#*trying to prevent writing this andrew idea*

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Prokop at Vox:

Former President Donald Trump has lately been trying to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming it was cooked up by the “severe right” and that he doesn’t know anything about it. But it turns out the severe right is coming from inside the house. Kevin Roberts, the self-proclaimed “head” of Project 2025, has a book coming out in September — and the book’s foreword is written by Trump’s vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, who lavishly praises its ideas. “Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism,” Vance writes, according to the book’s Amazon page. “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

What ideas? Like Vance, Roberts is obsessed with the idea that the left controls major American institutions — he lists Ivy League colleges, the FBI, the New York Times, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Department of Education and even the Boy Scouts of America. The book argues that “conservatives need to burn down” these institutions if “we’re to preserve the American way of life.” (Vox has requested a copy of the book, but has not yet received one at the time of this writing.) Obviously, this poses a problem for Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the virally unpopular Project 2025 and its lengthy agenda for what he should do if he wins, which includes proposals to restrict abortion access and centralize executive power in the presidency.

And it’s one more indication that Trump’s pick of Vance might be politically problematic for him. Vance has a fascination with provocative and extreme far-right thinkers, and a history of praising their ideas. He is not a running mate tailored to win over swing voters who are concerned Trump might be too extreme — quite the opposite. The book was written and announced before Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate. But there’s some indication that people involved had some late second thoughts about it. It was originally announced as “Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America,” with a cover image showing a match over the word “Washington.”

More recently, though, the subtitle has been changed to “Taking Back Washington to Save America,” and the match has vanished from the cover.

[...]

Vance agrees quite a bit with Project 2025’s most extreme ideas

Project 2025 contains a multitude of proposals in its 922-page plan, not all of which J.D. Vance necessarily supports. But he’s on record backing ideas similar to those put forth in two of Project 2025’s most controversial issue areas. The first is abortion. Project 2025 lays out a sweeping agenda by which the next president could use federal power to prevent abortions, including using an old law called the Comstock Act to prosecute people who mail abortion pills, and working to prevent women from abortion-banning states from traveling out of state to get abortions.

Vance is on record supporting these ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists “who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.” In 2022, he said he was “sympathetic” to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. That year, he also said: “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” At other points, Vance has struck a different tone. ““We have to accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans,” he said last December. And this month he said he supported a Supreme Court decision that allowed the abortion bill mifepristone to remain available. Here, Vance is trying to align with Trump, who — fearing political blowback — argues he merely wants abortion to be a state issue, despite his long alliance with the religious right. But Vance’s record implies his true agenda might be otherwise.

The second controversial area where Vance is sympatico with Project 2025 is centralizing presidential power over the executive branch. The project lays out various proposals to rein in what conservatives view as an out-of-control “deep state” bureaucracy — mainly, by firing far more career civil servants and installing far more political appointees throughout the government. Vance, as I wrote last week, has backed a maximalist version of this agenda. In 2021, Vance said that in Trump’s second term, Trump should “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” The courts would try to stop this, Vance continued, and Trump should then “stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

While Donald Trump is doing his darndest to supposedly run away from the highly unpopular Project 2025, his ticketmate J.D. Vance is making that proposition difficult to impossible.

See Also:

HuffPost: There’s Another Link Between Trump’s Campaign And Project 2025

[luna-moon-26-20]

Foxhole Force Episode Guide

Hi everyone! Since season 1 is finished I thought I'd write an episode guide and add it to the collection of information of the story.

Feel free to share it as many times as you want so we can spread the knowledge about this series and maybe bring new readers to enjoy the AU 🙌🏻

(I think I avoided all major spoilers)

SEASON 1 - LIST OF EPISODES

S1 E1: Call of the Fox (Part 1)

Neil Josten arrives at the City of Palmetto in a last attempt to find his mother alive. After getting attacked by Ravens and saved by mysterious warriors in colorful suits, Neil finds a job at the Foxhole Court, a sports Youth Centre meant to be a safe haven for kids in risky situations.

S1 E2: Call of the Fox (Part 2)

After finding out his coworkers at the Foxhole Court were actually the Power Rangers, Neil gets roped into the team when he merges with the spirit of the Red Fox, becoming the new Red Power Ranger. Despite trying to refuse the responsibility, Neil accepts it and stays in the city long enough to join the battle against the Ravens.

S1 E3: What it takes to be a leader

Neil feels slightly ridiculous and lost when he morphs for the second time after the Ravens find a new target at the beach. When Coach tells him he is supposed to be the leader of the team, he argues that Kevin would be better suited for the job. 

S1 E4: A done deal

Neil has trouble morphing into the Red Ranger and is forced to stay behind while the others go out to fight a new monster and the Ravens. Later, Andrew ropes Neil into a fake training session where he interrogates him. After getting berated by Coach, Neil and Andrew come to an understanding.

S1 E5: Unexpected allies

Neil runs into some trouble searching for his mother. Lieutenant Mureau and a new perfect Raven are sent to destroy the Rangers for their constant interference. They almost succeed but a new and unexpected ally wearing the same outfit as the Rangers prevents it from happening. 

S1 E6: There’s no I in TEAM

The team hits a wall when their dysfunctional dynamic causes a target to get hurt and taken by the Ravens. The Rangers have no idea where the Ravens continue to produce these terrible monsters from but they are strong and difficult to fight, especially because now the Ravens can make them grow as tall as buildings. 

S1 E7: A dead end

The Ravens decide to ruin the team’s Sunday plans when they attack a local school that is holding a science fair at the gym. The Rangers pour themselves into the battle, trying to protect the students and teachers present, and even the Black Ranger makes an appearance to help them. 

S1 E8: Smoke and… mirrors?

The team is unbalanced and fractured but the Youth Centre has to remain open for the kid’s sake and they have a fundraising to host in the middle of which there is a Raven alert. Neil gets trapped and relives some of the trauma from his past. He vows to recruit the Black Ranger into the team.

S1 E9: A fool’s errand

Neil is having an off day in which he keeps butting heads with his coworkers at the Youth Centre. The distance between him and the Red Fox is wider than ever. He sets himself on a mission destined to fail as he tries to recruit the Black Ranger into the team. He and Andrew end the day on pretty unfriendly terms and Neil feels more isolated than ever from the rest of the team.

S1 E10: Neil who? (Part 1)

A Raven alert wakes the team in the middle of the night and they are introduced to Captain Engle, a new perfect Raven stronger and faster than any other they have encountered. The Red Fox is tired and hurt and not even the Black Ranger can help Neil get rid of Mureau.

S1 E11: Neil who? (Part 2)

Alone and unmorphed, Neil faces off against Riko. Riko turns his world upside down by revealing the thing he’s been after and that he believes Neil knows its whereabouts. Later, Andrew helps Neil out of a panic attack but also gives him an ultimatum.  

S1 E12: A Swift exchange

As he recovers from his injuries, Neil is faced with the deadline Andrew has set. Kevin starts acting weird: violent and angry. He begins to transform into a Raven, injuring Andrew in his attempt to escape and save everyone from himself. 

S1 E13: Between a rock and a hard place 

Neil and Andrew, on a quest to find the truth behind the Ravens and Neil’s family, go to the library together. But the building collapses on them leaving them trapped underneath. With nothing else to do but wait, they play a long round of their truth for truth game. 

S1 E14: How to kill two birds with no stone at all

The City of Palmetto is more dangerous than ever when the Ravens decide to change their modus operandi. Neil starts doubting their protectors’ role and asks about a cure for Ravens no one believes exists. Discouraged, he goes into battle hesitating until it becomes clear that it is either kill or be killed. He discovers some coincidences about Kevin’s past.

S1 E15: The Red Fox

The team runs into an energy source so powerful the monitors at the Command Centre go crazy with alarms. In a desperate attempt to stop the Ravens from getting it, Neil touches the source and the amount of energy affects him in unimaginable ways. Scared and injured, he follows his instincts towards Andrew who is the only one who knows how to handle him. 

S1 E16: A quiet state of mind

Neil has to spend an entire day without his Fox. Alone and at the verge of constant panic, he is too happy to spend the day with Andrew in Columbia as a distraction. Neil becomes aware of a certain way in which he is starting to think about the blond. The Rangers respond to an alert in which Matt singlehandedly deals with the monster.

S1 E17: All for the game

An alert brings the team face to face with a monster that traps them in another dimension to play a deathly game of exy. With the way the Black Ranger plays and fights, Neil starts to suspect Andrew might be the Back Ranger. He confronts Andrew on the roof and the night takes an unexpected turn.

S1 E18: Don’t ask for the truth

Neil lives a couple of weeks in pure bliss as he and Andrew delve more into the new nature of their relationship. However, the appearance of a woman from Andrew’s past changes the course of their day into one of tense emotional reactions and a complete emotional withdrawal from Andrew.   

S1 E19: Black Danger (Part 1)

After two long weeks of absence, Andrew finally comes back to the Centre. After a panic attack from Neil because he doesn’t want to fail his duties again, the team faces Muldani on the beach. The Youth Centre is attacked by Riko and all his perfect Ravens. Andrew gets hurt and Abby declares he is trapped inside his own mind.

S1 E20: Black Danger (Part 2)

Neil ventures into Andrew’s mind to try and bring the blond back from wherever he is trapped inside. Going through Andrew’s memories, Neil is faced with several sides of the blond that leave him unsteady and worried. He gets some unexpected help during his quest to find Andrew.

[cuminspice]

Alternative to "William"

This is my first writing of anything in a really long time. No idea where I'm going with this but I knew if I didn't post it, it would never see the light of day.

XXX

It took 6 years, but when it happened, it felt like only 6 days.

She was walking William home from school (Andrew, his name was Andrew now, she reminded herself) when she saw him sitting on a park bench under a tree. Jeans, long sleeved shirt under a black bomber jacket, trying so hard to look casual and failing miserably.

Their eyes met and she thought she’d forgotten how to breathe. Andrew was pulling on her hand so she let him lead her back to the apartment. He pushed off the bench and slowly followed. She let him, allowing him to catch up at his own pace.

He maintained the distance, a slow shadow deciding whether to return to their world or slip away. She held the building door open, waiting for his decision. A half second’s hesitation in his step made her heart clench in panic, to have him so close yet still out of her grasp. Then he approached and she exhaled.

Late that night, after Andrew (William now, he could be William again) had chattered himself to sleep mid-sentence, did they talk.

“You were hard to find.”

“That was the point.” She had disappeared as an absolute last resort, cooked up during a desperate intervention. Her few loved ones still alive and present, trying anything to prevent her from making a decision they were sure she’d regret forever.

She had hated them in that moment, had screamed insults at each of them, the worst at her mother who took it all stone faced as she tried to break the final bonds of love and friendship so they would walk away.

It had been her brother, of all people, who had convinced her to run.

“There is no one else in the world who can understand what needs to be done to protect William,” he told her quietly. “No one else knows the dangers out there. You do this-“ he couldn’t even say the word “-and you think he’ll be anonymous and protected? How? You yourself have said they can find anyone anywhere. Use your resources and experience to protect yourselves.”

So she did. She thought several steps ahead of every decision she made, thinking of what “Normal Scully” would do, what “Panicked Scully” would do, what “Rational Scully Trying to Shake Off a Tail” would do. Then she did something else entirely. She changed her appearance, gaining weight, changing her hair, wearing drug store makeup in garish colors, and never touching a pair of her formerly signature heels again.

“Is it really over?” She asked.

“So far as anyone can tell. No guarantees, of course, but you can go home.”

“And you?” <Nowhere is home without you, don’t you know that by now?>

A soft exhale. An almost imperceptible loosening of tension in his shoulders. And then, the hint of a smile before he said, “Wherever you want me to be.”  

She reached out a hand, but he was the one who took it, stroking the soft back of her palm in a way she thought she’d never feel again.

“Let’s go home,” she whispered.

[peaceful-melancholia]

The Funeral

It was the following Friday when Ethan and Jake attended Max's funeral. They had met many of Max's family members, though they didn't know them well. The arrangements were partly made by Carla, who required a high level of secrecy about the events that had taken place. She had arranged for the body to be placed in a closed casket without anyone seeing anything, and even bypassed the coroner so that no one would see what had become of Max. Ethan and Jake were trying their hardest not to think about that, though, as they couldn’t talk about it with anyone else at the funeral.

“It's so sad, what happened. I suppose a person wouldn't know they had some heart condition at his age,” a woman was saying. Jake wasn't actually sure who she was, but he acted like he did to prevent having to go through that awkward conversation when he really didn't want to.

“Yeah, it was pretty sudden,” he said. That much was true, even though the heart condition was fabricated.

“You and that other boy were his roommates, right? Is it hard, now that he's not in the house anymore?”

