#//TL to after ~~saturday night~~~

[greyias]

Hey guys, does anyone know if there’s an autorun mod for kotor2 (similar to how if you press a key in SWTOR you don’t have to hold down the w key?) or some way to get the game to do that easily? I don’t see it in the controls anywhere and my Google-fu is failing me

[onyxmilk]

Twilight x f!Reader; "Missing" (p3)

notes; part three to this! tbh i wasn't planning on making a part three but here we are lolz tw; Reader uses She/Her pronouns!, child getting lost, wc; 1.5k tl; @dianexo-v @mr-underhills-things @solaeirr @lenguasdegatofan @0vendettaself @sassy-cat-in-town @dreaminmemories @not-9ok @deepdinosaurwizard @dvc4 @wr4inn

Yor knew the relationship with Loid was fake and built on the narrative of getting Anya into school, but she could not help falling hard for the man. Between the way he cared for himself, how they looked as a family, and his gentle words when it came to Anya- it was like they were a real family, something she always had wanted. So, when she didn’t get a call from Loid’s office today explaining that he’d be late, she was a bit worried about when he would come home. Yor put Anya to bed after homework and dinner, allowing Bond to sleep with her as usual, and sat in the living room.

When Loid walked into the apartment, he was practically glowing with happiness. “Loid! I didn’t know you were going to be working late today.” Yor said with worry leaking from her voice, “Oh, I do apologize, I had a visitor today..” Loid said as he cleared his voice. He felt somewhat bad for keeping his real relationship and his real daughter away from Yor, but it could affect how the mission finishes out. So, he kept this information private, and away from her and Anya.

“Oh? A visitor?” Yor asked, Loid shook his head “Just.. a friend, her daughter needed some counseling.” he lied. Yor smiled and nodded, “Well, we had take-out, leftovers are in the fridge.” she offered before getting up and nodding in the direction of Loid. “Night..” Yor mentioned passing him, making sure to gently bump into him and touch hands. Loid just nodded his head, “Good night, Yor.” he replied before heading to the kitchen.

After eating some cold take-out, Loid was stuck in his head. He just sat back and sighed, he missed his daughter and he had hardly talked to her, but he also missed his real wife, his real bed, and his real home. Loid was beyond shocked and impressed on how his wife had been raising their daughter all by herself. He just sighed and leaned back, running a hand through his hair. He was stressed, and all he was truly craving was what his life could be with his daughter and wife.

[YourName] gently puts Lotte down into her crib, smiling down at the little one. For once, she felt happy, light on her feet. She shuts the door as quietly as she could before walking down the hallway and giggling, “He remembers me!” [YourName] cheered as she twirled before landing on the couch. Sure, she missed her husband and seeing him every day but being able to see him and be able to kiss his lips brought joy to her.

The following day would be a Saturday, so Anya didn’t have school. “I want to do something today!” Anya whined at breakfast, Yor looked over to Loid silently looking for options to entertain their adopted daughter. “We could.. Go to the park with Bond.” Loid offered, Yor nodded her head in agreement- thinking whatever he came up with would be good. Anya gasped “An Ooting!” she celebrated, “You hear that, Bond? We’re taking you out on an ooting!” the child said, turning to the big dog.

Soon, breakfast concluded and it was time to get ready for the park. Loid thought that perhaps the park would have been better than sitting in front of the TV all day. So, Yor helped Anya get ready before doing so herself, “Do you think papa loves me?” Yor asked Anya. Anya paused, she knew the truth. She knew Loid wasn’t who he was, he was actually a spy with an actual family, she just didn’t want to hurt her mama’s feelings. “Of course! Papas are supposed to love mamas!” Anya said innocently, as if she didn’t know better. “Ah, yes, you’re right.” Yor replied, getting up to her feet “Well, I’m going to get ready.” she said gently before exiting her daughter’s room.

Yor would get ready, admiring herself in the mirror before patting her flustered cheeks. She had been thinking about the possible compliments Loid would give her for dressing appropriately and dressing Anya on top of that. She adored when he complimented on her motherly tendencies and duties, it made Yor fall for Loid harder each time.

Eventually, the family headed out and to the park. Loid held Bond’s leash while Yor held Anya’s hand. Once at the park, Loid hesitated but let Bond off his leash and allowed him and Anya to play together. Yor stood with Loid, gently holding his arm, it didn’t bother Loid as it made them look like a real family- but if he’s going to be honest, he wished Yor was [YourName].

Things were going smoothly until there was a cry heard throughout the park, immediately Loid and Yor turned to where it was coming from and there sat a toddler. But not just any toddler, it was Lotte. Loid didn’t push Yor off, but he disconnected from Yor quickly and rushed to the child, gently kneeling to be Lotte’s height, Yor soon joining with Anya and Bond. “Oh dear..” Yor said, looking around, trying to find this toddler’s mother or nanny.

“Where’s your momma?” Loid gently asked the toddler, Lotte would wipe her face and recognize Loid and cling to him. “W-Work.” Lotte replied, so Loid assumed there would be a nanny somewhere looking for Lotte. Loid scooped the little one up, shaking his head, he couldn’t just ask people if they were looking for Lotte, that could easily lead to a kidnapping. So, looking over at Yor, Loid pulled out his phone and contacted [YourName].

Turns out, [YourName] was called into work for some paperwork and the neighbor’s teenage daughter was supposed to be looking after Lotte- but there was no sign of her. “I’ll be there a-s-a-p.” [YourName] said before hanging up, Yor looked a little confused as Loid put his phone away “I know her mother.. well.” Loid explained gently bouncing the small one in his arms.

Just five minutes later, [YourName] came rushing over, crying because the thought of her daughter being missing scared her. She brought Lotte into her arms before sobbing, and acting on instinct Loid brought [YourName] in for a hug too so the three of them were grouped together. Yor couldn’t help but watch and feel a bit jealous, she wanted the chemistry that was strung throughout the air when Loid hugged this stranger. Deep down, Yor knew there was more to the story but her love for Loid took over those thoughts.

Loid would finally disconnect from [YourName] and Lotte once his wife had calmed down. With her free hand, [YourName] wiped her tears and Loid smiled at her. Yor cleared her throat making Loid and [YourName] look over and it finally clicked, Yor wanted to be introduced. Loid didn’t exactly want to introduce his fake wife to his real wife, but he had to keep suspicions low. “[YourName]... This is, uh, my wife Yor and over there is our daughter Anya and dog, Bond.” Loid said, giving his wife an apologetic look.

[YourName] nodded her head slowly, offering her free hand after making sure it was dry. “I’m [YourName].” She said, Yor smiled happily when Loid called her his wife, shaking [YourName]’s hand. “It’s always nice to meet someone my husband knows!” Yor said cheerfully, and something in [YourName] broke a little, not being able to call Loid her husband or kiss him when she needed it hurt, and to know he was spending free time with the perfect, well-built family hurt a little more than she thought it would.

“I got to.. Uhm, go..” [YourName] said, spinning around and heading toward her car. “Wait! [YourName]!” Loid called out, but [YourName] ignored him as she rushed to her vehicle. The mother sat Lotte down into her car seat and sighed once she got into the driver's seat, She put her hands on the wheel and placed her head against her knuckles as she cried. She missed her husband dearly and she couldn’t take just being friends with Twilight. Even if it was just for a few moments, seconds, minutes.

Yor noticed a difference in Loid, he was trying to hide his hurt, anger, and confusion- but Yor could sense something was wrong. She didn’t want to directly ask him what was up, so she simply leaned against him which made Loid tense up. She noticed this, but decided to ignore it and hoped Loid found comfort in her ways of comforting him. The rest of the day at the park went smoothly, no other crying children separated from their mothers or babysitters were around, so Loid, Yor, Anya, and Bond headed back to the apartment.

Loid was silent for most of the night, only talking when spoken to. He made dinner for everyone, sat with them as they ate, and then put Anya to bed after she watched some spy shows. Yor was getting tired of the silence Loid was offering up, so she finally spoke up; “What’s wrong?” Yor asked finally to her husband. “It’s nothing.” Loid tried to reply, but Yor didn’t take that as an answer.

Loid finally looked at Yor, sighing with aggravation, “Fine, what’s wrong is I miss my wife and child.” he says scoffing. “What? You were with us all day, no need to miss us, Loid..” Yor explained, placing a hand on to his bicep, but Loid shook it off.

“No, my real wife and child.”

[leafofkudzu]

Happy soon-to-be November, everyone! There's a chill in the air, and one last chance for spookiness before the Mad King leaves for another year, so let's storm the Reaper's Gate and show the Underworld what-for - it's time for another art party hosted by my guild, Verdant Shield [VS]!

For those who aren’t familiar with art parties, they’re a concept carried over from Final Fantasy XIV - in-game get-togethers for artists/writers/creatives of all types to hang out, chat, and create together! Get your favorite character/look together, head to the location, find someone that catches your eye, and create! Afterwards, everyone posts their creations in a shared tag (ours is #VSArtParty) so others can see, interact, and share! Tl;dr: the ‘goal’ of an art party isn’t to be drawn, but to draw others, and share with the community!

Time and /squadjoin information is under the cut, but will also be posted again via reblogs as the squads go up on the day of the party. Do note that because EU's time change has happened but NA's has not, there will not be an hour break in between this month!

Location Information:

In the spirit of the oncoming snow but also ongoing spooky (for a few more days at least), Reaper's Gate is a snowy side area along the east side of Lornar's Pass - you can't see it in the guide picture, but it's just north of where the Twisted Marionette is!

Do note that at night multiple spooky enemies spawn in the area, so come prepared to fight them off during the darker hours of the party!

Time & Squad Details:

As we always do, we’ll be having two parties - one on EU servers and one on NA ones - except this time due to time change differences between regions, there will not be the usual hour break in between! People tend to arrive early and/or jump between accounts as soon as the break comes up, so don’t be surprised to see tags and announcements going up ahead of schedule!

The first party will be on EU servers and begin at 9pm Central European Time (aka 4pm Eastern Daylight Time or 4 hours before in-game reset). I’ll be hosting on my EU alt account, so to join either /squadjoin or whisper Runa Gravemourn for an invite.

The second party will be on NA servers and begin at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time (aka 12am Central European Time or an hour before in-game reset). I’ll be hosting this one on my main account, so to join either /squadjoin or whisper Beldahvia for an invite.

Closing Words:

Consider this a bit of a last hurrah for Halloween before it heads off for another year, and also consider this another little random fighting activity for us to do since we'll have some Underworld critters to deal with periodically. Expect Wintersday next month, and....I guess the 2 year celebration after that! Wow, that's wild. Thank you all for coming out to these events, I truly treasure each and every one, and every one of you! Take care, and I'll see you this Saturday - and many more first-Saturdays to come! ♥

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for eating my sister’s food?

🥞☕️

(to find later)

I (15m) don’t have a lot of time to get ready for school in the morning. Neither does my sister (11f) My mom is aware of this, and buys us easy breakfasts at the grocery store when she does, usually Sunday afternoon. My mom is usually great about remembering to pick up food for the week, however the breakfast food in question (pancake cups, the Pearl Milling Company ones) come in a 4 pack. (My mom gets us a special breakfast Friday so we don’t have to worry about breakfast on those days)

This is where I may be the asshole. While I eat one pancake cup for every day of the week, my sister saves up her food for reasons she won’t share. Last Saturday as of posting, she had eight in our pantry. For some reason, that day I woke up with a horrible headache as I forgot to eat the night before, and went to look at making myself some french toast. We didn’t have any eggs. Okay, I had thought, what about making actual pancakes? No pancake mix. Waffles? The waffle iron is still broken. After around a half hour of trying to find something, I turned to my sister’s stash of pancake cups. As it were, she could have ate one every day that week up until next Sunday if she still wanted to eat the breakfast my Mom gets special for us Friday, and Sunday is the day we go grocery shopping. Plus, at that point if she *really* wanted to have that many my mom was going grocery shopping the next day, she could get more. My point is, I made sure she wouldn’t go hungry on some mornings. So, I heat up the pancake cup.

