#...sigh. yeah i guess i'll be doing them at some point in the future

[saphira-approves]

Something something professional artist jargon something something insert art knowledge here—whatever I want to talk about the book covers

So you’ve got Eragon, with a 3/4 portrait of Saphira; she’s giving a benevolent side eye with almost a Mona Lisa smile, she’s got that gleam in her eye, she’s looking at you but not head on—listen, this was the whole reason I picked up the book in the first place when I was eleven, she was so clearly full of life and personality and I just really wanted to meet her. It’s a really good glimpse of her character before even opening the book. She’s engaging you, but also maybe judging you a little bit, and she has a lot of thoughts but she’s going to keep them to herself for right now, thank you.

We’re skipping Eldest for right now because I have a point to make. Shush.

For Brisingr, we get a perfect side portrait of Glaedr, the grumpy old man. He’s not even side-eyeing the viewer like Saphira does; he is eyes forward, goal-oriented, noble and regal and, unless you’re worth his time, not really going to bother with you because he has Important Business to attend to. He is The Last of the pre-Fall dragons, his Rider is The Last of the pre-Fall Riders, he represents a bygone era that will never fully be resurrected, but can still inspire the present to fight for the future; he is no longer fully his own dragon, but a Relic, a Memory, a Symbol. He’s not anxious about it the way Eragon or Saphira might be; he has grieved for a century, he couldn’t be anxious about it if he tried. But he knows that keeping his integrity intact is important, and so this is how he presents himself: Noble. Regal. The Survivor. The Last.

Fírnen graces the cover of Inheritance, bookending the original series by almost perfectly mirroring Saphira—and seriously, it is so satisfying to line the books up with these two at the ends. Though he’s got a 3/4 profile like Saphira, Fírnen is much more reserved. No Mona Lisa smile, no mischievous gleam in his eye; he simply looks at you, and you look back, and you wonder what he’s thinking. He is, in fact, a lot like Arya—anyone who’s read the previous three books up to that point and hasn’t been spoiled for the ending might be able to guess, just from this portrait, who the final egg would hatch for. It’s also a perfect expression for the Final Book, with the fate of Alagaësia and the dragons hanging in the balance: what world does this mysterious dragon emerge into? A war-torn apocalypse? A hard-won victory? What does his future entail, and thus, what do the futures of our favorite characters entail? You ask him so many questions, but all he will ever do is stare deep into your soul with his somber, too-knowing gaze.

And now for the main event:

My beautiful precious son, the red-scaled Thorn, staring you down from the covers of both Eldest and Murtagh. I have loved the cover of the second book ever since I first picked it up, and my appreciation has only grown with time; needless to say I was very excited when the Murtagh cover dropped, and I got to see both of my favorite characters in one place. For both of these, Thorn takes the same stance: a full-frontal combative position, looking You, The Viewer directly in the eye, daring you to judge him, daring you to get in his way. I’ve always had my own opinions about what lay behind this show of force, and the context we get in Murtagh does not disappoint. He may be terrifying, he may be the scourge of the war, but underneath all that, Thorn is terrified. He’s traumatized, he’s claustrophobic, his body is too big for his age; he is painfully young still, and yet treated like a dragon ten times his age because that’s how he looks. He’s also sweet, and playful, and cares so much about his Rider, and wants desperately to keep Murtagh safe and happy. Just like Murtagh, he hides all of that—the fear and the softness both—behind a visage of ferocity, playing into the fears and preconceived notions people have of him, warning enemies away so they can’t get too close to what will actually hurt him. He dares you to try. He’s terrified you will try. He will fight tooth and nail if you do try.

[hubbvrd]

Lego date | Joe Burrow

summary — Joe and you building some Lego together

pairing — joe burrow x reader

words — 1694

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

"Tell me how you’re ever supposed to choose one here." Cocking your head you look up the large shelf that held countless Lego sets.

"If I find the answer, i'll be the first to tell you" replied Joe, who was standing a bit away from you and had taken a step closer to the shelf to get a closer look at the different lego sets.

You two were in a toy store that had a huge selection of lego, so it would be almost impossible to decide on a set that both of you wanted to build together.

You let out a slightly annoyed sigh, while you took your eyes off the many colorful boxes and turn to your boyfriend, who was holding one of the many boxes in his hand and seemed to be studying it carefully.

"What do you have there?" , curious you stepped over to Joe to take a look at the set.

"Chewbacca." Joe turned the box in your direction so you could catch a glimpse of the traced image of Chewbacca.

"Looks really cool, but if you remember we just put something together last week from Star Wars" , you reminded your boyfriend as you stepped towards the shelf again, tilting your head slightly as you began to pattern the colorful boxes once more.

"But Star Wars is cool. Especially Chewbacca. That one has to be in my collection," Joe started to convince you, so however, you shook your head with a smirk and reached for a box.

"I'm more here for."

You held the box with the time machine from Back to the Future in front of Joe's nose.

"This is really cool, too." , Joe replied as he put Chewbacca back on the shelf and you then took the box off to get a better look at the back to the future car.

"So this?" , you tried to get Joe to take this box to the checkout so both of you could make your way back home as quickly as possible, where you would put your comfy clothes back on and you both would then build the set together.

"I don't know..." Joe hesitated, so he put the box back on the shelf and began rubbing his chin.

The little wrinkle under his eye that always formed when Joe was thinking showed you that Joe wasn't really having an easy time deciding on his set.

But with such a large Lego selection, could you blame him?

"Or the house of Home alone," you pointed your finger at the matching set of Joe and your favorite Christmas movie, which you both watched together as a kind of tradition every Christmas.

"There's too much to choose from" , Joe almost whined, running his fingers through his blond hair, which subsequently sat rather tousled on his head.

"I know, but we can take one now and then in the next few weeks we'll get the others" , suggested you, trying to make Joe's decision a little easier, which, however, became anything but easy for Joe.

"Then I'll have to decide which set I'll take home first...", Joe whined almost like a little child, so that you held your hand over your mouth as a soft giggle escaped you.

It was kind of cute to see Joe standing desperately between the two shelves, just unable to decide.

"I guess that's the way it is." , you smirked as you buried your hands in your jacket pockets and slowly walked along the shelf to make the wait a little more exciting.

In the background you could hear Joe muttering softly to himself as you looked at all the different sets.

It was really amazing what Lego had produced in the meantime for sets and especially the prices were sometimes quite a number for themselves.

"Honey?" you heard Joe ask a few minutes later, so you turned around and looked over at your boyfriend.

"Yeah?"

"I think I've decided."

You walked over to Joe and was quite excited to see which set he had decided on and would build them right at home with Joe.

"Which one did it turn out to be?"

Without saying a word, Joe held out the box containing the Chewbacca Lego figure to you.

In fact, you had actually known from the beginning that Joe would choose this figure, as he had been quite blown away when he had pulled it off the shelf.

"Please don't be disappointed" Joe started the sentence almost pouting, while he saw that you was not too enthusiastic.

"I'm not disappointed." , you replied truthfully and pressed a gentle kiss on your boyfriend's cheek to make it clear to him once again.

"But you were probably hoping it would be a different set, since it was already Star Wars last week..."

"It's okay, Joey.Really. You decided on the set and now we're going to build it right at home."

In response, Joe merely nodded, clearly seeming to wrestle with himself over whether he should actually take Chewbacca.

"You know, we'll take Chewbacca with us and you pick out a set for that too, okay? Then we'll both be happy," Joe suggested after a few minutes of deliberation, so you summarily agreed and went off in search of a set to take with you.

It took a few minutes before you found what you were looking for and came over to Joe with the box behind your back.

"Did you find anything?" , he asked as he lifted his eyes from his phone and looked at his girlfriend.

"Yeah, and I already have a really cool idea of how we're going to place this at home," you replied with a grin, holding out an flower set to Joe.

A grin formed on Joe's lips before he rolled his eyes slightly. It had somehow been clear to him that you had chosen the Lego flowers

"Please," you almost pleaded when you realized that Joe wasn't too keen on the idea. You put on your puppy-dog eyes and pulled a slight pout, which you knew Joe couldn't very well say no to.

And sure enough, it worked. Joe sighed softly before putting the phone in his pocket and then a slight grin formed on his lips.

"How could I ever say no to that face?"

"Woohoo!" , you exclaimed joyfully while pressing the box against you.

Joe pressed a feather-light kiss to y/n's forehead before taking her hand, fingers intertwined, and the two made their way to the checkout.

And you couldn't tell which of the two was happier with their Lego sets, because the two were positively beaming.

About twenty minutes later, you had made yourselves comfortable on the soft carpet in front of the living room table on which you now wanted to build your Lego sets.

A soft drink and a few snacks of your choice were also waiting for you.

While Joe was connecting his cell phone to the Bluetooth box, you were already opening the box of Lego flowers and pouring the contents onto the table.

You could hardly wait to assemble the colorful Lego bouquet and then place it in a fancy vase on your living room table where everyone could see it.

"So we're going to start with the flowers?" Joe noted with a grin as he sat down opposite and reached for the assembly instructions.

"Yes, you were allowed to buy Chewbacca, but that doesn't mean we have to build him first." You give your boyfriend a cheeky grin and then tear open the packaging of the components with the large number 1 on them.

"Then the poor thing will probably stay in its packaging for a while longer," Joe sulked almost dramatically, which made you start to laugh.

Sometimes your boyfriend was really childish. But this childlike nature was a special part of Joe that you loved so much.

Because of his childish nature, you would occasionally do things together that you had loved doing as children.

Even the Lego dates that you and Joe used to go on were more or less your joint highlight.

So not only could you build various sets together, but you could also get the Lego sets that your parents used to say no to.

"If you finish my flowers quickly, we can finish Chewbacca today," you try to motivate Joe, who looks down at all the little Lego pieces with his eyebrows drawn together.

"This is going to be a lot of work." The person opposite you grumbled slightly as he picked up a few small pieces and began to assemble the first flower.

"Don't be like that" You smiled as you kept handing Joe a suitable piece, certain that you would make faster progress this way.

A few hours later, you had managed to finish assembling both sets. While Joe's Chewbacca had now found his place on the sideboard under the TV, your flowers had found a special place on the living room table.

"I think I'm getting old. My muscles hurt from sitting on the floor all day" You were almost moaning as you began to massage your neck.

"My poor darling," Joe grinned as he put his arms around you and pulled you closer to him. "Then the next Lego dates will probably have to be canceled."

"Says the guy who last night was still secretly trying to circle countless sets in the Lego catalog that he still wants like a little kid."

In fact, Joe had been sitting on the sofa last night with a Lego catalog and a pen, circling some sets that he wanted to get later.

When you came into the living room, the quarterback had shoved the catalog under the sofa cushion in a panic, hoping you wouldn't discover it.

"You got me," your boyfriend sulked, causing you to grin wryly.

"Of course I did, but I saw that there were some good sets in there."

"So you're going to build them all with me?"

Joe lowered his eyes to you and looked at you almost hopefully.

"I will be. Luckily, we still have an incredible amount of time together in which to build various Lego sets."

[livesworthlivingau]

Lives Worth Living Chapter 13

ISAT Spoilers below!

(The soothing sound of Mirabelle's dramatic reading of one of her books fills your ears. You lie with your head on her lap, eye closed, smiling softly and enjoying the company and sounds. Mirabelle's voice slowly drifts off as she finishes a chapter. You perk up some, opening up your eye to check on her. You're met with a conflicted look plastered across her face.)

"Mira?..."

"Are… Are you sure you're okay Siffrin?…"

"I mean… As much as I can be I guess… You can only be so 'okay' about losing 30 years of your life, right?…"

"… Were… Were you happy? I-I mean I know I said I didn't want spoilers or anything a-and you don't have to tell me anything specific if you don't want because that might mess with the future or the time space whatever it's ca-"

"Mira!" (She jumps a bit as you snap her out of her little freak out spiral. You take her hand in yours, intertwining your fingers before wrapping your other around it as well.)

"I had… One of the best lives anyone could ask for, thanks to all of you… Yeah it's sad that it's kinda gone now but… It's also kinda nice?… To get to experience it all over again, y'know?"

"Siffrin… I can tell something else is bothering you, and I'm honestly more scared about what you're NOT telling us, I mean, how is that not already the big secret?!"

"… Mira, I-I…"

"You promised me Siffrin… It might have been over 30 years ago for you, but it's only been a couple weeks for me. You promised we'd be feelings buddies and we'd talk about this stuff!"

"I know!… I know I promised… But…" (You let out a heavy sigh, letting go of her hand before running yours through your hair, gripping it a bit.)

"It's… It's not just about me this time… It's Loop."

"Loop? What do you mean? D-Did something happen to them?"

"… I-I… Ugh…" (You let out an annoyed groan, sitting up and hugging yourself close.)

"It's… It's not my place to talk about it Mira… As much as I want to, as much as I desperately want to talk and get help about it… It's their secret too, and I can't… I can't make that choice for them."

"… Okay Siffrin… If it's out of respect for keeping their secret, I guess I'll drop it… But if this continues to be an issue I'm going to have to insist about it, okay?"

"… Thanks, Mira… I promise I'll talk about it as soon as I can." (You swear, laying your head onto her shoulder. She follows suit and lays hers against you.)

"Thank you Siffrin, and I'm glad you've told us what you have so far… I'm just worried about you…"

"I know Mira, but I promise, I'm… Well I'm just about as okay as I can be right now, all things considered." (You admit with a slightly nervous chuckle. She responds in kind.)

"I guess that's the best I could ask for at this point... Did you wanna listen to another chapter?"

"Sure! We still gotta get to the part abou-"

"SPOILERS!!!"

--------------------------------------------------

(You smile softly with your eye closed, sitting on the floor with Mira on the couch above you. Your hair fiddled between her fingers as she was braiding it in places.)

