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malereadermaniac · 10 months

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Cool about it. - Kuroo x Male Reader

I recommend looping the song while reading this <3

Your chest hurt

You're used to the feeling, though it doesn't make it hurt any less

Walking home with Kuroo was a daily occurrence, just like his bragging about the number of confessions he had received that day

He always tries to tease you about how you "get no action (n/n)"

He doesn't know you're gay

You've tried to tell him before, but you chickened out after looking into your bestfriends eyes for a second too long

"And then there was this girl in my chem class............."

Kuroo babbles on

It hurts you

You get that funny feeling in your chest everything he talks about girls

But you never let your facade slip, and continue to pretend that you're interested and support him

By this point, it may as well be method acting

"How come you don't crush on any girls, (n/n)?"

" 'cause I don't like girls."

You didn't even think

It just slipped out

"Oh..."

You look up at the taller man with fear in your eyes

But he has a smirk on his lips

"How come you don't have the guys lining up then?" He teases

It didn't affect him whatsoever

Kuroo is a good friend to you, unconditional support no matter what

Anyone would be lucky to have a friend like him, so why did his support kill you on the inside

It gives you butterflies in the worst way possible...

"Hey! Wait for me, (n/n)!" Kuroo shouts from behind you

You tried to escape early today. Your heart couldn't really take more of his girl blabber

"Oh, sorry, Kuroo" you say with a small smile

The walk I again filled with his own talk about girls

But he pauses at one moment

"About what you said yesterday...."

"We don't have to talk about it" you interrupt quickly

You smile up at him and keep walking

Kuroo sighs but smiles back

Truth be told, Kuroo always rejected the girls that asked him out

He had put it down to the fact that a relationship would only add more stress to his life - he already gets only 4 hours of sleep because of his parents fighting

But recently, he's been thinking that he'd also rather spend time with you

And if he were I a relationship, then that would mean he couldn't

But he kept the thought to himself as he walked you home

Lying in bed late at night was something you usually did

But you looked at the alarm clock at said "3:00" in big red numbers and sighed

Those evil butterflies have returned, you'd been thinking about Kuroo again

Tears flowed down your cheeks as you breathed shallowly

You'd wished he was less of a good person

You'd wished that Kuroo would just be cruel about it and drop you after he'd found out you liked guys

But he didn't

He did the bare-minimum but it still made your heart flutter after he'd accepted you so easily

You lie on your side and continue to cry until your ducts are dry

Thinking about Kuroo until you'd fallen asleep

Just 10 minuets away, Kuroo was also awake in bed

Listening as his parents argue about idiotic things

He doesn't want a relationship like theirs

Kuroo's thoughts drift as his parents' argument fades into the background

He doesn't ever want a marriage like his parents. He wants to be friends with his lover

Get to know them really well, as well as he knows you

Then his thoughts drift to thoughts of you

Kuroo really liked you, the two of you clicked immediately when you were sat together in English

He was closer to you than with Kenma, and that's saying a lot

From admiring you as a friend, Kuroo's thoughts moved on to how cute you were

You took his teasing with a blush, and even teased him back sometimes

He then thought about how cute you looked - his type exactly but as a guy instead of a girl

He liked the nicknames you'd given each other, sort of like pet names

After a solid half an hour, Kuroo noticed his parents had gone to sleep and shut up, and that he'd been thinking about you for half an hour...

And his thoughts were definitely not very 'no homo'

A funny feeling filled his stomach as he thought about you again

Kuroo fell asleep finally, but the thought of you didn't leave his mind

School the next day was a little different

Kuroo still met you early in the morning to walk with you, and there was the normal complaining about his parents

He only did that with you, he was comfortable around you

But his blabber about girls was missing, it gave you a well needed break...

During English, you noticed him staring at you a lot

"You good, Roo?" You whisper warmly

His eyes stared into yours for a second too long

"I'm great..." he whispers with a smile, it made your heart pang

You wish you could have him as more than a friend, but it'll pass (you hope)

You'll forget about it.

Break and lunch was normal with the guys, but Kuroo was a lot more touchy with you than normal

An arm around the shoulder was normal, but asking you to feed him as he sat behind you and hugged you was strange

You'd almost had it by the end of volleyball

He kept looking over to you and smirking, it made you feel uneasy

And when one of the guys asked him about the girl in chem

Kuroo responded in a way that made you feel sick yo your stomach

"Nah, I'd rather spend time with (n/n) than her"

You were silent on your way back home, mumbling responses to Kuroo's "are you okay?"s

You felt ill from the mix of emotiond

When you felt his hand on yours, you snapped

Your heart was pounding, and your face went pale

"WHAT IS UP WITH YOU TODAY??!"

Lucky you were both in front of your house and not in the middle of the street

"What do you mean, (n/n)?" Kuroo tries to reach for you and calm you down

"Don't (n/n) me, Kuroo. You've made my day hell today with all the mixed signals... I guess you figured it out and decided to tease me. You've taken it too far!"

Kuroo was worried

Worried to lose you over something he had no idea about, worried that this argument reminded him of his parents, worried him that he may lose you as more than just a friend

"Mixed signals? What do you mean, (y/n)??"

Kuroo was pleading, his face full of sadness and worry

"Don't play dumb... you figured out I like you and... and you're being a dick about it"

Kuroo's world stops

"You... like me?" Kuroo says confused, but then a smile starts to form

"Great..." tears spill from your eyes

"You didn't know and now I've told you. I'm sorry, Kuroo... you can pretend you never heard that." You say as your tears drop onto your shirt and the floor

You rush into your house, locking the door as Kuroo shouts for you to come back put and talk

A day passed by

Kuroo tried to talk to you in the morning, but you shut him down with a short "later"

Everyone noticed the two of you weren't talking

Your day was consumed by him, and vice versa

It felt like you were drowning in the emotions and thoughts of only one thing: Kuroo

By routine, you head over to the volleyball court

"(Y/n) we have to talk"

Your skin crawls and you jump from the surprise

You turn around and see a glum looking Kuroo

"Yeah, we need to talk about it at some point..."

The two of you head towards a more secluded area

Your hearts racing

Your chest is in an indescribable kind of pain

You feel so ill, you might hurl

"I'll start, I guess..." you say quietly

Kuroo stays quiet and listens

"I promise I didn't like like you since the beginning... I did see you as a friend. It's just that for the past year, I've had these feelings that I can't explain"

"I think I know the feeling you're talking about, (n/n).... that panging feeling in your chest and heart"

You feel warm from the nickname

You look into his eyes and smile

"Yeah... those fucking butterflies..."

"I'm sorry that I like you, it's a lot to put on you... plus you like girls so I know it's an impossible situation" you say with a defeated chuckle as your eyes fall to the ground

"No!"

Kuroo's shout brings your eyes back up to his

"I- I like you too! Or at least... I think so? I've always liked girls but with you... I like you more than any girl I've ever dated! When I think of the kind of relationship I want with someone, I think of the one I have with you! It's all slipped passed me until now but..."

"(Y/n)... I think I'm in love with you!"

Your heart skips a beat

Tears flood your eyes, and you and Kuroo both go in for a hug

Not for a kiss, there's still a lot more talking to do before you can both get the sweet relief of a kiss

But a tight, long hug will do for now

Those evil butterflies have been replaced with good ones

You're chest no longer hurts

#male reader friends to lovers angst #male reader fluff #male reader #gay #fanfic #x male reader #fluff #cute gay #hq kuroo #haikyuu x male reader #kuroo x male reader #light angst #friends to lovers #friends to lovers angst #angst to fluff #Spotify

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daenystheedreamer · 1 year

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tywin would unironically subscribe to the classic alpha male type belief system like he looooves to post pictures in b&w of lions & random white guys in suits w quotes on them abt how the grind never stops & to work smarter not harder meanwhile he’s always looking down on his female students & failing them for the pettiest reasons imaginable.

yes Absolutely hes a trad weirdo sexist freak HOWEVER i thjnk hed think posting those suit rise and grind memes are f*ggy. joffrey does it and hed be like Boy. Why am i seeing you post men on your facebooks? What are you a homo? a homo joffrey?

hes like turbo sexist in the INSANE trad way like A woman is your partner you bring the money home and have rights she keeps the home clean. he would not have female students hed be like no your eggs are drying up Wench i will not Endorse you wasting your virility in academia when you could be lovingly Supporting an alpha male business major instead. Leave. and kevan is all tywin we are going to be fucking sued into oblivion

#tywin lannister #anonymous #ask #tw sexism #f slur #um just in case!! always feel free to send an ask or message me to tag posts

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eoieopda · 1 year

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for the astro ask game! mars, IC, 2H, 11H 💫

happy hanukkah friend 💜 i hope you’re resting well

thank u bb! it’s been a very chill hanukkah since i didn’t get to go home to the fam, with the exception of last night 🥴🥂 merry chrimbo!

mars ⇢ are you the type to approach others first or do you like others to do that instead?

oh, i am absolutely always the one who approaches. i will befriend any and every person at the bar, without hesitation, because i lack the part of my lizard brain that makes me wary of unfamiliar people (which is as much of a problem as it is a benefit lol)

IC ⇢ do you think you had a good childhood?

for the most part, yes! we moved around a lot and we had some pretty hard times, but my family is v close and i’m very grateful for that.

2H ⇢ do you have any object that you like a little too much? what is it and why?

omg. so, when i went off to undergrad, my oldest brother gave me this absolutely cursed ceramic chicken that’s composed of fruit. like, strawberry body, banana beak, etc. it’s hideous - which is why he gave it to me. i’ve moved at least ten times since then and it’s come with me everywhere, except chunks of it keep breaking off, so it’s even UGLIER. but i will have that in every home with me until it explodes into dust. @cinnamin-ji has been instructed to bury me with it, if/when i die.

11H ⇢ describe your friends in 3 words

lovely, chaotic, inevitable*

*i really do think we would have found each other in any timeline, and/or that we were together in our past lives. our friendship feels kismet no homo - kidding, predominantly homo lol

#jade speaks #ask game #nicki 🧠

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scentedchildnacho · 5 months

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The black lady gave me it because they aren't under current republican hygiene law....and I told her hunger is too awful for me I hate starving instead of being called trash pick .....

Then I tried to share some chicken with her because she gave them to me.....explaining they put some curry on it....and to them it's Mexican cooking they as south border have more resistence to having to be so federally quarantined but she said no thank you she eats regular baked chicken and wants just baked chicken

I will eat it even though it's questionably hygienic....I use to have very correct state food plans and quite frankly it's of auchvitz it's being an intellect concept and I'm tired of not treating a sick in my joints and not feeling loved all that much

Hygiene is having....to just keep sitting with something and cervix ness for me...I notice about my culture they would maintain a lot of activity because something about systemic decline causes bacteria....and ritualistic correctness and I don't want north Korea to need my blood

To me it's just southern and they aquire more taste bud resilience....they aquire more tongue to digitize so it's homo genetic mercy to me so I may finally migrate and leave my sad constant confined life

I know I'm suppose to go over to the church tonight just to have mild tasting church food and watch ho give my Muslim observance portions to homicidal gross awful males so quite frankly I want anything that makes those mean eve ill youth sex workers go away....

That would be food not bombs

They made you wait all day to eat when all they had to do was put tinners in the oven and have a full buffet with vegan lamb rights

They wanted to call it Muslim rights observance then give a childs portion as all there is to eat that day that's modern day slavery....

He asked me if I would go to mount Soledad church so I told him it's like a jail up there and too be very very careful at all times because violence from the city and upper classes is all the time exceedingly cruel And willing to ...

The road by the Soledad church is just a compulsive race freeway in between la Jolla and other places so you can be hit like a nuclear bomb those people will hit you to break all the bones in your body and severely deform you so English artists...its actually the very old with zen careful slow behaviours that are best able to survive intersections at all times they have to have speed schedules so very slow and careful at all times

The states does favor adults as the most attractive people....youths here were not finally traumatized badly enough to want to be charmingly surrendered.....youth is the worst thing that can happen to anyone....it's whore it went around stealing as much as it could without relevant comprehension of and it's a criminal now....

Adults surrender their fertility to the care and maintenance of little people is the most important priority and people who get to finally be beneficent giant finally maintain an orderly hygienic good life

I think the sex workers are Christians though and he won't marry her and discipline her chaoticness for public systems and christian women are kind of powerful that way they have to marry men to control their tendencies to emotional sadism.....

Well you called me a bitch so where is train her

Because wanting to be trashy is how having to be trashy is over.....I kind of don't trust many jobs at all anymore and I believe the pastors I think that is subtly all they have unless your with barb smutts and contracted to Europe

That is why he shouldn't have thrown something at the pastor about meat balls I'm sorry but if it's have more food on demand then he also can contract food not bombs and finally do something for others other then bomb rush

That's housing the feds claim they help and truth is they would obsessively monitor southerners homes and figure out how to raid them for poor cooking

Fish is actually.....

Anyway I told him to realize the types of cars around AA wanting to forcibly be around the sex workers....and those types of playmates did steal your homeless safe house and sit in it like a hitlerite.........they are purely German and do not regulate their drug consumption at all ....their on pure liquor or pure reefer and its water and air to them so dont go around cars it was suppose to be engineered robotics to them and they have no responsibility or accountability.....

He talked to me awhile about the strange place it was of animals so I told him I suspect the Germans with family military there right now of being people who kept apes...or chimps here....when I have to see meat eaters treated like they can be murdered for it on sight that is the opposite of environmental....they owned apes and heretically refused to consume animals....

I told him I know it's really wrong to treat people this way....I have talked to the plants and I view the mass destruction of forests in the letter as maybe perpetrated by the animals I think they rape the plants sometimes they cry a lot about self defense

I think men this gross do have magic or mythic beliefs and raped the plants

He told me they stole his 🆔 because if it's his 🆔 he has to go get medications and take blood tests and they finally won't bleed him if his 🆔 is stolen.......

Uhm yea they shouldn't in requiem for a dream stole his mother's TV because she went kind of insane with grief and felt she was still talking to her dead husband.....

That's cop ing ones own family and I'm sorry but after I have seen ozempics try to kill someone of a weight loss pill I don't enjoy people who steal someone starveds tv

That lady that makes her elderly mother have lunch at the library this area is so psycho....be careful it helps put it's mother down to rest finally and it will go for you next that's psycho

Uhm I don't know but expecting me to be American impossible and cope with military service does not make me go bother my mother

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faithandfairies · 2 years

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Turning Red

I’m watching Turning Red and it is everything. The diversity is on point. And it just reminds me what it was like being a kid.

Also I’m pretty sure Miriam is gay. Her outfit is definitely gay coded. Can’t get a read on Mei’s sexuality. Where she’s at reminds me of me at that age. So I’m just going to ship Miriam with Mei until the cows come home.

I don’t know a single Indian girl who wore her hair down before high school so personally I think they should have put Priya in some type of braid. Still, I like all the characters’ looks.

The red panda thing is also totally a metaphor for periods and PMS.

This whole thing is interesting. I don’t think the red panda is just a metaphor for periods. Periods are just the introduction, because for girls that’s seen as becoming a woman.

It’s as they say about emotions. It’s about puberty and first crushes. The panda only manifests when MeiMei starts daydreaming about a boy instead of being above it like she usually is. It also manifests following major embarrassment and as a lesson about embarrassment being all about perception.

This movie also keeps supporting my theory of the possibility of MeiMei’s sexuality being something other than straight.

From the fact that out of all of her friends it’s made clear from the start that Mei’s mom doesn’t like Miriam, which both surprises and seems to devastate Miriam. Mom’s view is that out of all Mei’s friends Miriam is odd. Which could be a code word for anything including mom picking up on Miriam’s gayness/feelings for her daughter that she’s trying to ignore.

It also makes sense since Miriam is the whitest of them and by default then seen as the least conservative.

Also, when Mei’s mom blames her friends for Mei’s behavior she’s mostly actually looking at and blaming Miriam. Which often happens in gay relationships. And with all other unacceptable behavior. It’s never your precious child that’s the homo/instigator, it has to be the other kid. Yours was just participating against their will.

[Parents forget that by claiming this they’re also saying their kid doesn’t have a brain or isn’t using it.]

But also, Mei can control the panda when she’s with her friends and she explains it as thinking about those she loves the most calming her and with it her panda down. Here’s the thing though, at all times Miriam is at the forefront of this. Both in Mei’s mind and in reality.

And it’s interesting that the ritual requires singing because Mei’s friends pretty much do this when they first discover Mei’s panda. Miriam starts singing one of O-town, I mean 4-Town’s romantic songs to Mei. Something that actually resonates with Mei. She and the others join in. And it calms her down. Her friends perform their own ritual, only it’s a ritual of acceptance.

In contrast, her family’s ritual comes off as a type of conversion therapy. Adequately painful as well. It’s all about stripping off the parts of her they dislike. All conveniently covered by the panda. It’s the part of her that speaks up for herself, stands up for herself, and therefore talks back to her parents. The part of her that wants to be her own person and choose her own path, whatever it may be.

People are so focused on the period scene and losing their minds about it and they’re not ready for the conversation of how this movie does a great job covering how sometimes well-meaning family exorcize anything other out of their children so they can become the individuals their parents want them to be. It covers hobbies/interests parents don’t understand, yes. But also sexuality.

Miriam has literally been taking care of Mei’s pixel child tamagotchi. They’re going to get married.

No, but seriously, it doesn’t have to be gay. Friends do this too. But I’m just saying the groundwork is there for it to be gay.

It just fits the narrative as well. Or is applicable.

But it is also about growth. And how that can hurt as well.

I also think the separation hurts if you fight it or it’s against your will. Like was the case with Mei. The grandmas didn’t seem to have an issue with letting go of their pandas. I’m guessing it’s because it was voluntary and they’ve done most of their growing for this lifetime.

My favorite scene has to be the superhero-esque sequence of the grandma and aunties to the rescue. Good stuff.

I really like where the major animation companies are taking their storytelling. Media is shifting, changing, and it’s about time. I’m here for it.

#turning red

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spectracully · 3 years

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crash the crush.

pairings : senior student!xiaojun x sophomore student!reader warnings : profanity, underage drinking, mentions of drugs genre : fluff, a bit of crack? highschool!au word count : 4.3k

summary : what are the odds of crashing into your crush during the neighborhood-friendly run and mutual friends party?

