#I should do crack just to see how insane the pupil size difference would be

[seriouslysnape]

Teacher’s Pet

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Severus Snape x Fem! Professor! Reader

Warnings: Smut. Teacher/Student Roleplay.

Request: what about snape and a fellow teacher in a pre-established relationship, but the reader is roleplaying as a student for some fun bedroom play? maybe some funny stuff about how he’s sweeter on her than the actual students?

A/N: HNksdnasodasndk WOW I LIKE THIS ONE.

Word Count: 1,970

“I told you that you’re sweeter on me.”

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“You’re tense, Severus.” Your gentle voice spoke out to break the silence in Severus’ home study.

The strain in his muscles caused a wince to clearly show on your expression as your hands massage at his shoulders and back. Fridays usually proved to be the hardest on Severus. The students were always much more rambunctious and much more difficult to control when they had the weekend on their consciences, much to his dismay. Students of all Houses had given him a run for his money today, even the Hufflepuffs who were usually the most well behaved were causing Severus grief. 

Cauldrons had been knocked over, potions were spilled onto the floor, glass vials were broken into tiny pieces, and heated arguments had broken out that Severus had to break up, and he had assigned at least five kids to detention.  On top of everything else, all the kids had seemed to be off the walls with excitement.

The absolute bane of Severus’ occupation.

He was disgruntled and aggravated when he returned to his home office, plopping himself behind his desk near the bed and sitting there to stew. He feared that his sour mood would cause him to snap at you and start a fight that he surely didn’t want to have.

However, he should’ve known that you’d come looking for him when he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Professors weren’t supposed to reside outside of the castle during the school year, but Severus wanted to get away from just one night. You peeked into his bedroom with a bright grin, indicating that you had clearly had a much better day than he had. His irritation was very obvious to you, so you allowed yourself in and had rubbed his shoulders and given him sweet kisses to soothe him.

He had told you all about his terrible day, not leaving out any detail.

“Darling, I’ve been fending off obnoxious students all day. You’d be uptight as well.” He grumbled, rolling his neck to try and work out the hard knots.

A soft laugh fell from your lips, sending a rush of warmth to shoot through Severus’ heart.

“Oh, come on. They’re just kids. They were good today.” You remarked, firmly running your fingers along his arms.

“They’re always good for you,” Severus claimed; “Even my Slytherins don’t give you any trouble.” 

You moved from behind him to stand beside him, looking into his tired pools of black.

“Because I’m flexible with them. I understand how difficult things can get and I offer my help for those who need it,” You explained; “You don’t have to be their friend or anything, but you could be easier to work for.” 

Severus scoffed incredulously. That was probably the biggest difference between the two of you. You had very different views when it came to teaching. Students seemed to favor you over Severus (however, most students preferred anyone over Severus) due to your friendly nature. You were warm hearted and made sure your students knew you were available as a resource to them. They respected you as a professor and were comfortable around you as a friend.

“Maybe if you weren’t such a hard ass all the time, they might like you a little more.” You added, hiding your smirk.

Severus’ eyebrows dipped a tad, his tongue running along the inside of his cheek.

“Watch yourself. I’ll send you to detention too.” He said purely as a joke, but his body flushing with arousal when he saw your demeanor turn lustful.

“Have I been bad, Professor?” You purred, your voice going up a pitch.

The use of his work title coming from your lips was turning him on way more than he would’ve liked to admit. His pale cheeks went dark red, and his skin began to itch with desire. 

“I think you already know the answer to that.” He rumbled, sitting up a little straighter so he could touch you.

One of his hands came to peel off your long winter coat to show more of your skin that was hidden away, but his pupils blew about 3x their usual size when he saw what you were wearing underneath. It was a seemingly innocent outfit to someone who wasn’t very observant, but to Severus it was about as scandalous as he could handle.

“What are you wearing?” He asked lowly, his eyes unashamedly gawking over your chosen outfit.

It was an old uniform skirt of yours from your days at Hogwarts, adorned with your House colors and the mascot stitched in the lower left side of the skirt. It was much shorter than when you wore it as a student. You had grown taller since first wearing it and you now filled it out in a much more provocative way since you had been in your adolescent years. 

“This old thing? I just had to change before coming to see you,” You teetered, knowing good and well it was driving him wild; “You know, I think you’re much sweeter on me than your other students, Professor.”

“My other students don’t look at me the way you do. My resolve is so very thin around you,” He reminded you, his hand sliding up your leg to push the skirt past your hips. A surprised exhale of air escaped his chest when he saw you weren’t wearing anything underneath; “Not even wearing your knickers...I’m tempted to take House points away for your behavior.”

Ecstatic thrills buzzed through you that he had jumped onto your little game. You arched your back to meet his frame as his hands began to massage at your hips.

“Oh, please. Anything but that!” You mocked a desperate tone.

A hard, rutted fucking would take tension away from even the most strained of people. Severus needed a good stress release, and you knew this was a hell of a good way to do so, and have some fun while you were at it.

“Bad students have to be punished, Miss [L/N]. Actions have consequences.” He tutted.

Arousal was beginning to glisten your inner thighs, something that Severus never failed to notice. His fingertips were ice cold against your heated sex, a pitiful whimper leaving your lips when he glacially dragged his fingers through your folds.

“Surely...there’s something I can do to rectify my behavior, Professor.” You purred out in a hush of a voice.

“Are you suggesting what I think you are? You’re much worse than I thought...” Severus teased.

Severus stared at you thoughtfully when you only looked at him through batting lashes. His fingers were stilled and refusing to move despite your desperate grinds against his hand. He stood from his chair to tower over you, a rush of intimidation and desire beginning to spew through the cracks of the dam that was ready to crumble completely.

“Get on the bed.” He ordered.

You teased your lower lip with your teeth, obliging to his husky command and retreating to his large bed, sinking and sprawling yourself out on the mattress seductively. This was a damn gorgeous sight to see. He loved the way you were wriggling with anticipation and expectation for him. Your thighs were rubbing together to create even just an ounce of friction to appease the ache.

“You’re so impatient. If you’re so needy then I suppose you can get yourself of-”

“No! Please, I need you, sir,” You droned. 

He had joined you on the bed, placing a knee on either side of you to keep you from going anywhere. He watched your squirm some more while he removed his belt and pants in a painfully slow fashion. He was determined to bring you to the brink of insanity. He wanted every noise that came out of you to either be a plea or a moan. 

“I’m feeling rather generous tonight.” He fished his hard dick out of his boxers, the sight filling you with joy.

You couldn’t help but smirk up at him, rolling your hips into his pelvis casually.

“I told you that you’re sweeter on me.” You grinned.

With that statement and without missing a beat, Severus shoved all of his cock into your throbbing entrance, the dam breaking completely. A stunned cry wailed out into the room, echoing off of the walls. Severus didn’t even bother to strip you of your clothes. 

He had all the access he needed.

He gave you only a few seconds to adjust to his length before he started pounding into you. You didn’t realize just how much pent up stress and aggravation he really had until each new thrust had your eyes rolling back into your head.

You thanked your lucky stars that you were in the privacy of his home and not his quarters at school, because even with a silencing charm you were sure that it’d be blatantly obvious what was happening. You didn’t think it was possible, but he started pushing in even harder, earning him a praise.

“Oh, fuck! Severus...” You rang out, not even realizing your mistake.

He stopped completely, his hand coming up to grip your chin to make you look at him. 

“Do you call all of your professors by their first name? I probably should just leave you here for-”

“Please, no! I’m sorry, Professor Snape, just...please, don’t stop.” You yowled pathetically. 

Severus rotated his hips to find a new angle as well as putting your heel on his shoulder to push into you deeper. He started fucking into you again, almost breaking when he saw the way your eyes squinted shut.

“Such a bad girl,” He muttered out through thrusts; “Showing up to see your professor and expecting a reward.” 

You moaned out in response, your brain was too cloudy to form a verbal response. Your breasts were pushing against the thin material of your shirt, your lacy bra underneath just barely visible. He held your wrists above your head to keep them pinned down, his other hand firmly gripping your thigh draped on his shoulder.

Severus' pace and pressure was perfect, throwing you into a continuous spiral of pleasure with each delicious movement. He was sucking hard hickeys on your neck and just on the tops of your breasts, leaving marks to let the world know you were his. 

That familiar coil was hot and close to snapping at any moment. Severus twitched somewhere deep inside of you, hitting every bundle of nerves he could possibly find. It wasn’t until his ring and index finger found your clit and began rubbing firm circles that you alerted him.

“P-Professor, I’m close.” You whimpered, praying that he wasn’t going to stop now.

He didn’t stop, continuing his perfect thrusts. 

“Let go, darling. I’ve got you.” He said through a strained voice.

With a final lust driven hum, you clenched and came around him, his own release spilling into you shortly after. He filled you with everything he had with a loud groan. His recent release mixed with yours as it leaked from you onto the sheets. Severus didn’t care in the least. 

He fell next to you, breathings heavy and words feeling impossible to come by. The lust had cleared from his vision, and he was feeling much more relaxed now. 

“Are you alright, love?” He asked, pulling your skirt down to cover at least a little bit of you from the cold hair.

A sleepy, satisfied smile appeared on your face as you nodded. He captured your lips in a lazy kiss, your voice breaking it shortly after.

“I think...it’s safe to say that I’m your favorite student.” You joked.

Severus chuckled.

“Well, if you WERE a student then yes. But I’m perfectly happy with how things are.” He praised.

You giggled lightly, kissing him once more.

“Yeah. Me too.”

[gabywantsafriend]

Dopamine and Oxytocin: Brian Johnson x Reader

(Not my GIF)

Requested by tmntthristy - “Is it ok if request a brian Johnson x reader where they meet in detention”

Hi sorry it took me so long to respond to your request, love :( I hope you enjoy it, though! -Gaby :)

Warning: Mentions of drugs, Swearing

“Ah, Ms. L/n. Right on time,” Vernon greeted without looking up from his clipboard. He flipped through his papers. “Let’s see, first time in detention, eh?” You nodded. “So you’re in here for cursing out Mr. Galvin, correct?”

“To be fair, sir, he was making sexist comments. He needed some words of wisdom to deflate his pathetically large ego.” Allison snorted, mouthing “Good one!”  which you replied with a thumbs up. Vernon sighed, “Very unlike you, Ms. L/n. You’re not really the type to speak your mind,” he hinted at your quiet nature, “Alright, well take a seat. Anywhere’s fine.” You sat next to Brian as you’d talk to him the most during class. Plus, you weren’t very close with the rest of the kids. The vice principal then proceeded to lecture you all on the importance of morals and good conduct; you know, all that boring shit. He then proceeded to his office after a last warning of, “And no funny business, got it?”

Once Vernon was out of sight, the group chattered away about their week and how they managed to get into detention. You found out that they called themselves “The Breakfast Club,” and that they see one another on the second Saturday of each month to catch up. They had  agreed to keep their friendship private as they were from completely different social backgrounds. They seemed close, much to your dismay as you were an introvert with few friends and weren’t the best at socializing. Great, nine glorious hours of being left out.

You actually followed Vernon’s instructions and managed to finish your essay within the first 45 minutes. You didn’t have anything better to do. The next four hours comprised of you doodling on your notebook and were seemingly peaceful except for Bender’s occasional taunting. Boredom took a hold of you eventually as even your thoughts couldn’t keep you entertained. The group was sprawled out on the floor, passing around a blunt as they cracked up about anything and everything. Yep, they were high as a kite. 

You were having a whole, blown-out debate in your head whether you should join them. Your logic kicked in. Y/n, are you insane? A single drag can lead you to addiction and you’ll never get into a good college and no one will hire you because of your messed up state of mind and no one’s ever gonna love you because drugs will be your number one priority. It’ll tear your life apart-

“Hey, can I have a go?” Fuck it. All five of them whipped their heads to look at you, faces painted with astonishment.  “Well, well, well. She speaks!” The criminal mocked with a shit-eating grin, kneeling and looking to the heavens as if he just witnessed a miracle. “I’m anti-social, not mute, you fucking moron,” you retorted. The rest of them snickered. “You’re cool,” Allison nodded in approval, passing you the blunt. You stared at the rolled up weed in between your fingertips. As you inhaled the foreign material, you cough a couple of times before you feel the drugs slowly take effect, you squint as the world seems to blurrily spin around you. The next thing you know you’re laughing uncontrollably. 

“Alright, if you could have a super power, what would it be?” Brian asked while kneading through his eyebrows, making sure they were still there (the weed toyed with his sense of touch.) The group of high teenagers were all over the library. Andrew was running around the room with Allison on his back, his arms outstretched while he made airplane noises to make her laugh. Bender let out a giggly “Ouch! You’re tugging too hard, babe!” as Claire braided his hair behind a bookshelf. The four were paired up, consumed in teen romance. Brian huffed after looking around, realizing that their attention wasn’t focused on him and his weird questions. He closed his eyes momentarily, basking in the peaceful state of mind that the drugs caused him to be in.

“I’d probably shapeshift.” The nerd squinted at you, quirking an eyebrow in confusion. “What?” You waved your hand in a “move over” kind of motion and he obeyed, scooting a little to make room for you. You laid down beside him, staring at the ceiling. “You asked about super powers, didn’t you?”

You heard him. You, the pretty girl who sat in front of him at History; you, who pushed him out of the way as not to get hit by a dodgeball during P.E; you, who occasionally engaged small talk in class; you, who he had admired for the longest time, were paying attention to him. 

He masked his growing smile with a sly, “Oh yeah, I did ask that. I didn’t know Marijuana gave me short-term memory loss,” he laughed quietly. “I wanna have super strength, by the way,” he said as an answer to his own question. “Lame.”

You both then proceeded to talk for what seemed to be hours on end (except for when one of you had to use the restroom.) You spoke about everything and nothing at the same time; your conversations simultaneously switching from serious discussions to little things that made zero sense. From childhood traumas to favorite nursery rhymes, crying about the pressure of having strict parents to cackling about who could sing the national anthem in a higher pitch. You weren’t sure where all of these stories and ranting and weird ass humor were coming from, nor were you sure if you’d remember any of the things you’ve rambled on about by the time the drugs wore off. But after listening to this random nerd from History class, you were sure of one thing:

He’s really pretty. 

