#the video was weird quality so these were never gonna be good
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Triangulum - Chapter 1- Return to the Falls
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“Tree. Tree. Billboard. Gas station. Telephone pole. Tree. Billboar—hey, that one’s got a whale on it!”
The clink of metal to glass echoed through the nearly-empty bus as Mabel pressed her cellphone against the window. “I wonder why they always use whales as mascots for things like car washes?” she inquired. “It’s not like they can actually drive cars or anything! They’re too big to fit through the doors!”
Such a question drew an amused chuckle from the person on the other end of the phone. “I think the thought process there is, like…you use water to clean cars?” they guessed. “And whales live in the water? And then they figure everyone can make the rest of the connection from there.”
From the seat besides Mabel, Dipper looked up from his journal. “Whales are also filter-feeders,” he pointed out. “They filter their food through something called baleen plates, which kinda look like the flappy, hangy-down brushes and sponges in a car wash? Maybe that’s one reason.”
He pointed the tip of his pencil at Mabel. “Also, you know Dev can’t actually see the billboard over the phone, right? …Adding onto that, how are you getting a signal this far out in the woods?”
Mabel moved the phone from the window and pressed it tightly against her chest. “Through the power of love!”
“Yeah, well, I’m almost positive that the ‘power of love’ isn’t gonna make your phone magically grow a video screen and a high-quality internet connection.”
With a scowl, Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “Almost positive isn’t completely positive, Mr. Negative!”
She punctuated her remark with a raspberry, before turning her attention back to her phone. “Sorry, Dev, you know how Dipper is,” she said fondly. “The big dorkus always has to apply logic to everything.”
“He raises a good point, though,” Dev replied. “I wouldn’t’ve made the connection between baleen plates and car wash sponges on my own, so I’m glad he had all that off the top of his head.”
A laugh, before their tone grew more accusatory. “Almost as if someone’s in the middle of researching whales for a certain reason.”
Dipper shifted in his seat, his gaze suddenly and intently focused on a stain of unknown origin on the back of the seat in front of them. “I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“...Diiiiip, you promised we’d look into that story about those sky whales off the coast together!” Dev whined playfully. “We were gonna make a whole night of it once you guys got back, with a red yarn board and everything!”
“I swear I was going to wait!” Dipper insisted. “But, like, listen…we’re gonna be spending all summer with our great-uncles. And they’ve spent the last few months sailing around the world, hunting a bunch of cool, paranormal beings out there on the open seas.”
He pressed a hand to the back of his head. “And I thought…you know—”
“—you thought sky whales might be one of the things your uncles saw out on the ocean, and you wanted to learn as much as you could to look all cool and smart in front of them,” Dev finished for him. “Especially in front of the totally awesome, Multiverse-jumping—studier of all things weird and strange—Stanford Pines?”
A beat. “…The one you promised me you’d get an autograph from and I’m totally not using this as an excuse to remind you about that?”
This earned a laugh out of Dipper. “Subtly noted, but it’s just…they’re gonna have so many stories about the places they’ve been over the past nine months,” he elaborated. “The most exciting story I have is that Phoenix incident, and it wasn’t even a real Phoenix!”
Dev let out a groan. “Ugh, don’t remind me! Whose bright idea was it again to smuggle a chicken into Science class?”
“I guess that’s one mystery we’ll never solve,” Dipper added with a look of disgust. “But what we did learn is that burnt feathers smell like someone lighting their hair on fire in a barn.”
“No kidding, I’ll never get the smell of stale hay and dirt outta my nose.”
“This is why pigs are the superior livestock,” Mabel said, punctuating her point with an indignant harrumph. “No stinky feathers!”
Dipper nudged her with his elbow before he set his journal and pencil down on his lap. “Weren’t you complaining a month ago about how Waddles is too big to smuggle into school anymore?”
“That’s not his fault! It’s the fault of society and their inability to stop body shaming everything!” She pressed her hands, phone and all, against her cheeks. ”Especially the most adorable wittle piggy in the entire world and his fat wittle piggy tummy~!”
This earned a laugh from Dev. “They’re just jealous they can’t be him, I bet,” he agreed. “Either way, Dip, it’s no worries about the sky whales thing. Just means I’ve gotta start stocking up on new research material for when you guys get home.”
There was a light tapping sound from the other side of the phone, as if Dev were tapping the speaker with their finger. “And it means that you owe me one!” they insisted. “Which you can easily pay off by spilling all the deets about what went down up there last August!”
The twins exchanged a mirrored look. “Dev—”
“Come on, Dipping Dots, you can’t leave me hanging forever,” Dev begged. “I know it was more than just some weird weather patterns! Just…just give me a hint at least! Was it ghosts? Aliens? …Alien ghosts?”
Dipper shot his sister a look, one that she returned with an understanding nod. “Dipper, stop trying to steal my boyfriend’s attention with your nerdy-nerd talk!” she said, loud enough for Dev to hear. “I wanna get as much talking time as I can with him before we get to town!”
With a smirk, he gave her ribs another nudge with his elbow. “Hey, Dev was a part of the Paranormal/Supernatural Club before you two started going out!” he pointed out. “So technically—aha, stop!”
His words dissolved into laughter as Mabel retaliated by putting as much of her weight on him as she could. “Technically, schmechnically, you can’t do nerdy-nerd stuff with Dev if you’re flat as a pancake!” she said, her body vibrating with giggles as she smushed against him.
“Dev, help, I’m being smothered!” Dipper called to the phone, between bouts of his own laughter. “Tell Mabel she’s cute or something!”
This earned another laugh from Dev in response, one warm and full of affection. “Mabel Syrup, could you please stop trying to kill my best friend and Paranormal/Supernatural Club co-president?”
Smiling wider, Mabel straightened herself upright in the seat and held the phone in her ear. “We~ell, since you’re using that nickname, I guess I can be merciful today!”
With a dramatic gag, Dipper pointed a finger at his throat in disgust. “Ugh, I said call her cute, not break out the pet names.”
“It’s not my fault she’s as sweet as her namesake.”
“It’s not her namesake!”
“Boys, boys,” Mabel interrupted with a giggle. “As fun as it is to both flirt with my boyfriend and annoy my brother at the same time, I do think we should circle back to the point Dip made earlier about my cell reception.”
She held the phone back up to her ear. “Since we’re almost at the Falls anyway, you wanna go ahead and hang up before the majestic oaks of Oregon do it for us?”
Dipper raised a finger. “Technically the trees around here are mostly firs and birch trees.”
“Oaks, Oregon…I wanted the words to sound all samey-samey,” Mabel pointed out. “And firs doesn’t start with an O.”
“...Neither does majestic?”
“Yeah, we can hang up for now,” Dev said. “I’m sure you guys probably wanna spend the rest of the day settling in, but if you don’t mind talking later tonight—”
“Uh, of course we can talk tonight~!” Mabel interrupted excitedly. “Not only that, I can introduce you to my Grunkles if they’re finished settling in by that point, too! And I’m sure Soos and Melody will want to say hi—ooh, and of course you can meet Candy and Grenda when we have our inevitable ‘Back In Gravity Falls’ sleepover—”
“Okay, maybe we slowly ease Dev into the weirdness that is Gravity Falls and everyone in it?” Dipper suggested. “Besides, I’d like some time to talk to them over the summer, too!”
“Hey, I take offense to that,” Dev said. “The first thing, not the second. Are you forgetting who sought you out to join your club in the first place? And brought his own research material to the very first meeting?”
Dipper gently pulled the phone towards him. “Are you forgetting who’s actually been to Gravity Falls in the first place?”
“No, but I’m also not forgetting who’s keeping all the juicy details about what happened last summer to themselves,” Dev pointed out in return.
“Okay, okay,” Mabel said, pulling the phone back. “No more nerd talk about nerd things, you’re wasting all my minutes! Use your own minutes for that!”
She returned it to her ear with a wide grin. “But we can figure out a proper talking schedule later,” she said sweetly, then paused. “...After tonight though, because you already said we could talk and no take backs!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Dev assured her. “Love you.”
“And I looooove—” Mabel wiggled her finger with a mischievous look before booping it against the screen of her phone. “—you~!”
“...Did you boop the phone?”
“Yeah-huh~!”
“Bye, Dev!” Dipper called as well. “...I know you two are having a moment, but I wanted to say bye, too!”
“Bye to both of you!” Dev replied. “Talk to you tonight!”
There was a click as the call ended and Mabel pressed the phone against her chest. “Ehehe, I love them!”
“So I’ve gathered,” Dipper said with a smile. “What’re you guys at now, seven months?”
“Seven months, and seventeen days~!” Mabel clarified, with a closing slap of her flip phone and a delighted kick of her feet. “Can you believe it? Last year I would’ve gone through at least seventy guys in that amount of time! Now look at me! Miss Lady-In-A-Serious-Relationship-With-One-Of-The-Best-Guys-In-The-World over here~!”
“You know that number’s a wild exaggeration, right?”
“You’re a wild exaggeration,” Mabel retorted, with a nudge to his shoulder. “And I like how you couldn’t even argue the ‘one of the best guys in the world’ thing, because you know it’s true! Well, he’s the best guy whenever he’s actually in guy mode, of course. Otherwise he’s just the best significant other! But right now, he’s the best guy in the world!
With a wide grin, she snaked an arm around Dipper’s shoulder before once again smushing most of her weight against him. “Except for thiiiiis best guy in the world, of course~!” she said, words slightly muffled from how her cheek was squished against his arm. “Who knows he absolutely doesn’t count when it comes to me talking about the best guys in the world, because it already goes without saying that he’s the best guy in the world!”
She gave him a squished little smile. “He knows that, right?”
With a warm smile of his own, Dipper gently pushed her back to her side of the bus seat. “He knows that. Although ‘best guy in the world’ is starting to sound like a fake sentence.”
“Haha, yeah,” Mabel agreed with a giggle. “I used it a lot, huh?”
An oink beneath their legs turned their attention to the underside of the seat in front of them, where a fat, pink hog peered up at them with a lazy tilt of his head.
With a squeal of utter delight, Mabel reached down and scooped him up in her arms. “Aww, we can’t forget about the other best guy in the world~!” she cooed, cradling him like a baby. “Are you having fun crawling around and eating all the abandoned wrappers and gum stuck to the underside of the seats?”
Waddles let out another oink and contently buried his snout in the bend of her arm, as if he considered himself nothing more than a simple lap dog. Despite his own amusement at the sight, Dipper raised an eyebrow at his sister. “Seriously, you should probably stop letting him do that before the driver gets fed up and makes us walk the rest of the way.”
“He wouldn’t dare,” Mabel insisted. “This bus is probably the cleanest its ever been! If anything, the driver should be thanking Waddles for helping him out!”
After giving Waddles’ body a shake for additional emphasis, she pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Isn’t that right, you big, pink angel? You even missed your chance to say hi to Dev because you were too busy being the most helpful piggy around!”
“Too bad we couldn’t use him as a distraction,” Dipper said, and reached for his journal again. “You know Dev’s as crazy about him as you are.”
Mabel’s smile fell, and she tightened her embrace around Waddles’ body. “Right…”
Dipper’s hand froze less than an inch from the journal, and he gave her a sympathetic look. “The squishing me was a nice touch,” he said with a halfhearted smile of his own. “Really took his mind off the Weirdmageddon topic…”
With a sigh, he flipped it open to the page he’d been writing on and picked up his pencil. “You know, we could just ask Mayor Tyler if we can bend the rules a little bit and we can tell our buddy back home about what happened last summer.”
Mabel leaned her body back towards the window, her head hitting the glass with a light thump. “What if he doesn’t believe us?”
“Who, Mayor Tyler? I mean, if we promised that Dev wouldn’t go blabbing it to other people and told him about how obsessed he is with the town, he’d probably understand—”
“Dev, Dipper,” Mabel clarified. “What if Dev doesn’t believe us?”
“Have you met the guy?” Dipper asked. “Out of anyone back home, I feel like he’d be the first one to believe us. I mean, are we forgetting that this is the same person who swears up and down that they've kissed an alien before?"
A pause. "Before following that claim up with ‘but I’d rather kiss Mabel before kissing a thousand aliens’ like the hopeless romantic he is?”
A small smile tugged at the corners of Mabel’s mouth, but disappeared just as quickly as it threatened to appear. “I mean, he does say that all the time. But…”
“But?”
Mabel let out an uncertain hum, but any further response was cut off by the sound of faint crackling from the bus’s loudspeaker. “Attention, passengers, we are approaching the city limits of Gravity Falls, and will be arriving within the town itself in a matter of minutes,” the driver’s voice rang out cheerfully. “Just in case anyone was interested in peering out their window as we passed by the welcome sign, for sentimental reasons.”
The twins shared a mirrored look before quickly scooting over to the window, just in time to see the familiar sign that marked the town’s border whiz past the bus.
It was a fleeting sight; one that came and went within seconds. But their silence continued for a just a bit longer after it passed, even as the endless line of trees finally began to melt into familiar homes and buildings.
Still keeping her attention fixed on the view outside, Mabel’s hand instinctively found her brother’s and gave it a light squeeze. “We’re back…”
Dipper nodded, squeezing her hand in return. “We’re back.”
They remained still, letting themselves be lost in the thrill of finally being back in that old, familiar town for just a few minutes longer, before the realization that they needed to be ready to exit the bus motivated them to finally move and start gathering up their belongings.
“Okay, since we’re now officially back in town,” Mabel began, setting Waddles aside so she could pull her bag to her lap. “What’re you looking forward to the most this summer?”
“Hmm, hard to say,” Dipper said, reaching for his own. “I mean, last year I spent most of the summer trying to uncover the mysteries behind the journal’s author, then spent the remaining time after that with the author himself!”
He unzipped the front and stuffed his journal inside. “Guess I’m just looking forward to spending more time with Grunkle Ford again, now that he doesn’t have to stay down in the basement and deal with all that Bill stuff,” he said. “I know I wanna tell him all about the stuff me and Dev have studied together, and—ooh, I really wanna introduce him to that DDnmD podcast we started listening to recently—”
“Hey, that was what I was looking forward to, too!” Mabel said delightedly. “Well, not the nerd stuff but the ‘spending time with Grunkle Ford’ stuff! You got to spend so much time with him last year, and I barely got to see him at all!”
She placed her hands on her hips. “Well, this year I’m determined to spend as much time with him as I possibly can! You know a guy who puts that much effort into his journals has to be a pro at scrapbooking!”
She reached into her bag and pulled something out with a wide grin, before holding it up for Dipper to see. “I even made him a personalized sweater, so he has another one to wear besides his red one!” she explained, pointing to a smiling picture of Ford on the front. “See? I knitted a happy little picture of him—” She moved her finger to the next one. “—and this one’s of the six-fingered hand that was on his journals—”
And finally her finger landed on the stitched writing at the bottom. “—and this part says ‘A-FORD-able! Not like ‘affordable’, but like ‘adorable with Ford!’’ …I was already halfway done when I remembered ‘affordable’ was already a word, so I just added that last part instead of undoing everything.”
While she stuffed the sweater back into her bag, Dipper added: “I think I’m also looking forward to just spending time with Grunkle Stan in general, too. I mean, sure, we got to spend a lot of time with him last year.”
He waved his hands. “But he was hiding such a big secret, one he had to deal with by himself. This year, he’s got nothing to hide!”
Mabel held up both pointer fingers. “Right! Because the something he had to hide is gonna be right there next to him! And the thing that was hiding no longer has to hide in any way!”
She smushed them together with silly little noises for emphasis. “And since Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are getting along now, it means we can all spend time together like one big happy family!”
Satisfied with her own amateur pantomime, she dropped her hands and returned to her belongings. “Speaking of which, who did Grunkle Stan say was going to be greeting us at the bus stop?” she asked. “I know Soos and Grunkle Ford will be there, but I really hope Candy and Grenda can make it!”
She beamed widely. “Grenda said in her last letter that she’s been taking up wrestling, and that she learned a move that could possibly snap me in half! Although Candy discredited this claim with the fact that she only got a fractured disc when Grenda tried it on her, but you know what they say: practice makes perfect!”
Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You guys can’t just hug each other?”
“We can hug as she’s breaking my spine in two!”
With a shrug, Dipper slung his bag over his shoulder. “Well, to answer your original question; yeah, Ford and Soos are gonna be there. Other than that, I’m not sure. Your friends being there is something you’d know more than I would, and I can’t think of anyone else who would come.”
He tapped a hand to his chin as he thought hard for a moment. “I know Soos and Melody wanted to throw that welcome-back party for us tomorrow, though. So maybe they’ll only have a small group of people at the bus stop today. You know, to give us time to get settled in without being bombarded by a billion people?”
Mabel stuck out her lip and gave the seat in front of them a defiant slam with her fists. “Boooooo, I want to be bombarded by people! I wanna be able to give out at least three-dozen hugs before Grenda snaps me in half like a twig!”
“I once again ask why you guys can’t just hug each each other.”
“Bombardment!” Mabel chanted, slamming her fist in rhythm. “Bombardment!”
There was another crackle of the loudspeakers over their heads as the driver spoke again: “Attention, passengers; this is a follow-up to the previous announcement, but there might be a bit of a delay in getting you to the next stop.”
Dipper and Mabel exchanged a curious look, before Dipper cupped his hands around his mouth. “Why?” he called towards the front of the bus.
“Has the traffic here gotten that bad in nine months?” Mabel added.
Another crackle from the intercom. “See for yourselves, kids.”
At the driver’s suggestion, the twins scooted out of their seats and into the aisleway, remaining bags in hand and Waddles at their heels as they made their way to the front of the bus. As they came to a stop near the bus driver’s seat, their eyes grew wide at the sight that awaited them in the street below.
To the eyes of an unknown tourist, it would look like nothing more than a dozen garden gnomes stacked atop each other before a collection of golf balls spilled all over the road.
To anyone who’d spent enough time in Gravity Falls, however—
“For the last time, Franz; either you cross the street quickly or we’re letting a car run you over.”
At the front of the collection of golfballs—or more accurately, small persons by the name of Lilliputtians who happened to strongly resemble golfballs—a blue ball crossed their arms with a sour look towards the gnome at the top of the pile. “And we’re telling you for the last time, Jeff, we’re going as fast as we can!” he argued in return. “It’s not like we can just stack ourselves on top of each other like you gnomes can!”
“You’re golf balls!” The gnome, Jeff, pointed out irritably. “You can roll!”
Franz scoffed and placed his hands on his hips. “Oh, so just because we happen to look like golf balls, you think we can roll everywhere?” he asked. “What about you gnomes, huh? Without linking up to each other, I’ll bet you couldn’t go more than a few feet without getting winded!”
Jeff crossed his own arms with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah, well, you’ve never seen Shmebulock run after six nosefuls of mushroom spores.”
His point was emphasized by an enthusiastic “Shmebulock!” from one of the gnomes at the bottom of the snack.
From the bus, the twins shared a knowing look before Mabel turned to the bus driver. “You know what? You can just let us off here, we can walk the rest of the way.”
“And we’ll see what we can do about clearing the road for you,” Dipper added.
With a shrug, the driver opened the doors to the bus and the two headed down the stairs; Mabel bounded out the door and onto the sidewalk with a delighted laugh while Dipper followed behind with more reserved steps.
Despite their different methods of stair descension, their smiles were equally bright as they looked to the smaller beings still crowded in the middle of the road. “So, what do you think’s going on?” Dipper asked.
Mabel turned back to the bus steps and reached out to grab Waddles, who had slowly and piggishly ambled down the steps after them. “Not sure, but isn’t it wild to see both groups just…out in the middle of the street like this?”
“Right?!” Dipper said with enthusiastic agreement. “It’s like—not even five minutes back in town and we’re already getting a taste of peak Gravity Falls weirdness!”
After setting Waddles down to the sidewalk, Mabel clapped her hands together with just as much gusto. “I know, isn’t it great?”
“I’m warning you for the last time, Jeff: get out of our way before we knock your bearded butts down like rolling pins!” Franz insisted firmly. “You wanna see how fast we can actually roll? Keep pushing my buttons and you’ll find out!”
The twins exchanged a look. “Right, we should probably do the thing we got off the bus early to do,” Dipper said. “Otherwise we just made getting to the shack harder for ourselves for no reason.”
“Well, at the very least you can add ‘breaking up a fight between golf ball people and gnomes’ to the list of cool stories to tell Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford,” Mabel pointed out. “I’m almost positive they haven’t had a chance to do that yet!”
Dipper let out a laugh. “Weren’t you just saying a little bit ago that almost positive isn’t completely positive?”
With a laugh of her own, Mabel pushed a lighthearted fist to his arm before turning her gaze to the groups bickering in the road. “So how are we doing this?”
A shrug. “I mean, smartest method would just be to ask them why they’re fighting.”
“Very true!” Mabel said. “And who knows? Maybe if we know why they’re fighting, we can help them work it out peacefully.”
“Or we can at least distract them long enough to get them outta the road,” Dipper pointed out. “Then if they wanna continue the fight on the sidewalk, we just start heading for the shack.”
“That is also something we can do~!”
She cupped her hands around her mouth and called loudly: “Hey, boys! What’s with all the commotion and bus blocking?”
“Yeah, none of you are more than two feet tall, and you should probably get out of the road before cars realize they can just run over you,” Dipper added helpfully.
From his spot in the road, Jeff let out a scoff. “Maybe on our own, but we gnomes could always just—”
He fell silent, the delayed realization of whom he was speaking to finally settling in as he looked to Dipper and Mabel with wide eyes. And he was not the only one; the attention of both gnomes and Lilliputtians alike were now focused solely on Dipper and Mabel.
“Well, shiver me timbers, amongst other pirate-y exclamations of surprise!” One of the pirates piped up. “The Saviors of the Falls be returned to us at last!”
“The Hugelings are back!” A knight Lilliputtian added excitedly.
The rest of the group (both gnome and golfball alike) let out similar exclamations of delight, their crosswalk argument momentarily forgotten as they all hurried to the sidewalk to greet the twins.
And once the bus driver took advantage of the cleared road to continue onwards, the commotion was enough to also draw the attention of other nearby townsfolk. Townsfolk who—Dipper and Mabel observed as they got a good look around—were not quite as human as they had been the year prior.
A fair number of them were still clearly human; Tad Strange could be seen purchasing a loaf of bread through the window of a nearby store, while the man known as the ‘Free Pizza’ guy was taking a leisurely stroll just a short distance up the road.
But there was also no mistaking the mermaid in a small, mobile tank at an outside table for the nearby bistro, pulling her attention from her waterproof phone long enough to look their way.
Or the Abominable Bro-man stepping out of a nearby Jeep, the remaining three Bro-men still seated in the vehicle and pumping their fists in the air as they chanted his name with fraternal unity. A chant that quickly melted into the twins' names when the original Bro-man pointed them out with a look of pure, righteous elation.
And there was certainly no missing the flock of Eye-Bats resting comfortably on the nearby powerlines alongside a group of ordinary woodpeckers, or the Woodpecker-peckers that had taken up residence upon the original birds’ backs.
While the peckers and pecker-peckers showed little interest in the kids, one Eye-Bat shifted its attention down towards them with mild curiosity, before turning to the nearest Woodpecker-pecker and shooting a burst of energy from its cornea. In a flash, the miniature bird had been transformed into solid stone, the extra weight causing the powerline to sag beneath the original—but otherwise unbothered—Woodpecker.
As more townsfolk—human and supernatural alike—also turned their attention towards the kids, Dipper cast an amused look to his sister. “You still in the mood to get bombarded by a bunch of people?”
Mabel giggled in response, and carefully picked up one of the Lilliputtians for a hug. “I don’t know what point you’re trying to prove, this is awesome! It’s like our own little welcome parade!”
“Well, if this isn’t a delightful delight of a sight~!”
At the sound of another voice, both turned their attention towards a thin man approaching them from further down the sidewalk. His overall demeanor was riddled with giddiness and a cartoonish banner that read ‘Mayor’ was displayed prominently across his chest. “Dipper and Mabel Pines! I was wondering when you two would finally get back to town!”
He waggled a finger at them. “And here I thought I’d have to wait until tomorrow night to say hello to you kids again!”
“Hi, Mayor Tyler,” Mabel said, giving him a wave with the arm that wasn't wrapped around the Lilliputtian, before using it to gesture to the rest of them. “I see someone’s been having a busy nine months~!”
