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heavyhitterheaux · 5 months

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Stanley or Bust

First Lady of Private Garden Blurb

AN: Stanley cups in the nursing world is a VERY big deal lol I saw where Latto got one so I had to write something about it lol

Synopsis: You ask Jack to add to your collection of Stanley cups for Valentine's Day

Pairing: Husband!Jack Harlow x Wife!Reader

Requested by: @a-moment-captured 😘💕

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

Since you had gotten pregnant with your twins, your latest obsession had been Stanley cups and you were excited because Target was releasing a pink and white one along with a red one for Valentine's day at the location closest to you.

The doors would open at six in the morning on February 13th and you had a feeling that Jack was not going to allow you to stand in line and wait for the store to open and would have a fit if he found out you went and did it anyway after he told you no.

So, instead you were going to go ask him to get it for you.

You hadn’t been able to sleep and made your way downstairs at around four in the morning and decided to start thinking about what you were going to cook for the day when you got the bright idea of organizing your Stanley cups that were placed in the cabinet.

Trying to reach the top shelf while standing on your toes, you felt Jack reach from behind you and get your pink and gray one down for you as he kissed the top of your head.

“My very pregnant wife is supposed to be sleeping. So what are you doing up?” He asked as you filled your cup with ice water knowing that you were going to end up peeing every five minutes.

“I was restless so I decided to get up.” You responded while shrugging before taking a sip of your water.

“Anything I can do to help make this last month and a half of you being pregnant more bearable?”

“Yes, actually now that you mention it.”

“Name it, baby.”

“Can you buy me another Stanley cup?” You asked as you batted your eyelashes at him and all he did was look at you.

“Baby girl, no. You have seven. You can only drink out of one at a time so I don't get the obsession.”

“But there's an exclusive one being released for Valentine's day at Target! The doors open at 6 am and I know if I stood in line you were going to yell at me.”

“You damn right because you have no business being on your feet for long periods of time anyway!”

“So, you’ll go and get it for me?” You excitedly asked while Jack was looking at you as if you had lost your mind.

“I am not standing in the damn cold at 6am for a cup!”

“But it's not just any cup! It's a STANLEY.”

“Baby, absolutely NOT. You have enough cups.”

“But I need the pink and white one with hearts!” You responded as you crossed your arms and began to pout.

All Jack did was sigh as he saw the pout on your face, but he wasn't budging.

“No. Final answer.”

It was February 14th and you woke up to your room being filled with pink and red balloons as you smiled to yourself thinking that Jack probably didn't get any sleep in order to do this for you.

Just then he came into the room with a gift bag in his hands and you immediately stretched your arms out wanting a hug from him.

“Happy Valentine's Day my sweet baby girl.” He said before giving you several kisses as he eagerly hugged you back.

“Happy Valentine's Day, smush. What's in the bag?”

“There's more gifts throughout the day, but this is the first one.” He handed it to you and you reached your hand in to pull out the two exclusive Stanley cups. You had only told him you wanted the pink and white one but he got you the red one too.

You instantly squealed and grabbed him to pull him into a hug and kiss him all over his face.

“BABY! Thank you, thank you!”

“My dick froze waiting in line to get them for you and I still don't think I can feel my fingers. I don't even know if my balls are attached to my body anymore.” All you did was roll your eyes over how dramatic he was being.

“Don't worry, your wife has plenty of time to warm you right back up.” You said while leaning over to kiss him.

“You better because I got the last ones.”

Jack just wasn't going to mention the 100 dollar bill he slipped to one of the Target employees to make sure that he got two for his wife.

And also wasn't going to mention that he only stood outside for ten minutes.

FL Blurbs Taglist

@cmalass

@a-moment-captured

@alinaharlow

@harlowcomehome

@neon-lights-and-glitter

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#jack harlow #jack harlow fic #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x black reader #jack harlow fanfic #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow blurb

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mariacallous · 10 months

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Amid a desert landscape a visionary unveils an invention that will forever change the world as we know it.

That’s the climactic scene of the Christopher Nolan biopic Oppenheimer, about the eponymous J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.” It’s also the opening scene of the Barbie movie, directed and co-written by indie auteur Greta Gerwig, which opened on the same day as Oppenheimer.

Despite the two films’ radically different subject matter and tone—one a dramatic examination of man’s hubris and the threat of nuclear apocalypse and the other a neon-drenched romp about Mattel’s iconic fashion doll—they have far more in common than just their release date. Both movies consider the complicated legacies of two American icons and how to grapple with and perhaps even atone for them.

In Oppenheimer, the desert scene depicts the Trinity test, the world’s first detonation of a nuclear bomb near Los Alamos, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. A brilliant but flawed theoretical physicist and the rest of his team work frantically to develop the weapon for the United States before the Nazis can beat them to the punch; they then gather on bleak, lunar-white sands near their secret laboratory to test the terrifying creation.

The countdown timer ticks to 00:00:00, the proverbial big red button is pushed, and a blast ignites the sky—a blinding white flash that quickly morphs into a towering inferno. Everything goes silent as Oppenheimer stares in awe from behind a makeshift protective barrier at what he has created.

Suddenly, he begins experiencing flashes of a different kind, premonitions of the human horror and suffering his weapon will wreak. Nolan is unambiguously signaling to the audience that this is a pivotal moment for the world, and for Oppenheimer personally, as what was once merely a theoretical idea has become monstrously real. The fallout, both literally and figuratively, will be out of Oppenheimer’s control.

Barbie’s critical desert scene comes not at the film’s climax but at its very beginning. The movie opens with a parody of the famous “The Dawn of Man” scene from Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a red-orange sunrise breaks across a rocky desert landscape, a voiceover (from none other than Dame Helen Mirren) begins: “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls. But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls.” On screen, underscored by the ominous notes of Richard Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” little girls sit amid dusty canyon walls playing with baby dolls.

“Until…” Mirren says. And then comes the reveal: The little girls look up to see a massive, monolith-sized Margot Robbie, dressed in the black and white-striped swimsuit of the very first Barbie doll. She lifts her sunglasses and winks. The little girls are stunned—and, like the apes in the classic sci-fi movie, they begin to angrily dash their baby dolls against the ground.

This is Barbie’s mythic origin story: Once upon a time, little girls could only play with baby dolls meant to socialize them into wanting to be good wives and, eventually, mothers. Then came Ruth Handler, who in 1959 decided to create a doll with an adult woman’s body, adult women’s fashions, and adult women’s careers so that little girls could dream of being more than just wives and mothers. And the rest is history. Thanks to such iterations as doctor Barbie, chef Barbie, scientist Barbie, professional violinist Barbie, and beyond, Barbie opened up young girls to a world of possibilities and, Mirren says, “All problems of feminism and equal rights [were] solved.”

Well, not so fast: Mirren adds one final, snarky beat: “At least,” she says, “that’s what the Barbies think.”

Thus Gerwig introduces the central tension that animates the movie: Handler set out to create a feminist toy to empower and inspire young girls. But we sitting in the audience in 2023 know that things worked out a little differently. In the intervening years, Barbie would come under fire from feminists and other critics for a whole host of sins: encouraging unrealistic and harmful beauty standards that contribute to negative body image issues, eating disorders, and depression among pre-adolescent girls; lacking diversity and perpetuating white supremacy, ableism, and heteronormativity; objectifying women; promoting consumerism and capitalism; and even contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

And here is the core parallel between Barbie and Oppenheimer: Two iconic American creators who ostensibly meant well but whose creations caused irreparable harm. And two iconic American directors (Nolan is British-American) who set out to tell their stories from a very modern perspective, humanizing them while also addressing their harmful legacies.

But while Nolan obviously had the much harder task—no matter how much harm you think Barbie has done to the psyches of young girls over the years, there’s simply no comparison to the human toll of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the environmental impact of decades of nuclear testing, or the cost of the nuclear arms race—oddly enough, it’s Gerwig who ends up taking her job of atonement far more seriously.

As its opening scene shows, the Barbie movie lets the audience know right from the start that it’s self-aware. It knows that Barbie is problematic. And it’s going to go there.

And it does—almost to the point of overkill. The basic plot of the movie is this: Barbie is living happily in Barbie Land, a perfect pink plastic world where she and her fellow Barbies run everything from the White House to the Supreme Court and have everything they could ever want, from dream houses to dream cars to dreamy boyfriends (Ken)—the last of which they treat as little more than accessories.

But suddenly, things start to go wrong in Barbie’s happy feminist utopia, and to fix it, she is forced to journey into the real world—our world—accompanied by Ken, who insists on going with her. When she does, she realizes that contrary to what she believed (as Mirren told us in the opening scene), the invention of Barbies didn’t solve gender inequality in the real world. In the real world, Barbie is confronted not only with the dominance of the patriarchy (she discovers, for instance, that Mattel’s CEO is a man, played by Will Ferrell), but also with the fact that young girls seem to hate her.

In a crucial early scene, Robbie’s Barbie encounters ultracool Gen-Z teen Sasha (played by Ariana Greenblatt), who delivers a scathing monologue about everything that’s wrong with Barbie, the doll and cultural symbol—basically a checklist of all the criticisms lobbed at Barbie over the years, from promoting unrealistic beauty standards to destroying the planet with rampant capitalism. Barbie is crestfallen.

Meanwhile, there’s a subplot involving Ken’s parallel discovery of patriarchy, and how awesome and different it seems to be from his subjugated life in Barbie Land. Ken proceeds to go full men’s rights, heading back to Barbie Land and seizing power. He transforms Barbie’s dream house into Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House, where Barbies serve men and “every night is boys’ night!”

Barbie enlists the help of Sasha and her mom (played by America Ferrera)—a Mattel employee who secretly dreams up ideas for new, more realistic Barbies such as anxiety Barbie—to unseat Ken and restore female power in Barbie Land. Along the way, Ferrera’s character delivers the film’s other major feminist monologue, about how hard it is being a woman in the real world.

The monologues are unsubtle, as are the repeated mentions of concepts like the patriarchy. In every scene and nearly every line, the movie hits the audience over the head with the pro-feminism message. Gerwig knows what her job is—to atone for Barbie’s sins (and, yes, help Mattel sell more dolls)—and she makes sure everyone knows that she has fully understood the assignment.

But it’s in the film’s quieter, more tender moments that Gerwig’s background as an indie filmmaker and her true talent shine through, and where she’s able to communicate the message in a subtler, but ultimately more impactful, way. The scene where Barbie in the real world sees an elderly woman for the first time (old people and wrinkles don’t exist in Barbie Land, obviously) and is stunned at how beautiful she is, wrinkles and all. Or the scenes where Barbie talks quietly with her deceased creator, an elderly Handler (played by Rhea Perlman), who explains that the name Barbie was an homage to Handler’s daughter, Barbara, who inspired her to make the doll.

The overall result is a movie that, even if a bit ham-fisted in its over-the-top messaging, doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of Barbie’s legacy. It looks them right in the face, wrinkles and all.

I said above that the Trinity test scene is the climactic scene in Oppenheimer, but that’s not really the case. For a movie about the complicated life and legacy of the man credited with creating the world’s most destructive weapon, it should be the climax. You might imagine it would follow with a denouement of the inventor confronting the reality that his creation is used to kill tens of thousands of Japanese civilians and sparks an arms race that threatens to destroy all of humanity.

These scenes are in there, but they are given short shrift next to the other story Nolan wants to tell: that of how Oppenheimer, once considered an American hero, was mistreated by his country in the postwar years. As McCarthy-era fears of communist infiltration grip the country, Oppenheimer’s previous ties to the Communist Party (he never joined the party himself, but he had close family members and friends who were members, and he supported various left-wing causes) are mysteriously brought to the FBI’s attention despite already being well documented. His security clearance is revoked, and his career working with the U.S. government on nuclear issues ends.

It is this storyline—not the apocalyptic destruction of two Japanese cities—that is given the most pathos. Much of the movie’s three-hour run time—and nearly all of its third act—centers on what we are clearly meant to see as the great evil that was done to this man who did so much for his country. The real climax of the film is not the Trinity test, nor even the bombings of Japan (which are not even shown in the movie), but rather the moment we learn who betrayed Oppenheimer by handing over his security file to the FBI.

This is the shocking revelation that is meant to induce gasps in the audience, not the images of charred and irradiated bodies. In fact, those images aren’t even shown to us, the viewers. In the scene where Oppenheimer and his team are shown photos of the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the camera stays tight on Oppenheimer’s face as he reacts to the images—a reaction that consists of him putting his head down to avoid seeing them.

It is an act of cowardice on Oppenheimer’s part, yes, but also on Nolan’s. Indeed, the only glimpses we get of the macabre effects of the atom bomb take place in Oppenheimer’s fevered imagination, and even then, they are brief flashes used for shock value: skin flapping off the beautiful face of an admiring female colleague; the charred, faceless husk of a child’s body Oppenheimer accidentally steps on; a male colleague vomiting from the effects of radiation. Of the Japanese victims, there is nothing. They remain theoretical, faceless.

Nolan has said that he chose not to depict the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to sanitize them but because the film’s events are shown from Oppenheimer’s point of view. “We know so much more than he did at the time,” Nolan said at a screening of the movie in New York. “He learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the radio, the same as the rest of the world.”

But in reading the numerous interviews he’s given about the movie, it’s also clear that Nolan fundamentally sees Oppenheimer as a tragic hero—Nolan has repeatedly called Oppenheimer “the most important person who ever lived”—and Oppenheimer’s story as a distinctly American one. “I believe you see in the Oppenheimer story all that is great and all that is terrible about America’s uniquely modern power in the world,” he told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “It’s a very, very American story.”

That Nolan’s film devotes so much runtime to Oppenheimer’s point of view and how he was tragically betrayed by his country is partly due to the fact that the film is not an original story but rather an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the great scientist, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. That book also places Oppenheimer being stripped of his security clearance at its center. But that didn’t mean Nolan had to do the same in his adaptation. That was a choice. And the end result is what military technology writer Kelsey Atherton aptly described as “a 3 hour long argument that the greatest victim of atomic weaponry was Oppenheimer’s clearance.”

At a time when Americans are struggling to reckon with their country’s past and how it has shaped the present—from fights over how (or even whether) to teach children about the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow; to debates, including in these very pages, over the role (or lack thereof) of NATO expansion in Russia’s decision to wage war on Ukraine; to retrospectives on the myriad failures of the U.S. war in Afghanistan; and beyond—the fact that the two biggest films in theaters right now are attempting to confront the legacies of two American icons, the nuclear bomb and Barbie, is understandable and perhaps even impressive.

But the impulse to look away from the ugliest parts of those legacies remains strong, and Oppenheimer never fully faces them.

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shiza-mga2024mi4017 · 2 months

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ESSAY: THE SHINING

The Shining, a film by Stanley Kubrick, follows a family during their winter caretaking duties at the Overlook Hotel, a haunted hotel. Their safety is put at risk, due to Jack’s mental deterioration which puts the whole family in danger.

I chose to analyze and elaborate on the iconic elevator blood scene from the film.

Firstly, the film form, pattern and meaning:

Composition and cinematography: The use of a steady long shot before elevator doors open and blood begins flowing, creates uncertainty and makes the moment more confusing. On top of that, the slow motion effect of the when the blood unexpectedly begins to pour can just make any viewer process the scene fully and feel indecipherable.

Sound and Special Effects: The frightening music makes the viewer immediately feel as if something is about to go down. Plus, the continued non-dialogue scene makes the situation uneasy. Moreover, the effect of the blood pouring out of the elevator leaves a lasting impression and is unanticipated. The contrast between the usual setting changing into such a supernatural and abrupt scene makes it even more dramatic.

