#Hello and welcome to the first one i actually drew on time but did not post on time :(

[th3b33skn33s]

Darling Dolorosa Homestucktober 2023, Day Seven: Ancestor

[chvoswxtch]

Hi,

I had a request… I’m currently obsessed with Frank Castle (he’s just so 🥵) and had an idea, it’s not super original so I understand if you don’t want to write it!

A non-binary (they/she) character who is plus-sized and younger than him (in their mid-20s) taking him home to meet her family for the holidays. And she is very insecure and worried about how their family will react. Maybe while there, a family member says something hateful about her weight and/or being non-binary, and Frank goes to comfort/reassure her, and maybe even gets mad and defends her to her family?

Can be smut or just fluff (or both!)

I just thought it would be cute to see his more protective/caring side, mixed with his possessive and angry side. I love that dynamic (:

hello my love!

so i'm not sure if you've watched the bear (i'm still working through it myself) but there's a scene where jon flips a table and goes on a rampage and I just thought that was super fitting for this prompt so I drew a lot of inspiration from that & I hope you enjoy!

I also hope you're having a wonderful day or night wherever you are and that the holidays are being kind to you 🖤

warning: swearing, frank being frank word count: 1.5k

dessert.

It was so quiet in the cab of Frank’s truck, you swore you could almost hear the delicate noise of fresh snowflakes carelessly colliding with the windshield over the dull roar of the heat coming through the vents. The holidays were always a complicated time for you with your family. In the earlier months of the year, there was a welcoming sense of freedom to be exactly who you were without judgment. But when the colder weather started to seep in, so did the impending dread. All you had wanted to do was introduce your family to the man you had fallen in love with, and celebrate your first holiday together in a special way. You had anticipated a little bit of uncomfortable tension, prepared yourself for a few tasteless passive aggressive comments, but you didn’t think it would be this bad.

Bringing Frank home to meet your family hadn’t been the mistake. It was underestimating his protective nature and forgetting the caliber of his restless temper.

Things had already been off to a rocky start as soon as you walked through the door. Everyone’s eyes seemed to be shamelessly sticking to the way your outfit clung to the soft and full curves of your figure. The same outfit that had Frank nearly pulling over to the side of the road impatiently because he couldn’t keep his eyes ahead was currently the topic being whispered about by your aunts. However their attention was quickly stolen as soon as Frank walked in behind you. Their hushed gossip rang loudly in your ears, causing the confidence Frank had built up within you to fizzle out into insecure embers.

He’s so…normal looking. What’s he doing with her?

She’s not a her, remember? She’s…oh I forget what it’s called. Another complicated thing these kids have come up with. I swear it’s something new everyday. I can’t keep up.

He seems much too old for her, and look how fit he is. They seem way too different, there’s no way they’re actually dating.

It only got progressively worse from there. By the time everyone sat down to have dinner, it was like you weren’t even there. Everyone asked Frank a million and one questions, but no one asked you a single thing. No one asked how you were, or how the new job was going that you were so excited about. No one asked how you and Frank met, or how long you had been dating for. Everyone seemed to be trying to figure out the puzzle of what Frank was doing here with you, and eventually, you found yourself trying to solve that exact same riddle. It was almost incredible how your family managed to ruin all the trust and love that the two of you had built up over the past few months. All the promises of reassurance that flowed so easily from his lips seemed to vanish from your memory, and the quieter you got, the angrier Frank became.

He was polite at first, answering the simple questions with appropriate responses, but the more they tried to exclude you from the conversation, the more he tried to aggressively incorporate you into it. His frustration was evident in the way his voice became more rough and coarse, a detail only you were able to pick up on. That should’ve been the first warning bell in your head. But you were so wrapped up in your own insecurities that it didn’t occur to you to reach for his hand under the table to calm him like you normally did when he got worked up. Frank was doing his best to contain his rage at the way your family treated you, but one hateful comment from your alcoholic of an uncle about your weight caused him to erupt.

It all happened so fast, that you were stunned. Your uncle was in the middle of following up his weight comment with an insult about your non-binary identity when Frank suddenly stood and flipped the table out of his way so he could rush forward and strike his fist across your uncle's face. In a split second, everything had descended into chaos. Your mom and aunts were screaming, your father and uncles were trying to pull Frank off your drunk uncle, but they weren’t a match for his strength and tenacity. It wasn’t until you fought your way through them and tugged at Frank’s shirt in a panic that he finally relented and let you drag him out of the house.

For the past fifteen minutes, the two of you had been sitting in his truck where it was parked in front of your family’s house, both of you attempting to calm down. Frank was trying to quell his anger while you were coming down from the shock of what had just happened. The longer you sat in silence watching the waves of snowflakes caress the glass of the windshield, the more uneasy Frank became. Letting out a deep exhale through his large nose, he finally couldn’t take the quiet anymore.

“Look I…I didn’t…m’sorry, alright? Can you just…will you please say somethin’?”

“I can’t believe you flipped a table.”

Frank blinked in dumbfoundment a few times, his dark brows pinching together in the center of his forehead. He was expecting you to yell, to go off on him, maybe even break up with him right then and there, but not to hear you sound so amused about his explosive behavior.

“Huh?”

“That was ‘real housewives’ of you.”

When you finally turned to face him, he noticed the faint smirk on your lips, and that one little gesture eased all the anxiety that had been building up within him for the past fifteen minutes. He let out a puff of air through his lips, looking ahead as he shook his head slowly and glanced at his side mirror while trying to fight the crooked grin that threatened to spill across his lips.

“Yeah well, dinner was dull. Thought I’d spice it up a bit.”

“I’d say you spiced it up a lot.”

Frank turned his head to look over at you, and you could see a faint apologetic twinkle in his eye from the glow of the street lamp above.

“You mad?”

It was your turn to look at him in dumbfoundment. Arching one of your brows, you let out a soft laugh while tilting your head to the side in slight curiosity.

“Am I mad that you stuck up for me?”

“I coulda handled it better.”

Scooting over to the middle seat of the cab, you brought your hand up to gently caress his jaw while staring into his warm brown eyes with a soft smile.

“No Frankie, I’m not mad. I promise.”

Leaning in, you pressed your lips to his in a gentle kiss, letting him feel the sincerity behind your words. You weren’t mad at all. No one had ever been so protective or defensive of you before, and while some would’ve thought his reaction was a little extreme, you knew it was just Frank’s way of showing you how much he loved and cared about you.

“Thank you.”

“For ruinin’ the holidays with your family?”

“Baby, they were ruined before we even got here. And honestly, this is the best holiday season I’ve ever had, thanks to you. You made it special for me. It was probably a bad idea to come here, but I just wanted to show you off. Show them all how happy I was. I thought they would be happy for me-”

“Hey, to hell with ‘em. They don’t deserve to see that pretty smile after the way they treated you. That asshole’s lucky I don’t go back in there-”

“Frank.”

Letting out a soft laugh, you redirected his angry glare from your family’s house back towards you as you pulled him in for another soft kiss.

“Let’s just go home. We can order something in.”

Frank took one last irritated look at your family’s house, letting out a soft grunt of disapproval.

“Goddamn chicken was dry anyway.”

For some reason the frustration coveting his sharp features and the grumpy tone of his voice just made you laugh. Giving his thigh a gentle squeeze, you pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and smiled adoringly at him.

“We can have something else for dinner.”

Frank turned his head to look at you, his gaze wandering slowly up and down your figure before settling on your eyes once more. The ravenous look reflected back at you simultaneously sent a shiver down your spine and filled your lower half with a sense of heat. He reached out to place one of his large hands on your thigh, giving it a firm squeeze as his voice dropped to a husky whisper.

“Think I’m ready for dessert, sweetheart.”

tags: @day-dreaming-goddess @kdogreads @heimtathurs @mars-rants-a-lot @casa-boiardi @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @hazallem @avencol @neverlandcity @charmedkim @queenofthenoobs @stilldreaming666 @mattymurdock1021 @bubuslutty @ninejlovebot @purrrfect @pennylovey @firesunflamed @oscarisaacsleftknee @ameliaswife @vane28282 @kmc1989 @messymissy @dark-academia-slut @strawberry1042 @utterlynuts

[sambuuck-illuminated]

Hello! I'm contacting you as one of the mods in PokeMagma events. We have noted your amazing contribution to the session, it's really well drawn! ^^ But unfortunately we are concerned about whether the image is suitable for the session-- Like you know everyone is welcome to the session as long as they follow the rules. One of our rules is "keep it PG." We have noted that it's a very vague rule and we actually forgot to add some clarification to it. So we have now added: "Any questionable ship content is off limits, either directly or suggested." This is not your fault! We should've been more clear about it before.

Our problem is that you're giving exposure to your au's that have blankshipping content. Imagine a situation if someone who's not comfortable with blankshipping will find that content via your twitter/tumblr handle and checks the au's that you drew in the session. Everyone trusts that no-one draws blankshipping content on the session so that would come as a surprise to them.

You're still verry much welcomed to the next events if you still want to join us! ^^ I hope that you'll understand our reasoning why we'll remove that drawing from the final edit. Feel free to contact/reply me or @/pokemagma anytime if you want to say or ask anything about the matter! Thank you for joining us!

it is near midnight my time and i am tired and pissed off, so i'm sorry if i'm coming off as harsh

for folks who haven't seen it, this was my piece for the magma. it took me 11 hours to complete, and i was really proud of it. the piece itself is not shippy, it is PG. this piece did not break the magma rules that you published online.

some of my aus have been written for ship, some have been written for gen, some i've written both, some i haven't written at all yet. this is going to come as an absolute mindfuck for some folk here, but i am allowed to draw my aus in whatever way i want. for this piece i drew them as not shippy, out of respect for folk who don't enjoy that content. removing it from the magma edit because i've written ship for it in the past is shit.

and honestly the reasoning of "what if they look you up?" to be fucking bullshit. so what if folk look me up and find content they don't like? fam i trust them to go "oh! this content isn't for me!" and close the fucking browser window like the fucking adults they are. my shit is tagged on my art blog, my ao3 and my twitter - i trust that folk are knowledgeable enough to know how filters work and how to avoid content they don't want to see.

you tell me that i'm welcome to return - how am i welcome to return when you remove something i worked hard on and the reasoning is "you broke rules we didn't tell you about and we can't risk folk looking up your content"? i get that the filthy blankshippers aren't meant to have feelings but friend cmon. if you spent eleven hours on something only for a moderator to remove it because they "forgot to clarify" a rule and they don't want people looking you up, you'd be real upset too.

in addition to this, while i was drawing i was approached by one of your mods. after confirming I wasn't drawing ship art, they proceeded to tell me how many complaints they received because i was there and had been drawing on the last magma

to be clear, my first magma was in june. last month. the shiny pokemon magma. folk were complaining to you about me when i wasn't even drawing submas.

i don't think this is about the art, honestly. i think you just got tired of folk complaining about me and wanted me out

[lavendertales]

Hello! May I request a thing where after the 5th episode Joel gives Ellie a hug and meets up with Reader! After? Idk plenty of angst and hurt/comfort for both Ellie and Joel like first maybe Reader sees Ellie and Joel hugging then come back into a safe house. Then Joel starts to open up with Reader. Idk do whatever you think would be lovely thank you ❤️ I love your writing!

God this episode ruined me😭

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED EPISODE 5!!!

We go down together || Joel Miller x gn!reader

summary: after the motel incident, you find that both Ellie and Joel are completely shaken up, so you tell them to take a break.

word count: 1.5k

warnings: angst, mentions/talk of death & loss. fluff sprinkled in there too.

gif: @tomshiddles

It all happened too fast; in the blink of an eye, you watched Joel and Ellie lose two good friends because of a freak accident. A freak show, really. It was no one's fault; but you knew that both would take the blame upon themselves, let guilt swallow them whole.

Even so, you planned to do anything possible to ease their pain and conscience alike.

The three of you left the room Henry and Sam lied dead in, carrying their bodies outside as you began their burial. It was silent; a silence that allowed for dark thought to swarm in and take you by storm. You didn't fight it though. You figured a moment or two of silence is more than welcome in this situation.

Ellie walked towards where Sam had been buried and placed his writing pad atop of it, with the words I'M SORRY written over it. You held your breath, resisting the urge to cry. You knew she took his death harder, having grown closer to him and treated him like a little brother.

She walked away, leaving you and Joel in complete silence to gaze at the graves. Joel remained his usual stoic self, though you could see on his face that he was pretty shaken up by the event, too. Both Henry and Sam's demise was tragic, but the speed with which it all happened and the deep love than ran between the two brothers who could not live without the other was beyond touching; hence why it made everything seem so much more shocking and painful.

"Which way is west?"

Ellie was asking Joel. You watched them closely, and when Joel pointed to his left, Ellie started walking in that direction, never once looking back. You timidly gazed over at Joel, and when your eyes met, you saw sadness in them. He may have been hardened by the harsh reality, but Joel still had care and love left in his heart. He was simply reluctant to show it.

"Go," you muttered to him. "Go after her."

He stared at you, as if not understanding what you were telling him. You placed your hand on his arm, gently, and Joel drew in a sharp breath to steady himself.

"I'll finish here," you told him.

He nodded, handing you the shovel and following Ellie. He may not have been good with words, but currently there was a kid around him that was in tremendous pain, and Joel surely knew how to handle that. It may have been a long time, but his parenting instincts were still buried within him.

You placed some stones around the graves to mark them, then carved an H and an S out of the soil. The more you stared at the I'M SORRY pad, the more you crumbled yourself. Henry and Sam were going to go to Wyoming with the three of you. They were free of Kathleen's revenge hunt. They could've started a whole new life there.

Now it was all gone.

You peeped in the distance and saw Ellie nodding, then, a few seconds later, headed into Joel's arms. And Joel actually hugged her: it was a genuine, real hug. Arms around her, head resting on hers and everything. You thought how long had it been since he last hugged someone. Was it his daughter, as she died in his arms and he clung onto her lifeless body?

The thought sent shivers down your spine. You didn't know that much about Joel or his past, but he did manage to tell you about his daughter one late night. Your heart broke for him, thinking how awful these last two decades must've been for him.

But now, with Ellie... you saw the way he looked after her. You saw a little spark in his eyes whenever she told bad jokes to make him laugh. You didn't ask him much of anything, to be honest. You chose to respect his privacy. After all, it's not like you were a couple or anything. You were just... there. A traveling companion, nothing more.

But you did care for him. And for Ellie. And that could get you in trouble eventually.

You heard Ellie's wail, and came to realize she was crying in Joel's arms. Unable to take it, you walked towards them and gently put your your hand over Joel's, which was cradling her head at his chest.

"How about we stay here for another day?" you proposed.

Ellie looked up, her eyes and cheeks reddened by the tears she let out. You looked mostly at her.

"Don't think that's a good idea," Joel said cautiously.

Then you looked at him. "We pick a different room, opposite of... that one. We're not in a rush, right? There's no one here. I think we can afford one day of mourning and just... being present. Hm? What do you think?"

Joel had to admit, it was a bit hard to snap out of this one. Normally he'd walk right away from a distressing death, but Henry's and Sam's was downright traumatizing, especially to Ellie. Maybe spending today in each other's company was just what you all needed.

"Would that be okay, Ellie?" you asked her.

Sniffling, Ellie nodded in agreement, breaking free from Joel's touch. He quickly clenched his fingers, flexing them as if trying to get rid of something, but you didn't mention that.

Maybe this was the first time he hugged someone in a very long time.

"How about you go pick a room and we'll be right there?" you asked Ellie again.

She started walking towards the motel, leaving you and Joel behind to gaze at her. She was a special kid, that much you could both agree upon. Only when you heard Joel's exhale did you turn to him, noticing the hardened and pained expression residing on his face.

"Thank you," he told you.

"For what?"

"For... bein' here. Means a lot. And... for taking care of Ellie. She could probably use someone more experienced to take care of her."

You made a funny face at him, like you couldn't believe what he just said.

"You remember what Henry told you, back in the tunnel?" you said. "'You may not be her father, but you were someone's'? You got all the right instincts and skills to do this, Joel."

He shook his head, deep in thought. "She's not my kid. And I sure as hell ain't her dad."

"I know. But sometimes caring for someone and protecting them runs deeper than blood."

Joel looked at you, analyzing your face as if he was about to say something else. He didn't; he merely looked at you, his face softening in the slightest.

"I see the way you look at her," you told him. "And I know you said she's just cargo—"

"She ain't so bad. Weird, but... not so bad."

You smiled faintly, and even Joel seemed to chuckle at his own words.

"The bad jokes remind me of Sarah," he said out of the blue.

You held still, almost holding your breath as well. It was rare to see Joel Miller talking openly about himself, if ever, so you didn't want to startle him in any way.

"She told bad jokes too?" you asked.

Joel chuckled, a more hearty sound this time. "Sometimes. Most of the time she was just sassy. And hella feisty. Like a forty year old in a kid's body."

You chuckled too, momentarily forgetting the troublesome morning you've had so far.

"They would've gotten along, I think," he continued mindlessly, staring off into the distance. "They would've been good friends."

There was nothing you could add to that. All you did was listen to him and breathe into the air, trying to calm your heart and your mind alike.

"We should go," you said after a little while.

Joel swung Henry's backpack around his shoulder when he noticed you standing still in spite of your words.

"Joel?"

