students and you were already dreading them graduating. Their natural effervescence would be impossible to replace.
To pass the time until your booking arrives, you catch up with NCIS Agent McGee who is on the coffee run, trying not to hold him up too long in case he ends up getting in more trouble with his big bad boss. Apparently Agent DiNozzo had knocked over Gibbs coffee but McGee had then slipped in it and done some minor damage to some of the equipment. He told you he much preferred coffee run to door knocking duty round a 6 block radius like DiNozzo.
As you wrap it up, a group of people enter the shop, led by a woman in colourful clothes and a sunshine demeanour. It's not until you see Agent Hotchner's suited and booted presence bringing up the rear that you realise this is the infamous BAU.
Donning your friendliest persona, you politely excuse yourself from McGee and head to greet them, calling Aaron's name across the way.
The profilers seem surprised by your use of their bosses name but quickly shake it off as introductions are made. You receive hand shakes off most of them with the exception of Penelope, who gives you a hug because of course she does, and Dr Spencer Reid who gives you a shy wave and looks like he'd rather be anywhere else.
It didn't take a profiler to see the physical distance between the genius and the rest of the group. He was always a step away from the nearest person and automatically avoided any physical contact from them.
How strange.
Brushing it off you lead them upstairs and get them settled, letting them know that they're welcome to come and go in the shop as need and that all their drinks would be added to the discounted tab and left them too it, all the while trying not to puzzle over the handsome loner and his cute sweater vest.
-----
If there was one thing Spencer Reid hated more than anything, it was team building.
Normally, back before everything happened, he would just grit his teeth and bear it. That's been a lot harder after finding out that Emily was alive.
Processing the joy at her being alive and the rage at being led to believe she was dead in the first place, particularly by the people he trusted the most, was not easy. He was trying to forgive them. He was trying to let it go, to accept the damage but move forward.
It was still a work in progress.
That's why, when Hotch announced a team building/meeting day, he had momentarily considered resigning. Though there was no longer outright hostility between himself and Jennifer, things werenât exactly comfortable between himself and half of the team. The only bright side to this whole endeavour was the location. No coffee shop lasted long in Quantico unless the coffee was actually good. It was a small mercy.
He followed the rest of the team into the coffee shop, eyeing the surroundings and taking note of the other visitors. As the rest of the team joked about, he stayed back, simply waving at the nice owner of the shop when Hotch introduced them.
They appeared to be about his age which was very impressive considering the success of the cafĂ©. And there were a couple of sci-fi references hidden in the dĂ©cor that he would have loved to ask about, but he doubted theyâd appreciate him going off about Star Trek this early in the morning. Instead he just gave a tight-lipped smile and followed the team upstairs.
Spencer tried his best to concentrate throughout the morning but to say he was relieved when they were left to their own devices for lunch would be an understatement.
-----
After a productive morning in the office, you wander back out to the main part of the shop to check on things. The lunch rush can be unforgiving but the girls seem to have it in hand. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Tuesday lunchtime.
What you didnât expect to see was Spencer Reid hidden away at one of the back tables with a ginormous book in front of him, a small scowl on his face and the rest of his team nowhere in sight.
You agonise silently with yourself for a few moments before you decide to head over. You figure if he doesnât want company heâll let you know but you feel drawn to him. It was strange. Maybe it was just your instinctive need to collect strays.
You smile gently at him when you reach his table, indicating the seat opposite him in question. He gives a quick nod but doesnât fully look at you.
âEverything ok?â you ask.
He takes a moment and seems to be considering his options. He looks at you with a little tilt of his head, likely questioning your motives.
Finally, he seems to decide you have no sinister intention and quietly replies âI just wish things could go back to how they wereâ.
You had heard about the events involving the BAU in the last year or so. It had been a hot topic of gossip in the shop numerous times. Aaron also occasionally talked about his guilt at what he put his team through when he stopped by, needing a friend to talk to. Itâs the first time, however, that you think in depth about how faking a close friend's death likely affected the team members who were unaware.
This isnât to say you didnât care or didnât think that it must have been terrible for them. You did, but had agreed with the justification that it was for Agent Prentissâ safety, that finding out she was alive would make up for it. Itâs apparent in the sadness of Dr Reidâs expression that that isnât the case.
âCan I touch you?â
His eyes shoot up in surprise and he hesitantly nods. You gently grasp his hands, wrapping your fingers around his.
âI canât even imagine,â you begin slowly, âhow difficult this must be. But if you ever need to talk to someone, youâre always welcome hereâ
He gives a short, sharp nod and squeezes your fingers which you take to mean thank you.
âAlso, this is totally not my place but, a therapist, one outside the Bureau? Might not be such a bad idea?â You give a sardonic grin and admit â It worked for meâ
After you give his hands another quick squeeze, you leave him to ponder your statement and head back to your office. Paperwork doesnât do it self after all.
You hope Spencer manages to find some support though and decide that if he wants it, youâd be more than willing to help him.
---------------
It was a few weeks before Spencer Reid showed up in the coffee shop again.
It was early evening and you only had a few people in. Youâd opted to close up tonight to ensure Jessica, who had been on the afternoon shift, had time to work on her assignment for class. Sheâd been complaining about it for the last few days.
The sound of the front door opening distracts you from your thoughts and you glance up to see who has entered. When you realise who it is you canât help but smile.
âFancy seeing you here Dr Reidâ you say in greeting. He gives you a small smile in return.
âWell, itâs good coffee and, erm, the companyâs good?â
You understand the question implicit in that comment and glance around at the few remaining patrons. They all have a beverage and itâs a quiet night so you can afford to take a step out behind the counter between orders.
âSure, let me make us both a drink and then Iâm all yours.â
You take his order (how much sugar?!?!) and get you both sorted out and settled into a small booth. You look at him, taking in the nervous expression on his face and let him settle in and start the conversation.
âI, erm, I took your adviceâ.
âThatâs good. Are you finding itâs helping? Having someone outside of work to talk things through with?â
He nods his head.
âOne of the things she pointed out was that so much of my life is wrapped up in work, that when things go wrong I don't have an external support system. Not that I didn't know that already but, someone else pointing it out made me realise how much if an impact it has.â
You bob your head thoughtfully, acknowledging his comment but not forcing him to say more.
âShe suggested I try to find people outside of work to talk to. I was... I was wondering if you could be one?â
His nerves seem to have failed him slightly as he canât look you in the eye, but you give him a big grin. Of course you want to spend time with this lovely man.
âIâd love toâ you say, which gets him to look up and give you a smile in response.
You spend nearly an hour, with occasional breaks to serve customers, chatting to him before it becomes necessary to close up. He starts gathering his things but youâve been enjoying his company so much you canât bear to let him go. Instead, you check if heâs in a rush and, after confirming he has nothing else planned, invite him to hang around and grab something to eat from the diner down the street.
By the end of the night, youâre glad the diner is 24hr. You completely lose track of time, fascinated by the sheer amount of information he can provide and the passion with which he infodumps. Itâs extremely endearing.
âI had a lovely time tonightâ you tell him as you walk towards your apartment. You donât live too far from the coffee shop and he had very gallantly offered to walk you home. âIâd love to do it again some time?â
He smiles and nods in agreement before asking for your phone number.
âI don't really like technology that much so I donât have a smartphone and I donât really check it that much and prefer speaking to textingâŠâ
âSpenceâ you say, a little laugh in your voice as you interrupt. âWhatever works best for you. Iâm not going to suddenly vanish on you, promise.â
You seem to have hit his worries a little too closely as he sways a little awkwardly, gaze wandering down to his feet.
âCan I hug you?â you check. His answer is to wrap his arms around you and you gently sway the both of you side to side.
He lets go and turns to head back out into the night as you call out âIf youâre ever missing me, I know a place you can get great coffee. I can get you a good discount.â A laugh stutters from his lips and he wishes you a good night.
Leaning against your door you sigh happily to yourself. Itâs always a good feeling making a new friend.
--------------
It had been over a year since the last time the BAU had booked (and managed to attend the booking). In that time, youâd converted another room upstairs into a meeting room, as well as setting up a shared work/study space in a room out the back.
You grin as you see them all enter, fascinated by the way this family of agents interact with each other. Thereâs even a tall, handsome genius who stands within the group, laughing and joking along with the rest.
Spencer greets you with a gentle kiss to your lips and it causes uproar from his colleagues. You donât react much, you just turn to them and shrug.
âDo you know how many germs are passed in a handshake? Itâs much safer to kiss.â
Your genius just laughs and wraps an arm around you, guiding the whole group upstairs, his friends playfully demanding details the whole way.
#Trope: Coffee Shop AU#Criminal Minds#spencer reid x reader#spencer reid x y/n#spencer reid x you#tropetember#fanfiction#unbeta'd
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I recently re-read his Dorm SSR personal story here! A few questions and thoughts lingered inside my head as I read it and it collectively got worse when @poisonepelâ started questioning things too. Which ultimately led to me writing this down while running on half a brain cell and a spoonful of rice for lunch. This isnât necessarily an analysis but more of just me questioning a lot of stuff. I already pointed out things that are already obvious so it might get repetitive. Placed under the cut since itâs a bit lengthy! I tried my best to be coherent in the very least.
Rookâs Nickname for Jade - Rook calls Jade âMonsieur Mastermindâ and perhaps youâre already telling me right now that I shouldnât look deeper into this since it doesnât look like it matters anyway but let me tell you right now that I tend to overanalyze things when it comes to Jade. I find it a bit odd how Rook calls Jade the mastermind, presuming that weâre talking about the Octavinelle trio, when itâs often Azul thatâs shown to be as such. Of course, itâs been revealed that Rook analyzes or stalks nearly everything that happens to catch his interest (Jadeâs Gym Personal). So itâs safe to presume that his judgement is, if not entirely correct, accurate. âYour staple food, your habits, your walking speed, when you sleep, your heart rate, how many times you blink⊠those and many others I have recorded perfectly.â Just by reading this line alone I became pretty sure that he observed something deeper than that--which is his personality.
      The question is, why is Jade the mastermind instead of Azul? Why is Azulâs nickname âRoi du Fortâ instead of being the mastermind? Well, it might be common knowledge but Jade, in a way, controls Azul despite what it looks like to the public which is Azul controlling Jade since he, as the higher authority, has power over him. I read a popular post explaining why Jade probably undertakes the role of a servant rather than taking the position for himself knowing that he has the full capabilities to do so. This will be explained further later in a different note.
What Iâm trying to imply is that behind the scenes, Azul isnât really the mastermind behind everything despite what it seems. Itâs Jade whoâs really in control of things, by picking up the act of a servant or butler.Â
âIf the entire hierarchy collapses just due to the absence of a single person, then that proves that they arenât all as great as they seem.â - I just had the need to point this particular line out since it just seemed so⊠Jade. Everything about this line just screams out the same vibes he radiates, cold and severe. I know heâs faking the whole thing about having a falling out with Azul and wanting to join Pomefiore but I think it is true that without him, Octavinelle wonât nearly be as great from when he was still there.
First of all, Heâs Octavinelleâs vice-dorm leader. Surely, being in such a high position, he carries a lot of duties that only he can do as the acting vice leader. Thereâs also the fact that he does it superbly than other people which is why Octavinelle is the way it is right now, it would be hard to replace him. They would have to look for someone whoâs on par with Jade, in the very least.
Secondly, heâs somewhat an emotional pillar to Azul. Judging from their childhood and current relationship as of now, I like to think that a big reason why Azul is the way he is right now, is because of Jade and Floyd acting as his emotional support or whatever even though they insist that their relationship is purely just for business and will drop it if itâs no longer beneficiary to them. The main reason why I think that way is because of the Octavinelle CM which has a scene of Azul holding a bubble in between his hands. Inside the bubble were the twins in their eel forms. The next thing that happened--the bubble popped and disappeared, along with the tweels inside it. We could see the horror on Azulâs face when it happened in that scene and slowly led to the overblot scene which says a lot about how Azul views the twins. Have a more detailed explanation regarding their relationship here! Summary, Azul will lose his shit if Jade were to disappear. Now, where is Octavinelle in all of this? Probably a mess in the corner right there with their dorm leader not in his right state of mind. In short, Octavinelle will probably crumble under the absence of Jade. The reason why Octavinelle is still functioning under Azulâs command during this whole stunt Jade is making is precisely because Azul knew that it was all an act.
"Jadeâs excellence in everything he does is renowned even among the Dorm Leaders. He might be a super secretary or something to be able to answer Azul's difficult requests." - Vil's words to Rook during their little talk about letting Jade into Pomefiore. This stuck out to me because back then I didn't really give this much thought but now that I'm re-reading this, it makes me wonder how good is Jade at his job as a Vice Dorm Leader? These words coming from Vil hold a certain weight I can't describe, for him to say that his excellence is renowned even among the Dorm Leaders and to be described as a Super Secretary.
For Jade to have earned this kind of reputation despite being in the land for only two years so far is quite a feat! I would've expected less from someone else but this is Jade we're talking about so, ignoring his terrible weakness in flying, I can assume that Jade worked hard for him to have reached this kind of performance level in such a short time. To be recognized by almost all of the Dorm Leaders isn't an easy feat.
Jade as an attendant - During his first day as Vil's attendant, Vil mentioned how off-putting he is from the fact that Jade was almost too good for someone on their first day. "You managed to get on such friendly terms with the stuffy and straight-laced people of the industry in such little time; and you were also perfect when it came to helping out with the shooting. You've worked much harder than I thought you would." His words. I think this is due to the nature of Jade's silver tongue, which is being able to speak in a way that makes other people do or believe what you want them to do or believe. It seems very fitting for a character like Jade.
Because of the recent personals that got released for Jade, namely the Birthday SSR, they talked about family there and it got me thinking quite a bit as to how Jade can speak so eloquently especially now that I've read that he managed to get on the good side of people who are probably way older than he is and straight-laced, no less. He vaguely mentioned their family background when he was telling a story from his childhood and said how different people would come over to their party and offer them presents. I'm assuming that these people are possibly older than he is, judging from the fact that one of them attempted to give the twins liquor despite them being at a young age, and I thought that maybe Jade grew up used to being surrounded by adults to the point where he picks up a lot of speech patterns and habits. Which inevitably leads to what he is right now. Nothing is confirmed yet, this is a mere thought I had.
Jade's past with Azul - It's briefly mentioned here in the story. Jade mentioned how there weren't as many mer-folk as there are humans so they were all basically put in the same class together during elementary school. Azul didn't catch his interest back then, it seems. He mentioned not being able to remember the very reason why the three of themâJade, Floyd, and Azulâended up together currently in Night Raven College.
I am genuinely curious as to what actually made the twins interested in someone like Azul. Correct me if I'm wrong but they did mention it in Chapter 3, right? Was it the growing interest when they finally took notice of Azul using his unique magic on basically everyone who fell into his trap? Someone tell me the details if it was ever mentioned, my memory is failing me.
âTenebresâ - The shoe brand Vil wanted to get his hands on but unfortunately did not obtain, particularly, the Mirror Shoe. "Tenebres" apparently only sells their products to people who they deem worthy for designs, even the designer themselves has yet to make a public appearance as they are shrouded in mystery. Vil didn't have enough time to acquire it but, surprise! Jade Leech has somehow managed to get his perfect hands on the pair of red shoes Vil wanted so much. Frankly enough, Vil was impressed he managed to obtain something he could notâalone, no less.
This is just me pondering but this particular line made me wonder, "Heh, they did some at the cost of a bit of trouble. No matter, how about you try these on instead of dwelling on the matter?", to what lengths did he actually have to go through to obtain just a pair of shoes? Or rather, what connections does he have to be able to obtain this so easily and brush it off with a mere, "cost of a bit of trouble" when clearly Vil already expressed the difficulty in obtaining these?
Another note I have to make but not completely sure if it's relevant is his family. As I've said before, they mentioned that they deal with a lot of people due to the nature of their business and that made me wonder if the designer/owner of this certain shoe brand is one of them? Perhaps Jade was able to easily contact them because of connections his family has although Floyd's wish in the event Stars & Wishes contradicts this possibility.
In Floyd's wish, he mentioned wanting a pair of shoes and Idia immediately asked him why he couldn't just buy them. Floyd answered with a simple, "I can't usually get them." Because of the price. Which, again, contradicts my theory about the Leech family being connected to the shoe brand. Although! Vil did mention how the shoe brand only sells it to people they deem worthy. Perhaps, Floyd isn'tâŠ? Noâit still wouldn't explain how easily Jade got the shoes and had the brand get Vil a job there as an ambassador. Surely, that isn't due to just any normal connections anymore. Definitely shady, I want to know more.
Jade is in control - As I've said earlier, Jade is somewhat in control despite playing the role of a servant. Prime example is when Vil told him his throat was parched, Jade immediately acted upon it fully knowing what his original intentions were. He gave Vil a drink that the Mostro Lounge was apparently serving without having Vil question it further and even went as far as to let Jade take a picture and post itâeven he decided the caption for the post! With a simple flow of events just like that, Jade has managed to manipulate Vil without him knowing. He did it all while taking in the role of a servant and that in itself says a lot about how he does things
I think it's worth it to take note of the fact that Jade does not like bringing attention to himself and merely brushes it off as mere shyness of some sorts when really, all he wants to do is lay low and draw as little attention to himself. It makes his job easier that wayâperhaps that's the reason why he lets Azul take the spotlight all the damn time.
Another thing to take note of is something I saw from a post in Tumblr which basically sums up the whole reason why Jade is always adopting the butler persona wherever he goes. It's because he likes to be in control that wayâyou'd let down your guard around him and let him serve you. You want a drink? He'll serve you a drink but-! He is in control over what you will get. That's exactly what happened in this exact scene, Vil waltzed right into the center of Jade's palms.
Vil never noticed - I'm not saying Vil is dumb, because he is most definitely not. Although through the very end, I don't know if it's just because Vil got carried away with the feeling of achievement taking over him due to recent events but he did just brush away the reason why Jade was in Pomefiore in the first place and let him go away peacefully, "So long as he doesn't bare his fangs at us." In other words, Jade managed to outsmart Vil and possibly, Rook.
This is probably one of the reasons why I am confident enough to say that Jade truly is one of the most cunning bitches in the entire game because this whole ordeal just pretty much proved it.
Aftermath - There we go! We got an explanation about how Jade managed to manipulate and use Vil for his own gains err, in this context, probably Azul's. When Jade took a picture of Vil with the drink and posted it, he did it with the intention of taking advantage of Vil's popularity and viewer reach. Jade expressed his thankfulness when he mentioned how Vil saw him as "useful" perhaps his reputation prior helped him reach his goal?Â
Azul praised Jade with something along the lines of "As expected of you, Jade. You're the best Night Raven's College has to offer when it comes to sneaking into another's pockets after all." Which really just backs up some of the statements I made earlier about how Jade manipulates people by letting people let their guard down around him while thinking they're the ones who have power over Jade when clearly it's not as simple as it seems. Azul mentioning that only Jade could pull off something like this just puts me off for some reason but I'll leave it be for the time being.
After that, Jade and Azul had a conversation that started with Azul asking him if he had any difficulties during his stay in Pomefiore and if he had any troubles keeping up with Vil. Jade, jokingly(?), responded that it was nothing compared to Azul's demands and orders and his time at Pomefiore was actually a vacation of some sorts for him. Which really makes me wonder what jobs does Azul usually give him if this one was somewhat of a break for Jade? A task that seemed impossible to Floyd, Jade said it was a vacation. It's a bit frightening but I guess that's his charm? Hard-working is one way to put it.Â
That's the end of my Dorm SSR mini-analysis, I guess! Thank you for sticking with me till the end even though a lot of these might be repetitive. I'll probably add more depending on future brainrot but for now, this is fine. Feel free to tell me what you think about this!
#twst#twisted wonderland#jade#twst jade#jade leech#twisted wonderland jade#vil schoenheight#i mean#he appears in the story#twst theory#not really a theory but eh. . ..
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Tears of Themis: Lu Jingheâs Birthday -Â 6.13 âDecision to Competeâ
Translation Masterlist
Event Story: 6.13 Decision to Compete | 6.15 Personal Instruction | 6.17 Building Block Dolls | 6.19 Participating in the Competition | 6.21 Birthday Celebration
Event Story Interviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Art Gallery Boss: Young miss, all pieces displayed at the Rembrandt exhibition this time are priceless authentic versions. Your request is veryâŠ
MC: But he really is my very special friend. Just like you, boss, Rembrandt is also the artist that he holds in highest esteem.