You were pissed off when your mum said you need to work your lazy ass off. Well, if it's on the summer break, you'll most likely agree with her. But it's only the weekend, and you've been studying your ass off these days. A lazy weekend is something you earned, but your mum decided to rain on your lazy parade.

With all those groans and deep sighs, you storm off your house wearing your workout gear. Not much, only a windbreaker jacket paired with shorts and running shoes. Popping your airpods on both of your ears to blast some jams, you take some light jogging steps on your neighborhood. It's only 4.30 pm, and kinda windy, why the fuck are you doing this? That's right, because mum literally compared you to your neighbor's daughter, Giselle, who recently won a karate tournament. Now mum won't even shut up how much she wants an active daughter, not the lazy one. Yikes.

Back to the streets by Saweetie & Jhene Aiko plays, and you hear a message notification on your airpods. Still on your light jogs, you glance at the notification.

yeri<3 : yo yeri<3 : wyd

You stop jogging for a while to write your bestfriend back. It's saturday, she's probably asking you to hangout along with the gang. Yeri gets easily bored at home and in constant need of hanging out.

y/n : running 💃 💃 💃 y/n : mum said i need to be giselle

You continue your pace while waiting for her reply. You can see your neighborhood clearly now, seeing the details, since you always go to school in a sleepy state, not really noticing the environment, and also going home from school mostly sleeping in your brother's car.

The notification rings again. It must be Yeri.

yeri<3 : bitch thats a dancing emoji yeri<3 : running in a weather like this? yeri<3 : damn straight u wanna be giselle

You chuckle as you’re about to type the messages once more, the weather is fine, what the hell is she talking about? But then Yeri is still typing.

yeri<3 : n e ways yeri<3 : party at lucas' 8pm yeri<3 : be there or be fucking square 💀 💀 💀

You sigh. There she goes. No other option than tag along with her, but it's not like you hate it anyway. Lucas' party is always awesome, you and your friends also will get a VIP pass because he's a good friend of yours too, despite the fact that you're not even in the same grade as him, he's one year above you and Yeri.

y/n : weather is nice dont jinx it y/n : fine but pick me up y/n : cuz doyoung won't let me drive his car

You send the messages to Yeri to prove her the weather is fine, and indicates that you agree to go to Lucas' house tonight, it's a great night to probably get wasted after all those tiring run mum decided to toss on you. It's gonna be fun, anyways. But the thing about hanging out with Lucas and his senior friends.. You might've developed a big fat crush with one of Lucas' closest friends, Xiaojun.

You barely had an interaction with him, though, because he's usually the quiet and calm one in Lucas' closest friends group. Lucas himself is already so fucking loud, not to mention Hendery, the good-looking clown and moodmaker. There's also Jungwoo, the one who looks very calm but actually won't shut up once you talk to him. Mark too, the giggly one with some lame jokes. Well, going to Lucas' party tonight means you can see Xiaojun, probably getting the chances that you'll have some interaction over some boozes or something is also quite high.

After feeling all warmed up, you decide to give yourself a run around the block. Yeri's right, it's a funny weather to run. It's windy, but the more you stay outside, the cloud is getting darker and darker. You also knew that you're not really alone, who's doing this athletic bullshit in this kind of weather, you noticed that a boy is also doing this silly run when you were typing messages to Yeri. Probably just another neighbor's child being scolded by his mum of how Giselle is so athletic that his mum also wants an active son? Welp, you didn't see his face anyway, you were glued to the phone when you saw the figure running from the side.

It's not even a minute after you started running, Yeri already replied again. Is she really that bored that she doesn't have anything to do?

yeri<3 : ok i'll pick u up at 7 yeri<3 : um.. its fucking raining, y/n yeri<3 : go home and take a shower yeri<3 : pick ur clothes and put on some makeup instead yeri<3 : its saturday night, activate your hoe protocol yeri<3 : mr xiaojun is going to be there tonight

You stop running and stare at her messages. Raining? Is she drunk or what? It's not even 5pm yet and here she is, hallucinating-

Oop. There it goes. You feel some water drops on your head. Your hand. It was slow at first, but then the raindrops are getting harder and harder, it's pouring.

"Motherfu-" you let out a curse, you should've trusted Yeri on this. As an intuitive homo sapiens with XX chromosomes, you scan through the streets, looking for some shelter to wait the rain to stop. Spotting a bus stop with a large steel canopy, you run like your life depended on it, avoiding the rain.

Finally arriving, you sigh and sit on the installed chair, typing messages to Yeri.

y/n : omg bitch ur right its raining y/n : should've pretended im dead in my room so mum wont bug me y/n : u know what after the rain ends im gonna sprint back home and take a fucking shower y/n : the universe doesnt like it when im trying to be giselle, it gave me rain instead

You sigh as you shuffle through your playlist, looking for some fun jams to pass your time through the rain, when somebody suddenly approaches you.

"Hi, do you mind if I take a seat here?" a boy asks, pointing to the chair next to you. You look up, and suddenly the next thing you wanna do is ascend your soul the fuck out of your body to the sky.

Oh boy. It's Xiaojun. The boy you won't shut up about. He’s wearing a white loose tank and grey sweatpants, drenched in his own sweat. Oh god. This is truly an attack for you. What the fuck is he doing here? And why must you meet him at your mess like being all salty because of those running fiasco and the rain? While wearing your not-so-fashionable workout gear and not-so-tidy ponytails? Oh god.

You can feel your heart is about to explode when you realize that he is actually the person who is also doing the stupid running at this very weather, you just didn't notice it sooner because you were on your damn phone. Damn, mum was right, everything happened because you were always on your damn phone.

"No, of course! Take a seat!" you answer him, trying your best to crack your sweetest smile although it's more like sweatiest not sweetest.

He smiles back at you, taking a seat next to you, then his eyes get back to his phone, completely glued. Damn this is the only cardio that is worth it, no running, no jumping, no huff that huff this, only sitting next to Xiaojun on a rainy day on a bus stop. Wonderful.

You quickly whip up the messaging app to type all kinds of gibberish and send it to Yeri. She knows what shit is about to go down when you speak gibberish to her.

y/n : FUCKJSHSJJSKSJK YERI y/n : OH MY FUCKING GOD SJSGSJSHSKJSK

Lucky you, Yeri has nothing to do than respond to your messages, she stays put on the chat room.

yeri<3 : OMG BITCH WHAT yeri<3 : SKSHSJJSKS YOU SCARED ME

y/n : HE's FUCKING HERE AHSJSHSJEK

yeri<3 : OMG WHOS HE?? yeri<3 : THE DEVIL??? IS HE GONNA TAKE UR SOUL? SKEJSJKSKSK

y/n : XIAOJUN y/n : TURNS OUT HE ALSO LIVES IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD

yeri<3 : ASKJSJSKSK WHAT yeri<3 : HOW

y/n : KAHSKSJKS omg bitch y/n : i was sheltering myself from the goddamn rain y/n : im in bus stop rn y/n : this angel came to accompany me y/n : HE WAS RUNNING TOO OMG y/n : omg yeri just so u know if im not there when u pick me up y/n : its bc im in church getting married with my man xiaojun

yeri<3 : BITCH OMG SKSKSKSKK yeri<3 : GET MARRIED RN yeri<3 : WAIT dont waste the chance yeri<3 : talk to him rn!!!

You swear you're about to scream when Yeri sends that. She was actually right, this is your chance to talk to him, considering that you didn't really interact that much with him. But really? He didn't even say a word when he sat, probably didn't even remember your name? The disappointment slowly gets into your head.

You freeze on the spot. torn between wanting to talk to him and just let it slide, you'll see him again tonight as Lucas' house, right?

Just when you decide to give up and not say a word, he turns his head to you.

"Hey, I didn't know you live in this neighborhood too," he starts.

Oh god. If every time your heart beats fast you get a dollar, you'd probably have your own private island by now.

You try to play it cool when actually on the inside you wanna scream I LIKE YOU to his face rn. "Oh? Oh yes, my house is number 13." you answer calmly,

He cracks a smile, “13? You’re Doyoung’s little sister?”

Oh god. What the fuck is this clownery? He knows Doyoung? Why and how? At this rate you just wanna evaporate to the rain, what if Doyoung actually knows that you liked Xiaojun and he spills it? Oh god.

You smile back at him, holding the panic you’ve been keeping since he mentioned Doyoung’s name. “Yep. I’m his sister.”

“Oh god, why didn’t I notice that earlier? I could’ve taken care of you at school!” he exclaims, and you sure you just wanna evaporate to the rain. Him? Taking care of you at school? YES PLEASE!

You let out a small giggle, trying to be as calm as possible when in reality you’re very sure you just wanna melt like a goddamn popsicle on a hot summer day. “So, how do you know my brother, actually?”

He laughs a bit, wiping away the sweat on his forehead. Oh god, he’s just so beautiful. “Well.. Doyoung and I used to be a dynamic duo in the school's choir, until he graduated.”

Oh, that. Doyoung is pretty serious about his career in the school’s choir, but you did not expect that Xiaojun is actually a part of it. Of course, he has the face of an angel, the voice is included.

“Now I know why Doyoung never let me come to his house. Turns out he has a cute- I mean, h-he has a sister, and that’s you! M-Maybe he’s afraid I’ll bother you or s-something.” he continues, stuttering a bit, and letting out an awkward laugh. You laugh again, feeling the blood rushing to your cheeks that you can’t hide no more. DID HE JUST SAY DOYOUNG HAS A CUTE SISTER? DID HE JUST SAY YOU’RE CUTE? DID HE-

But then, good things always come to an end. The goddamn rain stops. Oh fuck, no more chitter chatter with the dear crush. Just when it is the fucking time you need to hear the goddamn wedding bells, the rain decided to stop on your rain parade. Fuck.

He looks up, and seems like noticing the rain has stopped. “Well, Y/n. Lucas is having a party tonight, are you coming?”

You can feel your cheeks are still heating from his words, you shyly nod to him. Welp, maybe the rain has stopped, but this stupid crush? No. It goes on. Very much.

He stands up, straightening his white loose tank, getting ready to probably sprint back home. “Okay. See you tonight then, I’m going home. Have a good run!” he says as he walks away from the bus stop, leaving you dumbfounded. And lovestruck. That’s a win, alright.

Xiaojun slowly fades away from your view, and you’re still drowning on your pool of love. Yep, that’s it. You can’t even hold it, you quickly dial Yeri’s number to break out the news.

“What is it, Y/n? You literally left me on read for like 14 minutes straight and now you-”

“YERI LISTEN I’M GETTING MARRIED TONIGHT AND THAT’S A FUCKING FACT!” you shout to the phone, you can picture Yeri is probably goggling out her eyes right now.

“Girl, just because Xiaojun just asked you why the fuck were you running at times like this it doesn’t mean-”

“HE CALLED ME CUTE!” you blurted out,cutting her sentences for the second time,

“-you’re getting married- WHAT?? HE CALLED YOU WHAT?” Yeri yelled from the phone, now it’s pretty clear that Yeri is probably jumping her ass off right now.

You sprint your way to home, while holding your phone to your ears, continuing to give Yeri the details about the bus stop conversation you had earlier. Now she’s just yelling at you to pick the right dress and pamper yourself up, the probability you’ll marry Xiaojun at Lucas’ party is increasing. Sure it does.

-------

It’s 11.28 PM, 3 hours and a half since you and Yeri just arrived at Lucas’ house, escaping from Doyoung’s warning to you, to get back in one piece, and most importantly, sober. As if you’re gonna leave Lucas’ house sober, that’s funny, alright. You and Yeri were greeted by Yangyang and Donghyuck, who are currently setting up the table for snacks and drinks. That was probably the first time you saw Donghyuck ever setting up something, because if not, Jungwoo would’ve set his ass on fire.

The party madness has started, seems like everybody already has enough alcohol running on their system. Lucas is already losing his shirt and starts twerking in the middle of his house along with Jaemin and Jungwoo. Ah yes, the thot trio already started their thing, and all you have to do is just stay back and avoid getting dragged to the dance mess, because the chance of Jungwoo and Jaemin will start grinding at you is kinda high right now.. Considering their.. Twerking fiasco.

You sit back on the couch and watch your friends getting crazy over the playlist Yangyang made just for this event, sipping on your cocktails that Donghyuck put god-knows-what in it, he said it’s just cherry juice mixed with gin and brandy, but somehow it tastes kinda citrusy. You glance to the right, only to see Yeri making out with some random guy (probably one of Lucas’ friends named Changbin but oh well, that’s Yeri’s business).

Slightly grossed out and sad because apparently you’re not making out with Xiaojun right now, you make your way to the patio, and find the crowd that circle around a spinning bottle. Interested, you join Jeno, Mark, Renjun, Yeji, Hyunjin, Sungchan, Karina, Vernon, Hendery, and of course, the (hottest) most important person right now, Xiaojun.

“Welcome! As a newly joined member.. Truth or dare?” Jeno greets you as you take a seat between Mark and Sungchan. Well, you’d love to sit beside Xiaojun, but apparently, that seat is already taken by Hendery and Vernon.

You silently glance at Xiaojun, who is wearing a denim jacket with light-yellow knit top underneath, paired with white trousers. Damn, he looks so damn good that you wanna cry a river.

Your head comes back to the question Jeno asked. Today’s your day, be bold or bald. It’s time. “Well, I’m not gonna put my drunk antics to waste. Dare then.” you answer boldly, earning a few ‘ooooh’s from your friends.

Jeno snickers. Well, fuck. Guess you’re a bit too damn bold tonight, the realization suddenly hits you like a fucking trainwreck, Jeno is kinda extreme for games like this. Wrong choice, y/n. You gulp as you wait for Jeno to come up with something.

“I dare you to kiss Xiaojun!” Jeno exclaims, clapping both of his hands like a goddamn happy seal. Mark and Hendery are high-fiving right now, throwing whistles around Xiaojun, who is silent as a fucking rock.

Oh god. Things you’ve said about not putting your drunk antics to waste should’ve stayed in that goddamn draft. This is where Jeno takes you, even though you’re secretly happy that you finally get to kiss your goddamn crush, that shit is EMBARRASSING. If you wanna evaporate to the waters, then it’s probably the right time to do it.

But why Xiaojun though? Is your big fat crush on him too obvious?

You freeze on the spot as you awkwardly smile and stare at Jeno. This shit can’t be real. Jeno is goddamn crazy. You can feel the air is getting hot, whether it’s because the alcohol starts kicking in, or just because the blood is rushing through your head.

“Scared, aren’t you?” Jeno taunts you, sipping his beer as the rest of the group laugh except you and Xiaojun, who is currently staring at you with a questionable expression. Is he pleased? Or is he pissed? Oh god.

“I-I’m not!” you answer him, leaning to Xiaojun, gulping once more before asking him, “You’re okay with this though?”

Xiaojun smirks, “How can I say no to you?” he asks back, accompanied by a few ‘ayyy~’ from the boys, sending butterflies to your stomach. Your face is probably as red as a tomato by now.

Good god. Is this the same Xiaojun who is quiet, calm, and collected among his friends? Why suddenly he is so bold? Oh, he’s probably just drunk and won’t remember this kiss anyway.. You lean closer to him, closing the gap between his face and yours by sealing the kiss. His lips are soft yet firm, almost like a grape jelly you had earlier this afternoon, with a hint of vodka, of course.

After a few seconds, you finally pull out and linger your eyes on him. It’s beautiful, and mesmerizing. You just wish that you can see it again, and only for you, no one else. As you get back to your seat, you take one more last glance at him, that is currently also glancing at you, with his cheeks red.

Okay. You definitely heard the wedding bells, thanks Jeno. That’s probably one of your dreams, and thanks to Jeno, it came true. But unfortunately, Xiaojun probably won’t feel the same, or worse, he’ll probably forget about it tomorrow.

Everyone claps, exchanging happy exclaims and cheers as if you just said ‘I do’ to Xiaojun lol, when in reality, you were just doing the dare Jeno gave you. You gulp bitterly as the game goes on and on.

-----

It’s an hour past midnight, 1.12 AM to be exact. Thank god you’re not that shitfaced, but Yeri is. She is not even capable of doing anything anymore except being all smiley and shit, Changbin already drove her home like fifteen minutes ago, leaving you behind in Lucas’ lair. You suddenly felt the urge to thank god that Yeri made a fantastic decision last minute before picking you up, she used a taxi instead of driving. If she hadn’t, you’re probably stuck driving her home right now.

You scan through the house while leaning through the stair railings, looking for an easy target to get a free ride. Finally spotted your friends, you now have 3 choices : Donghyuck (who is currently seducing some random girl), Yangyang (who is now playing mobile games with Jaemin and Chenle), or Mark (who recently just hit a goddamn blunt, but he’s very capable to drive).

You sip your glass of water, making up your mind for your ride home. But then, suddenly someone taps on your shoulder.

“Do you wanna go home? Like, right now? I can drive you- I mean, our house is like, near.” you hear Xiaojun speaking to you, holding his car keys on his left hand.

Good gracious, is this even real? Like, Xiaojun, is actually asking you to go home with him? Is this real? Or are you just hallucinating from the goddamn weed you take 10 minutes ago from Lucas?

You stare at him blankly. He bit his lip, “I mean- If you wanna stay longer- or probably-”

“Yes, of course! Let’s go.” you smile at him, cutting off his words.

3 times in a day. Good job, Y/n! The wedding is up ahead!

He smiles and gives you a gesture, “Ladies first.”

The drive is not as awkward as you thought. Turns out, Xiaojun is full of surprise though, you nearly choked when he said he once formally apologized to Doyoung before he stood up to defend the dignity of Mint Chocolate Chip flavored ice cream. It’s delightful to find out that he has similar tastes as you, from ice cream flavor to music and school subjects.

Xiaojun also told you the reason why he was on the run earlier, he was bored. Damn, look at it, the difference between a forced daughter whose mum wants an active child, and a bored model-student. He said he didn’t expect to see you because he was embarrassed, he was drenched in sweat.

You can feel the butterflies on your stomach grow wilder and wilder from every word he said, or maybe it’s just the way he smiles when he talks to you? Welp, if it’s anything to do with Xiaojun, you’ll most likely get butterflies.

Just when you thought he was drunk, he is not. He’s capable of driving you home and carrying on some fun convos, also remembering little things. So.. perhaps, he is not going to forget the kiss you shared because of Jeno’s dare?