Dipper nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s so cool to see the gnomes and everyone else just…wandering around the town like this!”
From where the gnomes were gathered, Jeff let out a smug little chuckle. “Hear that, Franz? We got a personal shoutout and everything.”
Franz turned to glare at him. “You know he was only using you pointy-hatted jerks as an example!”
“I’ll make an example outta you, you round son of a—”
Their heated exchange from before returned in full swing as the two groups began to argue again, the Lilliputtian in Mabel’s arms leaping back down to join the fight with balled fists and a collection of gnome-targeted obscenities.
In response, Mabel’s gestured arm shifted to a pointing finger. “Oh, right, they were fighting in the middle of the street and blocked our bus.”
With a sigh, Tyler pressed a hand to his forehead. "Again?"
Near his foot, a French Lilliputtian piped up with a mighty: "Sacré bleu!"— one that likely translated out to "Again!"—before he hurled his body at the nearest gnome.
While they watched this unfold, Dipper looked back to Tyler. “So is this, like…normal for them?”
“I’m afraid so,” Tyler replied wearily. "They simply cannot stop butting heads no matter how I try to clear the air—oh, hold on, I worry they might start biting if I don’t do something—”
He moved towards the center of the combined groups, carefully tiptoeing between the small golf balls with an ease that implied he had done this countless times before, and came to a stop near both Franz and Jeff. “Now, boys, you know we’ve talked about this no less than a week ago!”
Franz pointed a finger at Jeff, eyebrows furrowed. “He was trying to rush us again—”
“—and I was pointing out how, again, they can just roll across the crosswalk!” Jeff argued in retaliation. “I just don’t understand how they’ve got the ability to move that fast, but then get mad at people for pointing out they have it!”
Franz shook a fist at him. “Oh, I’ll show you fast, with how fast I can ram my hand up your—”
“Okay, gentleman,” Tyler interrupted quickly, and took a knee so he could be closer to them. “Jeff, you know what I’ve said about antagonizing the Lilliputtians. If you and your boys can’t play nice, I might have to resort to—well, looking elsewhere for a crossing guard!”
“Wh—aw, come on!” Jeff protested. “That’ll be the fifth job we’ve lost in a month! Do you know how hard it is to nab the attention of a potential queen if we go back to being a bunch of unemployed chumps?”
Franz rolled his eyes. “Yeah, pretty sure it’s not the lack of a job they hate about you.”
“Why, you little—”
Jeff launched his entire body at Franz as the two of them began to squabble again, and Tyler reached out to grab them both by the back of their shirts. “Hey, come on now! I’m a fan of a good fight as much as the next guy, but you’re setting a bad example in front of our special guests—”
This earned a shrug from the twins. “I mean, we really don’t care,” Dipper said.
“One of them tried to kill us, the other tried to marry me,” Mabel added. “We’ve kinda already seen both of them at their worst already.”
“Need some help?”
A familiar voice from behind—followed by a massive shadow enveloping both of them in shade—turned both twins around, only for them to be greeted by the sight of a tall Manotaur towering high above them. But what really grabbed their attention was the teenager seated on his left shoulder, smile wide as she hopped down to the sidewalk in front of them.
Her hair was much shorter than the last time they had seen her, just barely peeking out from beneath the faded hat that she had swapped with Dipper for her own. And her original green flannel shirt had been exchanged for an unbuttoned red one over a white tank top.
Despite the differences in her appearance, however, there was no mistaking who she was—and her old hiking boots had barely touched the pavement before the twins rushed to embrace her in a joint hug. “Wendy!”
With a laugh, Wendy slunk an arm around each of their shoulders to hug them in return. “And here I thought you squirts would beat me up to the Shack,” she said, moving her hands to playfully noogie the tops of their heads. “What’re you doing all the way down here?”
Mabel gestured to the small crowd before them. “Well, our bus had to stop because—”
“Oh, for the love of—” Wendy interrupted with a sigh, before looking over to Tyler. “Are they fighting again?”
From where he stood—desperately holding the two leaders at arm’s length to prevent more blood from being drawn—Tyler’s expression melted into a look of relief. “Wendy! Thank goodness you’re here!” he said. “Uh, would you and Chutzpar mind—”
She crossed her arms with a miffed look. “You know, people are going to think it’s unprofessional that the mayor has to keep getting help from outside sources to solve the town���s issues—”
“Wendy, please?”
Wendy rolled her eyes, and looked up towards the Manotaur beside her. “Whaddaya think, Big Guy?”
“Many months ago, I would’ve encouraged the idea of using violence to solve one’s problems,” Chutzpar said stoically. “And I still would, were it not an inconvenience to Mayor Tyler.”
He held up a finger. “Punching out your feelings is not inherently a bad way to solve some issues, but there is a time and place for it,” he continued. “And right in the middle of town where people are looking to enjoy their day isn’t the right time nor the right place! So KNOCK IT OFF or I’ll knock YOU OFF!”
He punctuated the last sentence with a warning stomp of his left hoof, one strong enough to rumble the sidewalk beneath everyone’s feet. And once he was finished, he looked to Wendy hopefully—as if he were expecting her to praise him for his answer—and she gave an approving nod before looking to the crowd: “You guys chill now, or does he need to do that again?”
Thankfully the fighting had immediately ceased at Chutzpar’s warning stomp, both gnome and Lilliputtians alike trembling in shock. “H-hey, that’s a really rude way to get someone to stop doing something, you know!” Franz said irritably.
“Yeah,” Jeff piped up in agreement. “You can’t just use your Manotaur buddy to push us around like that!”
“Yeah, well, maybe next time you’ll stop fighting when Tyler asks you to stop first,” Wendy said. “Besides, it worked, didn’t it? You guys are actually agreeing on something and have chilled out a little bit, right?”
Franz and Jeff exchanged a skeptical look, before they both turned away in disgust with halfhearted mutters of “I guess so.” and “Whatever.” in unison.
“Guys...”
Jeff crossed his arms. “Fine, I guess it doesn’t really matter how long they take to get across the street," he said defeatedly. "Besides, the longer we man the cross work, the more chances we get to snag attention from potential queen candidates."
“And I guess we could speed up a bit when we walk,” Franz added. “We’ll probably have to now, if we wanna make it to the sticker store and back to the golf course before our lunch break is over.”
Tyler clasped his hands together. “There, you see? Problem-solving!” he said delightedly. “Now, let’s clear off the sidewalk and give Dipper and Mabel some breathing room, okay?”
With only a small handful of grumbling, the gnomes and Lilliputtians shuffled back towards the crosswalk. Once they had properly dispersed, Tyler stood up to full height again and clasped his hands together. “Thank you so much, Wendy, you are an angel in lumberjack’s clothing~!”
Wendy crossed her arms again, expression souring at his compliment. “I meant what I said; you’ve really gotta get a handle on doing stuff like this by yourself,” he said. “The town’s not gonna take a guy who can’t even break up a fight between some gnomes and sentient golf balls seriously.”
Tyler chuckled nervously and once again pressed a hand to his forehead. “Well, regardless, your help is always appreciated!” he said, with a look to Chutzpar. “And thank you once again for all your help, big fella. I’m actually glad I caught you, I was actually on my way over to the lumbermill to discuss Thursday’s plans with Dan—”
This earned him an annoyed scoff from Wendy, while Chutzpar simply nodded. “Yes, that is the reason we were on our way to see you—”
“I was on my way to the Mystery Shack.”
“—why we were on our way to see you, before we made our way to the Mystery Shack,” Chutzpar continued, paying no mind to Wendy’s interruption. “I come with a message from him. And a gift.”
He looked to Wendy, who gave him a nod far more halfhearted than his own, before he held out the small object he had been carrying in one of his mighty fists.
It was a small, wood-carved animal (a bear to be specific), and it was clear that every notch in the wood had been carefully sculpted with care. A care that Tyler recognized with a look that was far less whimsical than his usual demeanor, and more of a genuine tenderness as he took the carving in his hand. “Oh, that darn man really knows how to spoil me rotten, doesn’t he?”
His smile widened as he looked back to Chutzpar. “You said he also had a message for me?”
Chutzpar nodded and reached into his pocket for a small stack of index cards. After taking a moment to shuffle them, he cleared his throat and began to read: “‘I am looking forward to Thursday. I was wondering if you would wear the panther shirt to dinner that I bought you in that two-for-one special. Panthers are powerful, and could tear a puma to—”
He casually flipped to the next index card, before gripping the entire stack tightly with both hands and ripping it in half a powerful yell of: ”—SHREDS!!!!’”
He held his stance for a moment, before slipping back into a more relaxed pose. “He specifically requested that I rip them up when I said ‘shreds’,” he explained. “It was an opportunity to be needlessly loud and violent in a healthy fashion, so I was in full support of the idea.”
“Aww, a show of force and a clever pun?” Tyler said, pressing his hands to his flushed face. “He really does know what I like~!”
He gave Chutzpar a wink. “Well, you be sure to tell Dan that I will certainly be wearing the panther shirt on Thursday!”
“Super,” Wendy said, her tone deadpan. “Can we go to the Shack now?”
“Of course, sorry for holding you up,” Tyler said with a laugh. “I suppose I should be getting back to work as well. This town’s not gonna mayor itself, after all~!”
“It might if you don’t learn how to break up fights without help,” Wendy muttered under her breath.
Tyler gave the group a little wave with the hand that held the wood carving. “Oh, and welcome back to town, Dipper and Mabel~! Can’t wait for the party tomorrow!”
With that, he turned and headed down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the group, leaving Wendy to turn her attention to the twins. “So, you guys need a second to unpack everything that just happened, or are we good to continue on to the Shack?”
Dipper and Mabel shared a look, before Dipper took the initiative: “Yeah, so I have about a dozen questions—”
“What are the gnomes and Lilliputtians and all the other creatures doing walking around town?” Mabel interrupted quickly, with a wide gesture of her arms. “What’re you doing with a Manotaur? And why’s he giving Mayor Tyler gifts from your dad?!”
Dipper pointed to his sister. “Actually yeah, she covered pretty much all the questions I had,” he said, turning his full attention to her. “Except for the last part, because I feel like that’s pretty obvious, Mabel.”
Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “Duh-doy, I know it’s obvious. I just want to know when it started being a thing,” she explained. “I don’t remember hearing about it in any of the letters we got.”
Wendy made a face. “Yeah, it’s…kinda new.”
“They have been dating for four months,” Chutzpar pointed out.
“It’s new,” Wendy said flatly, before giving a shrug to the twins. “Anyway, the other stuff’s pretty easy to answer. Wanna swap stories as we head to the shack?”
“Yeah!” they answered in unison, before Dipper looked further up the road. “Kinda wish we’d asked the bus driver to stick around, though. The walk to the shack from here’s going to take forever.”
Wendy looked up at Chutzpar with a smirk, and he nodded knowingly in return. “Sounds like the two of you require a ride.”
Before either twin could question what he meant by ‘ride’, they suddenly found themselves being scooped up from the sidewalk and settled onto his muscular shoulders.
Wendy watched with a smile as they adjusted themselves. “You two chill up there?”
From the left shoulder, Dipper gave a thumbs up. “All good!”
Doubling over in a fit of giggles, Mabel reached over and grabbed hold of Chutzpar’s horn to steady herself. “Oh, this is way better than taking the bus~!”
Wendy let her gaze fall to the sidewalk below, where Waddles was staring up expectantly. “And while he’s got you, I’ll get—”
She bent down to pick him up, lifting him with just as little issue as his owner, and adjusted him until he was situated comfortably in her arms. “Woah, buddy, you feel a lot heavier than fifteen pounds this year!”
“I’ve fed him only the finest of leftover table scraps,” Mabel said proudly.
“And he used to sneak into my junk food stash at least once a week before I found a way to stop him,” Dipper said, giving Waddles a pointed look.
Waddles gave him a proud snort in response as Wendy took another quick glance at the sidewalk again. “Alright, no bags or any other random pets that you might’ve picked up since last year?”
“Bags are in our arms,” Dipper said, giving his a pat for good measure.
“And sadly no,” Mabel added in a solemn tone. “Mom said owning Waddles is like owning three pets in one. She says it as a compliment, because that just means he’s three times as lovable. But like we said before, he also just eats about as much as three animals so she don’t see any reason to get a fourth.”
This earned another proud snort from Waddles and a laugh from Wendy. “Sounds like an okay to begin walking, then.”
Chutzpar nodded, the sidewalk rumbling with every thunderous step he took as the group began their trek towards the winding trail on the edge of town.
— — — — — — —
“Mr. Pines, there’s no need to be so nervous.”
“What makes you think I’m nervous?”
From beside Soos, Grenda raised her hand. “The fact that you’re pacing in a circle so much, you’re practically digging a new bottomless pit with your feet?”
Candy turned to her, eyes bright with inspiration. “Ooh, if there are two of them, maybe they could be advertised as twin bottomless pits!” she said, holding up a finger on each hand. “Twin pits for twin pairs—“
She brought her fingers together with a smile. “—of twin Pines!”
Grenda let out a loud cackle, and gave her shoulder a hearty slap. “God, Candy, save some of that genius for when Mabel gets here!”
While Candy rubbed her now-sore shoulder with a wince, Soos gave the two of them a thumbs-up. “But I’m adding that to the list of attraction ideas when we get back to the shack. It’s a good one, dude.”
Stan looked down at the thin dent in the gravel that he’d worn down with his shoes, and crossed his arms with a gruff sigh. A sigh that was interrupted by the familiar sensation of a six-fingered hand on his shoulder.
His mouth curled into a smile as he locked eyes with the hand's owner, a near-identical set of features to his own staring back at him. “They raise a good point, Stanley,” Ford said. “Mostly about the nervousness, not the second bottomless pit idea.”
At that, he gave the girls a thumbs up. “But that is some impeccable wordplay, Candy!”
“My name gives me plenty of chances to make puns in everyday conversation,” Candy informed him with a smile. “It’s second nature to me at this point~!”
Stan tsked at that, although his smile didn’t disappear. “And who’s to say that pit-idea of theirs ain’t exactly what I’m doing?” he said. “Building some kinda new, twin-themed shack attraction with my feet?”
Candy held up another finger. “Shack-traction!”
“I said, stop! You’re gonna use up all the good ones!”
While the girls chattered on, Ford turned his gaze from them to Soos. “Actually, Soos, don’t you and the girls want to go, uh—” A pause. “—discuss that second bottomless pit idea further?”
Grenda ceased her attempt to give Candy a noogie of approval, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Why? He already said we’d—”
“Don’t worry, Dr. Pines!” Soos interrupted quickly, taking each of the girls’ hands in his own. “I’ll keep ‘em busy!”
Ford gave him an appreciative nod, one that Soos returned with a smile as he lead them away; not too far from the bus stop, but far enough to give the older men some space.
Once the three of them were at a distance that would make eavesdropping impossible, Stan playfully nudged his brother’s arm. “Real subtle there, Poindexter.”
“Wasn’t trying to be,” Ford said, as he turned back around to face him. “And even if I was, it’d be a lot more convincing than you’re trying to be about not being nervous.”
Stan rolled his eyes. “Hey, I’m the King of Subtlety! Or are you forgetting the New Jersey Lil' Wise Guy Subtlety Competition of 1956, where I took first place?”
“It was 1957,” Ford corrected him. “And I distinctly remember you quite literally taking the first place medal and attempting to pawn it off to one of the customers in the shop. Which failed, because you were three.”
Stan pressed a hand to his forehead. “Was it? Could’ve sworn it was—” With a huff, he waved it away. “Whatever, so maybe I’m a little nervous about seeing my great-niece and nephew again for the first time in nine months,” he said with a halfhearted shrug. “So what?”
“As I’m sure we’ve discussed at least two dozen times on the ride back to town—”
“Three dozen.”
“—there’s no reason to be nervous about seeing Dipper and Mabel again,” Ford finished. “If all the letters they sent to the Mystery Shack are anything to go off, they’re just as excited to see us as we are them.”
Stan waved his hand again, this time with the addition of a scoff. “Oh, I’m not worried about all that,” he explained. “I know the kids love us, and I know as soon as they step off that bus, I’m gonna put on the tough-as-nails, no-nonsense Grunkle act and pretend I wouldn’t erase my own mind for ‘em again if they needed me to—”
“Don’t joke about that.”
A shared look of somberness crossed their faces for a brief instant, before Stan’s gaze fell to the ground again. “It ain’t us I’m worried about,” he repeated. “They headed outta this place only a week after we barely managed to save it from going to heck in a handbasket. Barely managed to save them…”
His gaze returned to Ford. “Just don’t want them comin’ back to a whole boatload of new things to be worried about, you know?”
The hand on Stan’s shoulder moved to Ford’s own hair, which he pushed back with a tired sigh. “Don’t I know it. I’ve had this pit in my stomach for about two weeks now, both from the excitement of getting to spend the full summer with my great-niece and nephew and—”
He paused, before letting his hand fall back to his side with a weak laugh. “Well, I guess it was inevitable that our return to town would be accompanied by some…complicated emotions.”
Forgetting his own nerves for a moment, Stan’s attention immediately snapped to his brother. The shift in Ford’s features was subtle, as it always was whenever the topic of Bill came up in passing. But the pain behind Ford’s eyes, a pain that held the weight of the past thirty-plus years, and the way his entire body tensed from the memories that Stan could only assume made up that weight—
Stan shoved his hands in his pockets with a sigh. “Psh, listen to me gettin’ all worked up over the kids, when I should’ve been asking if you were alright.”
Ford looked to him, eyebrow raised. “Wh—no, that’s not the point. The point is—”
He was cut off by Stan slinging an arm around his shoulders, his knees buckling slightly from the extra weight. “The point is we’re both stressed,” Stan said. “And if we’re both stressed, then the kids are gonna end up stressed as well and that’ll just have the opposite effect of what we want. Like that law. You know, from that one guy?”
With his free hand, he snapped his fingers thoughtfully as he racked his brain for the answer. “Somethin’, somethin’, every action’s got a reaction and it’s opposite?”
An amused smile spread across Ford’s face. “Are you referring to Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion?” he asked. “Those laws by that world-renowned philosopher?”
“Hey, you’re the one that finished high school, Smart Guy, you tell me!”
Satisfied with his answer, he shifted the arm around Ford’s shoulder to pull him into a proper headlock. Ford attempted to slink out from beneath his brother’s embrace with a laugh, but unfortunately the past forty years had done little to weaken Stan’s technique and kept him locked as firmly in place as it had during their childhood.
On the other hand, three decades of wandering the Multiverse had provided Ford with a few defensive maneuvers of his own. Combined with spending the past nine months on a fishing boat together, it had taken little time for him to readapt to his brother’s attempts at rough-housing—
His gaze fell to Stan’s exposed ribs, to which he delivered a light—yet firm—jab with his elbow.
—and even less time for him to find the most effective methods of countering them.
Sure enough, Stan released him with a surprised yelp, one that melted into a fit of rough laughter as Ford effortlessly slipped out of his grasp. “Cheap shot.”
“I believe you’re the last person to talk when it comes to fighting dirty, Stanley,” Ford replied with a smug grin.
“Oh, I’ll show ya dirty—”
The laughter doubled as the two of them spent another moment attempting to one-up the other in lighthearted fisticuffs, until the distant, rumbling sound of tires against asphalt pulled them back to reality. And if the sight of the approaching bus alone hadn’t been enough, Grenda’s boisterous cry of “THE BUS IS COMING!” as the rest of the group hurried back to rejoin them would’ve done the trick.
As they straightened themselves out again in preparation to greet the kids, the brothers exchanged another look. One that clearly displayed their shared nervousness that even rough-housing hadn’t completely eliminated.
It was Stan who broke the awkward silence first, mouth curling into a halfhearted smile. “Guess we’d better give that Newton chump a call, huh?”
Ford managed a weak smile in return. “You realize you’ve wildly misinterpreted the laws of motion and their relation to the situation at hand, don’t you?”
“And you realize you’re a giant nerd, right?” Stan countered.
“Well, regardless of misinterpretation, you do raise a good point,” Ford said. “If we’re both stressed, then the kids are bound to pick up on it and get stressed in turn.”
He inhaled slowly, and exhaled slower. “It’s a new summer. A chance for everyone to start over.”
“You know it,” Stan said, lightly touching his knuckles against Ford’s arm. “And hey, uh—that doesn’t stop at summer. We don’t have to do anything alone ever again, right?”
They exchanged a look, silently lingering in their shared understanding for a moment before Ford spoke again: “You’re right, Stanley. We don’t have to do anything alone. Not now, not ever again.”
The two remained still for a moment more, before Stan reached over to give him a nudge. “And y’know, if that doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure I saw some kinda zombie-summoning spell in one of those nerd books of yours.”
He crossed his arms. “I know we chucked them down into the Bottomless Pit, but I also know for a fact that you’ve got one’a’those smart-guy photographic-memories and could probably recite it off the top of your head.”
“Are you suggesting I use necromancy to summon Sir Isaac Newton?” Ford asked, the corners of his mouth twitching in amusement. “To prove his first law that you seem insistent on misinterpreting?”
“I mean, I ain’t telling you to give him a kiss on the cheek or nothin’,” Stan said.
Their smiles widened in amused unison as the bus finally slowed to a stop, the creaking of the brakes echoing loudly through the forest around them. Almost as if they were announcing the long-awaited arrival of the teenagers on board to anything within earshot.
And as the group watched, the older adults with tense shoulders while Soos and the girls all leaned into each other with excited anticipation, the doors of the bus slid open to reveal—
“Are you all looking to get on?”
—nothing more than the bus driver.
Candy blinked in confusion. “Have Dipper and Mabel turned invisible since we last saw then?”
Stan’s brow furrowed, balling one hand into a warning fist as he stared at the driver. “Yeah, pal, what gives?! Where’s our kids?”
“The ones from earlier?” the driver asked. “Oh, they got off somewhere in town. There were a buncha golfballs and gnomes in the road, said they’d take care of it and for me to just go on ahead without ‘em.”
He pressed a hand to his chin. "Good kids, though! The bus floor's practically sparkling thanks to that pet pig of theirs!"
“Did they tell you if they were going to walk the rest of the way or not?” Ford asked.
“I believe that’s what they said,” the driver said. “But seriously, is no one here going to get on?”
A varying chorus of ‘No’s earned the group a closed door, before the bus continued onwards down the road. After it eventually descended down a hill and out of sight, Grenda’s shoulders fell. “Aw, man! I was gonna pile drive Mabel into the ground as soon as she got off the bus! Now our whole ‘Welcome Back To The Falls’ greeting is ruined!”
Candy patted her arm sympathetically. “I am sure she would’ve appreciated the effort regardless.”
“Of course she would!” Grenda lamented, her loud voice booming through the nearby wood. “She’s an angel who appreciates when we go the extra mile!”
“Back in town for five minutes and they’re already getting caught up in some kind of weird shenanigans,” Ford said, swelling with pride. “They’re a couple of Pines, alright.”
Stan slapped a hand over his eyes, and dragged it down the rest of his face. “Yeah, a pair from your side of the family, maybe.”
It was said in exasperation, but there was an undeniable fondness in his tone. One that transferred to his expression as he turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, on one hand: the kids know the way to the Shack like the backs of their own hands and they’ll probably get here just fine on foot,” he pointed out. “On the other—”
“Getting here could take a while and none of us want to wait that long to see them again, so we go and meet them halfway?” Soos guessed.
“You got it.”
From beside his brother, Ford shot a glance down the road from whence the bus had came. “Looks like halfway might be closer than we think.”
He pointed a finger for emphasis, and the rest of the group followed his gesture to the sight of an approaching Manotaur coming up the road. One that was delightfully conversing with the two thirteen-year-olds seated on each of his shoulders, and the sixteen-year-old walking beside him.
A conversation that had been clearly happening since the four of them had been back in town, Dipper and Mabel’s attention fully fixed on Wendy as she continued to speak: “—and after everyone teamed up during Weirdmageddon, the vibes of the town just kinda shifted. As if a lot of the weird stuff in town suddenly realized: ‘Hey, we’re not much of a mystery anymore so there’s not really a reason to keep hiding’, and the people in town realized they weren’t as weird and terrifying as they originally thought.”
