#HE THINKS HIS CYAN CAR IS GRAY

[blueberryrock]

My dad being color blind will never not be funny to me

[urban-mutt]

Perfect Someone: Chapter 1 - Lalo Salamanca/FTM Reader (NSFW)

 Summary: You are a thief! You target old rich men. You drug them and steal from them while they're drink out of their mind. Your last operation didn't go as planned, and now you are an accomplice in a serious crime. And a plaything for your new sick friend.

Tags/Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Rape/Non-con, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Rape/Non-con Elements, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Slurs, Transphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcohol, Smoking, Drug Addiction, Vaginal Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Murder, Reader will be abused delulu and traumatized, FTM Reader, trans reader, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Manipulation, Daddy Kink, Forced, Angst, Inspired by Music, Biting, Age Difference emphasized, Sugar Daddy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, dead dove ig

anatomical terms: cunt

words: 2817

ao3 link

Author's notes: Inspired by my sims save and Sofi Tukker - Perfect Someone (And Melanie Martinez - Tag You're It)

You are a thief. You target old, rich men who think you are just a dumb young boy who wants some mature meat. You do want that, but none of them are your type. Even if they were… you can’t risk it. You lace their drinks with ketamine, and by the time you two are in a hotel room, the guy is long asleep. You take everything you can off of him and leave. Perfect. A huge amount of drugs and alcohol makes them forget anything happened, plus shame stops them from ever seeking you out.

You make pretty good money, but you still prefer living in hotels, using rental cars, and keeping cash or using crypto. Better safe than sorry.

Your lifestyle is a nonstop party. You remind yourself of Harley after she broke up with the Joker; though you never had an abusive guy throw you into the acid. Funnily enough, recently you met a guy who would 100% do that. You never wanted to be an actual criminal, bad person, or a predator. You never thought of yourself as one. You’re just a scammer, and who cares about old rich cis men anyway? They deserve it!

Anyway…

You were at your local scouting spot. Looking for a target. And then you saw him… 

Tall, well groomed, golden Rolex, golden chain, purple shirt with a few too many undone buttons. Gray hairs forming a white streak in the middle of his dome, mustache...

Black pants and— Ugliest fucking loafers you ever saw. They’re not just teal; no, they're CYAN.

This man is screaming, “I’m rich”!

You stroll over to say hello, but he seems too busy talking to someone else to pay attention.

You eye the unattended drink. Cis men never care to pay attention to such things. Too bad.

You order something for yourself and turn your back to him. You hear the glass being lifted and set down again. It's totally his.

He is distracted, the bartender is distracted, the DJ just arrived, and people seem to pay more attention to the upcoming show than anything else. Perfect.

You take a baggie of powder out of your pocket and turn around quickly to— To see your target mirroring you. 

You both freeze, holding your drugs, ready to lace the same drink. You pocket yours quickly, and he does the same. You stare at each other, waiting for this to resolve itself. You blush intensely in shame, and he smiles sleazily.

You don’t remember how you two ended up in a hotel room. Tearing clothes off of each other.

He didn’t even acknowledge your lack of a dick. How perfect. 

He was perfect.

No condom, no wasting time on foreplay. It was raw and wild. It did hurt a bit, but you like it, it’s fine. His cock is impressive, just like the ones you see in porn. Big and thick. Well-trimmed bush and shaven, ass, and balls. He sucked you good after filling you up, moaning into your cunt. 

A perfect man.

You catch your breath, looking up at the ceiling while he lights a cigarette.

As soon as you remember who you are, you get up on your shaky legs, trying to find your pants. 

“So, what’s your deal?” The man asks. 

“I steal from old guys.” You say as you put your pants on.

“And give it to the poor?” He chuckles.

“Yeah. I’m the poor.” You glare at him, putting your shirt back on.

“Wait.” He puts a cig in his mouth and gets up to pick up his pants and take out a stack of cash.

He counts out loud one thousand dollars and drops it on the bed.

“I’m a thief. Not a prostitute.” You frown.

“And I wanted to rape and kill you, so what?” He scoffs, sitting back down.

“Ah, great.” You say with sarcasm. “That what you do? Rape people and kill them?” You call out his bluff.

“Yeah.” He says. A bit too relaxed. 

It sounds too honest. You look down.

He chuckles. “What? Gonna snitch on me?” The stranger grins and exhales the smoke.

“No…”

This got real uncomfortable real fast. 

“Bueno entonces...” He nods and takes another five hundred and a pen. He writes something on it and adds it to the stack on the bed.

You take the money and see that he wrote his phone number on the bill, with a few “xoxo’s”.

“Fate is on our side today... I like you. Call me if you wanna see me again.” He lays back, watching you.

“As if.” You bark back and head out. “Bye.”

“Hasta luego, cariño.” You hear him purr before you shut the door behind you.

Okay. Great.

You have no interest in unpacking thoughts of how close you were to death that night.

You put all the cash on your crypto wallet, including the one with his number. No way you're gonna call that freak. Not gonna report him either; you’re not that evil. Besides, you are a criminal yourself.

And trans. And gay. No. No cops. Never. 

You try to forget and move on. You take a little vacation, just a week, to get back on track. Spending your time everywhere, but the usual scouting spots. It is better not to be a regular. You are a man, but that damn vagina between your legs still makes you a vulnerable one. People will have more reasons to report suspicious someone if they're gay, trans, or of color. (Choose your difficulty setting.)

So it is kinda understandable that you never saw that guy before. His looks are quite unique. He has a tattoo, too. Easy to remember. Hope you won't see him ever again.

After that week, you come back to town. The desert is beautiful, but money is not endless. 

You stand by some bar table in the corner of the club, watching the room. Your favorite song is playing, you move your hips to the bit while thinking.

This one is too young. This one is obviously a poser. This one already has someone. 

Sparse. Maybe changing venues soon won't be a bad idea.

A sudden scent hits you. Guh— you won't mistake that for anything. You cover your drink and turn sharply to see him. He stands closer than you expected; it makes you jump. You were so deep in your thoughts that you didn’t even notice.

“Hola.” He purrs.

You move away. “The fuck you doing here?” He leans onto the table too. “Same thing as you. Hunting.”

You frown. “You do. I don’t ‘hunt’. I scout.”

“Call it whatever you want, but really... It is the same thing. You are a predator.” He reaches out to take your drink. You let him take a sip.

“I’m not. Fuck off. There’s nobody here anyway; I gotta go.” You shake your leg in tension.

“I like that one.” He points at a girl who looks barely 18. “She’s alone, drinking, looks too young to be here, and probably is.”

“And?” You ask.

“And?” He scoffs. “She won’t notice how I will put some K in her drink, and then I’ll drive her out and rape her and then burn her body.” He talks casually.

You shiver in discomfort.

He keeps talking.

“I always pick young ones. Very easy targets.” He chuckles, still watching the girl.

“That’s why you picked me?” You mumble.

“¡Sí! I thought you looked suspicious, but I couldn’t tell why. Now I see that you preyed on me too... Why, by the way?” He turns to you.

You shift your posture uncomfortably. “You look rich and old. That shirt was Gucci; I could see that from a mile away. You really should be more stealthy.” 

“Yeah? And you look like a sissy slut. Thought you were a man.” He teases you.

You show him your teeth. “Well, since you’re bi, why complaining?”

“I’m not bi. I’m gay. I get off on the power, mostly… when it’s a girl.” He takes another sip.

You turn to him fully. “Was that drink even yours?”

He shrugs. “I thought it was yours.”

You both were silent for a bit.

“We’re worthless.” You prop your head on your hands. 

You watch the girl that he spotted leave the club.

“There she goes. You lost her.” You follow her with your eyes.

“It’s fine. I like talking to you more anyway.” He finishes your drink. “Want anoth—”

He is interrupted by some white fella coming right up to your table and almost yelling, “Dude, get off of him; he’s taken!”

You both are confused for a second. The guy is clearly really drunk. Looks bland, like British food. 

You look at the freak you've been talking to; he looks back at you and winks. Okay, what plan do you have, sir?

“He is not taken, and I’m not trying to take—” 

Guy interrupts him again.

“He is clearly uncomfortable! Are there not enough bitches in your country?!”

Before this derails, you decide to speak up.

“He is my fuck buddy! We're actually just looking for a third.” You lean forward, all fake flirty. 

Guy looks flattered. “Oh, yeah? Uh… Sorry! Then— Uh…” He tries to speak through a drunken haze.

Old man glances at you, grinning.

You keep pushing.

“Come on! You’re cute! Thanks for trying to protect me. There are a lot of bad guys around! You want to drink with us?” 

“S-sure, man.” He mumbles.

Your new creep friend is glowing with something evil. “Then I’ll go get us something!” 

He walks off, leaving you to keep glazing that drunken dummy.

He comes back with three drinks. He gives everyone their own, because one is clearly already laced. 

You two kept feeding the guy booze. His name is apparently Dave, but why would that matter? You don’t even know your new crime partner’s name!

The rich freak drives you three to some shitty motel and makes you go and rent a room while they wait.

You come back with a key. You go up to the room quickly.

You didn’t know what you were expecting.

Your crime partner lays Dave on the bed. Taking poor man’s clothes off. You notice a big knife on your friend’s belt. It wasn’t there before. Lube in his pocket? Wait, you’re not actually fucking that guy, are you?

You stand by the door awkwardly.

Dave clearly changed his mind. Of course, he was just too drunk to say “no” when in the club. Now he’s too high to resist. He is trying, though.

“Hold him.” Your partner commands.

You don’t move. 

“Hold him.” He repeats.

You walk around the bed and hold the guy's wrists together while your friend zip-ties him to the bed. He grins and giggles. You let go when he’s done and step aside.

“Bring a towel.” The man commands again.

You go to the bathroom to quickly take one. He gags the poor guy with it before actually… getting to it.

You wanted to look away, but it's like a car crash. A poor guy tore his throat while trying to yell. His ass bled even though your partner used lube. He was just too rough. You had to turn away when he was choking the guy to death, though. You started crying. You shouldn’t be here. 

Fuck around and find out? You did. Honestly, whatever else happened was a blur. You sat on the floor, dissociating silently. The man taps your shoulder.

“Ay.” He says.

You turn around, shivering.

He gives you what seems to be Dave's belongings. 

“This is yours.” He sounds so calm.

Your hands shake, but you take everything.

“And…” He takes an extra out of his back pocket. It looks like a lot of money. “This too.”

You take that too, putting stuff in your pockets and trying not to sob. One sob breaks out, though. Stranger pats your head. 

“It’s fine. You can go. I’ll take care of the rest.” He says.

You get up and run to the door, trying not to look at the body. You're frantically trying to unlock the door, but you fail.

He grunts and walks over. You let go of the door and back into the wall right next to it, covering your face.

You feel his hands rubbing your shoulders. 

“Hey! You’re okay. If I really wanted to do this to you, I already would.” His voice is soft and kind. Too soft. Too kind.

The smell of him is poison. You feel nauseous. You will never be able to smell lavender again. Who else smells like that anyway? Lavender, musk, and however axe deodorant smells. Now also sweat and blood. 

“Are you listening?” He asks again.

You just tremble, not able to say much.

“Okay, listen. You go outside and sit in the car while I take care of this mess. Then we will drive into the desert and dump the body. Then I will drive you home. You clearly can’t go by yourself.” He speaks very clearly and slowly, making sure you understand. 

“I-I— I don’t— I don’t have a— h-home.” You’re barely able to speak, choking on your sobs.

He frowns. 

“Fine. Go to the car.” He gives you the keys.

Like, you won’t just drive away?

Yeah, you won’t.

You sit in the passenger seat, sobbing. 

He puts the heavy body in the trunk, and you two drive away. You run out of tears by the time you reach the place he wanted to dump the body. He just throws it off a cliff. It was wrapped in a blanket like a cocoon. He dumps the rest of the sheets too.

As if anyone will look for that guy... If they ever investigated anything, that fucker would already be in prison. Along with you. 

He comes back; he doesn’t say anything for the rest of the drive, and you actually fall asleep soon. Too exhausted to stay up.

You wake up when he picks you up and carries you inside a house. You don’t move; you let him do it. He lays you on a spacious couch and covers you with a couch blanket. You still don’t move, but you don’t pretend to be asleep either. 

He walks away and comes back with a glass of water, which he sets in front of you on the coffee table. Then he leaves upstairs. In his room, probably.

Too tired, you take the water, but then set it down before drinking. You wouldn’t wanna be next. You turn away and try to sleep more.

It isn’t a problem; you are too tired to stay alert. 

You wake up when it's bright. Seemingly untouched. You sit up. Water is still in the same place.

You look around. His house is huge. Pretty too. You hear his footsteps. He walks into the living room with some breakfast. He sets it in front of you.

“You really should drink that water.” He sits down on one of the chairs across. 

You look up at him, scared.

“I would already kill you by now; come on.” He throws a hand up, annoyed.

You look away and take the plate.

“Really, what did you think we were going to do to that guy?” He chuckles. “Or you just didn’t think the sausage was really made that way?”

You don’t respond, but eat and drink.

He nods and looks you up and down. 

“I’m Lalo.” 

You clear your throat.

“Y/N.”

He nods again. “Nice to meet you, y/n.” Lalo scratches his chin. “Well, y/n, why don’t you have a home?” 

You swallow your food before responding, “Safer that way.”

He laughs at you.

“Nah. It’s not.”

You blush. “And you would know?”

“Baby, I was born into this. I was doing it before you were born. I know.” He grins proudly.

“Don’t call me that.” You point your fork at him.

“Stay here.” He ignores your request. “I have extra bedrooms.”

“No.” You finish your food and put the plate down. “I’m leaving, and we will never see each other again.”

“Querido, America is too small for that! You’ll have to skip the country.” Lalo shrugs.

“Who are you? Really?”

Lalo raised his eyebrows playfully and said, “Nobody. Just a friend.”

“Yeah…” You relax in your seat.

“Seriously, though, stay. I’ll pay for everything you need.”

“And I give you?...”

“Sex and maybe...” Lalo responds, “We can go out like yesterday again. Just… I want you to help and not cry in the corner.” 

You frown, thinking.

He keeps talking.

“Or you can come back to your old life and occasionally bump into me, knowing you got blood on your hands now and that nobody will ever be by your side anymore—”

You interrupt him.

“Nobody was by my side before.” You mumble.

Lalo grins and leans forward.

“Then let's be friends.”

[sunny6677]

Cicadas: When October Sings. - BOOK 1

Summary:

Mysterious events begin to occur in a small suburban town Kevin lives in.

CHAPTER 3: The Picnic.

————

..after a few more long minutes of driving along the stretch of the gray road, the vehicle slowed, and we came to a stop.

The air outside was warm. Unbelievably warm, in fact. I felt it practically frown me the moment I stepped outside onto the sidewalk. The car had parked in front of a large bright green patch of field with a single tree in the middle.

Nearby was a small wooden building in the distance—which appeared to have no on inside judging by the fact that there were no cars parked in front of it. The sun beamed down onto its wood, causing the brown shade to shine brightly in the sunlight. And before the small, peculiar building that looked like it was gonna fall apart any second now—there was a strange statue of..

...

I glanced away, swallowing nervously. It was probably my imagination. That thing wasn't real anyway.

"Wooh.." Streber let out a sigh, wiping his knuckles against his forehead and sweeping off the sweat. He hoisted the basket into his arms as Ethan walked calmly around the vehicle, a smile curled on his face.

I saw Ethans gaze flicker toward me, and a melting hue of worry formed in them as he chuckled. "You alright?" He grinned, noticing a look on my face that I couldn't.

"..yeah. I'm okay." I huffed.

I tilted my head again, my eyes trailing over the gigantic statue faintly painted with shades of cyan and dark red.

Blinking, I asked, "..what's that for?"

Ethan tilted his head to the side a bit in return, glancing in the direction of the statue before letting a small laugh escape his mouth. "Oh.. I.. I don't really know. I know it's important to the people who really like that Stars Festival thing though."

"..stars festival?"

"..well.. it's actually called The Festival of The Stars. But it's not really that important." He shrugged, "It's just some little village thing that they do every year."

"Oh."

Come to think of it, I had heard about it. Some sort of festival that would always take place on one of the last weeks of October—it's dates would always kinda change though. I didn't know much about it aside from some of the dandelion blowing stuff and what not.

..either way, it wasn't really that important.

————

"..aaalllright.. just put these here.."

Streber mumbled aloud to himself—the warm air was somewhat overwhelming. The soft blanket he had laid out for us on the hill made it feel a little less bad though. Or at least like I wasn't gonna combust from sweating any second now. I was starting to swear I could see little ants crawling onto the blanket already, but I couldn't tell if it was that, or if it was little pieces of dirt.

Ethan watched from beside me, his slim phone in his hands as he looked up from the screen. And I couldn't really do much other than just observe as he laid out.. several items of food.

He laid out three wrapped, greasy looking sandwiches in rows—the ingredients within them slightly visible despite the fabric of the wrapper. I felt it's warm scent flow into my nostrils. My stomach nearly rumbled just from the sensation.

From beside them, he set down a yellow mustard bottle, along with a red ketchup bottle. Then from beside that, he placed a small box of watermelons and several other fruits. Meatballs. And.. good god, how much did he pack?

Either way, I knew I defintely didn't have to worry about starving. A part of me felt like he only packed this much just because I'm here. And I knew I was probably right about that. I knew him well enough to know he wouldn't pack so many things without any reason.

...mmh.. he really was a good friend.

Streber finally let out a sigh, grinning from ear to ear—"Alright.. there you go! Now we can eat."

————

..as expected, the food was good. Really good, to be honest. The grilled cheese he had packed for me was crisp on the bread, and just the right amount of flavor in the yellow melted piece of cheese in the middle. My stomach felt completely relieved of all it's hunger from before, and I let out a sigh nearly each time I took a bite. I really never had enough energy to eat stuff, but I couldn't really say no when it was him who made it.

Ethan on the other hand ate his sandwich in small bites. While Streber was chattering on loudly about.. something I wasn't really listening to, if I was being honest. It wasn't that what he was talking about wasn't interesting. I was just.. really hungry. I dunno.

A cool breeze was slightly streamj g through now. I felt the winds brush against me, making the beads of sweat on my face feel as if they weren't there.

It was about when I was nearly done with my sandwich that I heard a weird voice calling out.

"Heyyyyy! Streber!"

Streber blinked for a few seconds, snapping his round head in the direction of the sound. Seemingly, it came from somewhere beside me. So, I... just looked to see where it was. And when I did, I almost immediately got my answer.

It was a younger looking girl with orange-reddish hair tied into low pigtails, her face round and a grin made perfectly on her face. She wore a pastel yellow sweater around her skinny body. Alongside her was a woman with long dark blue hair, another girl with short black hair that went to her neck, and..

Well, I didn't need to describe them. I already knew them anyway. But I wasn't sure what exactly they were doing here.

That girl was Liv. I didn't know how Streber and Ethan had met her exactly, but she was a young girl who was currently living with them—about the age of eighteen to be exact. She was pretty chaotic and energetic from what I remembered of her. And anytime I saw her, she.. strangely smelt of mandarin? I didn't know why, but she did.

The woman with the dark blue hair was Aria, who was always really soft-spoken and somewhat awkward. And Confi, who.. well, honestly, I didn't talk to her that much. So I didn't really know what she was like.

There was a small orange vehicle parked behind the one Streber drove her, seemingly the one they must have driven in. After all, they.. were coming up the hill from in that direction. As Liv smiled rather eagerly while marching up the hill toward us, I couldn't help but wonder..

"..Uh.." Uttered Streber, a bit puzzled by their presence as well. "Hi? What are you guys doing here?"

"..yeah." Ethan arched a brow as well, a twitch of a puzzled smile worn on his slim face. "Didn't you say you were busy?"

"Well, we were." Liv huffed as she finally stopped on top of the hill, with Confi shuffling beside her, and Aria quietly walking up with a slight smile on the right side of her. Liv pouted, "But that mall we went to ended up being a little more crowded than we thought it'd be. Hmph."

"..eheheh.." Aria laughed gently, "It's—it's fine though. We decided we'd come here to visit with you guys since we didn't have anything else to do. You alright with that?"

Streber paused. His eyes trailed over them for a moment as the warm silence filled the air, and after a second, he finally gave a simple nod. "Uh.. well, alright! I'm okay with that. Just try not to eat too much, alright? I don't know if I packed enough for three more people."

"..might as well have.." I found myself mumbling with a slightly low tone. He didn't respond, not seeming to hear.

"Hah—yes!" Liv laughed rather loudly from where she stood, practically hopping foward toward the blanket. She shuffled onto an empty space next to me, giggling while moving up and down at a rather rapid rate.

Confi swiftly moved in silence, shuffling next to the last empty space near Liv. Streber moved a bit more closer to Ethan, leaving room for Aria to join in.

Aria let out a sigh. "Oh.. thank you. Eheh.."

Chuckling, she lowered herself near the space Streber had left empty, and made herself comfy as she shifted onto it. Streber flashed her a simple grin, beaming, "Yeah—no problem, Aria. Heh.. sorry if you don't get to eat much."