Recurrence and Isolation: A sense of anticipation and suspense is created by the repeated opening and closing of the elevator doors throughout the film. The tension kept increasing every time the elevator doors opened. Additionally, it was one of the only means of escape between floors and the hotel in general. Despite there being other routes for escape, the characters’ mental conflicts along with hotel’s evil influence made their inability to escape the terror.

Moving onto a few components of the miss-en-scene in the film.

Lighting and Color: The dim lighting and shadowing add to the eerie atmosphere. The blood pouring out of the elevator shows the contrast between light and dark in the scene. For instance, while the elevator is red in color, already adding to the haunting atmosphere, so is the blood but it has a difference in shade which makes the blood flowing out of the elevator stand out even more. Furthermore, warm colors such as golden yellow and deep red are used in the interior of the hotel, which initially gives a feeling of comfort, but also hints at something dark. The bright red contrasts against the subdued colors makes the scene even more startling.

Props and Framing: Various props and decor items, such as the elevator itself and the surrounding hotel features, contribute to the overall atmosphere of dread. These elements serve as visual hints at the build up of the supernatural and psychological themes of the film. The tension is heightened and the characters’ sense of helplessness is conveyed by the use of various camera angles and framing techniques. Low and straight shots focused on the elevator doors create a sense of unease, whilst the stiff framing emphasizes the characters' fear and vulnerability during the supernatural happening.

Overall, all scenes in the film had symbolism and a deeper meaning behind it. The storytelling, visual style and depth of the elevator blood scene by Stanley Kubrick, specifically stood out to me most.

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c-40 · 1 year

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A-T-3 086 Disco Reggae Lovers

The last few days I've shared tracks on record labels that you might call Archive labels, unlike budget reissue labels these releases sell at a premium. Archive labels have proliferated since the early 2000s. The most well known of these is probably Light In The Attic. LITA's reissues have a Sunday colour supplement feel to them. Below is a Guardian article about The Shaggs written by Bob Stanley, in it he draws comparisons to Vashti Bunyan (who in 2000 was currently being refound in the Sunday supplements and on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone radio show) and The Free Design who LITA would reissue in 2003 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/jul/27/tvandradio.television1. The Shaggs' Philosophy Of The World had been reissued not long before this article came out in 2000, Light In The Attic would reissue it in 2016 on coloured vinyl to match the colour supplements

It was the 2012 documentary film Searching For Sugar Man that really put Light In The Attic on the map. LITA had reissued Rodriguez's Cold Fact album in 2008 and Coming From Reality in 2009. The documentary highlights Rodriguez' apparently unbeknownst stardom in South Africa. In fact in SA (and Australia) these albums hadn't been out of print since they were originally released there. There are documentaries made of other artists LITA reissue like Betty Davis (Betty: They Say I'm Different, 2017) and Karen Dalton (Karen Dalton: In My Own Time, 2020)

Light In The Attic is founded in 2002. The same year and 10-years after releasing their first reissue Soul Jazz records make the Studio One Story. The Studio One Story is released as a double album with the 4-hour documentary on DVD. This is the first Soul Jazz documentary, others will follow like Dub Echoes, and Jende Ri Palenge - People of Palenque the Afro-Colombian music and film project, Iron In The Soul: The Haiti Documentary Films Of Leah Gordon. As well as films Soul Jazz produce anthology books like Cover Art of Studio One Records

Soul Jazz began it's Studio One archive series with the compilation album 100% Dynamite in 1998. It has been the labels biggest seller. When it came out I saw it as a reggae equivalent of Blue Note's Blue Break Beats. Sanctuary owned the Trojan back catalogue at the time and put out the budget Trojan Records Box Set series on CD. Each box has about 50 tracks and the sleeve notes are sparse, so they're a bit like dumping all your photos off your phone onto instagram. 100% Dynamite and the subsequent 'Soul Jazz Studio One Series' are the opposite, they're thought outing come with a lot of info

The main focus of Light In The Attic isn't archive series like this (they have a few, the track below is from LITA's 'Japan Archival Series' begun in 2017) the bulk of their reissues reflect a label more like Rykodisc or Rhino

A better comparison with Soul Jazz would be Numero Group, launched 2003 in Chicago, USA. Numero's uniform packaging isn't far off the Mastercuts series albeit paired down for contemporary tastes. Numero was an archive label from the get go, numero NUM001 was Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label which was also the beginning it's first series 'Eccentric Soul.' Like Soul Jazz there's a lot of passion in these collections

You can see labels like Emotional Rescue also pay a debt to Soul Jazz

Ernest Ranglin – In The Rain This cover of the Dramatics R&B classic was put on the expanded 15-year anniversary edition of the Soul Jazz compilation HUSTLE! Reggae Disco - Kingston London New York. A few years later Emotional Rescue reissue the album In The Rain is on Be What You Want To Be. Emotional Rescue have a good relationship with Noel Williams (King Sporty) in Miami, USA and have slowly been releasing his productions which this is one. In 2021 Emotional Rescue put the track on a 7" as part of their 'Disco Reggae Lovers' 7" series

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Another 1983 track from Emotional Rescue's 'Disco Reggae Lovers' series is Red Cloud - I Want To Be Free. Emotional Rescue are also putting out tracks from the Dancefloor label. The coup here is the dub on the b-side

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The third 1983 original in the series is Lorraine by Dambala taken from their album Azania. It comes with a nice dub by Lexx on the bee. I wonder how this goes on at a party over the original?

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#1983 #ernest ranglin #king sporty #red cloud #dambala #reggae #lovers #dub #usa #uk #80smusic

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weirdmarioenemies · 3 years

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Name: Creepy

Debut: Donkey Kong 3...?

Yeah! Donkey Kong 3! We’ve never properly talked about that, huh? Here is a worm. Creepy is one of the many insect... minions?... of Donkey Kong in this game, because this game is weird! But that can be for a later post, because the focus today is on a squirming little worming. This worm is named Creepy, which I know is from “creepy-crawly”, but I can’t help but think of the “ghosts and ghouls” type of creepy when I see the word.

But this is not the kind of worm that eats flesh of of sentient rattling bones, it just wants to eat plants! As it inches toward them, it cannot normally be defeated by Stanley’s pesticide, instead just being stunned. Stanley, that fool, has only made his own enemies more resilient with the careless repeated use of poisons! Should have used predatory insects instead, dummy! We can be mean to Stanley because he loves to kill bugs.

When sprayed, Creepy will just stop and give this dramatic look. “Oh, what a woild!”, it cries in its mobster accent.

Some Creepies play defense instead! They exist only to go back and forth to block Stanley’s attacks from hitting DK, because these larvae are very devoted to protecting this gorilla they just met. These Creepies are red and black, which will serve as the obligatory “edgy” alt when Creepy is added to Smash as a playable fighter!

Now, the reason I was a little unsure about Creepy’s debut is that, while not EXPLICITLY Creepy, VERY similar worms appeared in Game & Watch Greenhouse, a year before DK3, featuring a very similar premise! I think these are PROBABLY meant to be the same creatures, though I cannot say for sure. I like the G&W ones better, I must say! The lack of angry eyebrows makes them cuter, and more innocent-looking, as they are on the inside.

Just LOOK at this frame! Darling baby little child sweety!

Look out, flower! Worm’s gonna getcha! Nyompf. It looks a little angry here, but please do not fault a worm for needing to eat to live.

Greenhouse also features darling little spiders, who... are also trying to get the flowers, for some reason! I guess since they are not actually seen eating them, it is simply spite, out of solidarity with fellow arthropods. Maybe this is why Stanley can’t use predators to control insect problems! He’s on the bad side of every bug in the world!

#creepy #donkey kong 3 #donkey kong #mario #mario enemies #mod chikako

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fruitcoops · 3 years

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Could you maybe write a “73 questions with Sirius Black” Vogue one? Or something like that.

Yes! I had never seen these videos before and it was a fun challenge to write. Hope you enjoy! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

The house is large, two stories tall and painted a soft gray with white trim around the windows. Holiday lights have yet to be taken down and shine in all colors of the rainbow from the eaves as the camera crew walks up the front steps. The curtains in the window tremble for a moment, then a dog pokes her head through—she is all-black and curious, and looks quite large.

Dorcas Meadowes knocks on the front door; a moment later, it swings open and reveals Sirius Black. “Hey, guys, come on in! You can leave your shoes by the door inside.”

“Thanks, Sirius.” Dorcas kicks off her flats and follows him inside as he sets a dish towel on the end table and leans against it. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing pretty well. Morning practice was productive and I’m feeling good about our upcoming game.”

“We’re here today to ask you 73 rapid-fire questions while you lead us around. Sound good?”

“Sounds good. You can all come inside instead of freezing on the porch,” he laughs, waving them closer. The door shuts with a gentle click.

“First question: on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now?”

“Hmmm. A solid seven.”

“Do you have any pets?”

“I do!” Sirius leads them into the other room, where the dog is curled up on the couch below the window; he picks her up and gives her a kiss on the head. “This is Hattie and I love her very much.”

“Cute! If you could do a dramatic love scene in a movie with anyone, who would it be?”

Sirius sets the dog down and thinks for a second. “Aside from my fiancé, I’m going to say James Potter. We would kill it and I don’t think it would be that awkward.”

“What’s the origin of your name?”

“Pretty much my whole family has star-themed names. Sirius is the dog star from Canis Major.”

“Brightest star in the sky, too. What’s one thing people don’t know about you?”

“I’m an introvert. Lots of people assume that I’m super social because of my job, but I’m very quiet in real life.” He walks back out to the entrance and takes the towel off the table, then moves into the kitchen. It’s well-lit and painted a deep, warm red. The countertop is scattered with knickknacks and picture frames—clearly, this is a place people spend a lot of time. Hattie, who followed them in, lays down by the oven with a heavy sigh.

“What’s your wakeup ritual?”

Sirius reaches up and pulls two mugs out of the cupboard. “I wake up around seven am and make coffee while Re is in the shower, then rinse off and get dressed while he makes breakfast. It’s a good system. Want some tea?”

“Sure. What’s your bedtime ritual?”

“I don’t think I have one,” he says as he puts the kettle on and ignites a burner on the stove. “Usually we read or watch a movie, then go up to bed and talk for a while. There’s not a big routine or anything.”

“Sounds nice. What’s your favorite time of day?” Dorcas sits on the other side of the kitchen island while he takes a box of peppermint tea down.

“That’s a tough one. I like the in-between spots, like just after sunrise or dusk. Three in the afternoon is usually pretty chill as well. Does anyone else want a cup?”

There are a few murmurs behind the camera and he takes two more down. “What is one thing no one knows about you?” Dorcas asks.

He raises an eyebrow. “If I told you, everyone would know, and it wouldn’t count.”

“Fair enough. Dream country to visit?”

“Anywhere. I think I want to go to Ireland first, though.” Small wisps of steam begin curling out of the kettle, but it doesn’t whistle.

“Do you ever feel pressure to post things on social media?”

Sirius makes a face. “I used to. Eventually I just got tired of it, you know? The whole point of social media is sharing bits of your life with people and it makes me happy to show off my dog, or Re, or my friends. I post things just for fun now.”

The kettle begins to hiss and he reaches back to turn it off. “Sneakers or skates?”

“Skates.”

“Vintage or new?

“Vintage, especially for t-shirts and sweaters.”

“Who is your biggest role model?”

“Pascal Dumais.” Sirius stops pouring for a moment to look up at the camera. “If you ever get a chance to meet him, listen to what he has to say. You’ll be better for it.”

“Wise words. How do you deal with negativity? Oh, thank you.” Dorcas wraps her hands around the mug and takes a small sip while Sirius passes the other ones to the crew.

“Honestly? I don’t give a shit. It used to really bother me, but I’m happy, I have a job I love, and my family cares about me. Why should I care what people I’ve never met think of me?” He sits on the counter and rests his elbows on his knees, blowing on the hot water.

“What are three things you can’t live without?”

“My dog, Remus, and my family.” There is no hesitation in his voice.

“Not hockey?”

“I’d be devastated if I couldn’t play, sure, but it’s not the central focus of my life anymore.”

“What’s one ingredient you put in everything?”

“Does salt count?” He winces as he takes a drink. “Ugh, burned my tongue. I put salt on a lot of things because I drink so much water that it throws my balance off.”

“What is something you’re completely bored of right now?”

Sirius rolls his eyes. “Gossip columns and tabloids in general.”

Dorcas hums in agreement. “What’s your biggest fear in life?”

“Losing my loved ones.”

“Window or aisle seat?”

“Window. Anyone walking by always steps on my foot or hits my elbow if I’m in the aisle. Plus, I get a good view and an easy nap spot.”

“What’s your current TV obsession?”

“Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I’m watching for the third time already.” He shakes his head. “It’s just so good.”

“Favorite app?”

He takes a second to think. “Spotify.”

“Secret talent?”

Sirius looks at her over the rim over his cup. “This is going to shock you. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Hockey.”

“You’re the worst.” Despite her words, Dorcas smiles. “What the most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?”

“Uh, probably going to Europe with some of the guys last year. We had a lot of fun, but it was crazy.”

“I can imagine it was. How would you define yourself in three words?”

“Tall, dark, and handsome.”

“And apparently not humble,” Dorcas teases. “Favorite piece of clothing?”

“Hoodies.”

“Clothing item everyone should have?”

“Hoodies.”

A door opens behind them and the camera turns; Remus walks out of the basement, covered in sweat as he wipes his forehead with the hem of his shirt and holds his skates in his other hand. “Baby, have you seen…” he trails off when he sees the group of people in the kitchen. Hattie’s tail thumps on the floor. “Um. Hello.”

“Hey, Remus, how are you doing?” Dorcas asks mildly.

The camera pans out to catch both Sirius, who is laughing quietly, and Remus, who flushes pink. “I’m good. I thought you were coming at ten?”

“It’s ten-thirty, sweetheart,” Sirius says, hiding his smile in his tea.

Remus glances at the clock before giving an awkward nod and walking toward the stairs. “I guess I’ll take a shower, then. Sorry about that. Uh, carry on.”

“What’s a superpower you would want?” Dorcas asks as soon as he disappears.

Sirius shakes his head with a grin. “Uh, teleportation. That would be really cool.”

“What’s inspiring you in life right now?”

“Ah, une grande question.” He thinks, then tilts his head toward the staircase. “Moments like that. And the Stanley Cup, of course.” He reaches back and knocks on the wooden cupboard.

“What cause is closest to your heart?”

“LGBT+ rights, especially trans rights. I’m privileged enough to have a platform and I intend to be loud as hell about that.”

“Good.” Dorcas sets her almost-empty mug on the table. “What’s one thing you’d say to your teenage self?”

Sirius lets out a long breath and drums his hands on the light blue ceramic of his cup. “I would say…it gets better. It really, really does. You’re going to feel super shitty for just a little bit longer, but then I promise you will be so incredibly happy that you wake up every morning and it hits you all over again.”

Dorcas nods, and the kitchen is quiet for a moment. “What’s a book that everyone should read?”

“The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien.”

“What would you like to be remembered for?”

“This is going to sound so corny, but I want to be remembered for just being a good person.”

“That’s not corny. How do you define beauty?”

“Remus Lupin.”

“That’s corny,” she laughs, making him smile. “What do you love most about your body?”

“I’m a big guy, which can be a little bit intimidating, but it means I give really great hugs. I’m sure everyone saw the video that went around a while ago.”

“Cap Cuddles?”

He snorts. “Right. You’ve got Finn O’Hara to thank for that.”

“In your opinion, what’s the best way to take a rest or decompress?”

“Being alone,” Sirius says. “There is literally nothing better than getting home and sitting down with a book or something while I can hear Re doing his own thing and Hattie’s napping. It’s one of my favorite parts of the afternoon.”

“That’s the most introverted thing you’ve ever said.” Dorcas grins and finishes her tea just as a faint beeping noise begins in another room. “What’s your favorite way to experience art?”

