#I forget exactly how many eggs she took but she was super fast

[camping-with-monsters]

SHE’S ASKING FOR UPPIES. SHE’S ASKING FOR UPPIES AND YOU’RE JUST GONNA KEEP SCROLLING!?

[snarktheater]

Ready Player Two — Opening Cutscene & Chapter 0

Hello again.

It’s been a while. I haven’t been active on this blog since, fittingly enough, Ready Player One. I was going to do this sooner—even had an alarm set up and everything—but then, it turns out, I’m feeling so much negativity about the world in general that a book just pales in comparison.

Seriously, I had to scrap this post’s entire intro because it’s not even 2020 anymore as I write this. And you know, maybe that’s for the best. I’m not really in the mood for doom and gloom and bitching anymore. I uninstalled Twitter from my phone a while back, I’ve been doing good at my daily writing sprints, my biggest fanfic project concluded on a positive note from people I didn’t even realize had been following it for years.

So I don’t know what this is going to be like. My commentary, I mean; I’ve heard echoes of what the book is like, so I’m not expecting a surprise there.

The book opens right after the end of Ready Player One, in a “Cutscene” where Wade recounts to us what happened after he won Halliday’s contest. It also assumes you remember exactly who the main characters of the book are, which is a bold move for a sequel that came out almost a decade after the original.

Technically, I could just look up the details I’m fuzzy about. But also, I think it’s more authentic if I don’t. I trust my memory enough that if I’m wrong, it’ll be in subtle enough ways that it’ll almost be a private jokes between all of us. An “if you know, you know” sort of error system. And I don’t think there’s anything more true to the spirit of this book than that.

Shoto had flown back home to Japan to take over operations at GSS’s Hokkaido division.

So Wade starts his tenure with nepotism. Wasn’t Shoto really young? Why is he qualified to run anything?

Aech was enjoying an extended vacation in Senegal, a country she’d dreamed of visiting her whole life, because her ancestors had come from there.

You know what, I’m not touching “send the token black character back to Africa.” This isn’t my lane.

And Samantha had flown back to Vancouver to pack up her belongings and say goodbye to her grandmother, Evelyn.

Why is she saying goodbye? Why, she’s moving to Columbus to be with Wade, of course! It’s not like there was anything else in her life. Was there? And why isn’t she referred to as Art3mis? I’m pretty sure Wade found out all of their offline names in the last book, and the inconsistency mildly bothers me.

These three sentences are back to back, by the way. Someone—I forget who—once described Ready Player One as a book that’s fun to write a wiki about, because it’s got fun concepts to summarize about until you realize that all the emotional connective tissue you need to turn a list of things into a story is missing, and that’s roughly how this first page feels.

Hell, the first line of the book is Wade telling us he remained offline for nine whole days after winning the contest, but by the end of the second paragraph we’re already to him logging back into the OASIS to "distract himself from [his and Samantha’s] reunion.

I’ll give Ernest Cline one thing: it feels like he wrote this opening nine days after the first book and did about as much maturing as a teenage boy would do between the two books.

Way more time is spent describing Wade’s OASIS rig, or the in-game planet where the climax of the last book happened, than anything else in this introduction. He is immediately greeted by a crowd of adoring fans who have been waiting over a week for him to come back in the game, because they’re all grateful that our protagonist and his friends restored their avatars after they were annihilated by the Sixers.

You’d think the adoring fans would serve some kind of purpose, or that something would happen, but no. Wade immediately goes “ew, people” and teleports away, since he essentially has ultimate powers within the game. With a caveat: the powers are actually coming from the Robes of Anorak he’s wearing, and I’m mentioning that in the hopes that it will pay off sometime in the book’s future, assuming Cline at least learned to do that. But still, let’s not skip too fast the fact that we introduced that crowd of adoring fans for no other purpose than to tell us they’re out there, because it fits right in with the last book’s attempts at saying as little as humanly possible in as many words as possible.

Anyway, Wade went back into Anorak’s study, where he arbitrarily checks out the Easter Egg he got at the end of the last book, and finds an inscription on it. I was dreading another riddle, but no, it’s just straight-up instructions to a vault in the GSS archives, so Wade logs off and goes to check it out.

Of course Halliday had put [the archives] [on the 13th floor]. In one of his favorite TV shows, Max Headroom, Network 23’s hidden research-and-development lab was located on the thirteenth floor. And The Thirteenth Floor was also the title of an old sci-fi film about virtual reality, released in 1999, right on the heels of both The Matrix and eXistenZ.

I’m equally shocked that it took two whole pages (on my ereader) to get to the first slew of references, and that one of these references is from 1999. I didn’t know we were allowed to think of anything that isn’t the 80s. Speaking of which, I’ll spare you the whole paragraph, but the book does feel the need to explain why it’s vault 42.

Inside the vault, there’s another egg containing a super-fancy and advanced OASIS headset. The egg also has a video monitor that plays a video message from James Halliday shortly before his death.

But despite his condition, he hadn’t used his OASIS avatar to record this message like he had with Anorak’s Invitation. For some reason, he’d chosen to appear in the flesh this time, under the brutal, unforgiving light of reality.

That oh-so-important message? An infodump about the headset’s working. He called it an OASIS Neural Interface, ONI for short. It basically lets you experience the OASIS through all your senses with sensory input just like the real thing, you know, that thing Wade had to get a fancy suit and massive rig to do in the first book. And yes, Wade does spend a paragraph or two comparing it to other works of science fiction. Of course he does.

More importantly, it also records all the sensory input into a separate file, which can then be replayed over to re-experience said sensations, or live someone else’s experiences. Halliday tries to frame it as a tool to generate communication and empathy, seemingly all without acknowledging the potential creepiness of that. But hey. Who knows. Maybe that’s because this is the setup stage, and it’ll pay off eventually.

I also wondered about the name Halliday had chosen for his invention. I’d seen enough anime to know that oni was also a Japanese word for a giant horned demon from the pits of hell.

Add “reducing Japan to anime” to the list of things the book has failed to improve upon. By the way, the narration insisted on spelling out ONI letter by letter earlier, so it’s weird to make that link now. It’s also just kind of inelegant to just tell us “this is the symbolism behind the name”, but that’s just the sort of thing I’ve come to expect from this book.

Anyway, the reason Halliday kept this for his successor to find is he wants Wade to test out the technology and decide if humanity is ready for it. Why Halliday thinks the most glorified pop culture trivia / video game competition qualifies you for such a decision should be a problem, but sadly, a lot of billionaires have said and done a lot of dumb and eerily similar things in the past few years since I read Ready Player One, so actually, I can’t fault the book for that one. Tragically, our fates really are in the hands of people who should rightfully be cartoon villains.

To his credit, Wade does question Halliday’s motives in keeping this under wraps at all rather than releasing it himself. So hey, maybe it really is setting something up.

Wade goes back to his office with the ONI, and we’re treated with this lovely piece of narration:

I was grateful that Samantha wasn’t there. I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to talk me out of testing the ONI. Because I was worried she might try to, and if she did, she would’ve succeeded. (I’d recently discovered that when you’re madly in love with someone they can persuade you to do pretty much anything.)

There’s a lot to unpack about the implications this has for their relationship, but it’s way too early in the book for me to editorialize when one character hasn’t even been on the page yet. So I’ll just leave it here for the record. Hopefully you see the problem without me needing to point it out anyway. If not, feel free to hit my inbox.

So Wade, confident in the fact that Halliday would have warned him if there were any risks to using the ONI, decides to try it out. Even though he immediately follows up that statement with this:

According to the ONI documentation, forcibly removing the headset while it was in operation could severely damage the wearer’s brain and/or leave them in a permanent coma. So the titanium-reinforced safety bands made certain this couldn’t happen. I found this little detail comforting instead of unsettling. Riding in an automobile was risky, too, if you didn’t wear your seatbelt…

Wade. My dude. What the fuck is this simile. And why don’t you see that maybe a machine where you’re forcibly trapping yourself inside a virtual reality might be dangerous? Hell, when I said this was setting something up, I was expecting something vaguely interesting about the potential breach of privacy, or how you don’t need to literally walk in someone’s shoes to feel empathy for them, or anything substantial, but now I’m worried it’ll just end up as “man, sometimes science fiction machines will scramble your brain, isn’t that weird”?

Like, I don’t know, to me “it will put you in a coma” sounds like a good reason for Halliday not to release the ONI. Maybe we can still make it into a commentary on how corporations will sell stuff they know is directly harmful if it can make them a profit. Who knows.

The book waffles on about more risks, and the mechanics of how the ONI activates, and the warning disclaimer when it does turn on. Specifically, there’s a time limit of twelve consecutive hours, after which you’ll be automatically logged out, because yes, using the thing for too long can also cause brain damage.

Gregarious Simulation Systems will not be held responsible for any injuries caused by improper use of the OASIS Neural Interface.

See, now there’s the sort of thing that could be a source for commentary, but no, instead it’s thrown in there like it’s nothing and Wade glosses over the entire warning, and instead keep wondering why Halliday didn’t just release the ONI if even the safety disclaimers were in place.

By the way: this whole system has apparently gone through several independent human trials already, so I’m finding it hard to imagine that it’s actually a secret Halliday took to the grave as Wade says. Unless he also had everyone involved in those trials killed afterwards. Or maybe they all ended up with brain damage which rendered them incapable of talking about it.

And before you think I’m being unfair and maybe we’re supposed to understand that ourselves even if the protagonist doesn’t, I’ll remind you that the book didn’t trust its reader to know what the number 42 is a reference to, or what an oni is, even though I don’t think anyone in the target audience wouldn’t know about these two things.

There’s also the fact that, since this book came out, a video game did release with a scene intentionally designed to cause seizures, and it had countless fans flocking to defend it over that fact. So you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not assuming this book’s stance on whether your video game console causes brain damage and possibly coma is actually a bad thing, or just an acceptable risk.

Wade certainly seems to think so, since he agrees to the terms of service.

As the timestamp faded away, it was replaced by a short message, just three words long—the last thing I would see before I left the real world and entered the virtual one. But they weren’t the three words I was used to seeing. I—like every other ONI user to come—was greeted by a new message Halliday had created, to welcome those visitors who had adopted his new technology: READY PLAYER TWO

Well now that’s just silly.

And that’s our opening cutscene. And while this post is already long enough, I feel like I have to go on to chapter 0, because it feels like barely anything has happened so far. We didn’t even introduce any new character motivation or conflict, or a mystery to set the plot into motion, unless I’m supposed to think “why didn’t Halliday release this?” counts.

So Wade is back into the OASIS, and tells us about how much more real it all feels thanks to the ONI. I especially have to question how he can smell or taste anything—both of which he tells us he can. Like, who coded that? Did Halliday implement every single smell and taste himself, without anyone noticing? I hope you don’t need me to tell you that’s not typically how features are added to a large-scale video game.

If it feels like I’m nitpicking at the logic of the book, even though I always say I’m not very interested in that and would rather talk themes, it’s because I am, because there isn’t much else to discuss so far. Wade is happy about tasting virtual fruit. That’s the scene.

He tests out if he can feel pain, but no, the ONI reduces pain (a gunshot is translated as “a hard pinch”). On one hand, good, it would be a nightmare otherwise. On the other hand, I sort of hope there’s a setting for that in there, because otherwise, you just lost an entire clientele of kinksters.

This was it—the final, inevitable step in the evolution of videogames and virtual reality. The simulation had now become indistinguishable from real life.

Ah, now we have some juicy themes. Because if you think this is the inevitable final step in the evolution of video games, I invite you to look at literally any other art form, and what happened to them once hyperrealism became easy. Hint: they didn’t stop evolving, because it turns out realism isn’t the only goal one can achieve with art.

The realism discussion is not a new one in video games, mind you. In case you’re out of the loop: most of the big-budget blockbuster games (“AAA” as they’re known) are aiming for hyperrealism nowadays, and it results in development teams being forced to work in horrible conditions (known with the equally horrible euphemism of “crunch”). And, because it turns out that 1) humans working themselves to the bones isn’t healthy and 2) racing for realism with little to no vision besides it makes for poor creativity, a lot of these games come out as disappointments. Oh, there are hordes of Gamers™ who will defend them to the bitter end, but inevitably, in the months following release, the defense cools off while the criticism keeps on going, because the defense was a knee-jerk reaction born of a mix of people hyping themselves up for a game they hadn’t seen that much of yet, then attaching a part of their identity to liking that thing.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that this throwaway line feels like it comes from someone who is so out of touch as to accidentally support a world view that has in fact resulted in the biggest part of the industry stagnating artistically while growing more toxic for the people working in it. All the while, more and more independent games come out every year, proving that that realism is nowhere near the most important thing to making a game good, and that you can achieve much better results with a small team.

What I’m trying to say is: watch Jim Sterling’s channel, they’ve been bleeding out subscribers since they came out as nonbinary and make much better commentary on this topic than I could, and play Hades.

Back to the book, which sadly hasn’t become any more interesting since I decided to go on a tangent. Wade tests the ONI functions some more, all the while musing on how he knows Samantha would disapprove but that he doesn’t care, because what loving relationship doesn’t consist of that?

Among the functions, he tries the ONI files, the aforementioned recordings of someone else’s experiences. Specifically, a woman, which Wade tells us by telling us he suddenly has breasts, I suppose because Ernest Cline saw that subreddit about men writing women and went “I want a piece of that”. Oh, and also, those sample files were recorded from real people, in the real world. And yes, this goes exactly where you think it does.

SEX-M-F.oni, SEX-F-F.oni, and SEX-Nonbinary.oni

Look, I actually started writing a complaint about the boobs thing, and I deleted it, but now Cline is doing it on purpose. So, here goes: I saw a quote from this book on Twitter that looked like Cline attempting to make up for Wade’s casual transphobia in the first book. It wasn’t good, but it at least sounded like he was trying. So to immediately get this is…a lot? Let’s go for a lot.

I can almost excuse the use of “M” and “F”. You gotta name your files and you could excuse a non-exhaustive list. But…nonbinary? On one hand, I want to know what Cline means. On the other hand, I don’t think he can come up with an answer I’ll find satisfactory.

We are thankfully spared from finding out because Wade has just lost his virginity to Samantha a few days ago and he’s 1) not ready for this and 2) pretty sure this counts as cheating. You could make a case that this is more like porn, but I can see that this is more of a personal distinction anyway, and I can respect that one. Plus, you know. I don’t want to find out.

Wade logs off, and he can’t tell the difference between the OASIS with the ONI, and decides this will change the world. And then it’s back to the “how did he do it and keep it a secret”, even though Wade now finds out in the documentation that this had been in development for twenty-five years, basically since the OASIS launched. So it’s not really that it’s a secret, so much as there are a lot of people under very strict NDAs out there. Or, again, they’re all dead and/or otherwise incapacitated.

The ONI is the product of the Accessibility Research Lab, and Wade tells us about other stuff that the lab has produced using similar technology, mostly for medical purposes.

GSS patented each of the Accessibility Research Lab’s inventions, but Halliday never made any effort to profit from them. Instead, he set up a program to give these neuroprosthetic implants away, to any OASIS users who could benefit from them. GSS even subsidized the cost of their implant surgery.

Look, it’s nice that you want Halliday to be the good guy through and through, but it’s kind of hard to take any social commentary seriously when you think this is how a billionaire is made. Hell, even when he shut down the lab and fired its entire staff, he gave them a big enough severance package to set them for life. You know. Capitalism!

Hey, remember when Samantha said she was going to end world hunger if she won the contest, a thing billionaires right now could be doing, but aren’t, and she is now the co-owner of GSS? Yeah, I kind of hope the book remembers that too.

Speaking of the co-owners, the book just completely skips over the debate that our four main characters have over whether or not to release the ONI to the world. All we know is that they voted, and the vote goes in favor of releasing it. I mean, why have characters who could have opinions and feelings that could create a discussion? That might make us care about them! And who wants to care about characters in a story?

We put them on sale at the lowest possible price, to make sure as many people as possible could experience the OASIS Neural Interface for themselves.

What exactly is “the lowest possible price” here? Your company literally owns money. Like, OASIS money is real money. There is literally nothing stopping you from giving them away, especially because what you’re giving away is access to the platform you’re already running for a profit.

It’s almost like, even trying to make “good billionaires” out of its protagonists, the book can’t stop and actually make them significantly good.

Oh, I should mention. If you thought my Ready Player One review was angry at capitalism, wait until you see what the past couple years have done to me.

