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bluekat12345 · 1 year ago

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He's my son, not yours! Part 1

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

This is based on a Transformers Rescue Bots crossover with Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes created by the brilliant @gelu-the-babosa-multiversal, check them out for more! This particular story is based on a discussion we've been having recently, hope you enjoy!

After meeting the Rescue Bots, Charlie never thought his and his kids' lives couldn't get more...exciting. They already had their hands full of between rogue or malfunctioning technology, a colorful collection of criminals, and of course, civilians who needed rescuing.

But then the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes, showed up at Griffin Rock.

They had temporary stationed themselves in a small base and their boss, Nick Fury, who had actually aided Optimus in introducing the bots to Charlie in the first place, didn't give Chief much information on why they were, just that hopefully it wouldn't negatively impact the island.

So far, things to be fine, they were aware of the bots, so that was nice, and they seemed to get along with the Burns and the Greenes.

One of them in particular, Captain America, especially left an impression on Cody. The boy always seemed to want to be around him, always had stars in his eyes at the sight of the war hero, and the captain always seemed more than ready to give the boy the attention he wanted. It was amazing how well the bonded in the short amount of time they've known each other.

It wasn't long until most people started calling him the Captain's kid. Steve nor Cody seemed to be mind though. In fact, it's been rumored that Captain America actually loves it when hearing Cody being called his kid.

If Charlie didn't know any better, he would've thought the captain was trying to be a second father to Cody.

"Hey, Cap!" Tony, AKA Iron Man, exclaimed. "Your sidekick's here!"

"My what?" Captain American, also known as Steve Rogers, asked in confusion.

"Captain America!" Cody's voice echoed through the base. Steve smiled as he saw the young boy run towards.

"Cody!" The captain greeted. "It's great to see you again. What brings you back here?"

"Cody wanted to see you again." His father, Chief Burns responded. "And Fury wanted to speak with the bots and the rest of the team about something. Is it okay if Cody stays with you until it's over?"

Steve nodded with a smile. "Of course, Chief Burns. I don't mind at all."

The police chief smiled back. "Thank you, Captain. Shouldn't take too long." Then he faced his son. "Be on your best behavior, Cody."

"I promise, Dad!" Cody, promised. Then Chief walked off to wherever the meeting was being held.

"Hey, kid." Tony called out. "Wanna join in a little experiment I'm working on? I can guarantee it'll be more exciting than whatever Cap can do." Steve rolled his eyes, recognizing the teasing tone in Stark's voice. Tony already knew what Cody's answer would be.

"Thanks, Mr. Stark, but I'll stay with Captain Rogers." Cody replied. "We're going to-"

"No need to hear the detail's, kid." Tony interrupted. Steven frowned at the interruption, but Cody didn't seem to mind. "Just go have fun and don't give the old man a hard time."

"Let's go, Cody." Steve declared, then he led Cody away before Stark could say anything else.

"Are we still going to work on your motorcycle?" Cody asked eagerly.

Steve smiled and nodded. "Indeed, son. Your dad ever have you help him with car maintenance?"

"A little bit, at first." Cody admitted. "When we had time, he let me help with his old police car. But then the bots joined us, so we don't do that kind of thing anymore. But we do help wash the bots when they're in vehicle mode."

Steve nodded. Admittedly, he was still caught off guard about the idea of sentient vehicles from another planet, but after meeting the bots and hearing about the from Cody and the rest of his family, he could see they were good bots who did their duties as rescue workers well.

"Well, consider this as a way to brush up on those skills." Cap declared. "Then the next time you show your father, he'll know you haven't forgotten what he taught you, and maybe even learned something new."

Cody smiled at the idea. "Yes, sir!"

Fortunately, for the Burns family, the meeting didn't take too long, it was mostly about if they saw anything unusual, at least more unusual than they normally would see, and what they needed to do if they did.

The moment it ended; the older kids wanted to stick around the base a little longer, hoping to hang out with the Avengers for a bit. Unfortunately, they needed to get home as soon as possible.

"Its just still a bit unfair that Cody gets to hang around here, while we can't." Kade grumbled.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, but today isn't a good day, we have work to do back at home. I promise you can hang around here when there's time."

"Hey, where is Cody?" Graham asked.

"I left him with Captain America while we were at the meeting." Charlie replied. Kade let out a quick annoyed huff, only to be quickly silenced by an elbow in the arm by Dani. "You three head back home. I'll meet you all after I get Cody."

The three did as they were told, leaving the base as Charlie went to look for Cody.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for him to find his son. He was still with Captain America, but the boy was sitting on the captain's motorcycle, revving it up while Steve watched with a smile.

"You've got some competition, Chief." Iron Man's voice popped up out of nowhere.

"What are you taking about?" Charlie asked.

Tony then pointed at Cody and Steve, and both men watched as two blonds laughed about something and Steve ruffling Cody's hair.

"If you're not careful, Cap could take your place as Cody's dad." Tony declared with a teasing grin. "People around here are already saying he's Cap's kid."

Chief Burns rolled his eyes. "I think I'll be fine."

Stark shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Then he shouted. "Hey, Cap! Time to give the kid back!"

The two blonds looked towards Charlie and Tony. Cody smiled, got off the bike, and rushed to his Dad. "Hey, Dad. How was the meeting?"

Charlie shrugged. "Nothing major happened. You didn't give Captain Rogers any trouble?"

"None at all." Steve replied with a grin as he joined the group. "You've got a well-behaved young man here." He added as he ruffled Cody's hair again. "And a clever one as well. You ought to be proud of this one."

Chief Burns smiled. "Trust me, I am." Then he said to Cody. "Why don't you head outside to meet Chase. I'll join you shortly."

The boy nodded. "Okay, Dad." Then waved to the Captain. "Thanks again, Captain Rogers!" Then he ran off outside.

"Keep up the good work, son." Captain America replied before walking off as well.

"It's already happening." Tony quietly teased.

Charlie rolled his eyes before leaving to join Cody. He knew Tony was teasing, but it was starting to get on his nerves a bit. There was nothing to worry about. Despite the nickname as Captain Roger's kid, Chief Burns knew everyone knew Cody was his son, not Steve's.

Hope you enjoyed reading! Nothing dramatic yet, I want to try to build up to it, but the seeds have been planted, I assure you. Hopefully, you won't have to wait long for the next part to be posted. Wish me luck!

#He's my son not yours #TFRB x AEMH #my writing #Transformers #Rescue Bots #Transformers Rescue Bots #Avengers #Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes #TFRB #AEMH

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sodasa-was-taken · 1 year ago

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I'd like to address some misconceptions I've seen floating around recently.

If a ship is canon people write less fanfics about it

Let's start with the idea that a ship's status as canon has any effect on how much fanfiction it gets. First of all, while the top 100 ships of all time contain a lot of non-canon ships those ships have in more recent years either plummeted down the yearly ship stats list or left it all together as seen in the AO3 ship stats 2023:

Meanwhile newer ships have taken their place several of which are canon. People don't abstain from writing canon pairings because they're canon but for other reasons like not being too interested in their dynamite. There's often next to no canon-complacent fics about the characters in question getting together because that story already exists in the source material. That doesn't mean there's no au's of them getting together as many fic writers find it to be a great exercise as they need to figure out how to keep the elements that attract the characters to each other in differing circumstances. Furthermore, characters getting together are far from the only stories fic writers want to tell.

Secondly, the amount of fics that's tagged with a ship is not the same as the amount that focuses on that ship. A great example of this would be a ship like Lumity where a good amount of the fics they're tagged in don't focus on their relationship. These fics often take place after they get together and make references to them being a couple so people use their ship tag. This means that unlike back when the show had first started airing the fics that doesn't revolve around their relationship still adds to the fics their relationship are tagged in.

Lumity is also a funny case of becoming more popular after it became canon as the fandom for The Owl House itself increased a great amount during the second season. Because of how often their relationship was a secondary element in several fics the amount of fics their relationship was tagged in increased along with the amount of all Owl House fics not just the ones that focused on them.

M/M is often the most used relationship tag in general

This is just nonsense. Every fandom whose source material heavily features the development of a romantic relationship is as good as guaranteed that whatever relationship tag the main couple are tagged is the most prominent. They also often make up around sixty percent of fics within their fandom. In the case of f/f specifically here's a shot list of fandoms on AO3 where f/f is the relationship tag that's used most frequently: Supergirl, The Owl House, She-ra and the princesses of power, Avatar: Legend of Korra, Arcane: League of Legends, RWBY, Wednesday, Amphibia, Steven Universe, and of course Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

The amount of fics on AO3 are indicative of the size of a fandom

The actual thing that has an effect on how many fic a ship has on AO3 are a combination of how many people within a fandom writes fanfics about them on AO3, how many fics each writer has written and how long they've been people posting fic about them on AO3. The amount of fics writing within a year is all that's shown on the yearly stats which doesn't say anything about how many people are writing fics or how long they are. When the total amount is all someone has to go by there's nothing that explicitly confirms that all the fics weren't written by a hundred people who each wrote a thousand dabbles.

A way to calculate the total amount of fics for a ship and easily see increases and decreases in amount of fics per year throughout the years would be with a script that would look something like this:

This is for Sulemio as there isn't a lot of data I'd have to find and add since people have only been writing fanfics for them for about two years. Since AO3 either doesn't allow someone to search for fics published within a given timeframe or I just don't know how to do that the numbers are fics updated from August 2022-August 2023 and from August 2023-now. This does mean that there are two fics that got counted twice. Oh, well.

If g-witch is so popular shouldn't it have more fics on AO3?

While the number of fics doesn't say anything about the minimum amount of fanfic authors it does say something about the maximum amount. Even if there was one fic per author that would still be a maximum of about a thousand authors. So what gives?

Well, there appears to be two main reasons for this. One is that the Gundam fandom in general is more a discussion and art orientated fandom. We just don't have that many people whose main thing is writing fics.

Another thing to note is that most of the fics on AO3 are in English and the English speaking part of AO3 skews towards a North American and European demographic.

Unlike some other fandoms the Gundam fandom is anything but centralized in the west so it's only maybe a third of the fandom that would even use AO3. The Chinese part of the fandom sure doesn't as the website has been blocked since before g-witch started airing.

You can get a good idea of how popular Sulemio is by only looking at the fan works that are in English

This is a big one. Like I pointed out before only about a third of the fandom makes fan works in English. We're also in a situation where we have two versions of the same ship name. One is writing in the latin alphabet, the other スレミオ is writing in katakana and is also the more commonly used.

Thousands of Sulemio fan art on twitter is tagged exclusively with the one writing in katakana and therefore wouldn't show up if someone used the one writing in the latin alphabet. Likewise, on the Chinese website Bilibili there are videos about Sulemio that have views in the thousands and ten thousands and let's just say that site is a bit of a challenge to navigate if you know little to no Chinese. Even using a translator will sometimes give you such gems as "Too many barrages" and only leave you more confused.

In conclusion the Gundam fandom is huge and the number of fics on AO3 is an unfair way to determine its size.

Also a quick aside to that one person who tried to be dismissive of the amount of fics Supernatural has on AO3 by saying a lot of it was Omega verse. G-witch has 44 fics tagged as Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics and Supernatural has 8105. That might seem like a big difference but percentage wise it's about the same amount. Let's make sure we don't live in a glass house before we start throwing stones, please.

#this is longer than I intended it to be. oops #i'm a self-proclaimed romance fanatic living in the 21st century of course I have an encyclopedic knowledge of shipfics #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #the witch from mercury #g witch #sulemio #スレミオ

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templeofvengeance · 2 months ago

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"...Oh my god, can you please--- god, can you please not do this---" No, Marc did not scream out loud when he switched to the front, pushed Jake back to handle the fucking bullshit he's caused. Sure, yeah, he has... witnessed the whole transformation, but holy fucking shit, this Stev--- erm, Khonshu is humongous and---

Steven totally screams as he is the one to slip to the front all of a sudden, did not witness the whole transformation, did not know about any of this happening until Marc decided to speak up about it. So here he is, staring up at an 8 foot tall version of himself that appears almost sinister with those narrow glowing eyes...

And yeah. Screams. Shakes. Stumbles back a bit, hands raised in the air and flapping helplessly---

"---Alright, it's okay, let's just--- it's gonna be fine Steven, stop!" Marc's at the front again, trying to manage the hell that's been kicked loose inside their mind because of what Jake just did. Great. Steven is now screaming inside their head, Marc wants to die from embarrassment, this is the actual worst---

"...So..." Jake's back, because he's the strongest of them all. And he's... impressed by... this. The, uh, whole 8 foot of Steven in front of him.

Yes, he smirks, amused to the moon and back, before lifting a brow...

"---Since you can do that, and basically just turned into Stevie here--- do you also have a matching di---"

---Marc was wrong. THIS is the worst. This is so much worse than the actual worst he could've ever come up with, so he basically punches himself to the front before Jake manages to finish speaking that hell of a sentence out loud.

Eyes wide, both shock and annoyance written over his features.

"---Okay, okay, fuck this, we're done, this is it! OVER AND OUT. Khonshu, do not even think about giving an answer to that! Jake, don't even dare to try and come back to the front, I will set your stupidly expensive jacket on fire if you do, I swear! And Steven, stop screaming, I'm getting a headache!"

An inhale. An exhale. A second passes, and Marc groans.

"---Okay, we're done, as said. Was uh...cool to... see this. yeah. Whatever. Good night, I'm not available for work tonight. See you...some other night. Bye."

he turns on his heel, because fuck, he can't function anymore after having witnessed this.

[From here]

... He just sits back and watches the show. Marc really is his own one-man-act, it's entertaining. He'd half-wondered what the man himself would think of this look, and certainly got his wish as the body just started screaming in terror. Even better than he imagined!

The contrast between that and Jake (and Marc's frantic attempts to stop the madness around him) is even more entertaining, but Marc has put his foot down before Khonshu can even consider giving an answer. Shame.

"I only answered your questions, and now you're too traumatized to do your duties?" He hmphs, but per the terms of their new arrangement, there's not much he can do. And while he could say it's the last time he'll answer a question or gave some horrifying example, they all know that's not true. If Jake wants to ask that last one on his own time, Khonshu might answer it.

He changes back to his usual form while Marc's back is turned.

#in character #answered asks #[Beautiful. Art #threegoldfish

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subjectivecuriosities · 6 months ago

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Gremlins 1984

★★★★★

04 Jan 2025

TrashVHS’s review published on Letterboxd:

This review may contain spoilers.

As a kid I was not that aware of most specific directors and in the same way I thought Tim Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas I thought Steven Spielberg directed Gremlins. While it is obvious as an adult had I known it was actually Joe Dante who also directed my beloved Small Soldiers (1998) it would have blown my 7 year old mind. Sensibility wise I am more of a Gremlins 2 kinda person but this original film is such a stone cold classic. I have no idea what cultural significance this film has if any for post-milennial generations but this was pretty much the largest entry point into children’s horror, horror comedy, and Christmas horror when I was growing up. I watched Gremlins often as a kid and I can not believe how long it has been since I revisited this masterpiece.

Similarly to the way Dante directed Piranha in the wake of Jaws, Gremlins managed to inspire an entire subgenre of films that managed to pump out a ton of mischievous miniature monster movies over the next decade and kept alive to this day by Charles Band and dabbled in recently by Steven Kostanski with his love letter to little monster films Frankie Freako.

Unfortunately this film also promoted other imitators of the mystical Asian shopkeeper trope in genre films. My intuition tells me it is likely this trope (including other non-Western cultural stereotypes beyond Asians where a strange foreigner bestows an item or information onto a Westerner) predates the medium of film itself. I actually love both the character of the Grandfather shopkeeper (particularly since he comes back to bookend the film and chastise Norman Rockwell idealized white capitalism) and the performance of that character by Keye Luke but it is fucked up that this stands out as a larger Asian role for Hollywood at the time and would be imitated after along with many other stereotyped fill in the blank roles where you suddenly hear gongs in the background of the scene (which I would guess also predates Gremlins). But hey at least Dick Miller's (We celebrate every Dick Miller appearance in this house and Joe Dante is responsible for a lot of them) xenophobic character gets his (though maybe not enough since he returns for the sequel) along with the police, military, the bank, and other authoritarians who make life in this John Hughs/Chris Columbus/Amblin/Its a Wonderful Life town possible. Even wannabe animal murderer Ruby Deagle gets cartoonishly flung out a second story window via stairlift in a very satisfying scene.

The film has such a fun escalation as we go from a lighthearted Christmas picture, to a cute amblin creature, then straight to not just 1 creature transforming as most films would do but straight to Gremlin'S' plural where we have an entire invasion of the body snatcher takeover. We get to have our cake and eat it too. Not only with having the cute and the scary side simultaneously (Would have worked with the original idea of turning Gizmo into Stripe but I think Spielberg had a great call with keeping Gizmo the whole film through) but also the way the film embraces restraint by slowly revealing the hatched gremlins while embracing excess because once they are revealed it is nonstop chaos and the number of Gremlins just keeps growing and growing. I tend more toward the excess side of preferences in film but it is fun to have both in one movie and no doubt part of the secret sauce that made this film so popular across the board. Like Beetlejuice this is one of those rare weirdo pop culture things that for whatever reason the normies embraced and I can talk to just about anyone over a certain age about knowing they have probably seen it or are at least familiar with it.

Joe Dante is someone who beyond being a filmmaker is a lover of film and is unapologetic about the films and tropes they have a warm affection for and often holds no punches toward the films they do not and that aspect of his personality shines through in the way this film balances the sentimental and zany with the more cynical and uncompromising elements both of which are held together by anarchistic joy and humor. Dante never seems to care if something is conventional, corny, cool, popular, or motivated solely by profit only concerned with if it brings him joy and his films are better for it. Truly one of the great American filmmakers and I do not hear that expressed often enough.