“Through music, for sure.” He slides off the counter and walks down the hall, leading them toward the laundry room. He gives the camera crew a look as he pulls dry clothes out of the machine and heads back to the living room. “What? Did you think I didn’t do my own laundry?”

“You lost a sock,” Dorcas informs him, picking it off the ground and laying it on top of his head.

“Thanks, D.”

“What question do people ask that you wish they wouldn’t?”

“Lots of people have asked me when I decided to be gay, which is wrong on so many levels.”

“If you could master one instrument, what would it be?”

“Guitar or piano.” He dumps the load of laundry on the couch and opens the back door, holding it for the crew as they walk out into the sunshine. Hattie weaves through their legs and disappears into the bushes along the back.

“I might have to take your dog home with me. If you had a tattoo, where would it be?”

Sirius mock-glares at her. “Let me have my girl! Um, I would love to have a tattoo somewhere on my arm.”

“This might be a hard one. Dolphins or koalas?”

“Oh, that is hard. Probably dolphins. The ocean is terrifying but those little guys are just having a blast.”

“What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?” Dorcas asks as he picks up a tennis ball and throws it across the yard. Hattie emerges from the bushes and races after it in a blur of black fur.

“An engagement ring.”

“Yeah, it was.” Remus walks into the backyard and kisses Sirius’ cheek before bending down to catch Hattie in his arms. His hair is still damp from the shower. “Hello, sweet girl!”

“Who’s your favorite musician?”

“Queen.” Sirius laughs at her surprised look. “I’m gay, what did you expect?”

“True. What’s your favorite board game?”

“Monopoly.” Remus and Hattie disappear from the frame, but the bouncing sound of the tennis ball creates some background noise and Sirius watches them for a moment with pure affection.

“Favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“Least favorite color?”

“Orange.”

“Bowties or knot ties?”

He frowns. “Don’t they all have knots?”

“Smartass.”

“Yep! Uh, regular ties.”

“Bowties are superior!” Remus calls.

“Get your own questions!” Sirius laughs.

“Going off your music answers: records or CDs?”

“I don’t own a lot of records, so I’m going to have to go with CDs. I love the way vinyl sounds, though.” His eyes widen as he looks to the side. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Remus wheezes. “I didn’t need those ribs anyway.”

“For the viewers, the dog just football-tackled him into the grass,” Sirius says, and Dorcas snorts.

“Your hair is famously luscious. Blow-dry or air-dry?”

“Air dry.”

“Coffee or tea?”

“Coffee, but tea is nice in the evenings.”

“What’s the weirdest word in the English language?”

Sirius laughs. “There are so many. Uh, ‘jeez’ is the one that comes to mind first.”

“What about the French language?”

“Oiseaux,” he says in a crisp accent. “It means ‘birds’, and you pronounce about three of the actual letters.”

“Good to know. Do you prefer dark chocolate or milk chocolate?”

“Dark chocolate.”

“Stairs or elevators?”

“Elevators. I don’t want to walk up three floors after playing hockey for two and a half hours.”

“Summer or winter?”

Sirius bites his lip in thought as they walk around the yard, where small flowers line the fence in beds and colorful pots. “I love summer because I have actual free time to be with my friends, but winter is hockey season. I don’t know, next question.”

“What’s a dessert you don’t like?”

“I’m not a huge fan of caramel. It’s too sticky.”

“A skill you’re working on mastering?”

“Will you ban me from more interviews if I say hockey?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, I’m working on keeping plants alive, as you can probably see.” He taps the nearest flowerpot gently with his foot; it has ‘Harry’ painted across it in sloppy blue letters. “My godson made that for my birthday.”

“What’s the best thing to happen to you today?”

“This, for sure,” he says with a smile. “I haven’t seen you and Marley in ages.”

“We missed you, too. What’s the worst thing that happened to you today?”

He pouts slightly. “Burning my tongue on tea.”

“Hugs or kisses?”

“Hugs! Though I’ll accept kisses from a few very specific people.”

“Do you have a favorite smell?”

He pauses and cranes his neck to look behind the cameras. “Re?”

“Yeah?”

“What shampoo do you use?”

“Uhhh…” There’s a moment of quiet. “It’s something with lavender, I think.”

Sirius turns back to Dorcas. “Something with lavender.”

“How specific,” she laughs. “What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?”

He smiles to himself. “There was a young woman, maybe sixteen or seventeen, that came to one of the games earlier this season. I saw her standing with a puck and went over, and while I was signing it she looks at me and says, ‘you are exactly what I wish my older brother was like’. Turns out, she was bisexual and her brother wasn’t super accepting of her. That was…” He shakes his head. “That meant the world to me. I’ll never forget it.”

“You’ve definitely made a big impact on the community,” Dorcas agrees. “What’s the last piece of content you consumed that made you cry?”

“I watched ‘Soul’ the other night and almost had to pause it at one point to pull myself together.”

“Do you prefer animated movies or live-action?”

“Animated, mostly because I wasn’t allowed to watch Disney movies as a kid, so I’ve been catching up as an adult and they rock.”

“What’s your nerdiest quality?

“I love watching documentaries.”

“Sweet or savory?” The back door creaks a bit as they walk back inside and the camera catches a few frames of Hattie and Remus running around the yard together.

“Sweet.”

“In ten years, you have a daughter. What age do you let her date?”

Sirius gives Dorcas a look. “Whenever she wants to. I’m going to impose curfews and stuff, but I’m the last person on the planet to police her love life.”

“Good answer. What’s a song you can listen to on repeat?”

“Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. Absolute banger.”

“If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be?”

“Arthur Weasley,” he says after a moment. “I would love to know what it feels like to get up in the morning and know you’re about to spend another day wrangling our team. It’s a miracle he hasn’t killed us all with his clipboard.”

“How do you know you’re in love?”

“Oh.” Sirius blinks at her in surprise at the sudden topic change. “Well, for me, I think it’s just…being comfortable around someone. Being able to spend time with them without saying anything and knowing you’re safe, no matter what. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

“What are you most excited about at this time in your life?”

A slight smile crinkles his eyes. “Getting married. That’s going to be awesome.”

“Who is your go-to for having a good laugh?”

“James Potter. He’s the best, and I love him.”

“Last question,” Dorcas says, sliding her list into her pocket. “Many LGBT+ people, especially teenagers, have spoken about how you’re an inspiration. Any words for them?”

Sirius hums in thought. “First of all, thank you for being so open and welcoming. I would never have expected the sheer force of people’s love to come through like that when so many people were saying horrible things. Second, to any kids out there who need to hear it: I’m proud of you. It takes a lot to be true to yourself and even if you’re still in the closet, you’re just as valid as the rest of us. Stay proud.”

“That’s a wrap.” Dorcas gives him a quick hug that he happily returns. “Thanks for letting us crash your morning, Cap.”

“Any time. Thanks for tuning in to Lion Pride, everyone!”

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sunbookie · 3 years

Photo

“I do not want to miss a chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”

-Leopold II of Belgium

The relentless pursuit of profits in the Congo by King Leopold II resulted in one of the worst levels of moral decadence for mankind. The colony in the Congo – the Congo Free State – was personal property for the Belgian king and there was little oversight over what happened there.

King Leopold II committed heinous atrocities in the name of chasing profits and raising the prestige of Belgium. The genocide in the Congo is one of the most forgotten pieces of history, but the damage has been long-lasting. From 1885-1908, the Congo Free State under the personal rule of King Leopold II was living hell.

The scramble for Africa by European countries was an intense one, and Belgium, under the monarchical rule of King Leopold II did not want to be left out. Leopold had always been of the view that in order to raise the prestige of Belgium higher (thus raising the status of the country) it was necessary to acquire a colonial empire in the Far East or in Africa. The concept of acquiring a colony was not popular with Belgian politicians and the public. It was considered an unnecessary venture that would add little value to the country. The reluctance of the politicians to accept an adventure towards acquiring colonies could not deter Leopold from getting a colony of his choice.

He instead shifted his focus to explorers and missionaries. Spurred by the recent reports from Central Africa at that time, he began sponsoring explorers, including Henry Morton Stanley. Leopold then established the International African Association – which was purported to be a “charitable” organization on a mission to “spread humanitarian assistance and civilization” to the natives in the Congo.

The organization was handed the rights to oversee the exploration and surveying of territory around the Congo River. In reality, the organization was up to no charity but was solely for profits in the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, the territory controlled by Leopold (totaling 2,350,000 km2) was recognized by other European leaders. The Congo Free State was then meant to be a free trade area and buffer state between British and French spheres of influence. The takeover of the Congo for Leopold’s personal rule had been complete.

The Congo Free State was a patchy colony since the Belgian government had not officially annexed it. Being under the personal rule of Leopold, he did as he pleased to maximize profits. At first, the colony specialized in ivory exports, but this was not as profitable as the investors, administrators, and Leopold himself had thought to be. The colonial administration was always in debt, but the invention of the car and the subsequent demand for rubber changed the colonial fortunes of Leopold.

The dramatic increase in the demand for rubber was music to Leopold’s ears. At that time, the Congo was one of the places in the world with a vast supply for wild rubber. The focus was immediately turned towards the extraction of wild rubber. They used the local people as cheap labour, and the gruesome brutality that came with the extraction of rubber remains one of the darkest chapters in the history of Africa. Congolese males were forced into rubber extraction for export to Europe and North America. Between 1895 and 1900, exports surged from 580 to 3,740 tons.

Concessions were granted to private companies to extract the rubber. All vacant land in the interior – including uncultivated land and all forests – was declared to be “uninhabited” and thus belonged to the state. It effectively and expressly implied all resources in the Congo were under direct colonial ownership. The rest of the land was personal private property for Leopold; and he never set foot in the Congo. The Force Publique – a colonial military force in the Congo at the time, employed vicious and barbarous methods to ensure the unending, uninterrupted extraction of rubber from the local people. The Force Publique comprised of white officers and African soldiers. The soldiers included original recruits, orphans, and slaves.

Rubber quotas were imposed on villages and the Force Publique was called in to enforce these quotas, which were unrealistic to fill. Failure to meet the quotas was punishable by violence and death. The Force Publique would destroy villages, rape women, take hostages, torture, and extort the people. Men who could not fill their quotas would be mutilated and/or killed. At times whole villages that could not fill their quotas would be burned down to the ground as a lesson for other villages. Women and children would be taken hostage until the men filled their designated quotas. The women would be raped.

The furiously high demand for rubber in the 1890s saw the colonial administrators impose quotas that were unachievable. Those who resisted had to be killed, and that meant the use of arms. Ammunition was expensive to import from Europe, therefore, to account for the bullets used in killing people, soldiers were supposed to bring a hand for every bullet used. For every person shot and killed, providing a hand was evidence of a real killing and not wastage of bullets. The administrators believed some of the bullets would be wasted by soldiers hunting. The basket of hands became a grisly nightmare of Leopold’s Red Rubber Terror in the Congo. For proof of the killings done, hands cut off from the victims were supposed to be availed. Sometimes the soldiers would be paid for severed hands because it was proof that they were carrying out the system of terror in the colony.

Nothing was regulated by law, there was little oversight since private companies were given the powers to control the entire production process which included the extraction of rubber. In essence, the rubber quotas were paid off in chopped-off hands. The hands were collected by the Force Publique soldiers, but sometimes hands were also collected by the villagers themselves. Since the rubber quotas were unrealistic to fill, small wars would break out between villages in which they would fight for hands. Hands were a way to buy the loyalty of the white officers to show that the system of terror to force rubber extraction was being implemented. Each hand proved a killing, but sometimes the soldiers would cut off the hands of victims to save ammunition – leaving the victim to either die or survive. It was a “cheating” way to save ammunition. The need for profits spurred incomprehensible human violence. It was an abysmal point in the history of mankind........

Demonic.

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peachbear88 · 3 years

Text

Tale as Old as Time (Pt 2)

A/N: Part 2! We're getting there people!

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

The metal gates swing open with a rusty whine.

Your eyes snap open and you grab your chamber pot, and club the figure over the head.

"Ow!" The figure exclaims, falling over.

You brandish the pot as menacingly as possible, given the awkward angle.

"Who are you?" You demand, your voice cracking. He rubs the growing lump on his head.

"You hit hard madmoiselle," He responds, ignoring your question. Another set of footsteps, heavier ones echo off the stone tower. You gulp, as the figure arrives to reveal a skinny but tall man wearing what appears to be a gold pendant.

"Don't scare the poor girl Pietro. In fact, you shouldn't even be letting the prisoner out!" The man chided. The blond boy (supposedly) named Pietro laughed, ruffling his hair. He zooms over to where the man is, leaving a faint blue mist behind him.

"What's wrong doc? Scared what'll happen when my sister finds out?" He teases and the doctor shoves him away, wrapping his floating red cloak tighter around him.

"Oh shut up." Pietro turns back to you.

"So. You're the new prisoner." He looks you up and down. You drop the pot and it hits the floor with a loud clang, making him flinch.

"Yep, that's me. Come to kill me at last?" You question, raising your arms as if to embrace death. He bursts into laughter, slapping the tall man on the shoulder.

"Oh man! Strange, did you hear that? She thinks we're going to kill her!" He keeps laughing while the man named Strange rolls his eyes, muttering something about stupid kids.

"So... You're not going to kill me?" You inquire hopefully. Pietro's laughter dies off as he wipes tears from his eyes.

"Kill you? When you could be the one to break the curse? I think not." He shakes his head as if you were the foolish one before thrusting his hand out. "After you."

You walk down the stairs hesitantly, the bright walls of the hallways a stark contrast to your dim cell.

After a few moments, you can't take it anymore, your curiosity getting the best of you.

"What was that you said about a curse?" Pietro instantly pales, shoving you rather forcefully along the hallway.

"Did I say curse? I meant uh-" He stutters, his eyes frantically scanning the area for an excuse. "I mean purse!" He waves the bag in front of your face. "Break the purse!"

You stare at him.

"Break the purse." You repeat skeptically. Strange pushes you along, seemingly in a hurry.

"Oh look! We've arrived at our destination." He pushes the grand golden doors open and your jaw drops. A beautiful, extravagant bedroom lays behind the doors, the ceiling arching up and curving into a golden dome.

"Wow..." You gasp, twirling around in the room.

"Mistress wanted you to have the finest." Strange replies, bowing low. You snort.

"That girl from earlier?" You look him up and down. "No offence but you look more like you should be her master." He opens his mouth to reply but Pietro cuts him off, shoving him out of the room.

"Well, we'll let you get settled! We hope you'll join us for dinner!" With one last shove, the two disappear from the doorway, leaving you to your own devices.

The moment the door slams shut behind them, you scan the room, your eyes landing on the silken sheets adorning the mattress. You make quick work of it, tearing it into long, thin strips.

"Okay. I can work with this."

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

A small knock sounds out and you frantically shove the long strip of cloth away.

"Come in!" You call out and a menacing looking woman comes in, followed by a boy around the age of 15, wearing a red and blue costume with what appears to be a spider on it. You gape at the odd duo.

"Is that... A spider?" You murmur and the boy bounds into action, sticking his arm out for you to shake.

"Hi! My name's Peter. Peter Parker." You smile at his bubbly demeanor.

"Y/N." The woman's eyes never leave you, examining you. You shrink under her gaze.

"Right! This is Ms Natasha Romanoff. She may look really scary but she's actually a massive softie." Peter whispers confidentially and Natasha smacks him on the head. You laugh at their familial dynamic.

"It's a pleasure to meet you sweetie," She curtseys and you smile. "Please ignore this dumb child." She gestures to Peter.

"Hey!" He exclaims indignantly. You giggle.

