#I can feel the new hyperfixation drawing near | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

randomprose · 3 months ago

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missed calls and white cosmos

[ao3] - set during chapter 452 Guan Shan will never say it, because he’s a lot less brave than He Tian is, but he hopes He Tian knows he feels the same way.

Mo Guan Shan will be the first to admit that he tends to get absorbed in his work. He can’t help it. It’s a job that he actually enjoys, pays ridiculously really well, and lets him express his artistic side. Of course, he’d get bouts of hyperfixation.

He really didn’t mean to blow off He Tian and he really did intend to call when he’s done. It’s just that he got done late. Really late. And on a night when He Tian said he had some good news to share too.

‘Ah, shit,’ Mo Guan Shan thinks, sighing to himself. ‘He’s gonna throw a bitchfit. I just know it.’

10 missed calls and 20 messages though, really?

He doesn’t bother going through each of them now as he hurriedly dresses himself while trying to ring back He Tian.

“C’mon, chicken dick pick up,” Guan Shan mutters, cursing when he nearly busts his nose on the floor as he hastily changes out of his overalls and into his pants. “I know you know I’m calling, asshole. Fucking pick up already.”

‘sorry. late. where r u?’ he types with one hand as he shoves his feet into his sneakers.

“Fuck,” Guan Shan growls as he revs the engine of his scooter. In his head, he’s frantically thinking of a way to make it up to He Tian but he’s drawing up blank. In the years he’s known He Tian ignoring him is just about the worst thing you could do to him.

He passes by a flower shop and thinks about buying a bouquet but his skin is not thick enough to carry one around while he’s on his Vespa trying to find a stupidly unresponsive He Tian. He knows it’s probably the kind of gesture He Tian will be surprised at coming from him, would likely get him instantly forgiven for being late and not checking his phone just because He Tian is easy like that when it comes to him for some reason, but it seems so insincere and very obviously pandering and Mo Guan Shan does not do insincere or pandering, especially not with He Tian.

Instead, he stops by the road when he sees something that catches his eye. He plucks a single stem of white cosmos from the plotted plants on the sidewalk because it reminds him of He Tian. He tucks it in his pocket, careful not to squish it as he cruises the streets to find his no-doubt sulking boyfriend.

Blessedly, he finds him soon enough by the bridge near the restaurant they agreed to meet. He’s leaning on his parked car and even from the distance Guan Shan can feel his bad mood, can just imagine the pout on his face and the tantrum he’s gonna throw.

“Hey, there you are. How long have you been waiting? Have you eaten?” Guan Shan prods even though he already knows He Tian has been waiting for him for three hours and he likely hasn’t eaten because he’s always hated eating alone.

Silence. Mo Guan Shan tries a different tactic.

“You look pretty handsome in that suit.” The compliment comes easily to him because it’s the truth. He Tian really does look handsome in his suit which is why it makes Guan Shan all the more sorry and the guilt in his gut much heavier that he didn’t come to meet him sooner. “Say something. I really was busy.”

Mo Guan Shan has long shaken off the habit of ignoring He Tian. How could he when the man is so stubbornly persistent in making sure Mo Guan Shan’s thoughts are never devoid of him? Not for long anyway. And it’s not like Mo Guan Shan has ever had any success in keeping his thoughts free of He Tian either.

Yet right now He Tian is making a valiant attempt at ignoring him and Mo Guan Shan finds that he does not care for it. He does not care for it at all.

‘Fuck. He’s even giving me attitude.’ Mo Guan Shan can’t help it. He’s so irritated his hand comes up on its own to snatch at the cigarette dangling from He Tian’s lips because he knows for a fact he’ll hate it.

Except He Tian unexpectedly turns to him, thin eyebrows drawn down into a frown, eyes full of annoyance and a touch of anger.

‘Fuck me. This handsome face,’ Mo Guan Shan furiously thinks even as he appreciates the view. ‘I swear to god your stupidly handsome mug is gonna be the death of me one day. Fuck!’

“You…really forgot about me?” He Tian finally speaks and Mo Guan Shan blushes at the slight whine in his voice and the almost imperceptible pout on his lips even as the bastard blows smoke directly at his face.

Guan Shan coughs and pulls back as He Tian turns away from him again, still sulking. He digs into his pocket for his peace offering, wincing slightly when he sees that it’s wilted and bent in the bud but still offers it in all sincerity.

“He Tian…” Guan Shan holds the small flower up and it immediately catches He Tian’s eyes. “Don’t be mad…okay?”

The crease in He Tian’s brow vanishes and an arm reaches out to pull Guan Shan by the waist. Guan Shan easily goes, wanting to be close the moment he found He Tian. His hand fists at Guan Shan’s shirt as if he’ll disappear if he doesn’t hold tight so he wounds an arm around He Tian’s shoulder and leans down to plant a featherlight kiss on his temple, an apology and an assurance in a single gesture.

“Fine…” He Tian sighs, sagging against Mo Guan Shan in what feels like surrender. “It’s my fault I can’t live without you.”

Mo Guan Shan will never say it, because he’s a lot less brave than He Tian is, but he hopes He Tian knows he feels the same way.

#19 days #tianshan #he tian #mo guan shan #writing #according to google white cosmos flowers symbolize purity and faithfulness in romantic love #ch 452 was mwah chef's kiss 10/10

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my-autism-adhd-blog · 1 year ago

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i have autism and adhd, and have recently been going through what i assume is burnout. i attribute it to work, i work 9-6 five days a week, and it's honestly become exhausting having to constantly mask and present normal.

i'm mainly worried because i haven't had a new special interest in a while. my old ones, present for years, seem almost muted. i haven't had anything to hyperfixate over in such a long time, and the newest special interest i had (sharks) has felt faint almost the entire time. it's awful because i miss the love i felt for these special interests, they were so integral to me and as a result i feel like my sense of self is weaker.

is this normal? and do you have any tips on recovering from autistic burnout? thank you!!

Hi there,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re going through burnout. There’s a Recovery Plan that one of my favorite websites, Neurodivergent Insights, posted. Here are some Infographs. As well as some templates on how to build a recovery plan:

The link to this article will be below. I hope you find it helpful.

There’s also another article from Psych Central that gives some tips on Recovery:

How can you recover from autistic burnout?

Autistic burnout may feel confusing and overwhelming, but recovery is possible.

1. Remove obligations

It’s time to get a little ruthless with your schedule and commitments. If something isn’t 100% necessary, take it off your calendar for the near future.

Your new goal is to try to find as much downtime as you can, with fewer extracurriculars, work projects, and social events.

2. Participate in soothing activities

The idea is to participate in more hobbies that you enjoy, or those that promote a sense of relaxation — the things you might normally brush aside in your busy schedule.

You may find it recharging to:

spend time in nature

practice a calming visualization

exercise

draw

listen to music

journal

stretch

sit in silence with someone you love

Sensory interventions

“These can include compression, sitting in a dark closet specially outfitted for sensory bliss (pillows, quiet, dark), favorite smells, or textures,” Bédard says.

Noise-canceling headphones may also help you feel more grounded.

3. If you can’t sleep, rest

Autism can sometimes make sleep a challenge. Even if you’re not feeling tired, try to spend at least 8 hours a night in bed.

During this time, try to avoid watching the news or scrolling on social media. Instead, curl up with one of your favorite books or movies.

4. Practice self-compassion

“Try to be as gentle with yourself as possible,” O’Conner says. “If there are some things you can’t do, or have to say ‘no’ to right now, that’s OK.”

This article will also be below if you’d like to read through it.

Since you like sharks, I’ll also leave an article talking about ten facts about them. :)

I hope this helps you. I’m unemployed, so I don’t have the experience of working or the workplace in general.

Thank you for the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ❤️

#inbox #inbox reply #inbox is open #send anon some cool facts about sharks if you can/want :)

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szilverer · 24 days ago

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hewwo

made this blog primarily to dump oc content & maaaybe liveblog a bit! (its my first time engaging in a fandom space like this so im pretty lost, do lemme know if i mess up with tagging or etiquette or smth. more about me here.)

my FL acc is from 2016 but i only really started playing this august! ive finished my ambition now but theres still a lot i dont know about the lore n stuff. IGN is Hreisz, feel free to send a CC or even just random in-character letters & menace help reqs.

im always open to asks/interactions here as well, just keep in mind i might take A While to respond as i am but an hermit with the barest of executive functions

trying to use this hyperfixation to practice digital art so there'll be random experimental doodles here as i try to find out wtf i am doing. everytime i open a canvas its a surprise. youve been warned

tags:

#chaindoodles -> art tag, #chainrambles -> text tag

#the twilight phantom -> the blorbo

#nightmarriage -> my blorbo hoards trash. block this to be spared from witnessing their latest questionable decision

content warning tags:

#light fingers spoilers

#suggestive in case i draw (or write?) smth that can be perceived as saucy, spicy, horn knee, overtly kinky or implied nsfw. there wont be anything Actually explicit here though

i like #blood and injuring my characters both mentally and physically. so uh. that. possibly violence.?

#poor edward

So who's this "Twilight Phantom"?

nearly everything about H_______ Reisz is dictated by my actions playing FL, so they're developing in real time. been lots of fun to see this clean slate (and i mean clean - i knew nothing about the setting, the lore, or who they were, so naturally, this guy didn't either) get shaped by the narrative And my mechanical wiki-fueled decisions.

ill make a better, dedicated post eventually but for now have a vague intro + some refs under the cut:

The first thing you notice about them is the cowl lazily draped around their head and shoulders, swaying behind their back like a cape in the colours of sunrise-- or, perhaps most familiarly, the velvety twilight that the newest star every so often provides to London. The second thing is the deep scars covering one side of their face, and the third thing would probably be the heavy eyebags under their sharp, dark eyes.

