#ITS JUST funny to think despite her trying to trick mike | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

xaidyl · 5 years ago

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You could explain individual stuff! I find these explanations very fascinating, actually! OwO

okay! lets do this (this may be a very long post with lots of my random opinions but we’ll go with it) (and also please bear in mind these are jokey and in no real way a representation of these real people with real actual lives.)

***spoilers for most D20 seasons with this cast***

1.The babysitting

Actual parent:Brennan

From my experience DMing, you are effectively a parent to the players. He would also be an excellent dad

Wine aunt: Siobhan

Siobhan gives me vibes of someone who would take a bottle of wine to go babysit, then sit and tell the kids stuff about cults that they weren’t meant to hear. She would definitely teach the kids swear words, and they would love their cool auntie

Great at babysitting: Lou

Part of the key to babysitting is being relatable to the kids, but also self assured enough to get them to behave. the person who holds that key is Lou Wilson. He also has played dad-energy characters, and that is the kind of vibes that you look for in a babysitter.

Mediocre at babysitting: Murph

This scenario needs some theatre of the mind. Imagine Murph, he’s read all the babysitting books, he knows everything he could need to know, he lives with Emily Axeford. He’s more than prepared for this task. He tries so hard. The kids love him. The kids also walk all over him. They don’t get to bed in time. He wanted to do a good job. He tried so hard to do a good job. Yet somehow, luck is against him.

The house is on fire, God is dead: Emily

Fig. Sofia. Jet. All three of these characters would set a house on fire without hesitation, and not one fears God. What does this have to do with Emily’s babysitting ability? Well, all these characters are teaching us to be chaotic beings, just like Emily. We are the children, and D20 is our babysitter. Emily would only replicate the same thing in this babysitting scenario.

The children: Zac and Ally

I believe it was episode 9 of the unsleeping city. Neither Zac nor Ally were involved in the scene in question. Siobhan makes a reference to Eliza Doolittle, to which Zac makes a Dr Doolittle joke. Beardsley then shouts ‘I can see my dick’, a reference to a different film. This is fairly normal behaviour, and would not make either of them children in this scenario, had they not continued to hysterically laugh for the next ten minutes or so. Sat at opposite sides of the table. I think Zac starts crying at some point. They are absolute children, and also both have strong baby energy. Neither babysit, they are the ones that need babysitting.

2. Can they be killed?

Cannot be killed: Brennan

The man is a God. Enough said. Also I’m pretty sure your body would reject your soul before it allows you to kill him.

Can only be killed by one thing: Siobhan

You would be tricked into thinking Siobhan would be easy to kill- her constitution score is so low, after all. However, you would be wrong. The low constitution score has only made her stronger. More aware. What is the one thing that can kill her, though? Nobody knows, she’s only told those she truly trusts. It could be the most rare poison in the world. Or it could just be Mike Trapp. He (allegedly) has previous.

Can be killed but it won’t last: Emily

It is not anything to do with Emily that her death won’t last. In fact, Emily would be pretty easy to kill. However, if you kill her, Murph will do everything in his power to bring her back. He travels to the end of the earth, and then Emily Axeford is back and gets her new death date in a fancy gothic necklace.

Can be killed but at what cost?: Lou

What cost? The cost to the world. The world would be significantly worse off. You wouldn’t be able to live with yourself. It’s not worth it.

Can be killed but it’s not worth it: Murph

It’s not worth killing Murph because you would have precisely 0.7 seconds before you were killed by Emily. There is no way you can profit from this scenario, you would be dead before you even realise you’ve been successful.

Can be killed and it would be pretty funny: Zac

I feel like we don’t discus the correlation between Zac Oyama characters and dying enough. Gorgug was the first D20 death. Lapain was the first D20 perma death. Ricky just like had a weapon that causes him to die. If you killed Zac, it would just be funny because its happened so much. Sorry Zac.

Can be killed but why would you, you monster?!?!: Ally

We’ve already discussed this. Beardsley is Baby. Leave them alone.

Please kill them they suck: Box of Doom

I dont trust them

3. The fitness gram pacer test

this is definitely the most controversial of the charts, but there’s three of things you need to understand about my reasoning.

1. Zac is fast at running

This has been seen a couple of times, namely: adventuring party, where Zac tried to tease Brennan about showing off how fast he his at running, but it turns out it was just Zac speaking his mind, and he is the one who always shows off at how fast he is at running. Also, the video on Siobhan’s instagram of Zac jumping over that table.

He is also very bad a squats. Why would you be bad at squats? Bad knees. Why would you get bad knees? Running without sufficient warm up. Why would you skip warm up? Because you are very focussed on being able to run fast.

2. Zac is willing to defend his title of running fast

The way he accused Brennan on adventuring party, he knew what he was doing. Sabotage. Brennan may also be able to run fast, but Zac would prevent him from getting a good score. How? He has his ways. Zac is a good boy, but not when it comes to running fast.

3. I felt bad

I had to give Zac at least one good one :)

Anyways onto the other choices:

Actually tried and got a low score: Brennan, Murph, Siobhan

We’ve already spoken about how Zac sabotaged Brennan to be the best at running. Murph is here because he would try really hard but something unlucky would happen. His shoelaces come untied. He accidentally gets caught in the Zac/Brennan feud.

Siobhan started off with the intention to try, but after Lou, Emily and Ally had all done, she realised they were in fact much more interesting than the fighting going on. She walks out mid lap

Didn’t try, got a low score, doesn’t give a shit: Lou and Emily

Its important to understand that both Lou and Emily are capable of getting a high score, they are just better than the whole thing. Why is their DnD group doing a pacer test? Why did Zac suspiciously force them to do this whole thing?

The difference between them is Lou knows the feud is stupid and has like actual work to do? He sits and auditions for some other big film. He still watches over his laptop.

Emily however, simply wants to watch the world burn.

Despite their different approaches to the situation, they both have a bet going on who’s going to be the fastest runner.

Ran one singular lap and finished: Ally

Ally Beardsley shows up at the track wearing a rainbow bucket hat and a tie dye shirt that is impracticable to run in. They have a llama with them. At no point do they explain this. They walk round the track once, drink their water from a plant pot, then spend the rest of the time cheering on the others with words that don’t quite make sense.

4. Storming Area 51

They cant stop us all: Zac and Brennan

Neither mean it maliciously, but both believe entirely in what they are saying.

Brennan is definitely the guy to go mad over a conspiracy theory. He made all the crown of candy NPCs. He is basically betraying himself. He knows not to trust anyone. He doesn’t trust area 51. The next season of dimension 20 is this as a subliminal messages all the way through.

Zac says it accidentally. He’s making a character for the charity livestream. He’s still got a hundred hours of character making left. He’s done so many bad squats. Unintentionally, he makes a character that forces all the zesbians to storm area 51.

Have fun getting shot, dumbasses: Lou

The rest of the cast are being weird again. Lou is equally as capable of being weird, but sometimes they need to chill. It starts with Emily talking about diner ice. It finishes with Brennan wearing a foil hat at all times.

You guys stop, someones actually gonna do it: Murph

Murph is a good, lawful boy.

Actually shows up: Emily and Siobhan

They ride a motorcycle there together. They wouldn’t have gone alone, but as a duo they are an unstoppable pair. Emily wants to break into a government facility. Siobhan desperately want to be in the real life x-files.

One of the Aliens: Ally

Emily and Siobhan open a door at area 51. Behind it is Ally Beardsley. They are wearing a rainbow bucket hat and a tie dye shirt. They have a llama standing behind them. This is not explained at any point. They drink from a flower pot and eat a quesadilla that appears out of nowhere.

5. Stabbing

Would never stab anyone: Murph

Murph is a good, lawful boy

Would stab in retaliation: Lou, Murph, Zac

Lets be honest, the entirety of a crown of candy so far has been these three taking stabs (or metaphorical ‘where is your bulb now’ stabs) as retaliation for a stab another one of these three had done.

Yells “I won’t hesitate bitch” first: Ally and Siobhan

I can’t really explain this one much more other than i’m pretty sure both these people have said this phrase at least once in their life.

Would stab as a warning: Emily

This would be promptly followed by Murph getting her to stop stabbing. Or, depending on the situation, encouraging her to keep stabbing.

6. The water fountain

Fills up a bottle and drinks from it: Lou and Siobhan

This is the normal way to drink from the water fountain. They were also both very concerned at watching Beardsley’s various different drinking apparatuses in adventuring party.

Bought 4 water bottles so this wouldn’t happen: Murph

He is prepared. Something probably still goes wrong, but at least he’s got three water bottles left.

Drinks straight from the tap: Brennan

Brennan is a busy guy. The tap is there, it’s convenient, he needs to get back to planning. There’s so many campaigns, so many characters, so many voices.

Dehydrates: Zac

Honestly I’m not sure if this man would drink water if nobody told him so

Drinks from a puddle: Ally

like they drink from a vase with a flower, a puddle really isn’t that much of a stretch.

Licks the tap: Emily

She just wants to see the world burn. Also, she knows Brennan drinks straight from the tap. She has to get payback somehow.

7. A child starts crying

Makes the child laugh: Lou

We’ve already discussed how Lou has dad energy. I feel like he’s know exactly what to say and how to act to get the child to stop crying. This is less stupid than the rest of my explanations, but I always love how expressive Lou is when he plays dnd. I’m not sure whether its the way he holds himself or the way he gestures, but I’m pretty sure if I was a crying child, I would stop crying if Lou Wilson told me a joke in that very soothing point.

Tries to play with the child: Siobhan and Ally

These two kinda give me older/younger sibling vibes. As a team I recon they could create a game that would calm this child down. Also Ally knows techniques to help adults calm down, they could probably implement these ideas into a game for children.

Gives detailed instructions: Murph

His knowledge comes from the books he has read to learn how to babysit, and the one time he babysat. His explanation is rather frantic however, mostly because he is trying to defend Emily in his answer.

Cries with the child: Zac

He’s sad because all his friends are speaking to this child an nobody noticed how fast he just ran.

He’s also baby, as we’ve said previously, so he probably relates to the child somewhat

The reason the child is crying: Emily and Brennan

The child just watched episode 9 of a crown of candy.

#long post #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #a crown of candy #fantasy high

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thoughtfullyyoungduck · 5 years ago

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always

summary: Anything ‘x daughter’, with any of the losers, where their worst fear is her being dead, so when they get separated by it (not really taken, she just loses track of her parent(s), like in a different room or something), it makes them think she’s dead by showing them her ‘body’.

A/N: I’m sorry it took me so long to complete this! I chose to do one with Mike, I hope that’s okay! Let me know what you think!

As soon as smoke started emerging from behind him, and Mike turned to see a door that hadn’t previously been there, he knew this had to be Pennywise’s doing.

He’d just finished making the last phone call, and now he would be impatiently awaiting for his friends to make their return to Derry and hopefully help him with defeating the evil entity that was still roaming Derry. With the calls out of the way, Mike could begin focusing on tying up other loose ends. There was still a lot on his to do list, like reading another one of his books to ensure his plan would work, and prepare a speech to keep the losers here in case they desperately wanted to leave.

Of course, the most pressing issue Mike had to resolve was none of those things. No, the most important thing he had to do was getting his daughter into safety. His daughter, who was now most likely on her way back from school, return home in about thirty minutes and was under no circumstances allowed to see IT in any of its manifestations. He didn’t want nightmares to roam her innocent childhood the way his had.

The funny thing about nightmares, and terror however, is that it lingers you defenseless. It strips away at you until there’s nothing left but the purest form of fear, without any sense of logic or ability to fight back.

Despite closing his eyes and willing his heart to beat at a regular pace, the second Mike heard a girls voice, suspiciously a lot like his daughter Joy, he panicked. His eyes opened against his will, and he was yet again confronted with a sight that had yet to leave him in all of his forty two years of living.

Burned hands scribbled through a slit of the door, with agonized screams and pleas for elation and to stop it from hurting so much. The same faith that had been bestowed upon his parents and was later stolen by Pennywise to quell his hunger.

An old trick, one that should have stopped being as affective as it used to be but hasn’t but this time spiced up with a little more terror then before.

‘I know it’s you’, Mike calls out to the door. The screaming does not stop. ‘I know it’s you. I’m not afraid anymore. And soon, the others will get here and we will defeat you.’ His voice shakes a little, but Mike finds truth in his words. The losers will not abandon him, and there’s no way Pennywise can fight all of them.

He holds on to these thoughts, a mantra in his head that he refuses to cease, until a single sentence breaks his concentration and invokes a streak of so much fear, Mike’s knees wobble.

‘Daddy, please help me. Please.’ The yells of Joy echo in the room, so petrified tears begin building in Mike’s eyes.

‘Joy?’ He asks uncertain, inching closer to the door but angling his body away from it, ready to run in an instance. The scene is familiar, but the thought that Joy might be behind the door is throwing off Mike’s inhibitions. Which is exactly what Pennywise was counting on.

‘Daddy’, She shrieks, all other hands evaporating and only her hands still scratching the surface. ‘It burns, help me.’

All of Mike’s intelligence flies out the window. He surges forwards, forgetting that he’s seen this before a thousand times, and simply thinks of what’s happening to his little girl. There’s a small part of him still skeptical, a tiny piece that begs him to take a step back and breath. To simply look at the facts objectively. The larger part, of both his soul and his mind, pull at him to keep going, to wrench the door of it’s hinges and to save his little girl, the one he holds most dear to his heart.

Could this be part of IT’s plan? Yes. But is Mike going to risk it? Absolutely not.

‘Hold on Joy I’m coming. I’m here Joy don’t stop pushing.’ His fingers digs into the wooden material of the door, right besides Joy’s, and the smell of burning flesh slitters from behind the door, even more so as it’s tugged open a small bit.

Just as Mike thinks he’s got it, and the door might open completely, it slams shut again, trapping Joy and unrooting one of Mike’s fingernails. He howls in pain, tearing his hands of to inspect the damage out of reflex, before realizing he lost what small progress he had made.

‘No, No.’ He yells, pouncing on the door in an absolute fury. Joy’s screams are becoming quitter, less frantic and more drawn out, breathier and more accepting of her faith. Time is running out and Mike has no idea what to do to get her out.

‘Daddy, please. Why didn’t you save me?’ She starts to rasp, hands slowing down their crazed way of trying to escape, until they eventually fall still. A cough shivers through her so hard the door rattles.

Joy disappears behind the door, accompanied by one last cry, and then the silences envelopes Mike. He cries, sinking to his knees behind the door, not bothering to protect his face from the onslaught of smoke. ‘Please, not my daughter. Take me, I’ll take her place.’ No one answers.

Mike allows one scream to tear his heart, then falls forward on his hands and knees, still facing the door. ‘Joy,’ he wipers, tears ceasing to stop, sobs so harsh he misses footsteps approaching him.

‘Dad,’ the real Joy asks, standing in the open concept living room with her brows furrowed, flabbergasted and confused as to why her dad is so upset.

