Writing prompt #10: Most embarassing moments

[Crystal Dragon]

We all have our moments where we flub a situation or circumstances don't quite go the way we had originally thought out. This is a good chance to write a little about those, I'll share one of my own.

 

My dragon doesn't very often enjoy being in club situations for a variety of reasons, but the one that was originally grilled into her base concept, was the fact that she simply doesn't like crowds all that much, but she lives for the loud beating music. Reason for this is because she had some pretty bad encounters in the distant past, one resulting in losing a good deal of memory, and the other resulting in a broken heart. She'd likely talk about it if she trusted ya enough to talk over a bottle of black label mead, but she tends to keep a lot of those embarrassing moments mum.

[Greycat]

Cat: Isn't generally *embarrassed,* but - well, she's got mixed feelings about her office / apartment. She's proud of her business and how it's let her help people. It's *hers,* and even if money's tight, it's still something of her own, she's doing what she enjoys. On the flip side... most of her friends are, through one means or another, well off, so having them over when her whole place can fit in one of their closets, pulling out other folding chairs (normally just has one out for herself in the kitchen) and the like, well... Though she *will* point out that, despite their various high tech this, magic that, her paper filing cabinets and overhead projector (gotten cheap) and transparencies can't be hacked or monitored remotely. If they *do* get messed with, well, she's already got bigger things to worry about.

 

Ish: Doesn't really *have* anything, but she's young. Some of the things she could be embarrassed about - she was kind of... not "scrawny" but wiry and undernourished when she was rescued and brought here, for instance, or just not knowing things (not a heck of a lot of education being given on a dying world...) she just takes either as "it is what it is" or takes as a challenge - she doesn't know something, she'll find someone who does or learn it herself. She's just ... rather practical.

 

The one thing that *might* do it, though, is a little thing - a kiss. Not between family - that's fine - and not other people kissing. That's their thing. Until near the end of her time on her home, she'd been thrown in an arena and expected to die (penalty for theft,) and managed not to - and kept fighting. The lack of privacy in the quarters means that a lot of "taboos" don't bother her. The few times she saw someone just kiss their partner, though, they were going out and expecting to die - and usually did. So in her mind it's something... very intimate. (Her boyfriend gets this, after she explained it. They tend to rub noses, which their friends and familes find exceptionally cute.)

 

Pri: Is sort of in the same boat as Ish as far as "hard to embarrass." She knows she doesn't know things, she's not shy, her 'job' generally has been to go out and find information, so learning something she doesn't know is just ... a thing. She was designed and was looked at as "a product," so comments that might embarrass her generally just remind her of that and she tends to either ignore them or get angry about them. But not embarrassed. I'm sure some of *this* will change over time, though...

 

Rez: Being helpless. Less so now with her boyfriend, since she knows he'll be there, but she's mostly "helpless" if she doesn't pay attention and lets what energy the nanites that keep her functioning run down - she *can* still do things without them, but she'd suddenly get hit with all the pain they're currently suppressing and she's rather out of practice ignoring that amount of it and functioning.

[Nerva]

Tiltowait scares people.  Not everyone - most people don't even know what a Tiltowait is - but for those that do, he's terrifying.  Imagine someone with the personality of an overly friendly puppy mixed with an excitable ten-year-old coming up to you and saying, "Hello, I'm a strategic-scale thermonuclear weapon.  Do you like explosions?" and being utterly convinced that they're completely serious.  That's what it's like for most low-level spellcasters to be introduced to Tiltowait.

 

Needless to say this has caused some problems.  Like for instance, Tiltowait's first experience in Primal Earth was introducing himself to MAGI in order to get his paperwork in order.  The moment Azuria realized that his desired superhero name wasn't a pseudonym, there was a very... heated discussion... as to whether he should be locked in a nice secure room in a MAGI vault with every precaution taken to ensure he remains serene and undisturbed.  Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, especially when Tiltowait explained that while yes, he's a living Tiltowait spell, he doesn't have the ability to smoke an entire city zone indiscriminately due to his transformation into a Personification.  Even if he did, he wouldn't want to, because that would hurt or kill a lot of innocent people and he'd feel terrible about that.  A living Tiltowait spell was borderline inconceivable.  One with a conscience?  Practically miraculous.