A relatively freshly-minted Silverer, H. Reisz spends more time in Parabola than London nowadays. Not that they had been in London for too long anyway, and it's not like anyone knows where they were before that either. The surface, yes, but it's a big world out there, right? They don't actually remember seeing the sun, or the sky, but H cannot deny the soft colours of twilight and sunrise have a special place in their heart. They recognise it without the memory of experiencing it, just like they recognised love in the depths of a certain Labyrinth. Hmm, two Labyrinths, actually. There was that one heiress too... and the Orphanage was inside one hell of a maze too... if they had a coin every time they found themself inside labyrinths, they'd... Uh, where were we? Well, anyway, being a new face, they had nothing to be known for so they simply gave out their surname instead. Or well, what they assumed to be their surname. "H. REISZ" were the letters sewn-in on a diminute corner of the tattered black veil that wrapped their head back when they woke up for the "first" time. They were surrounded by near-empty bottles of dried mouldy honey, absinthe, and who knows what else. Ah, the decadence... they couldn't even remember what honey could do at the time but they could recognise the stench of self-destruction right away, haha. Alas, if things were so bad they got to that point-- maybe this explains why moving on was so easy. Maybe they had somehow lobotomized themself on purpose. Who knows? They sure don't. It was only now, a year or so after waking up, that an epithet has started to stick around-- specifically by their actions as a Silverer and the services they provided. From nightmare-slaying to fishing out vestigial memories (the irony of an amnesiac doing this is not lost on them) to guiding and safeguarding lost dreamers, their glimmering signature cowl and the way it flowed rather phantasmagorically in Parabola started to leave an impression. To many dreamers, seeing a hint of pastel twilight colors signaled safety. It signaled someone you could trust to get inside your head. :)

#intro post #am i doing this right. idk.#fallen london ocs #the twilight phantom #chainrambles #chaindoodles #might post the drawings separately some other day #yes the hoe halloween costume has surprise lore LOL theyre literally just a friendly (winks) ghostie

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amphiptere-art · 9 months ago

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I just want to apologize to the general following. Whether you are a mutual or follower. ADHD sporadic hyperfocus is a lovely goddamn thing.

So yes, I technically stopped watching Tsams for my own health. And although I said I wasn't leaving the fandom. Without the daily uploads to keep my brain on it. It unfortunately fades.

For your little knowledge. I have something called hyperfixation. Where I will focus on a little thing a lot. This combined with my lovely ADHD. Means that that hyperfocus shifts near constantly. Without something to keep me grounded to a specific topic. There is a very high likelihood that I will move on to the next one.

Which is unfortunately happening.

The silky star cluster is still on my brain. But a lot of my other AUs aren't. A combined fact of just people not having anything to ask about them, and me not being able to come up with scenarios. Which is unfortunately causing my brain to try and latch on with anything that it can define as current and fun. This is unfortunately hurting my focus on the sulky star cluster.

If perhaps I had more of my ask blogs getting stuff, or even just a general bigger audience on the silky star cluster. Perhaps I could focus on it better. But as of right now. Well. It's not there.

What is on the forefront of my mind is Dim. Hollow Knight, And perhaps iron lung and alien worlds. Only one of these is connected to the FNAF fandom. And none of them are connected to tsams.

I am desperately attempting to focus back on Tsams. But with no roleplay asks to answer, and no role plays of my own to ask. There is nothing but the sulky star cluster keeping me attached. Which is unfortunately not a lot.

It's 4 grumpy eclipses and a single bear grumping around. There isn't really a story or narrative. It's a collection of snippets. There's a reason I don't talk about it outside of roleplay or ask scenarios. Because it's literally just a collection of scenarios.

I don't want to lose this fandom. I still love the fandom. But I cannot deny that I am fighting my instincts to just try and hold on. My sporadic hyperfocus just isn't working with me. There's no new or fun scenarios to think of. There's no responses to complete, and the sulky star cluster is only being really entertained by one person. Plus the burnout is high with the sulky star cluster. Talking for five characters that ramble?? I can only get through like maybe one or five asks before I just want to sit down and stop thinking about it. Plus the fact that I'm trying to force myself to draw and slow down.

I'm trying my guys. I am trying so hard to focus on what all of you are entertained by. That Tsams community. But I'm struggling all right.

In a desperate attempt I'm going to try and latch on to Dim and DCA centered AUs and characters. It's not exactly Tsams, But it's probably the closest I'm going to get. Characters like Blue Moon and runaway Eclipse Of course interact with these characters on The daily. That's the whole point of the RBB adventures of the cube. It's a place where you can ask those characters while still interacting on a level with Tsams. But no one's put asks into those in months. And I feel like asking for asks is intrusive.

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nami-moittli · 2 months ago

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I’ve been very hyperfixated on JoJo’s for awhile now, and oh my god, @starry-blue-echoes ‘s AUs have been like finding water in a desert lol

As such, I’ve done some fan art for one of my favorite AUs of theirs, Star Swap! I was originally going to post it once I finished all of the JoJos, but I wanted to put this out there since I’m done with these three for now. Hopefully I can get the rest done soon!

This was fun because not only do I have to figure out how I want to draw Giorno, Jolyne and Josuke, I have to figure out how to draw Joseph, Jonathan and Jotaro, as them! I’m having a lot of fun so far though

Giorno Giovanna Joseph Joestar

First off, I wanted him to have a playful expression on his face, one Giorno wouldn’t be caught dead making lol (at least, not until after years and years of therapy lol-) So Joseph has a big ol’ grin on his face!

I also don’t think that he’d have any fucking clue on how to do Giorno’s hair donuts. He tried, he really did! He just wasn’t strong enough. And I am pretty sure I just stole the ladybug hair clip from this one Haruno Higashikata AU I’ve seen, but it’s also there because of the fact that Joseph’s been buying Giorno a bunch of little presents like said hair clip, and he just so happens to be wearing one of them for himself right now

Another person when drawing for this AU gave them all their original eye colors instead of the eye colors of the body they’re in currently, so I decided to do that too! I do think that most likely in universe the eyes don’t change color, simply because people would probably notice, (tho it is jojo so who knows lol) but it’s still a fun detail! Eyes are the window to the soul, after all, right?

Finally, this is more of a Giorno head canon, but I think due to having a vampire dad he’d probably be on the paler side, and his, idk? Shading color? For his skin, I can’t think of a better word lol, is more of a purple-ish cool tone to add onto this! I know that in canon Giorno doesn’t have any real vampiric features, but I do wonder how Giorno and Joseph would feel being in each other’s bodies due to this. Just, “hm. I feel colder/warmer than usual. Weird.” I also think that Giorno’s the slimmest of the JoJos, but I accidentally made that honor go to Josuke lol

Jolyne Cujoh Jonathan Joestar

I barely have any idea on how Jolyne’s hair works, which means Jona definitely has no clue on how to do his new hair lol. He definitely got some help from Ermes in order to braid his hair. The bangs also look more like how Jona’s does compared to actual Jolyne.

He has a small smile, because he’s very uncomfortable in a woman’s body, though I don’t think I went as fully into “uncomfortable” territory as I could have though. Also I don’t think he’d wear any lipstick like Jolyne. I played with the idea of giving him some lip gloss at least, but even that seemed a little too much.

For a final Jolyne headcanon, I think that due to being from Florida she has a bit of a tan going on. You can even see some tan lines near her clothes! Poor Jonathan, having to be a man from the 1880s stuck in a woman’s body-

Josuke Higashikata Jotaro Kujo

I feel like I remember it once being mentioned that Jotaro would wear his hair in a bun of some kind, so, he has it up in a loose bun kind of style! It’s particularly based on how I think Josuke’s hair would look while down. I think that he actually has some pretty long hair while down lol

4taro gave Josuke!Jotaro some charms that he switched out for Josuke’s normal pins. He’s also wearing his jacket fully open, instead of just the little bit at the top

I think I accidentally made it look like Jotaro has some sort of white lipstick on his upper lip, but it’s actually supposed to be a sort of frowning face lol. It’s just that he’s got that signature part for lower lip lol

That’s all for now! Idk if you’ll even see this, but I wanted to put it out there for now! Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the rest soon!

#jjba #jjba fanart #jjba au #my art #jonathan joestar #jolyne cujoh #jolyne kujo #giorno giovanna #joseph joestar #josuke higashikata #jotaro kujo #jojo bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo fanart

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imsoquarky · 1 year ago

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Making design notes is one of my favorite things ever. I don't know why but making a list of them brings me so much joy.

I made one for MK awhile back and I'm getting the itch to do some for my own original characters. Sure my ocs do have set designs, but writing them down feels good.

Anyways. If you've never written a list of design notes, highly recommend. They don't have to be in-depth but here's some I wrote for a post-s4 MK design I haven't made yet

(Below the cut just to make sure I don't flood y'all's page or whatever)

Bodily Changes:

- Spread vitiligo to reflect new monkey markings (Dot on each upper cheek, patch covering the bottom lip to chin)

- Mullet hair

- Sideburns now reach lower and there is now sparse facial hair on his chin alongside the facial hair that was already on the edges of his jaw

-Fur covering his arms and back

- Striped gradient monkey tail

- Forehead scar running from hairline to a little below his eyebrows

- Fangsssss (Not as prominent as SWK or Macaque, more like Pigsy or Sandy's)

Wardrobe Changes:

- Sleeveless blue hoodie with one big white stripe and one small one

- Yellow Monkey King themed leather jacket (usually sensory hell, but he's got furry arms now)

- Still has the baggy, red cargo pants, but add on the overall straps that aren't being used like they should. Just decoration

- Cargo pants also have a tail hole now

- Headband is stitched up down the center, got damaged in the fight with Azure.

- Now wears sandals and goes barefoot during training

Other changes:

- His ears can twitch now, tho they still appear human. Hearing is also more sensitive, but not anything like Wukong and obviously nowhere near Macaque's

- Nose is also more sensitive, again, not quite like Wukong or Mac

- Is actually a bit faster than Wukong now, though SWK still far surpasses him in sheer strength and stamina

- Deals with migraines and meltdowns more often due to the higher senses and after effects of fucking HEADBUTTING A SWORD

- Still has human feet, but they're slightly bigger and he's more in control of their movement and can pretty reliably pick stuff up. This makes close-toed shoes very uncomfortable now

A few extra MK hcs that aren't listed here and didn't really change:

Transgender FtM (He/Him)

AuDHD

Pansexual

(All subject to changes or additions as I see fit)

Tbh, if enough people find this interesting I'll do them for all the characters. Even ones I may never draw, like Sandy (I LOVE him, but he's such an intimidating character to draw, muscles are strange and I still struggle with drawing my Red Son design.)