"It's okay." Aria denied reassuringly, "I.. kind of ate already anyway."

..I sat in slight quietness, holding the sandwich near my mouth still. The breeze blew against my hair, making me feel the trickles of my sweat down my neck, along with something that slightly brushed and brushed against my shoulder. I thought it might have been the wind, but even after a few seconds, it didn't go away.

I looked to the side. And... Livs face was practically right next to my shoulder. In response to seeing her round eyes, I slightly flinched. She gave a wide grin, tilting her head to the side.

"..can I have some of that?"

I stared. And slowly frowned.

"..no."

Bringing it closer to my mouth, I took a small bite out of it, seeing her only scowl in the corner of my eye from pettiness.

Well.. looks like we had three more people at the picnic now.

[pluralsword]

Image description: a custom of Arcee from Generations Selects Galvatron on a brown shelf in front of a white wall. Arcee retains some of the gray, black, purple, and red, but is largely painted in deep pink, cyan, and white, with a light pink face. She is standing in a front stance towards the camera and has a Galvatron toy fusion cannon raised in each hand as swords with one with a purple hilt ahead of her and the other a gray and black hilt overhead behind her. End ID.

Tarn: overcompensating genocidal secret police ‘fan’ of Megs with two fusion cannons on one arm while wearing a Decepticon insignia mask and generally being a gross jerk.

Arcee: engages in a trans sword sapphic inversion of fusion cannons by using them as swords like her iconic dual wielded guarded saber energy blades.  That’s a beautiful vibe tbh.

After we saw MinerEdgar’s art of Galvatron with a fusion cannon as a two hand sword... we started to think about how in fanfic you could put the dots together between orange fusion cannons and orange energy blade swords. It feels like the logical conclusion from Arcee actually two-handing a fusion cannon in Sunbow to fire with great effect in The Dweller in the Depths.

In IDW1 obviously the headcanon for ‘who is doing the homage’ is Galvatron since his twin sister Arcee had the swords before he had a cannon... but in something else, like an original continuity or an AU... maybe Arcee wanted her swords to be something to remember her old cannon by, while her two-hand blade is a totally different design, her combiner hunter/stealth paint blade looks very different, what with the big pink blade and the black sword catcher spine along the back.

For the orig cont Autosignet Cycle, we imagined the siblings both started as voyager/deluxe scale tank bots, so they both had cannons, and Arcee effectively gave hers up when she became a car, but stayed the same size scale. As interesting as we think it is that Arcee got a lot shorter in IDW1 and we explore possible initial thoughts she has about that in Addendum in Chapter 4 along with other alterations she wasn’t expecting and having done a wordless story from toys where she goes from leader sized to legacy motorcycle sized that we can’t find the tumblr post for right now, We didn’t really feel like having her size change that much in orig cont prose because we felt like writing about a trans person who didn’t feel the need to get shorter. For this reason... we are eyeing some deluxe tank modes to kitbash Galvatron and Arcee from so they scale with Arcee’s partners and kids.

Anyway thank you for reading this, go forth with trans cannon-blades. :3

[mobius-prime]

237. Sonic the Hedgehog #169

Order from Chaos (Part Two): The Great Harmony

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Sonic races ahead through the nanite city, still searching for his father and Tails. He finds his father lying on the ground some distance ahead, and Jules informs him that with Tails delivered to A.D.A.M., he's been ordered to self-destruct, but since A.D.A.M. forgot to actually give him a time limit he's set himself to fall apart in about forty years, plenty of time for Sonic to free him from A.D.A.M.'s control. With his father relatively safe for the moment, Sonic presses on to the spire, where A.D.A.M. has begun to use the power of Shadow and Tails to draw every Chaos Emerald in the universe to him. Time to sound off! The green emeralds are of course from Mobius. The cyan emeralds are from Weeet, Car-heem's home planet from StH#23. The blue emeralds are from the Xorda's home planet, and the red, as we saw during Tossed in Space, from Thoraxia. The purple ones are from Teragosa 6, that utopian planet that E.V.E. ate in StH#128, and, from the same issue, the yellow ones are from the star that E.V.E. threw herself into afterward. And finally, the gray ones are from none other than Argentum, the Bem homeworld where Tails' parents still reside! Man, awfully convenient that every single variety of Chaos Emerald in the universe happens to come from places that Sonic has either visited or had some connection with, huh? With all the emeralds collected, they swirl around A.D.A.M.'s spire in multicolored loops - but he realizes that there's one emerald that still eludes his reach.

Well, but of course! It wouldn't be a Sonic canon without the Master Emerald, right? How interesting that Finitevus has shown himself to Locke, though… Sonic finally arrives on the scene, and A.D.A.M. reveals to him that Tommy is still alive under all the nanites, and fully conscious. Ah, so an "and I must scream" kind of situation, huh? Eggman is furious now that he's no longer directly cowering under A.D.A.M.'s gaze, and disowns A.D.A.M. as his son, leading A.D.A.M. to reveal his true reason for doing all of this: because he wants his daddy to love him. That's it. Seriously. He got Eggman to kill M because he felt he might love her more than him, as well. All this comes down to daddy issues. Sonic even lampshades just how ridiculous this is, that even Shadow doesn't angst like this. Sonic tries to attack A.D.A.M., but A.D.A.M. briefly lifts the nanites away from Tommy's head, revealing Tommy inside looking very disoriented and pained. Sonic hesitates to attack him, unwilling to hurt his friend to get to A.D.A.M., which of course, gives A.D.A.M. an opening to knock him aside. Eggman actually helps Sonic back to his feet, telling him to keep A.D.A.M. busy until his Egg Fleet can get here to blast him to bits. Sonic, however, not wanting Tommy to end up hurt, decides to turn things up a notch and go for the very tempting Giant Tower of Chaos Emeralds for a power-up.

While Super Sonic and Super A.D.A.M. start battling it out in the air, Eggman releases Shadow and Tails from their pods, with them having by now been forced into their Super and Turbo forms respectively by the power of so many nearby emeralds. Turbo Tails, realizing that he hasn't yet fulfilled his prophecy after all, recognizes that this is the Great Harmony and enlists Shadow's help to open a portal to a parallel zone to send the Chaos Emeralds there to safety, away from here.

Something special indeed! It's quite creative, actually, that Ian found a way to turn such a throwaway "Chosen One" thing into an actual plot device to help him with his clean-up detail. A.D.A.M. is furious at the loss of the gems, and Sonic tries to get him to let Tommy go and give up, but A.D.A.M. refuses… until the nanites around Tommy's head melt away, with Tommy having been finally able to wrest back control for a second. Sonic is overjoyed, but Tommy tells him that he won't have control for long, and apologizes for being so much trouble, as well as thanking Sonic for his kindness. The Egg Fleet arrives, and Tommy forces A.D.A.M. to fly towards it. Sonic tries to stop him, but it's too late, and the cannons fire, vaporizing both Tommy and A.D.A.M. in an instant. Sonic loses his Super form and floats to the ground, rather morbidly holding what's left of his friend in one hand.

Awww. Apparently Ian's decision to kill off Tommy here was because he wasn't a particularly popular character, and while I'll agree that he was kind of one-dimensional and uninteresting in his first few appearances, I had grown to like him as part of the team. At least in the end, he got to be a true hero, and took A.D.A.M. with him.

…for a Friend

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Aimee Ray

I know it's not listed in my credits here, but Kenders actually inked and lettered for this story! I mentioned in his final issue as a writer than there was one more story he had involvement with, and this is it - as far as I've been able to find, he wasn't involved with any other stories from here on out. So I suppose, in a way, this is truly our final goodbye to Kenders!

Mighty, Ray, and Espio have all journeyed out to the former site of Charmy's home, the Golden Hive Colony, in search of any information on his family's whereabouts, with Vector providing assistance over the radio from Knothole. Mighty and Ray are mostly staying outside as lookouts, while Espio, with his superior stealth skills, sneaks into the giant structure that once housed the colony, but which has now been repurposed into one of Eggman's many bases. It's worth noting that up until now, Ray hasn't been a very well fleshed out character at all, but under Ian's writership he actually gains a pretty significant stutter. I'm not sure if the implication is meant to be that he just naturally stutters, or if his trauma led him to develop one, but either way, it's a small character detail that I appreciate. Anyway, Espio sneaks in, getting information on the location of the base's main computer from one terrified robot, and once he takes out the robots using said computer for Solitaire, Nicole helps him hack into it.

I love this. I think this is the first time the comic - or any Sonic canon, actually - has ever really gone into Eggman's reasons behind what he does. In most canons he is shown to genuinely value family to some degree, as he idolizes his grandfather and in the comics specifically likes to keep Snively close. That said, he is a sadist at heart, and someone being a blood relative is not enough for him to decide not to torture and murder them, as we saw with the disaster with the Overlanders in Robotropolis some time ago. Therefore, with most of his family gone, and Snively having some level of immunity as an underling, he finds his enjoyment in not only hurting the Mobians and other Overlanders that he's at war with, but in ensuring that even his own forces can be terrified of him. This is backed up by what Nicole finds in the computer's database.

With that, Espio sets the base to blow up and escapes before he's caught in it, much to Mighty and Ray's relief. He dodges their questions about why he destroyed it at first, until he curtly explains that since Eggman hurt his friend, he decided to hurt him back. Thus, the Golden Hive Colony is gone, but at least there's hope for some survivors to be found sometime in the future.

[niallsstainedcoffeecup]

The Weekend Cottage

Harry dislikes his friend’s girlfriend, and attempts to destroy their relationship.  Y/N finds herself aggravated from Harry’s tricks.  Will Harry succeed in destroying the relationship, or will he find himself at the hands of fate?  I hope you all enjoy.  Feedback and requests are welcomed.  Lots of love!  ----------------------------------------

          Her drooping eyes peeked through the narrow lines created by the raindrops trickling down the foggy windows and out onto the gray streets.  An exasperated sigh parted her dry lips while she knuckled the sleep from her eyes.  The mint green scoop emptied bitter coffee grounds inside the black coffeemaker. The neighbor’s cigarette smoke bled through the apartment’s thin wall.  Her feet covered by fuzzy socks padded across the stained linoleum floor toward the buzzing fridge, her hands bypassed the overnight oats she prepared with the intent to eat healthier and slipped around the milk’s damp handle.  Milk soaked the colorful cereal and marshmallows while she sipped the steaming coffee.  Her thumbs scrolled past emails and messages from colleagues and friends.  Joyce, her best friend since university, offered a free lunch at their favorite sandwich shop located near Y/N’s apartment.  Y/N agreed, checking the hourly forecast with outfit ideas in mind.  After breakfast, she dressed appropriately for the weather aside from the worn, white sneaker she wore everywhere.  She fished through her black purse for the jingling car keys.  A new message from Joyce’s long-term boyfriend, Andrew, reminded Y/N how late she would be if she didn’t find her keys in the next couple of minutes.  A successful snicker escaped her lips once her fingers wrapped around the metal keys. She jogged down the creaking staircase and into the empty lobby.  Y/N exited the apartment building, eyeing the red car she purchased after her university graduation.  The black leather seats and lavender-scented air-freshener greeted Y/N once she opened the doors.  She unlocked her phone, sending Andrew one last message before she left her building. I’ll be a few minutes late, but I can’t wait to see you! *          *          *          *          *          *

           Thick maroon curtains swayed against the beige walls lined with gold paintings. Men and women dressed in sleek, black suits paced around the candlelit store.  Glass displays illuminated the expensive jewelry sat among the black velvet cushions. Andrew leaned his body into his sweaty palms pressed against the glass display’s gold trimming.             “I selected three rings that I thought Joyce might like,” Andrew mumbled, releasing his teeth from his bottom lip.          Y/N admired the three sparkling engagement rings, “Andrew, they are beautiful.”          Five weeks ago, during a late dinner, Andrew asked Y/N for help choosing the perfect engagement ring for Joyce while Joyce snuck off to use the restroom.  Now, Y/N blinked back happy tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks as she admired the rings.          “Joyce would love all of these three designs. Hell, I love all of these rings, but the princess cut with the white gold band would look great on Joyce’s hand,” Y/N breathed out, looking into Andrew’s tear-filled eyes.         Andrew’s beaming grin spread across his face before he wrapped his arms around Y/N.  Y/N giggled, burying her face in Andrew’s sturdy chest.  The spicy cologne Joyce purchased last Christmas for Andrew suffocated Y/N’s nose.  Andrew tore away from the hug, informing a nearby salesperson about the decision.          “When are you going to propose?” Y/N wondered.          Andrew’s smile widened, “I asked my parents if we could borrow their weekend cottage.  I’m sure Joyce will invite you to join us, but I planned on asking her during dinner with our friends.”          “I can’t wait to see her reaction.  Do you want to join us for lunch?” Y/N asked, walking toward the heavy oak doors.          Andrew shook his head, pushing the door open with his hand and shoulder, “No, I told Joyce I had an early meeting.  Don’t tell her anything.”          Y/N rolled her eyes, “I won’t spoil the surprise.  I’ll see you this weekend.”          Andrew waved goodbye, darting through crowds of people walking around the shopping center.  Y/N spun around, heading toward the sandwich shop where Joyce waited without knowledge about Andrew’s plan. *          *          *          *          *          *

           “Andrew’s parents let us borrow their cottage for the weekend.  Will you join us?” Joyce asked, lunging forward to cup Y/N’s hands.           Y/N chuckled, shrugging her shoulders, “I don’t know.  My boss assigned everyone a new project.”           Joyce’s bottom lip jutted out, “Please, Andrew is inviting his friends, and I want my best friend with me.  His friends are attractive too.”           Y/N snorted, lifting the sandwich drenched in olive oil, “Why do his attractive friends matter?”           “You could flirt with these men.  The cottage is also near a gigantic lake,” Joyce gushed, wiping the lemonade glass’s condensation from her palm.           Y/N groaned, “Fine, you win.  I’ll visit the cottage with you this weekend.”           Joyce squealed with joy, bouncing back and forth in the plastic stool.  Y/N giggled, stabbing her fork into the salad drenched in dressing.  She couldn’t believe the excited freshman handing out chocolate chip cookies to everyone on their floor would be engaged by the end of the weekend. *          *          *          *          *          *

           Tall, oak trees grew near the curvy dirt path that led to the sandstone cottage. The green branches intertwined, blocking the sun’s warm rays from the shadowed path.  The beige dirt crunched under Y/N’s car tires.  Her eyes widened the further her car traveled through the woods. Vines dangled from the cyan tin roof and snaked around the stone bricks.  After Y/N parked her car next to the four vehicles, the cyan screen door swung open with an eerie squeal.  Joyce raced down the creaky porch stairs and toward Y/N with open arms.           “You’re here.  What do you think about the cottage?  I don’t know if it has a horror or romantic vibe,” Joyce rushed out, looking around the forest.           Y/N chuckled, tugging the heavy suitcase from the trunk, “I imagine Hugh Grant waiting inside the cottage for me with roses.”            Joyce giggled, slinging her arm around Y/N’s shoulders, “What is your obsession with Hugh Grant?”            “Have you seen young Hugh Grant?” Y/N asked, following Joyce through the front door.            “Before you walk through the house, Andrew mentioned the house is a no-shoes house,” Joyce announced, slamming a hand against Y/N’s chest.             Y/N whined, rubbing the sore spot on her chest, “Okay, I’ll remove my shoes.”             Y/N’s worn white sneakers joined the lineup of sneakers located near the squeaky door.  Her sock-clad feet sunk into the stain-free cream carpet.  Floral candles covered the musty scent radiating off the stone bricks.  Family portraits and expensive marble statues decorated the silent cottage that felt the opposite of comfortable.  Y/N followed Joyce through the living room and into the narrow kitchen, where Andrew and friends conversed.            “Y/N, how was the trip?” Andrew asked, wrapping his arms around Y/N.            “I loved the scenic drive,” Y/N mumbled, tearing away from Andrew’s hug.            Y/N faced Andrew’s friends, prepared to introduce herself to the new faces.  Her mouth dried up once her eyes landed on the familiar short, curly locks that she adored.  His crystal green eyes stared back into her own.              “Hello, I’m Y/N.  I’m Joyce’s friend,” Y/N announced, waving to the three strangers and Harry.            Harry smiled, waving back at Y/N, “I’m Harry, that is Lina, Justin, and Mark.”            “How long have you known Andrew?” Y/N asked, tearing her eyes from Harry.            Lina snorted, “I’m Andrew’s childhood neighbor, so I’ve known him since birth.  Mark, when did you meet him?”             Mark huffed, searching for the answer in the ceiling, “I met Andrew during university.”            “I’ve known Andrew since secondary school,” Harry mumbled.            “You are all saints to put up with him,” Joyce joked, “Y/N and I met during university.”            Y/N nodded, “Well, I loved meeting everyone. I need a restroom break.”            “Right, the restroom is the second door on the left,” Andrew pointed toward the dark hallway.            Y/N followed Andrew’s instructions, locking the white bathroom door.  A shaky sigh parted Y/N’s lips while her sweaty palms clutched the gray counter. Her trembling fingers wrapped around the silver knob with the blue label.  Cold water splashed onto her wrists and hands.              “Honey, are you okay?” Joyce’s concerned voice startled Y/N’s attention away from her panicked reflection.            Y/N cleared her throat, “Yeah, I’ll be outside in a few minutes.”            “Andrew and I are going grocery shopping. Are you freaked out about Harry?” Joyce asked, praying Y/N wouldn’t disown her for keeping Andrew and Harry’s friendship a secret.            Y/N rolled her eyes, opening the bathroom door, “Yeah, I did not expect to meet my idol today.  Wait, you didn’t tell him that I love him, right?”            Joyce fervently shook her head, “No, I would never do that.  Are you okay?”             Y/N smiled, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.  Have fun with Andrew.”            Joyce waved goodbye, running down the hall after Andrew.  Y/N chuckled, rolling her eyes at their sweet relationship.  She followed the voices toward the backyard where Harry and Mark stood. Y/N admired the way his white t-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders.  She slid the glass door open, listening to Harry’s conversation.            “Can you believe Andrew’s proposing to her? Why can’t he see that she doesn’t love him?  She’s dating him to get his money,” Harry complained, pressing the beer bottle to his rosy lips.             Y/N gasped, stumbling over her feet.  How could someone who preaches treating people with kindness, talk bad about his friend’s girlfriend?  Y/N would not let Harry talk badly about Joyce when he didn’t know her.             “Hey, you can’t talk bad about Joyce. You don’t even know her, so how do you know she wants Andrew’s money?  Joyce would never use anyone for their money,” Y/N hissed, watching Harry and Mark slowly turn around with unamused scowls spread across their face.            Harry chuckled bitterly, “Listen, what is your name?  You should eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation.”            Y/N glared, pointing her finger at Harry’s smug grin, “You are an asshole.  Why would Andrew invite you?”             “He invited me because I’m his friend. He invited you because he pitied Joyce for her lack of friends,” Harry stated through that smug grin.             Y/N shook her head, disappearing inside the house.  She couldn’t ruin Andrew’s romantic surprise with her complaints about his rude friend. She decided her best bet was to avoid Harry this weekend. *          *          *          *          *          *

           The orange sun dipped below the pines trees and cast a salmon pink glow onto the cottage.  Floral scented bug spray masked the smoke billowing from the fire pit.  Andrew and Harry heaved thick logs inside the glowing fire pit while Joyce handed out roasting sticks.  Lina ripped the plastic marshmallow bag open with her teeth, and Justin and Mark lugged the cooler filled with alcoholic beverages onto the backyard deck.            “Are we ready for smores?” Andrew asked, wiping the bark from his sore hands onto his dark jeans.            Joyce shook her head, glancing up toward the bedroom window, “I’m going to check on Y/N.  Harry, are you sure Y/N said she didn’t want smores?”            Harry nodded fervently, “She mentioned something about needing rest from the trip.  I offered to run her a bath, but she denied it all.”            Joyce frowned, tutting under her breath, “Well, I’ll check on her one more time.”            Joyce entered the cool house while Andrew and his friends looked through playlists.  Her knuckles rapped softly against the wooden door.            “Love, are you okay?  Harry told us that you weren’t feeling well from the trip,” Joyce asked, leaning against the doorframe.            The wooden door clicked open, revealing the spacious cream-colored room.  A pinkish glow settled around the room from the window where Joyce could spot Andrew and his friends.  Y/N plopped down onto the white duvet while Joyce admired the expensive art that lined the white walls.            “Are you okay?” Joyce asked, sitting down beside Y/N.            Y/N nodded, “Yeah, what did Harry say?”           “He told us that you declined the smores because you needed rest,” Joyce mumbled, shifting her focus toward the large window again.            Y/N nodded, debating whether she should inform Joyce about Harry’s cruel words, or should she ignore Harry for Andrew’s sake. What kind of friend would she be, if she ruined her best friend’s proposal weekend?              She huffed, gripping her head, “Yeah, I’m exhausted.  We can spend time together tomorrow.”            Joyce smiled, wrapping her arms around Y/N’s body, “Okay, I love you.  I think Harry is sleeping across the hall, so if you need anything, you can ask him.  I think he likes you.”            Once Joyce left, Y/N snorted at the thought of Harry talking positively about her.  She leaned against the wooden bed frame and flipped through the book’s fresh pages. She read until the sparkling stars replaced the pink sunset.  She drifted to sleep while Joyce, Andrew, and his friends celebrated the weekend around the roaring fire. *          *          *          *          *          *

