#I still know very little about AK but I have read some short stories and now my hollow soul has been filled with AK content

[caffichai]

Regular Abyssal Hunter downtime activities

[hatake-no-sharingan]

A Well Loved Copy (PART 1: Magical Places) 

Kakashi x Reader

Story Summary: Your cozy life as a bookseller is disturbed when a box of the worst books you could ever imagine arrives at your store, and with them a certain silver haired ninja to whom you are definitely not attracted.  

Relationship: Kakashi x Reader

Warnings: None

A/N: I wrote this first part a few days ago, but it still had a few things missing and I finally finished it today. I’m thinking it’s going to be at least 3 parts long (depending on how much my brain allows me to write) and that it’s going to be mostly fluff and romance, but I also want to add some angst. Hopefully you’ll all like it <3 Be kind and enjoy.

Magical Places

“God who even reads this crap” you tell yourself as you arrange the 20th copy of the latest Icha Icha Special Holiday Edition on the hot new arrivals shelf in the bookstore. “It’s unbelievable how they keep making new editions of the same trash and people actually buy them”

Last night, your boss had explicitly told you that he wanted the books in the most visible part of the store, because they were always a massive hit, unlike the beautiful short story books you had been forced to stash in a less noticeable shelf almost at the back of the store.

You spent hours admiring the graceful prose and the magical places they took you to, wishing your own writing was half as good. You knew most of those books by heart, and every time one of your favorite authors published one, you read it so many times until you could almost recite it word by word. That’s why your personal collection of books was small, but very well loved. Whenever you got the chance, you recommended them to customers, though almost none listened to you. However, those who did, always came back to thank you for it.

“It’s better to know one book intimately, than a thousand superficially” your mother told you when you were little, and to this day, the phrase stuck with you.

When your boss, the shop owner, told you to remove your favorite stories, the ones you knew intimately, from the best shelves to make space for what was basically porn disguised as a romantic thriller, it felt personal.

“I’m sorry, I know they’re good, but we need to give up the space for the best selling authors” your boss had told you yesterday night when he saw your frown as you removed them from sight. You ignored him for the rest of the time you were there while going through the new inventory together, and left the new arrivals unopened

“I’ll arrange them in the morning. If you don’t need anything else I’m leaving” you slipped your very worn book in your pocket, grabbed your keys and left.

That’s why people don’t read real literature, because it keeps getting hidden from sight and replaced with trash, you sigh.

Now you look towards the remaining boxes, the publisher sent way too many for your judgement, and decide to put them away in storage until more copies are needed, so you can still keep a few other not so crappy books on the star shelf.

When you’re returning from the storage room, you hear the door chime, signaling that a new customer is here. You check the time, barely 8:00am.

God, who’s here this early?

“IT’S HERE!” A silver haired man acting like a 6 year old in a candy store rushes in, and grabs 3, no, 4 copies of Icha Icha Special Holiday Edition without noticing he’s messing up your perfectly arranged shelf. “I literally waited a month for it! I need to read it now, it’s gonna be so good”

Is he talking to himself? Or to me?

The guy is bubbling with excitement, running his long fingers across the cover of the book on top. You don’t know why, but seeing the motion sends shivers down your very tired spine. You shrug, and start the computer to enter the day log into the system.

He walks to the counter, feeling giddy with the books and you get tense at the realization of who the guy you’ve been gaping at is.

The signature mask, the covered left eye and the nonchalant but confident walk give it all away.

He’s kinda hot in person, but his awful taste in books ruins it, you think.

“Would you like me to wrap those for you?” you manage to ask, pointing to the four copies he dropped on the counter. “Or would you rather do it yourself at home?” If I were his friend I’d kill him if he gave me that as a gift.

“Huh?”

“We offer a gift wrapping service.”

“Oh no, thank you, they’re not gifts. All four of them are mine”

“All four?” You ask, confused.

“Yeah, one’s my mission copy, another is my house copy, then the back up one, and the last goes on my shelves untouched”

“You must really like the series.” You say sarcastically, emphasizing on the word really.

“They are really good, contrary to popular belief. I know a lot of people judge them, but I swear if they actually read the series, they’d know it’s not just porn” he says with a chuckle, clearly aware you’re judging him.

“Ummm I don’t know” you say scratching the back of your head “I’d rather stick to real literature”

“Wait, you’ve never read them?”

“Nope”

“Not even one?”

“No no, wouldn’t want to waste my time”

“No wonder you’re staring at me like that” he says under his breath, and you pretend not to hear him. “What do you read, then? If you’re only into real literature”

You nod towards the last shelves in the room and then gesture to your own battered copy of The Cursed Beauties and Other Stories.

“They made me hide them away so I could make space for your special edition.”

“I’m sorry about that, maybe they can share a shelf next time.” Did he just smirk? Is he hitting on me? No, it must be me reading too much into things. “I’m Kakashi, anyway”

“I know, you’re kinda notorious amongst us booksellers, as the guy who buys too many copies of Icha Icha”

“Really?”

“No”

“Oh”

“You’re an important ninja okay?” He’s barely aware of it apparently “I have a few modern leaf history books here that mention you. And I think there might be a biography on you too, you’re definitely in the Yondaime’s. I had to read it for school, though I’m not very sure of how much truth is in it. Non ninja writers tend to exaggerate things huh? Not because I’m a ninja myself, becau-well, ummm I’m not, but I have read a lot, on ninjas I mean.” You get flustered when you catch yourself speaking a lot. He makes you nervous, alright? Even though he has bad taste in books and is a bit of an asshole, you can’t help but feel attracted overwhelmed by him.

You get an embarrassed smile from him too.

“I can’t imagine what in my life would be interesting enough to write about” he says, gently tapping his fingers to his temple “but I’ll tell you something, Icha Icha is interesting, way more fun to read than my life. I’d leave one of these copies here for you, but this isn’t the first book in the series, so you really wouldn’t understand it. But you should give the first one a shot, if you don’t like it, you’re allowed to hate me forever and judge my poor taste in books.” He heads for the door and makes his departure, but not before turning around and flashing you a big smile that you swore his whole face was glowing beneath all those coverings.

Something about him lingers with you for the rest of the day, as if he’d never really left the store.

The next morning when you come in, you notice there’s something inside the mailbox which catches your attention, only for the simple fact that you never get mailed anything small enough to fit in the mailbox. It’s always boxes upon boxes of books and gadgets related to literature.

You open it and take out a well worn copy that has definitely seen better days, of Icha Icha Paradise. There’s a small post it note stuck on the back cover scribbled with messy handwriting

Give it a shot, I promise you’ll like it. 

-K

P.S. Take care of it, it’s my favorite copy. Hopefully by entrusting you with it, you’ll decide to entrust me later with your own book ;)

Despite all your judgements and aversions to the series and the author, you make yourself a strong cup of coffee, sit back on your familiar spot, and open the book to the first page.

[gretchensinister]

Favorite Books 2021

I read 121 books this year. (I’m in two book clubs and this is my main form of entertainment. Don’t imagine that I’m also keeping up with popular TV series or podcasts or playing plotty video games.)

Anyway, I wanted to share my favorites and ones I would recommend. The order is the order I happened to read them in over the year.

First, favorites:

The Fade by Chris Wooding: A favorite because of the unique, alien setting (complete alternate planet) for a political intrigue plot. Main character is a female assassin who is actually old enough to be the best at her profession.

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee: A favorite because the artificially immortal, possibly insane (but then who can say in a such a corrupt system?) General Jedao is the exact (like UNCANNILY EXACT) kind of character I go for. Big sci-fi empire, you will have to roll with the setting, but you don’t actually need to know math to get the plot.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: A favorite because it’s short, sweet, surreal, and troubling. A what-if of a book that lingers. A man is in an endless network of hallways and galleries of statues, and eventually figures out more about how he got there.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: A favorite because sometimes you want a fairy-tale situation and you want an author who you can feel confident in.

Uzumaki by Junji Ito: A favorite because it was just so wonderfully disturbing. Now I notice spirals so much more.

The Book of Dragons ed. Jonathan Strahan: A favorite because I love dragons and this anthology had a wide variety and I enjoyed the large majority of the works in it.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht: A favorite because of the absolutely awful (morals and personality) main characters and the gay eroticism of their horribleness to each other. Yes, it’s in the text. Cannot recommend this highly enough.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern: A favorite because it’s a story about stories, and okay, it is a little more vibe than story at times (or maybe I’m just dumb), but that’s not like…a bad thing.

The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood: A favorite because it’s got all kinds of stuff I like in it! Alternate worlds, shady immortals, dead* gods*, looking for a macguffin and finding love instead!

The Fifth Season by NK Jemison: A favorite because I was immediately drawn into the world, the characters, everything, I want to know more and more and more about the mystery of this world and how the characters are going to deal with it ending (not a spoiler). So good I feel like I need to gnaw on something, IDK.

Honor Lost by Rachel Caine and Anne Aguirre: This is the last book of a trilogy and I recommend the whole thing. It’s a fun YA space opera, and it takes a lot for me to enjoy YA these days. I will say that you have to just kind of roll with the space travel component (it makes no sense given the scale of space and no standard FTL travel or gates/hyperspace etc.). But I’ve never read a regular published book where the development of an interspecies polyamorous relationship is the heart of the series.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White: Space adventure, science fiction setting with magic woven into that society. High stakes treasure hunt.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine: Sequel to A Memory Called Empire. All the complicated questions about empire from the first book, but now with a developing war and first contact situation with really alien aliens.

*

More recommendations! Why not favorites? The answer is that there was some aspect that I recognize is something very idiosyncratic about myself that puts them not on my personal favorites list but I still think they’re very good.

The Brilliant Death by Amy Capetta: YA set in fantasy Italy, magic of a type I haven’t seen before, and much more playing around with gender than I’ve seen in almost any fantasy novel.

The First Sister by Linden Lewis: The first book of a series, yes it’s more space empire rebellion and intrigue, I plan to continue with the next book.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse: The more I think about this one the more eager I am to read the sequel (April 2022 last I heard). Set in a pre/non-Columbian South and Central American world. A suppressed religion’s chosen one does what he’s chosen for.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson: This graphic novel is fairly well known, I would guess, among anyone who’s likely to see this post. Main character shapeshifter, nemeses and questions of heroism and villainy.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Definitely both very gothic and Mexican. Got that unsettling claustrophobia of the gothic house to a very strong degree.

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson: Horrifying but also dark, dark humor. Maybe it’s the end of the world, but if only the main characters in the book are going to live through it, who’d want to go on? Jackson’s writing always makes me want to shriek; she makes it look so easy to do it well.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V E Schwab: A young woman makes a deal to live forever, but to never be remembered. Three hundred years later, that changes.

The Cipher by Kathe Koja: Two people find an impossible, inexplicable, completely black hole in an apartment building storage room. And it gets worse and more horrifying from there. I highly recommend this one because it is so horrifying and weird, but I also found it difficult to read because it’s in first person and the narrator is a depressed bastard. There’s no clearer way to say it, and I found it hard to deal with being in such a character’s head sometimes.

Nightbreed by Clive Barker: Recommended because I enjoy horrifying and weird things, and the metaphor in this 90s comic series just hit me hard. The haven of the Nightbreed gets destroyed, and now the monsters have to deal with the aftermath and search for a new refuge. The metaphor’s very obvious when you read it but it’s still a metaphor so if that puts a bug up your ass don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross: A Beauty and the Beast story from the perspective of the Beast. Clear links, narrative-wise, to Beauty by Robin McKinley, though not directly related (I’ve just read a lot of Beauty and the Beast stories and it’s sometimes easy to spot particular influences). Kind of angsty (not a huge surprise given the premise) but if you’re interested in this premise this book does it well.

*

I will not be providing any identity list for the characters in these books beyond what I’ve already mentioned in my brief notes, because I find that trend tiresome and uninformative when I’m deciding what to read. BUT! I am willing to talk more about any of these if you’re interested. Anyway, remember that I’m just a random person that a few of you know and most of you don’t, I just read 121 books this year.

[beeexx]

Set after 1x10 Carlos and TK have another moment. It’s basically a long extended scene. Can be read on ao3 as well. Enjoy When TK asks, a little hesitant, about going back to Carlos’ place Carlos has to stop and think about it. He wants to say yes, but a part of him knows it would be a really bad idea to jump back into bed with each other again. There is an overdue conversation and words to be exchanged between them and TK makes him stupid, resisting him out here on the hood of the car already turning into a bit of a struggle for him. He takes too long to answer because TK’s face falls, closing off and Carlos scolds himself. Before the hand can be retracted from his grip he squeezes it tightly making TK’s eyes snap to his.

“Yes, but only to sleep, nothing else.” He says kindly, he doesn’t want it to come off as rejection. TK searches his face before he smiles a little, making Carlos’ heart flutter.

“Okay.” He promises. 

The drive back is silent, but not uncomfortably so. Carlos can feel tiredness seeping into his bones, the cataclysmic day he’s had, along with probably everyone in the state, finally beginning to take its toll on him. TK doesn’t say much either, but he looks lighter and a little more settled than he has for a while, and that, that is something. When they get to his place he unlocks the door and switches the lightswitch on and TK stumbles into him, his face showing clear discomfort. Maybe he’s thinking of the last time he was here and how the night that was supposed to be nice and romantic ended up pretty terrible. Carlos coughs, pointedly and TK looks at him in embarrassment. Carlos just rolls his eyes and smiles because in this moment he can’t bring himself to bust his balls about what happened.

“Come on.” He says and TK follows him. He opens the door that leads to his bedroom, a room TK’s never made it to before because all the sex has literally only happened on the couch, against a wall or on the floor. It was honestly mind blowingly good sex according to Carlos, but it never felt very intimate to him. It always lacked a certain kind of softness or caring to it, that Carlos somehow knew they could have. But a wall was always up with TK, even when they were literally fucking against one, which is what he would describe what they were doing, definitely fucking, but not having sex. TK looks hesitant again, like he’s thinking along the same lines and his eyes keep flitting around the room in uncertainty. His eyes land on a photo that’s sitting on his nightstand where there’s a picture of him, his three sisters, and his parents. Carlos loves that picture. He walks over to his closet, and leaves TK standing in the middle of the room, eyeing the bed, and starts looking for something for TK to wear. It feels appropriate for some reason, even though Carlos’ seen everything underneath, a few times already. 

“Here.” He says and tosses him a T-shirt and some pyjama pants he hasn’t used in ages. TK catches them easily enough and Carlos turns around to give him some privacy to change. He changes out of his jeans and steps into a pair of shorts. He doesn’t miss the look TK sends him when he takes the shirt off and he hides his smirk. Being appreciated is always nice. TK changes out of the tracksuit bottoms but when he tries taking his shirt of he grimaces in pain. Carlos knows he will push through and take the shirt off himself, but he steps up close anyway.

“Here, let me.” He says and sees TK gulp at the sudden closeness. He nods numbly though and drops his arm to the side. Carefully Carlos fits his hands underneath the jumper and slowly lifts it over his head. He makes sure to be careful when he gently pulls TK’s hand over his head, and not graze the wound. He puts the jumper down on the chair by the mirror.

“You want to keep your own T-shirt?” He aks and TK shakes his head.

“No I’ll take yours.” He says quietly. Carlos nods before he repeats the motion, even gentler than before. His fingers accidentally caresses TK’s side and he doesn’t miss how the skin jumps underneath the touch or how TK very audibly gulps. He tosses the shirt towards the chair, hopefully doesn’t miss it, and finds he can’t take his eyes off the very glaring plaster over TK’s heart. A part of him wants to reach out, feel his heart underneath his fingers to reassure himself it’s still beating. He sighs and the gently reaches forward, places his hand just underneath the plaster and rests his palm there instead. TK’s eyes flutter close and his breathing picks up, Carlos can feel it, faintly, but still feel it, even with his hand a little misplaced. He hears TK bite back a whine as he takes his palm away and he smiles cheekily at him when TK opens his eyes again.

“It’s been that long huh?” He’s being presumptuous but a part of him doesn’t care and kind of feels like he deserves to gloat a little bit about TK’s apparent lack of sex life.

“Shut up.” He grumbles, and the moment is broken by that as Carlos laughs and pulls his shirt over TK’s head. It’s a lot too big for him and while TK is in no means small, he’s definitely smaller than what he is. The look is doing things to Carlos and he has to force his eyes away, because seeing TK disappear in his clothes is making his heart jump in his chest, while it also kind of makes him a little horny. It’s a very odd combination.

“Bed time.” He says and turns over to the side he always sleeps on. He pulls the covers back and gets inside, settling against the headboard and waits for TK to do something other than just stand in his room, looking a little lost. When he finally comes back to it he moves to the other side of the bed and gets in. He pulls the cover up and lies on his side where the wound isn’t and then groans.

“I need to text my dad.” He says and slowly and awkwardly gets out of bed again. Carlos gives him a look.

“Yeah well how many 26 year olds do you know that are recovering addicts with bullet wounds in their hearts?” It’s meant to be a joke, but it falls a little flat, the reminder of how many bad things have happened recently to him, so Carlos’ eyes soften.

“Only one.” He says, heavily and TK looks at him for a long time, a little vulnerable, so Carlos smiles reassuringly at him.

“I’ve met your dad in passing, I’d say texting is a good idea.”

“You’ve met fire captain dad, overprotective dad of only son is a whole different story.” He chuckles and Carlos snorts. 

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“He can be a little… much.” TK settles on. 

“Because he cares.”

“Yeah.” TK. says softly, and puts the phone down. He gets comfortable again and pulls the covers back over his arms as he settles on his side. Carlos looks at him for a while, how soft he looks with his hair unstyled and wearing Carlos’ clothes. He doesn’t look small but he looks like someone Carlos wants to care for, to pull close and hold against him and reassure that things will be okay. It’s an overwhelming ache, a need to do it that comes out of nowhere, that is almost so overpowering that he almost does it, almost. They’re not there yet so he clenches his hand and exhales through his mouth. Despite all the emotions TK brings out in him he’s happy he’s here in his bed with him at least. And with that the tiredness and exhaustion is creeping back in, and he allows himself to fully feel it, doesn’t think it will take long until he falls asleep after this. Slowly he reaches forward, TK’s eyes widening as he strokes his cheek, and wipes the corner of his mouth, smiling softly. TK exhales loudly and Carlos pulls back and turns off the light.

“Good night TK.”

“Good night Carlos.” He whispers. 

……….

When Carlos wakes the next morning it’s to an empty bed. It disappoints him more than it probably should because no promises were made between them. Honestly, not many words were spoken between them at all last night. Once the light was out he had fallen asleep rather quickly, the day finally taking its toll. He woke up around 4am though because he was overheating, and the answer to that was that in their sleep they had both seemed to move, with TK securely tucked into his side, his breathing heavy and fluttering against Carlos’ cheek. Carlos hadn’t wanted to move away from the position and had chosen to suffer through the warmth until he fell back asleep again. The clock says it’s 11am, which is very late for him. He’s always been an early riser but after a solar storm even he seemed to have some limits when it came to waking up. He sighs but gets out of bed, in search for some coffee. When he opens the door he is met by the fresh roast of just that wafting through the air and TK sitting on his kitchen island with his phone, still in Carlos’ clothes. He stops for a moment, taking in the view and his heart flutters against his ribs, unable to stop the feeling it brings when he sees TK in his kitchen.

“Spending the night and staying to drink coffee in the morning, that must be some sort of record, huh?” He jokes, making TK look up and blush a little.

“I made some coffee, there’s some for you too, I hope you don’t mind.” He says and points to the mug on the counter.

“No not at all.” He walks up to it and takes a sip, smiling around the mug. Honestly, nothing beats the first taste of coffee in the morning. TK’s back is still turned away and Carlos puts the mug down again, sensing that something’s not quite right.

“I’m surprised you stayed.” He can’t help but say and sees TK take a deep breath.

“I thought about leaving but it didn’t seem… right, after everything.”

“Okay.” Carlos steps around him and leans against the chair, opposite TK. He looks small on the counter, his legs dangling off the edge, and Carlos’ clothes hanging off him loosely. He bites at his lip before he glances at Carlos and then to the ground.

“What is it?” He prompts, unable to leave whatever it is hanging between them.

“I need a favour.” The words are rushed out and Carlos frowns. 

“Okay.” But he can’t take the insecure look that keeps on passing over TK’s face so he takes a step forward, and another, until TK’s eyes widen and his body seems to move on autopilot and his legs open up for Carlos to step in between. He rests his hands on either side of TK’s body and looks at him with what he hopes is an honest and open look. 

“What is it?” He says gently and TK’s eyes flit away from him again, but this time he follows them and finds an orange pill bottle beside TK’s cup of cooling coffee. He frowns and looks back at him. 

TK sighs.

“It’s pain medication from the hospital. I just… I don’t fully trust myself with those…”

“Oh.” Carlos say like and idiot and TK grimaces and looks at the bottle warily.

“Have you taken any before?”

He shakes his head.

“I asked specifically to only be given ibuprofen when I got discharged the first time. But after yesterday when I pulled the stitches and overstrained, well everything, I got given those to take and was too distracted to say otherwise. But…”

“Are you in pain?” Carlos frowns and TK grimaces, which is all the answer he needs.

“A little, it’s manageable, but not exactly comfortable.”

“Okay.”

“So can you keep those for me then?” He sounds ashamed and defeated and he’s shrunk in on himself and Carlos’ stomach twists itself into a knot.

“Of course.” He says and takes the bottle in his hand before he very gently lifts TK’s shin up to meet his eyes. 

“Hey.” He says gently and TK’s lip twist upwards, not really a smile, but something almost like that. 

“Do you want one now?”

TK doesn’t look away but he seems to think about his answer.

“Not the best question to ask an addict.” He says and Carlos rolls his eyes at the bad joke.

“Can you take them on an empty stomach?” He rephrases another question and TK shrugs.

“Yeah but it’s not advised.”

“Okay, well you’re definitely staying for breakfast then.”  

TK bites his smile down, his cheeks flushed and Carlos is fucking overwhelmed with the urge to kiss him. He tracks the movement with his lips, eyes dark and hungry and TK exhales meaningfully. 

“Breakfast first before any life altering decision are made.” Carlos decides and it makes TK chuckle, the moment once again broken. Carlos knows he keeps avoiding the elephant in the room that keeps growing between them, because he knows that if he were to overstep this made up boundary they would end up where they started months ago, which was eventually what broke them to begin with. TK’s words about a team hangs heavy in his mind, and while he agrees that they do, he’s not sure it’s enough. Or he needs something that is a little more of a reassurance of friendship, or something.

“Sure.”

“What do you want to eat?”

TK just shrugs as a response which is unhelpful and Carlos lifts an eyebrow. 

“Okay, well I’ll think of something.” He’s stepping away, but he doesn’t get far before he’s pulled back forcefully, maybe a little too much so because he stumbles and almost knocks TK off the counter. He steadies himself with a hand on his side.

“I’m not easy to love.” Carlos stops moving and frowns at TK who looks like he hadn’t mean to say that.

“I mean - “

“What makes you say that?” Carlos doesn’t move his hand away from TK’s waist, if anything he brushes his hand across his side, feeling the lean muscles underneath the thin shirt he’s wearing. TK opens and closes his mouth a few times.

“My track record kind of agrees with that.” Carlos just frowns, waiting for more of an explanation.

TK sighs and waves his hands around them expasterly, and grimaces as his shoulder hurts but Carlos waits him out, kind of demanding an explanation he knows is behind the outburst.

“Okay fine, I’m a mess half the time and honestly probably not only because of being an addict. But when I’m not a mess I am either too much or too little so I always give people a reason to leave.”

He’s sad and it makes Carlos ache for him, while at the same time feeling such anger on his behalf because of what he knows of TK, he’s pretty special, and none of what he’s just said is true.

“Or maybe you haven’t met the right person yet.”

TK scoffs, but it’s not cruel, it’s more in a self-deprecated kind of way.

“I just… everyone leaves Carlos, everyone. So that either makes it something wrong with me or with the whole word. And the statistics for something being wrong with every person I meet and want to date is much lower than something being wrong with me, so the conclusion is pretty obvious.”

“There is nothing wrong with you.” 

TK shakes his head.

“Right.” He mutters.

“It’s not.” He cups both his cheeks, forcing him to look at him. Reluctantly he meets his eyes. “I want to convince you that’s the truth but I’m not sure I can either. So I’ll say this, you think you are too much? Well okay, so I misread the signals completely and made you a romantic dinner when clearly you were only looking for a hookup.”

“Yeah, I’m still very sorry about that.” And Carlos believes him.

“I know but my point is I can be pushy and ‘too much’ as you put it, too. That is not a trait significant only to you. Hell we don’t know each other that well and I already care about you a lot, possibly more than you care about me. But just like you, I have a job that sometimes demands too much of me, to the point where I want to withdraw into myself for days and not speak to anyone. I once didn’t show up to my sister’s birthday party because of a really rough day and she didn’t speak to me for a month.” TK winces and grimaces and Carlos nods.

“Yep. So guess what pretty boy you really aren’t the only one here that’s made mistakes or are going to make mistakes either. Are these just not excuses?”

“What?” 

“You told me you’ve felt numb every since you came to Texas, but aren’t you just punishing yourself in some kind of way. Or are you thinking you’re not worthy of feeling anything that could be good because you’ve gotten hurt in the past so you force yourself to feel nothing at all instead.”

TK’s eyes widen and Carlos can literally see his defences falling apart, the wall breaking, he’s been seen. 

“W-what?” He chokes out and Carlos smiles kindly. 

“Did I hit it on the nail?”

“Maybe…” He confesses and Carlos squeezes his face gently between his hands. 

“It’s not living, if you’re hiding, if you’re not yourself even when you have made mistakes. You shouldn’t be alone with it at least.”

TK has unshed tears in his eyes and his breathing is a little shaky. Carlos removes his hand but not before stroking his cheeks gently. He puts his hands down on either side of TK and nudges his nose with his own. TK’s lips twitches and that’s something. 

“You should let yourself feel the good things too. You have people who care a lot, that much I know. I went to the hospital and your dad was there every day while you were in the coma, and he had to literally force the others to go back to work, otherwise they would have stayed right there with him. You have me, so if you want to be friends we can be, no hard feelings.”

TK shakes his head quickly.

“No, no, I don’t want to be just friends though.” Carlos bites down his smile, but he thinks it slips through anyway.

“Well that’s something, progress.” 

“But I did mean it when I said my last relationship ended badly. I-I proposed and he broke up with me because he found someone new so I relapsed and I almost died. My dad found me in my apartment and managed to bring me back. So this is the second time this year I’ve almost died.” He grimaces at the painful memory and Carlos sighs heavily, feeling, well… a lot and mostly just very badly for him.

“That’s rough, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I go to meetings and it’s something, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s enough though, so I don’t know.”

“And therapy?”

“That too.”

“Normalise guys who go to therapy 2020.” And the joke makes TK snort, but it turns into a small smile in the end.

“Shut up dork.”

“Me? A dork? Don’t think that’s quite right.”

“Please you were totally into Star Wars growing up.”

“Maybe you’ll find out if you date me.” He smirks. TK laughs and it makes Carlos smile, something settling a little steadier into his chest when he hears it.

“So…” Carlos says, because he needs to hear some more words before this conversation is over. TK sighs but looks determined after a little bit of contemplation.

“So, I would like to date you, get to know you, take things slow and then we will see.”

“Ah, so dating huh?”

“Yes. Exclusively though, I like you so I’d hope we wouldn’t be seeing other people, is that too much to ask?” He asks, the uncertain tone back again. Carlos honestly think that’s going to be the least of his problems. He’s already hooked on TK and only him. 

“So, you like me huh?” He settles for, teasing, and hoping to make TK comfortable again. 

“Yes.” He scrunches up his face in an adorable little grimace and it makes Carlos laugh, happily and a little more freer. 

“Cool.”

“You’ve suddenly gotten tight lipped on me?” 

“What can I say I like watching you sweat a little bit.”

“Rude.” He pouts and oh no. Carlos grips the counter tighter because he’s looking extremely kissable at the moment, lashes long and a little redness to his cheeks.

“Well I like you too, dating sounds like a good idea to me.” 

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

They stare at each other none of them saying anything, the tension in the room suddenly back in full force. Carlos thinks TK knows exactly what he’s doing and that thought alone is making him even harder to resist. He coughs to break the tension.

“So, breakfast?”

TK groans.

“You’re really going to make me ask aren’t you?”

“Ask what?”

“To ki - no you know what…”

Carlos doesn’t have time to ask what before TK is pulling him down and slotting their lips together. His eyes falls shut and one hand settles on TK’s side the other finds his way onto his face, cradling his face close while TK’s hand settle in his hair. He hums happily against TK’s lips and feel him smile in return. When Carlos nibbles at his lip playfully TK opens it up and he has to stifle a groan when their tongues meet, TK’s tongue curling around Carlos which just makes him kiss hungrily back.

And that’s where he stops and pulls back. This time TK chases after him whining loudly before he pouts when he doesn’t get another kiss.

“Fucking tease.”

“Kissing without even a proper date, doesn’t seem right.”

“You and I definitely skipped a few steps when it comes to the dating rule book.”

“Yep, so breakfast?” He asks cheekily and TK rolls his eyes but nods.

“Yeah sure.

“Okay.” But he leans in and gently pecks TK’s lips before he steps back, slowly discarding himself from where he has gotten a little tangled into TK, who has swollen lips and messy hair and dark eyes, and who Carlos now gets to date.

Not a bad start to the day. He thinks it can only get better.

“So eggs?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” He hears TK jump off the counter and come join him in the kitchen.

Carlos has a feeling it’s the start of something good. And that’s enough for now.

[rmtndew]

All I’ve Ever Known ~ Chapter 4

Summary: Fiona’s life is a shattered fraction of what it used to be. She’s trying to navigate her new normal when she meets Detective Marshall, who gives her something more to look forward to.

Pairing: Marshall and OFC.

Rating: PG

Warnings: Mentions of death, cancer.

A/N - This was intended as a short drabble but it got out of hand and became a multi-chapter story instead. It’s my first Marshall fic and the first fan fic that I’ve written in over a decade. The title comes from the song ‘All I’ve Ever Known’ from Hadestown: ‘I was alone so long, I didn’t even know that I was lonely. Out in the cold so long, I didn’t even know that I was cold. Turned my collar to the wind, this is how it’s always been. All I’ve ever known is how to hold my own, but now I want to hold you, too.’

Tag list - @hollydaisy23​​, @readings-of-a-cavill-lover​​, @onlyhenrys​​, @omgkatinka​​, @speakerforthedead0-blog​​, @gearhead66​​,  @thethirstyarchive​, @oddsnendsfanfics​, @littlerinoa, @agniavateira​, @aaescritora​,

If you’d like to be added to the tag list, let me know!

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

I woke the next morning ten minutes before my alarm went off. At first I couldn’t figure out why and tried burrowing back into my warm bed to get my last few minutes of sleep back, but then my phone alerted me to a new text and I realized that’s what had woken me up. I sighed. I knew it was Darcy. Sometimes she woke up early with big ideas for her store and texted them to me, asking my opinion. She met me when I was working in interior design and any time she entertained the idea of having a dine in section, she’d send me pictures of what she wanted and ask how feasible it would be. Most of the time they were way too grand to fit into her pre-existing building. Other times she’d talk about a small coffee shop to encourage more people to come in and pick up their own orders and cut back on our deliveries. But I couldn’t see how renovating a portion of the store, buying new equipment and hiring extra employees to run a coffee shop would lower costs just by maybe cutting back on some deliveries. 

I was planning on ignoring the text until after I’d actually gotten up, but when another came through I knew it was best to just go ahead and nip it in the bud before she sent me an entire magazine’s worth of photos. But when I hit the home button on my phone I saw that the texts hadn’t come from Darcy. I had to squint against the brightness of the screen to make sure I saw the name right. Marshall.

I sat up and turned on my lamp, then looked at my phone again, reading the texts from their previews. 

Hey, it’s Marshall. I had a great  time yesterday. Sorry I was falling asleep on you. Can I make it up  to you this weekend?

Sorry. You’re probably sleeping. It might take more than coffee to make it up to you now. Dinner?

I suddenly felt wide awake and was no longer irritated by my few minutes of missed sleep. I would have gladly given up several hours for those texts. I decided not to reply to them right then, though. I wanted to make sure I’d had enough coffee to formulate a comprehensible reply and not look like I was drunk texting him, which I had a history of. My conversations with Darcy at five in the morning were proof of that. 

I got up and went about my morning routine like usual, trying not to wake Mom. When I made my way downstairs, I poured a cup of coffee and sat at the table. I sipped it, thinking about what to say to Marshall. I wrote and rewrote the text half a dozen times before finally having something I felt okay with, then I sent it.

Hey Marshall. I had a great time, too. You don’t have to make up for anything but I’d still like to have dinner with you. What day did you have in mind?

My heart was thudding from nerves and excitement. I was so focused on trying to calm myself down that I almost didn’t hear Mom when she walked in.

“Morning, sweetie,” she said, grabbing a coffee cup.

“Good morning,” I replied, then jumped slightly as my phone vibrated on the table. I tried not to look too enthusiastic as I grabbed it. 

Does Saturday work for you?

“Darcy again?” Mom asked, pouring coffee for herself. 

“Um...no, actually.” I tried biting back a smile but it didn’t work. “It’s Marshall.”

Her eyes went wide and she smiled back. “He’s writing to you at six in the morning?”

“He actually wrote me earlier. He asked if I wanted to have dinner with him Saturday.”

She sat down at the table beside me. “What did you tell him?”

“I haven’t replied yet. I don’t want him to think I’m just waiting by the phone for him.”

She looked at the phone in my hand. “Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing, though?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t have to know it.”

She laughed then blew on her coffee. “I’m glad this whole texting business wasn’t around when I was dating your father.”

“Even if it was, you’re a lot more forward than I am. You wouldn’t have had a single issue with texting Dad first, or answering him right away,” I said. My phone made another sound, reminding me of my unread text and I finally opened it, then replied. 

Saturday is perfect. What time  would you like to meet? 

“Well, there was only room enough for one coy person in our relationship and Rodger called that role,” Mom said after I put my phone down. 

I laughed. “I don’t think ‘coy’ was the right word for Dad. I think socially awkward was more appropriate.”

“He was too smart to be a social butterfly, too. He had to have a couple of flaws.”

“He couldn’t set the timer for the coffee pot, no matter how many times I showed him, and he thought that the Sharknado movies were amazing. He had his flaws,” I joked.

“This coffee pot is confusing.”

“He was an engineer!”

My phone buzzed in my hand and that time I didn’t wait to open the text. I read it right away. 

Would you let me pick you up  instead? Around six?

“Well, what does he say?” Mom asked.

“He wants to pick me up instead of me meeting him.”

“Are you going to let him?” 

I looked at her and she was smiling at me. I shook my head at her, laughing again. “You want him to come here so that you can see him, don’t you?”

She shrugged. “You keep talking about how handsome he is.”

“He is handsome. And it’s an awfully gentlemanly thing to do…” I bit my lip for a moment, pretending to think it over.

“Just tell him yes. We both know you’re going to.”

I gave another laugh. “Fine.”

I would like that, thank you. And  I’m curious, what does Detective  Marshall eat when he’s not eating a  cuban sandwich and plain chips?

I put my phone on the table. “What are your plans for today?” I asked, then took a sip of my coffee. 

She gave me a cheeky grin. “Changing the subject.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not changing the subject. I’m asking what my mother is going to be doing while I’m out earning the bread for this family,” I joked.

She snorted. “You don’t earn the bread, Fi, you just bake it.” She nodded at my arm. “And burn yourself in the process.”

“That’s the first time I’ve burnt myself in a year and a half. I’d say that’s a pretty good record.”

“That’s true,” she said. “And if you must know, I was thinking of going down to Valley and talking to Georgia about starting music lessons again after the new year. I think by then I’ll have recovered enough to be able to teach at least a few days a week.”

“You’re going to put yourself around snot nosed kids in the dead of flu season?” I asked dryly.

“I’ll be teaching teenagers, not little kids, and I’ll wear a mask,” she said. “I’ll make sure to clean everything between students and have them use hand sanitizer when they come in. I’m not going to be immunocompromised forever, and I’m not going to live in a bubble until then, either.” She gave me a smirk. “Besides, I can’t let you be the only one that earns the bread around here.”

I laughed at her but it was cut short when my phone buzzed again. 

Stuff that’s probably not very  good for him. Like Italian.  How does that sound?

Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more attracted to him, he confessed to liking my favorite type of food. I couldn’t stop my train of thought that went to me one day making an Italian dinner for him as a date. But my mind’s eye set up the imaginary dinner in my old apartment and I knew that would never happen. I let that thought go and took a deep breath, trying to focus my attention on the present moment.

That sounds great. I love  Italian food.

I sent it and sat back in my seat. I tried not to let my mind wander too far down the road with Marshall. I’d been on a lot of first dates in my life with guys that I’d thought were great who turned out to be jerks and I knew what that disappointment felt like. And even though I couldn’t imagine Marshall disappointing me in the same way they had - he’d proven at our coffee date that he was far more respectful, even while he was tired - I wanted to remind myself that I needed to take things one step at a time. 

Perfect. I’ll see you  Saturday at six, then.

I must have looked pretty gooey eyed over the whole thing because Mom reached out and touched my wrist gently. When I looked at her, the teasing tone was gone from her face and she was smiling at me. “I’m happy for you, sweetie. I really am.” 

I was a ball of nerves all Saturday morning and afternoon. More than I’d ever been on the day of a first date. But nothing with Marshall fell into my ‘usual’ category. There was something about him that made him different from any other man I’d gone out with. And maybe that was it: He was a man. Not some boy masquerading as one. He was quiet, and fierce, and protective. He thought before he spoke. And even when delivering a threat - like he had to that creep in the bar - he’d done it calmly and with authority. He exuded confidence, not cockiness, and there was honestly nothing more attractive than that. 

I was nearly ready, just zipping up my boots, when I heard a crash downstairs. I rushed down and found Mom in the kitchen, trying to pick up the broken pieces of one of her giant coffee mugs.

“I’m - I’m not sure what happened,” she said. “I just lost my grip.”

“It’s okay.” I took a step towards her, trying to avoid the pile of porcelain. “Let me clean it up.” 

“I can do it,” she said, sounding flustered.

“I know you can but you’re in socks and I’m wearing boots.”

She stood her ground for a moment, then finally sighed and relented, taking a step back. “Okay. I’ll get you the broom.”

“It’s fine. I’ll get it. Just watch your step.”

I went to grab the broom as she threw away the large chunks of her broken cup that she’d been able to pick up with her hands. I could tell she was frustrated. 

“You know, if you didn’t like that mug, you could have just gotten rid of it, you didn’t have to break it,” I joked, taking the broom and dustpan from the broom closet. “Or were you afraid I wouldn’t take the hint and buy you another one if I thought it just went missing?” 

She gave a small laugh but I could tell she was still embarrassed. “I actually liked that coffee mug a lot.”

“I’ll get you a new one.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can -” 

The doorbell rang and she stopped mid-sentence. We both froze, my eyes flicking to the clock on the stove. It was 5:53. Marshall was early. After a moment, Mom took a step towards me, holding out her hand to take the broom from me. I shook my head.

“You’re wearing socks,” I reminded her. “I don’t want you to cut your foot.”

Her eyes grew wide. “So you’re going to clean up after me while I go meet your date?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She brushed her hand over her barely there hair, trying to collect herself, then let out a breath. “Okay, I’ll go let him in.”