The addressed words make Mike falter, and he glances up from his positions. Joy, with her book bag failing from one shoulder, shuffles closer and checks the room to ensure there’s no danger.

‘Dad, are you okay? What happened?’

Mike rushes up from his spot, the door that once contained Joy’s helpless wailing is gone, not a sign of it left. He lets Joy drop her bookbag and then envelopes her with strong arms, sobs now muffled in her hair.

‘I’m alright dad,’ Joy says, sensing that he needs to hear it. Another sobs leaves Mike’s mouth, as curls his body around her.

‘And you always will be.’

#mike hanlon #mike hanlon imagine #Mike hanlon x daughter #Mike Hanlon as a father #my writing #the loser club imagines #it chapter two imagine #adult losers #adult Mike Hanlon

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grilledcheem · 5 years ago

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prompt : teen richie does something minor to piss eddie off and eddie gives him silent treatment all day but richie keeps annoying eddie to get him to talk to him which angers him more

this got away from me so uh it’s almost 2k. enjoy!

support me on my kofi

read on ao3

“Eddiebear has a teddy bear!” Richie’s voice rings out as he enters the clubhouse one summer afternoon, Eddie close behind him. The other Losers look up from the board game they were playing to watch the two friends argue.

“You asshole!” Eddie shouts, pushing Richie away as he tries to hug him from the side. “You said you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

Richie pouts a little, lip quivering in false shame. He sweeps his left arm in front of the two of them, gesturing to their friends. “It’s just us Losers, Eds, no need to get worked up about a silly toy.”

The look in Eddie’s eyes makes Richie regret his words as soon as they come out. There is anger there; blazing, heated, constant. There is anger and there is something that Richie could swear looks like sadness. He tries to backpedal, to apologize for teasing him but Eddie won’t look at him anymore. Eddie’s moved to sit between Bill and Mike, forcing his way into the circle. None of the other Losers say anything; they’re used to the two arguing but it’s never been this serious.

They all agree to start a new game so that Richie and Eddie aren’t just sitting there watching Stan win Monopoly. Richie suggests Twister and everyone groans; everyone except Eddie. Eddie is silent even though he usually speaks up against Richie’s insistence on playing that game. Richie sees this as his chance to tease Eddie, tricking him into speaking with him.

“Aw, Eds,” he coos. “No complaints about Twister? Guess you’ve finally succumbed to my charm.” He says this with a wink, wiggling his eyebrows at Eddie. Eddie’s face stays neutral as he turns to Bev and says, “I was thinking we could play Clue; does that sound alright?” Bev smiles, knowing that Eddie doesn’t want to talk to Richie right now, although she doesn’t know why. She agrees and soon the rest of the group, except for Richie, are all arguing over which character they want.

Richie hates Clue. He hates how he has to sit and think when games shouldn’t make you think, they should just be fun. There aren’t even enough characters for the whole group to play. He points this out and the look Eddie gives him tells him that that was the whole point of him picking it. A little hurt but mostly confused, Richie resigns himself to watching the game but it’s hard to focus when his mind keeps wandering to thoughts on why Eddie is so mad at him. He thinks back to when he saw the teddy bear, not seeing how anything that they talked about last night when he had snuck over could explain why Eddie reacted to weird. He wants to talk to Bill or Stan about it but they’re both so engrossed in the game and Richie doesn’t want to spoil their fun. To entertain himself and keep his thoughts from focusing on Eddie for too long, he starts commentating the game.

“Oh ho, my good chap,” he says, putting on a terrible English accent as Stan, who is playing as Colonel Mustard, brings Eddie’s character, Mr. Green, into the library. “Thank you for joining me in this wondrous library as we hunt for this mysterious killer who, by the way, is not me.” Bev and Mike chuckle under their breath as Richie carries on. “Quite right, quite right. Now would you do me the honor and the privilege of allowing me to bore you to death with a recitation of the facts?”

Eddie slams his hand down on the floor, startling the group and jostling some of the pieces. He doesn’t say anything but Richie can tell that it’s taking all of his willpower to not yell at him. Bill looks at Richie and gives him a sympathetic smile. “M-Maybe it’s best that you d-d-don’t commen-com-commentate, Rich.” Richie looks at Eddie for a moment, his hands shaking slightly as he realizes just how mad Eddie is with him. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, Bill.” He sits there for a moment, looking down at the board, at the game that had no room for him, and he sighs. “Actually, I’m just gonna head out. I, uh, just remembered something my mom wanted me to do.”

Everyone but Eddie murmurs their goodbyes as Richie leaves the clubhouse. Some part of him thinks Eddie will climb up after him, tell him to come back, tell him that he wasn’t really mad, he was just messing around. By the time Richie is on his bike and pedaling away, that part of him is gone.

It’s 7pm and the Tozier’s have just finished dinner; on any other summer evening, Richie would be running out the door to go sneak into Eddie’s room. Sometimes they’d just sit and talk for a while, maybe play a game or two. Sometimes Richie would spend the night, setting the alarm on Eddie’s clock so he can leave before Mrs. Kaspbrak finds them tangled in bed together. Platonically, of course, Richie’s mind reminds him and a hollow feeling takes over. He had been trying to decide whether to go over to Eddie’s tonight despite their argument earlier. It might give him a chance to apologize for real. It might set Eddie off again and he’d never want to see Richie again.

He’s washing the dishes from dinner in the sink, something that he does every night before heading to Eddie’s because he may be crass and make terrible “your mom” jokes but he loves his mother and he loves helping her out around the house. It makes him feel useful. Once the last plate has been washed, dried, and put away, Richie decides that if he doesn’t go over to Eddie’s tonight, he may not go over ever again. Dramatic, yes, but Richie knows it’s true. He hugs his parents before he leaves, being careful to not slam the door on his way out.

He gets to Eddie’s in just a few minutes, despite walking slower. He is nervous, more nervous than he’s been in a while. Eddie is his best friend and, somehow, some way, he really hurt him today. Richie bends over and picks up a small pebble, holding it gently in his palm before throwing it at Eddie’s window. At first, nothing happens. No one comes to the window; no noise comes from the house. Then, just as Richie’s about to grab another pebble, the window slides open. There’s no greeting, just silence and Richie takes that as his cue to climb up.

Once he’s inside the room, he looks around, eyes still adjusting to the slight difference in light. Eddie’s room is just like it was the night before; clean, not a speck of dust or a sock out of place. The only thing missing, Richie notices, is the teddy bear that had been sitting on Eddie’s quilt the night before. In its place sits Eddie, a scowl on his face.

“H-Hey, Eds,” he whispers, wincing when Eddie’s scowl hardens. “Look, man, I just wanted to apologize.” At this, Eddie’s gaze softens just a little bit. “I shouldn’t have told the others about the bear. I guess I just didn’t realize it was such a sore spot for you.” Richie chuckles, hands awkwardly hanging at his sides. “I still don’t understand why you got so mad but I won’t talk about it again, I promise.” He holds out his pinky, an offering of sorts. A pinky promise isn’t as sacred as a blood pact but it was the next best thing. Eddie sighs and grips Richie’s pinky with his own, pulling him close enough that Richie can see the wetness in Eddie’s eyes.

“There’s some things you don’t joke about, Trashmouth,” Eddie says, his voice thick and wet as if he had been crying before Richie arrived. Richie nods, smiling because damn, he had missed Eddie’s voice. He had heard it earlier today, when he was talking to the others, but there was something special in Eddie’s voice whenever he spoke to Richie, something different that wasn’t there for anyone else.

They spend the rest of the night playing games and reading one of Eddie’s new comics, each of them holding one side of the book so they could read it at the same time. Once they’re finished, Eddie sneaks Richie into the bathroom so they can get ready for bed. Eddie hides a toothbrush for Richie in his room so his mother doesn’t find out and this makes Richie feel special. Eddie is willing to risk making his mother mad just to be with Richie, one-on-one and outside of view of everyone else.

They’re in Eddie’s room now with practically no space between them where they lay, shoulder to shoulder, on Eddie’s bed. Their hands are resting at their sides and Richie fights down an urge to reach that one inch over and hold Eddie’s hand. He can tell that Eddie is still a little tense from earlier that day and he thinks about bringing it up again but before he can say anything, Eddie brings it up first.

“My dad gave me that bear,” he whispers, his voice so quiet that Richie almost doesn’t hear him. “It was right before he died so it’s the last gift I have from him. I just, it’s embarrassing but it’s the last piece of him I have so…”

Richie wants to roll over and hug Eddie tight, squeezing him until he can’t breathe. Of course Eddie would be upset about being teased for having the bear; it wasn’t just a bear, it was a memory of his dad. Richie felt more like an asshole than he ever had in his 17 years. “I’m sorry, Eds, it was really shitty of me to make fun of you for it.”

Eddie turns onto his side, facing Richie with a melancholic smile. “It’s okay, ‘Chee. You didn’t know.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Richie sits up now, too worked up to stay laying down. “It was shitty of me, no matter what. I-I don’t, I don’t know why I did it. I knew it would upset you but I was like ‘oh, but it’ll be funny and he’ll end up laughing too.’ Bullshit. I, god, Eds, I’m such a shitty friend.”

Eddie pulls Richie back down to lay beside him, gripping his face between his hands. “You are not a shitty friend, Richie. You made a mistake. People do that, you know.” He says this with a small smile, eyes soft and warm. Richie finds himself leaning forward on instinct, nose brushing against Eddie’s. “Thanks, Eds.”

Minutes pass by as they lay there, nose to nose. Richie’s almost worked up the courage to kiss Eddie when he yawns, mouth stretching wide. Eddie pushes him away, laughing quietly. “God, your breath smells even after brushing your teeth!” They both giggle and then Eddie yawns, making Richie snort with laughter. As they’re trying to keep quiet, hoping that Eddie’s mom is asleep already, Richie thinks about the bear again.

“Hey,” he whispers. “You know, if you want to go get your bear, I, uh, that’s okay with me.” Eddie tenses for a moment before hugging Richie tight. He gets up and goes to his closet, sliding open the door and wincing when it squeaks. A few seconds later, Eddie is climbing back into bed beside Richie, bear securely in his arms.

“Goodnight, Richie,” he hums, eyes already fluttering shut. Richie, his courage from earlier not quite gone, leans forward and kisses Eddie’s forehead.

“Goodnight, Eddie.”

#anon #writing prompt #writing request #reddie #it #it 2019 #it 2017 #Richie tozier #Eddie kaspbrak #fic #my writing #it films #it movies #it film #it movie #it (2017)#it (film)#it (2019)#it (movie)

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danetobelieve · 5 years ago

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What’s black and white and bled all over? || Orion, Ricky and Winston

Winston hated life right now. It wasn’t that they had a hard life usually. Really they had a pretty sweet deal. But all they had wanted to do was get burgers with their friends and enjoy themselves. So as they stepped out of the car and spotted a mime version of themself and what looked like a mime version of Ricky, they couldn’t help but swallow nervously. “That’s not good news…” they looked at Ricky who was in the passenger seat and behind him Rio, “they’ve just been following us around everywhere so far, I think we’re okay to get burgers right? There’s three of us and only two of them….” Why did Rio get to avoid his mime-ganger when Winston and Ricky were forced to confront them head one. This wasn’t fair. They didn’t want to have to pretend their mime copy wasn’t currently sat in the car park of Al’s.

“I just wanted a burger. One fucking burger… okay maybe two burgers because I skipped lunch but I just wanted burgers. And fries. What I didn’t want to see that motherfucker in a dark parking lot.” Ricky carefully exited the car and moved to stand next to, if slightly in front of, Winston, “There’re three of us and two of them but I’m not entirely convinced they’re not magical in some way which is what’s scary to me because I definitely know my parents didn’t have any other kids so the fact that there’s a mime twin of me means some fuckery is afoot.” He started to move cautiously towards the door of the restaurant, watching their mime-twins as he moved, “Maybe they won’t follow us in the restaurant? I mean it’s bright and well lit and maybe they don’t like crowds? We can hope? I don’t know. I’ve never had to deal with this before.”

Orion was starving and had really been looking forward to lunch. At least, he had been. Until they pulled into the parking lot and saw those… things. He didn’t know how to describe them. He had thought Erin had just been playing a trick on him before. Until… well until he ran into the real Erin. And then when he was with Blanche also. Whatever those things were, it wasn’t human. And he hadn’t quite gotten around to mentioning them to Winston or Ricky. Despite it all… it seemed a little unbelievable. Besides, Ricky and Rio hadn’t exactly had that talk yet. About the supernatural. He climbed out of the car with Ricky and Winston, though he didn’t exactly want to. “Hey uh… so now is probably the best time to mention that I ran into one of these earlier this week.” He scratched at the back of his head nervously, deciding which parts to mention. The part where it had super strength, just like Rio himself? Or maybe the part where he murdered it and it… evaporated? What exactly had happened to it? “And it may or may not have tried to kill Blanche and I. So… uh- Maybe we should just eat somewhere else?”

Looking around, Winston decided that they were too hangry to deal with this bullshit, and yet as they conversed amongst themselves Winston noticed that the mimes were also mimicking their conversation. Their mouths moving exactly the same way as Ricky and Winston’s without any sound escaping. “Rio, next time you almost get murdered by something with Blanche please tell us, it usually comes back to bite us in the ass.” They laughed and looked back to the front of the restaurant. So close. But so far. “I don’t know if they’re going to let us go in and I don’t think that going somewhere else is going to stop them from following us or from just reappearing. Either way, I don’t think we can get away from them…” Winston looked at their mime who looked back at them with worrying intensity. “Any suggestions?” Winston’s mime moved on their own, without Winston moving first. It didn’t look away or move, it just took a slow, deliberate step forward.

“I love that girl but I swear every time something weird or creepy happens she’s always got a finger in the pie, as it were.” Ricky kept one eye firmly on the doppelgangers that were mimicking their every move, down to mouthing the same words that they were in the conversation. Which was when he noticed that his doppelganger was the same as him physically in every way; down to the (horrifyingly) black and white striped fangs that were revealed every time it opened its mouth to mimic his speech. He quickly clamped his mouth shut and turned his back to Rio, surreptitiously pointing at his mouth and then at the mime hoping Winston would get the message. He’d been about make some flippant comment about their enemies when the Winston Mime took a slow and unerring step towards them, “Oh that’s not good. That’s so not good. Rio… stay behind us. We should back slowly towards the car and get the fuck out of here.”

“She’s… just unique.” Orion shrugged. It was true, she did somehow end up involved in everything. She had really become something of a social butterfly. Big change from high school. The Winston mime took a step towards the three and Rio instinctively jumped backwards. It was just a small step, and yet knowing what he knew, it was so terrifying. So far, their versions of the mimes seemed a bit less… murdery than Blanche and Rio’s. But they were also still a while away. Rio heard Ricky tell him to stand behind them and considered whether or not he should listen. Physically, Rio was the strongest of the three, though that didn’t speak much to his ability to protect them. Rio had almost gotten sick when he had killed his mime, and he and Blanche had cried about it. He followed Ricky’s advice, moving towards the car and reaching for the door handle, pulling at it feebly, the door unmoving. “Um… did you lock the door? It won’t open.”