“Yeah, it is. It just keeps reminding us of him, so we’re having a rough time of it. Actually, we're planning to move. Everything here just is a bit of a painful reminder, you know?”

“Yes, I can understand that. Well, if you boys need anything, don't suffer in silence, okay?”

“Alright, thank you.”

Adrian was not at the funeral. He would have come, but he had decided to move away due to all the activity in trying to catch the original werewolf, which, unknown to the agents for now, was him. He didn't want to have any risk of being caught the next full moon. He was also Ethan and Jake's new roommate, so when they moved, they'd be moving in with him. They had all agreed that, under the circumstances, it would be best to live where Adrian went to college, that strange place where supernatural creatures were so commonplace they weren't even reported.

They continued interacting with the others at the funeral until nearly everyone had left, and the casket was lowered into the grave. Then they went home, packing their things. They had both put in their two weeks notice soon after Max had been shot, which meant they had to stay a bit longer still, but their landlord had been very understanding of their situation, so they were free to exit their lease agreement early – they only had to finish out the month.

Both of them were restless throughout the last week of work, not wanting to wait before leaving that place. Ethan had one last meetup with Andrew, who apologized again for his involvement in the whole thing. He gave Ethan a copy of his paper, which he had decided to write in an attempt at exposing the reality of the situation, and drew from early history to show that the modern conception of werewolves as dangerous was inaccurate.

“This is well-written, at least,” Ethan said. “I’m sorry we can't tell you any more about the organization, but I think it's better for everyone if we don't.”

“I understand. I don't think it would have helped all that much, anyway,” Andrew said. “The paper didn't do that well. The professor thought I didn't have enough modern sources to support the idea that werewolves were benign, and I couldn't exactly say ‘my cousin knows a werewolf'. Or knew, sorry.”

“I appreciate the thought, though,” Ethan said. They continued talking a bit more before Andrew ended up leaving.

Finally, the time came for them to take their packed cars to the road. Ethan was driving a moving truck with his car being pulled behind, actually, but Jake was driving his packed car. Ethan didn't trust Jake to drive a moving truck, and Jake didn't question him on it.

The trip was two days in total, the first consisting of about ten hours and the second eight hours before they crossed into their new home state. It wasn't immediate, but as they got a bit further in, they saw several supernatural creatures in the open. When they arrived at their new address, Adrian came out to greet them in a t shirt and jeans, and since it was part of the full moon cycle, he was in wolf form. It was odd to see him openly like that, but Jake noticed a woman with snake hair walking nearby, so clearly it was commonplace.

“Welcome, welcome,” Adrian said. “And again, thanks so much for letting me live with you guys. It'll be a nice change, I think.”

At that point, their fourth roommate came out of the front door, wearing a tank top and jean shorts, blond fur sticking out, and tail wagging behind him, though he seemed not to notice. He had the biggest, toothiest grin anyone had ever had as he ran towards them and hugged them before stepping back for a moment to greet them verbally.

“Welcome to Florida!” Max said. “How was my funeral?”

[tumblydovereviews]

The Rise of Teletubbies

You wake up in a hole, located inside of a hill in a vast valley. For breakfast, you have some Tubby custard and toast, prepared by your friend Noo-Noo the vacuum. And then, you frolic outside for a while until an intercom shouts, "Time for Teletubbies!" and you follow the voice's call, eager for the day to begin. You are a Teletubby.

It's the grand return of @tumblydovereviews, and what better way to bring this series back by researching one of the most infamous, yet long-running, children's shows of all time- Teletubbies.

Before this post, I just wanted to apologize to my non-existent followers on the giant, unexpected hiatus. My profile tells you that there will be new posts every week or two. Obviously, that's not the case. With schoolwork, sports, life in general, and a lack of general media consumption, I've been running out of ideas on what to post here. But one day, out of the blue, I just became victim to a giant burst of productivity stemming mainly from the upcoming release of the new Bluey special, and, blessed with my new skills of time management, this review blog is back! (Hopefully!)

Expect a long four-part analysis on Bluey and its three latest episodes coming soon, but for now, let's ease back into the groove of things by talking Teletubbies.

Around the early 90s, it was becoming increasingly apparent that technology's impact in society was much more noticeable, and children in particular were interacting with it in a way we hadn't seen before. Inspired by these changes, two showrunners, Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport, who had recently started the process of wrapping up another preschool show of theirs, Tots TV, created a pitch for the show that would later go on to be Teletubbies. While not much is known about the actual pitch as of writing this post, we do know that the BBC greenlit it on first try, loving Davenport and Wood's ideas.

Production was far from easy, even after the show had been commissioned. Filming for Teletubbies was an issue; the crew struggled to find a place that could appropriately depict the type of world they were aiming to film, and when they did find a plot of land, it was ravaged by wild animals and angry locals.

Another problem was in auditioning actors for the four main roles- Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa Laa, and Po. Not many actors were able to prevent themselves from becoming overly babyish and conveying the tone of the Teletubbies in a weird way, which made finding a proper actor even harder. A particular actor the creators were drawn to was Pui Fan Lee, who, despite lacing the ability to speak the Tubby language in an English dialect, still enamored the crew with her native Cantonese. In order to compromise, it was decided that Lee would be brought on as Po and the Teletubby would be bilingual.

The size of the Teletubbies was an issue as well. Because the Teletubbies were so tall (Tinky Winky stood at an whopping eight feet!) everything else around them needed to reflect their large size. A special breed of rabbits were bred to be used on the show, but the excessive reproduction led to heart issues, which led to numerous rabbit deaths on set, much to the sadness of Wood and the on-set animal trainers.

As part of their greenlight, the BBC requested that lice-action scenes featuring real-life kids were put into the series in some shape or form, However, the creators knew for sure that the size of the Teletubbles would easily scare the young kids they needed to film. So, it was decided that the Teletubbies would have the now-iconic television screens on their stomachs, so the children could film outside of set and simply give their footage to be projected to the audience via a Teletubby's tummy.

Despite these issues, production for Teletubbies went on, for the most part, as planned. And, on March 31st, 1997, Teletubbies would officially premiere on CBeebies with the episode, Ned's Bicycle.

Initial reception on Teletubbies was mixed; some critics dismissed the show as harmless for kids, if not a bit nonsensical for parents and older children. Others were less concerned about the Teletubbies' antics and anxious about their unique way of talking. The Teletubbies communicate through a fictional language, sounding like baby babble or gibberish, and some parents feared that instead of stimulating a child's development like the program claimed it would, the series would stunt it.

The odd world of the Teletubbies just so happened to be what drew viewers into the show in the first place, especially students in college and university. In fact, some students have come out and called the show "psychedelic" in a weird, twisted way, comparing the effects the show has on you to drugs.

The mainly gibberish talk also eliminated the need for a large amount of money going into dubs, leading Teletubbies into being a success globally and across different demographics as well, especially in the United States, where the series started its run on PBS in 1998.

Controversy for the series would not end there. In 1997, the season 1 episode titled See-Saw would be banned in several countries for featuring a sketch called The Lion and the Bear, using paper puppets, dark lighting, and cinematography to create a scene some found unsettling for themselves and their children. In 2000, a more child-friendly revised version of the segment would be used as a replacement for the original.

In 1999, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that one of the characters, Tinky-Winky, who was male, had a habit of carrying a bright red bag, similar to a womens' handbag. Tinky-Winky was also purple and had a triangle on top of his antenna, both which at the time were symbols for the gay community. Fear mongering and homophobia would lead to the situation becoming so out of hand that the BBC themselves would need to step into the limelight and confirm that Tinky-Winky was, in fact, straight, silencing the fears of grown men all across the world.

Despite all these controversies, Teletubbies was still a massive success for the BBC, airing a total of 365 episodes across four years before coming to an end on February 16th, 2001. The series would continue to air on BBC for over a decade after its initial run, and would go on to attract a sizeable cult following, mainly of college students and other young adults.

But, the Teletubby fun didn't stop there. In 2014, it was announced that an all-new Teletubbies reboot has been greenlit for release the following year with an initial order of 60 episodes. The Teletubbies were back, and the group of toddler-like aliens made their grand return to small screens all across the UK on November 9th, 2015. 120 new episodes were produced and aired across the world, notably Nick Jr. in the USA instead of PBS Kids, until October 12th, 2018. In November of 2023, a US dub of this reboot would release on Netflix, most notably with Broadway actor Titus Burgess narrating and the sun baby being depicted by a variety of different children instead of one sole actor.

Outside pf the main series, there have been four separate Teletubbies spin-off series, the first being Teletubbies Everywhere, a en-minute series that taught basic letters, numbers, and shapes to a slightly older demographic then the main show. Another spin=off, this time focusing on the Teletubbies' baby counterparts introduced in the 2015 series, the Tiddlytubbies, debuted as a YouTube exclusive, as well as two CG-animated spinoff shorts, Teletubbies: Let's Go, and Teletubbies: Ready, Steady, Go! The characters have appeared both parodied and played straight in shows such as Britain's Got Talent, Regular Show, and Saturday Night Live Korea. Despite the main series having ended decades ago, the Teletubbies have shown no signs of dying anytime soon.

But why?

Well, for one thing, the way the series was produced leads it to be fairly timeless. There are little-to-no pop culture references, the characters barely speak and instead use a universal gibberish, and the themes of friendship and discovery still resonate with kids today, now more than ever.

In a world where chill, slow-paced children's shows are slowly becoming less of the m=norm and more of a rare delicacy, Teletubbies still exists widely. The show's lack of a set theme and more slice-of-life presentation, unlike its short-lived predecessor Boohbah, manages to keep it from aging significantly.

Teletubbies was also a surprisingly progressive show for its time, not being afraid to depict characters of different races, ethnicity, and, most notably, defying gender norms, whether through Tinky Winky's handbag or Po's occasional Cantonese. It's unfortunate that a group of sentient alien toddler-like creatures are more accepting of our differences then some grown adults in our world today, but, alas, that is life.

The truth of the matter is that, while mildly annoying for most people over the age of six and immensely appreciated by others, Teletubbies deserves much more merit than it is given nowadays. For a show that was fairly hated in the past, Teletubbies has aged particularly well.

[denimbex1986]

'Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers is finally available to watch widely after a very slow theatrical release. While this film has been snubbed for many awards, it is still spectacular, complimented by fantastic performances from Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal. Based on the novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers provides its own interpretation of the story by changing not only the setting but the romance as well. Its introduction of queer themes enhances the emotional journey of its central character, which concludes with a devastating revelation. At its core, All of Us Strangers is more about the experience of grief, reconciliation, and moving on than it is about a conclusive, straightforward narrative. The film naturally leaves a lot up to interpretation for the audience, delivering a heartbreaking ending that feels earned.

What Is 'All of Us Strangers' About?

All of Us Strangers focuses on Adam (Scott), a lonely screenwriter based in London who is attempting to write about his long-dead parents. The film begins with a fire alarm in his apartment building. Adam evacuates, seemingly the only tenant to do so, and looks up at the empty building to see a man, Harry (Mescal), looking down at him from the window. After Adam returns to his apartment, there's a knock at the door. Harry, a bottle of whiskey in hand, leaning on the door frame. Through their short conversation, it's understood that Harry, above all else, doesn't want to be alone. Adam rejects Harry's offer to spend the night together, and he solemnly returns to his apartment. As the days go on, Adam comes to regret this decision and eventually invites Harry in, beginning a romantic relationship with him.

As this relationship blossoms, Adam is attempting to write about his parents, who both died in a car crash when Adam was a young child. Struck with writer's block, he starts looking over mementos from his childhood, finding an old photo of his former home. It's then that he decides to go back and visit for the first time in his adult life. There, he finds his parents, the same age as when they died, a few years younger than Adam is now and aware of the fact that they have been dead for decades. They invite him like an old friend they haven't seen in a long time, eager to hear what their son has been up to for the past 30 years.

‘All of Us Strangers’ Is Just as Much About Romance as It Is About Grief

The entirety of the film is a back-and-forth battle in Adams' life between living happily with Harry and going back to have time and important conversations with his parents that he never got to have. It's not all pretty, and that's what makes it feel all the more real. These visits change him in good and bad ways. His life is suddenly revolving around the ghosts of his parents like an addiction, yet Adam is opening up more to Harry because of them, with Harry only coming to Adam's apartment. He even tells Harry of his parents' death, a car crash that killed his father instantly, but left his mother in the hospital for some time before she died, showing how intimate their relationship has become.

