#Fuck it we Ball (done procrastinating)

[stromulites]

AU Shithead acquired! Feat. the coat he stole off of Grayson (oc). For clarification you don't need to draw the coat wherlsdgdf. The wings are optional too, since they come and go at will.

@soulspite the promised ref (I hope this is clean enough kwelrsdg)

I will now put other info and Unsolicited Lore Stuff under the cut

162cm (5'3) for this ref.

I have been just calling him B.J. There's no in-universe reason for it. Just like BJ BLAZKAW-(self combusts)

Probably ADHD and on the spectrum, just never got properly diagnosed before he kicked the bucket.

Got struck by lightening or something <- Doesn't like talking about it so most people just guess.

Dying is a pretty sensitive topic since while Reapers are cool and all, the event itself is still traumatizing as all hell. Especially for those who die suddenly in violent, unrighteous deaths, like BJ.

17 when he died, chronologically 19. Age for Reapers is weird since they're just souls of the dead who don't get yoinked by The Demons when they perish.

Really likes it when Hannah (This AU's GF) helps preen his wings. He will straight forget if she didn't remind him. Visits four days a week, probably more if Hannah herself didn't tell him to go do something else.

Likes to keep his wings out, but they're not very practical in enclosed spaces so he'll tuck them away then (they straight up disappear in this context).

Bit of a loner despite it all. He'll let others get close to him, but won't fully indulge himself and keeps his distance aside from a few select people. This is a more recent development.

If he likes you enough, he will bring you random shit he found on the ground. Like seaglass and some poor sod's missing ring. Or ten million paperclips/smooth rocks that look nice when wet.

Is generally cold in body temp since, y'know, bucket kicked and over is keeled. Not affectionate with other Reapers since they also run cold and it bothers him. The only exception to this is Grayson and their jacket, which is why it's stolen so often (its warm), and Hannah, who is Alive.

Has the best American Woodcock call impression known to man.

Also, for those that want it, wing pattern ref be upon ye:

[erlandious]

Up at 21 because my entire group collectively procrastinated the entire week away so now we have to finish an informative presentation and a research paper in one night because boss lady said it’s due tmrr, no exceptions! Yippee

[gregmarriage]

anyways, this is my current smash roster, if anyone’s interested

the thing about being chronically ill, is that i currently have a cold, and i’m in bed, playing smash, but it’s not really that different from any other day

[the-ace-with-spades]

slow down (you're doing fine) sequel unrevised snippet because I'm procrastinating on finishing slow down itself and having Mav&Brad feels

.

The light from the living room turned on — he was covered by the terrace curtains enough that it was merely a warm shade coming from the cracked door. He heard bare footsteps, and a shadow flickering through the heavy fabric, until a familiar figure showed up.

Mav closed the terrace behind himself, plopping on the sandy wooden panels, until he was sitting down on Bradley’s left. He looked at his hands, at the phone, at Jake still left on read on the screen — Bradley switched it off and put it under his thigh.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked. He rubbed his eyes but didn’t look that sleepy either — just a bit tired, in that long-drawn, frustrated way when one wanted to rest but couldn’t no matter how hard they tried.

Bradley shrugged. He probably could sleep, he’d slept after he had done and said far worse things than today. He didn’t want to, it was almost like a punishment, staying awake until he fixed the problem. Until he stopped running away. He couldn't make himself fix anything, staying stagnant as the ball of anxiety and the dread about the inevitable grew.

“Still thinking about Hangman?”

He didn’t answer and maybe it was an answer in itself — Mav gave him an affectionate sigh. 

“You remember that time when my deployment ran longer last minute? When you were about twelve.”

He gave him a glance — it was an out-of-nowhere question. “Yeah I was so upset that Ice took me flying the day after you were supposed to get back. In the Tomcat.”

It hadn’t been long after Ice came back from Bosnia. Bradley had been missing Mav so badly that he would cry himself to sleep whenever Ice wasn’t looking careful enough — he was still a bit messed up after his mom’s death and scared that one day, Ice’d have to tell him Mav wasn’t coming back.

Mav was supposed to be gone twelve weeks but last minute, Ice told him it’d take some more time before Mav’d come back, and it ended up closer to four months rather than three. Bradley had yelled at Ice’s face, then cried in his arms for about an hour, until he fell asleep, begging him to get Mav back to them.

“It didn't run over,” Mav said after a moment. His breathing was loud and Bradley saw him shake his head in the corner of his eye. He turned to face him and Mav’s eyes were already waiting at him, full of regret and fear, his mouth just slightly quirked. “I didn't know what I was doing, Bradley. Both my best friends were gone, I was never supposed to be a dad and here you were, completely dependable on me having my shit together, and then we were doing so well with Ice, and it was just so much—”

He hadn’t known. In his eyes, they always seemed to have a grip on everything, always seemed to have the answers to all of Bradley’s problems. They were the heroes of Bradley’s life.

“I knew I was going to fuck it up somehow, you and him, and I thought, better sooner than later, right.”

It was familiar — waiting on the other shoe to drop, and when he had been waiting and waiting and nothing fell on his head, removing himself from the situation before he got hit. Better to disappoint from the start than wait infinitely until they find you out for who you really were. Can’t be hurt if you never let them hurt yourself. Can’t hurt them if you’re not long enough for that with them.

That was a lie, no matter how hard he’d pretend to believe it — there was always someone hurt.

“So I didn't tell Ice anything and stayed in Virginia instead of taking a layover flight to California with everyone. Gave Merlin a letter to hand Ice when he met him at the airport and realized I was nowhere in sight.”

Bradley had always thought he was a coward, not facing Jake, just leaving in his absence when things became complicated, when they became too tied to each other. Maybe it was a family thing.

“I can't do it, please don't wait for me. Take care of Bradley. That's all it said.”

Mav creased his eyebrows, shook his head, almost like he was doing it at his past self.

Bradley didn’t know what to say.

“Took me almost three weeks to get back in my right mind. I showed up at home at two in the morning absolutely ready to beg him to forgive me and instead he told me to stay quiet so I wouldn't wake you up and then said I'd be doing laundry and the dishes for a month if I didn't go straight to sleep. Slept with me in the same bed the first night back, even."

Mav bit down on his lip, huffed, just a tiny, humorless sound, and looked at his hands — he was twirling his wedding ring around on his finger.

“I don't know how I could even think that I could ever live without you in my life, those three weeks. Both of you.”

That was the difference between the two of them. They might have both been cowards, running away from something great, that could turn bad at any moment — Mav came back.

Mav came back and Ice was already waiting for him, expecting him back. He faced the consequences and fixed everything, faced the option that he could fuck it all up at any moment and accepted the risks to gamble for something better and sweeter.

Mav kept on trying. Bradley’d only kept on running away his whole life.

He had been running so long that it didn’t feel like he could stop. Like he deserved to stop.

"So I could tell you that you deserve him but I know it's really hard to believe it, sometimes, and no amount of saying it will change your mind," Mav continued. "But it’s not about deserving him. He chose you, Bradley. He chose you, who are you to decide he’s wrong?”

Bradley—blinked. It was impossible to hear, to understand — he’d always thought it more as if Jake was sentenced to loving him. People didn’t choose their sentences.

They did choose to commit the crimes.

“It’s hard to believe you deserve it, but he chose you and he’ll keep choosing you,” Mav said and the wobbly note of familiarity made him felt dangerously seen. “So until you can believe it, you try your best to be the man he deserves to have, until you’re ready to believe it. You come back, how many times it doesn’t take—"

He bit down on his tongue, taking in a big, unhelpful gulp of air. His eyes were watering and he couldn’t stop it, the wetness itching in his nose even as he squeezed his eyes shut — Mav bumped their shoulders just as he sniffled stiffly.

"I think we should have talked about it more, show you more that we struggled too. We always tried to keep you out of the loop if we thought we could make it without you being affected and I always thought that it was just something parents were supposed to do," he said. "Maybe if we didn’t then you wouldn't feel like this now."

Bradley could only shake his head rapidly, because that wouldn't be true. His parents did his best with him, he had been doomed to turn up a little fucked up the minute his dad died, at least, if not the day his mom herself got orphaned and met Mav in the foster system. Maybe their family was just meant to turn up all bent out of shape.

[keyofjetwolf]

So I ran the 5k this weekend.

By which I mean I walked the 5k.

This was my first "race". I signed up in January-ish, as a way to help motivate me to get my shit together, healthy-speaking. It didn't work. Or, rather, I didn't work.

I've fallen way off my path toward some modicum of health and fitness. I missed some major goals and was furious with and disgusted in myself. Rather than use that as a stick to encourage me forward however, I beat myself into the ground with it. HI HELLO WELCOME TO OUR SAME OLD TIRED BULLSHIT THIS IS ALWAYS SO HELPFUL TO US. But I varied it up! Since I no longer really have the luxury of being a perpetual sad sack, dragging my failures up on stage to consistently, cruelly, delightfully abuse myself with and about, I shoved it all into a box in the corner and ignored it. Problem solved!

