#the citgo sign

[andallshallbewell]

[f-yeahimpalass]

[airplanes924]

[juanabaloo]

imagine an AU where you have loads of money and get a tattoo as a teenager that you would definitely regret now! what's yours? (names don't count)

i'll go first. mine is the Boston CITGO sign. it's so terrible there's not even any good gifs of it on basic tumblr search.

[utilitycaster]

it is entirely possible and probably likely that there is no real mighty nein massachusetts au and the caduceus cranberry bog remark was purely a joke, but I absolutely MUST ask about it on the off chance there is more to this concept

There will never be a coherent fic not in the least because I have not actually lived in New England for a decade, but:

Beau is from a wealthy suburb of Boston (in my heart I want her to be from Brookline but the vibe is further out, like Newton or something). Veth is from a not wealthy suburb of Boston, further out than Beau. I was going to say Caleb dropped out of Harvard but actually given his age at the time it should probably be some kind of Frankenstein of Boston Latin with Philips or Groton.

Caduceus is in fact from an ancient line of cranberry farmers in western Mass.

I feel like everything east of the Ashkeeper Peaks should just be like. New Hampshire and Maine, which sort of undercuts the grandeur of the Kryn Dynasty, but I'm really struggling to place Yasha and Essek in Massachusetts.

Actually for peak hilarity Essek should be from Montreal in this analogy which puts Yasha in rural Vermont or New Hampshire.

Technically I think this means Beau dropped out of College of the Holy Cross.

Obviously both Fjord and Jester are from the Cape; she is wealthy old money whose mother decided to live in the summer house all year long. He is a working class townie who is faking the accent and his native accent is just generic non-regional US. Uko'toa is real and I saw him in the Boston Harbor on a field trip in fourth grade. Veth still ends the campaign running a summer camp.

Every joke I had about Molly's death I have rejected for not being nearly funny enough to offset the incredibly poor taste it is in but most involved the violent and unhinged avian wildlife along the Freedom Trail.

Caleb crashing through the window with Cat's Claw but it's the Citgo sign

I was going to also joke that Teleport lets you summon the T after midnight but apparently it runs until 1 and possibly 1:30 now so fuck me I guess.

[maxknightley]

having just remembered that you live in boston: we’re going to boston to visit one of our girlfriends for a week next saturday, do you have any advice to give to people who have never been there before? what spells should we prepare

if you come across a street vendor selling "beef patties," a Jamaican meat pie easily recognized by the turmeric-yellow color of its flaky outer shell, buy some. they're good as fuck

try to avoid taking the green line on a day when the sox are playing never mind the baseball season is over so you're safe

if you're looking for a neighborhood where you can just walk around and kill some time, I heavily recommend the north end, chinatown, or kenmore square. just pleasant vibes you know

there's a big citgo sign and the locals worship it like a monument to the gods. make sure to show it the proper respect if you see it

the highways fucking suck.

apple cider donuts might still be in season and if so you should buy some of those too. back when I was living there the Boston Public Market sold really good ones and I assume they still do

beware the wandering keytar bear. he is a deadly beast unsuited for parties below lvl 45.

recommended spells are INSULATLE (to ward against the cold), SUMMON: HEPHAESTON (his heavy crushing damage can overwhelm the locals' high defense stats), and REGEN (to counter the DOTs used by geese and townies)

[blacktopmemories]

Playlist for Saturday, December 16, 2023

Teen Idle - "Winter" Goalie Flight - "Corbeau" Wishy - "Spinning" Kevin Devine - "Red Bird" The Builders and the Butchers - "Devil Town" Wintersleep - "More Than" The Mountain Goats - "Great Pirates" Mo Troper - "Citgo Sign" Molly Burch - "Made of Glass" Death Cab for Cutie - "Rand McNally" Foxygen - "News" Sunny Day Real Estate - "The Rising Tide" Faith Healer - "Another Fool" Iron and Wine - "Passing Afternoon" (live) Lucas Davies - "Morning" Baseball Gregg - "Hong Kong Hike" Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Last Days" Nada Surf - "Ice on the Wings" Fountains of Wayne - "Please Don't Rock Me Tonight" Bombay Bicycle Club - "I Want to be Your Only Pet" Hot Bagels - "Red Sweater" Guided by Voices - "For the Home" The Gaslight Anthem - "Little Fires" Albert Hammond Jr. - "Strange Tidings" The Paper Kites - "Gates" xo - b.