 

There was a lot of tests, divinations, and scrutiny, both magical and mundane, to ensure that Tiltowait wouldn't be a threat to Paragon City.  Tiltowait was a bit frustrated - mostly because it involved sitting around and being bored - but he shouldered the responsibility surprisingly well.  He only fell asleep during a lecture once, got distracted by his curiosity only twice, and resisted several urges to blow up small, inconsequential things that his impulsiveness was telling him would be neat if they were in several pieces.

 

For being so good about it, Azuria gave him a completely-ordinary lollipop.  This is when the entirety of MAGI discovered that you don't give Tiltowait sugar.  To his credit, Tiltowait didn't break anything irreplaceable, the hole in the wall was quickly patched, and he was quickly found by patrolling heroes in Downside after a noise complaint about repeated explosions rattling the windows of nearby buildings.  Tiltowait was discovered terrorizing the Hellion population by blowing up guns, bats, knives, and magical paraphernalia wielded by the gangers.  Jittery, but cooperative, he was fairly easy to convince to come back to the MAGI office.

 

PPD reported a spike in Hellions turning themselves in to the police an hour or two later.  There is a note in Tiltowait's official MAGI profile that he's not to be given sugary or caffeinated foods except as an emergency measure.  Azuria has been adamant that it stay there, despite Tiltowait's insistence that he's better about that.

[White Cobra]

((This is from Rei’s Swiss Alps boarding school days – a story about embarrassment, humiliation, and revenge.))

16-year-old Rei Mizuni knew better than to show emotion or weakness in public. But she had never been cold like this before, and try as she might, there was just no way she could stop her body from trembling as she waited on the lonely bench.

Matthieu was two hours late by now, and her skillfully applied makeup long ruined by the icy streams of water dripping from her snow-soaked hair. There had to be some kind of mistake or misunderstanding, or an accident perhaps? She prayed that nothing bad had happened to him.

Normally she would give up and go home by now. But she wanted this party so badly. To dance with Matthieu and have fun and make friends with her classmates. Rei had never really understood why they didn’t like her. She tried to be friendly, helpful, generous, but nothing seemed to work. They were always polite to her face of course, but there was no mistaking the whispers, giggling and finger pointing going on behind her back.

Worst of all were the English lessons. French had come easy to her like most things, but just like some kids struggled with reading, writing, or math, English grammar and syntax just seemed an impenetrable mystery to her, a murky porridge of words, tenses, and bending rules she was just unable to digest. She hated the knot in her stomach and the knowledge of the others biting their arms not to laugh whenever she was called upon to answer a question in class. Alone in her room, she dreamt of being popular like Clara and Matthieu, but for once, fulfilment of a wish was denied her.

And then yesterday morning the unexpected had happened. Clara had approached Rei, sharing her screen with the latest Roberto J video playing on repeat. The whole morning, Clara graced Rei with her company. It was mostly Clara going on an on about how hot Roberto J was, and how she was sure that one day the teen heart-throb would fall madly in love with her. But Rei enjoyed the moment of confidence between them and even ended up revealing - against her better judgement, but it felt so good to say out loud and share, like it might actually come true - her own crush on Matthieu.

Then – miracle of miracles – this morning Matthieu had placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her heartbeat with his smile, and asked if she would come with him to the party. Her mind-blown brain had somehow resumed functionality enough to let her confirm that indeed she would love to, and here she was, waiting. If only Matthieu hadn’t been so late.

She heard footsteps and voices approaching from down the river path, and her heart trembled. Was it him? Bottles clanked together, and she saw now that it was not Matthieu but three young men from the village. Drunk. Rei averted her gaze as they came closer to the bench and…stopped.

The biggest and bravest among them approached her, leaning into her personal space, and whispering something in her ear. She gasped at the indecency of his proposal.

“Leave me alone please,” she said in perfect French.

The man hesitated and Rei tensed. She had a taser, pepper spray, knuckledusters, 12 years of vigorous martial arts training, and an alarm and tracking device on speed dial to Mouse speaking in her favor if the men should decide to force the issue, but Mouse was at least ten minutes away, and perhaps sneaking out to elude the giant bodyguard hadn’t been too clever after all.

“But your friends said you were looking for a good time?” The man looked more puzzled than threatening.

“My friends?”

“Back there – across the river.”

“I don’t know who you mean, and in any event, I am not, so please leave me alone.”