“Don’t be too charming. He might have a thing for cougars and I don’t want to have to fight my mom for a guy.”

She smiled for real, the embarrassment of having her daughter clean up after her letting go enough that it was no longer plainly visible. “No promises,” she joked, then left the kitchen to answer the door. 

It didn’t take long to clean up. Even though the cup had shattered pretty good, its bright white color stood out against the dark wood of the floor, making even the tiniest pieces easy to see. After making sure I’d cleaned it all up, I threw away the pieces and put up the broom and dustpan, then went to find Mom and Marshall. 

They were standing in the entryway. Mom was saying something about teaching at Valley and Marshall stood in front of her, his hands clasped behind his back, and a look of sincere focus on his face as she spoke. Mom was a small woman but next to him, she looked comically tiny. 

I paused for a moment, taking him in. His hair looked a bit more controlled than any other time I’d seen him, his curls tighter and not quite as messy. His beard looked like it had been trimmed, giving it a purposeful look instead of the ‘I’m too busy to shave’ vibe that I’d gotten from him previously. He wore a thick blue sweater that made the color of his eyes pop when they drifted over to me. It was brief, maybe less than a second, before concentrating on Mom again. But he had a slight smile and it was enough for her to notice. She turned and looked at me. 

“There she is. I guess I’ll stop talking your ear off and let you two go,” she said. 

Marshall smiled at her, then at me, bigger that time. “I didn’t realize I was early. I apologize.” 

“No, don’t. You’re fine,” I said, moving to grab my coat. “I’m ready, I was just cleaning up a broken cup. I’m basically like Cinderella around here.” 

Mom snorted. “Hardly. Cinderella was made to do chores. You’re the one who won’t let me lift a finger,” she said. “Besides, I think she sang while she worked.”

I raised my eyebrow at her as I put my coat on. “Do you want me to sing?”

She shook her head. “No. No one wants that, sweetie,” she said, making Marshall laugh. She looked at him. “Fi spent a good portion of her teenage years screaming along to music in her room. I didn’t even know you could make ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ sound angry until she proved otherwise. Needless to say, her father and I encouraged her other interests a bit more enthusiastically.”

I grabbed my purse. “I should have let you clean up your own mess and answered the door myself,” I joked before kissing the top of her head. “Bye, Mom.”

Marshall smiled again. “It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Sparks.”

“Likewise, Detective Marshall. You two have fun.”

We left the house and after a few steps down the walkway, he jabbed his thumb back at the door. “She’s funny.”

“She can be,” I agreed. “She’s a spitfire, though, that’s for sure.”

“I like it.”

“Yeah, I like it, too.”

We walked to his truck and he opened the door for me. “You look gorgeous, by the way,” he said as I got in. 

I felt myself blush instantly, caught off guard by the compliment. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, closing the door for me. 

We’d only made it to the driveway and my stomach was already doing somersaults. He made me feel like a teenage girl, all giddy and excited, and I loved it.

He went around the front of the truck, then climbed in the driver’s side. I tried to sneak a look at him while he was putting on his seat belt but he caught me. He smiled as I snapped my head straight ahead. 

“Sorry, I just, I was…” I tried to think of an excuse but I couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound lame. I let out a sigh. “I was checking you out,” I admitted. “I can’t lie. There’s no point. Sorry.”

“That’s the least offensive thing a woman has ever apologized to me for,” he said with a laugh, starting the truck. He leaned forward enough to catch my eye, making me instinctively turn my head towards him. He grinned. “Did you see anything you like?”

My blush deepened and I couldn’t hold back a giggle. “Maybe.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, that is a nice sweater.” 

“Oh, so you were checking out my jumper?”

I shrugged. “It brings out your eyes.”

“Does it now?”

“It does. And you have very lovely eyes.”

“Thank you,” he said. “But my daughter bought the jumper, so I can’t take credit for it.”

“She did a good job,” I said, forcing my eyes to look up front as we pulled out of the driveway. Even though I’d already admitted to checking him out, there was a difference between looking and leering and I didn’t want to come off as creepy. “I take it that this wasn’t your weekend to have her?”

“It was supposed to be but she was invited to a Halloween party with some of her friends so she asked to do that instead. She’ll be with me tomorrow.”

“What did she dress as? For the party.”

“A cowgirl.” 

“Does she ride horses or did she just like the costume?” 

“No, she rides. She took lessons when she was a bit younger. And she and I go riding some weekends.” 

“So you’re Detective Marshall during the week and cowboy Marshall on the weekends? Does that ever cross over? Do they have mounted police in the homicide unit?”

He shook his head as he laughed. “No, not that I’m aware of.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Is it now?” he asked, and his tone made me blush all over again.

“I’m actually not going to answer that. I’m going to wait until we get a little further from my house to fully embarrass myself so that when you fake an emergency to get rid of me, my ego doesn’t get too crushed.”

“Do you really think I’d do that?”

“I hope not, but I’ve been excited about having dinner with you, so I’m going to try not to mess it up.”

“I think you’d have to try pretty hard to mess it up,” he said as we stopped at the end of my street. He glanced at me. “And I’ve been excited about it, too.”

[jidai]

jidai’s budget mutuals/friends appreciation

Hi, all! I’m quite late with this but I decided to put a small friends and mutual appreciations post in hopes of brightening up the end of this year a little bit. ❤️ If you were tagged, please make sure to check below for a small little message from me. However, I want to make it very clear that I truly appreciate all of my mutuals. You guys brighten up my dash and always reblog or create so many funny and creative posts. I just wanted to give a few special shout outs to those that have taken out the time to reach out and interacted with me past my ask box or we just see each other often.

The messages are ordered by your URL, so you might have to scroll for awhile before you see your messages. I’m so sorry lmao. 

Happy New Years, everyone!

@25th​​, Nonnie, the Young Genius. bro, remind me how old you are 🧍‍♀️ Like my brain CANNOT fathom the thought that you’re so skilled at SO many things and you’re not even in your twenties??? PLEASE SPARE THE TALENT. i will even accept crumbs. But I’m writing to tell you that you are such a wonderful presence on my dash. I always look forward to your gfx. They’re so SO good and you’re improving from one post to another. Like WOW. Now, you’re even starting an art blog, too? You’re so dedicated to the arts. I respect that a lot. Your hard work and commitment will bring you very far in life, whatever you decide to do. 

I love interacting with you. You’re such a big sweetheart and full of positivity and energy. I look forward to seeing more of your art and gfx ❤️

@biscuitwalk​, Dann, the AK Wiz. Dann, I know you’re not as active on here so idk when or if you will ever read this but I want to say that I miss you and your creations so, so much. I will say it a hundred times over and OVER but you inspire me so goddamn much. You have no fucking idea. Your works are absolutely gorgeous and unique. I can look at it once and I can instantly recognize your style (and your cute lil’ pufferfish <3). The way you utilize colors and implement various techniques, shapes, textures into your work. Goddamn, you’re so good. I always look to your work if I ever need inspiration and they help me brainstorm. God, I wish I could put it into words how much I adore your works.

We didn’t really talk for long but you seemed like such a kind and fun person to be around. I wish you the best in your future endeavors, wherever you are. Stay safe <3

@elriccs, Mirai, the Short King. 🧍‍♀️ ok look I know, I know I’m TERRIBLE at replying to you and I’m so fucking sorry. I absolutely love to talk to you but my dumbass cannot seem to reply in a timely manner LASELKSAL. That’s on me and I gotta do better. Anyways!!! Thank you SO fucking much for always leaving such kind messages on my work. I swear to god you’re one of my biggest hype man and I ALWAYS look forward to reading your tags. They’re so funny and it makes me all tingly and happy inside. Bro, like, you just radiate big fun vibes, bro. I really hope that I can get to know you better so I can just insult you until it’s too late to walk away </3

And of course, let me also remind you that I love your works so much. They way that you utilize your textures and those muted colors... OOMPH *chefs kiss* I will always love--

@lockhvrts​​, Em the Soulsborne GOD. hi em 🥺 it’s been awhile since I’ve had a proper conversation with you and I hope you’re doing okay! I miss you and our conversations where we do nothing but geek out and complain about the game industry lmao. if you manage to read this, I just wanted to let you know I miss your presence here. It’s been kinda dull not seeing your beautiful soulsborne gifs and your game rants. Let’s catch up soon. <3 stay safe and well!

@nathanprescutt, Benn, the Man. BENNNNNNNN.  I love you a lot bro. I know we haven’t had long conversations for some time and I hope I can change that! You were my first friend on this blog and I will always appreciate it. I remember us just geeking out over your works and how I would always send you a gfx request like once a week LMAO. The one thing that I have always appreciated about you was the fact that you’re very opinionated (if not, very vocal on your stance on things) and you hold your ground. There were a few time where you encouraged me to speak on topics that I think I shouldn’t and that stuck with me for quite awhile. I’m still a nervous rambling mess when it comes to debates but just know that the one time you supported me to voice my opinion--I hold it very dear to my heart. 

While I don’t spend much time together, I will always remember our animal crossing session. It was  so much fun just trashing and chilling on your island. Especially the bar :( that bar was fucking AMAZING. Maybe once FFXVI comes out, we can geek out hehe

Also, thank you so much for sending in photos of all your doggos, omg. I miss seeing them so much I hope they’re doing well. Stay hot, my German bro lol. Ich bin sehr dankbar, so eine tolle Freundin zu haben. ❤️❤️❤️

@noxdivina​, Lin the Big Dick Daddy Kind. The church is open for business bitch and I’m here to preach the GOSPEL.

Okay, jokes aside, I’m really happy that we became mutuals. You’ve always give off this like, mysterious cosmic vibe (????? huh). And your selfies just further proves that you are wtf. But you’re always so kind to those that you interact with. You’re an absolutely sweetheart and like I just want to give you a giant hug every time we interact. You’re such a soft human being. It’s so nice being around you. It’s like being tossed in the oven and baked at 250 degrees F for 25 minutes. And to boot you’re really talented, hello? God really said let there be a perfect human being and yeeted you into the universe. Thank you for always leaving such kind messages and words in my DM/askbox/works. I cherish them so much. I hope I can get to know you better in the future bc you’re rad, bro <3

anyways, updated drawing of u and maya:

i always assume you’re in a black fur parka 24/7 and maya is coatless neck down. also deck me with those jacked arms of yours thanks  🧍‍♀️

(edit: fuck i forgot to draw a PARTY HAT ON MAYA IM SORRY)

@rokuseis​, Sei, the Dumber.

i have nothing to say to you go away you banana hater ASELKSAEKL

BITCH, you doo bee getting on my nerve 24/7/365 🧍‍♀️ you were an unexpected but a very welcomed addition to my life. I can’t believe we really went 1 fuckin’ year without speaking to each other and then suddenly our friendship blew up because over a stupid BANANA. Now you gotta deal with me and my stupid, random, crude ass messages daily. I cannot. Clown to clown communication. But thank you so much bitch for being there for me and telling all of these funny ass stories and life experiences.

I know I don’t say it a lot because when we talk it’s literally just dogs barking at each other but I want to make it clear now: I love your humor and vibe so much. You never fail to make me laugh anytime I talk to you and I appreciate it so much. I can’t tell you how many times I felt better after talking to you. Even though sometimes your fucking jab hits hard and I end up actually inSULTED BY IT. But thank you for becoming my friend and I look forward to all of our stupid moments together. Looking forward to shitting in your sink when I finally fly to your home <3

@wolfamongthem, Anna, the Grinch. Please don’t hurt me for that title. I'm just saying if someone needs a live casting, it’ll be u. Anyways, did you know that I was so fucking intimidated by you for a long ass time, even before we became mutuals aseljas LMAO. I always see your gifs around on explore and they’re so gorgeous and then I look at your text posts and it’s u roasting people like there’s no tomorrow- 🧍‍♀️ bitch I was SCARED OF U KSKS. Now that I’ve talked to you a few times, you’re really funny like where do you find those reaction memes????? Like bro you and your shitposts is my morning cup of coffee. 

Anyways, in 2021 I expect a full-fledge review of all AAA games from you-- no more shit talking in the tags let it all out BITCH. Thank you for being such a great mutual! I look forward to see what weird shit you will send me the next time we talk lmao

@zenien​​, Selm, the I’m-gay-for-Lady-Maria-or-anything-that-moves-in-BB-Bitch™. ok bitch if I’m being honest I wrote yours last so my brain is FRIED. so everything i say from here is raw from the HEARt cause that’s all I got left. But anyhow, we savin’ the best for last! honestly, i didn’t expect you to barge into my life like that. i really didn’t. i was just gonna keep admiring with my 7 feet (2.1336 meters) pole. I’m glad you made the first move because look where we are wtf 🧍‍♀️ friends??? I wouldn’t believe you if you told me that in 2014 when I first followed you lmao. 

You’re such a kind soul. I know you may disagree but I’m determined to convince you. I can’t tell you how much I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me during my rough bits. It’s like sitting on a wooden bench in a park during sunset and you sit next to me, just enjoying the vast sky. You radiate such peaceful energy. It’s very calming. Or you know, 2 seconds later i’m suddenly suplexed by your 40 tons of insults like what-- 

Thank you for everything, so far. Truly. It’s been so fun listening to you talk about your Bloodborne journey and see your reactions live. It’s been so fun to see you post your graphics and it continues to blow me away. It’s been so fun hearing about your life and the stories of your adulthood. Every words that we have exchanged, I hold dearly to my heart--more than you ever know. Love u bitch.

[ryu-rose]

OKAY THIS IS AN IDEA THAT POPED INTO MY HEAD AND I CANT GET IT OUT!

It’s a Bakugou x oc but with SPICE an enemy’s to lovers SPICE!! so this is my first fic like this so let’s get to it I swear it’s good just read it please

Ryu’s pov:

I’m a transfer student. Things were pretty testy at my old school so my parents decided to stick me in another one. But they left out the one small detail that I was transferring to Ua. I guess the school thought I was good enough.

Today was my first day. I put on my unifor the skirt ending right by the top of my thighs. The shirt tight against my skin. The knee socks whitch were my favorite that ended at my knees of corse.

The uniform accented my curves. I guess it wasn’t made for a body type like mine. That’s fine it will be eaiser with my quirk anyways. I pulled my long pink curly hair into a high ponytail with bangs. My brown skin made my hair pop even more. I looked in the mirro. I looked presentable. Maybe a little slutty but it’s not my fault this unifor isn’t suited for a biracial girls curves. I grabbed my backpack. My parents already helped me move all my stuff to the dorms while the rest of the students were in school. I waved goodbye to my room kissed my parents and set off to the school.

I was nervous who won’t be but it was gonna be fine class 1a can’t be that bad right.

It was. It was that bad.

I entered the classroom after getting lost and a teacher directing me there. I opened the door and I saw the teacher I walked in and bowed. “Hello Aizawa sensi I’m the transfer student” “ah class I forgot to mention we have a transfer student” the calss immediately started talking. “How did you forget?” “Wow a new student” “who is she?” Are some of the things I could hear that were said. I stand in front of the class.

“Hello I’m Ryu Yu I’m transferring here I’m I have no idea what else to say. Oh also my pronouns are they/them if you have any questions I’ll answer them”

“Look at how short her skirt is she’s probably easy” I hear someone say “Mineta!” A girl that’s pink slaps the boy on his head. My eye color changes form it’s normal pink to red. I look at the boy that they call Mineta. “Excuse me” I walk up his desk “First of all my pronouns are They/Them and if you ever say something like that to me again” I squat down to his eye level and mutters so only he can hear me “I’ll crush you like the fucking grape you are” I stand back up and turn away from him smirking at the look of terror on his face.

A girl name Tsu raises her hand and asks “what is they/ them?” I smile “They/ them basically mean you know how you call someone she her that’s exactly how you use they them” “oh! Thank you” she reply’s. Then a rough looking boy in the back with ash blond hair says “tch just another weakling” I glare at him “who the hell you calling weak?” He narrows his eyes at me and stands up “you look like a weakling like I could crush you like a bug” “you think you scare me pretty boy? It’s your type that have the most insecurities I wonder which ones you have~” the class goes wide eyed my guess is that no one speak is to this idiot like I am. He gets in my face “say that again” he makes sparks in his hands. His quirk I’m guessing. “Your just a loud mouth privileged asshole!” He lunges at me and I smirk one of his friend a tall red head grabs him and pulls him back. He’s shouting insults and I just stand there as if I couldn’t have a care in the world. I look at the teacher even he looks surprised. “Where is my seat?” He points at a desk next to a green haired boy who looks very sacred.

I take my seat down next to him and say “I swear I’m not mean to people who don’t deserve it what’s your name?” “Oh um I’m Izuku Midoryia but people call me Deku” “Deku?” “Yeah it’s along story” “well you’ll have to tell me it sometime” he smiles

As class starts and through out the day I learn everyone’s name. Now it come for quirk training class and they split us up into partners. And lucky me Bakugous my partner.

“I’m going enjoy blowing you to bits” he says I smirk “kinky” his eye widen “I didn’t mean it like that shitty girl your gonna get it” he makes mini explosions with his hands and I roll my eyes. See I’m the product of quirk mulitpling. My parents and my parents parents were all forced to marry to make powerful children. My mother has 3 quirks and my father has 6. I have 5 that all merge into eachother some way. Most of them are cause of a chemical imbalance in me. I usually don’t use one of them cause it’s deadly and I would rather not kill anyone. But I was breed to be a killing machine so let’s say my child hood wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. My parents are villains so is the rest of my family. But my mom didn’t want me to be some an assassin she wanted me to chose my path. Which is why she picked this school.

The teacher says to start and Bakugo lunges at me and just as it looks like he’s about to hit me I disappear into thin air then I end up behind him and I hit him with my vines. They wrap around his body and throw him to the ground it all happens in a flash. And the pure confusion on his face is priceless. I reappear and he looks pissed then he burns off my vines and stands up I yawn. “You think this is funny!?” He yells “no I think it’s boring” I smirk as he growls and goes to attack me again. “Fine I’ll play fair this time I won’t disappear” he sends an explosion my way and I fly into the air and create thorns and sent them flying into his skin. He cry’s out in pain as they cut him. “How the fuck are you doing this what is your quirk?!” He aks me. I drop to the ground.

I’m better at long distance fighting it’s what my quirks are suited for. But I’m supposed to be training and if I want to get better I have to work on my close combat. The huge draw back to my quirks is that if I use them to much tattoos that look like vines will appear on my arms and they inject deadly posing into my blood stream. Now my body is use to the poison but if to much of it is released into my body I could die. And the posin makes me loopy and nauseous almost drunk like. It isn’t idea for battle at all. Also I have many weak points in my body where if you hit them I won’t be able to use one of my quirks. Hit all of them and I’m done for.

“Now why would I tell you that?” I walk towards him. I don’t how a power quirk but I can use my fly quirk to make my punches even more powerful then they should be. He sends an explosion at my face and I use a wall of vines to sheild myself they disinagrate but protect me. He keeps on trying to use his explosions and I keep defecting. I sigh “this is getting boring use a different tactic!” I disappear again and strik him in his back he falls to the ground and gets back up theres blood dripping from his mouth

“Shit did I hit him to hard?” I say to myself he sends an explosion my way and I don’t have time to deflect “oH SHIT” I brace myself as I feel the heat around me causing a few burns. We keep going and by now the whole class is staring at us out of worry and awe. But both of us are beating up eachother really bad. It seems as if we are trying to kill eachother. The insults that we keep throwing at eachother seem to fuel our adrenaline.

Then the teachers steps in and pulls us away from eachother. We fight against there grips still yelling curses at eachother. I give up and push against the teacher grip. “Let go of me I’m fine!” “No your bleeding from several spots go to the recovery girl ” “I’m fine” “weak” Bakugou sneers “prick!” I shoot back “bitch” “asshole” “slut” my eyes turn red and I lunge at him this time it’s one of the student who stops me. It’s Deku. “ let go of me” Kirishima walks up to Bakugou and slaps him in the back of the head. “Don’t disrespect women it’s not manly” bakugo still being help back by one of the teachers,yells at Kirishima.

“Cmon Yu you do look very injured poets get you to recovery girl” I sigh I don’t like being mean to people who don’t deserve and Deku is really sweet I can’t say no to him “fine but I’m not gonna like it” he chuckles “that’s fine with me”

((SO IM SORRY IF THAT WAS BAD THAT IS JUST A TEARSEE FOR IT I JUST REALLY LOVED THIS IDEA))

[ryan-spinel]

CHAPTER TWO

“Perri's Letter and Spinel's Revenge”

It was another boring day at school. Today I avoided Steven and Connie, at least until things cool down. Now Perri and I are walking to her house, later going to see Lexi. I suggested we go right after school, but poor Perri had a meltdown when that phone addicted bitch Sophie teased her about liking Lexi. Saying “A spaz like you can't date someone like Lexi Joel. You have a better chance at hooking up with your catnapping psycho of a friend.”

I would have said “go fuck yourself and stuff your mouth with a dumb jocks cock.”But I kept silent to avoid more trouble. Even though she's a threat to my relationship with Steven, she went too far attacking my wittle buddy. After today, she will pay.

“So. How you feeling bud.” I comforted

“A little better Spinel, thank you, for walking with me.” Perri lamented

She didn't seem any better, so I stopped walking and placed my hands on her shoulders. She jolted a little bit, she does that when someone touches her without her knowing, I need to stop doing that.

“Perri, please don't worry about Sophie. She will never bother you again.” I reassured Perri

“You don't know that Spinel, you can't just make her disappear.” Perry doubted

The truth is I can, and I will.

“Just, please trust me okay. She won't hurt you anymore.” I asserted, starting to get annoyed

“I-,hmm. Okay Spinel, I trust you. Now can we please go to my place.” Perri faltered, noticing me getting annoyed.

Even though Perri and I been friends for a while, there were times I lost my shit. One time in elementary 5, Perri had this cute green alien head chewy. Back then Perri would chew on the collar of her shirt, so Brooklyn got it as an alternative. Later, a boy by the name of Ronaldo ask if he could play with it. Perri didn't say anything, she looked away from the fat little shit. He started to get annoyed and grabbed her arm. When I saw tears running down the poor kids face, I said. “Don't touch my fucking friend, she doesn't want to share. So piss of you bitch-ass comic book reading fat pussy.” After I stand up for my nerdy buddy, the little shit started to ball his eyes out. So I got detention for the weekend, and then Grandmother Whitney put a bar of soap in my mouth. She's an amazing Grandmother, but if you push her buttons she can be a mean old hag.

We finally arrive at Perri's place, it's a cute little cabin-like house. With a more rustic style unlike my home, a traditional Japanese minka. Once we walked to the door, we were greeted by the outgoing Brooklyn Fitzgerald. A fierce and friendly soul, who looks out for her friends. She works as a lumberjack at the local saw mill, fell in love with the stubborn lawyer Pearl Harpor and once one first place in the wood chopping competition at the county fair. Brooklyn was always that person you feel comfortable around, she is a great role-model for Perri and always wants the best for her. She's like the cool aunt I never had, and the only adult I feel comfortable around that isn't my family.

“How you doing kids, I made a tray of onigiri for an afternoon snack.” Brooklyn greeted

“Thanks mom, we're here just to get a bite to eat, spinel and I are going to a study group at the library.” Perri replied

Perri doesn't lie often, but she's surprisingly good at it. It's scary if you think about it.

“Well okay Perri, but remember. Always have your phone, come back home before six, and don't walk in Black Hawk Clan territory.” Brooklyn directed

“Well of course mom.” Perri acknowledged while to two of us walk inside

Their house interior was like one of the those shacks in the movie Friday the 13th. Brooklyn kept it very well maintained, she may be a lumberjack but she's a amazing carpenter.

“I'll be back Spinel, I'm just getting some things from my room.” Perri called, going to grab the letter

“Alright Perri.” I concurred while eating some homemade onigiri

“So, umm. Spins, how's Perri doing.” Brooklyn worried, she's not always the serious type. But when she is, you need to listen and shut up.

“She's, okay. Why do you ask?” I denied, having a good feeling what she's going to say.

“I got a call from the school, saying that Perri had a meltdown.” Brooklyn took a deep breath and continued. “Spinel, I know your aware that Perri is a little different than the other kids. She thinks in a different way and does things differently.” Brooklyn fretted

“I think you are aware of this Spinel, but Perri has Autism.” Brooklyn said looking that she's not finished speaking.

I was aware that Perri isn't like other kids, that why I like her. I love that she would ramble on and on about robotics, AI and Elon Musk. I love that she has that burning passion to expand her learning, even if it's just one topic. In a way, Perri's like a little sister to me. I love her because she's unique, not mediocre like those bimbos at school. She's her own person and doesn't follow a crowd.

“There were many incidents that kids would tease her because she's on the spectrum. They would tease her for being jumpy, they would pick on her because she wouldn't play with the other kids. And let's not forget the time a student grabbed her over a god damn chewie.” Brooklyn bawled, on the verge of tears. Even someone as strong as her can feel defeated sometimes.

“I'm scared spinel, I'm scared that my little girl will get herself hurt. After the diagnosis her father couldn't take it and left. Saying that he wanted a normal child with a normal life. Pearl has a hard time dealing with Perri sometimes, but she still cares about her. All I ask is Spinel, please look out for her.”

“Brook, things won't be like this forever. There's a lot of people with autism and live great lives. Overtime they grow and learn how to cope, Perri's still a kid. She's going to be an amazing person one day. Building robots or something. The point is that sometime people outgrow these problems, it's sometimes doesn't bother them or they cope with it. Your very lucky to have a daughter like Perri. You just have to remember that every successful person had those days that they want to give up. But they keep pushing until they reach their goals. Just like Perri.” I monotoned

“You maybe right Spins, Perri has been growing up. It just seems like yesterday she didn't need her chewy anymore.” Brooklyn hoped

“See, everything's going to be okay. Sophie won't bully her anymore, I promise.” I concluded

“Alright Spinel, lets go to the library now. ” Perri intrupted

“Be safe girls, look out for one another.”

It took us 30 minutes by bus to arrive at the Black Hawk clan's main nest, I don't know why they would call it a nest but whatever. Their nest was a giant old warehouse outside of town, it had a barbed wire fence all around the headquarters. Like those fences you see in prisons. There was a giant chain link fence for the entrance, two bikers were guarding it carrying AK-47s.

“Yo what the fuck, you can't be-, ohhhhhh. It's the catnapper. What business do you have with the Black Hawks.” Thug one marveled

“Is that what they're calling me now, it was psycho bitch last week. We don't what any trouble, we just want to see the road captain.”

“Wait are you talking about, Lex. Hah,well Spins, we can't let you just see the road captain. You have to talk to the founder first, she decides not us.” Thug two announced

“Oh for the love of god.” I whispered to myself

“Well, can we see. Fucking, Jasper or someone.” I badgered

These biker act so tough and fearless. But really, their just a bunch of leather-wearing douches.

“Ahhhhh, if it'll make you shut the fuck up then sure. ” thug one complained

The two annoyed thugs opened the gate, Perri and I walk cautiously into the nest.

Inside the warehouse wasn't any better than the outside. On the left side, there was a bar with tables, chairs and stolen arcade game machines. The right side was their business operation, with safes, factory equipment and a security system. Every biker gang has their source of income. It can be drugs,weapons, cigarettes or anything valuable on the yami-ichi.

The Black Hawks are the kingpins in the drug industry, but they don't just sell any type of drug. They created their own drug that is booming in the Japanese black market. It's called Menohoyō, meaning eye-candy in Japanese. Menohoyō is made just like regular eye-drops, because it is eye-drops. The only reason why it's addictive and illegal, is because it's made of 45% of diethylamide. A main chemical component to make LSD. There's been cases all across the world, reaching places like Brazil, United States and even Russia. There has been many gangs and drug cartels trying to replicate this drug, but all of them failed. Today, the Black Hawks dominate the drug industry, even bribing politicians to keep their business running. It's greasy business, that's why I want Lexi to get out when she still has the chance.

In front of us are the three masterminds of the whole operation.

Jasper Alder, the founder of the gang. Sitting on an old puke green recliner and smoking a five inch Pyramid cigar. She was born in Tokyo and was a target for bullying because she has vitiligo. Due to the bullying she became a mean bitch, once she broke a kids arm because she called her giraffe. Later in life, Jasper got into bodybuilding and motorcycles. Causing her to follow the wrong crowd. She got involved in a lot of crazy shit involving rival gangs. Once she turned twenty-three, she created the Black Hawk Clan. She called it that because one day, her father and her were hunting hawks. A giant common black hawk attacked her father and scratched his throat, causing him to bled to death in the middle of the woods. Jasper manage to shot the hawks wing and flew off. For three nights she was searching that hawk. Later found it on the ground near an old Japanese Wisteria. Jasper chose not to put the bird out of its misery, instead she watched it bled out for three minutes. So long story short, she's twenty-five and runs a drug cartel now.

On her left was the president of the clan, Eleanor Monsoon. She was Jasper right-hand gal, those two used to rob gas-stations when they were teens. Eleanor was also known for her great grandfather being in the Imperial guard divisions during WW2. That's where she gets her fierce comanding attitude.

On the right was the Vice President of the clan, Persephone Windsor. Nothing to special about her, all I can say is she's a snobby bitch born in a very rich family, she supply's most of the equipment and weapons. She's a narcissist and a manipulator who will destroy lives to get her way.

“(Puffing a smoke) Well, I didn't expect to see the pip-squeak and the catnapper today. ” Jasper snarled while inhaling on her cigar.

“Let me do the talking Perri, I got this.” I whispered to Perri

“Hi Jasper, hows the gang and so. Also can we talk to Lexi.” I urged, trying to convince the butch

“(Puffing a smoke). Well Spins, if you have business with the road captain you have business with me. Now spill the beans crazy.” Jasper chided

“It has nothing to do with.Business. We want to see Lexi, because-”

“Because I want to get to know her better, and hopefully she'll get out of this dirty, greasy motorcyclist club you call a business.” Perri interrupted me and dared Jasper

Thanks a lot Perri, we're fucked.

“How dare you, a worthless pest like you speaking to the founder like-” Persephone chastised

“Wait. Hold on your saying you want to hangout and bond, with the black hawk clan road captain. Out of all the nerds at your snobby school. You choose an angsty, hot-headed, with drugged up parents and possibly slept with more guys than you know how many bones are in the human body. So tell be spaz, what makes you think a nerd like you, can ever be with someone as fucked up as Lex. Because honestly, you can do better.” Jasper insulted

I saw that Perri was starting to get upset, but instead being sad, she got mad.

“You, you don't know anything. How dare you talk to someone like that, your not any better you, you, you f-f-fucking clod.” Perri exploded

It would take a tiny miracle to get us out of this shit.

However, the three bikers looked at each other with confusion. There was a silent pause, until.

“...............Haaaahahahahahahahaha.hhaaaaaaahaaahahahaahahahahhaaaahahah.” The three clan leaders burst with laughter

Perri expression turned back to sadness, trying to hold in her tears.

“Hahahaaahhaa, is,haha, is that the best you got tiny,hahhahaha. That's fucking pathetic, hahaha. Oh look at me, I WUV Lexi, hahaha.” Jasper mocked

I could see Perri starting to sob, I wanted to say something but that would be a suicide mission.

“Perri and Lexi sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-” the three clan leaders laughed and mocked

“What the fuck is happening, it's like a fucking circus in here. ” Lexi interrupted

Thank God she's here

“Perri, Spinel. What are you guys doing here.” Lexi gasped

“We were going to see you, until these donkey's stop us from doing so.” I explained

Lexi then turned her attention to the brainy-baby.

“Hey, hey, hey. Perri, my dude. I'm here, it's okay.” Lexi tried comforting Perri

“(Whimpering) it's good to see you again rockstar.” Perri sniffled

“It's good to see you to buddy.” Lexi sympathized

Lexi then turned her attention to the three douches

“What the fuck did you three do.” Lexi accused

“Lex, know your place. You do not bark at me, or I'm sending you back on the streets like the runt you are. ” Jasper retaliated

“Well I guess you have to put be back on the fucking streets, because no one talks to my friends like that.” Lexi condemned

It warms my cold heart to see Lex care so much for Perri, it's so sweet.

“Ah you fucking bitch, alright. You can see your, friend now.(inhaling on her cigar).” Jasper said in defeat

“Come on Perri, is there something you wanted to tell me.” Lexi adviced

“One second Lexi.” Perri protested

She turned her direction towards me, running up to me and giving me a hug. It was a tight hug, like a bear hug.

“You are the greatest friend in the world, I'm so lucky to have met you.” Perri chirped

I still didn't understand this platonic affection, this is the second time in a row, and I don't feel anything. My heart feels heavy and silent, there's no emotion. Why am I like this.

But to make her feel better, I hugged her back.

It lasted for 3 minutes, everyone in the warehouse was staring at us. But I didn't care, as long as she's happy.

She finally let go and walk towards Lexi, both of them waving goodbye to me. I guess it wasn't such a bad day after all.

“Hold on Spinel, just a minute.” Jasper asserted

I spoke to soon.

“Even though I'm letting your friend hang with the road captain, you still have to do something for me in return. ” Jasper decided

“Jasper. I can't be your drug mule.” I stated

“Don't worry your panties off, your not delivering drugs. I've chosen something that you may like. Do you know Sophie Turner.” Jasper explained

“What about her.”

“She hasn't been paying her IOU's for the Menohoyō's she's been buying for her parties. She keeps saying “My dad is rich, I'll get your money, stop bugging me, bla bla bla.” So because of her I'm losing money, she's my top buyer in Akuma no tochi. So what I need you to do is, take her out.” Jasper offered

Well isn't that pure irony.

“I think I can do that Jasper, but I'm going to need some equipment.” I demanded

“Sure, anything. You just can't tell the clan was involved.” Jasper added

“I need a hacksaw, trash bags, bleach, cleaning supplies, nails and the key to the saw mill.” I listed

“Done. Go to our SGT at arms, Ruth. She'll get you what you need. Remember Spinel, this never happened.” Jasper concluded

Once I reached the exit, a familiar voice called out for me.

“Spinel, Wait. I want to talk to you!”

Well what do you know, I thought Ryan was the last person who would talk to me here.

“Listen Spinel, I did some thinking and wanted to apologize about yesterday. I took my frustrations out on you, it was wrong. I should have never called you runner-tits, your a beautiful, smart girl. One day, some very lucky guy will meet you. I'm sorry.” Ryan apologized

I didn't expect someone like Ryan to say that, it took a lot of guts to admit something like that. I respect that.

“I forgive you Ryan, no hard feelings.”

“Thank you Spinel, I'll let you go now. But remember, the Black Hawks have your back.” Ryan thanked

“Your welcome, I'll see you around.”

It is time, time to give that bitch what she deserves. Good thing I didn't give all that birthday cake to the meow-meows.

I finally arrive to Sophie's place, no ones home but her. I have everything I need to silence her for good. And it all starts with a piece of cake.

I walked to her door and placed a small pink box on the doorstep. I knocked on the door and hid behind a bush.

“Hello, is some out there. Justin you better not be fucking with me.” Sophie cautioned

“Oh, what's this. (opens the box) aww, it's a piece of cake. I guess Justin isn't a dick after all. ”

Sophie picked up the cake from the box and went back inside, without locking the door. I quietly snuck in behind her, when I found out that she took the bait. I always make the best cakes, thanks to Momma. But for this special occasion, I added my secret ingredient.

I saw her take the first bite, then the second, and finally the third. Until she took her fourth bite.

“Mmmh mhhhh- ACK,ACK. Gahh. Barf.” Sophie said while gagging and puking blood

That's right, the secret ingredient os nails. I placed a couple of small nails in the sweet-treat, hoping it would tear her esophagus apart.

“Aww, did poor wittle Sophie bit off more than she could chew.” I teased her while kneeling down beside her.

“Who's a spaz now bitch. I would have came for your ass later. But you had to pick on my wittle buddy. That's one step to far.” I rasped

I looked at her in disgust while watching her struggle to breathe. This was the first human I ever killed, I'm tired of releasing my pain on cats. Taking them from their owners, putting them in a bag, and slamming that said bag onto the concrete floor! Who ever knew inflicting pain on someone like her can feel so, pleasurable. Reliving. The pure horror in their eyes fills my desire, my desire to butcher these whores that stand in my way. I shouldn't have done this sooner.

“ACK ACK ACK, gahh. Fuck youu, you psychotic cun-(pukes blood). Barf. Huff, puff, huff, puff. Huff...ack....ack...ack.........ah.” Sophie cried her last words.

“Just so you know, it's homemade not store bought.” I joked

Well that took longer than I expected. I had to saw her in ten part, bag them, clean the floor, bleach the floor, dispose any evidence, take the body parts to the saw mill and shred them up. I also had to burn my cloths as well, at least I brought a spare set. But it all ended smoothly. I got my revenge, and now only five more rivals to go. Perri can now see Lexi anytime, I hope they worked out, they'll make a cute couple. Even though school sucked ass at least it ended on a positive note. Now time to go home, and great my amazing famil-.

“Hey. Spinel.”

Okay who could that be.

I turned around wanting to know whose behind me. And oh fuck I wish didn't. This day was perfect for Perri and I, and she's the last person I wanted to see, God damn it!

“Hello Spinel”

“Hello. Connie.”

To be continued

[tortillaplanet]

Realty Stories that Show You How!