Another great thing about Dante’s films, including Gremlins, is casting. Not gonna go through everyone in the film (Not a bad performance in the film) but a few interesting highlights. Phoebe Cates (and the honorable Judge Reinhold!) back from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, gives a super sweet performance. The way she delivers the dead Santa dad is simultaneously so sad and so fucking funny. Glad the horror genre comes through once again and gives Cates’ character Kate a chance to be a badass fighting gremlins. Same goes for Frances Lee McCain as Lynn Peltzer (Billy’s Mom) a housewife who I think gets more on screen kills in this film than any other individual character. You do not have to check your calendar you know it is the 1980s because Corey Feldman is here (and in every other film). I did not even recognize Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul) in this as a shithead cop. There are some wild cameos in this as well; there is Steven Spielberg zooming by, composer Jerry Goldsmith (Love the Gremlins theme also idk who recorded it but I loved hearing slowed down sinister Silent Night), Chuck Jones (fucking seriously THE Chuck Jones?!) as well as a bunch of other voice actors with heavy hitter character credits who lend their voices to the film, Michael Winslow the sound effects king, Frank Welker who did the voice of every great animal and a million other things, and if that is not enough Robbie The Robot from Forbidden Planet is making collect calls. Also until recent years I had no idea Howie Mandel was the voice of Gizmo. Don’t sleep on Howie Mandel by the way he is not just the bald OCD germaphobe (The triggering incident is absolutely terrifying btw) guy on deal or no deal his stand up specials are great and he played Maurice in Little Monsters.

But anyone who frequents my reviews know why I would be drawn to a film like this and what I actually care about and that is watching funny little monsters run around and commit crimes and hang out. At some point this film becomes a live action cartoon and I mean that in the best way possible. I would have been fine if the film was just 106 minutes of the Gremlins terrorizing the town in mass but as the film stands we get one hell of a satisfying third act crescendo with plenty of Gizmo cuteness to carry us through the first half of the film. Not to mention all the goofy inventions from Billy’s Dad.

There is an abundance of entertaining practical creature visuals (Nearly all of which still look perfect) including:

Gizmo singing, getting hung up on a dart board, saving the day in a Pink Convertible toy, and just being all around adorable. It is wild how blatantly Furby ripped off Gremlins which is why I am a fan of both.

Mogwai puking, playing trumpet, playing Donkey Kong handheld, stringing poor Barney (played by Mushroom the dog) up with Christmas lights in the freezing cold, and a grotesque scene that felt like I was watching Tim & Eric where the Mogwai feast on leftover chicken presented in beautiful misophonia triggering surround sound audio cringe.

The real fun begins after the gremlins hatch from their pods. These gremlins play a record, pull the fire alarm, camouflage themselves with then jump out of the Christmas tree, eat glass, steal a tractor and drive it through a house, attack a mail drop off from inside the blue box, sabotage stop lights to cause car wrecks, go Christmas caroling, attack Santa, flip over a cop car, attempt to kill the DJ live on air. Then it is over to the old dive bar to smoke, drink, play poker, more arcade game playing, a trenchcoat flasher, wielding pistols, playing jazz, hand puppets, bonk on the head with a mallet, Flash Dance parody, sticking finger in the a broken lightbulb socket, ski mask, then it is back into the streets to riot some more. At some point in a deleted scene they kill Billy’s boss at the bank. Then we move it on over to the movie theater (same one from Back To The Future) for a showing of Snow White and The Seven Dwarves. Most new films released in our current era feel to me like they are doing the bare minimum but this theater feels like they went above and beyond (even if some of the puppets dont move lol) because they fill this theater to capacity with gremlins. They are eating popcorn in their theater seats and bouncing around the projection booth having the time of their lives watching the movie within the movie until there is a malfunction and they see Billy & Kates shadows behind the screen and shred it to pieces. But they get out and their DIY gas bomb goes off killing all the gremlins inside.

Then they realize Stripes (It really is amazing how perfectly this film both parodies capitalism and is built for it tell me that is not an action figure name/design) the leader who previously jumped in a pool at the YMCA spawning all of these possessed offspring escaped the theater fireball because they were across the street looting the department store for candy. If the theater was not enough we get one more dose of mayhem as Stripes skateboards, puts himself on TV, hides behind an ET plushie, and squares off with Billy using a crossbow, handgun, and even a chainsaw! Stripes is exposed to sunlight and their flesh rots off, then they turn into a skeleton, then their skeleton melts into a sludge and disappears.

I know they say Stripes is the leader potentially implying that if you kill them all the others die but on the radio the DJ says the military is gonna turn the hoses on them so if that kill the leader thing is not true and there were any gremlins away from the theater to spray then the war against this invasive species only just begun.

Green blood (a staple of PG13 films which Gremlins is a grandfather of) does not work for every film but it works great in this film. Most of the Gremlins die in the theater explosion or off screen but there are a few fun Gremlin kills including; a couple of stabbings, Gremlin in a microwave, food processor (where we get to see the green blood), flung into a fireplace via sword, and head trauma via car hood.

Have I mentioned this film fucking rules? I love that when the water spills on Gizmo the first time the camera angle goes from normal immediately to a dutch angle. I love the complete lack of an attempt to address the logic behind all the gremlins having themed outfits and tiny weapons. Love how each act is basically set by another film playing on a TV screen; It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956), and To Please a Lady (1960). Love that a character does shifty eyes and in another scene there is the cartoon head trauma dizzy sound effect. Love all the playful references to Spielberg including the gremlins saying ‘milk duds’ in what has to be a reeses pieces ET joke right? Featuring a Gremlin model car and the joke with the Time Machine at the inventors convention is just next level insanity. Cool matte painting near the end of the film.

Next time I wont wait so long before a rewatch.

Five stars out of five.

#gremlins #1984 #film review #movie review #letterboxd #cinema #1980s

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doomed-corruption-au · 4 years ago

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Doomed Corruption: Prologue

Peridot growled, slamming her limb enhancers on the table in rage. She could only watch as they destroyed both her extended touch stump bases, smashing them to bits. These “Crystal Gems,” whoever they were, were a menace. She could only sit there in anger as she watched the defective amethyst slam the extended touch stump base into the main power crystal in the center of the far wall.

“I’M REPORTING THIS,” she shouted. “YOU HEAR ME!? You all have-”

Then her feed cut out, meaning they only heard part of her rant.

Grumbling, Peridot minimized the live feed, which had since turned to static. She read her log over again, correcting a few errors in the text. That voice reader technology was still a work in progress, and whatever that “Steven” was, the reader didn’t recognize its voice as well as it could with gems.

Well. At least he’d given her something to work with. She looked at the list of humans he’d given her, wondering what “Sadie”s looked like, or “Lars”s or “Onion I Think”s. That one, in particular, sounded odd, but the Steven should know better than she would.

Why had those Crystal Gems defended that Steven? Was it important in some way?

Ug. Whatever. She had better things to do than wonder about some random organic species on a doomed planet, anyway.

She growled. Those Crystal Gems were going to be a problem. If only one of her plug robonoids made it to the Kindergarten, that could only mean they destroyed the rest. Just like her Red Eye. Or the Homeworld warp. Or the robonoids sent to repair the Homeworld warp.

Who were they? The way the pearl spoke, they seemed to think themselves as important. The pearl shouting “WE ARE STILL ALIVE” rang in Peridot’s ears. It sounded like it meant something.

She had to know. Setting aside her log, she stood up and stormed over to the nearest warp pad. One quick flash of light later and a short journey, she was standing in front of the Homeworld hall of records.

The building was large, holding data logs and reports that dated up to nearly 20,000 years ago, when the technology and gem glyph were first fabricated. Some logs had been written on physical material, like old stones, and were starting to fall apart with age. Gems were working to translate what they could into more modern technology, but for some of those ancient logs, it was too late.

Not what she was looking for, anyway. The logs were sorted by year. Pink Diamond owned Earth, and she was shattered just over 5,000 years ago. Peridot started there first.

There were a few other gems mingling about, but none questioned her present. Even though she had no business being there, they left her alone, assuming she was doing research assigned to her rather than coming here on her own curiosity. She should be okay as long as no one asked her anything.

The Cluster, which she did extended research on, was implanted in the Earth shortly after Pink had been shattered, with a few hundred years difference. It had been commissioned by Yellow Diamond, and took several hundred years to assemble. Once it was done, it had to incubate for a thousand times longer than a normal, average gem, meaning it incubated for 5,000 years. This was all old information to Peridot.

What she didn’t ever think to question was why the Cluster was planted in the first place.

A rebellion. Rose Quartz- she’d heard of her, but never knew she had an ARMY- and her renegade pearl. A thousand years of fighting. A second Kindergarten (where apparently the perfect Jasper was made from, amazingly). Fusions running rampant. It was a nightmare.

So that’s who they were. Traitors to their Homeworld, and allies of those who shattered Pink Diamond.

Shoving the tablet in her hands away from her, Peridot ran out of the records hall. She rushed to the nearest communicator, typing in her command as fast as possible. She earned a couple of looks from nearby gems, but once she hurriedly explained the Crystal Gems and their status on Earth, they became just as horrified.

Yellow Diamond had to know.

Yellow read and reread the report. The Crystal Gems were still alive. There was no way. It had to be a mistake. And she knew that the incompetent Peridot who wrote the report would not be let off easily for this mistake. She would see to that.

“My Diamond,” her pearl called out, “the Peridot you requested has arrived.”

Without looking at her, Yellow simply nodded. “Step forward.”

There was a beat of silence. During it, Yellow reread the report again. There was no way.

“...My Diamond?” the peridot asked nervously.

Yellow sighed, then finally looked her way. She moved only her eyes, and watched as the peridot stiffened under her gaze. “What.”

“Um...” the peridot was shaking badly. “Y-you asked... to see me?”

“Yes. I did.” Turning fully to her now, Yellow gave her a long glare. “Tell me, what makes you think the Crystal Gems are still alive on Earth?”

The peridot straightened. “I am the peridot assigned to check up on the Cluster, My Diamond, but all of my equipment kept getting destroyed. Most recently, one of my plug robonoids successfully made it to the Kindergarten, which was immediately destroyed by three gems and a ‘Steven.’ I tried to fight them, but they destroyed the facility’s base touch stumps and cut the power.”

Yellow hummed. “What makes you so sure they were Crystal Gems?”

“Th-they told me!” Peridot pulled up her log, flipping through them as if to re-verify this information for herself. “The pearl announced ‘because we are the Crystal Gems. We are still alive and we are still the guardians of this planet.’ I, um,” she looked around nervously, as if she were about to get in trouble, “I’d never heard of the Crystal Gems before she told me herself.”

Yellow’s glare became a frown. “What gems did you see?”

“A defective amethyst, a pearl, and a cross fusion.”

Yellow stiffened. Those definitely sounded like defective gems that would have become a part of Rose’s army. But.... She squinted. “Did you see a rose quartz?”

Peridot looked around for a second, before squeaking out a weak “...No?”

Great. “That means she either got destroyed in our attack, or she split off from the group you encountered, meaning there could be more.”

“My Diamond?”

“Great. Perfect! All these years, and they’re still out there!” Yellow stood up abruptly, slamming her hand on the arm of her chair. The peridot jumped and scuttled backward a few steps, but forced herself to remain still afterward.

Yellow ignored her. She stomped forward a few paces, hand clenched at her side, the other waving around animatedly. “I don’t understand. Our attack should have destroyed all gems on Earth. How did- WHY did her army survive?”

Before the peridot could answer, Yellow had stormed back over to her chair. She snatched up the Diamond Line communicator, rotating it so the two blue triangles aligned. After a moment of wait, Blue Diamond appeared on-screen.

She was wiping her eyes (because of course she was), trying her best to look presentable. “Oh, Yellow,” she greeted less-than-animatedly. “It’s good to speak with you again. Tell me, is something going on?”

“Yes, I’m afraid there is.” Yellow looked around, then noted the peridot still standing there. She shot her a look of fire as if she were the source of all of Yellow’s problems. “You there! You’re dismissed. Leave my chambers at once!”

The peridot jumped again, quickly slapped together some form of a solute, then shot out the door before Yellow could do much else.

Now that they were alone once again, Yellow sighed. She pressed two fingers together on the bridge of her nose, trying not to lose her cool. “Blue. I have received terrible news.”

Blue cringed. “...Yes, Yellow? What is it?”

She steeled herself before saying; “...the Crystal Gems are still alive.”

“WHAT?!” Blue shot up, standing now. Her icy look could have shot Yellow through the gem had it been aimed at her. “Yellow, there’s no way! We destroyed them!”

“I KNOW!” Yellow shouted back. “But I have a transcript of the report. I read it. Multiple times.”

Blue started to tear up again. “Oh, no, Pink...” she sobbed. “All of these years, we thought we’d avenged you...”

“Apparently not,” Yellow growled. “And I want to see to it that we finish the job.”

“But of course!” Blue glared at Yellow. “What else are we to do, sit here and continue on while knowing they’re still out there?!”

“Yes, exactly.” Yellow stood up straighter, trying to regain her cool. “I’ll send a message to White. Now I just need to convince her to join us. She’ll likely tell us to just wait for the Cluster to emerge.”

“Well, that should do it,” Blue mused, “but I’d feel much better in doing the damage myself.”

“Agreed.” Yellow closed her eyes, definitely keeping her anger in check enough to think rationally. “I will get on that immediately.”

“You better.” Blue looked away. “We leave as soon as we can.”

Yellow gave Blue a single nod. Then, the communicator went dark, and Blue’s image disappeared.

To be continued...

#prologue #doomed corruption #doomed corruption au #su #su au #marble madness #peridot #peridot su #yellow diamond #blue diamond #uh oh spaghettios

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mermaidenisaacs · 5 years ago

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isaac went to college and became a fratboy, part 2

the aftermath of hooking up with isaac lahey at a frat party includes: shame, regret, and the stupid thrill of leaving him on read

TW: sexual language, sexist language, some impure thoughts

I finally saw Isaac again.

After a fire alarm interrupted my study session at the library (some idiot burned Poptarts in the microwave again), I was forced to evacuate to a nearby dining hall. I was annoyed by the whole ordeal until the hunger pangs kicked in.

I was waiting in line for tacos when I saw him. He was sitting at a table by the windows, laughing with his head thrown back while another guy, presumably one of his frat bros, playfully shoved his shoulder and laughed along. He was surrounded by three attractive boys, one of which I recognized from my political science class last semester. I remembered him because he was unnaturally attractive, with swooped brown hair and warm chocolate eyes, and also because he had saved me from the embarrassment of forgetting to bring a scantron for the midterm by offering me one of his extras. His fratboy status aside, he was surprisingly decent. His name may have started with an ‘S.’ Steven maybe? Sam?

I couldn’t focus on him for long, not when Isaac suddenly turned in my direction and met my gaze. I froze, caught in the act of staring. The corner of Isaac’s mouth tilted upwards into a smirk, and his gaze dropped shamelessly to my legs and drifted slowly back up, and in that moment, all the memories of our night together came rushing back.

It was the first time I’d seen him since that night he had invited me to a party at his frat house, where he unceremoniously fucked me head-first into his bedroom door, then kicked me out, leaving me to retreat with my hair disheveled, makeup smudged, traces of him between my thighs. Anyone who wasn’t too drunk or high could piece together why I looked absolutely wrecked. I’m sure many girls had been seen doing the walk of shame out of Isaac’s room, and now I really was just one of the many, another notch on his bedpost.

Isaac succeeded in living up to his fuckboy reputation. After that party, he texted almost every other midnight, snapchatted borderline nude selfies of his shirtless chest or his hand palming his erection over his sweatpants, with captions like “wyd,” “you up,” or “miss this?” That last one always sent waves of arousal, tainted with shame, reminders of the way I let Isaac degrade me and use my body, the way I loved every second of it and craved to feel it again.

So far, I hadn’t texted him back, but I couldn’t resist leaving him on read. I smirked at the thought that Isaac might feel the sting of my cold indifference. It wasn’t much, and it was stupid, but it was the only power I could salvage back for myself. I avoided him in class too, and nearly gave myself leg cramps every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to sprint across campus and get to class early so I could choose a seat far away from our usual spots. I sat towards the front, an area I knew he wouldn’t encroach in fear that the professor would see him dozing off during lecture. He even texted me dirty things during class to get my attention. It was taxing to ignore the distraction, but I ignored the buzzing on my desk, letting Isaac’s stare burn a hole into the back of my head.

Eventually he got the hint and the texts stopped, and it left me with the somewhat bittersweet realization that we had reached the end of our… whatever it was.

Or so I thought. Three weeks and one burnt poptart later, there he was, staring back at me with the knowing glint in his eyes that only comes when you’ve seen someone naked.

The only available table in the dining hall was one near the windows, and I would have to walk past Isaac’s table to get there. With my tray in hand and my bag hanging off one shoulder, I steeled myself and walked in his direction.

I hung my head, letting my hair drape my face from his view, but my attempt at hiding was useless. He called out my name anyway. I tried to continue in my path and pretend I hadn’t heard him, but he called my name louder. Begrudgingly, I stopped and turned around.

“Isaac.” I said.

“So, she lives. I was starting to get worried. You never responded to my messages,” he said, subtly referencing his obscene attempts at luring me back into his bed.

I rolled my eyes and smiled back tight-lipped. “I was hoping you’d take the hint and leave me alone, but clearly you’re too dense.”

One of Isaac’s friends snorted loudly at my remark, the one I recognized from last semester. Isaac glared at him. “Sorry,” the boy said. “First time seeing a girl call you on your bullshit. I like her.”

I smiled at him, bashfully tucking my hair behind my ear. “Um, I remember you, but I’m blanking on your name. Sorry,” I said to him.

“No worries! I don’t think we were ever properly introduced. I’m Scott. We had political science last semester, right?” I nodded. “Yeah, you were the girl who forgot a scantron.”

“Yes.” I chuckled in slight embarrassment. “Thanks for that, by the way. You really saved my ass.”