When my sister wakes up, she is fuming. I try to explain that I have a horrible headache and hadn’t eaten the night before, and we didn’t have a lot of food in the house (Realistically we just had stale cheezits and 12 grain bread I could have toasted) and I couldn’t make myself any of the other things she had suggested either due to equipment broken or not having supplies. I also explained to her that Mom was going grocery shopping tomorrow, and if she really wanted that many so badly our Mom would grab some. She still isn’t happy. When my mom wakes up (from my sister’s screaming) she sides with me and says that my sister had a lot. She had one for every day of the week including Friday, a day she was guaranteed breakfast, and I felt awful from the night before. She told my sister that she really should have been more worried about me, and that I wasn’t feeling good. My mom also agreed that if she honestly thought she needed that many we could buy more the next day, and she wasn’t going to eat all of the seven she had left before Sunday. My sister stormed off.

My friends and mom think I’m not the asshole considering the situation that morning, and believe my sister should have been more compassionate towards me considering I didn’t feel well. I, however, see why my sister may be upset as at the end of the day it was her food. But, I feel like my point stands, I only took one knowing she wouldn’t have to skip breakfast one day. And if it mattered that much she had more than seven, we could have bought more the next day. Am I the asshole?

Tl;Dr - Am I the asshole for eating my sister’s food even though she had more than enough?

What are these acronyms?

[teddypoi-qd]

TMAGP ARG, Days 1 & 2

Here's a quick writeup of what the Discord's discovered so far!

Day 1 - Quick Beginnings!

Through an ad on the MAG podcast feed, we got an email that sent to OIAR's HR! Sending an email here gave us an autoreply with a link the OIAR website.

On the website we found a youtube channel and a bunch of alchemy symbols and suspicious typos scattered around the place, some more emails, and an identification form.

Investigating the form and the youtube channel, led us to a usenet newsgroup for DDR (East German) diaspora.

Much of our effort on the first day focused on translating and archiving this usenet group in a gDoc for easy reference.

Day 2 - Revelations & Whoopsies

Bit of a slower day today! We managed to translate and archive the entire newsgroup over the night. Some of the team has been working on making a database of the messages on Google Sheets, whilst others have settled on exploring other leads. In the newsgroup, specifically in the very important Cats thread, we found an image with another alchemy symbol! More on that one later.

Back on the site, I personally thought to look again at the images, and noticed their names all had a string of numbers in them. Twelve numbers, to be precise -- enough for a phone number if the country code was two numbers. A little solving later, we had a phone number! After a false start, we gave it a ring and, lo and behold, we were through to the OIAR! A robovoice informed us of system maintenance and asked us to call back on September 22nd!

Later on that day, a crack team of nerds ran the image from the Cats thread through some Steganography software and found the date time combo of: Saturday, 30th September 11:00 to 19:00.

A suspicion that a few members were holding was brought to light at this time, and they got to investigating! The castle at the end of the OIAR's recruitment video has a walking tour on Sept 30th! Though this might not be relevant, a more local member has decided to pop by and see if anything comes to light! (Note: please don't flood this poor walking tour with random MAG fans -- we're not certain it's relevant)

TL;DR:

called a number, got told to call back on Sept.22

found a date in a photo, Sept.30 (11:00-19:00)

booked a walking tour for the above time!

A * Digression…

During the excitement of solving the phone number puzzle… We got a little too nosey for our own good. During the call, we found that pressing * would let you into a series of settings. Neat, thought we, Some more data to sort through! So our intrepid group of explorers started sorting through the voicemails this revealed to us, and called the number of one of them, still believing it to be a trail of ARG clues.

"Hello?" Said Martyn RustyQuill.

Yes, dear readers, this was not an ARG clue. Through our dogged determination, we ploughed our dumb, smart asses into the backrooms of the ARG. The voicemails we discovered were, in fact, test calls that RQ did to ensure the number was up and running. The number that was called was Martyn RQ's real ass phone number. RQ panicked. The mods panicked. Slowmode went up.

Luckily, thanks to quick work from everyone involved, we cleared up any chance of other people calling Martyn's number, and we're now out of the backrooms and back on track!

Don't press * !

[sweetcheeksschemmenti]

As Long As You’ll Let Me (part 1)

Melissa Schemmenti x Original Female Character

Warnings: Joe is an ass, implied cheating, no other warnings yet

Summary: Melissa realizes her life is not at all what she expected but can’t find the courage to leave it all behind. That is, until Joe breaks her heart one last time and she finds herself in the arms of someone who truly cares. Through thick and thin Calliope never fails to be there for Melissa, even when Melissa breaks the younger woman’s heart.

tl;dr: Melissa learns how to love and be loved.

Chapter 1: Is There Life Out There

“She married when she was 20

She thought she was ready, now she's not so sure

She thought she'd done some living

But now she's just wonderin' what she's living for

Now she's feeling that there's something more

Is there life out there? So much she hasn't done

Is there life beyond her family and her home?

She's done what she should, should she do what she dares?

She doesn't want to leave, she's just wonderin', is there life out there?”

-Reba McEntire, Is There Life Out There

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

Listening to her husband and his buddies cheer as their team scored in the other room, Melissa paused her cooking and stared out the window at the freshly fallen snow. For the last fifteen years, her entire life revolved around Joe and his wants and needs. If he wanted to host a super bowl party, she played the perfect hostess and stayed in the kitchen while everyone else enjoyed the game, occasionally handing the guys a beer. If Melissa was invited to spend an evening with friends she had to decline because Joe needed her to make dinner. Joe this and Joe that. Joe. Joe. Joe.

She couldn’t remember the last time they did something she wanted to do. She tried the think about their travels and dates, but all that came to mind was their many trips to the time share cabin that Joe picked. Her mother repeatedly told her when she was younger that her twenties were the prime time to see the world and experience the wondrous things life has to offer. So, as a teenager, Melissa made a list of places she wanted to see and things to do before she turned thirty. Remembering the list, she rifled through the junk drawer and pulled it out.

Smoothing the now yellowing sheet of paper, she read:

- [ ] Road trip down California’s coast

- [ ] Visit Sicily

- [X] Fall in love

- [X] Graduate college with a teaching degree

- [ ] Get a tattoo

- [ ] Ghost tour in Savannah, GA

- [ ] The Outer Banks, NC

Melissa let out a sigh, she’d achieved two of those things- well, only one if she was honest with herself. She did what she was supposed to do, what she was told her whole life she had to do. She married her high school sweetheart, graduated with a degree, became a teacher just like her mother.

When Melissa married Joe nearly fifteen years ago, he was so in love with her. He bought her flowers every Friday, took her out to fancy restaurants just because, told her she was beautiful and meant it. Somewhere along the line, though, they fell into a dull routine. Joe bought her flowers only for their anniversary and her birthday. Melissa cooked for him almost every night and he did the dishes. Joe kissed her on the cheek before work each morning as she tied his tie. Each action lacked what they both craved, what they once had.

About a year ago they decided they should try to date each other again. They would go to their favorite restaurant on Saturday nights and enjoy a delicious meal that Melissa didn’t have to cook. At first, Melissa thought it was a nice change of pace. Until Joe started skipping out on their dates for weekend business trips to Boston. She found it odd that after eleven years with the company the first out of town trips just so happened to be when they had time together. After the first couple of trips, she noticed a big change in the way he treated her. On their date nights he would barely look at her, would compliment or flirt with any other woman but her. He started making comments about her weight and told her to diet. He became a vile man, someone she no longer knew. Despite these things, Melissa stayed. She was never a fan of change, good or bad, so she sat complacent with her misery and heartbreak.

“Melissa, can you grab us another round,” Joe shouted from the other room, bringing the redhead back to the present. She shook her head and blinked back the tears threatening to fall. She grabbed five ice cold beers from the garage and sat them on the coffee table for the guys. They mumbled their thanks and she went back to the kitchen to see the pot boiling over on the stove.

“Fuck!” Melissa rushed over and turned off the stove, moving the pot to a different burner so she could clean up the chili. Many paper towels and one first degree burn later, the kitchen was back to normal. She took her place staring out the window once more, thinking about what would happen if she did leave. If she did what she wanted for once instead of what she was told.

The following weekend Joe took Melissa out to their favorite restaurant after his boss called and cancelled his trip. When they arrived they asked for their favorite waitress, one Melissa had quietly grown particularly fond of. “Does Callie have an open table for us,” Joe asked the host at the front.

“Absolutely! She always has room for you two. Right this way,” he beamed as he grabbed menus and led them to their usual table in the back corner. Once they were seated he told them he’d send Callie over as soon as he could before he disappeared.

Through the hustle and bustle of the busy kitchen, the host dodged servers with hot plates to get to Calliope. “Cal, your regulars are here! Table 75, all yours.” He started to walk away before she whipped her head around, angry she had been triple sat.

“Ugh, which ones?” She slammed her server book on the counter and began to grab another basket of bread rolls.

“Jessica Rabbit and her troll of a husband.” He ducked to avoid the roll she chucked at his head. Callie absolutely adored the redhead, but her husband was a horrible human being and she simply did not have the patience to put up with his crudeness and the belittling of his wife. She sucked it up though, and grabbed their drinks from the bar before heading their way.

As she approached the table she could already tell it was going to be a rough evening. Joe seemed to already be a little tipsy. She took a deep breath and walked up. “Howdy! Bud light for Joe, and a glass of red for the prettiest lady in Philly.” She placed the respective glasses in front of them as well as the basket of rolls and looked right at Melissa just in time to see the blush creep up onto her cheeks. Her shy smile quickly faded as Joe chimed in.

“I don’t know about all that, now. You give her a pretty good run for her money,” he chuckled as his eyes passed over Calliope’s cleavage and curves, completely unashamed. Callie noticed the hurt in Melissa’s eyes before the woman masked it with a fake smile.

She refused to acknowledge his remark and addressed Melissa instead, “If you ever decide to leave his ass, let me know. I’d treat you right. We having the usual tonight, folks?” She winked at the older woman, ignoring Joe’s glare. Melissa gave a stiff nod and took a large sip from her glass. The couple ate their meals while Joe ranted about work stuff and Melissa nodded along pretending to care. After checking in and refilling their glasses a few times, Cal stopped at the table before she ran to print the check to see if the couple wanted to share a dessert.

“Anything sweet tonight? We just added chocolate cheesecake to the menu, it’s better than the Oreo pie we had a while back.” Calliope smiled at the redhead.

Joe chuckled, “You ain’t on the dessert menu by chance, are ya?” Both women stared blankley at the man. He cleared his throat and said, “No dessert tonight. I’m sweet enough and the missus here needs to drop a few pounds. I’ll go ahead and pay now.” He handed her his card with his shit eating grin.

“I think you’ve got that backwards, Joe, but alright,” Cal scoffed. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She again winked at the older woman before making her way to the computer. Once she returned, Cal said her goodbyes and walked back to the server’s hallway to put in another table’s order and wait for the inevitable visit from Melissa.

It was the same routine almost every Saturday night. Joe would flirt with Callie, Callie would flirt with Melissa. They’d order their usual meals, eat in near silence. Joe would pay the bill and not tip, Melissa would excuse herself to the restroom to find Callie in the server hallway and slip her $20 so he wouldn’t see.

From time to time, Melissa would dine alone while her husband was out of town on business. On those nights, Cal would drop off a brownie sundae at the table and tell her the kitchen made an extra by accident. In reality, she used her employee meal to cover the dessert just to put a smile on the woman’s face. She would do anything to see her smile. Melissa would stay well past close to talk with Callie in the dim lit dinning room once she was cut for the night, often being the very last customer to leave. Conversation after conversation, Melissa revealed more about her relationship with Joe and it broke the server’s heart. Cal met a totally different Melissa when she dined alone. The woman was strong, witty, kind, incredibly smart and outspoken. It made seeing her look so small with Joe even more unbearable. Melissa did not deserve to have her heart broken over and over by the man every day. She deserved to be loved gently, to be treasured.

As she stood at the computer tapping away at the screen, she felt a familiar presence behind her. She turned around to see Melissa holding out a twenty dollar bill with a sad smile. “For you, thank you for being so wonderful as always. And per usual, don’t let Joe find out, please. He’s blowin’ all his pocket money in Boston these days so he’s trying to control my spending now too.” The redhead rolled her eyes and shoved the bill into the server’s hand.

“Thanks, Melissa, I truly appreciate you,” Callie said as she grabbed Melissa’s wrist and pulled her close. Close enough that she could smell her perfume. She whispered so no one else could hear, “I meant what I said. I’d take good care of you. You’re a beautiful woman worth so much more than what you get from Joe.”