Not long ago, I found out that June 21 was Lu Jingheâs birthday. To give him a birthday surprise, I came to Stellis Cityâs antique art gallery, where they were about to hold an exhibition on authentic Rembrandt works.Â
With Lu Jingheâs current identity, if he were suddenly appear in a well-known art exhibition, aside from garnering attention, it might also cause additional problems. So, letting him enjoy the works of the artist he so admired without disturbances should be an excellent idea. After a sincere, long conversation, the boss finally agreed to rent out the venue for me before the exhibition opened.
Art Gallery Boss: You absolutely must be careful â do not bump into or damage them.
MC: I will be careful, donât worry.
After confirming the venue, I opened my notes, checking over the other things I needed to prepare.
MC: Cake⊠Iâll order taro mousse, but what should I give as a gift? Watches, leather belts, ties? Lu Jinghe definitely isnât lacking on these.
I logged into the shopping app, and âTodayâs Main Recommendationsâ on the gift recommendation page caught my attention.
MC: These are⊠building blocks?
On the product pictures, hundreds of building block components piled together, creating a flowing, miniature city. In an instant, the scenes of what happened at the Lu Mansion played in my headâŠ
--
Three days ago.
 Lu Mansion
Lu Jinghe: Careful!
In the Lu Mansion, gift boxes of all sizes were piled up, making it easy to trip if one werenât careful. Good thing Lu Jinghe caught me in time.
Lu Jinghe: Jiejie, youâre too careless.
MC: Itâs clearly because you have way too many gifts here. So is it almost your birthday? Otherwise, why would so many people give you gifts?
Lu Jinghe: Sure enough, I canât hide anything from you. Thereâs still over half a month until my birthday, so those people came running over in a rush.
MC: âThose peopleâ areâŠ?
Lu Jinghe: Past business targets, children of other major families, plus some entertainment stars. Lots of people want to get in on the Lu familyâs good graces.
MC: (As expected of Lu Jinghe â even his birthdayâs got to shake up all of Stellis City.)
Seeming like Lu Jinghe had seen through my thoughts, he laughed quietly.
Lu Jinghe: So⊠shouldnât you also send me a gift?
MC: Lu Jinghe, youâre not lacking on gifts, are you?
Lu Jinghe: For those sent by others, of course Iâm not lacking on them. But ones sent by youâŠ
MC: Ahem ahem.
After receiving Lu Jingheâs hint, I faked a cough. Turning my head around, I saw the âmain offenderâ that had just tripped me. This was a meticulously-wrapped box of building blocks, with modern-looking buildings printed on top, with âlimited editionâ written on in conspicuous text.
MC: Lu Jinghe, you play with building blocks?
Building blocks were a toy invented by the Austin family. They became popular worldwide as soon as they were launched, and now have nearly a hundred yearsâ worth of history. If they didnât suit someoneâs tastes here, toys like this would not appear here.
Lu Jinghe: I have played with them before â someone probably remembered that up until now. Although, I havenât played with them in a long time.
MC: Why?
Lu Jinghe started to speak, then stopped, a troubled look emerging in his clear eyes.
--
Building Blocks Room
MC: So many⊠did you build them all?
Lu Jinghe took me to a room on the second floor of the Lu Mansion. What appeared before my eyes were innumerable building blocks models. From rich, colourful flower fields to the little roads of a foreign countryâs streetscapes â there was even a proportionate reconstruction of Stellis University.
MC: Amazing! You must have spent a lot of time to make so many works, right? Youâre so talented, so why didnât you continue?
Lu Jinghe: BecauseâŠ
Lu Jinghe walked to the French windows, sinking into a short silence. Golden sunlight shone on his side profile, creating a dappled light effect.
Lu Jinghe: On certain levels, I can no longer continue creating with building blocksâŠ
MC: (What⊠Certain levels meansâŠ)
Lu Jinghe: My mother passed away right after I was born.
Lu Jinghe slowly began to speak, his voice quiet. I suddenly regretted asking a little.
MC: If you donât want to talk about it, you donât need to force yourself. Everyone has their own secrets.
Lu Jinghe: Itâs fine. I have no secrets in front of you.
Lu Jingheâs words were indescribably gentle, but my heart felt like a little like it had been yanked.
Lu Jinghe: Though I lost my mother, my father and older brother loved me dearly. Compared to others, Iâve never been lacking in anything. I even had more than them. Until I noticed that for both oil paintings or building blocks, I couldnât create anything related to âfamilyââŠ
MC: (How could that be⊠Speaking of which, âZâ has indeed never made anything related to âfamilyâ.)
Lu Jinghe: Are you feeling sympathetic? Looks like not being able to create âfamilyâ is no big deal, because itâll at least make you sympathize for me.
MC: ⊠Lu! Jing! He!
I faked anger, but my sad feelings had been swept away by Lu Jingheâs seemingly joking words.
Lu Jinghe: Alright alright, donât be sad. I thought about it after â perhaps I canât create anything with a âfamilyâ theme because Iâve never had a major female figure around me, ever since I was little. IfâŠ
MC: If what?
Lu Jinghe: Ahem ahem⊠nothing.
MC: âŠ
--
After coming back to my senses, my fingers slid over the screen.
MC: Since Lu Jinghe likes building blocks, Iâll send him a building blocks set as a gift. Although⊠which set should I send?
--
Home
To find a suitable gift set, I looked up lots of information online related to building blocks after getting home. Among them, an article titled âThe first Stellis Building Blocks Competition will be held soonâ caught my attention.
MC: Building blocks creator Mr. Austinâs out-of-print posthumous work â the âFutureâ seriesâ first public reveal; only one set worldwide. Cabin in the woods, a glass flower room, and an open-air art studio that faces the mountains. This work is called⊠âFuture Homeâ?
Note: âHomeâ and âFamilyâ are the same word in Chinese.
MC: (This set⊠looks like one that Lu Jinghe would like.)
I couldnât help thinking of joining the competition, but I froze after scrolling to the next article.
MC: âZâ will appear at the building blocks competition as an evaluator, and many fans have signed up⊠âThe Shepherd Girlâ may become a competition topic.
MC: (Lu Jingheâs going?!)
The theme of this competition was âWorld-Famous Artworksâ, where people were to reconstruct world-famous artworks using building blocks. With Zâs works being so famous, becoming a topic of the competition wasnât out of the question.
MC: (If he really is an evaluator, my participation will definitely be exposed, and I wonât be able to give him a birthday present.)
But would Lu Jinghe really appear in public under Zâs identity? Though this might be something made up by the hosts, I still decided to call and ask Lu Jinghe, just in case.
Lu Jinghe: Hello?
MC: I-itâs me.
Lu Jinghe: Whatâs the matter, did something happen?
MC: Nothing, I just wanted to ask â do you know about the building blocks competition being held next month? I heard that âZâ was going to be a competition evaluator.
Lu Jinghe: Thereâs actually this sort of news, huh. The host probably was probably afraid of being low on hype and let out fake news. If youâre suddenly asking this⊠did you want to participate? Then I can teach you for free.
MC: (Since Lu Jingheâs not going, getting taught by him is indeed the best introductory method.)
MC: Is that alright?
Lu Jinghe: Of course. If you need it, I always have time. Besides, after today⊠Zâs appearances may become very rare.
MC: ?!
MC: I-is it because of Pax?
I brought up the guess I had. Sure enough, Lu Jinghe signed almost inaudibly on the other side of the phone.
Lu Jinghe: Yeah, balancing studies and Pax already expends too much of my energy. After graduating, similar impediments will only continue to increase. To an artist, itâs really easy for these sorts of conditions to cut off creativity, soâŠ
Lu Jingheâs voice had an exhaustion in it that was impossible to ignore.
MC: Lu Jinghe, if youâre working too hard, you can stop for a bit and rest.
Lu Jinghe: ⊠I understand. But unfortunately, no one will give me time to rest. Before being âZâ, I am first and foremost Lu Jinghe of Pax.
--
After hanging up, Lu Jingheâs words echoed in my head.
MC: So many people clearly like âZâ. Can Lu Jinghe really give it up?
MC: Right! It just so happens that lots of âZâ fans will be participating at the building blocks competition. I should gather some things that they want to say to âZâ and give them to Lu Jinghe! Even if he really can no longer create in the future, the fansâ encouragement would be memories worth treasuring.
--
That night, I submitted a registration form on the building blocks competition official site, as well as an application to interview the participants to the hosts. After registering, a participant list, including methods of contact, was sent to my inbox.
MC: (Next, Iâll practice building blocks as I interview people for what they want to say to âZâ.)
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Hi! Thanks for all your posts, I canât stop reading them :) Do you have anything on the presents that they have given each other? If im not wrong i know xz gave yb a helmet in 2018 right?
Hi, anon! Thank you for the love anon, and yes, I do have something. Right now Iâm in a hurry to write this post because Iâve just seen ddâs last Oasis post, and itâs...
Well, Iâm lucky Iâd already looked it up at least. So, letâs get into it!
Disclaimer: all is fake, fake, fake
Gifts dd gave to gg
Letâs start with the short, easy part, since the next part is going to get long. The most well-known gift (that we know) dd has given to gg is a pair of Nike sneakers, that dd showed off in TTXS too.
So, why do fans think dd gave this sneakers to gg?
Dd has access to limited editions and new models from the brands he endorses, Nike among them. He once said that he usually buy 2 pairs of shoes, one to wear casually and the other pair to skate.
The Daisy Nike sneakers were a limited edition that were sold out in 0,6 second. Thatâs why itâs very unlikely that gg bought this sneakers himself. Moreover, Nike has never been a staple in his wardrobe before.Â
They wore the same pair of shoes the same day (thatâs why fans think it was a gift instead of their usual clothes sharing). They wore them on December 28, the day of the Tencent Awards.
A week earlier, dd had posted an Oasis post with a photo of the sneakers. The same day, gg posted Spongebobâs laughing mouth as a response.
Gifts gg gave to dd
Okay, so now we are moving on to the long part of the post. There are few well-known gifts from gg to dd.
1. The helmet.
Gg gave it to dd on the day of his birthday in 2018, when they were on set filming CQL. This is a public one, and, as you can see, bxg donât make a fuss over things that are made public and innocent. Itâs when they try to hide things that bxg go like đ.
Whatâs curious about this one is that there is an actual video of dd unwrapping gifts on the set. However, when heâs later asked about what he received on his 21st birthday in interviews, he never fails to mention the helmet, but only once mentions a gift from the production team and another from LHK. Nothing about any other gifts, in spite of videos proving that he did receive a lot of gifts.
2. The necklace
This one is also very well-known. Dd was seen wearing it for the first time on June 19, 2019, a year after their Dragon Boat Festival âdateâ, so the anniversary vibes are strong in this one. He was also in Chongqingâs airport, out of all places of China. But well. Nothing to be added.
3. The blue zipper sneakers
The story of this pair of shoes go back to October 21 in 2019, a week before their last fan meeting in Nanjing.
That, another actor, for reasons we donât know, posted a short: âXZ, you are nothingâ. The comment was trending as top 1 in the hot search chart, and antis were all commenting on it.
Dd had been filming YF in the mountains, and that day, at night, he posted a photo of his old sneakers: âUsed to the point of a hole... good bye, battle shoes... the next ones will do well too!â (bxg think it was as soon as he got signal again, he saw what happened and published something to divert the attention).Â
It didnât seem a very well thought strategy, but it did get the attention away from the topic of XZ.
This was noticed by bxg because dd was seen wearing this pair of shoes again, in less than a month.
Then, moving on to the October 31 or November 1, when they were practicing for the concert, we get these photos.
Dd is the one wearing the green shoes at the beginning of the practice. By the end of the night, he was wearing the blue ones. That night, he updated his Oasis account with a photo of the sneakers, and a caption with 3 embarrassed emojis (as we all know by now, 3 in kadian represent gg).
There a few options here:
He bought the shoes himself. Then itâd be more likely that he wore that pair from the beginning instead of changing shoes in the middle of a practice.
The brand send them to him. The brand wouldnât send them to Nanjing to him, where he was staying just a couple of days for the concert. Besides, the caption with the 3 emojis doesnât seem like something heâd do for a endorsement.
So, the last option is that someone gifted them to him. The caption makes sense then, and one of the people he met that day that he hadnât seen in a while was gg. It also fits with the problem gg had had a week before, and from which dd had helped him with a pair of battered shoes. It looks like a thank you gift to me.
Not just that, but a few days later, in an event for H&S, dd was wearing them, and would âpetâ them and almost afterwards touch his hair. Itâs almost like he didnât want people to miss his shoes. That day dd was also in a sour mood, and bxg speculate it was because of the photos that had leaked of gg kissing his costar cheek.
4. Another helmet (?)
On the same day he posted the photo of the daisy Nike sneakers, he also posted a picture of this helmet. Bxg speculate it may have been a gift from gg (since dd gave him the sneakers) because of the 3 emojis, so it may be. However, thereâs no real proof for this one, just the emojis pattern, which brings us to the last one.
5. The black sneakers
So dd updated his Oasis account today with this:
So letâs do the 3 possibilities analysis again:
He bought them himself. He has never shown off his sneakers like this. If he did, it was usually a photo of the sneakers in their box. Why the photo with the insistence, pointing the shoes? Why a caption with 3 little smug faces?
The brand sent them to him. Well, he does endorse Nike. But again, the caption isnât professional enough, and the endorsements are usually posted on w/ibo, not on Oasis.
Someone gifted him the shoes (since it was his birthday last week, I wouldnât find it so strange). Again, heâs not saying anything about no one. But... does the emojis pattern look familiar?
And, just in case he wasnât being obvious enough, the kadian is 200814 00:33.
#ask#my post#yizhan#bjyx#written in 2 hours#I hope it turned out okay because it's late here and I want to go to sleep now#gifts they gave each other#they're so sweet
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Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 22]
Here is my starting post for todayâs study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! Itâs been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Iâll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!
If you are a new follower or just donât want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag âstudy break storiesâ as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with âstudy break storiesâ but with the tag âfolds in paper.â See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.
My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4Â Part 5
I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didnât have one of the songs I wanted). Itâs short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.
The hope is to work on this for quite a bit today. Please come keep me company with asks if you feel so inclined.
Chapter 6
âReally, Khalid,â Janus said, storming into his bossâs office. âA yellow?â It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasnât a red or a black and he wasnât facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.
She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. âThere was an incident,â she said. âYou handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.â
âIt wasnât a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.â
âJanus, you helped me make these rules,â she said impatiently.
âWhich is why I know this is bullshit,â he snapped.
 She rolled her eyes. âIf it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didnât go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ârouge time traveler,â didnât complete your mission, and were arrested.â
âHe was good,â Janus said. âYou canât fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and youâre busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.â
She raised an eyebrow. âWe are working on tracking him down,â she said. âWe have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isnât exactly a high priority.â
 âWe have no idea who he is or what heâs planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?â
âAt the moment?â she asked. âBecause we have reports of a time bomb being activated.â
âWhat?â Janus asked sitting up. âWhen?â
âNew Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,â she said. âWhich youâd know about if youâd bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.â
âItâs my mission?â Janus asked.
âThe incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,â she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. âSo, yes, and itâs a high priority mission, so Iâll be running it.â
 âWho all is going?â he asked.
âOther than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,â she told him. âWe leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.â
Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. âI still donât deserve the yellow,â he hissed.
She waved him off. âIâll see you in a few hours, Picani.â
He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that sheâd assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.
 He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadnât been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.
A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like youâd grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.
Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of thick glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasnât even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness. It was so caked on that Janus couldnât even recognize him.
 In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.
There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.
Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.
 Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.
There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.
 As soon as it was on Khalidâs wrist, she looked up at them all. âOur information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the âMillennium Birdsâ who are the organizers of the different events,â she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least theyâd be easy to find. âThere are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we donât double count, youâll need to subtly,â her eyes touched on Remus, âscan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if itâs not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.â
 They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. âThree, two, one,â the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red âXâ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.
 After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadnât messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.
âKeep in contact,â Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.
Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.
âWhere should we start?â Remus asked.
 âLetâs go all the way North to the games area,â Janus said. âWe can work our way back here.â
âOkay!â Remus said. âI wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. Iâve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.â
Janus gave him a disgusted look.
âWhat?! People eat fish all the time!â
Janus shook his head. âWeâre not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.â
âBoo,â Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.
 They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janusâs timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. âWell, that was easy,â he said. âIt was on the first one we found.â
âUhâŠâ Remus said. âJan.â When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.
âWhat?â Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. âButâŠâ He and Remusâs eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like theyâd just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janusâs eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janusâs eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janusâs eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.
 Chapter 7
âHim,â was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.
âWhat?â Remusâs voice followed after him. âJanus! What?!â
Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.
 âWhoâs a tiny little squishy precious baby?â he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.
âYou,â Janus growled stepping up to him.
He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. âUm, me?â he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.
âWhere is it?â
His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! âWhere is what?â
âTheâŠâ he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. âThing you just took.â
âI didnât take anything,â Pat said with a frown.
 âOh, no,â Janus said. âFool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.â
âIâm sorry sir,â Pat said. âI really donât know what youâre talking about.â
âBull. Shit.â
Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. âWhatâs going on?â he asked.
âItâs him,â Janus said pointing. âHe took it. He has it.â
âI⊠donât know what youâre talking about,â Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.
Remus looked at Janus. âAre you sure?â
âYes,â Janus said. âItâs him. It has to be him. Heâs the mask guy.â
Remus squinted at Pat. âHe is?â
âWhoever you think I am, Iâm not. I havenât worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,â he pointed to his cheeks.
 Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.
âI lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,â Janus said. He turned on Pat. âWhere did you put it?â
ââŠAre you,â Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, â⊠the police?â
âWe are, actually,â Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. âAgent Khalid,â she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. âApologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.â
 âOh,â Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. âUh, sure.â
âThank you very much, MrâŠâ
âJonas,â Pat told her earnestly. âDo I need to be handcuffed?â
âNo,â Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. âItâs just a talk for now.â She gestured to the tent entrance. âCome with us.â
He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said âsecurityâ near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.
 âRemy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?â she asked.
âSure, boss,â Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.
Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. âWhat is going on?â
âItâs the mask man,â Janus said, âthe one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.â
âSo, does he have it on him?â
âNo. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.â
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âHeâs the man from 1923?â she asked.
âYes! Remus, thatâs him, right? You recognize him.â
âWell,â Remus said thoughtfully. âHe was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I canât really tell if their asses match.â
âOkay, but I was with him for hours. I swear itâs him, and I swear he took it,â Janus just about shouted.
âWeâll question him,â Khalid placated, âand Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.â
 âHe knows where it is,â Janus insisted. âI swear.â
âOkay,â Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. âI think Remus and I will do the interrogation.â He opened his mouth to argue. âYou know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate youâre right.â
âThatâs just to placate me and you know it.â
âObservationâs over there,â she said pointing.
He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.
 He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.
Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. âSo,â Khalid said, âMr. Jonas.â
âYou can call me Nick,â Pat interrupted.
âLia,â Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. âSo, are you enjoying your day?â she asked.
âI am!â he replied. âItâs a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.â
âAh, yes,â Khalid said. âDoing anything special for it?â
 âUm, not really,â he said. âOther than the party. Iâm going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesnât like this sort of thing, and Joe couldnât come.â
âYour roommates,â Khalid said, considering him. âDo you live around here?â
âUh huh,â Pat replied.
âDo you have any ID?â
âI do, want me to get it?â
âIf you wouldnât mind.â
Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. âRemus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?â she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.
âAh, shit,â Remy said. âProps. What do those things even look like?â
 As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so âNickâ didnât get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.
âI see youâre wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,â Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.
âYeah!â Pat replied. âJoe made it for me. Heâs really good at fashion design!â
âCan I see?â she asked.
With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didnât mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.
 Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. âSo, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?â she asked.
âYep!â he replied. âWeâre practically like brothers.â
âWould you mind calling them?â
âErm,â he titled his head like he was confused by the question. âWell, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.
âHere,â Khalid said, âuse my phone.â
âI have my own,â he said with a frown.
âHumor me,â she requested.
âUh, okay,â Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.
âHello?â a voice asked after a few seconds.
âUm, hey Kevin, itâs Nick.â
There was a sigh on the other end. âHello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone elseâs phone?â
âIâm fine, I think.â He looked up at Khalid. âWhy am I calling him exactly?â
âHello, Iâm Officer Khalid,â Khalid said. âI just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonasâs roommate, and he does live in Manaus.â
âYes, we live together with our other roommate,â the man replied flippantly. âOfficer? Is something wrong?â
âI believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,â Khalid said.
âBullshit there was!â Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.