He looked at you, waiting for a follow-up. He didn't expect to see you inch closer and wrap your arms around him, thus pulling him in for a hug. It was the second time that day that he felt another human's embrace after what felt like an eternity, and it was... good. It was warm. You were warm.

He found himself reciprocating, wrapping his own arms around your torso to keep you close. Neither of you was sure how long you stayed like that, but it was long enough to have Ellie peek from the motel room and see you two embracing in the field. She was going to rush you, ask you what was taking so long, but instead, she remained quiet and stared at you and Joel finally pulling away from each other and sharing an unsuspecting glance at the other.

Well. Unsuspecting for you two, blind fools. But even in the midst of all the pain and sorrow, Ellie saw. She knew. She could only hope that after today, maybe soon, you and Joel will start seeing it, too.

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #14: Big News Incoming and Illustrations

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!).  You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!! 

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has some Big News about Big News Incoming! And also some illustrations!

The Big News Incoming first: In Stars and Time will be a part of Future of Play Direct on June 10, 8:00am PT | 11:00am ET | 5:00 pm CET! Future of Play is part of the Summer Games Fest and showcases a lot of incredible indie games, so I hope you’ll tune in. There might be a little something for you to see :> And...

In Stars and Time will also be a part of The Mix on June 8th! The Mix is an amazing games showcase over in LA. There will be a lot of press there, so I’m very excited to get some eyes on ISAT! Please stop by the booth and say hi to the lovely people from my publisher, Armor Games Studios, if you get the chance!

Alright! That’s it for the big news. Now for other big news.

Porting the game to Switch seems to be close to done! Currently, the porting team is taking care of optimization thingy things. The game is playable, but tends to drop frames every so often, so the team is optimizing the game to make sure it’s playing smoothly so Switch players can have the best possible experience! And…

The (hopefully) final round of Japanese localization is underway! Last April, the localization team sent back a couple of sentences that should be reworded now that they have further context. Now that those changes are implemented, they are playing it one more time to make sure everything works as intended!

I sadly don’t have a Fun Gamedev Thing to talk about this month (or… last month either…) because I moved elsewhere back in April and have been taking care of many things so my move went smoothly. Did you know that moving and getting used to a new town is hard work? So, here’s some things I posted on social media in the last couple months!

Here’s an illustration I drew a while back but only posted recently! I imagine that during their journey, everyone must’ve shared a bed at least once. This is also an occasion to show everyone’s sleepytimes clothes. Siffrin on that honk shoo honk shoo fit

Like many people, I have seen the Barbie movie trailer. So of course I had to redraw these iconic frames.

And someone over on Tumblr asked me about how I picked everyone’s names! Here it is copy-pasted for your convenience.

Siffrin: i think. i will wait until the game comes out before saying how i picked their name. ask me again later (it’s not a spoiler its just silly)

Mirabelle: her name was actually Prunille for the longest time, but I kept mixing it up and calling her Bonnie… so I went looking for another fruit sounding name (prunille>prune>plum in french) and Mirabelle fit her perfectly :> (Mirabelle is a kind of plum!)

Isabeau: it’s just a nice name. It actually is a girl name but i refuse to accept it because “beau” is the masculine form for “beautiful”, but either way it fits his character pretty well…

Odile: old sounding french name. that’s it. when i was early in preproduction her name was Isabeau actually (and she had a WAY different personality)

Bonnie: it’s a nickname and not their full name. have i said their full name yet? (checks the wiki) i did. Boniface is just a name that I had never heard before, and I could easily imagine Bonnie not liking it because it sounds “old and lame”. i think as they get older they would like it more and more

This is also a reminder that In Stars and Time has a wiki page. I am so grateful that this is a thing someone made. You know you've made it when your game has a wiki page!!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Choice exploration + finished scenes💙

Hello and welcome new followers, here's an update on how things are going with the game! Firstly a big thank you to the sudden influx of support I got this week, I'm happy knowing people liked the little meme video I did! :,]

This post might be a little long since I had to rewrite a few things, I was trying to upload a picture of one of the new areas you can go in but I got an error and couldn't save what I wrote. :,S

Anywho, I mainly focused on quality of life changes and continued working with the one of the endings you can get at the start of the game.

I don't really know where to start but this ending took a lot longer than expected to really hit what I've been trying to go for. At first, it was going to have two different endings. I took out one of them because I didn't have much of a connection with it and I liked the idea of it being straightforward instead. When I went back over it, everything happened too quickly for my liking. To fix this I went back and added a few choices to at least give you an idea of what the area is like and how it effects the player(Y/N) while making sure the dialog transitioned correctly with what you see on the screen. It's nothing too wordy but I do like it a lot more than I did before. Even though this is still considered one ending there is a alternate version you can get depending on a certain choice. Towards the end I fixed up all the spelling errors I could find and happily enough, there wasn't many. For right now I'd say this ending is finished! Yay! x]

Here's one of my favorite CG's I drew for it:

I love how it turned out because I really want to do different angles and perspective through the terrain, I think this one is my favorite so far! :,,]

Here's a evening time version of it:

It's suppose to be raining in this image but I still need to practice getting the angle correct. :,,]

I'm also fixing/brainstorming up the second/third ending. This one will have two different areas you can navigate through to get an idea of where you are and a few hints of lore that will be referenced later on in the game. Those that have played the [Extended Demo] you probably know which ones I'm talking about. >;]

I already like the idea of them but for one of the paths, I didn't have enough time to branch it out and make backgrounds for it in the [Extended Demo] so here's a peek of a placeholder since I'm still sketching stuff out, nothing is finalized yet. :[]

Super close to the cabin section, yay! I actually miss writing/drawing out the segments in the cabin a whole bunch so I really can't wait to fix up that part once I'm done with the swamplands. :,,]

I said last week I'd post some of the new backgrounds/areas so here you go:

Kofi update:

I also had a small talk with my play testers and one of the things they brought up is that I should be promoting my ko-fi better so from now on I'll have little mini doodles doing so at the end of every game development post as a way to promote it! :] All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do here! I was able to use previous tips to get a new wrist support brace when I'm drawing so a very big thank you to everyone who gave a tip! :,,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I enjoyed answering the asks I got recently this week! I'm trying to finish the rest when I can including the ones I remember that got deleted. There were some I genuinely couldn't answer because it would require me to mention major spoilers/the questions have spoilers in them. :,]

This post is getting really long now so that's all I have to discuss, thank you guys very much for all of the encouraging support this past week, I appreciate it a whole bunch! :,,]

[writingcold]

Why hello there!  

I was looking over @hearts-hunger writing prompts for her Halloween Event and I thought to myself that I’ve never, ever tried to write spooky.  I doubted that I would ever — wait.  What was this?  #18 Visiting a Graveyard?  Oh really…  I started to sketch out this just to play with it and let me tell you - shit happened.  My brain would not stop.  My hair may have caught fire.  Wow.

So, in this process, the story that I thought would be a quick one, has possessed me and has turned into a much longer, multi-chapter fiction.  And you know that I’m not a big fan of posting while still in the writing process - but!  I really want to share this opening chapter of this very gothic, paranormal romance that somehow went from exploring a graveyard to a cursed love that will span across five lifetimes, and over 300 years.  Yeah.  You know it, I’ve been at the research again.  Lol I say that like it’s an addiction.  You might want to check in with @jakekiszkasbuttsweat as I’ve been torturing her with all of this mess and some pretty out there ideas.  Thank you, my friend!  I so appreciate you. And a big thank you to @allieisacrybaby for putting together the amazing Jake collage together for me! It's so pretty.

I’ll shut up now, but I hope you enjoy this first chapter.  I’m hoping to begin posting this as soon as the story is completed.  Be sure to check out all the other stories that are attached to this project.  They are by some of the best writers and brains.  You can find the masterlist here!

Contents Warning: None.  Just gothic overtones and a smidge of blood.

Word Count: approx. 3300

The Dead, Part 1: The Entity in the Graveyard

     It was a season of newness.  Rebirth.  He had slumbered for a spell.  Of that he was certain.  His vision started out blurred, but sharpened as the human days passed, allowing him to grow in form.  He sat, perched like a gargoyle on his headstone when the sight of the church across the road came into focus.  Ah.  The familiar white boards were still full of peeling, toxic paint and were cupping from years of weathering and neglect.  The stained glass still caught the morning sun to reflect out onto the unkempt blades of grass and weeds, albeit was not as vibrant as it once had been.  The bell still clanged its ghostly chime if the wind screamed from the north or south.

     He could feel the air did not welcome his presence.  Why had he stirred?  He should have slept through the years until the time of the Thinning.  He stood straight up on his stone, face trained to the muted colors of the night sky.  He watched the music of the cosmos twist and twirl amongst the stars.  His senses had finally begun to stretch across the graveyard, assessing his, for lack of a better word, kingdom.  He was, after all, the oldest resident of the grounds.  There were no new ghosts to speak of but there was a scent upon the air that he could not place.  It was close to his stone and carried the heaviness of iron.  It carried the rapacity of cells.  It carried life.  He began to move, seeking out the source of that life.  Surely no one of the living had visited the grounds, aside from him - the caretaker.  It had been years since anyone new had been planted into their grave, and all of the families of the rotted in the ground were long, long gone.  So why would…

      He paused when he drew upon the edge of the rock bordered path.  Iron.  Cells.  Life.  He moved down against a particularly sharp stone, his spectral fingers drifting across the surface as wonder touched his thoughts.  Life.  Actual life that had fueled a living human was spilled across the smattering of rocks.  He moved his face in close to feel the faint vibration that was still carried in the blood.  It is a joy to feel this.  A joy to know that a life had passed across the grass and taken in the space of his graveyard.  The corners of his mouth curled and stretched as he retreated back to his headstone.  There had been life present.  Was that why he had been roused?  He felt his essence tremble over the possibility.  Instead of resuming his slumber, he decided to wait; watch; contemplate the oddity.

      His hand pushed through the headstone that had anchored him nearly every day of the human year, save the thin times when the fabric would fail and allow those of the living to confuse those of the dead as one of their own.  His index finger traced the deep cut ‘J’ in the polished stormy granite that marked the first letter of his name.  The letters no longer truly held meaning.  No one was left to mourn him.  No one was left for him to remember through faded fondness and cooled over warm memories.

      It was an odd feeling whenever it struck.  No one was left to remember him.  How many ancient cultures believed that if the soul was remember by those of the living, then in fact the one who was dead lived on?  And wasn’t it also believed if the one who was dead, and not remembered, the soul would cease to exist?  And yet, he was there, chained to the stone his melted corpse resided beneath.  Chained to the grounds that only the dead could dare to know on such an intimate level.

      He was by no means alone.  Although many had disappeared, embracing the light or welcoming the fire when the solitude gripped too tightly for too long, or perhaps when their patch of ground grew too putrid and obnoxious that either joy or damnation would be accepted readily.  Not him, though.  The radiance was never offered, while the hellfire never beckoned like a lover either.  He truly was part of the in-between.  Not that it bothered him.  The Thinning time was his glory, even though it was rare and erratic.

      Each Thinning, she would appear.  She was neither of the living nor of the dead.   He wondered if she was a goddess - eternal like time, ethereal like nature.  Perhaps she was a forgotten entity, purged to make way for man and his foolish and mostly stupid beliefs that he was any better, any smarter, any stronger.  If there was one thing he understood from his centuries of life and death was that man was nothing but juvenile.  Juvenile in their handling of life.  Juvenile in their handling of grief.  A woman on her own understood life, understood grief.  She could survive alone just fine.

     Time flowed beyond his attention.  The grass began to push through the patches of stubborn snow that clung to the hope that the cold would remain.  There was a brightness that curled and sweetened the sky with a life’s breath that only the dead and those of the in-between could appreciate enough to see.  The vibrant peach and lavender of the sun’s trail caught his eyes long enough to push wildflowers from the earth to bring forth the swarming of the crickets and bugs of the early summer.

     ‘A’.  The letter had a chink in the cross where the stone cutter botched it up.  He dragged his finger across the flaw for human hours at a time, grimacing over the tortured frame of what it meant to be the letter ‘A’.  The fog was growing thicker as the supposed witching hour of the night drew forth.  He often wondered over the purpose of such an hour.  Time never affected the dead or those of the in-between.  The so-called witches that the time was meant for never were concerned to wait for the practice of their sacred rituals.  Perhaps it was used for those who were of the veil but not of his own likeness.  He smiled as his sight passed over those who were his incognizant companions in the graveyard.  They never acknowledged his presence, nor that of each other for that matter.  It was a point of contention when he first discovered himself in the cemetery.  Why would there be such division beyond the veil of the living?  Was it the casting of purgatory to punish those who were arrested in the frozen state of death before the larger powers to claim their own dead beings?  Baffling.

     He lazed before his stone; his thoughts stretched out beyond the land he was bound to, images of lives he had lived projecting out of him like a film, though he scarcely could remember what he could only identify as vague memories.  How could he have sailed the Great Lakes and trod across virgin land, and travel the earth in search of great knowledge and culture, and stain his hands in a vineyard as a farmer and strummed his fingers against the frets of a guitar for the enjoyment of many?  Surely not just in one lifetime.  There were overwhelming moments of fragility, pain, love and… ugliness.

     Frustrated over the toil of his thoughts, he moved across the fractured landscape to the wrought iron gates.  The chain of his headstone gave him a gentle tug with each inch that he passed along.  He could feel the air of the living billowing on the other side, dancing in the sunlight of the day.  Wasn’t it just night?  He glanced back to find indeed the sun had risen and passed overhead.  A wanton expression passed over his otherwise unmoving lips.

     He drifted north, following the chinks and twists and flaws of the neglected fence as if he could ever leave the boundary of his world.  He paused at the edge and forced his vision to dim to nothing so that he might feel nothing.  It would be easy enough as only fields of early crops and a singular road stretched out before him in an endless roll of land.  But…

     A light beckoned.  It sparkled on the very horizon like a star, but cooled as it drew closer until it faded into a human form.  A human-shaped woman in all her fragility and vigor was walking along the broken asphalt of the road.  Dressed in a flowing fabric drenched in light, she demanded his attention through her silence.  He trailed behind her until finally, he stopped, face to face with her, discovering her reaching for the cemetery gate as if reaching out for him.  Her skin, smooth and without the tarnish of age, shimmered with a perfume that he is sure is beautiful like apple blossoms, or perhaps delicate lilacs.  Her graceful gait makes her appear to be floating over the hidden rock and fissures of the ground.  He was compelled in his interest by the creature as the corners of her eyes began to fade and signs of aging began to whisper across the skin of her hands and throat.  Her hair began to thin and lose its luster.  He had never come across such a human as to grow old before him.  Perhaps she was wraith, untethered and unseeing of his being.

     He followed her step for step through the graveyard.  Her body grew small and bent by gravity.  Her face becomes ancient and heavily marred by time.  Her eyes cloud over as is always the case of the elderly, as if they can take in more of the world around them.  And yet - she is beautiful.  Delicate.  Alluring.  He was drawn to her like a lighthouse calling him to shore.

     “What are you?”  he whispered into her scraggle of hair that had loosened from its tether.

     She appears to nearly tumble across the stone path and he is in awe that she comes to a stop before his headstone.  Her body is ancient.  Her clouded eyes blur and close as her breath labors to enter and leave her body.  A badly twisted hand snaked out from the woman’s shroud and landed against his name.  He watched silently as she lowered herself to her knees, resting her forehead to the granite before her.  Her breath became shallow…  unmeasured.

      “Are you dying?”  he asked, his eyes wide as he came to rest beside her.

      She stretched out onto the hardness of the ground, cheek resting upon her arm.  He lays beside her like a forgotten lover.  He longs to touch her.  To ease her pain as a mumbled sting of ache bubbles from her mouth.  For a span of minutes, there is nothing.  No breath.  No sound.  No… life.  He watches her in utter fascination, finding himself unable to do anything other than lay beside her.  

     “Are you…”  

     His words fail in a crackled mess as a note stirred within him.  A note of bitter familiarity that clawed and scratched at his mind like it was trying to force him to remember something that refused to be revealed.  The creature gasped and sputtered and choked, startling him.  One gnarled hand, followed by the other, began to push against the earth.  He rose up over her, stunned as in painfully slow fashion, she gathered her knees beneath her once more.  Her noises are guttural and deep as she uses his headstone to make her way back to standing.  He moved around to the back of the stone as she paused to capture her breath once more.  He looked into her face and a pang of awareness crashed upon him like a wave.  The knowledge of this person was a blackened spot to him, but there was a sense of familiarity that he could not place.  She began to turn away, the brittleness of her bones crinkled and popped against his ears.

     Achingly slow, she began her journey back towards the gate.  He drifted around her, looping his mist through her fingers and against the exposed skin of her cheek.  The breeze tickled shades of blush and orange against her hair and he noticed the age that had tugged and blurred and swirled against her to bend her was reversing.  Her back became straighter with each of her steps.  The deep lines of wisdom and life were fading.  The full curve of her lip and striking beauty of her skin bloomed before him and fully returned by the time her hand pushed open the heavy gate.

     For the briefest of moments, he stood before her.  Her eyes appeared to be locked upon only him.  Had she known of his presence all along?  He wondered if she could see him as he had been - wisps of chestnut strands that floated across his shoulders and the hair that curled around its tie that fell between his shoulder blades.  The coy ghost of a smile that always seemed to be present upon his mouth.  Did she see the dark swirl of earth tones in his eyes and the caramel tint of his skin?