"Well, we came to welcome you to our humble abode. Cup of tea?" She proffers and you smile, accepting it. The scent is heavenly, the right amount of sweetness and bitterness. "I find that a perfect cup of tea is just what we all need when it gets rough."

You smile weakly.

"Thank you. Why are you being so nice to me?" Natasha sighs, watching Peter swing around your room, little webs coming from his wrists.

"Well dear, we're all prisoners here as well. Might as well make the best of it." She shrugs and ushers Peter out of the room, leaving you deep in thought.

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

Steve sighs, his feet in Sam's lap, warming his frozen fingers by the fire. The noise of the pub does little to raise his spirits.

"How could she possibly reject me? The most handsome man in the village!" He sighs again while Sam massages his feet. Sam throws the feet off his lap.

"Gosh it disturbs me to see you Steve,"

"Looking so down in the dumps."

"Every guy here'd love to me you Steve!"

"Even when taking your lumps." He cries, massaging Steve's ears.

"There's no man in town as admired as you,"

"You're everyone's favorite guy."

"Everyone's awed and inspired by you,"

"And it's not very hard to see why."

He drops a few coins into the bar musicians hand.

"No one's slick as Rogers,"

"No one's quick as Rogers,"

"No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Rogers!' He exclaims, twisting the neck of a rather large man rather violently, a large crack echoing around the pub.

"For there's no man in town half as manly."

"Perfect, a pure paragon!" The fair girls pipe up from behind Sam. He hops onto the bar, sitting in between 3 very drunk men.

"You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley,"

"And they'll tell you whose team they'd prefer to be on..." He slaps them on the back of their heads, giving them a pointed stare until they catch on.

"Who plays..."

"Darts like Rogers!'

"Who breaks..."

"Hearts like Rogers!"

"Who's much more than the sum of his parts like Rogers!"

Steve warms up to the attention, flashing a debonair smile at everyone.

"As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!"

"My what a guy, that Rogers!" The people cry, raising their mugs and splatters beer everywhere.

"I needed encouragement,"

"Thank you, Sam." He exclaims, slapping Sam on the shoulders.

"Well there's no one as easy to bolster as you!" He wraps Steve in a tight embrace for a bit too long.

"Too much?"

"Yep." They disentangle their limbs from each other.

"No one the fights like Rogers,"

"Douses lights like Rogers." To emphasize their point, Steve licks both his hands and slaps them onto the candles, extinguishing them with a satisfying hiss.

"In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Rogers!" Sam pulls his shirt up to reveal a deep bite on his abdomen. A few people squeal.

"When I hunt, I sneak up with my quiver,"

"And beasts of the field say a prayer."

"First I carefully aim for the liver,"

"Then I shoot from behind."

"Is that fair?" Sam pipes up.

"I don't care."

"No one hits like Rogers,"

"Matches wits like Rogers,"

"In a spitting match, nobody spits like Rogers!"

"I'm especially good at expectorating!" He throws his head back and hocks up a good chunk of spit which lands in the pot Sam is holding.

"Ten points for Rogers!"

"When I was a lad, I ate four dozen eggs,"

"Every morning to help me get large." He grabs nearby woman by the waist and lifts her onto his right arm. The fair girls swoon.

"And now that I'm grown, I eat five dozen eggs,"

"So I'm roughly the size of a barge!" He slowly grabs Sam and lifts him onto his left arm, making the crowd gasp.

Steve drops them both and jumps onto the long table, tap dancing with the two other ladies. Sam grabs decorative swords and tosses them to a few men while Steve keeps dancing. They jump onto the table, brandishing their swords menacingly. The ladies jump out of the way as Steve draws his own sword. He clubs one over the head, spinning around and pretends to stab another dramatically. With a large flourish, he raises the sword to mimic the mural of himself on the wall behind him.

"Who has brains like Rogers?"

"Entertains like Rogers?" Sam belts out but Steve pushes him aside.

"Who can make up these endless refrains like Rogers?" Steve bellows, raising his arms.

"I use antlers in all of my decorating."

"Say it again!"

"Who's a man among men?"

"Who's the super success?"

"Don't you know? Can't you guess?"

"Ask his fans and his five hangers-on."

"There's just one guy in town,"

"Who's got all of it down..."

"And his name's S-T- Uh... I believe it's a D after?" Sam begins tentatively as Steve glares at him. "It just occurred to me that I'm illiterate, and I've never actually had to spell it out loud before..."

"Steve Rogers!"

The crowd bursts into a final round of applause, settling down as they dive deep into the hazy fumes of alcohol again.

"Ah, thank you Sam! I don't know what I'd do without you." Steve exclaims, plopping back down into his cushioned armchair. "How is it no woman has picked you up yet?"

"Well, I've been told I'm clingy but I don't really get it." Sam mutters obliviously, his arms draped around Steve's shoulders. Steve nods awkwardly.

A loud bang echoes into the pub and Tony comes rushing in, disheveled.

"You must help me! She's got Y/N! Please, you must help!" He cries, falling to his knees. Steve stays back while Sam rushes forwards.

"Tony, calm yourself. Who's got Y/N?" He asks soothingly.

When Tony looks back up, fear shines through his glassy eyes.

"The witch."

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

Taglist: @username23345 @musicinourlips @gingerbreadcookieforlife @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @ima-gi--na-tion @nicole-rayleigh-hot @olsensnpm @peabrain112 @yeetus-thyself

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff #wanda fluff #wanda angst

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chem-24 · 3 years

Text

some thoughts on one of the datamined/leaked characters and Inazuma

Specifically, about this funky Aetherface-looking dude + some stuff about the Electro Archon got in too, somehow :/

(watch as this gets debunked into the ground when the Inazuma update is released)

What are the scraps that we know of him so far? Well, his name is “Kazuha”, and he’s going to be an Anemo Sword!

Yeah there’s been some prior misinformation about him being a pyro polearm (even I thought he was going to be pyro sword), but that was more just him getting confused with this other guy called “Tohama” (who’s also supposed to be Ayaka’s (arranged) fiancée? No idea how that’s going to turn out). Plus, you can see Kazuha’s Anemo Vision on the second pic here:

It appears to be an autumn motif instead, which is also pretty cool and can still tie into the wind theme

The second thing I did notice though (first being ooooo new pyro character) was that he looked like a samurai. It’s also why I had doubts about him being a polearm user.

*[Yes I know historical samurais have used bows and spears in the past. But even Japanese media pushes the “samurai = katanas” angle, and Kazuha strikes me as more of a “pop culture-style Japanese swordsman” than a historically-accurate one if you get what I’m saying.]

To digress a little; how’s Inazuma looking? Well, according to Zhongli: the Electro Archon, also known as “Baal” or “Raiden”, has issued a “Vision Hunt Decree” to confiscate her people’s visions and decorate them on the hands of a “thousand-armed statue”, as well as closing off the country. Furthermore, it is said that no one has received an Electro Vision in a year in-story by “the will of the Electro Archon”.

There is a runaway NPC from Inazuma to Liyue called “Atsuko”, who provides a tangible picture of Inazuma’s current state of affairs:

As pointed out in this reddit post, Baal’s actions are a parallel to other real life Japanese rulers such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi & Tokugawa Ieyasu; from closing the country and confiscating swords (visions) from the populace, up to melting all the swords to create a giant metal statue (that one didn’t work, but it’s the thought that counts).

**[my personal thoughts on this is that someone or something else has either succeeded or stole Baal’s position as the Electro Archon, which would explain the sudden extreme personality change.

Like, try to think of this in terms of the in-story timeline - the lockdown specifically happened a year ago; no one knows what’s going on inside Inazuma, nor does Inazuma know anything about the outside world. Thus, the Electro Archon shouldn’t know about ‘recent events’ like Venti getting his gnosis stolen or Zhongli’s “”death””, so her/their(?) current actions are definitely not influenced by what’s happening to the other Archons - this was something the Electro Archon decided to do on their own, independently of the Tsaritsa’s/Fatui’s plans.

Venti has explained before that anybody with a vision is capable of becoming a god, so the possibility is there. Hell, they may even be posing as Baal and hiding the truth of their ascension for some reason.

If you’re familiar with Japanese history, then think about how Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa came to power in the first place.

To summarize briefly: Hideyoshi was originally a vassal of another warlord called “Oda Nobunaga”, who united most of Japan. However, Nobu was betrayed and killed by another one of his vassals known as “Akechi Mitsuhide”, so Hideyoshi stepped up and finished the rest of the job.

After Hideyoshi’s death, Tokugawa (and 4 other men) was supposed to look over his son until he was of age to rule. But Tokugawa was growing in popularity at the time, so he stepped to take power himself.

So in the context of the Genshin story, perhaps the “Toyotomi Hideyoshi” and “Akechi Mitsuhide” figures are being fused together (aka: this person killed the previous Electro Archon and took her place). Or it’s a Stanley/Venti’s friend situation 2.0

Plus, it’s added dramatic irony to the whole ‘God of Eternity’ also being the god of lightning; something fundamentally transient and brief. Their so-called ‘eternity’ is as fleeting as a lightning bolt, or something.]

Anyways, back to Kazuha.

If we’re going with the implication that the Archons are responsible for giving out their respective elemental Visions (others have theorized about this too); then what does that say about Kazuha, who has an Anemo Vision (proudly displayed in full view too!) given by the God of Freedom?

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Kazuha may turn out to be a “wandering vagrant” or “ronin”-archetype character; kinda like what Miyamoto Musashi does. A vagabond that wanders the land and maybe hides in a village once in a while, but never having an established home.

Of course, there’s still plenty of unknowns such as what his actual personality is like - but I think that with this, we can narrow down one part of his character concept at least.

Take another look at his character design: Kazuha is associated with “autumn”, which invokes the imagery “falling leaves in the wind from a tree” and “the passing of something”; possibly exemplifying Kazuha’s nature as a ‘wanderer’ who never stays in one place for too long, and perhaps the presence of a former/deceased master or organization(?).

Furthermore, Kazuha has very albino-esque features with white hair and red eyes, which could further indicate him being a “outcast”. Razor is another character with white hair and red eyes, and he’s very much an “outcast” from ‘normal’ human civilization too - what with being raised by wolves and all. (there’s also some people who think Kazuha and Razor could be long-lost brothers, which is kinda eeeeehhhhhhh 🤷 for me)

Combining that with the historical context of “confiscating swords = confiscating visions”, that would make Kazuha either:

A: a wanderer from the start, and thus far enough away from Inazuma’s capital to avoid the initial Vision Hunt order when it started

B: went on the run after the “Vision Hunt Decree” was issued

Either way, by refusing to give away his “sword” (vision), it would most likely make Kazuha a high-profile criminal and wanted target in Inazuma. Possibly with a bounty included too.

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

By the way, as some have already pointed out: some significant characters (interestingly, most of the gods) in Genshin share design similarities with other Honkai Impact characters (another Mihoyo-made game). For more examples, here’s official art of Fu Hua (a Honkai character) that makes her look suspiciously like Zhongli.

I’m bringing this up because some twitter users have pointed out that Kazuha seemingly looks like Fu Hua in her [Phoenix] battlesuit:

Is this just a coincidence, or does it really hold some deeper meaning? Personally speaking, I’d prefer that Kazuha stays human, but I guess another god isn’t too bad either :X

and with that design significance, my dreams of obtaining Kazuha as a 4* are flushed down the drain

#genshin impact #genshin impact theory #genshin theory #inazuma #genshin baal #genshin kazuha #kazuha #tohama #genshin razor #I accidentally brushed a finger past Post on mobile while it was unfinished #so I had to delete and rewrite this all over again from memory urkjrerjehrejhfyslfir

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babytortie · 3 years

Text

baby birds

baby birds. ❘ stanley uris x reader.

summary: in which stanley finally breaks and distances himself from the loser’s group. the reader finds him alone and helps him cope to feel better.

warning: lots of fluff. <3

contains: slight mentioning of insecurities.

* all characters ( including reader ) of the loser's club are 15 years old in this one-shot.

~ 2.4k words.

it's been a couple of days since stanley showed up at the loser's clubhouse and the group was getting anxious. the curly haired teen always showed up after school when the group wanted to hang out. recently, he's made excuses for the past three times they've all hung out though.

"where's stan the man at?" mike broke the silence, uncrossing his legs and getting up from the couch to sit by bill instead. previously, he had been sitting with y/n and beverly. somehow but not before banging it around a few times and ben having to fix the walls, they managed to get the couch inside one weekend.

it was a hand-me down from the denbrough's garage. only deemed safe and clean after eddie tore it apart. the cushions and pillows were shampooed, as well as, a finishing touch of spray downs with two cans of lysol.

"maybe ed's mom is cheating on me and he's with her right now?" richie snickered, glancing up at the others from the hammock to see all of them unamused and letting out groans.

in his hand was the newest comic and for the past couple of minutes he'd been browsing through it. although, the tozier teen was not completely paying attention since he was mesmerized with eddie's face. the sunlight peeked through the wooden cracks and all of the asthmatic boy's freckles dusted perfectly along his skin.

the shorter boy was talking with bill who sat a few feet away from them and overheard the lanky boy's comment through mid-conversation. in return, he leaned over from the other side of the hammock and smacked richie's arm. "don't call me eds! how many times do i have to tell you that? also, i already have a nick name and it's eddie."

he swatted eddie's arm away and of course dramatically rubbed his arm a few times. with another occasional adjustment made to his coke-bottle glasses, richie pouted and put his arms up in exaggeration. "oh right sorry about that eddie spaghetti. but i don't know then. y/n?" he asked, automatically assuming you had answers about the curly haired teenager’s whereabouts.

beverly was in the middle of braiding y/n's hair and rolled her eyes. she let go of your strands and quickly smoothed them out. this was making you able to turn face-forward instead of the current side-ways position on the couch that you now only shared with her.

before reacting to the richie's remark, you gave beverly a sympathetic smile. an awfully long minute went by before you finally acknowledged tozier. he was still cackling though and everyone, including you, could tell it was full of nervousness.

"seriously, richie? i've talked to stanley just as much as the rest of you the last couple of days." you stated with a glare then shrugged before leaning back against the couch cushions.

"y-yeah, just bec-cause y/n and stan a-are love b-birds doesn't m-mean they keep tab-bs on each other all t-the time. ri-ight guys?" bill smirked.

beverly immediately put a hand over her mouth to contain the giggles threatening to spill out. she risked her luck and turned to gaze in your direction but you were already taking note of this with an eyebrow raised.

"are you alright there, beverly?" ben asked out of concern. because of her skin complexion, her face was easily able to turn bright red. he hasn't been paying much attention to the conversation with being zoned out into another good story. hanscom's face had been happily stuffed into an interesting book from the library.

"i'm sorry! sorry, it's just stanley and birds. good one bill!" she stumbled over her words from laughter. after a moment of hearing beverly and richie snickering together, like they were high, the others couldn't help but start hollering and whistling too.

"yep, laugh it up. glad to be of service for the jokes of today." shouting playfully which only caused a channeling of an inner-richie. you grabbed the couch arm for balance and stood up. they watched as you bowed twice then sat back down like the tozier teen would have been doing if he were the one in this situation.

the group would always tease you and stan. this causing the both of you to always blush in result and look anywhere in the room but each other while full of embarrassment.

the crazy thing was that what they said was true. neither of you wanted to admit first though and it was just another daily topic for the group. the other six members wished one of you would just open up and discuss the feelings you two bottled inside. no use still and after months of teasing, you nor stanley backed down yet.

"does anybody know where he'd be at right now?" mike paused to take a glimpse at his watch then added, "at four-thirty? he wouldn't go home so soon yet with his dad being off today."

the group was silent, none knew and the fact you and stan had a secret spot was not common shared information either. you contemplated for a moment before thinking what the hell? and just spoke up with a reply before you could take it back. "yeah, in fact i do. i'll see you guys later."

to avoid their stares, you didn't dare catching their reactions. instead taking that time to lean over the side of the couch and grab your backpack from school, lazily putting the straps around your shoulders.