"I've always wanted to do this~!" (Mira practically squeaked out with excitement, so excited to actually get to style your hair for once.)

"Heh, yeah I guess we never used to do this, huh?"

"DO WE DO THIS A LOT IN THE FU-NO WAIT NO SPOILERS!!" (She interrupts her own excited shouting with frantic shouting, making you wince some but chuckle none the less.)

"... So how are you doing Mirabelle?... I know everyone's been worried about me and all but... You all had a lot going on too! I... I feel bad taking up all this emotional space..." (You feel her hands pause for a moment from working through your hair.)

"... I... I guess I haven't really thought about it a lot... that festival was really nice but... It just hasn't actually hit me that it's really over! I keep waiting for it to sink in, for this feeling of accomplishment, for the stress of it all to go away! But it still hasn't! I-I still feel the same as I did, just a little more relieved. I know the King's curse is gone, I know we saved everyone, I know we're 'the saviors'..."

"... But it doesn't feel like you earned it?"

"E-Exactly! I-I... Oh, you said something like that the other day, didn't you?"

"Y-Yeah but... I feel like I screwed everything up at the end there, you all were the ones who actually defeated the king!" (You feel her hands start moving again, going back to braiding your hair.)

"Okay, feelings buddies compromise time! If either of us start to feel like we didn't save the country or deserve the praise, the other has to assure them that they're wrong, deal?"

"... Okay, Deal~."

[0verthemo0n]

Incorrect qoutes of overwatch Future Au

Basically, I got bored making Future au, so here's some dumb qoutes

It will have Defender!reader,damage!reader, and healer!Reader and also my OCs

------

Ramattra : Mondattra, what do IDK, LY, and TTYL mean?

Mondattra: I don’t know, love you, talk to you later

Ramattra : Ok, I love you too, I’ll just ask Damage!Reader.

------

Hanzo : You know, not every problem can be solved with a sword.

Defender!reader: That's why I carry two swords.

----

Ramattra : Damage!reader was banned from the chicken shack, so we had to go out of town to get some.

Damage!reader : Well, they shouldn’t say “all you can eat” if they don’t mean it.

Ramattra : Damage!reader You ate a chair.

----

Defender!reader : Welcome, fellow idiots

Zenyatta : Hello, defender!reader

Defender!reader : No, no, not you, you're not an idiot

Zenyatta : You underestimate me

-----

Healer!reader : What the fuck is wrong with you?!

Mondattra : Wow, you could start with a 'good morning'.

Healer!reader : Good morning. What the fuck is wrong with you?!

----

Pharah: God, give me patience.

Mondattra : I think you mean 'give me strength'.

Pharah: If God gave me strength, you'd be dead.

----

Damage!reader, struggling to keep upright in their 1-inch heels: Yeah, I-I don’t really think heels are for me

Ramattra , pointing at them and walking flawlessly in sparkly golden 6-inch heels: WEAK.

-----

Ramattra : In your opinion, what’s the height of stupidity?

Mondattra : *turning to Healer!reader * How tall are you?

----

Ramattra : While I’m gone, Mondattra , you’re in charge.

Mondattra : Yes!!!

Ramattra , whispering: Healer!reader , you’re secretly in charge.

Healer!reader : Obviously.

-----

Store Worker: Would a Mx. Ramattra, please come to the front desk?

Ramattra , arriving at the desk: Hello, is there a problem?

Store Worker: *points to Mondattra and Mirabella*

Store Worker: I believe they belong to you?

Mondattra and Mirabella, simultaneously: We got lost :(

Ramattra : I didn’t even bring you guys here with me

------

Ramattra : What do you think Mondattra will do for a distraction?

Mirabella : They’ll probably, like, make a noise or throw a rock. That’s what I would do.

*Building explodes and several car alarms go off*

Mirabella : ... or they could do that.

-----

Ramattra : I’m kind of crushing on someone, but I’m worried about telling you who it is because you’re not going to like it

Mondattra : Just rip the bandage off.

Ramattra : It’s Damage!reader.

Mondattra : Put the bandage back on.

-----

Ramattra : This is such a bad idea.

Damage!reader : Then why are you coming along?

Ramattra : One of us needs to be able to talk the cops out of arresting us when this inevitably goes wrong.

----

Zenyatta : You have to apologize to Pharah

Defender!reader : Fine.

Defender!reader : 'Unfuck you' or whatever.

----

*Zenyatta 's helping Genji out after they get injured, while the others are watching*

Hanzo: How does Genji look?

Kiriko : A little better than you, actually.

-----

Healer!reader: Master Zenyatta , I'm sad.

Zenyatta : *Holds out arms for a hug* It’s going to be okay.

Mondattra: Dad, im sad.

Ramattra, nodding: mood.

----

Zenyatta , Ramattra , and Mondattra are sitting on a bench

Defender!reader : Why do you guys look so sad?

Zenyatta : Sit down with us so we can tell you.

*Defender!reader sits down*

Ramattra : The bench is freshly painted.

----

Mondattra : Am I in trouble?

Mondatta : Take a guess.

Mondattra : No?

Mondatta : Take another guess.

----

Zenyatta : Ramattra and I were crossing the street, and this dude drove by and honked at us

Mondatta : *Sighing* What did Ramattra do?

Zenyatta : They chased him to the next red light, then reached into his window and...

Ramattra : Who wants a steering wheel

---

There... done. Maybe I'll do a part two. Don't ask how Mondatta is still alive

[myalvmss]

⎯⎯ CHAPTER 1, STARRY EYES ❞

DESC. “make a choice that you know you won't regret,” had always been what you've heard from your mother. but what if you don't know what's ahead of you? or what to not regret? these, are the times where it gets challenging for you.

PAIRINGS. aquamarine hoshino x fem!reader

WARNINGS. click this before reading!

BUTTERFLY'S NOTE. y'all have no idea on how much I procrastinated on this 💀 LMFAO. enjoy! this is so short omg 💔 BUT LIKE HELP I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO WORD THE ENDING??

LYRICS. i've got my eye on you. (x2) + you'll find another life to live, I know you'll get over it.

PREV. ｟ MASTERLIST. ｠ NEXT.

Y/N had been extremely bored about all of these talking her mother had been doing, babbling about how things will go in the future as she worries for her daughter, y/n. “mother, you've been quite hectic lately..” y/n mumbled, loud enough for her mother to hear however. “How am I not, sweetheart?” y/n's mother only sighed in a slight tint of frustration, “you've always been a prodigy.. perhaps I'll let you choose a career on your own.” y/n's mother gave her a soft smile, an apologetic one if she was pressuring you. “well..” y/n spoke to her mother, and she nodded.. “i wanna try being an actress, and an idol. I mean, I have experience on being an actress. and being an idol is hard, but I'll work through it.” your mother only showed her approval for y/n's decision, and it was a high chance her father did too. just, as long as y/n's grades are passing enough. that's okay. but the thing is, y/n didn't know what choice to choose. what is it a wise one? no? probably. but.. it was too late.

⎯⎯

and that was only taken back months ago while y/n was only a middle schooler, right now y/n is a popular idol and also an actress, acting in many series and movies, all of them seemed to be successful enough. y/n's parents weren't exactly strict about grades, in a way. they weren't harsh at all, like. for example, if they were to be something wrong, they'd sit down and talk to y/n about it, with an open mind. and also an understanding nature for their only daughter. they always hold support for y/n, and honestly with whatever decision she makes, they're proud. but of course, for some terms, they are protective as they were still y/n's parents. y/n was only enrolling in Yotou Highschool, it was perfect. even her best friends from middle was attending! in the entertainment course, luckily the four of them got in.

y/n walked into the classroom, seeing many students there.. all looking pretty, handsome and all. there were pretty girls, handsome boys, yeah whatever.. but y/n wasn't interested. especially not by only appearance, y/n prefers personality. you know? y/n walked pass the students talking to each other, as she found her idol-mates. “Ah, y/n!” ann exclaimed, waving towards y/n with a big smile. y/n returned one back to ann, as she walked towards the group of girls. y/n sighed, “this school seems to be very..” y/n started trailing off a little, as she looked down to her shoes. “intimadating?” herta guessed, as fuyuko and y/n nodded in agreement. however ann reassured, that everything will be fine!

it wasn't too long before people started recognizing who y/n and the girls were. the four was already successful either way. there wasn't much of a surprise — kind of. herta only wished for those to not recognize her, as she was basically trying to hide at all costs from people. which she failed miserably. ann only laughed at herta's little sulking while fuyuko and y/n couldn't help but hold in their laughs, as they hold pity towards herta's failure.

⎯⎯

the teacher seemed to be extremely late, from what you thought. but fuyuko was desperate for the teacher to be absent! “fuyuko, it's only the first day.” y/n reminded her, but fuyuko paid absolutely no point in that reminder. “a first day is like any day.” fuyuko argued, as y/n deadpanned. while for ann and herta, the two were wondering about their idol activities. a slight whine from ann coming, as they were whining about how they're gonna end up tired just by doing a long rehearsal of dancing, “you can't do much about it.” herta said, getting a tablet out from her bag as she scrolls through the groupchat named "Starlight ; Lvamia Productions". checking through their schedule for the day, y/n and fuyuko entered the conversation after. “if we have rehearsal, we can simply leave school for it.” herta said, turning the tablet opposite to the three girls in front of her, showing the schedule they had. “after all, we're in the entertainment course. we're allowed to have a sloppy attendance, as I'm pretty sure that our parents won't be too happy if we had terrible grades, yes?”

the girls nodded. the four couldn't help but think about your parents if they were to find out about the performances you had academically. “do we have rehearsal though?” asked fuyuko. herta turned the tablet around, looking through the schedule. she nodded as a response, soon enough there will be rehearsal in a few hours, herta told the other three girls. “we have a dance rehearsal, then soon enough we'll go over our notes.. as we have a chance to perform on stage in a few months or so?” herta specified. the girls eyes lit up as they were excited to go on stage again like last time they did, it was successful enough and they even made to have attention in the media. y/n smiled, “right then. starlight?” y/n placed the back of her palm in the air, as fuyuko and ann looked at each other and smiled. placing their hands above yours, while herta was the only one left. she hesitated, before showing the most smallest genuine smile she ever did in her whole life, as she joined too.

⠀⠀⠀“stargazers!”

the girls exclaimed, raising their arm up in the air after. they all looked at each other, lowering their arms down. sharing laughter and joy together. a choice made in y/n's path once again, is this finally a choice that y/n did not regret? finding happiness in this life other than the last life she had lived through? now that y/n thinks about it, maybe this is what mother meant by making a choice you won't regret. will she make more choices in the future? ones she'll know she won't regret? there's no such guarantee, but having this kind of friendgroup made her forget the miserable life she once lived. although the thought of dying and ending up in a place like hell was something you thought of before, you didn't expect to live another life. reincarnation. but knowing that you did get this rare chance, it feels like you got to relive a new life and experience things that you never got to experience. sure, you sometimes get deja vu or flashbacks of your old life, but you didn't pay too much mind on it. she's happy now, I think. still, there's more hardships coming in her way soon enough. but she knows, she'll get over it. she always does.

suddenly, the teacher came in the class. finally! wait, no. fuyuko felt down with the fact the teacher came; but like y/n said, it's the first day. no way the teacher would be absent on the first day, right? the girls quickly sat down on their seats, as y/n gave fuyuko a smug look that explained that y/n herself was right. fuyuko huffed in frustration, as the teacher went on with the class. it wasn't too bad for the girls, it's just that fuyuko only wished to get out of the class as soon as possible. meaning by that, her constantly eyeing the clock. ann wanted to laugh, but they held back SO HARD. herta was slightly sighing to herself, absolutely tired of the shenanigans the girls always did. while y/n was holding back from wanting to throw her pen to fuyuko in order to signal her to pay attention. though, to fuyuko's relief, after a few hours, the following classes ended and it was pretty much a free period. “girls, its time to go and attend rehearsal.” herta said, as the girls nodded. being already outside of the school.

as the girls started running out, almost like having a race due to ann and fuyuko's competitiveness, y/n only joined for fun. while herta only joined in the so-called race to catch up with ann and fuyuko, and stop them in case they trip and fall down to the ground or something. way worse possibility to that situation, get hurt. what a mom. but as the four girls ran, y/n passed a group of four other people. while running, she slowed down a bit to see the four people's faces. specifically, meeting eyes with a boy with blue starry eyes, same like y/n's. however, due to y/n running, she ran pass the boy and basically stopped. slightly looking back at the corner of her eye.

⎯⎯

a girl, who had ran passed aqua but in that split second, something that felt more than just a split second actually.. he met eyes with her, yet aqua didn't know who that girl was. should he pay that much mind to it? no. it was probably just some random girl that attended to the same school as him, obviously. he stood there, stiff like some laughable doll. “y/n! hurry up!” fuyuko yelled, y/n. that's the girls name? he looked from afar, seeing the girl he met eyes with get a little sidetracked by looking at frill, minami, ruby and him at the corner of her eye. “her name is y/n, huh? hm..” aqua thought, however pushing that inconvenient thought away. “aquamarine?” frill mentioned aqua's name, due to how he seemed to not pay attention to the conversation. aqua looked to frill, “you're from the live action, sweet today, right?” frill asked. y/n looked at the direction where her idol-mates were, as she exclaimed, “I'm coming!” y/n ran off, heading to rehearsal with her idol-mates. but y/n couldn't help but think;

“his name is aquamarine, huh? hm..”

TAGLIST:

@yevene @aranachan @skylightthesimp @unknowncreature13 @larkkyoris @cerisearan @kult-o @lahsram2201 @shira222 @ragazza-whintigale @kat-kaps @miyakoa @merurishi @azriel-sama @lleoll @eth1ria @atomi-mi @nianre @kenma-izhu @opheliapersona @birbtweettweet @coquettemaiden @shadow-otaku20 @clark401 @lumiriai @lxry-chxn

if you'd like to be tagged in the next chapter, please comment on this post! those that is highlighted in blue, cannot be tagged by me.