     Her eyes shimmered as he dared to reach his spectral hand out to brush against the heated flesh of her cheek.  He pretended to press the palm against the plump flesh and smooth the pad of his thumb across the ridge of her cheekbone.  For a fraction of a second, she even seemed to lean into his hand like a welcomed lover.  And then…

.

.

.

     She walked away from him, dragging a light that grew brighter the further away she moved.  He watched the light, beaming like a star until it disappeared beyond the horizon.

     The ‘C’ of his name was the most elaborate, but most shallow of the cuts into the stone.  It scrolled with a flourish that left him to wonder if it was created to remind him of a flamboyant moment that he had once lived.  Or perhaps the stone cutter thought he was being funny, perhaps cryptic with such a deliberate act.  Regardless, it could keep him enthralled for days, tracing the intricate loops and noticing how quickly the craftsmanship faded over the years.

     There was not much of his human self he remembered.  Perhaps he was rather insignificant and there was nothing of notoriety to remember.  He could not recount the number of spirits who cried over their being, only to wail as their loved ones drifted through the tall grass and treacherously uneven grounds to mourn their passing.  He wondered if time had given him so much distance from his human self to no longer realize that simple magic of the world and thus, released his mortal memory to allow the wonderment of the dead in.

      The days were stretched to the limit, gobbling up each extra second like a greedy tick.  He felt the air shimmering fat around him with a heat and kiss of life that he seldom took the chance to relish.  His fingers pressed into the center swirl of the ‘C’ as his thoughts bent to the creature.  She was not present on the mortal daily, but her appearance had become fixture - stretching from the horizon, her light bellowed in like a tidal wave.  He could not help but to follow as she tread through her aging process to stoop and drop a lily.  He tried to grab her attention.  He tried to test to see if she could see him.  Each time, he would be left to wonder.  Her reaction was always the same, one that could be construed as the human tilt of her head, a longing look to join him, maybe.  There was no definitive proof that she offered in her visits.

      ‘O’.  Never ending.  No beginning.  No ending.  Maybe the ‘O’ was like himself in that manner.  How a blink of his eye could find him removed and forwarded by whole earthly seasons.  The air had turned.  It no longer held the breath of warmth and sunshine of summer.  Instead, it held the darkening, faded breath of life.  The line between those of the living and those of the dead was thinning.  He could feel it against where his skin once resided.  If he were amongst the living, he would inhale this air until his lungs could hold no more.  To the point of it burning and almost painful but the perfume too beautiful to not relish in such a manner.  Alas, his body required no lungs, no skin.

      The creature’s visits were growing more sporadic.  He watched from up close and from afar.  He tried to touch and tried to ignore.  It did not matter.  Her tread was always the same.  Her return to the horizon was unfettered by whatever antics he would attempt.  To say that it was maddening would admit to feeling something of his residual humanness.  Was it impatience?  Curiosity, perhaps.  Whatever it was, he did not like being centered around this being that could come and go, taking his attention and thoughts with it.

     ‘B’.  His final letter allowed him to return and finish his own name.  The letter resides just as deep as the ‘J’, but the flag at the top bends backwards in a trail that weaves through the loop of the ‘O’ and tangles with the flair of the ‘C’, like a tree branch.  It skews the ‘A’ and hovers over the ‘J’, providing a fancy little cap to the name he had known as his own for all his time.  Jacob.

      It was not the first incarnation of his name.  There were older forms of the name that he had known.  All meaning the same thing - the surplanter.  He wondered if he had been a good man.  Had he been evil in a good world?  The fuzziness of his memories were mere echoes of what could have been but never concrete.  Never accurate.   

      The brittle leaves of the poplars and birch rattled like an old, sick man’s breath and were yellowed like his teeth.  He tilted his chin upwards, looking into the gray sky beyond the dense canopy above and caught sight of the swirl of the cosmos that only those beyond the veil were privy to.  The stars were dancing and singing, though no human could ever hear the beauty that was always wrapped around them in their ignorance.  And yet, he tapped his toe and hummed along like a human would to their most favorite tune.  The crinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened over the idiocy of the moment, but then, who was he not to enjoy a little morsel of what it was like to be the human he once was?  Music stirred deep within him like nothing else.  It saddened him, maddened him, and filled him with the feeling that he once had been real, although he was unsure of how long he had indeed been dead.

      Days were shortening.  They were becoming like a careworn silk belt on a robe.  He enjoyed sitting on his headstone, watching the wind play against the grass.  Humans couldn’t see the colors that are pushed around flying like dandelion fluff, carrying the fallen leaves and bits of life too dry to survive upon its host.  Perhaps it was one of those things that were put forth to mesmerize the eye of the dead to distract from the living.  He didn’t care.  If the colors of the world and the cosmos of the sky were placed there to keep him from terrorizing the grander scale of the world, so be it.

Divider by @cafekitsune

I hope you liked this intro chapter.  If you would like to be added to my taglist, let me know - reply or send an ask.  The Dead will probably not be ready fully for posting until after the first of the new year.  I really have a lot of work to do on it.  In the meantime, I do have a new fiction starting soon that is rather angsty.  See you again soon!

@lvnterninthenight @doodle417 @luverleaver @jakesgrapejuice @fictional-duchess @milkgemini @positivegvfthings @songbirds-sweet @streamingcolors-gvf @gretavanbitches @samsurfgreenbass @gardensgatedaisy @babyhoneygvfarchive @myownparadise96 @josh-iamyour-mama @starcatchercarol @loveisonaroll @jakesstarlight @reesetrippingthelight @builtby-gvf @ignite-my-fire @ohgodthefeeling-gvf @wetkleenex-gvf @gold-mines-melting @starsasone @mysticalstarcatcher @montenegroisr @takenbythemadness @way-to-go-lad @cal-a-bungaa @lightmylove-gvf @thewritingbeforesunrise @leftjudgeempathsuitcase @brokenbells11 @imborrowedshesblue @vanfleeter @sammysvanfeet @jakekiszkasbuttsweat @jaketlove @redsierra1960 @gvfmarge @becinabubblegvf @wildbluesorbit @sinarainbows

[sassykattery]

No Rest for the Wicked, Pt. 1

Welcome back, everyone! I appreciate your patience in me going on this hiatus. I have begun the process of finishing the finale of this series, and it's time we take the construction cones off the road and go! The rest of Season 3 here we come!

CW: MC is afab, uses she/her pronouns. MC is a demon and poly.

Themes: Romance. Adventure. Engagement.

Characters: MC. Diavolo. Lucifer. Barbatos. OC: Vox.

Minors and ageless blogs DNI

18+ only

Masterlist

Enjoy!

"MC, are you ready?" Lucifer called out to you.

"Coming!" You called back out from your ensuite bathroom in the castle. After one last adjustment of your blazer, you took one more look before heading off to the foyer.

It had been several months since you regained your memory.

"Ah, there you are–" Lucifer said, adjusting his cuffs, and then looking up at you to pause. You were wearing a navy-blue power suit with diamond lined pinstripes, but without an undershirt, your cleavage was on display. Your diamond stilettos clicked across the floors, and you were in your demon form. He was wearing an all-black number, from the tie, shirt, to the entire suit.

"My, oh my, MC," Lucifer purred, opening his arms open to you. You gladly accepted the embrace. "I think I discovered a new kink just now," he murmured into your hair. You chuckled in response and pulled away.

"I take it you like it then. I thought for the interview, I should wear something different," you replied sweetly.

"What's different?" Diavolo asked, rounding the corner and stopping short, not bothering to hide where his gaze landed – on your chest.

"My eyes are up here," you commanded, taking your index and middle finger to guide his eyes back up to your face.

"That is different," Diavolo said, approaching you. He was in a white suit with a burgundy undershirt and black tie. Then he smiled, looking you over in your entirety, "I think I rather like it," he stated.

"We should head to the studio, we'll be starting soon," Lucifer said, checking the time.

-

"We'll be live in three... two... one... go."

"Hello! And we're live at Studio 666, with an exclusive interview with our soon-to-be Demon Queen, MC, the Avatar of Vainglory!"

You walked out onto the stage, waving at everyone, smiling as you took your seat next to the show host, Vox. Vox was a male pride demon, known for his interviews with the Devildom's elite, including the brothers, royals, and other aristocrats. He was tall as far as demons went, handsome, and quite the smooth talker. His lavender hair accentuated his grey eyes, and he smiled at you broadly. His hair and eye color stood out against his tawny skin. With a jaw so sharp it could cut and a nose broad and tall, he easily passed for godhood in appearance. This interview was televised live to all three realms as your wedding dates drew closer, as did your eventual coronation date with Diavolo.

"Welcome MC! We are so happy to have you join us today," Vox said. "This is your first ever interview, is that correct?"

"Ah, well, one time I was interviewed for the RAD Newspaper, but I've actually never been on television before. I'm rather excited," you replied smoothly.

"How thrilling! So, if you don't mind, we have some questions that has everyone buzzing to know the answers to, and we'd be most appreciative if you answered a few," Vox said warmly.

"Of course, I would love to answer them! Let's start," you replied.

"Excellent. Our first question is, how did you and Lord Diavolo become an item? Was it love at first sight? How did you win his heart?" Vox asked, reading his cue card and then looking up at you.

"Oh, well, I like to think I won him over by being one of the few people to beat him at chess," you answered with a playful smirk, and the audience laughed. "I'm kidding, but no, we actually became good friends first, and we shared a love for chess, so we often play together."

"That is simply adorable!" Vox beamed.

Diavolo and Lucifer watched you from one of the backrooms that were private for exclusive guests.

"Wait, she actually beat you?" Lucifer smirked, taking a sip of Demonus.

"The one time I didn't let her win, but she did anyway, and it went to her head," Diavolo mumbled, watching the screen.

"Moving on. Our next question, it seems you have not only captured the heart of our Demon Lord, but a certain Avatar of Pride. Many of us thought Lucifer was untouchable, but you seemed to have won him over as well, can you tell us about that?"

You smiled sweetly. "Well, I'll tell you, it wasn't easy, however, we have a lot in common, so we have a deep mutual respect and understanding of one another. But I like to think what won him over was my dedication to RAD, the exchange program, and our family," you stated.

"As a pride demon myself, I can completely see why he would be so smitten with you then! Imagine having someone such as yourself at your side, of course you couldn't help but fall in love!" Vox exclaimed, laying thick on the charm.

"Tch..." Lucifer bristled at how chummy the host was being to you. It was Diavolo's turn to smirk then.

"Alright, one more question from our audience and then I have some of my own. How has your life changed since becoming involved with Lord Diavolo and Lucifer Morningstar?"

"Ah, well, it has in many ways," you started to say. "I knew that becoming involved with Diavolo would bring the public eye onto me, though I had a little bit of that being in the exchange program anyway, but I didn't realize that so many people would be interested in my life, as a human or a demon. When it came to Lucifer, I was often met with the glares of the lower demons who were rather fond of him," you said with a mischievous glimmer in your eyes. "Those are the more interesting aspects that I'm sure the fans want to know about. Of course, there are the less interesting things like learning to become a royal, balancing everyone's schedules, things like that."

"Very good, thank you, I think our fans will appreciate your thorough answer. Now, I have a question of my own. You brought up family earlier when speaking about Lucifer Morningstar's brothers, but I want to know, should we expect any little royals of your own in the future?"

"No no no no no no," Lucifer groaned. Diavolo set his drink down and immediately stormed out of the room and found the producer as he stood next to the cameraman at the back of the studio audience filming the interview.

"You cut that this instant or I'll have every single one of you fired," Diavolo murmured in the producer's ear, but you looked out into the audience and smiled, and by the time Lucifer caught up to the prince, you started to speak.

"That is an interesting question. I guess you'll just have to wait and find out like everyone else," you said with a lower tone, but your face never faltered.

Vox immediately caught on to your slight displeasure, and when he looked over to his producer, he saw the very angry glares of Diavolo and Lucifer.

"We'll see indeed! Thank you. Moving on..."

The rest of the interview went swimmingly, talking about the weddings and coronation, it seemed everyone was very excited and ready for the changes coming to the Devildom with your influence, and by the time it was over, several hours had gone by. The director came by and informed you it was one of their highest rated viewings and highest positivity rating. You nodded and sat back in your chair in your room at the studio, getting your hair and makeup touched up for you to go to your photoshoot with Devil Style.

"Hello darling," Diavolo said, appearing in the mirror behind you. The makeup stylist took their leave, and it was just you two.

"My love," you replied with a small smile. He rested his hands on your shoulders.

"You did very well, I'm proud of you," he stated. You looked at him through the mirror.

"I learned from the best," you replied quietly.

"I'm sorry about Vox... I was very displeased with that segment and told the producer-"

"It's fine, Diavolo. I have to learn how to navigate those sorts of things," you interrupted. Diavolo relaxed a little, smiling at your diplomacy.

"Indeed," he replied, leaning down to kiss the top of your head between your horns.

"MC, Lord Diavolo, it's time for the shoot," an assistant came by and informed you both. You nodded and thanked them.

"You alright, princess?" Diavolo asked quietly.

"I'm fine. Just not used to this level of stardom," you replied. He could tell you were telling the truth, but he couldn't help but feel like there was more.

-

"Alright, MC, you're going to sit in this chair here," the photographer said, leading you to an armchair in the middle of the set, in front of a green screen. It was a high-back chair with a dark burgundy velvet button-tufted back with gold-finished wood, one obviously fit for royalty. They positioned you to sit fully straight up with one leg crossed, arms laid on the arms of the chair.

"And now you two..." the photographer mumbled, positioning Diavolo and Lucifer. Diavolo stood beside you, one arm leaned onto the back of the chair, and Lucifer stood on the other side, arms folded as he leaned against the chair as well.

"Perfect," the photographer said, stepping back. They instructed you all on the different faces and attitudes they wanted. This photo was going to be the cover of next month's magazine, while the next shots were for the printed interview pages with Vox. There were some with you and Diavolo, and then some with just you and Lucifer.

In the final set, it was just you, and one of your stylists came out with a box.

"They want you to wear this for the last set," he said. You nodded and he opened it, revealing a diamond tiara, and your eyes nearly bugged out of your head. You looked up at the assistant and shook your head.

"Surely, you're mistaken," you told him.

"I'm afraid not, princess. The magazine director and I want you to wear it," Diavolo said, walking up to you and your assistant with a broad smile. "It's not your official crown, it's one I had made specifically for this shoot," he informed you. A blush dusted your cheeks as you sat back and allowed your assistant to situate it on your head.

Everyone left you alone, and the photographer then came up to you. "Alright, MC, I want this last set to be all about you, so, tell, how should you pose for this one? I want it to scream your personality or anything special about you."

You thought for a moment, considering their request. After some thought, you whispered to the photographer some of the props you would need, and they instantly smiled, appreciating your vision. Lucifer and Diavolo were ushered out as they changed out the scene, and were only allowed back in when you told them to.

A black lounge chaise was set out, and you had black roses scattered around you, a black side table next to the arm of the chaise, decorated with pomegranates, gold chains, and jewels. As for you, you were stretched out in the chaise, your upper body slightly upright as you leaned against the arm of the chaise, the rest of your body laid out on its side in the rest of the chair. You unbuttoned your blazer, allowing more of your bare torso to show, and in your free hand, you held up a demon skull. Looking at the camera, you gave it a seductive smirk as your vanity shined through your eyes, your body radiating your sin with plumes of midnight blue vapors appeared behind you, still in your demon form of course.

Diavolo and Lucifer were allowed back in after a few of the photos were taken, and they both stopped short at the sight of you.

"I'm so making this into a painting," Diavolo murmured.

Lucifer smirked, but ultimately agreed with the prince's sentiment. Both of them had to go distract themselves as their arousals were getting the better of them.

"MC, you are absolutely stunning. You'll have to come model for us again," the magazine director said to you after the photographer was done.

"You're too kind, but I'd be happy to," you replied hotly.

-

After the shoot was over, you and your fiancés went out to Ristorante Six to celebrate your successful day. Diavolo arranged for the three of you to have a private room in the back, and you were finally able to relax after a few glasses of Demonus.

"Better?" Lucifer asked, noting your state.

"Indeed. Diavolo, I don't know how you do all that," you replied slowly.

The prince chuckled. "I grew up with it, princess. I'm used to it," he replied, smiling brightly. "But I am very proud of you. You were amazing the entire day."

"I know," you said a little arrogantly with a wink.

"The Avatar of Vainglory, in all her glory," Lucifer muttered. You turned to him.

"Jealous?" you asked.

"Not at all. You two can enjoy that to your heart's content," Lucifer replied smoothly.

"So, with the weddings in a couple months, do you think you've done everything you needed to prepare?" Diavolo asked you.

You finished a fourth glass of Demonus and started a fifth, "Yeah, I think I got everything down. I just hope it all goes okay," you said even slower. Immediately, you finished the glass and poured another. Lucifer and Diavolo shared a glance and focused back on you.

"Are you worried about something?" Lucifer probed.

"Yeah, I'm afraid something gonna go wrong," you replied, then finishing that glass and pouring your seventh. "Jus' like it 'lways does," you slurred.

"Why don't you slow down just a touch, dove," Lucifer said, sliding the bottle of Demonus away from you. You pouted and stared at the table ahead of you, the blue liquid in your drink mesmerizing you.