You took subtle glimpses of him so he wouldn’t catch you staring. You took mental notes of how his eyes seemed to smile while he’d let out a hearty chuckle, how he’d pick at his fingernails when he was nervous, how his voice cracked every now and then, or how he’d do anything and you’d be utterly bewildered. 

And he’s beyond intelligent. From what you’ve observed based on hours of chatting, he’d think for a moment, most probably choosing the best words to use, then rant to you as if delivering a whole speech, complete with an introduction, body, and conclusion. “His mind is pretty, too,” you thought. 

“Woah, you okay? Your pupils are huge.” You shook your head lightly, getting your head out of the clouds. “Well, that’s what happens when you space out while you’re extremely high,” you nagged playfully. “I don’t think it’s just the Marijuana, Y/n,” Brian stated as-a-matter-of-factly. You squinted at the nerd as you challenged, “Oh yeah? Then what is it?” 

His fucked up mental state gave him a surge of confidence as he cleared his throat and explained, “Well, scientifically speaking, there are these ‘love hormones,’” he drew air quotes with his fingers, “called Dopamine and Oxytocin that affect the size of our pupils. These chemicals usually get boosted in your brain when you’re romantically attracted to someone-”

“Wait, wait, wait- so, you’re saying I’m attracted to you?” You sat up, scoffing incredulously. He stopped mid-tutoring to turn his head toward you, you doing the same. He sheepishly grinned, “I don’t know, maybe? I mean- I hope I’m right because I like you a whole lot.” 

You sat up abruptly, causing Brian to be startled. “What? You’re joking, aren’t you? I swear to God, Johnson-” His stomach churned unpleasantly at your reaction, you looked disgusted. He was sitting up now, cheeks aflame with embarrassment as he began to stutter out strings of apologies and explanations.

“I-I’m so sorry! It’s just that y-you’re so pretty a-and you’re really kind and-and I couldn’t help but-but like you! I’ve l-liked you ever since the m-moment you first introduced you-yourself to class last year. Shit, this is so humiliating!” He buried his face in his hands. “I’m so stupid for thinking you’d like me back,” his timid voice was muffled by his palms, making it even harder to understand, but you did.

The next thing you knew, you were moving his hands away from his face, placing a small peck on his pink lips. It was delicate and quick enough to miss. However, he didn’t miss the way his stomach erupted in butterflies; or how your lips were soft against his. He wouldn’t miss it for the world. His eyes, previously squeezed shut, went wide after the little display of affection.

You laughed lightly. “What’s so funny?” He questioned with the goofiest grin on his face, still in a small state of shock and euphoria.

“Your pupils are so blown out, dork. Like they’re absolutely massive!” You said in between giggles. His hands found their way to your cheeks and now it was his turn to kiss you, longer this time. It was sweet and full of admiration. He pulled away to speak.

“Maybe it’s because I like you so much.”

[almarantha]

Aurum - A TES Drabble

“You really must take better care of yourself, child.”

Amara’s eyelids shot open at the foreign voice, sending her scrambling to get to her feet. She would forgive herself this moment of impropriety, of weakness. It was a startling thing, being spoken to when you were supposed to be dead. Reaching down, Amara placed a hand over her stomach, searching for a fresh wound that should’ve still been bleeding.

Granted, that wasn’t the only thing that seemed to no longer exist.

There was… nothing around her. No walls. No ceiling. No ground, for that matter. There was a floor beneath her, she could feel it, but actually discerning it was another matter entirely. Her surroundings were but a blank canvas. Filled with anticipation, but nothing had yet been put onto the page. No words had filled the empty void of white. No paint had given color, given life, to the environment.

“Yes, but think of the potential.” The voice mused once more, as if reading her mind.

Amara spun her head around so fast that she feared she might have snapped it. Could she even? She was already dead, right? As is, her lengthy wine-colored hair had likely slapped the owner of the voice in the face. To her left stood an Imperial man, hands calmly folded behind his back. He had a handsome look about him. Square, noble features and umber-hued hair cascaded down his neck. It was a face that could have belonged to a warrior, if not for how scholarly his posture was and how soft he wore his expression. The man smiled softly and tilted his head in acknowledgement, seemingly content to wait for her to measure him up.

His attire was familiar, although Amara couldn’t quite place where she’d seen it before. It was something an Imperial noble would wear, fittingly enough; that much was certain. Long indigo robes were rimmed with white, spotted fur. The robes covered an ornate scarlet doublet decorated with intricate gold patterns. On the whole, it looked inordinately expensive, but nothing more so than the jeweled necklace that the man was wearing. A ruby the size of her fist laid set in a gold casing, while several other, smaller, jewels of different colors rimmed the outside of the amulet.

The ensemble was gorgeous. Any Imperial worth anything would kill to be seen in such an outfit.

And yet it seemed horribly ill-fitting on such a man. Just by looking at him, Amara got the sense that he would have been far more comfortable in much simpler robes. He had that sort of priestly disposition about him. Yes, she could imagine him in a monk’s garb.

“…Who are you? Where am I?” Amara asked slowly, having become more or less acquainted with her surroundings. As much as a Dunmer in a completely foreign environment could, anyway.

The man pursed his lips, as if mulling over what sort of answer he should give. “Those are questions that won’t serve you well here. It would be more apt to ask when.”

It only now occurred to Amara that the man had never once opened his eyes to look at her. He faced her direction and seemed to know where she was, but those eyelids stayed shut. Was the Imperial blind? Amara furrowed her eyebrows at the roundabout answer. Riddles. She hated riddles. Especially riddles coming from mysterious strangers.

“When are we then?” She asked, her tone far more demanding than it used to be. Even a few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. But she’d grown up a lot these past few years. One of the first lessons she’d learned was to not take shit from people if you wanted any modicum of respect.

“Hmm…” The man hummed, contemplating her question. “The Middle Dawn, perhaps? Or maybe the Oblivion Crisis…” He lifted a hand to his chin, gazing upwards at what should be the sky. As it was though, he was staring at nothing. Or, technically, the back of his eyelids. “Ah, no. This is the Fourth Era. The Second Great War, I believe you call it. This is the fifteenth year of the conflict.”

Amara’s eye twitched. “…I knew that already.” She growled out in the most respectful way possible.

“So you did.” The stranger turned his attention, such as it was, back towards the Dunmer. “My apologies for the confusion. Such things come naturally to me, but precision can be difficult. What’s the phrase…? Ah, yes, like a needle in a haystack.” His smile never dimmed, but nor did it grow in intensity. Their entire encounter was marked by that soft, serene smile on his face. It made the stranger give off the impression of peace.

Or maybe he was just insane from being trapped in this strange void? That boded well for her.

Sighing, Amara pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her crimson eyes, attempting to compose herself. That was another lesson. Stay composed. Stay above it all. Never let others know they’re getting to you.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” The stranger’s voice came unbidden, surprising Amara out of her frustrations.

She blinked. The last thing she remembered…

“I was… someplace… where was I…?” It was hard to focus in this place, but she needed to remember… “There were gears… Not the Dwemer kind, not nearly so ancient, but modeled after them.” A stoic face flashed through her mind, violet braids matted with oil. “Zamana was excited. Someone advancing her people’s technology… She wanted to see it. So we went home-“

Wait. Was it her home? She’d visited Mournhold a handful of times, but had never lived there-

Amara snapped her fingers. “Right! The Clockwork City! Almalexia told me she knew a way in and-“

For the third time in a row, Amara cut herself off as a realization hit her. However, this one was far more frantic. It was quiet. Far too quiet. It had been quiet ever since she had arrived at… wherever this was. Amara couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to realize it! There was no prideful voice whispering in her ear. No voice giving out unwanted comments and opinions at every opportunity. No analysis of what was going on, no advice on how to handle this situation.

Almalexia was gone.

“Where is she?!” Amara cried out, aggressively grabbing the stranger’s robes and yanking him forward. “What did you do with her?!” Fury and terror in equal measures danced in her crimson eyes, tinged by the light of budding madness.

Best to head this off at the pass, the man thought.

The stranger carefully placed his hands on top of Amara’s own, his expression serious but not unkind.

Was he pitying her? How dare-!

However, her thought process was cut off as the stranger finally opened his eyes. Amara slumped forward, falling to her knees in abject awe.

Staring down at her were the slitted pupils of a reptile, encompassed by the purest gold that Amara had ever laid eyes on. They were ancient orbs, brimming with power and eternity.

How foolish was she to not see the signs…?

Amara fundamentally knew who she was speaking to now.

“I have done nothing with she who once called herself Ayem.” Akatosh intoned. The smile he had been handsomely wearing was gone, but neither did the dragon god of time look all too upset. “Yet, neither is she gone.”

Amara clutched at her chest, head bowed so the man, the god, before her couldn’t see the tears freely flowing down her face. Her frame shuddered as she breathed deeply. It was as if she was in the midst of a mighty battle, and yet the dragon’s words brought such relief to her! Almalexia wasn’t gone!

But then… where was she…?

Once more, the dragon god answered those thoughts on the surface of her mind. “What do you remember, child?” He repeated the question.

Again with this? What did that have to do with anything…? But it seemed she wouldn’t get anything else out of time itself, so she valiantly wracked her mind for the details. A feat not made easier by her admittedly volatile emotional state… Something that had been becoming more and more common recently.

“We were…” Amara’s voice cracked and shut stopped in her tracks, clearing her throat before continuing. “We were exploring. We found the main chamber. We found… we found the artificial heart. We… I… Oh, ancestors…” Her hand clasped over her mouth.

She’d died.

Rationally, she knew that. She’d known that since awakening in this place. But it was another thing entirely to replay the events in her mind, to hear the grinding gears of the automatons, to remember the cries of Zamana, the blade through her chest…

Daring to look up, she found the dragon god gazing… almost mournfully down at her. All he did was give her a slight nod, confirming her worst suspicions. She really was dead, huh? Amara had never been sure what fate awaited her once her mortal life was done. There wasn’t exactly an Ancestral Tomb waiting for her, and she doubted that House Redoran would look too kindly on allowing her one anyway… She’d burned a lot of bridges, making the roll of the dice and gambling that she would succeed in forging her grandfather’s empire anew… But it seemed that it was not meant to be. She had died too soon.

That still begged the question, however… What was to be her fate? Was this… “Is this the Dreamsleeve?” Amara asked the god.

Akatosh glanced around, observing the surroundings… or lack thereof. “No, I’m afraid not. This is a dream of sorts, but no, this is not the realm of rebirth. Your ultimate fate remains unknown, and it is not my place to speculate on matters of life and death. That is Arkay’s domain, not mine.”

Her ultimate fate…?

“Wait, what do you mean? Am I not dead? Should my soul not be bound for Aetherius or Oblivion?” Amara furrowed her eyebrows, squinting in blatant confusion. “You mention Arkay. I do not worship you Aedra, yet if one were to handle my death, it would be him. I am educated on that much. Yet here you stand, the dragon god of time… Why?”

Akatosh scratched at his clean-shaven chin. On anyone else, it would have looked almost sheepish, but surely the high and mighty Aedra had nothing to be embarrassed about, right?

Why he even had a chin to scratch was another question entirely. The humans depicted him as a dragon. The mer depicted him as a great golden eagle. Was this supposed to be a form she would be comfortable with? An avatar of his will? Amara had so many questions, but frankly, that was the least of them. So, she did not voice it, even though it was abundantly clear that Akatosh could read her mind.

“You have my blood.” The dragon god replied simply.

Amara blinked. What?

“You have my blood.” Akatosh repeated. “Your grandfather was dragonborn, surely you know this. The most famous dragonborn in Tamriel’s long history. The title is named as such for a reason. He was not mine in body, but in spirit… All dragonborn are my children. So in a way, I suppose that makes you my grandchild of sorts. Or great-grandchild. I care little for mortal semantics, however.”

She… okay, that was… wow, a lot to process. The metaphysics of it all… Yes, she had known that all of this was the official Imperial line, but… Well, she’d never exactly put much stock in it.

Akatosh glanced down at her and smiled that damnably soft smile once more, now looking almost, well… grandfatherly. Amara wasn’t convinced, however. Picking herself up off of the ground, she rubbed the dried tears away from her face. To say that she was wary was an understatement.

“And do you make a habit out of conversing with the descendants of dragonborn?” Amara asked dryly. She doubted that he even talked to actual dragonborn all that much, if at all.

The dragon-man shrugged, making the motion look far more dignified than it had any right to be. “Admittedly? No.”

“Then why me?” Amara shot back immediately. “Why are you here? In this… this dream, whatever this is?”

“You are mer.” Akatosh spoke softly. “A Dunmer who once worshipped the mortals who propped themselves up as gods. A Dunmer who does not worship the Three Good Daedra like the rest of your kind. A Dunmer who is unsure where she stands among Aedra and Daedra, and so devotes herself to worldly pursuits instead.”

The dragon god trailed off, looking down at the amulet which laid flat against his chest. Clutching it in his tanned and worn hands, Akatosh lifted it off of his neck and lifted it up so that it was level with his golden gaze.

“Despite all of that,” he continued, “you chose to follow not the path of any of your mer ancestors, noble and just and clever that they were, and instead chose the most difficult path of all. The path of your grandfather. You, Amara Ra’athim, a Dunmer of Resdayn, would restore the Septim Empire. A Cyrodiilic Empire. A human empire. Did you think that you wouldn’t catch our attention?”

Amara had remained silent as the avatar of Akatosh explained himself. And when he phrased it like that…

“People need help. Someone has to do something.” She whispered quietly, mostly to herself. She looked into those ageless eyes across from her ever so briefly, which beckoned her to continue. “Ever since I was a kid… Probably before that… Everything has been going to shit around me. You called me a Dunmer of Resdayn, of Morrowind, but I’m not. My father imparted as much of our culture onto me as he could, but I grew up in Falkreath. I grew up in Skyrim, surrounded by Nords. I’m an outlander, and I worked so hard for so long to erase that stain from myself… But it’ll always be true. It’s just who I am. A Dunmer who grew up outside the homeland, because my father fled after the Red Year.”

Amara sighed, only now realizing how exhausted she felt. She supposed she had the right. She was dead, after all.