âNo need to worry,â Khalid continued.
âIâm good Kevin,â Pat said.
âAre you absolutely sure?â Kevin asked.
âDonât be Paranoid, Kevin. Iâll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.â
âI am hanging up now,â Kevin said.
âNo! Comeback.â The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.
She took it and smiled at him. âGive us just a couple of minutes,â she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. âI⊠think weâre done here,â Khalid said.
âNo, heâs lying,â Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. âI know he is! Remus!â
âThe alibi is pretty solidâŠâ Remus said, âand he doesnât have the bomb on him.â
âOh, come on,â Janus said. âYou canât say there is nothing fishy going on here.â
Khalid and Remus shared a look. âJanus,â Khalid said. âI respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...â
âI am not imagining this!â Janus said. âThatâs him and he took it.â
âYou only met him once while he was wearing a mask,â Khalid pointed out with a frown, âand you didnât see him take the bomb, did you?â
âNo, but he looked at me and I knew,â Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. âOh, come on!â
âYou know thatâs a little weak, Jan,â Remus said.
âLet me talk to him,â Janus requested. âJust give me five minutes to talk with him.â
Khalid raised one eyebrow. âFine,â she agreed. âYou have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We canât waste any more time.â
 Chapter 8
Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. âHi,â he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.
Janus didnât say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. âSo, your name is Nick this time?â Janus asked.
âNicholas Jonas,â he said. âAlways has been.â
âStop it,â Janus said.
âStop what?â
âCut the crap. I know.â
Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. âWhat did you say your name was again?â he asked, pleasantly.
 âJanus,â Janus replied.
âNo, Iâm Jonas,â he said, pointing to his chest.
âNot Jonas,â Janus spat. âJanus.â
âUm,â Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. âThose are the same words.â
âNo, theyâre not. Itâs Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.â
âWell, thatâs confusing,â Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. âItâs close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.â
âWhat?â Janus said. âNo.â
Pat hummed. âHow about Love Bug?â
âWhat! No!â Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.
âBB Good?â
âWhat does that even mean?!â
âMandy.â
âNo!â
âOkay, okay, how about Macy Misa.â
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Janus stared at him for a moment. âFine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?â
âHmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think itâs not my name.â
âRight,â Janus said. âSo, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?â
âNah, weâre Coolâ said Pat. âThatâs Just the Way We Roll.â
âNot because youâre messing up a mission right now?â
Patâs eyes crinkled together. âA mission?â he parroted. âIâm not messing up a mission.â
âOh, really?â Janus growled. âBecause youâve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what youâve been doing.â
âI have no idea what the TPI is,â he claimed.
âYes, you do!â Janus said, standing up. âYou obviously do! Or you wouldnât be playing this game!â
 âGame?â Pat asked. âMacy I ask you what youâre talking about.â
âThis is all just a game to you isnât it!â Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.
âWhoa,â Pat said, putting his hands up. âCalm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burninâ Up.â
âIâm not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.â
âAnd that is five minutes,â Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.
 âThere was no way that was five minutes,â Janus growled.
âIt was five minutes,â Khalid gritted out. âRemus, get him out of here.â
âCome on Jay,â Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.
âRemus, I swear to god.â
âJust chill, Janus,â Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.
Janus shrugged him off. âYou chill!â he snapped. âHeâs playing you all for the fool.â
âWow, Macy,â Remy drawled like an asshole. âIâve never seen you so fired up.â
âOh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and heâs going to get away with this.â
âYouâre not really helping your case, babe,â Remy said.
 Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. âHere, letâs go get some water.â
âI donât want water,â he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.
âLook,â Remus said. âI know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.
âI am looking at the facts,â Janus insisted, âand the facts are, heâs fucking with me.â
âYou donât know what mask guy looks like,â Remus said. âYou didnât see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.â
 âDid you even listen to our conversation?â Janus asked. âHe was screwing with me the entire time!â
âJanusâŠâ Remus said.
âWhat?â Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remusâs tone.
âI know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.â
Janusâs mouth hung open for a few seconds. âThatâs what you got out of our conversation?â
âHe called you Love Bug.â
Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. âThatâs not⊠I. Iâm stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.â
Remus laughed. âAh,â he said. âYoung lust.â
Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. âNo!â
âYes!â he crooned, pleased.
 âYou are the worst partner,â Janus hissed. âWhen Iâm right you owe me 10 loafs of your fresh bread.â
âBranching out from poptarts?â Remus asked.
Janus shook his head. He still wasnât happy about the state of things, but he could feel himself cooling down a bit.
Khalid came out of the integration room after a few minutes, leaving Pat with Remy. âWhat was that?â she asked him.
âHe got under my skin,â Janus said.
âWeâll talk about it later,â she said. âFor now, weâre letting him go and then going back to looking for the bomb like weâre meant to be.â
 âFine,â Janus relented. âJust do me the favor of tagging him before he leaves. Just that. I beg of you.â
âSure,â she agreed. âIf it will calm you down.â
He nodded.
âThen, letâs go,â she said. When they met back up with Remy and Pat, he saw Khalid make the subtle gesture that would tag Pat like they would have for the Millennium Birds. Pat sent him what could pass as a sweet smile if Janus didnât know better. Then, they walked him outside, leaving Remy on clean-up duty for the make-shift security office.
âSo, Iâm free to go?â Pat asked. His bemused expression edged far too much on the side of amused verses confused for Janusâs taste.
 âYou are,â Khalid said. âHave fun at the festivities.â
His hands went flapping about. âOh, you too!â he said. âWell, I guess youâre working, but you can have fun anyway, Iâm sure.â
âWeâll do our best,â she said.
He gave her a blinding smile and reached forward to shake her hand enthusiastically. Janus rolled his eyes and looked up at the heavens. âIt was nice to meet you!â he said, âand you too, Remus!â He turned to meet Janusâs eyes. âMacy Misa.â
Janus pressed his lips together.
Then, Pat turned and walked away.
âWell, now that weâre done with that,â Khalid said, turning to them. âWe have only a few more hours before midnight and we really need to find the time bomb.
 âOh,â Pat called. Heâd paused a few yards away and turned back to them. âThanks for letting me go so easily by the way,â he said, âand just in the Nick,â he winked, âof time too.â Janus narrowed his eyes at him. He smiled back. âWrist check,â he said holding up his arm to show off the timepiece there. Khalid immediately looked down at her own wrist just to see that the one timepiece that could move through the time lock was no longer there. Pat made a gesture and disappeared.
All three of them stared at the spot heâd been for a long moment.
Janus was the one to speak first. âI want. The yellow. To be erased. From my record.â
 Chapter 9
Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.
âWhat happened?â asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.
âRemus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isnât Nick. He was just setting up a joke,â Janus told him.
âStop being smug,â Remy said. âItâs not a good look for you.â
âPat isâŠ?â Lena asked.
âThey guy who fucked me over in 1923,â Janus said, âand is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.â
 âIt will be fine,â said Khalid, âbecause what he doesnât know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, weâll have his coordinates.â
âSpeaking of,â one of the techies said. âItâs about to break. You might want to hold onto something.â Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.
 Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janusâs timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. âThe pin timepieceâs closest time/space coordinates areâŠâ she trailed off. âRight outside?â She frowned. âThatâs strange. Why would he still be here?â She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. âFuck,â she said.
âWhat just happened?â Remy asked.
âHe ticked us,â Janus said. âAgain.â
 âHe was stuck in the time lock,â Khalid said. âThatâs why he got our attention. He couldnât leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, heâs smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, weâd probably be able to find him, but he knew weâd break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.â
 âProbably with the time bomb,â Janus said.
âProbably with the time bomb,â she confirmed.
And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didnât know the location of.
They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.
The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.
 Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about âPat.â First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldnât work outside of the zone theyâd set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after heâd escaped with the pin timepiece.
There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job theyâd set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.
 They could see Janusâs yellow dot almost brush his when heâd been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when heâd lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.
âHe doubled back,â Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?
 Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasnât someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.
âYou are the only tolerable one,â Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janusâs lap.
âI have literally done nothing to you,â Lena said, but then added. âYet.â
 âYou exist. In my space.â
âCanât we just all get along?â asked Fred. âItâs only been an hour past when weâd usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.â
âFuck your hot chocolate, Fred,â Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.
âDonât go after Fred, jackass,â Lena spat.
âHeâs just testy because his boyfriend escaped,â Remus contributed.
Janusâs lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuelâs face. âWe agree weâre eating him first, right?â he asked her.
 She purred her agreement.
âIâd have it no other way,â Remus replied.
âThere is plenty of food,â Fred said, sounding stressed. âIn fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. âWhat does everyone like on pizza?â
âThis is not a slumber party, Fred,â Janus pointed out.
âShut it,â Lena snapped and turned to Fred. âIâm fine with almost everything, exceptâŠâ
âBananas and tuna salad!â Remus interrupted.
ââŠwhatever Remus is about to say.â
Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.
 He froze when he heard the familiar voice. âHello, hello,â said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldnât even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.
âJanus,â he said when heâd gotten their attention. âIâd like to have dinner with you.â The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically heâd say something like, âI was wondering if youâd have time to have dinner with me tonight,â or âIâm about to go get food, would you like to come?â Today, there was no choice in the statement.
 Janus still dried to dodge anyway. âUh,â he said. âWe were actually about to order pizza.â
âGo ahead,â said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. âWe can order pizza with olives if youâre not here.â
âIâŠâ said Janus. âGuess, Iâll be going with you.â
âGreat!â Emile said. âLetâs go.â
âOh,â Janus said. âUh, now?â
âNow,â Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.
 Well, Janus was screwed. He swallowed his nervousness and got to his feet, taking Diesel Fuel with him. He turned to hand her off to Remus with a plea in his eye, but he just got an eyebrow raise in return. Traitor.
Then, he followed Emile out of the office door. âWhat would you like to eat?â asked Emile.
âUh,â Janus said. âI donât know. You asked me to eat, donât you have any ideas?â
âI donât actually,â Emile replied. Right.
ââŠNoddle Bar?â Janus threw out the nearest restaurant he knew.
âThe one noodle restaurant? Sure,â Emile answered simply. They walked side by side out of the front doors of the TPI building. Janus actually couldnât remember the last time heâd taken these stairs. He usually used his timepiece to get in and out.
 The noodle bar was only moderately busy at this time. They were quickly able to find a table near the back and Emile pulled his menu up in front of him. Emile hummed as he flipped through the different displays. âWhat are you having?â he asked.
âI donât know,â Janus said, only then pulling up the menu himself, but still not quite looking at it.
âWhat about the fortune noodles,â Emile suggested.
Janus shook his head. âI donât like those,â he said.
Emile glanced at him through the menu displays. âYou used to.â Fortune noodles were a bit cheekily named. They didnât actually indicate anything about your future. They were just supposed to taste like what you wanted from your future. A grad student might experience a feeling like theyâd just aced a paper. A child that they got to stay up an hour later that night. Janus had liked the experience when he was younger, but in recent years, heâd begun to taste the underlying chemicals in the dish until thatâs all he could.
 âWell,â Emile said lightly, eyes on his menu. âThat makes me even more worried for your mental health than I already was because of the almost three years of you avoiding talking to me.â
âNo small talk, huh?â Janus asked.
âForgive me,â Emile said, eyes now focused on Janus, and tone much darker. âHow has your life been since I last saw your face 5 months ago during a business meeting and you refused to look me in the eye? Anything interesting happen? Shave your head and let it all regrow? Develop an allergy to peanuts? Join a convent and take an oath of silence that you only just broke today?â
âNo,â said Janus quietly into the table.
 âGreat,â Emile said clipped. âSmall talk over. Order your food.â Janus reached up blindly to select the first thing that came up on the food and drink menu as Emile punched something into his own and both menu displays disappeared, meaning there was nothing between their faces anymore. âYou know, I was willing to give you a year,â Emile said. âI was willing to let you deal with it on your own because I thought eventually, youâd come talk to me about it, but apparently I was mistaken. The next year, I thought maybe you thought I didnât want to talk to you, so I subtly made myself available, and you never took me up on the offer. I thought maybe I was just not being clear, and I should make my desire to talk to you more explicit, but as you have been routinely, clearly avoiding me at every single turn, Iâve decided Iâve had enough. So, letâs lay it all on the table. Is it me or do you need help?â
 Janus closed his eyes. âItâs not you.â
âThen you need help,â Emile concluded.
Janus shook his head.
âYes,â Emile snapped. âWhatever this is has gone on far too long.â
Janus stood up and slammed his hand down on the table. âAnd itâs going to keep going on!â he said. The food popped up at that moment. It appeared Janus had ordered lasagna and bubble tea, and Emile had ordered something with spaghetti and a fizzy drink.
âSo, youâre just planning to go on being miserable then?â Emile asked, and Janus wasnât sure if it was worse or better that he didnât sound angry anymore.
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Janus slapped his hand down on the âTo Goâ button and his dinner was insta-wrapped by the table. âYes,â he said.
âWhat exactly do you think youâre paying penance for, Janus?â Emile asked.
âYou wouldnât understand,â Janus said, paying for both of their meals with his fingerprint.
âThatâs a cop out and you know it,â Emile said. âAll youâd have to do is talk to me. Or even just talk to someone else. Please.â
âJustâŠâ Janus said, grabbing his bag of food to avoid looking at him. âJust, leave me be.â He walked out of the noodle shop without another word.
 Chapter 10
âAnd I thought Remus was going to be the most disgusting roommate in this equation,â Lena grumbled. Janus and Lena were apparently the earlier risers in the group as Fred was still curled up around a pillow and Remus was sprawled out under his desk.
Janus flipped her off.
âProtein infused Poptarts and caffeinated orange juice for breakfast?â she asked. âJust eat an energy bar and have a cup of coffee like a normal person.â
He took another pointed bite of his Poptart.
âYouâre a horrible roommate. This is why they gave us different partners.â
âYeah, well you snore, asshole,â Janus said after finishing off his meal.
 âIâd tell you to go eat shit, but you already did that once this morning.â
A pillow flew across the room and somehow managed to hit the both of them. âSâop fighting,â Fred mumbled. âItâs sleep time.â
âItâs morning Fred,â Lena said.
âNo,â Fred mumbled.
Janus ignored them, turning back to his integration port to continue to keep plugging in phrases of interest, but he kept getting nothing.
âWhat are you doing?â Lena asked after a few moments of him huffing at his screen reader.
âTrying to do anything that may change our current living arrangements.â
She puffed out an amused breath. âCan I help?â
 âCan you see any connection between these words and phrases?â he asked, pulling away his screen reader and tapping at the words heâd typed out.
âParanoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback, love Bug, BB good, Mandy, Macy Misa, I believe, cool, thatâs just the way we roll, burninâ up,â she said. âWhat are these?â
âTheyâre things Pat said when we interrogated that struck me funny,â Janus explained. âI feel like he was saying something more than what he said.â
âHmm,â she said. âPTI for the first three?â
âMaybe,â Janus agreed, âbut what about the rest of it? I feel like Iâm missing something.â
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âMillennia,â Remus mumbled from under his desk. Janus hadnât been aware he was awake. âHe said something something about it being the only time he could see the change of the millennia.â He turned his head to look at Janus. âConsidering heâs a time traveler, thatâs definitely a weird thing to say.â
âMillennia,â Janus contemplated. âA different turn of the millennia. Oh no.â
âWhat?â Lena asked.
Janus sighed, and rubbed his temple. âI know someone who studied the 1700-2200s.â
âIsnât that good?â
âNo,â Janus groaned, âbecause now I have to go talk to him.â He stood with a sigh and then paused. âHow do I even get to Silver Mountains University without my timepiece?â
 Luckily Sliver Mountains ended up only being about an hour away from the TPI by time adherent travel, but considering Janus was used to his travel being instantaneous, it was an aggravating trip. He had to show ID and be buzzed up to the fourth floor since it was usually locked to everyone not traveling by timepiece or who worked in the office.
The receptionist was the same man as before. âIâm here to speak to Professor Eran,â Janus said.
The receptionist nodded. âHe mentioned you asked to meet him but didnât know when youâd arrive. Heâll be done teaching his class in about 5 minutes. You can wait over there.â
 Janus nodded and sat, waiting for time to slowly tick by. Virgil arrived after a few minutes, lugging a giant bag with him. He caught sight of Janus and wordlessly jerked his head towards the hallway. Janus followed him.
âWhatâs in the bag?â Janus asked.
âEarly 21st century cell phones,â Virgil said, dropping it on his desk. âI let my students mess around with them for their lab.â
âI see,â Janus said.
âWhat did you need?â Virgil asked. âYou said it was official business.â
âYouâve heard about the lockdown, I presume,â Janus said.
âYeah, it really screws up my research schedule for the summer,â Virgil said.
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âDo you know why the lockdown was instituted?â Janus asked. Virgil shook his head, so Janus explained briefly that they had been trying to find a timebomb on the eve of the year 3000, but it had been swiped by a free agent time traveler. âSome of the things seemed to be references to things that I couldnât place, and I was wondering if you would recognize any.â
âShoot,â Virgil requested, seeming intrigued by the prospect.
âOkay,â Janus said. âFirst, the alias he was using was Nick Jonas.â A weird expression crossed Virgilâs face immediately and Janus paused.
âYou said the year 3000?â Virgil asked.
 âEr. Yes.â
âNick Jonas. Year 3000,â Virgil repeated with a snort. âWere Joe and Kevin a part of this too?â
Janus blinked. âYes, how did you know that?â
âYo-youâre going to have,â his sentence was broken by a giggle, and actual full-fledged giggle, âhave to give me a minute.â With that, he sort of listed to the side and seemed to purposefully fall off his chair onto the floor under his desk.
Janus blinked and when he didnât surface after a moment, he stood up to lean over the desk and look down at him. Virgil had his arm thrown over his beat red face, as he shook from what Janus thought was suppressed laughter.
 âWhat?â Janus asked. âWhatâs wrong?â
âJustâŠâ Virgil said, sobbing through his laughter. âJust tell me the things he said.â
âEr, mostly he just had weird inflections on words and phrases. There was âparanoid, tonight, I live to party, comebackâŠââ
âWait, stop,â Virgil said. âLet me guess a few. Thatâs Just the Way We Roll, Burninâ Up, Sucker.â
âThe first two were, but not the last one.â
Virgil laughed. âMaybe the last one was just implied.â
Janus frowned down. âWhat are you talking about? What does this all mean?â
Virgil pulled himself out from under his desk and grabbed his bag of phones. He dug through it for a few seconds before pulling one out and handing it to Janus. âI have a lab for my students where they get preloaded phones from the early 21st century and are supposed to guess the demographics of the person who owns it. This one is an iPhone 3 meant to belong to a pre-teen to teenage girl from the year 2009. Look under music artists starting with the letter âJ.ââ
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Confused, Janus scrolled through the old style phone, finding the music app and opening it easily. Upon getting to the âJâs, he immediately paused on an artist called the âJonas Brothers.â He clicked on it and read a few of the song titles. They werenât all there, butâŠ
âThat rat bastard,â Janus said.
âScroll to the bottom,â Virgil said. Janus did and found a song titled âYear 3000.â
âYouâre kidding me.â
âClick on it,â Virgil requested.
Janus did, listening to the fairly standard pop like intro from the time period. It wasnât until he got to the lyrics saying, âHe told me he built a time machineâ that he cursed, understanding exactly what Pat had been doing. When the singer a few lines latter proclaimed that his neighbor said âIâve been to the year 3000â he almost smashed the artifact to pieces right then and there.
âI have no idea who this guy is,â Virgil said, âbut heâs a comedic genius.â
 Chapter 11
Khalid caught him on his way back into the TPI building. âI heard you went to Silver Mountains to follow up on a lead,â she said.
âYeah, but it was garbage,â he seethed. âAll I learned was âPatâ knows early 2000s popular culture and likes to fuck with us.â
She hummed. âIâd still like a report about whatever you found. Who knows what we might end up getting from seemingly inconsequential data.â
âSure,â he said.
âAnyway,â she continued. âI have a mission for you.â
âWeâre on lockdown,â Janus pointed out with a frown.
âFor nonessentials,â she said. âThis is essential.â
 âWhat happened?â Janus asked.
âWe picked up a small time distortion in France 2027. At the moment, it is small enough not to cause any disruptions, but it is slowly growing, and we donât know what caused it. Usually weâd just send surveillance agents at this stage, but considering whatâs going on, I think it would be best to send a field agent. And it would just be you, because we donât want to send too many people out at once.â
âIs this related to the time bomb?â Janus asked.