You buried your face in your hands, elbows on the table. "Jus' seems like ev'ry few months, somethin' comes up 'n I get into trouble," you groaned.

"Darling, you know those things aren't your fault, right?" Diavolo said, putting his hand on your shoulder. You hiccupped and nodded.

"But you can't deny it always causes a lot of trouble for ev'rybody," you said tearfully. Very suddenly, you slumped and leaned over on Lucifer's shoulder, drifting in and out of consciousness.

"Well, that went well," Lucifer deadpanned. Diavolo sighed and waved you and Lucifer off to take care of the bill. You didn't even make it to dinner, to their dismay. Lucifer put his arm underneath yours and helped you out of the booth to take you back to the castle. Diavolo caught up not too long after, picking you up and carrying you bridal style until you three reached the castle doors where Barbatos let you all in.

"Went that well, did it?" Barbatos said, deadpanning as well after looking you over. Diavolo continued to carry you to your suite while Lucifer stopped and looked at the butler.

"It seems someone can't handle their Demonus," he stated, slightly miffed.

Barbatos smirked. "She's young, it's not like she does it every weekend like you and the young master," the butler replied hotly. Lucifer bristled and rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Diavolo laid you back on your bed, taking off your heels and undressing you. Once you were nude, he grabbed a nightshirt. As he tried to wrestle it onto you, you pawed at his face lightly, giggling quietly.

"Darling, it would be easier if you cooperated," he mumbled.

"Mm, but I want you~" you purred, dragging your hands down his chest, trying to fiddle with the buttons of his suit.

"Not tonight, you need to go to sleep," he replied softly. You then blinked a few times, tears shedding and rolling down your cheeks.

"MC..."

"I just want to make you and Luci proud, Dia," you said softly with a crack in your voice. You finally let him put your nightshirt on and then he scooted in close, cupping your face.

"My sweet, sweet princess, you make me proud every day. You demonstrate a strength that I would have never guessed you had, and I never seem to stop being impressed by you," he cooed. He placed a chaste kiss on your forehead.

"Will you stay? Can Luci stay?" you pleaded very sweetly.

"Anything you want, my love. Let me go get him and I'll go change. I'll be right back." You nodded and settled into bed.

By the time the two demons returned to your suite, you were out cold, snoring loudly in the middle of the bed in a starfish position. They thought it was adorable, and they managed to situate you so everyone could fit as you were sandwiched in-between the two.

---

Thanks for reading <3

Post made by sassykattery. Do not repost. Reblogs and comments appreciated.

Tags: @l-d-8 @itsmeninerz @flemmingbamse @loquacious-libra @delphi-dreamin @biteable-pink-pixie @themythicaldisaster @bontensbabygirl @dajitm @marvelous-maniac

(If I tagged you and you no longer wish to be tagged, please let me know in a comment)

[boatem-probler]

That There's a Choopah Cobbler in... Tokyo Soul!

1 / You Are Here! / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Hello once again dear readers! Al Boatem-Probler here to bring you another report on this mid-2010s Minecraft roleplay series.

Everyone's favorite boy is here, which means I will now be keeping track of Deaths Witnessed, Injuries Sustained, and Other Traumatic Events, the way @paranoidpug did in her own summaries. Not to mention, I've gotten to the episodes that haven't been covered in @sketchygainedyoursoul's summaries! Very exciting!

This report contains mentions/discussion of: scatological humor, violence, guns, stalking, harassment, and Professor Geode Rocks.

Previously on Tokyo Soul:

“STOP DROP AND RICKROLL” – Dom

“Fish are just flowers that swim in the ocean.” – Taurtis

“I’ve never felt so unsafe in my life.” – Taurtis

This Time...

Episode 6 – THE NEW GIRL!

I forgot to write this down last time, but it’s been established that Taurtis can and WILL fall asleep literally anywhere. I was reminded of this because Sam decided to sleep in Taurtis’s bedroom, while Taurtis fell asleep standing up directly outside the door.

Sam attempts to wake him up by enticing him to eat the sushi that has been sitting on their kitchen table for over a day now.

Sam insists he can see the creepy old man hiding behind a wall near their house. Taurtis insists he’s crazy. In a break from form, Sam is actually telling the complete truth this time.

Dom is putting the horrible old sushi on a bagel. Just thought you guys should know this.

They know what happened to Grian now, he went to the other Tokyo, you know, the one in Canada.

Sam: “Do you remember Grian? He’s lived with us for a very long time?” Taurtis: “That guy with the glasses, who had that rocket ship? Yeah, the rich person!” I think this is probably referencing the Yandere prequel thing? IIRC they were doing it at the same time as Tokyo Soul, but I’d have to check to be sure.

Checking the dates on the episodes… oh dang this one went up on Christmas Eve. Grian Christmas Present Momence. Okay, the first episode of Yandere went up nearly four months after this episode, so uh… in conclusion I have no idea what’s going on with this dialogue. Interesting.

Dom calls Grian “the Friendly Kid”.

Anyway they go to pick Grian up from the train station. I can’t tell if this is a different train station or if the name of it has changed between episodes.

GRIAN’S HERE!!!!!

Grian: “I don’t know whooooo was responsible for that. But you sent me halfway round the globe.” Sam: “Why are you looking at me when you say that, it wasn’t my fault!” Grian: “I just feel like… you just gave me the wrong ticket, that’s all.” Sam: “I put ‘em all in a box, I shook ‘em up, and I randomly drew one.” Grian: “And two of them went to Tokyo, Japan, and one of them went to Tokyo, Canada.”

I just had to relate nearly all of that conversation because right now I feel like any of it or none of it could be true. Because playing Russian Roulette with their plane tickets is some shit Sam would do I think, but intentionally giving Grian the wrong ticket and lying about it is also some shit Sam would do I think. So I’m just like, putting it out there for public debate.

Taurtis: “How long did it take you to realize that it wasn’t actually Japan?” Grian: “When I was on the plane, and they said Welcome to Canada.”

Apparently Grian had to spend all of his own money on the plane ticket back from Canada.

Taurtis: “How do you get your face caught in a blender?” Grian: “It happened One Time.”

They notice Geode walking to school. It seems he lives in a house with some kind of weird construction on top of it that is perpetually on fire.

Sam makes Grian show them the way to the school he hasn’t been to yet. Grian ends up asking Igbar von Squid again.

Hey whatever texture pack these guys are using has a really good nighttime skybox! This shit is pretty!

Sam’s mom texts him apparently???? I wasn’t aware she existed.

Sam and Taurtis nonchalantly introduce Grian to the creepy old man. Grian is appropriately terrified.

A new student turns up, named Yee, who’s Minecraft skin is I think supposed to be Monster Kid from Undertale. They have immediately started hitting on… one of the boys, it’s unclear which.

There is a circle of blood around a sheep’s head inside the school.

Grian: “Ooh, this school is an upgrade… [walks around the corner] Ohhhkay I take back what I said.”

Ah, apologies, it’s a goat’s head. Someone killed one of Señor Loro’s goats.

Regardless, Sam and Taurtis make Grian wrestle for his class schedule. Grian legitimately sounds terrified the whole time. Señor Loro accidentally punches a hole in the wall and runs off in shame.

Ohhhhkay, the creepy old man is IN the school, WEARING a girl’s school uniform.

Taurtis and Sam attempt to pressure Grian into going over to talk to him. It actually doesn’t entirely work, they end up all going over there. Taurtis and Sam attempt to set up the two “newbies”.

Taurtis: “Grian, you like girls, right?” Grian: “No, I’m into dudes.”

Ellen was Grian’s baby gay awakening. Taurtis immediately wants to know who Grian thinks is cuter, him or Sam. “You guys are just not my type,” Grian says. He does however admit that Taurtis has “some good glutes”.

Geode is collecting the goat blood from the floor. I cannot stress enough that Geode looks aggressively normal. He is wearing the blandest suit and has the blandest haircut imaginable.

Grian’s locker is absurdly far away from everyone else’s. Like down multiple hallways.

Episode 7 – SENOR LORO!

Tori tells Sam off for punching another kid who came in late. She is the only reasonable teacher in this school probably.

Tori is taking them fishing this class.

They walk past the girl’s bathroom next to the pool because Tori is lost. There is another goat head in it. Sam and Taurtis decide to take the head with them, in case they run into Señor Loro. Grian is worried he’ll think they killed it.

They continue to the pond behind the school, where they are given fishing rods to use. For some reason, the fishing rods sound like guns. I feel like this wasn’t intentional.

Creepy man sighted once again. Sam is now calling him Grian’s “girlfriend”.

Not Dying Class! Nurse MD has decided to call Grian “Mr. BoyMan”. Today, they are competing in a Food Pyramid Scavenger Hunt for the prize of a lifetime subscription to Hunter x Hunter. Their homework is to eat at least one item on the food pyramid. Grian is mad that their teacher isn’t teaching them anything.

Sam and Taurtis terrorize Grian with, uh, Bathroom Chocolate. Grian throws up a couple times. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what Sam and Taurtis are and aren’t doing In The Fiction so to speak, but Grian definitely vomited, so I feel I must put this on the record.

The principal has been sighted by the vending machine! Grian disagrees with his staffing choices, and tells him so, very vehemently. The principal gives Nurse MD a raise. Nurse MD gives Grian detention.

Nurse MD: “Go to the guidance counselor to get your attitude in check.” Grian: “You need to go back to university to get your degree sorted.”

Grian: “Dr. Nurse MD has to be there while I do the detention, sucks to be him!”

Apparently Nurse MD is allowed to just lock him in a room, actually. Also half the school was filming this altercation from the courtyard.

Sam: “I think that’s going up on YouCrab later.” Grian: “Good, I want everyone to know what useless staff they have here.”

Apparently “this sort of thing really triggers” Grian, this sort of thing presumably being incompetent teachers. He’s sort of using “trigger” flippantly here, but like, you could very well argue it’s true.

Oh, apparently “detention” means you have to wrestle Señor Loro. At least Sam legitimately offers to tag in for Grian (after a little while enthusiastically cheering for Señor Loro to “give him the ol’ one-two”).

They tell Señor Loro about the second Goat Murder, and he asks them to help him look for the rest of his missing goats. He gives them each a “Crystal of Tenochtitlan” whatever that means. Oh, apparently they allow you to talk to animals.

Episode 8 – GIRLFRIEND?!

Instead of searching for Señor Loro’s goats, the boys attempt to figure out which one of them Yee keeps hitting on. It’s Grian! Sam immediately tells Grian he should ask Yee to take off her glasses so they can see if she’s a lizard person. She does. She is a lizard person, and not Monster Kid as I had previously thought. In my defense, Sans Undertale has literally been in the background of several scenes already. Grian is spooked, Yee is angry, Sam has never laughed this hard in his life (according to Sam). I think they’re all being a bit mean.

Gym class is a competitive obstacle course, Girls (easy) vs Stupid Boys (difficult).

On the way to Professor Geode’s class, Sam and Taurtis tell Grian what happened last time (roughly). Grian is very apprehensive.

Geode collects everyone’s trash. The classroom has been slightly rearranged. There is now some sort of… operating table? In the center, with all the chairs arranged around it. Dom is in a giant test tube in the back. Taurtis is given a Special chair next to Geode’s throne.

Sam is told to “COLLECT THE MILK OF THE INNOCENT ONE”. This means Dom, apparently. When Sam fails to do this, Geode does it instead. I don’t know exactly what this entails, because Sam wasn’t looking at it, because Sam is not a very good cameraman. But I suspect that the limitations of Minecraft would still leave me scratching my head if I had seen it. Dom can be heard to take damage, but that’s all the information I can give you.

Geode throws onto the operating table, which I’m beginning to suspect is more of an altar: Milk of the Innocent, Toilet Paper, Rare Crystals, and Hair of the Chosen One.

This apparently clones Taurtis, somehow, although there appears to still be only one Taurtis in the room.

Geode does not offer any explanation, he’s too busy being confused by Grian’s accent and not knowing what England is. I’m… also not entirely sure he knew what a clone is either, before Sam explained that he’s not Uncle Sam because some people can have the same name.

Oh also Google Docs tried to autocorrect “Geode” to “God” I just feel like you all should know that.

Episode 9 – INTERNET DATING!

I am now officially into New Territory, not covered by previous summaries!

They try to free Dom from the test tube and the stained glass texture SERIOUSLY bugs out.

There is. Ah. Some sort of. Sheep… cultist… possibly robot? In the hallway. It has some sort of… mechanical backpack on?

Apparently its name is Jorje the Special Goat. So this is what breaks me.

I don’t know why I’m so stuck on this, I’m usually great at stories where Things Just Happen.

Anyway, Jorje has a dire need to go to the computer room to talk to his girlfriend.

“Is your girlfriend single?” – Taurtis Minecraft, 2015

The gang try to convince Jorje to break up with his internet girlfriend and/or that his internet girlfriend is catfishing him, so that he will tell them what he knows about the Goat Murders.

Dom is just. Up on a rooftop, by the way. He keeps doing this.

It turns out that not only is Jorje’s internet girlfriend a real person, but they’re also a person of ambiguous gender and probably a furry, which are some pretty big plusses in my book. It seems like they didn’t know Jorje was Actually For Real A Goat, though.

But the boys do manage to get some information on the Goat Murders, so that’s nice. Apparently there’s some sort of Creature or perhaps a Beast underneath the soccer field at school.

“That there’s a Choopah Cobbler!” – Jorje

Actually he called it a “chuubakaabra” but potato, potato.

They tell Señor Loro about the chupacabra. Señor Loro hands them guns. Peachy. At least this time it’s Grian who accidentally shoots Taurtis.

Sam then shoots Taurtis on purpose.

There’s an item in Señor Loro’s vending machine called “Fully Cooked Ramen?” and I’m losing it.

Grian: “Hey, Mr. Principal! :) Your teacher gave us snipers! :) I don’t know what kind of circus you’re running here! :)”

Episode 10 – HUNTING A MONSTER!

Half the school is at this soccer field this feels so dangerous.

Taurtis is just shooting wildly.

Uhhhh. That there’s a Choopah Cobbler!

I promise I’ll stop saying “that there’s a Choopah Cobbler”.

Everyone tries to shoot at the chupacabra through a very narrow doorway. They mostly just end up shooting each other.

The chupacabra flees into the sewers. Dom is also in the sewers. He goes there to read.

They lose the chupacabra, briefly mistaking the creepy old man for it.

“Can I shoot him anyway? I reeeeeaaalllly wanna shoot him.” – Grian

Kurokuma: “Uh, you didn’t find any bodies, did you?” Grian: “Not yet!”

He doesn’t, in fact, shoot the creepy old man. Score one for morals, I guess. :/

Half the damn town is in these sewers.

They shoot at a “sugar dealer”, agree to say they were the chupacabra and call it a day. They then attempt to exit the sewers, which takes some time because whoever made the map didn’t account for the ways in which ladders interact with trapdoors in Minecraft.

They’ve emerged in a completely unfamiliar part of town, and it’s getting late, so Señor Loro suggests they stay in a hotel for the night, and WHY IS THE CREEPY OLD MAN AT THE FRONT DESK. Like, this place is swanky.

The old man makes a comment about setting up cameras in their rooms. Great note to end this part on.

Grian Trauma Count!

Deaths Witnessed:

Aftermath of 2 Goat Murders

Injuries Sustained:

Grian jokingly implied that he got his face caught in a blender once

Likely some bruises from wrestling Señor Loro

Shot in the leg by Sam, who was aiming for the chupacabra

Shot by Senior Loro, apparently on purpose?

Traumatic Events:

Sent, possibly on purpose, to a completely different country without any of the people he knew, and had to use his own money (all of it) to get back where he was supposed to go

Stalked and sexually harassed by a creepy old man (he keeps making comments about the characters’ legs). Also forced by his friends to actually speak to said creepy old man.

Vomited twice due to Sam and Taurtis being gross.

Punished for calling out his teacher’s incompetence and made to wrestle the guidance counselor.

Was handed a gun by one of his teachers again (and accidentally shot Taurtis), and brought on a monster hunt.

Geode’s Class is a traumatic event in itself.

Some pretty big numbers already, folks!

Something I think is interesting: before Grian arrives, both Sam and Taurtis are pretty vocally uncomfortable with Old Kurokuma, but as soon as Grian's with them, Kurokuma is suddenly "our friend who runs the panty shop", "Grian's Girlfriend", "Grian why are you uncomfortable, this is a completely normal schoolgirl, she said teehee".

I feel like I still need to chew on this a bit more to be able to actually say anything analytical about it, but it's definitely catching my attention.

Next Time...

"I'll do one post per school day," I say, and then they almost immediately stop going to school for an arc.

[sen-no-kotowari]

PGR Noan Character Profile

Good day and I'm back with some good news! The formatting plug-in I use is back to normal so everything should look the same like before. Aside from that, I will be posting back-to-back character profiles over the next few days and the first one up the bater is Noan's! You can learn more about Noan under the cut down below!

Voice Line Data

Motion Voice Lines

Lobby Voice 1

Noan: I passed nearby the Arts Association while walking around the other day. If there comes a time when peace will be upon us and an Arts Association is built on Earth, would people who love to draw be able to feed themselves? ...I see. That'd be wonderful.