“The Great War, the Skyrim Civil War, the return of the dragons, the Interregnum, the Second Argonian Invasion, the Second Great War… It feels like we’re all trapped in a loop of pain and suffering. Everyone everywhere is hurting. And things didn’t used to be that way; dad was always fond of telling me. Father was never fond of the empire that his own father had established, but he was never afraid to admit… Things were just better when the Septims ruled the Empire. When all of Tamriel was more or less at peace. Sure, things weren’t perfect, but the world wasn’t almost ending every few years… There weren’t constant wars with… so much dead.

“I was a healer during the first Great War, you know that right?” Amara asked rhetorically. “Of course you know that. You’re the dragon god of time. But I saw… I saw so much death. So many died in my care, I couldn’t save them…” Her expression became unfocused, her crimson eyes haunted by memories best left buried. “I did my best, I really did. And it was more… it was more than my people as a whole did. They were just content to sit idly by and let others suffer. I can’t- I couldn’t… I could help. I could help so I had a responsibility to do so!”

Her fists clenched tightly and a fire roared in her stomach, determination rising up in her throat until she felt the urge to roar. For the first time, she met the dragon god’s gaze and kept at it, refusing to let the mere glance of a god bend her into submission.

“I am the granddaughter of Tiber Septim. I am the Anticipation of Almalexia, with all of her wisdom and training at my side. I had the ability and the means to help Tamriel, so I decided to do it. And if you tell me the way out of here, I will continue to do it. I don’t care if I’m dead, someone has to do something!”

Amara was breathing heavily as she finished her speech. In a lot of ways, it felt like justifying it to herself more than to the dragon god. How often had she questioned herself? How often had she wondered if she was just letting Almalexia convince her to do things? Well, Almalexia wasn’t here right now. This was all her.

Akatosh remained silent for a long moment more, before finally nodding in satisfaction. He held the amulet out to Amara, letting it dangle off of his fingers. “Did you know…” He rumbled, sounding more like a dragon by the moment. Ancient and all powerful. “That it used to be that whenever an emperor was chosen, they had to hold this amulet and light the dragonfires? It was a symbol of my everlasting covenant with man, that so long as a dragonborn sat on the Ruby Throne, the gates of Oblivion would be shut.” He paused. “It was more than just a symbol, naturally. Since St. Alessia, no one could light the dragonfires without my approval or consent. It is I who judged each emperor worthy. If they aren’t… they don’t tend to last very long.”

The amulet dangling off of his fingers glistened, twirling slowly as the dragon god told his story.

“No one has worn this amulet or lit the dragonfires since the Oblivion Crisis. The amulet was destroyed. The last emperor of the Septim Dynasty, a righteous young man named Martin, sacrificed himself to seal the gates of Oblivion shut forever. The dragonfires no longer have any purpose, and it will remain that way. However… perhaps I have torn my gaze from the empire I claim to patron for too long. Perhaps it is time for the Amulet of Kings to be worn once more, as a symbol of my divine providence.”

Reaching forward, Akatosh lifted the amulet over Amara’s head and settled it on her shoulders. The giant ruby thrummed against her chest, and Amara couldn’t help but wonder if this is what the legendary Heart of Lorkhan felt like?

“I…” She tried to speak, but no words came out. Instead, Amara dropped to her knees, but in a far more orderly and dignified manner than her previous descent. She knelt before Akatosh, head bowed as if she were speaking to her liege lord. “I promise that I won’t let you down.”

“I very much suspect that you won’t.” Akatosh intoned his voice more of a growl than it ever was, yet somehow felt amused. Like he was chuckling to himself. “From this moment on, you are dragonborn much in the same way St. Alessia herself once was. The covenant is reborn. Now, my child, look up.”

Amara did as she was commanded, yet could not help her mouth dropping out from under her. For before her was no man. The mighty golden dragon of time stretched out before her, infinite in all of his glory. She saw him as he truly was, not merely stretched out before her in this plane, but across all of time as well. It was enough to render her blind. Or mad. Or dead. The fact that she was only one out of those three things was likely due to the grace of Akatosh himself… And the fact that she was already dead.

“At this point, I would normally send you off. However, there is… one more thing to attend to.” The dragon forced out. His voice was far deeper than it had once been. The voice before had felt borrowed, but this… This was the voice of time echoing throughout her very being. “Tell me, child, what do you remember?”

This again?

“I died.” Wasn’t that all there was to it?

“And, pray tell, how did you die?”

“I was run through by a blade.” Amara responded automatically. But that couldn’t be what he wanted to hear. The memory was fuzzy, there had to be more to it… Who had wielded the blade? Some sort of…

Oh.

“The Clockwork City, it was being run by… some sort of ghost. Except it wasn’t a ghost. I don’t know how to explain it, but… Sotha Sil, one of the Old Tribunal, was in the city itself. And he wanted revenge against Almalexia because she had killed his body centuries ago. Zamana and I fought through his machines… We reached the chamber where his mind was being held. He had made some sort of… dwarven metal body for himself. We fought. I killed the body, but the mind still persisted, we couldn’t kill it. Then… then he had reinforcements…”

She clutched her head, trying to remember.

“I remember Almalexia screaming… She was so angry… And so terrified. I could feel it all inside me. Another Dunmer walked into the room. Seht’s reinforcements. It was… It was the Neravarine.” Amara glanced up helplessly at Akatosh. “…The Neravarine killed me.”

The infinite dragon nodded. “And in so doing, completed the final piece of the puzzle. You must understand, my child… Amara Ra’athim is dead. She cannot come back.”

Amara slumped, her assumption shattered. Akatosh had chosen her, but she could not return. Was all of this for nothing?

But, naturally, the dragon could read her thoughts. “You misunderstand, child. Amara Ra’athim is dead. But you are not Amara Ra’athim.”

…What?

Her disbelief must have shown on her face, because Akatosh continued. “Almalexia did not have your best interests in mind, child. Ever since she became attached to your soul those many years ago, she has lived in your shadow. Feeding off of you. Whispering in your ear. Plotting. It was her intention that you were to be her avenue to resurrection. So she influenced you to the best of her ability. She trained you. Molded you. Guided you. You, who was raised to worship her since you could walk, never thought to question it until it was far too late. She made you like her. She led you into the Clockwork City on purpose, having a good idea of what was down there. She needed you to follow the beats of her life so that you would understand her, and in that understanding…”

“She wanted me to mantle her…” Amara whispered.

Akatosh nodded. “Indeed. You asked me earlier if Almalexia is gone and where she went? Nowhere. She has gone nowhere and is not, in fact, gone. You are Almalexia. Almalexia is you.”

“I did it?” The woman formerly known as Amara asked, utterly dumbfounded. “I mantled Almalexia? But… I don’t feel like her. I still remember being me.”

“Have you? Do you not feel like her? To mantle her, you had to become so much like her that there ceased to be a functioning difference between the two of you. That the Aurbis itself could not tell the two of you apart. Do you not know things that you hadn’t before? Do you not have memories that Amara Ra’athim never experienced? You are ALM. But there is a caveat to that.”

“…Well what’s one more earth shattering realization, right?” She quipped, not knowing how else to cope by this point.

To his infinite credit, Akatosh took it in good humor, chuckling along with her. “The mantling did not occur as Almalexia had planned. She forgot to factor in one, crucial element…” He let the moment drag out. Imagine that, a god with a sense of dramatic timing. Then again, he was the god of time…

“The mortal element. For all that she spent millennia as a god and being worshipped as one. Almalexia forgot what it was like to be mortal. It drove her mad before her death, but when she had no choice but to endure it while her spirit was stuck to you… Almalexia went out of her way to influence you, however what she failed to realize was that you were influencing her in turn. Not intentionally, mind you, just simply by you being there. The bond the two of you shared was intimate by any metric. To put it in mortal terms… You rubbed off on her. She became more like you as you became more like her.”

“So we…” ALM began, trying to wrap her head around the idea. Former divine or not, it made her mind spin.

“Mantled each other.” Akatosh confirmed. “You are one.”

ALM couldn’t help but note that he looked insufferably smug about that. But then again, he would. The Tribunal had never had the best relationship with the Aedra. She lifted her hand to rub her temple in an attempt to alleviate the budding headache, but she noticed something.

“…My hand is gold.” ALM noted dully. Because of course it was. Almalexia’s skin had been gold, the last Chimer in existence, and now her skin was gold too. Because she was her. And yet was Amara too. By the Ancestors, she was going to need a mirror later.

“The veil is lifted.” Akatosh rumbled. “You see yourself for what you truly are now. More than a mortal, less than a god. Somewhere in the middle. A soul retroactively made dragonborn and a soul that still held a spark of the divinity it carried for millennia. The two together… It is not unlike the ascension of Talos, although perhaps not as grand. Which is for the best. I require you on Nirn for the time being.”

“Right…” ALM muttered. “I need… to lie down. And I can’t very well do that here. Do you know the way out of here?”

“Indeed. Our time here grows short as is. I have spoken all that has need to be said, and your Dwemer companion will require your assistance if she is to survive the night. Although, I must warn you… The method of return will not be pleasant.”

“Whatever you have to do…” ALM sighed one last time, before giving the dragon god a soft smile to match the one he once wore. “And for what it’s worth… Thank you. This all… It really means a lot.”

Akatosh nodded, rumbling in confirmation. “You are worthy. Never forget that, even in your darkest days.”

Then, without any warning or pretense, Akatosh opened his maw and swallowed her whole.

Because being eaten by the dragon god of time in order to return to the land of the living just seemed logical after the day she’d had, she thought as she slid down the divine gullet. Hmm. She was going to need a new name, wasn’t she? Amara and Almalexia were dead, yet lived. They were one.

Almarantha sounded pretty good.

[aeon-borealis]

Give us fanfic withsome aleheather viewing themselves separately in the future. In Area 51 the pair fight over an object that sucks them in.. heather and Alejandro see two different points of their future life together. Alejandro sees their honeymoon and heather sees Alejandro with their child.

Note:

This doesn’t exactly fit the prompt. I wanted to try writing a one-off from just Heather’s perspective. I might take a crack at another one-off from Alejandro’s perspective in another day or so.

Every time Chris announced the next challenge, soaking in howspectacularly stupid or dangerous it was made Heather question herlife choices for at least a nanosecond. Again, why did she sign up for thisdamn show?

Butthen she thought of her list of motivators. Honestly, pure raw greedwasn’t quite enough for how insane Chris could get. So these othermotivators were what fueled Heather’s iron-clad determination andpersistence. These thoughts helped her overcome and push through thepangs of guilt, chipping her nails,losing her hair, and getting embarrassed on national TV. Everythingshe’d endured on this stupid show was bearable compared to what shecould potentially gain with that massive pile of Scrooge McDuck fuck-off money.

Thistime she thought about her boisterous younger siblings. Theyterrorized her room with reckless abandon, ripping her designerclothes, knocking over her glitter pen collection and losing rarelimited-edition pens, destroying her make-up, etc. The list went onand on. Heather had to hide every precious thing she owned behind thehighest security locks she could find in order to keep her valuablesout of her siblings’ grubby little hands.

Thelittle gremlins came to mind as she watched her competitors andteammates scatter across the warehouse. After the minefield and theelectric fence, everyone was on high alert and feverishly searchingfor alien artifacts like ants desperately chasing down that elusivepiece of candy little Timmy just dropped behind the stove. Heathertried to resist the urge to chase after and claw everyone else out ofher way. That would be the worst possible thing to do right now,especially considering she finally had a hot minute of not being thesource of everyone’s ire.

No.She was going to approach this with the same calm and measuredmindset that bastard Alejandro would. Maybe she could keep tabs onone of the savvier scavengers…Duncan, maybe? He was probably busymaking goo-goo eyes at Gwen and avoiding Courtney like the plague.The fact that he was sandwiched between those two was exactly why itwas better to observe him from the sidelines. He was very aware thathe was a prime candidate for someone looking to leverage his dramafor an alliance. There had to be someone she could twist and kneadlike putty in her hands. There had to be something unconventional shecould try. Admittedly, she had to get pretty underhanded and creativethis time if she wanted to stoop to la cucaracha’s level.

Justas the thought crossed her mind, she noticed Alejandro idly diggingthrough a pile of junk nearby. He was bent over in such a way that his tight,finely sculpted-

Heatherblushed furiously and looked away, clearing her throat to redirecther focus. To her chagrin, this caught Alejandro’s attention. Heturned and smirked up at her with so much smugness and smarm shewanted to punch his face in so far it’d leave an unsightly,cartoonish dent.

“Enjoyingthe view?” He stood up and chuckled softly.

“No.You’re in my way.”

“Goon.” He stepped aside and made an exaggerated gesture. “I’mcertainly going to enjoy the view.”

“UGHH!”She stomped towards the same pile he’d been digging through earlierand roughly shoved Alejandro along the way. He chuckled again as helightly bumped into a tower of cardboard boxes.

AsHeather knelt down to take a closer look at the junk, she feltextremely self-conscious. Alejandro’s scrutinizing gaze was like aheavy weight on her back. Sweat beaded at the base of her neck.Seconds dragged on like agonizing years. Of course, Alejandro madethings worse by humming the classic Jeopardy theme. She quicklyrifled through the pile of crap, yanked out a random nondescriptthing, then zipped back up faster than a successful apple-bobber at afrat party.

Thething she’d just snatched up glinted in the low light and Heatherforgot about Ale-jerkface for a hot minute. It was roughly the sizeand shape of a gold pocket watch, but it didn’t have a clasp on theside. Maybe it was a piece of jewelry? There was a circular redgemstone in the center surrounded by two concentric rings of whatappeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Heatherremembered overhearing a random conversation Harold had with Codywhen he was still in the game. Somehow, they’d stumbled onto thetopic of conspiracy theories and Harold was raving about somearchaeologist’s crackpot thesis about the Egyptian pyramids beinglanding pads for alien spacecraft. According to Harold, the mostominous part was that said archaeologist had disappeared off of theface of the Earth shortly after putting this theory out there. Ofcourse he did. He’d committed career suicide by officiallypublishing something that should have stayed in the niche corners ofthe internet on obscure forums with other incredible claims fromother like-minded whack-jobs…

Heatherrolled her eyes. This was just some useless trinket a member ofmilitary personnel dropped. And it was an incredibly tacky one atthat.

Justas she was about to throw the weird necklace back, she noticedAlejandro’s piqued interest. His pupils were as wide as dinnerplates and his expression was a mix between utterly baffled andmystified. Heather had this weird feeling that he knew exactly whatthis thing was but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her.