[slayfics]

//Hi, nee-san~ Can I request a Mui X Reader where Mui gets angry at reader for overworking from studying— literally staying up all night or barely getting sleep at all.

Totally not me looking for some comfort due to my situation.

Thank you, please take your time with it! 💕💙

Muichiro gets upset when you don’t take care of yourself.

Modern AU

Your eyes blurred as you tried to continue reading your study materials. The letters seemed to start to dance around on the paper as your eyes followed them in a trance desperately trying to make sense of them.

Chasing after the letters with your eyes slowly they began to fade until there was nothing on the paper at all.

THUD-

"Ow!" You exclaimed, picking your head up off the desk. A piece of paper stuck to your forehead gently fell and floated back down to the desk. Crap, you just knocked out... literally.

Muichiro swiftly charged into the room to see what the loud sound was. He was met with the sight of you rubbing your forehead.

"Are you ok?!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah I'm fine, just fell asleep and hit my head on the desk I guess," You laughed trying to cover up your embarrassment.

"Are you fucking serious?" He said furry rising in his eyes.

You winced at Muichiro's words. "Yeah, I've just been up all night studying," you tried to explain.

"You were up all last night studying too," He said with the same furious expression. "How have you still not learned how to take care of yourself?!"

Your eyes became misty at his words. It wasn't your fault you had so much material to cover. Your studies were extremely taxing this time around, and the lack of sleep was pushing your emotions to their breaking point.

Seeing your defeated demeanor Muichiro let out a sigh, "I'll be right back," he said and left the room, the fury in his eyes fading away.

You rubbed your eyes trying to banish the forming tears away. You just wanted to sleep so badly, but you couldn't let yourself fall behind on your studies.

Muichiro came back into the room with a cloth and a bag of ice. He wrapped the bag of ice in the cloth and placed it on your forehead.

"You don't want that swell up do you," He said giggling slightly trying to lighten the mood.

"I don't think I hit my head that hard," You protested.

"I heard it from three rooms away with the door closed and the TV on. You hit it pretty hard," He stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh..." was all you could muster to say for yourself.

Sitting across from you Muichiro moved closer to rest his elbow on the desk as he held the ice pack to your head.

"I know how much your studies mean to you, believe me, I do. But, could you stop for a second to think about how much you mean to me," He said, fixing his gaze on you intently.

"What?" You asked almost breathless by his sudden intensity.

"It kills me to see you beating yourself up so much over this. Your health should come first. You need to eat, sleep, and self-care properly before your brain can absorb any new information," He replied.

"I don't have that luxury Muichiro. My studies don't allow for that much time, things have to be cut out, and recently that's been sleeping. It means so much to me that you're concerned for me, but can't you see this is about my future," You explained.

"This is about my future too," He retorted.

"What are you talking about?" You weren't sure if it was because of the delirium from lack of sleep but you had no idea what Muichiro was saying.

"You. You're my future you know. You mean everything to me and I want to make sure you're happy and healthy," He spoke earnestly.

You felt your cheeks blush at his words. You had been dating Muichiro for a while now but you had no idea his feelings for you ran so deeply.

"Do you understand now?" He asked, his eyes full of a kindness that you wanted so badly to get lost in.

You nodded feebly feeling a lump in your throat from his affection.

"Good, now please for me- let's get some rest. I'll tuck you in, make sure you're comfortable, and I promise to wake you up on time for your classes," He pleaded.

Muichiro tossed the ice pack into the trash and laid the washcloth out to dry. Making his way over to your shared bed he pulled down the covers and motioned for you to come in. You followed him climbing into the bed feeling your muscles want to collapse almost instantly.

You had forgotten how soft your bed was and you couldn't remember the last time you came to sleep next to Muichiro due to the all-nighters you had been pulling.

Muichiro wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close, "I missed holding you close to me," he whispered.

Thank you Skye! It was lovely to finally get a request from you! I hope this fic provides you comfort during your studies. Most of all I hope you listen to Mui and get some damn sleep! Take care of yourself please or tsundere Slay is gonna smack ya~

Tags~

@aeolia18 @yandere-kou @sakurasunkiss @hashiroses @plvuii @snowmist-hashira

[sophistired18]

Kryk ficlet about something something nail clippings, romance, dragons, and estranged family. Pt. 1/2(?)

Let me cut your nails.

"I wanna meet your sister one day." Yaku says offhandedly as he clips Kuroo's nails on their sofa.

"What??" Kuroo jolts, moving his hand suddenly.

"Hey stop moving!" Yaku grumbles as he yanks Kuroo's hand back.

"Why did you ask that??" Kuroo asks with a mix of confusion and shock.

Yaku pauses from Kuroo's nails and lets out a sigh like it's so obvious. It's always so obvious to Yaku.

"Well, isn't it kinda like a formal standard to get to know your partner's entire family before marriage or something?" Yaku says. Like it was obvious. As if it was obvious that he was reflecting on marriage and a future with Kuroo while doing something as mundane as clipping his boyfriend's fingernails. It was obviously, obvious.

Kuroo inhales. "Yakkun. Morisuke. What the actual fuck."

"What??!" Yaku lets out defensively. Because for some reason Kuroo is the unobvious one here. "Am I wrong though?" Yaku says like he's right. He is right.

Kuroo exhales. "No, you're not wrong." Kuroo grins in a stupidly sappy way. "You're just, so unromantic."

"Excuse me? Is doing my boyfriend's manicure because he needs one, badly I might add, not the most romantic deed ever?" Yaku huffs, but his smile grows wider. "Did I need to slay a dragon to prove worthy of your love and ask for your hand, your majesty?"

"And you say I'm the drama queen." Kuroo rolls his eyes. "And honestly, you're probably one of the only people I know that could kill a dragon, so maybe yeah, that'd be very romantic of you. That'd be really hot to see now that I think about it."

"Oh so I guess I'll just find a dragon then." Yaku remarks sarcastically. "But besides that, you're avoiding my question."

"Which one? The hot dragon slaying one or the manly manicure one?" Kuroo replies with a stupid question with an equally stupid grin.

"Neither, you dumbass." Yaku gripes, before jabbing Kuroo in the side of his torso. "I'm serious. I wanna get to know your family."

"You have met my-" Kuroo starts.

"ALL of your family! Besides Kenma doesn't count." Kuroo just gives him a look. "Okay, you're right, Kenma counts, but still! You know what I mean!" Yaku finishes.

"I know.. it's just, well, it's my sister, Mori." Kuroo groans.

"Look, I know you guys aren't close, but that doesn't mean I can't meet her! I want to know this part of your life." Yaku explains. "You've met all of my family, and they love you. Don't I deserve to get to meet yours too? I'm not asking for her approval or to love me, but.. I just think it'd be nice, you know?"

"Yes, you're right." Kuroo admits. "It's just that, she wasn't really a part of my life, Yakkun. I barely know a thing about her besides the Christmas photos my mom used to send. I mean you already know how I feel about my mom, and she is well, my mom. On the otherhand, my sister?? We're like practically strangers." Kuroo huffs.

"You guys don't have to stay that way." Yaku adds.

"Mori, I can literally count on my two hands how many family dinners I've had. I can count on one hand how many family dinners I've had with her attending them." Kuroo spits.

"And I still mean what I said." Yaku spits back. "You're a grown ass man now, and she's a grown ass woman! I'm pretty sure it's not impossible for the two of you to talk to each other! Besides! For someone who's managed to connect with volleyball maniacs from all over the world that you've barely met before, I'm sure connecting with your sister is absolutely doable."

This sucks. This sucks because Kuroo knows Yaku has a point. And Kuroo knows he should stop fighting on this because it's true. He does want Yaku to meet his family. He just never really felt like he ever received any kind of approval from his sister. And for some reason, he's afraid that Yaku won't get that approval because of him. And that's not fair to Yaku. But he's also not being fair to Yaku either.

Kuroo huffs. "I'll give her a call and see when she's available."

Yaku's lips form a wide smile. "Thank you, Tetsu." Yaku sets down the nail clipper and crawls onto Kuroo's lap. "Y'know, if you weren't being such an ass about this, I might be tempted to kiss you."

"But I'm an ass about everything and you still kiss me regardless." Kuroo smirks.

"Only to shut you up, jerk."

"Then shut me up. Or I could keep goi-"

Yaku shuts him up, and Kuroo can't help but think that it's the most romantic thing.

[charmikarma]

hallo it's me. (crookedgrifter) I'm back and I want your davejade / davejadekat thoughts. gimme

my thoughts huh ... i sure am a rambler so you're gonna get a whole essay on this

i guess in thinking abt davejadekat it always starts with jade. which is well enough because davekat has been talked to death at this point, hasn't it? i don't think i could tell you anything new or interesting about that dynamic at this point.

ANYWAY. jade. i kind of get into this in my polar express fic which ik you've read, but she is SO lonely. what the fuck are you supposed to do for ~10 years alone on an island with just a dog?? a dog who could take you somewhere else, somewhere with people, but he won't. and maybe jade knows why because of her dreams on prospit, but also maybe not! either way i think she puts a lot of faith in her dreams. it's kind of the only hope she has for the future.

i think she also has some hope in dave, this really cool dude she has this awkward internet middle school crush on. and dave is super cool to her too! i think it's implied he furry roleplays with her even?? cutest shit ever. i think this is the thing that has made me always love davejade ... they are just. so sweet to each other. dave clearly cares SO much about her.

the other thing about jade is... she's kinda fucked over repeatedly by the narrative, isn't she? she's the last beta kid introduced, so she has a lot less time to develop. the closest she really gets to developing is being really pissed off at karkat after her dreamself dies (i'll talk about this in a sec). her arc basically ends at cascade. her character arc ends in the dead middle of the comic, in a flash animation that contains exactly 0 character development. hussie says so himself in the author's notes. (don't even get me started on the author's notes jesus christ.) everything that happens on the boat is pretty much irrelevant, because it gets retconned out. instead she spends 3 years completely fucking alone, and we like... barely unpack this in canon.

so her life story up until this point is basically: raised by grandpa till ~3-5ish > living on her own till 13 > meeting dave briefly in the game > DAVE FUCKING DIES IN FRONT OF HER, WITH HER OWN BULLETS > she meets john briefly > JOHN AND DAVESPRITE FUCKING DIE > she spends 3 years alone with no solace except "yeah they had to die but you'll see them again in the new session" from alt!calliope and i guess a bunch of sprites and consorts and chess dudes. she says it herself: as nice as it is to have these folks around, they're not able to relate to her. they're not fellow thirteen year old kids. she may not be technically alone, but she is essentially alone, and she just 1. died twice in one day and 2. witnessed the deaths of several of her friends.

more on being fucked over by the narrative - jade actually has a kind of interesting dynamic with karkat in the middle of a5a2! what happens with this dynamic later on? fucking nothing!!!! like seriously i am so interested in this whole. self-hatred parallel that gets drawn between them and then how jade puts her foot down and is like you are fucking nuts. no more yelling at yourself. and it goes nowhere!! this dynamic exists for like, maybe 1% of the comic. it's really fucking sad honestly. even at the very end of homestuck, she has to be sidelined for being too powerful, thereby excluding her from all the endgame convos. like we cannot win with her

ok anyway, here's where i get into the stuff i think is really interesting. at the end of homestuck, alt!calliope tells jade that she's suffered enough, and that it's time for her to live her life how she wants to. we don't see how this plays out in homestuck proper, BUT...... the epilogues. sighs heavily.

i may be an epilogues lover but even i have to admit that jade's portrayal is.... a mess. i don't think it's wildly out of character, exactly, but it definitely toes the line... and it's definitely extremely fucking uncomfortable. it does, however, give me some insight into how i think about jade now, because while the minutiae don't really feel in character, i do think the broad strokes of what they were going for make sense.

jade took alt!calliope's words and said, fuck it. i will take charge! i won't wait anymore! i am going to have what i want. and she does get a lot of that! she gets to hang out with her friends, hang out with her brother, meet a ton of people, have a bunch of sex (presumably when she's older), and so on. but see... doing a lot of things doesn't really fill the emptiness she feels. she has so much love to give and not enough outlet for it. she needs all the love in the world and has nobody to give it to her. and she still has this big fat ten-year-old crush on dave strider that never went anywhere. but the approach she takes to life now is just... so incompatible with what dave needs. same for karkat. they both need a LOT of patience to come out of their shells, and jade is living life in the fast lane. the more she pushes, the more withdrawn they become. it is a disaster.

i want to fix it so fucking bad.

jade needs a lot of character development for all this to work, but the dynamic is absolutely there. some of their convos in early meat are so fucking funny dude, they are such good friends. it is absolutely not for lack of caring on either dave or karkat's part that things don't work out in the epilogues. it's this disconnect between what jade thinks is helpful and what dave and karkat need. i really want jade to find the balance between living at breakneck speed and waiting ten years for something to happen. i want her to feel loved for once in her damn life. and i want dave and karkat to stop being such depressing shut-ins. please guys you could balance each other out if you would just figure out how to communicate

anyway. there's your essay. it's mostly about jade. hope that's ok. i love jade harley so much my ultimate goal is to see her happy and mark my words i will figure out how

[coff-in]

HAII GUESS WHO'S BACK AGAIN!! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

can i request ashley with a fem reader (either the same one, or a different one entirely) but with ashley's like... unhingedness and yandere(?) attitude cranked up to the max? like, reader can already hardly talk to anyone else as is but i feel like with that cranked up more than usual, she probably really tries to isolate reader from friends, potential love interests, and even family members to a certain extent. (　＾∀＾)

i'd imagine jobs are super finicky too, reader can probably never hold down a job too well because of whatever ashley throws a fit, likely over reader leaving (reader tries to have the discussion that she needs job because job = money!! it probably works at first and then falls onto deaf ears later on (　・ω・))

if reader tries to leave the situation? ashley probably blackmails her into staying with whatever she has for leverage or do the classic old "i'm the only person willing to be by you!!" type shtick that manipulative people tend to do ( ｡ﾟДﾟ｡) if reader does leave successfully you bet there's going to be hell until ashley inevitably finds reader. i am running out of fuel though;; so insert potential dubcon/noncon situation here

i should've specified this earlier and you don't need to rewrite my one req bcs you didn't know but i just ask for no incest in my asks due to some personal reasons ( ＞Д＜；) please don't feel bad, though, since you didn't know!! i'm pretty much open to anything but incest and all the grossout fetishes, though! ^^ again, i am so sorry for the inconvenience on that part!! ( ´д｀､)

also ^^ just assume all my reqs will be fem or gen neutral reader ﾟ+.ﾟ(´▽`人)ﾟ+.ﾟ

- 🕊

notes from coff-in: i'm sorry, i didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable about the incest (i think it might've been the petplay one? but lmk if i'm wrong if you want to). BUT thank you for telling me this! i'll try to keep it in mind in the future when responding to your asks :) and thank you for requesting! :D there's no smut in here, just some dialogue and me trying to get a hang of their dynamics is all. you can interpret this as the previous [reader] to your other asks if you want :3 lmk what you think

[fem] reader-insert

The phone rings once, twice, thrice. Then once, twice, and thrice again. You're hoping that he'll pick up. You don't know how long Ashley'll stay asleep. Your worry and frustration grows as you notice how cold you're getting, standing outside. The sky is blue but not sunny. It is very early in the morning. You made sure to come out at this time on purpose.