Melissa blushed and pulled back slightly to look at the younger woman. “I know, Cal-“

“See, I don’t think you do. Why do you stay with that asshole anyway?” She turned to finish placing the order at the computer.

The redhead furrowed her brow. “I- I don’t really know if I’m bein’ honest. I guess I don’t have a good reason to stay aside from the fact that he’s all I’ve ever known.” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she tilted her head back to keep them from falling. Callie stepped forward again and brushed her thumbs under the woman’s eyes to dry them.

“No reason to stay is an awfully good reason to go.” She grabbed a pen from her apron and scrawled her phone number on a napkin, handing it to Melissa. “If you ever need a friend… or more, I’m here.”

They shared a quick hug and Melissa made her way back to the table to grab Joe and head out. Melissa spent the entire drive home pondering what the waitress said. Maybe Calliope was right. Maybe no reason to stay was a pretty good reason to leave.

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Drama CD Hijikata Biyori Track 35 Eng

After track 36, I think there are 4 biyori specials I've got tl for that remain untranslated (though I'm not 100% sure of that...), and then I'm sorta debating about translating the Hakuoki x Sengoku Night Blood crossover main story (I can't do anything but the main story, which is in 5 parts 😅. also this is all your fault koto 😝).

Anyway, this month, I'm likely just going to stick to posting on Friday or Saturday. My workday ends at 2pm on Friday this month so it'll probably be easier to post then... that is assuming I can finish game testing beforehand (been speed-running but it takes time...).

Hakuoki Hijikta Biyori Track 35: Return

English translation by KumoriYami

Hijikata: I'm, back.

Kondou: Ooh, you've worked hrd, Toshi.

Hijikta: Oh?....What, it's just Kondou-san.

Kondou: What? That's a terrible thing to say.

Hijikta: Haha, Sorry. I thought one of the other members would be here.

Kondou: Ahahaha... I see, I see/really, really. Were they scared by me? It seems that I did something wrong to Toshi.

Hijikta: No, it's nothing like that…

Kondou: Come on, don't stand there forever, come inside and go get some rest.

Toudou: The Eighth Division has returned!

Kondou: Oh! It's Heisuke. Thank you for your hard work.

Hijikata: Good work.

Toudou: Hey what's going on? You two are actully greeting me? What happened?

Hijikta: What are you saying. I just got back too.

Toudou: Oh, I see. I was really surprised since I thought that something had hppened for Kondou-san and Hijikata-san to come greet me. Well, this makes me feel better.

Hijikata: Then you'll have to work hard to make up for it.

Kondou: Oh, that's right. Heisuke even looks like he wants to keep working.

Toudou: What!? Wait, even Kondou-san!

Kondou: Hahahaha! I ws just kidding, just kidding! You can head inside and go rest, Heisuke.

Hijikata: Sorry, Kondou-san.

Kondou: What's wrong, why raeyou suddenly saying that. s, all of a sudden.

Hijikata: Ah... You obviously have things to do, and I kept you here.

Kondou: What are you talking about?

Hijikata: You were going to go somewhere, weren't you? You were at standing right by the entrance… Toudou: Ah, what. If that's the case, just say that, Kondou-san. I'll open this now, so wait a moment.

Kondou: No, I wsan't going anywhere.

Hijikata: Huh?

Todou: Really?

Hijikata: If you weren't going anywhere, what were you doing here?

Kondou: I wsa only thinking that you'd be returning soon, so I came to greet you.

Hijikata: Is that all?

Kondou: That's right…

Hijikata:…What's wrong, Kondou-san?

Kondou: Should I not have?

Hijikata: No, it's not like that…

Todou: Thank you, Kondou-san! I, Todou Heisuke, have returned safely!

Kondo: Nn, I see. I'm glad that you're safe.

Toudou: Of course. Kondou-san really worries a lot. Right, Hijikta-san.

Hijikata: Yeah… that's right. Kondou-san, we're not that weak. We'll definitely return safely. So, don't waste your precious time on something trivial like this.

Toudou: Yes, that's right.

Kondou: I see. Haha, that's true. But… I've had a lot of things to worry about lately.

Hijikata: In that case, I'll at least get rid of one of them. Hijkta Toshizou has safely returned.

Kondou: Ah, welcome back, Toshi.

---end---

[dumplingsjinson]

Back with a REALLLYYYY long ramble about my love life? (Like, when I say really long, I meant it.)

Or... A lack thereof. I don't know, it's confusing; maybe I'm overthinking and maybe he does want to be friends or... he wants more??? Maybe I'm looking into things a bit too deeply BUT THAT'S WHAT I ALWAYS DO AND I’M AFRAID IT'S NEVER GOING TO STOP AHHA.

SO ANYWAYS. Here's the story. 

Prepare for a long ass post lmao, because I'm going the FUCK off again :D So like, if you don’t want to read my bullshit then feel free to skip past onto the next glorious post on your dashboard. 

(The TL;DR is at the very bottom of this post if you can’t be fucked reading the whole thing lmao.)

Okay. 

So. 

I met this dude on CMB (Coffee Meets Bagel). We'll call him... Mixed signals dude. (we’re calling him mixed signals dude because it feels like he wants more with the way he acts, but the words that come out of his makes me feel like… Yeah, no, maybe I’m overthinking this greatly.)

He's pretty nerdy. A homebody. Overreacts to things. Pretty shitty texter but aren't most people? And he doesn't seem to exercise much because we were walking around a lot during our first meet up and he was pretty puffed out after a bit lmao. He's an introvert. He's a bit… Eccentric (and I'm not saying that to belittle him). I'm not pinning any of this against him, though. It just provides a background to what type of person he is. 

Either way, he asks me if I'd like to meet up with him "as friends". I say yeah, sure thing, why not? I mean, I’m here to meet people, after all. 

So we set a date, the day comes, and I meet up with him. He’s waiting for me at the platform my train stops at. We fall into easy conversation the moment I walk up to him and we start talking. I feel at ease with him even though we’ve just met, and my nerves dissipate pretty quickly. 

Funny, because I was literally messaging my friend “Oh God, I’m nervous as fuck” like five minutes before the train arrives at my destination. 

It’s nice, we share laughs, and it isn’t like... Awkward? Maybe a little, but it isn’t as bad as the other times I met up with other dudes. Usually first time hang outs are fairly awkward and sometimes boring, but it didn't feel that way with him. Oh, also, he's also the "ladies first" type of dude, always urging me to walk before him AHAHA. I don't know how to describe it but yeah. 

So anyway, that's all good. We have a good time and get to know each other more. We go home after hanging out for the whole day, he tells me he had a good time, I say I did too.

We talk over text, and about a week or so passes before he asks me out again, so I say sure. It was pretty last minute; we set it up Friday night and then met up Saturday noon. That Saturday, he had planned on studying for his cert for either work or uni, but he comes out to hang with me anyway even though I insist we could do another day if he really couldn’t hang out (he said he didn’t want to study anyway so I was like, okay. We’ll go, then, if you’re sure). 

First half of the "hang out" is pretty normal. We go to an art gallery, then we slowly make our way to the Botanic Gardens, where we kinda stop to rest for a little bit. We’re out here talking and laughing, and when we feel rested up, we make our way to another museum/art gallery. We talk about our dating lives, I tell him about the guys I've talked to, we talk about our personal lives and our families; the lot. We share more laughter, and by this point (and take note because this does become an important point later in the story), I’ve broken the touch barrier with what I’d say is friendly physical contact — light slaps on the shoulder/arm, light pushes, etc. The shit I usually do with my friends in a playful type of manner. 

Keep in mind, at this point, he keeps saying “You can’t find someone on the apps, only friends” etc, etc, so I’m like… Cool. He wants to meet people and become friends, and I’m not opposed to that. I could do with more friends. And I’ve basically adapted the philosophy of “What happens, will happen” and I’m not going to try and force shit. 

So now, here’s the thing: one thing I’ve been noticing during the first meet up and moreso throughout the second meet up, during our walks, he seemed pretty… Protective of me? I don’t know if that’s the right word but like… I’d complain about the sun shining in my face and he’d try to walk beside me to shield me from it. He’d grab me before I crash into things like the clumsy bitch I am. During the first meet up, he was quick to stop me from walking into oncoming traffic because I wasn’t paying attention. Maybe he has quick reflexes, I’m not sure, but I do need someone to kinda check me on my shit sometimes HAHA. 

Anyway, after the museum, we wander around the city for a bit, I buy some Gozleme for us to share (he just started his full time job and his paycheck doesn’t come until like, next week, so he was very thankful about me shouting him food). 

After that, we couldn’t really think of anything else to do so I’m like, “Do you wanna go home and study?” and he’s like, “Nah, I will stay for a bit more. I don’t want you staying alone out here” even though I never suggested I’d be staying out there alone, but I was like, “…Okay”. I found that to be pretty sweet of him, ngl. 

I kinda don’t want to go home either because well… I’m stuck at home a lot these days because I’m still jobless (hopefully that changes soon or so God help me, I’ve been applying and applying and I’m on the brink of losing my shit), when a sudden idea pops into my head. Before I know it, I’m suggesting we go to the movies, and I tell him we could watch Across the Spider-verse (I’ve watched it already but I wanted to watch it again, so might as well) and he’s like sure, because he didn’t wanna go home and study anyway, among other reasons. 

So that works out for the both of us! It’s actually kinda funny that he agreed, because he didn’t watch the first one, but when I ask if he’s sure about this, he says, “Yeah I’m sure.”

(Funny side note: about a day ago, he suggested we watch the first one together on Disney+, via IG call this Saturday but I’m not sure if I’m free then so I’ll probably get back to him about that later.) 

By then, it’s around 5pm? I buy the tickets for us (we get a discount for the cinema’s anniversary or whatever event’s going on, so I only had to pay 9 dollars for a ticket rather than 24 dollars so it’s a huge bargain. Again, he thanks me for that and I’m like — “it’s fine.”). The movie starts at 6:40pm, so we stay at the nearby Starbucks to wait for the movie to start. He shouts me hot chocolate, and he uses that hour to study for his cert because he brought his laptop with him. 

This is where he starts returning the friendly gesture/touches. He hugs me as a way of thanking me for buying the movie tickets and for shouting him food; he pats me on the head and I’m sitting there like wtf; he keeps touching my knee with his hand — like, he would lightly shaking my knee and would let his hand linger there for a few seconds. And like, I’m fine with it, because again — those, in my definition, are friendly gestures, and I was already kind of doing that to him myself earlier on. And I’m feeling comfortable enough with him, so you know. I didn’t mind any of this. And I guess he’s pretty comfy with doing stuff like that, too. 

So ANYWAYYYY, we carry on like this for the next hour. I’m pretty sure I’m distracting him from his studies but he still ends up getting something done, and then we head to the cinema once the time’s up. We sit down, the movie starts, and… It’s fine. 

It’s all good. Nothing’s really happening, at least between us.  

I lean my head on his shoulder like I do with my friends. I’ll be honest, I’ve been wanting to do this the whole day, so I’m like fuck it, why not? 

I literally feel him pause for like a moment — like, he goes still. 

So fucking still.

The first thought that pops into my mind is “this is uncomfy.” Turns out leaning your head on someone’s shoulder when you’re sitting in squishy ass cinema chairs isn’t exactly comfortable, so after like, not even a minute of doing that, I sit up properly and fix my posture. I decide to lean forward; elbows resting on my thighs, upper body leaning forward because that’s usually how I like to sit when leaning back into the seat isn’t doing me any good. 

And uh… THIS is where something a little more significant happens — he kind of just wraps his arm around my waist and literally scoops me back into him (and in my head I’m literally like “so fucking close, holy sHITTTT LNKEFLEKWNFWKLNFKLEWNKLFEWN”), and tells me to rest my head on his shoulder, saying shit like, “Sitting like that isn’t good for your back.” 

LIKE BITCH. HELLO?? THE AUDACITY WLKNFELWKFN. This isn’t my first rodeo, it’s happened before with another guy but THIS GOT ME FEELING MORE NERVOUS RATHER THAN UNCOMFY. Maybe uncomfortable because of the stupid seats but not uncomfortable because of what he’s doing, you feel me? 