She pressed a finger to her temple. “Combine that with the Society of the Blind Eye going belly up and leaving no one around to go blasting memories out of people’s heads—” Then pressed her hands together and laced her fingers for emphasis. “—everyone and everything just kinda started mushing together over time.”
“Manly Dan caught news of us Manotaurs when we were forced to relocate our Man Cave,” Chutzpar added. “Impressed by our manliness and feats of strength, he offered us jobs in his lumberyard. We told him we’d only accept if the toughest combatants from his family defeated us in battle.”
“And you guys lost to him?” Mabel guessed.
“Not to him.”
Chutzpar cast a gaze down at Wendy, and the twins followed suit in the hopes of further elaboration. “Originally, it was just going to be Dad and my brothers in the fight,” she explained. “Not because Dad didn’t think to ask me; I was at work at the time and happened to come home just as all of them were getting their butts handed to ‘em on a silver platter.”
“It was a mighty battle of strength and determination,” Chutzpar said in a faraway tone. “They fought well, even if their efforts were inevitably in vain.”
“Nearly in vain,” Wendy corrected. “But then I showed up and volunteered to finish the fight.”
“And they let you?”
“Of course not, the big meatheads all laughed at the idea of fighting a girl. But then I punched one of ‘em in the gut, and suplexed another into the ground, where he got stuck by his horns.”
This got a laugh out of her. “Taking down the rest wasn’t too hard, since Dad and the others had already worn most of 'em down. But even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been difficult. Their fighting style was all punch, no technique. Even an amateur could’ve taken all of them down with a few well-placed hits.”
She shrugged with amusement. “That was also why Dad wasn’t able to win against them; he fights the exact same way. It was just lunkhead against lunkhead out there, swinging fists wildly until at least one of ‘em hit something. And unfortunately for my lunkheaded family, they didn’t have as many fists as the Manotaurs to keep swinging around. Until I showed up, at least.”
While the twins giggled at the visual image, Chutzpar gave a stoic nod. “The Manotaurs lost the battle that day, but it was a loss we hold with pride,” he said, with a shift of the arm that held Dipper. “One that taught us that—between her and the things you taught us last year, Destructor—we have plenty to learn about what it means to be men.”
He gave his chest a hearty thump. “And that sometimes that manliest men among us are actually girls!”
Dipper raised a mildly-confused eyebrow at Wendy, who shrugged in response. “Eh, they’re still a little confused but it’s better than where they were last year,” she said, shoving her hands in her pockets. “Not to mention being called the Manliest Man in Gravity Falls kinda hits in a way I’m not complaining about—”
“Kids!”
At the sound of another voice hailing them from further ahead, Dipper and Mabel turned their gazes forward to see their welcome party hurrying towards them from the opposite direction. Grenda and Candy were bringing up the rear with Soos, while Ford was keeping a steady pace in the middle.
But at the very front of the group, Stan was charging towards them with a speed and passion that couldn’t be matched by anyone else.
Except perhaps by Mabel, who had quickly jumped down from Chutzpar’s shoulder at the sound of his voice and began to sprint towards her great-uncle at Mach speed. “Grunkle Stan!”
It was a miracle that the two of them remained standing, with how hard they crashed into one another in a bone-crushing embrace; Mabel linking her arms around Stan’s neck like a spider monkey while he spun her around with a hearty belly laugh.
Only for that miracle to shatter when the embrace of two became three as Dipper caught up to them, and all of them tumbled to the ground in a mess of laughter. “What, are you kids tryna kill me before we even get to the Shack?” Stan asked, slinging an arm around Dipper’s body. “I don’t remember the two’a’you being this big last year.”
Mabel let out a little giggle and pressed her hands to his face. “Yeah, well, you weren’t this hairy last year!” she pointed out in return. “I mean you were still really hairy, but now you’ve got a full-grown beard!”
“Sure do!” Stan said brightly, and patted the hair covering his chin. “Ol’ Poindexter and I made a decision early on that if we were spendin’ our days as men of the sea, then we were sure as heck gonna look the part!”
Mabel pressed her own hands to her mouth, stifling a laugh. “You sound like Dipper at Hanukkah! He was soooooo excited to show Grandpa Shermie his beard~!”
The last word was said with clear amusement, and Dipper shrank a bit before slapping his hands over his face. “Mabel, come on, you don’t have to—”
“Oh, didja grow one too?” Stan asked, peering at him. “Come on, Slick, let’s see those Pines genetics at work.”
After a moment of hesitation, Dipper nervously lowered his hands and Stan leaned closer to examine the few, noticeable hairs on his chin. “I know it’s not much,” Dipper explained quickly. “But it’s more than I had last year! A-and Mom says that I’m bound to get more as I get older!”
With a proud laugh, Stan reached up to ruffle his hat. “You kidding? That’s more than I had at that age!” he said. “You be proud of those few hairs, and don’t let your sister steal ‘em for her scrapbook.”
“Too late,” Mabel said brightly. “I stole both one from the chin and one from the shin~! He has some there, too!”
Dipper gave her a pointed look, before turning back to Stan with a more confident smile. “I’d be more annoyed at her for that if she wasn’t right,” he said, and held up his leg. “Because look, I got so much on my legs, too!”
“Woa-hoh, get a load of Mister Big Man over here!” Stan said, and brought him closer for a noogie. “Those genetics really are kickin’ in early for you, huh?”
“He’s not the only one they’ve kicked in for,” Mabel added. “Or should I say—”
She kicked out one of her own legs with a cheeky grin. “—kicked~!”
There was a moment of pause, before she gave her leg another wiggle. “You get it because—”
“Mabel also got leg hair,” Dipper clarified. “If that wasn’t obvious.”
“I tried shaving it at first, but it just made my legs soooooo itchy,” Mabel said. "So now I just have built-in leg warmers!”
“I’d suggest the fire method, but it’s far more effective at removing facial hair than body hair,” a voice behind them said. “Also something tells me that your parents wouldn’t be too happy if we sent you back home with burns on your legs.”
The trio looked up to see Ford standing before them, a hand outstretched. “Room in the dirt for one more?”
A series of grins were exchanged before three hands reached for Ford’s in unison and pulled him down to the ground with them. “It’s good to see you again, Grunkle Ford!” Dipper said.
“Especially since we actually know you exist now!” Mabel added. “This time last year, we still thought Grunkle Stan was you! And then when we did find out that you were you and he was him, we only got to spend a little bit of time with you!”
Her arms moved from around Stan’s neck to Ford's, her spider-monkey grip once again unbreakable as she hugged him tight. “But this year, we get to spend aaaaallllllll summer with both our Grunkles!”
Ford’s smile widened and he slinked an arm around her as Stan piped up with: “That’s right, Pumpkin! No more mysteries or weird demons or monsters or anything that’s gonna get in the way of me spendin’ time with you kids and my brother!”
“Well, I mean, a monster here and there’s not a bad thing—” Ford begin, just as Dipper finished with a: “I wouldn’t mind a mystery or two, honestly.”
The four of them doubled over in laughter as the remaining party from both directions finally caught up to them. “Aww, you guys are having a cuddle pile in the dirt without us?” Grenda piped up unhappily.
“Candy adds a dash of sweetness to every cuddle pile!” Candy added.
“Or did the squirts knock you down ‘cause you’re older than the dirt you’re sitting in?” Wendy chimed in, as her and Chutzpar also came to a stop.
“Watch it, Corduroy,” Stan said, pulling his arm out from around Dipper so he could point a finger at her. “Just ‘cause I’m not your boss anymore doesn’t mean I can’t ask Soos to fire you.”
Wendy raised an eyebrow in Soos’ direction. “Would you fire me if he asked?”
“Uh…” Soos shifted uncomfortably in place. “Do I really have to answer that?”
This got a disbelieving “Wow.” out of Wendy and a delighted cackle out of Stan, one that was cut short by a grunt of pain as he shifted in place. “Ow, maybe we should get up outta all this dirt and gravel,” he muttered. “I got rocks in place I don’t wanna mention in front of a bunch of impressionable teenagers, my brother, or Soos.”
Soos offered him a hand. “Maybe we can move the cuddle pile to the Shack, then? Then Melody can join us!”
With a look of disgust, Stan took his hand and pulled himself to his feet. “Pass. Last thing any of us needs is for you two to start making kissy faces at each other.”
“Keep that in mind,” Wendy muttered with a grin.
“Soos does raise an excellent point about making our way the Shack,” Ford said. “The sooner the kids get settled in, the sooner we can exchange stories.”
He emphasized the last word with a knowing look to his brother, and Stan’s mouth spread into a wide grin as he offered his own hands to the kids. “Hey, yeah! You squirts wanna hear about the time your Grunkles tore the head off a Kraken along the coast of Texas?” he asked with a wink. “‘Cause lemme tell ya: when they say everything’s bigger down there, they mean everything!”
Dipper and Mabel exchanged a unanimous “Yeah!” as they were also pulled to their feet—
“Nope! I said I was giving Mabel a proper ‘Welcome Back’ pile drive, and I’m gonna do it!”
—and Mabel was immediately brought back down to the tampered dirt path by a charging Grenda, any pain from the impact momentarily drowned in a fit of giggles as she hugged her friend. “Oh, it’s just as spine-shattering as I hoped it’d be!”
“Don’t forget Candy, for a dash of sweetness!” Candy piped up, as she flopped over the other two with a laugh. “I made that pun already, but it was so nice, I had to say it twice!”
“Agreed, it was hilarious!” Mabel agreed, arms going around both of them in a tight embrace. “Ugh, I missed you girls sooooo much! I’ve got loads to tell you since my last letter—ooh, also I’ve got a phone now!”
While Mabel attempted to fish her phone out of her pocket, Wendy cast a smirk to the adults. “Anyone wanna bet that we won’t get to the Shack until nightfall?”
Chutzpar looked down at her. “I respect a show of friendly violence, but should I intervene again?
“You know you don’t have to listen to me,” Wendy said, folding her arms. “I’m not, like, actually in charge of you guys or anything.”
“I’m aware.”
“And I don’t take any bets I know I’ll lose,” Stan said, and snapped his fingers at the girls. “Hey, come on, I know we’re all excited to be seein’ each other again.”
He pointed a finger at Grenda, which shifted between her and Candy. “But I already told you two that I need at least one night without wondering if a family of bats moved into my attic, or if you girls are tryin’ to break the sound barrier with your squeals.”
“Seconding that,” Dipper piped up quickly. “I would also like a buffer between now and the inability to sleep in my own room, please.”
The girls let out a disappointed chorus of ‘Awwwww’s as they untangled themselves and returned to their feet. “But Grunkle Staaaaan, I missed my people!” Mabel argued.
“And her people missed her!” Grenda added, squeezing her close.
“Never said you couldn’t hang out with ‘em after tonight,” Stan pointed out. “Plus there’s that party tomorrow—”
“Oh, yeah!” Grenda said excitedly. “We can catch up at the party!”
“We can catch up on stories while we tear up the dance floor!” Candy added with an excited wiggle, before she raised her fists to the air. “And remind this town who the real party animals are!”
She let her arms fall again. “Plus my parents said that I needed to come home after we said hi to you, anyway,” she explained further, then added as an afterthought: “Hi, Mabel!”
With a giggle, Mabel replied: “Hi, Candy!”
“And I got my pile drive in, so I guess I did everything I wanted to do today,” Grenda added with a shrug.
While Stan leaned close to Ford with a quiet: “I’d point out that it was more of a tackle than a pile drive, but also I don’t wanna be out here longer than we hafta be.” (earning a “Smart call.” from Ford in return), Mabel tightened her grip around the other girls. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I can wait another day to hang out with my beeeeest friends in the whoooolllllle world~!”
Candy’s gaze moved over to Wendy and Chutzpar. “By the way, we saw that Dipper and Mabel got a Manotaur ride up here,” she said. “Is there an option to catch a Manotaur ride back to town?”
“Ooh, me too! Me too!” Grenda added. “Wendy, make him give us a ride!”
“Once again, I’m not in charge of the Manotaurs,” Wendy pointed out, with another look to Chutzpar. “It’s up to you, pal. You offering rides back to town?”
Chutzpar held out both hands for them to take. “Small girls who greet their friends with violent pile drivers are worthy of a ride,” he said, before raising an eyebrow at Wendy. “But will you be alright getting home?”
“I can always hitch a ride from someone,” Wendy assured him. “Or—”
She reached into her pocket for her phone, and glanced at the screen for a moment. “—yeah, or I can just spend the night at the Shack if I really need to.”
“Aw, what?” Grenda said unhappily from Chutzpar’s shoulder. “How come you get to spend the night and we don’t?”
“Good-bye, girls,” Stan said, and gave Wendy a pointed stare. “Tell the big guy to go.”
“I’m not—” Wendy started to say, then shrugged it off and gave Chutzpar a wave of her hand. “Go ahead.”
Chutzpar gave her a nod in return, and turned back towards the direction of the town. “Let’s make haste, small female children,��� he said, and began to walk. ”I have a response from Mayor Tyler to deliver to Manly Dan about their Thursday plans.”
“We are teenagers now, you know,” Grenda pointed out with a mild huff of indignance. “Or at least I am.”
“Ooh, is the response a loooove message~?” Candy added delightedly. “Are the plans a date?”
“Oh, you know it—!”
Chutzpar’s voice echoed through the wood with amusement, the volume only matched in power by Grenda’s laughter as the trio drew further and further away from those who had stayed behind. Eventually though, even their powerful baritones could not be carried such a distance, and the forest around the group fell silent again.
Silent, until—
“So, we’re not gonna question the big man-cow thing?” Stan asked. “We’re just acting like he’s been here the entire time, then?”
Ford shrugged in response. “He was clearly a Manotaur, and one that seemed to be on good terms with Wendy and the kids,” he said. “Didn’t see any reason to question his presence.”
“He’s visited the Shack several times,” Soos chimed in as well. “Also he was staying with us in the Shack during Weirdmageddon.”
“Did he?” Stan said. “Huh, feel like I should remember that.”
“I also met him and the rest of the herd last year,” Dipper added, just as Mabel chimed in with her own: “The Manotaurs work for Wendy now, and also Manly Dan is dating Mayor Tyler!”
Wendy made a twirling motion with her finger. “What they all said, minus the ‘working for me’ thing. They’re part of my dad’s logging crew now, and even if they listen to me when I ask them to do stuff, I don’t want anything to get weird with that.”
“And the part about your dad and Mayor Tyler?” Stan asked, an eyebrow raised.
Wendy’s expression shifted for half a second, before her usual, disinterested grin took its place. “Hey, here’s something I never thought I’d hear myself say: let’s stop standing around and doing nothing, and get to the Shack so I’m not late for my shift!”
Soos raised a hand. “Uh, but Wendy, I’m your boss and it’s your day off—”
“Race you knuckleheads there~!”
Wendy took off like a shot before Soos could finish his point, taking great care to lightly plap a hand against the heads of the younger twins and deliver a loving fist to the arms of the adults as she zipped between them and ran towards the direction of the Mystery Shack.
With a laugh, the younger twins sprinted after her in a rush with cries of: “Wait for us!” and “How are you running that fast with a pig in your arms?”
The adults watched them go for a moment, before Soos turned to the Stans: “...We don’t actually have to run all the way back there, do we?”
Stan, who had been watching Wendy and the kids race ahead, pulled his attention back to Soos. “Absolutely not,” he said flatly, and pressed a hand to his back. “Especially not after the kids knocked me down like that.”
He winced as the three of them began to follow after the kids at a much slower pace. “Gonna be feeling that for at least a few days.”
“Well, at least it’s a sign that we won’t have to give Sir Isaac Newton a call,” Ford pointed out with a smile. “With the way the kids tackled you, there’s zero doubt that they’re thrilled to be back.”
Once again, Stan mirrored his smile with one of his own. “Yeah, well, if they keep on bein’ that thrilled, you’re gonna have to bust out that necromancy spell to talk to me.”
Ford’s expression tensed for a moment at his brother’s joke, but any unease passed just as quickly as it had come when the sight of the familiar old cabin peered into view ahead of them.
#Hayley Writes Triangulum#Gravity Falls#Triangulum The Fic#Dipper Pines#Mabel Pines#Stanley Pines#Stanford Pines#My Writing#Long Post#(There's more characters but those four are on the poster so they get tags)
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Sonny Boy is a really interesting to pick apart because it's one of those shows where you feel kinda dumb for not following what's happening, but everybody is saying things that sound confident and correct so you just kinda assume that you missed something, only to go back later and realize "oh, we're just bullshitting this, huh?" I think it's extra sneaky because the first few episodes are actually very good at setting up some weird sci-fi scenarios, and it's a fun puzzle to try and figure out what's happening, and all of the rules make a kind of cosmic sense in the same way that good Doctor Who is able to construct an episode around completely made up alien timey wimey nonsense but it all works because we can follow the explanation and it matches up with what we've watched. It's only about halfway through the show's plot folds into itself and collapses under the weight of its own silly nonsense- like bad Doctor Who.
I find this a lot more forgivable though because, for one, it's only 12 episodes, so the relative fallout really only impacts like... 3 and a half episodes. Maybe 4 total, if you add it all up. For another, at a certain point, Sonny Boy doesn't really care. It makes a token effort to continue the narrative, but it's really at its best when it gives up on explaining things and just... is. When it realizes that none of that really matters. And that lets it push its premise to its logical extreme and takes the show much much farther than you would expect for only 12 episodes.
It helps that I really like the ending. Sonny Boy is an isekai, of sorts, but I think it falls better into an older niche category called Portal Fiction. Classically, this is where you get stuff like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Alice In Wonderland, The Wizard Of Oz, etc... I read a lot of Portal Fiction as a kid. It was my favorite genre, but my favorite part, the part that really got my brain bubbling, was the ending. See, one of the enduring qualities of Portal Fiction and isekai to an extent, is that it is transparent about the fact it is telling a story. We get engrossed in those stories in the same way the characters do, and at the end of the story the characters return to the Real World, and we are returned to real life. What the characters do at the end of the Portal Fiction informs what we were meant to take from it, but it's also the point where the characters feel the most real, the most complete. It never feels like it lasts long enough. It's what makes the last episode of Sonny Boy so brutal at first, and also so special. I finally got what I wanted.
There's more I want to talk about here... honestly if anything ever gets me to finally make the dreaded Video Essay (tm) it'll be this. I also think my own personal experience contributed a lot to my enjoyment. Confession time: I never vibed with FLCL. I've watched it through a few times; it just doesn't line up with my experience growing up, or what I was dealing with. Sonny Boy does. If there's one takeaway here, I guess it's go watch Sonny Boy. It's really shot up to being one of my favorite anime of all time. It's not gonna be for everyone, but I think the people who like it will really like it. And uh... don't feel like you have to understand it to get it.
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Having a #1 Song doesn't mean SHIT anymore! It doesn't mean the song is a hit.
Let's be so serious rn. Nobody knows any of her damn fault track that keep charting. I asked my mom to name one song of hers and she could name "Shake it off."
Smooth Criminal went #7 in the US.
Remember the Time went #3 in the US.
Heal the World went #27 in the US.
They don't care about us #30 in the US. But it still went viral on tiktok. A song that is almost 30 years old!!
Thriller the song also never went to number one, but ask people to name one Halloween song they gonna name that song.
And what is more impressive, having 1M EAS the first day or still selling 1M EAS 15 years after your passed and more than 20 years after you dropped an album. Longevity is quality. 1M first day sales she's gonna sell that much for years. Hell, she be lucky if she even sold 50k in a year in 30 years.
5 music videos of his that are made in the 80's and 90's are about to have 1 billion views this year.
Billie Jean still gets 1M daily streams on Spotify.
I'm sorry if you aren't an Mjfan and I bring him up but he's the best example I can give you also because Swifties keep comparing her to him.
If people don't like the song they won't keep listening to it. And if Taylors song just stay in her fanbase and they just massstream her shit. Nobody is gonna know this song in 20 years.
Because what is the last hit Taylor Swift had that was known to the general public? Anti Hero maybe? Cruel Summer?
And something that is also funny is that, Remember when her drunk self got on stage and snatched the grammy from Celine Dion and didn't even look at her.
And people were pissed and her team was quick on working getting a picture with her to mend the damage.
Celine Dion has 5 Grammys and Taylor Swift has 14.
But they knew that Celine Dion got more respect from the GP then Taylor will ever have. And that is something you cannot buy. And they know if someone wins out of pure talent or just because of favourism. And let's be real. Most people know these award shows are rigged and they don't care about it.
Like when RollingStone came out with that fuck ass best singers list that put Taylor at #102 and excluded Celine Dion. People were mad that Celine was included but Taylor was.
Or just recently they also called her the better Adele. Nobody from the GP was like oh yeah that is true.
I mean they can try to name her the Queen of Pop in one of the award shows alà Michael Jackson style, but it's not gonna work with her. When he got that name people actually agreed and they still do. Outside Taylors cult nobody will agree with that.
Taylor's Team is aggressive with the Marketing and pushing these numbers onto us because they know outside of it she has nothing to offer. Her talent isn't marketable. Her singing and dancing isn't that impressive. The most marketable things about her career are her wealth and business success. Have they ever talked about her performance while she is on tour. What is so impressive what she does on stage? No they just keep talking about the money she makes.
No I completely get why MJ is a relevant comparison here. Swifties do keep comparing TS to him and for that alone they need to collectively get their asses beat. But you used good examples and I just want to applaud you for that
& you’re right, I can’t name a single vault track. Every time I’m exposed to her its against my will through my recommended (and its usually so out of place too because i watch really weird video essays).
Charts truly don’t reflect cultural impact because Drunk in Love by Beyoncé never went #1 and neither did Toxic by Britney Spears but both are super well known. Anti Hero is probably the last single to go #1 but I genuinely felt harassed by that song 😭 its sooooooooo bad
Yes! The vocal trinity—Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston—have done SO MUCH for music and all have less than half of Taylor Swift’s amount of Grammys. Celine and Mariah each have 5 and Whitney has 6.
I didn’t watch the Grammys this year (forgot to) but I heard about the Celine Dion incident I was SHOCKED because the audacity of this woman! Her entitlement shows in everything she does and she’s really starting to believe her commercial success makes her a better artist.
THE ROLLING STONE LIST WAS BULLSHIT. THEY DIDN’T INCLUDE JENNIFER HUDSON EITHER! Their definition of a “singer” was soooooooo bullshit too like that magazine’s merit has gone down so much in the past 20 years it should be regarded with way less status and credibility. And who tf called TS better than ADELE?
You’re right, her moniker will be chosen by the general public (probably from a viral tweet/tiktok/etc).
And she needs aggressive marketing because she really is a below average musician in all respects! She has her songwriting but she should’ve just been a hit songwriter (like Estelle Dean) not a singer. What makes her marketable is very “ordinary” image—which makes her relatable to “every girl, like me and you” 🙄 her soft voice really creates an intimate atmosphere especially with her vulnerable (but superficial) lyrics. She has to be friends with her fans for her success to work. Because there is no way you can justify her being regarded as a “god” the way people do with Beyoncé and MJ otherwise.
🎯 with the Eras Tour coverage. No one ever references or cites a particular jaw dropping vocal performance or dance number. It’s always the amount of wealth she’s generating.
#ask#anon#anti taylor swift#mj#beyoncé#celine dion#artist comparison#eras tour#notyouraryang0dd3ss#mariah carey#whitney houston
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so average-mako-enjoyer made this post about Shepard being forced to have a social media account for morale and only posting hamster pictures and like
I read that and immediately had four different Shepards yelling at me in my head (I blame @shadoedseptmbr's Aedan tags) 🤣🤣🤣
*
Weaver would in fact include hamster pictures, but they'd be macro pictures of like, whiskers and toes only.
The whole account would all only be macro photos. No tags, no comments, no explanations, no definitions. No time stamps or metadata, all expertly wiped, no location cues beyond maybe the quality of the light... which isn't that hard to manipulate after all, if you've got an omnitool and some good flashlight/spotlight blueprints.
It's all just exquisite close-ups of pieces of gravel and seeds and leaves and pollen or fractions of circuit boards and weird screws or clamps or the odd pattern of wear on a [redacted but clearly the Mako for those in the know] tire.
She and Aeden would clearly get along great.