"see, what'd i tell you?" richie smirked, leaning over in the hammock towards bill for a high five who did not return it but had a grin of his own. ben placed a bookmark into the open pages to mark the spot he left off on. after this, he gave beverly a look. this expression was one similar eddie was giving to mike.

"see you later guys!" you bid farewell once more and climbed the clubhouse stairs to venture off. you stifled a chuckle as you started to walk away, hearing them all burst out mixed comments of confusion and excitement.

about thirty minutes of walking later, you reached the woods surrounding the quarry. there was a ridge in the rocks off to the side which lead to a path. one wouldn't notice it from afar without really inspecting the vicinity.

it was about half a mile and stan was usually there with a towel laid out and his back against one of the trees. a perfect crease-free bird book splayed out on top of his lap and a pair of binoculars in the teen's hands.

recently if stanley were home he'd be in his room. with a lock on his door, he laid while reading books front to back and cover to cover. which was probably what he did last night except, the perfectionist took his sweet ol' time. this was to memorize every picture of the birds and the facts about them that was printed across the crisp pages.

before doing anything, you adjusted the long sleeves of the black and white flannel tied around your waist. your chucks nervously toed in the dirt gravel and you let out a deep breath you hadn't realized you were holding. curiously studying stan after that and noticing your prediction wasn’t far off. it was actually almost spot on except the book was nowhere to be found.

"this seat taken?" you asked, pointing towards the empty spot on the towel next to him. the uris teen jumped a bit, probably zoned out on a bird that was perched on the branch a few trees away from where you and stan were.

he looked over to you, a smile gracing his face. "it is now." uris was never bothered by the fact you often crashed the private bird-watching hobby of his. you knew he enjoyed quiet time in complete silence besides the occasional birds chirping. this was how it was found out that you had taken a liking to often just sitting and relaxing with your favorite person.

you started to move quickly by placing your backpack down before either of you could change his mind. with your hands placed on the back of your tied flannel, you crouched down before finding a comfortable position to sit in. then reaching into the bag, you retrieved the water bottle to take a sip.

after putting it back away, you sneaked a peek at him and saw that he was already watching you. your face flushed and you quickly faced away. not wanting to make a big deal of it, you started a conversation instead.

"you ready to talk yet?" you questioned, not wanting to push him but had already gave him a few minutes to gather his thoughts. he was an over-thinker. you knew him so well that almost all of the time, you could practically see the wheels turning in his head.

he watched the bird in the binoculars once more. admiring the red and orange colorful feathers before setting it down on the other side of him. letting out a loud sigh, he pondered. "i don't know y/n. am i a disappointment to you?"

stan? stanley uris? you opened your mouth and closed it again quite speechless with disbelief. disappointment? why would the person who you think is the definition of perfect think that he is a disappointment?"

“no way bubs! never." you stated in the most serious tone you've ever used to reassure him. looking into his brown eyes you noticed a few golden flecks that always caught in the sunlight. stan was a beautiful person inside and out but y/n hoped that he knew that.

"are you sure?" he asked, sheepishly and glanced down at his hands. if stanley couldn’t look you directly into the eyes, there was definitely something wrong. you took this as a chance to open up some feelings of your own and grabbed his left hand with your right, interlocking the fingers.

his breath hitched at the sight and he observed your hands together. a pair that fit perfectly and he felt his heart skip a beat at the thought. being as you were still confused, he took this as an appropriate moment to peer up at your face but he caught your eye again instead.

stan felt tears forming in the back of his eyes. figuring he should just tell you sooner or later, he let you know. "uh, so ever since the bar mitzvah, my dad and i have been distant. i just feel like i’m his disgraced son and a failure all the time."

he half-whispered the whole thing. inside he was feeling so ashamed that he told you this with such a sad tone full of dejection. this was shocking, making you completely quiet for a few moments to process the explanation. the tears had won, prickling and slowly starting to glaze over his eyes. your heart was breaking into pieces at the sight.

"it's been like almost two years though? maybe he doesn't know how to go about the situation. you should just get to the bottom of it and confront him tomorrow stanny." suggesting with a soft smile on your lips.

“i don’t know about that y/n, but thanks.” he chuckled, subtly glancing at your lips before clearing his throat and looking away again. while he watched the area, you rested into the crook of his neck. on the towel between the two of you was your right hand still intertwined with his. your eyes flickered up to scan the tree trunks. you gasped loudly at the sight above and patted stanley’s arm to grab his attention.

the two of you watched the branches above closely, your fingers squeezing his tightly while watching in awe. a bird’s nest was leaned up against the trunk of tree. you and stanley sat in silence to witness it. being as it was so quiet now, the only sounds that could be heard were little chirps coming from it.

“is that baby birds?” you whispered excitedly. rubbing over his thumb with yours. he watched how your face softened in awe. truly appreciating that you enjoyed when he shared this specific hobby with you.

his eyes widened when he finally realized the feeling in his stomach. butterflies. probably a whole zoo full of them. that was how much he liked, no, loved you. he shook his head and snickered at the fact you had the decency to talk quietly. “no need to whisper, y/n/n. we’ve been talking out loud this whole time. so, they won’t leave.”

you giggled; a sound that made him feel all mushy inside. stan loved your laugh and knew that if you asked him to do anything right now that he would in fact do it. smoothly letting go of your hand, he moved it rub your shoulder in comfort.

this was until you felt him slowly replacing the position of his fingers and they were repositioned underneath your chin. tilting your head upwards gently, he whispered softly now. it was almost as if he was scared that if he raised his voice to much, it would ruin the moment. “is this okay?”

the curly haired boy looked into your eyes for reassurance and you stumbled over a response by his sudden rush of confidence. lost in shock by his brown and golden flecked eyes, all you could get out was chopped, raspy response. “of course, bubs.”

stanley leaned in slowly, still a bit afraid you would change your mind. proving him wrong you quickly followed to meet him halfway. his lips finally brushed against yours and you felt his hand rub along your cheek with such delicacy. you scooted closer so you could easily put your hand in stan’s hair and massage his curls. he let out a small moan and smiled into the kiss.

before he pulled away slightly to let the two of you breathe, he rubbed your cheek once more. you kissed both corners of his lips and then his nose. a sweet laugh falling from his lips at the gestures.

you grabbed his hand again, playfully sizing them together and he watched. casually asking, “so do you want to be my girlfriend?”

“of course, i’d love to stanny!” grinning you leaned in to peck his lips once more but it turned into a small passionate kiss instead. after you both pulled away again, he questioned with a smirk. “should we tell the others, babylove?”

you let out a small hum, as if you were thinking of an answer. though, you broke the act with a smirk. one that he caught and snickered already knowing how this was going to go.

it wasn’t a hard decision, seeing as you felt like returning a little pay back of your own from all of the teasing. so, your response was simple. “nope. let’s see how long it takes for them to figure it out.”

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kelieah · 4 years

Text

an unexpected gift (tom holland x reader)

summary: tom gets an unforgettable and a long-awaited birthday gift

word count: 2.9k

warnings: angst, fluff, suggestive content, a TRIGGERING TOPIC struggling fertility! please don’t read if it’s a sensitive topic for you ❤️ (also i am here if anyone needs to talk, you’re not alone love)

edited: so this fic took me forever, and here i am posting two fking days after his bday 😭 with everything going on i hope this takes your mind off it for a milisecond, ily all. stay strong 🥺

a/n: i knowwww i know it’s his bday but i couldn’t help but add some angst jdsabfk anyways HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY THOMAS STANLEY HOLLAND we all love you so much hehe

masterlist

[05/29/20]

Your mind swirls with emotion as you wait patiently for what felt like the millionth time.

Please. Please. Please.

You thought to yourself as you pace around your bathroom. You inhale deeply and look down at the fifth pregnancy test you took in your trembling hands. Your eyes begin to blur with tears when you notice the two bright pink lines slowly appear in the little box. You let out a shaky sob, “O-Oh my god. Oh my god, thank you. Holy shit. T-Thank you,” you whimper happily.

You place the test aside, feeling as if a weight was lifted off your shoulders. You run your hands through your hair and back up against the bathroom door, sliding down to the floor. You feel your tears stream down your cheeks while a smile makes its way onto your face.

You and Tom have been married for about two years and been trying to have a baby for the past year. It’s been a rocky road of trial and error, medicines and doctors visits. Now, you both finally just received the most precious and priceless gift anyone could ask for.

You stand up taking a deep breath and close your eyes. This is what you and Tom have been waiting for, what you both have been hoping for. You finally got pregnant, after countless attempts. You didn’t expect it to happen so soon but you couldn’t be more grateful.

You breathe out, your lips quivering as you pick up the test once again. You think for a moment and add up the weeks in your mind. You’re about a week pregnant. You assumed the symptoms you were having were just PMS, but look where you are now. Pregnant. Unbelievable. It truly is a dream came true.

Tom wasn’t home yet because he’s been gone for press the whole day. You wanted to burst into some random interview Tom is in right now and tell him the news, but you’d rather plan something out for him. Especially since his birthday is coming up.

You walk over to your bedroom and pick up your phone, immediately calling your parents to tell them the news. Emotions were all over the place once you told them, their reactions similar to you finding out for the first time.

“I know. I know Dad,” you laugh weakly, wiping away some tears. “I love you, okay bye. I’m going to call Nikki.”

You feel yourself grow more excited, “Hi Mom,” you say as she picks up.

“Hello, sweetheart! I love it when you call. I hope Tom isn’t being a hassle,” she teases.

You giggle at her joke and pause for a moment before springing the big news on her. “Nikki, I’m p-pregnant,” you spill out, still in disbelief even though you already told your own parents.

“Bloody hell! Seriously!?” she cries out in joy, “Dom!” she yells, walking off with her phone.

You giggle, sniffing and swipe away tears that fell once again, “Yes, darling? What’s with the shouting,” Dominic comes into view.

“She’s pregnant, oh my she’s- they’re pregnant honey,” she hugs his arm.

His eyes widen as he gasps, “Congratulations Y/n! We know how long you and Tom have been trying, this is wonderful!”

“T-Thank you, I know,” you chuckle softly, “S-Speaking of Tom, I’ve been planning a lot for his birthday. So I was thinking you all should fly over from London, I may have already bought some tickets.”

“Y/n,” Nikki covers her mouth, “You didn’t have to.”

“Oh but I wanted to, I emailed you the tickets. Your flights leave tomorrow, I hope that gives you enough time.”

Before you found out you were pregnant, you already had a couple of plans for Tom’s birthday. To fly over his family, including Tess of course, and set up a surprise birthday party.

You debated if you should’ve invited any of his celebrity friends, but with the big news you know he would want to keep things more secluded. Which you completely understood. Memories of you and Tom getting together for the first time yet being outed to the media within weeks flooded your mind. Great times.

Tom hasn’t seen his family in a couple of months because he’s been recording and doing press here in America. Though you both live in LA, you two made sure to visit London frequently. Not only because you loved spending time there, but seeing his family was always so heartwarming and uplifting. His family is so kind and fun to be around just like him, you always felt right at home with them.

But to kill time, you thought why not mess with him a bit. You’re now waiting for Tom to come home from press, dinner time nearing. You sprawl out, stomach flat on the bed you share with Tom, scrolling through your phone mindlessly.

You let out a quiet gasp as you feel a weight on top of your body, “Hi my love,” he chuckles, lying on you.

“Hello, Tommy,” you hum, “Get off though, you’re squishing us,” you pout, shrugging him off.

He tilts his head and quickly gets off of you, sitting next to you, “Us?”

You cup your breasts, winking at him, “These girlies,” you joke.

“Oh woman,” he tackles you gently back on the bed.

“Excuse me?” you gasp dramatically, looking up at him as he pinned you down to the bed.

“You heard me, my woman. My beautiful, beautiful woman,” he teases. You give him a look and he leaves kisses along your jaw, “You know I’m only joking, my wife.”

“That’s better, Daddy,” you grin at the name, feeling like a giddy teenager for knowing something he doesn’t.

“Love, we haven’t even had dinner yet. You know what that name does to me,” he grumbles.

“Don’t be a big baby, I’m just teasing,” you peck his nose.

“Better be pretty girl, I missed you,” he sits up and lifts you onto his lap, “How are you doing?”

“Much better now that you’re here,” you rest your arms lazily on his shoulders, “I’ve already prepped dinner, do you want to help make it?”

“That would be lovely,” he presses his lips against yours which you kindly accept and kiss back.

[05/31/20]

“Thank you again, sweetie, you truly didn’t have to. We could’ve paid,” Nikki says pulling away from hugging you.

“Nonsense, it’s the least I could do for everything you all have done for us. Tom’s actually staying overnight at a hotel with the cast, so it’s perfect for us to get things ready,” you beam, smiling at the rest of Hollands.

After reuniting with his beautiful family and helping them settle into a nearby hotel, you all began to set up for his birthday.

“Hi Tessa,” you squeal, playing with her as she jumps around on you, “I know, you miss daddy? I miss him too,” you ruffle her head.

“Should this go over here?” Harry asks, lifting up a decoration to the wall.

“Yep, a little bit more to the side. Perfect,” you give him a thumbs up.

“Thanks, Mom,” he teases.

You roll your eyes, fanning him off, “Oh shush, Uncle,” you retort playfully.

You walk around helping everyone out and make sure things are in place. You walk over to the balcony to see Paddy leaning over the railings, “Hey Pads, everything okay?”

He smiles and looks back at you, “Oh yeah, it’s nothing,” he mutters quietly. You immediately catch him wiping away a tear and walk over, opening your arms up. He quickly hugs you, placing his head on your chest.

“Sweetheart,” you pout, rubbing his head, “What’s wrong?”

“I-I can’t believe I’m going to become an uncle,” he sniffles.

Your eyes soften and you run your hands through his hair, “An amazing uncle.”

“I’m only 15,” he huffs.

“Almost 16,” you remind him, shrugging. “I’ve seen younger uncles,” you reassure playfully making him chuckle.

“I’m so happy for you two, I know how much you both have been waiting for this,” he pulls away, wiping away more tears. “You know,” he sighs, looking back out at the city.

“Hm?” you lean on the railing with him.

“I know you know this already but, Tom really does love you. I remember how heartbroken he’d be after you both failed to become pregnant over and over again, he used to call us each time. His voice was almost gone, his eyes red and puffy. He felt so bad, he felt like it was his fault at times. Telling us how helpless and disappointed he felt,” he mumbles softly.

You look over at Paddy in bewilderment. Tom never told you that, and you assumed he tells you everything. “I didn’t,” you trail off your heart tightening at the thought of Tom in such a vulnerable state, “I didn’t know that Paddy, thank you for telling me that.”

“I think he might pass out when you tell him, no joke,” he smiles sadly.

You both look at each other for a moment and begin to giggle, “I’d actually love to see that.”

“Me too,” he snorts.

Both of your laughter dies down, you ruffle his hair for the last time, “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Y/n?”

“Yep?”

“You two are going to be amazing parents.”

[06/01/2020]

“How was your night?” you smile, leaning against your bedrest looking at your tired husband through the screen.

“It was really fun, they wanted to celebrate for my birthday of course. So we drank a bit, got to know each other more and just messed around, it was a nice way to get close to the cast,” he yawns.

“That’s great, I’m glad you got to. My birthday boy must be exhausted, huh?”

He chuckles softly, “Sure am, one more recording today, and then I’ll be home before you know it,” he reassures. “All good babe, it’s just me and,” you look around your room, “Oh right, it’s just me,” you sigh dramatically. “Darling,” he whines, hugging a pillow to his chest, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be Tommy, I’m only joking around of course. I love you. I can’t wait for you to come home, so we can have our own little celebration,” you wink.

