#Anyways *SHAKES PAC* WHAT DOES THIS MEAN PAC

[royalarchivist]

Pac: It's very powerful, very powerful, it's a bad ending, clearly the bad ending. Oh damn, it hurts.

[Reading chat] "Romeo and Juliet" What do you mean? How does– how does this story have a reference to Romeo and Juliet? Of all the references... AH, I understand, it's true, Romeo and Juliet, they both died, right? I don't know if it's a spoiler. Well, I think everyone has heard of this story, right? Wait, but did Fit die?! Fit died??? [Reading chat] "Spoiler from 300 years ago–" I'm going to release a spoiler for a book from 436 years ago.

[Reading chat] "We don't know" Ok, I understand, I understand. Is this "We don't know" because you really don't know, or because you want to avoid saying something to me that you know, but you know that I can't know? [Laughs] There's always this doubt. I've spent a year with this QSMP metagaming, so I don't know.

Several times I asked you some questions and you said, "We don't know, we don't know," and I said, "Yes, they know. They just want to tell me because I can't know." Tomorrow… Will we find out tomorrow? Maybe I'll find out together with you. That's a lie, I'll never do that. So tomorrow… Tomorrow…

Will FitMC's story maybe come to an end? Hmm.... How crazy, huh? Will we find out about his boss? That cat? He was good, he was good, I can say that I knew him, he was good. Is it tomorrow or not? But no, you're saying it is tomorrow, I'm trusting you.

[Reading chat] "Fit will log in tomorrow and discover that Pac died and will die of sadness." He'll be joyful! I'm kidding—

—

(Art by @ Rhiaarrow on Twitter. Thank you again to sebbs12 for the Translation help!)

[factorialsotherfandoms]

Richarlyson is still here. It is only that knowledge that drives Pac from bed in the morning, shoving a knife he remembers Mike sharpening where his wrench should go, and his axe over his back. He has already lost Mike; he will not also loose their son.

It should be Cellbit's turn to take care of Richars; Pac should tell him what happened last night.

Pac is not sure that he can.

Cellbit - Cell - without Mike present... Pac will not use their child as a shield. He will be brave, he will be strong, he will deal with the ache in his missing leg and the tension in his spine if it will save his companion.

But that is for later. First, he must feed Richarlyson. He does not think he himself can stomach food, but that is no reason for his son to go without.

At every noise his fingers trace the knife, more than ready to fling it into the first sign of danger, the first thing that might take what little is left away from him.

The noise is only his son, sprinting downstairs after he saw the empty bed, and clinging to Pac's legs.

"I'm sorry, Richars," he manages to say. "I didn't mean to scare you."

The shake of Richarlyson makes could mean many things; Pac pats the top of his hat, and goes back to measuring out a glass of juice.

There is no need to be exact when measuring a glass of juice.

Pac finds comfort in it anyway.

Food is placed down for Richarlyson, who continues to look expectantly at Pac.

"Yes?" he asks, knowing too well how much is wrong - there's no need to ask that.

Mike isn't here, Mike is gone, he should be out there looking, searching, fighting for him just as Mike surely did for him, but-

But the only lead Pac has is to the void. And Mike would never forgive him if he threw himself recklessly in.

So what he needs instead is someone he trusts, and a very long rope.

(Who would he trust enough for that? Not Cellbit, perhaps Forever but then Mike was worried..., Felps? Wouldn't be there. Fit? Would Fit even care?)

Richarlyson hits Pac's leg, jarring him back to the present. He is pointed to look at a sign, in his dear son's blue.

'Where is your breakfast?' it asks.

Pac cannot say he is not eating, he cannot do it to the egg, he cannot scare him even more than he must be scared. Pac must be strong for Mike, for Richarlyson - once Cellbit has their son he can worry about these things, for now... For now he must make sure that Richars will stay okay.

"I'll just go get it," Pac says. "We got up a little late, so I wanted to make sure you'd have yours in time for Cellbit to pick you up."

It's a weak lie, and they both know it.

Pac escapes to fetch himself something before he can be called out on it.

He hears the sound of someone entering the labs and tenses. He abandons the fruit knife in favour of his weapons waiting one moment, and a second, before hearing Cellbit call out a greeting from a few rooms away.

"Just having breakfast!" Pac calls.

He abandons the rest of the fruit - he does not think he could eat it anyway - and darts back to join Richarlyson on the sofa.

As soon as he sits down his son shuffles into his side, clinging tight, pressing close. Pac puts his fruit bowl on his lap, and uses his freed up hand to hold his boy.

They have a minute, maybe two, in which Pac manages half of a slice of apple and three raisins, while Richarlyson finishes his juice but not his food, before Cellbit finds them.

"Pac, Richars!" he calls. "Good morning!"

Neither of them answer; Pac's fingers just tighten around Richarlyson.

He sees Cellbit pause, reassess, look at Pac's fingers, his weapons, his eyes, and watches his expression fall.

And then he watches Cellbit glance around the room, looking for someone they all already know he won't find.

"Pac? Where's Mike?"

Richarlyson's bowl of fruit falls to the floor, splintering into a hundred parts; Pac dives to catch it, and only succeeds in dislodging his too.

The angles are all wrong; his prosthetic gives beneath him and Pac, too, is left sat in a pile of broken crockery and ruined fruit. He knows Cellbit is saying something, and that Richarlyson is panicking, but all he can do is look at the floor and see the blood slowly leaking from his hands, his leg, his-

Hands touch him.

Pac slaps them away, taking a shaking breath, and then another. He refuses the hands as he pulls himself up, not quite finding strength to stand, but managing to get himself back onto the sofa none the less.

"Pac...?" Cellbit is now holding Richarlyson.

It does not help the panic, but Pac swallows it none the less.

"Richars?" Cellbit says instead. "Go find Roier, please. Let him know what's happening, and stay with him today, okay? He should be at the castle."

Richarlyson hesitates, even after Pac nods his agreement to the plan. Roier is not stupid. He will understand.

Cellbit waits for Richarlyson to have left before he turns on Pac. There is a clear struggle in his eyes.

"They took him, didn't they?"

It did not look like a Federation building, but Cellbit will see that for himself soon enough; Pac nods.

"... I'll go get a broom and some bandages."

And then Cellbit, too, is gone.

Pac knows he only has a few moments to collect himself, and knows this is the best plan: Cellbit has proven time and again that he can be trusted with them, and so too has he proven himself the best to deal with the strange problems of the island.

All Pac has to do is trust him.

And for Mike? There is nothing that Pac would not do.

[disfrutalakia]

Okay, I had been meaning to write this for awhile and what best time to do it than at 3am in Brazil right?

Anyway, time for me to be ill about Forever which will be under a read more cause you guys know how much I like to ramble.

Okay first of all, I'm specifically talking about Forever post happy pills arc.

When he woke up from his coma he was meet with a bit of chaos, a lot of people were at the order during this time but still Forever managed to thank the people he wanted to and even made promises of "bringing your color back" to Bad they hugged and then he managed to talk with Pac and let him know that for him, Pac is a hero.

After this there is the chaos of the event but Forever is quiet comparing with how he usually his, he takes time to resolve everything and Bagi is found, they go on a walk and he is hit with a frying pan, she tells him she doesn't care about his missing son and he just accepts her words, too deep into his own head to really retaliate. And then, at the end of the day he goes back to the "moon house" and takes his first step towards healing, he breaks stone Richas. Which takes a lot out of him.

The next day when he wakes up he is overjoyed, he sees that his beloved sister is back and maybe, just maybe he could have someone to hear him out, but when he arrives he notices she has been crying and when she says it was because of her knee hurting, he didn't believe her for a second, but didn't want to be push, and then she asked about the drugs she heard about him using and if he was okay and what can he do but say that he will be someday? He can't worry Baghera when she looks so much worse than he does. So his wellbeing is not important.

And then the flower thing, Forever is not someone to show he cares so directly, he knows who he cares about it but he rarely shows it but now? He is making an effort to at least try to cheer up his sad friends with flowers, he wants to investigate Bad to figure out what's going on with him, he wants to bring his colors back, he wants everyone he cares about to be happy again even if he is still screaming from pain inside.

Then that meeting with cucurucho happens, on the old times he used to joke and laugh even during those meetings but not now, now he is tense, his lands probably shake a bit and his voice is carefully crafted to not show much emotions, Cucurucho trusts those pills on his hands again and for a moment, a very brief one he thought about them, thought about how he would let himself become lost in then if Richas was truly dead. Then, he sees old pictures of him and Richas together and he decides against using the pills ever again, he hides then away, under a fireplace so if he ever gets tempted to touch them again, his hands will burn with the fire. But he is keeping them safe to make antidotes with incase shit ever happens again, he refuses to let Pac's work go to waste.

He refuses to not be himself again, to lose his agency like that.

Right now, his only focus is helping his friends who are very not well, he can take care of himself the others are always a priority and they will remain the priority for the rest of his life. His pain being buried deeper and deeper, not cause nobody would be willing to hear it but because he isn't willing to talk about it.

So he tries, he tries to joke and laugh with his friends, to forget the horrible reality but they all can notice how his smile is not really there, how his laugh is a lot more quieter now.

The old Forever is gone, what remains is the most self sacrificial part of himself that would rather putting everyone else's problems before his own.

Because for him, he is nothing without his family.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Pac-Man Fever: Final Part

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.4k

Warnings: canon angst and violence

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated.

You find your own way back to the Bunker where Sam and Dean are waiting eagerly for you. You give them the basic rundown but there is nothing more to give than that.

"So, no chance of a recovery?" Sam asks.

"No, and I don't think Charlie has accepted that. Did you two find something?"

"I think so. There was a John Doe from nine years ago. The original coroner wanted the body sent to the CDC, but the coroner's new assistant 'accidentally' ordered the body to be burned."

"New assistant?"

"Jennifer O'Brien."

"Son of a bitch."

"CDC never heard from Jennifer this time either. She faked the reports and burned the bodies to cover her tracks."

"So, why does she get sloppy again after nine years and start leaving the bodies where they can be found?" Dean asks.

"We need to go ask her. Where could she be?" you wonder.

"According to this, she owns two pieces of property in town. One two-bedroom house about ten minutes from here, and an abandoned shipping warehouse."

"Can you guess where she's at now?" you scoff.

Sam is forced to stay back again, but he doesn't complain this time. He knows it's useless if he tries to go up against you, and the kids seem to like spending time with their uncle. It takes thirty minutes to get to the abandoned shipping warehouse since you believe that's the place Charlie is being held.

You use your magic to break in, and you don't have to go far to look for Charlie. She is in the main room, tied to a chair with a blue handprint on her arm.

"Charlie! Hey!" You rush over to her and shake her, but she doesn't wake up. "Hey. Charlie."

"Figures I'd attract hunters here."

You turn to see Jennifer, and she lets her hair down for this fight. She rolls up her sleeves so she can use her powers on you, but you're not going to let her (as if she could). Dean stays where Charlie is, and you charge at the woman, knocking her down with your magic easily.

She gets back up and grabs your leg just as her tattoos appear on her skin and her eyes flash dark blue. She's confused as to why you're not falling for her charm, but all you do is smirk.

"Sapphire Witch beats Djinn," you say as your own eyes shine bright blue.

Before you have a chance to inflict damage, Dean rushes up to Jennifer and uses the silver blade to kill her. Jennifer gasps as the light in her eyes dies out, and she crumbles to the floor. Without her in your way, you rush over to Charlie to try and help her.

"Do you have the antidote?" you ask.

Dean gives it to her, but she still isn't waking up. When Dean was under a Djinn's spell when Sam escaped the Cage, he got an antidote for the poison. It worked on him instantly, but Charlie isn't waking up.

"What the hell's going on?"

"I don't know. Jennifer is a different Djinn, so maybe she needs a different antidote?"

"Charlie?" you ask and touch her forehead. "She's burning up, Dean. She's going to die if we don't save her."

"Okay, Djinn poison puts your brain in something like a feedback loop while your blood boils, right? If the antidote didn't break the loop, then maybe we can find a way to break it from the inside. I mean, if Djinn take you to your happy place, and your happy place is like a dream--"

"African Dream Root," you and Dean say at the same time. "Let me go in. I can get her out. Please."

"Fine."

Dean still has the ingredients for this kind of spell, and for once, you're not excited for a drink. It looks like ass, but you take the shot anyway once all the ingredients are in. The only way you'll be able to get into her dreams is if you're asleep, and you're not tired right now. By the time you get to sleep, she will be dead.

You hate to ask this of Dean, but it needs to be done.

"Knock me out."

"Excuse me?"

"I need to go to sleep fast, and this is the only way that it's going to happen."

"I'm not going to hit you."

"Don't be a fucking baby and punch your wife in the face!" Dean stares at you with an unreadable look. "I won't hold it against you. My magic will heal me of any injuries, and I'm not pregnant anymore. It's no big deal. Punch me in the face."

Dean hates this, but he listens to you anyway. He gives you a mean right hook, and you fall back as you're sucked into the darkness.

When you wake up, you're inside some hospital of some kind. You're wearing what looks like a nurses' uniform from the 1950s. Where the hell are you? Is Charlie here? Why is she dreaming of a military-looking hospital?

There is a record player in the corner of the room playing ominous music, but you ignore it as you go exploring. The floor is littered with dead bodies, but you don't know what killed them or if it's still here.

"What the hell is this?" you ask yourself. There is a newspaper on the desk you pass by. It's dated July 12, 1951. "1951?"

Someone growls from behind you, and you turn to see a shadow heading your way. When it gets too close, it splits into two which means there are two people coming after you. They come around the corner, and it turns out to be two vampire soldiers. Your eyes shine blue as you prepare yourself to fight them, but someone else already has plans for this.

The elevator behind you opens and Charlie steps out with a shotgun in her hand. She shoots both vampires easily, but you're more concerned with her outfit. She is wearing a badass black suit with a black eyepatch.

"Come with me if you wanna live." You raise your eyebrows at her. "I've always wanted to say that. What're you doing in my dream?"

"You were attacked by a Djinn. The coroner, Jennifer, remember? Djinn usually send you to your happy place. No judgment here, but you got a really strange sense of happiness, Charlie."

"Jennifer said that her kind feeds off fear. This isn't my happy place. It's a recurring nightmare of mine."

"What is this?"

"It's a videogame."

"Wait a second, you're telling me that this whole thing is a video game? What game?" you ask.

"It was called The Red Scare. A first person shooter against super-soldier vampires. I copied it off a game company's server before it was finished, reprogrammed it to reflect my flamingly liberal politics and then I released it for free. Then, they tracked me down and had me arrested. I was twelve."

"You've been on the run ever since," you nod in understanding.

"How do we get out of here?"

"I don't know. We gave you the Djinn antidote, but it didn't take. Dean killed the Djinn."

"Both of them?"

"Excuse me? There's two of them? Dean's up there right now. We have to get out of here."

Charlie leads you down the bloody hallway where two more vampires come. She uses her shotgun on one of them while you slice off the other's head with your magic.

"Look, I don't know how long I've been out, but I've been through this level a thousand times already. Every time I beat the level and save the patients, I get reset back to the beginning, only there's less weapons and the vampires are faster. It's an infinite loop. Like Pac-Man without level 256."

"Wait, what patients?"

Three more vampires come, and this time, it's easier to take them out despite them being more than before.

Charlie leads you to one of the patients' rooms. You slide back one of the curtains while Charlie barricades both of you into the room. On the bed is Gertude, her mother.

"I know who this is," you say as Charlie comes over with a book in her hand.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you went missing, me and Dean found your little crash pad. We saw the payments that you make for her. So, I went and visited your mom, looking for you."

"She's why I'm in Kansas. I sneak into the hospital whenever I can, and I just... I read to her," she says sadly. "She used to read me to sleep at night when I was a kid. She'd read me 'The Hobbit'." It's hard for her to say this without tears, but she manages. "She's the reason I love the stuff I love."

"I'm sorry for your loss," you sigh.

"She's not gone," Charlie says as if you insulted her.

She yanks the curtain closed so she doesn't have to see her mother anymore. You turn away and open another curtain, but instead of a hospital bed, it's a crib. You know who is in there the second your eyes land on it. You can't bear to look inside.

"Who is in there?"

"My son," you whisper. "My son who died before he was born."

"Is this my nightmare or yours?"

Suddenly, vampires start to try and break down the door into the patient room where you are.

"This is it, the boss battle. Come on, we gotta save the patients," Charlie says, getting her gun ready.

"Charlie, you have to stop. You said we're stuck in a loop, and that loop is only going to continue. However, you're dying out there in the real world, and I might be too. Dean is alone trying to bring us back so you need to break the loop."

"Okay. How?"

"You gotta stop playing."

"What?! No, no. We gotta save them. Nut up, Winchester." A vampire punches through the door, but you use your magic to kill him. "See? You can't stop either."

"Charlie, listen to me. This poison is designed to put your mind into an endless cycle while your insides turn to mush, okay? Its fuel is fear. Now call me crazy, but I think the only way to break the cycle is to let go of the fear and stop playing the game."

"You don't know that."

She shoots another vampire trying to get in, but you take her shoulders in your hands and make her face you.

"Your fear is not to stop playing the game. It's not of the vampire soldiers. It's not of this game. You're afraid of losing her, Charlie. She's already gone."

Charlie doesn't want to believe that her mother is gone, but you have to convince her to let go of her fear.

"I didn't want to believe my dad was gone, either. I know you don't want to live in a world where your mom is not there, but by keeping her in this hospital, you're only hurting her. It's time for her to move on. It's the only way she can start to heal because it's the only way for you to start to heal."

"I can't," she whispers as tears fall from her eyes.

"My dad should have never gotten shot. I was the one who killed Dick's friends, and then I used the last of my Borax on Dick. He killed my dad because of what I did. Sometimes I feel like it was my fault that he got shot, but you did not kill your mom."

"No, you don't understand. You don't understand!" she cries. "I was at a sleepover, and I got scared. I called my parents to come and get me. They should never have been driving that night."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I just wanna tell her that I'm sorry and that I love her," she sobs. "I just need her to hear it again. I just need her to hear that one more time, but she can't. She can't."

"She knows, Charlie. Parents always know," you say, letting your tears fall. You hope Robert knows how much you love him, whenever he may be. "You have to let her go."

You let your arms fall at your sides, and Charlie looks at the door. The vampires continue to get in, but the minute Charlie drops her shotgun, they disappear; the hallway is empty. Charlie walks over to the bed where her mom is, and when she slides the curtains open, her mom is gone. Even your son is gone, but you know you're not ready to let him go just yet.

This is not your nightmare, it's hers.

You close our eyes to take a moment, but when you open them, you're back in the warehouse. Your jaw is sore, but you don't blame Dean for that one.

"Thank God. Are you okay?"

"Damn, you didn't need to punch me that hard." You get up just as Charlie wakes up. "Charlie?"

She runs into your arms, and you hug her as she sobs into your chest. You look at Dean with tears in your own eyes. You'll tell him what happened later, but right now, you need to be there for Charlie.

There is one more thing Charlie needs to do before she can leave Kansas, and it's not something she's going to like. She doesn't need to be in the Bunker anymore, so everyone is outside ready to say goodbye to her.

"Thanks for saving my bacon," she says to you and Dean.

"Anytime, your Highness," Dean grins.

"You know you're gonna be okay, right?" Charlie says to Sam. "Those books portray you as one tough cookie. If anyone can get through the trials, Sam, it's you."

"Thanks. You know, you really should come back and dig through our archives. You are definitely a Woman of Letters."

"I like the sound of that," Charlie grins.

Sam gives her a hug before retreating back into the Bunker.

"Thanks for stopping by, Charlie. What's next for you?"