I'll also do non LMK characters, from basically any of my fandoms. These are so fun to me. It's my happiest form of feeding my hyperfixations when Im dealing with art block or just a lack of time.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #lego monkie kid mk #lmk mk #qi xiaotian #lmk qi xiaotian #clem's rambles

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theoldaeroplane · 1 year ago

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Intercessor

Behold, a hyperfixation-fueled day-in-the-life of my new Apocalypse World character! His name is Fray and he definitely isn't 85% just BotW Link. This was written mostly for my GM and fellow party members, so the brief rundown is that we're in an eternal magic winter, surviving in pockets of tolerable cold, with steampunk/Victorian-esque tech.

4.3k, no content warnings. I put his character sheet under the cut at the bottom as a bonus :)

---

“Fray! Saint Fray!”

Hold on.

Saint?

Fray’s not sure when that started happening.

He’s heard hero and gallant and even champion—all of them kind of feel like too much—but saint is new. Sainthood seems really excessive.

He was not consulted on this. But then, he never is.

Fray stops in his tracks, peering over a heavily-obscured shoulder to see who’s calling. His new scarf, all wool and possum fur, feels like sitting in a sauna, but it’s terribly bulky, especially with his pack in the mix. It might be too big. He doesn’t cut an impressive figure in it. But then, he never does.

Behind him, squeezing between frozen-over remains of archaic vehicles in the narrow alleyway with all the grace of a puppy, comes—ah. Of course.

Andrei.

Fray turns, eyebrows cocked as Andrei halts his bulk bare inches in front of him. Fray is short, but Andrei’s ridiculous. Six and a half feet, top-heavy, all muscle he’s never done a thing to earn as far as Fray can tell. Deep pockets and a deeper voice. Sort of cute with his gold hair and dimples, but not Fray’s type. Still, he’s nice enough. If nothing else he’s bought his way into Fray’s good graces with beer after beer at the Manufacturing. “You’re so fast,” Andrei complains, leaning on his knees. “Gimme a second.”

So: Fray shoves his hands in his pockets and thinks through his agenda. He’s not in a rush. The tailor’s doesn’t close for hours yet. The yotes that have apparently found a way to worm their frozen bodies under the wardings and onto the Merchants’ land won’t come out until the shifts change. He’ll work dinner into the middle somewhere. He’s got time for whatever this is.

There’s another thing about Andrei that Fray likes. When Fray tugs off his top pair of mittens to free the thin-gloved fingers underneath and signs S-A-I-N-T?, he can see Andrei focus on his hands, lips jutting out in his concentration. Andrei is nowhere near fluent, probably will never be, but being able to sort-of read what feels like Fray’s first language goes a long way in endearing Andrei to him.

“Um,” Andrei says. “Are you not? That’s what they’re calling you.”

Fray squints at him. Signs: T-H-E-Y?

“The Children?”

It always takes Fray a moment to realize people usually say Children with a capital “C” around here. His face twists up in a grimace, and he shakes his head no emphatically. W-H-Y?

“Don’t know,” Andrei says, guileless as always. “I won’t say it no more, if you like.” At Fray’s resigned, bewildered shrug, he goes on, “Well, but, I’m glad I caught you!” With this he claps a huge hand on Fray’s shoulder, the blow barely cushioned by the thick layers of wool. Fray staggers instantly, unprepared knees almost buckling. Andrei yelps and helps him regain his feet. “Sorry! Sorry! Here, this is it, this is all, look, my sister got these and I thought to myself, you know who’d love that? Fray, that’s who! Lucky thing we crossed paths!”

The thing he shoves in Fray’s face smells like heaven. He starts salivating like a damn dog. It locks Fray in place momentarily, trying to piece together where he knows it from. What it reminds him of. It’s there somewhere, on the edge of things, but—

“It’s doughnuts,” Andrei tells him, conspiratorial. “Like at the market that time. You know?”

Fray remembers. A wagon on the merchant circuit pulled by four aurochs. The overpowering smell of fried dough drawing him nearly straight from his house. Standing in line for thirty minutes when Andrei pulled him in. Finally being handed the paper bag, translucent with oil and steaming hot, and looking into it to see not just the miniature doughnuts, but for the first time he can remember in—a long time—sugar.

It had been physically painful for him to keep himself from cramming the whole thing into his mouth. Instead he forced himself to savor it. That had almost been worse, it turned out, because now his memory of it was such that he does not think anything will ever near its equal.

Andrei had said they were pretty good doughnuts.

Fray stares at the oil-soaked paper that Andrei holds level with his eyes, and before he can quite stop himself he looks from bag to man with naked want on his face. He points at himself with a disbelief that is exaggerated both to be clear enough for Andrei to pick up on, and as a show of his genuine surprise and delight. He probably does look like a dog, waiting for a treat. That’s fine. Fray knows what he is about.

Andrei, generous enough to overlook how Fray is practically vibrating, pushes the bag into his hands with a lopsided grin. “You bet! I remembered how much you liked them—oh, no, no,” he cuts himself off when he sees Fray pull out his wallet. “It’s a gift!”

Fray looks at the bag again, to Andrei again, to the bag once more. He gets it settled in his off-hand so he can use the other. W-H-Y?

“Well, because we’re friends, twerp,” Andrei says with the kind of smile that Fray can only read as knew you’d say that. Because this has happened before.

Because Fray kind of doesn’t … do friends.

Not on purpose. He’d rather if he did have friends. It just seems like it never quite sticks. It’s not unusual for him to be hailed in the street by someone grateful for some favor or other he’s gone and done for them months ago, something he’s already forgotten. But those aren’t friends. Or at least, he’s pretty sure they aren’t. Lots of people ask him for favors after what happened.

There just seems to be something about him that keeps people from wanting to stay too long.

Except Andrei, apparently.

Fray pulls the bag closer to his chest and lets the fried smell warm him inside and out. He works his face into something he hopes looks appropriately sheepish. “Thanks,” he signs, because he’s pretty sure Andrei knows that one. (He does, by the way he beams.) Fray adds, afterwards, F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E.

“Hell, Fray, you’re my favorite too,” Andrei says with amusement. Before Fray can correct him—tell him he meant the doughnuts—Andrei straightens and sticks his hands into his armpits against the cold. “Hoo! Bad as witch piss out here. I’ve got to be getting. See you at Manufacturing tomorrow night? I hear there’s going to new music!”

Fray nods, giving up on the favorite comment. Sure, Andrei might as well be his favorite person. He likes him well enough. It’s not like there’s anyone else, not really. The thought stings a little more than it used to.

---

He doesn’t get swarmed just trying to cross the dome anymore, at least. That had been a problem last year. Far Haven has a scant few hundred souls to its name, and Fray is sure every single one of them has talked to him at one point or another by now. It drove him into hiding for a while, nerves shot with so much attention. The flocks of opinionated strangers only died off with time, as memories and emotions faded and what he’d done drifted out of the city’s mind.

Saving the lives of every one of those few hundred souls takes some time to drift.

These days he’ll only get a few hangers-ons, most of them children who want to see the sword. The children do not get to see the sword. Fray tries to prevent anyone from seeing the sword in general. This has never deterred them, and he cannot bring himself to frighten off kids. It’s not uncommon to see Fray making his steadfast way through snow and slush with three or four ragamuffins tailing him, telling each other stories of the thing their parents say he did. Fray never confirms (or denies) anything.

That’s happening now, as a matter of fact.

“I heard you’s killed the thieves dead!” says a gap-toothed girl at least ten years younger than him, but nearly as tall. She reminds him of someone, he thinks as he eats the doughnuts. He wonders who. “I heard there was forty of ’em!”

“Nuh-uh! It was three! But they were big and scary and frostbitted!” This from a blond-haired boy with huge glasses and a mouth entombed by a scarf.

“You jokers gotta get your stories straight,” says that absolute goblin of a red-head girl with the false arm. Her voice is like a vulture croaking. “Short stuff, hey! Mr. Hero! You were there, weren’tcha? Cough up the details!”

She’s all but dog-piled by the other two. “Mr. Fray can’t talk!” protests the boy. “Because he got hit in the throat by the frostbitted!”

“Horseshit, I see him talk. Came saw my dad about maps and shit last week, didn’t he? He talks. Not a lot, maybe. You guys think he’s too stupid to say much or just stuck-up?”

“Definitely stupid,” says Fray in the painful scrape of his rusted-over voice, loud enough to catch all three of them off guard. There’s a shocked silence until he looks back at them and winks, and then giggles send up after him like a train of bubbles.

They peel off when he’s about a block from the tailor’s. Just as well. Fray pauses in the dark overhang of the tailor’s doorstep to pull his scarf down and palm his throat. The heat from his hand does little against the stain of discolored skin, blanched pale and blue against his dusky skin. It bleeds down his neck like a port-wine stain, a slashed jugular bleeding ice.

Fray thinks he is maybe supposed to be dead, with the way that ice-white blemish hugs his neck. The skin is cold and hard, and it glitters at him whenever he looks at it in the mirror, like crusted snow.

Well. Nothing to be done. Fray fixes his scarf and pushes his way into the relative heat of the tailor’s.

Warm air licks at his face. He sighs in relief, stopping for a moment to relish it as it caresses his ears and cheeks. The shuffle of fabric and leather draws him out of his reverie for but a moment, long enough to cast a glance toward where Elle’s apprentice sticks her head out from the back. “Oh! Mr. Fray! Got more?”

Fray gives her an apologetic nod, unshouldering his pack to pull it open. From within he produces no less than five shirts, all of them damaged in exactly the same place and exactly the same way. Each one is black—he learned that lesson a long time ago, not to wear anything but black against his skin—and each one has perfectly round holes burned into the same spot on the forearms. They’re as big as eggs, two on each arm. One of the shirts has similar burned holes in a long row down the spine, all identical and evenly spaced. Elle’s apprentice looks the garments over and tuts. “There won’t be much of these left to repair at this rate, you know,” she scolds. “One day I’m going to refuse you until you at least tell me how you keep getting them.”

