& A 20 DOLLAR PSYCHIC NOSEBLEED

[bruisedpenny]

RULES & ROSTER. PROMPTS. OPEN POSTS. MUSE WHEEL.

cashed out, spent, bent, shit out of luck and out of your mind. you have two faces and one of them is turning patina green. your money is no good at the automat. you suck the marrow from the bones of the congregation hymning in your head. the collection plate rattles. the bet against you comes in at 10-1. it's not about winning. it's about bucking hard enough to stay alive.

C or BP or whatever comes to mind, 30+, she/they, gmt (ireland), supernatural and triggering themes, sporadic activity, highly selective. 21+, minors dni, writing with mutuals only. dead dove, do not eat.

[bruisedpenny]

@jupiterfree [needy.] roscoe teases murray about how desperate they look.

"you know what i wish?"

lots of things, probably. that he could still wear his old boots without looking like an asshole, that print media wasn't dying, that you could still smoke indoors, that they still had CBGB's. that he still had the stamina for a place like CBGB'S.

all roscoe has now is dark corners and precariously stacked things. the lights are off in the store. if he wasn't focusing so hard, he might not even be able to see murray on his knees.

"i wish you were half as smart as you look."

roscoe has to lend murray a little store credit here; he doesn't mouth at roscoe's thigh or reach for his belt or rub his hand over his zipper. he's got enough sense to keep his hands completely to himself. he's lost it insofar as roscoe was able to bully him to the ground.

"if we were going by appearances, i'd venture to think," clink, "you had more going for you than sitting down there." pop, zzzip. "drooling. jesus christ. i can fucking see that. you can't hide a thing. not here."

part of this is a blatant lie. if roscoe had thought murray had more going for him than exactly this, exactly now, he would not have started to court the bad company. things tilt; now he feels murray's breath. it ghosts his lower stomach, which makes him recoil and stiffen, a one-two punch. disgusting. this is disgusting.

it's only disgusting because it's me. which beats being bored of myself.

he feels like he could bite the air with how swollen it is; roscoe's shoulders press to the stacks.

"open your mouth." although it's already - "wider."

[bruisedpenny]

@vitalphenomena [praise.] giddy praises spirit for taking it well.

shit is rapturous in a way that borders either parody or inspiration. giddy rosenstock is not tuned into that channel of his self awareness to figure out which. spirit comes within a mile radius of him, and he swears that he can tell. ears perk up, heartrate rattles. rack up every dog metaphor you can think of and apply. the doubting in his brain goes to pleasant white noise, muzak fed through a vocoder. he doesn't mind the danger that follows her. it mutes itself by the noise of her alone. the world narrows and blossoms in tandem.

the blush high in the apples of spirit's cheeks turn his life technicolour. nothing can be wrong.

his cheek is pressed to the hard angle of spirit's knee, pulled up to her chest. he covers her body; the difference between them does not make his heart feel cavernous. no fuckin way. inside her, he feels that he is, and not a thousand miles away watching from a suspended spot in the ceiling. her beautiful hands on him pull him back into the world and he folds into them at each given chance.

they blur together, skin fusing. someone swiped their hand over the half-finished oil painting of them, and as is so right in giddy's mind, it's only spirit's features that stand out.

her hair fanned out over the pillow, some of it sweat-slicked to her forehead. her parted and softly babbling lips, the lovely kiss-ripened shade of them. the daze in her eyes, half-lidded and blissed. and calm. calm enough to emanate a light he can feel, warming his forever-hot skin. he'd cook under it if he could. he wants this for her forever.

giddy mouths at her knee and slows his strokes. he needs to commit this to memory, and there is nothing easy or half-hearted about that task when it comes to him.

"there's my baby. that's my baby. oh, god - "

that he gets to say it to her folds his gut. he's grateful in a way that renders him nearly immobile but spirit needs him, murmurs as much, so giddy keeps fucking her. whatever she wants. heat and closeness, in the room, in her body. she pulls him in and sweat drips off him onto her, from his forehead to her chest. oh, he's sorry. he's sorry for being such an animal. but -

"you're doin so good, spirit. you stay with me, you keep lookin at me... feel all this now, okay?"

their tracks overlap sometimes, they both like to talk. they both can be vulgar in a fashion, spirit greedy and giddy needy and sometimes they switch midway through. like now - they've been at it long enough. an afternoon cycled away into sweet dusk. giddy pulling sounds and trembles and slickness out of her in all the ways he knows how, which have become numerous. spirit knows her body better than giddy knows his and again, he's grateful.

but he hopes that she hears this, his voice slurred way down and knocked out on her.

