therealshakes

[therealshakes]

*likes your post* a great interaction, we are truly bonding

[therealshakes]

A while ago I had an idea for a fanfic for @somerandomdudelmao’s Marble Sky, and I finally wrote it! This is probably all gonna be proven wrong at some point, but whatever! It was fun to write!

Ward is five when he decides he’s going to be an astronaut. His teacher shows the class a video of space– stars and galaxies and planets and rockets– and his eyes light up and he thinks, I’m gonna do that. He announces it to his teacher after class, and she smiles and tells him he’ll have to get really good at math and science if he wants to go to space, and he nods. He can do that. 

That Halloween, Ward makes an astronaut costume out of paper mache and an old painter's suit. It’s messy, but he wins the class costume competition, and he gets a ton of candy from trick-or-treating because everyone thinks he’s adorable.

That night, he stands on his bed in his costume holding a roll of tape and his award from the costume competition: a little box of glow in the dark stars and rockets. It’s a long way up to the ceiling, but if he climbs the headboard just right he can get onto his shelves, and from there it’s just a balancing act. Usually it’s scary getting up there, but now he’s an astronaut. He can do anything!

He scampers up the shelves and holds on with one hand as he tapes a star to the ceiling above his bed. Then another star, and then a rocket, and then a galaxy (A spiral nebula! He knows this one!) for good measure. He’s struggling to tear off another piece of tape for a shooting star when his mom clears her throat from the doorway and he nearly falls off the shelf.

When he gets his balance and turns towards her, she’s watching him with her usual smile: small, tired around the eyes, but affectionate.

Ward waves. Technically, he’s not supposed to be up there, but it’s Halloween and he won these stars fair and square.

“It’s past your bedtime, kiddo,” his mom says.

“But mom, look!” He holds up a big green star. “I have to put these up.”

“Hmmm,” she says, but she’s smiling in a way that Ward knows means she’s gonna let him stay up. “Okay. Just be careful, and make sure your lights are out soon.”

“Yes!”

His mom says, “G’night,” and turns to go. Her voice sounds kinda flat but kinda wobbly, which is how it gets when she’s really tired and needs a hug.

“Wait!” Ward calls after her. She turns. “Can you sit with me while I put up the rest of these? You could even help!”

She stares for a moment, then shakes her head. “I’m too tired tonight, kid. Can I help you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Of course, mom,” Ward says, even though he knows she has work tomorrow and he’s going to put all of the stars up tonight. But she smiles again, bigger this time, so it’s worth it. They have to take care of each other, and this is him taking care of her. She’s not happy all the time, but she’s smiling now, so Ward knows he’s doing something right.

He makes sure to be quiet putting the rest of the stars up. His mom needs to sleep.

—

Ward joins science club in sixth grade. It meets every Tuesday after school, and they spend the hour doing experiments or talking about new advancements in different fields. Students can sign up to present, so he signs up and gives a presentation on the mirrors on space telescopes. The teacher who runs the club, Ms. P, tells him afterwards that it’s one of the best researched presentations she’s ever seen. Ward beams.

After his presentation, someone starts a conversation about the possibility of alien life, and the club spends the rest of the hour arguing. Sources are pulled. Theories are made. Two of the seventh graders nearly get into a fistfight over whether or not there was ever liquid water on Mars. It’s the most fun Ward’s had in a long time, and he leaves in the middle of a group of friends all teasing each other and laughing.

It’s raining when they get outside. Ward sighs and sits down under the awning in front of the school, waving goodbye to friends who run off laughing and shrieking through the rain to their parents' cars. 

His mom is picking him up. She told him she’d be a bit late, but she promised to be there.

Ward waits. He does some of his history homework. He walks in tiny circles. He thinks about his telescope presentation. The rain drums on the ground and on the awning, steadily getting heavier. 

Ms. P leaves the school building, shouting a  goodbye over the downpour. Ward waves back, a sinking feeling in his gut. It’s been half an hour since school ended, and there’s no sign of his mom.

He does some of his math homework. It’s interesting enough.

The rain doesn’t let up.

