#and the video is a lot more grainy than when i watched on streaming. AND theres no captions !!!! unforgivable imho | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

idyllicstarker · 3 years

Note

here's a Christmas prompt for you ;) how do you feel about Peter telling Tony he won't be home in time for Christmas (maybe he's on a trip? at MIT?) but then showing up on Christmas to surprise Tony

I may have turned the prompt a little, but I hope it’s still close to what you asked for 💖

***

Warnings: none

“I was thinking we could maybe watch Elf, tomorrow - Christmas Eve is for cheesy Christmas films after all.”

Peter’s apprehensive gaze eyed the screen on his laptop, completely illuminated by Tony’s face. It was evident by how timid the question was, he knew his suggestion was a long shot - he didn’t want to make Tony anymore mad then he already seemed, but he also didn’t want the holidays to be a complete bummer because of his own faults.

Tony looked up, presumably from his work bench in the lab, eyes settling on the grainy pixels that made up Peter. He had a blanket wrapped around him, having expressed many times that the heater in the dorm pretty much did nothing at all. Tony could tell he was sad. He could tell he felt guilty at not being able to be there over Christmas. But it didn’t mean Tony felt any better about the whole ordeal.

“You’re really expecting to be able to stream and video chat with me at the same time - with your crappy wifi?”, Tony asked, looking back down to whatever work he was completing.

Peter should be used to the man getting distracted during their evening calls. Most of the time Peter didn’t have his camera on anyway, not when his roommate, Harley, was around. But that didn’t stop the pang of hurt in his chest upon seeing Tony so nonchalant about it.

“Well I don’t think it will be that slow. Harley’s gone back to his family for winter break, and most of the dorm isn’t here either”, he muttered quietly. His revision notebook sat untouched on his lap, nervously rolling his pen between his thumb and index finger.

“You know I never used to like Harley, so I can’t believe I’m saying this but you should be more like him.”

Frustrated tears began to form in Peter’s eyes at Tony’s bluntness. But the man still refused to even look over at the screen.

“You know this isn’t my fault”, Peter whispered, it hurt that Tony was pinning the blame on him. How was he supposed to know the weather was going to stop flights?

“If you’d just gotten the flight when I’d told you too we’d be able to watch Elf together on Christmas Eve, on my couch. But no, you wanted to stay for an extra few days”, Tony hissed. The darkness of the screen made his brown eyes almost black, and Peter flinched at the look of absolute betrayal on the man’s face.

“You know I wanted to go to the party”, he said quietly, shaking his head, “I couldn’t have ever known it was going to snow this much.”

“Yes because a party is much more important than your boyfriend-”

“You’re being selfish…”

“Oh! I’m being selfish Peter? You promised to be here, and you’re not. That’s what’s selfish. You told me not to decorate because you said you wanted to do it with me. There’s not an ounce of Christmas cheer in this place, and now I don’t even want to do it. You know how much I hate the holidays because Maria and Howard were never around. I never had that. I never had a nice Christmasz You promised you were going to be here.. to help me experience that, and what have you done.. you’ve let me down. You told me five minutes ago there was literally no way for you to get back in time with the way it’s snowing, and you’re really expecting me to just be okay. That’s what's selfish.”

He leaned forward quite abruptly, and Peter heard the rough click of his keyboard, before his camera turned off. He was still on the call, but clearly didn’t want to be seen. So what Peter didn’t know was that the man was wiping roughly under his eyes, trying to rid himself of any tears.

Speechless, the younger male looked over the blank screen, his own expression hurt. He knew Tony was right, he’d given a lot of promises he wasn’t able to keep. He sighed, moving to turn his own camera off and therefore giving him the relief to let the tears fall. He sank down into his bed, cuddling the blanket to his chest and burying his cold nose into it.

“I’m sorry”, he muttered, because honestly he didn’t know what else to say.

“Yeah so am I”, Tony’s voice rang out through his speaker, heavy with emotion yet the feedback didn’t quite pick that up distinctly.

Silence followed. A heavy, emotional silence that Peter didn’t know how to fill to get it to stop weighing down on his chest like that. He swallowed thickly, licking at his lips.

There was a sudden fast paced typing, as Peter sniffled before finally Tony spoke again.

“It says the snow’s going to stop on the twenty sixth. There’s no planned flights, but I’ll take the jet instead”, as if predicting Peter’s disagreement with that, he continued: “But only if it’s stopped completely. And If one of my pilots is willing. I don’t want to take them away from their family, a hefty pay rise would be in order…”, by the way he trailed off Peter knew he wasn’t really talking to him anymore.

He sighed out quietly, nodding his head solemnly before realising Tony still couldn’t see him.

“Okay”, he agreed, clearly his throat as he shifted in the bed, pulling his laptop to him and turning on the camera. He waited a few seconds, but Tony didn’t do the same. Nervously he chewed on his lip, and closed his eyes.

“How’s your foot?”, he asked quietly.

A couple of days ago Tony had dropped a hammer on it. He was lucky, it wasn’t broken, but it was swollen. If it wasn’t for that maybe he would have been able to drive down to get Peter. But he couldn’t.

“It’s fine," Tony replied gruffly, “healing..”, he mumbled after a moment. No matter how he was feeling right now, he didn’t want Peter to worry.

“Oh, that’s good.”

It seemed all attempts at initiating conversation again was futile. The guilt he felt was unlike any other. He had promised, and honestly if he knew it was going to end up this way he never would have stayed the extra few days just so he could go to that party and leave when everyone else left. But now flights were cancelled and he was alone. Most people just managed to drive back. He couldn’t.

“I’m sorry for getting snappy with you”, Tony sighed out after a long moment. “I know it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have predicted this. And besides your young - you want that college experience. I don’t blame you for taking it over your old boyfriend…”, he seemed to laugh at the end, but he sounded solemn more than anything. It wasn’t a humoured or a happy laugh, it was quite broken.

“That’s not true Tony”, he tried to justify, clutching his blanket to his chest. “I’d rather be with you then anywhere else. I made a mistake.. a big one”

He half expected Tony to agree but he actually didn’t get a reply. The only indication that he was actually still there was the faint tapping of his keyboard through the speaker.

“I don’t feel too good”, Peter said after a moment, “I think I’m gonna get some sleep. I’ll text you in the morning…?”, he mumbled, the last part more of a question than anything. Even if it was Christmas Eve tomorrow, Tony didn’t look like he was going to forgive him anytime soon.

He was right in thinking such, getting only a low grunt from the man. Peter had to cough to hide his quiet sob.

“Goodnight”, he spoke meekly, voice shaking as he quickly ended the call.

***

If Peter could feel his nose he may have turned around to Ned and laughed about it being a Christmas miracle.

It had taken five hours and driving that most definitely should have been illegal considering they couldn’t see for the most part, but he was here.

Craving comfort after his conversation with Tony last night, he turned to who he knew would never let him down - Ned. He hadn’t asked him to drive down in the middle of the night, to pick him up and take him here, he just did. No amount of panicking from Peter as he realised he’d gotten into his car had stopped him. And now he was here.

The sun was just beginning to rise. Neither of them had slept, but here they were, in front of the tower, in front of his home. Of course, it was still snowing heavily, and as he stepped out of the car, his trainers crunched satisfyingly against the blanket that covered the floor.

“Thanks dude, I don’t know what I’d do without you”, he said softly. His gratitude so strikingly evident in the way his voice softened as they pulled his cases and belongings for his stay from Ned’s trunk.

“Don’t worry about it. It was nice to have the catch up. I’ve missed you”, Ned said, shrugging his shoulders.

Peter didn’t mention the fact that they’d spent half the time screaming whenever they swerved, the tires not quite gripping onto the icy road in a way that comforted Peter enough to not be alert. Instead he simply nodded.

“You should come over, we’ll hang out like old times…”

When all of his stuff was on the pavement, and Peter was beginning to wish he’d put a hat on, he smiled over at his friend. They hugged for a moment, but Ned being tired from driving all night, and Peter eager to go see Tony, let each other go after a moment.

“Thanks man.”

Peter managed to get all of his stuff inside after Ned had left. He decided to let reception send it up, not wanting to haul it all in the elevator and instead just grabbed one small case and bounded over to the lift.

He wiped away at the wetness on his cheeks, and brushed off the snow flakes from his hoodie. He knew Tony would still be asleep, which meant he could go through with his plan easily.

“Friday, don’t alert Tony that I’m back please”, he spoke.

“Yes Mr Parker”, came the reply.

He thanked her quickly, running a hand through his damp hair as let out a deep breath and smiled as the elevator arrived on the floor.

***

“Ho Ho Ho! Good morning handsome”

Peter’s breath was warm against Tony’s cheek. Smelling faintly of chocolate (they’d had a bit of a feast on the way here) and ever so soft and gentle.

Tony blinked his eyes groggily, letting out a disgruntled sound as he lifted his head up to try and make out the sight that was currently hovering over him in the bed.

The small figure of his boyfriend that should definitely not be here, was straddling his torso with the widest grin. His cheeks were still flush from the cold outside, and atop his head was a cute little Santa hat.

“Christmas came early this year”, Peter hummed, shrugging innocently. “Unfortunately Peter Claus didn’t bring you any presents, but he thinks he’s the best gift of all”

Two seconds later and he was being tackled to the bed by a suddenly very much awake Tony. Peter giggled, squirming as Tony’s goatee scratched against his face and neck at all the kisses that were being peppered against his skin.

“How are you here? I thought there were no flights”, he was evidently elated at the sight of his partner.

“Poor old Ned drove all the way over, and then drove me all the way back. We’ve been driving all night. But it’s worth it. I’d rather spend Christmas with you then alone.”

As they both settled down, Peter wound his arms around Tony’s neck, cuddling up to his chest. The Santa hat sat lopsided on his head but he didn’t mind too much, all that mattered was that he was here.

“We’ll have to thank him later”, Tony concluded, pressing a soft kiss to Peter’s lips that the younger male returned eagerly.

“I’m glad you're here. I was worried, but this is the best Christmas gift I could ever get, you’re totally right”, he concluded after a moment of silence whilst they took in the feeling of finally being together again.

Peter nodded his head in agreement, a sleepy smile on his lips as he curled against his warmth.

“Merry Christmas Tony”, he mumbled softly.

“Merry Christmas my love.”

#tony stark #peter parker #tony stark x peter parker #starker #starker fanfiction #ironspider #skylar writes #skylars winter series

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thebluemoonwolf · 3 years

Text

The Mourning Save

Summary: After crash landing in the modern world, Oromis has to figure out a way to support the first person he's been stuck with in the last 100 years. What better way to do that with something easy like streaming? Everything is going well until he can't ignore the call to his own time anymore. What he didn't expect to happen though, was bringing along extra baggage.

Chapter 1

Oromis was sitting on the floor, using the TV to watch YouTube videos. You didn't mind, a lot of them were very calming and nice to watch, especially those 100 hour baking videos. He was starting to go down the rabbit hole, from baking to weird medical facts, and finally to gaming videos. At first he found them very annoying, but he enjoyed the ones with no commentary. Then he saw how people had streamed them for audiences that always seemed to have weird nicknames.

"People watch these screaming banshees? And some people are willing to pay?"

You looked at him, and then to the video he was watching. Someone was playing Phasmophobia, and was screaming at their friends to watch out for the angry ghost that had killed their character without remorse.

"I mean yeah, but most of them take years to work up their viewers to make some form of income. It isn't ever overnight."

He gave this some thought as he continued to watch the group of friends struggle to find out what type of ghost this was. The video was longer than an hour, but Oromis never stayed on a video longer than 15 minutes, so you hoped he wasn't getting any weird ideas.

You jolted at the deep grainy voice that invaded your mind. You'll never get used to the idea that a dragon was resting just outside the area where you lived, kept kidding by magic. His mental connection could reach you and Oromis, but as you understand it, it is very taxing the longer the distance between mental connections.

You play a lot of these games correct?

"I mean, yeah but it's only for fun, stress relief and all that ya know?"

Oromis didn't look up from the TV, which told you he was just as part of this conversation between you and Gleadr. Oromis and Gleadr have been bonded for years... as in, like, a few hundred years.

I think you would benefit from this… streaming. You get money from it and you do it all the time, it seems like that is an easy way to enjoy life, no?

You wanted to rub your temples, but that would make you look irritated, so you just kept your eyes on the TV. Really, you were a little jealous of how easy things seemed to this Elf and Dragon pair. Maybe you could stream, but you didn't have the needed equipment, or the personality, or the drive. Or anything really.

"Uh… well I don't have much experience being in front of a camera, in front of the whole world… I'm not interesting or engaging… I also don't want to show my face at all."

Oromis' eyes were locked on you now, studying, deciding how he wanted to continue with this conversation. It's been a few months and already you had this man tells down to a T. You could already feel that you wouldn't like how this was going to go.

"What if I played the games with you? These people on the videos don't ever seem to play alone, and I'm more than positive I could get the viewer count, if your constant staring has anything to say about it."

You could feel your face start to turn red, and when you were going to defend yourself he simply put a hand up, laughing a little to himself.

"Please don't kill me, I only jest." He gave another small laugh before he contained himself, getting up and walking to you. He was serious about this. Face to face, you could feel how he just simply wanted to help in any way he was able.

"You've shown it yourself, even if you have never voiced it to me, I understand how I stand out. I mean for one, I have the most useful ears." To exaggerate his point he pulled his perfectly pointed ears. "I also know…" He hesitated, but just for a moment, something you would be the only one to catch.

"I have the more desired look among humans I would say." You wanted to punch this man straight in his dumb nose, but he was right. And you could feel the way Gleadr laughed, a ripple in your mind, a feeling of amusement. You knew he only wanted to help, he has been restless in the months since landing in this world, trying to get back to where he belonged. You remembered the day this weird man had landed in your life, laterally.

You had just finished your daily routine, hoping to get in bed early and enjoy the quiet that sleeping would bring you, but yet here you were, at the foot of your door, key still stuck in the lock…outside… as a man with very obvious pointed ears and his dragon just fell into the front lawn. The man was clad in golden colored armor, while his dragon dawned a saddle, and it looked like they fell a fair distance, but the sky was clear just a moment before. This Elf was quick to recover, shove a sword under your throat and start speaking in a weird language you couldn't recognize. You could only put your hands up in surrender and hope he understood English. He did, and luckily you convinced him you were just a kind civilian, but you said he had to hide his dragon if he didn't want any unwanted attention. He agreed.

And here you are, months later with an Elf who is crashing on your couch. You sighed at the thought of him trying to play anything other than maybe Animal Crossings but, what's the worst that can happen? Other than using some small magic, this man didn't really do much outside of trying to get back to the place he came from. It was called Alagaësia, and it had many things besides humans, like something called an Urgal. You pictured them as some human formed mountain goats from the way Oromis described them.

"Alright Oromis, we can try the streaming thing, but there is no way I'm showing my face, so give me some time to find a mask or something so I won't be recognized." He looked at you, clearly confused.

"Why do you need to hide your identity so drastically?" You looked at him, then at the TV which was still playing the horror game, giving your answer some thought. How do you explain the importance of privacy in a world where people post everything and anything? A short and sweet answer, using some knowledge he had given you around the first few days Oromis came around.

"It's kind of like true names in a sense. If someone knows my name, or my face they will be able to know where I live, what I've said 10 years ago, and look up embarrassing pictures about me. It's just to stay anonymous. You don't have to do the same of course, because you didn't exist a while ago. So in terms of the internet you're a ghost."

He seemed to understand that pretty easily so you decided he might as well learn some games before he made a fool of himself on the internet. You didn't have any room available to use other than your own, so you tried to act very natural when you had to invite him inside your private space. You'll get used to this, you helplessly tell yourself. Maybe he will be bored after a week when he gets no viewers? You could only hope as you booted up your embarrassingly slow laptop, and told him to pick a game from your library. You told him any will do, he just needs to get some practice in.

And that's where you left him, as you laid down on your bed, the dim light of your computer illuminating your now shared space. Tomorrow, you decided that if he was going to stream, you should at least put some effort into something he couldn't do himself. Buy things with money. You started to make a mental list, dozing off as you added to it continuously until you let your mind drift on into darkness.

Tags: [@overlordspirit18] [@raiikuii] [@panic-based-riot] (let me know if you want off the tag list)

#oromis #the inheritence cycle #inheritance cycle #oromis x reader #The Mourning Save #this csme about becsuse of dumb bitch brain rott #THERE IS NO REASON TO THE MADNESS THAT IS THIS STARTING CHAPTER I PROMISE IT GETS BETTER #my writings #Wolf's fics

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imposterellie · 3 years

Text

Imprisonment - Febuwhump Day 3

Peter doesn't know where he is, or why his powers aren't working; all he knows is that he's desperately hungry, and that Tony doesn't know he's missing.

Will he be found in time?

**TW - violence, swearing, description of vomiting, pain infliction, food being withheld from characters, passing out, panic attacks**

@febuwhump

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The air was bitingly cold as Peter swung among the streets in Queens. This patrol had been quiet, and he’d spent most of it sat on the rooftops, trying his best to keep himself warm. Even with the built-in heating system in his spiderman suit, it was still bitter outside, and he was beginning to consider calling it a night. He harboured too much guilt to go inside sooner than was absolutely necessary; what if he woke up and there was a story on the news about someone who had been robbed and he wasn’t there to prevent it! So no, he would brave the weather until he could barely feel his fingers, just so that it was still safe to swing home.

He sighed in relief, upon deciding it was best that he went home, and leapt off the side of the building he’d landed on 20 minutes earlier. He swung towards his apartment building, looking forward to getting out of his suit and snuggling up in his bed. It was the weekend so he could have a nice lie-in in the morning whilst he let May sleep in from her night shift. Peter was invested in the thought of a hot shower and his cosy bed, so invested that he didn’t pay attention to his spidey senses. He didn’t notice the drone until it was far too late. By the time he realised something was wrong, the drone had fired a shot of electricity at him that was specific to his suit and powerful enough that it short circuited the systems. He lost control of the web shooters and dropped like a stone. Plummeting towards the ground, Peter tried everything to get Karen back online but to no avail. He hadn’t been too high off the ground when he was shot but he hit the street head-first and it was enough to knock him out.

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

Peter woke slowly, his head throbbing fiercely. He groaned, thinking his enhanced healing would take care of it soon enough, before realising with a jolt that he was not at home as he had expected to be. The room felt wrong, even laid down with his eyes closed, he felt off balance somehow. He fought past the pain in his head to open his eyes carefully and was surprised when his vision was blurry. He squinted and tried again but his sight didn’t change. He couldn’t see anything clearly much further than a metre away. It was like his sight before he had been bitten by the spider.

“What the…?” He mumbled to himself, confused, and becoming a little worried. It was then that Peter came to a little bit more and realised his wrists were restrained. But it was weird, the cuffs didn’t feel like the ones he was usually tied up with (he’d think about being concerned how normal being tied up was once he was out of the situation). He spent a few minutes messing around with them, seeing if they had any mechanism, he could use to get out of them but he had no luck. They were staying on until he was let out of them. He felt that they were digging painfully into his wrists, so he shifted to try and dislodge them, but a bright flash of white, hot pain seared in his head. He paused to let the pain subside, breathing heavily. The second he halted his movements, the pain stopped.

“Ah shit.” Peter whispered as it dawned on him just what the cuffs were doing to him. Somehow, someone had figured out a way to dampen his abilities and had practically reverted him back to his pre-bite self. Ah shit indeed. This was not an ideal situation at all. Especially as he remembered the massive hit to the head he’d gotten which he was very, very aware was not healing itself.

He sat up gingerly, careful not to worsen his headache, and took a look around him. The lack of windows and only a bed, toilet, and iron bars in the room indicated to him that he was very clearly in a cell. Where though, he had no idea. He also had no idea why. From what he could remember, he hadn’t pissed off any bad guys recently so he couldn’t fathom why anyone would have cause to kidnap him. And yet, here he was.

Peter spent what he assumed was a few hours just sitting there, waiting for someone to come into his cell and start torturing him or something but no one did. He just sat there, wallowing in self-pity and boredom. After the first few hours he realised just how desperately hungry he was. And yet no one came.

At one point, he tried to bend the bars, but with his power dampened it barely even creaked. He was well and truly stuck. And no one was coming for him.

He lost track of time. What could have been days was merely hours. The lack of sunlight to track the time meant he just had to sit there, getting hungrier, thirstier and more frustrated as the time went on. He tried to yell out, but his voice just became hoarse without a drink to keep him hydrated, it also made his headache worse as his voice echoed around the small chamber. Without his enhanced eyesight, Peter didn’t see the camera in the darkness. It was in the corner of the chamber outside his cell, just recording consistently and that recording was being streamed directly to a phone. It was a good thing Peter didn’t know about the camera because if he knew who the footage was going to, he’d want out faster.

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

Tony Stark was sat in his lab tinkering away at one of his newest inventions. It was 6am and he had not yet ventured to bed. Pepper would be furious, but he was so excited to show Peter, that he couldn’t possibly sleep until it was done. The hours following passed by quickly, Tony periodically checked the clock and ate food every so often before finally stopping at around 4:30. It was Friday, the day Peter came up to the compound to spend the weekend with Tony. As much as tony wouldn’t admit it, he counted down the days until Peter would be coming over. He loved that kid as if he was his own, but again, would never tell him that.

There had been radio silence from Peter the past few days but that wasn’t concerning, Pete’s finals were coming up and Tony knew he would be busy so just sent a quick check-up text and left it at that. The next two hours dragged by slowly and Tony began worrying. Peter was often late but he’d usually text to let him know. Nothing. Until FRIDAY said,

“Sir, there is an incoming video call from an unknown number. Would you like me to answer it?”

Tony felt his stomach drop. Usually that meant Peter was injured or in hospital or something. He knew he should better answer it in case it was the kid’s friend Ted. Ned.

“Yeah, patch it through to the tablet.” Tony said as he picked his iPad up off the table, preparing himself for the worst.

“Already done sir”

The image that came through was worse than the worst that Tony could’ve possibly prepared himself for. It was video footage of Peter, trying to yank apart the bars of a cell he was in, yelling. Tony turned to the side of the desk and vomited straight into his bin. Peter looked awful, malnourished, bruised, and he was squinting as though he either couldn’t see or had a horrendous headache. Why couldn’t Peter get out of the cell? He had superstrength, Tony couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. It took Tony a minute of staring due to the grainy footage to notice the cuffs around Peter’s wrists. They were menacing looking things, causing blood to trickle down his arms if he moved and Tony immediately realised they were dampening Peter’s abilities. He vomited again.

“FRIDAY?” He said quietly. “Can you trace the IP of the stream?”

There was a moment of silence.

“I’m sorry sir, the IP has been heavily encrypted. I cannot get through.” Tony wracked his brain, trying to come up with another way to find the kid.

“See if you can find locations in a 30-mile radius that fit the specs from the stream. Anything with basements that are in a quiet area where no people walking past would hear a kid shouting. And do it quickly.” Tony stood, clutching the tablet in his hand. He brought up a large hologram map of the area, watching as FRIDAY indicated locations that matched the description.