Fray nods and has the decency to look embarrassed.

She scoots him out posthaste, telling him to return in two days. He should really learn how to repair his own clothes. It’d be a way to pass the time if nothing else. And to avoid awkward questions.

That’s all Fray has in front of him for the rest of the day: passing the time. He meanders. He picks up and loses more trails of children, none of whom get to see the sword. He finds lunch in the form of beaver steak and turnips at that place that has a jester on its sign. He pings back and forth slowly between shop after shop, recognized at each one, buying nothing.

Mostly he thinks, stopping at a mirror in one store to surreptitiously peek beneath his scarf again: this frost thing would have looked cooler if it had gone over my heart.

Because Fray’s kind of … done everything around here. A couple times. Often with encouragement and enabling from strangers who see his bright eyes and dull hair and go oh! Fray! Come in! He’s done everything, including worry about the cold-dead magic stuck to his throat, but nothing’s changed. Now he just thinks it’s ironic he got a neck wound only after his voice skedaddled.

If the frost-rot weapon had connected with his heart instead of his neck, Fray muses, he would probably be dead. That seems like a more vulnerable part of him. Which—that might have been interesting, to see what happened if he died. But that would come at the cost of him probably not being alive anymore.

Which itself probably hinges on whether or not he counts as alive.

He gets a snack as he makes for the Merchants’ territory. The doughnuts are gone. The sausages he buys aren’t nearly as good as he wants them to be. He’s nearly out of the market when he’s waylaid by a tall, dark woman with wide eyes, the most visible thing in her bundled-up face. “Aren’t you the one who saved the city?” she says, breathless. “From that break-in?”

This is one of those questions where the answer makes him feel like a jackass, no matter how factual it is. But he nods anyway, meekly. The vibes on this woman aren’t great. He’s not sure how much he wants to admit to her.

Her wide eyes go wider, until Fray thinks they might eclipse the rest of her face. “Saint,” she breathes, all awe and devotion. Fray almost cringes. “The Children are with you.”

He doesn’t know how to react until he remembers to capitalize that “C”. Oh. One of them. One of those cuckoos that worships the arcane frost that sits outside their little dome waiting to kill anyone it can. Fray gives her a weak smile and hopes it’s not very encouraging. “I would walk with you, Saint,” the woman says, catching up his left hand as she slips to his side. “Allow me to feel your presence.”

Oh, son of a bitch.

There are people you do not want to piss off, and those people are the Children of the Frost. They’re a religion? Cult? Club? Something. They’re fans of the cold nightmare outside this pocket of survivability. Really into Frostbitten, he thinks. Most of them seem a little moonblinked. Unfortunately for him and everyone else, they’ve wormed their way into the council seats. They run half of Far Haven.

She starts walking before Fray can pull back, and as she is nearly as tall as Andrei, she does a marvelous job of pulling Fray along like one of those toy ducks on wheels. She’s power walking, even. They’re still headed where he needs to go, to the outer bounds of the dome, but there are fewer and fewer people here as witnesses. Fray does not love that. Fray’s of the belief that the Children need babysitters.

There’s just one person left in sight when Fray finally locks his knees and digs his heels in. He pulls his hand away and the woman rounds on him with alarming speed. “Something the matter?” she asks sweetly, looming.

Fray puts his hands up and shakes his head, then throws a thumb over his shoulder. I need to go that way. He could get to the Merchants’ from here, yes, but he could get there from a couple streets over, too, and those streets have lights. And people. It’s not that he feels in danger—Fray very rarely feels like he’s in danger from anything—but something about this is making his skin crawl.

The woman watches him with eyes that seem much too large for her skull. “Oh, of course,” she says, as if in a daze. “But, brother in the snow, would you grant me one favor?”

Well. He’s the favor guy. It would probably not go over well if he turned down what is evidently such a big fan. He makes a point of not actually nodding, but he does pause and wait to hear her request.

The woman says, “May I see it?” Her voice trembles. “Your kiss?”

Fray mouths the words what the fuck? before he can stop himself.

“Your mark?” the woman tries again, grabbing the plush fabric of his coat when he tries to back away. “The gift the frost left you. Grant me this, let me gaze upon it, Saint Fray of the Frost.”

Before he can think better of it Fray pulls her hands off with a firm grasp, and squares his shoulders before he shakes his head. To emphasize his point he crosses his arms in front of him, the universal gesture for no. No on several levels. No on the levels of stop-calling-me-that and who-the-fuck-are-you-anyway. (And perhaps most importantly, no-one-gets-to-see-that.)

“I understand,” the woman says after a long pause. She sounds a million miles away. Her hand lifts again, drawn toward his scarf as if it was magnetized. “At least then allow me to fix your wardrobe.” Her fingertips brush the very edge of the scarf. The hair on the back of Fray’s neck prickles and shivers, and that’s his signal to leave.

By rights he should have been out of there before she could manage anything. He would have been, except his foot slips on the iced-over cobbles when he tries to retreat. The woman’s fingers sink into his scarf and it tears away in her hand as he pratfalls hard. The cold air strikes like a serpent at his exposed throat, and he swears he actually sees the glitter under his own chin as the uncloaked moon falls upon him.

The woman is agape. She falls to her knees in fervent prayer. Fray wonders if all the Children are actually fucking insane, or if he lucked out. For now he snatches back his scarf and sprints back up the road. Not as fast as he can go, nowhere near, but more than enough to put a few blocks between himself and the Child. He weaves through a few other snow-crushed buildings and through the edge of the red-light district just to be sure he’s not followed.

God. That probably won’t lead to anything good. But there’s nothing to be done about it now.

Fray shakes himself and sighs and politely waves off the folk pulling double shifts on the world’s oldest profession. He tugs the scarf tighter against his neck. There’s nothing for him here, either, not until he figures this frostrot thing out.

---

It’s dark, the borders of the pasture empty of lights or people. The yotes shine dull white, glossed with blue icicles melting off their fur outside the embrace of the permafrost. They snarl and yap at him with eyes as pale and empty as the moon. He is between them and the Merchants’ wool flock. If these creatures get loose among the merinos, not only will Fray not get paid, but will probably not go a week before someone tries to assassinate him. The goodwill he’s won does not, he suspect, apply to the pragmatic Merchants.

And then he’d have to kill the assassin, and it would just be messy and he doesn’t want to piss off the Merchants.

But he’s not worried about that.

They’re not enormous, the yotes, but their skinny bodies are lithe and fast and hard to predict. There’s six of them. They have claws and superior weight. They have greater numbers. They have those ice-bound teeth that shatter into frostrot the moment they hit blood.

Fray has the sword.

The yotes mouth at each other, excited and riled. Only two of them seem to stop long enough to notice that Fray has set his arms before him as if he held a shield and a blade. For a moment he looks idiotic. In the next, he looks inhuman.

The shield ripples out of nothing across his arm, held there only with the humming of the gold-tinted implants set into his flesh. The air fills with the smell of singed cotton, the superheated elements too much for the fabric to resist. In his opposite hand the implant on his wrist makes a dull thrum, and suddenly the pretend sword in his fingers is not pretend at all. It is, instead (as Fray thought the first time he saw it), a fucking knight’s broadsword. The blade is made of light, and it sits easy in his practiced hand. Both armaments glow and roil like molten gold, not adorned with any boss but a constantly shifting pattern of faint hexagons. He knows from experience it’s not just them: his eyes are lit up, too, glowing gold, those hexagons mirrored by his pupils. Fray checks his grip on the sword, raises the shield, and charges.

There would be no point in detailing the fight. It lasts around seventeen seconds.

The yotes on the ground, now mostly divested from their heads or guts, lay still. Fray approaches one, ever on guard, and nudges its crazed face with the flat of the blade. It’s already dissolving into that sludgy, slushy substance so many frost-touched creatures return to if they perish outside their domain. It’s gross. He wipes the blade off on the clean snow to its side, despite not needing too, and then the blade dissolves from sight. The shield follows, and not long after the dull hum of the implants dies down and goes back to matching his heartbeat. (He hopes it’s a heart he’s got in there.)

Well. That’s his job finished, then. Nothing more to be done here.

Fray stands there for a long time, watching the corrupted bodies melt into the snow.

---

It’s not that the drop in his mood is unexpected so much as Fray doesn’t know how to mitigate it. Right now, curled on the nest of blankets he calls a bed, he feels like he’s in free-fall and he does not know why. It’s always worse if it’s a culling job like this one. He’s developed a sick kind of sympathy for the creatures he cuts down. They aren’t normal animals. Most of them were once, a pack of wolves, a flock of ravens, things the frost struck down before reshaping into its own kind of native inhabitant. They don’t eat. They don’t even kill, some of them. They just carry the frost with them, trying to bring it into the places the Chasm has not yet fully swallowed. There’s no understanding in their white marble eyes. They don’t know what they’re doing.

Fray tries to remember how he got here, to Far Haven. He’d been journeying, he thinks. He’d just done something he was grimly, blackly satisfied with. He could feel the stain of its gratification on his soul. He has no idea what it was, but he thinks he knew once, and he knows it was—

… he knows it was worth what he had to sacrifice. It has to have been.

Only, he wishes he knew which part of him had been used to pay for it. His voice? His memory? The flesh that had been excised from his arms and the golden implants set in their place? All of it, or a combination?

Does it matter?

No, is the answer he arrives on again, trying to sink further into the warmth of his bed. It doesn’t. He’s here now, he’s helping people, he’s doing what it feels like he’s supposed to be doing. That should be enough.

In his dream, Fray is again in the underground chamber that keeps the entire city warm enough to survive. The implants’ roar as they form the golden sword shakes him down to his teeth. The thieves are very annoyed that he’s here. In front of him they argue about who betrayed their plan to extract the generator’s heart and let Far Haven freeze to death, a few hundred miserable lives less valuable than their payout will be. Fray does nothing but keep an eye on the young woman that’s accompanied them, the one who looks fraught and sick with guilt. She barely looks past girlhood.

