#I swear I will fight him myself with Kick included

[hauntingmiser]

Looks like an overlord.

Will fistfight at a nearest McDonald's™

“I’m all yours. Use me however you want”

Completely fused, Azathoth!Maruki

[gremlinvanfleet]

𝖐𝖎𝖓𝖐𝖙𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖗 𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝖔𝖓𝖊 - 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘 

anakin skywalker, circa. the clone wars

kinktober 2023

masterlist

who else is better than hayden christensen to kick off the month? we also have the same name and that's so wicked.

summary: you and anakin have been fighting in the deadly war for far too long, and you finally begin to turn to each other for comfort in the trying times after so much loss.

warnings: smut, swearing

word count: 1,884 (i'm so sorry)

The war had been taking its toll on everyone. Yourself included in that list of people as Obi-Wan’s new Padawan. You hadn’t noticed it about Anakin however. He commanded your fleet and you trusted him with every fibre of your being. He was strong, wise and had animal like instincts. A true leader. He never ever wavered and that’s why there was so much confidence in him, even if he defied orders, he always did it with the best interest of the people.

“Y/L/N! I need you here. Focus please.” He touched your shoulder. You didn’t even noticed you zoned out. 

“Sorry, General.” He nodded. He continued with his attack plan. It was simple but unbelievably effective. He didn’t believe in making things unnecessarily complex, especially when it could put his men at risk. 

“General Skywalker, how are we supposed to sneak in when they have droids outside the whole ship?” A clone asked. 

“That’s were Y/N comes in.” He gestured towards you. You felt your face heat up. You thought you were just going to be piloting with Anakin, not heading the mission. “She will fly around the perimeter and act as a distraction while we strike underneath.” 

“You have faith in her flying? She’s just a kid.” Another one chimed in. He shook his head. 

“Myself and General Kenobi have yet to see a reason to not. She’s reliable and smart. Don’t second guess me again.” He glared. Him defending you made you have a funny feeling in your stomach. 

You took a moment to admire him in this state that came so naturally to him. His hair had been a bit more tousled than usual, and his uniform was more wrinkled than you remember it. You saw him run his hands through it before he came into the command centre. Stress. The lightsaber attached to his waist shined under the light of the hologram above him. His blue eyes were as fiery as usual and the intensity behind his voice made you think he received intel that he didn’t find favourable. You felt for your friend and mentor in the moment. Obi-Wan may be your master but Anakin was a true friend. He’d been through everything you had already. He understands you. 

“Okay. I think that’s everything. Let’s go men. We have a hard battle ahead. Fight hard and with valiance and I’ll be endlessly proud.” He smiled but his eyes looked sad. He knows not everyone in this room will be coming back. 

The clones left the room but Anakin grabbed your wrist, prompting you to stay behind. 

“What is it, General?” You thought he had something important to say but instead you were met with his sad blues looking into yours. 

“I just feel like something bad is going to happen with this mission. I just don’t want it happening to you. Please promise me you’ll be careful.” 

“Anakin, you’re the one who taught me how to fly, remember? I believe you called yourself the best pilot in the galaxy. If you can’t have faith in me, have it in yourself.” You smiled at him. He chuckled. 

“Point taken. I do have faith in you though, Y/N. So does Obi-Wan. We are both so incredibly proud of you. You’ve served the council well and I’m certain you’ll continue to do so.” 

“Then why are you so worried? I’ll be just fine.” You tried to reassure him, even though you didn’t fully believe yourself. It’s scary when he gets a feeling like that. He’s always been able to see ahead. 

“Okay, okay. Let’s go then.” He walked beside you and nudged your shoulder. You laughed and walked with him to the hangar. 

The mission was gruelling but a success. Anakin had lost many of his men this time around but you made it out okay. In fact, you pulled it off perfectly. You had taken down one of General Grievous’ droid ships. Only a grain of sand in the scheme of things however. After the mission, Anakin came out of it with a heavy heart. He thought no one was looking but you saw him ignite his saber and use it in a supply room. Items clattered everywhere while he took out his rage. What was he mad at? It could be anything. The loss of his men. The knowledge that there is still so much work that needs to be done and that means losing even more men. It hurt you to see him in so much pain like this. You couldn’t just leave him like that. 

“Hey…” You stood in the doorway. He looked at you, nostrils flared, eyes in a frenzy. 

