#16.1

[wildvetch]

“I feel guilty, not being able to give you my full attention.” “You’re sick.  It’s okay.  I’m just really happy you’re keeping me company,” she said, speaking between bites.  “I would have gone crazy if I was at the facility.” The place for the orphans and foster kids in transition.  Chris’s old place. “Are you feeling like you need more routine, or get back to where you have your stuff?” She shook her head, shrugging.  At the same time, she started trying to cut the crust of the bread.  Her top had only the two narrow straps at the shoulders, leaving the arms and the rest of the shoulders bare, and I could see tension there.  It would have been easy to chalk it up to the effort of cutting through the thicker crust of the bread, but… Kenzie was very good at hiding what she was feeling. “Talk to me.  I can’t help if you don’t tell me what you’re feeling.” “I don’t want to go back just yet.  I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what’s happening with my team or our team or the city or anything.  This is nice, I-” She turned her head to look at one of the screens that was floating around the television, tilting her head slightly. I ducked my head down, until my chin was nearly touching my hands, which were flat on the table, trying to get a better look at her face. She met my eyes. “What?” I asked. “I don’t want to be a problem, I don’t want to scare you away or bother you.  It’s really obvious to me now that I can think everything’s fine and then it’s really not.  I thought I was better and I’m not.” “But?” “But I want to stay.  Just for a little while longer.” “When I dropped you off that night, at the end of the day everything happened with Teacher, the staff said they were concerned, because you made those images, and they said it looked like a projection of Ashley with something that looked like-” “Don’t-” Kenzie interrupted, her mouth partially full.  She swallowed.  “Don’t say it was A.I.  It wasn’t A.I.  it was just a picture and a few minor triggers.  I still get flack for some stuff I did at the end of Summer that wasn’t A.I.  I got questions from Parahumans Online about it after, and then from the team, and I told Jessica, and Jessica had to double check it wasn’t A.I. because that’s the kind of thing that makes the heroes crack down on you and they checked and they agreed it wasn’t so no.  No.  Not A.I., no intelligence.  If you say it was, I will actually get mad.” “Not A.I.,” I said. She huffed a bit and nodded.  She took another bite, and chewed it more than necessary.

i would like to have to Not worry about this child for just one arc, even a chapter of this story

[secretromanticsstuff]

who's imagining little Charlie in his mom's house, spare room right next to his room, available to lease out to anybody, often it's his uncle Jack, whether he stays with them for a time or when he's over visiting Bonnie and gets too drunk to get behind the wheel or whenever--GUYS THE MAN DOES NOT LIKE HAVING A SPARE ROOM IN HIS HOME OK? HE HAS HIS REASONS.

[leonsrightlations]

The Earth is Online Chapter 16.1

The big mole’s fart was truly incomparably strange smelling. It didn’t dispel from the underground cavern for a long time. Everyone was assailed by it nearly to the point of vomiting. The big mole giggled and ran to the corner where it crouched down and proceeded to dig a hole with both its claws.

It didn’t pay any more attention to the five remaining players and the five people didn’t take the initiative to provoke such a monster.

Lin Qiao walked to the little girl’s side and sighed. [1] She took off her windbreaker and covered that pool of blood. Li Bin also walked to the cook’s side, moved him to a corner, and covered the cook’s face with his jacket.

The Black Tower had already announced that everyone had completed the second side mission, but no new side mission had appeared. They only had one main mission, which was just to survive. People can live without water for seven days. Without food, they can continue on for no more than thirty days. If the big mole didn’t interfere anymore, Tang Mo felt that, with his current physique, he could continue on even without water for at least a month. He was just afraid that the Black Tower’s mission of survival would have no end.

Tang Mo tentatively asked, “Uncle Mole, how can we leave this place?”

The Big Mole gave a strange laugh. “You want out? How do you get out? You’re playing idiot mode and the only thing you have to do is survive. You still want to get out?”

Everyone was resentful of the big mole’s words, but no one dared to retort.

In the pitch black cavern, the giant mole made a rustling sound as it dug. The sound was machine-like and ear-piercing.