"special girl. how good are you? how sweet are you? m'so lucky, baby, lucky, look at you, look - you deserve every little bit. you know, don't you? can you tell me? tell me, tell me, tell me you know."

[kuutamosonaatti]

Penda’s Fen (1974) | dir. Alan Clarke

[slayer-barbie]

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) dir. Rob Reiner

[bruisedpenny]

feel like i expressed this often on parapsyched ten thousand years ago but i have a sincere preference for GB2 and they’re still trying to hunt me down for this and lock me in a cage and cut all my fingers off

[bruisedpenny]

@nastylamb dave said, “let's close this place up so you can buy me a calzone.”

“you haven’t earned that.”

[bruisedpenny]

@vitalphenomena burns said, “it’s a river of slime!”

enthused, “ohya fer sure!”

“the fish’re fine but whatever they got goin on in there makes em wicked slow. can’t deke outta the way of nothin, so usin a pole feels, like, unusually cruel. just teasin, no need to be mean to em. you can basically just pick em up in yer hands.”

[bruisedpenny]

@doctorvenko said, “well, i may have a lot of personal problems but i'm a total professional when it comes to my job.”

it’s like,

“lookin in a mirror.” which oughta put them at odds, except when opportunity comes knockin. “so, doc. where does puttin money behind a hand of cards sit among that myriad of issues?”

[bruisedpenny]

@vitalphenomena harris said, “ungrateful little yuppie larvae.”

“that’s what you get for gettin born on the bridge end of the bridge and tunnel, i suppose.”

around the broke teeth and whimpering on the ground in front of them - she is employing a city blind not her circus mentality, harris harris can beat the fuck out of whoever he wants - she pipes up, not unfriendly, “say. what’s your workload lookin like these days?”

[memestockpile]

ghostbusters 2 from the 1989 film. alter as needed.

jesus! why don't you watch where you're going?

i ain't the doorman.

you're also a human being.

it's not my job, but what the hell, i'll do you a favor.

i hope you can handle it. it's been like a nightmare.

why don't we all sit down and we'll have fun.

you know, my dad says you guys are full of crap.

let's go get a beer, alright?

the holidays are coming up. it's our best season.

ghostbusters don't exist.

ungrateful little yuppie larvae.

yeah, but what a ride.

it's just in science, we always look for the simplest explanation.

i've been gradually increasing the temperature in the room.

i'd like to bring [name] in on this, if you don't mind.

we didn't part on very good terms.

send in the puppy, please.

i'd rather you didn't mention any of this to [name], if you don't mind.

i predict that the world will end at the stroke of midnight on new year's eve.

just devil's advocate.

this is not just some money-making scheme, all right?

for your sake, i hope you're right.

valentine's day. bummer.

i received this information from an alien.

this is the best we could do at such short notice.

they think you're a fraud.

aren't you supposed to lie to me and kiss my butt?

everything you're doing is bad.

you be careful there, alright?

i make pretty good cocktails, don't i?

do i have bad breath or something?

my best to the coven.

i bet those science chicks really dig that large cranium of yours, huh?

let's close this place up so you can buy me a calzone.

uh, well, we're just kind of... ahem, checking something out for an old friend.

my [friend/relative first and last name]?

hey, no problem. always glad to help. and hug.

i know i'm just asking for the big hurt but i thought i'd give us one more chance.

okay, sweetheart, now they're gonna take a look at you.

you ever done this before?

i heard he ditched you and ran off to europe.

you know, you’d have been better off marrying me.

i'm sensitive. i need to feel loved. i need to be desired.

i may have a lot of personal problems, but i'm a total professional when it comes to my job.

my parents didn't believe in toys.

you know, i should have been your father.

you're ripe, señor.

you poor, poor man.

i don't have a lot of experience with babies.

so, what, brainiac?