Once, twice, thrice-- and then it picks up.

"Hello?" The voice on the other side is low and groggy. You obviously had just woken him up. Good, you think, he should be awake. I should be inconveniencing him.

"Andrew. It's [reader]." You don't try to make small talk, you want to get straight to the point with this, "Have you talked to Ashley recently?"

He groans, "Yeah... I talked to her yesterday. Why?" The cold air only adds to the apparent bitterness in your voice.

"Can you please tell her that I have to leave the house to work so I can make money?"

There's a tense pause... "What?"

You sigh, "Ashley won't let me leave to go to work. I am politely asking you to talk to her about letting me go to work." You look back at your apartment, where Ashley decided to sleep over for the night. You hope she's still asleep. "She usually listens to you." She used to listen to you, too.

It's Andrew's turn to sigh. "I can't make her do anything, [reader]--"

"At least fucking try! Please..." You add on that last part in order to not sound like an asshole. "I'm sure the last thing you want is her or me asking you for money. I'm trying to support her too, Andrew, but she's not making it easy. I'm asking you to help me." There are cars loudly passing by and you try to focus on them to calm yourself down. You feel... scared. Scared that this won't work. Scared about what Ashley would do if she caught you talking about her like this. You used to not be scared of her. "And I doubt your parents would fucking help me..."

"Bloody hell..." Andrew groaned and shuffled around on his end of the call, "I'll... I'll, uh, see what I can do." It sounded forced from him. Take your fucking time, you scowl at your phone.

"Thank you." You then promptly hang up the call and stuff your phone in your pocket. You stand outside in the cold for a little bit longer. The birds chirp their songs on the bare branches of trees and clear sky contrasts just nicely against the dark landscape of your apartment's parking lot. You like the blue hour.

But like every hour, it comes and goes, and so do you. You turn tail and climb the steps back to your apartment. Walking down the hallway as quietly as possible, you take out your keys and put them into the lock. However, before you can open the door, it opens for you and you're face-to-face with Ashley Graves.

Shit.

"Where were you?" She's staring you down with a death glare, her face dark and pink eyes burning through your skin and soul. She's mad. She's mad and that's never a good thing. You try your best to steel yourself.

"I was downstairs."

"Why? How come you didn't wake me? What was so important that you had to get up and leave without me?!" She was raising her voice as she dragged you into the apartment, violently slamming the door behind you. You held back a frustrated sigh but couldn't stop a frown from appearing on your face.

"I had to call Andrew for help." The mention of his name made her pause for a bit. You took that window of opportunity to explain yourself, "I asked him to help me with my job. I'm-- we're a little tight on money, Ash. You preventing me from working isn't helping either."

"As if you'd be better working with a bunch of fucking floozies!" She yells with her hands balled into fists, "I'm doing you a fucking service by making you stay here! Those no good whore would probably flaunt all over you and make you do all the hard work by yourself!"

"Ashley..."

"Besides, you don't need to work anyways. Why not just ask you parents for money or something? Why not stay here with me?!"

"Ashley!" You yell at her, causing her to open her eyes and look at you. "I have to work! I have no one else to ask for help because of you! I don't talk to my parents, I have no friends to help, and I barely even talk to my coworkers. All! Because! Of you!" You stomp your foot on the floor childishly, but you can't help it. It's all too familiar. You're just going through the motions at this point. "I'm trying my best to be there for you, Leyley, but you make it so hard! I need you to back off! Give me some space to breathe, please!"

She looks at you bewildered, eyes wide and eyebrows bent downwards. She slowly looks down away from you. "You need some space, huh?"

Oh god dammit. "Ash..."

"I get it. No one wants me around them."

"Ashley."

"I'm just the fuck up of the family, aren't I? But guess, what! So. Are. You. We have no friends, no family, not lovers-- we're stuck with each other." She stares at you with intensity, "You chose me. YOU CHOSE TO BE WITH ME!!! No one else is going to take you in! Only I can love you for the fuck up that you are! No one else can love you the way I do! No you whore mother, not fucking Andrew, NO ONE ELSE BUT ME!" She comes closer and tugs on your shirt, your noses practically touching each other. "You have no one else but me. Got it?"

----

coff-in

[woahrarepairsagemare]

plaguebow 1990s au angst i thought of while i was having an episode

I remember the first day I ended up in her care , it was really embarrassing for me , considering I was supposed to be that journalist who got away with everything .

I mean , guess they could call me that , i didn't do anything this time yet that rockstar tried to blow my brains out with her bat .

that .. doctor .. who I find so endearing .

She laughed away my case instead of treating it like a serious matter , and it had made me a little annoyed at first ..

but maybe that was what started this attraction to her .

Her laidback personality , her hedonistic tendencies , her curious lisp and southern accent .. and her humor ..

I just couldn't find her annoying no matter how hard I tried .

It's safe to say I healed much faster than I should've when I was under her care .

When the time came for me to be discharged , she laughed at my slightly disappointed face .

' You look like a dying duck , you want me that badly ? Glad you didn't stay or else I would've done some .. medical malpractice ;) '

I remember my face going redder than a tomato , causing her to giggle and give me a friendly slap on the wrist , before she pushed me out the doors to where storm was waiting for me .

I still couldn't resume to being a journalist , I still had appointments , and thankfully they all happened to be with her .

It was embarrassing how it was in that first appointment that I had learned her name .

' Wisteria's what they call me ! Though they know me simply as plague . '

An odd name for a doctor I figured , yet I loved it , it suited her .

The appointments had become everything for me in my life , over those checkups we giggled like little girls , which neither of us had been able to be .

It was like a break from reality .

She brought out the emotions in me no one had bothered to find .

we even begun calling them our little dates , though she often mocked the name in a playful manner .

' what would the others say if our relationship was anything but professional ? '

I smiled and shook my head , but I yearned for it to be true .

And here I am , still yearning ,

as I picked up the receiver , making the last few calls i'd ever make to my loved ones

and made feeble excuses for why i'd not be able to come for any arrangements i had made with them .

As I hung up on Sage , trying to savor her soft words , i felt the gun being pressed into the back of my head .

'are you done yet ? gods , i hate your pathetic voice . '

Nightmare spat those words out at me , and I was about to say no .

and then I remembered the love of my life , and realized that she too should hear my words .

I let out a small groan and bowed my head down .

' one more , please . Just one last call . '

I knew she was tired but she let me have my way ,

which not before she contented her self with a small slap to my head .

trying to stop the tears from rolling down my face , I dialed my beloved Plague .

' Dr. Wisteria speaking , which patient or future patient am I speaking to ? '

that lovely voice soothed my nerves , reducing my fear of death

' Hey Plague- its me , Rainbow , remember ? '

I heard those giggles come out of her mouth again as she replied with that playful tune .

' of course i do ! youre my favorite patient and- dont mind me .. my favorite playdate , after all ! '

I blushed , before the gun was pressed harder into my head .

' hurry up , I dont want to hear your sappy conversation with her for too long . '

I secretly rolled my eyes before I continued to tlak to her .

' yeah , im afraid I wont be able to come to our next appointment , things are a little rough for me right now so .. I'll show up for the others though , probably . '

she sighed in mock annoyance and giggled , causing a bit of disruption down the line .

' whats the point in having me as your doctor if you cant come for our little date ? im VERY high maintenance you know .. '

I smiled before I heard that horrid countdown .

' .. 25 , 24 , 23 .. '

I panicked and quickly said my goodbyes .

' hey plague im kinda busy right now so i'll talk to you later , kay ? '

she paused as she noticed the barely concealed terror .

' dear rainbow , whats wrong ? surely the- .. '

she couldnt say more as the receiver fell out of my hand . I was slammed against the wall of the telephone booth , my face buried in the wall .

I trembled as I heard the panicked words down the line

' Rainbow ? Rainbow whats wrong ? Has something happened ? '

I wish I could respond , but how could ? I didnt even have the energy to yell or whimper , as Nightmare stamped on my hand with hatred . positioning the gun just below my chin .

' youve wasted enough damn time , now say your final words before you die a silent death . '

plague .. no .. she heard those words and panicked more . Why- why ?

I trembled as I heard those words , they sounded like static in the back of my mind .

' NO ! WHAT ARE YOU DOING ?! LET RAINBOW GO ! YOU CANT KILL A FUCKING JOURNALIST ?! '

I turned around so that my back was against the wall and tried to tell her to calm down , but all that came out of throat was a whimper as the gun was pushed further up my chin .

' any . last . words ? '

she asked in that horrible fucking tone .

I sighed and look up at the red ceiling of the telephone booth .

' Plague my darling .. I love you . '

I closed my eyes as NIghtmare flicked the safety off .

Plague broke down into tears at the other end .

' RAINBOW , NO ! '

BANG - !

[guiltycorp]

mmm im sort of glad they released arcane survivor jayce skin voicelines in league before act 3 drops because my expectations for it were rising a bit too much lmao... before it i almost convinced myself that yeah, viktor's character arc will lead him to manipulate jayce into transferring his soul to a new mechanical body + focus on a new strategy for 'healing' societal issues that isn't 100% evil and bad (while still having its drawbacks re: will and consent) and fighting noxians would place the zaun side in a better position to bargain with piltover for equal rights and a stop to exploitation (with an open ending sure but still), or even a straightforward revolution with zaun getting its independence through a violent protest that piltover wouldn't be able to curb due to being stretched too thin

but uhm.... all of this looks kinda... sigh

i really doubt they'll have the time in the remaining 3 episodes to develop both his and Viktor's motivations to fit those new ideas, feels like more of the same 'it all happened off-screen, trust that it makes sense' journey saying that Viktor is 'still worth saving' feels especially yucky all things considered, like pls stop trying to save that man and let him act and choose for himself for once in this season maybe? never thought i'd miss the times when Viktor was doing unsafe experiments, getting illegal drugs from evil mentors and accidentally fridging random female assistants, but mmm that sure didn't get a proper continuation for him did it... just like with Caitlyn, or even Mel or Jinx, we just can't seem to get a proper development for the obviously Questionable things the characters choose to do, it's all kind of swept under the rug or cancelled out by magic interference i guess, or they changed their mind off-screen so it's fine now now that i think about it, Jayce is the only one who was allowed to somewhat grow and change organically, and yet this arcane adventure of his might end up ruining even that... well maybe Vi too but she didn't have a concrete focus this season, just more of the same 'should i reconnect with my sister/father or kill them off for good' and lesbian angst (if she still goes back to enforcers after this i just... fml) did Ambessa's warmongering get the best of her or was she cornered by the Black Rose shenanigans with no better way out? did Isha have any purpose aside from giving us false hope that Jinx will get better and have a happy ending? will Mel have any relevance aside from the new magical one and managing her own mother? does Viktor want to 'supersede nature' and get rid of human error element now because of his own character journey or because that's just what Hexcore is leading him to do?... will Caitlyn show that she still doesn't get why Zaun is the way it is or will she also go 'yeahhh i made some mistakes, but now we fight a common enemy yay, and i'll be a bit less strict in the future without making any meaningful changes to the status quo... it was all them foreigners fault' it's just all so... aghhh

and yep now i am expecting that the piltover/zaun conflict is overrr because they have to come together to fight Ambessa and whatever is going wrong with the magic, sighhh social conflict plotlines are a little too spicy for our animated league adaptation i guess... ...this is the only voiceline implication i like and even then i can't help but imagine Viktor the damsel in distress begging Jayce to fix the mistakes they both did instead of like, participating in that himself

bonus points if that promise won't even be to Viktor fghgfhgf

[melishade]

Attack on Prime The Future Anthology: Thanksgiving

Main Story

Dia de los Muertos

StrongArm and Sideswipe I

Strongarm and Sideswipe II

Let's see how fast I can spit this out!

Paradis

"You know it was a real dick move for you to exclude the two of us from that 'Day of the Dead' celebration," Ymir mockingly huffed.

"It would have been nice to actually take a break and see that colorful festival," Historia openly sighed in defeat, "Demands regarding Paradis have been tiring."

