#;> operations order ( starter call )

[auntie-browning]

||: Alright, I think it might be time to try a starter call now. Like this post so I can try and whip up something. This goes out for people who are also new here. Prefer messaging to plot something out but I'm fine also trying to wing it.

||: Specify your muse if you can, please~

[chiasaaa]

– mean it || part iii

itoshi sae x f! reader

summary: loving someone as cruel as itoshi sae has to be the worst thing that ever happened to a hopeless romantic like you. years of pining over your childhood crush finally comes to an end, or does it?

warning: english is not my first language. apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors.

– you couldn't deny that there was a part of you that knew it will have to turn out like this. maybe you were ahead of your time then; a little naive to follow through it, but it had to be done. there's no other way for you to be happy if you don't move on.

gone are the days where you have dinner with sae. naturally, that came with the strolls, the sleepovers, the kisses, and all that falls on your little play pretend. funny how one conversation can easily penetrate through the bubble you carefully created with him, leading it to pop and leave nothing but a string of regrets.

however, you're not one to dwell on such. you wouldn't be where you are now if you were. becoming the bast always required sacrifices and regrets, and you believed the same thing can be said in your philosophy of life. you need to lose something to gain something, is what you have always believed in.

weeks have passed since the silent breakup (if you can even call it a breakup), and you were back on track to prepare for the champions league. the youth team has you, as expected, to be their starting striker and you're not about to miss an opportunity of a lifetime for a silly boy. you came to spain to conquer the world of football, not to hook yourself on a date.

you grit and determination must have been too obvious because your team certainly noticed the sudden change in your demeanor. from your bad habits down to the littlest bit in your training regimen–nothing was left uncorrected by you. your coach was certainly happy that you're willingly looking for your own flaws to change them in earnest, but even he began to worry for your sake.

your team captain had just finished freshening up when she spotted you still working on your shots at the field, heaving through your exhaustion like an overworked robot about to bust itself to pieces. this is getting a little out of hand, and she had a funny feeling it had something to do with their auburn-haired midfielder from the male's youth team. she grunts, muttering how she knew that boy's only bad news for you. after hearing the whole shenanigan about how he was a childhood friend of yours and you've only reunited now after eight years, she knew that itoshi sae was not just a friend to you. certainly, you were not just a friend to him either.

from the year she's been your captain, she came to know how you operate. for the most part, you keep the logical side of you in control of your body and mind. she rarely sees you slipping from your cool and calm exterior. after all, she always found your composure admirable as it works extremely well under pressure. she has you to thank for the times she's about to mentally crumble during a tight game.

it's about time she does you a favor too, and so she invited you out for dinner to pull you out of extended training. she watched you gobble up the food she ordered for both of you, insisting that you will need all the energy you can get for tomorrow's training. of course, it wasn't mere concern that had her going through such lengths. she needed to talk to you about your behavior.

"did itoshi do anything to you?" was her idea of a conversation starter, and with the way you reacted, it seemed like she was right on the money. you stilled from forking down a piece of dumpling, gulping subtly as you tried to navigate through the topic.

"what made you say that?"

"don't pretend like you haven't been sneaking around with him, superstar." she snickered, finding it quite amusing that your best solution to the situation is to feign ignorance. "you like him, don't you?"

and that is how she opened the pandora's box. that night, she found out about your history with said midfielder, how you reunited, and how you turned out the way you are now. to you, your captain had always felt like a big sister who keeps you in check in the most caring way possible. she wasn't there with you that night to simply know the gossip or to have you spill the beans. no, it was more than that. she wanted to help you and see how you're going. she wanted to know how she could help, and fortunately for her, all you needed was a listening ear.

you certainly felt a little better after that dinner, and your captain became more attentive with you since then. she kept you from extending your daily training. if she couldn't stop you, she'll join you until your legs give up. in morning workouts, she never leaves your side and wake up earlier than she usually does to keep your mind from straying too far. the rest of the girls also picked up on your behavior, and so they collectively decided to not have team lunches with the male's division. truth be told, most of them find the boys a little too conniving and condescending. it was great for the team to have their own bonding over lunch. it certainly allowed you to keep your mind off of things and get to know your team a little better since you moved to spain.

that said, walks home are included in the changes that happened over the past weeks. three of the girls you've grown closer to would accompany you on your walk home, inviting you around places to try from time to time when none of you are too exhausted.

with all these things happening, you couldn't help but feel a little happy that the confrontation with sae happened. it wouldn't have granted you the opportunity to have a healthier social life if it didn't.

it also brought new friendships. not everyone in the male's team are as bad as they all thought. though, you seem to have a pretty eccentric type in friends when you chose this one.

obnoxious, narcissistic, and egotistical as hell. those three words perfectly encapsulate the being that is michael kaiser. never did you ever think you'd be friends with him after he joined re al as a centre forward. he's the complete opposite of a friend you're looking for, yet you paired off so well upon the first time you meet.

majority of it is because you're the only one who knows how to speak german in both teams, and that brought you drastically closer as you assisted kaiser when he was new around the facility. now, however, you would say that your friendship was built on stone. he would sometimes join the women's team for lunch simply because he too loves talking drama. he loves being the centre of attention most of the time, but hearing about other people and their own desperate attempts through life entertain him plenty.

of course, it was only a matter of time until he figured out the deal between you and his midfielder. ever since you've grown close, kaiser noticed how sae was a thousand times more stingy to him–how he would make extremely difficult passes in an attempt to frustrate kaiser. though it does work, kaiser finds it more as an opportunity than a negative thing.

he was complaining to you during lunch when it began to happen frequently, and everyone at the table immediately went silent upon the rise of the topic. it has been awhile since itoshi sae was brought up, and none of them were sure how you'd take it.

"he's always brooding, anyway. you must have done something to tick him off." was your only response, shrugging as if it was the simplest thing to understand in the world.

kaiser knew there was gold to dig, and he successfully did it directly from you when you were out with a couple of your friends shopping. you told him the same thing you told your captain, though the details were more vague this time. it made you realize that though the memory began fading through the creases, the heartache you felt back then remains the same.

worse, it hurts more now than ever.

do you still like him even after what he did?

there's no way, right?

"hmm," kaiser hummed, amused, "well, leave it to me. since you have been such a dear to your great emperor, i shall return a small favor."

you snorted. "dude, what the hell are you even talking about?"

you didn't think much of it. it was kaiser, after all. though he is a good friend, he can be quite the crazy person when he wants to be. you're just preparing yourself for anything embarrassing he might do to you through the week (though you pray he at least has a heart not to).

but no, it wasn't humiliation kaiser was going for. rather, he's about to fix whatever it is that needed fixing. during training, once again with the midfielder, he began asking about you.

"the recordings don't give justice to her plays, don't you think?" was his starter to pique sae's interest. "ever played as her midfield?"

"focus," was sae's response, sending another sick pass to the blonde.

"gotta admit, though. i wanted to get into re al 'cuz of her." kaiser snickered, executing a perfect bicycle kick to score. "i'm thinking of asking her out sometime soon. what do you think?"

sae stared at him for awhile from a set distance, attempting to understand what kaiser's scheme is. he then walked to the goalpost, brushing past the german's shoulder as he did. "do what you want."

of course, he didn't actually mean it. sae would rather die than let anyone else be yours. it was his place. he's meant to be yours. he is meant to shower you with all the good things in the world. certainly not kaiser. he doesn't even know the most basic thing to do when caring for someone else.

even if he did ask you out, you surely won't accept it, right?

and alas, he was slapped hard on the face when he saw an instagram update from your profile. it was a picture of you and kaiser holding your shopping bags after spending the entire night walking around the mall to spoil yourself. if the photo wasn't enough, the caption surely takes the cake.

'thanks to my bodyguard/ shopping bag holder for life!'

for life? kaiser? of all people?

sae never bolted out of his apartment so fast that night, rushing over to your place to finally put a stop to this nonsense. he knew he fucked up when he left you hanging, and he had been too scared to approach you first. you never bothered talking to him again after that damn night, so he figured he wasn't in the place to command the situation. he had no right to argue against you–for you to even spare him a glance.

you used to even when you weren't talking, but with kaiser in the picture, he's lucky enough to even catch your silhouette in the facility's hallway.

and so, we're here.

you stood frozen right at your doorstep, eyes glued to a heaving itoshi sae. he looked like he just ran a marathon, and that says something for someone whose career involves running for an entire ninety minutes every match.

your mind goes blank and dizzy at the same time. there was no telling he'd even be here. you haven't spoken in months–haven't spared a glance at each other for so long, yet there he was.

"don't do it."

he had always been the worst at starting conversations, but you might as well hand him a trophy for this one.

"what the hell are you tal–"

"don't go out with kaiser."

now that's odd. you were silent for a short while, connecting the dots in your head. so this is what kaiser meant that day. you couldn't tell if you're glad or angry that this moment came. you have always dreamt of this, after all, finding him standing at your door with the courage you wished he had all along.

"you're in no place to make such demands."

sae was definitely caught off-guard. this isn’t like you. you have always been so forgiving—so understanding.

well, it’s about time he realizes he ran you dry.

but he can't back away anymore. not again, or he will really lose you this time. he slowly takes a step forward, then another, and another until his feet led him right in front of you. his height towered over yours so easily, yet you stood tall against him.

for once. he actually felt so small around you.

"kaiser," he inhaled, "kaiser doesn't know you like i do. he doesn't know how to take care of you."

"and you do?" you snort. oddly enough, sae likes this side of your. he didn't expect you to have a snarky side, and it was because of his stupidity that he came to discover it now.

"i do," he carefully takes your hand in his, finally professing his feelings. "you were right. what i did wasn't right. i do a lot of things that tick you off, and i know that i am the biggest headache in your life. there's no way you would ever choose me."

then, his forehead leans down on yours. as if he knew his words are not enough, he tried to compensate with his actions without overstepping boundaries drawn.