           Exhausted snores echoed throughout the small cottage.  Y/N tiptoed past the bedroom doors with her blue tote bag clutched tightly underneath her arm.  Sunlight greeted her delicate eyes the minute she entered the living room.  She tipped the sunglasses perched atop her head onto the bridge of her nose.  Joyce’s words about the gigantic lake warmed the goosebumps that coated Y/N’s skin.             “Where are you going dressed like that?” Harry’s groggy morning voice startled Y/N’s hand away from the door handle.            Y/N spun around, yelping once her face came into contact with Harry’s bare chest.  Harry chuckled, stepping backward, admiring Y/N’s frazzled actions.            “What are you doing?” Y/N hissed, shifting her eyes around the room rather than on Harry.            Harry snorted, crossing his arms across his chest, “I’m an early riser.  Where are you going?”            Y/N huffed, sliding the tote bag further up her arm, “Joyce mentioned something about a lake about two miles away, so I planned on visiting it while everyone slept.”            “A lake?  No, unless you mean the pond almost two miles away that dried up years ago, then I think Joyce lied,” Harry grumbled, furrowing his brows in confusion.            Y/N rolled her eyes, “Why would I believe you? You made it clear how you feel about Joyce and me.  I’d rather trust my best friend than you.”            “Fine, you don’t have to believe me, but I spent multiple summers in this cottage,” Harry stated in his sing-song voice.            Y/N shook her head, ignoring the nagging voice residing in her brain that trusted Harry more than Joyce.  Her hands gripped the door’s metal handle as she slid the heavy door open without making noise for the sleeping residents.  She glanced back, wishing she hadn’t when she spotted Harry’s smug grin as he waved goodbye to her.  She rolled her eyes, jogging down the creaking deck stairs and dirt pathway. How could someone as handsome as Harry be cruel?  Why did she still crave his rosy lips when he disliked her?  She shook her head, choosing to embrace the summer heat instead of her hatred for Harry.  The overgrown grass and weeds tickled her ankles while she admired the squirrels racing up and down the tall trees.  After strolling through the woods for about forty minutes, she stumbled across the wide yet shallow dip in the Earth.  The tan dirt cracked from the dry heat and lack of water.  Y/N stood there with her mouth open like a fish out of the water while Harry’s words taunted her mind, “Unless you mean the pond almost two miles away that dried up years ago, then I think Joyce lied”.  Joyce lied. *          *          *          *          *          *

           The bottom of Y/N’s feet ached from the rocky path not created for sandals. Her fingernails scratched the red, swollen bug bites dotted around her sticky skin.  A sigh parted her lips when her eyes spotted the familiar cottage, but dread churned within her stomach.  She wasn’t prepared for Harry’s cocky attitude waiting for her arrival so he could say, “I told you so”.  Should she have listened to Harry?  Yes, but he never provided enough reasoning for her to trust him.  She continued the walk of shame across the deck until the refreshing AC greeted her boiling skin.  After she dropped the tote bag beside the door, she found Harry hiding his smirk behind a purple coffee mug.  She rolled her eyes, shuffling toward the uncomfortable white couch that Harry lounged on.            “Could you wipe that stupid smirk off your face for five seconds?” Y/N hissed, plopping down beside Harry’s feet.            “I’m sorry.  I’ll try not to smile when you tell me that I was right,” Harry shrugged.            Y/N huffed, shaking her head, “You were right about the lake.”            “Right, does Joyce always lie?” Harry asked, ignoring Y/N’s jaw drop from his question.            Y/N shook her head, “Why would you ask that? Did Joyce lie about the lake? Yes, but she thought I wouldn’t come without a bribe.”            Harry snorted, “Bribing isn’t a good trait either.  I need to warn Andrew that his future wife lies and bribes people.”            “Why do you insist on breaking them up? What did Joyce ever do to you? Are you jealous of their love since nobody can last two months with you?” Y/N growled, standing to her feet.            Harry glared, opening his mouth with the perfect comeback in mind when Andrew strolled into the living room.  Y/N and Harry straightened up, plastering fake smiles across their faces.            “Good morning.  What are you two doing up?” Andrew asked, heading toward the kitchen.            Harry chuckled, slipping off the couch to chase after Andrew, “Oh, you know how much I love waking up early.  Y/N, what did you do this morning?”            Y/N shot daggers at Harry’s back as she followed him inside the kitchen, “Joyce mentioned something about a lake, but it turned out to be a pond.”            Andrew laughed, pouring the steaming coffee inside a red mug, “I told her about that pond.  I had my first kiss at that pond with a nearby neighbor.”            Harry tutted, leaning his elbows onto the cold marble counters, “Does Joyce lie to you?”            Y/N’s blood boiled from Harry’s question that surprised Andrew enough for him to choke on his coffee.  Y/N offered Andrew a nearby napkin to blot the coffee from his chin while Harry waited impatiently for the answer.            “Does Joyce lie to me?  Well, everyone can’t be one hundred percent honest all of the time.  I’m sure she does lie to me, but it never hurts me or my life,” Andrew mumbled, grabbing an orange from the intricately carved glass bowl.            Y/N nodded, changing the subject away from her friend, who wasn’t in the room to defend herself, “Yeah, everyone lies at one point in their lives, you must have lied about something, right Harry? I mean, being a pop star requires you to lie—about dating women, your friendship with previous band members, and your entire life.”            “Well, at least I would never lie to the person I plan on spending the rest of my life with,” Harry countered.            “Are you two hungry?  Joyce and I want to grab breakfast from the diner down the street,” Andrew mumbled, breaking the tension between Y/N and Harry.           “I’m starving,” Y/N and Harry stated at the same time.            Andrew nodded, exiting the kitchen in search for Joyce while Y/N and Harry glared into each other’s eyes.  Y/N despised the handsome man standing before her. She couldn’t wait until Andrew proposed to Joyce, so Y/N wouldn’t have to spend her weekend with Harry.   *          *          *          *          *          *

           Grease soaked the white and yellow wrappers labeled with different breakfast sandwiches.  Roasted coffee beans masked the floral candles burning on the kitchen counter. Lina rubbed the sleep from her eyes while Justin unwrapped their sandwiches.  Mark mixed alcohol into the steaming coffee and reassured the entire table that he only drank on the weekend.  Andrew and Harry discussed the dinner plans that revolved around either Harry or Andrew grilling.  Joyce passed out the sandwiches, and Y/N handed everyone the toasted hash-brown.            “Harry, Andrew told me that you don’t eat eggs, so I ordered you the yogurt parfait.  I eat them whenever we visit Andrew’s parents, and I can’t get enough of them,” Joyce grinned, handing Harry the yogurt cup.            Harry scowled, setting the sticky yogurt cup beside the sweating glass of water.  Joyce’s smile faltered from the cold expression she received.  Last night, Harry avoided all conversation with Joyce, which sent her worried heart into a frenzy.  If Harry didn’t approve of her, then Andrew might listen to Harry and end their relationship.  Joyce adored Andrew and couldn’t imagine her life without him, so she asked Andrew about Harry’s favorite items to win his approval.  Now, she wished she ordered him the same egg sandwich everyone else received.            “I don’t eat sugar in the morning.  These yogurt cups may look healthy, but too many of these could spoil a diet,” Harry grumbled, handing Mark the yogurt cup.            “Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Joyce mumbled through her plastered on smile.            Y/N recognized the fake smile spread across Joyce’s face.  Joyce loved pleasing everyone, so Y/N could only imagine how worried Joyce was when her boyfriend’s best friend wasn’t the nicest.  Joyce may avoid confrontation with Harry, but Y/N couldn’t let Harry mistreat her friend.  She swallowed the dry biscuit down her throat in preparation for her argument.            “Joyce, don’t listen to Harry.  The yogurt cup is divine,” Mark moaned, spooning the strawberry sauce into his mouth.            Joyce giggled, patting Mark’s shoulders, “I’m glad you like it.  Harry, can I make you anything else?”            Harry shook his head, standing from the table, “I’m not hungry.  I think I’m going to relax on the deck.”            Y/N mentally thanked Harry for taking his rotten attitude outside, so the rest of the group could enjoy their breakfast. Andrew rubbed Joyce’s shoulders while he wondered what happened to his best friend.  Nobody discussed Harry’s distant behavior, but everyone created excuses for the pop star, everyone except Y/N. *          *          *          *          *          *

           Soft indie music flowed throughout the dark woods.  The stars sparkled over the seven friends gathered around the dying fire.  Joyce cuddled into Andrew’s side, Lina plopped down on Justin’s lap, and Y/N sat between Mark and Harry.  The marshmallow roasting sticks, discarded hours ago, sat near their feet.              “Justin, how did you meet Lina?” Y/N asked, sipping the sparkling red wine.             Lina giggled, pressing her red-stained lips against Justin’s thick neck, “Well, my friend planned on attending the local university art show.  My friend dragged me to the show with the promise of free alcohol.  I knew nothing about the artist, but I loved her work. After chugging too many glasses of champagne, I found the most beautiful girl standing before my favorite painting. I approached her, and she listened to me compliment the art until she finally confessed that she was the artist. She scribbled her number across my arm, and we met for breakfast the next morning.”            “That’s so sweet,” Joyce squealed, squeezing her arms around Andrew’s waist.            Y/N nodded, “You are what the kids would call couple goals.”            Lina and Justin admired each other’s eyes as if their entire world resided within one another’s pupils.  Y/N’s heart craved a relationship like that, where she need only that person.  Harry glanced over at Y/N, noticing the longing gaze in her eyes after Justin’s story. His heart fluttered from the idea of staring into her beautiful eyes the same way his friends were doing.              “Joyce, how did you meet Andrew,” Harry asked, tossing an extra log into the fire.            Andrew and Joyce tensed from Harry’s question. Y/N understood the reasoning behind Joyce’s nervous smile.  Y/N and Joyce visited the local bookstore near the campus, where Andrew happened to work. Joyce saw Andrew from across the room and tugged Y/N into the children’s book section to inform Y/N that the love of her life happened to be in the store.  Y/N giggled, rolling her eyes because Joyce believed everyone was her soulmate.  Joyce fixed her hair and strutted across the store toward the register.  Andrew and Joyce flirted for multiple minutes until Joyce returned with Andrew’s number in her phone.  What Andrew didn’t know was that Joyce had a long-distance boyfriend that she meant to break up with months ago, but couldn’t find the right time. What Joyce didn’t know was that Andrew had an on-again, off-again relationship with his ex-girlfriend.  The two dated until they found out about their significant others.  Andrew ended the relationship, which left Joyce devasted for months until Y/N helped Andrew rekindle the couple’s love.  Y/N knew Joyce’s story would provide ample reasoning for Harry breaking up their relationship.           “I met Andrew at the bookstore, where we flirted until we started dating,” Joyce mumbled, tearing away from Andrew’s grip.           Mark frowned, furrowing his brows, “Why are you giving him the short story?  What about the part where you were dating someone else, and Andrew wouldn’t stop fucking Claire.”            “That part isn’t important for our story,” Andrew hissed, pleading for Mark to shut up.            Harry’s eyes darted between Andrew and Joyce, who separated from the awkward story.  His mind cheered upon the realization that he could break up their relationship with this story, but his heart sunk when he watched Andrew grip Joyce’s hand to reassure her that everything would be okay.  He spent all weekend searching for problems in Joyce when he never noticed the love between the couple.  He barely knew the girl that his best friend fell in love with, and he insisted on changing that.            “Joyce, I appreciate your story.  You and Andrew have a beautiful relationship,” Harry grinned, shooting a subtle wink at Andrew.            Joyce smiled with relief, “Thank you.”            Y/N’s shocked eyes stared at Harry as if he’d gone insane.  Lina changed the subject away from Joyce, but Y/N couldn’t focus after Harry’s kind action. After a short chuckle from the story, Harry shot Y/N a sheepish smile before returning his attention toward Lina. Y/N shook her head, hiding her smug grin behind the wine glass. *          *          *          *          *          *

           “Well, I enjoyed the conversation.  I am exhausted,” Harry yawned, standing from the green chair.            Everyone mumbled their goodnights as Harry entered the cool house.                 Andrew continued his story about grade school, but Y/N’s heart replayed Harry’s sheepish grin.  She chugged the remaining wine in her glass and stood to her feet.            “I am going to bed.  I’ll see everyone in the morning,” Y/N spoke through her fake yawn.             Everyone nodded, waving goodbye as she entered the house.  She waited a few minutes for anyone to follow her inside before tiptoeing toward Harry’s room.  Her stomach fluttered from the nerves and butterflies as her knuckles rapped against the wood.  What if he fell asleep?  What if was mad that she woke him up?  What if he acted nice to fool Joyce and Y/N for his ultimate plan?  Y/N’s panicked thoughts stopped once Harry’s door creaked open.  She expected Harry to look shocked that Y/N was outside his room, but all she found was guilt residing in his green eyes.            “Come inside,” Harry mumbled, shifting backward for Y/N to enter.            The large bedroom contained the similar white walls and cream carpet aesthetic; however, framed baseball posters lined the walls.  The queen-sized bed featured a white duvet with navy blue baseball-themed sheets. Y/N assumed Andrew lived in this room as a child.            “I’m glad you came to my room.  I hoped you understood my subliminal message outside,” Harry shuffled across the room toward the bed.            Y/N giggled, “Yeah, you shocked me outside. I expected you to pick on Joyce for cheating on Andrew.”            Harry winced, “Was I that horrible all weekend?”            “Yes, you ignored her all weekend, you accused her of lying to Andrew, and you would have mentioned the cheating incident,” Y/N admitted, watching Harry cringe with each statement.            Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, “I wanted to apologize to you.  I plan on apologizing to Joyce tomorrow when everyone isn’t around.  I treated you cruelly, and I am not the type of person to do that.  I responded out of jealousy.”            Y/N furrowed her brows, brushing a hand down Harry’s arm, “Who were you jealous of?”            Harry glanced up into Y/N’s eyes with shame clouding his pupils, “I was jealous of you.  Before Andrew started dating Joyce, we talked almost every day about our lives.  When I released the new album, I pushed Andrew to the side.  He messaged me with the idea of proposing, and I ignored him because the fans needed me more.  I expected him to wait for me, but he didn’t, and he chose you to help him instead.  I messaged him with multiple ring ideas from Gucci designers, and when he told me the news, I became jealous that you took my spot as Andrew’s best friend.”            “I could never replace you, Harry. Andrew is your best friend, but he needed someone who understood Joyce.  I think you need to tell Andrew and Joyce how you felt, they will understand. You are a kind man, and you reacted out of fear and jealousy.  We are all humans,” Y/N chuckled, smiling wider once that dimpled grin spread across Harry’s face.            “Thank you,” Harry breathed out, staring into Y/N’s starry eyes.            The couple didn’t notice the short distance between them until Harry’s minty breath fanned across her face.  Y/N gasped inaudibly, placing her palms against Harry’s sturdy chest.  She admired the blue specks mixed with Harry’s crystal green eyes.              “Can I kiss you?” Harry breathed out.            “Please,” Y/N whispered, wrapping her arms around Harry’s neck.            Harry’s rosy lips brushed against her own until she finally captured his lips between hers.  Harry sighed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist while her fingers slotted through his luscious hair.  Harry’s tongue traced her lips, begging for entrance into her mouth. A soft moan parted her lips after Harry squeezed her butt.  Harry’s tongue entered her mouth that still tasted like the sparkling red wine. Their tongues melted together while they pressed their bodies flush against one another.  Harry pulled away from the kiss, searching for Y/N’s consent for their upcoming plans.            “I am okay,” Y/N promised.            Harry’s fingers clumsily gripped the bottom hem of her shirt, tugging until the shirt interrupted their kiss.  They stumbled backward toward the bed, tumbling down onto the springy mattress together.  Harry’s sudden infatuation surprised and worried Y/N.  Did Harry have feelings for her, or was he channeling his hatred through sex?  Y/N didn’t know the answer, but she hoped Harry had feelings for her too. *          *          *          *          *          *

           The chirping birds outside the window stirred Harry from his sleep.  His eyelids fluttered open while his hands searched for Y/N’s warm body.  The frozen sheets informed him that Y/N disappeared from the bed hours ago.  His dimpled grin fell as he tossed aside the sheets from his body.  He shuffled down the dark hallway, listening to Lina and Y/N speak about life plans.            “Yeah, we could grab lunch next week,” Lina gushed, blending what Harry assumed was a smoothie.            Harry knuckled the sleep from his eyes before entering the kitchen.  The marble counter contained a purple bowl filled with chopped strawberries, a blue bowl filled with chopped bananas, and a final bowl contained homemade whipped cream. Lina stood near the fridge, where she blended blueberries and other fruits into the purple smoothie that sat in three cups.  Harry assumed Y/N and Lina planned on surprising everyone with the extravagant breakfast. ��His eyes drifted away from the counter as he stumbled toward Y/N’s glowing figure.            “Good morning,” Harry cooed, reaching for her hips so he could pull her in for a kiss.            Y/N grinned, twisting away from Harry’s arms, “Good morning.  Lina, are you almost finished with the smoothies?”            “Yes, how did you sleep, Harry?” Lina asked, handing him a purple smoothie.            Harry hid the confusion burning inside his chest as he told Lina about his rest.  He kept eyeing Y/N, who remained emotionless as she poured the batter onto the sizzling skillet.  Did she regret last night?  Was she drunk, and forgot that she slept with him?  Why was she acting like she barely knew him?            “Well, I’m going to wake up Justin,” Lina announced, drying her hands on the dishrag.            Harry grinned, watching Lina pad across the kitchen and into the living room.  Once Lina disappeared, Harry spun around on his feet to face Y/N.  Y/N glanced up from the bubbling pancakes and met Harry’s stern glare.            “What?” She asked, flipping the pancake.            Harry gasped, walking toward Y/N until their chests brushed against each other, “Did you forget about last night?”            Y/N blushed, placing her palms against Harry’s chest, “No, I didn’t forget about last night.  I do not think our friends should find out about our adventures because they might assume we are a couple.”            Harry’s heart sunk from her words.  Did she not want to date Harry?  Was she interested solely in sex?  Harry adored everything he knew about her, from her feisty attitude to her sweet gestures for her friends.            “You don’t want to date me?” Harry asked, attempting to hide his hurt feelings, but Y/N’s sympathetic frown told him that he failed.            Y/N cupped Harry’s cheeks, “I want to date you, but I don’t know you.  You were mean to me the entire weekend, so I would like to know you outside of this situation.  I also don’t want to steal Joyce’s spotlight by telling everyone that we fucked.”            Harry chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist, “You are cute.”            Y/N giggled, leaning on her toes to press her lips against Harry’s rosy lips.  Harry pulled away from her lips but trailed his lips down her smooth neck.  His hot breath splashed across her skin, sending chills down her spine.  A moan parted her lips as Harry sucked a fresh love bite onto her neck.            “I love the sounds you make.  Now, can I help you with breakfast?” Harry asked, straightening up and acting as if he hadn’t left Y/N all dazed.           Y/N rolled her eyes, grumbling playfully underneath her breath, “Sure, you can help by finishing what you started.”            Harry tutted, swatting a palm against her butt, “We can’t have Andrew or Joyce walking in on me fucking you on the kitchen counter.”            Y/N gasped, clenching her thighs from the image of Harry and her on the counter.  Harry shot her his famous smug grin before exiting the kitchen with plates. Y/N’s heart stuttered from his smug grin that she once despised.  She knew Harry wormed his way into everyone’s heart, but she never expected her heart to be this weak for him.  She couldn’t wait until they left the cottage, so she could kiss Harry without worrying about her friends walking in. *          *          *          *          *          *