“I won’t hear any shit talking about Blanche, it’s not her fault she’s got a heart the size of a house and all the bad luck of Kansas.” Winston jested of course, there were few people who were less likely to genuinely badmouth their friend then the three of them. Winston noticed the fangs and caught the look and gesture that Ricky shot his way. Winston had been hoping that it wouldn’t mean that their mime was the same, but then the door was locked and Winston knew exactly what was going on. “No, I definitely did not lock the door.” The central locking on their car had gone a long time ago and what did you know it, Winston had had the good fortune of leaving their keys in the car. Great. “I guess we have no choice but to …” looking around frantically they tried to think of an option but the mimes were heading towards them and they weren’t far away now. “Rio, try and stay out of the way I guess, there’s no point running… uh, you’ll see why.” Pulling their jacket off, Winston set it gingerly on the hood of the car. “I really didn’t want this to be the way I first did this.” Winston whined as they saw the other mime’s hands flicker and spark. It didn’t take it long to conjure this into a ball of fire and hurl it their way. “Move!” Winston shouted, tackling Rio to the ground.

“Oh nobody here is talking shit about Blanche. I’d go to fucking war for Blanche. But she also does manage to find herself in the center of any and all weird supernatural shit in this town. Like literally all of it. I think it’s because she’s friends with literally everyone and everything.” Rio’s comment about the door made Ricky wonder exactly how similar their clones were because if Winston’s clone had the same level of magical ability that the real Winston had this could be incredibly dangerous. “Do you think they’ve got…” the rest of his sentence though was cut off by Mime Winston conjuring a ball of fire and tossing it directly at them, “Well that answers that question.” He looked at his own clone stalking slowly toward them, fangs bared sinisterly, “I THINK THIS RELATIONSHIP HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL AND WE SHOULD SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT WHERE THIS IS GOING. WHAT ARE WE? I THINK THIS COULD REALLY BE TRUE LOVE!!” His clone faltered in its tracks at this and Ricky couldn’t help but laugh a little “That probably says nothing good about me but that is a little bit funny at least” It quickly recovered from the existential terror of a committed relationship and continued moving towards them. “Fuck. This isn’t how I wanted to do this either.” he slid his false teeth out of his mouth and into the pocket of his jacket, baring his own fangs as the mime headed towards them, “You gotta take care of Magic Mike over there but I’ll try to take down Ricky 2.0.” He lowered his shoulder and charged, aiming for ribs that he hoped were as injured as his own were.

Was that… fire? Orion tilted his head curiously as the magic seemed to appear from nowhere, and also moved closer and closer to them. He felt someone tackle into the side of him and the next thing he knew, Winston and Rio were on the pavement, Winston flattening Rio against the ground. “Woah. Thanks.” Rio muttered, lying there for a few moments as the gears in his head turned. There was a long moment of confusion as he finished the puzzle in his brain. Mime Rio had super strength. Rio had super strength. Blanche’s mime didn’t have super strength. Rio’s mime didn’t have fire powers. Winston’s mime did have fire powers. Which meant… “Holy crap.” Rio gasped, interrupted by Ricky’s yelling. Rio slid back onto his feet and watched Ricky take his… teeth out? Fake teeth. Right. In any other moment, Rio would be incredibly excited that he had been right. But they had other things to worry about at this exact moment, like Winston’s silent but deadly doppelgangar. “Just a heads up… these things aren’t human.” He began, realizing that that wasn’t exactly what he meant. “Or well.. Not that. The human part doesn’t matter. But they’re… not normal. When they die they sorta… poof into darkness.” It was the only thing that had let Rio get over the fact that he had killed it. Knowing it was some kind of demonic illusion or something was comforting.

“You’re welcome, and yeah, holy crap, you’re, I mean, I - this wasn’t how I wanted you to find out about this,” Winston popped up to their feet and summoned as much energy as they could muster. If this thing was them that meant that they could do the same thing right? So Winston just had to be smarter then themselves? That couldn’t be hard right? RIGHT? Winston looked as the flames sputtered out on the pavement and tried to think of something smart to do. But there wasn’t really all that many options. Winston looked around for something, for anything. Their mime was stood next to a car, which was probably as good as this was going to get. Focussing on the windscreen, Winston forced it to shatter, the chunks of glass shooting towards Magic Mime who had just conjured another fireball and prepare to hurl it in Rio’s direction. The glass seemed to shatter into smaller pieces as it approached Winston, but they focussed, forcing the panes towards them as they felt the energy pour out of them. They could do this, if they kept them busy then Winston Mime couldn’t hurt Rio. “Wait, you’ve already killed yours?” Winston felt sweat trickle down their brow, “Any tips?”

Ricky had a moment of intense pride when he saw Winston, his Winston not the fucking freak in mime makeup, turn a car windshield into a magical shrapnel grenade. The moment however was short lived as his shoulder collided with his own mime clone, sending them both to the ground. Of course, since this was his cursed existence now, his mime made no noise to indicate whether or not Ricky had his freshly healed ribs with his shoulder, but the look of rage and pain that skittered across his face made him think he had, “Jesus we’ve all had the fantasy about fooling around with our clone but this is definitely not how I saw it going.” His moment of glib quippery was quickly cut short as his clone buried fangs into his shoulder “Fucking shit!” He attempted to roll away but Mime Ricky had a far firmer grip with his fangs than Real Ricky would have preferred. “I didn’t know these things were so fucking sharp!” He kneed the clone quickly in the groin, wincing with sympathetic pain but scurrying backwards as the mime released its fangs. “I didn’t wanna have to knee you in my balls but you didn’t give me much of a choice.” The mime started to stalk slowly towards him and Ricky took a low stance, “Winston. You good? I saw the windshield thing. That was dope. Rio? You good? Anybody have a gun?”

“Uh I think they die like anyone else does, at least mine wasn’t especially hardy.” Orion shrugged, trying not to dwell too much on the feeling Rio had when that mime died. It hadn’t been a great feeling. But he was a bit less horrified once he realized that the things weren’t exactly… living. He stood between Ricky, in a full on fist fight with his mime clone and Winston, having some kind of mental magic standoff with his clone. All while Rio was standing there, doing nothing. Helpless and useless as per usual. He saw Winston’s mime preparing something else when the windshield by it shattered. Orion recoiled back before realizing that it had been the real Winston that had done it. Jesus that was cool. He couldn’t just stand here, watching them as their mimes tried to kill them, right? But from back here, what could he do? “Uh… I’m okay, all things considered. Please focus on your mime and not us.” He tried for a nervous laugh and held a thumbs up out to Ricky. “I don’t own a gun.” He stated as if this should be obvious. “Stay here. Keep them focused on your magic.” Rio said, finally forcing himself to move, staying low and practically crawling on all fours across the parking lot and closer to the restaurant. Maybe he could sneak up behind the mime like he had with his own, when it was trying to kill Blanche. Clearly, he was not being as sneaky as he thought he was, because Winston’s mime turned towards Rio and started conjuring up another fireball. “Oh god.” Rio mumbled, realizing that he was stuck between the building and a parked car. With nowhere else to go, he did the only thing he could think to do, he dove for the window. He crashed through the window just as the fireball crashed into him, tumbling over one of the booths and crashing into a mess of broken glass on the restaurant’s floor. His back ached against the broken glass and his side stung, “Ow.”

As Ricky did his best to keep his mime-ganger busy, Winston felt their energy all but pour from them. Their shrapnel bomb was a good idea, one that they were rather pleased with. But their mime didn’t have all that much trouble dealing with it. The glass shattered against an invisible barrier with a shattering cacophony that Winston would never have been able to imagine. Sweat poured from their body and their shirt clung to their skin, it was already damp from the perspiration and Winston could feel the material stick to their back as they released their latest spell and the remnants of the wind shield disappeared. Winston took a moment to breath but spotted the fireball a moment too late. It hurtled towards Orion, and might well have hit their friend as they went through the window of the restaurant, but Winston managed to deflect the bolt of fire a little, not much, but it didn’t kill anyone and although the customers in Al’s were already scattering via the fire exits, Winston didn’t exactly have time to think as mime Winston started chanting something in Latin. Winston didn’t need to know what they were planning to know that they had to deal with it now. The Latin words for death and decay had been said a total of three times. “Can’t talk gotta counter spell this shit,” Winston snapped to their friends as they spotted Rio, but they couldn’t stop chanting and they couldn’t allow the mime Winston to complete this ritual.

Several things happened in quick succession that Ricky wasn’t necessarily the most thrilled about; firstly MimeWinston knocked Rio through the window of Al’s with a fireball and while Rio seemed fine, it wasn’t really how this was supposed to go. Secondly MimeWinston started chanting in Latin, which was nice for breaking the eerie silence of the whole mime routine but was concerning in that Ricky had seen enough horror movies to know where this was going. Thirdly… Mime Ricky appeared to have produced a knife from inside his incredibly tacky outfit and had changed his tack to head towards Winston, theoretically to attempt to stop his counterspell. “Not my fucking brother you stripey fuck.” Ricky picked himself up off the ground, ignoring the blood pouring from his shoulder and charged his clone once again; tackling him around the knees and sending him crashing to the ground, “White… and… black… stripes...are… not… our… color… scheme…” Each word of his diatribe was punctuated with as hard a punch as he could manage, at the very least trying to keep his clone distracted “RIO! ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!” the knife slashed for him and he rolled away at the last possible moment, “Are we gonna have to kill these things to stop this? Not that I’m against a very literal manifestation of kill your demons but I don’t think my therapist has any openings this week to talk me through this.” His mime snarled at him, licking his blood off of its fangs, “Oh that’s just gross. Come on dude, do us a little credit here. You’re making me look bad.”

Orion laid on the floor of the restaurant for what felt like forever, not wanting to put his body through the strain of standing back up. But finally, after a deep breath and an internal conversation with himself while he stared at the ceiling, his body began to stir and he grabbed onto the booth’s table to help hoist himself up onto his knees. His body felt hot, which probably had something to do with the fireball that had come way too close to hitting him. He glanced down to find the side of his sweater completely singed, a reminder that it apparently had hit him. He glanced out of the window to find that Mime Ricky now had a knife that he was trying to take Ricky out with. And Winston was in a full on chant battle with their mime. Rio guessed that the whole silence thing didn’t seem to matter when it came to dead languages. Rio didn’t know what the spell was supposed to do, but he did know latin. And he knew that those words couldn’t mean anything good. He began pushing himself up onto his feet when a stabbing pain shot through his body. He glanced down to find a shard of glass protruding from his leg. “Oh. Great.” He took a deep breath, grabbing at the glass and pulling it from his leg with a yelp. “Ow, ow, ow.” He kept repeating to himself, raising his arms in a thumbs up towards Winston and Ricky. His sleeve may have been burnt, but at least it still covered his arms. He needed to find a weapon.

Were mimes supposed to chant? Winston was confused at why the thought struck them at that very moment but they were determined to finish their chant first. In reality they finished at the same time. Winston was drenched in sweat now, their bones felt like they were made out of lead and Winston wasn’t convinced that they would have been able to stand up if they weren’t already braced in place. They felt light headed. There was a flicker of sparks around the other mime who looked like they were in an equally precarious predicament and then light leaped from both of them and collided, whirling together for a second before blinking out of existence. Winston was not best pleased by the fact that what remained of their scant energy in that moment drained from their body. They felt faint, the pavement rushed up to meet them and Winston fell to the floor with a fairly visceral crunch. Pain exploded along their left side as their shoulder scraped the concrete and their vision swum in and out. Was this what Morgan and Nell had meant when they’d mentioned that magic could take too much from you? Had they taken it too far?

As far as trips out for burgers went this was probably the worst time Ricky had ever had. He looked up from his narcissists wet dream of tussling with his mime clone to see Winston hit the deck; whether from injury or exhaustion it was unclear “RIO!” Ricky shouted through the shattered window to the restaurant, tackling his clone as they once again tried to go for Winston. “Leave them the fuck alone!” he grunted as they hit the ground once more and Ricky felt a white hot pain lance through his thigh as the knife finally found purchase. “RIO. YOU GOTTA COVER WINSTON.” His mime scrabbled for purchase as he and the true Ricky rolled around on the ground, before Ricky managed to get ahold of the curly brown hair he loved so much. Yanking back as hard as he could he exposed his snarling clone’s throat and the pale black and white stripped skin “There is room for exactly one fucking Ricky Cordero on earth and it ain’t the fucking mime version.” His sharp fangs found purchase easily enough as he bit into the mime’s throat and ripped it out in a great gout of some disgusting tar-like substance. “Burn in mime hell you mute french fuck.” He spit the tar out of his mouth and pulled the knife from his leg, limping towards his fallen roommate “We gotta go!”

Orion limped towards the counter of the new abandoned restaurant. He heard Ricky screaming his name from outside, and limped faster, the fresh wound from the glass still hurting. A good night’s sleep would mostly take away any of the limp, but the wound would probably scar if the glass went too deep. But that wasn’t important right now. He limped behind the counter and started scrounging around, finally settling once he got hold of a steak knife. He turned and bee lined it for the entrance. Pushing out of the door just in time for Ricky to spit some gross black liquid out of his mouth. Gross, but it must have meant that his mime had been taken care of. Which just left Winston’s. Both Winston and their mime seemed to be completely exhausted, whatever spell the two had been working on had done a number on both of them. Rio didn’t waste any time, he stalked up to the crumpled mime and fell on his knees besides it, plunging the heart into the mime’s chest. A few seconds later it exploded in a cloud of black and white striped smoke. Not human, not human, not human. That thing had to die. He pushed himself back onto his feet and jogged over towards Ricky and Winston, trying to ignore the pain in his leg. Orion wasn’t much for PDA. In fact, he wasn’t really comfortable with any form of intimacy in most cases, so it surprised even him when he got to Ricky and wrapped him into a hug first thing, “Holy crap! That was horrifying! And also really cool. Later we totally have to talk about the Selkie thing. Please don’t get that gross slime stuff on me.” Rio laughed, jerking away from Ricky and the gross liquid on his mouth. He swooped down to help Winston up, taking the chance to wrap them into a hug too, “I’m really glad none of us died. You’re amazing.” He took the opportunity to help Winston backup to their feet. Clearly, Winston was too exhausted to do anything at the moment, and Ricky looked like his leg might be hurt pretty bad too. But they would figure that out after this. “So uh… Guess this means I’m driving home then?”