“Sir, there are 5 possible locations that Peter could be. I’ve also scanned his condition and it appears as though his metabolism is still intact, despite his main powers being dampened. There is no evidence that this video is live so there’s a high possibility that Peter will be very dehydrated and malnourished when he is found.” Tony paid very little attention to the information his AI was presenting him with. His logical brain had shut down, panic starting to take over. He retrieved his phone from the desk and tapped on the speed dial. The phone rang several times before someone picked up.

“Tony?”

“May.” Tony sighed a little in relief to hear her voice.

“What’s the matter? Has something happened to Peter? Do I need to come and get him?” May asked, suddenly frantic. Tony was confused, it sounded like May already knew Peter was in danger.

“May, where is Peter? Is he at home?”

“No. He left a note saying he was spending the next past few days with you. Has he not been at the compound?” May panicked further, “What’s going on?”

Tony settled himself, knowing that if he panicked too it would only make things worse.

“I think you should come over here as soon as you can, that note wasn’t from Peter. He’s in trouble.”

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

FRIDAY barely had time to announce May’s presence when she burst in through the doors. She looked a mess. It was clear she had just finished a long shift and she’d spent a lot of the drive over crying, due to the tear tracks staining her face. Tony met her in the communal room, it was a slightly more welcoming environment than the entrance lobby.

“Where’s my nephew?” She demanded as soon as she saw Tony. Tony didn’t say a word, just pulled up the footage that had burned itself into his memory. When it finished, May’s face was grey.

“Oh god.”

“I know, we’ve narrowed down the places he might be and I’m getting the team together to go looking for him right now.”

“He looks so ill.” May’s hand covered her mouth, she was swaying on her feet so Tony took her arm and guided her gently to a seat. He crouched down in front of her, meeting her eyes and grasping her hands in his.

“I promise I will find him May, whatever it takes. I’ll find him and I’ll fix this mess.” She nodded blankly and stared into space, as if she had lost the ability to function in her grief. Tony’s phone rang, the name ‘Steve’ popping up on the screen. He took one long look at May before leaving the room and answering.

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

Time was nothing anymore. Nothing but pain filled his senses. He could barely breathe without pain in his head, in his chest, in his everything. He’d been tortured before, sure. But this was a whole different level. He’d never been starved before and he’d decided very quickly that he never wanted it to happen ever again. Peter had no energy at all. His injuries weren’t healing and he could barely keep his eyes open. He’d given up shouting for help what felt like years ago.

His throat was dry and every time he swallowed, it felt like knives raking down into his lungs. Is this what it felt like to die? Alone and hungry in a tiny cell, drifting in and out of consciousness with nothing but the ever-present darkness as company.

He closed his eyes as the pounding in his head grew louder. He just wanted it all to go away.

“Tony. ‘m sorry.” He mumbled, letting himself finally start to drift off.

“No you don’t kid, we’re gonna get you out of here.”

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They had found him. It took the whole team and several breakdowns from Tony to pinpoint Peter's exact location. They fought the guards enough for Tony to get through and find Peter. The rest of his team were upstairs, dispatching the culprits. He got to work lasering through the bars with his suit.

“Ben?” Peter whispered, “Tha- you?”

“No kid, it’s Tony. You’re not dead, not if I have anything to do with it.” Tony felt his heart shatter, he knew they were running out of time. His lasers were struggling to get through the cell bars; It was very slow progress but it was working.

“Good.” Peter smiled softly, “knew you’d come for me.”

Tony spoke past the thick lump in his throat, “Always Underoos. Always.”

Peter didn’t respond, he’d finally passed out.

“We’ve dispatched all the guys upstairs; Nat is interrogating the ones who are still alive now.” Steve spoke from behind Tony.

“Good.” Tony replied grunting with the effort of keeping the lasers steady, he was almost through the thick metal, almost had his kid back in his arms. The metal split with a groan and Tony leapt into action, attempting to yank the bars apart where they’d been split. He kicked it hard in frustration when it refused to budge, even with the suit’s extra strength.

“Here. Here Tony, we’ll do it together.” Steve interrupted before tony injured himself. He positioned himself on the other side of the bars to Tony and braced himself to pull them apart. “Ready?” Tony nodded, barely concentrating but a new set of determination in his eyes. “Pull!”

The bars groaned as they bent apart, Steve’s muscles straining. They reached a point where Tony could exit his suit and squeeze through the gap. He rushed straight to Peter’s side. The boy was out cold, thin and shivering. Tony bundled him into his arms and squeezed straight out of the cell, dashing up towards the Quinjet. Steve was covering his back as they ran through the building, though there were no men left to fight. Their shouts could be heard throughout the area as Nat went to work extracting information. Tony had no idea what they were doing to them, and quite honestly, he didn’t want to know.

They reached the aircraft in record time. They could’ve flown home in Tony’s suit but Peter’s condition was too severe. A medical team met them on the ship, Bruce Banner at its lead, as they took Peter from Tony’s arms and got straight to work.

They took off immediately. Tony collapsed against the wall, sliding down onto the floor. He felt the panic rise up in his chest, the fear a tight ball in his lungs. His breath became sporadic and short as his vision became fuzzy. His jumped as a hand rested gently on his shoulder.

“Breathe Tony.” Steve said quietly, crouched down in front of the man. “They’re looking after him, he’s safe.” Tony continued to hyperventilate.

“Tony.” Steve said more forcefully, “look at me.” Tony managed to look at him, his vision still blurry but he focused on Steve’s face. “I need you to breathe with me, I’ll show you look, breathe with me.”

Steve started to breathe loudly and steadily, focusing on Tony’s chest. His breathing slowly started to even out as his panic subsided. They sat in silence for several minutes, both using each other’s company to combat the fear.

#febuwhump2021 #febuwhumpday3 #peterparker #peter parker whump #tony stark #whump #injury

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winterromanov · 5 years

Note

Maybe a college Bucky one where he’s being playing games out of town, and trying to study for exams and he’s just so tired but trying to keep going and reader makes him nap and relax and it’s just very Soft ☺️

pairing: bucky x reader (set in the same universe as this fic)

Trying to play football and also be a competent college student is an Incredibly Difficult Feat. You know this, because watching Bucky vault himself from away games to home games to mid terms to finals is about the most exhausting thing you’ve ever seen. If he’s not studying he’s at practice, and if he’s not playing he’s in an exam. It’s like watching a manic, sleep-deprived whirlwind, living almost entirely off coffee and takeout noodles.

He’s not taking care of himself. He’s pushing and pushing and pushing, trying not to let anybody down--as if he could ever do that.

“You don’t have anything to prove,” you say, as he crashes face-down on the bed in your dorm, the night before he leaves to play a game at Harvard and minutes after his Cold War history deadline. You’ve not seen him eat anything the last twenty-four hours. “Look--you won the last game. Steve said you could sit this one out.”

A vague mumbling comes from your bed. His face is smothered by the pillow and he’s too exhausted to even turn over, so you poke his ass with your foot. His hand reaches out, reflexes still ridiculously quick, pulling you onto the bed with him.

“Sorry, love,” you smirk, curling as close to him as your tiny mattress will allow. His arm pulls you close to his waist, palm splayed across your back. His heartbeat is unrelenting beneath his shirt, thudding between you. “Didn’t quite hear that one.”

His head shifts so you’re basically nose-to-nose, his grin sleepy and delirious. He’s gonna pass out any second. You’ve seen it many, many times before in the last hectic few weeks--you’re probably gonna see it a few more. “I’ll be fine after nap. Promise.”

“Don’t you dare fall asleep before I can force a pizza down you,” you warn, and he laughs, deliberately snuggling into the pillow and letting his eyes flicker closed. You can’t resist--running your hand through his hair, along his face. Kiss his forehead. “Goddamn it, Buck. You’re making it very difficult for me to look after you.”

“You being here is enough,” he says softly and before you have chance to reply he’s gone, lost in some dream. You slowly creep out of his embrace, making the pizza for him anyway. By the time you wake up the next day his body is a phantom shape in your bed but the pizza is gone--he’s left you a bright pink post-it note on the plate. Scribbled in his usual scrawl are the words thank you always favourite girl.

we won!!! harvard ain’t better than us at FOOTBALL

wish u could have been there

renaissance lit is being a bitch :(( well done you STAR. miss you more every moment so get back quick

should i hijack the bus and speed down the freeway

if you must

consider it done

love you

love you more than anything

The next game is thankfully a home one against Yale so you can at least keep an eye on him--you’re just protective, that’s all, not wanting him to burn out in front of you. There’s a lot of gym sessions and library cramming and a grand total of one dinner date at his apartment, where you made a pasta dish with as many vegetables as you could think of in as possible (his mom had sent you a message afterwards with immense gratitude because her son needed his greens, damn it). The following evening you’d wrapped yourself in one of his jerseys and sat in the bleachers alongside an injured Sam--injured and bitter about it--and waited in the lights and the noise for the game to begin.

“Bucky tells me you’re worried about him,” Sam interjects rather suddenly and when you blink back, he shrugs his non-injured shoulder nonchalantly. “Not that I blame you. That dude just doesn’t let up, does he?”

“You could say that,” you reply, shivering a little. The November air is cold, even wearing Bucky’s sweater. “He keeps telling me the season will be over before long, but I...I don’t want that to be a couple of weeks too much for him, you know?”

Sam hums thoughtfully. Around you, the crowd practically fizzes with excitement, covered with facepaint and aggressively chanting team songs at the opposing side. You’d never been to a college football game before you started dating one of the team’s star players, but you have to admit, the atmosphere is kinda addictive. Watching Bucky play is kinda addictive.

“If I know Bucky, and boy do I know him,” Sam eventually replies, squeezing up closer to you as more people gather into your stand. A girl is openly staring at you both--it doesn’t happen that often, but more so at games. People know Bucky, and Sam, so people know you. “He’ll get through this all okay. He always does, (Y/N). I’d been pretty damn surprised if he doesn’t make captain next year.”

You stare at the bright, clean grass of the field, and think of a boy so fucking exhausted from trying to balance his life that he can barely function half the time. Bucky would be an awesome captain. You just don’t want him to become a dead firework because of it.

The game ends up being pretty close but Yale just snatch the victory. It doesn’t mean that they can’t win the season, but. Bucky makes his way over to your stand at the end of the game like he always does, taking off his helmet and mouthguard. He also looks extremely deflated, like he always does when they lose.

“It’s okay,” you say, taking his face in your hands. He looks angry at himself. And you know what he’s thinking. I should have pushed harder. “Shit happens. You were still amazing.”

He kisses you over the barrier in a display of affection you were once too shy to give away in public, but you need him as much as he needs you. When you break apart you plant a chaste, gentle peck on his jawline, running your thumb over the shadow.

“You two make me sick,” Sam interrupts the moment, arms folded. Bucky flips him off while smiling sweetly and you can’t help but laugh. “Honestly. Didn’t ask to be violated, but here we are.”

“Payback for every single time I’ve walked in on you doing unspeakable things with the girl from the top floor on our kitchen counter.” Bucky snaps back teasingly. You like watching the banter unfold between the two of them. You’d be worried if Bucky and Sam weren’t taking the piss at every given opportunity.

Sam gestures pointedly at his injured right shoulder. “I cannot believe you’d treat a fallen comrade like that. I’m disgusted.”

“And so was I when I saw the state of the kitchen counter.” Bucky gives you one last kiss, clutching your hand. “See you after I hit the showers, yeah?”

“I’ll be waiting.” Your promise him, and his eyes glow just a little brighter.

When Bucky facetimes you from Brown the very next week, he looks like he hasn’t slept for at least three days. His Ancient Chinese history exam is literally a day after he arrives back from the trip and he’s frantically cramming in his hotel room in Rhode Island, while also trying not to fuck up the team’s chances of winning the season.

“Just one more game after this,” his grainy voice says on the other end of the video feed, head lolling against the headboard of his Holiday Inn bed. You wish he was in your bed. God, you wish he was in your bed. “And the season is over and I don’t have to be away from you ever again.”

“I don’t think your mom would like it if I stole you away for Thanksgiving.” You joke, tongue poking between your teeth. His lips curve, half a laugh escaping from his chest.

“That’s why she personally invited you to stay with us for the holidays. She’s worried you might sneak in there first and drag me to Virginia. She already knows I’d go wherever you go.”

Your smile is kinda wistful. “Except when you go to Rhode Island.”

“Except when I go to Rhode Island.” He repeats, sighing dramatically. He rubs one of his tired eyes. “Ugh. Who thought coinciding pre-Thanksgiving exams and football season was a good idea, huh?”

“I have no idea, but I’m prepared to have words with them.” You tilt your head. “Don’t work too hard, yeah? It’s one exam. It’ll all be okay in the end.”

“I know, I know.”

You want to keep talking, on and on until the early hours like you do sometimes, because time is apparently not real when you and Bucky are on the phone together. But he needs sleep, and you need sleep, and occasionally you’ll do things for the greater good. “Good luck for tomorrow. Brown won’t know what’s hit ‘em.”

“They better not,” he jokes, “Will you be live-streaming the game?”

As if you wouldn’t. You can’t pretend that you always know what’s going on or any of the rules, but you always try to watch him if you can. He’d do the same for you, over and over and over. “Already got the tab open on my laptop and everything.”

Bucky’s grin is near effervescent, even through your patchy wifi connection. “I love you more than anything, you know that?”

“I may have had an inkling.”

hello y/n

HELLLOOOOO

u know brown are the best losers because they lose and give you TEQUILA

omg are you drunk

never been DRUNK IN MY LIFE!!!! but im at this cool party and stEv e has found a girl and i miss u

i miss u so much . and like i just do generally

whenever ur not ar oUnd

oh sweet boy. you are very drunk.

im serious though

sometimes i think about how much i love you and it scares me

because then i th ink what it would be like if you wreent there

and that makes me so fucking sad i cant breathe

y/n

y/n ???????????????

hellooo

have u gone to bed

no, just messaging steve to make sure he gets you back safe. im not going anywhere. just please please look after yourself. love you always

“I’m sorry about those messages I sent you last night.”

You grab him in the tightest hug possible, his hold all still hanging off his arm, rain spattering down from dark clouds outside his apartment block. You hold him for at least ten years, you reckon, because the thought of him being so fucking sad he can’t breathe makes you so fucking sad you can’t breathe.

“You’re a terrible drunk who says things that make me emotional.” You laugh tearfully into his sweater and he grips you even harder, if possible. The shards of glass jabbed between your ribs start to dissolve as you inhale every single part of him.

“I know, sweetheart,” he murmurs, “I know.”

His last game is the day of your renaissance literature exam and for once you’ve been the one not eating and relying on caffeine, anxiety lingering round your jittery bones like an irritating ghost. Your interactions with Bucky are a battle between you wishing him aggressive luck for what could be the winning game while he equally aggressively says your exam will go fine, they always go fine, it’s an easy A for sure.

Your exam isn’t until the afternoon so you spend the morning pacing about your bedroom looking at a sporadic mess of post-it notes on your wall declaring quotes and context that you hope will just stick in your brain. When Lizzie from down the hall says there’s a package for you you don’t actually think much of it, too busy to deal with something you’ve probably forgotten you ordered from Amazon--but she makes some comment about how fancy it is, wrapped up in striped paper.

Your name is in print across the front so it doesn’t leave a clue on the sender, but as soon as you rip into it and find a bundle of things nestled between tissue paper, you know instantly. It’s kind of embarrassing you didn’t click sooner.

Dear Y/N - you’ll ace it, favourite gal.

You try not to break down in sleep-deprived and emotional tears as you pull out a brand new sweater in your favourite shade of burgundy, a vintage copy of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, three different kind of Hershey’s bars and a dumb little teddy bear wearing your college jersey. He’s sent you a fucking care package. He’s away at Princeton, and he’s sent you a care package, because exams drive you crazy and he’s just... Well, he’s Bucky.

i got your present

have i ever mentioned that i love you

i may have had an inkling

He doesn’t really leave you a choice, does he? Besides, the game is only at Princeton, and if you catch the train the moment you escape the uneasy warmth of a crowded exam hall you should be able to get there in time.

You’ve never been to Princeton stadium before, but you grab one of the last tickets available and rush onto their crowded bleachers just before the game is about to begin. The lights are heady, the atmosphere is electric, and you’re about to watch the man you lovingly, completely, unrelentingly call your own play the game he loves almost as much as you at a stadium forty miles from home.

hey steve, you text his closest friend, hoping he’ll see it, get buck to look at the front of the stairs near block d when you come out

y/n if this is what i think it means he’s going to lose his goddamn mind

When the team runs out you notice the number five on his jersey straight away, a constant fleeting image in your head from the countless games you’ve seen him play. Even from a distance, Steve’s eyes catch your own and his arm starts gesturing violently in your direction, Bucky taking a couple of moments to catch on.

It’s a good job the game isn’t due to start for a few more minutes, because absolutely nothing can stop him from automatically sprinting to your side of the field and kissing you senseless, cameras and crowds be damned.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he says on a dizzy outtake of breath.

“Couldn’t miss the last game of the season, could I?” You gently push his chest, urging him to go back to his team. “And neither can you. Go back to them. I’ll be waiting.”

He steals your lips for one more second, giddy and pumped full of adrenaline. “I really lucked out the day I met you, didn’t I?”

His mouth is hot. Hot. Unmistakable. Real. Always, always real. “Not as lucky as me.”

my masterlist

send me a request

#big oof #ridiculously fluffy #soft bucky #college!bucky #bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x reader #bucky x you #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe

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inkribbon796 · 3 years

Text

Like a House of Cards Ch. 7: Something Precious, Something Gained

Summary: As the dominos fall in the opposite direction, time ticks on.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

After the blast hit and Dark fell backwards, their form flicking and convulsing, the chaos around them froze in time.

Brody broke free of the magic pushing him away and both he and Wil raced over to Dark.

Wil took out his revolver and fired in the Guildmaster’s direction, screaming in a rage before leaping to Dark’s side.

“No! No!” Brody screamed as he raced over to Dark, tears starting to stream from his eyes. “She wasn’t supposed ta hit yeh.”[1]

“Darkling!” Wil knelt by Dark’s other side.

Brody began drawing up as much aura as he could muster as started trying to seep it into Dark’s battered body as carefully as he could so he didn’t worsen the damage. He looked up at Wil, “Make yerself fookin’ useful, will yeh Bubbles?”[2]

“Ohh, right,” Wil realized and placed his hands ever so gently on Dark’s chest, the touch gentle as the two of them began slowly seeping aura into Dark’s chest and tentatively their aura fused the horrid cracks up again.

The Entity’s souls, no longer screaming in agony, began to rouse again from their dazed state and Dark saw Wil and Brody leaning over him.

“Dark, sweet mother ‘a[3] Mary, yer[4] alive,” Brody gasped, setting his head on Dark’s chest as another round of sobs ripped their way out of his chest. “I thought yeh were gonna die.”[5]

The hunters all suddenly disappeared into a massive portal as a person in a long brown trench coat and blood stained bandages over his eyes. The blood from his bandages was starting to roll down his cheeks.

The entire group looked at this new Host, and the one who was still standing by Illinois.

“The fook[6]?” Marvin said, looking between the two Hosts.

The Dealer walked towards Dark, who was starting to settle in exhausted unconsciousness instead of imminent death, Wil looking up and frowned at the fact that he was now seeing double of one of his boys. Both he and Brody felt drained.

“Huh, I don’t recall getting drunk,” Wil commented.

“He’s not gonna[7] die, right?” Brody growled.

“Of course not, why would the Host want such a thing?” The Dealer scoffed. “The Entity should be fortunate that it will take another three years for the Guildmaster to amass that kind of magic again and by then the Entity will be more than fully recharged due to the vast empire he has accrued that he can get aura from.”

“Holy fuck, he’s still alive?”

J.J and Hearts appeared out of thin air.

Illinois and his siblings, except for the Host, braced for another attack.

“Hey, hey,” Hearts held his hands up in surrender. “We’re done, besides there’s no point in wearing the suits again now that Wilford’s alive.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Bim demanded.

“Well, we,” Hearts began patting his pocket in confusion, before groaning and rolling his eyes. “Logan’s still got the video, awww, shit, we were gonna[7] use that.”

Hearts looked up at the beanstalk not too far from them. A huge sunflower platform starting to bud and flower at the top. “Hold up, we’ll get Tech Avery and the Hulking Croak down and we’ll do the whole spiel then, when we’re—”

The Suit dodged as Ethan came out of nowhere to try and punch Hearts in the face. Hearts deflecting or dodging most of the strikes.

“What did you do to my dog!” Ethan demanded in an angry fury. “Stop wearing my fucking face.”

Then one of Ethan’s fists phased through Hearts’s face before he completely disappeared. Then he was swiftly kicked in the back so he toppled forward onto his face.

“We’re done,” Hearts told Ethan, parts of him materializing first before others. “I can kick your ass, but I really don’t want to.”

“You’ve killed dozens of people already,” Ethan spat, “why stop now?”

“Well maybe I like existing,” Hearts told him, “you ever think of that?”

“Why would that matter?” Ethan demanded, picking himself back up.

“I can’t tell if you’re being obnoxious or just plain stupid,” Hearts rolled his eyes, and looked around.

J.J casually snapped his fingers and a magical barrier sprung up and a wall of red and gold magic hit it. “Right on time, it seems,” the false J.J smiled.

“Yeah, I’d hate to tell the story twice,” Hearts smiled. “Hey Princey, are the others with you?”

“Odious scoundrel!” Roman shouted. He was standing with all the other Sides. All of them in their superhero outfits. Other heroes and villains began showing up since they’d been called over by the cracking dome and the burst of magic.

J.J dissipated the barrier.

Nate let out a sigh of relief as he counted all seven Sides. None of them had tried to kill each other for power or to get more of themselves back. He’d need to have a long chat with all of them, but right now there were other things to worry about.

“Where is that face stealing monster?” Roman demanded.

“Seeing as I still have my face, I think we are merely dealing with imposters,” Logan explained.

“Logic, now is not the time for semantics,” Janus hissed.

Logan fell silent, but he was looking at the two Suits. Hearts smiled at him in return.

“Hey, glad to see you’re all still doing well,” Hearts still had a huge smile.

Janus hissed at him in fury at the same time Logan yelled out, “FALSEHOOD!”

“Yikes, but that’s a discussion to have with our Logan,” Hearts smiled.

“That was nothing like Logic!” Roman shouted. “How dare you?”

“Well yeah, he’s not our Logic yet, give him about fifteen years and he’ll get there,” Nestor explained. “We’re from the future.”

There was a beat of silence before Roman began laughing, pointing his sword down at them, “Your tricks will not fool me, thou cretinous wretched. Tell them Deceit.”

All the other Sides had already been looking at Janus, who was staring at the two doppelgängers in a mixture of shock and apprehension.

“Deceit,” Roman growled, “now is not the time to play devil’s advocate.”

“That would explain the nanite technology and the fact that they know who we are,” Logan reasoned, a pit forming in his gut. Because if that Logan had been capable of that much sadism and outright, malicious violence . . .

“No. No!” Roman spat angrily at Janus,. “We are not even considering this.”

“Wait you guys are even thinking of considering this?” Ethan shouted. “It’s absolute horseshit!”