           Andrew whistled a happy tune while he strolled out from the bedroom.  Two pairs of hands gripped his white button-down shirt and tugged him inside the dark bathroom.  A startled yelp fell from his thin lips before Harry’s hand clamped against his mouth.  Y/N flipped the light switch, illuminating the dark bathroom, and calming Andrew’s fear.            “Are you ready?” Y/N and Harry asked, cornering Andrew.            Andrew nodded, staring wide-eyed between his beaming friends, “I have the ring in my pocket.  Did Mark finish cooking the roast?”            “Yes, and Harry helped me bake Joyce’s favorite chocolate cake.  When do you plan on doing it?” Y/N wondered, picturing Andrew asking during dinner.            Andrew shrugged, running his sweaty palms down the front of his shirt, “I don’t know.  Should I ask before dinner?”            Harry shook his head, “If you asked before dinner, then she would be too happy to eat.  You could ask before dessert.”            Y/N nodded, straightening the wrinkles in Andrew’s shirt, “Before dessert sounds good to me.  Are you nervous?”            Andrew chuckled ironically, “I don’t think I’ve ever sweated more in my life.  What if she says no?”            Y/N rolled her eyes, “Andrew, Joyce adores you with every fiber in her body.  It is normal to feel nervous, but remember that you know Joyce better than anyone.  You know how crazy she feels about you, and how much you both want a future together.”            “Thank you,” Andrew smiled, wrapping his arms around both Y/N and Harry.            Andrew exited the bathroom first, leaving Y/N and Harry alone inside the bathroom.              Harry grinned, leaning against the cold tile counter, “You are good at giving advice.”            Y/N smiled, stuffing napkins inside the dress’s pockets, “Thank you.  You are quite the romantic.”            Harry smirked, tugging Y/N closer by the hips, “Can I kiss you?”            “You can kiss me whenever you want,” Y/N breathed out, sealing Harry’s lips with her own.            The sweet kiss lasted a few seconds before the couple decided they better exit the bathroom before people became suspicious. Y/N headed toward the kitchen to help Mark and Justin while Harry talked with Joyce about Andrew’s childhood adventures. Y/N couldn’t believe that in a few hours, her best friend would be engaged. *          *          *          *          *          *

           “The roast tasted delicious,” Joyce complimented a blushing Mark.            Mark swatted his hand, pouring more red wine into her glass, “I’m glad you enjoyed it.  I stole the recipe from my ex-girlfriend’s mother.”            Lina’s abrupt laughter caused the red wine to spew from her mouth and onto the table, “I’m sorry, but you stole that recipe from an ex-girlfriend’s mom.  You date people?”            Mark glared, playfully mocking Lina while everyone laughed around the table, “At least I don’t spit my wine out.”            “Yeah, we knew you liked swallowing rather than spitting,” Harry joked, collecting the dirty dishes from the table.            The entire table erupted into laughter from Harry’s joke.  Mark and Harry continued swapping sexual innuendos while Y/N passed the chocolate cake around the table.  She noticed Andrew fidgeting beside Joyce, who didn’t notice her boyfriend clutching the small, black box inside his palms.  Andrew cleared his throat, the signal for everyone to quiet down.  Y/N plopped down beside Harry, waiting with everyone for the moment when Andrew popped the question.  Joyce straightened up, focusing her attention on Andrew’s pale figure.            “Sweetie, are you okay?” Joyce asked, cupping Andrew’s face.            Andrew chuckled nervously, standing to his feet before kneeling on one knee, “I have never been better.  Joyce, the minute you entered my life, I knew I wanted to spend forever with you.  I want to wake up every morning from you singing in the shower.  I want to return home to you after a hard day of work because you make everything better.  I want to start a family with you, so we can bring our children to this cottage.  I want to stand beside you at the altar, and say those two words.  I want to marry you, so will you marry me?”            A breathless chuckle fell from Joyce’s lips while her shaking hands covered her mouth.  Silent sobs shook her body as tears rolled down her cheeks.  Lina and Justin cuddled into one another, cooing from the sweet moment.  Mark swallowed the lump in his throat down with wine.  Y/N sniffled, dabbing the tears from her eyes with the tissues she stowed away in her dress.  Harry looked at Y/N’s beautiful face, deciding he wanted to spend multiple years with Y/N.  He reached for her hand under the table, squeezing it to show that he was there for her. Y/N’s smile widened from the sweet gesture, but her eyes never left Joyce, who slowly shook her head yes. Everyone cheered, standing from their chairs and clinking wine glasses together while Joyce and Andrew shared their first kiss as an engaged couple. *          *          *          *          *          *

           “I’m engaged,” Joyce squealed, dangling her hand in front of Y/N’s face.            Y/N giggled, admiring the sparkling diamond ring, “I know.  The ring looks beautiful on you.”            “Thank you for helping Andrew choose the ring,” Joyce mumbled, tilting her hand from side to side.            Y/N nodded, leaning her head against the stiff white couch’s cushion,                   “You’re welcome.  You’re my best friend.  I knew what you wanted.”            Joyce giggled, falling into silence after the small squeal from the ring’s reflections.  The whirring dishwasher roared throughout the silent house.  Justin, Lina, and Mark retired to their bedrooms after dessert while the rest of the group split off.  Harry and Andrew were talking outside under the cloudy night sky, and Y/N and Joyce chose the sofa, where they discussed wedding plans.  Y/N yawned, scrolling through messages from Harry that centered around how much he missed her.  She rolled her eyes, smiling from his cheesy messages that warmed her heart.            “Since I’m your best friend, will you tell me something?” Joyce asked, shifting her attention away from the ring and toward Y/N.            Y/N nodded, dropping the phone onto her lap, “What do you want to know?”            “How was last night with Harry?” Joyce smirked, laughing when Y/N choked on her saliva.            “What?  What do you mean?  I slept alone last night,” Y/N lied.            Joyce rolled her eyes dramatically, “Sure, and I will stop bragging about my ring in a few hours.  Andrew and I know about last night because we walked by his room and heard you two.  If you didn’t want anyone to find out, then don’t do it in a cottage you are sharing with your friends.”            Y/N groaned, palming her face, “Why didn’t we wait?  I’m sorry, I didn’t want to steal your thunder, and I didn’t even know if Harry and I were going to date.”            Joyce shook her head, holding Y/N’s hands in her own, “You are not stealing my thunder.  Andrew and I liked the idea of you two together before you even met. Whenever we noticed the tension between the two of you, we assumed you would either sleep together or kill each other. I’m glad you chose the first option. Do you like him?”            Y/N giggled, thinking about Harry’s adorable smile, “I like him.  Do you remember when you swore to me that Andrew was your soulmate?  Well, I feel like Harry could be that person for me. Sure, I don’t know him, but this attraction goes beyond sex.”            Joyce squealed, “I knew it.  I’m glad you found someone that drives you crazy.”            Y/N laughed, shaking her head at Joyce’s over-excitement.  Joyce returned the conversation to the wedding while Y/N messaged Harry.  Her heart swooned over the curly-haired man chatting outside with his friend. *          *          *          *          *          *

           “Are you insane?  Who chooses Colin Firth over Hugh Grant?” Y/N cried out.            Harry clutched his chest, acting insulted from Y/N’s words, “Are you insulting Colin Firth?  Hugh Grant plays the asshole, but you still support him throughout the film.”            Y/N shook her head, tossing popcorn into Harry’s mouth, “No, I do not support him.  He does play the asshole, but I would rather fuck him because he’s hot.”            Harry pouted, crossing his arms across his chest, “I’m hot too.”            Y/N giggled, setting the popcorn bowl onto Harry’s glass coffee table.  She scooted across the smooth, gray suede couch toward Harry’s pouting lips.              “You are hot, and I would choose you over Hugh Grant and Colin Firth any day,” Y/N purred, wrapping her arms around Harry’s neck, bringing his lips down to her own.            Harry smirked, melting into Y/N’s arms while he enjoyed her soft lips pressed onto his own.  Y/N broke the kiss, staring into Harry’s dazed green eyes.            “Should we finish the film?  I think Bridget might choose Hugh Grant,” Y/N whispered, chuckling when Harry rolled his eyes.            “Yeah, can I hold the popcorn?  You keep hogging the popcorn,” Harry whined, reaching for the popcorn bowl.            The blonde woman chased after Hugh Grant and Colin Firth onto the street.  Harry shoveled popcorn into his mouth with one hand while his other hand held Y/N’s hands. Y/N expected after five dates with Harry, she would get used to her heart fluttering from his touch, but her heart nearly leaped out of her chest whenever she spent time with Harry.  She kept her attention on the television screen, unlike Harry, who often took breaks to admire Y/N’s beauty.  Y/N brightened his day within seconds, whether in person or over the phone.  His smile never faltered around the beautiful girl, and his stomach never stopped fluttering when her skin brushed his.  He returned his attention toward the screen, where Bridget followed her true love into the snowstorm.            “Hey, do you consider us exclusive?” Harry asked, running his thumb across her knuckles.            “Wait, you want us to be exclusive? Shit, I better break up with my three other boyfriends,” Y/N giggled, dodging the popcorn Harry chunked at her.            Harry rolled his eyes, chuckling at her joke, “I’m serious.  I care about you, and I want to reassure you that I’m serious about us.”            Y/N smiled through her racing heart, “Me too. I care about you too.  Will you be my boyfriend?”            Harry smiled, cupping Y/N’s face, “Yes, will you be my girlfriend?”            Y/N nodded, pressing her lips against Harry’s rosy lips.  The credits flashed across the screen, but the couple didn’t seem to care at that moment. Y/N couldn’t wait to tell Joyce about her new relationship, and Harry couldn’t wait to thank Andrew for introducing him to Y/N.  All Y/N and Harry needed were one another.

[blue-skeleton6289]

Okay uh just something I want to know--what would happen if when the skeletons came home and found that the reader wasn't there(also the reader is at the grocery store somehow, also pretend that they don't know that they have their phones) I want to see how it would go (if your okay on answering it)

Sure! Welp time to get emotional!

The whole house was neat and tidy!

"Good job Y/N a work well done!" You pat your back as you go towards the fridge, you were hungry all that cleaning and running around really made you hungry. Opening the fridge your surprised to see not much left. Some milk, still some veggies, afew condiments left, but not that much. You don't even see any eggs!?

"Well I guess none of us has gone grocery shopping. Guess I will just go! I bet Axe and Jupiter will be thrilled to see the fridge full and cabinets! Might as well stock up!" With that idea set in mind you ran upstairs to put on clothes that wasn't dirty or smelled like cleaning supplies.

You throw on a purple shirt with a cream half sweater and some high waist light jeans.

Grabbing your card you were pretty excited!

As you turned around you saw Joey sitting there waiting. TUGGING AT YOUR SOUL STRINGS!!!

"You wanna come?" You asked as his tail wagged more and he ran to his new leash handing it to you.

"Hehe, you pretty much are a service dog. Emotional support!! So if anyone asks you act like you know what to do!" You hold his big tan and black head, as his pink tongue sticks out.

You hook it on his collar and put on your gray ankle short boots. Running down the stairs with Joey.

Grabbing a car key you take Papyruses red ferrari. He gave you permission if ever needed.

Joey hopping in the back you drive off towards the store.

---

The house was quiet no noise at all, just the ticking from the grand old father clock.

Sans, Red, Stretch, and Fluffy called it a day early wanting to get home and relax. Be with you.

But when they all got home they expected Joey to be running at them or atleast barking like he usually does. At there arrival.

"where's joey?" Sans asked finding this very weird.

"probably outside or with dollface" Red waved it off its happend before.

Fluffy sniffed the air not smelling you in the house? Or Joey for that matter?

Fluffy went outside automatically, to not see a soul out there.

"she is not outside! i-her scent is kinda faint, like she is gone!" Fluffy was passing back and forth. Trying to calm down. Gone. Gone. GONE!

All the skeletons eyes go out. Now that they think about it your scent is alittle faded. Like you have been gone for 2 hours! Maybe more!

All of them look around the whole mansion. It was clean and like every time they come home to you being there. Giving them that happy sweet warm smile.

They can't find you... Calling their brothers in a panic. All trying to stay calm, they double check everywhere!

"why the fuck can't we find 'er!? wheres is 'er dog!? 'er room is still there everything is still fuckin' there but where is Y/N!?" Red is now loosing it.

As the others pull up they run to the house.

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Papyrus was so worried aa they all looked through the house as well.

"HOW COULD SHE JUST BE GONE WHERE IS HER DOG!!?" Edge screamed, looking for that you and that dog of yours!

"DID YOU CHECK THE LAUNDRY ROOM!?" Blue asked trying to think.

Everyone stopped at that. Teleporting to the laundry room or running.

As Error, Ink, Nightmare, Dream, Dusty, Axe, and Jupiter arrived home. Coming to this chaos.

Axe immediately started to go alittle insane. Dusty teleportinh everywhere with one thing on his mind. You.

Nightmare and Dream were both trying to look for your soul. You weren't in the house?! Or anywhere near the house?!

That got everyone to go either more berserk, sad, worried, confused.

"w-where c-c-could s-she h-have g-gone?!" Error was getting mad and more worried then he would have ever imagined.

All there souls were in a frenzy thinking the worse.

When Ink got struck with something...

"What if the machine took her back?" Ink asked as the words trembled out. He was...feeling something. Something he didn't like it was bothering him.

Everyone froze at that, Papyrus, Jupiter, Blue, even Dream. Were on the verge of tears. There soul was growing more sad.

They all took in thid information. All their souls were screaming in protest. No no that can't be!

"no, no that can't be we didn't fix it yet!" Sans voice was growing deeper. With worry of that possibility.

"but when she came here the machine was still broken. what if it was a glitch...she did come from a universe were we didn't exist... what if it glitched and sent her and joey..back." Dusty said, as his grin was growing so big as a maniac. Then it fell completely... Which made all of them uneasy except Nightmare, Error, and Axe.

She can't be gone!!

All there souls were screaming in protest. No nO!

They all got to the basement to see the machine like the way it was. No sign of being used... That DIDN'T help!

They all started to cry, little tears were streaming down there cheekbones.

Dusty was laughing as violet tears streamed down his face.

Nightmare was getting more and more unstable as his anger and negative feelings and emotions were taking over. As his cyan eye was dripping cyan tears.

Sans was crying, his face was in a alittle flushed as he was morning over you. As he fell to his knees.

Axe was crying as he was pulling at his empty eye socket. Hopeing if he did you would come, grab his hand gently with your warm soft one. And be there.

Papyrus, Jupiter, and Blue were already balling. All holding there brothers.

There souls were sad but not as sad as it SHOULD BE!

Ink was getting alittle emotional, but he didn't cry. He was frowning heavily.

Edge was turning around looking at his brother. Who was slamming shit against the wall red tears streaming down his cheekbones.

As he was feeling so...sad...that stupid HUMAN!! Didn't even... Didn't even... One little tear slides down his cheekbone.

Dream was even getting emotional and it wasnt happy...

Error was couldn't get a hold of his glitching. He was rebooting over and over like his already unstable mind can't handle this!

Stretch was holding his brother as little honey glow tears were streaming down his face.

Fluffy was howling and growling. NO! His ********can't be gone. Tears where streaming down his cheekbones, mouth wanted to release his blazing lasser energy.

Then like a miracle, they all heard the sound of shuffling and barking!!

They all immediately run or teleport upstairs.

All stopping when seeing you holding four bags of groceries in your arms. Two on each side.

"I swear Joey you better not make me regert getting you that squeaky toy!" You shout as Joey runs off squeezing it and running up to them.

You look up in surprise smiling that beautiful mesmerizing smile. That could beat the sun.

Then they watch you frown in concern.

"What happened are you guys alright!?" You put all the bags down. Then they all tackle you.

"Ahhh!" You fall to the ground as almost every skeleton is on you. Whats happened.

"don't ever leave ok" Sans mumbles into you.

"WE THOUGHT WE LOST YOU!!"Papyrus was squeezing you.

"NEVER LEAVE AGAIN WITHOUT INFORMING US!!" Blue sniffs and holds you tighter.

"you fuckin' scared the shit out of us!" Red said as he poked your cheek. Which you looked down at all of them.

Then you get taken into another skeleton love puddle. Dusty as squeezing you so tight like he was trying to stay sane. As Axe, Jupiter and Dream held youso tight. It hurt but you didn't care.

"ever leave again i'll have to kill everyone until i find you" Dusty whispers into your ear, a deep voice. As Axe nods agreeing with him.

"...even if we are wanted criminals." Axe said in

"Maybe not that-" they all glare at Dream.

"Okay so we might!" He said holding you.

"WE WERE SO WORRIED WE THOUGHT YOU GOT SUCKED INTO THE MACHINE!!!" Jupiter says as he hugs you,

"What!? No I was just getting grocery shopping. I got you all condiments and-" you were snatched again, to be with Nightmare who was holding you as close as he could.

"we don't give a fuck about groceries or condiments!" Nightmare held you super close. Not letting you go.

They were all so worried. You should have left a note. You feel so bad, you made them all so worried.

"I'm sorry guys, I should have left a note. I wasn't thinking i'm so sorry" you whisper more and more apologises.

Then your snatched again but this time it was alittle harder considering Nightmare wouldn't let you go.

"cloudy, cloudy its okay just don't leave us." Fluffy whispers wrapping his tail around you. As he was whimpering and holding you close.

"Yeah give us a warning next time. Everyone was crying like a-" Ink was cut off by Fluffy wacking him with his bony tail. Shutting him up.

Having Error laugh pointing at him.

Then Error snatched you from Fluffy holding you up. Stareing at you.

"i-if y-you do that again i will destory this whole universe and every one if i have to look for you," he then brings you closer and whispers. "darling" which makes you explode red. All of them saying they would look for you. Is bring you to tears and making you blush like mad. Error was just the last straw to make you explode.

"Okay! I wont, do that again! Please stop with all this loyal destroying killing for me. Its making me blush!!!" You scream your thoughts out loud again.

"Wait no that's not what I-"

Everyone is grinning like mad at you.

While you just explode into a bigger ball of red.

"aw, honey its okay at least your honest." Stretch pats your shoulder.

"Shut up! Go get the groceries!" You shouted pointing at the door. Face red and looking alittle mad but not mad mad. As your eyes were sparking in amusement and love for all of them.

"WHAT DID YOU GET!?" Edge asked as he was heading towards the car.

"Come follow me and you will see!" You get up and motion for them all to follow. Joey squeaking his burger toy.

Everyone follows not leaving your side.

"I might have gone alittle over board, heh." You said scratching your cheek.

They all seem confused until they saw the whole car loaded with bags of food. Top to bottem.

"alittle?" Sans, Red, and Stretch said at the same time. Making you blush in embrassment.

"LOOK!! There were deals!!! So MANY deals!!" You scream throwing your arms out towards the car like it would prove your point.

"WAIT DO YOU MEAN CLEARANCE DEALS!?" Edge asked, squinting his eye sockets down at you.

As you looked totally guilty. "Nooooo"

"OH MY GOSH!!"

"NO!!"

"Why we have the money!!?"

Alot of sales of disappointment

You run to the car hugging it and the groceries!! "They were calling MEE!! Look half priced and by one get one free veggies!!" You start going on a rant on all the deals you got. With a gaint smile on your face, making weird little faces at stuff you found odd.

As you did all of them were listening and looking at you with plain adoration, love, and there souls beated happily against there ribcages.

One thought entered there minds.

Don't ever go...

I hope you enjoyed it! This was made in the moment, I hope you still liked it! (:

[su-reader-imagines]

Drive All Night, a ??? X Reader fanfic

So I reached 300 followers ALREADY which is insane. And as promised, I’m finally releasing an old fanfic from late 2018 that I never published. It’s a sort of supernatural type AU with a human reader. The title is based on an unreleased Taylor Swift song called Drive All Night(otherwise known as Just South of Knowing Why)

But here’s the twist: I’m not going to tell you right away who the characters are. You will have to figure it out yourself. It’ll add to the fun!

So here it is, the fic itself!

Summary: After being betrayed by a former friend, you decide to take a relaxing drive around to feel better and distract yourself from your feelings. However, strange things begin to happen around you.

Rating: T?