It all happened in a blur, Winston couldn’t imagine what on Earth was going on but they could vaguely see Ricky and their mime scuffling then they moved out of view and Ricky came out wiping something dark from their mouth. Their head was spinning, everything seemed to throb and pulse and Winston gasped down several gulps of air. Suddenly Rio was by their side and hugging them. Almost delirious with exhaustion Winston clung to Orion still squinting at where their mime-ganger had lain, now there was just a weird smoke drifting away. Winston could’ve sworn that they were hallucinating but was it black and white? “Fuck, you guys were great, fuck has anyone got like anything to eat, I am fucking starving …” Winston looked over at the ruined restaurant and sighed, “fuck I guess we can’t eat there.” They tried to stand but faltered, leaning on Orion for support. “Please, take the keys, we’re going home now.”

#p: orion #p: ricky #wickedswriting #chatzy para #chatzy #para #what's black and white and bled all over?

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4birds-of-a-feather · 5 years ago

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Chapter 27 - Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight (when it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night) [part 2]

Birds Of a Feather

(In the previous chapters: Layla and some of the guys are trying to prepare a decent New Year’s Eve party, while Eddie and Sara went to watch the final installment of The Godfather saga; an attempt of Ed to become closer to Sara failed miserably)

“Ok, so, I have a ball” Sara was still shaken when she got home and it took her awhile to steady her hand and insert her key correctly into the lock. But what she heard Layla say from the living room, as soon as she pushed the door open, managed to break the bubble of numbness she fell into after the movie. “Alright, go on” Mike prompted Layla to continue as he was sitting right in front of her on the couch, together with the other friends who were forming a sort of semicircle around the girl. “I’ll give it to you, then I’ll give it to you, then to you, and you…” she went on with the game Sara knew too well, addressing the guys one by one “Then I’ll give it to you, Sara, hi!” Everybody in the room turned to greet Sara briefly, only to focus back on Layla a moment later. “Then I’ll pass it to Mike again, then to Stone. Who’s got the ball?” the girl concluded and asked. “SARA!” Mike shouted animatedly. “Hi to you too, Cready. I see you’re already in overdrive despite the early hour” Sara smirked as she hung her jacket and approached the group. “I’m very happy you’re here Miss Fancini but… I wasn’t talking to you, that was my answer to Layla’s game. And I bet I’m right, am I not?” Mike talked gently to her, then turned to question Layla with almost crazy eyes. “No, it’s actually Chris who has the ball” the girl shrugged. “CHRIS?! How can it be Chris? You didn’t even look at him!” Jeff complained from his seat. “It’s Chris, sorry guys. Wanna try again?” “No, thanks, I’m already tired of this and I guess I’m not the only one, am I right guys?” Stone tried to stop the game, not because he was actually bored, but more to prevent the mess his bandmates were gonna make until they’d find the solution. “OVER MY DEAD BODY!” Mike blurted out. “Nobody’s leaving until we guess the right answer” Jeff added. “You mean until I guess the answer” the guitarist pointed out. “Yeah that’s exactly what I meant: until I guess the correct answer, ha!” Ament retorted. <Fuck, this is gonna be rich…> Stone thought as he sipped his beer and enjoyed the show. “Shall I do it again then or not?” Layla chimed in during the verbal fight and everybody nodded yes. “Right. Now… as y’all know by now, I have a ball” she added with a devilish smile. “Oh Jesus” “Shut up Stone! Go on, babe” Jeff yelled and the girl was almost surprised the bass player was using an endearment term to call her instead of the usual Four Eyes or other funny nicknames. <He’s probably being kind only to get some hints> she soon realized. “I pass the ball to Matt, then I give it to you” Layla pointed at Sara and then at different guys in the room and in the end she asked again who had the ball. “Is it Jeff?” Chris tried to guess out of the blue. “Yes, Chris, it’s Jeff! Good job! But why?” the girl pointed at Cornell who suddenly had all eyes on him. “YOU! HOW DID YOU DO IT?!” Mike yelled at the singer who wasn’t really aware of being at the center of the attention in that moment. “I don’t know, I thought… maybe alf… alp… you know the letters, as they go…” Chris hardly mumbled something. “ALPHABETICAL ORDER! IS IT? I KNOW IT IS! AM I RIGHT?” Jeff basically stole Cornell’s answer since he wasn’t in his own mind. “No, that’s not the right answer” Layla shook her head no but Jeff insisted. “What? Of course it’s the alphabet! You said it was Chris, then me” “Did you forget I was the one who had the ball on the first round?” Stone added with an annoyed voice “Then it was Matt, then me again. What kind of alphabet do they teach in Montana?” “Oh right…” Jeff sulked then squinted as if he was trying to concentrate more on the possible solution. “You’re following an order anyway, are you?” Matt asks. <The first question of the evening with some sense, thank God> Layla sighed internally. “No, that’s the point, I’m not following any specific order” she replied but someone misunderstood the answer. “ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU’VE BEEN MAKING FUN OF US FOR AN HOUR AND YOU’RE JUST CALLING PEOPLE RANDOMLY?!” Mike stood up but Sara pulled him down on the couch. “Hey, just relax! That’s not what she meant” she admonished him. “I only meant I’m not following an order but THERE IS a reason why I’m calling people. The reason is that… they’ve got the ball” Layla explained calmly and Mike’s face finally turned back to its natural color. “So it’s because of something we got…” the guitarist nodded but ignored something that someone else was ready to point out. “… And how did you know what she really meant, Sara?” Stone asked right when someone rang the doorbell. “Right! How did you fucking know?” Ament growled and all of a sudden Sara was the focus of the whole attention. “Well, that’s because I was the one who taught her this game” she candidly replied, reaching into a bowl of chips. “WHAT?” Mike gasped and the doorbell rang again. “Err, isn’t anybody going to answer the door?” Layla said, timidly standing up. “Lemme do this, so I can put an end to this stupid cross-examination” her best friend was quicker than her, and went to the front door munching. “Oh, it’s you” she dead-panned, taking a step to the right to let Eddie enter the apartment. “Yeah, I-I just took a walk” he said, stepping inside “Where’s everybody?” “In the living room, wasting time without getting anything done” she shrugged and made her way to the other room, with the guy right behind her. “Hey, it’s Eddie!” Mike enthusiastically greeted him, then patted the space beside him “C’mere, buddy, our dear Layla has been entertaining us with the most mind-blowing game that mankind could ever experience!” “Is that so?” the singer smiled at the girl, then plopped himself where his bandmate had pointed. “It is, indeed!” Cornell chimed in, then looked in Sara’s direction “And her friend, here – what was your name again, darling?” “I can’t believe this… you’re so full of shit, Chris” she snorted, stuffing again her face with other chips “Audrey Hepburn, that’s how people call me” “I can see why, the two of you could practically be sisters!” he retorted, sipping some beer for the umpteenth time “Anyway, as I was saying, miss Hepburn here has confessed to be the one who taught miss Layla this trick of the mind, so we’re gonna extort the solution from her!” “... Over my dead body” “Nobody’s gonna reveal anything to anyone, you’re all gonna play honestly and ask questions and find the solution using reasoning and deduction” Layla tried to have the guys focus on the game. “In that case I think you’d better go and buy an inflatable number 2 balloon because we’ll most likely be still here one year from now without knowing the solution” Stone said, making Layla laugh. <Why is she laughing? Does she think I’m joking?> “Haha, come on! It’s easy! Ok, Eddie you probably don’t know but… I have a ball!” “Alright” Eddie tried to concentrate, especially because he didn’t want to make a poor figure with the girl. “I give it to you first” “Ok” “Then I’ll give it to Mike, then back to you, then back to Mike once again. Then I’ll pass it to Sara, then back to you. Who’s got the ball?” “Uhm… I got the ball” “Yes! Why?” “WHAT?” Jeff yelled. “Beginner’s luck” Mike mumbled between gritted teeth. “Because.. I was the last one to get it?” Eddie tried to guess. “Pfffft! As if it was that easy!” the bass player snorted and had a sudden revelation “Wait, it’s because he arrived last! You’re following the order in which we arrived, right?” “Nuh-uh, I’m following no specific order, I told you! And Eddie’s answer was only 50% correct anyway” Layla went on and dropped another hint. “What do you mean?” this time it was Stone that asked, taking it personally: he pretended he didn’t care but he felt he HAD to find the solution. “Somebody else has got the ball too” El shrugged and the guys went nuts. “WHAT THE HELL??” Mike cried. “... Two balls?” Jeff followed. “Balls usually come in pairs anyway” Chris joked and the room went silent for a couple of seconds before everyone burst out laughing. “Hahaha, you idiot! By the way, Eddie and Chris both have the ball” “Sara, please, put an end to this. Can’t you see we’re suffering?” Matt chimed in, still in stitches. <Weeeell, if YOU ask me, I can’t say no> Sara pondered and it was like her roommate could read her mind. “… NO FUCKING WAY” she hissed and in that instant Sara knew that, since the F word was pronounced, hell could start any minute now. “I don’t wanna know the answer, I wanna play! Try me again” Eddie clapped his hands and winked at Layla. <If I had an actual ball, by now I’d have squeezed it until it exploded…> the girl thought as she went back to being her usual smiley self, trying to act nonchalant. “That's because you’ve just arrived! We’ve been racking our brains over this fucking ball for an hour!” Ament complained, then turned around and, unexpectedly, offered his best puppy eyes to someone else “Ok, Sara, what do you want to spill the beans?” “Cough, cough! I have a ball!” Layla ignored the comments and started it all over, while the other girl gestured zipping up her own lips. “Please!” the bass player pleaded once more, and Sara turned her face just in time – apparently, the puppy eyes were working better than her expectations suggested. “I’ll give it to Mike, then to Matt, then I’ll give it to you, Sara, then I’ll keep it to myself.” the other girl continued, adding another new element “Now, who’s got the ball?” “Now I can see: balls are brain cells going lost during this game” Stone joked but was immediately shushed by everyone. “Is it… Mike?” Eddie tried. “No! It’s Matt and Stone” “... Jesus Christ” Mike face-palmed, letting himself fall on the floor. “And nooow, Sara and I are gonna give you all a moment to ponder” Layla stood up and literally pulled up her friend from the couch and dragged her away from the living room. “El, I don’t know what’s happening to me but I’m starting to pity them. The caveman even begged me! Maybe I should give them the solution…” Sara remarked, still surprised by how low Jeff could stoop to have the solution. <Pity, sure… and Matt’s charming smile has got nothing to do with it, right?> Layla thought as she pushed her friend even more away from the gang’s protests. “C’mon, you don’t have to stay here and tell ‘em the answer!” she exclaimed, while the other girl rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not partaking in this madn-” “Run along, you have to get changed and ready for the party! There’s no time to waste by dawdling here!” she took Sara by the shoulders and dragged her until they were in front of Jeff’s ex-room “I’m sorry but for the hair and make-up this time you’re kinda on your own, I have to supervise the preparations” “Great loss, now I’m actually offended” the younger girl dead-panned and then faked a noble, detached voice “You’re free to go, servant” “Your Grace is so full of understanding, I shall never thank you enough!” Layla laughed and quickly went back to the living room, afraid of how many different kinds of damage could be awaiting for her, while Sara finally opened the door in front of her. “Nice try, El” she smirked, eyeing the jumpsuit that was lying on her bed “It would be a real shame if somebody were to completely ignore your innocent suggestion…” The girl caressed the velvety texture of the clothing and simultaneously went for one of the dresser’s drawer handles, pulling it towards her without looking at it, but it was apparently stuck. “Oh, fuckin’ great… That asshole obviously couldn’t check if the room was falling to pieces before chivalrously lending it to me” she muttered, trying again with more strength; once again, the drawer didn’t budge. “This is ridiculous – whatever, just lemme grab something quick from the closet so El won’t feel the urge to bug m-” While she was pulling, Sara heard a faint metallic sound, so she looked better and finally found the bitter truth: the closet and every single drawer inside her room had been sealed up with a plethora of lockets. “What in tHE FLYING FUCK IS GOING ON HERE??? EEEEEEEEEL!” she roared, running away from that living nightmare and demanding immediate explanations from her so-called best friend.

“I can’t see why you’re making a fuss about this? You love that jumpsuit, don’t you?” Layla was rubbing her temples as she tried to stay calm and talk to her friend through the door, which had been locked by Sara from the inside. <I should have made the room keys disappear, how could I forget?> “Yeah, I love it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to wear it!” “It’s lovely and looks great on you and I didn’t buy it for you to keep it in your closet forever! I wanna see my present finally put into good use” That seemed to shut Sara up, leaving her with her mouth open but no words coming out of it. “And I bet everybody’s gonna love it, especially the guys!” Layla added, making the worst mistake. “... OH YEAH, THAT WILL SURELY BE THE MAIN REASON FOR ME TO WEAR IT” her best friend regained consciousness “PLEASING GUYS IS MY MISSION IN LIFE” she roared back, while Layla tried to convince her to lower her voice. “Shhhhhh fuck, I was almost there!” the girl cursed at herself for talking too much and went back grasping at straws “Who said anything about pleasing anyone? I just meant that they’ll appreciate your party outfit and won’t make any unpleasant remarks about it. Plus they’re mostly drunk, what they say makes no sense anyway, so who cares? And since when do you care about men’s opinion? A bunch of guys now stop you from doing what you like or wearing what you want?” “THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY GODD-wait a minute, it actually makes sense” “Of course it does! Come on, get out of that room, please” Layla insisted, pleased with herself for pushing Sara’s right buttons. “... I don’t know, it seems like a stupid thing to do; after all, it’s you who wants me to wear the jumpsuit, not me” “Jesus…” Sara’s friend rolled her eyes “Right, since you don’t wanna wear it, don’t do it. But remember I’ve got all the keys so I’m really curious about what your alternative choice of clothes will be in the end” “My pajamas would work too, you know?” Layla wanted to smash her own head against the wall or against the door so she could open it and put an end to this, when she finally came up with something. “Alright, put your pjs on… Wait, that’s not a bad idea at all! Let’s all put pajamas and turn this into a slumber New Year’s Eve party! Sara, you’re a genius” “... I didn’t think you would have agreed with my idea, but-” “I’m gonna go and tell the others! I heard Jeff sleeps in the nude, did you know that?” “YOU HEARD WHAT?!”