Still, as he visits them more and more, his parents realize that he will waste the rest of his life there with them instead of trying to find some semblance of happiness with Harry, especially after Harry has an adverse reaction to what Adam is doing in his childhood home. It also seems that the more he visits his parents, the more Adam gets sick and weak. Both his parents and Harry mention his high temperature, and he coughs more and more throughout the runtime. When they tell him that this situation is preventing him from moving on, Adam says "It hasn't been long enough." To which his mother (Claire Foy) replies "It never could be, could it?" The film already sets up the idea that despite this situation providing more time, he's still going to lose them, and nothing can stop that. He is clinging to the past, abandoning a possible future for himself.

He journeys with his parents to a restaurant that they frequented when he was a child, and even orders "the family special," despite appearing alone to other diners. In the end, the most interesting part of this culmination between a child and his parents is that he ends up comforting them just as much as they do him. Despite protest from his mother, Adam's father (Jamie Bell) asks him if both of their deaths were quick. Adam lies and tells them yes, despite the contradictory story he tells Harry earlier on in the film about the car crash, just to give them a final bit of solace before they move on. In their final moments, they tell Adam that they are proud that he is just still here, living. They have nothing else left to say except their love for each other. In the end, they horrifyingly relive their deaths in front of Adam's eyes, and just before they both disappear, his mother makes him promise to try with Harry, to try and make each other's lives a bit happier.

Paul Mescal's Harry Has Been Dead the Entire Time

After losing his parents yet again, he follows the words of his mother and seeks out Harry, whose relationship with him has gotten rocky as Adam has spent more time with the ghosts of his parents. But this time he goes to Harry's apartment instead. Immediately after entering Harry's apartment, he discovers Harry's dead body in his bed. We see a glimpse of his body, with the same whiskey bottle he had when Adam turned him away that first night. It's safe to assume between the bottle being the same, and the discoloration of his hand, that Harry has been dead since the first night they met, and we already know Adam can see ghosts.

After spending a few moments with Harry's body, someone walks into the apartment: Harry himself, again in the same clothes as his body, bottle in hand. Adam confesses that he was too scared to let Harry into his apartment, also serving as a confession that he was too scared for anything to happen between them romantically. Between the loneliness of the two of them, it's clear Harry understands. Yet again, Adam comforts the dead, reassuring Harry that he is not in the bedroom, but instead here in front of him. Adam takes Harry back to his apartment, where they lie in bed together for the final moments of the film. Their conversation wraps up the themes of the film beautifully. Harry asks Adam if he got to say everything he wanted to his parents before they moved on. Adam, unsure, says "I don't know, but I got to be with them." There is constant pressure to get everything you need to say out for closure, but All of Us Strangers proposes that simply being together is enough. The film ends with exactly that, the two of them embracing in bed (if you look closely enough, Harry is in the same position as his corpse is in his apartment), the camera pulls out, their bodies forming a singular star in a vast universe.

Is Adam Dead in 'All of Us Strangers'?

All of Us Strangers intentionally leaves a lot for the viewer to entertain while watching. From the exact moment Harry dies to whether the ghosts Adam is haunted by are even real or a figment of his imagination. That brings the biggest question the film suggests: Is Adam dead like his loved ones around him? While this film can be read as a straightforward ghost story about the reality of grief and loneliness, the oddness of the film suggests there is more at play here. Many scenes in this film feel like a dream. This was even commented on by Andrew Scott, saying "I feel very strongly that the film is like a dream [...] [Andrew Haigh's] achievement is that he directs us towards the feeling, rather than the logic of what the feeling might be." Haigh pushes the audience to understand the feelings Adam is experiencing, rather than presenting something that is more logical plot-wise.

From the distorted, almost scary subway sequence, to the disorienting club sequence where we first get a glimpse that there may be something more going on with Harry, this film is not afraid to push into the fantastical. For this theory, the beginning of the film is the most important, as it starts with a fire alarm. In a bit of awkward conversation following that alarm, Harry quips "One day it'll be for real, that alarm." Throughout the film, Adam coughs and gets increasingly hotter, something noted by his parents. It's possible that Adam is dying, or already dead, due to a fire in his apartment. The entirety of this film could be a flash before his death, or limbo for his spirit to wander until he has enough closure to move on. It would certainly explain the more interpretive sides of the movie. The only scene that could discredit it is where he interacts with the waitress. But the beauty of this film is that it doesn't matter, the message stays the same, and it wouldn't mean any less if Adam were alive or dead. Haigh sums it up perfectly in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "In many ways, the whole film to me was a love letter saying, it's okay. It's quite hard. You've all been through some stuff, but you can move on from this and you can find love." Sometimes, time spent together is all you need, even if it may never be enough.'

[sekhithefops]

Elon Musk's Steady Descent into Madness Masterpost

Because I realized just now I posted a bunch of these things documenting the catastrophic fall of Tweeter and its descent into being a letter from the ass end of the alphabet, I figured I may as well put all these in one place.

Elon Musk Got Sued For Violating a Disabled Worker's Rights

Musk Initiates Rate Limits Because Reasons

Oops Turns Out There Were No Rate Limits, He Just Didn't Want to Admit He Fucked Up Again

Musk Writes Stoner Poetry to Try to Explain Away Rate Limits

Twitter is Losing Advertisers in Droves, Known Human Trafficker Andrew Tate Profits From the Few That Remain

Zuckerberg's Answer to Tweeter, Threads, Launches. Somehow its Even Worse

Musk Threatens Legal Action Against Zuckerberg Because He Thinks Owning Twitter Means He Owns the Concept of Social Media

Legal Eagle Weighs In on Musk's Suit Against Zuckerberg for Threads

Musk Wants to Rebrand Twitter as "X" Because He's Actually an Edgy Teenager from 1999

Wait, He Was Serious About Rebranding?!

Oops, Turns Out Rebranding as X Now Means Zuckerberg Can Sue Musk!

Gee, I Wonder Why Twitter X is Having So Much Trouble Keeping Advertisers

The Blue Check is Now Such a Black Mark That Musk is Letting Users Hide Them

Musk thinks Blocking people is a bad idea, so now nobody can block because he's a fucking sadist.

Three years of internet history just went poof. Intentional act or did Musk just fuck up again?

Approximately Half of Musk's Followers on Twitter are Bots

Musk goes to a video game tournament, it goes as well as you might expect.

Musk wants to paywall all of Twitter/X, make it so you have to pay to use it at all.

Musk decrees that news articles shared on Twitter/X will no longer display headlines, just pictures. Why? Not a single godsdamn clue.

Linda Yaccarino says "advertisers are returning to X." Linda Yaccarino is a big stinking liar.

Musk's multitude of moronic changes makes a real world tragedy even worse by preventing those who relied on Twitter for news from getting any credible information.

With Misinformation flying everywhere following an attack on Israel by Hamas and their retaliation against Gaza, Musk cracks down... on nudity.

Musk throttles traffic to Patreon as well as several other sites in his completely doomed attempt to turn Twitter into "X, the Everything App."

Musk begins charging new accounts $1 a year and requiring a phone number to "help combat spam," because the armies of $8 verified checkmark bots have proven that this works... wait, that didn't sound right.

The EU tells Musk "fix your shit." Musk tells the EU "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

An investigation reveals that 74% of the misinformation and propaganda spread during a recent attack in the Middle East was spread by Verified Users on Twitter. Oops.

A year after Musk's takeover, Slate reviews everything he managed to fuck right up.

Musk states that the smoldering remains of Twitter now known as X would become a dating site. How? Fucked if I know!

Musk is sued by a prominent critic who exposed what anyone with two working eyeballs could have told you: that Twitter is overrun with hardcore Alt-Right lunatics and its entirely Musk's fault.

IBM pulls advertising after they put their ads next to blatantly pro-fascist/neo-nazi propaganda. CEO Linda Yaccarano swears that they are trying to combat such things on Twitter, Musk however endorses them because its fucking Musk.

Twitter's CEO, Linda Yaccarano, is being advised to step down as staying as CEO is doing irreperable damage to her reputation. Meanwhile as companies like Disney, Apple, IBM, and the entire European Commission bail on advertising Musk's fanclub try (and fail) to fund Twitter themselves.

Musk sues Media Matters for pointing out that his failing social media site full of neo-nazis is full of neo-nazis. Meanwhile advertisers continue to flee in droves.

A brief overview by TechDirt as to why Musk's "thermonuclear lawsuit" is a laughable mess that not even Harvey Birdman would take seriously.

In response to advertisers fleeing Twitter, musk has only this to say: "Go fuck yourselves."

Slate posts the question: "What if Musk is doing this on purpose?"

Techdirt posts the answer: "He's not doing this on purpose, he's just gone completely bugfuck nuts."

Legal Eagle of Youtube fame analyzes Elon's "Thermonuclear Lawsuit" which turns out to be exactly what you thought it was: utter crap.

Elon paid a shitload of money to create Grok, his own AI abomination, and it turned on it's master.

A leaked document confirms what we all suspected, Musk has severely weakened moderation tools and intentionally allows anti-semitism and anti-LGBTQA+ posts to run rampant.

Musk reports over one billion video views on Superbowl Sunday, but an independent study shows that 3/4ths of them were likely bots.

[marjaystuff]

Interview with Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson

Four Minutes by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson is a new techno-thriller series.  It is different than most futuristic novels in that it does not alter the timeline completely as in the first Superman movie when Lois Lane lived instead of died.

The premise allows for intelligence gathering in the future to be used in the present to prevent an event from happening. Pat Moody leads a new elite squad, Task Force Omega to jump into the future for a short period of time, four minutes.

Another of their books is a Tom Clancy novel, Act of Defiance, to be published in May. It is a sequel of sorts to The Hunt for Red October. Instead of Jack Ryan trying to stop a Russian rogue submarine, it is daughter Katie who must put the pieces together.  

As with all their series, Andrews and Wilson never seem to disappoint their readers.  The plots are riveting and action-packed with premises that are mind boggling. Suspense is ratcheted up and the characters are compelling. 

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for Four Minutes?

Brian Andrews/Jeffrey Wilson: It will probably be a limited series but is open ended right now. We like our stories to start with these ‘what if’ questions. Both of us have backgrounds with the military and other government services. What if someone had a crystal ball to look into the future that can say what can happen?  For example, what if days beforehand people knew about 9/11?  Then we tied it to the cover Special Forces grounded in real math and physics. We did not want it to be a sci-fi book but rather a techno-thriller.

EC:  What about the premise?

BA/JW: If someone could look forward and anticipate consequences then in the present it is possible to act. It is about gaining intelligence and coming back to the present to stop the event. They do not get a do over and do not know if the mission will really work. This technology could be invented soon. The questions we want to ask: can there be technology that goes into the near future; if so, how could someone manipulate it; what would the limits be?  We put these limits where the team could go into the future 28 days and only stay for four minutes. They must use that information in the present to solve the problem.

EC:  What did you mean by the book quote, “everyone wants to see us fail?”

BA/JW: It was not meant to target a real-world administration or political organization. Yet, the powers external to the US: China, Russia, and Iran, want to see us fail.  They want to tear us down piece by piece, trying to destroy us from within, and trying to destroy us from outside. America needs to be united because when we are divided, we are weak, and our enemies realize it. They cannot beat us in the Cold War, economically, and militarily so they are trying philosophically and politically.

EC:  How would you describe Moody?

BA/JW:  Confident, charming, smooth, secretive, and the rest of the team do not trust him. When we first started writing him, we were not sure if he was a bad guy or good guy. He is apologetic for lying to his team, but not when it will help them complete the mission, safeguarding the country. He sees the need to make compromises and hard choices. 

EC:  Is this where your personal experiences come in?

BA/JW:  Yes.  This is what it is like when in command.  Some people must put themselves in danger. Brian says, for instance, as a submarine officer, I had to wear a radiation monitor. This team is making a big physical sacrifice. Our combined military service is what drives the engine of a lot of our work including the missions. 

EC: Can you describe each member of the team starting with Tyler?

BA/JW: Man of action, direct, and intuitive. He embodies the Special Operations officer being dedicated and committed. He is a natural leader and motivator. He is like Dempsey in our “Tier One series.”  He has courage, honor, and integrity.

EC:  Zee?

BA/JW: She is a perfectionist and takes her intelligence analyst role very seriously. She feels as an outsider.  Moody wants her to be a “spy.”  She immediately tells Tyler because she wants to be a part of the team, not considered an outsider.  Zee is the moral compass, the emotional glue, to keep the team grounded and not dysfunctional. 

EC:  Ben, Martin, Stan, and Adela?

BA/JW:  We wanted to create a colorful cast. They are all dynamic.  Stan is the fact checker and the researcher. Ben is the optimist.  Adela is the Devil’s Advocate.

EC:  Not harping on the math and physics but what is Spooky Time?