“What are you doing here? Go get some rest.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair again.  “I won’t be resting until you do, General.” You knew he hated when you called him that, but you took the risk of poking a little fun at him. God knows you both need the pick me up. “You know I don’t like that.” He had a small smile on his face. You stepped closer to him. 

“Yeah, but it’s good fun.” You smiled. He chuckled. 

“Come on, lets try to get some sleep at least.” 

You followed him up to the sleep chambers. He got in his bed and you got into yours. The sleep came on quickly but just before you drifted off, you heard a shout from the room next to yours. Anakin. You ran into his room and found him sitting up, bare chested and breathing heavily. 

“What’s wrong?!” You searched his distressed face for an answer. He blinked at you. 

“Nothing, nothing. Go back to sleep Y/N.” He sounded defeated. Not something you’d expect from the strong man across from you. 

“Come on. I’m not that naive. You can talk to me.” You sat on the edge of his bed. He tipped his head back and sighed. Something was definitely weighing on him. 

“I just can’t get their faces out of my head…” He said dejectedly.  

“Who are you talking about?”

“The clones. We lost so many. I know its the fortune of war but I still can’t help but feel responsible.” He rubbed his forehead. 

“Anakin, listen to me. None of this is your fault. In fact, you’re the only person I know fighting in this war that cares so much about his men. I admire you so much for that.” You put your hand on his. He sighed and closed his troubled eyes. 

“We all care, Y/N. Some of us are just more radical than others.” 

“You’d be the most radical I think.” You joked. He cracked a small smile. 

“I think you’re the only one keeping me sane here…” He whispered. 

“Lucky for you, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Promise?” He searched his eyes. 

“I promise.” You squeezed his hand. 

“Can you stay here with me? Just for tonight so I can sleep?” His eyes looked sad. Your face heated up. You had wished for this to happen. You’d never admit it but deep down you’ve always hoped something more would happen between the two of you. 

“Yeah. I can stay.” You smiled and he returned it. 

He laid back down and you did the same beside him. He sighed a few times and turned over too. You gently put your hand on his arm and started drawing circles. He hummed and turned on his side to face you. 

“That feels nice.” He murmured. He kept his eyes on yours as you continued. He leaned in a bit closer. You felt your heart beating faster in your chest. Is it finally happening? He gently placed his soft lips onto yours. 

You quickly returned the kiss and slid closer to him. He wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you into his chest while never detaching from your lips. You whimpered into his mouth as he pushed his tongue in. You felt his mouth turn into a smirk after hearing it. He flipped himself over so he was between your legs. He pushed himself against you and started kissing down your neck.

“Is this okay?” His eyes were filled with concern. 

“Yes. Please keep going.” You pleaded. 

“As you wish.” He smiled and continued down your neck. He pulled your housecoat off revealing only underwear underneath. 

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to see you like this. I’ve thought about it all the time.” He admitted.  

“Me too.” You managed out between pants.

He quickly but carefully took off your underwear, revealing you completely to him. He stared for so long that you started to feel self conscious. You began to cover yourself again. 

“No no. Don’t do that. You just look so pretty, I can’t help myself.” He caressed your side, giving you goosebumps. 

“It’s your turn now, General.” His words gave you confidence. He shook his head and began taking off his clothes. His skin was such a beautiful colour and his battle scars just added to it even more. His metal arm glistened in the moonlight. You stared at his toned abdomen while you both took each other in. 

“Ready?” He was hard and not trying to hide it. His size was intimidating but definitely enticing at the same time. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” 

He slowly circled your clit with his hand while he pushed himself into you. You felt so full even after only half of him was inside. He groaned when he bottomed out and you clenched around him. 

“Fuck… So tight…” He hovered over you and rested his forehead against yours. The heat radiated against your skin so pleasantly as he pulled himself out and then back in again. The pleasure was unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. His pace was too slow for your liking however. 

“Anakin, please… Faster.” You whined. He chuckled and began to move his hips faster. His skin smacked against yours and he spent time rubbing your clit to get you there. 

“Fuck, Y/N.” He panted. His fingers moved faster against you and your legs began to shake. “You gonna cum for me?” 

“Y-yes. Please don’t stop…” He smiled down at you and kept the pace of both his fingers and his hips. He drew you closer and closer to the edge with every movement. The coil in your stomach was ready to snap at any moment. 