“Letme see that…”

Hewas reaching for it now. Heather quickly closed her fingers aroundthe weird trinket and shifted her arm far from Alejandro’s grasp.“What’s it to you?”

“It’smine. A gift from my mother.” His words were buttery and smooth.Heather’s grip loosened for a moment. He’d turned the full forceof those beautiful green eyes on her and she could feel her heartmelting a little.

“Please…”Alejandro smiled sweetly, slowly extending a cupped hand towards her.For a moment, Heather looked down at his hand, then back at his face.Damn was that gaze hypnotic. Heather wouldn’t be surprised ifAlejandro had sold part of his soul to the Devil for some of theuncanny abilities and talents he possessed.

Shetook a step back from him, blew a raspberry, and smiled fiendishly asshe crammed the weird trinket in her shorts pocket. Then she took offat a quick sprint. She was mildly surprised when Alejandro starteddoggedly chasing after her, a weird determination set on his face.

“Heather!”

Upcomingrows of cardboard boxes were starting to narrow. Grinning, Heathertook advantage of her more slender frame and slipped into a narrowspace between two towers of boxes. She crawled along the space untilshe was so far in Alejandro could only peer in. For a moment, hefrowned and she shot a victorious smirk at him. Then he sighed andwandered off.

Alejandro’sbizarre reaction had only sparked Heather’s curiosity. Chris couldwait a minute for her to turn in the artifact. She pulled the trinketback out of her pocket to take a closer look. The red gemstone glowedin an especially eerie way under the dimmer lighting back here.Gingerly, she touched the smooth gemstone and then slid her fingeronto the closest ring. Her eyes widened when she realized that therings were movable.

Sheadjusted the ring slightly counter-clockwise and…

….Heatherwas temporarily blinded by bright white light.

Thelight started to fade into a spatter of bright green and yellowbokeh. A couple of blurred figures stood in front of Heather. One ofthe figures was small and crazily darting around.

It was like she waslooking into the view screen of a high-end camera as the cameramanprepared for the next shot in the hypothetical movie. Finally, themysterious figures slowly became more crisp, clear, and defined. Thetaller one was a lithe, fairly muscular, and handsome young man. Hehad tanned skin, shoulder length brown hair tied back into a rattail,light stubble, and striking goose egg green eyes. He wore Coke bottlelens glasses, a button-up red shirt with the sleeves rolled up to hiselbows, a black vest, washed out blue jeans, and black boots.Recognition swelled through Heather and her heart took off like afanatical rocket.

Thiswas a slightly older, more matured Alejandro. He was a dreamboat now,but oh God, Heather never thought he get this much hotter. WhenHeather was able to collect herself enough to stop drooling buckets,she turned her attention towards the smaller and more energeticfigure.

Itwas a little girl with light tanned skin, big and shining dark eyes,and long black hair. Those were the same eyes and hair Heather sawevery morning in the mirror. But, that slightly hooked nose andthicker eyebrows were….Alejandro’s. This little girl had the twomost distinctive features on Alejandro’s face aside from hismesmerizing eyes.

Asif Heather didn’t feel like she’d been hit over the head with asledgehammer already, her older counterpart walked into the scene.She was graceful. She wore a long white sundress and matching sunhat,strappy sandals, and had her hair tied up and casually tossed overone shoulder. It was a look Heather couldn’t ever imagine she’dwear in a million years, but Mom Heather was definitely rockingit.

MomHeather scooped up her adorable little brat, laughing and smiling insuch a sweet, saccharine way it made young Heather want to throw upand horribly envious all at once. When older Alejandro walked overand slung an arm around Mom Heather’s shoulders the scene becamesomething out of the filler page in a garden magazine or the mostgeneric stock photo ever. Of course these two were gorgeous modelswith the most photogenic family on the face of the planet. Or maybeHeather was just horribly biased.

Thescene dissipated as quickly as it’d appeared. Heather blinkedseveral times, snapping back to reality with a weird pit in herstomach. Part of her felt incredibly warm and buzzing with happinesswhile another part of her felt confused and slightly horrified. Itwas weird to think of Alejandro that way, let alone imagine what it’dbe like to have a kid and a life together. Admittedly, yes, theirchild would be the hottest person on in the known universe. But still.

Heatherhated her younger siblings and Alejandro with an equal white-hotfiery intensity. So that weird snapshot of the future was utternonsense. She sure as hell didn’t want Alejandro. She was sure she didn’t want to havekids. Both factors would seriously get in the way of the active, glamorous lifestyle she imagined having by her mid-twenties.

Yet the image stayed in her mind, drifting between otherthoughts and musings. Some small scrap of her wanted to cling to thispicture, have it professionally framed in a glitter-glue covered woodframe, and proudly displayed on her living room wall.

Shewas regaining her bearings now. She was still crammed into this smallspace. But her hand was empty. The weird trinket was just gone.Vanished. Almost as if it’d never existed in the first place. Thiswas too weird for Heather. A hard lump settled in the pit of herstomach and she felt like some eerie, unseen force was watching her.

Swallowinghard, she scrambled out of that narrow cardboard box alley and tookoff running like a bat out of hell. Everything was a blur as sherushed for the nearest exit. Instead, she ran right into Alejandroand they tumbled into each other, rolling right into a nearby towerof cardboard boxes. The boxes fell and a few hit Heather as she triedto push herself back up.

Thenshe was looking into Alejandro’s face, her gaze locked with his.She was drowning in those dazzling eyes. Her insides were twistedtogether in a crazy knot. The image of an older Alejandro and theirfuture daughter flashed in her mind’s eye a few times as shebreathed heavily and her heartbeat roared in her ears like crashingocean waves.

Aneternity later, Heather felt like she was actually just looking atAlejandro. He looked as startled and unsettled as she did. A lightblush spread across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. There wasan unspoken realization between the two of them.

Thatweird trinket had shown him some kind of weird crystal-ball futuresnapshot, too.

Thetwo of them awkwardly pulled away from each other, stood back up, andparted ways without another word. Heather took a few seconds tocollect herself, taking a few deep breaths and waiting for her bodytemperature to lower a few degrees.

Thiswas, by far, the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her on thisshow and it’d be a secret she’d take to the grave. She was definitely going to be lurking on some of those obscure conspiracy theorist forums for awhile, though…

[heckin-good-holland-blog]

(this image isn’t mine!! credit to whoever owns it, i couldn’t find the original xx)

Patching Things Up

Summary: Fighting with Peter is never fun, but when you take it a bit too far things get a little dicey. You end up having to try to fix your relationship (and a pretty beat up Peter) and find yourself discovering a little more about him than you expected

Warnings: Blood is mentioned but it’s nothing too bad :)

Pairing: Reader x Peter Parker

Genre: Angst + Fluff

Word Count: 2.5k

A/N: WOAH my other writing thing got a bunch of notes for no reason omg I hope to keep posting and eventually make a masterlist?? but yeah enjoy!

————–

Peter was your close friend and you’d do absolutely anything for him, but man did he piss you off sometimes. You both were generally very easygoing and sweet people, but sometimes your opinions and viewpoints clashed dramatically. You argued about things ranging from what toppings to order on your pizza to who was the worst at math. Almost every argument you had was over silly stuff and you two made up instantly when you were finished. There was one exception though.

Spiderman. When you first found out about Peter’s secret you were stoked. It was an accident, of course. Ned let it slip one day when the two of you were talking and, against his wishes, you confronted Peter about it.

“I can’t believe you never told me!” you gushed excitedly. “There’s so many things I want to ask. Can you talk to actual spiders? Do webs come out of your butt? Spiders use poison to make their food mushy so they can eat it, is that what you do? I’ve never noticed.”

“How did you… Ned, are you serious?” Peter asked, his voice strained. “Y/N you weren’t supposed to find out. You have to swear not to tell anyone.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” you said with a wink. “It’s not like anyone would believe me anyway, but I’ll keep it to myself.”

“What, you don’t think Peter Parker can take on massive villains with crazy weapons and stuff?” he asked, looking mildly offended.

“Honestly? Not really,” you admitted. “No offense Pete, you’re just not that threatening or tough.” His eyes flashed and you knew this was going to be the beginning of something.

“Well that sucks because I don’t see you risking your life every single night fighting bad guys ten times your size,” he said angrily. “I get beat up really badly all the time but you should see the other guy. I like to think I’m somewhat good at what I do.” You stared at him for a second, your mind processing what he just said.

“Peter you have to stop,” you said suddenly. He paused, clearly taken aback.

“Y-you want me to stop? Stop being Spiderman?”

“Yes,” you hesitated. “It’s so dangerous, what would I do if something bad happened to you? God, I can’t believe this. What if you’d gotten killed? Please, you have to stop.” He took a step away from you, looking hurt.

“Y/N I have to do this,” he said. “If I don’t then so many more people are in danger. Don’t you get it? I can save people! I’ve already saved people. Isn’t that more important than whether or not I get some bruises once in a while? It’s so selfish of you to even say that!” His voice raised as he went, his emotions running wild. For as long as you’d known Peter he had never raised his voice like that at you. You could feel your heart pumping faster as you glared at him.

“If you keep being Spiderman we can’t be friends.” As soon as you said it you regretted it. The look on his face was like a punch to the gut. You hadn’t been friends for very long but you were still extremely close and you knew life without Peter would totally suck. It wasn’t an empty threat though. His safety was really important to you and you hated the idea of him setting off every night to go get knocked around.

“I won’t,” he said in a low voice. You blinked, feeling tears prick the corners of your eyes.

“Then I guess we’re not friends anymore.”

“I guess not.” He didn’t look away, his gaze defiant and strong. You suddenly understood where Spiderman’s bravery came from. You readjusted the backpack on your shoulder and turned away, walking away from him.

It has been a few weeks since the fight had gone down and neither of you had spoken since. You were ashamed of your behavior but were too stubborn to go back on your word. It wasn’t really fair of you to ask him to give it up entirely but he had to understand the gravity of the situation. You checked the news obsessively every night to see if there was any information about Spiderman. You followed update accounts on twitter and even downloaded news apps with live coverage just in case. Every time Peter missed a day at school you were filled with anxiety and fear that he wouldn’t ever come back. You used Ned as a resource to find out how Peter was doing. Ned, caught in the middle, would always desperately ask you to talk to him again. He claimed that Peter had gotten really closed off and irritable and was ignoring just about everyone. It hurt you, but you were determined to prove a point.

One night when you were about to hop in the shower after a particularly long day your phone started going off like crazy. All kinds of notifications were popping up about a huge scale accident by Coney Island that involved one of the Avenger’s planes. Spiderman had been seen there, and from the looks of it he must have gotten pretty badly injured. Panic seized your body as you thought of Peter lying helplessly in the wreckage. You tried to shake it off. He was probably fine, this was his decision anyway. You decided to ignore it for the time being and just shower.

You were in the middle of drying yourself off when you heard the doorbell ring. You froze, your imagination spewing out worst case scenarios. You were home alone and there was a very slim chance it was your parents. What if it was a murderer? It would totally suck to be killed naked. The doorbell rang again a second and third time though and at that point your curiosity got the best of you. Your pulled your towel tightly around you and went to check the front door. You looked through the peep hole and saw a familiar face.

Peter. You swung the door open and almost passed out at the sight before you. He looked as if he had been in a gang fight or something. His entire face was cut and scratched with dark purple spots around his eyes. His lip was bleeding as well as a spot on his cheek. He was wearing a hoodie but he hadn’t bothered to put different pants over the suit, and you could see it had been ripped a few times.

“Holy shit!” you exclaimed. “Peter, what happened? Never mind, tell me later. My god, sit down.” Your mind was reeling as you desperately tried to think of how to fix his wounds. Peter cleared his throat, disrupting your thoughts.

“Not to be creepy but can you put on clothes first? I’m hurt but I’m not dying and it’s kinda awkward…” His voice came out raspy but still carried the joking tone. Heat rushed to your face and you nodded, running back to your bathroom to quickly get your pajamas on. When you came back Peter was laying on the couch, his eyes closed. You sat down next to him gingerly and he looked up at you.

“Y/N… I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking. He sounded exhausted and defeated. “Y-you were right. Putting myself in harm’s way is stupid and I can’t always handle things on my own. I can’t do anything on my own, actually. I need you to talk to me again, I’m slowly going insane. I missed you so much and it was so much worse than any pain I’ve ever gone through in my whole life.” You swallowed hard, holding back tears. He looked so incredibly vulnerable and it broke your heart that what you had done upset him so much.

“Peter, listen…” you started but he cut you off.

“I-If you want I’ll even give up on Spiderman.” You paused for a second. He was really willing to give up such an important part of his life just to get you to talk to him again. You realized that being a hero was just who he was, and his selflessness made you feel really proud.

“I don’t want you to,” you said gently. “We need someone like you out there protecting us. I’m sorry I made you feel bad, I guess I’m not as good of a person as you are. I’m still gonna be upset when you get hurt like this but if it’s what you want to do then I shouldn’t be the one to stop you.” He grinned and his smile even reached his tired eyes. You missed seeing that smile and it lifted your spirits.

“I can deal with you being grumpy sometimes, it’s better than nothing. I had to listen to Ned talk about computer programming for like an hour yesterday and nobody came to my rescue. Maybe that can be your superpower?”

“Maybe,” you chuckled. “Now, do you want ice or something? You look terrible. Not that you don’t always look terrible, Parker.” He laughed, cringing at the pain shooting up his side. You looked at him nervously, unsure of how to help him.

“Ice sounds great actually,” he said. You nodded and rushed to the freezer to find an ice pack. You wrapped it in a thin towel so that it wouldn’t be super cold and brought it back to him. His face was drained of all color and there were beads of sweat all across his forehead.

“Pete, I think you might have a concussion,” you said as you eyed the bump on his head. “Your pupils are all dilated and you’re turning black and blue.”

“I’m fine,” he declared as he sat up, the look in his eyes showing he immediately regretted his decision. “Actually do you… I need to go throw up.” You helped him up and guided him to the bathroom. He insisted that he was good on his own and you waited anxiously outside the door, listening to him coughing and retching. You were a wreck. Your nursing skills were slim to none and you were basically useless in this situation. You did, however, have a driver’s license and you decided that you needed to take Peter to the hospital.