Let's begin easing you actually out of the pits. I mean, comfort zone! I'm going to slowly and carefully give you as many little sparks and insights to the not hard ways that ordinary people use real estate to achieve extraordinary outcome. Stories are the best spark plugs. They let you gently observe from a safe, secure and understandable view place. I will write to answer most of the questions that I experience I myself would ask if I was reading everything you are about to read. I want you to know something belonging to the very start of this report and that something is this unique: I care about you and I sincerely mean that. I seriously do want you to move to a new comfort zone, one that can be pleasurable and free from fear. A place where you realize you will have the power to achieve greater things than you currently can see right now. It's possible for you to start being a more powerfully directed purpose-driven individual who is well organized and on track to higher achievement. You are likely to change and grow, slowly and steadily with each page you read. With every thought and understanding you gain, your desire and courage will grow at the same time. Napoleon Hill wrote one of the greatest books of all time. It's referred to as "Think and Grow Rich. " The essence of these book, the secret it reveals time and again is this: you ought to develop a burning desire. Don't put this book downward thinking the previous statement is cliché and that you previously knew that! I am simply leading you to my then point, the next point being is - your hope needs a starting point. So to start developing desire, my technique is you must have a purpose. Why do you want to pursue real estate? I do know what you're thinking: to make money, to have security, that will feel useful and appear successful. Good points. I concur you can have all of that and more if that is what you desire. Currently here is something that comes before any of those things you desire. What's the purpose of all those things? Purpose, purpose, purpose... you need to very first define purpose before you get the things. My purpose, roughly I thought early in my career, was to move up to a nicer house and have my first house become my own first rental property. When I moved up to the next you, I quickly learned as soon as I rented it outside, I was in some way responsible for creating happiness and safety in the life of another person that was of no regards to me. It soon was evident to me how the selections I made in choosing that first property either could help me or hurt me in my quest to achieve the real estate investment business. All of it is cumulative, all you do and how you do it adds up. It compounds its own matters and it either makes your life easier or more difficult. My goal is to give you experiences that you can learn from that will make your life much easier; I am going to show you how. That is my purpose. The arrange that gave me the unknowing courage to take this first steps in real estate was a book labeled "How I Turned $1000 into $3 Million through real estate in my spare time" by William Nickerson. The person was a master storyteller and by osmosis, once reading his book, I found myself gravitating towards the home classified section of my Sunday paper. Eventually I jumped and my life had changed. It was an FHA property foreclosure, a two-bedroom, one-bath home with a built-in, screened-in group, with a Jacuzzi and a built-in sprinkler system. I bought the software for $46, 000 and used the HUD 203K rehab program to fix it up. I spent $16, 000 to update and make repairs. They then gifted me one loan for a total of $62, 000. It took me three months to complete it and Document was in; I had done it! My life changed, I realized, I took the leap. From then on I had confidence. I needed already had my first home but now I did two. Well, I was in the Coast Guard together with wouldn't you know, three months later we moved. Uncle Sam had me out of St. Petersburg, Florida and dropped others in Kodiak, Alaska, for my next tour about duty. Well guess what? I was armed with ambition, courage, confidence and just enough knowledge to be considered threatening, so I bought a duplex as soon as I came on land on Kodiak Island. Now I had three dwellings and additionally my relationships and responsibilities were growing with your new tenants counting on me to provide a clean, purposeful and pleasing environment for them to exist in. It seemed like this: My mother rented my first house in addition to an elderly couple rented the second one and a duplex came with an existing tenant who was a hospital officer, so I was lucky. I was able to ease myself towards the role of landlord without getting burned early into my career. I now had two houses and a duplex in the span of about one year. My brothers and some other sorts of family members took notice and were pretty well dumbfounded. Individuals couldn't figure out how I had, all of a sudden, become a real estate wizard. It all felt good to make that change in so quite short a time. I got that from reading a book! And also my friend is how you are going to do the majority of everything you achieve in real estate, by reading and taking steps closer to duplicating the success of others in a repeatable structure. The key is to understand that you can do it if you read the ideal books and apply the very basic formulas that are passed to you. There lies in: Magic Bullets in Real Estate This is usually a common man or woman's real estate manual. William Nickerson never gave me anything so easy as "Magic Principal points! " So I learned trial by fire and it has also been very gratifying. I've since went on to collect 17 real estate, 23 tenants, 2 real estate licenses in Florida along with Alaska, an assistant appraiser's certificate and over a one hundred dollars books on real estate. I just kept learning and maturing and gaining momentum for the last 13 years. I am however in the Coast Guard, too, and I work at Ak One Realty in my spare time. In two more numerous years, I will be retired at the ripe old age of 42. May sound like a sort of fairytale, doesn't it? Don't let me fool an individual. It's hard work and I'm still not a millionaire, yet I want you to have the truth, so I will be honest along every step of the way. I know why I am an excellent millionaire and here is why. I would periodically sell real estate that was going up in value and paying for itself because of the rent checks. But being in the Coast Guard would most likely dislocate me every four years, so I found ourselves selling out in order to avoid being what is called "an absentee landlord. " This is an important lesson for you. It has prevented me from becoming a millionaire up to this point. The tutorial is: find an area on this planet that you could and will inhabit, and stay close to it. Don't move more than 10 miles from your farm area. The farm area is definitely where all your properties are located. Long distance "land lording" might be tough! It can be done but you lose the ability to control your situation compared to if you were there. I've served my country and even saved people's lives, so for me it has not been in vain. I have no regrets but if you don't have to get away from your area of expertise, don't! The networks you develop and the contacts you build, in the process of "doing" property, are so valuable that when they are no longer at your disposal, it puts you at a serious disadvantage. Not to mention when you step you have to acclimate yourself to an entirely different market, build latest trust-based relationships and start all over again. It's like a treadmill you're going to be running and running, however it gets you nowhere. I had used it to my advantage. I have been forced towards accelerate my abilities to rapidly duplicate my achieving success whenever I am moved, but it is still an uphill combat. My point: Don't move too far from your farm or even your network of bankers, appraisers, carpenters, tradesman, housing, friends, tenants and so on. Once you have the skill you can redundant your success anywhere you go but if you don't have to be... enough said on that! I like to say, "Don't advertise the goose to get the eggs. " What that means is certainly if you need money to buy more property, use equity creases from other property to do it. You will get the same amount of cash or more by using an equity line as if you sold the idea. However , you get to keep the asset and the money! I go deep into this in "Magic Bullets, " so I won't drone on here. Just know you don't have to sell your property to see the cash out of them. So here we are. You know a little about me and you may have picked up a nugget or simply two. Let's find a few more. There once was men who wanted to buy some investment property, so what the guy did was look at growth patterns. You should do this at the same time, by going to your city's planning and zoning department. You will discover growth patterns and you definitely want to buy property that is an acronym in the way of growth. This is how he used what he discovered. He saw that city planners had decided which a new artery (highway) would benefit their city by just creating linkage to another city about 100 miles at a distance, so being a smart investor he only went in as much as a ten mile limit to be able to be close to your partner's investment. Now on average, new growth will radiate out from existing prosperous cities in the direction it is planned for a price of about one mile per year. So our smart individual had a 10 - 12 year plan to hard cash out in about 10 - 12 years. Exactly what he did was buy, I believe, 10 acres connected with commercially zoned property very cheaply because there was basically no demand at the time. He bought it, fenced it in, deal some lights and a gate, and held onto which usually little bugger. Now that new highway was coming this way and the good folks, through their taxes, was paying to have it built. It didn't take long for the heavy equipment to start cutting a swath when it comes to his fenced-in storage facility and when they got shut enough to him, he started renting out a good secure area for everything, from road cones in order to generators to backhoes. You name it - it had been stored there. This more than paid his land down. Now the men and their equipment eventually moved further down the trail but they left a completed highway behind them. And guess what? Low and behold, individuals started driving on it, and then started buying property to set up houses on to get away from the city. Since the new highway seemed to be a straight shot into town, ten miles through was breeze. Well, of course, here comes the herd and everyone is just populating the whole darned area. As well as within ten years, residential housing surrounds Mr. Investor, and will you guess what he's got? Yep, a prime part of commercial property, 10 acres large. So in accordance with her 10-12 year plan, he sells his storage option to make room for the new office/business park complex designed for over $2, 000, 000. That, my friend, is perception, and the sooner you get a clear picture of what it will be that you want to specialize in, the sooner you can retire to the of the islands. How hard was that? Don't tell me it's hard to do it, you can! I'm here to help you. I'm going to give you secrets and techniques no one else dares. Do you ever wonder why people will not tell you the secrets? Of course you already know this but I'm going to tell you anyway. It is because they are operating on a scarcity attitude, as though there won't be any left for them. Or whenever learn something and act on it, you will get ahead and possess a great life. Well, misery loves company and quiet oppression is the rule. Here's a little story that low quality real estate agents won't appreciate either but I'm going to tell that to you anyway. The reason I can tell it is because there are some amazing real estate agents out there who absolutely don't fear what Now i'm about to tell you and would let you know it if they happen to be in my position. Here's the deal: Some agents want to be for instance the Wizard of Oz . They want to create the appearance of selling and transacting real estate as being technical and very legal, a new deep dark mystery. Well, it's not! The truth be told, you possibly can write a contract on a napkin and it would give a presentation in court. I will emphasize here that you write for that napkin along with the terms of your agreement, "The words and phrases set forth on this here napkin are subject to my lawyer's approval. " An attorney will cover you completely for around $750. 00. Prices may vary, however that is an average home contract. There is a lot I am leaving out here but our point is this: If you own property, you can market it anyway you want. "Magic Bullets" will teach you. We will move on. Exposure is the key to finding buyers and owners in real estate. If a property is priced fairly not to mention everyone who is looking for that type of property knows that should be in the availability pool, it will be found and the transaction will probably proceed as advertised. Price it right, advertise the application properly and let the lawyer take care of the details. No fee, just a flat fee. Period. Now that I have that off my personal chest, I will tell you a story about Dan, a 21-year old friend of mine, and his wife and also their new baby. He's a hardworking guy who does an individual's work without complaint and all the other "workers" pick in him for working so hard. Can you believe this? The other guys are so insecure and lazy construct y make fun of a guy who is doing the work of two to three men, mainly of the three who are ridiculing him. Nicely, believe me, this doesn't go unnoticed by me plus I take him under my wing. Dan hopes to buy a house, so I begin the process of saving them years of trial by fire and save your man $25, 000 at no charge. That is because he deserved great help. Anyway, here is the story: I began with the pup by asking him what type of home he thought yet be comfortable with and a price range. He indicated a 3-bedroom for around $100, 000. Knowing what he wanted as well as knowing the area, I was able to take him shopping for the place he was looking for. Now I always go after the "For Selling by Owner" homes first because I know they won't possibly be adding any commission figure into their price, because they will never be paying one. So at 6% of $100, 000 he will get $6, 000 more "house" for his particular precious dollar. I also told him besides the "For Sale by Owner" homes, we would be looking at oddball discount companies that help distressed sellers further spend the their money and property. The mentality of a dealer who uses cheesy companies to help them sell their property is pennywise and pound-foolish. If you're going to use individuals, then get a professional. So off we go. After a day or so, we have found our house. Sure enough, El Cheeso Inc. has a sign on it. The screen doors are actually flapping in the breeze, the weeds are dancing within the lawn, but this house is indeed a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1-car garage with a fenced yard and it's selling regarding $110, 000. Well, due to the fact that there is a divorce in progress, and a new girlfriend who doesn't like the place, and El Cheeso Inc. giving no representation, I settle for Dan and he gets it for $99, 000. What's so great about this deal is this very same floor plan in another house was for sale across town, on the same street, for $25, 000 more. The ethical of the story is good things come to those who deserve the item, and that is another key to real estate. You must work very hard so others will take notice of you and enable you to succeed. Here's a beauty for you. This is about being on real estate circles and keeping your eyes and hearing open and often times your "yapper" closed. This is the adventure of Brian and Julie. Here we have two industrious souls. They have been married for 20 years and they have weathered the storms of matrimony. Julie works at a real estate property office as an office manager. No real estate license, however she works at an office that sells plenty of waterfront property. So we are talking about location and staying in the right place at the right time, and below comes a seller in the door of the office documenting she is going to sell her older waterfront home. She is ready to take $180, 000. Julie tells Brian, they look at it and sure enough, this pearl is right on the water. She gets a gem waiting to be polished up, so Brian and Julie sell their condominium and move in. Very well, they aren't making any more waterfront property, so John goes to work polishing this jewel up. Now, they've bought this house under market value in an appreciating market. So about one and a half years later, the property is worth over $350, 000 and still climbing. Most certainly, Brian is no dummy, so he gets to know his / her neighborhood. He strolls, takes walks and notices, one guessed it, a vacant, neglected jewel on an within double lot. He tracks down the elderly lady, who's going to be living with her sister, through the county records office together with buys the house, including the extra lot, for a total for $120, 000. Now Brian can walk to his or her new "jewel" and he starts polishing it. Typically the neighbors start noticing and are amazed at his put up. He has offers of $180, 000, $200, 000 and additionally $60, 000 for just the lot. You name them. Now that the exposure is there, everyone wants a piece of it again. Well, this is what Brian did. He rented his 1st house out, moved into the second one and utilised plans that I gave to him to build a third residential home on the vacant lot, using the equity he accumulated from first house that went up so much. And listed below is how this thing shakes out: $180, 000 intended for his first house and it's value goes up to $365, 000; he picked up the next jewel for $120, 000 and he paid cash using the equity from the first of all house. Now he takes out a new mortgage on the second house for $120, 000 and builds still another. The value at last count was $815, 000 and she owed a grand total $300, 000. That's a 1 / 2 million-dollar profit in 5 years! Now what really does this story tell us? #1 - it says, "work hard"; #2 - keep your eyes open; #3 - use equity lines; #4 - don't sell; #5 - learn how to be a landlord; #6 - be in locales that appreciate; #7 - buy things that are constrained in availability; #8 - know how to research owners in addition to repair property; #9 - get your partner's help (spouse); #10 - use knowledgeable friends to help you see future (I gave him the plans and advised your pet not to sell anything! ). Can you get any more instructions out of this story? I'm sure you can. Just read it once more and think on it. Jot down your ideas and put the crooks to work. Real estate is not that hard, folks! You can do it. Along with a few magic bullets, some spark plugs and a great mentor to show you how, you can do it too! Let me you and me talk for just a minute here, OK! Have you ever long been really good at something and been able to step to come back and see the whole thing for what it is was? You just comprehend exactly how to do it and you can see the end result clearly mentally before you start. It's predictable to you. It's almost second makeup, so you are comfortable doing it. It's almost become unexciting to you; your comfort zone is such that you can do it into your sleep. I've gotten that way with certain types of properties and I see people everyday that are so terrified of taking the first step that they are literally paralyzed. They produce excuses and put it off, and rationalize and live any quiet life of desperation. They don't trust themselves and so of the unknown they can't trust anyone else either. This is a horrible cycle because the longer they wait the more it reinforces their beliefs. I just want to grab them by the back of the shirt, take them to the bank and make them tell the bank, "Pre-qualify me! " Then walk them out the entranceway and show them how to do something that will change their daily life forever, and that is to buy the first property, and then a second. Therefore their fear is gone and they grow to be of service to make sure you everyone who is ready for their assistance. Let me tell you this: When you have finish reading the rest of this report and you read the "Magic Bullets" book, your fears will be subdued and you will want to do something and your life will change. If you cannot succeed with what I am motive on showing you, then something is not right. I feel your desire would be your major obstacle, so in that case, read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Slope and come back to me then. Let's get back to real estate coaching, shall we? Do you know who the largest commercial real estate operator in the U. S. is? It's McDonalds Corporation. Yes, and on top of that, they also have the most valuable locations for their particular business. The research they do on demographics and website visitors counts is unparalleled! If you were ever going to clear a fast food restaurant, just put it near a McDonalds. You would survive just on the volume of people who flock or maybe pass by the location that McDonalds has already decided meets the critical data to support their restaurant business. Your eating place, if you had good food and service, would grow. Just sell something a little different than McDonalds. That's profiting someone else's expertise in evaluating a location for a certain types of real estate. Now that is a principle and principles are want natural laws. A natural law always works in every issue in its own way. It's like gravity - it all always works! Here on earth, anyway. So in realty it doesn't matter what type it is, whether it's commercial, residential, industrial as well as recreational. Look for signs that serious market studies have already been undertaken by major operators and buy things that can achieve the presence of those concerns. For instance, let's use Place Depot as an example. If Home Depot decides to build at a site, every residential lot within a mile of that brand new center will be bought up as soon as the Home Depot commits to build! Why? Because smart investors know that Home Depot has done the market study and the area will be a prosperous one particular. On top of that, it will provide jobs, it will pay taxes, it may provide materials to actually build the neighborhoods with, and the ones will shop there once their houses are built. An identical goes for Wal-Mart, Lowe's and other smart business concerns. You will or may not have noticed this but take a look the next time you are driving around. Here is what you should see. As you travel into cities from the suburbs, you'll notice donut boutiques, gas stations with convenience coffee centers, bagel shops, along with etcetera, on the side of the road that people travel to on their method into the city to go to work. These are morning activity enterprise centers. Now on your way home, out of the city, you will see places to eat that cater to the evening meal crowd: KFC, Taco Bell, Subway and Pizza Hut. That's because people will not go there for breakfast. They get it on their technique home, outbound from the city at night. If you put the restaurant on the wrong side of the road, you could be at home huge strategical error. Think! Location, location, location as they say, are the 3 most important things in real estate. That is a very true statement. With residential property, that boils down to safeness, security and convenience. So buy homes in decent neighborhoods, cul-de-sacs preferably. No noise or through visitors, no escape routes for thieves, and a private positioning, where kids play in the street without getting run down. Safety = close to hospitals, police and fire protection for the purpose of obvious reasons. Convenience = stores, gas stations, restaurants, enterprises, parks and recreation and access to major highways for you to circulate or evacuate if necessary. You might get a great deal about the piece of properly but if it takes you a half 60 minute block to get a loaf of bread. What kind of resale will which will great deal offer? Another great deal may back up to or possibly face a busy street. That's often a poor decision as well... noise, pollution, the loss of privacy and curb draw are all factors here. The two best types of property to obtain are: 1 . Property that no one else knows is ideal for sale! Why? Because you have no competition. 2 . Property normally wants! You just have to figure out why people don't want to buy. If you can turn that lemon into lemonade through numerous problem solving, that jewel may just shine because you employed the right magic polish. In real estate, you get paid if you solve problems. That is a fact! Here is a golden nugget available for you. If you do this, it will catapult your real estate investment career. That i guarantee you will gain more insight to real estate therefore one thing than just about anything else you could possibly do. The glowing nugget is this: Take a real estate appraisal course. It may fly by, a few weekends and it's over, but the perception and the information you gain from the class is priceless. The software gives you vision, ideas and understanding. You will have an edge through every other investor who has not done it. I had the instructor, who by some stroke of luck, I just was privileged to be taught by. His name is without a doubt Steven V. and he is truly a genius. This guy could create millions if he applied himself to real estate investment though he chooses to teach and give back to others in that way. He could be very comfortable in life and money is a by-product for Steven. When I finished the class, I had appraisers wanting to hire me to go to work. Now I won't want to work as an appraiser. I just want to think including one and that is why I took that four-weekend tutorial. That class taught me more than both of my best real estate licensing courses combined. The reason for that is real estate courses deal with state laws, contracts, regulations and ethics. Value determination focuses on evaluating real estate and that is what you want to learn as an real estate investor. A real estate license can actually hold you back as a result of being a savvy investor and here's why: #1 : You have to announce to every seller that you are an agent. It will be an ethics rule and a disclosure law. Well, currently the seller is on guard for all kinds of reasons so you waste precious time overcoming negative reactions. #2 - When you attend sell your real estate, the same things apply but grow that scenario the fact that if you make large profits regarding property that you sell, people can come after you, saying a person took advantage of them because of your expertise. And they be successful! So you don't need to go to college for 4 years and also don't need a real estate license. What you do need is actually a guy like me to convince you to go to value determination school and read books like the one you have at this time. Then go out and do it, using a lawyer to protect you will every step of the way. Again, here is a good indicate make. Simply weave into every agreement or deliver make the following statement: This entire agreement is subject to my attorney's approval. I can't stress that enough. It is one line of text. That covers it all. It presents time to investigate deals. It protects your interests and even keeps you from getting burned in this business. Right here are a couple more beauties that I use to protect myself and you ought to too. These are used with initial purchase offers: 1 . Ready to pay X amount of dollars or appraised value, any is less. (That says, "I'm only going to spend so much but if the appraisal is lower than what I proposed, than I am going to get it for the lower price. I don't get scorched! ) 2 . Subject to my partner's approval. (My mate was always my wife, and if she didn't like it, the deal was null and void, cancelled, over, kaput, finito. ) Now nothing says my partner wasn't the dog, so if there's no fire hydrant, well the offer could be off. Those are examples of escape clauses that may be abused to the point of being called "weasel clauses. " Do not be a weasel! They give you a short period of time to have the option to order something first with the right to cancel the deal, contingent on something or someone else's decision. I use them to protect personally and to get a little time to do my research on the building. Don't use them to unfairly tie a seller's hands. Possibly be fair and try to move quickly when you do utilize them. What you are doing is creating a short time, zero-cost option to buy real estate. Here is a little trick and I avoid the use of it very often but it can be used in a fair manner i really will give you the nugget. When you write an offer purchasing property, on the top line of the contract is a line the fact that indicates who the buyer is. On that line in a few cases, I will write my name plus the words and / or assigns, like this: Buyers: Dan Auito or assigns The things that word "assigns" does is this: it permits me to sell by assigning my right to buy the place to someone else. Dirty dealers will take advantage of people with who word if they can get away with it. Here's where We'd use it. In real estate, a lot of bargain hunters look for distressed property. You know, the fixer-uppers, the abandoned, condemned, fire-damaged stuff. I go a step further and look for affected sellers such as death, divorce, relocation, but a lot of times My spouse and i don't specialize in that type of property. That's OK if it's a steal and I get it for 40 -- 50% off, I will assign it to someone who does deal in that type of property and make a profit by determining it. I'll always ask the distressed seller should that is a problem and if it is, I will buy it downright, then flip it but it costs more to do that. Therefore I'll explain this to the seller and get their agreement to use it. I don't slip it in about them. You will have a miserable existence if you practice real estate by deceit. Natural law will crush you; play fair! Goal, passion and desire cannot be achieved or acquired by simply deceit. That's a quotable quote. I hope you remember the software. Let's get on with another story. This illustrates a second fine example for you. This story is about a family what person had business interests outside of real estate investing and as a result from the successes of their other businesses they had fairly large sums of money to play real estate like a monopoly adventure. Power can be dangerous in the wrong hands! So listed here we go. This flush with cash family perceives an opportunity to take advantage of an overlooked or left alone markets. That market is the old-fashioned trailer park, or shall we say Mobile Home Park. Anyway, the way almost all mobile home parks came into existence was this: Usually a person of integrity and strong work ethic coupled with a fabulous love for his fellow man would buy a parcel suitable to the placement of mobile homes. As people gone in, he and his wife would welcome individuals and the neighbors would greet them and the community may become established. The private owner would dig his own sewer lines and cut his own roads and scenery the park. Maybe put in the clubhouse complete with an important swimming pool, shuffleboard, pool table and meeting hall. Because time marched on, the residents bonded with each other along with a family-friendly community took root. Well this man in integrity had a problem. Since all of his tenants will be his friends, he is pressured not to raise the lot rent with inflation. So the rents over the years are kept suprisingly low in the park and now this man and his partner are getting old. Perfect timing for our investors to come bumping and offer our private aging park owner a three million dollar price for his 10 acres regarding mobile home lots. This is a once in a lifetime deliver and many park owners cashed out. What people didn't notice was these investors were systematically and methodically the process all over the place and once they cashed out as many mom not to mention pops as they could, they lowered the boom. At this time they the investors had control of many parks from the same areas and they started raising the lot rental prices. You see, they didn't have any emotional ties towards the residents and they didn't live there, so it was an easy business deal: either pay the new higher rent or perhaps move. The residents said, "To hell with you fresh owner, we are moving. " "Well, fine, go ahead, " they said. Now the residents started calling all-around to find another park with low rents but think who owned those? Yep, our investors did, and others lot rents were going up too. So the mom and also pops who didn't sell were full and it would certainly cost on average of about $7, 000 to relocate to a different one park even if they could find a vacancy. The old folks that had it so good for so long were faced with the latest reality and that was that they had no choice and yet to pay up or move, and moving, in many cases, wasn't an option. These investors exploited a complete segment of the current market and made millions and millions in profit and continue to achieve today. It wasn't long after this happened that you began seeing signs saying, "This is a resident owned group. " People eventually got smart and started selecting that little lot that their trailer was placed on and they began paying association dues for the club and security and grounds, maintenance and road fix. The good ole days are nothing but a fond storage. Life goes on but America did not change for the more effective as a result of these types of people. Their only purpose was to help with making money; I believe they will die alone and in anguish as a result of their way of life. So I ask you again, on earth do you be passionate and put your heart into purchasing real estate by investing the way our corporate investors does? I think not. Money is no good when you get it through deceitful ways. I encourage you to work at balancing your own objectives. Lease optioning, flippers... you are walking a fine series. Here's a flip side to communal living. This tale is a happier scenario, so let's have a little happiness here. I once lived in Key West plus I lived off base. Well, I thought When i lived next door to Noah, and it sounded as though the person was building another ark. All summer long, hammers and saws seemed to be making some type of racket, so of course being the neighbor I was, I got to know the person next door. He never went to work and I quizzed him one day, "Don't you have a job and he somewhat grinned and put his hammer down and this will be Mark's story. Mark and his brother were out of your Northeast and they had a 30-room boarding house pertaining to college kids there, at something like $300. 00 a calendar month. That was about $9, 000 a month and they made typically the parents responsible for the rent payments. Mark would commit his time with his family in the Keys for the on the lookout for months that school was in session. His brother was initially a local up North and he took care of your toilets, faucets, doors and windows. Yes, they had their very own animal house hold going on there, but Mark factored in the abuse as well as would spend 2 - 3 months a year, putting your pet house back together while the animals went home just for summer break. Mark only worked three months a year as well as house (ark) that he built next to us was the masterpiece; it was beautiful. He was a master craftsman and he loved his work and spent loads of his time with his family in a wonderful climate. Makes you kind of jealous, doesn't it? Well, don't let it books can do it, too, but you must get started. Mark was basically 45 when I met him. I believe he was twenty five when he got started, so my advice to your account is to get started now!

[waywardnerd67]

Watch Over You

Summary: She is an angel charged with watching over him. When the angels fell that order did not change until she captured by Amara and she ended up being saved by the very one she had watched over. Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel, Angel!Reader Pairing: Dean x Angel!Reader Warnings: Fluff Word Count: 1722 Prompt: “I’ve been waiting a long time for you.” (BOLD) A/N #1: This is for @covered-byroses Turning 1 Writing Challenge A/N #2: As always this is unbeta so all mistakes are mine. Likes, comments and reblogs are splendid and I will love you doubly for them! Enjoy!

January 24, 1979

(Y/N) watched as the Winchesters pulled into their driveway. John Winchester got out rushing to the back passenger door to help his wife, Mary, and their new born son out of the car. (Y/N) smiled softly as she watched them go inside. The sound of wings behind her made her smile fade.

“You are not supposed to be down here.” She turned to see her superior, Castiel. His presence was intimidating and massive.

She sighed, “I know. Watch from Heaven but I just wanted to see him.” Castiel placed his hand on her shoulder then suddenly they were back in Heaven.

“Zachariah, told you specifically, to watch and report only. I suggest you stay here and do as you are told, so you do not get into trouble.” Looking up she saw Castiel’s disapproving scowl, but his tone was soft filled with concern for her.

“Understood. Observe and report.” She said sitting at her desk turning on the screen that was showing Dean Winchester’s nursery.

(Y/N) was once in Castiel’s garrison where they would fight side by side together. Until one fateful day where she saved a human instead of protecting an angel who ended up dying. Since that moment, she had been charged with a desk job. A job that was boring her death if she could die which made it worse that there would never be an end to it.

Looking down at the small screen she watched as Dean Winchester slept peacefully in his bassinet next to his parents’ bed. For some reason Zachariah wanted her to keep watch over him. He did not say for how long or why but if it would keep him and Castiel off her back then watch the baby she would.

Present Day

(Y/N) sat outside the power plant in Lebanon, Kansas watching for the familiar black ’67 Chevy Impala. She sat in the same spot as she always did, when waiting for the Winchesters. When the angels were casted out of heaven, she had found a devoted vessel easily and did the only things she knew how to do. She watched over Dean keeping a journal of the life she observed.

She was careful to keep her distance as to not alert Castiel to her presence. (Y/N) was envious of Castiel’s relationship with the Winchesters and longed to be by their sides, by Dean’s side. She felt connected to Dean in more than just her observing him his entire life. Everything she had read and seen since coming to Earth said that she was in love with him, but she did not understand what that meant exactly.

She watched as the large door slide open revealing the beautiful black Impala coming from the underground garage of the Men of Letters Bunker. Just as she was about to follow them a woman appeared standing in front of her car. (Y/N) let out a small gasp knowing exactly who she was.

“Hello (Y/N).” she said as (Y/N) got out of her car.

“Amara, are you here to harm the Winchesters?” she asked gripping her angel blade that was holstered in her jacket sleeve.

Amara chuckled lightly, “My dear you know that blade won’t work on me. I’m here to see you or more like take you.”

(Y/N) upholstered her blade letting it slide down into her hand, “What could you possibly want with me? I’m nobody.”

“That’s not true at all. You are somebody very important especially to Dean Winchester and you are the only one who can mess up my plans. I’m going to take you away and when they come for you then I will take away the only thing keeping him from being one with me.” Amara walked closer to (Y/N).

(Y/N) did not understand what Amara could possibly be talking about and did not want to find out. If it meant saving Dean Winchester, then (Y/N) would do everything in her power to do just that including going up against God’s sister.

Amara flicked her hand knocking (Y/N)’s blade out of her hand and then dragged her towards Amara. “Resisting is unwise.” Suddenly, (Y/N) was no longer outside the Bunker but inside an abandon house. There was some kind of warding up keeping (Y/N) from using any of her powers.

“Where are we?” she asked seeing that all the windows were blacked out but not by paper or paint. That is when she realized it was Amara’s black smoke that was surrounding the house blacking out everything.

Amara smiled sitting on a chair, “My own personal sanctuary. We are not too far away from the Winchesters and their angel friend, Castiel.” Amara closed her eyes as if she were mediating then opened them once again. “They will be here soon.”

(Y/N)’s heart was beating rapidly at the thought of Dean seeing her for the first time. She started pacing as the minutes passed by and Amara sat silently watching her. (Y/N)’s hands were shaking, and her body was restless at the anticipation.

“I’m curious, why do you seem so nervous to see Dean Winchester?” Amara asked leaning back in her chair.

(Y/N) sighed, “The Winchesters have never met me. I have watched them grow up, fight, die all from a far. It makes me nervous to know that they will know I exist.”

Amara sat up pure delight radiating from her face. “You have no idea who you are then to him?” she said as (Y/N) looked at her confused.

“Who I am to Dean? I’m the angel who was charged with watching over him. I try to protect him as much as I can from a distance. Past that I am nothing to him. I stay in the background just like I did in Heaven.” Mentioning it aloud made the depressing realization even more difficult to accept.

Amara stood up closing the distance between them, “Oh (Y/N), you are much more than that. You and Dean are connected to one another. Drawn to one another. Meant to be, which is exactly why I want to get rid of you. Once you’re gone then he will no longer be able to resist me.”

The implication of Amara’s words hit (Y/N) just as the black smoke lifted from the house and the three men she had been watching all this time came running in. Castiel stood stunned as he saw her, “(Y/N)?” he said.

“Cas, you know this chick?” Dean’s voice made her heart skip and she could feel her body wanting to move towards him.

“No, no stay right where you are (Y/N).” Amara said grabbing her arm.

“Castiel…” she said wincing as Amara squeezed her arm.

Castiel dropped his blade into his hand standing in front of Dean, “Let her go.”

Amara looked from each of them, “You’re right Castiel. Right now, is not the right time. One thing being locked away for millenniums has taught me is to be patience. I will be back and Dean…” she said letting go of (Y/N) and looking over to the eldest Winchester, “You will join me there will be no resisting. You will join me and willing so.”

Amara disappeared leaving (Y/N) with Castiel and the Winchesters. Sam looked around, “What the hell was that all about?” he asked.

Castiel stood in front of (Y/N) concerning filtering through his deep blue eyes, “I thought you died during the fall. Why did not you reach out to me?”

“I did not want to bother you plus I continued to do what I was charged to do.” Realization registered on Castiel’s face as she looked down at her feet feeling her cheeks burning.

“After all this time, you’re still…” he said as she nodded.

Dean cleared his throat, “Don’t mean to interrupt the reunion, but can we get the hell out of here?” he said motioning for them to follow him.

(Y/N) walked closely behind Castiel as they all went out to the black Impala that she had been admiring for many years. Climbing into the backseat with Castiel she took a deep breath taking in the smell of leather, car grease and gun powder. Happiness filled her heart as Dean brought the car to life.

It was a short trip back to the Bunker and she saw her car sitting in its same spot. “You can let me out here.” She said as Dean stopped in front of the garage entrance.

“Are you sure?” he asked as she simply nodded making eye contact with him through the rearview mirror.

Castiel got out with her following her to her small little home on wheels. “(Y/N), come inside with us and get to know the men who you have been watching all their lives.”

“Watching us, huh? That’s not creepy at all.” Dean’s voice surprised her as he walked up next to Castiel, “I think you should come in as well. Amara feels that you’re are important to me, so we can better protect you if you stay.”

(Y/N) smiled at Dean who slowly had a smile spread across his lips, “I’ve been waiting a long time for you. A long time to finally meet you and speak to you, but I cannot stay.”

She hugged Castiel, “You know I’ll be around if you need me. I must go, and you know why.”

He nodded as she looked to Dean, “I promise to come back Dean.” She cupped his cheek and he closed his eyes. Feeling the roughness of his scruff against her palm sent shivers down her body.

She quickly got into her car and took off before she changed her mind. She one mission now and that was to find a way to take out Amara before she could get to Dean Winchester. She let out a scream at one point as she looked over to see Chuck sitting in her passenger seat. (Y/N) quickly pulled off to the side of the highway.

“Hello (Y/N), I see you finally got to meet your soulmate.” He said calmly as she tried to calm down her rapidly beating heart.

Looking over to him she could see the blinding light shining from him, “God?” she whispered as he smirked.

“We have a lot to discuss.” He said then snapped his fingers leaving an empty car behind on the side of the road.

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[neko-shinigxmi]

.: NatsuShio: The OC/Canon Ship That Ruined My Life :.

(In the Best Way)

@supernatural-cat98, get buckled in.

   Let’s start with how I started. An Okami OC.

   Her name is Shiori, but her full name is Shiorigami, a brush kami OC for the game Okami. Once an adoptable from DeviantArt, I made her into a fully-fleshed out character fit for the game. Sure, she’s an usual hybrid (nekotori; cat body, but with tail feathers like a small peacock), but she’s the kami of Poems and Literature. She’s got social anxiety and a thinly veiled reference to autism, as she is stunted to everyone, including her extensive family...but writing is where she blooms.

   Fiction, biographies, history, poems of all kinds... If it’s writing, she’s happy. It protects her and makes her happy, even when she fears she isn’t a good enough brush kami. Even if her powers are an inky echo of her mother’s.

   She once had short hair. She once loved a Lunarian named Kazuki... A scholar of the Moon Tribe, during a period of tension and war between his people and the Celestials... Shiori’s people. Despite it all, they truly did love each other, despite never admitting it out loud. He was gifted a scroll of poems he inspired her to write. He gave her a golden necklace- almost collar-like- with the symbol of the Moon Tribe engraved on the back.

   ...He would end up dying in a slaughter done by the evil the Moon Tribe had summoned. Those who fled to the mortal world to escape the war becoming the only survivors. Kazuki was gone...and left Shiori not only with a deep depression, but also with a fear to care for anyone who was mortal.

   Who could die and be ripped from her grasp, just like Kazuki had.

   Her hair grew out over the years (faceclaim: Suiren Shibazeki from Hibi Chouchou), protected by her mother to ease her pain of the death of the one she loved most...and in the years after the events of Okami, would stay either in her room on the Celestial Plain or occasionally live on the mortal world, in a small house to herself among a forest not too far from Ryoshima Coast.

   And so. It would be this starting point for a fateful meeting...

   Natsu Dragneel. Specifically, burningheartdragneel, my roleplay partner. (To my Shio, @goddessof-poems.) He met Amaterasu first, having somehow...gotten himself a little universe-lost. Befriending her was easy; both liking to fight, both loving to eat... It was easy for them.

   Yet he poses an interesting challenge for sweet, quiet Shiori. Little bookworm, easily forgets to eat at all, and isn’t much one for the adventuring scene, like her mother or Natsu.

   ...However, it’s because of her Natsu learns the joys of reading; specifically, an adventurous story of fiction Shiori had written some time before. He makes a small, but decent meal for the forgetful Shiori, ensuring she eats...and even motivates her to get out of her home, taking him to show off Ryoshima Coast and her own Water Tablet that Amaterasu gifted her.

   It’s our current roleplay and a still on-going one, but we came up with so much more as we talked over Discord. They will slow burn their way, but us? We know how the path goes....and we ended up falling in love with a pairing of our own creation.

ExoticGeneral: Ah gods I love this! Especially since Shiori isn't the kind to stop her work to eat or anything Natsu would at some point bring snacks with him and probably feed her (and he hardly likes sharing either) because somebodies is gonna have to be watching over her. But if he woke up with her all beside him, he'd be pretty flustered about it. Plus as an added bonus he always oddly warm, which makes for good cuddling in the winter/chilly days. :3c Yeah, he'd probably be more careful with her because even if she is a brush good she's just so fragile. He'd probably bond with her relatively easy though since he's always been a cat kinda guy? But yeah, demon hunting would be a big no-no while she was around. No need to try and scare her away. But I thought about that heat headcanon thing would be funny cause I can't see either making the first move ever! xD

Aki: Oh gosh, yeah. Shiori's the type for "skinny love" situations, where it's almost painfully obvious she loves the person, but if nobody acts on it, then it's this firm stalemate. Tbh, she'd likely only "confess" if he got really hurt and she was scared for him....but even then, it's confusing for the oblivious bc-?? Was that a confession? What if it wasn't????

ExoticGeneral: But god a confession like that would be hilarious cause it might just go over his head! He'd probably just grin like an idiot, being all like 'Thanks that means a lot' and playing it off as completely platonic possibly. He may be bold in everything else, but love is something he's actually insecure about considering his first girlfriend died, his mom, like three of his dads and his brother wants to murder him.

Aki: Ommmmggggg. She'd probably laugh a little and keep trying to tell herself it's better this way, bc like...... (And this is what kills me) She'd rather have a friend in him than nothing at all bc of rejection so she'd start spiraling down and try to keep upbeat even though she keeps thinking about it and getting guilty bc what if he only wants them to be friends???? What if he didn't like romance at all?? She doesn't want to push him away from her..... She'd rather suffer years of not having him love her back then lose him. (And re-reading this..... Ouch on the death of the first girlfriend. Shiori knows that pain.... Except slightly more painful that she also never confessed to the guy and lost him to the slaughter of the Moon Tribe.)

ExoticGeneral: AKI DONT They'd both end up suffering because they're shy potatoes who can't convey their feelings properly for the life of them! It wouldn't even get better cause she'd only start going down hill after a while and he'd more than likely notice but not realize he's the problem in a way and FUUUUUUCCCKKKK

Aki: HAHAHAHAHAA, YOU'RE TOO LATE; MY POWERS HAVE BEEN REALIZED She'd actually manage pretty well for awhile, being oblivious, but then the feelings would start and that very emotion would be her downfall. Because then what are you supposed to do when you want to hug your "friend" for no apparent reason and just...stay there? That you wouldn't mind if he stayed over all the time and got to sleep with him, because that's when the nightmares kept away from her? (And even if they did show up, he was there to comfort her...) She's an absolutely wreck after awhile and keeps spacing out and begins to screw up and she's like a black hole collapsing in on itself and it hurts so bad to watch

ExoticGeneral: STAHP YOURE HURTING MY SHIPPER HEART BEFORE THE SHIP ACTUALLY EXISTS That blackhole though, like how do you even fix that??? Because the closer you get to her the more it's probably hurting her and you could confess but getting closer is what caused it to progress. HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOUR SHIT WHEN YOU'RE THE PROBLEM!?!? Your making me emotional and it's only like 8 in the morning, I don't want to start my day sad already!

Aki: Shiori finally breaking down in front of Natsu though. Like, it was a little trip over a tree root or something and she says, "O-oh, n-no, I'm fine...." But Natsu's just-??? No you're not, you're crying. Why are you crying? What hurts?? And from there she starts bawling and Natsu is awkward but tries his best. He also has little to no idea what she's saying pass those sobs of hers, but oUCH PAIN EVERYWHERE. Then- awhoop- right out of that sobbing mess comes a pretty clear confession, whoo boy--

ExoticGeneral: But HOLY SHIT when a confession happens he'd get flustered. To the point of constant figgeting and just a permanent blush would cover his face. He'd probably end up staying silent, then just start crying and fuck me up. The first confession of his life??? hE WAS NOT READY FOR THIS BUT IS TOTALLY ACCEPTING OF THIS! She'd get to see an entirely new spectrum of him though when he gets all soft-hearted and actually reveals his romantic side???