Anyway, once they his 7,777,777 simultaneous ONI users, a new riddle shows up on Halliday’s website. Because yep: our plot is apparently not about the implications of releasing the ONI, or any of the potential ideological discussions associated with that, it’s another riddle. Oh boy, do I wish I’d known that.

Seek the Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul On the seven worlds where the Siren once played a role For each fragment my heir must pay a toll To once again make the Siren whole

I cannot wait to have the book give me just not enough information to solve the riddle until it’s solved by the book itself. That was so much fun the other…what was it, five times? Six times? Something like that. Wade already tells us the Siren might be Kira Morrow, because her alias was named after one of the sirens of Greek myth, so I can’t wait for that plot point to stick around. It was so fun to hear all about this man pining for another man’s wife the first time!

So this is the “Shard Riddle”. People are apparently convinced it was made by Wade and his crew as a publicity stunt, but of course, they know that that isn’t the case, and they also don’t know what that riddle is supposed to lead to. So, that’s great. We have a puzzle, and we also don’t know what the stakes are. All we know is that Wade wants to solve the puzzle essentially because it’s a challenge.

We skip over a year, and Wade tells us about how IOI collapses and gets absorbed by GSS because of the ONI’s launch. Remember IOI? They were the bad guys, so I guess we have to cheer?

GSS absorbed IOI and all of its assets, transforming us into an unstoppable megacorporation with a global monopoly on the world’s most popular entertainment, education, and communications platform.To celebrate, we released all of IOI’s indentured servants and forgave their outstanding debts.

On one hand: good for the slave. On the other hand: not gonna cheer for a monopoly, you guys.

Another year’s skip, and now 99% of the OASIS users are using the ONI, and yes, that includes trading their experiences with one another too. And I guess we’re still hand-waving any possible problems associated with that technology, because the technology is made so that all recordings must be shared and played through the OASIS.

This allowed us to weed out unsavory or illegal recordings before they could be shared with other users.

How? Do you know any of the problems associated with content moderations on the current platforms? I don’t know if I want to point to Youtube’s extremely faulty algorithm, Twitter’s complete apathy towards its Nazis, or Facebook doing moderation by making underpaid staff watch all potentially problematic content, which resulted in serious psychological damage to said staff.

You can’t just say that as if it solved everything. The chapter later says this is handled by an AI called “CenSoft”, and as an AI engineer myself, let me tell you: this is not going to work. Again: Youtube is the way it is for a reason.

It also let us maintain our monopoly on what was rapidly becoming the most popular form of entertainment in the history of the world.

And again, monopolies are totally a good thing as long as it’s in the right hands!

When I’m implying that the book does not care for any of these potential problems, I mean it. These enormous ethical issues are sidestepped in cold narratin, and we just keep going on introducing new slang that I hate, but have to quote so help you keep up.

“Sims” were recordings made inside the OASIS, and “Recs” were ONI recordings made in reality. Except that most kids no longer referred to it as “reality.” They called it “the Earl.” (A term derived from the initialism IRL.) And “Ito” was slang for “in the OASIS.” So Recs were recorded in the Earl, and Sims were created Ito.

There. You have been infodumped.

In the midst of all this (still extremely dry) exposition about how this changed media, we also get this tidbit:

You could take any drug, eat any kind of food, and have any kind of sex, without worrying about addiction, calories, or consequences.

Now, I was going to rant about this, but then, a page later, this happens and spares me the trouble:

I’d struggled with OASIS addiction before the ONI was released. Now logging on to the simulation was like mainlining some sort of chemically engineered superheroin.

So, you are aware that addiction isn’t just possible, but extremely facilitated by this. But sure, no worries! It’s perfectly safe! Because our protagonists are good.

Also, remember how the last book ended on a weak attempt at having a moral that maybe the real world is good, actually? Yeah, Wade tells us the ONI helps poor people live enjoyable lives in the OASIS. So. Fuck that message, I guess. It only applies if you’re the literal wealthiest man on Earth.

And me? All my dreams had come true. I’d gotten stupidly rich and absurdly famous. I’d fallen in love with my dream girl and she had fallen in love with me. Surely I was happy, right? Not so much, as this account will show.

Aside from the aforementioned returning OASIS affiction, there’s the Shard riddle that Wade is now obsessed with, to the point of offering a billion-dollar reward to anyone with information about the riddle’s answer.

I announced this reward with a stylized short film that I modeled after Anorak’s Invitation. I hoped it would seem like a lighthearted play on Halliday’s contest instead of a desperate cry for help. It seemed to work.

On one hand: good, Wade finally has a character flaw that the book actually acknowledges as a character flaw. I can work with that. On the other hand: this is all told to me in such a dispassionate that I am dreading how the book will handle this character flaw. Which is to say, I’m not expecting it to be very good.

(For a brief time, some of the younger, more idealistic shard hunters referred to themselves as “shunters” to differentiate themselves from their elder counterparts. But when everyone began to call them “sharters” instead, they changed their minds and started to call themselves gunters too. The moniker still fit. The Seven Shards were Easter eggs hidden by Halliday, and we were all hunting for them.)

Especially when this is something the narration feels is more important to tell me about.

Anyway, skip another year, and a gunter finally leads Wade to the First Shard. Solved that riddle, I guess. And wait, wasn’t part of why IOI was ~evil~ in the first book that they were paying people to find the Easter Egg for them? How is this any different, Wade?

And when I picked it up, I set in motion a series of events that would drastically alter the fate of the human race. As one of the only eyewitnesses to these historic events, I feel obligated to give my own written account of what occurred. So that future generations—if there are any—will have all the facts at their disposal when they decide how to judge my actions.

And that is the end of our chapter 0. And can I just say: what a mess already. I don’t think my snark can properly convey how utterly devoid of emotion this book’s writing is, and that alone is honestly more of a turn-off than anything else in the book so far. Even, knowing that I railed about it in the first book, I still feel newly unprepared for it. And it’s not like this double-prologue is making me hopeful that the book will show an ounce more critical thinking—or decent fucking humanity towards marginalized groups—as its predecessor.

So, that’s a lot to look forward to! For the sake of my sanity and schedule, don’t expect me to do such big posts every time. I’ll probably do one chapter a week from now on, if that. We’re in for a long ride, but I hope it’s worth it, at least.

[pandawritesmanythings]

Folkloric Lesson

Based on @gingerwritess Loki's Happy Ending and for her 4k follower celeration! Congrats, love!

Word Count: 1743

(I must admit that this is more self-insert-y than anything, but gosh darn it I have this scenario so clear in my mind, so sue me!)

Summary: A hot meal and a music lesson, outfits included, are a good way to introduce someone to a culture, right?

It's not that you didn't enjoy eating fancy meals when you and Loki were by yourselves. Or quick homemade meals most days with Elliot and Frigg. But you missed your mom's food.

That's why when she called you to say that she had left something for you and the kiddos on the doorstep you drove as fast as the law would allow you to pick up Frigg from kindergarten and Elliot from his afterschool club to get home. Quick.

When you saw the beaten up deep pot, clearly used past it's intended years, your eyes got glossy. You remembered that old pot.

Frigg and Elliot swarmed you with questions about what was in it.

"It's smells really good!" Elliot said trying to get a peek.

"Does that mean we're not eating spaghetti again?" Frigg's eyes widened in excitement.

"Hey! You love my pasta." You pouted placing the pot on the counter before leaning down and kissing her neck as she laughed and squirmed out of your grip.

"But what is it?" Elliot asked trying to get on top of the counter to look inside the pot.

You catched him before he could climb up. "Eh! No climbing the counter. You know that!" You admonished him half-seriously.

"But I want to know!" He pouted. Oh yeah. He totally took that from you.

"Then let me open it and let's see!"

When you opened the lid a heavenly aroma rose from the pot. A soup with an array of different vegetables and some type of meat was on the pot. A little bit of the oil from the guiso still floating at the top, but not enough to make it look greasy.

Your jaw dropped when you recognized the meat. "Oh my god es lagarto..." 

"LAGARTO!?" Elliot shrieked horrified.

"What?" Frigh asked confused.

You mentally slapped yourself. You shouldn't have said it like that. While trying to make an effort for your kiddos to know a bit of your mother tongue you had completely forgotten that colloquial language was also a thing, and not every overly simplified card game with animal names in spanish could explain everything to a nine-year-old.

"No, Elliot, that's not what it means."

"Then what does it mean?" He asked, obviously concerned at the prospect of potentially eating a lizard.

"It's a way of calling this type of meat. It's part of the cow, just like any other steak. It's just a way of speaking." You smiled as his concern slowly drained from his face. "On the other hand this is one of the softest parts to eat! You guys are really going to like it!" 

Placing it back onto the stove and turning the heat on, you ask your kids to go change and come back to help you set the table for the night.

As you finished getting everything ready your mind flew back to your culture. You had to admit that there had been a certain disconnect with it ever since you had moved to New York, and it only grew as your shenanigans with Loki augmented.  But it was something that was yours and you wanted your children to also appreciate.

A smile came to your face as you thought of an idea. But you couldn't do it today. You would have to wait a bit.

Loki was delighted when he saw the gift from his mother-in-law. He was the first to admit that the relationship with your parents was... bumpy at best. But marrying a reformed super villian isn't exactly every parents' dream, is it? But they respected your decision and were supportive where they could, even if they lived a bit far away.

The meal that day was great, and there was some leftovers that you put on a Tupperware to take to work tomorrow. Nothing in the house went to waste, and that was a law.

Loki noticed whispers among you and the children for the next few weeks, and even heard a couple of times scrambling and shushing as he came home from meeting and such.

He was starting to get suspicious, especially one night, when after finally getting Frigg to sleep, he came into the room to find you pushing something far into the closet.

He wanted to ask you about it, but he trusted you. And he honestly couldn't resist when you kissed him so lovingly. It just melted his troubles away whenever you were next to him.

Almost a month later he found what all the secrecy had been about. He came in the small apartment waiting the usual scene of you and the kids getting ready for dinner, but he found something even better.

You were sitting on the floor with Frigg on your lap beaming up at him. Both of you were wearing traditional clothes from your country. Flowers decorating your hairstyle, which consisted of tying it up on a bun.

Elliot stood by your side on a male style of the traditional costume. His mop of hair covered by a traditional sewn hat.

You three beamed at his delighted confusion. And you nodded at Elliot who played some flokloric music on the speaker and, after pulling Loki to sit on the couch, you three began singing and dancing around him as you had practiced during the past weeks. The kids on a choppy, but adorable spanish, and you with the words flowing out of your mouth. Words you had known all of your life but hadn't said in a long time.

Loki was absolutely delighted at his little family and tried to partake by taking you and trying to follow your steps. And although it was very sloppy, you didn't care. It wasn't just the sheer happiness, or the smooth but old sounding man's voice that came from the speaker, it was everything. The smiles on yours and your kids' faces. The aroma of spices that Loki had never smelled before. Maybe once in a lifetime, but too long ago for him to remember it this vividly. The flow of your dress. The way it was clinging to your hips, yet it flowed at your feet, twirling almost magically as you spun around carrying a laughing Frigg on your arms. How your cleavage and shoulders were exposed by the white shirt.  It was everything. Everything that reminded Loki everyday why he loved you and why he was so happy to have chosen you over his own pride.

This was living. This was what it had meant to be alive. To enjoy the colorful moments. The mix of cultures. The beauty of the strong woman you had become. It sent him on a trip of emotions, a spiral of happiness that not even he could explain. Because now that the song had ended, his little daughter, his little miracle, said that she practiced a song and wanted to try and sing it to him. He agreed, euphoric, and you pulled him to sit on the couch and Elliot cuddled next to him to listen to his little sister.

You kneeled next to your daughter as she took a breath and began reciting the song that both of you had been practicing. A song that you had been raised with. That you grew up singing and now your baby girl was singing too. She began to sing in her choppy and wonderful spanish:

"La vaca mah-riposa tuvo un ter-ne'.

Un becerito lindo como un beh-beh!"

You giggled as you joined her to sing along with her.

"Dámelo papaito dicen los niños cuando lo ven nacer,

Y ella lo esconde por los mogotes, que no se

¡La vaca mariposa tuvo un terne'!

Y los pericos van,Y el Gavilán también,

Con frutas criollas hasta el caney para él,

Y mariposa está, que nos sabe que hacer.

Por que ella sabe la suerte de él."

Loki sees you both there. His little girl standing there looking down at her mom kneeling next to her, a loving expression. One that goes beyond words in both of your faces as you share in a song a lifetime an a million more that go from one generation to the next.

A pretty outfit that is almost identical between the both of you, Frigg's being a bit more age appropriate for a 4, almost 5 year old. And yours that accentuated your figure perfectly and made you look like a goddess from a fable from your people. A goddess of laughter, kindness and fertility that Loki was completly enamoured with.

As the song ended he and Elliot clapped as Frigg did a little bow and you followed her lead after she motioned a hand for you to do the same.

Promptly afterwards, Loki was taken hostage by the kiddos to look at the meal that they and their mom had proudly made.

Loki was amazed at the variety of foods that you had made. He saw the arepas, like the ones that you had offered him a long time ago, when hiding in your office seemed like a good idea.

"I remember these." He smirked.

You pushed past him to pick up the trays and take them to the dining table. "Oh, shut up." You smirked back.

The table was filled with many traditional dishes from your home country, surprisingly, many were fried. One had an egg on top of it and ketchup.

"Don't judge me. Judge my ancestors. I still don't get the egg. But I said "eh, I might as well go all out!"" You offered as an explanation as you placed a tray with tequeños next to the traditional drink chicha.

Loki mildly remembered parties, and banquets and feasts back in Asgard. But there was nothing in the world that could make him forget something like this. And of course, he loved to have casual dinners with you and his little family, but this felt special, it felt like when you sit next to the heart at a cozy home. It feels right and safe. And yeah, you are playing a game with Elliot and Frigg to get them to eat their veggies, not just the deliciously fried tequeños. But it was his family, it was his life, it was you and your kids in lovely folkloric outfits and feeling safe.

It was everything that he had ever wished for. And he knew that he had never expected the universe to be this kind to him. That's why he was so thankful.

---

Hope you guys liked it! And again Theo, congrats love! <3

[softstraykidsimagines]

Boyfriend!Seungmin Stray Kids

ALRIGHTY

Our lovely fluffy Seungmin

He’s lowkey becoming bias wrecker for me whoops

Let’s get started!!

During when he has a crush on you

Ohhhh boy

He’s gonna be insanely shy

It’s adorable

He’ll try to do little things to make you happy

From complementing you

To buying you something small like a key chain

But it’s always something meaningful

Something that reminds you of him

Let’s not discard the fact that anytime he actually does something like this for you

He’s gonna sprint away before you can even thank him properly

And he’ll hide somewhere so that you can’t see or hear him squeal with joy

Ok it’s official I am soft for Seungmin

You don’t really have too much doubt about him liking you

You’ve picked up remarkably fast how shy he is with you compared to when he’s with the rest of SK 

And you figured he had an ulterior motive when he happened to just “think of you” and buy something

Or when he teases you but quickly apologises and tells you he doesn’t mean it 

He’s just not very subtle 

So you’re rather upfront with him one day when you ask

“Soooo, I’ve been wondering…. why have you been so sweet to me? With all the nice gifts and stuff?”

He would immediately go red in the face

His eyes would go wide

And he’d just stand there a moment with his mouth hanging open not knowing wtf to do

And you feel kinda bad tbh

No one likes being in such an awkward situation so the way you just asked him out-of-the-blue seemed almost cruel

He finally managed to stutter out

“W-well umm…. I k-kinda… sort o-of l-like you…?”

It deadass took him a whole 30sec to finish

And you’re doing an Irish jig on the inside cause

WOOT WOOT he likes you too!!

“I really like you too, Seungmin” you say quickly before he can run off in embarrassment

He looks at you hella confused like

The person he’s liked for so freaking long likes him back?? Or is he dreaming??? Whatishappeningrightnow????

SeungminHasStoppedWorking.jpg

So you tell him where you want to hang out in the future

And there we go you’ve successfully planned your first date woohoo!!

Dates with this bean are soft and laid back

Ice cream dates

Coffee dates

Just wandering-around-for-no-reason dates

It’s so relaxing

Of course until one of you holds the other’s hand

Then it’s skyrocketing heart rates

And pink cheeks

At the end of your 2nd or 3rd date, he’d finally muster the courage to kiss you....

On the cheek haha you thought 

As you’re saying goodbye

Leaving you flustered af as he runs away yelling that he’ll text you later

I don’t think he’ll have the guts to kiss you first tho 

It’s up to you my friend

You’ll be sitting on a bench somewhere, just talking

And he just

Randomly

Pokes your cheek.