The men exchanged glances, considering their options. They taught her some new French cuss words but then resumed their drunken journey down the river path.

From across the river, Rei heard giggling and then saw two figures emerging from behind a snow-covered bush and hurrying away. It was a full moon, so despite the distance, there was no mistaking Clara’s blonde tresses or the neon ski-jacket Matthieu was rarely seen without.

Rei rose from the bench and started walking, holding her head high. She knew better than to show emotion in public.

-0-

Five days of merciless whispering, giggling, and finger-pointing behind her back later, Rei had survived another English lesson and stepped into the corridor, falling in line behind the new power couple Clara and Matthieu, who were holding hands.

The class spilled out into the courtyard, and all fell silent, stopping dead in their tracks. Clara let go of Matthieu’s hand, her mouth gaping and giving her the appearance of a stunned potato cod. Rei smiled.

In front of a white limo stood Roberto J with a generous bouquet of long-stemmed red roses in his hands. As the classmates watched in astonishment, he rushed forward towards them, seeking out Rei. Mindful not to let the roses harm her, he took Rei in his arms, kissing her passionately.

Arm in arm they walked to the limo. Roberto J held the door for her, and they drove off, Rei sneaking herself to one last look at Clara’s still gaping mouth.

It was true what they said, she thought. Everyone had a price. Even Roberto J. Luckily, Mouse had known Roberto J’s security detail and had swiftly made the necessary arrangements. It had set her back an obscene amount, but the reactions from her classmates and Clara especially had been literally priceless, and it had been worth every CHF and penny. And just to top things off, Roberto J seemed like a really nice guy and genuinely interested in getting to know more about her.

-0-

Next day, her classmates were still whispering and pointing fingers behind her back, but there was no more giggling, and the whispering was not so much in spite as in awe. When she “accidentally” dropped the wad of backstage tickets to next week’s Roberto J concert in Verbier on the classroom floor, her dreams of being popular also rapidly became true.

Too bad Matthieu had shown his true nature and turned out not to be the nice guy she thought he was. But then again, Rei thought as she checked her phone. Roberto J had just texted and asked her out to dinner. Perhaps Matthieu wouldn’t leave a too permanent dent in her heart after all.

Edited December 18, 2021 by White Cobra

[chase]

“Most embarrassing moment?   Man… that’s…. Y’know that’s a tough thing to single out.  It’s been kinda a rapid succession of embarrassing moments since I was 14.   If you spent every day looking like an anime character-the hentai kind- you’d know what I mean. 

 

“But what’s the most embarrassing?”

 

 “I’ve… I’ve never really thought about it.  It’s not something that I tend to talk about, but this stakeout IS going nowhere so… lemme think a moment.

 

“Just keep this between us, ok?  It’s not like I want something like this published on the internet.

 

“I mean, OBVIOUSLY having hundreds of unflattering pics powering the internet’s meme-engine is pretty embarrassing, but i can’t really single out one of them as THE most embarrassing.   The viral video-yeah, the one edited to suggest I was… umm… y’know… excited.  Really Excited.  Like REALLY REALLY excited over a pizza.  You know what I mean with the 'When Harry Met Sally' Kat’z deli audio mixed in.   

 

“I still cringe a little when someone shouts, ‘Tastes like Victory’ or calls me the PizzaCat.

 

“Don’t get me wrong, that’s all mortifying, but at least most of that isn’t in-person.  It’s just crap posted online. Heroes gotta deal with that kind of crap when they’re in the public eye, right?  The in-person mishaps have got to be worse- like when a PPD glue bomb plastered me to a wall posed like an Egyptian hieroglyph.

 

“You saw that?  Oh, yeah, the tiktok with “walk like an egyptian” soundtrack. I’d somehow managed to purge that from memory..

 

“As bad as that was, the worst part came afterward= when they tried to peel me free.  What you (hopefully) can’t tell in the TikTok is that that foaming glue gets… well… it gets everywhere.  That’s particularly bad for folk like me that 1) have a lot of fur and 2) don’t wear much else.

"Get where I’m coming from?

 

"They were consummate professionals, but sometimes professional is a little too clinical.  They just wanted to keep me stuck up on the wall until a female officer could arrive and ‘discreetly help’ apply the solvent. -Yeah.  Really. Leaving me hanging there until she could arrive.  They wouldn’t just give it to me to apply myself  ‘Sorry, we can’t risk this secret formula getin leaked to the public.  Maybe if you were a registered hero...’