"Well...how was the food we brought?" Armin asked.

"Oh, food was great," Ymir declared.

"So spicy, but in a good way," Historia hummed with delight.

"Well, be thankful that we're doing Thanksgiving here!" Jack called out as he continued to stir the pot for the collard greens.

"Taking another piece out of our paycheck, but we want to do something nice for you guys," Rafael sighed as he walked past holding an aluminum tray full of food.

"What's Thanksgiving?" Historia asked.

"It's a holiday on Earth where people get together to eat and be grateful for what we have," Jack explained.

"There's also genocide involved," Rafael added, "It technically shouldn't be celebrated."

"Well we're doing it this year because at the very least, Sasha will be happy to eat a whole turkey!" Jack pointed to Sasha, who's mouth was watering at the sight of the mashed potatoes. Sasha was ready to steal it altogether, but Mikasa quickly grabbed her shirt and pulled her back.

"Why do you all do this to me?!" Sasha whined.

"Because you're a glutton," Ymir crudely replied.

Armin heard the familiar sound of a spacebridge opening up and looked behind him to see Bulkhead and Arcee driving through it. Bulkhead opened his door to let Miko out of his alt mode, while Arcee transformed into her bipedal mode.

"I got good news and bad news!" Miko informed as she opened the trunks and pulled out more trays of food, "Good news! I got the remaining food!"

"Bad news?" Rafael asked.

"No turkey," Miko answered in defeat.

"WHAT?!" Sasha screeched as she bolted over to Miko, "You promised?!"

"Turkey's cheap this year! Everyone's scrambling to get it!" Miko exclaimed.

"So what the hell's gonna be the main dish?!" Jean demanded.

"Well..." Historia trailed off.

"Well what?" Jack asked.

"Do you remember that large boar that you killed before the attack on Trost, Sasha?" Historia addressed her.

"Yeah, why?" Sasha asked.

"Well, apparently there's another one," Historia explained, "Some are speculating that the previous boar had a child, but regardless, the boar got displaced during the Rumbling and has been running rampant in the forest in what used to be Wall Rose."

"We can kill it!" Sasha shot to her feet and grinned with excitement before Bulkhead transformed into his bipedal mode.

"Wait, how big is the boar?" Bulkhead asked, "I don't know if it's safe for you to go hunting it."

"You realize that we've all fought titans, right?" Jean rhetorically asked.

"And I think it would be good for you to not put yourself in danger like that," Bulkhead reasoned.

"I'll go with them to provide back up," Arcee offered.

"Great!" Sasha grinned, "I'll get my gear! Armin, you want to tag along like last time?!"

"Um, I guess," Armin shrugged.

"I wanna join!" Miko volunteered.

"Great!" Sasha declared, "Let's go kill a boar and cook it up!"

"I think that the vegetables in my garden are good now," Mikasa commented, "We could make some stew."

"I'll help you with getting it," Rafael offered.

"Thank you," Mikasa said.

"Anyone else wanna help out with preparations?" Jack spoke up.

"I could go and get pies," Historia offered.

"Probably the easiest thing to get," Ymir agreed, "And the kids seem to be in good hands with Levi and Erwin."

Levi merely passed by all of them in his electric wheelchair, with a few children clinging onto to the chair and laughing with delight. Meanwhile, Erwin was letting children take turns to dangle from his cybernetic arm.

==

Later

"Are you sure you want to pursue this thing?" Arcee asked, surveying the destruction that the beast had caused. The four of them were met with the sight of broken trees and upended soil.

"Pursued one last time," Sasha shrugged, "And Armin and I have our 3D gear.

"I still think this is a terrible idea," Arcee declared.

"Also, wouldn't it be better to use a gun instead of a bow and arrows?" Miko asked as she cocked the rifle in her possession.

"Call me traditional," Sasha shrugged. Suddenly, Sasha winced a little, experiencing a rather sharp headache. She rubbed her eyes to ease the pain, and when she opened them, she gasped at the strange sight.

It...it was just like when she was tracking Mikasa, and when she fought that Decepticon. The energy, the life force of everything, had returned to her vision. Black energy had surrounded the dead trees while green surrounded the living ones. She heard Arcee speaking and looked over at her, and was stunned to see bright blue energy exuding from her body. It looked rather rigid and stiff like a tree. She looked over at Miko and saw a mix of green and pink. Sasha saw jolts of energy poke out from time to time, reminding her of the harsh metal music that Miko plays.

Sasha then turned her attention to Armin, and his was blue...and fluid...like the ocean. It was actually beautiful. Sasha froze when she saw a trail of scarlet red appear in her vision. Her eyes followed the trail, and she saw the pathway go down the animal made trail. She wordlessly drew her bow and followed the energy down the broken trail.

"Okay, I guess we're just jumping in!" Miko exclaimed as she, Arcee, and Armin followed Sasha. As Sasha continued to run, she noticed the hoof prints left in the ground, exuding that same red energy. She noticed brown tufts of hair that got caught in the branches, exuding red energy as well. It was the boar; it had to be.

Sasha slowed in her step when she saw something beyond the clearing, right over the small cliff. She slowed to a stop and peered over the rocks to see the massive boar below. It was bigger, definitely bigger than the last one she had taken down. And it had more scars. She had wondered what Connie would have thought looking at the size of this thing.

Sasha shook her head. There was no time to dwell on that now. Now she needed to get that boar. She drew her bow and aimed it at the boar's head. She took a deep breath and was prepared to fire, but jolted when she heard a loud crunch behind her. She snapped her head back to see the other three frozen in place, with Arcee's pede crushing some wood that Sasha had instinctively avoided.

"Maybe that wasn't too loud?" Armin whispered.

Sasha noticed the energy emanating from the boar grew more restless and violent. It blazed like fire as the boar got on its legs and stood up. It snapped it's head towards Sasha and blew air out of its snout before roaring at her.

"Damn it, Arcee!" Miko yelled at her.

"I'm sorry, okay!" Arcee snapped back.

"BRING IT ON!" Sasha screamed at the boar.

===

Mikasa's home

"Wow, your garden has a variety," Rafael praised as he looked at the basket, "Carrots, potatoes, eggplant? We should have just come to you instead of just buying the ingredients."

"I wasn't even sure I would produce results," Mikasa admitted as she continued digging through the dirt of her garden to pull out another carrot, "I've been focused more on my recovery and rebuilding that I was expecting the garden to die when I started checking on it again."

"Well these look great. You've managed to pull it off," Rafael praised.

"Thanks, Rafael," Mikasa said as she gathered the last of the vegetables and put them in her own basket, "So....do you like Thanksgiving?"

"Why do you ask?" Rafael asked her.

"Well, you....brought up the fact that there was a genocide involved?" Mikasa recalled as she stood up.

Rafael sighed. "Yeah. U.S. History's got a lot of complications with it. Thanksgiving is one of them. And yeah, Thanksgiving is festive now, but...people died because of it. Sorry, I'm just being cynical."

"...I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge what happened," Mikasa agreed, "Our Eldian ancestors committed genocides of their own. I'm sure you have a right to be angry at the lives that were taken back then. It just...seems like the only thing we can do right now is move forward and try to create beauty from the cruelty."

Rafael hummed in agreement. "Maybe one day, it'll get better. Let's go back to party."

===

Arcee trailed the boar from behind while Armin kept his eyes on it from the side. Sasha used her 3D gear to cling to the beast for dear life. Miko, riding atop of Arcee, aimed her rifle at the hide of the boar as it continued running through the forest. She fired at the beast, but shot missed and hit a tree trunk instead.

"Damn it!" Miko swore as she reloaded and aimed her rifle once again. She was about to fire, but yelped when Arcee swerved to avoid some rocks. The shot missed and flew up to the sky instead.

"Arcee, stop swerving!" Miko shouted at her.

"I thought you were training! What happened?!" Arcee snapped at her.

"Jack is a better shot than I am! I'm a brawler! You should know that by now!" Miko yelled at her.

Sasha managed to pull herself on the hide of the boar and clung to the fur for dear life. It really was the same as last time. It was both nostalgic and saddening. She did miss those days. She snapped out of her thoughts and instinctively shut her eyes when more red energy flung outwards and blinded her.

It was too distracting. She needed to gain some distance and shoot it in the head like last time. But...she didn't need to do that. She had Arcee.

"Arcee!" Sasha shouted, "Get in front of the boar to stop it!"

"That's Bulkhead's department! Not mine!" Arcee retorted.

"Just do it!" Sasha screamed.

"Fine!" Arcee screeched to a stop before addressing Miko, "Get off!"

"Aw what?! You're going to make me-!"

"Do it!" Miko yelped and hopped off before Arcee drove forward. She bolted past the boar and stood directly in its path. The boar ran faster, charging directly at her. Arcee crossed her arms to protect her chassis and planted her pedes into the ground. The boar rammed into Arcee, trying to knock her back and use his tusks to throw her, but Arcee stood her ground, her pedes digging into the dirt. She twisted her servos to grab the boar's tusks and lift. Sasha quickly flew off the back of the boar as Arcee threw it high into the air. Sasha looked up to see the boar's underside, and she noticed that there was no energy exuding from the underbelly. It was open. It was a weakness many would dream of exploiting.

Sasha grit her teeth before drawing her bow once more and firing an arrow directly at the boar's stomach. The boar whined in pain, and Sasha noticed the color of the energy surrounding the beast changing. It was slowly fading from red to black. It...it was dying, but it wasn't dead yet! Sasha aimed another arrow and screamed before firing. Her arrow pierced the boar directly through the heart, and the red energy permanently switched from red to black. The boar crashed into the ground while Sasha hooked onto a tree and lowered herself to the ground.

"Sasha, are you okay?!" Armin asked as he landed right next to her. Miko huffed as she finally managed to catch up to them on foot. She gawked at the sight of the dead boar before turning to Sasha.

"You guys really are a different breed," Miko quipped. But Sasha didn't care. Her face broke out into a grin before pumping her fists into the air.

"TWO FOR TWO!" Sasha cheered.

===

Later

"Wow, your garden came out well," Jack praised as Mikasa and Rafael arrived with the vegetables, "If you want, we can get you some seeds from Earth so you can grow fruits."

"Like strawberries?" Mikasa asked rather eagerly.

"Yep." Jack smiled as he tapped the ladle against the pot, "The green beans look done. We can start the table prep. Bummed that we couldn't get a turkey in time."

"Jack, can someone call a spacebridge," Arcee called him through the comm. link.

"Um, sure," Jack spoke in confusion before making that call.

"Bulkhead, we need help," Arcee contacted him as the spacebridge opened, "We managed to kill the boar."

"Wait, really?!" Bulkhead sprinted through the portal.

"So how big do you think the boar is going to be?" Rafael asked.

"When Sasha killed the boar last time, it was able to feed a good portion of Trost," Mikasa recalled.

"Comin' through!" Bulkhead called out as he dragged the boar through the spacebridge. Armin and Arcee merely walked through while Miko and Sasha were standing proudly on top of it.

"We're gonna have a feast tonight!" Miko cheered.

Everyone else could only gawk at the size of the boar.

"We're gonna need a bigger pot," Jack declared.

===

Later

"So...now we're just doing a soup kitchen?!" Fowler exclaimed as he saw a few members of the Survey Corps serving some of the stew they made from the boar to a long line of people on Paradis.

"Gotta give the people something to be thankful for!" Miko grinned as she handed a bowl to another person.

"It was spontaneous," Historia agreed as she handed a bowl to one of the orphans, "But it's nice to give people something to look forward to."

"Although, Sasha is heavily guarding the portion of the boar that we're going to eat for this Thanksgiving Dinner." Ymir pointed to Sasha, who was marching in front of Jack with a bow in arrow in hand. The eldest out of the Jasper Trio was helping prepare the meat while Sasha was ready to shoot anyone that got too close.

"...Do you guys want help?" Fowler asked.

"Yes, please!" Armin pleaded.

===

That night

The Survey Corps gawked at the large table full of food. Mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetables, it went on.

Jack placed the tray of roasted ham onto the table. "Alright, let's eat!"

The Survey Corps gathered around the table and took their respective seats. Ymir blushed when Historia pulled her seat for her.

"Still a bummer that we couldn't get turkey," Miko commented as she opened a bottle of wine.

"I hope the ham's good," Jack said as he started cutting it up, "Pick and choose what you want."

The Survey Corps quickly and eagerly got what they wanted from the dinner table. Some of them began to cheer as Miko started pouring the wine, happy that they didn't have to deal with drinking laws.

"Cheers, everyone!" Miko yelled as they all touched glasses for a toast. As they all continued to eat, Sasha scarfed down a huge chunk of meat. She paused in her tracks when she noticed the energy had returned. It surrounded everyone in all different colors and shapes, but despite it, the energy shined brighter around them, as if...they were happy.

Sasha blinked and her vision returned to normal. She was tempted to tell someone about this, but refrained from doing so. Maybe it was just her imagination.

(...Look I have been busy this week and reeling! I know this is super rushed! I'm just happy I got it out! Happy Thanksgiving!)

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Cyber Revolution, Entry 66: Burn It All Down

''She's a spark in the night, a tempest untamed, Surge the Tenrec, in a glitch reborn as flame. Forged by Starline, no past to reclaim, every hero's downfall, she proclaims her name! (Hey! Hey! Hey!) A memory wiped clean, a cybernetic dream, thunder in her veins, a revenge supreme. No future for the foes in her furious beam, Eggman and Sonic, caught in her scheme. (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!)''

– Burn It All Down [What if AI made a Surge the Tenrec song? (Electric Version)] by Retro Bird AI (Theme of Surge)

xXxXxXx

''I'm still amazed that Eggman actually confirmed that he's in charge of the Tamago Corporation,'' Warren said, him and Tails observing Lucas after the latter had returned from his investigation to the Taylor Workship. Several holographic screens were surrounding him, with the rest of Team Neos, the Chaotix and even Rouge (thanks to them still being with Lily and Knuckles) being informed about what had happened.