And you look at him like wtf man why

And he just turns away grinning

So you get cheeky, planning on making this sudden burst of confidence melt faster than snow in the sun

So you swoop in and peck his cheek

He blushes like crazy but he refuses to let you win

So he looks at you a moment

With a slight smirk on his face

Seriously where did all this confidence come from he was a shy child a minute ago tf?

And he kisses you right on the nose

Needless to say that surprised you

And spur of the moment

You decide you’re gonna kiss him smack on the lips

His eyes are wide as all hell

But he relaxes a split second later, kissing you back softly

You both part smiling slightly

Before he whisper-screeches, hiding his face in his hands, all embarrassed

And you also blush like crazy, also fighting the urge to run away

GAH THIS IS SO CUTE 

When he introduces you to the rest of the group

Oh

My god

It’s gonna be chaos I swear

Everyone’s gonna welcome you politely and enthusiastically

And then they’ll start poking fun at Seungmin

“AWWWW they’re so lovely! How on earth did you get them to date you??” Says Jisung

“I bet he pays them” replies Minho, cackling

“Must have been a lot of money” chipped in Changbin, enjoying himself 

All the while Seungmin makes a face like ‘this is the shit I need to put up with all the time good lord’

“Come on guys! Of course y/n didn’t agree to this for money” yells Jeongin

Seungmin is about to thank him when he finishes:

“They obviously came to meet me through Hyung” and he sprints off at top speed with Seungmin hot on his heels screaming bloody murder

“Please take care of him, y/n” Chan says quietly while the other boys guffaw at the two youngest’s behavior. “He really likes you”

And that’s exactly what you do

You guys have got each others back

No matter what

Someone tries to offend you in any way, shape or form 

And he’s there in front of you like a human shield ready to fight 

If he gets sick you’re there as quick as a flash with everything he needs, all the way from cold remedies to recipes for hot soup

While you’re making sure he’s not burning up, he’ll just whisper

“Can I just cuddle you? I swear I won’t sneeze on you”

So you just lie there holding each other the entire day

He keeps his promise and doesn’t sneeze on you btw

When you’re sick, he’s not gonna know what the hell to do

Lost puppy 

He’ll run around trying to find the right meds for you (he’ll take the time to read each label to make sure it’s the right one)

He’ll try to make soup it doesn’t work

But after a while he’ll calm down and sit with you to watch something on TV

Apologising that he couldn’t make your fav meal 

Makes up for it by buying takeout 

Man I want takeout now :(

He can sometimes feel down about the day

Something might have happened at the fansign/performance, he might feel really tired and fed up with work

So it’s your job to be there and comfort him 

You just wrap your arms around him and sit with his head on your shoulder 

And he cries silently with you, grateful that you’re with him 

Guess who’s emo while writing this

Sometimes days can get bad enough that he starts to shut you out all-together 

Seungmin isn’t the direct type 

He isn’t gonna start an argument because he’s stressed 

He’s gonna avoid any kind of conflict 

So he avoids you, ignores you, refuses to talk to you when he’s too upset 

Because he doesn’t want to lash out and hurt you 

But he’ll notice when he does this that it actually does hurt you 

Almost more than an argument would 

Because you want to help 

And he won’t let you 

So he’ll eventually come to talk to you, his head bowed and eyes glimmering with tears 

And he’ll just hug you, asking for you to forgive how stupid he can be 

RIGHT back to fluff because I don’t want to cry rn 

He loves to teach you to sing his parts in every song 

He feels you can understand his work better and be closer to him 

You two will end up sometimes randomly singing his part in a song at the top of your lungs in the dorm, in turn pissing off the rest of the boys 

You’ll both have singing competitions: who can sing the highest, lowest, longest, or most dramatically 

And you both end up collapsing from laughing too hard 

He’s gonna try to speak English around you 

Just so he can practice 

Have you heard his awesome accent during ASC that is a yes from me I don’t want to forget that 

He might ask you for help but he’s mostly too stubborn and proud to so he’ll struggle for a while until you ask if he wants a helping hand 

“Hey, need help for the pronunciation, there?” 

“Nope! Nope it’s fine! I’m fine! Toooootally fine” :D 

You two like trying to learn new recipes to cook for the rest of SK 

It’s actually super fun 

And you both manage to make a few dishes without setting the dorms on fire *applause* 

And you make breakfast for them too: fried eggs! now I’m really hungry aw man 

And the boys are already teasing you talking about how you’re couple goals and how well you two go together 

Making the both of you sprint back into the kitchen, giggling like children

Seungmin is gonna ask you to meet his family first 

But it doesn’t scare you that much 

For a good reason:

He’s an angel, so he must have been raised by angels logic

You meet them and they melt when they see you 

You chat, they share pictures of Seungmin when he was little he’s gonna be close to crying from embarrassment because “COME ON YOU JUST MET” 

His sister adores you 

Tells you about the pranks she’s pulled on her poor bro in the past 

Which warrants a death glare from Seungmin 

All in all his fam are your fam because they love you as much as they love Seungmin 

He’s a lot A LOT more nervous about meeting your parents 

He’s pretty damn close to fainting when the day to meet up comes 

Pale as sheet istg 

So you gotta be there for him to cling onto like a baby koala 

Save this boy I beg of you

Nearly hides behind you when he first greets your parents 

Basically leaps out of his skin every time someone raises their voice even a little bit 

But he gets a little calmer after a while 

And starts to genuinely smile and laugh 

By the end of the day he’s a happy squish with no sign of nervousness

Success! 

In the evenings he likes to buy a crap-ton of snacks and sit with you to binge watch your fav show 

You two will probs have a competition to see who can catch the most food in their mouth sigh 

He loves when you poke his left cheek 

He’ll act cute with you if he’s asking for something 

And it’s so freaking hard to say no damn it!!

He’ll have a fucking heart attack if he sees you wearing one of his hoodies or denim jackets like how many does he actually have??

But he’ll love it 

He’s gonna grin from ear to ear saying how cute you look 

Will not let you go throughout the night

Just wants to cling to you and snuggle you to death the entire evening 

You’ve probs already guessed that he is definitely not gonna be the first one to say ‘I love you’ 

Nah he’s way to shy and lowkey scared to 

But I bet you’re gonna do it kinda by accident 

You guys have been having a dance competition 

He’s gonna be jumping around all energetic and happy 

Because he’s having the time of his life messing around with you 

And you’ll accidentally let slip: 

“You’re such a dork! This is why I love you so much” 

And both of you stop laughing and stare at each other 

While you’re mentally going OH SHIT WHAT HAVE I DONE 

But Seungmin suddenly screams like a little girl 

He can’t contain himself

Runs at you at full speed 

And tackles you into a bone-crushing hug 

Making you both topple over onto the floor laughing 

Without letting you go, he’s gonna say, all giddy “I love you too!!! I was scared to say it but I’m not anymore I do love youuuuuuu!!” 

And the rest of the day you’re both skipping around, making SK wonder wtf happened to the two of you

“Are they possessed or something?” -Hyunjin 

“Who even knows with those two” -Chan  

“Guess we’ll never know” -Felix, chuckling 

Half the time they don’t get at all what happens between you two lmao 

When Stray Kids are away, Seungmin’s gonna want to FaceTime you whenever he’s free 

He’s a pouty boy who misses you senseless and forgets how to function like a proper human being when you’re not around 

SK are having to tell him specifically what to do every other minute because he keeps daydreaming about when he gets to see you again smh 

He’s gonna be so.freakin.hyper on the way back from wherever the boys were 

No one wants to sit next to him on the plane because they know all he’s gonna want to do is talk about you 

And they get enough of that on a regular basis anyway 

But they’re happy at how energetic he is when they land and he can finally see you 

He’s gonna Naruto run to you and hug you so tightly whispering how much he missed you 

And you’ll be laughing like 

“It’s been two days, buddy” 

“Yeah but it feels like AGES! It’s been an eternity and I was going insane!!” 

Seungmin most likely won’t go public about your relationship until after a year to a year-and-a-half

Wants to make sure you’re 100% ok with it 

Because he knows there will be a bit probably a lot of drama on the net about you 

He’ll post a cute selfie of the two of you 

You’re both smiling happily 

And he’ll caption it: ‘Hey everyone!! This is y/n, we’ve been together for quite a while now, and I wanted to introduce you! I hope you welcome them warmly!’ 

The internet isn’t going to shut up about you for an eternity holy shit

The entire universe ships you two 

You’re the adorable smiley couple

That everyone 

And I mean everyone 

Loves to bits 

A/N: YAY! It was really fun to write about this adorable fluff ball :D 

Also, there aren’t NEARLY as many Seungmin GIFs as there should be!

Hope everyone has a lovely day!! And feel free to request anything! Ciao <3

P.S: I love this GIF so much it’s not even funny 

[fearofaherobrine]

Roleplay Server Log #394

"Zly Checks In, Grocery Shopping, Cn Kidnapped, The Firebird and the Sphinx”

[Zly Wilk] - makes his way back to the path he was on before meeting up with Lazur. They make their way to the general direction of the bar, passing near Lie and CP's place.

[Aether] Is crying because CP briefly put her down-

[CP] - It's okay, I'm just getting you some fresh clothes

[Zly Wilk] - hears Aether as they get close - Oh, that's right, Lie had her and CP's baby.

[Lazur] -looks uneasily at the house - Uh... good for them?

[CP] - Come on kiddo, don't cry.  Do you wanna go see the dogs?  Let's go see the dogs- He starts carrying Aether towards the door as he also works on getting her dressed

[Zly Wilk] Oh, come on... we should stop in and offer our congratulations to the new family.

[Lazur] -unsure noises-

[CP] Steps outside and watches his daughter fuss at the sunlight- You're fine, it's just a little light

[Zly Wilk] - Walks up but keeps a respectful distance - Hey, CP.

[CP] - What?- He's heading for the dog pen

[Zly Wilk] Just passing by,  wanted to congratulate you and Lie and meet the new addition.

[CP] Turns so they can see Aether better- Yeah, she's arrived alright, and is being fussy right now

[Zly Wilk] -smiles- Awww... she's adorable.  Babies can be a handful, even when they don't have powers.  

[Lazur] - is standing back slightly with a polite smile trying to hide her 'I'd-rather-be-anywhere-but-here' feelings.

[CP] - She can already set herself on fire

-The wolves are crowding the fence to sniff at Aether-

[Blake] Follows Cp out of the house and gives the newcomers a decisive - Urf.

[Zly Wilk] so I've heard. Well at least the flames aren't setting anything else ablaze... yet. - he moves his gauntleted hand around so that the light makes the gem on the back and the gold sparkle but doesn't shine on the baby

[Aether] Was reaching for Blake but gets distracted by the shiny-

[CP] - So where have you been hiding as of late?

[Zly Wilk] we built a little place in one of the wooded biomes.  Been farming, growing those glowing apples doc and Yaunfen and I created.  Been rather relaxing.... -sly look- took up making alcohol too... everyone needs a hobby.

[CP] - Alcohol, that's a good idea

[Aether] Stretches towards Zly-

[CP] - What are you doing you little silly?

[Zly Wilk] -chuckles and lets Aether grab onto his gauntlet hand's fingers - yeah, I've been working on a hard cider just for Brines... with a little more kick than a Steve could handle.

[CP] - Doubt it would do much for me, but for Lie?  Would probably make her drunk

[Zly Wilk] - produces 3 differently shaped and clearly marked bottles from his inventory-  feel free to try them yourself sometime. Let me know how it goes.

The skull shaped bottle with the white eyes is the Brine Cider, the one that looks like an apple is a little less potent, but still alcoholic, and the baby bottle shape is just regular apple juice from the native apples... in case you needed something for the baby.

[CP] - Well we are starting to introduce her to new foods, I'll have TLOT make copies when he comes back

[Aether] Tries to put Zly's fingers in her mouth-

[Zly Wilk] - keeps his fingers just out of reach - I don't think those fingers would taste very good, little lady.  -at CP- Just be careful with the skull bottle. I have a slight immunity to its effects and I was still knocked out for a couple days testing that batch.

[Lazur] -crossly- I thought he was dead, the jerk,except he never despawned....

[CP] - I can handle most alcohols, so we'll see- He shifts Aether so she can't reach the gauntlet anymore

[Aether] Fusses-

[Zly Wilk] well, we're off to the bar. Going to unload some of the mild and non alcoholic stuff on Sam if they want it for the collection.  Tell Lie we said congratulations as well if we don't see her.

[CP] - When she comes back from irl I will

[Zly Wilk] - waves at Aether - bye bye, little one.

[Lazur] - already fast walking away -

[Zly Wilk] - catches up - What was that about?

[Lazur] ....What was what?

[Zly Wilk] -gives a look-

[Lazur] Ok...ok.... I don't like kids, ok?  Not. My. Thing.

[Zly Wilk] Ok! Ok! Forget I asked.

[CP] Calms Aether down and heads back inside with Blake following.  He puts Aether in her crib and watches Blake lay  down in front of the crib as she falls asleep- Sleep well my precious little girl

[Lie] Has a decent selection of fruits and veggies in her cart for the server as they head for the meat department-

[Doc] Is just eyeballing everything. - This is all so much....

[Lie] - I know, and I guess you're not used to seeing so many cuts of meat...

[Doc] Not really no... I kinda skipped this when I went out with Cp. He's always in such a hurry.

[Lie] - Well, out here you get different bits of meat from different parts of the animal- She points to a chart on the wall behind the counter showing where each part comes from

[Doc] Pokes a package. - It's the sheer amount of plastic that unsettles me.

[Lie] - Well the plastic does help keep the meat from contaminating stuff

[Doc] I understand... but I still hate it.

[Lie] - I know- She moves a little farther down to the bacon section- Hey, here's something you and Deer might like- She holds up a red box with a black label with bacon inside

[Doc] More bacon?

[Lie] - A specific type, maple bacon

[Doc] I don't know what maple is? I presume it's just flavored differently?

[Lie] - Maple is...  It's similar to touchie syrup, but it comes from tree's

[Doc] Oh, okay? I'll try it. - They take the package and glance to one side. - That's odd. What's wrong with these eggs? Are they dirty?

[Lie] - You mean the brown ones?  No, that's how some eggs are.  Egg's can come in a variety of shapes and colors

[Doc] Puts them in the cart - Hmmm.... Can you think of anything else?

[Lie] - Well, we still need to get something sweet for Yaunfen, and maybe some cereal for Aether

[Doc] I was hoping for suggestions, you lead, I'll follow. What else is there out here that's sweet that we don't have?

[Lie] Leads the way to the cereal aisle and to where the brightly colored boxes are- Let's see here...

[Doc] Geeze... these characters look rather crazy. Everyone is super excited to eat whatever is pictured. Do these things have energy boost effects???

[Lie] - Er…  In a sense?  They're packed with sugar.  The characters are mostly to attract children...  Fair warning, there are plastic bags inside of the boxes just to keep the cereal fresh- She picks up a box of honey nut cheerios

[Doc] Frowns- I'm sure I'm going to have to take out the trash once I unwrap all this other stuff anyway. -hir fingers graze several brightly colored boxes.

[Lie] - Take your pick Doc, they're all equally sugary

[Doc] Settles on a box of Froot Loops. - I like the rainbow one. And if it's sweet, Yaunfen will most likely love it too.

[Lie] - Usually you eat these with milk for breakfast- She spots some baby puffs and grabs an apple flavored one of those

[Doc] Milk we have plenty of thankfully.

[Lie] - Exactly, shall we check out?

[Doc] Absolutely.

[Lie] Heads for the check out and spots an open self check out and goes there-

[Doc] Gives the plastic bags a dirty look. - Don't get any. We'll take the cart out and I'll carry the stuff myself.

[Lie] - Okay, we still have to put the stuff in the bagging area though- She moves pretty smoothly as she scans things until it's time to pay- Your turn

[Doc] Pulls out hir card and blazes through the small menu. - Getting better... These are really simple little computers.

[Lie] - Yup, it doesn't take very long to learn them, but some people who can't read signs still have difficulties

[Doc] I believe it. - They take the handle of the cart and push it towrds the door.  - So how are you feeling Lie? Physically or otherwise?

[Lie] - Fine, other than exhausted and sexually frustrated

[Doc] Oh dear... I know you hate TLOT's coffee. Should I be working on something that won't set off your allergies? I also know you don't want my help with the other issue.