Aki: Shiori's equally as flustered and waiting to please just collapse in on herself and cease existance....and then once she realized she didn't fuck things up, she's crying with him and so much affection????? Oh no, the cutes. Cutes everywhere. Also Shiori is a huge sap and she's going to love that. But now he has to deal with his cute new goddess gf blushing whenever he smooches even just her cheek. Or holds her hand. Or snuggles up to her..... When he breathes LMAO, Jk...~

ExoticGeneral: THem crying together. THat thought just gives me life cause they're just two mushy emotional destroyed people atm. Just I don't even know who would actually recover first at that point, maybe Natsu, and just give her the longest most affectionate hug he's got in him. This relationship ain't gonna last long, give it like a week and he'll probably die from a cute overload. He'd try to pamper her a bit (though he wouldn't know how really) and just take her out to star gaze and do some silly things. But holding hands??? Like that's really lewd ya know.

Aki: Yeeeaaaahhh, he probably would. Shiori's trying to calm down, but those silly tears won't stop~ But she'll still snuggle close when he hugs her and hug him back. AH. AAAAAAHHHHHH. Natsu coming back to her place after that little event and suddenly, her new greeting is, "Welcome home," with a bright smile. Natsu kneels tf over bc cHRIST DID HE JUST HAVE A HEARTATTACK?!?!?!??

   Oh yes. We had a LENGTHY talk about their confession... But is that all? Of course not!! We’ve also had conversations about...

   Sleeping habits:

Aki: Oh man, and if she woke up to that racing heart of his.... All sleepy and concerned and it's right out of a romance novel and someone help Natsu bc death is rapidly approaching

ExoticGeneral: And the thing is that's one of his quirks. Like his way of saying 'I think I like you' IS sleeping at there house a lot more often. TO the point where it's just an everyday exerpeince and it's only weird if he DOESN'T show up one night.

Aki: !!!! Natsu being late one night and he's surprised bc it's late as fuck but there's Shiori, obviously tired and ready for bed, but unable to sleep because she'd gotten used to sleeping with Natsu and his warmth. (He has to pull confidence and fake cheer before he's allowed to start dying in the darkness of her room; that was so fuckin' cute and she was holding onto that little cat plush and she looked so lonely jfc whAT THE FUCK that level of cute is illegal in all the states and all of the worlds and timelines, bYE)

ExoticGeneral: But I can totally see that! He just kinda pushes open her door and it's like 2 in the fucking morning. The conflicted feelings he must have though knowing that when he walks in there he's gonna suffer for a few hours or more but is like 'fuck ing worth it.'  (She needs to tone it down because if the guy who lives to fight wants to SNUGGLE then there's a problem. No one man, goddess or not, should be allowed to have so much power!)

Aki: She's just more than happy to see him bc dang it, she couldn't sleep without him...and the second she's comfy and curled up against him? Boop. Out like a light. (Plot twist: her real power is being cute as hell. Her cuteness so strong, who needs weaponry?? Flutter those lashes, tilt her head... If she has the ears and feather tails out? B y e. You're dead now. Sorry, don't make the rules.)

ExoticGeneral: JEEz THOUGH! Not being able to sleep without him! Now all of a sudden he becomes like a necessity for a proper nights sleep, or any at all really. (But that's one way to competely get to him. Sexy? Pfffft, he can ignore that most of the time. Cute, fucking slay him okay? Just 'Here lies Natsu, rest in pieces' and fuck she's a cutie!)

Aki: I mean.... He could be a mean little one and let her pass out once it becomes too much, but there's also the huge implication that Natsu actually sorta gets her on a sleep schedule?? Something she usually doesn't have at all???? When Natsu's getting snuggled up in the futon, it basically becomes a sign of, "Oh, time to stop for today and sleep." Reverse alarm clock, Natsu is. Getting a certain poetry goddess to bed rather than waking her up (or keeping her up, as is). (Shiori perfected the cute ability. Cute traits that'd be passed down for generations. Flirting-but-not-flirting, the ultimate technique. How will poor Natsu ever survive?!?)

   Dinners with Mom Amaterasu:

Aki: Meet the parents? More like, "Forget that formal stuff! Let's go out and eat dessert before dinner!!!!" Because Ammy doesn't really do formal anymore and why not just....use the time for the better?? Like eating???? Not to mention, then she can embarrass the two like, "Now you gotta feed each other. Do it, do it, do it~!!" Ammy is a gr8 mom, as you can tell

ExoticGeneral: Well I don't think it could happen. I think Ammy and natsu met because he tried pelting her with water ballons. There is no need to be formal after that! But I can see Ammy rigging everything somehow. Just like ordering milkshakes for all three but 'accidentally' forgets one so she gets a whole one while Natsu and shiori share. with coincidentally two staws.

Aki: "Hmmmm, would you look at that.... Strange." Casually drinks at her own like NBD--  And that's true!!! No formality exists here; there's only the two dorks and the shy poet, who's more than happy to be the little side-line cheerleader for their antics. (Unless they're questionable. Then she's worried and trying to get them off of the idea. Probably crit. hits Natsu by being cute.)

  The time I almost wrote in our RP that Shiori was gonna kiss his cheek....and they’re not even CLOSE to dating, oh boy:

Aki: .....It suddenly occurs to me that I want an aesthetic made of NatsuShio.............

ExoticGeneral: I'm laughing. This isn't a pairing (Yet) and you're like grabby hands

Aki: Hey. Hey. Compare this to the time I almost wrote in Shio kissing Natsu's cheek waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy too early, and a little aesthetic ain't that bad~

ExoticGeneral: You know if you had wrote that slip up I would have went along with it too. It would have been a hilarious mess.

Aki: LMAO. Even Shiori would be confused like, "......I have never before in my LIFE ever done that.... Why did I do that now?!?" This is the Sims and I am the tru god and their lives are my pLAYTHINGS

ExoticGeneral: He would have stopped everything for a solid 5 minutes then continue like it didn't happen. If you don't react it's like it never happened, right? I mean that's how we do it anyways. We make them suffer cause it's fun

Aki: Plot twist, though...... Isn't even freezing considered a reaction?! So by freezing he thinks he didn't react, but the act of freezing up is a reaction in itself......!! YOU'VE BEEN PLAYED, NATSU!!! They aren't suffering yet, buuuuut..... All in due time

   Memes, of course:

ExoticGeneral: Ammy: So do you and Shio call each other pet names? Natsu: Pfffft! No! Of course not! Ammy: What do bees make then? Natsu:....Honey? Shio, from the other room: Yeah, sweetie? Ammy: Don't you ever lie to my face again.

Aki: tHIS WOULD HAPPEN, F U CK-- I AM LOSING IT

   And the moment we acknowledged how we know this ship was The One; our OTP forever and always: (featuring the best rant I’ve ever written for this ship)

ExoticGeneral: It's literally freaking insane how you just start having ten billions of ideas running through you're head! Like okay time to put then through some angst hell, then recovery fluff, little slice of life, smooches and some bonding/ development??? Like Im getting way too far ahead of myself here??? But the ideas/drabbles keep on rolling anyway. This is how you know this is the one.

Aki: Yes!!! And like.... Honestly, I pride myself on doing "realistic" stuff? Having my characters contradict themselves sometimes, do something that would hurt....cause humans are like that. Hell, it's why I also brazenly went for Shiori's emotional breakdown when she heard the news that all Lunarians had died..... Including her dear Kazuki.  Being able to imagine and know how that breakdown went in my head, where nothing she tried worked, until she went crawling back to her mother to grant her wish to not exist...take the pain away......  Boi. B o i. When it comes to big time storywriting, I get hELLA AMPED. I'm ready to show them every corner of the world, good or bad. Perfection or deep flaws. Give me that angst where they will realize that it hurts, but having someone to hurt with makes the pain ease a little. It doesn't fix everything, but having those assuring words and someone who cares deeply makes it harder to be upset. Let them have those slice of life days where Shiori wakes up in bed for once, stomach not aching or feeling like a void, and ready to start a new day. Have him drag her out to explore and shake up her old, rigid life. Let them, in the future, kiss and hug and wonder why....but know that if waiting so long meant finding love and getting it this right, then it was worth the wait. Let them develop so much, that we look back to where we started and cackle with joy, cause they friggen made it. Wow, a sappy rant from me, yEEHAW

ExoticGeneral: Damn right sister! Preach it! Like sometimes I just sit there with some bsckground music on and its so fitting that you just throw out 20 paragraphs like no problem. I just need those days with them where they argue over something little and it gets so blown out of proprtion and convoluted that they just forget what is was about? Just random nights of stargazing then falling asleep? Or literally doing nothing and either of them thinks of their s/o and gets super flustered for no reason? The day they actually become a couple but still trains his tush off and shio doesnt ask how he got strong, but why he did cause heckie is that gonna be one wild ride of a story. But the simple, final answer is to  protect her. Not because she's the daughter of Ammy, but because he failed to do so with his dad and elder brother and doesn't want to lose her too. Like I want weakness that comes with trust? Fear that comes with love? But also the fulfilling satisfaction of contentness. That you wouldn't trade this for anything else, its a unique feeling that only they can deliver. Ya feel?

Aki: Right??? Good heavens, mention music and now I need to go look up Shio's number one mood music........ Can't think Shio romance (especially where it's "skinny love") without remembering the song, sO-- Right?? Well, more likely her trying to fight back but she angry cries and just gets frustrated and shuts down. Won't talk. Won't feed the flames anymore with replies, but doesn't seek peace, either. It's a night where it alternates between dead silence in the home once more or quiet, strained sobs of someone who's already used to being hurt; she's just finding it harder to keep that pain quiet.    But it's..... It's home. More than it's ever been. From a family she couldn't quite connect with some days, to her own home all to herself... A place her own and where her life fit.    Last thing she would've ever expected is to find- in many ways- her opposite....and yet someone she'd find herself falling for all the same. Where it's funny to imagine her home used to be quiet and peaceful. Now there's some training dummies outside and even if he strays from home, she can hear him making noises out not too far away. There's footsteps of another person in her home now. This home....it's his home, too.    Something they're both happy to have. Company, understanding, and just.... An imbalance that makes it a balance by not being perfect.    She slows him down. He speeds her up.    They learn something from each other.    It hurts sometimes. His life will likely be long....but to what length? Will it end? Does she want to know? Should she ask?    And understanding what her mother saw in mortals from that.... Just because they cannot match in eternal age, doesn't make it all any less. The memories shared? Still memories made. Love was still had and wasn't it sweet? To love someone so completely, to have fought and made up, loved and lost...    It's scarier when it's you who can be hurt; this isn't watching someone's life play out like a movie. This is her life now and his and theirs together and it breaks her heart to know she could potentially lose him, but..... He's going to teach her so much. And she would understand what her mother does.    He'll be loved all the more for it.

ExoticGeneral: I literally have absolutely no words for this. I cant believe you would make me cry like this at midnight. This was the most hurtful, true, heartfelt yet heartbreaking thing I've read. I freaking forgot you did poetry is you spare time like holy.

   ...They just. Work together. It’s the perfect “opposites attract” relationship while still maintaining a balance between who they are alone and what their relationship is. The bolster of inspiration and motivation that they get from each other... He motivates her to leave the house more (often with him on a little adventure) and gives her that experience. As said, she slows him down and gets him to read more. Even try writing for himself, writing Shiori a small poem that he [slams down onto her desk and runs off in a hurry] gives her.

   Broadening their horizons with each other. The support and pure affection and how they do their best in their own ways to support each other... It’s perfect. Made a home in our hearts. And we sure wouldn’t want it any other way.

   As a final note... Have one more silly little meme we came up with:

Aki: So I'm re-reading our chat [again] and I just thought of this...... Natsu: I live to fight, so Imma take you down!!! Shiori, in her sleepy-whiny voice: Natsuuuu...... I wanna cuddle.... Natsu, already leaving: .......Someone else lives to fight and will take you down!!!

ExoticGeneral: You know that old saying goes, he who runs away lives to fight another day I'm glad I'm the only who just goes back and re-reads this entire message board of gross romance and heartbreak

   So yes, ship NatsuShio. Your heart will thank you...after it dies for 2 hours because of the angst that tails this ship in bittersweet flavors.

[dragonologist-phd]

The Distraction

It’s Romance Week! For @pillarspromptsweekly Prompt #79 I used the tropes Fake Dating and Kiss Me Because Reasons for Fassina/Konstanten! You can read it below or here on AO3!

“It’s not here,” Fassina said, slamming a drawer shut and giving the room another cursory look. She was supposed to be finding some adventurer’s journal, but so far the room held only exactly what she would have expected- blankets, pillows, and a variety of questionable outfits.

“Around here, people know better than to leave their valuables in the open.” Across the room, Konstanten was also searching. The rest of their little group was out in the main room with the Watcher, distracting the workers of the Wild Mare while Fassina and Konstanten searched. Supposedly, the crew would come into a bit of money if they could track down the author of this journal, and Fassina was looking forward to being compensated for her work for once.

Konstanten moved to open an old armoire in the corner, only to find it locked. He turned to Fassina and raised an eyebrow. “Only locked thing in here so far. If I were hiding something, that’s where it’d be.”

“So now we must find a key,” Fassina said with a frown. “Unless you can pick the lock?”

Konstanten gave the wooden door a doubtful glance. “I can try, but I’d be more likely to break it. Might go against the ‘stealth’ part of this stealth mission.”

Fassina sighed and moved to the nightstand next to the bed, reaching under to brush her fingers against the bottom. Arkemyr had owned plenty of tables with false bottoms, but unfortunately, the woman whose room they were snooping in did not.

Fassina made a noise of impatience, but Konstanten didn’t appear concerned as he helped her root through the woman’s belongings. “It’s gotta be here somewhere. We’ll track it down.”

“We need to do so quickly. We are trespassing,” Fassina pointed out, although truthfully she didn’t particularly care about that point. The thing that was irking her was the fact that this errand was keeping the crew from leaving port. She was restless, and ready to sail away from Neketaka as fast as the winds could take her.

“Huh. I guess we are trespassers, seeing as I don’t live here anymore,” Konstanten said thoughtfully, and Fassina remembered that she was not the only one to leave behind a long-held job in favor of following the Watcher. “I miss this old place sometimes, believe it or not. Know what I mean?”

“I absolutely do not. If I never see Arkemyr or his imps again, it will be much too soon,” Fassina said firmly. She glanced at Konstanten, who still wore a nostalgic look on his face. Although they were now shipmates, she didn’t know much about the dwarf. Only that he was formerly employed at the inn, he had a loud voice that carried across the entire ship, and he seemed to enjoy hovering around her. Fassina didn’t particularly want to encourage the last habit, but it also occurred to her that she should know the other crew members, so she asked, “If you miss it here, why did you leave?”

He shrugged. “Ah, I might miss the quiet sometimes, but living that kind of life just isn’t for me. I needed a little bit of adventure again. Wanted to make sure these old bones still had some fight in them.” He grinned at Fassina, stretching his arms in a way that made a show of his muscles. “And it felt like the right time for a change.”

Fassina pointedly ignored his stretching, but nodded along in appreciation of his words. “That, I can understand.”

“And,” Konstanten added, bowing his head in Fassina’s direction, “the company’s mighty fine, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Perhaps I do mind.”

“Perhaps? Does that mean perhaps you don’t?”

Fassina busied herself with her search for the key so she wouldn’t have to answer. However little or however much she knew of Konstanten, she knew he was a good man. He had a nice smile. Strong hands. An easy laugh. Fassina could see herself being charmed by him, if not for the fact that she’d had more than enough of romance for the time being.

Not that Bertenno could have been called romantic in the end. He was a distraction, and an entertaining one at that, but she’d never fancied that he could be anything more. And yet despite what she knew of him, she’d trusted him more than she should have, and it was only thanks to the Watcher’s intervention that she wasn’t paying for it. She did not wish to thank the Watcher by entangling herself with another crew member, no matter how much she might like his smile.

Instead, she would do her job and retrieve that journal. Fassina sat down on the edge of the bed, moving aside the elegantly embroidered pillows to feel underneath the mattress. No journal, no key. She scowled and was about to stand back up when she heard the rattling of the doorknob.

Konstanten heard it at the same time, and turned to Fassina with wide eyes. “Come on, let’s go-”

But even as he spoke, Fassina knew there was no time for an escape. There was only time for one thing- a distraction. She grabbed Konstanten’s arm, pulled him close, and whispered, “Don’t freak out,” before pressing her lips against his.

The kiss lasted only a moment before the door opened. “Aenalys, are you- oh!” The woman stopped in her tracks, hands fluttering.

Konstanten pulled back slightly, eyes full of bewilderment, and for a moment Fassina worried he would give them away. Thankfully, his face quickly settled into understanding. He gave Fassina a mischievous smirk- she knew she would hear no end of this later- and threw a glance over his shoulder. “Do you mind, Taela? Rooms a bit occupied at the moment.”

The serving girl- Taela, Fassina assumed- frowned in confusion. “Konstanten? Gyntel said you left. And why are you in Aenalys’s room?”

“Ah, I was back in town and asked Aenalys if I could borrow the space for a bit,” Konstanten said, inclining his head towards Fassina.

Might as well follow through, Fassina thought. She wrapped her arms possessively around Konstanten’s neck and gave the girl in the door her most imposing stare. “Do you mind?”

“Oh! Sorry! Aenalys didn’t- never mind, you enjoy yourselves.”

As soon as the door closed, Fassina withdrew her arms in as dignified a manner as she could manage. Konstanten chuckled in a nonchalant manner, although Fassina could swear he was blushing. “That was one heck of a cover story.”

Fassina cleared her throat and said, “Well, we couldn’t risk being caught. It was just a bit of… quick thinking.” She pushed a stray hair from her face, acutely aware of the fact that she and Konstanten were still very close together, with neither of them making any moves to step away. Fassina had never noticed before- had never been close enough to notice- but Konstanten smelled quite nice. The scent was herbal, almost flowery, and Fassina wondered if it came from the massage oils he carted about.

“’Course,” Konstanten nodded. “Although, if you’d given me a little bit of warning, I could’ve been a lot more convincing.”

In spite of herself, Fassina smirked. “Oh, really?” She leaned forward slightly so that their noses were nearly touching. The blush in Konstanten’s cheeks deepened, but he didn’t back away.

Afterwards, Fassina couldn’t remember which one of them finally closed the distance, but somebody did and then they were kissing again. Their movements were slower this time, the kiss deepening as they leaned into each other. Fassina’s arms wound around Konstanten’s broad shoulders, pulling him closer, and his hands were running through her hair.

Fassina had to admit- he was a good kisser.

At last they broke apart, both breathing heavily. Fassina let out a short laugh and flashed Konstanten a smile. “Not bad.”

“Just not bad?” he laughed, raising an eyebrow.

“I admit, it was convincing.” Fassina stood up, smoothing her hair and casting a glance about the room. She’d almost forgotten they’d been sent here on a mission, and that the Watcher was waiting just a few rooms away. “But now that the need for a distraction is gone, we should focus on finding that journal.”

“Whatever you say,” Konstanten said, looking mightily pleased with himself. “If anyone else comes knocking and we need another cover-up, you know where I’ll be.” He returned to the search with renewed energy, whistling to himself and pausing every so often to shoot smiling glances in Fassina’s direction.

Fassina, meanwhile, was furiously reminding herself of her convictions to avoid romance. Even if a man was charming and sweet and talented with his tongue. Now was not the time. For now she just needed to find the key to this damned armoire.

She finally managed to locate the thing, in the pocket of a discarded robe in the corner. As Konstanten unlocked the armoire and withdrew the journal with a flourish, he gave her a cheerful wink, and although Fassina rolled her eyes she couldn’t deny the small smile that crept onto her face in return.

Perhaps she could allow herself to indulge in a little distraction, after all, and just see where things went from there.

[jcqlne-blog1]

❝ hey that’s JACQUELINE “JACK” MORAN from the isle, they’re the YOUNGEST child of MADAM MIM. they’re TWENTY TWO years old and always seem to remind me of DEVIOUS CACKLING AT A PARTY, BRIGHT RED LOLLIPOP, WHISPERING OF SPELLS UNDER THEIR BREATH. you’ll notice that they’re CONNIVING but also pretty AFFABLE too. i heard a rumor that their name WASN’T on the isle list. 

hi i’m ELLE and i’m late to the party buT WHAT’S NEW jjksndjf i meant to post this intro right after i applied but i was playing sims and didnt realize that 10 hrs has passed so, that’s that. a lil disclaimer: it’s been a while since ive joined a group and intros aren’t my Specialty BUT IM TRYING i hope that picture of the vine kid doesnt scare u away from reading abt my daughter, the Mess that is Jack and if ure still here,,,, bless u

jus a smol refresher that mad madam mim is the villain from the movie ‘the sword in the stone’ (1963) about young arthur being taught by the great wizard merlin to reach his true potential. mim is allegedly suppose to rival merlin’s powers. my hc for madam mim is she’s some sort of a forgotten wizard and it annoys her to her core. she used to be very indifferent to how people see her as the opposite as she regards herself. she used to call herself ‘the magnificent marvelous madam mim’ but to the rest of the world she’s just,,,, mad madam mim skdnfkdsf she is obsessed with merlin and how he had outsmarted her. she hates being compared to him. 

YEP so that’s a lil insight abt jack’s mom! 

i feel like i’ll keep this whole intro short bc 1) jack is still on her early development stage and 2) my brain is fried

OK SO the whole basis of her character is she’s clever. she’s smart, one might dare say intelligent, but she uses her wit and capabilities for the worst things. 

elaborate pranks that no one needed to do? she’s to blame. plus, u kno how people used to say “inventors are lazy people"... maybe that’s her trope . she also could care less abt schooling lmfaoskjdnfd but in auradon, she’s sort of,,,, trying a lil. bc they’re actually teaching REal SCIENCE u kno? and not just, selfies 101kjndg her fave subjects back in the isle was evil schemes and, the infamous, weird science taught by yen sid

that said, jack is slightly obsessed with the notion of magic. her mother used to use magic all the time to make everything easier. jack and her sibling has heard stories of their mother making the worst out of everything she encounters when she used to have her powers. madam mim wasn’t much for world domination or grand schemes. she just likes things to be in chaos and hopes for the worst and, in a way, jack caught on to that desire.

growing up, jack has always felt unwanted. even residing in an island with most villains not wanting children to care for in the first place, jack was unwanted even before she was conceived. having one child was a nuisance, and then having her? jack essentially grew up in the streets, like most villain kids did. her older sibling was regarded to most of the time by their mom, but jack is just..... there. but it’s fine. she’s fine.  who needs love and attention anyways??? no one that’s who

jack is very much in denial of feelings and emotions like ? who are they she doesn’t knew them

jack also has little to no regard for her looks, except for a few sultry looks here and there but generally anything goes as long as she’s not cold. BUT her blonde her has bothered her to her core. she got green eyes from her mom, but her blonde hair from her father. so she dyes her hair lilac like her mom’s for idk, maybe in some way or form, to feel accepted by her? to reiterate: idk djsnfs

she’s a bit of a, uh, como se dice..... tramp. not to derogate but no other word has come to mind?? the word works for her in in both ways?? like tramp as in, tramps around with heavy steps and whatnot bc she CAN be loud ( in much simpler terms: annoying ) and tramp as in having many casual sexual relationships so like kjnddjf

onto her social skills! she can make friends pretty well??? which is weird bc anyone knows she’s gonna spread your dirt like wildfire jdknfg she’ll deny it but.......you know she did it. she’s an unapologetically a bad friendfdbvdfgs

wanted connections

flings/fwbs - wow are we surprised dkjng ok but this connection is open to more than one bc this is anything but serious. could be a “used to hit that” type of situation, or a currently and casually hooking up type of thing, or her first fling fwb? so many options tbh

childhood friend - arriving in auradon, could have probably fucked up their relationship, in one way or another. but anyone who can tolerate and be dragged by jack into her shenanigans when she was younger and vice versa, or an older sibling-y type of person she looks up to back in the isle, or alternatively a younger person who looks up to her (but whykdnf) and other stuff? yes? the good juice  

hateship - someone she genuinely hates but the sexual tension is palpable! could be a vk or an ak but i’d love it to be some history of their dislike for each other and would like to build up on this firsT? idk? hmu if ur muse could do a little hateship in their lives jack is here to be all up in their face

gang (aka friends sdfs) - she’s not loyal by any means, but even this dumb chick knows she has to have a crew bc no man is an island! esp with her name not being on the list, she feels that she needs a group of people that she can stick to avoid .... complications dkjfng

unlikely friends - maybe someone who’s really shy bc jack is a loud and unabashedly bold (?) so kdjns!! or someone with very different interests as jack !!! this could be really cute 

ex - just to make it angsty, maybe this connection could be the ONLY ex jack ever had jksndf we could plot this and whatnot bc obviously jack has commitment issues! kjdfn

others that i cant think of rn!! hit this post with a like and i’ll come to you to plot! <3 im v v excited to plot and write with you all !!

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Reading Long - March 2019

Volume’s read: 12

As per usual, no spoilers unless otherwise tagged and I obtained all of these volumes in Japanese from Bookwalker.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 8 by Fumiaki Maruto

A welcome breather after the last few volumes of non-stop drama. It felt a lot more like the early volumes but I enjoyed it anyway. I swear Katou’s relationship with Eriri is the true love story of this series. Even though it’s only been a couple of months since I read the first two volumes, I couldn’t help but be nostalgic about the events in them along with the characters, as if a year had really passed for me too.

Sword Art Online: Mother’s Rosario by Reki Kawahara

Since I read the interview with Kawahara Reki where he talks about wanting to write a proper yuri series someday, my interest in this series was renewed. I rewatched the anime and genuinely enjoyed the first two seasons, though I still dislike Phantom Bullet arc (mostly because GGO just doesn’t look like much fun to me) so I wanted to read some of the light novel and figured I’d start with my favorite arc.

Even though this volume doesn’t hit me as hard as it did when I read it in English as a teenager, I still really like this volume. I’m one of those people who was annoyed by how little presence Asuna has in Fairy Dance and Phantom Bullet so I always liked that this volume gives her a lot of focus. And I LOVE Yuuki. One of Kawahara’s strengths has always been his ability to make the reader care about a character with only a couple of pages. Despite how little time she has, Yuuki still means a lot to me and I love her relationship with Asuna so much. One issue I did have with this book though was how many pages at the beginning were dedicated to recount the events of previous volumes. I already know all this and I doubt there are many readers who didn’t know all this. The other issue I had with this volume is how the last chapter tries to tie the arc into the main story. It didn’t need to and I think it shifts the focus of the arc away from Asuna and Yuuki’s relationship too much. And, as much as I enjoyed reading it, I think the anime surpassed it. Aoi Yuuki’s performance as Yuuki is breathtaking and the action scenes are so brilliantly animated. I did like having more insight into Asuna’s thoughts though so if you liked this arc in the anime, definitely check out the light novel!

This volume was published in English by Yen-Press as Sword Art Online: Mother’s Rosary so check it out if you’re interested!

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 9 by Fumiaki Maruto

I’m not sure what to say other than that this keeps up the quality of the series? It was a good volume.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Girls Side 2 by Fumiaki Maruto

Well this was a surprisingly satisfying read. Like the first volume, this volume is split into two parts with the first part taking place after volume 8 and the second after volume 9. The first part has three stories in it all focusing on characters and relationships that don’t get much focus in the main series. For example, the first story focuses on a conversation between Michiru and Utaha who I don’t think have had a real interaction since vol. 4. Even though these stories aren’t very plot relevant, I enjoyed them anyway. The second part is much more plot relevant and has some really good character moments for Izumi, Eriri, Megumi and Michiru and also includes a guest appearance by Mayu (from Koisuru Metronome manga)! The stories here were really good and the epilogue really tied them together nicely. I’m not sure whether this volume will be necessary to understand the story of future volumes but I get the feeling that the events that happen in the volume will be necessary to understand the characters and their relationships with each other.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 10 by Fumiaki Maruto

Once again, Maruto takes a typical light novel volume premise and quickly turns it into a dramatic affair. The cover and the colour illustrations are a lie! This isn’t a beach/swimsuit volume but it is an Utaha volume and a good one. It made me remember why I loved Utaha in Koisuru Metronome and why I still do. I’m a bit anxious about vol. 11 given that the cover and the colour illustrations show Megumi being embarrassed which is very out of character for her.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatakata 11 by Fumiaki Maruto

Welp, Maruto finally did it. He finally made Megumi into a boring heroine for me. I can’t get into too much details about what I disliked about this volume without spoilers but I think one thing that was really missing was scenes without Tomoya in them. I get that he’s the protagonist and the narrator but in the first few volumes, there sections that were just dialogue that showed Megumi interacting with people who weren’t Tomoya. I think we haven’t had a scene like that since vol. 7 and GS doesn’t fully replace it. Those scenes made Megumi feel like a full character and they were needed here. The reader needs to be shown that she has a life outside of Tomoya.Without that, she’s boring.

This is the last volume in the series that I own so I won’t be reading the last four volumes (including FD and GS) until Bookwalker has them on sale again.

Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu 1 by Mizuhito Akiyama

A few years ago I read The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was the first time I had read any novel that was written before I was born and I remember being so amazed at how paragraphs could last an entire page. Reading Iriya gave me a similar feeling to that, even if it’s not nearly as old as Dorian Gray. It’s amazing to see how much the light novel medium has changed since the first volume was released in 2001. There were so many descriptions of settings and movements and some of these lasted for more than a page. Due to this, I had a tough time reading this volume. There were a few times where I lost the plot and had to go back and read the scene from the start again. The writing style is smooth and the relationship between the two leads is cute but I can’t say I found the plot very interesting. I don’t quite understand what most people find charming about this series yet but I’m looking forward to possibly finding out in volume 2.

As for the anime, I saw it a long time ago and barely remember it and don’t have easy access to rewatch it. Looking at the episode summaries from Wikipedia, the first episode adapts around 170 pages so I’d imagine it’s pretty rushed.

Torikago Miko to Seiken no Kishi by Izuki Kougyoku

A short ~90~ page story from the author of Mimizuku to Yoru no Ou. It’s a pretty standard fantasy story about a legendary knight and I can’t say I cared for it. I didn’t really buy the relationship between the two leads but I did really like the ending. Even if I didn’t care much for it, I’d still recommend it to people who liked Mimizuku.

Kidou Shitsuji by Takeshi Matsuyama

Well, this was a pleasant surprise! This is by the author of Ame no Hi no Iris and Koori no Kuni no Amaryllis and the English title is Robot Butler but the titular character is not the funniest thing about it. Instead, most of the scenes I found humorous involved the female lead, Liese and her attempts to get Bel to notice her through the use of shoujo manga tropes. Of course, they all backfire on her. She tries to wink flirtatiously at him and he just asks if she has dry eye. She tries to run into him with a piece of toast in her mouth… only, they’re in the middle of a hallway and he catches her effortlessly when she tries to run at him. Liese’s cluelessness when it comes to romance is genuinely charming and of course I loved her relationship with her best friend, Flora, who introduced her to the concept of shoujo manga in the first place and encourages her every step of the way. The other notable character is Flora’s robot butler, Victoria who seems to be the only one who knows how much of an idiot Bel actually is. In addition to how funny it is, the volume has some surprisingly tight world-building and chapter six is truly awesome. There are so many things that get revealed and there’re big epic fights! I liked it a lot. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for the ending. I thought it was a bit of a cop-out though I suppose it did end it cleanly in the way that I am not desperately wanting a second volume. Anyhow, I’d highly recommend it and I’m looking forward to reading more of Maruyama’s works in the future.

Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu 2 by Mizuhito Akiyama

Despite my lukewarm opinion of the first volume, I actually quite enjoyed this volume. Surprisingly, Iriya isn’t in this volume much and the volume instead gives the reader some insight into some of the side characters thoughts, particularly Akiho. My favorite part of the volume was when we got to experience the school’s cultural festival through the eyes of the Asaba parents. It was an interesting choice and one that I quickly got behind. Rather than being just background dressing, Asaba’s parents are actually pretty interesting and fun without being too eccentric and silly. One thing I think this series does really well is that I never feel like the author is treating the characters like adults. A huge issue with a lot of fiction is that they tend to think of teenagers as adults instead of just a pile of people who are still growing and learning how to make decisions. (Saekano has this issue too, btw.) But these characters are still in their first year of middle school and they act like it. I think I’m starting to get the charm of this series now. This volume was very fun to read and I enjoyed it enough that I started volume 3 right away.

Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu 3 by Mizuhito Akiyama

I’m starting to realize that I like this series the most when it’s not being told from Asaba’s POV. I still like his character and a lot of the impactful scenes come from his POV but the most memorable part of this volume was chapter 1 where Akiho and Iriya have an eating competition and become friends. I liked it a lot, especially since Akiho kind of becomes Iriya’s “Mum friend” afterwards and Kiyomi starts affectionately calling Iriya “Kana-bu” which I thought was pretty darn cute. One thing that I really like about the dynamic between Akiho and Iriya is that Akiho is never portrayed as a straight-up bitch trying to get between Asaba and Iriya. Instead, she’s just a girl learning how to deal with her feelings. And Iriya is never portrayed as just a victim of Akiho’s attitude. Iriya is strong in her own way and can be very determined when it comes down to it. But enough about them, this volume had a lot of character development for Asaba. I really liked that he asked Iriya what she wants. Does she want to keep things the way they are? Or does she him to help her? He asks and I really liked that. I also think the way he runs to the bathroom in uncomfortable social situations is hilarious and adorable. In general, despite this volume having pretty heavy plot developments, I just found all the characters to be really cute. Anyway, I’ll be taking a short break before reading the final volume but I am really enjoying this series so far.

Ankoku Kishi wo Nugasanaide 1 by Shinichi Kimura

From the author of Kore wa Zombie desu ka? this story starts when a high school student called Najima’s class gets a new transfer student who just looks like a suit of armour wearing a female uniform. Honestly, I found it boring which is why I’m not putting much effort into the premise summary. It was fine, I guess, but I didn’t laugh at all and I found the characters to be bland. But I bought the first three volumes when they were first released so I kinda have to read them.

[all-the-cliches-lwa]

Passing On Ch. 4

Ah, finally winding down to the final chapters. I’m a tad unsure how I feel about my direction with this chapter, but after this one, there is, like, one or two short epilogue-ish, i guess, chapter(s) (depending how I decide to upload it), one silly one more serious, which will hopefully wrap up the story just right. Hopefully.

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews/comments/tags I’ve seen so far, they’ve all been very nice! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Bernadette Cavendish was a wonderful witch, a blessing to all who knew her. Unfortunately, she had passed on all too soon. Every year since then, the Cavendish family would visit her grave to keep her memory… and every year Diana couldn’t help but feel more and more alone. This year, however, Diana had someone she wished to have with her, in the hopes that, this time, things would be different.

First Chapter

Previous chapter

ffnet ao3 

Word Count: ~5299 words

No one said a word as the five trekked out of the burial grounds. Not even Maril, Merrill, or Daryl mentioned anything about what happened earlier. For what reason, Akko had no clue, but she didn’t mind. Anytime without any of those three talking down at her was completely welcome.

More than that though, Akko was happy that Diana could have some time without having to do anything.

Akko looked to her side, where Diana was still clinging onto her left arm. Diana’s cheeks were red and tear stained, and her usually perfect hair hung forward out of place, obscuring her eyes from view. Her nose was still running, and her breaths were still staggered.

Akko brought Diana closer, and Diana quickly rested her head against Akko’s shoulder.

When they were out of the burial grounds, Akko unslung the bag Diana had brought earlier from her right arm and took out Diana’s broom. With a wave of her wand, Akko uncast the spell Diana had cast prior, poofing the broom back to its original size. She mounted the broom, and Diana followed behind her. Diana’s arms wrapped around her waist, and Diana leaned against her back.

Akko tried her best to turn to look at Diana, who had hidden her face in her blonde hair. She could feel Diana still trembling against her, could still feel her robes dampen, and it was clear that Diana wasn’t ready to return home just yet.

Akko took a deep breath and turned forward.

“Daryl?” Akko called out, breaking the silence. When Daryl looked back at her, Akko continued, already bracing herself for some jerky backlash, “can you go on ahead? I think Diana and I need a little bit more time.”

Akko’s brow shot up when Daryl just nodded and looked ahead.

“Just don’t take too long,” was Daryl’s reply before flying away, her daughters following closely behind.

Akko stood dumbfounded until Daryl and her daughters were no longer in sight.  When they were gone, she focused all of her attention on Diana.

“Hey Diana, I’m going to fly us slowly alright?”

Diana nodded against her back and wrapped herself closer, her arms trembling slightly. Akko rested her hand atop Diana’s  before turning towards the estate.

“Tia Freyre!”

Just like Diana did on the way to the burial grounds, Akko took several detours on the way back to the Cavendish estate. However, Akko took much more obvious detours, taking up significantly more time to get back, thus giving Diana enough time to fall asleep.

When Akko heard the gentle, even, breaths she could recognize anywhere, she smiled. She could not even imagine how drained Diana must feel. She couldn’t wait to get back so that Diana could just relax in bed.

When Akko finally flew towards the mansion, it only took five minutes before the pier was in sight. Akko looked behind her and sighed. Diana’s cheek was pressed against her shoulder. Her cheek was still red… but less than before… and her face felt so peaceful. Not a bit of tension.

She really didn’t want to wake Diana up… but she’d have to. They’d definitely been gone for way too long.

“Psst, Dianaaaaa” Akko whispered. “Dianaaaaaaaa.” But Diana didn’t budge.

Akko grunted as she gently rolled her shoulders backwards to, hopefully, wake her girlfriend up. After a few moments, Diana shifted, and Akko could feel the light flittering of Diana’s eyelids.

“Ak, Akko?” Diana asked, her voice hoarse.

“Morning Diana” Akko greeted softly, “We’re almost back. Did you have a nice nap?”

Diana stiffened against her back, and Akko had to stifle a giggle, imagining her girlfriend’s face hued an adorable pink. Akko had to bite her lip to prevent it from escaping when she felt Diana hide her face against her back and nod slowly.

Akko then looked back to the pier, where Anna was already standing in wait.

“Hey Diana, you ready to be back yet?” Akko asked quietly. “We could always take another turn if you need a bit more time.”

Diana shook her head. “No, no I should be okay, I’m sure that I have kept them waiting long enough.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I am very sure.” Diana said. The hold around Akko’s waist squeezed just a bit more, and Akko felt a smile against her back. “Thank you though. I truly appreciate it.”

Akko nodded and hummed before beginning their descent.

“Milady, Lady Kagari, welcome back,” Anna greeted with a bow.

“Hey Anna,” Akko returned as she stepped onto the pier, “Sorry we took so long. Did I make you wait?”

“Pay no mind. Lady Daryl already informed of me of what happened and that you two would likely arrive later than they would,” Anna dismissed before turning to Diana. “Milady, I understand you must be very tired, and I apologize, but we must head to the entrance hall.”

“Huh? What? There’s more?!” Akko blurted. “I thought that we could both just go back to our room!”

“My apologies, but the Young Lady still must greet the people who have travelled here waiting to see her,” Anna said.

“But!”

“Akko, I will be fine,” Diana interrupted with a tug of her arm.

Akko turned to Diana and frowned. Diana’s eyes still seemed sore, and her cheeks were still red.

“But Diana…”

Diana shook her head. Her eyes glanced towards Akko and her robes for a second before flashing back to Anna.

“Anna, could Akko and I have a moment to freshen up before heading there?”