BA/JW:  Conservation of time. When the team jumps the present is still moving by four minutes.  When they return from their jump, they will always return to the present four minutes after they left. But what if they jumped two minutes into the future?  The present would have moved by four minutes. We put in the Einstein quote, “The past, present, and future is an illusion.”  There is a diagram in the book that explains it.    

EC:  You are now writing Tom Clancy novels so can you talk a little about your premise in Act of Defiance? This book was “Clancyesque.”

BA/JW: This, our first installment in the Clancy Universe come on the 40th Anniversary of The Hunt for Red October. We feel Tom Clancy invented the techno-thriller genre with that book. We are updating this story with the new technology and the new warriors. 

EC: Were you able to use “real life” military technology?

BA/JW: The navy gave us unprecedented access to the modern submarine force. We were able to go on the USS Indiana, a Virginia class submarine, and toured the Black Fish. We were able to see what a day is like for this current submarine officer. We are indebted to the navy and the admiral in charge of the submarine force. The US Navy should have been listed as a co-author since they supported this project.

EC: Do you agree that the Russian submarine captain, Ramius, would not have been able to disappear today considering social media and drones?

BA/JW: We agree completely.  This is why we went in another direction.  Konstantin, the new Russian submarine captain, has motivations completely different and far more dangerous.

EC:  You included that very famous scene, getting Jack Ryan on the submarine, only this time it was his daughter Katie. Please explain.

BA/JW: This scene was not in the book but was in the movie. We wanted to play homage to the book and the movie by picking out some key, super cool incidents that we wanted to replicate in this story. This was an iconic scene in the film. We used a tightrope to put just enough of the nostalgia without alienating people who never read the book or saw the movie. 

EC:  How would you describe Katie, the female Jack Ryan?

BA/JW: This series has two dozen books.  She is an original character, but readers do not know much about her.  We can build up her character. Katie is sensitive, confident, thoughtful, analytical, and she has studied Konstantin just as her father studied Ramius in the first book.  She is literally Jack Ryan’s DNA because she is his daughter, very similar to her dad.  Yet, she does not see it. Just like the hilarious commercial that says, ‘you turned into your parents.’

EC:  How would you describe Konstantin?

BA/JW: A warrior, stoic, unyielding, motivated, tenacious, and is a Russian patriot who hates America. He is also an angry guy and bitter about his father’s past, his wife’s illness, and his own disease. He is seeking vengeance and is self-destructive.

EC:  Next book?

BA/JW:  The next Four Minutes Book is dependent on the screenplay because it is optioned for television or the movies. Since the first book is left with a cliffhanger our intention is to figure out what happens to Moody and some of the other characters.     

The next Clancy book is titled, Defense Protocol, coming out in November/December of this year. The plot has a what if with China making moves on Taiwan.  Katie is trying to prevent having American and China in a shooting war. 

The next “Tier One” book is titled Ember, coming out in July of next year.  John Dempsey is back with his team. But the team must handle another new threat.  There will be more of the team dynamics.

Sons Of Valor IV will come out in summer of 2025.  It has not been written yet.

THANK YOU!!

[speedyposts]

Building AI guardrails should be part of the process

As companies start relying more on AI-powered tools to help increase productivity and efficiency, they need to think about creating policies that can address any ethical, practical or legal issues, writes Richard Marcus, head of information security at AuditBoard.

Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members. Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.

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According to a Gartner survey, more than half the organizations that use AI have policies in place. But, as Marcus points out, building a solid rulebook now can help prevent plenty of headaches in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Karyne

Critical 2024 AI policy blueprint: Unlocking potential and safeguarding against workplace risks

Pitch Deck Teardown: Doola’s $1M strategic investment deck

Image Credits: Doola (opens in a new window)

Image Credits: Doola (opens in a new window)

Though there’s some information missing from Doola’s deck, resident pitch expert Haje Kamps found a lot to like: The company really seems to know its audience and does a good job explaining the problems it’s trying to solve in one simple slide.

Still, there’s not a lot about the product itself, the competitive landscape, or a go-to-market plan, making it hard to understand exactly how the company will do what it promises.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Doola’s $1M strategic investment deck

Any growth is good, but sustainable growth is the key to success

Image Credits: PM Images / Getty Images

Image Credits: PM Images / Getty Images

Matt Lerner, who spent 11 years in marketing at PayPal, offers some solid advice for founders: “Selling more is like the last step; the first step is learning,” Lerner told Haje Kamps. “The next step is trying stuff and validating it. In the very beginning come up with some ideas that could be big if they worked, and validate them.”

Any growth is good, but sustainable growth is the key to success

Developer experience is more important than developer productivity

Image Credits: Macrostore / Getty Images

Image Credits: Macrostore / Getty Images

Business leaders are pressured to measure the impact of their business, and an important metric to track is often productivity: how much work was done in a time period. But Atlassian’s head of DevOps, Andrew Boyagi, argues that perhaps this is the wrong metric to focus on. “Imagine the possibilities if the same amount of time and energy was invested in improving developer productivity rather than trying to measure it,” he writes.

Developer experience is more important than developer productivity

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Was HPE’s $14B Juniper acquisition a wise move?

Image Credits: Alfieri / Getty Images

Image Credits: Alfieri / Getty Images

A few weeks after HPE’s massive $14 billion deal to buy Juniper, investors don’t seem to be thrilled — at least if you measure their excitement by how the stock is doing. But the numbers look good, and the acquisition could help bolster HPE’s networking business: The Juniper purchase will immediately increase the networking segment from 18% of total revenue to 32%, an analyst told Ron Miller and Alex Wilhelm. So why do investors seem skittish?

Was HPE’s $14B Juniper acquisition a wise move?

Startups must strategize and budget for AI-assisted software development in 2024

Image Credits: Olemedia / Getty Images

Image Credits: Olemedia / Getty Images

Alex Circei, CEO and co-founder of Waydev, cuts right to the chase: “Enterprises need to understand how much to budget into AI tools, how to weigh the benefits of AI versus new recruits, and how to ensure their training is on point.” Not doing so can lead to wasted money, wasted efforts and even losing staff.

Startups must strategize and budget for AI-assisted software development in 2024

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[gathersroses]

HEATHER NILL.

* my heather is based in the 1930s, however i do still have a canon verse for her that you can see below! heavily affiliated with @soldwrecked

GENERAL.

NAME.   heather lynn nill

ALIASES.   n/a

AGE.   eighteen+

BIRTHDATE.   september 15

GENDER.   female 

SEXUALITY.   heteroflexible

STATUS.   verse dependent/dating/married/engaged in an affair

ETHNICITY.   white

NATIONALITY.   american

BIRTHPLACE.   carp, new york

RESIDENCE.   moves around often

OCCUPATION.   verse dependent/bank robber/farmhand/housewife/reporter

PHYSICAL.

HEIGHT.   5��10”

WEIGHT.   130 lbs

BODY TYPE.   mesomorph

SKIN TONE.   fair

HAIRSTYLE.   straight

HAIR COLOR.   blonde

EYE COLOR.   blue

SCARS.   several

FACECLAIM.   olivia scott welch

PERSONALITY.

TRAITS.    direct, strong-willed, responsible, practical, creative, can enforce order, stubborn, insensitive, always by the book, judgmental, blames herself for everything

HABITS.   overthinks

HOBBIES.   writing

FEARS   tba

FAMILY.

FATHER.   patrick thomas (deceased)

MOTHER.   sherri nill (alive; estranged)

SISTER.   lily nill (younger half sister)

BROTHER.  

SIGNIFICANT OTHER.   verse dependent/dodge mason/ray hall/bishop moore

SON.   anson andrew mason

DAUGHTER.   lily dayna mason

EXTRA.

MBTI.   istj

ENNEAGRAM.   tba.

ALIGNMENT.   9w1

HISTORY.

raised in a very unhappy home. her biological father killed himself shortly after she was born. her mother attached herself to any man who was willing to take care of them. most of them weren't good people. from one of these relationships, her younger sister, lily, was born. she married ray hall as a way to get out of her homelife, hoping to take lily with her later on. ray never warmed up to the idea.

met dodge mason when she was attempting to rob her house. they began an affair.

later leaves ray after he found out about them. she and dodge get lily and go on the run as bank robbers. they make sure to donate a good amount of what they steal to families who are suffering greatly from the depression.

CANON VERSE.

heather's mother got pregnant with her in high school. she got pregnant with heather's younger sister, lily a few years later. while she did get to go to beauty school after running away from home, she's barely living a life. usually, she's some mix of high or drunk or trying to get into someone's pants. heather raised lily more than their mother did. their relationship is more complicated than the standard abuse parent and abused child, her mother does care about her daughter's. she just doesn't know how to snap out of her lifestyle to really be their mom.

heather is a hard worker. she got a job the moment she could at st. mary's community soup kitchen. when that closed, she went to mainstreet wireless. her mom spent a good amount of the money she earns on drugs and alcohol. having her own income means saving up money to go to college and escape carp and prevent lily from going to bed hungry.

she's a writer. they're mostly short stories or little things she tells to lily as a bedtime story. her dream is to publish her own book, but she has very little reason to believe that'll happen.- heather had no interest in joining panic, but after her mom stole her money for college (over $5,000) and her boyfriend broke up with her, she decided to do the jump and enter the game.

nothing happens with ray. he tormented her throughout middle and high school. she does have a crush on bishop and develops a relationship with him.

[sweatertheman]

Hmm, that's a good question. See, I don't know what I was thinking at the time of this asl, but the way I'm imagining things now is less "SBURB doesn't want you to go on a character arc" and more "SBURB wants you to go on its arcs, wants to decide for you who you become, due to its own ends."

Due to the rules of Paradox Space, characters are forbidden from making choices other than the ones that the Alpha Timeline, SBURB, whatever, wanted them to make. As we see, its not because these characters are incapable of making other choices, but because they'd be killed for making them. And is that not a cruel thing to do? To take a complex creature capable of doing many things and to limit them to being only what you want them to be? It'd be different if there was no free will and characters were literally incapable of making choices othet than the ones they end up making, but no!

Regardless of how happy the characters are on SBURB's path, I consider its actions to be evil, which is why I want to write a story wherein the narrative lacks the absolute authority to control the lives of its characters down to the smallest detail, and where instead, the characters revolt against that which seeks to dehumanize them, to make them beads on a rail.

As for how the characters' arcs would change, I imagine things will be a lot tougher for everyone. Jade, for one. She was raised by the stories told by Skaia and Prospit, and they definitely effect the way she thinks about herself and her place in the world. To be confronted not only with the idea that her fate is not concrete as she'd been led to believe, but that trying to control who people end up becoming is evil, that would totally mess her up.

Also, two side notes. One is that I intend to remove some aspects of Homestuck for my thing in order to prevent the page count from ballooning and the story from becoming impossible to follow. Mainly the Trolls, Scratched Universes, Paradox Clones, and Lord English and the Felts. These things are all cool, they're just not immediately relevant to the underlying themes, and end up complicating things significantly.

On that note, a lot of what you're describing sounds very different from what I remember reading. I don't doubt that these themes do exist, as I remember some very meaningful and well thought out scenes. It's just that these scenes are crushed under dozens of layers of What The Fuck and Why The Hell, then stretched out across 8000 pages with a whole lot of distraction in between. I honestly feel like Homestuck is too long and has too many ideas for its own good. All the bits and pieces are interesting when looked at alone, but the sheer volume of them makes it hard to see the bigger picture, and taken as a whole, the story can end up being frustrating to follow, feeling like none of it has any significance at all. Which is part of why I want to write my own version. Cut out all the excess and the diversions and focus on our lead 4 characters, as well as some observations I have about them.

Overall, Homestuck is an unstable concoction of good ideas fighting for the spotlight putting immense strain on the narrative until eventually the whole structure collapses creating an explosion the size of planet fucking jupiter, wiping out civilization as we know it and and allowing Andrew Hussie to reign over the rubble as God King of the new world!

okay, you do homestuck, right? ive got this project idea in the works. basically, its homestuck, but thematically inverted. i havent actually finished homestuck, but I made it a long way in, to around Dirk's Derse Coup. i have some questions if you dont mind.

first of all, ive observed thus far that Homestuck id about discarding yourself. characters gradually lose defining traits and get closer to the platonic ideals of their classpects. strife specibi seem to represent that which ails our heroes. to become a god, you must sacrifice your earthly waking body on a magic bed, succumbing to an endless sleep to live forever within a dream. for my version, I wanted to do the opposite, having characters become more of themselves instead of less, and kill their dreamselves to truly "wake up," but first i need to know if these observations are actually valid if you read the whole story, and more generally, how valid is this idea?

any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Now let me preface this by saying: You can do anything at all. You're not restricted by anything other than your own creativity, and largely speaking, so long as you think it's cool/works, any approach is valid. Similarly, Death of the Authro, yadda yadda, there's all manner of divergent readings on a text. So anything regarding personal projects is really largely up to the taste of the author.

