#gonna be more long rants!! stay tuned!

[kayatoastkkat]

as a very wise man once said: "the only universal language is violence"

am I the only one that's cheering as Jekyll FINALLY resorts to violence like GET HER ASS HENRY RETURN THAT FUCKING PUNCH SHE GAVE YOU 9 CHAPTERS AGO

AND HE KNOWS IT TOO HAHAHA OH FRANKIE HOW DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO GET A TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE HUH? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ON THE RECEIVING END? HOW DOES IT- *reboots*

(sidenote Creature checking if she's okay is so cute like damn he still cares about her-)

you know for a sick old lady she sure recovers fast-

and also runs faster than I ever could like come on she's only a few steps behind Jekyll now

ANYWAYS GUYS GUYS GUYS I THINK THAT ONE SKETCH OF JEKYLL SURROUNDED BY HIS FUCKIN MESS OF A LAB IS GOING TO COME VERY SOON I CAN'T WAIT AAAAGH

IS HE GOING TO TELL FRANKIE AFTER HE'S DONE OR??? you know at the very least he should it'll be fun

[schlong2]

latest fix rant time

none of my friends want to talk to me about monkey movies and then i remembered i have a whole blog dedicated to my latest fixations so. i've watched Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes two (TWICE ✌️) times in theaters. this was after watching the newer trilogy (Rise, Dawn & War) and the first 1968 original in prep.

things (SPOILERS!!!):

Kingdom's run time is 2 hours and 25 minutes. this is incredibly long for a movie. compared to 1968's 1 hour and 52 minutes, that's a half hour difference. Infinity War was 2 hours and 36 minutes for reference. that's a whole marvel cinematic convergence, but ape. the run time isn't exactly the issue i've seen talked about. it's the pacing. sitting twice through this movie was not a problem for me. i sat there engaged all the way through. on the second watch, i tried to be mindful of times in which it might have been dragging for the average person, and i like, literally couldn't find any. pretty much every scene had meaning and didn't drag imo. which is something these newer movies do extremely well. Kingdom is pretty equally split between verbal communication and sign language compared to the first three before it. the apes use both verbal and visual cues to talk. but because they don't talk every single time, it makes every moment that they do feel special. it reminds me of the Quiet Place concept, where most of the movie you only hear a human voice a few select times when it's safe to do so. Rise, Dawn, & War were kind of like this, as Caesar only really spoke when he was trying to make a point or communicating to humans, who are mostly speaking in those movies. he speaks more as he gets more fluent, and by War, he can speak very well. we see other apes like Koba, Maurice, Blue Eyes, and Bad Ape also speak English. these moments are rationed pretty well throughout Kingdom, making the dialog more select and meaningful. this makes every time these beasts talk feel like it means something and isn't just fluff to fill your ears. every other scene feels like it's building or showing a side of a character we hadn't seen before, and the scenes between those advance the plot or are like, really action-packed. i just don't see why some people say it has pacing problems. it's just long. i understand the average person's attention span is super short, but when you're sitting down to watch two and a half hours of movie, you gotta know there's gonna be downtime. moments where they're not fighting or advancing the plot. and i think that's GOOD man. but im also not one for action/adventures very much so maybe that's it? i think a lot of people maybe watch these apes for the violence and conflict rather than their introspection, genuinely thoughtful world building, and complex characters. and hey, that's completely fine to enjoy, but POTA is originally about morals and asking the audience questions and posing dilemmas to popular beliefs at the time. ok

Raka. he's great. Peter Macon has this butter smooth voice that's just perfect for the kind of character he plays. you can't help but like him. but he dies like 1/3 into the movie and is really only there to religion dump about Caesar (ape jesus) and then he's swept away. people are complaining that that's all he was really there for. to explain the real values of Caesar and provide a foil to Proximus. and i agree to some degree. i really hope he's not actually dead. his presence and death are felt throughout the movie, as both Mae and Noa (mostly Noa vocalizes it, Mae just silently shares in his loss and i think cries at one point?) seem to mourn him, saying shit like "if Raka were here..." and especially at the end when Noa gives the Caesar pendant to her. it's the shared memory of Raka and what he devoted his life to. but they never really like, actually linger on his death. there's a moment after he's swept away, and the shot stays on the rushing waters, Raka no longer visible and plays some sad tunes, but like. C'MON. he's not really dead. he isn't please tell me he isn't PLEASE

Noa isn't Caesar. i honestly do not get why you would want otherwise. of course, he isn't Caesar. we don't need another Caesar. he had a whole three movies to be the center of. i would be extremely disappointed if they just made a carbon copy of him or made Noa like a direct descendant of him or whatever. i hate that Chosen One bullshit. Caesar was just a guy that wanted peace for his people and that got him killed in the end. Noa is also a guy who wants peace for his clan. they're both leaders and have good hearts, but like. they're different characters. i LIKE that Noa has no relation to Caesar, i LIKE that he's his own character with his own ideals and purpose. Owen Teague does a wonderful job making the character his own. i mean Andy Serkis is Andy fucking Serkis. pretty big shoes to fill and i think Teague has the right foot size you know. i heard one guy say like "we've had our time to mourn Caesar" and yeah. we have. let's accept that and move on

WHERE MY APE DIVERSITY AT. we get a fuck ton of chimps, ONE orangutan, ONE gorilla, and ONE bonobo. what the hell. i mean. what is with the bonobo villian. Koba i fucks with because bonobos are some of the most playful, nonviolent apes out there. that humanity and its cruelty could twist a naturally peaceful creature into what Koba became.. i mean, that's great. but again with Proximus? maybe trying to evoke some of the same energy and nuance Koba had? ALSO. GORILLA PSA they are like so sweet. all that muscle is there to protect their families, and they're strictly vegetarians. i feel like Rise, Dawn, & War portrayed this better with most of the gorillas getting bodyguard jobs because of all their bulk. especially when Luca tucks that flower in Nova's ear. man. and Red going out like he did. gentle giants. in Kindgom we just have Sylva. gorilla henchman for Proximus. that's it. then we have Raka, the one orangutan character that i saw. wise and knowledgeable, guides and accompanies Noa and Mae then dies. at least we get one female chimp character that's more than just wife or mother. wikipedia lists Soona as Noa's love interest, which i can totally dig, like it's there. he takes her to the telescope at the end of Kingdom, which is more than what we saw romance-wise between Caesar and Cornelia. and the only other important chimp female is Dar, Noa's mom. in Rise, Dawn & War there was usually only one of each species of ape assigned a main role, but we saw much more diversity it felt like. maybe that's because there were smaller in numbers and have since spread out in the last 300 years? also like, bonobos are known for having female-female & male-male sex. dont know about the other apes. my friend mentioned that Raka said something about having a male companion and promptly searched reddit. all they had to say was: gaype?

the visuals. dear god the visuals. this movie is just visually stunning. absolutely breathtaking. they did a great job. i mean Rise, Dawn, & War are all triumphs of cgi and are excellent examples of the animation style done right. i did hear some guy say there is a loss of texture, as mostly everything in Kingdom is cgi, from the characters to the landscapes. but there's an explosion of texture in this film. there's one point where Noa is covered in the ash of his village and you can see it on his fur. there's quite a couple water scenes where the moisture clings to the apes' fur. It's all very impressive. great work

the references!! Rise especially has a ton of them (IT'S A MADHOUSE!!! & GET YOUR STINKIN PAWS OFF ME YOU DAMN DIRTY APE), and names like Nova and Cornelius, but Kingdom... i picked up on at least three main instances, but im sure there are more. there's the scene where the apes are rounding up the feral humans, and its very reminiscent of the scene from 1968 where they're doing the same thing for sport. there's the scene where Mae is running in the field, and she jumps on that log structure to get to Noa, which is nearly identical to a similar scene in 1968. the scene when Noa, Soona, and Anaya are exploring the human bunker and they come across an old classroom. one of them picks up a doll that says a distorted "Mama" which was huge in the original because that was evidence that once man did speak, why else would he make a doll that talked? superb call backs to the og. respect what was there before

SCHLONG THEORY

here me out guys. the starring ape-human relationship in Rise was between Caesar and Will. this type of love is called storge and describes the love a child has for a parent as well as the love a parent has for their child.

the starring ape-human relationship in Dawn was ultimately between Caesar and Malcolm. which i believe is truly philia towards the end, the love between friends and allies. just two dudes trying to keep peace in the world.

in War, i mean Caesar well and truly hates the Colonel. like more than he's hated any human in his life before. close to mania, obsession. anyways it's a study on this type of relationship between an ape and a human. true, all consuming hate.

SO in the newer movies we've explored familial love, platonic love, and hate, between an ape and a human.

in Kingdom the main ape-human relationship is between Noa and Mae. and their relationship is complex. not really that friendly and certainly not familial. no trust. some kind of begrudging respect maybe? i just think it would be neat if in further installments they explored a romantic love between a human and an ape. ok.

i KNOW Noa and Soona are probably going to get ape married and they're never going to touch on the subject but i just find it hard to believe that in the last 300 years or so that's NEVER been heard of. apes have the same level of intimacy between each other as humans do in this universe and can willingly consent. what are you so afraid of wes ball

after all, the whole franchise is about how apes, when given intelligence, compare to humans and begs the question: how different are we really?

is it possible for an ape and a human to fall in love?

[ravencincaide]

Just like Dazai 

Summary:  No one liked being compared to someone else. Especially when you suspect that there was much more to your boyfriend's relationship with his ex partner than met the eye. But did it really matter? After all, you'd never be able to meet his expectations. Because you weren’t Dazai. No matter how much he compared you to him. 

Pairing: fem! Reader x Chuuya Nakahara 

Inspired by Raven’s special anon prompt: “Chuuya accidentally hurts the reader with something he said or done. And he realizes it only when he sees her hurt expression and when she runs away from the room? “ 

Warnings: Cursing, mention of alcohol consumption, hurt/ light angst. hint at SSK, 

Enjoy

“ Goddamn it, you’re just as fucking bad with your bets as Dazai” 

The smile faded off your lips and twisted down into a frown. Your laughter which rang out together with the loud music of the arcade died down in your throat. All that was left behind was the obnoxious tune of the game you two had been playing for the past hour or so. The victory dance and loud screech on your screen and the ’you lose’ on Chuuya’s with an even louder melody which seemed to mock the ginger. Without your joy and laughter you could clearly hear it now; the frustrated growls of having lost yet another round of the game he swore he would kick your ass in. The musings at the fact that he was supposed to be better than you, the bitter one-line comparisons between the way you played the game and Dazai. 

It was always Dazai. Dazai would have made a different attack in that last second, and then Chuuya would have had you where he wanted you. Dazai would have missed that last shot and then Chuuya would have been able to– 

His quiet rant left a bitter taste in your mouth. You had only ever caught sight of the ex-mafia executive once as a new recruit  but now you seemed to constantly exist in his shadow. Dazai, who was supposedly only a mission partner, was someone your boyfriend compared you to. Dazai, the bastard who was no longer in the Port Mafia. Dazai who was so much smarter- he would have goddamn planned better for the mission and then there’d be no casualties. Dazai who’s reports were always short and straight to the point when delivered to Mori, while yours were always too long. Dazai this, Dazai that! 

Dazai wasn’t there- he had left of his own volition while you stayed and served and slaved. Fought for the Mafia- fought for Chuuya. Showered him in love, affection and care. And yet still, somehow, despite not being Dazai you lived in his shadows. 

 Whatever for? 

Suddenly, Chuuya’s firsts made contact against the dashboard of the arcade machine between you two- an action which caused several other patrons to inch away from you in visible fear. Normally you would have scolded Chuuya for his brash actions, now you merely glanced up at him in question. There were two tokens clutched in his fist- a frustrated demand for yet another rematch. “ Another time, this was just dumb luck, yeah! Final round and I’m gonna kick your pretty lil ass, sweets!” 

But you were not in the mood for games. 

You were bitter, angry in the way no one seemed to understand. On edge in a fashion that not even the cocktail beside you- or the alcohol in your system- could calm. You didn’t bother to plaster a fake smile on your lips as you slid off the slightly too high chair. Your heels made contact with the sticky arcade floor and you bitterly mused that Dazai would have likely moved with more grace than you had. No, he wouldn’t have needed to jump down; he was the perfect height to just slide off the stool with dignity. The thought made anger flare in your gut. Your eyes looked anywhere but at Chuuya. “ Another time, okay?  I realized I forgot something”

You caught sight of his surprised expression, the confused hurt look on his face as you turned on your heel. Of course you disappointed him; that’s all you seemed to do. Unlike Dazai who– 

You cut your trail of thoughts off and hurried out. You did not wait for his reply, did not look back at him as you stumbled out of the arcade room. Past the pool tables, pushed through the sweaty tipsy queue of other patrons who waited to order their up-tenth drink and then out into the chilly evening air. Your feet carried you faster and faster for every second, until you turned down unfamiliar streets which lead you away from Port Mafia territory. That lead you further and further away from Chuuya. 

