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skeletonmob · 10 days ago

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Catharsis - Chapter 12

Chapter 11

Masterpost

Chapter 13

Word Count ~ 2850

Reading Time ~ 14min.

Aug 5

Maria, Autumn, and Lily spent the day at Carnival – an indoor mini golf course, arcade, and bar. It was located in an old turn of the century brewery a few blocks away from Coors Field. The actual mini golf course was located on the second floor and it was surprisingly quiet. There were numerous speakers overhead playing music, but unlike most other places, they weren't purposely trying to give you a headache. You could also hear music and arcade machines radiating through the floor, but you'd only be able clearly hear them if you were next to the stairs. Beyond that, there were also other groups taking and sound effects from the various holes. Overall, the total volume was akin to the food court at Park Meadows on a very slow day.

The three were led upstairs by Sam, who began explaining everything.

"So we have three courses: yellow, green, and blue. The ends of all of these courses have a . . . they basically have a deposit box of golf balls, and that's how we retrieve them. DO NOT try to fish your golf ball out of that!" Sam pointed to a row of oversized gumball machines that were filled with colored golf balls, "You're supposed to get a new ball for every course, that's just how we keep them in circulation and help keep track of things. If your tokens somehow disappear, just show your stamp to the front desk and we'll get you some more."

"Okay." Autumn could sort of see the logic behind it, but not entirely.

Sam pointed towards a counter stall with a neon martini sign by it.

"If you want to order drinks, you can do so at that counter. You can either pick them up there or say 'we're on hole three of the green course' and someone there will bring it to you. Bathrooms are also just past there. If you have any more questions ask somebody over there or stop by the front!"

"Of course!" Lily cheered.

Sam headed downstairs. The three got their golf balls and set about their mini golf journey. An array of green rectangles, colorful plastic props, and equally colorful lights stretched out before them.

"Which one do you want to start with?" Autumn asked.

"They all seem pretty fun!" Lily exclaimed.

"I was planning on going from right to left." Maria said.

"Let's start with the one in the middle." Autumn suggested, "It looks pretty flat compared to the others."

Maria and Lily agreed. The green course was your basic mini golf course. There was a large windmill in the center and a skull mountain directly behind it. There was a hole shaped like a half pipe, one with a loop-de-loop, and many others with sharp angles and a variety of non standard layouts. Beyond that it was your typical mini golf course.

The blue course was next. From a distance, it looked like a theater stage. A large wooden cutout of the Rocky Mountains stretched the length of the wall, with a cutouts of various plants and animals in front of it. The idea was that you were hiking through the wilderness, and you had to zig-zag your way up the mountain before heading back down to start the green course. The highlight for them was the 'salmon run', where you had to gently guide your ball up a long staircase that was painted to look like a cascading river.

"Hey! Do you guys want something to drink?" Lily asked as they finished this course.

"Didn't you guys want to go out to lunch later?" Autumn asked.

"Yeah, but we can still get something small to tie us over. It's getting kind of stuffy in here anyway."

Maria checked her phone. It was a quarter till one. The lunch rush was in full swing, and by the time they'd finished it would probably be over.

"Sure, we're probably going to get hamburgers anyway." she said.

The three of them headed over to the counter and looked at the menu. There was a small selection of beer, a variety of cocktails, a lot of dessert and a lot of fried food.

"You want to get the fish and chips or the coconut shrimp?" Lily asked.

"Won't that be too heavy?" Autumn objected.

"If each of us eats a third of it, then not really." Maria said.

After some more thought and discussion, they decided on the coconut shrimp platter. Both Maria and Autumn got a Cancer cocktail, which was a mix of Prosecco, gin, lime syrup, and coconut syrup. Leo season was going to start soon, but it felt like the appropriate drink for coconut shrimp. Lily got a pina colada.

After they ordered, Lily headed into the bathroom. Within a few moments, a familiar voice came to haunt the couple.

"Hey!" Leon slammed his hand onto the table they were at, "You should totally come to my tech showcase on the 8th! It's going to be super aweso - "

"Dude! Stop stalking us!" Autumn shouted.

"I'm not stalking - "

"Yes, you are! It doesn't matter if you're the richest man alive! You don't just walk up to people ask if they can be best friends with you!"

"Listen, I'm not trying to become friends with any of you! I'm just trying to advertise!"

"Says the world's most divorced man."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT!" Leon's scream echoed throughout the room, grabbing everybody's attention.