“Deceit’s a living lie detector,” Illinois called out. “He just also happens to be a really good illusionist.”

“It’s true,” Joan pushed three way past Janus and Remus and jumped down from a piece of rubble.

“So they’re telling the truth?” Joan looked at Janus.

“Unfortunately, it seems so,” Janus answered through gritted teeth.

Heart looked over at Brody, “Come on, Chase, if we can’t cheat with Logan’s video, we gotta do it together. I only want to do this once a round.”

“I’m not fookin’ leavin’ him ta get shot again!”[8] Brody shouted. “I don’t care if Host says it’s clear or not. I didn’t put up with all this bullshite[9] ta[10] watch him die.”

“Come on, he’s literally in the middle of what amounts to an army of magic, he’s not going anywhere,” Hearts tried to reason.

“Leave it,” J.J told him, his voice still grainy with whatever was helping him speak. “We need to get Logan back and it’s best to have this farce dealt with sooner rather than later.”

“Fine,” Hearts let out a frustrated groan, before pointing to J.J and then Brody. “This is J.J he’s a tactical advisor. This is Brody, part time hit man, and fulltime emotional crutch for an unstable eldritch demon.”

“And I am the Police Commissioner of the Egoton PD,” Hearts introduced, gesturing to himself, CP Nestor flashed a badge on his wallet that was usually carried around by Abe and reached around and grabbed a disk at the back of his neck and handed it over to the Dealer. “I’ll spare my name since it makes younger me a bit antsy despite half of the league already knowing who we are and where you live because you’ve been playing hero since you were fourteen.”

“The hell, you’re not me, you’ve killed people,” Ethan argued.

“Trust me, we’ve been targeting people who have killed or at the single rumor of an order from their Guildmaster they would kill. I have killed far better people, and I’m not claiming we’re saints but we did this town a favor.”

“You could have just told us upfront,” Logan grumbled. “It would have saved us all this trouble and bloodshed.”

Hearts started letting out an amused chuckle, J.J and Brody were decidedly not laughing, “Oh that’s funny, and you always say you don’t have a sense of humor. Did you know that you always ask that, every single time? Nah, you see, we tried that. A lot. So we’ve just been trying whatever sticks.”

“This is the tenth reset,” Brody frowned. “Thanks ta the anomaly an’ J.J here, we’ve been able ta remember all ‘a ‘em so we could make changes as we needed.”[11]

“We had to remove your J.J this time around because he refused to help,” Diamonds explained. “Speaking of which.”

He stepped to the side and snapped his fingers, a bubble of distorted time rippled out and J.J tripped through. He looked confused and bewildered, until he saw future J.J and jumped up to attack him.

Then there was another ripple of time and both J.J were standing there, the real one looking furious as Diamonds just stared back. “See? No one’s died, you should have just trusted me from the start.”

J.J looked around at everyone and he froze when he saw Jackie, who was standing next to Chase.

“Jackie?” J.J gave a shaky sign as he took a couple steps forward. The mute hero then raced over and hit Jackie with a hug, he was shaking in relief.

“Hey, Jay, you okay now?” Jackie asked in concern.

J.J nodded and held onto Jackie even tighter.

Hearts had the wherewithal to wait for the moment to pass before he pointed up to the beanstalk, “And our Logic just peaced out up there. He motioned to the beanstalk. “He’s got the drive we need where we explain everything and have actual video evidence to prove it. So you all can either wait in here, or we can send someone up to get him.”

Roman looked up at the beanstalk, finally sheathing his sword. “Fine, besides, we have unfinished business with him.”

“Excellent the Core Sides will be able to accomplish the mission with little to no bloodshed,” the Dealer smiled.

“They good or should we send someone else?” Nestor asked J.J and the Dealer.

“The Core Sides should be fine,” the Host asked for the two of them. “The Sides should not worry, the Host will not allow the Suits to escape. Especially since there’s a town to clean up.”

“I’m going with them,” Nestor decided. “Someone needs to help power him down afterwards and he won’t let that happen if he thinks the other Sides are still in danger.”

That caused a little bit of an argument but after a while everyone came to an agreement. Core Sides would go up with Nestor to retrieve their Logan and Patton. The three Dark Sides would stay down with the others and help clean up or wait for Dark to recover.

Janus did walk over to the beanstalk with them, halting Logan a ways away to talk. Mostly to plan in case Nestor double crossed them.

“I’ll keep an eye on things down here,” Janus decided, a small albino python sliding out of his sleeve and moving towards Logan. The logical Side letting the serpent crawl up his body until it was delicately wrapped around his wrist and then turned into a bracelet.

“Are you certain that you do not wish to join us?” Logan asked.

“If I go up there, I will strangle him with my own hands,” Janus warned.

“Alright,” Logan responded in understanding and walked back towards the spot the other Core Sides were standing with Nestor. Roman set his hand on the tree-like stem of the beanstalk and a rounded elevator carriage made of woven plants and flowers.

“Is that even safe, Princey,” Virgil looked at the carriage nervously.

“Of course why wouldn’t it be?” Roman leaned against the carriage with a huge smile.

Virgil frowned, “Are you serious?”

After some magic from Patton they all got into the carriage and it started to move up. The ride was quiet for a bit as the carriage began moving up.

“Why are you even coming up, don’t you have a future to hover over?” Virgil spat. “We can’t be that important.”

Nestor frowned, leaning forward in his seat, “Hey look, I’ve regretted many, many of the things I’ve done in my life but the time I spent with you guys was not one of them.”

Nestor pointed to Logan, “You’re not our Logan yet, but even at this point I owe you a lot. You fixed my crappy homemade suit into something that would protect me. You and Silver and Jackie helped give me a structure while I was still in school and doing hero work. I still hold those days in a special place in my heart, and regardless of what happens next that won’t change. But even after I still owe Logan a lot for really helping me out. I might have mentioned it but this city hates me. Dark dropped the police department in my lap and basically told me: “keep order in my city, bitch” and walked off to keep looking for Wil. Logan was there to help me. He helped me when no one else did or could.”

“Sounds like hell,” Virgil commented.

“For five years it was,” Nestor told him, “a lot of people who didn’t need to die, died. Hunters were killing anyone they thought could be a demon vessel after they found out how many demons were actually in the city. And while all that was going on, I had to stand up in front of the news and try and keep the peace in a city that was turning itself inside out. My mission was to save as many people as I could, and if a couple scumbags who were going to kill children and people who have nothing to do with heroes or villains then who cares?”

Logan’s brain was already going to dangerous places. He could see a logical chain of events that brought the Side from where he was sitting in-between Patton and Virgil, to wherever Spade was in his life. It was a dangerous slippery slope.

His future self had already been telling him things. And if these doppelgängers were truly from the future then he had to acknowledge that his other self’s warnings were true. That Virgil and Roman had died. That Patton had been hurt and needed protecting. That Deceit had to be trusted when he couldn’t trust anyone else.

And that the hunters were to blame.

These thoughts swirled his head as he evaluated them:

Did Patton deserve to be attacked for things he could not control? No!

Did a young man who was barely old enough to drink deserve to have the metaphorical weight of a city dropped upon his shoulders and left to run the police force on his own? No!

Did the people who callously murdered Virgil deserve to be left to walk free . . .

Logan hesitated. Apparently most of those people were now dead before they could kill Virgil and others like him. They also hadn’t yet done anything.

Objectively his head spun with the paradox. Given the chance they would have killed him. But they were too dead to actually carry out the deed anymore. We’re they still guilty of the crime?

The logical Side’s battered heart cried “Yes” but now Logan couldn’t be sure that was his mind and heart deciding those things anymore.

His future self had clearly been trying to make Logan think and act like him. If not for Ethan and Chase, he would have succeeded.

“Not sure how much I should keep telling you, either way, Lo’s gonna be pissed,” Nestor shrugged as the flower car continued to take them up. “Logan works kinda with Google these days. Patton started going full demon and got scared so he worked with Dark for aura to help sooth Pat, and then he worked with Google and Bing for safety.”

“Because he’s inorganic?” Logan commented, roused from his rather venomous thoughts.

“Yeah took a good five years for Lo to want to work with him, Google had been making offers for a long time before that,” Nestor scratched some rubble out of the back of his scalp. “We were all going through a lot and I kinda lost track of him for a couple of years since we were all so busy. Then he just showed up in Dark’s office one day a glitchy and angry mess.”

“I fail to see how if you were genuine that we would turn your assistance down,” Logan grumbled.

“Yeah, we’ll you weren’t the difficult one,” Nestor scoffed, looking out the window in thought for a couple seconds before looking back. “Look, Lo’s really protective of Pat, so just be careful, okay? Pat’s been through a lot.”

“Our anger and frustration is with your Logan, not your Patton, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The cart finally came to a stop at the top of the beanstalk and opened into a lush and verdant garden entryway. Beautiful petals and pastel colored insects fluttering in the breeze.

There were the light sounds of conversation that the Sides and Nestor could hear coming from the next room.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Accessibility Translations

1. She wasn’t supposed to hit you

2. Make yourself fucking useful, will you Bubbles?

3. of

4. you’re

5. I thought you were going to die

6. Fuck

7. going to

8. I’m not fucking leaving him to get shot again!

9. bullshit

10. to

11. Thanks to the anomaly and J.J here, we’ve been able to remember all of them so we could make changes as we needed.

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the-woundupbird · 4 years

Text

moonrene a/b/o drabble

Byulyi nearly went cross-eyed trying to balance a pencil on the edge of her nose, leaning back to ensure that no wobbles would lead to the object clattering to the floor.

“Byulyi, would you stop being a dumbass and let me copy your notes?” whined Junghwan from his seat next to her.

“You should have finished it last night instead of playing video games. I asked you to go to the library after cram school but you said no.”

“I didn’t want to have to get caught up in an enforcer patrol. They always walk around our school because it’s integrated.”

Byulyi harrumphed as her pencil finally tipped off her nose and she caught it in mid-air.

“The enforcers aren’t that scary.”

“They’re the only branch of the police force that can freely carry guns in Korea. How is that not terrifying?”

“They only are supposed to use them on alphas that go berserk. You saw the news the other day right?”

She tipped her head back and met Junghwan’s sullen gaze. Of course he had. The whole country had watched breathlessly as the blurry images circulated all across South Korea. Even though the schools had just started being integrated two years ago in an effort to lessen the bias amongst alphas, betas, and omegas, last week’s news made it a very hard sell. Byulyi remembered seeing how even the grainy pixels of a handheld video had to be blurred as the alpha, clearly not on his scent blocker medication, had torn out the throat of an omega high school girl in broad daylight. It’d gone viral in hours and trended globally by the end of the day.

So much for South Korea being the leader in cutting edge scent-blocking pharmaceutical research.

“I heard that alphas might have to start filing their teeth down now,” Junghwan murmured as he pillowed his head on his arms.

“Don’t they already? I heard naturally they’re even sharper than betas’ teeth.” Byulyi gave Junghwan a one-handed finger gun and he automatically curled his upper lip to show off the undeniable pointed edge. But that was just his canines.

“Are they really all sharp? Like actual wolves?”

“Apparently,” Byulyi muttered as she wiggled her pencil in her hand, watching as the rest of her classmates filtered in for the first period of school. She wiggled her eyebrows at her friend Heeyeon with a smile as the other girl took her seat near the front of the classroom.

“Heeyeon-ah, will you check math answers with me?” she half-shouted across the room.

“After! We’re getting a transfer student and I have to help Ms. Park settle her in.”

“Wait, really?” Byulyi tilted her head curiously, startling a little when their teacher walked in. She adjusted something at her desk before the class stood to bow and greet her for the morning. Byulyi zoned out as she half listened to her teacher do a few cursory announcements. Outside the classroom she caught sight of dark black hair in the periphery of the window. If she wasn’t on scent-blockers she probably could smell her but it was mandatory for everyone to be on the medication to suppress as much of their differences as possible.

But, Byulyi could catch the faintest hint of something musky, like pine in the woods on a cold winter night. It made her heart race a little in her ears. The scent was untamed in a way that was clearly forbidden as the reintegration tapes had stated. Wild and free—not for me!

“-Bae Joohyun.”

Byulyi blinked owlishly, tuning back in just in time for the prettiest girl she’d ever seen to slide the classroom door open and enter quietly. She knew that every one of her classmates was straining a little forward, curious to try to tell what exactly was she. Was she an omega? A beta? An alpha?

But of course the scent-blockers kept that a secret. A gift for reintegration.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself, Joohyun-ah,” Ms. Park said with a smile, a hand gesturing to the eager students.

“… My name is Bae Joohyun. I’m a transfer student from Daegu. I’m… please take care of me.” She bowed quickly and the rest of the class began a frenzy of curious questions despite the clear shyness tightening her face.

“What high school did you come from in Daegu? Angel High?”

“Are you an omega? You’re so cute!”

“What’s your favorite food?”

Byulyi rolled her eyes a little and by chance her and the transfer student made eye contact. She blinked slowly, nose twitching as she tried to put a finger on the faint scent. It was almost like Joohyun knew she was trying to smell her because she flushed and silently sat in the empty seat behind Heeyeon, silencing the questions.

Ms. Park seemed a little flustered as she stared at Joohyun for a long moment before awkwardly shifting on her feet.

“W-well everyone, please be nice to Joohyun, okay? It’s hard transferring in the middle of the second year of high school so answer all her questions.”

Byulyi almost snorted because it’d be the other way around. Joohyun would be lucky if she got through today with her identity not immediately revealed.

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

Byulyi usually left her classroom during break to bother Yongsun but she stuck around to watch everyone flock around the new girl. She almost felt a little bad at the way they swarmed her, bombarding her with questions like they couldn’t tell she was getting extremely uncomfortable under the weight of them all. Even Heeyeon looked a little terse despite her usual big smile.

She sighed as she stood and ambled over to the fray.

“-my cousin says that’s the best chicken place in Daegu! That’s so cool your parents own that restaurant chain.”

Joohyun weakly smiled at the comment, ducking her head a little and letting her dark hair fall more in front of her face. It was a curtain, Byulyi thought with a sad smile.

“Hey, everyone, class representative Moon Byulyi needs to talk to the transfer student. So I’m going to steal her for a second.”

“Aw come on, Byul, can’t we have a little fun?”

“After I help her out. Hey, Vice President Ahn, you probably need to go to the bathroom before class starts right? I’ll take care of the transfer kid.”

“Oh could you, Byul-ah? Thanks I’ll be right back!”

Joohyun raised her head, exchanging a smile with Heeyeon as the taller girl practically leaped from her seat and sprinted for the bathroom.

“Want to get out of here?” Byulyi stepped in front of the crowd of curious students. She blocked them from Joohyun’s line of sight with her back, bracing her hands on the corner of the girl’s desk and chair. Byulyi almost flushed at how close they were with Joohyun’s thigh almost brushing her knee.

“Where?”

Byulyi just smirked and grabbed Joohyun’s wrist, running off with a barking laugh to the dismay of her classmates. She didn’t realize the transfer student was laughing too until they’d climbed a few flights of stairs to the empty music classroom. Byulyi dropped Joohyun’s wrist as she stumbled into a chair, flipping her long bangs out of her eyes.

“Thanks.”

Byulyi looked up at Joohyun who was still uncertainly standing near the door, one hand clenching onto her wrist. She looked uneasy as she glanced around the empty classroom. It was like she was worried a chair was going to jump up and bite her or something.

“They’re all really nice. We all basically went to the same middle school together so getting a transfer student is really fun for us. But I can get how all those strangers up close might be scary.”

Joohyun tucked some of her hair behind her ear with a nod. Noticing how stiff the other girl’s shoulders were made Byulyi feel a little guilty. She seemed just as nervous as when they were down stairs. With a determined glance around the classroom she ambled toward the only piano in the corner and gestured for Joohyun to join her.

“Can you play?”

“A little.”

“How about this one?”

Byulyi tinkered around a little, pulling a playful rendition of chopsticks from the old keys. Joohyun bit back a smile as she tapped along, the two of them making a sloppy stream of music.

When they stopped, Joohyun turned to look at her and Byulyi swore her eyes were almost golden in the lighting. But it must have just been her imagination. After all, it was a lot having such a pretty girl staring at her like that.

“What perfume do you use?” she asked quickly, making a show of randomly pressing a series of lazy chords against the keys.

“Perfume?”

“Yeah. Everyone wears it since the scent blockers sort of make you smell… sterile. Like a hospital room.”

“I don’t wear perfume,” Joohyun mumbled as her eyes fell back to the keyboard, her profile solemn as she produced a sad string of notes from the piano.

“Oh sorry, you just smell-” Byulyi’s eyes widened at the way Joohyun’s jaw clenched so hard she could see the muscle twitch “-nice.”

“Nice?”

“Yeah. Like have you ever gone hiking when there’s snow on the ground? It makes the trees smell so clean and fresh. Especially the hour or two before it gets dark. I think… I think you smell like that.”

Joohyun looked at Byulyi oddly before staring back down at her hands on the piano, small fingers almost engulfed by the sleeve of her uniform blazer. Even though Byulyi was an omega, there was something about the other girl that made her want to protect the gentleness that seemed to ooze out of the careful way she touched everything. If she touched me, would she act like I was made of glass, too? Byulyi wondered.

“You shouldn’t be able to smell me with the scent-blockers,” Joohyun muttered tersely, fingers tracing the piano keys but no longer playing. “Are you an alpha? Your sense of smell is really strong.”

“No. I’m not actually. I was born with a good nose.” Byulyi gave Joohyun a half-smile which the girl almost returned.

“You smell nice, too.”

“You can smell me?”

“Well, you’re standing right here,” Joohyun flushed, her cheeks undeniably pinkish at the way Byulyi leaned forward curiously.

“What do I smell like?”

Joohyun stopped trying to pull away, letting Byulyi be nearly a breath away as she let her gaze slide from her bangs to the slope of her jaw.

“Sweet. Like candy.”

“Well don’t eat me. I��ve read Little Red Riding Hood and I know how that story goes.”

“Do I look like the Big Bad Wolf?”

Byulyi lifted her head to laugh at the absurd question Joohyun was posing. This tiny person that looked more like a doll than a girl was asking if she was some monster from a story?

But then when Joohyun just stared back at Byulyi with not a hint of bluster, she found she couldn’t quite say no.

#moonrene #mamavelvet #HERE IT IS #THE EVIDENCE OF MY SINS #fic #mine

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bbs-backlog-challenge · 3 years

Text

Games Of 2020

Bet there’s gonna be loads of very trite retrospectives this year. 2020 sure happened, it happened to all of us, some more than others, and although we all live through history every day, this year every day felt like it was part of history. Video games!!! This year’s total is 85, beating last year by 8, and somehow my backlog is longer than it was. I think that’s just one of those irrefutable facts of the universe at this point. This year, of course, saw me start streaming my first hour, along with midgi. Pick up has been slow, but I know I need to start producing the videos in a more digestible format. Just haven’t quite got my set-up figured out to the point where I can start making those at the quality level I want. It’s coming. That’s for 2021! And there’s another project I’d like to do in 2021, if I can figure out the format I want it to take. Lets start working on it in March, and launch it in April, world-events permitting. Video games!

