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phantomphangphucker · 4 years

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Ectober Day 18: Ancient - Adulting: But Ghostly Chap. 2: The Chronic Age Changer

Screwing up in the Fenton Lab was a pretty normal regular thing, but screwing up in such a way to botch someone’s age and humanness without actually changing said age and humanness was a weird one. The trio mess with the school, ClockWork messes with everyone, and Danny? Well, he is the mess.

Sam and Tucker are effectively ransacking Danny’s closet for clothing. Considering he was the only one that worn clothing in the triple XL size even though he was a medium on a good day. Though Sam has some fish netting to work with, shit was stretchy as Hell. So she cut out the crotch of a pair to make for a decent long sleeve fishnet crop top. Thank the Zone her bra cup size hadn’t changed. She’d also ripped up one of Danny’s older SlipKnot shirts -why did he even have this? He didn’t listen to SlipKnot?- and fashioned a nice skirt out of it with safety pins. The arm sleeves made for nice little pockets. And by nice, she means bigger that what girls' clothing usually came with.

Tucker was pretty well feeling stuck with a pinstriped green sweater and Tripp pants that were way too bloody long. Oh well, the bottoms were already torn to shit. In fact, did Danny own anything that wasn’t in questionable to piss poor condition?

The two turning to Danny, rolling their eyes at him still wearing the sweater sweats combination from yesterday. Him nodding curtly at the mirror, “this will have to do”, before turning to his friends and jabbing a thumb towards the door. Both of them walking out with him to go get breakfast.

Maddie grins at the trio of ‘teens’, “sleep well? No problems with your bodies?”.

Danny grins, “nope”, and honestly? It’s a pure miracle he wasn’t wakened up by some ghost or another. Sam and Tucker both immediately pointing at Danny and nodding. Maddie grinning at them, “good. I’d like to give you guys a very quick check over before you head out though. If that’s alright?”, while setting the pancakes down on the table.

The trio glance at each other and shrug. Looking to the Fenton Matriarch and speaking in unison, “sure”, making her smile more as everyone -mostly Tucker- starts stuffing their faces.

The whole getting checked over thing had been smooth sailing and show precisely zero change, which was technically good. More or less anyway. Maddie waving bye to them as they head out the doors. Danny glances between his to friends, “so, the shit you telling your folks? Because I doubt just not going home even resembles a plan”.

Sam rolls her eyes at him, “that’s literally one of your emergency plans”.

“Sam, no one is going to try murdering us over this”, Danny tilts his head, “or at least now that we don’t look like ghosts anymore”. Tucker inspects his hand, “actually I think we do but the spray stuff just cast some illusion shit”.

“Tuck, if that were the case then my hair would feel like fire. It does not feel like fire”. Both his friends grimace slightly but nod in agreement. Though Tucker hums, “I think the illusion includes feeling. Because that would be one mind fuck otherwise”. Sam just groans loudly, effectively communicating that he should shut the fuck up.

Danny rolls his eyes, “anyway, I’m going to run off and see Clocky pretty well as soon as we’re out of sight of FentonWorks. Not like school matters much for me and they can’t be bothered calling my folks any more”.

Tucker points at him, “and we still can’t decide if that’s depressing or not. Though yeah, you go do that”. Sam nodding, “and really? This ‘adult’ thing could easily be used as an excuse why you’re not there and a reasonable one at that”.

Danny blinks, genuinely looking pleasantly surprised, “huh. Who would have thought I ever would have a really good excuse to use?”.

The other two deadpanning, “no one”.

Tucker throwing his hands behind his head, “but who the heck’s going to believe this at first anyway? I’m mean I know I’ve always been good looking but this? Ho boy those poor ladies”. Sam predictably smacks him.

Danny shoves Tucker gently, “honestly man?”, pointing at Sam, “it’s her that’s gonna shock people. Ancients, just the hair alone will shock”. Sam lifting up the end of her hair and muttering, “true. This is going to annoy the heck out of me”, which everyone’s laughs at a little.

Danny glances around before saluting his friends, “whelp, I’m off. Enjoy the Hell of school!”, then switching to an almost comically singsong voice, “🎵Well I’m off to see the wizard🎵“, then promptly falls through a purple portal.

Sam blinks, “I still can’t believe they respond to that”. Tucker snickers, “eh they just like making him break out into song randomly”. Sam just snorts at that as they turn to go the little ways further before entering the school doors to death-Hell.

Danny stretches his arms up before dropping them and grinning wide as he spots his mentor, who looks fairly pleased with themselves. “Enjoying the view?”.

“Very much so, Daniel”, ClockWork turns to him and changes to their child form, moving to shit on his shoulder. Danny eyeing them and chuckling, “damn Clockpops, you are tiny. I mean, you usually are in this form but now it’s like, extra tiny”. ClockWork just chuckles faintly, their small smile growing ever so slightly. Which makes Danny smiles himself before gesturing his hands up and down himself, “so....about this....”.

Meanwhile. Sam and Tucker walk down the Casperhigh halls getting stared at by every person which was only making the pair of them smirking. None of the teachers looked to be trying to stop them, so obviously Danny’s folks went and called the school. Which was surprisingly responsible coming from them. Neither are surprised when Valerie’s the first to ask what the literal fuck is going on here.

Valerie slams her locker closed as the two come up next to her to open their lockers. She looks them up and down, managing to sigh and scowl at the same time, “okay. What did Danny’s crazy parents do know?”.

Sam points at Tucker and blocks his face off with the locker door, “actually it’s bad luck Tuck’s fault”.

“They invented the stupid spray stuff! And they’re the ones who didn’t make an undo button!”.

Sam outright ignores him. “He knocked over some spray stuff that made us look like adults. The hair’s pissing me off, wanna help me whack it off in the bathroom?”. She didn’t seem to have nerves -ghost nerves but still- in her hair now, so it should be fine.

Tucker sticks his head over, “well I think I look great”, and nods curtly. Sam muttering, “switch places and then we’ll see how you would feel”. Which makes Tucker tilt his head, “I’d be a girl then. Which could be fun”, which of course gets him immediately slapped by both girls.

Valerie grabs Sam’s arm and starts dragging her off to the bathrooms, scowling, “looks like you’re only physically adults”. Making Sam laugh as they get into the bathroom, while Valerie produces a pair of scissors from somewhere. No one bothered questioning how or where she always magically seemed to get sharp pointy things. Sam and Tucker though, are pretty sure her suit just makes them with its nanobots.

Paulina and Star glance over and watch the scene of Valerie yanking out one of the under sink stools and starting to hack at Sam’s hair. Both popular girls grimacing. Paulina eventually sighs, “okay no, machetona (tomboy) honey. You use scissors like peinabombillas (someone who combs light bulbs); are you trying to make her a complete pescada (butterface)?”, and stalks over, Star leaning against the counter.

Valerie and Sam both turn to roll their eyes at the popular girl, “are you offering to cut my hair? You?”.

Paulina rolls her eyes and huffs, but it’s a dainty pretty huff, “well you can’t have hair longer than mine. Think of how that would make me look? Basura (garbage). And I’m in here so people will simply assume I was involved in this current hair disaster, which would be even worse to be associated with. I want to be a hair fashion hairdresser you know. After all-”, flipping her silky smooth flawless hair, “-clearly I know a thing or two”.

Sam and Valerie exchanges glances, speaking in unison, “figures”, but Valerie does push the stool over to be in front of the mirror. Paulina producing her own scissor from her purse, they’re small nail scissors though.

Paulina looking her over and humming, “pixie cut that’s a little more high fashion? That would piss that annoying mother of yours”, it was no secret, the entire student body hated Pamela Manson, though Sam has no idea how they all still didn’t know her family was stinking rich. Neither did Tucker, Valerie, or Danny. But considering the school still hadn’t figured Danny out, they were probably just supremely oblivious... or stupid.

Star taps her chin gently, “if we had clippers then an undercut would really do it”.

“Her hair is thick enough for it”.

Both popular girls blink at Valerie producing one, Sam snickering, “I’m all for this. Fuck my hair up”.

Paulina sighs but motions for Valerie to come over and starts pointing out where to shave and where -for the love of everything- not to. Star speaking up again while digging in her purse, “well could also put that red moulding paste on the tips of a spikier look”, looking at Sam and Valerie, “we brought it for the boys to look more intense at the game”.

Paulina hums, “pretty sure Dash just wants to mess Fenton’s hair up with it”, pointing at Sam and Valerie, “but you didn’t hear that from me, chica (girl)”.

Valerie tilts her head at Sam, “where is that boy anyway?”. While Sam scowls at Paulina but answers Valerie, “doing shit with his parents to fix this. Also-”, pointing at the bottle of red, “-why not”, smirking, “I wouldn’t recommend going after Danny though. I doubt Dash could even reach Danny’s hair effectively”.

Valerie blinks and laughs, almost fucking up with the clippers, “so the shortest boy in the school is now the tallest? That is hilarious”. Sam just smirks.

The clipper noises wind up attracting curious girls in which just leads to a hair party in the bathroom. None giving a damn about first block. Meanwhile, the teachers are all just very confused and annoyed. They’d heard one or two of the Defect Quartet were involved though and thusly stayed the Hell away. Especially since none of them knew where Daniel was, meaning he might be involved. Mrs. Suspensekee was the most on edge about that considering she had both male halves of the quartet in her biology class and only one was here, his feet up on Daniel’s chair and getting his facial hair ogled by all the boys around; he was clearly enjoying it very much.

Kwan looks overly excited as he speaks, “goddamn that’s so manly! You guys so have to sneak this stuff to school. I want to know adult me too!”, which predictably encourages a round of cheers.

Tucker waves everyone off like he’s calming a group of cheering fangirls, “now now, it only works around Danny and does more than just adultify you”, finger-gunning stupidly, “also ghostifies you but we fixed that, not without getting a face full of ecto-weapons though”. That absolutely makes the entire class cringe, some even experiencing flashbacks to their own unfortunate run-ins with armed Fenton’s.

Jesse waves him off right back, “dude, I’m down to see ghost me too”, which gets more cheering. Nobody questioning why this stuff only works around Danny, he was weird, that was practically expected. Jesse pointing at him, “and does Danny have facial hair too?”, because honestly? no one could imagine that.

Tucker laughs, because again with the fire hair, not that he’s going to mention that. He’s not about to Danny-dude dirty like that, “he totally took after his ‘uncle’ for that. Rocking a spikey goatee”. He’s also pretty sure he saw Danny put his hair back in a low ponytail without even realising he was kinda copying Vlad. Maybe adult Danny looking slightly Vlad-like was a sign the guy’s current trend of not being a villainous psycho constantly was going to be a long term thing. Vlad surprisingly didn’t suck at being a mayor. Guy might get re-elected without overshadowing everyone. He knows Danny’s so going to have to have a talk with him over where all the funds came from to keep up with town repairs. Vlad was an experienced bank robber after all.

Mrs. Suspensekee has to snap for the class to pay attention at this point or nothing’s going to get done.

Danny blinks at ClockWork, “you’re joking? Seriously?”, and bends over laughing.

“Indeed I am, they were quite upset”.

Danny laughs some more, “to be fair, Dan getting free and looking human would be pretty upsetting”, sighing, “not that I really appreciate that I look just like him”.

ClockWork doesn’t look away from their screens, “he is you, Daniel. Personalities and choices may differ but genetics and bodies seldom do. You’ll have his suit too, excluding his cape, as an adult ghost as well”, continuing over the boys groan, “it is far better than the green accented monstrosity another timeline featured”.

Danny tilts his head, “oh? That bad?”, and walks over. ClockWork changing the screens to show him and Danny instantly cringes, “okay yeah that’s bad. Why would I do that? What would make me think that looks good? What’s up with the lines all over my neck? Ancients that clashes horribly. And what’s even the point of the wrist blaster? I can shoot ecto-beams already. And the green circle over my crotch? I don’t even want to know. Ew”. ClockWork chuckles lightly and nods in agreement.

ClockWork floats around and fiddles with things some, “how your suit looks isn’t truly up to you I’m afraid. It is much like your skin, a natural part of you that will grow and develop as you do. A human can alter the appearance by tanning or dying their hair, but it never truly changes. Ghosts, however, can not truly alter their base form at all beyond putting things on”.

Danny nods, “like Ember putting clothing over top or Skulker’s suit, right?”.

“Precisely”. ClockWork turns to face him, “now for your current appearance-based predicament, unfortunately your parents are correct, Daniel. This is not something they can correct. Unless of course, you feel like being a full human again”.

Danny immediately blurting out, “Zone no”, honestly? he probably couldn’t handle being a regular human again. Having to actually open doors to go through them? The shame. Having to walk everywhere? How barbaric. ClockWork smirks, “as I thought”.

Danny sighs and slumps down into the purple plush couch, leaning his head back comfortably, “so I’m stuck with this then?”.

ClockWork hums, “think about Dan and I believe you’ll come up with something”. Which makes Danny groan and grumble about never getting straight answers. “Though to answer your friends concerns, no this hardly damages time in anyway”, floating over and wagging their finger in his face, “if it did I would have showed up before your parents saw and that spray would have mysteriously disappeared”. Danny nods and waves his hands around, acknowledging that that was probably pretty accurate and probably should have been obvious to him. ClockWork does something close to a fond sigh and pats his head.

Both turning to the sound of shots, “CLOCKWORK!”. ClockWork turning to Danny, “sounds like it’s time you head back”, holding up a finger, “and I think I might just join you”, promptly changing to their child form and unzipping Danny’s backpack.

Danny screws his face up and starts laughing at ClockWork sticking their small head out of the open top, Danny picking up the backpack, “you know, I don’t think there’s a such thing as bring your ghost to school day, but fuck it, I’m making one”, both of them smirking while Danny puts on his backpack and ClockWork spins their staff to make a portal. The two disappearing through it over the backdrop of screaming Observants.

Tucker knocks over his third pan in home ec, tilting his head back and sighing, “being tall is slowly becoming a pain in the ass”.

Ms. Relish sighs, “language, Tucker. Though yes, I would appreciate only having one student that damages practically everything they touch”. Tucker holds up the pan, “but I didn’t dent it?”.

“Which thank you for, but do try to be.. more...”, the teacher trails off as a freaking giant of a man walks in.

Tucker looks around at everyone with a wicked grin splitting across his face, eventually bending over and laughing his ass off at Ms. Relish muttering, “hot damn”.

Danny makes a few facial expressions before settling on a smirk, “why Ms. Relish are you hitting on a student?”, and gives a very overacted charming smile. The teacher chokes, while the rest of the class put together the context clues and scream, “FENTON!”.

Danny bows dramatically, “the one and only”. Then moves to join Tucker, swinging his backpack off his shoulder as he goes. Tucker actually has to sit down on the ground to wheeze when freaking ClockWork pokes their head and arms out, resting their arms on the top of the backpack and throwing a small subtle smirk Tucker’s way.

Practically half the class mutters, “oh yeah that is so Fenton. The fuck is that kid doing”. While Danny waves everyone off over his shoulder, “ignore the little guy, they’re helping sort out some issues in exchange for hiding them from some ghosts annoying them”. The entire class blink at him and shrug after a bit, because come on? it’s Fenton. Lily grumbling, “of course he’d strike a bargain with a ghost”.

Tucker gets up and eyes Danny, “eyeballs?”, while the rest of the class continue to eyeball Danny; and Tucker a little bit but they were at least somewhat used to the guy being tall and sporting dreads. Danny being a brick shit house was a whole different story.

Danny has a ridiculously hard time keeping a straight face as he helps Tucker make the little stir fry dish -like always he was banned from actually touching the food due to multiple ‘food coming to life’ incidences- as everyone starts whispering.

“I can’t believe that’s Fenton, I feel like I’m committing a sin by saying he looks actually good”.

“Do you think literally anyone disagrees? ‘Cause the teach is totally right, damn. Puberty is gonna full body fuck Danny. Hot damn”.

“What the heck caused him to be so.. muscly though?”.