“Come on, sweetheart. Cum for me.” His words were enough to bring you over and you shook and clenched all around him. “That’s it, pretty girl.” He wasn’t done though. 

He pounded you even faster as he chased his own high. He pushed deep inside you one final time with a loud groan. He pulled out and his seed spilled out of your swollen hole. He collapsed beside you and pulled you into his arms. 

“That was-“

“Unreal.” You finished. 

“Yeah. I can’t believe it took us this long.” He laughed 

“Me neither. Kinda kicking myself for it.” 

“Just don’t tell Obi-Wan. He’ll kill me.” You laughed at the fact that he was still scared of Obi-Wan after all this time. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” You kissed his cheek and snuggled into his chest. 

A good sleep was on its way. 

© gremlinvanfleet 2023 <3

[y0urm4m]

No time to die ch.1

Warnings: smoking, swearing, arranged marriage, alcohol consumption, weapons, blood, arguing, possible smut, fighting.(This includes all parts!!)

Summary: What will happen when two strangers with awful backstories are forced into an arranged marriage but one is seeking revenge.

┏━━━ 🀥 ━━━┓

There I sat cross legged, on my father’s plush leather couch in his office. Cigarette in hand. His little ‘body guards’ standing by the door. “So why did you call me in here?” I asked, exhaling the smoke. “Would you put that stupid thing out, you know I don’t like it when you do that.” He sighed, motioning towards the cigarette. I rolled my eyes, putting it out in his ashtray. “You’re a bit hypocritical, I’m not a little girl any more.” I said, crossing my arms. “Anyways, I called you in here as we need to have a serious conversation.” He said, nodding at the men letting them leave. I never really cared about getting to know their names as it would be different men by next week. “Carry on.” I replied, completely uninterested. “Well you know how much danger you can be in once you turn twenty-one and I couldn’t let that happen, so the last time I was in a meeting I had a chat with a few people and sorted something out.” He explained, sipping on his whiskey. “I don’t get your point.” I snorted, raising my eyebrow slightly. “My point is, you’ll be getting married next week as we needed it to be as soon as possible,” He responded, smiling. “I’ve met him and you would both be a perfect match.” He added, re-filling his glass.

There was no way he was forcing me to get married to a man I’d never met in my life.

“Wait, that’s unfair. I’ve never even met him and we’re getting married in a week.” I explained, standing up to walk out. “Don’t be like that y/n, you know I’m only trying to protect you.” He remarked also arising from his seat. “If you really wanted to protect me you wouldn’t have done any of the things you’ve done and mom would still be here!” I shouted, opening his office door. As the door opened I saw my dad give the men a look and with that the two of them were gripping onto my wrists. “Get off of me.” I screamed, kicking my legs slightly. “I’m sorry sweetheart, everything I’ve ever done has been for you.” He sighed emphasising the ‘for you’. “You haven’t done shit for me, if I was ever in danger it would be because of you,” I disagreed, my face shining with disgust. “I. Fucking. Hate. You.” I spat, and with that I felt myself being dragged to my bedroom, the door being slammed shut behind me.

How could he do this to me, after everything he has put me through these past 13 years. I was forced to grow up, because of him. My mom died, because of him.

Flash back:

I was awoken to a loud crashing noise from downstairs, I slowly slid out of my bed, tiptoeing down the creaky steps. There my mother stood screaming in my father’s face. “I told you to not bring that shit in my house.” She shouted, pushing him back. “I never wanted to but I had to for yours and y/n safety!” He shouted back, looking behind him. I was just to far up the stairs to the point where I couldn’t see who he was looking at.

The next thing I knew, there my mom was, her limp body on the floor. Pools of blood surround her. “Mom!” I screamed, running down the stairs hugging her lifeless body. “Y/n?!” My dad gasped, pulling me away from her. “Daddy what did you do to mom?” I asked, my breathing patterns speeding up rapidly. “Nothing baby, don’t worry about it. Go back upstairs please, I’ll be up in a second.” He told me, ushering me up the stairs.

End of flash back:

That was the last I saw of my mom, he told me she went to live with my aunt and obviously with my youthful and young mind I wouldn’t have understood until recently.