"I'm gonna go to the hospital. Gotta let go, right?" she asks, looking at you with tears in her eyes. "What about you? Are you gonna let it go?"

"One day," you say truthfully.

"I love you both."

"I know," Dean says.

Dean pulls Charlie into a hug and kisses her temple. It's Dean's turn to retreat back into the Bunker, leaving only you two outside.

"When you visit your mom, you tell her everything you want her to know. Because she's listening. She will know, and then you let her go and start to heal."

"Only if you let it in and face Robert."

You pull her into a hug for the final time. You hear what she is saying, but you can't do that just yet. You pull away from her and watch as she gets into her car and leaves. You head back inside the Bunker, but instead of joining Sam and Dean at the table, you head to your kids' rooms. Joanna and Maryann are both sleeping, but you just want to see them.

You stop at Robert's door and hove your hand over the doorknob. Your hand shakes, but you can't bring yourself to open the door. Charlie is right, but you can't face him right now. You wipe your tears away and head to your kids' rooms... the kids who need you now more than ever.

x

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[bakatenshii]

Blitz

Ushijima Wakatoshi x Reader (Haikyuu!!)

word count: 2.5k

TW: 18+, smut, exhibitionism, a spritz of omorashi

A/N: this is completely diff from what I’m used to and comfy with; it’s truly the softest thing I’ll ever write— for the real angel, Weese, who welcomed me into my first ever fandom with open arms. I wouldn’t be here without you, wouldn’t have met any of my best friends were it not for you. From the bottom of boku no kokoro, Happy Birthday <33

Weese’s Birthday Bash masterlist

blitz

/blits/

a sudden, energetic, and concerted effort, typically on a specific task.

(slang) heavily intoxicated

He gives credit where credit’s due, and in all fairness, you have been well-behaved, glued to his side til 2am that night. Might even be a new record; usually you’d have gone off and disappeared at the strike of midnight like you’ve got a pumpkin carriage awaiting, only it brings you to a different destination each time.

Whiskey mixers generally mean you end up at some twenty-four seven conbini chatting up the cashier to give you the karaage for a discounted price because you’ve ‘lost your wallet’. It’s never lost; Ushijima knows this because he’s chained it to your belt, lil lobster claw too rickety for your drunk fingers to maneuver.

Tequila shots are the killer; the ones that get his protective mode on overdrive, eyes scanning the streets littered with stumbling drunks until he finds his stumbling drunk. 

It’s currently quarter to three, which means it’s been a solid twenty minutes since you’ve wandered off. If he calculates the rate of distance in your drunken state, you couldn’t have traveled that far— two streets down, at most. He hopes, anyways.

Ushijima doesn’t like going out, doesn’t quite get the appeal of being shoved into crowds of people in a cramped room with perspiration mixing with other spilled fluids coating sticky skin. ‘It’s just ‘cause you’re too la-’ a hiccup, a giggle, ‘large, ushi.’ is your usual response. ‘Take up too much space.’

Ushijima goes out because you go out, and when you go out, your Find My Friends icon seems to like playing Pac-Man, navigating through the map like you’ve got dots to clear past every street and building. It worries him. So he goes out.

Tequila shots usually bring you to another club, whichever looks the most bustling, because you flock to crowds, like moth to flame. It’s your first character flaw.

“I’m not that drunk,” he whips his head to see your frame swaying outside the queue of a club entrance, bouncer leaning in close, too close.

Your second character flaw is that you’re too friendly. You tell him he’s too cold, too curt, but he thinks you’re just too outgoing. This is what happens when you’re so sociable.

It only takes him two long strides to cross over the street, extend out one long arm over to your shoulder, and pull you into his chest. The bouncer looks up at him, neck craning probably more than he’s used to, before spitting on the floor and turning back.

“Toooooshi,” he doesn’t think his name has that many vowels, but you’re pawing at his shirt, trying and failing to slither an arm around his waist. “‘m hungry.”

This is standard, this is the usual routine. He’s used to this now, “let’s go home, we have food at home.” After the third night out, he’s made a habit out of cooking before you leave. Because you’re always hungry, you always— “want Maccas,” you’re giggling.

“McDonald’s is going to be closed.” It’s a fact, there’s a slim chance you’ll make it before three, no point in wasting time. Besides, there’s food at home.

But you’re tugging at his arm and dragging him down the street, and he’s letting you, because the best way to appease you is to let you see for yourself. You’re bouncing with excited chirps, skipping down the road with grace that will always impress him given the stilts attached to your feet.

McDonald’s is closed.

It’s like he said, so he allows you to pout and sulk for a minute, run a hand down your back in comfort, before taking out his phone to call a cab. He can feel your shoulder bump into his chest, hands fidgeting with the hem of your short dress, “what’s wrong?”

You’re blushing, cheeks tinting over with a light shade of pink illuminated by the bright yellow lights, and it’d be cute if he wasn’t worried. “What’s wrong?”

Another tug at the black fabric, eyelashes fluttering to point towards the wall, the sign; anywhere except him. “I need to pee.”

It comes out so quietly, so docile, a contrast to your otherwise boisterous drunken state. He leans down, face brushing past your hair until it’s only a mere inch away.

“What’s that?”

He watches as your glossed lips push out into a pout, huffing out a, “I need to pee, Toshi, I need the toilet.” Your heels clack on the gravel a few times as if to prove a point.

“I’m calling a cab right now,” he reassures you, “we’ll be home soon.”

You don’t seem reassured. You seem more anxious, if anything. “No, Toshi, I need to pee now,” he can feel your fingers fidgeting with his shirt, yanking the fabric in nervous twitches.

He watches you chew on your lip, willing a solution out from the pink gloss staining your teeth, any solution—

“Alley.”

It’s barely left his mouth before your head’s whipping to glance at the dark narrow street hidden behind the fast food joint. It’s tight, or maybe you’re right, he’s just too broad, but he barely fits down the cramped road.

You’re not moving, though, just staring up at him expectantly as if sending him a message, a signal. He doesn’t really get it. “It’s fine, there’s no one on the streets right now.”

Your bottom lip snags under your teeth, doe eyes looking up through fluttering lashes as you shake your head. The tint on your cheeks grow darker, and he takes a few steps forward, shadowing your smaller frame in his large silhouette. “I’ll block you, you can go now.”

Ushijima’s not the best with people, he’s always been told this. He knows it himself, but he thinks he knows you pretty well, at least.

He’s lost.

He’s waiting for you to say something, anything, an explanation for your odd behaviour, but instead he feels dainty fingers tug on his shirt again before shoving him lightly.

“Turn around,” you won’t look at him, eyes fixed on the broken bottle on the dingy alleyway floor, “Don’t look.”

People are a mystery to Ushijima, but at this moment, you are an enigma.

All 200 pounds of pure muscle on him is stagnant. He’s confused; he’s seen you naked, seen you from all angles in all sorts of positions, he’s brushed his teeth while you were using the toilet before— he doesn’t get it. So he tells you.

Your fists meekly punch at his arm, at his chest, wherever they can reach, “It’s embarrassing,” you’re pouting now, and he thinks it’s cute. Under any other circumstances he’d lean over and kiss you, but not right now. Right now he wants understand what’s going on up in your mind.

“Why?”

It sets you into a frustrated huff, cheeks puffing out before a dejected sigh, “fine, whatever,” and then you’re squatting down, finally, to his relief. Your dress is hitched up only a fraction before he hears the trickling, but you don’t stand up when it stops.

His whole body freezes at the feeling of a warm hand pawing at his crotch. “What are you doing?” He snatches your hand off by the wrist, pulling it into him to stand you up; you don’t stand up— you fall, on your knees in front of him.

He’s used to you being a handful when you’re drunk, used to you falling all over the place, but the alleyway is soiled, filthy, not entirely appropriate for the thoughts he’s having with you on your knees. So he’s trying again, reaching down to grab hold of both your hands this time, and lugging you up.

You don’t budge, don’t even glance up at him, and he has half the heart to reach down and carry you out, but another hand lands on his crotch again and it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the strain in his trousers.

“Toooooooshi,” you’re still not looking up at him, eyes fixated on the growing tent he’s presenting in front of your face. Another soft touch, another purr, and Ushijima knows he’s a lost cause.

He lets go of your wrists, bending down to wrap an arm around your knees and picks you up before standing you back up against the wall.

“Spread your legs.” It’s not really a suggestion.

He watches as you comply, thighs parting as far as the black lace still bound around them will allow, so he rips it down before pocketing it.

He can hear your whines of complaint, it’s your favourite pair, but it’s all drowned out with a gasp as he buries his face into your wet cunt. His hands wrap behind your thighs, large palms pushing them apart until they rest over his shoulders.

His tongue flicks up your drooling slit, lapping at the juices dribbling out your needy hole and down his chin. You’re whimpering now, hands shoving at his face, “stop, Toshi, I—” he looks up at you, gaze piercing through your flushed expression, “I just peed, ‘ts gross.”

“I know.”

“Toshi we’re—” a moan, nails digging into his scalp when he dips his tongue into your clenching hole, “in public, please,” your face whips to the side, anxiously scanning for passerby’s.

“I know,” he echos with a harsh squeeze of your thighs, fucking you down onto his tongue. He can feel a hand threading through his hair, gripping and pulling while the other is obediently clamped over your mouth in an attempt to muffle wanton moans.

“Toshi, stop,” you’re crying now, legs around his head trembling with every lap and lick into your dripping cunt, nose grazing that sensitive bud as he presses your body into the wall. The fingers meekly pushing at his face are chased by your hips bucking against it, and he can feel your hole clench around his muscle.

He doesn’t stop. 

He doesn’t stop because he can feel you coming undone, feel your tight cunny quiver with every thrust— and you do, with a loud sob of his name, before he removes his hand from under to clamp over your mouth.

“You’re gonna get us caught,” he doesn’t think you can hear him, your eyes rolling back and tongue pressing into the pads of his fingers.

He can still see your hole quivering when he stands back up and unbuckles his trousers. His aching erection springs free with a tug of his waistband, snapping up and wetting his shirt with pre.

Normally he would’ve prepared you better, laid you on your back and fucked you on his tongue and thick fingers until you’re wailing his name, legs shaking with the overstimulation. But he doesn’t have that luxury now, doesn’t have the soft mattress, the plush bedding to sink you into; he only has the brick wall digging into your back in a dingy alleyway.

So he sinks his cock into your drooling cunt, pushing his cockhead through the first ring of muscle. There’s nails clawing at his shoulders, back of his neck, anywhere they can reach, anywhere they can grasp.

It’s tight, so tight he doesn’t think he can fit, thinks he should’ve prepared you after all, but one look down at your tear-stricken face crumbles any inhibitions. His hips snap forward in the same breath his large palms find themselves back under your thighs, lifting you up against the wall.

The jagged wall is probably digging into your back, and normally he would’ve tried to appease the pain, shift the angle so you’re more comfortable, but right now all he can think about are your doughy walls sucking his cock in, one slow inch at a time.

It’s excruciating how tight you are; by the third inch you’re throwing your head into the crook of his neck, nails digging into his back trying to ease the stretch— Ushijima’s trying, too; trying to make sure he doesn’t drown in the feel of your fluttering walls and snap his hips forward until he can feel the kiss of your cervix on his cockhead.

It doesn’t work, not when you’re chanting his name like a mantra, crying about how full you feel, how much he’s stretching you out— you can feel him in your stomach.

He drops your body down into the thrust of his hips and buries his cock to hilt. Five seconds, then ten, then thirty; he lets you catch your breath, catch his breath, before you’re whimpering in his ear begging him to move.

There’s no time for modesty, an alleyway is hardly the setting for soft gentle sex. With a vice grip in the flesh of your ass, he hugs you into his chest and steadies a hand on the wall behind you.

He can feel your legs attempt to wrap around the width of his hips, his waist, can feel you cooing soft moans into his ears, can hear you sobbing his name like it’s the only word you know. Every piston of his hip echoes in the cramped alleyway, heavy balls papping against your mound.

He’s breathing in your moans, letting himself drown in you desperate whines of his name, “cum in me, Toshi, fill me up”— he’s shoving your pliant body into the harsh wall, arm moving down from the jagged surface to grip the soft flesh under your thigh.

In one swift movement he’s pinned your knees to your ears, limp calves bouncing off his sturdy shoulders as he pounds into you at an unrelenting pace.

Your moans turn to sobs, wails of Toshi, Toshi, Toshi; his breaths turn to grunts into promises to breed you so good, fill you up with his cum until it’s dripping out of your sweet lil cunny. There’s mini crescents marking up the back of his neck, dark purples and yellows running up along yours as he suctions onto new blank patches of skin.

Loud, unrhythmic squelching echos in the alleyway, his arms bouncing you onto his length until you twitch, spasm around his cock, and you’re coming undone for the second time that night with his name spilling out in broken sobs.

Ushijima doesn’t stop, fucks you through your squeals and shoves until he feels your greedy cunt milking his cock again, then he’s spilling into you with hot ropes of cum.

He doesn’t stop until your body’s gone pliant caged inside his, knees still pushed against the wall and saliva dribbling past your lolling tongue down to your messy pussy, mixing with creams of cum and slick and drool.

One limb at a time, he unfolds you and carries you in his arms, cradling your limp body into his chest. He looks down, admires your hazy gaze, pupils blown, and presses a gentle kiss onto your forehead.

A soft hum leaves your lips, or maybe a giggle, but you’re squirming in his arms, body leaning up until he can feel your soft lips grazing his ear.

“Toooshi,” you drawl, and he almost chokes at how fucked out you sound, the rasp in your voice sending dangerous jolts down to his no longer softening cock.

“Hm?” He’s debating on flagging a cab instead of calling one; can’t really reach into his pocket when you’re in his arms.

“Want Maccas.”

[bl--ankhaeji]

hiii! :). can i request a fic where hendery or yangyang have y/n over at place and she accidentally gets period blood on his bed but after taking care of her, and assuring she’s okay they face another challenge at the store when they try and buy some period items/snacks for her. :) ty!

Pairing ~ Yangyang x Fem!Reader

Genre ~ Fluff, Humor

Warning ~ uhh very light mentions of a slight panic attack not really but really two ig if you count yangs,, also unedited  

A.N ~ Sorry took me so long to answer 😅 hope you like it!

W. Count ~ 1.4k  

  The bright rays of light bleed into the room in which you and your boyfriend of a year sleep peacefully, that is until yangyang throws his hand towards your face in his sleep, slapping you awake. You jolt awake from the impact, “Yang what the fuck.” you spit angrily throwing his hand back on him. “Fucking bitch.” rolling your eyes before closing them you start twisting and turning trying to find a comfy spot to go back to sleep until you feel something wet between your legs. 

Your eyes fly open instantly as you curse internally praying that you’re just overthinking and you sit up looking down to see that what you feared was really happening. Your period had decided to come on in the middle of the night and not only that but you had heavily stained YangYang’s sheets and partially his comforter. “Fuck!” hopping out of bed you start silently panicking pacing back and forth wondering how you’re gonna hide this from YangYang. 

In the midst of your panic you didn’t notice that the very person you wanted to stay asleep had woken up. “Babe, what are you panicking about so early I can barely dream with all of your pac-” he stops mid sentence sitting up on the bed as if he had noticed something and instantly your heart drops as you cease all pacing, “Baby,” he starts out slow, “Are those my joggers? I have been looking for those everywhere, shoulda fucking known you had them.” Standing up he walks into his en suite bathroom. 

A breath leaves your lips as pure relief floods your bloodstream and it’s as if someone lifted a brick off your shoulders. You swear you had never stripped a bed of its dressing so quick in your life trying to get it into the washer before YangYang comes out. Gathering everything in your arms you start to trudge your way out of the room, the end was near you could see the finish line just a few more steps and you’ll-. Yangyang’s hand lands on your shoulder causing your body to stiffen immediately and he makes his way in front of you grabbing the bed set out of your hands. 

“There’s some bath water in the tub for you, I’ll take these to the washroom real quick then bring you a towel.” He then leaves the room without another word closing the door softly behind him. The panic that quickly filled you at the thought of him probably seeing the stain on the back of his pants when he walked out of the bathroom leaves just as quick as it came when you realize that he had probably already known the whole time. In its place was an indescribable warmth accompanied with butterflies at the thought that he pretended not to notice because he knew how stressed out you were about it.

Making your way to the bathroom you grab some clothes to change into. The bubble bath that rested in the tub could only be described as fit for a queen; you could even see the freshly opened and used powdered bath milk packet resting in the garbage can. Stripping yourself you sit in the bath filled with water at the perfect temperature and you could feel all of the tension in your muscles loosen. 

You hear YangYang walk back into the room and then the bathroom standing at the door looking at you. “I hope the bath water temp is cool. The comforter should take a hour or two and I can order you some food if you’re hungry.” 

Looking down at the bubbles that rested above your hands, “Thanks for not making a big deal out of this. You’re the best.” YangYang nods with a ‘Damn right I am’ falling from his lips, and a bright smile splits his face before moving to make his way out of the doorway until your voice calls him back.

 “By the way what did you do with that pad I left here last time? I forgot to put another emergency one in my backpack.” At your question the smile that once threatened to tear his face falls and a guilty expression takes its place. 

“Uhhh about that..” he trails off, averting his eyes, his right hand reaching for the back of his neck, “I kinda used your last pad to wipe up my Arizona Green Tea when it spilled.”  

“Yang I- YOU WHAT?!?”  

“I’M SORRY. THEY’RE- they’re really absorbent okay?” A silence falls between the both of you and you finally look back up at him staring him dead in the eyes a serious expression taking over your face. 

“I take it back, you aren’t the best.” 

“WHAT NO?!? You can’t take that back away from me. It’s undeserved, I had nothing else to clean it up with cause we were out of paper towels.” 

“No, it is deserved because now what am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit in the tub until my period goes off.” You say giving him a deadpan expression. 

“I’ll go to the store and get you some more, okay? I’ll even get you some snacks, what do you want?” 

You give him a list of snacks and tell him explicitly what type of pads to buy, “And if all else fails you can always just call me and I’ll tell you which ones to get.”

Yangyang scoffs, “I’m not stupid how hard could buying some measly pads be.” 

“What the fuck is we doin?” Yangyang drawls out at the sight of all of the pads. “So many words and I have no idea what any of them fucking mean.” he whispers. He picks up a box of pads, “Ok I’m pretty sure the wings are those flappy things that got stuck to my hand when I was wiping up the tea. So that means she wants them to have them, right?”

“Super absorbent..Heavy flow. Does y/n have a heavy flow? I assume so from the amount of blood she got on herself and the bed this morning, so I should buy these right? Wait, but they say teen and she’s not a teen.” putting the box down he picks up another. 

“Maxi, overnight, Super Pads? What makes these super? What the fuck is all of this?!?” Meanwhile Y/n is at the house saying I told you so because she can feel his distress all the way from the store.

Apparently Y/n isn’t the only one who can sense his distress because another boy walks into the section scanning the boxes with precise eyes grabbing one confidently and on the way to the counter when he sees a panic ridden Yangyang. “Hey, bro do you uhh need help or something?” he asks a chuckle falling from his lips. 

Yangyang’s head shoots up looking at the man as if he was a god, “Bro please I have no idea what the fuck any of this means and my girlfriend offered to facetime me if I had trouble but I ran my mouth about how I didn’t ne-”

“Need help and now that you do you don’t wanna call her and hear the I told you so? Yea I know that feeling and I refuse to let another brother feel the same.” The stranger's hand falls on Yangyangs shoulder as a father would his son as he guides him in the ways of the sanitary pads. When he was done Yangyang knew not only of pads but tampons as well and with his chest puffed out he made his way to the counter with the snacks and the pads ready to tell Y/n how he didn’t need help picking out some freaking pads...well not her help anyways. 