“I honestly wouldn’t even believe this if his dad wasn’t, like, the size of a freaking double-wide door. That man’s bigger than my little buggy car”.

“His dad could also throw your car. And have you seen his mom? Saw them at the swimming pool once and she had a solid pack of abs. Nice rack too”.

“Dude, no. How many times have I told you not to go after people’s moms”.

“Fuck. He could crush my head like a watermelon”.

“I just want to know if he even can use the muscles. Or is it just a looks muscular thing?”.

“Who cares. All I care about is seeing Dash and those other jock jerks cry and go home weeping and begging into their pillows to look like that someday”.

“I’m telling you, Dash is gonna have a beer belly. Totally gonna happen. And what? You gonna climb up to their windows to watch? Break in to collect their tears?”.

“Yes”.

“Doesn't your dad work for a Modeling agency? Should totally sneak a photo and get them to snatch him up early. Age matters you know”.

“Amber... you just want photos”.

“So?”.

“Think I should ask him if he, like, has some secret workout routine he does? ‘Cause no way that all built up in two or so years”.

“Dude, he probably doesn’t even know what he did to get that. You’ve seen that skinny ass twink in gym class, he does not work out. Probably started doing it hardcore after Dash really pissed him off or something”.

“Even if he did freaking steroids he wouldn’t build up that much muscle in two years, you idiot. And the kid makes a point to never change in front of others. Maybe he’s got stuff going on under his baggy ass clothing”.

“Oh fuck, wait, so you think that’s why he wears baggy ass shit? To hide it? But why the Zone would he do that?”.

“Why the Zone did he agree to bring a ghost to school? Why the Zone did he eat a screaming ghost Hot Dog? Why the Zone does he do anything. Don’t question Fenton logic, man”.

“Oh this so has to be his parents fault. Maybe started forcing him to work out to be a hunter. Not like his sisters going to take over their company or whatever”.

“His friends are all pretty fit too though, so must be some kind of group effort”.

“Goth chics always been fit af though. Tucker’s is surprising though. So maybe”.

“Oh whatever, I am so subscribing to whatever the fuck the Fenton family workout is”.

“Its ghost hunting, idiot. Wait, you don’t think-”.

Danny decides to butt in randomly at that, before people start getting ideas, “we have a helmet ghost fighting simulator thing. Makes for an okay workout on low mode”. Tucker pats his shoulder, seeing as the trio knew he never used that thing. No, all this was actual ghost fighting. Danny’s weird-ass biology probably played a part though. Danny was way more muscular than Tucker thinks a person actually can be. Someone would have to dedicate their life to being a muscle builder to achieve something close to this probably.

One of the girls hums, “they should sell that then. ‘Cause clearly it works. Mr. I Could Throw An Entire Brick Wall At Someones Face”.

“That is oddly specific”.

“Could he not?”.

“I didn’t say I was disagreeing”.

Tucker elbows Danny, “Sam got her hair cut by the way. She’s rocking the undercut again”. Danny quirks an eyebrow, “by who??? You cut like you’re drunk and Valerie is more experienced with curly hair I think”.

“Paulina”, Tucker raises and lowers his eyebrows rapidly with a smirk. While Danny raises both of his own eyebrows, “well damn, didn’t see that coming”.

ClockWork gives a cheery, “I did”. Earning chuckles and eyerolls.

ClockWork pipes up again after a while, pointing at the stove, “you're about to burn your food”. Tucker jumping a little, “what? Oh shit!”, and yanks the pan off the stove promptly burning himself and thus shoving it at Danny in a panic, “here! Mr. Cold Touch”. Though due to Tucker’s longer arms he winds up smashing the pan into Danny’s chest and dumping everything on his chest.

Danny stares down at the steaming stir fry covering his chest before dropping his arms to the side -one hand holding the hot pan and thus dropping whatever was actually left in the pan onto the floor- and gives Tucker a deadpan look, “really?”. Tucker bends over laughing immediately, though giving Danny his hand to chill; which Danny takes with an eye roll while mouthing, “you fucker”, down at ClockWork.

Ms. Relish walks over with a sigh, “put the pan in the sink before you burn yourself. And obviously I can’t mark this, but at least it’s not burnt”, that last bit sounds a bit sarcastic. So both boys shrug awkwardly at her; Danny does throw the pan in the sink though. ClockWork just smirks more, which the teacher makes a face at.

No one is surprised when Ms. Relish shoos the boys out, “I've had enough of your destructive tendencies. Out you go”. Though when Danny mumbles, “nice, now I can go change my stir fry covered shirt -fuck you Tuck”, everyone shoots up and over to the door. The teacher sighing and putting her head in her hands as the gaggle of teens poke their heads out the door and shush each other.

Danny and Tucker have their backs to the door but obviously know they’re being watched. Tucker elbowing Danny, whispering, “looks like you’ve got some adoring fans to please”. Danny blinks at him, “I feel like a stripper”, even ClockWork chuckles faintly as Danny hands off his backpack to Tucker.

Literally everyone gapes as Danny pulls off his shirt, rolls his shoulders, balls the shirt up like he’s very used to getting his shirts very messy, and looks over his shoulder to wink at them. Both Danny and Tucker bending over laughing right after while a couple girls fake faint, putting their arm over their foreheads and everything. The noise getting another teacher to stick his head out the door and sputtering in disbelief at Danny. “The Picture Of Dorian Gray! Put on a shirt Mr. Fenton!”.

Danny and Tucker exchange glances. Tucker chuckling, “I like how he doesn’t even need to question who you are”. While ClockWork pulls out a shirt from the backpack and hands it over. Mr. Lancer looking to the tiny ghost, “and for the love of Frankenstein, why do you have a pet ghost?”. The two boys absolutely laugh over that.

Valerie chokes in art class after checking her phone, someone having posted a photo of who was apparently Danny and with his clearly messy sweater off halfway. The sweater at least looks like something he owned. Her blurting out, “Danny what the fuck!?!? And how?!?!?”. Mrs. Remi just smiles to herself, Danny was one very interesting student to have. She likes interesting though. Oh yes she does as she watches him rush through the door, “I’m not late!”. Of course he actually was but she currently doesn’t care.

Basically the whole class sputters disbelievingly at the boy but not over his comment.

“WHAT!”.

“Oh Zone that wasn’t a photo edit”.

“Why do you have Thor’s voice? Better yet why do you get to have Thor’s voice?”.

“Holy damn”.

Mrs. Remi stands up, putting her hands on her desk and leaning towards the class, “alright, change of plans. Today we’re doing model studies”, pointing at Danny, “find a pair of shorts, a speedo, or strip”.

Danny blinks at her, “what???”.

She grins meanly, “it’s that or next month we’re having Mrs. Testlaff in here to do it”. The entire class immediately pales.

“Fenton get that sweater off now or so help me”.

“Dear Zone no”.

“For my sanity Fenton, please”.

Valerie stands up loudly, “off or I get the flamethrower. There are some things I don’t want to see”.

Danny just sighs, his life was some serious bullshit. Though Valerie might actually do that. Walking over to Valerie and dropping off his backpack, “you're watching them then, and not going murder happy”.

“What-”, Valerie cuts herself off at ClockWork popping their head out, also sticking out the end of their ghostly tail to wave. Valerie blinks, “what the fuck”. While ClockWork grins, “I’m providing the boy a little advice in exchange for some amusement. This has quite effectively infuriated some annoyances I have the slight misfortune of knowing”.

Valerie looks almost painfully slowly to Danny, “the fuck?”. Danny just smirks, finger-guns and disappears back out the door. Returning seconds later in shorts and just lets Mrs. Remi move him into poses all class.

Danny grumbles as class ends, “this was ridiculous and I feel judged”. Valerie walking over and shoving the backpack at him, “I don’t know why. Your body looks stupid good and that’s honestly freaky”, poking him after he pulls the backpack over his shoulder, “you are like a fucking rock. How, when, why”.

ClockWork pops out of the top of the backpack, “you are quite the rough one, aren’t you, Valerie Gray”. She squints at the ghost before looking to Danny’s face, “okay, and why did you tell It, them, whatever, my name?”.

Danny shrugs, “didn't need too”, glancing at ClockWork, who gives him zero sign to shut the fuck up, so he shrugs again, “they're omniscient”.

Valerie stares at him for a bit, “WHAT”. Making both boy and ghost chuckle and give slightly malicious looking smirks. Which she hits Danny over, “stop being creepy, and fuck, do you have fangs?”. Danny grins toothily over that. Her leaning up and forward, “well damn”. Making him laugh.

Danny readjusts his backpack to bring attention to ClockWork, who helps in that regard by messing up his hair, “and their all-knowingness is helping fix our ageing issues. Being all-knowing and shit, they know the fix which my parents do not”, glaring over his shoulder somewhat fondly, “not that the riddle has been all that helpful”.

Valerie blinks as they head to their last class, “so that’s why they’re with you? You’re bribing a ghost”.

“I already told you that. Less bribe, more equalish exchange of services. As for how this all happened”, gesturing his hand over himself as he skilfully avoids bumping into people, “pretty sure Sam and Tuck already explained”.

She scowls at him, “not that you idiot, the muscle. The height’s obviously your dad, but the rest? The Hell”. Danny honestly doesn’t know how to answer that, “well-”, he thankfully gets saved by Dash; which makes this probably the only time he’s happy to hear someone angrily shouting, “FENTON!”.

Danny very intentionally makes his voice noticeably deep and threatening sounding, “what?!?”, even putting a little fang into it. Even Valerie jerks a little.

Dash skids to a stop and just stares at him. So Danny quirks an eyebrow, sneering, “the fuck do you want, Dash?”. Dash blinks once, twice, and three times, “alright, I’ll bite. How?”, then scowling a little and seemingly regaining some of his lost bravado, “how’d a weak scrawny loser like you get to have this as your adult self or whatever your parents screwed up hairspray thing does”.

ClockWork leans over Danny’s shoulder, holding up a finger, “if I may, Daniel here is simply nice to you and lets you push him around. He’s been stronger than you for a while now”. Danny wants to smack ClockWork.

Dash immediately blurts out, “bullshit”. Danny rolls his eyes and points at Valerie, “Val could surplex you. It’s not that difficult. My dad can throw cars, Dash, and mom can kick a tree in half; this feels like this should have been expected”, rolling his hands, “and you’ve seen the shit Sam can do”.

Dash mutters at the ground, “that girl does scare me”, before looking back to Danny and glaring, “you ain’t no gym freak or anything, Fenton. Just a wimpy weak loser and losers don’t turn out like this. At best they wind up like the mayor, skinny suit-wearing and shit”.

Danny blinks and chuckles, “Dash? Vlad is lowkey ripped. Lean yeah, but he could whoop your ass so fast”.

Valerie gives him a funny look, “how do you know that?”.

Danny rubs his neck, “I may have been responsible for that whole incident where he got recorded on the news live naked”. ClockWork chuckles meanly while Valerie and Dash blurt out, “THAT WAS YOU!?!?”. Danny holds up a finger, “maybe. I’m not confirming or denying shit”.

Dash shakes his head and scowls, attempting to shoulder past Danny, who of course doesn’t move resulting in Dash muttering, “ow”, and very pointedly not rubbing his shoulder.

Valerie and Danny shake their heads but getting going to their class again. Valerie elbowing him as they sit down, “if your folks can’t make something to reverse this then why not something that can just make you guys able to change your physical ages at will or revert time to when you were younger”.

Danny blinks at her, “okay, how much thought did you put into that?”, that was actively creative and super out there. Ironic with ClockWork being here though.

She shrugs, “oh since Sam mentioned all this shit. Speaking of Sam”, she points at the door just as said goth strides through. Danny very pointedly looks her up and down, then whistling as she sits down. The faux hawk plus undercut did actually look good, the red tipping worked well too.

Sam rolls her eyes and shoves his head, then eyeballing ClockWork, “for the love of everything, why? Who are you trying to make suffer?”.

ClockWork looks to her and grins, waving a hand around, “everyone. I am rather Ancient, I get my kicks where I can”. Danny just chuckles.

After a while, Danny’s drumming his fingers on his desk and ignoring Mr. Trent’s constant glances. Thinking of it, Valerie had a decent idea. The time messing thing was probably a no go, somehow he doubts ClockWork would go for something like that. The age changing at will though...

Danny smacks his desk, “that’s it!”, making the entire class jump and snapping his desk in half. Him looking down at the broken desk, “shit sorry”. Mr. Trent just sighs and ClockWork pats his head. The whole class watching as he just shrugs and walks out of the class.

Sam, Valerie, and Tucker exchange looks and shrug. But Sam throws her hands up, Val chokes, and Tucker starts laughing as a little five foot four Danny saunters back in like the proudest thing ever with his clothing basically hanging off him. The rest of the class erupts into various freak-outs and descends into utter chaos. Mr. Trent is left grumbling, “I can’t wait till the lot of them get the Hell out of this entire school, please end my suffering”.

Sam scowling, “how?”. Danny smirks as he sits back down, leaning back, “modern problems, Ancient solutions”, leaning closer to Sam and Tucker, “also alternate timely ass could get up to all the age-related tomfuckery”.

They grimace a little but nod. Tucker throws his arm around Danny’s neck, suddenly noting how weird and funny it was how small he was, “guess we got to avoid your tiny ass now”.

Valerie looks at them and sighs, “do I even want to know?”.

The three exchange glances before smirking and speaking in unison, “no”; while the class continues to lose its collective shit in the background. How were they even supposed to explain that Danny’s evil older full ghost self could age shift meaning Danny just so happened to have that ability too? And that ClockWork, being a being that frequently age-shifted, was the best teacher, even if they basically did jack shit, for the ability? Plus, who would want to ruin the glorious beauty of the chaos going on around them right now with silly factual explanations? Bathe in the chaos. Accept that nothing makes sense. Regret baring witness to weirdo trio living up to their name. Worship Satan. Go nuts.

ClockWork, meanwhile, has slipped off comfortably back to their lair. Utterly unsurprised by the two Observants waiting for them with steam basically boiling off their eyes.

End

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xserpentlife · 5 years

Text

Open Your Eyes - Chap 4 (Birth)

Requested: Anon Hello! Can I request a fangsxreader where she’s jughead sister and dating Fangs and instead of Fangs the reader is the one who gets shot and fangs is like super worried and thinking that reader could die? I love loveloveeee your blog so much thanks.

A/N: here is the long-awaited chap 4, I wrote this one a different way and I was going to put it into chapters but I figured I mine as well give it to you all at once. I hope you guys love it as much as I do.

Warnings: None that I can think of except cursing and talks of pregnancy and birth.

Word Count: almost 6000

Taglist: @chipster-21

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

First Trimester

Coming home wasn’t bad you moved in with Fangs full time since you had planned to before the accident anyway. He was the sweetest to you, constantly helping. You couldn’t walk alone for a bit. It was tough for the first two weeks you couldn’t stand for longer than 10 minutes at a time due to the pain. The Serpents were being beyond helpful with everything, meals were constantly being brought to your trailer and everyone was spending time with you especially Toni and Sweet Pea. Healing was going pretty well but honestly, the worst part was the nausea. At first, you didn’t have much morning sickness but the second week home you felt like it was all you were doing. Yeah, most people get morning sickness but for you, it was so much worse. The gunshot wound you had was still healing and it was situated right below your bra line. Every time that you would lean over to throw up a massive pain would rip through your entire body. But you didn’t wanna bother Fangs with it and he was quite the heavy sleeper so you didn’t have to. That was until you got up by yourself one morning to go throw up and you bent over to quickly causing one of your stitches to tear, eliciting a loud scream from you. Fangs ran in basically ripping the bathroom door off its hinges before seeing you curled on the floor in a white shirt with a small blood spot forming.

“Baby, baby oh my god what happened”

“I… I don’t know Fangs”

“Baby let me see” He lifted your shirt slowly.

“Okay baby you tore a stitch, it’s gonna be fine okay. I’m gonna carry you to the car and we are going to go to the hospital, okay?”