To download or stream the show, click here!

[orrsoared]

you think the epcot ball is the prettiest girl in school? ha! you clearly haven’t seen the citgo sign in boston 🙄

[tmbgareok]

Is the Citgo sign in “Moving to the Sun” inspired by the Boston Citgo sign?

JF: absolutely.

[wantedtourist]

still bitter a good 30 minutes of the film was filmed ON LOCATION at my school’s campus and it happened while I’m on leave because of course it did. that coulda been me standing behind Shuri and Okoye in their sunglasses and suits while I wait for the shuttle behind the Student center. cuz they were right there. that coulda been me walking past Riri’s door in Simmons Hall ie the dorm I had my first drunk experience at I recognize those ugly ass boxy Lego windows anywhere. cuz she was right there. that coulda been me in the background during Okoye vs Attuma on the Harvard Bridge on Mass Ave while an orca breached the Charles river. because they were right there and you could see in every shot the campus north star aka that Citgo sign lmaoooo. speaking of orcas I have not seen enough people talking about THE WHALES like I know I have only seen like 4% of all Marvel movies but I have it on certain authority that the single most badass thing in this franchise past present and future is the Talokans (?) riding into battle on orcas and great blue whales, breaching the waters like the majestic familiars of a race with a living god. what was this post about again idk this is just me coping bc I was supposed to go see WF at the matinee show but it didn’t work out booo

[mellowgoop]

the implication that it comes from the citgo sign honestly makes a lot of sense, why else are we giving it such thematic focus

[puppy95]

Messed up citgo sign painting is gonna be abandoned phone booth painting…

[casquecest]

I love you, Esplanade and Charles River. I love you, breezy summer nights. I love you, Citgo sign and city skyline. I love you, faint scent of the ocean. I love you, sailboats rocking in the water. I love you, Boston.

[pint-o-beans]

places where I haven't "felt god": churches, most places

places where I have "felt god": in the shadow of the citgo sign, market basket

[topazadine]

Gas Station Rankings

This is not an exhaustive list (unfortunately) because frankly I haven't visited every single gas station company in America. I know it will sadden people not to see Buc-ee's represented but I can't describe something I haven't experienced yet

Sheetz

Blessed Sheetz. Food is delicious, stores are always incredibly clean, always have a bunch of weird shit I don't need

Love's

Hands down the best truck stop for a very important reason: most of the locations have a dog park :) but they also have incredibly clean bathrooms and their packaged food options are great

All-Time

Met this strange man who promised me eternal youth, and when I said no, the store radio started to play "How to Save a Life" by The Fray, which was interesting. Also had really fresh pineapple fruit cups. That was years and years ago, so maybe it's changed, though?

Pilot

Not quite as good as Love's, but I have never had a poor experience here. It's just meh, though not meh enough that I don't remember visiting

QuickRide

Not bad, per se, but there was an odd animal lurking around behind the back of the store, and when I looked directly at it, I got this horrible headache before it suddenly bolted off on two legs laughing just like my PE teacher from fifth grade

Casey's

Casey's is only this high up on the list because I grew up in middle-of-nowhere Illinois so I have fond memories of here. Also their pizza is really good and simply cannot be replicated anywhere else

True North

Always only has one cashier working, and for some reason, every single location has the exact same guy working and he always greets by name and asks if I've found what I'm looking for yet. Rather ominous

7/11

Not every single one is a gas station of course, but those that are ... okay I guess

BP

Forgettable, can't ever remember going in and having any sort of experience

Vilago

Very forgettable, every time I go in I fill my tank up, then go inside to get a snack or whatever, but as soon as I pay I find myself back on the highway and don't remember even getting back in my car, and there's a strange scent in the car like burnt cinnamon that takes AGES to dissipate

Travelcenters of America

Some of them are a little sketchy and dingy, but it's not terrible, I have seen worse

Citgo

Huge differences in quality amongst different Citgos, like some do not have bathrooms and some just have packaged food and nothing else

Maverik

CREEPY! Every location I have been to has been CREEPY! Also they don't have bathrooms a lot of the time which is so annoying

Ridealong

I could have gone forever about different gas stations and their bathrooms and so on, but now that I'm thinking about Ridealong, it's all I can think about. That one experience.