Warnings: None

—-

You threw yourself onto the bed in frustration. Everything had been going wrong the past week, and today was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The person you thought was your best and only friend had betrayed you at work, embarrassing you in front of all your coworkers. It wasn’t your fault, really, but now you were afraid that you might get fired because of it. All these emotions were raging inside you, but all you could do was just cry yourself to sleep. Luckily for you, your cat Bendy jumped up onto your bed, offering some comfort. He sat down next to you, purring as you began to pet him. At least he understood you. What were you going to do now? You wouldn’t have to go to work until Monday, so you had the whole weekend to prepare for what would be a dreaded confrontation between you and your so-called friend. And you hated confrontation, so you had no clue how you were going to show your face at work now. You looked down at your wrist. You were still wearing the bracelet they gave you when you were 17. Red, cyan, and white plastic beads, looking at it now upset you. But you couldn’t bring yourself to rip it off. Unable to think, you decided to go to sleep, hoping you’d be able to figure something out in the morning. You crawled under the covers and let sleep overcome you, Bendy resting his head against your leg. —- By the time you woke up, it was only five in the morning, right as the sun was about to rise. Unfortunately, this nap didn’t really do much to ease the pain except distract you a little. Bendy was still fast asleep, so you moved slowly in order to avoid waking up. As you got up, you noticed your car keys sitting at the edge of your desk. This gave you an idea: maybe a long drive would help calm you down? A quick getaway to a nearby town, perhaps. Quickly and quietly getting dressed and making yourself look decent, you grabbed your keys and headed out the door. But before you did, you decided to bring Bendy along. He liked car rides, so you picked him up and held him in your arms. Walking outside, you were greeted by a calm look at the neighborhood. It was so peaceful this time of day. You stepped into the car and started it, placing Bendy down in the seat next to you. As you drove away, you didn’t even look back as you moved further and further away from your house. —- You had been on the road for about half an hour before you found yourself on the highway. You didn’t mean to go this far, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. It did become a bigger deal, however, when you realized that you were lost. The next ten minutes were spent trying to get out of the highway, but it seemed like it stretched on for miles. Bendy didn’t seem to mind, though. He was curled up in the seat relaxing. Luckily, it didn’t take long for you to find a rest stop. Maybe they’d have a map or something or at least someone to give you directions. You weren’t the only person to have that idea, though. When you arrived at the rest stop, the place was packed. Almost every parking space was full, as though everyone was going somewhere. It was summer, after all. You managed to find a parking space and parked your car. Not wanting to leave Bendy in the hot car, you decided to smuggle him inside your purse, something you had become very good at ever since you had him. “Be quiet.” you told him as you walked inside. —- To your surprise, the rest stop was completely empty, not a single soul inside. There was a strange feeling about this place that you couldn’t describe, but it made you feel uneasy. A popular song was playing on the loudspeaker, but it was a weird instrumental version. Bendy remained tucked into your purse, hidden from sight. You looked around, wondering where everyone had gone. Surely with a parking lot that crowded, there would at least be several people walking around. Something was definitely wrong here. Your thoughts were interrupted when you saw a cashier at the register, waiting patiently. ”Excuse me?” you asked. She looked up at you. ”Hello!” she smiled. ”I didn’t see you there.” The cashier was a short woman with brown skin, a dark brown afro, and a red work shirt. She even had a little pink flower in her hair. ”Nice to meet you, I’m _.” you greeted. She giggled. ”That’s a pretty name, _.” You blushed a bit. ”Thank you.” you told her. ”I’m afraid I’ve gotten lost.” ”Oh? Is that so?” she responded. ”Yes.” you replied. ”I traveled a little too far and I don’t know where I am. Do you have directions, or at least a map?” ”Of course we do!” she exclaimed. She seemed rather cheery, perhaps a bit too cheery. Something about it didn’t seem natural to you. She pulled out a brochure from behind the counter. ”We all go a little too far sometimes. I’d be careful if I were you~” Something about what she said sent chills down your spine. “Well, thanks for the map. I better get going before anything happens.” “You’ll be just fine. Good luck!” she waved. You quickly walked out of there, a feeling of nervousness washing over you. —- When you exited the building, you were shocked to discover that the parking lot was almost completely empty. Not only that, but the sun was beginning to set! How long had you been in there? Now there were were only three other cars in the parking lot besides your own. Red, cyan, and white, they were right next to each other. You weren’t sure how a building that large only needed three employees. Perhaps it was a carpool, you thought. As you got into the car, you opened the map only to find that it was in a different language. It wasn’t one you recognized, however. Made up of strange symbols, completely illegible to you. You thought about maybe going back to the cashier to get another pamphlet in English, but you decided against it. After that encounter, it was best to just try to figure things out on your own. Wait a minute.... your phone! Didn’t it have a GPS? You could have used that from the start! Rushing to get your phone from your purse, you turned it on only to find that the battery was completely dead. That can’t be, you swore you charged it before you left. You sighed. It looked like you were going to have to find your way out of this area yourself. —- It had been a while since you had left the rest stop. It was already night time, and you were starting to get worried. You tried to turn on the radio to calm yourself down, but all the stations seemed to be nothing but static. It seemed as though you were nowhere near your hometown, or even any place that was familiar to you. None of the road signs made any sense. Hell, you never left the highway to begin with. The strangest thing was, however, was that there wasn’t a single car on the highway except yours. The last time you saw any cars was at the rest stop. In fact, ever since you entered that building, you’ve had the lingering feeling something was wrong. Your thoughts were interrupted when you saw a tall, pale woman in a flowing white gown in the middle of the road. Her hair was a light shade of gray, tied up in two buns. The moment you saw her, it felt like your heart had stopped. What was she doing in the middle of the road? She could get herself killed! You slammed on the breaks as hard as you could. She stood completely still, looking out into the distance. But as you got closer, your headlights shining onto her, she looked right at you and screamed. It was a loud, echoing sound as your car slowed to a halt. You shut your eyes, bracing for impact, but it never came. You opened your eyes. The mysterious woman was nowhere to be seen. Did she run away just in time? That’s what it looked like. ”Oh thank goodness...” you muttered out loud, sighing in relief. But that scream, you had never heard such a haunting noise in your entire life. Even getting a quick glimpse of her face, you couldn’t get the image out of your mind. You were starting to feel lucky that there weren’t any other cars on the road. The whole incident caused Bendy to wake up from his nap. Feeling a little bad, you apologized and pet him a few times. Still parked, you stopped to take a deep breath. That really took some energy from you. But you were thankful that nothing bad happened. Then you remembered that you still needed to find a way home. Attempting to shake off any lingering thoughts about what just happened, you continued driving. —- As the night went on, you found yourself still driving down what seemed to be an endless highway, your only company being your cat and the moon that shone in the sky. It was unusually bright, but it calmed you a little. At least you had the beautiful view. However, that calmness ended when you realized you were both hungry and out of gas. And with nothing in sight, you worried you would break down. Suddenly, as if your prayers were answered, you saw a solitary gas station in the distance. You almost cried tears of joy on the spot! Making your way to the station, you parked your car in front one of the gas pumps. It was self service, but you were able to fill your car with ease. Now you needed food, so after you were done, you walked into the store. —- The moment you walked in, you began to realize you felt like you did back at the rest stop. There was no one there, and there was a strange mood in the air. You looked around, trying to find someone. ”Hello!” a voice greeted. You jumped. ”Ah! You scared me.” you replied. Turning around, you saw a short woman with pale skin and short blue hair. Unlike the other girl you saw at the rest stop, her outfit was a bit more formal looking, wearing a neat blue shirt and black skirt, which was strange for someone working at a gas station. She even wore a black ribbon in her hair. You also noticed that her eyes were unusually blue. ”How may I help you?” she asked. Her voice was rather high pitched, and you could hear an English accent. ”Oh, I’m just browsing.” you told her. She smiled. ”Well, if you need anything, feel free to let me know.” ”Thank you.” you said. The girl walked over to the front desk. You walked through the aisles, trying to find something you liked. Oddly enough, you couldn’t help but feel that girl watching you from the desk. She seemed very friendly, but something was odd about her, too. Finding a bag of chips, you walked back over to the register. ”Find what you were looking for?” she asked. ”Yes.” you stated. As she rung up your chips, you pulled out your wallet and opened it. ”I haven’t seen you before.” she told you. ”I’m from a few towns over. I ended up getting lost, so I have no idea where I am.” you revealed, hoping she might be able to help you out. ”I can tell.” she responded, typing the numbers into the register. ”No offense, but you stand out a bit.” ”I do?” ”Well, yes.” she replied. ”Your clothes are a bit strange.” She looked at you, almost studying your appearance. ”You’re quite pretty, though.” You blushed. ”Thank you...” ”What’s your name?” the girl asked. ”My name? It’s _.” you told her. After you said that, you could have sworn you saw a slight grin in her smile. You started to wonder if that was a good idea. ”_... it’s a beautiful name...” ”Oh, well uh... I’m glad you like it.” You opened up your wallet about to pay for the chips when the cashier frowned. ”We don’t use that kind of money here, _.” ”What?” you said out loud. How far from home were you? It’s not like you lived near any international borders. Even then, you probably would have noticed. ”All I have are U.S. dollars...” ”We use a different kind of currency around here...” she explained, taking your hand and holding it in hers. Just then, you started to notice the light slowly flickering above you. ”You already paid for it, anyway.” ”What do you mean?” you slowly backed away, pulling your hand from her grip. ”It doesn’t matter. You’ve already given me what I needed.” you felt a chill run down your spine. You didn’t give her anything, so what was she even talking about? She began to walk towards you, handing you the chips. ”You can take the chips.” ”On second thought, you can have it back.” you said. You were starting to feel scared. ”No refunds, _...” she sang. You felt the lights flicker more intensely, and even the ground shook a little. You had to get out of here, fast. Without saying another word, you ran out the door. —- Hightailing it out of there and getting to your car as quickly as possible, you started the car and began driving away. “Alright, Bend-o.” you said. “We’re getting out of here.” You knew there was something wrong with this place! That girl didn’t even seem human. Whoever she was, it didn’t matter. You were already getting farther away. It did feel a bit rude to just run out like that, but it wasn’t like you were going to see her again, so you didn’t feel as bad. Now your one and only goal was to get home as soon as possible. No matter where you drove, you could seem to escape the never ending highways and exits. It felt like you were never going to get home. Suddenly, if it were a miracle, you started to see familiar road signs. Your body filled with joy, you found your way home after all! You followed the road signs as carefully as you could, making sure you wouldn’t get lost again. Before you knew it, you found yourself driving down your street. Pulling into the driveway, you parked your car, picked up Bendy, and ran inside. —- When you stepped inside, you were greeted with the familiar setting of your house. You put Bendy down and he ran straight towards your room. The first thing you wanted to do after everything that had happened was to go to bed. You were tired beyond belief and it was finally time for you to relax. Bendy sat in front of the door waiting for you. Picking him up, you opened the door. Walking into your room, you were completely shocked. Sitting next to each other on the bed was both of the girls you had encountered earlier. The blue-haired girl was holding a bag of chips. ”You forgot your chips,” she said with a smirk. ”How... how...” you stuttered. How was this even possible? There’s no way they could have followed you home. ”How did you get into my house?” ”This isn’t your house...” you heard a soft voice coming from behind you. Turning around, you saw the mysterious woman you almost ran over earlier. She looked just like she did before, but this time you noticed her eyes. One was gray, and the other didn’t have a pupil at all. ”What is going on here?!” you shouted. Fear swept through you as you tried to understand what was happening. ”Don’t be afraid...” she told you. She grabbed your hand. ”That’s a pretty bracelet, may I have it?”

”It was rather rude of you to run off like that, you know.” the blue-haired girl criticized. ”You should really take into consideration how the other person might feel. But I forgive you anyway since you’re cute.” She giggled. ”Anyway, I’m pretty sure we don’t need these disguises anymore.” Suddenly, the girl began to glow. Blue wings manifested from behind her, and her working uniform was replaced with a blue dress. A teardrop tattoo also appeared on her right cheek. ”Ah, much better.” She took the black ribbon that was in her hair and removed it, turning it into a wand. ”You’re a...” you stammered. ”Some sort of fairy?” ”You guessed it!” she giggled. ”I thought they weren’t real...” you said. ”They’re real, alright.” the other girl from the rest stop added. ”And so are we.” You didn’t notice, but the other girl also changed. She now wore a red crop top and black shorts. Not only that, but she had red horns and tail, as well as little pointy black wings, like some sort of demon. She began to float towards you. ”Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve even seen a human! Isn’t that right, Aqua?” “It’s been too long, Navy.” Aqua replied. “Ever since we were banished here.” ”What is here?!” you asked. For some reason you couldn’t stop shaking. Navy got down and stood in the middle of the room. She stomped the floor as hard as she could, and the room magically dissolved to reveal another room, this one slightly bigger and much more elaborate. A large canopy bed sat in one corner of the room, along with a couple of couches. On the other side was a bookshelf filled with books, and a closet - who knows what was in it. Somewhere in the room was a lit fireplace. Navy sat down on one of the couches, kicking her feet up on a footstool. Bendy lept from your arms and into Navy’s lap, purring. You could tell it was all so fancy, but why were you even here? “Ah, _, _, _.” the fairy giggled. “I really meant it when I said it was a gorgeous name. I’m so glad you told me.” ”I think we got a good deal over here.” Navy said, petting the cat. ”Not only did we get a human, but a cute little pet too! I think he likes me!” Bendy began to purr as he seemed to enjoy the attention. ”We should make him a playground.” “Why did you bring me here?” you asked. Aqua giggled. “Well, _.” She floated down to your level, lifting your chin up with her wand so you looked directly at her. “Navy, Whitty and I have been stuck here for a very long time. Longer than you have ever been alive.” The latter sentence was emphasized. “Although we love each other very much, sometimes it gets lonely with just the three of us.” “So Aqua, with a little help from me, of course, used as much of our magic as we possibly could to temporarily enter the human world and take a human to bring back here with us!” Navy exclaimed. “You just happened to be there at the right time, so you ended up in our world.” “What about you?” you asked, looking towards the tall pale woman, who’s name was apparently Whitty. “What are you supposed to be?” ”Whitty’s a ghost.” Navy explained. ”And a beautiful one at that, too.” Whitty blushed. ”Oh, stop...” “Well, can you please take me back? I wanna go home!” you yelled. The three of them laughed, giving you chills. “We can’t! You can enter but you can’t get out!” Aqua laughed. “You’re stuck with us forever, dear.” Navy added. “You and your pretty little kitty.” “This... this can’t be...” you replied. The realization began to hit you like a truck. If you had stayed home today instead of running away from your problems, you wouldn’t have ended up in this place with these people, never able to go home again. Tears started falling down you face. “Forever?” “Don’t cry, it’s really not that bad here...” Whitty assured you, wrapping her arms around your shoulders from behind. Her touch felt surprisingly nice. ”At least you have your cat...” Navy got up from the couch and floated towards you. “We’ll be nice...” she told you. “And we’ll be able to give you whatever you want, too.” ”Besides, I can tell you’ve been hurt recently.” Aqua commented, putting a hand on your cheek. ”Hurt really bad.” ”We won’t do that to you...” Whitty said, wiping a tear from your eye. The three of them surrounded you and Navy gave you a hug. ”We’ll make sure you never hurt again if you stay here with us.” ”I thought you said I didn’t have a choice.” you replied. ”You don’t.” Aqua confirmed. ”We’re just trying to make you feel better.” ”I don’t know... this could be a trick. What do you really want from me?” you questioned. Something about this didn’t add up. Why would a fairy, a demon, and a ghost bring you here? ”Oh, _~” Navy sang, floating right next to you. “What’s so wrong about wanting a little company, hm? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of us...” ”I’m not it’s just... I...” “Our intentions can be pure if we want them to be.” Navy continued. “We can have a lot of fun together.” “I’m afraid to find out what your definition of fun is.” you replied. You felt Whitty turn you around. ”There’s no reason to be afraid... we genuinely mean no harm to you...” She placed an arm around your waist and put another hand on your head. Something about the way she held you felt comforting. ”It took a lot for us to get you here, and all we have is each other...” ”But the four of us stuck in this room together for all of eternity?” ”Actually it’s ten rooms.” Aqua corrected. ”This place is bigger than you think.” ”But still...” ”Come on,_... I promise we’ll have lots of fun together. It’ll be like a little party.” Navy reassured. ”Maybe in a hundred years or so we can grab another friend. Ooh! Or a few more cats!” You thought about it. There was really nowhere to go. Maybe staying here wouldn’t be so bad after all. ”Alright, I’ll stay.” The three of them cheered and Whitty gave you a quick kiss on the cheek. ”But please, I need to sleep.” you told them. ”It’s been a long day.” ”Oh, that’s right.” Aqua replied. ”You humans need sleep, don’t you? Not that you’ll be human for much longer, anyway.” ”What?” ”Don’t worry, that is a discussion for later. Go ahead and sleep as long as you like.” she said, putting her wand back in her hair. You sighed a breath of relief as you walked to the bed and laid down, Bendy sitting himself next to you. The bed was soft and warm. Life was about to change. You weren’t really sure what would happen in your new future with these three... individuals. There was still something about them, and this place, that didn’t sit right with you. Maybe it was just instinct. But you hoped they would be true to their word. For now, all you could do was drift off into a calming sleep...

[ghosthouses27]

Hot Damn

Summary: George fucking dies and Phil takes him to Hell Court™

(i had so many options for puns for the title-)

(warning: swearing, mentions of death)

  ~*~

George jolted awake, eyes wide with panic and shaking slightly. A black void surrounded him and whatever flooring was beneath felt cold, almost like water.

"W-what the hell?!" he stammered, his words echoing and bouncing around the... room? He didn't know where he was, in fact he didn't even remembered how he got here! All he remembered was sitting in his friend's speeding car, the sirens behind, and then-

"Hello." A calm voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked around. A man with pale blond hair and green-and-white striped hat was stood behind him, black robes covering his body. George was quick to notice to gleaming scythe in his hand that was just taller than the man himself.

"H-hi?" George replied, putting on a nervous smile. "Uh, where am I?"

"The afterlife."

George felt dread pool in his stomach. "O-oh... So I did get shot..."

The man nodded, a sad smile on his face. "Yes, you did," he said with a nod. "I understand if you need to mourn but I will also need you to follow me."

George nodded and stood up to follow him, feeling slightly intimidated by the giant scythe hovering its blade over his head. As they walked, George noticed the large black wings on the man's back but decided not to question it.

"Hey uh, actually where are we going?" George asked, the shock of suddenly being in the afterlife finally wearing off. "I thought you said this was the afterlife? Seems pretty boring... Also uh, who are you?"

The man chuckled with a surprisingly warm smile on his face. "I'm usually known amongst mortals as the Grim Reaper, but since you're dead now you can just call me Phil. I'm taking you to the Court of Souls, where you'll be put on trial to see whether you go to heaven or hell."

"Oh, I thought you just automatically go to one or the other?" George asked, tilting his head.

"Well for most it is," Phil explained. "But for some people, like you, it's harder to decide what your moral compass is. Small white crimes usually just go to heaven, terrorists go to hell, but a hacking into and robbing a bank takes some more thought."

George was about to ask how he knew about that when Phil put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from nearly crashing into a ridiculously tall door. He gazed up at what looked like a cream colored palace with gold accents and a red carpet peeking out from under the door.

Phil glanced at him and smirked. "Hope you're ready."

The doors burst open dramatically and George was met with a large throne room and 7 people, all of which seemed to be arguing with each other.

"We really couldn't have done this at Pride's place?" a tan man complained, slumping in his golden throne. "It's so much nicer there, this place is shit."

"Language!" a man with strawberry blond hair yelped, eyeing the raven-haired. "There's children here!"

"For the last time I'M NOT A FUCKING CHILD!" a blond yelled from the other side of the line of seats.

Phil fake-coughed in an attempt to get their attention and the pink-haired one in the middle turned to him. He quickly straightened up and snapped his fingers a few times. The rest of the group looked over and seemed to notice George and Phil standing there.

"Oh, hey there," a man with curly brown hair said, waving at the two from where he was laying down. "Nice to meet ya."

The blond next to him gave him a harsh shove with a disgusted look. "Ew, don't hit on him, you're like a hundred years older than him."

The brunette rolled his eyes. "Who gives a shit, we're dead," he scoffed. "Plus, I'm not gay, I'm just being nice."

"Well you make so many jokes about it I can't tell anymore-!"

"Shut up you two," the pink-haired snapped, giving them both a harsh glare. He glanced back at Phil and George, staring at both of them with a withering glare. "So this is who we have to trial?"

"Yup, George Nolfund," Phil said with a smile that seemed too bright for the situation they were in. "He's come down here because he was out robbing a bank with some friends."

He turned to the brunette next to him who was staring at the rag-tag group with pure bewilderment. "George, this is the 7 Deadly Sins of Hell," he explained, gesturing to them.

"Pride-"

The pink haired one in the middle glared at him with scarlet red eyes. He was sat on a golden throne with ruby colored cushioning, and adorned in a dark red cape with a fur trim. A diamond sword leaned against his throne, gleaming dangerously, and a shining golden crown sat on his head.

"Envy-"

The raven-haired with tan skin was sat in an identical golden throne, one leg propped up on the velvet seat. He wore a bright cyan beanie and matching t-shirt hoodie, black irises glaring at George with a scowl on his face.

"Greed-"

A dirty blond man in a lime-green hoodie was sitting in a similar throne, although his was lavished with even more riches and spoils. A strange white mask covered his eyes and a silver sword was at his hip, shining as brightly as the snarky grin on his face.

"Lust-"

The brunette laying on a victorian-style chaise lounge flashed him a smile, adjusting his black beanie slightly. He had a black jacket over a white collared shirt, the top few buttons undone, and a slick guitar was strapped over his back.

"Wrath-"

The blond in a red and white shirt bared his teeth in a glower, crossing his arms. He was sitting on a generic stool that looked to shiny to be real wood, not to mention the various chunks taken out of it.

"Gluttony-"

The strawberry blond look up from his muffin and waved, sat on a throne that looked to be made of various sweets and deserts. A dark gray cloak covered him and he had on a checkered gray sweater underneath, with little devil horns on the top of his hood that George couldn't tell if they were real or not.

"And Sloth."

A man with black hair was slouched on a beanbag, looking up at George sleepily from under a white headband. He was wearing a black turtleneck with a white t-shirt thrown on top, the flame design on the front crumpled and folded like it'd never seen an iron in its life.

"You will be judged by them to see if you go to Hell or Heaven," Phil said. "So I suggest you be on your best behavior," he added with a smirk.