Leon started going on a tangent about how nobody appreciated him. How nobody acknowledged his hard work. How nobody acknowledged his genius ideas. How no woman he met acknowledged his charm. Neither Maria or Autumn were paying attention. Autumn was desperately trying to remove the rubber head from his golf club, to no avail. The shaft was made of steel and it was the most immediate wand he had on hand. Maria was simply standing there in shock, worrying once again why Leon was so obsessed with bringing her into his inner circle. Though she didn't have to worry for long, as security came to drag Leon kicking and screaming away.

Lily exited the bathroom just in time to see Leon being dragged away. She rushed over to her friends.

"What happened?" She frantically asked.

"Fuckboy was trying to 'advertise' to us again." Autumn said, exasperated.

Lily looked at the tickets on the table.

"Oh, this is for that tech show or whatever! We should totally go!"

The was a confused pause.

"You want to go?" Maria asked.

"Yeah! There's been a lot of talk online about pulling an epic prank on him during the show. I've even seen some actual blueprints!"

"That's just people talking shit about him." Autumn retorted.

"No, for real! I've even seen a video where a maintenance guy talks about all how easy it is to hack into a sound stage and stuff!"

"Again, that's just people talking shit. That doesn't mean they actually want to go through with it."

"Come on! We have to go! If something crazy does happen, we have to be there!"

-----

Maria was anxious. She couldn't stop thinking about her multiple encounters with Leon. She desperately hoped that he was just trying to rebuild his reputation. Trying prove how cool and awesome he was. But more and more it seemed like he had an unrequited love for her. Maria, of course, did not want her life to turn into a soap opera. She went through enough emotional turmoil when Brandon died. She needed to address this problem somehow. But how, exactly?

It'd take a few weeks, maybe even a few months, to get a restraining order and it probably wouldn't do anything. Getting him to a therapist would probably be impossible. Leon was definitely one of those guys who thought he could do no wrong. Distracting him with new hobbies or community service might work, but that had a high risk of backfiring. Maria could lie and say she was trying to get into 40K or something and convince Leon to come along, but he might interpret that as a date. She also wasn't very confident in her acting skills.

Maria stared at the ceiling for a long while. She then suddenly sat up, eyes immediately locking onto the box with all of Brandon's letters in it. Leon was definitely trying to rebuild his reputation. He was trying to prove to the world that he was a cool, chill dude, especially because the majority of the public blames him for starting the Bullion War. She was certain of that much. The solution, she figured, was to show him how uncool she was. Prove to him that they'd be incompatible on every level, that she would not be a good fit for his inner circle, that she had nothing to offer him. Revealing her past with Brandon would make her seem 'tainted' in his eyes.

Maria picked up a beige envelope. The idea sounded like it could work, but it also felt very . . . disgraceful. It felt insulting to reveal all these personal details, especially after everything Brandon had went through.

Apr 18, 2014

Dear Maria,

There was a car bombing outside the Ministry of Utilities building yesterday. The minister himself is fine, but there was a lot of collateral. About 30 people were injured. Me and everyone else secured the area then helped the ambulances as best we could. There's a good handful of kids who're in critical condition. A lot of them were bleeding from the head from being thrown by the blast. There was one girl who suffered a bunch of 1st degree burns. I haven't heard if they're going to pull through yet.

Honestly, I don't really know how I feel about all this. It was horrible what happened, but at the same time, I'm kind of relieved that the other shoe finally dropped. Then I feel guilty for thinking that. I guess I'm just shocked overall? Some of the older guys are congratulating me on 'losing my virginity' and that just feels so callus. But I can't object. Everyone will just call me a pansy or say that's just how things are and I should deal with it.

I really just want to go home.

Brandon

Aug 6

The flypaper flower had completely died off a few weeks ago, and I chopped the stalks down so they wouldn't fall over and crush the other plants. There were some more aphids on the basil and the peppers, which I killed with Saturn magic once again. The stems of the basil were becoming woody and were less fragrant than before. There were a few offshoots growing from our previous session, but I think this would probably be the last time we'd be able to harvest them. The peppers had exploded in number and showed no sign of stopping.

"Have you done anything with these guys?" I asked.

"Like, actual cooking? I've made some stir fry and a jar of chili flakes with them." Maria responded.

"Great! Just letting you know that local restaurants will gladly take these off your hands if there's too much for you."

"Do you just walk up and hand them a bag? I've never actually done that."

"You normally just ask someone there if they need anything, and if you have it on hand, you can give it to them. Your local Asian or Mexican restaurant would probably have the most use for hot peppers."

"There's a Nashville hot chicken place near my apartment."

"That works too!"

I had brought a large wicker basket from home and it was starting to fill up fast.

"Do you know why – has there been any research into the psychology of celebrities?" Maria suddenly asked after a moment of silence.