************************************************************************************************

“There she is! Where have you been? We were talking about you!” Matt waved to a girl who was slowly pushing her way through the crowd, and the whole group of people near him turned around to see who was coming. “All good things, I hope” “If you’re dressed like that? Always, Sara” the drummer winked at her, then threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him; needless to say, the girl blushed to the roots of her hair. “Is that a jumpsuit with the zodiac?!” she heard a loud gasp and turned in the direction of another girl, shorter than her and clinging to her boyfriend’s arm, whose eyes were literally shining. “Yep, it is” “That is so gorgeous! Can I come closer to better see it?” “Yeah, no problem” “Oh my God, you’re an angel! Thank you!” the other girl almost squealed in excitement, then jumped in front of her and began to study her garment “This is real velvet, I can’t believe it! Where did you find this gem?!” “I think it’s that shop in Pike Place… Vintage Clothing?” “... the place where Xana used to work” the girl had turned to face again her boyfriend and share a knowing look with him, then refocused on her “I doubt I’ll ever find something as cool as this, but thanks for the tip” She offered her a genuine smile and her hand to shake: “I’m Demri, by the way, and this is my boyfriend Layne” “I was the one who told ‘em to come, hope it’s alright!” Chris chimed in, giving a nudge to the Alice In Chains singer. “You did the right thing, Cornell; they’re cool enough to hang with us losers” Sara grinned, then waved back at Layne “Hiya to you as well, stranger; how are your bandmates doing?” “Oh, Jerry is with a girlfriend of his and Sean and Mike went to do a tour of some of the hundreds of parties that this city has to offer – but I wonder how Mike will react when I tell him that I went to the same party that you attended” the guy smirked at her “Did he come to visit you at your workplace?” “Nope, thank God” “Fear not: he will… soon” “He’s gonna get me fired! Please, can’t you come with him so you can keep him at bay? Pretty please” “Hey, it’s not my fault if he doesn’t understand a single thing when you’re nearby… his brain short-circuits” “So you’re the one who has poor Mike wrapped around her finger! I can see why” Demri joined them again, giving the girl a little nudge “If it helps any, he seems pretty serious about it – I, for once, have never seen him acting like that before” “I don’t know, I’m not that keen on trusting men… seems like a waste of time” Sara shrugged, then followed Layla with her gaze: she was talking with Stone and Ed and seemed really invested in drinking what was inside her glass.

“Can I get one more try?” Eddie pleaded Layla, who was chatting and drinking with him and Stone in the middle of the living room among the party guests. “No, you can’t” Gossard answered in her place, officially because he was fed up with the game, but actually because he wanted to be the one to guess the solution right. “Sure you can! But, as I said, I’ll tell the solution after midnight” the girl replied sipping her sangria through a straw. “Alright, alright eheh, no pressure, I swear” Eddie put his hands out laughing and his guitarist friend rolled his eyes so hard for a moment he thought his retinas detached. <No pressure? Tsk, that’s your problem, man. What about putting a little pressure on this girl for a change?> “Ok so I have a ball, then I-” Layla started but was soon interrupted by a stranger’s voice behind her back. “Who’s got a bong?” Stone didn’t need to look up to the person who spoke to know who it was and a smile appeared on his face. “Hey Lukin! I thought you’d never come” Gossard patted his friend on his back. “Uhm, now that��s not something I hear that often... too bad you’re not a girl, Stoney.” Matt replied and finally noticed the other two people looking at him with the same perplexed expression on their face “Hi, so where’s this bong of yours? I’m ready” Layla laughed as the guy clapped his hands once and then rubbed them together. “She said ball, not bong, you asshole!” Stone explained barely holding his laughter. “Yeah, right, hehe, it’s a game, you know? Anyway, I’m Layla, nice to meet you” she stretched her hand out and he looked at it suspiciously before shaking it. “Nice to meet you too. But you shouldn’t play with people’s feeling and promise bongs that are not actually there. That’s not nice at all” “Oh, sorry… well, I’m sure somebody brought something to smoke, don’t worry” Layla was almost apologizing for doing nothing and that made both Eddie and Stone laugh. “Who needs bongs? We can always make a pipe out of a can, do you remember?” Stone said referring to older times. “Yeah, and that’s when we came up with the motto Who needs a bong when you have coke?” Lukin explained, suddenly serious, as he was a teacher talking to his students. “Smoking through a coke can? Isn’t it dangerous, with the chemicals and everything?” the girl retorted. “Chemicals are not as dangerous as Matt Lukin” Stone remarked while Eddie introduced himself too. “Nothing’s as dangerous as Matt Lukin!” another guy came up from out of nowhere and put his hands on Stone and Matt’s shoulders, then his attention focused on the girl in the small circle “Layla?? Hiiiiii!” The color drained from the girl’s face once she recognized the guy’s face. “Steve! Hi!” she faked an excessively big smile and both Eddie and Stone, although for different reasons, noticed something was off. “Wait, do you know each other?” Stone asked confused. “Well, either they do or they’re champs at Guess my name” Lukin pointed out. “Huh… well, yeah, I know her, she’s the girl who works at Scarecrow Video” “THAT ONE?? OUCH!” Matt almost yelled, only until Steve squeezed his shoulder very hard. “Yeah, and I know him as a customer, ehehehe” Layla went on. <... And as the guy who asked me out and I had to turn down> Layla told herself as she thought about Steve coming to the shop and striking up a conversation with an excuse to get to know her. She didn’t understand he was flirting with her – not even the fact he used to come over to the shop ever so often opened her eyes. The fact he started to rent at least a couple of movies every day gave her a sneaky suspicion. “And how do you know each other? I’m Eddie, by the way” Vedder tried to make his handshake as firm as he could. “Steve” “Yeah, I’m good at Guess My Name too” Eddie continued. “The new singer, huh? Well, Stone and I used to be in the same band. Did you tell them about Green River or is it a taboo topic?” Turner joked trying not to make it too obvious that he was drooling all over Layla. When he asked her out and she turned him down, he didn’t take it too well. He knew she had a boyfriend, she didn’t miss a chance to casually drop his name during their conversations. <But he wasn’t in Seattle after all… I mean, he was in a different city, in a different state… he was in fuckin’ Massachusetts! Why waste your time and your youth with a long distance relationship?> “Oh yeah, you told me you were in a band! But I think it was a different band, or I didn’t get the name right maybe” Layla chewed on her lower lip trying to remember the band name he had told her. “I told you about Mudhoney, that is my current band” “MUDHONEY! That’s it, yeah, now I remember!” “Well, now I’m in Mudhoney with this guy over here and another couple of guys, who are not at the party” <Thank God!> Stone thought, picturing a fist fight between Mark Arm and Sara as very likely. “He said that guy over here because he doesn’t remember my name anymore” Lukin said shrugging. “He remembered hers though… and she remembered his, he must be a regular customer, right?” Vedder realized his comment was out of place the moment he said it but it was too late. “Yeah, sort of… not now though, I mean, not as much as I used to” Steve answered. “Oh, and why?” “Well-” Turner started to speak but Layla interrupted him out of the blue. “I’ve never tried with a coke can but once I smoked pot through a carrot” the girl gave her statement and Matt’s attention focused on her right away. “What?” “And once I got high with a snorkeling mask too” “WHAT??” Stone and Eddie yelled at the same time, as they probably found the second option weirder than the first one for some reason. “I like your attitude. Can I become a regular too?” Lukin suggested, then turned towards Steve “Ehm, can I? I’ve got no bad intentions, I swear” This exchange didn’t go unnoticed to Stone and most of all to Eddie, so Layla had to come up with another diversion. She started jumping and waving around her arms like the wings of an eagle, apparently wanting to get everybody’s attention. “HEY GUYS! WHO WANTS TO PLAY A GAME?”

“Another one?” Jeff walked up to Layla and then acknowledged the rest of the group “Hey, hi guys!” “Yeah, we haven’t even finished the first one yet!” Stone complained. “Oh but I wasn’t thinking about a riddle, I meant something different, like a group game” the girl explained trying to ignore both Steve staring at her and Eddie staring at Steve. <Is this some kind of weird Mexican stand-off or something?> Layla asked herself in disbelief. “Make it a drinking game and I’m in” Lukin gladly accepted. “I had no doubt about it” Steve laughed. “MAKE IT STRIP POKER AND I’M IN TOO!” Mike yelled as he appeared out of thin air, coming back from one of his frequent trips to the bathroom. “Cready, I swear to fuckin’ God, if I hear you babblin’ one more time about this heckin’ strip poker, you can bet your sweet ass I’m gonna tie you up to a chair and force you to listen to Barry Manilow non-stop until your brain oozes out of your nose like fuckin’ pudding, understood?!” Sara had just stomped in their direction, making her opinion about the guitarist’s suggestion crystal clear. “... you’re no fun, Sara” McCready gave her his signature puppy eyes, along with a big pout, but the girl replied with a punch on his arm. “Yeah, in fact I’m not joking at all: you know I can do it and I will, so don’t tempt me” “Sara Fancini? Is that you? I can’t believe it” Steve chimed in and finally Sara turned around and registered his face. “... Well, I’ll be damned! Steve Turner!” she replied surprised. “If we were playing the drinking version of Guess the Name as I’ve been suggesting for hours, I’d be already drunk now” Lukin mirrored Mike’s pouting face while a bunch of guests had stopped to see what was happening. “You know her too. Wow. Are you a regular at Easy Street Records too?” Eddie narrowed his eyes at Turner as he addressed him. “I’ve known this guy for longer than six years, what do you mean ‘a regular’? A regular loser? A regular pain in the ass? Oh wait, you’re not in Jeff’s band anymore, so you might stand a chance in life, after all” Sara smirked and couldn’t help catching a glimpse of Ament’s angry face when she said that. “I haven’t seen you for a while though, I didn’t remember you being so harsh” Steve pointed out with a smile. “... You tell me” Jeff remarked through fake coughing. “Oh right, you were in their band and Sara knew you back then” Eddie finally joined the dots. “Earth calls Eddie, Earth calls Eddie. Good morning Eddie, glad you’re finally back with us” Stone joked prompting an awkward and embarrassed look from the singer. “And where does this bullying against Jeff come from? I honestly remember you were getting along so we-” Steve insisted, dredging up the past, but he was promptly interrupted by Sara. “DID I HEAR SOMEONE SUGGESTING ‘NEVER HAVE I EVER’?? LET’S DO IT” “Someone who? I didn’t hear anything” Mike pointed out as he looked around. “Also because we’re not at a sixth grade party?” Gossard added but Layla immediately loved the idea and ignored him. “Yeah! That’s exactly what I was thinking about: a nice group game. I’m in!” “My idea of group games is a tad different but… ok, as long as it’s about people drinking and falling down on the floor I’m in” Lukin shrugged and joined in as other guests did. “It can involve drinking?! COUNT ME IN” McCready chimed in again, going near Lukin and sharing a high five with him.

#Eddie Vedder #Jeff Ament #Pearl Jam #Eddie Vedder fanfiction #Pearl Jam fanfiction #grunge fanfiction #Jeff Ament fanfiction #Birds of a Feather #chapters

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yurtletheturtlehenderson · 6 years ago

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S.T. REWRITE - S2:E2; Chapter Two, Trick or Treat, Freak - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

After Will sees something terrible on trick-or-treat night, Mike wonders whether Eleven’s still out there. Tensions grow between Y/n and Mike as does their concern for Will.

A//N: This chapter is slightly different cause I realized I'm a complete Doof™, and I had Max and reader meet twice. It had been so long since I wrote MADMAX, that I forgot they met in the arcade lol. So if you've read this before, the scene in the hallway is different.

||Reader's POV||

"Well, good new is, this is only slightly humiliating," I mumble.

I was doing the best I could to shrink back and be as hard to notice as possible, even though I know it's a lost cause.

Unfortunately, the boys all had the same thought and I had been slowly pushed front in center.

"Oh, my God," Someone laughed.

I did my best to let the side comments and laughter slide off my back.

"Maybe its's not so bad," I tried.

"That's easy for you to say [Y/N], you're not in a proton pack and jumpsuit." Lucas said.

I winced. He did have a point, their costumes are a bit more obvious than mine.

"When do people make these decisions?" Dustin said.

I heard Will speak up behind me. "Everyone dressed up last year."

"Yeah! I mean, who are they to judge, he went as Frankenstein's monster last year, and no one laughed despite that being super played out." My anger was getting the best of me, and I made direct eye contact and let my voice rise as I uttered those last words.

The boy I had targeted, covered his laughs with a cough and grew silent fairly quickly. At least I shut someone up.

"It's a conspiracy, I'm telling you."

"Just be cool" Mike encouraged.

I took a deep breath in, and that's when we all heard some prick speak out. "Who you gonna call? The nerds!"

I had a million things I wanted to say to that kid but nevertheless I took another deep breath in. That's wen I felt a hand grab my own, and I knew it was Will. I gave his hand a light squeeze as a silent thank you and kept walking.

+++

...three to the right, four to the left.

I mindlessly repeat the combination in my head as I've done a thousand times before at this school and my locker opens once again. I let it swing open and I sigh. I pull the fake glasses off my head and fold them, putting them on the small shelf in the locker space. I reach forward and grab my textbook and notebook after scanning for them. It's then that I barely make out my brother's voice.

"...so you probably don't have any friends to take you trick-or-treating,"

I frown and look over to find them just down the hall. Talking to Max. Or, attempting to at least. I continue to exchange my things and get ready for the next class. Although, I can't help but wince when I hear him continue.

"and you're scared of bullies, so we were thinking that it would be okay if you come with us."

My eyes widened slightly, and I took that as my cue.

"'It'd be okay'?"

My eyes widened slightly and I took that as my cue to jump in. I closed my locker and quickly reset the dial.

"Yeah. Our party's a democracy, and the majority voted that you could come."

I quickly made my way over, my things held tightly against my chest. I smiled and spoke up.

"Hey guys," I chirped. I made eye contact with Max and I chose my words carefully. "How are you guys?"

I ignored the frantic and slightly confused looks Dustin and Lucas were desperately trying to send my way.

Max smiled knowingly at me.

"I'm good." And I knew, just like me, she had a double meaning to that.

She turned back to the guys and plastered on a fake smile.

"I didn't realize it was such an honor to go trick-or-treating with you." I couldn't help but smirk at that.

"Yeah, I mean, we know where to get the full-sized candy bars. We figured you'd want in."

Her eyes squinted ever so slightly. "That's presumptuous of you."

I stood there awkwardly before I recalled that Max and I had our next class together.

Desperately wanting to change the subject, I smiled and turned to her. She was already closing her locker.

"Wanna head to class?"

"Sure thing." She smiled, and the two of us walked away, leaving the boys a gaping mess.

I felt kinda bad for the guys, but at the same time, I hadn't realized how nice, and refreshing it was to have another female friend for once.

||3rd person POV||

Max felt a looming sense of dread knowing it was time to go home. Which meant another painful care ride with him. She hated even being around him, he made her life a living hell. As she skated across the parking lot, she knew he was gonna threaten her in some way for being late. She didn't feel bad though, of course.

"You're late again."

"Yeah, I had to get catch-up homework." She mumbled, opening the passenger door and climbing in.

"Jesus. I don't care. You're late again, and you're skating home. Do you hear me?"

+++

Max sits quietly, wishing with all of her might that the car ride could just be over.

Billy, her older step-brother blasts the song Wango Tango as he drives, wrecklously down the road. He scoffs.

"God, this place is such a shithole."

Max thinks of the [Y/N], the only girl who had actually been nice to her, despite her own short temper. Her only real friend since moving here.

"It's not that bad,"

He looks at her, and she knows - she knew as soon as she said something, anything, Billy would find away to use that against her. And sure enough.

"No?" He said, angrily.

She watched as he reached for the window mechanism and rolled down her window. He watched smugly as she winced at the smell and harsh wave of cold crisp air. He took a deep breath, and pulled his nose.

