probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.
we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."
at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.
the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.
the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.
what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.
here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.
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Thinking a lot about how in One Piece there's a continuing theme of self sacrifice that often doesn't meet its end (I won't say always because there are some characters who have eaten shit for a cause). But I just think about how easy it would be to just accept their sacrifice but the narrative won't allow that. Robin, Zoro, Sanji, Jinbe, they've all tried to give their life for the sake of others but they can't because they really don't have to. I think about Robin's "I want to live" regularly. It's so easy to die for someone but it's so much harder to live for them. And living for them gives back so much more than dying for them does. Dying is just a moment but living lets you have more moments and more time to show how much you care and lets you do so much for others. I feel like a lot of other shonen show dying as one of the bravest things you can do but One Piece is so different because it shows you that living is actually the bravest thing.
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surely a ghost or deer mumbo?
Read the full fic here!!
See, Mumbo wasn’t too good at this whole haunting business.
Sure, he was a ghost, and sure, it was his job, but he was never really good at much other than technology. And biking. He was really good at biking. Not anymore, though. Not since he–
Well. Kicked the bucket, so to speak. He didn’t really remember how it happened? But it hurt. He knew that. And now he was stuck haunting the stupid house he died in. Likely for eternity. And that, in his opinion, was enough to make anybody angry.
So he threw things. He wailed. He mourned the life he had forgotten. He chased the new occupants of the house around. He caused the lights to flicker. He dropped the temperature of the room (not too much, though!). He played around with the new ghostly orbs at his fingertips.
After all, if you were dead, why not have fun with it?
And he did have fun. At least, until the occupants left and he was all alone in the house once more.
It was early in the morning (or was it late at night?) the next time the door opened, and in came four men that Mumbo didn’t recognize. They were chatting loudly, carrying strange devices, and that… well, that scared Mumbo. So he faded back into the shadows and watched them.
They began setting up in the front hallway, and the buzz of electricity made Mumbo feel empowered. Enraged, too, but that was another thing. He had been working on strong emotions in therapy, when he was still alive.
Oh! That was another thing he was good at! Strong emotions. He’d figured out after a few days dead that he could throw a plate if he was angry enough at it. So all he had to do was just focus, glare, and–
The decorative plate smashed to the ground, and a high pitched beeping made Mumbo wince.
“EMF 5!” One of the men called out, “Scar, you got box?”
“Yep! No problem.” The man the first had addressed– Scar– turned on a static walkie talkie of sorts as another set down a crucifix (ew), a book, and a strange machine that projected green light on the walls.
All of that sent shivers up Mumbo’s non-existent spine, and he would’ve taken a deep breath if he had lungs. Curious, he stepped forward into the green light, freezing when he heard the man called Scar shriek.
“DOTS! We got DOTS!” He fumbled to turn off the walkie talkie box thing, turning on his radio instead. “We got DOTS, guys!”
The other three chimed in acknowledgement over the radio, having left the house when Scar began to talk through the walkie talkie. Mumbo practically ran back into the shadows, wanting to get away from whatever witchcraft that light was.
Were these… ghost busters? Was he going to get ghost busted?!
…okay. Maybe don’t say it like that. Anyway.
The four began talking again, but Mumbo wasn’t about to stick around to listen. He fled from the hallway, hiding in the shadows once more.
(Ask game!)
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