So I’m like… Okay? He has his arm still around my waist, quite tight I must say, and I’m just kinda awkwardly resting my head on his shoulder while his arm becomes a backrest for my back (which isn’t really that comfortable, to be honest), and it’s kinda just wedged between my seat and my back. And I can FEEL the sudden nervousness coursing through me, distracting me from the movie, so thank fuck I watched the movie by myself the first time around or I would have missed some parts of the movie (because this isn’t the only thing he does — there’s more). 

Anyway, at one point, I slightly lean away from him because sitting like that isn’t very comfortable. He still has his arm around my waist, although it’s loosened a little by now. 

The movie’s still running, I’m sort of in my own world, because all I’m thinking is SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT, when he kind of starts… rubbing his cheek against my shoulder?? That’s the best way I can describe it lmfao, and my fried writer brain isn’t HELPING.

AND I’M LIKE OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD and that’s when my heart starts beating erratically. LIKE BRUHHH. And then he asks, “Is this too much?” (or he asks “Is this okay?” but I can’t exactly remember which one it is so you’re just gonna have to believe it’s either of them) and ahahahahaAHAHAH…

My dumb fucking ass responds to that with an, “Uh, your arm around my back is a little uncomfortable.” BECAUSE IT’S TRUE, OKAY??? But I’m feeling too awkward to pull away AND I’M ALSO FEELING TOO AWKWARD TO MAKE MYSELF MORE COMFORTABLE BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN I’D HAVE TO LIKE… FIDGET AROUND AND SNUGGLE UP AGAINST HIM TO MAKE MYSELF COMFY AND MY CHICKEN ASS COULDN’T DO IT LKNFEWLKFNEK (even though I wANTED TO UGH. THIS IS THE PROBLEM. I WANTED TO DO THAT SHIT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME—)

So yeah anyway, aha… He kinda pulls away from me fully, and stays in his seat and doesn’t really lean over again. 

And I’m thinking… Well. Nothing else is going to happen, I guess. 

Cool.

I guess. 

…WELLL, BOI WAS I FUCKING WRONGGGG HAAHAHAH. 

Throughout the rest of the movie, he’d grab onto my arm during the more tense scenes; he’d link arms with me and pull me closer to him; he’d lean against me, head on my shoulder, and I’d just kinda… lean my head on his head at times LMFAOOO (returning the favour HA), and my heart was being a fucking asshole half of the time and beating a hole through my chest and I was like oh gODDDD PLEASE DON’T LET HIM HEAR THIS SHIT PLEASE DON’T LET HIM HEAR THIS SHITTT— 

Anyway. 

He’d pull away when I’m not reacting to his touch, but then he’d come back in for more. Sometimes I’d react by reciprocating, sometimes I won’t. 

There is one point when I felt his fingers brushing against my knuckles while our arms are linked, and I’m ngl, when he was doing all of that stuff prior to this moment, I was thinking OH GODDDDD is he gonna hold my hand is he gonna hold my hand is he gonna hold my hand— AND LO AND BEHOLD, MY THOUGHTS KINDA CAME TRUE. 

AND THE CRAZY THING IS: I WANT TO LET HIM HOLD MY HAND, but my hands are sweaty and disgusting because I’m feeling so fucking nervous for whatever reason, and so I just pull the fuck away before he could hold my hand LMFAOOO 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 

AGAIN. Not my first rodeo. I’ve had another guy do this (the same dude I was talking about before) but in a much cringier way, and I was definitely not as comfortable with that dude than I was with THIS guy. 

So uh. Yeah. That happens. He kinda leans away after that, and I’m thinking… Hm. He isn’t gonna initiate any more physical contact, is he? But nah. I was proven wrong on that department, once again. He’d grab my arm lightly at times, but I kinda just didn’t react by that point because I’m like…. UH. whAT IF HE TRIES THAT AGAIN AHHH.

Like, don’t get me wrong. I want to hold his hand but ALSOOO PALMS SWEATY KNEES SPAGHETTI FRRRRR. 

But anyway, the movie comes to an end, we get the fuck outta there and I feel relief washing over me because JESUS, that was intense. 

It’s like nearly 9pm at that point, we’ve spent a whole day together and I’m out here feeling a little flustered after all of that. 

He starts apologising profusely, saying he’s sorry, etc, and I keep telling him it’s fine, he’s okay, he’s not a creep (he kept calling himself one). He’s like, “You told me about that guy who was being too much with you and I didn’t want you to think I’m like him” (it’s the other dude I talked about before — the one I felt uncomfy with). And I’m like, “You’re not like him, please don’t worry.” (Because for fucking one, while I was definitely nervous when he pulled me close to him in the first instance, I wasn’t like… uncomfy with it because of him. Like, I would honest to God have stayed like that and let him hold me if the cinema seats weren’t so uncomfortable for leaning against someone LMAO, but oFC HE’S NEVER GONNA KNOW THAT.) 

So we walk out of the cinemas and onto the streets, and there’s this like… Performance going on, with a small crowd surrounding the performer. So, me being a curious little motherfucker, kinda beckons him over, saying, “Let’s go take a look,” and he agrees (side note: I’ve been noticing this guy is very agreeable. Like, I’d say “Let’s go into this store to check this thing out”, he’d be like “Sure” and tag along. When I go into these clothing stores, he would follow me into those stores instead of waiting outside, and when I see he’s tired I’m like, “You can sit down, you know?” but he would be like, “It’s fine,” and continues following me around. It’s kinda sweet ngl, but I do feel a little bad when he’s all huffed out and shit lmfaooo). 

We linger there for a bit, trying to see what’s going on. Mind you, it’s cold; there’s a continuous breeze blowing against our backs, and he kinda just… Stands behind me (while complaining about how it’s freezing) and I didn’t think much of it then but now I’m like… Is that his way of keeping me from the cold OR AM I JUST IMAGINING THINGS?? AM I GOING FULL ON DELULU???

AND ANYWAY, we’re still there, watching, when he gets closer to me and leans his head on my shoulder and rubs his cheek against my shoulder. So I’M LIKE AKJBFEWJLBFJKFEJK, and I rest my head on his (i COULDN’T RESIST, OKAY???) and we kinda stay like that for a moment, and it feels so nice. Annnnnnd then I’m pulling away and suggesting we go home. It’s been a long day, and the night’s only getting colder. 

So we make our way to the train station, he apologises more, I say it’s fine. We gotta get on different platforms to go home, and FOR A VEERRRRYY BRIEF MOMENT, I consider hugging him before we part ways BUT I DIDN’T. I FUCKING DIDN’T AND I WISH I DID, BECAUSE I REALLY WANTED TO. 

I wanted to hug him is the problem here, and I’m not usually someone who wants to hug people, unless they’re family or close friends so like… BRUH. 

I get on the train, and then I receive a message from him — and he’s apologising AGAIN for being a creep and I’m like bruh it’S FINEEEEE. YOU’RE FINEEE. OMGG. (Not like that, though. I was more using the standard “It’s fine, please don’t apologise”.) We text for a bit and then, mustering up all my shitty courage, I ask him, “Did you want to hold my hand at one point?”

His answer: “PRETEND YOU DIDN’T SEE THAT.” lkneafklefnklnwfe LMFAOOO, such a shy boi HAHA. 

We’re kinda touching on the topic of boundaries, he’s telling me how he’s a physically affectionate person, so at one point I’m like, “Well, we can hold hands as friends, ya know?” Because these actions don’t have to be romantic. They can be platonic. Annnnnnd he agrees, and basically tells me, “Next time, hug me first. And you can hold my hand too, if you wanted to.” (I feel like a giddy high schooler typing all of this out LMFAO.) 

SO YEAH. TO SUM IT UP, I’m in a dilemma because I can’t tell if he actually wants to be just friends (he kept stating that at the start, but his actions and body language are like… contradicting what he’s saying), or if he wants something more. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe he’s just a really, really affectionate and protective type of friend, and is like this with fuckin’ everyone. 

I DON’T KNOW. 

BUT ANYWAY. THAT’S ABOUT IT. He’s still dry over text, but he’s good to hang out with, and it seems like he wants to continue to hang out with me. Oh, and also, he also keeps sending me selfies of him lmfao. 

And now idk how to feel because I kinda ended up reconnecting with long distant dude (it’s a long story lmfaooo, a lot of my prompt lists are made because of him) and like… I might have lingering feelings for him? BUT NOW I FEEL LIKE I MIGHT BE DEVELOPING FEELINGS FOR THIS MIXED SIGNALS DUDE. OR MAYBE I’M TRIPPING??? LIKE I went into this thinking, “Oh, he’s probably gonna be someone I’m gonna meet up with once and that’d be it” BUT HERE WE ARE, WITH HIM SAYING HE WANTS TO BE FRIENDS AND THEN PULLING SHIT LIKE THAT AND THEN MAKING MY HEART AND HEAD GO WNFLKEWNFKLENWFLKN—

THE FUCKING AUDACITY!!  

And it’s only been such a short while tooooo OMGGG, and I understand it’s only the second time we’ve met up BUT JESUS. 

I don’t know what to think or feel or do and I’m juST WLKNFEKN BECAUSE NOW HE’S THE ONE WHO’S GOT ME WAITING FOR HIS GODDAMN TEXTS LIKE A FUCKING DUMBASS UGHHH. And I already wanna see him again sooo… HOW FUCKED AM I AHAHHAHA FJSJSJJSJ (As that one song says: This is the part where I’m gonna get HURT, LMFAOOO.) 

Though, to be FAIRRR, I did tell him briefly about long distant dude and he was like “awww, you guys are like soulmates” SO IM LIKE AHAHHA 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 (he did switch topics pretty abruptly when I tried to talk more about him lmfao, but he skips over shit pretty frequently so maybe that’s just how he is). Perhaps I am over thinking this AND MAYBE HE DOES WANNA BE FRIENDS ONLY but imma see how things progress 😃👍

Now, I’m going be serious for a second: he just got out of a two year relationship three months ago so MAYBE he’s craving physical connection which is why he was acting like that? So I could be completely wrong and he genuinely does want to be friends only so… Yeah. I’m gonna tread cautiously, despite everything I’ve said before. Like, I’m open to whatever happens, but I’m also not looking to get my feelings hurt again. 

With that being said, we’re seeing the Barbie movie next week. It’s kinda funny because I did mention it when we met up last week, and he was groaning about it. 

Earlier today, I messaged him and was like, “Imma buy tickets, did you want to come along or no?” (because if he didn’t want to come along, then I’ll just buy a ticket for myself and watch it myself, no biggie — but I also did kinda wanna see him again so I asked just in case LMAO) and he’s like, “I’ll go with you” with pretty much no hesitation. 

Then, I’m out here making sure he’s okay with it because I didn’t want him to feel like he’s being forced to come along aND THEN HE FUCKING HITS ME WITH THE “I’ll do it for you”.

LIKE, BRUHHHH??? “I’ll do it for you.” BITCCHHHHHH, LET ME JUST CRY BECAUSE WHY CAN’T I HAVE A MAN WHO ISN’T GIVING ME MIXED SIGNALS LIKE THAT IN MY GODDAMN LIFE. 

THE AUDACITTTTYYYYYY SLDKFNDWLKNFWKELFN AHHH.

And then he’s like, “I owe you a lot” since I’m the one buying the tickets again (like I said earlier, he just got a full time job and his paycheck doesn’t come until like next week so it’s whatever if I’m the one paying for us for now) and I’m like, “You don’t owe me anything, and it’s not like you wanted to watch the movie in the first place” and THEN HE’S ALL LIKE, “Yeah, but I wanted to accompany you” AND IT’S LIKE BRO???? HELLLLLOOOOOO????????

Like, talk about being accidentally smooth LMFAO. 

He also has like, work that day, so him agreeing to accompany me just adds a layer of sweetness to this dhsjsjsj

And he started calling me by my nickname outta no where and I was like tf—

SO YEAH. DO FRIENDS DO THIS JFDFNDKLN. AM I TRIPPING. AM I OVERTHINKING???

And yeah, this is basically where things are at right now and I’ll probably provide another update later if anything significant happens, so you might see me popping up with something else in a reblog of this post lmfao :DDDDD 

So… Yeah. Moral of story is: don’t go on dating apps or you’ll end up playing yourself like a goddamn fiddle. 