[Lie] - I think I'll be better once Aether is on an actual sleep schedule

[Doc] So... maybe something for her? How do you relax a baby so they'll sleep better? - Xe pushes the cart around the side of the building and bends over it to start putting things in their inventory.

[Lie] - I don't even know

[Doc] Maybe a noise she likes?

[Lie] - She does get sleepy when I sing to her...

[Doc] I could make you a record for a jukebox? - They're just putting the last few things away.

[Lie] - Maybe, but I think it's about time to head home

[Doc] Agreed. I need to finish this little update. Hopefully I won't get beat up when I'm done. It's a fix for some of the water physics errors and might break a few small things.

[Lie] - I'm sure you'll have plenty of help fixing it.  It's a clean copy from the office, right?

[Doc] Yes, thankfully. - They use some nearby electronics to make a hole and hop through before reaching back for her.

[Lie] Takes Doc's hand and follows-

[Doc] Closes it behind them and they're back on Lie's lawn. -I hope we didn't miss anything important.

[Lie] - I wouldn't hope so- She heads for the front door of her house

[Doc] Just show me where you want your part of the stuff.

[Lie] - Right, we've got a spare chest set up just for Aether's food so we won't be scrambling to find it- She let's Doc in and finds CP in the main room- Hey, where's Aether?

[CP] - Sleeping, everything go okay?

[Lie] - Yeah, everything went smoothly

[Doc] We got lots of new stuff. - They sit down on a block and start ripping open packages and transfering food into normal Minecraft containers before making copies and trunking them.

[Lie] - I'm going to check on Aether real quick

[CP] - Alright, just don't trip on Blake, he was right in front of the crib when I left them

[Blake] Is in the crib with Aether and curled around her protectively.

[Lie] Heads for the room and opens the door quietly, upon seeing the predicament she quickly pulls out her phone and starts recording- Blake?  What are you doing?

[Blake] Opens one eye to regard her and parts his jaws ever so slightly to let out a very quiet 'boof'.

[Lie] - Blake...  You don't belong in the crib

[Blake] Rrrrrrrrr.......

[Lie] - Don't give me that, that space is too small for you

[Blake] Curls up around Aether a bit more and gives her a defiant look.

[Lie] - Oh my god...  You are being ridiculous...

[Blake] Huffs-

[Lie] - Alright, alright, just make sure she stays safe and warm

[Blake] Eyebrow - Since he is extremely fuzzy. Being a wolf and all.

[Lie] Stops recording and heads back to the other two, laughing to herself-

[Doc] Has a little pile of plastic, cardboard and styrofoam nonsense at their feet. - I split the eggs and bacon with you too. That cereal is.... really fragrant.

[Lie] - Yeah, it can be.  Hey Doc?  Do you mind sending something to Dawn's computer for me?

[Doc] Sure, what is it?

[Lie] - A video I just took, feel free to watch it yourself

[CP] - Just wanting to update Dawn or?

[Lie] - Go look at our child CP

[Doc] Takes the phone curiously and watches the clip before laughing quite hard. - Well Dawn did say he was clingy....

[Lie] - I think Aether has her first friend

[Doc] Sends it to Dawn with a smile. - A kid needs a pet anyway. And he'll help keep her safe.

[Lie] - Oh absolutely

[CP] Teleports into the bedroom and back- Really?  I'm not even sure how he got in there without knocking the crib over

[Doc] You should see some of the places Waffles gets into. Lh too, but I kinda wonder if he can no-clip sometimes because of his glitch.

[CP] Groans a little-

[Lie] - Let me know what Dawn's response is to the video, I don't think she has my number

[Doc] I will. - They gather up the garbage and start aggressively melting the pixels into a single block-shaped glob.

[Lie] - Need  any help with that Doc?

[Doc] No... just compacting it so none of the bits stray off. I can't think of any way to use it so I'll just take it out when I'm finished with my work.

[Lie] - Okay

[CP] - I think it's time for us to take a nap...

[Lie] - That does sound good...

[Doc] Yeah, I have coding to do anyway. You guys enjoy. - They start heading outside-

[Lie] - Thanks for going out with me Doc

[Doc] Anytime Lie. - They head down the steps into the rosy late afternoon and ride Gir back to the castle.

[Yaunfen] Has dozed off with their head on the kitchen table-

[Waffles] Is laying on the counter, covering most of it. Their giant paws and stump of a tail twitching a bit as they dream.

[Deer] Is cleaning up some dishes, humming softly to herself-

[Waffles] Rolls over to open a sleepy eye and give her wrist a little lick.

[Deer] - Good kitty Waffles- She gives them a little ear ruffle

[Waffles] Happy - Mow.

[Doc] Comes downstairs witha little click of metal on stone. They see Yaunfen tuckered out and speak to Deerheart quietly. - It's Fru isn't it? TLOT and Steve and even Stevie went out to get more iron.

[Deer] - Yeah, I'm not sure what we're going to do about them...

[Doc] Block them in until they can be tamed. Our friends are all over it.

[Deer] Gives Doc a quick kiss on the cheek- Come on, let's get our little one to bed

[Doc] In a minute, I brought food. I want to put it away. My inventory is super full. - They start unloading and the heavy sweet smell of the froot cereal fills the room as it's moved into the trunk.

[Yaunfen] Sniffs curiously in their sleep-

[Deer] - That's a lot of stuff

[Waffles] Sniffs one of the purple carrots and makes a face at it.

[Doc] No sense in wasting a trip right? - They show her one of the brown eggs and the dragon fruit. - Weird stuff.

[Deer] - Lie's world is certainly filled with curiousities

[Yaunfen] Rubs their eyes sleeply- Mom? Mada?

[Waffles] Hops down and streches.

[Deer] - Yes sweetheart?

[Yaunfen] I smell something weird.

[Doc] I brought you some cer-ea-l. You can have it for breakfast if you want.

[Deer] - It's from the real world

[Yaunfen] Oh, that sounds nice- Yawns-

[Doc] You should go strech out in your room. You're gonna get a cramp snoozing on the table.

[Yaunfen] Sudden start- Fru???

[Deer] - Sleeping

[Yaunfen] Oh.. good. -They get up and shuffle towards the stairs. - Goodnight mom, mada...

[Deer] - Good night

[Doc] Poor kiddo...

[Deer] - They're so worn out...

[Doc] I know the feeling. Randomly destructive responsibilities can really wear you down. - Thinking of Cp...

[Deer] - We should get some sleep too- She takes Doc's hand

[Doc] I want too, but I need to do the little update. I'll join you soon, just go to bed my love.

[Deer] - Alright- She kisses Doc's hand and leaves for the bedroom

[CN] He is sitting curled up in Firebirds lap, having listened to his elder explain calmly and patiently what had happened before.  The small NOTCH fiddles his fingers a bit as he works up the nerve to ask a question-

[Firebird] -Can tell CN wants to ask something and waits patiently for him to get the courage to do so-

[CN] - Um...  Firebird?  Could you...  Um...  Could you maybe...  Show me?

[Firebird] I... -He purses his lips- If.. you want me to, CN. I suppose so...

[CN] - Please?  I just...  I just can't wrap my head around the destruction you say you've caused...

[Firebird] -Sighs a bit- If you're certain.. -Stands up and tucks CN under one arm. It's actually kind of comical looking-

[CN] - Um, we should probably let Lie know we're leaving...

[Firebird] I know, I needed an available hand.

-In chat- [Firebird] I'm going out for a bit with CN, Lie.

[Lie] Sleepily- Just make sure he comes back safe, I trust you Firebird

[Firebird] Well that's handled... -There's a bit of a ripple as he opens a way, and in no time at all they're stepping into another seed. The point is grand ruins, overgrown with vines.-

[Firebird] Hm... Time's really taken it's toll here... -Sets CN down-

[CN] Looks around at the ruins- Is there anybody even around here anymore?

[Firebird] In this old place? I doubt it. You're free to look around, if you'd like. -He steps carefully to the doors at the end of the hall, regarding a painting on the wall with a frown. He shakes his head and pushes the door open to step out-

-The place seems to have been some kind of altar or similar, and if you judge the motifs around the building... probably to Firebird himself.-

[CN] Follows Firebird, distracted by the images around him- What was this place?

[Firebird] One of my last temples.

[CN] - Why'd you destroy your own temple?

[Firebird] I'd come to my senses around then and.. I didn't want to see this wretched place again. -He's looking out at the horizon and a single tower in the far distance that stretches toward the sky-

[CN] - But you were still blue?

[Firebird] Yes... It took a long time for the color to fade. Lets see.. If Teran is that way.... -Steps out onto the ruined steps to stalk around to the side of the building and look for another tower- It took me a long, long time to change. And an even longer time for my colors to change.

[CN] - But last time they started going blue, you just pulled them out!

[Firebird] Not the best way to deal with it, but it worked. There... Let's go. -He transforms into a bird and waits for CN to do so too before taking off into the air-

[CN] Shifts and flaps up into the air-

[Firebird] -Guides him along past a few ruined husks of villages-

[CN] Would remark on their saddened state if he could in this form, noting the absolute lack of life-

[Firebird] -Flaps hard into an updraft, and soars over a hill, and an expansive, ruined city comes into view in the distance. A broken tower is visible in the center of it-

[CN] Is not prepared for the updraft and tumbles through the air a little-

[Firebird] -Swings around to flick a wing under CN to make it easier on him-

[CN] Rebalances himself and soars alongside Firebird, looking down at the ruins, wondering if any life remains at all-

-There are ruined buildings, vines covering everything, and--- Is that a villager? Surely not. It was probably CN's imagination. The most damage is in the city's center, near the tower. Firebird alights to land near the thing-

[CN] Follows suit and shifts back- Whoa...  It's still so big!  Even though it's ruined!

[Firebird] -Stays as a bird for a few minutes before shifting back too- I believe this was the biggest city back then, beside any current ones...

[CN] - Cool!

-Once again, CN thinks he sees a villager in the distant ruins, but they're gone before he can blink.-

[Firebird] I.. suppose so. I never thought of it much.

[Firebird] -Rests hand on the ruined tower, and the stones flicker golden and then blue, he quickly retracts his hand with a frown- It was just a place, back then.

[CN] - And now?

[Firebird] Now It's not much of anything.

[CN] - Oh...- He wanders a little to look through broken windows inside of the abandoned homes

- There's a rustle behind Firebird-

[Firebird] -Starts after CN only to pause, head turning to look behind him.-

[CN] Turns to look at Firebird only to get pulled through the window behind him as Firebird is looking away-

[Firebird] -Doesn't see anything so he turns back only to find CN missing- CN? CN?!

[CN] Struggles as he's pulled father away from Firebird- Hey! Let me go!

[Firebird] -Hackles rise a bit as he rushes toward where he heard CN from-

[Villagers] -Frantically pulling CN further through the building-

[CN] - What are you doing? Stop!

[Villager] - I think the better question is what you are doing with Ra foolish child

-There's a bit of panicked yelling from Firebird outside as he's deterred by villagers brandishing spears. CN can just barely make out "Move! Don't make me hurt you!"-

-It makes the Villagers inside hurry CN out the back entrance and into another ruined street-

[CN] - Wait! Where are you taking me!?

[Villager 2] Away from here! Away from HIM!

[CN] - But he's my friend!

[Villager 3] Friend?! As if that monster could have such a thing. A toy, maybe, but friend?

[CN] - Yes! He... He's taught me to read and write! And... And a bunch of other stuff!

[Villager] - Quiet! You'll make it easier for him to follow us!

[CN] - No!

[Villager 2] -Digs around to try and find an available cloth to cram in CN's mouth to shut him up-

-Firebird's yelling is growing incoherent, but louder-

[Villager 3] Be glad he hasn't taught you to kill and maim, child.

[CN] Struggles as hard as he can- Firebird! FIREBIRD!

-He can't lose him like this. He can't lose him like this. He shouldn't hurt them.-

-He can't lose CN like this.-

[Firebird] Forgive me, -Flames burst from the bird, knocking the villagers around him back in a wave of hot agony before he surges into the air-

-The Villagers are rushing between half crumbled buildings and mostly destroyed streets, starting to get headway from Firebird-

[CN] Tries punching and kicking, but he doesn't have the leverage he needs to do anything other than irritate- Let me go!

[Villager] - Stop that, he is already angry enough. He will likely hurt us

[Villager 3] Likely? We'll be lucky to live! -Hushed whisper as the bird goes zooming by overhead. Slaps hand over CN's mouth to keep him quiet-

[CN] Tries to pull his head away-

[Villager] - Stop that child! Or are you suicidal?

[Villager 2] - Ties cloth over CN's mouth once the other villager removes their hand. They're reaching the cities edge now, and the desert beyond.-

[CN] Makes a face and in a bit of desperation flares his tail a little-

[Villager] Hisses in a breath seeing the blue feathers-

[villager 3] What has Ra done to you child? Believing him a friend, bearing the colors of his true form...

[CN] Muffled response-

-They've managed to get out of the city into the desert, but they don't head far. A sandstone temple past the city limits that blends in with the sand seems to be where they're going. -

[CN] Struggles, trying to get at least a hand free from their grasp to remove the gag-

[Villager] - Stop that child!  We do not want HIS attention!

-Firebird doesn't seem to have realized that they escaped the city...-

[Villager 2] We're almost there...

[CN] Gets his arm free and starts pulling off the gag, ready to scream Firebirds name as loudly as he can-

[Villager] Turns around to grab his arm again- Stop that!  You'll end up killing us!

-The villagers rush into the temple with CN and shove the doors shut behind them. The temple is plain and a few villagers in the entranceway look at the group bewildered-

[CN] Looks around, scared and unsure-

[Villager] - Ra has returned...  He had this child with him

[Villager 4] Take the child to the Sphinx, let her judge him! If that child came with Ra... Who knows what's wrong with him... What that monster did to him.

[CN] Is confused over who the Sphinx is, Firebird never mentioned her to him-

[Villager] - You're right, she will be able to discern the truth

[Villager 4] She is in the tapestry room, last we saw of her.

[Villager] Starts dragging CN along- Then that is where we're going

-The other villagers that aren't necessary for this separate from the villager dragging CN along-

-They pass through a few other rooms before going down stairs into a room full of tapestries. At the end, staring up at the biggest one is... an actually familiar shape.-

[CN] His eyes widen in recognition as he notes the familiar shape-

[Villager] - Lady Sphinx?  I have brought someone for your judgement

[Sphinx] -She turns and, Oh yep. Just like Firebird had offhandedly mentioned, she is shirtless. CN has seen this lady in a few pictures Firebird showed him.- Oh? And why is that? -She stalks over and bends down to regard CN with a calm expression.- Why is he gagged?

[Villager] - Ra has returned and this child was with him, he kept screaming for him and drawing his attention towards us.  It was for the safety of the group

[Sphinx] Ah. Well, this far down he cannot hear us. -She removes the gag from CN- And what is your name, hm?

[CN] - Your the one Firebird said he always had to put a shirt on!

[Sphinx] -Taken aback- Wh. What?

[Sphinx] Who?

[CN] - Firebird!  He's the one you guys keep calling Ra, but that's not his name...

[Sphinx] -Purses her lips before giving a wave of her hand to dismiss the villager.- You say he calls himself Firebird now, hmm? What a... plain name.

[Villager] Hesitates but does leave-

[CN] Shrinks down a little, getting nervous again at being alone with Sphinx-

[Sphinx] At ease child, I am no risk to you. Come, tell me of him now. We haven't seen Ra in hundreds of years after his defeat, and if he has changed, I wish to know of him now. Of what he stands for, if he stands at all. -Coaxes CN further into the room and to two cushions by the large tapestry. They almost vanish into the tiles color wise.-

[CN] - I...  He's my friend, he's always nice!  He, he's taught me how to read, and write...

[Sphinx] And that is all? That is not much to be proud of.

[CN] - He...  He taught me how to fly!  And build nests too!

[Sphinx] To fly? Are you like him? -Her tail curls into her lap-

[CN] - Yes?- His tail feathers fluff a little

[Sphinx] … Interesting. But you only speak of what he's done for you. Not of how he is, child. Are you sure you even know him?

[Sphinx] He never even told you his true name, after all.

[CN] - He, he didn't want to scare me...  Flowey was the one who started telling me, all Firebird told me was that he had done a lot of bad things in the past...  And...  And my brine trusts him!  And so do the others!

[Sphinx] Or maybe he just didn't want you to know. Thought you too weak, child. Ra was a tricky one, after he changed. His ire could be drawn with but a word, at times.