I sighed, sliding down the side of my door. How could he do this especially behind my back, I was supposed to be ‘his little princess’ although I know for a fact I wasn’t, the only reason I’m still alive is because I’m ‘blood’.

Which was one of the biggest lies I’d ever heard. Blood only ever makes you related. Trust, love and loyalty makes you family.

— I stayed in my room for the rest of the day, not even leaving to eat. I felt sick to my stomach just thinking about yesterday and all the events that had occurred, but I just have to get through all this. I was brought out of thought by someone knocking on my door. “Y/n?” My dad called out through the door. “What do you want?” I asked, sitting up from where I laid. “You’ll be meeting some of the your fiancé’s family today.” He said softly, my eyes widened. “I don’t even know his name.” I shouted back, standing up and heading straight for my bedroom door. “You’ll soon find out, now get ready.” He told me, leaving me confused as he walked down the hallway back to his office.

I rushed over to my closet, picking out the most presentable but comfortable clothes I could, shoving them on.

I just had to get married and make my dad happy.

“You can do this.” I whispered to myself as I walked out of my room towards where my dad stood. He was on the phone, as per usual. “I’m ready, I’ll be downstairs.” I whispered in his ear, heading towards the stairs. He turned to look at me nodding as I walked downstairs. 

I was immediately greeted by one of my fathers ‘big bad bodyguards’, who was pointing towards the car. I slid into the backseat, patiently waiting for my dad to make his way to the car. After roughly 15 minutes he had finally got into the car. The car immediately started, as we made our way to the restaurant. “Put your foot on it Darren, we’re going to be late.” My dad told the man driving us, he almost immediately sped up swerving through traffic.

I stared out the window, looking at all the shops and buildings we passed. “Where are we actually going?” I asked, looking slightly at my dad. “Just a restaurant, we’re almost there anyways.” He replied, looking down at his phone. I rolled my eyes, his phone was practically glued to his hand you’d think he was a teenage girl by the way he doesn’t leave the house without it.

As we continued passing people, buildings and other cars, two people caught my eye. It was a man and a little girl. They were walking down the street eating ice cream, they both looked so happy.

Why couldn’t me and my dad have that bond together?

— We slowly approached a small restaurant, which was filled with people; mainly middle aged men and women. “Come on then we’re already late as it is.” My dad said, patting my shoulder as he got out of the car. I slid out the car door, walking next to him as we entered the restaurant. “Can I know his name now?” I asked, looking at my dad. “I guess so,” He sighed. “His name is Chris and I expect you to show him and his family the most utter respect, okay.” He smiled, as I nodded.

“Good afternoon, have you guys got a reservation?” The waiter asked, looking down at the paper placed in front of them. “Yes, yes we have. The last name should be sturniolo.” He replied, looking at his watch. “Great, everyone else is already here so follow me and I’ll grab you guys some more menus.” The waiter said, leading us over to the table.

As we made our way to the table I was greeted with, 5 people. 3 in which all looked very similar in age and looks. An older lady immediately stood up walking towards me. “You must be y/n, I’ve heard so much about you.” She said, kissing my cheeks. I smiled, as the others greeted me and my dad. One boy in particular kept his gaze on mine. “If you couldn’t tell we’re triplets,” One of the boys said. “I’m Nick.” He added, bumping the one who sat on his left’s shoulder. “Oh uh I’m Matt.” The other chimed in, smiling. “And that’s Chris, anyways feel free to sit down.” Nick said, pointing towards a chair. I sat on the chair, looking at my dad who was already deep into a conversation. “So why don’t you tell us more about yourself.” The lady said, sipping from her drink. I bit my cheek slightly, looking at Chris and back down. “Why don’t I start, I’m Nick, I’m 20, I’m a triplet obviously and I really enjoy photography!” He said, smiling at me. “Uh well, I’m y/n and I.” I started speaking, when my dad ;who was now staring holes into my face, caught my attention.