“Of course! I was happy to have an excuse to talk to the pretty girl who sat next to me all semester, even if it was just for a few seconds,” he said charmingly, flashing an adorable smile. I scoffed playfully at the compliment. His gentle flirting was a welcomed change from the texts I’d been receiving from Isaac, who I noticed was suddenly glaring daggers at me. “Hey,” Scott said, “since you’re here and you know Isaac, and now you know me too, why don’t you join us?”

My eyes went wide and my mind blanked. I stuttered for an excuse. “Oh, th-that’s okay, I don’t want to intrude. Besides, there aren’t even any empty seats--”

“Oh no worries, I got you.” Scott stood up and looked around, then approached a nearby table. He spoke a few words to the group of girls studying there, who giggled at something he said and nodded. Scott picked up an empty chair at their table and brought it over, proudly presenting his contribution. “There! Please, sit.” He gestured towards the seat and smiled at me so sweetly, I felt it would be rude to reject his offer. I nodded and gingerly perched on the seat. I set down my bag and my food, and cordially gave a tiny wave to all the other boys at the table, who exchanged knowing grins.

~*~*~*~

Isaac couldn’t believe you actually accepted Scott’s offer to take a seat.

Not that Scott had left you much of a choice. He had these big brown eyes that girls usually fell for. And then there was the way he so valiantly brought a chair over for you. Isaac chewed on the flesh inside his cheek, unable to plaster on his usual easy grin. He couldn’t help it, especially now that you were sitting with him and his friends, acting all cute and polite, playing the act of the good girl again.

Normally, his pride would swell if he saw you act all prim and proper. He could bask in the satisfaction of being the only one who knew who you really were, what you really were. He knew your ticks, your kinks, what you looked like when you were coming apart all over his cock and begging him for more.

He couldn’t enjoy that knowledge today, not when his friends were staring at you like that. To any outsider, they just looked three boys engrossed in chit chat, but Isaac knew better. Behind their friendly, clean cut facade, they were all thinking the same thing, and it was far from clean. Isaac didn’t care who his friends slept with, and on occasion they even passed around the same girls, those special ones who didn’t care who they fucked as long as they had a good time.

But for some reason, the thought that any one of them, Theo or Liam, or especially Scott, laying a finger on you, made Isaac’s blood boil. Isaac tried to extract this ugly feeling, this primal possesiveness he couldn’t seem to shake when he saw another guy looking at you.

Isaac somehow managed to keep his expression neutral as you giggled at something Liam just said. The kid had managed to endear himself to you already. He was young, and in the newest pledge class, but he was a quick learner. Isaac had taken a fondness to him and decided to mentor him, taken him under his wing and transformed him into his image. Liam’s arrogance and eagerness to prove himself was something Isaac remembered from his freshman year. What he didn’t expect was that Liam would hone Isaac’s techniques to make girls fall at his feet and use them on you.

You giggled again. “Oh my god, Liam, I can’t believe you did that!” Liam had just finished telling a story about the time he knocked over a TV trying to do a drunken keg stand. “You could’ve broken your arm or something. What were you thinking?”

Liam shrugged sheepishly and grinned. “I don’t know. There was a girl I wanted to impress and she was older than me, so I just went for it ya know?”

You smiled fondly at him. “That is adorable. How much older was she? And what year are you?”

“She’s a senior and… I’m a freshman.” Liam looked down shyly and rubbed the back of his head, just like Isaac had taught him to. The lesson was to use your age to your advantage. Girls loved that cute shit.

“Aww, Liam you’re so cute! And I’m sure she thought so too.”

“You think so? That’s good. I’m kinda into older girls.” Liam bowed his head again and smiled, and Isaac would’ve been proud of how well he’d taught him, if only you weren’t on the receiving end of his little performance.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be working. You hummed casually in response. “Hm, I know what you mean. My philosophy professor last semester was so hot. She was maybe in her late 30s, and I still have no clue what she went on and on about, but it was my favorite lecture of the day.”

Isaac inwardly grinned at the way Liam’s accomplished smile faded at your unaffected response.

Theo snorted. “You had a crush on your female professor?” he drawled. “That’s kinda hot.”

“Is it? It’s not really that big of a deal. Haven’t you ever found any of your male professors attractive? I feel like the place is swarming with hot male professors.”

Theo looked at you in amusement, with a twinkle in his eyes that Isaac was all too familiar with. It was clear now Theo had his sights set on you, and usually when that happened, Theo got exactly what he wanted. “Can’t say I’ve had time to think about the men around here. I’ve been a bit too distracted with the girls.”

When Liam flirted with you, Isaac could manage his jealousy, since the kid was still mostly innocent, all talk and no real game. With Theo, all bets were off. He didn’t have an innocent bone in his body and he wasn’t afraid to let girls know, and they were always very happy to know. Isaac knew he himself had strayed far from purity a long time ago, but Theo was something else. Isaac preferred you choose anyone over Theo, maybe even Scott, who was Isaac’s closest friend, if it meant you would stay away from Theo.

“So, I’m curious,” Theo continued. “How exactly do you know Isaac?”

Isaac noticed the way your eyes widened the tiniest bit. “Oh, uh, we um, have a class together,” you said. Isaac could hear the nervous wobble in your voice as you spoke, and his lip curled up in amusement at the realization that you were nervous because you were thinking about him.

author’s note: i came across a google doc of a draft i wrote 3 years ago. a continuation of a fratboy!isaac fic that made people feel some kinda way. the fic, along with all my other fics, got zapped when my old blog got terminated. but since i found the draft and remembered how many requests i got for a part 2, here it is (kinda). 3 years later. i’m sorry.

#isaac lahey imagine #isaac lahey smut #isaac lahey fanfiction #isaac lahey #teen wolf #hey it's mar

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bearlee-giggling · 5 years ago

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giggle marks

guess who's finally gotten around to writing something 😎 this bitch

series: steven universe future (post bismuth casual)

ship: connverse

warnings: cursing, body insecurity

taglist: it's literally just @lizzienaut lmao

---

It was a surprisingly nice day in Beach City. Temperatures in the mid 70s, mostly sunny, and according to Steven and Connie, a perfect beach day. Granted, pretty much any day is a beach day when you literally live on the beach, which Pearl immediately pointed out to them.

"Pearl that's not the point!" Steven said, excitement gleaming in his eyes. "We never have nice weather like this before June, let alone in April!"

"Yeah!" Connie threw her arm around her boyfriend's shoulders. "Plus, you could come with us and bring Bismuth." Connie and Steven grinned at each other.

"Oh all right. but you two need to go find her at Little Homeworld" Before Pearl had even finished speaking, Steven and Connie had already rushed over to the warp pad. Pearl couldn't help but smile fondly at the two.

It took a shockingly small amount of time for Steven and Connie to return to the temple with Bismuth. Connie and Steven had also already changed into their bathing suits as well, Connie's underneath a pair of shorts and Steven's swim trunks paired with a plain t-shirt.

"Well I see you two are ready-" Pearl once again was interrupted by the giddy teenagers running through the room and out the front door.

"Young love," Bismuth laughed. Pearl smiled too. "Well, P, we better get out there before they start having fun without us!" And with that, Bismuth scooped Pearl up in one arm and ran out to catch up with them.

Steven and Connie were already seated right along the shore, each building their own sandcastle as they tried to out-do the other. Steven grinned and nudged Connie as Bismuth ran down the stairs with Pearl nearly tossed over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Pearl! Bismuth!" Steven called out as he and Connie ran to greet them. "Where are your swimming suits?"

"Steven, you know that all gems are water resistant. We have no need for special garments to keep us from getting wet."

"Oh come ON, Pearl," Bismuth said with mock frustration. "Have a little fun!" Bismuth snapped her fingers, and her usual clothing transformed into a pair of board shorts and a tank top.

Pearl looked at Bismuth in her new attire, feeling her cheeks flush. "Oh fine." Pearl snapped her fingers and, like Bismuth, her typical clothing transformed into an elegant looking one-piece bathing suit with cutouts on the sides.

Steven and Connie looked at each other, grinning, as they removed the extra clothing over their own bathing suits. "Hey Pearl!" Connie called out. "Can you take a picture of us?"

Pearl nodded as she approached the two kids. Connie handed Pearl her phone and stood next to Steven as they put their arms around each other and smiled for the camera. Pearl looked as though she was about to say something, but Bismuth was calling her back to their little beach spot. Pearl just smiled and handed the phone back to Connie as she walked back to Bismuth.

Steven grinned and turned to face Connie. "Lemme see!" Connie handed him the phone to look at the picture. He smiled broadly as he looked at their picture perfect smiles, but then frowned as he looked at it more closely. "Connie? Is there something wrong with your phone? It looks like your screen is scratched."

Connie looked over Steven's shoulder at the picture and immediately knew what Steven was talking about. "Ohhh, no those are just stretch marks, Steven. Don't worry, they're completely normal."

Steven turned pink with concern. "Stretch marks?? What is that?"

"They basically form when your body grows faster than your skin, so your skin has to stretch along with it. A lot of people have them. I had them on my legs during my growth spurt too."

"But I don't grow taller like humans do, i just shape shift into an older form! How did i get these?"

Connie bit her lip, trying to find a way to put what she was about to say as nicely as possible. "Sometimes people... get stretch marks, especially on their stomach like you, if they've been gaining weight."

Steven, now completely pink, sprinted back towards the temple, up the stairs and through the door. Pearl and Bismuth had taken notice to what was going on, and they both looked concerned.

"Connie, is everything alright?" Pearl asked with a nervous edge to her voice. Bismuth stood next to Pearl an arm around her shoulder, looking just as worried.

"Everything is fine. Just... give us a few minutes." And with that, Connie turned to go after Steven.

Connie pushed open the door to the little beach house. "Steven? I didn't mean to-"

"Go away, Connie." He sounded so genuinely upset. Connie's heart shattered.

"Steven, I'm coming upstairs," Connie announced as she approached Steven's loft space. "Please talk to me."

Steven was sitting on the side of his bed with a blanket over his back and shoulders. He was staring down at his stomach, and Connie noticed he was crying. "I'm just-" Steven began to speak but was interrupted by one of his sobs. Connie felt awful.

"Steven, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you"

"No, no, it's not your fault," Steven reassured her, wiping some of the tears away from his eyes. "I'm just not used to it, that's all."

"Not used to the stretch marks?" Connie asked, a little confused.

"No, not just that. I'm not used to feeling so upset by the way I look."

"Oh Steven, it's okay to feel insecure. But I can assure you that stretch marks are completely normal. Plus now it looks like you have tiger stripes! Maybe you should go talk to Amethyst about bringing back Purple Puma and Tiger Millionare-"

Steven chuckled at that, starting to feel a little bit better. "I'm afraid my glory days are far behind me," he said with an exasperated sigh, dramatically falling backward onto his bed with a small "oofe".

Connie smiled and sat down next to him, placing her hand on top of his. "Are you feeling a little better?"

"Mmm sort of? I dunno, I guess I feel better knowing that they're normal, but I'm still worried about what other people will think of them."

"That's okay, Steven." Connie placed her hand onto Steven's stomach. "If you want to keep them covered up, that's completely your choice."

Steven let out a content sigh before he suddenly began giggling softly. "Connieeeeee," Steven whined.

"What's wrong, Steven?"

"You're tickling meeeee..."

Connie looked down at her hand, noticing how she had been tracing Steven's stretch marks with her fingers. "Oh! I guess I hadn't even realized. I'll stop if you want. But if you feel like you wanna laugh, then I can keep going."

This was a little routine they had. Whenever Steven was upset about something, as he began to calm down, Connie liked to make him laugh. Of course, knowing the important concept of consent, she always asked if it was okay. And nearly every time, Steven said yes.

"You can um... keep going if you want..." Despite how often Steven said it, he could never get the words out without blushing bright red. Connie thought it was cute.

"Of course, Steven. Any preferences?"

"Not really, just... kinda do whatever."

"Tell me when you've had enough, okay? Promise?"

"I promise, Connie."

"Good! Now let's see..." Connie was now kneeling on top of Steven's bed so she could easily use both hands. She began tracing Steven's stretch marks on both sides of his stomach. His left side was always more sensitive than his right, but Steven was the most sensitive right around his gem.

Connie always took extra care to notice which areas caused Steven's breath to hitch or turn his laughter frantic. She was overjoyed at the discovery of a new spot, about half way between his gem and his hip, on his left side. It was right where one of his stretch marks tapered off into his normal skin. Connie grinned and scratched at the spot with her fingernail. Steven's laughter rose a pitch.

"Connihihihie!"

"Yes, Steven?"

Steven didn't actually have anything to say, so he just shook his head and closed his eyes as he continued to laugh. Connie milked that spot for a moment longer before continuing her hunt for Steven's jackpot spots.

After a while of trying, occasionally going back to that one area between his left hip and gem, Connie just went back to tracing Steven's stretch marks.

Much to Connie's surprise, Steven started laughing even louder as she did this. With Steven's senses being heightened, it made sense that he was quite a bit more sensitive now than he had been at the beginning.

"Wow, Steven, I was going back to tracing your stretch marks assuming it would bring you back down to relax for a second, but this is the hardest I've seen you laugh in a while! Maybe we should start calling these your 'giggle marks'!"

Steven blushed red at the comment, continuing to cackle as Connie's fingers got closer and closer to his gem.

Connie, however, could tell that Steven was getting tired and decided to stop just before reaching the stone.

Steven looked up at Connie as she stopped, still giggling. "You're going to stop before the gem?" He seemed genuinely confused and honestly a little upset.

Connie smiled fondly. "Were you expecting a grand finale?"

"Well... yeah, kind of? I mean, that's always how you finish."

Connie chuckled. "Well if you insist..."

Steven felt his whole body tense as Connie leaned over and positioned her head over Steven's gem. Connie looked to him for permission, and as he nodded, she blew a huge raspberry right on top of his gem.

Steven all but screamed. "CONNIHIHIEHEHAHAHAH-" Steven was laughing at full volume for a full five seconds after Connie had finished. She looked down at him, happy to see that huge smile plastered across his face.

"Feeling better now?"

"Mhmmm," Steven hummed contentedly, still coming down from his giggle high. "But 'm tired now. Can we just snuggle?"

Connie smiled. "Of course. Let me go tell Pearl and Bis that everything is alright." Connie planted a kiss on Steven's nose, making him giggle and scrunch up his face. And as Connie went downstairs, Steven couldn't help but feel he was the luckiest boy in the world to have such an amazing partner.

#steven universe tickles #lee!steven #ler!connie #su tickle fic #tickle fic #su tickles

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frankiefellinlove · 4 years ago

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THE STEVIE FILES PROUDLY PRESENTS - THE AMAZING ROCK & ROLL ODYSSEY OF STEVEN VAN ZANDT

From The Source to Soulfire via Springsteen and Sam & Dave

Recorded, transcribed, edited, written, produced, mixed and mastered by MIKE SAUNDERS

SIDE TWO (1975-1983)

Track 6: Miami Steve, The Asbury Jukes, Tenth Avenue and Hammersmith

In early 1975, Steven returned to New Jersey from Florida, inappropriately dressed for the winter weather. “I came back with the flowered shirts and the Sam Snead hat and continued wearing them in the snow.” For the next seven years, he was known as Miami Steve. He joined Southside in the Blackberry Booze Band and within weeks they’d altered and expanded its line-up (adding keyboard player Kevin Kavanaugh from Middletown and bass player Alan Berger from The Dovells’ backing band), transformed its musical direction, changed its name to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (referencing their mutual hero Little Walter’s band and first single release) and established a successful three-nights-a-week, five-sets-a-night residency at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

“Just before that, me, Southside, Bruce and Garry went to see Sam & Dave. A life-changing moment. So me and Southside basically decided we were gonna be the white Sam & Dave, with rock guitar. So the horns came in and although we didn’t know it, we would change the entire concept of what a bar band sounded like and the respect a bar band would get by making it creative, soul meets rock. ‘Bar band’ was an insult. ‘You’re a bar band,’ which means you can’t make it in the real music world. After the Jukes, they started using ‘bar band’ in reviews and they meant it as a compliment, with Graham Parker and Elvis Costello and Mink DeVille. We changed the way people thought about these things.”

The Miami Horns were a vital component of the new band. Steven composed the horn arrangements, but although he’s always possessed a natural ability to imagine horn parts, he doesn’t read or write music (“never have”) and has always required a little help from his friends to transcribe them. “I have people write ‘em down, to this day. I like that actually. You have to do a lotta things yourself so any excuse I find to collaborate I do it. I find other people will bring something to the party usually. That’s why [I’ve] used Eddie Manion for I don’t know how many years. He knows how I like to voice things. Once I think of something and create the parts, I get bored if I have to voice every part, exactly right. If I hear a voicing I don’t like, I will change it, but I get bored by the mechanics of everything.”

While the Jukes were building their reputation and growing their audience, Bruce invited Steven to hang out at the Born To Run sessions in New York, where he was working on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” David Sanborn and The Brecker Brothers had been hired to play the horn parts, but Steven created a spontaneous new arrangement. He’s told this anecdote countless times, but I ask him to repeat it because it provides perfect examples of his innate musical talents in action (“I can hear the parts, who knows why?”), the nature of his friendship with Bruce (“I still am the only human being not afraid of him”), and his no-bullshit attitude (“I didn’t know anything about diplomacy”).

“So he says, ‘Whaddya think?’ I said, ‘It sucks, that’s what I think!’ I didn’t know how uptight everybody was. I didn’t give a fuck either. The managers and producers were all afraid of him already. He asked me a question, I’m gonna be honest. I’m trying to help my friend here, not make points with some fucking record company guy. Moment of silence. ‘He just said it sucks, which means we all suck.’ Bruce [says] ‘Alright then, go in and fucking fix it.’ So I did. I went in and sang the [new] parts. I didn’t know they were the most famous [session] guys in New York. It wasn’t insulting them, the chart was ridiculous. That was my thing, just from the Jukes being around maybe six months.”