[CN] - He's only turned a little blue once!  And that's when he was fighting DN, otherwise he hasn't gotten into any fights!

[Sphinx] Hm... -Her head turns to regard the big tapestry, of the bird himself, seemingly... falling down? The edges of his wings in the cloth are blue.- I see...

[CN] Fingers Firebirds feather amongst his bundle of feathers at his waist- He's not bad...  He's not a meanie

[Sphinx] Maybe not now, he isn't. But I have my doubts. You never told me your name, child.

[CN] - Uh...  C...  CN

[Sphinx] CN, huh...

[CN] - Can...  Can I go back now?  Firebird is probably wondering where I am...

[Sphinx] Hm...

-There's a distant.. boom.-

[CN] Immediately turns towards the noise-

[Villager] Comes running back in- Lady Sphinx!

[Sphinx] -Already getting to her feet- How far from the temple is he?

[Villager] - Not far at all

[CN] - Firebird?

[Sphinx] Well, we best go greet him, hmm?

[CN] Nods quickly-

-They go up the stairs, and several villagers with spears are rushing out the entryway, probably to deter Firebird, but judging by the increasing booms and the sudden heat.. you could assume it's not going too well.-

[CN] Tries running ahead-

[Villager] Grabs his arm- Are you insane!?  Stop!

[CN] - LET GO!

[Sphinx] Let him run to his "friend". See if he even recognizes him.

[Villager] Gives her an unsure look before letting CN go-

[CN] Bolts forwards, pushing his way through the weapon bearing villagers- Firebird!

-Firebird is blue, and also stamping a villager out of existence a mere 10 blocks from the temple. A ball of flame is cradled in his hand, and scattered about is the remains of others who had tried and failed to stop him.-

[CN] Runs right for him, grabbing his tunic- Firebird!  Please...  Stop...  I'm right here, I'm okay

[Firebird] -Comes to a halt as CN latches onto the front of his tunic, and the wild expression he'd been wearing previously comes to a more... expressionless look.- ...CN? -The ball of flame remains in his other hand, while the other one drops and slowly pats CN's shoulder-

[CN] - Please, it's okay... I'm okay...

[Firebird] -Looks up at the Villagers that are still bearing spears and pointing them at him- …. I was worried.

[Sphinx] -The villagers part for her easily, and as soon as she gets an eye on Firebird she purses her lips.- Interesting.

[CN] - They didn't know...  They didn't know you're okay now...  You're not a meanie

[Sphinx] Judging by the senseless murder, I'm less inclined to agree. How's it been, Ra? I see you finally decided to put a shirt on.

[Firebird] Oh shut your mouth, Sphinx. -The ball of flames is flung at her, to which she easily sidesteps- I should have you all beheaded for that, you know.

[Sphinx] I'm quivering in my nonexistent boots. The child says you've changed.

[CN] Presses closer to Firebird-

[Firebird] And what of it?! Do you want to try your luck next? -Slowly calming down as he rests both hands on CN's shoulders-

[CN] Is still trembling a little after everything he's gone through-

[Villager] Is watching with a critical eye- Lady Sphinx, what are your orders?

[Sphinx] I personally would like to see the so called change in attitude our once god has had.

[Villager] - And how would you plan on doing that our lady?

[CN] Is sniffling a little, feeling safe enough with Firebird to cry-

[Sphinx] -Ignores the Villager's simple question- So, where have you been? I can see you've sunk your claws into some poor child, for him to care so deeply about you. Mind control?

[Firebird] -Scoffs a bit and gently picks CN up, holding him to his chest- There is no mind control at play. You already know I have no abilities toward that, unlike Fl..... Set.  As for where I've been... Another seed.

[CN] - It's private...  Caused my spawn to end up in the void...

[Villager] Watches Firebird carefully, certain that he'll hurt the child in his arms-

[CN] Quietly- Firebird, I wanna go home...

[Firebird] In a moment CN, in a moment.

[Sphinx] If not mind control, what power does the child hold that compels you to care, hmm?

[CN] Snuggles in closer, hugging Firebird-

[Firebird] -Purses lips a bit- … None. He has nothing that would have compelled me to care, unlike you. No truth finding, no devouring of men, no ability to turn day to night, nothing. But that doesn't matter. Now. We're leaving. You'll be free of me again. -Turns on his heel with a heavy sigh-

[Sphinx] I think I'll join you, see if you've truly changed. Brother Horus can take care of the villagers. He should be returning soon, after all.

[CN] - You can't, the server has a white list.  You have to get Doc's approval

[Sphinx] Is that so? I don't believe that's quite true.

[Firebird] -Raises his other hand to open a way, a few villagers gasp-

[CN] Sticks his tongue out at Sphinx-

[Sphinx] I'll eat that tongue of yours, child. I'm not beyond devouring pesky children. They're so soft and chewy...

[Firebird] You touch him and I'll kill you myself.

[CN] - Lie would be mad too

[Sphinx] At least others care for you than this old mess.

-Firebird steps through back to the server and Sphinx follows-

[CN] Relaxes a little being safely home-

[Doc] Is already heading to the spawn in a huff- Can't get any fucking work done without some jackass stupidity---

[Firebird, still very much blue] Troubles, Doctor?

[Sphinx] Very bright, very colorful. Already quite promising...

[Doc] YES. Did I tell you it was okay to let a half-naked cat person in? No I did not!

[CN] - Told you!

[Doc] And you dyed your feathers? Having a spa day??? Is this some lady of the late evening?

[Firebird] -Opens mouth before shutting it a few times-

[CN] - Firebird got angry...

[Doc] sarcastic-  Brilliant.

[Firebird] -Clearly suppressing the initial response to bark out "I'd have you killed for that"- And what exactly crawled up your ass and died? Hmm?

[Doc] Indicates the shirtless person next to him-

[Sphinx] -Looking everywhere but Doc-

[Doc] Do I get an explanation? Or did you just adopt a cat?

[CN] - Her people kidnapped me!

[Firebird] Oh, so it's alright for others to bring people in willy nilly? She followed me in to make sure I wasn't murdering CN somewhere quiet.

[Sphinx] To be fair, if your murderous ex god returned with a child, you'd be concerned too.

[Doc] If that's been happening I'm not aware of it. No one has come in without permission in quite some time, and for good reason! Firebird is here because Mix vouched for him. This is still primarily a Herobrine sanctuary.

[Firebird] -Takes a deep breath before calmly setting CN down- Well, I'm sorry for not giving you a heads up. [Sphinx] Mix? -Vaguely familiar expression- About yeyy high? -Gestures at roughly Mix's height- Cute?

[Doc] huffs at Firebird - Yes. A cute little Herobrine that yeets dinosaurs?

[CN] Moves so Firebird is between him and Sphinx-

[Sphinx] I was wondering where she went. What a delightful little butt.

[Firebird] -Startled choking noise- Don't say any more, I think I might puke...

[Sphinx] -Bark of laughter-

[CN] Tugs at Firebirds clothes- Firebird...  Let's go...- He does not want to be alone right now

[Doc] Will she vouch for you? Firebird didn't ask permission so I'm not taking his word.

[Sphinx] I'm not quite sure, but I suppose I should hope so?

[Doc] If not, I'm tossing you back out. I don't like uninvited guests. - In chat, - hey Mix?

[Mix] -In chat- Yes?

[Doc] I've got a lady at the spawn who says she knows you. Wild hair, cat tail, no shirt?

[Mix] Oh nooo, the shirtless lady? She's still shirtless?

[Doc] Mind if tp you? I know you're quite a walk away. I'm tossing her out if you say she's trouble.

[CN] Shifts to his bird form and flits up to Firebirds shoulder-

[Mix] If she's still shirtless I'd like to not. I know exactly what lady you're talking about. Beside not putting a shirt on ever, she's fine. The worst she'll do unless provoked is be shirtless near you and pester you with riddles if she gets bored.

[Firebird] -Pets CN a bit- What, no devouring people anymore?

[Sphinx] That fell out of style not too long after your fall from grace. Sure, it's entertaining, but out of style.

[CP] - WILL YOU FUCKERS PLEASE SHUT UP!

[Doc] Grumbles- Mix says you're acceptable but annoying. I trust them well enough to let the barging in slide. - their hands skirt over the command block they're holding under one arm- You're locked in for the moment though. Consider it a probationary period. And eating people will get you stomped by me personally.

[Sphinx] That's completely fine, I had no plans to leave so soon. And eating people is out of style anyway. -Hand wave-

[Firebird] Can I go now?

[Doc] Yes. Just don't do that again. I'm trying to do an update dammit. Everyone keeps intrupting me.

[CN] Ducks his head a little, knowing it's actually mostly his fault-

[Firebird] You could have just... Done the update. -Shrugs before skirting off with CN-

[Sphinx] -Stands there for a hot second before trailing after Firebird-

[Doc] Considering the last few times have ended up with things being majorly glitched, I'm not inclined to hurry! - eyeballs Sphinx- And where are you going?

[Sphinx] To observe, unless you are going to station me somewhere, of course.

[Doc] Has realized Cn is still really upset. -Let him comfort the kid alone dammit. Just... come with me. It looks like it might rain anyway.

[Sphinx] -Looks at Firebird and CN for a moment before turning to return to Doc's side-

-There's a little rumble from above and Doc starts heading back towards the castle. -

[Doc] Who are you anyway?

[Sphinx] I'm Sphinx, Speaker of Riddles and the only one to harass Ra more than Horus and not lose an eye. Wait… Uhh… Firebird is what he goes by now, yes? -Taps chin- I think that's what the child said. What an unoriginal name. Why not just name yourself phoenix?

[Doc] Because it's hard to spell? I'm Doc. By name and nature. - They open the door for her and head down the steps beside the horse pen just as the first drops begin to fall.

[Sphinx] -Shuts the door behind her and pads down too. Her claws make little clicky noises. Nice.-

[Doc] So... are you a glitch? - Xe shifts the block to hir other arm and passes down the second stairs near the shower and fireplace.

[Sphinx] Hm? Oh no, I don't think so. I am what I was meant to be. … probably. -Taking everything in as she follows Doc-

[Porygon] Makes a happy beeping noise as it trundles around the corner to see who's come in.

[Doc] Do you have a home game? - They reach down to pat the birdlike pokemon but don't attempt to pick them up. Obviously.

[Galvantua] Peeks at them from high on the wall as they pause in the vine room-

[Deer] Starts coming up from the bedroom, completely naked-

[Lh] Runs in front of Deerhearts hooves and sashays-

[Sphinx] The very same we stand in. Although I've seen a few others following in Firebird' footsteps... -Same hat Deer, same hat. Titties out.-

[Doc] Now I'm confused. You don't look like a NOTCH and you don't have a glitch.

[Deer] Yelps as she trips and face plants on the stairs-

[Sphinx] Yess?

[Lh] Squeaks in alarm and bolts upstairs-

[Doc] Hears the noise and puts down the command block to check on her- Deerheart! Are you okay???

[Deer] - I'm fine, why haven't you come to bed yet?

[Sphinx] -Pokes the block with a foot before traipsing down the steps after Doc-

[Lh] Comes back to sniff Sphinx-

[Doc] Unexpected guest- xe helps her up and thumbs at Sphinx-

[Deer] - Oh, hello!

[Sphinx] -Tail wiggles  as LH does the sniffy- Hello!

[Deer] - Love are you still working on the update?

[Lh] Mew???

[Doc] Trying too. I was almost done... - they look her up and down- Were you amusing yourself waiting for me my darling?

[Deer] - Of course not!

[Doc] Okay... Deerheart, Sphinx, Sphinx, Deerheart. And I suddenly feel overdressed...

[Deer] Tugs on Doc's coat- Then maybe you should remove some things

[Doc] Ah-hems- They take her gently and lead her back up so they aren't crowded in the stairwell. - When I'm done I will because, barring other emergencies; I'm going to go to bed.  

[Lh] wiggle butt and tries to bap at Sphinx's tail.

[Sphinx] -Calmly swooshes tail out of LH's reach-

[Deer] - So the only thing that needs to happen is the update getting installed?

[Lh] Little backflip-

[Doc] I just have to cross my fingers and toes and let the files in. - They're heading for the command block again-

[Deer] - Alright, so Sphinx, what brings you here?

[Sphinx] My murderous ex god, who seems to be living a surprisingly peaceful life here.

[Deer] - Murderous ex god?

[Sphinx] He goes by Firebird now, apparently.

[Deer] - Oh!  Yes Firebird has been very helpful here, especially when it comes to CN, he's taught him a lot and has untaught some things a...  Not so nice NOTCH taught him

[Doc] Winces at the mention and arranges a few things before hitting several keys simultantously. Theres a little ripple and hum and the change spreads out in a gentle wave across the server.

[Deer] Shivers-

[Sphinx] Hm... Interesting.

[Deer] - Yes, CN's grown a lot under his care, and you can see Firebirds attached to him as well.  I don't think Flowey interacts with either of them very much though

[Doc] 18w10c is in play. Lets see how it works... - they take out a stair block and place it in a little pool of water against the wall. The water flows smoothly over the step- Well it looks better at least.

[Deer] - Oh  good, now we can sit in the water without going so deep

[Sphinx[ That would explain why he murdered about 20 people in his search for the child,  definitely.

[Deer] - I'm sorry, he what?

[Doc] HE DID WHAT????

[Sphinx] I do believe the child told you he "got angry".

[Deer] - Oh dear...  Well, he wouldn't be the first here to have a relapse

[Doc] Grinds hir teeth - 'Getting angry' does not mean going on a murder spree.

[Sphinx] Well, from what you've stated, it's quite understandable.

[Deer] - He practically see's CN as his own child at this point Doc, what would you have done if it was Yaunfen instead?

[Doc] Steadying breath- He's a NOTCH. I get upset when NOTCHs murder people okay? I expect it from the creepypastas, and even a few of the brines. You tell TLOT he did that and you won't see him for days.

[Sphinx] -Calmly Swishes tail back and forth- If it soothes you, back in the day it would have been well over 20.

[Doc] Pacing a bit - No, that doesn't help at all actually. No wonder Flowey was trying to kill him.

[Sphinx] Hmmm.. Well, it's the truth. -Shrugs apathetically-

[Deer] - Doc, you've seen how often Firebird has helped us since coming here, fighting DN and Harvestman

[Doc] I know.. I know.. I'm not proposing anything. I'm just... irritated.

[Lh] Makes another grab for Sphinx's tail.

[Porygon] Rolls over to lean on Deerheart's left hoof.

[Sphinx] -Swishes tail again, bopping LH on the snoot-

[Deer] - It's alright Doc, you know Firebird will help us if we need it

[Lh] Mew! - chuffs!

[Doc] Rubs hir temples - And we can't even just avoid telling TLOT since he can read minds... I am not looking forward to this....

[Deer] - I'll talk to him, you know he trusts me explicitely

[Doc] That might be for the best...

[Deer] - But for now, bed.  Do you need a room Sphinx?

[Doc] Thumbs at the hallway behind hir. - There's an empty room here, one at the top of the stairs at the other end of the room, and another where we came in. Take your pick.

[Sphinx] I'll find somewhere.

[Doc] The kitchen is down there, help yourself if you're an early riser. - yawns-

[Sphinx] -Gives a nod before vanishing off into the house-

[Deer] Takes Doc's hand- Come love, let's sleep

[nibsthebravelostboy]

At the Castle [nisty]

@itslostgirlmisty​

[Misty]

Misty sat in her meeting and was incredibly bored. She heard how many photoshoots they wanted to send her on and how many public events they wanted to have and Misty wasn’t exactly thrilled. She got up once the meeting ended and headed to the garden for a little break. 

She walked through the flowers and stopped when she felt a guard tapping her shoulder. She turned and smiled softly as he handed her a forget me not. “Oh...thank you.” She said taking it and wincing when the thorn went into her skin. “Shit.” She said softly as she brought her finger up to lick it clean. 

[Nibs]

Nibs had been at the meetings bored out of his mind. Everyone was frustrating him and so when he saw one of the guards handing his wife her favorite flower, his shifter side took control of him and his anger. 

He stormed over and tapped the guard on the shoulder before asking him what he thought he was doing. The male knew the guard was scared of him but right now they caught him in a bad mood. “You are not to come near my wife again. I will make sure of it.” He smirked before his eyes glowed red as his claws grew out and ripped into the guards chest before ripping him to pieces. 

Nibs finished and licked his fingers clean of the blood. “Mhm he ruined my outfit.” He pouts before snapping his fingers and changing into one of Misty’s favorite outfits on him. “Ah much better don’t you think?”