“Wow, you actually got the right ones.” you say walking into the room flopping down on the bed beside Yangyang. Opening one of the snacks he got you you lean back on him waiting for him to press play on the movie. 

He clears his throat drawing your attention up to him, “Is there something you would like to say to me?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “It rhymes with Shime Shma Shmest...” 

Smacking your teeth you roll your eyes, “Fine, You’re the best.” 

Wrapping his arms around you pulling you more into his chest he nods, “Mmhm I sure am. Don’t forgot okay?” you shake your head at the saying he picked up from his roommate Haechan. 

Yangyang proceeds to press play on the movie and you get a couple minutes in, “Yangyang.” 

“Hm?” 

“I know you got help from someone cause I- mmgmhhmhMMSHSHMMHM” Yangyang’s hand flies over your mouth covering it in order to mute what you’re saying. 

“What’s that I’m sorry babe I can’t hear you. Did you say I’m the Best? Oh, okay thanks so much babe I love you too.” 

[fandomsonrequests]

tv trope

fandom: be more chill

characters: michael mell

reader: gn! 

word count: 1.5k+

summary:  To him, you were the walking definition of those television tropes of the denim-clad, badass person who practically oozes confidence. The people wanted to date or be with you when they got to know you. And he was whipped. Like so whipped, not even Jeremy’s pining over Christine matched up to it. And that alone is saying something. 

a/n: AHHHHH i love Michael mell (and george salazar cos why the hell not) so much ;^; he’s such a dork i just wanna hug him

Michael Mell always thought you were so cool— like The Matrix kind of cool. You weren’t really popular but you had a reputation around the school for being this tough kid who always stood up for themselves and didn’t take any shit being thrown at them. And, when circumstances permit it, you rode your freaking motorcycle to school. Not only that, you didn’t really flaunt anything off and spoke up when you needed to.

To him, you were the walking definition of those television tropes of the denim-clad, badass person who practically oozes confidence. The people wanted to date or be with you when they got to know you. 

And he was whipped. Like so whipped, not even Jeremy’s pining over Christine matched up to it. And that alone is saying something. 

But at the same time, he was scared. He wanted to talk to you so badly, to get to know you past the television trope he saw you as. He wanted to get to know you for you. And he probably would’ve done so already if all his insecurities and anxious thoughts wouldn’t come crashing down against him like a violent wave. 

For example, in Chemistry class. You were situated in the seat right in front of him and when Mrs. Clarke requested the students to pick a partner for the lab activity, Michael hesitated in reaching out towards you. His heart was all in for it but his head was telling him otherwise. 

What if they could smell the weed on you? What if they find your Pac-Man pin collection on your bag childish? What if they think you’re weird? What if they don’t like you? 

The poor boy would retract his hand and shrivel away as he watches you get whisked away by one of his other classmates. Now he understood what Jeremy felt before he got with Christine— talking to your crush was much easier said than done. 

And the cycle repeats daily. He works up the courage, getting some hype from his best bud, which slowly crumbles the second he comes within a five feet radius from you. He turns on his heel and runs away back to his locker, scolding himself for chickening out.

But fate was getting tired of this beating around the bush and decided to take matters in its own hands. 

Michael decided to go to the library to pick up some books he needed for school while he waited for Christine and Jeremy to finish up with drama. So imagine his surprise when he saw you in the corner of the library in the “reading nook”, a very familiar comic in your hands. His favorite video game had released a few issues of their new comic, a spin-off to the main plot in the game. Of course, he bought all of them— out of impulse— and was already halfway through the first half of the series. So when he spotted the bright cover of the comic amongst the warm, monotone colors of the library, he couldn’t help but be intrigued. 

Before he knew it, his feet were dragging him towards you. He took note of the faded Mötley Crüe shirt you wore along with a pair of acid-washed ripped jeans and your scuffed sneakers. A pair of earbuds were plugged into your ears, your head bopping along to whatever music you were listening to as you read your comic. 

He fiddles with the frayed sleeves of his red hoodie covered in those iron-on patches, thoughts of what he was going to say to you running through his head. He eventually ended up just backing out and settling with pining for you from afar but his movement had caught your attention, making you look up from your comic book.

Michael freezes up as his nerves took over him- eyes wide behind his dark-rimmed glasses. You quirk a curious brow, plucking out one of your earbuds before offering a small smile. “Hey Mell,” You greet cooly. “What’s up?”

You knew his name??? 

“Wh- wha- wait you know me??” The boy stammers as he nervously meets your gaze. 

You let out a soft chuckle and he couldn’t help but fall in love with the sound. “Yeah, you’re in a few of my classes. Of course I’d know you.” You uncross your legs and close your comic book to entertain him. 

“Oh, wow.. Uhm, it just seems l-like, uhm,” Michael continued, voice shaky while his hands grew clammy. “It, I mean you, you just s-seem like the type to not r-really know others.” 

You nod in understanding at his defense. “It’s the vibes I give off isn’t it?” You sigh and shake your head. You look up at him again and scoot over to the other side of the couch situated in the reading nook to offer him some space to sit on. “Well, I hope you believe me when I say that I’m not really scary.” 

He looks over to space you had made from him and back to you before going back to the space. It goes on for a couple of moments before he decides to sit down- but on the opposite side of the couch. You two say nothing for a while, just observing one another before you speak up again.

“Anyway, is there anything you need?” You tilt your head curiously, the small smile returning to your lips. 

“Ah, no not really,” Michael admitted and scratches the back of his head. “I just saw that you were reading Apocalypse of The Damned: The Laboratorium and I kinda just… gravitated towards you.”

Your smile morphs into a bright grin and the speckled boy decided right there and then, there was nothing brighter than that rare, million-dollar-smile of yours. “You know Apocalypse of The Damned?” You ask excitedly and clutch the comic book to your chest. 

“Like the back of my hand,” He replies as confidence starts to flood his system. “I practically bought the whole series.” 

Your hands fly to your mouth to muffle your excitement, shifting in your spot to look at him properly. “Have you finished it?”

“Halfway through it. But don’t worry, I’ll try not to give out any spoilers.” 

You let out some kind of excited squawk, red coating your cheeks at how stupid you sounded. This was definitely something Michael hadn’t expected. He expected you to be cold, aloof, maybe even a bit grouchy like Jade from Victorious but your personality was quite the opposite. And he couldn’t help but grow more enamored by that. 

“I wish I had friends that geeked out with me about these kinds of things,” You huff after your small laughing fit. “They always make fun of me for it.”

“What?? Are they crazy? They’re assholes for doing that to you.” 

“No, no. They aren’t really mean but they think it’s too dorky.”

“Well,” He motioned to you. “They’re clearly missing out on things.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at that, bashfully looking down at your hands while toying with the loose end of your earbuds. You nibble at the inside of your cheek before piping up again. “You’re pretty cool, Mell. We should hang out more often.”

Michael’s jaw almost drops at that. Not only did you invite him to hang out with you, but you had actually found him interesting. That you didn’t find him or any of his quirks weird. It was such an elating feeling, one that spurred his confidence even more.

“Does this weekend sound okay for you? We could go out, grab some sushi and maybe binge read the comics together at the old drive-in.” He offers, a bit sheepish, and you nod beaming from ear to ear. 

“Sounds great,” You fish out your phone and hand it over to him. “If you don’t mind, can I get your number? So we can coordinate this whole… I guess date later in the week.” 

Michael’s face turns a deep shade of red and you couldn’t help but giggle at that, your own cheeks flushing the same color. He was so damn adorable, you wondered why you hadn’t spoken to him sooner. He types in his number and hands you back your phone, smiling uncontrollably at what was happening. 

You glance down at the time on your device, seeing that you had to go home soon. “Well, I better head out. Keep in touch will you?”

“Y-yeah, roger that.” 

You stood up and gathered your things, turning back to him as you flashed him one last smile. “I’ll see you around, Mell.” 

He waved goodbye as you walked to the exit for the library, the lovestruck expression never leaving his face. He sighs dreamily, knowing full well that if his friends saw him now they’d tease him for being so whipped for you. He didn’t mind though because at least, he had something to look forward to this weekend.

Michael gave himself a mental pat on the shoulder for working up the courage to get to know the real you as he picked up the textbooks he needed. At least he knew now that you weren’t some tv trope but someone so much more. 

[kurt-nightcrawler]

destress

Scott Summers x Female Reader

request: OMG, I love your page so much. It’s so pretty and beyond beautifully thought out. 💕 i was wondering if I could please request a Scott Summers x reader. Something where she helps Scott adjust to everything when he first arrives and she’s always checking up on him to make sure it’s all good, they become quick best friends and on one of the nights where he’s most stressed, she takes him out to get his mind off of things. Thank you for your time and consideration! 🥰♥️

a/n: I am so sorry this request took so long! I am one of the slowest writers in history, I am so sorry! I hope you enjoy it

Word Count: 3.4k

 Being the new kid sucked, everyone knew this. Even if you ended up popular as the new kid it sucked.

It was even worse if you had laser eyes that could kill people, and you had to wear sunglasses all the time. 

That’s how it was for Scott Summers, younger brother of Alex Summers. Scott was a mess— he just moved from Ohio to Xavier’s in New York, and he barely knew anything about it! His brother didn’t say much to him about Xavier’s— hell he wasn’t even around much. When he was though, he tried to spend time with Scott and be a good big brother, make his parents proud and crap. 

So when Scott got a mutation and destroyed the boy’s bathroom at his school, Alex picked him up and took him to New York.

-

Scott’s first night was rather… odd. He couldn’t see, and he bumped into some weird chick who could read minds. Not to mention the building shook during the night. 

Scott didn’t have a roommate, so he had no one to ask questions. No one to help him around the building. No one to be his friend. 

Okay, he wasn’t that lonely. He didn’t need a roommate to make friends at school. He just needed to get out. Except he couldn’t see.

-

The next day he was taken outside by Dr. McCoy. 

“I made you some glasses… They should help you reflect the beam and trap them in the ruby quartz, so you can see.”

Scott didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he was desperate. To see again would be a goddamn miracle. 

He slipped them on and opened his eyes. He saw the sky… the clouds… the trees— it was breathtaking. How he took everything for granted! He was a fool.

“Thank you, Professor. Thank you!” Everything was red in some way, shape, or form, but he couldn’t care less about that. He could see and that was the most important thing.

“I’m not a professor…” Hank mumbled. “Yeah, no, of course. Of course. I’m glad they worked.” 

“Dr. McCoy! Alex said you needed me.” 

Scott looked at her. She had all normal features, so her mutation had to be something mental or along those lines. 

“Did he say what for?” 

She didn’t confirm or deny his question. “He said you’d be outside with Scott and I had to help him out since he was new and stuff.” 

Does she think I’m a charity project? Does Alex Think I’m that dependent? “You don’t have to do that.”

“Uh, I kinda do… It’s either me or Jubilee at the moment, and trust me, Jubilee is not the match for you. You pissed her best friend off so now she kinda hates you.” 

“I’m sorry?” What did he even do? Was Jubilee’s friend the girl Scott ran into yesterday? 

“Jean Grey, you bumped into her yesterday. She’s over there by the tree.” (Y/N) motioned to the tree. 

“Oh.” Scott felt sheepish. He didn’t mean to snap at her. He just wasn’t in the best of mindsets. Also, he really didn’t want any enemies at his new school.

“We can go talk to her if you want. I’m sure she won’t be mad, just tell her it was a misunderstanding.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah, come on,” (Y/N) made her way over to the tree and Scott followed.

“Hey, Jean.”

“Hey (Y/N).” She didn’t look up from her schoolwork. “Scott.”

“Hi. Hi, um… look I wanted to apologize—“

A group of smaller kids was standing a ways away from the tree, but near enough, so they could be heard. 

“Look, it’s her!” 

“Careful she might cause an earthquake!” 

“She’s dangerous.”

Scott saw the kids and thought they were afraid of him and his eyes, as he scared a couple of people yesterday. “Hey! It’s okay now. I got special glasses. I can see.” 

“It’s not you, they’re afraid of,” Jean stated. 

(Y/N) tried to hide her eye roll. “It’s not that bad. They’re little, they’re scared of everyone.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Scott asked. “Wait… last night…”

Jean frowned, “Yep, that was me.”

“You made the building shake.” 

Jean nodded, “you’re not the biggest freak in school.” 

(Y/N) looked between the two. Did Jean have a crush on Scott already? He’d only been at Xavier’s for two days!

“Guess not… Um look, about yesterday—“

“It’s fine. I get it.” She waved him off.  “When your mutation first happens it’s a lot of stress and stuff.”

“Yeah but, I was a dick. I was wondering if we could start over?” 

Jean was taken back by Scott’s request. She never thought he’d apologize. 

“Oh, yeah. Of course, we can.” They shook hands and exchanged names. 

“And I’m (Y/N).”

“Um…” 

“(Y/N), we know that…” Jean stated. 

“Yeah, well I wanted to feel included.” 

“Okay.”

-

Scott, you had decided, was going to be so much fun. He knew his way around the mall and wasn’t half bad at Pac-Man. He liked Star Wars and cherry slushies, however, he could only see red due to his glasses, so you had to tell him which was cherry. 

Once you got back to the mansion… it was gone.

Everyone was standing out front, but as soon as you arrived it blew up and everyone was outside in the blink of an eye. 

Scott pulled over and jumped out of the car, running and screaming for his brother. 

“I got everyone.” A guy decked out in silver leather said. Scott glared at him. 

“Where’s my brother?” 

“I dunno man—“ 

“WHERE IS HE?” You had to hold Scott back from hurting the silver man. “No, no. No, no… No! NO!” 

Jean tried to soothe him with her telepathic abilities, but it didn’t do much, it just got him to shut up. You couldn’t even bask in the silence, as a military helicopter landed on the campus grounds. 

“Guys, hide!” Jubilee instructed. You all ran over and hid behind a hunk of stone wall. 

“Why are we—“

“Shh!” Jubilee put her hand over your mouth. The helicopter shot a sound wave of some sort, causing everyone closest to it to get knocked out. A man in military gear shouted at soldiers to collect certain people. He only wanted adults and you could only recognize one of them— Hank McCoy. 

-

Kurt got you all into the helicopter, but couldn’t get you out. You thought you were going to die, but that wasn’t the thing on everyone’s minds. 

Scott was grieving over his brother whom he presumed dead. He was crying silent tears. 

Comfort him. Jean urged you. You weren’t sure how, or if that’s what he needed, but you had no other options. 

You placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to show support and in return he hugged you tightly, still crying. You were slightly taken aback at first, but you returned the hug, rubbing his back to try and calm him. 

“He was supposed to do great things… Do something with his life. He shouldn’t have… He didn’t deserve to die!” 

“That’s not what he thought. He thought you were going to do great things, make something of yourself. Why do you think he brought you here?”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve, “How do you know that?” 

“Scott, he told me. He told Hank and Hank said I was the best kid to show you around, and then Alex went on and on about everything great about you and how smart and talented you were and how proud he was of you. He was so proud of you.” 

Scott wiped his tears away and nodded, trying to stop crying and pull himself together for whatever would happen next in the helicopter. 

-

Then Apocalypse happened. The fight with Apocalypse, where you were told to go batshit crazy with your mutations and fight. You felt alive, even with the weight of the world resting on you winning. 

There was so much happening, you couldn’t keep track of anyone but yourself. You had gotten hit badly a few times, but you had to trudge through. 

Jean and Xavier defeated Apocalypse with their powers— it was cool what Jean did. Scary, but cool. They both nearly passed out due to the strain it took on them. 

You ended up back at the pile of rock left of the mansion, most of the students in a state of panic, but all in awe when seeing everyone in the armor, mutations on full display. 

You didn’t want to get Scott’s hopes up, but you couldn’t find Alex, no matter what you did. He had to be dead, under the rock somewhere. 

You held his hand, giving it a caring squeeze. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’ll have to tell my parents once Jean and Magento finish rebuilding the mansion.” 

“Yeah…” 

-

The mansion was almost finished, and there was no sign of Alex. You and Scott had given up hope, but for some reason, Hank persisted. “He can’t… He can’t be dead! This wasn’t supposed to happen!” 

And then you realized Hank wasn’t completely crazy after all. 

A body was trapped under the basement when Jean and Erik were rebuilding. Everyone thought it was Alex. It was Alex, but you weren’t sure if he was alive. 

“He’s unconscious, but he’s alive.” 

Scott jumped up and hugged Hank, thanking him for everything and for finding Alex. 

“He means a lot to us both. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.” 

Obviously, an unconscious mind takes time to wake up, and Scott wasn’t allowed to stay at Alex’s side all day. Charles made sure he knew that wasn’t allowed, and he used you to keep track and make sure he wasn’t sneaking down at odd hours of the night or skipping class to see him. 

You offered to help Scott set up his room, mostly because you didn’t care much about yours for the time being. 

“You have a lot of old rock albums.” You stated while placing them all on his bookshelf.

“Most of them were Alex’s.” 

“That’s cool. Did he give you all his old stuff?” 

“Uh, yeah. Most of it, anyway. I have some of his old clothes— leather jackets and stuff, mostly.” 

“Oh, that’s really cool. I guess you guys were close.” 

He nodded, “Yeah, close as we could get, anyway, with the large age gap and all. I really care about him.” 

Peter, Scott’s new roommate and the silver guy who saved everyone from the mansion explosion, came in with some of his own stuff. 

“Hey, guys.” 

“Hi, Pete.” You greeted back. 

“Look, Scott—“

“It’s okay. I know what you’re going to say.” 

“No,” Peter shook his head, “I feel awful about it. Forgetting your brother like that. I’m so sorry. If it were me and someone forgot my sisters in a situation like that, I’d get super angry.”

Scott shrugged, “It’s okay. You got everyone else though— and that’s a lot of people.” 

“Alright… Friends?” He held out his hand for Scott to shake. 

“Friends.” 

They shook on it, and you tried not to laugh at how cheesy the motion was, but you still let out a comment. 

“You’re roommates. You kinda have to be friends.” 

“Huh, I guess so,” Peter mused. 

-

Alex woke up almost two months after the Apocalypse battle. You and Scott were the first to run down and see him. He was in rough condition, but he was alive nonetheless.

“Hey, Scott.” Alex croaked out.

Scott hugged him tightly, “You’re so stupid! I was so worried! Hank was worried, we all freaked out— never do that again.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

“You almost died! Of course, I’m going to worry about you.”

Alex mumbled something back, but you didn’t hear it.

Hank was there too, contributing to the conversation until Xavier came down and told you all to leave Alex alone so he could rest. 

-

As time went on, you kept an eye on Scott. You were in the same friend group, so that was inevitable. 

You got extremely close— closer than almost anyone else in the group, minus Jubilee and Jean. You told each other about your worries, secrets, past troubles, and your crushes. Scott, despite his persona of a douchebag with sunglasses, or token white guy in an action film, was sweet and empathetic, and smart. He took two AP classes and spent more time training than anyone else. 

“I just want to get control of my mutation and throw better punches.”

“I know. Just don’t overwork yourself.” 

He always said, “Don’t worry about me. I won’t.” But you always worried. He was probably your best friend at the mansion, of course, you’d worry!

-

Winter break came closer and closer with every passing day, which meant midterms were right around the corner. 

Everyone was stressed— downing immortal amounts of caffeine, watching the sunrise and set every day, and rereading notes until their brains exploded. 

Scott was not excused from this, and the night before his first final he was up way past any reasonable hours, studying. 

There was a somewhat-quiet knock on the door, and Scott barely acknowledged it. 

“Hey, dork.”

“Can’t talk.”

You huffed, “You’re no fun.” 

“Sorry, but I really cannot fail any finals.” 