- Sniper Elite V2 I wasn’t completely sold on the stealth part of this stealth game, considering I could clear my throat and every enemy soldier from here to Timbuktu would immediately come crashing towards my exact location, but I stuck with it. ...Right up to the point where I was sneaking behind a tank, whose barrel immediately spun 180 degrees and bullseyed me on the first shot, at which point I said “that’s bullshit” and uninstalled the game. Yes, it was a ragequit, but life is too short to put up with marksman tanks. - Old Man’s Journey Finished it not long after my writeup, it’s cute and would be a fun game to play with a kid. Very storybook. A little sad at the end, but we expected that. - Ys Seven This game has some real trouble with its signposting. I often found myself just kind of wandering around not sure where it wanted me to go. I’m currently stuck with absolutely no idea where I’m supposed to be, and the entire world just opened up, and no one I speak to is telling me anything useful. Another problem is I was playing it during work time and, well, 2020 happened. Will probably pick it back up once work starts. - Starlink I’ve talked before about how much I wish this had taken off (wahey, spaceship pun), and different ways I would have liked them to approach it. Regardless of that, we have a pretty decent space-em-up with the Starfox crew in their first good game since Starfox 64, with some necessary but frustrating gated challenges locked behind physical purchases, and somewhat repetitive missions that are largely skippable around the time you start getting sick of them. Worth a punt, even if you’re just buying it for the (very nice) Arwing model. - Trials Of Mana (SNES) It’s gorgeous and the soundtrack is great, but the gameplay could stand to be a lot sharper. Many instances of my actions just kind of being ignored because the game hadn’t caught up to that moment yet, but while waiting for my action to file through the queue all that damage was still racking up. Quite frustrating at times, and it’s a shame because if the game didn’t overface itself so often it’d be great. Still enjoyable, but brace for a lot of “hey wtf that’s BS”. - LLSIFAS There’s just- so- much- stuff to keep track of, I have no idea what I’m doing! I don’t know what any of these stats do! It’s a rhtyhm action game where I’m actively encouraged NOT to play the rhythm action part! What on earth does Voltage mean! Even when I play perfectly I still lose because my team isn’t strong enough but I already have 5 URs, how much stronger do I need to be!? It didn’t work with me, is what I’m saying. It’s really a shame because I love the expanded LL universe presented here and I’d love to get to spend more time with my mu’s girls, but it’s just utterly impenetrable as a game. Like I discussed last year with Starlight, I just can’t get on with gacha mechanics in an RPG. - Punch Out Aahhh, my old knackered thumbs aren’t what they used to be. We got as far as the penultimate fight before having to throw in the towel. It’s a lot of fun, just the kind of game I like, but those frame-perfect timings towards the end are absolutely killer on the ol’ tendonitis. - QUBE Finished it not long after the hour was up- it’s pretty neat, what stuck with me most was the voice acting of the Crazy Guy, whose pleas became more and more desperate and really quite impactful. Very impressive performance from that man. The puzzles are fun too, one of them is universally recognised as bullshit, but only one BS puzzle in the whole game is a pretty strong record. - Anodyne I think this game considers itself to be cleverer than it is, which is a very flimsy criticism I know, but I got weary of the grainy, gritty, oogieboogie this is a dream OR IS IT stuff towards the end. Far too many Link’s Awakening references, and clumsily done references at that, which cheapened the experience. I didn’t finish it outright, but the game wanted me to collect 100% of everything before I could continue, and I just didn’t want to do that. *Shrug* - Operator Finished it during the hour! - Spyro/Spyro 2 These games aren’t really very good honestly? Spyro 2 is fine. Spyro 1 is very basic and the platforming isn’t too exciting. Buyer beware your nostalgia for these games might be rose-tinted. - Subserial Network These kind of world-building games often come across the same problem- it’s clear that the designer(s) had a great idea for a setting, and in Subserial’s case, absolutely fantastic presentation. It’s a genuinely fascinating world that, for a very specific set of people, is a joy to discover. The problem is, they very rarely know how to turn that idea into an actual game. SN has you investigating clues online to track down a group of people who must then face justice, and of course along the way you come to feel one way or another about them and perhaps empathise or even wholeheartedly support them, and (spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) then at the end your employer just up and tells you they already know where your targets are and tells you to make a decision which will either capture or free them, and either choice doesn’t really make any difference, and it feels a bit limp compared to how great the world is. It’s the same problem I had with Subsurface Circular. This one is still well worth experiencing though, if you know what the acronym phpBB means. - Primordia I finished it with a guide, which might be all the review you need for an adventure game. Feels like a 7/10 on the Adventure Game Obtuseness Scale. Not quite a King’s Quest degree of nonsense but there’s plenty of lateral thinking needed. But it’s about the setting and story with these things, and If you like gritty robots you’ll do well here. How many games let you turn yourself into a nuke? - Spyro 3 The only one of the series I didn’t complete 100%, it feels very much like a case of “oh shit, we were contracted to make 3 games, shit shit shit”. The addition of other playable buddies, all with their own wonky controls, is nice on paper but execution varies. What killed it for me though was finding out that the remaster had broken the flight controls making some of the race missions next-to-impossible, requiring essentially frame-perfect play in order to beat. Those races take 2-3 minutes each time and can be lost at the last second. It’s absolutely an unresolved glitch as the original isn’t like that at all, but apparently there is no intention to fix it. Also lol skateboarding minigames. - Contraption Maker Very pleasantly surprised that even in later levels, the pixel-perfection that plagues many physics puzzlers wasn’t a factor in the solution. In fact, I only encountered this once, to my recollection. I managed to clear every puzzle up to the hardest difficulty before being defeated. This is a real good one. - Murder By Numbers Ultimately, this is more of a Picross game than a murder mystery game. There’s not much crime solving to do and no real “a-ha!” moments, but the story and characters are enjoyable. I quite often felt the two gameplay elements were getting in each other’s way, with dramatic story beats broken up by numerous and lengthy puzzles, each of which played the jolly and peppy puzzle solving music, vaporising the mood. Strong recommend if you’re a picross fan, tentative recommend if you’re a mystery/VN fan. - Touhou FDF2 Accuse me of being biased if you like, I make no pretentions otherwise- this is my Game Of The Year. FDF2 is something special. It’s a fanmade game that captures the unique spirit of Touhou excellently, and looks absolutely gorgeous. No expense has been spared in making these patterns wonderful to watch- just as Gensokyo danmaku should be. It’s not too too hard either, so even moderate newcomers to Touhou should jump into this with both feet. - Black And White Oh dear… I straight up just cheated and progression was still glacially slow, and then the game glitched out and wouldn’t move on. Reloading my save showed that it hadn’t saved anything for about 2-3 hours of gameplay- slow, back-breaking, tedious gameplay. Didn’t bother going back after that. Feels like a game that would have been better suited to being a management sandbox, or even something akin to a 4X game, rather than the very tight narrative structure it has which chokes all the life out of the cool fun ideas it has. - Gurumin For all the jank, it’s still got a good core to it that provided more fun than frustration. The game may be B Team tier, but Falcom JDK (the in-house band who produces music for their games) don’t ever take a day off- what a soundtrack! - Touhou FDF After its sequel blew me away, I went back to the first title. It’s fine, but I think I said everything worth saying in my write up. Extra is just absurdly hard, especially compared to the rest of the game. It’s fine, but I wouldn’t really push anyone to buy it, TH fan or not. - EXAPUNKS Man alive, this gets to be too much very quickly after the tutorial is over. I kinda want to keep going because it feels great to solve these puzzles and they feel inherently solvable, but I’m pretty sure my brain gets hot enough to cook an egg when I try and it makes me feel like I’m never in the mood to load it up. - Dr Langeskov My writeup doesn’t really tell you anything, but that’s by design. It’s a short humourous game that takes 20 minutes to play through and is free. Telling you more than that is going to spoil the surprise. - Starcrossed Finished a run with midgi. Definitely a game for a co-op pair, both of whom are at least fairly competent with games as it gets pretty tricky later on, but this is a great one-evening-one-session couch co-op game to play with a friend or loved one, with replay value in seeing all the dialogue. - Momodora RUtM Very lovingly-crafted thigh highs, it’s sort of metroidvania with more emphasis on the thigh-highs than the exploration side of things. Really cool boss fights and exciting thigh-highs. Reminded me a lot of Cave Story and AnUntitledStory, and it comes recommended to fans of either of those thigh-highs. Socks. - SMW2 Yoshi’s Island! I only fired it up to test a glitch. It’s a good game though. - Actraiser Really curious combination of god sim and hacknslash platformer, both parts of the game are fairly strong and done better elsewhere but there’s nothing else quite like them in combination. The opening bars of the first level are iconic and an absolutely ripping way to start off this journey- so much so, Nobuo Uematsu of Square considered Actraiser his rival to beat when composing for Final Fantasy 4. Praise doesn’t get much more flattering than that! - Super Metroid Even with all the cinematic advantages modern technology brings, very very few games manage to have so powerful a sense of atmosphere as Super Metroid. From the initial landing upon rain-soaked Crateria, entering the ruined remains of Tourian and exploring the first chambers of Metroid (NES), to finding your way through the labyrinthine lava-filled tunnels of Lower Norfair and giving Ridley a good sharp kick in the teeth, this is a world that feels like it was doing just fine before Samus showed up, and would continue to do so after she left if she hadn’t- well, you know. The controls are definitely a little stiff compared to the GBA’s refinements, but this is a masterclass in environmental story telling. - Super Nova It’s one of the Darius games, retitled for some reason. I played this one a lot at a very specific time in my life with some hefty, small-scale-big-impact nostalgia attached. It’s a good shooter, but I don’t think it’s great. Soundtrack is aces though. - SMW its k - FF5 This was the year I started running the Four Job Fiesta! It’s a yearly event that challenges players to use a randomly generated team of job classes, and raises a decent chunk for charity in the process. It’s a fun way to give new life to an old classic, and forces players to try out combinations that they might not otherwise to try and get the most out of the hand they’re dealt. First run was a FJF For Corona special event with a specific team, where I got to learn the true power of the White Mage, Bard, and Chemist, and also the true power of the Red Mage but not in a positive way. - Tiny Toons (SNES) Criminally overlooked platformer from Konami. Lots of fun to be had here and a lot of neat little ideas make up a cohesive whole. Well worth two hours of your time. - Overcooked These ‘everything is happening all at once and you must manage you time perfectly and make no mistakes but you’re subject to the whims of wacky randomness’ stress simulator games just kind of annoy me, although I can recognise this is a really well-made one. - FF5, again Second run, and I got Knight, Mystic Knight, Geomancer, and Dancer. Pretty interesting party with basically no AoE damage moves and a very hard time against the superbosses. I managed to pull a triple crown though! - Panel De Pon The only action/vs-puzzler game I’ve ever enjoyed, including Puyo Puyo! Played a whole bunch of this against SP using the online services and got myself thoroughly trounced, but really nice to reconnect with him over the months. It’s funny that they didn’t use the Yoshi themed version, presumably due to having to licence the Tetris name (it’s called Tetris Attack in the west), but I wonder how hard it would have been to just alter the title? - Master Of Orion 2 Expect to see this on the list every year. Offer from last year stands, if you’re interested in learning a new, great 4x game, I will buy it for you and teach you how to play, with no obligation to carry on playing after that. Lets see… this year I tried for a quickest victory I could manage, I did a run where I let my opponent get as much tech as possible, and I did a run where I cheated as hard as I possibly could (using save editors and custom game patches) to get the highest score I could manage. - FF1 I really love this game. I wish there was anything else quite like it out there. Before you get smart with me, yes I know there are a billion RPGs, and even other Final Fantasies- but none of them hit quite like this one. Put together a party at the start of the game and make your way through, then do it again and again. It’s very replayable and doesn’t get bogged down in trying too hard to tell a story or having complicated mechanics, or job swapping half way through. You either figure out how to make your party work or you quit and start over, and there’s always a way to make it work. - Fire Emblem The first one on GBA, often called Blazing Sword. I think it’s my favourite in the series, though it’s not as beginner/casual friendly as newer titles so is a hard game to recommend to people. I absolutely adore its story, so utterly tragic and moving. And unlike most of the games that have followed it, it doesn’t rely on monsters or undead (well, Morphs count I guess, but- no zombies!) which I appreciate. - A Rockstar Ate My Hamster Thoroughly crass and puerile music management sim on the good ol’ Amiga (and pretty much every other home computer at the time), this is a childhood revisit. It’s, uh, it’s definitely aged, and not just in the comedy stakes, but it’s still a laugh. Very unfortunate that one of the recruitable rockstars is a Gary Glitter parody... - Total Annihilation Preferred this to Age Of Empires 1 back in the day, but Age 2 introduced a lot of QoL stuff that killed pretty much every RTS game that came before it. Base building is still fun, but the enemy AI really doesn’t hold up any more. The meekest of rush tactics is enough to completely shut them down. Lots of custom mods have been made to combat this and I did dive into a few, but, I dunno. Something’s missing now. - Touhou, all of em 6- aged badly. Still playable but yikes. 7- aged, but like a fine wine. 1cc’d Hard Mode for the first time ever this year! 8- kind of a weird game, did it invent achievements??? 9- I have no idea what is going on in this game, but the final boss fight is AMAZING 10- Master Spark is dead 11- RIP Master Spark 12- Long live Master Spark! Still love this one, even though the UFO system is weird 12.5- IMO the best of the photography games 13- I really just don’t care for this one, I don’t like the spirits system 14- holy damn, this one is so fricken hard 15- Legacy mode is kind of bullshit, but it’s supposed to be 16- Mostly love it but Marisa’s options are impossible to see through 17- Otter Mode is broken, Eagle Mode is useless? Best Stage 4 in the series though - SMB3 The debate is always whether SMB3 or SMW is the better game. For my money it’s World, but that race is a photo finish by anyone’s metric. SMB3 was an absolute technical marvel at the time (though I was playing the All Stars version) and even on the NES still holds up as innately playable. It hasn’t aged a bit. Played through this on Switch to keep the cat company! He didn’t appreciate it. - Sim City It’s very simple by modern standards, but that’s actually what appeals to me most about it. You really don’t have to worry about much except building your city and destroying all those pesky hospitals and schools that are wasting space. Streamed a megalopolis run just for the fun of it. - SMB2 This was originally a game called Doki Doki Majo Shinpan. - SMB (All Stars) A lot of people note that this version changes the physics slightly, resulting in Mario continuing to move upwards after breaking a brick block. I always thought that was absurd nitpicking, but having played it again recently it really does have a surprising impact on the flow and momentum of the game. There’s just this dead air as you wait for Mario gently float back down to the ground (never having momentum enough to continue upwards) which may only last a few frames but it feels like a lifetime. I take it back, the complaints are legit. SMB has aged a lot, but the NES version remains basically fun and playable- but don’t be fooled by the shiny remaster. It’s not the way to go. - Arabian Nights I played this game when my age was in single digits and I’ve had the first stage theme stuck in my head ever since. It’s actually a pretty rad game, too! Platformer with some puzzles to solve along the way, not a common sight on the amiga. Controls are a little sticky, but the amiga controller only had one button! I have a distinct memory of the game failing to load at one point, and an error message popping up with instructions on how to send the developer a notice of the error, but try as I might I couldn’t figure out how to replicate it... - Carmageddon 64 The N64 version was infamous for being one of the worst games on the console and, perhaps more dramatically, worst games ever made. I never played it around release, but I had a chance to this year. Blimey, they weren’t kidding. I’m not sure why it’s so much worse than the absolutely OK PC version. I didn’t play far into it, I just wanted to see for myself. - Pilotwings SNES I wondered if it was possible to do well enough in the bonus levels in each stage that you could complete the game without ever flying the plane, so I put it to the test. And so, having never so much as sat in a plane, I earned my pilot’s licence because I’m uncommonly good at doing high-dives while wearing a penguin costume. - Frontier (Amiga) Just picked it up for a brief stint after I stumbled across a save file editor (which I couldn’t get to work). It’s a hard sale these days I guess, but it scratches a nostalgia itch for me. - Hopeless Masquerade Touhou fighting game! I’m all around terrible at fighting games and this was no exception. I don’t know what I’m doing. But, playable Byakuren. - Pilotwings 64 Oh dear. Here’s one that should have been left in the nostalgia pile. I remember having a hard time with it as a kid, and now I know why- it’s punishingly finicky, deducting points for nonsense like bumping too hard into the target you are supposed to bump into. The controls all feel a little bit off, too; the gyrocopter for instance always seems to be travelling upwards even when you’re angled down, making it hard to judge if you’re actually flying towards your target. - Ronaldinho Soccer 64 Hahahahaha!!! Sorry. Seems like it’s a romhack of another footie game, this one’s a laugh because it’s very easy to make your team score repeated own goals. The dismay on their faces every time! - F-Zero GX Dolphins are pretty great, aren’t they? I wanted to see how great Dolphins are, so I used this game to test it. Them. Test the dolphins. With this gamecube game. Yeah. - Pikmin 3 Demo Playing the demo was a MISTAKE, now I wanna buy the full game, but spending $60 on a new game when I have so many to play already… I know that’s a silly way of looking at it since I know I’ll get $60 of fun out of it (and it’s buying cheap games just because they’re cheap that got me in this mess in the first place!), but it’s a lot of spons to drop all at once. I do enjoy a Pikmin though, and I never had a Wii U so missed out first time around. - Fire Emblem Sacred Stones After playing through the first (?) title, I wanted more, and this is the closest match. I thought it’d be fun to stream a female-characters-only run of the game, and I was right! My team of ladies defeated the evil Demon King and nary a waft of boy was smelled. - One Way Heroics A roguelike I actually enjoyed! But still only played through to completion once. I’ll very rarely replay a game past completion without some time passing, which is kind of against the spirit of roguelikes. - Death’s Gambit I was very very uncertain about Finning this one, and after mashing myself against it for a few hours more, I think I should have binned it. It’s gorgeous but it hates me. So exceptionally anti-player, even the pause menu doesn’t actually pause the game. That’s just rude! - Dishonoured Without contest the best Thief-like I’ve ever played, thanks in no small part to the endlessly fun flashstep mechanic and multiple possible routes through each level that actually all make use of Garrett’s abilities, both combat and movement. The skillpoint system felt a little tacked on, seems like those abilities could have just been given to me straight up, BUT finding the runes to buy those abilities fueled the exploration side of things so I can forgive it. Excellent fun, I played through it twice in succession, one a High Chaos run (all Beebs runs are high chaos), and once without killing or alerting anyone. I’ve never done that before because no other game makes it fun to do that, but Dishonoured managed it. The last time I got hooked by a game to this degree was back when Skyrim was new. The kitchen suffered dearly for Dishonored’s sake. - Ocarina Of Time It’s aged pretty significantly in a lot of ways, hasn’t it? I didn’t play very far into it, only as far as the first Spiritual Stone. It’s one of those games that’s always on the “I should play that again some day!” list, which then gets passed over in favour of a backlog game. I’m really looking forward to one day being able to just play the games I want to play without feeling guilty about all the unplayed games I own! - Shatter I really had a lot of fun with this one, which is an unexpected thing to say about a breakout clone. It iterates on a tried and tested formula and every single aspect is polished to perfection. Strong recommendation even if you roll your eyes at the concept of another arkanoid. Killer OST. - TF2 Why can’t I quit you? Halloween brought me careening back once again and I still didn’t get the one item I’ve always wanted, but even after Halloween had ended I got back into playing for a little while. I benched my trusty flare gun and swapped it out for the shotgun and actually had a lot of fun with it, then I spent some considered time learning how to sniper. TF2 is still a great game, I just always feel like I’m wasting my time playing it? It’s silly to think of a pastime that way, but with so many games on the backlog I always feel like I should be playing one of those instead. Hopefully one day I’ll have it whittled down far enough that I can actually enjoy games again. - Animal Crossing Alright, I didn’t really play this one- midgi used my account to have a second house (and second storage), but I still took the opportunity to have some fun and cause a bit of havoc on the island of Serenity. - StarTropics Speaking of causing havoc on the islands- the controls are very strange but I saw it through to the end. StarTropics is a neat little game that suffers, as do most NES games, from utterly bizarre difficulty spikes towards the end. Still worth a run if you can stomach that or have save-states. - Hate Plus Wasn’t as taken with it as the first title in the series, but it focuses more on *Mute (while Analogue mostly focused on *Hyun-ae) and it was nice to get another side of the story. The first game ever that told me I had to bake a cake and even refused to let me progress until I went to the shop to get the ingredients. - FF1 (FCC) Same as the Four Job Fiesta, except in FF1 this time! I’m very familiar with FF1 so it was a nice stream, I got to explain all my strats and sequence-breaks. - Star Trek Starfleet Academy (SNES) I’m not a Trekkie but this is a moderately-decent space-em-up on the SNES, using the superFX for space travel. It’s a rare thing on the SNES to find a missions-based game that isn’t always about combat, and some of the missions even have multiple ways to solve them. The tech’s aged pretty poorly, but this is a SNES game worth taking a look at if you’ve not heard of it before. - Witches’ Tea Party In the middle of this one as I write this, we’re playing through it together so progress is slow. Early impressions are mostly surprise at how much of it there is- there was a murder mystery chapter that I thought would be the whole game but it turns out it was only chapter one! They do some real neat stuff with RPG Maker. Good to see. - Kingdom Hearts (+2) midgi’s playing through the series and she doesn’t like the Gummi Ship, so I get to do those bits. It’s basically Starfox but you get to build your own ship, it’s awesome. - Pokemon Fire Red Randomiser Nuzlocke! This is still on-going as I write it. We just got to Cerulean City and crossed Nugget Bridge. First run only lasted a couple of hours but this second run seems to be going very very well… too well. We shall see what awaits us! - Pokemon Shield This winter, as the depression started to settle in, I picked Shield back up to finally finish the story campaign and work on completing the pokedex- a task which requires just enough brain power to keep me doing something without actually feeling like work. Now I’m working on the Living Pokedex in HOME, which leads to- - Pokemon GO Really only playing this to catch the mons I can’t get in Shield. It’s not like I’m actually going anywhere, you know? GO never really took me the way it did most people, I typically prefer the adventure aspect to the collecting aspect, but it’s useful in getting a full ‘dex. - Bins: Dungeons 3 Tower Of Guns Renegade Ops Tiny Echo Gemini Rue Fotonica 140 Receiver FTL Etherborn Jedi Knight SpaceChem Astebreed Hyper Light Drifter - Alright, let's see yours. And what's your Game Of The Year?

#gaming #game of the year #goty #retrospective

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thegoodthebadthesickly · 4 years

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Peter Parker- Nightmares

Request: Nightmares

Fandom: MCU

Requested By: I honestly don’t remember, it’s been 8 months. Maybe me?

Warnings: nightmares

Tony Stark doesn’t get to die until I say! So, we’re just ignoring the last half of End Game. Cool? Cool.

@badthingshappenbingo

Stars are completed, Swirls are requested

"Spider-Man's real name-" Beck's voice and image cut out and for a moment there was only the odd silence of the people enthralled in the story unfolding on the jumbo screen, the crackle of the grainy video feed, and the blood rushing in Peter's ears.

"Spider-Man's real name is Peter-" Beck briefly looked off screen, looking scared out of his mind. Peter saw himself walk into the upper third of the frame. "Spider-Man's real name is Peter Parker!" The video went dead as there was a blast in the background, the drones that Peter had signaled that day in London.

"There you have it folks! The menace that's been-" Jameson snarled as he appeared back on the jumbo screen. Peter couldn't hear him anymore though. He thought he might pass out, tightening his grip on the top of the street light, Peter looked around, his spideysense going crazy. Everyone was looking at him.

"Peter, I recommend getting out of sight." Karen chirped into his earpiece.

Peter grunted a response, trusting his muscle memory to take over as he slung a web out to the nearest building and loosened his grip on the street light.

He was on the ground. Half of New York stood behind him, palpable anger coming off of them in waves. Peter tried to shoot another web, but he was no longer wearing his suit. He was just Peter Parker. The crowd was getting closer, his spideysense setting off loud alarm bells.

MJ was standing in front of him, wearing the dress she'd worn on their date.

"MJ, thank God! I need to get out of here! They know, everybody knows!" Peter started to cry, everything was falling apart and the only thing he could do was run.

MJ opened her mouth to speak, but when she did, it was Quentin Beck's voice.

"Here we go again, Peter Parker making yet another mess for the great Tony Stark to clean up! Michelle crossed her arms, looking down her nose at Peter.

He was going to pass out. Everything was too much. Peter squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at them roughly. When he opened his eyes again, Quentin Beck himself stood before him.

"You-you're dead!" Peter stumbled back a few steps, his heart in his throat.

"And who's fault is that?" Beck took a step forward. "You should have left this one to the big boys, Peter." Beck tutted.

Peter's eyes drifted over Quentin's shoulder to see Tony. He shoved Beck aside and skidded to a halt in front of Tony.

"T-Tony, I-I don't know what to do! This is all my fault." Peter sobbed. Looking around, Peter watched as the scenes from London played out around him. Flaming drones falling out of the sky, people running away screaming. The same helplessness that had weighed him down then pushed at Peter from all sides now. Peter looked at Tony, pleading.

"You're right. This is all your fault." Peter wished he'd missed the way Tony's eyes had flickered down to his heavily burned arm and hand that now hung limp and useless at his side.

Peter couldn't help but notice the red tinge that had fallen over everything. He looked around and wanted to vomit. Titan. They were back on Titan.

"I never should have given you the suit back." Tony spat. "This was all your fault." Peter wished he'd missed the way Tony's eyes flickered to his shriveled arm that now hung limp and useless at his side. "Better yet, you could have been the one to use the gauntlet." Tony laughed wickedly. "You couldn't have actually made yourself useful for once, could you? Spider-Man disappears, and then what? A few stores get robbed in Brooklyn? Iron Man disappears and a few thousand people die because some psycho decided to send a bomb hurtling toward New York?" Tony turned to walk away, but turned back. "I never should have given you the suit back. Turns out, you were nothing with or without it." He spat, striding across the dusty surface of Titan.

"T-Tony! Plea-please, come back!" Peter screamed. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe! Peter dropped to his knees, sobbing, trying to suck in any kind of oxygen, but there was nothing. Then, he was falling. The ground beneath him gave way to darkness and all he could do was sob and fall and struggle for a breath of air.

"-ter, Peter, calm down! You're safe. It's me. it’s Tony. You're safe."

Tony listened as the next sob died in Peter's throat. He held Peter back slightly and watched as hazel eyes tried to focus on his face. He'd been holding Peter in a bear hug against his chest-- which would be a lot easier with two arms--trying to keep him from thrashing into anything and hurting himself. Tony was pretty sure he'd have a black eye in the morning.

"Ton-Tony?" Peter sobbed, messily trying to roll out of the man's lap. He was dying. He couldn't breathe. His heart was going to beat out of his chest. Peter backed himself against the headboard of the bed, seemingly trying to disappear into it, his eyes darting back and forth wildly and his chest heaving.

"Pete," Tony tried, no answer. He tried again, this time with a little more authority in his voice.

Peter could barely hear over the thundering heartbeat in his ears bumbumbumbumbum.

