#aka they’re the always joking until there’s an emergency group

[frownyalfred]

The Batfamily is a bickering, dysfunctional family. Which is to say, they spend every day arguing with each other, fighting it out, making death threats, and dramatically going no-contact for weeks.

But if there’s an all-hands incident in Gotham? A galactic invasion? Family emergency? That stops instantly. They become the tightest, most competent, dedicated group of siblings/butler/parents you’ve ever seen.

And it’s terrifying to see.

[widowbitessting]

Baby It's Hot Outside - A Sugar Mommies Drabble

Word Count: 1729

Rating: General with fluffy scenes. SFW!

Summary: The One Where MJ cares for you.

Dom!Natasha Romanoff, Dom!Wanda Maximoff, Dom!Carol Danvers x Sub!Reader

You can’t open the door to your own apartment. It’s your first sign that the headache you’ve had for the past hour might be transforming into a migraine. And it sucks. Pain resonates behind your eyeballs and you have to squint to see where the stupid moving lock is so you can get inside. 

Has it always been so low down? Surely not.

The key finally does its job and you’re allowed inside your own apartment, near collapsing on the floor as you go. 

Definitely too hot today. Seriously too hot. 

It’s your own fault really; your classmate in all her wisdom kept offering you caffeine and you, in all of your wisdom, kept accepting. 

So now you're coming down from the copious amount of caffeine, mix that with the grand total of 0 litres of water you’ve had as well as the sheer heat of the day, and it’s no wonder you feel like your head is going to explode. 

Mistakes have definitely been made. 

You somehow manage to get to your sofa, falling onto the not so soft cushions face first. The sudden dark does a lot to sooth your eyes and you don’t know how long you stay like that, only shifting slightly to breathe, until MJ nb udges your leg with her foot.

“Two people live here, y’know. Move over.”

You don’t even try to form a coherent reply, moving your heavy body like she asks, wrapping yourself up into a ball. The shiver that wrecks through your body trembles the entire sofa and MJ doesn’t seem to notice. She clicks on Netflix and settles with her hot chocolate, completely unaware of your dying state beside her. 

She glances your way when your phone rings, looking at the picture of Wanda as it flashes up on your cell. You don’t even move, eyes squinting shut against the dim light of the living room. For you, they feel like spotlights. 

You shift uncomfortably on the sofa. 

Your phone pings a minute later; a text from Wanda, asking you to call her ASAP, she’s having an icecream emergency - aka: she wants ice cream but Natasha and Carol won’t allow her. 

You know she’s messaged in your group chat because your phone begins to after every few seconds.

Why didn’t you mute your phone? Why?

It doesn’t take long for MJ to let out a frustrated sigh and kick her feet so they’re under her. Her toes tickle your right foot, making you jerk and when you still don’t make a move to check your phone, MJ does it again.

“Dude, answer them or I’m throwing your cell out of the window.”

It takes all of your energy to move, and even then, you misjudge the end of the sofa and almost faceplant the floor. 

With trembling arms, you struggle to hold your upper body weight and here is where MJ finally takes pity on you.

“This is painful, move.”

She snatches your phone for you and goes to pass it when she finally registers your appearance. 

“Woah…you’re not about to die on me are you? I’d have three pissed off women on my case if you do.” 

You shudder. MJ throws your phone aside and lifts you up by your armpits, settling you back on your original position on the sofa. 

“Y/N? What’s wrong?”

You can only shake your head. 

“I know this isn’t the time to notice this but that medicated deodorant you’re using really works, you’re bone dry!” MJ lets out a nervous chuckle. “Laugh, Y/N/N. You always laugh at my crappy jokes…even if they are pitiful…get it?” 

You don’t even smile as a response and MJ jumps to her feet.

“Oh my god, you are dying!” 

“...not…dying…sick…”

“You are sick, you feel sick or you’re going to be sick?” 

“...all of the above.” 

MJ falls over herself as she sprints into the kitchen. She returns with the anointed “puke bucket” which is a mixing bowl you had ended up using one time after too many shots. No sooner does she place it near your face, do you start to heave, body jerking gags where you think your stomach is going to come up out of your throat. 

She touches your forehead. 

“You’re burning up. Have you eaten something bad? Drank too much?” 

“...not…” You spit out a wad of saliva. “...enough.”

“You haven’t eaten enough?” Something in MJ’s brain clicks. “Please tell me you’ve been drinking water today, Y/N. Please.” 

You shake your head.

“I’d hit you if you weren’t so fragile. You’ve not drunk anything? Dude! It’s one of the hottest days of the year!” 

“I had…coffee and stuff…” 

You grimace and turn away from the bowl.

“You are actually going to die. They’re going to murder you, you know that? And then turn on me because I’m an unknowing accomplice. You’ve only had coffee all day? Y/N!” 

“Don’t tell them.”

“How can I not? They’re bound to ask where you are! And what if they make a surprise trip to see you? You’re not exactly in a fit shape to fuck right now, are you, Y/N/.”

“MJ -” 

“Fine. If they don’t ask I won’t tell them. Deal?” 

“Okay, deal.”

“Right, you - don’t move. Don’t die. I’ll get you some water and a fan. Or something.”

MJ gets your water first, filling it with ice before rethinking and dumping it down the sink; before stopping again and getting slightly less ice for your glass. 

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Now with a full drink, and a straw because why not, MJ places it in front of you with the strict instruction to “Sip it, don’t inhale it.” 

She takes your phone when your head is in the sick bowl and vanishes into her bedroom; unlocking it with your passcode and finding the group chat with your girlfriends. 

“Who’s the least terrifying? Natasha, no chance. Carol, maybe…Wanda…you’ll have to do.”

She picks up on the third ring. 

“Hi baby!”

“Hey to you too.” 

“…MJ?”

“Hi, the one and only.”

“Where’s Y/N? Not that I don’t appreciate talking to you but I’d much prefer to talk to my girlfriend.”

“She’s not…well. I told her I wouldn’t tell you but I’m genuinely worried about her.”

“What’s going on?” Natasha’s voice cuts through your phone speaker and MJ wants nothing more than to throw your phone away and hide under the nearest bed. 

“Michelle Jones, talk.” 

“I hate it when you do that.” MJ grumbles. “Y/N’s sick.”

“Sick, how?”

“God, she’s gonna kill me…erm,” MJ pinches the bridge of her nose. “She didn’t drink any water and I’m 90% sure she spent most of her day outside and it’s been super hot and she’s not well and I’m worried about her…I don’t know what to do.” 

Natasha is silent for a moment. 

“Stay with her. We’ll be there as soon as possible, understood? Let her sip, not inhale, at cool water. Not ice cold, it'll shock her system. Is she hot to the touch?” 

“She’s hot, yeah. And not in her usual way either.” 

“Get a damp cloth, that’ll help cool her off.” Natasha orders. “And MJ? Thank you for telling us.”

“Any…anytime I guess. Not that I want Y/N to get heat stroke or whatever it is again, ‘cos it’s scary and stuff but if she ever misbehaves again, you bet your ass I’ll be right on this phone to rat her out. I’ll even spank her for you if you can't get her fast enough.”

“MJ, breathe girl. Get some oxygen into those lungs. We’ll discuss this at a later date when you aren’t so frazzled. We’ll be there soon, okay? 30 minutes, max.” 

“Okay, yeah, okay. Bye.”

“Damp cloth and cool water, MJ.”

“On it.”

MJ’s hands tremble when she returns to you with the items; a regular glass of water in one hand and a semi filled bowl with a wet cloth in the other. She takes the iced water from you and replaces it; ordering you to sip it slowly while she pats your head with the washcloth. 

You do little to fight her.

“I’m not well, MJ.” 

“I know, Y/N/N, I know. But you’re gonna get better soon, yeah? Just try to relax as much as you can. Google says you should start to feel better in 30 minutes or so.”

She places the washcloth on the back of your neck.

It takes you 23 minutes to feel slightly more human.

It takes 24 minutes for the Trio! to get to your apartment. 

You can only stare as they walk inside, eyes locking onto your slouched form on the sofa with a straw between your lips.

You know you’re in for it when you’re better and you nervously swallow, offering them a sheepish smile.

“...hi…”

Wanda stares at your fragile state, a mixture of emotions clouding her eyes, from guilt to a slight twinge of insecurity. She wants to wrap you up and promise to be a better dom; for herself but most importantly for you.

Carol makes a beeline straight for you and starts fussing over you. She caresses your cheek and feels your forehead, frowning slightly, before reaching over for the washcloth. As she dabs at your face, wiping away the tears that tumble from your eyes, Natasha, with Wanda beside her, moves closer and places a gentle kiss on your damp temple. 

“Hey there, little kotenok, how are we feeling, hmm?” 

They’re there. Your trio. There to finally care for you and you instantly feel safe. Comforted by their presence and you reach out, grabbing the nearest body to drag them down on top of you. Wanda’s scent fills your nose and you nestle into her neck. 

“Am I in trouble?” you whisper and you can feel her grinning. 

“Oh yes,” she replies, “but not right now. Tomorrow maybe. But for now, rest sweet girl. We’re here.” 

You can only nod as Carol gently moves Wanda so she can scoop you up into her arms. 

As you’re carried away to your bedroom, you can see Natasha speaking quietly to MJ; and make the mental note to ask her what was said. But for now, you allow yourself to be carried away. Not even five minutes later, nestled against Wanda, you doze off with a smile.  

[original-character-championship]

Bracket F Round 1

Poll 20

Fiera Adele aka Foxglove (@karlyanalora) vs. Ramona "Rae" Driscoll & Alex Driscoll & Leroy Connolly & Galahad "Gale" Jenkins (@roseverdict)

359. Fiera Adele aka Foxglove (@karlyanalora)

She\Her

Fiera Adele is that cool aunt you can tell all your problems to, who’s always in your corner and always has your back. She can also kick major butt, but that’s just a bonus.

Fiera has always wanted to be a mom, but the stars have never aligned for that to happen. But you don’t have to have kids to be a mother; Fiera mothers anyone who needs it. But the needs of her “kids” always come first, so she usually helps them to find a family of their own, though she’ll always be there if they need her.

Fiera is a connecting character; she brings people together from all walks of life to work together on their common goals. She helps them get started and her end goal is always for them to be able to stand on their own without her and to be able to handle any future threats that might arise. Once they’ve dealt with the issue at hand, she moves on, looking for others in need. But should they need her, she’ll always answer the call.

As one of the earliest members of the superhero community, she’s been around a long time and knows a lot of folks. She’s fostered connections and communities across the globe and the stars.

While she’ll always answer the call, she’s downright awful at staying in touch. She’s very much a “out of sight, out of mind” person. She’s the kind of person who might not have seen you in years, but picks up a relationship right where it left off; the bond you shared hasn’t grown any weaker for her, though you might feel differently.

When Captain Carol Danvers left Earth to help the Skrull, Fiera caught wind and tagged along. She hasn’t been back to Earth since, and that was coming on three decades ago. The universe is a big place, full of people in need of help. She spent a good chunk of those three decades helping the Skrull.

She was paired with a spy named Dorcalon (yes, he’s heard all the jokes) and together they proved to be a mighty pain in the butt for the Kree. Their deep undercover work paid off and the Kree stopped chasing the Skrull. Sometime during their work together, Fiera and Dorcalon fell in love and got married. At that point, Dorcalon retired but Fiera felt the need to continue her hero work. She didn’t know who she was if she wasn’t helping. They were happily married for twenty years before Dorcalon’s past caught up to him. It’s been a few years since then, and Fiera is finally homeward-bound.

She’s picked up some hitchhikers of sorts, and they’re on a mission to free their family imprisoned on Earth. Fiera’s just there to help them out.

360. Ramona "Rae" Driscoll & Alex Driscoll & Leroy Connolly & Galahad "Gale" Jenkins (@roseverdict)

Rae: she/her (she doesn't really care though), Alex: they/them, Leroy: he/him, Gale: they/them/any

*slaps roof of the Core Four Meme Squad™* These dweebuses can fit so much chaos and love and high-intelligence high-wisdom high-dumbassery in them.

Rae, the big sister short aroace cyborg queen who's deaf and mute and has a sweet motorcycle! (say that five times fast) She's one of the sources of chaos in her friend group and got to be the emergency brakes that one time Gale decided to make their wheelchair rocket-powered for finals! She framed a shirt Alex made for her when they were kids!

Alex, the younger sibling who has no clue whether they even have a gender and is generally sensible and literally blind, but even they are not as metaphorically blind as Leroy used to be! They made Rae a shirt when they were little after she got in a bicycle accident, with text drawn on in puffy paint that said "My eye was already gone, I'm just stupit!"

Leroy, the one who thought he was cishet until he met Gale and realized "wait crap they're cute!" None orientation left Gale. Guy's got a System for near-everything and is the main voice of reason most of the time! Owner of the braincell!

Gale! The personification of chaos is real and they use a wheelchair! First met Rae and Alex as kids when they saw Rae's shirt! The trio were fast friends and stuck together through thick and thin, adding Leroy to their number in college! Had the bright idea to make their wheelchair rocket-powered for finals!

And yes, they (plural) fight a god. :)

Rae has red hair, a green right eye, a mechanical left eye like a camera aperture, a scar over that eye, pale freckled skin, and often wears green sweatpants or blue jeans and a green zip-up hoodie. Occasionally wears glasses (though only the right side is a prescription lens).

Alex shares a lot of the same features as Rae, though they don't have the scar or mechanical eye, and their hair only barely comes down to their chin. They often wear oversized yellow sweaters and jeans. (The Picrews depict them with glasses and/or sunglasses but I've since removed those from their design.)

Leroy is the pastiest white boy you ever did see (affectionate) with brown eyes, short brown hair, glasses, and bags under his eyes the size of texas. Often wears a red button-up shirt and jeans. Kinda looks like Onceler shipper bait.

Gale's got vibrantly-dyed bright blue hair and dark brown skin, and they often wear blue T-shirts and sweatpants. Their wheelchair has SOSOSO many stickers on it and it's their pride and joy.

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

[lunaraen]

I figure a number of the people following me probably do because of a shared interest in Minecraft: Story Mode, and I’m absolutely going to take the time to gush and recommend a different series with a similar sense of humor and ability to balance the jokes with emotion. I know some of the people who follow me are also interested in series like Percy Jackson and Trollhunters, and I think The Last Kids on Earth series is on a similar level to them too, in the sense that it deals with stories about awesome and terrifying adventures featuring teenagers who are just doing their best and who haven’t lost their senses of humor. The Last Kids on Earth also has the benefit of, while being presented mainly through text, having many fun illustrations.

TL;DR: The Last Kids on Earth, written by Max Brallier and illustrated by Douglas Holgate, is a delightfully fun book series that twists what you might expect from a post-apocalyptic story with a just as fun Netflix mini-series adaptation, and while only Book One is up on Netflix now, it’s an hour and seven minute long episode. The series seems to be decently stocked in most libraries, including electronically, so if you’re looking for something fun, silly, and with heart to read, I definitely suggest at least checking out book one. If you want something fun, silly, and with heart to watch, and you also happen to have Netflix, I also definitely recommend watching Book One.

(Oh, and are you a total sucker for found families like I am? This series has you covered.)

More details about the first book and examples of the art and writing under the cut!

For starters, the series has a wonderfully fun art style, and the cover for the first book lets that shine. The other books’ covers are all fun too, but I think tumblr would kill this post many times over if I tried to include them all.

[ID: Illustrated cover, four defiant teenagers stand in a mostly circular formation while grey zombie-like figures with glowing yellow eyes surround them from behind. Each teenager is wielding a weapon, some of which are partly concealed and harder to identify. The character centered at the front holds a splintered and sharp baseball bat and is wearing nondescript pouches. The teenager behind him wields a crossbow with a modified soda-bottle-arrow loaded in it. The title reads “The Last Kids on Earth” in stylized green text with a dark blue border, while in smaller less stylized white text it reads “Max Brallier Author of Galactic Hot Dogs” at the top and “Illustrated by Douglas Holgate” at the bottom.]

The main character of the series, who we meet forty two days after the start of the apocalypse in his town and the Possible End of the World as We Know It™, is Jack Sullivan, a 13 year old whose foster family kinda-sorta-entirely ditched him at the first signs of trouble.

[ID: A white, black haired teenager frowning and holding a splintered baseball bat and a hockey stick while one foot rests on top of an unusual spiny reptilian-like monster head. The text above him reads in black “JACK SULLIVAN -The Hero-” while a number of flavor-text text boxes point out and describe different aspects of his apparel. One pointing to his hand reads “Annoying hand-nail I can’t stop picking at”. Another pointing at his bat says “Louisville Slicer™”. Another for his shoe, reading “Worst. Shoes. Ever.”. The hockey stick is labelled “Hockey Stick, for conking zombie heads.” The pouch at his side are described as “Emergency Peanut M&M Pouch”, while the filled water balloons also hanging at his side are labeled as “Grapefruit juice hand grenades- a blast to the eyes blinds almost anything.”]

He’s our narrator, and he copes largely through humor- a skill he needs even before the start of the apocalypse, because he’ll put himself in danger and say things he shouldn’t if it means sticking up for his best friend.