“Scotty, you’ve been studying every second for the past month… C’mon…” You whined.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. You grinned, knowing you’d won. 

“Come on, 7/11 is open late. You can get some food and water. Relax from all this stress… Please?” 

Scott closed his book and got up out of his chair. “Fine.”

“Yes!” You cheered. 

“Let me grab my jacket.” 

You were thrilled you got Scott away from his books for a little bit. You needed a break and it felt like you hadn’t seen him as much as usual. 

-

You talked the whole walk down to the garage. Scott just listened. He liked listening to you speak— about your day, petty drama with your friends, plus anything and everything in between— Scott likes the sound of your voice, and even if you didn’t know what you were saying, it sounded right. Or it did to him, anyway. 

And that was a part of having a best friend, right? 

Scott couldn’t tell, but he thought so. He’d never been this close with a friend before, and he had also never had a real crush on anyone before. 

Crush? I don’t have a crush on, (Y/N). We’re just close. She’s my best friend…

But how many times had that cliche been fulfilled? 

“Scotty?” No response. (Y/N), also couldn’t read his face due to the sunglasses, so she really didn’t know what he was thinking. 

“Scott?” 

“What?”

You chuckled a little, “You zoned out there, buddy.” 

“Oh…” His cheeks were tinted red. 

“You, okay?”

He nodded, picking out keys to one of the cars.

“It’s my turn to drive!” You told him. 

“Yeah, but it’s my turn to pick out the car,” He retorted. 

You rolled your eyes as he tossed you the keys and you unlocked the car. 

Scott climbed into the passenger seat and immediately turned on the radio. “So where are we going?”

“7/11. I want a slushie. Plus—“ You glanced at the clock for a moment. “—It’s the only place open.” 

Scott hummed in agreement. 

You drove in silence for a little bit until you caught Scott staring at you.

 He quickly looked away.  

“Is there something on my face?” 

“No.” He was curt with his answer.

“Why were you looking at me then?” 

“I’ve missed you…” 

You smiled. “I’ve missed you too, Sike.”

 You pulled up to the gas station. It was well lit, considering the late hour it was. There were only two or three cars in total parked there. 

“I’m gonna get some gas first,” You told Scott as you turned off the car. 

He stood there and waited for you. 

“What’s Mystique said about our next mission?” 

Scott sighed a little, “A lot… there’s a chance we’re going to Germany to bust up the mutant fighting ring, but nothing’s for certain.” 

You put the gas pump back in it’s holding spot. “Really? That’s pretty big…” 

“Yeah, but, we fought Apocalypse, so—“ 

“Not everything has to compare. Sure, we don’t have to go local, but we’re allowed to not stop every big bad. It’s just not physically possible.” You held the door open for him. 

“Thanks— It’s our responsibility. If we don’t do it, who will?”

You browsed the snack isles, not giving him an answer. Scott stood there, waiting for one, but knowing you probably couldn’t give it. 

“Oh! Um, look— you’re one person, Scotty, and we’re a team of like, 12 people. What we accomplish is huge! But we won’t win every battle. Losing sucks, I know, but you can’t stress yourself out over it…”

“I just don’t want to regret anything.” He finally picked out a bag of chips. They were plain as could be. 

“I get that, but you can’t spend your whole life doting on ‘what if’s’.” 

You put your items on the counter to be rung up. You pulled your card out of your pocket, but Scott stopped you.

“Here, I got it.” 

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s only a couple of dollars.” He handed his card to the cashier. 

“Do you guys need a bag?”

“No, we’re good. Thank you though.” You grabbed your drink and snacks and bid the cashier goodnight. Scott did the same.

“So, now what?” Scott asked once he got in the car.

“Let’s just eat in the car. It’s a change of scenery from the mansion.”

“(Y/N), this isn’t a change of scenery, this is a murder scene!” 

You laughed, “It’s not dark enough for that!” 

Scott huffed.

“Look, if you really wanna die, I can drive us to the park, or Target parking lot.” 

“No, no,” Scott said in between sips of his slushie. “This is fine— perfect actually.” 

You were smug. 

You ate your food in silence for a little bit, exchanging weird glances with Scott. 

“What?” You asked, laughing out of confusion. 

“You’re really pretty,” Scott admitted.

“Pfft…” You scoffed.

“I mean it… You’re a great friend too…” 

“Glad to know we’re best friends cause you think I’m hot,” You joked.

Scott rolled his eyes, knowing you’d never accept the compliment and it was stupid of him to say.

“You know who else is good looking?” You asked. 

“Who?” “Rob Lowe.” 

“From The Outsiders?” Scott asked in disbelief. 

“Mhmm.” You nodded. Scott chuckled. 

“Hey! You had a crush on Sara Anne from third hour for the longest time. You have no room to judge.”

“Yeah, and then we went on a date and I got over it… I also had a crush on Jean—” 

You nodded, and Scott swiped his drink back. “Yeah, but she’s dating Ororo…”

“Speaking of boys…” You laughed at Scott’s poor attempt to change the subject. “You went out with Warren for two months.”

“What’s wrong with Warren?” You asked defensively.

“Nothing! It was just weird, only two months.” 

“I told you.” Scott shook his head. “No? I thought I did. Well, anyway— He was like actually kind of into Jean, and like subconsciously in love with his childhood best friend… Her name was Candy South, I think?”

“Candy Southern?” Scott asked, leaning his chip bag over to you. You took a handful and set it on the center console.

“Yeah! That’s her name.”

“They’re dating right now, she’s nice.”

“Good for him.” 

-

You drove back to the mansion around midnight. You went up to your rooms quietly, trying not to wake anyone up and get caught sneaking in. 

“I’m sorry for being so busy lately.” 

You offered a sad smile, “Not your fault, Scotty.”

“We could hang out this weekend? See what’s at the movie theatre?”

“It’s a date!”

Scott’s mouth gaped open. Your eyes widened in shock. Why did I say that? 

“Uh… It’s not like a date date, but like we’re two people, going to the movies alone—”

“It can be a date if you want.” 

Your mind went blank. Surely you misheard him. 

“Uh, what?”

“I just meant, um, we could— never mind—”

“Do you want it to be a date?” You tried sounding confident in your words, but you were nervous.

“I don’t wanna ruin our friendship…” Scott looked down, avoiding your gaze. 

“Scotty, it’s okay.” 

He nodded, a little unsure.

“It’s a date.” 

“Yeah,” He decided.  “It’s a date.” 

Your face moved forward, lips slightly puckered. You placed a kiss on his cheek. Scott’s face turned red like a tomato. 

“See ya later, Scotty.”

[readyplayerhobi]

Flower | 09

; Hoseok x Reader

; Genre: Fluff, slight angst

; Word Count: 4.2k

; Synopsis: You finally decide to take a dip into the world of online dating and find the Flower dating app. One of the top matches for you proves to be a guy who looks to be your complete opposite; tattooed, pierced, a metalhead and oh…incredibly handsome. What happens when you throw caution to the wind and reach out to him?

; A/N: A Christmas present for you all! This has been my favourite chapter of Flower so far so I hope you all enjoy it too! Please reblog if you enjoyed and let me know what you think in a comment or ask!

; Flower Masterpost

-

The knock on your front door causes you to pause, clothes in your hand as you put them into your washing machine. You’d been frantically cleaning for the last hour, tidying up your already clean apartment to make sure that it all looked good. When you’d run out of stuff to clean, you’d resorted to washing your clothes early. 

Just for something to do while you waited.

But now he’s here. Hoseok is here. At your apartment, for the first time. You’d been to his a few times now but he’d never been to yours. That had been your fault because you simply just hadn’t invited him. It hadn’t entered your head to do that. Not until Chungha got exasperated and pointed out that perhaps he’d like to see where you lived too.

She must have been right because Hoseok had eagerly accepted and so here you were. You’d finished work an hour and a half ago, the time spent since waiting for him to finish and head home to grab his stuff before coming to yours had given you plenty of time to fulminate.

Not only was Hoseok coming over to yours for the first time...but he was going to spend the night. He’d come up with a plan to drive you both to an amusement park a few hours away tomorrow, but it required getting up pretty early. As a result, you’d just blurted out that he could stay with you.

You could tell that he’d been a little shocked at your proposition, not because you were suggesting he stay but because it was you who was suggesting it. He probably hadn’t expected you to propose that for a while yet.

Especially not when you had plans to let him sleep in bed with you too. You’d discussed it with Chungha and Soyeon in depth, wondering whether you should make him sleep out on the couch for the night. They’d been adamant that you couldn’t do that given you were dating, and you’d been together for two months so why not just let him sleep next to you?

If he remained as polite as he’d been, he wouldn’t be putting any moves on you. 

The easy way you’d said yes to it and suggested it to him told you, and everyone else who knew you, that you really wanted him to stay over. To sleep next to you. Honestly, it had one of your fantasies. Alongside the sexual ones, sometimes you just thought about him holding you in bed, cuddling with him.

Tonight you were going to get to experience that.

Quickly putting the rest of your clothes into the machine, you pause for a moment as you wonder if it’s stupid of you to be washing your clothes. But you push the thought of the way as you add powder and detergent before turning it on. A final glance around your small apartment lets you see that everything is as clean as it’s going to get and you take in a deep breath, smoothing down your shirt.

Opening the door slowly, you smile at Hoseok as he stands there waiting, a backpack over his shoulder and a bright smile on his own face. “Hi...err...sorry, I was putting my washing on. For some reason. Err...come in.”

He laughs softly as he enters, toeing off his shoes and carefully placing them on the rack you have set up next to the door without even being asked to. Moving forward through the tiny hall, you gesture to the living room and attached kitchen with a nervous movement.

“Errm so...this is the living room, obviously. And the kitchen. The door you just passed is the bathroom and the other door is my bedroom. It’s not very big,” You feel yourself heat up in embarrassment as your hands twist together. “I mean...I can still barely afford it but it’s home at least.”

Hoseok looks around slowly, eyes darting everywhere as he takes in the decor of the place. You weren’t allowed to put things on the wall so the only decorations were on the bookcase in the corner, your television stand, your couch, the coffee table and the drawers next to the bookcase. Looking around, you take it in the same way he does.

A fluffy throw in slate grey is draped over the couch, covering both the back and the seat cushions while an array of interesting cushions and plushies cover it. Your Pusheen plush sits in pride of place but there’s also a bao bun with a smiley face, an overly cartoony calico cat stretched out along the back and a Jack Skellington face on the couch as well. 

Other plushies dot the room as well, from the set of Pokémon on the bookcase which included all the Eeveelutions you’d carefully collected over the years and various Pokéball’s to random cute ones and even a Pac-Man. Amongst all of that, was other stuff you’d collected; a range of animal shaped hand creams, a bunch of tiny Harry Potter chibi snow globes, some Funko POP figures featuring Disney characters along with a Totoro clock.

Random lights were currently turned on around the room including the PlayStation logo light, the Mario Mushroom light and a Yoshi egg. Part of you cringed as you took in how...colourful and pretty everything was compared to Hoseok. It looked so...delicate next to him.

He was stood there in black ripped jeans with a Guns n Roses shirt on, his tattoos the only thing that matched the room really. And yet he didn’t look disgusted by it, instead he just looked fascinated. Moving forward, he looked over the various books, Blu-Ray’s and video games you’d collected over the years along with the tiny Totoro figures that almost made up a little set.

“Oh my god...this is literally you in a room.” He marvelled, eyes wide as he took in the light shade that covered the light bulb hanging in the room. It was simple, just a curved circle but it was navy blue with tiny circles cut into little rockets and planets. When you turned it on, which was rarely, it made the room light up with a space theme.

“Err...yeah...I’m sorry, I know it’s a lot.” You apologise, rubbing at your forearm as you feel the swirl of negative feelings within you start to bubble. Already you’re regretting letting him into your home, into your safe space. This was where you felt most comfortable, where you felt happy. You only let people in that you trusted, and after two months you were pretty sure you could.

But it was still overwhelming, letting someone into the very private part of you and letting them see what made you happy.

“Don’t apologise, this is great. You’ve seen my place, it’s barren compared to this. I like it. It’s nice. Feels...cosy.” Hoseok said with a bright grin, white teeth flashing as you glanced at you before looking into your kitchen with eager curiosity.

The cuteness extends into there too, sweet woodland themed animal print oven gloves draped over the oven handle while a whole array of cute magnets cover the fridge along with pictures and important notices. A Totoro egg timer sits next to a little polka dot flower pot on the window sill while a cat themed calendar is propped up on the microwave.

A soft meow combined with pressure on his lower legs causes Hoseok to jump slightly, looking down before he grins even bigger. “Oh hello there! You must be Kasumi! Your mommy has told me so much about you.” He croons in a high pitched voice, the kind people only use on babies or animals.

But you can see the delight in his eyes as she sits in front of him, her cream fluffy coat combining with her dark paws and ears alongside astonishingly azure eyes to make her look like the prettiest cat ever. You were pretty sure that she was a ragdoll cat, which meant it was even more shocking that you’d found her in a shelter as a kitten. 

She observes Hoseok for a moment longer before meowing sweetly at him, pushing up to butt his hand with her head and he coos as he crouches down, stroking and talking absolute nonsense to her. You get the sense that he’s just fallen in love at first sight with your cat, the smile on his face bigger than anything you’d seen as she flops to the floor, belly presented and batting at his hand playfully.

“I’m gonna steal your cat.” He teases, looking up at you with playful eyes and you snort, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Over my dead body. She loves me anyway, right Kasumi?” At her name, her ears twitch and she looks at you upside down, letting out a soft mewl as her loud purrs reach you. You grin and crouch down, arms open as you make kissing noises to her and she immediately jumps up, rushing over to you. Standing back up with her in your arms, you smile smugly at Hoseok and wonder why on earth you’re suddenly competing with him over the affection of your own cat.

It looks like the thought runs through his head as well as he shakes it before walking over to you, dropping his backpack past you onto the couch before he places his hands on your waist. Leaning close, you feel your shoulders rising at his attention and he chuckles quietly.

“I guess I’ve got some competition then, huh?” He murmurs before kissing you, the gesture ever so gentle. It’s nothing intense, yet it fires you up in ways you’d never really considered before. Here, in your home, with your cat in your arms and your boyfriend kissing you, you feel happier than you can remember in recent memory. It feels...almost normal.

Hoseok pulls away quickly, smiling as he looks you up and down with a raised brow. “Can I go change if you’re in your pyjamas already?”

His tone is ever so slightly teasing and you look away, pressing your face into Kasumi’s soft fur to avoid the embarrassment.

“Yeah...sorry. I don’t...I don’t see the point in wasting clothes when I’m at home. Pyjamas or die you know?” He snorts in response, kissing your cheek before grabbing his backpack again.

“I get it, I’ll be back in a minute.”

-

It turns out that Hoseok’s pyjamas are just...his normal lounge clothes apparently. A pair of plain black sweatpants is combined with an overly large Star Wars shirt, a few holes in both items that cause you to raise a brow in amusement. A far cry from the matching set of pyjamas you’re wearing; a set of Marauder's Map leggings combined with a black shirt and a gold Hogwarts crest.

“You can tell our personalities just from what we’re wearing.” He looks up from his phone, brows raised before looking between you both with a lopsided smile. Without a word, he walks over to you and wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you to him tightly.

Body stiffening automatically without you even meaning, you force yourself to relax in his embrace. You still weren’t used to the open affection Hoseok lavished on you, the casual touches of his not normal enough for you to accept openly like you did with your friends and family. But you were getting there.

You just wished that you could extend the open affection to him in the same way. It was hard though, you weren’t naturally open to physical gestures like that. Normally you just accepted them, but you wanted to discover to be open with him.

Because as you melted into his arms, you realised that you really liked this.

“What are you trying to say, huh? That I’m ratty and old while you’re young and put together?” He teases, squeezing tightly while rocking you from side to side, putting just enough pressure that you have to stagger back as you giggle against his chest.

“No! I mean...you are older than me…” 

“Excuse you! I’m only two years older than you! Hardly Hugh Hefner here.” Hoseok protests, his voice loud but you can hear the playfulness in it. It makes you happy to hear that, knowing that he’s going along with you.

“You’re right...you don’t have as much money as him. I’m missing out.” At that, he leans back enough for you to see his face, his jaw dropped while he tries to stop a smile from spreading. It causes you to grin in response, squeezing him tightly in response before you press your face back to his chest. “It’s okay though, you’re pretty.”

“Wow...okay. Does that make me the Playboy Bunny in this situation?” You snort, hands lowering without even meaning to and making him jerk in surprise as you squeeze his ass without even thinking. The very ass that your friends had teased you about weeks ago.

“How do you look with bunny ears and a tail?” 

He moves away at that, eyeing you suspiciously as he bites his lower lip, the flesh disappearing between his teeth. “Let’s never find out, shall we?”

“Awww. There’s people who find that kinky. They get dressed up as animals and stuff. Sometimes it’s just...they just wanna dress up but sometimes they dress up and it’s like...they wanna have sex in those suits.” Hoseok just stares at you in disgust, looking away before nodding slowly.

“Sounds great. I’m never doing that. Just want you to know,” he pauses, looking up at the ceiling before cringing and shrugging. You’re suddenly reminded of that woman trying alcohol meme as he makes a considering face. “Okay maybe I’d try it once if you were into it but I don’t think it’s for me.”

You steadfastly avoid his face at that, body heating rapidly at the thought of him thinking about having sex with you knew he probably had. If you were thinking that way about him, then there was no one way someone like him wasn’t thinking that way too. And it was a very strange sensation to know that he wanted you like that.

So you just gestured to the couch, watching as he sits down and scoops Kasumi into his lap. A quick phone call gets you food ordered from your favourite Chinese place, Hoseok stating his preferences to you as he flicks through Netflix and strokes the fluff ball he’s holding.

The next few hours pass by in a food coma bliss of delicious food combined with both of you starting a show on Amazon instead called The Boys. It had surprised you both with how violent and gory it was yet you enjoyed it thoroughly, much to Hoseok’s amusement. Maybe he thought your love of cute things meant that you didn’t like that kind of stuff but you enjoyed it just as much.

You both made it through three episodes before you found yourself getting tired, it was nearing 11pm and as lame as it made you sound...you were someone who went to sleep a bit earlier than that. It amused Hoseok when your head started to loll onto his shoulder, the pleasant warmth and comfort of his body as you cuddled up together lulling you into drowsiness.

Which was why when the episode finally ended, he stood up and gently pulled you up as well. “Come on sleepy, I think it’s time for bed. Sometime’s tired.” He was using that voice that he’d used on Kasumi earlier, and part of you wanted to protest it but you were too drowsy to bother. So instead, you went around the room after shaking his hands off to turn off all the lights.

Hoseok went to the bathroom while you did that, telling you that he was just going to go to the toilet and brush his teeth. By the time you had finished cleaning everything up and throwing the empty Chinese cartons away, he was standing a little awkwardly outside your bedroom.

Smiling, you opened the door and let him in. “You can go in.”

He gave a little smile before heading in and pausing as he looked around once more. Your room was barely big enough for the double bed in it, one side pressed up against the wall while a bedside table rested next to it. A wardrobe was next to that and a chest of drawers along with a mirror. 

“Err...sorry...it’s a little cramped.” You say quietly, rubbing your arms nervously once more and he just shakes his head at you with a small sigh that sounds more amused than you’d expected.

“You need to stop apologising for everything. It’s fine, honestly. Don’t stress yourself over it.” He heads over to the bed and looked down at it, teeth clanking against his lip ring as it looked down. “I’m gonna guess that you sleep on this side?” 