They fight. It gives him more trouble than it feels like it should. After one of the men shoves a strange gauntlet against his throat and squeezes, after the glittering death of frostrot embeds itself in his neck—after Fray cuts him down and rushes to recover the ancient battery and shove it back into the squealing generator—he remembers the girl.

He finds her clinging to the edge of the magic runoff and its mile-long drop into a red-tinted black, her arms bloody and slipping against the steep concrete. I’m sorry, she wails as he runs to her, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to do this, please help me, please, please. I won’t tell anyone what you are.

He stops in the middle of reaching for her hand, startled stiff by her last words. Just for a moment. Just long enough that when her weakening arms seize and fail her, his dive to grab her is just that little bit too late.

She falls, and Fray watches in horror. In his dream, he can see her panicked face right until the very end. When she hits the ground impact shocks him awake, and he staggers off to the washroom to vomit up greasy doughnut batter and undigested sausages. In the mirror, the inert embrace of the arcane frost—the kiss of death—glitters in the candlelight, clutching his throat like a lover. The implants start to hum as his heart speeds up.

Fray wishes he knew her name. He wishes she could have told him what he is.

But there’s nothing to be done about that now.

---

Thank you for reading!!! as promised, Fray's character sheet. We're playing a hack of AW called Burned Over, and I'm playing a class called The Weaponized, which is what led to me calling Fray "RoboCop Link" until I settled on his name.

#saint fray #corgiwrites!#apocalypse world #northern echoes #writing

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variousgreyhoundsinatrenchcoat · 9 months ago

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Introposting

Hi all, I finally got the courage to join Tumblr. I’m vaguely aware of the mechanics/feel of the site after a few days of using it and years of seeing it on Pinterest reposts, but still not entirely sure how to operate here yet. Apologies I have randomly liked/followed with no explanation, I am a real person, I promise (or at least, it brings us all comfort to think I am).

You can call me Cassian/Cryo. I love writing stuff, and I imagine this being a very writing-heavy blog, for the most part. I’m still awaiting my AO3 invite, so it’ll be at least a few days until I can post any actual works, unfortunately. I also enjoy messing around in Photoshop a lot. Once in a blue moon, I may even draw something. Highly unlikely I have been in pretty much constant burnout since middle school, but it happens sometimes.

Ted Lasso is my hyperfixation (autism) at the moment, hence, the username. Trent Crimm is my favorite individual and occupies way too much of my brainpower at the moment, so he will probably make up a good portion of the stuff I post/reblog in the near future. I don’t consume new media all that often because it takes a lot of emotional energy, so I probably won’t post about much else besides Ted Lasso for a good while. I will probably make a whole separate blog if I do decide to post regularly about anything else because that’s the type of person I am.

#i do not know how to tag how does this work #ok there it goes you gotta press enter #🥳🎊🎊🥳🎊🎊🎈🎈🎉🎉#ted lasso #writeblr #i have no idea if i was supposed to add either of these tags i am new so sorry if not. please ignore text wall #intro post #nailed it #i think. only time shall tell #have mercy on me pleasepleaseplease it took so much lexapro to get me to this point

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eklesia-system · 2 months ago

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Hi, I'm Xander, I just got here today.

🌫️- How many people are in your system We're nearing 200. 188 right now. Lots of new people and I'm one of them.

🌊- What's everyone's favorite colors? Someone likes something from every color of the rainbow. I like black.

☂️- Most common fronters? Khaz, Sai, Beccs, Luc, Remy, Sleet, that's the current lineup.

☔- Collective pronouns? They/Them

💦- Everyone's pronouns? Most go by he/him including me. Then you have some she/her, they/them, it/its, any mix of those four, with some neopronouns... death/deathself (Derek), ze/zir (Dizzy), Any pronouns (Edd, Odd, Snowy), fizz/fitz/fitzself (Elixir), he/himb (Hush), that man (the Keeper), the little guy (Kudzu), thei/them (Rakoko), fluff/fluffself (Rascal), wah (Rascal), et/ez/etself (Rouge), my emperor (Sage I), parr/parrself (Sly).

💧- Most common age group? 15-23. Lots of teenagers and young adults. I'm 11 so I'm outside of that bunch.

💨- Do you have any fictives? Yeah, lots. Skeet is the most vocal.

❄️- Are there any romantic relationships in your system? Yeah. The only ones everyone knows about is... Beccs/Khaz and Varian/Brandi.

🌧️- Does anyone have a favorite number? Jordan likes 44, Sai likes 27. That's all I know.

☁️- Are any of your alters neurodivergent? Probably all of us.

🌤️- How many people are LGBTQIA+ Most of us.

☀️- Do you have any non-human alters (including hybrids)? Yes. Sleet did the rundown in another system ask post.

🌈- What are some common hobbies? Drawing, writing, and an enjoyment of music.

🌪️- What is the most liked food between everyone? Pizza.

🔥- Current hyperfixations? A few different stories, miniatures, stuff like that. Creative projects.

☄️- Do you guys have any collective interests? We're all interested in plurality, I guess.

⚡- What is your headspace like? (If you have one) Sleet describes it in the same previous system ask post.

✨- Does anyone have a pet? A few people have spatters they've adopted. Derek has Thunderstruck, Khaz has Gelato, Sai has Nian, and Luc has Snowy.

⭐- Does your system have a name? Eklesia.

💫- Does anyone wanna share something about their source? Feel free to ramble, anyone can answer too! I was sourced from a dream the system was having last night. So was Billy, so I guess he's my sourcemate?

🪐- Most chaotic group? The Tree Cutters and any of the Dereks in general.

🌎- Any demon/angel/god alters? Erik, Noah, and the Ivory Knight are angels. Khaz is sometimes an angel. Coyote prefers the term "diety" and has no interest in being worshiped.

🌙- Who is the oldest? The oldest alters to form are JJ and Derek Rex. The oldest human is a guy who age slides between 18 and 80 (JJ again), and Archie who is in his fifties. There is also Coyote (thousands of years old), the Keeper (he doesn't know or care how old he is), and a guy who is in his 30s but his time period is 2,000ish years ago, so I dunno what to say about him (Aden).

🌓- What type of system are you? Eisotraumagenic, probably.

🌗- (For traumagenic systems only) Are you diagnosed? If yes, was getting one difficult? If not, do you want one & why or why not? We aren't. Some of us think getting one (for OSDD) would be good and some prefer to let our lived experience be what it is. Getting a diagnosis could be risky for job searching too.

🌕- What is your system dynamic (ex, family, friends, complete strangers, etc) Most people are saying it's like a family. I hope it's nothing like mine.

🌻- What's a normal day for you as a system? I dunno, existing? Switches normally happen every hour or few hours or so, right now I'm tired of being out but nobody is switching in yet, sigh. Right now nothing much. Spending time with friends some days.

🌸- How do you keep track of your system? (Members, switches, etc) SimplyPlural. Sai is pretty anal about keeping the fronting and switching times accurate.

🥀- Any childhood things that should've tipped you off to being a system? Hey it's Sai, really quick since I was most active in childhood. Talking to myself and responding to myself, that one time I wrote a story where I talked to someone and they told me something I never would have thought of myself, hearing entire arguments in my head with different voices pitching in... little things like that. Also my lifelong interest in characters who had more than one personality, which I really related to for some reason. Derek and Sleet were those reasons. -Sai

💐- Do you like being a system? Xander again. Looks like we do.

🐚- Do you know any systems IRL? We have a partner system that goes by Sol. They're one of our closest friends and multiple of our alters are dating their alters.

🍄- Do you prefer in-system dating or out-of-system dating? They're saying it depends. Both have their pros and cons.

🍁- What's the most annoying thing about being a system? Not having our own bodies and having to be perceived as whoever or whatever people think the body is. Knowing that nobody would believe me if I told them I was an 11 year old boy unless they already know about this stuff.

🎍- How bad is your amnesia? Darren and Vertex have amnesia the most. Darren needs to be told what's going on and Vertex can black out completely and forget his own name, where he is, everything. Mostly though we just have trouble remembering to do things we need to do and Phoenix keeps track of everyone's memories in real time so the amnesia is usually more emotional, like, "someone else did that, but it wasn't me." That's how I'm able to type all of this out since I'm new.

🌿- Best quote from an alter? "Adam, you're a chicken taco." -Derek

🌳- Do alters have separate accounts for games or do you all share an account? We share. I wish our laptop could run more games, there's only two games on here at all. Thanks for reading, I guess. -Xander

🌫️- How many people are in your system

🌊- What's everyone's favorite colors?

☂️- Most common fronters?

☔- Collective pronouns?

💦- Everyone's pronouns?

💧- Most common age group?

💨- Do you have any fictives?

❄️- Are there any romantic relationships in your system?

🌧️- Does anyone have a favorite number?

☁️- Are any of your alters neurodivergent?

🌤️- How many people are LGBTQIA+

☀️- Do you have any non-human alters (including hybrids)?

🌈- What are some common hobbies?

🌪️- What is the most liked food between everyone?

🔥- Current hyperfixations?

☄️- Do you guys have any collective interests?

⚡- What is your headspace like? (If you have one)

✨- Does anyone have a pet?

⭐- Does your system have a name?

💫- Does anyone wanna share something about their source? Feel free to ramble, anyone can answer too!

🪐- Most chaotic group?

🌎- Any demon/angel/god alters?

🌙- Who is the oldest?

🌓- What type of system are you?

🌗- (For traumagenic systems only) Are you diagnosed? If yes, was getting one difficult? If not, do you want one & why or why not?

🌕- What is your system dynamic (ex, family, friends, complete strangers, etc)

🌻- What's a normal day for you as a system?

🌸- How do you keep track of your system? (Members, switches, etc)

🥀- Any childhood things that should've tipped you off to being a system?

💐- Do you like being a system?

🐚- Do you know any systems IRL?

🍄- Do you prefer in-system dating or out-of-system dating?