He giggles and looks back at the camera, “I love you so much. I don’t know what I would do without you, seriously,” he mutters, watching you.

You blush underneath his gaze, “I could say the same.”

“No seriously princess, you’re so understanding and compassionate. Unbelievably amazing, an actual angel. I don’t even think you belong on earth, let alone with an earthling like me,” he bubbles happily.

You snicker quietly, “Okay, Peter Parker,” you tease making him roll his eyes, “Thank you though Tommy, I love you more. You’re such a sap.”

“Only for you. I have to go, see you later?”

“Yup. Forever and?”

“Ever.”

You end the call, tossing your phone aside and hop off the bed. You freshen up a bit and change into more suitable clothes.

You walk around your apartment, smiling softly at all the decorations you and his family had recently put up.

You call Sam and let him know that Tom’s coming home soon. He tells you they’re all on their way.

You tidy up a bit more and heat up some food. You open the door to the Hollands and smile, “Hello hello, again,” you let them inside.

They greet you once more and place presents in the living room. Dom pulls you aside, “How are you feeling, are you ready to tell him?” he asks.

You smile warmly and nod excitedly, “Definitely. I can’t imagine what his reaction is going to be like.”

“We can’t either,” he laughs, “So where do you want us to hide?”

About half an hour later Tom says he’s on his way home, so you look around doing a final check and smile in content.

You walk out to the balcony and check the corner to see them all bunched up together, “You all okay?” you ask.

“Yep,” Harry gives you a thumbs up, everyone else agrees.

“Are you gonna be quiet Tess?” you scratch underneath her chin as she walks up to you. She looks at you with curious eyes and you accept that as her response, “Good girl,” you kiss her forehead.

You check your phone and look up back up at them, “He says he’s five minutes away,” you chirp. They nod and you close the sliding door, walking back inside.

You feel your heart begin to race as you play out every reaction Tom could have. He could actually pass out, or maybe think it’s a joke? You have no idea, but nonetheless you were excited.

You jump at the sound of the door unlocking and opening, “Darling?” he calls out. You rush over to him before he comes inside, and tackle him into a hug.

He stumbles out into the hallway and holds you close, “Happy Birthday again,” you grin, wrapping your arms around his neck.

“Thank you again,” he kisses your cheek and squeezes your waist, “I have a feeling you’re hiding something my love,” he hums, trying to push past you.

“Well, it’s nothing big,” you move out of the way, letting him inside. You swear you see his eyes twinkle when he looks around the apartment.

“Nothing big? Babe,” he pouts and places down his baggage, “I love this so much, you’re adorable,” he opens his arms.

You bite your lip and close the door behind him, hugging him tightly, “Why don’t you freshen up a bit and meet on the balcony? You smell like hotel,” you joke, kissing at his earlobe.

“Alright alright, meet you out there,” he grabs his bags and walks over to your bedroom. You grin grabbing your camera and hide in the kitchen.

You wait about ten minutes and text Harry some quick updates. You hear Tom walk over to the balcony, sliding the door open. You instantly pop up and stealthily follow him while recording.

“Love?” he steps outside, looking around.

“Surprise!” his family shouts out.

He lets out a scream and holds out his fists in defensive. You all burst out in laughter and Tom immediately looks over at you, “Jesus, you guys!” he cries out.

He trips on the rug but makes his way over to them, hugging them tightly, “Happy Birthday sweetheart,” Nikki chirps, squeezing his arm.

“Thanks, Mum,” he smiles warmly, “Tessa! You’re here too?” he bends down, hugging her as she jumps into his arms, “How?” he pretends to sob happily.

“Your wonderful wife of course,” Sam motions over to you, while you smile proudly.

“Thank you all, seriously,” he stands up, hugging them all again.

“When you all are done reuniting, I think lunch is ready,” you hum, winking at Paddy who helped you prepare the meals beforehand.

Shortly after you all ate together and caught up, it was finally present time. You recorded as he opened up his family’s gifts for him.

“Alright alright, it’s my turn,” you pipe up, handing the camera to Paddy. Paddy grins happily and takes a step back to get you and Tom in the shot.

“I thought you bringing them here was my gift from you already?” Tom tilts his head.

“Of course not, there’s always more,” you roll your eyes playfully, calling Tessa over, “You should know me by now, c’mon.”

Tessa walks over with a gift bag in her mouth, sitting in front of Tom, “Tess! What a good girl, look at you,” he gently takes the bag and pets her admiringly.

He smiles at you and opens up the gift, he pulls out a little folded spider-man onesie. He assumes its for Tessa and laughs, “Don’t we already have one for Tess?”

“Oh yeah, true.”

He raises an eyebrow and opens it up more, examining it. His eyes widen and quickly darts over to you, “N-No.”

You feel your eyes gloss and you nod slowly, “Y-Yep.”

“Y-You’re not joking?” he walks over to you, falling to his knees.

You stifle a cry and cups his face, “D-Definitely not, look in the bag.”

He reaches over and pulls out another wrapped gift. He opens it up to see your pregnancy test in a bag, “Fucking hell,” he places it aside and hugs you close as you kneel down.

You feel him begin to tremble against you and your heart swells, “Tommy,” you sniffle, running your hands through his hair.

“You’re p-pregnant? W-We’re pregnant?” his voice wavers, tears spilling from his eyes.

You nod again, wiping away his tears, “Y-Yes we are,” you utter.

He holds you close and sobs into your neck. You look up at his family for a moment, chuckling in between cries noticing they’re crying with the both of you.

You whisper sweet nothings in his ear and rub his back, “You okay, bubby?” you sniff.

He nods and pulls away looking up at you, “M-More than okay,” he hiccups, smiling cheekily. “It’s the best bloody gift I could ever ask for,” he cups your cheek, wiping your tears away as well.

“It truly is,” you murmur softly. He stands you up and kneels down, placing his hands on your sides, “Tom?”

“Let me talk to my other b-baby girl or boy o-of course,” he blubbers, pressing a warm kiss against your stomach.

Everyone laughs including you, “I’m glad you didn’t faint, Paddy was betting you would,” you thread your fingers through his hair.

He glares at Paddy playfully as he places his face onto your stomach, “Of course he would.”

Paddy whines behind the camera making you both chuckle, “Tom, I’ve only been pregnant for a week,” you hum, looking back down at Tom.

“It’s my birthday, let me have my moment,” he replies sassily, hugging your waist closer.

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danses-with-dogmeat · 3 years

Text

Introducing My Fallout OCs!

OMGGGG y’all, I can’t. I’ve apparently reached over 200 of you fantabulous followers and I am so ecstatic! I honestly don’t even know if this is considered a milestone or anything, but I was super psyched, so I'm doing something about it, dang it!

Also, just a heads up on me right now, I just started school again, so my posting miiiiiiight be a bit sporadic every now and then, but I’m determined to still try and get a few posts out every week, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m also pretty backed up on requests at the moment, I’m still accepting them for the time being, but I may turn off my asks if I’m finding difficulty getting to everyone.

Anyways, I know I don’t ever really talk about my Fallout Original Characters, but I’m thinking of doing some stuff with them in the future, so this seemed like a good place to start 🤷‍♀️ So, here they are! One from each of the 3 FO games I write for. If ya’ll want to send in any asks about these folks, please feel free to do so!

(Art for these peeps is pending potentially as well).

My Lone Wanderer: Hope

Appearance:

- Basically like a black-haired, blue eyed Sarah Connor (y’know, from Terminator), she’s got a small frame, but is an absolute beast. She loves to change up her hair, but prefers the iron maiden, unladylike, or rude ridge styles and will often dye it bright-ass colors, cuz why not? She’s pretty pale considering the vault background and the fact she is constantly wearing full body combat or leather armor when she’s outdoors, and she has a few piercings she actually got before leaving the vault.

What’s in a Name:

- “Hope” was the name that her parents chose for her before she was even born, but she can’t stand it, she just tends to see it as a cruel joke in the world they live in. She instead goes by Effie (short for Ephialtes, cuz she’s edgy and dramatic and read too much in school). Hope tends not to tell anyone her real name, and if she does, you’d best not use it to refer to her, unless you like being enslaved. The only one who could ever get away with it is Jericho and a select few people from the vault (Stanley, and her father, but she’s still not happy about it.)

Sexuality:

- Pansexual

Main Companion:

- Jericho

Relationship(s):

- She has a sort of “friends with benefits” type situation going with Jericho, but it ends up getting... complicated, and turning somewhat into a relationship.

Bestie(s):

- Even though he’s her boss, Hope likes to hang out with Eulogy when she’s in Paradise Falls. When she was in the vault, she spent a lot of time with Stanley, and was pretty close with Butch, Wally, and Paul as well.

Fam Dam:

- James and Catherine are/were her parents (obviously). But she also considered Stanley to be a sort of uncle to her.

Karma:

- Oh, the worst. She’s honestly awful. She steals, she murders, she enslaves, she blows up settlements, all of it. She’s got a lot of things she needs to work out...

Faction of Choice:

- The Slavers of Paradise Falls. (Yeah... she sucks.) The Brotherhood and the Outcasts just never really struck her fancy, and her and Jericho found it was easy to make bank with the slavers. Hope also is a friend to Allistair Tenpenny and Mister Burke... and not the folks in Megaton. Cuz they’re all not really alive.

Vault Occupation:

- Engineer

Fun Fact!:

- Hope is really bad with empathy, and absolutely needs to experience something for herself before she can make any sort of judgement on it, or other people who have had that same experience.

My Courier Six: Sage

Appearence:

- Sage doesn’t really consider herself very “flashy” in comparison to most folks in NV. She’s got shoulder length brown hair (blast back or clean cut style) and brownish-hazel eyes. She’s pretty damn tan (Mojave, you know) and doesn’t have many scars, but the ones on the right side of her forehead clearly indicate where she was shot in the head (thanks, Benny). She and Boone tend to twin quite a bit, with matching red berets and sunglasses.

What’s in a Name:

- The poor girl has no clue what her real name was before she was shot, but she saw a box of labelled herbs in Doc Mitchell’s house when she was recovering from her headwounds and decided she liked the name “Sage.”

Sexuality:

- Bisexual

Main Companion:

- Craig Boone

Relationship:

- Also Boone :) it’s a pretty darn slow-burn romance with lots of bumps along the way, but their love always seems to prevail. (Gross and sappy, I know)

Bestie(s):

- Arcade, plus Rex, and ED-E. Also Victor and Doc Mitchell.

Fam Dam:

- No clue, unfortunately. She eventually tries to find out something about her past and her family, if she has any, but she’s got a few things to deal with first (hint, one rhymes with pleaser’s fleegion).

Karma:

- She may make mistakes along the way, but Sage really does try her best to be as good as possible.

Faction of Choice:

- Mr. House and the Followers of the Apocalypse. Would like to get rid of House, but can't bring herself to become responsible for everything once he's gone. She considers herself his personal empathy and tries to assist with the goings on of the Mojave even after the battle of hoover dam. Fucking wiped out everyone in the Legion. Her and Boone are a force to be reckoned with. And she never really cared much for the Brotherhood since she had such little interaction with them. She has a good relationship with Freeside and most of the settlements/other towns as well.

Previous Occupation:

- Courier? She has no idea what else. But she’s oddly really good with medicine 🤔

Fun Fact!:

- She supports Mr. House for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that she doesn't want to lose Victor. He saved her, and she considers the securitron to be her oldest friend (besides Doc Mitchell). She knows it's a little selfish, but she can't bring herself to put an end to him after he pulled her from her own grave and helped bring her back from the brink of death.

My Sole Survivor: Jolene Arvanidis-Ryan

Appearence:

- She’s got auburn hair she usually keeps cut short (clean cut) or in a bun, green eyes, pale skin with a good amount of freckles and has exceptionally straight teeth (braces suck, but you know.) When traveling with Cait, people tend to think they’re related. Jolene tends to wear a black beret and, if she has the time and resources, she likes cat eye style eyeliner.

What’s in a Name:

- Her first name runs in the family... plus her dad really liked Dolly Parton, so that helped cement the first name for him. Nate’s last name was Arvanidis, and she tends to use that as her last name exclusively, she rarely reveals her maiden name (Ryan) to anyone.

Sexuality:

- Straight

Main Companion:

- Paladin Danse

Relationship:

- It takes a long time (post BB), but she ends up being with Danse.

Bestie(s):

- MacCready and Cait

Fam Dam:

- Pre-war, her father was a carpenter and her mother was a major in the US military, she had no siblings and was very close with her father since her mom was often away on deployment.

Karma:

- Decent. Tries her best to do what’s “right,” but she sometimes has a hard time determining what that is. Is good at following orders, even if she doesn’t always agree with them (BB is the exception in this case).

Faction of Choice:

- Brotherhood of Steel, at least until BB, then she tends to focus more on the Minutemen, but still stays by the BOS’s side when it comes to taking down the Institute. Despite her loyalty to the BOS, she always regrets what she did to the Railroad, and how she ended things with the Institute, and she holds quite a bit of resentment towards Elder Maxson for ordering her to pull the trigger that ended her son’s life, and the other lives within the Institute.

Previous Occupation (Pre-War):

- She was a Gunnery Sergeant in the US Military. (Trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps).

Fun Fact!:

- She hates killing feral ghouls, but keeps it under wraps since she tends to travel with MacCready and Danse the most. After that random encounter where she found herself murdering her own neighbors, she can’t bring herself to look into the eyes of any feral ghouls she has to kill.

Bonus! Fun Fact!:

- She started out as my sort of "throw away" playthrough where I wanted to do a BOS run, just out of curiosity, but she ended up being my main playthrough… probably because Danse is just the best and I can't get enough of that tin can thesaur-ass.

#fallout #fallout 3 #fallout new vegas #fallout 4 #original character #fallout oc #thank you guys again #ily all so much #thank you for reading #you all are the best

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manta-moony · 3 years

Note

Hdc of the loser club playing Among Us please?