[Misty]

Misty saw Nibs coming over and smiled happily as she was excited to see him, but she could feel how angry he was and moved out of the way when Nibs started to rip the guard in half. 

She felt blood hitting her face and when he was done she noticed the outfit he changed into and gave him a small smile. “You look very handsome.” She told him. “Do you want to talk about why you reacted like that?” 

[Nibs]

“Mhm reacted like what?” He asks before gesturing for the other guards to clean up the mess that was made. “Oh that? Meetings are boring and he was hitting on you. They all know at this castle that that is not allowed. It seems I need to remind them to stay in line.” He tells her. 

“How were your meetings darling?” He asks as he goes over and wipes some of the blood off of her face before wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close for a kiss. 

[Misty]

“He was just giving me a flower. It’s different from when you do it, when you give me flowers it’s out of love and because you know they are my favorites. When other people do it, they are just flowers.” She reassured him.

She felt him pulling her closer and smiled as she kissed him back, “Same old same old, multiple photoshoots. Balls. Oh and events they want me to attend. Super fun.” She smiled before kissing him again.

[Nibs]

“Mhm all they want me for is meetings. I rather do photoshoots and go to balls with you. I think that they would be a lot of fun.” He smirked. “We can attend events together you know?” Nibs smiles before kissing down her neck. 

“So then are you done with your meetings for the day yet? I took a break from mine and told them to resume them tomorrow. I felt the life being drained out of me there due to the boring topics, I mean normally I can find something interesting but this time there was absolutely nothing.” He pouts. 

[Misty]

“Nibs you know why they stopped scheduling our events together.” She told him before moaning softly. “Baby you left enough marks on my neck don’t you think?” She teased before kissing away his pout. “No, I was just taking a little break. I have to finish a few things before I call the day off. Why don’t we just combine them? We can be together and have the meetings so you don’t have to start them again tomorrow?”

[Nibs]

“We still have final say in our events and besides since we are expecting, that means I need to be with you so they can’t really say anything to counter that.” He tells her before shaking his head. “I can never leave too many marks, princess and you know that.” He teases.

“Ah yes we can finish our meetings together then and finish them twice as fast. Then we can spend the rest of the day away from all the meetings.” He sighed. 

[Misty]

“Aw my protective alpha is out.” She said teasingly. “You always get like this when I’m pregnant. It’s so hot.” She teased him before kissing him. “Yes let’s do that.” Misty told him before telling the royals to go to the bigger conference room and have everything ready for both of them.

[Nibs]

Nibs smiled as she kissed him and he kissed her back. “Okay sounds like a good plan.” He tells her before calling up the royals and making the arrangements. Once he got off the phone, he put it away. “They are setting things up now so it should take them a few minutes to get things all set up for both of us.”

[Misty]

“Okay well if we have a few minutes…” She smirked and took his hand as she led him into the maze before walking deeper into it. When she knew they were alone she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply.

[Nibs]

Nibs knew that no one else was going to come into the maze and he smirked when he felt her kissing him deeply. He pulled her closer before letting his fingers tease along her thighs before sliding under her skirt and over her panties. 

[Misty]

“Nibs we don’t have time for that.” She told him as she took his hand and moved it from under her skirt. “You are going to have to wait.” She teased him. 

[Nibs]

“Mhm what do you mean we don’t have time for that. We always have time for that princess.” He purred. 

[Misty]

“No Nibs, if you start you won’t stop and then we will be late.” She said trying to fight how badly she wanted him. “You are in alpha mode and you probably won’t snap out of it until the baby comes.”

[Nibs]

“Yeah probably. Okay fine, fine. I will wait.” He tells her with a pout knowing she was right but he was unhappy about that. “I thought you liked my alpha mode hm?” He teases. 

[Misty]

“I love it and you know the shifter in me just wants to make you happy, but I also know if I give in right now you will not want to stop.” She told him. “You know I’m right baby.”

[Nibs]

“I know I am just so insatiable but can you blame me?” He teases before taking her hand. “Okay then let’s head back before we both get too distracted dear.” 

[Misty]

Misty followed him as they headed out of the maze and into the castle. She walked with him to the office and took a seat beside him. “Do you think you can control yourself? Or should I sit over there?” She asked, pointing across from him.

[Nibs]

“Psh I can control myself. The question darling is can you control yourself being in the same room as me.” He teases her as they walk into the office and take a seat. 

[Misty]

“I am pretty sure I can.” She laughed softly before her attention turned to one of the royals who called her name. She looked over the paper they handed her as she let go of his hand.

[Nibs]

“I highly doubt that given how we have been the past few days on our honeymoon princess.” He purred before he was handed a paper as well to look over. 

[Misty]

Stop trying to distract me with sex. She said to him. She tried to focus and not think about the way they were together at the cove. Her eyes flashed red before returning to brown as she tried to focus on what was being said.

[Nibs]

“I am doing nothing of the sort.” He tells her before signing the paper and then being given another one to look over. “I am able to focus are you?” He teases. 

[Misty]

“Yeah of course.” She said before smiling as she was handed another paper regarding Hope and Zach’s new baby. She felt the royal touching her arm as he explained what the ball would look like.

[Nibs]

Nibs subtly began to release his pheromones into the air when the royal was touching her arm. “Do you really need to touch her arm to explain plans to her? Just put them in front of her like a normal person.” He huffed as his eyes glowed red. 

[Misty]

Misty started to smell something really sweet in the air and her eyes turned red as she looked at Nibs. She noticed his red eyes and couldn’t help but lean over and kiss him passionately.

[Nibs]

Nibs could feel her lips pressed against his as he pulled her closer to him. He then pulled apart briefly. “Meetings are done for the day.” He tells them before excusing himself and Misty from the room as he carried her to the bedroom. 

[Misty]

You did that on purpose. She told him as she kissed down his neck. She noticed they were in the bedroom and kissed him softly. “You don’t have anything to worry about Nibs, I’m yours. Everyone knows that.”

[Nibs]

“I definitely did not. He was touching you, he didn’t need to be touching you.” He growled before pinning her to the wall as he kissed her passionately. “You are mine.” He placed kisses down her neck and made multiple marks on her neck. 

[Misty]

Misty felt the wall behind her and kissed him back just as passionately. “I know daddy. I’m yours. I belong to you, you don’t have to worry about that.” She told him, making him look at her. “I’m yours Nibs. Now and forever.”

[Nibs]

Nibs heard a knock on the door and he growled as the knocking was rather persistent and didn’t stop. “Hold that thought princess.” He told her sweetly before his eyes glowed bright red in anger as he went over and answered the door. 

One of the female royals was at the door, when he heard what she was asking it took him a moment to process what she was saying. “I am sorry, you think that our relationship is open?” He couldn’t help but smirk before letting her inside. “Sure, let’s see what my wife says about you wanting to join us in bed just for shits and giggles because we all know my answer is no but I think she has a much better way of telling you. So touch me, see what happens.” He eggs the other on knowing exactly how possessive Misty was of him. 

He figured that he had his fun earlier with that guard hitting on Misty so it was time for her to do the same. When the royal approached Nibs and went to touch him, Nibs just looked over at Misty, “Princess would you like to do the honors?” 

[Misty]

Misty heard the girl talk to Nibs and smirked as she walked inside. She took the girls hand as her eyes flashed black and turned her emotions off. “Nibs gets all hot and bothered when we start without him.” She purred as she lead the girl to the bed. 

She pushed the girl onto the bed and straddled her as she threw her shirt off revealing her red lace bra. Misty leaned down to kiss the girl deeply as she grinded against her. She kissed down her neck before licking up it slowly, “You taste so sweet.” She moaned before biting down harshly on the girls neck and drinking her blood.

[Nibs]

Nibs was extremely confused by Misty’s actions when she turned off her emotions Nibs couldn’t feel her anymore. Watching Misty dominate the other girl however was definitely more than hot. 

He stripped off his shirt and discarded it to the ground before he made his way behind Misty. “Slow down princess, take your time.” The male cooed into her ear before kissing down Misty’s back. 

[Misty]

Misty pulled away from the girl and noticed how drowsy she was as Misty had drank majority of her blood. “You still want me and Nibs?” She asked, purring in the girl’s ear. 

When the girl nodded she smirked and took off her bra. She sat up and turned to Nibs, “You hear that Nibs she still wants us? Do you think we should have some more fun.”

[Nibs]

“We both know that we will do whatever you want princess. If you want to continue then we can, otherwise I think that she would make a nice snack before our night festivities don’t you think? As much as she wants my cock, I think we both know she won’t be able to handle it. The only one that can handle it is you princess. Should we show her that?” He purred into Misty’s ear as his hands moved down Misty’s body. 

[Misty]

“But she thought she could touch you daddy. Shouldn’t you at least play with her? She came all this way.” She smirked as she felt Nibs’ hands moving down her body. “It’s okay daddy, I don’t mind.”

[Nibs]

“But I want to play with you princess.” He purred before pushing his hands into Misty’s panties so he could rub circles against her clit. “Alright princess. Tell daddy what you want him to do and he will do it.” Nibs smirked before leaving more marks against her neck. 

[Misty]

“Ah…” She moaned softly as she grinded her hips against his hand. “I want you to play with her daddy. Go ahead daddy. I want to watch.”

[Nibs]

Nibs shook his head, “I want to play with you princess, that was the point of coming in here wasn’t it? She can be patient and just watch. I want you right now.” He growled possessively before pushing her down against the other girl and ripping off Misty’s panties. Then started stripping himself of the rest of his clothes. He lets his cock tease against Misty’s entrance as he could feel his pheromones releasing into the air.  

[Misty]

Misty smelled Nibs’ pheromones and her eyes turned bright red. She felt him shifting her position and rested her arms on either side of the girl. She felt his cock teasing her entrance and smirked softly, “Daddy don’t you think we should entertain our guest before we play?”

[Nibs]

“This is what she came for princess. She wanted to see us together and so she will.” He smirked before slamming into Misty and abusing her sweet spot. Each time he thrusted his balls would hit the other’s girls’ clit. His eyes clouded with lust as he felt his nails digging into MIsty’s hips to hold her in place. “You are all mine princess.” 

[Misty]

She moaned loudly as he slammed into her and her nails dug into the sheets under her. “Fucking shit…” She moaned loudly as she moved her hips back wanting more. “Fuck yes daddy just like that. Fuck me like the whore I am for you.” 

[Nibs]

“As you wish princess.” He smirked before meeting her hips thrust for thrust. His hips snapping against hers as he continued to abuse her sweet spot aggressively as his eyes glowed bright red. “Look at how tight your pussy is for my cock. Constantly pulling all of me inside of you just like the greedy whore you are for daddy isn’t that right princess? You like being daddy’s greedy little whore don’t you?” He purred before pulling the hair in her ponytail back so that he could mark up her neck. 

[Misty]

Misty moaned as she felt Nibs pulling her hair back and could only nod at his words. “Fuck you know I do daddy. I love having your cock deep inside of me. It was made just for me. No one can take daddy’s cock like I do.” She moaned moving her head out of the way so he could mark up her neck. “Fuck daddy dont fucking stop. I want more.” 

[Nibs]

“What was that about our guest earlier princess?” He teases as he continues to slam into her as his cock starts to expand inside of her as he shifts slightly. “That’s right, no one else can take daddy’s cock like you do.” He purred before hearing the girl beneath Misty say that she could definitely take Nibs cock and the male just let out a laugh. “You have no idea.” He growled. 

[Misty]

Misty wrapped her fingers around the girls throat and squeezed harshly to keep her from talking. She could feel Nibs’ cock growing and she felt lust and pleasure run through her. “Yes...yes daddy…” She moaned loudly. “I’m so close.”

[Nibs]

Nibs could feel her clenching around him and he moaned her name. “Fuck Misty...cum for daddy princess. Show him how much you love having daddy’s cock in your tight pussy.” He growled possessively. 

[Misty]

“I...fuck...I…” Her nails ripped into the girl’s neck as her walls clenched tightly around Nibs’ cock before she squirted. “Fuck Nibs!”

[Nibs]

Nibs could feel some of the blood spraying him as he noticed Misty’s fingers ripping into the girl’s neck. He was pushed over the edge when he felt her clutching tightly around him and squirting on his cock. “Fuck princess.” He growled before thrusting deep into her and he came hard as the knot started to seal them together. “Mhm I love you Misty.” He purred into her ear as he helped them both ride out their high. 

[Misty]

Misty’s eyes flashed brown as she smiled softly at his words, “I love you too Nibs.” She told him. She looked down at the girl and removed her nails from her neck. “I’m sorry I ruined our sheets. I really liked these.” She pouted.

[Nibs]

He couldn’t help but kiss her pout away. “Nothing a little magic can’t fix darling. But first we should dispose of the trash in our bed first. Are you hungry at all princess?” He asks before helping to fix her hair after he had messed it up. 

[Misty]

Misty kissed him back and smiled as she heard his words, “You don’t think she is pretty?” She asked before taking her hair down out of the ponytail. “I am really hungry.”

[Nibs]

“I mean she might be the standard I suppose? I don’t know I wasn’t paying much attention to her. I was too busy paying attention to my beautiful wife.” He purred into her ear. 

[Misty]

She bit her bottom lip as she turned slightly to kiss him passionately. “You always say the right things.” She smiled against his lips. “I feel so special with you.”

[Nibs]

He kissed her back just as passionately. “They are the truth. And you do deserve to feel special. I always tell you that princess.” He purred. “Mhm since you are hungry then you can have your fill of the girl and then I will change the sheets.” He smiled before kissing her. 

[Misty]

She smiled as she blushed and kissed him back, “Okay, are you going to stay inside of me or are you going to pull out daddy?��� She purred. 

[Nibs]

“Mhm which would be easier for you darling? You know how much I love being inside of you.” He purrs. 

[Misty]

“I know daddy, but it would be easier for me if you pulled out. I can’t focus with your cock pressed against my sweet spot the whole time.” She said against his lips. “You aren’t making it easy for me.”

[Nibs]

“Okay princess. I won’t distract you then.” He teases before feeling the knot going down and pulling out of her. “There we go. Have fun with your meal princess.” He smiles before kissing her once more. 

[Misty]

She kissed him back before turning her attention back on the girl and eating her. She made sure not to leave anything behind before climbing off the bed so Nibs could change it. 

[Nibs]

Nibs got off the bed and changed his clothes while MIsty finished eating. Once she was done, he walked over and snapped his fingers cleaning Misty off and cleaning the sheets so that they were nice and new once more. “Much better.” 

[Misty]

Misty felt clothes being put on her and looked down to see his shirt and smiled softly. “Yes much better.” She said before moving over to him and kissing him. “I love you Nibs. So much.”

[Nibs]

“I love you too Misty. More than you could ever know.” He smiles before kissing her back and then picking her up and bringing her over to the bed so that they could get comfortable together. 

[Misty]

She snuggled up to Nibs as they lay in bed together and intertwined their fingers as she looked at his ring. “I think I know how much you love me.”

[Nibs]

Nibs smiled as he felt her intertwining their fingers and he squeezed her hand. “Good, never forget how much I love you.” He kissed her head before snuggling closer to her and letting himself start to fall asleep.

[weforgotthatwearethestars]

No Memory is Gonna Save You Now (part 5)

Starker, so don’t like don’t read.

Also here on Ao3

Tags: amnesia, temporary amnesia, team as family, canon-typical violence, fluff, angst, happy ending

Peter wakes from a dream of being crushed under something large and immoveable and suffocating to Karen saying, “Peter, Ms. May is at the door and is requesting entry. Should I let her in?”

Peter is busy panting and clutching at his chest for a few minutes, slowly coming back from the dream, so he doesn’t respond before he starts to hear the pounding on the door to the apartment.

“Why’s -” he starts then clears his throat so he doesn’t sound so hoarse. “Why’s there banging?”

“That would be Ms. May. would you like me to pull up the security video?” Karen asks and Peter agrees. There is a woman who looks thoroughly irate in scrubs and a jacket with her brown hair in a ponytail, flyaways in a fuzzy halo making her look even more distressed. Peter gestures and closes the feed before sitting there for a moment, trying to figure out why this person would be banging at his door. After another round of thuds start up Peter decided that no, no he doesn’t have anything left in him to really deal with this right now.

He debates, for just a moment, asking Karen or Friday if they could contact Tony to help with whatever the hell was going on but shook his head after a moment. He’d fucked that up and didn’t plan on touching that until he got his memories back and could understand exactly what he’d done wrong.

“Nope.” Peter mutters to himself as he makes his way into his bathroom, “Nopity, nope, nope, no.”