“Of course milady,” Anna said.

“Very well,” Diana answered with a small smile before she turned back to Akko. “Everything will be fine, Akko. I’ll be okay.”

Akko pouted again, and she furrowed her brow. She squeezed Diana’s hand, silently begging her to just go rest. Akko really didn’t want Diana to have to see so many people while she was still so vulnerable.

But Diana just returned the squeeze and smiled.

“Trust me, I will be just fine.” Diana said. “After all, you’ll be with me right?”

Akko’s eyes widened, and her heart skipped as the realization sunk in. It was in the gentle smile on Diana’s face, the soft squeeze of her hand, and the belief in her eyes as she looked at Akko.

Diana really wanted her to be there. Truly trusted that she would be there.

Akko grinned back at Diana and nodded.

“Of course!”

When Anna said that they would be greeting people, Akko assumed, or really just hoped, it would only be a short thing. Maybe an hour at most.

She completely forgot about the crowd of people who had camped outside the Cavendish estate the night they arrived.

When Akko caught sight of the long line, extending out of the entrance hall, and likely past the gates as well, she nearly collapsed.

Diana would have to greet all of these people?! How could Diana possibly be okay with this?!

It seemed Diana was aware of Akko’s inner strife, seeing as she giggled softly before pulling the both of them to their spot, just beside Daryl and her daughters, who all strangely ignored how late the both of them probably were.

Diana bowed to the first guest. Judging by the dark blue blazer and fancy moustache, Akko assumed that he had to be some sort of noble.

“I apologize for the wait,” Diana said.

“It is of no concern, Diana,” the old man dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Please, raise your head. Today isn’t a day for such trivial formalities.”

“Yes, of course,” Diana answered.

“Yes, yes” the old man smiled before noticing Akko. “And who’s this young lady?”

Akko stared blankly at the old man, as if she had just been caught sneaking off from detention by Professor Finneran. She then turned to Diana, silently asking for permission to speak.

Diana simply rolled her eyes and smiled, sending a nod.

“Oh, uh hi!” Akko greeted immediately, given the okay. “My name is Kagari Atsuko, er well Atsuko Kagari! But you can just call me Akko.”

“Ah Akko, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the man said with a hearty chuckle and a twinkle in his green eyes. “My name is Albert Douglas. And how would you happen to know Diana?”

“She is my classmate at Luna Nova,” Diana answered back. Then she looked at Akko with a smile filled with so much affection, warmth rushed to fill Akko’s face. “More importantly, she happens to be my girlfriend.”

“Marvelous!” Albert exclaimed, before his expression darkened considerably. “It’s quite a shame she never had the chance to meet dear Bernadette.”

“Yes… it truly is,” Diana breathed out.

Akko gently rubbed her thumb over Diana’s knuckles and pulled her closer.

“Tell me Akko, do you happen to know much about Bernadette?”

Akko flinched, her thumb freezing in place. She gulped and she shook her head slowly.

“Is that so?” Albert pondered with a scratch of his chin. “Well let me tell you, she was truly a saint. She helped my wife you know?”

“She did?” Akko asked.

“Yes she did. Worked tirelessly too. She spared no efforts to find a cure for an illness my wife had. From what I was told, she worked day and night for over a week.”

“Woah.”

Albert chuckled gruffly. “Yes, woah indeed. Bernadette was truly a great woman, and she… she will truly be missed.” Albert then turned to Diana and nodded his head. “Diana, it was a pleasure. I still offer my sincerest condolences.”

“That is much appreciated Albert,” Diana answered back. “How is your wife, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Albert smiled. “Never better. She’s currently overseas for work, but she also sends her respects.” Then he turned to Daryl and sent her a nod as well. “Daryl, it’s been a pleasure.”

As soon as Albert left, the next person walked up to pay their respects. And when they left, the person after came up.

When she first saw the line, Akko was dreading the whole thing.

Of course she was going to stay with Diana, no matter what. Just, with the line, she kind of assumed it’d just be hours of standing around doing nothing while nobles just came in to pay short, shallow, respects before leaving.

Instead, she was met with people of all walks of life. From nobles to ordinary townsfolk. From the elderly to teenagers. There were even several families who brought along children who couldn’t be any older than seven years.

There were dozens of visiting groups. Many of them were like Albert, expressing curiosity for her presence, but were all ultimately very accepting. More importantly, however, each group arrived with a story to tell. A story of the different ways Bernadette had helped them in their lives.

From brewing cures for different obscure magical illnesses, similar to what she had to do back when she visited Lotte’s house, to creating a special cough medicine, to nursing an infant back to health, Akko was constantly amazed by just how much Bernadette gave to help others. There was just… so much to tell.

She had helped so many people in such a short amount of time… it was absolutely crazy.

Yet, the more Akko heard about Bernadette… strangely enough, the more she felt a knot tighten in her stomach.

It was weird. She was learning so much about Diana’s mom. She could begin picture exactly what kind of person she was, the kind of mark she had left on all of these people’s hearts.

She had already known Bernadette had to be an amazing person. After all, she raised Diana! She had to be amazing…

But this was so much more than she could have ever imagined.

When the final group nodded their goodbyes, Akko felt that knot tighten just a bit more.

She recalled the words Daryl had scolded her with this morning… about the fact that she hadn’t known Bernadette at all.

Well now she did know just how amazing Bernadette was. It really was no wonder even Daryl and her daughters teared up at her grave… Honestly, it almost made Akko feel small in comparison.

Even so, Akko really wished she could have learned even more about her... about, possibly, the largest influence in Diana’s life.

As soon as they were allowed, Akko and Diana retreated to their room. It was just past four, but they both immediately collapsed onto the bed. Akko fell first and opened her arms, letting herself be the perfect spot for Diana to nestle into.

Diana obliged, and Akko wrapped herself around, a now curled up, Diana. The both of them had been very silent since the guests left.

Akko was lost in thought, constantly thinking back to all of the things she’d just learned about Diana’s mom. Just… how crazy it was that she managed to cram that much life into a short few years.

Diana felt... absolutely exhausted.

It felt liberating to finally let go at the burial grounds. To just… allow herself to cry, to rely on someone for support, after years of fighting to keep it together alone… but it also left her drained of much of her energy.

Truthfully… the only reason she had made it through the day at all… was because of Akko.

Diana felt a pang in her chest as she thought of the day… all the things she must have put Akko through. From the constant surprises to the displeasure of having to deal with her relatives. It wasn’t fair to make her go through all of that… and, while the thought itself filled her with warmth, she couldn’t help but feel more guilty knowing Akko did it all for her.

“Akko?” Diana called out in a whisper, snapping Akko out of her thoughts.

“... Yes Diana?”  Akko slowly replied.

“Thank you… so, so much.” Diana said. “You have my sincerest gratitude for being here with me… and my sincerest apologies for any inconveniences I may have caused by having you here.”

“Bwe-eh?!” Akko sputtered. “Diana! You don’t have to be-”

“Akko, with all due respect… I truly do have to,” Diana interrupted. “I know I said this last night… but after today it needed to be said again. I apologize for everything Daryl and her daughters might have put you through today… and more importantly for all of the things I had neglected to inform you of before today.”

“Diana!” Akko protested, tightening her embrace ever more, “It’s fine! I know you didn’t mean to!”

“Even so,” Diana said in retort, “it was unfair of me to ask you to come without so much as an explanation as to what it was you would be doing.”

“That doesn’t matter though! I would have come, no matter what.”

Diana sighed, but smiled against Akko’s arm.

“I know, and that is truly why I must thank you. And why I still must apologize.”

Akko groaned, but Diana continued, undeterred.

“I can’t imagine what we have done today was anything like what you might have expected two nights ago.”

“... That’s true,” Akko admitted, though she still pouted in protest, not at all believing Diana needed to apologize for anything.

“Yes… well allow me to explain... what we did today… has sort of become a tradition, one I had neglected to tell you about, and again, I apologize. We’ve done it for several years now, actually.” Diana said with a breath. “Both greeting the guests… and casting that spell upon my mother’s grave.”

“A tradition?”

“Yes, a tradition,” Diana whispered, “It… started the year after my mother was buried. Before my mother passed, she’d told me the stories of the Cavendish burial grounds, stories of the great trees that have sprouted from the graves of each member of the Cavendish family, surrounding the estate. So… when I noticed no such thing happened to my mother’s… I’d assumed it was just simply lacking nutrition.”

“Diana…” Akko breathed out, slowly tightening her embrace around Diana.

“I think Aunt Daryl knew that wasn’t the case. Likely Maril and Merrill knew as well. Though, for whatever reason, perhaps as an excuse to visit mother again or just to allow a little girl to cope, they went along with me. At the very least, after several years, they had to have figured it out… but by then all of this had become such a natural thing to do. It was their way of keeping my mother’s memory alive,” Diana continued, nestling her head into Akko’s chest.

Diana took a heavy breath and sighed. She clenched her hands, gripping on the sides of Akko’s shirt.

“At some point, I realized it too… or perhaps I had always known. I just… refused to accept it, that someone like my mother, who, in all respects, perfectly epitomized the values of the Cavendish name, wouldn’t leave a tree, a mark, just like every member of the Cavendish family had, solely because she passed away too soon. It was as if… she’s truly gone, like there’s nothing left of hers on this Earth.”

Akko held Diana closer.

More than that, though, Akko thought about what Diana said, about Diana’s mom not having anything left on Earth, and the thought made her pout. She remembered the dozens of people lined up, each one with a story to tell. Each one with honest and very real memories of her.

Diana’s mom not having anything left on the Earth?

“That’s stupid,” Akko said suddenly.

Diana’s eyes widened, and she faced upwards.

“Wha-”

“Your mom doesn’t need some silly old tree!” Akko protested more firmly, looking down to meet Diana’s gaze. “She doesn’t need one because of all the people she’s helped! So many people remember your mom, remember her for all the things she did for them, and that’s so much better than some tree!”

Diana stared openly into Akko’s eyes until the intensity in those crimson irises was just too much, forcing her to turn away.

Still, the words Akko said echoed in her mind, pulling together all of the words and stories she’d heard from the guests. Stories she’d experienced firsthand as a child.

Stories that… have impacted all of those people’s lives, stories that have become memories for so many.

She could, once again, feel tears welling up… but these were different. Back at the burial grounds… her chest had felt empty, devoid of anything, at least until Akko came to fill it. Even after, she felt drained.

But now?

Now, her chest was filled with this... bubbly feeling, light and airy, begging to be released.

Akko, however, was oblivious to this.

When Akko felt a drip roll down her arm, felt Diana begin to shake, her heart instantly dropped.  The words she uttered played back in her mind, and while she really meant everything she said, she immediately fretted about how she chose to say it.

“E-eh?! Uhm! I didn’t uhm, it’s not like it’d be bad if your mom had a tree! I mean, if you want, we can plant one there tomorrow!” Akko babbled, immediately trying to salvage, what she thought, caused Diana to cry again, “Well, I guess not there there, but we could plant one around there. I think that’d look nice! Maybe-”

Akko’s blubbering only made Diana shake more, and Akko was starting to cry out in defeat... until she heard an unmistakable sound. A bright melody, a cheerful symphony.

Diana was laughing.

“I’m sorry Akko, you must forgive me,” Diana said between her giggles, “but I simply couldn’t resist.”

“W-what?” Akko spouted indignantly, though she did let out a sigh of relief.

Diana once again looked up, a tear rolling down her cheek but a wide, grateful, smile on her face. Only someone like Akko could have done this for her, could have made her laugh and drain her troubles away.

“Thank you for that, Akko. Truly. You are truly one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me,” Diana admitted. She took in a deep breath and rested her cheek on Akko’s chest. “I only wish that my mother could have had the chance to meet you.”

And, after everything she’d heard today, Akko couldn’t agree more. Being able to meet Diana’s mom, getting to know her... it would have been so cool!

But even so, there was a tiny, yet ominous, voice in the back of her head. A voice that muddied the light, clear oasis Diana’s laughter had brought.

Diana’s mom was so amazing. Even sick, even when she was weak, she was able to accomplish so much to help other people. Did so much, that people couldn’t help but look up to her.

And there was her.

The tiny voice brought up events from the past two days flashed through her mind.

Her messing up their surprise snack date.

Her doing... something embarrassing the night before.

Her not knowing… not taking the time to know about witches and their burials… or about Diana’s mom. Her lack of knowledge making Daryl and her daughters furious… and more importantly, and as a result, causing Diana more stress.

Would… Diana’s mom...

“... Ne, Dia-” Akko started but soon stopped, the tiny voice now making her question herself, making her ashamed for even having the thought.  

“Hm? What is it Akko?” Diana muttered.

Akko stiffened, her heart jumping into her throat. “It-It’s nothing! Nothing at all!” Akko laughed forcefully.

Diana narrowed her eyes and pressed her ear against Akko’s chest. She could feel Akko’s heart drumming heavily.

“Akko, what’s wrong?” Diana asked, with far more authority than earlier.

“I-It’s stupid…” Akko stammered, trying to quiet the incessantly loud voice now ringing in her head.

“Akko.” Diana said, now looking up into Akko’s eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong. Please?”

Akko looked at Diana and tried to dismiss the question again… but Diana’s eyes were pleading, imploring her. And... try as she might, she couldn’t say no to those eyes.

Akko bit her lip and looked to the corner of her eyes. “Do… do you think your mom would have liked me?” Akko whispered.

“What?” Diana tilted her head, her brow wrinkling. “What do you mean?”

“I mean... like, do you think your mom would approve of us?”

Diana blinked, before letting out a chuckle. Would her mother have approved of the both of them?

Diana knew, there wasn’t any doubt.

“Of course she would,” Diana answered firmly, more sure of this answer than any she had ever given.

However, Akko’s face twisted, the voice in her head continuing to grow louder and louder.

“But how do you know? I mean your aunt still kind of hates me…”

“Exactly, and I happen to know my mother was almost nothing like Aunt Daryl” Diana joked.

“Mouu, Diana! I’m serious,” Akko pouted. “Besides, your aunt isn’t wrong when she says I’m really not all that talented as a witch… that I screw up a lot...”

Diana frowned  as she listened to Akko list off all of her insecurities. The speed at which she learned new spells. Her inability to keep out of trouble. The struggles she goes through just to pass a class.

With each passing word, Diana felt her heart ache. Her heart broke each time Akko's voice quivered.

Diana didn’t want to hear any of it, not when it was abundantly clear the purpose was to tear down the person she loved with all of her heart.

Diana knew all of this about Akko… knew that Akko worried about it from time to time… but there was so much more to Akko. So much to love, so much her mother would have loved.

She shifted around in Akko’s hold, which had loosened considerably, until she was facing Akko. She narrowed her eyes at her target and made her move, leaning forward.

“... and not to mention I still don’t know all that much about witch ru- mmph?!”

Diana pressed forward, capturing Akko’s lips with her own, effectively shutting her girlfriend up. It wasn’t long until Akko melted, sighing into the kiss.

Diana then pulled back, lifting herself above Akko, and stared right into her eyes.

“Akko, my mother would have adored you.” Diana answered firmly.

Akko shifted her eyes to the side, flattening her lips.

“H-how do you know?” Akko asked.

Diana sighed.

“I know my mother Akko, she would have loved you, faults and all.”

“But-”

Diana interrupted Akko with one kiss onto her left cheek.

“No buts,” Diana said as she pulled herself back up. “While, you do have your faults… you are aware of them and are working your hardest to make sure they don’t stand in the way of achieving your dreams… in helping others. My mother would have greatly admired that strength of character.”

“Diana, but I-”

Diana just rolled her eyes, this time moving to press a kiss atop Akko’s nose.

“What did I just say Akko? No buts,” Diana continued. When she saw that the expression on Akko’s face had yet to change, Diana sighed. Clearly she would need to try a more direct approach. “Akko, would you like to know how I truly know my mother would have loved you?”

Akko’s ears perked, but she still looked away, unable to meet Diana’s gaze. “H-how?”

Diana took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts, struggling to choose just one of an almost endless number of things to love about Akko to start with.

“Because… you truly embody all of the qualities my mother wished to see in herself and in others.” Diana finally answered.

Akko’s head whipped towards Diana’s and gaped at her, almost not even believing what she just heard. She embodied everything Diana’s mom looked for?

“Wh-what? H-how did, but I-”

Diana quickly pressed forward, this time pressing a kiss onto Akko’s right cheek.

“Shh, please let me finish,” Diana requested before beginning to speak once again. “First, and most importantly, you, Akko Kagari, are kind to a fault, able to show sympathy, if not empathy, with almost anyone in plight. You wish for the happiness of everyone around you, just as you did with the cursed spirit of Varajois the Wailing, with the faeries… and with me before we even became friends.”

Akko pouted, wanting to deny what Diana said. She wasn’t anything special or noble like that… but before she could say anything, Diana already placed another kiss, this time atop her forehead, causing her heart to flip and her thoughts to silence.

“Shhh,” Diana hushed, looking warmly down at her girlfriend, gently pushing aside a strand of Akko’s hair from her face. “Ah yes, and then there’s your willpower. Your determination,” Diana closed her eyes and smiled. “Sure, you find yourself knocked down… discouraged. But with just a little bit of support, you’re right back up again, ready to try once again.”

And once again, before Akko had any chance to protest, Diana pressed another kiss onto Akko’s face, this time by the corner of her lips, sending a jolt through each other’s nerves.

And thus the pattern continued.

Diana continuously sang her praises of Akko. Things she knew her mother would have definitely loved and admired.

She recounted the stories of their time at Luna Nova. Of all the things she managed to accomplish.

The way she managed to even change the minds and hearts of the most stubborn of teachers.

Diana spoke of the lengths Akko would go to help her friends… to help anyone.

She spoke of the trials Akko had faced, trials that would make any one witch quiver in fear, and how Akko faced them in her own way, in ways no one else would have even considered.

And of course, she lauded the qualities Akko had to embody to accomplish everything she has. Intense determination and drive. A strong passion. Depths of kindness and affection that knew no bounds. An openness to learn and an understanding to know when she needed help. And, of course, a true love of magic and a belief in all of its possibilities.

And just like before, Diana finished each thought with a kiss on a different spot on Akko’s face. She placed several on different spots of Akko’s cheek. She peppered Akko’s jaw with tiny pecks. She placed light, feathery kisses atop Akko’s head, and occasional slow, lingering kisses onto Akko’s lips.

Each kiss sent heat shooting up Akko’s face, made her heart race wildly, and filled her chest with fuzz and flutters.

By the time Diana was just about to finish, Akko was already a melted puddle beneath her.

“And… do you wish to know the reason that I can say, with absolutely no doubt, that my mother would have loved you Akko?”

Akko could only nod, finally completely lost in her girlfriend.

Diana smiled and pressed a short kiss onto Akko’s lips.

“Because… you would do absolutely anything for my sake. Because you encourage me to truly go after whatever it is I wish… and no matter what I say or do, you always find a way to be right by my side. Just as she would,” Diana took in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the lengths her mother had to go through to let her visit Japan that fateful night. The night that would link her and Akko together forever.  She then opened her eyes and smiled. “Because you love me, just as much as I love you.”

And that was it.

The fluttering in her gut. The overbearing heat in her face. The wild jumps and flips of her heart.  

It was all too much.

Akko’s eyes watered, and she reached up and pulled Diana closer to her, hiding her face in the crook of Diana’s neck.

Diana smiled and let herself be pulled in, and together, they laid in each other’s arms, not a word said until the sun had set.

When the moon shined through the translucent curtains, Akko whispered against Diana’s shoulder. A question whose answer was extremely obvious… but one she’s surprised she’d never asked before.

“Hey Diana, do you miss her?”

Diana held Akko closer and whispered back.

“Every day… but it’s certainly more bearable when I have people like you, our friends, and our teachers around.”

“She must have been amazing.”

“Yes… like you said. She was ‘just like some kind of hero’.”

“Do you… think you could tell me more about her? Like… I've heard a lot of stories… but I kinda wanna hear more about who she was from you.”

Diana pondered the question. It was something she would certainly be quite… open to, especially after everything they’d gone through during the day. But just how would she…

“Of course I could, Akko… I believe I still have some old family albums I haven’t looked at in years. Seeing as we still have another day here… perhaps I could show you some pictures of her as I share stories about her?”

“Y-Yeah! That’d be great!” Akko cheered, causing Diana to giggle.

“Very well, I will ask Anna if she could help us collect them tomorrow, and we can spend the rest of the day looking through each album.”

“Yay!” Akko cheered before letting out a loud yawn.

“Sounds like someone’s tired,” Diana joked, before letting out a loud yawn of her own, much to her own chagrin.

“Looks like I’m not the only one!” Akko giggled. “I’m rubbing off on you~”

“Y-yes well…” Diana muttered, her cheeks beginning to pinken, especially under the pale moonlight, “I suppose today has been extraordinarily trying. Shall we retire for the night?”

“Sure~” Akko sang before snuggling onto the bed and into Diana. “Night Diana! Love you.”

Diana smiled and nuzzled her head atop Akko’s.

“Good night Akko, I love you too.”

[minijenn]

Universe Falls Chapter 49

AN-So its abuot time I fucking post this chapter on here, huh? What can I say, I’ve had a busy day :P But anyway, I gotta say I’m still quite proud of this one. It was a struggle for sure (and ridiculously LONG) But the parts of it that shine just shine so much! So if you haven’t already read it yet, enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/170522545399/universe-falls-chapter-48-part-2

Chapter 49: Northwest Mansion Nightmare

N PLWKERY TSTVVAESF VNB JBSARUX N FZGNERY URZC HY CLGLGZP OPKPWGPS R KVIEFVR HYXF PLGNTVK MOAC'V GRJVK ZAI EBTVK LVIIVTL GFHU FYKM PCDX AK FW

Northwest Manor was bustling with activity as its various staff and servants bustled about, preparing for the immaculate celebration held within its lavish gates. The aptly named Northwest Fest was by and large a legendary party, one that carried a very high reputation that extended far beyond the boarders of Gravity Falls alone. And like all the parties prior to it, this year’s formal event was rumored to be every bit as posh and elegant, if not then some, and those were exactly the kind of rumors that both Preston and Priscilla Northwest wanted circulating as they oversaw the preparations for the event.

“Preston, I must say, the guest list for this year’s party has so much diversity!” Priscilla remarked to her husband as she overlooked said list.

“Yes, a nice mix of millionaires and billionaires,” Preston nodded proudly as one of his many servants handed him the day’s newspaper. His calm manner abruptly shifted, however, upon noticing another servant incorrectly setting the nearby table nearby with fine china and pure silverware, which the billionaire was quick to correct with an admonishing swat with his newspaper. “Put the oyster fork at an angle! We’re not animals, man!”

“E-excuse me, Mr. Northwest?” another servant anxiously interjected, two other staff members hauling in a large covered glass case behind him. “T-those rare, uncut gemstones you ordered have arrived.”

“Ah, yes, good,” Preston said rather dismissively. “Let me see them.”

“Oh, uh, w-well, sir…” the servant continued, wringing his hands nervously as the other staff removed the cover from the case. “They… they’re not exactly what you ordered…”

“I’ll say they’re not!” the billionaire exclaimed hotly upon taking a look at the collection of precious stones before him. Instead of the smooth, radiant gems he had been expecting, these stones were clustered and clumped together with no real order or organization at all, giving each set a haphazard, almost even ugly appearance. “What on earth all these… hideous things!? I specifically ordered the finest raw gemstones available, not these grotesque chunks of rock!”

“Ugh, just look at them!” Priscilla interjected, quite mortified herself. “What will our guests think if they see those gaudy excuses for gemstones?!”

“They won’t be thinking anything because they’re not going to see them,” Preston staunchly concluded as he addressed the servant. “Take those back to the jeweler immediately and have them send us some real stones to put on display.”

“W-well, normally I would, sir, b-but… these were the last gems the jeweler had…” the servant gulped fretfully. “T-they said they found them buried not too far away from a canyon a few hours out from town and that they’re actually quite rare, but-”

“But nothing!” the billionaire huffed, quite displeased. “I suppose that since its far too short notice to get replacements, we’ll just have to put last year’s gemstones out on display like we’re a bunch of simple peasants! And as for those… unsightly hunks of rock… just put the entire case in some hallway that no one’s likely to wander down during the party. We’ll figure out what to do with those disappointments later.”

“Speaking of which, where the devil is-” Priscilla cut herself off upon spotting her daughter finally making a rather tardy appearance. All the same, Pacifica smiled brightly as she strode into the room, already clad in the sophisticated light green ball gown she planned on wearing to the party the following evening. Her mother, however, was far from pleased. “Pacifica! What did I tell you about that dress?! The theme for the party is sea foam green, not lake foam green! Go change!”

“B-but… I kind of like it…” the heiress frowned, having already anticipated this scolding. Still, she had hoped her mother wouldn’t have noticed when she had put the dress on, but clearly, Priscilla’s sharp eye for fashion beat her own tastes in this case.

“Mind your mother, Pacifica,” Preston gave his daughter a critical glance. Still, given the fact that this was a rather minor detail, Pacifica hoped that she could somehow win out in this debate, even if she knew her chances were rather slim.

“B-but I-” Her soft protests were succinctly cut off by the sharp, high ring of a small bell, courtesy of her father. A bell that she was all too familiar with and knew well to obey. “Y-yes, father…” she muttered meekly, glancing down in embarrassment for even trying.

However, before Pacifica could even head out to follow her parent’s rigid orders, the entire dining room began to shake as if it was being rattled by a major earthquake. And yet, this was no natural occurrence as the dining ware on the table began to clatter violently, a bizarre, undeterminable gale striking up solely inside of the room as everyone present gasped in terror over the alarming sight surrounding them.

“Oh no!” Preston exclaimed fearfully, well aware of exactly what was going on. “It’s… happening.” The billionaire didn’t have much more of a chance to react to this newfound catastrophe before the opulent objects filling the room, plates, forks, knives, spoons, trays, chairs, and more, all suddenly lifted up into the air, flying around at random as they seemed to launch themselves on their own accord. Many of the servants fled altogether as this dangerous cascade of inanimate items swirled around the room, but even so, Preston did his best to fend the attacking objects off, though to little avail. “You are my possessions! Obey me!” he ordered, only for several plates to go zooming towards him in particular. The billionaire let out a frightened cry as he joined his wife and daughter in hiding under the table in the hopes that it would shield them from this chaotic onslaught.

“This is a disaster!” Priscilla cried, aptly panicked as the silverware continued flying just overhead. “The party’s in just 24 hours! What are we going to do?!”

“Surely there’s someone who can handle this sort of nonsense!” Preston lamented, only for his cry to receive a timely answer as a copy of the newspaper flopped down onto the ground right in front of him. Its headlining article featured a giant bat attacking Sherriff Blubbs and Deputy Durland atop the town’s bell tower. Though what stood out most was the young boy, roughly about Pacifica’s age, whom he had seen around town a handful of times this summer, fearlessly fending the bat off while the officers behind him cowered in fear. Clearly, from his brazen, undaunted expression, he seemed to be right at home warding away such supernatural danger, which was something that gave Preston a much-needed idea for how to handle the current plight the upcoming party was facing. “And I think I know just the person…”

Things had been rather uneventful around the Mystery Shack as of late, a welcome change of pace, particularly for Dipper as he used this relatively peaceful rainy morning as a rare chance to relax. He had already set up shop in the den, surrounded by a plentiful abundance of snacks and sodas to keep him company as he sat comfily in front of the TV.

“You asked for it, you got it!” the TV blared excitedly. “An entire 48-hour marathon of Ghost Harassers, on the Used To Be About History Channel!”

“Be strong, bladder. We’re not gonna move until sunset,” Dipper remarked, more than content to do just that. Until, of course, his plans quickly fell through.

“We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news!” the local town news commandeered the broadcast, deviating away from the ghost hunting marathon, much to Dipper’s immediate disappointment.

“Aw, what?” he frowned crossly, only for Mabel to suddenly run in, Candy and Grenda trailing blithely behind her.

“It’s starting!” she quipped, hopping onto the chair beside her brother and forcing him to move aside.

“Turn it up!” Candy exclaimed, squeezing onto the other side of the chair as her and Mabel essentially sandwiched the already rather perturbed Dipper between them.

“Make room for Grenda!” Grenda shouted boisterously, leaping on top of them all and recklessly knocking over a lamp in the process. The girls were just in time to see the beginning of the news story, featuring Toby Determined reporting on the scene outside of Northwest Manor, standing amongst an already very large, very eager crowd of townsfolk. “Well, tonight’s the night, but I’ve been out here for days!” the reporter exclaimed, his clothes tattered and muddy from doing so. “The Northwest family’s annual high-society-shindig-ball-soiree is here! And even though common folk aren’t let in, that doesn’t stop us from camping out right outside the gates for a peek at the fanciness!”

“Ooooooh!” all three of the girls mused, stars of amazement in their eyes as they stared at the screen, enthralled. Dipper, on the other hand, couldn’t have been any less interested in this rather soft, largely unimportant news.

“Ok, can someone please explain to me why people actually care about this?” he asked dryly, rolling his eyes at the brief snippets of poor-quality clips of past Northwest parties on screen.

“Northwest Fest is pretty much the best party of all time!” Grenda informed in her usual loud way. “Rich food, richer boys!”

“They say each gift basket has a live quail inside!” Mabel added just as enthusiastically.

“Give me your life, Pacifica…” Candy sighed wistfully as a clip of the heiress played during the newscast.

“You guys have got to be kidding,” Dipper deadpanned. “In case you’ve already forgotten, Pacifica Northwest has been a complete jerk to us all summer. She’s almost as bad as Gideon, minus the whole trying to kill us thing.”

“Oh, come on, bro-bro, you’re overexaggerating,” Mabel huffed. “Pacifica’s nowhere near as crazy or evil as Gideon is.”

“Maybe not, but she’s still the worst.” Dipper was suddenly interupted by a random knock on the door, but even so, his sour attitude towards the heiress didn’t change as he got up to answer it. “And that’s not just jealousy talking; I’d say that to her face.”

Ironically enough, however, the face he was met with upon opening the door was none other than Pacifica’s herself. “I need your help,” she said, saving the pleasantries and getting right to the point.

A very brief beat of rather awkward silence passed between the two of them before Dipper quickly acted upon what he had previously said. “You’re the worst,” he quickly told the heiress before abruptly slamming the door on her without bothering to hear her out whatsoever.

The trio of girls inside gasped in horror at response to Dipper’s careless rudeness towards Pacifica, especially given the fact that her family was hosting the most incredible party in town. Still, he hardly seemed to care as he turned towards them, arms crossed and caustic expression set. “See?”

Unfortunately for him, Pacifica wasn’t willing to give up that easily as she knocked on the door once again, this time much more insistently. And despite really not wanting to, Dipper knew that she likely wouldn’t go away until he at the very least heard her out. “Alright, what do you want?” he asked coldly as he opened the door again, sending her a quite transparent glare.

“Look, you think its easy for me to come here?” Pacifica asked, dressed in clothing that would largely obscure her identity, including a scarf over her hair and sunglasses over her eyes. “I don’t want to be seen in this hovel. But my dad made me come all the way out here because there’s something haunting Northwest Manor.” At this, the heiress removed her sunglasses, a hint of desperation in her otherwise haughty manner as she continued. “If you don’t help me, the party could be ruined!”

“And you really think that matters to me, like, at all?” Dipper raised an eyebrow as he leaned against the doorframe. “Honestly, I don’t know why I should even trust you. All you’ve ever done is try to humiliate me, Mabel, Steven, and Connie.”

“Hey, its not my fault you four are easy targets,” Pacifica scowled, every bit as bitter over this exchange as Dipper was. “Just name your price, ok? My dad will freak out if go back without any help, so I’ll give you anything!”

“Hi, Pacifica!” Mabel quickly interjected, rushing to the door before her brother could get a single word out. “Excuse us!” At this, she was quick to pull Dipper back into the shack despite his confused protest. “Dipper! Don’t you see what this means?!” she asked him in a fervent whisper. “If you help Pacifica, you could get us into the greatest party of all time!”

“What?” Dipper asked incredulously. “Mabel, this is Pacifica we’re talking about here. Helping her out will just end up turning into a huge disaster, I know it.”

“But it’s Candy and Grenda’s dream!” Mabel pleaded, nodding back to the starry eyed duo behind her. “And you know… it’s kinda mine too and you’d totally be the world’s number one best brother ever if you got me and my friends into this party and I’d totally owe you and shower you with the biggest, happiest hugs I can give and-”

“Ugh, alright already!” Dipper interjected, quite tired of his sister’s enthusiastic rambling on the matter as be begrudgingly turned to address Pacifica again. “I’ll bust your ghost. But in exchange, I’ll need three tickets to the party.”

The heiress let out a disgruntled growl at this, but nonetheless she conceded, reaching into her purse and retrieving the aforementioned tickets. “You’re just lucky I’m desperate.”

“Woo!” all three of the girls chanted in absolute elation in the living room, completely overwhelmed with excitement about the immaculate party that lay ahead of them. “Desperate! Desperate! Desperate!”

“Grenda, get the glue gun!” Mabel commanded with a huge, zealous grin. “We’re making dresses!”

“Ugh, I can’t believe I agreed to this…” Pacifica muttered, face palming as she prepared to leave.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this either…” Dipper remarked just as crossly, almost completely certain that he’d come to regret this choice some way or another.

Warm, plentiful laughter rung out between Steven and Connie as they emerged from the house, Lion trailing not too far behind them. The pair had spent most of the morning hanging out around the temple, with Connie practicing her sword skills on her own while Steven readily cheered her on. Still, soon enough the rousing rounds of swings and swipes soon came to an end as they decided to head down to the shack for a bit to see what Dipper and Mabel were up to.

“Well, time to assume my secret identity,” Connie joked, putting her glassless glasses back on. “Thanks again for letting me practice at your place, Steven. It’s a shame I can’t practice at home…”

“Well, why can’t you?” Steven asked, curious as he continued to hold the umbrella up for both of them, shielding them from the rain as they walked down the hill.

“Because my mom would totally flip if she caught me with a sword,” Connie remarked with a small chuckle, even though she was being serious. “And besides, Pearl hasn’t given me a ‘take home’ sword yet like she has for Dipper. Probably because I haven’t really gone on a lot of missions with you guys since we’ve started training, which I understand.”

Steven took pause upon hearing this, seeing that while Connie was apparently complacent with this fact, there was still a hint of longing in her expression all the same. Longing that he couldn’t help but feel compelled to fulfill. “Hey, wait a sec,” the young Gem stopped, prompting both Connie and Lion to do the same. “May I?” he asked, turning to the pink beast, who obediently lowered his head to allow his owner to reach inside his magical mane. Connie watched in apt curiosity as Steven felt around inside the pocket dimension for a moment, before finding what he was looking for and pulling it cleanly out of Lion’s forehead: Rose Quartz’s legendary sword.

“Here-eth,” Steven began, playfully yet dutifully bowing before the rather surprised Connie. “You can borrow-ethhhh my mother’s sword-ethhhhh.”

“S-Steven! That… that’s so nice!” Connie exclaimed with a small, albeit taken aback smile. “If grammatically incorrect. But…” At this point she was quick to switch into the same medieval tone Steven had been using. “Thou canst just giveth me thine mother’s sword!”

“Why not… -ethhhh?” the young Gem asked with a confused frown.

“Because its really important-ethhh!” Connie argued as they finally made it to the shack.

“That’s exactly why you should have-ethhhh it! You can have it to practice-ethhh with-ethhhh.”

Connie hesitated as Steven presented the sword to her once more, its large, pink form suddenly seeming quite intimidating as she looked upon it. This was by far a special blade, one that held more history that she could likely ever even hope to understand. Even with her skills progressing at the rate they were, she still felt largely unworthy by merit alone to wield such an impressively powerful sword. And yet, as she looked back to the young Gem who was so kindly offering it to her with such a hopeful smile, she found it was becoming increasingly difficult to turn that offer down. “Are you sure-ethhh?”

“Positive-ethhh,” Steven nodded with a confident, steady grin. One that was finally enough to convince Connie to take the illustrious, surprisingly light sword into her own hands.

“Thhhhhhank you!” she exclaimed with a laugh, finally capping off the pair’s playful barrage of medieval speech.

“You’re welcome,” Steven said, his smile finally falling a bit as his tone became serious. “It’s just… I was thinking… We gotta be ready if we need to fight Malachite or Peridot o-or Bill or… or those creepy Gem fusion experiments. And seeing as how you’ve already got the skills, all you really needed was a sword. Which means we’re bound to be ready for whatever comes our way next.”

“Well, there’s no real way of knowing that for sure,” Connie mused thoughtfully as they prepared to head inside the shack. “But still, I’ll take good care of it.”

The pair exchanged another warm smile as they opened the door, only to find a scene of colorful chaos unfurling before them. Mabel, Candy, and Grenda were congregated in the den, mutually awash in frantic excitement as they scrambled to put their home-made evening gowns together in time for the party. As Candy and Grenda collaborated on pouring copious amounts of glitter onto a swath of already very shiny fabric, Mabel rushed towards the stairs, energized as ever.

“Hi, Steven! Hi, Connie!” she greeted the confused pair quickly as she ran past them. “No time to talk! Our pom-pom supply is running dangerously low and I gotta replenish it ASAP!”

“Uh… what’s going on?” Connie asked as Mabel rushed off.

“They’re getting ready for tonight,” Dipper said as he came over to join the pair.

“Tonight? What’s tonight?” Steven asked curiously.

“There’s some stupid party happening at Northwest Manor,” Dipper explained, still rather vexed over the matter. “And I somehow got roped by Pacifica into getting rid of a ghost that’s apparently haunting the place in exchange for getting those three tickets for it.”

“Oh my gosh, the party!” Connie exclaimed with a recollective gasp. “I can’t believe I forgot about it! Ugh, my mom got invited for being one of the ‘top tier medical professionals’ in Gravity Falls, which means I have to go too, as much as I’d rather do literally anything else.”

“Same here,” Dipper staunchly agreed. “The last thing I want to do is spend an evening with Pacifica, of all people.”

“Tell me about it,” Connie crossed her arms with equal distain. “It’s kind of hard to believe Pacifica would ask you for help, Dipper, seeing as how she’s made it really clear she hates all four of us. Not that the feeling isn’t completely mutual, seeing as how she’s just about the worst.”

“That’s what I said!” Dipper exclaimed, exasperated. “But unfortunately, I couldn’t really turn her down; Mabel would have never let me live it down if I didn’t get those tickets for her.”

“Aw, I don’t know what you two are so upset about,” Steven interjected with a small smile. “This party sounds like a lot of fun! You know, aside from that whole ghost thing you mentioned, Dipper.”

“Yeah, it’ll be ‘fun’ alright,” Dipper deadpanned, rolling his eyes. “About as fun as getting a root canal.”

“Or getting hit by a bus,” Connie added before they both broke out into a bout of rather cynical laughter. Steven didn’t really join in on it as someone knocked on the door, but even so, as he went to answer it he offered the pair some more encouragement over the evening they were both so clearly dreading.

“Well, even if you guys don’t think so, I still think you’ll both have a great time at the party,” the young Gem said warmly. “I sure wish I could go. But I wasn’t invited, so I guess I’ll just have to-” Steven cut himself off as he opened the door to see a rather impatient doctor standing outside. “D-Dr. Maheswaran!”

“Yes, yes, hello, Steven,” Priyanka greeted dully as she stepped inside. “Hello, Dipper.”