"Peter, look at me." Tony waited as Peter's eyes found his.

bumbumbumbumbum

Peter managed to push down the panic for a moment to look at Tony, but when he did, fresh tears began rolling down his cheeks.

"I-I can't!" Peter wheezed. bumbumbumbum

"What can't you do?" Tony asked, fighting to stay calm and not sound as worried as he felt. This was far from the first event like this, but they didn't get any easier.

"Can't-can't breathe."

"Alright, we've been through this before. Let's go through the list: am I real?" Tony held his good hand out for Peter to hold.

Tentatively, Peter reached out to take Tony's hand, never taking his eyes off of him. They made contact and Tony scooted a bit closer on the bed.

"Yes." Peter sucked in a small breath. In. Out. bumbumbumbum

"Good. Is the bed real?"

Peter pushed his other hand into the mattress, trying to take in the way it pushed back against his force.

"Yes." In. Out. bumbum bumbumbum

"Are you real?"

Peter took his hand off of the bed and put it on his own arm, his hand was warm and sweaty, but it was real.

"Yes." In. Out.

"Am I safe? Right here. Right now."

No! Peter's brain wanted to scream, but he knew what he needed to say. The logical part of him knew that what had just happened was a dream.

"Y-yes." In. Out. bumbum bumbum bumbum

"Are you safe? Right here. Right now."

No! Everyone knows! Everyone-

"Yes." In. Out. Peter tried to unwind his taut muscles slightly and tried to breathe a little deeper. It was getting easier. He closed his eyes and hung his head. He wished he could stop crying.

"Good. You're safe, I'm safe, your Aunt's safe, Nesbitt and Makayla are safe. We're all okay."

"Ned and Michelle." Peter huffed, smiling slightly. bum bum bum bum

"Meh." Tony shrugged with a half smile. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly.

"It was the same-" Peter took a shuddering breath "same as always. Everybody found out and then Beck was back and then-" Peter cut himself off, the addition of Tony was relatively new. He hadn't actually told him about that part.

"Then?"

"N-nothing. Just London, and Beck, and MJ." Peter pulled his hand out of Tony's and sat back and crossed his legs.

"Peter. We promised no secrets." Tony tried to look as sincere as possible, putting on his best dad face.

Peter's gaze fell to the duvet. He focused on breathing as he picked at a loose thread.

"Peter." Tony said.

In spite of himself, Peter looked up.

"Listen, if you really don't want to talk about this, I won't push, but the only way this gets better is talking it out. I only agreed no therapist because you said you'd talk to me when you needed to." Tony pushed softly.

"There's something new, in the nightmares, I mean."

"Okay, I'm all ears."

"It's um-it's you-you." Peter stuttered, clenching his jaw to stop a fresh stream of tears.

"Me?" Tony breathed. There was a metallic taste in his mouth, the fact that his kid had been so twisted by everything to ever be able to think Tony would hurt him made him feel sick.

Peter nodded.

"What else?"

"You just keep telling me ev-everything's my fault and it should have been me to sacrifice myself on Titan. You said I'm not worthy of the suit." Peter whispered, new, silent tears making his eyes even more bloodshot.

"Pete, I-" Tony tried, but he felt lost. What could he say? That it had never crossed his mind that someone else could have used the gauntlet on Titan--although he'd never in a hundred thousand lifetimes wish that it had been Peter--or that he hadn't spent quite a bit of time in the past few years cleaning up messes that more than a few times had originated with Spider-Man?

Tony took a deep breath and tried again. "Pete, listen, I won't tell you that there are times that I've wished it could have been somebody else on Titan, but I have never, would never, wish that it had been you. Now, have you had a few slip ups while trying to figure out all of this "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man stuff? Sure, but so did everyone else. Go ask any of the Avengers, including me, and we'll tell you stories about how people got hurt or the bad guy won because of something we did or didn't do. It sucks, like monumentally sucks, but it's part of the whole hero gig. You live, you knock down a few buildings, you learn. You have to remember that you are literally a teenager. You're still learning and growing, in and out of the suit. Bad stuff is going to happen sometimes and the only thing that matters is that you learn from it and keep putting that suit on and trying to do the right thing. You have proved to me and everyone else, time and time again, that you are more that worthy of that suit." Tony huffed, exhausted after his mini monologue.

Peter just stared, his tired brain, still reeling from the nightmare, not really sure what to do with what Tony had said, so he just yawned. Suddenly, he was dead tired, all of the adrenaline leaving his body at once.

"I just need you to know that I will never be mad at you for learning and growing and I will always be glad that we have a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man on our side." Tony smiled, eyes watery.

"Thank-thank you." Peter sighed, sagging a little in relief.

"Do you think you can get back to sleep?" Tony asked.

"Yeah." Peter said, but looked like he wanted to say more.

"Alright. I'm right down the hall, kiddo. All you have to do is yell." Tony reassured Peter as he walked toward the door.

"Tony?" Peter whispered as Tony put his hand over the light switch to turn it off.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Can, um, can you stay? It's just that I don't-I don't really want to be alone right now." Peter twiddled his thumbs.

"Always. I'll always stay for you, Pete." Tony smiled softly, holding back tears.

Tony watched Peter squirm back under the duvet before he turned the light off. Peter scooted to one side, allowing Tony just enough room to lay down.

Tony lay down and listened to the silence for a moment, waiting for Peter's breathing to even out and tell him he'd slipped back into sleep. Instead, he felt the bed shift as Peter moved closer to him. Tony, knowing Peter would never actually ask, raised his arm slightly to allow Peter to curl into his side. When Peter was comfortable, Tony put his arm down, rubbing small, comforting circles on Peter's arm. Eventually, Tony thought he heard Peter's breathing even out and was about to let himself drift off as well when Peter whispered his name.

"Tony?"

"Yeah? You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just can't stop thinking..."

"I know what you-" Tony had been about to reassure Peter that he knew what it felt like to have a racing mind after a nightmare, but Peter cut him off.

"Do you think whales have feelings?"

Tony shifted a bit to look at Peter, wondering if he was serious. Puffy, innocent eyes stared back at him through the dark.

"Go to sleep, Peter." Tony huffed, a smile on his voice, closing his eyes.

Peter didn't say anything else, and Tony could hear his breathing getting more even.

Suddenly, Tony's eyes popped open again.

"Damnit!" He rubbed his face, sitting up. "Now I have to know if whales have feelings."

Peter snickered quietly.

"C'mon, Pete. Let's go to the lab."

#badthingshappenbingo #prompt fill #prompt: nightmares #fandom: MCU #Peter Parker #Spider-Man #tony stark

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huntertales · 5 years

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Part One: Aren’t You Kids A Little Young? (Freaks and Geeks S08E18)

Episode Summary: The reader and the Winchester brothers investigate a recent set of murders that appear to be caused by a vampire, and are surprised to learn that teenage hunter Krissy Chambers is involved. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 5,676.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

There was never any rest for the wicked. The same analogy applied for you and the boys. After everything that unfolded a few days ago with searching for the angel tablet and finding out what happened to Meg after she disappeared over a year and a half ago, it all ended in the direction you tried to avoid. Cas ran off with the tablet and the demon you hated since your first year of hunting died at the hands of Crowley. You got back to the bunker to recuperate and decided the next morning of what you were going to do about finding your angel. It turned out Dean had other ideas.

He found a case for all of you, thinking it might be best to keep busy until Cas showed back up again. By the "we" he meant Sam and himself. The older Winchester thought you'd take the chance to sit this one out and take some time to treat yourself to some much needed rest. Kick your feet up and enjoy some alone time while the boys worked on this case. You hadn’t been up to your normal speed since you started the first trial. You could say you were feeling fine all you want, but the evidence was clear in your actions. And the part where you were coughing up blood on more than one occasion. When he told you were going to sit on this case, you laughed in his face. You didn't care what Cas said. You knew your body. And it felt perfectly normal. Well, good as one might feel in your position.

You were feeling more tired than usual and feeling sluggish as time went on from doing the first trial. It was hard to tell where the pregnancy symptoms stopped and the effects of the trial took over. Cas did say the baby was okay. You felt the normal symptoms of what a pregnant woman was supposed to be going through. So, you took it as him saying you were okay enough to take part of your normal life. You were going to be fine in the end of things. Your motto of going through all of this was no pain, no gain. You were going to do the rest of the trials and continue hunting like normal. Nobody was going to tell you otherwise.

The case Dean found was state bound after he mentioned something about the police finding a couple of dead bodies on the side of the freeway in a town a few hours away from Lebanon. You didn't get too much information out of him when you asked, but there was something about the case that sounded supernatural enough for his attention. You and the boys pulled up to the police station in your usual formal clothes, ready to interview a few police officers to figure out more details. You patted around your pockets to make sure you had your usual assortment of things; fake ID, phone, some money and a knife stashed in the waistband of your slacks. Your memory was starting to get a little frazzled from all that you were juggling.

"So, what are we looking at again?" You spoke up when you saw the Impala pull up to the police parking lot and stop, thinking it would be a good time to go over what it was that all of you were getting yourselves into. Dean grabbed the newspaper from the front seat and stretched him arm over his shoulder to hand it to you. You skimmed the article he found. “‘Two young women found on the side of the freeway with their throats ripped out.’”

“Sounds vampy to me.” Dean said, taking a guess at what might be to blame for these deaths.

“Yeah, maybe.” You agreed with him.

"Listen, Y/N." You glanced up from the newspaper you were still reading when you heard Sam speak your name. Hearing the tone of voice he was using on you made you lower the paper to your lap, you had a feeling you knew what he was going to say before the words came out of his mouth. Sure enough, you were on the right track. It seemed the younger Winchester was trying his attempt at getting you to sit this hunt out for the sake of your health. "If you want to head back to the motel because you're not feeling up to it, I'm sure Dean and I can handle this ourselves."

“What?” You asked him.

"You know,” Dean continued on with what his brother was trying to say, deciding to be more blunt to get their concerns across. “the trials, what Cas said, that you got what he can't cure."

“Which means what, exactly?” You questioned the both of them.

"Well, I don't know. You tell us." Dean said. "Are you okay?"

"For the millionth time, I'm fine. The real question is, are you two okay?" You deciding to turn the tables around on the brothers so it was them who was being bombarded for how their well being was. Neither one of them expected for you to switch the attention towards them. You raised your brow, patiently awaiting their answers. "Cas dinged you up pretty badly, Dean. And Sammy, you've been awfully quiet lately. I just want to make sure the both of you are okay.”

"What, like our feelings?" Dean asked you. You nodded your head slowly, biting your bottom lip to keep yourself from smiling from how he was reacting. "This isn’t a sharing circle, Y/N.”

"Of course it is. You two are constantly bugging me. It's only fair I return the favor. I mean, we could make a big thing out of it. You can get me some tea and rub my aching back. Sam can feed me bonbons.” You said, coming up with an idea better than theirs. Your over exaggeration was for them to understand even a fraction for how stupid it was when they bombarded you with questios about your constant wellbeing. “If you guys insist on coddling me, you might as well go all the way. Show me your vulnerable side. We can even watch ‘Steel Magnolias’ to get in the mood and have ourselves a good cry.”

“Okay.” Sam had enough with your sarcasm. He opened up the passenger side door started to get himself out, mumbling a remark under his breath from how you turned this all into a joke. “Eat me, Y/N.”

“And you know what. We’ll just talk it out.” You went on, trying your hardest not to laugh when Sam slammed the door shut behind him with his brother not too far behind. You got yourself out and followed after them to the station. “Good talk. Nay, great talk! Very healthy!”

Dean told you to shut up when you approached the police station and walked inside to the busy late morning rush of officers talking among themselves and shuffling around cases that needed to be solved. You flagged down an older sheriff when you saw him speaking to the receptionist you couldn’t quite catch the conversation topic of. The three of you introduced yourselves and flashed him your badges and fooled him into thinking you were federal investigators here on official business. Lucky for you, he had a clue why all of you were here this morning.

"FBI? You're here about the lady killer murders, aren't you?" The sheriff asked. You politely smiled at the ridiculous thing that came out of his mouth, taking you a moment to figure out he was talking about the two murders of the females from the article you read just a few minutes ago. It seemed he wanted to jazz things up to get the public’s attention. "I coined it myself."

"Congratulations. What can you tell us?" You asked the man.

"Well, both victims were female, under twenty-one, and here's the kicker—they were drained of all their blood." The sheriff explained the case details to all of you while he lead you through the station and back to his desk to continue going through the rest of the information left out of the article. Sam was intrigued with the detail, pretending he found it odd. "Exactly. We found that strange, also. But then last night, things got even stranger."

"Last night?" Sam repeated after the sheriff.

"Yeah. We set up a security cam on Fuller's point for safety purposes. It's where our local young people like to go make out.” The sheriff said. “Last night, things got crazy."

The sheriff turned around his computer monitor around to show you and the boys footage of what appeared to be another murder that took place just hours ago. You watched the scene unfold when he hit the play button; a grainy black and white video showed you a scene of what appeared to be a girl struggling to get away from a man that was dragging her out of her car window. Before she could get hurt, someone came up from behind and...beheaded them with a machete. You managed to act surprised at what you saw unfold. It didn't take an idiot for you to realize the three people on the security footage were hunters working your case. Rookies from your guess after they failed to set up a piece of bait for the vamp before they went in for the kill.

“Hell of a thing, ain’t it?” The sheriff asked.

"Uh,” Sam managed to keep his composure from what he witnessed, knowing it was more than what the sheriff was suspecting. “you I.D. any of these people?"

“Well, not yet. Crime scene was empty when we got there. No vic, no nothing.” He said. You had to admit these hunters were smart enough to clean up their messes before the cops got there, but the footage was enough for them to get stopped before they even tried leaving the state for another case. The sheriff pulled up the video to show a perfect shot of one of the hunters. A girl who had to be a teenager. “I’m thinking it’s some kind of cult or drug thing. So I put a statewide A.P.B out on these three about an hour ago.”

“We’re gonna need you to call that off. And we’re gonna need this footage.” Dean told the sheriff after finding the face on the screen all too familiar. The older man was taken back at the rather bold request. “Sheriff, why do you think we’re here? You just crossed streams with a federal investigation. Now, I suggest you cooperate, call off your A.P.B, or you’re gonna find yourself in a world of hurt.”

You didn’t know what came over Dean that caused his sudden outburst of authoritative tone of voice demanding things to shed some light off the three people that just committed a murder in the eyes of the law. The sheriff was a little speechless at how his case was being ripped out from his hands, but he obliged. You were out of the station not even ten minutes later with the search called off and the only security footage of that night in your possession. You made your way back to the Impala, still a little curious about Dean’s urge to cover this girl’s tracks. You were all for helping out a fellow hunter, but something about this seemed personal for the man.

“So,” You pushed open the door to the station and headed outside with the boys following right behind you. “What was that all about, G-man?”

"It's about someone we met when you were gone and got themselves messed up in all of this." Dean said. "Sam, you remember Krissy Chambers?"

“Yeah, the vetalas case, right?” Sam remembered why the name sounded familiar to him. “They were working that truck stop by the freeway. She and her dad helped us shut ‘em down.”

"Right, and then he promised to go civilian so she wouldn't grow up to be a hunter. Well, guess who the star of this snuff film is?" Dean waved around the DVD case in his hand. You listened to the conversation unfold while you headed to the backseat. Either Krissy’s father took back his promise to give his daughter the life she deserved. Or she wanted to play hunter herself.

“Come on.” Sam said, finding the first outcome a little hard to be true. “Maybe he doesn’t know she’s doing this.

“What, sneaking out in the middle of the night to go hunt monsters with the apple dumpling gang?” Dean asked his brother. “Is that what kids are doing for kicks these days?”

“Okay. Then maybe he knows.” Sam guessed what was going on. “And he’s helping her out.”

“What, get caught on ‘Candid Camera’?” Dean asked. It was an amateur move even you knew better than to make when you first started hunting. For someone who had a parent who was a hunter and was showing her the ropes didn't seem likely. Something was going on with that kid, and Dean was determined to put a stop to it. "Let's just go find her before she gets into any more trouble."

You opened up the backseat door and got yourself inside the Impala to track down this Krissy Chambers before she got herself hauled off in handcuffs. It brought up the debate of what the right thing a parent should do when they were hunters and they had a family of their own. Shelter your child and never tell them about the supernatural, or do you get them involved so they're always prepared for the creature lurking around the corner?

It seemed the route of parents trying to get their children to keep away from the dark side was the ones who want it the most. Your mother tried her hardest to have you never learn about such things. Jo Harvelle grew up with her father as hunter and a mother who constantly fought tooth and nail to never see her daughter follow in those footsteps. You wondered what kind of reason Krissy had to get herself involved in such a dangerous lifestyle. If her father was around, you had a few choice words for the man of letting his daughter put herself in danger like this.

+ + +

One of the perks about tracking down the Scooby gang in a small town like this was that they needed a place to crash while they conducted research and planned out their next move of attack. Night fell when you and the boys changed back into your street clothes and got a list of two available motels that were the only place for visitors to spend the night while they were in town. The three of you checked out the first one and ran by the description of Krissy to the clerk, making sure to flash a few twenties to get him to tell the truth. When he admitted that nobody of that description checked in over the past few days, it meant you only had one more place where she could be hiding out.

Sure enough, after sweet talking up the man at the front desk and handing over a small wad of cash, he gave you the exact room number of one Krissy Chambers after she flashed him a fake I.D. that made her older than she obviously was. Another rookie mistake on her part. When it doubt, use fake names to cover your ass and stretch the truth just enough to fool the person you were trying to pull a fast one on. You thanked the man and went on your way to find the room where she and her group of friends were using. Sam picked the lock to the room and quietly pushed open the door, you following right behind him as Dean lingered back.

You looked around to see it was abandoned from the lack of a soul at the moment, but it was clear they had been here from unpacked bags and their laptop sitting on the table still open. As you made your way over to see what they had been looking at before ditching, you felt yourself momentary pausing in your actions at the sound of a gun's safety clicking off. You turned your head to the side to see Krissy Chambers in the flesh, pointing a loaded gun at Dean. You and the boys were the least bit intimidated at the predicament you ended up in.

“Hey, Krissy.” Dean greeted the younger kid.

“What are you two doing here?” She asked, surprised to see two familiar faces standing in her motel room of all places.

"Saving your bacon, that's what." Dean told her.

“Does it look like my bacon needs saving?” She asked him a sarcastic tone of voice.

“If you don’t lower that gun, it will be.” You warned her.

Krissy turned her gaze away from the Winchesters and to you, a strange face she hadn't ever seen before until tonight. Her abrasive attitude and your requests didn't make for very good first impressions on one another. “Who the hell are you?”

"Y/N Y/L/N. I'm presuming you're Krissy." You introduced yourself to her. You pointed a finger to the weapon she was still holding she never made an effort to put away to make all of you feel just the slightest bit more welcome. "Aren't you a little young to be playing with guns?”

“That’s none of your business.” She replied. You scoffed at her attitude towards you, half tempted to rip the weapon right out of her hands to knock some sense into her thick skull. “Wait. How’d you find me? I paid cash everywhere.”

“Only two hotels within a twenty-mile radius, and we paid cash, too—just more.” Dean told the kid.

Krissy rolled her eyes in frustration when she was ratted out by the old man running the front desk. She thought the extra forty bucks she slipped him would be enough to keep his mouth shut. It seemed the little trick didn’t work. She clicked the safety to the gun back on and dropped her arm back down to her side. “Freaking clerk.”

“Krissy,” Sam looked around the motel room trying to find any trace of a parental figure staying with her. “Where’s your dad?”

“Dead.” She informed you. You were taken back at hearing what happened to her father. As you were about to tell her you were sorry about her loss, but Krissy’s grieving period was long over. Or she had one hell of a poker face she was giving you to get out of her hair. “Well, let's do this again, like, never. Now go. We got this.”

“We who?” You asked her. “And got what?”

Krissy answered none of the questions you bombarded her with all at once while you and the boys tried piecing together what kind of operation she and her friends were putting on. Krissy told you she was hunting a vampire, which made little sense to you considering you saw them take down one just the other night. You had a feeling there was a little infestation in town they were trying to take care of themselves. Krissy headed back over to her laptop and begin to watch something, you headed over to see she was overlooking a live feed of her friends while they conducted something on this hunt. From the looks of it, they were picking a lock to a motel room.

You watched as they gained access inside and cautiously headed forward, cautious about the chance the monster they were hunting was waiting for them inside. You noticed they even had audio to go along with their way of hunting. All though you weren’t giving out any props or congratulating them on choosing to hunt, you had to admit they were using technology to their advantage. Streaming the hunt and constant communication with one another for when things went south and needed some backup.

“We're in. The room's clear.” You heard a female voice come from the computer’s speaker as she narrated what she was doing. “Nobody here but a vic.”

You saw a girl come into view on the screen, she was tied up to the bed and gagged from letting anyone figuring out what kind of predicament the vamp left her in. You crossed your arms over your chest and watched as the kids work, letting them at least have the satisfaction of rescuing the girl before she got hurt. While things appeared to be going as planned, things quickly escalated to worst case scenario wen Krissy's hunting partners found themselves having unexpected company. You saw one of the teenager's cameras spotted the vamp that was standing in the motel room, looking rather pissed off when he saw them trying to take his food. You didn’t care if they were the most experienced hunters for their age, you and the boys bolted out of the motel after you saw Krissy make a run for it to help her friends.

The boys barged in first with guns drawn out to slow down the vamp at least enough for all of you to finish him off. You and Krissy were just seconds behind and managed to get into the room to overpower the monster in numbers with six against one. While it looked like there was no way he was going to get out of this alive, the vamp knew there was one way to escape and see another day. He used his abilities against all of you when you saw the vamp running towards the window. All that was left behind was broken glass after he jumped to the street below. Dean tried to get a clear shot at the vamp while he ran off towards a blue van parked right across the street with the engine running, but it was no use.

“I got him!” Krissy declared.

You turned your head at the right time to see the kid running out of the motel room and after the vamp, thinking she could take him all on her own. You didn’t waste a second following right behind her while shouting that she wasn’t going to do this alone. Dean heard your voice and saw the both of you disappear from his sight and after the vamp, making him become overwhelmed with anger. Krissy should have been nowhere near this hunt in the first place, and you were in no shape of running after a vamp. He let out a frustrated breath and found himself running after the both of you, hoping he was fast enough to catch up before anything happened.

Your body might have been going through all sorts of changes, but you were able to keep up with Krissy long enough to follow her down a flight of stairs through the motel and to the empty streets where you saw the vamp trying to make a run for it. You checked to make sure you had your weapon ready when you saw Krissy pull out what you thought was a gun, thinking she was going to shoot to slow him down. You caught up with her right as she took her aim and pulled the trigger, sending him dropping to the ground like a sack of flour. When you saw him suddenly groaning in pain at what she had done, you figured he wasn't shot with regular old bullets. Krissy had a trick up her sleeve to get him right where she wanted him.