I should have kept driving. I knew there was a Love's at the next exit but I really needed to go to the bathroom, and I'd also just gotten a text that I wanted to check (no texting and driving ever), so I decided to risk it.

The exterior was ... strange. It looked like it had been scavenged from a bunch of other gas stations, like the gas station overhang thing was clearly from Mobile, but a few of the pumps looked to be from a BP, though the yellow icon had been scratched off. Still kept the green sheathing though. All lit up in the middle of the night, it looked even stranger, all these discordant colors mixing into one another like a giant warning sign. If only I had listened.

The gas smelled off. I know, gas generally smells pretty bad, but it smelled ... sweet. Sickly sweet. I have no idea what leaded gasoline smelled like (am not that old) but I can't imagine it would smell like death. Yes of course gasoline is made from dead dinosaurs but this smelled like fresh death. Cloying and stinging. I had to cover my nose.

Really, this should have been a sign, but the gas was still pumping and I don't know how to shut it off, so I stood there, miserable, not wanting to get back in my car for fear of sparking - especially when the gas smelled like that.

No trash at all. Immaculate. The paving, too, was far too new, as if it had been laid yesterday. No potholes, not even a splash of gas or coolant on the ground. Though the gas pumps were clearly old and scavenged, they looked too fresh, like they'd just come from the factory. Different factories, of course, but all the same date.

I leaned in and tried to see if there was that usual sticker you see on all the gas pumps that said they were checked by some official or whatever, but I couldn't read the language. Not that it wasn't English, I just couldn't read it - like it just morphed in front of my eyes every time I tried to understand it. Maybe I really was just overtired.

Of course the sunk cost fallacy. I was already at the gas station, I might as well go in and get my potty break done because I felt like I was absolutely bursting. I'd been driving for quite a few hours and had been living off Red Bull. I couldn't even remember what state I was in, only that I was still somewhere in the Appalachians, nestled in a valley with the mountains penning us in on all sides. The air beyond the dead gas smelled cold and fresh and menacing, the pine trees indifferent to my presence, to my fears. I heard no animals, and there were no leaves on the ground.

I checked my texts but my phone was off, and I didn't remember turning it off. After all, I'd been using it for navigation the whole time, plugged into my adapter, and it should have been at 100%. I turned it back on and tried to check my texts, but was immediately hit with that obnoxious Amber Alert buzz we all hate. When I looked at the Alert, it said it was for Ohio, which I supposed made sense - it's all Ohio, right? Haha. Maybe I was just picking up what I should be getting at home.

But then I looked at it and recognized my license plate. IUY-7823. 2021 Green Honda Civic Type R. What the fuck? I certainly hadn't abducted any children - I don't even like them.

I kept reading, fingers shaking, as it described the victim. "7 year old white female, blonde hair, 3ft tall, 39 pounds."

Well, I sure as hell wasn't a 7 year old child, given that I was driving a motor vehicle. Nor had I kidnapped any kid that looked just like me when I was 7. Nor had I wanted to remember that one time with a gas station and a strange man smoking a cigarette, who told me I'd lost something and he'd help me find it. I'd run away back to my mom right away - at least I think that's what I did - now everything from that time seemed so strange and dizzy-making. I felt a little sick. I needed the bathroom really badly.

Shaking and putting my phone back into my purse, I stumbled into the door and yanked it open. It beeped, like most gas station doors do, and I didn't even notice anything as I glanced frantically for the bathroom sign. There was one, but it only showed one sign: for men. I'm not a man, but I'm a girl who really needs to pee, so I just prayed it was single stall and booked it there.

The floor felt sticky. The whole store smelled sickly. That scent of death, like a deer left to rot in a field that throws up its perfume from beyond the veil to remind us what comes for us all in the end. I thought of flies. There was an odd buzzing in my ears, deep down in them, a tinnitus I'd never had before. I prayed that some stupid song would come on the radio and drown it out, but everything was buzzing. Buzzing lights, buzzing refrigerators, buzzing flies coming for me and all that I loved.