But at that moment you did not care. Because why should you? Why had you even bothered trying in the first place? Why had you put effort into getting to know Chuuya? Why had you bothered trying to share your skills and passions when all you were to him was nothing but a replacement? A replacement for the partner who left Chuuya behind. 

A man you would never be able to surpass, and so you were doomed to forever reside in his shadows. Because no matter how hard you tried, you would never be Dazai. 

Author note: So we start off Raven's specials with a little angst. (Yes I know it's not Sunday, but I have a plan, trust me. So shhh)

Don't forget to check Raven's masterlist! and wait for the next Special ;) ©ravencincaide 2024. Do not copy/repost/translate or spread my work(s) without my explicit permission. If you see any of my work(s) reposted/copied anywhere else without my consent, please inform me!

[nebula-blitzar]

Just kinda in the mood to post this so like

There’s a lot of rumors and speculations on how Fizz and Oz met and when so I thought I would share my personal theory.

I think when the incident first occurred, Mam freaked the fuck out because he had just signed a contract, had been doing work for him on the side, and made him lots of money. So Mam calls up Oz and asks him for prosthetics for cheap. They were decent quality (especially for the price,) and Oz had written instructions and stuck them to the prosthetics so Mam would see them. Mam, being the lazy ass he is, threw them away and just gave Fizz the prosthetics, with no guidance on how to use them.

Now Fizz was further indebted to Mammon, so he couldn’t really leave. He worked full time for him, and was still paid as much as he needed to get by (decent apartment, food). At some point along this timeline, Mam also had Asmodeus make the Fizz-bots, which lightened the load. But Fizz’s performances became more intense, and further put stress on him.

I do want to note I have a theory that imps with irises (all the time) have chronic anxiety or other problems. Since other imps’ irises only appear when they’re upset in some way, shape, or form. So that would be Barb, Blitzø, and Fizz. Cash didn’t have irises, but Tilla did, and since she was sick and shit, it kinda makes sense.

So with all of this stuff happening to Fizz and around Fizz with no one to help him, he had worsened anxiety. But he kept performing since he felt so indebted to Mammon. Around the four and a quarter year mark, Fizz started to feel some pain where his limbs were attached to his body. So he asked Mammon. Mam, being the asshole he is, said no, obviously, so he just kinda..kept performing through the pain.

Since the pain was persistent enough to get in the way of Fizz’s performances, he kept asking Mammon. Finally, Mam let him go do it so he would shut up about it. So Fizz and Oz finally got to meet in person, and they learned the problem was basically some pretty severe friction burns from not wearing them properly (y’know since Mam threw the instructions away) and so Oz was pissed about Mammon not listening to him (as always) and wanted to call him to give him a piece of his mind.

Fizz stops him, saying it’s a bad idea, and that Fizz will get in more trouble, so he doesn’t call Mam.

Then Fizz leaves, and Oz goes back to work, but not without texting Bee asking if they can meet up (if you don’t hc Bee and Ozzie as friends we can’t be friends/j) sometime soon. Bee is obviously like totes dude and a few days later, they meet up.

Oz asked to hang out to consult Bee on the fact he kinda had a crush on Fizz, Bee is super excited (duh) and is like tell me everything they talk more and come to the conclusion Oz has a genuine crush, and him and Fizz should talk more.

Oz doesn’t want to be awkward and text Fizz just to talk, but lucky for him, a few weeks later, Fizz applies for a job application at Ozzie’s, cause he wants to be able to afford some luxuries, and for that he needs more money, and Mammons not gonna give him a pay raise. Since Fizz actually is a really good fit for the job, he gets it.

Anyway the pair get really close both business wise and friend wise, and Fizz does more shifts at Ozzie’s. Mam isn’t actually that mad since he has the Fizz-Bots to perform, advertise and sell.

At some point near the five year mark, the pair kiss, and while both sides enjoy it, it keeps both of them up late. So the next day after Ozzie’s closes they talk it out and end up accidentally confessing their feeling to each other.

So yeah that’s first meeting, how they got together, and why they got to know each other. I am writing a fanfic about this in more detail, and this is probably not the last time I mention this theory, so stay tuned!

Ps thanks for reading this long ass rant lol

[things-arent-what-they-seem66]

Megamind Au for @fanofstuff02 Hope you like it!

You see the guy there? The one trying to grab the ray gun in mid air? That's me.

I've been having a pretty shitty week so far. I've trained a psychopath with magic powers, lied to the love of life, and got my ass beat pretty good.

But maybe I should back up a bit.

Many years ago, I escaped my dying planet with only the clothes on my back and the orphaned baby girl that I saved. It didn't us long to come to this new planet named earth.

It also didn't take us long to be introduced to the legal system there, our home was pretty much the prison for the longest time. This was how I met him, Michael or his found name The General. You know, because he was “The General” of defending forces or some shit. How fucking boring can you be?

Well I came up with a far better and way more fitting name for myself.

The Devil.

Sera walks down the hall of the prison and knocks on the glass scaring Peter. "Read on your own time. Open up." He did as he was told. Sera went to the glass and didn't see Lucifer anywhere. "Hey!"

"Boo!" Lucifer jumped out of nowhere scaring Sera. He started laughing like a crazy man as he sat in his twirling chair. He gave her a devilish smile "Good morning Sera, dear, how’s it going for you?"

Sera bristled. "I'm not-"

Lucifer interrupted. "Good news, I’m a changed man now! Ready to make a fresh start in the society as a trusteable citizen!"

The warden stifled a laugh. "You’re not as smart as you claim if you really think you’d be trustworthy! You are a fucking villain and you’ll never change and you'll never leave."

Lucifer blinked but kept his smile. "You're fun you know that?"

Sera clicked her tongue looking beyond unimpressed. "Someone sent you a little gift."

"Oh is it a duckling?"

"No." Sera deadpanned. "Oh look, it’s from The General! For you to count the every second of your 66 life sentences. Now that’s fun, never would’ve thought General would care about a piece of garbage he put in prison." She placed it on her wrist. "Oh but he does have good style. You know, I think I’ll keep this."

Lucifer grinned wider. "Can you do me a favor and tell me the time? I don’t want to be late for his huge museum opening."

Sera rolled her eyes and glances down at the watch. "Oh no, looks like you’re gonna miss it. With several thousand years." She said snidly before walking away.

Lucifer just hummed softly. "Mm, I don’t think so." He could wait, he had time. And oh boy he didn't have to wait long. The guards brought in Sera who was disguised as him. When placed in his seat, Lucifer stole the watch back.

"No you fools, he tricked us." Sera said weakly.

Lucifer grinned evilly. "You're right." He changed into Sera. "I'll always be a villian. Muwahahahaha!" Lucifer took off out of the prison.

His daughter Charlie was waiting for him in the car. "Hello there father!"

"Charlie you amazing daughter you! Good job getting me the watch sweetie." Lucifer got in the car and sped for downtown, he changed back to normal.

They had a news reporter to kidnap.

"Make sure to come on down for the General day celebrations. I'm Adam Kadmon, for 69 news." Adam gave the signal to his camera man Alastor to turn the camera off.

Alastor smiled. "And cut, that was amazing the stuff they get you to say."

Adam crossed his arms. "I wrote that piece myself Al."

"Oh, well it's amazing they let such art on the news."

Adam rolled his eyes playfully. "Good save."

Alastor places his camera in the news van. "Why don't we, uh, blow this joint?"

"Oh come on we can stay and enjoy the General day celebrations!" Adam gestured around, it was a beautiful day with clear sunny skies.

Alastor frowned and looked away. "Well if I was the General, the Devil wouldn't be Kidnapping you all the time." He started going on this long rant, Adam learned to tune him out years ago.

All Adam can do is shake his head. Yeah getting kidnapped was annoying but it also got him paid leave. What he didn't notice was the invisible window rolling down. A nozzle was aimed at Adam's face spraying him in the face. "What the-" Adam felt dizzy, he fell back as his world went dark.

Charlie grabbed him before Adam hit the ground and drove off. Lucifer smiled wide as Adam was laid across his back seat unconscious. "We met again, news reporter Adam Kadmon.~"

Adam came to a while ago tied to a chair in Lucifer's lab. He was rather annoyed. "You promised me that you’d get me ribs the last time you kidnapped me."

Lucifer sucked air through his teeth. "Sorry darling, I was in a rush you know, just escaped from prison and stuff. Would the next time be okay?" He said sweetly, honestly they spent so much time together over the years he should have food on hand for Adam.

"Would be but there won’t be a next time."

Lucifer raised a brow at him as he took a seat. "That's what you think. There will be a time after this and another after that."

Adam could only shake his head. "Why though? I don't exactly do much but sit here and look good."

Lucifer leaned back in his chair , grin never leaving. "We all have our part to play and the helpless damsel is yours."

That pissed Adam off. "Fuck you I'm not helpless. And you're not scary."

Lucifer scoffed and stood up getting closer to Adam. "Oh I’m not scary?! So you wouldn’t be scared if you saw these eyes at night?!"

Adam merely smirked. "Why would I be scared by piss yellow? I mean, I guess blood red could work, theoretically, but still." It was always fun getting under this guys skin.

Lucifer heard Charlie try to hold back a laugh. He shot her a look that made her giggles die down. "OH SO THE HORNS ARE SO NORMAL!?" He pointed to the horns protruding from his head.

Adam shrugged. "They look like you stuck two pipes on your head and then painted them red."

Lucifer felt his eye twitching, Adam was very pretty to look at but very sassy in the attitude department. "What about these?" He extended his six wings as far as he could to show them off.

Adam started laughing. "Pfft! Six poofy small wings? Scary? Are you shitting me?" He laughed a little more. "You look like you belong at a Comicon, you'll fit in with all the other short nerds."

"Excuse me!? What about these claws!" He flexed his claws close to Adams face.

The news reporter didn't flinch. "Yeah they look sharp, but they're dirty. Scariest thing there is the infection you could give someone."

Lucifer removed his hand, offended. "Hey! They are not that dirty." He started picking at his nails, sure enough some dirt was there. "You're mean for a news reporter."

Adam smiled. "Growing up on the streets hardens you like that."

Lucifer was taken aback by this, he never would have guessed that Adam had a difficult upbringing. "You grew up...?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "You heard me."

"Right." They say in silence for a long beat. "You know I also had a-"

"I don't care, man."

It was Lucifer's turn to shake his head "Wow okay, trying to have a moment."

Adam ignored him. "We have nothing in common man, you grew up in prison. My childhood may not have been perfect but it wasn't terrible." *

It made him rhinky about when his dad died. Adam didn't like to think about it. "I lived."

Lucifer hummed. "We have more in common than you think. The streets of Pentagram City are rough like prison. Just a matter of a building."

Adam blinked at him. "...... Are you a villain or a therapist?"

"I have time I can do both." He merely shrugged.

Adam groaned, he didn't have time for this. "Ugh, I wanna go home my shows on."

Lucifer looked around. What would it hurt? "I can get the tv for you if you want, we still have plenty of time."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Dad, I broke the tv last week." Charlie admitted nervously.

Lucifers jaw dropped. "Charlie! And you're just now telling me?"

Adam couldn't contain the laugh that found it's way out. "Oh, don't ever change Charlie, you're too funny."

"Thanks Adam!"

Lucifer scowled. "I'm funny!"

"Funny looking maybe."

Charlie giggled at that and earned a glare from her dad. "Sorry."

"Look here mister sassy pants." Lucifer went up and walked behind Adam and placed his hands on his shoulders. "Don't forget you're in my house, at my mercy."

Adam wasn't scared, by now he knew that Lucifer was all bark and no bite. "Oooou I'm so scared. I've been here, what? Maybe two hours? And the most you've done is touch my shoulder."

Lucifer, smirkes as he ran his hands up Adams neck to his hair, the soft brown locks tangled in his fingers before going back. He didn't miss the flinch. "Wait, are you ticklish?" Oh this was rich.

Adam scoffed. "No! Don't be dumb. Hey! Sto- HAHAHA!!"

"Awww." Charlie thought the moment was rather cute.

Lucifer chuckled. "Who's not funny now?"

"AHAHHA! NO- STILL NOT YOU! HAHAHHHHAH!" Adam laughed loudly, he was laughing so hard he was crying.

"Charlie get the camera!" Lucifer wanted to record this. Add to his collection.

"Charlie no! HAHA!"

"Charlie yes!"

Charlie grabbed the camera. "Got it!"

"STAHP!!! HAHAHA!! NO FAAAAIR HAHAHA!!"

Lucifer grinned even wider. "Evil is never fair dear." He moved to tickle Adams ribs.

The brunette howled with laughter. "NOO!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Adam tried to wiggle away from the devilish fingers tickling him. He did manage to free his right hand at some point.

Lucifer was elated, never has Adam been so much at his mercy. "HAHA! Now I’m-"

"Ah ha!" Adam reached back to touch one of Lucifer's wings.