“I don’t wanna go back Fangs I just got home”

“I know babe, but gotta make sure bub is good okay”

“Fangs what if…”

“No everything's fine just need to fix you up a bit”

“Okay” You tried standing up we're having trouble standing

“C'mere” He helped you stand and walk out to the truck keeping a towel pressed to your stitches as he drove. “Baby we’re here let’s go in” after going into the doctor told you that you had torn a stitch throwing up. He was going to get you a prescription for anti-nausea meds so the likelihood of you tearing another one would be slim.

“You know babe I told you I didn’t wanna come back here unless it was for the baby”

“Yell well it was, they tore my stitch asshole”

“Already calling our baby an asshole are we?”

“Leave me be Fogarty”

“I just wanna go home and sleep”

“We can babe we can just pick the prescription up from the desk on the way out”

After you scare nothing else was really going on. Your stitches and wound healed flawlessly, your baby was healthy, and you and Fangs were happy as can be. You started having food cravings makings Fangs get up at two in the morning to get you the weirdest combinations but he really didn’t give a damn because he knew it was to make you and the baby happy. You had been spending a lot of time with friends and the other serpents trying to understand what it would be like to mom but everyone was always telling you you’d know when it happened. You would just ‘get it’ whatever that meant. Luckily Pea could keep your mind off of it his goofy self always scheming up some sort of trouble. He was coming over to watch movies with you and Fangs and he was bringing over some pizza. Do you waited so hungry you actually guaranteed Fangs that you would eat your pet pig if Pea didn’t hurry up. He knew you’d never hurt your sweet girl but thought it was funny that you were getting so hungry even though you ate less than an hour beforehand.

“He better hurry the fuck up Fogarty”

“I can’t control him”

“Ugh I'm dying!” and luckily he knocked on the door right then. You got up instantly grabbing the pizza from his hands.

“What I don’t get a hug or hello, or even a thanks for bringing you food”

“M’hungry you took too long jackass. But thank you” you ran up giving him a quick hug before sitting back down in front of the pizza. You saw him take fries out of a bag and then watched as he pulled out a wrapped sandwich.

“Pea if that is a cheesesteak I beg of you not to open it”

“I got a big one figured it’s your fav so we could all share”

“Don’t. Open. It!” But he did, and as soon as the smell hit your nose you were getting up almost tripping before Fangs caught you and ran with you to the bathroom door holding your hair back, Pea coming up behind you.

“What the fuck happened”

“She can’t eat them anymore, makes her sick”

“She just ate one like two weeks ago!”

“Makes her sick now, guess the baby doesn't like it. We went to the pizza shop on main like last weekend and as soon as she smelled one she was in the toilet throwing up we only figured it out cause we ordered one to go cause we figured she just got sick from nausea and when we got home and I opened it she threw up again”

“That’s weird as shit”

“Tell me about it! I’m sorry Pea but could you close it up maybe eat it later”

“Course Y/N”

“Thanks, Pea”

“No problem gotta make sure the little one is happy”

Second Trimester

Your first trimester went along relatively smoothly, yeah for sure you had nausea. Your baby made your life hell with the foods you used to love to eat and now hated, but overall it was pretty easy. Fangs was by your side through all of it and the Serpents for sure helped out a lot.

At the beginning of your second trimester, your baby bump was prominent. You remember the first time fangs saw it like it was yesterday. You were doing stuff around the trailer lazy as can be all day and had thrown on one of his shirts that you always wore. It was tighter than usual but honestly, you really didn’t care that much, you just wanted to be comfortable and you always were in his clothes. When he came home from work you were standing over the stove cooking dinner. He came in through the front door and saw you standing there sideways, and just dropped everything that he was holding. You looked over to him in shock not even hearing him come through the door.

“Babe, you okay?”

“I’m more than okay, oh my god Y/N”

“What?” “Your belly”

“Huh?”

“You haven’t looked in the mirror today, have you? No...”

“Cmon”

“But Fangs the food”

“Turn it off, please”

“Fine” he led you to the bedroom and stood you in front of the mirror slowly lifting the shirt over your belly you had just not paid any attention to recently.

“It looks like you started showing overnight”

“That’s impossible”

“Is it?”

“I don’t know to be honest”

“But I know how it will get bigger”

“How’s that?”

“The food on the stove cause I'm starving and I bet you are too”

“I’m always hungry Fogarty, your baby loves food”

“Just like daddy”

“Oh god now I'm gonna call you daddy”

“Baby you always call me daddy”

“Be good your baby is in here”

“Yeah how do you think it got there”

“You are so bad! Go finish the food”

“Okay princess you pick a movie okay?”

“Okay”

The middle of the second trimester was going smoothly expect you felt kinda gross, you started having a bit of hip pain and you actually kicked Fangs in the balls while sleeping. The doctor wasn’t kidding when she said you'd have leg spasms. You felt so bad after because he shot up in bed in shock and you had no idea you even did it until he yelled out what the fuck was that for and you woke up. Luckily it only happened once though.

The middle is where the bad parts started. You really just wanted to stay home and be left alone and do nothing but Fangs was not letting that happen at all.

“Baby I don’t wanna do anything!”

“Why not”

“Cause I don’t look good I look fat, I can barely see my feet, and I haven't been able to see my vagina or shave my legs in months I am a fucking hairy beast, now leave me the fuck alone”

“I’m not leaving you alone baby, this baby is partially my fault so it is only right that I tame the hairy beast”

“I’m gonna kill you”

“What I think your hair is cute”

“Fangs! Go! Away!”

“I’m! Not! Leaving! You!, Just let me help you!”

“Help me what?”

“I already ran the bath just go get in and I’ll be in, in a sec”

“Fine” You walked in a sat in the warm tub, it felt so nice on your hip and muscles and an instant relaxation hit your body instantly. He walked in shorts on and shirtless as he sat on the edge of the tub carefully grabbing your leg and situating it on the edge of the tub next to him at an angle.

“Fangs what are you doing?”

“Shaving your legs”

“You’re what!”

“Shaving your legs then you can’t be mad for being a hair beast”

“So I am hairy!”

“No, no I just know you wanna be shaven so I figured why not help since you can’t reach”

“It’s so gross though”

“Baby I’m about to watch you push out a baby in a few weeks I highly doubt this is that gross”

“Thank you”

“No need to thank me, baby, like I said I will always be here to help”

“Can you get in the bath with me after”

“Of course”

Towards the end, you were anxiously awaiting your baby shower. You didn’t want to have one but all the Serpents insisted that you needed to considering they have all been there throughout your pregnancy. Fangs sent you on a trip with Toni for a week or two, wanting you to have perfect relaxation before you got into the final run of the pregnancy. You were finally back and were going to meet him at the Wyrm. You walked in expecting nothing only to be surprised by all the Serpents and a bunch of rainbow balloons. You waved everyone hello as Toni handed you a mock mimosa.

“Thanks, T”

“No problem, you happy”

“I guess I just… why is everyone making this big of a fuss about me?”

“Because this is the first serpent baby we’ve had in like 5 years everyone is super excited, not many of these people have a huge family you know that”

“Yeah I guess, do you know where Fangs is?”

“He said he was coming later” You felt a tap on your shoulder to see Fangs behind you.

“Your back”

“I missed you so fucking much Fogarty never send me on a trip again unless you come”

“I’m sorry I just wanted you to have a good time”

“I did but I missed the fuck out of you, guess what?” “Hm?”

“I was playing videos of us cause I missed you, and the baby moved a little when you talked in the video”

“Really?”

“Mhm”

“Maybe tonight I can sing to her”

“I’d like that a lot”

“Hey do you think we should announce the gender”

“Mhm, I have an idea” You remembered seeing the board when you had walked in. The board with tallies on whether it was a boy or girl. So you pulled fangs with you and walked up to the board handing him chalk. As you both led your hands to the board everyone was watching as fangs circled girl and you crossed out boy. You never heard the Whyte Wyrm be so loud before. And as soon is it died down Toni was screaming “Gift Time”. In your opinion, it may have been the best part. Most of the Serpents have their own trade or skill. Some were sewers, some builders, some seamstresses, painters, finishers, chefs, etc. It was nice getting gifts that had just a bit of every one of them. But then came Pea as he came up a giant box wrapped in recycled newspapers. You appreciated the reuse of the paper.

“So I know it won’t work yet but I saw it and I had to buy it”

“Ok…” You opened the box to see a tiny toy motorcycle for your bay to ride. “Pea…”.

“You don’t like it… I know it was crazy I’m sorry I just thought maybe you would and if you're mad I can return it…”

“Stop, I love it”

“You do!”

“You do!” that is all you heard from everyone.

“Of course I do. Motorcycles are a big part of every one of us. This baby is going to grow up seeing them everywhere, so why not let her ride a little toy one. My baby is gonna be a badass and we all know it”

“I’m glad you said that” He handed you a smaller box that when you opened it was filled with a rubber throwing star.

“What is my baby is gonna be a ninja!? No Pea this is where I draw the line”

“Thought so, I’ll just give them to Fogarty to practice his aim”

“Hey! I have perfect aim, hence the bun in the oven”

“Fangs!”

“Ew Fogarty”

“You have one more gift baby” “I do? I don’t see any more”

“It’s not here if you wanna stay we can but your gift is at home”

“Oh okay, I mean it is late and I am kinda tired can we go?” “Yeah of course” You thanked everyone for coming and said goodbye. Fangs then helped you into his truck as he began the drive home. But he was taking a different way than normal.

“Fangs where are you going”

“Do you trust me?”

“Always”

“Then close your eyes for me and you can’t open them until I tell you”

“Uhm okay but you know if you wanted to kill me you should've done it before the bun”

“Your insane now close your eyes baby”

“Okay” So you sat with your eyes closed and slowly felt the rock come to a stop as you heard Fang’s door open and close and then heard yours open.

“Ready”

“Can I open my eyes”

“Not yet” He grabbed your hand leading you out of the truck before you came to a stop. “Okay, now”

“You opened your eyes to see a beautiful single story trailer like home. It was bigger than the RV trailer you were currently in.

“Fangs what…” You looked up to see a Welcome Home banner.

“Welcome home baby”

“What do you mean welcome home…”

“Well FP called, said this trailer was available it has three bedrooms since its super long oh and a living room and kitchen… clearly haha. So I sent you with Toni and Me, Pea and a bunch of the Serpents fixed it up during the week you were gone. I figure we would need more space you know with the baby coming and maybe if we eventually have another baby or a dog or something. I know it’s not a house or anything and I wish I could do more but…” You stepped up to him a hand landing on his cheek.

“Stop it. Don’t you ever and I mean ever apologize that you can’t do enough for us. Everything you do is incredible Fangs. You do so much more than I could even think to ask, and I love you so much for it. I would live in a cardboard box if it meant being with you. The fact that you did this for us I can’t even put into words how much I love you Fangs”

“I love you so much baby” Tears were flowing as he dragged you into the trailer. The trailer looked brand new.

“Fangs this is…”

“Do you not like it, we can change the color if…”

“No Fangs, this is beautiful”

“Oh thank god, do you wanna see the nursery”

“Mhm,” He led you to a room down the hallway after showing you your master in and of itself was freaking beautiful. Nicer than any room you ever had in your life. You could tell how careful he was at matching the colors, how well he listened to the things you liked. He opened the door to the nursery to reveal a perfectly sized room. It was beautiful, there was a chair for you to sit, the walls were paneled with tea, black and white paint as well as brown wood. And then you looked to the center to see a very unique crib, it was round something you had never seen. But what hit you the most was the fact and that you and fangs hadn’t really talked much about the nursery in the past few months. But the fact that he remembered the one time you had said you wouldn’t wanna make your baby girls room pink if you ever had a girl hit a nerve in you. The fact that he remembered that one small detail made your heart swell.

“Fangs… I love it”

“Oh thank god I’m so glad I didn’t know and everyone was telling me to do pink but I know you said you wouldn’t wanna force pink or blue on a child wanting them to grow up how they wanted and so I told everyone you’d love it this way and im so glad you do”

“I love it so much it’s honestly perfect and I love this crib it’s so unique”

“Yeah, I uh couldn’t find one to fit in here that I liked and I didn't want it anchored on a wall cause the room looked smaller, anyway Lynae came in”

“Pea’s aunt?”

“Mhm, anyway she came in cause she wanted to see the teal to get Andi to make the pillows for the chair and saw that I still needed one and told me not to buy one. A few days later, this was on the porch with a note saying she made it and everything. I already thanked her don’t worry. But yeah I never would have thought a round crib”

“It’s beautiful”

“Oh and toni picked up some of the decorations, and Pea apparently helped pick out the fabrics for the curtains and stuff”

“No way”

“Mhm”

“Wow”

“Baby…”

“Yeah?” “Are you happy?”

“Of course I am why?”

“I just… I know it’s all so fast ya know. Like you get shot found out were having a baby and then we move in together and then I get us this bigger trailer and… I don’t know I just wanna make sure your happy”

“We practically lived together anyway Fangs, and regardless no matter where we are I always wanna be with you, because where I am doesn’t matter because when I am with you I’m happy”

“I love the both of you so fucking much”

Third Trimester

The third trimester was going along quite smoothly in a way it was the easiest part of your pregnancy even though you felt like every time you walked you were carrying a bag of bricks. But Fangs was helping out with everything and being the sweetest as possible so you couldn’t really complain.

The beginning of your third trimester went along quite well. The first time Fangs really felt and saw the baby move. It was incredible. You were at the Wyrm most of the day before coming home to go to bed. You hadn’t eaten much for some reason you were super nauseous during the day so as you were laying in bed Fang’s hand on your belly he felt your stomach move a little.

“Is mama hungry?”

“Huh?

“You hungry baby”

“Not really.. Stomach still hurts a… OW”

“Holy shit!” he was watching your stomach, completely saw the foot that had just kicked you. “I saw it Y/N, I saw her foot!”

“Yeah and I felt it jesus christ it’s like shes a god damn kick boxer”

“Oh, baby are you okay?” “Yeah, yeah I’m good” He laid his head next to your belly before slowly singing a song to your almost grown bean. She was moving slightly at the sound of his voice and eventually stilled. To you, it was almost as if she had fallen asleep.

At the middle of your third trimester, you had decided to go to the mall by yourself. You needed to pick up a birthday gift for Toni. However, it didn’t go to plan because as you were walking through the mall you heard a baby cry, and then after you were walking towards the store you kept seeing people looking at your breasts. You felt very uncomfortable so you went to the bathroom to see if there was something on your shirt and of course something you didn’t expect to happen did. Your breasts leaked because of the baby you heard crying like motherly instinct or some bullshit you didn’t care. You were upset and pissed off. You had Fangs drop you off at the mall saying you needed alone time so you called him to pick you up and he did instantly.

“Baby are you ok…”

“No Fangs I’m not do you see my shirt!, Just bring me home!”

“I brought you one of mine you can slip on if you want”

“Thanks” He eventually pulled up to your home as you waddled your way inside you saw Pea sitting on the couch. “Ugh!” You ran to your bedroom laying flat back against the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“Baby cmon talk to me, what happened?”

“No Fangs it’s embarrassing”

“Baby I've been with you for a while through thick and thin I don’t think anything you do could be that embarrassing to me”

“My boobs leaked okay”

“What do you mean”

“I don’t know Fangs I just got Toni’s gift and I was gonna walk around and shop some more but then I heard a baby cry and all these people started looking at me so I went into the bathroom and my fuckingshirt had wet spots on it. I think I leaked” He walked over instantly placing his hands onto your cheeks.