âIâm not sure,â she said. âAt the very least, itâs not it being set off as it was in 2999, but if itâs been altered for some other purposeâŠâ
 âIâll go,â Janus said.
âIâll send over the mission directive to everyone who needs it. Youâll go in around 3 hours.â
He nodded. âIâll be ready,â he agreed.
In less then 3 hours, he was dressed for 2027 France and in decontamination. âWell,â he said out loud when he was given the all clear sign, âI hope I donât explode.â He selected the coordinates on the timepiece and the next moment he was in a small alleyway in the city of Montpellier, France in 2027.
It was a little bit warm, but not stifling even in the mid-afternoon and he could faintly smell the sea on the breeze.
 After a moment to get his bearings, Janus made his way out of the alleyway and onto a small street. The street was lined with restaurants and shops as people went about their daily lives. He carefully integrated himself into the crowd and began weaving his way through them. He needed to find the source of the distortion but doing a quick scan with his timepiece told him there wasnât any sign of it yet. Heâd have to wait for it to act up.
For now, he decided to get slightly away from people by heading towards the river. He found a park that had benches along water.
 As he walked towards the river, he noticed a man on the bench, angled slightly away from Janus and looking out at the water. He immediately recognized the man. âYou!â he exclaimed.
Patâs head shot around to look at him, and he gave a slight head tilt. Then, he smiled, amused. âYou are not the person Iâm here for,â he said.
âWell, I am now,â Janus snapped. âWhereâs the time bomb?â
âTime bomb?â Pat asked, eyebrows drawing together, but amusement on his lips. âOh sweetie, the time bomb happened a long time ago for me.â
âWhat?â Janus asked.
âOh, youâre just a baby,â Pat laughed. âDonât you get it yet? The two of us are out of sync timeline wise. Youâve been apparently running around with a much younger version of me, but all of that happened quite a while ago for me. Donât worry though, it gets better.â
âWhat are you talking about?â
âThe time bomb has been long deactivated. Here,â he reached into his pocket and tossed him something. Janus caught it on instinct. âProof. Donât worry, we took all of the dangerous bits out years ago from my perspective.â It was the core of a time bomb, the time bomb Pat had stolen if he was to be believed. âYou can tell your people itâs safe to remove the lockdown.â
Janus curled his fingers around it. âI donât get it.â
Something on Patâs wrist beeped and he looked at it curiously before he stood from the bench, âand I donât have time to explain it.â
Janus jerked forward to grab his wrist. âDonât you dare.â
Pat reached up to pat his face. âDonât worry honey, youâll be seeing me later.â He twisted his wrist and a small electric current sparked between them. Janus jerked his hand away, and Patton smiled at him. âOr⊠earlier.â He winked, and then he was gone.
Janus cursed, but he didnât have more than a moment to be angry because in the next second there was a yelp, and something landed on top of him. He was bowled over into a tangle of limbs and pained noises.
âOh my god, we need to figure out the height thing,â a familiar voice groaned, just as Janus managed to pull himself away. Pat blinked up at him and his eyes narrowed. âYou,â he hissed.
ââŠWhat?â
 Pat jumped to his feet, leaving Janus on the ground in front of him. âWhat are you doing here?â he spat, his tone much different then the one heâd been using a moment earlier. His hair was longer than it had been before, and if Janus looked closely, he did seem like he was a couple of years younger suddenly. Out of sync timelines. Iâll see you earlier. Holy shit.
He was suddenly very glad heâd been forced to let the other Pat (the older Pat?) go, else theyâd have a whole thing on their hands.
âWhat are you doing here?â was Janusâs retort as he stood up and dusted himself off.
 âItâs none of your business,â Pat told him.
âIt is my business,â Janus said, âbecause for all I know, you are the cause of the time distortions Iâm after. Considering that I doubt you have a license for that,â he waved at the odd looking timepiece of Patâs wrist, âitâs very possible.â
âWhat are you?â Pat asked, âthe time police.â
âYes.â
Pat dared to roll his eyes, but then he tilted his head slightly. âTime distortions?â he asked.
âYes, thatâs why Iâm here.â
He still had a confused frown on his face. Did⊠did he not know what a time distortion was?
 Just then there was a sudden flash of lightening through the sky despite the absolutely lack of clouds. He and Pat both looked up.
âIs that the time distortion?â Pat asked.
âItâs probably the beginning of it,â Janus said.
âThat doesnât look good,â Pat said as he squinted at the sky.
âJust wait,â Janus answered grimly. He looked at Pat. âUsually Iâd arrest you on the spot,â he said, âbut Iâm alone for this one, and that is far more important at the moment. So, have a nice day doing whatever bullshit you are doing.â He glanced at his timepiece.
 Janus turned to walk away from him.
âWait!â Pat exclaimed, and Janus turned back to him to see that his eyes were wide. Janus raised an eyebrow. âSo, this time distortion thing is dangerous, right?â
âDepending on the severity, it could cause time to fracture around this place and time, basically erasing it from existence and killing everyone in it.â
âWell, in that case, I should go with you. To help.â
Janus looked him up and down. âYou⊠have no idea whatâs happening, do you? Youâre an amateur.â
âIâm not,â he claimed. âI just. Pooling resources. You know?â
Janus sighed. âWell, you going around mucking about this time period without knowing what youâre doing could just exasperate the situation, so fine, you can tag along.â
âI know what Iâm doing,â he grumbled even as he rushed to Janusâs side at the permission.
âSure,â Janus said with an eyeroll. He guessed he was a babysitter now. âI believe you.â
 Chapter 12
There was something off about his readings. Clearly the time distortion was starting to pull at this place with the way the weather was flickering between storming and sunny, but he still couldnât quite pinpoint the exact location of the source of it. He could, however, get that it must be somewhere on this side of the river more into the downtown area, so thatâs the way he was walking, Pat close on his heels.
âWhatâs your name, by the way?â he asked.
Janus shot him a glare. âElvis Presley,â he said.
Pat frowned, clearly knowing who that was. âThereâs no reason to be mean.â
 âYou did it to me first.â
ââŠIntroduced myself as a famous musician?â he asked. Janus didnât respond, and after a moment, Pat laughed lightly. âYou really donât understand time travel, do you?â
âOh, yeah,â Janus said. âName the three types of time distortions.â
âJust because I donât know the names of things doesnât mean I donât understand them.â He stuck out his tongue. Janus was dealing with an actual toddler. âUnlike you who has a bunch of fancy words, but just caused a time loop.â
Janus scoffed. âI did not just cause a time loop.â
âMaybe not a big one,â Patton agreed, âbut you did.â
 Janus raised an eyebrow. âIâve never introduced myself to you with a musicianâs name, but now youâve told me that I will. So, at some point in the future I will have to, thereby making you think to say that now. Time loop.â
âThatâs not⊠that doesnât count.â
âDoes too,â Pat claimed. âLike I have said once before and you may or may not have heard me say before, anything you do to me to get back at me for something I havenât done yet, just causes whatever that is to happen in the first place.â
âBut youâre still going to do it.â
 âThen take it up with future me. I havenât done anything to you.â Then he paused and sighed. ââŠWhich I guess means youâve done nothing to me.â He seemed to mull this concept over for a long moment. âWell you were a bit crabby about me not knowing what a time distortion was, but I can forgive you for that.â
âAnd Iâm supposed to forgive you?â
âLike I said,â Pat said. âI havenât done anything yet.â
âYou also havenât done anything to endear yourself to me either,â Janus grumbled.
âHmm,â Pat said. âFine.â He pulled something out of his pocket. âYouâre obviously not having much luck finding whatever youâre looking for. Tell me what it is and Iâll help.â
Janus squinted at what was in his hand. âIs that⊠an iPhone 5?â
âNo!â he said. âItâs super-secret time travel tech disguised as an iPhone 5!â
âWeâre in 2027,â Janus said. âNot a great disguise. Those things have been obsolete for a decade.â
âWell Iâll keep in mind to have my tech disguised as phones from the right year next time,â Pat said, sticking out his tongue. âNow what are we looking for?â
âIf my timepiece canât find it, Iâm certain yours canât.â
 Pat rolled his eyes and tapped on the deviceâs screen a couple of times. âIâm going to guess itâs that,â he said proudly.
Janus leaned over to look at the screen. âAre you using google maps?â he sputtered.
âIt integrates time relevant data like traffic conditions and local weather warnings with time travel technology,â Pat explained. âSomething seems to be going on in a museum a couple of blocks that way.â
âIâŠâ Janus said. That was actually a really good idea, usually unnecessary with scouts observing that data beforehand, and Janus wasnât sure how good the accuracy would be considering whatever was taking it into account was automated, but still a good idea. âWell, I guess since we have no other leads, we can check it out.â
 Pat looked far too proud for having only used a piece of tech that hadnât even been confirmed as accurate. âThen, letâs go,â he said right as a chilly wind started to pick up and a couple of snowflakes began to fall around them. âBefore that gets worseâŠâ
Janus let Pat lead with his iPhone. Janusâs timepiece still wasnât picking up a clear signal for some reason, but it seemed to point in the same general direction as Patâs. Strangely though, as they got closer to their destination, the signal started to get fuzzier. Patâs tech seemed unaffected leading them closer to the museum.
 When they got to the museum, Janus stopped. âWhat?â Pat asked. He was shivering slightly in the cold and holding his arms around himself.
âMy timepiece stopped working completely,â he said.
âIâm assuming thatâs weird?â Pat said.
âIt is,â Janus confirmed, turning to squint at him suspiciously. âHow do I know youâre not the one doing it?â
âIf I was doing it, wouldnât I have just knocked it out from the get go?â Pat questioned.
Janus pursed his lips. âI donât know,â he said. âWould you have? Maybe itâs a trick.â
Patâs eyes narrowed a bit on him. âThink what you want, but Iâm freezing. Come in with me if you want.â
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hello! could you do headcanons for javi and reader where they were fake dating (maybe being undercover or something idk it's up to you!) turned real dating đ
so first of all, @themandjalorian is already writing a fic very much like this, its very good and you should totally check it out hereÂ
i wrote out a bit of an undercover thing then i wasnât feeling it, and i remembered the only fanfic i wrote in high school, which was this adorable fake dating thing i never published and it was based on some prompt about a character having been telling their grandparents about this s/o and them actually just being the neighbor, but then the grandparents come visit and want to meet the s/o so iâm going with something similar to that since it was kind of cute. idk how pleased I am with the final product... but itâs cute.Â
You had gotten so fed up with your parents asking you if you were dating anyone during your weekly phone calls that one day you burst and said it
âOkay! Iâm dating someone! Is that what you wanted to hear? His nameâs⊠Javierâ
They were thrilled for you. Their calls started ending with âhowâs it going with Javierâ and they expected a little tidbit every time. About Javier. Your neighbor with whom you had only shared about 10 words with.
You had a crush on him, admittedly. It was easy to fall for that charming smile you saw strutting around the embassy. And yeah, you lived in the same building, and both worked at the embassy (in very different departments) but that didnât mean you had a chance to talk with him.
The real danger of describing the fantasy of your relationship with Javier was that as your parents began to believe it, so did you. You saw him in the hallways and your brain was flooded with thoughts of your fantastical relationship.
But you never managed to work up the guts to even say hello to him.
That is, until your parents give you a call saying theyâre coming down for two weeks to visit and they want to meet Javier, how about taking the two of you out to dinner the first night?Â
And you agree before realizing how bad of an idea it is.
In your panic you go running to Javierâs door because he has to agree or youâre going to have an awkward conversation with your parents.
You practically bang down his door and when he opens it, standing there, one arm on the door, hip popped out, you freeze, speechless.
âWhat can I do for you?â
âUmâŠâÂ
It takes a very long pause for you to squeak out, âI need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.â
He laughs. âDid Steve put you up to this?â
You flush. This was awful. He was laughing in your face.
âNo, Iâthis was stupid Iâm sorry. I should have known. You donât know me at all, andâ you know what? Can we just forget this ever happened?â
But when he sees you retreating, looking completely shot down, he feels a little pang of guilt.
âWait! ...You were being serious? Do you want to come in? Have a drink?â
Your heart soars. He just invited you into his apartment? Of course you say yes.
The story spills out over a glass of whiskey. When you get to the end, carefully replacing the part where you chose his name because of your massive crush with some half-assed lie about how you had seen him in the hallway the day you started the lie and he was the first face that crossed your mind, Javier sits for a good two minutes, the silence almost killing you.Â
âSounds like fun. Iâll do it. â
Which is not the response you were expecting but youâre grateful and jumping right into giving him all the background information on your pretend relationship and your parents and Javier is just sitting back, smiling and taking it all in.
After an hour youâre both on your second glasses of whiskey and feeling a bit like you had known each other for more than the short time you had actually spoken.
You go home, smiling to yourself, because if you were being perfectly honest the whole thing felt a bit like a date and you had fallen for him a bit more.
You are fucked.
The day your parents arrive comes way too quickly and before you know it youâre sitting at a fancy restaurant, Javier at your side, and heâs lying his ass off about how you two met and youâre utterly confused as to where this Javier came from.
Where was the Javier who slept with another woman every night? The Javier who drank whiskey alone on a work night? The Javier who knew every prostitute in town? The Javier who any parent would hate to have their daughter date?Â
This was an entirely different man, one who was inventing a relationship you could only dream of being part of.
The little moments when he touches your arm and smiles so reassuringly, they feel so real.
You thought this would be a good idea and now your stomach is churning at the elaborate lie youâve woven for your parents, and the one youâve woven for yourself.
Javi wasnât in love with you. He hardly even knew you. And he definitely didnât mean a single word he was saying nor action he was doing.
And it was so much worse as the week went on.Â
Your parents asked why you werenât living together, which was embarrassing enough a question on its own, but only made worse by Javierâs immediate reaction of disgust before covering it up with a cough and an excuse about wanting to take it slow.Â
And one night Javier had warned you he had to leave a dinner at your apartment early, and the way he shuffled a bit and didnât explain why was enough of a clue that he had an informant to meet.Â
It was so much worse when he kissed you before leaving. On the lips. Long and much more intimate than you were expecting.
You realize halfway through your parents visit that your feelings had somehow escalated as you got to know Javier more.
You no longer had a little crush on the man.Â
You had fallen in love because you had fallen for a lie.
At that point things begin to change. Your gazes become a little bit more real, and your touches linger a little bit longer.Â
The day arrives that your parents are leaving and Javier joins you in driving them to the airport.Â
His hand is around your waist as you wave the two goodbye. As they disappear into the crowds of the international departures, you donât know when to let go.
Javi is the first to drop his hand. And the ghost of his touch burns on your side a bit more than it should.
The drive home is silent. Itâs not until you get back to the apartment building that you say something.
âWhat was in it for you?â
Heâs silent and you realize how rude that sounds.
âIâm sorry, I just meantâThank you. Javier. You saved my ass.â
He gets out of the car and you follow him up the stairs. He turns to enter his apartment and you continue on, but he calls your name.
âI did it because it was nice to pretend things were normal for a bit. Working for the DEA, we donât get nice things like that.â
And as much as it hurts to know it wasnât about you at all, it hurts more that Javier feels that way. You had learnt enough about him and his work in the past weeks that you know how much of a commitment it is. You just didnât know how much it took away from someoneâs life.
The real pain comes that night when you hear the loud sounds of Javier fucking someone. The ones everyone in the damn complex are familiar with. The ones that feel like a bucket of ice water was dumped on your head, reminding you how not Javierâs you are.
Itâs not until work the next week when Javier walks by your desk and catches sight of how dejected you look. Itâs not unlike his own appearance, if you were being perfectly honest.
That night you get a knock on the door. You open to Javier whoâs got a six-pack of beer.
âI donât know why you look like youâve been trampled over but I havenât had the greatest week ever and honestly youâre the only person Iâve enjoyed spending time with in the past two months so I thought we could maybe cheer each other up?â
Youâre so surprised that you step aside, forgetting momentarily that heâs the reason you look like crap.
Three hours later youâve moved onto some strong liquors, and are tumbling over one another, laughing and telling stories and talking like youâve known each other for years.Â
And suddenly his lips are on yours and youâre kissing back.
You donât remember much the next morning, but Javi and you are both naked in your bed. Itâs not too much of a jump to the conclusion that you slept with each other.
Heâs already awake, and you begin the process of kicking him out of bed. And out of your apartment.
âIâm sorry, Javi,â you say, pushing him out of the door. You didnât want to become another number in his long line of women. But somehow last night didnât feel like he was just using you.
âWait. Tell me you didnât want that?â
âWhat?â
âAm I reading into things wrong? Or is there something here?â
The change in tone gives you pause. Enough to seriously question everything you thought about Javier.
â...did you want that?â you whisper.
âI think I didââ
âYou think?â
âNo. I know. I know I did.â Heâs staring at you now.
âSo did I.â You take a step forward, pressing your lips gently against his.
#javier peña#javier pena#javier peña x reader#javier pena x reader#javier peña headcanons#camila writes#rated t#under 2#fluff#angst#c headcanon#request#narcos fic#javi x reader#anonymous#ask camila
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the dark side - jj maybank x shoupeâs daughter, ch. 1
w/c: 1.9k
summary:Â catherine shoupe has the perfect life. when she gets hired by heyward to run groceries, she has a new coworker - jj maybank. as the deputyâs daughter, she canât help but hate him. but when jj decides to bring her to the dark side and woo her over, cat not only has to hide her activities from her father, but also hide who she really is.
warnings: none for this chapter
a/n: iâm super excited for this! making it up as i go.... posting may be slightly delayed/irregular since iâm busy with working and moving but who knows iâll probably waste my time and work on this more than i should
---
Catâs feet and back ached, and the sun felt good on her cool skin as she stepped out of the overly air-conditioned grocery store she had been in since they opened that morning. She sat down on a bench in a shaded area between the store and a coffee shop, resting and enjoying her fifteen minute break.
The same thing. Every day, five days a week. Cat would be the opener for the grocery store, getting there at four in the morning and working until ten. It was smaller, a hippie fresh market type of place with fresh produce and organic products. Very Kook-y. It drew tourists and locals alike, as well as a bunch of people her age, working for grocery delivery services.
Morning shifts in the summer were nice because they drew more of the local crowd. The working class, like her, though still kooks. Moms grabbing their groceries after dropping their kids off at school, working professionals stopping by for premade sandwiches or donuts for their coworkers. That particular morning, her dad had stopped by for his own lunch and spent entirely too long chatting with her.
Cat enjoyed seeing people, asking them about plans for their days. She often suggested the best surfing spots and restaurants to the non-locals, while striking up easy conversations with the regulars that frequented the market in the mornings. After work she often took her brother out to the beach. It was her mission this summer to teach him how to surf. In the evenings, if her dad wasnât working, she would help her mom cook dinner and they would have a big family meal. It was repetitive, but perfect and full of things and people she loved.
After her fifteen minute break was up, she went back inside, but her manager pulled her aside before she returned to her checking lane.
âHey, Catherine, come see me in my office?â Mrs. Leeâs voice rang out.Â
There was a brief nervousness that made Catâs stomach roll over, but it quickly vanished once she saw the smile on the store ownerâs face. âSo you know Heyward, right?â
âOf course,â she answered, smiling at the thought. She knew the man and his son well - they were always in and out, buying groceries for their customers. âHeâs awesome. What about him?â
âHe and I are partners now,â she continued, obviously excited about the development. âHeâs looking to hire some new people to deliver groceries. I know you love being out on the water and talking to people, so I figured Iâd ask to see if you were interested. Itâll come with a bump in your pay, too.â
âYes!â she said, perhaps a little too eagerly. âIâm definitely interested. Does he want an interview?â
Mrs. Lee laughed. âHe said if you were interested, youâre on board automatically. He knows youâre a good worker. Iâll call him and let him know and get back at you, okay?â
âSounds good! Thanks, Mrs. Lee,â Cat said, smiling back at her before leaving her office.
Going back to her checking lane was almost bittersweet, knowing that lane three had been hers for almost two years. As soon as she flipped her light back on, a local came through, eagerly starting up a conversation and letting Cat know how his son was doing in the summer little league baseball series.
After she got off, she cranked the AC on in her car and began the drive home. The place was flooded with tourists, the summer season officially in full swing. She lived right off the main strip, which was fun and convenient, but could get annoying when anyone and everyone was there.Â
âHey Cat!â her brother greeted her as she got home. He was sitting on the couch, watching TV.
âHey Tyler! Want to go out for ice cream later?â she asked, and he nodded excitedly. âIâll make us some lunch then we can go after that.â
âOkay!â she heard him respond as she jogged up the carpeted steps. She walked past her parentâs bedroom and then into hers, kicking off her shoes and changing into flowy shorts and a basic tee before going back downstairs to make lunch.