Lucifer was stunned. "How’d you-!" He couldn't dwell on it long cause Adam's hand brushed his wing. "DON'T TOUCH-" He couldn't help the cooing sound that left his mouth. He was fucking mortified.

It was Adams turn to be stunned. "What. The fuck. Was that?"

Lucifer turned red, he was glad Adam couldn't see his face. "YOU HEARD NOTHING!!"

Adam giggled, not believing what he heard. "Awww, the big, evil, strong Devil, coos like a fucking bird!? HA!" Adam laughed a little more. "That's rich."

Lucifer would take any victory no matter how small. "Ha! You said I'm evil and strong I have that shit recorded!"

Adam thought if he rolled his eyes anymore they'd fall out if hus damn head. "Whatever man, do it again. These are actually real?" He made a move to touch them again, only for Lucifer to step out of reach.

"Yes they are real! Don't touch. Charlie be a dear and get the handcuffs the rope seems faulty."

"Don't be a baby! Can I get a bottle of water I think I cried all my fluids out." Adam asked her nicely and the girl couldn't help but comply.

"Sure Adam!"

Lucifer slapped himself on the forehead. "Charlie......" Sometimes she was a little too nice.

"Thank you, Charlie." Adam said sweetly.

Lucifer growled. "Handcuffs first!"

"You can’t keep kidnapping me if I die out of thirst right?"

"Meh."

Wow, real nice Adam thought bitterly. Charlie pranced over to them. "Here Adam! And here are the handcuffs dad!"

Adam drank the cool water as Lucifer waited impatiently so he could cuff his hands behind his back. When he was done Adam felt Lucifer click the cuffs on him, he swore it was just his imagination when he felt a clawed hand linger near his.

The sound of a timer beeping broke the moment. "OH! IT’S TIME! IT’S TIME SWEETIE!" Lucifer cheered, he was sure today was going to be the day he bested The General!

"You're such a nerd." Adam commented. Lucifer came over and placed a rag in his mouth. "Mmph!"

"Shhh." Lucifer ran a finger along Adams jawline and stopped at his chin. Adam's honey brown eyes narrowed and he spat out the rag, it hit Lucifer in the face. "Really?"

"Boo. Yes, really."

The General gasped when he saw Adam on the holographic screen. "Adam! Don't worry I'll save you from that evil monster."

Adam merely blinked, used to this. "Not in danger big guy." Lucifer and Michael bantered back and forth until Michael flew for where they were only for it to be empty. Adam braced for impact only to be confused when nothing happened. "Huh?"

Lucifer chuckled and pushed a button opening the wall. "You didn't think you were in the real observatory did you, Adam?"

Well this was a first. "Well shit."

Lucifer grinned he felt so triumphant. "OH SHIT INDEED! Get the death ray ready Charlie!"

"Death ray, readying!" She pushes a button, the death ray up in space got ready.

Lucifer projected himaelf from a hologram in the real observatory. "Over here old friend ~ In case you haven’t noticed, you fell right to my trap!"

"You can't trap justice! It's an idea, a belief, a-"

"Boring! Ugh, you're boring. And now you die! Right...... now!" Everyone blinked when nothing happened. "Charlie dear, shoot him."

"Yes dad just as soon as it's done charging."

Lucifer could not fucking believe this. "Charlie! I told you to have shit ready to go, I've told you countless times."

"Oh look your plan is failing." Adam mocked with a smirk.

"Quiet sassy!"

"Is that my contact in your phone? Sassy?"

"Maybe if you gave me your number."

"As if."

Lucifer sighed, well this was a bust. "This plan really shit the bed. Chao all!" He started to leave.

"Same time next Thursday?" Adam asked half sarcastic. Charlie came over to untie Adam.

"Titty sprinkles!"

Everyone paused. "Did he just say titty sprinkles?" Charlie asked.

Lucifer came back over. "What the fuck?"

Michael hit the walls but couldn't break them. "Fish crackers! I’M TRAPPED!"

"Oh lord. Did you hit your head while getting here or some shit? What kind of tricks are you playing?" Lucifer would nor fall for any hero tricks.

"You devilish maniac! Your dark powers finally paid off!"

"It has?" What the fuck was he playing at!?

Michael laid on the ground. "This dome- Is obviously covered with steel!"

"Yeah so?"

"Umm, dad?" Charlie pointed to the ray that was about to shoot.

"Steel.. It drains my powers..!"

"Your weakness… Is steel? Seriously?" This was hard to believe for Lucifer. The death ray went off and the real observatory blew up, the explosion shook the ground and Lucifer was hit by a flying object which turned out to be Michaels skeleton. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

Adam couldn't believe what he was seeing, The General couldn't be dead. "Oh my god....."

Charlie came over to stand by her dad. "You....... You did it dad."

Lucifer almost didn't register the words. "I did it..... HOLY SHIT I DID IT!! THE PENTAGRAM CITY IS MINE!!" He cheered and jumped for joy. After all these years!

Adam's jaw dropped. "What the fuck just happened......."

Lucifer turned to face Adam and smirked, he walked over to him feeling ten feet tall. "THAT my dear Adam," he grabbed his chin and tilted his head up to lock eyes with him. "Is victory." He grinned wider, for the first time Adam actually looked genuinely worried.

Okay I would be pretty scared if I saw this at night, Adam thought as Lucifer's demonic glowing red and yellow eyes bore into his own sending a shiver down his spine. "W-what are you gonna do now?"

"NOT SO COCKY NOW, ARE WE?! HAHA! Oh are you scared now? Don't worry, I won't hurt you Adam." His hold on Adams chin was firm, his grin never leaving. Adam flicked his gaze away, Lucifer's eyes were too intense. "Awww are you shaking?" Was he? Adam hadn't noticed, he was too afraid.

Good, maybe now Adam would take him and his villianly seriously. "Charlie, be a dear and take Adam home. We have much planning to do."

"Yes dad." Charlie untied Adam and blind folded him and guided him out. He was so numb he didn't fight her.

It didn't take long before he was dragged to the front of his apartment building. Charlie removed the blind fold. "Sorry, we’re just so happy, can you blame us?"

Adam looked at her, still numb. "I..... Can't."

Charlie stood there little awkwardly. "So uh, see ya. Or we won’t, and also we won’t be here to kidnap you this Thursday as I guess." Adam didn't answer her. "Oh and dad made this for you. For your help all these years. We saved it for our winning day." She gave him a rubber duck, it looked like him. Charlie got back in the car and left Adam all alone.

"Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me." As he looked at the rubber duck.

What fresh Hell awaited him and the rest of the city?

[ariseur]

Hello there! Thank you so much for addressing my request...I'm new to Tumblr app so I hope I'm messaging your inbox! So yes! I hope...this isn't too demanding. I anon requested zack x fair reader...and I'm gonna let it all hang out with you:

I simp for zack fair very very hard...and Im HUNGRY for fluff..all the gentle kisses, hair playing ...jawline holding, couch cuddling, sweet compliments, rainy days...holding...waist clutching, skin contact, lips grazing coffe sippinng...deep eye dinner dates, jokes , teasing silly ...I can handle!!! I don't do smut or too overly steamy. I'm too old for that shit

Maybe perhaps...on the opposite spectrum, zack boyfriend scenario, comforting s/o with anxiety...drying of tears, wiping tears away, consoling cuddling...hearing him hum reader to sleep...mentions of heartbeats being felt through chests....feeling of voice vibrations through MUSCULAR chest...comfort bare muscular arms , tender kisses...goosebumps...ok I'm sorry too demanding...if I'm blessed and you create chapters of like simple one date, fun.."friends to lovers" type of thing, casual playstation gaming hangouts, cooking dinner as friends...thinking of each other while away ..to eventually relationship and consoling s/o anxiety....full on love date..that close intimacy (i,crave safe for work) I'd wait FOREVER, however long it would take you to write chapters of joy....you'd be my hero!!!

I stress his scar (in my own ramblings i always place my finger tips on it, i kiss it gently, we discuss who gave it to him, how he feels about it).. Our first date I wear some tight fitting dress his favorite color, but as he gentlemanly removes my peacoat for the evening he notices I'm covered in tattoos, and he's memzmerized (I do have quite the collection of ink irl) he smells of sweet sandalwood and is wearing the black suit in that turks mod for remake... his eyes. I make my own feeble attempts at fanfic but I'm TOO new and insecure to really write anything as I REGULARLY indulge in AI chat and it proves so many USEFUL fever dream instances for me to write but for now...I let the experts handle it.

Should you accept, thank you for bringing JOY into my life....

Please do take your time...I know you amazing ppl are BUSY and mine isn't the only request and might even not be too interesting.

But I thank you so so so much...I've been searching for weeks ..no replies.

EPHEMERAL - ZACK FAIR (CHPT. ONE)

ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི₊ ⊹ notes - omg!! i’m so sorry this has been sitting here for so long!! i’ve been trying to go about this and since i’m not that experienced with creating chapter fics, i decided— what the hell?? why not try it?? so— i hope i did somewhat of a good job and stay tuned for some more!!

ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི₊ ⊹ warnings - none except one mention of suicide ( but like in a ‘social suicide�� way ), intended lowercase, you spar with zack as kids ( cardboard swords ) lmk if i missed anything 💕!!

ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི₊ ⊹ word count - 2561 words, 13990 characters

STRENGTH. that was what mattered most in this world.

strength was a word you had learned in the first grade, sitting next to a snot-nosed kid babbling to his friends as he completely took up all your attention with his nasally voice in your ear. the teacher seemed to pay no mind, only engulfed in tapping her stubby chalk piece against the board, stained with dashes of residual white from the previous words that had been written earlier today, as she barely looked back at the rest of you.

you remembered it so vividly, the smell of the sanitizing wipes she had used during the twenty minutes recess you always anticipated, eager to escape the boring rants of mrs. ozaki and her slow paced curriculum. you remembered the knock you felt on your chair from behind you, soft as to not alert the teacher — as if she couldn’t hear the noisy kid blabbering next to you known as ono, although you only referred to him as, “booger-face.”

craning your neck and grabbing ahold of the side of your chair in order to turn further, you looked behind you only to see the half-toothless, sanguine kid you knew as zack fair. his dark hair, slicked back with only a few strands sticking out, probably from all the activity he did during your break at recess. you two had met earlier this year as he had defended you from the previous, aforementioned offender— ,”booger-face.” you had remembered the way zack stood over you, hands on his hips as he surged forward at the boy to stop him from pushing you around. his eyes, always so bright and lively, squinted at you with his smile as he helped you up and helped dust off your skirt.

after that moment, zack fair had started hanging around you more and more, inviting you to play around with his friends on the merry-go-round’s or hanging out with you after school, running around and playing with rocks or cardboard swords before your parents’ both called you in for dinner, to which you would hastily say goodnight run to your guys’ houses awaiting dinner.

removing his hands from your chair and placing them neatly on his desk, he beamed at you, “you still up for some training after school?”

you rolled your eyes as your lips twitched upwards into a small smile, “duh,” you said. you turned your body completely in order to to fully face him. “near the water still?”

he chimed in agreement, “duh,” his eyes crinkled with the way his grin widened, identical to the day he had practically saved you. he chuckled a little bit before fixing his posture and sitting upright in his seat, the wooden chair creaking as he readjusted his position. your eyebrows knitted together before you heard a stern shout of your name.

you flinched, whipping around back to face the front as your face burned hot with embarrassment. upon your turning of the body, you were met with the stares of your classmates and the hard glare of your teacher, fixated on only you now. her arm was no longer raised up and scribbling nonsense of vocabulary on the board, instead it hung low and remained against her thigh as she impatiently tapped the piece of chalk against her knee-length skirt. her lips, a light pink as they contrasted with the darkness of her tied hair, were pressed into a thin line before she asserted, “pay more attention, first warning.”

you nodded shamefully as you ducked your head down, grabbing your small wooden pencil and gripping it in your hand, as if you’d use it to jot down notes of whatever she was talking about— although it lay unused and useless for the remainder of class, only a placeholder of a ‘what if’ factor your teacher always liked to use when she began the period.

skeptically, she let her raised brow drop as stopped tapping the chalk against her leg, turning around and beginning to explain the curriculum planned for tomorrow again.

you tried to ignore the feeling of holes being burned at the back of your head, multiple pairs of eyes staring at your fork while you made your attempt at keeping your eyes forward and your mouth shut. you ignored the small, boyish giggles emitted from behind you, you’d ‘kick his butt’ outside of school, you thought. you’d get your payback, but for now — you sighed. keeping your hands interlocked, your faced your palms on another area of the desk, the foreign spot now cold against your warm skin. trying to act somewhat proper and behaved, you waited out the rest of class ( which was only presumably about twenty minutes ) just to find that sublime feeling of escaping the torturous ‘h-e-double hockey sticks’ that you referred to as school.

and you held up to that promise of kicking zack fair’s butt — watching as he stumbled backwards with his hands flailing in the air, a flimsy cardboard cutout of a sword gripped tightly in his hand as he let out a loud, “woahh—!”

you giggled, “what’d i tell you about that stance, zack?” you put a hand on your hip as he yelped in surprise. his foot slipped in the body of water, making an animated sound while he skidded across a rock, luckily able to catch his balance in time. you could hear the small chattering of the people near you, the rivers of gongaga rushing as your laughs continue and rise up into the quiet air.