“Uh, hi, Dr. Maheswaran,” Dipper replied, glancing over at Connie in confusion as she hurriedly hid Rose’s sword behind her back before her mother could see it.

“M-Mom!” she exclaimed, eyes wide with alarm at this unexpected intrusion. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to pick you up so we can go get ready for the party this evening, remember?” Priyanka remarked in a huff. “It’s only a few hours away and we have much to do before then, to the point that I even had to leave work early. But it’ll all be worth it if I can land the Northwests as the sponsors for the purposed new wing at the hospital. Which means I expect you to be on your best behavior tonight, young lady.”

“Yes, mother…” Connie grumbled, far from keen on the idea of sucking up to Pacifica’s family like her mother seemed to be.

“Now say goodbye to your friends,” the doctor ordered, reaching out to grab her daughter’s hand without any warning. “We’ll have to hurry if we want to-” Priyanka stopped short upon hearing the noisy clatter that came as a result of Connie loosing her grip on the sword she had been concealing as it fell to the floor.

“Oh no…” Connie groaned, face palming as she realized she had no time to reclaim it before her mother turned to see it lying in plain sight on the ground beside her.

“Is that… a sword?!” Priyanka gasped, picking the sheathed blade up in complete appalment. “Connie, where did you get this?!”

“I-it’s-” Steven nervously began to explain before Connie quickly interupted him.

“I-I found it! It was just… lying outside and I wanted to show it to Steven and Dipper.”

“Wait, but isn’t that Rose’s-” Dipper was immediately cut off by Connie as she slapped a silencing hand over his mouth while her mother seethed with fury all the while.

“How could you possibly think this is ok?!” the doctor exclaimed, completely livid as she paced back and forth the foyer with the sword still in her grip. “Do you know how many children I see coming into the hospital every day who’ve cut their faces off playing with swords?”

“Uh…”

“None!” Priyanka snapped hotly. “Because they have parents who love them and don’t let them play around with deadly weapons like some kind of gang member!”

“B-but-” Connie tried to protest, but her mother immediately shot her down.

“No buts! I don’t even know why I have to tell you this! You should know better! No playing with swords! Under any circumstances! Now, come along, we still have to get ready for the party. I’ll have a talk with your father after he gets off work tonight to calculate just how grounded you are. And we’re using the abacus!”

And with that, Priyanka abruptly turned on her heel and walked out, taking Rose’s sword along with her, much to Connie’s dismay. “I hate that abacus…” she remarked sourly before her tone turned fretful. “Steven, I’m so sorry! She took your mother’s sword!”

“Maybe we could get her to change her mind?” Steven suggested with a reassuring smile.

“She never, ever changes her mind,” Connie huffed, rubbing her temples. “We’ve got to get that sword back ourselves.”

“How are you going to do that?” Dipper asked with a frown. “There probably isn’t a great chance that Dr. Maheswaran will let the sword out of her sight considering how upset she was about it.”

“Oh, you’re right…” Connie mused worriedly for a moment before excitedly snapping her fingers. “Wait! I know! The party! We can wait until she’s distracted tonight and then, Steven, you and me can sneak off with it without her even knowing!”

“That’s a great idea, Connie!” Steven chimed brightly. “There’s just one problem though… I’m not invited to the party.”

“Connie!” Priyanka shouted quite impatiently from outside. “We need to leave, now!”

“W-well, you’ll just have to figure out a way to get in!” Connie urged as she began to hurry out. “I’ll see you tonight!”

“Hopefully…” Steven said, halfheartedly waving her off as she rushed to join her mother. “Wait a second! Dipper, didn’t you say that you convinced Pacifica to give you some tickets to the party? Do you think maybe you could get just one more from her so I could get in too?”

“Steven, it was basically a miracle that she even agreed to give me tickets for Mabel, Candy, and Grenda,” Dipper said with an apologetic frown. “I highly doubt she’s gonna be willing to fork over another one, even with me taking care of her ghost problem for her.”

“You’re probably right…” Steven sighed in disappointment. “But what am I gonna do? I gotta find a way to get into that party somehow!”

“Did somebody say party!?” Both boys were quite started as, out of nowhere, Amethyst suddenly dropped down from the ceiling, grinning wryly as she landed in between them.

“Amethyst? What are you doing here?” Dipper asked in apt confusion.

“Oh, ya know, just napping up in the rafters, just like I do all the time,” the purple Gem remarked, stretching herself out as she fully woke up. “The ones here at the shack are way more comfy than the ones up at the temple, believe it or not. But it’s been kinda hard to get any rest around here with everyone being so loud for some reason. Seriously what’s up with all that?”

“Oh well uh…” Steven began rather anxiously, not wanting to admit to any of the Gems that he had lost track of his mother’s sword. “E-everyone’s just… really excited about the Northwests’ party tonight and-”

“Ugh, that yearly snooze-fest?” Amethyst stuck her tongue out in disdain. “I don’t know why anyone would get excited over that. It’s barely even a party! Just a bunch of rich stiffs standing around yapping about how much money they have. The only good thing about it is that the grub is all you can eat, which is an offer I always took them up on whenever we went to it back in the day.”

“Wait, so you guys have been to this party before?” Dipper asked curiously.

“Yeah, a few times,” the purple Gem shrugged. “But only because we kinda sometimes filled in as bodyguards for those Northwest losers way back when before we learned that they’re a bunch of crooked jerks. Crazy thing about it is that we still actually get invites for their party every year, even though he haven’t gone since Rose was still around. Guess they never bothered to take us off the guest list, not that we’d go anyway seeing as how those prudes didn’t keep their-”

“A-Amethyst!” Steven suddenly interjected, eyes wide with newfound hope upon hearing that his guardians had invitations to the exclusive party. Which meant that there was a chance he could help Connie out after all. “Did we get invited this year too?!”

“Uh… yeah? Pretty sure Pearl has the invites up at the temple. Why?”

“B-because I wanna go this year!” Steven urged, his manner still rather tight as Amethyst looked to him in confusion.

“What? Why?” she asked caustically. “Did you hear what I just said? That party’s lame, Steven. You’d get bored in the first 5 seconds, just like I always used to.”

“W-well… maybe its not as boring as it used to be anymore!” the young Gem argued earnestly. “And besides, Connie’s going! And so are Dipper and Mabel!”

“That’s right,” Dipper nodded, supporting the young Gem in his effort to try and win the purple Gem over on the matter. “Amethyst, would it really be fair if the three of us got to go to some huge fancy party while Steven just spends the night home, bored and alone?”

“Like a poor little sadsack?” Steven added, pouting pleadingly.

Amethyst didn’t answer right away as she looked between the pair, arms crossed and expression dry. Still, her manner didn’t stay that way for long upon watching the young Gem’s lower lip start to quiver as a sign of his genuine desperation. Which was something that none of the Gems, not even Amethyst, was able to resist. “Ugh, ok fine!” she groaned in exasperation. “I’ll help you convince Garnet and Pearl into going with us to that dumb party. But only because their food is really good. And also ‘cause I’m in the mood for busting up some of the Northwests’ expensive fancy property.”

“Yes!” Steven cheered, quite relieved as he gave Dipper a thankful high five. “Thanks so much Amethyst!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the purple Gem remarked with a casual wave of her hand as she took her leave to inform her teammates of their plan. “Just don’t come cryin’ to me when you end up clonking out on that ballroom floor from how boring it all is. Which will happen. Trust me, I know, I’ve done before.”

Sure enough, with Northwest Fest set to start in roughly an hour, a massive crowd of spectators had congregated around at least a mile radius from the mansion’s securely locked gates, ones that were meant to keep the common folk out while the exclusively wealthy guests enjoyed the finery inside. Of course, this year’s party did carry some exceptions to these upscale standards, namely the group Pacifica unceremoniously escorted in through the mansion’s stately front doors.

“Welcome to Northwest Manor, dorks,” she announced dryly as Dipper, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda all got their first glimpses of the immaculate ballroom. “Try not to touch anything.”

The girls hardly heeded the heiresses as they rushed past her, clad in their flashy home-made dresses as they rushed to take in every lavish sight surrounding them. The mansion’s grand hall was quite a splendor, with high vaulted ceilings, expertly crafted woodwork and spotless marble floors. With most guests having yet to arrive, the only ones milling about at the moment were maids and servants as they put together the finishing touches for the festivities, including the massive apple cider fountain and lengthy buffet of hors d’oeurves. Overall, the setting of the party alone lived up to the stories of its splendor, splendor that the girls were more than happy to explore as they cheerfully ran about.

“Everything’s so fancy!” Mabel quipped, stars in her eyes as she spun around in her fluffy pink gown. “Fancy floor, fancy plants, fancy man!” she finished as she zealously patted the face of a nearby butler.

“Mm, yes, very good, miss,” the butler conceded dutifully before walking away.

“The rumors were true!” Candy proclaimed, running by with a quail-filled gift bag in hand before Grenda and Mabel hurried after her, chuckling cheerfully all the while.

At the same time, Preston and Priscilla entered the room, calm and composed over their nearly-complete party preparations, even despite the previous night’s setback. “Ah, if it isn’t the man of the hour!” Preston addressed Dipper cordially as the couple approached him. “I trust you can help us with out little… situation before the guests arrive in an hour.”

“I’ll do my best,” Dipper assured rather confidently. And really, he had every reason to show confidence for the task ahead as equipped as he was with the journal, ghost tracking equipment, and even his sword as an extra precaution. On top of all that was the general level of experience in fending off supernatural danger he had gained over the course of the summer alone, which made him feel more than equipped to deal with a simple, run of the mill ghostly haunting.

“Splendid! Pacifica, take our guest to the ‘problem room’,” the billionaire said to his daughter before dropping his voice down to a mutter while Dipper was distracted. “And uh… he’s not wearing that is he?” he asked, rather unimpressed with the boy’s common, almost sloppy attire and overall manner.

“I’m on it,” Pacifica nodded, wasting no time in dragging Dipper off to the mansion’s quite extensive guest dressing room. And, despite his extensive protests, she eventually managed to get him fitted in an appropriately formal suit, something that Dipper found to be incredibly uncomfortable and restricting even from the moment he first put it on.

“Ugh, it’s like this collar is strangling me,” he grumbled, pulling at the offending, quite aggravating collar. “Who do you guys think you’re impressing with this stuff anyway?”

“Uh, everyone?” Pacifica retorted just as sharply as she quickly adjusted Dipper’s tie. “You wouldn’t understand. High standards are what make the Northwest family great. And part of those high standards is that we always look our best.” To prove her point, the heiress motioned down to her own fashionable lavender ball gown, one that she knew and was quite proud of the fact that it was the best that money could buy.

“Oh really?” Dipper remarked with a wry, knowing smirk. “That’s funny seeing as how you guys didn’t look all that great when we exposed you for lying about founding the town.”

“Ugh, whatever,” Pacifica scoffed, rolling her eyes. “We’re still way better than pretty much anyone else in this town, even if we didn’t found it some stupidly long time ago. And in case you haven’t noticed, everybody still loves us, so its not like you guys ‘revealing the truth’ even changed anything.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the only reason why people supposedly ‘love’ your family is because you guys are ridiculously rich?” Dipper asked rather crossly.

“No, its because we’re respected,” the heiress corrected pointedly. “There’s a difference.”

“Oh yeah, sure, ‘respected’,” Dipper deadpanned. “For pretty much nothing but being rich.”

“Oh, just shut up already and come on!” Pacifica snapped, quite frustrated especially as Dipper kept up his smug, triumphant grin. Still, both of them were rather eager to get this ghost hunting mission over with, if for nothing more than to cut the begrudging, yet momentarily necessary tie between them. Which was why they continued on to investigate in a state of cross, bitter silence, one that neither of them felt compelled to break, lest even more biting, hostile words spark between them. Words that, ironically, were the exact opposite of the kind of sentiments that would spark up between them soon enough.

Though it had taken some doing, Steven and Amethyst had managed to convince Garnet and Pearl into going to the Northwests’ party. Still, despite their agreement to show up, none of the Gems were very excited to be there as they arrived early, just as they always used to do when they used to attend the party in the past. They had almost ended up arriving in their usual attire, but upon Steven’s insistence, they had begrudgingly shifted into more elegant wear for the evening. Garnet had taken on a smooth, sleeveless, sleek magenta gown, one that filled out wide past her knees and had a large slit revealing her shapely left leg. Pearl’s dress was more modest; a graceful, pale blue, silky ensemble, with straps and an additional skirt from behind. Though Amethyst usually abhorred getting dolled up, she had made an exception for Steven, putting on a shorter purple dress with loose skirts and low straps on top of tying her hair up into a messy, yet still presentable (thanks to Pearl) bun. As for Steven, he was clad in a rental tux that Greg had managed to score for him at the last second, but even still, he was quite ready for the party himself, even despite his apprehension for even having to be there in the first place.

“I still can’t believe we agreed to come to this shallow parade of overindulgence and excess,” Pearl huffed disdainfully as the group approached the mansion’s entrance. “I thought our days of attending these despicable Northwest parties were long over.”

“We all agreed to make an exception this year for Steven, Pearl,” Garnet reminded, even though it was clear she was none too pleased to be there either. “So we’ll just have to suck it up for a few hours.”

“Yes, I know, but still…” the white Gem dropped her voice down to a whisper as she clutched the Gem leader’s arm. “All of this shameless touting of refinement, power, and position over others? You can’t deny that it’s a little like-”

“Homeworld, I know,” Garnet’s expression darkened somewhat. “That’s one of the many reasons we stopped going to these.”

Despite their quiet conversing, Steven still picked up on what his guardians were talking about and he couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty for stirring up bad memories of their former planet by essentially using them as his ticket into this party. Part of him wanted to tell them his true reasoning for wanting to come, namely to help Connie reclaim Rose’s sword, but he couldn’t very well admit that to them out of shame that he had lost something so precious and important, especially since it was his responsibility to keep it safe in the first place. So instead of telling the truth, the young Gem decided to do one of the things he did best: cheer them up.

“I-I know you guys aren’t looking forward to this, but I still think we could end up having fun!” he quipped with a warm smile. “I mean, we’re all here together, and Connie, Dipper, and Mabel are coming too so maybe the party won’t be as bad as it used to be when you guys used to go to it.”

“Oh yeah, speakin’ of which,” Amethyst interjected curiously as they all presented their invitations at the door before being let inside. “How did those three get invites to this ritzy blowout anyway? I always remember this thing being super exclusive, to the point that they only let rich, snobby jerks in. And last time I checked, Connie, Dipper, and Mabel aren’t rich, snobby jerks.”

“Oh, uh, well-”

“Steven!” the young Gem was interupted almost as soon as him and the Gems stepped into the ballroom by Mabel, who had managed to spot them from the other side of the hall. She didn’t hesitate to excitedly run over towards him, though she did slow her pace somewhat, her cheeks flushing red upon noticing the rather dashing suit he was in. “W-wow…” she said as she came to a stop, trying her best not to come across as flustered and doing anything but. “Steven, you… y-you look, uh… you… um… G-great to see you!”

“Uh, its great to see you too, Mabel, even though I did just see you a few hours ago.” Steven chuckled, fortunately not paying her stumbling much mind.

“Heh, yeah… Oh my gosh!” Mabel quickly changed topics, averting her gaze from the young Gem lest she turn incoherent again as she addressed the Gems instead. “You guys all look so pretty! I love, love, love your dresses!”

“Well, thank you, Mabel,” Pearl smiled kindly. “Your dress for the evening is very… creative as well!”

“Aw, thanks so much! I made it myself!” Mabel cheerily gushed, pulling off a playful curtsy. “Still, this is so crazy awesome! I wasn’t expecting to see any of you guys here! Isn’t this party the fanciest thing you’ve ever seen?!”

“Mm… we’ve seen fancier,” Garnet noted rather dryly, eliciting confused frowns from both Mabel and Steven.

“Mabel! You gotta get over here!” Grenda suddenly called, her deep voice echoing from across the ballroom.

“Oh! Hold that thought!” Mabel exclaimed as she started to run off, though not before bidding Steven and the Gems a quick farewell as they waved her off. “I’ll catch up with you guys later! I hope you have fun!”

“Ha, like that’ll ever happen at this lamo snob party,” Amethyst grumbled, crossing her arms petulantly.

“What’s up?” Mabel asked Candy and Grenda as she joined them before a large, stately book resting on a stand.

“Look what we found! It’s the guest list!” Grenda grinned, eagerly flipping through it before stopping a few pages in. “Whoa! Check out this hottie!”

“Marius von Fundshauser!” Candy read, already completely enthralled with the wealthy young man from his picture alone. “He’s a baron from Austria!”

“Forget the quail, I’m putting him in my gift basket!” Mabel quipped, more than ready to indulge herself with another summer crush. Especially if it helped her get her mind off her ever-growing feelings for a certain young Gem.

“Hold up, ladies,” Grenda interjected, her tone surprisingly serious. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think this boy might be out of our league.”

“Grenda is right,” Candy nodded just as rationally. “He is a white whale. Hunting him will destroy us.”

“Well, there are plenty of other cute boys coming to this party,” Mabel vouched with a conceding smile. “So let’s make a sister’s truce not to waste our time on Marius. Deal?”

“Deal!” Candy and Grenda both agreed as they all put their hands together in mutual agreement on this plan. Still, all three of them laughed somewhat nervously as they broke their hands apart, none of them entirely sure if this was a deal they intended on keeping.

As her father had instructed, Pacifica led Dipper to the so-called “problem room”, which, even upon an initial glance, was exactly what he had been expecting. It appeared to be some kind of lounge, just as stately as the rest of Northwest Manor was with hand-crafted hardwood furniture, walls lined with paintings hailing the family’s allegedly proud history, and mounted animal heads, and a large roaring fireplace that cast the entire room in a shadowy, almost blood red glow.

“This is the main room where it’s been happening,” Pacifica informed as they stepped inside, her usual confident manner somewhat diminished in place of fledgling fear.

“Yeah, this looks like the kind of room that would be haunted alright,” Dipper concluded as he pulled the journal out and turned to the fortunately extensive section on ghosts. “I wouldn’t worry about it though. Ghosts fall on a ten-category scale. Floating plates sounds like a category 1, which is pretty far from being anywhere close to dangerous.”

“So what?” Pacifica asked with a teasing smirk. “Are you gonna bore him back into the afterlife by reading from that book? Or are you going to pretend to stab him with that cute little toy sword of yours?” she asked, nodding to the Ancient Sea Blade he had securely strapped to his back.

“First of all, it’s not a toy, its real,” Dipper corrected, half tempted to draw it and show her. “And secondly, I only brought it with me as a precaution. If it really is a category 1, then the most I gotta do is splash that sucker with some anointed water,” he said, holding said small bottle of holy water up. “And he should be out of your probably-fake blonde hair.”

“What was that about my hair?” Pacifica scoffed, glaring at him disapprovingly.

“Shh!” Dipper quickly interupted her as he pulled a small, ghost-tracking device out of his backpack, one that was already beeping in response to the apparent supernatural activity in the room. “I’m picking something up.”

The heiress simply sighed in aggravation but all the same she hung back, allowing him to investigate further as he followed the readings the device was giving off. Dipper stopped short in front of the fireplace as he briefly glanced up to the large painting of who appeared to be an 1880s lumberjack until the device’s signal suddenly went dead. “Ugh, come on, stupid thing,” he muttered in annoyance, beating the side of it until it began beeping once more. “There we go. Huh?” He was met with immediate confusion as he glanced up again, only to find that somehow, the lumberjack in the painting had suddenly disappeared from the frame in what couldn’t have been more than a few seconds at best. Something that Dipper already knew well from experience, was far from normal. “Uh… Pacifica?”

The heiress didn’t even heed him as she instead let out a frightened scream on the other side of the room, one that was quite warranted given the pool of blood she had just spotted near her feet, one that was being fueled from above. Both her and Dipper let out shared gasps of shock as they glanced up to see blood, thick, dark, and real, swelling from the seemingly dead mouths and eyes of every single one of the taxidermized animal heads on the walls. A steady, unnatural gale-force wind started to swirl around the room as bright, sinister flames began bursting out from the confines of the fireplace, almost as if they were trying to latch onto Dipper and Pacifica as they rushed to meet each other near the center of the room. The danger seemed to escalate more and more with each passing second as the animal heads, still dripping with unexplainable blood and blank, unseeing eyes glowing a sharp, warning red, began to raise their voices in a deep, unearthly, ominous chant.

“ANCIENT SINS! ANCIENT SINS! ANCIENT SINS!”

On and on this mysterious mantra continued as the objects in the room began to take flight, books, furniture, and antiques all rising into the air before they haphazardly glided around the appropriately terrified pair. “Dipper, what is this?!” Pacifica cried about the incredible din surrounding them, her trembling hands held close to her as her long hair whipped about in the hurricane winds.

“I-it’s a category 10…” Dipper replied, absolutely shaken. After all, the last time he had witnessed a supernatural disaster this dire or intense was when he had watched his own body be taken over by a vicious dream demon while he floated outside of it, distraught and helpless. And while this haunting was nowhere near as immediately catastrophic as that had been, it was still every bit as deadly, a fact he was starkly reminded of as his only real option for taking care of it, the vial of anointed water, abruptly shattered right in his hand.

“ANCIENT BLOOD AND BLACKENED SKIES,” the animal heads changed their chant into something new, but every bit as dark and sinister. “THE FOREST DARK SHALL ONCE MORE RISE!”

“What do we do?! What do we do?!” Pacifica practically screamed as she grabbed Dipper by the suit jacket and shook him desperately.

“I-I… I don’t know!” Dipper answered truthfully, realizing that he was actually quite unprepared for something of this caliber.

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” Pacifica shot back in disbelief. “Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of supernatural expert or something?!”

“Who on earth told you that?!”

“Uh, the town newspaper did!”

“Whoa, really?” Dipper paused, rather pleasantly surprised to hear this. “That’s… actually pretty awesome.”

“Focus!” Pacifica snapped harshly. “We’re about to be killed by creepy dead animal heads and flying furniture, remember?!”

“Don’t worry,” Dipper assured as evenly as he could, given the circumstances. “It can’t possibly get any worse than this!”

Of course, he was immediately proven wrong as the fire violently sparked up again, forcing the pair to dive under the nearby table to avoid getting burned. And they did so just in time as, out of nowhere, a powerful black skeletal arm emerged from the flames, still completely consumed in them as it smashed down onto the ground. The rest of the charred skeleton subsequently pulled itself out of the fire, something akin to skin and clothes forming around the bones as they formed the visage of a large, burly man, the lumberjack from the painting himself, who was clearly deceased based on his rotting, grisly form. A sharp, deadly axe had cleaved his head, the obvious cause of his death that still remained in his undead form. And his manner was every bit as outraged and heated as the burning inferno he had emerged from as he belted out his first proclamation in a deep, rumbling voice.

“I smell… a NORTHWEST!” the ghost growled, blue flames igniting in place of where hair and a beard would normally be as his one remaining eye shot open. Dipper and Pacifica made sure to remain hidden out of the ghost’s view under the table as he began to storm around the room, another axe materializing in his hand as he dragged it threateningly across the floor with each torturously slow step. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

“Hurry!” Pacifica whispered to Dipper sharply as he frantically flipped through the journal for answers. “Read through your dumb book already and figure out a way to get rid of that… thing!”

“I’m looking!” Dipper retorted just as harshly as he pulled out his blacklight. “And its not dumb, ok? This book is gonna save our lives! Alright, here we go; Advice:” Hoping that the category 10 ghost page would hold the key to ousting this great, newfound threat, he held the blacklight over the page, only to get the lone, disconcerting message of “Pray for mercy!” instead of anything tangibly useful. “Aw, seriously?!”

Matters were only made worse as the table, their only real cover from the ghost and his deadly axe, suddenly hovered away, leaving them directly in the menacing specter’s line of sight, much to their shared horror. “You should not have come here!” he shouted, not even hesitating to swipe at the pair with his weapon, which they only barely dodged.

“This way! Hurry!” Pacifica exclaimed, grabbing Dipper by the arm and quickly pulling him up before they rushed out of the room. The ghost was in hot pursuit, his fiery manner sparkly with murderous intent as he relentlessly chased them down the mansion’s maze-like halls, ready to strike.

Northwest Manor’s massive doors finally opened to the illustrious group of invited party guests as Preston proudly stood by to greet them all, his wide, cordial grin completely hiding any implications that ghostly danger was currently lurking through the mansion’s halls. “Welcome, dukes, duchesses, sultans and sportsmen! And—ugh… Mayor Dewey…”

“Preston!” Dewey exclaimed brightly, rushing forward as he threw an arm over the billionaire’s shoulder. “We’re so honored to be here, isn’t that right, Buck?”

“Not really,” Buck dryly stated, his arms crossed and his shades still on despite his formal attire.

“Ha! Isn’t my son just hilarious?!” Dewey chuckled with an incredibly forced laugh as he snapped a finger at one of his aids, not noticing Preston’s quickly growing aggravation with him. “Now, smile for the campaign promotion!” The mayor did so brightly, even if the billionaire made his annoyance quite clear before finally acting upon it as soon as the aid snapped a photo.

“Alright, Dewey, that’s enough of your ‘campaigning’ for one evening,” Preston scowled scornfully, pushing the mayor back into the crowd. “Now then,” the billionaire continued, quickly regaining his composure as he addressed the rest of his guests. “Tonight we will enjoy only the finest of tastes and only the snootiest of laugher.” Someone in the crowd let out an incredibly haughty chortle in response to this remark as Preston nodded in approval. “That’s the ticket!” he exclaimed, motioning for the guests to finally step inside.

Despite the party’s exclusivity, there were still quite a few attendees who filed in, most of them quite prominent in some regard, be it wealth or reputation. Within this group were some of the town’s most esteemed medical professionals, and among them was Dr. Maheswaran, with Connie almost sullenly following in after her. After since her mother had confiscated Rose’s sword, she had been trying her best not to fall even further out of Priyanka’s good graces than she already had. Hence why she had been obedient, almost rigidly so, all the way leading up to their arrival at the party itself, in the hopes that her mother would loosen up her newly tightened reigns for the evening. And fortunately enough, her vigilance paid off, as that’s exactly what Priyanka did.

“I have to go meet with the other doctors before we propose the hospital sponsorship to the Northwests,” the doctor said to her daughter, her tone as serious as ever. “I trust that you can mind yourself like a proper young lady without getting into any more trouble for an hour or two, right?”

“Y-yes, ma’am,” Connie nodded apprehensively, keeping her poise and manner as polite and compliant as possible as to not give away her intention of going against her rules.

“Good,” Priyanka nodded in staunch satisfaction as she began to walk off. “And remember what we talked about on the way here!”

“Don’t worry, Mom,” Connie assured with a rather fake smile. “I-I don’t think you’ll need to worry about me stumbling across any swords around here!” Her smile immediately fell into partial guilt as soon as her mother fully turned away, since she knew she would soon be seeking out the very sword that had gotten her into all this trouble on her own accord. Still, she didn’t let herself linger on that guilt for too long as Steven managed to spot her amidst the crowd and didn’t hesitate to come running over.

“Connie!” he called with an elated smile as he caught her off guard with a sudden hug.

“S-Steven!” Connie chuckled as the broke apart. “You actually made it!”

“Yeah, it turns out the Gems actually get invited to this party every year,” Steven’s smile quickly turned to wonder as he got a better view of Connie’s attire for the evening: a floor length turquoise dress with short sleeves and a dark sash, one that complimented her neatly-done updo quite nicely. “W-wow… Connie, you look great!”

“Thanks…” Connie blushed, her reddened cheeks matching the young Gem’s own. “You look really nice too. B-but there’s no time to talk about that now! We gotta get your mother’s sword back while my mom is distracted!”

“Right,” Steven nodded, resolved. “So where is it?”

“She left it outside in the car,” Connie reported with a worried frown. “Which means that we can’t just go out through the front door to get it, everybody will notice. There has to be another way out of the mansion…”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to find it!” the young Gem grinned encouragingly. “Come on!” And with that, Steven grabbed Connie’s hand, reigniting the warmth in her cheeks as they slipped through the party’s growing crowds towards the back of the ballroom, where the beginning of the hallways leading to the inner sanctums of the mansion awaited. Neither of them had the faintest clue about the manor’s layout, which was why they had to settle on picking a random hallway and seeing where it led. They managed to do so without Priyanka, or really anyone else for that matter noticing them, mostly since everyone was already so distracted with the fancy offerings of the party itself. And as soon as they were out of the party proper, they both noticed that the mansion’s lofty halls were much more spacious, quiet, and even eerie than either of them would have thought they would be.

“Whoa, this place is even bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside,” Steven remarked as they made their steady way down the corridor they had chosen. “And that’s saying something seeing as how it looks huge on the outside.”

“What do the Northwests even need such a huge mansion for anyway?” Connie asked, making her disdain for the wealthy family as apparent as ever. “They probably don’t even use half the rooms in here and if they do, then they’re probably just filled with stuff they never look at or use.”

“You’re sounding like the Gems did earlier,” Steven remarked with a small, bemused smile. “They… really aren’t that happy to be here.”

“Well, who can blame them?” Connie huffed. “I’d rather be anywhere else but here either, but at least this party his good for one thing: helping us get that sword back.”

“True,” Steven nodded. “Though I don’t really know what we’re gonna do with the sword once we get it back… Lion didn’t come with us to the party, so I guess we’ll just have to sneak it back inside and hope your mom doesn’t see-” The young Gem stopped short as a display case resting against the nearby wall caught his attention as they were passing it. A case that was filled with what seemed to be rather clusters of conjoined gemstones.

“Steven?” Connie frowned as she also paused, noticing his apparent surprise. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Steven glanced away from the case briefly. “Its just… these rocks look an awful lot like the ones those Gem experiments in the Kindergarten had…”

“Really?” Connie asked, concerned. “You don’t think…?”

“…No, they couldn’t be,” the young Gem shook his head. “We bubbled all of them up. A-and even if there were any left that we didn’t find, how would they have ended up here?”

“You got me,” Connie said with a small, reassuring smile. “Now come on, we gotta hurry and get that sword!”

Steven nodded in firm agreement, only taking a very short final glance back at the gemstone display case before he hurried after her. Still, as they continued their way down the narrow mansion hall, neither one of them noticed as one of the odd, strangely familiar-looking gem clusters slowly began to glow, its kin all steadily starting to do the same.  

Given their tarnished history with the Northwest family in general, the Gems had decided early on to make their contempt towards their party very apparent. They refused to engage themselves in interacting with any of the transparently pompous guests as they instead hung back together near the other end of the ballroom, their disdainful, disapproving scowls clear as they refused to show any signs of willingly indulging in this wasteful finery.

Well, that is, save for Amethyst.

The purple Gem had essentially overtaken an entire buffet table, scarfing down all of the expensive entrees she could get her hands on, much to Pearl’s ever increasing aggravation.

“Amethyst, could you please try to control yourself for a change!?” the white Gem asked, her arms crossed as she continued standing alongside Garnet nearby.

“No can do, P,” Amethyst said as she essentially poured an entire punch bowl on herself. “These Northwests may throw some lame parties, but at least the snacks never disappoint. I gotta admit, I almost kinda missed this.”

“Well, I certainly haven’t,” Pearl concluded, turning her nose upward coldly. “Now get down from there, you’re making a mess!”

“Good,” Garnet spoke up, undermining the white Gem with a nod of approval, much to her teammates’ confusion.

“Huh?”

“Go ahead and make a mess,” the Gem leader clarified staunchly. “It’s not like the Northwests don’t deserve it after everything they’ve done over the years.”

While Pearl was still rather lost by this bizarre order, Amethyst was more than happy to follow it through. “What, you mean like… this?” she grinned as she dropped a very expensive china tray onto the ground, shattering it upon contact.

“That works,” Garnet nodded in approval as she discreetly summoned her gauntlet. “So does this.” With a simple flick of her fingers at the window behind her, a large crack rippled across its otherwise pristine surface as the Gem leader simply smiled in smug satisfaction.

“G-Garnet!” Pearl gasped, appalled by such destructive behavior.

“Aw, c’mon, Pearl, don’t be such a stick in the mud!” Amethyst goaded, tossing another plate to the ground. “After all, you were the one who painted that awesome tag on their wall a few weeks ago. How is this any worse than that?”

The white Gem hesitated briefly, but in the end, her usual desire for order was quickly overruled by her longstanding contempt for the Northwests and all those like them. “Well…” she began by summoning her spear. “I suppose a tiny little scratch wouldn’t hurt too much…” With this, she placed the tip of her weapon against the smooth marble floor before she began to slowly drag it, leaving a long, marring scratch across the pristine surface. “Oops. Did I do that?” she grinned, already exhilarated by this act of rebellion.

“Yeah, that’s the spirit!” Amethyst cheered, continuing her own form of vandalism as Garnet and Pearl both took to theirs, all three of them reveling in taking their age-old scorn towards the Northwests out, even if it was in a rather simple way.

It stood to reason that a party as fancy and upscale as Northwest Fest would have food and appetizers that were every bit as fancy and upscale to match. And though Amethyst had partaken of the many buffet tables around the ballroom, fortunately she hadn’t gotten to the fondue fountains yet, which was where Candy had been firmly planted for at least the past ten minutes.

“Cheese, chocolate,” she said to herself, essentially entranced as she moved her stick between the two melted substances. “Cheese, chocolate-”

“Candy, listen to me carefully,” Mabel finally interjected as she stepped over to her, halting her constant switching. “You’re caught in a sweet-savory loop. You need to stop now, before you’re lost to the chocolatey cheesiness forever! So put the fondue fork down.”

“I want to… but I can’t…” Candy mused, still completely transfixed on her fondue stick. That is, until most of the ballroom’s attention was garnished by a butler near the front doors.

“Announcing Baron Marius von Fundhauser!” he proclaimed, stepping out of the way to reveal the young baron. Upon a very first glance at him, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda were all instantly enamored, all three of them awestruck by his stately, royal attire and long, silky auburn hair. Clearly, he carried the air of a majestic baron in both title and manner as he strode into the ballroom confidently, the girls’ watching him in utter captivation all the while.

“Guten tag!” Marius greeted the trio with a friendly smile as he passed by them, apparently not noticing their jaws unanimously hanging agape in amazement.

“Guten take me now!” Mabel exclaimed, lovestruck as she started hurrying after him, only for Grenda and Candy to quickly stop her.

“Mabel, we had a truce!” Grenda frowned, still clearly serious about keeping said truce.

“Yes, yes, a truce,” Candy nodded, somewhat less so as she forced a complacent smile. “Uh, Grenda? Can you go fetch us some fancy napkins?”

“Wow, ok!” Grenda blithely agreed, innocently heading off to do so.

“Listen, Mabel,” Candy began, dropping her voice down to a whisper as soon as Grenda was out of earshot. “I don’t know if I can follow this truce. He is too adorable!”

“Ugh, I know, right?!” Mabel gushed tightly, almost relieved for Marius’ welcome arrival and Steven’s subsequent, unexplained disappearance from the party. “But what do we do? He’s unattainable! I mean did you see his hair!? It’s like he was straight out of a shampoo commercial!”

“What if we flirt with him as a team?” Candy suggested. “With our cuteness combined, one of us might have a chance!”

“It’s the perfect plan! But… what about Grenda?”

“I love Grenda, Mabel, but these boys are fancy! Her aggressive flirting style might scare them away!”

The pair glanced over at the larger girl, who was in the midst of “fliting” with another boy, though in her own unique, incredibly forward way. “What’s on your shirt?” she asked, pointing to his chest until he glanced down, at which point she proceeded to bring her finger up and flick him hard in the nose. “Ha! Gullible! Loser!”

Upon seeing this display, both Mabel and Candy nodded, both of them immediately on board for their plan to win Marius over between just the two of them. Really, the figured that it would be better for everyone if they left Grenda out of this loop, as much as they didn’t want to hurt her feelings. After all, the baron was exactly that, a baron. They couldn’t risk the chance of Grenda scaring someone as prestigious and esteemed as Marius off, or worse yet, offending him or hurting him at her own expense. And if, in the process of keeping their attempts at courting Marius between just the two of them, either Mabel or Candy ended up catching his eye and his affections, then, they supposed, that would just be an added benefit.

With the party in full swing as it was, few guests bothered to wander anywhere in the mansion past the main ballroom where all the festivities were being held. And yet, if any guest happened to start wandering the manor’s halls, then they would have likely caught sight of a fiery lumberjack ghost relentlessly chasing a pair of fearfully fleeing kids with nothing less than the absolute intent to kill.

Fortunately though, Pacifica knew the winding corridors and lengthy halls of her mansion home well as she navigated herself and Dipper through them while the ghost sped after them, chuckling threateningly all the while. Despite their efforts to shake the spirit off their trail, he kept on them tightly, his exact motivation for wanting their ends rather unclear, though that was hardly what either of them were concerned with as much as staying alive.

“What are we gonna do?!” Pacifica shouted amidst her growing breathlessness as they continued fleeing. “We can’t keep running from that thing forever!”

“I’m looking!” Dipper shouted back, the journal in one hand and his sword in the other. Of course, it was of little use against the incorporeal ghost, but at the very least it was good for fending off the stray pieces of furniture and dinnerware the specter sent flying their way.

“Well look faster!” the heiress snapped impatiently, worriedly glancing over her shoulder as they rushed through one of the mansion’s several inner gardens. The ground was still muddy from the earlier rain showers, which made their trek through it somewhat haphazard, but all the same, they managed to make it to the other end with the ghost still only a few dangerously short feet behind them.

“Come on, come on…” Dipper muttered, frantically flipping through the journal as much as he could until he finally found what he was looking for. “Aha! I got it! Haunted paintings can only be trapped in a silver mirror. And look!” he pointed ahead to the pristinely white parlor they were running straight towards, or more particularly, the large mirror conveniently hanging from its wall. “There’s a silver mirror right there!”

“Wait!” Pacifica exclaimed, grabbing Dipper’s arm before he could so much as even step foot into the room. “Don’t go in there! This room has my parent’s favorite carpet pattern! They’ll lose it if we track mud in there!”

“What? Are you serious?” Dipper scoffed, unable to believe that the heiress was even remotely concerned with something so unimportant. “Pacifica, we don’t have time for this!”

“W-well we need to make time!” Pacifica retorted, her eyes wide with fear that seemed to go beyond the threat the ghost posed. “We’ll find another way!”

“Why do we need to find another way if there’s a perfectly fine way right in front of us!?” Dipper argued crossly, trying to press his way past her into the room.

“Because my parents will kill me if I don’t listen to them and mess up their rug!”

“Why are you so afraid of your parents?!”

“You wouldn’t understand!”

By now, the argument between the pair had escalated quite a bit in intensity as they roughly grappled with each other, Dipper desperately trying to get into the room while Pacifica desperately tried keeping him out. They could both hear the ghost steadily approaching by his deep, ominous laughter alone, but he had largely been forgotten as Pacifica unexpectedly grabbed the journal, hoping that prying it away from Dipper would be enough to convince him to move on. And fortunately for her, this plan worked as she pulled it away from him, surprising him quite a bit as their eyes met in a very short beat of awkward tension before the heiress took off running down the adjacent hallway with the journal in hand.

“Hey!” Dipper shouted, adamantly running after her. “Pacifica, give that back!”

“Oh what?” Pacifica smirked back over her shoulder, triumphant and relieved that her impromptu plan had succeeded. “You want your dumb nerd book? Then come and get it, Pines!”