The rest of the day was pleasant and uneventful. After they ate lunch, she took Tyler to the ice cream place two blocks away. He got birthday cake while she got peppermint, enjoying the cool sensation on the hot day. They walked on the beach, her brother talking nonstop about the video game he was playing, while Cat smiled and faked listening.
She was really listening to the sound of the waves lapping at the store, and the voices of those who lounged on the beach. Some were playing in the ocean, some were playing games in the soft sand.Â
Her father was off work at six, so once they returned home, it wasnât long until her mother got off work and they started prepping dinner. Catâs mom was laid back, always smiling, which she loved. She left her work at the office, unlike her father.
Being the daughter of a sheriffâs deputy was odd. Cat didnât mind it. There were rules in place, of course, but she hadnât any urge to break them. There were people from her school out doing drugs and drinking most nights of the week, but Cat had never touched any of that. She had a curfew, but she didnât really mind it.
Her dad got home right before dinner was ready. He pulled Cat towards him, kissing the top of her head before kissing her mom on the lips. âHow are my ladies this evening?â he asked, grinning. A patch on his uniform read Shoupe in bold letters, and he was still fully clad in his uniform.
âPretty good,â Cat answered, stirring the sauce that was simmering on the stove.Â
They made light conversation until her dad went to change out of his work clothes while Cat and her mom set the table and plated up dinner.
âHow was work, Cat?â her dad asked when they were sat down and eating.
âIt was good. The usual. But, I got a new job!â
âOh?â her mom asked, taking a sip of wine and raising her eyebrows.Â
âHeyward and Mrs. Lee are working together now, and Heyward needs runners. So he wants me. I get a pay bump too.â
Cat was smiling, but it dropped when she saw her dadâs face. Her mom noticed too, casting him a glare, and he spoke. âThatâs great, honey. But be careful, okay?â
She couldnât help but roll her eyes. Her father hated her going near the Cut. Not that she had much reason or urge to, but she knew it could be rough down there. He often worked down there, on the south side of the island, and constantly told stories about shoplifting Pogues and underage drinking. âDad, itâs Heywardâs. Itâs basically Figure Eight.â
âI know, Iâm just saying,â he said, raising his hands in surrender.
âCan you take me on the delivery boat sometime?â Tyler asked, luckily rerouting the conversation.
The issue was luckily dropped, but Cat still felt bad. She didnât know why - she was seizing the opportunity, something her parents had always encouraged. Cat had been working ever since she was old enough. Her father always told her, a good work ethic is the most important thing you can have. They were urging her to save up for college, and now she was essentially being promoted.
Mrs. Lee had texted her during dinner. Heyward wants you to start tomorrow! Meet him at 9, wear whatever you want.
She responded to the text before settling down in bed with a book. At ten, before she went to bed, her father stepped into her room after knocking softly on her door.
âHey, dad,â she said, and he walked over to sit on her bed. Cat pulled her feet up to give him some room and put her book down on her nightstand.
âIâm happy for you, Cat,â he said, smiling at her. âJust be careful, okay? With all the boat traffic now and going everywhere⊠Heywardâs a good guy. I trust him.â
âI will, dad. You know me. I grew up on the water.â
He smiled again. âYeah, you did. Have fun tomorrow, okay? Good night.â
âGânight, dad,â she said as her father stood and left the room.
---
Cat woke up early, not used to getting to sleep in since she usually was at the grocery store before dawn. Her parents had already left for work, leaving Tyler in front of the TV as normal. She made a smoothie before changing into shorts and a t-shirt.Â
âBye, Ty!â she called as she left the house at 8:30, closing the back door behind her before heading to her car.
It was about a 20 minute drive to Heywardâs from her house. When she got there, she quickly located him on the dock, filling a gas can. As she stepped onto the dock, he gave her a wave, and quickly hurried over.
Heyward gave her an impromptu âtrainingâ. How to read the orders, how to use the boatâs navigation. It was simple, and she knew most of the people who had put in orders for that day. âRight now I have two people who shop and two of you who run and deliver together, each day,â he was explaining. âHereâs your work shirt, I donât give a damn what pants you wear as long as your ass isnât hanginâ out.â
He thrust three t-shirts of different colors towards her, each with the Heywardâs logo printed on it before taking her into the office to discuss her pay and scheduling. Since she was already in the system, it went by quickly, and she ran her printed schedule to her car and slipped into her new work shirt before returning to the dock.Â
âThereâs those sons of bitches getting back now,â he said, waving at two people who stood on a white boat pulling up to dock. âCatherine, go ahead and start carrying over the groceries in the cooler over there, time for your first run.â
She went inside the small building and started pulling bags out of the ice, full of produce and goods from her store. She noticed Heywardâs son, Pope, standing on the boat, and he held out his hands to take the bags from her to load.
âYou working here now?â he asked, and she nodded. Cat had always liked Pope; they went to the same school until high school. He was quiet and witty, which she appreciated, and they had even sat together at lunch one year.
As soon as she finished handing Pope the groceries, she took his outstretched hand and climbed onto the boat.
âHey Catherine!â she heard Heyward call. She turned to see him, grinning at her. âThese are your new coworkers. Have fun.â
Pope grinned at her, but Heyward said coworkers. Plural.
A blond boy came into her line of sight, smirking. Catâs heart sank as she recognized who it was, and she considered getting off the boat, but couldnât bring herself to move or speak. It was someone she hadnât seen in quite a while, and she was okay with that.
JJ was the first to speak up, his voice smooth and cocky. âHey, kitty Cat, long time, no see.â
---
taglist: @letsgofullkook @stargazingstarkey @sortagaysortahigh @jjsmentalpolaroids @ims0golden @jjmaybcnksâ @shawnssongsâ @queenk00k @broken-jjâ
#jj maybank#outer banks#obx#outer banks fanfiction#jj maybank imagine#jj maybank fanfiction#deputy shoupe#daddy shoupe
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Silly Rabbit, Ecological Terrorism is For Kids! â Thoughts on: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek (ICE)
Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE
Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that Iâm comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thingâs for sure: theyâll all be longer than I mean them to be.
Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, Iâll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. As ICE sends off the Jetsetting Games category and moves into the Odd Games category, there will be a section between The Intro and The Title called The Weird Stuff, where Iâll go into what storyline marks this game a bit Odd in the Nancy Drew series as a whole.
If any game requires an extra section or two, theyâll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.
These metas are not spoiler free, though Iâll list any games/media that they might spoil here: ICE; TRT; mention of FIN; mention of CUR; mention of TRN; mention of SEA.
This meta is under a read more because of its sheer length.
The Intro:
Ughhhhh. UGHHH.
The White Wolf of Icicle Creek has a lot of things that make it distinct in the Nancy Drew video game series â it sports the first new interface since SHA, it has the worldâs most boring list of âenticing momentsâ from the game on the back, its assets look like they were forcefully molded out of gummy bears, it randomly was released on Wii, itâs the best-known game among non-fans thanks to the Game Grumps â but it also stands out because not one of those things make it enjoyable to play or to watch without a heavy amount of MST3K-style commentary.
Also because it features the fandomâs least favorite puzzle of all timeâŠbut more on that later.
A point to get out of the way before we get into the game proper is that this game feels a lot like a cheap knock-off of Treasure in a Royal Tower. Like, a lot like a cheap knock-off. One of those animated films called âBemoâs Lost in the Oceanâ or âA Toy Taleâ that come out around Disney/Pixar films to try to trick hapless grandmas into buying them.
Just lining it up, we have Nancy stuck in/around a lodge in winter, an edict from the owner of the lodge to figure out whatâs up with repeated Incidents and possible sabotage while most guests have left, an academic around Nancyâs age, an Old Coot, an Olympian whose grandparent was important, chores (including food related chores) to do in order to progress in the story, a suspect you can only talk to face-to-face for part of the gameâŠthe list honestly goes on in both big and small ways.
While ICE isnât the only one that tries to do this (since Iâm not doing a SEA meta, I wonât get into the fact that SEA literally just remastered DDIâs characters and said âgood enoughâ), it does feel particularly egregious because, for all its copying, thereâs not enough in the game to distract from it even a bit.
ICE is a game searching for an identity and unable to find one, no matter how many plot points, chores, or games (horrible, unskippable games) they throw at the player. We have full on international espionage and ecological terrorism here (more on that in the next section), and it justâŠdoesnât matter, at the end of the day. It also takes place in Canada, but your only clue to that is that one of the characters says âehâ a lot, so thatâs not great either.
If ICE is a new game to you (it can be a bear to install and even worse to complete, so Iâm going to go off the assumption that not everyone will be familiar with it), youâve probably only heard of the cooking chores, fox and geese, and that this is the game with the Return of Tony Balducci, previously of TRN fame. (Honestly, ICE had a big enough cast without its phone characters, but HER decided to shove three phone characters along with one partial phone character at us anyway.) And, to be honest, thatâs pretty much all there is to the game.
Now I know this sounds harsh, but there is a possible explanation to the lack of content in this game. In my previous meta (link at the top of this post) I made a note that CREâs production in all likelihood suffered because the company was focused on ICEâs new interface. I donât think itâs a leap at all to say that ICEâs story and characters could also have suffered because of the same thing.
The biggest problem with ICE â besides the weird stuff weâll get into below â is that itâs a shallow game. None of the characters have any real depth, the plot is a paper-thin copy of TRT, the puzzles are alternatingly impossible and extremely easy, and in an effort to add âdepthâ, we getâŠwell, we get this next section.
The Weird Stuff:
With each of the Odd Games (ICE through RAN, Heaven help us all), thereâs something that makes the game trulyâŠwell, odd. Odd for the Nancy Drew series, odd for the age range specified on the front of the box, and odd in general when you look at the rest of the plot.
In this game, it comes in the form of terrorism â or rather, two types of terrorism. Guadalupe is our first (and only, in this series) ecological terrorist, belonging to a fringe group called âRun and Go Freeâ and being perfectly fine with illegal acts (destruction of the fishing lodge, sabotage of personal property), even telling Nancy that sheâs done worse in the name of Run and Go Free.
Nancy Drew Games are no stranger to hippie/naturalist types (see DOG, DDI, CAR, etc.) but Lupe is our first to be legitimately dangerous. Sure, she doesnât end up being the ultimate Bad Guy, but she is A Bad Guy, and it really does seem very odd to me that after everything Lupe does (and insinuates that sheâs done), that she gets away with barely a slap on the wrist in having to leave the lodge.
Lupe in no way fits in with the rest of the plot; thereâs nothing to justify her being present in the game, she can appear about halfway through the game and then leaves to become a phone contact soon after, sheâs not present enough to be an actual suspect â she has no place in the plot nor the game, and it really does just boggle the mind that a character is in it at all, especially with ICE having a greater than average number of suspects to begin with.
On the other hand, however, we have Yanni, an Eastern European Olympian spy/terrorist, sent by the Fredonian (a commonly used fake country) government to bomb around the lodge to find uranium under the cover of training for the next Olympics.
That is a whole lot of things for one character.
Youâd think with the presence of Lupe that Yanni would fit right in, but he doesnât make her â or himself â any less odd or out of place than he would have been alone. Itâs a âsuspicious Olympianâ character that we already got with Jacques, but heâs a million times worse, setting off friggin bombs to find a metal that his government wants forâŠwell, the normal reason that governments want uranium.
So we can add in âreference to ongoing nuclear warfareâ as another thing that makes this game Odd.
Yanni doesnât fit the game or the plot, which is pretty bad considering heâs responsible for about half the plot in the first place. He also has that weird aside about his grandmother being eaten by wolves, as if HER wants the player to suspect him because of some twisted revenge against wolves plot (which would have been Very Weird) so that they can pull the rug out at the end and be like âsee?? Heâs a political terrorist looking for uranium for nuclear bombs for his country!!! Gotcha!!â.
Like, itâs not a Gotcha if itâs absolute lunacy. My land.
With that explanation out of the way, letâs get to something a little less Odd.
The Title:
 I actually donât have much to say here. The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is honestly a great name; it tells us the focal point of the game (the wolf), the location, (Icicle Creek), and even pretty much tells you the season that this game is happening in (white, icicle). It accomplishes a lot in a very short amount of words, and pertains accurately to the game weâre dealing with.
Weâll chalk that up in the âWinâ categoryâŠespecially since weâre going straight back into the âLoseâ category with the next section.
The Mystery:
The mystery is a mess, full stop. Thereâs way too much going on for the amount of payoff (i.e. little to none), and the plot, thin at best, completely drops off at the 2/3rds mark when all the player has left to do is wait for random events to occur and keep putting off fox and geese.
Anyway.
We begin with strange, destructive incidents of sabotage happening at a renowned winter resort. Most of the guests have left, and thereâs been some damage to parts of the resort. Asked for help by the owner of the resort whoâs away on business, Nancy must pick up the slack left by staff who have quit, run food-related errands, and discover who might be behind these attacks before itâs too late.
Oh wait, thatâs Treasure in a Royal Tower. Lemme start again.
We begin with strange, destructive incidents of sabotage happening at a renowned winter resort. Most of the guests have left, and thereâs been some damage â
You get the picture.
The biggest difference pre-game is that after every incident, a white wolf is spotted, only to disappear before the police get there. People start connecting the wolf to the crimes, and go as far as blaming it for cases of food poisoning and slashed tires, as if the wolf is cooking food and using a knife with its paws.
Just as Nancyâs arriving on scene, the bunkhouse is blown up and she hears the wolf howling â so obviously there must be a connection there, and a wolf definitely isnât just responding to a loud noise.
This part honestly feels a bit like the beginning of CUR, where the game tries to establish Scary Feelings and Ominous Threats and just comes off ham-fisted.
The back of the box features three âexcitingâ things that Nancy gets to do in this game, which are as follows: cook lunch and dinner, ride a snowmobile and wear snow shoes, and do snowball fights and ice fishing. While itâs sad that those moderately exciting things are the best that the box can boast, itâs even sadder that they really are the best the game has to offer.
Itâs easy to lose thread of the mystery nearly as soon as Nancy gets to the lodge, because sheâs immediately bombarded with laundry that has to be done before a certain time, meals that have to be done within a certain hour or two, and a suspect (Lupe) that can just refuse to show up.
Oh, and the return of Tino Balducci.
Returning in a game where he doesnât fit in and where no one wanted him in the first place, Tinoâs there to âhelpâ Nancy solve the mystery by giving her a questionnaire for her suspects to fill out that asks what planet they see themselves as, among other inanities.
Honestly, this whole section could be summed up as âTino returns, among other inanitiesâ.
Nancy, throughout all of this, somehow has time to do a bit of detective work, interviewing a cast of rather one-note suspects, figuring out that more than one person is responsible for the many accidents. Guadalupeâs sabotage is discovered and sheâs sent home, Yanni is increasingly unavailable (which is hugely suspicious), snowball fights are more prevalent than necessary, and finally the villain is exposed, all culminating in a glitchy, nigh-impossible snowmobile chase.
Oh, and thereâs a half-tamed wolf storyline that kinda pops up every now and again.
All in all, the mystery is a weak thread throughout the game â which is a problem, because itâs the only thread throughout the game â thatâs easily overshadowed by the chores, games, and frankly awful visuals throughout the game.
Now, to those who contribute (in a way) to the non-entity that is ICEâs story:
The Suspects:
Ollie Randall is our resident grumpy caretaker and is Chantalâs right-hand man, along with being on the Avalanche Patrol and a firm believer in the bad luck that wolves bring. His wife canât handle cold temperatures due to a nerve condition, so heâs also his daughter Freddieâs sole parent during the winter.
As a culprit in the game as it now is, Ollie would have been the only sensical option; fed up with the awful guests that come and cause havoc, he starts causing little easily-solved accidents to spook away the less hardy-type guests, but it keeps spiraling as it doesnât keep out everyone but people like Bill Kessler. Frustrated by the treatment the lodge gets, he decides that if people donât treat it nicely, they canât have it at allâŠ
Unfortunately, Ollie is limited to being Grumpy, and not a lot else.
Freddie Randall is Ollieâs daughter and the self-proclaimed Snow Princess due to her ability to stay out in the cold for hours in her snow fort, and to take repeated snowballs to the face courtesy of a teen detective.
Freddie isâŠI know I talked about how Yanni and Lupe donât really fit into the game, but Freddie really doesnât fit any version of this game. Sheâs there for a mini game, she doesnât have a personality, you canât skip her mini game, sheâs voiced by Lani MinellaâŠthe list goes on and on. Her shining moment of glory is acting as a red herring by throwing a snowball through Louâs window.
Sheâs pointless to talk about as a potential culprit, even though she would have been an interesting âculpritâ in a case where all the incidents are actually Freddie accidentally causing trouble, but that probably would have been even less satisfying than how the game actually went, so weâll just move along here.
Our cross-country skiing Olympian from the fictional Eastern European country of Fredonia, Yanni Volkstaia is both our only suspect wearing a onesie and our only suspect with a family member eaten by wolves.
I know, thatâs already a high bar to top. Donât worry, heâll fall very, very far below it.
Yanni, as mentioned above, is our odd spy/terrorist villain who is disguising his being there for uranium by saying that itâs his Olympic competitors trying to throw off his training. Why an Olympian is training alone without any coaches or securityâŠwell, letâs just say that Yanni didnât really think his cover story through.
Just because Yanniâs the obvious culprit doesnât mean he fills the role well; Yanni is obvious, annoying, and his paper-thin cover is just annoying enough to beâŠwell, annoying. He throws out that his grandmother was âkilled and devouredâ by wolves as if he wants Nancy to believe that thatâs the reason heâs targeting the lodge butâŠit still points directly to him. Itâs just not great all the way around.
Joining Yanni in terrorism is Guadalupe Comillo, activist from California and hard-to-find suspect. Lupe can, as mentioned above, literally just not appear for a bit, stalling out the game and making her even more annoying than she already is.
Lupeâs cover is that sheâs a bird watcher, but she knows absolutely nothing about birds â like honestly nothing, even though she had time to make her cover story (not unlike Yanni).
She gets sent away by destruction of private property (Ollieâs gun â super dangerous to make a gun misaim out in the wild and sheâs lucky he didnât hit anything problematic [like another person] because of it) and good riddance, but appears as a phone friend to rather pointlessly exonerate herself and do pretty much nothing else but stop the game in its tracks until she lets it proceed.
As a culprit, Lupe would have been the other obvious choice, but sheâs just not in the game enough, so sheâs easy to ignore. Her cover is thin, but so is her motivation (!!! Save the wolf!!!), so sheâs one of the most annoying non-entity suspects in this series.
Our second Californian in the cast is Lou Talbot, who is a college student, master of âearthitectureâ (inspired by Poppy Dada) and stealer of dinosaur bones for money. He also plays fox and geese with Bill in his spare time. He does a really good impression of the Guy in my MFA twitter as well, but thatâs literally it.
No, really, thatâs his entire character. I canât even posit what he would be like as the culprit because that is LITERALLY all weâre given on him. End of bio. My gosh, what a waste of pixels.
Louâs partner in fox and geese is Bill Kessler, who loves to fish and whose grandmother used to own the lodge before Chantal. While he feels that his grandmother Tilly was cheated out of the lodge, he has little desire to get it back, and really just wants to hide the fact that heâs been to the lodge before (an odd thing to hide, but whatever makes him feel better.)
Like Lou, apart from that, he really doesnât have any character. He basically is a mix of TRTâs Jacques in his family connection to the lodge and SHAâs Dave in actual amount of motivation (i.e., 0 motivation) to do anything about it. He is, however, the person who makes Nancy play fox and geese, and for that alone, I hate him.
As a culprit, Billâs played as a red herring for a solid 5 minutes of gameplay (though not very well â why would an avid fisherman blow up a fishing shack?), and then totally discounted the moment Nancy finds out his backstory. Heâs really just there â like most of the cast, worryingly enough â to pad out the number of suspects and to give Nancy a taste of Hell through fox and geese.
The Favorite:
There are a few bright spots in this confused mess of a game, so letâs go through them.
My favorite moment in the game is when Nancy, after Yanni says the horrific line about his grandmother being killed and devoured by wolves, can ask âhowâ. As if thatâs a sentence that needs a âhowâ. Itâs a great moment of Nancy being absolutely tone deaf, and I giggle like a madman every time I think about it.
My favorite puzzle in the game is probably the cooking minigame, which I dislike in frequency and time requirement, but do love in actual practice. Itâs fun to cook in every Nancy Drew game, and this one is no exception. I just wish it wasnât regimented so heavily.