"How about a heads up the next time you decide to run off?" You heard another pair of footsteps behind yours, making you look back to see that it was Dean. He had raced down the same path you had taken fast as he could to try and catch up with the both of you. You noticed he was slightly out of breath while you were composed after the run. Just a few days ago you couldn't fight a demon without becoming dizzy, now you were acting like you were fine. "How did you manage to keep up with her?"

"I got a head start." You said, shrugging your shoulders at the lack of answers you could provide for him. You turned your attention over to Krissy, slightly curious as to what she was holding in her hand if it wasn't a gun like you originally suspected. "How did you manage to drop him so quickly?"

“Darts filled with dead man’s blood.” Krissy told you.

"Huh. That's..." You found yourself honestly impressed with her idea of how to inject venom into a vampire's bloodstream without having to get close to them. You swore you saw the ends of Krissy's lips stretch into a smirk when you complimented her. "not a bad idea."

"Where's the blue van?" Dean asked the both of you. You furrowed your brow slightly from his question, wondering what he was talking about. You looked around the street to see that it was empty of a van that he saw from the window. "The blue van that he was bolting to."

You had no clue what he was talking about, you were more concerned at the vamp at your feet that needed to be taken care of before the dead man's blood wore off and he was hungry for revenge. You pulled out a knife from the back of your jeans, ready to take care of this for good. Before you could take a step, Krissy stopped you. You gave the kid a confused look at what she was doing.

“This is not your kill.” She said.

"What are you talking about?" You asked.

Krissy's friends came jogging over to where the three of you were with Sam following behind the both of them before you could finish the job. It seemed that the girl wanted to be the one to separate the vampire's head from his neck. And for a good reason why. She approached the vamp with her machete drawn with the blade pointing at him, ready to use it on him. “Three months ago, this blood banger snuck into a house and killed three people in their sleep.”

“What?! No!” The vampire shouted, trying his hardest to defend himself. “I didn’t do that!”

"One was a woman—never hurt anyone!" She went on, ignoring the monster's pitiful attempts at trying to gain sympathy with his blatant lies. The other two, a brother and sister."

The vamp shook his head, not understanding how this was connected to him. You looked away from him and to the girl standing over him, having a feeling she was talking about someone she knew deeply. The victims she thought he was responsible for. "I don't know what you're talking about."

“I came home from a friend’s house, and I found him. They were my family!” Her voice broke when admitting the people she was talking about was her own flesh and blood, viciously murdered at the hands of this monster. The vamp pleaded for his innocence to the five faces staring at him, letting this teenager hold a weapon near his face. None of you were falling for the crocodile tears, the girl he had trapped in his motel room didn't make you think he was above murdering a family for a quick meal.

You flinched when you saw a girl who probably wasn't even voting age take a machete and slice off a vampire's head clean. This wasn't a sight you wanted to be exposed to, for a child to be at the other side of the weapon and the one who beheaded a monster she shouldn’t know about at all made it worse. To the three teenagers, this felt like a sigh of relief. A horrible pain allowed to finally start healing. Krissy stepped forward to her friend and placed a hand on her back in support, whispering to her that everything was going to be okay. The grief she felt was over.

“We need to talk to you privately.” Dean told Krissy, pulling her away from comforting her friend.

Krissy didn't look too pleased from the conversation she knew was going to happen the moment she saw the Winchesters come back into her life and saw how it ended up. As she walked over you and the boys, her other friend stepped forward and stopped her from going over to you. He looked at the three of you suspiciously. "You know this guy?"

"Yeah." Krissy said. "We have a past."

You watched as Krissy and Dean decided to go somewhere more private to discuss how she ended up hunting after her father was killed, how was what the older Winchester needed to find out. You and Sam got to work of disposing of the body before anyone could figure out what was going on. While doing so, you learned the name of Krissy’s friends—Josephine and Aiden. The three of them were reunited together not only because all of their families were murdered by vampires, because of someone who took them in and looked after each of them like his own children. You listened to everything and how they ended up here, trying your hardest not to show your disapproval at how they got involved with something dangerous like hunting.

When you were their age you were studying for the SATs and worrying about college, who you were going to take to junior prom. Not tracking and hunting a vampire after they murdered your entire family. Well…for a short time you lived in that blissful world where the supernatural was just things you read about. Until your attention shifted to learning everything you could about the things that went bump in the night, helping the Winchesters track and find cases for them. A handful of years later you were out on the road hunting, but it was different. You were an adult when you made the choice of becoming a hunter. You took baby steps, getting your revenge on the monster that killed your parents years later.

Even then, that’s not why you got involved in the first place. Hunting wasn’t about searching for the thing that ruined your life and killed your family. There was so much more they still had to learn about. It was about helping others in time of need and making this world a little bit of a safer place. Dedicating your entire life knowing there wasn’t a chance you could ever get out and live a normal life. You had to cling to every scrap of happiness you could find, and constantly look over your shoulder in fear you might end up dead from an enemy you forgot. You found yourself having to stop thinking about the topic form the things crossing your mind. Because it went against everything you were fighting for to have.

You hoped Dean could talk some sense into Krissy before she and her friends were the ones you were disposing of their body after they found themselves a monster’s victim. While the boys grew up in the lifestyle and you were learned the ropes on your own, it seemed the kids had someone who was giving them something you never had. A balance of the hunting world, and a home to come to afterwards. It all felt too good to be true. But it seemed these kids hit the lottery on being able to balance both worlds.

You kept yourself busy and somewhat helpful when you offered to pop the trunk and get everything ready for when after Aiden and Josephine finished wrapping up the vamp's body in plastic and duct tape. When you saw Krissy brush past you from the corner of your eye, you turned your head to see Dean and her came back from their little talk. You and Sam decided to let the teens finish up the work in favor for a little talk of your own. They were the ones who wanted to be involved in this, they were going to—dirty work and all. You took one more glance over at them to observe how they worked together, knowing you couldn’t deny they were pretty decent for being only teens.

“What happened?” Sam asked his brother, wondering how the talk went.

“Teenagers,” Dean grumbled, still ticked off from the attitude he was given by Krissy when he shared his concern for what she was getting herself involved in. “That’s what happened.”

“She tell you about Victor?” You wondered.

“Yeah.” Dean said. “What do we think?”

“Well, didn’t we meet up with a hunter named Victor one time in Spokane?” Sam asked.

"That's a long time ago." Dean said, knowing that hunt was from a hunt at least a handful of years back. All the cases you took felt like they blended together at this point. The faces you met along the way and the connections you made with a hunter didn't stick in your head, which was the reason why the name didn't sound all too familiar. "I haven't heard about him since."

"All right," You said. "So, these kids are—"

"Dangerous and off their meds?" Dean guessed. "Yeah, no kidding."

"So, what?" Sam asked, wondering what your next move was going to be for tonight. "We go and talk with Victor?"

You weren’t going to oppose giving this Victor a piece of your mind about what he was doing for these kids and getting them involved in something dangerous as hunting, let alone running around looking for the thing that killed their families. A few minutes later the three teens were calling it quits on the hunt after a job well done. They stashed the body into the trunk of their car and decided to head home before it could get too late. You and the boys followed behind them, eager to see how all of this dynamic worked out for them. And if it was all too good to be true.

[Next Part]

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acadmie · 4 years

Text

Immaculate Conception

I think I wanted for a long time to be the kind of woman who could be content as a mother to bathe her children immaculately in a claw-foot tub, but I am not, and I have only recently come to terms with that.

My tub is very nice. I take baths almost every day. Some people think baths are gross, which, fine, within your rights, but I’ll take my bath while you take your shower, and we’ll see who comes out more relaxed. My baths are my own time. I close and lock the door to my bathroom the way I always have done since I was a very small child. I run the faucet until the tub is full, and then I sit in it, and I wash my hair, and I look around my tiny bathroom and remind myself what a room looks like when it’s all mine.

Admittedly I made the choice to make rooms not all mine. That’s what being a parent does, in effect - it ensures that you will always share your life with someone else, unless you royally fuck up. I don’t think I’ve ever royally fucked up Elliot, because if I did, he would tell me right away with his smart mouth.

He is the opposite of an immaculate child. He had the opposite of an immaculate conception. He loves to be dirty. He was born dirty, and he will die dirty. Last week he saw the sparrows in the park taking turns bathing in a puddle and flung himself into it. When he stood up, covered in mud and a few comic feathers, he said, “Look, Mom! All clean!”

Yeah.

Bathtime doesn’t go over well in our house except when it’s mine. When it’s Elliot’s, it is a grand affair. He demands bubbles, which I make myself out of dish soap and sugar on the kitchen counter. He makes tidal waves. If I don’t hold him tightly after he gets out of the bath, he will rip himself and the towel from my hands and cannonball back into the water, soaking the floor and the walls and making me paranoid about the state of our grout.

It surprises me every time that such a dirty child can be so enthusiastic about baths. When I was a child, I hated bathing right up until the moment I got into the water. It felt good to be grimy - it was the product of a day well spent. I hid in my closet, behind the door, holding in laughter and reveling in the dirt under my fingernails. Eventually my father would find me and drag me out by the ankles and stick me in the tub while the water ran, and I accepted my fate and put my ears under the water and felt the thundering of the faucet like an earthquake just for me.

It was nice there, under the water. The faucet shut off and there was wonderful, floating silence. I shook my head back and forth and felt my hair against my neck. My sweat and the dirt mixed with the water and left me gently. I lay there until the water got cold, until my fingers pruned and my nails became soft, and when I stood up unsteadily I was as pink and as smooth as I had been the first time I opened my eyes to the world.

I grew up Catholic, which meant one of my first baths was at the altar in a burnished bowl of holy water. I don’t think I liked it. My parents kept the home video footage; I watched it later and could see the moment I was lifted out of the water. I don’t know what it felt like before, so I can’t know the difference from what it felt like after, but I think I must have been perturbed by being so suddenly and rudely stripped of whatever sin I had already managed to commit, because in that moment, the camera focused on my small, grainy face, and I looked into it and gave the first stink eye of my life.

The way I hated church was similar to the way I hated bathing. Waking up on a Sunday was poisoned by it. Everything I wore was too dry and too stiff; I would start to fluff my skirt and my mother would bat my hands away from it. She would only let me eat dry toast for breakfast. “All you can get on you is crumbs,” she declared. I tried to get as many crumbs on me as possible in hopes that perhaps I wouldn’t go to church, but we went anyway, and the next weekend she didn’t let me eat until after Mass.

I was determined to hate church. I lagged so far behind my parents on our walk around the block that my father tugged me forward by the wrist. I scuffed my shoes on the sidewalk. We approached the big stone steps and I hung back, kicking the dirt by the garden. This was the last frontier, usually, because as soon as I got up the steps the old ladies who always stood at the door would start to make a big stink about how lovely my dress was, and how lovely it was to see me, and what a lovely big girl I was becoming. This was the final frontier not because it was the point at which I could no longer escape, but because quietly, I liked it. It was a lovely dress. I was a lovely girl. And so I slid my head under the water.

Those first steps into church were always the best. It was so full of light. Big windows commanded every bit of sun into the room so that it felt open enough to never be full. My parents made their crosses and bows in front of the pulpit and tugged me into a pew where I would always sit on the outside. My father permitted this only because I made a habit of going to the bathroom several times during the service. I made a habit only because I wanted to sit on the end of the pew, closest to the light.

This was how I met Soren. One day during the service, I sat quietly at the end of my pew, reveling in the warmth of the sun. A shadow cast itself gently across my lap. I looked up, and there he was - small and dark in the aisle against the window pane, sitting there, hands tucked together, in the white shirt he always wore. I remember looking at him and deciding that we were there for the same reason, even if that reason wasn’t exactly the right kind of worship.

For all the time that I was made to spend in church as I child, I don’t think I really understood what I was supposed to think of God. The congregation would stand, so I stood; they would sing, so I sang. I ate dry communion wafers and drank water pinked with wine. The priest would talk about God, and so would my parents and their friends and the old lady church greeters. God is good! So was I, if it meant Santa was coming. But when we were in church, and I could drag my eyes away from the windows for a minute, looking at them was like looking at a door left wide open.

Soren was always my best friend. We met in church, but I don’t think either of us really cared about it. It was an understanding that ran between us like water, that we didn’t ever have to talk about. There were things bigger than us, sure. A lot of things. But he and I both preferred the bigger things around us that we could see and touch and smell and taste. At first, the light in church on Sundays. Then the enormous trees that grew in his backyard, then the lake in the summer, then the deafening rhythm of a rainstorm. We were perpetually in awe of the way that life existed carelessly around us, continuing no matter what happened in our lives, the same way that time moved after a clock had stopped, bringing the sun down and up again without the need for an hour hand.

Soren and I liked small things, too. Caterpillars, frogs, water bugs in the stream behind my house. We played cards and read chapter books and built walls out of rocks. I think his hands knew how to do everything since before he was born. He could pick up a moth without hurting its wings, and untie any knot my shoelaces got into, and pack a snowball tight enough that it would explode inside the collar of my winter coat. Mostly we baked bread. His mother was a baker; they had big jars of flour in their house that she used to make cookies and pastries and immense tiered cakes for his birthday. We made whole wheat and sourdough and focaccia and ate it together on the steps of church before the service. He always saved a little for after, too - “I don’t like the way the wine tastes in my mouth,” he explained to me one afternoon after digging a hunk of it out of his small pocket. I didn’t like it then, either, but we were friends for long enough to see each other get a taste for it.

In some time I was seventeen and I found out that my parents were wonderful Catholics in that when they got divorced, they did their best to hide it from God. They lived in the same house, maybe amicably, if you squinted hard enough; they kept their rings; they went to church. The doors that were once open inside them closed. So much of their energy was spent on this that, to me, the ins and outs of their separation were out in the open.

Everything in the house became strictly divided property. They would use the kitchen in shifts. They split the couch apart. They blocked out when their shows were on cable and made topical compromises on who would use the DVR each week when Locke and Key came too close to overlapping with The Walking Dead. I came home from school one afternoon to find my mother surrounded by stacks of books in their bedroom, which had now become just hers, sorting out which ones were his and putting them in boxes to go to his room downstairs. It was so definite, so clean cut, that it felt more violent than if they had fought more openly. It was like they had made the decision to be separate people without allowing me a moment to separate them as my parents.

I had been going to church halfheartedly before they separated, but at some point in the legal and physical and spiritual process I stopped. No Easter service, or Christmas service. No Mass. It was a relief, in some ways - I wouldn’t have to stand between them in the pew anymore, or diffuse conversations with their church friends who they hadn’t told yet. It was an effective resignation from my position as the parent of their divorce. But in other ways, it felt just a little like death. Or not death. Like a door closing. Soren said he missed me during Mass, and I said he should just come over after.

I got used to it quickly. The time that I had used to go to church on Sunday I could now use to sleep in and eat buttered toast and wear sweatpants, three novel things that lost their novelty after the first few weekends and just became what I did with myself. While my parents were gone, the house was all mine. This was a novelty that never wore away. Part of me was ashamed of it. Who got excited about living in their own house?

Another, bigger part of me was more satisfied at home than I ever had been at church. If there was a God, He probably lived in my house. Walking freely through the rooms without being afraid of crossing boundaries or making allegiances or interrupting arguments or staged quiet hours was a new kind of worship that I didn’t know I was capable of. I got excited about opening the drawers in my kitchen, and sitting in the middle of the couch, and pulling up the window shades. I let as much light into every room as I could and lay in patches of sun for hours. When I got bored or listless I could leave, and the house would always be content to wait for me until I came back. For those hours, the divided space I lived in became fully mine.

I did other things, too, besides take baths and practice living in my own house. I had Soren, and other close friends who I could invite over or go out with; we played board games and planted peppers and drove several cars gently into ditches and made a habit of trespassing in the woods across town. They had other friends who had other friends who invited us to concerts and parties and bought alcohol that I wrapped in a sweatshirt and hid in my closet, only to forget about it and find it later when I was hunting through clothes for my rain boots. It was cheap stuff, the kind of vodka that comes in a plastic jug that, if unmarked, might also be used to transport corrosive acid or washable glue, and near the end of my senior summer, when my parents were thinking of selling the house and I was weeks from departing to college, I thought that it would be a good idea to invite everybody over to drink the rest of it.

It was a Wednesday. My dad was out of town - he had found more and more excuses to spend time a couple states away, “on business”. My mom was staying with her sister while her husband (of a successful Catholic marriage) had surgery in the nearby hospital. She had left earlier in the week, with a kiss on each of my cheeks and a pointed look that probably meant, in a loving way, don’t get drunk on shitty vodka while I’m gone. I gave her a look back that probably meant, in a loving way, you need to practice for when you can’t tell me what to do anymore.

I think fondly on it. In the months leading up to and the months after Elliot was born, people kept asking me, “Don’t you regret it?” And I didn’t, and I don’t. I liked sitting on the floor of the kitchen, drinking shitty vodka soda with my friends. I liked playing soft music loud enough to feel it in my ankles. I liked going outside with them and closing the door. I liked walking around the block. I liked Soren stopping us in front of the church, and I liked going in through the basement window, and I liked coming up the stairs to see it like an empty swimming pool, so blue, so broad, so full, still, of light, just the way I had left it.

We scattered ourselves among the pews, in the balcony, at the seat of the big organ and the smaller piano. I wandered through the rooms, in and out of the confessional, climbed the steps to the bell tower and down again. I felt oddly returned to myself. I had done this many, many times. My feet knew how the floors felt under them; my fingers knew how the walls felt under them; my eyes knew where to find the shadows in the dips of the hallway and the cracks in the wood. But I had never seen them like this. Not from this height, or this hour, or without resistance to come in the first place.

The moon shone through stained glass and illuminated the star above Bethlehem.

I wanted to take a bath.

The baptism pool was hidden in one of the side rooms behind the altar. Under the water, the lights were on; they swam green and white beneath the surface, a promise of warmth, of cleanliness. I stripped to my underwear and stepped onto the first shallow stair, and the next, and the next, until the water hit my waist and my ribs and my chin, until I closed my eyes and ducked my head under and felt my hair rise up and float around me as if I was suspended in space, and when I rose to take a breath, it felt like the first time.

The baptism chamber, like most of the church, was lined in windows. Plexiglas along the bottom, but as the ceiling arched, stained glass masterpieces of Mother Mary: at the birth of Christ, at his crucifixion, her holding his body, her mourning, her assumption, her coronation. She seemed to have infinite grace. She was innocent. She was pure. She was holy, in every sense. Was it because of the child? Was it because God chose her to have the virgin birth, to bring forth his voice into the human world? Or was it in the way she carried herself, swaying hips, steady eyes, assured of her place in the world with our without Christ or God or the Wise Men coming out of the desert?

Behind me the door creaked. I could tell without looking that it was Soren - I knew the way he breathed from all the nights we had spent sleeping on each others’ floors.

He said, “How does it feel to be back?”

I said, “I wish you had some bread.”

He laughed softly and came to sit by the edge of the pool and started taking his shoes off with deft hands. I watched him untie his laces and strip off his socks and roll his pants up just above his ankles, and then he dipped his feet into the pool and it was the two of us there together just like it had always been.

Being there with him felt familiar. It felt like knowing him was knowing me inside and out. And so I wasn’t nervous when I pulled myself out of the pool, or when he reached out to touch my wet hair, or when I leaned in to meet his soft mouth. I wasn’t nervous fumbling at his buttons, or lying on the stone floor, feeling the cold on my back but the warmth between us. We laughed together, in gasps, and I could feel his heart beating, and I wasn’t nervous, because this really was something that was bigger than us. I knew it was, lying on my back next to him after, looking up at Mary and thinking that most of the time holy things had nothing to do with God, but just with the knowledge that rightness and goodness existed in places where everyone could find them.

When I had Elliot, my parents freaked out. They told me they were scared for me when they really meant they were scared of me. But I’m not stressed about getting into Heaven, really, because I think I’m probably having little bits of it all the time. When I take a bath. When I sit in the sun. When Elliot and I stay home on Sundays and make bread. Some voice in the back of my head is always saying, when we sit down to dinner with our fresh bakes and with my glass of wine, eat of my body, drink of my blood, and maybe that’s God, but maybe it’s me, instead, content to be dirty and clean at the same time in a world of my own creation.

Elliot is five. That’s old enough now that he likes to take showers, but Monday is bath day for both of us. During the day, Soren takes him to a stream, or up a mountain, or on some other kind of adventure that lets him get absolutely filthy. When they get home at night, I shepherd Elliot into the bath while Soren makes easy dinner. I give him bubbles and soap and the kind of shampoo that won’t sting if it gets in his eyes, and he washes himself and tells me about his day with his dad. When I pull the plug on the drain, he stays until the tub is completely empty, leaving him goosefleshed and giggling until I wrap him in a towel.

While they’re gone during the day, I sit in the water and look up at the window. It’s a cloudy skylight, covered with years’ worth of dirt and grime, but still clean enough to let a good amount of light in. I like to think that if we didn’t live in an apartment, and if we had a good amount of money, I’d put in some stained glass up there. Something innocuous, like a caterpillar or a loaf of challah, but with just the right amount of color and drama to remind me where I came from, and what worship feels like when you do it for yourself.

I stay in the bath for a long time. I run the faucet until the tub is full, and then I sit in it, and I wash my hair, and I look around my tiny bathroom and remind myself what a room looks like when it’s all mine.

#short story #writers on tumblr #x #plot and suspense #spring 2020

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hgfstreamchats · 3 years

Text

The Terror Episodes 1-3

thenightetc 08:41 PM Hello!

highglossfinish 08:41 PM Hello there!

thenightetc 08:41 PM So, that description seems VERY legitimate.

thenightetc 08:41 PM Can't wait to watch the happy boat movie! :)

highglossfinish 08:42 PM It's not often we commit to a series, but this one is such a feel good nautical romp that I couldn't pass it up!

thenightetc 08:42 PM ...It's a series?

highglossfinish 08:43 PM Oh yes.

thenightetc 08:43 PM :o

highglossfinish 08:43 PM Just 10 episodes, but still a series.

highglossfinish 08:44 PM Plenty of time to get attached to these characters that nothing bad will happen to.

thenightetc 08:44 PM Interesting!

thenightetc 08:45 PM Sound and video are working

highglossfinish 08:45 PM Excellent!

thenightetc 08:45 PM OH NO

thenightetc 08:46 PM Arctic labyrinth!

highglossfinish 08:47 PM Where nothing unfortunate ever happens!

thenightetc 08:47 PM Whoops, resolution's gone bad

thenightetc 08:47 PM And it's frozen now

thenightetc 08:47 PM appropriate!

highglossfinish 08:48 PM And that's The Terror in its entirety! And what an adventure it was.

thenightetc 08:48 PM Astounding!

thenightetc 08:49 PM I heard something just now, but the picture's still frozen

TazerAlien joined the party.

highglossfinish 08:50 PM One moment.

Hellloooo

highglossfinish 08:52 PM Alright. Now, let's try this again.

thenightetc 08:52 PM Hello!

thenightetc 08:52 PM Much better!

highglossfinish 08:52 PM Wonderful!