''I suppose that he figured that it would be easier to just confirm everything than keeping it a secret,'' Lucas replied.

''So, what do we do now?'' Minami asked the question that was on everyone's mind. ''Should we go after him?''

Lucas sighed, his answer surprising everyone. ''No, we won't. We'll keep up with the status quo.''

''What?!''

''This would be the prime opportunity to get rid off Eggman,'' Rouge pointed out.

''I know, but none of us has ever gone for the offensive, at least not in this sense. Instead, we always waited for Dr. Eggman to attack, dealt with whatever threat he threw at us, saved the day, and continued with our lives. I don't think it would be necessary to go after him now,'' Lucas explained, his eyes narrowing as he lowered his gaze. ''I know that this is probably not the most logical decision, and I'll probably regret it in the future, but I feel that this is the best move in this case.''

There was a moment of silence, with Lucas feeling a little anxious as he waited for a response. He glanced at the screen where Sonic was, the cobalt hedgehog giving him an assuring smile.

''We did agree with Eggman that we would treat this whole battle as a game, didn't we?'' he said, not noticing the 'Are you serious?' gaze Shadow was giving him, due to the dark hedgehog standing behind Sonic.

''If you want my honest opinion, I think it would be a stupid idea to attack Tamago Corporation,'' Lily said, drawing everyone's attention. ''First of all, it's considered a respectable company by everyone in Starpoint Area and messing with it would just draw the ire of the public. Even if we did reveal that Eggman is behind it, no one would believe us without some proper evidence, and even then, they would continue refusing to acknowledge the truth because Tamago Corporation is an important company.''

''I guess that you got that from your parents,'' Makoto said, with Lily shrugging.

''Well, what can I say? Reputations make or break a company, especially in the gaming industry, and my parents know that's something you should never mess with unless you want to lose both customers and investors rapidly. I don't doubt that the same goes for Tamago Corporation,'' Lily added.

''In other words, we won't do anything until Eggman decides to attack again,'' Minami said, summarizing the whole conversation. ''Yeah, I can live with that.''

''I'm surprised that Eggman is not taking advantage of Tamago Corporation to cause more damage,'' Amy suddenly said. ''That is, if we don't count the incident with the Buddy Bots.''

''That's probably because he wants to keep Tamago Corporation as a front, so drawing attention to it wouldn't be beneficial in the long run,'' Tails said.

''If that's the direction you guys want to take, we're also fine with it,'' Vector said. ''We could gather evidence about the connection between Eggman and the Tamago Corporation; for a little fee, of course.''

''I don't think it'll be necessary,'' Lucas said. ''Speaking of which, have you managed to learn more about the owner of the warehouse?''

''We know that they have expanded their business to Mikado City,'' Espio replied.

''Hey, Shads and I are on the highway to Mikado City! Maybe we would go there and see what's up?'' Sonic suggested.

''That's not necessary. We have already called the police there, and they're currently investigating the address we gave them,'' Espio replied. Sonic just shrugged, figuring it was worth a try.

''You could help us figure out who destroyed the warehouse,'' Charmy suggested, with everyone giving him confused looks. ''There was someone else with us and they almost blew up the whole place, and KA-BOOM! The wall and roof caved in!''

''Maybe it was someone who had a grudge against the owner?'' Silver suggested. The group on Lily's end could only shrug idly.

xXx

''This… was a disaster,'' Dr. Starline said as he rubbed his temple, only for Surge to groan in annoyance.

''Com'n, Doc! We did everything you told us to do! We trashed the Badniks and we didn't get caught by anyone! What more do you want from us?'' Surge responded in protest, with Kit just giving the platypus a blank look. Starline sighed.

''I told you two that this was a stealth mission. You two destroyed a good chunk of the warehouse – that is not how you do a stealth mission,'' Starline replied in a firm tone, only to get startled when Surge grabbed the armrest of the chair he was sitting on, getting in his face as electricity crackled around her.

''We completed the mission! We should be moving on to the next point, which is destroying Sonic! It's that simple!'' Surge shouted at Starline furiously. ''That's what I'm here, even if I don't know why should…'' Surge blinked, slowly stepping back as puzzled look formed on her expression, ''…should I destroy that…'' She lowered her head, rubbing her temple as she tried to recall what her motivation was. ''Why do I even want to destroy him? I don't think we've ever met.''

''Whatever you want to do, I will support you,'' Kit said, taking note of Surge's confusion. The tenrec huffed, shooting a glare at him, leaving the fennec startled.

''I know you want to support me! That's all you do! But, why?! Why do you support me?!'' Surge felt frustrated, feeling as if her mind was hitting a mental barrier that she simply couldn't pass through.

''I-I don't know…'' Kit replied, cowering due to Surge directing her frustration towards him. ''I just do…''

''Well, that answers nothing!'' Surge shouted, slamming her electricity-charged fist onto the table, to the point of causing the table to shake and the drawers to pop out. Kit was taken aback, and when both of them turned to the platypus, they were met with a displeased gaze and an outstretched hand. ''What are you-?!''

''Aaaand, reboot,'' Starline muttered, sounding almost bored, pointing the Hypno Glove towards the two and putting them to sleep. He sighed, his eyes narrowing as he thought, I had created Surge and Kit exactly the same way as my counterpart did, deciding once again against giving them a proper history behind their motivation to keep things simple, since it would be a hassle to make up a backstory for both of them. It was certainly an oversight, and with the way their acting now, I am personally heading towards the same fate of getting betrayed by the two. Starline gazed at his Hypno Glove, only for his eyes to flick towards the now open drawer, taking note of the manga he haphazardly shoved into it. He had told himself that he would be keeping Surge and Kit's true origins a secret as long as possible, making sure that they wouldn't turn against him, but now he had to wonder if it was time to suddenly change his plans. As much as he hated to admit it, improvisation wasn't something he excelled in, preferring to carefully manufacture plans he could follow to the letter and even improving on them. If Surge does attempt to rebel, I had installed a fail-safe patch that should keep her in check, with Kit following her suit. There is no doubt that they would be furious if they found out the truth. But, perhaps that truth is what I need to stop them from rebelling. Of course, I would have to keep certain information a secret. Starline smirked as he heard the two groaning, both feeling a strong headache as they slowly woke up. Showtime!

''What happened…'' Kit groaned, holding his head and turned to Surge, who looked quite out of it. Both were startled when Starline suddenly placed his arms over their shoulders.

''Thank goodness you are all right!'' Starline said in an overly concerned, if not even fatherly, tone, surprising both Surge and Kit. ''I hope you haven't broken anything!''

''Uh… no?'' Surge rose an eyebrow, feeling no pain in her body besides the sense of dizziness and headache.

''You have Kit to thank for that! He caught you just as you glitched out,'' Starline said, with Kit being surprised and a little flustered by the sudden praise.

''Thanks for the help, kiddo,'' Surge said, flashing a grin at Kit and giving him a thumbs up. ''You always have my back, don't cha?''

''Y-Yeah,'' Kit replied, feeling happy that Surge was thankful to him for saving her. Surge then turned to Starline, a questioning look forming on her expression.

''You said that we glitched out…'' she muttered.

''Indeed,'' Starline said, giving her a look of guilt. ''We've gotten into a heated argument over the history of your origins. You insisted that you needed to know who you truly are and where you come from, and I simply wanted to protect you from the harsh reality. Tempers flared, and your upgrades overloaded. I'm so sorry, I should've monitored your condition better.''

Surge rubbed her head, not too sure whether that was true or not, as she could remember absolutely nothing. She did assume that Starline was telling the truth, though, but something about the whole situation felt weird. She turned to Kit for an opinion, but the fennec just gave her a look of concern, clearly upset that Surge got hurt during the argument. However, before she could get another word in, Starline got ahead of her.

''I understand that you might want to know more about your past, but there isn't anything I can tell you besides what I know. As you are already aware, all three of us are Irregulars, meaning that we came into this reality without any memories that explain who we are. It is, in many ways, a new start,'' Starline said, reaching for the manga in the drawer. ''I had done some research on my own past, and I must say, I have been appalled by the person I used to be.'' He gave the manga to Surge and Kit to read, who were shocked when they saw the cover of Surge fighting Sonic, and quickly started to flip through the pages while Starline continued his soliloquy, ''I had believed that I could do better than my counterpart, and when I found you two, I realized that I needed to properly train you to survive in this reality.''

''You kidnapped us, erased our memories and brainwashed us?!'' Surge suddenly shouted, shoving the manga page showing Starline experimenting on them. ''And then you let us die multiple times?! I should kill you for this!''

Starline gulped nervously, well aware that he put himself into a very dangerous situation with just how volatile Surge got. ''I-I understand that this is all very upsetting. In fact, this was the very reason why I haven't told you anything…''

Kit shot him a dark and cold gaze, his eyes glowing malevolently. Starline knew he had to quickly regain control of the situation, but this time, without using his Hypno Glove. If he played his cards correct, Surge and Kit would remain loyal to him.

''You have to understand that first and foremost, you are not the same as you are depicted in this manga,'' Starline responded to a furious Surge and Kit. ''That was a revelation I had struggled as well, so I understand precisely what you're going through.''

''It's easy for you to say!'' Surge snapped back, dropping the manga. ''We don't even have a backstory in this manga besides you creating us!''

''That would be the fault of the writer, not mine…'' Starline said, only for his eyes to widen when sparks of electrictiy to fly around the room as Surge charged up, clearly not satisfied with the answer and more than happy to fry Starline. ''I just followed the story!''

''That… That makes sense…''

Both Surge and Starline were surprised to hear Kit talk, the fennec having picked up the manga and flipping through the pages, reading them. Surge rose an eyebrow, giving Kit a curious look. ''What are you talking about, kiddo?''

''I feel that it makes sense for Starline to recreate our backstory based on our manga counterparts after he found us, since that is all what we have,'' Kit explained, turning to an unnerved Starline. ''That is why you had joined the Eggman Empire initially.''

Starline felt a sense of relief washing over him as he realized that Kit's logical side prevailed, with Surge also calming down a bit as she listened to her partner. ''Indeed, that was the reason. But, seeing how bad the situation had gotten, I believe that all of us should simply cut off whatever previous history we had and continue building our own path. After all, you both know your purpose.''

''The purpose you forced upon us,'' Surge growled.

''But, I still gave you a purpose,'' Starline interrupted, his sense of arrogance breaking through his composed appearance. ''Imagine if you hadn't been found by me. You wouldn't know anything about yourselves and wander aimlessly until you get caught by the Hunters. Your life would've ended before it even began.''

''I-I guess that's true…'' Surge muttered, feeling defeated by Starline's argument. She hated that he was right in that sense, but she had no response for it.

''Furthermore, I am convinced that both of you would deeply desire revenge on Sonic and Tails, if not all of their friends,'' Starline said, grabbing the manga from Kit. ''You saw it with your own eyes that you were created in this story solely for the purpose of being Sonic's next enemy until you get discarded by the writers for someone better. But now, you're here and you can change you fate. You can become something more- All of us can become something more!''

''I do like the sound of that…'' Surge muttered, thinking about it.

''M-Me too,'' Kit added. Starline just nodded in response.

''As expected, you never settle for just being the second best,'' he said, tapping with his fingers on the manga. ''What is written here will never reflect the current situation, no matter how many similarities there are.'' Starline then tossed the manga to Surge, with her and Kit staring at it. ''If you wish to study it in details, you are free to do so, but always keep in mind that the Surge and Kit in the story are different from the Surge and Kit standing before me.''

Starline observed the two, a smug grin on his expression as he knew that he achieved what he wanted. Not only did Surge and Kit learn about their past – well, at least the one written in the manga – without getting too volatile, but he also ensured that they wouldn't betray his trust. Not only that, but this meant that he could explore even more possibilities of what he could do with them. He was quite excited, looking forward to it.

xXx

''Hey, Kit… do you see any cameras or listening devices?''

Kit was surprised by Surge's question, even more when she dragged both of them into a nearby broom closet. ''I don't think there would be any in a broom closet.''

''Good, because I don't want Starline to hear this,'' Surge said, glancing at the manga. ''I believe that there is more than what he had told us.''

''You mean, he's lying to us?'' Kit asked. Surge nodded in response.

''Do you even remember how Starline found us?'' she asked, with Kit giving her a confused look. He tried to recall their meeting with Starline, but his mind was blank. All he remembered was that he and Surge were already here at Egg Base Sigma when they first met him.

''No, I don't…'' he muttered, lowering his gaze.

''Exactly!'' Surge hissed, glad to get her point across. ''We don't remember anything before the meeting, and considering how Starline in this manga seems to be quite trigger-happy with his hypnosis glove, I'm sure he erased our memories of that meeting for whatever reason.''

''If that's so, maybe we could check the database?'' Kit suggested, his eyes narrowing. ''Starline keeps logs of everything and anything that happens here.''

''Now that's a plan!'' Surge said, grinning as she ruffled Kit's tuft of head fur, with Kit smiling back. ''Starline has no idea what we're up to, and once we get our answers, he's going to regret ever meeting us.''

xXx

It was dead in the night when Surge and Kit returned to the computer that Starline used for his video logs. They were scanning through all of the files, which seemed to amount in the hundreds.

''Chaos, this guy really loves to talk about himself, doesn't he?'' Surge said, both her and Kit stunned after watching a video of Starline having a mental breakdown over getting fired by Dr. Eggman and ranting about his own genius. ''He could make his own podcast, but who would listen to him?''

''I don't know, but I guess that there would be people interested in it,'' Kit replied, shrugging. ''There are podcasts about all kinds of topics, so one where people listen to Starline's rambles is possible.''