“Why don’t we talk about the wedding.” My dad said abruptly changing the subject as he turned to look at Chris. “Right yes the wedding, aren’t you excited!” Nick said, giddily. “She is indeed, we’ve been discussing it a lot recently.” My dad butted in before I could begin to speak. I sighed, looking down at the water in front of me. “Chris are you happy?” Matt asked, nudging his brother’s shoulder. “What- oh- uh yes I am and it’s been wonderful meeting my wife to be.” He said, fake smiling. I could tell by the rest of his body language that he wasn’t genuinely happy or interested in the current conversation. “Well i was hoping we could go shopping and look at dresses tomorrow, but only if you’d like to.” The lady asked, grinning at me. “I’m sure she’d love to. Wouldn’t you?” My dad replied, looking at me. I nodded my head. “Yes, of course I would.” Just then my dad’s phone started ringing, who looked down at who was calling. “I’m sorry this is important, I’ll be back in a second.” He said, walking outside of the restaurant. “So what kind of dresses do you plan on looking at,” Nick asked. “Oh before you say, we wouldn’t want to spoil anything for Chris you’ll just have to tell us tomorrow.” He added, smiling at Chris who’s attention was now on his phone.

I sat talking with them and eating the food we had ordered whilst I waited patiently for my dad to return from his ‘important call’. “y/n!” Someone beckoned out to me, I turned to look. It was my dad and he wasn’t happy. “We need to leave now, something happened it’s important.” He told me, as I shot up grabbing my stuff. “It was nice meeting you all, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said waving as I left the restaurant. “What was that about?” I asked, frowning at my dad. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. We just urgently need to get home,” He replied, getting back into the car as I also slid into the car. “Oh Nick asked me to give you his number by the way.” “Okay, I’ll message him now.” I replied, pulling out my phone.

Hi my dad said you wanted me to have your number

Yes I wanted to talk about what time your going wedding shopping tomorrow

I honestly don’t know but i’d love if you’d come with me

I was hoping you’d ask me that

I giggled earning a frown from my dad. “What are you giggling about?” He asked, looking at my phone. “I was just talking to Nick about tomorrow.” I replied, looking back down at my phone. “Oh right, well I’ll get Darren to drop and pick you up tomorrow.” He said, Darren nodding in response as he focused on driving us home.

— We finally made it home, my dad heading straight to his office whereas I headed straight to my room to message Nick.

Me and Nick ended up talking for hours on end about anything and everything. It was as if we’d known each other for years. The connection me and Nick already had was all my 8 year old self would have dreamed for after all I’d never had a best friend because my dad had insisted for me to get homeschooled meaning I never got the chance to meet people.

Maybe this whole ‘arranged marriage’ wasn’t going to be so bad after all. I just had to get to know Chris and Matt more.

┗━━━ 🀥 ━━━┛

A/N: how we feeling about this so far, took me forever to write even though it’s short but this is just the start!!

Tag list: @junnniiieee07 @patscorner @mattyb4dominicans @watercolorskyy @brooklynn0103 @imwetforyourmom

[afterhourwriting]

Man, it’s been a while…

….

Here’s a TF2 Fic I made a while ago for Wattpad! :D

-

TL;DR: The reader and Sniper don’t particularly enjoy each other and are locked in a crate by a BLU Soldier. Hijinks and boners ensue. Also, beware of my obsession with commas. This is kind of short for me

─━━━━━━⊱༻ ⚪️ ༺⊰━━━━━━─

“I know you don’t particularly enjoy touching, but I think it’s a little bit too late for that.” Finding yourself locked in a heavy crate that had a sentry on top with a man that smelt like gunpowder, sweat and piss was not what you thought was going to happen today. Your sentence didn’t get a response, all you heard was a simple grumble and the sound of the BLU Soldier celebrating that he captured you.

You tried to adjust as best as you could but- “Sniper, move your fat ass out of the way!” “My fat ass? That’s bloody rich. I can’t move anymore than you can, drongo!” His chest was heavy against yours, his hands carefully placed by your head. Meanwhile, underneath him, your legs were pressed against his waist and your hands were trying to keep the man’s body as far from yours as possible. “Why you of all people? I’d much rather be stuck in here with Scout.”

“Careful what ya wish for, sheila. Now quiet down so I can think.” Sniper grumbled in your ear as his musk filled your senses. The silence was deafening and you could practically hear your heart beating in your head. As claustrophobic as it was, you tried to take your mind off of the situation by thinking of what you might do when you get out. Make some tea? Maybe cook something up to eat? Noodles sound so good right-… what the fuck was pressing into you? You’d reach down and try to feel it out if you weren’t already suspicious and if there was enough room.

Your lips parted to speak, but god knows that even if you asked him you did NOT want to know the answer. “Mick?” “What’s it now?” “Tell me that’s just a pistol in your pocket and not… tell me you just brought in a gun from outside?”