“Baby that isn’t embarrassing at all that is your body telling you that you are ready for this abby. Your body saying that you are ready to protect your own child and provide them with what they need”

“But baby It was so embarrassing”

“Yeah well I don’t think those people should have been staring it is a natural thing that happens, how bout I go put a few extra shirts in the car and one in your backpack that way if it happens again you’ll have clothes”

“That would be good thankyou baby”

“Course”

You waddled out to the living room to see Pea sitting on the couch. “Hey pea”

“Hey Y/N you okay”

“Yeah Fangs made it better I was having a moment”

“Ahh hormones”

“We don’t have to talk about this Pea”

“No it’s okay I wantto how has everything been since…”

“Oh my god the fight yeah my hormones were raging that night, but that guy deserved it who the fuck parks behind someones truck so they can’t get out and then he hit your bike! I don’t know why Fangs was so mad”

“Y/N I get where your coming from like you had every right to be pissed Iget that however, you are very pregnant. You’re what 28 weeks…”

“30”

“Okay 30 weeks and you literally punched a guy in the face!”

“Yeah and I knocked his ass out cold”

“You did which I’m impressed but… if you didn’t and he came at you, you could’ve been hurt he was just trying to be protective”

“I know”

“You guys talking about me”

“Hey babe”

“Always Fogarty, I’m the only one she complains to”

“Good to know”

“I’ll be right back guys gotta Pee” You got up waddling to the bathroom but before you shut the door you heard Pea

“Hahaha look at her waddle”

“You do realize she can kill you and get away with it, right?”

“Okay your not wrong”

“Sweet Pea! I heard that! Don’t forget what I did to the guy at the Wyrm!”

“Couldn’t dream of it now go pee before you pee yourself”

“Okay, that was one time!”

“Yeah on my carpet!”

“Ugh”

However, the end of the third trimester came and you were miserable. It felt like your back was breaking your hips were tearing out of your body and you for some reason had headaches almost all the time. You were more than ready to get this baby out of you. You were at the Wyrm, knowing that in a month you most likely wouldn't be for a little while considering you’d have a newborn. You were hanging out with everyone and it was going pretty smooth. Fangs was talking to Pea and you to Toni.

“So how has everything been”

“Good it’s just getting tougher ya know like I feel like I should be used to it but walking is a chore, and the cravings ughh all I want is mac n cheese all the time. But oh my god the other day I had Fangs give me Pasta literally I didn’t want it cooked like he cooked it but then it wasn’t appetizing I literally just wanted to eat hard pasta”

“That’s weird”

“Tell me about it, but I mean it’s been good I’m just ready for her to come out” Your jaw clenches as you felt a cramp run through your lower stomach.

“Fangs is going to be running around like a chicken with his head cut off when that happens” You laughed slightly before instinctively grabbing onto your stomach with a wince on your face. “Babe you okay”

“Yeah I’m fine T just like a tightness right here” You grabbed her hand placing it onto your lower belly “it’s fine though I’m… fuck that hurts” “Are you in labor”

“I… it’s too early, I don’t know get Fangs!” He ran up quickly Pea following and everyone looking as he grabbed your hand “Fang’s I don’t know what’s going on it’s like a cramp”

“Oh my god, your having contractions we need to go the hospital now, fuck fuck the baby is coming to early oh my god we need to go come on get up baby…”

“Fangs chill”

“Pea Your telling me to chill when my girl is in LABOR. L. A. B. O. R. I need to get her to a…”

“Just stop, Y/N how bad are they, are they consistent”

“Just feels kinda crampy, not unbearable not to bad, and not consistent at all”

“It’s braxton hicks”

“It’s what now?”

“Braxton hicks, it’s like the bodies way of getting you ready it’s like false labor pains but they are more crampy then like a real pain” “How do you…” “Pea… how do you know this”

“I looked it up Fogarty, I mean Y/N your my best friend aside from this doofus I figured I should know some stuff cause if he’s not with you I am”

‘Okay well can you tell me how to stop them Pea cause they're real uncomfortable”

“Yeah, T can you grab her some warm tea or somethin”

“Yeah of course be right back”

“There isn’t really a cure for them but if the tea doesn’t work on the ride home Fangs can run you warm bath okay?”

“Thanks, Pea”

“No problem”

Now it was time to give birth you were so ready. You had one of the Serpents coming over who was a trained doula for years she had helped the Serpents give birth since everyone hated hospitals so much, Fangs, Toni and Pea were going to be with you and everything was on track, until it wasn’t. You water didn’t break on your due date. 10 days past his due date. 5 days ago you thought labor was starting but it didn’t. You woke up at 3 your water broke you felt the wetness of the bed and you thought it was go time, you were ready for it to be go time. You woke up Fangs the pains were not too bad to start it it was painful but not unbearable. He called everyone to the house. Fangs, Toni, Pea, and Vani your doula. The pain got worse. You were going through what was called back labor. Your baby girl wasn’t facing the right way which meant her spine was along your spine and it caused major pain, pain that you couldn’t even begin to describe. Fangs was holding your hand the whole time. It wasn’t like what they told you to be prepared for. You were prepared for stomach pain, and stomach cramps but no your back was spazzing and the pain was radiating through your entire spine. It was ungodly, worse than the pains of being shot in all honesty.

“I wish I could take some of the pain princess”

“I know Fangs, but ya can’t so it is what it is babe” He looked sad, one thing Fangs always hated was seeing you in pain. “sorry, that was rude”

“It’s okay you get a free pass”

It was 7 ½ of back labour and you had no relief. It wasn’t like what they told you at all. Usually you would have a contraction and then be able to rest, but since you were in back labor you had no period of rest. Your back and body was in so much pain that it was getting so hard to focus on anything. Fangs eventually led you to the bath since a hot compress was relieving your back slightly he thought the water would help. See the plan was that Fangs was going to stay out of the water just incase something had to happen. But after he heard your screams of pain, the almost grunting he couldn’t just stand next to you. He had to be with you, touching you helping you. Between kisses and the whispers of “I love you’s” and “your doing so good mama”, you were feeling a slight bit of relief in the bath with him the hot water running along your back. See you should have been giving birth by now, your body was shaking which is usually to tell you your getting close but after another 40 mins, you were not. So your doula was saying it was time to go to the hospital.

“I don’t wanna go Fangs” You started sobbing, a gentle cry a mix of the pain and the sadness of not being able to do this the way you wanted. It was a cry that that broke Fangs’s heart. He wanted to be able to hold his daughter, wanted to be able to see her and wanted to be a father to her more than anything, but even with all that he never realised how much pain it would cause you.

“Hey it’s gonna be okay, we are all here, we are all gonna stay with you okay, we are just gonna go and your gonna push our little girl out there okay”

“Okay” You both got dressed. The car ride was like torture so much so you amde Fangs pull over after every bump. You got there and everything was fine you were sitting in the bed and the doctor checked you. The pains making you wanna scream, but then everything took a turn. Your doctor informed you that you were only 3cm dilated, after 24 hours of labor you should have been much further along. Since you water had been broken for 24 hours your doctor informed you about the clock ticking down. Your baby needs to come out before infection set in. You wanted to do it naturally and you were deathly afraid of needles, but you had to. For your baby to be safe you were started on pitocin and needed to get an epidural, but yous started freaking out.

“Fangs I can’t”

“You have to”

“Pea!”

“Y/N I know, you’ve been afraid of needles since we were kids but you gotta do it okay? This baby needs you to it, and we are all right here we won’t let them make us leave you are in charge here”

“Baby look at me. I know how scared you are but I’m gonna hold your hand the whole time okay, and we gotta get our girl out okay”

“Okay, I can do this” Luckily after the epidural the pain subsided enough for you to rest for just a bit, Fangs next to the bed rubbing his hand along your side.

But then the doctor came in to check you again after 35 hours of labour you were only 3.8 cm dilated meaning that something drastic needed to happen. But you knew she wasn’t progressing you almost felt it, you knew she wasn’t gonna come out and you were starting to not feel good at all you needed her out and you knew she needed to come out. And then the worst thing you heard, you needed to have a c-section. You knew the risks it’s why you chose home birth in the first place. You didn’t want all the medicine you thought you were strong enough to do it on your own.

“I wanted to do it Fangs”

“I know baby, but this isn’t your fault you know that, she’s just being difficult like her mama. And I'm not leaving you okay? They are bringing me scrubs right now I am going to be right there with you okay?”

“Promise”

“Nothing will make me leave you in there okay”

You got wheeled in and numbed You couldn’t see anything due to the cover but then you saw it. Your daughter being lifted up. You saw her she was born out o you and after a few seconds, they placed her onto your chest. She was finally here, and you felt the biggest since of relief, as one of Fang’s hands laid on your cheek and the other on her head. And you heard the quiet sobs coming from him almost louder than your own. You handed her to him as he held her close to your face and they finished stitching you up.

“She’s here baby you did it”

“We did it Fangs” You saw the tears welling in his as he looked at his newborn daughter and you, his girl who was so strong through it all. “baby are you crying”

“Of course I’m crying”

“I love you”

“I love you too, I love both of you so damn much”

40 hours total was your birth story. 40 hours of waiting for your baby girl and she was finally here. Finally ready to be in a family of love and care, and you were so ready to bring her to meet her amazing, dysfunctional family.

Yes having a baby was the highlight of your day, but the highlight the next morning was when you woke up.

65 notes · View notes

spoke-nword · 6 years

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‘Full’ Wales in a Day

As a cyclist, Wales holds a sense of untouched ‘mystery’ that I’ve rarely felt in other areas of the country. It’s not that it’s a far-flung oasis, or a wildly foreign land - far from it in fact; I live approximately 20 miles from the Welsh border in Shropshire, and some of my family are from or live there.

For me, it’s the quiet emptiness, a sense of untouched country, that I feel when I’m cycling through lanes empty apart from branches and leaves, farm gates and occasional carrion.

On the 16th of July I set out on one of my longest rides of the year, to get the full experience of ‘Wales in a Day’.

The start, South Stack Lighthouse, was chosen purely as it was the furthest North-westerly point in Wales, with a finish set in the grounds of Chepstow Castle; one of the most South-easterly points I could find with decent links back to Shropshire.

Part 1 - 7am - South Stack Lighthouse

My parents had given me a lift to the start, and were picking me up from Chepstow at the finish. The car had been packed late the night before, and we’d set off at 4am to get to South Stack as early as possible. In my rush to pack the car, I’d forgot one thing - my small mini-pump. My 28mm Continental tyres are too big to drop out of the frame without uninflating them by half, so when I placed the wheel back into the frame after arriving at the start and reached for my non-existent pump, I was a bit concerned.

It was OK however; I’d brought a Co2 inflater and 3 cartridges to use. So, I screwed a cartridge into the spring-loaded inflator and in turn the inflator onto the tyre and.. nothing. The valve in the inflator wouldn’t open. I tried with all the force my puny fingers would muster, but still nothing. Fuck. We’ve driven 165 miles to the start and I can’t inflate my fucking tyre. I took the inflator off, unscrewed the canister slightly and lost all air out of it. One canister down, two left. I did the only thing I could do to try and rectify the situation; I literally took a big rock and smashed it again the side of the inflater. It budged, slightly, so I hit it again. This time, whatever force was holding the valve closed abated and I could rotate the head and open the valve! Canister in, onto the tyre valve and thankfully a fully inflated tyre! Right, I’m only 35 minutes late, time to get a move on.

I left South Stack and headed for the first milestone, the Menai Bridge. Within 5 miles the drizzle that had accompanied our drive to the start turned into rain, and I had to unpack my waterproof. I really don’t mind cycling in the rain - it’s not pleasant, but once you get going and your body warms I find I forget about it. This was definitely the case approaching Menai Bridge, with fantastic scenery and the backdrop of the bridge across The Swellies. I stopped for a quick obligatory photo and pushed on towards Beddgelert, my first planned food stop of the day.

The road to Beddgelert started to undulate, with the approach to Llyn Cwellyn on some of the smoothest and flowing roads in North Wales a highlight. It was at this time I started to see the peak of Snowdon through the dissipating cloud cover.

The descent into Beddgelert was awesome, and I met a few other cyclists out on a morning run into town for coffee. From the look on their faces when I told them of my plan, they thought I was mad, but could still appreciate the desire to see Wales in its entirety.

Parting ways just after Beddgelert, I picked my way via a series of B roads towards Harlech on the coast. Passing Fford Pen Llech and not turning left to tackle the 35-40% grade brute drove a pang of guilt inside, but I resisted and instead focused on the bigger picture. It may have been small, but with many mountains to come and only around 50 miles in the legs, I needed to stay as fresh as possible.

On my way to Barmouth I stopped at my Grandads house near Tal-y-bont. It was a great place for my second break, and a decent cup of coffee and a jam filled bagel sorted me out for the next stretch to Machynlleth. It was also a great opportunity to lose the arm and knee warmers, as the temperature had risen nicely, with no rain or clouds around.

The descent into Barmouth was fantastic, and arriving into the town during a water festival was even better. I pushed on through the town, and chose to ride over Barmouth Bridge to the other side of the estuary. The wooden slats of the bridge made the ride akin to riding over cobbles; I’m glad I run 28mm tyres on the bike at this point!

Leaving the bridge and turning right, I start a very pleasant ascent of the coastal road that heads toward Aberdyfi. The gradient is very steady, never rising above 6 or so %, and despite a slight headwind, the weather affords a great view back to Barmouth and the bridge.

I continue upwards and around the coast for a few miles before a steady descent past a cafe serving ice cream, and have my first low point of the day. With a combination of only covering 80 miles so far, and another 130 or so to go, I felt more than a bit behind schedule. Also, out of Machynlleth I knew the climbing would become serious, and progress slow even more. Still, moaning about it gets you nowhere so I pushed on.

Aberdyfi in the sunshine is beautiful. Seriously. I arrived there just after midday and I could have been in the Bahamas. The sea was crystal clear, blue and it was warm! My mood lifted somewhat, I stopped to take a picture on the way out of town, and pressed on Eastward.

Approaching Mach, I decided to make it my first main stop of the day and have some lunch. Mountains and steep climbs ahead, I fuelled up on another bagel and an energy bar, and took 10 minutes to rest. Whilst difficult, this was the part I was most looking forward to; mountains and climbing.

Part 2 - 14:00 - Machynlleth Mountain Road

I set off from Mach, and headed straight onto the mountain road signposted Dylife. The climb started quickly, and I was soon settled into a comfortable power I knew I could sustain. Slowly lanes gave way to more open areas of the mountainside, and with the sun shining brightly, made for a very warm climb. Approaching what I thought was the summit, the climb grows fairly steep; my Garmin’s elevation profile had been playing up a bit so when I rounded a corner and realised I was nowhere near the top, I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me however, was how steep the climb was getting. I’m sure when I planned the route I looked at this climb and thought it would be fairly steady; I was wrong!

I pushed on, slightly over-power and overheating, trying to concentrate on my breathing and the magnificent view that was opening out in every direction. Heading over the top and on to Staylittle, I slowed right down and appreciated my surroundings; once again, Wales had delivered. The reservoirs at Staylittle are magnificent!

I stopped at a layby, and spoke to a couple of chaps riding motorbikes; I overheard one talking about my bike and saying something along the lines of “but with those tyres and a light bike cycling is pretty easy”. I laughed and couldn’t help myself, and so struck up a conversation about where they were going. Turns out they had just ridden their bikes down from Bangor, and were too heading for Chepstow. When I told them I was doing the same, but had cycled from South Stack, they were very confused. A non-cyclists view of long-distance cycling always makes me laugh; some don’t understand how, or what 125, 150 or 200 miles means to us, but most just look confused as to why we would do it. “Because I can” is usually my answer.

After Staylittle, the mountain road doesn’t really ease that much; the lumps and bumps continue, some fairly steep and a bit of a grind running a 28t cassette. Still, the surface was great, and the going fairly quick most of the way to Llanidloes, and further to Rhayader.

I stopped once more at Rhayader for food and a coffee, and found myself in the middle of a local 'treasure hunt’ style event. I have no idea what they were looking for, but they all seemed very interested in a notice board next to a disabled toilet, with many people pulling their cars up to the board, making notes and then driving off. Weirdos.

Fed and refuelled, I set off from Rhayader for the next part of the journey. I knew it would be pretty flat from Rhayader to Talgarth, as to save some time I’d routed along a couple of main roads in favour of an even longer trip. At this point I was glad of the clip on aero bars for another position!