“I wasn’t really feeling the pressure that Bruce was at the time. I didn’t realise his life depended on this album. His first two records hadn’t done very well. They wanted to drop him. I don’t know how aware I was of any of that. He invited me into the session and I’m laying on the floor. All I can think is, we’ve been hoping to get into recording our whole lives, I’m listening to this and it sounds fucking terrible. Not just the horn charts, everything. It was the worst period of recording in history. Virtually every record from the 50s and 60s sounded great, virtually every record from the early 70s sounded terrible. Because engineers took over, started close miking, padding the walls. Separation, separation, separation, all the things that make rock ‘n’ roll suck. The idea was, you isolate everything and make it sound exciting in the mix. Which they managed to do, miraculously, with the Born To Run album. Because it was pieced together in a bizarre way. Bruce made that record 100% out of willpower, he willed that into existence!”

Soon after making his instinctive artistic contribution (and singing backing vocals on “Thunder Road”), Steven was invited to join the E Street Band. It was a chance to complete the circle, play with his old friend again and settle any unfinished business from three summers earlier, when he’d been sent packing at the Greetings sessions. He made his live debut on the opening night of the Born To Run tour, which ran until New Year’s Eve. His input and influence over the next decade, onstage and off, would prove invaluable. (Bruce even began playing The Dovells’ “You Can’t Sit Down” as an occasional encore). In the fall, the tour took everyone to Europe for the first time, where the culture shock was off the charts. “There was no hamburgers, no peanut butter. The only place you could get a hamburger in the whole of Europe was the newly-opened first Hard Rock Café. There was a line around the block even then.”

Culinary deficiencies aside, Bruce also had to endure the overblown hype surrounding his first UK gigs at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, where Columbia had displayed the legend “Finally London Is Ready For Bruce Springsteen” on every available surface prior to his arrival. “[It was] completely obnoxious,” says Steven. “[Bruce] spent half the time ripping down posters. It was an embarrassing time for him, between that and Time and Newsweek. He didn’t like that stuff. You wanna be in charge of your life, that’s why we get into rock ‘n’ roll. Suddenly it was slipping out of his control. We made the mistake of playing a place with seats. It just made the show that much harder. But by the end, we got ‘em outta the seats. We went to Amsterdam, Stockholm, and back to London. The second one was a bit easier.” The experience had a prolonged effect on Bruce. “He was uptight in those days and would remain so through Darkness into The River, until he asked me to produce the record and we found a way to have some fun.”

Track 7: Epic Records, Steve Popovich and The Stone Pony

Back on the shore, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes continued the Stone Pony residency throughout 1975, gradually consolidating their line-up. For the next three years, between Springsteen commitments, Steven worked as their producer, arranger, manager, part-time guitarist and principal songwriter. In early 1976, after circulating a demo tape, they signed a recording deal with Epic, with assistance from Steve Popovich, the label’s Vice-President of A&R. “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” the song that Steven had kept in his back pocket since his days on the oldies circuit, became the title track of their debut album and their first single. Ben E King’s loss was Southside’s gain.

“I produced [the song] in a way which was appropriate for the Jukes. They didn’t have a big background vocal thing going on,” explains Steven. “I was very conscious of being able to try and do most of it live, although I put strings on it, on my very first production! There was no synthesiser in those days that could play strings. That’s why I re-cut it [on Soulfire] the original way I pictured it, with the singer and background vocals answering. That idea of writing for someone else is extremely important, critical and essential. It changes the way you write completely, from when you think of writing for yourself, which is extraordinarily complicated and confusing. It’s not easy, but easier, to write for someone else. There’s their identity in your mind at least. I’m writing them a song. That’s a wonderful exercise for songwriters.” I Don’t Want To Go Home was released in the summer of 1976 (“I’ve never received one penny of royalties, but whatever!”). The Jukes later began their first national tour and made their European debut in 1977.

Recommended by Bruce, Steve Popovich was one of a kind. “The last of the real music guys in the business. The only other person I can compare him to would be Lance Freed on the publishing side, who’s unique. He’s actually into music and songwriting and the things you’re supposed to be into when you have a job description like that. And Frank Barsalona, the only agent who really did his job and would set the standard for everybody to follow. Those three guys, really quite historic. [It was] Popovich’s idea to launch the record with a broadcast from the Stone Pony. Never been done before. Popovich loved the local scene idea and he largely made it happen. It never would have been recognised nationally, I don’t think, if it hadn’t been for Popovich, who had the vision to say it’s cool if you’re not from New York. Rather than being embarrassed if you’re not from New York, LA or Nashville, it’s actually cool.”

Track 8: Production Credits and Political Awakening

Steven developed his talents as a producer and songwriter with the Jukes in the late 70s, following I Don’t Want To Go Home with This Time It’s For Real and Hearts Of Stone. Successive releases featured greater quantities of his original material, which included “I Played The Fool,” “This Time Baby’s Gone For Good,” “Take It Inside” and “Some Things Just Don’t Change,” apparently written for another of his heroes, David Ruffin of The Temptations. During this period, he also produced the “Say Goodbye To Hollywood” single for Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band and provided production assistance on Darkness On The Edge Of Town. His relationship with the Jukes ended when they left Epic for Mercury in 1979 and he went on to co-produce The River and two comeback albums for Gary US Bonds, Dedication and On The Line. It was an impressive fast-track apprenticeship. Steven had no production experience when he began. He acquired the skills and learned from his mistakes in the studio. “That’s why all three Jukes albums are different,” he says. “By the time we did The River, I knew what I wanted to do. I got it all down by then. That’s how I tend to do things. I can picture what I want. Jump in, do it, let’s see what happens.”

Steven also kept his promise to himself to bring his musical heroes out of obscurity, initially as guests on the first two Jukes albums. “I did what I could, but I wanted to do so much more,” he admits. “First time I get in a studio, got Lee Dorsey out from under a car, where he’s a mechanic. Got Ronnie Spector out of retirement. Second album, we reunited The Coasters, Drifters and Five Satins. Me and Bruce worked with Gary Bonds. We got Ben E King and Chuck Jackson on that record. Those artists had a talent level noticeably above everybody that followed. I wish I’d been insistent on doing more of them. In those [early] days, you actually had to have talent to make records. You had to be able to sing a song, beginning to end, perfectly in tune, perfectly the right melody, and if you fuck up one word, you gotta do the whole thing again. Couldn’t do enough for those people, they were so much fun to produce.”

In addition to his studio accomplishments, Steven played more than 300 shows with Bruce and the E Street Band between 1976 and 1981, primarily on the Darkness On The Edge Of Town and River tours. The majority took place in North America, but the River tour included a European leg that took the band away from home and out of their comfort zone for nine weeks. Much longer than their previous visit in 1975, it was their first significant experience of foreign countries, languages, cultures and political perspectives. They received rave reviews wherever they played, but Steven gradually became aware that not all Europeans viewed the United States in a favourable light.

One particular encounter was pivotal in dramatically reshaping Steven’s worldview. “A kid asked me, ‘Why are you putting missiles in my country?’ I said, ‘I’m not, I’m a guitar player.’ I realised, for the first time in my life, at the age of 30 I’m embarrassed to say, that I’m an American. What the fuck does that mean? I managed to grow up in the middle of civil rights, the Vietnam War, demonstrations about every fucking thing and had no interest in any of it. Amazing when you think about it. Redefining tunnel vision. Suddenly, the tunnel is gone. We’re now successful. Who would have ever figured that would happen, right? Now it’s like, uh-oh, what did I miss, the last 20 years?”

Track 9: Men Without Women, Motown and Mixing In Mono

This revelation accelerated Steven’s growing political awareness, one of two important developments in 1981 that would change the course of his life forever. The second came when he returned from Europe and was approached by EMI America about making a solo album. Having spent six years producing and writing for others, he welcomed the opportunity to have his own creative outlet, which soon expanded into a separate career. In the fall, he enlisted musicians from the E Street Band and the Asbury Jukes to record most of the material for his debut album, Men Without Women, using his established rock-meets-soul sonic blueprint. Including “Lyin’ In A Bed Of Fire,” “Princess Of Little Italy,” “Angel Eyes” and “Until The Good Is Gone,” it remains an undisputed career highlight for Van Zandt devotees, but Steven feels that an outside producer might have helped him make a more commercial record.

“Conventional wisdom is you never should produce yourself and I have to say that’s correct. The only exception I can think of in the history of the business was Prince, who was an extraordinary genius, but other than him, I don’t know anybody who successfully produces themselves.” Describing himself as “extremely schizophrenic, I’m twelve different people, never mind two,” Steven explains how his inner producer failed to control the whims of his inner artist. “Without knowing it, the artist takes over. I was into this extreme naturalism, no logical reason why. I did the whole album live in one day. Came back the second day, did it again, beginning to end. Couple overdubs, that was it. There’s one guitar. The horns aren’t doubled. Nothing’s doubled. Bruce did all the harmony on that record but we couldn’t use his name. We [did] a similar thing with Born In The USA, where we just recorded live in the studio.”

“I made Bob Clearmountain mix ‘Forever’ in mono, to try and achieve the perfect Motown record. It’s never gonna be exact and it shouldn’t be exact, why should it be, but I wanted to capture a Smokey Robinson Motown record. The only way I could do that in my mind was to make it completely mono. He was so good in those days. I mean Bob’s still the best, but in those days he was beyond the best. He was something else when it came down to that Neve board that wasn’t automated, and he’s feelin’ those faders. I made him do something he’d never done before, which requires a whole different way of thinking. You’re now thinking depth-wise and vertically, not horizontally.”

“That’s where my head was at. Can I achieve the emotional communication that my heroes had provided me? My heroes being Motown in general, 10 acts there. Or my heroes at Chess, another 10 acts. Sam Phillips did ‘Rocket 88’ for Ike Turner (Jackie Brenston) and ‘How Many More Years’ for Howlin’ Wolf, three years before Elvis Presley. Unbelievable genius. [I’m] trying to achieve that level of quality in my own world, in my own little bubble, which has these ridiculously high standards. I’m absorbing the 50s and 60s and then trying to integrate them in my head and reproduce them in my own way, not the least bit interested in what’s going on in the 70s or 80s certainly, because it was shit to me, comparatively. An interesting moment here and there. Punk was certainly interesting. But mostly it’s all coming from what I call the renaissance period, ‘51 to ‘71, where it all was created. And that’s true to this day. That’s all I was interested in and that was enough for 10 lifetimes. I didn’t need another bit of input after 1972.”

Track 10: Little Steven, Little Richard and Bob Dylan

In 1982, after recording with Bruce and Gary US Bonds, Steven completed his album, formed the Disciples of Soul (which included Dino Danelli from The Rascals on drums, Jean Beauvoir on bass and Eddie Manion, Mark Pender, Stan Harrison and La Bamba on horns) and played a debut concert at New York’s Peppermint Lounge. Released in October, a month after Nebraska, Men Without Women preceded his first national tour and was credited to his new professional name of Little Steven, which would be used for all future solo activities. “I just wanted separation [from] being the sideman,” he explains. “Each of my personalities required a different name, in order to keep it straight in people’s heads and my own head.” The name referenced his early heroes Little Walter, Little Anthony and Little Richard. In his role as an ordained minister, the latter officiated at Steven’s wedding to Maureen Santoro in New York on New Year’s Eve. Percy Sledge sang “When A Man Loves A Woman” as they walked down the aisle and the reception included performances from Gary US Bonds, Little Milton, The Chambers Brothers and the wedding band from The Godfather. “Little Anthony was doing a cruise at the time or he would have been there.”

“All I can think is, we’ve been hoping to get into recording our whole lives, I’m listening to this and it sounds fucking terrible. Not just the horn charts, everything. It was the worst period of recording in history. Virtually every record from the 50s and 60s sounded great, virtually every record from the early 70s sounded terrible. Because engineers took over, started close miking, padding the walls. Separation, separation, separation, all the things that make rock ‘n’ roll suck. The idea was, you isolate everything and make it sound exciting in the mix. Which they managed to do, miraculously, with the Born To Run album. Because it was pieced together in a bizarre way. Bruce made that record 100% out of willpower, he willed that into existence!”

Steven toured internationally in 1983, then dropped the horns, adopted a more contemporary rock sound and made his second album, Voice Of America. It was an explicitly political record that featured “Solidarity,” “I Am A Patriot,” “Out Of The Darkness,” “Los Desaparecidos” and “Undefeated.” Triggered by his River tour experiences in Europe, this radical transformation was completed with a long period of self-education. “I read every book about post World War Two [US] foreign policy. [It was] shocking how often we were on the wrong side. All of these bad things were happening behind the scenes and nobody was talking about them. No political consciousness whatsoever in the country. I decided I have an obligation to say something about this stuff that we’re all paying for with our taxes.”

“Being conscious of the fact that everybody needs their own identity, I figured who the hell needs another love song from a fucking sideman? I’ll be the political guy. Nobody else is doing it. There were people demonstrating of course. Jackson Browne, John Hall, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, those guys. The Grateful Dead were doing a benefit every week, but rarely did it end up in the work. In general, people weren’t putting much politics into the lyrics of their songs.” For artists with commercial aspirations, he concedes, that’s a smart move. “Jefferson Airplane being an exception with ‘Volunteers.’ Big exception, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with Neil Young’s ‘Ohio.’”

Steven contends that Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” introduced the idea of political consciousness in rock ‘n’ roll. “His first electric song. It’s not given enough credit. The first sentence from Bob Dylan’s electric period, ‘Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine, I’m on the pavement thinking about the government.’ What? You’re doing what? You’re thinking about the government? Excuse me? Who does that? Whoever did that before, in a song, no less? There in that one sentence, Bob Dylan communicated what his entire career was gonna be about, which was having fun with language, with inference, symbolism, metaphor and nonsense lyrics that rhymed. ‘Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine,’ what does that mean? It means whatever you want it to mean, right? Then ‘I’m on the pavement thinking about the government.’ Holy shit! You mean we’re supposed to figure out the government? That, to me, is the most important sentence in all the history of rock ‘n’ roll, right there.”

All photos below by Mike Saunders

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theonetheycallhannah · 5 years ago

Text

The Treatment of Captain Syverson-Chapter 13: SNAFU

Characters: Captain Syverson, various original minor/supporting characters.

Summary: Sy has some time to think about his past, present, and future while roughing it in the Virginia wilderness which leads him to a revelation about what he really wants…but is it too late?

Need to start from the beginning? Miss an update because Tumblr? Click me!

Word Count: 4.7k

Warnings: Mild language, mature themes, military and weapon terminology, discussion, and use. (For those who don’t know, SNAFU is a term coined in the military. It’s an acronym for “Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.” And since this is from Sy’s perspective, I thought a military term, as opposed to a therapy term would be appropriate.)

Author’s Note: Despite this being the longest chapter, clocking in at almost 5k, it was one of the easiest to write, and came the quickest. I love writing from Sy’s perspective, and the pure love he has for Shane. I’m hoping to be able to write a bit more of his POV before the story is complete. We’ll see. I apologize if it seems like one long rant about Sy’s feelings…I guess that’s what it is, with various activities peppered in. He can be a sensitive guy, and I wanted to show that.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism.

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Hope I’m not forgetting anyone! If you want to be notified when I post a new chapter or work, I’ll be happy to add you to my tag list! Stricken blogs are getting personal messages from me when a new chapter is uploaded because Tumblr’s faulty tagging system will not stand in the way of me delivering what the people want!(?) lol! (Although…their lackadaisical notification system might…sorry for that. I have no control. lol!)

X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@X@

Sy was no whimp. That much was certain. Missouri winters had toughened him up more than most men in his battalion and most of the participants in the training he was currently undertaking.

But it was more than that. Sy was uniquely prepared for the elements. He remembered a particularly harsh December night during Christmas break, before he joined the service when he was home alone and had to let the dog out. Fool that he was, he wore no shoes. Greater fool, he'd allowed the door to the back yard to close…and unfortunately, it had a tendency to lock. Which it did. He tried fruitlessly for a while to break back in, but being without a cell phone, he knew he'd have to walk a good distance for help with the lock.

He slipped out the gate and started up to the road, to follow it to his grandparents a few miles away. The county road wasn't the best kind for walking, particularly barefoot in the late fall, but his feet were soon too numb to feel the gravel and whatever else was lacerating the soles of his feet. After about an hour, he made it there, shivering, knocking frantically and waking his frail old grandparents up to rescue him from his own negligence. He'd regret that until the day he died. Not that they were angry about it. They shrugged it off. His grandma cleaned the blood and dirt from his feet and bandaged the shallowed abrasions. They didn't look too bad, considering the area they lived in and the trash that could have been waiting to carve him up. Then she set about cleaning up Sy's messy footprints from her normally immaculate floor. Grandpa looked all over for their spare keys to Sy's and his mom's house, and finally found them. He lent him a pair of shoes, drove him back home, and let him in the house. After that, Sy found himself eager to spend time outdoors during colder weather. As if determined to build up a tolerance to it in case he ever found himself in such a situation again.

Now, despite the time of year being only late August, it was unseasonably cool, especially at night, as if Christmas was right around the corner, and Sy was wishing more and more that he had someone to cuddle with during the nights he'd be doing cross country training here at the beautiful Shenandoah National Park. He had packed only the essentials for the expedition, a mess kit, bed roll, canteen, modest rations, first aid supplies, et cetera, plus a rope and a tarp for building a shelter. On his person, he had a compass, a topographical map of the park with checkpoints indicated, waterproof, strike-anywhere matches, a hunting knife, a tactical knife, an M17 pistol, and three .9mm clips. He was also given a flare gun to use in case he got stuck for any reason and needed extraction.

On his first night in the wilderness, he'd taken a lot of time falling asleep. Thinking.

He thought about his last week at home. He wondered how Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were doing with Aika. Shane had offered to watch her, and he considered it. He had appreciated her eagerness to help after her…less than enthusiastic response to hearing about this trip. But he decided since Aika had a close relationship already with Fred and Caroline, and she was still getting to know Shane, they'd better be the ones to take her. She understood, and had offered the second reason that since she worked so much, she wouldn't be able to give her the kind of attention she was used to. That had made a lot of sense. He felt like kind of a bad dog parent for not thinking of it, himself.