Okay I love this idea so thank you anon!! :D

Stanley (gray):

Imposter stanley is scary stanley let me tell you that

He’s silent but deadly, because unlike other losers (cough cough EDDIE) he has no good tell in meetings to decipher whether or not he’s imp

Everyone weirdly trusts him but doesn’t if that makes sense, like he’s there but no one has the courage to vote him out

He 100% targets Richie, and but so does Bev and occasionally Bill so no one can tell who did the kill but it causes sus on him

He has a secret soft spot for georgie, so he will never kill him

He only gets voted out when he’s not imposter and he screams with his mic off ngl

He gets his tasks done before the first meeting is called and stalks cameras for the rest of the round

Richie (red):

Complete opposite of Stanley he sucks as imposter

He’s only red for the meme 100% and somehow he always gets imp and everyone hates him for it

The only time he can get away with a kill is in a stack

If he kills in front of Mike or Ben sometimes they’ll let him go because they know how bad he is

He literally chases players it’s actually really funny to watch

He fake chases Eddie and Ben when he’s crewmate which causes him to get voted out

He never does tasks ever until people follow him and/or yell at him to do so

Mike (yellow):

Mike is a strange imposter, he can either be really obvious or really stealthy

He doesn’t like lying so if anyone calls him out directly he’ll be super obvious, but if not everyone is really surprised when he wins

He goes super overboard with doors, even when he's dead. He closes them when someone is alone with Bill so people try to vote him out

Mike accidentally vents 100% and he hates it

Every Time he passes stanley he goes “smooch” and it’s gotten to the point where Stanley stops moving so mike can do it :,)

When he finishes tasks he usually buddies up with Ben and Eddie and acts super betrayed if they kill him

Beverly (dark green):

Everyone is terrified and she can never understand why

Like she isn’t overly sneaky, she’s just a really good liar and blends in so well

One thing about being imposter is she’s really great at vent killing

But she’s really frickin bad at stack kills somehow no one knows why they just always know it’s her

Sometimes she fake chases Ben until he hits the button only for her to cut him off to tell him she wants to hold his hand

She avoids people at all costs, if she see’s anyone she immediately runs away, but if it’s Bill she’ll fake chase him and then run away

When her body is called she’ll yell “AVENGE ME” then a random losers name and it’s their job to avenge her

Eddie (purple):

He really rages when he’s accused as the imposter when he’s imposter

It’s to the point that he fakes tasks for a whole round just to recite everything he “did”

He absolutely hates killing regardless so anyone who’s imposter with him has to work double time

The rare times eddie does kill is only when that certain person has annoyed him that day (or just Richie)

Overall his play as imposter is pretty dull ngl

Crewmate Eddie is really where it’s at because he has a little bet with Stan as to who can finish tasks first

It’s gotten to the point where they sabotage each other in game to try to get each other voted out

Ben (lime):

Imposter Ben is scarily good because no one ever suspects him

Randomly during meetings he talks a lot about famous murders to waste time so they don’t question him

Weirdly a good liar in game, and loves teaming with Mike because aside from him no one really suspects him most of the time

He always hesitates when killing because he’s like: “what if because I kill them first they’ll think I don’t like them :(“

When he wins he gets super happy and Bev always cheers super loudly

He loves playing detective when he’s crewmate and it gets him voted out most of the time despite him being right 99% of the time

For some reason he always gets spotted near vents which causes people (richie and eddie) to run to the button to dramatically call him out

Bill (cyan):

Bill’s the one to write fanfiction about this game lets be honest- (no shade on anyone who does honestly I love it)

He gets super into it, and when he gets nervous he for some reason starts doing accents while playing

He gets distracted very easily when he’s imposter which causes a bit of sus, but uses Georgie asking him a question as an excuse and it works every time

When he does manage a kill he’s really good at fleeing the scene and stating a whole new narrative on the spot it’s quite impressive

He dramatically goes “NOOOOOOOOOO” when Stan or Bevs body is called (that he killed) and loudly proclaims he shall avenge them

He’s the one to risk his life fixing lights and he dies every time

Sometimes if he doesn’t want to be crewmate he’ll let georgie play for him while he makes them snacks :,)

Sorry if this is formatted weird I’ve never done an ask before, but this was really fun and I hope you enjoyed it :)

#The Losers Club #it 2017 #it 2019 #reddie #benverly #stanlon #stanley uris #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #mike hanlon #beverly marsh #ben hanscom #bill denbrough #Among Us

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weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral · 2 years

Text

I wrote

gravity falls and marble hornets au! Decided to share this now, just to get it out there

------

"Come on, Dip-Dop!" Mabel shouted. She stood atop a mushroom covered log, looking out into the vast forest. Dipper made his way over to her.

"I'm here, I'm here!" He laughed, holding his blue notebook to his chest. Dipper and his sister had just arrived back in Gravity Falls, after a long eighth-grade year. His strange old uncles, Stanley and Stanford, were conversing with each other as the family went on a woodland stroll to celebrate Dipper and Mabel's first day back.

"Ah Gravity Falls! Looks exactly as I remember it." Mabel smiled, inhaling deeply. The air smelled of moist earth and fresh flowers. Summer had come once again. With Bill Cipher gone, the twins felt much safer roaming the forests. Dipper no longer felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as he stumbled through the birch trees with his silly sister. Gravity Falls was safe at last -- or, as safe as it can be. It's Gravity Falls after all.

"Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, come on! Stop being so slow!" She turned around to face their uncles, who were still a good couple of steps behind the younger Pines twins.

Ford laughed quietly, "We're coming, my dear."

"Yeah," Stan interjected, "We're old, give us a break!" Mabel laughed.

Great Uncle Stanford looked around wistfully, "It's so peaceful out her--." Ford was cut off by a round of harsh coughing. Stan pat his back gently until the coughing stopped. Mabel's smile faded away.

"Grunkle Ford? You okay?"

He took a deep breath. "I'm alright, Mabel. My time in the multiverse must have ruined my immune system; I've been sick quite a lot recently." Grunkle Stan nodded, slinging an arm around Ford.

"You kids shoulda seen this poor, poor soul when he had a cold--by the way he acted, you'd think he was dying!"

"I wasn't that dramatic Stanley--"

"You laid on the couch and said, "Stanley, I'm dying" the second you started sniffling."

Mabel's smile returned and she laughed at her silly uncles. Ford smiled and tried to say something but started coughing harder.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel exclaimed, running to his side. Dipper followed suit, his eyebrows raised in concern.

"Sheesh, Sixer, are you okay?" Stan placed his hand on his brother's back. Ford looked up and glanced at the woods for a brief second, before collaspsing to the ground in a violent coughing fit.

"Great Uncle Stanford?" Dipper whispered, reaching out to place his hand on his great-uncle shoulder. Stanley looked paniked as something red stained Ford's sleeve.

"Stanford!" Stan exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!" He reached over to wipe away the blood that dribbled out of Ford's mouth. The coughing fit stopped, only for Ford to look up and stare into the woods.

"He had no face..." Great-Uncle Ford rasped, before falling unconcious in Stan's arms. Stan freaked out, rightfully so.

"Stanford! STANFORD! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" He shook Ford's body. Mabel had tears running down her face as she kneeled down by her uncle's side.

"Grunkle Stan! What do we do!" Dipper cried, falling to the ground by Mabel. He looked up and around -- Ford had looked up at something right before he collapsed. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Suddenly, Dipper became very aware of the fact that the Pines were being watched. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and he started to drown out Stan and Mabel's frantic words as they tried to stir Ford awake. Then, he heard it -- a twig snapped.

Mabel must have heard it to,for she looked up, and screamed. Dipper's head shot up and he saw the creature too, standing among the trees. It had to have been ten feet tall, maybe more, with a snow white face. The anomaly wore a black suit with a red tie. Dipper's skin crawled as it stared dead ahead, right at the Pines family.

Stan stood up, and backed a step away from Ford before glancing back down at his brother.

"What the heck is that..." He whispered.

In a blink, the creature was gone.

"Where'd it go?!" Dipper cried, searching around frantically. Stan shuddered.

"I dunno, kid. But it's giving me the heeby-jeebys." Stan kneeled back on the ground and tried to shake Ford away with more urgency than before. "Come on, Sixer, Come on! Wake up! Wake up!"

Leaves rustled. The slender creature stood much closer than before, that same straight ahead stare on it's featureless face.

Stan jumped up and backed away, pulling Mabel and Dipper close to him.

"Kids...we have to run..."

"But what about Great Uncle Ford--"

" We'll have to leave him, we'll come back." Like before, the creature disappeared in a second. The Pines started to run. Stan led them around the trees,in a large circle. After a few long minutes of running, they made their way back to where Ford was laying.

But he was gone.

On the ground, where Ford should have been, was a circle drawn in something red -- Dipper's stomach churned, it looked dark enough to be blood -- with an X through it in the same deep crimson color. Right in the center of the X was a piece of paper. Dipper approached it cautiously and picked it up. It seemed to be a page torn out of Ford's old journal.

On it, are the words "DON'T LOOK...OR IT TAKES YOU." besides a crude drawing of the figure the Pines saw in the woods. Dipper's heart caught in his throat as he saw the symbol on the ground repeated all of the page. There was other writing too, crammed on it.

"HE HAD NO FACE HE HAD NO FACE"

"LEAVE ME ALONE"

"NO NO NO NO NO"

"ALWAYS WATCHES"

Stan closed his eyes at the sight. "Oh Sixer, what have you gotten into now..."

- - -

Ford awoke in the middle of the forest, much deeper in than where he can last remember. How did he get here? With a groan, he sat up and placed a hand to the back of his head. Sticky blood remained on his fingers when he pulled his hand away.

Twigs snapped.

Leaves rustled.

Something was in the forest. Ford couldn't speak. He found the words to be stuck in his throat when he tried. The older man mustered up the strength to pull himself off the ground and then stared straight into the face of The Operator.

Normally, he would have screamed. He would have run away, as fast as he could and then skip town to get away. This time, Ford felt a strange feeling of calmness wash over him as the horrid creature stared to speak:

'They're after the pages. Find them. Kill them.'

All coherent thoughts in Ford's mind were replaced by these few words. At The Operator's feet were a yellow hoodie and black and white mask. Two names began to float to the surface in Ford's muddled brain but were quickly replaced with the Operator's voice.

'They failed me. You must not.'

Slowly, Ford stripped himself of his cloak, and put on the hood and mask. The Operator left as quickly as he came, leaving his proxy behind. Ford looked around the forest.

THEY ARE AFTER THE PAGES.

FIND THEM.

KILL THEM.

- - -

"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Ford!

"Great Uncle Ford!"

"Sixer!"

The Pines called out to Ford. Dipper held the page from the weird circle thing in hand, gripping it so hard some of the charcoal rubbed off on his hands. Mabel bounded over to a tree, where a different page -- this one depicting a forest with the tall slender figure -- was stuck.

"Here's another one!" she exclaimed, waving it in the air.

"That's about...3 now, including the one in the circle." Stan said, taking the page from her and putting it with the other one they had found. "When we find my brother, I'm telling him he's no longer allowed to write cryptic creepy messages anymore." Dipper laughed a little bit. Even in such a dark situation, Stan found a way to make them smile.

That figure hadn't reappeared again, much to the Pines' relief.

"Grunkle Ford! Where are you!" Mabel called, hopping over a rock and into a small pile of leaves, making a loud crunch sound.

Right after her jump, came another crunch sound.

And then another.

And another.

Someone was running.

Dipper looked over his shoulder, to see a masked figure in a yellow hoodie hiding amongst the trees.

"Hey! Who are you!"

The masked man ran over and took the page from Dipper, before running off again.

"Hey! I need that!" Dipper went to run after him, but Stan held him back.

"Don't! We don't know who that could be -- what if they're dangerous!"

"But-but- the page--"

"We've got two others. It's fine..." He looked in the direction the masked man had come from, and shuddered.

"We gotta keep going. Stanford's somewhere in these woods and we better find him before that slender man does."

" Let's hope Masky doesn't come back." Mabel said, scrunching up her nose.

"Masky?" Dipper raised an eyebrow

"Yeah, he needs a name. Duh!"

Dipper sighed and ceded to Mabel's insistance that the masked figure needed a name. The trio continued their search for Great Uncle Ford.

After a while of stumbling around, they came across another page. 'HELP ME' was sprawled across it, including the words 'WATCH THE TAPES WATCH THE TAPES. REMEMBER.'

Dipper handed the page to Stan, and the two sat down to figure out what it means.

"Tapes? What tapes?"

"Maybe Ford means the tapes he took back when he was here?" Stan shrugged, "He's gotta whole box of 'em in his bedroom, but I've combed every second of those tapes to look for a way to start the portal. Ain't nothing there other than him being a huge geek."

"Any other tapes that Ford could have had?" Dipper pondered.

"Nope. I've looked everywhere in that house, kid. I've found everything there is to find."

Dipper sighed and rested his head against the tree. They were no closer to finding Great Uncle Ford.

A scream tore through the silence, shattering it like a baseball shatters a glass window.

And that scream belonged to Mabel. Dipper hopped up and rushed to the source of the sound. Masky was back again, standing over Mabel with a large rock in his hand. She screamed again as he raised the rock over his head. Panic flooded Dipper's body, just like it had when Bill nearly killed Mabel in the Fearamyid.

Stan ran over to the figure and wrestled him back, shouting that he wasn't going to hurt Mabel. But something made Stan stop dead in his tracks.

"Stanford..." He said quietly, his eyes wide in shock as he stared at the stranger's hand. Dipper ran over and joined Stan in the fight (Stan didn't fight as hard as he did before. Was he taking it easy on Masky?)

Dipper and Stan manages to wrestle him to the ground and rip the mask off his face. Stan stared right into the identical brown eyes of his twin.

"STANFORD!" he shouted.

Something black stained Ford's lips and chin. His eyes had a cloudy look to them, like he wasn't quite there. But the second Stan shouted, the cloudyness faded away. Mabel stood back in shock and horror, tears running down her face.

"How the hell..." Ford mumbled, resting his head back on the ground with a small whimper of pain. Stan stood up, paler than the slender man.

"Ford- what- how--"

"Where the hell are we..."

"We're in the forest, where we've been this entire time. You just attacked Dipper and Mabel! Where'd you get this mask and hood from?"

"What do you mean."

"Great Uncle Ford, do you remember what happened?"

"Not after I passed out, no..." Ford groaned and placed a hand to the back of his head.

Stan and Dipper shared a look and quickly filled him in. Ford put a hand to his mouth.

"Oh my God...Mabel, I--" Ford stammered and tried to stand up. Dipper saw red staining the hood of the hoodie and Ford's silver grey hair.

"Grunkle Ford! You're hurt--"

He waved it away. "I'll be fine." He fumbled in his pants pocket for a little hand-held video recorder and pressed the on button.

"Sixer, how is this going to help."

"This has happened before...I need to call Tim--"

"Who the hell is Tim? What do you mean this has happened before?!"

"Old college friend. Anyway, we need to leave, now." Ford looked to a still-shaken Mabel, " Mabel, my dear, I'm so sorry."

"Grunkle Ford...what happened..." She whispered, wiping tears off her face.

"I don't know, my dear, but it won't happen again." He didn't have to verbally add in the 'i hope', but the tone of his voice and look on his face certainly implied it was there, hanging off the end of his sentence.

The four started to walk through the forest. Ford assured them that there would be an explanation when they arrived back at the shack. He was constantly checking the camera. What was he expecting to see? After a long, mostly silent trek through the woods, Dipper started to hear a static sound come from the video camera.

Ford's eyes widened with fear, "Go, Run! He's here!"

"He? Who's he?!"

Ford opened his mouth to the respond but found himself coughing again as the Slender Man appeared once more. It stood behind Ford, completely still. The camera went crazy -- the audio became distorted and full of static until it cut completely.

Finally, it spoke. Dipper had never heard a voice like his. It was undescribable and the pain it brought to his ears wasn't on any scale.

'My proxy...I told you to kill them. You've failed.'

"No, no, no..." Ford stuttered, falling to the ground

"Get away from him!" Mabel shouted, throwing a little rock at the Slender Man's head. It stunned the creature for a brief moment, allowing Stan to pull his brother up.

"Run!" Ford rasped between his coughs. Just like before, he coughed up blood.

The four of them ran and ran, until the unfamiliar trees melted into the enchanted forest.

But the Pines didn't stop until they were inside the shack. After they all took a breath, Ford led them into his office.

"Alright, Grunkle Ford, explain what's going on." Mabel said, crossing her arms.

"Back in college, the flim students asked me to help them on their project called 'Marble Hornets'. Alex, who was the director, cast me as an actor and we started to work on the film. Then, Tim -- another actor -- started falling strangely sick. He spread that sickness to all of us -- to Brian, to Alex, to me. With that sickness came the mysterious appearance of a creature called the Operator."

Ford fished around in his desk for an old journal, much older than the three he kept about Gravity Falls. It was apparently from his time at Backupsmore College. He flipped through it, and showed them an old entry. Dipper read aloud from the page:

"'It is called the Operator. It showed itself to me months and months ago, when was I walking home from the library. Under the streetlight was a tall man in a black business suit. He had no face, and no eyes. I found myself paralyzed with fear for a brief moment, before running in the opposite direction. I mentioned my encounter to the rest of the Marble Hornets cast, but they said they hadn't seen this creature before. After filming, Alex pulled me aside with a video recorder in hand. He handed me a tape and told me to play it when it got back to my dorm. On that tape was Alex encountering the same creature outside his dorm window. Alex and I quickly got together and talked. The creature -- which I later knew as The Operator -- started to stalk us both relentlessly. Alex dropped out and skipped town. Slowly but surely, the members of Marble Hornets disappeared. The project was cancelled and Jay was given Alex's old tapes. After Alex left, I saw the creature once again. It was in my dorm room, standing in the corner. I shouted for help but it disappeared before anyone could do anything. The creature hasn't reappeared since, but I'm still paranoid. I'm going to keep recording everything until I know for sure it's gone."