"but god knows how much i'll regret it if i didn't fight for you–fight for what could be us instead." itoshi sae had completely crumbled right before you, and his voice gave him away. it's not everyday you hear at least a tad bit of emotion from him. he had always been logical, cursing anything that involved having to open up his feelings and being completely seen by another. yet, he's doing it all right in front of you.

“you terrify me,” he whispered, like it was a secret that he’s meant to keep forever. “you have complete control over me and you don’t even have any idea.”

his voice broke down with a slight crack. it nearly made you crumble right then and there. if you were the same lovesick fool you once were, that is.

still, it wasn't enough for you to hold back from your sharp thoughts. "i think you just want me because another man does, itoshi."

it stings how you use his surname than his first. he deserved that, and he took it completely with not a hint of annoyance.

"no," he answers confidently. "i have always always wanted to be with you—to be by your side and watch you take on the world. i want to be the first person you run to when you win a match. i want to be the man you dedicate a goal for like how i dedicate all of mine to you. i want to be the first to see you in the morning and the last before you sleep."

his other hand trails down your free arm, taking hold of your fingers with his own. "i want to be the one to listen to your endless stories and the one to calm you down when you're overwhelmed. i want to be the one who'll know firsthand how much your hard work has paid off when you win the champions league."

by now, even the facade you had put up lost against his sincerity. you knew that this is itoshi sae speaking from his heart, voluntarily opening himself up to you. professing his love for you after eight long years of taking it for granted. you have long forgiven him, but you didn't want to interrupt him when he's already pouring his heart out for you to hear.

you can wait. you can listen to him until he's done venting it all out.

"god knows how i would let the world burn if it meant having a second chance with you." he muttered, warm and soft. “i love you.”

you freeze.

what are you supposed to do now?

you’re torn between believing in the man you used to know and the man who left you hanging a few weeks ago. thinking about it makes you dizzy.

what did he mean he loves you? after dismissing your feelings and stomping on your heart like it’s trash? how dare he love someone he deemed unworthy of his honesty

"...do you mean it?"

"i do,"

he answered so quickly, as if he was scared you’d leave if he even missed a second to reply to you. you can feel how his hold tightened in the slightest way, the unknowing urge to keep your from slipping away from his reach overpowering him subconsciously.

who were you kidding?

it’s sae right in front of you. he’s an asshole, you have long known about that already.

"you're such a jerk."

"i know,"

"but you're my jerk."

he was taken aback, yet he didn't stop himself from smiling and pulling you in an embrace long overdue. "i am," he whispered, "and i'm forever yours. i’m sorry, amor. i’ll love you freely this time.”

you nod, finally letting the happy tears soak themselves against his black shirt. the day had finally come, and you were glad you held on for so long.

you pined over him for twelve years, but really, sae had always been the loser of this game you're playing since the beginning.

[globalnewscollective]

Trump’s New Order: A Dangerous Power Grab That Could Impact Your Future

Have you heard about the latest executive order signed by President Trump? It’s a big one, and it’s something you should definitely pay attention to. In a move that has shocked many, Trump just signed an order saying that only the President or the Attorney General can interpret the law. This means federal regulators and agencies—like the EPA, FDA, and FCC—can no longer make their own calls on what laws mean. Instead, they’ll have to listen directly to Trump and his team.

Why Does This Matter to You?

Okay, so what’s the big deal? For starters, this is a huge shift in how the government operates. It takes away the independence of agencies that protect things like our environment, public health, and consumer rights. Imagine if the FDA could no longer make decisions without asking Trump first—things like the safety of the food you eat or the medicine you rely on could be at risk. This is the kind of power grab that could lead to decisions being made with no accountability to you or anyone else.

The Bigger Picture

This is more than just an isolated executive order—it’s a fundamental attack on the structure of U.S. governance. By stripping regulatory agencies of their independence, Trump is consolidating power within the Executive Branch, weakening the ability of agencies to act without direct presidential influence. Critics argue that this undermines democratic principles and shifts the nation closer to an authoritarian regime. The fear is that such moves could lead to a future where the President can unilaterally dictate policy, ignoring judicial oversight and stifling any dissenting voices in the government.

What’s at Stake?

Democratic accountability: The order bypasses the democratic checks that typically ensure elected officials are held accountable for their decisions.

Environmental and consumer protections: With agencies like the EPA and FDA now directly under the control of the White House, the potential for deregulation in sensitive areas like public health, safety, and the environment increases dramatically.

Legal independence: The judiciary, which has traditionally interpreted laws impartially, now risks being sidelined as Trump consolidates more control over the legal landscape.

So, What’s the Real Impact?

By giving Trump and the Attorney General the ultimate say in how laws are interpreted, this order weakens the role of other branches of government. It means that things like environmental protection, health standards, and even internet regulations could become whatever Trump decides they should be—without oversight or checks from independent agencies or even the courts. This could hurt future generations by opening the door for more harmful policies that prioritize money over people.

But What Can You Do About It?

Stay woke: It’s time to get informed. The more you know about what’s happening in politics, the better you can help shape the future. This move from Trump is just the latest in a series of actions that show how much power the Executive Branch is trying to take.

Speak up: Your voice matters. This is your future we’re talking about, so don’t sit back and let these decisions slide. Stay active, share what you know, and make sure the people around you understand what’s at stake.

Vote: Seriously. This is why voting is so important. You want to make sure that the people making the decisions in Washington have your best interests at heart.

This isn’t just about some old executive order. It’s about the future of democracy, accountability, and fairness. So, pay attention. This is your country, your future. Let’s make sure we’re all in the driver’s seat.

[shoutoutout]

I've started up another Harlivy fic and was digging through my docs and found this old version of the noses & kneecaps section of she breaks (out, down, through). I cut it way down and changed up the setting for the published version but this Harley quote had me giggling so I thought I'd post here for folks!

Harley turns to the chef.  “If you fucking spit in this food I will literally gut you right now, you hear me?  I’m not letting my bestie eat any of your loogies so tell me if you did because she’ll fucking know, alright?  This bitch will taste them and then you’ll be dead and the misses and junior over there are gonna have a sad as shit Christmas this year.”

You can read the rest under the cut

Surprising no one, Ivy’s not that great at the whole “friendship” thing.

For starters, she has no frame of reference by which to judge.  Like her namesake, she was a wallflower as a child and when high school rolled around she bloomed into a sarcastic loner with Indigo Girls blasting through her headphones.  It left little room for normal girl shit like… well… she would name something if she knew.

But even still, with all her lack of experience, she’s pretty sure that this—Harley’s idea of friendship—is not quite normal.

“I could use some new threads.” Harley calls Ivy out of the blue on a Wednesday evening.  “Cops confiscated all the stuff back at my old place… not like I’d wear any of it anymore.  God, I was such a tightass wasn’t I, Ives?  So how about it?  A girl’s day out?”

Ivy doesn’t know what to say, knuckles pale green where they grip the phone.  She regrets giving Harley her number.  (And by “giving” she means Harley snatching the phone from her pocket and calling herself before Ivy had the chance to stop her.)  The thought of strolling through a department store with Harley causes her anxiety to ratchet the way it did when the pretty girls would laugh at her in English class.  What would they even talk about for fuck’s sake?

Not much to start, it turns out.  Harley’s version of shopping is a lot less mundane and a lot more criminal.  They end up taking twelve hostages in Bergsduff’s and leaving with two hundred thousand in designer goods.  Muzak plays idly in the background as Harley holds the salesclerk at gunpoint, parading him around the floor while Ivy snatches up some cute summer looks.  His nose drips blood from where she pistol-whipped him upon entrance.

“Hey, try those on,” Harley suggests, waving the gun wildly towards a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses.  The hostages in her line of fire duck and scramble when it points in their direction.  “Those’ll look real hot on you!  Perfect for your face shape.”

Even the sales clerks—with the barrel of Harley’s gun poking between his shoulder blades—can’t help but agree.

Ivy slips them into her pocket.

They go to dinner.

“And it better be fucking vegan, alright?!” Harley screeches through the kitchen door.  When she turns back to Ivy, she’s all grins and bubbles.  “He said it should be right out!” she relays, skipping back towards the table.

Ivy glances towards the chef’s wife and son where they lay bound and gagged, piled in the living room corner.  Harley had arranged a “private meal” by Gotham’s hottest new chef after Ivy had told her the reservations for his restaurant were usually booked a month in advance.

“Are you sure we don’t have to worry about them?” Ivy asks with a skeptical slant towards their hostages.

“Nah,” Harley dismisses.  “They’re chill.”

Their captive hosts nod in agreement, wide-eyed and terrified.

They talk about boys.

“So like I was saying,” Harley picks up where she left off, twirling a fork between two fingers.  “Joker has some real ripe areas for improvement with the overall rollout of his new brand vision before the Legion of Doom induction, ya know?  Just some things I’m helpin’ him out with… order of operations and stuff like that.”

Ivy’s thankful Harley’s doing all the talking.  She fills the space with an endless stream of stray observations and chatter.

She gets a dreamy look in her eye, resting her head against her palm.  “I mean, he’s a real genius, ya know?  It’s pure art what he does.”  (Ivy wants to vomit but the food is coming soon.)  “And don’t ever tell him I said otherwise”—she sits up, clasping her hands together—“but in general, there’s a lack of foresight to some of his schemes.  Like escape plans, for example.  Usually he has it all figured out when Batsy arrives—how to get away that is—but not for the whole crew, ya know?”

Ivy narrows, not quite getting at what she’s saying.