He thought about the week he'd been here already at the compound. His first day filling out paperwork, he was asked for an emergency contact. He was used to putting his mom…but she wasn't in the best of health, herself. He had nobody. Nobody but Shane. He put her down, instead of his mom. He thought about the seminars on company approved methods of subduing and detaining targets and combatants. He should have taught Shane some self-defense moves before he left. She could handle herself, and she'd proven so, but still. A refresher, or an advancement on one's skills was always a good idea. But he was sure she'd be fine. He thought about her the most in the torturous policy and procedure lecture. What he wouldn't'a given to have her here with him. She would have made everything fun. And she would have been a way better study partner than Keith. Keith, a Navy vet from Little Rock was a good guy…he just…didn't get Sy's jokes. He was a very literal kind of thinker, and it took extra effort for Sy to communicate with folks like that.

Shane, though…he and Shane wouldn't have gotten too much done, study-wise. They would have been…distracted.

As he hiked along the trails to his first checkpoint, he breathed in the clean, crisp air and stopped at the odd overlook here and there. The park was nestled on the outer edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and they were too gorgeous not to appreciate while he was here. He found himself…uniquely emotional. He didn't feel lonely often, but since he'd met Shane, he'd hardly gone two days without seeing her, even if it was for just an hour. She'd love all of this. She'd probably want a tent, and coffee in the mornings, so they wouldn't be able to travel quite as light, but they'd make it work. Maybe one day they'd take a trip like this. Just for fun. No checkpoints. No deadlines. No semi-automatic weapons…well, honestly, he'd probably still bring a gun, anyway. You never did know about people these days, he thought. Of course, that's probably what people think of me carrying a pistol, he also thought…anyway, he was almost to the checkpoint.

Said checkpoint was a big tent, like the ones they sold fireworks out of leading up to Fourth of July. Inside there was a single lane shooting range set up down one half of the tent. On the other half, there were stations set up with dismantled weapons that you had to assemble in a certain amount of time. Someone had beaten him to the range, so he started with the guns. No problems whatsoever. He was familiar more or less with all of the models, or some version of them. When the previous participant, a small blonde woman, had finished on the range, Sy stepped up to the counter.

The attendant reset the target for Sy so he could do a close range shot, then again for mid and long range ones. He shot well, although he still wasn't used to the lighter weight of the SIG Sauer M17s the armed forces switched to back in 2017. They'd offered him an M18 at the compound, but he favored the heaver pistol, instead. Maybe the M18 was more packable, but Sy just didn't feel right firing a weapon that felt like a feather in his hand. If it was up to him, he'd take a Colt Python .357 Magnum Revolver. That, however, was more than just a question of how the firearm felt in his hand. Being out in the wilderness like this made him think back to how it must have been before these lands became civilized and gentrified. Back to the days of the cowboy, Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral. Back when it was just the wild and free land he could pretend it was now. He thanked the attendant, who was writing his name on his targets to take back to the compound along with his graded weapon assembly timesheets, and then was back on his way.

There was an eerie beauty about this unsullied land, he thought, as the dusk fell the second night of the excursion and he began setting up his camp about halfway between the first and second checkpoints, by his estimation. With his fire built and his shelter up, Sy took out some of his rations, cured meat, hard cheese, and some walnuts, and had a light supper before cleaning his gun and turning in while the ground still held some heat from the waning sun, wishing again as the cold set in that his woman was there to warm him.

His sleep was fitful. And he awoke before dawn, from dreams he couldn't remember but which still left him feeling empty. They must have been about her. He was starting to feel regret. The last time he'd seen Shane, he'd said some things that he meant to be selfless. But he didn't mean them. He meant the parts about loving her, of course. But the last thing he wanted was to come home and find her moved on with someone else. He couldn't stand to think about it. As he walked into the next checkpoint area, the range was already set up for close range firing. He riddled the target with .9mm holes and could barely wait until the attendant got the fresh sheet set to mid range before he began firing.

"How about you let me fully clear the lane before you start on the long range target, okay, Syverson?"

"Sorry, man. I'm a little…on edge today. Won't happen again."

The short, sandy-haired buck trotted out to replace the riddled sheet with one more for the long range leg, pulled it down and lacked it in to long range position, then hoofed it back up to safety, sensing the captain's impatience. Sy shot cleanly, but with cold anger, as if the silhouette on the page out there was trying to take Shane away from him. He put two square in the chest, and two in the head without hesitating.

"Man, I've never seen a long range shoot like that! What's the deal, you pissed at an ex, or something?" Sy checked the man's lapel for a name tag.

"Not exactly, Mister…Daniels."

"Call me Jack." they shook hands, and Sy chuckled, questioning.

"I'm Sy. You're name is Jack…Daniels?"

"Yes sir. No relation to the Lynchburg Daniels, unfortunately. Momma wanted to name me after her granddad, and my old man, well, he had no problem with it given his affinity for the spirit."

"A wise man, your dad. Some of my best nights have included Tennessee Number 7." He didn't elaborate, but he was getting very specific flashbacks of drinking games in his kitchen with Shane. And he was gonna have to shake it off before the weapons assembly drill, or else he'd end up putting together an assault rifle backward.

He made it through without any trouble, thank the good Lord. But that didn't mean that his mind wasn't still reeling. He was thinking of Shane and the possibility that she was being courted by Chris Evans look-alikes and young Harrison Ford doppelgangers, and it was making him furious. He was pretty sure that she was about as interested in taking a break as he was, but he couldn't help himself from making the offer under the circumstances. He kicked himself as he made his camp for the evening, not very far away from the third checkpoint, but too far away to get there by dusk when the daily deadline was. He was a shoe in to get there first in the morning, though, if he was reading his map correctly, and he was damn good at maps, if he did say so, himself. And who would bitch at him for bragging out here, anyway. The odd cricket or squirrel? He didn't think so.

It was colder tonight, and he was thankful that he thought to boil some water for his canteen and put it at his feet. He curled his surly, burly body up under the layers of blanket and thermal sheeting. He was almost warm enough…but he still needed something.

His sleep was plagued by strange dreams that he unfortunately remembered tonight. The scene began with Shane in a bright pink dress and matching gloves, dripping with diamonds, like Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She looked so glamourous and beautiful, but she was getting passed from man to man to the tune of Madonna's Material Girl, which was not the correct song, and he knew it in that moment, but couldn't correct anyone, because it was all playing out on the big screen TV in his basement. When he realized this he turned it off and noticed a familiar head of hair on his lap and stroked it, about to say "Hey, sunshine." until the figure sat up and looked at him, and it was Jordan, the PTA, batting his eyelashes at him, and asking, "You ready for bed, babe?" The therapist leaned in for a kiss, but Sy leaned back, tumbled off the couch and landed on those crutches again, standing right in front of Shane in the lobby of the therapy clinic.

"Hey sunshine." he said warmly. She looked confused.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Well…I should hope so…it's me. Sy."

"Sorry, not ringing any bells. I'll look you us and see who you're with, though. Usually Heather tells the new patients which therapists they get their first day. What's your last name?"

He felt like he was getting kicked in the gut with a soccer cleat worn by the Incredible Hulk. He answered with defeat.

"Sy's a nickname. Last name Syverson, first name Logan."

"Oh, there you are. Looks like Cory gets to take care of you today. I'll let him know you're ready. As long as you're all done with the secretaries?"

Sy nodded and collapsed to the floor blacking out. When he woke up, his neighbor, Mr. Stevens was standing over him, insisting it was time for him to get ready. He kept handing him things to put on. Pants, a nice shirt, a vest, a light blue tie, a jacket, nice shoes. The whole enchilada. They got out of Fred's car at a little white chapel outside which, his neighbor pinned a small boutonniere of powder blue hydrangeas to his lapel and walked in with him.

"Come on, boy. She'll be here any minute."

Sy was nervous, but excited. He was obviously marrying Shane. But he couldn't remember proposing, or planning the wedding, or an engagement party, or bachelor party, or rehearsal dinner, nothing…but none of that mattered. He heard the first notes of "Here Comes the Bride" and everything faded away, anyway. He began to cry as she got closer. She was moving slowly, he presumed out of nerves. Or perhaps she'd chosen the wrong shoes. It didn't matter. They'd dance the night away barefoot, and make love until dawn. He wished her veil wasn't so thick. He couldn't even see her bouquet. Let alone her stunning face, no doubt smiling as she cried with him. When she stood in front of him, he broke protocol and removed the veil to find Aika in a white dress on her hind legs panting, tongue lolling happily to one side.

"You may now kiss the bride." said the wizened old minister, causing Aika to knock Sy to the ground licking his face until he blacked out again.

This time, he woke to the chirping birds of a mountain morning in Virginia. His campfire long snuffed, his canteen now chilled as his blood. Those dreams…those were traumatic. He didn't want Shane to see anyone else. The thought of seeing anyone else himself repulsed him. Thinking about what his life would have been like if they'd never gotten to work together made him physically ill, and he was terrified that if he didn't act on these feelings, he'd end up with no one but his dog. Why did it take a trip out of state and all these nights of solitude to figure this out? She was all that mattered. He could dig ditches, flip burgers, get a teaching certificate and coach, or teach gym. Whatever. He also liked history. He could think of something if the people at Secure Source couldn't keep him in consistent work. It would be fine. He understood his purpose now. And it wasn't just to do his duty to his country. He'd served proudly for years. He had a new purpose now. And it was her.

He packed up camp in what he was sure was record time and hauled ass to the last checkpoint where the brass should be waiting for finishers. He was the first one there this morning, but he wasn't sure if anyone had made it yesterday. He didn't try to make small talk with the attendant today. He was on a legit mission to get back to his locker at the compound, turn his phone on and call Shane. He fired four shots, but only made two holes on the long range target. One in the chest, one in the head. The attendant was impressed, giving the highest possible grade.

"Man, Syverson. I pray I never do anything to piss you off."

Sy nodded in acknowledgement and went on to the weapons drill booths. Today, there were distracting sound effects playing on a speaker in each booth, and each one was different. Sy ignored the cacophony, pretending it was white noise, and focused on the puzzles at hand, breezing through the new weapons in better time than ever.

As his cards were being scored and turned in for review to Jane Freitag, the administrator over acquisitions and training, he got himself a cup of coffee and a doughnut, and just observed her, tactically, and objectively. She was a redhead with sharp features, freckles, and light eyes. She was slender, but dressed simply, and modestly. The consummate professional. Sy had honestly barely registered her gender, and it wasn't because she wasn't beautiful. She was. Full red lips, lashes for days, and although her clothes didn't exactly accentuate her shape, he could tell he had a decent figure. He just wasn't interested. And would never be interested in anyone but Shane again. Miss Freitag startled him out of his thoughts.

"Mr. Syverson." She beckoned him to the entrance to the tent near her vehicle.

He picked up his gear and coffee and trotted over to her.

"Ma'am?"

"Jane, please."

"Sy, then, for me. What's next on the agenda?"

"Well, you're the first participant across the finish line. I'm very impressed. It seems as though you almost could have finished last night."

"Yes, ma'am, if I hadn't taken a little extra time for sightseeing, I might have made it here by dusk last night. I just haven't had the hustle I had today."

"Well, that's nothing to sneer at. Normally, the deprivation of food, regular water supply, and proper sleeping conditions make participants sloppy. The opposite seems to be true for you, as you've done better at each checkpoint than the one before. Now, let's get back to the compound and get you a proper meal, and a shower, and talk about what's next for you here at Secure Source."

"Yeah, about that. Before we go much further with this, I need to know one thing."

"What's that?"

"I need to know if you'll be able to find me work near enough to St. Robert and the base there so that I don't have to relocate and travel all the time. I've got a life there, and…it's not something I can just pick up and move on a whim, and I don't want to be away for weeks and months at a time. I know I made this trip work, but I'm praying it didn't already ruin everything." He wasn't going to waste time mincing words. He needed to know right away or else this wouldn't work.

"Sy, with your talent…they're gonna want to put you on the high profile cases. Celebrity security. Concerts, movie premiers, things like that. You'll be wasted as a small town rent-a-cop." there was true concern in her face and her voice as she drove them out of the park and onto the main road to Secure Source's compound.

"If there's a need I can fill, how is that a waste? There's lots of talent in this program. Just 'cause I finished first don't mean I did it the best. And I'm sure most of these folks have the people skills to take them farther'n me. And if you wanna gimme first crack at those, I'll hear ya out. Just…let me reserve the right to turn down the out of town jobs. Especially if they're short notice. And if it takes me away from another security job, I want you to send me a replacement a few days in advance so I can meet 'em, train 'em, and introduce 'em around."

"Seems reasonable." Jane said.

"Well, alright, then. I think we got ourselves a deal. I'll shower up in the locker room real quick, then meet ya in the commissary for a sandwich so we can handle the particulars?"

"Sure, Sy." she agreed as they pulled into the parking structure.

They went their separate ways, Jane to her office, and Sy to the quartermaster to return his supplies and get the key to his locker. He practically danced there, he was so giddy to get to call Shane. He did need a quick shower first, though. Which he took, grabbing some shampoo and soap out of his travel bag. When he got back to his locker, towel around his waist, he replaced the products and grabbed his phone. He sat on the bench between the rows of lockers as it booted up.

When it did, it began alerting him as if it's life depended on it. Three text messages, three voicemails, … and twenty four missed calls. That was odd. Maybe a telemarketer had gotten his number.

He checked the texts first. One was a picture of Aika from Fred, his neighbor, the other two were from Shane…two days ago. The day he went into the park.

Hey, hope you have a great first day of Survivor: Virginia! Lol! Be safe! I love you!

OMG, nutty day today! I'm gonna be doing notes for hours! I'll text you in the morning! <3

And then nothing…he chuckled at Survivor: Virginia, but was a bit concerned. Maybe she'd decided not to waste time texting him if he wasn't going to respond? He didn't know. Maybe some of the calls or voicemails were from her. He'd check before calling.

One from his mom, one from the Stephen's house phone, and the rest were from Fort Wood Therapy. That was weird. He was discharged and didn't have any appointments…surely he wasn't missing any…Shane would have said something. He listened to the voicemails. The first one was from Heather.

"Hey, Sy, it's Heather, Shane's friend here at therapy. Hey, give me a call when you get this. Thanks."

Weird…the next one was from Susan, Shane's boss. In the same tone.

"Captain Syverson, it's Susan DeForrest here at Fort Wood Therapy Clinic. Please give us a call when you get this. Thank you."

Again, weird. The last one was Susan again and far less friendly and measured.

"Mr. Syverson. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but you need to bring Shane back to work and stop screwing around. One or both of you is in serious trouble. Either you're being hot-lined for abduction or she's fired for not showing up for work. The choice will be hers." and the line went dead.

Sy felt his stomach twist into nauseated knots at Susan's words. Shane hadn't been to work. For how long? He had to call them. He didn't want to think about the horror that might have befallen Shane while he'd been away.

"Fort Wood Therapy Clinic, this is Heather, how may I help you?" Heather said, trying to hide the obvious worry beneath the cordial demeanor.

"Heather, it's Sy, what the hell's going on with Shane? What do you mean, she hasn't been to work, I don't…"

"Let me give you to Susan, Sy. I'm sorry." She added the last two words in a whisper. After a brief moment on hold, Susan picked up.

"So, Mr. Syverson. Finally decided to call us back?"

"Cut it out, Susan." He let her blatant ignorance of his rank slide in favor of getting to the point. "Tell me what's going on."

"Shane left work Monday and hasn't been back since. No one has seen her. Apart from you, I presume. I knew letting her date a patient would come back to bite me. I should never have--"

"Shut up! This isn't about you, and it isn't because of you. And you had no right to tell Shane who she could and couldn't date, anyway. I haven't seen her in about a week and a half. I'm training out of state for a job. I've been away from my phone since Monday, and I just got back to it now."

"She isn't…with you? I assumed…"

"Well, you know what they say, Susan. I'm coming back early if I can manage it. See if I can do something to help find her. Thanks for calling me. I know your intentions weren't the best when you did, but ultimately, it worked out. I may not have found out otherwise, at least until… much later."

He hung up before she could respond. He had to talk to Jane about cutting his training short. This was all his fault. If he had just come to the realization of just how important, how vital Shane really was to him before he left…well he never would have gone in the first place. She was his life now. His world. His future, and his whole heart. Tears stung his eyes as he dressed to meet Jane in the commissary. She'd have to be okay with this. She'd have to understand.

As he got closer to the smell of fry oil, seasonings, and sizzling meat on a griddle, aromas that usually made his stomach grumble with hunger, he had to swallow back the bile that crept up his throat. He found her seated at a small round four-top, already eating a salad. He sat across from her, startling her from whatever she was reading on her phone, and again when she looked at his expression and complexion.

"Sy, what's wrong? You look downright green!"

"Listen, Jane, I'm going to have to leave training early." She scowled at him, but he was more concerned with the putrid smells of boiled egg and onion coming off her chef salad. He had to get this over with quick before he wretched in the middle of the mess hall.

"That's a big ask, Sy. Gonna have to have a reason."

"I just got a call that my girlfriend is missing. I need to go home and help find her."

"Oh…yeah, that's…that's some reason. I'm really sorry to hear that. Any leads so far?"

"No, I just got off the phone with her useless boss and all she told me was that she hasn't been to work since Monday and can't be reached on her phone. I have my suspicions, but I wanna talk to the authorities."

"Okay, well. Maybe when things calm down at home, we can set you up with some online courses like we do for our assets who need refreshers, but are on assignment. I'll approve that for you."

"Thanks," he said, gratefully, "I'm also wondering if the company has any…transportation solutions for me…of an immediate nature?"

"Man, what were your letters to Santa like as a child?"

"Oh, you know, a little red wagon, end of poverty, world peace…that kind of stuff." he grinned his most charming grin.