As you keep on exchanging conversation with him, suddenly it’s time to get off his car and get back to your house, get ready to deal with Doyoung’s nags and scolds for getting home this late.

You giggle as you take the seat belt off, smiling at the brown haired boy.

“Thank you for driving me home, Xiaojun. It was fun.” you say to him, waving him goodbye as you open the door. He smiles and waves back at you.

Just when you’re about to open the gate of your house, you hear the sound of slamming car doors. You turn around and see Xiaojun standing in front of you, eyes sparkling like a goddamn star. Unfortunately, it’s not Christmas.. If it is, all you want for Christmas is to stare at Xiaojun’s beautiful eyes all day, and probably get married to him.

“Um.. Y/n.. I don’t know how to say this but.. The kiss you gave me earlier, it’s kinda..” he starts, smiling sheepishly.

Oh god, what now? It’s kinda what? Gross? You swear you’ll kill Jeno if you hear that from Xiaojun.

You gaze at him as you wait for him to complete his sentences.

“It’s kinda.. Making me feel.. Things.” he finally continues, rubbing the back of his neck while looking away from you, flustered. It’s pretty cute.

You giggle at him a little, the butterflies come back, or maybe they never even left?

“Don’t laugh, Y/n. I’m being honest, I was pretty embarrassed to run into you during sheltering, and now you’re laughing at me for-”

You let out a big laugh before you pull him to another kiss. This one is a bit longer, more passionate and intimate, unlike the one you had before. He cups your cheek as you feel him smiling during the kiss.

“I’m sorry if I invaded your privacy- but your fast typing was very.. Intriguing.. I might’ve seen you texting Yeri at the bus stop.” he giggles after you pull out from the kiss.

Yikes. You feel like you’re about to burst now. He saw you texting Yeri? What kind of clownery is this? Did he see you typing- oh god, that’s too embarrassing to remember.

“No! That’s too embarrassing!” you cover your face, he laughs once more.

“Now, which church are we going to? I’m pretty sure you said we’re getting married tonight, right?” he takes your hands off your face, grinning widely.

You pout and lightly hit him, only to be attacked by his hugs a second later. Aww, finally, dreams do come true. You stay on his embrace for a few more minutes, no talking, just comfortable silence and realization that you’re on Xiaojun’s arms right now.

You glance at your watch, Doyoung would be furious by now. Telling him that you really have to go before Doyoung can rise from his sleep and beat your ass, you finally wave goodbye to him as he gets back to his car.

Finally entering the house, you’re greeted by Doyoung who’s standing in front of you, holding a bowl of salad on his right hand.

“So, kissing Xiaojun in front of my salad?” he raises his eyebrow.

You stick out your tongue as you make your way upstairs. Technically, not in front of Doyoung’s salad, because the door was closed. He’s probably looking through the window, such a nosy brother. You laugh at the thought of Doyoung getting furious while eating his salad as you get a message.

Xiaojun : so, see you at school? Xiaojun : can’t wait to hold your hand on monday ;)

87 notes · View notes

sushiburritonoms · 3 years

Note

DinLuke 10. high school popular kid/nerd au

I've been sitting on this AU Fic request all week because High School was a long time ago for me and I have no idea what all you young people are doing these days. After talking to Dark, I finally came up with an idea based off what I remember from high school in the 1990s. Hence this is one of the more serious ficlets I've done, but then again I've never thought of the high school genre as a happy one? Unless we're talking about Sailor Moon or something (which trust me I WAS TEMPTED).

10. High school popular kid/nerd AU

Warnings: USA centric, Time period appropriate homophobia, homophobic language, school bullying.

This looked so easy in the movies.

Din squinted at his target, readjusted his stance and after a moment, let the small pebble fly from his hand. It made a graceful arch…and landed on the top of the roof instead of hitting Luke’s second floor bedroom window. Again. He groaned.

“I can’t believe you’re the Captain of the football team.”

Din yelped and spun around. Standing directly behind him was Luke’s twin sister, staring at him with an annoyed expression on her face. She was still dressed in the same white cardigan, pink spaghetti strap tank and skinny jeans he’d seen her in at school, and was carrying her silver JanSport bag on her back and her clarinet case in one hand. If looks could kill, Din would be….well. Not dead, but most likely wounded, since the look Leia Amidala Skywalker was giving him was one of distrust and utter annoyance.

A thousand different excuses flew through Din’s head, in one ear and out the other. Of all the things he could have said, what actually came out was, “I thought you had Jazz Band today.” Or was it Model UN? Was it Thursday yet?

“It was cancelled. Ms. Junda is out sick.” Leia used her free hand to push her glasses further up her nose. “Why didn’t you just use the front door like a normal person?” She shook her head at him and started to walk towards her front door.

Din hesitated.

Leia looked back and rolled her eyes. “My parents aren’t home. My mom has another fundraiser and my dad got dragged into helping. Doesn’t my parasitic twin tell you anything?”

Din frowned. He took AP Bio and that insult made no sense. “Did you two have another argument?”

Leia gave him an incredulous look. “We never fight.”

Not according to Luke, but Din wisely avoided mentioning that. “My pager got confiscated,” Din admitted. “It went off during history and Mr. Mundi took it.”

“You could have just talked to him,” Leia said. Then she used the palm of her hand to hit her head. “Oh duh, I forgot. You’re too cool to talk to Wormie and Squirmie at school.”

“Hey!” Din walked over to Leia. “I don’t call you guys that.” He hated Luke and Leia’s stupid nicknames. He couldn’t stand the way the other kids treated the Skywalker twins, especially Fett and his gang of morons.

Leia’s hand jingled as she pulled out her house key. “You don’t stop them,” she said quietly as she turned her back to Din. “It’s pretty much the same thing.”

Din felt his heart drop into his chest. That wasn’t true. Every time he heard his teammates talking smack about other kids he told them off. But apart from Football practice, he didn’t really spend time talking with Fett and his friends. He was too busy working his afterschool job at Blockbuster and helping his foster mom with the other kids. “I would,” he protested. “If Fett or anyone else ever said anything to my face about you and Luke, I would smack ‘em.”

Leia side eyed him, with her hand still clutching at her front door. “What about Han? Would you stand up for him?”

“Han Solo?” Din blinked. The infamous dropout of Coruscant High? “I thought he joined a biker gang?”

That was the wrong thing to say. Leia whirled around. “No he didn’t! What is wrong with you!” She swung her clarinet case at Din and he had to take several steps back. “I don’t know what Luke sees in you, you stupid jock!”

“HEY! Shhh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry ok! Calm down!” Din looked around nervously to see if anyone had heard Leia. He had no idea what he’d done to piss Luke’s sister off. They’d never had more than a few short conversations with each other ever since Din moved into town two years ago.

“What? You don’t want people to know you’re a homo?” Leia shouted at him. She had tears in her eyes. “You afraid you’ll stop being Mr. Popular if they knew you were a gaylord like Luke? Huh? You thick headed, scruffy looking….Neanderthal!”

“Leia!”

Din and Leia both froze. They hadn’t noticed the front door opening nor noticed Luke until he was standing right in front of them. His blond hair was all disheveled and he had an ice pack in one hand and the beginnings of an awful black eye on his swollen face. His lip was cut up and there was blood dotting his green t-shirt.

“What happened!” Din blurted out. He pushed past Leia to hover next to Luke. “Who did this?!”

Luke winced and pulled away before Din could touch his face. “I’m fine. Will you two get in here before you get outed to the entire town?”

Din opened his mouth to reply but was shoved into the doorframe by a furious Leia. “I didn’t know it was this bad.” She grabbed her brother’s hand and dragged him into their living room.

“I’m fine!” Luke repeated. “How’d you even find out?”

“Amy told me. She saw the fight.” She pulled Luke over to their couch and nudged her brother into sitting. Din quietly closed the door and watched the siblings from a safe distance. Amy must have been Amilyn Holdo, the school’s resident weirdo. She was one of Leia’s best friends and another frequent target of the meaner kids in their class.

“Ugh Leia, quit it! Did you skip Jazz Band for me?!” Luke tried to wiggle away from his sister as Leia fussed over his cut lip.

“I thought it was cancelled,” Din frowned.

“That’s what we’re telling my parents,” Leia muttered. “But I don’t think we can explain this!”

Luke sighed. “You know they won’t even notice.” He sounded so defeated that Din felt a surge of rage at Mrs. Skywalker and her busy city council career.

“Mom’s gonna notice a black eye!” Leia paused. “Eventually.”

Din counted to three just like his foster mother was always telling him to do. “Will someone tell me what the hell happened?!”

Both twins turned to look at him simultaneously, doing that creepy staring thing that made them frequent targets of the school bullies. “Greedo,” they both said at once.

Ugh. He really liked Luke, but that was just too creepy. It reminded him of the movie Village of the Damned. “Christopher Greedo?”

They both nodded. “He insulted Han,” Luke protested. “Spreading rumors about him and nobody was saying anything.”

OH. Now Leia’s earlier comments made sense. “You tried to fight Greedo?” Chris Greedo was infamous for his bad temper, a real ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ type of jerk.

“He keeps spreading that stupid biker gang rumor. Nobody knows what really happened to him.” Luke kept clenching and unclenching his fists--which also looked bruised. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Din slowly started to approach the twins, keeping one eye on Leia. She glared at him but still scooted over so that Din could sit next to Luke.

“What really happened?” He asked gently. He only hesitated for a moment before he reached over and grabbed one of Luke’s bruised hands.

“Han’s old man threw him out.” Leia answered instead of Luke. “He’s been homeless for the last four months.”

“He’s currently living with Chuy Baca’s family on the East Side,” Luke added. “It’s not fair! Han was so close to finally graduating this year but Leia and I can’t convince him to come back.”

“That’s messed up,” Din said as he looked at Leia. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

It felt like he was being judged by Leia as her brown eyes peered into him. “It’s alright,” she said finally. “Now you do.”

There was a whole lot of school politics that Din didn’t understand, even though he’d been living in Coruscant for two years. He knew that Han, Leia and Luke’s nerdy group of friends were low on the social totem pole and by sheer luck Din’s athletic ability meant he was attractive to the popular group that ran the school. Boba Fett in particular acted like he was some sort of king and because Din was useful to him he had become one of the ‘cool kids’ for the first time in his life. Boba had some sort of grudge against the Church that Luke’s parents attended (Church of the Sith Eternal or something like that). The other kids also picked on Leia because she was at the top of their class and Luke because he was gay. It didn't matter that Leia had garnered enough votes from the underclassmen to become the secretary of the Student Council. She wasn’t liked by Boba, so that meant the Juniors and Seniors had it out for her.

Din had tried to stay out of the politics. He had his Senior year and then he was done--he would be finished with school and aged out of the foster care system. Maybe he’d go community college (if by some miracle he could find the money) but most likely he’d end up in the military like his foster brother Paz. He had so many other problems to deal with, from helping out his loving but overworked foster mother to his uncertain future. But now as he looked at the horrible bruising on Luke’s face and the tears that still lingered in Leia’s eyes, he realized he was making a huge mistake. Distancing himself from the twins and taking refuge in his own popularity wasn’t right. Somebody had to stand up to the ridiculous bullies of Coruscant High. Starting with that slimy bitch Greedo.

“Easy, Romeo.” Din felt a pillow smack the side of his head and he looked up to see Leia shaking her head at him. “I can feel the bloodlust from here. Punching Greedo in the face isn’t gonna help Luke and you’ll only get yourself detention.”

“I’m fine!” Luke insisted as he gingerly put his ice pack back on his eye. They ignored him.

“He can’t keep getting away with this,” Din argued.

“I agree but we have to be smart about this. I’ve seen your GPA Djarin, I know you’re not a moron.”

Luke frowned. “How did you see his grades? Are you hacking into Principal Windu’s computer again?!””

Din tilted his head. “You have a plan.”

Leia adjusted her glasses again. “I have several plans, ranging in severity. Some of which hinge on you.”

Luke groaned. “Oh no.”

“Me?”

“Amilyn and I have a plan to take out the worst of Luke’s tormentors…” Leia hesitated for a moment before continuing, “but it depends on if you’re willing to come out of the closet or not.”

“What! NO!” Luke jerked up before Din could say a word. “You can’t Leia, he’s gonna go to the army next year! They won’t take him if he’s out!”

Leia nodded. “We don’t have to use that plan--”

“--I never said I was going to enlist for sure,” Din interrupted. “I’d like to hear all your plans first.”

Luke turned to him with wide eyes. “No! I’m not worth it!”

“Don’t say that!” Leia scoffed. “If anything, he’s not worth it.”

“Hey.” Din frowned.

“He’s about to graduate!” Luke said to his sister. “Why would we drag him down with us when he’s close to getting out of this hellhole!”

“Because you still have one more year and I can’t take this anymore.” Leia was crying now, slow tears dripping from the corners of her eyes. “Luke, please. Let me help.” She turned to Din. “I know you don’t really want to join the army, I heard you talking to Fennec last week. If you’re willing to work on this with me and Amy, I’ll see to it my mom hires you after you graduate.”

Din hesitated. A promise of a job after high school, something that paid more than Blockbuster, would be a real life changer for him. But there was a problem. “Wait. Will this plan of yours out Luke to your parents? I thought they’d be against it because of their religion.”

This made Leia snort. “Please, my dad is the worst Sith in the world and my mom is only in it for him. The bonus is that this plan would convince dad to finally leave that cult.”

Luke shook his head. “If Aunt Ahsoka and Ben weren’t enough to get dad to leave, why do you think he’d leave for me.”

Din tightened his grip on Luke’s hand. “Your dad loves you,” he said quietly. “I’ve seen how he interacts with you. I’ve always thought you weren’t giving Anakin enough credit.”

Leia nodded. “We’re almost in the new millenium, lots of people are out now,” she argued. “It's not like how it was when Aunt Ahsoka was outed.”

“I don’t know, this is a lot!” Luke moaned. But he allowed Din to tuck his head onto his chest and to wrap his arms around him. Din was happy to see Leia smile at them instead of reacting with any sort of disgust.

“Why don’t we just take this one step at a time,” Din suggested. “Can you call Amilyn over to talk about all these different plans?”

Leia nodded. She wiped her face with the back of her cardigan sleeve and took a deep breath. “I’ll page her. Will you stay for dinner? We’re ordering pizza. Our parents will be out all night.”

“I need to call home, but yeah, sure.” He wasn’t one to turn down free food.

“Coolio. I’ll brb!” Leia shot up from the couch. She walked over to her brother and gave him a soft kiss on the head. It meant that she had to lean close to Din and he could smell something sweet and floral in her carefully braided hair. “We’re gonna be ok, little brother.”

“I’m two minutes older,” Luke griped. But Din felt Luke relax in his arms.

As Leia left to use the phone in the kitchen, Din slowly loosened his grip around Luke, enough so he could look at his eye. “I thought I taught you to duck.”

“I did! The first time.” Luke flinched as Din carefully applied the ice pack to his face again. “I tried to go low like you said, but then Greedo got me with his knee.”

“That bastard fights dirty,” Din growled. He was going to have to create an ‘accident’ for Greedo in the hallway tomorrow. If he called in his favor to Boba, he might even get one of his lackeys to do it for him.

Din felt Luke’s fingers twist into his plaid shirt. “Let it go. Please. It’s not right if we stoop to his level. And you shouldn’t come out for me, it’ll just ruin your senior year.”

“Who cares about senior year? Why does everyone make such a big deal about it?! Best years of our lives--that’s depressing as shit.” Din raised his hand to Luke’s chin and gently cupped his face. “I’ve been a big fat coward, ok? This is wrong, Luke. There’s nothing wrong with us.”

Luke swallowed. “There’s a big difference between everyone thinking you’re a fag and being in an actual relationship. I don’t know if you or I are ready for that.”

Din knew what Luke meant. He didn’t know any gay couples. Just rumors of various people, like Luke’s aunt, that existed in their town. There was a significant part of him that was terrified of the consequences of Leia’s plan. Would he still be able to play Football? Would his teammates be afraid of him? What if Leia was wrong and Anakin forbid him from ever seeing Luke again?

But then again, Leia was also right. Luke had one year left and what would happen once he was gone and unable to divert the worst of Luke’s tormentors from jumping him in the hallways? It wasn’t fair to let the injustice in Coruscant stand. Not while he was still around to do something about it.

“I want to take you to Homecoming,” Din admitted. “I want to see you in a stupid rented tux and make out with you in front of Mr. Windu.” Luke giggled, then winced as it made his lip hurt. “And Han should be there with Leia so she can finally make him slow dance.” Din’s hands wandered into Luke’s hair as he dragged him closer.

“Han dances like a penguin,” Luke sighed. He slowly rested his forehead onto Din’s. “He’s got two left feet.”

“Even better.” Din carefully kissed the side of Luke’s mouth, careful to avoid his cut.

“Promise me you won’t do something stupid,” Luke pleaded. “We can wait until I graduate and then we can both leave this trash town.”

Instead of answering, Din pulled Luke into his arms and held him close. He looked up and saw Leia return to the living room. He locked eyes with her and nodded.

“I won’t let them hurt you anymore.”

#this is also a role reversal fic kinda sorta #Let Din be the cool kid for once #Leia the jazz band clarinet player is dedicated to Sadie #Nerd Leia is life #spoilers: in the end Luke and Din do go to homecoming together and Anakin gets his head out of his ass #I never went to homecoming or any shit like that so I aint writing it #I was a theater kid and I went to see one of the prequels after prom thats how cool I was #sbficlets #din/luke

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crossovereddie · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on 11x06

I had to come back to type this after the episode. I was gonna wait to post until more people are active but everyone’s safety is more important than notes. This was really hard for me to watch. It took me two hours because I kept needing a break. It’s a tough one yall. It’s heartbreaking and really brought out issues I didn’t know I was still dealing with until I reacted so badly to some stuff. Take care of yourselves and I’m here if you need to talk. I’ll have timestamps for major tws in another post coming right after this. I just gotta go back and get the end of those scenes. I only go the time they started.

Okay. So. There’s some trigger warnings that I’ve reblogged earlier. This recap WILL have thoughts about those triggers. If you think you’ll be triggered just message me or send me an ask and I’ll give you the non triggering recap. Stay safe please.

Kev and v intro. They’re having sex behind the bar

I’m extremely nervous for some reason I might not be able to get through this

Bike heist!!