(I also just realised I wrote a whole fic, basically, because I failed to be succinct lmao, I’m sorry and I’m gonna be so surprised if anyone reads the whole thing.) 

TL;DR: Dude I met up with two times keeps giving me mixed signals. Says he wants to be friends, but his actions contradict his words. I’M CONFUSION. And might  also be catching feelings but we’ll hold onto that thought for a bit because I think I still like someone else?? And maybe it's been too short of a time to be catching feelings in the first place. So yeah. Fun times. 

[littlekiara96]

About the Melusines and their inspiration

Let me tell you the medieval french story of the fairy called Mélusine~

But first, we have to start with her father, Elinas, king of what would later become Albany, Scotland.

(TL;DR at the end)

King Elinas was hunting down some boars in a forest, when he saw, next to a fountain, a beautiful young woman. He asked to marry her, and she accepted at one condition : to never look at her when she will be giving birth or bathing their future children. Her name was Persine, and she actually was a fairy.

They had three daughters, named Mélusine, Mélior and Palestine.

Alas, the king’s son, Mataquas, born from a first wedding, was jealous of his mother-in-law's happiness, and convinced his father to enter the room where she was bathing her daughters, thus breaking the promise Elinas had made. Persine then exiled herself and her three daughters on Avalon, telling them as they grew up that if they were stranded in this misery, it was because of their father’s falsity.

She kept telling this to her daughters, so much so that came a point when Mélusine convinced her sisters to punish their father, by imprisoning him in a mountain called Brumblerio.

They did not expect their mother to get mad at them and punish each one of them for that. I won’t get into the details of the younger sisters', but Mélusine's punishment was that she would turn into a snake from the waist-down each Saturday.

But not to worry! If she wanted to marry a man someday, she would live a perfectly happy and normal life, with a normie death, if only her husband never sees her on a Saturday! :D

Oh, and if she leaves her husband, she'll be half-snake constantly, but surely, nothing bad will happen~

One day, after Mélusine has travelled to France (because why not, I guess), she was chilling in some forest.

At the same time, some guy named Raymond of Lusignan, son of some earl, was hunting a boar with his uncle, and accidentally killed said uncle. And as he was fleeing in both grief and because he was hunted down for murder, he found a fountain at midnight. And at this fountain was Mélusine. (Yes, there’s a pattern.)

She comforts him and offers her help, if he marries her and promises to not try seeing her on Saturdays. He accepts, they get married and have 10 sons, but we don’t need to care about them.

Small aside, Mélusine is said to have built several buildings in the regions of Poitou and Lorraine, as well as full on cities, castles and churches. But she built everything during the night and stopped if anyone saw her.

Back to Raymond, who was keeping his promise. Until his older brother, jealous of him (for political and economic reasons, I guess), told that his wife was seeing another man on Saturdays. Thus, Raymond went to the bathroom where Mélusine was at the time, made a peephole in the door and looked inside. Only to see his half-snake wife taking her bath.

Mélusine then flew away, out of despair, and would later show herself each time the Lusignan familiy’s properties would change owners or a family member would soon die (probably looking like some ghost to the common man ? Pure speculation on my part, though).

TL;DR:

Mélusine was a fairy in the french medieval folklore, heavily associated with water, more specifically fountains and basins, and her father was named Elinas. She would also turn half-snake on a regular basis.

So, between the "Fontaine" region, the "Melusines" race, their father "Elynas", the castles Mélusine built, the fact that snakes where sometimes called "dragons" in medieval texts, and all the water imagery in Fontaine...

Yeah, let's say those are really nice easter eggs.

[alex51324]

Eclipse Trip Report, Part 1

TL: DR, The eclipse was clouded out and therefore a bit underwhelming, but still neat, and the rest of the trip was fun, too!

I arrived at my campsite on Friday afternoon, amid snow flurries and sleet:

Luckily, I was staying in this snug little hut, a Pennsylvania state park "camping cottage." They're smaller and less quaint than the rustic cabins that I usually get, but because they're prefab, they have them at some of the parks that don't have full cabins, including the one where I was staying, 20 minutes outside the path of totality.

The hut has 3 of these little radiators, along with two sets of bunks:

Sophie always decides to sleep on that green blanket on the floor when we go camping, even though I make up a bunk for her. That ended up working out this time, because my dad decided at the last minute that he wanted to see the eclipse, too, so he came up Sunday night. I'm not sure who among the three of us would have had the hardest time getting up to a top berth.

Besides the bunks, you also get a table and chairs:

The cottages are located right on the park's little lake:

This was a less-than-a-minute walk from the cottage, and I could hear the frogs from my bunk!

The weather cleared up by about mid-day on Saturday, so we hopped in the car and drove to the path of totality to scout out viewing spots. Here's what we decided on, at Long Point On Lake Chautaqua State Park:

We walked out to the titular Long Point:

Which was very windy, but a nice view!

After that, we drove up to Lake Erie and had a look around, visiting two lighthouses, each with a little municipal park nearby. Here's the Dunkirk Lighthouse:

I got there a little too late to go on the tour inside, but I was mainly there to look at the lake, anyway. It's a very big lake. What's eerie about it, Lake Erie, is that it's sort of like the ocean--it has waves, and you can't see the other side--but it's like a normal lake in how it smells, and what the plant and animal life is like, and all that:

It's kind of disconcerting.

Also mildly disconcerting was how this little beach, a municipal park of some kind, was directly under the shadow of this factory:

There's also interesting driftwood, smoothed into odd shapes. This one looks like a dragon skull:

Then we drove up to the Barcelona lighthouse:

Which was also closed, in this case because it's falling down, and you can't even get a good look at the outside because it's all fenced off so it doesn't fall on top of somebody. (The vertical stripes on the tower are something they're apparently using to brace it up, and the whole other side is blocked off with orange construction fencing.)

It has a much cooler beach, though:

There were these crumbling slate cliffs, and little waterfalls coming down them!

Sophie enjoyed sniffing things, and drinking the lake:

When we got back to the hut, she was ready for a nice rest:

[philhoffman]

In lieu of a Monday Philm post tonight, I wanted to tell y'all about the long weekend I had in Western New York. I took a very special trip up to Phil's hometown of Rochester, NY, for a special 35mm screening of Owning Mahowny—which ended up being one of the best nights of my life. TL;DR I met his family and got to tell them how much he is loved ❤️

As some of you might know, the Eastman Museum in Rochester is now the permanent home of PSH's statue, and to celebrate, the museum's Dryden Theatre is showing his films all year long. I've been dying to see Phil's hometown and especially the statue since it was unveiled last year and finally made it (many hours and several hundred miles in the rain) up to WNY for a couple days. Y'all I can't even tell you how excited I was just to be in Rochester, like geeking over everything. We visited Fairport, where Phil grew up, and went to a restaurant with a burger named after him (yum), and got his fave kind of donuts at the Wegmans where he worked as a cashier in high school (I told you, geeking HARD). It's such a nice, friendly city and so many little things about Phil clicked just being there.

We went to the Eastman Museum first thing Saturday morning to see his statue and it's so perfect. Yes I cried a little bit as soon as I walked up to it! I don't need to tell y'all how much Phil means to me and finally seeing this public tribute to him, which looks so good and is so approachable and huggable and real and lovely, was amazing. Passed it four times going in and out of the museum and made my mom take my photo with him every time :-)

That night was the 35mm screening of Owning Mahowny. Already one of my favorite PSH films, I recently finished the book it's based on—No Limit: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony by Gary Ross—which is just as engrossing and made me even more excited to rewatch the film on the big screen. We were the first people to the theater bc I was so anxious to be there lmao.

I recognized Phil's mother, Marilyn, and his older sister, Jill, who arrived about 20 minutes before the film and sat a few seats away. My anxiety was through the ROOF—I am very shy in person, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't say anything and since this was a PSH-related event I figured they probably wouldn't mind if I brought him up. Thanks to Phil I have a hundred times more confidence than I did just a few years ago, so I worked up my courage and went over to introduce myself, tell them my name and how far I came just to see the statue and the film, how much I admire Phil and his work.

Y'all I'm tearing up again just typing this because they were the nicest people I have ever met in my life, seriously. His mom and his sister were immediately so kind that my nerves melted away, it was like talking to friends. They were touched that I'd come so far, they thanked ME for coming over to say hello. I shook their hands and we had a whole conversation for several minutes—I got to tell them that Phil changed my life, how I've seen all of his films, the ways he's inspired me to make my own art. I can't even believe I am writing this because it was so surreal and incredible. They asked me so much about my trip and myself, which is cute because I've heard so many stories about how Phil always asked people about themselves, their lives, their families, their work. His mom asked if I'd seen the statue (of course!!!) and told me to make sure I took a selfie with him :''''') so obviously I took another one when we left <3

Jill and I talked about Owning Mahowny and gambling while my mom talked to Phil's mom (like how is it even real that I'm saying that?), then Marilyn told a funny, sweet story about when Phil was filming Mahowny in Toronto in 2002. One day he called and asked to come home for a while, then drove down and spent the day with her watching hours of dailies of the same exact shot, scrutinizing each take and laboriously trying to decide on the best one—and his mom was like, "Phil, what are we searching for, these all look the same to me" LMAO 😭

The film itself was obviously amazing, no need for a full review here. Equally wonderful to share it with a big audience laughing, cringing, gasping, crying, smiling. The 35mm print looked beautiful. As we were leaving, Phil's sister made a point to catch my eye and thank me again for stopping to say hello! We said goodbye to her and Marilyn and they wished us a great rest of our trip to Niagara Falls the next day—it was so sweet they remembered I'd even mentioned it.

I hardly slept that night I was so excited lol. It's been two days and it still feels surreal. I'm repeating myself but I can't get over how warm and kind they both were, how we were all kind of moved almost to the point of tears talking about their beautiful son and brother, my hero, the artist and man who saved my life and brought us all together. I'm so so so grateful for the opportunity to tell them what Phil means to me. Since then I've had a million thoughts like "oh I wish I'd said this or that," but really it would be impossible to sum up in words, even if we had all the time in the world, everything I want to say. I said it before but it's easy to understand how Phil turned out to be such an amazing person, coming from a family like that.

One of the simplest yet most meaningful couple of days in my whole life. It was better than I could've hoped for. Mostly joy—and while there was some grieving and missing him, too, I know it all came from love. I feel closer to Phil than ever. Thank you for making me feel so welcome in your home, Phil. Words are never enough but I love you so much, we're all so proud of you.

[enjoythesilentworld]

first line tag game!

thank you to @hergrandplan @piebingo and @gulliblelemon for the tag💘💘💘 hello three of my most favorite writers

rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics/chapters posted on AO3 (if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics) and try to draw some conclusions.

i’ve only got 9 works on ao3, so i did the first line of the last chapter posted for each of them, from most to least recent

9. Label reads, in scratchy, all caps: SIMON’S 1ST BIRTHDAY! JULY 2005

8. The rest of September and the first week of October pass in a blur of work and wedding planning and video calls with Gabriele, and soon enough, it’s time to pack up and leave for Miami.

7. It was due to a sort of self-inflicted quarter-life crisis that Wilhelm found himself standing outside a pottery studio at 6pm on a Saturday night. 

6. “Holy shit,” Wille gasped as he draped himself across Simon.

5. “Simon, my back really hurts after rowing practice. You think you can give me a massage?”

4. This night seemed to be all about repeats, because the elevator ride and the walk down the hallway were both just as tense and torturous, but now for a different reason.

3. He sat in front of a warm fire.

2. Things had ended on relatively amicable terms between them.

1. Simon’s phone. March 29th, 2027, 4:29pm.

conclusions: the only conclusion i can draw from these right now is that i do not pay nearly as much attention to the first line as i probably should! but, then again, we are our own worst critic and i am just doing this for funsies. but going back and reading my own writing always makes me want to change everything so im gonna leave this hear and try not to rewrite every first line ive ever posted! 💘

i have not had much time to catch up on the tl lately but if you would like to do this and haven’t been tagged , pls do it and tag me so i can see!! i love lil fic games!! ok luv u bye!