"Why am I not surprised? Okay, but you have to return the favor somehow, Sy."

"How about, one assignments of your choosing, no questions asked?"

"Hmmm, what about five assignments?"

"Three?" he countered.

"Done." they shook hands across the table. "I would have settled at two." she smirked.

"I would have done ten." he winked at her as he turned to retrieve his belongings from his bunk and locker. He had a plane…or perhaps a chopper to catch.

Up Next: Chapter 14: No Call No Show

#Sand Castle #netflix sand castle #captain syverson #captain syverson fanfic #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfic #sigh for sy

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world-of-socks · 5 years ago

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Chapter one: Spies are Forever (sorry I had to…*)

*If you don’t know what Spies Are Forever is please look it up. The full thing is on Youtube, you won’t regret it!!

(Got the idea from @steven-universe-au-prompts. I’m still working on concept art and stuff I’ll post that later. Anyways this was super fun to write and I hope you all enjoy this first look into hopefully will be a series that I’ll complete for once lol)

...

“Soldiers!” A pearl roared to the oncoming sea of quartzes and other miscellaneous gems and fusions.

Nobody was paying her any mind, the camp was full of excitement, everyone was talking to each other and conversing about the next move and where they were stationed. The air was so abuzz with different conversations that Yellow Tourmaline heard none of them. Nor did she care. She was here for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that right now, was to hear that renegade pearl speak.

“SOLDIERS!” she roared again.

A few looked up and then went back to chatting.

The pearl looked towards everyone’s leader, the rose quartz, who was speaking with a fusion, and then turned towards the crowd once more, “SHUT! UP!!”

Everyone turned to face her, and ceased their conversations. Yellow watched the pearl sigh, and then continue,

“We all appreciate you being here, your service is greatly needed in our fight to win back this wonderful planet. Though, we will need to have some form of organization in our camps, you will now hear a word from my general and yours: ROSE QUARTZ!”

The crowd erupted into applause and roars and cheers. These gems loved this Quartz, loved her more than any gem Yellow Tourmaline had ever seen. The Rose Quartz dismissed the applause, humbly, and then began to speak.

“You wonderful gems, you’ve worked so hard your entire life to please someone who doesn’t care about you, or your well-being. You’ve slaved away for the whims of a dictator who thinks you are a pile of sediment, unworthy. Those days are over. When you are under my command you are free to be whoever you want, and to fuse with whoever you want!”

There was another planet shaking roar of applause, Yellow just stood there, dumbfounded, she didn’t understand. The Rose quartz held up her hand to silence them once more.

“Though I would like to make one thing clear. There will still have to be a level of organization in my camps! You will be organized by your station, you won’t be shattered if you don’t listen, but if we want to do this properly, it would be preferred if you would do as I tell you. Though, all ideas are welcome! Pearl will continue from here.”

She then stepped away and resumed talking to the fusion, her pearl then started commanding everyone on where to go.

“The front lines will be stationed in the first two barracks, the blacksmiths will be stationed…..” her voice seemed to fade away.

After the meeting, Yellow knew exactly where she was to go, she was a general on the front lines (she had perfected the basic general appointment test) and would be staying with other generals in the barracks. She hadn’t met any of them yet, and wasn’t thrilled about staying a week with everyone else, but she knew she had to.

She pushed back the fabric of the tent and stepped in timidly, inside was a table with chairs and a few gems gathered around it, a few cots (she only recently learned what those were), and a weapons rack. As she walked in a few of the gems looked up at her, a few looked a little wary, but the others appeared friendly.

“Heya, we got a new one ‘ere!” exclaimed an Ametrine.

She got up from her table where the rest of the generals were huddled over a map, and approached her. Yellow backed up slightly, she wasn’t used to being interacted with in such a way.

“Ey, I’m not gonna ‘urt ya.” Ametrine gave her a pat on the shoulder, “I’m Ametrine, by the way, but you can call me Ame, everyone does.”

Ame looked her up and down to take her in, Yellow watched the evaluation process go on in her head, “Let’s see ‘ere, a newby most likely from, what, Yellow’s court?”

Yellow stiffened up, not used to the informal addressing of the name, “Yes.”

“Ah! rough, mate. I was too. She’s a bit cold, ain't she? Kinda emotionless, yeah?” Ame shook her head, hands in her pockets,“Yeah, I’m real glad I left when I did. I started feelin’ real low, always scared of gettin’ shattered, y’know? I’m feelin’ much betta’ under Rose’s command, though, no need to worry ‘bout little ol’ me.”

Yellow just gave a weak laugh.

“Ya don’t talk much do ya?” Ame remarked, “What’s ya name anyway?”

She straightened up, “I’m Yellow Tourmaline.”

“Do ya go by anythin’ shorter?”

“No.” she retorted simply.

“Well that’ll have to change.” Ame thought for a moment, “I’m sure durin’ trainin’ tomorrow a betta’ name will reveal itself.”

There was an awkward silence yet again, Yellow wasn’t very good at interacting like this.

“Lemme’ introduce ya to the team!” Ame said with fake or real enthusiasm, Yellow couldn’t tell.

“This is Black Opal, but we call her Bo. She don’t say much either, but she’s a great archer and an even betta’ general. Her surprise attacks are some of the best and smartest in the biz!” Ame pointed to a tall and darkly colored gem towards the left of the table, she looked up and simply nodded in greeting.

“Over there’s Emerald, but we just call her Bear. She got the name cuz’ we went on a scoutin’ mission, and ran across an earth creature, Rose said it's called a bear, and she got chased by that thing for hours! Once she got fed up though she stopped in her tracks and screamed in its face and scared it off into the woods! She’s more a bear than it was!” The Emerald rolled her eyes, she must’ve been used to the anecdote.

“There’s old Peach Sapphire over there, Bismuth, and oh that there’s Cat’s Eye, don’t mess with them, they’re a tricky one. I could tell ya a million stories about all these guys.” Ame laughed, but quickly stopped when she saw the unamused look on Yellow’s face, “Ah, but, I won’t… I won’t.”

Yellow strode across the room to the map on the table, and looked at it for a moment.

“Judging our strategies, are you?” Peach Sapphire retorted to Yellow’s glance at the map.

“Wha-... no.” Yellow lied.

“Ah well you were going to.” she mused.

“I thought only Blue Sapphire’s could predict the future.”she grumbled, realizing she had been caught.

“Hm, yes, and that’s where you're wrong. Blue Sapphires can predict the future more accurately than I, but no, they aren’t the only ones.” She sighed, “And if you’re worried that we won’t succeed without good incite on the future we have a rare Blue Sapphire on our team. She’s fused with Ruby, they go by Garnet by the way, she’s Rose’s lefthand gem.”

Yellow cringed slightly at the mention of fusion, “The Pearl is the right hand?” she clarified.

“Yes.” Peach sighed and looked back at the map, “Newcomers aren’t permitted to be strategists until they go through a week of training. Our apologies, but this war has been long and hard, I’ve lost friends, loved ones, excuse me if I don’t trust you right away.”

“I… see.” the room was silent, a distant grief hung in the air.

“I assume you aren’t one to sleep are you?” Emerald asked, breaking the emptiness, “The newbys usually aren’t.”

“No, I don’t sleep.” she replied.

“That’ll change!” Ame called from where she lay on her cot, her cap over her eyes.

A few of the other generals snickered.

“Well even if you don’t sleep I recommend resting on the cots until morning.” Emerald added kindly.

“Is there really nothing else I can assist with?” she asked, desperate, not loving the idea of being left alone with her thoughts, surrounded by strange gems.

“Not until we get a chore list, a training schedule, or a command.” Emerald replied.

“Or until Jasper comes in here and breaks something.” Peach muttered.

Ame laughed from her cot, even Black Opal snickered slightly.

Yellow sat in the cot the second closest to the tent opening. She lay down on her back stiffly, and closed her eyes, but when nothing changed she sat up and looked around. She hated the feeling of not being in charge, but she knew it was only going to have to be for a week.

After an hour or so of sifting through the pamphlets for newcomers, she was startled by a loud sound. The tent ripped open and a giant Jasper burst through with a terrified look on its face. Yellow jumped to her feet.

The Jasper ran over to where Ame lay presumably asleep and shook her violently.

“Ame! Ame!!” she cried, “You gotta wake up! Please wake up!”

“Wha-... Jazz what’s,” she yawned, “What’s goin’ on ya loon.”

“I was just-...I was just!” she panted and stuttered, “I was just-... practicing my acting! Free acting lessons with Jazz as soon as the sun goes down!”

“Nobody needs ya classes Jazz, not in this war. Besides no non-sleepin newby would ever join.” Ame muttered readjusting her cap.

Jasper stamped her foot, “Yeah, but MORALE! Ya know?” she turned excitedly to Yellow who felt more uncomfortable than ever before, “Hey, would you wanna join?”

“Uh… no.” She answered, Jazz frowned, “Uh I mean- no, not really.” she stuttered.

“Dang,” Jazz mused, “This one IS new. Welp, they're always open if ya ever change your mind.”

Jazz crashed onto an empty spot on the floor which had blankets, that were probably chipped in from the other generals, for her to lay on. Yellow hadn’t noticed the broken cot pieces before.

Yellow resumed her sitting position at the end of the makeshift bed and continued looking through the pamphlet, more to look busy, she had already read the entire thing. After an hour or so the other generals retired, save for Cat’s eye who, without a word, glided to the tent entrance and stood guard.

Once she determined it wouldn’t be awkward to stop reading, she layed back down, this time on her side. She stared at the dirty tent fabric.

It would just be for a week, then she could transform back into her usual form, get into her ship, and drive home with whatever plans she could find. Nobody would know, not even the others on homeworld. She could finally end this fight once and for all.

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anika-ann · 5 years ago

Text

Lessons in Rule-breaking - Pt.1

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 4100

Warnings: ...nothing major? Swearing, fluff, mention of death.

Summary: Working part-time at Smithsonian for a while now, you knew you could get in trouble when breaking the no-newcomers-after-30-minutes-before-the-closing-time rule, but you sure didn’t expect the trouble to look like this.

Story Masterlist

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You were bored. Enormously. The clock was telling you there was still twenty minutes until the closing time and that time was always filled with boredom – half an hour ago, impressive crowds were still flooding the Captain America’s exhibition as if it was The Independence Day aka Cap’s birthday. Now, with the well-known rule of not letting any newcomers in less than 30 minutes before the closing time, the counter desk was painfully empty. Hence the boredom and the idle hands.

As far as you heard, idle hands were the devil’s tools and maybe it was the truth – but here in Smithsonian, there weren’t many things for the devil operate with. Sure, you could go to another level for a different exhibition and mix up some captions to artefacts, but that seemed like too much work and with how crowded the space was, it was next to impossible. Another option was to pull the fire alarm, but you weren’t that much of a punk.

So, most of the time, you settled with watching people around you – unlike when the insane number of people was flowing in and if you hadn’t had an ID shoved into your face allowing a children discount you wouldn’t have known if a kid was coming or an adult, a man, a woman, a farmer, the freaking president or Captain America himself – finally having the time to relax. You weren’t proud of barely paying attention during the busy hours, but… well. You made up for that in the free time in the evening.

There was a kid with a backpack with Captain America’s shield on it, watching what could be his brother in his father’s arms as he was holding the kid up right next to the panel showing Captain’s transformation from the skinny boy to a walking rock. Very cute rock. Anyway, in the corner, an incredibly bored-looking girl was pulling her mother’s sleeve, impatient to get out, perhaps looking forward to seeing a cartoon instead of a war museum exhibit. There was a guy rolling his eyes at his girlfriend, who was standing by the display of authentic outfits (and mannequins, the source of the man’s annoyance, if you could take a guess), making heart eyes at the Captain’s figure; you couldn’t hold back a giggle and looked away.

Which was exactly when you noticed the pair on the different side of the gate, outside of the space of exhibition. It was a woman with a boy who couldn’t be older than six years old. He would have been cute, a ginger with several freckles on his nose and cheeks, looking like he would have dimples when smiling, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood for smiling. In fact, he seemed wrecked. Glassy tears were rolling down his cheeks, welled up in huge eyes and he sniffed from time to time. The woman whom you assumed was his mother was trying to comfort him, herself wearing a helpless expression.

Alright, you were leaving your post right now. Perhaps it was the devil’s handiwork indeed, maybe it was none of your business, whatever the kid was crying for. But it was breaking your heart. You approached them rapidly, and being just few steps from them, you could see the mum pointing at a sign – the sign that was telling them that they could no longer enter the exhibition.

Ah, damn.

“Can I help you?” you asked politely, the woman’s gaze immediately snapping your direction, startled a bit. She eyed your nametag.

“No, no thank you,” she brushed you off, an apologetic smile on her lips. The kid sniffed again.

“Alright. If you’re sure…”

You backed off quickly, spinning on your heels and mentally slapping yourself. Why had you come to them again?

“But mommy-“

“No, Jamie, sweetheart. We’re late, we spent too much time in the park. We’ll have to come here another time-“ the woman explained patiently, her voice gentle but firm.

You bit your lip but started walking. Rules. There were rules.

“But you said we’re coming home in the morning! I’ll never see Captain America,” he sobbed and your heart sank. They must have been tourists.

But nope. No exceptions. You would do it once and then it would become a standard. Not to mention you could also get freaking fired for it— well, probably not fired, just punished, but still. Rules.

“We do, honey. We’ll have to come-“

“But you promised!”

Yeah, that was enough. You turned to them again and squatted to the kid. He frowned at you, his lower lip trembling. Oh boy, now you were lost to him.

“There are rules that need to be followed,” you said quietly and the kid sobbed again. The mother looked at you, caught between apologetic and angry about you moralizing her kid. You quickly continued. “But, we have one more rule here that not many people know. Can you keep a secret?”

The boy seemed intrigued enough, which was good. You eyed the woman; she was watching you in anticipation, probably ready to report you for harassment, but curious about what your play was.

The kid nodded.

“Good. I’ll tell you, but I’m gonna ask you a question first, okay?” Another nod. “Who’s Captain America?”

“A hero!” the kid replied immediately, his eyes lighting up with a spark of excitement. You couldn’t help but smile.

“And why is he a hero?”

“Because he’s strong! And he has the shield! I have a Frisbee like him! He’s the best superhero!”

You bit the inside of your cheek at the idea of what the big hero would think about his shield being compared to a Frisbee – it certainly wasn’t the first time you heard this, but it never failed to amuse you.

“Really? That’s great. But do you know why he’s a real hero?”

The boy seemed thoughtful for a second before he measured you with wide eyes, clueless.

“Because,” you whispered, leaning closer to him conspiratorially, “he has a good heart and he’s helping people.”

The kid was in awe. The mother stared at you, still unsure of what you would do.

“Now the secret – we have one more rule here. If someone has enough strength to open the ticket barrier, he can come in even if there is only 20 minutes left.” Jamie’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open. “But, he can’t only open it for himself. He needs to be of a good heart and let someone else in. Do you think you can do that? Are you good?”

The kid immediately nodded in agreement, taking his mum’s hand. You smiled at him and looked at the woman hesitantly. Did you just screw up?

“Can you really let us in?” she asked you lowly when you levelled yourself with her. You just nodded wordlessly. You would have to put in someone’s year pass, but it would work.

The boy practically pulled his mum to the ticket barrier, impatient. He tried to push before you even took your place by the computer. The barrier didn’t move, of course. You mentally grinned at his confused expression and quickly entered a pass. He tried again, an amazed smile on his lips as he went through. Being on the other side, he pulled so his mum could get in too. He had an extremely focused expression on his face and he was too cute for his own good. The way he lighted up when the woman got in was simply priceless.

“Mom! I’m strong and good like Captain America!” he exclaimed enthusiastically and the woman patted his head lovingly.

“Yes, sweetheart. Now, let’s thank the nice lady-“

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. Now go to see your hero,” you whispered encouragingly, anxious to get them moving. You were suddenly worried that your interaction might attract someone’s curious eye. You prayed it hadn’t.

The mother shot you one more grateful look and let her son to drag her away. You went to throw the tickets away to destroy the evidence, picking few more on your way – why did people throw these on the floor when the trashcan was like three meters away?

"That was really nice of you."

"Crap!” you cursed, nearly jumping out of your skin at the fright. Someone had seen you let the kid in. Definitely. Oh shit. You quickly spun to the male voice. “I— please don't report me. I’m-“

You froze when you saw the man who had witnessed your offence to the regulations, recognizing him immediately despite his baseball cap and casual stance.

“OH CRAP."

"You seem to swear a lot though," he noted, the smile on his lips amused, cheeky even.

Captain America was a cheeky man. Who would have guessed? Not you, that was for sure. You slowly let the impossible fact of Steve Rogers being here sink in. It was not an easy task, your mind kept screaming ‘holy shit, Captain America is here and talking to me’, but that was not the main problem – the rule-breaking was. Captain America caught you breaking a rule. You were so fired.

"Well, someone who is not just anyone, caught me breaking a rule that is written in huge-a-“ you closed you mouth before another curse could leave you mouth, remembering his… teasing? “-huge letters for everyone to see. The American symbol of righteousness did, actually. I count myself entitled."

You were honestly proud of yourself for saying so many sentences without a stutter despite freaking out.

His smile turned a bit bashful, the amused spark remaining in his eyes only. Really? He was self-conscious? And now? Wow. Did he notice his face was all over the walls? The entire exposition was about him for god’s sake.

"I won't report you. I told you – I think it was really nice of you."

You hesitantly smiled back, still unsure. "Uhm... okay."

And then you did something you excelled at. You spun on your heels and returned behind the counter, pretending you didn’t exist. You didn’t even say goodbye; yet, you would swear that when was Steven Grant Rogers disappearing behind a corner, he glanced at you over his shoulder with a smile.

The moment you couldn’t see him anymore, you let your elbows hit the counter desk and your head fell into your palms with a whine.