I ran to the bathroom, but of course it was locked. Not even caring about propriety, I banged on the door and begged for whoever was in there to hurry the hell up. There was no one else there: it seemed like no one else had been there forever, though the store was perfectly clean. It was just a feeling of emptiness. The store had been there forever, in exactly the same position, with exactly the same gas, since it was copy-pasted from whatever hellish universe had spit it up.

The cashier counter was empty. Everything was empty. I couldn't prove it, but I sensed that all those containers in the aisles, all those drinks in the refigerator, had never been filled in the first place. A trap to entice tired travelers who need food and a bathroom and some sign that there is something beyond the highway hypnosis, beyond the empty roads long since drained of people this late in the night.

Finally the bathroom door opened, so slowly. The lights were off inside, and I stepped aside to let whoever was in there out, doing a potty dance like you do when you really have to go. I felt like I'd die if I didn't go within seconds.

Then the light flicked on. I remembered that face. I knew that man. That was the man from every single True North I'd ever seen. A forgettable face unless you see it dozens of times over your life, from age 7 and on, every few weeks or months or years, never changing, never growing, never doing anything but staring at you and asking if you've found what you're looking for. I can't even describe it now. Salt-and-pepper hair, brown eyes, too-large lips, and that's it. That's all I know.

He stared at me for a moment, then smiled. His teeth were off: too white for his face. Too even. Too many of them.

"Ya find what you looking for?"

Suddenly I did not need the bathroom anymore. I felt it gushing down my leggings, a long spigot of utter terror and disorientation. I stood there, drenched in my own piss, looking at him. I wasn't 7 years old anymore, and apparently he had enough manners not to smoke inside the store. But my mom wasn't here to help me. No one could save me from this man, who would certainly finish whatever he'd tried to do all those years ago.

I slipped on my own pee as I ran, but thankfully braced myself with one of the empty-packaged store displays, which went crashing down. Bright yellow bags of air burst to show no potato chips, and a box of what was meant to be Cheezits collapsed when its glue finally came free.

A trap. A trap. True North pointed to this man, this man who wanted to take me on the last Ridealong of my life.

He didn't try to grab me or anything; perhaps he knew it hadn't worked this time. Instead, he grabbed a mop and chuckled.

"Cleanup in Aisle 6."

I started laughing as I fled, that hysterical laughter you get when everything has come crashing down and you find out your whole life has been orchestrated by forces beyond your control. I slammed the door open and ran to my car, the only one resting on the perfect pavement that looked too fresh to ever be laid down. I'd locked my car, so I tried to get to my keys, but dropped my purse on the ground and shortly followed it, scrabbling and crying in my piss-drenched leggings and smeared makeup.

There were all these candy wrappers in my purse that I didn't remember putting there - I'm not really a sweets person anymore. My mom stopped buying it when I was a kid, so I grew out of it.

Finally my keys. I clicked the door open, slammed it shut, pressed the lock button six or eight times, and turned it out. I didn't even bother to check my text message that I'd wanted to see in the first place: I just floored it into reverse and then drive and got back to the highway and kept driving.

My car smelled like burnt cinnamon, so I rolled all the windows down and let it out, but it's never really gone away. I still smell it sometimes when I step into my car for a grocery trip or whatever, but Febreeze really helps.

The Amber Alerts kept coming for a good hour or so, that horrible screech over and over again. I turned on the radio to drown them out because I just wanted to forget.

When I got to the border of Ohio, they stopped abruptly, right in the middle of a buzz. Every since then, I don't get them anymore, even when everyone else does.

This store, this Ridealong, was just so wrong. And what the hell is up with that name? Who is that man? Is he a kidnapping time traveler? Am I really a woman, or am I still a little girl trapped somewhere in a gas station, eating candy to survive? I don't know what anything is anymore. I had to take a week off work, doors locked, phone off, not talking to anyone, drowning myself in booze.

It's been years now, but I still map out my trips so I avoid anywhere that may have been anywhere near that place. I've never seen another of them, though.

Anyway, 0/10 do not recommend.