''I guess there would be people crazy enough to listen to this lunatic,'' Surge said, folding her arms across her chest. ''Try to find the video logs about us. Anything from before we arrived here.''

''I think I found something,'' Kit said, typing on the keyboard. ''Here.''

The two both watched the video of Starline as leaned back in his chair, narrating about a discovery he had made. ''…Egg Base Sigma used to be Prof. Hiroshi Sakamoto's research site. The now deceased Prof. Sakamoto was the lead scientist at the Codex Research Facility, being the head of Project Shadow and Project Shadow: Resurrection, both of which focused on the research and creation of artificial Irregulars; the result being Shadow the Hedgehog and Mephiles the Dark.'' Two images of Shadow and Mephiles popped up on Starline's right and left side respectively. ''Prof. Sakamoto had left a quite detailed document in regards to how to create artifical Irregulars, filled with many reports of his failures and eventual success. If one were to read it, it would seem as if creating an artifical Irregular would be difficult, but one has to take into account that the Professor was trying to create one from scratch.'' Starline then smirked, placing his gloved hand on his chest. ''I, on the other hand, am free to use all of his research to create my own artificial Irregulars, meaning that I won't have to waste time on trial and error.''

''What?'' Surge and Kit were stunned to hear that, both exchanging glances. Both felt a sense of dread as the video log continued.

''I have already picked which artificial Irregulars I want to create,'' Starline said, with two images popping up on his right and left side. ''Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami 'Kit' the Fennec, both of whom my counterpart had used to achieve his goals of breaking the irritating 'Sonic Cycle', which I had explained in a previous video log.'' Starline's eyes shifted to the side as a nervous look formed on his expression. ''Admittedly, I am well aware that that experiment wasn't exactly a success due to… certain oversights on my counterpart's part.'' He then smirked, his signature arrogance returning once again. ''However, I see this as my second chance to make things right. I will prove to Dr. Eggman that he was wrong to fire me by eliminating his greatest nemesis with my own creation...''

''That is enough.''

Both Surge and Kit were startled by a sharp, resolute tone from behind them and quickly turned around, stunned to see Starline standing behind them, tugging at the edge of his glove. Surge shot him a glare, her hands clenching into fists, electricity crackling around them as they shook in rage.

''You! You created us!'' Surge shouted at Starline, giving him a death glare. What angered her even more was the calm and confident look the platypus gave her. She wished that he was cowering in fear instead of having the appearance of someone who had everything under control. She despised the way he was looking down on her. ''You brought us here just to use us for whatever stupid vendetta you had!''

''I had hoped that you wouldn't go searching through my personal files if I told you about your initial backstory,'' Starline said, pointing his open palm with the Hypno Glove towards them. ''That was another unfortunate oversight on my part.''

Surge, realizing that Starline was about to use his Hypno Glove on them, charged forwards to stop him. She had no idea whether he wanted to erase their memories or something worse, but she wasn't going to let him do anything. Unfortunately for her, Starline used the Speed Core on the Tricore, dodging her punch and then kicked her into her gut with his poisonous heel spurs, causing Surge to fall over, completely paralyzed.

Starline then immediately turned towards Kit, but before he could do anything, the furious fennec grabbed him with his water vines by his leg, lifting him up and slamming him into a wall. This knocked the air out of Starline as he was left dangling upside-down, staring into Kit's glowing eyes. Surge, who had managed to recover from the neurotoxin thanks to her in-built super-healing, grabbed Starline's Hypno Glove, putting it on her own hand and shoving it straight into Starline's face.

''I've had enough of you!'' she screamed, with Starline being frozen in horror. Then, his eyes closed as he fell into a trance, with Kit dropping him on the ground. Surge was breathing heavily, her body still fighting the effects of the neurotoxin.

''Surge, are you okay?'' Kit asked her in a worried tone, with Surge waving him off.

''I'm fine, but I'd feel better if Starline just goes to Hell,'' Surge said, gritting her sharp teeth as she glared at the unconscious platypus.

''I could drown him, if that makes you feel better,'' Kit suggested, his tone chillingly calm. Despite the tempting offer, Surge took a few more moments to calm herself down, trying to process everything they have just learned.

''I like the way you're thinking, kiddo, but that won't be enough. I want Starline to slowly suffer for what he had done to us,'' Surge replied, growling as she stared at the platypus. Kit was silent for a moment, only to look up at Surge with a curious expression.

''Then, what do you want to do? I will follow any order you give me,'' he said. Surge was silent for a moment, her attention drawn to the manga they left on the table. She opened it once again, finding the page of herself screaming about destroying everything and everyone in her path, because if she had no past, then the rest of the world would have no future. Their situation was no different, even if they had some form of context to their existence, that being Starline's pawns in both the story and real life.

''If we were just created to act as punching bags for Sonic and his friends, only to get discarded when we're no longer of any use, why shouldn't we go all out then? If we're here to suffer, then we'll drag the whole world down with us to Hell,'' Surge said in a firm tone, grinning maliciously as she stared at Starline. ''The Doc did have a good point – we don't know what happens to us later on in this story, since it cuts off before the big battle, but we don't need to know that. This is the real world, and we can do whatever we want. We will burn this world, its heroes and villains, until there's nothing left.''

''What should we do about Starline?'' Kit asked, gazing at the platypus. Surge didn't answer, but the grin she gave Kit made it clear that she also had plans for him.

xXx

Starline felt a pounding headache, his vision blurry as he slowly woke up. It was as if someone was driving a drill into his skull, and he rubbed his head, trying to understand what had happened to him. To his surprise, he saw Surge and Kit standing before him, while he was sitting on the swivel chair, the monitor behind him playing the video log of him explaining how Surge and Kit came into existence.

This feels familiar… Don't tell me… Starline froze when he saw Surge giving him a rather amused grin, while Kit just gave him a firm glare. ''Wh-What had happened?''

''We'll cut to the chase, Doc,'' Surge started, with Starline gulping nervously. ''We know everything about our origins, including the bit where we're actually artificial Irregulars that you created.''

''Y-You know…'' Starline reached for his glove, only to feel a chill flowing down his spine when he realized that it was gone. He stared back at Surge, who was holding the glove in her hand, still grinning.

''Those naps you put us through don't feel so nice, do they?'' Surge said, with Starline being unable to respond as he realized that he was in mortal danger without his glove. If Surge and Kit decided to kill him now, there was nothing he could do to fight them off. Even his poisonous heel spurs were useless since the two could easily heal from the neurotoxin.

''Wh-What do you want?'' Starline asked, trying to keep his tone calm. He was stunned when Surge suddenly tossed the glove back to him, and he gave her a confused look.

''What I want is to finally move on to our true mission,'' Surge said, surprising Starline. ''You made us to fight Sonic and Tails, so we'll do that.''

''W-Wait-'' Starline was completely flabbergasted, his grip around the glove tightening. ''You have just learned about your true origins… and your response is to move on with the mission?''

''Well, it's not like we can do anything else, since we have no other reason to exist,'' Surge said. ''I was made a powerhouse to match Sonic in combat and to defeat him, and Kit here is going to do whatever I want. Right, kiddo?''

''Yes, Ma'am,'' Kit replied in an almost robotic tone.

''See?'' Surge gave Starline a pointed look, but the platypus remained doubtful, taking note of the manga that stood open on the very same page that illustrated their current situation.

''This doesn't make any sense. Don't you want to betray me and get revenge on me for what I had done?'' Starline asked directly, only to get startled when Surge suddenly walked over to him, flicking his beak and sending a spark of electricity down his body.

''Of course I'd want to get my revenge on your for dragging us here, but I have my own priorities set,'' Surge said, with Starline rubbing his beak as he gave Surge an alarmed look. ''We won't participate in any of your nonsense of proving your worth to Eggman. Instead, you will help us come up with a solid plan on how to lure Sonic and his friends out so we can destroy them.'' She then tapped with her finger on the manga. ''Since me and Kit having no past is completely unimportant, we'll make sure that no one else has any future, yourself included.''

Starline gulped, but given the close proximity of Surge, as well as Kit observing him carefully, he knew that he couldn't do anything. All of his careful planning was gone in just one night, and he was alive only thanks to sheer luck.

''I-I guess I have no choice but to comply…'' Starline said, only to get noogie from Surge, leaving his hair messed up and his eyes wide in confusion.

''That's the spirit, Doc!'' Surge said happily as she let go off him, with Starline trying to fix his hair. She then placed her hands on her hips. ''So, what's the plan?''

Starline took a deep breath, trying to calm down his nerves. He knew that he was now in survival mode, and to ensure that he remains alive unlike his counterpart, he needed to keep Surge and Kit appeased by giving them what they wanted. Perhaps, he could still salvage the situation, but there was no clear answer to this issue. Starline cleared his throat, then started typing on the keyboard.

''I have a plan, but I suppose we will have to make several changes to it…''

Surge and Kit exchanged glances, both smirking in triumph.

xXx

''So, how much further to this meeting spot?'' Sonic asked. He was running down a street in Westoru, with Lucas, Tails and Warren following closely behind him, the teenagers using their hoverboards to keep up.

''It shouldn't take much longer to reach it,'' Lucas replied, his eyes narrowing as he thought about what had happened that morning. He was woken up by Sonic who showed him a message on his AR Visor, which came from an unknown sender, challenging him to a battle and instructing him to come to a specific location in Westoru. Lucas didn't have much time to think about it when a call from Warren and Tails came, telling the two the same thing. Not only that, but after doing some research, both noted that the messages were sent via the EggNet, leaving them wondering if Dr. Eggman was challenging them. Lucas had to admit that it made sense, especially after his recent discovery in regards to the Tamago Corporation, and the four set off. However, there was something that was bothering him about this whole ordeal.

''I believe that this is it,'' Warren said as they reached a quiet, residential area in Westoru. They were looking around, feeling a bit confused when they didn't see anyone, save for a passing pedestrian.

''There's no one here,'' Tails said, scratching his head and opening the holographic screen. ''This makes no sense. We're at the correct spot.''

''I wonder if-''

Before Sonic could even finish his sentence, a streak of green light suddenly appeared from out of the corner, slamming into him and dragging him into another street, leaving Lucas, Warren and Tails shocked.

''Sonic!'' Lucas went after his partner. Warren and Tails were about to follow them, when suddenly, water vines shot out from a different street, grabbing Tails and dragging him into it. Warren could only watch in surprise as the twin-tailed fox struggled to break free, and he followed his partner into the street.

Unknown to either of them, Starline then walked out of another side-street, arms crossed on his back, a slight look of concern on his expression. This was not how he expected his grand plan to unfold.

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[hel-phoenyx]

New Year's Eve, part 15 (we're nearing March but shhhhh)

An ongoing story with @corneille-but-not-the-author and @soupedepates

I'm sat at my desk, like every days since forever. Cops don't get sick leav for emotional turmoil now, do they. Would be better if they did. Less sickos in the police.

Not even in the mood to be snarky. Amandine commented on how scarce my witty remarks (well, she called that insults and sarcasm) became, and the new one, Dal, I call him Dal, is looking at me weird. He kinda is the only one I talk to because he's the only one not mentioning this shitty rumor.

Job's getting hard. I have files after files to take care of now that Sigismund's on sick leave, Walpurgis told me that since I was the one patrolling with him the most this days I had to pick up the slack the most efficiently. Ha. Just try to shower me in work, I see you, bastard.

It worked the first few days. Took care of the investigation with the sect, talked with Iekaterina le Patriote, Found some leads, but nothing tangible. Then the work started to die down.

And I had no one to talk through the idle.

I open my Instagram. Hector has a new picture. It's him smiling with a giant hot chocolate (that man always had a sweet tooth), probably sitting on a stool since his head is at the same level as Tyr's. Tyr who is sticking his tongue at the camera with a bored expression, his prosthesis stuck in the middle finger.

He's wearing one of those silly shirts he always had on at some point. This one is saying "Autistic powered fuck machine". Way to give a message.

The caption reads "Since mister @/deepseadragon didnt want to go suit shopping with me I'm taking him out of his man cave to drink and he has no choice. Getting tattoos at my shop after that #diy #ifoneofmycolleaguestrytotouchhimiwillbite #nohiddenmeaningiswear". Hector, my man, you are so not subtle I am surprise he still hasn't realised you crush on him since literal middle school.

Well, this is Tyr we are talking about, are we ?

Something taps on my desk. It's Amandine. She's looking at me with her cold eyes. Again.

"Slacking off ?"

"Shut up."

"Wow. No insults this time. You really are unwell, huh ?"

I snarl.

"Why do you care ?"

Eye roll. What, really ?

"Not everyone is out to get you, Wolffsen."

She leaves with that. Right. Not everyone out to get me. Like I will believe that.

Why am I alone if it's the case ?

My phone rings. Oh, it's Idalia. Saying where I saw her the first time would get me immediate prison, people don't do well with blackblockers. But we kept in touch after that. Got her out of a few situations before Walpurgis thought I got too lenient with her. Saw her ex-wife and kid once, tired woman, scared child. Neither of them liked seeing a cop. Can understand that.

"Hey, my man, haven't seen you in events in a while. U good ?"

Sigh. Don't want to, but I should probably explain myself before I lose my "mole" card to her. She would rat me out to the whole group immediatly and guess who would get beaten up by former comrades, forget about the fact I'm giving them all the intel they need ?

"eeeeeeeh, bad couple of months and too tired to care. Still giving intel when I can dw"

"Yeah, got it. Need to vent ? what about your friend, the blonde giant you told me about ?"

"giving me the cold shoulder. did bullshit."

"Damn, tough. can lend you mine if you want."

That kid in political science that hates cops and right-wing politicians except for the future one he wants to fuck ? Met him on some barricades, didn't like him at all. He has the good ideas and actions but his personnality irates me.