“Ok, I’m fine now,” he said as he emerged. He looked ghostly pale and generally ragged.

“Yeah, no,” you said. “I’m taking you to a doctor. I’ll call your aunt and let her know what’s going on, let’s go.”

“Y/N I don’t need a doctor,” he argued. “I feel great! I just want to stay here… Can I crash with you? Will your parents be mad?” You considered it for a moment. Your parents wouldn’t care, they’d known Peter for a while and trusted you enough to have him over. The thought of not having his head checked out made you a little nervous but when you looked at his pleading face you couldn’t say no.

“Fine, but you have to stay close to me in case something happens. I’ll find you a garbage can or something if you feel like you’re going to be sick again. Do you want a change of clothes? I have some of your shirts that you’ve left here.”

“That would be fantastic,” he said weakly. “I’m really sorry, this is all my fault.” He apologized about seven times in a row as you went to grab him a t-shirt.

“Peter, you know I love it when I’m right but if you could please shut up for like a minute that would be great.” You handed him the shirt and he just stared up at you. You raised your eyebrows and he smiled awkwardly.

“I’m wearing the suit under this and I don’t have other pants,” he told you. You rolled your eyes and he laughed despite the pain.

“You have boxers right? I’m not in middle school, I can handle it. Besides, it can’t be any more embarrassing than the skin-tight suit.”

“What’s wrong with the suit?” he asked defensively. You shook your head, not ready to start another argument with him. He carefully pulled off the hoodie and you gasped. There was blood all over the front of the suit that had been hidden from your sight by the sweatshirt.

“I’m good!” he exclaimed, trying to remind you. He pushed the button on the front of his suit and it fell down in a heap on the floor. You got a good look at his chest which was a lot more muscular than you would have thought. There was a big gash going down from his rib cage to his lower stomach that thankfully seemed to have stopped bleeding.

“Hey,” he said. “My eyes are up here.” You felt your face flush and he giggled.

“Oh shut up,” you laughed. “Since when do you have abs? I thought you were a nerd?”

“W-what? Oh uh I guess I just got fit from… fighting crime and stuff,” he stammered. He yanked the shirt over his head, all the carefulness from earlier abandoned. The two of you usually didn’t flirt or feel any weird tension, but suddenly the air felt stifling. He gazed over at you, clearly feeling the awkward mood settling as well.

“Hey, you know maybe I should go and…” you started to say, trailing off as Peter stepped closer to you cautiously. Your heart was beating so loud you were sure that he could hear it too. He looked as nervous as you felt, but the distance between you was closing rapidly. Soon enough he was right in front of you, his eyes fixed on your mouth. You knew what was going on, you just wouldn’t have ever guessed Peter would initiate it like this. His lips dangerously close to yours, he paused.

“Is this ok?” he murmured. You nodded slowly and he went for it. There was the faint taste of copper from the blood on his bottom lip, but that didn’t bother you. You pulled away first, your mind racing. What did this mean for you? Were you friends still or something else?

“Peter, I-” you said softly, but he beat you to it.

“I-I don’t know why I did that,” he said. “I just… I was thinking about what would happen if we weren’t friends and it messed me up inside, you know? After the first day of you ignoring me I knew that I liked you, like a lot. I don’t know if you feel the same way, I shouldn’t have made it weird…”

“I do feel the same way,” you said, surprising even yourself. “Let’s not fight like that again. You’re way too important to me.” You pulled his arm gently and the two of you sat down on the couch together. You were quiet for a moment before you looked over at him.

“Does this mean I’m dating a superhero?” you whispered.

“If you’re cool with it, yeah.”

“Once you feel better will take me on a date and show me how the web thing works?” He rested his head on your shoulder and thought for a moment.

“I think I might feel better tomorrow evening, maybe around 7?”

“You know where to find me, Spiderman.”

[glopratchet]