LICKEY RIGHTS

LIP CALLS HIM MICK

MISSION IMPISSIBLE

Mickey is unimpressed

Lip telling Mickey what to do yes please

Fucking Mickey omg

HE LOOKS SO GOOD

THE WAY HE SAYS BRAD

Again Mickey is unimpressed

Lip :(

MICKEY CONCERNED ABOUT LIPS SOBRIETY

AGAIN I SAY LICKEY RIGHTS

Frank is falling the chick he’s boning Monica

Not sure that’s her real name

Wait yeah it is

Frank??? Has to get to work???

Wait her name isn’t Monica

Oh shut now I get what’s happening

“Can I speak to Pope Francis please” LIAM 😭

Poor baby

Lip cooking breakfast. Hot.

I forgot about camis baby

I actually beep bad for lip and Tami

We already heard this argument with Mickey and Ian get new material writers

PRODIGAL THEIF

PINK BOX HES SO CUTE

HE LOOKS SO CUTE GOTTA SQUEEZE HIM PLS

Yeah don’t tell Carl that traitor

MICKEY BROUGHT DONUTS PLS

HES SO CUTE

ITS TOO MUCH

I LOVE HIM

HIS SMILE!!!!!!!!

GALLAGHER YOUTH

THAT MEANS MICKEY TOO BYE

CARL CALLING HIM MICK TOO PLS

I CANT TAKE IT

Poor Liam he’s terrified

“I was hoping the fucker would just die” :(

Shut up Debbie

Mickey is beautiful

Leave Mickey out of it debbie goddamn

I cant fucking stand her

Frank just observing his kids and smiling

Same frank

SHUT UP DEBBIE

OH MY GOD HIS LAUGH IS THIS WHAT YOU HEAR WHEN YOU FIRST GET TO HEAVEN????

“And the smartest” lol

Someone save Liam

“I want Sandy”

We all do kid

Fucking manipulative little I CANT STAND DEBBIE

Sandy deserves better

I hate the Milkovichs!!!!

How did smart sensitive sweet beautiful loving Mickey come from this disgusting family????

MICKEY IS THE BOSS

My heart hurts so him

“Homo sexy” dear god

Mickey is too good he deserves so much better

I love him so much

Let him be happy

Mickey has the biggest heart

They’re actually talking and not fighting

CHAPO STFU

You’re so funny and smart and beautiful don’t forget that baby

SUGAR TITS

And no one is fazed lmao

“He’s actually my uncle and my dad” I fucking hate this show

I forgot Carl makes legit money now

Wtf kinda school is this

This is so fucked up

The twins are so adorable

SHUT UP DEBBIE

“You guys” I hate that but also she’s acknowledging Mickey as “hers” and he’s family :(

Okay this horrifying comment

I hate that it’s just nonchalant

Debbie just keeps talking.

Let’s move on

Mickeys face when she says “butt naked”lmao

LIP CALLING HIM MICK AGAIN

“Talk to you for a minute?”

“Yes. Please”

I LOVE IT

Mickey is unimpressed by lip once again and I’m smiling

They love each other they’re secretly best friends ITS A FACT

HAND SHAKE SO CUTE

MY BABIES

“Blue like my balls” fucking frank lol

They’re going in on Frank’s storyline now

Boss Mickey at it again

Terry’s home

The way his face falls im sick

SANDY BABY

My heart is racing

Mickeys face is breaking my heart

Great now I’m crying

Mickey got emotional

Ian sensed it and touched his neck all fucking sweet

Okay I had to take a little break because I started crying

I love him too much

Fucking Noel is so damn good

My heart is fucking breaking

“Frank’s not a homophobic psychopath who tortured you for years”

Please Mickey deserves better

I don’t wanna hear any Ian slander either.

In this house we protect my son and my son in law I will fight you

“Let’s get the fuck outta here. Lip you coming?” 😭

That was so hard to watch yall. I’m not gonna lie to you. My parents weren’t half as shitty as terry but growing up feeling unloved your whole life fucks you up anyway and that brought out some emotions and feelings I didn’t realize I still dealt with. I had to pause for a good while and cry.

Leave Sandy alone debbie

Terry is disgusting

Okay the homophobic language he uses is definitely triggering so I’ll time stamp that too

Debbie you selfish bitch

Everyone leaving terry outside it’s a yes from me

I honestly can’t concentrate on the other scenes now I’m sorry y’all

I try to cover everyone’s scenes but it’s hard for me today

I’m not okay

Liam is too innocent poor kid

MICKEY LIP AND IAN THE BEST TRIO

We need more scenes

I PAUSED TO TYPE AND THE FUCKING LOOK HES GIVING HIM STOP

They’re besties

Mickey is beautiful

MY BABY BUSINESS BOSS MAN I LOVE YOU

he really hasn’t called him Philip the entire episode wtf

Ignoring Debbie

Now I want fries

Carl is cringy

Mickey drove them home and pulled a gun

Honestly again another heartbreaking scene

Ian’s trying to make him stop

Terry is disgusting and also a coward but we’ve been knew

Noel is the most amazing

Mickey gets teary but doesn’t cry bc I cried enough for the both of us

He’s the strongest bravest ever and I’m so proud of him

I need a hug

My heart hurts so much y’all

I just want him to be happy

I’m a fucking mess

I can’t handle Lip being emotional too

Oh I thought lip wanted to sell the house for himself only but at least they all get their share

Horrible music choice

I wanna tuck Mickey in with his favorite tv show on(911) make him his favorite food to eat in bed and not let anyone but Ian around him for a good 72 hours

The way Ian is looking at him

“Would you take care of me if I was paralyzed?”

“....yeah. Yeah”

“Top you whenever I wanted” “asshole”

His smile is back that’s all I need in life

MICKEY IS TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD

RIP DOWN THAT FLAG YES BABY

“That was big of you” “he’s an asshole...I wanna be better than that”

WHEN I TELL YALL I LOST IT I MEAN FULL ON SOBBING

YOURE ALREADY A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER THAN THAT PIECE OF SHIT

YOURE SO KIND AND BRAVE AND BEAUTIFUL INSIDE AND OUT

Ian’s like “back of the head? Gotta grab and hold my boy”

“You are so much better than that” IAN MY SWEET SON IN LAW I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR LOVING OUR BOY SO WELL

IAN IS THE MOST SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND

V spitting truth

I want terry to fucking suffer

Don’t do it frank

“Nah” LMAO

Frank loves his son in law

Sandy I love you

I need to hold her

No debbie I LOVE HER

NO SANDY LOVE ME INSTEAD

DEBBIE DOESNT DESERVE YOU

Carl scene was so awful I feel so bad for him this girl is a fucking psycho

That was an actual rape scene what the fuck

Mickey making frank laugh

Debbie explaining? Really?

I hate her

“How long is this gonna take? I’m fucking starving Lip” WHY WONT YOU CALL HIM PHILIP

“We could get on with our lives” well that hurt more than it should’ve

It’s really the end soon huh? 😢

According to captions Ian says “we’re in”

Frank reads his diagnosis

Carl goes to report his rape

That took me nearly two hours to watch. Yeah I usually pause to type but I had to take long breaks after the hard scenes. It was a really hard episode to watch. A lot darker than it has been. I’m not really okay right now. It was emotional but a really good episode overall.

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coke-and-candy · 4 years

Text

A Little Competition Never Hurt Anyone: Part 2

Here is the long awaited part 2! Now available on FF.net and AO3! Links below. Tags @echpr, @realsquidinc, @teresarosiadeviluke2112, @geminikessa, @astridflies, @driftingmoonlitpetals, @bee-wrecker, @iglowinggemma28, @drarryismylife101, @mikantsume, @diamondheart31, @iggy-of-fans, @runadaemon, @northernbluetongue, @kristycocopop, @czgamz, @mysticsoulgirl, @silvergold-swirl, @queenmj10, @asstheticmangos, @thesunstormsolo, @writingishfanonsideblog, @if-you-give-a-chat-a-cookie, @seraphichana, @bnha-fanfic-recs, @katieykat513, @whatarubberchicken, @princess-of-fangirls, @marichat00, @mmwolf1605, @urbanpineapplefarmer, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @adalouise1987, @winterfury-10, @celestialtitania, @vixen-uchiha, @certainmuffinbagelcalzone, @satans-favorite-homo, @jardimazul, @chronois, @marinette-is-a-badass, @the-no-one-in-the-corner, @jessigurl-design, @kittycatwowmeow, @himevampirechan, @livelifeauthorstyle, @hufflejournals, @melhuney, @xxvanilla-thundaxx, @thewondersoflebanon, @enduskgragon, @rumbelle18, @natasha-barton

FF.net (link)

Part 1 (link)

Edit: Now on AO3 (link)!

Part 2

The Stakes

Today was the day!

Today was possibly the most important day of her whole LIFE!

Her chance to get that much closer to achieving her dream of being hard-hitting investigative reporter.

The first round of preliminary presentations and interviews—her one shot of making an impression on the judges—and Alya Césaire was determined to nail it.

She had worked up until the deadline in order to get her entry as perfect as possible. It hadn’t been easy to get the necessary information from Lila without tipping anyone off about the competition—but! in the end, she did. It was one of the reasons why Alya was already such a good reporter at such a young age. She knew how and when to ask the right questions. Even if it meant telling a few teeny tiny little fibs to keep everyone in the dark. A little poke and prod here and there, a little white lie about wanting to do little exposés on the Ladyblog about everyday Ladybugs and Chat Noirs… and boom! Lila had been more than happy to send her all the links to news articles and organization pages that mentioned her… Which were a lot—Lila really was amazing! And the deeper Alya got invested in her contest entry the more it that just solidified in Alya’s mind that she was doing the right thing.

Sure, she still felt a little guilty having to sometimes skip out of hanging out with Marinette in order to hangout with Lila to conduct her secret interviews. But it was ok! The ends would more than justify the means.

Besides… a few little lies never hurt anyone anyways…

Countless hours had gone into writing, researching, re-writing, editing, more editing, and practicing her presentation and interview answers (ok she was not quite sure what the judges would be asking but it never hurt to have some responses ready to go on the fly). All leading up to this moment!

Standing in front of the Le Monde Parisian headquarters, dressed in her best power outfit, presentation in hand, and her parents right there beside her to cheer her on.

Her mother and father both had taken time off in order to be there for her and Nora had even volunteered to watch the twins so that their parents wouldn’t have to worry and all of their attention could be on Alya today.

They walked into the bright, sleek, and modern lobby of the new building and towards the receptionist desk. The lobby was busy that morning, there were other couples there as well, most likely the parents of the other contestants that had gotten that fateful phone call and scheduled to present today.

They made their way over to the receptionist’s desk.

“Excuse me,” Alya said, doing her best to sound professional. “I’m here for my presentation for La CompétitionOlmpe de Gouges.”

“Name?” The receptionist asked.

“Alya Césaire.”

The receptionist typed away at her computer. “Ah! Here we are.” She looked up and directed the family towards the grand staircase on the other side of the lobby. “Go up the stairs to the second floor and then down the first hallway on your right, there you will see a set of black doors, room 202.” Alya nodded, simple enough instructions. “From there only the contestants are allowed in. Parents and all other family members will have to wait here in the lobby.”

“Thank-you,” Alya smiled politely, her parents also giving a polite nod of appreciation to the woman before following behind their second eldest daughter.

As Alya made her way to her destination, her journalistic eye could not help but take in her surroundings and the various other adults that filtered through the lobby, all in many different types of dress as well, ranging from khakis to exquisitely tailored suits to exotic styles from all over the world. Marinette had often spoken about how fashion gave an insight into different professional environments and the type of people who worked there. Alya was starting to understand what her friend had meant.

But thinking about the different clothing she was seeing reminded her of Marinette—which also reminded her about the last time they had spoken…

It would be an understatement to say that they had not parted on the best of terms.

They had gotten into an argument over the fact that the baker’s daughter was stubbornly refusing to hangout anywhere near Lila and how the only way they could all hangout together was if they straight up lied to her.

Which was what Alya had resorted to in order to have all the girls hanging together as a big group for once. Instead of always having to choose between hanging out with Marinette or hanging out with Lila.

The Ladyblogger wasn’t proud of her methods—but what else was she supposed to do?! She was desperate! All she wanted was for all of her friends to get along and have a great day together; hanging out, enjoying all that Paris had to offer for those lucky enough to live within her borders, and making happy memories together to be cherished…

Why couldn’t Marinette understand that?! Why did the pig-tailed girl have to be so, so... pig-headed!

The resulting argument between the two lycée students had gotten pretty heated and some pretty hurtful things probably would have been said had it not been for an Akuma attacking near where they had agreed to meet up.

But the damage had still been done.

That had been well over a week ago and Marinette was not speaking to ANY of them. She wouldn’t pick up her phone, refused to answer their texts, and even went so far as to asking her parents not to let any of them see her at home. Not even Adrien could get through to her! Every time he had tried approaching her, the designer would ignore him or actively avoid him anyway she could… even if it meant climbing out of a second story window. It was clearly having an effect on the whole class. It felt as if there was a dark cloud in the classroom, as if all the good things in the world have suddenly been cut off. Poor Lila was taking it the hardest and all the girls were doing their best to reassure her that it was not her fault and to cheer her up as best as they could.

It was clear to everyone that Marinette’s attitude was the one in the wrong, but the girl STILL would not see reason and Alya could not understand why!

Why was Marinette acting thing way?!

Why couldn’t she stop being so petty and jealous about Lila and give her a chance?!

Why was she being so stubborn and unreasonable?!

That’s why this day was so important on a more personable level. It would finally be the cold hard, evidence backed, and internationally backed panel of journalistic judges proof that would finally, FINALLY! Get through Marinette’s jealousy and delusions and at last show her that she had been wrong about Lila all along.

Maybe then, things could finally go back to normal and there would not be such a chill in the air during class…

Before Alya could sink further into the negative memories of the past week, her parents pulled her out of her thoughts and back to the present.

They had followed the receptionist’s instructions and were now standing in front of a pair of sleek black double-doors with simple polished steel handles, with the number 202 engraved on a spotless steel plaque next to them.

This was it.

“Good luck ti panther mwen an!” Her father enveloped her in a warm hug. His face beaming with pride as he handed his second oldest off to his wife so that she could have a turn in hugging their daughter.

“We are so proud of you!” Marlena Césaire gave her daughter a once over to make sure she was presentable for the umpteenth time, her smile beaming with pride. “Now you go in there and knock ‘em dead.”

“I will manman.”

“And remember to look them straight in the eye. Show no fear!”

“Of course papa.”

“We’ll be waiting in the lobby ok.”

With one final bone-crushing hug, Alya walked through the doors and as they closed behind her she took a moment to get a quick scan and layout of the room. It was a smaller waiting area with a few comfy looking black leather couches and there were already three other students, who looked to be about her age, sitting on them. Even though they were her competition, Alya still wanted to introduce herself. Who knows? Maybe one of them could be a valuable future colleague.

She immediately recognized one of them and instantly gravitated towards them with a wide smile.

“Mireille! Hey!”

The other girl looked up from the folder her hands, looking a bit surprised to hear her name and then broke out into a friendly grin as well when she saw who had called out her name. “Hi Alya! I didn’t know you were entering this competition as well.”

Alya nodded as she took a seat next to the junior weathergirl. “Yeah, I kind of wanted this to be a surprise since I’m doing my presentation on someone I’m really close to.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“Someone who fit the prompt for the competition to a T.” Alya couldn’t keep the pride in her tone for her friend seeping through as she began to list off her reasoning. “They’re naturally kind and giving person that has already achieved so much, despite being our age. Someone who knows what it means to carry on despite obstacles and never stops thinking about others. Someone who is sure to be one of the Greats of the future without a doubt.”

Hearing the conviction in Alya’s small speech Mireille couldn’t help but be impressed at the other girl’s confidence. But then again, Mireille thought she had a pretty good idea about just whom the auburn haired girl was talking about, but decided to go along.

“Wow, and does this someone know that you entered a presentation about them…?”

“Nope!” Alya popped the p at the end for emphasis. She gave the other girl a mischievous grin and leaned in to stage whisper for added dramatics. “It’s all going to be a surprise.”

Mireille let out a little giggle at her schoolmate’s theatrics. Alya always did have a lot of spunk to her.

“Anyways, how long have you been waiting? What time is your appointment suppose to be at?” Alya wondered, adjusting herself a little sit a little bit more professionally.

“Oh! I already gave my presentation; I’m just waiting for a text from my dad letting me know he’s here to pick me up.” Mireille replied, holding up her phone.

“Really?!” Alya immediately fell into her default Ladyblogger mode. “How’d you think you did, what were the judges like, what did—“

Before Alya had a chance to finish her rapid-fire questions, or for the now slightly frazzled Mireille to get a chance to respond, a young, well dressed man in his twenties came into the room with a tablet and interrupted her.

“Alya Césaire?”

“Yes!” Alya replied.

He held the door at the opposite side of the room open for her. “Please come on in and begin setting up what ever you will need. The judges will be with you shortly.”

Alya quickly stood and clutched her notes and the USB drive her work was on tightly to her chest, her heart pounding with excitement and nervous energy. “Well this is it. I’ll see you later at school ‘kay. Wish me luck!” She smiled at Mireille as she left the couch to follow the man to the judging area.

“Good luck, Alya!” Mireille waved cheerfully which Alya returned before the door was closed behind her.

Shortly after, the short-haired lycée student got a notification letter her know her father was now waiting for her at the front. As, Mireille made her way down the stairs to the main lobby; she couldn’t help but think how great it was that Alya was choosing to do this report about her friend. But honestly, it did seem like a very good choice.

There really was only one person that Mireille could think of that fell into the category that the other reporter hopeful had described. It was sure to really impress the judges that Alya actually knew and was close to someone like that, and her presentation on them would no doubt be amazing.

After all…

Marinette Dupain-Cheng really was a miraculous person.

_______________________________________________________________________

And there it is!

If I didn’t tag you, I’m sorry about that, send me a message and I will be sure to tag you for the next update.

I realized when I started brainstorming the next segment of this story that the connection from the first part to the climax was… lacking… and it was driving me CRAZY! I could not for the life of me figure out why the climax was not coming to me at all, I know what was going to happen and how but none of it felt right. That’s when I realized that the crescendo to that moment of truth that everyone is waiting for was not there. Therefore this story went from a two-shot story to a 3-4 part story.