I love the atmosphere of the lodge; itâs beautifully animated (in fact one of my favorite locations in the ND games), big without being too big, and is never boring, even by the end of the game. The lodge is largely a character unto itself, and is quite successful as a wonderful location.
The Un-Favorite:
Thereâs a lot to unpack here, but weâll keep it short because the fix section of this meta is gonna have me by the throat.
My least favorite moment in the game is the moment Tino comes into the game. As the game now stands, thereâs no reason for him to be involved, and short a comment about him by the Hardy Boys, which would at least justify it a little, heâs purposeless. Heâs worse than that, actually â heâs there to slow the game down, and thatâs a cardinal sin.
My least favorite puzzle in the game is a tie between fox and geese (UGH) and the final snowmobile chase. My problems with fox and geese are obvious â theyâre everyoneâs problems with fox and geese: itâs a required puzzle, itâs hard to do, thereâs no way to cheat through it, and it takes forever.
The final snowmobile chase is somehow even worse. Itâs buggy, laggy, has nothing to do with the actual plot, has arbitrary win conditions â itâs the worst (or at least among the worst) that HER has to offer with final puzzles. If everything else about ICE was perfect, engaging, fun, and thought-provoking, this final puzzle would still put me off of playing it. Itâs just that bad.
The storyline with Isis and that whole backstory isnât treated well in game; itâs almost as if they came up with the title and then remembered at the last minute that thereâs supposed to be an actual wolf. I would have loved more of a focus on that storyline; as it is, it barely counts as a blip on the gameâs radar â which is a shame.
The Fix:
Gosh, how on earth will I fix The White Wolf of Icicle Creek? The answer is that I donât feel like I can just apply a few quick fixes and be on my way; the only answer I could find is to approach this as if I was at the proposal meeting for this game â how would I outline the barebones scenario?
This section will be long, as Iâm going to start just from the skeleton and build things in. What follows is my own imaginings of what my own personal ideas would be to create ICE, rather than to fix it from what the finished product was. As an important note, the side-plot with the wolf, as it was really neglected and bare-bones to begin with in the game, is mostly removed.
The first section Iâll work on is structure. Though it wasnât done perfectly in FIN, I feel like the pacing of ICE could be vastly improved by putting a clock on the game by assigning designated days and tasks. Three days is still probably a good idea, as it lets us easily break the story into a 3-act structure and delineate certain tasks for certain days without overloading one day in particular. Weâll get more into what should happen in Days 1, 2, and 3 later in a general overview of how the plot would go.
The mechanism used to get Nancy there â Chantal being a friend of Carsonâs â isnât bad, but Iâd change it up just slightly. Nancyâs not yet a âprofessionalâ detective, but weâre only 2 games from her being hired by a foreign countryâs authorities, so she should be making her way up there. It stands to reason that Nancy would attract some attention from the business in CRE since the Hardy Boys would definitely mention Nancy in their de-briefing and Aikens is a big name, so letâs build on that from here. Chantal is still Carsonâs friend, and she still wants to get these incidents solved while sheâs away from the Lodge for legal matters â someone got injured at the lodge and is now suing.
Carson decides to officially hire Nancy â paperwork, legal documentation, etc. â as a âconcerned third partyâ in Chantalâs problems, telling her that her job is to find out two things: find out whatâs causing the incidents of sabotage, and give Carson enough evidence in favor of the lodgeâs safety that he can prove reasonable doubt against the people accusing Chantal. Nancy will be there undercover as a family friend of Chantalâs, with only Ollie knowing that sheâs there in an official capacity.
ICE has a cast that is both unwieldy and characterless, and I feel like the way to fix that is through combining characters. Starting out we have Ned, Chantal, Tino, the ex-maid, her boyfriend, Ollie, Freddie, Lupe, Yanni, Lou, and Bill â 10 characters that we deal with in the present, plus one other player (in the boyfriend/stalker guy). 11 in total. That is a huge, huge cast that we definitely need to pare down.
The first thing to do is to take out Tino Balducci. He slows down the plot, is completely unnecessary, and isnât even entertaining. Since thereâs no Hardy Boys to play off of him (and I would keep the Hardy Boys out of this game, even with my love for them), Tino needs to go the way of the dodo. And good riddance to him, honestly.
Freddie, an obvious subject to axe, should instead be aged up to around 20 and combined with the maid whose ex-boyfriendâs letter Nancy finds at the beginning of the game. Freddie would handle all the chores the first day except the cooking.
Instead of a nebulous, incident-causing ex-boyfriend, Freddie would have just started a relationship with Lou, keeping our cast tight and visible, rather than one-off characters with nothing else to give to the story.
By now weâre down to Carson, Ned, Chantal, Freddie, Ollie, Lupe, Yanni, Lou, and Bill. I think we can do a little better than that.
The next step Iâd take is to remove Yanni entirely. Yes, I know itâs a big change to remove the canonical culprit, but bear with me. With Yanni and Lupe having so many similarities and together being guilty of 99% of the Crimes in this game, Iâm pretty comfortable in combining them. Iâd also make the minor change of having Lupe be an Indigenous Canadian rather than Hispanic and from California, since our game is set in Canada and thereâs absolutely no reason for a large portion of our cast to be American.
With Yanni gone, Lupe (or whatever her new name would be, since the name âLupeâ, all nationality changes aside, in a game ostensibly about a wolf makes me want to kill myself) assumes a few of his personality quirks â most importantly, a family member with a past with wolves. It doesnât really matter if itâs positive or negative, you just want the association there as a herring (red or otherwise).
That puts us down to 5 suspects to talk to and three phone friends for a total of 8 players in the present. Since Chantal is supposed to be busy, Iâd remove the ability to talk to her entirely â anything that Chantal could offer can come through Carson as Nancyâs official âemployerâ, which brings us to a nice 7 players â an entirely manageable number.
So letâs begin.
The beginning of the game with Nancy at her desk always includes a case file, so this time the case file would say that Nancy, at the behest of her âclientâ, Carson Drew, is flying out to Alberta to investigate strange happenings at Chantal Moiqueâs lodge. Chantal is trying to settle with people who got hurt there and are trying to sue her, and Carsonâs helping to advise her. Nancyâs mission is two-fold: figure out whatâs causing the incidents at the lodge, and find evidence that Chantal canât be held liable for the injuries incurred by the guests suing her.
Wolves are commonly seen around the area of the lodge â Northern Alberta has some of the highest population of wolves in North America â and thereâs a rumor at the lodge that the spirits of the wolves that are hunted in the area every winter are causing some of the sabotage.
Chantal thinks the rumor is being spread by whoever is doing the actual sabotage to make her guests leave and force her out of business, so Carson tells Nancy to pay attention to the stories about the wolves â and one snow-white wolf in particular, who is often sighted very close to the lodge. Carson suspects that, if it exists, the white wolf is actually a trained dog (a white/white and silver Siberian Husky, for example) being used to whip up panic, but tells Nancy to keep an open mind.
As Nancyâs arriving at the Lodge, an explosion occurs in the distance, causing the rumbling of snow to start. Ollie, whoâs picked up Nancy from her plane, says darkly that heâs been waiting for something like this to happen, and that this will probably cause a minor avalanche (his opinion as the head of Avalanche Patrol in the area), making it impossible to leave the lodge for a few days. He tells Nancy to head straight to bed once they get to the lodge, as sheâs in for an exhausting time dealing with the âweirdosâ still left at the lodge.
Nancy wakes up and Day One begins with Freddie freaking out outside Nancyâs door. After explaining that the regular chef (who was off for the last month visiting family) canât get back to the lodge until tomorrow and that Freddieâs only manned the kitchen once or twice, Nancy says that she has experience cooking and offers to take the chefâs duties for the day.
Day One has Nancy meet all the suspects â Billâs playing a game (I donât care what it is as long as itâs something that involves writing things down) with anyone who passes by and talks about how out of all the lodges in Canada, this oneâs his favorite; Lou hangs out near the bones (make him an archeology major or something related to but not exactly paleontology) and Definitely Doesnât Know the Cute Girl Who Works at the Lodge, How Dare Nancy Assume; Not-Lupe is gone until 4pm when it starts getting dark because she loves spending time in nature, especially with the Super Special Wolf running around the place; and Ollieâs in the workshop fixing the things that have been sabotaged, worries about his daughter being away from her mother and about her âcavortingâ with a guest.
Nancy still preps lunch and the day goes on without a hitch other than Lou having an overheard argument with someone at around 6. Nancy cooks dinner, accidentally (due to smudged instructions from Freddie) sprinkling paprika in everyoneâs food and setting off an allergic (mild to moderate anaphylaxis, helped by an epi pen) reaction + hives in Freddie, who they fly out via helicopter that night.
Ollie, feeling hostile towards Nancy, takes a look at the instructions/recipe that Nancy worked off of and says to her that the first page is Freddieâs handwriting, but the second page isnât â someone did this on purpose. Nancy calls Carson, who says that the soonest he can get there is the day after next, and to keep herself safe above everything â heâll check in with the hospital Freddieâs at since itâs also in Edmonton, where Carson and Chantal are. Carson warns Nancy that the guests were about to settle the lawsuit when the news about the explosion hit the news, and are now more determined than ever to sue for all Chantalâs worth.
Day 2 opens with the cook (whoâs unseen and just exists in order to relieve Nancy of kitchen duty) arriving and a phone call from Carson asking for Chantal/Freddie if Nancy can grab the laundry bags from the guestsâ rooms and that the spare key is in the register at the front (of course guarded by a puzzle â Iâd even accept a mini fox and geese, as one of the big problems with that puzzle in the vanilla game is that it goes on way too long.
While snooping in the desk, Nancy finds evidence that Chantal might have been guilty of criminal neglect â a few things around the lodge are listed as âfixedâ and totally safe when really they still need some maintenance â and wonders how she should tell Carson and if she should wait until she has more evidence. Before she goes out for the day, Not-Lupe mentions to Nancy âin confidenceâ that she overheard Lou fighting with Freddie before dinner, calling it a âloverâs quarrelâ.
After lunch and talking with all the suspects again, Nancy goes to grab the laundry with the master key and snoops in everyoneâs rooms, finding various clues and suspicious things: Billâs journal detailing how Chantal is running the place into the ground and needs to be replaced, along with a few lodge magazines; Not-Lupeâs gloves with suspicious specks of things on them (Nancy takes a sample of it in a Kleenex or something); Louâs heavy suitcase that has a case with imprints of bones in it; Ollieâs has maintenance books that also detail how to take things apart and maintenance notes that say he saw the wolf around but didnât have his gun; Freddieâs only thing of interest is a little dinosaur pin on her dresser.
Nancy takes the opportunity to snoop in Chantalâs normal room and finds that the things that were listed in the documents in the front desk really were fixed; Ollie reported to Chantal that things that he fixed were un-fixed by the time he went back to them the next day â most of the time suffering damage as well, such as the sauna that injured the guests that are suing Chantal. Nancy calls her father with the news, and Carson says to save those documents so that he can come get them tomorrow, and to see if she can find any clues to who might have done it.
After dinner Nancy talks to Lou, who confesses that he and Freddie started dating a few days ago after meeting online last semester in a dinosaur enthusiast forum â hence his decision to come to the lodge, as Freddie said there were cool bones here. He was originally going to steal a few small ones and thought no one would notice if he replaced them with resin-cast replicas, but Freddie caught him and they had a fight which ended with Lou deciding not to steal, and Freddie saying that she could help him make replicas for him to take home and keep in his house.
Nancy asks why heâs telling her, and Lou says that Ollie seems to get along with Nancy well, and heâd like Nancy to calm Ollie down if Ollie discovers that heâs dating Freddie. Nancy asks Lou about the wolf, and Lou says that some of the stuff could be a wolf â heâs seen one around the lodge once or twice â but he hasnât really been paying attention to anything except the bones and Freddie (who heâs looking forward to visiting once he can).
When talking with Bill, he offhandedly mentions that he used to be a handyman â the sink in his room started acting up, but he fixed it easily because he thinks that Ollie has enough to do without doing this easy fix. Bill says that this would never have happened when Chantalâs father was running the Lodge and accuses Chantal of preferring to spend long âbusiness tripsâ in the city to actually paying attention to the Lodge â he says she should just live in the city and hire a manager with experience who actually cares. Nancy asks Bill about the wolf, and he says if anyone could be haunted by wolves, heâd believe it was Chantal.
Nancy, it should be noted, during her explorations around the lodge, sees a few pawprints and some chewed-on debris, but otherwise hasnât seen the wolf in person. Just traces and tracks.
Not-Lupe and Ollie both dodge Nancyâs questions â Ollieâs busy as everything seems to be breaking at once, and snaps at Nancy that without Chantal around, heâs the only person keeping the lodge afloat, and heâd be better off without the stress of this job. When Nancy asks him about the wolf, Ollie says that the last thing they need is some idiot tourist being attacked by a wolf, and so he refuses to believe that thereâs a wolf around the area.
Not-Lupe is at her normal place at the window (though thereâs a chair there because no one stands all day), and when Nancy asks about the wolf, says that thatâs why sheâs there â she heard the rumor about the wolf and wanted to see it, but that her visitâs been very disappointing â just a junky lodge with incompetent staff and no wolves anywhere. Her hobby is visiting winter lodges, and this one just Isnât up to snuff.
Nancy tries to pry deeper, but Not-Lupe shuts her down and goes to bed; Nancy investigates the living room as everyone leaves for bed and finds crinkled up under the couch a magazine cutout about the Premier Lodge Group, a company that owns winter lodges all over Canada and the United States, and their plans to build a group of lodges in Alberta as soon as a few âminor inconveniencesâ with location are solved.
The day ends with Carson calling; Nancy tells him about all the suspects (Carson confirms Louâs story by having talked to Freddie), the magazine, Ollie wanting to quit, etc. Carson promises to do some research on Premier Lodge Group and tells Nancy to send him a picture of the stuff she found on Lupeâs gloves. Nancy does so, and thatâs the end of Day 2.
Day 3 opens again with Carsonâs phone call, informing Nancy that heâll be there in the early evening â heâs having a contact of his look at the photo Nancy sent, but heâs pretty sure it wonât be good news.
Premier Lodge Group was investigated a few years ago for sabotage to their competitors but ultimately nothing came out of it, and Carson suspects that people were paid off to keep quiet about it. Carson says that heâs looked into Ollie (since Carson suspected him the most) and apparently Ollie always grouches about quitting when heâs stressed but has been there for 20 years and is as loyal as they come, so Nancy says sheâll focus on Not-Lupe and Bill â the two lodge-hoppers who seem dissatisfied with the lodge.
Both Not-Lupe and Bill are gone when Nancy gets downstairs, and Lou (whoâs planning on leaving that night to go to Edmonton) says that they both got a sack lunch from the kitchen and left early in the morning to go explore outside. He tells Nancy she can borrow his snowshoes and says that they both headed out (independently) in the direction of Skookum Ridge.
When Nancy gets up to the Ridge, she spots the âwolfâ â really a Siberian Husky, like Carson thought, who seems very well trained. When the dog comes up to Nancy, a gunshot ripples through the air and nearly hits the dog, who would have gone running off had Nancy not grabbed her collar and yelled not to shoot. Nancy sees Bill across the ridge and waves him over, explaining that itâs a dog, not a wolf. The dog (whose name is something way better than Isis â literally anything else would do) is suspicious of Bill at first, which convinces Nancy that itâs not Billâs â the only suspect left is Not-Lupe.
When she tells Bill what she knows about Not-Lupe, Bill admits to having seen her before at a lodge that went out of business due to mysterious accidents, but thought it was a coincidence before digging deeper in the magazines he brought and finding Not-Lupe in the back of a small photo of Premier Lodge Administrative Staff â he was worried about keeping it safe and knowing that there would be no cleaning staff until at least the next day, crumpled it up and put it under the couch he normally sits by.
A happy, friendly dog in tow, Nancy and Bill head back to the lodge only to find Ollie and Lou standing outside looking worried. They tell Nancy that they both went outside because they heard a loud noise, only to find the door locked behind them â and every other door locked as well. After realizing that Not-Lupe wouldnât open the doors for them, Ollie went to get an axe for the door, only to have a note appear on the doorâs window that if they forced their way in, the whole Lodge would be burned to the ground in an instant.
Carson calls then, saying that heâs a few minutes away, but that his friend got back to him â Not-Lupeâs gloves were covered in residue from explosives. Bill takes Nancyâs phone and begins to fill Carson in on who they think Not-Lupe is working for and who she is. Nancy asks Lou and Ollie to hoist her up to her own window, which she keeps unlocked, and crawls in, creeping downstairs to the main room to try to find how Not-Lupe will burn the lodge and stop her.
Nancy confronts Not-Lupe, who confirms her identity as a saboteur for the Premier Lodge Group, saying that with the bad press around the lodge Chantal would have already had to sell â but sheâs going to go one step further and cause an âincidentâ, blowing up the lodge with fuses hidden around its ground floor â Chantalâs father wonât spend the money to rebuild the lodge, and the only proof that is against her is the word of two American kids, an old man, and a lodge-hopper with a very incriminating diary that would be found soon enough. She tells Nancy that she can either try to catch her or try to save the lodge and runs out the back, intent on escaping as she pushes the button to arm the explosives.
Nancy yells out the window for them to catch Not-Lupe, whoâs got to be headed out to the main road, tossing the cushion of the seat Lupe usually sat in so that her dog can catch her scent, then has the final timed puzzle be switching off each detonator (which would be in each of the places where the suspects usually were, with the exception of Ollieâs whose is in the front desk).
As soon as Nancy disarms them, Bill calls out to her that Carson just called â Lou and the dog tracked Lupe to the main road, and Bill called Carson to let him know. Carsonâs car stops Not-Lupe (Carson brought a policeman on a hunch), and the day is saved. Premier Lodge is snagged in a major lawsuit by Chantalâs father and other lodge owners who have had the same thing happen to them, and Chantal hires Bill as co-manager to ensure thereâs always someone there to manage the lodge and for his wealth of knowledge of what makes a good lodge and good experience for guests.
The game ends with Nancy writing her letter to Hannah (so that Hannah doesnât worry about them), and with her dadâs praise for a job well done.
I realize that this is a monumental fix; itâs a brand-new game made out of the skeleton of the old one. I also realize that there are a million and one ways to re-write this game; this one takes the idea of sabotage, one of the most frequent inciting incidents in the Nancy Drew world, and just makes it a little bigger.
No terrorism required.
#nancy drew#clue crew#nancy drew games#white wolf of icicle creek#ICE#long post#video games#nancy drew meta
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[Image 1 Description: Â A Crowd of people, all colored blue, with the label "Interneters" on them. To the left of the crowd a young man stands out. He is a repeat character. We'll call him "The Interneter." He has dark brown skin, short light blue dread-locks. He wears a burgundy colored hoodie, a dark teal V-neck shirt, and dark bluish-grey jeans. The Interneter says "You never told us what a "Spoonie" is."
To the middle right is Rachel, we can only see to the bottom of her shirt for now. (She has pale white skin, short and messy blonde hair, teal shirt with ferns printed on each side, Maroon shorts, light cyan thigh-high stocking with cut outs of leaves on them, maroon shoes). Rachel, smiling wearily, looking right at us, holding her index finger up:"Well, you could just google it. But hey, what the heck? Why pass up an opportunity to be the first person who tells you what it means?"Â
We see Rachel again on the lower left side, smiling while raising an eyebrow, holding her left hand to her face, and her right hand out towards us: "Ya  ready?"Â
The crowd lines the bottom of the image. The Interneter stands in the middle, with a speech bubble above "Yes." and a speech bubble to his bottom right, "That's why we asked."]
[Image 2 Description: There is a lavender square at the top of this image, on it is the text: "Spoonie" comes from a disability metaphor first described in a 2003 essay by christine miserandino called "The Spoon Theory" in which she tells the story of trying to explain to a friend what it feels like to have lupus, using spoons as visual representation of her daily energy. She actually handed her friend a bouquet of spoons and said: "
Below Christine, a white woman with long brunette hair, a white headband, purple dress shirt and jeans, holds out a sparkling bouquet of spoons saying "Here you go".Â
Below this we see her down on one knee. To her right her friend, female, brown skin, long braided dark brunette hair with a reddish tint, blue over-all dress, and teal leggings, sits on a stool holding the spoons Christine handed her.
"You have Lupus." Christine says, to which her friend nervously responds "Haha, whaaat?...... Please explain."]