[foxwayart]

State of personal affairs (IMPORTANT)

(TL;DR will be towards the bottom for those who don’t wanna read my ramblings, but I’d prefer you did since this is important.) Hey everyone, hope you’re all doing well, I’ll cut to the point by saying that I am not. For the past… We’ll say couple of months I’ve been on something of a mental health spiral, and it hasn’t really gotten any better save for my time at the Con. Which was a nice, but very brief reprieve. The whys of this dip in my well being are pretty varied, and some of it I’m not really able to talk about, whether for personal reasons or respect for others. But to put it broadly, work has been stressful, home has been stressful, my health has been stressful, everything has been stressful, and as it stands I don’t think I can keep up with things right now. So I’m taking a small break from working on commissions, and allowing myself a bit more breathing room when it comes to my streams (which is to say the next few streams may be much smaller scale, more chill chatting streams.)  

Now before any of you who commissioned me recently panic: With my current comms I will still be updating you guys, just at a slower rate than normal, I don’t intend to leave you guys in the lurch. But if by the time I’m done with them I still feel this bad, I probably won’t reopen my queue like I’ve been doing nonstop for the past while now. At least if I can financially help it… Streams like I said are gonna be a bit more lax. I’ll probably finish Pinkie Tower, but after that? I dunno, chatting and maybe some light doodling. Dunno how this will affect Sinner’s Saturday since some kind of income would be nice, but this week we’re definitely doing something different, just have to figure out what.  And yes, I still owe you guys that Discord movie night, we’ll be doing that soon. As for how long this time off is gonna be? No clue, it might only be a few days honestly, but the longest I’m giving myself is two weeks cause I just can’t afford any longer than that. And speaking of “affording”, it’s time for literally my least favourite part of the job. The shilling™️. I probably won’t really be making much if any money during this period, so if you ever wanted to support my work with a nice tip. Now would be the time. You have no idea how much even a small tip of a few dollars can help.https://ko-fi.com/foxweyman I’m not gonna sugar coat this folks. I make peanuts on my work. That’s no one’s fault, it's just the nature of being both a small artist and streamer, it’s something I’ve come to peace with as a fact of my career choices. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t stress me out. Part of why I can never usually take breaks at all is because I literally can’t afford to.

I have rent to pay, phone bills, internet, electricity bills, hormone pills, pet expenses including; food, potential vet visits, toys, poo bags, cat litter, etc. I have to have money saved up incase of an emergency whether personal or work related (computer parts need replacing, tablet needs replacing etc), then there's house expenses; food, toilet paper, cleaning supplies; replacing anything we need etc. It’s a lot, even with our packed house.

The only reason I'm able to go to Furnal Equinox or Canfurence is because I start saving up money month after month after month as a treat to myself, and even when there I tend to bring my work so I can get my commission queue done faster and reopen them again as soon as the con is done.

I’ve been told to raise my prices but let’s be honest, I’m not at the level where I can charge hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for pieces, and while this may be a pessimistic view of my work, I probably won’t be able to any time soon. Same with stream goals, I don’t feel like there’s much I can offer right now that would be worth $500 goals or something.

I’d open a merch shop or something but that would be even more stressful upkeep, and again let’s be real. My reach isn’t big enough for that and you can only sell the same merch to the same customer base for so long.

I apologize if it seems like I’m ragging on about the money, but of all the things I’m dealing with it’s the easiest to talk about because it’s something I think at least a few of you can relate to. That and the more personal troubles cut a bit deeper and I’m not sure I even really wanna talk about them because I don’t like dragging you guys down with me. We’ve made an awesome little community and I don’t need to be hurting you with my problems. Is that the healthiest way of looking at it? No probably not but there it is.

Above all that though I just want some more time to myself and the people I care about, not fretting every second that “I could be working” or “I could be monetizing this”, instead of focusing on improving my mental health so I can be a better creator for you guys, and a better person for me. I wanna draw for myself again,even if it’s just low stakes doodles or barely cohesive comic pages, or hell even just to work on my poor draftwomanship .I wanna let myself play some games and not think “Oh I have to stream this”,  every time I do. I wanna be able to go out with my loved ones and not constantly be thinking “WHY AM I NOT WORKING ON COMMISSIONS???”

So TL;DR taking a light break, not sure how long exactly, will keep current customers in the loop, streams aren’t going anywhere but may be a bit different, please tip to the ko-fi so I can stay afloat during this time https://ko-fi.com/foxweyman

For those that read through, thank you so much, it means the world that you care enough about my mental health to drudge through my ravings. You’re truly the best part of this job. A wonderful community that I can just chat and be honest with, I can laugh and joke with you all without fear or anxiety. That’s exceedingly rare these days and I couldn’t be more appreciative of you lot.

That in mind, this took awhile to write, my hands are hurting, and I wanna go lie down, maybe allow myself a good cry. Thanks everyone. <3

- Blaire,“Drfoxweyman” 

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

To the editor,

After Abigail and Riley contact Ian, Ian calls Ben in FBI custody and tells him 'and the FBI agents listening in on this call' that they should meet him on the flight deck of the USS Intrepid at 10am tomorrow.

Therefore, between ~4:15pm on Saturday, June 19th and 10am on Sunday, June 20th, there is a whole missing twelve hours (!) where Abigail and Riley have to make their way to New York after negotiating with Ian.

My personal headcanon is that Ben had all of the cash from Common Sense on him when he got nabbed by the FBI because it's Ben . Riley maybe has $20 cash on him and the only thing Abigail has are her earrings from her gala outfit. Either they scrape together enough cash for a bus ticket (?) or they have to travel with Ian and co. (Ian seems unlikely to let them out of his sight and Abigail obviously doesn't want to leave the Declaration, but from the dialogue of the car phone call scene it seems like Ian 'doesn't know' where Abigail and Riley are hiding nearby).

They also have to have slept at some point.

TL;DR there's a whole ~twelve hours of Abigail & Riley bonding time that is missing from the movie and the possibilities are endless! Thoughts?

Hi Anon,

Thanks so much for your question!

First of all, I am a walnut and the timeline article has been updated to reflect that yes, Ian tells us what time the adventure resumes on day 3: 10am on the deck on the Intrepid.

Which is actually great! Placing the Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, and New York legs of the adventure on different days makes for a neat separation of events by both place and time. It also makes the travel logistics more plausible, and takes the total time elapsed from around 24 hours to more like 48.

While that does leave the gang a little more time to rest, that assumes they can rest. If they can’t or won’t sleep due to danger, anxiety, travel, or all of the above, that weekend must feel like it lasts an eternity.

Like I said before, they must be e x h a u s t e d by the time this thing concludes.

But as you point out, the timeline the movie presents us with significant instances of missing time.

That’s missing as in unaccounted for, not missing as in wrong, btw. One of the many things I love about National Treasure is its pacing. Each sequence gets to take center stage when its time, but the movie certainly doesn’t drag. If nothing plot-significant is happening, we don’t need to see it.

In the film that is.

In the land of fandom, well…*evil laughter*

So.

National Treasure presents us with three significant instances of missing time:

The drive from D.C. to Philadelphia

The wait between their arrival in Philly at sunrise and clothes shopping/cypher decoding in the afternoon.

The trip from Philadelphia to New York.

Let’s take each in turn.

And boy oh boy, this one got out of hand. More under the cut if you’re interested.

D.C. to Philadelphia

First there’s the middle-of-the-night drive from D.C. to Philadelphia. We do see one scene from this time where Riley is dozing in the back seat as Ben tells Abigail about Common Sense. I really love this scene because it’s more intimate and quiet than anything that’s come before it. I am an absolute slut for quiet moments inside loud stories.

Up until now the movie has been all high stakes and big decisions. Now, because they’re forced to travel, the characters have to slow down. The only thing that has come close so far is the stop at the park in front of the Jefferson memorial, and even that included two huge decisions: Ben decided to face his father and Abigail decided she was going wherever the Declaration was.

The only decision made in the car is that they need to go shopping.

Even in this brief moment, all of their personalities are on full display. Riley is being skeptical and hilarious even as he’s half-asleep in the back seat using the Declaration as a pillow. Ben is full-steam-ahead on his mission, both literally and figuratively in the driver’s seat as he plans their next move and reveals he was already think about it by swiping the book from his dad’s. Abigail is reserved but curious. She still seems to be sizing the guys up as they banter back and forth, and is ready to match Ben’s historical references. Unlike Riley, she appears just as wide awake as Ben, and continues in the role she’s taken on since the test for the Ottendorf cypher, as the second-in-command. Hence she is in the passenger seat, versus in the van when she was in the back. Damn I love media analysis.

The whole scene lasts less than 30 seconds, and as we discovered in our timeline, the drive from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia takes about 3 hours. So what else did they talk about?

I’m particularly interested in Abigail’s perspective here, because this is the first chance she’s gotten to actually talk to Ben since she got roped into the heist. She started asking questions the moment she got pulled into the van, but Ben wasn’t answering. Then she learned more about him and the Gates’ family history with the treasure while observing his interactions with Patrick, but this is the first chance she has to really talk with him.

Ben must still be pretty wired from the heist and the discovery of the cypher, but it’s as late as 4 am by the time they’re on the road. His eyes could be getting heavy and talking to Abigail might help him stay alert, even if they’re talking about nothing. We know she doesn’t ask about Patrick’s weird question until they’re in the dressing rooms, but there’s plenty else they could have covered.

As I talk about here, Ben was curious about Abigail from the moment they met, and that was when she was refusing to help them. Now she’s not only demanded to come along on his crazy quest, but she’s become actively involved. From the moment she puts lemon juice on the Declaration of Independence, Abigail a personal stake in the hunt—now her job, career, and reputation are on the line. Ben has to have questions about that.

As for Riley, he’s hungry. He tells us as much. The canon scene seems to be near the beginning of the trip, given that Riley is making basic observations about the car (it’s a “sweet ride,” “This car smells weird.”) so he probably starts lobbying to stop for food at some point.

As the night wears on and the adrenaline wears off, Ben and Abigail realize that they haven’t eaten all night either. Abigail may or may not have had a chance to eat before the gala. When the alarm in the Declaration’s case goes off, she actually has her coat on to head home. Depending on how long it took to respond to the alarm, she may not have left the Archives at all. And I doubt Ben could eat anything before the heist.

My personal headcanon is that they stop at a 24 hour Burger King (et al). They make Riley order so they don’t look too suspicious in their gala clothes (mostly in case the FBI starts canvasing the fast food joints off every exit from D.C. to Philly. I suspect the night crew themselves would not give a shit). Everybody uses the bathroom.

It’s at this moment I’d like to give a shoutout to Abigail’s eye makeup. In the aforementioned scene in the car she’s still got perfect smokey eye, but that's a whole lot of dark eye makeup and that only ends one way: full Winter Soldier.

It's also fairly hard to get off. It only comes off with certain products like makeup remover or baby oil, and that much dark makeup would take like...full minutes of scrubbing to remove.

I imagine that in the fast food bathroom she notices that it’s starting to smudge. There's not much she can do about it at the moment, but whether because it's messy, uncomfortable, conspicuous, or all of the above, all that makeup is gone the next time we see her in the dressing room.

Which brings us to part 2.

Philadelphia

In some ways this is a continuation of the previous stretch of time. The only shot we see in between is the car driving into Philadelphia at sunrise. I’m separating them though because, well, they feel different to me.

Road trips are a special kind of liminal space. You don’t have to talk but you can’t leave, and at least one person has to be awake.

Once Team Treasure gets to Philadelphia, they can stretch their legs, run errands, get a break from each other. It’s different, so we’re counting it differently.

They arrive at sunrise but we don’t see them again until Abigail and Ben are at Urban Outfitters and Riley is outside the Franklin Institute sometime around 2 pm. (Per the cashier’s “almost three.”)

The Franklin Institute opens at 9:30am, and with the FBI hot on their trail (and Ian, though they don’t know that yet) they don’t have a moment to loose.

So what were they doing??

The screenwriting answer is: waiting until it was closer to the actual time on the $100 bill to generate more tension racing for the clue.

But here at the National Treasure Gazette we’re in the business of taking the story as-is. So in the universe of the film, what were they doing?

My best guess is sleeping, or at least trying to. I imagine something would have to happen in order to make Ben pause, even for a little while, so picture this: They’re winding their way through downtown Philadelphia. Riley is groggily complaining that he wants to sleep more. At this point Abigail in inclined to agree. Ben won’t hear it until he makes a bad driving decision. Not anything major, but he takes a turn too soon or too late, he drifts into another lane, or he doesn’t see another car until he’s forced to swerve out of the way. Okay. Point taken.