"So what's the crime?" Greed asked, leaning forward in his chair.

Phil snapped his fingers and a scroll appeared in his hands. "Well, George here is from a rather well-off family but ended up being disowned by his parents and turned to a life of crime, working as a hacker for a group of well-known robbers in the city."

George shifted slightly, feeling uncomfortable at how much the man knew.

"Well G-"

"Well George," Pride interrupted, glaring at Greed. "That certainly doesn't sound like heaven material." He glanced over at his partners then back at George. "I say we just send him down. Greed you can take him, he seems boring."

Greed clapped his hands together happily. "Wonderful!"

"I- whoa, hold on!" Gluttony cut in, nearly choking on his mouthful of muffin. "We need to talk more! He's here on trial for a reaso-"

"I say send him down," Lust said, grinning slyly at the brunette before him. "I'll take him in if he seems like a bother, the more the merrier as they say."

"Guys we need to talk-"

"Actually, I'll be taking him, thank you very much," Envy hissed, shooting a glare at him.

"SHUT UP I WANNA HEAR GLUTTONY!" Wrath yelled, making Lust who was sitting next to him nearly fall off his chair.

Gluttony sighed, taking another bite of his muffin. "As I was saying," he began again, giving a pointed look to Envy who turned away sourly. "Whilst I do agree he doesn't seem like heaven material, we need to actually agree what faction he'll go to. No just calling dibs Greed."

Pride huffed, rolling his eyes. "Well I'm not taking him," he grumbled. "He doesn't even seem proud of his sins, hell he seems remorseful." He made a fake gagging noise which made Lust giggle.

"I don't think he fits Lust either," Lust commented, rolling onto his back to look at George upside down. "Robbing a bank isn't very sexy."

"Not Gluttony either," Gluttony added, voice muffled from a mouthful of muffin. "Least he didn't burn down a house trying to make a cake! Actually, 3 houses," he added with a giggle.

George winced slightly, imagining the flames consuming the building all for the sake of a measly pastry.

"Yup, definitely not Gluttony," the strawberry blond said, seeing his reaction. He glanced over at Sloth who seemed to have fallen asleep. "Got anything to say Sloth?"

The raven-haired jolted awake, spluttering for words and trying to grasp reality for a moment. "Uh- I- yeah, did you say something?" he asked, grinning slightly.

Gluttony huffed in frustration. "We're trying to figure out what faction to put uh..."

"George."

"Right. What faction to put George in. You got anything to say?"

Sloth shrugged, resting his head in his arms. "I dunno. Didn't you say he like, robbed a bank? Probably not fit for Sloth then."

"Geez you actually have something to contribute," Wrath muttered.

"Well do you have anything to add dipshit?" Sloth shot back, smirking.

Wrath bristled, gripping the edge of his stool tightly. "You're the dipshit, dipshit!" he retorted, before glaring over at George and making the brunette flinch. "He's too nice, acts like one of Lust's bitches."

"I don't want him either," Envy quickly added, looking away. "He looks... dumb..."

"Then I do get him!" Greed exclaimed, grinning. "Hell yeah!"

Phil smiled that all-too-friendly smile again. "Alright then! Trial over! You guys can get back to whatever and I'll take this one down on under!"

Sloth was gone before he even finished speaking, and Pride quickly followed in suit. Lust waved goodbye before vanishing as well. Gluttony sent him one last smile before disappearing and Envy sent him a glare before following.

"Bye bitch boy," Wrath sneered before leaving.

Greed gave him a final smile and a wave. "It was great to meet you George!" he exclaimed with a smile that seemed almost fake. "See you in Hell."

[total-television-productions-act]

candle in the wind ch. 13

(fight/blood tw)

Underdog looked royally pissed that morning. It’d been a week since he’d been scared to death and back by a train, so Lewis could confidently rule out that. They were on the couch, Lewis eating his stale snacks, while Underdog had his elbow on his radio, holding up his head. The radio operators decided today was murder revenge anthem day, which may have been partial to the reason of Underdog’s expression. Though, in the weeks around him, Lewis learned he wasn’t half as creative as his poet mom, so that was off the table.

“Now what are you staring at?”

“You, you wonderful masterpiece.”

“Don’t you even start with that.”

Underdog leaned back and looked back at Lewis, smiling for a moment before going back to angry. “I can’t stop thinking about that guy who tried to assault you. I wanna rip his pathetic incel balls off.”

“That’s the most gruesome thing you’ve ever said,” Lewis said, swallowing the last of his granola, he shrugged, “You should honestly just kill him.”

Underdog quietly laughed, looking surprised for a second. “I thought you hated violence.”

“I have no remorse for people like that, especially if it happens first-hand.”

Underdog tilted his head in agreement, “I can respect that. Radical, let’s go kill a man,” he stood and grabbed his keys. Lewis jumped up, quickly following.

--

Underdog didn’t seem hellbent on murder. A punch to the face, sure, but not any metaphorical blood on his hands. Despite Underdog’s “lack of muscle mass,” Lewis still knew well enough he could cause nosebleeds and all sorts of bruises.

Underdog parked on the side of the road at a building that looked like a fancy school. He shifted the gear into park and left the key in the ignition.

“Don’t get out and if you do don’t go in.”

When he got out Lewis slid over to his seat to look at his keys. He had a few keychains, and in all honestly Lewis figured the car key was the newest addition. The biggest was a gray square that said “I (heart) NYC.” Ironic. Another was a gold-colored plate engraved with Gamma Prod. Another was a metallic ribbon, half cyan and half purple. The last was a tiny rose-gold heart with P & U carved into it.

Lewis felt himself choke up. Ugh. He still hadn’t figured out what to tell his mom. He blinked a few times and realized, oh no, that choking was because he pulled the keys from the engine and the AC was off now! He shoved the keys back in, turning them, before pulling the lock on the door up, throwing it open and taking several deep breaths. Catching his breath, he looked over to the door of the building, Underdog and the rottweiler standing there. Not too far from the door but also not too far from the car. The rottweiler was just yelling at Underdog, his expression annoyed and angered. Underdog glanced over to Lewis in an expression of get in the car.

Lewis nodded to himself, quickly climbing in and pushing the lock back down, crawling back to his seat. The air still wasn’t on but Lewis figured that Underdog probably wouldn’t take much longer. A muffled voice came from close by. Lewis looked up. The rottweiler was saying something, knocking on the window. The window and his eyes were too dark for Lewis to see any malicious intent, though he knew he shouldn’t open. The rottweiler started pulling on the handle, and in what seemed like the speed of light, Underdog stood and ran from where he was on the ground, holding his mouth.

He grabbed the rottweiler by the back collar of his shirt, and by his sudden changing expression Lewis could tell Underdog hurt him somewhere below the window. He then grabbed the front of his collar, punching him from under his chin, and then punching the side of his face, throwing him away. Meanwhile Lewis leaned over and pulled open the lock. Underdog quickly climbed in and started the car, speeding off. He turned off onto a road Lewis couldn't see, already curled up and crying into his knees. Soon enough he felt the car stop, and heard Underdog shift to lean back in his seat.

Lewis looked up. They’d parked in front of a police station. He turned to Underdog, who had a hand pressed against his mouth. When he pulled it off, his palm had a red dot right in the center. He laughed unhappily, and swore, though he had no anger left to put meaning behind the word. He nonchalantly whipped it off on his cardigan.

“You’re bleeding,” Lewis said between sobs.

“And you’re bawling your eyes out, Captain Obvious. Come on, let’s go report that guy.”

--

Back at the cabin, neither were any better. Underdog’s mouth wasn't bleeding as much and Lewis was all out of tears, sure, but neither felt any better. The only positive was that the radio had shifted to upbeat love songs. After one that Lewis didn't recognize ended, Underdog spoke.

“Who… are you?”

“What?”

“Who are you. I should've asked this sooner, especially taking you out in public… You’re just…. Some kid who showed up in the right time and place I was, and something told me I had to protect you because, good God, someone would track me down and kill me if I didn't. So who are you related to that would kill me if I let you get hurt, hm?”

Lewis laughed a bit, wiping his eyes, “Oh just some lady. She’s my mom, I don't know if you've heard of her, her name is Sweet Polly Purebred?”

Underdog chuckled. “Oh, good one Lewis.”

But Lewis didn’t laugh, he just stared quietly up at Underdog. Underdog smiled and looked back down. His smile immediately fell into horror.

“Oh, you’re being serious.”

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

A spire of crystal cleaved the sky, sunlight glinting off its edges as it pulsated rhythmically with soft blue light.  She stood at its base looking up in wonder.  Suddenly, her vision clouded.  In an instant, day became night, and the spire’s glow faded, replaced by the orange brilliance of the fires surrounding her.  She found herself on the opposite side of the structure, watching as an immense crack formed down the side of it.  Bolts of energy, sparking like lightning, were hurled from the wound in every direction; one struck the ground to her right—no, it was on her left—no, she was watching from a distance, seeing even more fractures spread across the surface of the towering monolith.

“Madin…”

A stream of light erupted from the side of the crystal.  She saw it from a dozen angles all at once, her perception ultimately settling on watching the light arc directly towards her.  When it struck her head-on, her mind splintered again, this time showing her millions, billions, trillions of different images all at once.

“Madin!”

Every cell of her body burned.  Her consciousness clawed its way past the incoming deluge of information, struggling to again glimpse the spire.  Launching one final bolt skyward, it shattered completely, raining glittering shards in a beautiful display that plunged her heart into pure despair.

“Madin Medea!”

She gasped as she finally awoke, flopping onto her side in a surge of panic.

“It’s alright, madin!  You are safe.  Take a look, and tell me what you see.”

Sheets between her fingers—she was in the same bed she had fallen asleep in, covers thrown about by her violent awakening.  Swallowing hard, she answered, “Th-th…the bed…”

She slowly lifted her head.  Immediately she recognized the odd wallpaper: she couldn’t understand the aesthetic governing it, and that’s how she knew it was the same room.

“Walls…we’re still in the hotel…”

Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a deep breath, focusing on the sound.  The pounding in her ears made it difficult.  She gently rolled back, took a seat on the edge of the bed, and watched her hands shake for a moment.

“Madin?” asked the same calm voice.

She looked up.  Standing nearby was a man with dark brown skin and short, thick hair.  Teal embroidery traced circuit-like designs down one side of his light blue long-sleeved garment.  He kept his expression neutral, but she could see the worry hiding in his eyes.

“Can I get you anything, madin Medea?” he asked.

She shook her head.  “No…thank you, Shal.  I’m alright.”

Looking in the mirror, she brushed aside her long curly hair to get a clearer look at her face.  One eye was hazel, but the other, in place of iris and pupil, held a cog-shaped emblem that shone with soft blue light as it slowly spun in place.  Medea blinked, and the sigil vanished, both eyes identical once more.

“Are you certain you are well enough to attend?” Shal asked as he helped her to her feet.  “Surely we can be informed of their decision even from here.”

“We must go,” Medea said.  “No doubt they already judge us weak simply for being here—we must not give them more reason to think it.”

“As you wish, madin.  In that case, we must make haste: you’ve overslept again.”

“Ah, I should’ve known…”

Hurriedly she dressed, donning an indigo gown decorated with cyan folders opening from each other in cascading trails, as well as a diadem carved from sapphire that bore four cog-shaped symbols at equidistant points.  Eyeing the ivory staff in the corner, she hesitated, but ultimately she took it in her hands.  Medea and Shal made their way outside just as their car arrived, thanking the silent driver as he ushered them in and pulled away from the hotel.  The busy streets were lined with skyscraper after skyscraper, all the same dingy shade of gray, reaching up around the travel lanes like eager claws.  Billboards shielded the empty space between from the rays of the sun, nearly all advertising the latest innovations in artificial networking.  Medea looked at the floor of the car, massaging her temples and focusing on her breath.

Eventually they came to a stop before a building that towered even above towers.  As they approached the door, Shal held up one hand: a small cluster of glowing particles rose from his palm, forming two ID cards that he showed to the guard.  Medea noticed the guard’s vision flick to her briefly before he scanned both and handed them back.  They thanked him and made their way inside, the cards returning to particles that disappeared back into Shal’s hand.  Medea tensed as they made their way across the lobby—dozens of people moved back and forth across it, each of them seeming to produce an entire room’s worth of noise on their own.  Shal gently led her to the elevator, and she finally released the breath she had been holding when the doors closed.

“The worst is over, madin,” he told her.  “We need only make it to the legal board, where it will be nice and quiet.”

Medea nodded groggily, slumping against her staff.  “I must confess, Shal…I’m beginning to think you had the right idea about staying in.”

He smiled.  “You never admit I’m right until it’s already too late.”

She managed a laugh.  When the doors slid open, she hardened her face once more, and they advanced down the hall and through the gilded doorway marked as the legal board.  Seats had been prepared for them at a table of elaborately carved wood, while a handful of onlookers in identical suits congregated in the benches behind them.  Just ahead, along the wall opposite the door, was an elevated desk where three robed men sat, age evident in their wispy gray hair and pale, wrinkled skin.  After another minute, one of them conjured and banged a gavel to quiet the room, nearly making Medea jump.

“The legal board is now in session,” he proclaimed.  “First topic of the day…the request for aid from the neighboring domain of Netova.  Representing are Miss Medea Plair, Administrator of Server Netova, and her associate, Shal Plair.”

He adjusted his glasses as he glanced over the sheet of paper on his desk.  Medea’s grip on her staff tightened.

“We have reviewed your situation at length, Miss Plair, and discussed the issue directly with Chairman Matthews.  Ultimately, we reached a unanimous decision: CARD is unable to provide you with any aid.”

Medea’s eyes widened.

“Now, with that settled, let’s move on to—”

“Wait a moment!” Medea shouted, on her feet in an instant.  “Surely I am owed some explanation!”

Narrowing his eyes, the man said, “Miss Plair, I do not know how things are done in Netova, but here it is considered most rude to interrupt.”

She ground her teeth.  “…Pardon my rudeness, sir.  But I must demand to know the reasoning behind this decision!  Netova is in the midst of a catastrophe the likes of which have only been theorized before now!  And yet you refuse to make even the slightest effort to aid us in our time of need?”

“We must put Ducom first, Miss Plair.  It is no simple matter to divert precious time and resources to the needs of other domains.”

“But all I require is one day of access to your Server!  That is all it will take for me to save my people!”

The man let out a sigh as he adjusted his glasses.  “Miss Plair…you stated in your testimony that you are unsure as to the cause of Server Netova’s crash, correct?”

“…Correct.”

“If that is the case, then we have no assurance that this procedure of yours will not simply crash Server Ducom as well.  You understand that we would wish to avoid that, yes?”

Medea was glaring at him now.  “Were it that simple, surely the effects would have spread already!  And even then, you are offering no other form of aid to compensate?  You are simply abandoning us entirely?  How can you be so cruel?!”

The three men exchanged glances with each other.  Silence filled the room, strangling Medea with its icy fingers.

“…Please,” she said.  “Please, help us.  If I could only speak directly to your leader, surely I would be able to convince him!”

“Chairman Matthews has already made his decision,” the robed man said.  “That decision is final.  Now, if you please, we do have other matters to attend to, Miss Plair.”

Anger and sadness and fear and other emotions she couldn’t name all swirled about her.  She felt tired, and heavy, warm and cold at the same time—her mind was reeling as it attempted to make sense of what it was faced with.  A hint of clarity came when Shal stood up.  With no other option, she turned, and the two of them walked out of the room.

“Well,” she heard the man say, “as I was saying, our next issue relates to AN copyright violation…”

Medea said nothing as she and Shal were taken back to their hotel.  Once they were finally back in their room, they faced each other, and after a long moment, Medea hung her head and sobbed.

“I’m so sorry, madin,” Shal said quietly.  “I never imagined Ducom was this heartless.  But, all hope is not lost.  We can still head west, ask Orgil for help, and—”

“And how long will that take?!” Medea yelled.  “Orgil is so far away, Shal, and we’ve already wasted so much time here!  Back home, the emergency supplies are running out: if we don’t restore Ethernet access soon, then…”

Her sobs consumed the rest of the sentence.  She sank into the nearest chair, letting her staff fall to the floor.

“This blasted, backwards domain,” she mumbled when she could.  “Led by some Chairman chosen arbitrarily, and this ‘Committee for the Administrative Regulation of Ducom’.  If the real Administrator held proper authority, then maybe…”

Her tears slowed as she trailed off.

“…The Administrator…”

Shal’s eyebrows went up.  “Ah, of course!  Though…even if we do find them, will they be able to help us, given the hold CARD has on this domain?”

Medea flicked her wrist.  A rectangle of light appeared before her just below eye level, the bottom portion of it made up of a collection of tiny squares emblazoned with letters and numbers—she began to type away at them furiously, the upper part of the screen changing at her commands.  “It is our best hope.  However the domain of Ducom is run, an Administrator’s connection to their Server is absolute.  They must have some way to access it…some way for us to access it.  And if the Server conferred these privileges upon them, then I am certain they will sympathize with our cause.”

***

Pain dulled his senses for a moment as a boot to the face knocked him flat.  When he could think again, he scowled up at the man: remarkably average in height and build, pale skin set against messy black hair, an unseasonably heavy purple long coat, and one of the smuggest looks he’d ever seen in his life.

“What, that’s it?” he asked.  “C’mon, lemme have it!  You sure were making yourself out to be some kinda big shot—you must have something to back it up!  So where is it?”

From behind the bar, a woman shouted, “Hey, Zettabyte!  You know better than to rough up the competition before a crawl!”

The man in the coat shrugged one shoulder.  “It was only self-defense, barkeep.  Right fellas?”

Shouts of affirmation surrounded him.  Squinting at the lot of them, the woman said, “I don’t care who started it.  Save it for the dungeon.  I won’t warn anyone again.”

Zettabyte gave a slight yet dramatic bow.  “As you decree.”

He smirked at the other crawler, leaning over and offering a hand.  With a grunt, the man batted it away and got up on his own, storming off to another corner of the establishment.  Zettabyte inhaled deeply as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.

“Oi, Bytes!”

His protective aura of smugness shattered instantly.  Rolling his eyes, he said, “Kiiz, I’m sick of telling you: quit calling me that!”

Bounding through the crowd came someone with brown skin and a cheery look on their bearded face.  Giving Zettabyte a light slap to the shoulder, they said, “Ah, come off it!  Listen, these folks were askin’ aboutcha—sayin’ they’ve got a proposition a some sort.”

After pausing to brush his shoulder once, Zettabyte looked past Kiiz to see two people in tow behind them.  His jaw dropped.  Their cloaks succeeded in hiding their ornate attire, but they couldn’t stop him from recognizing the faces of Medea and Shal.

“Hello there,” Medea said.  “Are you Zettabyte?”

“Ah, pardon us one second.”  Grabbing Kiiz, he pulled them aside and hunched over, whispering, “Kiiz, you dolt, don’t you know who they are?!”

Kiiz blinked.  “Uh, no?  Otherwise I woulda said so.”

“Wh…ah, right, you don’t watch the news.”

“Course not, why would I?”

“Listen: the woman’s the leader of a foreign domain!”

“Oh am I jus’ s’posed t’believe that?”

“Yes!  Whatever they want, it’s going to be trouble!  You keep ‘em distracted while I slip out!”

He broke into a sprint.  Or, he intended to—Kiiz grabbed his coat before he could take a second step, reeling him back in to secure him with both hands.  “No, no, listen mate!”

“K…Kiiz!” Zettabyte said, hurriedly fixing his coat.  “What if you’d damaged it?!  And how am I supposed to get away now?”

“I said listen!”  Kiiz’s face turned gravely serious.  “They know, Bytes.”

“First of all, stop calling me that.  Secondly, know what, exactly?”

“Y’know…they know!”

“No!  I don’t!  Just spell it out for me!”

Kiiz sighed.  “…A.  D.  M.  I—”

Before they could finish, Zettabyte’s eyes widened, and he held up a finger.  “…Alright, I get it.  You’re right, no way I’d be able to shake ‘em if that’s the case…”

“I was thinkin’ more ya could help ‘em, actually.”

“Well that’s not happening regardless, but you can complain about that later.  I need to devote my brainpower right now to hatching a clever scheme to escape.”

They both whirled around as Shal cleared his throat.  “Pardon me, but…I can hear you.” 

Zettabyte glanced at Kiiz, who nodded in Medea’s direction.  Drooping for a second, he took a step forward and said, “Ugh, alright, alright…I know who you are, you know who I am, just tell me what it is you want, yeah?”

“If you know who I am, then you must know what I want,” Medea said.

“I mean I have a guess.  But the most obvious answer is something that’s impossible, so I figured I’d give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Medea’s brows came together.  “…What do you mean?  If you are truly the Adm—”

“Hey hey, easy there, hold on!” Zettabyte said, waving his arms in front of Medea.  “Nobody knows about that, and I’d like to keep it that way!”

“I know,” Kiiz said.

“You’re the exception to the rule, Kiiz!  You’re also not helping!”