Lobby Voice 2

Noan: What do you think of having a war memorial on the plaza? ...Huh? What do I think about it? I believe the people in this era making the most of their lives are just as awe-inspiring. Perhaps it's because I've seen too many death that I strongly believe more than ever living in itself is...incredible.

Lobby Voice 3

Noan: (Paints something) ........Hm? Oh, I've been painting a picture with the paintbrush you left. It's nothing fancy, just a simple drawing of a sunflower. If I told you I drew this while thinking of you, would you believe me?

Raise Affection Level

Noan: If I tell you that I want to become closer to you... what will you do?

Repetitive Taps

Noan: What's wrong? No need to be frantic. I'll be right by your side.

Log-In

Noan: Welcome back, Commander. I've been waiting for you.

Online for a Long Time

Noan: Wait a second, let me check your eyes. ...Hrm, now open your mouth. What time did you sleep yesterday? ...(Sigh) Really now...

AFK

Noan: I don't know if you're asleep or you're working hard... Well, maybe it's not so bad, getting to see your back like this.

Shake

Noan: Wha—! Are you okay?! Did you trip?

Offline for a Long Time

Noan: Showing up just now, did you oversleep? Were you having a dream of a calm and harmonious world? If that was a blissful dream, then you should've dreamed a little while longer. Don't worry, I'll continue to wait for you here 'til you show up.

Introduction and Formation

Structure Acquired

Noan: Hello there, Commander. Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name's Noan, that is my real name. Pleased to make your acquaintance.

Level Up

Noan: I have to spare no effort if I want to grow as a person.

Advancement

Noan: Thank you. Does this mean you've acknowledged me?

Model Improvement

Noan: Looks like the things I can do for others have increased yet again. Thank you.

Skill Upgrade

Noan: I'll continue to hone these skills until the day I put them to rest.

Equipment

Noan: This weapon... Hmmm, what should I call it?

Add in Team

Noan: Perhaps I should be grateful to you, who put your faith in me.

Assign as Captain

Noan: You're making me the captain? Yeah, I think I can do it. Leave it to me.

Mission Accomplished

Noan: Okay, mission complete. Do we have anything else to do?

Daily Small Talks

Voice Line 1

Noan: Ever since I left City Number 075, I've been staying at Oblivion's base. I wonder if Watanabe's doing well. I'd like to go meet up with him if there's a chance.

Voice Line 2

Noan: Lee sometimes has this resolute look in his eyes... It's as if he had already made peace. Recently, he— ...Nevermind, forget I said anything. It seems like it's something he wishes to keep to himself.

Voice Line 3

Noan: How have I been lately? Maybe I'll tell you a little secret of mine. I'm actually a super Eden-class ambassador. Since both my conversational skills and presentation skills are perfect, I was able to make friends in Eden and also fit in right away.

Voice Line 4

Noan: My past? You've seen plenty of vagabonds who lost their hometown, right? I'm also a part of those vagabonds. There's nothing special about it.

Voice Line 5

Noan: I've heard from Commander Simon that you were an alumnus who graduated as the top student of FOS Military Academy, right? What kind of things do they teach during class in school? ...Most of the schools on Earth were closed down. It makes you wonder—how many people born in this era were able to receive proper education in their life?

Voice Line 6

Noan: I passed nearby the Arts Association while walking around the other day. If there comes a time when peace will be upon us and an Arts Association is built on Earth, would people who love to draw be able to feed themselves? ...I see. That'd be wonderful.

Voice Line 7

Noan: Ah, that's right. I'm done reading the books you've told me about. Do you have other books you can recommend to me? I want to try reading a variety of books more. The library's just around the corner plus I also have a wonderful guide who'll give me a tour.

Voice Line 8

Noan: The starry sky isn't the only thing that shines in the darkness. Even if the small glowing lights around us aren't as bright as the North Star, they emit a faint light with everything they have.

Voice Line 9

Noan: Everyone used to admire stories about heroes saving the world when they were little, right? But when they grew up, they knew that those are just fictional stories, nothing more—no matter how much you do your best, you can't change the world around you alone. That's why... I'm glad that we both could do our very best here.

Voice Line 10

Noan: I don't regret rejecting the offer of becoming an Ascendant, even if it meant I'd accept how ordinary I am. I would be betraying my heart if I did. Don't worry. I already made up my mind from the moment I told you the name "Noan," no matter what may happen.

Voice Line 11

Noan: You always devote yourself to either listening to other people's worries or what they feel deep down, just like the gentle protagonists from the stories I've read... But why don't you try asking someone for some advice once in a while? I fear you might break someday if you always keep your worries to yourself.

Voice Line 12

Noan: What do you think of having a war memorial on the plaza? ...Huh? What do I think about it? I believe the people in this era making the most of their lives are just as awe-inspiring. Perhaps it's because I've seen too many death that I strongly believe more than ever living in itself is...incredible.

Voice Line 13

Noan: I look forward to the day this world overcomes the harsh winter and welcomes the tender spring... If you also share the same sentiment as I do, shall we make a promise to each other? Of course, I'd want you to be included in that future.

Voice Line 14

Noan: (Paints something) ........Hm? Oh, I've been painting a picture with the paintbrush you left. It's nothing fancy, just a simple drawing of a sunflower. If I told you I drew this while thinking of you, would you believe me?

Voice Line 15

Noan: I don't regret the things I've done in the past. I've used the grief I experienced as a catalyst to move forward without ever denying myself. ...For a brighter tomorrow free from strife, I shall give everything I have head-on so that we won't lose any more people we hold dear.

Raise Affection Level

Voice Line 1

Noan: (Chuckle) You sure have a lot of friends.

Voice Line 2

Noan: It'd be a waste to gift that to me. How about giving it to someone more worthy than me?

Voice Line 3

Noan: I'm happy enough that you're standing in front of me without your guard up.

Voice Line 4

Noan: Thank you... Are you just this kind to anyone you've met?

Voice Line 5

Noan: What are your hobbies? Ehehe, getting to know each other is the first important step in becoming friends.

Voice Line 6

Noan: Should I draw a picture for you in return as thanks? I'm kidding. This present you gave me is far more valuable than any of my drawings.

Voice Line 7

Noan: Despite the countless despair and spite this world has, you still make sure to treat others kindly. You truly are amazing.

Voice Line 8

Noan: I'm fine with any notebook and pen. I feel like it'd be wasteful if I use such a good quality paintbrush for this.

Voice Line 9

Noan: Are we... friends already? Ah, I want to be your friend, your comrade. And from here on out, I wish to stay by your side... That's what I feel.

Voice Line 10

Noan: I don't have much to give back to you in return, but... Please don't hesitate to tell me if there's something I can do for you.

Voice Line 11

Noan: Can I... come meet you again tomorrow?

Voice Line 12

Noan: Thank you so much... truly. It's not just the presents you've given me. I'm thankful for you and the words you said to me back then.

Voice Line 13

Noan: We're still amidst the harsh winter... But whenever you're with me, it feels like it becomes less cold than before.

Voice Line 14

Noan: If I tell you that I want to become closer to you... what will you do?

Voice Line 15

Noan: It's enough for me that we're aiming for the same goal and being able to fight alongside you, but that doesn't mean I'll stop longing for you... (Chuckle) Commander?

Voice Line 16

Noan: Can I take it that you're okay being this close to each other, Commander...?

AFK

Voice Line 1

Noan: Your sleepiness is also making me feel sleepy, hrm... Even though I already don't need to sleep anymore...

Voice Line 2

Noan: It's been pretty quiet, but are you busy with something else?

Voice Line 3

Noan: I don't know if you're asleep or you're working hard... Well, maybe it's not so bad, getting to see your back like this.

Voice Line 4

Noan: Are you asleep? I want to check up close if you're sleeping, but just in case I might wake you up... Yeah, I should stop here.

Voice Line 5

Noan: ♬~Our wishes will outlive us~♪ The light you shine is gentle as you are~♬[1]

Online for a Long Time

Voice Line 1

Noan: Having a lot of missions to deal with seems tough. Is there something I could help you with?

Voice Line 2

Noan: Oh-kay, let's confirm if you're still wide awake. What do you see on this ink blotch? ...It's some sort of abstract matter? Uhh-huh...

Voice Line 3

Noan: You're complaining that your neck hurts because you're always looking downwards. ...Come on, let's do some light stretches. Relax your muscles, and move around your head and shoulders.

Voice Line 4

Noan: Wait a second, let me check your eyes. ...Hrm, now open your mouth. What time did you sleep yesterday? ...(Sigh) Really now...

Voice Line 5

Noan: You've sacrificed your health just so you can finish all your work. I doubt you'd even listen to me, but... Why not rest even just for a few minutes?

Log-In

Voice Line 1

Noan: Morning. Do we have a mission today?

Voice Line 2

Noan: Commander, here's the list of missions for today. If we're all set, let's head out.

Voice Line 3

Noan: Morning, Commander Simon told me to pass along this message to you when I met him in front of the training room. Let's get along, he said.

Voice Line 4

Noan: I've been thinking it's about time you arrive here. I guess we're connected telepathically then?

Voice Line 5

Noan: You're back, Commander. I did several missions while you weren't here the past few days, but I knew I'd think about such a thought... "If only you were here," that is.

Voice Line 6

Noan: Welcome back, Commander. I've been waiting for you.

Voice Line 7

Noan: Did you sleep well last night? Your ability to focus would recede when you're tired, plus the people who care for you would be worried. Hm? Of course, I would be. I'm also one of those people.

Voice Line 8

Noan: Welcome back, Commander. I've been thinking about you. Oh, well you're not wrong that you're in front of me right now. Even so, I just couldn't help myself.

Offline for a Long Time

Noan: Showing up just now, did you oversleep? Were you having a dream of a calm and harmonious world? If that was a blissful dream, then you should've dreamed a little while longer. Don't worry, I'll continue to wait for you here 'til you show up.

Shake

Voice Line 1

Noan: Wha—! Are you okay?! Did you trip?

Voice Line 2

Noan: Stop it, my glasses are about to fall down... Wha- wait... Don't take off my glasses...!

Voice Line 3

Noan: Even if you do that, a coin won't come out from me.

Repetitive Taps

Voice Line 1

Noan: Hm? What the- (Sigh)... I already said I'm not hiding anything. Wait, this isn't a body inspection?

Voice Line 2

Noan: W-wait— th-that tickles! Aha-...Gee, that was unexpectedly childish of you. It's fine, I'll let this slide since I saw your smile.

Voice Line 3

Noan: What's wrong? No need to be frantic. I'll be right by your side.

Activity Task Full

Noan: Our activity level's at max level, let's take a small break. If you have other plans you want to do, shall I tag along?

Battle Dialogues

Battle Start/Character Switch

Noan: I fight so the plights and suffering in our lifetime will be kept at bay.

Voice Line 1

Noan: Let's reassess what their sins are.

Voice Line 2

Noan: This is how the "best duo" pairs up.

Voice Line 3

Noan: Tear through the darkest night.

Ultimate Skill

Noan: Amidst the depths of winter will genuine springtide flourish!

Light Damage

Noan: I'm fine.

Heavy Damage

Noan: No... I mustn't fall here...

Incapacitated

Noan: I'm sorry... for leaving you all alone...

Friend Support

Noan: I don't plan to make you suffer any longer.

QTE

Noan: Aim for a swift victory.

Battle End

Noan: It's over, let's go home now.

Structure Documentation

Document Detail 1

Noan's appearance has established the fact Ascendants can turn humans into Structures. He is currently under surveillance in Eden for associating with an Ascendant. Although he doesn't seem to be disgruntled by the constant surveillance, research, and cooperation with his examinations, most of the "people who know his situation" feels somewhat lonely since Noan acts courteously as if he's keeping them at arm's length.

Document Detail 2

Noan himself named his model "Sojourn." He took inspiration from the time a young boy had preached to him after he left the Azil—"the world around us is a sojourn and all the sorrow they've experienced will one day return to the earth." The world around us is a large place of dwelling. Yes, even this very body he has. He has begun his new journey to the final destination of his life.

Document Detail 3

After he had fitted one of his coatings, Noan was sorely unsure whether or not he'd dye his hair in a rainbow color. However, everyone in Barometz Platoon strongly opposed it and even received harsh criticism from Arts Association Chairman Allen, saying it was "an abstract expression." The white streak of hair strands offset by his raven-colored hair expresses his resolution.

Document Detail 4

Even though Noan could deftly master a weapon and can write in either his left or right hand, he isn't particularly good at handling heavy weapons. It's not because of how incompetent he is, but because he's proficient in keen and nimble combat. The blueprint for his Energy Blade is a gift he received from Rachel on his 17th birthday. The other blade he wields on his other hand is something he had been using ever since he joined the porter company. Until Noan obtained his Energy Blade, his weapons used to be a blade and a gun.

Document Detail 5

He is hardly proficient in long-range weapons. Even the accuracy of the gun Noan previously used wasn't high. When you'd think he missed the mark, he would actually hit the vital target by fluke. There was a time when the bullet Noan fired pierced 3 windows, hitting the billboard across the building, and it fell on the leader of a burglary group.

Document Detail 6

He was able to escape an Ascendant's interferences and hallucinations alone. According to later observations, it was acknowledged that the stability in his Sea of Consciousness allows him adaptability toward Specialized Models. The Science Council still hasn't concluded whether this characteristic was something Noan originally had or was the result of the Ascendant's interference.

Rumors and Secrets

Secret 1 Has read a considerable amount of manga in a stack room. Noan seems to be receptive to any work, possibly because there are also peculiar plots among those he'd read. He would thoroughly read a manga title until the end, especially titles recommended to him by his friends.

Secret 2 To secure some space in his bag, Noan left a manga with a pear blossom between its pages at City Number 075. It was the Gray Raven Team who found that manga when they had visited for a survey. Noan retrieved that manga after that, but he lost it when he was heavily injured in City Number 210.

Secret 3 Noan still occasionally dreams of his past up until now. With how he is now, however, he is distinctly self-aware that it's all a dream and immediately wakes up—because in that dream, there isn't a single scratch on the firefly in his hands.

Secret 4 Although Noan had learned countless skills to survive, the only exception to that is cooking—up until he became a Structure, cooking delicious food wasn't a necessity for him. Now so long as he has a recipe to follow, Noan could cook the dish to a certain extent. Since he frowns upon ingredients going to waste, he inattentively ate the scrap parts of the ingredients on one occasion.

Secret 5 Whenever Noan is at a loss for what to do, he would tell a joke with a serious look on his face and divert the subject matter. He would often make his facial expressions overly serious so the other person would take them seriously. Noan would most likely say "maybe I'll tell you a little secret of mine" whenever he would tell an outlandish joke in the beginning, but he'd immediately give an explanation for his actions if the other person does take it seriously. If he manages to get by each time, strictly speaking.

Secret 6 Noan was once praised by his colleagues in the porter company for being skilled at consoling people and he would usually be the person they rely on to take care of their hammered colleagues at their drinking parties. Although he doesn't drink alcoholic beverages himself, it doesn't mean he wouldn't help them out or ditch out on the people who need someone could lend an ear to them.

Secret 7 Noan isn't good at handling people who are crying—he also can't tell if the other person is actually crying or shedding crocodile tears. To appear calm in front of a crying person even though he's panicking internally, Noan will probably almost nod to every request he generally won't agree on.

Secret 8 He wants to be reincarnated as a seagull in his next life, yet he has never seen either the ocean or a seagull before he became a Structure.

Secret 9 Noan was infamous as a pigheaded person in Passenger Car N until he was 13 years old. Because he recurrently used to incite a reckless feud, he was referred to as a "prickly boy"[2] by the people in that car. The person in question, however, has neither seen a chestnut's burr nor a person getting stabbed by it so he never knew they were referring to him.

Secret 10 Even though he isn't particularly nit-picky when it comes to colors, Noan prefers shades of white that give off a pure and clean feel—it ranges from white fabric, white bird feathers, clear skies, a pristine piece of paper, and so on... But the only thing he hates among the pure white things is snow, especially an endless snowfield.

Secret 11 While he was easy to get along with and had hit off with many friends, Noan had very few close friends he cherished in all sincerity. He's somewhat dense when it comes to emotions and is constantly passive, as he never expressed his desires or his eagerness to someone he was just recently acquainted with—he's the type of person who'd like to know the other person well on top of closing the distance between them.

Secret 12 He would frankly express his emotions to close friends. When the other person shows an interesting reaction to his words, Noan will try to pull a prank using that word. Despite being aware that he still has a childish side, he doesn't plan on hiding this side of himself entirely from his close friends.

This is in reference to the Surviving Glimmer's main theme song.

This may possibly be a reference to the manga "Igakuri-kun" (Igakuri-kun: Young Judo Master) written by Fukui Eiichi.

[aritamargarita]

ATTITUDE || 015

that last minute decision? well. this may come as a surprise to you all……..but i did add a little sexual content in this one. i actually was able to fit some in there so.. SURPRISE! i will signify where it starts with ** and the spacer is where it ends if you don’t want to read it. it’s also kinda quick for a reason lol

i hope y’all like it i was kinda nervous. i legit don’t know what im doing.🧍‍♀️this is my first time don’t scream at me

WELCOME….TO….MONDAY…NIGHT…..ATTITUDEEEE!!!!!

youuu guys knoww the drilllll! you know ‘sweet but psycho’ by ava max really set the tone for me.....”you’re just like me, you’re out your mind”??? oh yeah RENT WAS DUE!!!!!

hope u enjoy this chapter i had a lot of fun writing it

YOU’RE STILL RUNNING on adrenaline! You and Trish hit backstage, spirits high and thrilled you two not only attacked Torrie, but are working together for the night. It’s going to be one hell of a Raw.