If they don’t get their wits about them, they’ll be caught before they find anything.

They park in an out of the way spot. Riley agrees to take first watch because he already slept a bit. Ben tries to argue and it takes both Riley and Abigail to convince him to relax. Only once Ben has finally resigned himself to resting does Abigail attempt to close her eyes too.

Nobody sleeps well, if they sleep at all. They jump at every siren and set of footsteps that gets too close to the car. All three of their pulses are racing, and although Ben’s body needs to rest, his mind will not stop chasing after the treasure.

At some point they send Riley into a drug store to grab a few necessities—granola bars, bottled water, maybe some bandaids. A bottle of ibuprofen because Abigail’s shoulder is starting to bother her and at least one of the three of them has a pounding headache at any given time from here to the finale. Riley takes pity on Abigail’s increasingly smudged makeup and grabs a travel pack of makeup wipes as well. Abigail hasn’t paid too much attention to Riley up until this point, but she’ll always remember that gesture.

Literally all of this is conjecture except:

The car is parked on a nearby street

Abigail doesn’t have her party makeup on by the time they’re shopping

But I had fun.

And finally, there’s the matter of Saturday night.

Philadelphia to New York

As you point out Anon, there is a massive chunk of missing time in between Saturday afternoon, when Ben is being questioned by the FBI and Abigail asks Riley to call Ian, and Sunday morning on the deck of the Intrepid.

Ben’s situation is fairly predictable. He’s in custody with the FBI, and at some point they move him from Philadelphia to New York. I’m inclined to think they move him that night, shortly after the phone call with Ian. The longer they wait, the more time there is for something to go wrong. I’m no kind of expert on FBI protocol, but I suspect they’d want to get all the pieces of their plan in motion as soon as possible, and that includes moving Ben.

That leaves us the questions of who and how?

Sadusky would not be doing this himself. He’s in a different car in the FBI caravan, or maybe even on a helicopter to ensure he gets maximum prep time. He’d pass babysitting duty off to one of his subordinate agents, probably Agent Hendrix as punishment for not taking the tip seriously (We’re gonna put a pin in Edge of History for now, yeah?).

That means one of the other agents gets stuck with him. Probably Agent Johnson, because per their setup in the surveillance van during the Intrepid sequence, he seems like someone Sadusky relies on. Sadusky would want someone trustworthy there to make sure Hendrix didn’t mess up again.

Ben talks their ear off about history for the entire drive. Not anything related to the treasure hunt, just random stuff he thinks is cool. It’s two hours of Ben Gates’ finest “Did you know?”s and “Umm, actually”s. Hendrix and Johnson are annoyed at first, but eventually they start naming random years and letting Ben spout off things that happened. It passes the time, but man are they relieved to reach Manhattan.

But what about Abigail and Riley?

As you point out, the two of them have to travel from Philadelphia to New York with basically no resources. There are only a few ways they could get there.

The Bus Route

You make an excellent argument that if there’s any cash left after the shopping trip, Ben probably has it. He’s the one paying the cashier—“Can I see one of those $100 bills I paid you with?”— so he would likely have whatever is leftover in his wallet. Plus, he’s the architect of this whole caper. He’s the one making the plans, calling the shots, and probably also keeping the cash.

And that’s if there is any money left. It’s hard to make out exactly how much Abigail dumps out of the book. One $100 and one $20 are clearly visible, along with three other bills. Let’s say that they have $340. Oh, plus the $32.57 that Ben already had in his wallet. They pay at least $200 for their clothes—“ one of those $100 bills” plural—and they don’t have any $100s left, or Ben wouldn’t need to trade his watch to get one back. Maybe they spent all $300 on the clothes (it is Urban Outfitters, like, way to use your resources wisely guys. Maybe try Marshall's?), or maybe they broke the remaining hundred earlier for food or supplies.

In any case, there’s probably not much. It’s possible that Riley has a few bucks in his wallet or pockets since he hasn’t changed since the heist. If he’s been making purchases for the group (since until the shopping trip he’s the only one dressed normally) he could have some of the change in his pockets.

Abigail followed Ben out of the Archives without a purse, so unless she had anything in her dress or jacket, or kept some change during the day, she doesn’t have any additional resources to work with. She does have her earrings, but since she’s not wearing them at the clothing store, my guess is they’re in the car, and therefore with the FBI. If she does have them on her—like maybe she took them off in the changing room and slipped them into the pocket of her new jeans or jacket—then there’s a chance she could barter them for cash or bus tickets.

I suppose they could have divided any remaining cash between them in case one of them got caught or separated, but based how surprised Riley seems by the idea of splitting up at Independence Hall it doesn’t seem to my like they considered such a plan until that moment.

I’ll also offer the possibility that Riley could try to hack into a ticket kiosk at the bus station if they couldn’t pay. I think this is less likely thought, because doesn’t have his laptop with him, only a c. 2004 cell phone. While I’m sure he could do this with the right equipment, I don’t know that he’d have access to said equipment at the moment. Perhaps he could do it from an internet cafe like he does with Shaw’s phone in New York, but many of his hacks seem to rely on preparation—like breaking into the camera feeds at the National Archives, or sneaking a receiver into the Buckingham Palace computer network in the deleted scene from Book of Secrets. So the plausibility of this route is up to you.

If you like any of these configurations, then Riley and Abigail could have bought bus tickets to New York. And actually, the Philadelphia bus station is just a block from Reading Terminal Market, where Riley and Abigail hide from Shaw and discover the true National Treasure, Meat Lady. It would depend where in NYC the bus was stopping, but the Port Authority bus terminal is in midtown near the Intrepid, not in the financial district where Trinity Church is. My point being, on the New York end of the journey they might face an additional expense of taking the subway or a cab.

As far as sleeping goes, they might try to get a late night bus to avoid the issue, killing time on either end as needed. If they had the money to spare, maybe they nursed the cheapest beer in a nearby bar until it closed, then headed to the station. Maybe they sat in the bus station well into the night, but if the FBI or local police are still searching for them, they probably want to be at the bus station for as little time as possible. Not to mention that such places often discourage loitering, but as two decently dressed white people, they might have less trouble in that department.

The Sadusky Route

I’ll also off the possibility that Ben includes transportation for them in his deal with Sadusky somehow. Something along the lines of “My friends will turn themselves in in NYC once we recover the Declaration.”

If Sadusky were to agree—though I don’t know how likely that is—Riley might receive a mysterious phone call telling him two bus tickets will be waiting for them. In this case their safety is assured but they’re likely to be followed.

In any of the routes that take them on a bus, Abigail and Riley would spend a lot of time together.

Remember, it’s Ben that Abigail’s really connected with so far. He’s the one she’s been flirting with, he rescued her from the catering truck, she learned about his family and his relationship with his father, and he’s the one she risked her career with testing the Declaration. She was talking to Ben only during both the late night car ride and while clothes shopping. To her, Riley has been the weird sarcastic guy tagging along.

That’s not to say she hasn’t had any interactions with him. Her “I look pregnant?” comment is directed to Riley, so she’s clearly not afraid to engage with him. But she has gotten to know Riley way less than she’s gotten to know Ben.

She’d probably be curious about how Riley got involved in the treasure hunt, and for preparation purposes I’d imagine she’d have lots of questions about Ian—who his henchmen are, their dynamics, the kinds of weapons they carry, etc.

But after that the conversation might run a bit dry. Riley doesn’t know much about history; Abigail doesn’t seem like much of a conspiracy theorist. Though, idk, she jokingly brought up bigfoot during their first meeting so Riley might see how far he can run with that.

As a fic writer, you have some choices to make. You want to give Riley and Abigail enough to talk about and things to bond over, but you probably want to to leave the juiciest information for Ben. It’s Ben who’s going to want to know how she fell in love with history, who her favorite president is, the time periods she’s most interested in, her worst professor, etc. At least I imagine her conversations with Riley are more about the situation at hand or random topics of interest.

"You ever see the movie Stargate?"

"I'm not too big on movies.

How about the TV show?

(Abigail gives an apologetic smile)

Right. Not big on TV either. What do you do for fun, go to the opera? You know what, don't answer that. Let me tell you a little bit about ancient aliens."

Based on the two scenes we see from the beginning and end of this journey—in the park and then in the cafe—Abigail is standing and pacing, and Riley is sitting, first in a dejected stupor, and then on the computer. I imagine this physicality would continue in a bar or bus station. Abigail has a lot of nervous energy to work out by pacing or fidgeting and Riley’s more prone to staring off into space.

Unless Riley got going on a conspiracy theory topic that he's really passionate about. Then I imagine he's all hand gestures.

The Ian Route

And then of course there is the path most full of danger and dramatic possibilities—a deal with Ian.

Let’s start with how Ian and the boys are traveling. They appear at Trinity Church with two vehicles. Ben and Shaw arrive in a black Lincoln town car with New York plates, Shippen is holding Patrick across the street in a black Range Rover with a Washington D.C. license plate, and Ian is already waiting on foot.

The plates suggest to me that they’ve had the Range Rover for the whole journey, but given that Ian has “nearly unlimited resources” they’ve probably been swapping out cars frequently to avoid detection.

But we know that they travel in multiple vehicles. If Shippen was sent back to the D.C. area to get Patrick, that means Ian, Shaw, Powell and Phil would still be traveling to New York, likely in at least two vehicles. They’re big guys with lots of equipment and no financial restrictions; they have no need to pack into one car.

Which means there’s plenty of room for guests/shot-callers/hostages to travel with them!

Shaw complains to Ben that Abigail is "the one calling all the shots now." He may know or suspect that Ian has other plans in the works to get the power back, but until Patrick arrives as a hostage it seems like Abigail is genuinely in control of the situation.

As such she could barter passage for herself and Riley as part of the deal: “If you get us to New York and get Ben away from the FBI, we can show you to the treasure.”

As you point out, this option has one massive benefit: Abigail gets to keep an eye on the Declaration in person. In any of these configurations I’m sure she stressed to Ian that he needs the glasses Ben has to get any further. There is no other way to read the map and no chemical procedure that can replicate the glasses. If the Declaration is damaged in any way, the deal is off. But in this case she gets to ensure first hand that they’re not going to try anything.

If Abigail is demanding to ride with the Declaration, that also means she’s riding with Ian. I doubt he would let it out if his sight either, lest Abigail and Riley try to escape with it. And Riley is riding with Abigail, because splitting up would be the most dangerous thing the two of them could do at this point.

Ian wouldn’t want to be outnumbered, so he’d have his boyfriend number two man Shaw riding shotgun.

Now that is a recipe for one awkward car ride.

Unlike a version where they take the bus, Abigail and Riley probably aren’t talking much here. They can’t. They need to give away as little about themselves as possible.

Likewise, Ian and Shaw can’t talk freely either. Shaw might get the occasional phone call which he answers with a few cryptic words. “Yes. No. Then deal with it.”

Of course Riley knows Ian and Shaw, but as I discuss here, I don’t think he was with the crew for very long before the Charlotte betrayal. The last time he tried to make casual conversation with these guys he got a gun pointed at time. The doesn’t deter him too much, as he does the same thing later in the underground chamber, but any attempts to start a conversation here are probably met with glares, signs, and maybe an “I see what you’re trying to do but please stop” smile from Abigail.

I think Ian might be more disposed to talk to Abigail, both because she’s calling the shots at the moment and because we do see that he has a polite streak, at least when in comes to people who aren’t his enemies. He’s quite cordial and supportive with Ben when they uncover the Charlotte, and he’s polite to the little boy at the Franklin Institute. He might see it as being in his best interest to not alienate Abigail when she’s the one arranging this deal. If she stays happy the he gets his treasure.

So there you go, one awkward car ride with a side of contempt.

As for how they slip away from Ian, I imagine that’s part of the deal. Until Ben escapes custody, Abigail could call the FBI and reveal Ian’s plan at any time. So if she said that she and Riley would be watching from a distance, they might have no choice but to go with it.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that I’ve been thinking about Team Treasure’s late night burger run for a while now, but I hadn’t really considered how they all get to New York, and all the possibilities that chunk of missing time in particular has for interesting character interactions.

Any of these scenarios have the potential to significantly deepen Riley and Abigail’s relationship. Over the course of the night, they might very well have gone from barely acquaintances to actual friends.