[ID: Text that reads “I felt Quint’s hand on my shirt, trying to stop me, saying ‘Jack, it’s fine...’ But it wasn’t fine. I hate jerks- whether they’re monster jerks or zombie jerks or just regular human jerks.”

Followed by illustration of characters on bus, Jack turned around in his seat and supporting himself with the back of his chair as he asks “Hey, Dirk, why don’t you pick on someone your own size, huh?” Quint, a black teenager, is sitting behind him and is partly obscured, staring at Jack and Dirk. Dirk, a large, tall white teenager with a mullet/mohawk, is a distance away from the characters and in the foreground of the image, and replies, “Find someone my size and I will.”

Text resumes, reading “I shrugged. ‘I’m sure we can find someone your size. Right, Quint?’ Quint looked out the window and closed his eye and started humming to himself, like he wasn’t involved in this. Sonofa... I turned back to Dirk. ‘Maybe a very rotund panda bear? That might be closer to your impressive figure.’ Dirk reached out and grabbed me by the collar. ‘Hey, Watch the jacket,’ I said. ‘It’s a five-time-hand-me-down. Might even be an antique.’ Dirk growled, ‘You think you’re funny?’ ‘I do. But to be fair, I also think people slipping on ice are funny. And guys getting hit in the groin. My sense of humor isn’t exactly sophisticated.’”]

From the start of the book, Jack handles the apocalypse pretty well, spending his time cataloging the monsters he comes across, keeping track of self made video-game like achievements like knocking off zombie hats, and we first find him focused on trying to get in touch with his previously mentioned best friend, Quint Baker.

[ID: Similar to previous flavor-text text box picture of Jack, with a black teenager smiling, wearing a lab coat and cap, holding a pocket watch, and wearing a large backpack with odd looking technology sticking out of it. In black, the text above him reads “QUINT BAKER -The Best Friend-”. A box pointing to his hat reads “Old-man cap.” Another points to his hair, reading “Hair smells like movie theater popcorn butter.” The pocket watch is described as “Pocket watch for looking dorky.” The text pointing at the technology sticking out of the backpack says “Always working on a new gadget or experiment.” The text for the lab coat reads “Wears a lab coat as a jacket for no good reason.” His sneaker is labelled with “Non-athlete’s foot.”]

Actually- to give you an even better idea of the series’ humor, this is pretty much where we start with Jack, followed by him explaining what he’s been doing and how he got here.

[ID: Jack in mid-air, the bat raised above his head and his legs bent to suggest he has leaped forward, above a large multi-eyed spiny monster that has many sharp teeth, two large tusks, and a long drooling tongue. In black, text above the creature reads “Deadly Duel!” In the lower right-hand corner, all-caps white text in a small black box asks “Who will triumph?!”]

(By the by, the “duel” kind of goes the way you think it would.)

[ID: Text reading “Well, basically, he triumphs. The monster’s massive hand snatches me out of midair. I’m a thimble in his gargantuan grasp. I try to grab hold of my baseball bat blade (aka the Louisville Slicer) but the monster’s crushing grip pins my arms to my sides. He pulls me in close to his face. Thick saliva, like slime, oozes down his lips. His eyes scan me over and his gaping nostrils flair as he inhales my scent. I feel like that blonde babe in King Kong. Only I don’t think this beast wants to hug me and love me... He sniffs some more, blowing my hair back as he exhales. I turn my face. His breath, it’s just- wow- my man here needs to floss. I’ve encountered other freaky beasts over the last forty-two days, but none like this. None that examined me: looking me over, smelling me, studying me.”]

Then we get all the fun backstory end of the world stuff.

[ID: White all-caps text at the top reads “Total monster zombie chaos” while below a large multi-armed, spiny, sharp-toothed, furry monster towers over a sea of zombies, flinging one car in the air as another car sits in the background.]

The end of the world monsters include everything from weird unfamiliar creatures like the one above to more familiar weird creatures like the typical zombie below.

[ID: A zombie in ripped clothing, with black text at the top labeling it a “Classic Zombie”. A speech bubble from it in shaky text reads “Mmuhhh...” and various flavor-text text boxes surround it. The speech-bubble is labeled as “Constant, creepy moaning.” The head’s text box reads “Those empty eyes- they’re spooksville.” The mouth is pointed at and its box says “Bite you and you’re one of them. Undead!” One pointing at its back warns “Stink like hot garbage.” The feet are described as “Slow, until they get close- then fast!”]

And for all the wisecracks and jokes about how well he can handle the new apocalyptic world, early on Jack is shown to be more than just a 2-D smart-mouthing teenage protagonist. He’s pretty good at coping, but he’s still 13.

[ID: Illustration above text, showing a walkietalkie shattering as it hits a rock. Black all-caps text reads “Smash!”

Normal text reads “I stared at the walkie on the ground below. I needed to talk to Quint, but -I’m embarrassed to admit- I was too scared to go down there. Too freaked out. Too scared. Too everything. So I curled up on the floor. I pulled a jacket down over me. I put my earphones in to drown out the sounds of chaos outside. And I slept. I slept for days. It got worse. Zombies everywhere. Giant monsters on the horizon. I blacked out the tree house windows and stayed put.”]

Jack doesn’t stay alone for long, though, and the first book follows him and his friends as they help each other not only survive their crazy new world but also live in it, and maybe actually have some fun along the way. While the first book largely focuses on the group coming together, later stories ramp up the scope of adventures and the threats they face while letting the characters’ interactions and care for each other shine. There’s fun development to be had and cool monster-butt to kick.

(This was my first time writing image descriptions- if you think they can be improved, let me know!)

[softeddiek]

and it’s peaceful in the deep

reddie fic post ch. 2

i ended up writing about this post i made, because i apparently like hurting myself. just richie grieving aka me grieving 

3.8k words | read on ao3

He waits until everyone else has left town before he goes. (In the days leading up, he tries not to think too hard about how one of them isn’t leaving. One of them will never leave. He must repress that thought pretty damn hard for him to end up doing what he does.)

Bill leaves first. He’s stuttering out about his wife and needing to go see her—there’s a small part about a movie tacked onto the end, so small that, if he’d actually been paying attention to Bill when he said it, he would realize Bill almost gave less of a shit about the movie than Richie did. Almost.

Next is Bev and Ben. They don’t leave at the same time, though he knows they have plans to meet up together. (They would have left together, they would have, he just knows it. He wouldn’t have let Eddie leave Derry alone, not this time.)

Ben leaves before her, surprisingly. Derry had held bad memories for all of them, what with being terrorized by a fucking alien being or some shit guised as a clown not once, but twice. Bev especially though. But Ben leaves first. Something about getting his place ready. About taking their time, getting in contact with his lawyer, about her not going to her home just yet, not until Ben can fix things. Or that’s the gist of what Richie catches them murmuring about as they all eat dinner above the library in Mike’s cramped living quarters (They eat, but Richie finds he can’t. Not until he wakes up from a long fitful sleep, the ache in his stomach—the one caused by hunger—too much to ignore.), obviously not wanting the other three to hear too much.

(Richie does still hear some of it. They try to keep it quiet, they really do, but it’s just like the kiss in the quarry—he’d still seen it, even though it had been underwater. Still grits his teeth as he thinks about the plans he won’t get to make, the first kiss he won’t get to experience.)

Mike is last. Mike who had never left Derry, off to Florida, of all fucking places. It’s Mike that proves the trickiest to convince that he’s okay.

The Losers had still been somewhat in tune with each other even after nearly three decades, but Richie had always been good at fooling people. (He hears “fairy” being spit after him in his head, thinks of Pennywise floating above him, taunting him, and knows he hadn’t been able to fool everyone, not about everything—that had been his big fear after all, hadn’t it?)

So when he tells Bill and Bev and Ben that he had to get a later flight out—a mix up by his agent and no, really guys, he’s fine, he’s leaving this shithole as soon as he can, and yes, he’ll still call, and hey, why don’t you guys all come to his next show (you know, when he’s not too fucking traumatized and grieving to do one)—they believe him. They still send him wary looks, squeeze him a little longer than they ever did as kids when they hug him, but they leave all the same, doing their damn hardest to not look back, to move on from this place, again. Only with their memories intact and promises to see each other anywhere that isn’t here. They may have defeated It for good this time, but that could never erase the painful memories that this place holds. They didn’t need It to bring them forth for them. (He’s sure he’ll become all too familiar with those memories even when he’s far away from Derry again. A repeat of the nightmare that he’s just lived down in that well; the one scene from that night that’s been on a loop in his head—behind his eyelids when they close--since it happened.)

But Mike…Mike knows the look of someone reluctant to leave. He’d spent his whole life here after all, digging into the past, the only one to really remember them all, never leaving. Seeing each Loser leave Derry one by one, onto bigger things, forgetting each other and him.

He’s as jokey as he can be when trying to convince him he’ll be fine, but Mike doesn’t bite. He asks if he wants him to postpone his trip, to spend some time here in Derry with him helping him recover or, hell, even rerouting his plans and seeing California first (“They’re both sunny places, aren’t they?”). And Richie feels a pang in his chest over his friend worrying about him. Richie hasn’t had anyone to worry about him in a long time—not anyone that wasn’t paid to at least. (Not since the Losers but especially not since Eddie. Eddie’s worry had always felt so different, something nobody has been able to match even now. Not for Richie.)

But eventually something works. Whether it’s the fiftieth joke or the hundredth sigh, something he does makes Mike relent. A part of him screams at that, at the last of them finally leaving him alone in Derry. They all deserve to forget about It, he knows that, knows that he wants to as well. But why do they all just get to move on as if Eddie isn’t stuck here? Stuck beneath piles of rubble, down in the dark depths of the earth where It had lived and fed? Why do they get to go back to their wives, to each other, to new places and adventures, when Eddie will never get to? Why do they get to move on from Eddie—one of their best friends—just like that, and he doesn’t? (He knows why.)

A small part of him feels bad for not being this distraught over hearing about Stan. He tells himself it’s different—he didn’t see Stan murdered in front of his very eyes. Stan didn’t die trying to save him. He hadn’t gotten the chance to reconnect with Stan. He wasn’t in--.

It was different, but it didn’t mean he cared any less about Stan. Still, the part of him that’s actually able to process other things—the part of his brain that hasn’t found itself dedicated to dissecting that moment over and over again—still feels a little bad that his grief for Stan had found itself pushed to the side so easily.  

When Mike has left, texting their new group chat to let them all know he had safely boarded the plane (Richie responding with a few complaints about what a bummer it is his flight had to be so late, but not enough to overdo it) he goes.

Everyone in Derry knows the way to the Neibolt house. It wouldn’t have mattered if Richie had never stepped foot inside of the place—if It had never happened to them—everyone just knew about the dilapidated old house. Even so, he knew he’d never forget the way there, even if he came back to Derry a hundred times with his memory wiped clean of It. It had become engrained in there.

He drives there now, alone for the first time. When he gets there, he parks the car on the side of the street, across from what is left of the house. The city had been informed about the collapse, chalked it up to old infrastructure, and promptly left it alone. Glad to have wiped their hands of it finally; the eyesore that really must have been fucking with all of Derry’s small-town charm.

Flashes of the house go through his mind, in three different states, all progressively worse. In one second, he’s standing in front of it as a kid with his friends, bikes in a pile in front of the gate. Eddie with his fanny pack, right before his arm had ended up in a cast. Bev with her hair chopped short. Stan and Mike with nervous expressions. Ben, short and stocky, eyes flitting to Beverly every now and again, something that hasn’t changed. And Bill. Always the leader. Bill ready to charge in and take on It; wanting to save the many at the risk of the few.

He knows he’s bitter. It’s not Bill’s fault Eddie was dead. Not really. They all knew the dangers going into that house, every time. (Only why had it always been Eddie?) But the darkest parts of him that are still grieving can’t help but wonder what might have happened if Bill hadn’t rushed them into it the other night. If they had had more time to prepare or, fuck, to get Eddie’s face looked at. Maybe then he wouldn’t have been there at least, sitting in some emergency room getting his face stitched up instead, and it would have just been the five of them.

The younger Bill in his mind suddenly morphs into the older one, how he looks now. In his forties and still ready to charge in, leading the Losers. They’re missing one, and soon to be missing another.

Just as quickly as they came, those images disappear, and all he’s left looking at is that fucking pile of rubble. He clenches his jaw and turns to his rental car, grabbing a flashlight he’d lifted from Mike’s place out of the passenger seat. It’s evening now, the sun beginning to set beneath the trees, the chirping of crickets thrumming in the air.

Realistically, Richie can tell he’s going through some form of disassociation. Has been since the drive over, his detachment worsening upon seeing where the house stood. (Had it looked this bad in the dark that night?) He feels his feet moving as if on autopilot, stumbling against the pavement and into what’s left of the yard, with no care for whether or not the ground is stable.

His legs give out, knees buckling beneath him until they hit the ground, the impact reverberating throughout his body. The flashlight falls to the earth with a soft thump.

“I’m sorry,” he chokes out, tears pricking at his eyes. It all comes rushing out. “I’m so sorry, I tried to come sooner, I tried Eds, I really did, they wouldn’t let me.” He wipes harshly at the now falling tears on his face. “I’m gonna get you out man, I promise. Okay? You won’t have to stay in the dark. I know you hate the dark.”

He’s suddenly crawling forward to close the short distance between himself and the start of the pile, hands and jean-clad knees dragging through the dirt. When he reaches it, still kneeling, he doesn’t stop to come up with a plan, just dives headfirst into it, yanking haphazardly at wood and twisted metal, throwing pieces into a pile behind him.

(Years later, when he’s grown used to reliving that night in his nightmares, he will realize just how very far down they had been, how deep It’s lair had gone. He would know then how absolutely futile that trying to dig down there—by hand no less—was. But now all he can think of is being ten and having a sleepover at Bill’s with Stan and Eddie—a rare thing on account of Eddie’s mom. Bill and Stan had long fallen asleep and Richie himself was just on the brink of it when he realized that, beside him, Eddie was still tense and awake. He’d stayed up talking with him for another hour until Eddie had managed to fall asleep, not mentioning it the next day and keeping it to himself even a few months later when he spotted a nightlight in Eddie’s room.)

(There are a lot of things he didn’t mention to Eddie, he thinks bitterly.)

He keeps going, dirt shifting as he drags unwilling pieces of that house away. Part of his mind is flitting through tools that will be needed—something for digging, something big, something that can go deep—but the most prominent voice in his head, the one pushing him through this impossible task, just whispers, Eddie, Eddie Eddie. It’s that voice that makes him ignore the sweat dripping down his forehead, stinging his eyes, mixing with the dried tears that have left his face feeling tight; the voice ignoring his quickly burning arms.

He jerks upright to his feet, tripping toward the progress he’s made to yank at a larger piece of wood in the pile—like cleaning up the pieces of a rotted corpse, he thinks, letting out a shaky breath. He grabs onto the board, tugging to dislodge it, his motions jerky and uncoordinated with fatigue, when he stumbles backwards. The board comes with him, landing on his stomach and knocking the wind from him, while his right hand reaches out behind him to stop his fall, instead connecting with the end of a nail jutting out from a nearby piece of wood he’d already put to the side.

“Motherfucker,” he yells out, the nail cleanly piercing through his palm upon impact, the most he’s been able to feel all night.

He can feel his breath coming out in short pants, eyes wide, adrenaline rushing through him alongside shock as he quickly jerks his hand back up, the nail exiting the same way it entered. He bites down on the inside of his cheek, hard, drawing the metallic tang of blood.

He lifts the now shaking hand to his face, seeing blood oozing from the wound through the thick lenses of his glasses.

All of a sudden, he can hear Eddie’s frantic voice, clear as day. “What the fuck man, wrap your hand up, quick! You need to go to the emergency room before you get tetanus. If you wait too long, you’ll get a fever and, and your muscles will start twitching and shit, and you’ll die.”

His lips begin turning upward into a smile, quickly overtaken by a grimace, while his eyes close, focusing on Eddie’s admonishing tone of voice. A voice he’ll never hear again.

He’d always thought that when one part of your body was hurting, that if you hurt another, you would no longer be able to focus on the original pain. Well, that was fucking wrong, because it’s like putting that nail through his hand heightened the rest of his senses, and he can feel the wound in his hand on top of his aching arms and the pounding headache he apparently has.

He lifts his left hand away from where it’s putting pressure on the right, struggling to lift it up enough and tear off a strip of his shirt. When he’s managed a poor attempt at wrapping up his palm, he just sits, unable to make himself get up and leave for the hospital.

(He had fucking waited. He waited for them all to leave. He was the only one willing to go back for Eddie, he’d promised. He can’t leave him down there.)

He doesn’t know how long he actually sits there, hand on fire, arms weighed down like lead. It had been dark when he’d stabbed himself. His flashlight still sits a few feet away, unused, his eyes having grown adjusted to the dark and dim lighting from the moon as the sun had set. It feels like it’s only been a few minutes but, in reality, it must have been hours. The air is cooler, and he can hear the chirping of birds, as if heralding the sun and, with it, a new day. He shakes his head, astounded at how he’s managed to completely zone out, sitting through the pain of his hand. He had thought about nothing--it’s like an entire night has been stolen from him. Had he fallen asleep; eyes open? No. He couldn’t have. No way would he have had a dreamless sleep, especially not here.