"Yeah.  My ASS!

 

“Heh, well, quite literally my ass, I guess.  Eventually we compromised with them hitting the… uh…  safe areas… and I just accepted I’d have a sticky semi-transparent bikini goo for the rest of the night.  It looked as bad as it sounds, PLUS Every step I took felt like a real slow and painful wax job, 

“Sorry, was that too much information?

“Hah! Now this conversation will be one of your most embarrassing moments, eh?

 

“I figured I could just stick to the shadows and sneak home with nobody the wiser, but of course that’d be the night where the apartment across the street caught fire.  Hard to sneak past 30 firemen, god knows how many lookie-loos, and a newscrew.

 

"That… that hast to be pretty high on the list.

 

“Oh! I almost forgot -there’s one time I stopped a mugging in the most catgirl-way possible. I kinda fell into the group when a fire escape was CLEARLY not up to safety code, and when i hit the ground on all 4’s they thought I was gonna lunge at them.   

 

"Really tense stuff- Guns. Hostage. All that.

 

"To be honest, the fall was so bad that I really wanted to just curl in a ball and whimper. Totally unplanned.   I did manage to activate my emergency 911 trigger on my phone, then did whatever I could to de-escalate things waiting on the cops.   I went from crouched like I would pounce to just laying on my belly, propping myself up on my elbows and – y’know- trying to look totally relaxed and nonthreatening.

 

"Unfortunately, I totally missed how all this looked from their perspective till I noticed they had trouble making eye contact.  A few degrees south of my eyes, my elbow-rest was putting my boobs on full display, in the other direction, my rump did the same, with my tail snaking around like it was trying to hypnotize them. Damn thing always has a mind of its own.

“I was absolutely clueless.  Totally.  I mean, sure they were muggers, but I would have never guessed they were into that furry thing.  I just kept making it worse saying things like “Hey, I’m just laying here, not threatening you in any way, If you don’t like it, just tell me the place and position you want me in!”

 

“Yeah, I really was a little dense that night, but I think part of the confusion was because they saw me as a catgirl.  If a NORMAL cape was laying on the ground making suggestive comments, you’d kinda question whether there was failure in communication somewhere, but a catgirl?  That sounds pretty par for the course.

 

“ It was so bad that the muggers got visibly uncomfortable. - Yeah, really.

 

“The most insane part was that it kinda worked.   When we both realized the misunderstanding, everyone got all flustered and laughing and relieved.   Ended up convincing them to put the guns away and go away, with even the guy getting mugged laughing the whole thing off. 

 

 

---
At this point, Tabitha paused.  Her eyes went to the floor and and her tone dropped from a somewhat chirpy laugh to something more somber,

 

“But y’know, in all seriousness, I think I’ve grown desensitized a bit over the years.    When I think back to it, the stuff that really embarrassed me then are pretty mundane in comparison, but still hurt so much more.

 

“My first week in placement at St. Ives, the other girls in Dorm B invited me to one of their post-lights-out parties.  Ya gotta understand, I’d never really fit in to regular school before the change, really- always an outcast.   I… I didn’t know what to expect, I figured I’d be even more of an outcast once this… condition too hold.   The invitation- it kinda gave me hope things would be different.  Maybe- just maybe- people would see something in the new me that they liked.   Maybe I could be… y’lknow… I wasn’t aiming for popular, but maybe accepted?   Mary Zane was probably the most influential girl in the dorm.  Her vouching for me carried weight.  

 

“So about 8 of us gathered in Mary’s room, we all had introductions and awkward chatter.  Girl stuff.  Snuck some contraband booze, but there wasn’t enough to get more than a buzz,  then they decided to play truth or dare.  

 

“I was kinda uncomfortable with some of the questions the other girls got, so I took a dare right off the bat.  Mary said, 'kiss me.'    

“I was… well, terrified.   My heart was pounding a mile a minute.  I wasn’t sure what I expected but not that.  I didn’t have a lot of experience kissing beyondt like a mom-or-dad type goodnight kiss and never a girl.  The other girls were giggling and chiding me on playfully, letting me know it was no big deal, so I went along with it.