He asks Karen if he has a playlist and when she informs him he has loads he asks what they’re named. When he concludes his naming of playlists is nonsense, he just asks her to put all of the most played songs in a playlist and play that. He also decides a shower is both needed and a good way to create more noise to drown out the banging. The heat and pounding water helps to clear his head and bring the world into a bit more focus.

He determines two things while he’s under the spray.

One, he should really actually speak to the woman banging on his door. It’s probably the right thing to do even if he has no real idea about who she is or why she’s trying to break his entrance way. Second, he should apologize to Tony. He’s not sure what exactly he did to make the man so uncomfortable, but the responsible thing to do is to apologize, ask what he’d done so he can make sure not to do that again, and then give the man any space he may require. Avoiding Tony would only put off the inevitable and maybe even give the wrong impression.

With his to-do list effectively made, he gets out the shower.

He towels off, brushes his teeth, then tries to comb his hair. It...mostly works, even if the comb bends dangerously a couple of times. He digs around and finds some clothes that seem clean, a loose t-shirt and some work out shorts.

Leaving the bathroom, he heads for the living room and says, “Karen, is, um - May! Is Ms. May still outside the door?”

“No, she left.” Peter nods, mentally noting this so he doesn’t forget to apologize to her later, as well as Tony.

Really racking those up, huh, dumbass , he thinks as he starts to rummage around his kitchen for something to eat.

He finds eggs and cheese plus some seasoning he figures will go well together and eats dry cereal from a mug while he cooks. Once the eggs are done he dumps them in a mug, as well….

He’s not sure where all the plates and bowls are and he honestly can’t say he cares much, at this point.

Once done with breakfast he checks the time and finds that it's only seven in the morning and maybe he shouldn’t be expecting people to be awake at this hour. Even if Ms. May was banging on his door even earlier, it still seems somewhat rude.

So, instead, he decides he’ll clean. He rounds up all the dishes first, since he doesn’t seem to have anything clean except for mugs. By the time he’s done, he’s filled the dishwasher with a few things left to simply wash and dry by hand. After that he grabs all the clothes that smell even a little off and toss them in an empty laundry basket he finds shoved to the back of his closet. A little poking around finds the washer and dryer in a closet in the hall, loading half of the basket into the washer, throwing in some detergent, and putting the machine going. He’s debating what to clean next or maybe he’d like to explore the lab more and hang out with the little ‘bot there, when he hears the murmur of voices outside of his door.

“Mr. Barnes, Captain Rogers, and Ms. May are currently outside of your door. They request that you speak to them.” Karen says.

“Sure, let them in.” Peter says as he makes his way back to the living area. He hears steps but doesn’t process how fast or how close they are until there’s a blur of motion to his right and -

“ Peter! ” someone says, loudly, as they tackle him in a hug.

Or, rather, it feels like a tackle but he sticks himself to the floor and uses his strength to keep himself standing.

He opens his mouth so say something but is swiftly cut off as the person flings themselves back with their hands gripping his shoulders tightly.

There’s a moment for him to process that this is the Ms. May from earlier before she starts in, “You had me so worried ! You always text, you promised you would, and then you never replied when I texted you!” Her face crumples a bit then he’s being yanked back into her arms, too stund to do much more than hug her back, though not as roughly. “I know you’re all grown up and you’ve got super powers and whatever .” she practically whines into his neck, “But I still worry about you.”

Peter holds her a bit tighter, “I’m sorry I worried you so bad.” There’s a slight russell of clothes and movement and Peter looks up to see two very awkward super soldiers standing next to his coffee table. “Hello.” he says, somewhat reflexively, at a bit of a loss as to what else to say.

Cap waves, a little dazed while Bucky just grunts in acknowledgement.

“Crap! Right.” Ms. May says, letting Peter go and wiping at her face before she turns to the super soldiers and says, “I’m sorry for dragging you around. I really did think something was wrong.”

The two men look at each other then Bucky walks to the door with a mumbled, “Your problem.” before he’s through the door and gone. Cap looks back over at them, Ms. May specifically and smiles a little sheepishly.

“Well, uh, you see ma’am. There is something a little bit wrong.” Ms. May stiffens and both turn to look at Peter. Ms. May with pure worry while Cap looks encouraging.

“I, uh,” Peter starts, clears his throat, fidgets, then, “I l-lost all of my memories. And I don’t really know who you are. Well anyone really. Or who I am, exactly.” Ms. May just keeps staring at him, though the worry has morphed to shock.

“Are you, uh, are you like my mom or something?” Peter asks, very hesitant with a sinking feeling settling in his guts.

“Nope.” Ms. May mutters before she blinks, once, twice, then, “Nopity, nope, nope, no.” Ms. May mutters as she turns on her heel for the elevator. The elevator glides open seamlessly, as if waiting for her. “Nat, please.” she says a little faintly and Cap steps toward her, but the doors close before he can get a word out.

Peter stands there stunned before turning to find a concerned and confused Steve looking back.

“Too much?” Peter asks with a shrug and a shaky smile.

“Maybe.” Steve agrees.

***

After many awkward moments, Steve suggests some training and Peter, with no better ideas and with a desperate need to not be left to his own thoughts, agrees.

The training room is huge, spread out with high ceilings and plenty of padding on every surface. But that’s it, besides a few doors.

“This….isn’t what I was expecting.”  Steve snorts, drawing Peter’s attention to find the man smiling and shaking his head.

“You said the exact same thing the first time Tony brought you here to train with us.” he explains and Peter tries for some sort of agreeable noise and amicable face but feels he probably falls short.

You’re always falling short , he thinks a little bitterly as they make their way to the bench he hadn’t noticed. Steve wraps his hand and feet then wraps Peter’s after he messes up a few times. Peter rolls his eyes as Steve reassures him that he’s always been awful at wraps. There’s stretching then a warm up of jogging and some punching at the air before they settle into figuring out just how much Peter remembers.

The first time Steve swings at him, it’s like his spine tries to twitch out of his body and he’s flipping away and landing in a crouch before he’s really thinking through the motions. The second he has a moment to think, he falls on his ass, so clearly thinking is what he needs to not be doing.

“Whoa.” he manages as he pats down his ribs, half checking on his spine half just trying to breath a bit.

Steve raises an eyebrow with a grin and asks, “Peter tingle?” like that’s supposed to mean something

“What?!” Peter squawks and Steve cackles.

“You call it your Spidey-sense.” Steve adds with a shrug as Peter gets back to his feet.

“That’s,” Peter breathes out a little as he flexes his fingers, “that’s better.”

It turns out that muscle memory and the Spider-sense ( christ it needs a better name) took care of a lot of his fighting ability. They switch between Steve beating him up and watching videos of past fights, both with the team and with villains.

Peter wants to use his web shooters but Steve says, “Maybe we should just figure out you fighting on the ground first.” Peter rolls his eyes and flops back dramatically and Steve tries for disapproving but doesn’t quite drown out all of his amusement.

They’ve been fighting for hours based off the ache in Peter’s lungs alone when Friday chimes in, “The door is about to open. Please refrain from throwing until the door is closed.”

Peter, who has collapsed on the ground for a break starts to weakly giggle as he imagines all the reasons why that message may have been programmed to play.

The weak giggles turn into a choked off squeak when he hears “Hey, Cap. Did you kill the spiderling?” Luckily Peter’s weird noises get covered up by Steve's snorting laugh.

“Nah, I think he’ll live.” Steve calls back as he gets up to presumably talk to Tony at a non-shouting distance. Peter stays, laying on his back in the middle of the room, trying to figure out what he’s supposed to do. He needed to apologize to Tony, he wasn’t giving up on that, but he didn’t want to do it in front of Steve. If Tony told Steve afterwards or even now, it was fine, he was entitled to speak to friends about his issues but Peter wanted him to have the option, not force the other man to have issues in his personal life spread around the team without his say so.

Peter is still laying there, agonizing over his life, when Tony’s face appears in front of him. He’s standing with a strained smile and a halo of golden-brown light ringing his gorgeous face. Stop that , he whines at himself inside of his head, you can’t think like that when he still hates you for last night .

“Hey, kid. Want to spare? Steve had somewhere to be.” Tony says as he holds a hand out for Peter to take. He grimaces slightly at the reappearance of this nickname for him. He can’t know for sure, but he’s thinking he must hate it just as much with his memories as without them.

But he takes Tony’s hand with a nod and replies, “Sure thing,” adding, because he just can’t help himself, “Mr. Stark.”

Tony doesn’t look happy with that name either.

He’s already warmed up so he just does some mild stretching while Tony gets warmed up and it’s not long before they’re facing each other, hands up to block and feet staggered for balance. A couple punches are thrown, a few grabs are made, one or two kicks, but it’s all testing the waters and trying to figure each other out again.

Then Tony starts to really try and take his head off.

Peter figures, on some level, that he deserves it, but he’s also not going to just lay down and take it. Besides, Tony is smirking and the spidey-sense isn’t lighting up in techni-color so he’s thinking they usually fight like this. Eventually they find a rhythm, an ebb and flow of movement and a balance between killing each other and going too soft to be useful.

“That all you got, underoos?” Tony goads Peter, lightly teasing but shocking all the same.

Tony falters, same as Peter, but he shakes it off with a smile and light jab, saying, “I got plenty more, old man.”

They get back into their rhythm, though this time trash talk and insults and laughter fly between them as well. It feels good, Peter thinks this must be what most of their training is like. Maybe even just hanging out with each other.

Will it ever feel this easy, outside of a fight, with how badly you messed up last night?  

Peter is distracted by the thought for long enough that Tony gets the upper hand, sliding into Peter’s space to place his hands and hips in just such a way as to flip Peter over, slamming him into the ground with a grunt. Peter is stunned and doesn’t fight it as Tony seamlessly pins him to the ground, knocking the air from his chest for more reasons than one. He hits the ground hard, with a force he wasn’t sure the other man possessed with his age and non-enhanced humanity.

The other reason is that the halo is back and fluffier, too. This time, the smile is wide and carefree with a flushed face, panting while his eyes spark dangerously. Peter feels himself smile, though it’s sad, and Tony sees it almost immediately and looks like he’s either going to start talking fast or running faster because of it.

So Peter grabs him, sticking to him, breaking the unspoken agreement to fight like regular humans, and breaths out, “I’m sorry.” This seems to startle Tony so he Peter keeps going, talking fast to get everything out before the other man can leave. “I’m not sure exactly what I did wrong but I obviously made you uncomfortable last night. That was never my intention. I don’t know if it’s because of something I said or did but just tell me what it was and I won’t do it again.” Tony’s still pinning him even as Peter lets go of his stick but he just looks completely confused at what Peter had to say.

There’s no stopping the words from pouring out as he continues, “Was it that I brought you to the lab? Did you feel trapped? Or was it because we’re just friends and you don’t see me -?” This startles a huff out of the man and the tension in his shoulders ratchets down a little, though the pain on his face seems to counter that action.

“Don’t see you like - ?” another huff as he rolls himself back on to his haunches, still stradling Peter’s hips but no longer truly pinning him. A hand comes up to wipe down his own face as he mutters, “I should be apologizing to you, damn it.”

“What do you have to apologize for?” Peter retorts as he sits up, sounding sullen. “I’m the one that flirted with you and took you back to the lab and tried to kiss -”

“No!” Tony half shouts as he takes Peter’s shoulders and shoves him back to the mat, trying to get the younger man to listen to him. “I’m the adult here and I made you uncomfortable. None of this is your fault, do you understand?”

“Why would I be uncomfortable?”

Tony levels him with a dry look with a raised eyebrow and says, just as arid, “I’m about twice your age and we meant when you were in highschool.”

Peter snorts out a laugh, “Yeah, nice try, but you already told me we weren’t even friendly until I got to college.”

“I could be lying to you.”

“You’re not that stupid. I am getting my memories back eventually and you’ve been nothing but kind to me so far.” Tony still looks unsettled and determined to somehow make it all his fault and all Peter can do is roll his eyes and grin.

He tries to tap down on the happy fluttering in his chest but he can’t because this has confirmed some things for him. Tony wasn’t upset by last night, that’s not why he had run, he was only worried that Peter would be upset with him. And Peter was far from upset with this man. He also realizes that Tony has never said that he didn’t like Peter back or that Peter’s flirting was unwanted.

So he acts fast.

Peter flips Tony over using his hips and enhanced strength. Draping himself along Tony’s body as he scures both of the man’s hands above his head, mirroring their previous position. Then he drags himself slowly along Tony’s torso until they’re face to face, Peter’s face hovering over a shocked Tony with a smirk.

“Besides,” Peter says, voice dropping a little with the intimate situation, “maybe I like them older.” Tony gapes in utter surprise as Peter smiles, sweet and innocent, ticking an eyebrow up and humming, short and deep in his chest.

There’s a sputter, some blinking, then, “You can’t just - !”

Peter drops his face down a little as his smile turns to a sharp, heated grin and he whispers, “I just did.”

Then he’s off of Tony and standing and watching as the flustered man blushes and splutters and says, “ Kid that’s not -! You’re not allowed to just -!”

Peter chuckles a bit and cuts the older man off, saying, “Like I said I just did.” His face softens a little as he continues, “And you can tell me you don’t want me to keep flirting or calling you Tony or anything that makes you uncomfortable, just let me know, I'll stop.” Tony, looking called out for not telling Peter to stop, point blank, blushes more and huffs. “And really, I tried to kiss you first, so balls in your court, so to speak.” Peter says, the older man squawking as Peter feels the mischievous look slip onto his face with his words.

“But that doesn’t mean, I’m out of the game, Mr. Stark .”

He’s running and cackling, listening to Tony chase him as they sprint out the training room and through the halls.

Another thing for The List of Things I Know Now: , Peter thinks to himself as he turns a corner with a squeal, I’m maybe a little bit in love with Tony Stark.

Previous / Next

[bangtan-spells]

Yoongi Scenario: Tainted Love - Part 5.

Request: Could you make one with Yoongi being some sort of demon/vampire boss that every one is super scared of but then there is Y/N, Yoongi is in love with her and everyone is always super impressed how Yoongi always surrenders and softens when something is about her? He’s super protective and wants to please her in his own way, thank you for doing this i love you

Summary: Demons are merciless, demons are ruthless, demons can’t hold nothing dear to them. Yoongi is the leader, the king of the demon world. He is feared as he is respected, no one expected him to bring a human girl as his lover, you. You fell in love and now you are in the midst of adjusting to the demon world, its custums, and its dangers. But everything is worth it if is for him, the demon king that lives between shadows and that would turn hell apart to protect you.

Demon AU - Featuring all BTS

Genre: Romance / Drama. 

Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13

You didn’t know what to expect, Yoongi didn't tell you specifically what you were going to do, only that would be going back to the manor with him and from there you’d be taking off to wherever place in which the collect had to be done.

It made you excited as it made you nervous thinking about it. Yoongi told you you’ll be going after you had your breakfast, you were having toasts with jam, eggs and a big cup of coffee all by yourself in his room. Getting your back comfier you thought how much you liked his bed, being in a place that was just all him, after cleaning your lips you put the little tray aside, rolling on the bed, trying to pick up his scent, you could truly say you also loved how he smelled, but you knew it wasn’t the same thing he sensed while doing it on you. It was something made you scowl with envy and craving, you wanted to be able to sense him like that too. 

Yoongi told you he had a few things to do before going,  he had still the runaway demon closed in the dungeons but apparently it wasn’t it. The killings had stopped but barely, now they had resumed which made them think the runaway demon was still on the run and this just a distractor. Yoongi wanted to see what could they get out of the captive demon but it hadn’t been very fruitful. You wondered if you were conceited, rolling around in bed when Yoongi had that burden, but then you’d be going to help him today, at least try your best at being useful. You stared at the katanas on the wall, how the blade was slightly curved, the grip simple and yet with a beautiful design, you wondered what would be like holding one of those with your hands, how much would a katana weigh.

The doors opened letting Yoongi in, he just stared at you for a few seconds before approaching the bed.

-I thought you’d be ready by now-

You smirked, trying to hide your nervousness with a bit of arrogance. -I was waiting for you-

He smirked back. -Yeah? For what?- Yoongi saw your playfulness flowing out of you, you knew he couldn’t resist to it, so you waited until he went closer to you, a sigh of surrender escaping his lips before sitting down.

-No reason, just for you- you whispered near his hear, wanting to tickle him a little with the movement of your lips. Yoongi groaned.