Harley shimmies closer in her chair, propping her elbows on the table.  “Okay, okay, so like, there’ll be a getaway car, right?  But it’s one of those clown cars, like a tiny one.  Only this clown car isn’t like a clown car where it can fit all the rest of us; it’ll just fit him.”  She pauses to let Ivy consider.  “Is that… is that funny?  Like ha-ha Joker-level theatrics?”

Ivy’s dumbfounded.  “A clown car that’s just a regular tiny car…that only Joker can escape in… and he leaves you all behind to get caught,” she summarizes, doubt dripping from her tongue.  “So you’re telling me he just like, takes off in a Smart car?”

“Yes!” Harley nods, excitedly.  Her jester’s cap bounces with the motion.  “Exactly!  Just a Smart car for one.  It could use some work, right?”

Ivy doesn’t even know where to begin.  Luckily the chef returns, placing two gorgeous plates of food before them.  Harley squeals beside her and Ivy snaps to attention, grabbing her fork.  It smells fucking heavenly as it comes to her mouth but then Harley’s hand is strong around her wrist, stopping her mid-bite.

Harley turns to the chef.  “If you fucking spit in this food I will literally gut you right now, you hear me?  I’m not letting my bestie eat any of your loogies so tell me if you did because she’ll fucking know, alright?  This bitch will taste them and then you’ll be dead and the misses and junior over there are gonna have a sad as shit Christmas this year.”

He shakes his head and whimpers; Harley seems satisfied.  They dig in.

“Oh my god,” Ivy says, flavor dancing across her taste buds.  “This is like… orgasmic.”

Harley preens.  “Only the best for my friend!”

Friend.  It rolls so easily off of Harley’s tongue and Ivy wonders what it is exactly that makes this shit so hard for her.  Ivy tries to play along but she’s transported back to English class with Melinda Jenkins snickering every time Ivy raised her hand.  “Ha,” she tries.  “I owe ya one… pal.”

God, she’s a fucking dork but Harley couldn’t care less.  She pounces.  “Come to me and J’s Legion of Doom induction then?!” she asks like the question was burning a hole through her tongue.  “It’s this weekend.  We can drink all of Lex’s fancy-ass champagne.  Please?  Please?  Please, Ivy?”

Harley puppy-dog pouts and Ivy’s stomach flips.  Is this normal friend shit?  She has no idea.

“I’m sorry but fuck no.  No way.  Literally anything but that.”  Harley will just have to deal; Ivy is decidedly not a good friend.

[imraespace]

CHAPTER 12: OPERATION HIDE.

JUST THE WAY THINGS GO || MEGUMI X READER

Around an hour later, you finally left the hospital, promising Tsumiki to visit her more often. You know that Megumi will be there ans you promised yourself not to get back into his life but sometimes you need to think of yourself.

Instead of heading straight back home, you took the opportunity to give yourself a tour around the park. You haven't been here in so long.

In your field of vision, everything had changed, you didn't even recognize your school, what makes the park any different?

As soon as your shoes hit the grass, your phone began to rang.

It was your aunt.

"Hello?"

"Where are you? Did you run away.."

You smiled at her voice.

"Yeah I did. I'm at the park near the hospital."

You heard her laugh over the phone.

"Alright I'm heading there to get you."

And then the call ended.

But, a pair of eyes landed on you as you stood near the entrance of the park, holding your phone in hand.

Nobara turned over to Yuji as they both stared at each other.

"What is she doing here?" Yuji asked.

"Well for starters dumbass it's a public park!" Nobara half yell.

Megumi stared at his friends for a while then finally joined them.

"Are you both okay.." He mumbled, which scared the hell out of the duo.

"Of course! Why wouldn't we?" Yuji smiled at his friend.

"Okay..."

Gojo, having no clue what is happening entered the conversation.

"Hey isn't that-"

"NO I mean no.. let's go on that morning run yeah?" Yuji suggested as he began running.

They all followed behind him, running away from you.

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You on the other hand, was walking around the park, happily enjoying the view of other families enjoying each other company and pets running.

You had no clue that Megumi was here.

But then, a hand has suddenly wake you up from your daydream land.

You turned around and saw.. your friends?

"What are you guys doing here..?" You asked.

"Well for starters this is a public park." Maki answered back.

"And we barely had time to hang out this week so why not today?" Yuuta said.

"Don't ask how we find you here!" Inumaki said as he dragged you towards some ice cream stand.

How did they find you? Yuji and Nobara duh.

Maki and Yuuta thought it was dumb but they came anyways.

"What's your favorite flavor?" Inumaki asked.

"I don't really have one." You answered.

He stared at you... for a while then smiled.

"Okay I'm ordering cookie n cream for you!" He said as he walked up to the stall.

Stood between Yuuta and Maki, you began looking around for your aunt, to inform her that you're now with your friends.

"What are you looking for?" Yuuta asked.

"Aunt Shoko, I told her that I'm at the park because I was alone, but now I'm with you guys so.." You mumbled.

The mentioned of your aunt name made Maki look at you then at Yuuta.

Inumaki finally came back with the ice cream.

"Here!" He said, handing you your ice cream.

You took the ice cream, thanked him and began walking around.

"Where are you going?" Inumaki asked.

"She's just like a child.." He mumbled.

"You should be the last one talking about 'Just like a child'.." Maki said, earning a glare from Inumaki.

They all followed behind you as you walked around, ice cream in hand.

Then you finally spot your aunt! Talking to Gojo?

"He's here as well?" You asked yourself.

You walked up to the adults to greet your aunt.

While the trio behind was now sprinting towards you, Nobara and Yuji didn't realize that you were walking up towards them, and you didn't make them out.

"Aunt Shoko why didn't you inform me that you had arrived?" The sound of your voice took her out of her conversation with Gojo.

"Because this fool found me first and pulled me into a conversation." She said, pointing towards the man.

The man, on the other hand had a shocked look on his face.

"YUJI I WAS RIGHT. Y/N IS HERE!" Gojo alerted the children.

They all whipped their heads in his direction and finally saw you and the now panting trio behind you.

Megumi, of course wasn't happy but is he going to express his feelings when your aunt is here? No.. He just grumbled under his breath as everyone finally met up with you.

"DANG I didn't even make her out right Nobara??!" He laughed.

And Nobara laughed as well.

Megumi rubbed his forehead.

"Of course they knew." He mumbled.

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note: I like cookies n cream. and also cotton candy ice cream.

[amywritesthings]

Operation: Battlepass (AKA the Totally Awesome Plan to Play Wingman by Yuuji Itadori) / a Choso x OFC story

After choosing to live together as brothers, Yuuji decides to introduce Choso to the wonderful world of gaming. What he didn't expect is for Choso to fall head over heels for his online friend. Naturally, hijinks must ensue, and the gang comes up with a plan to make this romcom a reality.

word count: 3k (part one of ??) tags: au - canon divergence, fluff, romantic comedy, told in yuuji's pov, ultimate big brother!choso, gaming, online friendshipcredit: dividers by @saradika-graphics

read on ao3 here.

PART ONE: THE INTRODUCTION

disclaimer: this is a very crack slice of life story. everyone's alive. itadori is friends with an adult through online gaming. their dynamic is very much 'you're a kid and i have to protect you from weirdos in gaming lobbies'. iris is inspired by my own older online friends growing up. it's nothing nefarious.

Yuuji Itadori has never been a wingman.

Well — kind of.

If you scratch all of the times that Itadori went along with the ‘Save Megumi’ plan conjured up by the brilliant (and twisted) minds of Gojo-sensei and Kugisaki, then he’s technically never been a wingman.

Come to think of it, he’s never really given the act of dating much thought.

It isn’t like he’s ever had much skin in the game. 

Itadori’s never had a partner, for one.

Fushiguro is smooth enough to flirt without anyone’s help, two.

Kugisaki can be a little intimidating all on her own, three.

So it leaves… well, Itadori to cheer on his perfectly-capable friends as they navigate what it means to be a teenager.

It also leaves him wondering if one day he’ll know the tv-show-butterfly feeling of helping two lonely souls get together.

(He really should focus on his own love life, but given the whole Sukuna ordeal? That’s a mess he hasn’t quite ironed out yet.)

Enter: Choso, his alleged big brother from another mother.

(Or another father? That’s another thing he’s gotta iron out. More at 11.)

Getting a two-bedroom bachelor pad with the guy you only met, like, a few weeks ago wasn't on his year-end bingo card. 

"Really?" If Fushiguro and Nobara question something simultanously, that usually spells danger.

"Yeah!" Itadori exclaims, sipping on his tea. "I mean, why not, right?"

"Wasn't he the guy trying to kill you?" Fushiguro grunts.

"Then he changed his mind on a dime and demanded he protect you with every blood cell in his body?" Nobara adds, lips trembling from her attempt to hide a smile at her pun.

(Neither of the boys catch it.)

Itadori grimaces. "Well, when you put it that way..."

Fushiguro leans back. "Trying to kill you—"

Nobara leans forward. "—to defending you—"

They come together again, and Itadori sinks in his booth.

"—in a few hours."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Itadori whines. "But it'll be fine. We're great pals and figured it out. He's totally normal now."

So normal that Choso's in the booth at the other end of the restaurant, sipping a coffee black with a newspaper upside-down, waiting to take Itadori and his friends to the shopping district later.

(It's a little weird admittedly, but Itadori thinks it's endearing. He cares!)

So, yeah.

He ditched living at Jujutsu High in order to move in with his brother under the approval of his instructor.

Maybe it was a hasty decision, but Itadori will take the blame on that one.

Call it excitement or stupidity, he doesn’t mind.

After spending a lot of his life wishing he had a sibling of his own, it’s kinda cool to live a brother.

Not even a brother, but a big brother who takes his job very seriously.

For starters, Itadori always gets to order wherever he wants for takeout dinner, which never got to happen back at Jujutsu High.