*
Ngaio would flat out refuse. (She would've done it if she'd met Traynor sooner, because she can refuse Traynor nothing, but that was too late, on several levels.)
*
Ella would be asked to make an account after she gets her N7 status and starts showing up in the news periodically; she's told to try and soften the public image of the infamous Butcher of Torfan.
She does set something up, posts some generic pretty Alliance Training Stock Photos, the kind you get in a recruiters office, but that's it for ages.
And then she posts five separate in-depth tutorials in a row, three on astronomy and two on France of all things, one specifically about the language, one about cooking.
Then nothing again.
And then a three-part series on astral navigation, and how different species figured out the math for measuring where the fuck they were in space.
Then a thing on baking with chocolate, including how to convert levo recipes to dextro (and vice versa) and which things were more likely to translate into something that might still taste good.
She never shows herself however, so it does fuck all to counter all the pics and videos of her stalking around heavily armed and armored in full gear, occasionally with a bit of a blue halo from biotics usage, generally glaring or scowling as she avoids reporters trying to get a comment.
Most people don't connect her socials to the Butcher of Torfan at all, and those that do assume someone else is running the account in her name in a failed Alliance PR stunt.
After the Battle of the Citadel, there are enough recordings of her helping with clean-up efforts and being polite at formal ceremonies to make it clear that the Butcher and the Shepard-who-goes-on-weird-tangents-on-social-media are actually the same person, who is also POSSIBLY a galactic hero, so the whispers about Torfan finally start to fade out a little...
And then she dies.
*
Ward would be some terrifying (but delightful once you got past the scowl) combination of Adam Savage and Mercury Stardust because he would legit show people how to take things apart and upgrade and fix them (and which bits are 'legal-ish' depending on whether they technically own them or not) but also things probably explode sometimes (or at the very least spark A Lot™️) and Tali guests wearing glorious (flame-retardant) Turian fashions and ALSO sometimes PROPRIETARY TECH THAT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE and no one ever bleeps ANY of Jack's swearing and sometimes the three of them are gleefully trying to make something that probably shouldn't exist and some poor Alliance PR officer cries in their office sometimes because they are actually spectacular PR and GREAT for morale and also they break so many TOS's but it's Commander Fucking Shepard so who's gonna tell him to stop?
#mass effect#me ot#OC BBs#weaver shepard#ngaio shepard#ella shepard#ward shepard#did I have a random meta/headcanon tag?#I cannot remember#whatever the fuck
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I started and got caught up on Playboyy. I'm having such a good time with most of this show. Is it the best? Absolutely not. Am I still having a good ass time? Hell yeah. I value entertainment over ~quality~ and I am Very Very Entertained. I'm having a blast with all but two of the couples and really only don't care about 1 dude fully. So that's exciting to me.
These were my thoughts while watching episodes 1-6.
I'm only 20 minutes into the show but why do they want Zouey to get laid so badly? The boy does not seem to be into it and it's really not a good look for them so far. Just let him jerk off. That's not a bad thing y'all.
Dude is Zouey jerking off in class? What is going on here. There's like only three people in this class??? Is this why his friends want him to get laid cause this is like. Bro you can't be so horny you're jerking off in your art class.
NOT GETTING A FOOD DELIVERY NOTIFICATION WHILE TRYING TO GET A NUT. Been there girl, been there. Oh this "pizza man" is fine too. Listen. I've personally never blown my pizza delivery man but, you know, I support this blond one in his journeys.
NOT FIRST TALKING TO HIS DAD WHILE HE'S WATCHING HIS OWN SEX TAPE WITH HIS HOOKUP RIGHT THERE. MY DUDE. AT LEAST MUTE THE VIDEO???
Why is this slightly villainous music playing over this young man's entrance? OH MY SHIT. He really just said "you wouldn't get me being sad about my dead mom cause you don't have one." Is he actually any of their friends cause that is FOUL to say to your friend. Oh well he's the Evil Twin of Nant. Alright. That makes sense. I'm here for that. Explains that foul ass sentence. lol
Oh did he just take one of his rings? Or was that his ring? I'm looking at EVERYONE with suspicion in this show right now. Except First. I don't know why but he doesn't give me shady at all. And possibly Zouey. His reaction to "Nant" was very weird but I appreciate him not being into being touched even though he's horny. Because same.
These Japanese porn voiceovers. Serving hentai realness. I think I can vibe with this. Like it's very much a mood. I'm not sure what mood, but it's a mood.
OH MY GOD. SEE ALL MEN DO IS LIE. I knew Soong stole that ring! And now Zouey's hookup is like "I just wanna fuck a virgin." Oh I hope all these men get dick rot.
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WIT. I don't know what his name is here but he was Wit on The Sign so it's good to see him! He's cute.
"They didn't build this body to fuck granddads and sluts." That was the greatest line I've ever heard. I want that on my tombstone.
Nont is bombing at this with Zouey and First. Babe you're gonna have to tell them who you are. Cause it's been two days and it's not working. You're not nailing Nant at all and I don't even know Nant.
Zouey it's RICH of you, wealthy even, to tell First he can't have a relationship if it started out with sex. Mr "if sex and love go hand in hand, I'm willing to try." When both of y'all are getting played. The call is coming from inside the house.
Not First fucking Soong on the railing on the stairwell in his daddy's house. My god. We do so love a baby slut.
So does Soong just wanna steal? Cause he's like I'm scamming a rich kid but baby he wants to be your sugar daddy. Don't fuck up that with stealing when he's freely offering it??? That's just dumb.
Is this man serious? After two weeks he's like "first I just wanted his virginity but now I'm starting to like him." ALL MEN DO IS PLAY GAMES.
Yes at the body painting! Giving me J'ai Tue Ma Mère realness except they're not fucking in this scene, but still giving me that same vibe.
Did Jump really get manhandled by Porsche one time and now he's just jerking off at work moaning his name? Baby.
Nont is such a bitch. "This guy looks poor, how could he transfer money to Nant?" I think I love him.
Not Mirror!Nant in Nont's head being like "just pretend to be me, you'll grow to like BDSM too." SIR. But then not two seconds later he's getting spanked and is like "oh okay, you do like this." I guess Mirror!Nant in Nont's head knew him after all.
Not this man just laying down on the bedroom floor, hardwood at that, for the aesthetics of it all. I already love Nont. So much.
Porsche is so so aggressive but you know what? It seems like Jump likes it so I mean? If he likes it, I love it.
First's dad is a doctor and he was roleplaying as a doctor? Oh. That's like several layers of shit that maybe he should go to therapy for. My beautiful little baby.
WHAT. DID MY BABY JUST GET KIDNAPPED BY SOONG.
-
I should have known these freaks (affectionate) would be into CNC. I love it for them.
Soong really is out here resisting being a sugar baby. First wants to give you things, but you're stealing, he wants to extort his dad for money, but you said no. Babe. Babes.
Oh is this dude smelling underwear too? Cause that's what Captain's into right? Well there's a lid for every pot!
Okay. So. I like Soong and First, and the actor playing Soong is really hot but he's either not a good actor or he's really not into First and I don't know which it is. Cause these expressions he has when they're banging aren't giving into it. Or well that's why. He's not into it. Baby is tired from working and then First wants to bone and just wants to apparently chill with First. Aww.
Why did Soong just see Nant??? What the fuck is going on.
Listen. I like Zouey and I guess Nont could be nicer, but if someone doesn't want to talk and you keep pushing and physically get in their space, you earned that hit. Read the room baby.
Okay Zouey you're just an asshole. "I won't say I told you so but I did." Meanwhile your man is also playing you and a sex worker, so most likely hooking up with other dudes too.
I knew Keen and Captain were fucking before that locker room scene! You can't drop a line about a dude liking to smell underwear than have another dude smell the first dude's underwear he took from his locker and not had them banging before. And that was after being like "fill this shot glass with cum" and being like DO YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND. And both those things were in front of people. Keen please.
Is Zouey gonna safe word out? Cause he said stop but didn't safe word. Teena just upset me there. "Just the tip" and "if we're gonna date we have to have sex." He has a point about Zouey not using the safe word, but dude it's his very first time ever. He's not gonna remember safe words. Zouey, I love you and he's right. Teena said they didn't need to have sex to be a couple but now he's like we can't be a couple if we're not having sex. And I get them both here cause Teena clearly likes sex and Zouey clearly doesn't want to have it yet, so that's a big issue in a relationship.
Oh damn. First, you're my baby, but it wasn’t nice to call Soong a leech because, quite frankly, with the exception of stealing your ring, he's not leeching off you. OMG DID HE JUST COME HOME AND THINK FIRST WAS STILL GONNA BE THERE DID HE REALLY THINK THEY JUST HAD A COUPLE FIGHT AND WOULD MAKE UP. Oh my GOD.
OH MY GOD. Captain showed the team the tape with Keen. What a complete asshole move. But also. Babe. Did you really think showing them a clip of Keen fucking a dude, you being the dude, would just make them think it was only him who was gay? You dumb bitch. lol
They DO NOT actually believe Zouey is a girl cause he has a wig on? I cannot. Also. Captain. You have the AUDACITY to text Keen after the stunt you pulled??? If men have nothing, they'll still have the audacity. And Puen I mean, thanks for riding in for Captain's imaginary girlfriend, we love a man who respects women, but you didn't give a shit when he recorded Keen and showed everyone.
Keen and Soong do not want to be jerking each other off. Neither of these men are touching the dicks they actually want to be touching.
"Don't fall in love with a client. But I don't know if I think of him as a client." And then there's Teena just looking devastated too. Both of you went and caught feelings for your marks.
Side note. I'm crying at them working out in their underwear.
Oh my gosh. Soong's face when First texted him. The man is down bad. OH MY GOD. Can this tattooed man shut the fuck up. He doesn't even know this situation. My god. How can you see, someone you call, a friend's face when he got a text from a boy and say all that shit. I don't care how nice your titties are. Just cause you're a bitter jaded hag doesn't mean everyone needs to be.
And now First is crying on Soong's chest and Soong is trying hard not to cry himself and everything is dicks. Hope you're proud of yourself TATTOOED MAN.
BEAT HIS ASS ZOUEY. BEAT. BOTH. OF. THEIR. ASSES. I wish we had seen the fight. Because I personally needed to see Nont get punched in the face. I mean, technically he's just trying to see what happened to his brother. But he still was macking on Zouey's kinda man and like nah. We don't do that. I needed to see that punch.
Captain. You don't need to be here. With your trifling ass selling people's sex tapes and shit. lol
Oh yay. I'm glad Porsche and Jump are still here being nasty. I missed them.
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I mean, okay. Like. None of what Nant went through is the friends fault though? Asking your friends for 100k is A LOT. Like ethically Captain selling his videos was shitty, but Nant didn't have to make them. And I don't even register Porsche threatening to kick him out for banging his brother cause you don't bang your homie's brother. Like. That's bro code!
And I won't even touch the "they got him addicted to drugs" cause no. No one can do that. You can give people free drugs but they're the ones who initially decided to take them, for whatever reason. And I'm an addict so I'm not judging or anything. Just saying.
Captain is just a whole mess. "Have you never done anything illegal?" Baby most people are not out here committing crimes. lol
I'm sorry it takes me out how so many of these shows ask questions like "are you mixed" and shit. Like. Okay. Now we're getting into some complex ethnic situations I don't know about in countries I’m not from but it just always makes me pause.
LEAVE MY MAN ALONE. He is not responsible for Nant using drugs, Nont. Nant took them himself. You need to accept that. Also, the person in the dog mask was shirtless, right? Can't First tell that wasn't Soong in the video cause his tattoo wasn't there.
Soong wanting to kill Nant for taking all his drugs is the most addict ass behavior ever and I'm sad but here for it cause that rarely gets portrayed. Because yeah, it do be that serious when someone blows your stash.
Nont's trying to find his brother, with the others offering suggestions of various levels of helpful, and First is just crying over Soong. I get it though. I'd cry over that man too.
I appreciate Jump weighing the options of Porsche sending him to jail or continuing to only fuck Porsche and going "fuck it, I'll risk jail." You really bobbled that one Porsche cause he seemed into it at first.
Okay I didn't really care about Nuth and Phop, but with one sex scene and the scene after, they got me. Yes that necklace is Nant's and Nuth probably killed him, but he could have given it to Phop and possibly set him up to be framed and he was like NO instead. So I do think he has feelings for Phop. I just don't think that's gonna go well for Phop in the end.
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NOT FIGGING GETTING MENTIONED.
What is the status of Captain and Keen's relationship? I don't understand it. It makes no sense. Compels me though.
Like I'm sorry I just don't care about Aob and his storyline. Maybe I will, but so far as he has going for him are his tattoos and dope ass titties and you know what? I have those too so those just aren't enough for me. 💁♀️💁♀️💁♀️
I also still don't care about Prom and Nont. Like. I love Nont and I love him trying to find his brother, but I just don't think everyone needs to be bae'd up in this show. There's too many cooks in the kitchen okay. There's too many carrots in this stew!
Not First brandishing a knife at all the couples and Soong just walking in like babe put that knife down, you're embarrassing yourself.
Speaking of embarrassing yourself, Keen just embarrassed his whole lineage with that question fully targeted at Captain. I love him.
Nont! You went right to asking about fucking in masks. NOT PROM JUST LOOKING RIGHT AT JUMP FOR THAT ANSWER. See I don't trust Prom and that is why I do not vibe with him and Nont. I don't think he had anything to do with Nant’s disappearance, but I still don't trust him.
Keen is down so bad for Captain and it's very embarrassing. Like. My dude. He doesn't seem to want to claim you. You might just need to let him go baby. It’ll either get you claimed like you want or at least make you free to start the healing process and moving on.
This crack ass idea of playing drinking games to do their investigatory journalism. I cannot.
Why do they keep having Soong and First speaking in English? I love them flexing those bilingual skills but is there a backstory to this? Or are they just like "fuck it, we have two bilingual actors, let's do it."
Aww they're just talking about First. Soong really is into him. It's been six episodes and I'm so messed up over them. 😭😭😭
I mean...it's not gaslighting? Soong has long since stopped thinking of First as a mark. It's not his fault Aob ran his fucking mouth about shit he didn't know anything about.
THANK YOU SOONG for telling Zouey Teena only wanted him cause he was a virgin. Zouey's out here throwing a lot of stones and talking shit like his man also wasn't being shady as hell. I don't think that's gonna go anywhere, but I'm glad it got brought up.
I just realized that they're playing 7 Minutes In Heaven with Porsche and Prom and like, they're brothers? And aren't they the last two to be picked? That’s gonna be awkward. Plus it's not like Porsche can fuck answers out of Prom. Cause that's his brother.
I appreciate that Captain was the one they picked to get the answers out of Keen cause it could have been Nont. But I like to believe that wasn't even considered cause that’s Captain’s man even if he won't fully claim him.
Oh so wait Porsche and Prom aren't actual brothers? They're just under the same sugar daddy? But Prom isn't even fucking their sugar daddy? And is only protected cause he's Porsche's brother? But they're not actual brothers? Then what kind of brothers are they? Just what the fuck is going on here. I am so confused by these two and their relationship. But I am intrigued.
...so Nuth just killed Phop? Oh, no, he didn't. Sis is just CRAZY CRAZY. Oh so he did kill Nant? But he doesn't want to actually kill Phop? He chose to jerk off with a camboy instead of killing Phop. That's gotta count for something? It's progress!
NUTH. Your account is literally your name. Babes. Even if you didn't kill his twin brother, your username is your name. I would say he's not the smartest but he's also just crazy so that probably factors into it. He'e struggling with his grasp on reality right now so that probably explains so much.
Oh Phop. Baby. You gotta get out of there. Phop. He's killed at least one person, most likely. Phop. He fantasized about killing you. Phop. He just jerked off with the twin of the brother he probably killed and put his apartment number in the frame. PHOP.
See. They actually have the best vibes to their sex scenes to me and I just don't see this ending well. At all. And I'm already sad.
#playboyy#playboyy the series#I don't care about Nont&Prom's relationship#and I don't care about Aob so I don't care about his relationship with Puen either#but everything else is fun for me#regular clyde
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So how do we go to this to what we famously know now with Cardi B and Nicki Minaj this is the 2018 Met gala. Jeremy Scott was designing both Cardy and Nikki‘s dresses. I believe and the theme was Catholicism. I believe if not Catholicism religion. Azealia Banks said when you see wars with men in the hip-hop industry online, it’s really a love is tiff And as we know by now in the industry, your have to be pansexual or it will at least bisexual that’s just how it seems to work, I know a lot of you may not believe but I alone items but how come so I’m glad. It’s just like the Nikki and Kim situation, so if it’s the same situation, we have Nicki, Minaj and Lil’ Kim in the early 2000 late 2000s even Nicki Minaj is known by many ofher peers for not liking them specially women, and and industry, you’ll see love its death but the industry also loves a good PR move where they will set up a thing where two people hate each other did round to give them both publicity going into their charts and their kids are Sagittarius, son and Aquarius rising and a Virgo moon, Cardi B is a libra son and Aries moon, and wherever you want to believe which ever source some people said she said on Instagram is who she has Sagittarius rising and obviously say she’s an Aries rising and personally seeing the look more of a Sagittarius rising, especially of her hair and her look and her face shape, but I can always see the Aries rising in her. Let’s face it they’re both fire signs anyway, so they have quite quality qualities that are similar. Rhianna is an Aries rising and she has a cockiness and good sense of humour and can be a laugh so she could have that anyway from just having an Aries moon. So how did this all start this started when Cardi B and Nicki Minaj both worked on a track called motorsport ,with the with the Migos, and they were never in the video together, they would do it separately, and one of the verses on it, you felt was disrespectful to her from nicki….. so they change the lyrics so are they were aimed at quavo, instead because women be fighting a lot and these two women have more in common than they probably realise or care to realise and a lot of it came from Nikki was defending for my remember black women, because Cardi B said some, women’s child look like a monkey and Dominicans are so I’ve been told very funny about their race. They don’t admit to being black a lot of the time when it’s clearly they’ve got black and Spanish roots so having her cancer cancer rules anyway, but Mars cancer even more so because you have to remember with Mars that Mars is your essence of your characteristic, how you move in the world, how you are every day how you are physically physically as in moving around and physically how you look so I has been up for a lot of times same how they talk with Meghan Markle who also has her Mars in cancer. It’s just one of those things are going out in her life. The picture we have at the top is at the Gala and Cardi B is pregnant and I don’t know if anything gets happened at this point I’m guessing not, but I feel like something might have, but Cardi B let’s face. It was probably stripping to Nikki‘s songs so when it came where they had their fight it was at the harpers, bizarre fashion event and Cardi B threw a shoe at Nicki Minaj Nicki Minaj kept saying I’m right here I’m right here get me I’m right here but no realised that she had her bodyguard which I thought was weird is a female someone called raw Ali, she’s really pretty, but she’s very big anyway they’re two different sides. Of course you leave the event with a massive bump on her head so she got she said she got hit by security or hurt by security where as Nikki said on her radio that she got beat in the crap out of my raw Ali, who is Nikki security so maybe she saying in undertone I don’t know but maybe Nikki had loads of security around her and that’s why she didn’t get hurt because card had only just come out that year so she’s not gonna have as much money or as much of
Team.
Anyway, Nikki‘s Capricorn, marsis in opposition to Cardi B‘s Mars in cancer, so saying that Cardi B could’ve felt frightened by Nikki‘sm Nikki’s essence and her character and her personality and her energy ,in a manipulative way, because cancer can be manipulative, and Capricorns can initiative but mars and Capricorn love fame Capricorn,in MARS I see it being a massive fame placement and a lot of charts because I’m also doing scrapbooking too with my astrology and then, Cardi B‘s whole aggression could’ve felt frightening to Nikki‘s image. Anyway, we’re gonna leave it at that leave fusing to Azealia Banks and all her feuds had enough of that for one day. These women have both matured and become others, and as far as I know, there’s no more feuds with these two. Let’s keep it that way let me know who side you’re on. Let me know if you’re on impartial. Let me know if you think it was all here and let me also know what you think on the matter. Thank you kiss kiss kiss XOXO 
#cardi b#nicki minaj#astro placements#astro observations#astro community#astroblr#aquarius rising#libra sun#sagittarius sun#virgo moon#aries moon#music industry#industry feuds
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Nintendo fire this man!!!!!! 💥🔥🔥🔥
I gotta talk about this because i've been obsessed over this since like yesterday
Remember the "nintendo hire this man" joke meme thing?, well the person that made that mario in unreal engine goes by CryZENx
Now i never followed cryzen but i saw he posted a showcase of his ocarina of time remake, i came into it thinking: it's been a long while since then, perhaps he's gotten better
as i kept watching his video showcasing the OOT demo there were a lot of blatant errors and weird inconsistencies in the quality of models, animations were pretty rough too, they're good enough most of the time but just that
this was one of the inconsistencies that caught my attention the most, i didn't watch the whole video where he showed every stage he's made but i was skipping through the video and immediately recognized that guy under the tree is literally just the n64 model (screenshot taken from a comparison video)
i can't say for certain but i wouldn't doubt if there are more models that are straight up ripped from the original n64 game and slapped on unreal with the only difference being the lighting
there's many more models which look just fine, but they don't look that great, and again, the animations aren't helping the overall look
i also skipped through that comparison video and well at least most models look way better... but then i remembered, there's a 3DS remake of OOT, so i got curious and well
that's right, some models are just slightly modified / retextured from the 3DS remake, i'd love to check for more, i'm sure these aren't the only models that have been either a straight rip or changed just a bit, this is just in kokiri forest btw
you can argue he's trying to keep his stuff as faithful to the original as possible, but there's barely any effort or thought put into it, he's just putting the 3DS models in a new engine and calling it a day
okay but there's a good amount of modeling that actually looks great, like link's model, i think he did a great job on it, and it also makes sense since you're going to be seeing him all the time
now i'm no game dev (yet) and i don't use unreal (and plan to keep it that way) and right now i've only talked about the visuals, but there's also a ton of bugs and glitches some small, some others i wonder how they even happen, like not being able to move backwards and to the left, also on that same video there's this interesting comment
and that same person who commented is also working on a ocarina of time unreal engine remake
now by checking the wayback machine on his patreon page it seems he was getting about 150 dollars in late 2017, in 2019 it went up to around 400 and in mid 2020 and it had gone up to 1,000 and by 2021 he was making around 2,000
it'd be one thing to just make this as a passion project or just for fun, but people are giving you money, from september 2023 to 1,500 to 8,100 and right now as i write this he's at 14,000 members, he's only showing the number of members and not how much he's making but you can imagine it's a LOT of money
this is as far as i'm gonna look into this for now, but i'm sure there are a lot more issues, i don't hate cryzenx and you shouldn't attack him but it sucks seeing someone do almost the bare minimum and sacrificing clarity and style for realistic physically based rendering
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Today I'm Gonna Play: Love and Deepspace
I came across this video a couple months ago of a really high poly guy and thought it was CGI made by someone talented. Turns out it was an upcoming otome game for mobile?! I replaced my phone recently so this was a good time to look forward to trying something with high-end graphics for this platform.
My experience with Otome games isn't much. I've played those dating sims that a few friends were very into back in school on DeviantArt, notably by Zeiva and Pacthesis. This was my entry to the Visual Novel (VN) genre, but I didn't understand the appeal of of liking 2D guys. Fast forward and I've also played a couple otome VNs on mobile and dabbled slightly on PC and even though I find a few interesting love interests based on appearance and personality, I STILL didn't get the appeal, until I finally played Mystic Messenger two years ago and got my heart shattered and was rejected by my love interest lol. This idea of having a social messaging format with calls for a mobile game is one of the most creative things I've seen for both the VN genre as a whole as well as the mobile platform. I don't know if any other VNs have done something like this before.
What Love and Deepspace does, is basically take that same format and iterate upon it with its worldbuilding. But it doesn't stop there. The real selling points of this game is that it uses very high quality 3D models akin to Final Fantasy CGs and also have real-time action combat. This seemed like a combo I never thought would exist, but I'm sure as hell glad to see it. Apart from chatting and calls using your own created avatar, it includes other features such as micro blogs which are Twitter-esque, so you can like and comment on the other characters' posts, and sometimes make your own. There are interaction features with the love interest, by being able to touch him, ask him things, and even things like listening to heartbeats or blowing on him using your mic?? It's another level of immersiveness! Minigames also exist which add to the story, such as claw machines (which are actually not to rigged compared to real life), playing cards, taking photos, and mini stories or audio that you can obtain from gacha.