map

It looks like it might be an old one from when this place was still called "Hoover Dam" You look around for something on your phone ; (which of course has been completely trashed) and find a map lilo's You don't know where the hell it is, but you figure that if you want to go there, then you need to get a map Map: bixie lixie 07-functional: function of 68, function of 79 The first thing you do is pick up some water bottles, which seem to make things easier Then you start walking along the road in the direction of the dam This is a very simple game, but it seems to have no end You pass by several people playing cards and dice on their own property as well as on other cars' windshields or in back seats In fact, there are so many people out here that they're almost all looking at you! 08-structural: pond primal alligator ranch ing dam You're on top of it, and you can see twists and spillways dotting its surface, as well as fat lazy fish swimming through the resulting ripples You might or might not be able to get down to it using the little ladders they have here and there pond primal alligator ranching dam Pond primal alligator ranch : pond primal, 08-structural, mom and pop alligator farm Note: (If you like, you can try reading the "Hoover dam" sign on the other side of the road You don't get very good visibility however) Okay, time to admire the insanely blue water again and Or should you go hunt some bigger prey in a different location, or is that a bad idea? You have decided Pond primal: unyielding east gate, unyielding west gate You run across the road into an awesome wilderness and you start looking for fresh tracks So far, there don't seem to be any Have you gotten here too early or are you simply not as skilled as you thought in finding prey? unyielding south gate You spy a cute beaver in the pond straight ahead of you! It doesn't appear to have seen you, and it's the perfect size for a good meal Eeeeeevil! look out, it will tenderize your flesh and make you into a nice meal some other day Chopping its head off is the most effective thing to do unyielding east wall, unyielding west wall You see a eerie serpent chained to a tiny island just above water level It must be a dragon and it's surrounded by an invisible barrier of magical energy Of course you could eat the small birds flying over its head instead Eeeeeeevil! So you sit down beside the picnic area to have lunch and admire the beauty of your surroundings unyielding south wall unyieldning east wall After browsing through pictures of beavers and dragons on your backpack, you come across a picture of your school It seems so long ago that you used to dream about protecting it from evil Somebody awesome with magical powers would probably protect it in my place, nowadays The sight or thought of your school fills you another pang of regret Why the hell didn't I ever really enjoy the very things that made up my life? unyielding south wall, turning viper street Unyielding east gate: pebbled path, Wandering through the desert alone changes a person, and it has changed you Every day out here is an adventure of the highest degree You've seen sights few others have ever gotten to see! That alone is worth the price of admission Sure it can get lonely from time to time, but that's part of what we do Pebbled path: sphere of nourishment, cottage of sacrifice Finally, you've reached your destination With a tired but determined step, you enter the abandoned ghost town The bones of long dead miners jut out of the ground in various places through out the street, and tumble weeds push their way through cracks between broken flag stones It looks pretty miserable actually High above a purple gibbous moon shines through the thin atmosphere, basking the entire ghost town in an eerie light esteemed tenement, employed foundation With the moon shining so prominently, it takes some time for your eyes to adjust to the darkness As your pupils contract, you find yourself staring at a long abandoned mineshaft this must be the one A single deserted tower spotted with "UV lights" overlooks the crumbling building, and an ironic sign reading "owl cave mining co " sags over the entrance It appears to have been condemned long ago gate of greatness orifice of saviors W-what? The sign has changed! Are you finally going mad? Your grip on reality was tenuous at best in the "real world", and your time here in this place has only made your the sickness worse Waving a hand in front of your face you try to will the letters into changing, but no such luck Huh, you guess that decides it then doesn't it gate of greatness, Gate of greatness : hedged maze union lab Rain begins to pour down as you enter the mineshaft That's it, you're getting out of here This place is just too screwed up! You don't know who this Jack Atlas is, but you're convinced he's deranged And this stupid sick fantasy is probably what drove him there in the first place Far too creeped out by everything that has happened so far, you turn around and head back toward your helicopter hedged maze, Cottage of sacrifice: drain beds, master bedrooms Too preoccupied with your inner demons to notice the deluge, you're suddenly caught off guard as a wall of water barrels down from a nearby rooftop Shrieking in terror you're forced to brace yourself for an imminent impact with the street below Only instead of splattering like a bug on impact, your fall is broken by something giving way way underneath you Slowly opening your eyes you find yourself waist deep in murky sewer water Hedged maze: enchanted pools midnight oil Is the change just not settling well with your stomach, or is it actually reacting to being down here in this filthy place? Or maybe the sickness is coming from elsewhere Looking around it's pretty apparent that someone has been down here a lot more than you have recently Stepping back onto dry land, you take a closer look at the numerous pipes running along the ceiling of this particular chamber Hopefully, somewhere along these corridors will be your way out of here enchanted pools, Enchanted pools: bull run one, bull run two Come on This is just getting stupid What the hell is a "bull run", and how come you keep repeating the words over and over in your head like that? It's almost as if "you're hearing voices" You shake your head and rub your temples No, it would seem hallucinations aren't part of the change simply being down here is doing to you Bull run one: half past eight "HEY! " You exclaim, spotting another human at last "What is THIS? Mind telling the world what the hell you're doing down here? A weathered old man stumbles out from behind a corner, catching you offguard as he seizes you by the wrist He's thin as a rail and his scraggly white beard reaches down to his toes Bull run two: vegetable broth "Ha ha! Been a long time since I seen someone new in the pipes Where you come from stranger? You wouldn't be from the "Other Side" would you? You stare blankly back at him, unsure of how to respond Other side of what? Bull run three: By now, you hear the words being repeated back to you from some far off corner of the tunnel It's starting to get annoying Sphere of nourishment: fredricksburg dominion, chancellorsville dominion "Don't mind them " The white bearded stranger says, releasing his grip on your arm "Just the voices in my head, he he he Grunting softly to himself he continues "The name's Slitemaster, but you can call me Samuel What's yours? "Ken " You respond to him, trying your hardest not to look directly into his watery eyes "Connecticut chattanooga dominion, antetam dominion "Where have you dropped in from? " He asks, more coherent than you anticipated " You tell him, the voices repeating Connecticut like an echo in your head You watch as he edges closer to you, squinting as he looks you up and down Bull run four Samuel opens his mouth slightly, sniffs the air and grimaces Fredricksburg dominion: Getting unnerved by his erratic behavior you try to edge your way past him only to have him reach out to seize your arm once more "Do you have the sniffles my boy? bringing his face right up to yours "By god, you do! "No I don't " You snap angrily at him, doing your best not to blow your cover "I don't have any diseases Chancellorsville dominion: Angry with his presumptions, you jerk your arm forward to free it from his grip Antetam dominion: He stumbles backwards, and you get a good look at his emaciated figure Chattanooga dominion: He's nothing but bones, and looks about ready to collapse any minute "Watch out! " You blurt out in alarm, as he starts to fall over Dazed and confused he looks up at you, blinking owlishly as if he didn't expect you to catch him Because I didn't catch him I didn't catch him! "I'm too old for this " He says with a sad smile, shutting his eyes Acquired: Spam! Looking down at the spindly legged fellows body, your first instinct is to shout out in an attempt to bring aid But then you remember you're shooting for cover and lowering your voice to a whisper: "I'm sorry friend " Jesse's throat was torn out Claw marks hook around his neck like a human binder tearing it wide open, as blood leaks from his jugular like someone attached a hose directly into it Esteemed tenement: trailer jackson, trailer bragg Stepping up to the front door you take in a breath, preparing to hammer it with your boot Looking around first you notice two things: the path has been spun with webbing, at least three different types and between you and the murky river a blonde woman dressed only in rags shuffles onto the path, little more than flesh and bones with dry mud coating her legs trailer lee, trailer picket Seeing you she begins to wail, smacking her hands together badly and letting out an awful screech Between you and the river you have two choices: right and down to the river or left, up towards the tenement buildings Trailer jackson: esteemed tenement: thornwell, terry chamberlin Unsure of what to do you stand for a moment in indecision, jittery as you see the woman break into a shamble towards you Turning you make a sprint for the tenement while getting ready to slam your heel into the front door Trailer bragg: thornwell trailer forrest: In front of you the door is just a thick slab of plywood, duct taped in place in its frame Before your boot even connects it flies open with enough force to slam into the side of the trailer, and a giant of a man lunges outside Trailer lee: trailer rockefeller: smokehouse Trailer picket: trailer lee: esteemed The giant is even taller out of the trailer Made all the more apparent by his torn and tattered clothes, and a face covered in hair with two mismatched eyes, one brown and bloodshot and the other blue and concerned beneath bushy brows that nearly meet over the bridge of his long nose And he has a calf-high walking stick which he switches to his left hand, extending his right towards you Employed foundation: sufficient prison, locked door Manager: esteemed tenement "Step inside, sir, " he says in a surprisingly soft and pleasant tone "You don't want the ladies seeing you like that " Step inside : Flee down slope NOTE: To any fellow aliens reading this book: Congratulations on discovering the oldest known copy of the Great Library of Tribalia You see, there was once an ancient library located in an ancient city on Earth primary office, storage room The Tribalien Printing Corporation Newest and Best Offerings! manager's office, human resources Proper shampoos for proper people (Has pictures Proper soaps for proper people Even Properer Hand Sanitizers! Forget the basics we're talking gooooold here, people Lets start with the world within worlds Sufficient prison: human resources Alright A series of gates, each with two specific and unique sides representing two alternate realities linked through magical portals Gate no 1 - the simplest of them all Coin input slot on one side, coin output on the other although that doesn't matter so much as what's on the other side of the portal Excuse me, sir Do you work here? Downstairs labratory: pulstating beam of pure energy strange machines Although there are a few people from other floors who act as staff here, every worker is actually an adventurer just like you trying to recover a key component for their generator As is the great Tribalian custom, you can choose to either help one another or ruthlessly steal the items you need before fleeing to the surface The Tribals have developed clans based on the elements, with the Electrochemical Engineering clan weakest and therefore your enemy pulstating beam of pure energy, Primary office: storage room Now here, relying on simple but high quality illustrations and large text so that customers can read over your shopping experience, is where we have different products divided between lightweight transit cases and large but manageable cartrideable Quantums Clans: Poison - heavy machinery for dastardly deeds! If you're a member of the poison clan then that means you come from a long line of industrial minded engineers who specialise specifically in creating new and better methods of death and mutilation Storage room: Quantums - movable innards of machines and weapons of the machine-heavy 'Claw! The Claw are the one of the Tribals' automaton-using warrior clans, with a heavy reliance on machines, gearwork, and gases that eat away at flesh to produce dreadfully painful wound infections The material you seek-- the metal that will make your personal portal home again-- is somewhere here in this room Path: unyielding west gate, pebbled path tumultuous north path, hangars A and B Metal Eating Mold: relentlessly east from Hangar-B Thankfully, gas masks protect the scientists creating these delicious acids from slathering it themselves Nice coin-secure door at the end of the hallway Very strong We're getting nearer the anti-materiel rifles Antichamber: fifty foot wide pit leading to a hallway in A-01 This all feels very familiar for some reason hexagonal antechamber, office 223 Internal Offices Employee Pictures 1/4 Kast is of average height for a human ; (5 foot 9) and wears a long, black trench coat with the hood up, despite it raining His hair and face are shaved clean, and his disposition is serious no matter the situation He sees you as reliable cottage of sacrifice, spherical amphitheatre, spiraling staircase to the upper floors Welcome to Evios! The planet of endless possibilities! Our company president dedicated this branch of our gleaming office to speed and convenience for all who have business here Through the guidance of Investment Banking, Stock Markets will rise and billionaires will be made! Strike fear into the hearts of competitors with the booming Sales and Trading department! employed foundation, divided promenade, cylindrical core, ascending C and D pods ; (top, bottom) C-pod is used as sleeping quarters and for living a comfortable work-life; a small garden grows top-quality herbs for soups and other cooking ingredients, and there is a saltwater pool for relaxation The pod is secured with a biometric lock Benches and Display This company philosophy has not been set in stone Pulp: a ten foot tall oak desk that coms from the land before the darkness brought technology, and a glistening crystal ball that shows all-- but only at certain times You have two bars to meditate in One is under lighting for alertness and mental endurance and the other is kept in perpetual twilight ; (triggered by pedaling a generator) to trigger REM sleep Close the shutters on the windows to keep out the light 09 peopled: town of hog eye, town of lickskillet town of mallet beatle town of lover's leap Gurning is a self-sufficient town They have their own farming and manufacturing businesses, and maintain an extremely active stock of blacksmiths, cobblers, and butchers town of mallet beatle, Hog eye : 09-peopled town Llickskillet : town of lickskillet, 09-peopled town Workers move about their jobs in hundreds of different directions Tamed house cows chew wheat from their feed while wild buffalo roam past the stockades The carpet of the deep forest are littered with high bushes that mock your height as you walk on by Mallet beatle : town of mallet beatle , Lover's leap: town of lover's leap, great firm limestone hill, towering foam at edge of sea cavern, blazing hot mountain in dead land of thorns and wicked weeds Hope that helps Yours sincerely, William Lemuel Cla Dungeon-Lord skulkitator investor avenger P I hope this is the first step in a lasting business relationship 10-institional: basic foundational church of mining, four sided chess piece statute, paved walkway to twilight fort, restless small metal dog far from home small hidden door at ground level: detailed with the engraving "madeline madie's make dream" Begin skulking You are looking for valuable or unique treasures and items to be used or sold to the outside world basic foundational church of mining, 11_political : lixie dixie box canyon, four sided stone pyramid with climate controlled sand filled bottom floor The sand which only a privileged few can enter is the cornerstone of our civilization-- without it, perfumers could not complete their best work, tanneries would go out of business, and our great city would smell bad, be covered with animal hides, and you'd have to wade through garbage after Earth-Days lixie dixie box canyon, Lixie dixie , commonwealth of lixie dixie town, 09-peopled, gemte prestige Go up to lixie dixie then swing right stockade of hog eye Outpost of Mallet Beatle Quietly approach the quaint little village It consists of twelve fierce cannibalistic warriors, a vicious, unfriendly bunch commonwealth of lixie dixie , 12 commerical : googizon, mirrolabs, glopratchet , pond primal supplies, milk mart, farm fed, pet shop, coolidog Cafe, industrial supply store, rib house , manufacturing ; (tannery smell) arts community ; (or shameless & sprawling; booming metal days; home of hamlets finest craftspeople; artisans propping up the failing economy: Without them East Lake would sink even further into poverty Snuff it: for protection teams it's useful to be able to work smell into a routine pond primal supplies, Heaviest portable cassette tape player : yellow metal-cased, with an option to add headphones yellow, Mechanically locked door: mechanical lock pulp, mechanical lock path mechanical lock piton, mechanical lock piton disruption, mechanical lock small metal dog set off Monstrous jackalope head Monsters and gods really are shameless about their sexual excesses aren't they? There must be something in the water 01 infiltrating: mine's very quiet lately; may even be closing soon, 2 guards on lunch break, sleeping secure lax security nowadays, no outsider has to risk entering mechanical lock path, Mechanically locked door pulp: silverlight metal, fiercely inappropriate, sticker reads: leave me alone, or ill blow your brains out Metal dog three down from jackalope head: small and fierce; loud menacing bark; would scare the jizz out of most intruders Boiling hot infiltration point metal door: right down the hall from grossly inappropriate treasure Get in quick to avoid unexpected interruptions Solid and sturdy bunker metal door, boobytrapped with cleverly concealed gun port sticker reads: Mechanically locked door path: good time gate locking system 3 mile mark An average carnivore could easily ambush prey here Metal man trash disposal hatch on the battleground that doubles as a vault door It's half open, and the smell of fresh corpses within is strong Almost under lock and key, sealed with pond scum to avoid attention; lays buried deeper in silo 9 In milk mart: shoddily armored, by crafty chimera; requires jiggling doorknob in a precise pattern good time gate locking system 3 mile mark Okeenokee swamp: okeenokee, swamp, doghead, odd gulplokia murk, kraken seen? badland, stump town Several types of blackworms bile ferment in old cans on disused chimera industrial site Time before lake was dammed: cloneratops milk and duck eggs near spawning pools ; (can't breed without those) That old nuke site; still protected by shield generator; grove of trees shimmering in a dome Highway to good time gate : good time gate Good time gate : path to suawannee canal, stream to prairie of minni eme, road to millstone of modeshine, crossroads prairie paths lead to minnieme cross roads-2, bramble tunnel to charred forest-2, webs of giant spiders-2, cave to twisting gulch-2 He's seen too much already! he's right, it would be safer to kill him But where would the fun be in that? stream to prairie of minnieme, discover feminist scholarship forced road to handmaid bridge, lynch kozmo miner, Zalmora's charmed life, good time tunnels, green pastures of knowles, predator's speed Goblin generals in stone towers must declare allegiance or meet sword justice: wandle outcast- general to tan ambassador; trackers mist follow leaders-soldier brainless? discover feminist scholarship, happy cypress tree, wide mechanically locked door from training wheels of young king/queen, twisting hills where once were fields, path to dog tunnels-2 wide mechanically locked door from training wheels of young king/queen, Wide mechanically locked door : good time gate locked , good time gate unlocked Lake house, good place to relax, overseer's house, dynamite storage Milk mart: bookshelf with gun cabinet: rifles, pistols, ammo, unlocked supply cabinet: health elixirs Cafeteria: filled with incapacitated guards hastily armed with pistols; one-eyed albino goliath lies on table, groaning unconsciously; horrible cuts mark huge frame Commonwealthers sure know how to make an entrance good time gate unlocked; Happy cypress tree: locked , goatskin notebook-keeps record of various transgressions/ Handwritten terror threat propagandas on parchment, crafted in decadent noble circles; content speaks of aimless struggle for power and scene of carnage Torn had parchment showcases once prosperous land now waste, prays for return of Albino Emperor; days when it went out rule are over Several roads lead to twisted gulch, caves and abandoned mineshaft; towering chimera factory belches Stream to prairie of minni: prairie of minni twisting gulch-2, web riddled cave, crystal mines Severed claw wrapped in bloody burlap Claw is spongy, light, and serrated A human mandible lies nearby; the tooth has been purposefully sharpened into a fang Hobby shop: scented candles, harpsichords, oil paintings of pastoral valleys, tiny collapse tunnels; leads to twisted gulch-2 prairie of minnieme, Discover feminist scholarship: insufferable cliques, feathered pens corrupt academia Severed albino alligator tail Tail is lizard like, muscular yet sensitive Gripping it, you can only imagine how long it must take to wipe the toilet paper off of this thing A melted down femur lies nearby; it appears to have burned clean through good time gate: Path to suawannee canal: suawannee canal go forth and get wet, fiery abyss, lake house, good place to relax and unwind Zalmora's charmed life: happy cypress tree-4, twisted gulch-1, web tunnels Sweaty mithral full helm- headache abound! ancient battle-axe-who knows its history? suawannee canal, Suawannee canal: notice gator, notice persona -gator in suawannee canal respond "It was only a matter of time before one of you ran down here Hanging from a pole lies the shredded skin of what appears to be a gator The vile creature's eyes have been gouged out and its mouth gapes open exposing broken teeth; apparently it didn't go quietly You peer over the side of the bridge into the murky waters notice persona -gator in suawannee canal respond waterway to new island, notice citizen A Dead End Captain Rifiv at the docks will hire explorers to lead teams of adventurers into the wild unknown in his badly damaged vessel He's a gruff old bird, but you know he cares about people despite what the rumors say He's saved your bacon on more than one occasion and replaced gear that you lost along the way The damages to the ship were bad even though it wasn't your fault trail way to suawannee river notice femurs, notice puma, notice persona-femurs of peluda bear Oddly nearly every bone in a creature's body can be found Some humanoid, some ursine, some piscine, some avian, some matters not to your oddly diverse team Someone call the bug guy; his help could come in handy Looks like an owlbear or token from one was left behind trail way to suawannee river, path to goodtime gate blood pit, notice gut, notice magic Chunks of meat line the rusty walls Ghoulishly, tendons from various species dangle above gore-saturated water The occasional hand or finger can be seen reaching for the edge from underneath; death has claimed most of those hunting for a way out Oddly enough, even in death one can still hear an echo path to goodtime gate, discover beauty, the crystal mines, notice mine A gloomy tunnel within a larger tunnel system; uncannily similar to fabled mountains far to the east Unearthly minerals and slightly radioactive, the rocks and ores glisten in the multi-hued light from above You've been here before once with your family on a day trip out of Silverton but you got lost in some passages and ended up here gator attack to lively landing, notice tree, notice slot Oddly, there used to be a large willow tree here until Duncaster got hit with a lightning storm during one of his rants; turned it into super flammable kindling Legend has it he burned for three days straight At times like this, you wish you had a miner's pickaxe or even some dynamite gator attack! Find treasure in rapid pool : sunken plastic wrapped gloprachetel grimoire Giant black bear: notice snout, notice claw UN DEUX TROIS ! BAM BAM Obnoxious you are Thank heaven above You fire a shot Unbelievably it hits the bear in the face and knocks it against the wall! What luck! It wasn't a direct hit to the brain or even a fatal hit, and yet you've wounded the creature Keep shooting until it stops moving! Sunken plastic wrapped grimoire : enter kung fu hyperspace A magic trick for you is akin to medical science to a primitive person You can't go wrong with this logic-free outcome Tall shaman with tales of yore: notice totem, notice spear, notice moose Nobody ever listens to the old guy anyway; always going on about truth and honor and respecting nature as if that meant anything to scavengers like you Your only true fidelity is to your own race and yourself well that and Benson enter kung fu hyperspace! Photograph fierce gator: Battle fierce gator: win battle fierce gator: kill urple lizard you've fought izards before during one of your unsanctioned excursions outside of lawful civilization Granted those bastards were the pink ; ("friendly") kind that you found living within the comfy confines of a certain banana themed cavern where did that episode end up anyway? Find lizard egg: How very stereotypical of an evil villain or an Empire general; hoarding loot for himself like some bourgeois pig! Suawanne canal With distance now placed between you and the beast, you are easily able to work your way around him and retrieve the egg As you trudge back to the blood pit, you try to remember any of the details which Benson shared about the eggs a long time ago Prairie of minni : super gator Concentrating your thoughts on the matter at hand, you walk in a parallel path alongside your mind palace hallway which is lined with the rooms of all important subjects Ultimately, you know you'll have to go back there and refresh your knowledge lest it start to rot from disuse but for now you continue pondering the puzzling obstacle course before you Thoughts churning like swarming termites, you