BACKSTAGE // 8:01 PM

“Trish!” You yell, turning over to her and shaking her shoulders. “That was great! My god, we really kicked her ass.”

She smiles at you. “It was! Did you see her face when I joined in?! Hilarious!”

“Listen, thanks a lot for coming on my show and helping out. I’ll be in your corner tonight, so I’ll see you later, okay?” You give her a thumbs up, heading further down the hallway towards your locker room.

Trish had your gratitude. It’s only right for you to pay her back. You’d do everything in your power to make sure that their team won.

But other than Trish’s match, you’ve got a lot to do tonight. Watch the Hardy Boyz…..accompany Austin to the ring….it’s a busy day! Makes you happy you’ve got something to do.

Vengeance is coming up and that means Austin would have to be in a series of matches in order to qualify and become the undisputed champion.

This isn’t good for your anxiety. You knew he was pretty good, but what if it went the other way around?! Nah, that couldn’t happen. He has to win.

As you made your way down, you notice Michael Cole interviewing RVD. You decide to pop up behind him and join in. “Hello, world!”

With your sudden appearance on camera, the crowd cheers. RVD gives a smile and shifts his Hardcore Title to his left arm, then slings his right around your shoulders. “Hey! It’s Miss WCW.”

You wonder if he didn’t remember your name..which would be a shame since you two teamed up not too long ago. “In the flesh! Nitro’s Golden Girl is reporting for duty.”

“What a surprise!” Michael, the interviewer exclaims. “I was just asking RVD his thoughts on the Undertaker attacking him so viciously the previous night. What’re your thoughts?”

For a moment, your mind drew a blank. You can’t remember Undertaker attacking him at all! Just so you don’t stand there in silence, you make something up on the fly. “I mean, it’s crazy! If you ask me, I think Undertaker is going through a midlife crisis or something. I mean, joining a biker club? I could’ve sworn he was all scary a couple of months ago!”

You didn’t know much about him right now, but you tried bouncing off of what you’ve seen so far.

RVD nods his head, his tone relaxed as ever. “That totally makes sense. No wonder why he got mad when I recommended him to use diapers.”

You cover your mouth on instinct. WHY WOULD HE EVEN RECOMMEND THAT?! That’s literally not what you meant at all.

He continues. “If you ask me, I think the Undertaker’s just all worked up because RVD—“

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a second.” You could recognize that voice as Christian, who had his title on his shoulder as well.

“You’re saying that the Undertaker’s all worked up? And you,” He points to you. “You’re saying he’s going through some midlife crisis? Well let me tell you something, did you ever think it’s maybe because he gives more respect to Vince McMahon? Do you guys think you’re better than the Undertaker?”

Christian was getting a bit hostile. You hoped most of his irritation wasn’t towards you, but you still speak up anyway, Michael shifts the mic towards you. “Mr. McMahon never had my respect in the first place. It only makes things worse because of that match he put himself in to antagonize Trish Stratus. And if you want the truth, yes! I think I’m better than the Undertaker.”

RVD motions towards you. “You heard the lady. Besides, we’re gonna find out if I’m better than the Undertaker at Vengeance.”

The two of them stare each other down, but you take the opportunity to take the mic from Michael. “Can I see this?” You ask. He nods and hands it over. “Oooh, how about this you guys, since I heard the Undertaker isn’t here tonight, how about you two go against each other?”

Boom, you made the match card make sense. It was that easy. It’s not like the audience knew the card in its entirety anyway.

“For that hardcore title? Absolutely.” Christian wasn’t against it, in fact he was more than willing to prove himself to Vince. And with the hardcore title on the line? Hell yes.

“Sounds like a good idea.” RVD easily agrees, then lightly taps Christian’s title. “And how about we put that Euro-trash title on the line too?”

“I’m a genius!” You chime. “Title versus title? Hardcore and European?”

“My title? Ha! As if I’m going to lose this to you, RVD. I’m pretty sure neither of you know nothing about Europe!” Christian challenges. “What’s the capitol of Belgium?”

“Isn’t it Br—?” You’re about to answer...

…But RVD answers with no hesitation: “Waffle!”

You turn to look at him with a smile. God he’s stupid…but he’s hilarious. The crowd laughs at his response.

Christian shakes his head. “Are you serious? Do you even know what I’m talking about?”

“I think.” You say. “Why don’t you tell us the capital?”

“..Tch,” He scoffs, waving a hand. “I’m not telling you!” It made it very clear to the crowd that he had no clue what the capital was either. “Listen, I welcome any match, where it’s cool to use the Conchairto.”

Makes you think. Man, you need to be a commissioner or something, they’re missing out on a lot of opportunities here with your co-workers!

RAW IS WAR // 8:15 PM

Because of that segment, you had to literally run and change in the locker room. You’ve got a couple of minutes to be in gorilla and come with Team Xtreme to the ring.

As you were moving around, a black letter sticking out of your bag had caught your attention. You could spare 3 minutes to read this, so you walk over and pull it out.

‘Though our meeting was rudely interrupted, I find it apparent that you’re fit to be with me. You are unapologetically you, but it’s as if you’re being silenced.

I will set you free from the chains that you’ve been bound to. Find me in the shadows. A place where people discard things they have no use of.’ A place where one would find it disgusting.‘

— Quote the Raven, Nevermore.

And all of a sudden, you had less interest in the match you were supposed to come out for.

Who cares about the match anymore?

You wanted to know more about Raven. What he said at your anger management class really struck you. He even offered to free you.

Isn’t it about time you come with him?

You’re in no hurry to make it to gorilla anymore. A place where you could discard things of no use? A place where one would find it disgusting?

That had to be the trash. And to go even bigger, it must’ve been a dumpster. Normally, you’d be disgusted, but if it’s for Raven, you didn’t care. You didn’t care if he was beside it or inside it.

Who was on the match card again?

You couldn’t remember. All you cared about was going to find a dumpster. You quickly finish changing before heading outside the room. All you had in mind was heading towards the back.

You passed by quite a few of your coworkers, who seemed to be confused as to why you’re in such a hurry. The only person who was willing to stop you was Debra.

“[Name], sweetie,” She called, rushing over to you. “I’ve been looking for you. You and Steve told me class went well, but once I spoke to Doctor Smiley, he said it was a disaster! What happened?!”

You’re not sure what to say to her. It was one thing that you two lied, but your mind was focused on one and one thing only. “I don’t know.” You shrug.

“How do you not know?” She questioned. “And where’s Steve? You two should be ashamed of yourselves! I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.”

You mutter an apology. You’re wasting time when you could be out and about…. “I’ve gotta go.” You move past her, completely unaware that you bumped her out of the way.

And towards the back you go. There had to be a dumpster back there. You push open the door and shiver as the cold air hits you.

There’s some cars back here. You wonder if it’s any of your co-workers or any of the higher ups.

….Ugh, who cares. You mindlessly walk forward in search for your pursuer. You see nothing but most of the cars disappearing and the sight of an empty parking lot until…..

“What a pleasant surprise.”

The voice immediately makes you turn to the left, seeing none other than Raven sitting on the ground surrounded by trashcans and pieces of litter. It’s not a dumpster, but it’s definitely somewhere no one would go.

Perhaps you were wrong, but you didn’t care. You’re filled with glee. He’s all you cared about tonight.

“I didn’t expect you to show up.” His curly hair was covering most of his face and he made no effort to shake it out of the way. “Austin brutally beat me earlier tonight and I feel as if it was an attempt to keep you away from me.”

You agree. “I think so too.” But you don’t want to stay away from Raven. You never want to. “What were you talking about when you gave me that letter?” You kneel down to his level.

Raven says nothing at first, but there’s a smirk playing on the edge of his lips that you couldn’t see. “…Come closer.”

You do, and he finally moves his hair out of his face to get a better look at you. “I want to set you free.” He gets up and lightly pushes you down so he’s on top of you instead.

“I’ll show you the light, [Name]. You’ll let me, won’t you?”

Yes. You will. He’s helping you in more ways than one.

Raven leans in closer, hovering his lips above your own before moving to your ear. “I want you to repeat these words.” He whispers. “I am no bird…and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will.”

**

You nod as he goes lower and focuses on your neck. “I am…” You hesitate once he kisses it, then starts to bite down. “I am no..bird…”

Raven moves his hand down carefully and lands right on the underside of your left breast. He doesn’t really grope you there, instead glides over and down to your navel.

“And no net ensnares—ah!” He bites you harder, almost enough to draw blood. “I-I am a human being…” You’re almost breathless at this point, unable to focus thanks to the man on top of you. “…with an in…dependent will.”

He latches his lips off of your neck. Just as you think he was going to say anything else, he crashes his lips into your own.

Him doing that hurt, a lot. But you didn’t care. You loved it. He pushes his tongue into your mouth forcefully, drool sliding down your chin from how haphazard it was. He swirled his tongue around yours and you could only think about him. 

It’s the most messiest kiss you’ve had in your life and you wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. You can feel his hand slide down even further, right down into your underwear. 

You push Raven off to catch some air, but he keeps his hand nearby your underwear. He takes the hint and returns his attention back to your neck. You run your tongue over your now swollen lips.

He’s muttering something under his breath, you can barely hear him with the ringing in your ears. You can feel him inch down towards uncharted territory and your stomach fills with butterflies as he slides your underwear to the side.

Is this really happening? Right here? Right now?

It started out soft, as he gently caressed your insides with his finger. It’s almost like he was testing the waters. Your ragged breathing only egged him on further. Slowly, he begins to move his finger in and out.

He raises his voice so you can hear him better.

“The human body is a mystery to me. I find it strange that even the simplest gestures…”

Detaching himself from your neck, he looks up towards you. For a second, he curls his fingers, then uncurls it. “…can get a reaction out of someone.”

Through your moans, you finally gather some strength to speak. “I’ve gotta….” Though your mind was on a swivel the entire night, you knew people would be looking for you. “Gotta…….”

Raven doesn’t allow you to finish your sentence, switching from one finger to two. “Fear not. Tonight, you can become apart of me.”

You’re just stuck moaning and panting on the ground. You hope no one can hear you, but it’s unlikely with how empty this area was.

Even so, he doesn’t give you the right to even finish. He snatches his fingers out, stopping as quickly as he started and gets off of you.

You lean up from your spot, dazed and completely in the clouds. As he licks his fingers clean, you stare at him with such an intensity that you think your eyes would fall out.

You think you’re in love.

RAW IS WAR // 8:35 PM

You’re still disheveled from earlier. Your clothes were wrinkled, your hair had gotten frizzy, and you’re still burning inside.

Holy shit.

You’re aching because he didn’t give you the opportunity to finish. You hope this feeling goes away. You refuse to finish yourself off anywhere near the show.

On the bright side…you’ve figured it out. Raven is your one true love. He’s everything you wanted and more. You felt like you had all the time in the world for Raven. That you could drop everything you’re doing for Raven. Raven. Raven. Raven. Raven.

That’s all you cared about right now.

A cold hand on your shoulder makes you turn around quickly. “What?!”

“Heeeey. No need to get defensive!” It’s Lita, who looked pretty concerned. “You okay? I was worried about you. You didn’t show up tonight and Jeff was disappointed.” She pauses to look at how messed up you look. “You look a mess…what happened?”

“….” You look at Lita, unable to think of a proper response. “I….no, I’m okay. Just fine. Just leave me alone.”

Your response surprises Lita. “Huh? You’re acting strange. You can tell me, you know. Was it Torrie? If—“

“No! Just—FUCK! Leave me alone!” You scream at her, wanting nothing more than to be left alone at the moment. Lita immediately shuts up as you give her one last glance and head down the hallway.

that was an experience.

really really hope u guys liked it because i lowkey wasn’t fond of it?!?!?! again i feel like it was because i kept reading it over and over but yeah. raven does things. he won. the night isn’t over either...we’ll find out what happens next monday!!!!!! also reader challenging undertaker indirectly ruh roh

[lunartadpole]

1 ¦ 2

December, 1991.

Welcome to Hawkins

It's snowing, white puffs hit against the windscreen in a beautiful manner. And there's a certain tension in the car as it drives past the all too familiar sign. It's like a weight pressed down on his chest, and the thickness of the air makes it difficult to breathe. Eddie doesn't know for certain if Nancy can feel it too, but as the car rolls down the road, her demeanor changes; she straightens up her back and sighs heavily, like she's only just realised what a horrific idea this whole thing is. Whereas, Eddie realised that on the drive to the airport.

They didn't talk much on the plane. Or, well, they did but just not about anything they actually wanted to talk about. As Nancy went on about one of her stories and a lead she was chasing, Eddie could tell that she was just itching to know why he left, why he didn't tell anyone he was going; and Eddie couldn't really blame her, because the whole time she was talking his mind was just screaming for him to ask How's Wayne? Is he still living in Loch Nora? Is Steve? What does Steve look like now? Has his freckles faded from the lack of summer sun? Has his hair grown? Has he cut it? Does he miss Eddie? Does he hate him?

"Is it alright if we stop off at my house first?" Nancy interrupts the silence between them which had otherwise been filled with radio static. "Just so I can drop off my bags and say hello to my Mom. I'll take you to the trailer park after."

The trailer park?

He must say that out loud, because Nance shoots him a side-glance of confusion. Then realisation dawns on her. "Oh yeah, right. You wouldn't know. Uh, Wayne got a new trailer after you left. It's right next to Max's."

She's purposely leaving out details, Eddie doesn't like feeling like he's on the outside of something. But again, he doesn't press. Because he's scared of the answer. Instead, he turns his gaze back out the window, watching as the tree line morphs into town. And Christ, it's like Eddie never left, or Hawkins has just been staggered in time, constantly unchanging. Frozen like the ice on the road. They drive downtown, all the stores swarmed with people fighting to get the last turkey, or the last toy for their kids; Eddie remembers Steve coming home with a blackeye and a turkey that looked like it had been exploded and put back together, dramatically recounting his experience with a feisty old woman like he was some kind of war hero. And a ghost of a smile finds its way to his lips at the thought of Steve Harrington. Stupid, sweet, thoughtful Steve Harrington, who only bought a turkey that year because Eddie told him he and Wayne never did the whole Christmas Dinner thing.

They drive past Family Video, and if that isn't a big kicker for nostalgia. The building is lit up with those awful flickering lights, and windows are decorated with the same Santa window stickers and tinsel Eddie was forced to put up when he drew the short straw. He swore he was going to get frostbite putting up those lights, all the while Robin and Steve laughed at him with their warm coffee cups heating up their hands. "Bastards," Eddie spat, but he was smiling, teeth chattering from the cold.

He wonders if those two still work there, wonders if the break room still smells of moldy cheese from Keith's lunch. He wonders if Robin was the first person Steve called when he came home from work to an empty house, only to find Eddie's room cleaned out. He slumps down in his chair as the video store fades out of view in the side mirror.

Sensing his change in attitude, Nancy nudges his arm. "You okay?"

Eddie chews on the inside of his cheek. No, he thinks, no he is definitely not okay. This whole thing was one huge fucking mistake!

Nancy thinks for a moment, probably deciding what or what not to disclose to Eddie. What is her place to tell and what isn't. "Mike is gonna lose his shit when he sees you," she tries to joke, shaking her head fondly. "God. You know he grew out his hair? It's like, like yours now."

Eddie peaks over at her. "Really?"

She nods. "And Mom keeps calling me to complain about him blasting his 'screaming music' at all hours of the day. Apparently Wayne gave him some of your old tapes you left behind." Her expression softens. "You really made an impact on him."

Something akin to pride swells in Eddie's chest, replacing the feeling of his insides doing backflips. "No, I didn't- I'm not-"

"Don't do that. Don't undermine yourself. Those kids really looked up to you. I remember Mike coming home from school after you offered him to join your stupid club, he was so excited. You like, made him feel less alone. Or something."

And Eddie well, he doesn't know what to say to that.

"So don't worry so much. They'll be thrilled to see you."

"Yeah," Eddie huffs, "at least someone will."

They drive the rest of the way to the Wheeler House in silence. And when the car pulls into the driveway, Nancy doesn't move. Eddie looks over to her, and she seems to be in deep thought, debating whether or not to go in.

That's the thing about Nancy Wheeler, Eddie thinks. Everyone thinks she's so difficult to read, but you just gotta know what to look for; Nance chews on her nails when she's unsure, she gets this glassy look in her eyes and this twitch in her lips. Eddie saw her many times after Vecna. He doesn't think anyone else did.

"I don't have to go in," he supplies, already expecting her to ask him to stay in the car.

She snaps out of whatever haze she trapped herself in. "What?"

"It's not a problem, I get that your folks may not be too happy having a former wanted murder back in the house."

"What?" She repeats. "Oh, Eddie, no. God no. It's not you, it's just." A deep sigh escapes her. "You're not the only one avoiding home."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asks, only a little offended. Because he's not avoiding anything, thank you very much.

Nancy pops open the driver-side door, climbing out into the Hawkins Winter Weather. "It means," she says, "that things between me and my parents aren't great right now."