"You smell that, Max? That's actually shit. Cow shit."

"I don't see any cows." She said, matter-of-factly, reaching over and rolling up the windows.

"Clearly, you haven't met the high-school girls."

Max's head threw itself back at the headrest at the comment. She felt her anger boiling up, but she tried to keep it down.

"So what, you like it here now?" He snapped.

"No," she said defensively.

"Then why are you defending it?"

"I'm not."

Max knew he was getting angry again. He knew his pattern by now and she knew he was already up to no good. He loved to corner her.

"Sure sounds like it," He said calmly.

Max hated it when he got calm like this. It always meant he was going to snap. Go too far. Her heart began to pound. She shook her head, tying to regain her composure.

"It's just we're stuck here, so..."

"Hmm. You're right. We're stuck here," She felt his head turn and his eyes zero in on her. "and whose fault is that?"

"yours."

His attention when back to the road. She couldn't help it, her anger was getting the best of her, and the answer came out in a weak whisper she prayed he didn't hear. But he did, and she knew

he was going to do anything to make her pay.

He looked at her, then back at the road but then back at her. "What'd you say?"

Max felt like she was shrinking. "Nothing," She mumbled, quickly.

Billy got calm again. Her heart began to beat faster once more. "Did you say it's my fault?"

"No," she said quickly.

"You know whose fault it is."

She stayed quiet. Max knew anything she said would it would piss him off. Her words failed her.

"Say it,"

Her eyes began to burn, but she refused to cry. He always made her feel weak and powerless and she knew she might not be able to do anything now, but she sure as hell wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Max..." He said lowly, drawing out her name. "Say it." He growled.

He whirled towards her in his seat, his face inches away from hers. His face was completely red as he screamed his throat raw. "Say it!"

She closed her eyes tried to ignore him. Even though she could feel his spit on her face, and his screams were loud enough to vibrate the car. She couldn't let him see how he got to her.

He returned to road, and reached for the volume dial, cranking it all the way up. His foot stomped on the gas and the car was suddenly going unnaturally fast. Billy threw his hands on wheel to every beat of the song.

She let him take it out on the car, grateful it wasn't her. But she knew there was nothing she could do to stop him anyway, right?

She was prepared to make it through the rest of the car ride, but her pounding heart stopped, her breath hitched and her eyes went wide when she saw four figures on their bikes in the middle of the road, not far up ahead.

"Billy, slow down." She said, quickly.

"Oh, these your new hick friends?" he asked, a scary gleam in his eye.

She quickly shook her head. "No! I don't know them."

"I guess you won't care if I hit 'em, then?"

Max knew Billy was crazy. He was out of his damn mind, but what terrified her most, was that she truly and honestly did not know if he was crazy enough to hit some kids with his car. She felt sick to her stomach, everything was going too fast and her heart began pounding faster and faster.

"I get bonus points, I get 'em all in one go?" he asked excitedly.

The car was getting close and just like that, her fear was quickly replaced by anger and her adrenaline was pumping. She whirled herself around all the way to face her nasty scum of a step-brother and her voice was rising. "No, Billy, stop. It's not funny."

His body kept dancing, his head bobbing and hands drumming themselves against the steering wheel, but his head turned to her and his eyes were stone cold. He had no emotion in his face and it was enough to send a chill down her spine, but she knew now wasn't the time. He stomped on the gas pedal and the car roared.

Max wondered to herself why and how in the hell do these idiots not here this car and why the hell aren't they moving?!

She kept an eye on the road, the kids, the girl - [Y/N] - noticed the car coming first.

'Why the hell, aren't they moving?' she thought.

Max found her voice one more and screamed at the top her lungs. "Billy, come on, stop it. It's not funny. Stop!" The car got faster.

What she feared most was coming true. He snapped, and he might as well have been in trance cause he was laser focused, she was positive he hadn't even blinked, and she knew it didn't matter whether or not he had any intention of stopping. She couldn't afford to sit around and wait, they were only a few feet in front of them.

"Billy, stop it!"

With a racing heart, Max lunged forward, gripping the steering wheel and the car swerved to the left, just in the nick of time.

Billy came to life and started shouting again. "Yeah! That was a close one, huh?"

He let out a wild and crazed laugh, and Max whipped around in her seat, peering out the back to see her classmates emerging form the leaves on the side of the road. She was unable to get a good look, the car was over the hill within seconds and they were out of sight. But she breathed a sigh of relief knowing they were alive.

+++

Tag List: @dickkwad @aimee-lucass @iblesstherainsdown-in-africa @miscellaneoustoasts @acexattorney

DM me if you want to be added!

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mouthbreether · 8 years ago

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Halloween

Just a little Meleven fic about what would have happened if Eleven had snuck out in her ghost costume on Halloween and met a certain little ghost buster.

Enjoy:) Eleven felt something burning in her chest, making her hands curl tightly into fists and her bitten-down nails bite into the palms of her hands. It was a feeling she knew well; a scalding anger mingled with the frustrating pang of hurt.

His words echoed in her ears. Five fifteen. Promise.

She had been watching the minute hand closely, eyes trained on the old clock hanging from the wall, but she had no control over the passing of time. Eleven squeezed her pillow closer to her chest. He was late. Again.

Fighting back tears, she returned her stony gaze back to the crackly television screen. The horror movie should have been frightening- exciting even- but all El felt was a numb sort of detachment. Friends didn’t make other friends wait. They looked out for each other. They didn’t break promises and most of all they didn’t lie. Hopper had done all of these things. He had broken all the rules.

Mike would never break them.

Mike. The pinpricks of pain increased in their intensity as she exhaled sharply, picturing him clutching the radio, his expression filled with sadness. El squeezed her eyes shut as a longing so strong it knocked her sick washed over her, leaving a queasy feeling in her stomach. She missed him so much it physically hurt. It wasn’t a pain like Papa’s experiments had caused, or Hopper’s harsh words when they argued. No, this felt deeper- a prolonged ache compared to the sharp punches she’d felt before. It was like an ocean, rolling over her in waves. It felt more like grief.

She didn’t really understand what grief was, but she figured this was the closest thing to it. Mike was the only real friend she’d ever had, the only person her age who she’d ever felt connected to, and the fear that she’d never see him again plagued her constantly. Mike was so pure, so good, that he made her want to be good too. She worried that without him, the shadows would swallow her up, that she’d slip into darkness.

But she couldn’t think like that. All that was left to do now was hope. Hope that he would be having fun with the others on Halloween, that he’d treasure every minute with his friends. Hope that Hopper would protect her and Mike wouldn’t get into any trouble. And above all, hope that they’d get to see each other soon.

Not for the first time, she glanced at the sheet hanging on the chair, with its uneven holes for eyes and yellowish stain down the front. It lay there, limp and pathetic, but El couldn’t help but see it as some kind of beacon. A desperate gnawing began to tick in her stomach, mingling with the frustration and anger that had been building up all afternoon. She clutched her pillow tightly to her chest as her mind whirred at the possibilities.

Crack.

A loud garbled crackling sound made her jump suddenly, abruptly tugging El from her thoughts. She rushed over to the radio, where Hopper was sending through his morse code. Despite the irritation she felt towards her guardian, a spark of excitement shot through her veins.

“L…” she muttered, tracing the translation board with her finger. “A… T… E…”

She stopped. “Late.”

The radio was still crackling- beginning to form an apology, or an explanation, but El didn’t want to hear it. She glanced at the sheet again, deliberating, before making her decision. Confidently, she marched over to the chair and grabbed her costume. She was going trick or treating, whether Hopper liked it or not.

Mike dragged his feet. This day was turning out to be the worst. First, they had looked like idiots as the only ones dressed up at school; then his mum had insisted on taking a bucket load of photos- making him late to meet his friends- and now Maxine had decided to tag along with their group for trick or treating. To say this was turning out to be a rubbish Halloween was an understatement.

He tried not to think of the other thing on his mind.

“Hey.” Will quietly interrupted his musings, falling into step beside him at the back of the group. Usually Mike would have been grateful for his best friend, but right now, as he moped and traipsed along behind the others, he just wanted to be alone.

Instantly, he felt guilty for thinking it. Will had been through so much this past year- he had problems of his own, problems much worse than Mike’s- and it was unfair of him to just shut off like this.

“Hey.” he replied.

Will glanced at him, eyes shot with worry. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Mike gestured sulkily to Dustin, Lucas and Max. “I just didn’t realise we had another party member.” He knew he sounded bitter, but he didn’t particularly care. He felt bitter, which was a pretty familiar emotion for him since El had left.

Will sighed. “You know we don’t, Mike. It’s just those two trying to out-impress each other.” He dropped his voice. “You know no one could replace El.”

He spoke gently, but still Mike’s heart twisted with a sharp tug. Will always seemed to know what he was thinking.

“I know that. It’s just…” He kicked a piece of gravel. Hard. “I still miss her.” he admitted, clutching the straps of his ghost-busters backpack and turning to Will imploringly. “How do I still miss her? It’s almost been a year.”

Will bit his lip as he took in his best friend’s distressed expression. He was asking questions that Will didn’t have the answers to.

“She meant a lot to you, Mike.” he answered finally, shrugging. “There’s no time limit on missing someone.”

“I guess.” Mike glanced back at the floor. “It’s just… the silence is the worst. The not knowing if she’s okay.”

“I’m sure she is.” Will assured quickly. “It’s Eleven. From what I’ve heard, she was pretty badass.”

Mike couldn’t help but smile at that, a little grin that lifted the corners of his mouth. “She is.” he agreed. “The coolest.”

“Hurry up guys!” shouted Dustin, breaking through their conversation. They were far in front now, right up the path. “We’ll never make it round if you walk that slow.”

“Yeah.” agreed Lucas. “Stop gossiping. We need more candy.”

Will rolled his eyes at Mike good-naturedly, lifting his shoulders as if to say ‘what are you gonna do?’, and together they jogged towards their friends.

Eleven wandered through the crowd. She tried to keep her head down but she couldn’t help but stare at all the funny costumes, the huge houses with pumpkins in the windows, and most of all the parents, tugging along their children with big smiles on their faces. She could barely tear her eyes away, staring avidly at the dangling lights, the laughing teens with their bags of candy. It was a dark night, but the streets were lit up by street lamps and the stars twinkled down from far away, casting a bit of warmth on the neighbourhood. Eleven was enraptured.

However, it was because of that exact reason that she ended up bumping into a bigger kid, with a rather fierce expression.

“Watch it, freak.” he growled, giving her a rough shove.

El stumbled, her costume slipping, but she caught herself at the last minute, quickly tugging her sheet so it didn’t show her face. She swallowed down the anger that rose in her throat as the boy went back to laughing with his friends, and bustled through the crowd with a newfound determination. She had bigger problems to deal with.

Where was he? She’d already been to his street, to Dustin, Lucas and Will’s streets, but they were nowhere to be found. She was sure they’d be wearing some kind of matching costume, but she hadn’t seen Mike’s dark curly head anywhere and it was getting later and later. Shortly, Hopper would be back, would realise where she’d gone and would come looking for her.

She only hoped she could find Mike first.

The crowd started to thin out as she turned down a street, careful not to trip on her sheet. It was well lit, with streetlights casting a golden glow on the pavements, but a lot quieter now. A few children wandered past, but no one spared her a second glance. A ghost was, after all, a pretty boring costume on Halloween.

El started to feel a weight heavy on her chest. She was never going to find him; this was pointless. Maybe Mike wasn’t even in this neighbourhood- maybe he was at another friends house, or trick-or-treating in a neighbouring town. He, unlike her, could go where he pleased, she thought bitterly. Maybe he wasn’t even here.

And then she saw it.

Turning the corner at the bottom of the hill; a flash of dark hair.

“Mike.” she breathed, all reasonable thought disappearing. She began to run, sprinting down the hill as fast as her legs could carry her. She was flying; towards Mike, towards her friends. Finally, they would be reunited.

But as she ran, her sheet begun to slip down, gathering up around her ankles, and before she knew it, Eleven was tripping, falling, skidding along the gravel floor.

“Are you alright, dear?”

She groaned, tears pricking her eyes as she looked up at a kind-looking woman standing above her, clutching the hand of a small child. She looked concerned, but Eleven knew well enough that people couldn’t be trusted on appearance alone.

“Fine.” she grunted, standing up and dusting herself off. She straightened her sheet and ignored the throbbing in her knees and the palms of her hands, looking once more for the dark head that had disappeared around the corner. She felt a pang of hopelessness; it might not have even been Mike, but if it had he was gone. Again.

“Ghost down!” called a voice from behind her. “I repeat, ghost down!”

Annoyed at being distracted, Eleven whirled around to see a grinning, curly-haired boy making his way over to her. He looked pretty pleased with himself. “That was quite a fall, but no matter- you’re a ghost that needs bustin’!” Much to El’s confusion, he pretended to shoot at her with his plastic hose pipe, making exaggerated shooting noises as he did so.

By this time, the woman and the child had moved along, but Eleven didn’t care about that. Her heart was racing underneath the sheet as the realisation hit her. Dustin! She hadn’t recognised him at first, with the dark street and their respective costumes, but if Dustin was here, that meant…

Her gaze returned to the hill, searching the different faces for one in particular.

And then she saw him.

Mike. She wanted nothing more than to run to him, to wrap her arms around his neck and squeal with delight, but somehow she restrained herself, settling for simply drinking him in. She had to be careful; she owed that much to Hopper.

He was hanging at the back of the group, dragging his feet and looking a little down. Her heart clenched at the sight. With his eyes downcast, and his ruffled dark hair falling into his eyes, something about seeing him made Eleven want to cry or jump up and down with delight- she wasn’t sure which.

So, instead she said nothing.

“You’re a quiet ghost.” Dustin commented, dropping his weapon. Suddenly, something a few houses down caught his eye and he called back to the others. “Guys! Look- it’s old Mrs Durban’s house! She’s the one who gives out Hershey’s!”

Lucas and a ginger girl El didn’t recognise jogged after him hastily, followed by Will.

But Eleven didn’t care about that. She waited, watching as Mike approached.

He watched the others go with a frown, then stopped beside her, glancing down at her costume. “You, er- you’ve got blood on your costume. Is that meant to be there?”

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight or string a coherent thought together. Finally, Eleven nodded, too choked up to speak. The little crease that had appeared in his brow made her heart melt into a puddle of goo.

“Oh. Okay.”

He went to leave, but she caught his arm. “Wait.” She whispered, breathless. Their was a roaring sound so loud in her ears she could barely hear herself think.

There was a long pause. Eleven still clutched his arm, heart pounding in her chest.

Mike swallowed, his eyes roving over her sheet-covered face. “Eleven?” He whispered, hesitantly.

It was all she could do to nod. He couldn’t see, but tears were now streaming down her face. “Mike.” She whispered, swallowing thickly.