picture a hallway with eight doors leading to different paths super gator, Sunken plastic wrapped grimoire: enter rezzurection room Enter stage right, the shady Egyptian and his well curated fortune telling tent To think that Charlemagne himself knew this man back when slavery was still a legal institution and people took the Fab Five Tournament seriously even if they weren't in it Tales of yore: wizard Remembering tales woven around old campfires, you mentally visualize a young boy reciting myths and fairy tales for his captivated though not entirely appreciated audience of peers Living gate: path to sapling prairie path to charred forest, path to pit of flames, path to sunken plastic wrapped grimoire, path to wizard, path to ? With great trepidation, you decide to leave the living gate behind and turn your attention to the center door path to sapling prairie, gaint mechanically locked door door in spooky hallway, door in spooky hallway Baffled, you take the only option available gaint mechanically locked door, Gaint mechanically locked door: living gate locked door, door to master bedroom, door to sapling prairie You can't believe you're actually doing this Master bedroom: gargantuan elegant tub, king sized bed, pile of cash This hellish place is fully furnished from floor to ceiling and immaculately clean which can only mean that someone other than the pig had a hand in cleaning it Finally found a use for you, eh? living gate locked door, living gate unlocked clover marked trail door Ah, good old clovers! Thanks to your timely choice to play the Shamrock Snatched game all those years ago, you can now use the knowledge you gained then to identify and access this lowly disguised backdoor That and your newfound ability to psychically perceive the clovers wherever they may be helps you swing open the door and swiftly make your escape from this place of horror living gate unlocked door, good time gate path, good time gate pulp, good time plot All of a sudden, you're in a completely different environment The vine walls expand to reveal a scene right out of the story books, with a picnicking family of four enjoying a spread of delicious food in the grassy field adjacent to the woods Nothing odd about that, you suppose, though where the path and tunnel were is now nothing more than an ordinary tree stump Good time gate path : Good time gate pulp: cypress tree, locked gate In an instant you're back at the beginning where you first began psychically perceiving this branch of the good time gate network Though puzzling, this journey through these mysterious portals doesn't appear to have done anything to your corpse or mind so there's that to be grateful for at least Lizard skull plot: gator wrestle pit All of sudden you find yourself in an environment that looks like it was lifted straight out a cyberpunk flick sat right there in front of you is the very same gator skull that you just thought of The combination of this and the environment severely creeped you out to the point where your psyche suffers a total system meltdown that results in your death Statues with incomprehensible symbols carved into them line path for several more miles before it diverts from its current position along side the canyon and leads you to an ancient city situated on rocky terrain just steps away from where the statues are gator wrestle pit Rambling gate: suawannee river, camp cornielia, chase prairie Bizarre paling Glowing orbs appear one by one high above a seemingly boundless canyon And, of course, there's the sky sapling prairie green prairie path, clover marked trail On returning from the portal you just came from, a series of black and green cubes materialize all around you forming a perfect cage that your mind instinctively fears as a threat Somehow, you know all too well that you'll be drawn inexorably to one of them eventually of course you've no idea which yet but it hardly matters when they all look the same after all sapling prairie, Sunset gate: prairie of floyd smooth rock canyon, rancher paddocks You find yourself transported back to the living room in which you began this experiment There are other people in here now, two girls and a guy, all of similar universityage and all looking curiously at you as if you're the newcomer in a space simply too small for a stranger A timer set for the hour you spent inside the cave now sits on the table counting down to zero where it then flips over to an hourglass prairie of floyd, sinking sandbar You open your eyes to the sight of a burning sun high up in the cloudless sky All you can do is lay there and stare at it till its warmth has done its work to relieve the stiffness in your bones and joints new island, suawannee river Slowly you slip back into the realm of the living once more Prairie of minni: lake of minni, big water lake You stumble through the undergrowth around the pond and lay back down on the same rock you were sitting on before you passed out Interesting adventures, to be sure, but you wish they didn't keep revolving around states of perpetual dehydration and extreme hunger pains Assuming the events of the previous cycles are in any way related, and you have no reason to believe they aren't given that seed, it would seem that your time is running out There's only one thing for it: you grip the holy book as hard as you can and head towards the west to begin the cycle again Suawannee river: chase prairie, prairie of minni, bobcat prairie, You have to go down that rushing river if you ever hope to escape this accursed place Perhaps, just perhaps, you might even get lucky Camp cornielia: brokendown fort, old nameless town The water churns and froths all around you, tossing your tiny raft about like flotsam and jetsam as you struggle to keep it above water The noise is tremendous as buildings and entire chunks of ancient highways are squeezed and ground down into the swirling mass Countless metres below, grey-white tendrils of foam almost fuzzy at this distance, a solid stone aqueduct spans the river in an otherwise unbroken line Chase prairie: island of rosewell, dinner pond, black jack island You still don't understand where this place is, really With a heavy sigh of relief you lie back against your pack to await the opening of the so-called fifth portal Hours pass but the overcast and rust-brown sky keeps the sun's worst heat at bay Island of rosewell: rocky plains, camp fort You plant your hands against the rocky soil and lean out as far as you can over the Flint River to lap up a couple of mouthfuls of the sweetest, freshest water you've ever tasted There's no telling when you'll get the opportunity to drink again so you make the most of it, swilling, slurping and guzzling down that glorious liquid The pocket: You scramble back to your feet to see a short, swarthy man, dressed in eastern-garb similar to that given to you by Lars Manton but far finer and cleaner return to camp fort, to prairie of kimberly With blinding speed the door slams open and before you even know what is happening, you have been grabbed by the scruff of your neck and thrown out onto the rocky ground Black jack island: arrival isle, camp prairie, prairie of kingmen You sit down against one of the cold metal walls and try to make yourself as comfortable as you can It's a pretty grim situation you've landed in this time but there's little point in getting all worked up over it because you're pretty sure the word if hollowed out pearlescent blue shell that you always hold onto is going to come in handy here Prairie of floyd: petering prairie, aqueduct of upton, aqueduct outlet of valley Everything goes black as the portal opens only to reveal the beginning of a huge underground complex with ceilings so high they are lost in darkness far above you and corridors sprawling off either side The acrid smell of cigarette smoke tickles your nostrils and as you cough the heavy iron door swings shut behind you revealing a tall, slender man wearing spectacles leaning against the wall New island: open territory prairie, old western town Lake of minni: islands of minni, strange island open prairie, flat island, minni lake Everywhere you look there is water Everywhere Above, below, to all sides, excluding the direction you're heading of course, is nothing but endless ocean Your throat dries up just pondering it strange island, Big water lake: great basin, edge of great plains, islands of the prairie You haven't eaten in days apart from some mouldy crackers and yesterday you drank from a stagnant puddle that made you vomit repeatedly but still feel endlessly thirsty Your tongue has swollen to more than twice it's size and the lining of your mouth hurts like your lips are horribly chapped but you can hardly even feel them any more Sapling prairie: pine island, lake of floyd, island of fiddler The door to the chamber overlooks a barren rocky plain but through the doorway you can see that over the railing and down several floors is nothing Just empty space To your right another doorway reveals a short staircase leading onto yet anouther level Behind you the first doorway on the floor below reaveals a spiraling staircase twisting both up and down seemingly forever Bobcat prairie: chupacabra island, open valley, winding moutains, prairie You had the strangest dream You were a fox and were running through an endless prairie pursued by wolves You've always loved the bigopen plains and the thought of it causes you to feel drawn to that direction so despite your inner voice telling you to simply abandon the ship entirely you head off across the deck and down the side of the hull toward the bow Islands of minni: fields of minni islands, open chupacabra island within big trees, minni large lake such trees Kill me Waking in the pitch blackness of your metal prison with only bitter thoughts, agonizing over decisions you wish you could redo but can never take back, each more disastrous than the last Strange island: ruins on the prairie, chimney islands, tree line moutains Pine island: moutainous island, small tree line mountains Light swings down from a metal handle on the ceiling and bright enough to actually hurt your eyes Sitting up you find yourself on a bare metal table in a large metal room dominated by a huge machine of some kind with long complex internal mechanisms Pushing yourself into a sitting position you look down at yourself and find you're naked and scan your body quickly for any sign of trauma but you seem to be fine Lake of floyd: island of floyd, mitcheel island big bobcat prairie, island of summer A green herb is growing here Island of summer: island of trees, wolves island, prairie, chupacabra mountains You can see the open hold of the ship ahead of you and smell the fresh air emanating from it As you climb through the hatch a wave of humid jungle air washes over you Island of fiddler: large tree island, open big trees island, large island Swamp of fiddler: humid swamp, small island You are on the upper level in a room with barren walls and a small table under a security camera Two wooden doors lead out of the room A metal ladder leads down You find yourself climbing down a homemade ladder into the blackness of Island of floyd: soldier camp, boom shaw island, lake of floyd You are on a raised Metal walkway in an old room with a dim light hazing above your head The room has several old pieces of tech and a sotve which is dented and rusted out You can see exits leading North, south and To the east You can also head down below A metal ladder hangs against the wall waiting to be descended You see something scratched in the rust on the ladder: "1234" Mitcheel island: old fields, open valley You are on a raised railed walkway in an old room with a dim light hazing above your head Soldier camp: open shaw island, sun island, night twin island Swap around the numbers as you like, the result is still an incomprehensible jumble of letters and numbers With a sigh you realize there is nothing more to find here and move on to Boom shaw island: islands, tree line mountains Deep within the twisting and turning cave you start seeing bright colors shining out from under protruding rocks Anticipating finding something remarkable your heart skips a beat when you uncover a beautiful purple and blue painting of some kind of deer with horns? It takes a moment for it to dawn on you that this is just utter nonsense Dinner pond: booga boo island, honey island Sitting in the water is a table with two trees growing through it and holding it up A large net hangs over the water under the table with dozens of different fruits hanging from it You reach up and grab one as you see Anthony does and you find yourself chewing on a peach You left with the peach in your mouth, then you had an orange, then you ate a pear honey island, Booga boo island: small island, shubu lake, mountain range ridge Thinking you saw something move out of the corner of your eye you spin around only to see a squirrel disappear up a tree Unnerved you keep a watch out for any more signs of life but nothing else makes itself known to you except the soft chattering of leaves in the light breeze that runs through the trees Honey island: As you are navigating your way through the blue stem grass you spot a comb trying to blend in with its surroundings by adopting the same color It seems to have perfect teeth marks in it though which makes you narrow it down to being from a horse or a cow Keeping secrets is important to some people It looks like something is written on the inside You see a lot of nope just more teeth marks Mountain range ridge: Suddenly you hear a bloodcurdling scream piercing through the silence and paralyzing you in your footsteps Keeping secrets is important to some people Desire belongs between subject and object, like the relationship that exists between man and woman: desire is all the same Everything begins with a hope Everything is directed toward an object, or if you prefer, toward a subject ; (a personage, a god) But in either case, this subject or object outside of us is only significant in as much as it is able to awaken a sentiment in us: fear before the gods, love for a person Desire belongs between subject and object, Faradays fields : trees, side island Everything goes black and you are forever confined to a box of pain and suffering which constantly shifts and changes around you The DFI pulls from the pockets of the dead their driver's licenses or passports and dumps the bodies naked into a meatgrinder where other corpses have been dumped before them Out of the grinder comes hamburger to be formed into patties, breaded, deep-fried, bagged, & frozen for future consumption Constructions by the milkman: mailboat inn, hospital cafeteria Time passes before you realize that a hamburger has just touched your lips pulled back now touches them again Time has passed but you really can't tell when inside the black box You can't see anything or anyone and can only rely on your other senses and the feeling you've gotten from the hamburger as it seems to repeatedly tease your lips and pull away Pure perception of modern world: soup kitchen, residence hotel Your ears are bombarded with a chaotic array of elevator music It would put you to sleep if it wasn't for the occasional jolts of static electricity crackling through cheap speakers which keep you on edge and awake You're seated in front of a spinning wheel with various items labeled with amounts from 01 - $1 Itsy bitsy microscopic seed : horse stable, fort franklin It is then shortly followed by the sound of door you entered from slamming shut and locking The light from the small window above the door becomes a laser beam from which you can see dust particles floating A steady ticking comes from an old wall clock projector An ancient HH Holmes sits somewhere behind it watching you A loud chime plays every hour and you are given a painful electric shock before the chime resounds throughout the room Wait Little turpentine laden paintbrush : bunkhouse, camp humphrey Holmes was hanged and evidence indicates his body were buried next to the real H Holmes Which means that this HH Holmes is just an impersonator and the real one must be somewhere near by After realizing this you rush leaves the room but all of the doors are locked and all the rooms are empty You begin to think that you are in a huge fun house where everything pops out to intimidate you Maybe it's all an illusion Middle eastern traditions : dresser, fully painted house Supreme wickedness : window, bank of america The door transforms into a huge grinning demon head The eyes glow red and fire billows out of the nostrils "YOU HAVE GIVEN IN TO THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH NOW YOU MUST PAY FOR YOUR SINS " a booming voice intones near your ear You try to explain that you're just here to investigate but you are given no quarter intemperate Railroad street, artists loft district "IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN THE HOLMES SLAUGHTERINGS, THEN KNOW THAT DEATH IS WAITING FOR YOU Think martin codel : Demons bellow their hot fumes into your face You feel like throwing up when a long long finger seems to enter your body "YOUR PAST CANNOT BE ERASED WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? Keeping secrets : private domicile, mansion and estates "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO HIDE? WHY WON'T YOU TALK ABOUT YOURSELF? ARE YOU A MURDERER ALSO? or whoever he is seems to know things you've done in the past Things you once thought long forgotten In panic, you compare your own memories against his words You are absolutely terrified to see that he is right, down to the last grisly detail Falcone naples : idaho, a state street apartment At once the walls close in on you The heat becomes unbearable and your skin begins to prickle as if soaking in hot water Above you, the skeleton of some huge animal hangs from the ceiling "PERHAPS YOU WISH TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FATHER NOW" Your father or was he? His face is all mashed in and bloody He's yelling at you for something but the sound is barely audible against nowadays standards The trustees : gopher lounge, hospital street In the next blink you are transported to a different place, although there is no visible way of getting inside Dimly lit with sunbeams peering in through a grime encrusted window, the room has a comforting feel to it but something sinister lurks here too Framed newspaper clippings hang over a small upright piano The sun baked : greenwich street, east village The carpeted room is baking hot and something hangs from the ceiling Homer coulee : ottawa, queen st café From irons that pierce savagely through his wrists The screams are unbearable until the pain destroys his vocal cords He's dying and he's being eaten from the inside out Holger McHenderson's prone on the mattress, or what remains of him Rsa robinson : sewell, south seattle district The bed where the wolves tore at his skinny legs is soaked with rust colored blood Trollbomb's shadow on the opposite wall stretches out over him like a harbinger of doom Bitterroot : settler, the terminal morgue "Yeah, it's real nasty in here Who are you again? " the CSI nerd says from behind his thick glasses fantasy and reality have become one 16 deceptive : pro choice clinic , zergwatch Acid is vomit in your mouth and churning in your belly You need to release it but the stink of the dead and dying here makes you hold it back A heathen hippie girl fried with obscene amounts of electricity due to refusal to "stand together against the anti-social forces of big pharma A father hangs from the ceiling, his skinny arms outstretched towards the device that killed him pro choice clinic , You recognize him as the father of one of the middle school youngsters you counsel You look away, that scream still rings in your ears and hurts your brain Two peas in a pod : capitol hill, caravan lounge He had a wife and son Mother is the mayor's wife Carelessly dumped garbage litters nearly every street You are too shaken to try to sort out the trash from the corpses at this point But, you know the city and realize that mass hysteria has seized the populace Yet, it is more like panicked bedlam than a mass evacuation Everyone is heading every which way you turn and you've already had to run several checkpoints Makeshift barricades are being hastily constructed out of dumpsters and newspaper dispensers Once you think you spotted your sister but couldn't be sure from this distance From what you saw she was pushing a grocery cart full of suitcases And being pursued by a mob of terrorists! Your heart is in your throat and you could use some water but keep running in the opposite direction You see in the panicking crowds, rioters burning buildings and an advancing military force blocking all streets leading out of the downtown core It's the hardest you've run in a long time but eventually the skeletons of high-rise buildings give way to suburbs and then turns into countryside You see a river and wade into the crisp water up to your knees to douse the ache in your cupped hands and take a few healing gulps You fill your canteen before hiking the opposite direction towards the setting sun You need to calm down You need to rest and think but there are too many what-ifs to consider: What if your sister really was here? What if she was taken away by the terrorists? What if she is injured or needs help? What if you could have helped her? What if she's already dead and you weren't there What if you came back to help her and you were too late? What if she could be helped? Sitting by the side of a gravel road, you pull out your phone for the first time in months It's dead and there's no signal out here but perhaps it wasn't a total loss as you use it to bash in the skull of a rabid Rottweiler ambling nearby Setting up camp some distance from the road, you take stock of your supplies You also have: One ; (1) bag of assorted pot, pills, and ecstasy confiscated from ravers You've got two gallons of water, a half packet of instant noodles, your mess kit, and about a pound of beef jerky Each meal of noodles takes a quarter-pound of the stuff so you've got about eight meals there (1) zippo lighter (1) sleeping bag ; (empty) Two hundred ; (200) wooden matches Which amounts to two or three days if you're conservative and fast walking You consider everything you know so far about the events--and there's not much Your sister Elizabeth was out when terrorists struck The city fell three days later under martial law after holding out for as long as it could Think The terrorists--probably Islamists, it fits their MO--terrorized the city for three days before the military opened fire, killing nearly five hundred people two thousand Or was it six? Dead isn't dead anymore You've seen videos on the internet of tens of thousands of corpses after government troops opened fire on them (And look what it got them) Surely someone would resent the 'murican regime for causing this collapse? There has to be a reason why they cut the power Did they think they'd get away with it? Or did they intend to bring back civilization after everything was running again? You have been chewing on one of the many sticks of beef jerky--almost toothpicks at this point--staring at the flickering campfire You toss it back and forth between your hands Who was "they? " What was their purpose? It has probably been hours since you last thought about the hypothermia that probably would have killed you if it hadn't been for two paper-thin sleeping bags But there's no way in hell you're setting them on the ground--with or without a print This tarpaulin will have to do Thank goodness for survivalist parents You'll need fire to keep warm You can never have enough water Especially out here Sure, you still have the potable water you filled up before entering the woods But what if the pond is contaminated and you need to boil or filter the water? Fire for warmth and boiling water You'll have to collect wood first thing in the morning They didn't exactly teach us how to start fires in scouts I'm sure there are videos on it You'll have to evacuate your bowels soon But then, where will you do that? Not here That's for sure Dig a hole and cover it up? Then again, what if a snake found its way into it? EVER thought about that? Not saying there are any here, but I mean, this is the woods You could go in the pot Boil it after, if you want There's always the sleeping bag At least that way no animals would bother touching it or shitting in it Unless they crawl inside with you! Who's to say they haven't already? On second thought, forget the backpack idea All these options and only one defecation: You Sorry, door prize Screw it I have a reputation--well, actually a good chunk of iDEAL's money--to maintain And that reputation says you find the best spots to take a dump: proudly on asphalt As you step behind a tree you consider what might happen if the tree were to suddenly fall and squish you Who would come get your backpack? Would your sister be motivated enough to drive out here and get it? Your parents? There's a huge rustling sound You drop the leaf you were going to use for toilet paper You turn and look behind you You don't see anything, but you're sure that noise wasn't made by a small woodland creature Wolves! They'd love some tender, defenseless hiker meat like you right now Should you run? Can you reach the gun in time? Just as you decide to turn and make a dash for your: weapon, you see the most magnificent creature behind you Its eyes are almost angelic in nature and seem to shine with a divine light Though its large, its movements are elegant So elegant, in fact, that they're startling when matched with the creature's appearance Oh wait! It's-- Yes! It's Sven! And he's coming straight for-- "Rrawr! The beast sniffs you, its large nostrils reserved only for its master You reach a trembling hand to pet him when-- "Whoah! --the hideous monster leaps away from you and begins to prance around the clearing, obviously enjoying the chase You see that he has astring dangling from his mouth and Is that a green plant voucher? Several more vouchers spill out of his mouth when he opens it to yawn And to yawn again, as if to confirm what you see But he's not done yet With a snort he begins giggling and Is that feces? indeed He has fills your lap with fresh mountain doo-doo! You protest by waving your arms about and trying to stand up--to no avail--Sven's massive bulk just keeps coming The animal knocks you over with his snout then begins licking your face affectionately The stench! So awful! But the dog just wants to play He's curious about you and isn't afraid How adorable You almost want to take him with you Almost but, Between his size and incessant flatulence, your sister certainly wouldn't want him inside neither would anyone with a nose or pants ; (haha) To be or not to be Yeah, in the story Hamlet asks that question, but it could just as well be asked by you right now Will you ; (whisper) take him with you? It suddenly occurs to you that this animal would be absolutely no problem at all if you had him as a companion Car rides? No problem Hotels? Sleeping outdoors? Still no problem It would be just like having a dog when you were little! But would your sister agree to take care of it? Only one way to find out You pick up the poo with numerous green vouchers and shove them in your pocket You then lick your fingers and attempt to wipe off the ick on your pants, but do more smearing than cleaning Definitely not something you'd show your friends boyfriend girlfriend