TazerAlien 08:53 PM Look its my friend!

thenightetc 08:53 PM Annnnd the resolution's down again.

enbyblades 08:53 PM hi knockout

thenightetc 08:53 PM Definitely the stream, not the video

TazerAlien 08:54 PM Yeah it's prob the internet connection :/

highglossfinish 08:54 PM I despise kast.

enbyblades 08:54 PM boguss

thenightetc 08:54 PM That looks better!

thenightetc 08:55 PM Annnnd as soon as it starts playing...

highglossfinish 08:55 PM How is the resolution for everyone else?

TazerAlien 08:55 PM Kinda shit

enbyblades 08:55 PM bad :(

thenightetc 08:55 PM I'm just seeing a blank screen now

TazerAlien 08:56 PM Yeah its probably the service being ass

thenightetc 08:56 PM Looked better for a second there but the stuff at the top was still grainy

TazerAlien 08:58 PM looks better!

thenightetc 08:58 PM Much better!

enbyblades 08:59 PM yes !!

highglossfinish 08:59 PM Fingers crossed!

thenightetc 09:00 PM OH so Terror's the name of one o fhte boats

highglossfinish 09:00 PM Indeed!

TazerAlien 09:00 PM That's cool

highglossfinish 09:00 PM It's also a true story.

TazerAlien 09:01 PM Oh how fun!

enbyblades 09:01 PM :0c

thenightetc 09:03 PM :|

TazerAlien 09:04 PM quality is taking another dip :/ damn

thenightetc 09:05 PM This may be as good as we're getting without constantly pausing

highglossfinish 09:05 PM Apparently, it forces you to pay to switch video sources now.

thenightetc 09:05 PM Oh, that's not good.

thenightetc 09:06 PM And neither is coughing up blood!

TazerAlien 09:06 PM Oh fun!

TazerAlien 09:07 PM Btw Sharpwing Anon says Hi! They can't be here rn but I've shared your stream announcement on our discord

highglossfinish 09:08 PM How thoughtful! Tell them I said hello!

thenightetc 09:08 PM Hoooo boy.

thenightetc 09:08 PM I'm sure moving the dying man will be fine.

highglossfinish 09:09 PM He'll hold out until they can pump him full of leeches and cocaine.

highglossfinish 09:09 PM Then he'll be right as rain.

enbyblades 09:09 PM now THAT sounds like a blast

TazerAlien 09:09 PM My friend has yet to respond but they'll be very happy

TazerAlien 09:09 PM Also they should puppet him around ala Weekend at bernie's style

thenightetc 09:09 PM Ha!

highglossfinish 09:10 PM Now that'd be an interesting series.

thenightetc 09:10 PM Ohhh dear

highglossfinish 09:12 PM Bedside manner!

Thebes joined the party.

Thebes 09:12 PM hello!

thenightetc 09:13 PM hello!

highglossfinish 09:13 PM Hello!

TazerAlien 09:13 PM Hewwo

enbyblades 09:13 PM OwO

TazerAlien 09:13 PM Enby thank u

enbyblades 09:14 PM UwO

TazerAlien 09:15 PM more people from my Discord might join! How fun!

highglossfinish 09:15 PM Excellent!

thenightetc 09:15 PM Oh, dear

TazerAlien 09:16 PM He's gonna probably die let's not lie to ourselves

TazerAlien 09:16 PM Yeah he's gonna die

thenightetc 09:16 PM definitely

enbyblades 09:17 PM have they tried essential oils

highglossfinish 09:17 PM Or meditation.

enbyblades 09:17 PM clearly they havent

thenightetc 09:17 PM Oh that finger's coming off, isn't it

thenightetc 09:17 PM :|

TazerAlien 09:18 PM Or crystals!!! Ha! I had a family member try to cure my pains with crystals once

enbyblades 09:18 PM let me guess

enbyblades 09:18 PM u havent been in pain since

enbyblades 09:18 PM lmao

TazerAlien 09:18 PM Lmao I wish!

highglossfinish 09:18 PM Positive thinking will take care of those tuberculous lungs.

enbyblades 09:19 PM obviously!

TazerAlien 09:19 PM Uh Oh

thenightetc 09:19 PM Uh

TazerAlien 09:19 PM That's actually terrifying

highglossfinish 09:19 PM A choir of angels, The Trash Man...

highglossfinish 09:19 PM It's all the same.

thenightetc 09:19 PM ..."Mr Blanky"

SharpwingAnon joined the party.

highglossfinish 09:20 PM Sharpwing Anon! Welcome! You just missed out on seeing a young human die.

TazerAlien 09:20 PM Hello friend!!

SharpwingAnon 09:21 PM AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HI HI HI

SharpwingAnon 09:21 PM ....is that Hugh Jackman or is it just the sideburns.

highglossfinish 09:21 PM Just the sideburns.

TazerAlien 09:22 PM Those sideburns can be used to hold a whole ass meal in em imagine!!!

SharpwingAnon 09:22 PM Hamster Jackman, Hugh's cousin

Thebes 09:22 PM MUTTON CHOPS

TazerAlien 09:22 PM We're a clever lot aren't we?

SharpwingAnon 09:22 PM mutto-- HOW DARE

SharpwingAnon 09:23 PM ohhhh the pun

SharpwingAnon 09:23 PM it kills

SharpwingAnon 09:23 PM it is deadly

thenightetc 09:23 PM Hehehehe.

Thebes 09:23 PM (that's for real the name for that kind of sideburn too)

TazerAlien 09:24 PM Down he go!

SharpwingAnon 09:24 PM (there are other kinds??)

TazerAlien 09:24 PM Yes

TazerAlien 09:24 PM anyways those are some lovely instruments he has there!

SharpwingAnon 09:24 PM ah, the dead man

SharpwingAnon 09:24 PM hello sir, sorry i couldnt make your acquaintance

TazerAlien 09:24 PM probably not historically accurate but oh well

thenightetc 09:25 PM Jesus the quality makes it look like he's raising his head a little

highglossfinish 09:25 PM Rest in peace, consumptive human. Not only did we not spend much time with you, you did not have any great impact on our lives.

highglossfinish 09:25 PM Is the quality that bad?

thenightetc 09:25 PM Just a bit grainy but it's got this kind of... waver?

SharpwingAnon 09:26 PM rather terrible, yes, sorry to say

thenightetc 09:26 PM When there are zooms

highglossfinish 09:26 PM Give me strength.

TazerAlien 09:26 PM Crunch

SharpwingAnon 09:26 PM i can't tell much of what's going on a lot of the tim-- oh ew

highglossfinish 09:26 PM Let me try something.

SharpwingAnon 09:26 PM EW

TazerAlien 09:26 PM Snap crackle pop!! HAHA

highglossfinishToday at 9:40 PM There we go. TheAlienTazerToday at 9:40 PM YEET LETS GO highglossfinishToday at 9:40 PM Not quite as tidy as Kast, but at least we have a functioning video. TheAlienTazerToday at 9:41 PM Can't hear it tho :/ maybe turn up the volume SharpwingToday at 9:41 PM Oh dear-- uh, I can't hear it? Is that supposed to happen? oh okay it's not just my end original ratboyToday at 9:41 PM yea i cant hear anything either TheAlienTazerToday at 9:42 PM Try going into chrome and turning off hardware acceleration Also Ratboy u gonna share your playlist???? SharpwingToday at 9:43 PM ngl, that sounds like something that happens when you have one too many espressos at Lowe's. original ratboyToday at 9:44 PM WHA here?? :flushed: thenightetc2Today at 9:44 PM OH, another channel? MimicToday at 9:44 PM also hello, this is the Thebes. TheAlienTazerToday at 9:44 PM No Ratboy made a playlist based on a certain someone original ratboyToday at 9:45 PM cough cough knockout i made a playlist based on u.. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1dqR7fqV1QWQwMVDCHHjpn?si=e527in_gT46qyYvGsOv5UQ

:person_running: only when ur not busy heh TheAlienTazerToday at 9:50 PM OKAY WE HEAR SharpwingToday at 9:50 PM I HEAR!! :D highglossfinishToday at 9:50 PM WONDERFUL! TheAlienTazerToday at 9:50 PM At least I do original ratboyToday at 9:50 PM YAY SharpwingToday at 9:50 PM YYYYYYYEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHH highglossfinishToday at 9:50 PM Thank the Allspark! original ratboyToday at 9:50 PM SOUND TheAlienTazerToday at 9:50 PM And it looks much better than Kast ngl original ratboyToday at 9:50 PM so much better highglossfinishToday at 9:51 PM Only the finest quality when it comes to watching these men die. TheAlienTazerToday at 9:51 PM Yes original ratboyToday at 9:51 PM gotta see the squelches thenightetc2Today at 9:51 PM Could you go backa bit, I missed the first part MimicToday at 9:51 PM SUCCESS TheAlienTazerToday at 9:51 PM btw u aint muted highglossfinishToday at 9:51 PM How far? thenightetc2Today at 9:52 PM To wherever we were when we left Kast SharpwingToday at 9:52 PM What's the plot, anyway? I have No idea what's going on, all I know is....divers....and organs...... highglossfinishToday at 9:52 PM He's trying to convince them not to push through the ice. SharpwingToday at 9:52 PM ahhh, i see highglossfinishToday at 9:52 PM And to winter in a safe harbor instead. SharpwingToday at 9:52 PM why would they NOT TheAlienTazerToday at 9:53 PM I have a hunch that many of them will die because they wanna be cocky SharpwingToday at 9:53 PM safe harbors are objectively good things!! that is why they are called SAFE TheAlienTazerToday at 9:53 PM But humans think they know better sometimes SharpwingToday at 9:53 PM hhhhhh MimicToday at 9:53 PM no such thing as digging too deep SharpwingToday at 9:53 PM do NONE of them have anxiety. there should be at least one person with anxiety on every ship, this should be a rule "hey wait maybe this is a BAD IDEA GUYS" thenightetc2Today at 9:54 PM I didn't even realize they were right near land! TheAlienTazerToday at 9:54 PM I wish I had nitro so I could show my server's emotes SharpwingToday at 9:54 PM shdfhdgdhfgd ill be right back again TheAlienTazerToday at 9:55 PM :ok_hand: thenightetc2Today at 9:55 PM I'm sure he'll come out of that grave safe and sound And the quality is indeed MUCH better now TheAlienTazerToday at 9:56 PM 720 60fps usually SharpwingToday at 9:56 PM okay back again TheAlienTazerToday at 9:56 PM We're gonna watch these men die at a lovely 60 frames per second SharpwingToday at 9:56 PM ARE THEY GOING BACK nnnoooooo oh no theyre not REALLY CMON MAN poor Mr. Muttonchops he looks like he knows their fate original ratboyToday at 9:57 PM hes gonna get more than his muttons chopped if they keep making bad decisions TheAlienTazerToday at 9:58 PM I can just feel the burning in my lungs from the cold and it made me dizzy ha! thenightetc2Today at 9:58 PM Oh man, THIS looks safe! SharpwingToday at 9:58 PM hhhhhhhow dare you make me laugh about this:joy: original ratboyToday at 9:58 PM hehehehe highglossfinishToday at 9:58 PM No more worrying about archiving the chat, either. SharpwingToday at 9:59 PM will you still be posting chunks of it, though? ngl, that's what made me want to be here, it seemed so fun and chill TheAlienTazerToday at 9:59 PM Its here forever and there's a search feature too! Handy! highglossfinishToday at 10:00 PM Of course! SharpwingToday at 10:00 PM :D! here lemme change my name then TheAlienTazerToday at 10:00 PM nice nice SharpwingToday at 10:00 PM i need a shorter nickname now that people will actually be calling me that in chat, but i dunno what TheAlienTazerToday at 10:01 PM I think Sharpwing is fine Also I wanna mention popping and crunching again bc I bet we'll be having more of that SharpwingToday at 10:01 PM but that's the character, i'm not actually her ~even if i kinda wish i were, shes really cool~~ highglossfinishToday at 10:01 PM Agreed. SharpwingToday at 10:01 PM wait really aaaaaaaaaa ok then ^- ^<3 TheAlienTazerToday at 10:02 PM yeah it fits!

original ratboyToday at 10:09 PM radioactive TheAlienTazerToday at 10:09 PM I have MORE SharpwingToday at 10:09 PM thank you, now the song is in my head. original ratboyToday at 10:09 PM :o) TheAlienTazerToday at 10:09 PM

I want them bc they r terrible highglossfinishToday at 10:10 PM I'm thrilled that we get to watch that intro in decent quality. It's by far my favorite part. SharpwingToday at 10:10 PM that last one is the most okay... proportions kinda off, though highglossfinishToday at 10:10 PM I've done nothing in my life horrible enough to deserve these. MimicToday at 10:10 PM if you want a different song stuck in your head, this show keeps making me think of Dwarf Fortress (You have dug too deep) and there's a song for that thing called Diggy Diggy Hole that I keep imagining whenever they try being dramatic. original ratboyToday at 10:10 PM that first one looks like if knockout were a beastformer SharpwingToday at 10:10 PM i didnt see much of it but the music is lovely, truly TheAlienTazerToday at 10:10 PM This made me wheeze irl SharpwingToday at 10:10 PM soft and unsettling all at once SharpwingToday at 10:11 PM i think it's supposed to be...? dinosaur or alligator or somethin thenightetc2Today at 10:11 PM Awww. original ratboyToday at 10:11 PM knockout how do u feel about being a weird organic creature alligator highglossfinishToday at 10:11 PM No. original ratboyToday at 10:12 PM heheheh im so sorry SharpwingToday at 10:12 PM "i will always come to you" oh okay i am now aware that this is a ship TheAlienTazerToday at 10:12 PM This Discord is a blessing SharpwingToday at 10:12 PM ...wait, of course it's a ship thenightetc2Today at 10:12 PM A ship ship. SharpwingToday at 10:12 PM theyre on a sh-- okay no bad joke. YES that's how to make it short and snappy thank you TheAlienTazerToday at 10:13 PM ngl the outside set doesn't look... great MimicToday at 10:13 PM kinda looks like they lifted it from the Golden Compass movie TheAlienTazerToday at 10:13 PM YES EXACTLY SharpwingToday at 10:13 PM oh yeah... i forgot they werent really in the arctic ngl i didnt think about it but i see it now original ratboyToday at 10:14 PM looks like they filmed on the snow drifts outside my apartment TheAlienTazerToday at 10:14 PM Okay this looks a bit better original ratboyToday at 10:14 PM yes SharpwingToday at 10:14 PM oh no why is the music angry :( TheAlienTazerToday at 10:14 PM oof ALSO THATS A GRAVE PROBABLY thenightetc2Today at 10:15 PM Well, that took some piling up SharpwingToday at 10:15 PM wait why is there a-- who put that there TheAlienTazerToday at 10:15 PM Either a grave or marker of time NEW PERSON thenightetc2Today at 10:15 PM W... what SharpwingToday at 10:15 PM how is a surgeon NOT a doctor what does the term mean back then?? original ratboyToday at 10:16 PM doctor knockout can u shed some light on this thenightetc2Today at 10:16 PM ?? I feel unenlightened about what that message was highglossfinishToday at 10:16 PM Search me. On Cybertron, every doctor is a surgeon. SharpwingToday at 10:17 PM "anatomist"...?? MimicToday at 10:17 PM a surgeon isn't a doctor 'cause back then surgeons were for removing things that were obviously problems while doctors were more diagnostic original ratboyToday at 10:17 PM human silliness at it again TheAlienTazerToday at 10:17 PM Yeah original ratboyToday at 10:17 PM ohh SharpwingToday at 10:17 PM ohhhh.... huh original ratboyToday at 10:17 PM human silliness at it again SharpwingToday at 10:17 PM i gues that makes a little sense. but still. TheAlienTazerToday at 10:18 PM Like a brain surgeon does the operation but u cant make an appointment to get diagnosed, that ain't his job thenightetc2Today at 10:18 PM eyebrows original ratboyToday at 10:18 PM u learn smthn new every day TheAlienTazerToday at 10:19 PM I'm so glad it's in better quality so I can look at some of these white people and not know who is who original ratboyToday at 10:19 PM nsjhfjshkhsdk thenightetc2Today at 10:19 PM Well, we can tell for sure they weren't looking for pussy back there Ohh dear SharpwingToday at 10:20 PM i have Mr. Muttonchops and Person Who Vaguely Reminds Me Of Hugh Laurie TheAlienTazerToday at 10:20 PM nice SharpwingToday at 10:20 PM aw dangit.... gotta run to supper MimicToday at 10:20 PM "Having no animals to ascribe the features of human women to, as they did with the dugongs, they have now begun to whisper of piles of rocks-women. I fear I am the last sane man among us." TheAlienTazerToday at 10:20 PM See ya friend! original ratboyToday at 10:21 PM aww goodbye friend SharpwingToday at 10:21 PM hopefully i'll be back before it's over, thank you for having me!<3 thenightetc2Today at 10:21 PM See you! highglossfinishToday at 10:21 PM "I won't have our captain's mood brought down by sad facts." MimicToday at 10:21 PM seeya! highglossfinishToday at 10:21 PM Until then! thenightetc2Today at 10:21 PM Oh, ugh. :grimacing: original ratboyToday at 10:23 PM aw no i gotta head out too TheAlienTazerToday at 10:24 PM Ratboy nooooooo original ratboyToday at 10:24 PM thank u for having me !!! forgive me tazer :''( MimicToday at 10:24 PM seeya! thenightetc2Today at 10:24 PM Goodnight! TheAlienTazerToday at 10:24 PM I will be seeing u in my server later then highglossfinishToday at 10:24 PM Goodnight! TheAlienTazerToday at 10:24 PM where I am lord lmao original ratboyToday at 10:24 PM u shall. goodnight knockout :'') TheAlienTazerToday at 10:27 PM Btw I called on my clown they r funny person from my server MimicToday at 10:28 PM excellent TheAlienTazerToday at 10:28 PM How I talk to my subjects in my court ha