That being said, if you're asking me on my take on this theme in the text of Homestuck, I'd say that while you've definitely noticed one of the Big Themes of Homestuck, I'd argue the way Homestuck goes about it is the inverse- Taking the 'Platonic Ideal' of a character, while some characters that achieve Ultimate Self status are in fact better off, namely the Sprites or those sidelined in some way, the loss of self that comes with it is largely showcased as a Bad Thing in the instance of those who already were more important/relevant to the main cast. Even then, and while intrinsically tied to their Classpect, the characters still have their own particular spins on the Classpects- A Classpect is too broad a concept to have a singular 'Platonic Ideal', just as often times the Platonic Ideal of their character can contain contradictions in the 'whole' of their existence!

Homestuck is, first and foremost, a Coming of Age story about Teens growing up into Adulthood, with all the pain, trauma and baggage of carrying the legacy of their world, and their families, on their shoulders, in one way or another. SBURB wants the characters to go through an Arc, develop, and become worthy gods, but as we see time and time again, this is not always necessarily in a character's best interest, and the idea of the Self, what makes you You, if you're still You as time passes, as your body changes, as you become something metaphysically completely detached from what you used to be, and how this affects your interpersonal relationships and your relationship to the world around you, is far more complex than simply 'discarding traits to become closer to your Classpect's Platonic Ideal'.

You succumb to sleep in the Quest Bed, but simultaneously, you do wake up as your Dream Self. Whether you take this as being taken by this Platonic Dream, or truly Waking Up to the true nature of your existence, that's a matter of taste and views. Likewise, this doesn't make the characters that didn't God Tier or die and become their Dream Self any less likely to undergo changes to their Self and 'wake up' in their own right.

It's a complex story! It tackles a lot of themes of the self, agency, growing up and the like, and that is always messy. Some are happier becoming something else. Some cling to what they were. Some were always hiding what they truly were. Some are still figuring out. And that's fine. The metaphysics of SBURB are a device to explore the different ways all of this affects the characters! So the most important thing I'd say is less the validity of the observation in regards to an Inverted Version of Homestuck based on your views, and more:

How would this scenario affect the characters differently, and what new hurdles/feelings/predicaments would this create in their development and the story?

[treesbymccafferty]

.

[leupagus]

If I were writing this, I'd call it "Little Scraps of Wisdom," but I'm not writing it

So @themardia and I were talking, as we so often do, about why Henry Lasso should be in high school and not grade school, and... things happened. [Warning for some discussions of stillbirth and child death—not Henry—and warning for... us being us, basically]

Chapter One: In Which Gus And Mardia Discuss Why They Should've Been Consulted On Ted Lasso

GUS: SEE THIS IS WHY HE SHOULD HAVE HAD HENRY BE LIKE 17

MARDIA: MAKE THE KID BE A COLLEGE FRESHMAN

GUS: IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO FUNNY

MARDIA: and Ted and Michelle are empty nesters and that’s part of why the marriage implodes

MARDIA: people get married and have kids young! It happens!!!!

GUS: well and like... the implication from the show is that they got married out of college or whatnot, at least imo

GUS: when he mentions meeting her in the school parking lot

GUS: that was always my takeaway

MARDIA: Oh yeah

GUS: so right, they get married at say 23

Chapter Two: In Which Gus Has A Bad Idea

GUS: ...god you know what would make sense but would be like

GUS: SO DARK

MARDIA: Oh no

GUS: oh yes

MARDIA: I am afraid

GUS: maybe they DID have a kid

GUS: and he DIED

MARDIA: OH NO

GUS: YES

MARDIA: DANGIT GUS

GUS: is it worse if Henry was born before or after Kid A kicked the bucket

MARDIA: After

GUS: you're right

GUS: Michelle being like "we'll just try again! Mulligan!"

GUS: or wait no I think Ted would be more like that

GUS: and Michelle is devastated but like, pregnancy was actually really easy for her or whatever, so they have Henry

MARDIA: Yep yep

GUS: I think this only makes sense if the first kid died because of something they couldn't have prevented

GUS: bc if it had been an accident or something no WAY would ted have been able to like, leave

MARDIA: Or heck, even a stillbirth

GUS: man this is so terrible, thank you for yes-and-ing my horribleness

MARDIA: Ahahaha here for you

GUS: I think a stillbirth they would've tried again sooner

MARDIA: Ooh true

GUS: but like if the kid's IDK

GUS: ...doing math in my head... maybe 12? when it dies?

GUS: that gives them time to get henry, if henry's about 7 at the start of the show

GUS: and Ted and Michelle are early 40s

MARDIA: Oof this is dark af

GUS: honestly I want to write this now

GUS: oh man what if he had a daughter

MARDIA: DAMMIT GUS

GUS: WHAT IF HE HAD A DAUGHTER MARDIA

MARDIA: STOP TRYING TO HURT ME

GUS: AND WHEN HE SAID THINGS LIKE "LITTLE GIRLS ARE MYSTERIOUS AND PLAYFUL AND I GAVE UP TRYING TO FIGURE THEM OUT A LONG TIME AGO"

GUS: HE WAS THINKING ABOUT HIS LITTLE GIRL

MARDIA:

GUS: HAHAHAHA

Chapter Three: In Which Gus Has A Slightly Better Idea

GUS: ok ok what if instead I wrote that they DID have a first kid

GUS: but she's still alive

GUS: an actual Mary Sue

MARDIA: Thank you

MARDIA: Yes

MARDIA: I am a delicate flower 

GUS: I'd even call her that

GUS: Mary Sue Lasso

MARDIA: No judgment

MARDIA: Ted WOULD name his kid that

GUS: he absolutely would

GUS: ok so Mary Sue

GUS: first season she's finishing high school in Kansas

GUS: second season she rolls up because she got into college somewhere in the UK

GUS: not cambridge or oxford

MARDIA: St Andrews!

MARDIA: That’s the only other Uk college I know

GUS: oh my god I'm looking up colleges in the uk

GUS: she has to go to University College

MARDIA: Ahahahahahah

GUS: because that's the dumbest fucking name ever

MARDIA: it IS

GUS: she straight up applied because she didn't think it was a real place

GUS: and because her dad was like "aww you should apply to somewhere in the UK! then we can be expat buddies!"

GUS: and she DOES love him but like, jeez dad

GUS: anyway she gets in, has a HUGE fight with Michelle about it/the divorce/etc and is like FINE I'LL GO TO LONDON I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THE SPACE JUST LIKE DAD DID, TOO BAD YOU CAN'T DIVORCE ME TOO

MARDIA: AHAHAHHA

GUS: like one of those very teenager fights

GUS: so when she gets to the UK she's still like, fuming

GUS: and Ted's like "... hi honey"

GUS: and she's like "I'M ON MY PERIOD AND I HATE MOM, GIVE ME CHOCOLATE AND LET'S GO ON THAT FERRIS WHEEL THING"

GUS: I feel like she stays with Ted

GUS: and absolutely destroys his apartment

MARDIA: and there is so much makeup in the bathroom

GUS: Five different shampoos

Chapter Four: In Which Mardia Proposes An SMAU Of Sorts

MARDIA: She tries out every new TikTok trend

MARDIA: Ted has a heart attack when he comes home and tries the wolf cut haircut

GUS: oh my god what is THAT

GUS: is both his reaction and mine

MARDIA: LOL

MARDIA: it’s basically like a shag haircut

GUS: oh god

MARDIA: There’s this famous YouTuber Brad Mondo

MARDIA: Who reacts to people fucking up their hair

MARDIA: And offers many tutorials

MARDIA: Anyway thanks to him

MARDIA: I know the wolf cut is popular with the youths

GUS: terrible I love it

MARDIA: And I love the idea of Ted watching it so he can help her

GUS: omg

GUS: YES

MARDIA: She puts the whole thing on the internet

MARDIA: It goes viral

GUS: periodically he'll stop and say "Hi Henry! Just me and your sister having ourselves a barbershop duo!"

GUS: because he thinks she's filming for Henry alone

MARDIA: AHAH

GUS: she has a whole series

GUS: omg what if she did this back in Kansas too

GUS: WHAT IF SHE WAS THE ONE WHO FILMED THE LASSO DANCE

GUS: and everybody in Richmond knows about this including the press but nobody talks to ted about it

GUS: assuming he knows

GUS: which of course He Does Not

GUS: should this have a ship

MARDIA: Of course not!

MARDIA: YES

MARDIA: MARY SUE AND SHANNON

GUS: lol I was thinking for Ted but yes good

MARDIA: Lololol

MARDIA: I think Trent

MARDIA: Just because the parallels with the daughters is funny to me

GUS: god right

GUS: what if she hates him at first

GUS: and is BIG MAD at him for betraying her dad with that article

MARDIA: YES

GUS: but in the end is like, ... I GUESS if you like him or whatever

GUS: this would be funniest in her POV I think

MARDIA: Yes

MARDIA: Bc her response to Ted is so different

GUS: but it does mean I would have to learn more about TikTok

MARDIA: I…will try to help

MARDIA: I have one but I barely get it myself

GUS: THANK YOU

GUS: basically I just need verisimilitude in re: uploading vids, getting responses etc

MARDIA: Oh for sure

GUS: I assume it's like insta/snapchat/twitter in terms of like

GUS: people can comment/like/subscribe

MARDIA: It’s basically the successor to vine if you know what that is

GUS: I do!

GUS: vaguely

MARDIA: There you go!

GUS: I never had one but i understood the basics 

GUS: mostly I'm Old Person about all of that

MARDIA: Dancing challenges are super common

GUS: Mary Sue definitely puts together a compilation of Lasso Dance Competitions

MARDIA: OOH YES

GUS: someone else did a music compilation thing to the GO LASSO GO LASSO GO chant that's like, catapulted some tiktok musician into actual success

GUS: ie like this

Chapter Five: In Which Gus Nixes The SMAU

GUS: okay god I am NOT making a fucking SMAU

MARDIA: Ahahahahahah

GUS: basically it's season 2 plus teenage daughter

GUS: but all through her POV

MARDIA: I dig it

GUS: so there's limited interest in what Ted's actually up to

GUS: I wonder if she knows about his panic attacks

GUS: I bet he doesn't tell her

MARDIA: I think this is when she figures it out

MARDIA: Or like, she finds out with everyone else

GUS: but like not because her dad was OPEN AND HONEST WITH HER

MARDIA: If she finds out when the article drops

GUS: so her anger at Trent would be like a drop in the bucket of her RAGE at her dad

MARDIA: Or because the article drops

MARDIA: she’s mad at EVERYBODY

GUS: EVERYBODY

MARDIA: does she know about how her grandpa died?

GUS: for sure, but again not because Ted told her

GUS: because that's the kind of family secret that's not actaully a secret

GUS: it's more a We Don't Talk About Bruno deal

MARDIA: Also she 100% takes a swing at Nate if she finds out he was the source

MARDIA: I love the idea of Ted having a daughter who is emphatically Not Nice

MARDIA: And may occasionally have rage issues

GUS: is it funnier if she's like, the spit of Michelle ie a tiny blonde

GUS: or more along the lasso lines so she can actually do damage to Nate

MARDIA: I think it’s funnier if she’s a mini Lasso

GUS: I mean either way Nate would be terrified

MARDIA: Like imagine a tiny teenage female Ted

MARDIA: But MAD

GUS: HAHA

GUS: I'm imagining like

GUS: Florence Pugh

GUS: which is funny for a number of reasons

MARDIA: ahahaha omg that would be great

MARDIA: Give her dark hair tho

GUS: maybe she used to dye it blonde

GUS: like her mom

MARDIA: Ooh yeah

GUS: (bc no way is Michelle a natural blonde, no disrespect but srs)

GUS: (which: neither is Rebecca so)

MARDIA: Particularly bc Sudekis’ hair isn’t that dark

MARDIA: so going blond wouldn’t be that hard or that shocking

GUS: lol what if she home dyes her hair all the time

GUS: just destroying Ted's bathroom

GUS: because she felt pink

MARDIA: this is how she’s a Brad mondo addict 

GUS: and he's like "babydoll you know I love you very much but what the heck"

MARDIA: And Ted starts having to watch just to understand wtf is happening on his baby’s head

GUS: she comes into his bedroom one night and he does like a Keeley-worthy toss of his phone across the room

GUS: and she's like "...ew if you're watching porn, gross"

GUS: "but also, that stuff is exploitative and you should really be on Make Love Not Porn"

GUS: and Ted is like "...thanks?"