So now we have the proper set up. Alya has submitted her work and is about to face the judges. Gee! I wonder what will happen...?

Let me know what you all think. Also this story is now on FF.net, so if you guys want go ahead and check out this story there so you can leave your reviews and comments. Till next time!

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woman-loving · 4 years

Text

Early Gay Male Terminology in New York

Selection from Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, by George Chauncey, 1994

This book argues that in important respects the hetero-homosexual binarism, the sexual regime now hegemonic in American culture, is a stunningly recent creation. Particularly in working-class culture, homosexual behavior per se became the primary basis for the labeling and self-identification of men as "queer" only around the middle of the twentieth century; before then, most men were so labeled only if they displayed a much broader inversion of their ascribed gender status by assuming the sexual and other cultural roles ascribed to women. The abnormality (or "queerness") of the "fairy," that is, was defined as much by his "womanlike" character or "effeminacy" as his solicitation of male sexual partners; the "man" who responded to his solicitations--no matter how often--was not considered abnormal, a "homosexual," so long as he abided by masculine gender conventions. Indeed, the centrality of effeminacy to the representation of the "fairy" allowed many conventionally masculine men, especially unmarried men living in sex-segregated immigrant communities, to engage in extensive sexual activity with other men without risking stigmatization and the loss of their status as "normal men."

Only in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s did the now-conventional division of men into "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals," based on the sex of their sexual partners, replace the division of men into "fairies" and "normal men" on the basis of their imaginary gender status as the hegemonic way of understanding sexuality. Moreover, the transition from one sexual regime to the next was an uneven process, marked by significant class and ethnic differences. Multiple systems of sexual classification coexisted throughout the period in New York's divergent neighborhood cultures: men socialized into different class and ethnic systems of gender, family life, and sexual mores tended to understand and organize their homosexual practices in different ways. Most significantly, exclusive heterosexuality became a precondition for a man's identification as "normal" in middle-class culture at least two generations before it did so in much of Euro-American and African-American working-class culture.

One way to introduce the differences between the conceptual schemas by which male sexual relations and identities were organized in the first and second halves of the twentieth century (as well as this book's use of terminology) is to review the changes in the vernacular terms used for homosexually active men, and, in particular, the way in which gay came to mean "homosexual". This does not mean reconstructing a lineage of static meanings--simply noting, for instance, that gay meant "prostitute" before it meant "homosexual." In keeping with the methodology of the study as a whole, it means instead reconstructing how men used the different terms tactically in diverse cultural settings to position themselves and negotiate their relations with other men, gay and straight alike.

Although many individuals at any given time, as one might expect, used the available terms interchangeably and imprecisely, the broad contours of lexical evolution reveal much about the changes in the organization of male sexual practices and identities. For many of the terms used in the early twentieth century were not synonymous with homosexual or heterosexual, but represent a different conceptual mapping of male sexual practices, predicated on assumptions about the character of men engaging in those practices that are no longer widely shared or credible. Queer, fairy, trade, gay, and other terms each had a specific connotation and signified specific subjectivities, and the ascendancy of gay as the preeminent term (for gay men among gay men) in the 1940s reflected a major reconceptualization of homosexual behavior and of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals." Demonstrating that such terms signified distinct social categories not equivalent to "homosexual” and that men used many of them for themselves will also explain why I have employed them throughout this study, even though some of them now have pejorative connotations that may initially cause the reader to recoil.

Gay emerged as a coded homosexual term and as a widely known term for homosexuals in the context of the complex relationship between men known as "fairies" and those known as "queers." According to Gershon Legman, who published a lexicon of homosexual argot in 1941, fairy (as a noun) and queer (as an adjective) were the terms most commonly used by "queer" and "normal" people alike to refer to "homosexuals" before World War II.[26] Regulatory agents--police, doctors, and private investigators alike--generally used technical terms such as invert, pervert, degenerate, or, less commonly, homosexual (or homosexualist, or simply homo), but they also knew and frequently used the vernacular fairy as well. In 1917, for instance, an agent of an anti-vice society reported to his supervisor on a "crowd of homosexualists, commonly known as 'fairies.’”[27] Another agent of the society reported ten years later that he had noticed a "colored pervert" in a subway washroom, but added that in identifying the "pervert" to another man in the washroom he had used the more commonplace term: "I said, 'He is a fairy.’”[28]

While most gay men would have understood most of the terms in use for homosexual matters, some terms were more likely to be used in certain social milieus than others. Fag was widely used in the 1930s, but almost exclusively by "normals" (the usual word then for those who were not queers); gay men used the word faggot instead, but it was used more commonly by blacks than whites. An investigator who visited a "woman's party" at a 137th Street tenement in Harlem in 1928, for instance, reported that one of the women there told him '''Everybody here is either a bull dagger [lesbian] or faggot.’”[29] The investigator, a black man working for an anti-vice society, appears to have believed that the term was less well known than fairy to the "normal" white population. When he mentioned in another report that two men at a Harlem restaurant were "said to be 'noted faggots,'"[30] he quickly explained to his white supervisor this meant they were "fairies.” While gay white men also used the term faggot (although less often than blacks), they rarely referred to themselves as being “in the life," a phrase commonly used by black men and women.

Most of the vernacular terms used by "normal" observers for fairies, such as she-man, nance, and sissy, as well as fairy itself, emphasized the centrality of effeminacy to their character. In the 1920s and 1930s especially, such men were also often called pansies, and the names of other flowers such as daisy and buttercup were applied so commonly to gay men that they were sometimes simply called "horticultural lads." ("Ship me home," said a “nance” to a florist in a joke told in 1932. "I’m a pansy.")[32] The flamboyant style adopted by "flaming faggots" or "fairies," as well as its consistency with outsiders' stereotypes, made them highly visible figures on the streets of New York and the predominant image of all queers in the straight mind.

Not all homosexual men in the prewar era thought of themselves as "flaming faggots," though. While the terms queer, fairy, and faggot were often used interchangeably by outside observers (and sometimes even by the men they observed), each term also had a more precise meaning among gay men that could be invoked to distinguish its object from other homosexually active men. By the 1910s and 1920s, the men who identified themselves as part of a distinct category of men primarily on the basis of their homosexual interest rather than their womanlike gender status usually called themselves queer. Essentially synonymous with "homosexual," queer presupposed the statistical normalcy--and normative character--of men's sexual interest in women; tellingly, queers referred to their counterparts as "normal men" (or "straight men") rather than as "heterosexuals." But queer did not presume that the men it denoted were effeminate, for many queers were repelled by the style of the fairy and his loss of manly status, and almost all were careful to distinguish themselves from such men. They might use queer to refer to any man who was not "normal," but they usually applied terms such as fairy, faggot, and queen only to those men who dressed or behaved in what they considered to be a flamboyantly effeminate manner. They were so careful to draw such distinctions in part because the dominant culture failed to do so.[33]

Many fairies and queers socialized into the dominant prewar homosexual culture considered the ideal sexual partner to be "trade," a "real man," that is, ideally a sailor, a soldier, or some other embodiment of the aggressive masculine ideal, who was neither homosexually interested nor effeminately gendered himself but who would accept the sexual advances of a queer. While some gay men used the term trade to refer only to men who insisted on payment for a sexual encounter, others applied it more broadly to any "normal" man who accepted a queer's sexual advances. The centrality of effeminacy to the definition of the fairy in the dominant culture enabled trade to have sex with both the queers and fairies without risking being labeled queer themselves, so long as they maintained a masculine demeanor and sexual role. Just as significantly, even those queers who had little interest in trade recognized that trade constituted a widely admired ideal type in the subculture and accepted the premise that trade were the "normal men" they claimed to be.

Ultimately men who detested the word fairy and the social category it signified were the ones to embrace gay as an alternative label for themselves. But they did not initiate its usage in gay culture. The complexity of the emergence of the term's homosexual meanings is illustrated by a story told by a gay hairdresser, Dick Addison, about an incident in 1937 when he was a fourteen-year-old "flaming faggot" in a Jewish working-class section of New York:

“A group of us hung out at a park in the Bronx where older boys would come and pick us up. One boy who'd been hanging out with us for a while came back once, crying, saying the boy he'd left with wanted him to suck his thing. "I don't want to do that!" he cried. "But why are you hanging out with us if you aren't gay?" we asked him. "Oh, I'm gay," he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air like an hysterical queen, "but I don't want to do that." This boy liked the gay life-the clothes, the way people talked and walked and held themselves--but, if you can believe it, he didn't realize there was more to being gay than that!”[34]

Gay, as the story indicates, was a code word. Gay men could use it to identify themselves to other gays without revealing their identity to those not in the wise, for not everyone---certainly not the boy in this story (unless he was simply using the word's protean character to joke with the group)--knew that it implied a specifically sexual preference. But it did not simply mean "homosexual," either. For all the boys, the "gay life" referred as well to the flamboyance in dress and speech associated with the fairies. Indeed, it was the fairies (the especially flamboyant gay men), such as the ones Addison associated with, who used the word most in the 1920s and 1930s. Will Finch, a social worker who began to identify himself as "queer" while in New York in the early 1930s, recalled in 1951 that the word gay "originated with the flaming faggots as a 'camp' word, used to apply to absolutely everything in any way pleasant or desirable (not as 'homosexual'), ... [and only began] to mean 'homosexual' later on.”[35]

The earliest such uses of gay are unknown, but the "flaming faggots" Finch remembered doubtless used the word because of the host of apposite connotations it had acquired over the years. Originally referring simply to things pleasurable, by the seventeenth century gay had come to refer more specifically to a life of immoral pleasures and dissipation (and by the nineteenth century to prostitution, when applied to women), a meaning that the "faggots" could easily have drawn on to refer to the homosexual life. Gay also referred to something brightly colored or someone showily dressed--and thus could easily be used to describe the flamboyant costumes adopted by many fairies, as well as things at once brilliant and specious, the epitome of camp.[36] One can hear these meanings echo through the decades in Finch's comment in 1963 that he still "associate[d] the word with the hand waving, limp-wristed faggot, squealing 'Oh, it's gay!'”[37] One hears them as well in the dialogue in several novels written in the late 1920s and early 1930s by gay men with a camp sensibility and an intimate knowledge of the homosexual scene. "I say," said Osbert to Harold in The Young and Evil, perhaps the campiest novel of all, "you look positively gay in the new clothes. Oh, said Harold, you're lovely too, dear, and gave him a big kiss on the forehead, much to Osbert's dismay.”[38] A chorus boy gushed to his friend in another, rather more overwritten 1934 novel, "I'm lush. I'm gay. I'm wicked. I'm everything that flames."[39] And Cary Grant's famous line in the 1938 film Bringing Up Baby played on several of these meanings: he leapt into the air, flounced his arms, and shrieked "I just went gay all of a sudden," not bceause he had fallen in love with a man, but because he was asked why he had put on a woman's nightgown. The possibility of a more precisely sexual meaning would not have been lost on anyone familiar with fairy stereotypes.

The word's use by the "flaming faggots" (or "fairies"), the most prominent figures in homosexual society, led to its adoption as a code word by "queers" who rejected the effeminacy and overtness of the fairy but nonetheless identified themselves as homosexual. Because the word's use in gay environments had given it homosexual associations that were unknown to people not involved in the gay world, more circumspect gay men could use it to identify themselves secretly to each other in a straight setting. A properly intoned reference or two to a "gay bar" or to "having a gay time" served to alert the listener familiar with homosexual culture. As one gay writer explained in 1941,

“Supposing one met a stranger on a train from Boston to New York and wanted to find out whether he was "wise" or even homosexual. One might ask: "Are there any gay spots in Boston?" And by slight accent put on the word "gay" the stranger, if wise, would understand that homosexual resorts were meant. The uninitiated stranger would never suspect, inasmuch as "gay" is also a perfectly normal and natural word to apply to places where one has a good time. ... The continued use of such double entendre terms will make it obvious to the initiated that he is speaking with another person acquainted with the homosexual argot.”[41]

Will Finch provided a similar example in 1946, when he described how a young man tried to determine whether Finch's friend Edward, whom he had just met, was also homosexual. The youth, obviously very interested in Edward, "acts all right," Finch reported, by which he meant the youth did not act like a fairy and make it clear he was homosexual by camping, "but throws in a few words like 'gay' for Edward to follow the lead on, but Edward plays dumb."[42] And in the early 1930s a speakeasy on East Twenty-eighth Street seeking gay patronage noted suggestively that it was located "in the Gay 20's." Similarly, in 1951 the Cyrano Restaurant let gay men know they were welcome while revealing nothing to others by advertising itself as the place "Where the Gay Set Meet for Dinner."[43]

While such men spoke of "gay bars" more than of "gay people" in the 1920s and 1930s, the late 1930s and especially World War II marked a turning point in its usage and in their culture. Before the war, many men had been content to call themselves "queer" because they regarded themselves as self-evidently different from the men they usually called "normal." Some of them were unhappy with this state of affairs, but others saw themselves as "special"--more sophisticated, more knowing--and took pleasure in being different from the mass. The term gay began to catch on in the 1930s, and its primacy was consolidated during the war. By the late 1940s, younger gay men were chastising older men who still used queer, which the younger men now regarded as demeaning. As Will Finch, who came out into the gay world of limes Square in the 1930s, noted in his diary in 1951, "The word 'queer' is becoming [or coming to be regarded as] more and more derogatory and [is] less and less used by hustlers and trade and the homosexual, especially the younger ones, and the term 'gay' [is] taking its place. I loathe the word, and stick to 'queer,' but am constantly being reproved, especially in so denominating myself.”[44]

Younger men rejected queer as a pejorative name that others had given them, which highlighted their difference from other men. Even though many "queers" had also rejected the effeminacy of the fairies, younger men were well aware that in the eyes of straight men their "queerness" hinged on their supposed gender deviance. In the 1930s and 1940s, a series of press campaigns claiming that murderous "sex deviates" threatened the nation's women and children gave "queerness" an even more sinister and undesirable set of connotations. In calling themselves gay, a new generation of men insisted on the right to name themselves, to claim their status as men, and to reject the "effeminate" styles of the older generation. Some men, especially older ones like Finch, continued to prefer queer to gay, in part because of gay's initial association with the fairies. Younger men found it easier to forget the origins of gay in the campy banter of the very queens whom they wished to reject.

#lgbtq history #terminology #us history #new york #gay new york

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mst3kproject · 3 years

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Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks

This movie has a real all-star cast as far as us MSTies are concerned. There’s Rossano Brazzi, who was Phineas Prune in The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t; Edmund Purdom, whom we know as Griba from Ator, the Fighting Eagle; and Salvatore Baccaro, the leader of the cavemen in Starcrash. The film itself is absolute, irredeemable trash and I love it like my own garbage child.

We begin out of nowhere with a bunch of peasants beating a caveman to death. What? Where are we? When are we? Who are these people? Why is one of them a cavemen wearing a fur loincloth and the rest are just normal people in pants? Why are they beating him? Did he do something that pissed them off, or do they just hate him because they’re, like, anti-Neanderthal racists? What the fuck is going on? We will never really find out. We just cut straight to Dr. Frankenstein hauling the troglocorpse into his lab.

That’s how this movie rolls. Don’t bother asking questions, just try to keep up.

Count Frankenstein’s daughter Maria has returned to her childhood home, bringing along her fiancé Eric and her friend Krista, who has an unhealthy relationship with polka-dots. Krista is immediately fascinated by the Count and his work, and he with her in turn. It doesn’t take long for Krista to find out that Frankenstein is carrying on reanimation experiments in his basement, but that’s actually the least of the bullshit going on around here. There are more cavemen out there, but there’re also rivalries and love triangles among the inevitable gaggle of deformed assistants, and the local villagers are angry about a spate of grave robbing and determined to run the Frankensteins out of town. The ‘monster’ (I’m not sure it quite counts) is kind of an afterthought.

See, Hans the Butler hates Genz the Dwarf (even though it’s actually Kregan the hunchback who is fucking Hans’ wife) so he gets him fired, and Genz swears revenge on the whole Frankenstein household. Wandering in the woods, Genz meets and befriends a second caveman, naming him ‘Ook’ and teaching him how to rape women in the hopes that he will do violence to Maria Frankenstein. Ook, however, kidnaps Krista instead. At about the same time, Genz sneaks back into Castle Frankenstein to free the first caveman, Goliath, whom the Count has been keeping strapped to a table after bringing him back to life, and who has also fallen in love with Krista as the latter assists the Count with his work. Goliath goes on a murderous rampage, then follows Genz back to the cave where Ook is keeping Krista. Sure enough, this leads to a caveman-vs-caveman battle for the girl!

Man, I would love to see earlier drafts of this script, mostly because I’m dying to know whether some prior incarnation of it actually had anything to do with Mary Shelley’s book or even with previous Frankenstein movies. I mean, it starts with the servants digging up a corpse, and ends with a torch-and-pitchfork mob destroying the Count’s creation… the beginning and end of a Frankenstein movie are present. In between those, however, it wanders off on this bizarre tangent about the local cryptids. As it reached the screen, the only thing Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks seems to have in common with its source material is the threat to the Count’s girlfriend, which was issued by the Creature in the original story. Technically, even the grave robbing and re-animating have nothing to do with Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus – the book never actually says how the Creature’s body was created. The idea of piecing it together from corpses originates with the Boris Karloff movie.

Let me describe some more of the stuff that goes on here, in order to give you the flavour of the experience. For starters, Salvatore Baccaro, playing Ook the caveman, is credited as ‘Boris Lugosi’ in the opening credits. The first time I saw this movie I snorted water up my nose when that popped on screen.

Later in the movie there’s a flashback to that first peasants-vs-caveman scene, and it answers none of the questions I listed above. Why are there cavemen in these woods? I dunno, there just are. What did the cavemen do to piss off the locals? I don’t know that, either… they may have been stealing livestock, I guess, but they don’t seem to have been a threat to the people until Genz taught them about rape. Kind of makes one wonder what happened to the cavewomen, since we never meet one and these guys don’t seem to know what women are, as illustrated by Ook initially thinking their nubile young captive is going to be dinner. Also, although there are two cavemen, they don’t know each other. Genz has to introduce them!

There’s a bit where Genz is hiding behind a clock to watch Maria and Eric have sex. The butler comes along and chews him out for it, sends him to his room, and then he stands there and watches them for a while.