Vague. Leaving out details on purpose. Eddie doesn't know what to expect anymore, but he guesses she doesn't owe him any explanation. He certainly didn't give her one.

Eddie follows suit, pulling his old leather jacket close in a futile attempt to block out the nipping cold. He exhales deeply, breath turning to mist in front of his eyes in that way that makes him feel like a dragon, before going to help Nancy pull her various suitcases out of the trunk of her car. But he gets about halfway towards her when a small, porcelain figure on the snow covered grass catches his eye.

For a second he thinks it's new, because surely it has to be. But no, it's the exact same colour, there's still that chip on its large round nose, and there's obvious cracks in the structure.

Nancy catches him staring. "Oh yeah," she huffs a laugh, "Mom super glued it back together. You two never did tell me how you broke it."

Eddie looks at her with a smirk. "I have no idea what you mean."

December, 1987

"How are you not cold?"

It's the first time Eddie's ever been invited to the Wheeler's Christmas Party. And he thinks it might be the last if the look Karen Wheeler gave him when he walked in dressed, not in a Christmas jumper like the invite said, but rather his usual attire of a leather jacket. Not that he minds though, there is only so much cheery Christmas music and judgemental stares from Nancy's neighbours he can take before he needs a minute outside.

Eddie watches the smoke from his lips evaporate, mingling with the cool night air. Warm yellow light from the house bleeds out from the open door, and vanishes when it shuts again. It wasn't snowing yet, but he suspected that it would start soon.

"It's like, below freezing out here." Steve appears beside him, shivering despite his many, many layers of clothes he insisted on earing. The top layer is an awfully ugly Christmas sweater that Eddie bought him yesterday for this very occasion. It looks incredibly itchy, but Steve insisted on wearing it.

The other boy leans against the wall and holds his hand out to Eddie, to which Eddie passes him the cigarette with a smug look on his face.

"Thought you were quitting?" Eddie japs a finger at Steve's side. "Thought it was turning your hair grey?"

"Yeah well," Steve holds the cigarette up to his mouth, taking a long drag and Eddie pretend that he's not staring at the way his boyfriends cheeks hollow as he does so. "I'll quit tomorrow. You okay?"

And god Eddie loves that man.

"Honestly?" he sighs, "I kinda hate it here."

He doesn't expect Steve's shoulders to completely drop in relief. "Thank god. Listen, I love Mrs. Wheeler. I do. But this is the most boring party I've ever been to. And I was at Chuck Myers' Spring Brake party. That was boring."

Eddie laughs, shaking his head fondly. "Yeah, I could do without the middle aged women staring at me everytime I walk by them."

Steve frowns. He loops an arm around Eddie's waist and pulls him closer. "They're just old bitches. Don't pay them any mind."

They're so close Eddie can smell the spiked Eggnog on Steve's breath. And he panics when he hears laughter from inside, trys to pull away. "People might see us."

"And?" Steve smiles, the cigarette in his hand long discarded on the ground. He holds onto Eddie's hands, they're calloused yet soft in his. Again, he urges him closer and plants a chaste kiss on Eddie's cheek and that makes Eddie giggle like a school girl, so goes to give Steve a proper kiss but he doesn't get the chance when the song inside changes.

"Ah! I love this song," Steve slurs, and Eddie begins to suspect he's had a bit too much to drink. He can only imagine what Robin's like inside.

The song in question is another generic Christmas tune, one the radio can blast over and over and people keep listening to because it's catchy. Naturally, Eddie detests it, much like most holiday songs. He groans, "Of course you do."

Steve doesn't take the, frankly obvious, bait to rehash the same playful argument they have almost every time they turn on the radio. Instead, he starts to move in some sort of way that Eddie guesses could be considered dancing, and he manoeuvres Eddie's hands so that he's forced to join in.

It's an odd, arrhythmia rocking motion Eddie finds himself locked in. He thinks that Steve might have been going for a slow dance sorta thing, but Lord knows Harrington couldn't dance to save his life so he settles for whatever it is he's doing. And you can't really hear the music, since they're outside it's quiet through the walls, making it a bit awkward but Eddie doesn't care. The way Steve laughs, all carefree and thoughtless, the way he doesn't do very often, is music enough for him.

So Eddie let's himself dance, on the front doorstep of Karen Wheeler's house, and he lets himself forget that there was even a party at all; that he was here for an entirely different reason other than to dance the night away with his boyfriend - his boyfriend, Steve Harrington, that's still so surreal. He even forgets where he is.

Smash!

Momentarily, at least.

Steve and Eddie pull apart at the sound of the noise. They look at the ground, horrified to find the shattered body of a lone garden gnome broken into a dozen pieces. They stand over it, staring. Then Steve looks up at Eddie with a pale face.

"You," he says quietly, "you murdered him."

"Me?! He's closer to your foot! You stepped on him during your awful attempt at dancing!"

Steve's cheeks turn red, Eddie doesn't know if it's from embarrassment or from the cold. "Yeah, well, standing here over a dead body isn't going to magically fix it."

"What do you want to do then?" Eddie huffs.

As if on cue, they hear Mrs. Wheeler's muffled voice through the door, proudly declaring something to her guests. They stare at the door until Steve rattles around in the pocket of his jeans and pulls out his car keys.

He stares at Eddie. "Last one to the car has to tell Nancy."

Eddie is bolting before he finishes the sentence. The quiet music from the party is replaced by Steve's laughter. Music to his ears.

December, 1991

There's the smell of cookies wafting through the air when Eddie trudges through the front door after Nancy. She calls out that she's home and instantly there's footsteps rushing towards the hall. Mrs. Wheeler appears in the living room doorway. She's wearing a stained apron and her hair, now back to its natural brown, is pulled back out of her face.

"Nancy," she smiles, and pulls her daughter into a tight embrace. "Welcome home! Though I wish you called ahead, I'm a bit of a mess." She laughs and then turns to the living room, where a young, blonde haired girl sits on the couch. "Holly, come say hi to your sister."

Holly, who has grown significantly since Eddie last saw her at that Christmas party, merely waves. She doesn't even pull her attention from the cartoons she's watching. Nancy gives a curt wave back.

Mrs. Wheeler's eyes land on Eddie, quietly lingering in the doorway, and her expression hardens for a split moment.

Nancy coughs. "Mom, you remember Eddie, right? Eddie Munson."

"Of course!" she exclaims, still smiling but it's tighter, forced. Her movements become wary and Eddie is very quickly reminded why he left in the first place. Eddie feels very pinned down under her state. "It's so good to see you again."

Lies.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Nancy warily looking around. "Is, uhm, is dad here?" she asks, and that's enough to take Karen's mind of off Eddie and onto something more pressing it seems, by the way her happy expression crumbles into one of uncomfortable sorrow.

"He's working til seven." she tells her. Nancy breathes a sigh of relief. "But, maybe you could stay here this year," Mrs. Wheeler tries, "I'm sure if you brought Steve over then maybe-"

"Where's Mike?" Nancy interrupts, just when Eddie perked up at the mention of Steve's name.

"In the basement."

She turns to Eddie, giving him a sort of urgent 'go" look. Though he's reluctant - and curious, knowing she's only telling him to go just so he doesn't hear the rest of the conversation - Eddie makes his way to the basement. He gives a jerky nod to Holly on his way. She doesn't even acknowledge him. With her large, square shaped glasses, she looks a bit like her dad.

The stairs to the basement creaks under his weight. As he descends down further, Eddie can hear quiet laughter underneath the sound of slow music turned down so low, he can't quite make it out. The basement has that same BO stench that Eddie became familiar with during the many, lengthy Hellfire sessions he held down here. In some strange way, its comforting.

When he gets to the bottom of the steps, he starts to think that maybe he should have called out his arrival before hand; surely that would have saved Mike - and himself - the embarrassment of Eddie walking in on Mike and Will - Will Byers, Eddie fucking knew it - making out on the sofa.

He clears his throat, and takes a sick sort of humor in watching the two boys literally jump away from each other in panic because yup, been there kid. "Y'know, if you're going to have a gay make out session, the best place to do it probably isn't your mom's basement."

Mike all but yells in shock and horror. And Will seems to freeze like a deer in headlights, sitting stiffly with a rapidly growing red face. A second passes like this before Mike blinks, once, twice, and shoots up from the couch with furrowed eyebrows.

"Eddie?!"

Nancy wasn't lying. Standing in front of Mike now, all 5'11 of him, it was like looking in a fun house mirror. His face has thinned out, more sharp edges than last Eddie saw him; he's tall, incredibly so, and his hair, full of wild, unruly curls, has fallen down to his shoulders. He's dressed in a, clearly loved, Black Sabbath shirt that Eddie actually thinks is his, and he can't help the wide smile that splits his face in half.

But Mike is not smiling, well he was. His expression starts to cycle through a mix of happy, confused, angry. And then Eddie gets the air knocked out of his lungs when Mike barrels into him. Eddie thinks he's crying a bit.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Eddie tells them. About New York, about writing. He revels in that same old warmth that comes when the two boys laugh at his jokes, or when Will's eyes light up at the description of the New York skyline at night. Eddie and Will spent lots of time together before he left, both of them eager to have another DM to talk to, plan campaigns with. He looks at Will now, and he still sees the face of that kid that used to show up at his trailer with his tattered notebook and a head full of new ideas; it doesn't matter that his face has finally come into its own, or that he finally let his hair grow out past that ridiculous bowl cut, it's still Will Byers. They tell him about their own lives too, briefly, about school and life in general, and seem to have forgotten that Eddie caught them, what he walked in on. And that's fine with Eddie, they'll talk about it when they're ready, who is he to pry?

The three of them sat there for what realistically couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but felt like eons in the best way possible. Until raised voices upstairs cut through their conversation. Eddie recognises Nancy's voice and assumes the other is her mom.

Mike rolls his eyes and deadpans, "Oh great, we're back to this."

Curiosity gets the better of him, and despite knowing he shouldn't pry Eddie asks anyway. "They fight alot?"

"Just like, all the time," Mike groans and Will snickers at his antics. "God it's been like this for two years now, it's a miracle Nance even comes home at this point."

"Of course she'd come home," Will interjects, "Nancy's not like that."

There's something more to that sentence, something both Mike and Will understand. Yet another thing Eddie is being left out on.

"Two years?" he whistles, laughing sarcastically, "What could she have possibly done? Misspelt a word in her college application?"

Mike stares at him with wide eyes. "She hasn't told you yet? Her and Ste-"

"Eddie!"

Nancy's voice cuts through the conversation. Eddie looks to where she's standing at the top of the stairs, cheeks burning red with a fiery gaze in her eye. Beside him, Mike stands immediately, concern painting his face but Nancy just shrugs him off.

"C'mon," she says, "We're leaving."

Before Eddie can blink he's hauling Nance's suitcases back out to the car to the tune of Mrs. Wheeler begging, pleading, with Nancy to stay. Nancy doesn't listen to her, and she manages to keep her composure right until they pull out of the driveway, then tears start forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Nance?" Eddie puts a hand on her shoulder. "Nance, hey, what happened?"

She laughs, wetly. "Nothing. It's fine. My mom just- shit." Her grip on the steering wheel tightens. "I'll Uhm, I'll drop you off at your Uncle's place I just-"

"Hey, hey." Eddie rushes to comfort her. "It's alright, I'm honestly in no rush. Just, go wherever you need to go. Okay?"

Nancy takes a series of deep breaths, and her tight lock on the wheel loosens. "Okay."

The car turns right, and Eddie doesn't even need to ask where they're going; he remembers the road like the back of his hand. Loch Nora. Steve Harrington's house.

And it's different.

Not massively so. In fact, the only difference Eddie can see is the change in colour, from that ugly steel grey to a soft yellow. Had the snow been melted, he would have seen rows of flowerbeds but with the garden frozen over the only thing standing there are a couple of poorly made snowmen, one significantly smaller than the other but both finished off with hats and scarfs and, of course, carrot noses. Eddie spies the sight of that large, perfect Christmas tree he and Steve spent hours decorating so that everything was just right. The house stands out from the others, and whether that's because of the change in colour or the extravagant Christmas lights only it has, Eddie doesn't know.

And there's a moment where Eddie forgets where he is. A moment where he's not in the car with Nancy, but rather in his Van with bags upon bags of groceries beside him, and he's getting ready to navigate - completely destroy - Steve's kitchen in a futile attempt to cook dinner for the two of them. It feels like he's coming home, like he's never been away. Like it hasn't been four years, and things between him and Steve aren't completely ruined, shattered to bits by his own hand.

"I'll only be a minute." Nancy tells him, obviously picking up on something he isn't given the side eyed glare she shoots him. 'It's probably best if you stay here." But hell no, Eddie finally feels whole again and he's going to chase this feeling into tomorrow. He's out of the car before Nancy can even stop him.

Walking up to the door, Eddie's in a hazy trance. Memories upon memories flood the forefront of his mind; Him and Steve playing in the snow; Him and Steve watching horror movies; Him and Steve coming back from one of their summer drives, the sound of ABBA blasting much to Eddie's playful dismay. He gets to the door with Nancy yelling after him.

He lifts his fist to the door, but it swings open before he can knock. And that trance Eddie found himself in quickly fades as the smell of citrus and burning wood hits his face, and there's a child standing at the door.

A little girl, with curly brown hair tied back into pigtails, with a freckled tan face and wide hazel eyes that look into Eddie's soul. She's wearing a pink tutu and some kind of sports jersey, Eddie doesn't know what sport though. She blinks at him in a curious manner, tilting her head to the side, then her gaze stares past him and her face lights up in a face splitting smile.

"Nance! She screams excitedly, and sprints off in a waddle. Eddie watches as Nancy rushes up to meet her with the same smile on her face, and she picks her up in her arms and twirls her about. The little girl laughs ecstatically. Eddie's face pales at the similarities between the two girls.

"Wheeler, thank god you're home," A voice calls from the house. Eddie turns to the source and his heart swells at the sight.

Robin fucking Buckley. Standing in the doorway in all her chaotic glory. Her hair is slightly longer now and just as untamed as it used to be; she too is wearing a tutu and she looks like she's been running if her red cheeks and heavy breaths are anything to say about it.

She rubs her eyes, laughing in a pathetic huff of air. "I swear if I have to watch one more episode of Sesame Street I'm going to kill mys-"

For someone who always seemed so open, Eddie has a hard time figuring out what emotion lies in Robin's eyes when she finally looks at Eddie; is it happiness? Confusion? Sadness? He doesn't know. She stares at him, with wide unblinking eyes, and time seems to slow down for her as she takes the sight of him in. Eddie feels a little exposed watching her look him up and down, and he'd probably shift uncomfortably under her gaze, if he wasn't so fucking happy to see her.

"Hey Rob," he smirks, trying, and definitely failing, to sound sauve. "Miss me."

In response to his question, Robin gives him her fist colliding with his nose.

tag list :)

@thermofisherscientific

[express-archives]

Hello! It is I, 🐱 Anon who finally checked your new OC blog bc i keep forgetting to do so unless you reblog it to your main blog :’D (i am so sorry T.T)

And I have so much questions about Artemis! Her introduction post really hooked me in because she sounds very intresting, so here are my questions!

1. So from the few post about Artemis, it seems she is related to Ambrose. So what are they actually? Are they blood related (and if so are they cousins or siblings?) or are they just two people who see each other as family regardless of blood?

2. Along with that, the both of them seems to have a good relationship. If that’s the case, do any of their respective Aeons know that their own Emanator is close with the Emanator of their enemy?

3. What does Artemis think about Lian?

4. Following number 3, how does she feel about Lian dating Ambrose?

5. Is she close or at least acquainted with anyone in the Xianzhou Luofu? (aka playable character we know of)

6. What does she think about the High Cloud Quintet?

7. And lastly, does she have a silly side that no one or a few people know about?

Also i just realised that you may had hinted about her in the HuoHuo’s older sibling reader post where you replied to my idea of big sister Huohuo. You made a paragraph (i think?) about how Abundance and the Hunt need each other and how they would work really well under the part of Huohuo’s older sibling who’s the Emanator of the Hunt. So nice foreshadowing aph ^_^

- 🐱 Anon

HELLO BELOVED HI ohohoho i am so glad you asked omg.... me when um. Me when oc questions 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

they are blood related! biological cousins, actually. ambrose's mother had a sister, artemis' mom, and the two children grew up very close to one another. <3 i don't know if i have ever explicitly talked about this, but their homeworld was war-ridden before ambrose drew yaoshi's attention. artemis was a child soldier basically and ambrose kiiiinda was? ambrose did a lot of work in rationing resources such as food and clean water and healing wounded folk. so a lot of times, ambrose would tend to their baby cousin's wounds. so both of them have that kind of bond that going through the same trauma together gives people.