[spirify]

Artificial Flower― CH. 8

w. Rielin to never fade; only to live.

“Behind the flashiness of an eternal flower petal, there’s a liar who has never bloomed nor withered.” -Eddy Kim.

The female watched the clock ticking by, her feet swaying left and right as she sat in middle of the vast living room. The palm of her hands were equally balancing her entire body. Her once fragile limbs have now gained some weight, a slow growth of life spurting within.

Eve let out a rather stressful sigh. The ticks of the clock seemed to take forever, a minute feeling like an hour. Such a mundane day. She wanted to go outside and explore the city, but with Add. Ever since she started to fall for Add, she started to dislike being alone and always wanted to be with him, and being outside and enjoying the fresh air was one of the most joyful things.

Then a thought came into her mind. Perhaps if she surprised Add at work… he would be insanely happy right? He have always complained to her how he wishes to take Eve with him work, and that just glancing at her pictures wasn't enough for him. Eve quickly stood up and dressed in one of the floral dress Add absolutely adored, slipped into one of the comfortable wedges, and quickly dashed out of the house. She decided to buy chocolate for the male, him having a sweet tooth after all.

A taxi arrived soon enough and Eve stepped into the vehicle, her heart beating rather quickly as she was somewhat nervous and excited for the surprise event. She held onto the chocolate which she bought not too long ago in hopes of calming down. Soon enough, she reached her destination. She stepped on the carpet and the door ahead automatically slid open smoothly, welcoming her in with cold air. Then she realized that since she have never stepped her foot into this skyscraper filled with millions of rooms, she wouldn't even know where Add's office is. Sudden panic started to crawl under her skin as her enthusiasm quickly faded away.

It's okay Eve… just ask that lady!

Since she was always so locked up, she haven't had even a tiny conversation with a stranger. Before meeting Add, she was considered an extroverted person and could make friends within seconds of meeting, yet her personality dramatically changed and now she was having trouble trying to ask such simple question. She reassured herself by placing her slender hands on top of her chest, feeling the sensation of her heart beating through hers kin. She walked over to a female behind the counter who seemed to be busy working on some program on her computer.

"Um, excuse me?"

She asked cautiously as if she was a lost child.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

The lady replied back with a smile that seemed to melt away all of Eve's nervousness.

"Uh, which room is Mr. Eid's office? I- I'm his… uh girlfriend,"

She asked hesitantly, as he wasn't sure what to address herself. The lady behind the counter placed her fingers on top of her lips and gasped, then with a smile she exclaimed,

"You must be Ms. Eve! It's nice to meet you. He should be on the 54th floor, room 548!"

"Thank you!"

Eve acknowledged and quickly dashed over to the elevator. Behind her, she could eavesdrop the female talking to her possible co-workers,

'That was Mr. Eid's girlfriend!'

'Oh, wow she's a beauty. Of course he would like her,'

Eve blushed with flatterness. Did they seem like normal couple to others' eyes? They seemed almost jealous of her relationship with Add. Then Eve thought that considering Add's looks, it wouldn't be surprising if he was considered popular even within his co-workers. She quickly stepped into the elevator and somewhat fortunately, no one entered the compacted machine with her.

"54th floor…,"

Just how high is this building?

BGM | Got7 - If You Do Piano Version

She thought to herself as she chuckled. She couldn't believe that she entered another territory of Add's without even telling him. She couldn't wait to see his surprised face at the sight of her. Then she glanced down at the chocolate she bought for Add.

Wait, did he like chocolates before?

Eve thought to herself as she pressed the button leading to the 54th floor. Before his accident, Eve have never seen him enjoying chocolate, or anything sweet. After the accident, she've always seen him munching on a bar of chocolate whenever he craved some snack.

She shook the pointless thoughts away, as she determined that she will focus more on the present and the future rather than being stuck in the past.

Whatever happened during or after the accident, Eid is still Eid.

She thought to herself and soon enough, the elevator reached floor 54 and the door opened slowly. She walked out and the chilly breeze she felt at the grand entrance welcomed her again, except this floor felt much more colder for some reason. She glanced around as her shoes tapped on the marble floor. It was extremely quiet and there was only couple office rooms that was large in size.

"Room 548…,"

She murmured to herself as she followed a wall that was labeled with room number.

542… 544… 546… Should be the next one!

She thought to herself as she suddenly felt her heart starting to beat rapidly. Then she came to a halt. Was this how Add felt whenever he entered their condo? She didn't quite treat him well prior to couple months before… did he felt excitement or… fear? Then she realized that she must really love him a lot, considering how her body reacts to meeting him before her mind does. She glanced up and glimpsed that the door was slightly cracked open and murmurs of voice was slipping out from the gap, it was clearly Add's voice. With a playful smirk, she decided to peek to see what he was doing. Because the crack was so tiny and limited, she could only make out two silhouettes and could barely hear the conversation; their voices were rather blurry but if she concentrated hard enough, she could hear them fine.

Oh, there he is!

She glimpsed Add sitting down on his chair placed next to his office table. He was leaning rather arrogantly yet she couldn't quite make out his face due to Add facing away.

Is he mad…?

Then she caught his secretary, Chung standing awkwardly on the other side of the table. His head was staring down at the table yet his cerulean eyes were cautiously glancing up at the CEO. She have seen Chung multiple times before as he was the only male that Add allowed to even talk with Eve. She silently chuckled at the sight of poor Chung getting yelled by his boss.

From the angle which Eve was peeking through, she could see Chung's face since he was facing the door yet Add was facing away from the door, therefore she couldn't quite see his expression nor hear his voice.

"But sir… the case isn't over yet,"

Case? What case?

Eve wondered to herself after hearing Chung's question. Did Add do something wrong that caused him to start a case? Suddenly, she felt worried yet she decided to listen more since Add had never told her about this situation before. If she entered now, he wouldn't even tell her anything for sure. Then she heard Add's voice murmuring yet she couldn't quite hear exactly what he was saying, yet she knew that his voice was rather calm, contrasting Chung who was panicking.

"And your um… partner, Miss Eve. Does she know that… you're not Mr. Eid, sir?"

Not Mr. Eid…? Wait, what does he mean?

Eve's fingers were trembling as she felt beads of sweat rolling down her back. What did Chung mean that he's not Mr. Eid?

Then who is he…?

She glanced up again. Chung's gaze was rather serious and stern, meaning that they weren't joking at all. Then Add spoke again, yet she couldn't hear his words.

"But sir Add,"

Chung said.

Add? Who is Add? What is going on?!

Her heart started to began beating faster. Again, her body was reacting at a much quicker rate than her mind when she was thinking about Add.

"She mustn't know you murdered Mr. Eid…,"

The door busted open without hesitation and the female walked in the office with her eyebrows frowning with irritation. Her shoes were tapping rather loudly on top of the marble floors, displaying her anger.

I don't get it. Isn't that Eid? Tell me this is Eid?

But why wasn't her body reacting to her mind that was asking her so many questions? Why was her body ignoring her own mind?

"Who the fuck are you,"

She asked as she grabbed Add's collar, her golden eyes were not shining with happiness, but with furiousness.

When I was rotting to death by myself in the corner of my room, why did you suddenly appear? And why were you so different, as if you were never the same person? The accident caused personality change within your mind? Don't fool me around.

You fucking killed Eid, now you're trying to live his dead life by acting like YOU'RE EID.

"M- Miss Eve!"

Chung yelled out, his cerulean eyes widened with shock. His fingers were trembling with panic and his shoulders were shaking with surprise.

Her golden eyes were deeply staring into his feared amethyst eyes, his pupils were shaking.

"W- what do you mean, Eve. I'm Eid,"

Add tried to calm the angered female down, yet it was no use.

"Stop lying!"

A moment of cold silence lingered the air for couple seconds. Chung bit his lip as he continued to tremble with fear, then as if he made up his mind, he swallowed his nervousness down as he tightly closed his eyes and yelled out,

"Sir! Just tell her the truth! How are you going to continue living like this? How am I supposed to continue living like this? By these shitty lies!"

He opened his eyes and glanced up. The two weren't even staring at him, yet the two clearly heard his voice. With heavy breaths, Chung walked out of the office and slammed the door behind as he couldn't take the cold atmosphere behind. Once again, Add have ruined another person's life by creating piling feelings of guilt on top of an innocent person.

"...,"

The two remained silent as they gazed into each other's eye even after Chung's leave.

"Answer me,"

She demanded coldly, her voice was stoic and low- it was a tone Add have never heard before. Slowly, she released her grip that was tightly grasping his collar as if she have calmed down a bit. Add realized now was the chance and decided to open his lips when suddenly,

The sound of slap echoed into the room.

Add was glancing down at the marble floor, his cheek starting to turn turn red. Eve's breath was shallow as she was trembling with fear.

"I asked… who are you!?"

She asked once more, her golden eyes were still blazing with anger yet there was tear rolling down to the end of her chin.

"...Add,"

He answered, weakly as if he have given up on everything.

note:

AHAHH SERVES U RIGHT ADD /i'm honestly so terrible for writing him as a psycho lol i was getting mad when writing this chapter, it felt as if i was Eve LMFAO.

Eve figuring out the truth should have been expected! so here you go! the meaning behind Artificial Flower will be revealed next chapter! which will also reveal basically everything in Add's perspective lol.

thanks for reading!

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