"Not on celebrities specifically." I answered, "Most research is usually done with average Joes like you and me, but if it's done well, you can extrapolate out to the population overall."

"Do you know why rich people are so neurotic then?"

"Like on reality TV or just in general?"

"Like . . . like with Leon Funk. Why people like him act the way they do?"

"Well, it's a long story," I explained, "There've been multiple longitudinal studies that've tried to figure out the correlation between economic status and parenting styles. The hypothesis was that if parents have more money, then their kids will generally have better access to healthcare, education, and leisure. So the more money parents make, the more relaxed and carefree they'd be. However, every study done on that subject concluded that rich parents tend to have highly neurotic, entitled, and or misanthropic kids."

"So Leon acts the way that he does because of his parents?"

"Yes, but that begs the question: why are the parents like this? The general consensus is that the more money you have, the easier life will be, yet these studies seemingly contradict that. So more studies were done, this time on the parents. The majority of parents in the study were afraid of losing their money or social status, so they tried everything they could to get their kids into Ivy League schools or train them to take over the family business. Because of this, many kids felt like their parents didn't listen to them, or felt like they had no control over their life, or felt like the universe was being cruel to them."

"I'm assuming the story doesn't end there."

"Yes, because that still begs the question: why are the parents like this? We can keep assuming that it's because of their parents, but that line of logic doesn't stop. It's also unlikely that every single family has generational trauma and that it's lasted for centuries. The next assumption would be because of society, but that also doesn't hold any water. The average crime rate for any major metropolitan area is about .07% and about 85% of people have reported that they're happy with the current position they're in. You could also just assume that they're inherently assholes, but that's not a good answer from a psychological perspective."

I took a drink of water. Maria stared at me with a confused look on her face. She had no idea what this was leading to.

"So, after musing on this for a great long while, psychologists came up with the theory of the Death Drive. It states that one's own mortality is the driving motivation underpinning all of human behavior."

Maria glanced back down at the peppers, dumbfounded. Like she felt silly for not realizing something so obvious before.

"So Leon is the way he is because of his parents," Maria summarized, still processing it all, "But he also acts the way that he does, because he's afraid to die?"

"Yes, but more specifically, the theory states that how a person confronts their mortality determines their overall behavior. Many people confront it by trying to live the most fulfilling life possible. They try to help others or experience as much of the world as they can. Others will try to gain as much money and fame as possible in an attempt to shield themselves from it."

"And according to the theory, that's what Leon's doing. He's trying to gain as much money and fame as possible."

"Yes."

Maria's hand slowly reached out to another ripe pepper. She pulled it off with a quick twist.

"It does sound convincing." She said, "But it also feels . . . "

"Too simple?"

"No, it just feels . . . very depressing. Like, there's people out there who are actively wasting their lives to try and become the next viral sensation."

"That is sad, but according to the theory, they think it'll help. Plus, if death comes for us all, why not try and make your name last throughout the ages? At least you're still doing something with your life, and it's better than sitting around being miserable all day."

"Yeah . . . "

Maria rested her arms and continued to contemplate everything. I went back to harvesting the last few peppers I could. I just barely heard her whisper something as I finished.

"Guess this is my only chance."

"Huh?"

"Oh! Before I forget, I got tickets to Leon's tech showcase." She handed me two tickets, "Could you come along with me?"

My hand jolted out but then hovered around the tickets.

"He's not forcing you to go, is he?"

"No, but my friend is convinced that it's going to become the internet meme of the century."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"Well . . . like we've been saying, you only live once. And I think it'd be best if you were there with me."

My hand hovered around the tickets for a moment more before I took them. This felt a bit out of character for her, but I assumed that she'd been debating this and that our conversation had convinced her to go through with it.

#writing #writers on tumblr #writers on ao3 #archive of our own #long post #original story #catharsis #ouranos #gardening #worldbuilding #urban fantasy #mini golf #no ai art #no ai used

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skeletonmob · 23 days ago

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Catharsis - Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Masterpost

Chapter 12

Word Count: ~ 2040

Reading Time: ~ 10min.

Jul 31

Even after their many encounters, Joseph couldn't understand why Jae had such a stick up his ass. Why was he being so stubborn about this? Why was he constantly rejecting Joseph's advice? Why was he pushing away anyone who wanted to help him? It's understandable that Jae wanted to carve his own path, but if he really wanted internet stardom, he was going to need help. And who better to ask than someone who'd already accomplished the journey? The only conclusion Joseph could draw from all this, was that Jae didn't respect him as a critic or as a person.

"Are you sure this'll work?" Gale asked, looking up from the instructions.