Part 3 - 17:30 - A Time-trial of Sorts

I left Rhayader and directly turned South for Builth Wells on the A470. I wanted to try and make up a bit of time as I’d been a bit lazy so far, and had more quick breaks than I would have liked. It’s not that I was precious about time (other than the lift back from Chepstow), but I was worried about my legs starting to feel heavy if I rested too much. Dead legs = not much fun considering the climbs of Hay Bluff and beyond.

Despite the time, the road was fairly quiet of traffic and a great surface - I tucked in on the aero bars and managed to maintain a decent power and speed, arriving into Builth Wells quickly. I think I managed the 13 miles between the two towns in around 35 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad of a pace after 155 miles in the legs!

There’s a lot to be said about using comfortable aero bars in this kind of long-distance discipline. I’d seen plenty of pictures and read accounts of other long distance cyclists using them to great effect in events (just take a look at the riders competing in the TCR for the number using aero bars!), but didn’t appreciate the comfort of having another position for long days in the saddle.

The road out of Builth Wells again started to get a bit lumpy, but fairly fast flowing. I chose to use the B-road that runs along side the A470 to keep the route as quiet as possible - I’m glad I did, as the scenery was once again amazing. The albeit smaller valleys, and plenty of them, carved by the many rivers and streams made for an awesome backdrop to the fading afternoon light.

On the way into Talgarth, I was greeted with a very familiar view; Hay Bluff.

Having recently completed an Everesting on the Northern (main) road up the Gospel Pass, I knew this area well. I’d spent nearly 20 hours climbing and descending the pass in June, over what was to be the hottest day of the year, and actually loved every minute of it. The prospect of climbing up Hay Bluff from the Talgarth side was energising, despite the fatigue building in my legs.

Turning South out of Talgarth onto the A479, the climb starts immediately. At a very pleasant average gradient of around 4%, this turned out to be one of my favourite climbs of the day. I’m not averse to steeper climbs, but the A479 climb let me measure my effort comfortably, and leave plenty in the tank towards the top to push on. It was cool seeing Hay Bluff from the West side too - the A479 climb winds it’s way through the ‘cut’ in the bluff before dropping down the other side towards Crickhowell, again with magnificent views of the Brecons off to the right and straight ahead.

On the descent, I started to notice the drop in temperature for the first time, and so pulled over to throw on my knee warmers and arm warmers. It was around 8:30pm and I’d been blessed with most of the day being warm, so couldn’t complain.

Part 4 - 8:30pm - The Home Stretch

Descending out of the Brecons towards Crickhowell, I was again able to make some time up on the fast-flowing A roads. It was at this point, after around 175 miles, I realised I’d made my first route error. I’d planned on dropping South below Crickhowell, using the quieter A4077 to get to Abergavenny, and then again using a quiet B-road out of Aber towards Usk. What actually happened, is my Garmin decided to take me on part of the incredibly busy A40 dual-carriageway for a mile or so. It wouldn’t have been a problem usually, but given it was around the time that many people were travelling back from South Wales to the rest of the country made it incredibly busy, not helped by my fatigue.

I quickly pulled over, re-routed the Garmin somehow (those that use Garmins know how fucking difficult this is!), and managed to find my way back to the road I had intended to be on in the first place. Not a disaster by any means, but still unwelcome after a day in the saddle and a place to be.

I took a quick break in Abergavenny, and used some of the time to check the route of the final 20 miles or so to Chepstow. Happy I’d not cocked up again, I pushed out of Aber on the B-road to Usk. It was dark, the road quiet and surprisingly the temperature started to climb again. Feeling refreshed after my stop in Aber I really enjoyed this section. I’d pretty much ran out of food, but didn’t feel too bad, so knew barring disaster this ride was in the bag.

Out of Usk, I hit what was to be the last climb of the day; the climb from Llangwm to Gaer-Fawr. It was only after cycling up and over this fairly brutish climb, I realised it had been used in the Ras de Cymru in 2014, and I can see why. Whilst not overly long, the climb has some steeper pitches that made it ‘interesting’ after just clocking 200 miles, and not much fuel in my body! At 4.5 miles and around 800ft elevation gain, at any other time I would have enjoyed it. But at that moment, I just wanted it done with. Reaching the top, I felt some relief that it was over and I just had the descent to Chepstow to go.

Rolling down the long descent into Chepstow, I reflected on the day’s ride; it had been a great day weather-wise, apart from one mishap, a decent route with a nice mix of quiet B-roads and faster A-roads, but above all, Wales hadn’t disappointed in the scenery. North Wales with it’s large mountains, Mid Wales and the steep valleys and many reservoirs, and finally South Wales and the pleasant steady-grade climbs that allow you to take in your surroundings whilst keeping a decent pace.

I’d thoroughly recommend the route to anyone looking to experience a sample of what Wales has to offer; the ride wasn’t overly taxing, but enough of a challenge to make some of the tougher parts worthwhile.

Finally, arriving into Chepstow, I met up with my parents and attempted to get a picture of the castle. It was dark, I was getting cold, my first picture was very blurry and so I couldn’t be bothered to take another. So I took a picture of a signpost and that had to do.

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humidifiermentorblog-blog · 5 years

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The Ultimate Beauty Bible: How to Fight Dry Skin on Your Face like a Pro

Learn about dry skin on your face - and how to fight it! As modern it girls always say, “beautiful skin begins with exceptional skincare.”--or at least, that’s what they say on advertisements. But what if hoarding on beauty products still isn’t enough to give your skin the moisture it needs? Here’s why and how to get rid of dry skin on face.

First, Let’s Classify the Levels of Skin Dryness

Skin dryness, especially on the face, can become extremely uncomfortable and frustrating, not to mention, unsightly. Worse, when left untreated, your skin doesn’t just stop at drying out--it continues to aggravate until you’re faced with bigger skin problems, including infection. Why? Think of it this way: dry skin is like dry soil. As it cracks from dryness, it becomes open to pathogens that eventually make you vulnerable to infection. To better address your skin’s specific condition, here are some of the signs that set regular and extreme skin dryness apart:

Dry Skin Unless you were born with dry skin (no thanks to grandma and grandpa), the first stages of dryness can be caused by several factors including aging, weather, and bathing habits. Initially, your skin experiences either or a combination of the two: Skin roughness and tightness Extremely Dry Skin Extreme skin dryness, on the other hand, isn’t always triggered by a poor skin care routine. Often times, it is caused by an underlying medical condition such as eczema, psoriasis, malnutrition, and hypothyroidism. As your skin turns very dry, you may notice some of these signs: Scaling Chapped lips Itchiness Extreme tightness Take Away: By learning to differentiate between the two, you’d know how to get rid of dry skin on face without ruling out the possibility of a major skin problem. Psoriasis, for instance, cannot be treated by simply moisturizing your skin. It requires a specific approach, which usually includes medication and lifestyle change.

How to Prevent Dry Skin on Face

Prevention is always better than cure, but in this case, learning what causes dry skin on face is the first and the most critical part of looking for a “cure”. If you are lucky enough not to be diagnosed with any serious skin condition, below are some of the possible factors that trigger facial skin dryness: Dry, Cold Air Winter is exciting when you think about getting all wrapped up with designer coats and leather boots, but the question is, is your skin prepared for it? As the cold winter months draw closer, the humidity levels drop, causing dry air to circulate both outdoors and indoors. This dryness causes the water in your skin to evaporate quicker than it should, causing skin dryness and tightness. The Solution: How to prevent dry skin on face during winter? Simple. Use a humidifier in areas in your home where you spend most of your time. A humidifier helps bring back moisture to the air, preventing facial dryness. Prolonged Exposure to Sunlight Okay. Let’s not blame it all on winter. Sometimes, going out on long summer trips can also add up to skin dryness. How? When you bask under the sun for extended periods of time, your skin becomes prone to premature aging, which causes skin dryness. The Solution: Protect your skin from harmful UV rays by properly applying SPF on your face and on exposed parts of your body 30 minutes before sun exposure. Also, don’t forget to reapply SPF 2 hours after every application. Bathing Habits Ever wondered why your skin feels drier than it was before you took your well-deserved bath? Believe it or not, singing in the hot shower for 30 minutes or so can cause skin dryness. Hot water strips off the skin’s natural oils. When paired with a soap that contains harsh chemicals, your skin is left with no chance of fighting against dryness. The Solution: Use lukewarm water, invest in mild soaps, and limit your bathing time to around 10 minutes.

Skin Care Products Who doesn’t love shopping for skincare products? Hoard if you must, but if you really care about your skin, you should always choose quality over quantity. Not all products are created equal, and one product may not always interact well with others. Sometimes, the more products you put on your face, the more likely you are to suffer from adverse skin reactions like dryness, redness, or puffiness. The Solution: Read the labels and always be vigilant in looking for products that don’t contain harsh chemicals like retinoids, alpha hydroxy acids, and alcohol. Additionally, finding moisture-retaining products that contain silicone surfactants, lanolin, or polyethylene glycol is one of the best ways on how to get rid of dry skin on face. Lack of Moisture So what causes dry skin on face aside from these factors? No matter how mild your soap and facial wash are, they aren’t enough to moisturize your skin, especially if you are 1) aging, 2) born with dry skin, or 3) suffering from a hormonal imbalance due to pregnancy or menopause. Add to that, once the skin becomes exposed to other external factors such as smoke and pollution, it becomes more vulnerable to drying out. The Solution: How to prevent dry skin on face despite all these? Use a moisturizer ideal for your skin type and stay religious on your skincare routine. To Sum Up There are no hard and fast rules on how to get rid of dry skin on face because skin types and environmental conditions always differ from one person to another. The good news: Once you pinpoint what causes dry skin on face, you can create a personalized approach that targets the root of your problem. Read the full article

#skincare #beauty

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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April 11th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on April 11th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PDT. The chat focused on Kitty Kitty Bang Bang by Moe.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing Kitty Kitty Bang Bang by Moe~! (https://tapas.io/series/kkbbcomic)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Superjustinbros

Hello!

RebelVampire

hey super~!

Superjustinbros

Coming in and I'd like to give a big shoutout to that header image on the comic's Tapas(edited)

I dunno, I thought it looked badass

RebelVampire

it is a nice header image. although what sells it for me is the logo design. its a really nice logo.

for favorite scene, hmm. ya know, i cant not pick it. the convention scene. that scene legit almost made me cry at how touching it is both with its message about how anyone can cosplay whatever they want regardless of how they look. not to mention the themes of reaching out to others. all wrapped in a nice package of no dialogue so that its the emotions at the center forefront.

Superjustinbros

Yeah.

Also this guy's hair.

RebelVampire

i like his hair and his smile combination. like both scream cocky little shit design wise and i love it cause he kind of is a cocky little shit. XD

Superjustinbros

Oh yes XD

Cocky little shits are my favorite

RebelVampire

another scene i want to show some appreciation too is the scene where we first meet kit's mom. like, i knew it was coming from the chapter title. but i enjoyed the twist it was her step-mom and theres a deeper issue going on. it turned what was easy to guess to something surprising again just by how the story plays out the reveal

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1370747 This is a pretty good page.

Hm, Doug McClure sounds a awful lot like this chap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUg6e072vgA

RebelVampire

anything in particular you like about it super?

Superjustinbros

The last two panels.

And the followup

https://tapas.io/episode/1371714

dat backside

RebelVampire

i really love the back shot composition. like what a great way to show overwhelming odds

mathtans

Evening. Made it as far as the start of the Bully arc, so late 2018.

Superjustinbros

Yeah. Also ello

I love also how Doug's got like, a million pouches on his belt

I dunno it's a detial I like

mathtans

Yeah, the convention stuff was good. Some of those real-life scenarios that made you want to shake people are good when done right.

Superjustinbros

Yes

mathtans

I'm not sure if I have a big favourite moment, but I have some little ones. Like when that "pinball wizard" thing played as Kit was taking on that nozzle in the gaming store, and it turned out it was the coworker.

The guy at the school in the knight suit, who had the fascination with corndogs. Weird background detail, added some humour to an otherwise tense scene.

RebelVampire

i love the corndog knight

i want a spin-off comic of just them

cause i want to know about them

why are they a knight

why corndogs

so many questions

mathtans

Heh. Made me think of that other bounty hunter, pointy-ears, who also couldn't speak.

Also, did not expect the female reveal there.

And I liked how the scientist flipped out over his research having the higher bounty than himself. Like, that trumped everything else he was in the process of dealing with and he went on a rampage. Amusing.

RebelVampire

yeah the scientists in general was fairly hilarious in everything he tried to prioritize. although i enjoyed that at the end of the mission the crystal wound of broken anyway. cause i felt it was fitting given everything it had been through

mathtans

I thought it was really clever how the rock was used to blind the scientist. Kitty is this weird mix of hyper competent (like when she used the snack habits of that one guy to track him down) and absent-minded (like when she then didn't make a grab for the compound).

I'm not saying that's unrealistic or anything, I can totally see it.

Very "living in the moment" with a dash of forward thinking.

RebelVampire

nah i agree shes a really interesting character. like at first i wasnt sure id like her but some of her plans have been pretty spot. and to be fair a lot of the absent-minded ness you could write off as it her being a kid. so of course shes expected to be a kid and not always think through with her actions.

a more comedic moment i liked was at the end of Mor where Kit and Mary both have to stand there awkwardly making their false apologies to the whole school. this page especially cracks me up just cause of the sheer height diff between the two. i think that makes it extra hilarious https://tapas.io/episode/1215017

mathtans

It's true. And I'm still wrapping my head around the kid thing.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. One of the comic’s focuses and highlights are the action sequences found within. Of the characters Kit has pursued so far in her bounties, which has been your favorite? Why is that? Likewise, which bounty did you think had the best fight choreography? What do you specifically think makes the choreography the best one? Do you think we’ll see any of the criminal characters again? If so, what could that mean for Kit? Considering many of the villains parody stereotypes and similar things, what other sorts of characters do you think or hope we might see? Lastly, do you believe Kit will encounter more of her professional rivals? If so, what do you think will happen?

its okay i had my struggles wrapping my head around but the convention scene really cemented it for me for some reason. but that might just be personal association of conventions being largely for the youth.

mathtans

Incidentally, I wondered initially about the use of "der"... and then when Kitty used the term "Hoser" I thought she was Canadian. That proved incorrect, what with the Norwegian thing.

Ahh... yeah, I went to a certain convention for 20 years straight soooo...

Like, I want to ship, but it feels wrong. Normally if they're young I just think of it as cute, or picture them as older, and neither of those things kinda work here.

I wonder how big Kitty's gonna get when she's 20.

RebelVampire

i didnt start going to conventions till i was an adult but at the same time my experiences is that theyre largely dominated by the youth. not to say there arent older adults there. but the youth are the ones always around drawing attention to themselves being loud. but i digress, just wanted to give context for why it worked for me

mathtans

That's fair.

RebelVampire

tbh i just assumed she was full grown. cause i was actually only an inch or two shorter than my full height at 13 cause i sprouted up early

mathtans

As to the question of the moment, I admit I'm not huge on seeing action and choreography, tending to be bigger on characters anyway. Which is probably why that scientist one sticks out so much, since we got his whole backstory and everything.

I am gonna be in for such a shock when my little one grows up, aren't I.

That short gangster guy who stole the boat might return. It was implied.

RebelVampire

and i legit cant imagine kit taller cause she literally towers over everyone. although is she still shorter than her dad? cause if she is, shell probably be his height.

mathtans

I think she is. I'm equally bad at noticing that sort of thing.

RebelVampire

id have to look again just cause it wasnt something i was looking for and her dad was only in so many scenes XD

im torn on my answer to this question of the moment. i think i agree i like the scientist the best cause he got a lot of backstory. not to mention when kit was doing their dialogue for them from the roof i was like "nah shes gotta be exaggerating" then we meet the scientist and nope, he really is just that arrogant and she was spot on. so overally he was definitely the most entertaining

but for fight choreography, im picking the first bounty with the spin off kool aid man. i really enjoyed the use of the environment and just the sheer level of destruction that was visited upon that grocery store

mathtans

She knows her business. I wonder how long she's been at it.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about that one. I liked when Kitty roped the random customer.