Except of course that included focusing on, you know, SOLUTIONS. Ignoring a thing literally never solved the thing, and I knew that, and kept resurfacing and poking and needling, but I am like Olympic-level procrastination sometimes, and kept punting it down the road. "That's a problem for Future Jet Wolf, and I hate that cunt, fuck her!" is a joke I make often and laugh at always, but of course eventually Future Jet Wolf becomes Now Jet Wolf and there's no more road, just a big ol' ball of problems kicked right smack in the middle of my confused, startled gob. What?? Who could have possibly foreseen??!

So it was when the 5k arrived. I didn't want to do it. In the days leading up, my brain -- cunning hateful bitch she can be -- started whispering all the extremely logical and justifiable reasons excuses to not. "Yeah," I agreed, "but we gotta."

The whisper reached full on panicked crescendo yesterday morning. I don't know if it was self-sabotage, or just the universe having its usual fun, but everything went wrong. I couldn't find my shirt and shorts, buried somewhere in the piles of clean clothes I have yet to put away (another club wielded with great effectiveness before the day was out). By the time I dug up replacements, I was late in the shower, thus late out the door. I grabbed my watch and my headphones, but despite never having difficulty before, could get neither to work. I drove the wrong way and twisted myself around getting to the park where the race was to start. When I finally arrived, I couldn't tell where we were to gather. There were participants everywhere, walking about, but no central gathering that I could see. Signs were posted, but sporadically, and to my eyes, random and contradictory. The race was moments from starting.

I want to say I brushed all this aside without effort, that I bravely and confidently pressed onward and sorted things out. I want to say that. What actually happened is I found a quiet and -- jesus wept, I hope it was -- hidden spot and cried for a minute. Maybe two. Reasons Excuses formed on my lips and they tasted sweet. Hell, if I spun this right, it would be HILARIOUS. Another "Oh, that Theodore Nickels!" story. We would tell it around the Shabbat table and have a grand laugh.

I've not yet found my way to any point of pride in this overlong and deeply unflattering tale, but if I get there, it's likely in this moment, where I wiped my face on my shirt, pushed away from the wall, and resumed my search for the starting line.

Then I was there. The race was to begin at 9:45, not 9:30 like I thought, so I had a solid ten minutes. Got my watch rebooted. Found the headphone manual online and successfully powered it up. When the race began, I took one step forward, then another. 51 minutes later, I crossed the finish line. I had completed my first race.

I was deeply, violently disappointed in myself. The vitriol began immediately. What a pathetic effort. Humiliating. Barely a fraction of what what Doc and Mike accomplished, and done excruciatingly poorly at that. Shameful, laughable, grotesque, thesaurus.com etc etc blah blah blah. On and on, all goddamn day, until I found it as boring as I did upsetting.

PLUS SIDE: the more it goes on, the easier it gets to ignore a constant hateful drone.

LEGIT HILARIOUS ATTEMPT AT BONUS POINTS: my brain seized my lack of creativity in ongoing self-abuse and added that to the evidence list of my suckage BABYGIRL I CANNOT TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY RIGHT NOW ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL

Right, then, so what the fuck? If it were literally anybody but myself, I'd be cheering them on. YOU DID THE THING. Doing the thing is objectively more accomplished than NOT doing the thing. What did I realistically expect? That I'd take top prize in the first race I'd ever done with a preparation level I'd managed to sink into the negative? And would that have even mattered? What result would have appeased? What achievement would translate to victory?

24 hours later, I still don't really have answers. It might be pent up derision at myself for that previous goal-failure and backslide which I'm now directly confronting instead of ignoring. It might be some weird twisted preservation thing of the "you can't fail if you don't try" flavour of bullshittery. It might be the desperation of a destructive streak unwilling to allow improvement without a vicious bloody battle. All of this? At the very least, I think, some.

I forget, sometimes, more times than I'd like, that the meds don't fix everything, they simply keep the shit I can't control at bay so I can focus on the work. Work's still gotta be done, kiddo. That's on you.

Last night, I registered for my next 5k.

I'll definitely remember how to turn on my headphones. One improvement, NAILED. Not sure what #2 will be, but I've got three weeks. Time for work.

[bellysoupset]

A little more of the LukeBell novela.

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

"I don't know mom, do I seem like I have a crystal ball?" Lucas heard through the door, just as he was about to knock. There was no other voice answering, so he figured Bella was on the phone and not with company.

He had been fully recovered for a week now, the time it had taken to get back on his feet and start to get his life together after he had let it go up in flames. Of course, cleaning his kitchen, catching up in all the late homework, fiercely apologizing to his friends... That had all been him procrastinating on the real issue at hand: apologizing to Bell.

"Voy a checar los hoteles y te mando," Bella said, sounding annoyed, "OK, adios".

Before Luke could think better of it, give in to the anxiety that was making his heart race and his stomach churn, he knocked on the door.

"Just a second!" Bella yelled and he waited, wiping his hands on his jeans. Three weeks. Exactly 23 days since he had last seen her, the longest they had ever been apart in the last four years of relationship.

She pulled the door open and Lucas gulped down, forcing a smile, "Hi."

"Hi," Bella crossed her arms to her chest. She was wearing just yoga pants and a sporty bra, probably about to leave for gym, her hair up in a ponytail. He forced his eyes not to linger.

"Uhm... Can we talk?"

"No," She scoffed, slamming the door on his face. Lucas jumped back, startled as the wood shook with the strength of the blow. He let out a sigh, leaning on the door.

"Bella..." he had no idea from where to start, "I'm sorry. I was... An ass. I blew everything, I made a huge deal out of something small and I really, really, shouldn't have proposed to you like that. I know I messed up-"

The door opened and once more he was met by a furious gaze. Bella stared at him, "did you break up with me because your dad told you to?"

For once Lucas was shocked. He shook his head vehemently, "No! No! No, I... I proposed to you because he told me not to."

Her face turned red, out of anger or embarrassment he wasn't sure. Lucas cringed, "I shouldn't have done that, Bell... I was being stupid."

"You think?" she rolled her eyes, "I thought I was dating an adult, but it seems I was dating a fifteen year old with daddy issues."

Her words were cutting and while it wasn't anything new from what Lucas had already heard before, it hurt the fact that Bell was saying this of all people. He winced, shaking his head, "I'm not. It was a bad month, he kept bringing up my mom and fucking with my head and then you said no and everything just snowballed-"

"You broke my heart," she interrupted him, "you're the first guy I ever loved and you dumped me and then acted like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. Four fucking years, Lucas."

"It wasn't nothing, you know I didn't think it was nothing, I was falling apart too, Bella-"

"I don't care if you were!" she exclaimed, eyes wide, "you broke up with me. I called you a million times, I was willing to talk about it, but you acted like a fucking child, so no, I don't give a damn if you thought- If you decided to chug a bottle of vodka and die in some disgusting pub and I don't care-"

"How do you know about that?" Lucas frowned and Bella scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Get out of here, Luke."

"No!" Lucas pushed all thoughts aside, glaring at her, "I know I messed up and I know I'll have to do a lot to get us back to where we were, but I love you, Bella. I do," he stepped closer, looking at her intently, "and I know you're furious right now, rightfully so, but I also know you love me too."

Bella's resolve seemed to crumble, the walls all but melting. She sighed, closing the space between them and cupping his face, "Luke..." her thumb ran over his cheek and he smiled, couldn't help it. He could see it in her eyes, "I love you, of course I do."

"Then-"

"But it'll pass," she pulled her hand back, shaking her head, "please get out of here, Luke."

There was a ringing in his ears and Lucas found he would much rather she had slapped him across the face than to hear that. He felt like Bella had just punched him in the middle of his stomach, successfully having murdered all the butterflies there.

"You don't mean that."

"I do," she held firmly, eyes overly shiny, "I love you, but I'll get over it. Bye Luke," and without waiting for his response she clicked the door shut on his face once more, this time without slamming it.

It hurt more.

He stared at her door, fighting the horrible burning in his eyes, blinking against it just as he started to feel his vision turn blurry from the tears. They streamed down his face and he rubbed them away angrily, finally moving away from her door. The last thing he wanted was for Bella to hear him.

He made it all the way back to his car before the break down hit him like a ton of bricks. He had just fully, completely blown his relationship down and for what? A stupid proposal neither of them wanted? His dad? His ego?

Lucas let out a sob and lowered his head to the steering wheel, wrapping his arms around himself. Fuck.

[beesorcery]

i’m normal i swear

THRILLER

[an-aura-about-you]

a little more procrastination, a little more Handbook for Mortals!

let's do Chapter 8 part 2:

when we last left our hero, Scheherazade told us she was flirting with Jackson. we didn't actually see her flirting with Jackson because the narration thought it was more important to show us the logistics of everybody going home.