Fushiguro used to be apathetic about what they’d order, which meant Kugisaki took the liberty in steamrolling every decision.

Now?

Itadori gets to show Choso every single one of his favorite foods and then some.

The guy doesn’t eat much — apparently something to do with being a curse, not that Itadori judges — but he thoroughly enjoys the nights watching Choso squint over a takeout box trying to figure out what the heck is in the thing.

It’s nice teaching someone else the ropes, rather than feeling clueless in his own life.

He shows Choso how to cook; how to clean, though they’re both fairly great at lifting furniture to get into those hard-to-reach spots; how to pay bills over the internet — or just to pay for bills in general.

However, there is one important item in life he has to show his big brother:

Video games.

Apparently all he ever played when he was with Jogo, Brains, and Mahito were board games.

Snooze.

Boring.

“Today is your lucky day,” he tells the man with tightly-coiled space buns one day while Choso's watching television.

Itadori thrusts a coveted console controller into his view with excitement.

Choso blinks down at it with confusion.

“Because I — Yuuji Itadori, your little bro — am going to show you the wonders and joys of gaming.”

“I know how to play games, Yuuji,” Choso flatly replies, though there’s a warmth to his tone no matter when he speaks to Itadori.

The pink-haired boy shakes his head.

“I’m not talking about Life or Trouble or, ugh, Monopoly — though you can technically play them on a console.”

Choso’s brows slide high: really?

“Yeah, really.”

“Huh.”

The man with the black strip over his nose tests the weight of the console controller in his hand, lip slightly pouted.

“So what do you… do?”

“Press buttons, mostly.”

Itadori holds up his own decked-out controller — a modified neon blue and black masterpiece that glows in the dark — and presses a few of the buttons to show him.

“You’ll get used to it. Trust me, it’s way easier in practice.”

Sitting beside his brother with crossed legs, he triggers the console to wake up to its dashboard.

The game show disappears, and a brilliant burst of color takes over the screen.

The reaction is priceless — Choso’s eyes widen to the size of saucers.

Aw, yeah, he has him interested now.

“Do you play these games with your friends?” Choso asks quietly, poking at a button with his thumb.

“Sometimes,” Itadori replies. “Fushiguro isn’t a fan of them. Nobara gets way too competitive. Like… scary competitive. We limit her screen time.”

Choso snorts. “I can picture that.”

Itadori grins and opens up a few window menus so he can set up a profile for Choso on his console.

He hands over his main controller and gestures to Choso.

“Pick whatever profile photo you want.”

Sticking his tongue to the left in the exact way Itadori does when he’s concentrating, Choso flicks over the right joystick to search through the images.

“Itadori?”

“Yeah, Choso?”

“I don’t see my face.”

“Huh?”

“The photographs.” Choso points to the screen. “Where am I?”

Itadori blinks before he realizes.

“Oh! You… don’t, ha. You pick a character.” He pauses. “Like how you choose a thimble or a car and stuff in Monopoly.”

Choso sucks in a sharp inhale and nods in understanding before fluttering through a few more options with more confidence.

He settles over a photo of Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series before clicking it.

“Like this?”

“What, you like Lara?”

“Is that her name?”

“Yeah, she’s kinda super badass.” Itadori takes back the controller to finish up his profile. “My one online friend really likes those games—”

Then, brilliance hits him.

It doesn’t happen often, but today?

Itadori strikes gold.

“Oh, hey — if you want, you can kinda see how me and my one friend play. She’s usually on at this hour. Here.”

He pauses to reach around the couch only to hold out a headset for Choso to take.

“Wear this. It’s my spare.”

With that same inquisitive squint, Choso observes at the headphones with scrutiny.

Itadori showcases how to put them on, popping his RGB headset over his head and squishing his pink hair to his head.

It takes a little finessing with his hairstyle, but Choso does the same. He lets the headphones sit on his head and doesn’t move.

“You good?”

“What?” Choso’s voice shouts over the noise-cancelling feature.

“I said are you—” Itadori pauses, holding up a thumbs up.

Choso blinks. Then his thumb raises.

Good.

Itadori blinks back to the television screen where he signs on as himself — YuuMasterGeneral — before searching for a particular name on his friends list.

Truth be told, he’s only ever talked to this girl.

He has no clue what she looks like in person because he’s never met her in person, but she sounds pretty nice.

After Grandpa got sick, there wasn’t much to do around the house.

Sitting in a quiet house wasn’t cutting it, so Itadori tried his hand at online gaming lobbies.

Most of them sucked.

Most of them were full of assholes.

But he got lucky — an older girl that went by the moniker of Iris was nice enough to join his team.

That first night, they talked for hours about nothing in particular. Eventually he told her about his grandpa, and she added him as a friend. Iris told him to poke her whenever she was on so he had someone to play with.

Honestly? It was exactly the kind of lifeline he needed at the time.

After that, he gamed with Iris pretty regularly. Although they mostly game, sometimes they chat about their other hobbies. He's learned she has a full-time job, just recently graduating from university. A few times she's given a sprinkle of real life advice, from an adult figuring it out a couple of steps ahead of a teenager.

He felt safe. Seen.

He and Iris have been friends ever since.

Iris was good at gaming. Like, impossibly good.

So good she’d probably even beat Nobara.

But she wasn’t obnoxious about her wins, which was why Itadori enjoyed chatting with her so much.

Last time he talked to her was maybe six weeks ago. She’d been busy with her day job, but Itadori had been really busy with… well, everything to do with sorcery.

Surely she wouldn’t get weirded out about showing his older brother the ropes, right?

Iris was a private person, something Itadori could very respect, but he felt comfortable enough to invite her into this little debacle of his life now that Choso was going to be a permanent member of his family.

IRISSIRI IS ONLINE.

“Oh, cool, she’s on.”

“Who?” Choso asks, pushing a headphone off of his ear so he can hear Yuuji properly.

“My friend, Iris,” Itadori explains as he clicks to invite her to a party chat.

He then adds Choso, whose eyes widen at the magical sound of his little brother’s voice suddenly coming through the headset clear as day.

“This sounds…” 

Choso trails off, blinking as he hears the echo of his own voice.

Itadori laughs and leans over to mess with his settings once more. 

“Sorry — gotta mute yourself, buddy, otherwise we’ll get an echo going.”

Then a tiny chime sounds, and the brothers simultaneously stare at the television.

“Hello?”

Her voice is smooth as honey and soft, like she’s surprised to get the call.

Itadori immediately perks up, but he notices how Choso doesn’t move.

He just… stares, lips parted.

“Iris!” he greets excitedly. “Hey! Long time, no chat.”

“Yuuji,” she greets in return with a small smile in her voice. “Hey, no kidding. How’s it going? And who’s this…. Guest, person?”

“Oh — I haven’t given him a username yet. Iris, I wanted you to meet my big brother, Choso. Choso, this is my online friend Iris.”

He turns his head to look at Choso in the glow of the tv, but his brows furrow when he notices the pale complexion of Choso’s face turn a warm pink.

“Choso?” she asks, and Choso’s throat bobs.

Maybe he’s nervous about new people?

He’s never really been that nervous before.

“I didn’t know you had siblings!”

“Ha, yeah, it’s a complicated situation,” Itadori explains before flicking up his microphone stick so he can whisper directly to Choso: “You can speak in the microphone, you know.”

Choso clears his throat, his pink face turning scarlet in stark contrast to the black stripe across the bridge of his nose, before nodding. 

“....I’m his big brother.”

“Cool, cool,” she chides in return, and Itadori can’t even believe what he’s seeing:

His older brother practically melts in his seat as he presses a hand gently to his headphone as if to push it closer to his ear.

"It’s super nice to meet you, big brother Choso.”

Choso bites his lower lip and glances up at the screen. “You… have a really pretty voice—”

Uh oh.

Abort mission.

Itadori flies off of the end of the couch to quickly flick his microphone up to mute them both for a little familial aside. “Dude!”

Choso’s surprised, still sporting the blush. 

“What?”

“You can’t hit on my online friend!”

“I wasn’t hitting anyone, I was talking!” Choso hisses right back under his breath.

“Hitting on, not hitting!"

"Whatever!"

"Look: telling my friend she has a pretty voice is a little weird, okay?”

Suddenly the man looks a little worried. “It is?”

Itadori nods. “Yeah. Girls get bothered online all the time. Just… be cool.” 

He slowly drops his microphone back down.

Choso deflates and nods.

“Sorry about that! Yeah, no, he’s never played video games before so I thought we could show him how it’s done.”

“It's fine. But wait: he’s never played video games before?” Iris asks over her mic with a little laugh. “Seriously?”

Choso smiles small at that.

It’s lopsided and goofy. 

Itadori feels like he’s in the twilight zone.

“Did he live under a rock?” she adds in a gentle tease.

“Something like that.” Yuuji tells her, quickly loading up Fortnite for a game of Duos so Choso can listen and watch. “He’ll just hang with us while we play, if that’s cool with you?”

“So long as he doesn’t mind me asking him questions while we play,” Iris replies, sending a quick game invite to Itadori’s screen.

Both Itadori and Choso stare at one another.

Choso points at himself.

Itadori nods and points at him.

“Me?” Choso asks in a bit of a confused voice.

“Well, I’ve known your little brother for two years now, but I don’t exactly know you, ” Iris explains. “In a way, I kinda felt like his far-away big sister, so I'm happy to know he's got someone looking after him. So how old are you?”

Choso sits up a little taller.

“I'm one hundred and fif—”

“The same age as you!” Itadori chirps, cutting Choso off. “He’s twenty five.”

He can not have his normie friends find out about curse spirits and all of that insanity.

Itadori’s just grateful Sukuna never appeared cackling at his cheek in the middle of an intense match to make a pass out of bad taste.