-You should be preparing Y/N- he observed, his shadows pushing you to him making you gasp. -Unless you prefer changing the schedule for today-

-No- you decided immediately. -Today I want to learn, I want you to teach me things-

He turned his head, the dark orbs staring at yours seriously -I know, I… I guess I was trying to push back these things as much as possible at least while you are a human-

-Why?- you asked also in a whisper. -I mean, you had showed me other things too, remember?-

-That was only showing, this time it won’t only be like that, so be prepared, I won’t go easy on you Y/N-

-I know- You pecked his cheek, he was worried about you, there was a potential danger for today but you weren’t sure if it was because of your fragility as a human or because he cared for you enough for that detail to enerve him. -I won’t be reckless- you assured him. -And you’ll be there, what could happen to me if you are there?- it was a blatant boost to his ego, but it wasn’t a lie and Yoongi needed it,  your trust in him and his power would give him confidence.

He kissed your knuckles. -I’ll have to do a little something for today- he said as he still held your hand close to his mouth. -Don’t panic-

You were going to ask what he was going on about but then he touched the inner part of your wrist, burning you. You gasped, as Yoongi hushed you softly, but his fingers burned on your skin like you had a hot metal pressed against it. -Stop- you said biting your lips to not yelp due to the pain.

He gave you an apologetic look and then took your wrist to his mouth, he licked and sucked it, just slightly but it made you gasp again, it was cold now, it still burned but not as much.

He let your hand in your lap, you were panting a little, but you still started down at what he had done. It was a mark. Although this was was different, as it went around your wrist like a bracelet, the swirls connecting to each other just where he had posed his lips.

-What is this? Yoongi you…-

-No it isn’t- he said as he got up. -This is another type, you could say it is your starter pack for today, congratulations-

You rolled your eyes. -You could have told me though-

He smiled with just the right amount of cockiness for you to find it unbearable and too attractive at the same time. -What would be the fun in that though?- he said as he went to the bathroom, telling you to be get ready to go. You sighed, this demon of yours, what were you going to do with him.

It turned out that you weren’t going alone, you found out when you got out of the room and reached the lobby that led out of the manor that Jin was also coming with you, which was ok, Jin was cool. 

You wondered where you were going to go and for a moment you saw the door wondering if you were going by foot but Jin put a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder, you looked to your side and there you had Yoongi offering his hand, you took it, squeezing it a little and then you were gone.

A dizziness ran through your body violently, so much you almost fell when you opened your eyes again, your stomach was turning and your head was spinning.

Yoongi kept you in place, trying to ease you in your new surroundings.

-It must be because of the large distance- Jin said. -Maybe we should have made a stop in…-

-She’s fine- Yoongi cut him. -She can handle it- now you could see his face more clearly, as he examined your semblance some more before turning to Jin, you were in the open, but everything looked so different and you realized that you were no longer in your town.

You were on the top of a building, the sensation of vertigo coming back when you peeked from the edge. -Where are we?-

Yoongi looked down by your side, Jin approaching to peek as well, then staring ahead to the city view. -Welcome to Novosibirsk, we are in Russia-

Novosibirsk was a big city, it showed even when you could only see part of the panorama the heigh of the building offered, you were there for a few minutes while Yoongi looked around, turning his head and squinting his eyes as if he was trying to distinguish something out in the view, he focused his attention on it as Jin and you waited for him, he was picking up the trail of whoever was going to pay their debt today.

It made you a bit nervous, but even still this is what you wanted, to be included and get used to his way of living, to not be scared and be able to do something, you knew you had to learn how to fight as well, but that was a talk you were going to have with Yoongi later. Right now you wanted to see how you felt while actually being in something he did for a living.

-Let’s go- Yoongi said, taking your hand, and touching Jin’s back to then disappear.

You appeared in an ally that led to a lone street, you weren’t sure if this was the same part of town in which you had appeared but you guessed Yoongi had detected the person in this area.

-Who are we looking for?- you asked but you could see how Jin looked at Yoongi with expectation too, he was also unaware of who you were going to see today, both of you following Yoongi blindly, Jin because of his loyalty and probably friendship to Yoongi, and you because you trusted him probably more than you thought you could.

-A man, in his late twenties probably, he should be in the next couple of buildings- Yoongi explained as they walked through the scarce people, it was cold for summer, so you were glad you had brought a jacket with you, the three of you blended nicely so much that it was suspicious, who wouldn't do a double take on Yoongi and Jin? Jin was way too handsome, and Yoongi well, he was too many things to go unnoticed.

-No one can see us right?- you asked Yoongi who smirked.

-They can- Yoongi answered making you more confused. -They see what they would expect, just two men and a girl walking fast, nothing more-

You were going to ask further on how that exactly worked but Yoongi turned to the left and then he led you into a building, once you were alone he touched both of you again and next thing you knew was you were in front of a door. It was a long hallway, poorly lit and even more poorly aired.

Jin knocked and then waited.

-Why not just appear inside?- you asked trying not let your nerves turn you into a walking radio, sometimes when you got too nervous you couldn’t shut your mouth.

-Because we have manners Y/N- Jin answered as if it was obvious. -We have courtesy- he added knocking again, the sound echoing in the hallway almost like it announced the intentions of the newcomers, if you were inside that apartment you’d be scared out of your mind, no doubt of that.

-Funny how certain someone told me days ago he had no intentions to be polite- you glared at Yoongi who just threw a warning look at you that made you forget about the collect for a second. He caressed the spot where the mark had been before stepping forward when some rustling could be heard inside, whoever was in the apartment knew what was coming.

-Do I…?- Jin said and Yoongi nodded, with a simple hit Jin trashed the lock.

-Couldn’t we just appear inside?- you asked again when the door opened, it’d be easier than waiting.

-This way is better- Yoongi explained. -You have to imagine what the person inside must feel, imagine the shock if we appear out of the thin air- he chuckled amused and Jin rolled his eyes.  -This way they know and they can have a few seconds to think about it-

Lesson one, fear was important, but wouldn’t it just appear inside create much more?

You went it, and just the inexistent  receiver  told you it was a really small apartment, not too much natural light, humid, and you could hear the crashes and the bangs of doors.

-He’s hiding- Yoongi stated darting forward. -Now come out, let’s not draw this any longer- he said as he went straight to a room, opening it with a single kick. There was a man crouching beside a bed, he was trembling and was holding something between his legs but what caught your attention was how he was much older than twenty, this man must be in late sixties at least.

-It’s you- he said when his eyes landed on Yoongi. -You found me-

Yoongi widened his eyes in surprise and then you saw the shadows slip from his shoulders down the floor, the man winced and cried out when he felt it in his body, the shadow going around his neck like a collar. Yoongi did a round move with his right hand and then something jumped out of the man’s shirt.

-Son of a bitch- he muttered and you tried to distinguish the object that hung from a leather cord, it looked like some kind of stone.

-Please- the man cried bowing his head.

Yoongi took a step forward letting Jin and you go further into the room. -You thought you could fool me- Yoongi said as he smiled a little.

-I did- the man said, and you wondered how was it possible that you were understanding him, you didn’t speak russian, but somehow you understood everything the man had said until now. -You will never find him, you will never…- the man gasped as the shadow ripped the leather cordon away from his neck, bringing it to Yoongi who examined closely before passing it to Jin.

-Sorcery- he said to which Yoongi nodded but you were confused.

-What?-

Yoongi looked at you and signaled Jin to give you the collar. -This prick right here thought he could get away with not fulling his part of the deal, now old man, your little trick is out and I can go find the boy right now if I want but…- he shook his head smiling a little. -That wouldn’t be right, now you have to pay as well, so you will tell me where he is-

-No, you’ll never find him- the man said and his eyes drifted to you who were seeing the yellow stone from up close, he saw Jin but his eyes went back to you and gasped. -You’re human- You frowned, not knowing if you should say something to him or not but then the man raised his hands revealing he had been hiding a gun that was now pointing it at you. -You’re human- he half cried half laughed. You went completely still, the man was too close and he had more than a clear shot to your chest.

-Now old man- Yoongi’s voice sounded dangerously low. -You are just adding another stupid thing to your list, that is pretty long may I say- he had his eyes fixed on the man who flicked his gaze between Yoongi and you.

-Girl you should run, they are devils, demons! they came to take my boy- the man cried lowering the gun a little.

-Don’t bullshit her- Yoongi spat and then sharpened his gaze. -Or is it that you regret it?- he laughed. -I’ll tell you Y/N what this little prick did forty years ago- the man cried bowing even more to himself and you kind of felt pity of him, he looked miserable. -When young Artur was starting his company he realized his capital was shit and thus he enrolled with some shady friends into some even shadier business that could get him killed, but- Yoongi emphasized, and you could see how with each word the man cried more -Said business could get him killed, so young Artur wished really really hard he could have some kind of protector power that could get him through success with his sorry ass intact, so he had the pleasure to meet me, didn’t you Artur?- he chuckled, you were impressed how he enjoyed this, how each word he said made Artur shrink even more, it was like he was sucking the live out of him with everything he said -I told him such deal would cost him- Yoongi continued. -Artur I told you so, and you know what he promised? He told me I could have the life of his son, when he had one, how kind of you Artur-

He finished the little story which made you look at him horrified, you knew people gambled with other’s lives, but with the life of your son. This was a piece of scum.

-I thought I wouldn’t have any, girl- he talked to you and Yoongi stepped forward but you shook your head -I thought I could…- he hit his own head as he cried. -You devil, this is your fault-

Yoongi snorted, disregarding his words as he didn’t care what the man said. Jin on the other hand was stepping closer as the atmosphere grew heavier. -Just kill him Yoongi-

He shook his head. -He will tell me himself where his son is- Yoongi threw a look of anger to the man, perfectly masked with a pleasant smile, he was terrifying. -You will tell, won’t you Artur?-

-Girl you should go away, you are human, you can go away, they are demons, beasts-

You frowned, looking down at the collar with the stone. -And yet you were the one pointing a gun at me, selling your son’s life, you are worse than any demon-

Artur screamed. -I didn’t mean to!-

-Yes, you did- you sentenced, because even if today he regretted it, at that time he had done it and now he was going to pay for it.

-You are going to kill him, my son, you are going to…- Artur shook his head as Yoongi stepped slowly to him, but then his hands lifted swiftly and he pulled the trigger, the impact of the bullet making you fall to the floor.

[redconfidential-blog]

It’s here! The moment we’ve been waiting for. Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers team up to fight Thanos; their most powerful adversary yet!  His mission: to collect all six Infinity Stones and rebalance the universe. And as usual, our fate rests with the Avengers. You have to be living under a rock, on the moon, not to have heard about this movie because Thanos has gone and just about destroyed everywhere else!

This movie has been all the rave, but if you really have been sleeping on it, you can watch the trailer here:

Now, get 2 packs of popcorn and go pee because this movie is looooonger than you will believe! Worse, it is very fast-paced, blink and you miss 3 scenes. So, I’m serious about you using the restroom.

Infinity Wars brings together a lot of familiar and beloved characters including our billionaire fiance Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), our neighborhood vigilante Spider-man (Tom Holland), our favourite magician; Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), our Prince; Thor (Chris Hemsworth fans self), a new, improved and bearded Captain America (Chris Evans), the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt) (Zoe Saldana) and of course the talking tree; Groot (Vin Diesel , in his least glamorous role yet).

Oh, how can I forget, our own King T’Challa of Wakanda was there too. At this point, you can already imagine how long the credits at the end will be. Best believe you will sit through it, all two hours and thirty minutes of it.

Now to the meat of the matter. I’ll try not to leave any spoilers in this review but here goes.

It starts with a bang! In fact, it felt like Infinity Wars is a continuation of another movie. I mean, we are greeted by some really ugly guy telling us how lucky we are to be dying by the hands of Thanos. The place is ravaged, corpses everywhere, Heimdall (Idris Elba) the Asgard Gate-Keeper fallen and dying, Thor defeated and on his knees. I had to check the time twice just to be sure I wasn’t at the end of the movie.

The plot itself is broad, with so many things happening at the same time on different planets,with different characters, but I feel like the director did a great job of tying it all together and not losing us in all that space and time travelling. Don’t get excited, there’s no time to relax or pack your flip-flops. Half the time we were hanging on the outside of spaceships or crashing into the ruins of some unknown planet in the middle of nowhere.

The dialog is actually very entertaining, and a lot of times I genuinely had to laugh out loud. The retorts were very realistic and hilarious, witty remarks and creative insults were not lacking. You know when it’s funny because the character just spoke your mind? Yeah. It’s that kind of funny.

It’s also very emotional. Hell, things get emotional from scene one, and I’m talking a wide range of emotions: anger,  excitement, shock, confusion, heartbreak, loss. It’s like this whole movie is designed to make you feel something, and you will. Even Thanos, the big, purple, genocide-masterminding bad guy sheds a few tears too. That’s why I told you to pee…and bring your tissue.

But gosh, the fighting scenes were amazing! No shortage of kicks, punches and tricks. Here every other scene had some or the other. Throw in Dr. Stranges wrist swirling and shape shifting and it couls almost be described as elegant.

The fight in Wakanda, with T’Challa and Captian America running to the enemy lines ahead of the Wakandan arm was nothing short of glorious. I can only compare it to war in Lord of the Rings.

The ladies got a lot of screen time and did they turn up! Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and of course Okoye, Head of the Wakanda’s Armed Forces and Intel did not come to play. Representing Nigeria in battle, she did not embarrass us! Our girl was bald as an egg and wielding her spear like nobody’s business.

These girls “kicked names and took ass” so good, I’ll be going to the gym tonight. Fat as I am, my super power will be sitting on my enemies and crushing them, like the hulk. Don’t worry, Tony Stark has a suit for Avengers of all sizes.

There were a lot of picturesque moments too, the ruined planets were especially detailed and  well done in my humble opinion. I especially want Thor and his lighten bright eyes for my next desktop wallpaper.

Of all of the heros, my favourite characters were Rocket the Racoon/Rabbit and Groot. Something about those 2 in a scene particularly excited me. Perhaps it���s, the rabbits quick-wit and mischief? Plus, they held their own during the war. Talk about small but mighty! Let me know who your favourite superhero was in the comment section below.

  My first concern is, this movies dependence on the last nine marvel movies, the sheer number of characters and concurrent story-lines. I feel like it will be quite difficult for non-marvel fans to catch up on everything going on because there’s so much history. The characters did leave clues to past events but I’m of the opinion that if you haven’t followed the back stories, this one might not be as meaningful.

Next, the lack of blood. Don’t get me wrong I understand this is to make it convenient for family-viewing and a larger audience. However, I don’t know how one can have such a massive invasion of fire resistant monsters with long sharp teeth and claws, and yet no one got crunched on. Nobodies blood sprayed on us after the bad babe with horns bragged that they had “plenty of blood to spare”. Even those who were supposed to be injured did not exactly bleed. The most we got was some minor trickles of blood running down someone’s face. Even Tony Stark that was somewhat impaled spat out blood once but did not bleed from the major wound. It’s a war for Christ sake.

Finally, I couldn’t help but notice that HawkEye, Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman were absent?  We had what? 15? 20 superheroes? More than any superhero movie in history, and quite frankly bothering on too much. But, it’s the Infinity war, the war of all wars. The end of life as we know it. Who’s got the right to be on leave right now, when Thanos is destroying planet after planet, and heroes are dying like flies? No amount of help would have been too much!

Finally, the end. The end of this movie is the cliff hanger of all cliff hangers. Film will finish and you will be stuck in your seat like “Wait, is this it? Excuse me? Explain. What just happened?” You might have to do some googling to eventually find your peace.

Summarily, this is the most intense, complex, and entertaining Marvel film yet and it is worth your time and money. I will definitely see it again…and again. The movie is showing in all the cinemas in Abuja and Lagos right now. None of them are paying me for this so I’m not recommending anyone in particular. Besides, they all sell crappy popcorn. Regardless, tomorrow is Friday, movie night. GO AND SEE this movie with someone who likes these sort of films! You’ll have the best time.

If you have to, take your older kids, teenagers with a long attention span, not the younger ones. In my opinion, this movie isn’t for small children. They won’t be able to follow the story. They will certainly get fidgety and probably ruin your experience. But, what do I know?

Have you seen Avengers: Infinity War? Let me know what you think in the comments! As always, thank you for reading! *** Liked this post? Do share it on your social media wall, timeline or feed. Want blog updates and promotions in your inbox? Sign Up Now

Movie Review: Avengers: Infinity War It's here! The moment we've been waiting for. Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers team up to fight Thanos; their most powerful adversary yet!