“that’s not fair—! no water knocks!” he exclaimed.

you shrugged as he approached you once more, “you never said that before we started,” you chided. he charged forward at you, being blocked as you held your sword up in a protective expression. stepping backwards, your arm raised and lowered with every hit that the dark-haired boy threw at you, his confident face flashing between every brown whoosh of the cardboard weapons.

he heaved, “you know how mrs. ozaki kept talking about strongness or whatever?”

“you mean— strength?” another blocked hit, this time you tried to kick him and sweep the leg — unfortunately, you underestimated zack a little more than you had thought as he kept a firm hold in the cold dirt, digging his shoes into the ground.

“same difference, yeah?”

“what about it, fair?”

he pursed his lips as he tensed his body, waiting for you to strike again. you held off for a second, flinching as if you would hit in order to try to keep him off balance. zack decided to speak again in this momentary pause of your sparring. “i’ve been thinking about those SOLDIERs and.. i want to be strong— hey!” he exclaimed as you landed a surprise attack on him, barely grazing his not-so-ironed-anymore jeans before he deflected your hit. “now, that’s really uncalled for, c’mon.”

“finish your thought before i hit you again.” you quirked a brow.

he wore a smug look on his face, putting his hands on his hips while he shook his head at you. “didn’t hit me but ‘kay,” that smugness didn’t last long as you feigned waving your sword at him, only for him to let out a small yelp and jolt backwards. you smiled, quirking an expectant brow while he groaned in exasperation. “i wanna be strong too, y’know. have some— strength,” he said; and that was almost the end of it . . until he had managed to mutter a quick hiss of, “unlike you.”

you watched as his arm raised, the sleeve of his uniform’s button-up lifting up a little to reveal his tan line that he had obtained after being outside with you for so long. his hand gripped the thin handle while he went overhead to try and strike you from above. making haste, you took one more step back as your hands flew up to catch his attack with your own sword. in your imagination, with the collision of your toy weapons, you envisioned a loud, ‘clank!’ as they clashed with each other — it felt much more awesome-r to imagine sounds of iron versus the soft flap of refraining yourself from putting too much pressure on the thin material of the cardboard.

you grinned at him, watching as his determined face managed a crack of a smirk while he tried scaring you and randomizing the amounts of pressure he’d put in an attempt to try and catch you in a daze. however, the swiftness in which you jolted to the side and flipped your sword flat so that the tip faced outwards, thrusting the faux weapon and jabbing it into his chest caught him off guard, rendering him the loser of that evening’s battle.

you watched as zack carefully looked down at his stomach, then finally bringing himself to peer back up at you. he placed a hand on his chest while he acted like he really was injured, even going so far as have spit dribble out of his mouth and act like it was blood.

“gross—!” you exclaimed, pushing him as he fell on his back in the dirt and raised a dramatic hand to the sky. you laughed while he let out his ‘last dying breath’ before ceremoniously lolling his head to the side.

with some more giggles, you judged him with your foot as he magically arose from the ‘dead’ and beamed at you, reveling in your laughter. although, in that moment he wouldn’t tell you. he didn’t want to admit his growing crush on you, he didn’t want cooties. that was practically suicide. you extended a gentle hand out to him, throwing your sword to the side as he took your offer and hoisted himself up. zack brushed the dirt off of his pants while you cleaned his back up, still laughing about the whole encounter.

you claimed victory for a long while, even when you both had sat by the water and skipped rocks onto the cerulean river, now being painted a harsh lilac as the sun began to set and the heat of the sky began to cool, a soft breeze coming to rest upon your bodies rather than the draining, blistering sun.

you let a small beat of silence pass over the both of you, spinning the cold stone in your hand before chucking it into the water. your chest began to tighten, for a reason you don’t know why but you could feel it— crawling up your throat as it engulfed your esophagus. it creeped up the inside of you. almost as if you were gonna throw up, the pit in your stomach began to settle. you felt it, twitching on your tongue as it settled, trying to escape its enclosure from past your lips. you held it in for so long, fighting this battle you were so determined to win as you tried to focus on anything; the birds chirping around you, the rushing of the water, zack’s stone skipping across it. you tried to hold it in until—

“do you really think you’ll become a SOLDIER one day?”

the rock he had grabbed remained lifeless in his hands, his fingers tightening around it while he contemplated his options. he turned to you— dirt on his face and his smile, gapped with all the recent teeth he had been losing. he never faltered with that smile, you thought to yourself; and you never forgot what he had said to you after you asked that, “i’ll make sure of it.”

you smiled back at him, before it dropped once you had heard the calls of your name coming from the huts above the creek, where both of your homes had been located. with not another second, zack had already gotten up and running. he swiveled back to face you, waving a goodbye with his lanky arm before he shouted, “i’ll see you tomorrow!” but, of course, he wouldn’t be zack if he didn’t get hurt every now and then, you thought, as you watched him trip over a small rock. but— you realized, he also wouldn’t be zack if he didn’t get up afterwards. still, he turned his head to make sure you didn’t see only to discover you had ( much to his embarrassment ), before getting up and running back home again.

you laughed under your breath, “dork.”

and now, you’re still you. sitting in a bakery in nibelheim, you had almost never changed. well— besides the fact that you grew a couple of feet and wore a wider range of clothes than your school uniform and an old, colorful your grandmother had gifted you when you were five. you wore your hair differently and went out of your way to try and make a difference in the world; specifically by starting and doing some jobs around town and seeing if anybody needed help with those.. things — that would appear around town. the day zack left for midgar had stained your brain permanently, his hug leaving a mark on your body as you knew you might not see him again— even if you chastised ( or more so threatened ) him that he stay in contact with you no matter what.

although it was a few years ago already, you never forget about it, your mind always traveled back to that day at the river. grabbing another hold of your pastry, you admired the vibrant frosting as it created the symbol of a chocobo, not even able to take a bite in fear of ruining the perfect design. you watched the simple villagers of nibelheim float around their daily life while you stayed under the canopy in front of the shop, seated at a little table with the shade covering you from the heat of the sun. you remained bored as you tapped your foot and listened to the bustle of the small town before you heard pairs of assertive footsteps and the, ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s of the people.

tilting your head upwards, you only assumed maybe a few flat footed people or some kids running around was the answer but no— you’re met with the sight of a long, silver haired man with wide, white should plates while a shinra infantryman accompanied him along with another SOLDIER, only this time in black armor. you had watched the town guide, and even with your fuzzy memory you think you had recalled her name was tifa.

you squinted at them, watching as the SOLDIERs looked around at the small village. you gasped as the SOLDIER with the darker uniform turned his head, those eyes were all too familiar, and that familiar cowlick that peeked out from his thick, black hair was all too distinct. putting down the pastry, your eyes narrowed even further almost as if you couldn’t believe what you were seeing. you watched as he turned his head, his full face on display as he beamed at the environment— his smile still the same besides the fact that all of his adult teeth had grown in and his jaw became more defined.

you sat upright, your lips quirking upwards as you felt that childish wonder grow as it had all those years ago like when you had first met him, brave and confident as ever when he had defended you.

“zack?”

[avatarmerida]

Um idk what to say about this except Hunter deserves to receive more compliments and Amity has never known how to process Willow’s taste in men

-

“Okay guys, just gimme like 10 minutes, okay?” Willow said, running eagerly ahead. “I just wanna check on my plants real quick. I’m sure they’re okay but I just wanna be totally sure because I-.”

“Go on, we’ll be fine!” Said Amity, seeing Willow was slowing herself down for their sake but desperately wanted to run ahead. Willow didn’t need to be told twice as she darted full speed up the stairs to her room. From the sound of it, her plants were just fine and delighted to see her. As they headed back to the Owl House, Willow’s house was on the way and when she had asked if they could make a quick pit stop Camila saw nothing wrong so long as they were quick and stayed together.

Hunter smiled at the distant sound of Willow happily greeting her plants as he looked around the living room, suddenly aware that it looked stuck in time. A few months ago it was brimming with life and light, and now it was dark and cold without Willow and her dads gracing the rooms with their love and laughter.

“Hey, what are these?” Hunter asked, turning to the dining room table which was covered in glossy brightly colored books.

“Oh, those are just some silly magazines Willow and I used to read when we’d do our homework,” said Amity as she walked in from the kitchen, the vibrant colors reminding her of a less chaotic time. “We would fill out the quizzes inside and gush about these bard coven bands and argue over who our favorite was.”

“Really? Heh.” Hunter flipped through the pages with a quizzical smirk, remembering Willow had once mentioned listening to a band once while they were messaging on penstagram back when they had first met. “Who was Willow’s favorite?”

“Take a guess.”

“Probably the most handsome one, right?” He said pointing to the obvious front man whose face was featured much more than the other members in the collection of mini posters that occupied the series of pages.

“Uh, not exactly,” said Amity, pointing to the corner to the “mysterious loner” of the group. His smile was more reserved than the others and his overall demeanor carried something... familiar.

“Him? Really?” Hunter chuckled, swearing he saw imprints of faded green lipstick stains near his photo. He wondered just how long they had been fading.

“I dunno, Willow has... unique taste.” Amity said with a shrug and slightly soured look. “We very rarely agree on things like that. I mean, she does not get Azura like at all, which just doesn’t make sense if I’m being honest, because I think...”

As Amity continued ranting, Hunter flipped through the pages and read the silly answers written in Willow’s bubbly handwriting, each ‘I’ dotted with a flower and the words twirling at the end as though they were carefully arranged vines. He treated her circled answers like a treasured artifact, admiring the little hearts and daisies she doodled in the corner of the pages. He also couldn’t help but want to take the silly quiz himself and see if their answers matched.

“...but I guess disagreeing can inspire debates. I mean, like the other day I was telling her how when I first met you I called you scrawny and that practically set her off because when she first met you she thought you were sooo cute, so obviously we don’t-.”

“She thought I was cute?” Hunter repeated, tuning back into Amity's rambling.

“Huh? Oh.” Amity’s hand sprang to her mouth, quickly realizing she should not have said that. “Uh maybe? Ya know, ha, it was so long ago, I might be misremembering. Actually, she might have been talking about a wet cat she saw on her way to school so actually-.”

“You just said you were talking about it yesterday.”

“Did I say that? You know, it was so long ago who can really remember what I said, we should-.”

“Amity, if you’re gonna make fun of me could you at least not use Willow? I don’t know why you’d think-.”

“I’m not making fun of you! I just, uh...” Amity insisted, quickly looking back at the staircase to make sure Willow wasn’t coming back yet. She changed her voice to a harsh whisper. “Ugh, okay listen, Willow would kill me if she knew I told you this but... do you remember before Halloween when I told you to change out of your costume?”

“Yeah?”

“She was actually really upset that I said that because she thought that you looked... handsome.”

Now THAT is a look

“Me?” Hunter asked as though there was someone else she could’ve been referring to.

DON’T listen to her.

“Yeah?” Amity replied, still unable to give a reason. “I mean, she was so mad at me for telling you to change, she threatened to summon a cactus to my bus seat before I sat down.” Amity laughed at the memory, knowing Willow was only a little serious about following through. “And she stared at the photo she took of you like the entire ride, like you were a magazine model or something.”

“She thought I looked... handsome? In my costume? Like the costume I’m wearing right now?”

“Shh! Yes, but you can’t tell her I told you,” said Amity, looking around paranoid. “I wouldn’t lie about that though, I promise.”

Hunter made his way into the living room, finding his reflection for the first time in a hall mirror. It was dusty but still he could see the difference from the last time he had seen his own face. There was a lot to process. Days ago he looked completely different and now it was though he had suddenly aged, he was tired and dirty and covered with scars.

“Do you think... she still thinks I look handsome in it?” He said, his hand tracing his newest scar.  “Ya know, with how... different I look?”

“Well,” Amity started, knowing there was more within the inquiry. “She also talked about how much she liked you, ya know? The way you talk, what you talk about-

“She never mentioned my voice being... annoying?”

“No, actually,” Amity said, realizing Willow was probably the only person she had never heard refer to it in such a way, even as a joke. “Which is saying something because she used to always say that having bad eyesight made her hearing better,” Amity recalled. “I don’t know if that’s true or not but Even when you wore those hideous shoes with the holes all over them she still thought you were so cool... for some reason.”

Handsome AND cool? It seemed too good to be true.

“Does she... talk about me a lot?”

“Ya know, if you really wanna know what Willow thinks about you then you should ask her,” said Amity softly, putting her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “But don’t tell her you talked to me, otherwise she’ll get suspicious.”

“But has she said anything about... the way I look now?”