Finally, after an hour has gone by, Ward gives up on waiting. No one is coming for him, and if he sits out here in the cold he’ll just get sick. He pulls up his hood, tucks his backpack under his jacket, and heads out into the rain with his head down. 

It’s a mile and a half to his house. Usually it takes forty five minutes, but in the rain without an umbrella it’s longer. Ward loses track of the time around the same time he starts shivering, and by the time he reaches the front door he’s just glad to be home.

He changes into dry clothes and makes himself tea and soup. He can feel himself getting sick, but he doesn’t call his mom. It’s fine. He knows that even if he did, her job wouldn’t let her off.

No one is coming for him. 

—

In his junior year of high school, Ward takes AP physics, AP calculus BC, and AP biology. Everyone, including his counselor, tells him he’s crazy, (although the counselor phrases it as “doing something highly inadvisable”) but he doesn’t care. He does his homework under the glow in the dark stars he put up when he was a kid, and he dreams of space. His dreams are different from when he was five, more I’m-gonna-discover-an-exoplanet and less I’m-gonna-discover-intelligent-alien-life, but the goal is still there. He’s going to go to space, no matter what. That’s what he reminds himself of when physics and bio have a test on the same day, or when his calc teacher announces that missed tests cannot be made up.

It’s what he reminds himself of on the days he comes home exhausted from school and finds that his mom hasn’t gotten out of bed all day. It’s what he reminds himself of the day he has to check her pulse to see if she’s alive or just sleeping. (She’s still breathing, but Ward has to spend the day checking up on her and making sure it stays that way. He emails his teachers. The biology and physics teachers understand. The calc one does not.) He’s bone-tired, but it’s going to be worth it some day. 

Ward gets through that year, and the next, and he graduates. He gets into every college he applied to. His mom hugs him tight, looking more alive than she has in months.

The night before Ward leaves for college, he stares up at the stars he put up years ago. They’ve been with him every night since he was five, and now he won’t have them. 

The idea is suddenly unbearable. Before Ward can think, he flips on the lights and climbs up on his bed and peels off the glow in the dark stars. He can reach the ceiling without climbing the shelves now. The stars go back in their original box, preserved on the top shelf for years, and he tucks them into a box along with his bedding.

A knock sounds on the door of his room. He opens it and sees his mom standing there, giving him the watery smile she’s been giving him for years.

“It’s past your bedtime, kiddo,” she says.

Ward tucks her into a hug, and they stay like that for a long time.

—

Ward smiles at the cockpit of his plane. It’s perfect, but it’s missing one thing.

He tapes a little glow in the dark star to the dashboard. There.

[therealshakes]

hey atheists

if god doesn't exist how come I have this fucking picture of him?

[therealshakes]

THIS FIC?? HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR EIGHT (8) YEARS??? THE DEDICATION

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does anybody else just kind of… forget. that rick astley was not twelve when he wrote never gonna give you up? like, his voice is so deep and he sounds so manly when he’s really just this scrawny little redheaded ginger with a bad case of baby face. idk it literally blows my mind every time

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do you ever see a white person and just know that they would have the ashiest ass

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Yes of course I love them all equally I just love Logan and Janus equally more

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Darius is THE ace/aro king and you cannot convince me otherwise

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yeah so new headcannon, i think s1 Ben was so completely anemic. i mean tired after reading an overly thrilling book”? kid, I lived that life, have you checked your iron levels? there’s also the fact that he’s consistently in the back and can’t really keep the pace, which he even mentioned in s1 ep 7.

also here’s my favorite thing. 

most common type of anemia is caused by low iron levels, which in turn means your body can’t produce enough red blood cells to carry oxygen and stuff, that’s why you can feel tired, lethargic, short of breath when exercising.

but post season 1, Ben doesn’t seem to have any of these issues. but you know what so happens to be a great source of iron?

grubs.

[therealshakes]

KENJI SHAVED!! I REPEAT, KENJI HAS SHAVED!!THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE TRAILER!! BEST SEASON YET!! NO BEARD!!

[therealshakes]

Okay so let me get this straight; four chimes, four deaths.... four horsemen of the apocalypse?