-Zade walks into her apartment and reiterates to us that she likes both Mac and Jackson for some reason.

-Zade wonders if it's possible for her to love two people and thinks it's not, but sorry, you can't convince me that polyamory wouldn't be a viable solution. High Noon Over Camelot changed my brain chemistry too much for me to not consider trying it.

-she also seems to think Mac and Jackson are friends but I don't really know if that's true. this is the first time she's brought it up, we haven't had any scenes with just Mac and Jackson by themselves, and with how she laid everything out with Tad back in the chapter that introduced him (that I mercifully spared you from reading) it's weird that it wasn't mentioned before. granted, she could be lying again like she did about what happened after she saved Sofia. I am whipping this dead horse until the remains are dust.

-the writing level of this book is so bad that I was actually impressed when Sarem used the correct its in a sentence.

-Zade takes a moment to think about Lambo Girl but decides she's just not as worried about being kamehameha'd in a parking garage as she is about which boy she wants to kiss.

-ok. so I am actually super lenient when it comes to cartomancy because I don't do a lot of it and thus don't have a lot of practice. typically I use my tarot cards to prod my brain for answers by association. "I have drawn x card, which means y in this position in the spread, and this makes me think of z. Why is that?" that's how my own readings tend to go, a way for me to examine why I think the way I do and what I want to do about it. as a result, I believe there is no wrong way to read tarot cards.

or rather, I thought that until I read this book. because Sarem writes the one possible way to do a tarot spread wrong. observe:

I promised myself to do a reading on her when I was done with this. (For what it's worth, I did--and I came up with nothing. The cards made no sense, which told me that someone had gone to great lengths for me to not get a reading on the situation at all...So I pushed the whole incident--and the girl--out of my mind and decided not to worry about it till it came up again.)

what.

the fuck.

do you mean.

you came up with nothing?

how do you come up with nothing with a deck of tarot cards?? no associations spring to mind whatsoever??? did the cards become blank? were they replaced with garbled text and images making them illegible? how are they not making sense? by contradiction? contradictions happen with people all the damn time! also how would this go down in the movie that's totally gonna be made f'real? essentially skipped over like this? just paid lip service?

this is the scene I was saying would be better with a crystal ball or a scrying mirror because this bullshit would make way more sense.

-let's add another tally to bigoted language because it's spirit guide time.

-based on how Zade words her query, she's looking for commitment, which just feels weird when you aren't even really dating either of them yet. don't you wanna, oh I dunno, do that first??? The Straights Are Not Okay.

-Zade is sad about her lack of communication with her mother when she's making the active choice to not contact Dela. we're gonna learn in a little bit that Dela has also chosen not to reach out to Zade, so idk what to tell these knuckleheads. they're just determined to play sea lion and squirrel.

-Zade takes the time to explain what all the cards she lays out means except the Devil because she doesn't know why it's there. really????? you get a card from the Major Arcana in your spread and you aren't even a little tiny bit curious about why that's there???? or the fact that it's appeared between the Magician and the Lovers and shares imagery between both of those cards??????

in fact let's go over it a little bit. the book doesn't specify the orientation of all of these cards, so I'm gonna be a basic bitch and assume none of the cards are appearing reversed.

brushing up a bit from biddytarot.com, the Devil is the shadow self, attachment, addiction, sexuality, and restriction by choice. and without looking up the other cards in this set of three, I know the Magician and the Devil both have their hands positioned As Above So Below and the Lovers are mirrored in the captive couple in the Devil.

honestly, the thing I'm taking from this is Zade is the one causing her own problems. if Zade is the Magician, and she does see it as literal for herself, then the Devil combining imagery from the other two cards is putting Zade in that spot as well. she only sees the Lovers as representing a potential relationship for herself, and while I do agree that that's not necessarily wrong, it does feel like willfully overlooking that it's also a card of choices. when taken as a complete story in these three cards, it will not reach that happy liberation until Zade relinquishes whatever darkness is keeping her from making a choice.

for someone so determined to get back home and do a tarot spread, she sure is willfully blind about what it's trying to tell her.

-we get the spreads for both Jackson and Mac and Zade is ultimately like either of them would be good. hmmmm I wonder if the tarot cards are telling Zade that she needs to make her own damn choice on this one???? think that's a possibility????

-we then jump to an italics scene and get an update on what Dela's doing. she's been doing tarot spreads on Zade to figure out what she's been up to. seems weird we're getting Dela's pov on this, but then maybe Zade didn't have anything to say about how the first card she got for the three she laid out for her future was the fucking Tower??????? I mean, she basically ignored the Devil, so this tracks.

-Dela then gets a customer so we can get info on how tarot cards work in this universe. said customer is a woman who gets more specific description than any of the other women we've been introduced to apart from Zade combined. even more than Lil, who did get a description but it was that of Generic Goth With Tattoos.

-ugh, Dela's talking about Destiny too, but like. I guess there's only so much fighting about it I can do? if it's right there in the story, then that's how it is, but stories in which a character can't escape destiny can be so much better. idk, the thing that I would say if this is a real world situation is the truth: that there are things that we will never be able to control. some things are set in stone, but idk if the things I think of as set in stone are the same things Dela thinks of as set in stone.

-omg it's the lemonade scene. you guys are not ready for the lemonade scene.

-get ready for some serious tallymarks.

-but before that let's play another quick game of When Is This Story Set? Zade buys a small lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick in the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, Nevada for exactly $2.09 after tax. the same lemonade today costs $3.99 before tax. I don't know what Hot Dog on a Stick's prices have been historically, but if I had to guess, I'm willing to bet this price is circa 2011 when Sarem first started writing H4M the screenplay.

-the teen boy cashier is all goo-goo eyes at Zade and he compliments her hair. I don't even understand why everyone is complimenting her hair? I don't mean that as a slam on it because it's simple, even though it is based on how she described it. (I don't think I ever bothered to mention it because of how unimportant it is? but she's dyed the lower half of her hair like pink and blue and green and shit.) but Zade's hair is the thing she's gotten the most compliments on. she told us back in Chapter 0 that the people she knew back home said she was sweet and kind, but nobody she's talked to in the book has said that about her. it's one of those things we have to take her dubious word for. and that's about to be made even more dubious.

-the narration points out this cashier is probably 19 or 20, so fully an adult and not much younger than Zade, but it feels gross for Zade to look at him and think, "Talk to me in ten years." like. why are you saying a jailbait line if he's not jailbait?

-I will give Sarem this, at least she's writing Zade uncomfortable with Alan the cashier's attention. this is clearly her glamour going on, the thing Lambo Girl said she had.

-but uh-oh! Alan's girlfriend also works at Hot Dog on a Stick and she's mad that Alan's making goo-goo eyes at Zade! so instead of telling Alan to quit it she goes to yell at Zade? why?

-Zade's telling us she's not afraid of this teenage girl getting up in her face about this, but why would any adult be? especially when said teenage girl is more than half a foot shorter than you? it's a simple misunderstanding and you could just walk away.

-Zade tells the girl not to start anything with her, but she's getting mad.

-"I'm not really sure why I had allowed some lemonade girl to bother me--" an excellent thing to bring up since that is exactly what you are doing by not walking away. you know full well she's being unreasonable and she's at work. she, theoretically, is already in plenty of trouble for starting shit with a customer. you don't need to do anything else. but I know you're gonna.

-"I wanted to teach her a lesson." and here's what Zade does to do that: she uses her magic to make the vat of lemonade explode, dumping the entire contents of lemonade on her. the narration says it sent "shards of glass in every direction" so you can't fucking tell me she didn't get absolutely glassed. Zade even had enough presence of mind to spare everyone else. add this assault to the violent actions tally.

-things Zade could have used magic for but didn't: saving Sofia's life

things Zade used magic for but didn't have to: putting up a tent, assaulting Hot Dog on a Stick girl

-she straight up says, "When life hands you lemons..." as she walks away, the thing she should have done before it escalated to this point.

this is how the chapter ends, with Zade assaulting and humiliating a teenage girl due to a misunderstanding that we know full well was because of Zade's magic. the girl was saying some hurtful stuff to her, and it's true there was no need for it, but Zade was the adult here and she chose to do something that could have killed another person because she was called a skank and a bitch. jesus fucking christ.

[littlestarlost]

Ten Great Cover Songs That Aren't "Hurt" By Johnny Cash

I have a spotify playlist called "Total Coverage" and it's where I put the covers I collect. My parameters are strict but, I feel, fair: the song must be covered by a band that does its own material (so no covers-only bands), and they have to do something more interesting with the source material than slowing it down on piano and/or ukulele. There are over 100 songs on the list by now, and I do go back to add more when I find them, but apropos of nothing but my desire to procrastinate here are ten of my favourites, in no particular order, which are NOT the same old covers you see on every single covers list.