It’s the longest he’s gone without thinking of Eddie since that night, he realizes. He can’t help but laugh. How fucking ironic that he’d finally be able to escape from the thoughts haunting him when he’s literally sitting atop Eddie’s grave.

His eyes roam back over the pile of rubble that was once a house. He swallows heavily, eyes closing as his mind finally catches up with his actions. Impossible, it whispers. Literally fucking impossible.

He feels more tears springing free now, amazed that he has any left in him, and presses his palms hard into both eyes, relishing in the pain he feels from the pressure on them and the fire radiating from his hand. He can feel something sticky on his cheek, blood most likely.

Such an idiot, he thinks. He wonders what might have happened if only he’d stopped trying to cling to Eddie’s body, instead using his energy to get the others to carry him. To bring him back up then. The rational part of him knows that wouldn’t have been possible—they didn’t have the time or the energy. (That darker, worse part of him wonders what would have happened if he’d have been able to resist his friends pulling him away from Eddie—to stop himself from following them out as the rocks rained down. Would they have come back for their bodies if it was two of them? Was two the magic number that Bill thought was worth risking it for?)

He shakes his head, telling himself to stop redirecting his anger at his friends. The thing he should really be angry at is dead, destroyed forever.

And Eddie is below, forever. There’s no way of getting him, Richie. That’s where he has to stay.

“It’s just a body. It’s just a body. It’s just a body,” he chants lowly to himself, over and over again.

It’s fucked up, ultimately. Eddie will have to stay buried there. There’s nothing Richie can do about it. Even if the other Losers were with him, digging, there’s nothing they could do about it either. And, everyone ends up in the dark eventually, right? Whether in a casket or in a furnace; in a shallow grave or deep down in the lair of some demented space clown. It’s not like Eddie could literally see himself sitting in the dark. What mattered was how Richie was viewing it. He’d been projecting his own thoughts—how he thought his Eddie would feel stuck down there. And yeah, it’s super fucked up. Eddie would agree if he could. But he would just have to try to get over it—to try his hardest to stop remembering Eddie’s lifeless body, all alone as those rocks came down, and instead remembering him how he knew him best—things about Eddie that his mind had slowly been reminding him of since they had returned to Derry.

With a cast on his arm. With his fanny pack. His polo shirts and too short shorts. A sneaky grin on his face. His mouth downturned when he was pouting. His hands, dragging his inhaler up to his mouth, panic settling on his face over some minor incident. His laughter as he jumped into the quarry with his friends, splashing each other on a hot summer day. His calm smile as he looked back at Richie, pedaling down the road on their bikes with their friends.

The older Eddie. His face more weathered, his spirit more beaten, but still the same Eddie. Those same wide eyes filled with laughter. That same bossy tone and sarcastic attitude that would come out when Richie would say something dumb.

(Later, he will think of an even older Eddie. The one he might have had. But for now, his mind spares him that thought.)

He looks a few yards to his left, spotting a familiar patch of wildflowers. He has a faint memory of there being more around the overgrown yard than there are now. He stumbles to his feet, weak from all of the physical exertion and lack of food over the past few days yet, somehow, he manages to reach them. He yanks a few out of the ground with his good hand, roots and all.

He stands in front of what was once Neibolt house, not daring to kneel again lest he be unable to get back up. Setting the flowers down gently, he closes his eyes, taking in the gentle rays of the sun beginning to peak past the horizon.

“I love you Eds. Always have,” he lets out on a sigh. “I’m not sure when loving you turned into being in love with you but…I just know I’ve felt that way for a very long time. Even if I forgot. And maybe if I had told you, you wouldn’t have cared. Or maybe you would have. Or maybe you would have been grossed out, fuck, I don’t know.” He lets out a humorless laugh. “I like to think you would have felt the same but…. I’m just sorry I never got the chance to tell you before everything happened. So, I’m telling you now. My agent always did tell me to work on my timing,” he lets out a weak grin. “You’ll be okay here.” He shakes his head up and down slowly, as if reassuring himself. “Your body might be here, but you’ll always be with me Eds, promise.”

He clenches his jaw and allows himself to stand there for one last moment. Tears in his eyes, he swallows down the lump in his throat and hurries away, back toward his car. He yanks open the door, and plops into the seat, letting out a strangled cry before starting the engine, ready to get away from this house once and for all.

--

It’s only a day and a half later when he finds himself finally making his way out of town, right hand bandaged up, arm still sore from the tetanus shot he’d received at the hospital. When he pulls to a slow stop on the bridge, it’s with that hand that he puts the car into park. Leaving the engine on, he gets out and makes his way toward the side of the bridge; a spot he hasn’t stood in in decades.

The letters are still there, well faded into the wood with time, but still legible. He would’ve been able to find the spot with his eyes closed. As he crouches in front of the wooden planks, he feels it all rushing back to him. The guilt, the shame. The fear. He thinks about Stanley’s letter that his agent had had forwarded to him. He thinks about being brave.

As he presses his knife back into the carved R and E, separated only by a plus sign, he doesn’t think of Eddie’s body. He doesn’t think of his final resting place. He thinks about Eddie and all of the time they did have. He thinks of Eddie, his best friend. Eddie, the first boy he ever loved. He just thinks of Eddie.

He lets out a shaky breath, looks at that R+E one last time, searing it into his memory once again, and turns back toward his car, deciding to be brave.

[bookworlders]

are you ever going to finish of corporate scandals?

yes! one day! but not today lol here’s a new percabeth au instead! it’s based off the movie The Wedding Date. 

Annabeth’s old camp buddies, Piper and Jason are getting married and the whole gang is reuniting for the celebration. Luke is her ex who broke her heart, and she refuses to show up alone to their wedding so she takes her roommate’s advice. She hires a fake boyfriend. 

part 1

Annabeth checked and rechecked the tickets in her hand. The 5:15PM Long Island Rail Road from Penn Station to Montauk. Platform 7. She had that info submitted to memory from the moment she bought the tickets. Her phone buzzed. Her hand flew to her jacket pocket. A boarding notification. She exhaled, glad it wasn’t the “Hey, this plan is crazy and so are you, I’m out!” text she had been expecting.

“Annabeth?”

She whirled around, dragging her suitcase along with her. Oh gods, he was taller than she remembered. And much more handsome. “Hi.”

“Sorry I’m late, babe.”  grabbed her waist and kissed her.

~

“Honey, I’m home!” Rachel yelled, kicking off her red rainboots and dumping her keys on the dining table. Annabeth waved at her from the couch, motioning to her phone.

“Who is it?” Rachel asked, already stalking across their apartment to the kitchen to rummage for food.

“Piper,” Annabeth mouthed. She covered the receiver, “Rach, if you’re looking for the leftovers from yesterday, they’re long gone.”

“You bitch.” She swung open the refrigerator.

“What—No, of course I’m paying attention, Pipes—Yeah, got it, dress rehearsal is at seven, pictures on Sunday at ten.”

“Bridezilla come out yet?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Piper was the most laid-back bride in the world. She covered the receiver again, “More like Groomzilla.” Rachel laughed, as Piper continued to rattle off the list of appointments Jason had asked her to pass along to Annabeth. “Listen, Pipes, I have to go. Facetime me during your fitting tomorrow. Love you. See you soon. Bye.”

Annabeth tossed her phone on the coffee table before walking into their tiny, Manhattan-sized kitchen to join her roommate. “How was rehearsal?” Annabeth asked, leaning against the counter as Rachel scarfed down leftovers she managed to dig out of their fridge.

“Terrible. How was your day?”

“Also terrible.”

“Why? Remote wedding planning not working out?”

“No, the wedding is going to be perfect. I’m an awesome bridesmaid even though I’m across the country from them. It’s just, you know, certain people…”

“Luke.”

“Yes, Luke. He’s going to be a groomsman now.”

“Oof.”

“So now I won’t just have to bear seeing him at the wedding. He’s going to be there all weekend for all the wedding prep.”

“I’m sure Piper and Jason will know not to put you in a situation where make you have to interact.”

“Still! I haven’t seen him since he, you know. And this is the first time I’m going to see so many of our friends again since the breakup. There’s no way he’s not bringing a date. I can’t show my face! My pathetic, single face.”

“Then you bring a date! Show up with some hot arm candy and show him.”

“The wedding is next week! Where am I going to find a date?”

“Doesn’t matter as long as he’s hot.”

“Also, if I do somehow meet someone in the next week, I can’t bring them to a wedding. Wedding’s are not first date material. Wedding’s say, meet my parents, I want commitment! And we all know how guys feel about fucking commitment,” Annabeth spat out, “No guy would go to wedding as a first date.”

“He would if you paid him,” Rachel scoffed, “Or slept with him.”

Annabeth smacked her arm, “Stop joking! You know what, I’m tired of talking about this, it’s stressing me out.” Annabeth wrenched open the freezer and grabbed her emergency pint of half-baked Ben & Jerry’s. “How was rehearsal?”

“Lousy. I still can’t believe you’re going to miss my show.”

“I’m coming to opening night!”

“Yeah, but it’s an off-off-Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet I needed you to come every night to fill the house so at least we know for sure we’ll have an audience.”

“You won’t need me. Shakespeare always draw a crowd.”

“This is going to be the worst show I’ve directed ever. Grover got poison ivy, poison oak, and poison fern believe it or not, so I had to find an understudy last minute. I specifically told him not to hook up with his girlfriend in Central Park.”

“I’m sure it will be great.”

“Let’s just hope Juliet doesn’t get poison fern.”

Annabeth was the only one in a crowd of about seventeen who gave the cast a standing ovation, but she didn’t care. In this basement theater of a rec center in Washington Heights, seventeen was basically a full house.

“Great job!” Annabeth said, hugging her roommate and thrusting a bouquet of sunflowers, Rachel’s favorite, into her arms. She and a couple of the actors’ friends and family members had been invited to the ‘cast party’ after the show — aka pizza and soda in another room of the rec center.

“Thanks, Annabeth. You really liked it?” Rachel said, beaming as various crew members patted her on the back as they went to grab pizza.

“Yes! The decision to set the play in a post-apocalyptic, Game of Thrones¬¬-y Verona was so cool. And the actors were phenomenal. Even when that magician walked right onto the stage. The way they improvised—”

“It’s because it’s happened before! People also book birthday parties here and they get the rooms confused! During our tech rehearsal, a clown walked in!”

“Well, your show was amazing. I’m so proud,” Annabeth said, sincerely. “Your cast was great.” Over Rachel’s shoulder she spotted the actor who played Romeo talking with brown-haired woman and man with glasses and salt and pepper hair. “Especially Romeo.”

Rachel beamed, glancing over her shoulder at him, “I know right! Wasn’t he amazing? He’s the understudy!”

“No way,” Annabeth said. His performance had been captivating to say the least. His monologues as Romeo were enough to make Annabeth swoon.

“His name’s Percy,” Rachel lowered her voice, “I love Grover, but I’m almost bummed his poison ivy rash is almost cleared up.”

“How did you find him?”

“Our theater major alumni Facebook group. He’s a friend of Grover’s.”

“And he willingly memorized a lead part’s lines in a Shakespearean play in less than a week?” Annabeth asked, incredulous.

“You know actors, Annabeth, they’ll do anything for a gig. Especially a paid one.” Rachel said, “I have to go talk to my stage manager, go get pizza!”

Annabeth walked over to the table spread with food. Pizza, chips, various dips, soda, utensils and blue cookies? As Annabeth filled a red solo cup with lemonade, her eye wandered back to Romeo. The couple, his parents she assumed, had left, and he was now chatting with the actress who played Juliet.

He was so handsome. Actors always were. Tall, dark-haired, green-eyed. Dreamy. He definitely would still be taller than her in the stilettos the bridesmaids were wearing. If only she could roll up to the wedding with someone like him on her arm…

Annabeth shoved him away, “What are you doing?”

Percy looked at her, confused, “Um? I’m your…boyfriend?”

“We don’t have to start now. Not until we get to the wedding.” Annabeth straightened her blazer. She thrusted his ticket into his hands, and extended the handles of her rolling suitcase, “Come on, they’ve already started boarding.”

Percy followed her, smoothly taking her suitcase from her and loading it up the steps of the train for her. She shot him a look.

Percy lowered his voice, following her through the aisle of the train car, “Any of the other wedding guests could be on this same train, we don’t want to ruin this before it even starts.” Annabeth chose two seats at the back of the train car. She slid into the window seat. Percy lifted her suitcase and his oversized duffle bag into the overhead compartment with ease.

“It’s Thursday and the wedding isn’t until Sunday. The only people heading up there now are in the wedding party, mostly out-of-towners, and they all flew in this morning,” Annabeth said, curtly. She tried to remain cool even though she was feeling so flustered by him. She could barely even look him in the eye. She felt so embarrassed even though this was her damn idea.

“You look very nice.”

Annabeth flushed. “Thank you,” she muttered. Her hair was frizzy after commuting in the midsummer humidity straight from her office building to Penn Station, but she knew she looked good today. She smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her cream pencil skirt.

His hair was messier and curlier than it was the night of the play, contrary to his Romeo’s gelled down locks. He looked so relaxed and cool in a button down with the sleeves rolled up and navy shorts.

“Okay,” Percy said, shifting towards her as the other passengers began to fill up the remaining seats. “Debrief me. What’s my job? Where am I from? How did we meet?”

Annabeth stared at him. “You’re Percy, an actor from New York. We met at my roommate’s show.” Duh?

“Come on, no cool backstory for me to try method acting?”

“No, the most convincing lies are closest to the truth,” Annabeth replied, “And I need this to be convincing.”

“I want a challenge.”

“Isn’t pretending to be my boyfriend enough of a challenge?”

Percy grinned, “Shouldn’t be that hard.”

Annabeth flushed again, “Then why exactly am I paying you $2,000?”

“Like you said, I’m convincing,”

“Please have your tickets out. Next stop is Babylon.”

Annabeth looked out her window as the platform fell away into the darkness of the tunnels. The train gained speed and made its way out of Manhattan.

When Annabeth awoke, the LIRR train was no longer underground, but racing through the tracks of Long Island. The train ride to Montauk was three hours long so the last rays of sun had just disappeared.

Annabeth glanced over at Percy, also was dozing away, head tilted back and mouth fully open. He really was so attractive. Tan, chiseled face with a jaw some women would murder for, but he still had a boyish softness to his expression, especially when he slept.

“Next stop, Montauk.”

Annabeth nudged him. Percy blinked groggily and cracked a goofy grin when he saw her looking at him.

“You drool in your sleep.”

[lethal-chiralium]

Honestly | {p.p.}

A/N: okay so this is freakin cute and I love it sm ❤️❤️ this is for @spectacular-spiderboy’s 600 follower celebration!!!! Congrats btw!!!!!!

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Prompt: “Spoilers.” (its bolded and underlined)

Word Count: 4481

Warnings: sass, cussing, cold, hypothermia, blood??? there’s fluff if you squint

Summary: so basically they’re arch nemeses and they have to go on a mission together and stuff happens and (spoilers ;))

(GIF’s not mine!! It’s @starksparker ‘s!!)

“Little Stark.” Peter Parker welcomed you coldly as you sat in between MJ and Ned at your lunch table, you roll your eyes. “Webslinger.” You snark, setting down your lunch tray and backpack, you pulled out your book and began to read. MJ snickered, shaking her head as she read over your shoulder, Ned sighed as he continued to explain something to Peter. “You know, just because memes are a viral language doesn’t mean you have to spew them from your mouth 24/7.” You say blankly, and Ned snickered. Peter snorted. “I don’t talk in memes, Y/N, for your information. Keep reading your stupid book.” “Reading Agatha Christie is stupid, really? She’s the best, that’s the tea.” “I’m gonna kill you.”

You and Peter Parker weren’t exactly friends, but you were arch nemeses. You hated each other, but not enough to kill each other, but both of you were very competitive. Sure, you’ve tried to strangle him but he was lucky your father was there to save him. You both fight each other to be the best in your father’s eyes, even though he thinks both of you are the best, but he won’t stop you. You know that he finds it funny, but that won’t stop you; that little Spider-Prick is trying to steal your spotlight. Tomorrow was Saturday, and that meant a mission for you. You figured it would be a perfect time to show how strong you are to your father and his colleagues; you were ready for tomorrow. You were accompanying Steve, Bucky, and Tony to Siberia to locate and destroy old Hydra bases; something easy since the Avengers had just killed off the rest of Hydra two weeks ago. You had fought in the battle with Bucky, and unfortunately, Spider-Man. You hated him with a burning passion, you wanted to squish him just like one of his spider-kin. That was your only goal as of then.