In another scene, Maria and Krista go skinny-dipping in a mineral spring, and the longer it goes on the more the dialogue sounds like it’s going to break into lesbian porn. I am particularly fond of the exchange where Maria says, “don’t worry, this dress is designed to be easy to get out of,” and Krista, impressed, replies, “I’ll say it is!”

The subplot in which the butler’s wife is having an affair with the hunchback has no effect on the plot whatsoever. The butler never even finds out about it. There’s a scene in which they run off to the barn to slap each other and smooch, and then the movie forgets about it. Astonishingly, the same is true of the corpse the servants dig up early on. They exhume the body of a recently dead woman, Genz cops a feel and leaves some footprints at the scene so that the villagers can figure out who was responsible, and… that’s it. She doesn’t even hang around as a gratuitous zombie like the grave-robbed girl in The Atomic Brain.

According to Wikipedia, nobody will admit to directing this movie. Like many Italian films, the director used a pseudonym, and the cast apparently disagree on even such basics as his nationality. Some of them think he was Spanish, but Simonetta Vitelli, who played Maria Frankenstein, insists he was an American.

At the end of the movie, Ook is the first of the cavemen to be killed, and we get to see Genz weeping over his friend’s dead body. Then he and Krista hold each other as the mob closes in on Goliath. This is supposed to be a tender moment but it looks a lot like Genz (who is, you must remember, around four feet tall) is enjoying his faceful of boobs. Since all alternative love interests for Krista are now dead, maybe we’re supposed to think she ended up marrying Genz.

Finally, as Goliath’s body burns, Edmund Perdom intones, “there’s a bit of the monster in all of us, especially where there’s fear.” I’ll drink to that, my dude. ‘Twas beauty killed the beast. He tampered in God’s domain.

That probably is supposed to be the movie’s point. The villagers are depicted as suspicious, fearful, and quick to violence, while the cavemen seem to have been relatively peaceful types until Genz taught them how to rape. It’s very much the Homo sapiens who are the monsters there. Frankenstein’s servants are all assorted shades of horrible, from Genz the necrophile to the nasty cackling butler to the adulterous hunchback and cook. Count Frankenstein himself isn’t quite so overtly evil but it’s clear that he’s not very interested in the moral dimension of his work.

Even if that’s an intentional theme rather than just a pithy closing line, I don’t think anybody thought about it very hard. The rest of Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks is too much of a mess. There’s no real plot, no identifiable protagonist, it’s sleazy and incoherent and at times it’s horrifyingly abelist… and yet, for reasons I cannot explain, it’s weirdly entertaining.

Maybe it’s just that everything in the film is so damn ridiculous. So much of what happens comes out of nothing and goes right back into it… a series of mind-boggling what the fuck moments that surprise the viewer over and over. The impression is that the writers are throwing horror concepts at the screen to see what sticks, but nothing does.

Maybe it’s that this is another villain-centric piece. You know I like those. I guess maybe Krista is the heroine? She seems to do the fewest horrible things over the course of the story, but she’s not a good person, either. She’s totally into the Count’s creepy reanimation experiments, and makes only a token protest about the idea of informed consent. Edmund Perdom’s Inspector character is one you’d expect to try and do something about these goings on, but he never does. Maria and Eric are only in the movie so it can have a sex scene.

Whatever the reason, the result is inexplicably charming. Between the easily distracted plot, the gratuitous breasts, the bad dubbing, the complete failure to either frighten or titillate, and the fact that it tries to tie itself to a lucrative franchise it really has nothing to do with, Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks is almost the perfect example of a bad Italian horror flick from the 70’s.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #frankenstein's castle of freaks #tw: rape #tw: ableism #70s

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buck-nialled · 3 years

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Undertow - S. Mendes (VII)

Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5 // Chapter 6 // Undertow Character Quiz

CH VII: Not So Casual Confessions

Wesley’s voice was barely heard as Shawn finally bellowed a plea.

“B-because I love her, okay? I love Y/N!” Every person stood in the cove stilled for an uncertain amount of time. “The day I met her was the same day I was basically banned from the sea for who knows how long and she saved my life. Maybe that was the universe’s way of bringing the ocean to me so I wouldn’t go insane, I don’t know.” Shawn lets an unamused laugh escape, as does Y/N. Hers goes unnoticed by Merlin and Ripley--especially Ripley--as they become captivated by his response.

“But...she made me realize I couldn’t care less if my life was on land or in water, just as long as she is in it. So, you can leave me dead here for all I care. Do whatever you’re gonna do to try and get answers, but don’t expect me to give you anything.” His eyes flicker down to Sandy, still in the viscous grip of his owner. Slowly, Ripley loosens his tight fist around the slimy tube of its body before the eel is flopping to the ground and slithering back into the waters.

“You...love her? A human loves an Atlantean?”

“Yes,” Shawn groans as a painful tremor sweeps through his abdomen. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

Ripley’s body resembled a beached animal from how eagerly he surged onto the sandy beaches of Hawaii. After reviewing Atlantean history today at Abyssington High and discovering the original plans to venture to the surface and make relationships with Homo sapiens, the urge he had attempted to fight for eighteen months finally motivated Ripley’s legs to carry himself onto land. Of course, he grew up knowing this type of action was forbidden amongst all sea folk and considered treason. If caught venturing to shore by anybody under the surface, he could be charged and sentenced to a life behind bars in the most shameful location and under the highest security--the King’s dungeon.

How Ripley discovered interest in land walker culture? Well, the story isn’t quite a nail-biter. One day while swimming towards the shallower ends of the sea, a sinking brick caught his eye. After swimming towards it and examining the material, he concluded it was not those plastic rings most turtles get tied around their fins, nor the transparent shrapnel he had been warned to keep away from in fear of being sliced to bits. It was a tough piece of plank with thinly sliced papers in between, each holding various names and places. After skimming through each page with lit eyes and enamor for his new discovery, Ripley flipped back to the plank at the front to read the large word staring back at him.

“Encyclopedia.”

It was the only treasure of his that he decided to sneak up to the surface with. The book was far too heavy for him to add anything else to the load. After surging himself to the surface, he finds the famous, red landmark staring back at him. It was one which he had meticulously mapped and been swimming to for weeks. A sight which he could never grow tired of. Even it’s picture, filed under the letter ’G’ made his heart lurch for a change of scenery whenever he perused it. Staring before the real thing in front of him and knowing at one point he could be standing on it looking down at the home he had left made his heart start matching the beat of an erratic kick drum.

When he marched onto land for the first time, feeling his feet sink into dirt which was dry, Ripley was appalled at the fact that this was still the same planet. He continued in one direction, not exactly sure what to do now or where his unmarked destination would be. Finally, he shoved his way through trees and stumbled onto a square of cement. Seconds later, his entire body was vulnerable lying atop it.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Ripley’s eyes fluttered open and he brought a hand to his forming concussion. A young woman, no older than him and adorning a vibrant tracksuit halter her jogging on the pavement and leaned down to inspect him for any superficial injuries. Her eyes were shaped like almonds and held the most gorgeous jade color. It’s hue was incomparable to the coral reefs he had been witness to for the last eighteen years. And he thinks it’s his new favorite sight above the Golden Gate Bridge.

“Are you alright?” With the guidance of her soft hand, Ripley shimmied himself into a sitting position and brought up his arm, which was suffering a light stinging sensation. “I’m leaking ...red.”

The girl before him snorts out a laugh, “you’re bleeding. And you’re soaking wet. Where did you come from?” Blinking at her a couple of times, Ripley fully stands up and turns to study the progress he has made on his journey so far. Lazily, he points to the red, steel ladders native to those in San Francisco and she inhales a sharp breath through the nose.

“You jumped?”

“No.” He looks at her. “I swam.”

Furrowing her brows, she nearly scoffs in disbelief at the story of this man slowly unraveling before her. Nevertheless, she remained intrigued and asks, “what’s your name?”

“Ripley.”

“Well, Ripley, I happen to live a few blocks down and own a dryer and some bandages if you’d like to come with.”

“Okay.” He nods, cueing the two to begin their walk back to her home. “What’s a dryer?” He asks, turning to her. And though she should have been concerned for how hard of a fall the man had taken, she elicits a string of giggles without further thought.

“You have a lot of explaining to do when we get back.”

And when they did get back, Ripley did not know what to say. Though it was nice leaving his home to discover a new one named San Francisco, a part of him still remained allegiant to his loved one’s below the surface.

“I can’t really remember much.” Is the excuse he gave. He hoped the questions would end there, but to his dismay, Stephanie continued her interrogation.

“What’s with the book.” She arched an eyebrow, pointing a finger down at the encyclopedia still in his grip. He opened it up, being careful when flipping each wilted page before coming across the landmark he was basking in the sight of not too long ago.

“I wanted to come here. And see it.” Humming, Stephanie nods and reaches a hand toward the book.

“May I?” Ripley nods, relinquishing the book over to her hold and letting her flip through the pages as she pleased.

“One day, when I become a marine biologist and get rich...this is where I’m going.” She turned the book towards Ripley, allowing his eyes to scan the picture in all of its beauty. The setting sun highlighting the sand and bouncing off of people’s glowing skin. The palm trees casting the perfect shade and shaking in the breeze made Ripley want to take Stephanie and swim with her straight there.

“Where is this?” His finger darted out to trace over the photo, as Stephanie read the title of the section.

“Hawaii.” The word sounded like a symphony when it bounced off of her tongue. It felt like Ripley’s insides were rolling down a hill of lush green grass and never wanted to stop.

“Let’s go.”

“Ripley, you can’t just up and leave like that. I mean, you probably have a life and family here…” she begins objecting.

“I wanna go wherever you go.” She turns from the hypnotizing photo of Hawaii’s sunset to his aqua blue eyes, just as mesmerizing. A smile creeps onto her lips, and suddenly, the word “no” seems displeasing to say. So instead she answers with an optimistic,

“Okay.”

“It’s not,” Ripley says, but is startled as another voice joins him in sync. This cues the man to turn, along with Merlin and come face to face with the wanted runaway.

“You were right, Rip.” Merlin elicits a string of menacing chuckles and administers a clap of his hand against his friend’s back. “She swam right after him.” But Ripley’s eyes were already transfixed elsewhere. Specifically, on his stunned child.

“Wesley...I--”

“Dad, what the hell are you doing?” The young man bustled past both of the knights to find his past competitor twitching and curling into himself against the stone floor.

“I...I don’t know, son. It was never meant to go this far--”

“You nearly killed him, dad! God, and for what? What were you going to get out of this?” Wesley ripped mercilessly at the seaweed keeping Shawn’s hands captive.

Ripley repeated his son’s question over and over to himself. No logical answer came up other than saving himself and his family.

“I was trying to protect you--”

“Protect me?” he scoffs. “By kidnapping and beating one of my friends? If you really cared about protecting me, you would actually tell me why you’re always leaving and where you’re going to. You would stay behind and actually ask me how me and mom have been since you’ve left us for some job we don’t even know anything about! More importantly, you would have told me about this!” Wesley retrieves his phone from his pocket, turning the screen towards his father.

Silence passed among the group for a few seconds, before Merlin took the initiative to lean towards Ripley and whisper to him, “You see a black screen too, right?”

“Uh . . . Wesley . . .” Y/N says, glowering her eyes at the boy. Humming, he turns the phone around for himself and gasps. Droplets of water were the only evidence as to what caused the unresponsive device.

“Huh? Oh no, no…” He pats the electronic against his hand, persistently pressing the power button in hopes of some illumination on the screen. His endeavor was fruitless, however, and left the boy sighing in despair. “I knew I should have gotten the warranty.”

“It was a map of the kingdom,” Y/N grumbles beside Ripley. “Not that it really matters anymore.”

“So what are you gonna do now? Take me in?” she asks, turning her stare from Ripley to Merlin. She tries to ignore Shawn’s eyes burning into her profile with dread for what was to come. She just hopes to have one last moment of staring into the hazel rings of his and maybe having her choke her--or kiss her, she is still confused on which was supposed to occur--before she is sentenced to life beneath the water forever.

“Yep.” Merlin smiles proudly to himself.

“No,” says Ripley, earning a hawk from everybody in the room.

“What?” His fellow knight stands beside him, baffled.

“What? I mean—“ Y/N clears her throat. “That’s right you’re not. Now, let Shawn free and we’ll all return back to land,” she commands in an authoritative voice, setting her hands against her hips Shawn’s hands could not wait to squeeze when he finally got the chance to hug her.

“Rip…” Merlin stops him with a hand against his forearm. “What are you doing?”

But Ripley ignores it, absorbing the sight before him. His son finished unraveling all of the seaweed that restrained Shawn’s hands earlier. Y/N approached him cautiously, and bent down to her knees to study the inflictions left on the boy’s skin from Sandy. Shawn tries not to concentrate on his new wounds, and rather, begins rattling compliments toward the woman in front of him.

“That-that dress looks nice on you,” he gulps.

A grin climbs onto her face upon the sight of Shawn’s red cheeks. “I think you already told me that earlier.”

“Well, I’m still right,” he claims through shaky chuckles.

“Eh,” She shrugs, staring down at the floral-patterned fabric. “I think I prefer your hoodie.” A snort comes from Shawn.

He retorts, “I think I’d prefer that thing in the garbage. It probably smelled awful when I gave it to you. And it’s covered in stains and...blegh.” He stiffens when Y/N’s warm hand is pressed against one of his cheeks, which now feels as though it is burning.

“I think I’d prefer you...and your brown eyes...and more of those…”

“Moments?” Shawn offers with a quirk of his eyebrow.

“Yeah, definitely more of those.” She grins, before the unfortunate moment the two shared earlier came to mind. “I’m sorry about what I said...you were right. Getting anywhere close to the water was a mistake.”

“No, I’m sorry. I mean, this is your home for crying out loud. I couldn’t ask you to just abandon it overnight...especially when you make a damn good lifeguard.” His hand reaches to guide a wet tendril behind Y/N’s ear.

“This isn’t my home, Shawn. My home is here, in Hawaii, with cheeseballs and shopping trips with Aaliyah and seafood nights...and you.”

“And Connor.” Shawn adds, earning a chuckle from the girl before him.

“And Connor.” She repeats.

“And Wesley.” The boy straggling behind them coughs, before turning to admire the stone surrounding them.

“And Wesley...but mostly you.” Watching the two lovesick strangers from afar was like staring into a portal from his past. The sight brought proud tears to Ripley’s eyes, despite his attempts to keep his emotions at bay.

“You know that it’s our lives on the line if you let her go,” Merlin states bitterly through his teeth. Ripley’s eyes shine with pride at the scene of Wesley now surveying the cove for the first time, with the two love struck young adults exploring one another’s eyes only a few feet away.

“I know.”

“I’m gonna make sure no one else is coming,” Merlin says. Ripley merely hums, too lost in the moment to be bothered by the knight’s complaints. Merlin glances at Shawn and Y/N, remembering his mission. He slowly walks to the edge of the cove, keeping his eyes on Wesley, who crouched down on a rock and staring at the distant shoreline. With one last breath he slipped into the water, swimming back to Atlantis a fast as he could.

Wesley ran his hand across the top of the water, paying attention to nothing but the ripples he was creating. He felt oddly calm considering how chaotic the past hour had been.

“You know,” Y/N said as she came up behind him. “this is where Shawn and I first met.”

“Really?” Wesley asked. “Was it a ‘meet cute?’”

“I don’t know what that means, but sure,” Y/N chuckled.

“Either way, he definitely likes you.”

“Gee, I wonder where you got that idea from.”

“Just in case you weren’t 100 percent sure.” He turned his head to look at her, offering a small smile.

“Okay, well the fate of humanity depends on us getting to work so I need to explain the plan and get going so you guys can get back to shore.” She nudged his hip and nodded back to Ripley and Shawn, who seemed to take no shame in maintaining their distance.

Wesley grunted as he stood up. “What do you mean ‘you go down and we go back to shore?’”

“We saved Shawn but we didn’t stop the tsunami,” Y/N stated matter of factly. “I have to go down there to finish this.”

“You can’t go down there alone.”

“Why not? That’s the plan.” She turned back towards Shawn and Ripley, feeling like the area was emptier than it was when she first showed up.

“No, the plan was for us to all go down there and finish this off together,” Wesley snapped, drawing Y/N’s attention back to him.

“It’s way too dangerous for you and Shawn to go. You don’t have a map and you didn’t memorize it earlier so there’s no chance I’m letting you come with me.”

“I don’t want you going down there alone.”

“You’re not my father. You don’t get to make that choice for me!” The raise of her voice caught Shawn’s attention. He furrowed his eyebrows at what he was witnessing, still not sure as to what was going on and why he was in the cove again.

“But I’m your friend, Y/N! And as your friend, I care about you and I don’t want you shoving yourself into dagner just ‘cause!”

“I don’t think you understand the gravity of this situation, Wesley.”

“What is going on over here?” Shawn asked as he approached the two, a cautious arm slung over the front of his abdomen while he attempted steady footsteps. RIpley, still feeling a weight of guilt sunken like an anchor in the pit of his stomach from his earlier actions, maintains distance but is still in earshot.

“Y/N’s throwing herself into the face of danger like it’s nothing and we’re not allowed to come with her.” Wesley threw his arm out in frustration, letting it fall to his side with a smack.

“Y/N?” Shawn said her name with hesitance. “Is that true?”

“This tsunami isn’t going to stop itself and you guys won’t make it out alive if you come with me.”

“What do you mean ‘go down there’? What in the world is going on right now?”

“Oh my gosh, how many times do I have to explain this?” Y/N groaned with a roll of her eyes.

“It’s only been one time so far,” Wesley muttered, earning a shove and glare from Shawn.

“There’s a tsunami. It was a distraction so they could kidnap you. I have to go to Atlantis to stop it. You guys are gonna go back to shore. End of story.”

“That is definitely not the end of the story.”

“Wesley, I swear I am going to feed you to the dolphins if you don’t shut up.” Before Wesley could even protest, a few disapproving cries came from Douglas and his pod.

“Oh, you’ve eaten worse.” Y/N turns her head, sharpening her glare at the bottle noses.

“No, wait...say that again,” Ripley directs, now with wide eyes. He walks closer to the group of dolphins, still bobbing in the waters leading onto the rocky platform of the cove. As instructed, Douglas and the others repeat the same series of chirps. Simultaneously, Y/N and Ripley bothe elicit petrified gasps.