1: "Bittersweet Symphony" Originally by The Verve, covered by The Knocks and Foster the People

This track ended up on my most-listened to list of 2022, because it fucking rules. The original is fine, but there's something about how Foster the People elevates the vocals that just makes it catnip for my ears. It's great.

2: "Rosanna" Originally by Toto, covered by Weezer

I'll never forgive Weezer for what they did to "Africa", also by Toto. That cover sucks balls and I hate it. But equally as appalling is how great their cover of "Rosanna" is; they turned up the grit on the guitars and infuse it with edge and energy that the original simply lacks. Goddammit, Weezer.

3: "Jackie and Wilson" Originally by Hozier, covered by Jazz Morley

The golden rule of Hozier covers done by women is that you cannot, under any circumstances, change the pronouns of the song. Hozier writes about women like a lesbian, and either you respect that or you shouldn't cover his stuff. This version of "Jackie and Wilson" is gorgeous and lush, Jazz Morley's voice is great, and she sings it the way it should be sung: sapphically.

4: "Freedom" Originally by George Michael, covered by Christine and the Queens

As my friend Jill put it, somehow this is chill as hell and goes hard as fuck at the same time. Christine and the Queens needs to do more stuff like this; recontextualizing gender and sexuality is basically their bread and butter.

5: "Flagpole Sitta" Originally by Harvey Danger, covered by Elohim and AWOLNATION

This is the only reason I know the lyrics to this song and it's worth it. It's a very Lana Del Rey approach to the tune, with twinkling piano and sultry vocals, and it works incredibly well.

6: "Higher Love" Originally by Whitney Houston, covered by JR JR

Another one that I've listened to so much that it's crept into my regular rotation. Indie pop boys taking on the greatest voice of the generation might not sound very good, but as an OG hipster I can tell you that this is exactly the sort of bright poppy nonsense we ate the fuck up in 2012.

7: "I Think We're Alone Now" Originally by Tiffany, covered by Billie Joe Armstrong

I think Billie Joe always wanted to be a pop princess girlie, and now that Green Day is in the "whatever the fuck we want" phase of their career, he gets to do great covers like this one. Takes a somewhat dated classic and makes it sound absolutely timeless.

8: "Needle in the Hay" Originally by Elliott Smith, covered by Vanessa Carlton

As someone who had both an Elliott Smith and a Vanessa Carlton phase, this is just good synergy for me. But also, more women need to do covers of Elliott Smith. Let's get a trend going. He deserves to be reinterpreted that way.

9: "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Originally by ABBA, covered by Zachary Staines

This man really took a disco classic and made it sound like the best Ed Sheeran song that Ed Sheeran could never do. Outstanding.

10: "I Love You Always Forever" Originally by Donna Lewis, covered by Betty Who

I can't believe Betty Who didn't originate this song. It's literally perfect for her. A+, no notes.

[wasted-my-time]

Snow Leppards.

Inspired by an amazing artwork by @amiscreations.

Sorry this took a very long time, I procrastinated a lot wanted to wait until the first snowfall before posting it.

Warning: Drunkenness, swearing.

January 1986, Loosdrecht, Holland.

"Hell, how can he aim while he's that drunk?" Steve thought after he got Phil's snowball right behind the head.

-Philip, come back here, you bastard! He shouted and turned around, but all he got for an answer were drunken laughters and the sound of clumsy footsteps in the snow.

In a split second, war was declared and all of a sudden, all friendships where shattered.

Joe tackled Sav face first in the snow, which was followed by a surprisingly calm reaction.

-Oh, come on, just let me up. He asked to the man who was keeping him pressed to the ground with a roll of his eyes.

-Get up by yourself!

-As you wish...

He then picked a handful of snow and rubbed it in Joe's face.

-Aaah, alright you win! He abdictated and stood up.

Rick had uselessly tried to gather some snow and join whatever was going on, but all he managed to do was to stumble to the ground with laughter. Little did he know that a second was more than enough for Joe and Sav to team up, because nothing is better for forgiving than to revenge on someone else. That's how he ended with his body covered with snow.

-C'mon Rick, get up or you're gonna' freeze to death under there. Joe

-No, it's kinda warm, I'm insulated, you guys are going to be the one to turn into ice statues, you guys don't even wear hats. He retorted in a motherly tone.

-Well I don't need one, look at my hair. Grumbled Sav.

-You would be a horrible dad, Rick, two of your kids ran away, one of them heavily underdressed for the season and you didn't even notice. Joe criticised with a sarcastic chuckle.

-Yeah, Steve didn't bother to put anything else but his leather jacket. Sav added. The one he had when we were inside.

-No, he's got a scarf. Rick contradicted him.

-Huge fucking difference, like he didn't have it all the time. Joe huffed.

-But where is he? Sav finally asked the real question.

Yes, where was Steve gone? Well, besides from his coat and scarf, he had an offense to avenge, and believe me, Phil wasn't ready for it.

He was already on the frozen lake, heading back to the hotel, which was easier said than done, given how sluggish his legs were due to the several drinks he had during the evening. Everything was calm and...

-Bonsai!!! Someone shouted behind him.

It was either an avalanche or one hell of a sudden snowstorm, but in a second he was on the ground, his head covered with snow.

-Steve, it's banzai! He chuckled when he saw his twin's face above him.

-Maybe, but I got you. He replied before laying down on the ice so that their heads would be side to side.

-What did you throw at me?

-I followed your footsteps and rolled this massive snow ball all the way along. Now we're even.

-Yeah, I guess. He agreed. But, hell, it burns! He then exclaimed and wiped the snow off his face.

-The stars are beautiful tonight. Steve commented after a moment of silence.

The only clouds to be seen were the vapor formed by their breathes, leaving the way for their eyes to observe.

-We could spend the night here. Phil offered jokingly.

-Na, too cold.

-When the others arrive we could do like penguins, you know when they gather to keep warm.

-No, I have my lady penguin waiting for me on the other side. Steve said and pointed towards their hotel.

-I guess we don't stand the comparison... He grumbled.

-But wasn't there a bird you liked at the club with some guys we know, why didn't you approach her?

-Yeah Katherine, I did.

-And?

-She almost doesn't speak English. Jan, one of the guys with her, had to translate most of what we were saying.

-Ooh, that's sad.

-At least, she seemed to be interested.

-If the friend wasn't bulshitting you. You should really learn Dutch.

-On the to-do list, right under finishing the album.

-How interested did she look?

Before the sentimally disapoited guitarist could say a word, they heard Joe's voice calling for him:

-Hey Phil, there's a nice girl looking for you!

They both sat up and exchanged an eye contact full of hope.

-Tell her to come this way! He shouted back.

-Well, I'm gonna leave you alone then. Sounds like you have a Dutch lesson coming soon. Steve greeted him before taking balance on his shoulder in order to stand up.

-Wait, give me a hand, please. He asked reaching out for Steve to help him.

Short after his friend left, he saw four silhouettes walking towards him, one preceding the others by several yards.

-Phil? She called as she came closer, the small amount of light coming from the town making it hard for her to see properly.

Altough he expected to hear the sound of her voice, his heart couldn't help but jump in his chest as she said his name.

-Me. He waved at Katherine, only hoping what he said would sound approximately right in her language.

As he was about to clear the step that was still separating them, but she raised her hand in a stopping gesture, which he obeyed without hesitation. She fumbled in her pocket and got a napkin out, holding it for him to take. Then got her lighter in order to create some luminosity.

Within the small halo of light, he started to distinguish a neat handwriting on the napkin.

Here's the thing: She didn't stop whining about not following you since you left the bar, so basically I wrote this so she didn't have to try to explain it to you: She wants to be with you (please get the hint).

A word that you would maybe find useful:

To kiss= Kussen. Jan.

Phil folded the paper in his own pocket and decided to put theory into practice:

-Kussen?

After all when you don't know much more than five words in a language, "subject, verb, object" tends to get kicked out of your sentences.

Apparently Katherine wasn't fond of grammar either because within a second, they were entangled in a tight embrace. As they kissed, he ran his finger through her curls of brown hair and her cold hands made him shiver as she kept them on his neck's warm skin.

-I didn't know it was snow leopards' mating season! Joe's sharp sense of humor interrupted them.

-Well go ask Steve about the penguins' one! The guitarist retorted with a middle finger after pulling away from Katherine.

-Penguins? Sav huffed in incomprehension.