The gacha aspect is not related to obtaining your love interest like in other gachas, but rather it's unlocking additional content about them, such as the mini stories. These stories tend to look like casual hangouts or even romantic dates. I'm not sure if there are any intimate scenes or not so far.
The story is not bad, I'm intruiged by the lore and the overall world as I like futuristic settings. There's a lot of info dump in documents and such that you typically see in gachas or RPGs, but this is one of the few times where I actually read through them. And surprisingly, the protagonist (you) is actually a lot more competent than expected!
The only issue I have is that the way the story is presented makes the characters look like they don't know each other yet and are distant, which is fine. But the romance parts you unlock through gacha or other features of the game seem more affectionate so it feels quite disjointed. It makes me feel confused on how I can piece these moments together.
Another nitpick although minor is that the daily stamina that you can obtain through login times don't seem to sync up in local time, so I'm assuming it's based on China's time zone instead. I've mostly been on this game during the evenings which make me miss both of them. It's a bit of a weird decision for international players.
I've also seen comments online about the lack of a male character or other gender options. I also agree that this would be nice to have. But I also acknowledge that this game is primarily aimed towards women (therefore an otome game), and since it's a Chinese game, I'm not sure if they would allow any type of BL in it. This could cause a bit of disinterest for international players. The only option I can see is to provide a larger variety of options for the current female avatar (which is also a complaint even amongst women playing the game), which could also have the avatar look a little more masculine presenting, etc. This could be a slight workaround towards any censorship laws while also allowing for more diversity. Plus technically speaking, the advantage of shorter hair or buzz cuts etc. would also mean less complex hair rigging (like with long hair) so it may be easier to animate and handle.
Overall, this game has huge potential that could transform romance/otome games for mobile like Mystic Messenger if all goes well. This will be another mobile game I'll keep playing!
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I think I’m sort of in the middle? Taylor knows the amount of hate her exes get when she does these things, it’s not like she’s unaware of her “power”. So in situations like this, and other stuff like the Ginny and Georgia tweet, it does feel like she wants her fans to actively hate on people. But at the same time, she’s built her whole career on sharing her experiences with people and that’s why people relate so much to her. She’s dialed that back so much since the earlier days, she doesn’t do the secret messages anymore. I saw a video the other day showing that debut had “to all the boys who thought they could break my heart, guess what? Here are 14 songs written about you. HA.”. She’s not doing that anymore, probably because she’s a 34 year old woman, but still. She’s clearly dialed that back and it doesn’t look like she’s actively trying to attack anyone. I don’t know where the line is between sharing your story and sending your fans to undeservingly attack your ex. I would also like to add that people exaggerated how good Joe was, he had to be the best at literally everything. If Joe didn’t complain about that, he can’t complain about people making him out to be worse than he actually is. It also makes sense that when Taylor put him on such a high pedestal (again, higher than he should’ve probably been), and then fans put him on an even higher one (Taylor mentioned many problems even in the good songs that I feel fans ignored), that the fall from it would be even bigger. Fans talk about him as if he betrayed them. They’re mad at him because they thought he was perfect and, since Taylor can do no wrong, they have to blame him for anything and everything that could have gone wrong. I think Taylor is at fault for making her fan base what it is, but she also couldn’t have possible known, as a petty 16 year old, that it would ever come to this. So idk, there are some things she might be able to do, but I don’t think they would help that much
I agree with literally EVERYTHING you’ve said (except that there are things she can do bc idk what those would be lol). The reason I was personally so invested in T/J is the songs NEVER made him - or her - out to be perfect and it felt like such a real relationship that was so wonderfully open to us. She made it very clear IN THE SONGS that he’s moody, that he gets cold sometimes and pulls away, that he can be a little sanctimonious and that he can be a little flirtatious with other girls but it never goes further than that. That’s all in the lyrics. And those aren’t great qualities but like come on, you’re never gonna find someone perfect and for 6.5 years-ish it worked. She also made it clear that she’s moody and temperamental and overreacts to shit, that she wants to be acknowledged for the goddess that she is (which imo she is but like I see why when you’re living with her you wouldn’t necessarily feel that way every day), that she takes a lot of things super personally, that she’s petty and a lil basic and that she’s got a whole host of other issues. That’s ALL like FROM HER LYRICS. That’s WHY I was invested in that relationship. Because it was the first time I heard an artist in real time speak through something that was weird and complex and flawed but obviously beautiful??? And I did kinda feel like a friend lol ngl because she shared so much. It almost felt like my friend K’s relationship (the one that kinda set me up with my now bf like she introduced us not expecting a romantic connection but lol neither were we - she was just like “I know you two would have fun together because you’re so similar”) where I constantly think they’re about to break up but I also wouldn’t be shocked if they outlast my bf and me because we… have our own cockroaches in our heads and shit lol and we’re both very temperamental people and like we say this is forever (hence the bracelets) but like what is forever lol yk? He’s tried forever before and failed and I’m personally not willing to commit to that.
fans chose to ignore the lyrics and focus on her telling sessioners he’s the perfect boyfriend which like… should remind fans that sessioners aren’t her friends lol. No one is perfect. She wasn’t claiming he is in the music - which imo is very honest from her POV and that’s why *I* love her. She obviously wasn’t going around claiming that to her friends (“I talk shit with my friends”). But like when she met with randoms wtf else do you want her to say??? Do you meet random people and tell them like “my partner is ok for the most part like I’ll stay but he/she pisses me off sometimes”?
as for connecting all this to teen Taylor idk what you expect lol like do u want a teenage girl to like… not hate her exes??? Especially ones who cheated on her (Samx6) or who moved on really quick (not domestic violence Drew)?? Like obvi she was pissed off and she didn’t expect it to get to… this when she was lol.
but yeah I agree with your thesis and like idk Swifties are weird and if you listen to the music and like apply it to your life she makes the best music in the world imo. I’m not as invested in T/TK as T/J yet because I don’t have the music. It’s the music that really makes me love her. If you don’t love her music or don’t understand it and just like harass her exes like that’s ok the internet is a wild place go ahead but idk if you’re a fan of the music/artist or you’re just a weird person on the internet (of whom there are many).
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HLVRFF: Chapter 4
Yeah, Benry was very obviously posing at himself in the mirror just now. But luckily for the alien, Gordon's too preoccupied with other thoughts at the moment to question him about it.
Thoughts that he REALLY shouldn't be having. Especially not about BENRY of all people. Can you even call whatever the hell he is a person? You can call whatever the hell he is surprisingly cute NO. NO. THOSE ARE EXACTLY THE THOUGHTS HE NEEDS TO NOT BE HAVING.
Damn Gordon's lonely, bisexual heart.
Just- fucking- why Benry? Why this fucked up alien monster from beyond the veil who tried to kill him once? Who succeeded in killing several other defenseless people? Who got his hand chopped off by the military? Who still occasionally plagues his nightmares? Why would he EVER have feelings for someone like that?
If you hate him so much, then why have you let him live with you for the past four months, Gordon's brain supplies.
He's… not really sure why. Resignation to the fact that he's never, ever getting rid of the guy, and thus might as well get used to it, perhaps? Then there's Tommy, who Gordon pretty much owes his life to. Tommy never seemed to want to give up on the idea that Benry wasn't evil. Hell, even during the final battle on Xen, Tommy was still insisting that they not fight Benry, just try to understand him. When Benry inevitably popped back into their lives, It was Tommy who convinced Gordon to give the guy a second chance and let him move in with him. Gordon had questioned why he couldn't just stay with Tommy in that mansion the older man lives in, but Tommy's excuse was that his equally eldritch dad was territorial or something.
That, and that Benry had apparently wanted to live with Gordon more than with Tommy, despite him and Tommy being apparent best friends.
Gordon was sure that it was just so he could continue to make his life a living hell… but he really hasn't been, has he? Sure, they'll still have their arguments, but they're less straight-up fights and more just. Banter. Benry's gotten plenty of laughs out of the physicist, too, since moving in. He'll act weird when out in public pretty often, but it's always in just completely harmless ways. He's even proven to be surprisingly good with Joshie, the eldritch entity and six-year-old boy having long conversations about video games, cowboys, dinosaurs, et cetera. It's…
God. It's fucking cute is what it is.
Uhg.
IT'S FINE, THOUGH. It's fine. He can find someone cute without it meaning he has feelings for them. Totally. Yeah.
Just keep telling yourself that, Gordon.
So lost in these thoughts, Gordon didn't even notice he'd made it into Benry's bedroom and had the closet door open. Right, right. Get dressed, go to store. He kiiiiind of really doesn't want to go out in public like this, but they really do need that stim chew and shampoo. So Gordon starts to dig through Benry's messy closet for something clean to wear.
Half of Benry's shirts are a bunch of stupid gamer memes and PlayStation logos, while the other half are all skeleton-themed. Gordon obviously goes for one of the skeleton shirts. He also throws on some black jeans, and the only pair of shoes Benry owns; his old combat boots. Gordon's offered to help him buy some new shoes, but Benry refuses every time. Whatever. At least the boots were high-quality and thus not in danger of wearing out any time soon.
Now fully dressed, Gordon heads back into his bedroom to grab his phone and wallet. He finds Benry's gotten dressed finally, too, having picked out a Metallica shirt, featuring the art for Ride the Lightning. Good album. Benry likely picked that because of the blue, Gordon guesses. Guy's wild about that colour. When he found out there was a special edition PS4 that came in blue, Benry'd acted like he'd found the Holy Grail.
"You ready to go, man?" Gordon asks as he grabs his phone and wallet from the dresser. "We're gonna have to take the bus, since you don't have a license and so I can't drive while looking like you."
Benry gives him a little shrug. "'s cool. long as your weak human legs don't collapse on the walk to the bus stop. seriously, why are your legs so shitty, bro?"
Gordon scowls at him a little. "Sorry we can't all be immaculate, god-like beings like you."
"ha ha, yeah, sucks. your senses are all like, turned way down and shit. thought you were going deaf at first. and blind. and completely numb. and losing your sense of smell. and-"
"I get it! I get it! Human beings suck compared to you! Can we just go now?"
Benry laughs, but doesn't talk any further, opting instead to follow Gordon out of the room. Though, when they reach the living room, he suddenly stops.
"oh, yo, wait a sec," he says, and then dashes off to his room. He bumps his borrowed shoulder into the door frame, causing Gordon to yell out a 'stop trying to clip through shit!' to him. Gordon hears Benry rummaging around for something in his room, he probably forgot where he put his own phone or something.
It doesn't take long before Benry's returned to the living room. "aight. ready freddy."
Gordon gives an amused little huff, and they head out the door.
The moment they step outside, Gordon's new heightened senses are completely assaulted anew. He'd gotten pretty used to everything in the house, but the great outdoors was a whole 'nother ballgame. There are just SO many sights and smells and sounds and feelings and it's like they're all at max volume and thensome and Gordon can already feel the inside of his head and chest start to outright writhe in a very worrying way and-
"hey," Benry speaks up, resting a hand on Gordon's borrowed shoulder.
Gordon turns to him, and notices he's offering him something. A fidget toy shaped like a game pad. Oh yeah, that's right, Benry never liked to leave the house without it. Then why is he..?
"bro, just take the toy. trust me on this, man. it'll help," Benry says, shoving the fidget pad in Gordon's chest.
"Err, okay," Gordon says dumbly as he finally takes the offered toy. He's never actually used a specially made fidget before, always opting to just play with his own hair. But this… does feel pretty nice in his hand. Has a nice little weight to it. Gordon experimentally runs some fingers over the various buttons and wheels, testing them all out. He finds himself drawn to the back-and-forth switch, the circular smooth indention reminding him of a worry stone, and the click of the switch as he moves it is highly satisfying to his borrowed ears. He just stands there, playing with it for a good minute, as Benry watches with a satisfied look on his face.
Whatever writhing feelings that were stirring within Gordon are completely gone now, and he looks back up at Benry. "Uh… thanks," Gordon says, a bit awkwardly.
"no prob, bro," Benry replies with a grin, looking oh-so proud of himself. "i know all my bod's cheat codes and pro strats- don't gotta worry about it. you'll be uh, S ranking this shit in no time."
Gordon lets out an amused exhale at Benry's terminology and pats him on the arm with his free hand, before they finally start making their way for the bus stop. Gordon makes sure to keep his focus just on where he's going, which is much, much easier thanks to the fidget toy in his hands keeping him grounded.
The bus ride from their neighborhood and into town is pretty uneventful, which Gordon thanks his lucky stars for. As they approach the store and head inside, he hopes that this trend continues. But who is he kidding. Knowing Gordon's luck, it probably won't.
At one point on their way to the store, Benry had mentioned that he wanted to check out the different smells of the various kinds of scented shampoo, now that he actually has a nose that can handle them. And thus, they are now hanging out in the hair care isle, Gordon having already found some good scentless shampoo, and Benry delightedly taking in all the different fruity and flowery smells of the soaps. Gordon's once again hit with the 'oh god that's adorable' feeling as he watches Benry, but manages to swallow the starfruit lights back down this time. God forbid Benry see that shit and make a comment about it. He decides to turn away from Benry for the time being- and comes face to face with a familiar stout old man in a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt, a lime green glow in his eyes and equally green glowing patterns on his skin, in designs that seem more reminiscent of circuit boards than Blaschko's Lines.
"Ah, hello, Benry! Or should I say, hello, Gordon?" Dr. Coomer greets in his usual cheerful tone.
Gordon blinks at him in confusion. "Dr. Coomer? How- how did you..?"
Coomer taps at his face near his eyes. "I have special eyes, Gordon! As does Benry, as you've no doubt noticed. And orange is definitely not Benry's colour."
Ah, yeah, that's right. Some of Coomer's cybernetic enhancements had apparently given the man a few eldritch abilities. Gordon already knew that Coomer could use Sweet Voice and peer into the cosmic void, so hearing that he's got vision like Benry's isn't too surprising.
"Hey, yeah, I keep meaning to ask Benry about that- what's the deal with the eye thing? And the glowing body patterns, too," Gordon asks.
"It would seem that many beings from the cosmic void have the ability to detect and see the 'Life Energy' of most living things. Everyone's energy signature is uniquely colour-coded; yours is orange for example, mine is lime as you can see, Tommy's is yellow, and my dear Bubby's is a lovely shade of cyan."
"And Benry's is apparently the entire rainbow," Gordon adds.
"He's very full of 'Life Energy', Gordon! With a direct connection to the infinite cosmos itself fueling him, it's why he never stays dead!"
Well, there's those questions answered, Gordon guesses. Both the glowing thing, and Benry's weird 'respawn' power. And speaking of Benry, it seems he's finished huffing hair care products, as he strolls up to join Gordon and Coomer.
As does Bubby, who just now appeared from another nearby isle. Gordon notices the patterns on the lankier older scientist's body are a lot different from all the others he's seen; probably having to do with him pretty much being a homunculus and not a normal human. The bright cyan patterns on Bubby look more like hotrod flames than anything else, and Gordon can't help but be a little amused by that.
Bubby notices the younger pair as he comes up beside Coomer. He gives Benry, in Gordon's body, a very judgmental-looking once over, and before anybody else can say anything, he says, "Gordon, why the fuck are you wearing one of Benry's hats? You look stupid as hell in it. Are you two finally dating or something?"
Bubby's words have Benry looking like his brain just short-circuited, while Gordon starts sputtering, trying to say something, but his tongue keeps tripping over itself. What does he mean 'finally'? The fuck does he know that Gordon doesn't!?
Finally, Gordon manages to spit out, "W-we're not- we're not fucking dating!"
Bubby raises an eyebrow at that reaction. "You're acting like Gordon," he says to who he still thinks is Benry, before turning to Coomer. "Why is he acting like Gordon?"
"Astute observation, dear! It would seem our good friends Gordon and Benry are having a bit of a 'Freaky Friday' situation, and are currently in each other's bodies!"
"Oh. Well, that's fucked up," Bubby says flatly.
"You don't even know the half of it, man," Gordon groans.
"yeah, seriously," Benry speaks up. "being human is like, SO sucks, bro. how do you even fuckin' deal with this shit?"
"I don't!" says Coomer. "I'm more machine than man at this point. Been this way for a quite a while!"
"And I'm the ultimate life-form, grown in a tube, so I've never really had to deal with being human," Bubby adds. "Sucks to be you."
Benry huffs at Bubby's ending comment, and Gordon grumbles at the implication that he's inferior to everyone else here when in his normal state of being.
I mean, yeah, sure, that's kind of true. But hey! He LIKES being human regardless! At least when he's human he doesn't have to worry about his body literally turning itself inside-out just because he got a little overstimulated! He should be asking how Benry deals with THAT shit!
Or, well, how he dealt with it before he discovered fidget toys. Gordon still can't believe that simply fiddling with a chunk of plastic covered in buttons is all it takes to keep him from turning into something out of H.P. Lovecraft's nightmares, and yet, here he is, flicking a little switch back and forth and feeling totally fine and focused because of it.
...Well okay, maybe not entirely focused. Gordon's only now noticing that the others were still conversing about something while he was entirely checked out, apparently. And they're all looking right at him now.
"…What?"
------------------------
"Sucks to be you," Bubby smirks, and Benry huffs at him.
"it's not funny, man. for real. i'm all, like, weak and shit. i feel like- like i'm gonna drop dead at any minute. everything's all dull like somebody put a fuckin', uh, glass box around me. muffles everything. can't see good, can't hear good, can't smell good. buncha other stuff i can't even feel at all anymore. only thing i DO feel more than before is pain. it's major fucked up, yo."
It really, really is. Benry had no idea this was how Gordon, and presumably most other humans, experience the world every day. He feels so... fragile. It's finally giving Benry a good idea about why Gordon always fusses at him to be more careful even when Benry's not in any kind of real danger.
Because it's dangerous for Gordon.
...Shit, that's another reason he was always so scared in Black Mesa, too, isn't it. Not just 'cause he can perma-die, but because it's stupidly easy for him to perma-die.
Benry looks back towards the human in his borrowed body, and the two older scientists follow his gaze. It takes a minute for Gordon to notice, and when he does, it becomes very apparent that he wasn't listening to a single word that was just said.
"…What?" Gordon asks.
"Oh my god," Bubby blurts out, amusement clear in his voice, "you just completely spaced out like Benry usually does!"
Holy shit he sure did, didn't he? Guess the spacing out thing is tied more to how Benry's physical brain is wired, rather than his consciousness. Come to think, he hasn't been spacing out much himself since ending up in Gordon's body. Huh, go fig.
"Ffff," Gordon practically hisses, "oh, fuck off, man." He looks away from Bubby, clearly embarrassed. Bubby chuckles, but shuts right up when Coomer elbows him in the gut.
The shorter older scientist then speaks up, "Well, gentlemen! It's been lovely seeing how completely batshit your worlds have gotten, but Bubby and I need to return to our shopping."
Gordon sighs, and nods. "Yeah, yeah, same. It was good seeing you, Dr. Coomer. It wasn't good seeing you, Bubby." Bubby just flips Gordon off in response to that.
The younger pair leave the old couple to their shopping, and get back to finishing up their own. Benry manages to find a silicone stim chew shaped like a blue raccoon that he informs Gordon 'speaks to him on a deeply personal level'. He is this raccoon, this raccoon is him, and he is going to gnaw the FUCK out of it once it's officially purchased.
And GOD is it satisfying when he finally is able to start biting it. Tommy once got him another silicone stim chew shaped like a t-rex, having underestimated how adept Benry's sharp teeth are at tearing through… most things, pretty much. What can he say, he's an extreme omnivore by nature. Gotta be able to bite a lot of things if you wanna be able to eat a lot of things. Gordon's teeth, however, are all flat and lame and barely leave any dents in the silicone as he gnaws on it.
The trip back home is about as boring as the trip to the store was, though the bus ride feels like it drags on longer than the last time. As Benry sits there and chews the raccoon, his mind can't help but wander back to thinking about how Gordon acted in Black Mesa, during the Resonance Cascade. About how all his actions and emotions, which Benry thought were exaggerated and overreaction at the time, were completely valid. About how he wasn't just acting scared, he WAS scared. Scared to death. Of death.
Benry had found out about humans' inability to regenerate body parts while they were still in Black Mesa, just before Gordon got the gun-arm. Tommy told him, and Benry was going to apologize to Gordon for all the teasing he did due to not thinking it was so serious. But then Gordon kept shooting at him. A lot. It may not have been enough to kill Benry, but it still really hurt. And so instead of apologizing, he just acted like a petulant child, getting mad and angry right back at Gordon.
When they got to Xen, Benry saw it as an opportunity to really fuck with Gordon. He did try to make nice with the human at first, but then Gordon just kept making accusations that Benry was the cause of all their problems, yelling at him, insisting that they were never friends. 'if you want me to be the big bad, then i'll be the big bad,' Benry had thought. He stalked them all throughout Xen, toying with them, putting the fear in them. Benry even went so far as to kill the actual threat the lab coats back at 'Mesa had sent the Science Team to deal with. Killed it, stole its lair, took its place as the 'final boss.' Of course, Benry didn't really want to kill them. He was just messing with them all. Fuckin' around, you know. They were still his friends, in the end, even if some of them (Gordon) didn't think so.
It wasn't until after Black Mesa, after Benry had been brought back out of the void Tommy's dad had locked him in, that Benry learned about just how fragile and easy to kill humans are.
Though they were half-hearted, if any of Benry's attacks during the fight had landed, his human friends would've been very much dead and gone.
The thought turns his borrowed stomach, and if he could still use Sweet Voice while in Gordon's body, he just knows the air would be getting filled with guilty and loathsome sanguine and shadow.
…It's no wonder Gordon still has nightmares about Benry.
Benry, so lost in thought, doesn't notice when Gordon looks over at him for the briefest of moments, a look of slight curiosity and mostly concern on his borrowed face. He doesn't say anything, and just looks back away elsewhere, remaining silent for the rest of the trip home.
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Get to know you meme
Thanks for the recent tag @hexcore-juggler and many moons ago, @rakshadowand @johaeryslavellan!! Sorry I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but it looked like fun :)
Favorite colour: red, that really rich dark kind. I wear mostly blue though, strangely enough
Favorite food: I gotta go with a quality chirashi don. I love sushi rice, love raw fish, and trying all the different kinds in the same dish is great
Song stuck in your head: Blood by ANIMA! It was in the newest PhilosophyTube video and now I can’t stop listening to it
Last thing you googled: “sashimi don” because I couldn’t remember the word for chirashi, lol. Before that, it was the name of an undergrad we’re interviewing on Wednesday for my lab. I only did it because my other labmate who’s interviewing them with me had previously googled them and a PhD student had come up, so she was like, is this person even an undergrad? (I think the PhD who came up is a different person though)
Time: 4:31pm
Dream Trip: at the moment, it’s south of Italy (Naples, Positano, the Amalfi coast). We were gonna do it this summer but then we saw that a) the car rental price was exorbitant and b) driving in the south of Italy is insane. Maybe one day, though!
Last book you read: Circe by Madeline Miller, and I loved it! Perhaps not as much as TSOA, but it was still very good. I liked the extended (immortal) timeline it was written on. Definitely some lessons there for good pacing of a story, she did a great job.
Last book you enjoyed reading: Same as above!
Last book you hated reading: Hmm, it’s been quite awhile but I really didn’t like 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I read it a long time ago but I remember hating how damn long the thing was and how... idk, things just didn’t make sense to me. Not to mention all of the weird old man sex fantasies. Yeugh.
Favourite thing to cook/bake: I love making mango chicken curry, which I make very mild because I am a big baby about spice, but it’s just such a great comfort food, yum
Favourite craft to do in your spare time: gonna steal @hexcore-juggler‘s answer and say... writing, I guess? If that counts?
Most niche dislike: ok this might not be as niche as it is unusual but I really do not care for chocolate (at least as much as the rest of the world seems to LOVE it). Like, if I have a choice between literally any other flavour and chocolate (for a pastry, ice cream, whatever) I will probably never choose chocolate. Not to say I don’t like it at all, but it’s never my top choice as a flavour in general.