Pointing at the side closest to the bedside table, you go to nod before realise he’s being rhetorical. It was blatantly obvious which side you slept on, given the other side was covered in a large array of plushies. From more Pokémon to a Star Wars teddy, Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon, a cute cat face, a fluffy llama and so much more. 

The side Hoseok would be sleeping on was covered in them and you cover your face in dual embarrassment and horror, realising that you’d blatantly forgotten to clean it off for him. “Err...yeah. You can just...put them on the floor or something. Sorry, I mean…” 

You cut yourself off from apologising again at his look but he just smiles and shrugs. “It’s okay, I’ll sort it out.”

Quickly, you leave the room to prevent any further embarrassment for you. Sometimes you really wondered why Hoseok stayed with you given how different you both obviously were. The thought made your chest hurt and you pressed as it, frowning as you did your own nightly routine. It took a little longer than Hoseok’s as you had a whole skincare routine to go through and so ten minutes later you walked back in with a face mask on.

He was lying on his back, pillows propped up behind him as he looked through his phone and you noted with amusement the little ice cream plush that was still situated next to him. In fact...he made the most bizarre image laid there.

Your bedding was white, with tiny rainbows ending in clouds interspersed with yellow stars and little cartoons unicorns and pegasus that jumped and frolicked. You liked your bedding to look as cute as everything else, only it looked childish with him in it now.

His tattoos look at complete odds with it all, dark hair pushed back and making him look even hotter than ever with it all messed up. He looked dark and brooding in your bed, anathema to your bedding and it was both adorable and bizarrely attractive. 

A sudden thought rushes through your head that one day, if everything goes right, you’ll be having sex with him in that bed. Cheeks heating, you quickly rush forward and sit on the bed carefully, plugging your phone into the charger before looking back over at him.

“Do you need your phone charging too? I have another cable and plug.” You offer and he lets out a noise, head turning towards you before his eyes finally pull away. When he finally notices your face, he jerks away in shock before his face contorts and he squints at you.

“The fuck is on your face? Are you cosplaying Michael Myers or something?” Hoseok mutters, leaning forward a bit and looking you over. You try not to laugh, not wanting the face mask to move and you push at his face lightly.

“Don’t make me laugh, you’ll ruin it. It’s just a face mask, my night routine.” Laying back on the bed, he pulls a face at you.

“You do that every night? Isn’t it tiring?” You shake your head, checking in your Twitter feed as you wait for the time to pass until you can take it off again. “Is that why your skin always looks so pretty? Or is that makeup?”

“Hoseok! I haven’t worn makeup the last three times we’ve met up. You haven’t noticed between that and makeup?” He just stares at you for a moment before shrugging, his hand suddenly running along your back in slow and steady movements. It feels like electricity moves through your body as he does so, but you can’t tell any sexual intention behind it.

“I feel like no matter what I say here...I’m going to get myself in trouble. So...I will be smart and say that you look beautiful with and without makeup.” His smile is boylike then, making his entire face look far younger than he actually is and you sighed softly in defeat, shaking your head before checking the clock on your bedside table. “Why does your clock look like that?”

You pull off the face mask and throw it into the small trash can underneath the table, gently patting at your face to get the excess moisture to absorb. Glancing at the clock, you note it’s unusual shape and size while the orange numbers glow.

“It’s one of those clocks that simulate sunrise to help make it easier to wake up in the morning. I struggle with feeling tired and in winter I never want to get up. Err...I tend to get a little...or a lot...depressed with it. So I got this because daylight is meant to make you happier so ten minutes before my alarm goes off, it starts to light up and simulate a sunrise. It works pretty well in fairness.” You finish, rubbing your cheeks before grabbing the next step of your routine.

“Really? Huh. Cool.” He hands you his phone once you’ve finished, turning onto his side watching you intently. The attention makes you feel warm inside and finally you’re ready to go to bed, lifting the covers and cautiously sliding in next to him. It feels warm and comfortable as usual, your pillow and bedding maximised for comfort.

Reaching over, you turn off the lamp, leaving you both in darkness. The room feels oppressively silent at that moment before you realise that you can hear his breathing next to you. Suddenly, you feel hyper aware of his every movement and sound, your own body stiff beneath the covers.

A few minutes pass by like that, you unsure what to do now and too tense to sleep even after feeling so drowsy earlier. And then suddenly Hoseok reaches out, his hand resting on your stomach tentatively before stroking gently when you don’t react.

“You’re so tense.” He laughs softly and you feel the need to apologise again. But you hold it back, knowing that you have no reason to apologise. Hoseok knows by now what you’re like, he’s aware of your shy and awkward nature and he must know how out of your comfort zone you’re feeling right now.

Which is why you appreciate how slow he moves, his hand spreading heat through your stomach as his slow movements lead you to relaxing ever so slightly. He keeps doing it, his breathing just as hypnotising and you find your eyelids fluttering shut as the earlier drowsiness comes back.

“Can you turn over? On your side?” Hoseok asks softly, hand pausing and it takes a few seconds for you to acknowledge what he’d said. But you do so, shifting lazily until your back is facing him and your head is pressed comfortably into the pillow with your hand slotted beneath both pillows.

And then carefully shuffles up behind you, a warm and heavy weight sliding around your waist as he wraps an arm around you. Pulling slightly, he tugs you into a more comfortable position and you’re suddenly wide awake again. Even though you’ve been cuddled up with him before on a couch, it’s somehow completely different now that you’re lying together in bed.

Every bit of his front presses to your back and you’ve never been so aware of someone else. He feels like a furnace behind you, though you’re not sure if that’s because he actually is warm or if it’s because your body is burning hot. But you like it, as nervous as it makes you feel.

Your limbs feel like you could go outside and run a marathon yet the idea of leaving the bed is so far beyond you. His warm breath gently puffs against your neck as he settles a little more and you swallow hard, forcing your body to relax as you get used to the feeling. It’s been a long time since you’ve slept next to someone, and you’d never felt comfortable with them.

But you do with him. You do with Hoseok.

And without even realising it, your wandering mind begins to drift off as you lay there comfortably, feeling safe and content about everything. 

[hobeymakar]

Disco Love | M. Rantanen

Words: 2,129

This is dedicated to my girl @grenawitka​

A/N: I randomly had a dream about a future significant other taking me out to a 80s-style roller disco as a date because I’m a freak who loves 80s disco a little too much. Since I’m single af and my attraction to the male species mostly revolves around hockey players, I figured I would make it about a player. Mikko was suggested by my girl @grenawitka​ and thus, this was born. In this, COVID-19 never happened and the season and offseason take place at their normal scheduled times

Warnings: excessive amounts of disco, swearing, references to sex, and light sexual content

-

You’re in your room curling your hair to try and make it look as 80s as possible. There’s a new roller disco that just opened up in Denver and you haven’t shut up about it since they announced they were opening it. It literally got to the point where you were talking Mikko’s ear off about it and since he’s a great boyfriend, he agreed to take you there on a date.

You finish curling your hair before throwing a headband over it to keep it in place and putting it into a high ponytail with a colorful scrunchie. You also put on very colorful makeup. You have a rainbow-colored leotard on with a pink skirt over it. You have leg warmers and armbands on and look like you belong in an 80s music video. You put on hoop earrings just to add to the look and take a picture to send to the WAGs group chat. The older girls definitely appreciate the look more than the younger ones who think you look lowkey ridiculous.

Before you can defend your look to the younger girls, Mikko comes out of the bathroom dressed in a dark t-shirt and shorts.

“Really babe, that’s what you’re wearing?” you scoff, not believing he didn’t even put an ounce of effort into it.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” he whines.

“It’s basic and not 80s enough!” you huff in frustration.

You drag him into his side of your walk-in closet and you give him a whole wardrobe change. After a while, you’re satisfied with his new look, which consists of a bright muscle tank, dark 80s style joggers, and sneakers.

“Alright now go look at your look,” you inform him, gesturing to the mirror.

He takes a look at himself and grimaces. This is definitely something he would never wear on his own accord.

“You look great, baby and it’s one night to make me happy,” you assure him.

“I just hope no one recognizes me,” he grimaces thinking about being caught dead by the media wearing what he has on.

You roll your eyes at how dramatic he is and get ready to leave. After a few minutes, you leave the condo and make your way to the car. Mikko insists on driving, which is better for you because you get to control the music and like the pest you are, you play nonstop disco in the car. The entire ride you subject Mikko to the likes of Evelyn Champagne King, Donna Summers, The BeeGees, Gloria Gaynor, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Fire, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and more. 

After what must feel like an excruciating long time for Mikko, you finally arrive at the roller disco. The parking is shit, as it usually is in the city, so you have to park a few blocks away in a parking garage. You make the walk to the roller disco, braving the chilly air of the early September night in the city. You make your way inside the building and Mikko pays the fee for two. You then head over to the rentals to rent out old-fashioned roller skates. Mikko had wanted to bring his rollerblades, but you told him that it defeats the purpose of going to a roller disco, since it’s with old-fashioned roller skates.

“What are your sizes?” the guy working the rental booth asks, before recognizing Mikko and his face drops.

Mikko talks to the guy and lets him know their sizes. The guy wishes he could get an autograph but settles for a picture with him instead. After the exchange is done, you put on your skates with Mikko tying the laces up for you. You both then head to the hardwood rink holding hands. Since your skating isn’t the best, Mikko leads you at a much slower pace than he would go normally.

The song Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees starts playing and you feel like you’re being taken back in time to 1979 or something. You start singing along to the song as you skate alongside groups of friends and other couples.

“Aren’t you glad we’re back in Denver?” you ask him.

“Yeah, being back in Denver means a new season is starting and another shot at the cup,” he replies.

“I really believe you guys can win it this year, babe,” you assure him.

“That’s what everyone said last season and look what happened,” he replies bitterly, referring to their latest 2nd round exit. 

“Yeah well that was last season and this season is different! You guys are a year older and wiser and you’re going to make it out of the West this year!” you assure him again.

“I sure hope we do,” he smiles weakly.

“Anyway, we need to start planning our halloween outfit for this year!” you suggest, already coming up with cute couple ideas.

“Babe, it’s September,” he replies, throwing you a look.

“Yeah, I know, but we need to be the best dressed couple at the party,” you reply.

“Why don’t we just dress like we’re dressed now? I think being a 80s roller disco couple will make us best dressed at the party!” he teases.

“As long as I get to see you in tight pants,” you giggle.

“I’m not wearing tight pants, babe,” he replies.

“You’re going to wear tight pants,” you add.

The song Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough by Michael Jackson comes on and you start singing and swaying to the beat. As you get more comfortable with your skating, you start picking up your speed. Mikko starts showing off by moon-walking on his skates and doing fancy moves.

“You’re such a show off!” you whine.

“You act like you don’t love it!” he adds.

“Whatever, I’m hungry,” you reply, dragging him out of the hardwood rink and towards the concessions area. 

You both look at the menu and decide to split nachos, as well as ordering two slices of brooklyn style pizza and drinks. You wait for your food while I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor plays, with you managing to sing all the lyrics into Mikko’s ear. Your food is ready and you sit down to eat it in old-school booths that remind you of old pizzerias.

“Have you been having fun?” you ask him, afraid that he’s only pretending for your sake.

“Surprisingly it’s been fun. I’m not really into disco like you, but it’s been really fun. The old-school vibe is nice. I feel like it’s 1989 or something,” he admits with a small smile.

“Not gonna lie, I was scared you were only pretending to like it because I do. I always wanted to go to a roller disco and get that old school nostalgic experience,” you inform him.

“Well I’m glad I brought you here tonight. Does that mean I get the boyfriend of the year award?” he asks hopefully.

“You still need to stop leaving your clothes thrown all over the floor, leaving the toilet seat up every time you use it, and put in a new toilet paper roll instead of just leaving it on top of the holder for me to give you the award,” you explain, shooting him a look.

“I’m sorry,” he replies sheepishly, kissing your cheek. “I’ll be better about those things.”

He’s lucky he’s hot because you honestly would’ve killed him already from how much you have to baby him, like as if you’re his second mom. 

“Thanks I know I’m hot, but it’s great to hear you say it,” he winks, before taking a bite of his pizza.

Clearly, you said the “you’re lucky you’re hot” part out loud and you curse yourself for inflating his already huge ego.

You two finish your food before throwing out your food and heading over to the old-school arcade area. There’s a couple skeeball machines, pac-man, super mario, and a few other old-school games.

“Babe, I hope you know I’m gonna kick your ass in these games right?” you ask, as you make your way to the ticket machine.

“I don’t think so, my love. I hope you know I’m not gonna go easy on you,” he retorts, buying the tickets from the machine.

“We’ll see about that Rantanen,” you smirk, confident in your ability.

“You’re on, Y/L/N,” he adds, not backing down.

You head over to the skeeball machine and manage to kick his ass in that game.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna go easy on me, babe,” you smirk, knowing how much he hates to lose in anything.

“I was, but I won’t be this time around,” he lies, trying to play it off.

“We’ll see about that,” you scoff.

You head over to the pac-man machine and battle against each other and Mikko manages to beat you in a very close match.

“I thought you were gonna kick my ass,” he teases, making fun of you.

You just shoot him a look and take him over to the Super Mario machine to redeem yourself. After a very close match, you manage to beat him. You two go back and forth and after playing a few more games, you record more wins and therefore are crowned the ultimate champ.

“I’d like to thank God first and foremost,” you say, giving a fake award acceptance speech.

He just shakes his head in amusement and hip checks you lightly.

“I don’t think that’s how you treat a champ, babe,” you tease, still rubbing the victory in his face.

“Yeah yeah yeah, I’m still the better skater,” he retorts, causing you to laugh in response.

You both head back over to the hardwood rink as the song Love Come Down by Evelyn Champagne King comes on and you literally start singing your heart out to the song, as you skate along with him. That song can definitely express your feelings for Mikko perfectly.

“Babe, did you know?” you ask, stifling a giggle.

“Know what?” he asks in confusion.

“That you make my love come down,” you add, before laughing.

“That was corny, babe,” he chuckles, kissing you.

“It’s true! I just can’t help the way that I feel!” you add, referencing the song again.

“You’re lucky I love you,” he groans.

“I love you more,” you smile, kissing him.

You skate for a little while longer listening to all the jams and even watch as some guys start having a battle right in the middle of the rink. After a while, you decide to head home and you return your skates back. 

You leave the roller disco and walk down the streets of Denver, getting the occasional weird looks by people for your 80s style attire. You eventually make your way back to the car. You take the aux once again and play Dancing Queen by ABBA causing Mikko to groan.

“Really ABBA? I hear enough of them from Gabe,” he groans.

“You’re acting like this isn’t a great song!” you retort, as you start heading back home.

You torture Mikko with more disco music durignt he whole drive back home. Eventually, you arrive back at the condo and go straight to the bathroom. You remove your makeup and tie your hair up before changing into one of Mikko’s old team Finland shirts with nothing underneath and heading into the room to see Mikko in bed and scrolling on his phone. He looks up and smiles when he sees you wearing his shirt. You join him in bed and straddle his waist, his hands going automatically to your hips.

“Have I told you before that I love when you wear my clothes?” he asks, his fingers running under the seam of the shirt.

“You may have mentioned it before,” you tease, running your fingers through his curls.

His hands go to your butt and he grabs both cheeks in his hands.

“Someone’s being handsy,” you tease, before rolling over onto his side.

“Such a tease,” he groans in disappointment.

“Quit whining you baby! We’re watching a movie tonight and I’m picking,” you inform him.

He hands you the remote and you choose Saturday Night Fever, the iconic 1977 disco movie.

“Really?” he groans, shooting you a look.

“Just shut up and turn off the lights, Mikko,” you order him.

He gets up begrudgingly and turns off the lights before climbing back into bed. You start the movie and Mikko gets over the movie choice after a while. You two don’t even watch the entire movie, abandoning it halfway because he got too handsy, which was part of his agenda from the second he saw you wearing his shirt. The soreness that you feel the next morning was worth it when he wakes you up with breakfast in bed.

[factorialsotherfandoms]

When Forever wakes up in the morning, there is a box in front of his bedroom door. The back faces to him, and so he pulls on a shirt and steps around to look.

A white sign with just a smiley face greets him.

Cucurucho.

Forever has been out of a coma for less than twenty four hours, and already the Federation wants something from him. He chokes a hysterical laugh into a sigh, and pulls open the box.

It's... empty?

Wait

No

Inside the box is a long, black feather.

He picks it up.

The end of the shaft is coated in blood, and now he looks in the light it splatters over the barbs as well.

His breath freezes in his throat.

As soon as he can he reaches for his communicator, looking to see who is awake - Pac, Roier, Tubbo... Somehow Slimecicle. That is it. No Philza - its Sunday, its Sunday, Philza tends to take Sundays to himself anyway it might be okay but here is a bloody feather - and no Cellbit - nobody to solve it, nobody to help, its Forever and Forever forever. Nobody of any use, not right now; he cannot worry Pac, Tubbo seems a word off a breakdown, Slimecicle... Is himself, Roier... If he goes anywhere, he will leave a note with Roier.

Forever pulls his warpstone from his pocket, and throws himself to Phil & Missa's waystone.

Above, nothing looks different - the same trampoline, the same flowers, the same signs from the last day they had with the eggs. Forever ignores it all, sprinting to the hatch and throwing himself down.

He is so, so glad that Philza added him to the security system in that moment - had not taken it away from him when he pretended to move in, either.

Nothing in the upper room is different - the eggs' empty beds, Philza's chair, the globe, two doors and-

And one of the hatches, the one Forever cannot access, is missing.

The way to the room only family may see is missing.

Forever pretends he does not hesitate before throwing himself down the stairs.

He is not entirely sure what this room - half storage, half farm - is supposed to look like. He does know, however, that Philza would never leave two plot plants and a purple barrel.

He throws open the barrel.

The divisons are almost full with single poppies, but for one glaringly empty slot.

... Tallulah...?

But, no, Tallulah would not rip off the security hatch in frustration. Not Forever's sweet little princess, not the island's favourite daughter.

Chayanne might, but there is no sign of the boy.

Forever backs away from the barrel and goes back upstairs, looking again at everything. The chests he can access merely contain building supplies, and the others... There are too many for a code breaker; he does not know where to even start.

He does, however, tucked away find Philza's wardrobe.

He does not expect a clue, but flicks through anyway.

It does not give him a clue, but a date - his usual green clothing is there, but the Mexican outfit he war the day of the Mexican Independence Day party? The one in the photographs Cellbit showed him? It is gone.

The day before Forever awoke, Philza left the group to go home, and vanished.

Vanished, by the very Federation that claims Forever has power in this place, which has stripped him and his friends of so much, which knows something about their children...

They have his Philza, and they have hurt him. Ripped a feather from ruined wings, and probably worse.

They have him, they have him, and the clues mean nothing to him but the method of attack.

Forever wraps his hand in Philza's robe.

It does not stop the shaking as he screams.

[popculturebuffet]

Simpsons Review: Simpsons Comics #102 “Uncle Burn$” or Homercore Nudity!

Whelp out of all the commissions Kev has thrown me this one’s kind of a curveball. I mean it makes sense why cover it: It’s a pastiche of Donald Duck Comics done in the pages of the Simpsons long running comics. I cover duck stuff on here, and not only do I love the Simpsons but I tend to reference it for jokes a LOT. I just genuinely never thought of reviewing it till now, likely because earlier on in my new career of reviewing animated shows, I wasn’t really convinced I could do pure comedies. With my regular reviews of Darkwing Duck and as it comes out coverage of the Loud House (I still need to get around to Band Together), that’s no longer a real issue and I should consider doing the show in the future, especially since I have an unabashed love for the first 10 seasons and a few episodes beyond that. 