“Wasn’ tryin’ to.”

Zettabyte shot them a brief glare before returning to Medea.  “Look lady: I can’t help you.  If you-know-who won’t let you near the you-know-what, then there’s not a damn thing I can do to change that, even if I am the thing-nobody-but-Kiiz-and-apparently-you-know-that-I-am.  So, sorry, see ya.”

He turned to leave again.  This time, Shal stepped in front of him.  As he stared up at the other man, Zettabyte pulled back just a bit, making a low grumble as he did.

“Please, Zettabyte,” Medea said.  “You’re the only one who can help me.  Millions of lives are on the line!”

Zettabyte closed his eyes and scratched his ear.  “Right, yeah, okay.  Like I said, nothing I can do.  Are we gonna keep talking in circles?  My crawl’s about to start.”

“Awfully callous, don’t you think?” Shal said, setting a hand on Zettabyte’s shoulder.

“Hey!” he snapped as he pulled away.  “Careful with the coat!”

“Ah.  So that’s something you’re willing to defend?”

Turning aside, Zettabyte asked, “Oh now how do I answer that?”

Kiiz said, “I’m sure ya’ll find a way that only makes ya sound like a partial jackass, mate.”

“…You always believe in me, Kiiz.  It’s annoying.”

The speakers in the bar flared to life just then.  The bartender’s voice boomed: “Attention all participants in today’s dungeon crawl!  We’re about to start, so get to the entrance ASAP!”

Shal, having looked up at the announcement, looked back down to see that Zettabyte had slipped away while he was distracted.  He turned to see the man weaving his way through the crowd, shouting, “Saved by the bell!  Kiiz, show ‘em out!”

“Why that—!”  Shal took a breath.  “Worry not, madin: I will retrieve him.”

“Eh, best leave ‘im be right now,” Kiiz said, walking up beside Shal.  “Interruptin’ a crawl is the quickest way t’get on Bytes’s bad side—do that and he’ll refuse t’help ya outta pure stubbornness no matter what ya offer him.”

Medea just stood there, staring blankly after Zettabyte.  Shal turned to Kiiz to ask, “Your name is Kiiz, correct?  Please: if there is any way you can help us to convince him…”

Smiling, Kiiz nodded.  “Oh yeah, a’course!  I dunno what’s up with millions a lives er whatever, but ya seem like nice folk and he’s jus’ bein’ an arse.  As usual.  Le’s talk!  We’ll figure somethin’ out by the time the crawl’s over.”

“Thank you,” Shal said, shoulders steadily deflating.  “You are the kindest person we’ve met since coming to this domain.”

“Aw shucks!  That’s awful sweet a ya, mate!  C’mon, le’s find a table.”

Shal turned back to Medea as Kiiz walked deeper into the bar.  Still staring off blankly, she asked, “Shal…are we…is Netova really going to be okay?”

He stepped in front of her, gently grabbing her shoulders to guide her focus back to the present.  “It will, madin.  The path there may be looking rockier by the day, but we will reach its end.  I vow that we will.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Medea nodded once, and they both walked forward.

[nekovannox]

Chapter 3: Nathan and Lully

Chapter 2

 She pushed aside the dread of watching her fiancé disappear into the manor and pulled out her phone.

 "Miss Roseville?" The harsh male voice came through the speaker.

 "Mister Morphrien, I found it.

 "I-I beg your pardon?" He stuttered.

 "The basement. It's not on the floor plans, it's not accessible through the manor. At least not in any common way."

 "You think there is whe--"

 "I know it is. I can feel it."

 "I'll send in a team of scouts." She heard a muffled shout. "What?! Absolutely not!" She heard it again. "You are sixty years old! You are not going! Wha--that's even worse! I have to go, they will be there in a minute. Your wife would kill me if I le--" click She chuckled a little. Poor Mister Astraea... He just misses field work...

 Lissana stared to examine the crater's floor. There was a hole, side to side of the crater. Massive. She didn't even wanted to think what the 'Worm' looked like. She took a tentative step forward and the crumbling reappeared louder. Mephisto's blow probably had damaged the material. A deep breath and another step. The ground crumbled from under her feet and she crashed in the middle of a red lab, or at least it was with the flickering light. A countdown on every screen she could see and a head-trobbing beeping. Explosion protocol. She was familiar, of course, it was... a protocol of most Order labs. She had time. They had time. She examined the room, no exits outside the main one, and the hole, of course. She turned and her breath faltered. There were large glass containers full of liquid, two illuminated and holding unconscious bodies, a boy and a girl, appeared to be no older than Manuelle. She gently touched the glass, there were tubes coming in and out of the bodies. She started to mingle with the screen aside the boy's container. She touched the Liberate test subjects on the screen, making the tubes slowly retract and the water level start to fall. She heard the cars in the distance moving close. Adrenalin injection was next, the boy awoke in a startle, looking to all sides.

 "What? Where am-- Lu? Lully?!" His gaze landed on Lis, he looked extremely confused, then at the ceiling as the red lights flashed. "Oh God, what happened? W-who are you?" She tapped the Open container bit.

 "I'm Lissana, Lissana Lefèvre Roseville. Who are you?" The boy grasped the side of the chamber for support and tumbled forward, landing in her arms, his legs shook. "A-are you ok?"

 "Y-yes, just..." He winced as his back clicked straight. "Been here a while..." He looked at the second container and put his hand on the glass. "Name's Nathan. I don't... I don't know my surname... But I do know..." His pale fingers started to repeat the process on the second screen. "Who you are. You see, there's something the doctors here don't know..." the glass door slowly opened to the unconscious body. "They say too much." He stared at her. “And we can hear them.” His hands were on the girl's naked shoulders as he pulled her into his arms and then rubbed her back. Her eyes opened slowly.

 "Hm?"

 "Hey..."

 "What happened? Where's everyone?" She inquired, eyes roaming.

 "They left. The... The Order found us..." The girl's eyes finally landed on Lissana. Lis was surprised. They knew about the Order?

 "You're the girl... The girl that stole his son's heart, then..." She looked flabbergasted.

 "I-I wouldn't put it that way, but--"

 "But you wouldn't deny it either." The boy cut her. He looked at her worried "They suspected you, you know? They spoke about it. About you working to find the experiments. But you didn't gave up." His gaze softened. "Thank you... Shoot." His eyes shot at the large monitors, the countdown was faster.

 "That wasn't that fast!" She gapped, they had about two minutes now.

 "It's a failsafe, if the containers are opened the... Contents shouldn't get out." He looked grim. "Can you stand, Lu?" His eyes were attentive towards hers.

 "Yes. Go do your thing." She smiled.

 The boy walked towards the nearest monitor and touched it, his breath came out shaky and he closed his eyes. It turned bright cyan.

 "What..?"

 "You're here for us, aren't you? You should know what is happening." The girl looked at her solemnly.

 She came for the experiments. Roblare was trying to recreate corruption. Corrupted people could control certain aspects of nature. Nature of life, nature of men. She was one, the power she felt fluent underneath her skin, fluent and coming from her core, like her soul itself, she could tap it sometimes, lightly. Mafuyu was powerful, clearly too much, as he was one of the experiments. These two were also experiments. She could feel the energy flowing out of them, but the fact that they were left behind scared her. If they were that replaceable, what did that mean for the experiment's progress?

 She chose not to think about it now, instead focusing on the boy almost collapsing into the girl's arms. The countdown stopped and the lights came on.

 "Are you ok?" She asked, hands on his hair.

 "Hm. Dizzy. Room's... spinning..."

 "What did you do?" Her mind shot out the question before she could help it.

 "I can control technology. Not well, but..."

 "They tested us, our powers. It still takes a toll, though..." She nodded. They looked so tired, she thought about Malu, about her cousin, they were on the same age range, she couldn't imagine what they went through at such a young age.

 "Miss Roseville!" Mister Morphrien looked down the hole on the ceiling. "What the hell are you doing in there?"

 "Take a guess, would ya?" She stared back. He rolled his eyes and then they landed on the others in the room.

 "Who are these-- Uh-- Very naked children? If you don't mind me asking."

 "They're why we're here." His eyebrows shot up. "Meet Nathan and Lully, guys, this is Mister Morphrien." They waved. "Could you get some blankets?"

 "Y-yes, right away." He disappeared up. "What?! What the hell are you doing here?! How in the everloving fuck did you manage to come?!" He sighed. "Fine! They're all yours." The gray head of Ludwig appeared.

 "Hey there! Lis, my girl, how are ya?" He slowly started to enter, tumbling down from the ceiling hole.

 "Oh, God, are you okay?!" He rose.

 "Better than ever, my dear." He glanced at the confused kids. "Oh, how are you two? My name is Ludwig, you can call my Lud! How about'cha?" He offered a hand and the boy shook it.

 "Nathan. This is Lully. We're... Okay?" He looked at her and she nodded. "Okay."

 "Here, take a blanket, take a blanket. Sit up, I'll examine your vitals." They did so and the man started to check on them. "Where's your other half, Miss Lis?" The boy blushed and opened his mouth to protest the comparison, but a popsicle stick was pressed against his tongue instead. "Say 'Ah'."

 "He... He disappeared into the manor after Roblare. He is... one of the experiments..."

 "Oh." His smile fell. "Oh, dear, I'm sorry."

 "What's so bad about being an experiment?" The girl looked at them curious.

 "Ya see, this thing, the corruption, it occurs naturally on some people. God knows why, but it does. When you force it, it can have..." He spun his wrist, thinking. "Side effects. It gets stronger, uncontrollable." He pet her head. "Don't worry, though, we'll keep a close eye in any problems that go your way. Well, you seem fine and healthy, here, take a candy. Your turn." He turned towards the girl. "When we get to the base we'll do some blood work." Lis smiled to herself.

 "Any updates on Manuelle?"

 "She's safe and sound! Arrived just a minute ago."

 "Good. I'll have to tell her soon... About Mephisto..."

 "Don't worry, he can take care of himself, I'm sure, dear. Go and rest a bit, it was a long night." She did as told, observing the personel going in and out, collecting whatever they could on information. She dozed off in a desk shortly after, exausted.

[tehfloridaman-blog]

All Wars

Alright! So, below is my first fully-published story included in an anthology novel that was the ultimate product of about two weeks of work over last summer, though it’s hardly my best writing I’ve done so far, it’s not my worst, either! If anything I’d call it a fitting dive into my career as a writer. Taking a typical science fiction trope and adding my own unique touch alongside some thematic elements--but enough of that, don’t wanna spoil anything. Without further ado, I present...All Wars!

“All wars are civil; for it is always the man against the man who pours out his own blood, that tears his own entrails.” –François Fénelon.

             It had only been a few minutes after the alarms blared that Soicon, Oros, and Kaine entered the lower levels of the Defense Ministry. Surrounding them were reinforced walls, painted yellow by the various flashing lights. Despite being at least a mile underground, Kaine could hear the deafening noise through the elevator shaft.

           “Dammed alarms,” Soicon grumbled, clutching the datapad close as he stepped out of the elevator. “They’ll make us all deaf before they blind us.”

           “It’s standard procedure for this kind of scenario.” Oros sighed, rubbing his head with his hand. “We’re just unlucky to have not noticed the ships sooner.”

           “Perhaps mobilizing the army isn’t needed? After all, we’ve no idea what they intend for us.” Kaine said, his hands behind his back as he hurriedly followed after them.

           “Ever open a holo-book, Kaine? Or see a movie? It’s probably an invasion fleet, we’re right to prepare to defend ourselves and our planet.”

           “No, Soicon, it’s protocol. If the Defense Ministry was dictated by paranoid cynics such as you, this planet wouldn’t have unified by now.” Oros rolling of his eyes.

           “I disagree, Soicon. We can’t base real events off of fiction. For the longest time, we didn’t think life existed on other worlds.”

           Soicon narrowed his eyes at Kaine as they reached the war room door, leaning against it as he spoke. “Oh, I apologize, Kaine. I had no idea you understood the mindsets of aliens!”

           “Soicon, enough of this or I’ll have you detained. It’s bad enough that the entire ministry’s in a panic, we should at least represent a bastion of duty in this chaos.” Oros shook his head in disgust.

           “Understood, Commandant.” Soicon sneered as he raised the datapad, tapping on it while Kaine walked over to the door.

           “Has anyone considered the possibility that they’re just travelers seeking peace or companionship? Consider this-it’s what we would want.”

           “If they are like us, who’s to say they won’t desire war? They may not be coming here of free will, more so out of desperation. If they truly have achieved a higher technology level, imagine the state of their planet! It must be a ball of rock, unable to support any life whatsoever.” Soicon handed the datapad over to Oros, who then traced his finger down it as he mumbled to himself.

           “What would be the purpose in annihilating other sentients? We are equals, therefore we would benefit from cooperation.”

           “War is in the very nature of species!”

           “And what if we incite war by preparing for it?” Kaine snapped, narrowing his eyes.

           Oros got between the two men-each having neared closer to the other as they spoke.. Kaine and Soicon both stepped back. “Enough, both of you. We will do as our orders dictate. In the end we cannot predict the future, merely prepare for it.”

           “Aye, sir.” They said in unison, Soicon walking back over to the door as Oros approached Kaine with the datapad.

           “I’m afraid we can’t let you go in just yet, Kaine. Senator Gurrin isn’t present in the War Room.”

           “Ah, yes, he has… fancied visiting my sister’s housing unit as of late. Shall I head there posthaste? Perhaps she knows of his location...”

           “With Godspeed, Kaine. We’ll have to lock down the ministry if those ships arrive while you’re gone, in that event, perhaps it’s best to stay with your sister.”

           “Hah! Never in a thousand full rotations, sir.”

Within a cubic rotation he was outside the city, nearing an outer housing unit where his sister lived. As opposed to the larger inner housing complexes within the city that held many smaller units, outer housing complexes contained large, usually two floor, housing units owned by one or two people.

As he approached the complex, Kaine spotted a military troop-transport in the middle of the road; crossing the two lines that displayed the paths allowed to be taken by vehicles. He stopped his hover car and stepped out, waving over to the soldiers standing in front of the blockade. The highest ranking one- a Sergeant- walked over, blinking as he noticed the yellow uniform of Kaine.

“An attendant? I thought you all were over at the HQ…what’re you doing all the way out here?”

“Apologies for the surprise, sergeant. May I ask why you’re barricading the road?”

“Ah, well, that…that is because…” He paused, clapping his hands in thought before continuing. “…because we were told to? Didn’t the radio say something about staying indoors?”

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know, I’ve had it off.”

“Well that just isn’t safe! You know, the radio knows what’s good for us! Like warning us about the bastards coming to seize our planet!

“…yes, uh. Can you move your transport now? Urgent business.”

“‘Course! You stay safe now, attendant, and enjoy the show when it happens!” He gestured for the transport to move ever so slightly, freeing the path. Kaine nodded in thanks as he climbed back into the hover car and sped off.

The various home units were different in mostly minor ways, be it the number of windows or their color or one floor versus two. The designs were always the same: a cylindrical shape alongside a domed top, with a platform in the center of the driveway to lower cars to prevent theft, although only one could be underground at a time.            

Kaine pulled up to the driveway of his soul-sister’s peach colored house, parking in front of the platform before stepping out of the car and heading over to the front door. The door itself was a flat slab of gray metal with some cyan along it in a circular pattern. Placing his hand on the door’s center, he spoke slowly and clearly towards the slab.

“Lana? It’s me, Kaine, can you-” He was cut off as the door slid up and he was pulled into a tight hug by his soul-sister, her green jacket hood falling off as she held him like a defensive beast would for a recently claimed catch.

“Soul-brother! Oh, how I’ve waited for you! What’s going on at the ministry? Will we be safe? Is Gurrin needed?” She bombarded him with fast, energetic questions as she bounced away from the hug, still holding Kaine’s arms as he blinked in surprise.            “…may I please see Gurrin, soul-sister? There’s little time to waste,” He replied in a slow, quiet voice as he reached up to put his hands on her shoulders. “You’ll be fine, though, I saw soldiers securing this area not long ago.”

“Soldiers? Here? Or where? Did they say why? Are those ships close? And how close?”

Kaine sighed, avoiding eye contact as he sought an answer; managing to find his words a few seconds later as he attempted to calm her further. “To keep you safe just in case panic ensues, there’s no indication those ships mean any harm to us.”

“What if they do?”            “We’ll be able to fend them off or attempt diplomacy. Now, please, direct me to Gurrin.” Finding no further questions, she led him inside. Lana was his soul-sister, a sibling that came not from his mother but instead one that came from his father finding a new companion. In society this act of finding new companions was considered wise if the new relationship worked out better than the old one.  

Once inside, Kaine was met with the similarly peach colored interior along with a black, red, and green carpet covering the floor. Laying flat on his back atop a circular, dark green sofa in the center of the room was the uniformed senator. His arms and legs limply laid over the side of the sofa with his cape, once Kaine got closer he could see that Gurrin was wearing a rust colored mask over his nose and mouth; one of Kaine’s old injector units. A device that dispensed a recreational drug meant to remove stress and relax the user.

“Senator Gurrin, a pleasure to see-”

“Get on with it, Kaine,” Gurrin wheezed out, leaning his head up as his eyes narrowed at Kaine. “If you’re here to summon me for protection,” He spat the word out if it were a curse. “Then you’ll be sorely disappointed.”

“All high-ranking members of the Defense Ministry are needed in the War Room post haste, Senator. You’ll be far safer there than you will here-”

“Noooo. No. Kaine,” The senator sat up, his body movement indicating it was a colossal effort. He wheezed slightly, grasping at the mask to remove it from his mouth. After a few seconds, he finally managed to remove the mask-showing that the area around his mouth had become heavily wrinkled and parched from the substance he’d been inhaling. “I want no part in this farce of a meeting. I’d rather live a survivor of the conflict than someone executed for his part in starting it.”            Kaine nodded in defeat before making his way for the exit. If he could not convince the senator see reason, what was the point of wasting his time here? After bidding his sister goodbye, he returned to the highway. At that point, Kaine was so lost inside his thoughts that be barely avoided hitting a stopped hover car on the road; swerving out of the way just in time before he could collide with the car’s rear. Stepping out, he prepared to give the driver a piece of his mind before noticing just what the driver had been looking at.

There were four ships in the sky.

Large ones, their main bodies were white with the rear parts around the thrusters and what Kaine assumed was the main bridge-judging by the line of windows-being a light gray. The ship was large at the front, having a mostly cubical shape before turning into more of a rectangle at the thrusters. The most striking feature was the crest on the side of the ships: Two symbols above a blue planet with various green landmasses on it. The first symbol curved downward, stayed down, and then curved up. Like some kind of cup or glass. The other shape was a vertical, three pronged line that could be passed off as a tool of some kind. After the first and second symbol was a dot separating the first symbol from the second and the second from the empty space following it.  

Taking a closer look, Kaine noticed various metal barrels and boxes with holes in them starting to come out of the sides of the ship.

All four ships then fired on the capital.

It was an utter cacophony of noise, nothing like the quiet plasma weapons the army used. The city was consumed by explosions, the amount of light produced was blinding while the noise could deafen anyone. Kaine put his hands on the side of his head, closing all of his eyes as he waited for the muffled sounds of the barrage to cease. Eventually they did, with Kaine being greeted by the sight of the once gleaming capital brought to ruin; almost all of the buildings were missing large chunks while others were simply vaporized by the bombardment.

Kaine simply sat there on his knees in utter shock, both at what had just occurred and how utterly wrong he had been. After what seemed to be ages, the military transport stopped in front of Kaine; snapping him out of his daze as the door opened and the Sergeant from before leaned out.

“You wanna come aboard, sir? We’re offta kill some outsiders!” He said, holding up his plasma rifle with a smile. “Radio says that the ministry building’s still up an’ running!”

Kaine’s eyes widened at the revelation that most of his coworkers may have survived the inferno inflicted upon the city, quickly nodding in acceptance at the offer as he jumped into the back of the transport. Contrary to Kaine’s quiet stoicism, many of the soldiers inside -numbering at around eight- were laughing and expressing joy that they finally would be able to see some action. It disgusted Kaine how glad they were that the first sentient species they’d ever encountered sought to kill them. Who could desire such a thing?

And what purpose would it serve to spread war to other species across the cosmos? Or enslave them? Was Kaine’s race not equal to this unknown species on the galactic plane of existence? Even if these creatures sought resources, what could not be gained via diplomacy or communication? Kaine gripped his head, spinning within his thoughts up until the transport grinded to a halt.

“Why’ve we stopped?” He stood as the door began to lower, the other soldiers getting into position with rifles at the ready as the Sergeant answered.

“Spotted outsiders on the ground here, gonna make them regret bombing us!” Kaine apprehensively followed the soldiers outside, not wanting to be left behind. The city was in absolute ruin, the roads were torn to shreds with fallen chunks of building wedged within them. Luckily, the ruins provided Kaine and the soldiers plenty of cover as they cautiously crept forward.