[Image 3 Description: Another lander square fills the top of this image, on it is a quote from Christine's Essay, "Most people start the day with unlimited amounts of possibilities- energy to do whatever they desire...for the most part, they do not need to worry about the effects of their actions...I wanted something for her to actually hold, for me to then take away. If I was in control of taking away the spoons, then she would know what it feels like to have something else being in control."Â
Below Christine sits alone, her legs "criss-cross". She is smiling at us and holds a giant spoon. Around her are little blurbs in purple text, "Might actually own a giant spoon" "Has done awesome advocacy work" "Read more at butyoudontlooksick.com (if you want to)"]
[Image 4 Description: a chart titled "How Spoon Theory Works". A single spoon equals a unit of energy that a person can use safely. On the left is "spoon cost per activities" on the right is icons to show the activities.
1 spoon; Getting out of bed, taking medications, changing clothes. 2 spoons; Watching a tv show, a microwavable meal, using the internet.3 spoons; Enagaing in a small activity like art, cleaning something, making a meal that required stove or oven.4 spoons; Taking a shower, leaving your home, socializing.
Narration text:Â Why use it? I'll let this quote by a doctor who was originally using buckets of water (???) with patients explain. "Using analogies and/or metaphors...can help clinicians and patients' loved ones get a better understanding of the impact of specific activities on a patient." (John Hopkins Neurologist Scott Newsome, DO, on the topic of "Spoon Theory")]
[Image 5 Description: The Interneter is looking worried, sweating. He says to Rachel,
"Oh wait, so I have major depression disorder, insomnia, and ADHD. During my last episode, I was barely able to make it to one class a day, and maybe get one meal. My insomnia felt uncontrollable. I ran out of mental brain power for my classes, but I still attempted as much class work as I could, even if my brain couldn't fully show up. Don't get me wrong- I still tried, so hard. Even if I was too depressed to feel things like 'normal' I still wanted to be embracing my college life. I feel like spoon theory would have really helped me in times like those. Especially since I haven't found an antidepressant that works on me yet. I know it's not like what you go through, like chronic physical illness. I wouldn't want to make less of your experience or appropriate this term. I'm just wondering if-"
 Rachel, looking calm, finding The Interneter endearing and smiling slightly, "Your experiences are just as valid and the level of impact your depression has absolutely qualifies you as a spoonie."]
[Image 6 Description: Narration text  "Today  a spoonie is someone with a condition that causes limited amounts of physical and/or cognitive energy, such as chronic illness, mental illness, or disability. It's also used by neurodivergents who deal with persistent energy limitations."
Below sits 4 girls all smiling, waving, and looking at us, left to right; The first girl has an average frame, tan skin, long navy blue hair, a maroon hat, faded pink pants, a blue/purple/lavender striped shirt, and cutting scar on her arms. Second girl is Kitt, she was in another comic, she has a plus sized frame, dark brown skin, shoulder length curly/dark brown hair. she wears a teal dress with white strips, a waist long blue jacket, blue shoes, her left left is a purple prosthetic. Third girl, she is Asian, very light but still tan skin, with black hair in cut in a pixie style. She has on a white sweat shirt that has lavender sleeves and a salmon color at the bottom, in the center is the rainbow infinity sign for neurodivergence. She has on mint pants and wear white and salmon colored sneakers. On the floor below them sits Rachel.Â
Narrative text "Not all of us are literally measuring out energy in terms of spoons, but having such a metaphor is extremely helpful."]
[Image 7 Description: Narrative text "Spoon Theory embraces acknowledgment of a condition's control, which is weirdly liberating because this reminds a person:"
Girl number 3 is on the right is whispering to The Interneter "Lack of control isn't proof of personal weakness. You don't have to beat yourself up for experiencing your condition."Â
"I know that. . ." the interneter says shyly, blushing and smiling.
"Do you though?" Rachel says from the left.
Below her is girl number one. "Do u? I've been doing this for 13 years and even I forget sometimes."]
[Image 8 Description: Narrative text "For young people in particular, spoonie is the first word a person may use when starting to rewrite what their life with their condition could look like."
The Interneter lays flat on his bed, we see him from the side looking hopeful "Having to live life this way isn't easy, but I want to make it work."
Below we see he is centered on his bed holding 1 spoon, "especially since I'm still having that episode of depression." On the right side his words continue "I didn't say anything because I was afraid of messing up the flow of the comic."]
[Image 9 Description: Narrative text "Spoons can be a silly thing to associate with possibly not having enough energy to manage basic survival activities, which is one reason some don't bother using the term at all. Still, it's easier to say,"
A woman, standing in the center of the image with a long purple dress, short brunette hair, and a purple walking cane, holds a hand to her chest smiling "I'm a spoonie!"
To her left is a large man all in red, hand on his hips smiling, "My own experiences of feeling tired helps me empathize with you. You make me feel validated."
To her right is a little girl colored pink "Spoons are good!"
Next to her is a woman in maroon "Such a cute and positive take!"
At the bottom of the image narrative text says "Rather than bring folk's moods down with-"]
[Image 10 description: Â "My body is disabled! Living an existence with a condition that is unpredictable and invisible sometimes breaks my brain! Please don't shut me out until I'm "Fixed". Just respect my limits." Rachel says, now in the center of the people instead of the purple-dressed spoonie. She sits in her wheelchair with legs up, holding her arms out, her expression is crying yet smiling.
The large man to her left has his arms folded, now very uneasy "How do I tell apart your "disability" from excuses, self pity, and faking stuff? And who sits in a wheelchair like that?"
On the right the little pink girl is crying, her maroon mother bending down to hold her. "Isn't "Disabled" bad?" the girl ask.
Her mother responding "Nothing we need to worry about, sweetie. There are plenty of programs that think of the disabled so we don't have to."
Narrative text, "Yes. Spoonie can at times feel detached just enough from harsh reality to ease people's discomforts."]Â
[Image 11 Description: Narrative text:â Perhaps detached enough for misguided normies to think,â
A young woman standing in the center with one hand on her hip and one raised with her index finger pointed upwards says "Hey! I feel like I have limited energy to! I like this "spoons" idea. It will help me be mindful and proactive with my energy! I'm a spoonie now!"
She is white woman with tanned skin, long bleach blonde hair in a pony-tail, wearing grey yoga pants and a green tang top.  On her tang top are the words "Has no condition is just human". Â
To her left Girl number 3, Kitt, and Rachel are huddled looking at the woman. âDon't-â says girl number 3. "Oh no, wait-" says Kitt. "You're not one now, but hey, you'll be one of us eventually. No need to rush." says Rachel.
On the left is a young hipster male all in orange "You're just a product of obsessive online health trends." He calls out.Â
Narrative text "Let's hope it doesn't turn into the 'snuggie' of disability lingo.]
[Image 12 description: Narrative Text: "Now, being disabled by a condition, especially it's fatigue aspect, doesn't mix well with the 'hyper-productive' narrative that today's society puts out."Â
A Pinkish-maroon leg with the words 'society that doesn't fully realize the systemic harm of it's ableism' on it, kicks a stick figure of the Interneter high up into the air in a Team Rocket fashion.
 "Looks like having problems with my human body is causing me to be considered less of a human agaaiinn!!!" The interneter says, surrounded by anime sparkles.Â
Narrative Text "Still, being active, productive, and accepted by some form of community, lay the foundations for self-confidence and a sense of worth. Contributing online is one way even the most debilitated amount us have managed a version of that foundation."]
[Image 13 Description: Narrative text:Â "Disabled communities are sources of support, love, guidance, and empowerment built upon collaboration, inclusion, and knowledge. They help bring together people with a willingness to listen, because they all know the value in feeling heard."
Two horizontal rows of a diverse group of people with disabilities, drawn to show them all in bed, all interacting with each other like the would if the were together in person. Below each person is an awareness ribbon to indicate the condition(s)they have.
 From left to right, top row; A young woman with very dark brown skin, black hair in a bun, is looking concerned and reaching for a young man in the row below her. He is black with slightly lighter skin, very short hair, a 5 o'clock shadow, wearing glasses. He is reach towards her with is left arm, his right arm is curled due to his medical condition. Next in the top row, a Young woman with curly brown hair, tan skin, glasses, and cutting parts on her arms is smiling and being handed a book by a young white male with Downs-Syndrome, he hair short light brown hair and glasses. A young woman with tan skin, glasses, wearing a hijab, has a pink prosthetic arm holding a piece of paper, and is using her other arm to hold hands with the person she is smiling/talking with- a thin non-binary with short blue pixie hair and braces on her elbows and right arm. This person is also holding a piece of paper, eyes shut from laughing, with happy tears coming from their eyes.
Bottom row; Next to the young man with dark skin, is a plus-sized woman with white skin, her hair is deep violet in a pixie cut. She is holding a yellow ribbon, looking concerned and speaking a "?" as she taps the should of the girl next to her. This girl is Asian with black hair in a short ponytail, she looks back at the woman with the ribbon, her arms are on the back of the next woman, whom she is comforting. This woman has medium dark skin, half her head is shaved, the other is short navy blue dreadlocks. She is curled up and crying, below her is a yellow ribbon next to a purple one. The young man on her left has his left arm around her, and has a sympathetic expression, talking with the woman to try and provide comforting. He has tan skin and short curly brown hair, with short curly brown facial hair.Â
Narrative text: "Spoonies are just one part of this collective, their efforts displaying that a condition's control isn't proof of weakness, as if can exist even along side massive amounts of inner strength."]
#comic#webcomic#spoonie#disability#chronic illness#art#slowlymadecomic#Slowly#image described#spoons#mental health#awareness#character art#disabled#diversity#humor#funny#comics#educational#informational#artwork#spoon theory#neurodiversity#health#chronic fatigue#ME/CFS#cfs/me#chronically ill#spoonie stuff
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We Got Married with Gray
Gray
Word count: 1900 words
Scenario: From anonymous: âhi! may i request a one shot with gray like the tv show âwe got marriedâ. female gender and sheâs an actress etc and they end up falling in love with each other, that kind of stuff..â
Genre: One shot, Soft, Fluff, Female specific
Little note: This took me so long to type out omg haha And itâs really long too⊠Sorry for that. I get carried away sometimes. Enjoy!
"Can I touch you?" Gray asked in a low tone, leaning a little closer to you so you'd hear him.
"You're supposed to." You answered, amused by his politeness, one eyebrow lifting.
He was clearly embarrassed, mumbling a "right" as he stood up straight, one hand lifting to the back of his neck. That wasn't the first time you'd been asked something along those lines. Some actors and models were more polite than others, especially rookies who were still fresh from training and unsure of what they should and shouldn't do. However, the way he talked to you made it seem like he was somewhat nervous.
"Do you always ask your models if you can touch them?" You asked, catching a glimpse of your makeup artist rushing towards you by the corner of your eye and therefore preparing yourself for her.
"Sometimes..." He answered, also turning towards his own makeup artist when she rushed towards him as well. "âŠBut none of them was about to become my fictitious wife. I don't want to start off on the wrong foot." He told you, leaning forward a little bit while having his makeup touched up.
Wasn't he the most charming? Suddenly you were glad he had chosen you as his fake wife.
"I think we're starting off on the right foot, actually." You said, watching him turn his head towards you for a second to offer you a soft smile.
You had been invited to be a part of the cast of We Got Married with none other than Gray himself. The charming, handsome rapper and producer who everyone wanted to know. You knew who he was damn well. In fact, you were a fan of his work too.
Gray, well, Seonghwa, was very gentle with you. At all times. It wasnât just in that initial photoshoot. As time went on, he was most simply, and as you had come to understand, most sincerely gentle. You two were utterly comfortable with each other too which was even better. It was like getting to know someone casually with the added aspect that you two had to act extra lovey dovey every now and then.
 The production arranged you two to have your âfirst meet upâ at a movie theater. On the large screen, it was your latest movie playing and you were the last one to enter the room. As you silently stepped into the room, you overheard him analyzing the movie, well, analyzing the actresses in the movie. One by one he wondered if any would be his fake wife and, much to your surprise, he even added heâd like it to be you. You couldnât lie, your heart even skipped a beat.
You werenât exactly the most famous actress out there, but you were slowly and steadily making a name for yourself. Youâd been highly praised for your most recent work as well which was playing on the screen right before your eyes. You were a little embarrassed, seeing your future fake husband sitting there, watching you on the big screen⊠especially since your character wasnât exactly the kindest in that movie.
You made your way down the room quietly, holding back a few giggles and as discreetly as possible, you sat down right behind him. Even in the darkness of the room, you couldnât lie, he was quite handsome. You even mentioned it in an interview with the crew later on which stirred up the viewers in the funniest of the ways.
âOh, that was mean.â He commented, watching a scene in the movie in which your character was indeed quite mean.
âRight? But the acting was quite decent, wasnât it?â You finally said, with a cheeky grin.
Seonghwa who was so into the movie at the moment seemed genuinely startled by your voice, turning around with wide eyes.
âOh my god, did you jump out of the screen?â Were his first words towards you.
You let out a genuine laugh. Gentle him stood up right away, bowing to you, making you flustered, bowing down deeper to him as you two exchanged proper greetings.
 Your time together on the show was quite fun. He was just fun to be around. Not that he was funny all the time, but he was quite chill. One of your first dates was in his studio, Gray Ground. The comments had been the most amusing, saying he had invited you over to show off and win you over. Regardless, it had worked. Not only did he indeed win you over, but you had spent a really nice afternoon, emerged in his talent and creativity. He played for you and showed you how he worked and even let you try out some of his equipment. You couldnât help but wonder if he had ever done that to a girl whom he had serious intentions of winning over. He most likely had, right?
 Finding a house you two liked was surprisingly easy as well. It was a two-story apartment, with only the bedroom on the top floor. It was quite spacious. And the dĂ©cor was lovely, in soft browns and beige. He cooked you dinner on your first night at the house and you hung around him, helping him with tasting because he really wouldnât let you do anything else.
âYou know, I feel really awkward just sitting around.â You confessed after he led you to one of the tall stools that decorated the counter.
âIsnât it romantic to have your husband cook for you though?â He responded with a cheeky smile, returning to his cooking.
ââŠIt is.â You answered, unable to help the smile that curved your lips.
Much to the viewers content, you resumed to placing your elbows upon the counter, resting your chin between your palms as you watched your handsome cook skillfully cooking his pasta dish. The sweet smiles you two exchanged were the cherry on top for the audience.
 Your fake wedding was beautiful. You felt legitimately beautiful in your long white gown. As you walked down the aisle you could swear his eyes sparkled. He offered you his hand when you got closer to him, which you took, finding it was warm and a little sweaty which you forgave instantly when he shot you an apologetic smile.
Your vows were funny and lovely.
âI promise to cook you more than just pasta dishes whenever youâre hungry.â He announced.
He had cooked a few times for you, every time a different pasta dish. Quite tasty dishes actually! However, the viewers kept coming at him for only cooking pasta. You werenât complaining though.
âI like pasta though.â You answered with a chuckle.
Then time came for you to read your vows.
âI promise to bring my husband some sunlight whenever heâs always stuck inside.â You promised and he chuckled, melting into a big smile.
Youâd learned he was someone who worked a lot. Truth be told, you were pretty busy yourself but he was constantly at work. There was this constant creativity flowing through him, which pushed him to always be near a piano or his computer. You were unsure of whether viewers were aware of that but it was something you had come to realize during that short period of time you two had spent together.
Of course, your vows included the typical âI love you, Iâm sorry, Iâll do well for youâ to each other. At the time, although said in a sincere way, there was only so much meaning put into those words.
 Funny enough, there was a lot you had come to realize the more time you spent with him. It wasnât like you two had really been able to spend time together away from cameras but you could tell he was being genuine all the time you spent with him. It wasnât like youâd fallen for him or anything alike but you really did enjoy being with him. Youâd noticed so many little things about him and you found yourself treasuring those. You wouldnât even mention them in the solo interviews. They were yours to keep, whether you two would meet again or not.
When the show ended and you had to part ways, you were genuinely sad. The emotions in that last episode together were truly yours, nothing faked. You spent the day together and ended up having dinner at a nice restaurant near the river, as so planned by the production.
It was a gorgeous night. The restaurant had a rooftop area that was empty for the purpose of the recording of the show so when you two finished your dinner, you moved onto the rooftop for drinks. It was getting chilly so he put his jacket over your shoulders and over a glass of wine, holding the collar of his jacket against your chest, you two discussed the days you spent together earnestly. The way he talked about how you had indeed brought more light to his days, real and figuratively, in such a gentle way, really touched your heart, like you would have never thought it would.
Your last hug was truly gentle and sincere. He held you tight against his chest, like he himself didnât want to let go and you found yourself wishing he wouldnât. He pressed a kiss to the side of your head and you tightened your grip around his torso gently, closing your eyes.
When you finally let go of each other, he didnât want you to remove his jacket but you insisted he would take it back. And so, you walked to the entrance of the restaurant and said your last goodbyes. As you left, you could swear the scent of his cologne still lingered around you.
 Weeks went by, the episode aired and the comments were crazy. The audience found that last moment so touching that everyone was rooting for you two to become an actual couple. You couldnât help but read those comments with a bit of bitterness because after a few days, for a split second, you had wished that too. However, you two seemed to have returned to your lives just like they were before only that for you, everything seemed to remind you of him. You kept telling yourself it was just because youâd spent so much time with him but who knew? You might have actually fallen for him as much as you tried to discard that option.
 One sunny day, you woke up to a text from âSeonghwa-nimâ. You felt silly for it but your heart skipped a beat. âI need some sunlight, when are you free?â it read.
And so, on your next free day, he took you out for coffee.
Coffee and a few earnest words were all it took for you to finally admit to yourself that you were indeed in love with him.
âYou know, I keep seeing you everywhere. A lot of things remind me of you, I mean.â He started, looking down at the mug he held between his hands. âI didnât think itâd happen but I miss your presence around me.â He admitted.
So that was it. He was in love with you too.
Like it had come out of a script that could be handed to you any time, that was the story of how a fake wedding lead to a steady relationship, full of love and plenty of sunlight.
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IAC Reviews #18: The Basement (1989)
Well, here we are again.
I mentioned this with a previous review on Captives, but this year, in spite of all the awfulness that has gone on, itâs been surprisingly kind to me as far as getting lucky with uncovering stuff that has slid through the cracks. With Captives, Iâve waiting roughly ten or so years to finally get the chance to see it in all itâs mediocre, obscure glory. I wasnât too sure when Iâd ever get the chance to see Tim OâRaweâs super 8 anthology, The Basement either given itâs own obscure and odd history. That day is finally here, and needless to say I couldnât be more excited. ________________________________________ Â
The Basement is a 1989 super 8 horror anthology directed by Timothy OâRawe, whose only other major, notable credit is Ghoul School the following year. Our story centers on that of four strangers who find themselves a mysterious basement where theyâre met by an entity only known as The Sentinel who shows them their inevitable fates and what awaits them in the great beyond.
The filmâs history is a bit spotty from what I could find, but the short version is that it was in production for just a bit over three weeks before OâRawe abandoned it, leading to him eventually work on Ghoul School. It presumably sat in storage forgotten for roughly 20 years until Camp Motion Pictures edited it in 2010 and distributed it in 2011 as The Basement: Super 80s Retro Collection; which also included Cannibal Campout, Captives, Video Violence, and Video Violence 2. Now, as to how it was rediscovered, Iâm not sure. I donât know if itâs a case like Metal Noir where it was found on accident or OâRawe found it in his collection again before handing it off to CMP. Now, with that said, I feel like we have a bit of a situation on our hands because I donât know how fair this review might turn out given what we know for the time being.
The Basement in One Gif:
Oh, oh you guys. I think I found the perfect film and it might outshine Las Vegas Bloodbath here with just the finest, most outstanding acting and line delivery Iâve ever seen. I knew from the first three minutes that I was in for something special and seeing it all over again is just. Wow. ________________________________________
So, before I dive in I think I should say that Iâm not sure how fair this is going to be given that the film was abandoned and was more than likely unfinished. I canât make heads or tails of it all with the plot holes going on or the clumsy acting and dialogue, like if itâs a timing and budget problem or what. Itâs truly fucking bizarre. It also doesnât help that without a vague plot summary online, you probably wonât have much of an idea as to whatâs going on, and this is going to cause a ton of problems from the jump.
With the opening, weâre already off to a bad start. We see our main four wandering around a dingy basement, wondering how theyâre going to get out. Thereâs no rhyme or reason for it. Theyâre just sort of there and we arenât told how they ended up there. Now, I donât know if this is a problem with the writing and it was never considered or it was probably with the timing and the scene was never shot before OâRawe abandoned the film. It would have been nice to have say, a Cube or Saw scenario where they all just woke up there.