🍁- What's the most annoying thing about being a system?

🎍- How bad is your amnesia?

🌿- Best quote from an alter?

🌳- Do alters have separate accounts for games or do you all share an account?

A free to use ask game for systems!

Anti Endo, anti other origin systems, DNI with this post

#xander-eklesia #ask game #system ask #system ask game #system #plural #plural things #plurality #endo safe

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5-mph · 2 months ago

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hello!

come near and witness my great and terrible power ( or catch mange. )

depending which corner of the world you blew in from, my name is either evan, archer, or spades. regardless, i'm the badger that's going to sniff you

they/them & he/him for me.

i am an adult ( 22 )

i'm transmasc, bisexual, and bigender ( schrödinger's nonbinary )

severely androgynous. got audhd & bp1.

minors please don't follow

serious disclaimer : i drink a lot ( too much ) and when i'm drunk i post a lot ( too much ) . i'm also a huge fan of weed. dni if that bothers you. if you rock like that, get faded with me <3

i love odds and ends, ecology, craftwork, anime, gaming, drawing, roleplay, collecting all sorts of trinkets & and various other multitudes!

always on the hunt for new music, i'd love suggestions so i can expand my audio stimulus library

currently hyperfixated on pokémon ( adventures / bw ) !! if i'm not replying to you at any given time, it's because i'm deranged and thinking about N !

longterm special interests include birds, taxonomy, evolution, diseases / anomalies, paleoanthropology, & malware .

i'm usually studying all of the above in my downtime, please feel free to share relevant posts or information to me because i will be so happy!

i do not use a queue ! if i'm online, you will witness my posts! sorry !

i fall in love with pretty much everyone and everything, despite it all. if you catch me 10 pages deep in your blog that's why

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nettlebrand · 1 year ago

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About Me ♡ DNI ◇ BYF ♤

About Me

My name is Jackson or Jason, usually only close friends call me Jason

I use any and all pronouns! Although please ask before using certain neo pronouns. No noun pronouns please (nothing against them at all! They just make me uncomfortable being used on ME, I use them for others if I can)

I draw and write a lot

I hyperfixate easily, and my interest can change very quickly

I am Russian German Native American and Nigerian

I speak 5 languages English being my 4th so please excuse grammatical and spelling errors

I have a fianceé <3

I am a lawyer in training so I might not post often

I have a degree in pre law and psychology

I have a lot of fandom ocs, which is what my writing is usually based on. I might sometimes post about original characters and stories.

◇ Sona ◇

Do Not Interact

-normal stuff here, racist, homophobes transphobes, pro life, nazis, and soviet supporters ect

-Communism supporters (do research omfg)

-people who demonize ASPD or being a sociopath

-proshippers (go away you are gross)

-anti generational trauma / people who believe past wars and historical event cannot effect the victims decendants

-"family is forever" kind of people

-people who romantize kidnapping, stalking, torturing, drugging in public places / on the internet (especially if that has never happened to you)

-You send anonymous hate (you are a coward if you are going to send hate show your account)

-DSMP, Your Boyfriend, Object Show, Nazi/Soviet Drawing Countryhuman Fans

-Under 14

-People who self diagnosis intense disorders (DID, ASPD, ect) (I have studied this enough to have a degree in cognitive psychology, I don't want self diagnosisers near me)

Before You Follow

• I have ASPD, more commonly called a sociopath. I lack empathy and care towards other people. It takes me a while to develop a sense of care. Because of this, I am very blunt and rude, I try to use tone tags whenever I can to make this work, and I may also overly use emojis.

• I am hypersexual, I make a lot of suggestive jokes with close friends and make sexual jokes. This is a SFW blog and will stay that way, but I will make suggestive jokes

• I have intense and I mean intense trauma. I joke about it a lot and laugh about it. It makes me feel more comfortable with it.

• I do not go out of my way to contact new people, I have trouble starting convos unless I really know you or find you interesting. This does not mean I do not like you, I am just socially awkward and try not to hurt people emotionally.

• I listen to problematic artist and once in a while get into problematic media. I will heavily express my opinion on said stuff and media, I am a very argumentive person

That is all ◇ Enjoy My Blog

#about me #dni #byf #do not interact #before you follow

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mama-qwerty · 2 years ago

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So I have a friend who is autistic. Do you have any ideas on how the Wachowski boys would deal with someone who is autistic? I know autism is a spectrum, and it varies between individuals.

Yeah, it would be hard to know how the boys would deal with someone on the spectrum, specifically because there are so many different ways it can present in any one person. It'd be impossible to cover them all.

My daughter has autism. She's 14, but emotionally is probably closer to about 7 year old. (She presents younger than her age, due to her behaviors.) She likes watching cartoons meant for younger kids, and carries around a plush or two (which ones tends to change as she cycles through her various obsessions). She's verbal, but still very hyperfixated on her own interests so conversations aren't quite as back and forth as they could be, especially if she's not interested in whatever the other person is talking about. She's interactive, but also likes to spend a lot of time doing her own thing in her room. (She's becoming quite the artist!) She loves to swing and ride her bike, and lately she's been playing a lot of Pokemon Sword on the Switch.

So I'll use her as our "new friend" for the boys.

Knuckles really likes spending time with her, mostly because she's not a motormouth like a certain brother, and doesn't use words he doesn't understand like another brother. They spend a lot of time at the park, swinging and climbing the playset. He likes how they don't have to talk, they're comfortable in the shared silence. He feels comfortable around her, and respects her honesty, no matter how blunt because she never says anything she doesn't whole-heartedly mean. But sometimes she says something so off-the-wall, yet so honest, it makes him let loose a big belly laugh. He is very protective of her, and he often holds her hand while they are out--especially near the road--to make sure she doesn't get hurt. (She isn't as attentive to her surroundings as she should be, sometimes.) Of all three boys, he's the one who connects with her the best.

Sonic loves to race with her--either while she's on her bike (and he makes sure to watch out for her) or on foot. They talk about Pokemon all the time, and draw comics together. Sometimes they play Switch games together, but she's not as good at the ones he likes, so he's content either letting her win, or helping her get better. Other times he just sits next to her as she plays. He's mostly a big blue ball of encouragement for her, but her lack of interaction sometimes frustrates him. His patience can sometimes wear thin--especially when she does nothing but talk about the one Pokemon she's obsessed with--but he's never rude or cruel. He jokes with her constantly, and loves to make her laugh.

Tails also talks Pokemon with her, and the two have a competition to make up new Pokemon critters to show each other. They have 'battles', which essentially is just the two of them yelling out moves and describing the battle until they collapse into fits of laughter in the backyard. He feels a bit of a kindred spirit with her, as she was "born different" just like him, but, being a problem solver, he wants to try and help her with anything she may struggle with. He also tries to teach her something every time they see each other, even if it's just some new fact about an animal.

I think their interactions would differ depending on the individual, but this is how I envision them interacting with my daughter.

#ask me #wachowski brothers #autism

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volcanolotus · 3 years ago

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answer ALL of the hyperfix asks for mappy. if you wish.you can skip any you want.but heres an excuse to say so many words

OMG OK SO SINCE I ALREADY ANSWERED SOME OF THE QUESTIONS HERE’S A LINK TO THOSE IF YOU’RE INTERESTED

AS FOR THE REST

📃 what is the plot of your hyperfixation? and is it a movie, game, show, etc?

OK. The plot of shiftylook mappy is.

Mappy loses his job as a cop because of some Goro related shenanigans leading to him destroying priceless artwork. So he needs a new job. but guess what? GORO is back and he’s got a job opportunity and an opportunity for Mappy to snatch up because he IMMEDIATELY lets Mappy know that he’s in the process of committing crimes. so Mappy takes the job because he sooooooo badly wants to be the one to put Goro in jail. he’s obsessed with the idea, frankly. So he spends the series working as a security guard and finding out what Goro’s up to.

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

I Love Psychoanalyzing Mappy. I think if he met me and i explained his brain to him he’d be upset. In general though, the comedy never fails to get me, and the improv feel of the show’s dialogue is a nice change of pace from like everything else. I love the way Kris and Scott bounce off each other and that really shines in episode 4 when it’s just Dig Dug and Mappy in the desert. and just about any scene with just the two of them. best buds!!!!!!

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?

WHERE DO I FUCKING BEGIN.

oh my god. I have a near 17 minute long compilation of scenes that live in my head rent free but some of my favorites are (in no order)

The scene where Goro tries to insult Mappy with the world’s worst insult and Mappy’s trying to put into words why the insult sucks but then gives up.

The scene right before that where sky kid is Lying Very Terribly about being at the gym

“Attention all Nyamco Employees..................................... Named Mappy. Attention all Nyamco employees named Mappy if your name is Mappy please report to Goro’s office immediately. If your name is not Mappy you are not required to report to Goro’s office at this time. Please Mappys only.”

Dig Dug lifting his shirt to reveal a 6 pack, to which Mappy goes “oo...”

“Prince OUT.”

“Hey you prince out too, my man.”

“....................You’re an idiot............”

“Maybe i should fire you.”

“Yeah maybe you should.” (THIS IS EPISODE THREE AND MAPPY’S ALREADY HAD ENOUGH)

“Look I didn’t hire you to pry into my affairs.”

“Actually you DID hire me to pry into your affairs.”

“... That’s a completely DIFFERENT set of affairs.”

The entire scene in episode 7 where Mappy’s prodding at Goro about how he said that he was his best friend, which ends with Goro saying I love you, and refusing to acknowledge or elaborate upon questioning.

Dig Dug laughing at a man who literally just died because he’s high key salty that Goro allowed him to dig for buried treasure and not Dig Dug, to which Mappy shakes his head disapprovingly the entire trip back to Goro’s office.

Tarosuke’s entire appearance.

Goro testifying against HIMSELF in a court of law.

Sky Kid dropping an F bomb in court

Goro’s ending speech, concluding with him and Mappy laughing maniacally together and dig dug falling over lifelessly.

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

Richard and Keith are so annoying. I literally can’t stand they ugly asses. but they do make for good comedy moments in my head unfortunately

💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share?