we're scientists, excuse us. get out of the way!

i think we hit the honeypot.

who told you to stop cutting?

what's it look like we're doing here? why don't you let us work? we let you work.

what have i been doing? while you were getting coffee for an hour, i've been digging a big hole in the middle of the street.

now is the season of evil.

it's a river of slime!

come on! get me out of this hole!

go back to sleep, darling.

i happened to be here in this neighborhood and i thought that i would stop by to see how is it with you.

oh, but i "woo"-ed.

do you need anything? do you want me to come in?

well, hey, you. don't let the bedbugs bite.

the law does not recognize the existence of ghosts and i don't believe in them either.

it's all in the hands of our lawyer now.

i got my law degree at night school.

violating a judicial restraining order, willful destruction of public property, fraud, malicious mischief.

you'll never take us alive.

very good, [name]. short but pointless.

i never saw anything like this in my life.

it'll never happen again.

there's so many holes in first avenue we really didn't think anybody would notice.

keep that up, mister, i'll find you in contempt.

there are some things in this world that go way beyond human understanding. things that cannot be explained, things that most people don't wanna know about. that is where we come in.

kitten, i think what i'm saying is that sometimes shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who you gonna call?

you play on the gullibility of innocent people.

if my hands weren't tied by the unalterable fetters of the law then i would invoke the tradition of our illustrious forebears, reach back to a purer, sterner justice and have you burned at the stake!

don't talk to me. talk to my attorney.

you're next, bubbles.

i always hated this part of the business.

i hope it still works.

come on, you big meanie.

we're the best! we're the beautiful! we're back!

it's that darn ghost again.

what? hold on. half-price? have we all gone mad?

oh, you mean the hot beverage thermal mug and free balloons for the kids?

you! you worthless piece of slime!

i have seen some disgusting crud in my time, but you take the cake.

this is what you do with your spare time?

whatever this stuff is, it responds to human emotional states.

like a cop in a doughnut factory.

you're not sleeping with it, are you, [name]?

oh, you. it's always the quiet ones. you hound.

jeez. you guys do this at night when i'm not here?

oh, baby! oh, you're my number one christmas boutique gift item.

i'm a big, big fan of yours.

you're good, pretty eyes.

aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?

yes, i have seen you on the television.

you're not here on business, i hope?

it's top-secret.

i hate this painting. i've felt uncomfortable ever since it came up from storage.

not with that attitude, pal. okay?

i get it. you're sweet on this hunky stud, aren't you?

i think we got more food on your shirt than we did in your mouth.

i didn't know where else to go.

there was all this pink ooze everywhere.

okay, you're alright. i'm not gonna let them get you. alright. you're all safe now, okay?

yes, darling. i'm so sorry.

come on. just sit down. i'll get a shirt or something. hold on.

well, that's great! i mean, that's terrible.

ooh. nice ugly history.

be an excellent time for you to start practicing a thing we big guys like to call self-control.

you're gonna be staying at uncle [sender name]'s until this thing blows over.

what's best for me is if i lie on my side like this and you spoon up beside me, your arm draped over me. we do it the other way, i get your hair caught in my throat and i choke in the night.

you're short. your belly button sticks out too far.

found it in magicians, martyrs, and madmen. dig that.

death is but a door. time is but a window. i'll be back.

we got a report there was a major creep in the area. we checked our list, and you were right on the top.

give me angry. you've had a bad day. you're cranky. yeah, thank you. good, good. ooh, angrier. i'm scared. you're scaring me. stop it. yeah. good! okay, walk for me, talk for me. yeah, yeah! okay, give me hot and sexy. can you do it? you can. oh, boy. show me some teeth. come on. i bet the girls like you, huh? do the girls? do the guys? bet they both do, huh? what about the animals? they like you? that's it, more! yeah, come on! you're big, you're big. all right, destroy me. destroy me! yeah! destroy me. yeah, yeah! give it, give it!

you are supposed to get dressed and get crazy with me on the streets of manhattan. i've also brought some things from your apartment. some wardrobe choices. a couple of provocative ensembles in here.

don't put any of those old cheap moves on me, okay?

you're gonna have the whole place to yourself tonight, pal.