Choso looks absolutely confused, but he slowly nods in tandem with Itadori’s pleading nod.

“...yes, I am... twenty-five years old.”

“Sweet, same age,” Iris chirps, and that goofy little look shows up on Choso’s face again.

(What gives, dude?!)

“And you’ve never played a single game before?” she asks as they load into the next lobby.

“I like Life.”

“The board game?”

“Yeah.”

“I was so bad at that game.”

“The spinner can really put you in debt,” Choso agrees with a solemn nod—

And Iris giggles.

Itadori blinks.

As he departs his character from the sky bus at the location Iris placed on the map, his lips begin to pull down to a grimace.

He’s never heard her laugh like that.

Not even when she's put toxic guys to shame and made them rage quit in Call of Duty.

“How did you meet my younger brother?” Choso asks, suddenly emboldened by the laugh.

“We met in a Destiny 2 lobby, actually,” Iris explains happily. “He helped me with a few of my bigger raids. When I found out the kid was fifteen-something, I felt like I had to make sure no one was a jerk to him in any future lobbies.”

“So you protected him?” Choso murmurs with surprise.

“More like shepherded him through games, sorta like a—”

“—big sister would,” Choso finishes for her.

“Kind of! Like I said earlier, Yuuji’s a good kid. And he’s really solid at playing games.” Iris clears her throat. “Yuuji, six o’clock. There is a drop over there.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

“Yuuji.”

“Miss!” Itadori corrects. “I mean Miss!”

“Jesus, he acts like I’m fifty sometimes,” Iris bemoans, and Choso smirks.

“Yeah. He acts like I’m a hundred and fifty,” the older man cheekily replies, and Itadori scowls.

On Itadori’s screen, they watch as a potential enemy rounds the corner of the building Itadori’s looting —

He doesn't act fast enough to attack —

But suddenly they fall to their knees, before bursting into confetti with all of their items strewn about.

K.O. 

They both hear Iris whistle from her microphone. 

“Respect your elders, kid.”

“Thanks, Eye. I didn’t realize there were people on my spot,” Itadori chimes.

Yeah.

Because he’s too busy listening to Choso act like he’s going to eat the mic to get closer to Iris —

And the fact that his online friend, his very normal friend, is giggling the way some girls giggle whenever…

They look…

At Gojo-sensei.

Itadori stops moving his thumbs on the controller, too deep in thought to play as Iris carries them.

She's scoping perimeters while he's busy putting the puzzle pieces together.

He's blushing.

She's giggling.

His Mikasa Ackerman avatar gets shot down, and Iris is shouting that she's coming back to save him —

But his eyes are on the guy opposite to him on the couch staring intently.

Not at the game, no.

At Iris’ little avatar that shows up every time she speaks.

Her icon's a little chibi Lara Croft.

Kind of like his generic Lara Croft icon.

Some weirdly-fated choice in a sea of happenstances.

Huh.

Wait a second.

"Hey, Choso, do you mind taking over for me in the next game?"

Choso whips his attention, eyes widening with uncertainty. "Me?"

Iris laughs again, and Itadori sees it in real-time: that butterfly-in-your-stomach goofy face, smack dab on Choso's lips.

"I'm down if you're down, Choso."

Quickly he takes the glowing controller from his younger brother and straightens up. "I can learn."

"Just don't go running off on me on the map, alright?" Iris requests playfully. "Stick with me and we'll easily get to last twenty."

"I won't fail you," Choso promises with a nod.

Itadori crosses his arms, observing and listening to Iris explain the game gently to Choso.

Although she was just as gentle with him, Itadori can hear something different in her voice. It's like she's trying to get Choso to answer her so he can talk. She asks him questions that will get him to talk more and more, until they're having a full-blown conversation without Itadori in sight.

Interesting.

He likes her voice, that much he's deduced.

But does she like his voice, too?

Something's happening here.

The cogs are turning.

Maybe —

Just maybe —

Yuuji Itadori can actually be a real, bonafide wingman.

.

[mythauragame]

January 2024 - Development Update

Hello folks, Miyazaki here! Hoping that your 2024 is off to a great start.

Like we mentioned in our December 2023/year in review development update, Mythaura has officially reached a new stage in development: active content creation. As a heads up, this means that there will be a reduction in the amount of big, shiny new content—we won't be rolling out any systems close to the scale of the demo.

From here on out it will primarily be updates on sponsored Ko-fi content, keeping up with the Ko-fi Quarterly Rewards system, art (including more Beast expressions!), and occasionally some written content/worldbuilding.

We will always post on the first of every month, rain or shine, but we just wanted to call out that if the news posts seem a little lighter in comparison that it's not because we're not hard at work. It's the opposite!

Under the cut:

Rogue starter Class

Ko-fi Winter Quarter 2024 winners

Ko-fi sponosored Companions

Dragon expressions

Featured Class: Rogue

Rogues cherish skill and versatility above all. Their fighting style focuses on evasion, speed, and bolstering their own attacks to score high-damage hits against their opponents.

The Thieves Guild has its roots in the Southern Plain. Unicorn herds generally don't lay claim to any one territory, instead following the seasonal paths of the storms that batter the region, so inter-herd communication became crucial for the economies of these nomadic groups. A particularly savvy band of merchants found that there was more money to be had acting as in-betweens for these herds than marketing their own goods, so they established a network of contacts across the whole of the Southern Plain.

Not all contacts were willing to handle the more illicit asks—the movement of illegal goods, sabotaging competing herds, and even discreet assassinations, in more extreme cases. A splinter group of like-minded individuals banded together to form the first Thieves Guild, a business operation that was—in most cases—willing to take on whatever work was asked, given the price was right.

Today, the Thieves Guild has spread to all corners of the continent, but are especially prominent in densely-populated cities and towns. Their mere presence has left an indelible mark on Mythauran society, and nothing escapes their notice.

Starting Equipment: Thief's Claw

Small, subtle, and easily tucked in the folds of a Beast's apparel—the Thief's Claw is the quintessential tool for any Rogue. What it lacks in decoration it more than makes up for in functionality—its deceptively sharp edge can be used to cut through rope, aid with picking a lock, or quietly encourage someone to comply with a Rogue's request.

Companion Concepts

Along with the Thief's Claw starting equipment, choosing a Rogue for your custom starter Beast will also grant you a Class-unique Companion.

Ko-fi Sponsors of Bronze level or higher will have a say in which companion they would like to see as the starter Companion for the RogueClass. Please vote on this post by Monday, February 26, 2024 at 11:59pm PST in order for your vote to be considered!

Ko-fi Winter Quarter 2024 Winners

Thank you to all the Ko-fi sponsors who voted for the Winter Quarter 2024 rewards. Next month we will show the finalized artwork for the Snowdrift Furline Companion and the Knitted Sweater Glamour. Stay tuned!

Expressions: Dragon

Koa, Luci, and Kymara have all been working hard on the Beast expressions project, and we've made enought progress to be able to show you the finalized artwork for both the young and adult Dragons.

Crafting the expressions has been an enormous undertaking. Along with the linework, shading, and highlights, every Special and Super requires manual illustration on the base. Following this, we run each expression through a PSD plugin to build every color. We have almost completed every species' base layers on all colors (top, bottom, base, & eye) and are excited to share them with you in the following months as we complete their Specials.

Sponsored Companions

Torchlight Python

Sponsored by: Maevely

Belligerent Capragora

Sponsored by: Ljslibby

Fruit-Footed Gecko

Sponsored by: Maevely

Mythaura v0.26

Mythaura v0.26

Battle state has been refactored to add stability and solve problems with between-state retention

Removed unneeded collision objects, reducing overall physics calculations.

Implemented instancing for all meshes to re-use similar objects instead of duplicating them.

Disabled swaying vegetation by default, which heavily impacts performance. This can be toggled in the graphics settings.

Fixes pixelation/blurring that occurs when zoomed on a beast or companion in Safari and Firefox.

Large companions, such as the Dale Wanderer, no longer zoom out when toggling the zoom-in option.

The touch screen joystick can now be set to on, off, or auto from the "Gamepad" settings.

The time you wait in queue before being brought into an AI practice Arena match has been reduced to one minute.

Locations have had infrastructure added.

NPCs have had infrastructure added.

Began initial work on a dialog query builder for robust dialog trees.

Support for elevation has been added to the map builder.

The map builder now supports different colored dynamic lighting.

Map design has begun for Talon's Rest.

Thank You!

Thanks for sticking through to the end of the post, we always look forward to sharing our month's work with all of you--thank you for taking the time to read. We'll see you around the Discord!

[eriisaam]

Day 5 - Change of Fate

(AUs, her situation with Peony, crossovers - you name it!)

Part of @sharenaweek

There are many world of monsters far and beyond Zenith's reach, but out of them, a few still stand tall and proud among recent memory.

One of the worlds is a world of monsters perhaps not in Zenith, but nonetheless familiar with quite a number of heroes regardless. A world populated in pokemon, where creatures of varying sizes, shapes, attributes, and power scalings roam freely in a world that co-exists with humans. Their lives became so interwoven with one another, that it was a coming-of-age rite of passage for humans - once they turn as old as 10 - to gain a pokemon partner to be their starter, and then explore across the many landmarks of their home region (and sometimes regions beyond that) in order to grow experience, strengthen their growing parties, and eventually display mastery in their skills as a trainer, where by then they will usually find a more specialized calling on what job-esque specialty and role they want to settle in alongside their pokemon.