“Oh no, you’re not getting any more information from me!” said Amity dramatically, walking back to the kitchen table. “I’ve said too much already, if she ever found out that I said any of this I’d have more than a cactus to worry about.”

“But why wouldn’t she want me to know? Is she embarrassed?”

“Well I dunno, do you tell Willow you think she looks nice every time you think she looks nice?”

Hunter opened his mouth to offer a smug response before he realized that while he did in fact let Willow know she looked nice it was usually agreeing with someone. She would walk down to the basement to show off a new dress she had found while thrift shopping with Vee and wanted to show how nicely it complimented the cardigan Hunter had repaired for her and Hunter would be in awe of how she always managed to pick colors that brought out her eyes. He would think how lovely, how stunning, how utterly beautiful she looked but he never said these words.

Instead, Gus would usually deliver the compliment. He’d say “Wow, Willow you look great!” and then nudge Hunter in the ribs with his elbow as he’d raise an eyebrow and say “Doesn’t she Hunter?” Willow would look at him with anticipating eyes for his thoughts, but the sparkle that found her eyes with her expectations only increased the things to say, and Hunter would end up only being able to nod in agreement or mumble a simple “yes.”

Is that how he made Willow feel? How could he ever...?

“Fair point,” He cleared his throat and tried not to convey the journey his mind was on and hoping he seemed like he was totally normal about the question. “Thank you for your clarification, I shall keep the matter between us.”

“You’re not gonna act... weird about this are you?” Amity asked, fairly certain she already knew the answer.

“Me? Weird? No! W-w-why would I be weird about this?” Hunter sputtered nervously.

Oh, she definitely already knew the answer.

“Okay, well I hear her coming back so zip it,” ordered Amity. “If I wake up with a cactus in my sleeping bag, I’m taking you down with me, spaceman.”

Hunter wouldn't know how to bring it up even if he wanted to.

“Sorry it took so long,” said Willow, entering the room on a vine. “But they’re doing great, luckily the automatic water system I instilled has been working perfectly.”

“That’s great, Willow.” said Amity with a smile.

“Yeah that’s totally great!” agreed Hunter, his voice sounding panicked for no apparent reason. “Awesome! Cool! Yeah...”

“Yeah,” agreed Willow, confused by the room’s vibe. “But uh, we should probably get back to the others. I don’t want Camila to worry.”

“Oh yeah, good idea,” agreed Hunter.

“Oh, before I forget,” said Willow, pulling something off her wrist. “I found this yellow scrunchie in my room and I thought since your hair is longer again, you could use it to keep your hair out of your eyes.”

“Really?” he said, as she slipped the hair tie onto his wrist. “Thanks, Willow.”

“’Course,” she said with a smile. “It’s your color, after all. Plus we gotta make sure we can see that pretty face of yours.” She added with a wink.

“Haha yeah o-o-okay,” he said with a gulp. “I should uh, g-g-go check if the coast is clear.”

He ran ahead as Willow chucked to herself, clearly pleased with his reaction. She watched as he ran to the doorway and pulled his hair back into a ponytail and secured it with Willow’s scrunchie.

“Woah, did it just get hotter in here?” Willow whispered to Amity, a faint crimson gracing her cheeks as she watched fondly as he scanned the outside area, his pulled back hair making it easier for her to see his defined jawline. Before Amity could offer her comment on the change in temperature, Willow cut her off as she continued in a dreamy tone. “Never mind, I think it’s just Hunter. If ya know what I mean.” she added playfully, bumping Amity’s arm with her elbow.

“I really, reeeally don't,” groaned Amity as though she was in physical pain, having endured this talk for months in the human realm and now realizing that there was no end in sight. “You have got to stop saying things that to me I am begging you!” Amity pleaded.

“I’ll stop when he stops,” said Willow with a shrug, fanning herself with her hand for emphasis (half to upset Amity further and half because she was truly grateful she had found that scrunchie).

[stormyoceans]

Well if we think about it, it kinda makes sense. JimmySea were in a really popular show this year so they won’t get another until next year. I mean, how many pairings get 2 shows a year? Maybe the ones that weren’t as huge. And they did say not now but soon so another show next year has gotta be guaranteed! Let’s look forward to that! And we still have LOL and you still have your fanmeeting to look forward to too!

yeah no absolutely like. i know im being entirely overdramatic and that it’s silly to even be upset about something like this what with the current global situation and all, but it’s just. it still sucks ;;;;;;;

i know it was selfish of me, but i really just needed this one little thing to look forward to. hell, i didn’t even necessarily wanted a possible jimmysea series to air this year, i just needed a mock trailer to obsess over and keep me going just like it happened with last twilight. and maybe last twilight itself is also the issue here, or rather, my feelings for it are. i just can’t help but think i would feel way better about jimmysea not having new project for part 2 if i loved last twilight as much as i love vice versa, but i don’t. i still can’t think about it without a wave of sadness and disappointment washing over me, so rewatching it is out of the question, at least for the foreseeable future. i literally only have vice versa to sustain me for who knows how long and i will never say it’s not enough, but i do believe it’s quite normal to want more

and i don’t wanna be like. ‘technically last twilight is from the 2023 line up and actually there are pairings who got a series in 2023 AND part 1 AND are going to attend part 2 as well’, but even if none of this was true, it’s hard for me to forget just how bad it was for jimmysea until last twilight. to this day, i still see people talking about them as “a second rate pairing” and speculating about GMMTV splitting them up for good just because they’ve been paired with women in ploy’s yearbook and the trainee, and GMMTV not riding their popularity wave is just gonna give way to more comments like these and im frankly tired of them

anyway. im sorry for the rant, i know you were just being sweet and trying to make me feel better, so i hope this doesn’t come off as mean or as if im upset at you ;;;;;;;; im actually very grateful because i do need someone who can be a bit more objective about this rn and i really appreciate you taking the time to send me a message!!!!!

im probably just gonna be unnecessarily dramatic for a couple more days and then go back to being the most insufferable clown on this entire site until GMMTV 2025 comes STAY TUNED ✌️

[lottachaos]

MY BLORBOS (MY MAIN THING YEEHAW)

I have made picrews of my Blorbos I would post art but my sketchbook is in a different room and I am lazy

Veryn, the main one, who is also my persona:

Matthew who is Veryn’s boyfwend:

Hes really tan but I can’t always make him seem that way

anyways gonna rant now

veryn is a gremlin who is a lot like me in real life but more my my ideal version of myself. He is high energy and chaotic and loud but he can be serious when he needs to be. He has chronic RBF (Resting Bedroomeyes Face)

Matthew is chill and quiet and worries and lot and does this cute little worries gentle smile that veryn freaking falls for. He seems like he doesn’t do any chaos crap but then he goes and does some wild thing and you realize why veryn fell in love with him. He is covered in scars bc of various stuff he accidentally got involved with.

veryn lives half in the woods and half in an appartement. He has wings. Sometimes he has horns and these dark on his face and shoulders but that only appears when he’s in very stressful situations.

Matthew lives in an appartement with his sister who is named Katie and has a job or goes to college, I haven’t decided which yet

they are both in their young twenties, no more that 24.

Matthew somehow gets some sort of forestry Wiley thing like veryn has but idk how. All I know is that he gets this long whipping tail with a tuft at the end which is the thing in the back of one of the picrews of him.

Matthew is covered in scars bc veryn is in the middle of this big situation where he’s fighting against these magical eldritch entities and Matthew at one point finds him in the woods fighting them and tries to help and then gets beaten up and bitten by magical snakes and almost dies. That is where most of his scars come from (he has a scar that looks like a dinsosaur on his left side just beneath his rib cage. It’s called the dinoscar) but some various other events give him lil other scars

Veryn is much better at defending himself because he has been having to fight for much longer and so does t have as many obvious scars. He does have on long one on his neck because enemies tries to slice it at one point but he lived.

Matthew usually wears a black turtleneck and this tan cardigan looking jacket. Some of the picrews I used didn’t have that option so I had to make due.

Veryn usually wears a bright green shirt about the color of the “Draft saved!” Pop up that happens in tumblr when you take ages to write a post. Then he wears a brown jacket on top and black or brown pants and some brown boots. He basically dresses kinda like a redneck but when you see the clothes on him you cannot see anything but skinny gay forest being.

Oh yeah Veryn’s wings look like the brown variant of a tawny Eagle. Basically. Except a little more brown and a little less white and dots/stripes.

I stayed up till one am last night writing a (rather spicy) fic for them. I will share SOME of it here in a different post. I will also show some art of these two in a different post. Stay tuned, anyone who’s interested!! Eventually I will probably make some sort of book or smth about these two. Yes Ik I use tropes and it’s not super realistic in a lot of ways but I understand that and I don’t really care because I’m just making the story to be however its best to me and cringe culture is dead .

CRINGE IS TEMPORARY BLORBO IS FOREVER!!

Anyways, there you have it. I’ll post more later. I’m so excited I’ve finally put info about them all in one place bc I rlly needed to do that. k bye

[ginger-idiot]

So I've been thinking.

I think I might temporarily pause my Traumatized Pastra AU for my new au.

Introducing:

A random ass Doai AU I've had for a while now and am currently turning into a fic!(Hopefully it will be on Ao3 soon) It's just chock full o' headcanons! Buckle in because this gonna be a long ass post and I rant about things a LOT

Main little headcanons for the pairs.

◇ Clyde and Winfrey are 100% gay and no one can tell me otherwise.

◇ Simon is like an owner to The Flock, Simon is also teaching The Flock how to actually speak.

◇ Klaus is slightly abusive towards Jack, but he is desperately trying to fix it with Jack's help.

◇ Kause and Jack never actually stay in the same spot, but they will return to an area multiple times.

◇ Because Klause and Jack never stay in one place, they'll sometimes wander into Clyde and Winfrey's territory, because of this, both Clyde and Winfrey will hide if they catch even the slightest smell of their scent.

◇ Klaus and Jack have very impulsive personalities and will often play cruel pranks that often end up in an injury of some kind, this is why Clyde and Winfrey are afraid of them.

◇ The Flock can sometimes be overprotective of Simon, especially if Simon is about to go into hibernation.

◇ Simon will regularly check up on Clyde and Winfrey because I said so.

◇ Winfrey is helping to uncorupt Clyde, and in return Clyde is helping him control his thoughts.

Hibernation periods.

◇ Clyde hibernates between August 3rd and October 31st, while Winfrey hibernates between Febuary 1st and June 4th.

◇ The Flock doesn't hibernate, being a bird and all. Simon hibernates through spring.

◇ Both Jack and Klaus hibernate through the last half of winter and the first half of spring.

Individual Headcanons

.•° Winfrey °•.

◇ Winfrey can actually play the violin, and he's good at it too.

◇ He's constantly second guessing weather it was a good idea to become complete, but Clyde helps him see it as a good thing.

◇ He's overprotective over Clyde despite Clyde telling him that he can handle himself, it's just the size difference really-

◇ Him and Clyde are VERY close. V e r y

.•° Clyde °•.

◇ Clyde is actually kind of insane, and with Wibfrey helping to uncorupt his mind, he's becoming even more so.

◇ If Clyde is harmed enough, Winfrey will wake up from his hibernation and go save him, and vice-versa. They will then go into a month long hibernation together.

◇ Like Winfrey, Clyde can hear the voices of everyone he's consumed, but has learned to tune it out.

◇ He is adept at playing the piano.

.•° Simon °•.

◇ Simon is practically The Flock's owner because of how feral The Flock is.

◇ He won't force his ideology of not consuming humans, he just doesn't want the others to do it when he's around.

◇ He celebrates human holidays, and even invites the other veldigun over to celebrate with him and The Flock.

.•° The Flock °•.

◇ The Flock will attack anyone and anything that gets close to Simon when he's injured, sick, ect.

◇ Since they haven't progressed past the void stage, they're kind of like an octopus, they can fit through tiny spaces.

.•° Jack °•.

◇ Jack rarely talks, only ever talking to Klaus.

◇ He'll do anything Jack tells him to, even if he doesn't want to.

◇ He hunts when Klaus is asleep because he's always used to help Klaus hunt.

◇ He doesn't actually need to eat as much as you'd expect.

.•° Klaus °•.

◇ Klaus is actively trying to fix his abusive behavior towards Jack

◇ Klaus and Jack get into constant prank wars.

◇ He loves messing with Clyde and Winfrey, mostly Clyde though.

Veldigun Headcanons.

◇ Veldigun can actually speak many different languages, but like humans they have to learn it.

◇ They know jackshit about Six, the only thing they know is that they'll show up in their dreams before an event in their lives. (Hibernation and stuff)

◇ They never go into large human towns or cities, they just wait for prey to come to them, or they'll try to lead them away.

Okay I'm done ranting now- I may or may not turn this into a separate ask blog idk man- but I do know that I've kinda lost motivation for my Traumatized Pastra AU-

[hedgehog-hell]

ohhh can u giys tell us abt the wars end au?? pls??