As you can tell, I love the Simpsons. While I do genuinely wish it would end and have no real intrest in the current seasons, though if you’d like me to take a look i’d be willing to. The show in it’s prime was funny, witty and each episode was crammed with jokes. And refreshingly for an adult cartoon show of it’s time,  the show genuinely wasn’t afraid to mix things up: Milhouse’s parents divorced and stayed that way for so long that them apparently getting back together decades later is itself a huge status quo shake up.  Lisa went Vegetarian which stuck thanks to sir paul mcartney, and then went Buddhist, both of which have never wavered since and both fit her well. Skinner and Krabbable started dating. Barney went sober for a few seasons. Apu got married. These are minor changes but the show does have things happen occasionally and doesn’t just snap everything back and it adds genuine tension to plots knowing they might stay the status quo They usually don’t but the occasional change gives things stakes. I could go on for days, but I couldn’t go on for 8 weeks, point is the Simpsons are awesome, and deserve the praise they get early on I just wish they’d stop as by this point people really have stopped carring and it’s time to pass the torch and Let Bob’s burgers be the wholesome family comedy that runs forever.. and even then that one should stop at 10 seasons. Or if not at least let the kids age dammit.  But that aside, while many of you simpsons fans looking at this probably have at least seen the comics, or a collection of them over the decades, many of you like me are wondering what the hell Bongo Comics is and how they managed to last so long. Bongo was founded by Simpsons Creator Matt Groening in 1993. Matt Groening had noticed that at the time there just weren’t any funny books on the shelves, funny books being comedy based comics primarily targeted for kids, with Archie and Disney being really the only ones left at the time. So he founded Bongo to rectify that, and given Fox naturally liked the sound of more merchandising dollars, the publisher was primarily used to produce simpsons comics, though looking at wikipedia there were one or two that weren’t including, of all things, a Coldplay comic tying into their album. Why did Coldplay publish a comic book at a primarily simpsons comic book company?

Though most series seem to be either short lived or one shots, there were a few exceptions: Naturally the company put out an annual Treehouse of Horror issue, there was a Bart Simpson ongoing focusing on him and the other kids of Springfield, I had a trade for that one once, and once Futurama premiered it too got a comic book that held through both cancelations. But standing above them all was Simpsons Comics, a 245 issue long runner that ran all the way up to the company’s closing, likely due to a combination of a lack of profits and the then upcoming Disney-Fox merger depriving them of the very heart and soul of the company. 

Naturally being a Simpsons fan I have a connection to these comics having gotten the trades out of the library multiple times as well as the collection of Bartman’s solo series, which was my favorite and I might cover some day. In addition to the Free Comic Book Day issues i also picked up scattered issues over my life since, much like Archie, Simpsons comics were a mainstay of bookstores and super markets and the decline of both comic markets is likely why the Simpsons comics started to peter out in the first place. The quality and memorability of the stories varied but they were a fun thing to have around and it’s sad to see them go, as well as see Disney not even make a remote attempt to bring them back or at the very least republish the vast library they now have access to. Also finally if your wondering yes, there indeed was a Simpsons/Futurama crossover. And no I have not read it.  So with that history, most of which I just learned some of which I already knew, in mind, it is very fitting the comic’s did a tribute to the Uncle Scrooge comics. Though it does feel very weird that I have yet to cover any Donald Duck or Scrooge comics.. yet i’ve already covered one of the Ducktales tie in comics and a Simpsons homage to it. I’m going to have to correct that but until then, join me under the cut as I dive into adventure with the Simpsons. 

This issue was written by Ian Boothby and drawn by John Delaney, I feel mentiong the writers and artists should be important in comic reviews and I kick myself for not having done that or gone into them as much before. Boothby was apparently the Ian Flynn of these comics, writing more simpsons comics than any other writer according to wikipedia and winning an Eisner for his work on the comic if sadly not this issue. He was nominated for an outstanding Canadian Writer award for it though so that’s good. Point is the guy is a decorated vetran of this series and it shows in how good this issue is and I felt he deserved some recognition as most Comic Book Readers, myself included up till now, likely weren’t aware he even existed nor took over the comic in the 2000′s. 

We open with Burns getting attacked by a mummy! Gotta say wasn’t expecting this as where we started out but the simpsons have started with wonkier premises to end up somewhere. I mean there was the time a bag boy strike ended up with them in Africa. Also i’d say Burns should call the police, being the kind of privileged white guy they actually care about protecting and all, but frankly the Springfield Cops don’t have the best track records with Mummies:

But no it’s just Smithers, who dove in heroically to save the company 15 dollars after Homer took a bet to see how many fire crackers he could jam in his computer’s disk drive. Lenny said 20 but he proved him wrong. And yes those are all actual jokes from the comic, this issue is very funny and feels very much like a Golden Age Simpsons episode. They also all gather to sign Smither’s cast.. which naturally is a legally binding contract.  Burns takes his loyal minion to get some quality medical care only to find an arcade because he traded the Medical Bay in for one during an outbreak of Pac Man Fever... again I really can’t top that and there may be a good reason why I haven’t covered the Simpsons till now. But yeah as Buns gives Smithers a roll of Pennies, he wonders who to have replace Smither’s on their annual summer treasure hunt.. which would come out of nowhere but we genuinely don’t know what they do most summers. I assumed Burns just road Smithers like a horse to play cricket while Smithers enjoyed it way too much. But a stray comment from Homer getting a Krusty Doll from a crane machine about being king of the treasure hunters leads to this. 

I mean it’s an easy joke but damn if it didn’t get a laugh out of me. So later at the old Simpsons place, because this comic is fantastic, Marge and Homer talk things over, but Homer insists Burns said he’d split the treasure, and Lisa wishes she could come along. And Marge says he should, especially for his own saftey.. and when Bart complains, says all the kids should go, she already packed their bags, she’s heading to Rancho Relaxo byyyyeeeeeee. Once again, this comic is amazing, and I would say this is out of character for Marge, but frankly that’s the whole point. Plus it really isn’t when she has to deal with 4 children on a regular basis, and her sisters, and a town gone mad.. yeah can’t blame her here. 

The next day at Burns Office, Homer is wearing his navy outfit.. or rather Donald’s Navy outfit. But given I did a quick google and found him having at least 4 different outfits during his time in the Naval Reserves, it’s not a stretch to assume the Simpsons Version of the Navy gave these out too. Seriously Ian Boothby has put more thought into continuity than most writers on the show proper. Also Simpsons Tide, season 9 episode, still very memorable and hilarious and not due to childhood nostalgia. Just looking up this bit had me laughing hard. 

I now  want to watch that episode sometime soon so thanks Kev. Anyway Homer seems to have misplaced his plants. Now I could spare you the image since I don’t do things panel by panel anymore and only use panels from a comic when relevant. Buttttt

This traumatizing of my audience brings me to a point about this issue and why it works. While there are tons of nods to the Donald Duck comics and what their homaging is very clear, the issue doesn’t REQUIRE you know them to enjoy it.  Knowing them I obviously enjoy it more, but most of the jokes aren’t reliant on you knowing anything about the barks comics and even someone with a passing knowledge of  the Original Ducktales can still get the reference if not why Donald is here. It helps this is less of a parody, with the exception of some jokes, and more of an homage, using stylistic elements of those comics while telling i’ts own story as a loving tribute to it’s predecessors. Speaking of one of those jokes poking fun at the source material, Burns is delighted Homer brought child labor, which kept me laughing for a good minute, and when the kids introduce themselves we get this bit. 

Not only am I 100% sure every version of Donald or Della did this to make sure they could tell them apart, very much including the reboot with Donald, but it’s a genuine hilarious bit. Donald’s response as they head off is “there’s somehting hooey Dewey and screwy about this. “ Also I will criticize the fact Bart isn’t the one wearing a blue outfit. For those wondering why, after all Maggie wears blue shouldn’t she get it, who haven’t seen this a LOT of merchandise early on had Bart in a blue shirt, due to early Merch being rushed out pre-show and since he wore one in some earlier concept art, he got to wear blue. He also wore it late into the 90′s. 

Sidebar: I just found this and while it isn’t a bad joke given his character it is  questionable to have a fourth grade boy tell you to buy him. Just saying. But the reason I bring it up is partly because the show itself referenced it at one point. 

As well as it’s sister show Futurama

And you remeber that Bart Simpson solo I mentioned? That one frequently, both in and out of story, had Blue Shirt bart show up for some variety. 

Also why yes each issue does have it’s own fun “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Oleson” Esque subtitle. And I love it so. Point is Blue Bart is part of the series legacy and this very comic company, so it’s VERY weird to not have that here. That being said there were  a few Green Shirt barts apparently as a printing error, so he could just as easily be 80 steps ahead of me. I just don’t know. 

Back at the plot Burns and the Simpsons show up at Frink’s lab, Frink rather obviously filling in for Gyro, with his own version of little bulb named F.L.O. who gladly shakes Lisa’s hand.. and releases a Pterodactyl but hey you can’t win em all. It’s a nice nod, though one only fans of the source matieral will really get, but the pterodactyl bit right after helps distract from it. Frink slotts into the roll well, as Frink has no reall affiliation with anyone and is basically, much like Gyro, there for various characters to go too when the story or joke needs him. Frink has two gadgets for them: Some Scuba suits that can go to any depth and a grappling claw that accidently gets him gripped to the pterodactyl. Also homer accidently switches suits with maggie, so we get an adorable shot of her serenely sleeping in a diving helmet while her daddy chokes to death. 

So the next day it’s out to the open seas where The Simpsons are doing all the work while Burns lounges.. which yeah this is a typical uncle scrooge adventure all right. While the man unlike Burns does work hard and do things for himself, he spent most voyages talking about the destination while putting all the hard work on Donald, in case you thought there was at least one universe where Donald isn’t miserable most of the time. Lisa wonders what he’s doing and we get this lovely bit. 

I just.. can’t stop finding that hilarious or a nice way to get the Uncle Scrooge bit in there while still fitting the Simpsons, and it at least explains what happened to Herb, whose been mentioned all of once in the 30 seasons since he last showed up. I checked. And yes for those unaware, which is fair, or who just now remembered Homer does indeed have a brother, one his dad had out of an affair who showed up twice, once with Homer unintentionally, and largely due to Herb’s own foolishness, ruining his life, the other time with Maggie helping him get back on top and him and Homer reconciling. He’s also voiced by comedic legend and your friend and mine, Danny Devito, whose still making us all laugh to this day and is a wonderful person from all accounts. Rock on Danny, here’s the only way I can think to honor you. 

But yeah it’s a good gag. Burns claims to be watching for a Giant Squid.. and turns out to be right. So it’s up to the simpsons to fight the giant squid, a sentence I genuinely didn’t expect.. I thought like the Griffins they’d just ignore it. 

I miss that show.. oh i’m aware Family Guy is still running but much like the Simpsons the show it USED to be is long gone. Anyways Bart tells a worried homer octopus suck out the innards and drink it first quipping “It’s not like you haven’t been drunk in the morning before homer. Homer chokes bart only for the squid to choke him which is easily the second best “Homer getting choked after Choking bart” gag i’ve seen.. the best being this one I found on youtube. 

Though personally my faviorite part of that whole bit is Bart’s proud “THAT’S BECAUSE I SOAKED HIM IN SLIME!” Anyways Lisa figures out a way to beat the squid, painting the likeness of each of them on it’s tentacles and letting the thing devour itself. Lisa lampshades it making no sense PHysics wise but with that she reluctantly accepts calling Mr. Burns, Uncle Burns and we’re off to our next location.  Next up is Mt. Donrosa, a very clear nod to Uncle Scrooge maestro Keno “Don” Rosa, an avid fan of Barks work who expanded on it and turned it into a solid continuity, most famously, and what got me into the ducks in the first place, with the epic “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” which I proudly own and.. well I did say watch this space didn’t I?  Enough hinting at the future as the Simpsons scale the mountain with Homer carrying burns up on a rickshaw. Burns however looses his lucky #1 penny, SUBTLE, and cuts Bart down to get it. We then get the best line of the issue:

Bart thankfully survives and we find out the Penny, much like Scrooge’s Dime is how Burns started his fortune.. for this issue and nowhere else but that’s standard for the Simpsons. Specifically loading it into a gun and threatning to kill Jasper’s grandfather with it during the gold rush, a nice twist. At the top of the mountain they find the fabled key of Strobl, which comes from the Taliaferro tribe.. more refrenes this time though I didn’t know them and had to google. Tony Strobl was an artist on the Duck Comics at one ponit  and Al Taliforino id forgotten about. He did the Donald Duck comic strip which I had heard of and weirdly hasn’t been collected yet despite Fantagraphics covering mickey, as well as reprinting barks and rosa’s respective works. 

The key is suspended in the air by what Lisa suspects to be magnetics, and while Burns plan is naturally “Have Bart swim in it and see if he surivives”, Bart, still pissed from the penny and not wanting to die today, grabs the Penny and uses his slingshot to fire it at the Key. The bad luck from the penny casues an erruption, but Bart once again saves the day and has them surf down, with naturally tons more great jokes.  The family enjoys some steamed Seafood, except Lisa whose eating Seaweed, while Homer enjoys a sting ray “It tastes as good as it stings, Ow, Ow.” ON to Goddfrodson Trench, an odd choice given Floyd Goddfrodson was barks equivalent for the Mickey Mouse Comics and not really a duck writer, but he still deserves the honor regardless.  Under the Sea, no accusations just friendly crustaceans here.. our heroes are close to the treasure but loose the map to the Jailbird Boys, aka Snake and his cousins, who found out due to Lisa’s blog. She didn’t want to loose any more readers to Sheri and Teri’s Olson Twin’s Fan Page.. which.. it’s 2004.. weren’t they dead by this point? Nope still alive? Still are today in fact? Alrighty then. Also this bit, and some of the other references are a bit heavy handed, I will admit that, but the jokes are high quality enough otherwise that it just comes off as a bit of an adorable wink more than laziness. 

Snake and co cut their air with Starfish used as throwing stars. 

The gang tie their air suplies to avoid dying, and Maggie, in a clever bit, talks with the starfish, since they communicate via sucking, to attack the Jailbird Boys. Again.. 

I genuinely don’t know, but our heroes find the fabled vault of Barks Billion.. named after Bark Barks, that polar bear from the sonic games.. no of course it’s named after Disney Duck God Carl Barks, who created the Duck’s share of Donald and Scrooge’s supporting cast: Uncle Scrooge himself, Daisy Duck, a fact I just learned but given he created her first short “Mr Duck Steps Out, shouldn’t of surprised me, The Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, Goldie O Gilt, Flintheart Glomgold, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, The Junior Woodchucks as a whole, Neighbor Jones, John D. Rockerduck, The Number One Dime, Gus Goose, April, May, June and Whitewater Duck. Just the sheer impact he’s had on the comics on all continents cannot be overstated. He is also the one who refined Huey Dewey and Louie from hellraising little shits to the good little boys they are today.. well okay they were, thankfully the reboot has created much better versions. Point is what a man, what a man what a mighty good man, he is truly missed.  We get two great homer gags in the same page, one where somehow he’s put the giant key on a key ring and still can’t find it.. with Bart helpfully taking it from him, and then we get this, which I missed on my first read through. 

Naturally Burns betrays them, using a Gold Magnet, kay, to suck up all the gold and naturally planning to leave the Simpsons for dead to no one’s surprise. But thanks to Bart teaching Maggie how to use the spittoons, Homer gets one stuck on his head.. and starts getting sucked up with the Simpsons using them to escape. Naturally Lisa’s first instinct is obvious. 

But Burns weasels his way out by promising them free gold after their free lunch. Naturally the next day this turns out ot be a trick as their lunch came from frinks and thus, for now, their weightless.. but Karma gets Burns when he tries swimming in his new gold vault... only for the natural result of what happens when am an who never exercises and who doctors once described as having so many diseases packed into his body at once they tripped each other off and that a strong wind could kill him, trying to do with a similarly aged but still physically fit and well trained at swimming in money man does on a daily basis. 

We then close on a quick gag of weightless homer getting caught on fire and we’re out. 

Final Thoughts:  This was a really excellent comic. It captured the tone of the Simpsons at their best and while stiff in a place here or there, it’s mostly just really funny, entertaining and a nice and warm tribute to Donald and Scrooge’s long comics history, not really mocking it but instead just homaging it, while still throughly feeling like the Simpsons. It honestly feels like the Treehouse of Horor Segement on the shining, a bit that parodies something, but for the most part the jokes still feel firmly rooted in the simpsons and their cast. This was a treat to review and i’m glad Kev comissoned it and I may take a look at more Simpsons in the future. If you guys like this review, you can follow me on patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet, or if  there’s a specific simpsons or ducktales episode or a specific comic you want me to review, you can comission your own review for just five bucks. Just send me a direct message on here through Tumblr, or take a look at my ask box or submit. However you want to do it. I take payments through paypal and until next time: Happy Days are Here Again. 

[buckysmischief]

That’s What I Am

Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: If this were a fairy tale you’d be the princess who was over protected and Bucky would be a knight in shining armor, not your parents first choice. But  you are no princess, and Bucky isn’t a knight. He does have shiny armor though. 

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: language, so much fluff at the end its gross

AN: that summary is very vague but I'm sleep deprived, just roll with it. This is also for @valkyriesryde 400 writing challenge! My prompt was the song  Uptown Girl (I just like this version) and it’s been an idea I’ve had in my head for such a long time, I hope you enjoy!

Masterlist

☾

Today’s the day you and MJ had been planning for a month. To others a day spent in Brooklyn probably wasn’t a big deal, but it wasn’t often you left the Upper East Side. Your parents, the ones who save you and then adopted you at a young age, were very overprotective. Growing up you understood, but you’re an adult now, you wanted more freedom.

You never grew up resenting Tony and Pepper for their choices, because of them you had an above average upbringing. Even the idea of taking over Stark Industries one day was a  dream. But even with all you had, you just couldn’t shake the feeling that you were missing something.

The sound of your phone ringing suddenly pulled you out of your thoughts. It was Harry Osborn, again. “Harry, please stop calling me every morning. Texting was invented for a reason. Please stop disrespecting its creator and learn to use it.”

Harry was your childhood friend, and your future husband if Tony could find a way to convince you. He wasn’t a bad guy, he just wasn’t the person you could see yourself spending the rest of your life with. There was nothing you didn’t know about him, you couldn’t even think of a time you were romantically attracted to the man.

“But then I’ll never hear your voice thing in the morning, even if it is full of attitude.” oh how you wish he was being sarcastic. “Anyways, do you have plans for today? I was hoping we could go see that new art exhibit-”

“I’m busy, Harry. MJ and I have had these plans for a month.” you interrupted, hoping he would take the hint and let you go. Thankfully, he did.

“Oh okay, maybe another time. Have fun today YN.”

While getting ready for the day you received a text from MJ, Peter and I will be there in 20. He found a really cool bar last night so we can check it out tonight if you want. You send a quick ‘sure’ and finish getting ready. It’s not too chilly now, but if you were going to be out late it would be smart to wear a flannel with your ripped jeans and Vans.

“I’m going out with MJ and Peter, love you both!” you yelled out to Tony and Pepper. Lucky for you, they were too busy trying to get Morgan ready to try and convince you to spend the day with them.

The three of you spent most of your morning getting from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn, occasionally stopping for coffee or to take selfies. Around noon Peter drags you and MJ into his favorite pizza place and start planning the day, but not before you answered a few questions for MJ.

“Before we start doing that, update us on the whole Harry situation.” Where do you start?

“Well, he called again this morning.”

“He knows you’re not a morning person, why does he set himself up?” oblivious Parker being fully aware?