Wesley and Shawn stood beside another, watching the scene unfold before them with a feeling of trepidation blossoming inside of both of them. “Do you understand what’s happening?” Wesley whispers into Shawn’s ear.

“Not a clue,” Shawn replies in a similar, hushed tone.

“Merlin went to the king to share our location, that’s what’s happening. We need to leave, now,” she says to Ripley, who confirms her order with a nod. “Douglas, get Shawn and Wesley back to shore.”

“What? No. Did you not just hear me say ‘this is not the end of the story’?” Wesley cries, before a loud clap of a crashing wave makes the group collectively flinch. Slowly, the tide began rising higher and higher, ultimately beginning to fill the cove to the top of its coarse walls.

“I think somebody heard you,” Shawn remarks--but his voice is nearly drowned by another harsh wave against the cove’s exterior. He is now fretful as his feet, once planted to the platform, are now hovering over it as he tried to keep his head above water. The dolphins began overlapping in their clicks and squeals.

“It’s the king,” Ripley begins. “He’s gonna fill this cave up to the brim.” He and Y/N, too began bobbing up and down as the water began a drastic rise.

“Well, you two can breathe underwater so what’s the big...ohhh…” Wesley shares a sheepish look with the three.

“Maybe if we swim out he’ll stop,” Y/N suggests.

“What? No, you two are not going out there. Do you know what he’ll do to you?” Shawn asks.

“Do you not realize what he’s doing to you two right now? You’re both forty seconds away from holding your breath for who knows how long—“

“Seven minutes,” Wesley interjects.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ripley and Y/N reply in sync.

“Seven minutes? Dude that’s impressive,” says Shawn, slightly envious. He looks back to Y/N and Ripley, both giving him a look of disdain.

Shawn clears his throat, “Sorry.”

“You’ll still both be dead in minutes. This current is too strong for you two to push through, remember? There’s no other option…” Once again, she turns back to Douglas, who is already awaiting for further instruction.

“Douglas, take them back to shore, please.” Douglas alerts the others of his clan,. Swiftly, the rubbery grey bodies are seen swooping Shawn and Wesley out of the cove as fast as their fins could carry them, not even leaving time for the two boys to protest.

“Are you ready?” She shares what may be a final look with her ex-nemesis, and is somewhat grateful for him now being an ally.

“You kidding? I’ve been waiting for twenty-three years.” The rising water finally fulfills its duty in submerging the two Atlanteans in the deep blue. Their eyes bore deep into one another’s, illuminating a near identical aqua.

“Let’s do this.”

The two surge out into the deep, barely feeling the coral and other bottom-dwellers graze their feet as they journey a reasonable distance from the cove. Precocious, the two scan their surroundings for any threat which could be headed their way. Alas, they were met with relatively clear waters, other than a few finned friends swimming past them without care.

“I don’t understand, where’s the--” before she could finish her question, Y/N’s temple was met with a brutal force that knocked her to the sea floor. Groaning, her eyelids fluttered open and she endured a throbbing feeling on the side of her skull while witnessing the sight of Ripley, already put under beside her. A looming shadow draws her stare up, and she elicits another groan at the sight of its gaping mouth and filtering gils, swimming in circles above her.

“Hammerheads.” She murmurs in distaste, before her new head trauma lulls her into unconsciousness.

LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT PART OF UNDERTOW COMING 4/2/21!

Join the taglist to see what happens next!

current taglist: @fallinallincurls @ilumxna @lonelyreputation @purely-imagines-and-fantasies @shawnmxndxs @learning-howto-be-myselfx3 @sillyquirkymendessupporter @itsalwaysbeen305 @friendlyneighborhood-mendes @marissje @princessmia1705 @rosetoronto @itrocksmysocks @organicpurplepants @truthfulteenager @bluebellwoods

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statticscribbles · 3 years

Text

Pride

Summary: Swangs (Fangs/Sweet Pea) Sweet Pea just has no luck when it comes to timing

TW: Use of homophobic slurs

There’s a lot of things Sweet Pea doesn’t give a shit about, he can list them either alphabetically or by his personal ranking of distain; the highest on his list is people being shitty to Fangs. He could lump it in as a general people being shitty to his friends but he’s seen and heard too many people brushing off the Southside into one group. The insults have changed. What once was chorus’s of

“Southside trash” “trailer park scum” “criminals” “hoodlums” “freaks” has now evolved into “freaks” “faggot” “bitch” “homo bastard” “degenerates” “queer”

Sweet Pea doesn’t admit to either Fangs or Toni how many times he comes over with bruised knuckles or a black eye, when he splits his lip too deep so he needs stitches. None of them are earned as recklessly as he lets them believe his temper is. He keeps his reasoning to himself, quoting the Serpent laws anytime he returns from letting his temper get the best of him like an idiot; as Toni and Fangs often yell at him. He just grins, one less person threatening them is a victory no matter how much he bleeds.

He’s the first to join the Serpents, he makes Toni wait two weeks after his ceremony, joking he doesn’t want to be upstaged. He endures her annoyed side eyes and rants about her being blood anyways. Still she waits. He feels childish asking about how the Serpents feel about LBGT members. FP looks at him like he ’s a bigger idiot than usual and introduces him to Joaquin that same night. He let’s Joaquin know he’s not his type and Joaquin makes some quip about Sweet Pea ending up with some Northside prep; he’s smiling when he says it and Sweet Pea laughs joking about he’ll find the perfect boy next door; Joaquin joins in on his jesting and they spend the night joking and laughing about imaginary Northsider’s.

It isn’t until later, when Toni and Fangs appear to bring him home that Joaquin’s eyes light up in understanding. Fang’s doesn’t get it, not when Sweet Pea pretends to be a little too drunk to lean on him, or how Joaquin gives FP a nod and sly smile. Toni is the one to cold shower him. Fangs sets him in the tub, Toni hisses how gentle he is and Fangs leaves, he always hated dousing Sweet Pea with the showers cold spray.

He’s relieved when there’s a knock at the door, Joaquin standing, sly smile on his face once more. “Glad he had the guts.” Is all he says, passing Fangs Sweet Pea’s jacket. “Wait there’s-” “Topaz’s” Fangs nods, and pushes the smaller jacket into her hands, she swears him to secrecy about her dancing around the living room.

They wake up on the couch, Sweet Pea setting mugs of coffee on the table. He cracks his neck and Toni smirks. “Fell asleep in the tub again, how the fuck do I keep ending up there?” He rolls his eyes as she shrugs. “It’s a mystery.” She flashes her jacket and Sweet Pea takes a sip of his coffee. “You pick out where you want your tat?” She beams nodding.

“You know he wants to join, he might as well already be a member anyways.” Toni speaks turning from behind the bar to nod at where Fangs plays pool with Joaquin.

“You know being a Serpent is dangerous. Especially being like we are. Anyone finds out it’s twice the reason to kill us, can’t have you being a gang member and a homo.” Sweet Pea glares at the ground, Toni places her hand on his shoulder.

“Isn’t it more dangerous to not be a Serpent then? To not have our protection.” Sweet Pea shakes his head. “He has me.” “And you have us, and him. Everyone knows Sweet Pea. Except him, you need to tell him at some point.” Sweet Pea nods. He stands bolstering himself to go over to play pool with them, to confess his feelings to Fangs, but Joaquin seems to pick up on it and vanishes too early; Fangs returns back to the bar whining to Toni about there not being any cute guys that are available. Sweet Pea knows the look Toni gives Fangs and him is meant to be a ‘you’re both idiots’ Fangs reads it as ‘can you believe this again’ and huffs retreating to where the other serpent’s are starting up darts. “Tomorrow.” He asks Toni to be there for support claiming he wants to hang out with Fangs and her like the old days.

Toni excuses herself to go home, something about her grandfather needing help; Sweet Pea steels himself, broaching the subject nervously. “Fangs, this is gonna sound really stupid but, how did you know you liked guys?” “It was more like I knew I didn’t like girls, why? Sweet Pea do you-“ He’s never seen Fangs look so hopeful. “Oh uh, I like girls, uh both, both actually.” He stumbles over the words as the hope flickers in Fang’s eyes. “Oh, good for you.” Fang’s smiles and turns to the text on his phone. “You, actually I like-“ He whispers “Hey sorry my mom needs me to call her.” Fangs looks apologetically at Sweet Pea who just nods dumbly.

Sweet Pea’s not sure if he can breathe anymore, not with the way Fangs looks numbly at the wall, or when he lets the phone and himself crumble to the ground as he shakes, choking instead of breathing. Sweet Pea tugs him onto his lap without thinking and pulls the phone up at the same time. “Mrs. Fogarty, is everything okay?” “Of course Sweet Pea, everything is fine dear.” Fang’s make a sort of gagging sound that he realizes is meant to be a no. “Tell Fangs I’ll see him tomorrow.” “Of course M-Mrs. Fogarty.” Sweet Pea hangs up and runs his hand through Fang’s hair.

“What happened? What’s wrong Fangs? What’s wrong?” He tries to keep his voice calm but all Fang’s does is keep hissing and mumbling and not speaking and Sweet Pea can feel the panic rising in his chest just the same when he hears people muttering about how much better he could do than being friends with the likes of Fangs; of course there’s nothing to punch, nothing to take the anger, the fear out on, so he sits, hands fluttering against any part of Fang’s that doesn’t make him pull away. They sit for an hour, until his legs are numb from the weight of them both, and his shirt has a wet spot on each of his shoulders.

They sit in half silence; half in reality until Fangs is almost asleep, just numb staring at the doorway. Sweet Pea doesn’t say anything as Fang’s shifts in his arms, hands twisting into his shirt. “ ‘s cancer. Doc’s already said it’s a loosing fight; I can’t. I can’t Sweets; it’ll-“ Fangs doesn’t finish his body jerking as his breathing goes once more. “Fangs, hey; I’m here. I’m here.” “I shouldn’t be, I shouldn’t be- why can’t it be me Sweet’s; why it gotta be my mom.” Sweet Pea doesn’t say anything, just tightening his grip. “Can’t afford none of it, said it wouldn’t help anyways, just pain management, can’t even give her a chance.” He hisses the last bit jerking away from Sweet Pea.

“Fangs, hey listen-“ “Sorry;” He wipes at his eyes and nose. “You were sayin’ something important.” “Yeah, I uh, well fuck it doesn’t seem as important now.” He laughs a little.

“Come on, Joaquin said you got your eye on someone, you ask ‘em out yet? Is that it? You finally not single for once?” Fangs laughs a little but his throat is too raw to do more than sob awkwardly. “No I haven’t asked him out yet.” “You gonna, come on, don’t chicken out. First real boyfriend as a possibility” “Well it’s complicated.” Fangs rolls his eyes. “Can’t be that complicated, you just walk up ask him out and kiss him if he says yes.” “So you wanna go out?” Sweet Pea sighs shakily.

“Yeah like that. What?” Fangs furrows his brow. “Well I’m waiting for him to say yes, so I can kiss him.” “Oh, um the Wyrm at seven?” “Is that a yes?” Fangs nods laughing as Sweet Pea bumps their foreheads together kissing him softly.

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elianthvia · 3 years

Text

Daily Migration in Green Mode

It's crazy that we are 6 weeks into the semester already. Before returning to campus, I was dismayed at the prospect of being trapped in solitary confinement on campus, but the freedom Green Mode brings and the lovely Northampton spring I didn't get to experience during my first year have been overall a delightful surprise. Exhilarated, I’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible outside my room. I am always on my way somewhere: to a dining hall, to an academic building, to the gym, to a friend’s house, etc. A migrating homo sapiens I have become indeed.

The list below answers the question: What are some of my blog-worthy destinations?

SCMA: Search for Identity

As one of the perks of Green Mode, Smith College Museum of Art is open to students and faculty in the testing protocol. Last Thursday two friends and I signed up to visit the lower level and first-floor galleries where Monet's La Cour d'Albane and Picasso's Table, Guitar and Bottle were on view. The quietness of the uncrowded museum allowed me to feel calm inside and be immersed in art.

A piece that struck me the most during the visit was Birth Certificate by María Magdalena Campos Pons, a Cuban-American artist. The giant woodcuts of fingerprints and palms of her art confused me at first, but the meaning became clear to me after I read the texts in the frames below the woodcuts: Even If My Hands Are Clenched By Mud My Finger Prints Are My Own Let Me Be Myself Let Me Be Alone. In my head I was picturing a giant (in the cold, sunless Jotunheim, far far away from Asgard), or a misfit, an outcast, who stumbles in the darkness, seeking a place where they belong, staunchly repudiating assimilation and invalidation. The caption helped me better understand the work: It represents the symbols of personal and national identity and how they are communicated to the world. The message resonated with me, since as a non-US passport holder, I am sensitive to the subtle ways where my identity is perceived differently in a country that isn’t always friendly to foreigners.

Sage: Sound of Music

Writing about the art museum provides a perfect segue into the next place I have in mind: Sage Hall, home to the music department. It is unofficially my second home that I visit almost everyday. There I take private lessons, practice the violin (and sometimes fall asleep on the piano. Shh!); before the pandemic, I also helped set up the stage for rehearsals every week as part of the concert crew. Sage the only building on campus that has a cool dome (the rooftop observatory of McConnell doesn't count). This semester, the practice rooms and the locker rooms are accessible to students, the only significant difference being that we need to sign up in advance to use the practice rooms. Isopropanol wipes, paper towels and hand sanitizers are placed in every practice room to keep the shared space clean. A typical practice room (pictured below, where my violin made a cameo appearance) has a grand piano, chair, and music stand.

Ford: Getting Hands Dirty

The third place I spent a significant amount of time in is Ford Hall, the home for the Picker Engineering Program. I had my first in-person lab of this school year two weeks ago in the organic chemistry laboratory on the second floor of Ford. My orgo professor also held in-person office hours in a classroom in Ford. It was nice to see the professor and classmates in 3D.

It is worth mentioning that a few changes had been made to my previous schedule: I dropped the 4-credit Classical Mythology and took a 2-credit special studies instead to make my workload more manageable. So now I go to lab with my special studies partner/ lab buddy about twice per week. I actually like working with chemicals while masked (once I found a way to make the goggles less foggy). It offers an extra layer of protection. The special studies focuses on the synthesis and characterization of different types of nylon. Ultimately, we’d like to design a lab for polymer chemistry students where they can repeat our experiment during two lab periods. (I might write a blog about this in greater detail.) Although I am only a first-semester organic chemistry student, the two professors I am doing the special studies with and the senior chemistry major working on the same project are super friendly and patient as they explain to me the science of polymers.

#museum #music #special studies #Smith College #college #spring 2021 #in person #chemistry

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anangelicday-mrwolf · 3 years

Text

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 46 – I Heard Nothing

“Don’t kill him. Not just yet. We’d better figure out how big is his dagger and how much he managed to unsheathe and plunge it into our backs.”

Said M-21 to Lunark, who was rummaging her cloak.

“...Can’t guarantee I’ll remember that, but for now I’ll give you my word.”

Countered Lunark to M-21, who was turning away to get his clothes changed.

She was ready to warm up her joints, with nobody to send her away due to her rejection, when a sound stilled her steps.

“Lunark.”

Familiar were both the voice and the name. However, with the two combined Lunark jumped as if she were caught on fire.

It was the very first time having none other than Raizel calling her name.

She assumed only something important would have urged the Noblesse to delay her at such emergency; thus she obediently held her movements and waited for his following words.

Contrary to her assumption he merely stared at her in silence, and Lunark gently crushed her teeth against each other in anxiety.

She decided to ask for his understanding and save whatever it is for later if it falters in necessity. After all, the situation was dire.

Alas, that was when he chose to voice himself.

“At last I have come to see a promise.”

She could determine neither the purpose nor meaning of his words, and her pink eyes flipped like a pancake on a frying pan.

Before she could request for his explanation regarding this promise, Raizel began to retrace his steps back into his home. Apparently he never intended to keep her locked in her place for long.

At the same time, he left something that grabbed Lunark’s steps in their places for good.

“I shall count upon you concerning Frankenstein.”

She could not move for a while even after his disappearance.

She knew that the timing was outrageously wrong for her to speculate so, but it was as if she was watching a father who is sending away his treasured son to be someone’s husband.

‘Husband my behind. Snap out of it, Lunark.’

She had to shake her head to free her mind from idle thoughts. And by doing so, her brain brewed a duty that awaits her, sharpening her concentration to maximum.

Next up came rage, upon picturing a certain white-haired man; now she felt like punching herself in the face for not finding herself an opportunity to use his head as a shovel to dig up a grave for him when they were both elders of the Union.

With her fury driving her, Lunark finally kicked off and threw herself in the air.

Her mind was still keenly reverberating with wrath, shock that did not fade a bit, and hurried commitment.

On the other hand, a corner of her mind was echoing with desperation, and Lunark minced her lips as if her life depended on the action.

‘Please stay safe, Frankenstein... Please hang in there!’

*****

Few days later, Frankenstein’s island

“Welcome back.”

Frankenstein merely flapped his hand to 3rd Elder’s greetings and walked past him, which whipped the latter’s heart with cold biting sensation.

‘...He didn’t notice, did he?’

He knew, of course, that there was no way Frankenstein would know.

Because now he knew the recording device and camera Frankenstein implanted in him are no good.

And he wanted a word with the man regarding the matter.

He watched how Frankenstein was tramping forward, looking too exhausted he could bet the lord of the island would fall by simply having his name called, and he could feel guilt kicking and wrenching his conscience.

Are you sure it’s simply because you’re about to deny an exhausted man of his rest?

Muffling a voice whispering from a corner of his heart he could not pinpoint, 3rd Elder decided to speak.

“...Wait.”

Frankenstein, whose steps were weighed with fatigue, turned his head with much struggle.

Based on the fact that such ridiculously simple gesture was embedded with struggle, 3rd Elder could clearly see how serious Frankenstein’s state was.

That did nothing to make 3rd Elder change his mind, for this was the only chance he had.

“There’s something I’d like to ask.”

“...Be quick about it. I have a long way to go.”

Now that he was handed with the mic, 3rd Elder could not help but gulp.

‘...Just how did things turn out like this?’

The original plan was supposed to end with his immediate evacuation, instead of this confrontation.

‘...Who would’ve known our encounter would be led to this?’

Just a day ago, a weapon against heads of noble clans – or Sol, who has made the body his house and ride – presented himself at the island.