From what I found, it says they were summoned there, presumably by The Sentinel or the evil energy from the house that they supposedly released, but that still raises the question of why they didnât go back the way they came. If the house trapped them inside, then it surely wasnât conveyed or alluded to. Itâs not like an underground mine or cave where itâs easy to get lost. Thereâs also the question of why the Sentinel is choosing to specifically punish them, given that he shows them visions of their futures that will ultimately condemn them with no chance of redemption. So, weâre going into predestination territory?
Next to this, the more obvious problem is the acting and line delivery. Itâs pretty damn bad, full of overreacting and what I can only guess is just bad dubbing. Once again, I canât tell if the dubbing came about at the hands of CMP or it was already like that when OâRawe was working on it. Itâs likely going to be the best-worst thing about this, so I hope youâre in the mood for bad cheese. ________________________________________
Our first story, The Swimming Pool, centers on Victoria who, for some reason, really has it out for her husband and weâre never told why. She just hates him because âplot deviceâ I guess. The bad line delivery and dubbing shines here and itâs boarding on being horrible and comedic, which isnât the best way to kick us off into things.
We find that after her husband goes for a swim that thereâs some sort of water entity in the pool and she sort of just has a odd reaction to it all, where one moment sheâs reacting to it and the next sheâs sitting by the water. I canât tell if this is supposed to take place the same day, which it looks like, or they didnât to a good job to show some sort of transition to another point in time. Also, she has names of her enemies and other doodles scribbled in a book like an eighth grader for some reason. Itâs so corny and cheesy.
Thereâs no sort of lore or explanation for where the pool demon thing came from, let alone why Victoria feels compelled to do this. The ending also makes no sense either when we see what becomes of her either. Itâs should be noted that this chapter is just around the ten minute mark, making it the shortest of the lot. Now, I canât tell if itâs like this intentionally or there were more shots planned, but didnât get filmed due to the film being abandoned. Iâm not too sure, but itâs probably the worst of the four.
--
We get our next chapter in the form of Trick-or-Treat, a sort of Christmas Carol style story centering on a widowed high school teacher who is visited by various monsters who demand he changes his ways for hating kids and disrespecting the spirit of Halloween. We get an interesting fantasy sequence where he unleashes his pent up anger our on his students before veering off a bit towards this storyâs sort of second act where the spirit of his wife visits him, warning him to change his ways before he faces a similar fate she has. Youâd think that would lead to a sort of revelation for him to do something, but it doesnât. Like, man, you canât even just fake it for a day or anything? Itâs not like they implied they were going to keep tabs on you every Halloween or anything, so why make a big deal about it?
If I had to find some sort of positive about this one, itâs that it probably has the most decent special effects and makeup work of the four. But, of course Iâm not sure how much of a positive that is and what it says about what we can expect from the other two stories. It may or may not also be the most rounded of them too, again, not sure if thatâs a major positive given when we have to work with and it works fairly decently as just a stand alone short film on its own.
--
The third chapter brings us to Zombie Movie, centering on a film crew working on a low budget zombie flick with their asshole director, Adelman, and things slowly go to shit when their picture becomes a reality. Hmm, low budget 80s zombie flick...bad director...I think Iâve heard of this before! Itâs also neat to see a small easter egg here in the form of the production assistant, played by JR Bookwalter, wearing a Dead Next Door shirt, as OâRawe got a special thanks notice in the credits of that film as well. The dubbing here is particularly awful, but at least he wasnât wrong when he said the zombies look like assholes!
As for why any of this is happening, we donât get an answer. Why? Who cares! Maybe it just hearkens back to the last story where itâs happening due to the director disrespecting the art of zombie films. Your guess is as good as mine. Itâs a shame too that the acting here absolutely sucks for the most part because this could have been the best one of the bunch...maybe. Thereâs a bit of an issue towards the end where the director immediately jumps to there being zombies on the loose and not a bunch of jackass trespassers causing trouble, but maybe thereâs a deleted or unrecorded scene where the actresses tell him what the PA was freaking out over and he got paranoid? Iâm not too sure. Either way, it feels like a sloppy way to bring things to a close.
--
The final chapter brings us to Home Sweet Home, the simple story about a guy named Scott who purchases a house in the countryside with a gruesome history and begins to question his sanity in the process when it seems like the rumors about it might be true after all. Itâs arguably the most generic of the four and here I would say thatâs a compliment to play it as safe as possible.
Almost right away, I noticed something off, and I donât mean with the dubbing because thatâs weird on itâs own. Thereâs a weird point in the conversation he has with the realtor about the house where she mentions that part of the legend with the house is that the owner committed suicide after going on a killing spree and it ties into why they havenât found him. I canât tell if it was a clumsy way to explain things, but wouldnât it make sense for the police to have found him if that was the case? Again, your guess is as good as mine. With that being said, I hope you enjoy night shots because weâre going to get a ton of them!
Things begin to pick up a bit after Scott arrives to the new place and starts to get settled in with the help of a friend who shows up after talking to the realtor. Iâm not sure how he thought he would get lucky that way, but alright. The conversations afterward with his girlfriend are also what you can expect as far as acting goes too, which isnât anything too special. From here on out, I anticipated a ton of squinting because itâs hard to tell whatâs going on at any point if there isnât even a little bit of candlelight. Itâs like watching Nekro, but somehow worse, yet better than Blood Lake, which sucks because if some of these shots werenât so damn dark, the special effects would look pretty damn cool. Itâs also kind of a downer in a way to know what comes next given how this guy wasnât an asshole who had it coming like the other three did too.
The film ends with the Sentinel showing them what awaits them now that theyâve been judged for their actions, and it goes the way Iâm sure you can already picture it going before we close to the credits with some mediocre 80s tunes. Estus Pirkle approved perhaps?
________________________________________Â
So, that was The Basement. It was a weird ride from start to finish and Iâm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. Itâs one giant anomaly and I feel like now I have more questions than answers.
I mentioned it before, but itâs worth saying again that I want to know how much of the problems here are just a result of the project being abandoned, the film naturally being this flimsy, or CMP had something to do with it because I feel like I had this issue too when it came to Captives and I canât tell if they how much of the film was really saved and how much of it was butchered by Majestic Home Video. It could be a bit of everything here, though I donât want to believe that CMP would try to sabotage this given how long it had been out of the public eye for.
That being said, thereâs so much going on here and trying to wrap my head around it hurts. I canât tell if the acting is naturally this trashy or itâs only enhanced by the dubbing. It also feels like more stuff was supposed to be going on, but it just didnât for one reason or another and Iâm not sure if that robs something from it or was for the best.
As I mentioned with the whole Swimming Pool chapter, it feels like something else was originally planned to happen at some point and things just fell through. It would have been nice to have a sort of story line like with the Are You Afraid of the Dark episode, âThe Tale of the Dark Musicâ where Victoria makes some sort of deal with the entity in exchange for something in return. It would explain more of her logic and reasoning behind her method of madness instead of it all seeming random.
With Trick-or-Treat, having more padding or explanation to justify his hatred of kids and Halloween would have been great too and not slow down the pace of the story. Hell, give me a brief one-off bit like with Night of the Demons where theyâre being a bunch of dicks to the old guy. There, problem solved. Itâs a lot easier than a single, brief shot of some kids who poorly try to egg his house. Again, nothing would have been lost here if they went that direction, unless the whole point was to make him the old geezer type who just hates the season and thatâs it.
Zombie Movie probably could have had the most potential to be the best of the four if it wasnât for the painfully bad dubbing and acting. If that was a non-issue, I could buy into the premise more without much of a problem. Plus, it feels like a cameo on part of Bookwalter with how flimsy the execution was, or even Carl Burrows who played one of the B actors and has the most prolific career of the cast; being in other stuff like Ghoul School, Psycho Sisters, Toxic Avenger III, Crybaby Lane, Mysteries at the Museum, The Sadist, and Psycho Street to name a few.
Home Sweet Home still feels like the more normal and grounded one of the bunch and Iâm not sure if playing it safe helped in the end either. It probably could have been saved if it was stretched out a bit more and we got to see more into Scottâs psyche and go on the journey with him about whether or not his dreams and hallucinations are real. It also doesnât help either that some of the night shots make it hard to tell whatâs going on because what you can make out with some of the gore scenes are pretty cool and it feels like we got robbed here. Iâm still not sure why Scott is being thrown under the bus with Victoria, Charles, or Mr. Adelman considering his only âcrimeâ seems to be not taking a superstitious rumor seriously. Talk about harsh.
Beyond this, thereâs not a ton to talk about either. The music is fairly average and not all that interesting, being what one could expect from something on a low budget for the time and when your sound producer and editor is one of your guys providing additional voice work, you can only expect so much and even then itâs probably too much. This is such an oddity and Iâm still kind of surprised that it was found again after all these years. Itâs funny how things like this just slip through the cracks of time and itâs good to know this more than likely wonât go missing again, though Iâm in no rush to take this out of the vault to revisit any time soon.
Rating: 3/10
#the basement#the basement 1989#film#horror#horror anthology#anthology#80's horror#80s horror#obscure horror#rare horror#tim o'rawe#timothy o'rawe#iac reviews#film review#horror review#super 8#super 8 film#super 8 horror#horror movie#horror movies#horror film#sov#shot on video#sov horror#shot on video horror
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Anonymous asked:Â
Hello. How to be a well-known and well-liked person at work?
Why do you want to know? What is your underlying motivation? When you approach personal learning and development without a clear or authentic intention, you are liable to stumble badly and get unpleasant results. Your question includes a lot of confused thinking, which is a major part of the problem.
I used to think that knowledge and working hard are the only things necessary for success at work. I haven't had a career yet. but I hear from others that other factors and office politics are also involved. Good comunication and social skills, being liked by coworkers and bosses for example. There are people who join a workplace/college and after a short time, they know almost everyone and everyone knows them, trusts and loves them. Bosses like and respect them, don't want replace them, etc.
You seem to âthinkâ a lot of things. And to what end exactly? Do you enjoy âthinkingâ yourself into a pit of worry? You donât possess any meaningful experience, yet you still claim to âknowâ things based only on some imaginings and secondhand information. This kind of speculation is problematic, a bad cognitive habit that should be stopped, because it is counter-productive to learning and growth. You are misinterpreting the few facts that youâre hearing. Yes, it is a fact that some people are good at socializing, but what does that mean for YOU? Does it mean that you have to be just like them? Yes, good social skills are required to succeed in some work environments? But all of them? Donât jump to conclusions so quickly. You canât seem to tell the difference between a fact and your own faulty interpretations of the fact.
Do you believe that you can become a good footballer by listening to people talk about how to play or describe their impressions of a few matches they watched? Secondhand information is subjective and anecdotal. You take the few facts that were presented and then you stitch together an elaborate narrative of some abstract âworkplaceâ that you believe represents ultimate reality. This is very poor reasoning. In the end, you construct a very distorted view of the world and become blinded by faulty or oversimplified beliefs about how the world works. All this before having even stepped out the door, so to speak.
While I like to have that, I don't have the energy or skills for that as an introvert. I don't know how to start a good conversation or get people to like me, trust me and open up to me. I would naturally want to get the job done and go home. I'm not really interested in people's lives. meeting with more than seven people or going somewhere crowded gives me social anxiety and sensory overload. and Idk what is ok to say/ask in convos. Idk if I should be friendly or professional with bosses, supervisors and coworkers. or what behavior is ok or too much.
If you want to learn, then learn. There are lots of resources available out there. If you don't want to learn, then don't. It's your choice to make, as it's your life to live. DO YOU OR DO YOU NOT WANT TO LEARN? I canât help you if you are stuck in contradiction and talking out of both sides of your mouth, saying that you both want but donât want (i.e. unaware of who you really are or what you really want). How are you ever going to get motivated when you canât commit to any particular desire/goal/direction?
If you suffer from severe social anxiety, get professional help for it. Social skills can be learned, just like learning how to play football by actually playing it though hours of practice. If you want to learn any worthwhile skill, you must put in time and effort to study and practice repeatedly, to get better gradually - it is certainly tiring - no pain, no gain. Is feeling âtiredâ the end of the world? You seem to believe that it is for some strange reason, which means that youâre not willing to put in the work? If youâre not willing to work hard, that is the end of the story.Â
So I just stay safe, overly formal, independent and polite. I prefer to be alone. During long hours of college or socializing, I stay quiet and anxious, get headaches and feel dizzy/confused. And I'm not on any social media because I don't care about the pictures people post about family, pets, celebs. I'm also not assertive and I'm afraid of drama or ppl hurting/using me.
"Stay safe" is the key phrase. Generally speaking, an excessive desire for safety is rooted in emotional problems, often stemming from painful memories and/or traumatic experiences. Until you resolve the emotional problems that keep you stuck and resistant against venturing outside your comfort zone, you wonât be able to grow as a person. The heavier the emotional baggage youâre unconsciously dragging around, the more âtiringâ the learning process is, because there are too many self-inflicted psychological obstacles holding you back.Â
Instead of facing up to your emotional problems, youâd rather entertain useless speculation about imaginary workplaces and people you havenât met yet, making yourself more and more scared (in order to justify isolation)? Itâs quite easy to speculate and imagine all the possible threats out there in the world. Itâs hard to examine the reality of how much you fear being hurt and how the fear twists your perception of reality. You keep taking the easy road and then wonder why you never get anywhere. DO YOU OR DO YOU NOT WANT TO CHANGE? Once again, I canât help you if you are stuck in contradiction and talking out of both sides of your mouth, saying that you both like and donât like how you are (i.e. unaware of who you really are or what you really want). I only help people who are fully committed to change.
I already know the consequences of being the way I am.
Iâd argue that you don't understand - another example of thinking that you âknowâ when you really donât. You've emphasized that you prefer to be alone, which means that you LIKE the consequences - your feelings tell the true story. You don't perceive the consequences as being negative, so why would you change your behavior? If you like isolation, isolate. Why not just âbe yourselfâ and live the life that you want? Who says that you have to be anything but what you are? Why do you even care about any of this âsocialâ stuff (that you also claim to not care about)? Why pressure yourself to be something that youâre not? If you put the pressure on yourself, then you take it off at any time.
But âbeing yourselfâ, if youâre doing it properly, wonât lead you into an unhealthy tertiary loop, so youâre not doing it properly, are you? If youâre not ready to leave your loop, donât. Keep pretending that youâre âstaying trueâ to your antisocial self, keep enjoying the safety of isolation, until you canât live in denial anymore. Thatâs how most people have to play out their tertiary loop.Â
One day, when youâve had enough, you may realize that your desire for isolation isnât actually âstaying trueâ to who you are and what you want. One day, you may realize that âstaying true to yourselfâ was just an excuse, that you donât really know yourself at all, and that your self-image has been nothing but a twisted little ball of fear all along. In other words, right now, your idea of âbeing yourselfâ is actually just being a scared little puppy that hides from every loud noise - is this what you really are and want to be? Is there nothing more to you than fear? Do you want to spend your entire life under the spell of the irrational fears you have conjured up to protect your comfort zone?
I need your help. How can I develop interest in people? How can I have more energy to socialize? How can I gain social skills and get people to like me, trust me, open up with me and let me in? (without being fake or pushy?).
Very simple: You have to care about more than just yourself and your own safety and comfort. But this is impossible if you leave your fear unaddressed and it continues to hijack your whole mindset. When you live in fear, you are all too willing to believe that people are bad and the world is terrible (based on selective evidence gathering), only looking out for yourself and your own feelings, which, in the end, amounts to starting every relationship in an extreme state of defensiveness and self-centeredness. A person needs to know you to like you, and how would they know you when you are emotionally closed-off and obviously hostile to their advances, when all you show them is coldness? A positive relationship should be built through the connection of two open and trusting hearts. Cynicism about people or society is merely a convenient cover that allows fearful or helpless people to feel safe/superior, but only in their own mind. Living in a coffin, worrying or complaining about the outside world without ever venturing out, is surely safe emotionally. But nothing ever happens there, does it? Youâve put yourself in there because youâre scared, which means that itâs up to you to own your fear and step out anyway.
How can I maintain relationships?
By putting in the time and effort to build your social skills and learn through firsthand relationship experiences. By taking the time to care about something other than yourself. Even psychopaths manage to care about the people closest to them. Is the problem that you canât care or that you wonât care? If itâs a problem of wonât, why wonât you?Â
Relationship skills arenât something that can be summarized in one paragraph, especially if you have a lot of dysfunctional relationship habits to unlearn. I've already recommended many relevant books on the resources list. Are you a good learner? From what youâve said, I suspect that you have trouble learning or accepting advice because you always think that you know better and/or have an excuse ready to rebut good advice? If youâre serious about learning, then devote yourself fully to studying and practicing.
How can I learn office politics? How can I make my bosses like/trust me without seeming fake?
"Office politics" is not what you believe it is - dismantle your faulty fearful beliefs. Every workplace is just a group of people, made up of various individuals, some of them not too different from you. The quality of a group depends on the quality of the individuals and what they contribute to it collectively, and this varies quite widely from group to group and the size of it. If you contribute negativity, you influence others to be negative. If you contribute positivity, you influence others to be positive. But you donât care about how you affect others because you donât even recognize that you have any power to affect anything due to your fear, passivity, and helplessness. All you care about is whether you get paid? Work has no other benefit or purpose besides monetary compensation?
Some of the surest signs of having poor social skills include:
mindreading: presuming to know what people think/feel with little to no evidence; grossly misinterpreting peopleâs intentions/behavior due to fear, insecurity, anxiety, or overactive imagination
prejudice: making blanket/overgeneralized judgments about individuals, groups, or society based on very selective âfactsâ or superficial characteristics; unable to treat people as individuals to be dealt with in an adaptable case-by-case basis
self-centeredness: compulsively resorting to inauthentic and/or defensive behavior to manipulate social situations for personal reward/comfort; unable to understand situations from other peopleâs point of view
You suffer all three problems. You are quick to assume that people have ill-intentions. You like to divide people up into these or those âkindsâ of people. You only care about people in terms of whether they make you feel good/bad and inexplicably refuse to care about their perspective.Â
A healthy relationship should be mutually satisfying in order to establish a sense of connectedness. A healthy relationship should be mutually beneficial in order to establish a sense of equality. A healthy relationship should include mutual caring and sharing in order to establish intimacy. Why would anyone want to enter a relationship with you if you make them feel uneasy, unsatisfied, and uncared for? Would you want to enter a relationship with you? If youâre a terrible friend, youâll feel undeserving of friendship, because, deep down, you believe that you donât deserve any kindness for never giving any kindness to anyone. If you want good friendships, you must first be a good friend. If youâre not willing to open up emotionally to care for people, that is the end of the story.Â
How can I make sure people don't see me as a good target to hurt, use or gossip about?
What is the source of your paranoia? Why is your first stance towards the social world one of negativity, fear, mistrust, suspicion, attack-and-defense? If youâve been hurt before and thatâs why youâre scared, then address that problem. Serious questions: Have you ever known LOVE? Have you ever known a caring, supportive, empathetic, and intimate relationship with someone? If you havenât, for whatever reason, then you have a lot to learn about relationships. But going around pretending that you already know how people are (out to get you) and how the social world works (to victimize you) is not going to help you learn. You wonât learn if you already presume to know.
I haven't had a job yet. but I'm honestly afraid of having a career for these reasons.
You canât prepare for every situation in life. No amount of mental preparation is going to eliminate your fear when the fear itself is always left unaddressed. Go out into the world, live your life, learn from your experiences. That's how life goes. But you don't want to live in real life, do you? You prefer living in your own imagination, pretending to know what the world is like without proper breadth of experience?
"Afraid" is the key word. Are you really ready to confront your fear? I don't think you are yet because you are still talking about how nice it is to be safely protected by tertiary loop. No one can force you to let go of your faulty beliefs when you depend on them so much for safety. You overthink and overanalyze, speculate and imagine, turn human beings into abstractions, convince yourself that you âknowâ when you really donât... all for what? It is all a defense mechanism that keeps you trapped within yourself, ruminating in circles. It's all just meant to hide the fact that you are afraid, helpless, and willfully ignorant (in twisting the facts). The solution to fear is to actively confront it. The solution to helplessness is mastering the appropriate social and emotional skills. The solution to willful ignorance is humility: let go of what you think you know so that you can finally start to learn fresh.
#social skills#people skills#social anxiety#ti loop#friendship#career#past#baggage#emotional intelligence#ask
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