Chapter Six: In Which Okay, This Might Have Some SMAU Elements

MARDIA: I gotta say

MARDIA: It would be even funnier

MARDIA: If Ted is actually pretty good with hair

MARDIA: Both bc he learned thanks to having a kid

GUS: true! ooh what if Ted was the primary caregiver bc Michelle was the breadwinner

MARDIA: so when she uploads the videos of her dad doing the wolf cut

MARDIA: He is very earnestly and carefully sectioning her hair

GUS: **chinhands

MARDIA: And talking about how you have to do it like THIS because that Brad boy said so

MARDIA: And waxing poetic about getting the right type of scissors

MARDIA: “Can’t be hacking at your hair with kitchen shears”

GUS: all the while Mary Sue just looking dead into the camera

MARDIA: and putting on the screen type that says BRAD MONDO YOU CREATED A MONSTER

MARDIA: Brad mondo immediately does a reaction video

MARDIA: He is DYING

MARDIA: and also SO VINDICATED

MARDIA: “See THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE CORRECT METHOD”

MARDIA: He’s actually super enthused about Ted’s technique

MARDIA: oh god

MARDIA: What if she’s a semi regular on his channel

GUS: yes

GUS: continue

MARDIA: Like, she’s done wild shit to her hair in the past

MARDIA: So he’s reacted to her a few times

MARDIA: And is straight up going “I’m sorry but you need your dad to do your hair more often, this is the best you have ever looked"

GUS: I feel like that would be CRUSHING to an 18 year old but like

GUS: objectively hilarious

MARDIA: He’s actually very nice on the whole

MARDIA: But honest

GUS: Mardia

GUS: you look me in the screen and tell me what 18 year old wants honesty

MARDIA: HAH

MARDIA: like, she tends to go wild bc she is impatient

MARDIA: like, her hair never looks BAD BAD

MARDIA: but Brad is vibing bc Ted is METHODICAL 

MARDIA: And takes the time to do it CORRECTLY

MARDIA: (To be fair, the wolf cut technique is supposed to be idiot proof)

MARDIA: (It is not)

GUS: (there are a lot of idiots in the world ok)

MARDIA: Like, the video is just Ted being patient and following ALL THE STEPS

MARDIA: while Mary Sue just squirms bc she is IMPATIENT OKAY

MARDIA: And to add insult to injury

MARDIA: Brad keeps pausing the video

MARDIA: To point out all the things that Ted is doing CORRECTLY

MARDIA: “You see how he’s directing the ponytail to the very top of her head”

GUS: I love it

GUS: although fair warning, you're writing that part

MARDIA: HAH I got you

GUS: I'm just going to be like [HAIR SCENE/FILMNG HEREY]

GUS: [BRAD REACTION VID HEREY]

MARDIA: AHAHHHAHA

MARDIA: Perfect

GUS: god

GUS: what if she used to get comments back before her dad became famous

GUS: (bc she's been doing this since she was like 15)

GUS: from women being like "IS UR DAD SINGLE"

GUS: and she was like "EW NO HE ISN'T STOP LEAVING WEIRD SEX COMMENTS ABOUT MY DAD"

GUS: like not puriteen about it

GUS: but like full on Amy from Brooklyn 99

GUS: EW ROSA THAT'S OUR DADS

MARDIA: YES PERFECT

GUS: and then thanks to the Lasso Dance (and maybe a little bit of Dad becoming this famous soccer coach or whatever)

GUS: her channel (does tiktok have channels? whatever the term is)

GUS: becomes HUGELY popular

GUS: like she still films stuff with her friends etc

GUS: but the Dad stuff is the big ticket item

GUS: which she's so grossed out by but also: it's hilarious

Chapter Seven: In Which Children Of Divorce, Whoo Boy

GUS: also -- Mary Sue is ABSOLUTELY the kid who sides with Dad in a divorce

MARDIA: Oh yep

GUS: (Henry's too young but I think he sides with Michelle)

MARDIA: Especially because like. The reason that Michelle is right to leave

MARDIA: Is not something I feel like Mary Sue would get instinctively

GUS: oh absolutely

GUS: ... oh man

GUS: you know what I could do

GUS: is have Beard sit her down at some point

GUS: and be like "your Dad is hard to be married to"

GUS: "I should know, I've been his work wife for 20 years"

MARDIA: He’s not wrong!

GUS: HE IS NOT

MARDIA: And Mary Sue could hear it from him

GUS: exactly

MARDIA: where she can’t hear it from her mom, not that Michelle is even trying to justify it

GUS: because Beard is also The Mom

GUS: man what if when she was little

GUS: and she'd get mad at her parents for whatever

GUS: she'd run away from home

GUS: to Beard's house

GUS: two blocks away

GUS: like backpack full of her favorite stuffed animals and her blankie over her shoulder

GUS: "WE'RE LEAVING"

GUS: "PACK YOUR TENT"

GUS: Beard: ok lemme just make a reeeeeal quick phonecall

GUS: they actually did go camping

GUS: bc Beard lived right next to like, a park or whatever

GUS: so they'd pitch the tent about 100 feet away from his house and make a fire and toast marshmallows

GUS: and talk about whatever books she was reading

GUS: or just stare at the fire

GUS: and then she'd fall asleep and he'd bring her home

GUS: and Michelle and Ted were totally zen about it

Chapter Eight: In Which Mary Sue's Reaction To Characters Is Not Necessarily Our Reaction To Characters

GUS: so when she moves to the UK she still randomly shows up at Beard's

GUS: which causes some stress in Beard's relationship with Jane

GUS: or maybe they get along worryingly well IDK

MARDIA: I think Mary Sue would be like “who is this”

MARDIA: At first they get along

MARDIA: And then Mary Sue sees the crazy and is like NOPE

GUS: YES good

GUS: Mary Sue's like "you remember that ventriloquist girl? and the telemarketer who was into recreational caning? Yeah Jane is worse"

GUS: and Beard is like "woah that is an indictment" and breaks up with Jane

MARDIA: she’s not wrong!!!!

GUS: SHE IS NOT

MARDIA: And Ted is like “oh thank you sweetheart”

GUS: I feel like she'd dislike Keeley at first because teenage girls still have a weird puritanical streak

GUS: but Keeley would win her over

MARDIA: Oh yes

GUS: and I think she LIKES Rebecca but like... in the way you like your dad's boss

GUS: she knows that they're close but Rebecca seems really remote and inaccessible

MARDIA: oh for sure

MARDIA: Like, that’s her dad’s work person

GUS: which means she just becomes very Midwest Polite around Rebecca

GUS: and Rebecca is like SHE IS SO CHARMING

GUS: and ted is like yes... charming

GUS: not revealing that his daughter has become a pod person

MARDIA: AHAHAHAH

GUS: what if there's some sort of crisis

GUS: one of the players is in a car accident or something

GUS: and everybody rushes to the hospital

GUS: including Rebecca who's like, no makeup in her sweats with sneakers that squeak on the linoleum

GUS: and Mary Sue is like "oh she's a human being ok"

GUS: and promptly becomes as horrible to her as she is to everyone else

MARDIA: Rebecca is so BEWILDERED

GUS: "I don't know what I did wrong, Ted, she's acting so--"

GUS: "oh no, you did something right. and now you get the same patented Mary Sue Lasso Special that us folks she actually likes get on the regular"

MARDIA: Rebecca is both flattered and insulted 

GUS: Rebecca knows she really Made It, though, when Mary Sue runs away to her house one time

GUS: (because Beard is out of town or something)

GUS: and Rebecca is like "... I have an outdoor fire pit?"

GUS: "It's remote-controlled but I'm sure we can manage"

GUS: Mary Sue brings over her last bag of Jet Puffed Giant Marshmallows

GUS: I'm trying to think of how Trent and Mary Sue interact

GUS: She's DEFINITELY at the pub with her dad that time Trent's there and asks about the "food poisoning"

GUS: and she clocks that SOMETHING'S hinky

GUS: but assumes it's her dad's sublimated crush on trent

GUS: and is like "dad he was totally flirting with you"

GUS: which has the benefit of derailing Ted's concern about Trent figuring shit out

GUS: and also giving Ted a whole NEW thing to worry about

GUS: he makes some comment about how he's not gonna slip Trent a note asking if he likes him, check yes or no

GUS: and Mary Sue's like "oh my god you're so OLD"

MARDIA: okay I gotta detangle and wash my hair

MARDIA: KEEP GOING THO

GUS: haha don't try the wolf cut

Chapter Nine: In Which Gus Is Left By Herself, With Predictable Results

GUS: so it can start with Mary Sue getting off the plane in Heathrow

GUS: and Ted and Beard are waiting at the gate bc rebecca bought them fraudulent plane tickets so they could get through security

GUS: which, background to that is that Ted talked Rebecca's ear off about how anxious he was having her here for the first time, seeing as how she didn't come with Henry and Michelle that spring bc exams or whatever

GUS: but mostly Mary Sue's just like "oh my god you're so embarrassing"

GUS: so the first section would be mostly her like, starting college, dealing with her own culture shock etc

GUS: if you've got an idea of what she'd be majoring in/interested in lmk, I kind of want her to be completely separate from both Ted and Michelle

GUS: and Michelle I still headcanon as like an engineer of some kind

GUS: Maybe she's into music or something arts-related?

GUS: god what if she's an English major

GUS: Anyway so the season's already started, I assume? Whatever, timeline

GUS: eventually Mary Sue goes to the clubhouse and meets people

GUS: oh man what if Ted's taking her on a tour maybe like... post-ep 3, a few days after Sam has his moment speaking out against the Nigerian government

GUS: and Trent rolls up while Ted's mid-tour trying to get a question in

GUS: and Mary Sue's like "WHO'S THIS GUY"

GUS: like immediately rude to him

GUS: bc he reminds her of one of her professors who she hates

GUS: although she clocks immediately that Trent's not going to be putting any moves on undergraduates since he's so obviously got a crush on her dad

GUS: which she keeps to herself

GUS: (omg I'm absolutely working in a real-life thing that happened with my parents many years ago: we were all at this cute granola-type grocery store in Ann Arbor once and this twink just FELL IN LOVE with my dad, asking wistfully if he could help him with anything, and Dad just obliviously chatting with him about IDK, artisanal bread or whatever while Mom and I were dying trying not to laugh. I think of that poor boy often, I hope he's doing well and has found a silver fox of his very own)

GUS: anyway she makes a total conquest of Higgins who adores her

GUS: she super negs Jamie's eyebrow thing

GUS: goes to maybe a game or two but like... she doesn't care about soccer

GUS: and didn't care about football either

GUS: omg what if she's a THEATER MAJOR

GUS: god that would be even funnier

GUS: dreams of getting into RADA or something

GUS: lemme think - I think she goes home for Christmas, so that part for Ted is unchanged, and maybe Mary Sue has another fight with Michelle and stomps out of the house only to realize that she can't run away to Beard's house because he's back in the UK

GUS: and like she has some contemplation about her life and about the history of her own family

GUS: OMG WHAT IF SHE'S ONE OF THE EXTRAS AT THE MUSEUM THAT EDWIN HIRES

GUS: like she answers a craigslist ad or whatever

GUS: or some of her classmates tell her about it and they all go and get their $200 for the day

GUS: only she recognizes Sam and waves

GUS: and Sam is like "...????????"

GUS: in the middle of that whole scene

GUS: I'm trying to figure out when she'd meet Shannon

GUS: probably just like, around, since Shannon lives near Richmond Green too?

GUS: basically the same way Ted meets her

GUS: only Mary Sue's like "ugh another jock"

GUS: And Shannon's like "you're not a fan of jocks?" all smiles and Mary Sue is like "oh no"

GUS: what'll also be interesting is Mary Sue's relationship to alcohol

GUS: because like - she's aware of the family history

GUS: and of the right age/temperament to go full teetotaller

GUS: but also this would be the first place where she can legally drink

GUS: while ALSO knowing her dad likes to drink

GUS: and I can definitely see her also being like, well grandpa was an alcoholic sure but that didn't have anything to do with him killing himself

GUS: ...oh god

GUS: I just realized what the Big Fight would be between her and her dad

GUS: like she finds out about his panic attacks from the article

GUS: and immediately throws her grandpa's suicide in his face too, because he didn't tell her about THAT, either

GUS: she found out from a cousin, or something

GUS: and is like "do you have ANY IDEA how terrified I was, all last year, because you were the same age Grandpa was when he killed himself? I called you EVERY DAY, and if you didn't pick up I called Beard, and if he didn't pick up I called Katie at the front desk because she'd always know if you'd come in to work that day and I knew you wouldn't kill yourself at work, that'd be so unprofessional, right Dad?"