Suddenly, a loud crack rang out as the troops ducked for cover and began wildly firing their weapons. The cracks increased with frequency, projectiles starting to hit the positions that the soldiers hid behind. Kaine ran, diving into a nearby ruined storefront as the automatic weapons fire continued. Briefly looking outside, Kaine spotted the soldiers in various states of disarray; attempting to organize against their unknown enemy, despite the fight clearly not going to end in their favor.

Though it took a few nano rotations, the fight eventually ended with the aliens as the winners. Kaine crept out slowly around the corpses of his deceased fellows, hearing one of the creatures speak in an odd tongue, one he didn’t understand:

“Zeta Actual here, hostile squad eliminated; they had no idea what hit ‘em. How copy, Zeta Command?” The creature spoke into a boxy object with a small pole sticking out of it, a mechanical voice coming out of it. Some kind of neural transmitter? Were these beings robots? Cyborgs? Clones? “Affirmative, command, unit suffered one casualty. Mhm. Yes, sir, we’ll be there right away. Glory to the Unified Earth.” With that, the leader gestured for the rest to follow him into a machine that looked somewhat similar to the troop transport; except theirs was far more angular and utilized some kind of tread system in lieu of hoverpads.

It was then that Kaine noticed the body they’d left behind.

It had on an all white uniform, with gray colored parts under its arms, gloves, on its shoulders, in between its legs, and on its sides. The patch it had on either shoulder matched that which Kaine had seen on the ships. The creature’s helmet was dome-like in shape, much like most buildings, and appeared to be tied to his neck. Kaine realized this after trying to tug it off, then reaching up to feel the thing’s...was that a nose? Kaine felt it all the way from the back to its front, pushing around the fleshy bit at the tip even while the harder rear resisted his attempts to move it. Kaine felt his own nose, two small slits along his face just below his eyes.

Kaine then poked the flesh on its face, the surface was soft, not hard like Kaine’s chitin, and easily malleable. Then onto what looked to be its mouth: as opposed to the smooth, featureless areas above and below Kaine’s mouth, this creature had some kind of pink, fleshy...covering? And its teeth! Not sharp and tilted back, flat and straight like blocks of marble.

Kaine felt dizzy, putting a hand on his head before looking down to the creature’s digits. Five fingers? How could such a being operate! He lifted up what was clearly a thumb, then the main finger, then the next one-which was somehow larger than the first finger, as opposed to Kaine’s symmetrical digits-and then the next that was yet again smaller than the second...and then the fifth finger. A deformed twig of a finger. Kaine shuddered before setting the hand down. So much was wrong with it. Two eyes instead of four, those eyes being round instead of line-like on Kaine’s head...and the color! Brown! Not a glowing blue at all.

Kaine sat by the corpse, eventually laying down next to it with his hand on his chest. Though the body next to him wasn’t remotely similar to Kaine, he still felt saddened by its death. They were both sentient beings with a history, and a homeplanet. A family with loved ones. Somewhere to go to buy new clothing, to see the next movie, to get food and drinks.

Kaine just couldn’t understand why these beings wanted war.

[sweet-ree]

I was tagged by the sweet @hiroike for this, thanks honey!. Its pretty tame, but still more personal details than I’ve ever shared here. This was fun.

The Last: 1. Drink: grapefruit mimosa 2. Phone call: car repair place with bad news about the bill 3. Text Message: if tumblr counts, ellebee 4. Song you listened to: Lady Marmalade - moulin rouge soundtrack

5.Time you cried: a few hours ago, I think a friend got his heart broken

Have You: 6. Dated someone twice: yes 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: sort of - torn between reveling in it and regretting it

8. Been cheated on: yes 9. Lost someone special: yes, my mom 10. Been depressed: yes, off and on through the years

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: lol, um, yes. Lots. Not in a year or so though

List Three Favorite Colors: 12. yellow

13. cyan - that sounds so pretentious, like my blog color but brighter

14. gray In The Last Year Have You: 15. Made new friends: many 16. Fallen out of love: no  17. Laughed until you cried: frequently, every few days at least. I have some fun people around me 18. Found out someone was talking about you: yes, in both a good way and a bad way

19. Met someone who changed you: yes 20. Found out who your friends are: no, I already knew 21. Kissed someone on your facebook list:  in the last year, only my husband. other than that, there are a lot of exes on that list

General: 22. How many of your facebook friends do you know in real life? All but one, and he’s really funny so I let him stay

23. Do you have any pets: no, but I’m working on it

24. Do you want to change your name: nope  25. What did you do for your last birthday: sushi and cocktails 26. What time did you wake up today: 7:30am 27. What were doing at midnight last night: sleeping. For the first time in a long time I went to bed early. Usually it’s gaming or reading

28. Name something you can’t wait for: all of my sports injuries to heal fully

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: January 15, 2016 - a few hours before she died 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life:  there are a lot of things actually. Mostly I wish I’d done college differently. I’ve been talking to a friend about that recently, and thinking about what could have been if I’d studied what I wanted instead of worrying about graduating in a specific time frame. 31. What are you listening to right now: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Henrys Dream  32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: my neighbor, he’s a verbally abusive prick and my friend needs to kick his ass out 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: slow people in the fast lane 34. Most visited website:  google

Random Info:

35. Mole/s:  “beauty mark” above my lip

36. Mark/s: lots of scars 

37. Childhood dream:

I wanted to be a teacher - but a crippling fear of public speaking put the kibosh on that, lol

38. Hair color: um, mostly brown for now, but I have a little color (having format issues with picture and can’t get it to turn but you get the idea

39. Long or short hair: longer than I’ve ever had it

40. Do you have a crush on someone: always - some fictional some real 41. What do you like about yourself:  I’m a pretty straight forward person. I have few secrets and for the most part, wysiwyg. 42: Piercings: 2 in one ear, 5 in the other

43: Blood type: I have it written down somewhere

44. Nickname: I have a few: Mags, Susan, and sweet ree is based off of another - if you really care I’ll tell you but not here

45. Relationship: married with children 46. Zodiac: Aquarius 47. Pronouns: she/her

48. Favorite TV show:  Psych - but its not on anymore

49. Tattoos: 2 - Van Gogh iris on my hip, shuriken on back of my neck 50. Right hand or left hand: right 51. Surgery: 4 - 2 are c-sections 52. Hair dyed in a different color: see above. In the past I’ve tried red and pink, and I really liked blonde 53. Sport: I earned my black belt in karate last october 54. Vacation: I’ve been to lots of places, the most interesting Israel. I want to go to Greece, England, Japan

55. Pair of trainers: I have to do timed runs for karate, so yes

More General: 56. Eating: too much! 57. Drinking: LOL - um yes. Lots of champagne, Monsters, Diet Coke, and a wide variety of cocktails. Basically anything except egg nog and carrot juice. They should be illegal. 58. I’m about to: open another bottle of champagne 59. Waiting for:  AC Origins - coudn’t think of anything more profound, sorry 60. Want:  a PS so I can play Uncharted, it looks awesome. Some people here have tried to make me MORE jealous about it. You know who you are! :P THBBFT! 61. Get married: yes I did 62. Career: no, history degree doesn’t open many doors of you don’t want to teach

63. Hugs or kisses:  both and lots of them!!! I’m a hugger, squeeze hugs! 64. Lips or eyes: lips! 65. Shorter or taller:  don’t care, husband is shorter than I am 66. Older or younger:  don’t care, both have pros and cons

67. Nice arms or nice stomach: arms!!!

68. Senstive or loud:  neither. Sensitive is often too wussy, loud is often too obnoxious. 69. Hook up or relationship:  both are awesome. 70. Troublemaker or hesitant: another case of preferring something in between. If you meant me, I’m definitely a troublemaker.

Have You Ever: 71. Kissed a stranger: yes 72. Drank hard liquor: early and often 73. Lost glasses/contact lenses:  no

74. Turned someone down: definitely

75. Sex in the first date: oh yeah 76. Broken someone’s heart: yes 77. Had your heart broken: oh yes 78. Been arrested: um, I hate to admit it, but yes, (twice) 79. Cried when someone died: always 80. Fallen for a friend: yes, didn’t work out, but at least we are still friends

Do You Believe In: 81. Yourself:  depends on the day 82. Miracles:  no 83. Love at first sight:  no. lust yes, love no 84. Santa Claus:  really? 85. Kiss on the first date:  ALWAYS - or there won’t be a second date! 86. Angels: no

Other 87. Current best friend’s name: Alie

88. Eye color: blue 89. Favorite movie: Steel Magnolias - but to me it’s a comedy! 90. Strangest thing in your room:  a statue of a bull, maybe 8"x12". It was wedding present. It was so strange, we kept it and still laugh about it. 91. Ever visited any countries outside your own:  Canada, France, Switzerland, Israel 92. Favorite fantasy creature:  DRAGON!!!!! duh

I had some issues with formatting ignore any strange characters I missed. I‘m not sure I got the cut thing to work, so if not, I apologize for cluttering your dash with this silliness.  I’m not actually going to tag anyone this time, but if you read this and want to share, remember that I’m nosy and I’d love to read it!

[cyannerdstudent-blog]

Namjoon x M!Reader "Pay attention to me..."

Warnings:Gay Stuff,Lemon,may have facefucking idk Enjoy~Cyan _____________________________________________________________________________ The fact that (M/n) was ignoring Namjoon, made him furious. One day (M/N) was talking to him,the next… it was like he vanished. He wanted to talk to him,by all means he did… but the anger and frustration was slowly beginning to eat away at Namjoon. As the BTS members stepped out of the car,(M/N) hid behind Taehyung, causing said male to look back at (M/N). “What are you doing behind me (M/N)?” Taehyung asked as he stopped walking, giggling at him. (M/N) didn’t want to say anything,he didn’t want Tae to know that he was ignoring Namjoon. So,he just shook his head and began trudging to the bathroom,wanting to be the first to take a shower. He could feel the strong gaze of eyes on him,and it made him stop in his tracks,hand on the doorknob as he looked around. But… there was no one.(M/N) hesitated for a bit before opening and closing the door behind him,making sure it was locked. After a while,(M/N) came out in his usual gray sweatpants and a white shirt(That might I add was a bit too big). He was turning the corner when he accidentally bumped into someone,immediately apologizing. But, when he looked up,his blood ran ice cold. It was Namjoon.(M/N)’s face flushed a light red as he backed up,laughing nervously. There it was again… those dark eyes that made his stomach turn.“(M/N),why have you been ignoring me?! You haven’t talked to for almost about a week” he scowled as he crossed his arms, impatiently waiting for an answer. But all (M/N) could mutter out were jumbles of words,being cut off or either he couldn’t think of anything. All he wanted was to be saved from his boyfriend because he knew that he was beyond mad. And as if Jin read his mind,there was a call from the kitchen.“Come eat everyone!!” Jin shouted,putting out the bowls of food he cooked.“I-I gotta go!” (M/N) said hastily,basically running towards the kitchen. And oh,he was so gonna pay for doing this to him.~ After dinner,which lasted a nice couple of minutes, (M/N) was suddenly grabbed by the arm and drug into a room. To be specific, Namjoon’s room. (M/N) began struggling,but Namjoon wouldn’t let go. It felt like the grip on his wrist was getting tighter the more he struggled. “If you don’t stop,you’ll make this even worse” Namjoon growled lowly as he threw (M/N) onto the bed,pinning him down. When that was said,(M/N) grew still,his body trembling as he looked up at him. He could see the lust in his eyes,and all of his blood ran south.’ oh fuck…I want him’ he thought as Namjoon began kissing down his neck ever so slowly.“I want you to know..” Namjoon said as he began taking off their pants,and began palming (M/N) through his boxers,making him let out a small moan.“How it feels like to be ignored,and teased” he said,his once forceful hand movements becoming gentle.“It leaves you frustrated,doesn’t it baby boy?” Namjoon whispered seductively into (M/N)’s ear,causing him to shiver. “I want you to suck me off,and if you please me enough,i just might let you cum~” Namjoon stated after a bit,letting his hand go from (M/N) throbbing member. He began to hesitate for a bit before nodding,leaning his head forward towards Namjoon’s boxers,and pulled them down. His eyes widened slightly at the sight,and he could feel his cock ache even more.He finally gathered up the courage he had and took the tip into his mouth,his eyes fluttering close.Namjoon let out a small groan,pushing down (M/N)’s head further so that he could take in more of him. He began saying dirty things,praising at how his pretty his little mouth looked around his cock. He began thrusting his hips up into (M/N)’s mouth,causing him to gag slightly,but he kept going.T he warmness and the wetness of (M/N)’s mouth was beginning to drive him over the edge as he felt him flick his tongue over the slit of his dick.“Shit… I’m cumming~!” He moaned out loudly as he thrusted his hips one last time,before he hit his orgasm. (M/N) sighed in satisfaction as he pulled away,swallowing the remains of his seed,before he looked at Namjoon with a pleading look.“You did so well baby boy~I should reward you” Namjoon chuckled as he leaned over and opened up his drawer,pulling out a bottle of lube. He added a generous amount to his member,before stroking himself a few times and lining himself up with (M/N)’s entrance. Namjoon began to slowly thrust himself in,causing (M/N) to gasp loudly and arch his back off the bed slightly. When (M/N) gave Namjoon the signal to move,he was gentle at first,with a passionate kiss.But later on,his thrusts became faster and rougher, as he grabbed (M/N)’s hips tightly and threw his head back.(M/N) could feel the knot in his stomach tighten up by the second,and he couldn’t help but clutch onto the bed sheets as he felt his orgasm approach quickly. The way he was thrusting,made his body was on fire. His breath was hitching in his throat and he let out a strangled off moan as he came on their chests,his body quivering. Not too long after,Namjoon came as well,pulling out and laying by his side. They both panted heavily, trying to catch their breath as they both snuggled into the blankets. There was the sudden opening of the door,which was followed by a sigh.“Wow… You should’ve locked the door"It was Yoongi.“Jin said to see what was all the noise about,but i won’t tell” He smirked before leaving,leaving both of the boys flustered and silent. ______________________________________________________________

[doxampage]

Book Printing: Color Shift Problems in the Book Proofs

Sometimes things go horribly wrong. I think there’s nothing worse than “hearing” the exasperation of a loyal client in her email, knowing that a multi-year working relationship is on the line.

I recently heard back from a client for whom I had been printing a small color swatch book for years. The swatch books pertained to make-up and clothing color choices appropriate for a woman based on her complexion.

The small color books, bound with a screw and post assembly, are essentially PMS books for the fashion industry. I have written many articles about this project, which my client reprints every few months. All 22 original print books had been produced without incident until just recently. They had been direct reprints of between one and ten copies of each of the 22 original master books. The books had been printed, laminated, round cornered, and drilled for the screw and post binding. The book printer produced the color books on an HP Indigo. The color was dead on. Reprints of the print books went like clockwork. Until they didn’t.

The Change in the Job Specs

The change in the job specifications that precipitated the problem was a small one. My client would print 100 copies of the 22 master books (various numbers of copies of each to equal 100 total color books) to fulfill orders for her clients. However, this time, in order to have more colors to bind into some of the print books, my client had created a single sheet containing an additional 30 colors. Some colors matched pages already included in the 22 master copies; many did not.

The goal was to print these at the tail end of the job, once the other books were complete, and then run them through the same finishing operations: lamination, round cornering, drilling, and such, but then to deliver them loosely packed in a carton (not bound on screw and post assemblies). This would cost an additional $200+ instead of the (almost) $3,000 price tag for producing the 15 copies of the single page as a stand-alone job. Why the difference? Because all of the makeready costs that would comprise the almost $3,000 would also cover all of the finishing work for the reprinted 100 copies of the older print books.

But there were problems with the color accuracy—for the first time in the history of the numerous direct reprints. Five of the colors in the 30 extra (master) color chips (the 30 loose chips of which 15 copies would be printed) were already included in the original 22 print books, and the proofs of these colors did not match the colors in the original books.

Fortunately, all the other colors (new ones and colors that had to match the original colors in the 22 master books) were ok.

What Caused the Problems?

Keep in mind that the clock was ticking. My client had clients who wanted books. Their shipments had to be back-ordered. My client also had a new financial backer who understandably also wanted accurate colors.

Fortunately, the sales rep at the printer had a complete set of printed and laminated copies of the original books plus a set of unlaminated proofs of the additional 30 loose color chips. So a list of the five problematic colors gave her a good starting point to resolve the color matching problem.

The sales rep had her plant manager check the HP Indigo color calibration. To be safe, he ran a second set of proofs on a higher-end HP Indigo digital press. He sent second proofs to my client’s financial backer (at my client’s request, assuming the problems had been resolved), but my client’s financial backer said the revised proofs were identical to the first set, with the same five problematic colors still off target (specifically too light). Ouch.

Where Do We Go Next?

Fortunately, since my client sees that the printer is taking this very seriously and trying to make things right, she has given us more time to correct matters. Here are some of the things we have learned and/or have considered relevant to resolving the problem:

The first digital press had been upgraded from a prior model. Apparently, this particular HP Indigo had been altered to improve it, but the color calibration was not yet accurate. This affected primarily the blues, reds, and purples in my client’s color book. That is, the color problems were localized. They did not affect all hues.

When the plant manager moved the job from the first HP Indigo to the larger, higher-end HP Indigo, the problem didn’t go away. Assuming the revised proof was correct (which to his eyes it was), the printer sent the second set of proofs to my client’s financial backer. My client herself didn’t see them. So I asked my client to have her financial backer cut each color swatch in half and send her a complete set of proofs (so both my client and her financial backer, who live in different cities, would each have her own complete set to facilitate communication). Why? Because two people will always see color differently (in this case three, or even more, since the printer also had a set of the same proofs).

I also asked both the book printer and the client (and her financial backer) to look at the colors in different lighting conditions. Why? Because color will look different in sunlight, incandescent light (the traditional light bulbs with filaments), and fluorescent light. Presumably color will also look different under LED light.

I asked everyone to cover each eye (one at a time, back and forth) and check the color. (For some people, including me, colors appear slightly different when they are seen by one eye and then the other.)

I asked the book printer whether any of these colors might be especially problematic when reproduced with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toners. This is because my client’s financial backer had selected PMS colors, and the HP Indigo simulates PMS colors using process color builds. Granted, extra colors can be used on the HP Indigo (up to seven), and these will expand the overall color gamut, making it possible to match more PMS colors. But not all of them.

The book printer noted that the lamination would darken the colors (some more than others) and make them more intense. This might be perceived as a color shift by either my client or her financial backer. (Keep in mind that color has three properties: 1) hue, or the named color, like “blue”; 2) lightness/darkness, or value; and 3) intensity or purity. Laminating the color chips would affect two of these three variables.) That said, the reason this was a problem is that the proofs were not laminated, but the color pages in the original 22 master print books had been laminated. So if my client or her backer were matching the proofs of the 30 loose color chips (unlaminated proofs) to the master books (laminated pages), the colors would not look alike. In some cases the difference would be minimal, but in other cases—apparently—the color shift would be more dramatic.

The printer also noted that if the five problematic colors were adjusted (by the prepress department) to make them accurate, this would affect all other colors on the 30-color digital press sheet (my client could wind up with five correct colors and 25 colors that were “off,” the opposite of the current situation).

My client told me that she still had the proofs (unlaminated) from the first printing of all 22 master books. I asked her to send these immediately to the printer. He would be able to more easily adjust the colors of the 30 new, loose color chips to match the colors in the original books because he would be matching unlaminated color pages to unlaminated color pages.

This is where we are now. We’ll see what happens.

What You Can Learn from This Fiasco

I always say that when you buy commercial printing, you are not buying a commodity. You’re buying a process. At a time like this, it helps to have a long-term working relationship with the printer. Only a long-term partner will take the time to resolve a problem like this. Keep this in mind as you choose printers for your own work.

Color on laminated, digitally printed pages does not look the same as color on unlaminated pages.

If you make a color change in part of a job, this may adversely affect the color in another part of the job. This is true for offset printing as well as digital printing.

People see color differently, depending on their gender (women see color better than men) and on many other variables, and color can look different depending on the lighting conditions and the surrounding colors. (Red paint in a closed paint can is actually black, since color is a function of light and the physical action of the cones and rods in your eyes. That’s why red cars look gray under street lights at night.)

The time comes when “good enough” is good enough. Only you can make this call. In my case, only the client who devised the color chip product for selecting make-up and clothing can say whether the colors in the proofs are close enough to the original colors she chose for her fashion system.

When in doubt, start with the obvious, and start at the beginning. For instance, I asked my client to check the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color builds in the InDesign art files to make sure the color builds in the original books and the 30 extra loose colors were identical. I may also ask the printer to make sure the printing paper for the proofs is the same as it was for the original 22 books (whiteness and brightness). I already asked whether there’s any chance that the PDF files or InDesign files for the same job could be “off” (damaged, inconsistent, etc.).

As you can see, this is not an exact science. A lot of people at the book printer have been working hard to make this right so my client will be happy. And she has been patient. We’ll see what happens.

Book Printing: Color Shift Problems in the Book Proofs published first on http://ift.tt/2vVn0YZ