In another world, it operates under different rules. Long ago, it was a realm of youkai who had a more tentative and chaotic relationship with humans over the ages back when they were known as kemonogami, until their realm and the realm of humans fractured further, and their continued existence adapted to exploit and thrive off the vast web of the internet and its data, eventually converting them present day into digimon. The present day digimon lived tentatively separate from the human world at first, though in combination of natural disasters from either worlds, more malicious digimon attempting to invade the humans or expand well past the Digital World's boundaries, or simple happenstance, not only had humans eventually stumbled into the Digital World numerous times, but digimon strayed out to the human world in kind, until certain parts of the human world - and in varying levels of confidentiality - built more established networks to travel to and from either worlds much more safely and seamlessly than the dodgey circumstances of the past.

Both of these worlds, in feuds well past the scope of their actual worlds, had been just as much thrown into competition of one another as they had been ridiculed and scorned in comparison. Equal in some ways, vastly different in others, the history of Pokemon and Digimon is a road paved with timeless rivalry.

In a happenstance encounter, when such parallel worlds suddenly crossed themselves, two lives intersected with it.

One, a plucky and cheerful pokemon trainer whose still trying to find her calling of what she wants to do when the league ahead of her ends and the badges with them are neatly tucked in her award case, and in the mean time explored the region in all its wonders alongside her friends and brothers.

And in another, a cheerful and hope-fueled digimon tamer, full of awe and hope and wonder for the intricacies of how the digimon and human worlds intersected, and with her partner digimon, wanted to explore how far down the rabbit hole the intersections of the Digital World connects past her home world.

Two girls of similar yet different circumstances, so alike in some ways yet different in others, immediately hitting it off the moment their eyes met and the hasty introductions poured out in their mouths in excitement and joy. Though they never met, they both instantly connected, as if, in a faded dream, they each found some form of familiarity in each other anyways. As if this was not the first time two starcrossed lives across two different, parallel worlds crossed paths...

---

Yes I know, cursed Peony's hair is cursed, but in this AU, I presume that the circumstance that led her to have the hair she does as an alfr don't carry over here (or not initially), so her present human-hair was a guestimate based on eyeballing how young-Peony looked pre-ljosalfarian era and went from there.

A thought came up that, in every crossover and every what-if AU, no matter what, Sharena and Peony still manage to find one another. The more things change, the more things stay the same...

Onward to the next day...? (Huh. That's weird...)

[usafphantom2]

SAC Crew Dogs: The Elephant Walk, The Wing Commander, and the Boom

T Campbell

@tcamp202

·

4h

… as the crew pulled up to the Alert shack, they could see the Wing Commander’s Chrysler Reliant K-Car parked right at the main entrance to the shack. The Air Force blue car was still smoking a bit, and most of the paint had been burned away… somebody was gonna get a chuck taken, that much was sure…

This is the retelling of a story I heard as an A1C (Airmen First Class) while pulling SAC Alert at Loring AFB when I was a Boom Operator in the KC-135 A model. It was probably embellished when it was told, and I might embellish it even more… cause you know, that’s how Alert Stories go. I do hope that I do it justice in my retelling.

In order to understand the humor in this small fairy tale, I first need to explain a couple of technical details about KC-135 operations. It’s a lot of background to tell a silly old story, but please bear with me… the story is funny (or at least I think it is.)

Engine Start: The KC-135A was equipped with the Pratt and Whitney JP-57-P/F-43W, good solid engines, but they required a lot of tender loving care, and if they didn’t get it, they let you know in a hurry. There were a few different ways to start the engines.

The most common was to have an air cart connected to the aircraft. It would supply air to the bleed air manifold and would be used to start all four engines.

Another way we could start the engines was often called a Cart Start. Using a Cartridge, a canister about the size of a large coffee can, filled with a slow burning explosive, which could create enough air to turn the starter long enough to start the engine. All four engines could use Cartridges.

If you had any single engine running, you could use bleed air from that engine to start the others, however, you had to push up the power a bit to generate enough air pressure in the bleed air manifold.

Image

Gases escaping after turning the engine starter during a Cartridge Start on a KC-135A.

Photo from https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Air-Force/Boeing-KC-135A-Stratotanker-717-148/666058/L

Hot Starts: One thing that these engines did not like at all was being started with an insufficient amount of bleed air, whether from a ground cart, or the other engines. Failure to get the engine turning fast enough when adding fuel often resulted in hot starts with flames shooting out the back of the engine, kind of like an afterburner, but these flames weren’t blue… they were a reddish yellow, like fire and could reach out to the tail of the aircraft. Sometimes flames would even shoot out the front. They were dangerous. Fire bottles were always on hand for engine starts, just in case.

Engine Shutdown: After landing, the pilots would stow the spoilers, retract the flaps (otherwise, tower might think we’d been hijacked) and shut down two of the engines, usually the inboards to avoid accidentally sucking up anything from the taxiways into the engines, and also, so that when the ground crew chocked the tires, they wouldn’t have to walk closely to a running engine.

However, on Alert, we always shut down the outboard engines first, so the ground crew could install a new Cartridge in the #1 engine (furthest to the left.) The cartridges were dangerous, and the last thing the crew chief wanted was a running engine behind him and no escape route if there were any problems. Once the cartridge was installed, the other engines could be shut down because we had the ability to restart the jet if required.

Ok… if you’re still with me… great! Last thing you need to know is about Elephants walks on Alert. An elephant walk is where a group of airplanes get all configured for a mission, start engines and taxi out, but instead of taking off, they just taxi down the runway. Kind of like a parade.

For elephant walks on Alert, this process is started with the Klaxon going off and the brass inspect the aircraft as they are taxing to ensure they are all properly configured for takeoff. Think of it as your typical military inspection… you know, “Trim those nose hairs” type of affair, but with airplanes.

Last thing to remember… SAC took Alert VERY seriously. Everything had to be done by the book, and if it wasn’t, there’d be hell to pay. The aircraft always had to be ready to launch on the nuclear mission to refuel B-52s. As they say, failure was not an option.

So… now that you are armed with some knowledge on how the KC-135 normally operates, it’s time to tell our story.

Image

An Elephant Walk. KC-135 R models (bigger engines), not A models... but it gives you the idea... imagine a car driving between the aircraft to inspect them. Our ill fated crew was somewhere in the middle of the line.

Once upon a time, there was a crew… we’ll call them R-113 with Captain William Bligh as the commander, the co-pilot and nav shall remain nameless, but the Boom Operator was SSgt Fletcher Christian. They were on Alert, spending another seven days cooped up in the Alert facility, and serving their country. Breakfast started the day followed by a mandatory briefing at oh eight hundred. After this, maybe some ground training or bon bons and the Price is Right, and then it’s lunch time. A combat nap would take up most of the afternoon, followed by dinner around five. All the while, waiting for the Klaxon to sound off. Not exactly riveting stuff, let me tell you.

“FOR ALERT FORCE, FOR ALERT FORCE, KLAXON KLAXON KLAXON”

One day, our fateful day, the Klaxon went off and the crew sprinted out to their aircraft. This is a hectic event. Get the covers off the engines, get the door opened, rush up into the cockpit, check all is clear, and fire up those Cartridges to start the engines. Black smoke is billowing everywhere and it’s hard to see, but the engines get started, the crew chief makes his way up the ladder into the aircraft, and they button up to the aircraft, ready to taxi.

On the sidelines, the Wing Commander is proudly watching his KC-135s do what they do best. He watches the rolling clouds of thick black, toxic smoke as the engines start.

“FOR ALERT FORCE, FOR ALERT FORCE, MESSAGE FOLLOWS… SIERA NOVEMBER ALPHA FOXTROT UNIFORM…”

The message from command post… it’s an elephant walk exercise. The aircraft will taxi out of the Cage, the Alert pad for the KC-135s, and out to the runway. There, they will taxi about halfway down the runway, turn off and line up, nose to tail, on the returning taxiway waiting to be inspected by the Wing Commander.

While sitting in line, with a tanker just in front of him, and another just behind, Captain Blight decides to save some fuel, he’s going to shut down two of the engines. This is normal. However, instead of shutting down the outboard engines, as was normal in this situation, he shuts down the inboard engines as if he’d just finished a normal flight.

As soon as the throttles were in the cut off position, he realizes his mistake, but there’s nothing he can do. He announces his dilemma over the crew’s intercom… so the boom, SSgt Christian says, “Hey, just restart them, what’s the big deal?”

Meanwhile, at the end of this line of KC-135s, the Wing Commander starts inspecting the aircraft. He drives by each jet, taking a zig zag route through the jets, looking to ensure the flaps are set correctly, the stabilizer trim (the horizontal portion of the tail) is trimmed to the correct position for takeoff. He’s quite proud of his jets… maybe he’ll get another promotion and get the h*ll out of this sh*t hole base.

Captain Bligh says, “In order to start the engines, I’m gonna have to push up the outboards a bit to get enough bleed air, but I don’t want to FOD (foreign object damage) out the jet behind us, but ok, let’s do it.” He pushes up the outboard throttles as much as he dares and starts the engine start sequence for the number two engine (left inboard). He turns on the ignition, and then after the engine has just barely enough rpms, the turns on the fuel.

Right about this time, the Wing Commander has finished looking at the jet behind our ill fated crew, and he is crossing behind Captain Bligh’s number two engine, when a huge flame, at least forty feet long come shooting out of the back of the engine, right onto the hood of his car.

As you might be able to imagine… the radios come to life and the Wing Commander starts screaming about the jet with the flames coming out of it… followed by “Everybody report to the briefing room (at the Alert shack) after re-cocking the aircraft.”

It was pretty quite for the next thirty minutes or so, while Captain Bligh and crew got their aircraft re-cocked for Alert. After they wrap things up, they get in their Alert truck and head back. There was a little discussion though, they had to get their story straight.

As the crew pulled up to the Alert shack, they could see the Wing Commander’s Chrysler Reliant K-Car (remember, we bailed out Chrysler) parked right at the main entrance to the shack. Oh sh*t… this wasn’t going to be good. The Air Force blue car was still smoking a bit, and most of the paint had been burned away from the front fender and hood. There was no doubt, the briefing room was not going to be a pleasant place to be.