GUS: just so incredibly cruel the way daughters are

GUS: being like "you're so obsessed with this idea of nobody having to worry about you that you ignore us worrying about you ALL THE FUCKING TIME"

GUS: and this is the first time she's yelled at him in YEARS

GUS: and he suddenly realizes why - it's because she's convinced that he'll kill himself if anyone hurts him too badly

GUS: cue hugging and stuff

GUS: and him telling her about therapy and the panic attacks and everything else

GUS: he even tells her about Sassy

GUS: Mary Sue: ew, also I already knew about that

GUS: oh my god what if all this happens at Trent's place

GUS: because at first she was mad at him for writing the piece so she stomped off to HIS apartment

GUS: and he of course immediatley called Ted being like "your feral child is in my flat, please retrieve asap"

GUS: but when Ted shows up they have this big fight

GUS: while Trent is in the kitchen making tea and pretending not to hear a thing

GUS: because revealing the panic attack is one thing but this is another

GUS: and as they leave Mary Sue says she wants to apologize to Trent so she stays back for a second

GUS: and she apologizes sort of half-heartedly but also is like "look, you're gonna have to wait a couple months before asking him out now, okay? maybe at the beginning of next season"

GUS: and trent is like "pardon?"

GUS: and mary sue considers it and shrugs and is like "okay realistically he'll be over it by like tomorrow but we're going back to Kansas for the summer and long-distance relationships are hard for old people"

GUS: THE END

Epilogue: In Which Mardia Comes Back To... All That

MARDIA: I LOVE IT

GUS: I should just post this

GUS: so I don't have to write it

MARDIA: BOOOOOO

GUS: too late

MARDIA: sigh

MARDIA: At least we have chat fic

GUS: we'll always have chat fic

[yandereocs]

Yandere Andrew, The Twins, Karro, and Zack with a darling who has healing powers who can heal any injury or illness and restore any lost limbs? (Like Karro she restores his jaw)

* YOOO THIS IS REALLY COOL

* Also I know the request referred the the reader as a girl, but I'm writing this as gender neutral, as all my other works!!

* Andrew is no stranger to magic. He isn't able to use it, but his queen can. He's knows about pretty much every spell in existence. But this is something completely new to him. He knows healing magic is a thing, but that has limits!! But you...don't. It's actually kinda terrifying. Andrew thinks your power is fascinating. Only hybrids are suppose to be able to use magic!! And only a select few can perform the most powerful of spells!!

* But here you are, a human with powerful magic. Andrew isn't dumb or reckless, but he's curious about your ability. With his queen's permission, he'll start injuring himself on purpose. And even though it hurts like hell, he'll allow his arm to get chopped off. He wants to know everything about your power. The more he knows, the better he can keep you safe from people who want to take you for their own needs.

* The Twins initially laugh you off when you talk about your power. You're not a hybrid!! Humans can't DO magic. It's like, the whole reason the war between hybrids and humans happened. But they were very surprised when you proved your power. It honestly kinda pissed them off. Humans can't do magic, so why the hell can you? Are you hiding something from them? They need to know everything about you, no secrets allowed. And besides, not even hybrids can do magic THAT powerful. They definitely try to find some way to get rid of your magic. It's dangerous having that much power. People would try and take advantage of you if they found out. They also don't like the idea of you having stronger magic than them.

* Karro is definitely very happy when he hears about your power. You probably didn't tell him about it until you accidentally saw his missing jaw. After you reveal your power, Karro just kinda...stares at you. You can't tell if he's happy about it or not. He isn't sure if he knows either. His jaw is his biggest insecurity. He doesn't want it to be seen. He's ashamed of it. But also he's had a fucked up jaw longer than he's had a normal one. It's a part of who he is now. He definitely thinks about it a lot, before deciding that he does want his jaw back. But even when his injury is healed, I think he would still wear his scarf over his mouth. He feels too exposed without it.

* I think Zack would feel insecure about himself once he finds out about your power. Zack isn't able to do magic, despite being a wolf hybrid. It's something he really hates about himself. So he thought of the two of you as equals!! You're a human so obviously you can't do magic. He thought that you two could like...bond over being magicless or someone. But no. You can't. Because you can somehow do magic and worse of all, it's POWERFUL. More powerful that what even a wolf hybrid could do. He should be happy that you can help people, but he just gets really sad and mopey. He apologizes for it a lot, but he just can't help but feel inferior. He'll ask that you refrain from using your magic. It's okay if you say no. There's lots of ways to prevent a hybrid from using magic. Maybe it'll work for a human, too.

[monkeyluver4546]

Ask and I shall answer

Cheeky Questions

1. First celebrity crush

2. Do you work out/sport?

3. How popular were you in school?

4. Embarrassing moment

5. Favorite actor and actress

6. Little thing that makes you extremely happy

7. Song that made you cry because you related to it

8. How often do you find yourself thinking about your life?

9. Best toy you ever got as a kid

10. Do you express your emotions well?

11. Are you happy with your height?

12. Are you a bottom or a top?

13. Who makes you the happiest?

14. Your nickname(s)

15. Who do you feel completely comfortable with to be yourself?

16. Does the way you laugh depends on who you’re with?

17. Secrets you told strangers, because you knew you’d never see them again.

18. Do you like or dislike surprises?

19. In the evening, would you rather play a game, visit a relative, watch a movie, or read?

20. Pet peeves?

21. Who would you want to be stranded with on a deserted island?

22. Breakfast, lunch or dinner?

23. You’re stranded on a deserted island and there’s a box, what’s in it?

24. What’s the best gift you got?

25. Who do you buy random gifts for?

26. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

27. Have you had a secret admirer?

28. Are you a clean or messy person?

29. Shower or bath?

30. How would your friends describe you?

[averagewriter-inthedark]

Spider Studded Reunion 💔 | T.M No Way Home miniseries P.3

Contains major spoilers for Spider-Man NWH

Read part 1, 2 & 4(final) | Marvel Masterlist

Characters & Pairings: Tobey!Peter Parker x Black Cat!reader (past romance), Andrew!Peter Parker (platonic/flirtatious), Tom!Peter Parker (platonic), Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn, Max Dillion, Curt Connors, Flint Marko, May Parker MJ Watson, Ned Leeds, Doctor Strange.

Content warnings: major angst and character death (may), spoilers for SMNWH. Descriptions of major character death. Fighting, blood, graphic depictions of violence, profanity. | female reader (she/her) | this is long-roughly 4k words

Black Cat PS4 theme | Green Goblin NWH theme

Premise: Peter Parker thought he was doing something good when he allowed six multiversal villains in his care to prevent them from dying when they return home. The problem when you try to do something good, there are often consequences. And Peter is not ready for the consequences that comes when the Green Goblin is in control.

Note: this is NOT in association with my tobey!peter x black cat!reader saga. It is a separate work. This is an idea I had while writing the original series where the reader is still the version of Felicia Hardy from tobeys universe & they had history, but unlike how their life ended up in my stories this version of black cat!reader had a different path. Also I’ve never been more excited to write a fight scene than one between Green Goblin & Black Cat. Enjoy my friends. (Also only one more part to go! And that’s where Y/n and Tobey!peter finally come face-to-face!)

————————————

Y/n fiddled with her fingers as she sat on one of the bar stools. Her attention was on young Peter Parker explaining to Max the device he was placing on his chest. The grey arc like cure had several grey squares which turned green whenever the charge was extracted from Max.

A giggle escaped when she saw the look on Max’s face when Peter started to ramble, cutting himself off with, “You don’t need me to explain electricity to you.” There was a slight blush to his cheeks, which made the antihero laugh even more. “I’ll come back and check on that later.”

Peter stood from his seat, turning around to face Y/n—who straightened a bit when he started walking towards her with a hopeful expression. “What you got for me, little spider?” She watched him place a little shiny trinket on the countertop, brows furrowing at the sight. “What’s this supposed to do?”

It looked like a emblem one would see on a necklace. It was small and compact in the shape of a diamond. How fitting, something she used to steal. There was a slight iridescent shine to it and Y/n would’ve mistaken it for some family heirloom if she had to guess. The only thing was it was out of place compared to the necklaces she used to steal with its steel rim and tiny makeshift chain.

“This is a probability necklace,” He held it up in his palm. “You’re ability is a little harder to understand—a-and I didn’t know exactly what could’ve been the cause of it. What I do know is you’re able to alter the probability fields around you. So when you feel stressed or threatened, it causes things to happen to others disadvantage—hence your ‘bad luck charm,’” Y/n couldn’t help but smile when he lifted his fingers in quotes.

The excitement of seeing Peter in his zone while talking about science and technology was nothing new to her. She got to see it a handful of times when she was with her Peter. Part of her felt her heart sink thinking back to those memories. It was a good time in her life. With Peter.

Y/n pushed them away, focusing her attention on the Peter in front of her—this worlds Peter. He had his eyes on the ‘cure’, showing the different sides to her, “I’m still working the details of this and will run a diagnostic, but if it works then you can control the level of alterations you make. It won’t fully cure you I-I should say, but maybe it will help if you ever feel like your bad luck does more harm than you want.”

He handed the necklace to Y/n for her to inspect, seeing her intrigued glint. She let a gloved finger run along its edges, flipping the pendant over every now and then. It was small in size, not even taken up her whole palm. Definitely easy to conceal under her clothing. The woman couldn’t help but sigh though, handing it back to him and noticing his disappointed look at her expression.

“I’m sure it will work, Peter. I have no doubt you’ll find out a way for it to,” Y/n said, tone genuine, “but, Peter,” she leaned toward him so the others couldn’t hear, the teen also leaning his head. “—unlike these dudes, I don’t have some goal of power���or want to see others in pain at my hands. Well take that back, I did want my Peter,” she sighed, “-b-but I’m over that and want to do better.”

Her lips turned upward in a sad smile, the sadness reaching her eyes, “The thing is, kid, I don’t think fixing my bad luck charm is going to cure what lies ahead for me. It didn’t even work in my advantage, which is—was something new,” Her shoulders slump in defeat, not wanting to think about her impending death. “What you’re doing is great—giving us these second chances when you sure as hell don’t have to. We’re not from this world—we don’t belong here, yet you’re taking this risk.” Y/n gives him an apologetic look, “I just don’t want this to fall on you if fate ends up going the way it’s supposed to—especially for me.”

Peter was silent as Y/n talked, letting his mind think about what she was telling him. She had a point. There was no way for them to know they would spare her from death if he gave her this cure. Y/n could still end up on that construction site, fighting Eddie to protect her Peter and loosing her life in the process.

But he had to try. It’s what Spider-Man does, he helps people.

“You’re right,” he finally says with a nod, “—but you deserve a change and that’s the risk I’m willing to take. Are you up for it?”

The Black Cat thought for a moment, glancing at the cure in his hands. Peter thought she would deny him again, but then there was a smirk at the corner of her lips and Peter felt himself starting to smile.

“I’m never one to back away from a challenge, little spider. There’s no way in hell I’m stopping now.”

Time continued to pass with midnight lurking ahead. Peter was joined in the back room with Otto, Norman, and Y/n. Norman was drawing up some calculations with Otto watching from the side, and Y/n read over the blueprints for her necklace as Peter worked on the next step to make it work.

He was nearly done with it, ready to start on Flints when a chill ran up his spine. An all too familiar feeling that had him numb.

The air shifted around Peter. There it was again. The spidey-sense tingling around him, but he was unable to pin point the reason for it. His heart started to race, mind focused on what caused the feeling.

In a apartment full of villains nonetheless.

Peter stood from his chair, drawing the attention of the three in the room. Y/n was eyeing him closely, brows furrowed by the look she was seeing on the teens face. “Peter?” She softly spoke, but it was muffled as it reached his ears. Otto saw her worried look when she received no reply.

“Peter?” The man tried when Peter started to walk out of the room, the three following behind him.

“What’s wrong?” Norman could be heard in the back.

“I don’t know,” Peter finally said, exiting the doorway, “May?” He called for his aunt, seeing the remaining two in the living area.

The older woman came down the stairs, waving an bundle of sage around her. “What is it, Peter?” Now all present in the apartment had gathered around Peter. The teen hadn’t said anything else, and was looking between them with unease.

“What’s happening?” Flint asked from the side, noticing how Peter snapped his head towards him. The teen turned to each member, the sweat beginning to coat at his forehead. Y/n and Otto stood next to each other, the Black Cats eyes closely on Norman when he started to move away from them and toward Dum-E.

Something in her gut told her something bad was about to happen.

May had moved passed the woman, leaning against the wall leading to the back room and the two shared a look before turning their attention back to Peter.

“Why you looking at me like that?” Max said with a suspicious gaze.