Before you can bring it up in an attempt to change the subject, MJ asks, “What I mean is, why don’t you want to marry Harry? You’ve known him since we were kids, he helps run his dad’s business, he’s stable-”

“That’s exactly it. All of it. I want to meet someone new and actually learn things about them. Harry has everything handed to him, and yes he deserves most of it, but I am not going to be one of those things. Especially since it’s almost expected I spend the rest of my life with him. And, we’re not even dating!” this was a topic you had thought a lot about. Harry has been dropping hints, more like gifts, more and more that he wants to marry you. Why didn’t start with asking you out on a date is a mystery, but it wouldn’t have mattered.

After finishing his slice of pizza, Peter speaks up, “Sounds to me like we found our objective for the day.”

“What’s that?”

“Getting you a boyfriend. Or someone to get Harry off your ass at least.”

“Please no, I’m begging you both.” you give them both a look, they’ve been trying to do this for years and finally they’ll have the chance. You were terrified to say the least.

The rest of the day was, accidentally, spent at an arcade. It was filled wall to wall with different games from new to classic, but you only wanted to play one thing: Ms. Pac-Man. Thankfully it wasn’t the only one in the building, you played for hours until the couple told you it was time to head to the bar.

Once arriving, MJ and Peter go to the bar to get the first round while you look for a booth to sit at. You’re sitting in one you found close to the bar when a man walks up to you, the first thing you noticed were his eyes. Have you ever seen that color blue before? The next was his left arm. How does he have a vibranium arm? The Wakandans don’t just give vibranium to anyone.

“What’s a nice girl like you doin in a place like this?” the more he talked the more you questioned if MJ had sent him over. She knew your type and that accent was at the top of the list. Instead of blowing him off, you decided to have some fun.

“Looking for a downtown man, according to my friends. Any suggestions?”

He gives you an innocent smile, but the look in his eyes are anything but. “That’s what I am, doll.”

You can see MJ and Peter signaling to you from the bar that they’re going to stay there, of course. “Mmm, so what’s your story soldier?” He only give you a curious look.

“I can see your dog tags.” you gesture to his chest. “Do I get that story now? Or at least your name?”

“Bucky. You can call me Bucky.”

“YN.”

A few hours, and drinks, you’ve gotten to know each other better. You told him about you parents and eventually explained the whole Harry Osborn situation. How he couldn’t take a hint and spoiled you with unnecessary, and unwanted, gifts.

Bucky’s friends, Sam and Steve, eventually came over to introduce themselves. You quickly learned that they weren’t shy as they told you about their time in the army. Bucky lost an arm, Sam lost a good friend, and Steve almost lost himself.

“Hey, yn, ask Bucky about his metal arm.” Sam quipped.

“Woah, who has a metal arm?” Peter and MJ would chose that moment to walk in on the conversation, Peter immediately looks at Bucky, “That is awesome dude!”

You and MJ both give Peter a look, but Bucky seems to be unbothered and tells the group how he got him arm.

A group of Wakandans found him floating on a raft after the helicopter he was in exposed. They brought him to their princess, and tech expert, Shuri. She immediately began working on a vibranium arm to replace the one he had lost.

Everyone had lost track of time, surprised to hear the sound of last call at the bar. You were nervous to ask Bucky for his number, there was no way you were going to run into a guy like him and not do anything about it. As you were walking back to the booth, Bucky stood and walked you outside to talk in private.

“So, doll. I was wonderin, if it isn’t too soon, can I take you out on a date? I know I can’t buy you a bunch of fancy things, and your parents probably won’t approve of me, but I’d really like to try.”

He was standing there, looking a lot more nervous than you felt, while you took a second to go over what he just asked.

“I don’t care about gifts or tokens of love, I just want someone who actually cares enough to get to know me and then love me for who I am. As for my parents, they’ll see that you want to do exactly that. They’ll love you. Eventually.”

“Eventually? You don’t sound too convincing”

“Only one way to find out, soldier.” you say to him with a wink.

The next couple of months are spent getting to know Bucky better and introducing him to Tony and Pepper. You were right, they loved him.. eventually. It was during the first night he came over for dinner and he answered every question they could think to throw at him.

Harry, on the other hand, did not take the news well. He eventually stopped talking to you altogether, which hurt at first, but if he couldn’t put his feelings aside and be happy for you then it was his loss.

A year later, the two of you are moving into your own place and Bucky was planning to propose. He had a plan to make you a nice romantic dinner after the house was set up and ask you the big question at the end, but the man couldn’t wait. He needed to hear you say ’yes’ as soon as he could.

That night, the first night in your new home together, Bucky waiter until you crawled into bed beside him.

“Hey Yn.”

“Yeah?” you ask, trying to get comfortable.

He then gets off the bed, pulls something out of his nightstand, and gets down on one knee.

“I was going to ask you after a nice romantic dinner, but I couldn’t wait. Every moment with you is a new reason to live, a new reason to be the best man I can possibly be. I can’t give you everything that you deserve, but I promise to give you all I have. I love you, yn. Will you marry me?”

“Yes! Oh shit, really? Yes!” you sob, happier than you’ve ever been.

Bucky slides the ring onto your finger and gets back into bed. Realizing this was how you were going to spend the rest of your life, you smiled to yourself, knowing it couldn’t be spent with a better person.

☽

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[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Kasa Obake

Debut: ???

Despite everything, I wasn’t really planning to do another yōkai post after the Gashadokuro, but you know what? I can’t help myself! I’ve got so much to say and this is my only outlet for that! I mean not be an expert, but dang if I’ve got passion! So even though I’ve touched on them once before, here they are with an encore performance: the Kasa Obake! Please give them a round of applause!

But first: What the heck does “Kasa Obake” even mean? Kasa is the Japanese name for an umbrella or a parasol, and obake means... well, ghoul, monster, ghost, goblin, take your pick! (It’s a vague term, like yōkai, but strictly speaking it means “changing thing”!) Of course, in this case we have a karakasa, or a traditional paper umbrella, which gives them the alternate names of Karakasa Obake or Karakasa Kōzo (kid)!

The Kasa Obake might just be one of the most quintessential yōkai, and it’s quite easy to understand why- a one-legged, one-eyed paper umbrella monster who hops around like a pogo stick? Instantly charming! Instantly spooky! Sign me up!

They’re also (sometimes) a lovely example of a tsukumogami, one of my favorite classifications of anything ever! In short: a cherished object that lives to around 100 years old gains a fresh new soul and becomes a yōkai of their very own! Yes, while Pokémon fans have been complaining about object monsters for a long time, the Japanese have been relishing in them for centuries! Take that!

But alas! Like the Gashadokuro, the Karakasa’s origins may be a bit misleading! Though not quite as recent, the Kasa Obake is more or less considered a “made-up” yōkai, appearing somewhere around the late 19th century, without any legends, stories, or, well... anything to its name!

But again, I just think that speaks for its charm! Those Japanese artists from 300 years ago may not have invented this paper umbrella ghost, but I’m sure they wish they did! They’re iconic, they’re easy to draw, and people can’t get enough of them! And damn right, I say! We should stop trying to make Halloween costumes sexy and just dress up as umbrellas every year. They can’t stop us all!

A big force in making the one-legged Karakasa as popular as it is today came from Obake Karuta, a variation of the popular Karuta game from the 19th and early 20th century- rather than using famous poems or common idioms, it had a deck full of Funny Monsters! It was basically one of the first examples of categorising and marketing as many Funny Monsters as possible, so it’s pretty much the great grandpappy of all Funny Monster Games! In a sense, we might owe this blog to Obake Karuta to some extent!

(Speaking of Obake Karuta it’s also one of the few appearances of the Shumoku Musume who really has nothing to do with this post but she's another favorite of mine)

Anyway! As Funny Monster related media continues to grow and expand, so has the Kasa Obake’s grasp on popular culture! Movies, cartoons, games, they really have it all! No media can resist their allure! So once again, under the cut, some fictional Kasa Obake! (as opposed to regular Kasa Obake, which are real)

Did you know? Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters is one of the best films ever made. Of course, that’s judging purely by the number of monsters, I haven’t seen it myself, but how many movies do you know that have 100 monsters? Not many, I assume!

Look at this guy! Not only is he fantastic, but that’s some really cool puppetry, too!

2005′s The Great Yokai War, which was kind of a spiritual successor to Yokai Monsters, also features a Karakasa as the comic relief character, and I can’t think of anything better to be comic relief! Hollywood take note!

(from Obscure Video Games on Tumblr)

Naturally, we see plenty Kasa Obake in the many, many GeGeGe no Kitaro adaptations! 

They look quite different with every appearance, but my favorite would have to be Shigeru Mizuki’s original illustration- I mean, you can’t beat that cheeky little smirk!

Then there’s Pallysol, from Yo-Kai Watch! Of course, they had to make it clear that this guy is a pal, objectively, like Pal from Pac and Pal. I feel like as far as cutesy Karakasa designs go, this one’s nearly perfect!

What’s that? A mobile game variant of Pallysol, based on a disposable umbrella with a little rain boot? Don’t mind if I do! This is probably like, the peak of monster design. This is what the Kasa Obake was born for. 

This here Touhou is a Karakasa... I guess? Hm... If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is just a girl! 

Look, I respect Touhou! Some of my best friends are Touhous! I’m certainly partial to an anime girl every now and then! But, it’s more or less my creed that you shouldn’t make a boring human character when a funny monster would offer so much more!

See, now isn’t that way more pleasing to the eyes? Er... eye?

The Ghostbusters mobile game has a very cool Karakasa design that I wanted to mention. Did you know there’s a Ghostbusters mobile game? Neither did I!

Uh oh, Nioh! He’s quite scary, but look at him dance! He’s so happy! 

The Jackbox game Tee KO features a whole roster of funny yokai to pick, including (but not limited to) a Karakasa looking to win the prize money and open his very own sandal shop! Look how adorable! As objectively the best character, the real aim of the game is to be the first to pick him. This one is named Taco, I guess.

Oh, you won’t fool me this time Touhou! This is a girl and I know it!

Jumpershoot, a midboss from Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and 3, is about as Karakasa as a Karakasa can get! But with one of Kirby’s main abilities being a Parasol, it’s a wonder why they’ve barely appeared since! For shame, HAL!

Ah well, at least the Kirby Twitter artwork gives them some love, right? Though, what hasn’t the Kirby Twitter referenced at this point?

Well, that’s about it! That’s pretty much all the Kasa Obake I can think to talk about, though probably not all the ones that exist. If you’ve got a Karakasa of your own to share, hit us up! I swear I've gotten all my yōkai juices out of my system, and I’ll never subject you guys to a post like this again! Unless you want me to...?

Actually, I can’t shake the feeling I’m forgetting something. Wasn’t there another series I liked, which also had a Karakasa...? Hm...

[mysteryartisticwriter]

Reality (3) // Colin Ritman X Reader

A/N: Hey loves, I was busy with finals and everything is pain when I tried to edit the original for this and it fucking deleted itself on its own when I tried to edit it. I’m very upset and angry at tumblr for it but I guess I can’t do shit about it so I had to remake it entirely. Yay.

But this did give me a chance to remake this part into something better. It’s not as good as the original part, but it’s what I tried to make close to it. It was 1:00AM when it happened and I was too damn stressed, depressed and reading obsessed to even write it then so I’m writing it as finals are coming in soon. Anyone who loved the original, I am so sorry. You can blame tumblr for it.

REQUESTS ARE CLOSED BTW (FOR NOW)

Requested: Yes

Warnings: Drugs usage, cussing...oh and death

Not my gif!! (Please tell me if you, the owner, would like me to take the gif down!)

-

What seemed like forever, you and Colin made it to his flat building. It was big, definitely a place what someone as rich as Colin could afford. You wondered if he lived alone. Did he have someone living with him? Flat mate? Girlfriend? I hope not, you thought.

You were secretly hoping that he didn't have a girlfriend or wife. You never really heard about anything of Colin having a lover, but it wasn't like you had a chance with Colin. He focused on his video games and your main focus was your game.

The both of you took the lift up to his floor and you continued to follow him as the two of you walked through the halls. You looked down at the floor then over to the windows you passed by. You were on one of the top floors, making a large view of a lot of homes over the building. You weren't the biggest fans of heights, but continued to walk and said nothing anyway.

Upon reaching his flat, Colin grabbed his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. He tossed his keys onto a side table right by the front door and you trailed from behind him, fidgeting with your sleeves.

Walking fully into the developer's home, you got a good look of the living room of it. It was what you expected, a regular home with styled walls, carpet and long couches.

After taking in the whole place, you noticed a small balcony with a woman with short, frizzled and fiery red hair standing in the middle of it, cradling a small baby. You titled your head in confusion and frowned a bit in disappointment. I guess he does have a lover, you thought to yourself.

Colin walked up to the red haired woman and slowly grabbed the baby from her arms. He bounced her lightly up and down and you almost gushed at the sight. He was so gentle with her, making you adore him even more.

"(Y/n), this is my sister, Kitty." Colin introduced you, not taking his eyes off of his baby girl for a moment. The fiery red head waved at you with a tiny smile on her face.

A wave of relief washed through you. You were mostly glad he wasn't in a relationship, still, your mind continued to persuade you that you had no chance.

"(Y/n) is Stefan's twin sister." Colin informed his sibling. Kitty made a hum noise in response.

"And this is Pearl," his baby, Pearl, reached one of her hands toward Colin. "Daddy's little legacy." Colin slightly smiled at the baby's action.

"(Y/n)'s in the hole, Kit." The blond informed the red head. Kitty nodded understandingly.

"Poor girl. You gonna get her out?" Kitty asked, her arms crossed. You looked down at the ground in a bit of shame.

"Yup."

Colin let Kitty take back Pearl and started to walk into another room. You looked over to Kitty and gave a shy smile, to which she returned. You were about to go follow Colin into the room he went into before you were stopped by the red head herself.

"You like him, don't you?" Kitty asked, a smirk plastered on her face, while yours immediately flushed red.

"W-what? H-How did you..?" You stuttered.

"I won't go all 'protective sister' on you. But just be careful with him, (Y/n)." She told you. You responded with a simple nod and left the room.

You went into the room where Colin entered and found him sitting on a white chair. In the opposite position was a long, curved and black couch. You noticed on one of his computer desks that there was a mug of tea sitting there.

"Grab a pew, love."

You shot your gaze over to him when he called you the nickname, and all he did was smile back at you. You brushed it off and grabbed the mug and sat in the middle of the black couch opposite to him.

You took a few small sips of tea before setting it on the table between the two of you. While you were doing that, Colin took out another cigar roll-up and lit it with a lighter. He took a pew puffs before leaning over and reached it out to you.

"Here." He said.

"O-oh..I haven't really ever..." You stuttered out, embarrassed.

"Come on." Colin pressed a bit.

Hesitantly, you grabbed the cancer stick from his hand, brushing yours lightly against his a bit, causing you to blush slightly. You ignored your feelings and put the cigar between your lips, taking a puff of it. You struggled to keep yourself together and started to cough almost immediately after you took it away from your lips.

"That's alright, love. You'll get the hang of that." Colin says while reaching into a small black box. What was up with him and calling you that?

You finally managed to calm yourself down and looked up to find Colin with his right index finger out to you with a little thin tablet thing on it, something you've never seen before.

"You want it?" He asked you.

"What-what is it?" You questioned him.

"It lets you see the bigger picture." He nodded towards it.

"I-I...I don't know..." You didn't know if you wanted it or not. You wanted help but you didn't know if having a strange thing you've never taken before was the best way.

"It'll help you understand." Colin explained.

"Do you want it? It's your choice." He asked you, once more.

Yes // No

"Y-yes." Shaking a bit, you grabbed the tablet from his middle finger and stared at it.

"Just watch me, darling." Your gaze followed back up to Colin and you watched at he moved his fingers beside his head, one which held his own thin tablet on his index finger, then opened his mouth wide and stuck his tongue to put the tablet onto it.

He closed his mouth and took the tablet with ease. Anxiously, you looked at him before opening your mouth to take your own. The tablet left a....strange taste in your mouth but you sucked it up and took it anyway.

"Now what?" You asked. He smiled.

"We wait."

Colin them stood up and walking behind the couch you were sitting on. He went over to a turntable and inserted a record. Once the needle hit the disc, music started to play softly throughout the room.

He sat back down onto his white chair and the two of you stared at each other before the drugs started to finally take effect. The posters on the walls began to move and the light hitting Colin's face flowed brighter in different colors.

"I think...I think it's working." Your mouth started to form into a large grin and you began laughing randomly.

"Don't worry, love. It gets better." Colin's face transformed into a wide smile once he heard you laughing. It was strange how it attracted him, your laugh wasn't like a high pitched girly laugh but it sounded like the laughs that Colin would hear from Stefan.

A few minutes later, you were touching a painting on the wall that looked like it was mixing in with water. Every time you touched the painted or blew on it, the painting would move and the colors of the painting would combine.

To say you were having a blast was not even close to what you were feeling. The stress and anxiety weighing on your shoulders took off and you felt like you were having fun. Then again, you were high.

"People think there's one reality, but there's loads of them, all snaking off like roots. And what we do on one path affects the others." You turned over to Colin and saw his expression was serious, almost like he was positive about what he was saying.

You sat on the black couch and started to stare at your hands. Every time you moved them, trails of colorful lines followed them, making you giggle to yourself. You continued waving your hands as Colin sat on the couch with you and ranted.

"There's messages in every game. Like PAC Man! You know what PAC stands for?" Suddenly, Colin stood up and paced back and forth.

"P-A-C. Program and Control. He's program and control man." Colin ranted and told you all about the 'real' world of PAC Man.

"It's all code. If you listen carefully, you can hear the numbers." Colin said, his forehead rested against his balcony glass door. You were now standing up, looking around the door and wobbling a bit. He turned over to you and continued.

"There's a cosmic flowchart that dictates where you can and can't go." All of sudden, Colin took off his glasses and grabbed your face in his hands.

You laughed at him, still in your high state. You grabbed his face as well and stared into his blue eyes. You caressed his cheeks and fought the urge to kiss him right there. Even if you did kiss him, there would be no chance he remembered it, right?

"Your eyes are so pretty." You stated. Colin said nothing but you saw the corners of his mouth rise a bit.

"I've given you the knowledge. I've set you free. Do you understand?" The blond asked. His eyes began to grow in size to you, probably because of your state. It startled you for a moment before you answered him.

"Yes...maybe...I don't know." You giggled. Your mind was making everything seem so fuzzy to you that you barely comprehended his question.

"I'll show you what I mean. Come with me, love." He let go of your face and opened his glass balcony door. Colin walked out and you followed from behind.

He stood on the right side of the balcony while you stood on the left, looking over the ledge in a bit of fear.

Stay still // Grab Colin's wrist

You grabbed onto Colin's wrist, as if it was an instinct or impulse that caused you to. You gripped his wrist tightly in order to comfort yourself from the view.

"We're on one path right now, you and me. And how one path ends is immaterial. It's how our decisions along the path the whole that matters. Do you believe me?" Your gaze switched over to him.

"I-I don't know..." You responded, still smiling despite the situation.

"I'll prove it. One of us, is going over. Over there." The game developer pointed his arm over the ledge and your eyes widened, your smile dropping. With a sharp turn of your head, you gazed at him with searing fear in your eyes.

"No-no no no! Y-You'll die! You'll die!" You cried out.

"It wouldn't matter because there are other timelines, (Y/n)!" Colin said, as if it was a matter of fact. Your heart was doing flips and you began to feel sick to the stomach.

"Dammit Colin, when I asked for help I didn't mean this! I don't wanna do this." You practically begged him.

"Love, how many times have you watched PAC Man die? Doesn't bother him." He shrugged, as if it fixed the whole situation. "He just tries again."

"C-Colin..."

"One of us is jumping. So who's it gonna be?"