*** “Shit, it’s cold.” You muttered as you glanced over the temperature on the Quinjet. It had displayed the temperature around the grounded jet to be two degrees Fahrenheit, and you were suddenly regretting your begging and pleading. “Regretting being with the big leagues, Y/N?” Peter joked from across the Quinjet, and you rolled your eyes. “I was with the big leagues before you even knew about the Avengers.” You mocked him, rubbing in his face that you knew them longer and better than he ever will. You glanced over your shoulder to Peter, who rolled his eyes as the three adults were unbothered. Tony was getting set up to leave, you were swatting away your nervousness about the cold. The sun was due to rise in an hour, and yet everyone was quiet, Tony was nervous about you going but you assured him time and time again that you were going to be fine. He was in his suit, while you were in your leather suit; it mirrored Natasha’s since you’ve been training with her since you were ten. She was (and is) your best friend, you’ve always wanted to mirror her. Steve and Bucky were ready to go, and so was Peter. He was just waiting for your father to lead. “Alright, let’s get a move on. We’ll be in two groups. Barnes, Steve, and I will be going in first and we’re going right, you two are to go to the left. When we get at least a hundred feet away, you are to start patrolling. If you find something, call me. If you’re in trouble, call me. If you can’t find us on the map, don’t call me. Just come back to the Quinjet. We are to meet here by dusk. Is that clear?” Tony’s voice was harsh, commanding, and you nodded. So did Peter, he glanced to you before looking to your father, you scoffed. You didn’t backtalk your father, you knew better. You just questioned his sanity with putting you and your arch nemesis on the same team. He glanced to you, giving you the ‘don’t be a prick’ glare he always does before he pulled on his Iron Man helmet, its lights coming to life with a flash of white light. You get up from your seat, and you grabbed your backpack that sat near your feet. You slid your bag onto your shoulders, then you walked towards the massive open pantry where your white, fleece and wool poncho hung. You grabbed it and pulled it on, just in time, seeing that Tony had now began to open the back of the Quinjet. You felt the absolutely frozen air hit you in the face and you shivered, only to pull up the hood on your poncho and place your hands in its giant pocket. It was basically a massive sweatshirt without sides and was amazingly warm, but it still felt like you got hit in the face with a bunch of ice cubes. You fished out your own mask, one that encapsulated the front of your face except for your forehead, and placed it on your face, hearing it automatically click onto your leather suit underneath. Your hand slid up the right side of your head, pressing the small button twice to power it on. A bright light flashed, and now the dark outside was green, but you could see everything. You could see some screens of your health and locations of Tony, Steve, Bucky and ‘Spiderling’, as well as their health statuses. You had this because you were the most trained medically, other than Doctor Strange and Bruce. But on this mission, you were playing first responder. Your boots sounded heavy against the metal, seeing that you were the last one aboard. But, you were walking down the ramp right after Bucky, who was in a Bomber Jacket. As long as you’ve known the secluded assassin, you’ve had the common ground of hating any temperature below sixty degrees. He was now catching up to Steve and Tony, who were almost fifty feet ahead, while you slowly felt the first crunch of snow underneath your boots. You were now three feet away from the ramp, and you looked to your right to see Peter glancing around. He was only a few feet away, but he was admiring the view through his glowing masked eyes. You shook your head, as you heard the ramp begin to close, leaving you and Peter alone in the unforgiving cold. Peter coughed slightly, before he looked back down to you. “Are...Are you ready to go?” You shrugged, the wind nipped at your nose and cheeks. “I’m ready to patrol with an actual Avenger.” He scoffed, you could hear his eyes rolling. “Whatever. They’re almost two hundred feet out, we might wanna head our way.” You shook your head again, and you turned towards the left, starting to walk towards the snow-blanketed forest. The crunch of snow began to double as Peter followed you, and he soon caught up to you, walking step by step with you. “So, what are we even supposed to look for?” Peter asked, and you scoffed. Of course he would forget. “We’re looking for any buildings that look like they’re rundown, it’s one of the main ways to camouflage. Dad and Steve and Bucky are going North, there was more of them up there. There was only one or two on the map that I saw around our location.” You spoke through the comms, blinking widely to look around the forest. Sunrise was due in an hour, so it was still severely dark in the forest, but your night vision made it perfect to see everything. Spiderling had half-night vision, since his eyes are too delicate to use a higher rate of night vision like you and your father can (Aka, you and your father spend days in front of computers, it’s not surprising). “Do you want me to get on the trees and look for the buildings?” Peter suggested, you rolled your eyes. “I’m not climbing up a tree to fix a broken wrist, you’re staying on the ground with me, you fuckin’ weirdo.” You barked harshly, yet quietly, as not to alert anyone in the vicinity. “Wow, don’t have a better insult?” Peter giggled, and you rolled your eyes. He always riled you up. “I will put your night vision at full max and kill your vision.” “Woah woah woah, kids, don’t kill each other yet.” You hear Bucky’s voice in your earpiece, and you growled in distaste. “We’re getting snow up here, just a flurry. I’ll contact you if it get worse.” You huffed, cradling yourself even tighter to keep your cold body warm.. “Okay, be safe. Going offline, emergency contact will reach only me.” “Good luck, kids. Call us if you need us.” Bucky’s voice then disappeared, as you shut off your signal. You looked to your right at Peter, he cocked his head to the side. “Turn off your signal, dude. They’ve got signal readers for a reason.” You rolled your eyes before looking ahead as you walked through the freezing forest. But that’s when you saw movement. “Shit.” The air around the two of you tensed, as you see a figure appear around a tree, and you bolted forwards. Your hand went straight to your waist, where your weapon belt was concealed by your poncho. Peter was right on your heels, both of you were quick and agile, taking down the Hydra bases would be a piece of cake. But, you had be faster with this guy, it felt like he was already a mile ahead. “This guy’s fast, take to the trees, Spiderling.” You commanded, and Peter yelled a short, “You got it!” as you heard the rustle of trees and a deep crunch of snow. Your hand grabbed the small cylinder that was strapped to your belt and you yanked it down, and your fighting stick, as you called it, was ready to beat someone’s ass. It was made out of Vibranium, it was a gift from Princess Shuri in Wakanda. And it was your favorite weapon by far, since it only took a few hits to take Peter down (he was taking it easy on you, but you didn’t need to know that). Your hand gripped it tightly as you followed the man, but you always checked your surroundings. You kept your eyes on him as you followed him through trees, until you both reached a massive clearing that extended down the Belukha Mountain and into the Atlai Mountain Range. It was like a path, like going down a hiking trail with a path. It was just snow, down a winding, wooded path to the massive valley. The guy had looked back to you for a split second, slowing down, and you gained at least three feet towards him before he sprinted down the mountain. You sprinted after him, down the dangerous path. It was slick, and you knew you were going to break a bone if you didn’t land right. But you pressed on, sliding down some of the path and cutting every curve of the path through the trees. He was closer now, he was growing tired and you weren’t; your stamina was higher than Natasha’s, you could run a lot longer than Sam or Tony. You were ready to pounce on this guy, but you didn’t see the gun he was pulling from his waistband until he turned a sharp corner into the forest, while you almost hit a tree. Your feet slipped and your head almost hit the stump of the tree, and you let out a sharp growl in shock. You looked towards the direction he was going, only to growl in dismay. Your hand went to your mask, and you pressed the communication button that went to Peter. “Fuck, I lost him.” “Where are you? I lost sight of you ten minutes ago.” Peter’s voice was a little distorted, and you began to breathe heavily from the sudden stop. “I don’t know, I’m down the mountain, there’s this winding path. Where are you? Your comm sounds distorted.” You sighed, placing your hand on your hip. Peter sighed. “Is it snowing there?” You looked up and around, seeing the daze of massive snowflakes, slowly falling to the ground. You cleared your throat. “Yeah, why?” “It’s like a fucking blizzard here, I’m webbing away and I think I’m close to the path you’re talk about. Stand in the middle of it, I shou-” You didn’t hear him after you suddenly heard gunshots, and you bolted forwards, out of the forest and down the mountain again. You didn’t even look back as you heard a flurry of bullets zip past you, you ran fast and hard, cutting curves and through the trees. You wanted to stay and fight, but you’d rather not get shot...again. Last time, it was hella painful. “Kinda can’t do that!” You squealed, as you grabbed onto a tree to swing yourself around a curve. “Got someone shooting at me!” “On it!” Peter answered sharply, and you kept running. The bullets kept coming and coming, your heart was in your throat and your head was pounding. You held onto your staff tightly, as you looked around as you sprinted through the trail. You couldn’t see buildings, anything other than trees. “Keep running, Y/N, I see ‘em. Don’t stop ‘til I tell you, yeah?” “Whatever keeps me un-shot!” You screeched, before diving through a wall of trees and back into the obstacle of the forest. It was only twenty feet until the cleared area of the path was placed, but you could hear the gunshots suddenly stop. You kept going, though, your feet were growing tired but you kept going until you heard Peter say, “Stop running, Y/N. You’re in sight.” You slammed to a stop as you jammed your staff into the snow, slowing you down immediately. Your hands gripped the staff so tightly, you could feel your pulses in them. In fact, you could feel your pulse everywhere, but mostly on your side. You let out some heavy breaths as you heard Peter’s footsteps and his commentary, “Shit, the snow’s coming. I was up there a few minutes ago and it was turning into a blizzard, that means Mr. Stark- Shit, you’re bleeding!” You looked to Peter, a confused look on your face. “I’m not fuckin’ bleeding-” You looked down to your white poncho, only to see that red was seeping through on your right side, and that was when the pain hit you like a train. It was burning, but yet it was freezing due to the blast of cold Siberian air. “Oh fucking fuck, come on!” Peter didn’t laugh, he only moved forwards and grabbed your shoulders, making you look to his mask. He moved you backwards to a tree, and forced you down, you let out a loud squeal in pain. He mumbled his apology as he pulled back your poncho to see how bad it was. But he looked back to you, then towards the gray mountain. It was supposed to be sunrise in half an hour- “Shit, the storm’s coming in.” Peter muttered before he looked at you. You were breathing heavily, your staff still in hand, seeing that he forced you to drag it away from where you stabbed it into snow. “I-I looked on the map before I found you, there’s an abandoned warehouse down a little ways. It’s not Hydra, it was cleared a couple weeks ago, the bases we’re looking for are farther up but I’m not taking you into the storm.” You growled, glaring at him through your mask. “We need to get back to the Quinjet.” “But we can’t. We could get ambushed or get separated. That wound needs attention in somewhere where it isn’t almost twenty mile per hour winds. Can you stay here alone for a bit?” He spoke harshly, and you kind of bit your tongue. You knew you couldn’t argue, so you nodded. He sharply nodded back before saying, “I’ll be back in less than ten minutes.” And he looked up, shot his webs, then he was gone again. You sighed out a pained breath, placing your poncho closer to your body. You moved up against the tree, remembering that your backpack was still strapped to your back as you moved against it. You growled in pain, looking around to see if anyone was coming after to you. But, you didn’t have to wait long when you saw the red and blue suit appear in front of you once more. His hands pulled you from your spot, and carefully into his arms. You hissed in pain, wanting to punch him for picking you up but you know he was doing it to protect you. *** After Peter had patrolled the warehouse, he was back with you at the backwall of the massive warehouse he had found. It was as tall as a two story house and was as long as three houses, give or take. But, you sat at the backwall, cleaning the graze with some alcohol pads you had in your first aid kit. He was watching you bandage yourself up, and holding your flashlight for you. You both were silent, as you cut the bandages with your Swiss knife, and placed the excess and your knife back in your backpack. You looked to Peter, who sat only two feet away from you. Your back was against the wall, pain running through your body, and you wanted to curl into a ball and cry, but you wouldn’t let Peter see you weak and vulnerable. Peter cleared his throat as he turned off the flashlight, now the only light left around you guys was the glowing snow outside. It was like a hurricane of snow, a white blanket was on every window and the wind howled against the warehouse. “Karen says that you’re getting colder, didn’t you bring some clothes with you?” You nodded, and Peter grabbed your bag from you, only to pull out the small blanket and sweatshirt you brought. He sighed. “I know those looks, Y/N, but I can’t let you get hurt or die. I’m being nice because we are alone and we have no contact with Mr. Stark. I’ve been trying to call them but it won’t get through, so we’re on our own.” Peter huffed sharply. “So, quit being a bitch for a few seconds, would you?” You blinked at him, then you rolled your eyes before reaching for your bag. The pain began to flare up and you winced, falling back to the wall. “Whatever, you fuckin’ prick. Gimme my bag.” You snarled softly, but your voice wasn’t as intimidating as it usually was. Peter pushed the bag to you with his foot, and you looked at him, seeing your hoodie in his hands. “And my sweatshirt. I had to take the top of my suit off, gimme my sweatshirt.” He tossed it to you before he turned around, giving you the chance to take off your poncho and you slid on your sweatshirt. You dug into your bag and grabbed your thin pair of sweatpants, and you took off the rest of your suit. You slid on your sweatpants with some difficulty of moving your butt up from the ground. After you were settled in some clean clothes, you placed your poncho on your legs as you sat Indian style. “You can look now, I’m in my clothes.” Peter turned back to you, and gazed at you for a moment, only to say, “Do you have any food?” You raised an eyebrow. “Why?” “I checked the radar and the snowstorm is gonna last a day or two.” He sighed, and he pulled his mask off, his hair now shooting out in fluffy curls. His eyes met your’s and your heart sunk. He looked scared. The both of you went silent, now you could hear the wind grate against the warehouse. You shuddered, looking to Peter, who was looking anywhere else but you. He looked like he was shivering a little bit, his hands were on his arms. You both sat there for a few moments, and you felt a little guilty. You were in new clothes, you had something to keep you warm while Peter had his suit; that was it. You sighed. “You can sit by me, I’m not gonna bite. We both have to stay warm.” You pat the spot to your left, to make sure your injury wasn’t irritated. He looked at you hesitantly, but you shrugged, giving him a soft look before he gets on all fours to crawl over to you. He settled a few inches away from you, but you didn’t mind. Back home, you would’ve been trying to strangle him by now; now, you’re glad that he saved your life. Your eyes were growing heavy, and you sighed. “Did you make your signal send to Dad or one of the supers?” “Yeah, Karen’s sending it every ten minutes-” “Ms. Stark, your core body temperature is getting close to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.” You hear Karen from Peter’s suit, and you grumbled. How were you this cold already? The two of you have been in this place for an hour, and you had layers on- Oh yeah, there is a severe draft coming from somewhere. That and your leather suit doesn’t do shit for keeping you insulated. “Shit.” peter muttered, before he turned to you, looking softly. His eyes met yours and you swallowed the lump in your throat from being so close to Peter. “My suit has a heater.” You narrowed your eyes. “And?” It wasn’t long after that when Peter leaned forwards and hugged you to him. He used one arm to pull the poncho over both of you, and he scooted down to lay on the floor. He pulled you with him, letting you lay on your left side as he grabbed the blanket and draped it over the poncho, trying to keep you warm. His one arm was underneath your left side, as your cheek was pressed onto his chest, your leg awkwardly across his, and your arms were awkwardly around him. You wanted to go jump off the mountain, but, you did see how gentlemanly he was being. Trying to keep you warm, saving your life… Silently flirting with you. Oh yeah, he thinks you haven’t noticed the winks or casual flirting, but this… This makes you feel weird. You didn’t know why but it felt… right to be like this. You banished your thoughts for the rest of the night, as you drifted into slumber. *** “Y/N, come on, get up.” Peter shook you awake as gently as he could, and you mumbled, “Why?” as you softly sat up from your position on top of Peter. Your side burned and ached but it was dull, your mind was spinning and you felt very cold. “Your temperature’s getting too low. You’re gonna have to wear my suit.” He says gently as he sits up in front of you, and you feel a cold chill run up your spine. Your mind was spinning still, but you hazily nodded as you let Peter help you stand. His hand were gentle as they turned you around so he could change, and you looked up and stared at the rest of the empty warehouse. It was dark now, the snow still blanketed the windows and you wanted to curl back up against Peter. Woah woah woah, I don’t like Peter like that- Don’t argue with yourself, bro, you have to admit that he’s cute. He’s not cute! He’s a lazy prick- “Y/N, here.” He grabbed your hand, which made you jump, but you didn’t turn around. You could now feel the soft suit in your hand, and you softly gripped it. “I’m turning around now.” You began to strip, only to question Peter. “What about clothes for you?” “I’ll just wear your sweats and hoodie. I’ll be fine.” “You’ll freeze.” You bark softly, as you took off the sweatpants, only to place your left foot in the suit and you instantly felt the heat. “Doesn’t matter to me.” You pulled the suit on your legs and on your arms, pulling it on your shoulders. You pressed the Spider emblem, which when encased you in its warmth. You grumbled as you threw your sweats and hoodie over your shoulder, bending down to get them made your body ache. “It should, Peter. You shouldn’t just give me your suit, I’m your enemy outside of the Avengers. We hate each other. We’ve never stopped hating each other, and I’m sure it’ll never change.” Peter didn’t speak after that, he only tapped you on the shoulder. You turned around and he didn’t look at you as he laid back down on the floor, you followed suit. You laid back down on his chest, your leg wasn’t over his, your arm wasn’t over his chest. Only your head was there, listening to his racing heart. “It’s  true, Peter.” You say softly, gazing at your sweatshirt on the boy. Peter took a deep breath. “I wish it wasn’t.” Your eyes widened, but you didn’t move to look at him. Your breath hitched, you could hear his heart pound as he continued. “I wish we could’a been friends, Y/N. I hate fighting with such a wonderful person, I wish I didn’t have to be such a dick to you. I fucking hate being such a dick to a girl so smart and awesome like you.” He half chuckled. “Here’s some fuckin’ spoilers, I like you. I like you a fuck ton of a lot and I know you hate me with your stone cold heart, so let me just say that I’ve liked you ever since I’ve met you and now, I can’t let you get hurt because it hits me like a train, because spoilers, I love you, okay? I fucking love you and I hate hating and fighting with you and I just want it to stop, okay? Can we just stop being enemies and be on good terms? Can you get that through your brain?” You couldn’t feel anything in your body. Your breath hitched when he said the ‘L’ word and you wanted to scream into a pillow. He just cussed you out, restarted your relationship with each other, and confessed his feelings for you? You felt like you hit your head too hard, but you were on Cloud Nine because your heart was racing too. Your head moved from his chest and you hovered over him, eyes almost glazed with tears as you raced forwards, smashing your lips to his without a second thought.