And then his face transformed into a smile and he was clutching her tightly to his chest, eyes shining with tears. “I never gave up on you.” He swore. “I called you every night. For-“

“Three hundred and forty eight days.” She finished. “I heard.”

Mike pulled away, confusion filling his eyes. “Then why-“

“Hopper has been looking after me. He thought it wasn’t safe.”

Mike’s jaw tightened in anger. “Not safe?” But-“

“I know.” She agreed. “I was angry too. But I don’t have long. Please, Mike. Just walk with me.”

He hesitated for a moment, before finally nodding. “Okay. But this isn’t the end. I’m not letting you go again after this. We’ll work something out.” He laced her hand in his.

She wasn’t sure how, since it was pretty certain she’d be murdered by Hopper when he found her, but his words warmed her heart and she happily took his hand as they began to walk along the pavement.

Eleven walked in a happy daze, content with the warmth of Mike’s hand in hers and the feel of him beside her, but when she looked at him, he was scowling.

“What?” she asked.

“The blood on your sheet…” he was peering at her knees, which she’d completely forgotten about.

“It’s nothing.” She promised.

“No, you’ve hurt yourself.” he pressed. “Let me see.”

Sighing, she pulled up the sheet, revealing her scraped up knees. The wound was pretty artificial, but it looked worse with all the blood leaking from the scratches, and Mike let out a hiss.

“You need to get that seen to.” he said.

Eleven shook her head, stubbornly holding onto his hand. “No, Mike. Later. I want to walk with you.”

He frowned. “El, you can’t go around bleeding all over the place. Look, we’re coming up to my place now. I can get you some plasters.”

“Won’t the others wonder where you are?”

“They can cope without me for a little while. I’ll radio them.” His eyes were firm. “Come on.”

She sighed, but relented. “Fine. As long as I’m with you.”

He smiled at that. “Of course. Your wish is my command.”

Wish? Command? Her brow furrowed.

Mike bit back a grin. “It means I’ll do whatever you ask.”

“Oh.” She smiled. “Good.”

Quietly, they waited until the others had gone on ahead, towards the busier part of the street, and then snuck across the road to Mike’s house.

He shut the door quietly and she finally released his hand. Immediately, he missed the feel of her small palm pressed in his, then chided himself for thinking it. El was back; he didn’t need to obsess over her every second of the day. He watched as she silently pulled the sheet off, revealing her faded short dungarees and old flannel shirt that hung around her shoulders. Her hair was curly, he noted. It looked cute.

El’s expression was unreadable as she looked around his basement; at the table cluttered with D&D figures; at the familiar toys piled up in the corner.

And then she saw the den.

Silently, she made her way over to it, and Mike felt a weird lump in his throat as she sat down beside it. The same blankets lined the inside, the same sheet hung over head with fairy lights strewn over the top. There was even a pile of clothes resting on her pillow. He had left it untouched, awaiting the day she returned.

“Mike.” She whispered, turning to him, and he saw that her eyes were also filled with tears.

He gave a little half-shrug, feeling that bubble of emotion rising in his chest. “I told you I waited.” He said hoarsely.

She nodded, and he knew that she understood as she returned her gaze to the den. He took that as his queue to make his way over, sitting down beside her.

Mike could have watched Eleven all day; he had dreamed of this moment- the moment she would be back in his house, looking curiously through his things. She held each thing delicately, then tossed it aside if it was deemed unimportant. Finally, she picked up the radio. She smiled, tears in her eyes, and pressed the button. A cracking sound came from the device. “Still works.” She said, eyes bright with tears.

Mike smiled back. “Still works.”

Their gazes caught for a fraction of a second too long, and Mike sat up, flustered. His cheeks were red. “I… we, er-I should look at your knees.”

Eleven nodded and he hurried over to a cupboard, rifling through the shelves until he found what he was looking for. Next, he headed into the bathroom, filling up a bowl with warm water before grabbing some cotton wool from the bathroom cabinet.

“Here.” He sounded relieved, cheeks still tinged pink, as he knelt in front of her. “I’ll clean them first.”

She nodded and he got to work, gently dabbing at her bloody knees. She winced a little as he poured a little alcohol agent on them and he frowned, biting his lip. “How did you do this?” He asked. “Did somebody trip you?”

Eleven shook her head, but Mike’s eyes were persistent. “Are you sure? Because if they did-“

She placed her hand on top of his, eyes somber. “They didn’t.” she said. “Promise.”

“Okay.” He let out a breath of relief. In reality, he wouldn’t have known what to do if someone had tripped eleven. It would just have made him mad.

“Besides,” she continued, “I can look after myself.”

Mike laughed. “Trust me El, I know.”

He moved onto her left leg and then her palms, which were covered in scratches. Finally, she was covered in dinosaur plasters and ready to go. The knowledge that she had to leave felt heavy in the air.

“Time?” she asked, hesitantly.

Mike swallowed, glancing at his watch. “Seven twenty two.”

She sighed, eyelids briefly fluttering closed. “I have to go.”

Mike nodded. He knew that would be the case, but still his throat felt dry. “El, I have to see you again. I don’t care what the chief says. I want to see you. I have to see you. We can’t-“

She cut him off, pressing her finger to his lips. “I know.” she saId, seriously. “I will see you again, Michael Wheeler.”

He nodded, too choked up to speak, and did the only thing he could think of.

He kissed her.

It didn’t move mountains; it didn’t make the world light up with colour. It was just one kiss shared between two twelve year olds, but it meant something to them. Mike’s heart was beating out of his chest, Elevens hands were trembling, and as they pulled apart, both knew that something between them had shifted. Something extraordinary.

“Let’s go.” murmured Mike, holding out his hand. He no longer felt embarrassed. He just felt euphoric, a grin tugging at his lips.

Eleven was back.

He walked her right across town, until they got to the edge of the woods. Since no one was around, El pulled off her sheet.

“Are you sure I can’t see where you live?” Mike asked, suddenly desperate. The reality of her leaving again suddenly felt very real. “I could come and visit after school if-“

But El just shook her head. “No. I will already be in enough trouble. We have to wait.” She glanced down at their hands, still entwined. “But I will see you again. Soon.”

“Promise?”

A flicker of a smile crossed her features. “Promise.”

Mike took a step back, looking appeased. “Soon.” he repeated. “That’s good enough for me.”

Eleven looked at him a second longer, before quickly placing a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Mike.” she whispered, meaning every word.

And he watched as she disappeared into the forest, her sheet trailing behind her.

Eleven.

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samdukewieland · 5 years ago

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Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 2

New week. New movies I had never seen before. Only one was on the DVR so now it’s just like a glorified streaming guide and for that I apologize. There were three movies this week that I had seen before, but I’ve decided, because rules are important, that I won’t re-watch a movie until I watch a new one. Does this matter? No. But it has made me realize that I might be exposing my ass in the upcoming weeks, because we all lie about saying we’ve seen some movies when we actually haven’t. Not the case for this week, but it’s impending.

Sunday, March 29

Warrior, O’Conner 2011 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

As a person who doesn’t really care about MMA or UFC or boxing or bum fights or bare knuckle brawls I went in under the impression that there’d probably be some kind of barrier in my way of enjoying it, despite knowing its esteemed reputation for being man-weep canon. Any movie that opens and closes with a song by The National is fairly transparent about the type of movie its going to be, despite having an extremely yolked Tom Hardy as one of the main characters. My first cry came at a very unexpected moment, especially because Frank Grillo had a significant role in making that happen (though I will say, I had no idea Frank Grillo was in this movie and about midway through I thought “man, that guy kinda looks like Grillo, but he’s kinda small and has a fashion mullet”). However, I’m a cryer, so I don’t want to set the expectation of you will cry at this you piece of shit! but you might and it’ll come out of a good place, because this movie doesn’t trick you into crying by manipulating you into it (okay, it does at one point, but it involves Moby Dick, so again, it’s kinda unexpected). It opens with “Start A War” and ends with “About Today,” a top 5 sad boy song by The National and I’ll be damned if I didn’t listen to it once a day all last week.

Better Call Saul

“Sunk Costs”, “Sabrosito”, “Chicanery”, “Off Brand”, “Expanses”

John Getz hive, assemble.

Monday, March 30

Working Girl, Nichols 1988 [as of now this is available on HBO]

Sometime in college, I think in a detective fiction class I took, we talked about knowing a reference to something before knowing what it’s either paying homage to or directly referencing. For example: the first time I read The Long Halloween (which is a Batman comic by Jeph Loeb) I had no idea that basically everything involving Falcone is just ripped from The Godfather, because I had never seen The Godfather at that time in my life; literally the first page of the book is “I believe in Gotham City.” Or in Django Unchained when they go to Mississippi and the title card moves across the screen just like it does in Gone With The Wind (Tarantino movies are generally just long homages and references to other things, so if you need another example, just look to really anything he’s ever worked on). There’s probably a German word for this feeling of recognition and I just don’t have the energy to look to see what it would be, but I felt it while watching Working Girl in two regards.

The first was that I didn’t realize that School Of Rock is essentially just Working Girl and when you have a realization like this, you feel kinda dumb, because you just assume everyone figured this out before you did. The second was that Joe Swanberg has tried to model his movies after Mike Nichols ones like his life depended on it and he just can’t or rather hasn’t. Also I’m not a person who was alive in the 80s and I’m sure there’s some modern day equivalent (potentially her daughter) who I defend out of some weird sense of contrarian obligation, but what’s uh, what’s going on with Melanie Griffith and her as actor?

Better Call Saul

“Slip”, “Fall”, “Lantern” [Season 3 finale]

BCS season 3 really stepped up to the heights of Breaking Bad and I think I might like it just a little bit better than it? I haven’t watched Breaking Bad in long time, I find it pretty difficult to re-watch (it’s very fire works factory for me) so I’m sure there are some BB highs that I just don’t remember fully, but that BCS can juggle being three different shows all at the same time and do it excellently really has me taken aback. It’s like watching the Coen Brothers jump from genre to genre and not be worried about the end result.

Tuesday, March 31

Say Anything..., Crowe 1989 [as of now this is available on Hulu]

I’m unabashedly in the can for Cameron Crowe, which is a semi-embarrassing thing to admit, but whatever. I saw Aloha in theatres and watched We Bought A Zoo when it was on FX once (in real time too, so that means with commercials-this was also the only time I’ve seen We Bought A Zoo, but I think I’d do it again); you can’t hurt me. I think I kept my distance from Say Anything... for so long, because it was one of those things that I’d be annoyed at because it’d resonate with me too much, because feeling that is kinda hacky and embarrassing, but if there’s one thing that Cameron Crowe movies put an emphasis on of importance on, it’s being sincere. And I sincerely loved it (hot, HOT take). Thanks to Russillo for recommending it on Simmons’ podcast last week.

Better Call Saul

“Smoke” [Season 4 premiere]

Wednesday, April 1

The Graduate, Nichols 1967 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

Sucks that this movie has been used by a certain type of dude who use it as a blueprint for their life and how they view relationships. Other than that, good job everyone. [I definitely thought it would be clever to watch this after watching Say Anything... because I just assumed Ben Braddock walked so Lloyd Dobbler could run-I was kinda right, whatever]

Hot Rod, Schaffer 2007

While April Fools Day means nothing to me I do try to watch a comedy on the day, because...eh, why not. Hot Rod is maybe a perfect comedy and I think I could spend hours talking about it. I don’t know how there hasn’t been some kind of programming that’s been done around The Lonely Island and their catalog, because it seems very obvious.

Hot Rod with Digital Shorts played before and after and then Wayne’s World

MacGruber and you play MacGruber shorts before and after and then whatever grotesque 80′s action movie you’d want, maybe Commando

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Lonely Island music videos before and after and then This Is Spinal Tap

The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience sing-a-long followed by The Lonely Island pilot and either a collection or the entirety of I Think You Should Leave

maybe this is all a lead-up to Palm Springs, a movie I have’t seen and know very little about other than they produced it and Samberg is in it

Thursday, April 2

The In-Laws, Hiller 1979

I wrote it as my letterboxd. “review” , but this thing’s 1979 funny until they go to South America and then it is actually funny. Falk is just gangbusters.

Better Call Saul

“Breathe”, “Something Beautiful”

Friday, April 3

You Can Count On Me, Lonergan 2000 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

I say this as a very big fan of his, but! Timothée Chalamet, consider yerself on notice for borrowing heavily from the Mark Ruffalo school of acting. Also, I get it now with Laura Linney, who I’ve liked before, but thought she might kind of be overrated by some people. Also, Matthew Broderick made this after Election (and also Inspector Gadget), so quite the infidelity streak for Brody, probably not a double feature.

Better Call Saul

“Talk”, “Quite A Ride”, “Piñata”

Saturday, April 4

De Palma, Baumbach & Paltrow, 2015 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

The definitive documentaries for the directors of this friend group are basically perfect in their own ways. That this is just De Palma talking about himself and his career and movies, sometimes being incredibly critical of his own work and others. He seems pretty self-aware, probably the most of that group of directors, while still coming across as incredibly cocky. De Palma is perfect for Brian De Palma. However, if anyone wanted to make a 10 hour documentary on Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, De Palma and Lucas in this style or it’s just the 5 of them interviewing each other moderated by like Fincher or someone, man....I could really go for that. (I mean if Michael Jordan can get one, why not these guys?)

The Other Director Documentaries

Spielberg, 2017 (HBO) [Interviews and retrospectives about Spielberg’s career, with personal highlights. It’s essentially Spielberg in a nutshell: big, flashy with a lot of time on particular moments that are more important to him than they are to you]

Empire Of Dreams, 2004 (Disney+) [Ostensively this is about Star Wars, and it’s made by a company-man, it says so much about Lucas, a man who hated how institutions told him what he could do so he unintentionally created one that has copied what he hates]

Heart Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, 1991 [A truly wild ride, tells you everything you need to know about Coppola]

Italianamerican, 1974 [While a new documentary about Scorsese is probably what I covet most, he’s a pretty open book about his controversies and he’d probably enjoy talking about other people’s work more than his own-catholicism’s a helluva thing]

The Godfather Pt. I & The Godfather Pt. II, Coppola 1972 & 1974

I don’t know if I necessarily endorse watching both of these back-to-back; I guess I’m glad I did it, even if the motivation was mainly to just see if I could. Obviously these movies are important and good and are about so much more than just gangsters and thugs, but a lot of the time it just feels like eating vegetables for me. I did not grow up in a household that emphasized the importance of The Godfather so maybe that’s part of it, but I’m definitely not as dismissive of these as I used to be (though part of that could be the mental Stockholm Syndrome Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey have given me). Once I finished Pt. I, I felt like I could re-watch it; once I finished Pt. II I felt like my eyes were melting out of my head and onto my hands (this could be because I had just watched 377 minutes of a story). I will probably never do it again, unless it’s the weekend after Christmas and AMC is just going for it-at least then I’ll have intermissions every 20 or so minutes telling me to go shop at Target.