Dipper couldn’t help but let out a small growl of frustration at her teasing, still rather taken aback by the heiress’ stubbornness and boldness as he ran after her nonetheless. And of course, all the while, the lumberjack ghost continued its haunting chase after them both, more than ready to rain his fiery fury down the moment he inevitably caught up with them.

After traversing and admittedly getting lost amidst the mansion’s many hallways, Steven and Connie had eventually stumbled upon a back door that led to the large parking area roped off for guests behind the manor. And, though it took some doing to find Dr. Maheswaran’s vehicle amidst the myriad of limos and sports cars, they eventually reached it, only to find a setback they admittedly hadn’t anticipated.

“It’s locked…” Connie frowned in disappointment as she tried pulling the trunk open. “Ugh, we should have seen this coming. There’s no way my mom would leave something like a sword in her car without keeping it locked up tight. What are we supposed to do now?”

“Hm… I think I have an idea…” Steven said, looking to the lock thoughtfully. “Do you have a hair pin or something like that?”

“Um, yeah?” Connie complied in confusion, pulling a non-essential pin out of her updo.

“Thanks!” the young Gem grinned as he started wedging the pin into the lock.

“Where did you learn how to pick locks from?” Connie asked, her brow furrowed as she watched Steven work.

“Amethyst and Mr. Pines taught me after I walked in on them trying to open a safe they found somewhere,” Steven explained with an innocent smile. “So they taught me how to pick locks in exchange for not ‘spilling it’ to anyone else about the safe. Tough I’m still not sure why they wouldn’t want anyone else knowing about something like that…”

“Uh, probably because they stole that safe instead of finding it, Steven…” Connie pointed out.

“…Oh. Well, at least I learned something useful,” Steven shrugged as he successfully unlocked the trunk. Sure enough, Rose’s sword lay within, and despite a moment of initial trepidation for breaking her mother’s strict orders, Connie took the blade nonetheless, strapping it over her shoulder before shutting the trunk behind her.

“Ok, we got it,” she said, letting out the deep breath she felt as though she had been holding in since this entire situation began. “Now we just have to sneak it out of the party without my mom seeing…”

“And without the Gems seeing either,” Steven noted as they began making their way back up the hill to the mansion. “I sorta didn’t tell them about this whole sword thing, and I feel like they probably wouldn’t be too happy if they found out its pretty much the reason why I begged them to come to this party in the first place…”

“I guess we’re gonna be on double duty when it comes to being stealthy for the rest of the night then,” Connie said with resolve as they reentered the manor the same way they had left it. However, the pair stopped short as soon as they stepped inside upon seeing what lay before them. The highly decorated hallway was in shambles, wall tapestries torn and decorative displays laying in shattered remains on the ground without any rhyme or reason at all. “Whoa…” Connie mused, her voice dropping down to an apprehensive whisper. “What could have done all this?”

“D-didn’t Dipper say something about Pacifica asking him to help out with a ghost haunting the mansion?” Steven asked nervously, drawing a bit closer to Connie out of fear.

“Yeah but… a ghost wouldn’t have been able to do this much damage… would it?”

“I… I don’t know, maybe,” Steven shook his head fretfully, remembering well just how much destruction the convenience store ghosts had cause at the start of the summer. “We should go find Dipper and ask him if he’s seen-”

The young Gem was cut off as a low, rather inhuman moan echoed from the end of the hall in front of them. The pair froze, their hands unceremoniously intertwining tightly as a large, looming shadow draped itself over the wall, its source unknown as it grew in size and intimidation. Neither Steven or Connie dared to even breathe as the unearthly groans raised in volume, the shadow coming to a stop as a massive arm slammed down into the open before the rest of its twisted body emerged from around the corner. Simply put, it was a mass of multiple mismatched limbs, all strewn together into a hulking, massive, discolored body, if it could even be called that at all. And, resting at the center of where its face would have been if it had one, was a very familiar cluster of conjoined gemstones.

“C-Connie?” Steven whispered, gripping her hand tighter as this monster began lumbering its way towards them through the mess it had made earlier. “I-I think that’s one of the Gem mutants I was telling you about…”

“What? Are you sure?” Connie asked, her voice just as quiet, even though they had clearly already attracted the mutant’s attention.

“Preeeeetty sure at this point,” the young Gem nodded stiffly, knowing this creature looked quite close to the ones they had encountered at the Kindergarten the other week.

“Well then, we got this sword back at just the right time,” Connie scowled towards the mutant as she swiftly drew Rose’s sword, wielding the massive blade with both hands as she took up an offensive stance. Steven watched in amazement as she rushed forwards, seemingly undeterred as she pulled the mighty sword back before delivering a clean swipe straight through the mutant’s weighty midsection before it could even try to attack. With a pained whine, the forced fusion imploded, its shard-composed gemstone tumbling to the floor before Steven ran forward to bubble it and send it away.

“Looks like you were right,” Connie said, still gripping Rose’s sword tightly as she looked around for any more. “Those rocks really were Gem mutants after all.”

“Yeah, but why would they be-” Steven was cut off as a loud crash sounded out from the other end of the hall. This was immediately and unsurprisingly followed by the emergence of even more gem mutants, both big and small, rounding the corner en masse as they walked, crawled, sidled, anything they could to inch their way towards the aptly frightened pair. “Uh, C-Connie? I think now would be a good time to run!” Steven warned, grabbing her by the arm as he tried to pull her down the other way.

“No, Steven, I can take them!” Connie protested, already positioning her sword to strike.

“I-I know, but still!” Steven pleaded, fearful for her safety more than his own really. After all, the last thing he wanted was to see her get hurt as a result of overconfidence in her newly acquired blade, even as powerful as it was. “We gotta get the Gems! They can help us take care of these things before they can make it into the ballroom and end up hurting someone!”

“…You’re right,” Connie begrudgingly relented, sheathing her blade. “So come on, then! We have to hurry!”

“Right!” Steven readily agreed, leading the way out of the hallway that had already been claimed and decimated by the marauding gem mutants.

As Steven and Connie began their hasty flight through the mansion’s lofty halls, Dipper and Pacifica continued theirs, with the former still chasing after the latter in the hopes of reclaiming the journal before the ghost could catch up to them.

“Pacifica!” Dipper shouted after the heiress, quite surprised at how fast she was. “I’m serious! Give me back the journal, now!”

“Why should I?” Pacifica countered just as harshly. “So you can go running back to that room, get mud all over the floors, and get me in trouble with my parents? Because last time I checked, that’s not what you’re here for!”

“You’re right, I’m here to get rid of that ghost!” Dipper reiterated, severely annoyed. “But I can’t do that if you won’t let me just because your scared of setting off your parents for some weird reason!”

“I already told you!” the heiress shot back, gripping the journal in her arms tightly as she continued running. “You don’t understand!”

“Then help me understand!” Dipper urged, both out of frustration and genuine curiosity as to why she seemed so adamant about all this. Interestingly enough though, this was what finally got Pacifica to stop in her tracks, her expression startled and strangely soft as she turned to face him.

“W-what?” she asked rather quietly, taken aback that anyone would even inquire about the matter at all, especially him. However, before Dipper could even reply, a brand new threat made itself apparent as it slammed down into the space directly behind Pacifica from the high ceiling above. It was a tall, lanky creature, with six disproportionate arms and no face to speak of as it balanced on a pair of long, mismatched legs amidst towering over the frightened heiress, letting out a low, threatening groan all the while. Pacifica let out a horrified scream at this grotesque creature as it started to advance on her, her long dress tripping her up as she clumsily fell to the ground, shielding herself with her arm as the creature raised one of its many arms with the intent to strike. And yet… it was a strike she never felt.

Hesitantly, Pacifica opened her tightly shut eyes and took a glance back towards the monster, only to see something that shocked her just as much as its sudden appearance had. For standing squarely in between her and the multi-limbed creature was none other than Dipper, his sword raised as he firmly, fearlessly pressed back against the many hands pressed against it. Yet all the same he held his ground, his footing steady and his expression fierce as he warded off the mutant, eventually managing to push it back enough to give himself enough space to properly fight it. All the while, Pacifica remained practically frozen to her spot on the ground, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped as she watched in absolute awe as Dipper rushed towards the monster with a courageous shout, lashing out with his blade as he maneuvered with skill and ease. The creature was unable to keep up with him as he dodged its slow, sloppy movements, and in what seemed like no time at all, the tip of his sword had punctured the monster squarely in its back, resulting in its hideous form poofing into nothing more than a mismatched cluster of gem shards.

“A Gem mutant?” Dipper frowned in confusion as he carefully picked the compiled stone. “How’d this get in here? Pacifica, do you know anything about this thing?”

Strangely, he received no answer from the heiress as he glanced back to look at her, only to find that she was staring up at him, seemingly captivated, though for what reason, he had no idea. Still, try as she might, Pacifica couldn’t convince her body or her mind to respond properly as her thoughts raced randomly and her cheeks began flushing warm and pink as she kept her eyes on the boy who had effectively just saved her life. She couldn’t deny that, with both his suit and hair as mildly yet endearingly disheveled as they were, resolve and adrenaline still sparking in his eyes, and the sword still held confidently in his hand, he did look the slightest bit dashing, almost heroic even, though she’d never dare to admit that out loud.

“Uh… Pacifica? Are you ok?” Dipper asked, making the heiress realize that she had gone far too long without taking her eyes off him.

“W-wha—oh, uh, y-yeah!” she exclaimed, clearly flustered as she rejected the hand he had offered to help her stand in favor of doing so on her own. “I-I don’t know why you think I wouldn’t be. That weird arm thing wasn’t even that scary.”

“Oh sure it wasn’t,” Dipper remarked with a wry, rather playful smirk. “That’s why you screamed in terror as soon as you saw it, right?”

Pacifica shot him a disapproving glare at this, though it wasn’t as harsh as it admittedly could have been as she shoved the journal back into his arms. “Here, take you lame nerd book back,” she huffed, still trying to suppress her ongoing blush. “So… uh… where’d you learn how to do that?”

“Do what?”

“You know…” she held her hands behind her back as she nodded to his sword casually enough. “That.”

“Oh, sword fighting?” Dipper clarified, glancing to his blade before sheathing it. “Me and Connie have been taking lessons from Pearl for the past few weeks. It tends to come in handy when you deal with stuff like this a lot, which… yeah, I kinda do.”

“And… your family’s just… ok with you running around with a dangerous sword all the time?” Pacifica asked, slightly baffled by such apparent freedom.

“Uh… yeah?” Dipper shrugged, unsure of what she meant by this question. “Why wouldn’t they be?”

The heiress didn’t answer as she glanced down somewhat, her brow furrowing in both confusion and what almost felt like envy, though that couldn’t possibly be right. After all, how in the world could someone as well off and highly esteemed as her be jealous of someone as common and unrefined as him?

While it was quite likely that the ghost had lost track of them in the chaos that had just ensued, Dipper didn’t want to take any chances, which was why he took the lead in moving on. However, they barely even rounded the corner before they were held up again, though this time by it fortunately wasn’t by the ghost or any Gem mutants, but rather by Steven and Connie as they all accidentally happened to run smack into each other.

“Wha—Steven? Connie?” Dipper frowned in confusion upon seeing the pair at such a random juncture. “What are you guys doing here? Why aren’t you back at the party?”

“W-well, we got my mom’s sword back,” Steven began anxiously. “But then we ran into a ton of Gem mutants, just like the ones we fought at the Kindergarten!”

“Wait, you mean there are even more of those things running around here?” Dipper asked incredulously as he handed the remains of the mutant he had defeated over to Steven so it could be bubbled. “We were just attacked by one. How’d they even get into the mansion in the first place?”

“I don’t know…” Connie mused, her tone and expression growing quite suspicious as she glanced over at the nearby heiress. “That’s a really good question, isn’t it, Pacifica?”

“Oh what? You think I have something to do with this?” Pacifica asked harshly.

“Well, seeing as how all these Gem clusters were in a display case in your mansion, so it only makes sense that you’d know something about how they ended up here.”

“Well, I don’t,” the heiress huffed, her hands on her hips. “My parents probably bought them for the party and didn’t know they were actually gross, grabby, nightmarish freakshows.”

“Actually, they’re shattered Gems who were forced to fuse with each other,” Steven said with a sympathetic frown for the mutants’ plight.

“…I literally have no idea what any of that means,” Pacifica said, clearly out of the context loop. “Still, I don’t know anything about how those things wound up here.”

“Oh yeah? And how do we know you’re actually telling the truth?” Connie asked, still rather distrustful. And really, she believed she had every reason to be, given just how dangerous these Gem mutants were and just how not coincidental their presence in the mansion seemed to be. “After all, your family has a known history of lying when it comes to their dirty little secrets, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if you inherited that bad habit right alongside all the money you don’t deserve.”

Pacifica let out an appalled gasp at this, outraged and offended by such an accusation as she took a bold, almost threatening step forward. “Ok, you know what, Maheswaran, I’m gonna-”

“Whoa, ok, hold it!” Dipper quickly interjected before any sort of scuffle could break out, both him and Steven rushing in to stand between the two incensed girls. “Connie, I know you’re uh, not really a fan of Pacifica, but as much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think she’s lying about this.”

“Seriously, Dipper?” Connie scoffed. “You know how she is, we all do! Heck, for all you know, she could be lying to you about this whole ’ghost’ thing too!”

Dipper was actually quite prepared to correct Connie on this, not noticing Pacifica flinch slightly behind him as she realized this accusation was at least partially true. However, he really didn’t have to as the lumberjack ghost’s laughter began booming through the nearby corridor once again as he started to catch up with his victims.

“Its time to stop running, Northwest, and face you DOOM!” he shouted, finally appearing at the end of the hall with blue flames sparking all over his frightening form. All four of the kids let out a shared scream of terror as the spirit soared towards them at a breakneck speed, and all of the discourse concerning mutants and lies was quickly left behind as they unintentionally split up. Steven and Connie took off in the hallway they had just ran down, wanting to get back to the ballroom and find the Gems now more than ever with the appearance of this new ghostly threat. Still, the spirit paid them no mind as he continued pursuing his original targets, who were both desperately searching for any way they could find to subdue the ghost as they fled from him. In their frantic rush, they haphazardly turned a corner, only for Pacifica to end up tripping over her dress once more. She happened to grab Dipper by the sleeve in a last ditch attempt at steadying herself, only for them both to end up falling towards the nearby wall. Or rather, right through it. The ghost didn’t see this fortunately, as he glided straight on by while the pair tumbled into an apparently hidden storage room inconspicuously hidden behind a large tapestry.

“Huh? What’s this place?” Dipper asked as both him and Pacifica picked themselves up, glancing around the apparent collection of the Northwest’s various treasures and portraits.

“I… don’t know…” Pacifica admitted in apt confusion. “That’s weird. I don’t even know where this room is…”

“Hopefully the ghost and those Gem mutants don’t either…” Dipper remarked, taking a cursory peek back into the hallway.

“Yeah, maybe we’re safe,” the heiress let out a somewhat relieved breath, not noticing as the large sheet covering a painting behind her began to swell forward on its own accord. Dipper fortunately caught sight of this just in time as the sheet began to take on the clear, massive shape, one that reached out over Pacifica slowly and threateningly.

“Pacifica! Watch out!” he warned, drawing his sword as he rushed forward to defend her. Pacifica let out a frightened gasp as the ghost tossed the sheet away, laughing menacingly as he towered over her.

“Your fate is sealed!” the specter proclaimed, his blue flames rising as he prepared to strike the terrified heiress down once and for all. Dipper had just about reached her, unsure of what he was really going to do against the ghost with his sword alone, but he stopped short immediately upon noticing a discarded antique lying on the floor nearby, none other than a small, pure silver mirror.

“Prepare to die, Northwest!” the ghost shouted, his axe raised to deliver the final blow. Pacifica quickly braced herself for what would likely be a very painful end, only for Dipper to end up saving her from it at the last second. However, instead of doing so with his sword, this time he did so with the mirror, and the moment the ghost’s weapon made contact with it, everything seemed to happen at once. The entire room was engulfed in a blinding flash as Dipper was knocked back into Pacifica, who herself was pushed back towards the room’s small, low to the ground window. The pair was still completely in the dark about what was happening as they were practically launched out of the window, entangling themselves in its curtains as they rolled down a short hill, finally landing together at the bottom of it, breathless and rattled, but largely unharmed.

“W-what happened?” Pacifica asked her and Dipper both pulled themselves up. “Did you get him?”

At this, they both looked to the mirror, only to find an incredibly relieving sight: the ghost was trapped securely inside of it, demanding his freedom in an absolute fit of rage as he pounded against the other side of the glass to no avail. “Ha! Yes!” Dipper cheered, satisfied that at the very least one threat had been neutralized.

“We did it!” Pacifica exclaimed just as triumphantly, throwing her arms around Dipper without really thinking about it. Needless to say he was complete caught off guard by this unexpected hug, especially given the fact that it was coming from the heiress of all people. Still, what baffled him even more was the sudden rush of warmth he felt in his cheeks, coupled with the odd, yet strangely wistful feeling of not wanting it to end. It did, however, as Pacifica realized exactly what she was doing, her blush even brighter than Dipper’s as she quickly pulled away, averting his gaze as she awkwardly cleared her throat, wishing she could calm her racing heart and confused, flustered thoughts down already as she pulled out a dollar. “Uh… c-can I pay you to pretend that never happened?”

Despite being held up by the occasional minor Gem mutant, Steven and Connie eventually managed to navigate their way back to the main ballroom, only to stop short in surprise upon realizing that no one at the party was even remotely aware of the dangers lurking the halls just behind them. The pair ran into the midst of the celebrating crowd, more than ready to warn them all to flee the premises before it was too late. However, before they could even get a single person’s attention, they happened to accidently bump into the last person Connie had wanted to encounter at the moment.

“M-Mom!” she exclaimed in surprise upon running right into her mother’s torso. The doctor paused, looking away from the conversation she had been engaged in to her daughter instead, only to freeze with shock and motherly fury upon noticing the large pink sword strapped to her back.

“Connie!” Priyanka gasped, appalled. “How did you even—what are you doing with that?! I made a rule, no swords under any circumstances!”

“But mom-” Connie tried to argue, knowing that she needed to be armed in the dire circumstances they were facing.

“No,” the doctor interupted rigidly. “I told you once, and I can’t believe I have to tell you again! But its clear to me now that I can’t even trust you to so much as listen to me even after I put my foot down! So you leave me with no choice; you’re grounded until further notice. Hand that sword over, now.”

“But Mom, you don’t understand, I-”

“I said now!”

Connie flinched, clearly startled by her mother’s incredibly harsh tone as she let out a defeated sigh. With no other choice, she took the sword off her back and relinquished it, largely feeling as though she was handing over a piece of herself in the process. And as Steven caught sight of her utterly dejected expression, he found he could no longer stand by in silence.

“Er, Dr. Maheswaran, wait! You can’t take that sword away from Connie! She needs it—we need it to-”

“That’s quite enough,” Priyanka cut him off, sending him a fierce warning glare. “I’m not going to argue over this sword nonsense any longer. It’s done.”

“Mom, please-” Connie pleaded desperately only to be shot down one final time as her mother began to walk off, sword in hand.

“Done!” she reiterated, glaring back at her daughter with what was nothing less than absolute disappointment. Disappointment that left Connie feeling crushed even more than losing her sword had.

“So… what now?” Steven asked gently, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“I guess we just go find the Gems and let them save the day, as usual…” Connie sighed, wrapping her arms around herself as she morosely headed off to do just that. Of course, what neither of the pair was aware of was that the Gems had actually taken their ongoing vandalizing spree up onto the roof, where they were currently in the process of spelling out the word “snobs” in huge letters using paint Amethyst had “happened to find”, much to the enjoyment of the still large crowd gathered outside the gates below. But even still, Steven and Connie began duly, almost solemnly even pressing their way through the party, knowing that with the horde of Gem mutants drawing ever closer and Rose’s sword no longer a viable option, they were the only hope they had left.

With the ghost finally subdued and captured, Dipper and Pacifica blithely went to go report their shared success to the heiress’ parents. And while the Northwests weren’t as openly elated or excited as the young pair, they were still quite relieved to know that their haunting had been taken care of and their immaculate party saved.

“Well, Pacifica, you really found the right man for the job,” Preston remarked, snapping his fingers to signal to the nearby butler to shake Dipper’s hand in his place.

“We can’t thank you enough,” Priscilla said before a brief pause that ended with her nodding to the butler. “That’s enough.”

“Hey, just holding up my end of the deal,” Dipper grinned as he took the mirror the ghost was in and prepared to head out.

“Wait, leaving already?” Pacifica asked in slight disappointment. “You’re at the world’s best party, dummy. Are you sure you wanna go so soon?”

“Well I’d love to stay,” Dipper said with a smile just as playful as the heiress’. “But I’ve got a category 10 ghost to dispose of and then I should really go help Steven and Connie out with the rest of those Gem mutants.”

“Oh that’s right, I almost forgot just how adventurous your life is,” Pacifica rolled her eyes with a lightly teasing smirk.

“Heh, yeah,” Dipper chuckled, not paying too much attention to where he was going as he kept his sights on the heiress behind him. Which was how he ended up walking straight into one of the garden’s pillars. Pacifica was unable to contain her laughter at this, something that flustered Dipper quite a bit as he backed up and tried to play his clumsiness off as intentional. “O-oh, uh, l-like you said: a-adventurous.”

“Oh yeah, running into a pillar,” Pacifica quipped, still chuckling. “That’s totally an epic quest right there.”

Despite still being somewhat embarrassed, Dipper couldn’t help but finally join in on the heiress’ ongoing amused laughter, something that only died down between them as he sent her a small wave of farewell, one that she returned with a warm, genuine smile. He held up a similar smile as he departed, unable to deny that this misadventure, despite all of its harrowing moments, had ended on a much better note than he had could have ever expected anything pertaining to Pacifica Northwest to. For instead of being just as closed off and callously coldhearted as she had always come across to him before, it seemed as though there was another side to her: a playful, daring, capable side that came across as so much more authentic than the haughty front she usually seemed to put up. And even more unexpected than that was the fact that he had found himself taking a genuine liking of that side of the heiress, one that he hoped to see again in any of their future encounters. “Call me crazy, but… maybe she’s not so bad after all…” Dipper remarked to himself once he was out of the heiress’ earshot, surprised that he was even admitting something like that, but pleasantly surprised nonetheless.

His satisfaction was soon cut short, however, as a mocking, knowing laugh sounded from within the mirror in his hand. “What are you laughing about, man?” Dipper asked, glancing down at the trapped ghost in apt confusion. “I defeated you.”

“You’ve been had, boy,” the ghost said with another bitter laugh. “The Northwests lied to you, just as they did to me and my kin one hundred and fifty years ago.”

“…What do you mean?” Dipper ventured, genuinely curious as the ghost began to recount his tale of woe.

“One hundred and fifty years ago this day, the Northwests asked us lumber-folk to build them a mansion atop the hill. We were told it would be a service to the town, that once a year they would throw a grand party that would be open to the people of Gravity Falls, and all would share in the bounty of their wealth! It took years of backbreaking labor and sacrifice, but the promise of such a luxorious feast kept all of us going as we worked towards the manor’s completion, aided by a group of strong, magical, yet kindly women the Northwests had contracted to help the project along.”

“Wait, magical women?” Dipper interrupted, intrigued by this point in particular. “You mean the Crystal Gems?”

“Yes,” the ghost nodded disdainfully. “The Crystal Gems were invaluable in helping us raise these stately halls, but on the night we needed them most, they were nowhere to be found to stop the injustice committed against us lumberjacks. For when it was time for the grand party the Northwests promised the common folk of the town, they coldly refused to let us in. And with the trees we had cut to build the mansion gone, the mudslides began. While they partied and laughed, I was swept away by the storm and met my end to the very axe I had used to build their undeserved empire. And so I said with final breath: ‘One-fifty years I’ll return from death, and if the gate’s still closed to the town, wealthy blood will stain the ground!’ A curse passed down across every generation of Northwests, even to this day.”

“So… wait a minute,” Dipper said once the ghost was finished, quickly putting the pieces together of how everything he had just heard related back to the present. Which, in turn created a picture he was far from happy with. “The Northwests knew this haunting was coming, and they tricked me into helping them to avoid ghostly justice? …I’ll be right back…”

With the state of the party as seemingly secured as it was, Pacifica had returned to her expected spot by her parents’ side as they mingled with their wealthy guests. Yet her thoughts were hardly in the fancy festivities going on around her as they usually were during Northwest Fest and instead they were focused on the boy she had spent the earlier half of her evening with. She found it so incredibly strange that just a few hours ago, she had barely even spared a second thought towards Dipper, viewing him as just as common and ordinary as anyone else. Yet now, after the past few hours of narrowly surviving a deadly haunting with him, she couldn’t deny that he somehow fascinated her in ways that confused yet excited her all at once. And as she thought about his brazen swordsmanship, his clever readiness for almost any situation, his awkward yet almost frustratingly endearing laughter, Pacifica couldn’t help but sail through the evening with a distant, almost dreamy smile on her face, one that was filled with an unknown yet brimming longing to see him again.

A longing that was incidentally fulfilled sooner than she thought it would; though in the last way she could have wanted it to.

The Northwests were in the midst of entertaining dignitaries in the foyer when the mansion’s front doors suddenly burst open, revealed an incredibly indignant Dipper behind them. “Northwests!” he exclaimed angrily as he marched in, mirror still in hand. “You have some explaining to do!”

“Dipper! You came back!” Pacifica instantly perked up, a bright smile on her face as she began to rush over to him. Though it was quick to disappear as he shot her a particularly harsh, glare, one that was a very far cry from the warm smile he had left her with.

“You lied to me!” he accused furiously before addressing the entire family. “All of you did! All you had to do was let the townsfolk into the party and you could have broken the curse! But you just made me do your dirty work instead!”

Pacifica took in a sharp breath at this, knowing that he had discovered the one wrench in all of this that she had hoped he wouldn’t find out, especially as the newfound camaraderie began forming between them. But before she could even try to explain anything, her father was quick to only make things worse.

“Look at who you’re talking to, boy,” Preston began coldly, essentially ignoring the incredibly hostile scowl Dipper was sending up at him. “I’m hosting a party for the most powerful people in the world. Do you really think they’d come here if they had to rub elbows with your kind?”

“My kind?” Dipper repeated with an appalled scoff, not even bothering to contest the billionaire any further. After all, he had expected as much from the head of the Northwest household, but he had foolishly come to believe that their daughter was different, that she wasn’t just another pompous, heartless sob, that she had at least some redeeming shred of actual humanity in her. But as he had just discovered, none of that was true at all. “Looks like I was right about you all along,” he said to Pacifica bitterly, not even caring about her genuinely distraught expression. “You’re just as bad as your parents. Another link in the world’s worst chain!”

“N-no! Dipper, you don’t understand!” Pacifica protested earnestly, determined to set the record straight. “I’m sorry, they made me lie to you! I should have told you everything from the start, but-” The heiress was abruptly cut off by the sharp, sudden peal of the bell in her father’s hand, one that instantly silenced her back into submission as she glanced down submissively, ashamed by her own inability to resist it, ashamed by the fact that she had even agreed to this deceptive charade in the first placed, ashamed by everything really, but mostly, she was ashamed of herself.

“Enjoy the party,” Preston remarked mockingly as Dipper turned to head out, not even bothering to send Pacifica a second glance in his palpable fury, something that made her heart ache even more than just about anything else. “It’s the last time you and your kind will ever come.”

As vehemently outraged with the Northwests as he was, Dipper knew there wasn’t much he could do get back at them for their despicable actions. So instead of frustrating himself further, he sullenly took the mirror outside, following the journal’s instructions to create the proper setup needed to oust the ghost from the mortal plane. “Stupid Northwests, making me do their exorcism for them,” he grumbled to himself after placing the mirror at the center of the circle of candles. With everything in place, he began to read the journal’s spell to get rid of ghosts, though given the circumstances, he was hardly invested in the matter whatsoever “‘Exodus demonous, spookus scarus, aintafraidus noghostus’-”

“Dipper… Dipper!” the ghost called from within the mirror. “Please let me have my revenge on the Northwests. You hate them just as much as I!”

“Hey, I feel for you, I really do,” Dipper conceded and it was true, for more reasons than one. Even aside from the fact that they had both been made fools of by the Northwests, this ghost wasn’t exactly the first being trapped inside a mirror he had taken pity on. “It’s just… my sister and my friends are in there and you seem just a little unstable…”

“Very well, boy,” the ghost hung his head in apparent acceptance of his fate. “But… before you banish my soul, may these tired lumber eyes gaze upon the trees one final time?”

“Uh, I guess,” Dipper said, somewhat confused by this odd request though he obliged nonetheless, picking the mirror up and holding it towards the nearby forest. “Go nuts, man.”

Upon getting even just a glimpse at the trees, the ghost laughed wildly as the sight of the forest empowered him enough to ignite his flames brighter and hotter, to the point that their heat rapidly spread to his mirror prison itself. Dipper didn’t even have time to be confused about what was happening before the mirror’s handle suddenly turned red hot, burning his hand to the point that he was forced to let go of it. The glass shattered the instant it made contact with the ground and with it the ghost exploded from its ruined shards, paying no mind to the startled boy who had accidentally released him as he set his sights on the mansion once more.

“Yes! Vengeance!” he proclaimed with a triumphant laugh, speeding towards the manor with the intent of finally fulfilling his bloodthirsty vendetta.

“Oh no!” Dipper exclaimed, aptly alarmed as he remembered who else was still in the mansion. “Mabel! Steven! Connie!” Despite his lasting anger at the Northwests, he knew well that he couldn’t let the ghost accomplish his violent ends so long as innocent people were in danger. Which was why, after making sure his blade was strapped securely to his back, he rushed back up towards the mansion, unsure of what he was going to do to stop this disaster but determined to try rather than do nothing, as he assumed the Northwests were very likely to do.

With their freeform destruction on the roof complete, the Gems returned to the party proper, mischievous grins on their faces as they continued their own form of “revenge” by turning over tables, piercing through expensive paintings, and breaking priceless antiques. Of course, they were always discreet enough in doing so that no one really noticed, but still, they couldn’t deny that they were all three having genuine fun in their righteous form of destruction against the wealthy family. When it came right down to it, it almost felt nostalgic, at least to Garnet and Pearl as they recalled helping break apart the similar upper-crust regime of Homeworld centuries ago. And though this was indeed on a much smaller scale than that, they still couldn’t deny that it felt incredibly cathartic all the same.

Not too far away from the tapestry the Gems were currently tearing apart, Mabel and Candy were carrying out their strategic plan to flirt with Marius, with the former boldly taking the lead as she approached the baron with a wide, cheerful smile. “Hi, I’m Mabel!” she greeted loudly, catching Marius somewhat off guard. “So, Australia, huh? Do you guys eat kangaroo meat over there, or, uh… a-are they strictly pets?”

“I am from Austria,” Marius corrected with a confused frown.

“Haha! Yeah!” Mabel let out a forced, awkward laugh, panicking as she tapped Candy’s shoulder. “Tag! Tag!”

“I am Candy!” the other girl said to the baron as she took over just as brightly. “I love the tiny hats you wear on your shoulders!”

“Hi again!” Mabel cut back in, roughly pushing Candy aside in light of this. “If you were a boat, do you know what kind you’d be? A dream boat, that’s what kind.”

“You are tagged out!” Candy protested in a harsh whisper as she elbowed Mabel.

“I tagged back in,” Mabel pushed her back crossly.

“You can’t do that!”

“I can tag myself! Its allowed!”

“No, its not!”

“Yeah, it is!”

As the girls continued to bicker amongst themselves, the very confused Marius nervously retreated, unsure of how to react to them so clearly arguing over him. They also failed to notice that someone else had watched this entire embarrassing display, and she was far from pleased with what she had just seen. “Ahem!” Grenda interjected, hands on her hips as she cut through Mabel and Candy’s argument. “What exactly was all that?! You were flirting with Marius without me!”

At this, the pair exchanged a tense glance, knowing that there was really no playing any of this off as they had been caught red-handed. “W-we are sorry, Grenda,” Candy began, genuinely apologetic. “It’s just…”

“Your flirting style can come across as a bit… intense…” Mabel continued rather hesitantly.

“Oh, I see!” Grenda scoffed, thoroughly offended by this opinion. “You think I shouldn’t be myself just because I’m at this stupid mansion! I thought you liked my style!”

“We do!” Candy affirmed. “But these boys might not!”

“Oh, then I guess they wouldn’t like this either! Hey, Marius!”

“Yah?” the baron asked curiously as he wandered back over to the group.

Grenda paused briefly, looking to her friends with a critical glare as they both shook their heads with silent pleas for her to stop before it was too late. But of course, as angry as she was, she refused to comply with them and ‘flirted’ with Marius anyway. “You’ve got something… on your shit!” Of course, the baron glanced down, only for Grenda to launch her finger upward to hit his nose rather unforgivingly. Mabel and Candy gasped in shock at Grenda’s apparent audacity, and, with all three of them equally frustrated with each other, they all stormed away from each other in a huff without sparing another word. Still, none of them paid much mind to the rather stunned baron they had left behind, who looked off in the direction of the girl who had so aggressively “flirted” with him with amazed stars of newfound infatuation in his eyes.

After what felt like ages of searching in vain for the Gems, Steven and Connie eventually gave up, opting to rethink their options when it came to dealing with the infestation of Gem mutants. An infestation that was more than likely to make it into the ballroom itself sooner rather than later.

“We’re running out of time,” Connie noted, peaking down the nearby hallway for any signs of approaching mutants. “If we don’t hurry, then those mutants could end up hurting someone!”

“Yeah, but what can we do?” Steven asked fretfully. “We can’t find the Gems and your mom took my mom’s sword… Huh, that’s… actually kinda ironic now that I think about it…”

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” Connie said with firm resolve, ignoring her issues with her mother for the moment for the sake of the greater good. “We’re going to handle this problem ourselves, sword or no sword, whether my mother likes it or not!”

“Excuse me?”

Both kids let out a startled gasp as they spun around to find none other that Priyanka herself standing right behind them, having sifted her way through the crowd in search of her daughter only to find her at the exact wrong moment. The doctor still had Rose’s sword tucked under her arm, her expression completely shocked and outraged over what she had just heard, but even so, Connie had no intention of retracting what she had said.

“M-Mom, I… You have to listen to me listen to me,” she began somewhat unsteadily, though her confidence started to grow as she reached for the sword. “I really, really, really need that sword! If you don’t give it to me, then a lot of innocent people could be in huge danger!”

“What? Connie, no!” Priyanka staunchly refused, holding the blade up as her daughter continued trying to grab it. “What has gotten into you? You know I never go back on a rule, young lady.”

“But there has to be some exceptions!” Connie argued fiercely. “I’m not some… rule-driven robot!”

As soon as she had said this, a brutal crash sounded from the end of the nearby hallway, one that was immediately followed by the appearance of a very large Gem mutant, one that didn’t hesitate to lunge forward towards the group near the ballroom. “W-what on earth is that thing?!” Priyanka asked, protectively gripping her daughter’s shoulder tightly.

“It’s a Gem mutant!” Steven exclaimed, determined to help Connie fend it off as his shield formed over his arm. “It’s why you have to let Connie have that sword back, Dr. Maheswaran! So she can beat it and protect everyone here!”

“Wha—b-but-” the doctor’s protests were cut off as the mutant pounced, one of its many hands reaching out and grabbing the closest thing to it, which just so happened to be Connie. “Connie!”

“M-Mom!” Connie called back as the mutant began dragging her towards it, its grip on her strong, despite her attempts to break free from it.

“I’ll save you!” Steven exclaimed, rushing forward before slamming his shield into the mutant’s side, forcing it to relinquish its hold. “Keep away from my Connie!”

The mutant let out a threatening groan as it shoved the young Gem back roughly, still towering over the group as more creatures began filling in behind it, pressing the trio back towards the ballroom. “T-these things are beyond reason!” Priyanka shook her head, unable to believe what she was witnessing.

“Mom, if you would go back on your rule this one time!” Connie pleaded, feeling largely useless against this threat without a sword in her hand. “I just need to help Steven get us out of here!”

“No! Mother knows best!” Priyanka reiterated harshly, still keeping the sword away from her daughter, even despite the growing danger.

“W-we can’t let these things into the ballroom!” Steven cried, struggling to maintain his stance as the largest mutant continued pressing against his shield. The smaller mutants were starting to maneuver their way around the group, crawling up the walls and ceiling as they essentially surrounded them, though they still didn’t work their way into the ballroom just yet. Upon seeing this, the young Gem gasped but reacted accordingly, abandoning his shield for a bubble instead, though the mutants continued pounding against it just as viciously.

“W-we’re trapped!” the doctor exclaimed, quite alarmed by this turn of events.

“We don’t have to be!” Connie proclaimed, her expression adamant as she turned to face her mother, refusing to give up in these dire straits. “Really, Mom. I know how to do this!”

“No, you don’t!” Priyanka argued, just as resilient on her side of the matter as her daughter was.

“Ugh, yes, she does!” Steven cut in quite impatiently, knowing they were wasting very precious time fighting like this. “She’s been training! She hasn’t just been playing around with that sword! She’s been taking classes learning how to use it right! Even though she’s always studying, or practicing tennis, or playing violin, she still works really hard to be a good sword fighter and she is!”

“No,” the doctor quickly denied, refusing to believe anything of the sort. “No, no, no, no, no. I know my daughter! I know what she’s doing every second of the day. All her activities, all her internets, everything. I know she’s definitely not some sword fighting hooligan!”

By this point, Connie had gotten to the point where enough was enough. For as long as she could remember, she had always rigidly stuck to whatever her parents had told her, complying perfectly for the sake of winning their approval and pride more than anything else. It was tedious, laborious, even difficult at some points giving their very high standards for her. But now, such standards could no longer apply. Because not only were they in a life or death situation, but things had changed. She had changed. It was a shift that everyone who knew her, everyone who came in contact with her had been able to see, especially herself. Everyone but her own mother, it seemed. “You don’t know me at all!” Connie finally exploded, beyond frustrated with her mother’s stubbornness by now. “You still haven’t even noticed my glasses!”

“W-what about your glasses?”

“They don’t have lenses anymore!” Connie huffed, taking her frames off and sticking her finger straight through them. “I haven’t needed actual glasses for almost the entire summer!”

“What?!” Priyanka asked, completely baffled. “Your eyesight just… magically got better?”

“Yes!” Connie shouted adamantly as Steven shrugged in slight embarrassment, given his involvement in all this. “I’ve been dealing with magic and monsters and things like these,” she pointed to one of the mutants beating against the side of the bubble. “Ever since I met Steven! That’s why I need you to just trust me and believe that I know what to do here!”

The doctor paused, her expression softening somewhat as she looked to her daughter with genuine conflict before looking back to the pressing danger that was so clearly surrounding them all. “B-but… you-”

Before Priyanka could get another word out, the entire mansion itself seemed to shake, accompanied by what sounded like a massive explosion coming from the ballroom itself. All of the party guests let out a collective gasp as the room’s large fireplace swelled dramatically, and from its sparking embers, the lumberjack ghost emerged, laughing manically as he prepared to rain righteous devastation down upon the entire party.

“Generations locked away, my revenge shall have its day!” he shouted boisterously, blasts of blue light bursting from his palms. As this apparent magic struck several of the party guests, the effects were immediate, their bodies starting to freeze before slowly turning into hollow, immovable, non-sentient wood.

And from that moment, the entire ballroom erupted into complete and utter chaos.