Hear me out hear me out. The horsemen are famine, death, war, and conquest, right? Well, let's dissect that for a bit here.

Famine- Chrissy's mother was constantly abusing her and traumatizing her by constantly commenting about how "fat" she's getting and how much she's eating. Chrissy eventually starts starving herself, and Vecna snatches her because her trauma/abuse lies within the horseman of famine.

Death- Fred was in the car accident where his family died, and he holds so much trauma and guilt from being the only one left alive and feeling as though there was something he could've done to stop it. Vecna gets to him because his trauma/abuse lies withing the horseman of death.

War- Patrick was abused physically at home. The reasoning behind why slipped my mind, whether or not there was a specific reason that was explained within the show, but this could easily be described as a war within Patrick's home. Therefore, Vecna picked him as a victim because his trauma/abuse lies within the horseman of war.

Conquest- Billy died when he finally turned on the Mind Flayer, with the intent on giving his side the upper hand in defeating it. When Max died, she did so trying to defeat (or rather, again, trying to give her side the upper hand against) Vecna, and granted him the ability to pick her out as a target because her trauma/abuse lies within the horseman of conquest.

Anyway, it was a realization that struck me across the face when they started talking about the four chimes and four deaths. I think it makes sense, and while it doesn't really do anything for the actual plot now nor in the future, I just thought it was a neat little detail and it makes me wonder if the writers specifically designed their characters with that in mind (not so much Max, but I am convinced that they worked to amount her sacrifice to comply with this potential pattern).

[therealshakes]

Camp Fam Orientation HCs

Darius: either bi asf, or the ace/aro king we all deserve cause his true passion is obviously dinosaurs and not people

Ben: bro he gay as hell y'all already been knew

Kenji: bi king that flirts with everybody but has never once been able to hold down a man (or woman for that matter) cause he gets too anxious and nobody knows if he’s actually FLIRTING flirting or just flirting, you follow?

Brooklynn: identifies as straight but has definitely kissed her gal friends before for… practice… yeah that

Yaz: strict lesbian. only women. she sees, she falls, she’s devoted for the rest of her life. would propose after the first date.

Sammy: pan queen who has never once experienced homophobia in her life because even the boomers and entitled karens can tell that she is just too incredible for that. and even if she did she definitely just simply, would not notice

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Ben: *pulls out a knife* Darius: oh no Ben: *uses it to open a box* Darius: phew Ben: *pulls a flamethrower out of the box* Darius: oh no

[therealshakes]

HOW is covid not trending today

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Eternal Flame Falls sounds like the coolest concept for a fantasy book. A path you follow down into a ravine until you find an ever-burning flame inside of a waterfall? That’s fuckin metal! But it’s not in a fantasy book it’s like an hour away from my house I can literally go see it any time! I remember it like once a month and lose my shit over it every time

[therealshakes]

I'm sure that this has been done before but my brother is (understandably) in love with this man so I still had to make it lol

[therealshakes]

Bandana Tails

Donnie saying that he keeps his tails short because they're always getting in the way of his "very important work", but it's actually because he can't stand the feeling of them brushing against his neck and shell. He does like the light pressure, though, of his bandanna wrapping all the way around his head; he finds that it grounds him.

Leo keeping his tails long and delicately shaped, because it makes him feel elegant and boosts his self-confidence. He likes to feel dainty and deadly at the same time and, let's be real, he slays in more ways than one. He finds, too, that having a mask that only covers his eyes really makes his marks pop.

Mikey keeping his tails short 'cause otherwise they'll get in the way of his arts; whether that be painting, drawing, ninjutsu, or skateboarding. Him also kind of being forced to cut his masks short and thin because he keeps having to replace them due to little mistakes about forgetting to wash his hands before rubbing his face or something or even just... losing them (and he may or may not be running a little low on orange fabric).

Raph not really caring about his tails and wearing his masks until they can't stay on his face anymore and are literally falling off (hence the rough and torn edges). He's also realized from a young age that having his bandanna wrap all the way around his head helps keep them on. Him still having to keep his tails reasonably short, though, because otherwise they'll catch on his bigger spikes and he'll end up catching himself in a headlock.