Li Bin was still holding the flashlight the little girl had made using her ability in his hand.

His expression was strange as he looked at the flashlight. He muttered, “It’s a bit frightening…”

Tang Mo looked at him. “You don’t want it? Can you let me look at it?”

He was extremely interested in this thing that had been created purely by an ability.

Without even thinking about it, Li Bin hastily stuffed the flashlight into Tang Mo’s hand. “Take it away. I don’t want this thing.”

The flashlight was rapidly stuffed into Tang Mo’s hand. He had just opened his mouth, but didn’t speak, his expression suddenly pausing as a bizarre light slid through his eyes.

Luo Fengcheng said, “I also want to take a look.” So saying, he reached out his hand in preparation to accept it.

Tang Mo stared blankly for a moment and unexpectedly didn’t hand the flashlight over. Just as Luo Fengcheng was feeling baffled, suddenly, a peal of clear and cheerful singing sounded. The voice was loud and joyful, the high-pitched childlike voice causing the five people in the cavern, as well as the big mole, to all stop what they were doing.

The big mole’s small eyes widened with disbelief.

“How can this be!?”

When the song was finished, a familiar voice resounded in every person’s ears –

[Ding dong! In the first district of A-Country, the stowaway Fu Wenduo successfully cleared the first floor of the Black Tower.]

The big mole jerked its head up and again said, “How can this be!?”

Tang Mo tightly gripped the flashlight in his hand. When the Black Tower was finished broadcasting this line, he suddenly felt a bit fuzzy. In his line of sight, the big mole was holding its head in its hands in total shock, its figure gradually growing faint. He once more looked to Li Bin, Li Wen, Luo Fengcheng, and Lin Qiao beside him. The figures of the four people were also slowly dissipating.

The second after his line of sight went completely dark, Tang Mo opened both his eyes. Bright and beautiful, brilliant sunshine stung his eyes in a scene of white. Tang Mo was like a person on the verge of drowning, gulping in breaths of fresh air as he struggled to adapt to the strong light. When Tang Mo next looked clearly at the scene in front of him, his expression changed and he abruptly twisted the steering wheel. The car scraped along the curb and his whole person was nearly flung out of the vehicle.

The car sped for more than twenty meters before Tang Mo braked and it stopped at the side of the road.

His heart was still wildly racing. Every single thing that he had experienced in the underground cavern seemed to be happening before his eyes. He quickly calmed down, looked in all directions, and noticed that he was back in that original car. It was the place he’d been before the tower attack game had started. Tang Mo and Li Wen had been in the middle of driving. Now he had returned…

“What about Li Wen?”

Tang Mo had returned to driving, but he couldn’t find Li Wen.

He really couldn’t find the other and there was nothing else he could do. Tang Mo stopped on the side of the road and lowered his head to look at the flashlight in his hand.

It was the flashlight that Li Bin had given to Tang Mo. Because it was the little girl’s flashlight and she had died right before their eyes, Li Bin had felt discomfort in his heart and had eagerly given it to Tang Mo. Tang Mo hadn’t imagined that right at the moment he took the flashlight, he would discover that he’d gained an ability.

Tang Mo raised his hand and pulled a book out of the air, flipping it open to the third page –

[Ability: Draw a circle to curse you. [2]

User: Li Bin (Official Player)

Type: Special Type

Function: Attacks a designated target’s karma [3], causing them to have bad luck.

Level: Level one.

Restriction: Can only curse one target a day and is unable to control what negative effect the target suffers.

Remarks: Tang Mo won’t even pay for a flashlight. This is truly stinky and shameless!] [4]

Tang Mo: “...”

He pinched the book page in his finger until it made a crunching sound, took two deep breaths, and continued reading downward –

[Tang Mo-version usage explanation: Can only be used once a day with a 30% probability of being effective. Choking while eating or drinking water is also considered bad luck. This trash ability and Tang Mo have some compatibility.]

If only this wasn’t his ability. Tang Mo hated that he couldn’t grind its bones and scatter the ashes!