"Of course it will! He can't keep pushing me away forever!" Joseph snapped.

Gale wasn't convinced. The two had come to Wizard's Chest and were planning on roping Jae into a game of Apothecary - a cooperative game where players take on different roles to try and manage an apothecary. Joseph was hoping this would show Jae he could be trusted. Gale primarily went along with this plan so he'd have an opportunity to actually apologize. Though it appeared that had been a fool's errand from the start. Gale had bought a small box of cookies from a local bakery, and Joseph had voraciously eaten all of them as he furiously set up the game.

As they were about done setting up, Jae had walked down, noticed them, and then promptly turned around.

"Hey, wait!" Gale noticed him out of the corner of his eye.

Jae rushed up the stairs and out the front door. To the left of the store was a parking lot that connected to the alley behind the building. Anticipating another argument to break out again, Jae bolted into the alleyway. Both Gale and Joseph ran behind.

"Please, wait!" Gale yelled, "I just want to apologize!"

Jae came to a halt. The two caught up to him and caught their breath for a second.

"I'm sorry for what happened at the art show!" Gale launched into his apology, still catching his breath, "I was just in a bad mood that day and wanted to take my frustrations out on something. I was also planning on buying a small apology gift for you - "

"But we decided that we wanted to play board games with you instead!" Joseph interrupted.

"Hey - "

"We thought that was a better way to apologize to you than bribing you with gifts. We got a game of Apothecary all set up! You wanna join?"

There was a very long, tense pause as they awaited his answer.

. . . . .

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm not interested." Jae responded in a formal, flat tone.

"We can play something else if you want!" Joseph pleaded.

"I don't want to hang out with you."

"Why not?"

"Listen, I've seen some of your reviews." Jae's voice was thick with spite, "You constantly complain about how crafting mechanics are overused or that the management sim aspects are underdeveloped. Then you pick out a board game that's centered on both of those, and you're just completely cool with it?"

. . . . .

"Y-yeah . . ."

"You're doing a piss poor job of convincing me otherwise."

"GOOD FUCKING HEAVENS! Why are you like this? All I've been doing this whole time is trying to help - "

"The only thing you've been doing this whole time is trying to butter me up!"

"No, I have - "

"YES, you have! All you've been doing is giving me unsolicited 'advice'. You haven't asked me how I've been feeling. You haven't asked for my thoughts on the situation. You haven't even asked me what my favorite color is! How the fuck are you supposed to apologize to me if you don't know anything about me?"

Joseph desperately wanted to retort, but couldn't. Jae words dug into him much like that malevolent aura when they were first cursed.

"And the only reason you're doing this is to save your sorry ass! You don't care about board games! You don't care about about me! I bet you don't even care about video games! The only thing you care about is BEING RIGHT!"

There was another long, tense pause as Joseph tried to think of a counterpoint. He couldn't. Jae started walking away.

"Hey!" Gale began again, "I'm really sorry -"

"Piss off!"

Aug 2

Over the past week, Jae had basically been fueled by pure spite. He'd managed to complete the prototype within a matter of days, and used the rest of his time trying to calm himself down. Partly because because he didn't want his heart and mind constantly racing, and partly because Nelly was also visiting again. The Lion's Gate Festival – held to commemorate the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox – was being held from July 31st to Aug 2nd. Nelly had of course visited the festival back in Chicago, and thought that it was time to see how Denver did theirs.

Jae wasn't partaking in the festivities though, not yet anyway. There was something he needed to do first. He rushed down the non-descript hallways of the Gateway building straight towards the R&D department.

"You're late!" Mason shouted condescendingly as he entered, "Weren't you supposed to come in on the 1st?"

"Everyone was closed for the holiday yesterday." Jae responded flatly.

"Not us! We're built different!"

"Built like boring assholes who don't like fun?"

Mason was about to object but didn't have the chance as Jae promptly pulled out his prototype. It was a clear plastic model of the planet Saturn, with a cardboard base and a various notes drawn on it with permanent marker.

"That looks like shit!" Jax said.

"You wanted something unique, right?" Jae continued, unfazed, "Having it planet shaped is pretty unique, and it's much better than the octahedron idea in terms of branding. Not everyone has formally studied magic, so taking inspiration from alchemy and astrology might seem too esoteric to some. Plus, if you tried going that route, everyone'll just think you're pretentious or that you're making shit up."

The other three men simply stood and stared in amazement. They would never put this much thought into the design of a product. Not that they'd ever admit it.

"The ring itself is solid plastic. You can put all the power buttons and stuff on there. It's also grooved so you can hold it better. I was thinking of putting a hole in it so you'd have a more traditional handle shape, but that'd ruin the whole vibe this thing's going for. The bottom is also flattened slightly, so you can place it where ever. And you can also place the whole thing on its side if you need to direct the speakers."