As the last crew sat down, somebody called “Attention”, and everybody stood up at attention. The Wing Commander walked down the center isle and up to the podium. “Crew 113… get up here!”

The Wing Commander addressing Captain Bligh asked, “Why on earth were you restarting your engines?”

Captain Bligh responded, “My Boom Operator said to.”

Lesson learned… if you are the lowest ranking guy, always look be on the look out for sh*t rolling downhill.

@tcamp202 via X

[mc-adarsh]

CLOSED STARTER for @selinswonderland location: THE BEACH timestamp: EVENT 01 PART 02

Adarsh.

It was a name, he wasn’t so sure if it was his, but it was the only name that came to mind. And having no other reference, he’d accept it as his for the time being.

He sat down on the beach, not watching the waves or the cruise ship he’d been on - neither were giving him any hints of who he was - but instead focussed on the clothes he was wearing.

Running shoes, black, beat-up but not badly enough that they needed replacement.

No socks, that felt odd.

He was wearing dark green cargo pants that got slimmer at his ankles, and formed a nice seal around his skin. All the pockets were empty though. 

Nothing to give him any indication of who he’d been.

He took off the tank top and shirt he was wearing, unable to make any assessment while wearing them. The long sleeved shirt was one used for body surfing, uv protected, tight, also black, size M. 

The tank top loose, light grey, had some stitchings loose, but no design on it, not even a label. It was loose fitting, probably cotton.

He touched his arms and torso, some scarring. He didn’t know if he was tanned or if this was just his natural colour, he’d find out when he had more privacy. The scars didn’t look serious, nothing to suggest he’d had any operations or got shot. 

He couldn’t see his back.

Turning to the side he waved a hand at the first passerby. 

“Hey you! Come help… please,” he called in thick-accented English.

He added the please mostly because he thought he sounded rude, though it felt unnatural. 

When the figure got closer, he baulked his further order. “Check it I have scarring on my back,” he said as he turned back towards the water. If he was told he was rude, he could perhaps get away with it by stating English was not his first language. No matter how easily it came. The other language was far easier, the other language he dreamt in.

[thetombedspirit]

So, I just finished the main story of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

First off, I want to talk about the cons of the game before jumping into the pros, but to be honest with ya, the cons are few and far in between and were more about personal preference then the performance of the game itself.

For starters:

1. The Glitches - Like literally, during a few quests, there will be some dialogue, but it'll randomly cut out with the excuse that enemies are near by, when that is absolutely not the case. It was only so bad that I had to exit to the main menu and then get back on in order for it to fix, so this was minor in comparison to other glitches like falling through the map randomly (which happened to me once during my play through of Far Cry 4 :p)

2. The Language - This is just a little peeve of mine, but I wish that the Na'vi, at least when talking amongst themselves and to us, spoke in Na'vi. Like, if Ubisoft could record a whole 'nother language for Far Cry Primal, they could have done it here. And I also wish that the animals, especially the Palulukan, were referred to by it's Na'vi names rather then human names.

3. The Main Character's Name - This is minor really, but I don't like how we are not given a name. Like, I get that it's fun coming up with names for our original character, but it's a bit isolating to only be referred to as 'the Sarentu'.

Not only does it make it seem like our identity as a member of a respected clan matters more then our identity as our own complex individual, but it feels weird when you read notes and listen to audio logs about the other Sarentu kids and not one thing about us, especially when Alma talks about how they're acclimation to life in the Resistance. Like how we're developing doesn't matter at all in comparison to how Ri'nela is coming into the role of leader and Tsahìk.

Not even a mention of our relation to Aha'ri when she writes about her murder and how it could be affecting us.

Like, just a gender-neutral name to tie things in, like Dani in Far Cry 6, would go a long way to make our character feel like a part of the story and not just a nameless side character doing all the hard work, like the Rookie from Far Cry 5.

4. The Villain - This is more of a 'meh' thing for me. Like yeah, Mercer was an asshole, but again, pulling from Far Cry here, who had amazing, complex villains like Vaas Montenegro or Pagan Min, and what we get is... a entitled, racist narcissist whose barely there, and therefore we get zero from this guy. He was more annoying then anything, like literally every time he talk, my eyes rolled into the back of my skull.

Like, could you imagine if AFOP made Mercer like Pagan Min, the tyrant king of Kyrat who had a relationship with Ajay Ghale's mother to the point where he was sympathetic to the loss of his mother. Pagan Min would just randomly call Ajay on his radio like an eccentric father-figure, and in two endings of the game, he'll actually help you out, taking you to Lakshamana so that you can place your mother's ashes beside her, just like she wanted, which is very generous considering that in one of those endings, it's after you lead a massive rebellion right to his door-step, taking out his generals and so-on! (Pagan is my favourite Far Cry villain is you haven't figured that, Vaas is a close second)

If you gave Mercer that kind of depth, then maybe you can actually understand why Teylan would believe Mercer wouldn't hurt anybody when he gave the location of the Resistance Base away.

Harding as well was mediocre. Just a hard-as-nails general that's running a pouching operation on the side. Like, if you made her even a fraction of insane like you did Vaas, I could actually be into it.

So anyway, on to the pros!

1. The Gameplay - I know people moaned about the mechanics being too similar to Far Cry, but honestly, that was what drew me to it when I first saw the trailer for it! Far Cry is my favourite first-person shooter franchise (Far Cry 4 and Far Cry Primal being my favourites). The crafting of weapons, the hunting for food, skins and ingredients and the little things what made it unique was amazing to me,

The hunting was a pain, because half the time (for me anyway) I could almost never get a clean kill for the smaller or quick-moving animals, but I think it was done super well. When you hit an animal in the old Far Cry games, they either just drop dead or run away and bleed out quietly. But here, when it's an unclean kill, the animal squirms and writhes in pain before succumbing to it's wounds, really driving in the whole point of the Na'vi way of life (that's how I saw it anyway).

And the Memory Paintings, though tedious at most times, was another fun and unique mechanic to the game and felt very Na'vi to me and I enjoyed concentrating on them all and hearing the MC's interpretations of the Memory Paintings and the Sarentu Totems.

And the moments when you're flying on your Ikran or Pa'li made me feel like I was in an RPG, like Horizon, so that was a nice little touch. It was like they mashed two of my favorite games into one.

And in the end, it's not the gameplay that makes me play the game. It's the story.

2. The Harmful Effects of the RDA - There was not a minute within this story where it's quests and stories didn't resonate with me.

How the Kinglor of the Aranahe forest was displaced by the RDA's actions, giving us a Yellowstone situation where a key member of the ecosystem was being pushed out and it was causing all sorts of problems for the local flora and fauna.

The aforementioned poaching in Zeswa territory, where the Zakru were being hunted and killed for their tusks and how even their long deceased skeletons were being pilfered, very similar to elephant and rhino poaching, especially as Zakru are sacred animals to the Zeswa.

And then the Yavä, the green fog that brought sickness to the Kame'tire, something that happened, by the way, because the RDA disposed of the Sarentu's bodies by using caustic chemicals!!! (like, what the FUCK, Alma!) but anyway, is very reminiscent to the diseases that European settlers brought in to the native populace, who never had to build up immune systems for it and suffered because of it.

What I'm getting at here, is how big of a problem the RDA is, not just for going to war with Jake and the Omaticaya, but also by causing the exact same problems that people did on Earth and are still doing to Earth. In so many, seemingly innocuous way, the RDA are negatively effecting the ecosystem, the wildlife and the locals in their pursuit of a paycheck that, realistically, would never be able to use until they get off planet, and that is if they don't die on an alien moon because of all those problems.

3. The Efforts of the Resistance

Every time I got to talk with the Resistance members was a highlight for me. I truly do not understand how some people don't like Priya. I found her adorable, and she gave me Penelope Garcia vibes from Criminal Minds. And her budding romance with Resistance Pilot Anqa, whose history with incursion on her desert homeland inspired her to take action against the RDA.

Or Hajir's regrets for playing part in the Severeds origins, concluding how they are in a constant state of anger and sadness.

Or Billy, who break-dances as he's helping you escape imprisonment, before sacrificing himself to save what's left of the Resistance.

And then there's the Na'vi Clans that I just loved and each and every one of it's characters had me giddy. The playful old grandmother in Nefika and her immediate action to take us in and show us around the Hometree, the Zeswa sisters and their rightous anger over the poaching, the eccentricities of Okul and their faith in the Kame'tire's tradtions.

Honestly I could go on and on about every single character in this game. Nalin and her tentative offer to fill in the void of mother during the party, the Burden Carrier and the Milk Crafter who got drunk off their ass, saying the zakru can fly while we're trying to warn them of impending danger and Mosaka, who not only gave our clan's location away to the RDA, but used their deaths to manipulate his way into power and control over the clan by framing Anufi for their demise. (BTW, fuck you Mosaka)

That's all I got for now, but once the DLCs come in, I am defiantly playing through the whole game again and I may come back to this post with an update when that happens, along with my stance on said DLCs.

So, hope your all having a good day and buh-bye!

[quantumlogician]

One directive after another, Shockwave continues to be displaced between city-state to city-state, feeding the usual informant lines, overriding the data streams, and manufacturing a social personality for the weary masses to latch onto. Grueling grunt work compared to what glory he held in Crystal City, but he relented to the menial tasks until Megatronous did manage to find one to taste.

Slaughter City's deepest pits were newly vacant — in need of some new oversight. Trusted oversight, the gladiator claimed, but it was too terribly easy to read between the lines into the fine print: the city was too important to lose and carried the heaviest front line of Decepticon sympathizers next to Tarn. Home territory needed a trustworthy loyalist and not the spare sycophants that huddled near, vying for control over even just a precinct.