Oh boy okay this is gonna be a long one so buckle in

War's end au is a BIG WIP rn so there isn't a ton of plot atm, but I can absolutely name the major characters and the story behind the creation of it!

Keep in mind, all of this is subject to change as the AU develops more!

The big characters in play are sonic, shadow, knuckles, tails, Amy, rouge, and metal sonic, and the story is going to follow them (mainly sonic, shadow, and knuckles at first) for several arcs.

The big idea is that eggman has mysteriously announced his retirement and ended his reign of terror, so sonic and the gang are investigating his motives, and grappling with learning to live normal lives outside of saving the world every other day. There will be many an identity crisis, heartfelt moment, and found family hijinks, as well as appearances from familiar characters like surge and kit, the chaotix, Tikal, silver, Omega, and others, and a few of our own OCs for good measure!

All of this was inspired by the ideas of the beloved bestie @fruitwanderer (who, might I add, is the one who dragged us into this hellhole [both the sonic fandom AND tumblr] in the first place) and all our shared headcanons, along with the au we were working on with them forever and a day ago. We say it every time but I fully credit them for the idea of Bug Boy Shadow.

This au has been in the works since I got into the fandom nearly three years ago, starting off as helping Fruit with their au, and then combining that with our own headcanons, and eventually becoming its own thing and an obsession we could no longer contain. As I mentioned in the long ass rant about abandoning Unholy, it has all our favorite headcanons, tropes, characters and ideas in it, and all the fond memories from years ago, and finally getting to work on it for real is so exciting, even if we're only at the "catch up on sonic media so you know what the hell you're doing" phase.

Funnily enough, I'm typing out the draft of this on my phone with a height chart featuring early designs for the au from back when we used Firealpaca on my computer screen in front of me. Oh my god, the memories.

This au is so near and dear to our heart, and we can't wait until we have enough done on it to have something to gush over!

Until then, stay tuned!

[onlyjaeyun]

HIIII 😁😁😁 i’m back with another rant.

first of all pussy eater heeseung is doing smth to me cuz i just know he’s a part time student (or whatever he is) and full time pussy pleaser. and second of all ADMITTING THAT HES INSANE AND SO UNHINGED ITS SO FUNNY TO ME also #JusticeForTheGlass 💔 but DUDE heeseung pulling the “she’s your little sister” card with SUNGHOON????? AGAIN? like boy we know damn well you’re DELUSIONAL ASF. i love the way he’s trying to make himself look so innocent for sunghoon oh my LOOORDD if only u knew sunghoon IF ONLY U KNEWWW 😩😩 ANYWHO ! sumin’s been a LITTLE TOO quiet for my liking… she might be out of seoul or whatever but i know damn well that witch is brewing smth and it is NAWT good. ALSO? the freaking jIUNG REVELATION ??? wdym hes “not interested” HELLO?? i take back the heartbreak i was talking about in my previous ask cuz what i had hope 💔💔 but anyways this just makes the heeseung & yn ship more possible if it wasn’t for my anxiousness over that sumin mf 😒 N E WAYS incredible chapter mamas 🤭 i appreciate u liking my asks cuz i always have so much shit to say but hey twin 🤭🤭 take care zadie sending u lots of love & can’t wait to rant for the next chapter 😁 !!

- ⁉️

URGH MY BABY'S BACK!!!!! thank you sm for taking the time out of your dsy to send me these they seriously make me so happy 🥺🩷💖🧸

also YES!!!! the way seung tries to play things off when he's talking to hoon is lowk scary like boys literally hiding every single thought he's ever had 💀 and yessss ik the jiung part wasn't expected BUT there will still be a few things happening between him and y/n so just stay tuned😜 also, for now sumin's actually gonna tone it down BUT yk me, yk poison, it won't last too long so i guess you've got no choice but to wait and see 🤭🧸 swnding you lots of kisses, hope you have a great day!🥺🩷

[im-no-jedi]

took a while to get out, but in a similar but opposite toned way to last week, here are my long, rambly, and barely coherent thoughts about episode 9 “The Crossing”

which are thankfully much more positive than last week 😋

where do I even begin y’all. the vibe of this episode really emphasized the end of episode 8 with its melancholy; we didn’t even get any dialogue for the first couple of minutes. all of them silently exiting the Marauder as just the four of them was painful to watch. and it didn’t take long to get into the sibling squabbles after that.

which, as I’ve mentioned before, was another great example of why I think this show does an excellent job selling TBB as siblings. the Clones in general have always been good sibling rep, but TBB does it the best imo. Wrecker and Tech’s bickering with Hunter and Omega pitifully trying to stop it was *chef’s kiss*. even Tech and Hunter hounding Omega about being careful with the ipsium was very “older sibling trying to be the parent”, especially with Omega’s mocking responses LOL. I mean, we even finally got a confirmation that they see each other as family! finally!! thank you Omega!! \o/

speaking of Omega! my girl has really learned how to express herself, as we saw with her rant in episode 8, and I’m glad she was letting her feelings out to the boys. yes, she was overly emotional, but it was understandable! she’s still a child, and it’s hard to process loss without getting emotional, trust me.

that being said, it’s still unfortunate that the boys aren’t the same way. Wrecker has been the only one who’s ever been comfortable showing his emotions and feelings, but even so, he clearly still struggles with it. I really hope we get to a point where the boys are able to open up more (although they admittingly have improved since the beginning thanks to Omega).

now for some specific moments I enjoyed or were just notable to me. 

firstly, Hunter’s spidey senses going off not once, not twice, but THREE times this episode. oh Lordy. if I didn’t know he had enhanced senses, I woulda thought he was freaking Force sensitive with how in tune he was with what was going on. him sensing that something had happened to Omega and Tech? hello?? is he really THAT sensitive, or was that his Dad™ senses going into overdrive LOL

next, I obviously have to talk about the Lion King stampede (thank you Kiners for the blatant spoilers ROFL). OMG I felt so bad for Wrecker, poor baby. him complaining about his back afterwards was a MOOD. and then the exchange with him and Tech, “why don’t YOU carry it?” “fine.” I laughed SO hard, peak sibling humor 😂👌🏻 Hunter holding onto the wire tho... Lord have mercy 🥵

and now circling back to Hunter again cause I’m not done talking about my man yet. can we just appreciate how well he was able to keep himself together in this episode with all the chaos? he could’ve easily joined in with the bickering or gotten frustrated, as we saw him do in “Entombed”. but no, he stayed calm the whole time, even when confronting Tech about his behavior. the only time he actually got frustrated was with Cid (rightfully so). I know that man is a boiling pot of emotions inside, but still he remains the calm and collected leader, keeping everyone on track and not escalating anything further. my man... I love him so much 😩💙

last specific thing I wanna mention cause OMG am I still mad about it. Cid. what. the. HECK. as someone who has loved this character since we first saw her, I’m with TBB (and the rest of the fandom!) on this one. she crossed a line. I gave her the benefit of the doubt with the riot racing, but this was TOO far. she’s gonna catch these hands fr 😤

ok! now I’ll talk about the more serious subjects again. I’ve got two things I wanna talk about because hoo boy, do they relate to me personally.

I wanna talk about the subject of loss and dealing with trauma. if you read my post from last week, you’ll know that I was absolutely devastated by the loss of Echo, regardless of it being temporary or not. it brought me down to one of the lowest points I’ve been at in YEARS. so yeah, having this episode showcase Omega (and the others) going through the exact same thing? yeah.

honestly? I needed that. I needed to have my own feelings validated as much as Omega did, and I got exactly that. Omega wasn’t just upset, she was angry and hurt and worried and didn’t know how to handle all of those emotions at once. it was way too real. that’s what trauma does to you; it gives you way too many emotions to process all at once, so it often comes out in unpleasant ways. I’ve learned to process my own feelings through years of therapy, but clearly it’s still something I struggle with. and I always will. that’s just how trauma works. and I think this subject was portrayed perfectly in this episode.

and now, the absolute cherry on top for this already perfect and beautiful episode... my boy Tech.

I’m not kidding when I say I’m getting emotional writing this cause umm... YEAH

so I’ve been labelling myself as neurodivergent for a few years now. I began to suspect I might have ADHD back in like, 2019 I think, and since then, I’ve also strongly suspected I might just be overall autistic. I haven’t gotten an official diagnosis yet but... I know I’m somewhere on the spectrum, I have to be. and this show has been one of the things that’s helped me realize that. I’ve been 100% behind the “Tech is autistic” train since the early days of the show. I also strongly believe the entire squad is neurodivergent in some way, even Echo and Omega. mostly because I can relate to them in many ways in terms of behavior. I’m not gonna get into a discussion about that here though, I’ll save it for another post✨

the bottom line though is that me being able to see myself in these characters has been one of the major reasons I love the show so much. so now having this canon confirmation about Tech has made me absolutely ecstatic.

after we were done with the episode, @jam-n-ham were talking (as we always do), and she had a hard time getting behind the idea of Tech basically being confirmed autistic. but as we talked about it, she realized that the whole issue between Omega and Tech mirrored a lot of issues she and I have had in the past. and the convo between the two of them by the water was extremely similar to convos she and I have had in the past. again, I myself am not officially diagnosed but... I’m just sayin’ 😬

so uhh, yeah. I’m obviously very happy about this, to the point where I can’t even be sad about them being currently stranded on that planet for who knows how long. the well-done portrayal of Omega’s grief coupled with canon neurodivergent Tech has uplifted me to the point where I literally can’t be sad anymore. this episode gave me hope, y’all. which is why I’m not worried about them. I know they’re all gonna be ok in the end. they have to be. they will be.

cause even when you’re grieving or dealing with mental illness... you still can have hope. it’s gonna be ok 💙💙💙

oh, and one more actual last final thing I wanna say. because of this episode, I’m no longer worried about getting an official diagnosis for my mental illness. in fact, I plan on talking to my therapist about it and seeing if I can schedule an appointment to get checked out. I’ve been debating about doing it for a couple years, and now I’ve finally got the courage to do it. so yeah. that’s a thing 😊

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 007: Doc Ock Strikes Again! (P1)

MASTERPOST

Annual 4 + ASM 53-61 this time!

A very long post, but there's fun storylines!

So the Human Torch is running amok and unsurprisingly (comics writing), Spider-Man fights him for a bit without asking for an explanation (and the Torch doesn't give him one either) until a movie director intervenes - he was filming a movie! Spider-Man goes away, complaining that Johnny's too good of an actor - but I think the director could have hired him as well. The Torch and the Spider would sure bring people to the movies. And it's actually a plot point of the story (see next screenshots).

In the opening scene, the narrator challenges the readers to figure out who pencilled this issue, and I regret to inform that I'm utterly baffled. Peter has the pretty face of John Romita Sr, but the flat ass of... did Peter ever have a flat ass? I ranted about his inconsistent ass (literally) already, but sounds like it downright downgraded here! ...Still handsome as ever, though.

So yeah, Peter is called on a film set and two characters are conspiring in the shadows and I am intrigued! So they're shooting the movie and Peter's spider-sense keeps warning him and I'm even more intrigued!

I feel like the penciller is Steve Ditko (the previous one) trying to imitate John Romita Sr's style, but maybe it's a newcomer that's promoted through this issue. Through my quick Google Search, I learned (or rather, re-learned) that 1973 and 1974 were drawn by Ross Andru and not John Romita Sr, which does make sense considering how it *is* similar to what I remember, yet a bit different too.

The Torch has gone mad and at this point, I'm starting to wonder if he's actually the Chameleon. And it appears there is truly an impostor, as Johnny's resting in his trailer.

AND SUDDENLY...

It makes sense! The actor background!!!!! Aaaaaaah I'm so hyped, didn't expect to see him!!!!! And who's that other guy?

First, thank you for the fanservice, there's never enough men in tight undershirt and underwear. Legs!!!!

But who's this Wizard?

The helpful wikia indicates that prior to his first appearance in Spider-Man comics (this very one), he was in Strange Tales (later Dr Strange) which makes sense, and also in Fantastic Four. This crossover definitely makes sense! Meanwhile Mysterio has already appeared, but it's still very nice to see him again.

YES! Especially in a 40-pages issue. Let the art speak for itself.

Case in point! These comics had a tendency to be *too* talkative, and it's part of the pacing of the usual 20 pages issue, but still.

Overall, I think it's a great issue! Well-paced, entertaining, surprising, fun! There's a few more pages after that.

Notably this spread.

I don't think they exactly knew they were still gonna be read 60 years later, but it's fun to read this in 2023. Harry calls me out, Peter looks swell as always (VERY swell), Fu Manchu and Woody Allen are here (what a time piece!) and Anna and May are acting like their usual lesbian selves. Once again, good for them!

*swoons*

And they mention how much the artists have to deal with perspective! Nice.

AND...!!!!

YES, YESSSS, YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Yes, close your closet, Peter. Wouldn't want Harry to barge right in, would ya? *snickers* Closet jokes are always fun when you're gay.