You had talked to Captain America. He had been ridiculously nice despite – or because – of what he had seen you doing. And you ran away. You were such an idiot.

═══════☆═══════

To say that you forgot about the incident before it was time to kick people out would be a big fat lie – mainly because it had been only tens of minutes. It was time to close the exposition for visitors. The guards always took care of people, reminding them that it was time to go and by eight o’clock, the last individuals were leaving so you could close the gate. Today was your turn to check on the space once more as the guards were switching shifts and so you rose to your feet to perform your duty as your sort-of-friend Mia waved you goodbye.

Usually, there were no ‘left-overs’ as you called people who somehow managed to escape the security and stayed in. But naturally, with your turn being today, there had to be an exception.

You slowly approached the man standing by Sergeant Barnes’ panel, realizing who he was within several feet distance. You stopped dead in your tracks, unsure what do to.

What would anyone else do when finding Captain America standing by his dead best friend’s panel after clock? ‘Cause you sure as hell had no clue how you should proceed. You nervously bit your lip, continuing your way with no plan.

You stopped two steps from him, opening your mouth and-- no words came out. You closed it again, clearing your throat.

“Captain Rogers, uhm…“

He glanced at you, seemingly surprised, as if he only acknowledged you now, when you were standing at arm’s length – well, his anyway. His blue eyes measured you, a bit confused until he looked around only to see no one else was here. How the hell did the guard miss him? Or had he left him here? Should you do the same?

"Sorry, I'm leaving," he whispered with a forced smile, sparing one more glance at the board. You did the same, your eyes landing on the date of birth of the soldier. Your heart sank. Oh. It was suddenly very clear whether you should leave Captain alone here or not; it was the anniversary of his best friend’s birthday.

"You don't... you don't have to,” you blurted out hastily, waving it off in a wannabe casual gesture. He tilted his head, confused. “I need to do some… administrative stuff anyway. Have your moment."

"Really? Bending the rules again?" he asked, the teasing coming out much less challenging than he probably intended. You shrugged.

"Only if it's okay with the Star-Spangled Man."

He lowered his gaze to the floor, but a tiny grateful smile played on his lips. "It is. Thank you."

"It's nothing."

"It's a lot. And... my name is Steve."

He peeked at you from under his unnaturally long eyelashes, his eyes saying more than his words or tone. You felt your heart jump nervously, blood rushing to your cheeks. He actually extended his hand for you to shake. His hand was freaking huge – yet, it closed around yours rather gently despite being able to crush your bones to dust or something.

"Nice to meet you… Steve. It's an honour." One corner of his lips rose higher at the note and you just wished to disappear into thin air before you would turn into a puddle of lovesick jelly with rapidly beating heart. You took your leave hastily, whispering over your shoulder. “Take your time.”

It was only few minutes later when you were dully staring at the computer screen on the counter that you realized you hadn’t even introduced yourself to the man you apparently had a crush on – you were fucking working at his exhibition, how had you missed that? You whimpered silently and resisted urge to bang your forehead against the desk.

Almost thirty minutes later, you really needed to leave and kick Capt— Steve out. You really, really didn’t want to do that. You had secretly hoped he would pass your desk during ‘administrative stuff’ time, but he hadn’t.

Approaching him by the very same board you had left him at, you felt like a monster.

“Lots of memories?” you tried out, minding to whisper so you wouldn’t startled him like the last time.

“Yeah, more than I can count. Mostly the good ones though. He saved me from getting beat to a pulp multiple times. Often dragged me out to dance, because he met a new girl and she was generous enough to bring a friend – not that she was interested in a guy who was barely reaching her shoulders,” he hummed, remembering his pre-serum times probably. There was nothing malicious or envious in his words. He seemed melancholic. “Bucky was a true ladies’ man.”

You couldn’t help but grin – sure, with Bucky’s looks and him being excellent at about everything, you could imagine. But it was a little different, hearing it from Captain America himself.

“Was he now?”

“Oh yes. The first time a beautiful woman looked at me rather than at him, he said he was living a nightmare becoming me.”

“He didn’t,” you whispered incredulously, silencing the giggle that wanted to escape your lips. Damn, some best friend he was; you were sure Bucky only had been teasing and it felt so casual, so normal, just two friends making fun of each other. It wasn’t exactly easy to imagine that when all you had ever heard were legends of their bravery.

Steve glanced at you with a corner of his eye. “He did.”

“That’s mean. What did you say?”

His smile grew wider. “Not to be sore about it, because she sure had a friend.”

You burst out laughing, feeling like Mr. Righteous suddenly stepped into a column of light which made him someone completely else. Cheeky. Mischievous. Friendly in the most common way. Human. Just a guy. Just a kid from Brooklyn.

“I take it I really need to leave now,” he noted, his hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans as if he truly was a regular guy walking down the street. Unbelievable.

“Depends,” you hummed, not sure where that came from. “You have more fun facts like this to share? Or not funny ones, just interesting?”

He tilted his head curiously, examining you, trying to figure out whether you were serious.

“You won’t get into trouble?”

You shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

“In that case, I actually do. Follow me, madam.”

An hour later, your cheeks hurt, your tear ducts were probably dried up completely and your head was full of so many new information it should hurt, but instead, it was just buzzing pleasantly. Also, you were sure you had a heart condition, because that constant flutter could not be healthy. You were tired, yet, you found yourself being disappointed that the special tour was ending.

"Okay, now I feel really sorry we don't do guided tours. I would be so popular..." you exclaimed, rewarded by a grin from Steve.

"It's a thing to consider. You should offer it to your boss."

You let out probably very unattractive snort. "Sure. And why would we wanna do that, miss? Because Captain America took me on a tour and told me very interesting details. He would probably want to run blood tests to check for drugs or something.... Thank you, Capt— Steve. I imagine it couldn't have been all easy."

"It's memories. It still... still feels more like home," he admitted and after so many rather light facts, you were reminded of just how heavy his destiny was.

"I can't imagine that. Waking up after seventy years. It's..."

"Insane?" he offered, eyebrow raised.

"I was gonna say ‘lonely’, but sure, ‘insane’ works. Everything has to be so different."

"It is. The progress of technology... I mean... just phones and computers. It's… a lot."

"Yeah... I wonder how much the world would change if I fell asleep for 70 years now. Theories? More like flying cars or a huge garbage bin like in Wall-E?"

"Wall-E?" he questioned, looking a bit confused. Only then it hit you – he probably hadn’t seen it.

"Oh, right. It's an animated film set in the future. A robot named Wall-E is on Earth, searching for a sign of life, fauna, flora, anything, while the rest of humanity is on a huge spaceship. Not your typical Pixar movie. I remember seeing it as a kid and being bored out of my mind when the first twenty minutes was just the robot moving between trash and occasionally saying ‘Wall-E’. It gets better though. Still, it's pretty far from movies like Finding Nemo."

"…I don't know what that is either.”

"Dude! You gotta check out Finding Nemo!" you called out, half outraged, half excited. Then you froze. "I mean— sorry. Jesus, I just called you a dude-"

What was wrong with you? You had had troubles to switch from Captain to Steve, and now he was a dude? Talk about respect, young lady…

But Steve just laughed at you, a full-belly laugh with his head thrown backwards and it was so normal and relaxed that you found yourself starring incredulously and possibly a little bit in love.

"That's okay, really. You got very excited."

"It's an amazing movie! Do you... do you catch up with pop culture?" you asked, honestly curious.

Seventy years’ worth of books, movies, TV series, music, theatre… wow. You couldn’t imagine that.

"I'm trying," he admitted, pulling out a small notebook and a pen. For a split second, you thought he was gonna give you his phone number, which was ridiculous of course. He wrote something down, smiling. "Now I have other tips.” Now that made more sense. “Do they still play that?"

"Yeeeah... no. Not by a long shot. You can always downlo— how does Captain America feel about downloading stuff from the internet? I mean..."

"That's like... putting it into your computer without paying a single dollar, right?" he asked, just to be sure. It was cute.

"Yep. Which I don't do. At all."

His laugh was more subtle this time, but his eyes were locked with yours, causing you butterflies, so there was that. "Well, Captain America is very disappointed in you. Steve understands."

"Thanks, Steve. Is it offensive to say that it somehow matters to me more?"

"Not really."

His eyes shined and his smile was wrapping you in a soft warm blanket and you knew that if there was something you definitely didn’t want it was saying goodbye and never seeing this man again. In flesh, that was, the exhibition didn’t count. Your mind raced.

"...I just got the craziest idea."

"If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it,” he quoted god knew who. You assumed it was a quote, not that you wanted to underestimate this wonderful man. “Hit me with it."

You gulped nervously. This was as terrible idea as it was an amazing one.

"There are old slide projectors in here, sure... but there are digital projectors too. If you... if you wanted to... have a cinema-like atmosphere, I can download the movie for you to watch it here,” you offered reluctantly, carefully observing his reaction. “Hell, we have a microwave in personal’s, I can even make popcorn!”

He blinked at you, the shiny baby-blues baffled.

“Or not. It's a silly idea-"

"No!” he protested quickly, smiling reassuringly at you. “It's... it sounds really nice. Do you think the guards would be... okay with that? You did mean after closing time, right?"

Did he just say yes?

"Yeah, of course! And yes, I mean... it would be for Captain America. How could they say no?"

His cheeks seemed to flush – but that must have been the lighting only, right? Captain America was not freaking blushing. Though he did look a bit timid. "You would really do that?"

"Sure. I mean... I can try."

"Alright — but only if it's not too much trouble. I wouldn't want you to have problems with your employer," he said sincerely, his eyes locked with yours again and your heart honest to god stopped.

Christ, was he trying to give you a heart attack?

“ ’kay,” you breathed, completely lost, mesmerized by the intensity of his gaze.

What was your name again?

“If I give you my phone number, will you text me when you would have time?”

It was official; you had died and went to heaven. An incredibly attractive man was standing in front of you practically shoving you his phone number and it might have been purely friendly, but still. Oh. My. God.

“Yep.”

Really? ‘Yep’?

He pulled out the notebook again, tearing one page and writing down the digits. You forgot how to breathe. This was really happening. He handed you the paper with a shy smile and whispered ‘here you go.’ When he added your name, you were about to swoon.

He wrote down not only the number, but his name too. You found it adorable, chuckling at that.

“You think I’m carrying lots of phone numbers in my pockets, Steve?” you teased him about it a little and he seemed confused at first, until something that was not a flirtatious smile for sure settled on his lips.

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

Your breath caught in your throat, some inner voice screaming at you not to interpret it in a wrong way. Steve was a very nice person, that was a fact. He probably didn’t even realize how that sounded. Yeah, that was it.

You laughed it off. “Sure. Thanks, Steve, I’ll let you know. Hopefully, you won’t be busy.” Alright, backpedal, backpedal. “Thank you for the special tour, Captain.”

“You’re very welcome, ma’am,” he saluted and you chuckled silently. Who was this guy? Did you imagine this? Were you high? Maybe you really needed the blood tests… “Have a good night-- you need a ride?”

You almost choked on your own spit. BACKPEDAL.

Oh yes, you could use a ride. Whatever that meant.

You smiled awkwardly. “Uhm… no thank you. Goodnight, Steve.”

He returned the goodbye with a tiny smile.

You held the delighted shriek inside until five minutes passed since the door closed behind him.

You were in so much trouble.

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Part 2 (final)

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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart

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Awww, this one is an oldie of mine. Even more fluff than usual and that’s saying something...

#marvel #fanfiction #mcu #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader #captain america fanfiction #captain america imagine #captain america exhibit #fluff #lessons in rule-breaking #anika ann

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fermented-writers-block · 5 years ago

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With the recent developments in Mr. Universe and Fragments, I couldn’t help but be reminded of an old thought I came up with several months ago, back when the fandom thought that Steven’s pink mode was simply a heightened emotional state of some kind, and even though we know now that it actually is a stress response reaction, I can’t help but think it might still be applicable here to Steven’s current situation.

TLDR: Over the course of the series, Steven’s views of his mother had fallen and continued to fall very far away from its original pedestal due to the sheer barrage of harsh realities and troubling secrets constantly being upended and revealed, and the shifts in how he has felt about his mother’s legacy seems to tell a very interesting story. One of a long, rocky uphill battle against a mountain of expectations, and a sudden, sharp plunge into a ravine of self-loathing before finding one’s way out of the darkness.

When the original series first started, he looked up to Rose Quartz the protector of Earth, seeing her as the always kindhearted and perfect person whose legacy he felt like he had to live up to. He tried so very hard to be more loving and thoughtful like Greg and the Gems had told him Rose had been like thus far into the show - like he felt they expected him to be if he wanted to stay useful and thus someone they would actually keep around like In Dreams suggests - and he struggled with his constant failures to match up with such an impossible image, potentially even as early into the show as Laser Light Cannon with his desperate pleading for the titular weapon to work.

In the middle of the original series, as he heard more intimate stories about what Rose was really like in person from his family, found out about Bismuth’s bubbling, and had to be told by a stranger that his mother, someone he had been led to believe had always promoted peace, apparently shattered someone, his image of Rose the flawless hero turned into that of Rose the liar with an unknowable amount of secrets that hurt his family immensely.

He struggled with the question of whether Rose had made him for some untold grand plan, and he felt like he had to take care of the messes that she left behind, putting such a burdensome expectation on himself even though the Gems no longer expected him to be more like his mother. This culminated in I Am My Mom with his attempt to save his family from harm by resigning himself to sacrificing himself and atoning for his mother’s sins.

For the end of the original series, Pearl’s revelation that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person the entire time finally gave Steven a fuller picture of Rose the person, someone who was flawed and still had positive qualities, someone who tried very hard to become a better person. He felt like he had really found his space with the Crystal Gems, and they expected him to be himself.

And yet, with the strange and inexplicable glimpses of Pink Diamond’s memories as well as White Diamond's existential questions either inspiring or bringing such a thought to the front of his mind, Steven struggled with the fear that his mother was still alive somewhere deep within his consciousness, and that ‘Steven’ the person had just been a lie the entire time.

Post CYM and another of his mother’s secrets coming back to haunt him with Spinel, Steven had stopped worrying about who he isn’t. He now knows for certain that he’s not his mother, that she isn’t living in some dormant part of his gem ready to take back control.

But after years of trying to live up to the ideal of Rose the protector, fixing the mistakes of Rose the liar, and doing better than Rose the person with the way he pushed himself to help others, he now worries about - if there’s no one else left to help but himself - who and what Steven Universe is like if he isn’t his mother.

We’ve seen him struggle to deal with this identity crisis in Little Homeschool and Little Graduation, pushing himself to solve problems that he either couldn’t find a working solution towards or likely projected onto others out of desperation from his anxieties over being left behind.

He expects himself to already do better, already help better, already be better than all of this. His approach of putting other’s problems above his own has worked before, so he shouldn’t be failing if he’s still doing the same thing he’s done before, but with every inevitable misstep and every doubling down on trying to be more like he expects himself to be and failure, the more those expectations feel impossible to ever actually meet.

I’ve been a longtime follower of the Worm Theory ever since @novantinuum made the first post that really kicked things off for it, and soon after Volleyball aired, a thought had occurred to me in light of Steven’s attempt at managing Amethyst’s program.

With Steven’s expression from his cracked reflection at the Reef, I couldn’t help but wonder if Steven might develop the fear that - while he isn’t his mother - he might just be becoming like his mother, and especially in regards to her flaws and repeating her mistakes.

Let me be clear, I didn’t and still don’t think that the stress from such a fear would be even remotely close to being a major instigator for Steven to become the creature from the intro from his pink mode stress response, but with these newest episodes - particularly the ending to Fragments - it has felt like all of this had come to a head for Steven, and that we’ll soon see one of the actual instigating fears for his transformation in the finale.

In the promo, Steven looks like he’s trying to assure himself that he isn’t a shatterer, trying to reaffirm what he knows about himself in the wake of his accident with Jasper, but with the shot of him clearly leaving Jasper and the Gems behind, I feel that Steven may be struggling with the fear that he’s become like his mother there.

Or rather, the (apparent) reality that he’s become “WORSE” than her.

Even with all the horrible secrets she kept, Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond had never shattered anyone, and yet here Steven is, having done exactly that.

Never mind the fact that it was an accident, never mind that he is still the same kind and loving person at heart, never mind that he deeply regrets what he did, Steven’s sense of identity has been crumbling for a good while now with losing what he defined his life by in his ability to help people, and the fact that he had shattered someone and that said someone immediately acknowledged him as their Diamond could disintegrate nearly all of what sense of identity he has left.

These last few episodes, Steven’s mental health has been on a nasty decline in struggling with feeling like he either can’t rely on his support structure in Greg and the Gems for advice with his problems or that his support structures in Connie and his friends are drifting away, and because of this and how he might feel about himself after what happened with Jasper, the only place he may feel like he should be is on Homeworld.

Steven has put so much weight on himself to be a good person, to be better than his mother and all the horrible things she did, that this might just feel like a confirmation that he isn’t a good person, that even Rose was a better person than him despite the stuff she failed spectacularly at. There’s no more expectations to live up to on top of him, only what he really is now.

He had abandoned his human side in Mr. Universe, and now all that’s left is his gem side - that is, his Diamond side.

Or at least, that’s how it’d likely seem to him.

It’d feel like the only point of support and belonging he has left is with the other Diamonds, as the one thing Rose wasn’t and tried desperately not to be in the end was a Diamond herself, and he may feel like he should just embrace his place since he’s “just as bad as them.”

Not only that, but he also tried to emulate Jasper’s mentality, coping methods, and appearance in his struggle to find some kind of ‘solution’ for his ‘diamond powers,’ and as such, there’s one final place where he might just be able to get a ‘solution’ - even though there’s no such thing as a full on solution for dealing with trauma.

With that said, while they most likely won’t initially understand or be that concerned with Steven giving up on his humanity to be with them, I can’t help but feel like the Diamonds have changed enough that seeing Steven act “like a Diamond is supposed to” would shake them HARD.