Opinion on circuses now and in history: I used to go to Cirque du Soleil every couple of years with my family and that shit slapped. I love seeing all of the cool edges of human possibility and stuff, especially all of the acrobats that look so beautiful and the ribbon arts and all of that. Historically though circuses kinda sucked so I’m glad we don’t have the kind that are horrible to animals as much anymore.
Do you have a sense of direction and if not what is the worst way you ever got lost: Yes! I am usually the navigator on vacation, and I can usually keep track of where the cardinal directions are even when exploring somewhere I’ve never been before. My family actually has a funny story about this, when I was around 4 or 5, so very soon after immigrating to Canada, me and my parents were going to a dinner party at one of our friends’ places in this apartment complex where quite a few Russian-speaking immigrants lived, a bit away from our house in the suburbs. As we were approaching the complex I started telling my parents, “They moved”, because my parents had told me that they moved from their previous place, and they were like “yes Julia we know they moved, don’t worry”. I remember getting more and more hysterical and borderline bursting into tears because they just weren’t understanding me, but all I could do to explain myself was shout that “They MOVED!”
We arrive at our “friends’” place, knock on the door, and lo and behold some stranger opens the door. At this point I’m just on the verge of losing it, lmao, because that’s what I was trying to tell them - they’d moved FROM the place we were going to, because I was recognizing the surroundings and the way there, and my parents both somehow had a collective brainfart of where they were supposed to be going (I think it was because our friends had moved to a different apartment complex that we were all familiar with due to an equally large presence of Russian-Canadians).
Apologies if you have already done this, but I’ll tag some friends that I perhaps don’t know as much about as I would like: @resplendentlytrite, @makkuromurasaki, @nerdierholler, @lua-sagittarius :)
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Hero's Confession | Misfits
Pairing: Nathan x Lydia (OC - Hard Candy’ verse)
Word Count: around 1 k
Warning: Strong language, mention of death
(Masterlist)
"Si, can I borrow your notebook just for a second? I forgot I need to send an email to approve the merch design," I groaned as we finished our drinks after having dinner at Simon's place, it was a double date kind of thing with Alisha and Nathan. "If I don't send it by midnight, my manager's gonna kill me."
"Go ahead, it's on the bed, I think," Simon pointed.
"Isn't it weird t'have your sister sit on the same spot you two shagged on?" Nathan commented with his usual subtle humour.
"Can you not?" Alisha rolled her eyes.
"Well, if that was the case, I s'pose Barry wouldn't be able t'sit anywhere when he comes over to ours, y'know what I mean?" he barked a laugh.
"Remind me again why we invited you?" Simon joked.
"I'm your brother-in-law, can't get rid of me! We're family!" Nathan leaned over him, obnoxiously showing he had absolutely no notion of personal space. "Your dad loves me already..."
"The worst part is that he would actually love you, Lyddie got his horrible taste, poor thing," Si pushed him away.
Meanwhile, I could barely hear their conversation, I was looking at the designs for my shirts, jumpers, keychains, hats, posters, and all that. They were lovely, I was very proud of what the design team was able to come up with.
I sent the dreaded email greenlighting everything and asking for a sample of each item as soon as they were ready so I could make sure they were good quality. My night was going amazing, Nathan made some very interesting promises while the others were in the kitchen and things were looking up.
Just as I was about to shut the notebook off though, something caught my attention. Before anyone says it... I know! I shouldn't be going through my brother's stuff, but what is a sibling for if not to go through your stuff? It's my God given right to snoop around as a younger sister (well, technically older, but still younger).
It was a video, it seemed to have been recorded in 2009, right around the time we were all serving our hours. I made sure the others were entertained enough by something else and opened it, keeping the volume as low as possible.
"She stood here just yesterday," Simon was crying in the video, sobbing in his room and it was dark. "Sally."
Okay, maybe I shouldn't be watching this, I thought to myself, but it was impossible to look away, I just couldn't. It hurt so bad to see my brother so sad, I guess I never really stopped to think about how her death affected him.
Killing someone wasn't easy, I did it indirectly and it still haunts me sometimes, imagine killing someone you thought you loved and loved you back?
Before I knew it, I was crying too. Dad used to say when we were kids: Simon can never cry without Blossom starting too. I hated to see him sad ever since I first understood what sadness was, so that video broke my heart. I guess he kept it just in case someone ever finds the bodies, which was even worse.
Part of me really missed those times, the community service, spending our days together getting into unimaginable adventures in our super-powered comic book fantasy, defeating villains like we were playing a game.
And I miss my silly boyfriend Nathan with the Community Blowback on his jumpsuit, trying to figure out his power. And I miss the time Kelly never had her hair down. And I miss teaching my students in my tiny flat and imagining how my career would be. And I miss Simon, all awkward, not yet knowing what he was capable of, with that silly emo hair, and shirt buttoned all the way up, in his room with that silly space-themed wallpaper I chose for him when I was three.
But seeing him like that, suffering, made me stop wishing we could go back. He was happy now, he was loved and smiling way more than I've ever seen before. He's like a flower that finally bloomed. I guess glow-ups are a thing in our family.
"If this comes out, I want you to tell them I killed Tony, and Gary," he looked straight at the camera. "I want whoever sees this to know I'm not a psycho, I'm not a weirdo. I do things for a reason, I did it for a reason. I did it for you, my friends. I did it for my friends."
I stared at the screen for a minute unable to move, my tears drying on their own. Si was a hero, he always has been even when he didn't know it. He was gonna take the fall for all of us, he killed the first woman he ever had a connection with because of us. I never admired him more than I did when I realized it.
"SIMON!" I put the computer aside and ran into his arms, crying on his shoulder like I used to do when mum would tell me no.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he gently stroked my back, looking at Nathan as if expecting an answer, but my husband simply shrugged, equally confused.
"You're not a psycho or a weirdo, you're my hero," I managed to say.
"Stop lyin' t'your brother, that's not nice," Nate teased.
"What are you talking about?" Alisha asked, slightly worried.
"I saw the video, he was gonna confess to the murders so we wouldn't get arrested," I explained. "And you didn't even know I was your sister."
"Aw, Lyds," Simon squeezed me with a chuckle, not at all the reaction I was expecting. "But you were my friend, you were the first person to talk to me, to give me a chance. I never felt like I belonged until I met you lot."
"Y'were goin' to jail for me?" Nathan's eyes grew wide.
"For all of you, not you specifically-"
"I knew y'loved me, Barry, but I didn't know it was that much!" he cried dramatically.
"Cut it out, I didn't mean it like that."
"You're also my best friend! I love you too, Barry!"
"Please don't, you loved me once and it was horrible!"
"What d'you mean? I'm an incredibly skilled lover, ask your sister!" Nathan huffed.
"But seriously, thank you," I murmured. "You really are my hero."
Tag List: @seanfalco @holidayspirits @salvador-daley @firstpersonnarrator
#misfits#misfits fanfic#misfits nathan#misfits imagine#one shot#nathan young x oc#nathan young#fanfic#robert sheehan character fic#robert sheehan fanfic#oc x canon
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dude i have to watch the mlp movie again-- it's been several years since i was into my little pony but i kinda forgot that i missed it. i never ended up finishing the series because the last few seasons were on hulu and i only had netflix. honestly i should go back and watch them at this point just to see how it ended. i wasn't all that big a fan of the school of friendship seasons (i liked them don't get me wrong but i didn't like them as much as the other ones) but i really really like seasons 4-7 and since it was one of my favorite shows for so long i should probably finish for Closure.
also why was the movie so beautiful?? like it's amazing quality and the animation is so. tasty. idk it has a Vibe. is it 3d made to looks 2d or is it just straight up 2d? i can see it as both. i remember pirating it on frostwire before our desktop computer died and watching it in 720p on the tv and it was still really pretty. the colors are so gorgeous and shiny and the new character designs that were introduced in it were interesting too. the hippogriffs underwater stuff is just so ✨✨🫧🐬🪼🪸🫧🫧
i think definitely one of my favorite episodes was the one about applejack's family history, and i also watched all of the episodes about the crystal kingdom like a thousand times. i definitely wanted to eat the crystal heart because it looked very tasty and also flurryheart pissed me off and i loved her very much.
also my favorite character is fluttershy and i got obsessed with this series of fan videos about a fanfiction about her and discord and they had a child named screwball and that is all i remember. but i watched all of the episodes and listened to audiobooks of the fairytales it was based on and then wrote my own fanfiction based on that fanfiction. it was a good time.
sorry i really enjoy mlp and i haven't talked about it in years and i am SO glad you enjoy it because i was so embarrassed to be an older kid who still watched it. i never got to talk about it and didn't share anything i made about it ever and i really only ever got to enjoy it in internet spaces on occasion. so i got excited that you were making references to it.
1. PLEASEE idlove to do a watchthrough again mlp is my favorite show. ever , im a firm believertbat the later season are better but i rly also love the earler stuff but . that middle bit is also wheee i was majorly invested i jumpee in around the middlw of season 3 so i feel u . Peak
2. I KJOW THE MOVUE IS FUCKING GORGROUS which blows my mind because iy was made on 6 million dollars which is NOTHING for an animated movie (the average disney movie now is like 100million+ dude) PLUS they had to pay a buncha famous stars and shit AND ITD SUCH A GORGEOUS and just. Such a good movue in general i love tge mlp movie
3. YESSSSSSS dude. uhm. The applejacks parents episode makes me cry like a bitch. EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. ARUGHGGHH litrrally one of the best episofes of the show OBJECTIVELY? i think they did such a good job telling rhe story while also just like. They never outright state they died but i think they did such a good job like ... EVERYONE knows they did and they dont need to say liek " BEFORE MA AND PA KICKED THE BUCKET" just the looks and how everyone talks about them just says These ponies are no longer with us and its .AUGH its ao good ALSO YEAH flurry heatt my beloved i know everyon hates her but i love her sm shes so cute......i dont care if it destroyed the alicorn lore IT WAS WORTH IIIITTTT shes m..dshes just a widdle Babpy.....
4. im gonna be so real qirh you i was obsessrd with bride of discord but i. Am a better person now ALGSKSJSKSHWJGSJSBSJSJ . looking back on those after watcjing shunks' videos makde me realize wow they were. So fucking weird (why did she write fluttercord like that. why did they ship applejack and spike and activwly point out how weird it was and Did it anyways . why did they do rarity so DIRTY !!!!!!!!!!) also i have a bias against the writer for giving me my lsoh fear for 7 years /gen (also for shipping flutterspike in those pmvs for it seriously WHAT THE FUCK)
5. IM GOING TO UNEMBARASS YOULETS BE MLP FANS.....TOGETHER
#SORRY IT TOOK ME A BIT TO REPLY IM OUT RN#but yws BE A HORSEY FAN WITH ME PLS TALK YO ME I LOVE MLP SOOOO SO MUCH
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12.20.22 9:29pm
I started thinking I was so lonely, So I kissed my wall. Not my wall, but the window frame because the molding protrudes from the wall, so there’s space for the nose and it’s more comfortable and like another face. I’ve done this since I was, I don’t know, probably 10. I like kissing the wall to the left of my door in my room in Vegas. Because it is the wall to the closet, so if you open the sliding door, you can actually wrap your arm around it and hug it too. And then I was thinking about how like fucking embarrassing it was that I just did that and I am as lonely as I was when I was 10 and that is so sad. And it had the hurt in my chest, like. And I wanted to cry. I got really close but I didn’t, and then I looked at my christmas string lights and thought it would be weird to cut myself with my christmas lights up, and I can’t really explain why, I just felt it in that moment. I don’t know why I think about cutting myself all the time and I never have even once in my entire life. I also never thought about it once though until this last year or so. Until I watched gore on the internet. Actually, no. I think before then I had the idea. After Camille had her attempt. I think it crept in then. It’s just so perplexing because I don’t really fuck with gore in movies but I just like watch it on the internet like a zombie, slack-jawed. I think it has to do with like the quality, and the closeness honestly. Like movies you’re right there and the shit is like practically splattering on you. Most of the gore I’ve seen is like wide-angle and grainy if video. I guess images are clearer usually. I don’t know, whatever, now I’m thinking about gore and I was actually talking about something else. Anyway. So I thought about cutting myself and how weird the christmas lights were. And then I thought about... now I can’t remember. My brain went too deep down the gore hole. It’s not that bad though lately, really. I’m pretty plugged in to real life these days, and it may not be good but it’s grounding. And really so much better than late summer - Norway - Florida. But I’m still so lonely and that hurts. I can’t stop how much I’ve tapped into it now that I re-opened the flood gates. I think I just like totally shut them up when I quit drinking just to keep anything away from crisis mode, but I guess it’s time now. I can’t hold it any longer, anyway. Even if it’s not time, it is my time. To fucking feel it. I think that stretch of months it really was the like mass murder/ online gore preoccupation (I’m gonna just call it that) that really took my mental over the edge. And I just felt so ashamed and couldn’t tell anyone anything that I was thinking about literally all day long. Except Will. But even then, not fully. But I was able to spurt a little here and there, and like he’s a sick fuck so he didn’t even really blink at it. But that was at the very beginning. And I think it only got harder after that.
I think Adam might be thinking there’s something up with my eating. When we were in Norway we were like joking about EDs and not eating together and shit and being toxic. But now, when I say certain things, Adam like corrects me. Or will kind of look at me suspiciously if I decline food or do certain things. But my eating has gotten better with the being more offline too. It has. But the last few weeks I just haven’t wanted to. Since I got sick. And I’m better now, but I’m just like in a “food is gross and it also wouldn’t hurt if my body dissolved into nothing” type mindset lowkey so. Oops.
I’m working out again, which I realize after the last tirade, sounds super disordered, but it actually started before I got sick and slipped back, so I think it is coming from a healthy place. Trying to decipher what ideas are coming from the bad part of me and what ideas are coming from the good place can be really exhausting. It seems like it would be simple, but it is not when you are crazy. But yeah, I’m working out and it feels good. I was having so much physical pain before and that shit is basically gone. And I think it’s building my confidence, and I’m starting to realize that I need to make that a priority or I am going to end up killing myself. Not like now, I’m not Suicidal. I just mean eventually. Like I have to fucking fight for my life. And if I don’t want to, I won’t win.
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Pairing: Lee Felix x female reader
Genre: Smut
Warnings: mature content, lowkey slow burn, breeding kink, soft!dom Felix, creampie.
Word count: 2.975
You and Ashley have been friends for four years now. You went through a lot of hardships together, especially when Ashley had an unplanned pregnancy in the last year of college. Luckily, Mason, now her husband, is an amazing person, and even though it was hard, she was able to graduate. You loved her baby, Arthur, so much, like it was your little brother. You knew that their anniversary was getting closer and you wanted to surprise her.
"No way, I cannot ask you for something like that."
"You're not asking, I'm offering. Besides, you know I love spending time with Arthur," you said, holding your phone with one hand while you tried to wash the dishes you used to eat dinner with the other.
"I don't know Y/N..."
"Girl, just stop. I'm not taking a no for an answer. Spending quality time with your husband is important and I know that you have been not getting laid lately."
"You have no idea how hard it is to have sex with a one-year-old making a mess everywhere." You both laughed.
"I'll go to your house tomorrow at 7 pm. Get a reservation at a nice restaurant, get shaved and, wear your best dress. I want you and Mason to have a good time together."
"Okay, but only because it is our anniversary. I'm gonna take this as a present." Ashley sighed, knowing that she had to say yes anyway.
"Because it is, Ashley. I'll see you tomorrow, bye."
"Bye, honey."
You finished your shores and were planning on watching some videos on youtube when you heard your phone buzzing. You picked it up and saw that you had a message.
Felix, 8:45 pm: Hey
Felix, 8:45 pm: Sorry for messaging late but, are you free tomorrow?
You chuckled. Almost 9 pm wasn't late.
Y/N, 8:46 pm: Sorry, I'm going to my friend's house after work.
Y/N, 8:47 pm: I'm going to babysit her baby so she can go have dinner with her husband.
You met Felix at work, during lunch. He was new there and you have seen him sometimes walking around the place, but you never talked to him. Until one day when he dropped his coffee on you. You remembered how embarrassed he was, his cheeks were red and he profusely apologized. Ever since, you had some small talk with him here and there until one day you gave him his number, saying that he could message you if he needed help with something from work. You know it was bullshit since he was from a different department, but still, you needed an excuse to talk to him. He messaged you a few times but eventually, you thought it was a lost cause.
Y/N, 8:57 pm: Why do you ask?
Felix, 9:00 pm: Nothing.
Felix, 9:01 pm: It's silly.
Y/N, 9:03 pm: If it was that silly, you wouldn't have messaged me.
Y/N, 9:03 pm: Spit it out.
Felix, 9:12 pm: There's a convention for Star Wars fans tomorrow. You said that you loved the movies one time so I bought tickets for you.
Y/N, 9:14 pm: Why didn't you tell me before?
Felix, 9:15 pm: I didn't know if you would want to go. But it's okay, don't worry about it.
You thought for a moment. You really wanted to spend time with him. Felix was so sweet, respectful and kind. He was also very, very handsome.
Y/N, 9:30 pm: Do you wanna come to my friend's house tomorrow with me?
You looked at your phone five minutes later and saw that Felix visualized the message but didn't answer. "Congratulations, you fucked it up, Y/N," you said.
You sat on your couch and turned the tv on, planning on finally watching your favorite youtube videos, when you heard your phone buzzing again.
Felix, 9:50 pm: Sure, why not? Is it okay with your friend? She doesn't know me.
You sighed, happy that he answered.
Y/N, 9:51 pm: I'm gonna tell her but I'm pretty sure she'll be fine.
"Is he cute?" Ashley asked, putting on her earring. She looked gorgeous with a tight red dress that accentuated her curves and contrasted with her dark skin. Her curly hair was in a bun, leaving her neck and shoulders exposed. You knew Mason would love it.
"He is very cute. And he's so nice too. I only invited him over because he seems really sweet."
You went to Ashley's house one hour before she would leave for dinner so you could help her get ready, and by help, you meant to force her to wear something that wasn't a t-shirt and jeans.
"How do I look?" she turned around, facing you.
"Gorgeous as always."
Ashley hugged you tight. "Thank you so much, Y/N. You know you don't have to do this, right?"
"But I want to."
The bell rang.
"That's probably Felix," you said.
"Let's go downstairs, I wanna meet this boy."
When you went to the living room you saw Felix talking to Mason.
"Hello, I'm Ashley, nice to meet you."
"I'm Felix, nice to meet you too," Felix raised his hand so he could shake Ashley's hand but she gave him a light hug. You smiled, finding really cute how awkward he was.
"Arthur is sleeping now, he already ate, but if he wakes up, there's milk on the fridge. He usually sleeps all night so you don't have much to worry about."
"Okay, you guys have to go before you're late for dinner," you said, pulling Mason and Ashley towards the door.
"Call me if you need anything. We'll be back tomorrow morning so you'll don't have much trouble with him."
"Don't worry about it. You can take your time."
"Also, don't forg-"
"Baby, we have to go," Mason insisted, holding her hand and trying to get her inside of the car.
"Fine. Bye everyone, see you tomorrow."
You waved at them before going inside and closing the door.
"I'm gonna check on Arthur for a second, you can wait here, okay?" You told Felix.
"Sure."
You went upstairs and checked on Arthur's room. He was sleeping soundly. You felt the urge to lightly pinch his chubby little cute cheeks but you decided not to bother him. You went to the living room again and Felix was sitting on the couch.
"Are you hungry? We bought pizza."
"Uhm, not really."
"Are you sure?" you insisted.
"Okay, one slice would be good."
Felix got up and followed you to the kitchen.
"Your friend has a beautiful house," he said, admiring the place.
"She does. I mean, she's an architect and Mason is an engineer, so they were able to buy a nice place," you cut a piece and handed it to him.
"You said that you studied together."
"We went to the same college, but I graduated in graphic design. For obvious reasons, I don't make as much money as them," you laughed.
"Did you always wanted to work in a publishing company?" Felix sat on the balcony standing in the middle of the kitchen.
"Honestly, I just wanted to work with what I love. Graphic design is not something that people value but it is what makes me happy." You looked at him and Felix smiled at you, his dimple prominent on his face. He was so cute.
"What about you?"
"Oh, marketing is definitely not something I dreamed of working with. My family has a long line of people that have been working with it, so I barely had a choice,” Felix confessed.
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah." He looked thoughtful like his mind was somewhere else. "I actually wanted to work with art. I love painting."
"Really? That's so cool. Do you have a picture of a painting to show me? I would love to see it."
Felix hesitated for a while before he grabbed his phone and scrolled through his gallery.
"Please don't think I'm weird," he said before showing you the picture.
You raised your eyebrows when you saw what was on the screen of his phone. A beautiful painting of you. You realized that he used your profile picture on Facebook as a reference.
"Felix, this is amazing."
"It took me a week to finish it," he said, holding his hands behind his back, clearly feeling shy.
"I love it, really."
You and Felix finished eating. You talked more about your plans for the future, the things you wanted to do with your life, your dreams.
You were sitting on the couch watching tv when you heard Arthur crying upstairs.
"Ops, somebody woke up." You got up to go to his room and you noticed that Felix was following you. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."
"It's fine, I wanna help you."
When you entered the room, Arthur was up in his crib, deeply crying.
"It's okay," you said in a soft tone, picking him up.
"I think somebody needs to change its diaper," Felix said.
"You are right," you laughed. "Let's change this little boy."
You put Arthur on the changing mat and started to change him, but to be honest, you had no idea what you were doing.
Felix laughed. "Let me help you." Felix quickly changed his diaper, he clearly knew what he was doing.
"Woah, how do you know that?" you asked, looking at him dumbfounded.
He laughed again, amused by your reaction. "I have a small brother so I have changed his diaper plenty of times."
"Aaah, that explains a lot."
"Let's see if he wants to eat," Felix said, holding Arthur in his arms. You went to the kitchen and looked for the milk. After pouring it into a pan, you heated it up.
"We need to make sure we don't overheat it so it won't burn the baby," Felix said while he tested the milk's temperature. You put it into a baby bottle and gave it to Arthur who promptly drank it.
"I guess he was hungry," Felix chuckled.
"Do you plan on having kids, Felix?" you looked at him, completely mesmerized by how good he was with kids.
"Yes, I love kids. I plan on having two kids one day."
"That's so cute, I'm sure you'll be an amazing dad."
Felix smiled, making your heart skip a beat.
"Do you want to have kids, Y/N?" he looked apprehensive.
"Yeah, one day. I still need to find the right person."
"Of course."
Arthur went back to sleep again when he was done eating.
"Not gonna lie, taking care of a baby can be tiring," claimed said, sitting on the couch. Felix sat next to you, his knee touching your leg.
"Do you want to watch a movie?" you asked.
"Sure!"
Twenty minutes later, you started to sleep. Your head felt heavy until it fell on Felix's shoulder. He simply smiled, enjoying the feeling of you so close to him.
The sound of the bell ringing woke you up. You were laying on the couch, a blanket over your body. You looked around and Felix was sleeping on the smaller couch next to yours, with just a pillow under his head. You got up and answered the door.
"Hey!" Ashley said, hugging you.
"Hi. How was your night?"
"It was amazing. Thank you so much, Y/N." Ashley went to the middle of the living room to drop her bag on the couch, Mason following behind.
"How's Arthur? Did he behaved?" Mason asked.
"Yeah, he slept almost all of the time." You rubbed your eyes, still feeling sleepy.
Ashley turned around, seeing Felix sleeping on the couch. "You guys could have slept in the guest room," she laughed.
"I'm gonna check on Arthur. What about some breakfast later?" Mason suggested.
"That sounds great, but I think we should go home. Besides, you guys need to spend some family time with your baby."
You woke Felix up, and while he was trying to get conscious, you chatted with Ashley about dinner. Mason went downstairs with Arthur and you chatted a little more before leaving.
"Do you want me to take you home?" Felix asked, leaving Ashley's house by your side.
"No, it's okay, I'll get an Uber."
"Aw, come on. I'm not gonna let you leave on an Uber so early in the morning." You looked at him, admiring the freckles on his skin. His pink lips looked soft and you had to fight the urge to kiss him.
"You know what, okay. I'll go with you."