Here. Take it.

What’s this...?

It’s the chemical Union has been keeping. You know, the one that renders a substance its countersubstance. I believe I wouldn’t have to brief you about its use.

The man nodded, and that was supposed to be it.

Yet he asked Sol how he found out about this place, which ultimately rolled a snowball that raced all the way towards his conversation with Frankenstein.

I tracked down your whereabout. Do you remember what happened when you first ran into Ms. Helga?

Yes, but nothing in particular ha... Wait a minute. She did land a blow on my torso as soon as we recognized each other. Is this what you’re referring to? Speaking of which, after that Frankenstein did announce that my camera and recording device were jammed. Though he soon replaced them with functional ones.

Actually, that’s when Ms. Helga planted something in your body, and that thing is equipped with tracking feature. Forgive me for telling you now; she believed we shouldn’t tell you until we are assured that you’re with us.

There’s something inside me...? What did you do?

It’s a sort of distractor. We figured Frankenstein would leash you with a surveillance kit or two, so we requested our conspirator to come up with an anti-kit.

Conspirator? You mean...

Yes, he’s the inventor. It’s a mixture of a stealth device that absorbs sounds above certain decibels and a device that emits special signal to cause only noises for every type of footage-recording device. Both devices distract instead of destroying or freezing, so it would prevent Frankenstein’s knowledge, given that he calibrated his devices so he would pick up as soon as they are unavailable in function. And it’s a unique invention from its proposal to completion.

Shortly expressing marvel at devices that flaunted creativity, 3rd Elder feasted upon the thundering pounds of his heart.

If Sol’s words are as authentic as they could be, Frankenstein has been left in the dark concerning his behaviors ever since he met Helga.

Simultaneously, he could feel question nudging his cognition.

If his camera and recording device did not work properly after replacement, there is no way Frankenstein would not have pointed it out.

Nevertheless, the blonde scientist has never once sought him after replacement.

One excuse he could think of was that Frankenstein’s judgment is now fatally clouded, thanks to the sleeping issue he has been suffering.

Notwithstanding, his past history at Union was telling him there must be more than it seems behind this mystery.

And it was coercing him to find out more.

Sol, I know this is out of nowhere, but I need your help.

My help? For what...?

I’d like to find my voice and footage files Frankenstein would have collected so far.

With Sol’s hands in action, 3rd Elder could sneak a peek into Frankenstein’s personal files.

The firewall failed to stand against their infiltration, perhaps the network security compromised due to loss of connection during the failed activation of QuadraNet.

At the end of his navigation, 3rd Elder was turned speechless.

‘...How can this be?’

He could find records of his words and actions only from the times when he was beyond the shorelines.

The counterparts from the times when he was tucked within the boundaries of the isle were nowhere to be found.

‘Was he lying when he said he’s got his eyes on me on this island?’

Impossible.

That devilish homo sapiens will never do that.

We were adversaries to start with, and he’s keeping me alive just because he can make use of me.

Despite his uncertainties, 3rd Elder could not stop himself from dispensing the topic now that he was faced with the man of interest.

“Am I free of surveillance while I am on this island?”

In a flash, Frankenstein’s face marred with exhaustion and a bit of annoyance was sparked with icy glare.

Though the change did nothing, other than lightening the shade of the bags under his eyes by a tone.

“Don’t get me wrong. Before your return, I was reminiscing my days at Union and... Uh, I muttered something that you might take as a hint that I’m waiting for an opportunity to stab your back. Yeah, that’s right. I’m turning myself in, so you wouldn’t make a Dark-Spear-skewered meat out of me.”

The man did not miss how Frankenstein flinched albeit very faintly the moment he mentioned the cursed weapon.

Exhibiting none of his observations, he continued on.

“There’s a possibility that you didn’t check my voice print yet, but allow me to dare ask you, since you hadn’t burst into my room to throw a fit at me so far. Is this voice recorder inside me actually working...?”

Before either of them knew it, Frankenstein had fully turned to gaze at the speaker, who could feel his throat clenching as he witnessed how the master doctor was not even blinking.

I shouldn’t have asked. If only I can go back in time. If only I can have a word with the past me.

As 3rd elder was winding up bunch of thoughts, Frankenstein muttered, “...This is something students from my school used to say at a time like this: there’s a reason why sometimes it’s better to walk around in underpants than with smarty-pants.”

“...Beg your pardon?”

“That’s right. The voice recorder and the camera are off when you are in this island, via my judgment.”

The 3rd Elder’s face scrunched up so hard it almost looked foul: the one person ought to stay vigilant upon him was practically playing vigilant all this time.

“...But why?”

“Why? Isn’t it obvious? I’m not like Union, that’s why. I have no intention to keep tabs on each and every word and action of someone sharing my roof, like the Union lot had done. Most importantly, I happen to have a family. A family that had to go through horrible manipulation of body and mind under the Union. So there’s no way I’m doing what you have in mind. Now, if that answered your question, please excuse me.”

Frankenstein did not even wait for 3rd Elder to thaw from his mute stupefaction and promptly left.

That did not release 3rd Elder from his petrification.

‘He’s been neglecting me so far...?’

No, he was not neglecting me.

He was trusting me.

Perhaps it was too soon for him to employ the synonym of faith, but at least there was no doubt the way Frankenstein is treating him is different from the way he treats him.

When he explained why he was not keeping surveillance on him, the vocabulary he pulled out was ‘Union.’ Not ‘you Union folks.’ Or ‘your people.’

Which was a proof that Frankenstein no longer identifies him as part of the Union.

He thereby showed how he unconsciously crossed off 3rd Elder’s name from his list of foes.

As soon as he relished in the fact, he could feel something straining his heart.

And then he recalled what he had done at Frankenstein’s lab before his return.

Feeling something striking his chest, he turned halfway towards the lab, only to stop dead not after long.

The table was toppled, and the pieces of what used to lie on top cannot be restored.

‘...There was no other choice. This is for the Union. For the humanity.’

I heard nothing.

I. Heard. Nothing.

He endeavored to cover the fact that his hands are bloody, tagging definitely-not-nothing as nothing.

And he sprinted to get away from the crime scene on the double.

(next chapter)

Yes, 3rd Elder did feel guilty; yet he decided to stab Frankenstein in the back. :’( And this isn’t the end of his appearance. Of course it’s not! Please stay tuned to find out what he does after this what his betrayal will bring about; I can guarantee that the result will be nothing close to meaningless.

#korean webcomic #korean webtoon #fanfic #noblesse #frankenstein #lunark #frankensteinxlunark #wolfsbane

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finn-wolfhard · 4 years

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I need me some quality content and this is the best place for it. Could I get some being Steve's sister and dating Robin? (If that already exists somewhere then please direct me to it bc this idea is like crack to me) Thanks!!

Yo! I've just gotten back into Tumblr since quarantine has given me an abundance of time. I can guess that you ended up getting this elsewhere, anon, but for the folk who also want to read about wlw Robin B and Big Bro Steve - this ones for you!

Enjoy x

I Do

“Turn that shit down! GOD! I feel I’m listening to them in concert.” Steve was screaming from downstairs for me to turn my music down and before I could move an inch to do so, he barged through the door. “Look, I don’t want another complaint from Mrs. Fritz next door. Can you please turn it down. I promised mom and dad that the roof would still be on this place by the time they got home. I’m heading to work. The money for delivery is on the table. Just try not to get yourself into bother, OK?”

“Yeah, sure, sorry Steve. What time will you be home?” our parents are both out of town on business and so Steve has been appointed man of the house. Last time we were left alone, Mrs. Fritz called the police on us, placing a noise complaint. It was just me playing my radio a little bit too loud in my room. My bedroom window is right next to her living room.

“I’ll be home around 8. Do you want to wait till I’m home to order pizza?”

“Sure thing, dude” I answered, giving him a thumbs up and a grin.

“You’re a goof. I’ll see you at 8.”

Steve and I’s relationship is reasonably good for the average brother and sister. He’s a year older than me and has the same interests. Such as; Hair, Pizza, our looks, and girls. I’ve known I’ve been into girls since I was a little kid but dad would kill me if I ever brought a girl home. Mom would be a little more understanding, yet still against the idea - and I don’t even know how Steve would react if he found out. I think he’s the only person I’d be fully comfortable telling, but I don't want to risk it going the complete opposite way.

I hear the door slam and decide to get out of my pajamas and actually DO something today. The schools broke up for summer last week and all I’ve been doing is reading, listening to music, and waiting for my best friend Jennifer to get home from vacation and tell me all about it. She’s due home in three days. I finally muster up enough self-motivation to move from my cozy, pink bed to the bathroom. The cold tiles under my feet wake me up and I stare at myself in the mirror for a bit. I had managed to grow a little spot just below my hairline (which I quickly treated with zit cream) but that was about as far as the flaws went. I usually take good care of myself; drinking enough, taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth after every meal. I do care about my looks and I shouldn’t be ashamed of that. It helps gets me a lot of attention in school, and I’ve never been an outcast. I guess having Steve as a big brother does contribute to the high school fame, but I don’t let it get to me much. I'm just glad I’ve gotten through high-school without being bullied at least once. I looked at my scraggly hair. I had just had a perm done two weeks ago and it seemed to be holding up pretty well. I scrunched my hair to make it look nice and messed it up a bit to give it volume.

In the kitchen, there was the money on the table, like Steve said, and a note next to it.

Save me a slice! Steve :)

He must’ve written the note then realized that a slice won't suffice after a long shift at his dorky Scoops Ahoy! job, and asked me to wait up for him. It's a shame people don’t get to see this side of Steve and I. I know how we come across to other people. I’ve heard the odd remark here and there about how he’s a player and I’m a priss. It mostly comes from the social outcasts in the school, the ones who aren’t in our friend circles, and don’t get to see what we’re really like. Even then, our school personalities are a bit of a performance to uphold our popularity. Only Steve knows my real self and vice verses, and we both understand why it has to be like that. Its an unspoken rule type thing.

I open the fridge and get some milk for cereal. I pour a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Fred smiles at me from the box as I grab the phone off the wall and dial Amanda’s number.

“Hey Mands, you want to go to the mall today”

“y/n! Hi! That sounds great. I need a new outfit for my date with Justin on Friday.”

“Cool, so, 12? That sound ok?”

We agreed on 12:30 (since she had to take her dog on a walk) and she suggested we meet outside the Gap. Soon enough, 12:30 rolls around and I see Amanda smiling wildly at me, where she said she'd be, outside the Gap. She sweeps me into a warm hug and we gush about how much we’ve missed each other since school broke up.

“Ok, so I need to go to Claires to get some earrings.” I agree to help her find a pair that would, quote “make Justin harder than math.” I don’t really understand how a pair of earrings could do this to a guy, or even if guys pay attention to earrings at all, but I was open to being proved wrong. We start making our way to the stairs when Amanda realizes she’s suddenly craving ice cream. I put it down to the fact that there were Scoops Ahoy! Adverts on every trash can (I’m unsure if that is a sign or not). We make a detour to Steve’s work and I make a plan to pull a few strings to get a free cone or two. We enter the ice cream parlor and… Steve isn’t there. Instead, a girl with short blonde hair is serving the queue of customers.

I squint at her, trying to remember her name. Rosie? No, that's not it. It begins with an R for definite. Its to do with an animal… a R-R-Robin! Her name is Robin. And she’s…pretty? Like, really pretty. And not very girly? I can’t tell since she’s wearing a silly uniform… but god, is she pretty.

As I’m staring at her, a slew of slurs come racing into my mind. Slurs I panicked were being shouted at me down the halls but never were. They were always aimed…at her. At Robin. Words beginning with D and F that make my blood boil. Chip, A boy in my own friend group, muttering “Stay away from my sister, homo!” In class. I put a hand up to my mouth to hide a gasp. This girl was outed, by someone she thought was her friend from band, in Hawkins - which isn’t known for being the most accommodating and accepting town.

Amanda and I reach the front of the queue and I find myself unable to look directly at the girl serving me.

“Hi! Welcome to Scoops Ahoy! What can I get you today?” She seemed overly enthusiastic for some reason.

“Hi, is Steve here?” I say, breaking the awkwardness I had built up in my own mind. She looked away, disheartened? I couldn’t tell.

“Steve, your sisters here” then she whispered something that sounded like “you can leave your little nerd friend to figure it out for a bit” but I wasn’t really sure.

Steve appeared from around the corner.

“what do you want, squirt?”

“2 sundaes please” I replied, smiling.

“that will be five dollars pleas-“

“STEVE! Can’t you gift your baby sister with a sundae for once?” I cut him off, appalled that he’s making me pay, but still keeping it lighthearted.

“…fine. But only this ONE TIME” he shot back. I winked at him, thanked him, and waited for him to finish our sundaes. He brought them over and sat with us.

“Who’s that girl?” I instantly questioned, trying not to sound too interested but failing miserably.

“Oh, that's Robin Buckley. She’s in your year at school, don’t you know her?” I do know her. But I don’t want to admit that yet, I want to play it cool.

“I think I’ve seen her around yeah, I’ve just never had a good look at her before. I think she’s in my social studies class?” I look to Amanda to ask this question but Amanda is already nodding by this point. Steve looks unconvinced.

“well, I invited her for pizza tonight,” he said, not wanting to ask ‘is that ok?’ In front of Amanda to keep up his macho ‘I’m Steve Harrington’ persona. I glance over at Robin. By this time, she’s known as lovely Robin in my head. Not that I could help it, along with the butterflies in my stomach or the extreme excitement that she was going to be having dinner. With me. In my house. Tonight!… What am I doing? Get a grip of yourself! You’re not out - as if that is ever going to happen anyways - and Robin was coming for Steve. Of course she was. I mentally roll my eyes. Just my luck.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. Amanda gets her outfit and ‘math’ earrings - which I still don’t understand - and I get a few cute t-shirts and skirts thanks to my allowance mom gave me before she went away. By the time I get home, it is 4 pm which means I have precisely 4 hours to get myself ready for tonight. I go to my room, read for a bit, then put my makeup on in my vanity mirror. I don’t want to mess this up, but then again, why am I caring so much?. I eventually get myself sorted and wait for 8 pm to roll around. At 7:45 I phone Hal’s Pizza Shop and order 2 pepperoni pizzas and 1 plain Margherita. I came to the decision that If Robin is vegetarian then she can have the just cheese, but if not, I’ll take it.

I hear Steve’s key in the lock and he shouts to me from downstairs.

“Hey that's me back, y/n, did you order the pizza?”

“Sure did!” I came to the top of the stairs and looked down at the front door. Robin was staring up at me and I couldn’t help staring at her back. Steve obviously missed this whole exchange of tension.

“Good! Because I’m starving. I’m gonna put a video on, anyone down for watching Indiana Jones?” He mimics a whipping sound and runs off to the living room, leaving Robin and me to awkwardly start a conversation.

“So, you work with Steve. I’ll apologize on your employer's behalf.” I laugh, eventually. Robin looked relieved that I had said something, and even more so that it was a joke.

“It's not as bad as you would think, he brings in loads of customers with that ‘magnificent hair’” she replies, making fun of Steve’s obsession with his, admittedly, perfect mane.

“I’ve seen you about school before, sorry I’ve never talked to you before,” I said. I really meant it, she seems cool. And kinda hot? But that wasn’t important to me…

“Yeah, I guess our groups don’t tend to mix as much. I'm surprised you even know my name” she looks at her feet. She knows I know about the slurs and bullying, I can tell. Just then, there's a ring at the door and Steve reappears, running to get the door that we are standing 2 inches away from.

After sitting, eating, chatting, and laughing our way through Indiana Jones, I realise Steve has fallen asleep beside me. So does Robin. We both snicker at him and then collectively tuck him in with the blankets on the back of the sofa. We sit in silence for a minute.

“Robin. I want to say I'm sorry for all the stuff you get called at school. It's not cool and especially from my group-“

“it's fine” she cuts me off. She seems distant though.

“I don’t think you understand what it does to me hearing people shout words like that at someone. It's inhuman,” Robin looks at me over her cup of hot chocolate Steve made us halfway through the movie. She looks on the verge of tears. “I mean, I don’t know how I would cope with that if people knew I was one too.” I look away from her confused stare in embarrassment. Robin is the first person I tell this massive secret to and I've only been in her company for the past 3 hours? But it felt right. It felt too right, almost.

Robin picks herself up from her space in the armchair and comes to sit on the arm of the sofa. She doesn’t hesitate to put her arm around my shoulders and squeeze me in for a side hug. I hadn’t realized that I had started to cry and I wipe my eyes and nose with the back of my hand.

“I’m so sorry they said those things to you” I whispered while silently sobbing.

“Don’t worry about it, y/n, I have pretty thick skin when it comes to bullying. I've been in band for the past 3 years,” I look at her and let out a small laugh. The smile fades from her lips and a serious look takes over her face. “You don’t need to feel ashamed. Or embarrassed. I’m honored you told me, I know how much trust that takes. Thank you.”

We sit embracing for a couple of minutes and I try to defuse the tension. “You know, I think you’re pretty hot.” She laughs, and I can feel the heat radiating off of her. She’s blushing.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Harrington,” she gives me a small smile. “I think you’re the prettiest girl in our year.” Now it was my turn to blush. I’m not sure if she’s saying this out of courtesy, sympathy, or if she really means it.

“You don't have to say that” I roll my eyes and let out an embarrassed giggle.

“I do.” She whispers back, the darkness multiplying the tension by 10. After a while of nervous silence, not sure what to say next, Robin asks you a question.

“I hope I’m not out of line for saying this, and you can one hundred percent say no,” I looked at her, questioningly, “but why don’t we go out sometime? We can go to the park or we can go to the cinema. Your choice… if you want-if you want to.” She was visibly nervous. In the pitch black, with only the dim glow from the paused movie TV static lighting up the room, I agreed to go on a date with her (”I’d like that”). We both can tell the other is excited but can also tell the other is exhausted. Robin moves back over to the armchair, which was just big enough for a teenage girl to curl up in, and I curl up to my sound asleep brother. It takes a while to finally get to sleep, but I can’t help my mind doing laps, thinking about my future date with Robin Buckley.

#steve harrington 4 ever x #i love steve #big brother steve #dating Robin Buckley #robin buckley imagine #robin buckley fic #robin buckley #st3 #robin #robin buckley one shot

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