In the bloom of my youth I found myself on an evening with my best friend in the park. We were young and it was a beautiful warm summer night to be out. At sixteen in a small rural town our options for entertainment were limited but it had been a good day.
Park is a somewhat generous term for the locale, what it amounted to was a cleared space with some planters and bushes, a tiny podium, and a square of trees round the perimeter. We had been hanging about with our friend who needed to leave, and waiting to be picked up ourselves, carless plebeians that we were.
So there we were, two teen girls in the park alone as the last of the light faded. Neither of us had cellphones, and my nana was collecting us right from the park as we’d agreed earlier. We were in no hurry, knowing she’d arrive when she arrived.
Until my friend said, “What was that?”
I looked up to where she was pointing but I didn’t see anything. “What?” I asked.
“I think it was… someone streaking?”
It was absurd to think. Our little town, tiny and rural as it was, with a streaker. But I loved my friend, so instead of laughing I said, “Let’s go see.”
I’m not sure what I thought it was, but I was confident she’d be less nervous if we investigated and found a plastic bag or a jogger in white. And I’ll admit I was curious at this anomaly. We made our way across the park to where she’d pointed.
That’s when I saw it too. A flash of pale skin under the streetlights, moving too quickly through the shadows and shrubs to see clearly. My friend clung to my arm, shrinking in on herself and I felt the first twitch of fear. Investigating no longer seemed like the thing to do.
I was determined to protect her from whatever was lurking, so I changed course and started cutting away from the movement, heading for the small shopping center not too far outside the park.
Our progress was suddenly arrested as the mysterious figure launched into our path. A man crouched on the pavement before us, fully nude except for a loincloth. His hair was in white people dreads. It was in every way like Tarzan had stepped out of the animated movie into real life.
My friends fingers were digging painfully into my arm and we stood stock still, staring at this bizarre apparition. He was still a good fifteen feet away from us. He stared back, making soft simian “ooh ooh” sounds.
I was struggling to process that a man in a loin cloth was right there when he started to move toward us. It was in his monkey half crouch, a few shambling steps, slow, with his eyes fixed on us.
“Leave us alone!” I declared.
He stopped, tilting his head this way and that. Then shifted like he would take another step.
I was fully afraid now, but I was also furious that he was menacing us and scaring my friend. I dropped her arm, marching forward with wrath in my eyes and said, “Get out of here before we call the cops!”
At my approach he turned and bolted back into the bushes. I whipped around and zipped back toward my friend, grabbing her arm and power walking us out of there. We arrived at the nearest business and darted inside, conveying what had just happened in garbled snippets.
The workers were outraged to hear our story. They let me call my nana to tell her where we were, then asked if we’d like to call the police. I shook my head. I emphatically did not want to deal with the police.
In the safety of the store my fear had started to feel ridiculous. It was probably just some bored prankster.
As we waited for my nana my friend quietly admitted she would rather liked to have called the cops. I apologized for not asking. We lapsed into silence. She said, “I can’t believe you went toward him.”
I couldn’t either. I didn’t remember planning on it, only I wanted to be between him and my friend. “Do you think he was crazy or was it just a prank?”
She shook her head. She didn’t know either. All these years later I still don’t really know what happened that night. If he was on a dare, or cosplaying Tarzan for fun, or if he was unwell. A lot of the details have hazed over with time but the utter dissonance of seeing a man in a loin cloth pop out of the bushes is seared into me.
I also remember back then, in a whisper both scandalized and fascinated, my friend admitting, “I saw his penis.”
476 notes
·
View notes
An F-16 from the RSAF following an MQM-107 Drone
The Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker is a reusable, turbojet powered, target towing drone primarily used by the United States Army and the United States Air Force for testing and training. The US Army uses the drone for testing various surface-to-air missile systems such as the FIM-92 Stinger and the MIM-104 Patriot. The US Air Force uses them in practice engagements for their air-to-air missiles like the AIM-9 Sidewinder and the AIM-120 AMRAAM.
The Streaker is generally designed to operate as a tow vehicle for missile and gun targets. The aircraft can carry either radar or infrared tow targets for missile training, as well as a square banner with an enhanced radar signature for gunnery training. Flare and/or chaff pods can be carried as well.
47 notes
·
View notes
cannot get over how absurd Sunstreaker’s and Sideswipe’s relationship is in IDW. Sunstreaker’s like. this is my brother. I love him very much. I do love showing off and being a menace but I always try to include my brother in my stunts and i dont see anything patronizing about what im doing, im just trying to be supportive and nice. I am now currently being tortured through means beyond your understanding because I decided to be cocky and then I got kidnapped and now im here. I need you to kill me. I need to be killed. The pain is unbearable. I can’t stand closing my eyes. I do not feel comfortable in my own body, because it feels alien, it does not feel like mine, not anymore. I miss my friends. I want help. Please kill me. and while all this is happening Sideswipe is like i fucking HATE my brother. I want him DEAD. i hope hes DEAD. hes such a fucking show off and he loves doing better than me on PURPOSE. He includes me in his stunts and tries to get me to do things instead of him bc he loves throwing it in my face how much better than me he is. He says he loves me but i KNOW hes lying and doing it to seem cool and like a good person. I dont even actually want to LOOK for him. Im just looking for him because then i can prove im better than him. I just want to be the one to rescue him so i can throw it in his face. Then when hes rescued ill be mean and when were separated ill send him videos and voice mails of my mission.
Sideswipe was filled with so much hate and envy towards Sunstreaker while streaker was literally just chilling out and being himself he literally didnt even seem all that much of a show off. he was doing the same thing everyone else was doing and sideswipe hated him for it. but they were still brothers. do you guys think about how they were brothers and streaker left in the lost light to heal from the war and then when he came to Earth for his brother he found a broken and battered corpse that resembled a compacted soda can. Do you think about the simple difference of Sideswipe not so much as blinking when they find Sunstreaker as nothing but a head and nerves vs Sunstreaker yelling we cant leave my brother hes in there! and Sideswipe! what did they DO to you?!
125 notes
·
View notes