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citizenscreen · 8 years ago

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Darren McGavin‘s agents called him to say that ABC had purchased the rights to a yet-to-be-published book called The Kolchak Papers. The script by Richard Matheson was in its early stages and McGavin was the intended star of the would-be movie. “ListenABC,” McGavin’s representative said, “it’s this crazy story about a reporter and some kind of monster in Vegas. You don’t want to do this.” (McGavin) Darren McGavin read the script then gave it to his wife to see if she agreed with him. The consensus was, “it’s terrific.”

The NIght Stalker aired on ABC on January 11, 1972. Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and produced by Dan Curtis, best known at the time for Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker became ABC’s highest rated original TV movie and the most widely viewed TV movie to date. The movie did so well, in fact, that it was released as a theatrical vehicle abroad. One thing we can say about audiences in 1972 is that they had fabulous taste because The Night Stalker is indeed terrific.

If you’re a fan of horror or a fan of film noir The Night Stalker will grab you from the opening scene. “This is a story about the greatest manhunt in history,” we hear Carl Kolchak’s voice say over a tape recorder, “Judge for yourself the story’s believability.” Kolchak is an investigative reporter and the crimes he mentions in the opening are the work of a vampire. We learn this in flashback with definitive film noir style as he retells the incredible story. If you think this can’t happen where you live Kolchak will prove you wrong despite what the authorities might say or how hard the powers that be try to deny the story, which inevitably happens.

As this story goes – there are a series of murders plaguing the Las Vegas strip. All of the victims have had their bodies drained of blood. The suspect’s true identity is discovered by the authorities as one Janos Skorzeny who’s been suspected of blood-draining murders in the past. They even corner Skorzeny when he attempts to rob a hospital of its blood shooting him several times without effect. But there’s no mention of vampirism until Carl Kolchak researches vampire lore and puts the pieces together. Skorzeny has super human strength, he is able to outrun cars and motorcycles, he has the taste for blood thing and so on. Despite these facts, however, Kolchak’s editor, Anthony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) thinks that the existence of a vampire is ridiculous. Vincenzo is often exasperated by Kolchak who never plays by the rules. The two have great chemistry and forge a dependable friendship in between bouts of shouting, which make for enjoyable exchanges at every turn.

Lo and behold after many arguments and suspension of duties, Kolchak is able to convince the police that the perpetrator is a vampire and along with FBI agent, Bernie Jenks (played by Ralph Meeker) he goes to Skorzeny’s lair to destroy him. Kolchak is able to put a stake through Skorzeny’s heart as he’d read it’s the sure-fire way to kill that particular type of monster. This happens after a fierce battle during which several other vampire rules are proven true. For instance, Skorzeny is repelled by a cross and is afraid of sunlight, just as we thought he’d be. By the way, the music by Bob Cobert in The Night Stalker is great as was the case with so many made-for-TV movies of the 1970s, but particularly noteworthy during the final fight scene is that some of the music from House of Dark Shadows (1970) was used.

Luckily for Kolchak he had a credible witness at hand during his destruction of the vampire and yet – adding insult to injury – he is arrested for murder. There is nothing the authorities will do to quell the story of a vampire loose in Vegas. And when Kolchak’s full story appears in the papers it is a different, falsified account of the happenings, which is why our hero is an embittered man telling a tale of deceit as well as murder. Kolchak tells a cautionary tale where the people’s right to know is way down the list of priorities for those who hold all the power.

Darren McGavin delivers such an unforgettable portrayal of Carl Kolchak that he alone is enough of a reason to watch this movie and its descendents. Kolchak is unrelenting in his pursuit of a breaking story. He gets “in” with the beat cops, bribes any and all players who can give him information and is funny as all heck. His voiceovers as the story progresses are a definite plus if you like that sort of thing – and I do. Not only is it reminiscent of noir, it’s a terrific storytelling technique that helps move the pace along and tells us a lot about the character.

Fans of horror might find a bit of camp where the monster element is concerned in The Night Stalker, but if you’re a fan of classics the camp just adds to the enjoyment. Kolchak even mentions Lugosi at one point putting to rest any doubt you may have about who was/is the definitive vampire in popular culture. Barry Atwater plays Skorzeny with flair adding the requisite growls and hisses to the proceedings following is some famous footsteps.

Also in the cast is Carol Lynley who plays Kolchak’s girlfriend, Gail Foster. Charles McGraw plays to type as the Police Chief, Larry Linville of M*A*S*H fame plays a doctor and the great Elisha Cook, Jr. shows up in a small role. Another special treat for classic fans is the appearance of Ralph Meeker. Interestingly – to further the film noir ties in The Night Stalker, which really is more noir than it is horror – both McGavin and Meeker have played Mickey Spillane’s fictional detective Mike Hammer. Meeker played Hammer in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955), and McGavin in Mike Hammer the TV series (1958-19959).

Given the success of The Night Stalker it’s no surprise that Carl Kolchak would be back for another dangerous investigation. Our tenacious, imperfect hero turns in another memorable round with a supernatural villain in The Night Strangler, which originally aired on ABC on January 16, 1973. Dan Curtis takes the helm for this vehicle and delivers another quick-paced, humor-laced movie with a terrific lot of players including Wally Cox, Jo Ann Pflug, Scott Brady, John Carradine, Al Lewis of The Munsters fame with the ultimate treat being Margaret Hamilton who plays a professor who’s an expert on elixirs. Back for another turn from the first movie are film noir elements and Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo.

Although he vowed never to mention the vampire story to anyone ever again after the last outing we see Kolchak trying to convince people of the story when The Night Strangler opens. Having been fired from the Vegas paper after the vampire fiasco, our investigative journalist finds himself in Seattle, Washington. Luckily, Vincenzo is in Seattle as well and hires Kolchak to cover a series of murders. This time the victims are exotic dancers who have been strangled with such incredible force that their necks are crushed. Also, each victim has had some of her blood removed with a syringe and each has traces of rotted flesh on her neck.

With the help of a historian/researcher (Wally Cox), Kolchak discovers that similar rash of killings have occurred every 21 years since 1889 with the series lasting 18 days each time. Recognizing that time is of the essence Kolchak presses the authorities to act, but as was the case in The Night Stalker, no one but Kolchak is eager to make the details of the murders public and they drag their feet. That’s especially true when Kolchak tells the police that the murderer is 144-year-old Civil War surgeon, Dr. Richard Malcolm (played by TV favorite Richard Anderson) who is killing to get his hands on the blood needed for his elixir of life, a youth potion that lasts 21 years at a time. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it’s true!

Needless to say Carl Kolchak gets his man and the scoop. But once again he is fired along with Vincenzo because no one wants Seattle to know the murders were being committed by a corpse so the real story is once again suppressed. Those frustrations are expected, but we get another enjoyable final battle in this entry. This time Kolchak fights the should-be-long-dead Dr. Malcolm in a lost, Civil War-era city that lies hidden underneath Seattle. Malcolm lives, hides and performs his experiments in the hidden city, which is reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera story and is just as sinister.

The Night Strangler proved almost as popular as its predecessor garnering strong ratings and eventually prompting ABC to order a TV series in lieu of a third movie, which was in the works. The third movie was to be set in New York as we see Kolchak and Vincenzo discussing at the end of The Night Strangler after they’re both fired in Seattle. Instead, the TV series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, features both McGavin and Oakland reprising their roles working for the Chicago Independent News Service. The premise for the series stayed close to the movies in that Kolchak seemed to have a talent for attracting crimes involving the supernatural to include werewolves, zombies and many other creatures of the night.

In the series Kolchak always has a hard time convincing Vincenzo that the criminals are not products of his imagination, but rather living (more or less), breathing creatures. Those exchanges between the two where Vincenzo loses his temper and Kolchak does what he wants anyway are favorite scenes of mine. Also enjoyable are the villains in the episode, which naturally come from classic stories. The first episode of the series features Jack the Ripper who is alive and well and back to his old tricks.

Although Kolchak: The Night Stalker aired for only one season, from 1974 to 1975 on ABC, it is highly recommended viewing. Many of the enjoyable elements of the movies make the transition to TV and far outshine what you may find on network TV today with few exceptions. Another short-lived series, Night Stalker was given a shot in 2005 with Stuart Townsend taking over the Kolchak role.

♦

I intended this post to be my submission to the Movie of the Week Blogathon hosted by Classic Film and TV Cafe, but alas I am quite late to the party. I didn’t want to ignore Kolchak completely, however, so I offer this as encouragement to the event, its host and Carl Kolchak all of which should not be ignored!

Movie of the Week: THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER Darren McGavin's agents called him to say that ABC had purchased the rights to a yet-to-be-published book called

#ABC Movie of the Week #Barry Atwater #Carol Lynley #Dan Curtis #Darren McGavin #Jo Ann Pflug #John Llewwellyn Moxey #Kolchak #Movie of the Week #Ralph Meeker #Richard Anderson #Simon Oakland #The Night Stalker #The Night Strangler #Wally Cox

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limines · 6 years ago

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So last week I 1) finished IT the book and 2) took myself on a self movie date to see IT Chapter Two at my local theatre and...

1) the book was incredible. beyond words amazing. the storytelling and the characterization-- inspiring. the type of writing I study in hopes of one day writing even half as beautiful as stephen king.

2) the movie was........ well, I had a blue icee at the movie and that was really good. the movie itself? I had to try to mentally separate the movie and the book because it was not only incredibly different, but it was different in ways that were not good. I have a lot to say, and I’ll say it below just because I have to vent. It was alright. I didn’t despise watching it. I had a pretty good time, sitting all by myself in row E, sipping on an icee. but altogether, it was pretty disappointing. This is all my personal opinion. Stephen King might think the movie is a fucking masterpiece. Hell, Stephen King was IN the movie. But this is just how I felt.

I’ll go by characters, because the characterization in the movie was the biggest thing that bugged me.

I’ll start with Richie, because he was the one that I still really loved. I hate that they took out his voices, though. I know that some in the book are dated (it was the 1950s in the book and Richie’s parents were racist-- you can imagine the rest), but I think they could have been replaced with ones that weren’t offensive. Impressions or accents. It’s not necessary, I just thought it was charming. I LOVE that they made the choice for Richie to be gay. It felt really natural and not overdone, and it just felt really heartwarming to have that affection in the movie. Lots of people have speculated about Richie and Eddie before, and I think it was an excellent choice to reflect that in the movie. Also: Bill Hader is my king now.

Beverly Marsh is for some reason a psychic now??? That little plot element was so vague and unnecessary that it wrote itself out of the movie. It was never ever relevant to the plot in any way, shape, or form. Why on earth did we have to make Beverly a psychic? To make up for the fact that you practically left out the rest of her personality in the movie? Bev has a stunning personality. But the movie traded her personality for psychic abilities. Also, Bev’s mother is 100% alive in the book, and she also suffers abuse from Bev’s father. It was a little lazy to write her out entirely. Maybe it was done to give her father a more defined reason for the abuse, but it wasn’t really necessary.

Ben Hanscom, first of all, visited the Derry library to recollect, which I thought was very important to his character. Instead, he visited the high school. Not a terrible change, just one I personally didn’t understand the need for. But the big thing I noticed about Ben is that he was made out to be jealous of Bill and Beverly. I never thought that Ben was jealous of them. He notices their affection and understands what is going on and steps aside. He lets Bev make her own choice, and he doesn’t glare or try to separate them or interrupt them.

Bill Denbrough’s wife Audra is not a bitch. She’s a concerned and caring wife. I know that they probably made her out to be one because they had to explain why Bill wanted to smooch Bev, but I just kind of hate that trope that a man will only cheat if his wife is a nag. Bill himself seemed very... unstable in the movie. In the book, the Losers are scared, yes, but they know the whole time of what they have to do. None of them try to leave, none of them pack and drive away. They know what they have to do, and they do it. One of the eeriest things about the book in my opinion was that when It would play tricks on them, the adult Losers would often back off, stare, or counter the thing with witty attacks. Bill Denbrough was a peak example of the movie Losers, who were afraid, wanted to run, and yelled and screamed a lot. The Skateboard Kid (who never gets taken by Pennywise, btw) and Bill have a calm little chat. Bill warns the kid, but never shakes him by the shoulders. That’s creepy to do that to a random kid in the street, Bill. BOOK BILL IS BALDING AND I KNOW THAT IN MOVIES WE HAVE TO MAKE PEOPLE LOOK ATTRACTIVE BUT IT’S KINDA FUNNY.

Stanley Uris. I shouldn’t even have much to say about him because he’s not there much, but good god. Stanley Uris did not commit suicide as some kind of “noble sacrifice”. What the hell does that even mean. That really irritated me. At least they let him have a nice little bird puzzle. My boy Stan loves his birds.

Eddie Kaspbrak. Oh, Eddie. My poor Eddie. Eddie, who in the book led the Losers through the sewers and sprayed his inhaler at It and punched It directly in its spider eye without a second thought. Movie Eddie made me so sad and mad. sadmad. Eddie, who is a celebrity limo driver and cares deeply for people and is NOT A FUCKING COWARD. That’s such a lazy choice for Eddie’s character, and I was really disappointed with that. But the character that most disappointed me was...

Mike Hanlon. Dear god. What did they do to you, Mike. Mike Hanlon, in the book, is a devoted and passionate historian who diligently takes note of all of the old Derry stories involving It. He does not even possess a Native American artifact, much less would he deface it. I have hardly ever seen something so misinterpreted as the ritual of Chud. Mike Hanlon does not lie to convince his friends to come back to Derry, and he wouldn’t. He was so cautious to even call them in the first place. He’s not a madman. AND HIS PARENTS WERE NOT CRACKHEADS. Mike Hanlon’s mother was a nice, loving lady, and his father was a wise man who died of cancer. Mr. Hanlon had his own experiences with It. Mike Hanlon’s story in the book is inextricably tied to the racism rampant in Derry, and to completely exclude that from the movie is lazy and ignorant. Also: Mike isn’t even at the final battle with Pennywise. He’s at the hospital after getting stabbed by Henry Bowers.

PENNYWISE. Pennywise is more often NOT a clown that she is a clown. And I say she, because IT is female. The Robert Gray/Clown alter ego is because kids like clowns, and kids are Pennywise’s main food source. But in the final battle, Pennywise is in what is closest to true form. No clown. I like the clown look, don’t get me wrong. I love Bill Skarsgard, I think he’s a genius and decidedly pretty attractive when he doesn’t have that big ass forehead. But IT is something beyond just a physical form. The Deadlights, The Turtle, The Other-- these are ancient entities. Clown Spider? Not that impressive compared to an ancient otherworldly being.

I loved the first movie. I thought the first movie kept true enough to the characters, despite minor changes, that the second part would also be relatively similar. Movies don’t have to be exactly like books, but when a book is written as masterfully as IT, then there are reasons for every choice. To change that many important things was lazy and unimpressive. I love the Losers Club and I love the book. The movie just didn’t do the characters justice, and the story is nothing without those Losers.

#Jess watches horror movies #and jess writes angsty reviews about them too

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