RebelVampire

i liked when after the fight ended, the old lady asked if the employee who was buried under rubble basically could get her a new box

MoeAlmighty

And that was most difficult one to come up with

mathtans

The one with the orcs going after cows was also good, not for the fight (which I think was offscreen) but world building. Until then it was sort of, like, what's reality here anyway.

Oh, hello creator.

MoeAlmighty

Hello there all ^^\

mathtans

Rebel: That was a good scene for setting the tone.

Superjustinbros

Hello Moe!

MoeAlmighty

Thank you. It's always a challenge to come up with a beginning for a series.

Superjustinbros

Thanks for this cool comic of yours.

MoeAlmighty

Howdey

Thanks

Superjustinbros

No probs

And yeah all this talk about conventions is reminding me of all the ones I've been going to lately. Comic focused ones and hugely commercial conventions are easily the most populated-by-youth ones.

mathtans

"Annie" con was a clever name.

MoeAlmighty

It was a little play on words. I always like to make those little puns when I can(edited)

RebelVampire

i did enjoy the orcs with the cows. probably just cause of the extreme accent going on in that dialogue. but i also just love this concept that someone would think clearly humans are only good cause they drink milk. like someone really watched those got milk commercials too much.

mathtans

I very much approve of puns. Also Senshi Kitty.

The head orc was milking his time in the spotlight.

Superjustinbros

Puns are always good

RebelVampire

i do agree with you math that i got the impression well see the gangster who got away from the scientist again at some point. what it means for kit? i could see her being extra determined to catch him since he got away last time. but then maybe thats when well see buff elf chick again who is out for revenge.

MoeAlmighty

Defintely. Orcs have always been my favorite fantasy race to play around with

mathtans

biab

RebelVampire

i do appreciate orcs getting some love in a way cause in my experience theyre really underutilized in a lot of fantasy settings. can find elves everywhere, but nobody wants the orcs.

MoeAlmighty

Well nothing is off the table.^^

Orcs have always been treated as the bad guy or the henchman merely due to their monsterous appearence.

RebelVampire

speaking of not elves, i really like that this guy turned out to be the real villain from bully bully https://tapas.io/episode/1348464. partly cause it was a good twist that it was a bully victim becoming the bully. since that is very true to life. but also, selfishly, i noticed this character immediately in the background one time and i was like "ah man what an interesting looking side chara too bad well never learn about him" and then we learned about him.

QUESTION 3. Even in Kit’s dynamic world, she still has some unique mysteries surrounding her. Why do you think Kit is the only female in her family to receive Freyja’s blessing/curse, especially after it’s been so long it’s almost a myth? What do you think the story is behind Kit’s rage modes that seem to take over when she gets mad? What do you think happened to Kit’s mother, and why is Kit so sensitive about the subject of her mother in general? Additionally, why did Mary calling her mother a whore set her off in particular? Lastly, how do you think Kit got involved with being a Bounty Killer? Why do you think her family lets her pursue the career given how dangerous it all is?

MoeAlmighty

Oh yeah the Goblin. I thought it was a perfect opprotunity to not just introduce the Goblins , but I was also playing around with laying out clues in plain site for the reader to notice.

Superjustinbros

That's smart thinking/writing

MoeAlmighty

There are plans for future stories that are straight up mysteries Kit will have to sovle.

RebelVampire

that sounds exciting and like a good challenge for her character too.

in regards to the current question, i want to dissect the fact that kit's specific phrasing about her mother was that mary hadnt even cared who her mother was as a person. and to a degree, i kind of feel like it was projecting that set her off. that kit herself didnt know a whole lot about her mother. so it might not be so much that her mom was called a whore that did it, but that someone would make a bold claim about her mother when kit herself didnt even know her that well and has since lost the chance to get ot know her. but thats just me theorizing.

mathtans

Back, little one's asleep in the crib again. For now.

MoeAlmighty

Mm hm, It would show that Bounty Killers in the world aren't used for just nabbing a bad guy with a hefty sum on their head. Sometimes folks need someone to investigate with the police's involvement and not ask any questions

mathtans

Was Kitty maybe given up for adoption? (Is that what makes her worthy of the cat ears?)

The police were handy against the scientist too, for a little while.

Superjustinbros

That's a good way of expanding upon bounty hunters.

RebelVampire

i dont think given up for adoption fits cause mor said shes the step mom which implies kit's father is her biological dad. that and there is one pic where the dad is with the mom

mathtans

Oh, right. We did see her biological mom in that holiday special though, didn't we? And Kitty must remember enough to have taken up violin playing (on the roof). So... yeah I dunno.

RebelVampire

thats interesting to know that the bounties arent just for nabbing bad guys. although makes me wonder what kit is going to do when shes told to do something shady and just not ask questions

mathtans

Or was that not the biological mom, was that a younger Dar?

I can't see Kit not asking questions.

RebelVampire

that was her step-mom. her bio mom we only see briefly in a pic

https://tapas.io/episode/1279607

mathtans

I wasn't sure if it was her dad remembering another time in that scene though. Like, the previous stuff was a memory.

(I also don't get enough sleep these days.)

RebelVampire

i could see how youd get that interpretation but pretty sure it was the step-mom and the bio mom was just in the picture

MoeAlmighty

There are a lot of things I don't want to say because of spoilers and I'll be answering those kind of questions down the road. But to answer the question pretaining to Mary, they do indeed have some History as hinted.

mathtans

Mary is actually the younger cousin of the short boat-stealing gangster.

It's why her dad went into law.

MoeAlmighty

heh. that is a pretty interesting theory.

mathtans

(I need to have at least one insane theory and one ship per comic chat. I think it's in my contract.)

RebelVampire

puns are also in your contract math. although you already fulfilled that one.

mary's dad kind of spooks me. like hes a really domineering presence and idk if i want to believe hes good or bad.

MoeAlmighty

Truth is, when I created Mary, she was developed as just the rich girl who presented herself as Ms. Perfect while also having the spoiled brat persona as well

Superjustinbros

lol

mathtans

Oh right. Well, those come naturally. I wonder if her dad is part orc.

Superjustinbros

That's one of many ways to describe that

MoeAlmighty

Best way to describe him is that he's a Lawyer... a very wealthy lawyer.

Oh no, he's part Dutch lol

mathtans

Incidentally, I kind of like that Kit's got both cat ears and human ears, it tends to be how I draw my characters too (even if mine are just headbands). But it does make me wonder how the curse might have rewired her brain to deal with the extra input.

Oooh, a flying dutch man.

RebelVampire

all the dads just drink lots of milk

Superjustinbros

What about Doug.

RebelVampire

to be fair if kit's cat ears are more sensitive than her human ones the extra input probably doesnt matter cause one would hear it better than the other anyway. at worst i imagine things just sound even louder XD

mathtans

It's that special beer.

Maybe it's partly why Kat's so on edge at times.

Superjustinbros

mm, beer

Wait, what kind of beer we talkin

MoeAlmighty

It's kind of a mix bag with it comes to her ears. Internally they do connect to her regular ears and she can hear through them, but only if she concentrates. Mostly they just act like a short range radar or a sixth sense. Something like spidey's spider sense.

Ah yes, I've notice some folks like our esteem adventurer. Others not so much

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Besides the action, there is still a lot of slice-of-life material to be had in the comic as well. Do you think Kit will eventually tell Bia about her career? How do you think Bia will react to finding out about it? What challenges do you foresee awaiting Bia and Kit as their relationship continues to develop and secrets reveal themselves? Further, how do you see Kit balancing her school life in general with her job? Will she manage to maintain her grades and everything, or will things prove tougher than she expects? In terms of Kit’s regular life, what things are you hoping to see be explored in how she lives her day-to-day life? Lastly, are there any themes (like bullying) that caught your eye from the slice-of-life segments? What about them did you enjoy?

mathtans

It's cool that youv'e thought about that.

Honestly, the bounty-hunters clashing, while not necessarily slice-of-life, felt realistic and added depth to the idea of the job. Also revealed how their methods are non-lethal. And was the first ship I considered.

MoeAlmighty

Ah yes, I had a lot of folks doing a double take when I revealed her age.

RebelVampire

unrelated to the current question, i really hope we get to see more bounty killers in the story just cause they cant all work out as well as buff elf chick. also id really like to get a feel for the age range cause its concerning the gov was like "nah a 13 year old bounty killer? thats fine"

mathtans

That's a good point. Did she register under an assumed name?

Superjustinbros

Seconding Rebel.

MoeAlmighty

Well due to Kit's size, she may or may not of lied about her age when she took the job

mathtans

Also, I feel like the construction job field gets a lot of work in this universe. We only see Kitty's exploits but there have to be other incidents in the world as well.

Actually, magicians too must be a thing. And mimes.

Did not expect the mimes.

MoeAlmighty

Their are plans to explore other parts of world. One in particular is the Bounty Pick Up units sent to pick up the bounties and make out the reports.

Yes, beware the mimes ^^

I will be exploring a lot more of the Magis and how the magic works as well.

mathtans

Silent but deadly.

MoeAlmighty

very

mathtans

That short magic comic did a good job, I thought.

And I liked the money van guy critiquing the pun.

MoeAlmighty

Hm Hm, well not everything can be a homerun for our little cat girl

RebelVampire

yeah i really liked the short magic comic. cause it was funny and really did some good world-building

i also loved the cowboy bank robber

just cause he was a cowboy

and that was ridiculous

mathtans

Oh yeah, forgot about him.

I wonder how Kitty practices her quick draws.

Where do they lock these guys up, anyway? Regular jails seem like they wouldn't be sufficient.

MoeAlmighty

Yes, you don't see that many cowboys these days. But it was a perfect nod for one of the inspirations of the comic

Superjustinbros

Cowboys are fun.

MoeAlmighty

Um, they go to regular prison and go through the same process as the law provides^^

Superjustinbros

Always love one with an appealing design when one shows up.

MoeAlmighty

Very much so

RebelVampire

what sort of lawyer is mary's dad?

mathtans

How do you lock up an orc so that he doesn't just bend the bars?

MoeAlmighty

He's a defense lawyer

mathtans

He lawyers der fence.

RebelVampire

ah so i can say maybe mary's dad defends all these criminals kit tries to send to jail.

MoeAlmighty

Booooo

It's a possibility and her dad is very much against the Bounty Killer and the Bounty Board in general

Superjustinbros

ooh, is that so(edited)

mathtans

Circling back to Bia, it'd be amusing if someone in her family was also a bounty hunter. Kitty admits it and she's like, "oh, okay, I can see how you'd be good at that too".

RebelVampire

just to talk a bit about the current question, i do feel its inevitable kit has to tell bia about her job. cause i mean...kit isnt the most undestructive. just takes one time of showing up burnt to a crisp to school to give it away. but i think bia is gonna take it better than kit thinks shell take it. cause tbf, if i was bia i would not be surprised.

tbf i kind of agree with mary's dad. they might be catching criminals, but holy shit that property damage

mathtans

I feel like Bia might find out not through Kit though. Like maybe even via Kit's brother. Which could strain the relationship.(edited)

RebelVampire

especially the property damage caused by the scientist

cause even if they have the money to fix it, it still takes time

mathtans

Or magic.

MoeAlmighty

Bia finding out Kit is a Bounty Killer is inevitable, and it might happen happen sooner than you think

RebelVampire

it could strain their relationship too. though for some reason i feel for bia itd be more about the age thing than the danger thing if that makes sense. cause the career suits kit. just maybe not when kit is still 13, in school, and all that

mathtans

'Cept her dad is okay with it.

I feel like I'd totally be that dad by the way. Who makes concessions. Then ends up in trouble with mom too.

MoeAlmighty

It is going to a very unique exploring the relationship Kit and Bia have. In many ways, Bia will act more like the straight man of the relationship

Well Edward looks at it more like she's hunting game. expect the part of gutting it and cleaning it for food^^

RebelVampire

i just want to say i really love kit's dad and i hope we get to see him more. he seems just so utterly likeable. like a gentle giant

mathtans

Just want to give a shout-out to the school nun badass. Possibly like the opposite to dad.

MoeAlmighty

He is indeed^^

Superjustinbros

Since the CTP is wrapping up in a bit, I'd like to wish @MoeAlmighty the best of luck with Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, it's got a great artstyle, story, and some good humor.

mathtans

Oh right, pretty good stuff done with only black and white too.

MoeAlmighty

Yes, Beatrice is indeed a beast^^

Thank you so much^^

Superjustinbros

You're welcome! ^^

RebelVampire

yeah i loved the nun. especially her epic entrance and this page https://tapas.io/episode/1188530

like everything about that page is perfect

"Keeper of the Lunch Period"

MoeAlmighty

God help the guilty

mathtans

Indeed.

Probably a bumper sticker on her car.

MoeAlmighty

I'm sure everyone here remembers that one teacher that kept everyone in check at lunch period

best bumper sticker ever

mathtans

Kitty has some nice exclamations too.

Superjustinbros

lol

Anyways, cya till next time, and thanks for dropping by @MoeAlmighty

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Moe, as well, for making Kitty Kitty Bang Bang. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Moe’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/kkbbcomic

Moe’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoeAlmighty

Moe’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/theMoeAlmighty

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #kitty kitty bang bang #moe

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jackswimmermann · 7 years

Text

You Know I Was Down For You...Chap. 1

Fandom: Check, Please! Pairing: Adam “Holster” Birkholtz/Justin “Ransom” Oluransi Rating: T Note: I’ve made some edits to the first couple chapters so I’m reposting them on my omgcp sideblog along with the latest update, stay tuned~

Ransom was quite for a long time. Holster tried not to panic. Tried not to let the dread settle over him again. It was a lot to take it, that was all. Finally, Ransom caught his eye. He was smiling.

“You’re gonna be a Falconer.” Holster grinned.

“And you’re going to Harvard, baby.”

AO3: x

[Chapter 2][3][4]

Adam left the meeting with a NHL scout, head spinning. A few months back he had started hearing from scouts in a few different cities across the country. Something he never expected even just a year ago. Sure Adam considered himself a good hockey player but, hell, it wasn’t like he was Jack “Son of a Goddamn Legacy” Zimmerman. He was just Adam “Holster” Birkholtz, one half of one of the best pairs of D-Men to ever grace the world of NCAA. Or at least to grace Samwell.

And sure, what little hockey-playing runt didn’t one day dream of being a professional athlete? But he had to be realistic now, he was graduating soon. He was supposed to be looking into jobs and praying to whatever god was listening that his degree wasn’t a waste of four years and tens of thousands of dollars. Not looking into honest-to-goodness National Hockey League Teams. Autopilot took him across campus and back to the Haus. He stomped the snow off his boots on the porch, shaking off as much as he could from his coat in the process. Inside the Haus it was warm and it smelled like vanilla and beer. It was a rather repulsive combination and yet it made Adam think of home more than anything else. Peeking around the corner he spied Bitty in the kitchen. Something was in the oven, unsurprisingly, but for once the blond had a textbook open before him on the table while he cleaned up. Adam thought he could sneak past but Bitty looked up just as he pulled away from the entrance way. “You’re back early! I thought you said you’d be gone most of the afternoon.” Bitty greeted him with a smile. Before Adam could stop him he was bustling around the kitchen. And before he knew it Bitty had him seated at the kitchen table with a plate of goodies in front of him. “Uh yeah I uh…finished up early.” Adam mumbled. At least with a mouthful of cookies he could feint good manners and avoid answering questions.