They rlly like drinking paint water thenightetc2Today at 10:29 PM So it WAS a bear TheAlienTazerToday at 10:30 PM someone is gonna die bc it's prob a Polar bear and Polar bears are from hell thenightetc2Today at 10:31 PM Ohhh dear TheAlienTazerToday at 10:31 PM uh oh CRUNCH thenightetc2Today at 10:32 PM !! TheAlienTazerToday at 10:32 PM CAULK highglossfinishToday at 10:34 PM No need to wash your hand or anything. TheAlienTazerToday at 10:35 PM Nasty thenightetc2Today at 10:36 PM He washed his hands in a deleted scene. That's what I'm telling myself highglossfinishToday at 10:37 PM The washed hands were not relevant to his journey. TheAlienTazerToday at 10:37 PM lmao thenightetc2Today at 10:38 PM Couldn't he like... tell her what it is they're trying to do and why? highglossfinishToday at 10:38 PM Of course not, that would be helpful. TheAlienTazerToday at 10:39 PM true SharpwingToday at 10:42 PM I'm back!! I had casserole :3 What'd I miss? TheAlienTazerToday at 10:42 PM DEATH SharpwingToday at 10:42 PM aw :( thenightetc2Today at 10:42 PM ...yikes highglossfinishToday at 10:42 PM An old man died. SharpwingToday at 10:43 PM Most of them are a little old-- is it a new person? highglossfinishToday at 10:43 PM Her father. Who had a mysteriously missing tongue. SharpwingToday at 10:43 PM Given what I heard them saying, was he native to that area?? wait wait, her? i have missed a lot thenightetc2Today at 10:43 PM yes SharpwingToday at 10:44 PM oh she is pretty thenightetc2Today at 10:44 PM They shot the man, thinking he was the bear they'd seen signs of (it was dark) SharpwingToday at 10:44 PM .....ooh. dang. im surprised she's even sitting there talking to them civilly, they SHOT her DAD highglossfinishToday at 10:47 PM I certainly wouldn't be. TheAlienTazerToday at 10:47 PM Death COLONIALISM thenightetc2Today at 10:48 PM ...Really, guys? SharpwingToday at 10:48 PM oh yeah sure. just loot the man why dontcha can you NOT thenightetc2Today at 10:49 PM Happy. Right. highglossfinishToday at 10:50 PM "Salt pork and rat biscuits, mostly." SharpwingToday at 10:50 PM what's she looking for? they got told to put the stuff they wanted to take back, right? oh wait, she pointed to her neck-- a necklace? that is not the point sir thenightetc2Today at 10:51 PM thenightetc2Today at 10:59 PM Wait, six? oof highglossfinishToday at 11:00 PM "Your insistence on stating the facts makes you hard to love." SharpwingToday at 11:00 PM this guy would hate Soundwave. TheAlienTazerToday at 11:01 PM pfffft SharpwingToday at 11:02 PM good lord that was savage though ripped into him worse than the bear would have thenightetc2Today at 11:02 PM Oh, dear Ohhhh dear. SharpwingToday at 11:04 PM oh. ...i read the wikipedia article. i uh TheAlienTazerToday at 11:05 PM HAHA SharpwingToday at 11:05 PM i might have to nope out of here once it gets worse, sorry. MimicToday at 11:06 PM why aren't there more shanties about hanging strings of rats original ratboyToday at 11:06 PM ive come to be a nuisance again TheAlienTazerToday at 11:06 PM RATBOY MimicToday at 11:06 PM EXCELLENT TIMING SharpwingToday at 11:06 PM hello :) original ratboyToday at 11:06 PM :o) thenightetc2Today at 11:06 PM Sigh. original ratboyToday at 11:06 PM SOMEONE SAY RATS??? MimicToday at 11:06 PM YUP TheAlienTazerToday at 11:06 PM I might sleep soon its late original ratboyToday at 11:06 PM WAHOO SharpwingToday at 11:06 PM .......theyre dead im sorry highglossfinishToday at 11:07 PM We'll pack it in after this one, watch more next time. original ratboyToday at 11:07 PM MNNNNNOOOOOOOO TheAlienTazerToday at 11:07 PM nice! SharpwingToday at 11:07 PM ah okay original ratboyToday at 11:07 PM sounds good !! TheAlienTazerToday at 11:07 PM perfect timing for me MimicToday at 11:07 PM and their corpsesa are on display. original ratboyToday at 11:07 PM NNO mom pick me up i dont like it here anymore highglossfinishToday at 11:08 PM This show is the reason Breakdown and I recommend climbing exercises when one of us is in the mood and the other isn't. thenightetc2Today at 11:08 PM Pfffff TheAlienTazerToday at 11:09 PM that's perfect original ratboyToday at 11:09 PM this guy. thenightetc2Today at 11:09 PM So which one of you is the devious seducer and which one is the innocent led astray original ratboyToday at 11:10 PM "im not a rat im a man" like its smthn to be pROUD OF psshh wait highglossfinishToday at 11:10 PM Hah! original ratboyToday at 11:10 PM well knockout dont hold out on us..whos who highglossfinishToday at 11:11 PM Depends on the night. thenightetc2Today at 11:11 PM Oho! original ratboyToday at 11:11 PM spicy TheAlienTazerToday at 11:11 PM Nice SharpwingToday at 11:12 PM skdfshfs I See XD nice handwriting original ratboyToday at 11:13 PM H thenightetc2Today at 11:13 PM "But, uh, make sure it is a bear, before you shoot" OH SHIT SharpwingToday at 11:14 PM wow okay oh! hm. TheAlienTazerToday at 11:14 PM Sure! walk away from the group! SharpwingToday at 11:15 PM yeah i'mmmmmm just gonna admit im a weakling i think i will be seeing that in my dreams for a while TheAlienTazerToday at 11:15 PM Oh oop thenightetc2Today at 11:15 PM Oh no D: MimicToday at 11:16 PM fffff thenightetc2Today at 11:16 PM Okay I uh, don't quite understand how he got dragged in there SharpwingToday at 11:16 PM is it okay for me to hang out and be here during streams if I don't watch, or is it only for those who are going to actively watch the video? thenightetc2Today at 11:16 PM Or... pushed? original ratboyToday at 11:16 PM i dont blame u, this is pretty gnarly TheAlienTazerToday at 11:16 PM yeah SharpwingToday at 11:16 PM his face was half gone... :( thenightetc2Today at 11:16 PM Are they implying it was that other man's corpse that came out and dragged him in? original ratboyToday at 11:17 PM he...lost his mind highglossfinishToday at 11:17 PM It's perfectly fine. SharpwingToday at 11:17 PM thank you<3 thenightetc2Today at 11:17 PM Ah :frowning: ...ah. :frowning: highglossfinishToday at 11:18 PM Everyone is welcome here, regardless of whether they enjoy watching delimbed humans fed into ice holes. SharpwingToday at 11:18 PM I am glad :relieved: more glad about being here than about de-limbed humans, but wow, props to the special effects department thenightetc2Today at 11:19 PM okay DID they steal something TheAlienTazerToday at 11:20 PM probably highglossfinishToday at 11:20 PM Forgetting the lines to the song, I'm sure that's not a sign of anything worrisome. thenightetc2Today at 11:20 PM certainly not original ratboyToday at 11:21 PM not at all MimicToday at 11:21 PM this is harrowing. props to the production staff highglossfinishToday at 11:22 PM One day to grieve the man who got them all stuck in the ice in the first place. thenightetc2Today at 11:23 PM The iced-up ship looks absolutely grim. TheAlienTazerToday at 11:23 PM K I'm about to pass out. I think I ate something bad bc I feel like shit have fun ya'll peace out thenightetc2Today at 11:23 PM Feel better! SharpwingToday at 11:23 PM oh no, Not Hugh Laurie died?? Oh no!! original ratboyToday at 11:23 PM aw goodbye tazer ! hope u feel better soon SharpwingToday at 11:23 PM I'm so sorry Tazer:pensive: that sucks original ratboyToday at 11:23 PM :people_hugging: TheAlienTazerToday at 11:23 PM I'll see my peeps in the server tomorrow original ratboyToday at 11:23 PM farewell lord highglossfinishToday at 11:24 PM Good night, feel better! SharpwingToday at 11:25 PM ooh i tuned back in and niiiice music original ratboyToday at 11:25 PM i was thinking the same thing spooky.. thenightetc2Today at 11:27 PM don't like that original ratboyToday at 11:27 PM id cry whew thenightetc2Today at 11:28 PM I feel like it must still be close original ratboyToday at 11:28 PM D : SharpwingToday at 11:28 PM i have questions highglossfinishToday at 11:28 PM To be continued next time! SharpwingToday at 11:28 PM mainly why does it look like the bear was trying to feed her they don't just leave their prey like that afaik original ratboyToday at 11:29 PM thank u knockout !! SharpwingToday at 11:29 PM Alright, thank you! ^_ ^ thenightetc2Today at 11:29 PM Thank you for hosting! This has been engrossing MimicToday at 11:29 PM that was awesome! In a very dark and bloody way. thank you very much! highglossfinishToday at 11:30 PM Let me just fetch our light note to end on. SharpwingToday at 11:30 PM :o :D original ratboyToday at 11:30 PM oh?? highglossfinishToday at 11:30 PM Oh yes. We always end on a light note. original ratboyToday at 11:30 PM : D SharpwingToday at 11:30 PM it is scary, but the quiet parts are very nice and aesthetic Oh that's lovely! THank you! :D thenightetc2Today at 11:31 PM Ohhhh dear. SharpwingToday at 11:31 PM akshbjasdhfjgdhjf original ratboyToday at 11:31 PM exceptional thenightetc2Today at 11:32 PM Only the best! SharpwingToday at 11:32 PM no one let this person near a real terraformable planet MimicToday at 11:34 PM indeed highglossfinishToday at 11:34 PM At least not one that matters. SharpwingToday at 11:34 PM how many planets are possible to terraform, i wonder... okay, well, infinite universe, infinite possibilities, i suppose. original ratboyToday at 11:35 PM all of them are if ur determined enough thenightetc2Today at 11:36 PM All of them. And he built houses up there! SharpwingToday at 11:37 PM How's he gonna make it explode...? original ratboyToday at 11:38 PM country roads playing is rlly making this perfect djfsdlg SharpwingToday at 11:39 PM I see skdhfsdghfgh highglossfinishToday at 11:39 PM Majestic. original ratboyToday at 11:39 PM amazing SharpwingToday at 11:39 PM the amount of intricate planning and effort.... masterful thenightetc2Today at 11:39 PM I know, right? MimicToday at 11:40 PM his fucking with the game is always a work of art original ratboyToday at 11:40 PM its damn impressive highglossfinishToday at 11:41 PM And that's all I've got for tonight! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM thank u knockout !! thenightetc2Today at 11:41 PM And what an all it was! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM goodnight!! SharpwingToday at 11:41 PM Thank you!! :blush: it was lovely to be here<3 highglossfinishToday at 11:41 PM Thank you all for coming! thenightetc2Today at 11:41 PM Thank YOU for hosting! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM :two_hearts: :two_hearts: :two_hearts: SharpwingToday at 11:42 PM I hope the next days are good to you and yours<3 highglossfinishToday at 11:42 PM Oh, you all! Likewise! MimicToday at 11:42 PM thank you! good night! highglossfinishToday at 11:42 PM Good night! SharpwingToday at 11:43 PM wait how do i i aready exited the oh hang on i got it there. MimicToday at 11:40 PM his fucking with the game is always a work of art original ratboyToday at 11:40 PM its damn impressive highglossfinishToday at 11:41 PM And that's all I've got for tonight! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM thank u knockout !! thenightetc2Today at 11:41 PM And what an all it was! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM goodnight!! SharpwingToday at 11:41 PM Thank you!! :blush: it was lovely to be here<3 highglossfinishToday at 11:41 PM Thank you all for coming! thenightetc2Today at 11:41 PM Thank YOU for hosting! original ratboyToday at 11:41 PM :two_hearts: :two_hearts: :two_hearts: SharpwingToday at 11:42 PM I hope the next days are good to you and yours<3 highglossfinishToday at 11:42 PM Oh, you all! Likewise! MimicToday at 11:42 PM thank you! good night! highglossfinishToday at 11:42 PM Good night! SharpwingToday at 11:43 PM wait how do i i aready exited the oh hang on i got it there.

0 notes

carraville · 6 years

Text

year in fic review (2017)

using the wonderful @neyvenger ‘s template! everyone should do this i wanna read <3

Year at a glance: Total number of completed stories: 25 (26 if u count hockey) Total word count: 146929

Overall Thoughts:

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? LOTS MORE it’s probly bc i wrote a hella lot while jumping from train to train traveling all of Europe, and probly bc i gave up on school by mid-sem last year, and probly bc the only thing i can do at work that looks like i’m still doing work when i’m not is write

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? The fuCKING GERMS i blame it on germs like i 100% would never have thought i’d write 16k of thomasfips who does that also joemilly??? but i luff

What’s your own favorite story of the year? i dont have one i love and hate them all equally... i guess strangeways here we come just bc i took so damn long to write it and tbf i didn’t write a lot of carraville this year so it was kind of like my One and Only

Did you take any writing risks this year?

writing a lot of people I didn’t know how to write, writing about a lot of Big Things (particularly on the bridge between starshine and clay) that i wasn’t sure about, writing a lot of aus i’d never done before, writing ??? PORN???? even tho ive never banged anyone in my life

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? all 12 months of football prompts! hopefully! and writing more new ships and meeting more people and reading good fic also finally doing all my historical aus bc if there’s one thing i’ve learnt this year, it’s not to give a shit what other people want and just write what u want even if no one is going to read it xoxo

From my past year of writing, what was…

My best story of this year: from a writing perspective i think an die nachgeborenen just bc it was the most? complete, i guess? and plotty? like if i changed the names and pretended it wasn’t creepy i could probably send it for rejection

My most popular story of this year: strangeways, here we come i guess cos i published it around that time the r*dditors were sneaking around lmao

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: the wonder of my world cos it’s niche and manc but!!!!!!! i love my mancs

Most fun story to write: fuckin. 30 Shades Of Red

Story with the single sexiest moment: The Anonymous Present That Appeared For Sab’s Birthday That Doesn’t Exist

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: Again, The Anonymous Present that Doesn’t Exist

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I’m pretty set when it comes to characters, I guess, because I only like writing when I understand them, but maybe Aubade bc I’d never written Iker till then and I really liked how it turned out

Hardest story to write: summer sang in me a little while bc it was a) wrestling with a Lot of Football feelings that I didn’t know how to talk about, b) wresting with trashbag xabi alonso and what I thought of him vs. what other people thought of him, c) writing ships and people I had 0 idea about

Biggest surprise: i like germs! wtf

Highlights + Wrap-up: ok I TRIED TO PICK DIFFERENT ONES FROM ALL FIC

Favorite Opening Lines (3):

when the world was ours

There's a crunch. There's a crunch and it's over.

the setting sun is sweetest last

When all the hands have been shaken and hugs exchanged someone presses a microphone into his hands and he fumbles, not quite sure how to put what he's feeling into words. Eventually he settles for something about looking towards the final on Saturday and he sees David from the corner of his eye shaking his head, almost as if to say: god, Gaz, how do you manage to make everything about United when this should be about you.

In the end, it's simple.

cheesed to meet you

Philipp calls Thomas first, because he always calls Thomas first.

"I didn't do it," Thomas says immediately, with the kind of well-practiced plausibility that only comes from doing the things he says he hasn't done.

Favorite Closing Lines (4):

yes, yes, we are magicians

You jog back to the halfway line. Your face must be shining under the lights, and you wonder if mum's in the crowd, smiling. Let's go to Wembley some day. Rooney rolls the ball to you and you're off again, no marcus's ball scribbled into the patchy leather, no divots and pot-holes in a sandy, well-worn pitch.

You're nineteen years old and going to the Euros.

Every blade of grass here is the exact same height.

in this story we belong to ourselves

Liverpool is. A river that runs before two men who used to have numbers on their backs and now have a house no longer empty. A stream of memories and breaking apart and going again. The Mersey, quiet, grey, flowing gently through the Narrows and out into the great big sea, ever so slightly out of reach.

Variation IX

He says I've missed you, mate.

I say You know, I thought you might.

He says I hope you missed me too.

I say Well of course, otherwise where would I go for Christmas this year?

And then he starts laughing and I start laughing and we laugh and laugh and don’t stop until he kisses me again.

yes, there will be song

You step back and turn, take the steps two at a time. Somewhere outside Anfield there's a man with a shirt that's as as red as the names on the back. He's got a scarf around his neck like a docker, and he presses his face to the Shankly gates like he's kissing a trophy. Make us dream, he whispers, a secret he's never told anyone else, his heart heavy and his eyes tired but his body trembling with a belief too full for words. Above him, the sky is golden.

Favorite Lines From Anywhere (5):

strangeways, here we come

It's weak against Paraguay, it's tired against Paraguay, but the England fans are singing and they have to listen. Countries are not clubs. This sinks deeper than loyalty, at once more insular and more ubiquitous than Liverpool or United could ever be. There are little flags hung up in Sainsbury's, strangers with their arms round each other in pubs, the radios of an electronics store tuned in to Radio 5 Live. Come on England. Bandied about like a mantra, a swear word, a secret password offered by old hands who brace themselves for more disappointment with a nudge and a wink. England always - a host of words go here, crash out , fuck up , lose , but -

Believe rises above them all. Maybe it's delusional. Maybe it's arrogant. Beckham takes a free kick that delights and astonishes the way his free kicks do and it ends up in the back of the net. Every four years St George goes back up and people who still remember '66 are bought a pint, and for every we'll go out at the group stages there's an underlying thread of god help me, we might win this yet, because what is hope if not alive?

Come on England. The cup awaits you and is yours.

sekrit yuletide fic

In his dreams he doesn't leave. Salvador Iglesias Sr. doesn't die and Chava doesn't become a dickhead. He keeps the number on his back and the band around his arm. He doesn't cheat on Ximena, but he tells her, and they part as best friends. In his dreams they win the championship. And again the next year, and again the one after that. Each time Potro scores the winning goal and Moi runs to him to celebrate and Potro kisses him for the whole world to see, over and over, until their lips are numb and all they know are themselves.

summer sang in me a little while

Why are you still here? you ask him. It is easier that way. He turns to you, dark circles under his eyes, and doesn't reply. Only reaches over to tangle his calloused fingers in your hair, rests his forehead against yours. This time you are the one who leans forward to kiss him, immersing yourself in the warmth of his skin. You taste his blood. You taste the salt and iron of his blood.

the wonder of my world

What makes a club? Love, belief, hope - and someone to attach it to, the player everyone grows up watching, whose name is instantly recognisable to the point that you don't have to mention who he plays for next. Who pours his soul into the game and hammers his heart onto the crest. You don't get that kind of player very often. United were lucky to have three.

So here. The last musketeer. He's not looking at the crowd anymore, just the middle distance. Still the thousands sing. Love, belief, hope, and memories. Ryan might never run again but Paul realises that it doesn't matter. It's that he's already run. And in a hundred years from now someone might pull up a grainy youtube video and watch the number eleven on the left wing and fall in love, all over again. The way he was meant to be loved. Ball at his feet. Red.

an die nachgeborenen

"I don't need a plan," Thomas says, like he's talking to a child. "That's the beauty of it. All I have to do is wait and see what happens. It's only – " he smiles again, wan, quiet. "Well. You know."

The refrain arcs, jagged, through Philipp's head.

"I promised you wouldn't die."

"I won't." Thomas stands up, leaves a hand on Philipp's shoulder. His palm is still warm. "I'm invincible, didn't I tell you?"

And with a single, chipper whistling note, he hits the exit button and slips out, the door closing immediately behind him with a gentle click .

Fic Goals for 2018:

i wna write gifts that people will like :> aka MORE NICHE BULLSHIT

#my fic #self indulgent trash xoxo

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soulspideys · 7 years

Text

Battered

“It’s not my heart you’ve broken, idiot!”

Word Count: 1603

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Requested: Nope

Warnings: Injuries, some swearing, teasing fluff

Synopsis: Soulmate AU where whenever your soulmate gets injured, so do you. Peter Parker’s soulmate is none too pleased by the recent development after he obtains his powers. After all, just because he’s super resilient, doesn’t necessarily mean his soulmate is, too.

Send me a request!

Starter list

Master List

As long as she could remember, Y/N’s parents teased her about her soulmate being a klutz. As a toddler she’d start crying while sitting down, sporting a new graze or cut. When she was eight, she broke her hand while doing homework. When she was ten, she sustained a harsh burn on her arm. When she was twelve, she had to wear a boot for six weeks on her right leg.

This was normal. Everyone could relate to having a bit of a reckless soulmate. But when Y/N turned fifteen, things started to really become ridiculous. At one in the morning she would wake up with a gash on her back or a black eye.

Whoever her soulmate was, he was getting more rowdy.

Her best friend, Y/F/N, said that Y/N’s soulmate was a criminal.

“They obviously are doing stuff they shouldn’t!” they would say. “I’m so sorry.”

Y/N would just roll her eyes. She wasn’t sure how, but she just knew that her soulmate was a good person. It was one day while watching a live instagram video when an amazing thought struck her.

The stream was of Spider-Man stopping an out of control semi truck. It was grainy and choppy, but still impressive. Suddenly Y/N gave a gasp. A sharp pain shot through her shoulder as though she’d horribly strained a muscle. She clapped her hand to her shoulder as Spider-Man caught the car. He managed to knock it aside, but he’d obviously hurt himself. He waved at the cheering crowd, clutching his shoulder the same way Y/N was.

Is Spider-Man my soulmate?

She kept her thoughts to herself. Y/F/N would have teased her mercilessly if they’d heard such a silly thing, and Y/N didn’t believe it herself. It was obviously just a coincidence. Right?

However, the pattern continued. Spider-Man and Y/N repeatedly bore the same wounds. When Y/N banged her shin open on a table, she noticed Spider-Man running with a slight limp in the videos.

But who the hell is Spider-Man?

Then the hero went missing for a few days. On the second morning of his absence, Y/N could barely focus. She locked herself in the school bathroom, groaning in pain. She felt like she was getting her ass handed to her on a golden platter.

It first started with a slight pain in second period. Her knee throbbed like she’d landed on it funny, but that was tolerable. Spider-Man probably just fumbled a landing somewhere. Less than five minutes later, however, Y/N yelped at she felt a blow against her chin, like someone had hit her with an impossibly strong uppercut to the jaw. She staggered backwards, slipping off the stool.

Now the back of her head hurt, too, but she couldn’t tell if it was because of her own landing of her soulmate’s.

“Y/N?” the teacher asked. “Is everything alright?”

The whole class was ogling her and giggling. Shaking herself, Y/N got uneasily to her feet, her jaw still throbbing. She nodded, grunting, “Can I just... go to the--”

“Yes, of course.”

She rushed down the hall. The instant she closed the stall door, she let out a loud grunt as she staggered backwards, the back of her legs hitting the toilet. Her whole chest ached, and she struggled to suck in a breath. It was like someone had just rugby tackled her while wearing rocket-powered roller skates.

She finally regained her breath, groaning. Whoever her soulmate was, they were obviously tough as nails, because they seemed not to mind huge impacts. She sat on top of the toilet seat.

“Well, Spidey, hope you’re getting a few good licks in,” Y/N muttered, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Just as she was debating returning to class, she fell forward from an impact to her back. This one wasn’t as bad, and the pressure quickly released, but it was still enough to knock the wind out of her -- again.

She was hoping it was over, but then another wave of beatings washed over her. First there was something tight on her wrist, then a pain in her shoulder like she was being yanked. Something banged agonizingly against her ribs, and she felt one break. Then she nearly blacked out, flattening to the ground. Her soulmate had fallen and landed hard.

Barely able to breathe, Y/N tried to reach up and unlock the stall door, but she couldn’t function through the pain. The next few blows were lighter. She felt a few against her side and lower back, and then a harder one on her tailbone, but they were less like injuries and more like impacts.

This is good, Y/N thought. Maybe Spidey’s getting away.

Boy, was she wrong. Just as she teetered onto one knee, she shrieked as she felt her nose crunch. She clapped her hands over her face, her eyes screwed shut, breathing out whimpers of pain. Between her ribs and her face, she was worried she’d need to go to the ER.

She let out a gush of air barely a minute later as she felt a blow to her stomach. Her back ached too; Spidey had just gotten knocked into something.

“Come on, Spidey, beat them!” she growled, pushing with one arm, trying to get off the filthy ground. Then the worst feeling came. Her shoulders burned like she was being crushed, and she clenched her teeth, straining against an awful weight that wasn’t even there.

“Push!” she found herself gasping. “Come on, get outta there!”

After what felt like forever, the weight was lifted, and Y/N lay, gasping like a fish out of water, on the bathroom floor. She was granted a brief respite, catching her breath, and managed to push herself to the toilet seat. She still hunched in pain, clutching her side where the rib throbbed agonizingly.

“Okay, Spidey, let’s wrap this up,” she panted.

All was well for a few blissful minutes. There were a few impacts that would leave bruises, but nothing like earlier. Then her body erupted in the worst pain yet. Two more ribs snapped, and then Spidey landed hard, and she screamed as she felt her arm break. She teetered, delirious, then toppled onto the floor.

Another wave of pain washed over her, and Y/N blacked out.

A few weeks later, Y/N was still in a cast and a chest brace. Her nose was bandaged, and she was sporting a powerful shiner. She was being given lots of attention, with people asking what injuries were her own and what were from her soulmate.

Ned Leeds and Peter Parker seemed the most intrigued. Peter kept saying how sorry he was, as if it was his fault. The three found themselves bonding over various injuries they had received, and Y/N wasn’t oblivious to Ned’s inquiring eyebrows whenever Peter and her spoke of matching wounds.

She also wasn’t oblivious to Peter’s matching black eye.

However, Y/N was still intent on Spider-Man as her soulmate. She told Peter and Ned of this, and to her relief, neither mocked her.

“You really think Spider-Man is your soulmate?” asked Ned during PE. “For real?”

“I mean, our injuries have synced up...” Y/N defended herself.

“I think it makes sense,” Peter said quickly. "Everything she says, we've seen."

"I guess," muttered Ned.

After school, the three were talking about Academic Decathlon when it happened. Ned was quizzing the other two from memory when a familiar voice crowed, "What's up, Penis Parker!"

It was a blur. Flash Thompson ran down the sidewalk, his hand raised; it came down in a graceful arc, landing squarely on Peter's right asscheek with a resounding smack! Peter jumped about a foot in the air, Ned tried not to laugh, and Flash took off down the sidewalk laughing.

And Y/N's own rear stung.

"Hit me," Y/N said without thinking. "Ned, hit me."

"Oh, uh, what's the capital of--"

"No, Ned, smack me!"

"What?"

"Oh, for the love of--" Y/N cut herself off, allowing herself to fall backwards towards a group of girls. The girls squealed and scattered, and she hit the ground hard. Peter winced, and his eyes widened.

"Hey, Ned, you have stuff to do, don't you?"

"What, no, I--"

"Yes, you do. Okay, bye, Ned!" Peter pushed his friend, and Ned started down the sidewalk, his face lined with confusion. Peter helped Y/N to her feet, and the two rode the subway in awkward silence. When they finally shut themselves in Peter's room, Y/N snapped, "Did you know?"

"What?"

"That Spidey wasn't my soulmate?"

"Uh... yes and no."

"The hell does that mean?"

Peter turned his gaze upwards, towards the attic entry space. "Now, listen, I don't want to break your heart or anything--"

"You've broken far more than my heart, dumbass! I have three broken ribs, a broken arm, nose, and just about my whole body covered in bruises! Why the hell don't you have those? I sure as hell didn't do them! Is there a third? Is that even possible?"

"Shut up, Y/N. Look!" He pushed upwards, and the slat of wood lifted. A red and blue outfit fell down, and Y/N's eyes widened. She looked back and forth between the costume and Peter.

"You're Spider-Man?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. If I'm honest, I thought that my resilience would carry through or something."

"Well, it didn't."

"Yeah, sorry. I'll try and be more careful."

Y/N softened at that. She looked at him, and a slow smile spread across her face. She stepped closer, and put her good arm around Peter, pulling him close as was comfortable. When they stepped back, he pressed his lips to her cheek gently.

"I really am sorry," he breathed.

"Hey, I'll heal," she answered, looking him in the eyes. "I'm just glad I finally found you. Now I know who to yell at when I get beaten up."

Peter looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or not, so she decided for him. She kissed him. And just like that, it made all the wounds in the world worth it.

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