Shockwave was dispatched within the decacycle, his arrival not announced until his ship entered the arena and dropped him knee-deep into the proliferating mess that has since been accumulating from the late-overseer.

The first many cycles, he worked around the battles and the downtime, ordering a clean up the literal mess of parts and energon that cluttered the back stages. The later few cycles, he actually managed to start making headway with the current lot of piecemeal gladiators. Their frames mere suggestions to what they had been in their glory — a perfect control group.

Unlike the previous officer, the scientist failed to become friendly with the lot of them. A total lack of shared personality; never a pit-fighter, never developed much of an inflection of rugged friendliness. He made it clear and had impressed upon them from what little grace he offered through upgrades, mods, or remedial patching, tiding them over for their next calamitous battles.

" Steamtrack, " he called from the doorway, reading from a datapad without lifting a helm to seek them out. If they were here, then he expected them to come forward as he disappeared into the operational backroom — once an old storage closet, now makeshift medbay.

" Are you due for a fight within the cycle? " he asked first, sifting through the cabinets for metallic material bonds.

Closed starter — @gladiatorspxrked

[shepcdr]

@torntruth // starter call.

lethe. shepard doesn't know much about it — he generally leaves the navigating to the navigators, the ones best equipped for the job. it's a tall order, to be sure. to monitor the state of the normandy's surroundings constantly from planet to planet and as they drift in between; to chart their course through the mass relays and through systems; to keep informed of the meteorology and of any and all potential hazards and abnormalities in destination environment, and to then relay the relevant information to joker and to shepard alike ... really, shepard only really tells them where to chart the course.

pressly's absence is a considerable loss for the old crew and for shepard, who ( somehow, weeks later. he didn't have any idea he's grown so softhearted until now ) can't quite manage to pass by the CIC without expecting to bump into the man. it appears to be a blow only to morale and sentiment, however — he finds himself mildly stunned to find that the majority of pressly's and his people's job have been considerably minimised by EDI's presence.

" before long, they'll figure out how to replace me with you, " he grumbles to EDI as he swipes down the neatly condensed reports on his datapad. everything he needs is there. basic information on the colony they're headed for, recent non-private transmissions to and from relevant colonies nearby, geographical snags and obstacles that might cause the hammerhead some difficulties ... all neatly gathered and presented to him in easy to consume, shepard-friendly ( as she and joker seem to have taken to calling it; apparently his requests for information actually usable to him are amusing to them ) format.

EDI's reply — ' perhaps once i finally have enough data to fully assimilate your personality, shepard ' — bordering smugness, if she were capable of it, does not help. nor does the ' ... that was a joke, ' that follows.

that aside — he'll worry about the ai mutiny on his hands later — lethe. the illusive man had kept busy while waiting for shepard to be revived, clearly, judging from the lengthy list of not-strictly-necessary places of interest he's provided the normandy crew. the planet's commandeered and run by notably one krogan, who has evidently found an impressive amount of capital in mining, gambling, alcohol, and entertainment. not a bad operation. the mining shepard can see the draw of for cerberus. but why the illusive man has any interest in the colony they've set course for is beyond shepard; the supplemented information that EDI's provided indicates that it's interspecies. not what shepard expected. but this particular colony and coordinates are attached to a contact: an informant. he figures cerberus can find no better informant elsewhere ( read: amongst more humans ) on lethe.

as long as they're in the thorne system, they might as well stop by.

" EDI. can you patch me through to kristen durus? " he makes the request when they've broken through the atmosphere, setting down the datapad. EDI took the initiative to make contact before their flight to lethe, so they should be expected.  " durus — this is commander shepard of the normandy. we're approaching the colony. we'll be coming in on a shuttle, ETA, twenty minutes. can you set a rendezvous point? over. "

[hiddenwashington]

after nearly a week trapped within the maze, many have found their way to the center. either a quiet clearing, or a beating heart that appears to be the life force of the maze itself. most citizens have seemed to believe that this was near the end, that it was a sign they'd nearly found there way out, but unfortunately, that's not the case. as you pass out of these sections, you find yourself in the latter half of the maze, and the second half is where the true nightmare begins. gone are the silly monsters and obvious traps, and in their place are true psychological horrors, the likes of which could drive a man to madness. you've survived the first half, but will you make it to the end with your sanity intact?

OOC INFORMATION:

happy spooky season! congratulations to muses who have managed to get through the maze so far, but as they've progressed and adapted so has to maze holding these characters captive. as a result we've got some updates for you in terms of possible situations, as well as a small update to the death table. though we've done chaotic events in the past we wanted to make something that could be considered a proper horror event, and hopefully this table will provide that for all of you! we hope you all have fun with the update and can really enjoy spooky season with this!

THE MAZE:

FIND THE SECOND MAZE TABLE HERE

all of these prompts can be presumed to take place after characters have passed through some midpoint of the maze, however you are not required to write a thread in the middle of the maze in order to progress to the second part, you may simply jump forward whenever you like

please note, these prompts are definitely more intense than the first table of prompts, with many leaning into psychological horror. if you're uncomfortable with many of the prompts you're welcome to stick with the first table for the entire duration of the event. this plot drop is optional.

some of the prompts are left open ended in terms of exact and you should feel welcome to interpret them as you wish. if you're really unsure about whether or not you can do something don't hesitate to shoot us a message!

CHARACTER DEATHS:

character deaths still operate the same as mentioned in the original event post, in which there is a list of potential death effects that can happen to characters.

while a smaller update there have been some small editions to the death table found HERE.

as before please make sure to send any character deaths in the discord, or dm the main if you are not in the discord.

THREADS

feel free to start transitioning threads, making new starter calls, whatever feels like the best way to go about incorporating the plot drop!

please just make sure to reach out to your thread partners before transitioning anything to make sure they're alright with things being transitioned.

you are of course welcome to continue your current replies whether or not you'll be participating in the plot drop!

please make sure to continue tagging threads with hwevent16!

as always make sure to tag all necessary triggers! if you're unsure about what needs to be tagged don't hesitate to check out the page HERE.

please make sure you like this after you have read the post in its entirety, remember admin sunny is baby, and have a happy halloween! ♥

[magic-cat-blair]

Fictober 2024

Rose

Prompt: 26 ("you were the first")

Fandom: Original Work

Rating: E

There was a slight clatter as I placed down the tea tray. I carefully set out two cups out and poured tea into both of them. I place one on a saucer in front of Mistress Elora and one on a saucer in front of her guest.

"Thank you, Conner."

I bowed and moved off to the side of the room.

"So, Mr. Granthul, what bring you back here after so many years?"

Hugo Granthul was a large man, from a poor family. It would be impossible to tell he didn't come from money looking at him. He was wearing formal armor for starters. Pretty bad for combat but it looks quite fancy.

"Miss Evenelle-"

"Please, you may call me Elora."

"Elora. I have heard your 'wish granting' business has been going well."

"But of course. As long as there are people there will be wishes. And as long as there are wishes, I will offer to grant them."

"For a price of course."

"Of course. You know nothing is free."

"Of course. And King Hendrick was more than happy to allow you to continue operation within his kingdom. Provided you follow a few rules."

"Yes. I remember."

"I apologize for my bluntness, but do you?"

"Three rules. I may not grant anyone a kingdom or power over the king. I may not kill anyone. I may not take on an apprentice."

"And yet I've heard rumors of a young girl here. One who is also practicing the dark arts."

"It's simple magic. Same as the court wizard."

"So you admit it."

"I do not. I have no apprentice. The young girl in question is my new daughter. I have adopted her as I have to children of my own. I have all the legal documents, if you would like to see them."

"But you are teaching her magic! That goes against the King's orders!"

"The rule was to not take an apprentice. I have not. I have a daughter. And it only makes sense for a mother to teach her daughter, does it not?"

"You are twisting the King's rule to your own need!"

"I have done no such thing! I am following the king's rules to the letter!"

"Elora you don't-"

"You will do well to remember your place when you insult me."

He scowled. "Miss Evenelle. This cannot be allowed to stand. I have orders to take you and the girl into custody."

Mistress Elora put down her teacup. Her eyes lit up with a burning anger. "Hugo, you will do no such thing. My daughter and I have done nothing. I simply granted her wish to be brought up in a safe household. I have granted many wishes to help many people of this kingdom in a similar many. You would know. You were the first one."

Hugo looked down. Emotions flashed across his face. Eventually he stood up. "...I will report you have adopted a daughter to the king. He will not be happy with this news."

"Then I am sorry he cannot congratulate me on starting a family."

Hugo left. After he left the mansion Mistress Elora called out. "Rose, come here please."

Rose stepped out from behind the parlor door. She walked into the room and went to sit across from Mistress Elora. Mistress Elora patted the seat next to her. Rose sat next to her.

"Rose, dear. You needn't worry. You are my daughter and I not let harm come to you."

"But, what if they hurt you?"

"Oh not possible. Conner would tear them to shreds before they could touch me."

"Familiars can do that?"

"Strong and loyal ones can. Now let's lighten the mood. Are you ready to play with fire?"

Rose gasped. "You're gonna teach me fireball!?"

"Can't be a witch without it!"

[freeusemuses]

Open starter: Ahsoka’s auction

With the success of Order 66, and Operation Nightfall, almost all Jedi had been eliminated from the galaxy. Those that survived were hunted relentlessly, and those that ended up captured...

"Lot 665! A Jedi in chains!" The auctioneer called to the crowd. Ahsoka being raised up to the stage. Her fate to be sold like so many of her fellow female Jedi. "Ahsoka Tanno. The former apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. Some of you may remember her as the one who bombed the Jedi Temple. So, the bidding starts at 250,000 credits!"