Maybe he was right.

Maybe starting something good would be better than trying to kill each other.

[rorykillmore]

how about a ramble on one of your fave aus for one of your characters?

okay i want to preface this by saying that it took me awhile to decide what i wanted to do for this ask, and at one point i had like a list of options that i could potentially try to expand on

and also that a few years ago on denny, we had a huge… like, site-wide au that spawned from like a throwaway joke about my character (alana) being a veterinarian? and soon lots of people were like, connecting their characters to this setting until we had an entire like… denny normal world au on our hands that was surprisingly a ton of fun to play with. everyone got involved and got to take their characters out of their varied heightened settings to kind of explore what they’d be like if they lived a more normal life and how certain things would translate and it was just!! a lot of fun!!

so one of my options for this ask was a grey’s anatomy au which is something i’ve talked a bit about with @numinousbones anyway in the past and something i have a huge soft spot for and then i realized. not only does something like this lend itself really well to a panfandom setting, but it’s also kinda reminiscent of that dumb old veterinarian au. so i tried to think up some stuff that incorporated various people’s high muse characters in a number of ways! obviously if anyone else takes a liking to this they can feel free to alter what i’ve thought up for their characters OR just come up with stuff for characters i haven’t mentioned

so first i wanted to start with a core group of interns, like MAGIC (meredith/alex/george/izzie/cristina) in the first 5 seasons of grey’s. basically this is just a group of characters who start out training at the hospital as a group, under the same resident doctor. they grow and learn and compete together and ultimately become a kind of found family unit.  i went through a few character combinations for this and then decided i really liked dolores, laurel, lee, dev, and cloud for an au of this. partially because they’re characters we’re all really into right now (even if dev’s not on denny yet), and partially because, well, it’s a combination that lends itself well to a lot of shipping drama, true to grey’s anatomy form,

so lee and dev are kind of the on again, off again couple. they hit it off right from the start and are pretty obviously into each other, but it mostly manifests through brief hookups and stuff at first. both of them are a liiittle afraid of commitment and also. they’re here to become kickass doctors and their ambition should take priority over a longterm relationship. right? anyways everyone at the hospital knows they’re a thing, they’re just never sure when lee and dev are “on” and when they’re “off”. some of the attendings are infamously exhausted by this drama,

laurel and dolores are more like. the “will they or won’t they” couple that kills everyone because they take SEASONS to get together. it takes them ages to even realize they have feelings and then ages longer to do anything about it. they probably run into traditional obstacles to cause drama like finding other brief love interests, getting into fights over stuff, etc. it’s painfully obvious to lee and dev but nobody wants to risk the dynamic of their friend group by throwing it out into the open

cloud escapes the shipping drama (for now) but he still goes through a lot with the rest of them and also, after his first year as an intern, maybe he latches onto studying under an attending in the specialty he wants to go into, aka sophie. they develop a nice rapport and a pretty great mentor/apprentice relationship, maybe something a la alex and addison in the early years of grey’s, but then if you wanted to be mean you could translate cloud’s geostigma arc into… cloud getting sick with something else (because there’s Always a storyline on grey’s where one of the doctors gets sick, someone should run a health check on this hospital) and he and sophie try to like, keep it on the downlow for awhile while they try to help him. at some point the rest of the friend group finds out and are predictably upset,

i was thinking of which character could work as the resident who trains the original group of interns (like bailey does in the show) and for some reason lin hu just struck me as perfect for it? maybe because he’s so grumpy. imagine him trying to wrangle lee/dev/dolores/laurel/cloud and all their drama. also he probably has a friendly(ish) rivalry with another attending (ammy) and some kind of romance arc with shu-chi and kulau, who. hmm. maybe they’re his rivals who hold high positions at other hospitals? but then they all slowly fall for each other,

then as the au goes on and the interns work their way up to being full time residents, you could bring in a NEW group of interns which could be like… mike and some of the other kid characters on the site maybe? i feel like we need to work max into this au too. but anyway, mike gets assigned to cloud probably, and gets a lot of those “reckless baby interns causing shenanigans” storylines. i also had the sad/sweet thought that maybe you could bring eleven in as a patient at some point (not with anything too serious because we don’t want to make this like, an izzie/denny scenario, we’re not that mean), but with something that would require her staying at the hospital for a little while and she and mike could fall for each other? and mike could get a lecture from some older doctor about falling for patients and get all defiant about it,

i like the idea of shiro as this like. brilliant, established, charismatic attending. kind of like mcdreamy, but nicer. everyone kinda looks up to him. but i also threw shades of owen into this idea – no ngl, i just took some of owen’s character concept and applied it to a better character. that is to say, i feel like shiro would work as like… a former army medic or something who now works as a surgeon, and he’s really good at what he does and has great bedside manner and is really charming and reassuring with everyone, but beneath that he has layers of trauma he doesn’t really deal with. maybe sara could be like? the teddy to his owen? like they were old Army Buddies and maybe she comes to the hospital at some point because her sister works there and snagged her a job and then she and shiro have to work through some old shit. he’s finally cornered by someone who knows he suppresses things!,

on that note i was trying to figure out how to fit the legends in… idk what they would work better as. a ragtag group of army medics? or like a paramedic/emergency response team who get to go onto the scene of an accident or disaster and try to help people regularly? or maybe they could be something like firefighters? idk they feel like they’d work better as something more hands-on like that

lastly it occurred to me that death should be given the obvious position of “old guy who works in the hospital morgue”. he’s notoriously grumpy and sometimes vaguely creepy but on occasion he gets really poignant moments with other characters who are struggling to deal with like, a patient they’ve lost, or another character who gets killed off (as if that would ever happen in a GREY’S ANATOMY au!)

anyway. those are some basic concepts. despite this being a “normal au” you could expect to throw your characters at a lot of like… natural disasters and sudden high stakes stuff and virtually anything that would cause drama because that’s what grey’s is all about!

i didn’t get much into like… what each character would specialize in. or what their backstories in this world would be, although i was really tempted to. but i think this post is long enough and hopefully you had fun listening to me paint just like, a broad picture of some people’s characters!

also a song for au insp (x)

[roseisread]

You Make Me Not Wanna Die: The return of the Pop Menagerie playlist! It’s been way too long since I posted anything on this blog. My only excuse is that I’ve had a crazy year in my personal life and sometimes internet things take a back seat to self care. But right now, I think my best form of self care is listening to and sharing my pop culture faves so I’m back to do just that. I’m starting off with a playlist that contains songs I love to sing along to, cry along to, dance along to, write along to, and think along to. Almost all of these songs are from albums released in 2017, although there may be an exception here or there for songs released earlier that I only discovered recently.  In any case, here you go. Enjoy!  1. Allie X - That’s So Us If you love Carly Rae Jepsen, you should love Allie X. This song makes me so happy, and also it makes me cry sometimes because it reminds me of those people that you really can be yourself around and they love you anyway. Those people are rare and wonderful, and if you are one of them for me, then thank you. “You make me not wanna die,” as the song says. I love that line so much I used it to title this playlist.  2. The Drums - Shoot the Sun Down Remember these guys? Kind of sunny indie pop, hit it big with “I Don’t Know How To Love” off of their album Portamento back in 2012? Yeah. They are still here, still awesome, and the album this came from just gives me shivers it’s so freaking great. Also, I joke that this song is dedicated to my cat when she tries to bite and scratch me at night, because of that repeating line, “I put a blanket over my face.” Nena, this one’s for you. 3. Knuckle Puck - Conduit I have such a goddamn soft spot for emo-leaning pop punk, you guys. I can’t even lie. As a bonus, they’re from the Chicago area so technically I can claim them as a local band. This song reminds me of the best of Blink 182, early Jimmy Eat World, and maybe even a little Brand New. I also love the lyrics, with their references to grinding teeth and lucid dreams. Definitely relatable for me. 4. MUNA - End of Desire You might be familiar with MUNA if you love Tegan and Sara, because this band appears on The Con: X covering Relief Next To Me. I love the way their voices blend, and I love the vulnerability of the lyrics. This song is open to interpretation, but it seems to allude to having feelings for another person that you didn’t ask for but can’t get rid of. Who hasn’t been there?  5. Kiasmos - Jarred The Icelandic duo is back with more incredible, chilly electronic tunes that almost sound like icicles forming or frost creeping up the inside of your window pane in the night. This song definitely makes me want to hop the next plane to Reykjavik and spend a week sipping dark liquor in some poorly lit club that only the locals know about.  6. MUTEMATH - War You know about my love of MUTEMATH by now. Their latest album goes in so many different directions musically--not just from one song to the next but within the space of a single track. This one is a banger live, and one of my favorites on the album. Lyrically, it reminds me of my own not so great tendency to get heated as I try to convince someone they’re wrong and I’m right. A good debate is healthy sometimes, but not everything needs to be a battle for the ages. “War’s in my nature,” all right. But I’m trying to find a way toward peace. 7. Cat Dealers/Groove Delight - Calabria This is just a sick dance track. I can’t claim to know all that much about Cat Dealers, although I know they hail from Rio de Janeiro and that this song makes me want to tear it up on the dancefloor or the living room or the driver’s seat of my car. Groove Delight is Brazilian as well, making me think I probably need to go to Brazil sooner rather than later to discover what other booty shaking gems I’ve been missing.  8. Converge - A Single Tear Can you believe these guys have been around for 27 years? This song encapsulates so many things I love about them, from their always insane percussion to the insistent guitar melodies to the impassioned vocals of Jacob Bannon. The lyrics (which allude to “holding you for the first time,” presumably about becoming a parent) are so sweet, a word that doesn’t probably come up in a lot of reviews of metal and hardcore songs but still, I stand by it.  9. Luna Shadows - Jesus Christ (Brand New cover) I have always loved this song, and it’s awesome to hear a young up and coming artist take it on. She really puts her own spin on this classic of the emo genre, and I look forward to hearing more original tunes from her.  10. ROMES - Someone I just saw these guys open for MUTEMATH and they have so much energy live! Canadian by way of Ireland, they bring out anthemic indie pop tunes that are just irresistible. I’m reminded a little bit of Peter Gabriel and a little bit of Bastille, but not in a derivative way.  11. Fever Ray - Red Trails Ahhhhh! Fever Ray is back!!!! It’s been way too long since we’ve heard from her, but the album that she just released online helps make up for the absence because it just kills. She still has that haunting, hypnotic voice layered on top of unexpected instrumentation and arrhythmic beats. The lyrics are mysterious and dark. There’s something sexy about it but not in a Britney Spears way. She sounds kind of dangerous but you can’t help but want to follow her wherever she’s going.  12. ABRA - Bounty Speaking of hypnotic and sexy, ABRA is definitely both. Based in Atlanta, she sounds like she’s based in another planet altogether. Her off kilter brand of R&B does not fit any category--she has this supple voice that leads us along across breathy beats and frantic counter melodies. It’s unsettling and gorgeous at the same time.  13. Tove Lo - Disco Tits Tove Lo is my ride or die. She’s unabashedly herself in all her nympho trashy glory, and I adore her for it. I promise I’m not into club drugs, but Euro pop songs about them sure are fun. I put this song on the car radio when I’m driving to work just to wake myself up and then have to make sure my phone volume is on mute before I walk into the office because “nipples are hard ready to go” is probably not appropriate lyrical content for the workplace.  14. Golden Features - Funeral Tom Stell, aka Golden Features, has sold out tours in his native country of Australia but it won’t belong before he’s selling out everywhere. This track makes me want to see him in an underground dance club at 4am. It’s fire.  15. Jessie Ware - Stay Awake, Wait For Me Another one of my faves is back! I love her upbeat songs but this is one of those instant classic pop ballads, and I had to find a spot for it on this list. It’s intimate and romantic and sexy in a grown up way. Don’t put this song on if you’re trying to be celibate, is all I’m saying.  16. Hundred Waters - Particle If you miss Imogen Heap/Frou Frou, you should most definitely be listening to Hundred Waters. Nicole Miglis has that hushed tone in her voice that belies intense feeling, and the skittering electronic elements fill the spaces in between as a sort of musical representation of anxiety and uncertainty. This song, about a romantic coupling that seems lopsided. “I’m only a particle, a drop in you, forever dissolving,” she sings. Damn. 

17. The Tuts- Dump Your Boyfriend What’s not to love about this UK based garage girl group? This song describes the kind of toxic relationship that it’s easy to criticize from the outside but harder to shake when you’re the one who’s in love with an asshole.  18. Fellwarden - Sun of an Ending This kind of moody, atmospheric black metal is so soothing to me. It feels ancient and primal, like the old gods are still roaming the land slaying dragons and protecting those that live in their realm. If you’re a black metal fan, you may recognize the vocals as those of Fen frontman The Watcher.   19. Palehound - Silver Toaster On Boston-based Palehound’s second album, the writing sounds more self-assured and the songs even more personal than those on the debut. Frontwoman Ellen Kempner attributes this in part to being more comfortable in her own skin as a queer-identifying woman, and in part to being in her first healthy adult relationship. This song is short and simple, but I love the unexpected turns of phrase and imagery, like the line, “hack off my split ends.” There are plenty of bands doing the whole DIY stripped down aesthetic, but this one rises above the rest. If you were into artists like Kimya Dawson and Mary Lou Lord, you should definitely be paying attention to Palehound. 

20. Kelsea Ballerini - Miss Me More Nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy earlier this year, Kelsea Ballerini hits the ground running on her latest release. She’s been writing songs since she was 12 years old and listening to Britney, Christina, and N Sync. Something about the fact that she considers Shania her biggest influence really charms me. I am obsessed with this song, which I can relate to on a very personal level. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you’ve compromised yourself for another person until you don’t have them in your life anymore and suddenly the real you starts to re-emerge.  21. The Maharajas - Too Late To Repent If you hear this song and think it must be a re-release of some little known 1960s garage rock/British Invasion group, I don’t blame you. I wondered that myself. But it turns out these Swedish dudes have only been active since the 90s, and they are still recording music that sounds like it’s from a bygone era. A little Kinks, a little Beatles, a little surf rock--it’s all here and it’s all great.  22. Margo Price - Don’t Say It This Illinois native was signed by Jack White to Third Man Records, and she recorded her debut album at Sun Studios in Memphis. Both of those things make sense upon hearing her traditional country sound. She has one of those clear, classic voices that really do harken back to the Lorettas and Patsys and Tammys. Her second album even features a duet with Willie Nelson, proving that she’s definitely earned her classic country bonafides.  23. Peaness - Skin Surfing OK, yes, initially I was drawn to this 3-piece English band because of their silly name. But once I heard the first guitar strums and vocal harmonies, I was truly done for. Formed in 2014, they have songs about everything from wasting food just because it doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing (”Ugly Veg”) to George Osborne of Brexit fame (”Oh George”). This song is very seductive while staying playful and affirming consent. I dig the occasional Veruca Salt vibes it dips into as well.  24. Dori Freeman - Ern & Zorry’s Sneakin’ Bitin’ Dog I guess an acapella song about a mean neighbor dog might be an odd choice for a playlist but it’s so adorable I couldn’t leave it out. Dori Freeman, who cites Peggy Lee and Rufus Wainwright as her major influences, hails from Virginia and her songs have an Appalachian flavor. I predict a T-Bone Burnett collaboration in her future.    25. The Blow - Summer It’s hard to believe The Blow has existed in some form for going on 20 years, but it’s true. The K Records vets continue to release hypnotic, electronic indie pop with a lo-fi feel, and this song has been stuck in my head from the first listen. It’s a simple melody but good luck escaping that hook.  26. Austra - Beyond a Mortal The Canadian dark wave is back with their third album, this time recorded in Mexico. For this particular track, singer Katie Stelmanis says she recorded the vocals over 100 times to achieve the hushed, whispery effect. The rest of the album, titled Future Politics, is a meditation on the state of the world as it is now and what we all wish it could become.  27. MGMT - Little Dark Age Finally! It’s been 5 years since MGMT’s last album, and even longer since the world sat up and took notice of them. This lead single off their upcoming album makes me think that they’re poised to re-take the synth pop throne. This song has elements of their earliest work, but it also incorporates bits of industrial and even krautrock. I listen and think Depeche Mode! Kraftwerk! Skinny Puppy! So many of my musical faves somehow distilled into a single track. I can only hope that the rest of the album lives up to this single. 28. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Ring-a-Ring O’Roses To me, there’s always been an otherworldly quality to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s voice. She took some time off from music to do some acting, notably in Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac volume 1 and volume 2 and Melancholia. Those films required heavy lifting and emotional degradation, which perhaps allowed her to tap into a deeper place when recording the songs for this album, her first in seven years. The video for this song features Gainsbourg’s son, carrying on the family tradition started by Charlotte and her father Serge Gainsbourg.  29. Sun Glitters - Where the End Begins If there’s one thing I love, it’s shimmery electronic music. And Sun Glitters, who hails from Luxembourg, produces just that. Rarely does an artist’s name so aptly describe their sound, but this is one such perfect marriage. If you enjoy the likes of Gold Panda, Boards of Canada, Fennesz, Teen Daze, or Blackbird Blackbird, you will definitely dig this sound. 