What a stellar final page. And we learn the penciller was Larry Lieber, who returns one year later for ~the truth about Peter's parents"! I've watched The Amazing Spider-Man movies, folks, I don't think I can be surprised, but stay tuned! Oh, by the way, about Larry Lieber...

Okay, that's what I figured. I thought it could be a family member.

Now then, onto the main course!

We see Octopus again, yay. Peter is notably angrier than he was in Annual 4, which makes sense if you ignore it happened, considering what happened in the previous issues.

Harry's also quite annoyed, unsurprisingly. He loves his roommate, but Peter does have a tendency to be absent... Harry's irritability is similar to earlier issues, where Peter never went out with him and everybody else and seemed quite aloof. Was Spider-Man No More a return to basics?

But Peter is much more interested in bringing Gwen to a science expo, and Warren is overjoyed to see her. Oh boy...

Now kiss.

At the science expo, Octopus intervenes and he still sports the worst haircut ever known to mankind. I wonder if he's stealing the nullifier to sell it to the highest bidder... Could it be Hammerhead? Or the Kingpin?

Stan Lee obviously had something against me, but we're on Tumblr, and modesty shall not prevail! Who could ever think Octopus retconning "If This Be My Destiny" is more important that ogling at Peter?

So yes, Octopus does want to sell the nullifier to another nation.

More importantly, everybody recreates the coffee bar double spread from Annual 4. May and Anna are looking for a third for some nice granny baking time.

PLOT TWIST!!! Look how goofy Octopus is. What a goofball.

This issue was fairly enjoyable, it had more soap than fights, which I'm all for. Dear readers, I am enthralled.

I'm thirsting and also showing the humorous situation. Marivaux would be proud!

Also: more Parksborn domestic love! Yeah Peter, don't let Harry see you mixing fluid... or the content of your closet!

MJ is still incredibly mean to Gwen and this is both outrageously funny but also a bit sad. Aside from this, two gays are jealous of Peter.

And this is iconic. Peter's shocked face, Octopus holding the tea cup like Queen Elizabeth, "I dabble a bit in science myself"...

So Aunt May dies and Peter's understandably angry and I'm HOOKED. Two great issues.

The right panel speaks for itself, Harry is a great comedic character.

The action takes place at Stark Industries, but Tony wasn't paid enough to do a cameo so he lets Spidey will with this mess. And the mess gets worse, as the nullifier makes Peter lose his memories...! My jaw dropped.

This is stupid, but I'm curious to see where this is going.

However, Harry keeps being annoyed at Peter and this is sad because I thought we were over this. But I wonder if it's leading to a big plot point, like Peter's friends giving up on him for a few issues.

But then.

Oh. Oh no. I know where this is going.

This arc highlights once more how full of silent rage Peter really is. He's frustrated. A much more compelling character than Insomniac's Peter.

And it ends with a Peter who's quite affected. I didn't expect Peter's amnesia to stick for this long though! This is very compelling stuff.

Aaaand I've gotta stop here because I can only put 30 pictures in posts. Next time: a relatable guy!

[ask-pwp-prequel-au]

Day 2

While Nick would’ve preferred it not to be like this, Day 2 started the second the clock turned 12:00 am because Pal wasn’t letting Nick sleep. He was very insistent on having Nick stay up. Something about having discovered this awful show on Youtube..or was it Netflix? Something.. something about…mmm…Nick had already started tuning Pal’s rambles out.

Up until he got an ad for Freddy’s. Pal’s scream of rage woke Nick RIGHT up! Nick sputtered and sat up to see Pal seething with rage. “Stupid pompous bear! Don’t know anything about robotics! IF they did, they would know everything about NOT letting their ANIMATRONICS KILL PEOPLE!! It’s so easy to prevent that BUT NO! They have to cut corners!!” Pal growled loudly. “Killing people and continuing to build new places despite EVERYTHING is the definition of SLOTH and INSANITY!! I wish I could just-!! DESTROY THEM ALL!! They’re so LAZY!! A-And awful!” Pal kept ranting for a long, long while about Freddy’s, even joining Nick into his rant. “I-I mean! They’ve made SO many places and have YET to fix simple issues! Like again, murderous animatronics hurting the children!” Pal huffed loudly. “It’s so easy to program that to not happen!” “Maybe…not?” Nick weakly replied, really zoning out. “Nick! You are a technician! I-I have a robotics degree! I-I know for a fact how EASY it is!!” Pal clutched his hair with a growl. “They’re all just like John..! Every single one o’ them! And they’re all too stupid to realize it!!” Nick sighed and yawned as the ad ended. “About that..show you wanted me to see…?” Pal snapped out his anger and looked excited.

“It’s really bad! I love insulting it!” Pal laughed and sat back down on the couch. “It’s called Monster Academy and it’s awful! The lore makes no sense, the scaling is awful too! It’s hilarious!” Pal kept going on about how awful it was as the first episode began. Nick sighed, watching the episode very slowly progress. This episode was apparently called.. ‘The Great Battle of West Colt.’ Nick started to drown the whole thing out. Too sappy for him. Nick drowned nearly everything out. Something about one character’s first day there and..whatever else. Finally, halfway through the slog, Nick fell asleep for the day. Surprisingly, Pal didn’t wake him up roughly and angrily. He just let him sleep with a snickering remark, “More awfulness for me then, I guess.”

Nick’s dream started back up where it left off. The Tamas stopped right in front of Nick and didn’t even bother to attack him. TamaBruti looked unsure and turned back to Pal for confirmation that they had to do this. This pause was followed by TamaLanki poking Nick’s nose and seemingly asking Pal for his reason. Pal sharply growls. “I shouldn’t HAVE to give a reason! Besides! You’re not killing him! I wanna do that! I’ll make him into a new friend JUST for you! It’s not very hard to mesh electronics and human form together after all!” Pal laughed with a sharp grin. “Your job is to just weaken him to make the upcoming pain ALL the more sweeter~!” Nick stared at Pal before suddenly shouting out to Pal, “What happened to you!?” Nick’s voice cracked through the air and Pal stared at him as if he hadn’t expected him to pipe up. “Ha! You talked! Now that’s a surprise! Wasn’t expecting you to even slightly pipe up! Guess you’re not as pathetically quiet as you normally are!” “An-Answer my question already, you fake!” Nick demanded, trying to wrangle free from the wires. ‘Pal’ did a very clear and exaggerated eye roll. “Fiiine…! I’ll talk! What you see here is the result of the ISOLATION YOU PUT ME THROUGH!!” ‘Pal’ suddenly snapped with an angry hiss as he threw his fists around. Nick watched him get tangled inside his wiry tendrils; he quickly detangled himself though (admittedly it only amplified his anger). “2 years is a long time alone, buddy! A VERY long time! Soo, I’m gonna kill ya for what you did! Simple as that!” Nick was immediately annoyed. “You have options! You introduced me to May earlier! You had options but just REALLY didn’t wanna use them!” ‘Pal’ hissed, jabbing Nick. “I’m the nightmare creature here! You stay quiet, mind-fucker..!” Pal let out a shrill laugh before pulling away. “Though I absolutely HAVE to thank you for isolating me as much as it hurt at the time..I was able to become connected with my machines! Look at these wires! Look at the near perfect control I have over the tamaterrorz! And the green eyes help me look more intimidating!” ‘Pal’ grinned wide and clenched his fist with pure excitement. “Anyways! Time to get back to killing you! TAMATERRORZ!!”

Nick woke up before the tamas (tamaterrorz?) even had a chance to prepare an attack. This dream problem wasn’t gonna get easier, huh? Pal, the actually real one, slept upside down on the couch. Him and his weird ways of sleeping. No idea how that could ever be comfortable but oh well. The show had just completed season 2. Yuck. Pal was sleeping lightly so he must’ve fallen asleep rather early into the night. Pal had a very, very good attention span and he’s willing to sit through a whole lot. The show must be even worse than Nick originally thought if even Pal was willing to go to sleep at a normal time to not have to deal with it!

Very carefully, Nick turned off the tv and tried to move Pal into his room. The second Nick tried, he realized how heavy Pal was. He was barely half his size, yes, but he was shockingly heavy! Nick carefully put Pal back down and started doing his own thing.

‘Pal’s’ words echoed in his mind. That version of Pal got one thing right..he was really intimidating with the glowing, fully green eyes. The image of ‘Pal’ would not be leaving his mind any time soon. Made his stomach twist with fear.

Nick hummed softly, getting himself a bowl of cereal. Only to realize that Pal didn’t have milk. Oh. Erm. Oh well I guess. Nick sighed before deciding to head out to Pal’s warehouse. Y’know see if there were any donuts left over.

As he opened the door, he could see the tamas stood away from the Percy Poodle robot as if terrified. Nick tilted his head and approached the animatronic, seeing it twitch from time to time. That..was unsettling to say the least. As Nick got closer, he could see a green sludge of sorts inside the cockpit that sunk into the cracks and seams of the inside of the animatronic. Hm.. TamaBruti must’ve left some of his drippy body behind. But..if that was the case, why would TamaBruti be so scared? And why was it green?

Nick heard a rattle from inside the cockpit of the animatronic and saw the sludge begin to animate and slowly look around inside the animatronic. The sludge suddenly sprang up into the head, wiggling a little and leaving behind no trace of the sludge. Nick sat there in utter horror…

Pal suddenly threw open the door. “Nick!! There you are! What in the WORLD are you doing in my warehouse?! I-I thought I locked it!” Pal looked rather angry. “E-Erm- Pal! I-I just-,” Nick sputtered before focusing on what he just saw. “P-Pal! Th-There’s-!” Pal brushed it off. “There’s nothing! We have another thing today to do! No time to talk!” Pal said quickly, continuing to interrupt Nick whenever he tried to tell Pal about what he saw. “P-Pal it’s something with-!” “With the tamas. I see that, Nick. They have night terrors you know!” Pal brushed himself off.

When the tamas approached Pal to try and tell him what they and Nick saw, Pal wasn’t listening. He picked up TamaBruti and chuckled softly. “What, did you have a bad dream? I bet you did, it was rather cold last night.” Pal set down TamaBruti and went back to ridiculing Nick for entering the warehouse without permission.

“P-Pal-!! I-If you could stop interrupting me..!” Nick murmured with some annoyance in his tone. “I already know the story! You snuck in here to ruin my surp-!” Nick suddenly interrupted Pal. “PAL! There is a weird green sludge in Percy!” Pal looked immediately annoyed with Nick piping up. “Excuse me?” “Both me and the tamas saw it! It went up into Percy’s head! It was bright green!” Nick sputtered to explain. Pal raised a brow, really skeptical. A bright green parasite? Must’ve been the gasoline getting to him. “The parasites in Welton are black in color..not..bright green, Nick.” Nick felt defeated.

“Y-You should at least check!” Nick hissed. If Nick hadn’t been seeing stuff, he didn’t want Pal to get hurt. Assuming he can even feel pain but you know what he means. Pal rolled his eyes. “Fine, but I’m telling you, there’s nothing inside the mech,” Pal grabbed a ladder. He set it up and entered the animatronic. Pal turned it on and looked up into the head area where a small fan ran. Pal investigated the area, searching for the green goop.

Nothing. Genuinely nothing was there. No matter how much Pal searched, there were no traces of a green sludge. Pal huffed and turned off the animatronic. He huffed to himself angrily and climbed out of the animatronic. He had a bit of trouble but nothing too bad as he closed the hatch and put away the ladder. “I found nothing, Nick. No traces of anything in the slightest. Now come on, let’s get ready. There’s a nearby fair with a cool few rides,” Pal smiled softly and led Nick out of the warehouse.

The second Pal and Nick left for the fair, the animatronic’s eyes glowed bright green. Each of the tamas froze up as a voice crackled through. “Not…happy..Eye…” The voice growled and roughly controlled the animatronic to approach the tamas. TamaOpti stared up at the glowing, glaring, green eyes of the animatronic. “You left me behind, Eye..” The animatronic growled and looked down upon the tamas. TamaOpti stood in front of them, protecting the others. TamaOpti growled back in response.

B-Bad leader…! U-Unfit! Undeserving of the role! Y-You overworked us! No breaks! Ready to collapse at the drop of ooze!

The parasite growled loudly and nearly crushed them into worthless goop and electronic components. “You think your new, DISGUSTING, human friend is good? Do you even remember what they did to us!? All the pain we endured! All the stuff they did to test different forms?! EVERY SINGLE THING!”

OPTI DOESN’T CARE! FILOS WAS UNDESERVING OF THE ROLE! FILOS WORKED US DOWN! FILOS IS A BAD LEADER!!

“Optii..is that what your stupid owner calls you? OPTI.” Filos approached Opti. He was trying his absolute best to look as intimidating as possible. Opti narrowed his eye with a hiss.

Filos will not hurt The Tamas. Opti won’t let Filos hurt Pal or The Tamas.