[lenasai]

before 2022 ends (for me) i'm gonna steal an idea from @thehallstara and do a recap of the stuff i wrote this year, with commentary because i feel like it...and also so it's not like. exactly the same thing lmao

first, go take a look at hir post if you feel so inclined. if you have the time, those twines are all bangers.

list below the cut because this will probably be long when it appears in the tag:

the splorts poetry series as it exists now. the first two sets were from 2021, but i started the series after realizing i was going to post more individual blaseball poems. turns out putting a bunch of poems in one work and waiting for those to be done before you publish them means a lot of stuff just goes unpublished, so i moved toward publishing stuff individually. if you wanna just look at the poems i wrote in 2022, start with lucky number 81 (what if)

the merry exit (un?)memorial dimension traveling club - a fun little exploration of the merry exit from the gamma 1 test circuit and the merry exit from the tutorial game

hold on, you'll live to play again - look i KNOW what's going to be in the second chapter. i just haven't written it yet. every now and then i go "oh no i abandoned the happy story about the kids" and stare wistfully at the pages document hoping the second chapter will just write itself. i will write it eventually. shoutout to the random person who left kudos on the first chapter like 50 years after i wrote it, knowing there's a nonexistent second chapter. anyway. i wrote the first chapter for the first anniversary of longest thursday. it's about the season 20 postseason and the moment we knew everyone (mostly ivy) was going to be safe. it's got more core lore than i expected to write. thank you mechs.

ashes, dust, and other reminders of what once was - for the garages fic exchange, about chorby soul and parker macmillan. HOO BOY this is the one i'm proudest of. if you read only one piece from this post, i hope you will consider making it this one...which is a huge ask because it's nearly 11k words. if i had a nickel for every time i wrote over 10k words of People In The Vault Being Sad About Things i would have two nickels. that's not a lot of nickels, but very funny it happened twice. this is also the first work i've written for another person, and they were an absolute pleasure to write for. anyway. i think chorby soul and parker macmillan should be besties.

what if the light at the end of the tunnel burns me again - for the firefighters fic exchange, about Agan Espinoza's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Season 24. i love them. i curled up into a little ball of shrimp emotions when they fell in the last fall ball with parker macmillan. god damn.

end-of-the-world tour - i wrote 1.5k words about parker macmillan's roam to the (prehistory) crabs and immortals in like two hours. absolutely no proofreading went into it. i wrote it and tossed it into the void after my computer threatened to fuck me over at the deadline. written for the blaseball zine jam.

batting practice - yeah so i procrastinated until the week of the deadline, then got possessed by some kind of writing demon and wrote 5.5k words about wyatt quitter and jasmine mason. not to say it was rushed, but it may have a residual formatting glitch i may have missed when copying from pages into ao3. i went over it many times to try and get rid of those, but if you see a couple of paragraphs fused together, no you didn't. written for the lift fic exchange.

[archangelically]

currently pissed because my history class this summer is taking away from my nightly free-time because i need at least 10pm-3am for watching youtube videos and getting high (at least school got my writing gears going so i can articulate this thought). jun8’24,12:45am lucy a.

yes it’s true. i have to spend an inordinate amount of time to maintain my trajectory of consuming potentially hereditary or paranoid-schizoaffective-drug-induced-adjacent [unspecified mental illness]. why do i have to pretend otherwise? fuck it, baby, we ball, and enter an era of brain/bodyrot like no other. the laundry pile i’ve accumulated is abhorrent. and, well, my procrastination of school projects in the daytime pushes me to often be awake and frantically submitting assignments up to 11:59pm, or emailing my professor the assignment at 12:04am. If only i had done more during the day, or got up earlier…

10pm-12am used to be my allotted scrolling/spiraling/crying/journaling/eating ramen time. since i’m up so late working, i need some me time!!

been trying to regulate my sleep in anticipation of summer classes, but i still slept in til about 2pm on multiple occasions, causing me to miss my history of sexuality class that i never wanted to miss.

i can’t sleep until i’ve washed my face and brushed my teeth. then i go to bed. then i go on my phone. then i say fuck it i can’t sleep i’m hitting the weed vape. then i get up and make ramen. then i’m bored waiting for the kettle so i go on my phone and start an hour long video which i will complete that night. then i have to use my back massager gun on high for a while that is painfully loud with my mom down the hall.

sooo there are a couple of forms i need to fill out for an ADHD assessment that have sat unsigned in my email for a week. i actually downloaded tried to download a program to sign forms digitally on my laptop, but i got sketched out over the third party having my data and said fuck it and went to sleep. because if i printed it i’d have to download it and print it and find a pen and sign it and move my shit off the printer and scan it and download it and find the file and confirm the address and email it. and fuck that. so i think i’ll upload them to McRosoft Paint and shittiky sign it and send screenshots.

This has been a certified Archangelically Post

[simplestarss]

What Died Didn’t Stay Dead

Masterlist

A/N: Hello and welcome to What Died Didn’t Stay Dead! I started working on this fic around the time of TXT’s latest comeback, and after a lot of work (and procrastination) it’s finally ready to be uploaded! I’ll be co-uploading on AO3, so feel free to leave comments and kudos over there as well. Lastly, this is the first long-form fic- or story in general- that I’ve ever written, so my formatting and layout may change. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

Prologue

6/13/2013

Jin

I never really liked this place, if I’m being honest.

I’m not sure why. Usually, Universtar is a top destination for kids around here. Ever since I had to attend Jungkook’s 10th birthday party, I’ve felt uneasy whenever I go inside. 

Especially around those freaky ass robots.

Yet here I am, at 18 years old, parked outside the place waiting for the rest of my friends. Typically, a few would be in the backseat; God knows my truck has the space for it. But Yoongi agreed to swing by the dance studio to get Hoseok and Jimin, and Taehyung is helping Jungkook with math. So my backseat wasn’t needed this time around.

I decided to head inside the place. Namjoon gets off his shift in 5 minutes (I have no idea how he can stand working at this dump, but hey, cash is cash) so I can wait around for him. I push open the glass doors and get a blast of noise. It’s a mix of kids screaming, arcade games playing music, and the robots doing their thing on the main stage. They’re supposed to be some sort of band of misfits, all brightly colored to appeal to the kids. They all make me feel uneasy, but there’s one that there’s something really off about. It’s this giant white alpaca. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s 7 feet tall or that its eyes have this weird glow. Whatever it is, I’ve always been pretty creeped out by RJ. 

Eventually, Namjoon emerges from the back. He looks tired, but his eyes brighten when he sees me. 

“God, what a fucking day.” he sighs as he flops into a booth near where I’m standing. “Some kid threw up in the ball pit. Guess who had to clean that shit.”

“Damn. How many kids do you think have done that?”

“I try not to dwell on that. Especially since Jungkook always jumps in there.”

I shudder at the thought. I’ll have to make sure he doesn’t do that this time. Almost on cue, the door swings open, and the other 5 pile in, talking loudly amongst themselves. Once they catch sight of us, they quickly head over.

“Joonie! Jin! There you guys are!”

“The ride here was pure hell. Hobi and Jimin were fighting over the radio the whole damn time.”

“He said he hates Baby One More Time.”

“And I’ll do it again!”

“And I’ll slap you both.”

I can’t help but smile at them. We’re all so different, but we go together like a puzzle. Yoongi’s blunt words, Jimin’s free spirit, Jungkook’s rebellious attitude. I don’t know what I’d do without them.

“Enough arguing! Let’s get a pizza. I’m starving.” Taehyung says as he plops down in the firm booth next to Namjoon. 

“Great, as long as I don’t have to cook it”

Yoongi starts towards the counter to get our usual order of a pepperoni pizza with a side of nachos, and the younger ones hurry towards the arcade. For a split second, I get this weird gut feeling, like something is about to go seriously wrong. 

“Hey JK, don’t get in that ball pit.”

“For the last time, I am not putting my job on the line just so you guys can quote-unquote ‘explore’.”

“Come on Joonie! Please?” Jungkook begs with wide eyes.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun! We promise to be discreet.” Taehyung adds. 

The younger 3 have gotten bored of the arcade, and have decided that it’d be a good idea to sneak around in the back where they keep the spare parts for the robots. Namjoon, however, would prefer to keep his job.

“Absolutely not! Besides, it’s a miracle we even convinced Jin to come through the doors. He’s not gonna want to go back there.”

“I can wait out here if it comes down to it,” I say, which causes Jungkook to look at me with wide, grateful eyes.

“See? He says it’s fine!” 

“You wouldn’t want to say no to your best friend in the whole world, right Joon?”

“No, I’m his best friend!”

Namjoon puts his thumb and pointer finger between his brows. “Fine. You give me a headache, all of you.”

“YES! You’re the best, Joon!” 

I can’t help but laugh to myself. Namjoon may act annoyed, but we all know he can’t say no to the young ones, especially Jungkook. None of us can, honestly. Something about their youthful spirits makes us want to do anything and everything for them.

“You want one of us to wait with you, Jin?” Yoongi asks.

“If you don’t mind, sure. Hobi and Namjoon are in charge.”

“Sweet!” Let’s go then!” Jimin announces, and the 5 of them head off to a door that reads Employees Only in neon yellow letters.