[akillerconundrum]

Alright so, time for My Amazing San Diego Comic Con Adventure. AKA:

A Story of How Amazingly Nice Nerds Can Be: Gotham Edition.

And how I got to meet Cory. 

It’s long, so read more under the cut:

Let’s start this by saying I’ve always known that to not be totally overwhelmed by SDCC, you need to make a game plan and goals. I had narrowed down the stuff I wanted to do to 3 things, really, but was terrified of what it would take to do any of them. What line do you get in, since you’ll probably only have time for only so many... or maybe only one.  How do you even do that?? I’ve done hourish long waits for offsite adventures, given up on lines at all and just Cosplayed my Heart Out to keep myself occupied and have a blast in the past, but with a quieter Cosplay this year I had the opportunity to at least try for something more daring... 

That was when the Fantastic @mr-lucius-fox​ came to my rescue. YOU HAD YOUR GUSH MOMENT HERE’S MINE. Ok, so, when we both realized we were going we had to meet up and hang out and nerd out together, but my goodness is this the most wonderful person like uggg ok. They’re a veteran of the Line Game, and if they hadn’t been there to hold my hand for the process and keep me going the whole time I would never have had the patience and determination to make it through. They let me know they were going to camp out in the WB autograph ticket line over night and I was welcome to join them. I had another engagement I had tickets for (another Kindness story involving the TAZ fandom and a lot of paying-it-forward along the way,) and it wasn’t until almost 3am before I fumbled in very unflattering ways across a river of unconscious fellow line-waiters and nearly lost my bowler cap along the way to join Foxy. Just a couple hours later, shit was moving. Please also note, for all of this I had been cosplaying Nygma. I slept on a borrowed camping mat my other friend had brought for emergencies like this, using my blazer as a blanket, and shielding my eyes with my bowler.

I do not understand how some people manage to do more than one of these crazy over-night lines, I was only kept coherent by nerding-out with Foxy and bouts of compulsive dancing and trying to subdue my delirious desire to start a fisticuffs battle with someone or possibly pass out. I’m pretty sure some people have died in these lines, and Comic Con just keeps it hush hush and hides the bodies.

Somehow, mostly through team-work and mutual encouragement, we survived, and after a horrible miscommunication via the line-direction staff, accidentally were shuffled back about 50 people in place, which sucked, but by 9ish, we were there at the wristband-raffle-booth. The various autograph-groups were running out quickly, and Gotham had held out strong for us, but we were getting nervous. You can get up there and pick the raffle ticket, and then have a 50/50 chance of getting the wristband... or not. Foxy immediately mentioned if they managed to get one, and I didn’t, they’d give me their’s. I said I hoped we both got them cause shit, man. 

They ran out of Gotham wristbands about 20 people ahead of us. 

Of course we were outraged, I had at least nabbed a couple hours of sleep and Foxy had even less, but besides mentioning as politely as possible the mix-up in the line that made a big difference in the outcome of this and not wanting that to happen to anyone else in the future, we tried to play it cool. You weren’t allowed to just leave the line, but I did very loudly announce when I got to the front “Eeeh, I’m Gotham or Bust, I don’t want to take away a chance from someone waiting who’s a fan of the stuff that’s left. Peace out.” A mess of people in line behind me hissed heartfelt “thank you!!”s, and a woman working there asked us to step over and tell her what happened. Privately. Over here. Behind this curtain. Where she said “I want you to look Cory in the eyes and tell him how much you like his work” and put her own personal Gotham wristband on me.

I kind of went a bit numb at that moment if only to not freak the hell out as Foxy helped guide me to a safe place to hyperventilate.

They were off to scope out where the Gotham Panel would be (We heard the lines for the Indigo Ballroom the day before had been horrendous, but thankfully they were nice and non-existent all Saturday, I don’t know if I could have taken another line,) and I had an hour to wash out the overnight-funk in my suit and freshen up, re-pomaid my hair, and head over to the signings a half hour early (via Foxy’s recommendation), where I was one of the first to arrive and charmed the Security with riddles until more people showed up, so I never gave them the answers, and I hope it plagues them to this day... or at least until they google them. 

Drew (Butch) was a total sweetheart and apparently a friend of mine knows him, and I passed along a hello and I hope they met up (He seemed excited to know this friend was at the con!) Jessica (Tabitha) is gorgeous and a delight, and my “Maze” pin on my lapel got Erin (Barbara) and I nerding out about Westworld for a moment before she grabbed Cory (Ed) and said ‘Get a load of this girl!’ which I tipped my hat to him, and made a hair joke, and he seemed delighted and mentioned Ed was going to have a change of hairdo in the next season, which I retorted with “Frosted Tips? ;D” and he acted outraged at the sheer idea of it and shook my hand and we all had a good laugh, and he signed my poster and shook my hand again, and then the wacky happened.

We were not allowed photos past the stanchion ropes. They were very adamant and clear about this.

Apparently that rule did not apply to Cory, who, upon seeing my outfit and after our exchange, immediately whipped out his own phone to take the pic seen above, passing it off to one of the people nearby, and was quickly followed by the WB camera crew. 

I have no idea how someone managed to find the photo, but the moment I told some of you out there this happened you guys managed to find it. HOW. MY MIND IS BLOWN. THERE IT IS ALL OVER THE CARPET.

After the photo, we had one more handshake, which, moving on delirious autopilot at that point probably lasted a little too long. I was like are we going in for a hug? Do I kiss his knuckles and tip my hat and say ‘m’lady?’ no no abort abort move along and don’t panic.

Anyway, I had taken so much time with Cory and held up the line, my main regret is I didn’t chat more with Robin (Oswald) who was so fantastically adorable, but I did have a fun moment with Ben (Jim) who once I stepped up to him he said “I can tell by how you’re dressed I’m your favorite character.” Thankfully, I had my GCPD badge clipped to my inside coat pocket and swung it open to grin and say “Hey, GCPD Represent! But we really need to talk about the mustache situation. When will we see the mustache.” He was like “WHEN THE SHOW JUMPS FORWARD FAR INTO THE FUTURE... really you don’t don’t want me with a mustache” and looked like he wanted to bury his face in his hands, the poor guy. I said “So, Season 10?” and he lit up and was like “That sounds about right!”

I plan on holding him to it. 

Camren (Selena) was so adorable and reminded me of my cousins around her age as we laughed about fake glasses when you need real glasses and aren’t wearing contacts. Alexander (Ra’s) was so handsome and I told him how excited I was to see what he had in store, and when I finally got to Sean (Alfred) he had juuuust finished using hand sanitizer and looked apologetic as he offered out his elbow instead and was so sorry his ‘hands were wet’ and I laughed happily gave him an elbow-to-elbow bump and said “Thank you for being the best Dad on TV!” What’s funny is ‘elbow bumps’ are a dumb thing I do with my own dad often enough, but that didn’t even occur to me until I was writing this. Pfft.

It was a fantastic and surreal moment and I was so blessed by the kindness of so many people to make this meeting possible. I was on autopilot and shock until I managed to find my friends and Foxy again when we all congregated at the Indigo Ballroom to wait for the Gotham panel. This wouldn’t have been possible without Foxy’s help and encouragement, seriously. I owe you one big time >:I <33

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to make you suffer in future threads, though.

I’m still defragging from what a fantastic time we had. Ugggg.

And I’m so super pumped to see what shenanigans this show has in store.

Anyway, I got drunk on frozen Rumchatas that night, see last pic. That was before D.Va stole my bowler and Riddler and Nightwing did some dirty dancing for the amusement of our friends, but these are just Comic Con things. 

[rate-out-of-10]

WONDER WOMAN REVIEW

Superhero films just keep getting bigger and bigger; Marvel seems to always make a smash hit every single year, and DC seems to have been trying to catch up. With Wonder Woman, the first female-lead superhero film since 2005’s (flop) Elektra, hitting theaters this weekend, DC has gained some major ground. Director Patty Jenkins expertly crafts a believable world for Wonder Woman to dwell in and made Wonder Woman the all-around best film that the DC Cinematic Universe has put out thus far, and very well may be the most important superhero film that’s ever come out.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The character of Wonder Woman is a huge undertaking for any actress, I’d say it was even harder for Gal Gadot, someone who was relatively unknown in the States until now, to convince people she was right for the role. She’s previously done some work in the Fast & Furious movies, but once she was announced as the chosen one to play the role of the Amazonian princess, Diana, aka Wonder Woman, she was met with some criticism. But her smaller performance in Batman v Superman seemed to have raised some eyebrows, mine included, and here in her feature length debut in the role, she’s engulfed Diana in the best of ways. Gal Gadot pierces through the screen with intensity, purity, strength, and innocence. Her Wonder Woman is powerful, virtuous, noble, and forthright, she is just wonderful. She has a smile that just makes you proud. Gal almost effortlessly molds the innocence and naivety of Diana in the world of man with her confidence and independence. Other than herself, Gal had some prominent back up in the film as well, specifically Chris Pine in the role of Diana’s human love, Steve Trevor. I can’t think of a movie where Chris Pine wasn’t good. He has an infectious personality on screen, he’s always enjoyable to watch. His approach to Steve’s awkwardness around Diana was great; he’s continually surprised by Diana and it always confuses him how she can always do that. Chris and Gal have natural chemistry on screen, when they joke, when they fight, when they connect, through the whole film their relationship always felt genuine. Their romantic subplot wasn’t ever in your face either, it felt natural and was done so delicately and with grace, I respect it a lot. I wish I could have seen more of the Amazonians of Themyscira, but what we got was definitely enough. To see all these strong women training and fighting, moving so fluidly and gracefully was invigorating to watch. I could only imagine how a little girl felt watching these powerful women command the screen. My only complaint when it comes to the characters of the film is essentially everyone else besides the Amazonians, Diana, and Steve Trevor. They assemble a rag-tag group of guys to show Wonder Woman the different facets of humanity, however I wish they felt maybe more important, maybe a group of strong ladies would’ve taken it further. They didn’t seem to do anything of importance except just be there. They all had some nice moments individually but not enough to convince me that they’re worth watching. Next, there were three villainous figures: Ludendorff (Danny Huston), Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya), and Ares (David Thewlis). Ludendorff and Poison were the ones who commanded most of the evil appearances, however they were excessively generic. I think when you bring a movie into WWI or II, you can just use Germans as evil doers without much depth added to them. Poison had some intrigue, but we never really learn much of her, all she really spent time doing was marveling as gas clouds and being melodramatic. Then there’s Ares, and he wasn’t much at all exciting. His best moment was the reveal that he’s been around the entire time as Sir Patrick, but after that his intrigue faded away with excessive CGI and just an awkward appearance. He kept that mustache for thousands of years? Really? It might have had something to do with the casting choice that made it a bit ridiculous to see. When Ares formed his armor with the weapons and plating scattered around the airfield at the end, that was a cool moment, but David Thewlis just wasn’t Ares. A change in form or appearance might have gone a long way. Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and the Amazonian women really steal the show for me, the rest were just bearable in a sense to keep the film moving forward.

Wonder Woman starts out incredibly strong, giving the warriors of Themyscira, and a young Diana, time to shine. The concentration on the world building of Wonder Woman was fantastic. It didn’t feel mashed up or rushed, like the other three DC films that have come out thus far. The movie paced generally well, even when the action was at a low point in favor of exposition, there were still bits to draw you in. Sure it can feel a little slow at times, I definitely wanted to see more of Wonder Woman kicking ass, but the slower bits did serve some nice character building, specifically for Diana. Gal was always great to watch whether she was clearly a fish out of water, or standing strong and noble against sexist men, or just smiling. You’re always rooting for her, but you’re also waiting for her to be enlightened. In parts, she’s very naive when it came to the conflict of Ares and mankind, and at the end when she has that realization of who humans really were, after Steve’s sacrifice, a feeling of relief and excitement washes over you. The action sequences were glorious too, Zach Snyder’s trademark slow-mo shots were all over the place, but I was happy with them because I liked watching Wonder Woman kick some serious ass. The final battle between her and Ares may have been very CGI’d and perhaps a bit underwhelming, but the showcase of Diana’s maximum power was great to watch. Beating overwhelming odds in superhero movies will never get old, perhaps that’s because superheroes were built off that premise. I also marveled at the set-pieces; Themyscira, London, the trenches, they all were wonderfully designed, Themyscira being the most colorful of all the landscapes. One thing I did want to bring up was the choice of the WWI setting. It was a bold choice to introduce Wonder Woman in this war-torn time, some people wanted to see her introduced in the modern day, and where I can see that being perhaps a bit cooler, it wouldn’t make much sense to the DC timeline for this universe. In the modern day, Superman and Batman specifically are prominent figures already, Batman already having a long history. If there wasn’t much of a record of Wonder Woman before Bruce discovered her picture and secret file, why would the modern day make sense? It serves her well to be in a time where technology wasn’t all over the place, so the only real evidence of her existence is the one photograph taken of her, that’s what makes it significant. If she emerged closer to the modern day, her ambiguity would be lost. Question that remain from this time, though, is how does she really age in this canon? Is Themyscira somehow suspended in time? How did she age there? Is ten years to an Amazonian in Themyscira, 50 years, or a hundered years, in the world of man? How did she seemingly not age through the rest of human history up until BvS? Did she not interfere in WWII? Vietnam? The Civil Rights era? There are a lot of questions about Wonder Woman and her history that come from this movie, however they don’t really pertain to this film specifically. These are just things that should maybe be fleshed out through the rest of the DC films.

After a film like this, what’s next really comes into question for the DC cinematic universe. Wonder Woman blew all the past films (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, & Suicide Squad) out of the water. Will Justice League have a monumental payoff like this one did? Or will the rest of the DC universe be just as flat as where we left off with it prior to Wonder Woman? There are plenty of DC movies slated for the near future, but the rocky start it’s gotten off to may hurt the success of their first team-up film. Especially since DC seems to just want the team up to happen more quickly than Marvel’s. We don’t get an Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, or even a solo-Batman film until after this first Justice League movie, set to release this November. It’s a questionable timeline to have. I would’ve appreciated their creative choices a lot more if we got the films in this order: Man of Steel, The Batman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, and then Justice League. With the multitude of cameos in BvS of the other “meta-humans”, plus Batman and Wonder Woman’s solo films would have already introduced them, the team-up would have more of a payoff. But then again, Justice League isn’t out yet, these are just my feelings as of now and they could change. Wonder Woman is the shining example of what DC has needed and it captures Wonder Woman so epically that my excitement for DC has been revitalized to a good degree. My final rating for Wonder Woman is:

8.75/10. In a word: wonderful.

Wonder Woman does a plethora of things right, and when the movie is going great, it’s going great. Gal Gadot does an amazing job with the character, Patty Jenkins directs with fierce integrity and puts on a show that is tremendously impressive. Wonder Woman may be the most important superhero film to have ever come out, and it earns that praise. The flaws with supporting characterization, a decent lack of villainous intrigue, and a not-too-impressive main villain finale doesn’t take away too much from Wonder Woman herself. She’s a shining light in this grim world that DC has built up and I’m excited to see where she will lead the universe to in the future.