Your mind and mouth both contemplated your next words.

"It's a nice breeze up here." Colin said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Come on, love. Which one of us is jumping?" He asked once more.

(Y/n) // Colin

"I'll do it." You decided.

"I like your style. Are you sure, love?" Colin smirked before checking with you.

"Y-Yes." You stuttered a bit. Finally realizing what choice you made, you forced yourself onto the ledge of the balcony, almost falling over in the process.

You gasped out in surprise but never the less, started to laugh incoherently. Colin watched as you pushed yourself up and his mind started to sober up, but not enough to make him realize what was going on.

"Colin." You turned towards him and grabbed onto the collar of his shirt.

"Yes, (Y/n)?" He stared into your (e/c) eyes.

Kiss him // Say goodbye

"Kiss me before I jump."

-x-x-x-

"Hello, Kitty."

"Hello, Stefan! Are you here for (Y/n)?" Kitty asked.

"No, actually. I'm here to ask something from Colin. But (Y/n) is here?" Stefan questioned, his brow furrowed.

"Yeah. He's getting her out of the hole." Stefan froze. He knew of Colin's ways of helping people out of the hole. They weren't exactly good ways.

"Where are they?"

-x-x-x-

"Kiss me before I jump." You asked of him, still hanging on the ledge but not bothering to look away from his eyes that glowed in the light.

"Sure thing."

You leaned down and pressed your lips against Colin's own and closed your eyes. You tilted your head for easier access for Colin and he found himself easing into the kiss as well, putting his right hand on your cheek to pull you closer to him. Your lips fit together almost perfectly, as if they were made for each other. Finally, you unwillingly pulled away from the sweet kiss and looked into his blue eyes.

"See you in the next reality." You grinned at him. He returned it.

"In the next reality."

You let go of the ledge and leaped over it to fall your way to your death. Colin watched as your body landed on top of a large crate, blood spilling out from your body. You killed yourself for the man who had taken your heart.

The sound of your body hitting the bottom sobered Colin up completely. He glanced at your body on top of the crate and stared at it. No other emotion shown on his face but sadness and regret.

Just then, the sound of slow footsteps from behind him caused him to look up, but not at the person.

"Colin. Where is my sister?"

...

...

"Colin what did you do?!

-

TAGGED:

@creativedogs​

@sugarfloss

[paradisobound]

It’s Time to Begin

Summary: Dan and Phil went through hell and back when they were teenagers to fight against the evil clown. However, when they get called back to Derry, they know that the fight is just beginning again with whatever it is. But old feelings begin to get rehashed and they decide to confess something to the other before they head towards the fight for their lives. 

Phan IT Part 2!Au 

Word Count: 3.9k 

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of violence, homophobia, emetophobia, alcohol, death (not MCD) and general horror movie elements 

Written for the @phandomreversebang for the art by softphiily and beta work by @flymetomanchester! 

**Read on Ao3**

A/N: I purposely left the ending as hopeful because if you've seen the movie, then you know the ending and it's extremely sad. So i left the ending ambiguous because I want people to not read this and feel sad but read this and feel hopeful for the end!

When Dan got the call that was about returning to Derry, he vomited. It wasn’t that he was feeling queasy before then, but it was because he knew what the call meant.

The call had come in from Joshua. All he said was the words, “Come back to Derry” and the words had filled Dan’s head with dread.

He was due to go into his comedy show that afternoon, but the words rattled around in his head and he failed to say anything. People booed him, and he laughed because he tried to make the best of it.

He left the stage without announcing so and vomited in the bin on stage right just behind the curtain. He prayed that the microphone on his shirt was turned off and no one could hear him.

It had been so long since he’s thought about Derry, so long since he’s left there. He was convinced that he never wanted to think of the name of that town again, and he had been successful up until this point.

Joshua had told him to take a flight to Maine but Dan was all the way in Los Angeles and was reluctant to do so. He could drag feet, pretend he didn’t actually hear the words, and move on with his life.

But that wouldn’t be fair.

Oh, yes, why wouldn’t it be fair? Dan remembered the blood pact that they had made on the other side of the Stone bridge that one afternoon all those years ago. At the thought, his hand itches and he instinctively itches his palm, raking his fingernails over the slightly raised scar.

He can’t go back. No, there is no way that he could. Too many memories. Too much trauma. Too much everything. If he goes back, that literally only means one thing: it’s back.

Dan doesn’t even want to think about it. He doesn’t want to think about any of it. He doesn’t want to think about Derry, about his former friends, and especially about what they experienced the summer when they were 14.

No, Dan refuses.

He rubs the bridge of his nose between his fingers as he managers rushes a cold bottle of water to him and he takes the damp plastic and shoves it to the nose of his neck and holds it there.

He stands up a bit straighter and makes a beeline past his manager for the table of food and drinks in the back. He grabs the first bottle of wine that he sees, some white bottle that says it’s a Moscato, and he unscrews the cap and begins to drink it down.

Alcohol is going to be the only thing that can numb his feelings tonight.

***

It all started in Derry, back in 1991.

He was a young nerdy boy who just wanted to spend his summer playing the shitty arcade games at his local theater. He’d gotten pretty good at Pac-Man and Donkey Kong that summer, setting multiple high scores just to show off to all of the weebs around him that he was the best.

But when school came around that fall, things began to change a bit more. Namely, his friend group. He’d begun to hang out with Robbie and Steven.

Robbie had a bit of a stutter, but Dan didn’t mind. He likes to pick on Robbie, and sometimes Robbie took it well, and sometimes he didn’t.

Steven was quiet, kept to himself. He was Jewish and while Dan himself wasn’t any religion, he still decided to go with his new friend occasionally to temple to see what it was all about. As they grew up, Dan was willing to always help Steven with his studies for his bar mitzvah.

And then there was Jenna and Bradley. But Dan didn’t know them as well as he knew the others. Yeah, they all hung out, but he still knew the others better.

But it was Phil who Dan liked the most. He was a little bit of a hypochondriac—well, maybe a little bit isn't the correct way to phrase that. Phil panicked a lot about anything. His mom had him conditioned to believe everything and anything was a germ and it was a miracle to Dan that Phil even lasted this long in a public school without having an actual freak out.

But there was always something about Phil that Dan never forgot. Not even all these years later, as Dan is sitting in his car in the parking lot of the studio for his show, fighting back tears as he struggles to breathe.

His phone continues to vibrate on the seat next to him, texts from Joshua rushing in asking him to come back to Derry, that Derry needs their group there to save everything.

Dan knows what is waiting for them, and he’s not sure he wants to ever face it. He had faced it once when they were kids, trying to stop the monster from hurting any other children like they had hurt Robbie’s little brother.

For many years, Dan has tried to act brave because he tried to forget about everything that had happened to them. And really, he had pretty much done that until today's text and all of the memories came flooding back.

He starts his car, turns on the radio as loud as it will go as it blasts Radiohead out of its speakers. The couple in the car next to his turn their heads and he sings alone, trying to forget and drown out the buzzing of his phone on the passenger seat.

No...he won’t go back to Derry.

He can’t go back.

***

Despite Dan’s best efforts, he finds himself in the small town he grew up in, driving past the old arcade where he held all of his records and he sees posters still tacked on the outside from the ‘90s, the last time it had ever been open. Dan’s gut aches a bit more but he’s gotten sick way too much over the last 3 days to still have anything in his stomach.

Dan books an overnight stay in the only bed and breakfast in all of Derry. He books only for one night because he has no intention of actually staying. Part of him hopes that this is all a sick joke to get all of the Losers group to meet up again but he knows deep down that’s not gonna be the case.

After all, it had been a long time since the first ordeal happened.

Dan’s not even sure if he wants to see any of his old friends. It seems like so much has happened since they left and he can’t even decipher if he wants to try and make up for lost time. Maybe the only person he would like to reconnect with is Phil, see how he’s doing, how his health is doing.

Dan laughs to himself as he sits on the edge of the bed with the key to the room in his hand. Phil...good ole’ hypochondriac Phil. Dan does miss him, miss the way he used to freak out over just touching a handrail on a staircase and immediately start dousing his body in hand sanitizer.

He hasn’t heard from Phil in years. The last time he did, he heard Phil got married. And while that’s great for him, Dan can’t help but feel the punch in his gut over the fact that Phil got married.

Mostly because Dan is still harboring a crush on him after all these years. So many years of repressed homophobic language and words. He’s not out to anyone he knows. He’s not even out to his friends back in Hollywood. The only person he is out to is himself.

Dan drops the key out of his grasp and he jumps at the clatter it makes on the hardwood floor in the way too silent room. Part of him wishes he had gotten the nerve to come out to Phil before they all left for college--which Dan dropped out of anyway. They hadn’t even said that much before they all left for their own lives. Dan just gave Phil a quick hug goodbye at graduation and gave them all a promise he’d keep in touch and then they were all gone.

A knock sounds through his door and his shoulders jump as he stands up from the bed and walks over to the door. He opens it slowly and a bit of glee jumps into his chest as he sees Jenna standing there, her strawberry blonde hair tucked behind her ear.

“Hey, Dan!” She says, a voice wavering a bit with tiredness but her eyes still bright green. “Long time no see.”

Dan nods and lets out a laugh. It’s been so long that he’s seen her that it feels a bit unreal to see her now as 30 year old than her teenage self, “You look really good!”

A loud laugh escapes her lips and she waves him off, “Stop lying.”

Dan’s really not but he laughs along. She invites herself into his room and they find themselves talking about their life from the last however many years that they haven’t had contact.

Dan learns that Jenna is going to be filing for divorce from her abusive husband soon and Dan wishes her well in that. He tells Jenna about how he has an upcoming comedy tour beginning in a few months and she jokes that she’s going to buy tickets for one of his shows in New York City.

It feels nice to catch up, but in the end, they both still sit in silence because they deep down know the real reasons why they are here right now. Jenna begins to shake a bit and Dan feels sick again but they both just smile at each other and then Jenna tells him that the others are here too. So they walk downstairs together.

It’s like a mini-reunion but upon seeing everyone standing there, he quickly realizes that they’re missing someone. Steven isn’t here. Dan looked around to make sure he wasn’t just missing him.

“Where is Steven?” Jenna asks before anyone can say anything. She folds her arms over her chest, standing next to Dan.

Robbie stands up and Dan sees the pain behind his eyes, “Steven...Steven passed away. I got an unfortunate call from his wife.”

Everyone opens and closes their mouths and Dan particularly feels the wave crash over him. Did that fucker get to Steven first? How is that even possible? Steven didn’t live around here.

“I know you guys all have questions,” Joshua says, “And I’m sure that you already have some of the answers for them too.”

Dan nods along with the others. Joshua reaches down his side and opens the messenger bag on his shoulder, pulling out a notebook. As he does this, Dan turns his head and looks at Phil for the first time since he came downstairs.

Phil looks so much different. He’s wearing a pair of glasses and his black hair is pushed back into a quiff. His body has also filled out a lot more, more muscle and more definition. And if Dan wasn’t totally in love with him when they were teenagers, he definitely is now. He still is looking at Phil when he looks down at his hand and sees that Phil’s left hand is missing a ring.

His heart stutters for a moment.

“...So you all will need to go out and get that piece to put in our sacrifice to kill it.”

Dan wasn’t listening to much of what Joshua had told all of them. But he was listening now.

“So…” Bradley asks, sitting his hips against the bar behind him. “You’re asking us all to disperse on our own to relieve our teenage trauma just to find that missing piece.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not doing that,” The voice is Phil’s. He’s stood up straighter, his body a bit more rigid. “I can’t do that.”

“How do we even know where to look?” Dan speaks up. “This town is basically vacated. None of the locations we knew as teens are still going to be here.”

“Well, you have to try,” Joshua speaks up. “Or else we’re all going to end up like Steven.”

An uncomfortable silence lingers in the air and Dan swallows back the tension in his throat. He doesn’t want to do this. This seems like such a ridiculous idea and he really wants no part of it.

“If we all don’t get our objects,” Robbie says, speaking up again, “It’s not going to work.”

“So when do we need to have these found by?” Jenna asks, uncrossing her arms from her chest.

“We should all meet here by 6 tonight,” Joshua responds, “So we can make sure everyone has their object. We’ll also need to find Steven’s.”

“How are we going to find Steven’s?” Dan asks. “There isn’t…”

“We’ll find it,” Robbie speaks up, “We--we have to.”

The stutter in Robbie’s speech brings him back to the days of his youth when Robbie had a really bad speech impediment and Dan used to pick on him about it. Of course, he regrets all of that now, but he can’t take back what he did in the past.

“Okay, let’s break up then,” Bradley says, smoothing his hand over his face.

“I’m still not going to do this,” Phil says, standing his ground. “This isn’t worth it.”

“So everyone dying is?” Joshua asks, his voice serious. “If you don’t go and find your object, we’re all going to die. There is no question about it.”

No one else says anymore. Joshua and Robbie both leave and Bradley, Phil, and Jenna are left standing there. Jenna leaves eventually too and Dan stands there with Phil. He takes one last look at Phil before he leaves and he tries to ignore that he can clearly see Phil is crying. If he stays for a second longer, he’ll start to cry as well.

***

Dan doesn’t even know where to start. He gets into his car in the parking lot of the bed and breakfast and turns on the engine. He’s not sure where he wants to go, where he should go. He supposes he can just drive around because there has to be a sign somewhere.

He ends up on the main street and he finds himself parked in front of the old arcade. He remembers this arcade so clearly. It wasn’t really an arcade, it was a movie theater with some games in the front.

But Dan treated it like an arcade. He spent many afternoons here during the school year and during the summer. He particularly loved the Donkey Kong machine and as he opens his car door, he wonders if the machine is still here.

He gets up and walks towards the front of the dilapidated building and looks at the way the broken glass glistens in the sunlight behind him. The doors are completely broken open and when he looks down at the floor just beyond them, he can see many pieces of glass.

Maybe this wasn’t the best idea for him to come here.

But then he sees it in the distance, the donkey kong game that he used to play every single summer. He laughs to himself and braves the glass as he walks inside and goes over to the dust and cobweb-covered machine.

It probably doesn’t even work still, but he wants to try it out anyway. He pulls the sleeve of his jacket down over his hands and he quickly wipes the screen off and presses some buttons. The machine suddenly boots up and he laughs at the luck. He moves the joystick to the high scores and he feels a hit of nostalgia as he sees that his initials still hold all of the top ten spots.

He kind of wants to see if he can beat his old score. Just for the hell of it. But when he presses all of the buttons, it says he needs to insert one token and he knows that those must be long gone. But he starts to look for them anyway.

He looks beside the machine and on the floor and he looks inside the coin flaps of the machines in case any were left there and never picked up again. He kicks over a few pieces of glass, trying to be careful but still eager to find a token. He suddenly finds one and picks it up, looking it over in the sunlight.

It’s the classic gold token he remembers so much, having to pay a quarter for every token back in the day and his mom only giving him $2 at a time. He used to blow through all of that to play every game for as long as possible but sometimes that didn’t happen and he’d waste his token.

Especially when the bullies started to come more and more frequently. He remembers so vividly one day in particular. It was the summer after everything had happened with it. He came to the arcade every single day to get his mind off from the horrors he experienced and he quickly became a target.

He was called a nerd for a while. Weeb became more and more of an insult. But when the words stopped working, next came the punches and Dan became accustomed to them. They started calling him a ‘fag’ or a ‘homo’ and those were what stung the most.

He would always run to try and avoid them. Normally he ended up in the park across the street because he knew that’s where he could get away from them since the bullies didn’t dare to touch him while he was in front of everyone else.

Dan falls back to the present and looks down at the token in his hand. This has to be the object he needs to give to Joshua. He felt such a strong emotion from it just by picking it up in his hand.

He walks back out of the arcade and sucks in a breath as he sees a red balloon pass by him and continue down the street.

***

Dan winds up in the park by himself, twisting the token in the pocket of his jacket. It’s so empty around here now. It’s like no one even lives here anymore but really who can blame them? After all the horrific shit that happened, he’s surprised anyone stayed at all.

He’s sitting on the bench when he hears footsteps come up to him and he sees Phil standing in front of him, his own hands in his pocket as the cool spring breeze blew through, “Did you find your object?”

Dan nods and pulls out the token from his pocket, “Arcade token.”

Phil nods and takes a seat beside him, “I found mine too. My inhaler.”

“You used to rely on that all of the time,” Dan says with a chuckle. “I remember you wouldn’t go anywhere without it.”

“Did you know I didn’t even need this?” Phil asks, pulling it out of his pocket. “I was told a few years back that I didn’t even have asthma.”

“So what were you even using that for?” Dan asks because surely that’s not healthy.

“Nothing,” Phil says with a laugh. “I was just listening to what my mom told me.”

Dan just nodded and sat there,  silence between them.

“How is your wife doing?” Dan asks because he’s trying to just make polite conversation.

“Oh, we’re not together anymore,” Phil says. “We settled our divorce over a year ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dan says biting his lip.

Phil just shrugs, “She reminded me too much of my mom.”

Dan let out a snort and Phil did too.

“Oh gosh.”

“Plus I just realized something about myself that...well, that made it so it was hard to fully be in love with her.”

Dan bites his lip and tries to not get his hopes up by what Phil means. Of course, Dan would love for his crush to be reciprocated after all of these years but he knows that that won’t ever happen.

“What about you?” Phil asks. “Never did hear much about you once you left.”

“Oh, I never really had any relationships,” Dan says at first. “I put so much focus on my comedy career and it’s finally starting to pay off. I have a big tour coming in the next few months.”

Phil smiles at him, “That’s awesome to hear.”

The wind bustles around them and the sky begins to darken as the night rolls in. Dan didn’t realize he had been out for so long. It feels like only an hour or so has passed.

“Hey, Dan,” Phil says, his voice wavering a bit, “Can I tell you something?”

Dan swallows back his feelings and nods, “Of course you can.”

Phil sucks his lips into a tight line and then opens them as he says, “It’s just...if I die here, I want someone to know this about me so I didn’t live my entire life a lie.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m gay.”

Dan fights back the smile that plays on his lips at Phil’s confession because as soon as the words sink in, Dan feels his tears well up in his eyes as well.  After all, he feels the exact same way. If he dies within the next few days, no one is going to know his secret either.

“Phil, I’m gay too,” Dan says.

Phil turns to him and forces a smile on his lips as a stray tear makes its way down his cheek and Dan fights back the tears that want to spill down his as well. He takes a few deep breaths.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Phil chuckles out with a watery laugh.

Dan just nods and chuckles as well, “You’re the only person who knows.”

“You too, for me,” Phil says. “I haven’t told anyone else yet.”

The sun sets a bit lower and Dan feels his phone buzz in his pocket. Just as he grabbed at his, Phil grabbed at his own as well and sighed.

“It’s from Joshua,” Phil answers. “They all have their objects and are at the hotel so we should go too.”

“So this is really happening then?” Dan says, his voice wavering more. “We’re really going to finally kill this thing then?”

Phil nods, “I guess so.”

They stand up from the bench and make their way back to the main street. They round the corner towards the arcade and Dan sees his car is still sitting there. A single red balloon is floating next to the driver’s side window.

Dan takes a deep breath and he looks at Phil next to him as he takes one as well. As they walk towards the car, their hands brush for a second and Dan fights back the tears as he realizes that this may be the last time he can have a conversation like this with Phil.

Because they may not be alive after tonight.

Dan just prays to whatever God that is above that they can finally finish this battle tonight, kill the thing that’s been torturing them, and make it out alive. Because he wants to be able to see Phil on the other side.

And as Phil looks at him too, and their hands suddenly intertwine without either of them initiating it, Dan realizes there is nothing he wants more than to get revenge and move on with his life.

It’s time.