“The Tamas! HA! Should’ve known you guys would go for the first host you could find..! Personally, I’m planning on something much better..! That human looked like the perfect host! He already looked mechanical enough..weak minded too..!” Filos laughed proudly and loud enough to send shivers down all The Tamas’ nonexistent spines.

Opti won’t let Filos hurt Pal!

Filos kept laughing like a maniac, dripping down into Percy’s cockpit. “You can’t stop me..! You couldn’t stop them from destroying Chomp..! You couldn’t stop Copy from running away from the group! You’re useless, Eye! Completely useless! I’ll take Pal AND your lives using his body! I’ll make sure the last thing you traitors see is Pal’s controlled body slaughtering you all! ONE. BY. ONE!! EGHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!” Filos jumped back into Percy’s head and controlled Percy back into his original position. Opti’s eye shone with fear. Bruti cooed in a panic and raced around in a circle around Opti, panic stricken!

Opti is crazy! Cool but super crazy! Filos will kill all The Tamas! The Tamas are DEEAADD!! DOOMED!!

Lanki agrees with Bruti! Opti is a mad parasite! That and a daredevil!

Roachi1 says Opti is stupid! Roachi2 thinks Opti is brave! Roachi3 agrees with Roachi2! Roachi4 agrees with Roachi1!

TamaOpti could feel himself twisting with indescribable anxiety. They were all right. Filos would crush them! Pulverize them! Eat them for breakfast in the most gruesome way possible! The Tamas were no match for ‘Them’ and that was proven with Chomp’s death. Is this the feelings Pal felt when he was experiencing one of his attacks..? This felt awful..! So awful..! TamaOpti felt weak..heavy..light..! Shaky..! Before the other tamas could help, Opti fell to the ground and turned into pure goop on the ground the second he did.

The Tamas squeaked and rushed to help him up. It barely helped calm his nonexistent nerves honestly. If it did anything at all! The Tamas carefully pulled their leader to the beds and laid him down. They weren’t gonna move from the beds. They needed to make sure that their leader was okay.

Hours went by and the sun slowly crossed over the sky. The fair was alright and Pal even managed to win a rigged game. Nick was a little surprised by this before looking over at a ride known as The Gravatron. He never liked it much growing up and neither did Pal judging by his immediate look of ‘aw hell no’. Pal shook his head, “You’re not seriously thinking about going on that one, right? Do you even remember what happened last time!?” Pal asked. “I do remember, Pal but I was stupid and not to mention, 19 at the time. I’m..s-sure nowadays that I could handle it..!” Nick clenched his fists a little. “If you go on, don’t expect me to be following you onto it. I’m too small! Luckily for me..” Pal said. “Unfortunately for me,” Nick murmured and began to walk towards it.

“W-Wait! C-Can we get popcorn first? Y’know fair, carnival, circus and movie popcorn is the best, Nick!” Pal said, looking over at one of the stands. Nick hadn’t seemed to notice, allowing Pal to sneak away for a moment to get Popcorn. He looked over and saw how far Nick already had gotten during that time.

Pal squeaked and quickly caught up to Nick walking away. “I-I mean..! Y-You don’t h-have to go on it! Y-You don’t have anyone to prove yourself too!” Pal tugged on Nick’s wrist a little. “I-I’m too small to be alone! I’ll get lost in the crowds!” Pal said, being very insistent on Nick not going on. Nick sighed. “Then..I-I don’t know, Pal! Erm..meet me at the funhouse? D-Don’t go inside it of course..! Just erm..stay outside and wait. I’m going on The Gravatron, Pal.” Pal shook his head and kept trying to pull Nick away from it. “...Pal.” Nick said firmly. Pal’s face mixed into anxiety. “I’m not gonna disappear, buddy..” Nick pulled away from Pal. “...I-I can’t..” Nick shook his head and stepped into the line. Pal knew he’d be back but..still, it hurt some. Slowly, Pal nodded and walked off to the funhouse.

Approaching the funhouse, Pal could’ve sworn he saw something run behind it but when he checked, he only saw a trace of black goop on the back of the wall. “...??” Pal touched it and pulled away, recoiling at the feel. It was much colder than any of the tamas despite clearly being made of the same stuff. After Pal pulled away, a lizard-like eye appeared in the goop. Pal was a little startled by the goop revealing itself to still be alive..!

Pal watched the goop fall from the wall and form into a gecko-like creature. The creature hissed loudly and began to back Pal up against the fence. It kept hissing louder and louder, getting closer and closer to Pal. It’s tail flicked and began to turn green. Its eyes turned green and before long, Pal had been pinned against the wall by a near identical copy of himself!

The copy growled loudly, glaring at Pal. It hushed a trying growl. Its voice warped and gurgled with a pained grumble before it spoke, “Baad…bad..! Eviiil..cretain..!” It pointed at Pal. “Know.. you did..something..with the.. otherss..” Pal stared at the copy. “..The others..?” Pal slowly sat down as the copy pulled away. “EYE…! HEAVY…! LANKY…! BUG…! FILOS…!” Pal’s eyes widened a little and Pal slowly nodded. He then paused. “..I know who you’re talking about. But who’s Filos? I helped Eye, Heavy, Lanky and Bug. They’re safe at my warehouse but I don’t know who..Filos is,” Pal said, slowly holding out his popcorn in case the copy wanted any. The copy approached, pupils dilating with curiosity. The copy’s arm suddenly launched outwards and grabbed a large fist full of the popcorn. Pal squeaked and pulled back a little. The copy began to greedily gulp the popcorn down. “..Could you tell me who..Filos is?” Pal asked softly. The copy’s eyes darted over to Pal. The copy hissed and refused to answer. “..Okay, how about this, you tell me who Filos is, and I’ll give you some more..” Pal shook the popcorn cup.

The copy’s eyes narrowed and it drew closer to Pal to try to steal the popcorn. Pal held it away from the copy. No matter how hard the copy tried, Pal wouldn’t give it the popcorn. “Grrr…fine..!” The copy hissed and pulled away, finishing its fistful of popcorn. “Filos..he’s a parasite like the others. Green in color and destined to be leader of the pack..but Eye..! He was sure that Filos would lead us to our crushed deaths..! His arrogance cost Chomp’s life..!” The Copy growled. “Filos wants his revenge…” The Copy narrowed its eyes. “...Where do you all come from?” Pal handed The Copy the rest of his popcorn.

The Copy was about to answer when Nick showed back up. He looked a little weak honestly. The Copy hissed loudly and took on Nick’s appearance for just a moment before it morphed into its base form and fled with the popcorn. Nick was a little nervous before but now, he was terrified to say the least. He stood there, completely frozen up.

Pal sputtered before hugging Nick quickly. Nick was shaky, no doubt from the ride. “...Who-.. What was that, Pal??” Nick asked softly, still shaking at the sight of the copy. “Well erm..it was related to the tamas and told me about a parasite that I have yet to see. A green parasite named Filos.” Nick heaved a little and rested a little in Pal’s arms. “Oh..c-coolio..” Nick slowly, very slowly, took his popcorn from Pal and began to slowly eat it. “You look sick, Pal..I assume riding The Gravatron didn’t go too well..?” Pal gently held onto Nick. “I..*hrk*..was spinning so fast I was stuck to the wall...” Nick whined.

Pal sighed, “You’re in no condition to walk home..I’ll call an uber..” Pal scooped up Nick. “Thanks…” Nick pouted softly.

Pal looked behind him for a moment, staring at the haunting eyes of the copycat. The gecko slowly crawled down from the fence and approached Pal. “Yes, Copy? I’m..heading home at the moment. I don’t think I have a spare bed for you,” Pal watched the lizard crawl up his leg and onto his head. “Heavy…the others were annoying but Heavy was always nice…” Pal sighed. “Guess you’re coming home with me then?” “I don’t see why not..” Pal chuckled a little as he called an uber. “Alrighty then..I gave the others new names by the way. Opti is Eyes, Bruti is Heavy, Lanki is..well, Lanky, and Roachi is Bug, alright? You want a new name too?” Pal gently pet the copycat under the chin. “...Mimik will work just fine..” Pal nodded and kept petting Mimik gently.

Pal waited outside of the fair. It was already dark. The glow of the ride in the low light of the night was gorgeous. Best part of the fair. Not the food and definitely not the games..but all the glorious lights..! Pal sighed sadly and waved goodbye as the uber pulled up. Pal laid Nick down in the backseat and got up in the front seat. “You ain’t no adult, get in the-” Before the driver could finish, Pal pulled out his Id. “I am actually. Besides, my friend back there is sick and needs to lay down in the back.” The driver huffed and drove to the address Pal had given him in the call.

Once they had arrived, Pal paid and helped Nick out of the backseat. “Come on, Nick..I won’t bother you with games or anything tonight..” Pal hauled Nick inside to the guest room. Nick got into bed and laid on his left side to feel better. “I also have some Sprite if you need it,” Pal murmured. Nick let out a gentle groan and pulled the blanket up and over his head. “..Okay, bud..” Pal turned on the fan and left the room to his warehouse to introduce Mimik to the rest of the Tamas. Maybe check up on his mech, Percy Poodle again before leaving…

[ratwhowrites]

Goodbyes are Hard

Alright, posting this again. Hope y’all enjoy it. Next one I post will be the Iris Remi fic.

60 seconds

Ren’s eye was focused on the clock in front of him, impatiently tapping his foot in time with the second hand of the clock. The teacher droned on, his words going in one ear and out the other. Ren gave up trying to understand the class work, tuning out the remainder of the lesson.

40 seconds

“C’mon, c’mon..” Ren mumbled. He became more restless, his fidgeting became harder to control. His foot was tapping a lot faster as his fingers drummed aggressively on the desk.

20 seconds

The eyepatch clad teenager was already reaching for his backpack, despite the teacher’s instructions to wait until he dismisses them. He always hated that rule. He slipped one strap over his shoulder, ready to jump from his seat and take off. If only the clock would move faster.

5 seconds

The teacher was still talking. Ren already began to stand up, gripping his notebook tightly so as to not drop it. The bell had already rung but the teacher continued to talk. As soon as he dismissed the class, Ren bolted out the door, heading to the theatre building where his older brother stood waiting.

“Come on! We gotta run!” Nathan joked, speed walking away. Ren jogged to keep up, already panting from previously running. They hurried to Nathan’s car, Ren quickly tossing his things in the trunk before hopping into the passenger seat.

“And now we’re trapped.” Nathan remarked, gesturing to the line of cars trying to exit the school parking lot.

“I’m sorry! Anderson held us back just to squeeze in one last example! Can you believe that? It’s bullshit!” Nathan chuckled at Ren’s angry rant.

“Oh by the way, here’s your fidget cube thingy. You left it in my car again,” Ren takes the cube and fiddles with it, which made a satisfying click with each movement.

“But yeah, that guy always went on tangents. Makes me glad I don’t have him anymore,” He handed his younger brother his phone. “What do you want to listen to?” Ren bore a mischievous smile on his face as he typed something in. It wasn’t until the car’s speakers were blaring the Mary Poppins musical soundtrack did Nathan realize why. He feigned a groan of annoyance.

“Haven’t you had enough of Mary Poppins? We just finished the show!” Ren giggled, nodding his head to Practically Perfect.

“Never! The songs are too good! Favorite song from the show, go!” Nathan paused to think for a moment before responding.

“Definitely Precision and Order.” Nathan hummed as they drove, enjoying each song that came on. Ren felt content, just sitting there. His brother was always fun to hang out with. He dreaded when the ride would stop.

“How on earth did these kids get their licenses?” Nathan sighed as another car cut off the car in front of him. Ren raised an eyebrow and turned to his brother, chuckling.

“You sounded like mom just then.” Nathan’s face contorted into an expression of disgust.

“Ew, how could you?”

Neither boy were very fond of their mother. And for a moment they drove in silence, the cheerful music no longer provided a distraction from their destination. Ren skimmed over his notebook, trying to find something else to think about. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the familiar building. The salon appeared to be busy at the moment as all the seats in the waiting area were taken. Ren sighed and unbuckled his seat belt.

“Are you gonna come in and say hi?” Nathan scoffs at that.

“And spoil my good mood? I think not. I’d rather go to work in a good mood thank you.”

“…. She talks about you a lot. I think she misses you.” Ren mumbles, hugging his notebook. He wanted to stay in the car as long as he could.

“Not likely but that’s a nice thought I guess,” Nathan sighs. He unlocks the doors and ruffles Ren’s hair. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow ok? I did promise I’d take you to the bookshop. See you tomorrow kiddo.” Ren smiles as he exits the car and grabs his bag.

“Bye! See you tomorrow!” Ren walks into the salon, greeted by the ladies working. His mother walks out from the back room, not even glancing at him.

“You’re late.”

“I know.”

Ren wishes that he could’ve stayed in the car. He would rather be hanging out with Nathan than sitting in the back of the salon, waiting for his mother to finish work.

He didn’t realize that would be the last time he ever saw his brother.