[prettyboygcnius-blog]

Get To Know Mun!

  tagged by :  @trappcdbird

1. What is your middle name? Braxton (and yes, I’m a girl) 2. How old are you? 19 3. When is your birthday? August 16th 4. What is your zodiac sign? Leo, bitch! 5. What is your favorite color? Black & mint green 6. What’s your lucky number? uh 16 maybe? I don’t really have one tbh 7. Do you have any pets? A dog, two cats & a hamster 8. Where are you from? Pennsylvania aka cornfield land 9. How tall are you? 5′2 10. What shoe size are you? 5 in womens, 3 1/2 in childrens (i can’t ever find my size... ever) 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Probably only like 5 or 6 tbh 12. What was your last dream about? Trying desperately to save a baby bird from dying in the snow and failing 13. What talents do you have? Singing, acting, guitar playing, being on stage in general 14. Are you psychic in any way? Doubt it lmao 15. Favorite song? I’m a music hoe so that’s an unfair question 16. Favorite movie? 500 Days of Summer, Peter Pan (2003 version), any Leonardo DiCaprio movie, Toy Story (all 3 of them), most other Pixar films 17. Who would be your ideal partner? Matthew Gray fuckin Gubler 18. Do you want children? Literally my biggest dream 19. Do you want a church wedding? I wouldn’t mind I guess, but I’d prefer something more extravagant 20. Are you religious? Yes 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? No & hopefully I’m not jinxing myself 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Once, when I was 13 for “breaking into”  an abandoned house (my friends and I all entered through an open door... lmao) but we just paid a fine and that was it 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Joe Jonas winked at me when I was 2nd row at a DNCE concert but no, I never technically met anyone famous 24. Baths or showers? Showers, baths make me uncomfortably drowsy 25. What color socks are you wearing? White 26. Have you ever been famous? Nope, although people tell me I should be lol 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? Not really, I don’t think I could stand the lack of privacy 28. What type of music do you like? Classic rock, doowop, alternative & indie - a bit of everything 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? No but I damn want to! 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two, & my pillow cases feature Evan Peters & Matthew Gray Gubler 31. What position do you usually sleep in? On my right side, usually 32. How big is your house? Average, I guess? Not small and not big 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Yogurt or cereal 34. Have you ever fired a gun? Yeah but I was like 7 and barely remember 35. Have you ever tried archery? Once, at the same place I fired the gun lol 36. Favorite clean word? What? 37. Favorite swear word? Probably either fuck or dick 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? Probably under 24 hours, I’m a pussy I can’t go without sleeping lol 39. Do you have any scars? A few but they’re literally all from bug bites lmao 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Probably at one point 41. Are you a good liar? Depends on what I’m lying about 42. Are you a good judge of character? Oh hell yes 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? I had to do a southern accent for a show I was in and I’m getting pretty good at scouse thanks to @easilyswcyed​ 44. Do you have a strong accent? I have an American accent so... idk how one would define it as ‘strong’ 45. What is your favorite accent? They’re all beautiful tbh I can’t pick one 46. What is your personality type? Outgoing, easy-going, sensitive & super anxious, pretty loud, always talking at 100mph and I’m either on top of the world happy or hating everything & it kinda sucks, there’s no in between 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? Myyy shoes, probably? I don’t really buy expensive clothes I’m so frugal with my money lol 48. Can you curl your tongue? Hell ye 49. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie 50. Left or right handed? Right-handed 51. Are you scared of spiders? Oh fuck yeah 52. Favorite food? Probably either Chinese, pizza, or a tuna sandwich from Subway lmao 53. Favorite foreign food? Chinese to the fuckin max 54. Are you a clean or messy person? I’m neurotic about being neat & organized 55. Most used phrased? “fuck me” (when I’m pissed, not sexually lmao) ”literally” “i don’t know” 56. Most used word? Probably fuck or literally. 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? It all depends. For work I can get ready in like 20 minutes because fuck that place. If I’m going somewhere what I actually care about, it’ll probably take me an hour and a half or so (shower, hair & makeup) 58. Do you have much of an ego? Internally I guess, but I’m humble and I don’t like to seem conceded and I don’t act like I’m the shit unless I’m joking 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? I suck until it’s small enough for me to bite (lmao ayyy) 60. Do you talk to yourself? Every fucking day 61. Do you sing to yourself? Every fucking DAYYYYY 62. Are you a good singer?  I grew up in a family of musicians and I’ve been the lead of two musicals so... you tell me bitch 63. Biggest Fear? Losing someone I love, being betrayed by people who I thought I could trust, getting into a car crash/plane crash/ship wreck, spiders, elevators, fucking CENTIPEDES THAT RUN ALL OVER THE PLACE ON THREE MILLION LEGS 64. Are you a gossip? I hate to admit it but yeah I am 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? There’s so many but recently I saw Hacksaw Ridge which was fucking fantastic 66. Do you like long or short hair? It all depends on the person 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? I could try, but I bet you I’d fail 68. Favorite school subject? Science and English probably, although if we’re talking electives then Graphic Design all the way 69. Extrovert or Introvert? Mostly an extrovert but there are times where I’m more introverted (I hate being around big groups of people who I don’t really know and/or where I feel like an outsider) 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? Nope but that would be fun except I’d be terrified 71. What makes you nervous? Literally everything to ever exist in the history of everything 72. Are you scared of the dark? It depends on where I am 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? I try not to cause I feel like it’s rude as hell 74. Are you ticklish? yes, & I don’t even like reading this question holy shit 75. Have you ever started a rumor? No, but I’m sure I’d passed one on 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? I’m the assistant manager at my job so when he’s gone I’m the big boss bitch 77. Have you ever drank underage? Yeah, but not often at all, I’m not a drinker 78. Have you ever done drugs? Never 79. Who was your first real crush? This kid Mikey in my kindergarten class who was cute and brunette and had freckles 80. How many piercings do you have? Five -- two in each ear & a bellybutton piercing 81. Can you roll your Rs? Hell yeah, I’m Italian so 82. How fast can you type? Pretty damn fast 83. How fast can you run? omg I SUCK at running 84. What color is your hair? Shit brown 85. What color is your eyes? Shit brown 86. What are you allergic to? Everything outside in the spring 87. Do you keep a journal? I used to, but I always forget 88. What do your parents do? Both my parents were musicians, but now my dad’s an Emergency Responder and my mom edits photos for dog show photographers. 89. Do you like your age? It kinda sucks, I don’t like growing up, I want to be 13 again 90. What makes you angry? Betrayal, being lied to, being gaslighted and called crazy for assuming things that were actually correct the entire time (if you can’t tell, there a lot going on in my life right now) 91. Do you like your own name? Oh man I used to HATE it when I was little, but it grew on me 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Harrison Michael & Audrey Lauren -- my boyfriend and I love The Beatles & Audrey Hepburn 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? Both! (oh god please not twins though) 94. What are you strengths? I’m determined, hard-working, friendly & a perfectionist 95. What are your weaknesses? I can be a pessimist and I’m way too sensitive 96. How did you get your name? My mom & dad were going through CDs for name ideas and they both saw Carly Simon and immediately fell in love with Carly 97. Were your ancestors royalty? No but my boyfriend’s were 98. Color of your bedspread? White sheets & a black comforter 99. Color of your room? White walls & a light green carpet 100. Favorite celebrity? Matthew Gray Gubler!!!!!!, Evan Peters, Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, Chris Evans, Andrew Garfield, Leonardo DiCaprio, and literally a thousand more but those are my babes

Tagging; @deocrumtorquent, @@easilyswcyed @@darkcndtwisty @@rileypalmer @the-storm-within-me @@snowinabottle @everythingelle and anyone else!

[gayhee]

Give Us a Little Love (We Never Had Enough) Chapter 1

Summary: Where do we belong, where did we go wrong? If there's nothing here, why are we still here?

AKA, everyone is a witch and absolutely nothing could go wrong

Words: 4538 

A/N: the long awaited witch! au is here! i hope you enjoy and look forward to the rest of this wild ride! (brownie points to anybody who knows what seven's....chant, is a reference to lol)fic title from Give Us a Little Love by Fallulah chapter title from O' Death by Amy Van Roekel you can read it on ao3 here!

Chapter 1: When God is Gone and the Devil Takes Hold

The click of heels on tile floor seemed to echo throughout an unusually silent house. A petite blonde woman paced the living room, her expression unreadable, save for sharp green eyes that coldly cut into each person on the sofa in front of her. She came to a stop directly in front of the couch, a soft, strained smile on her face.

“Who wants to review the house rules?”

It remained quiet as all five people seated took great interest in the polished floor, refusing eye contact with the blonde.

“Rika, we didn’t mean to…” A blond boy, no older than 16, murmured, his excuse losing steam quickly.

Rika cocked her head at him, eyes narrowing.

“Really? Didn’t mean to what, exactly? Didn’t mean to burn the entire dining room, throw Luciel off the roof, expose the coven to the neighbors, and attempt to summon Lucifer, in the same afternoon?”

Yoosung looked up, facing Rika directly. His violet eyes shone with unshed tears, but Rika remained tense.

“You know it wasn’t like that, we were just messing around…things got out of hand, but nobody meant any harm!” He spoke sincerely, but everyone knew she wouldn’t buy it.

“Yoosung give it up, there’s no point. Yes, ok, I did burn down the dining room, but that was an accident!” A boy with long silver hair spoke up, red eyes rolling as he spoke. He sat on the edge of the sofa with his legs crossed and arms spread across the back, the picture of apathy. “I can’t exactly control these powers yet, no thanks to you,” the words came out mumbled, and the bite was prominent in his tone.

A thick silence filled the room, settling over them like a fog.

“Zen, I don’t think it is wise to speak to our Priestess like that…” The only other girl of the group spoke, before tucking a strand of short brown hair behind her ear, and gently pushing up her glasses.

Zen scoffed, reaching into his pocket to reveal a carton of cigarettes. Placing one in his mouth, he lit the end with a snap of his fingers.

Inhale, hold, and exhale.

The cigarette sat loosely between his thin fingers as he responded. “Jaehee, no offense, but I haven’t exactly agreed to join this coven yet. She’s not our Priestess.” He spat out the word like it was dirty, and a small gasp came from the other end of the couch.

A boy with short red hair and striped yellow and brown glasses brought his hand up to cover his mouth in seemingly sarcastic shock.

“But, Zen, Rika here isn’t just any Priestess, she’s our next High Priestess!” The redhead’s mocking tone came out light and joking, rather than offensive, and the tension dissipated slightly. He opened his mouth to speak again, but a deep, baritone voice cut him off.

“Luciel, if you so much as think about making another joke about a Priestess doing drugs, I will see to it that I sue you for everything you own.”

Luciel threw back his head and laughed, unfazed by the threat. “C’mon Jumin, it’s pretty funny, you gotta admit.”

Jumin scoffed at the remark, continuing to refuse eye contact with anyone. “I don’t have anything to admit, it’s a vulgar and childish joke about something serious.”

“Hey, I don’t know what your deal is, man, but take the stick out of your ass and relax for a bit. Nobody got seriously hurt, it’s fine.” Zen spoke up, voice slightly louder than usual. He could feel himself getting riled up by Jumin’s pompous attitude, and was struggling to control the small bite of his tone.

Jumin rolled his eyes faintly, and stared at his nail beds as if he would rather be anywhere than right there. The lack of response only angered Zen further, and hell break loose.

Zen raised his voice at Jumin, demanding a response. Jumin scoffed, offhandedly replying that he needn’t respond to someone so beneath him. Everything happened at once; Zen lunged across the couch at Jumin, but Jaehee was quick to hold him back. Yoosung fought back tears at the hostility coursing through his and everyone’s veins, and Luciel watched on in crude fascination. Zen screamed and cursed at Jumin, who sat silently, huffing out a sigh that only fueled Zen’s anger. As quickly as the argument had broken out, it suddenly stopped.

All five of them froze, physically unable to speak. Rika raised an eyebrow at them, and crossed her arms.

“Really? Your solution is to create more mayhem? Listen, I want to help you control and develop your powers, you can’t waste them on petty fights. You all have the potential to aid this coven, so do something productive.”

With a flick of her hand, everyone unfroze, gasping for breath.

“God, I hate when she does that…” muttered Yoosung, having been on the receiving end of his cousin’s magic more times than he’d have liked.

Rika faced them with a stern look.

“Let’s try this again. You all are going to walk me through exactly what happened while I was gone, and don’t even think about lying – I’ll know. Got it?”

Everyone nodded, hesitant to break the silence.

Luciel spoke up, starting the retelling of the day’s events.

“So here’s what happened…”

------------

Rika shuffled around the living room in a rush, attempting to slip on her shoes and attach her earrings while searching for her car keys.

“Everyone, I know Jaehee and Zen just got here, but V and I have to go and meet the Committee to officially register the coven – Jumin, have you see my keys? Anyways, you know the rules, don’t leave the house unless it’s an emergency, and try not to use your powers unless necessary. Yoosung, you’re in charge until we’re back. Ok, be good, get to know each other a bit! We’ll be back late, have fun!”

She hastily pulled V out the front door, and the couple left the five unattended for the first time ever. Luciel let out a whoop, turning to face the others.

“They’re gone, let’s go WILD! We could do anything! We could- we could- I don’t know, break into the liquor cabinet!”

Jumin scoffed, and refocused on the book in his hands. Zen pumped a fist in the air, wholeheartedly agreeing to the idea. “Y’know, now that I think about it, I’ve always wondered if witches have special kinds of liquor – the normal shit never seems to work for me.”

Luciel grinned devilishly, eyes glinting with mischief. “So, you mean to say, you’ve never tried enchanted whiskey?”

Yoosung made a half-hearted noise of protest. Rika trusted him to make sure nothing went wrong, and he didn’t want to betray that. But Luciel hooked an arm around Yoosung’s neck, and gestured to the liquor cabinet with a grand hand gesture. “Yoosung, my sweet Yoosung, just think – when else are we gonna have a chance to drink without getting our asses whooped? And Rika and V don’t have to know, we’ll keep it a secret, and then nobody will get in trouble. It’s a win-win situation!”

The blond furrowed his brows, trying to work out how exactly everyone won in the situation, but soon gave up and nodded slightly at Seven. “Yeah, that sounds right, I think…what could a few sips hurt, right?”

Jaehee sighed at the trio, and stood up to leave. “I’ll be upstairs, don’t bother me unless it’s an emergency. I don’t want to get roped into whatever punishment you all get for breaking the rules.”

She started up the stairs, and made it to the top step before a voice caught her ear.

“Jaehee, there’s some bottles of antique, exalted wine.” She spun around slowly to lock eyes with Zen, who wore a teasing smirk. He knew she was a sucker for a good wine, and sure enough, she descended the stairs and stood near them, trying to look disinterested.

“Well, I can’t say I’m not curious about the wine…and you all could use someone responsible to make sure everything doesn’t go to total hell.”

With the majority on his side, Luciel pulled some tools out of his pocket, and began to pick the lock on the cabinet. “Y’know, for a cabinet with magical alcohol in a witch coven, this thing is really only manually locked. No spells, enchantments, nothing. It’s like they want us to break in and indulge.” With a soft click, the doors popped open, revealing a plethora of various drinks.

Luciel reached in and started pulling out bottles, handing them off to their proper recipients; an enchanted whiskey for Zen, an exalted wine for Jaehee, a mysterious looking cider for Yoosung, and a few assorted bottles that he set off to the side.

“You guys can crack into these, and I will go grab a special bottle I’ve had my eyes on from an unknown location!” Luciel scurried out of the room, and Zen didn’t hesitate to migrate to the kitchen and rummage through the cabinets for cups. He eventually made a soft “aha!” and took out two cups and a wine glass, all made of heavy shiny glass, encrusted with crystals along the bases.

Yoosung opened the cider and poured a small amount into his cup, bringing it up to his nose to sniff at it tentatively. “I’ve never had alcohol before…first time for everything right?” He carefully sipped his drink, face morphing into a bright smile. “This tastes just like normal apple cider! It’s delicious!” He poured himself a large cup of the liquid and drank in large gulps, oblivious to the possible consequences of his action. Jaehee poured her glass of wine, eyes sparkling as she sipped it.

“This wine is incredible…I’ve never had anything like it. Interesting.” She sipped again and hummed in content, eyes slipping closed in bliss. Zen similarly began to drink and was impressed by the taste, grinning at the bottle.

“Whoo, this has got some kick!”

Across the room, they heard Jumin scoff mockingly. “Please, I bet you’re the type to really feel it after a few hard lemonades. You wouldn’t know a strong drink if it poured you a cup itself.”

Zen felt his temple pulse, and clenched his fist in an attempt to control his irritation.

“Oh yeah, Mister hot shot? Think you could handle a drink better than me?”

Jumin waved a hand dismissively, before snipping out, “Please, I know I could. You’re what, seventeen? I just turned twenty, I’m sure I’ve had a great deal more experience drinking than you.”

Unable to stop himself, Zen raised an eyebrow in defiance. “Prove it then.”

Jumin stood up and swiftly strode to the kitchen, fixing himself some whiskey. He locked eyes with Zen and drank, body language screaming a challenge that Zen knew he wouldn’t be able to refuse. They both poured some more drinks, and glared at each other while Yoosung cheered for the contest.

By the time Luciel returned, everyone had only made it through a few drinks each, but the effects of the alcohol was seemingly instantaneous. There was whiskey sloshed on the countertop from clumsy spills, and Jaehee was dazedly smiling into her full wine glass. Luciel opened his own bottle and drank straight from it, stepping fully into the kitchen before he clapped Jumin on the shoulder.

“Alright, now this is what I’m talkin’ about! Let’s get this party GOING!” He proceeded to dance wildly, bottle in hand, the only noise being Yoosung’s seal laughs and frantic clapping. Alcohol coursing through their veins, Luciel set his bottle down on the counter while he caught his breath. Yoosung squinted at the label, and his nose scrunched in confusion as he processed the meaning of the letters.

“Luciel, why’re you having sparkling juice?” Luciel shook his head at him, lips pressed into a thin line.

“My dear Yoosung, I don’t need alcohol to party hard. But you all do, so let loose, let’s enjoy the day!”

Everyone could drink to that, and within the hour they had consumed too much alcohol, and had little room in their minds for rational thought. Gauging the varying degrees of drunk-ness, Luciel clapped his hands together, declaring drink time over, and marched to the living room as he yelled at the others to hurry up and follow him.

Once everyone had made it to the living room with minor injuries, (Yoosung bumped his hip into a table, and Jaehee bumped into him), Luciel addressed the newest additions to the coven. “So Jaehee, Zen, I don’t think you guys know since you joined us literally 26 hours ago, but Jumin is actually a vessel to summon spirits!”

It took a few moments for the pair to process the information with their foggy minds, but Zen did not hesitate to voice his concerns.

“He can like, become a demon then? What…the fuck? That sounds scary.” His speech had begun to slur together slightly, but Luciel understood him perfectly.