Jae demonstrated as he spoke. The other three men remained silent. In hindsight, the design was obvious. They felt rather stupid for not thinking of it at all.

"That's so cool!" Chad said, trying to breaking the silence.

"Yeah! And it's great you brought it in so early! We can totally make a working prototype within the week!" Mason answered, still rather hypnotized.

Jax gingerly picked up the model, also still rather hypnotized, "Yeah, this . . . this'll be a great prototype!"

"We can give you free tickets to the tech showcase!" Mason continued.

"You're not going to pay me?" Jae asked menacingly.

"Oh . . . uh, you're not officially an employee here, so we can't pay you."

"Isn't this supposed to be an internship? You don't pay interns? Or any freelance consultant?"

"U-uh, the company only has unpaid internships." Chad stuttered.

"Wow, even after all the protests. Can you at least credit me for the design?"

"W-well . . . you're an intern, so you're not technically an employee h-here - "

Jae raised a hand to stop Chad and sighed in frustration as he did so. He anticipated something like this would happen, but never thought that it would. Based off his experience, Leon and his fans were too spineless to commit to any threat or even retaliate.

"Well, if the tech showcase goes really well, then we'll hire you!" Mason pleaded, "Then we can officially pay - "

"Shut up!"

Jae quickly thrashed his arm around before tightly closing his hand, as if he was squeezing a stress ball. The air was suddenly filled with an immense amount of static. Sensing trouble, Jax tossed the prototype away from him. It transmuted into water as it hit the table, splashing across the smooth plastic and dripping onto the floor.

Before any of the three men could fully process what had happened, Jae pulled out all his design sketches and notes from his bag. He callously tossed them onto the table and they also transmuted into water.

"Hey - "

"DON'T EVER TALK TO ME EVER AGAIN!" Jae shouted and bolted out of the room.

-----

Jae never went to the festival. For a brief moment, he thought that maybe some frivolous fun would help take his mind off things, but he knew that wouldn't happen. Instead, he simply found an empty dock to sulk at, jumped the fence, sat down and stared at the water.

It was a clear, warm summer night. Despite that, you couldn't see many stars reflected in the water. Cornflower Lake gently rippled back and forth, lapping at boats and the wood underneath the dock. The faint reflection of streetlights also rippled along with the water, as if the two were desperately trying to mix together. Off in the distance, past those streetlights, crickets chirped their nightly tune. Past that, you could just barely hear the clamor of the festival, occasionally broken up by joyful screams and ecstatic cheering.

"Hey, you want some funnel cake or something?" Nelly's voice suddenly appeared beside him.

Jae took of his mask, looked up at her for a second, then focused his gaze on a boat just behind her.

"Oh, I just cut the lock and walked over here!" she explained, "I know Jupiter magic's more your thing, but small stuff like that is pretty easy."

"No, it's fine." Jae solemnly said, "I'm just not in the mood to have fun."

"Do you want me to leave?"

Only silence answered her. Nelly quietly sat down next to Jae. If there was a time to console him, it was now. As to how she should do that, she was unsure. Several minutes passed. At that point, Nelly thought just being physically present would be enough, but decided that she had to say something. He was clearly suffering. He’d nearly submitted himself to the corporate machine. There was another long, suffocating silence as she finally determined what to say.

"You know people do like your stuff," she finally said, "You don't need to impress a bunch of rich people to be an accomplished artist."

"I know," Jae sighed, "But most of the time, it feels like nobody cares. They just look at your art, say 'that's cool', and then move on."

"Isn't that what you wanted? You want people to recognize you artistic talent?"

“I want . . . something more than that. You always hear stories about artists getting picked up from art collectives, or some new author who got into the industry because of their connections, and it feels like I’m doing something wrong, y’know? Like, this isn’t the way things are supposed to be.”

“Just because they get picked up doesn’t mean that they’re good. Everyone on Instagram basically trashes every new YA novel that comes out.”

“I know, then I start to think I can do better. I can give the people what they really want. But I’ve been trying all this time and nothing’s come from it. Then I think I’ve discovered a way to finally do that – I can finally get my big break – but it never works out.”

“Do you just want to be in a position where you can create art as you please?”

. . . . .

"I think . . . that I just don't want to be dust in the wind."

#writers on tumblr #artists on tumblr #ao3 #archive of our own #original story #original art #ouranos #worldbuilding #urban fantasy #no ai art #no ai used #angst #summer #writing #long post #catharsis #gay #lgbtq

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