Once they’re out of earshot, Yoongi turns to me. “Wanna smoke?”

“Hey, why not?”

We head outside, and Yoongi grabs a cigarette for us both and his lighter. Namjoon would be throwing a fit if he were here right now. But Yoongi and I are 18 and graduated last week, so we’re in the clear. I light my cigarette and take a drag. It still feels strange going down, and I start hacking my lungs out after a few seconds, which causes Yoongi to chuckle to himself. He lights his and hits it almost perfectly.

“How the fuck are you so good at that already?”

“Shhhhh. Don’t question me, hyung,” he replies with a shit-eating grin. He knows I hate that honorific; it makes me feel like an old man. I hit him in the arm, and he drops his cigarette. He curses, picks it up, and hits it again, which makes me cringe.

“You did not just hit that thing.”

“Hey man, these things are expensive. You’re lucky you’re my friend and gave me rides to work until I got my license.”

I roll my eyes. “And bought you meals. And a new guitar. And concert tickets. And food for your cat.”

“Don’t make me call you hyung again.”

“Asshole.” I turn towards the door. “Doesn’t this place close in, like, 5 minutes?”

“Yeah. Namjoon is usually punctual about time. Huh.” Yoongi puts out his cigarette. “You finish yours. I’ll go hunt them down.” 

“Alright. Hey Yoongi?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah.” And with that, he heads inside, letting the glass doors shut behind him.

I take one last hit, and for once don’t hack myself silly. Take that, Yoongles. I step on the cigarette to put it out and head back inside, expecting to bump into the others. 

Besides the employee who’s wiping down the faux wood tables, the place is empty. Even the animatronics aren’t on stage anymore; they’re probably being repaired in the back. Not a sign of my friends anywhere. 

Looking around the place, I realize that it’s pretty eerie after closing time. All of the arcade games are unplugged, so it’s far darker than usual. The sound of kids and the music is gone. It almost feels like it’s void of life.

I also notice that the door they used to get into the back is still propped open. Maybe they got lost back there. After a bit of pondering, I finally decided to go in and track them down. I’m a grown man, for God’s sake. I can go into the back of a restaurant for kids. I take one last look to make sure no one is watching and slip through the door.

Jesus, it’s dark. 

There’s only a handful of emergency lights still on, so it’s pretty difficult to navigate my way through the hallway and check all of the doors. So far, there are only two: the break room and another door that seems to be closed. 

I decided to start with the break room since that door was open. I can see there’s a worn-down sofa, a cheap coffee maker, and one of those posters that read You Must Wash Your Hands Before Returning To Work by the door. Upon closer inspection, I see a drawer on the table where the coffee maker is. I quietly walk over and open it. Inside is a flashlight and a note that says: In the event you must enter the Backstage area, carry me at all times. 

Okay…? That’s not creepy at all. I grab the flashlight and check if it works, and it does. After doing a 360 around the room with this newfound light, I come to the conclusion they’re not here and leave the room, closing the door behind me. 

That leaves the room with the closed door. As I get closer to it, I realize it isn’t closed; rather, it’s open just a crack. I slowly push it open and shine the light inside. 

At first, I couldn’t see anything. Once my eyes adjust, I conclude that this is where they repair the robots. There were spare heads, some gears, and various tools scattered around. It was a bit surreal; these things are just robots. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I see something shiny on the floor. I shine the light onto it and immediately register what it is. 

Yoongi’s lighter. Must’ve fallen out of his pocket. Carefully, I reach over and pick it up. He’ll thank me a thousand times over; he just bought this one.

As I’m inspecting the lighter for damage, I see something strange in my peripheral vision. It almost looks like a puddle, but it’s too dark to be water or even oil from the bots. I make my way closer, and the realization of what it is makes my heart stop.

Blood.

I cautiously make my way towards it, a sense of dread washing over me. Once I round the corner that the puddle is coming from, what I see makes my stomach turn over on itself.

My friends are right here before me, but in a way that I’ve never even begun to picture seeing them. Their bodies sprawled about; evidence of struggle on Jimin, Namjoon, and Yoongi. Their eyes staring at me, glazed over and lifeless. Their blood mixing to form a massive puddle that covered everything. On the wall above them, written in this very blood, was a single sentence.

We Are Not Seven With You

Jungkook was closest to me. I knelt over his lifeless form and carefully closed his eyes. It wasn’t until now that I felt the hot tears running down my face, and what had happened to the people I loved more than anything in the entire world finally dawned on me. My whole body seemed to give out, my chest wracking with loud sobs. They’re gone. It’s all over. It’s my fault. It’smyfaultit’smyfaultit’smyfaultit’smy-

A sound behind me brings me back to reality. I wipe my eyes and instantly register a shadow to my right. I turn and see a pair of large white feet standing right in the middle of the puddle. My eyes follow the figure upwards to a red bandana and a pair of glowing eyes.

It’s the fucking RJ bot. 

And it has a chef’s knife from the kitchen. 

I must’ve blacked out at the sight of it because the next thing I knew I was outside and gasping for air in an alley. I look down and see a deep, bloody gash on my arm. Almost instantly, the pain hits, and I see stars, a whole galaxy behind my eyes. 

And everything goes dark.

[the-art-in-arthesia-is-loud]

RGverse Story Summary (Season 1: Part 1)

i was too lazy to continue on so have the summary from arc 1 to arc 7

———

i have......a lot to say before we start, actually.

and it's about the post title. you see the "season 1" thing? yeah. the main storyline is split into seasons.

season 1 is supposed to focus on ars and the more earlier characters i've made more i think. it's also supposed to go in depth with ars' conflict with dark ars, and maybe some destonio-fate lore too.

season 2 is more focused on the severed eden gang, mainly abstruse tho. it's also more focused on the rest of team destruction as a whole, and this season is overall the one that ends the story completely.

now.......there's a third season. "oh! season 3?!" WRONG! season 1.5

it serves as a bridge between season 1 and 2. it has two arcs, with the first arc focusing on one objective and also on the conclusion of two specific characters, while the second arc focuses a little more on ana, primeval, and technicolour.

OKAY DONE FINALLY. LET US START NOW. THERE'S ARCS HERE TOO BTW. OK LET'S START FOR REAL THIS TIME. NO PROCRASTINATING ONCE AGAIN. FUCK IT WE BALL.

———

• arc 1: starting arc

i don't have names for these arcs so just take random words/sentences that have smth to do with the story of the arc itself ok thanx

anyways, i think it's safe to say arc 1 focuses on introducing some of the characters here first. i think the characters introduced are ars, lucas, ana, aresi (she only appears for like a brief moment sorry aresi 😔), the thunderriders members, fate, and destonio. that's abt it

this arc also focuses on introducing the conflict in hand; team destruction and a weird reoccuring dream ars keeps having for some reason.

as for the dream, the premise is always the same; the sky for some reason is pink and there's a weird gateway to god knows where that sucks in everything in the world and ultimately causes destruction and shit. some guy (supposed to be abstruse) is just watching some girl (supposed to be arghena) cause everything and be the bad bitch she is. also in the dream ars just watches some randos (supposed to be the rest of severed eden) die one by one in the same ways every single goddamn time (like the lore related art i posted like. so so long ago).

the dreams always ends up in both abstruse and arghena being consumed by a rlly bright light and them boom. ars wakes up. how odd.

timeskip to like. awhile after he got the dreams. he constantly get those dreams and then finally he got tired so he consulted to aresi abt it. "dude maybe you're going insane how abt you go on a morning stroll to keep yourself sane" she said.

and he fucking did that (idiot).

during that walk he met lucas who just got to the cantate kingdom. lucas was like, looking for a place to stay ig so ars was like, "oh you can stay at my place!!!!" like the fuckinh IDIOT HE IS. lucas agreedeither way bc he"$ greedy as hell at the time. i'm not even gonna bother fixing the typos but you get it right

anywayzzzzz after awhile ars told lucas abt that dream bc lucas was like "yo why do you look like you're gonna lose your sanity 💀💀💀💀💀" and uh yea. lucas did NOT suggested that ars should go to a therapist but instead told him that he should actually find the answer himself. and then boom. actual shit begins

they went to the astra kingdom first bc ars wanted to visit ana first. ars tells her abt the dream, and then she agrees to come with him and lucas. and then whoooooshhhhhh to modelista city they go

they nearly got killed once they stepped foot into it btw.