Peter looked away from him, connecting his eyes on Y/ns briefly before closing them. He let his instincts talk to him. They were beginning to heighten, starting to feel overwhelming as the seconds ticked by. Everyone stayed silent, the anxiety filling the air slowly until it came to a climax when Peters eyes snapped open and his hand raised.

Normans hand was webbed against Dum-E causing all eyes to turn to him. Y/n felt a chill on her spine, realizing what Peter was sensing. The suspicion was confirmed when Normans usual vulnerable manner had shifted to something more menacing.

“That’s some neat trick, that sense of yours.”

“Norman?” Otto voiced concerned.”

“Norman’s on sabbatical, honeyyy.”

Max was taken aback, “The hell?” He thought the scientist lost his damn mind. Well, he was right on that. Norman did lose his damn mind, because it wasn’t Norman Osborn standing before him.

“The Goblin,” Peter whispered, feeling his stomach drop. This was the first time he was actually face to face with the mad man. The altercation between them on the bridge had been prevented with the help of Strange.

Now there would be no help from the sorcerer. He was on his own.

“Shit,” Y/n mumbled, giving Peter and May a look, who also shared one and Y/n pushed May in the direction of the room away from Normans eyes. This was not about to have a happy ending. And anyone who had been there to witness the Green Goblins mayhem would know that.

“No more darker half?—did you really think that I’d let that happen?” Y/n kept her eye close on May as she backed away into the room. “That I’s let you take away my power just because you’re blind to what true power can bring you?”

“You don’t know me,” Peter glares at him, but the Goblin just smirks—aware he was getting under the teens skin.

“Don’t I? I saw how she trapped you.” Y/n saw May return in the corner of her eye, pillowcase in hand containing the cures. “—fighting her holy moral mission.”

May had fully emerged and was beside Y/n, flinching when the Cat took her arm to gently push her behind so Y/n was standing in front. Norman was glaring, ignoring the challenging look in Y/ns eyes. “We don’t need you to save us. We don’t need to be fixed! These are not curses, they’re gifts.” Now Max and Flint were having second thoughts hearing the Goblin rant. Y/n however, was not on board.

And it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose.

“You need to get out of here,” she whispered to May, “Now.”

“Norman, don’t—” Otto tried to reason with the scientist but it was to no avail.

“Quiet, lapdog. And you—,” Y/n shivered and turned back to face the man, seeing how his hard glare was now directed at her. “You’re a fool to think this would change anything. You sacrificed yourself to a man who threw you away like dirt—do you really think his opinion will change? You’re gonna go back to a world where a hero like Spider-Man does not care for a criminal like you. A fool you are,” Norman spat with a shake of a head, “Gave up you own life when you could’ve had all the power you wanted.”

Y/n’s face consorted in anger. The Goblin may have thought he was winning her over, but really it was making her want to claw off his face. How dare he bring up her pain to use against her.

But then again, the Goblin always knew where to cut a person where it hurts.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Peter stood his ground despite the overwhelming nerves he was feeling. He glanced at Y/n briefly, worried at how her fist had clenched. Peter felt some relief he at least had her and Otto on his side. But even with them, who’s to stay they would stand a chance against the other three.

“I’ve watched you deep from behind Normans cowardly eyes,” the Goblin spoke with venom. “Struggling, to have everything you want while the world tries to make you chose.” The second to last charge on Max’s cure beeped, and it was then Y/n noticed the look in his eye. This was not about to end well. They were running out of time.

“Gods don’t have to chose. We take.”

It was over after that.

“May. Run.” At Peters word, Y/n gave a push to May and the older woman was speeding out the door in a flash. The device on Max was pulled off at the same time Norman freed himself from Peters web.

In yellow electrical bolts, Max was summoning the arc reactor from the fabricator into his palm. Peter had been distracted by dodging Max’s voltage that Norman was able to fling him up into the stair railing. Peter landed to the floor with a groan, all while Flint slowly dispersed from his sand form.

Adrenaline filled Y/n, and before she knew it she was tackling Norman to the ground—the two falling with a *huff*. The lights had begun to flicker—a result of Max’s energy and Otto looked on horrified. “Oh my god. What have you done?”

A flash of yellow, “I liked you better before.”

Otto was surrounded by yellow bolts, pulling him forward in front of Max before being flung out the apartment—a large hole in its wake.

“OTTO!!’ Y/n screamed before grunting when she was roughly pulled by the hair off the ground. While Max let the energy flow in his veins and Peter was still on the ground catching his breath, Y/n was having the fight of her life against the Green Goblin. All the while Connors broke free from the F.E.A.S.T truck and was now on the lose.

A punch to Y/ns jaw had her head snapping from the impact. Blood spit from her mouth, shaking it off before dodging Normans next one. Flipping around to land a kick to his gut, the two practically danced around the now destroyed apartment. Blood coated her jaw, as did around her temple when Norman slammed her face into the countertop.

Her medical bill was about to be huge.

Still the adrenaline made Y/n not feel any pain and she focused on jumping onto Normans shoulders to flip him onto his back. Glass crunched beneath him and Y/n threw her fist into his cheek repeatedly. She could hear him groan and seconds later she was thrown off to the side. “Peter get out of here!!” She managed to scream before being flung into the wall. More glass shattered when the back of her head met a picture frame. The antihero was sure she’d have a mild concussion when this was over.

If she made it out alive that is.

“Goddammit,” she cursed, pushing herself off just in time to meet Norman in the middle. The two tousled around the area. Anger was boiling through her—already having enough of this showdown with the Goblin. Y/n was careful not to get too close to the shattered windows or hole that would lead to them falling to their death. At one point Norman pinned her to the table, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Such a waste. So blinded by love and hope.”

“You could use a bit of that, you green bastard,” Blood hit Normans face from Y/n spitting at him, causing the man to curse and lift her up before slamming her again to the table. The table shattered beneath her and Y/n had to roll away to dodge the next attack, flipping back to her feet with a huff.

The Cat didn’t even want to think about all the bones currently broken in her body. She knew her jaw suffered a bad blow, as did her ribs. Blood basically covered her vision—not to mention it stained her white hair red. And without the adrenaline she would probably have passed out by now.

“That the best you can do, Osborn?!”

Her strength was no match for the Goblin, but she was giving it all she got. Y/n wondered if this is how she felt when she died at the hands of Eddie. The fear, the pain, the anxiety of wondering if she would live to see the sun rise. It was powerful how one could feel so many emotions at once.

Pain was starting to fill her, making Y/n scared about possibly becoming burnt out. She was barely keeping up with Norman as he pushed her up into the kitchen cabinets. “Fucking hell, Osborn.” A frying pan was in her reach so she grabbed it before landing a hard smack into Normans head. It made him stumbled giving Y/n enough time to reach for her grappling hook.

Extracting the hook away so she had the rope in her hands, Y/n pounced one last time. Her legs went around his head, taking the rope around so when she flipped them down it would wrap around his neck. The maneuvered worked, and Peter saw as he tried to push himself up that Y/n had gotten Norman down.

There was a bit of relief until it was stolen when the man managed to get his hand under the rope and change the position. Instead of Norman about to be choked to death, Y/n fell victim to her own tactic. The air became constricted as Norman pulled harshly on the rope causing Y/n to gag. Stars filled her vision along with the maniacal grin the Goblin was giving as the life was starting to leave her.

She heard Peter scream her name and the Black Cat had to think fast. As quickly as the thought flashed in her mind, Y/n was extracting the sharp claws of her gloves and running them across Normans flesh. “ARRG!!” He pulled away as pain erupted on his face. Blood flowed from the now deep cuts coating his cheeks in thick lines.

A huge intake of air left Y/n as the rope was released from her neck, kicking Norman away as hard as she could. Horrible bruises would be left behind, but she’ll take it if it meant living another day. There was a smirk of victory, seeing the Cat scratches she left on Norman. They were nasty ones too—going from the top of his temple all the way down to his chin. It covered the entire side of his face, making it drenched in bright red blood.

The victory was short lived. A hand came up to her neck, bruising the sensitive area more and pulled her off the ground. On her feet while fighting against his strong grip, Y/n was being dragged to the edge of the apartment where she felt the cool breeze hit the back of her head. “N-norman,” she tried to call him back to sanity, “D-don’t do this. Th-this isn’t you!” He stopped before the balcony, raising his brow at her.

For a moment she thought she had one him over. But the chilling smirk he gave seconds later said otherwise.

Her eyes met Peters panicked ones and both of their stomachs fell when the Goblin replied, “Nighty-night, Kitty-Cat.” A scream tore through Y/n feeling his hand lift her off her ground. With a single push, she was flying out the building. Peter flew to his feet in horror, “Y/n!!!!”

The teen never made it to the edge in time because the Goblin was sending him back. Neither heard a sound indicating Y/n hit the ground, and Peter feared what laid at the bottom of the apartment complex. Dread filled every inch of him—dread at the heartbreaking feeling that he failed her.

After she had just tried to save his life.

Peter didn’t have time to cry at the thought Y/n laid dead on the ground because Norman was on him the second he was on his feet. Punches were thrown, cuts marked his skin, and Peter felt his ribs crack with each slam he endured. “Strong enough to have it all,” Norman mocked, “Too weak to take it!”

As Peter landed punch after punch on Norman, he was horrified when the man began laughing—crazies smile painted on him. Hands went to his thighs, and Peter found himself penetrating the floor of the hallway into the bottom level. Pain was enough to rival that he felt when he was hit by the train in Europe.

With Norman no where in sight, he pushed himself up and limped to the end of the corridor where he shot a web to pull away the window leading out the building. Peter climbed to the side, immediately letting his attention focus on the ground in search of both Otto and Y/n. His eyes squinted at the bright light from the helicopter, and he climbed upward in hopes to avoid it. It didn’t help that Jameson fella from the Daily Bugle was down below filming the whole ordeal.

The feeling of dread filled even more when he failed to locate the two villains. He didn’t know whether to be relieved he couldn’t see them splattered to death on the pavement or worried about where they went. He was sure Y/n would be dead. Her broken body being the only evidence of her once again tragic end.

But there was no body, and Y/n was not where she surely would’ve landed. That had to be some good sign. The only problem now was where could she have gone in her state.

And the fact she had left him behind.

As his eyes met the smug ones of Jameson, Peter had no time to react when Connors attacked him from above. “I told you there’d be consequences!!” Peter was tossed back into the complex through the seventh story window, just in time for Osborn to be there waiting.

Without hesitation, Norman threw Peter into the ceiling only to catch him and flip him downward so the force would send them both through the floors of the building. Peters back was on fire by each impact, the rubble caving around him. He couldn’t find Norman off in their position—he had to surrender while his body was being broken with ease.

May had just entered the lower level, pushing the door and entering the lobby as the two fell from the ceiling. She was reaching into the bag, searching for the cure indicated for Osborn and firing it up.

Meanwhile Norman was choking the life out of Peter, the boy gasping under his grip while looking into his crazies eyes. “Your weakness, Peter, is morality. It’s choking you! Can you feel it?” May ran up behind Norman, sticking the cure into his skin making the man yelp and push off her nephew.

“I didn’t work,” He glared, removing the device, “Norman was right—he got it from you! That pathetic sickness.” Peter grunted when a foot met his back before he was pulled up by the hair. Norman pushed his face so his vision was on May—the woman grabbing a sharp piece of metal, ready to defend herself and Peter.

Norman spoke low into Peters ears, his eyes cutting through May like knives. “You tried to fix me—.”

“May, go please.”

“—Now I’m going to fix you.”

Peter saw the glider approach from behind the glass of the lobby. In a weakened state he pleaded once more, “May, please.” But the woman would not leave him. Her hand gripped the object and she straightened her posture. Peter could only helplessly watch as the glider charged forward, knocking May to the ground. “MAY!!” Normans grip left the teen, making him fall forward.

The man hopped onto his glider, spinning around with a wicked grin. “Peter, Peter, Peter,” he taunted, “No good deed goes unpunished. You can thank me later.” A pumpkin bomb in his hand, Norman gave one last glance to the bloody woman laying on the ground. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he met Peters eye and sent the bomb in the direction of May.

“NO!!” Peter was in the air, hitting the orange ball away but it didn’t give enough time before the explosion erupted in his face. The teen was flown back by the impact, firing encasing the building as more rubble fell as a result. As Norman flew away, more pumpkin bombs were unleashed to the tv crew parked outside. Fire and chaos all around.

What started off as a night full of hope and opportunity for six lost villains, ended in ultimate tragedy. All because a boy thought he could change the fate of the future.

Connors was right, there were consequences for the risks one takes in life.

………………..

Tag list: @n1ght5h4d3-24