OH MAN OK THIS ONE IS A LITTLE LONG HELLO!!! long story short, yaoshi knows, lan does not. lan knows they are related (which is part of what drew their attention to artemis in the first place) but they don't know how close the two are and artemis is kind of worried because how long can you lie to something, someone so powerful without them finding out the truth??? and what would the consequences of that be???? artemis is very different from ambrose in this way; she is scared of the aeons. she is scared of lan, in certain aspects. she is not desensitized to their absolute power like her older cousin is. she is freaking out deep down inside. artemis and lan have a very tentative relationship and artemis doesn't tell them anything at all that might indicate her care for ambrose, because she knows that if they knew... erm. yeah. but yaoshi knows. i mean, after all, artemis is one of their children too, technically. if lan ever shunned her... yaoshi's arms are open, the gentle and forgiving aeon that they are. their child, who was stolen away by the hunt, is always welcome home. just saying. but also keep in mind that artemis would 🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹 ambrose if they ever became a threat to the general balance of the universe, so it's kind of complicated HAHA i suppose the real question is this: does lan have the capacity to understand that just because artemis loves ambrose, she willl still never hesitate to do her utmost to subdue ambrose if they ever became a serious threat? who knows?

artemis and lian actually met a looonnnggg time ago when lian was in the shackling prison. she knows what it's like to do questionable things because you just love and adore someone so much (artemis protecting ambrose and lian with dan feng back then; have i ever talked about that? i don't know haha), so she sympathized with lian greatly. artemis didn't talk to her after they were released, but lian was thankful that she came to visit so often.

artemis was kind of surprised at first, i think. but she thinks it's cute! she did, however, warn lian that ambrose will bend to the abundance's will very easily and ambrose can VERY quickly become evil and fucked up, should it ever become yaoshi's will. whether or not lian takes her words to heart... who knows if they will? but artemis did her part, and if lian chooses not to be careful, then that is the vidyadhara's decision and the fault will be hers alone. artemis did her part.

to the luofu residents, artemis is just about as elusive as the aeon lan themselves. so, for the most part, no. this is largely because artemis just doesn't want to risk them finding out about how much she cares for her cousin (ambrose's ass will just sneak onto the luofu like it's no big deal though and artemis is like "wtf man i am literally trying to protect you from them?!!?!?!? 😒"). when artemis goes on the luofu, she tends to adopt disguises and false identities. jing yuan, however, knows that it is her. and she knows he knows. but for some reason, he just... doesn't say anything..? she doesn't understand why but she appreciates his discretion.

artemis probably thinks they should leave dan heng alone already LMAOOOOO i feel like she has a great amount of respect for them, but she knows that she would be really fucking annoyed if she were dan heng. dan heng is not the same person as dan feng and they seriously need to realize this already (at least, that is what artemis believes). dan heng and artemis have actually met before and i think they are... friendly acquaintances? or something like that haha. they don't know one another well enough to be FRIENDS friends but they're friendly with one another, at least.

ABSOLUTELY LMFAO i just know she's a lil silly deep down!!!!!!!! but her silliness was buried a long time ago on account of her being a child soldier. so there is silliness in her but it is very hard to uncover.

[alastgoodnight]

Hm. Now that was a little odd. There was a letter in front of the letterbox, like the box had spat it out. The envelope was white with a coloured triangle in each corner to frame it: red, blue, yellow, and orange. It was simply addressed to "New Friend", written in a slightly blunted red pencil. Wouldn't hurt to open it.

The handwriting on the inside was the same as on the envelope, and it appeared to only hold a folded sheet of paper.

-

"Dear Stranger,

I was talking to Eddie today and I said I didn't know who else to write a letter to. I'd written a letter to all my friends. Eddie said I should write to look for a 'pen pal'. I thought he meant that I needed a pen to be my friend, but it actually means that someone would write to me. I like phone calls, but I also like letters too.

Hello stranger. My name is Wally Darling. I live in Welcome Home. It is a small town where all my friends live. This is what I look like."

An arrow pointed to a somewhat childish drawing of a yellow person with swirly blue hair, a matching cardigan, and colourful, stripey trousers. There was a smile on the drawing's face.

"I am a painter. I love to paint or draw. There are so many things to look at. Is there anything you like to do? Do you have a job or class you go to?

Please write back. My full address is: Wally Darling, Home, The Neighborhood.

Wally."

(heythereneighbor - sorry but the concept of a letterbox was just too cute to pass)

Oh, that was odd. Naomi was quite used to the letterbox having letters in it - usually in response to her own - but this time, the little door hung wide open, the letter propped against it and politely waiting for her when she came upstairs. Her eyes widened when she saw the bright primary colors - colors she didn't recognize from other responses. This was someone new!

Handling the colorful envelope with the same care she would an official document, she read through it slowly, feeling a small smile pull at her face as she kept going. The language was simple, but charming - more importantly, someone had written to her first, something that never happened. Usually the letters she got were responses to her own, so this was a charming surprise.

The letter itself was fairly simple, so she should start with a simple response. Naomi grabbed a sheet of her own paper - the white, lined stationary with a frame of hydrangeas in purple and blue - and started to write.

"Dear Wally Darling, Hello! I'm the person who got your letter, so I guess this makes me your pen pal. It's nice to meet you! My name is Naomi Sato, but everyone calls me Miss Naomi. I'll draw a picture of myself on the back of this page, since it's full of lines. I live in the Lullaby Lane Library. It's a very old building-"

Creak!

"Okay, I'll change it, my goodness!"

"It's a building that's been left by itself for quite some time, so I'm working hard to help get it all ready for people to visit again. I live here with a couple of friends, Willa and Rags, and my friend Arlo lives on the hill behind us. Right now my job is fixing up the library. The inside's all done, but the outside needs new paint and a garden. It's a lot of work, but it's fun!"

What did she like to do? Hm, keep it simple. Explaining a podcast would take more pages.

I like to read, and clean, and tell stories. My favorite kind of stories are fairy tales, and my favorite kind of reading is when I get to share stories with other people. Do you have any stories you like, Wally? Thank you for writing to me. I'll give you my full address so you can write to me again: Miss Naomi, Lullaby Lane Library, Lullaby Lane. I hope you have a good day! Sincerely, Miss Naomi."

It was only right to match Wally's drawing with one of her own. Using a small number of colored pencils, she drew herself as best she could - still a small, simple drawing, with line features and blocky colors, but she liked how the jacket came out. Carefully the letter was folded and put in a seaglass-blue envelope, sealed shut with a sticker of an orange balloon. Into the letter box it went, no doubt to appear wherever it needed to be.

[usergreenpixel]

JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 29: NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS (2007)

1. The introduction

Well, hello again, dear Citizens! Welcome back to Jacobin Fiction Convention because it is now back in session!

Okay, first I will get one thing out of the way. I’m doing much better than I did in summer, hence the decision to resume my reviews. And what better way to make a comeback than to get the promised things out of the way first?!

On that note, I introduce to you the topic of today’s meeting: “Napoleon’s Pyramids”, a novel in the adventure genre set in the Egyptian campaign. Now, Directory years don’t have a good reputation in the Frev community, but technically those years are still officially Frev, hence my decision to include this book in the Jacobin Fiction Convention category.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure some people in my audience already know it, but I LOVE adventure stories, so when I stumbled across this book on a quest to find more Frev/Napoleonic media to review, you can bet your ass that I got excited!

Also, its resemblance to an Indiana Jones story initially drew me in, as I used to like the first Indiana Jones movie as a kid (not so much now) so there is some nostalgia involved here as well.

Luckily for me, I managed to find the book in pdf format here:

Then I did more research and it’s available in Russian too, mainly online and sometimes in paperback form, so my fellow Russian speakers who aren’t good at English can find the Russian version!

Is it worth looking for though? Well, let’s find out.

This review is dedicated to @mamelukeraza .

2. The Summary

Here’s the summary from Amazon and, apparently, the back cover of the book:

What mystical secrets lie beneath the Great Pyramids?

The world changes for Ethan Gage—one-time assistant to the renowned Ben Franklin—on a night in post-revolutionary Paris, when he wins a mysterious medallion in a card game. Framed soon after for the murder of a prostitute and facing the grim prospect of either prison or death, the young expatriate American barely escapes France with his life—choosing instead to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, on his glorious mission to conquer Egypt. With Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind, Gage sets out on the adventure of a lifetime. And in a land of ancient wonder and mystery, with the help of a beautiful Macedonian slave, he will come to realize that the unusual prize he won at the gaming table may be the key to solving one of history's greatest and most perilous riddles: who built the Great Pyramids . . . and why?

By all accounts, this book should have been right up my alley! I mean, we have adventures, ancient artifacts, mysteries and clues! What could possibly go wrong?!

(Spoiler alert: A LOT. More on that later.)

3. The Story

First of all, I didn’t really like the beginning of the book, mostly because the narrator (Ethan Gage) really takes his precious ass time to dive into his backstory and explain how he ended up at a table playing that fateful card game. I’m talking about two pages of backstory before finally getting to the fucking point!

Don’t get me wrong, a proper introduction is important to me personally, but maybe my problem is the fact that I prefer to receive a character’s backstory over time, bit by bit. Otherwise it gets a bit too distracting for me, especially when Gage stops narrating to crank out a few pages of his damn autobiography before returning to the actual events at hand.

Also, unfortunately for this book, the comparisons to Indiana Jones don’t imply anything good here. It simply reads like an extremely predictable adventure story that desperately tries and fails to be engaging and fun while treating really old orientalist tropes like a checklist (mysterious Egypt, hot slave girls…). Even the cliffhanger ending is predictable as shit.

Moreover, there is almost no suspense. Gage either conveniently shoots his target or gets conveniently rescued all the time. In short, he always wins, which is not what should happen in a good story because most people get bored with heroes who always win.

Last but not least, too many coincidences and everyone being connected to the point where my suspension of disbelief just went right out the window.

At one point Ethan Gage randomly encounters Sidney Smith, for example. Also he gets rescued by Nelson after a naval battle. And in a later chapter it turns out that the Romani with whom Gage had to hide at one point were the ones who alerted Gage’s future allies in Egypt about his arrival. Very fucking believable.

At this point, this book may as well be a soap opera where all the heroes are somehow connected!

Speaking of heroes…

4. The Characters

I don’t like Ethan Gage. He’s basically a knockoff Indiana Jones crossbred with a Mary Sue. Perfect sharpshooter, womanizer, spy, adventurer, apprentice of Benjamin Franklin. He has a lot of skills and connections and not enough justification for having them.

Trust me, even the fact that he’s a Freemason wasn’t enough for me to justify the fact that he just HAPPENS to know a bunch of important people.

Other than that, he starts out as a typical lone adventurer with no family who enjoys gambling and the company of sex workers. I was half expecting him to go full James Bond and be an alcoholic too, but luckily it wasn’t that cliché.

The Macedonian slave mentioned in the summary, Astiza, is a slightly more interesting character, even though she’s not free from clichés. Starting out as a beautiful mysterious slave girl, she is revealed to know more than she lets on and has a knack for practicing magic. Also she is later revealed to have known the villain of the book… Welcome to Santa Barbara, folks!

As for the villain, Count Alessandro Silano is presented as this master manipulator and a looming threat who wants to harness whatever secrets the ancient secrets and/or powers this medallion can potentially provide. In reality, however, he’s more of a hammy movie villain who likes to monologue, has no positive traits whatsoever has the same ability to survive the impossible as Gage does. Or maybe they both can just respawn, I dunno.

Unfortunately, “cliché” and “flat” are the best adjectives to describe most original characters in the story. Gage’s friend, Antoine Talma, is your typical intrepid reporter but at least he’s more relatable than Gage; Ashraf, a Mameluke Gage captures, is just a loyal servant who is there to conveniently swoop in and rescue Gage Deus ex machina style, etc.

It’s basically modern clichés served under the “sauce” of the Frev setting.

By the way, Napoleon is there as well and he gives me the same vibes as the Nazi villains in the first Indiana Jones movie. He only cares about people who are useful to him, doesn’t give a shit about his troops and also wants to harness the abilities that medallion potentially can provide so he can use those powers to CONQUER THE WORLD!

Most other historical figures only have minor roles, but I’m glad we got cameos of people like Kléber, Vivant Denon and other military men and scientists who were actually part of that campaign.

5. The Setting

Unfortunately, even the descriptions of settings leave a lot to be desired. They’re just blander than stale bread and I’m not even sure how accurate they are. Probably inaccurate as fuck though, if I’m being honest…

Paris is this city of vices like brothels and gambling houses and this setting is hyperbolic like we’re in a noir detective story.

Egypt is a treasure trove of orientalist clichés - a land of mysteries, cruel people, beautiful women and wise scholars who may or may not dabble in magic. That being said, I liked the fact that the book took a sledgehammer to clichés about harems.

6. The Writing

Ooh boy, I have some complaints here too. Aside from the distractingly long backstory tidbits I already ranted about, that is.

For example, basic French grammar and spelling have clearly left the chat because there are characters whose last names are spelled d’Liberté and d’Bonneville (de is only turned into d’ before vowels or the letter “h”) and at one point there’s a hotel called Le Cocq instead of Coq (rooster). The book was written in 2007 so it’s not like the author couldn’t look up the words and basic grammar that I learned in fifth grade!

These may seem like tiny mistakes, but if the author didn’t bother to look up the basics, then this makes me concerned about other mistakes in the novel that I probably missed. So yeah, take everything in this with a grain (or a barrel) of salt.

Last but not least, this:

This is where General Dumas and General Desaix make a cameo. Now, it seems fine… except there’s no prior mention of them being present in this scene at all before they speak their lines so… did these two just randomly poof into existence or something?

Also, these two suffer from Delayed Introduction Syndrome ™️, which means we don’t find out who the fuck these men are until a few chapters later and we don’t get any descriptions of them before that either.

Why is this an issue? Well, other minor characters in the book do get a proper introduction and a brief description IMMEDIATELY or SHORTLY after being mentioned, so there is an inconsistency here, especially since some minor characters get TOO MUCH time dedicated to their descriptions despite the fact that they are not part of the main cast (d’Liberté in particular gets too much attention).

Also, some descriptions in the book are unintentionally funny, like a part where Gage compares a woman’s nipples poking out of her cleavage to soldiers sticking heads out of a trench. Yes, this is the real comparison in the book and it fucking cracked me up.

One thing I appreciate, however, is the fact that the narrative doesn’t shy away from describing gruesome injuries like traumatic amputations and sometimes the author does have the balls to permanently kill off an important character (said characters has a really gruesome death btw). I don’t mind blood and gore like this, but trigger warning just in case you’re more squeamish than me.

7. The Conclusion

All in all, instead of being a cool swashbuckling adventure, “Napoleon’s Pyramids” comes off as an Indiana Jones ripoff with clichés stacked onto one another like Jenga blocks, a cast of bland characters, mistakes that could be easily corrected by a few Internet searches and inconsistent writing.

Do I recommend it? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Please don’t waste your time on this novel.

Okay, with that said, it’s time to conclude today’s meeting of the Jacobin Fiction Convention.

Please stay tuned for updates on future reviews and stay safe.

Love,

Citizen Green Pixel

[dumelax]

shit I can write before the title uh, anyways

THE BIG TUMBLR ADVENTURE

wha happen

Jesus it's a story. I created this account... god I don't remember when Hold on, how do I check that OKAY I found an email from May 23rd, 2021 asking me to verify my email, so I guess I've been dormant for two years huh why did I join again I don't know why I joined. But I am HERE! And I actually know why I did. Twitter crashing down, so my good pal COOKIE (hello cookie 👋🏻) showed me this website, with the lot of awesome things you could do with it. Including writing walls of text! Which I LOVE to do! Anyone who knows me knows I do!

The step after that was kinda funny. See Cookie (wassup cookie ✌🏻) was nice enough to welcome me in a voice call to teach me the ins-and-outs of tumblr. I do not think either of us expected what followed. I definitely remembered having an account, but the first challenge was just about to rise: remembering my PASSWORD ⛈ (it was actually okay- I remember those). The most difficult part was actually entering it in the browser. For some reason Firefox does not like showing the part that comes after entering your email address. Trying to clear the cache and tweaking settings for half an hour, I finally decided to switch browsers, but then... THEN!

The cone of shame! And a bland background picture! These two were assigned to my profile. I tried to change them, but for some reason, tumblr wouldn't let me... Leading our investigation further in my account's settings, it appears my blog was flagged as “explicit” (reminder: I've been as useful and active as a rock for the past two years). Action had to be taken.

Much better, right? All it needed was aesthetic colours and definitely not suspicious looking titles. We actually had a lot of fun setting these. I tried to understand the basic features that Cookie (how r u cookie 🤟🏻) explained to me to the best of their ability as my account was very restrained, it took one email to user support and three weeks and VOILÀ! I'M FREE kind of a mistake but THANK YOU nonetheless tumblr support ❤

what now

oh my god I can select F.O.N.T.S. and play with sizes I mean you've probably seen it many times in many places already but MAN this is NEW to me And it feels really good too!! I've always loved to scribble and write down shit for no reason note: I'm scared to swear because of the recent flagging I've been a victim of 😨 (<- scared emoji) I have no idea what I'll write how long I'll write it if I'll write more?? You're witnessing the live production of my tumblr discovery

what's next?

I want to do many things I want to do... everything 😩 no but for real I think trying to find a nice layout for a first could be nice. Like a theme and all. Ideally something similar to what cookie (hey cookie 👉🏻) cooked, someday :3c I'm also gonna follow all the cool artists I saw around (like Sirope who's the one who drew my current profile pic she deserves your love (and your money)). Tumblr feels more like a place for friend with lots of MAYHEM! while I like to use Reddit for games and communities, and Twitter for a bit of both. I like making friends and following game accounts there, but for Tumblr I wonder if that would work... I guess I'll dig deeper and see for myself!

Right now, this is the start of a NEW ADVENTURE! ⛵ Until next time,

take care and drink some water