Adam still wasn't quite sure why but he hadn’t told anyone on the team that he was being scouted. Not even Rans. It felt like a betrayal, keeping such a huge secret from Ransom but there was something so bizarre about the whole ordeal he couldn't bring himself to talk about it. Besides, if Ransom knew he was considering signing with a team, he would drop everything to help weigh the pros and cons of the teams that had reached out to Adam like the team had done for Jack last year. Adam couldn’t ask him to do that. He had too much on his plate already, worrying about finishing classes and deciding on a medical school to transfer to. Dread settled on Adam's shoulders as he thought of Ransom. Rans would want him to pick the team that was best for him but he couldn't help but wonder about what was best for both of them. They hadn’t discussed it, but Adam had been looking into job openings in the cities he heard Ransom talk the most about. Adam had researched businesses closest to Ransom’s top five school choices. They were “Ransom & Holster” the idea of them being separated was…unthinkable. Adam as a NHL player would throw a wrench in all of that. Adam didn’t realize he had eaten everything off his plate until he reached for something else to distract himself with and it was empty. Startled, he looked up to see Bitty, watching him with a rather bittersweet smile. “You’ve got the same expression Jack had this time last year.” Bitty observed, clearing away his plate. Adam froze, a lump in his throat. There was no way Bitty could know, right? “You’ll figure it out Holster, whatever it is that’s bothering you.” Bitty continued. His back was to Adam while he tackled the dishes in the sink. “And you know you never have to do it alone, we’re all here for you.” Adam ran a hand over his face, hoping Bitty couldn’t hear his shaky breath over the splashing water. “Thanks Bits. It’s just…there’s a lot to think about.” Bitty nodded, humming his agreement. After a few minutes Adam stood up from the table. He was going to go up to the attic and…not think. It felt like all he had been doing for days was thinking and worrying about what he was going to do. Even the kegster they threw that weekend hadn’t been enough to fully distract him. So mind-numbing television it was. “If no one here can help, the seniors might offer some different insight.” Adam stopped, one foot on the stairs. He almost wondered if he imagined Bitty’s last comment but when he backtracked towards the kitchen Bitty turned around to face him. “It’s just a thought, but Jack and Shitty already did all this crazy, deciding-what-to-do-next drama. And sure, Jack knew he was doing hockey, and Shitty knew he was going into law, but there were still a lot of decisions to make.” Adam didn’t say anything and Bitty turned back to the sink. “It’s up to you, but a little bird did tell me the Falconer’s practice finishes early tonight.” Adam elected to ignore the smile he saw on Bitty’s face when he checked the time. _X_

Two hours and roughly five episodes of 30 Rock later Adam was standing outside Bittle’s door, hand poised to knock. Adam still felt odd telling the team about the offers he had received, they still felt unreal to him, but if anyone would know what he was going through it would be Jack “Hockey Robot” Zimmerman. At least to some degree. Adam could hear Bitty talking to someone (Jack) but his words were too muffled for him to understand what he was saying. Adam’s hand dropped. He was losing his nerve. But then he heard voices downstairs. He had to do this. He had to talk to someone to get everything off his chest, before he crumpled under it. Ransom would be back in an hour. He had to do this now. Adam knocked. Adam could hear Bitty say something else. Then the muffled sounds of someone moving things around. Then, oddly, it sounded as if Bitty was unlocking his door. Adam had knocked to be polite. He hadn’t even considered the door might be locked. Before he could dwell on it, the door swung open and Bitty was peering up at him. At first there was confusion on the shorter man’s face but a moment later realization dawned and he opened the door wider without a word, to let him in. Bitty’s laptop sat open on his desk, Jack’s surprised face watching them from the Skype call Adam had just interrupted. Bitty turned back to the computer with a smile. “It sounds like the frogs are home, and I just tried out a new recipe this afternoon, and I don’t know if it’s ready for mass consumption yet, so I had better go do damage control.” Bitty lied. Well, it might not have been a lie in his mind, but Adam and Jack both obviously didn’t believe there was anything to worry about if their expressions were anything to judge by. Bitty ignored them both. “I don’t want you to be bored staring at my empty room so why don’t you catch up with Holster?” Adam seriously hoped he imagined the wink Bitty sent his way. There was nothing discreet about this exchange. “Y’all have fun, I’ll be back in a few.” Giving Adam an encouraging smile and pat on the arm, Bitty left the room, pulling the door shut behind him. Adam settled himself in Bitty’s desk chair. It was not positioned for someone of his size but he didn’t want to mess with the settings. Hopefully this exchange wouldn’t be long enough to make the hunch to his back actually start hurting. Bitty obviously hadn’t clued Jack in to Holster’s need to chat based on the confused expression on Jack’s grainy image. “What’s up, Holster?” Jack was trying to sound casual but it still felt like he was using his “Captain voice," reaching out to make sure all the players were feeling 100 percent. Adam thought he and Ransom were doing a pretty bang up job of being co-captains but neither of them had quite mastered the “Captain voice” the same way Jack had. Adam studied the pixelated image of Jack. Adam didn’t recognize the backdrop but if he had to guess, Jack was somewhere in his new apartment in Providence. And despite his confusion Jack looked happy, happier than Adam had seem him in a long, long time-if ever. Suddenly everything was pouring out of Adam. The dam had opened and there was no stopping it. Jack took it all in stride, not batting an eye at the offers Adam had received or when the conversation took a 180° because Adam had remembered something else about an offer or had another worry that he hadn’t thought to mention before. Jack let him talk until it was all out. Silence stretched between the two of them until Adam was fidgeting in his seat. He wished he had worn his glasses today. His eyes were starting to burn from staring at a computer screen with contacts in, and then he’d at least have something to do with his hands. “Do you know what’s most important to you about a new team?” Jack finally asked slowly, as if he was feeling out each word to make sure it was the one he wanted. “You don’t have to tell me, but do you know what means the most to you? Location, Ice Time, Cap Space…Money?” For a moment Adam was frozen but then there was Rans's face in his mind and Adam knew exactly what was the most important to him. He nodded. “Then start there. Put that above everything else and then start judging the pros and cons of the teams,” Jack took a deep breath. “And no matter how good other teams may look on paper, don’t sacrifice what matters the most. Chose for yourself Holster, that’s the only way you’ll be happy with your choice. Anything else won’t be as satisfying even if the other benefits are bigger.” Adam nodded numbly, hating how simple Jack made it all sound. Of course that was the logical way to do it. “I understand why you’re keeping this to yourself, Adam,” Jack’s voice was soft but Adam wasn’t sure he had ever sounded more like a captain. “But I also know it can be really overwhelming. If you’re still having trouble later, if it starts to feel like way too much again, you have my number.” Adam ran his hands through his hair. It was starting to get long. He really should cut it but pausing for a haircut had been so far down on his list of priorities it well…hadn’t made the cut. “Thank you, Jack. Talking it out it…it helped a lot.” Adam stood up, wincing as his knees popped. “I’ll retrieve Bittle from the kitchen for you.” It was hardly more than an exhale of air but still undeniably a Zimmerman laugh heard from the computer as Adam went for the door. _X_

It took Adam a while to finally sort everything out but eventually he had a clear idea of the best choice of team, regardless of where Ransom chose for med school. In fact, he was sure his anal co-captain would appreciate the detailed, typed lists Adam had created and tucked away in a binder to study whenever he had time. The only thing that would have possibly made them better would have been if they had been made on Excel. Adam was proud of his lists and his choices. Which is why for the first time in weeks he was finally relaxed enough to enjoy what was left of his senior year. And why when a few weeks later Ransom burst in grinning from ear to ear, Adam was fully prepared to celebrate with his best friend no matter where it took them. “I got into Harvard.” Ransom announced. Adam stood up from his desk grinning wide enough to match. “Like there was any doubt.” Adam pulled Ransom into a hug, pressing a kiss to his temple before he could talk himself out of it. “So that’s it then, right? Harvard’s always been your number one.” Ransom nodded, pulling Adam in for another hug. _X_

Hours later, they were curled up on Adam’s bunk with sitcom reruns playing in the background, wrapped around each other in order to fit comfortably on the twin-sized mattress. Ransom tightened his grip on Adam's shirt suddenly, shifting as best he could to face his fellow D-Man. “Holtzy, I know we never really talked about this before now but I’m going to Harvard so I’m going to be in Boston at least five years, which isn’t even taking into account where I get an internship or a residency but-” “Providence.” Adam interrupted Ransom’s rambling quietly. He watched Ransom’s expression change from hesitant to confused as he worked through “Providence.” Sighing, Adam shifted his position as well, hoping he could manage to stay on the bed while having this Serious Future™ conversation. “I’ve received offers from a number of different NHL teams.” “What?” Ransom sat straight up in bed, nearly knocking his head against the top bunk and jostling the laptop perched on the end in one go. Adam met his eye, remarkably calm considering how worked up he had been before. “How could I not know about this? What are you talking about?” “I wanted you to make your decision first, about med school, before worrying about anything else. This has been your dream Rans.” Ransom looked like he wanted to argue with Adam about…everything but he narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. “We’ll discuss that choice at a later time but what’s this about Providence?” Sliding out of the bed, Adam went to his desk, to his binder with the lists. Adam returned with the lists, handing them off to Rans carefully. Silence settled over the two while Rans read and Adam watched the expressions flit across Ransom’s face. “Priority was…proximity to me?” Adam wasn’t sure why but Ransom was whispering suddenly. As if worried about shattering the atmosphere around them, Adam started to whisper as well. “We’re ‘Ransom & Holster,’ you can’t break that up.” “Oh Holtzy,” “It’s 53. 6 miles from downtown Providence to Harvard University. Hop on 95 and we can be at each other’s side in under an hour,” Adam stopped at the look Ransom gave him. “Alright at each other’s side in an hour.” Ransom was quiet for a long time. Adam tried not to panic. Tried not to let the dread settle over him again. It was a lot to take in, that was all. Finally, Ransom caught his eye. He was smiling. “You’re gonna be a Falconer.” Adam grinned. “And you’re going to Harvard, baby.”

#rita writes #omgcp #holsom #fic #adam birkholtz #holster #justin oluransi #ransom #cp #repost #1.9.17 #fic: ykiwdfy #fic: you know i was down for you

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beraattelse · 6 years

Text

A Criminal’s Game Chap. 2

He sat outside the cafe on a quiet corner just before twilight, it was dark enough for the streetlights to be on, but not dark enough to really need them. He held the warm, blue mug with both hands, he was perpetually cold. He only put the mug down long enough to pull his suit jacket and hooded cardigan closer as the wind picked up; one of his favorite clothing combinations, usually paired with a neutrally-colored, collared button-up shirt and suit vest, for its versatility and style. He could feel the cold starting to spread across his face more noticeably. It was times like this that he wished he hadn’t cut most of his hair off: he only had a crop of curly, dark hair that covered the top of his head, that sometimes he tied up into a bun. After he had cut it, he had become more aware of how big his ears were, though no one else seemed to notice. They had bothered him enough, that at one point he bought fake glasses that had thick-frames and a somewhat obnoxious blue-green, aqua, and brown horn-rimmed pattern (he realized only after buying them that they didn’t match most of his wardrobe, and had to go out and buy more frames). They put an emphasis on his already noticeably striking golden hazel eyes, which he also didn’t like, but he was convinced that they drew attention away from his ears.

He was waiting, though for what, he wasn’t entirely sure. He wanted to be back at his apartment watching TV and enjoying his coffee at home. His eyelids felt particularly heavy tonight, there had been a lot of remaining paperwork, and talking to people about how everything was going to work out after class adjourned. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the street, distant car horns and yelling and discussions in the cafe. He didn’t understand why he suddenly felt sick to his stomach, but then again, he didn’t hear the man approach the table.

“Kinkaid.”

He opened his eyes and was greeted by the visage of a shadowy figure just sitting down across from him. At a brief glance, one could not see his face, due to a black, wide-brimmed hat and his chin being tucked into the nook of his own neck. Kinkaid’s stomach dropped, and he felt uncomfortably vulnerable, coming to the realization of who it was clarified why he didn’t feel well. His mind had been drifting and dulled by his exhaustion, but now it sharpened with a focused anxiety.

“Mercy.”

The two sat in a saturated silence until the waitress from the cafe came out to take the stranger’s order.

“Coffee, black.”

Once she left, the stranger corrected his collar so that it no longer covered the lower half of his face, revealing nothing more than a strong chin and a grotesque mouth stretched into a daunting, snaggle-toothed smile.

“We’ve missed you, Kinkaid.” His voice was clear, though his teeth caused a slur, an impediment, his mannerisms became increasingly predatory.

Kinkaid watched him, his muscles coiling themselves tightly. He knew better than to let his guard down around this particular person. Mercy was a reminder of days that were better left in the past, though it was clear now that it they were not going to stay that way.

“No ‘I’m happy to be back, Mercy,’ or ‘I’ve missed you too, Mercy’? It’s been much too quiet without you around.” Mercy seemed to make himself take up more space; his confidence was new to Kinkaid and he didn’t like where this was going already.

The waitress came back with the cup of black coffee, not paying half a mind to Mercy’s deformations. Mercy’s black-eyed stare was directed at him with an expression not unlike lust, but it was corrupted, twisted by something yet more animalistic. It sent a shiver down Kinkaid’s spine. Mercy propped himself up on his arm, leaning forward, like he was paying attention to Kinkaid teaching.

“I like this place. I can see why you decided to move out here instead of staying. No one cares about a thing here.” Mercy took a sip of the coffee, turned and leaned back in the chair, holding the cup in both hands, relaxed.

Kinkaid’s teeth were clenched shut, his jaw ached and every instinct wanted him to run. He wouldn’t get very far, in fact he would be surprised if he even managed to leave the table. Mercy was a Hound. As Mercy looked around, watching people pass the table with an amount of morbid interest, Kinkaid’s mind had already filtered through possible outcomes, there was no way out of this. Not this time.

“Can you feel him right now?” Mercy suddenly returned his attention to Kinkaid, body still at ease, but eyes ravenous and roving.

Kinkaid did not respond, Mercy already knew the answer. He liked to pose questions that he already knew the answers to, it made him feel smarter than he was. Kinkaid flinched, not noticeable to the common eye, but enough to indicate to Mercy that he did. Mercy’s greedy smile returned, but he didn’t say anything and looked away again.

The Hound chuckled to himself without anything to indicate what he was laughing at. Kinkaid watched him, his lungs taut with the anxiety for what was to come. His body was already racked with chronic pain, but the tension in his muscles due to Mercy’s presence taxed him more than he was willing to admit. Exhaustion forced him to relax as much as possible, he needed to conserve what energy he could before their interaction.

“What frailty the organic body holds.” Mercy said knowingly, not looking at Kinkaid.

Despite his face being turned away from Kinkaid, he could tell Mercy was still smiling to himself, as if he had already won. He would no doubt win anyway, Kinkaid was not strong enough to fight him. They both knew that. The inevitability of his resignation bothered him.

“Not here.” Kinkaid forced himself to growl, knowing he was not ready to contend but bowing to the inexorable.

“They wouldn’t care.”

“It’s not about them.” Kinkaid snapped back, before he could control himself.

Mercy didn’t appreciate his response, “Then come here, boy.”

Before Kinkaid could do anything else, Mercy was already dragging him out of his chair by his hair. The sudden, additional pain jolted Kinkaid’s system, he struggled to keep up with Mercy’s brisk pace. He didn’t know where he was taking him, but he did know the more he resisted, the worse things would be for him in the near future. They continued down the street until there was a narrow alley, in between two buildings. Mercy shoved Kinkaid into the space first, then followed close behind. It was claustrophobic and dark, the two of them stood not three inches apart with their backs against the walls. The smell of piss and body odor permeated the thick air between them. Mercy’s breath stank of rot and old flesh. Everything was still before Mercy lunged at Kinkaid, his mouth open and hungry.

Against Kinkaid’s own logic, his body refused to submit to Mercy’s will and before his teeth could dig into him, he threw a full-bodied, left-handed punch into Mercy’s jaw, making his hat fly off. Mercy was taken by surprise and let out a howl, before catching himself against the wall.

“There you are.” He smiled bigger than before, and renewed his efforts.

Kinkaid attempted another punch as Mercy grabbed him again, but quickly noticing that he was going to miss, he recalculated to follow through with an elbow to Mercy’s temple. Mercy quickly recovered and countered with a forceful knee to Kinkaid’s gut, then threw him to the ground and straddled him, pinning his arms to the ground with his knees.