Chills ran down Dipper's spine. The Operator was undoubtedly the creature they met in the woods. The drawing of it Ford including beside the entry looked identical to the Slender Man they saw out in the woods. Ford put his hands behind his back.

"After that encounter in my room I didn't see him again, until Jay reached out to me about seeing this guy on the tapes. That...that led to," Ford trailed off, seemingly not sure how to go about with the rest of sentence. He shook his head, "Nevermind. That's the past now. It's behind me. I left that area and moved to Gravity Falls where I never saw it again. Until today. Definetly brought back some old memories..." He shuddered.

"Why's he here now?" Stan asked, crossing his arms.

"I don't know. Maybe he's still after me? But that doesn't make sense. Why would he wait until now?" Ford sighed, placing the journal back in the drawer.

"Great Uncle Ford, what tapes do you have? One of the pages we found in the woods said to "Watch the tapes". What does that mean?" Dipper asked, handing Ford one of the pages he found. Ford read it, and dug around in a drawer. He pulled out a dusty old tape.

"This one. This one details my experience with The Operator during the whole..."Marble Hornets" incident."

Stan blinked at it. "How the heck did I not find that! I thought I checked everywhere in this house!" Ford smiled slightly.

"I've got some hiding places you haven't found." Stan was about to ask another question, but let it die in his throat as he tossed the mask to Ford.

"By the way, you were wearing this. Dunno where you got it." Ford held it in his hands, staring at it wistfully before tossing it back onto the table. He pulled off the yellow hoodie but instead of tossing it, folded it neatly and placed it on the chair. Dipper watched as he looked at it for a bit too long before turning back to his brother.

"Please be careful. If any of you start to cough frequently, or if you see The Operator again, please tell me. I know how to hold him off but only for a bit. Now, I have to call an old friend of mine down here. He can help."

"Not so fast, Sixer. You're injured." Grunkle Stan gently pulled Ford over to him and checked the back of his head. "Sheesh. What did you do?"

"No idea." Ford winced as Stan tried to touch his head, "I might have fallen on a rock or something."

They went upstairs so Stan could treat Ford's injury. Along the way, Dipper and Ford talked about what happened in the woods.

"So you can't remember anything when you're...like that?" Dipper pondered.

"Can't remember a thing. It used to happen more often, practically every night. Tim and I came to the conclusion that this dissassociative state is a progression in Operator's Sickness."

"Operator's Sickness?" Mabel raised an eyebrow.

"That's what we call it. It obviously doesn't have a real name, but it's tied to the Operator. Encounter him or someone with the disease is enough to contract it. Which is why I'm so scared of getting you all involved. You've all been exposed to the disease -- from both me and the encounter in the woods."

Dipper tried to hide how nervous that made him. If they all had this disease, what was next? Would Dipper find himself waking up in the middle of the woods, with no memory? Would he fall into a state like Ford?

Ford must have noticed how nervous Dipper was. "Don't worry. The disease can be staved off with pills. Doesn't cure it, nothing really can except prolonged abscene from the Operator and those under his influence, but they certainly help. I'll ask Tim to bring the pills with him if he still has the prescription.

"So who's this Tim guy?" Stan asked, eyebrows rasied.

"Old friend from college. Like I said, we worked on Marble Hornets together. And then him, Jay and I eventually got involved in the, uh, "Marble Hornets" incident."

"What's that?"

Ford shook his head. "I can't explain it all now. Too complex. Maybe when Tim arrives he can help. He'll probably bring another old friend -- Jessica -- with him." The elevator dinged and they were all back upstairs. Golden sunshine streamed through the window as Stan sat Ford down and went to get the first aid kit.

#gravity falls #ford pines #marble hornets #stanford pines #Mabel pines #dipper pines #marble hornets au #crossover au #stan pines

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nour386 · 3 years

Text

A Picnic In the Woods

Stanford And Fiddleford have a nice day out with one another and enjoy a picnic in the Gravity falls woods.

(also on ao3!)

This is my secret Santa Gift for @pirably who wanted some Fiddauthor fluff. nothing explicitly romantic, just the boys being happy. I hope I met your expectations!

~~~

The sun shone through the tree branches above as Stanford led the way through the woods. There was a cheerful spring in his step when he looked back and saw Fiddleford not far behind, with a picnic basket in hand. A whole day free to themselves, no anomalies to study or machines to work on. His mind ran wild with possabilities.

‘Perhaps we’ll find a new cryptid. Or Perhaps we’ll find a secret city of fairies and become crowned kings or maybe-’

Stanford was pulled out of his thoughts by a gentle pull on his shoulder.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself.” Fiddleford smirked.

“You don’t know that.” Stanford crossed his arms.

“You had that look on your face. The one you have when you’re thinking of finding a magical creature.” Fiddleford pointed at his own face, making a wide-eyed look of wonder with his jaw hanging open. “Kinda like this.”

“That’s an absurd and frankly poor imitation of-” Stanford’s statement was interrupted as a fairy flew past, leaving sparkling dust in her path; and he found himself making the exact expression.

“You’re adorable.” Fiddleford ruffled Stanford's hair. “Come along, times a wastin’ and our lunch ain’t gonna stay warm forever.”

“Are you saying that a brilliant inventor such as yourself hasn’t already designed a device that could not only keep meals warm for hours, but also feed the user?” Stanford asked, spreading his arms in the air.

“Sounds to me like someone is dropping not-so-subtle hints that he’s too lazy to eat at appropriate times.” Fiddleford lowered Stanford’s left arm out of his face. He slid his hand down the researcher’s arm so that they were holding hands.

Stanford paused, looking down to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding what his hands were feeling. His cheeks flushed red when he saw that they were indeed holding hands. He felt Fiddleford interlace their fingers; and his cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson.

“You-uh-I-” Stanford rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

“You’re like a little kitten.” Fiddleford cooed. His smile grew further as he watched his boyfriend squirm under his affection.

“How’s that? If it’s about my sneezing again-”

“I was going to say that you’re both adorable, and easily held. Just like a little kitten.” Fiddleford pulled Stanford closer to leave a soft kiss on his forehead.

“How could you take advantage of my distracted state in such a way, Fiddleford?” Stanford said in mock shock. “I trusted you in my vulnerability, and you treat me like this.”

“I just realised something else that makes ya just like a kitten,” Fiddleford rolled his eyes. “You’re overly dramatic when it comes to the tiniest things.”

“This talk of cute things reminded me of something,” Stanford said.

“Oh do tell,” said Fiddleford.

“I’ve been hearing rumors about creatures who are so cute that any who feast their eyes upon them are compelled to obey their every command.” Stanford spoke excitedly, there was a shine in his eye.

“Well we can rule you out from being one of them.” Fiddleford said smugly.

Stanford shook his head. “You were just singing my praises on my cuteness, what made you change your mind so suddenly?”

“Oh I didn’t say that.” Fiddleford corrected. “All I’m saying is that after this morning, I don’t think you have the power of manipulating people with your cuteness.”

“Listen, getting Stanley to leave his bed before noon is like trying to break down a wall using a sewing needle.” Stanford shrugged.

“Anyway, you were saying something about a creature that, despite all logic, is somehow cuter than you?” Fiddleford said.

“Hmm,” Stanford tapped his chin before snapping his fingers. “Yes! Now my informant was a gnome, so this information might not be too reliable. However I am planning a small expedition next week to find out more.”

The pair continued to walk through the woods. Stanford happily rattled off information about the many wondrous creatures he intended to study and the potential discoveries that were waiting for them in the coming months.

All the while Fiddleford listened intently. While he did not hold the same enthusiasm that Stanford had for the unknown, he did enjoy listening to the way Stanford’s voice sounded when he got excited,he way he’d talk faster as though all his thoughts wanted to get out at once.

Even now, watching Stanford go on about the feuds amongst the many fairy kingdoms and how he hoped to bridge peace to (or at least document the fall out). Fiddleford felt the sheer glee that dripped from Stanford’s voice as he spoke. It was infectious, and Fiddleford found himself matching the spring in his boyfriend’s step as they walked together.

“Oh! We’ve almost arrived.” Stanford pointed at a gap amongst the trees ahead of them.

“Thank the Lord.” Fiddleford sighed.

“You aren’t tired already are you?” Stanford teased.

“I’m sorry, were you the one carrying our picnic basket the entire trek?” Fiddleford shot back.

“I offered to carry it but you said you wanted to,” said Stanford . “You’ve no one to blame for your tiredness but yourself.”

Fiddleford huffed. “You’ll understand when we get there.”

The pair walked through a gap between two tall redwoods. Before them was a small clearing. A small pond sat near the centre, the rest of the ground was covered in short grass. With the sky above and the trees on the far side of the clearing provided a good amount of shade to hide away from the heat.

“Now this is very picturesque.“ Fiddleford rested his hand on his hip.

“All it needs is a hill and it’d look like every picnic in those old stories.” Stanford led the way to the shadow of the trees.

“Knowing this place I doubt we’d be able to climb up a hill without having to answer some arbitrary number of riddles.” Fiddleford said as he followed Stanford’s lead.

Stanford laughed. “With a mind as sharp as yours? I doubt you’d need to worry about riddles.”

“Speaking of my sharp mind.” Fiddleford pulled on Stanford's hand, bringing his boyfriend to a stop. “I might have built something to help us with setting up our picnic.”

“Oho?” Stanford raised his brow. “The floor is yours.”

“Just a moment.” Fiddleford stepped forward, letting go of Stanford’s hand. This made the researcher give a small whine. Fiddleford rolled his eyes as he placed the picnic basket down on the grassy floor. He picked up a long stick from the ground beside him and walked back to Stanford's side. “Now, prepare to be amazed.”

Stanford watched with bated breath as Fiddleford took the stick and tapped the side of the picnic basket three times. Four thin metallic arms emerged from beneath the blanket covering the basket and began to unfold it. With the blanket out of the way, Stanford could see a small robot, rectangular in shape with the aforementioned limbs connected to it. It dusted the blanket before gently laying it on the grass beside the basket. Pressing its hands against the ground, the robot lifted itself out of the basket. It rested its metallic body on the blanket and reached for the food hidden in the basket. In no time at all the robot had placed the impressive spread of food across the blanket.

A roast chicken was placed in the centre of the blanket, surrounded by many sandwiches. They had a variety of fillings, ranging from the simple ham and cheese to more strange, like pickles and mayonnaise. An assortment of fruit, that had been freshly bought from the market the previous day, was placed in a small bowl in the centre of the blanket. Next to that bowl was a bag of jelly beans, as well as a pair of fizzy drinks that Fiddleford knew Stanley wouldn’t miss.

“Pretty impressive eh?” said Fiddleford.

Stanford was unable to answer as he stared in awe at the robot that, having finished its job, neatly folded itself back into the picnic basket.

“Hello? Stanford? You in there?” Fiddleford waved his hand in front of the researcher’s face.

“Fiddleford, that was amazing!” Stanford jumped up and hugged his boyfriend tightly.

“Stanford- you’re- crushin’ me-” Fiddleford coughed.

“Oh, my apologies.” Stanford let him down with an embarrassed smile on his face. “But yes, you did an impressive job with that machine.”

Fiddleford took a deep breath. “I’d have said you were only saying that because I was your boyfriend, if it weren’t for you almost breaking me in two.”

“I was caught up in the moment,” Stanford said. “I was handed the opportunity to watch one of your machines in person. What was I meant to do? Give one of those painfully boring claps like they do at those golf games that Stanley skips past on TV?”

“You might have a point. That did feel a lot more personal than just a clap.” Fiddleford tapped his chin in thought. “But a warnin’ beforehand would be preferred.”

“That can be arranged.” Stanford grinned. “But, before we continue that discussion, how about we enjoy this spread before the ants get to them?”

“Not magical ants I hope.” Fiddleford shuddered.

“You’ve heard of fire ants? Well these are ice ants!” Stanford wriggled his fingers sinisterly. A cheeky smile spread across his face as he continued. “It’s said that their bite can result in frostbite and perhaps even soggy sandwiches if left out in the sun for too long.”

“Then we better get to eating.” Fiddleford rolled his eyes, taking a seat on the blanket.

Stanford stayed standing for a moment. Choosing to savour the sight of Fidddleford sitting in the shade of the trees with a small smile on his face. His golden brown hair shone in the flakes of sun that made it through the branches of the trees that towered above. The engineer was reaching for a sandwich before he realised that he was alone on the blanket. He looked up at Stanford and sighed.

“You shoulda brought your camera.” Fiddleford said. “A picture would last much longer.”

“Now where would the fun be in that?” Stanford sat opposite his boyfriend.

“The fun would be in eatin’ before those ‘ice ants’ get to your food.” Fiddleford threw a sandwich at Stanford.

“Fine fine.” Stanford chuckled. He unwrapped the sandwich before checking the filling. “Ugh, did you grab any random combination of ingredients from the kitchen and put them together?”

“Only for a couple of them.” Fiddleford smiled. Leaning forward, Stanford caught a peak at FIddleford’s sandwich and recognised pickle slices and mayonnaise poking out of the bread. “Makes this into a fun little game of sandwich roulette.”

“Either that, or I have to seriously consider buying you a cookbook.” Stanford sighed. He took another bite of his sandwich. It had a thick slice of cheese between two different flavoured spreads of jam. It was a curious mix of sweet and savoury, but not as bad as he was expecting.

The pair sat together, enjoying the warm afternoon, chatting idly as they ate. They tossed the sandwiches back and forth, daring one another to try out the strange combinations that Fiddleford had concocted. The pair laughed at the way their faces twisted with disgust after a biting into the sandwiches. From sardines and jelly to cucumbers and cheese, the pair passed around the strange flavours before moving on to the main course of their picnic.

While Fiddleford had been proud of the terrible sandwich flavours had concocted, he also knew the value of providing a real meal. He handed Stanford a knife to cut up the chicken, while he prepared the proper sandwiches for them. A quick spread of mayonnaise on a clean slice of bread along with a generous cut of chicken made a simple but tasty chicken sandwich. With Stanford’s nod of approval, Fiddleford made a couple more before digging in himself.

Having finished their lunch, the pair lied back on the now empty blanket and enjoyed the stiff breeze that was blowing through the clearing. They watched the clouds, or Stanford did at least; he had one hand in the bag of jelly brands and the other gently holding Fiddleford’s hand. The engineer rested his head on his free arm and listened to Stanford talk about the different clouds types, and how the many different anomalies viewed them. How some clan of trolls saw storm clouds as warning from ancient giants and would hide themselves underground. Despite his best efforts to stay attentive, the comfort that came from Stanford's voice, the warm sun and his full belly, made him succumb to his drowsiness. Fiddleford gave a small yawn before falling to sleep. Stanford's eyelids felt heavy. He rolled over to find Fiddleford snoring softly. With a small smile, Stanford wriggled closer to his boyfriend so that their foreheads were resting against one another. Feeling a little bit cheeky, he gave a small peck on Fiddleford’s nose.

‘A short nap won’t hurt,’ he thought, before letting himself fall asleep.

I’d like to thank my beta reader @introvert-no-chameleon for their awesome work with helping me fix my grammar.

#Gravity falls #Fanfic #Stanford pines #Fiddleford Mcgucket #Fiddauthor #Nour's art #The Author #Old man mcgucket

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