DON'T WORRY THO!!!!!! TROJAN IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!1!1!1!11!1!1

trojan then offers to take the trio to the thunderriders base and then foosh. they meet the rest of the thunderriders :)

also i never rlly mentioned who the thunderriders members are so lemme just list it here uhhhh:

- tempo

- shifta

- trojan

- galactic

- satellite

- terabyte

- glaciaxion

- pamolia

- pupa (tho at the time he didn't appeared yet lol)

- aleph-0

yeah.

anyways

moving on

tempo told ars, lucas, and ana abt their goal in defeating team destruction, and how if team destruction successfully carries out their plan to destroy the entirety of planet earth (LMAO AORRU CALLING IT PLANET EARTH IS FUNNY TO ME), then everyone is doomed (and they'll probs die obv)

i think the best way to kick off this arc was to have them be in a bit of danger facing the thunderriders' enemies; team destruction.

well. it's just their minions that came to fucking obliterate them but THATS BESIDES THE POINT. THEVPOIMT ISSSSSS. FATE CAME TO SAVE RHEM BC THEY NEARLY DIED.

FATEEEEEEEE THE FIRST BEST GIRL HERE (i still ly primeval i prommy)

also the arc rlly ends when destonio first appears. he would say smth abt lumine ig. and abt how he hates everything. based destonio moment

from here, pls keep in mind that their objectives are:

1. defeating team destruction and their plan to destroy the world, and

2. find out an answer to ars' dream

———

• arc 2: oh god things get a lil tricky arc

THE ARC NAMR YOODBYE.

anyways, in this arc we get to know more abt fate. the Sillies™ find out that she's a fucking goddess and nearly everyone freaked out. ars might look like he's calm abt this when he is screaming on the inside.

^ visual presentation

moving on from that, fate was like "oh i'm just visitinf here ykyk hot girl stuff" and lucas was like "okay bozo" wow soooo misogynistic /j

suddenly some guy comes into the base. fate was shockex enough to seehim BC IT TURNS OUT IT'S DESTONIO⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

anyways convo between fate and destonio in a nutshell ig:

fate: what the FUCK

destonio: HELLO LUMINE.

fate: NO SHUT THE FUCK UP GET AWAY FOM ME I'? NOT LUMINE

destonio: oh. i get it now. so you decidsd to go by a new fucking identity

destonio: ok fine whatever idgaf anymore.

destonio: anyways hello everyone

ars: What The Fuck.

things went normal after that for some reason. fate, despite her horror of reuniting with destonio, decided to bother him either way. "dEsTo ThIs, DeStO tHaT, WHEN EILL SHE LESVE ME ALONE??????" my guy you fucking asked for this yk 💀

anyways after so much filler stuff we finally get to the part things get interesting. dark ars starts invading ars in his sleep instead of the reoccuring dream he always has every night. dark ars is like "hey ars can i. can i take over." and ars would be like "NO??????? LEAVE ME ALONE????"

ok ok uhhh after so much tormenting and even more filler stuff, the Sillies™ start to realize Something Is Wrong with ars. trojan decided to interrogate ars alone on that matter

Worst mistake possible.

because dark ars was annoyed enough by this to the point where he actually makes ars suffer and feel so much physical pain during the interrogation, which honestly sounds like a shitty premise, but i'm writing this on the spot, so that's why it's shitty. trojan was fucking concerned, let me tell you that.

he was all like, "ars!!!!!!!! are you fucking ok??????!!!!!!!!!!!!" and ars is like "NO I'M NOT." and then after so long dark ars finally takes over and nearly kills trojan. ouch.

lucas managed to confront dark ars abt this and was like "ars?? what the fuck man????" and dark ars was like "shut the fuck up human. i'm seriously going to kill each and everyone of you lowly idiots."

"OUCH??????" — fate, probably.

anyways they managed to defeat ars, but fate accidentally summons a portal that takes ars to a whole different place. probs far away from modelista city. "ms. fate....what the hell???" tempo asked.......this isn't a fic.

the arc ends with ars just....waking up elsewhere. as for where it is.....we'll find out in a little bit.

———

• arc 3: aegle city arc

uwogh

i....originally didn't exactly want to put aegleseeker as a main character in the story, but now that i think abt it, he can be a supporting character in a sense.

anyways ars turns out to have woken up in aegle city, a city that.......is currently trapped in an eternal night.

heh. mlp moment /j

ars woke up in some house ig, so he quickly realized someone found him unconscious and took him in. turns out that someone is- OH MY GOD THE AEGLESEEKER HIMSELF??????!!!!!!

yea. it could get weirder and nonsensical from here /j again

i don't have much to say abt this arc, other than the fact that ars and aegleseeker just.....help each other in a sense ykyk? it's just them bonding and becoming besties somewhat.

at one point tessi gets mentioned. aegleseeker criticised her for making this world somewhat odd. he also criticised amazing mighty at the same time. this guy is rlly bold.

not much to say abt this arc. it's...really boring compared to the other two ones i think.

IT ACTUALLY DOESN'T END THERE THO.

ars has to get tormented by dark ars again,,,,,,,,,

after that, ars decided to distance himself from aegleseeker, which obviously made him confused. like i would be confused too if my friend started distancing themself from me and talked to me less. he just didn't know that ars is doing that for his safety.

eventually, ars ran away from aegle city, not even telling aegleseeker first. that...definitely made the latter felt a bit hurt in some way, but he's good at hiding things, so that's not obvious enough from the outside.

in the end, we shift focuses...

———

• arc 4: lucid traveler arc

huh? lucid traveler? could this mean.....oh! lucas is the main focus here now!

it turns out, during ars' time in aegle city, the rest of the thunderriders were trying to find him. fate didn't talked to them that much out of guilt. destonio just went along i guess.

ig throughout this arc lucas reminisces on his time with ars. it's short, but he ended up feeling a lot of things because of his time with ars LMAO.

oh god,,,,feelings?

also at one point pamolia takes the spotlight, which definitely teases something for a future arc lol

god this is all going so slow i hate this AHAHSHDBUDDBF

in the end, one day, lucas decided to find ars all by himself when one can least expect it. after some finding and even more reminiscing, he ended up finding ars in the end. they're not in modelista city anymore btw. they're kind of nearly back in the cantate kingdom, but not exactly there either.

ars was literally trying to avoid lucas so dark ars doesn't hurt him, but lucas just kept on coming to him even more. it can't be helped when dark ars decided to take over eventually. they both then had a super intense fight (real) and despite all of dark ars' efforts, he actually lost Again. he ended up falling unconscious again, and because he felt pity for ars, lucas decided to jusf LEAVE HIM LIKR THAT WHAT THE UFCK MENA.

uh. anyways.

———

• arc 5: malware arc

oh wow. it's trojan time besties

the main character here is still lucas honestly lmao, but the real main focus here is trojan

lucas got back to the thunderriders base after some time, and the first thing he saw was trojan and terabyte watching the fucking news.

yeah, apparently, the deal with ars and dark ars got a bit out of control, huh?

the whole first part of this arc is pretty normal.......until we get to the second bit. tempo and shifta start to notice something wrong with trojan. trojan starts to say...really weird stuff, like "haha guys what if someone here betrays us or something?" or "y'know, a traitor could be among us (SUS???? /J), right?" OR "[insert name of anyone near him right now], don't you think acting is a strange thing to be made into a profession?"

they both didn't exactly mind this at first, but then the questions and what-if scenarios get even weirder and that certainly made tempo a bit suspicious. so, he decided to confront trojan abt it.

tempo, being dumb for once, tried to force an answer out of trojan bc for some reason he isn't giving any answers???? dawg what are you hiding m8.

WELL.

TURNS OUT.

HE IS INDEED HIDING SOMETHING.

.......

..

.KDCNFK

um

he.

he"$.

he's a spy from team destruction.

HE HAD TO EXPLAIN THIS TO TEMPO SO THAT HE DOESN'T GET KILLED OR WHATEVER BUT BASICALLY the reason why he became a spy for team destruction was because they offered him a good enough deal and they thought he'd make a good enough spy considering how close he is with tempo, the leader.

he was like "oh yea sure i hate the mfs here anyways lmaoooo" at first but then he got attached. that's how you know things got bad for him.

tempo was a bit disappointed at first, but then he was like "alright fine." trojan was relieved that he was forgiv—

"but what about that time you asked me about something related to acting?"

shit.

he doesn't trust him yet.

and now he thinks trojan is acting all of this time when he is NOT acting.

"it's just something related to this...whole ordeal. sorry."

this is really shitty ngl /hsrs

anyways trojan felt a bit bad after that, because tempo started avoiding him a lil more, and that's when the conflict between them started.

oh dw abt them, they'll solve things once.....uhhhhhhh season 2 comes in /hj

———

• arc 6: confrontation arc

WE'RE BACK WITH ARSI CANT ATE BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

uh. so!

ars is actually back in the cantate kingdom! with aresi and his parents! how peaceful!