will you tell me next time you’re gonna do that, though, please?

there's not just clean and dirty. there are many subtle levels, okay?

the guys are going down into the sewer to check for slime stuff.

forget about cockroaches. it's the subway rats you gotta worry about.

okay, i'm out of here.

uh-huh. did i tell you? i wasn't lying, was i?

speaking of breaking up with neat guys, why did you dump me?

heck, i'm not even good for me.

you're much better than you realize. you don't give yourself enough credit.

i could whip myself into shape by the end of this century.

you're very good with children.

so you wanna play boggle or super mario brothers?

you better watch your mouth or i'll punch your lights out.

it's go time, man! i want you bad!

stop, stop. get your clothes off quick. strip.

you're scaring the straights.

i was gonna tell you between the dessert and the cheese course.

the proton pack is not a toy.

we watched some tv and had something to eat and then and one thing led to another.

what is this? a slumber party?

you've got two minutes. make it good.

i'm just sorry we always meet under these circumstances.

what we're trying to tell you is, like, all the bad feelings, i mean, all the hate, the anger and violence of this city is turning into this sludge.

if we don't do something fast, this whole place is gonna blow like a frog on a hot plate.

being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every new yorker's god-given right.

i don't know why beautiful women love horses so much. do you love horses?

it's very potent stuff.

[name]. sweetheart. i thought i'd lost you, that i'd never see you again.

hello, [name]. i thought you might come.

the park bench was chasing you?

well, better late than never.

have you tried dynamite?

i spent an hour last night in my bedroom talking to fiorello la guardia, and he's been dead for 40 years.

oh, come on. there's always room for jell-o.

yet i think that perhaps you and i could learn… to love each other?

there's gotta be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned-out burg.

i was born to wear this stuff.

stay fit. keep sharp. make good decisions.

i love you when you roughhouse!

boy, am i glad to see you.

that's all right, my friend. i think i had an accident too.

i did it! i did it! that was great!

you stay here and don't say anything, okay?

i have met some dumb blondes in my life, but you take the taco, pal.

hey, man, let me tell you something. i love you.

[bruisedpenny]

MAKE A BODY WORK MAKE A BEGGAR HURT SELL ME SOMETHIN BIG AND UNTAMED

[bruisedpenny]

you know what, allow a girl her machinations every once in a while.

pash lures yuki out to pine barrens, new jersey, to some bountiful dirt trail with promises of four stroke kawasakis and plenty of air to catch. pash is usually a four wheeler herself - quad skates, the blinding yellow capri that got them out here - but it's worth it to hit an unsteady angle just to watch yuki take off that shiny helmet and shake out the golden flow of her hair charlie's angels style.

cah-rist.

what? pashandra novak is fucking red blooded, and so are you.

so now that that's sufficiently pumping, pash pulls off her own helmet and cracks her neck, then the cooler. like anyone's gonna hassle them for knockin back a couple roadies in the same place there's mob remains squished into the dirt floor.

"ya know, this is a very nicely populated area, if you're a dead guy," pash calls, cracking a cap off with her teeth and holding the drink to yuki. "must be what retirin in a nature commune feels like."

@graveflwers

[jupiterfree]

let's not bring up what roscoe was doing in 1985. let's not worry about it. this is a nasty conversation already, and murray has a perverse urge to make it even nastier.

"if I was bordering on too old to be there, then you - I mean, come on, roscoe. what were you expecting?"

[bruisedpenny]

“that’s not what i meant, you ageist little prick.”

the idea that murray is purporting that either of them have aged out of the bathhouse is laughable. it may seem that way for younger people coming up, it always does. what is that guy doing here, as if the place isn't built off the backs of old queens and wizened queers still, entirely healthily, getting their rocks off and enjoying themselves. as if there isn't still a walk-by-shoulder-touch hi daddy, the likes of which roscoe firmly ignores. be serious.

"what i meant is you forfeited any claim on the place, which is fucking ridiculous, by leaving. anyway - nothing happened." as in, nothing physically occured. "this isn't fucking jane austen." and, because he's still as vulgar as he was in 1985 when pressed, "you might have grounds for complaint if i asked you to suck my cock."

[humanveil]

RUSSIAN DOLL 2.1: Nowhen.