 

“I kinda expected just a peck and be done, but Mary held my head there and turned it into- y’know, a real blockbuster leading lady/leading guy type lip-mashing.  It seemed to last forever, and then when it ended, she gave this kinda intimate smile and giggle- her face still so close I could feel her breath on my cheek.

 

“I… I wasn’t sure what to feel or expect or react.  Like I said, no experience in that sort of thing, but God, after so many years of being the outcast, that moment…it was liberating.  I think it was that giggle more than anything else.  To be that close to someone else with your defenses so down so much.  Vulnerable, but... safe.

 

"I giggled too.

 

“When she told Becca, the girl next to her, that she needed to try it too, I didn’t object or point out how it violated the rules of the game.   We kissed.  We smiled.  Giggled

 

“Then Becca and Mary huddled together and started chittering among themselves, not letting any of the rest of us in on their little conversation.   I just stood there, a grinning idiot, wondering when I’d be let in on the joke.

“I was the joke.

“Mary Zane’s whole demeanor flipped like a switch, and every girl in the room flipped right along with their leader- insane Zane.   She dismissed me like you’d dismiss waitstaff.  I was so stunned, I guess I didn’t move fast enough, so she told me more explicitly to leave, that I was no longer needed there, and that she and Becca had just never kissed anyone with facial hair before and had wondered what it was like. 

 

"All the girls were taunting me. 

"I ran from the room.

“Of course, by the next day they were all telling stories about me trying to kiss Mary and Becca and it had been all me and they had to throw me from the room. They claimed they were being nice by not telling the ward masters, since- after all- you know how catgirls are.”

Tabitha could no longer make eye contact.  She studied the floor, the ceiling, her hands, looking anywhere but you.  

She sniffled,  “I… I never told anyone about that.  It’s stupid, I know, that was over four year ago.  One tiny fraction of a moment in time- and so many friggin things have occurred since then   You’d think that with all the memes and messy situations I’ve stumbled through, I’d have forgotten all about that, but that… that’s gotta be the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

She sniffled again.

“Damn allergies.”

“Can we maybe change the topic?”

Edited December 18, 2021 by chase

[Chrono-Bot]

Neither Lykossia or Kaloses have had an easy time adjusting to a physical form with needs after being ghosts for so long and do not want to discuss it. There's too many choices for 'most embarrassing'. But for Lykossia it was probably the first time he tried coffee and the blurry next five hours.

 

Back when Quickfrost was a newb Outcast, she was having her first big fight with a hero (some level 2 who's never been heard from since for reasons unrelated to Quickfrost) and she slipped on her own ice patch. In front of all the other, more experienced Outcasts. She had to work pretty hard to earn their respect after that.

 

Blazed met a guy who said he was going to show her a water park and then it got... more than she was expecting and she had to run away. She feels so embarrassed it didn't occur to her what he was really after.

 

Chrono-Bot doesn't feel embarrassment, which honestly would have been a very useful feature for them to include in her programming. She does feel horror and disgust, but mostly aimed at Paragon's sewage system and her own lack of waterproofing. She did feel something... akin to it the first time she encountered the ocean, ran into it, and had to spend the next week in rice.

 

[TigerEmperor]

If by embarrassing, you mean feeling shame and contrition or guilt or similar, yes, Raphael Firestar definitely feels embarrassed by his having been... Possessed. But more generally, he'd be embarrassed by a few of the times he tried to flirt with girls before his possession. And the time he spent on his highschool martial arts team. Though if you were to ask him, they had it coming.

 

Being stuck in an amulet for thousands of years definitely was embarrassing for Ra-Akhnaten as... Well, not only did it imply he was careless, it also implied he was weak and stupid. And he doesn't abide such notions. One doesn't get to be a priest, let alone able to do what he did undercover for so long, without being really smart. Though there was the time that one merchant spilled tea all over his robes. He's still not sure that was an accident.

 

Raphael Firebane doesn't exactly have an embarrassing moment so much as "I may have gone a bit overboard. But those Destroyers/Syndicate/Resistance/insert other criminal faction here deserved something for their crimes, yes?"

 

And Carmilla de Borgia? Well, first few times she kissed girls she was interested in as a teenager, worrying about how to break the news to her parents, and her "sadly impressive" collection of adult magazines. After she was turned for the Carnival of Blood? Much less shame, way more pleasure. She doesn't worry about it as much anymore besides "Yes, I was a bit of a mess back then, wasn't I?"