According to Tang Mo’s rough guess, if he wanted to obtain other people’s abilities, the first way was that kind of confrontation he’d had with Qian Sankun in which he had directly killed the other party. This way would certainly allow him to obtain an ability. The second way was to do something that was “eating everything without paying.” For instance, Li Bin had handed over the flashlight to Tang Mo and Tang Mo hadn’t given him money. This was a kind of “eating everything without paying.”

But this method of gaining another person’s ability only needed for him to take a flashlight to count as eating everything without paying…was it so simple?

Tang Mo pondered for a moment, vaguely feeling that this matter wasn’t so simple. There might still be some other restriction. He was about to close the book when, suddenly, a line of light colored words appeared after the remarks. He lowered his head to take a look –

[Remarks: Draw a circle to curse you (User: Li Bin), already successfully used.]

“Already successfully used? When was it used? Who was affected?”

The color of the line of words was extremely light and didn’t have the familiar cheap style of the ability book. Tang Mo looked for a long time but didn’t see any clues. He put his hands in his pockets in bafflement and suddenly touched something smooth and solid. He took it out and looked at it.

“The turkey egg?”

[PREV] [TOC] [NEXT]

Translation Notes:

[1] The original version makes it more clear in the previous chapter that the big mole is a messy eater.

[2] This is a reference to a cartoon from the mid-2000’s called Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. There’s a character who would crouch down in the corner and “draw a circle to curse you.”

(The text says "draw a circle to curse you [all]")

[3] 因果律 - karmic law; law of cause and effect

[4] It actually says ‘stinky and not wanting face’ but this is a bit clunky as a translation, so I decided to go with ‘shameless’ instead. 

[pixelatedollhouse]

From there, Isla heads up to the science lab for class... but as she waits with her phone in hand, none of her friends show up. Eventually class begins and she's forced to put her phone away, but at least her lab partner seems friendly enough!

[sftk0o]

ios layout inspo? 🎀

[jokeanddaggerdept]

[ytcomments-archive]

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

In many ways, I wish I could have had a blind read.

But honestly? I'm not sure I'd have stuck with a fully 100% blind read. Knowing there was good (or at least, compelling) stuff coming is what's kept me going.

But one thing that's interesting about coming in so not blind is seeing the bits of the story that never made it into any summaries, you never see metas about and don't show up in any fanfics.

Like this whole "Dragon attacks the Undersiders and Travelers with specialized robots' schtick. And the consequent counter attack.

[inkmo]

My life is just going to be meaningless until I'm doing consistent 2:15s around the nurburgring gp in the lotus exige 240r stage 3. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall chasing these last few tenths but the computer can do it and it's not even set to the highest difficulty. No idea how the bastard can brake so late. Maybe my trail braking game is just shit. Forza horizon has made me weak.

How do people cope with not being good enough at the things they actually care about.

[casquecest]

Did 30 minutes of interval training today. The training plan calls for the same tomorrow, but I think I'll up the MPH for both the running and walking portions as today felt really good 😊.

[cinnamonglaive]

noooooooo wormy and grue are dating now auuuughghh this is so juvenile (of course it’s juvenile. they’re teenagers)

[wildvetch]

Routine was important for kids in grief, and this wasn’t routine.  I picked up two ends from ice cream cones that had been half-eaten, putting them on a plate.  Two ice cream cones definitely wasn’t normal, nevermind that Kenzie liked to eat the top part of the cone, lick out the ice cream that had been packed in all the way, but didn’t enjoy the cones enough on their own to finish them.  Didn’t matter on the cone type.  Just your standard eleven year old type weirdness. I found another two-inch long bit of uneaten cone between two glasses.

oh we are absolutely Going Through It

[one-rabbit-every-day]

16.1.

16 - Antlers

[longeyelashedtragedy]

These are the exact same September weekend days I remember from most of my life. Raining steadily but not dramatically, cold and damp and humid so you have to bundle up indoors. It was always so nice 😍

[pixelatedollhouse]

[renaultphile]

So Mary Renault said of the ending that Laurie lies to Ralph to protect his pride so that he wouldn't think he was being taken on out of pity. But I always think - Laurie is a really bad liar.......

My attempt to make sense of it all