[vitalphenomena]

GOJO'S SHINY, SURE, BUT HE'S SLIPPERY, TOO—THOUGH MORE LIKE SILK AND LESS LIKE AN EEL, IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT.

What happened last Christmas, whether he'd admit this to himself or not, killed some real and joyful and wanting part of him. It's not a part that can easily regenerate through Revere Cursed Technique or, arguably, even a few sessions with a qualified mental health professional.

"Flirt!" It's an affronted dismay, vaguely mocking, that Pasha will come to know very well. How could you think so little of me? I'm disappointed in you, and I'm disappointed in myself, and of course he's mostly fucking with her, or anyone else, the entire time.

She's a smart woman—perceptive, too sharp to be blunt. She'll see through this. Especially because he's grinning so goofily.

When Gojo listens, he does not drink. He does not swat at her hand or fix his sunglasses, which now feel crooked. She must know what she's doing. He's probably not used to them being on his face the right way. Even The Honored One can be enlightened in by small miracles nearly thirty years into his life. It's a continuous process.

"That's pretty. I mean, it sounds pretty. You'll have to show me," Gojo says, and it's so casual, so smooth, except his tongue's loose and heavy.

Also—is he what?

Gojo blinks slowly. She can't see this, but that's fine. She doesn't need him slow and stupid right now. He's got shit to prove.

Also also—the pleasure of what?

"You must be exhausted, and I can't blame you." That's it—she's not making sense because she's tired. Not him, though! He barely sleeps through the night, but he doesn't need to, does he? He is going to live forever! "But, hey—why'd you come back? After all of this—this place. The lights."

[bruisedpenny]

gojo’s smile is just as shiny slippery nice as the rest of him. presumably. pash likes to see the kink of a smirk knocked out, the corners of his mouth softened up for person-to-person conversation and not just excitable quips.

honest to god, for a sec? she’d prematurely written him off as an excitable quip kind of guy. for one, easy way to integrate into a second language. for two, easy to block the harsh light with. she would know. tally that up, if you’re keeping score.

anyway. it’s nice to be asked a question.

her blood and brain recalibrating itself or whatever it does when she gets shook around like this, it turns her to the tender side of thinking. the answer is many-branched; i missed them sabretts, too much cold to get lost in, their milk comes in a bag, i fucked up some handiwork real bad, all this to say go knicks… fuck all that.

“the land, all that quiet, i could feel it tellin me i had overstayed my welcome. i had to go do somethin with myself again."

pash showed up in dawson city flayed, parts of her that she was so proud of chipped off in a mad and heated tear away from the east coast of america. her time in the yukon territory was wasted on her, she's remiss to remember; it was beautiful, and she was too ridden through with holes to enjoy it. the things that nourished her, bad as they were, didn't exist there and so, no healing. just festering. odd work kept her in booze and class As to cut the daylight. too much daylight. she started to seek out basements, but none of them felt safe or dangerous enough. she started to retrace her steps through the provinces, through BC onto alberta, sasketchewan through manitoba and then ontario. she tried to pick up the pieces of herself she had lost along the way and took a couple of jobs. she gained a trunkful of ill-gotten, maliciously-charged gains that needed a home in the process.

"i had no real intent of cutting the gas anywhere in particular. but then, i made a friend in montreal,” and at this she smiles, any coyness dusting off her face. and the bartender sets down another chartreuse and sprite in front of her (she does not want it), “and he got into some trouble not long after i met him. so i, i got him back to full charge, just about… that kind of welded us together. he needed a safe place to go. and there are good people here, better than me, who could help him."

that's a half truth. pash had planned to cut and run with an apology burger left in the squat they occupied in st henri. she locked the door behind her to find giddy sitting, expectant, in the passenger seat of the capri. these are things she doesn't explicitly tell gojo, yet, because she doesn't take easy to trusting people with her memories.

"so i came back for that." she rub-rubs the condensation on her glass. let's brutally undercut this for her lovely listener's benefit, shall we? "plus, ehh, it's new york! center of the fuckin universe."

[vitalphenomena]

woe @bruisedpenny

me, me, bp, bp.

[bruisedpenny]

do you know what it feels like in this world for a girl?