Aside from the petrifying blasts the ghost continued firing off at random, his power also brought the mansion’s many taxidermized displays to life, with the dead animals terrorizing every guest who had been lucky enough to escape being transformed into wooden statues. Nature itself soon started to overtake the hall, with vines and tree limbs bursting through the floor and entrapping more unfortunate attendees for the ghost to cast his horrific spell upon them. Almost as soon as this disaster had begun, the Northwests had been quick to tuck themselves out of sight, unable to do anything else but watch as their elegant party and their mansion itself began to crumble right before their eyes.

“Preston, what are we going to do!?” Priscilla cried mournfully, though her husband remained stoic in his cowardly plan.

“Prepare the panic room,” he remarked coldly, punching a taxidermized squirrel off of his shoulder.

While the Northwests had no intention of doing anything to stop this violent onslaught, the Gems were quick to notice it, forcing them to quickly put their ongoing vandalism aside as they leapt into action. “Whoa, isn’t that guy one of those lumberjacks from way back when?” Amethyst asked, summoning her whip as she beat back a mounted deer head. “Pretty sure that dude should be dead by now, shouldn’t he?”

“He is” Garnet confirmed, gauntlets at the ready. “That’s a ghost.”

“Well, he’ll be even less than a ghost once we’re through with him!” Pearl exclaimed boldly, finally calling the specter’s attention. “You! We demand that you put a stop to this senseless destruction and release these innocent humans at once!”

The ghost did take pause at this, though only to turn to the Gems with an expectant, almost smug grin as he glided towards them. “Ah, the Crystal Gems, what ages have past since we last met?” he asked almost calmly before a certain bitterness started to enter his tone. “I suppose its only fitting that you would stand to defend those treacherous Northwest scum even all these years later. After all, you did the very same thing one hundred and fifty years ago by not rising to the occasion to ensure my brethren and I the justice we deserved!”

“We’re not defending the Northwests,” Garnet countered, her gauntlets in tight fists. “We never would. Especially after we found out what happened that night.”

“So you DO know!” the ghost exclaimed, his flames rising in fury upon hearing this. “And yet you still did NOTHING to stop it!”

“If we had been there, we certainly would have!” Pearl protested firmly. “But we were away on a mission that night; we only found out about the Northwests breaking their promise from the other lumberjacks the next day! And believe us, we’ve condemned them for their horrible actions against you all ever since!”

“Oh you have?” the ghost scoffed, clearly not believing this claim. “Then answer me this: why are the mansion gates still closed, one-fifty years on!? Why have you not forced the Northwests to right the wrongs of their sinister past? Why have you failed to do what you promised: to protect this town and its people from the evil lying right within its own borders?!”

The Gems exchanged a rather surprised glance at this, none of them quite sure of what to say at such a strong accusation of their apparent failure. But really, when it came down to it, there had been nothing they could have really done to correct this unfair situation. They couldn’t force the Northwests to open their gates to the common folk, they hadn’t been able to keep that initial rejection from happening in the first place and they couldn’t keep it from happening now. It was a delicate situation, a very human situation that the Crystal Gems had found themselves ill-equipped to deal with and still did. And, based on their lack of an answer, that was a conclusion the lumberjack ghost had already angrily reached.

“You three are no better than the very Northwests you claim to condemn,” he remarked hatefully and dismissively. “And for that, you deserve nothing more than to share their DOOMED fate!”

The Gems only had time to let out a shared gasp before the ghost struck them with his power, which, alarmingly enough, effected them in the exact same way it would any human. In mere seconds, all three of the Crystal Gems were nothing more than wooden statues, stuck frozen in offensive poses against a foe they were powerless to defeat.

“Oh no!” Steven gasped, completely distraught as he happened to watch this entire display from the edge of the hallway him, Connie, and Priyanka were still in. “The Gems!”

“Steven, no!” Connie stopped him before he could rush out, still mindful of the Gem mutants as well as the ghost. Unfortunately, it seemed as though these threats were starting to combine as mutants began pouring out of the other hallways, sulking into the ballroom and openly attacking the dwindling number of non-wooden guests right alongside the ghost himself.

It was this absolute state of pandemonium that Dipper returned to as he burst back into the mansion, breathless and soaking wet from the ongoing thunderstorm outside. He stopped immediately within the doorframe however upon taking in the disaster before him, with undead animals and marauding mutants running amok amidst the myriad of already petrified party guests. Dipper didn’t get much of a chance to analyze the situation however before a nearby Gem mutant lunged at him, prompting him to act on instinct in drawing his sword and stabbing it cleanly through right before it could reach him. However, there was little his blade could do to help the poor soul who was inching across the floor, his body already half wooden as he desperately tried to escape his fate. “P-please, help me!” the guest cried before the inevitable happened, entrapping him in an immovable, unaware wooden form.

“Whoa! That is messed up!” Dipper exclaimed in apt shock upon witnessing something so horrific, though the ghost was quick to divert his attention as he let out a rather fitting proclamation.

“Just one way to change your fate!” the specter shouted amidst turning even more terrified guests into wood. “A Northwest must open the party gates!”

“A Northwest?” Dipper gasped, realizing that this situation wasn’t as hopeless as it seemed. “Pacifica!” Knowing that there really wasn’t any other viable option for quelling the ghost’s intense, deadly fury, Dipper took off, cutting through any Gem mutant in his path as he went in search of the heiress, hoping that despite her earlier deceptiveness and dishonesty, she could still turn the tide in this mess once and for all.

At the same time, Steven, Connie, and Priyanka hung back a bit from the ballroom, mostly to avoid being detected by the ghost more than anything else as most of the Gem mutants had already pressed their way past them. Still, all three of them were quite shaken by the chaos playing out before them, especially the doctor as she shook her head in frightened disbelief.

“And now there’s a ghost too?” she asked, dumbfounded. “You mean to tell me that you kids deal with deadly threats like these on a daily basis?!”

“Um… yeah, kinda,” Steven shrugged with an awkward smile, hoping the truth wouldn’t set the doctor off even more.

“But like I said, we know how to handle it!” Connie argued brazenly. “We have experience, we can stop all this and save everyone, I know we can! I just need you to let us do that!”

Priyanka didn’t answer, instead peaking out into the tumultuous ballroom and then back to her daughter, clearly unable to make a choice about what to do or what to say. “C-Connie, I… I don’t…” she trailed off, true concern and fear in her eyes as she met her daughter’s still quite adamant expression. And while Connie was somewhat surprised by her mother’s near-allowance, she knew that she couldn’t afford to wait for it any longer.

“Ugh, there’s no time for this!” she groaned, finally doing what she had wanted to do from the very beginning. In a move to quick for Priyanka to stop her, Connie pulled Rose’s sword out of its sheath in her arms, gripping it tightly as Steven pushed the bubble forward into the ballroom proper, anticipating the fight that was about to commence.

“Ready?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at Connie, who had already taken up an offensive pose as Gem mutants started crowding around them.

“Drop the bubble,” Connie nodded readily as Steven did just that.

With their only line of defense gone, Steven and Connie both leapt into action, the latter lashing out first to the mutant that tried to jump at Priyanka, only for her blade to end up slicing cleanly through it. At the same time, the young Gem beat a handful of smaller mutants back, but as he nodded to Connie once more, they both prepared for a maneuver that they had only ever practiced before, but finally felt ready to put to use in a real fight. With deft precision, Connie leapt to Steven, using his shield as a boost to gain the proper height to land a brutal finishing blow on a taller mutant, poofing it instant. Priyanka could only stand by and watch in dumbfounded awe as her daughter, usually so intellectually minded and well-mannered, sliced her way through these savage creatures with a kind of skill that was far beyond anything she had been expecting. Still, with the majority of mutants having taken to the ballroom, Steven and Connie knew they had no time to rest on their laurels as the danger running rampant throughout the party was still quite high.

“Steven, let’s split up to take care of the rest,” Connie ordered, stilling gripping Rose’s sword tightly. “Then maybe we can try to figure out some way to get rid of that ghost and free all those people.”

“Right!” Steven nodded affirmatively, his shield still positioned on his arm as he prepared to follow Connie out into the fray.

“Mom, stay here and don’t let that ghost see you,” Connie continued, her tone just as authoritative as she turned to her mother. “Steven and I have this covered.”

“C-Connie, wait!” Priyanka exclaimed, stopping her daughter by grabbing her shoulder. Connie shot her a rather upset glance at this, fully expecting her mother to try and restrain her and hold her back, just like she always did. But instead, she did something entirely different. “Be careful,” she urged, pulling her daughter into a loose, caring, but rather solemn embrace.

“…I will be,” Connie promised, letting out a small, somewhat remorseful sigh before the hug broke apart. “Now come on, Steven. We have a party to save.”

Seeing as how Pacifica had been nowhere to be found amidst the unfurling chaos of the ballroom itself, Dipper had no choice but to rush through the mansion’s halls in search of her, knowing that he had not a moment to waste. Fortunately, his search didn’t have to go on for too long as he happened to take a quick peek in the hidden room they had first captured the ghost in, only to find the heiress sitting there alone in the dark, knees pulled to her chest and her head bowed low in apparent shame.

“Pacifica!” Dipper exclaimed, rushing over to her, even despite that fact that she seemed to pay his entrance no mind whatsoever, even as he leaned down right next to her. “I’m so glad I found you! The ghost is back and he’s turning everyone to wood and he just started rhyming for some reason? B-but anyway, I need your help!” he urged, grabbing her wrist in an attempt to pull her up but she was quick to bitterly pull it away. “Pacifica?”

“You wanna know why this room was locked up?” Pacifica began, still averting his gaze as she coldly nodded up to the set of paintings sitting a few feet away from them. Paintings which depicted Northwests of the past taking part in deceptive, duplicitous, downright dastardly acts across history. “This is what I found in here. A painted record of every horrible thing my family’s ever done. Lying, cheating… and then there’s me. I lied to you just because I’m too scared to talk back to my stupid parents!” In a fit of apt rage, the heiress took off her expensive earrings, tossing them disdainfully towards another painting of her own parents before letting out a sigh of defeat. “You were right about me… I really am just another link in the world’s worst chain…”

Dipper took pause at this, unsure of really how to respond to the heiress’s palpable, genuine guilt. Immediately, he couldn’t help but regret his former harshness towards her, especially now that he knew she had only been following her parents’ rigid orders in tricking him. And yet, instead of offering an apology right away, he ended up going with a different tangent instead. “Well… you don’t have to be...”

“Huh?” Pacifica finally glanced over at him, confused.

“Just because you’re your parent’s daughter, doesn’t mean you have to be like them,” Dipper clarified, offering her a small, encouraging smile. “You don’t have to keep this terrible chain going; you can choose to break it, you can choose to be better than them!”

“Heh, you make it sound so easy…” Pacifica said with a bitter laugh. “And for someone like you, I guess it probably would be. You don’t have your parents standing over you almost every second of the day with some stupid bell, drilling it into your head that you have to be perfect, that you have to uphold the family reputation, that you have to be just like them otherwise you won’t ever be worth anything to anyone!”

By now, the heiress’ usual composure had completely crumbled as she let out a tight sob, with tears that she quickly tried to wipe away only for more to end up following it. If she was perfectly honest with herself, she felt doomed, doomed to repeat the treachery of her ancestors, doomed to keep this cycle of corruption going, doomed to be just another lying, cheating, heartless Northwest. It was a line of thinking that she had once been proud of, a legacy that she had willingly wanted to uphold. But now, it felt suffocating, agonizing even, as though it was pulling her down into a darkness she wanted no parts in, but would inevitably end up drowning in, no matter how hard she tried to resist it.

And yet… maybe she wouldn’t.

For as she felt herself slipping deeper into the darkness of this despair and awful repetition, an unexpected hand suddenly took hers, somehow steadying her and pulling her up out of that darkness by its mere contact alone. Pacifica drew in a small, tearful breath as she glanced up at Dipper, his expression sincere and sympathetic as he kept his firm, yet gentle grip on her hand all the while.

“Pacifica…” he began, his tone solemn yet steady. “You don’t actually believe any of that, do you?”

“I-I… I don’t know…” she shook her head truthfully, knowing that it was all she had ever been taught by her parents. Then again, it could have all just as easily been yet another lie, another fabrication to add on to the countless others her family was so infamous for. “I… I don’t… want to, I just… I guess… I just want to feel… free for a change…” Like you, she wanted to add, knowing that Dipper was perhaps one of the most unfettered people she had ever met. He could do what he wanted, say what he wanted, all without the fear or worry of anyone telling him that he couldn’t, that he had to conform to some strictly set standard that stood against everything he believed in. It was a bold, foreign concept to Pacifica, one that fascinated her to no end and made her wonder what it would be like if she was granted that much open, endless, liberating freedom herself. Freedom that she had only ever gotten close to as a result of being close to him.

“Well… then that’s up to you,” Dipper said, still smiling kindly to her. “Like I said, you don’t have to be what your parents say, especially if they’re trying to train you to be just as horrible as they are, no offense.”

“Believe me, none taken,” Pacifica remarked, unable to hold back a brief, sardonic laugh at this.

“But still,” Dipper continued, letting go of her hand, though he still kept his other one positioned on her shoulder, something that she couldn’t help but smile about. After all, it was probably among the most genuine physical affection she had gotten from anyone really, including her own parents. “You can way more than they want you to be. Heck, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve already proved that by just realizing that what your family’s doing is wrong. I’m sorry about what I said earlier, but… I do mean it when I say I think you can be someone better. It’s not too late.”

“It’s too late!” the ghost’s triumphant shout could be heard all the way from the ballroom, startling the pair out of their tender moment as they hurried out to see what was going on. The alarming sight before them elicited a horrified gasp from them both as the entire ballroom had been overtaken, either by unruly, encroaching plants or still meandering Gem mutants, all spread out around the multitude of now wooden, immovable party guests with no single survivor seeming to remain. “You’re all wood!” the ghost proclaimed with a victorious laugh from his spot at the top of the stairs overlooking the ballroom, which is vengeance had completely claimed.

For a moment, all Dipper and Pacifica could do was look over this horrific scene in apt terror as they tried to spot anyone still living and free amidst the apparent forest of wooden statues. But there seemed to be no one left, for Steven and Connie were nowhere to be found, and the Gems, Candy, Grenda, even Mabel had all fallen victim to the lumberjack’s petrifying curse. Which, of course, was something that Dipper refused to let stand as he swiftly drew his sword, determined to finally put this violent specter in his place once and for all.

“Dipper, wait!” Pacifica shouted, failing to hold him back as he rushed out brazenly, taking up a stance of opposition not too far away from the ghost itself, much to the heiress’ apt alarm.

“Alright, ghost,” Dipper began boldly, grabbing a discarded silver platter with the hopes of trapping the ghost inside of it. “Prepare to get-” He was abruptly cut off as the ghost blasted both the platter and his sword out of his hands, showing that the spirit had no patience to even trade barbs with the boy who had trapped him in the first place. “No, wait!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden fear as the ghost remorselessly hit him with his inescapable curse. The effect was immediate, working from the ground up as it all too quickly turned his flesh into hallow, unfeeling wood, much to his apt panic. “N-no! No, stop! Someone, help!” he cried desperately, crippled by a hauntingly familiar sensation of rapidly losing all his senses entirely as his chest became nothing more than frozen bark before it spread up his arms and finally to his face. “Help, please!” His final, agonized plea hung onto the air as an echo as he finally froze, completely turned to wood and stuff in an eternal pose of stricken terror as he reached for help that would likely never come.

All Pacifica could do as she witnessed all this was let out a sharp gasp of both shock and anguish, unexplainable tears welling up in her eyes as she watched Dipper succumb to the threat that her family was solely responsible for. One of the few people who had managed to inspire her, to encourage her to move beyond her family’s harsh standards, who showed her genuine warmth and kindness that hadn’t been bought but rather earned, was now nothing more than a wooden husk and she knew it was all thanks to her. Which was why she had to do something. She couldn’t just walk away and leave Dipper, and really every other innocent person in the mansion, to such a grisly fate. She had to stand up, to right the wrongs of her family’s past, to truly be someone better than any of her predecessors had been, including her own parents.

She had to open the gates.

And yet… she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to, she knew well what would happen if she even tried. Her parents would never forgive her, in all honesty, they’d probably punish her more than she could possibly imagine. They didn’t take disobedience kindly, especially when it came to massive matters like this. Seeing as how she couldn’t find them amidst the crowd of statufied guests, she knew that they’d find out about her blatant defiance somehow, they just would. And then, any shred of empirical freedom she thought she had would disappear completely; any hope she might have had to become a better person, to improve herself and rise above her family name, would vanish entirely. She’d be trapped, just like she always was, in that cycle of lies and greed and selfishness that had poisoned the Northwest name for decades.

And the possibility of that happening was something she desperately didn’t want to risk.

So instead, Pacifica let fear take over as she took a step back into the shadows, out of the ghost’s range, away from the disaster she could so easily solve with just the pull of a lever. However, she failed to see one of the few other survivors rushing along the edges of the hall, trying to take out the remaining Gem mutants while remaining out of the ghost’s sight, until they happened to haphazardly crash right into each other.

“Ugh, Pacifica!” Connie snapped, pulling away from the heiress with a cold scowl. “Get out of my way! I have to—wait a second,” she stopped short, lowering her sword somewhat as concern filled her expression. “W-where’s Dipper? Wasn’t he with you earlier?”

“H-he was…” Pacifica glanced down guiltily, trying her best to hold back her returning tears. “But… but he… t-the ghost… I wasn’t able to-”

Connie cut her off with a sharp, startled gasp as she glanced out into the ballroom, instantly spotting Dipper’s now wooden form near the center of the hall. “Dipper!” she exclaimed, aptly distraught as she turned back to Pacifica, clearly livid. “What happened?!”

“H-he just… ran out there! I wanted to stop him, but I-”

“Oh yeah, sure you did,” Connie deadpanned harshly. “Like I’m gonna stand here and believe that you actually even thought about sticking your neck out for someone else. Heck, I bet the only reason you’re so torn up about what happened to Dipper is because you lost your only ghost hunter, right?”

“Augh, you don’t know anything do you?!” Pacifica retorted just as fiercely, her gloved hands clenched in tight fists at her sides. “You think the only person I care about is myself, but you’re wrong! Believe me, I’d love to just run out there and open the gates so that ghost would set everyone free, but I can’t! Because if I did, then my parents would… t-they’d…”

“They’d… what?” Connie asked, her glare softening somewhat as she noticed just how visibly anxious Pacifica seemed to be.

“Forget it,” the heiress said dismissively, wrapping her arms around herself as she glanced out towards the ballroom sadly. “You wouldn’t understand…”

“…Somehow, I think I would…” Connie admitted with a hesitant sigh, looking to the hallway she knew her mother was still hiding in. “My mom is… pretty strict. She didn’t even know about my sword fighting training until tonight and when she found out about it, she refused to let me fight, even against all these Gem mutants running around. But… I knew a still had to fight, that I was one of the only ones with any hope of stopping all this, and so I am.”

“E-even though your mom said no?” Pacifica asked, rather amazed by such a concept as blatantly going against parental orders with no apparent regret.

“Even though my mom said no,” Connie confirmed with a nod, pausing for a moment as she looked to the rather conflicted heiress with newfound pity. Perhaps, despite what she had been led to believe, Pacifica wasn’t really spoiled or cruel from her own choosing; maybe that was just how her parents had raised her, had forced her to be. And as someone who knew all too well just how heavy a burden trying to live up to parental standards was, maybe, Connie realized, the two of them weren’t so different after all. “I think I realized that… sometimes my parents aren’t always right. And when they’re not, that’s when I have to just… figure things out for my own, you know? And maybe… maybe that’s something you need to try for yourself, Pacifica.”

The heiress said nothing in response to this, her brow furrowed as she kept her sights on Dipper afar in the distance more than anything else. Connie raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, surprising something of an incredulous smile as she realized what was going on here, though she said nothing about it at the moment. “I gotta go find Steven,” she said, repositioning her grip on Rose’s sword as she hurried off. “Try to make the right choice, ok?”

Pacifica took in a deep breath, steadying herself as she slowly nodded, even after Connie had left. “Ok,” she whispered, resolve to do this, determined to save them all, to save him.

Whether her parents liked it or not.

“A forest of death,” the ghost concluded grimly, still presiding in his spot above the ballroom. “A lesson learned, and now the Northwest Manor will BURN!” The specter erupted into vengeful laughter as flames rose up from him, igniting the large portrait of the Northwest family hanging from the nearby wall first, though it quickly began to spread, more than ready to burn everything, and everyone, in the mansion to ashes in minutes.

Or at least it would have.

“Hey, ugly! Over here!” Pacifica shouted as she emerged from hiding, figuring now was as good a time as any to put an end to all this. She stood before the ghost boldly, unfettered by the powerful, hateful spirit as she stepped towards the lever that would open the mansion’s outer gates. “You want me to let in the townsfolk? Cause I’ll do it! Just change everyone back!”

“You wish to prove yourself?” the ghost asked challengingly. “Then pull that lever and open the grand gate to the town! Fulfill your ancestors’ promise and right this wrong once and for all!”

Pacifica was prepared to do just that, her expression hardened as she began reaching for the nearby lever. However, her hand froze right before she could grab it as an underground hatch leading down to the panic room opened up a few feet away, her father, mother, and one of their countless butlers anxiously peeking out of it. “Pacifica Elise Northwest! Stop this instant!” Preston exclaimed in a harsh, incredibly disapproving whisper. “We can’t let the town see us like this! We have a reputation to uphold!”

“A reputation?” Pacifica looked to him, appalled. “Our entire mansion’s about to go up in flames and a bunch of innocent people right along with it and you’re worried about our reputation?!”

“Well, of course I am!” Preston scowled adamantly. “And you should be too, young lady! Our family is built off of power and position, we can’t have common nobodies off the street running rampant in our mansion! Now come into the panic room. There’s enough mini-sandwiches and oxygen to last you, me, and a butler a full week.” At this, he quickly dropped his voice down to a whisper so the nearby servant couldn’t hear him. “We’ll eat the butler.”

“You’re wrong!” the heiress snapped, her former fear of standing against her parents quickly fading as she realized just how many self-serving lies she had been fed her entire life. Lies that she refused to eagerly buy into any longer. “The only things our family was built off of are cheating and dishonesty! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to learn that, but I have! And its about time everyone else did too!”

“You dare disobey us?” Preston scoffed in disbelief. “Where did this shamefully disrespectful attitude of yours come fro—oh wait, I know…” The billionaire’s tone turned disdainful as he shot a glance towards the center of the ballroom, where Dipper’s wooden remains stood. “It was that foolish Pines boy, wasn’t it? He was the one who inspired you to start thinking like a no-account vagrant instead of the elite young lady of status that you truly are! Well, worry not,” he said, pulling the bell that Pacifica had come to dread and loathe so much out of his suit pocket. “I know of the perfect to fix that…”

Pacifica flinched, pulling her hand away from the lever on instinct upon hearing the bell’s clarion ring, a ring that seemed to echo throughout her entire childhood and always carried one, singular order: behave. A ring that had groomed her into what her parents wanted her to be: submissive, unquestioning, accepting of all the atrocities the Northwests were responsible for in the past and were still committing even now. A ring that she hated, with every fiber of her being, but she knew better than to resist it.

Until now.

Because now, that ring wasn’t her master any longer. It couldn’t be. She remembered the advice both Dipper and Connie had given her, advice that mixed together inside her mind that she could be more, that she could do the right thing even when her own family never had, that she could change.

That she could be free.

And no matter what the cost might be, that freedom was something she was finally ready to take.

“Dingly, dingly!” Preston growled, ringing the bell harder as he noticed Pacifica was paying it no mind and reaching for the lever once more. “Is this bell broken?”

“Our family name is broken!” Pacifica proclaimed, slamming her foot down as she finally grabbed the lever. “And I’m gonna fix it!”

Putting every last ounce of reservation and fear behind her, the heiress pulled the lever down hard, at long last finally opening the gates up to the common townsfolk outside. The people of Gravity Falls gasped in amazement at this unexpected turn of events, but of course, none of them hesitated to rush forward, delighted to be allotted inside the legendary Northwest Fest for the very first time ever.

“Yes! Yes, its happening!” the ghost happily cried as the townsfolk excitedly ran up the hill to get to the mansion itself. “My heart, once as hard as oak, now grows soft, like more of a… birch or something.”

As a result of the ghost’s satisfaction, his curse upon the mansion quickly faded away, the taxidermized animals becoming still and unmoving as the wild plants disappeared back into the ground they had emerged from. At the same time, all of the petrified party guests seamlessly and painlessly were returned to normal, from the wealthy dignitaries, to the Gems, and to Dipper, who let out a sharp gasp as he returned to normal, rather startled by this shift as he happened to glance across the hall over at Pacifica. The heiress remained where she was by the lever, but even so, the huge smile of warm relief she sent him was undeniable, knowing that to see him alive and well again made all of her struggling against her parents more than worth it.

“Pacifica,” the ghost addressed her, briefly diverting her gaze away from Dipper right as he returned her smile. “You are not like other Northwests and for that, you should be proud. I feel… lumber justice…” And with these final words of contentment relayed, the specter finally disappeared from the mortal plane, leaving only his axe behind as it slammed into the ground, the only remaining physical sign of the devastation he had wrought.

Of course, almost as soon as the ghost had vanished, the multitude of townsfolk reached the manor, flooding in through the front doors in a flurry of chaos and excitement. They had no mind for manners whatsoever as they ran about, indulging on buffet tables, leaping into cider fountains, and laying their hands on whatever expensive knick-knacks they could find. Still, their arrival had added an undeniable and much-needed element of reckless fun and freedom to the party, one that absolutely appalled Preston and Priscilla as they stood by, helpless to stop what their daughter had so brazenly done.

“Good lord, the riffraff! Its everywhere!” the billionaire cried, aghast at the state of his once pristine party as he ran about, trying and completely failing to reclaim some sense of class and order.

At the same time, the Gems, upon recovering from their formerly petrified states, were quick to see the wild debauchery going on all around them, something that aptly confused them, given how they knew Northwest parties to usually be.

“What’s going on here?” Pearl asked, her spear dissipating as she watched Manly Dan toss a keg of cider across the hall.

“I dunno, but this is my kinda party!” Amethyst cheered, laughing as a few of the town’s teens rode an empty platter down the nearby stairs.

“Looks like everyone else has followed our lead,” Garnet remarked with a wry smirk, placing hands on both of her teammates’ shoulders. “You know what that means.”

“Woo! Time to bust it up!” the purple Gem rowdily whooped, rushing forward unrestrained.

“N-now Amethyst, let’s try not to bust things up too much!” Pearl warned as she began to run after her, though she quickly stopped with an incredulous scoff. “Wait, what am I saying? This is the Northwests’ mansion we’re talking about here! Let’s bust it up to our hearts’ content!”

“Now you got it,” Garnet nodded in amused approval, joining her teammates as they gladly leapt into the ongoing chaos and fun all around them.

Meanwhile, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda were all in the midst of recovering from their own bouts as wooden statues, though none of them knew much about what had really occurred. Still, as soon as they had properly gathered their bearings, Grenda was quick to turn on the pair, sending them a disapproving scowl as she addressed them.

“Ahem,” she began somewhat coldly. “Don’t you two have something you’d like to say?”

“…Grenda, we are so sorry,” Candy relented remorsefully.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t have left you behind,” Mabel added just as empathetically.

“It’s ok,” Grenda conceded, her bitter manner quickly dropping upon noticing their sincerity. “Maybe I do need to work on my flirting. But for now, come on. Let’s go dip our heads in some cheese and chocolate. Friends?”

“Friends,” the other two girls happily agreed as they all joined together in a group hug. This moment of reconciliation soon came to an end however, for before they could make their way over to the fondue fountains, they were abruptly halted by a certain baron.

“Wait! Don’t go!” Marius called after them, approaching Grenda in particular with a fond, longing smile. “Grenda, was it? I must speak with you. There is something about you, I-I can’t get you out of my head! You’re so bold and confident! I know you are probably out of my league, but… might I give you mien phone number?”

“I don’t have a phone!” Grenda brightly exclaimed, elated by this offer. “Write it on my face!”

The baron proceeded to do so as Mabel and Candy watched on, neither of them having to pretend to be happy for their friend’s successful romantic catch. “Whoa-oh! Go Grenda!” Mabel exclaimed with a surprised grin.

“I guess we shouldn’t have sold her short,” Candy concluded. “I call bridesmaid!”

“What? I call co-bridesmaid!” Mabel countered before both of them shared a warm laugh. Despite their earlier scuffle, their friendship had been easily repaired, with all three of them knowing that no boy, no matter how cute or fancy, was worth damaging something so valuable to them all.

“Is that the last of them?” Connie asked Steven as he finished bubbling away what seemed to be the last of the Gem mutants. They had finished proofing and capturing them all around the same time the ghost had disappeared, which meant that now the party and its guests could truly be safe to enjoy the remainder of their evening.

“Yeah, I think so,” Steven nodded, offering her a small, congratulatory smile. Connie didn’t get much of a chance to return it, however, before her mother approached, her manner strangely anxious as she met her daughter’s somewhat unreadable gaze.

“C-Connie,” Priyanka began gently, looking between her daughter and the sword in her hand. “I… is this… really what you’ve been doing all summer? Training to fight these… things?”

“Yeah…” Connie nodded, glancing down guiltily. “Mom… I’m really sorry about lying to you. It started off as a tiny secret, and then it felt like I didn’t hide it, you wouldn’t let me see Steven or Dipper or Mabel ever again…”

“Is… is that how you feel?” Priyanka asked, her tone genuinely upset at the thought of unintentionally causing her daughter such worry and fear. “Are we too controlling?”

“…Maybe…” Connie admitted with a small shrug, deciding to be completely honest with her mother on this.

“I just… wanted to be a good mother,” the doctor said remorsefully, almost sadly even. “I-I just wanted to protect you.”

“But I can protect myself now!” Connie urged firmly. “You saw that I can! You just… need to start trusting that I can handle some things on my own.”

Priyanka sighed, a bittersweet smile crossing her face as she knelt down and placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “You are growing up awfully fast, aren’t you?” she said, a hint of pride filling her tone. “Okay. We’ll pull back on the rules. And I’ll try to keep an open mind about this,” she nodded to the sword in Connie’s hand. “And that,” she looked towards the bubbled Gem Steven was sending off to the temple. “And… him…” She finished rather tightly, nodding to the somewhat confused young Gem himself.

“That’s… all I really want,” Connie said, finally smiling herself.

“I know, its just… it scares me that you can’t talk to me about all this!” Priyanka pressed with apt concern. “I need to know what’s happening in your life. I need to be able to step in when you’re in over your head. Would you just promise me that you’ll stop all the lying?”

“That’s a rule,” Connie nodded, resolved to meet her mother halfway in doing just that.

“I love you, honey,” Priyanka smiled as she pulled her daughter into a warm, protective embrace.

“I love you too, Mom,” Connie retorted just as contentedly, more than happy to let her mother intervene if the need ever arose.

Steven wore a soft smile himself as he stood by, watching this heartwarming display. However, his grin did fade somewhat as he happened to glance down at Rose’s sword in his arms, particularly at his mother’s iconic symbol on its scabbard. He couldn’t help but wonder, as he watched Connie and her mother share such a tender, genuine moment, if he would have ever known a similar relationship with his own mother if she was still around. But as it stood, this was a gap he’d never truly have filled, a kind of protective, motherly love he’d never fully get to know. Or at least he thought.

For the young Gem was soon drawn out of his solemn thoughts as a familiar hand landed on his shoulder. Steven glanced up to meet Garnet’s gentle grin, followed by Pearl’s and Amethyst as they filled in beside her.

“Y-you guys!” he exclaimed in apt relief to see them unharmed. “You’re ok!”

“Of course we are!” Amethyst quipped, playfully elbowing him. “What, you really think we’re gonna let some undead lumber loser beat us down? Please, you know us better than that!”

“Are you enjoying the party, Steven?” Pearl asked, flustered changing the subject though she was still smiling down at her young ward nonetheless.

Steven paused, looking down at his mother’s sword one last time before smiling back up at his guardians. “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

With the ghost gone and the heiress’ parents preoccupied, Dipper and Pacifica had found it rather easy to reunite and debrief from their harrowing experiences, both of them more than happy to watch the unfurling freedom of the newly-opened party all around them. “Man, if your family hates this, then they’re idiots,” Dipper remarked with a small laugh as several townsfolk ran by noisily but happily. “This is great!”

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Pacifica huffed, crossing her arms. “Next year, I’m sure they’re just gonna lock everyone out again.”

Dipper paused, briefly noticing that the heiress still seemed rather remiss after everything had happened. Fortunately though, he quickly thought of a sure-fire way to change her sour tune. “Hey, guess what we’re standing on.”

Pacifica glanced down, her face lighting up with a vindictive grin as she noticed their muddy shoes were planted firmly on a repeat of her parents’ favorite white rug. From that point, neither of them were really able to hold their laughter in as they freely tarnished the carpet, spilling food and punch onto it without any care in the world, all in a sign of defiance to the billionaire’s rigid, self-righteous rules.

“Hey, so, uh…” Pacifica began somewhat awkwardly as their laughter began to die down. “I just wanted to say… um… thanks, I guess, for what you said back there. In a way, I guess it kinda inspired me to finally stop listening to my parents’ self-entitled garbage and start listening to myself for a change. And I gotta admit, it… feels kind of… nice.”

“If anyone’s thanking anyone around here, I should be thanking you,” Dipper said just as warmly. “If it wasn’t for you, then I’d still be a boring old hunk of wood right now.”

“Yeah, that totally would have sucked,” Pacifica remarked with something of a flirtatious grin. “I couldn’t imagine you, of all people, being so stiff and boarding.”

Dipper couldn’t really hold in a burst of heavy laughter at this, something that only served to fluster the heiress even more than she already was. “What, did you come up with that one yourself?”

“Hey, at least I tried. It’s not like puns are really my strong suit.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“Oh shut up,” Pacifica smirked, pushing him playfully as he continued laughing. “But seriously though, I should probably go and find someone to clean this mess up. I’ll be right back!”

Dipper waved her off with a fond smile that he was unable to chase away, even if he had wanted to. As catastrophic as this night had turned out to be, at the end of it all, it had all been worth it to form a true, genuine bond with Pacifica, who, as far as he was concerned, was so, so much kinder, braver, and better than he had ever thought her to be.

His contented musings on the heiress didn’t last too long, however, before a certain old hillbilly ran up, seemingly just as zany and excitable as ever. “Woo! Scoobity-doo!” McGucket exclaimed, hopping up and down in his usual wild way. “Hornswaggle m’goat knees!”

“Whoa, hey, McGucket!” Dipper greeted with a bright smile, happy to see the hillbilly out and about in the aftermath of recovering his memories. “How have you been? Are you—whoa!” he was succinctly cut off as McGucket suddenly pulled him aside, his kooky act falling to the wayside for a much more serious one as soon as they were out of everyone else’s earshot.

“Dipper! I’ve been lookin’ for ya!” the hillbilly began intently, his expression and tone both dire as he put his glasses on and pulled out the old laptop, which looked nowhere as bad off as it had been before. “I fixed the laptop and-”

“You fixed it?! Dipper interupted, his eyes wide with surprise at this news. He paused, however, forcing himself not to be too overwhelmed by it as he remembered exactly why he had strived so hard to unlock said laptop in the first place. “Y-you… you didn’t happen to find anything on there about how split Gem fusions up… did you?”

“Er, uh… no?” McGucket frowned, confused by such an odd question before he returned to the matter at hand. “B-but anyway, I’ve been doin’ calculations, and I think somethin’ terrible is comin’! The apocalypse! The end times!”

Dipper simply let out a disappointed sigh at this as he glanced to the laptop somewhat bitterly, knowing he had wasted and lost so much for something that wouldn’t have even been able to help Lapis in the first place. But given that his spirits were relatively high from the party, he didn’t particularly feel like lowering them at the moment to look into the hillbilly’s frantic warnings, which in and of themselves, might not really hold any weight at all. “You know what, McGucket? How about we talk about this stuff tomorrow?”

“But-” McGucket fretfully tried to protest, only for Dipper’s already waning attention to quickly be diverted.

“Dipper!” Pacifica called from the party proper, smiling brightly as she beckoned for him to join her.

“Be there in a second!” he called back to her before turning to the distraught hillbilly once more with a small smile and a shrug. “It’s a party. Let’s have some fun for once, huh?”

“N-no! Wait!” McGucket exclaimed, though his pleas were in vain as Dipper left, dangerously unaware of what he had just uncovered. The hillbilly quickly opened the laptop up, its screen blaring the words “Imminent threat” in bright, glaring red as a countdown steadily blinked upon it, showing that only less than 24 hours remained. “Oh, this is bad!” he shook his head nervously. “Something’s coming! Somethin’ big!”

The hillbilly continued to look over his worrisome findings, completely unaware of the tapestry behind him, one that seemed to almost foretell of the very danger he feared was soon to come: a burning landscape with suffering humans upon it, and a long triangular shape presiding over the chaos, its singular eye watching all.

“Hey,” Dipper greeted Pacifica blithely as he rejoined her near the makeshift ‘dance floor’ the townsfolk had set up at the center of the ballroom. “What’s up?”

“Uh… well…” the heiress blushed, anxiously averting his gaze. “I was just, um… Well… Oh, how do I put this…? I was thinking maybe… y-you and I could… you know…” Unable to spit it out, she instead nodded to the several pairs freely moving about the dance floor, biting her lip as she noted his initial confusion, followed by his dawning realization.

“What, you mean, dance?” he asked, looking back to her rather surprised.

“Y-Yeah, I mean, i-if you wanna…” she crossed her arms, feigning stoicism over the matter. “W-we don’t have to. I just thought it would be like, fun or something.”

“Oh, well, uh… I-I’m not really that much of a dancer,” he admitted, starting to become rather flustered himself in light of this offer.

“So? Neither are any of them,” she nodded back to the dance floor again, where the couples upon it were basically just spinning around in tandem without any rhyme or reason at all. All the same, he hesitated, his eyes wide and his cheeks just as red as hers as he met her awkward, apprehensive expression. “W-what? Are you embarrassed or something?”

“N-no!” he shook his head quickly. “Are you?”

“No!”

“W-well then, I guess we should…”

“Yeah…” she took in a deep breath, slowly taking the hand he shakily offered out to her, In truth, neither of them were exactly sure why there were so nervous, even as they emerged onto the open floor together. After all, they really had no reason to be; this was just going to be a loose, friendly, freeform dance. Nothing less, and nothing more.

And though it took a moment or two of mental preparation, they soon started to fall into this mindset themselves as they began to spin, hands intertwined as they rotated in wide, dizzying, almost chaotic circles. It didn’t take long for them to start laughing, their faces still somewhat red but this time it was a welcome warmth as they “danced” about, the ballroom around them and the multiple pairs of eyes curiously watching them soon forgotten just as much as their initial inhibitions were. As wild and unkempt as it was, there was no denying they were both having fun, enjoying each other’s company, something neither of them thought could never happen before this fateful night. Yet here they were, a highly-esteemed heiress with a tarnished family history and a middle-class boy only really known for his knowledge of the supernatural. An unusual pair, for sure, but that hardly mattered to either of them at that moment for as far as they were concerned, they were the same. Just two kids, spinning around an elegant ballroom, hands intertwined as they laughed together with freedom in their minds and happiness in their hearts.

Happiness that would someday become something that nothing, not the past, the present, or the future, would ever be able to destroy.  

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