Two livestream interviews came out recently, and this isn’t really a fun fact but Kris just talking sounds SO MUCH like Mappy that i wanna make animatics of the livestreams just for funsies.

Another fun fact is that one of the pieces of royalty free songs used is also used in the dance recital dvd i have, but that’s only relevant to me personally.

Instead of calling him Taizo Hori, they opted for Dig Dug’s full name to be Diglas D Duglas, which i’ve seen like 65 spelling variations of.

There are some expressions Goro makes that never reappear in later episodes and i wish they appeared more.

We could have had it all.

the nyamco office building is based on the real life namco building! Furthermore, “Nyamco” is Goro’s original name. He’s only called Goro in the localization.

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

Not to be cheesy but i don’t like that it ends.

... Ok. It’s actually good that it ended but it ended so EARLY. i can tell they wanted to do more and gradually pan out with more details of Goro’s plan being uncovered, but unfortunately if you don’t know any better it feels rushed and you won’t understand why that is.

I ALSO DON’T LIKE HOW BATSHIT INSANE THE LORE IS DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU DECIDE TO TAKE SERIOUSLY.. Me and my friends spent hours trying to figure out where Mappy took place and several details contradicted each other. There was also The Universe Debacle, which took a total of 5 pages to explain. Except i’m lying because that was really fun i love overthinking. But it WAS a lot. Shiftylook is not known for its consistency.

I don’t like the way they draw Mappy’s head. he looks like undertale jerry. fidget spinner lookin ass.

I wish the prince appeared more, also.

#shiftylook #mappy #mags responds #hi im mental

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filthficdump · 3 years ago

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Good Thing This Job Has Benefits.

AN: I wrote this in one day, I’ve developed a hyperfixation on The Walten Files, so you get to enjoy this absolute mess I’ve made.

You can also read it here on AO3. There’s no romance, it’s a gender neutral, nameless reader fict. There’s no death, because I am NOT about to write angst about a happy family :(

When I had you to myself, I didn't want you around. Those pretty faces always made you stand out in a crowd.

The gravel under my tires crunched as I drove through the night, bopping and tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the song, singing along. It was late, most likely near or after nine PM, but I wasn’t about to take my eyes off the road to check. That’s just asking for trouble.

But someone picked you from the bunch, one glance was all it took. Now it's much too late for me to take a second look.

New job, it’s been going great! I wouldn’t have thought I’d get to use my programming degree so soon, but I’m so happy I got this job. Sure, it’s for a kid’s burger joint, but there’s animatronics and other stuff, plus that finance minor rocketed me straight to an assistant manager position!

Oh, baby, give me one more chance, to show you that I love you. Won't you please let me, Back in your heart.

In the distance I could see a pair of headlights and slowed my car a bit and moved a bit to the side to provide them more room. These roads were narrow and I really didn’t think I wanted to get into a car crash and have to deal with that with what’s left of my savings and likely my first check.

Oh, darlin', I was blind to let you go (Let you go, baby) But now since I see you in his arms (I want you back)

The thought ‘That car looks like it’s moving really fast- too fast’ is the last thought in my head as the car got close, too close to stop the car or move away, there’s a ditch and trees on my side of the road. My hand hit the horn hard, blaring, but they served and-

CRASH!!!

Yes, I do now, I want you back. Ooh, ooh, baby, I want you back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want you back. Na, na, na, na.

When I come back to, I’m upside down, held up by my seat belt. Ho-ly-shit. I got into a fucking car crash.

Oh shit! I got into a car crash- The other car! I struggle to turn to look out the window and I see the other car against the guard rail. It’s hard to get a good look at the other car, seeing how I’m upside down and in the goddamn ditch, but I need to get out of the car.

I instinctually went for the pocket at the door, looking for my seatbelt cutter, but it had fallen out. Thanks, gravity. Thankfully, it’s on the roof of the car and I grabbed it before grabbing the handle of the door, pushing it open before I pressed my free arm against the roof of the car and-

“ FUCK! ” I yell, feeling the pain shooting up my arm and shoulder. Holy fuck, why did it hurt so bad?! We’re in the middle of the woods and I can’t remember the last home I passed and my car is upside down.

Either someone comes or I’ve got a long walk. I grit my teeth and cut the seat belt, falling head first into the ceiling and then out the door, tumbling until my butt hit grass. I flung the seatbelt cutter to the side and struggled up, using my door as support before I had to climb up the slippery slope of the ditch and onto the road.

My more useful arm held the other to my chest as I limped. Just about everything hurts. My chest, my shoulder, my leg, my face. Why did this have to happen? I was having such a good night, and now I’m in a wreck and about to give this jackass a piece of my mind. If he’s not dead.

I got closer to the car and looked inside. The man was unconscious, leaning against the steering wheel. I looked to the back instinctually, not expecting to see two terrified children! Oh god, wait- No, they’re alive. They’re looking at me.

I pulled open the driver door, still looking back at the kids, “Uh… Hey. Are you kids okay?” I asked, leaning down to look at them better. A boy and a girl, clearly siblings. They were sniffling and crying, but nodded, “Is this your dad?” I asked, pointing at the unconscious man. The car reeks of booze.

“N-No…” The boy sniffled, “He’s our uncle!”

“Okay, okay… Well, I’m gonna get us to help.” I said and went over to the passenger side, opening it up. The paint was scratched and the panels dented, but the car was still running. It would be shorter to keep going the way I came from, the city and a hospital is that way.

I reached over and wrapped my arm around the unconscious man’s chest, dragging him over into the passenger seat where there were beer bottles on the floor. Not even a seatbelt? He’s lucky he didn’t die.

I buckled him in and shut the door, walking back around to the driver’s seat before getting in and shutting the door. I tested my foot on the gas and hand on the wheel, my other arm resting in my lap.

Thank god the car still worked! I just started driving, the car feeling quite literally fucked as it went over the road, but it’s a working car!

It was perhaps ten or fifteen minutes down the road, “Um… So, what’s your guys’ names?” I asked, looking back at them through the crooked rear view mirror. They must have been so terrified. They were just in a car crash, and now their jackass drunk uncle was unconscious and a stranger was in the car with them.

“I’m Edd… She’s Molly…” Edd said, his sister was holding a grey bunny toy. Looked like one of those prize stuffed animals we keep at Bon’s Burgers prize counter, but it wasn’t blue or purple, and the restaurant hasn’t been opened yet.

I introduced myself and really focused on the road, “That’s a really cool bunny. It’s like the ones we have at my work.” I said, smiling, “Ever heard of Bon’s Burgers?”

The girl looked confused, “Y-Yes? Our dad works there.” She said. Oh no, were they my co-worker’s kids? Which co-worker?

“O-Oh? What’s your dad’s name?” I asked, glancing over at the man in the passenger seat. I couldn’t see him very well in the dark car, but I could hear his deep breathing and slight snoring.

“His name is Jack Walten. Our mom is Rosie!” Edd said, and for a moment I thought I was going to get into another accident. Jack… Walten…?

My boss's kids?!

“Ha-Ha, oh wow… Small work. I started working there. Today was my first day, actually…” I said, muttering a few swears under my breath, “I met Jack! Um… Do either of you know his phone number…? We’re gonna need it when we get to the hospital.”

The boy nods and I sighed- Wait, if these are Jack’s kids, then the man...

Another glance. We’re getting to the part of the road with street lights. I recognize those glasses. This was my other boss, wasn’t it? Please don’t say it is, I just crashed into my bosses’ car. Wait, no, he crashed into me! This wasn’t my fault!

The bastard is too drunk and irresponsible. He could have killed himself, the two kids, or even myself! For god sakes my car is in a ditch!

“Let’s just… Listen to some music, okay?” I offered and put on the radio, driving with my knee for the moment since my injured arm was starting to go numb. It better not be broken, I swear to god.

Once we got into the city I went straight to the hospital, parking in the emergency parking lot. “Okay, can you guys walk?” I asked, unbuckling my belt to look at both of them. They opened their doors and the girl winced.

“My ankle hurts!” She cried. Edd thankfully didn’t seem too injured, but he had a burn from the seat belt.

“Okay, okay. Hold on, I’ll carry you.” I said and got out. My leg felt like it was covered with biting fire ants, but I wasn’t about to leave her alone for them to just get a wheelchair.

I bent down and she reached up, one hand clutching the stuffed bunny as she wrapped her arm around my neck and I held her up on my hip, my only good arm holding her up, “Okay, okay, okay.” I mumbled softly and the boy was by my side, “Okay, grab my hand.” I said, offering my injured hand. I didn’t care that it hurt, I knew he was putting on a brave face.

He took my hand and I walked them both in. The tired nurse at the desk looked up at us and looked terrified before she quickly called for help, “We have another in the car. The black one out front.” I said, “We were just in a car crash.”

“Oh my god!” She said as more nurses came, one that had a gurney and I put the girl up on top and the boy got to sit in a wheelchair, “Are you their mother?” The nurse asked as one of the other nurses tried to sit me down in a wheelchair as well.

“No… I’m the one their uncle crashed into.” I said and reluctantly sat down. I didn’t realize how fast my heart was beating, it must explain all of the wandering thoughts that clouded my mind.

I was brought to the same room that they were, but curtains separated me from them. Doctors and nurses came shortly and my vision grew quite spotty. Information was exchanged, my nearest relative was an hour away and it was late, so it’s a toss up if they got the call.

One of the children gave a nurse the phone number to their home, and already my head was coming up with the worst thoughts of what would happen. Will I be fired? Is he going to sue me? I’m probably just as guilty as Felix in his eyes.

Speaking of Felix, if Jack doesn’t fire me he will! If he doesn’t get arrested.

“Pardon me…” One of the nurses said, drawing my attention, “We need to cut off your shirt. Your arm is likely dislocated and we don’t want to move it.”

Oh god, if they cut off this shirt I’ll have to pay 25 dollars to get another. “Um… No, it’s my only uniform.” I said and with my one good arm undid the buttons before another nurse pulled from my uninjured side and I pulled it the rest of the way off, letting the nurse take it.