Which ones do y'all like? What scenarios did I miss? Leave a comment!

Thanks so much for your question! Feel free to send another any time.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for being rude to my ex when he didn't leave my house after me trying to hint it was time for him to go? There is a lot of context to this situation but I will try to keep it brief. We had broken up in the summer of 2022. He was starting college, I was going into highschool as a senior. This occurred when my highschool had started but his college had not. We were trying to be friends after the break-up and keep everything on good terms. One of my extracurriculars had a tournament on Saturday early morning at my high school that I would have needed to help set up. I had also invited him because he had been part of the team before he graduated. I got a ride home from him that following Friday. We talked in the car and on the way home. Once we had gotten home, we were home alone and I spent some time with him before my parents got home (mainly just sitting on the couch and talking). Once my mother got home, I told him that I needed time to work on preparing for the tournament as I would be in the competition and was very behind on my work for competiting. I tried to hint that it would be best if he could leave. I tried laying down hint after hint that it was time for him to go as I needed to work and I work best when I am alone. But he did not leave and began to talk with my mom and help her with chores like unloading the dishwasher. It was very distracting as I was working in the kitchen and he tried to get my attention/interact with me more than once. He knew that I needed to work on my speeches for the tournament beforehand as I was not prepared. I retreated back to my room and tried to work there. Some time had passed when he came to my room with spaghetti he had made for me. At that point, I lost it and I am likely TA because I got mad at him for it. It struck a nerve with me to see him helping my mother and trying to make me food when I just wanted to be alone. There is only so much time I can spend with people before I need space to think, breathe, and relax. I refused the food and asked him to leave. He did so and I immediately felt bad afterwards. I tried to ask if he had gotten home okay but he didn't respond. I ended up staying up until 2 am to finish my speeches. The next day, we were both at the tournament but we ignored each other because of what had happened the night before. I hung out with my friends and he did as well during the tournament. After the tournament, the team and I went to Denny's along with him. We ended up sitting almost across from each other but I didn't really talk to him and instead talked to one of my friends right beside me about going to see a friend the next day. I felt something tapping me under the table and I ignored it. Later on in the night after he had left, he texted me that I made him feel like garbage for the way I had treated him on Friday. He texted me that he was trying to get my attention by touching my leg to ask if I wanted him to take me home but I didn’t seem to care or just pushed it off. And that me talking about going to see one of my friends got to him. I responded to him the following morning and apologized for not being direct enough with him but that on Friday, he was only supposed to give me a ride home. I told him it was maybe for the best if we didn't see each other for the time being as I was struggling with my feelings towards him based on what had happened in the relationship that I was just beginning to unpack (Sexual assualt that had happened to me three times from him both unintentionally and intentionally). TL;DR: I blew up at my ex-boyfriend when he made me food the night before a tournament as he did not get the hint that I wanted him to leave my home because I needed to prepare the night before. Ignored him at the tournament and when the team, him, and I went to Denny's even when we were sitting across from each other. I still feel guilty about the whole ordeal and thus, am looking for judgement.

What are these acronyms?

[captain-aralias]

Life update

TL;DR - currently still pregnant at 21 weeks, baby is currently ok.

but spent the last 3 days in hospital, getting surgery to try and stop baby coming dangerously early. now back to being WORRIED ALL THE TIME.

if you want to read about that, i've written a post just to get it all out. it's quite bleak, even though we are hoping for the best.

triggers in the below: pregnancy, miscarriage, other death

so yes! it's been a weird week.

started really well - i started taking liquid iron and felt GREAT, shockingly good to the extent that i assumed it was a placebo effect and not actually my body. this is not relevant to the rest of the story, just that i was feeling really confident, not tired for the first time in ages, having a good time.

wednesday - i got a text from the NHS saying i had an appointment the next day. again, so confident was i feeling about pregnancy that my reaction was to be pissed off. no i didn't have an appointment, this was my week of no appointments!!! i was going to go into work for one of my mandatory two days in the office, wtf.

a physical letter arrived at my house a few hours after this and confirmed that i did indeed have an appointment i'd never heard of. the only information about what it was were the words 'obstetrics f/up.' eventually i realised f/up meant 'follow up', rather than 'fuck up', but i was still pretty much in the dark about what it would be.

but i went along anyway, rather than cancelling in a fit of pique because i HAPPENED to have the lunchtime of the next day free. i did not go into work.

the appointment turned out to be .... a scan, performed by a doctor rather than the normal sonographer. i actually had been told that they would try and book something like this at my.... obstetrics appointment, hence the name. the reason for booking in this appointment was that every time i go for a scan, baby is not willing to move around so it has been hard to get all the views that are necessary. and also i've had IVF.

again, i thought - this is probably a waste of time. i'm a low risk patient! i just have IVF because i'm queer, i'm actually dead good at pregnancy. but hey ho.

and indeed, first time doctor scanned me, baby refused to move. went outside, drank some water, she scanned someone else, i went back - they scanned me again. declared baby is fine! doesn't even have a short leg like we were worried about before, brill. but...

i seem to have a short cervix. that could cause early delivery. maybe we should scan me the other way to confirm. but she has to scan someone else first.

this is - as you may guess - where the story gets bad. although i didn't guess that yet. i thought - early delivery? no problem. you mean, like 2 weeks or something, cool. i've already booked my maternity leave to start 2 weeks early.

NO. it means - like, any time from now. even though baby will literally die if born now.

scan confirms that cervix is 1mm, instead of the 25mm+ that is usually no cause to worry.

doctor says - you need to go to labour ward now and probably get surgery, and stay over night.

i'm still living in cloud cuckoo land at this point, so my brain is like - stay over night? but i have one-time only dinner plans at fortnum and mason tonight (a true story, a gift from my partner's rich eccentric mother).

we go over to the labour ward - at which point, my brain starts to point out that this is not good. we're put in a birthing suite to wait for someone to come and talk to us. usually, i would be texting my friend who is also a resident of the same town and due to have her baby 2 weeks before me (OR MAYBE NOT) but i guess this is where it hits me that i might never get to the bit where we are in the birthing suite.

basically from this point onwards, i cried at least several times per day until saturday. midwives kept trying to comfort me. the next doctor they brought to talk to me and my partner (fortunately with me) basically acted like he was telling me i had terminal cancer (i do not have terminal cancer). he wanted me to know that the baby might still die even if we do the surgery, and also that doing the surgery might also break my waters, and then they'd recommend terminating as i'm only 21 weeks pregnant, and babies usually don't survive earlier than 24 weeks. even then - that's very premature.

there was some suggestion they might be able to do the surgery THAT DAY, but it didn't work out. so we were transferred to the antenatal ward, given a (different) private room, and my partner was sent home to get my stuff. she came back and stayed the night in the single bed - not as fun as the fanfic makes it look! particularly because even though we were off the main ward, we could still hear.... people in labour. and babies - like the one we might not have - crying. and beeping - lots of beepings.

also - one of my friends came to pick up my car, which i'd left on the street back when i thought that the appointment would be maximum 2 hours. i was vvv upset about the baby, but my brain wouldn't shut up about the car either. WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE CAR. until it was gone, and then it was 100% baby panic.

monitoring of blood pressure and temperature too, so - should you get to sleep, you will definitely be woken at 2am and 6am. amazing.

cut to the next day - no food, little water. a bunch of drugs, no surgery until 3.30. surgery includes being completely numb from waist down, which is great (genuinely). as well as pain relief, this really decreases the humiliation of being in a room with 10 people all looking up your hospital gown while you can't control your bodily functions.

the surgeon had come in for like 5 minutes earlier and this is not an exaggeration of our conversation:

him: you're having this surgery, it had a 50% chance of failing to get you to full term even if we do put the stitch in successfully, sign this consent form please no offence lovely NHS, genuinely amazing throughout this whole situation, but this is the first time anyone had said 50% chance of failure.

me: [signs form, since has no choice really] him: any questions? me: er... him: [literally already out the door, genuinely did not wait for an answer] midwife [still there, apologetic] as you can see, they're very busy. if you have questions, best to write them down and just say them loudly when you get the chance

everyone else in the theatre was super nice. although also kept asking me about the baby i was convinced i might lose within the surgery (do you know the gender? what are you going to call him?). surgery went ok. very quick. did NOT lose the baby ... at that point. but couldn't stop crying as soon as i got out.

still numb for 6 hours. catheter horrible. spent 2 hours in the recovery ward - still no food allowed - under a weird inflatable blanket. wheeled back to the antenatal ward.

this time, we were on the main ward - although it was pretty quiet because they don't schedule people in for stuff on saturdays. just two women there - both waiting for emergency c-section the next day.

while i was glad neither were in labour, it was still super awkward and upsetting to be on the ward with them. sound carried really well, so we heard all their consultations, including a bit where one of them had to describe her previous history of pregnancy, which included having twins - one of whom DIED. omg. cue - another crying fit for self.

seriously - my overall feeling coming out of this was how amazing the NHS is, how amazing it was that the doctor caught my cervix the day before it opened fully during a random scan for something else (because my cervix was fully open during the surgery, 24 hours after the scan. vv bad) the midwives were so lovely, the nurses were so lovely. they gave me loads of great drugs too (progesterone - my old friend from IVF), which will hopefully keep contractions away, in addition to the stitch.

BUT.... it was pretty hellish to be incredibly emotional and stuck in hospital listening to this stuff for 2 days, unable to sleep. very very likely some of the worst days of my life so far.

i'm back home, as of yesterday, which is amazing. slept a full night, and i'm 2 days out of surgery. the symptoms of the surgery failing are all things that i am feeling right now - like.... pain. contractions (is this a contraction, or is this the baby moving??) and maybe your waters breaking, which could happen slowly so how do you know it's not happening RIGHT NOW.

so - basically, i am still not in a good place emotionally, even though we haven't lost the baby yet. i realised that as well as just.... the very fact of the possible death of a baby we have given a name to (we couldn't use the name again for another baby, could we?) ... i think i'm also in shock for the idea of the life i thought i was going to have this year. i've booked my maternity leave, i was getting into baby mode - starting to largely only want to read baby books, etc. thinking about buying the wrap-top from the advert i watch every time i go into hospital where you can put your baby inside the top and have them skin-to-skin.

and the idea of baby dying and then having to go back to work, my friend having her baby 2 weeks ahead of when i should have had mine... it's just awful. i want the baby, i want to go on maternity leave.

baby coming early but still within a viable window (so - hold on another 3+ weeks) doesn't worry me so much, though is worrying my partner in terms of possible developmental issues of pre-term children. i probably just can't conceptualise this, because my brain is thinking 'well, at least there would be a baby.'

so - that's where we are. doctors and internet both agree bedrest isn't really necessary or helpful, but i have my drugs + antibiotics. 22 weeks is on tuesday. 24 weeks (so viable but very premature baby) - 7th february.

if we make it through february, we'll be in the third trimester, and start to get some good rates of survival if baby comes early.

me to baby (proposed middle name: alexander) every few hours:

heard lots of stories of things being ok and people getting to full term (or close enough) from friends and midwives, one of the trainees literally said this had happened to her. this partly reassures me, and also makes me think - surely that means there must be a need for people to be in the BAD 60-40% to make up the statistics, and that could be me. (i know that's not how statistics works, it's how my brain works).

final doctor - a completely different person to any of the others in this story - told me i likely have a good chance because i have no history of cervical damage, to the extent that they aren't sure why this has happened to me. but the internet told me that it's less likely to be ok if the cervix opened (which mine did), so maybe.......

and maybe these pains are bad pains, rather than i was cut open pains. and maybe my water is breaking.........

in conclusion - i'll be a basketcase for the next few weeks, probably. and then possibly very sad. or possibly it will be some form of all right.

no need to respond to this post, if you got this far! in fact, i might prefer it - i turned off comments on my (much shorter) version of this on twitter as it's all too upsetting. but wanted to let people know, and also record for posterity while i felt a bit more with it/less sad.

likes are ok, even though obviously there's not much to like - except the NHS!! and my friend who took my car home.

this post is also why i probably won't do the 15 questions post that's going around, because it talks about 'when did you last cry' and children, even though we all know the answers to that now. i just don't want this shit in a normal happy meme post.

anyway - hope everyone else is having a nice weekend, and making and/or consuming good art <3