I have a grim laugh. Not a damn chance.

"HA ! no."

"lmao I'm not listening to you. Have my own problems. But yk what, can give you the contact info of my therapist. Zuza says it's good when people are payed to hear your bullshit."

A therapist, huh...

May be a good idea, after all.

ironic I'll be the first Wolffsen to see a therapist. The older brothers would be so pissed. Then again, I am a cop, so even though I bring money on the table, and a good amount with that, they have their syrian pride. Can respect that. Can also respect being a disgrace in their eyes for anything I'll do. Always been singled out anyway.

Alright.

Let's look in searching for a therapist.

Later in the day Hector's second instagram post shows a tattoo design, a dragon curled against a leg, his head resting on the ankle. His professional account shows the same but with effects and without the second slide, a blonde man smiling for the first time since forever.

[otomehoneyybearr]

Act 12

Episode 29: The What-If Future and The Certain Now: Kazunari

Working w/ Maybelle Lace, jujumin-translates, Fea

Note: As you read, you will see that some sentences highlighted in a different color, this is what they indicate.

Pink: Flashback

Blue: Characters are acting

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Student A: Hey Kazu!

Kazunari: Hm?

Student A: «Your new work was really good!»

Kazunari: «Ah, so you saw it.»

Student A: «Your style is based on Japanese painting, right? It's really amazing!»

Kazunari: «Thank you~!»

Student A: «I'm looking forward to the next one!»

Kazunari: «I'll do my best.»

Professor: «Kazu, can I have a moment?»

Professor: «It seems like you haven't submitted the concept

materials for the next exhibition yet. Is something wrong?»

Kazunari: «Ah, it just took me a while. But it's all good now! I'll get it out right away.»

Professor: «Hmm... Don't you have a lot of friends? Since you have a group of reliable friends with the same aspirations as you do, please feel free to consult them and us in the future.»

Kazunari: «I will do just that.»

Kazunari: ...Friends, huh.

Kazunari: (It's true that the guy from earlier and that girl too are all my friends, and if I talk to them, they might listen to me...)

Kazunari: Hmm...

Kazunari: (Maybe I should try consulting with them.)

Student A: «I'm glad that Kazu is willing to consult with me! It would be nice if I could help.»

Student A: «If Kazu is going in that direction, how about something like this?»

Kazunari: «Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing definitely sounds like me.»

Student B: «If you want to change it up a bit, how about like this?»

Kazunari: «Totally! I might give it a try.»

Student C: «Wouldn't this be interesting too?»

Kazunari: «Man I missed out! I guess I didn't see it from that perspective.»

Kazunari: (Again... There's no point in an exchange like this.)

Kazunari: Sigh...

Kazunari: (I got a lot of ideas, but... what should I do?)

Kazunari: (Nothing just feels right to me, but I can't say that...)

Kazunari: (Ha~... What am I doing?)

Kazunari: (I can see and learn different things in a different environment than I would at a Japanese university.)

Kazunari: (But in the end, I am still the same as when I was in Japan, and nothing has changed.)

Kazunari: (Even if you only have skills and knowledge, this is not enough...)

Kazunari: I wonder if there was more I could've done in Japan.

Kazunari: ...Let's draw the sky.

Kazunari: Fuah~.

Banri: You look sleepy.

Kazunari: Ah, Setzer, how are ya? The weather is really nice today.

Kazunari: If you're going home now, let's go play.

Kazunari: Hm?

Kazunari: ...

Kazunari: Wait, sorry Setzer! I've already made plans!

Banri: No need to be.

Kazunari: See you!

Kazunari: Papi, over here!

Kazunari's Dad: Alright. Sorry for the sudden visit, I happened to be nearby for work.

Kazunari: It's no biggie.

Kazunari's Dad: I wanted to see where you were studying at before you graduated.

Kazunari's Dad: Drawing was the first time you fell in love with something other than studying, and you've always been serious about it.

Kazunari: Thank you. Ah, that's right. I'll take you somewhere nice.

Kazunari's Dad: Where to?

Kazunari's Dad: Can non-students come in here?

Kazunari: It's okay. Plus no one's here.

Kazunari: This is my work space!

Kazunari's Dad: That's amazing... Are these the art supplies that you use for your works?

Kazunari: Yup, they're for drawing~.

Kazunari: This is the work I'm currently doing!

Kazunari's Dad: The sky... It's a nice picture.

Kazunari: It's still a work in progress.

Kazunari's Dad: Is that so?

Kazunari: I'm planning to draw a field of sunflowers here.

Kazunari's Dad: Sunflowers, huh. Why sunflowers specifically?

Kazunari: Hmm... I wonder why. I guess it's just my intuition!

Kazunari's Dad: You sound like an artist.

Kazunari's Dad: What's this?

Kazunari: This is a design idea for a flyer! When an idea comes to me, I draw it down with notes.

Kazunari's Dad: You must be quite busy... drawing this and that.

Kazunari's Dad: Kazunari, are you having fun right now?

Kazunari: Um, actually... Could I bring up Sumi's action scene real quick?

Izumi: Sure, the floor's all yours.

Kazunari: This is gonna be our debut show, right? I think we should focus on each of our members and show off what they're good at.

Kazunari: Sumi as the Genie could enter with a bang, all flashy and dynamic. It's like his self-introduction, y'know?

Tenma: ...

Izumi: That's a good suggestion. I never thought of going about it that way.

Muku: This IS our big debut and everything...

Yuki: We won't build a fanbase if people don't remember each of our faces.

Misumi: Leave it to me!

Kazunari: I know we were worried about the first half of the play having too much impact, but we could adjust the other scenes so everything fits better, maybe?

Izumi: That's true!

Kazunari: ...So what's the word, Tenten?

Tenma: You know, I think that's actually reasonable.

Kazunari: ...

Tenma: Well, I'd prefer it if you played Kiichi too, Kazunari.

Kazunari: Tenten...

Tenma: I want to know how your interpretation of Kiichi will affect the rest of the troupe's acting when you're really in the zone.

Tenma: I bet there's a Kiichi that only you can play.

Kazunari: ...

Tenma: Still, one play is only two or so hours long, and even if you put all of the shows together, we barely scratch a few days' worth of stage time.

Tenma: This play is only a few dozen hours out of your life. Compared to an overseas experience that could change your entire future, I think the choice is obvious.

Tenma: You won't have this chance again. You pushed me to be in a movie, now it's my turn to give you a small push.

Tenma: It's thanks to all of you guys that I have no regrets about how I handled things then. Make sure you're putting your needs first too, Kazunari.

Kazunari: My needs, huh?

Kazunari: (Live for the moment...)

Kazunari: Ready, everybody?! Here we go, Summer Troupe! Three! Two! One!

Misumi: Go!

Kumon: Go!

Muku: Go!

Kazunari: ...Yeah. It's really fun.

Kazunari: I love painting, design, and theater, and that's why I put my all into everything.

Kazunari: Maybe someday I'll stagger, but I want to do everything I can at this moment.

Kazunari: I decided to do it all myself.

Kazunari: Yes, I only have one body, so it can be difficult, but it's fun and I can't help but want to have fun.

Kazunari: Above all, when I'm with everyone in the theater company, I'm so inspired that I don't have time to stop.

Kazunari: It's a big difference from the me back then, when all I did was study, right?

Kazunari's Dad: That's right.

Kazunari: Okay! I have to finish this painting quickly.

Kazunari's Dad: Really? Then I will be heading home first.

Kazunari's Dad: ...Oh, I almost forgot about this.

Kazunari's Dad: Your mom thought it was for me and gave it to me by mistake. That's why I came over today. I wanted to deliver this to you as soon as possible.

Kazunari: It's Sakusaku!

Sakuya: "Kazunari, how are you doing?"

Sakuya: "The other day, when I was eating lunch at the park, some children asked me to draw a picture for them.''

Sakuya: “But I was told that I was bad at it...”

Sakuya: "I had some confidence because I had trained a little bit by working part-time at a daycare center, but I started to feel depressed.''

Sakuya: "Please advise me on how to paint next time."

Sakuya: "Also, I didn't know what to talk about with elementary school age children, so I was in trouble.''

Sakuya: "Kazunari seems to be able to talk well with children of any age. Please let me know if you have any good conversation topics.''

Kazunari: Ahaha, Sakusaku's so serious~.

Kazunari: I was thinking about watching Tenten's variety show, so I'll LIME him later.

Kazunari's Dad: Ah, Tenma has been appearing on variety shows recently. It's amazing that he's so active in a wide range of areas.

Kazunari: Tenten is a natural at making you laugh.

Kazunari: Ah, I want to meet everyone soon.

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▼・ᴥ・▼

[project-do-over]

Violet_M00n is available

Violet_M00n: Heyyy sorry for the delay! Got caught up with work stuff...

Bookwyrm1982: literally no time has passed.

Violet_M00n: Right. Right. Habit, I guess.

Violet_M00n: Anyway, what else did you want to know about the future?

Bookwyrm1982: Well you said you had AI, right?

Violet_M00n: Well... Yes and no. We have programs people *call* "AI", but they're really just advanced machine learning. They can't actually think or anything, but they can put together a surprisingly human sounding sentence, and draw things that could at first be mistaken for art.

Violet_M00n: But of course it's awful. The results are full of factual errors or have way, way too many fingers, companies are trying to use it to replace creatives, and it burns a ton of energy doing essential nothing of value.

Violet_M00n: So could you go on ChatGPT and talk to a convincing facsimile of a human but underneath it's just a more advanced version of Dr. SBAITSO.

Bookwyrm1982: that's a shame. But then again at least you don't have to worry about them taking over the world, right?

Violet_M00n: Luna, at this point I'd welcome our robot overlords. Better than the fucks we have running things these days.

Bookwyrm1982: Are things that bad?

Violet_M00n: *sighs* no, I suppose not. I still have a job, a family, I can exist in public without fearing persecution, and I'm mostly free to do as I please.

Violet_M00n: But trust me when I say the people who very much want to take that away have much more power than feels comfortable.

Bookwyrm1982: that sounds scary though.

Violet_M00n: More enraging than scary, really. Just so many people who can't or don't want to see things from anyone's point of view from their own.

Violet_M00n: Well, that, and capitalism.

Bookwyrm1982: I thought capitalism was good though?

Violet_M00n: *sigh* we have so much to learn.

Violet_M00n: Honestly though, and you should be able to find these online if not in the library, but read some Marx.

Violet_M00n: It may not resonate a lot yet, but it will.

Bookwyrm1982: I always thought that Communism was a good idea in theory but it needed a global revolution to actually work.

Violet_M00n: You may be on to something there. And someday, hopefully in our lifetime, we may get there. But it's a long, long road. Especially here in America, where it's been used as a boogeyman for like 80 years now.

Violet_M00n: (55 for you)

Bookwyrm1982: Wow, that's.... I'm not sure I want to grow up now.

Violet_M00n: Well maybe your timeline will invent actual time travel and you can keep that wish. Luna knows I wish I could.

Bookwyrm1982: so

Bookwyrm1982: um

Bookwyrm1982: Can we talk about something more fun? Like, what's something good in your time?

Violet_M00n: Well Magic the Gathering is still pretty good.

Bookwyrm1982: We're still playing? I kinda lost interest and stopped following it a year or two ago.

Violet_M00n: Oh yeah, we're still playing, and the game is... Well, it's way different from your time but also at its heart the same.

Violet_M00n: Like it's still Magic but also there's D&D and cowboys and Gandalf, for some reason. It's cool but it's also kinda scary how much they're pumping out.

Bookwyrm1982: Oh that sounds cool! Is it just D&D and LOTR?

Violet_M00n: They've done a ton of crossovers, they call them "Universes Beyond". They've done, let's see...

Violet_M00n: Dr. Who, Warhammer, Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy, they're doing Marvel soon, Transformers (those are Hasbro though so they were among the first), The Walking Dead, Fortnite, Stranger Things (you... Don't know about those yet, don't worry), um, lots more stuff too that I'm forgetting, but those are mostly in like five or ten card bundles.

Violet_M00n: Unlike LotR which was a full set, with boosters and everything. And the best selling set of Magic in all time, unless Bloomburrow has passed that already.

Bookwyrm1982: Really cool! You'll have to send me some pictures sometime!

Violet_M00n: I'll be sure to downscale them appropriately this time!

Bookwyrm1982: What else do we like? Is Star Trek still running?

Violet_M00n: It had a long break there where it seemed we weren't going to get any more Star Trek.

Violet_M00n: But then JJ Abrams (a director/producer of some renown) made a Star Trek movie that was meh, but good enough to get people interest in the franchise again.

Violet_M00n: Soon after that Paramount spun up Star Trek Discovery, which had a rocky start but Grew The Beard soon enough for them to greenlight Star Trek Picard. Then Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Academy, and probably one or two others I'm forgetting (not to forget Short Treks and Very Short Treks).

Violet_M00n: Prodigy! I forgot Prodigy!

Bookwyrm1982: The online service?

Violet_M00n: No, Star Trek Prodigy. It's a CG animated series for kids made by Nickelodeon.

Bookwyrm1982: You're making that up.

Violet_M00n: I swear, it's true. Lower Decks is animated too, but 2D, and it's for adults and probably the best thing Star Trek has ever created. It's hilarious!

Violet_M00n: SNW follows Captain Pike on the 1701

Bookwyrm1982: And Discovery?

Violet_M00n: Complicated! It starts out pre-TOS but... Spoilers! And Picard is... Also here!

Bookwyrm1982: Is that about young Picard or something?

Violet_M00n: Old Picard, but close.

Bookwyrm1982: Hey my mom... our mom... just told me to get off the computer so

Bookwyrm1982: ttys!

Violet_M00n: See you in literally no time at all!

Bookwyrm1982 is away