Unfortunately, pants and shoes too, but I got a nifty gown and now they could resume looking me over. What I didn’t appreciate was them having to pop my arm back into place, that was awful.

They had to bandage up my cuts and test me for brain damage (just a mild concussion) and put my arm in a sling, my ribs were also likely fractured. Molly's ankle had to be splinted as it was strained and Edd had a slight concussion.

At least I got to change back into a spare set of plain clothes that they happened to have, but that required a nurse's help with the newly relocated arm that ached and hurt when I moved it.

Felix hadn’t been brought to our same room, and an officer came to question us. I told the whole story, and just to be sure they breathalyzed me. Unlike a certain driver I blew a 0.0 BAC.

Our stories matched up and they pulled back the curtains to allow us to see each other and talk. They were still shaken up, but they were told their mom and dad were on their way a while ago. Great. I’m just glad their parents were still awake and were on their way, even though I knew there was going to be so much to talk about and I was going to have to justify myself to both of the worried and likely angry parents.

I talked to them about school and what they liked to do, how they just came from a school party. Molly was excited to have her friends sign her ‘cast’ and Edd thought he would be the coolest kid in school for surviving a car crash.

I remembered being their age and smiled and nodded along as I was put on a low grade painkiller and we were given water to drink. After about 20 minutes I could hear a commotion and a man and two women calling out for the two children. They called back and moments later a frazzled looking man, my boss Jack Walten and his wife Rosemary, along with his worried looking teen daughter Sophie rounded the corner of the doorway and in that moment I had never seen anyone look so relieved.

The reunion was toothrottingly sweet, all five hugging and just overjoyed to see their children okay and alive. I couldn’t help but smile, even though it felt like I was intruding on something that should have been private.

Edd brought me up and Molly joined in, the both of them talking at once and practically over each other as they tried to explain everything that happened. I’m not sure if their parents or sister fully understood, but what was grasped was that Felix crashed into me, and I drove them to the hospital.

Both Jack and Rosemary looked at me and I awkwardly waved. He looked confused, like he recognized me but unsure from where, “Hi, boss…” I said, introducing myself for the second time that day.

We only met for ten minutes earlier today, but his eyes widened in surprise. “You… Felix crashed into you?” He asked, “And you got my children to safety?”

I timidly nodded. Please, please don’t be angry.

The officer presented himself and cleared his throat, “Your employee here was driving home when Mr. Kraken, who was intoxicated, who was driving the other way crashed into them and knocked them from the road into the ditch while Mr. Kraken’s car hit the guardrail.” The officer explained.

“I um… I was upside down but cut myself free and climbed out to check on the other car, and I saw that he had Molly and Edd in the back and my car wasn’t about to get out of the ditch any time soon so I just… drove them here.” I finished, punctuating the end by nervously drinking the rest of my water.

“He was drunk?!” Rosemary said, stunned and clearly angry. The officer nodded while Jack’s fist clenched, clearly enraged. I would be just as shocked and angry if I had children and they were put in danger by someone who’s supposed to be their friend.

I should probably be just as angry that some drunk asshole- who is my boss no less- nearly killed me, but I was just glad that we were all still alive. Sure, my car is fucked, and so is about 50% of my body (exaggerating), but my bones will heal and I’ll repair my car or get a new one. I mean, that’s what insurance is for, right?

What I didn’t expect out of all of this was to be hugged by Rosemary. Oh yeah, it fucking hurt but I just kept that to myself. She sniffled and I awkwardly patted her back with my one good arm, “Thank you for keeping them safe…” She said quietly.

“I-It was nothing, really.” I said timidly, “I wasn’t about to leave them alone.”

“Nothing? You saved them!” Jack said and shook my hand when his wife pulled away to dry her eyes and hug all of her children once more, “I can’t ever thank you enough for what you did for my family. I… I couldn’t stomach the thought if…”

I gave him a reassuring squeeze of his hand and he clasped my good shoulder, “It sucks that this happened in the first place but… I’m just glad everyone is alive…” I said, giving a nervous smile.

“Is he alive?” Jack asked, looking at the officer as he let go of my hand and shoulder.

“Yes, he is. We will be pressing charges, he blew above a 0.3.” The officer responded and Jack nodded, seemingly ‘pleased’ with that.

After exchanging contact information and addresses with both Jack and myself he departed, leaving the family to resume their reunion. I smiled awkwardly and looked away awkwardly, scratching my neck.

I haven’t heard anything about my relative having called or if they were coming, so I could only assume I wouldn’t be getting a ride from them. Or a ride tonight at all.

For a moment I was lost in my head, feeling a bit too sorry for myself. I moved all the way out here because there were jobs and rent was cheap, but I was so far from my family and friends, and even though I helped their children would I even still have a job?

I refilled my paper cup and sipped on the cold water before a nurse came to let us all know that after a final check over, we would be set to go home in an hour or so. Great, I better start making calls or something.

For a moment I didn’t realize that Rosemary was talking to me. I looked up as she repeated my name, “U-Uh yeah?” I said, looking a little confused.

“Do you have a ride home…?” She asked. Ah, oh no. I’m not about to ask these clearly exhausted parents for a ride home, I could only imagine they just wanted to get home and be with their children.

“No… But I can get one, don’t worry.” I said, but Jack shook his head.

“Nonsense, it’s the least we could do. You look like you need some sleep.” He said, making me chuckle.

“So do you two.” I laugh, “Really, you don’t need to. I’ll get a hold of someone eventually. Really!”

Rosemary shook her head, “No way, sincerely it wouldn’t be a bother. Where do you live?” She asked, and I reluctantly gave my street address, “Oh, you live just a bit down the way from us!” She said. Looks like it’s out of the question.

The doctor came and checked us all over one last time before giving me a prescription slip for painkillers for the next week and a half and we were permitted to leave. Jack carried his daughter while Rosemary held her son’s hand and I followed behind them.

I won’t lie, I’m pretty damn nervous. Checking out of the hospital took a little while as well, but soon we were free to go. That will be a fun bill to pay.

Rosemary sat in the back with the children, not giving me any chance to protest as I had to sit in the passenger seat next to Jack. Edd and Molly were clearly tired, cuddling up to their mother as Jack turned on the car and carefully pulled out.

It was incredibly clear that Jack was very, very focused on the road, not wanting to get his family into a car accident as well. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking, but I was just so glad that this didn’t end in tears.

The car ride to their home was mostly quiet, only some light conversation made. Jack was interested to know how I enjoyed my first day on the job.

“It’s been exciting…” I chuckled and he laughed softly, but I wasn’t all that comfortable or any less nervous. I did just want to get home and rest, because tomorrow morning I likely had to call my insurance and figure out how I’ll be getting to and from work.

If there even was a job anymore. With one half of the business owners likely going to jail I didn’t know if Jack would take on the massive workload, or if he would even want me to work there anymore.

“We’re here.” Jack let them know.

We pulled into their driveway and Sophie was the first to get out to help her mother take her siblings into the house with Jack telling them that he would be right back after he dropped me off.

“Have a good night, everyone…” I smiled and waved at them. Edd and Molly sleepily waved back before they went inside and shut the door.

It was surreal, everything that had happened. And now I was alone with my boss as he started to drive towards my home.

“I can’t believe he happened to crash into you…” Jack said and I nodded silently, “I could never thank you enough… You… I just can’t believe…” His voice cracked and he brought his hand up to wipe his cheeks.

“I’m sorry this happened… I’m just glad your children are safe…” I said, fidgeting with a stray string on my pants, unsure if I should pat his back or would that be too far? “You have a beautiful family, Jack, I’m sorry that you’re having to drive me home…”

“Don’t be sorry, you drove them to the hospital with a dislocated arm! I couldn’t imagine what it was like, being run off the road and into a ditch, upside down!” He said and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“To be honest, it was like a dream. One moment he’s coming towards me and I move aside since the road is pretty narrow, the next I see that he’s a bit too close over to my side and then finally I’m upside down in the ditch.”

“And- It was you! Who would have thought that my new employee would be the one to get hit.” He said, smiling softly, “Oh and don’t you worry about rushing back into work! I will be paying you your wages, you helped my family out, I’m going to help you too.”

“You-You really don’t have to do that. I’ll be okay!” I insisted, but he shook his head. He wasn’t having it.

“I want to, you don’t understand how stressed and worried we were…” He said, “I called Felix over 20 times, I thought the worst had happened and I… I started to lose hope I would ever see them again.”

“He’s going to jail for this, no doubt…” I said, “Will you be taking over the business…?”

“Yeah… It’ll be a lot but I think I have someone who I can rely on to help.” He said, smiling.

“Oh, good! I’ll try my best to pull my own weight.” I said, smiling, “I know you guys took a big risk hiring me fresh out of college but-”

“I- It’s you!” He said, “I know you just started, but your finance and programming degree is going to be a massive help!”

“Wha…?” I gaped at him. Me? Did I get a promotion? “I would be honored to help!” I smiled. I think I just became a manager or something, I’ll figure that out when I go back to work.

I pointed out my house and he pulled up in front, “I won’t let you down, I promise.” I gleamed and he smiled, holding his hand out for me to shake.

I did, not expecting him to pull me in for a hug. Looks like this was a really huggy family, it was pretty similar to my own family. “I know you won’t. Would you mind if you gave me your number so we can speak tomorrow? I imagine Edward and Molly would like to hear that you’re okay.” He asked.

I nodded and waited until he got a pen and a small black book to put my number in it before I opened the door, “I’ll speak to you soon, then… Have a good night, boss.” I smiled and he laughed.

“Just call me Jack. Really.” He said, “Have a good night.” I nodded and got out before shutting the door, walking to the front door. I grabbed the spare key from the mail box and gave one last wave after I unlocked the door. He flicked his high beams at me before he started to back up and I opened the door, shutting and locking it behind me.

It’s been a really strange night.

#the walten files #twf #jack walten #Rosemary Walten #Edward walten #Molly Walten #Sophie Walten #Reader #gender neutral y/n #No romance #No smut #Gen #Alcoholism

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