......ok not rlly actually lmfao

dark ars continues to torment him every night in his sleep. it irritates ars a lot, honestly, so yikes. BUT THAT ALL CHANGED ON ONE FATE(oh hi girly /j)FUL NIGHT.

ars meets dark ars in the dream world AGAIN. BUT THIS TIME......ARS HAS HAD ENOUGH OF HIS SHIT‼️

ars and dark ars have a lil duel and shit, but then, for some reason, dark ars got defeated again for some reason. what a bitch (affectionate). the two then have a lil talk! like a heart to heart, bc that's all dark ars is capable of at this rate.

basically, their conversation was abt how dark ars is a personification of ars' self hatred and perfectionism. it's hard to explain without his backstory post bc i haven't posted his yet (i wanna finish up on the worldbuilding ones first lol), but yeah, that's the gist here.

if ars learns to accept himself more, then dark ars will disappear and stop bothering him. as a little extra, dark ars will become one with ars. ars then decided to just accept himself for who he is and then boom! he wakes up with dark ars now being an actual part of him that he'll appreciate a little more!

also he gets a new look that i actually used for his proseka stamp redraw, but i haven't made a ref sheet yet lmaoooo

ars tells his whole family abt this and they all hug and cry in joy <3333

ars then decided to get back to modelista city to find the thunderriders, lucas, ana, fate, and destonio again.

———

• arc 7: OH GOD THE GANG IS BACK TOGETHER BUT. BUT LUMINE AND DESTONIO LORE ARC??????

OH GOD FINALLY THE FOCUS IS ON DESTONIO LETS FUCKING GO.

but for a small half of this arc lucars is the focus (yay)

ars gets back to the thunderriders base and literally crushes lucas and ana with the most biggest bear hug ever. what a silly guy. "if we started this together, then we might as well end this together too." he told the two of them.....haa......i love tjem....

anywayzzzzzz the focus is finally on destonio after that. basically he keeps talking about this lumine girl, and how he misses her, even if he hates to admit it sometimes. that obviously made fate a lil frowny lol

ars tries to get an answer from destonio regarding who lumine is, but destonio refuses to answer.

howeverrrr pov switch to destonio just for the sake of flashbacks happen.

throughout the arc, random flashbacks pop up here and there. uhhh the premise of each flashback goes like this:

1. flashback 1: lumine and destonio's first meeting basically. rlly basic shit.

2. flashback 2: the two of them finding out one is older than the other and vice versa when they saw each other at high school, followed by lumine teasing destonio abt his short height that fits his age. destonio Does Not like this at all.

3. flashback 3: The Besties™ hanging out at an amusement park. they got ice cream too and destonio jokes abt how lumine would be a messy eater when HE'S THE ONE WHO HAS ICE CREAM ALL OVER HIS MOUTH LMAO

4. flashback 4: this is where things get...concerning. i think. lumine rants abt how much she hates this world and how she'd rather be dead then see The Horrors™. needless to say destonio was fucking confused.

5. flashback 5: basically what one of my vent arts reference. "i wanna die, and when i die, i'm going to ascend to heaven and be god's most special angel ever! haha- eh? why are you looking at me like that, desto?"

6. flashback 6: lumine tells destonio abt an upcoming summer festival that they both should go to. this is foreshadowing Very Bad Events.

7. flashback 7 (THE LAST ONE BTW GOD BLESS): lumine and destonio are near the edge of a cliff. lumine tells destonio stuff that are muffled out for some reason (to add to that mysteriousness frfr) and then the firework show happened and then—

ah.

that's all.

———

yea this is all i can write for now. i'll probs continue either today, tonight, or tmrw. depends rlly lol

uhhh if you have any questions feel free to ask me! i love getting asks :)

also this is indeed very shitty-ly put together i apologize in advance. maybe one day future me will look back at this and go "oh god this is bad i need to rewrite this" but for now! this.

[lostacelonnie]

Definitely understandable i easily lose the energy to talk with people when i have to interact with family. So you're good. Ah yes the dont worry about it approach my favorite. Especially when what you do in regards to you is your business. Well between last message & now i forgot so thats a good indicator of how thats goin. Beaches over here are hit & miss but the closer ones to me arent as popular thankfully. Hm. What is a2 knowledge & how is it getting worse? I adore colder climates heat is not kind to me at all. Tents are. Well. Some are decently priced depending on how big of one you get. Oh i definitely recommend going with friends its a lot of fun. Ive been slacking a bit on the game but so far clara is workin for me. Probably wont have enough for kafka. Oooh good luck to you with all your pulls. Story spoilers aren't a major thing for me because the how is always still fun. Definitely understand some just dont want em at all. Every time i try minecraft im like. Never sure what i want to do. So kudos to you for stickin with the game & having fun. Smaller cities are nice love having close stuff without being in like. A big city. Ah dang i hope you find that dye again in the future. Makeup is hard it should be easier for those who wanna wear it. Ive been so busy i missed. So many events whoops. Problem of bein stuck level gaining to continue story. Motivation is hard to come by. I busy myself reading or looking up new science discoveries when i dont wanna leave my room.

thankies ahdhfjfj!!! and, once again, apologies for the late reply. my grandma fortunately left a while ago but i was feeling Cranky and didnt wanna sound Annoyed With Existing ahdjfh. still kinda dying inside since i return to school in 2 weeks but fuck it we ball we stay silly etc. COMING BACK. yeah like "nobodys gonna know-" "theyre gonna know." "how would they know". and understandable sjdkfgjk consider this your reminder then. and ahh fair i live pretty far away from the sea so i dont really know good Spots i guess. BUT i do like lake beaches since theyre way more quiet most of the time. and basically im not exactly sure in how many countries it applies, im thinking most of europe? but essentially language knowledge here is divided by levels, a1 -> a2 -> b1 -> b2 -> c1 -> c2 with c2 being the highest. and well i guess theres also a0 but thats just when you start. a2 is just speaking Basic English, so like enough to survive if you go to an english speaking country but not much more. for reference, by tests ive done, my level is like between b2 and c1 so very decent but i dont know most of the "fancier" and more specific words. and with it "getting worse" i mean that [at least from what our teacher told us] the textbooks are getting easier and easier so people are leaving school not actually knowing almost anything. yeah SAME its been so hot here recently so ive been Suffering. and yeah i know but me and my mother dont really know if its a good idea to buy one since we dont really go camping anyway. but maybe when im an adult im gonna get more into it, esp if i have ppl to do it with. and ah thats nice to hear!!! i DID manage to get kafka and her lightcone so ive been having fun with her recently. actually overpowered. tho i heard shes quite f2p friendly. and oh understandable!! i unfortunately used to be on tiktok where they spoil EVERYTHING and its impossible to avoid so ever since then ive been extra careful. tho i kinda feel that way ab fontaine rn [cos i ended up actually being kinda interested] since i cant download it rn but still am excited 4 the story despite knowing little unconnected bits. and fair, minecraft def isnt for everyone but its very good for chilling out at least to me. rn im procrastinating on beating the ender dragon so im just maxxing out my gear rn. and yeah but im still gonna see whether or not i wanna live a long way from my family. oh well i still have time. also thanks!!! i have not been successful yet but i bought another dye so im gonna keep you updated on that. and ahhhh understandable, ive been Grinding so i didnt have that problem sjfkg i should build my sampo but. ah. i hate grinding artifacts. pretty excited for the 1.3 simulated universe update tho!!! esp since im really curious about the aeons so seeing more of the propagation is sth im looking forward to. but good luck!!! and VERY real i like doing wikipedia deep dives esp about marine animals. im a fishpilled oceancel but i unfortunately suffer from Not Remembering Anything Ive Read Ever.

[rys-redcrackle]

I DID THE FIRST DAY A WEEK AGO (a fic) AND WAS LIKE OK HM. WHY DON'T WE DO THE REST LATER

then i drew some art to go with the fic (today. i come from a family of master procrastinators) and opened it while drawing for like maximum accuracy but then.

i find it has been deleted, save a few lines. (dont save ur fics on ao3 with no backup lads)

to which i said ! fuck it we ball

so yeah ill be winging the rest of the days. not to mention i have a test on day 2

BUT I WILL BE PARTICIPATING

AND IF I GO DOWN IN FLAMES, SO BE IT

YEAH YEAH I LOVED WORKING ON IT TOO! forgot how hard drawing was, though

oooohhhh i hope redcxackle comes back too!!! plus everyone else!! cant wait to see what u've done, it's always so awesome <33

*kicks down the door to ur hideout*

ONE DAY TO REDCRACKLE WEEK. o NE DAy

urs truly, rys (currently going insaaaaaane)

Tomorrow i know!!!!

I managed to do 2 days off the bat and then need to maybe polish off the other 2 days which have something simple but im like ...maybe too simple , little trim needed ?? and final day I kinda wanna make a tribute video but to which song 😖! I'm so excited and nervous but aha!

I'm slightly " ahh yes forgiveness on first day makes a sense repeat there's SO MUCH!" and I was thinking about a supplement fic but i already did one last year but there's SO MUCH and then then some slight edits here and there for clarification, can't wait to see what you do too + redxcrackle and hopefully some others ^^ but I've been so happy working on stuff 😊