The drive to your house was silent, the music playing on the radio helped you to distract the thoughts on your head. The night you spent with Felix was amazing, seeing him being so sweet like that only made you even more attracted to him.
Felix stopped in front of your house. "Well, we are here."
"Do you want to come in?"
"Oh... uhm, sure, yes, that would be great."
You smiled and left the car, running to open the door for him.
"Please don't mind the mess," you said, taking some clothes that were on the couch.
"Don't worry about it."
"Do you want to eat something?"
"I'm fine, I'm still full because of the pizza from yesterday."
"Okay."
There was an awkward silence for a while and you realized you didn't think this through. Invite him over and what?
"You know what? There's something I want to eat," Felix said.
"Oh, okay. What do you want? I have bread, cereal, we can make panca-"
"You."
"What?" you looked at him, your eyes wide.
"I w-want to eat you." Felix stuttered, his face showing that he was feeling too shy to be saying the words that left his mouth.
"Oh, I'm... I-" you didn't have the chance to finish, Felix approached you and kissed you. You were still processing what was happening so you didn't kiss him back yet. Felix noticed and stopped kissing you.
"I-I'm so sorry, Y/N, I shoul-"
"No! It's okay. I just wasn't expecting."
You kissed him, holding his face and tasting his lips. His left hand held the back of your head while the other held your waist. He bit your lower lip, his tongue entering your mouth and playing with yours. He pressed his body against yours and you felt his semi-hard dick. You whined, trying to control your breath.
"Do you want to keep going?" Felix asked, his forehead resting against yours. You simply nodded.
"Where's your room?"
You grabbed his hand, guiding him to your room. Once you were inside, Felix slammed you against the door, pressing his body into yours. He started to grind his clothed cock on your heat and, this time, you couldn't hold your moans anymore.
"Felix," was all you managed to say before he kissed you again. A messy kiss that screamed how much he was longing for you, how much he desired you.
His hand grabbed your ass, pulling you closer as if it was even possible.
"I wanna taste you," he said, taking you to the bed. You laid down and he wasted no time to take off your pants, pulling your panties with them in a swift movement. Soon enough, his tongue was exploring your wet lips, savoring the taste of your arousal. Felix played with your clit, his tongue sliding against the sensitive skin. You hoped that your neighbors had already left for work, otherwise you would end up waking them up because of your moans.
Felix stopped eating you out to unbutton his shirt.
"You have no idea how much I wanted to fuck you," he said, his voice deep, making you raise your hips, craving to be filled up.
"Felix, please," you moaned.
"You want me to fuck you, baby?"
"Yes, please." It was embarrassing, you weren't used to begging. Most of the time that you had sex, you were always the one in control. But not with Felix.
"Are you on the pill?" Felix asked, taking the rest of his clothes off and pumping his rock-hard cock.
"Yeah, please fuck me."
"Anything for you," he growled, sliding his dick into your dripping pussy. Felix already started an incessant pounding into you, stealing moans from your throat. "You are so fucking beautiful."
You closed your eyes, feeling the burning on your stomach getting stronger.
"Fuck, so fucking good, Y/N. You are taking me so well."
"Please, don't s-stop."
"Turn around, I wanna fuck you from behind."
You didn't have much strength left, but Felix helped you out. He was inside of you again, hitting the right spots in this position. Felix felt your pussy tightening against his dick and he started to play with your clit.
"Fuck, Felix, I'm gonna cum," you screamed, not being able to control yourself anymore. You came, a long moan leaving your mouth.
"I'm gonna cum inside of your little pussy, I'm gonna fill you up so good."
He didn't slow his pace, his hips hitting yours in a fast rhythm.
"I'm gonna put a baby in your little cute belly, baby girl," he said, closing his eyes as his dick slid in and out of your pussy.
"Fuck," you moaned.
"You are gonna look so good, all swollen, f-fuck."
A few lazy thrusts and Felix came inside of you. He kept thrusting on you for a while until you milked him out.
He laid by your side, trying to catch his breath.
Felix put his arm on his face, hiding it. He looked completely flustered.
"I'm sorry, Y/N. It was way too soon for me to let out this embarrassing kinky stuff."
"Felix, shut up. It was fucking hot," you smiled, turning around to hug him and rest your head on his chest. He played with your hair, the warmth of his skin making you fall asleep.
But sleeping wasn't on Felix's plans. "Ready for round two?"
#stray kids#skz#lee felix#felix#stayhavennet#lee felix smut#felix smut#skz smut#stray kids smut#skz fanfic#stray kids fanfic#felix x you#felix x y/n#felix x reader#felix imagine#stray kids imagine#skz imagine
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youtuber Sukuna pt2
I wonder what things will happen in this part? I hope there's sparknotes, I don’t feel like reading all these words…
Content warning: *more* mean internet comments, Sukuna doxxing ppl(idk if that needs a warning?? But just in case)
part 1 --- part 3
Being a Youtuber was a lot more work than Sukuna thought it was. When he’d picked you up early in the morning, he wasn’t expecting you to come out with such a fancy camera and microphone. You looked cute as all hell too, hair styled nicely and your outfit was perfect for a day at a countryside cafe.
“Thanks for driving!” You said, climbing into his car and smiling at him. Sukuna could smell your perfume as it wafted off your body and he immediately felt the urge to buy a bottle as well and spray his pillow with it.
“S’no problem.” He muttered, driving off as soon as you were secure. He’d looked up the place beforehand, reading their menu over and over so he’d know what to order. Slowing down at a red light, he glanced over at you taking pictures.
He wished he could ask you to send them to him so he could save them in the never ending folder he had, but he couldn’t. It would be weird, you weren’t exactly close, and it’s not like you shared any pictures anyway.
“Hey Sukuna, what’s my contact photo on your phone?” The question came out of nowhere and he looked at you in confusion.
“Contact photo? You don’t have one.”
“What, really? I’ll send you a picture then! And add a few cute emojis with my name.” Well, that was easy. He wasn’t expecting you to offer to send him a picture, but he wasn’t going to decline it.
“Okay, I will.” Turning his attention back on the road, Sukuna turned the radio on to fill the silence. “Should I...send you a picture of me?” He had the perfect picture in mind to send you, it was a thirst trap he’d snapped post-shower after a really good day at the gym. A towel hung low on his hips and he still had a few droplets of water on his skin and dripping down from his hair.
“Yes!”
The drive to the cafe was quick and easy, not a lot of traffic early in the morning. The sun was just beginning to settle in the sky and the dew on the grass was fading. The cafe you’d chosen was in a small countryside town, barley fields just a few yards away and farmers with their dogs walking by.
“This the place?” Sukuna asked, pulling into the small parking lot in confusion.
“Yup! I’m so excited!” Hopping out of the car, your camera was immediately put to work filming the surrounding area. It was peacefully silent all around you, the only sound the occasional breeze or dog barking in the distance.
Panning the camera to yourself, you took a quick couple breaths and babbled a few times before speaking properly.
“Hi everyone, as you can see we’re in a different place today! Me and Sukuna are at a cafe in the countryside that I saw online and fell in love with. Say hi Sukuna!”
“Hi.” He was standing at the edge of the lot where a field of wispy tall purple grass started. He waved dumbly, feeling like a dumb kid taken to Disneyworld.
“This is the name of the cafe…” Turning your attention elsewhere, you filmed the rest of your intro. Once again, Sukuna was amazed at the proficiency at which you did things and how smoothly he knew the shots would look.
Looking at the cafe on the outside, it didn’t look like anything special. It was a wooden and concrete building with two large windows. He could see the minimalist decor and furniture inside was wooden as well, probably handcrafted by someone in the town.
“All finished, let’s go in.” Waving him on, Sukuna jogged to be the first to the door to open it for you. Filming as you walked in, when Sukuna entered, he still didn’t understand the hype you’d placed around it.
The air smelt like a strong tea and the humidity was definitely higher. He was right in thinking that all the furniture was handcrafted, all the chairs and tables had a rough quality to them only achievable with a human touch.
“Look, this is what I came here for!” You were standing right at the dessert case, pointing your camera at whatever you were looking at.
“Why is it...?” Sukuna looked at it in confusion. There was an airbrushed cake shaped exactly like the peach emoji sitting in the case with a realistic leaf and stem as well and you looked inexplicably happy over it.
“The owner makes these cakes herself, and she’s doing a cute emoji series!” Bouncing on your heels, you tugged on his sleeve. “I’m totally getting a slice, what’re you getting?” Suddenly, the research he’d done the night prior meant nothing as he looked at the cake.
“I have no idea.”
“You’ve got time to think about it, I’m gonna ask the owner a few questions for the video.” Leaving him at the case, Sukuna saw you go up to the owner waiting at the counter from the corner of his eye. Since the two of you were the only ones here, he could hear your excited voice gushing about the cakes and decor.
Fifteen minutes later, you and Sukuna were seated right in the corner of the cafe, where the two windows intersected on the building. Not one for sweets, Sukuna got a plain poppyseed muffin and a hot tea; the cafe didn’t serve coffee.
Setting up the camera on the table next to you, you took a bite of your cake and loved it, immediately singing its praises to the camera. Sukuna ate as well, trying not to be too stiff as you spoke.
“Sukuna, you should try this too!” Holding up your fork filled with cake, you held it out to him.
“Hm, okay.” Grabbing your hand as well, he expected you to let go of the fork. But as he guided it to his mouth, you didn’t, and you were staring right at him as it went into his mouth. “Why ya staring?” He mumbled, feeling his ears burn.
“I need to know if you like it.” Sukuna didn’t let go of your hand as he chewed and you didn’t make a move to remove it either. You were too focused on his reaction to care, waiting on the edge of your seat for him to say something.
“It’s a peach flavored cake.” He nodded, snorting when you motioned him to say more. “It’s too sweet for me, but if you like it then I like it.”
“Good enough for me!” Finally you pulled away from him and put the fork down, turning to the camera and pointing in his direction. “Can you believe Sukuna doesn’t like sweets? He’s like an old man, he only got a muffin.”
“Please, could an old man deadlift almost 300lbs?” Sukuna scoffed, slapping his chest and flexing his arm.
“That’s so much! You have to train me some day Sukuna, I wanna lift that much!” Your shocked face made Sukuna smirk and he flexed the other arm as well. Your wide eyes got even wider, bouncing between both his arms.
“Anytime, (Y/N).” Sukuna felt confident enough to wink at you, and he saw the way your face faltered at it. Ducking your head away, you pretended to fiddle with the camera, the tips of your fingers shaking slightly.
It was afternoon by the time you finished in the cafe, walking out into the warmth of the sun. Looking out, all the land surrounding the cafe was flat, covered in fields of barley or tall grasses.
“Hey Sukuna…” There you were, touching the purple grass with your fingers.
“What?”
“Will you take a few pictures for me? For Instagram?”
“I don’t think I’ll be any good.” Sukuna barely knew how to take pictures of himself let alone another person.
“That’s okay, just try your best!” Putting another camera in his hand, you grabbed his wrist and tugged him to join you deeper in the field. “That camera is pretty simple, just point and click.”
“Alright.” Holding it up, he immediately snapped a picture of you.
“Wait for me to pose!” You laughed. Sukuna chuckled as well, and when you were ready, he took the pictures. He took as many as he could, clicking the button over and over.
“Take a look.” Twenty minutes later he was handing the camera back at you. Looking through the pictures, you instantly burst into laughter.
“Sukuna, why’d you take a picture of the sun? My head is in the corner, it looks like a toe!”
“I told you it’d be bad!” He couldn’t help but laugh as well. You really did look like a toe in the corner of the screen.
“Oh my god, I’m taking you to a photography class, some of these are too much.” Giggling your way through the rest of the pictures, you put the camera back in his hand. “Let’s take a couple together!”
Sukunas heart leapt for joy. He would be able to take a picture with you. It felt like he was a fan of yours and not someone you knew on a personal level.
“You’re gonna hold the camera, your arms are longer.” Flipping the viewfinder up, you slided up to Sukunas side. He muttered something unintelligible, too busy looking at the two of you together. He could almost imagine you were a couple.
“Sukuna, hold the camera like this.” His hand had gone limp, casting a bad angle on the two of you.
“Don’t face that way, the light will make you look bad.” In one of the pictures, you’d changed poses.
“I know you only take serious gym pictures but smile for this one!” His face had dropped down to a scowl, his normal resting face. After who knows how long, he was finally free from taking pictures.
Wandering back to the car, it was silent as the both of you settled in. You were busy looking over the photos and Sukuna was busy watching you from the corner of his eye.
“Anything else you wanna do here?” He asked after a while of pretending to look on Twitter.
“Mmmm, we can drive around some more! I don’t really know what else is out here.”
Sukuna drove you through the countryside town, marvelling at the farmers and all their animals. You stopped to get a couple handmade candies from an old man, and Sukuna made sure to pick up some food that wasn’t just sweets for you. Eating at a small restaurant, when you hit the road again it was nearly evening.
Driving back in near silence, somewhere along the way you fell asleep. Your head rested against the window, jostled a few times by the road or a turn. Sukuna couldn’t help but look at you any chance he could, and although he felt like a major creep, he couldn’t stop himself from taking a picture of you.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding.” Sukuna groaned as he got closer to the city, coming upon a wall of traffic. Far ahead up the road there was an accident that wasn’t going to be cleared away anytime soon.
“What’s up?” You asked with a loud yawn, stretching out your arms and legs as best you could.
“Traffic.” Leaning his head out the window, he let out another groan. “Might as well put the fucking car in park.” Shifting the gear and sinking low into his seat, Sukuna sighed. It’s not that he hated traffic, but he wanted every moment of this outing to be perfect, and this was seriously hindering it.
“Do you want me to send you some of the pictures we took together for your Instagram as well?”
“Yeah, send ‘em over.” At least Sukuna could stare at the two of you together to pass the time. The amount of pictures you sent him was seemingly endless and included a few he didn’t know you’d taken of him eating and looking out the window.
“How long do you think we’ll be here?” You whined, kicking your feet out in boredom.
“At least an hour.”
It was quiet for a few minutes, the sound of the radio and other cars around you filling the background. Sukuna could see you fiddling with your phone, opening and closing apps. He could see you getting antsy.
“I’m already so bored.” There it was. Your pitiful whine accentuated with your head pushed back. Sukunas fingers itched to reach out and squeeze your cheek, it was glowing from the sun. “I think I’m gonna get on Instagram live or something so I can complain more.”
Laughing at your honesty, as soon as you went live Sukuna got the notification on his phone. Your head was tilted away from him, only your side of the car showed. Waving at the camera a few times, you smiled really big.
“Hi everyone! I’m stuck in traffic!” Your eyes flicked across the screen, reading the many comments coming in. “Hm, what do you mean who’s car am I in? I bought this car!”
“Liar.” Sukuna mumbled with a cheeky grin getting bigger when you tried to hide your own chuckle.
“I swear I bought this car!” You couldn’t keep the lie going, and broke down in giggles the more Sukuna looked at you. “Alright, I’m in Sukunas car.” Panning the phone out, he saw himself on screen.
“Hi.” He waved, reading the comments asking if you were on a date. “Don’t you remember from the last live? We aren’t on a date we’re filming some fucking vlog.”
“It’ll be up soon! You’ll all really enjoy it, Sukuna was a great guest.”
“The best.” He nodded along. You responded to a few more comments, but there were some that kept coming up.
‘(Y/N) kiss Sukuna’
‘(Y/N) kiss Sukuna’
‘(Y/N) kiss Sukuna’
“Stop spamming that fucking message like a weirdo.” Sukuna finally snapped. You had done a great job at ignoring the comment, but it was all Sukuna could see on the screen. “You’re gross to ask us to do that.” But Sukuna did wish he could kiss you. Ever since the first comment came through, he’d taken glances at your lips as you spoke.
“Oof, don’t make Sukuna mad, he’ll kill you.” You teased, and your hand went out to squeeze his arm. “He said he can deadlift almost 300lbs, so watch out.”
“That’s fucking right.” Flexing his arm proudly, Sukuna nearly put it around your shoulder, faltering at the last minute and landing on the center console with a thud.
‘It would be kind of cute to see them kiss…’
‘I bet Sukuna can’t even hug (Y/N)’
‘I bet after today they’ll come out and say they’re dating!’
Now all the comments were talking about the two of you dating, and how cute it would be if you really were. Biting his lip, Sukuna watched your reaction closely. Truly he had no problem with the comments, he wanted them to be true as well, but if you were uncomfortable he was ready to put everyone in their place.
“Gosh you guys ship us so hard.” You seemed okay with it, your face wasn’t tense and you were still making eye contact with Sukuna. “Are you going to subscribe to my channel if I kiss him?”
“What?” Sukunas eyes widened and the comments poured in promising life long dedication to you if you went through with it.
“Alright.” Setting your phone up on the dashboard, you turned to Sukuna. “I’ll be quick, okay?”
“What?” He parroted. His hands were getting clammy just thinking about it and the look in your eyes wasn’t helping. With a nervous lick of his lips Sukuna leant forward and had just begun to pucker his mouth when you loudly kissed your palm and pressed it to his cheek.
“There! I kissed Sukuna!” With a big grin on your face you kissed your hand again and put it on him. “I did it twice! Now go subscribe!”
“What the hell.” Sukuna mumbled to himself, feeling like an idiot for thinking you’d really kiss him. He spent the next fifteen minutes in a stupor, vaguely replying to comments and trying to get over the embarrassment he felt.
Dropping you off nearly an hour past the original time, when Sukuna got home he buried his face into his pillow and let out a short yell. The biting shame he felt at almost making himself a fool in front of thousands of people was still fresh. He knew there’d be fancams of the moment just waiting for him. A buzzing on his phone pulled him out of his thoughts.
(Y/N): you need to send me a picture for your contact photo!
That’s right, the picture. Sukuna didn’t even need to scroll that far to find it, it was in his favorites. Sending it to you without a second thought, he didn’t even have the mind to check your reaction. Leaving his phone on the bed, he rushed to the shower to cool off.
When he returned, there were a flurry of messages from you waiting to be read. Most of them were unreadable keyboard smashes and a few emojis.
(Y/N): SUKUNA!
(Y/N): you can’t just send me a picture like that!!
(Sukuna): why?
(Y/N): you know why!
He could practically hear your flustered little whine.
(Sukuna): enlighten me please
(Y/N): SWSGMLU
(Y/N): you’re such a bully!!
(Sukuna): haha sounds like someone's embarrassed
It was a long few minutes before you replied and Sukuna could see the typing bubbles appear and reappear several times.
(Y/N): I’M GOING TO BED
(Sukuna): you that tired? it’s only 9pm
(Y/N): YES GOODNIGHT
(Y/N): BYE BULLY
(Sukuna): lol goodnight then
In a week, the vlog was up and Sukuna made his debut into the world. He rewatched it several times over, in awe of how well you’d captured the countryside and translated it to video. He even screen recorded some parts, like when he was flexing for you, just to replay your reaction over and over.
In the weeks following, Sukuna watched your channel grow exponentially. Your number of subscribers wasn’t small, but it was nowhere near his, yet you made the leap to over a million and a half practically overnight. And with that new success, came a lot of pressure.
You’d recently taken up streaming, and Sukuna was at every single one. He had made a Twitch account just to watch you and he subscribed immediately, blushing when you read out his name and personally thanked him in a text a few minutes later.
Entering your stream as soon as it started, Sukuna was ready to sit and watch you do whatever. Usually, you played a game like the Sims, but sometimes you’d cook or put makeup on for a stream.
But this time was different. When your face appeared on the screen, you looked down. Almost as if you’d been fighting back tears. Immediately, Sukuna grabbed his phone, ready to call you and ask what was happening.
“Hey guys.” He could hear it in your voice that you were sad. It warbled and broke, and you sniffled a few times.
‘(Y/N) why’re you crying??’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Did something happen? You can tell us, we’re here for you’
“No, don’t worry everyone it’s just…” A stray tear fell down your cheek and you wiped it away with a shaking hand. “I-I- just-” You quickly broke down crying, turning your chair completely away from the screen.
Sukuna was swiftly dialing your number. He had no idea what was wrong, you hadn’t told him anything was wrong, but he needed to know. He was prepared to go to your house if you needed him to.
“I’m okay, I promise.” Feverishly wiping your tears, you turned back to the camera. Taking several deep breaths, you didn’t look at the camera as you spoke. “I’ve just been getting a lot of hate comments recently and you know I always ignore it but-” Your voice caught, and Sukuna was glued to the screen. “It’s just been a lot honestly.”
‘(Y/N) WE LOVE YOU’
‘PLEASE DON’T CRY WE’RE HERE FOR YOU’
‘I bet it’s all of Sukunas fans, they’re so fucking gross’
‘Totally Sukuna fans, all the real fans love (Y/N) and would never do this’
“N-no, don’t blame Sukuna! He can’t control what people say!” It was totally his fans and he fucking knew it. His call had gone unanswered two times, but on the third time you answered. “Hello?”
“Put me on speaker.”
“But-”
“Put me on speaker!” He demanded. Sukunas blood was boiling, rage rolling over him in waves.
“Sukuna’s calling, I guess he has something to say.” Holding the phone close to the microphone, you kept wiping away tears.
“Listen here you insignificant dirtbags, stop leaving shitty little hate comments on (Y/N)s stuff. You’re all fucking piss poor losers who can’t even wipe your own asses, probably jerking each other off in a pathetic circle. Go get a fucking job, worthless pieces of shit. Don’t think this is something you can get away with either, I’m going to make sure you fucking regret the day you were born.” His voice was dripping with so much malice it scared you. While Sukuna was used to talking like this, you’d never heard it in person and you could tell he meant every word.
“Thanks Sukuna, but you don’t have to-”
“Tell me who they are. Where’d they leave the comments?” Angrily setting up a shitty webcam he had, Sukuna was preparing to do a livestream himself.
“I don’t know…”
“(Y/N).” Taking a pause, he stared at the screen. You were worrying your lip as you stared at your phone while the comments begged for you to tell him.
“Alright. Most of them are under the vlog we did together, and there’s a lot under my most recent Instagram pictures.”
“The ones with us together too?”
“Yeah, those are the worst ones.”
“Keep me on the line.” Sukuna had never been this angry in his life before and it showed in his actions. He was slamming things down in a rush to set up his stream and letting out frustrated noises in the back of his throat.
“Sukuna, what’re you doing?” You’d gotten your emotions under control enough to stop crying, your glassy eyes shining in the light of your room.
“I’m setting up my own stream.” Just as he spoke, his face appeared on the screen and he was live. “Tell everyone to send me screenshots of the hate comments, I’m going to teach these assholes a lesson.”
“I think they heard you.” Indeed they had. The phone was still close to the microphone, and now there were comments pouring in telling Sukuna they’d send links through his stream.
Clicking on almost all of the ones that popped up, his screen was bombarded with pictures of people leaving hateful comments on your posts. Many were saying that you didn’t deserve to be alive, to be so close to Sukuna, and many called you ugly or other mean names.
“Let’s see what this fucker looks like.” Going to one of the profiles on Twitter, Sukuna nearly spat on his screen looking at it. “This ugly sack of shit wants to leave some mean comments? Well it’s your lucky day bitch, you’re the first one to go.” It took Sukuna all of five minutes to find the person's Facebook account where they posted more personal information.
“Oh, that’s a pretty high brow uni you’re going to! It would really be a shame if I sent an email to the dean.” Sukuna said mockingly, already typing up a long email. “You’re not gonna be studying to be a doctor any fucking more. Have fun digging ditches bitch.”
Sukuna’s stream easily went from 200 viewers to nearly 40,000 just in the time it took him to dox the first person. The next one was even easier, and it snowballed from there. Sukuna had no qualms about sharing this personal information, from their addresses to their personal phone numbers to where they worked.
“You really don’t have to do all this.” You kept saying over the phone. You’d ended your own stream to calm down, but you didn’t hang up the phone.
“Yes I do.” Sukuna replied instantly. “People have no respect for others, it’s fucking gross. If they think they can get away with this they’re idiots.” So many comments were egging him on as well, with a lot of people promising to harass everyone exposed until they apologized. “I hope every single one of them loses everything.”
“Sukuna…” With a sigh, you sat back and watched him do it. There wasn't anything you could say to stop him, he was on a warpath and intent on causing harm. Eventually, you had to hang up the call as it got well into the night and he was still going.