Acting that way had been what hurt themselves and each other for millennia, and they’ve been able to feel happier and create a relatively healthier dynamic between the three of them under Steven’s guidance, so to see Steven turn his back on all of that could make them VERY concerned for him.

It’d put up an unsettlingly ugly mirror in front of the Diamonds to the people they used to be, and that for as much as they may have wanted Steven to be with them, this isn’t what they had in mind at all.

Perhaps that might end in an ironic reversal of what happened at the end of CYM, where instead of denying Steven as individual from his mother and trying to force him to be his mother out of a callous and arrogant kind of love, White acts out of a fuller love and genuine concern for Steven, and in the heat of the moment, accidentally slips back into some old behavior.

“I only want you to be yourself! If you can't do that, I'll do it! For! You!”

But whatever their response may actually be, this could very well be the second to last major tipping point for Steven at the very least, as at that point, EVERY person and place he thought he could turn to for advice or just finally belong to would likely either feel to him like they let him down or that they’re scared of what he feels he’s become.

Not even the Diamonds themselves feel like he belongs with them, and with how he felt like Connie had flat out refused to marry him instead of leaving an opening for them to talk about it later, I can easily see him extrapolating from the Diamonds’ reactions that he’s become not only worse than his mother, but ALL of the Diamonds.

Of course, the stress and anguish from this fear of himself and what he’s become most probably wouldn’t be the key factor behind him turning into the worm creature, just one of several major stresses that would likely influence such a transformation.

Like @faelapis has discussed, most of the other contributing stresses had already been unbalancing Steven for a long time towards this direction in his tightrope act, and this kind of recent fear would merely be the final gust of wind to finally push Steven off.

As for how Steven could potentially be brought from the brink of this particular fear (since I’m withholding speculation on what the exact other stresses could be until we get there), I can see one way that could help Steven with this and his struggle with holding himself to the standard of always being able to help others.

Mainly, with a potential mixture of something clicking for him to help him fully understand his mother’s choices and the self-loathing that seems to have been behind so much of said choices, and for something to help him with feeling like he’s supposed to always be a hero and fixing things, instead changing it to feeling like he’s a person for whom it’s completely okay to make a mistake, like it’s okay for him to not live up to an impossible ideal.

Like he is a human with both the bad and the good that comes with it.

That just because he has the power to change doesn’t mean that he should pressure himself to never screw up badly even by accident, and that just because he’s capable of screwing up badly even by accident doesn’t mean that he is incapable of learning, growing, and improving afterwards.

Whether this is accomplished through a combination of Greg and the Gems acknowledging how, even though they love him, they’ve messed up badly while raising him, Connie relating to his struggle to push himself to be better with her studies as well as the shared experiences they’ve been through, and some help from all the other countless people he’s helped over the years, I can’t claim to know.

But even though it can feel hard to do, even though it feels like you’ll never be able to pull yourself out of the dark, even though it may feel like you just keep failing over and over and over again, you can still always pick yourself up and change for the better.

#su #su meta #su spoilers #suf spoilers #steven universe #long post

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sagesparrow394 · 6 years ago

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Fat Bottomed Guys (You Make the Rockin’ World Go Round)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

AU: Human, College, Chubby Logan

Ships: Intrulogical, background Remile and Patton x Virgil x Roman

Summary: Logan wasn’t all too keen with his birthday surprise being a karaoke night at a bar. However, he was very surprised when someone, somehow, seemed to find him attractive, changing the lyrics of a song to show it.

Warning: Sympathetic Remus and Deceit, blood mention

——————

Logan Berry took in the scene before him. A bar was in front of him, music booming from inside. Posters in the windows said that that night, the 7th August, was a karaoke night.

His friends had taken him, Logan “I don’t like to sing” Berry, to a karaoke night for his birthday.

Well, this was just great.

“So...?” Emile Picani smiled from where he was stood behind his friend, waiting for Logan’s reaction.

“I’m not sure you thought this through. I’m not exactly a karaoke person.”

“You don’t need to be to enjoy it,” Remy Sleep replied. “It’s equally as fun to drink a bunch, and just watch your friends and strangers making fools of themselves. It’s what I usually do.”

“But not tonight as you promised you’d sing with me!”

“I know, Em, and I will.”

Ethan Dee Ceitful placed a hand on Logan’s shoulder. “Lo, I promise you’re gonna have fun. Remy’s right, it can be fun even if you don’t sing. Plus, I heard a few people from our college are gonna be here. Might be good to meet some people before tomorrow.”

Logan thought about it for a moment. He guessed meeting some people would be good... and it would be entertaining to listen to music and spend some time with his friends.

“Okay, lets go.”

Later, the four of them were sat at a table in the bar, drinks in front of them, and listening to the current song. A guy with tanned skin, red-brown hair, wearing a red crop top and white skinny jeans was currently singing Can You Feel the Love Tonight, seeming to be mostly directing towards to two others sat at a nearby table, one of which was blushing and smiling, and the other had their hood pulled up to hide their face. The third person at the table, who looked near identical to the person singing, only they had a moustache and a silver streak in their hair, was laughing his ass off.

“Hey, how about us four go and join the queue to sing a song?” Emile asked, pulling Logan’s attention back to the conversation.

“Um, no. No no. I thought I didn’t have to sing, and I’m not going to.”

“Hm... Not even if it were Hamilton?” Remy smirked. “Rap and history? I mean... there are four of us. Three Schuyler Sisters and one Aaron Burr.”

Logan considered for a moment, before sighing. “I dunno... I mean, you know how I am in front of crowds. There’s a reason I joined the astronomy club at high school and not the debate club, despite my talent in debating. I just don’t like having so much focus on my bo... on me.”

Emile, Remy and Ethan shared glances, seeming to have a silent conversation. They then proceeded to finish their drinks, before all standing up. Before Logan could ask what was going on, he was pulled to his feet and started to be pulled through the bar by his friends.

“Um, guys, what are you doing?”

“We’re gonna help you get over your confidence issues,” Remy replied as they joined the short queue for the karaoke machine.

“Huh? What, no, I can’t-“

“Lo, you shouldn’t let your body hold you back,” Emile comforted. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s perfect the way it is.”

“Wha-what? I’m not insecure about my body...”

None of the others were buying it. Logan sighed. “Okay, maybe I am a little... Okay, a lot. But I don’t think this is going to work. It’s too much at once!”

Ethan shrugged. “It’s best to face your fears before they become a phobia. You got this, Lo. We’ll be up there with you.”

Logan didn’t look so sure. But, unfortunately, he didn’t get long enough to find a good time to run away, as soon, he found himself stood with a microphone in hand, eyes on him and his friends.

Oh god.

Emile was scrolling through the karaoke machine, looking for the song. Eventually, with an “Aha!” he found it. “Ready, guys?”

Remy and Ethan nodded, and Logan took a deep breath. No way he was getting out of this now.

Emile pressed play on the song, and the instrumental of Schuylar Sister began. Ethan came in a moment later, singing Burr’s part. There was a “whoop!” from the crowd, specifically from the guy who had been singing Can You Feel the Love Tonight. Guess he was a Hamilton fan.

While Ethan rapped, Emile whispered, “Lo, you’re Angelica, I’m Eliza, Rem, you’re Peggy.”

Before Logan could protest, he had to come in singing. He took a deep breath as Ethan finished his first part, before coming in.

At the start of the song, he was tense, and held back. But as time went by, he just kept telling himself to pretend he was just singing with his friends and the crowd wasn’t there. He started to loosen up, and stop holding back.

The end of the song seemed like it came too soon. Usually, when he did have to do something in front of a crowd, time felt like it slowed, not sped up.

When the song finished, applause rang out, and Logan smiled... before hurrying off back to the table. The quicker he got out of the limelight the better.

The others followed behind.

“Lo, that was awesome!” Emile grinned. “You were great! Feel more confident now?”

“Not at all.” Logan went to take a seat before pausing. “I probably shouldn’t have the rest of my drink. There’s a chance it’s been drugged.”

“Good call. I’ll get us another round.” Ethan turned and headed to the bar.

“In the meantime, Em, how about we do a duet?” Remy suggested, wrapping an arm around Emile’s waist. Emile giggled.

“Steven Universe? Something Entirely New?”

“Sounds perfect.” Remy pecked his boyfriend’s lips, before the two went back to the queue for the karaoke machine.

And so, Logan was left alone at the table. It may have felt terrible, having his body shown off to everyone as he sung - he should have worn his baggy sweater - but he was glad he did it. Singing with his friends had been fun, as much as he would have preferred they had done it at a karaoke place with a private room.

At least it was something he could knock off the bucket list. He’d done it once, he didn’t need to do it again.

He rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, starting to get a little hot. He didn’t want to take it off so he was just in the tank top he was wearing underneath though. Too exposed for his liking...

He didn’t pay much attention to the singer after they had gone up, but the one after that drew his attention. He recognised the drum beat as the song began: Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen.

However, as the guy started singing, Logan’s whole attention was brought to it. You see, the guy singing got the words wrong. He didn’t sing ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’. He sang ‘Fat Bottomed Guys’.

Logan turned to look at the stage. The guy there was the moustached doppelgänger of the guy who’d sung Can You Feel the Love tonight.

And he was looking right at Logan as he sung.

As the two made eye contact, the singing guy sent Logan a wink. Logan felt his face heating up at this. No way. This was not happening. This guy was not singing about him. He probably just misheard the lyrics, and the wink was probably just an acknowledgement due to making eye contact.

But, nope, as the chorus came round again, and the guy sung the words ‘Fat Bottomed Guys’.

Logan didn’t know what to say or do. This guy was literally flirting with him through song.

Now that Logan thought about it, he’d never been flirted with before. No one was really interested in chubby guys. He had no idea what you were supposed when you’re being flirted with. Run? That seemed like the best option right now, just run away and avoid this whole situation.

Oh no. He couldn’t. The guy had finished the song and was walking up to him.

Logan felt his face getting hotter and hotter as the guy came closer. Oh god, he was really cute. His hair was messy, but it was a messy that actually looked good. His eyes were a bright emerald, and had a slim yet toned frame.

“Hey,” the guy smiled, holding out his hand. “Remus Duke. Nice to meet ya.”

Logan took Remus’ hand, shaking it. “Um, Logan Berry...”

“You know, I must say...” Remus took a seat opposite Logan. “That was the best performance of Schuyler Sisters I’ve ever heard. And I saw it on Broadway. You’re really talented.”

Logan felt his face somehow even heat up even more, like it was going to burst into flames in any second. There was no way this was happening, no way this was real. “O-okay, you can stop now...”

Remus’ eyebrows furrowed. “Stop what...?”

“This! Pretending you think I’m hot or whatever. I get it, ‘haha, look at that guy, he’s fat and lonely, let’s try and get his hopes up and then bring them crashing down so he starts crying and makes a complete fool of himself’. I’ve seen through your charade, you don’t have to keep it up.”

Remus looked horrified at this. “Jesus Christ... Who the fuck’s done that to you in the past? I need their names and addresses so I can knock them out with the morning star I stole from a museum.”

“...What?”

“It’s actually a really funny story. Me, my twin, Roman, and his boyfriends were at the museum, I started to get a little pissed at being a third- well, I guess fourth wheel, actually-”

“No,” Logan cut over him. “Um, sorry, I wasn’t saying ‘what’ to that... though I’m kind of interested now. I meant more, ‘What? You’re actually serious about this?’“

“Well, yeah, of course. I’m only a dick to my friends, not complete strangers. Plus, do you think I’d put in the effort of singing an entire song for a joke?”

Logan shrugged. “One guy went to the effort of pretending to be bi, asking me out to prom, rigging the ballot so I got picked as prom king, and - I can only assume he’d either read or watched Carrie recently - dumped pigs’ blood over me. Claimed it was the ‘last thing I needed to complete my transformation into a pig’. He was arrested, of course, but it’s safe to say, I’m glad to be out of high school.”

“...Jesus.”

“Yeah... You’d think I was the only fat person in school. I wasn’t, I was just the only one who wasn’t confident about my body, so I was an easy target...”

“Gosh...” Remus could hardly believe what he was hearing. “I’m so sorry... You must have gone to a horrible school.”

Logan shrugged again. “It wasn’t the school itself, just the other students. I had good friends to help me through, though.”

“That’s good. And, it makes you feel better, having more body fat doesn’t make you a pig. If anything, I’m the pig. My room has been called a sty on multiple occasions.” He paused as Logan giggled a little. “Nah, body fat just makes you softer, which means you give better cuddles. You’re like a teddy bear! Everyone loves teddy bears.”

Logan smiled a little, blushing. “Thanks..’”He paused. “Oh god, I just realised I’ve been venting my past trauma to a complete stranger... I’m so sorry, I-“

“No, no, it’s okay,” Remus reassured. “I get it. I didn’t exactly have the greatest childhood experiences either. Parents divorced when I was young when my dad realised he was gay. Roman stayed with Dad, Mom dragged me off with her. She was pretty neglectful, so I ended up a little messed up... She couldn’t handle me and dumped me back with dad just before my freshman year. I didn’t fit into the happy trio that was my dad, his new husband, and Roman. I just had to force my way into a gap in the puzzle that didn’t exist... But the point is, I understand your pain, and I don’t blame you for wanting to vent it out.”

Logan smiled a little. “Thanks...” He looked over to the table where Remus’ twin was standing up. “I’m guessing you and Roman managed to find a way to get along again.”

“Yep. Which was, honestly, surprising. I think it’s his boyfriends. Patton’s making him more kind and open, and Virgil’s making him realise dark and edgy can be cool.”

“Remus!” Roman called. “We’re heading off! Come on!”

“What?! But the night’s still so young!”

“And we’re also moving into our dorms tomorrow, we’re heading home!”

“Ugh, fine...” Remus stood up. He grabbed a napkin and pulled a pen from his pocket. He scrawled something down before sliding the napkin to Logan. “Call me, Teddy Bear.” With a wink, he turned and walked off.

Logan watched him walk away, before picking up the napkin. There was Remus’ number, along with a message:

My Fat Bottomed Guy, you really do make the rockin’ world go round ;)

- The Duke

Logan smiled, face flushing. He slipped the napkin into his pocket, tucking it in properly so he wouldn’t lose it.

Ethan came back over, drinks in hand. As he put them down, he noticed Logan’s expression. “What’s got you all red in the face?”

“Oh, um, it’s probably just the drinks,” Logan responded. “You know I’m a bit of a lightweight.”

“We’ve been having non-alcoholic drinks. We’re underage.”

“... Right. I’ve been having Coke, and you know I am a sugar lightweight. I’ve probably just got a bit of a sugar high.”

“You have the biggest sweet tooth known to man, you have sugar all the time and never have a sugar high. But you obviously don't want to tell me the truth, so I won’t pry.”

“Thanks...”

Logan looked around his half of the dorm room, fully decorated and all his stuff put away. Yes, this was adequate.

He sat down on his bed. This was going to be his home for the next four years. Well, unless he moved out to live off campus with some friends in later years, which he likely would. It depended how long his he and his friends would be able to tolerate their roommates.

His eyes wandered to his desk. Led there was the note from the night before, Remus’ number as well as the message from him on it.

Logan stood up and stepped over to his mirror. He lifted his shirt, exposing his belly. He poked and prodded at his fat.

What did that man see in him? In this? How on Earth could someone be attracted to him? He was a pig. A whale. A-

“Huh. Well, isn’t this a nice coincidence. Hey, Teddy Bear.”

Logan turned around, eyes widening. His roommate placed the box on his bed before turning back to Logan. Remus smiled. “You know, a crop top would be a good look for you.”

Logan’s face flushed a little, pulling his shirt back down. “You’re my roommate, huh?”

“Looks like it. Which, I must say, is a great turn of events, wouldn’t you say?”

Logan hummed. “If you hadn’t told me yesterday that you often leave your room a pig’s sty, maybe I’d agree with you.”

“Damn! Didn’t know you were sassy as well as cute. And judging by your decor, smart too. You’re the whole package. How has no one snatched you up yet?”

The other boy’s face heated up more. “I guess most people just focus on my exterior instead of my personality. And those who don’t mostly just think I’m a nerd.”

“And those people are asshole,” Remus responded, hanging up one of his posters which appeared to be for a very gory comic book.

Logan smiled. “Can I just ask... ‘The Duke’?”

“I know. Cool nickname, huh?” Remus replied, causing Logan to roll his eyes. He then continued, “Say, Lo, me Ro, Pat and Virge were all gonna head out tonight. Heard the bar’s having another karaoke night, and all college students get a happy hour deal. Two for one on all drinks. You and your friends oughta come along.”

Logan considered it, before nodding. “Yeah. That sounds like fun. Well, as long as we don’t stay out to late. Classes start tomorrow after all.”

“Sweet. I already can’t wait.”

Remus was the first to go up and sing a song that evening when they were at the bar. He and Logan had been conversing happily and getting to know each other better until then.

Now Remus was gone in the queue, he turned to the other conversations at the table. Roman and Ethan were talking about their favourite musicals - turns out they were both theatre majors. Patton and Emile were talking about cartoons, and Remy and Virgil were complaining about their roommates to each other.

The two friend groups meshed together really well, you could hardly tell this was their first days meeting. It was nice to see.

“Looks like it’s Remus’ turn,” Roman pointed out, drawing everyone’s attention to the front of the bar.

Remus scrolled through the songs. He finally found the one he was looking for, selecting it. As the instrumental began playing, he sent a wink to Logan, before singing.

“I like big butts and I cannot lie! You other brothers can’t deny! When a guy walks in with a chubby soft waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung!”

Logan’s face burned. He honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe both.

The others at the table had obviously chosen the first option.

“Damn, Lo, didn’t know you had a secret admirer,” Ethan smirked.

“Wouldn’t exactly say that’s secret,” Virgil replied.

Logan sighed, but couldn’t help but smile.

That mess of a human singing to the room right now would be his roommate for the next few years.

And honestly? Logan couldn’t be happier about that.

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