The redhead wore a devilish grin in response. “It’s kind of like that, yeah. So, I had this great idea!” He waited until he had the attention of everyone in the room, and crouched down next to a large circular rug in the center of the room. “Everyone, beho- oh, Jumin, could you step off the rug please? Thanks. Behold!” In one quick motion, Luciel pulled the rug off the ground and haphazardly tossed it behind him, revealing a large pentagram painted on the ground in red.

The others stared at the symbol intensely, Yoosung tilting his head to the side in deep thought.

“Has…has that always been there? How’d I miss that?” Yoosung’s voice was laced with confusion. “Guess I’d never think to check what’s under the rug…” he mumbled to himself, assured by his explanation. He was sure he would have noticed a large pentagram on the floor if there wasn’t a rug, but he was also sure that there had always been a large rug there to cover it, despite having been the one to pick it out the week prior.

Jaehee frowned at the floor, before glancing behind herself to look at the rug crumpled on the ground. “Huh, what a practical use for a rug���” She turned her attention back to the crudely drawn pentagram, and began to wonder what they could possibly be doing.

While everyone was distracted by the large, blood red pentagram, Luciel grabbed five black candles, placed on a side table a few hours prior for easy access, and placed one on each tip of the upside down star.

“Jumin, you’ve had a long day, how bout’ you take a seat in the center of this little drawing? Best seat in the house, I promise!” He easily sweet talked Jumin into sitting down, who was subtly murmuring to himself that yes, it was a hard day, I could use a break. After he seated himself on the floor, knees drawn to his chest as he continued to sip on his drink, Luciel gestured to the candles, and looked up at Zen expectantly. “Zen, care to do the honors?”

It took a few tries for him to successfully snap his fingers, but Zen lit the candles nonetheless.

“Okay, now everybody sit inside the symbol, but around Jumin, and join hands with each other.” They followed the instructions blindly, and Yoosung laughed in glee as he realized what was happening.

“Oh, you guys, I haven’t played this game in years! Can I go first?” The enthusiasm he displayed threw Luciel off, and he was pretty sure Yoosung had a very different perception of what was going on, but he continued according to his plan.

“Sorry Yoosung, this one’s mine. Okay, I’m going to say some words now, just make sure you don’t break the circle we’re making with our bodies. As long as we keep holding hands, we should be safe!”

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and began speaking in a low murmur.

“Your undeniable spell is the Lucifer, your undeniable magic is the Lucifer.”

Zen furrowed his brow and frowned, turning to Jaehee seated beside him to whisper a question. “Wha’s he sayin’?” Jaehee just shrugged, and they continued to let the situation play out.

“When I approach you, with your angelic face, you say that the reason you live is for me, you say,” Luciel’s voice increased with every word he spoke, and by this point he was close to yelling. The flame of the candles flickered out, and a biting wind swirled around the group. Yoosung clutched onto Jaehee and Luciel’s hands for dear life, and even Jumin was beginning to get the creeping suspicion that the situation may not be as innocent as they had assumed.

With a booming voice, Luciel yelled the final line of his chant, “Her whisper is the LUCIFER!”

As the words left his mouth, Jumin dropped his cup on the ground, the spilt whiskey causing the painted sigil to smear. His head lolled to the side, and if anyone had looked at his eyes, they would see them rolled back completely into his head. Luciel’s eyes widened in shock, morphing into a tinge of fear.

“This- that wasn’t a real chant, I- oh fuck, did we just actually summon Satan?” His words were laced with bubbling panic, because while he had meant to play a prank and initiate the newbies into the coven, he hadn’t expected anything to happen.

The room fell quiet, save for a few strained gasps for breath from Jumin. Too paralyzed with fear to move, they all remained seated, and watched as Jumin’s breathing slowed and he became still again. He turned to look towards Luciel, eyes still rolled back, and Zen let out a squeak he would deny to his grave. They were all unable to tear their eyes away from Jumin’s body, and none of them registered the faint smell of smoke in the air.

“Wh...where am I?” Jumin finally spoke, and they all let out a sigh of slight relief – most of them had been expecting a garbled, demonic voice.

Yoosung had been watching the events unfold with unshed tears, and he was quick to plead for mercy. “Oh Lucifer, please, Ruler of the Underworld, His Dark Highness, please spa-spare me, I’m too young to die, I’ll do anything, anything! Just don’t kill me, I beg of you.” His mind was buzzing with alcohol and adrenaline, and he wondered fleetingly if this is why his parents always warned him against drinking. Would Satan show up every time he drank, or just because it was his first time?

Jumin turned to face Yoosung, head tilted in confusion.

“Why would I kill you? I don’t even know you, silly! Um, I know my parents said not to talk to strangers, but, have you seen my mommy? I don’t know where she is…could you help me?”

The dialogue was a bit out of place with Jumin’s deep voice, and everyone was suddenly even more confused.

Jaehee looked at the expressions of the others, before she spoke up. “S’it just me, or does that…not sound like Satan? Unless Satan is looking for his ‘mommy’,” the group nodded in agreement, and Luciel took the lead again.

“Excuse me, but could you tell us your name? It’ll help us find your…mommy, easier!” Jumin blinked at him a few times, before settling on a smile.

“My name’s Eveline! I’m 7 years old, and the last thing I remember is walking with my mommy at the park! This doesn’t look like the park, though…”

Luciel’s body sagged in exhaustion and relief, and he wiped some fake sweat off of his brow.

“Wow, we really dodged a bullet with that one, huh guys! It’s just a girl, false alarm!”

It took a bit longer for the inebriated members of the group to realize what had happened, but they all shared similar sentiments.

Yoosung frowned a bit, turning to Luciel with confusion. “Wait, so we weren’t in a circle to play duck duck goose?” Luciel cackled at the thought, and pat Yoosung on the head in apology.

“Not this time, but I promise next time we decide to summon Lucifer, fake or not, we’ll play a round of duck duck goose to warm up.”

Content with the promise, Yoosung smiled once more, but quickly scrunched his nose in disgust.

“What’s that smell? It’s like something’s on fire or somethin’…” They all searched the nearby surroundings, and jumped up in alarm once they discovered that the rug they had tossed to the side was in flames. It began to spread, flames licking at the front living room curtains as it moved its way towards the sofa as well.

Before anyone could react properly, the fire was being put out with streams of water flying through the air directly at the flames. Too drunk or relieved to question how exactly it had happened, everyone cheered at the very damp, but no longer on fire, living room. After a few moments, Luciel whipped his head in Jaehee’s direction.

“Oh my god, Jaehee, did you do move that water with your mind? I thought your powers weren’t that strong yet- oh man, the wine! How much stronger do you think your powers are? Come on, we have to test this! Jaehee, lift up the rug and toss it out the window!”

With no reason to deny the request, Jaehee easily used her telekinesis to lift the rug out of the, thankfully open, window. Luciel clapped his hands together loudly, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the display. “Okay, now, I’m gonna get on the roof and jump off of it, go outside and catch me!”

She nodded again, before she stood up and stumbled her way towards the door. The others followed, leaving a once again slumped over Jumin forgotten on the floor. Once outside, Luciel began to scale the front of the building without hesitation. If anyone had been the slightest bit aware, they’d have noticed a set of eyes watching them from the home across the street, but they were too caught up in watching Luciel climb to the roof.

At the top of the roof, Luciel stood on the edge, arms spread out to make a ‘T’. He yelled down, “Okay, I’m gonna step off now! You better catch me, Kang!” Jaehee nodded enthusiastically, while Yoosung and Zen cheered for the pair loudly. Luciel dangled one foot off the roof, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let himself fall.

Despite knowing Luciel would jump, Zen let out a deep gasp of shock, and Yoosung cried out for him. Luciel kept his eyes squeezed shut for a few seconds, before determining that if he were to hit the ground, it would have happened already, right? He opened them and found himself hovering about 2 feet above the lawn, arms still outstretched. He threw back his head and whooped, before he pumped a fist in the air.

“Holy shit Jaehee, not bad, not bad at all! Thanks for catching me.” Jaehee smiled softly at him, before her attention was caught by the sound of the front door opening, and Luciel plummeted to the ground.

Jumin stepped out of the house, and ran a hand through his hair.

“The hell happened? I woke up on the floor, the room was smoky and wet, and there was a pentagram on the ground…what’d I miss?”

At this exact moment, Rika’s car turned onto their street, and pulled into the driveway. She quickly scrambled out of the car, to stare incredulously at the quintet.

“Oh my god, what happened?! Luciel are you okay – is that smoke, coming from the window?” She took a sniff, and her eyes sharpened even more. “Correct me if I’m wrong, is that alcohol? I even came back early, what would you have gotten up to if I had stayed out later?” Rika stiffened suddenly, before ushering everyone inside.

“The neighbors can see us, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” She hissed, furious at the group. Once everyone was back inside, she spoke again. “What were you all thinking?” Yoosung spoke up, words flowing without thought as he responded.

“We broke into the li-liquid…liquor cabinet. But we won’t get in trouble, Luciel said we’ll just not tell Rika!” Rika’s face fell dark, and Luciel slapped the back of Yoosung’s head, how the hell did he not realize he was speaking to Rika?

Luciel then stepped forward, hands raised to try and calm the blonde. “Rika, listen, it’s not as bad as it seems…if it helps, I didn’t drink, I wanted to make sure everyone else was safe!”

Clearly not buying his bullshit, Rika crossed her arms. “Don’t try and weasel your way out of this mess. God, is, is that a pentagram on the floor? Y’know what, don’t explain, I don’t really want to know. You are all going to clean this mess up, and in the morning we are having a serious talk about responsibility. Go sober everyone up, and fix this. You’ve got until 8 am to get this place looking exactly how it did before I left.”

She spun on her heel and stormed to her room before slamming her door shut. V looked at Luciel with sympathy. “As long as nobody was seriously hurt…you guys should be able to let loose, do normal teenage and young adult things. Including breaking the rules once in a while. Just…try not to do anything like this for a while, yeah? I’ll help you guys clean up after I do some damage control with Rika. You focus on sobering up the others for now.”

With that, V walked to his and Rika’s shared room, leaving the group in silence. Luciel slowly turned to the others with a sheepish grin.

“Well, that could’ve gone better, but it also could’ve gone way, way worse. But, Yoosung, what the hell man, you can’t just tell Rika we broke the rules so blatantly! Way to throw a bro under the bus, dude.” Yoosung sniffled at Luciel’s annoyed tone, and he pulled out his best puppy dog eyes as he clung onto Luciel’s arm.

“Oh, Luciel, I had no idea! Let me make it up to you, m’sorry, really!” Luciel tapped on his chin as he pretended to mull the idea over, before nodding his head. Yoosung cried out in relief, and flung himself onto Luciel in a full blown hug. Luciel nearly toppled over, but regained his balance and addressed the others.

“Alright guys, time for water and sandwiches! Let’s soak up that alcohol and try to get ourselves through this with minimal punishment!” Luciel led the others to the kitchen, dragging a clingy Yoosung with him.

In the house across the street, a person remained seated near the window, strong gaze piercing into the coven window. They were completely enamored by the person they saw, and knew as soon as they saw them, they would do whatever it took to get them to fall in love, the way they knew they should be.

[thebibliomancer]

100 Days of Comics! 094/100: Fantastic Four #294 (1986)

ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

And today’s selection is more Byrne Fantastic Four! But with 100% less small child setting himself on fire or the Beyonder. Instead we have an adventure that the Fantastic Four are particularly good at.

A journey into mystery. A strange tale. An amazing fantasy. Some weird-ass shit.

The Fantastic Four plus Wyatt Wingfoot have been investigating a large black dome that covered what used to be California’s Central City. The West Coast Avengers were investigating it too and Iron Man flew in only to be blasted back out a split-second later, looking as if he had gone through a war.

And then the dome started to expand and pulled in She-Hulk (who is taking Ben’s place on the team but is also with the Avengers). The Fantastic Three plus Wyatt arrived and entered a half hour later but Reed realizes there’s some wibbly wobbly time differential going on and a half-hour outside the dome is 150 years inside.

Speaking of inside, inside the Fantastic Three and guest find a most strange sight. A futuristic city and a giant shrine of the Fantastic Four, including some divine looking statues.

The Fantastic Group continues to investigate, little realizing they’re being watched from the shadows by mystery people who call them demons and that two of them are sacrilegiously wearing ‘the holy sign.’

And then while Johnny is flying around, he’s attacked by a vacuum blast which snuffs his flames and knocks the wind out of him. He manages to reignite and light the emergency flare but then more attacks come.

Giant orange clad Juggernaut looking fellows who continually shout “CLOBBER-TIME!” Blue clad people wearing glider suits. Two-headed blond psychics in blue. And red clad men who can turn themselves into a ball of fire.

Or the ‘clobber patrol’, the ‘wing patrol’, the ‘head patrol’ and the ‘burner patrol.’ Hmm. I’m sensing a theme here.

The fight does not go well for the Fantastic Three and Wyatt. In fact, aside from Sue, they all get beaten down and captured. Until a Priestess Livia shows up and halts the fight.

Livia recognizes that these interlopers are the real Fantastic Four, returned to them at last.

So now instead of a fight, there’s a big parade through the city back to the plaza with the giant statues. With people cheering and proclaiming that the Four will “heal the world, and make it whole!” And Reed finds himself pressed to probe for information without ruining his guise as Richards the All-Knowing.

Thankfully, Wyatt. He claims to be a new follower, forbidden to hear the story directly from the Four. So, hey. Exposition dump.

And to translate from olde timey legend to normal speak, there was a scientist called Jessup who was worried about nuclear power and how nuclear power plants were cutting safety corners to save money. When he complained, he was fired. But he continued to have nightmares about nuclear bombs destroying everything. Until he happened to catch an interview with Reed Richards, talking about field-effect phenomena and how it can create space-time disruptions.

Jessup realized that this was the key to safeguarding his family and town from a nuclear holocaust, took out a loan, and built a giant salvation generator to shield Central City from nuclear war. His plan was that time would be slowed inside the field so a nuclear war could pass and the long wait for the radiation to settle while much less time passed inside.

Here’s where things went sideways. First, its clear there’s a flaw in the generator. Its borking time the wrong way. Second, as soon as the generator was complete, Jessup activated it rather than wait for a nuclear war that could strike out of the blue.

Jessup also spread the Word of the Four to the people inside the dome and as generations passed, they became figures of salvation, who would appear when the dome would come down and release them into a reborn Earth.

Well. The dome is coming down. That’s why its expanding. But there hasn’t bee any cleansed Earth or anything. So a city full of highly advanced fanatical people, some genetically enhanced into superbeings, who worship the Fantastic Four is about to be released into the world. A world they expect to be empty.

But there’s some hope. The coordinator, aka Jessup, is still alive. Spending most of his time in deep sleep and awakened periodically to advise on matters beyond the city’s understanding. And since the Four (well, Three) have arrived, they have had Coordinator Jessup woken up.

Reed gets things off on the wrong foot by having one of the first things he says to the guy that his plan has gone all wrong and asking to see his equipment. And Jessup knows that Reed Richards must be long dead by this point, as millions of years have passed outside (which they haven’t). So clearly the Three and Guest are frauds. Demons sent to lead the city astray - like that armored one or green woman.

Reed insists that they’re the real deal so Jessup proposes to test them with his helmet, the Ultimate Adjudicator which can probe into the heart of their psyches and determine if they truly believe what they say.

Sue is worried that the helmet might be a weapon but Jessup claims that its only a weapon against the guilty. And then Jessup starts blasting them, seemingly disintegrating them as we see their musculature and then their skeleton bones.

Jessup: “Woe be upon those who would bear witness against my teachings! For they shall endure the full white heat of my wrath!”

Reed: “Wha--?”

Jessup: “You should never have come here! You should have stayed in your own time.”

Reed: “J-Jessup... why...”

Jessup: “Because,” says the old man under his breath, “A society may have many gods -- but there is room enough for only one savior! I am sorry, Richards... good-bye!”

That’s a pretty good hook. I’m now interested in where this story goes. I have to wonder if Jessup did make a mistake with his machines. Or an intentional. Intentionally creating a time displaced advanced army he could lead to conquer the outside world and stop the danger of nuclear proliferation by force. He has mythologized his motives and the Four and convinced the city that everyone outside his demons. How prepared are they to overthrow the demons and conquer a world they see as theirs? With technology advanced by 10,800ish years.

I’m going to look at the letters column too this time. There’s contention on whether She-Hulk should stay on the Fantastic Four or whether Ben should come back. There’s also somebody complaining about the trend of female characters cutting their hair short.

“The She-Hulk is sure as heck better-looking [than Ben], and green is my favorite color. Also, I like her hair. In this day when most of the female super-heroes are getting their lovely tresses chopped off -- i.e. the Invisible WOman and especially (yech!) Storm -- the She-Hulk’s emerald tresses flow long as always, and I love it.”

So apparently that was a controversy in the fandom in the 80s. I guess some people didn’t love Storm’s glorious mohawk. Including the artist on the issue where she got the new haircut, who called it “a bad joke that got way out of hand.” I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

I don’t think there’s ever been this amount of distaste over male character haircuts. Unless it involves mullets. Everyone hates mullets, apparently. But I think that's largely in retrospect considering how many characters spent the 90s bemulleted.