“Keep sending the fucking links, I can do this all night.” Sukuna repeated several times, fighting off sleep. His eyes burned from staring at the screen for so long and his back had begun to ache but he wasn’t about to stop now. There were still so many people that had to pay.
After nearly eight hours of streaming himself doxing people, he finally stopped after his channel got banned. His manager had emailed as soon as the sun rose, frantically screaming at him to stop what he was doing or he could get sued.
(Sukuna): tell me right away if this happens again I’ll handle it
He texted you right after getting banned. His body hurt from exhaustion, he could truly pass out at any moment.
(Y/N): I will
(Y/N): sukuna...thanks for doing all that. It really meant a lot to know you care about me
(Sukuna): Of course I care about you
Sukuna was about to type out that he liked you, of course he did all of that and risked himself getting sued because he liked you and never wanted to see you cry again. Almost admitting to how he wanted nothing more than to give you a big hug, but stopping himself at the last moment.
(Y/N): you’re such a good friend Sukuna, thank you
(Sukuna): you’re welcome
It hurt to be put into that category, in the friendzone. It made his tongue curl in disgust, a rancid place that he wanted no part of. People that were in the friendzone were spineless and too weak to just confess their feelings - and Sukuna seemed to be one of them.
After that incident, you went on a break from all social media and Sukuna began to patrol your comments sections. He actively posted that he would start doxing people again if they said anything bad, citing all the damage he’d done to the previous victims. Sukuna had gotten what he wanted, all the people he exposed suffered in some way, most losing jobs and friends.
On a run to the grocery store, Sukuna was listening to a podcast you’d been on. He missed the content you posted, and while he did text you sporadically about Youtube stuff, he didn’t feel comfortable messaging you about anything else. His mind always stopped him, questioning him on if what he wanted to say was really worth your time.
“Hi Sukuna.” Standing at the bread section, Sukuna nearly jumped into the air hearing your voice pop up next to him. There you were in a baggy hoodie and sweats, looking every part an unnoticeable member of society.
“(Y/N)? W-what’re you doing here?”
“Hm? I’m shopping.” You chuckled, showing him your handbasket.
“Right.” Nodding slowly, Sukuna eyed you up. Your eyes were still a little puffy and he could see they were red as well. You looked tired and worn down, not your usual happy self. “Hey (Y/N).”
“Yeah?” You were unprepared for the heavy arm that landed around your shoulders and even more at being pulled into an embrace. Sukuna hugged you to his chest tightly, squeezing the back of your hoodie in his hands.
“I…” He could feel you relaxing into his arms, heaving a deep sigh like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders. “Don’t feel sad anymore.” Sukuna seemed to have a habit of saying the things he wanted to say in the worst way possible. What did that even mean? To tell you not to be sad anymore instead of offering something else, like his friendship, during this time. He wanted to tell you he’d be here for you.
“Thanks Sukuna.” Hugging him back just as tightly, he could hear you sniffle a few times. The hug lasted for a while, just standing in front of bread, and a good two minutes passed before you started to unwind yourself from him.
Keeping a loose arm around you, Sukuna kept you close, searching your face for any hint that you would possibly start crying. Your eyes were a little misty, and your lower lip quivered just a little, but you sent him a smile that made it all better.
“So, what’re you getting?” He asked, attempting to be casual.
“Well, I’m actually done shopping now and I just saw you standing here.” You admitted with a chuckle. “I know it’s been a while since we last spoke properly.” The last message you’d sent to each other was about a sim card two days ago.
“Don’t worry about it, you were going through stuff.” Shrugging his shoulder, Sukuna grabbed the bread he wanted. “I don’t want you to force yourself to talk to me if you don’t want to.”
“Sukuna, I want to talk to you more though! I know we only talk about Youtube stuff but I want us to be better friends.”
“Really?” Nearly crushing the bread in his hands, Sukuna quirked a brow at you.
“Yeah!”
“Well...alright then.” That made him really happy, like really really happy. You wanted to pursue a stronger relationship with him and while it wasn’t a romantic one like he hoped, he was still ecstatic on the inside.
“I have to go, but can we video call later? I have some things I wanna ask you.”
“Okay.” Giving you a brief wave, Sukuna watched you walk out of the aisle and out of sight. A silly smile stretched his cheeks at the thought of your call later, and it stayed on his face the whole way home.
Later that night, Sukuna was diligently waiting for your call. He kept his phone glued to his hand, something he didn’t normally do, just in case you called. At nearly 7pm on the dot, you called and Sukuna answered right away.
“Hi!” You weren’t in the baggy clothes anymore, it looked like you were in pajamas sitting on your couch.
“Hey.” Sukuna was sitting at his computer doing editing, so he didn’t have to worry about you seeing the lack of furniture in his home. All you had to look at was a blank wall behind him. “So, you wanted to ask me something?”
“Mhmm! I was wondering- well first, Sukuna do you watch anime?”
“Anime?” His face twisted up in mild disgust. “No, that shit is fucking lame.”
“Sukuna!”
“What? I’m not that much of a fucking loser to like anime.” Rolling his eyes, he immediately envisioned a man in his mothers basement jerking off to pixelated tits. “Why? Do you watch it?”
“Yeah…” Now you were embarrassed, and it showed on your face.
“Fine, you’re not a fucking loser.” Propping his phone up on his desk, he tipped his chair back and looked at the ceiling. “At least, not a total fucking loser.”
“Sukuna!” Now you were laughing at him, and he smirked at you. “You’re so mean, you know that?”
“Hey, that’s my brand ba-” He was about to call you baby, the word catching thickly in his throat. Luckily, he stopped himself and slammed his chair back down on the ground to cover it up.
“Well, now I don’t know if I want to ask you my question! You’re gonna say no right away.”
“Tell me.”
“No!” Shaking your head hard, you panned the phone up to your ceiling. “You’re definitely gonna bully me!”
“Who knew you were such a baby?” There, he’d called you baby like he wanted to. Not in the context that he desired, but he still got to say it.
“Am not!” Glaring at him, you exhaled shortly. “I was wondering if you wanted to come to this anime convention with me? It’s happening downtown in a few weeks and I’m a guest on a lot of panels this year. I want you to come with to help film stuff for me so I can make it into a highlights reel for my channel? As sort of a comeback video since I’ve been gone for a while.” It was amazing how you’d managed to say all of that so quickly without taking a breath.
“A convention?” Sukuna had only been to fitness conventions and a few that his manager made him go to.
“Yeah! And I wanted to know if you watched anime because I wanted to see if you’d cosplay with me!”
“Cosplay? What the fuck is that?” It sounded stupid.
“We would dress up as characters from an anime! Have you heard of demon slayer?” No, he hadn’t and his silence told you as much. “Look up Nezuko from demon slayer, that’s who I’m dressing up as!”
“Fine, one sec.” Quickly typing it into his computer, Sukuna’s brow rose seeing the character. “You’re gonna dress up as some BDSM girl?”
“It’s not BDSM!”
“Then why does she have that thing in her mouth?” What else could it be for?
“That’s because she’s a demon and they don’t want her to eat people!”
“God that’s lame.” Looking between his phone and the computer, Sukuna tried to imagine you in this outfit. It was cute, a cute pink kimono with a little hair tie and sash. The more Sukuna looked at it, the cuter it got. “But on you it’ll be cute.”
“So will you dress up with me?” You asked immediately, your eyes shining with excitement. “I already know what character you’ll be! There’s a boy named Inosuke that-”
“No way, save your breath. I’m not dressing up.” Doing a quick search of the boy in question, Sukuna let out a snort. “And why do you want me to dress up as someone with a boars head on? You saying I’m ugly?”
“You don’t have to wear the head!” The opportunity was quickly slipping through your fingers at seeing Sukuna cosplay. “It’s ‘cause you’re so fit and so is he! And you’re pretty similar too.”
“I don’t care if he was my twin.” Shaking his head, Sukuna closed the tab and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll tell ya what, I’ll come to this thing and take all the videos and pictures you want and in exchange, I won’t dress up.”
“Wait, how does that logic-”
“Just go with it. Now send me an email about the thing and I’ll clear my schedule.” Waving off any further questions you had, Sukuna quickly got the email for the convention. It was about two weeks from today, and it was going on for the whole weekend.
“So, do you think you’ll be able to make it?” You asked tentatively, worrying your lip.
“Of course.” Sukuna would definitely need to do some serious schedule rearranging. “I’ll pick you up like last time, just let me know the time.”
“You’re the best, Sukuna!” You smiled big at him and Sukuna smiled back. Maybe during the convention, he could show you he was more than just a friend.
When the day of the convention came, Sukuna got ready bright and early to pick you up. The sun had only just settled onto the horizon and he was chugging coffee before leaving.
“Hey.” You yawned loudly as you got in his car, still clearly half asleep.
“Cute.” Sukuna said in response. You looked absolutely adorable. The pink kimono looked good on you, the sash accentuating your waist well. The little green gag he’d seen earlier was hanging around your neck, and you had a cute pink ribbon in your hair.
“Hm? You like it?” Shuffling around, that was when Sukuna saw how high the slit was on your outfit, coming high up on your thigh. His eyes were glued to the skin that showed, unable to look away.
“I do.” He whispered, glancing at you briefly to see your eyes were closed.
“That’s good, I spent a lot of time on it.” Putting your seatbelt on, you yawned again and pointed lazily out the window. “To the convention!”
It was a short drive to the convention, and you were some of the first people there. With a badge around his neck, Sukuna followed you into the hall. You weren’t carrying the bag of camera equipment you’d brought, Sukuna insisted on carrying it so it wouldn’t ruin your costumes aesthetic.
“We’re here really early to get pictures! I booked with a professional photographer, and my pictures are going to be used as promo for a few brands here today.” You explained as Sukuna followed you into a room with a full photoshoot set up.
“Okay.” He was completely lost watching you begin to take pictures. After chugging an energy drink, you hopped straight into it. Sukuna made sure to watch the photographer closely, looking at the computer as the pictures popped up to make sure they weren’t indecent for you.
Nearly an hour and a half later and you were finally done. Sukuna had begun to film some parts of it for you per your request; his job as videographer started now.
“The convention hall is open now to everyone, it might be kind of overwhelming to see all the people out there.” You told him as the photographer was packing up.
“Eh, I’ll be fine.” With a shrug of his shoulders, Sukuna left the room and stepped out into the main hall. Immediately, he knew you were right. There were so many people already milling around dressed in costume, most from shows and games he’d never seen. The only readily identifiable characters for him were from Nintendo.
“Told you it was a lot.” Bumping him with your shoulder, walked out into the convention space. If Sukuna didn’t stand right behind you, he feared he would lose you in the crowd. There were other people dressed up as the same character and he couldn’t trust himself to differentiate between all of them.
Filming a little bit of walking around, Sukuna could hear and see people looking at him in shock. It wasn’t unknown that Sukuna had a distaste for anime and the whole culture surrounding it. Some of his most popular videos were him making fun of people at the very same thing he was at now.
“E-excuse me, (Y/N)?” A young teenage girl approached you, nervously fiddling with her phone.
“Hi!” You waved, immediately seeing her phone. “Do you want a picture?”
“Yes, please!” The girl's nerves quickly dissipated at your question, but she still looked scared of Sukuna.
“How about we take a few selfies?” Sliding next to her, you put an arm around her shoulder and posed. You and the girl took a numerous amount of pictures, and when she left she had a happy blush on her cheeks.
“Is that gonna happen often?” Sukuna asked, watching the girl disappear into the crowd.
“Yeah, sorry! I posted that I’d be going to this for the second and third day and a lot of people said they were gonna ask for pictures.” Rubbing the back of your head nervously, you sized up Sukunas face. “Sorry if it annoys you, I know it can be kind of tedious.”
“I don’t mind. Let's get going.” With a casual shrug, Sukuna walked to where your first panel was. He stayed off to the side as you talked to the organizers and other guests, feeling awkward that he couldn’t hold a conversation on whatever it was you were talking about.
The people soon filed into the panel, filling the seats and whispering excitedly about you and the other people sitting at the front of the room. Some of them noticed Sukuna and whispered about him too.
Ignoring them diligently, Sukuna filmed your panel from the back of the room. He didn’t need to worry about picking up any sound, you were speaking into a microphone. All he had to worry about was capturing good angles for you.
He did this for a few more panels as well, slowly getting more comfortable with people noticing him there. He even waved at a few fangirls that saw him, their faces erupting in a scarlet flush and giggling silly.
“We have almost two hours before my next panel, do you want to grab some food? I’ll pay.” Waiting in the back of an empty room, you tried to reach for your bag that Sukuna had slung over his shoulder.
“No, you don’t have to pay.” Pushing your hand away, Sukuna kept you at arms length.
“C’mon, you have to let me pay! You’re doing so much for me already!”
“Nope.” You tried to struggle past him and grab your bag, but Sukuna was strong enough to keep you at bay with one arm. “Fine! But I’m buying you a plushie later!”
“Whatever.” With the matter settled, the two of you left the room. Almost as soon as you came out, there was a loud gasp from a few people outside the door.
“Oh my god, your Nezuko is so good!” One of them shouted. Sukuna eyed him up, a young man dressed with a strange green and black checkered overcoat.
“Thanks!” You replied, fiddling with the edge of the brown one you were wearing. “I spent ages on getting everything just right!”
“Y-you’re (Y/N)! I didn’t think I was going to see you today!” Another man had on a similar getup to the first, but he was clad in yellow and orange.
“It must be your lucky day!” Laughing a little at his shocked face, you quickly noticed the third man standing there. “Sukuna look, this is what I meant when I said you should dress up as Inosuke!”
“Huh.” He looked at the shirtless man in front of him. The guy was muscular enough, not nearly as much as Sukuna was though. The brown pants he wore were too baggy for Sukunas liking, but he could see the way you were looking at him.
“Can we get a picture please?”
“Of course!” You quickly got in the middle of the three of them and crouched down, throwing up peace signs and smiling brightly as they took the selfies. Sukuna was watching all of their hands, making sure no one touched you or got too close.
“Sukuna, will you take a group picture for us?” You asked, already handing him a phone.
“Yeah.” You didn’t really leave him with a choice and it’s not like he was going to say no to you anyway. It was harder to keep track of just where these men were putting their hands, and every so often Sukuna would look to make sure that the hand placed on your back stayed there and didn’t go any lower.
“Thank you so much!”
“You’re the best, (Y/N)!
“Bye, please tag me in the pictures if you post them!” Waving cutely at them, you walked away. “Ah, that was so much fun! They were so cute!” Gushing about the pictures, you didn’t notice Sukuna had a vein throbbing in his forehead. He seriously wishes he’d dressed up in that dumb costume with you so you could feel the same way about him.
Quickly eating some fast food - much to Sukunas disgust - you were back in the convention hall. There seemed to be even more people here than before milling about. Gripping the back of your top, Sukuna made sure you didn’t get too far from him in the crowd.
“Let’s go check out the merch!” Leading him to a larger space in the convention center, your eyes sparkled looking at all the different vendors spread out. “Sukuna, is there anything you want to check out?”
“Not really.” The only thing he could see that he knew were some overpriced candies. “I’ll just follow you.” And that he did. You stopped at nearly every booth, rejoicing about how cute something was and how much you wanted a certain figure. Sukuna offered to pay for whatever you wanted, but you staunchly refused.
“Sukuna, which one’s your favorite?” Coming upon a booth filled to the brim with different plushies, you crossed your arms and squared your shoulders. “We aren’t leaving here until I buy you a plushie!”
“I don’t need one.” Not only would it ‘ruin’ his tough image, he didn’t like those things to begin with.
“Yes you do!” Stamping your foot childishly, you pointed at them. “Pick one!”
“Who knew you could be so mean?” He teased back with a flick to your forehead.
“Shut up.” Puffing out air, you grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to the booth. “I’ll even help you decide.”
“O-oh.” You were holding his hand. You were definitely, 100% holding Sukunas hand. Your two hands were squishing his one in your palms, shaking it side to side as you looked at all the choices before you. How was Sukuna supposed to pick something when you were holding his hand so close to your body? He could feel the tips of his fingers graze your sash every couple seconds.
“What about this one?” You pointed your hands to a brown bear with a giant body but a tiny head.
“What’s wrong with the head?” He looked concerned at the doll.
“It’s supposed to be like that!”
“I- okay.”
“Do you like it?” Looking at him hopefully, you squished his hand even more. “It’s so cute, you have to get it.”
“Let me see it.” Picking it up with his other hand, Sukuna stared at the unmoving, smiling face of the bear. Squeezing it in his hand, Sukuna let out a short sigh and put it down. “Alright, I’ll get it.”
“Yes!” Letting go of his hand, you rushed to grab your wallet before he could stop you. “Make sure to send me a picture of you with it!”
Right after you finished paying, Sukuna nearly demanded to buy you stuff as well. He’d seen the way you were eyeballing the figures and some books, and he wasn’t going to be the only one to leave this part of the convention hall with a souvenir.
The bags he was carrying were definitely heavier now when you left to go to your next panel. They put a little strain on Sukunas arms but he wasn’t about to let you carry anything and quickly ducked back to his car to put it all away.
Right in the middle of your next panel, Sukuna ducked out to go to the bathroom. He was keeping well hydrated during this whole day and it was surely catching up with him now. Wandering the halls, he eventually found a bathroom to use and on his exit, he noticed a sign for something called an ‘artists alley’.
“Let’s check it out.” Here, there were people selling things but they were clearly fan made. There were paintings and pins, stickers and fan art everywhere. Wandering between the vendors, his eye caught on a particular booth.
“Sukuna?” The person gaped when he walked up but he wasn’t paying attention to them. On a cork board above them was a moderately sized drawing of you, dressed up in an all red get up.
“How much?” He pointed at the drawing, looking at the red cap you had on that matched with the red jacket.
“The (Y/N) x Cells At Work fan art? It’s $35.”
“I’ll take it.” The artist was clearly surprised, scrambling to grab the drawing and put it in a protective sleeve. “Keep the change.” Sukuna slapped 40 down and turned away. “Oh, and don’t tell anyone I was here.”
“O-okay!” They shouted after him. Sukuna kept the drawing close to his chest and when he got back he quickly hid it in his bag so no one would notice. He started filming again like he’d never left and you didn’t question him on it when it was over.
“Man, I’m so tired!” With the convention over hours later, you all but collapsed into Sukunas car. It had indeed been an eventful day between speaking at panels and taking pictures with countless people.
“Yeah, I’m beat.” Sukuna agreed, taking a moment to sit in silence in the driver's seat. He hadn’t expected to be so tired after today. He’ll have to prepare better for tomorrow.
Driving you home, both of you were like zombies as you departed. Sukuna didn’t even have the heart to properly disrobe when he got home, collapsing into bed with the plush you’d gotten for him still in his hand.
The next day was just as hectic as the day before, the word had gotten out that you really were at the convention and now more people swarmed you in between panels. Sukuna took the pictures for all of them, giving any man that wanted one a harsh glare before he started. He was easier on the younger girls, but he still made sure that they didn’t try to flirt with you or anything. No one could be fully trusted.
“Sukuna, I forgot yesterday but we need to go to the artists alley!” You exclaimed in shock, grabbing his upper arm. “They have such cool stuff!” Oh, Sukuna definitely already knew about it. The drawing he’d bought of you was hanging in his room, by his full length mirror so he could see it whenever he wanted.
He pretended everything was brand new to him, acting as if he’d never seen the pins before or the stickers and tote bags. Coming upon the artist he’d bought from yesterday, he noticed there was more fan art of you there.
“Oh my gosh, that’s me!” You giggled happily, pointing to yourself drawn as a Pokemon trainer. “It looks so good!”
“Thank you so much (Y/N)!” The artist gaped, clearly shocked to see you here. “I-I studied all of your pictures so I could get everything just right!”
“You did a great job!” The two of you went on and on about the drawings and other paintings that were there. Sukuna wished he could chime in and say that he really liked the art he bought yesterday, but there was no way he was explaining to you that he bought a drawing of you as a red blood cell. He would rather die.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, all the panels going by so fast and melting into one another. He didn’t feel the same exhaustion as the other day, but Sukuna was definitely still tired as he walked to the car.
“Sukuna, thank you so for this weekend, it really means a lot!” You were the happiest he’d ever seen you. The footage he’d filmed for your video perfectly captured all the good parts of the convention, with several shots of your smiling face with fans and other panel members. “How can I repay you?”
“Well…” There was something he’d been wanting to ask you for a while, ever since he saw you in costume. Today was the last day of the convention and subsequently the last day you’d be wearing this costume. “Can we get a picture together?”
“What? We never took a picture together?”
“No.” Sukuna chuckled at your surprised face. Rushing to his car, you set up a little stand for your camera on the hood of his car.
“Okay, let’s take some!” As soon as Sukuna was standing next to you, you wrapped your arms around his middle in a tight hug.
“W-what’re you doing?” Immediately, his face began to blush.
“You deserve a hug, Sukuna, you’ve been amazing.” Sukuna could barely breathe. Not because you were holding him firmly, but simply from the fact that you were hugging him of your own accord. His hands were shaking slightly as he moved to hug you back, grinning shyly at the pleased hum you let out when he did so.
The drive home left a bittersweet feeling on Sukunas tongue. He was glad it was over so that he didn’t have to wake up so early and deal with the gross crowds of people. There weren’t potentially disgusting men and perverts trying to take upskirt shots of your costume or grope you that he had to worry about.
Stopping at a light though, he realized how much fun he had as well. Listening to you talk and share your opinions on the panels was interesting and getting to hear others talk to so passionately as well had made him interested in a few shows. He knew you’d be ecstatic to hear that he could potentially get into anime, and Sukuna knew that at the next convention, he’d dress up for you. He also loved the bear you’d bought him even though that was something he’d never admit.
“Thank you again Sukuna, seriously.” You squeezed his arm as he pulled up to your house.
“Don’t mention it. Let me help you with the stuff in the back.” You’d bought even more things today than yesterday, mostly for friends and family that couldn’t make it to the convention. Gathering all the bags, Sukuna walked them to your door and wandered right into your apartment.
“You can put them all near the couch!” Closing the door behind him you quickly jogged over to the couch to help him with the bags.
“Whoa, your place is nice.” It actually looked like someone lived here as opposed to Sukunas place that looked like an upgraded jail cell. There was a fluffy rug on the wall and a few cute figures and small plushies on shelves, you had plants hanging down from the ceiling and it smelled vaguely floral. There was also a space dedicated to fan made art and gifts, with some fresh flowers sitting in a vase.
“Thanks! Maybe we can film a video here someday!”
“Definitely.” Mumbling dumbly, Sukuna was vaguely aware of you staring at him. “What?”
“You’re such a good friend, Sukuna. I can’t thank you enough!” Again, you hugged him. Burying your face into him, you shook his body side to side before quickly letting go. “Anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask!”
“Hey that’s my line.” Patting you on the head, Sukuna let a dumb smile spread his cheeks. He truly had the most fun ever with you, and for a moment he could pretend that you were a couple and that he was going to spend the night here, cuddle up with you and talk about all the dumb little things happened the past few days.
But he wasn’t dating you and his daydream only lived a few seconds before he made his departure. Going back to his own home, as Sukuna stepped inside he got a notification that he’d been tagged in a photo.
It’s one of the ones you’d taken together where you were hugging each other tightly. Your smile was genuine, showing all your teeth. Your eyes were crinkled at the corners, looking at Sukuna’s kind of surprised face with an indescribable warmth.
‘I love my friends’
That was the caption you’d put with a simple heart emoji after. There were people in the comments asking if this meant you were dating now, begging for you to admit it so they could say their ship sailed. Reading the caption over and over, Sukuna bit his lip to contain the feeling spreading in his chest.
‘I love my friends too’
He commented. And one day, he promised himself that he’d get to call you something more than just a friend. Wandering further into his apartment, he smiled like an idiot at his phone, quickly screenshotting the post.
“Ow!” Bumping his shin hard into his plastic foldable dining table, he was faced with the jarring reality of his surroundings. If he wanted to call you his, he needed to get some furniture first.
#jujutsu kaisen#ryomen sukuna#jujutsu kaisen fanfic#jujutsu kaisen imagines#jujutsu kaisen fluff#jujutsu kaisen scenarios
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