“Lost your touch, didncha boy?” Mercy laughed, his eyes bright as he started to salivate because of the brief excitement.

Kinkaid tried to kick him off, but Mercy had a weight advantage on him, and plenty of experience; he tried to loosen his arms but with the same fruitless result. Mercy was drooling, he leaned over Kinkaid, smile ever-growing.

“I like you in this position. How have we never gotten here before?” Mercy’s impediment was more prominent.

Some of Mercy’s drool landed in Kinkaid’s mouth, causing him to gag and fight even harder. Mercy paid no mind to him as he rolled up his sleeves and shifted his weight back, holding Kinkaid down with his hands instead. Mercy licked Kinkaid’s neck, covering it in saliva, before biting down. At first, he only playfully bit him, but then he couldn’t restrain himself and bit hard enough to draw blood. Blood gushed into his mouth, but only momentarily before his saliva closed the wound. He swallowed the blood fervently, and licked his lips to get any remaining.

“I like it when you make it difficult, you know?” Mercy seemed satisfied. “I missed your taste. We should do this again sometime soon. Maybe for fun instead.”

He removed himself from Kinkaid’s chest, standing dominantly over him, before moving to get his hat. Kinkaid wasn’t done fighting though, and angry at his own weakness, he got up and attempted to tackle Mercy. Mercy was ready for him, and caught him by the neck before Kinkaid could even touch him.

“I would love to tumble around a bit more, babe, but you and I have an appointment to keep.” Mercy said, clearing the remaining drool from his face with the back of his sleeve.

Mercy reached into his dark jacket and pulled out a vial-shaped amulet, Kinkaid had a similar one, but he often refused to have it on him. The power of it glowed dimly in the darkness of the alleyway, Mercy put it up to his lips and looked at Kinkaid before whispering words to it. Kinkaid made an attempt to interrupt him, but his reach was too short and Mercy was too strong. A stronger fear gripped him than before as the alleyway around them melted and morphed into somewhere else entirely, somewhere Kinkaid was painfully familiar with, but had no intention of ever returning to. Mercy let Kinkaid go before putting the amulet back in his jacket.

They stood in a pure white intersection, surrounded by eight hallways, they were all equally identical. The lights were too bright. There was a tone, perhaps produced by machinery, that made one uneasy the moment they entered. There were no entrances, there were no exits, and the hallways seemed to go on for eternity. This place was one of nightmares. The darkness of their clothes extremely contrasted the white. Their smells were made more distinct in the empty, dry intersection. It was completely silent other than the faint hum.

“Why are we here?” Kinkaid asked hesitantly, he thought his encounter with Mercy was going to be the worst of his evening, but it turned out there was a whole other level to this.

“Council requested you. And since one of you is only available right now, it’s your turn.” Mercy guided Kinkaid with a shove down the northernmost corridor.

Kinkaid walked unwillingly forward, bracing himself for the exchange with the Council. It felt like he was willingly going to be waterboarded. There was an obstruction in his throat, and he tried to clear it, but the harder he tried, the more it closed. Fear held him close, its claws dug deep. He was all but visibly shaking. They reached the end of the corridor after some time, the end being a mirror of the rest of the hallway, and contrary to logic, it was actually a door. Mercy elbowed Kinkaid aside, and opened the door, entering first with a poised flourish.

“Councilors, I present Black Resource Cassius Kinkaid.” Mercy bowed low with a flourish, his pride and ego swelling to new heights.

#a criminal's game #acriminal'sgame #crime drama fantasy #writing #story #my work #mature #fiction

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abundantchewtoys · 7 years

Text

RE: Hiveswap '17-09-15 - JoeysRoomStuck

So, second night of playing Hiveswap!

I doubt the start menu will change background now that we've started playing.

Hmm, there is a difference though! After changing the settings to a bigger resolution, there was a big black edge around the screen, but tonight it fills the entire monitor!

Let's start!

---

N'aww, Ms. Claire was already a fine ballerina at around Joey's age! Shared interest!

So it seems her Mom isn't just a club singer, but she might be a multi-disciplined artist, which brings to mind Grandpa's over-diversified career.

I wonder if one of these books becomes relevant later on and spurs a different reaction than the one about BOOK REPORTs?

OOh, one of Joey's plushes is from the Snorkle series, heheh. Good times.

Her bed is well kept. Joey confirmed for Prospit dreamer! :P

Heheheh, the text regarding the bed is absurdly detailed, which makes me assume we'll definitely be getting a comment later on from Dammek about the same object, him not understanding what it's for. Or on Alternia, Joey might have the same reaction to Dammek's sleep spot (recuperacoon, Blaperile reminds me).

Hahahah, the plush on her bed has its own jingle, like the oven. Fake popular merch FTW! "Puppy Surprise", huh? Makes me think of a Fiduspawn. ... D'ah, Blaperile looked it up - it's actually REAL!! Dear god, or, dog, I suppose. So that's why there's an eye symbol on hovering over it, there's more to it than meets the eye!

"Puppy Surprise is having puppies!" -->

Oh dear god this is too disturbing. They selled this to KIDS? Nineties, just. Why?

Also, WHAT THE FRICK, THE CHERUB KEY IS HERE? IN HER ROOM? That's awfully convenient. And there's a different key here too. For a locker close by?

I wouldn't be surprised if this "thoughtful" gift came from Mom. Roxy. The sitter. You know who.

"some kid from school" Joey no, what are you doing, having a life outside of your house. Stop that, it's not Homestucky.

"Maybe you 'Five Puppy People' are just cut from a different cloth" The cloth being paradoxical ectoslime in this case. Well, second-generation slime, at least.

The little key's her DIARY KEY, ooh. What secrets does it lock away, I wonder? First namedrop of Jude, and confirmation he kind be big baby about things. No surprise here.

But wait! She then says the cherub key used to belong to her MOM??? Uhm. I just had the most awkward vision. Joey travelling back into time to become her own Mom, the key turning out to be a juju this way... But then, where would Jude fit into all this? Not that I really want to believe in this theory, but it would be awfully Homestucky.

I like Blaperile's theory better: the key originated on Alternia, and was brought along by the Condesce, making it so that the key is just in two places at once due to it being two different times on its own timeline! Would be neat if the same would hold for the cherub portal, as I think has been speculated before.

Joey's "inexplicable feeling" to maybe be needing the cherub key later on, is of course, plot. Plot is why.

Joey starts listing similarities to and differences to Clarissa's life, who I assume is part of a 90s soap. Then she mentions that Clarissa had a cool friend who is a boy but NOT her boyfriend! This might just be a reference to there being numerous times in that series that there's a "he's not my boyfriend" being shouted, but... I have to wonder whether maybe Joey has a boyfriend! Ya know, if Xefros is Dammek's "bro", as in moirail or something similar, than maybe Dammek also has a matesprit which Joey'll meet! To keep things similar on both ends.

Ooh, looking it up, it turns out Clarissa is a British series airing on Nickelodeon, I would have assumed it's American!

The "JUNIOR VETERINARIAN MEDKIT" reminds me of something. Maybe Jade had a junior something or other item, or maybe I'm just thinking of the echeladder rungs.

The closet prompts the command "CHANGE"!!! Maybe it's a dud, but ooooooh boy! I like Blaperile's theory, she going something like "you changed into new clothes. it's not obvious since all you've got is more sets of the same clothes, but the old ones you changed out of were sweaty so..."

Heheh, Joey wonders how Clarissa succeeds in looking great all the time. That time before you fully realize the work going into setting up the Plato cave that is fictional settings...

Pfffff, okay, Joey doesn't want to change until she has someone to do a style montage with. I suspect she and Xefros might have one then, when disguising her as a troll. Trying out all kinds of fake horn styles.

Ah come on, the reason Joey wants to be a veterinarian (or part of it) is that she wants to snuggle baby animals. Really, who can blame her?

.... The MANTHRO CHAP though. It gives us not one but TWO Homestuck references! One to "what a daring dream", and one to humanimals! I (sh)udder to think what reactions this might spur in people looking up the source for this quote for the first time, hahahaha!

Blaperile and I have acknowledged the PC and walkie talkie but we'll be leaving it for later, in case it's plot relevant.

----

On to the other side of her room! All these neat posters, a closet door missing a handle (or maybe it's a sliding door), and the first sight of the tree house and her family pictures! Cooooool.

All these posters featuring games and books. "THE STORY KEEPS HAPPENING" PFFFFFFFF. NEVERENDING STORY, I MEAN, A COMPLETELY UNRELATED STORY, COPYRIGHT-FREE AND STUFF, HAHAH. "It keeps happening" is such a thing that is real about that story though!

And a Mother 2 *cough* I mean "Second Mom" poster, hahaahahahahah! Such a relief that parody can be considered exempt from some copyright claims, so that we can have these awesome shoutouts to inspirations to Homestuck, and to cultural significant properties from the nineties!

I'm acknowledging "Acorn's Shadow" for the Homestuck reference posing as a My Little Pony reference.

What's up with the lesbian-lite dancing poster and furry anthros up there, though?

Is Canadian Campfire Spookums a standin for Goosebumps, I wonder?

Loving the Jenga and Four-On-A-Row games. And Hungy Hungry Pickle Inspectors, I mean Hippos. I wouldn't be surprised if that console (SNES?) was a gift from the sitter too!

Joey starts listing her console games, but stops after one, due to it being nausea inducing. A bad game I suppose. Hah, okay, Bobsy the bobcat, which I came across recently, maybe on Tumblr. It's on one of the posters with its mouth taped by a sticker with SHH written on it, hahah. Guilty pleasure, maybe?

Hah, so Joey's part computer gamer, part console gamer? Guess we know what the PC will usher from response! Also, meta reference, this being a computer game too! Pffff, Blaperile has a point about the FINAL BOSS she just saved before (causing her to choose not to play at the moment)! It's bound to be a Problem Sleuth reference!

Ahahahah, the television shows a clip from the Bubsy game, and Joey has a BLUH reaction to it!

Hah, so there's a kid at Joey's school claiming to have access to Second Mom in secret. Sounds like typical for Earthbound in the 90s. I can't help but wonder if it could be young Bro, though that would make him not as old as Mom, hmm... Nahhh, probably not.

... Okay, so Joey is officially traumatized by Bubsy, turning a once cherished childhood figure into a nightmare. I wonder why she hasn't parted with the poster and game then, though.

... Ah. So what I thought was an inspector with a cheese for a head is actually the Tetris standin, BLOCK HUSTLE, hahaahahah. Only a team that's tuned to Andrew's thought pattern and sense of humour can make Tetris this grisly and at the same time hilarious.

Ginger Rogers is Joey's tap dance idol. A blues-era glamourous figure, like her Mom! "and still kicking!" Well, back then, but I don't suppose in the present... *checks* Nooope! :/

Ooooh, the "anthro" poster I thought, turns out to be a Metroid poster, hahah! "The Bounty Hunter". So the white dragon must be Ridley's standin! She (the bounty hunter) kind of looks like a Power Rangers MegaZord, haahah.

PFfffffff, looking at the poster to the Neverending Story gives a reference to the Childlike Empress looking pretty smug for someone who basically has just a small role. Kind of what Trizza will turn out to be, I wonder? (The Childlike Heiress.)

Ah, so Blaperile is right. Hot Stepping = Dirty Dancing.

Hah, so Acorn's Shadow is a dark television show. Now we know what business Bro was in besides smuppets!

The poster of a deer made me think of Bambi, but it's about an anime that caters to Joey's veterinarian side, while also calling forward to when she and Xefros ride Dammek's lusus (at least in concept art)! The long title is typically Japanese... And kind of exactly like what Dammek's favorite shows might be called, come to think of it! He'd love this.

Blaperile points out that Shika has the appearance of a combination of Nepeta and Sailor Moon, which is hilarious since whatever Nepeta did to wounded animals, you can't call it "healing".

We took another gander at the ceiling, and saw that the stars and compass symbol solicit different responses from Joey! Apparently her sitter made her shirt for her, after the symbol her Mom painted on the ceiling! Guess you could say her sitter kind of functions as her *shades* Second Mom.

Looking closer at the cabinet... Next to the diary and photographs, my eye is pulled to the four-color pen! Ah yes, it's one of the first gifts I remember receiving. I had to watch over class as a grade schooler, and the kids went and gave me stuff, to get on my good side, I guess? But I had none of it. :P

Hmm, we learn that Grandpa started leaving her and Jude alone more and more after her Mom passed away. (At least, I guess she passed away.) I wonder in what way Ms. Claire was a "blue beauty", was it just how she dressed, and how it might have been her favorite colour (think of the ceiling)... Or did she suffer from depressions?

... :( The second picture illicits even more of a depressing reaction from Joey. "You really wish you knew".

The diary seems to have an animal or African theme. Pawprints and what look like bird silhouettes, together with colored bands.

We get the chance to write something down in the diary, something for Dammek to read later on, I believe!

Before unlocking the diary, we try to combine the keys with EACH OTHER... "But it fails". Hahah, hilarious response.

Using the Cherub Key on the diary. "Was worth a shot, you guess. Well, not really."

Tap dancing the diary open? Also impossible. :P Hah! "Tap dancing it off the table", though. Now there's something to imagine!

We keep the key on unlocking the diary!

So she hasn't recorded anything since October 25th, heheh. And before that, the first entry was before "last summer"! ... Her comments about Mom (not hers) and Grandpa's "adulting skills", and about missing Mom (hers) are so sad though. Sitter means well enough, but yeah, just like with raising Rose, she leaves a lot to be desired. And Grandpa... I wonder if he just doesn't feel adequate to parent them, or if Joey reminds him too much of Ms Claire? At least we get confirmation that Grandpa "just" came by a couple of weeks ago. It hasn't been years, I suppose that's all that can be said here. I guess Nanna and Dad really were the only decent parents in Homestuck. (Human ones, I mean.)

Okay, I just got these things from reading the picture, now to actually read the narration it prompts by clicking on the diary!

Joey writes in all lower caps, like John, hahah! (As opposed to the capitalized text in the picture, pffff.)

... She has no friends but the people she knows through Jude :( and even then only online. Eeeeesh. Okay, scratch the boyfriend theory! The kids at school (including gamer dude) don't believe her gamer creds, and she thinks they might be evil! Well, if she goes to school in Hauntswitch, who knows! I like that all entries are on Homestuck dates.

There's a surprisingly LARGE number of references to things from Homestuck in her room, after all!

After writing the entry that Dammek'll probably find, she hides the key again. If she put it back into the Puppy Surprise, I think it's there to stay this time. Until Dammek.

Blaperile had the bright idea of trying the shoes on the photos. Tesseract is scared of tapdancing. :( N'awww.

Yeah, I think we're about ready to fall face first into the massive pile of combinatory explosion. It shivers me timbers that there's even background info to be got from here, though. :DIARY

We'll reload from a previous save file to get the DIARY KEY back, first, though.

N'aww, using the DIARY KEY on Mom's picture. :(

Hehehe, she doesn't remember when exactly she got the CHERUB KEY. She has a good point about it being weird to be fourteen. At that young age, you've already lost a lot of memories of your earlier years. Of course, that trend continues into adulthood, just less profoundly.

... So, she didn't get the key from Mom in person, just from her jewelry box. The one visible in some of the concept art, I suppose. Hmm, Blaperile has a good point, there's no telling whether it wasn't Grandpa that put it in there, after all.

Wow, just like I thought, Mom was a prolific dancer. I don't know what style bolero and dance improvisation are.

Combining the shoes with the keys give as much of coherent responses as can be expected. :P

----

Second night, and we've... well, we got to the second part of Joey's bedroom.

That accounts for something, right? Ahahahah.

Yeah, this game will take AGES. Beautiful and beautiful ages.

#homestuck #hiveswap #joey claire #reaction #spoiler alert #upd8 #jude harley #mom lalonde #grandpa harley #hiveswap liveblog

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