…

THE SILENCE. ISN’T. HELPING.

“MICK! You are so GROSS.” You shouted in disgust, now kicking at his legs as if that’s going to do… anything. It’s the thought that counts though. “Oi! Can’t kick me; ‘s basic human biology. I’m weak! Y’got on bloody tights for Christ’s sakes, what ‘m I supposed to do?!” Mick yelled back, grabbing at your ankles to try and keep you from kicking anymore. “DON’T. BE. DISGUSTING! Get away from me, asshole!”

“WHERE THE HELL AM I GONNA GO?!”

Your commotion was loud, no doubt, and it lightly shook the crate you two were unfortunately locked in. What wasn’t apparent was that you were quickly gathering an audience. “I SWEAR, if they don’t kill us, I’m killing you MYSELF, MUNDY!” “Big. Fucking. Talk! You act like you ain’t never given a man a stiffy!”

A few of the BLU team had surrounded the crate, including Soldier who seemed very proud of himself. He’s got two of the RED team, he’s got intelligence, today was a good day. For him anyways. “Well, they sound friendly, don’t they?” Spy muttered in annoyance, practically plugging his ears as your fight continued on.

─━━━━━━⊱༻ ⚪️ ༺⊰━━━━━━─

A/N: I had fun writing this. Also little “glossary” here for those that didn’t study up on Australian slang that is a totally normal thing to do and can’t make educated guessed (it’s okay, you’re still a wonderful reader)

Drongo: “Idiot” or “Stupid fellow”

Sheila: Coming from the Irish name Síle, which was exclusively used for women, sheila is considered a mild Australian slang insult for “girl” or “woman”

Stiffy is self explanatory, guys. Come on.

[dingochef]

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x You (OFC)

Warnings: Swearing, Smut (MDNI 18+ Only), Dirty Talk, Mutual Masturbation, Comeplay

Word Count: 3.7k

Summary: A rainy day and a random board game lets you and Jake to get to know each other better and more intimately.

Masterlist

Truth

"El, I'm bored," Jake whines from the couch where he is stretched out. You're assuming he's still there because the back of the sofa blocks your view from the kitchen. All you can see of your very tall muscular aviator boyfriend is his bare feet kicking, only slightly like a petulant toddler, in the air as he restates his current state of boredom.

"It's one day of rain, Jake. Even in San Diego it happens," you say, advancing out of the kitchen with a beer and a gin and tonic. He rolls over as you approach and perks up when you hand him the beer, an aggressive IPA he's currently obsessed with. He sits up taking the drink from you. You plunk yourself down on the couch and his arm automatically goes around you.

"Enjoy the down time, we're caught up on laundry, worked out this morning, have dinner ready to go in the oven. It's 2 pm on a rainy Sunday and we have no obligations. Let's just chill and enjoy doing nothing," you say.

"Fine, I'll take your offer of cuddling with my smoking hot girlfriend and day drinking," he sighs. You sit contentedly for a few minutes listening to the rain before Jake gets antsy again.

"Let's do something," he pleads.

"How about a board game?" you ask, not entirely sure where that idea came from.

"We have board games?" Jake asks.

You nod and pop off the couch striding towards the guest room.

"In here," you say and point to a cardboard box in the bottom of the closet. Jake pulls it out and opens it up. He pulls out a few classic games and holds them up for you to consider, including Monopoly.

"Nope, last time I played that two people got into a fist fight and we had to find an emergency dentist" you reply and Jake puts it down on the growing pile.

The usual classics like Risk, Life, and few others join the stack.

A devilish and wide smile blooms on his face,

"Oh I think we're going to play this one, El," he says, grinning as he holds up a hot pink box the size of a deck of cards that says,

"Only the Truth, X Rated Edition."

"Oh my god," you groan, "I thought I got rid of that."

You reach for the box but Jake stands up and holds the box up high above your head. He uses every one of the eleven inches he is taller than you to evade your grasp.

Crossing your arms, you give up. The urge to climb him like a tree fading as you try not to pout,

"Lydia got it for me as a gag gift. I can't believe I still have it."

Jake reads the back of the box, in a low sultry voice,

"Get to know everything spicy about your lover or someone you hope will be with this fun and exciting game. Easy setup and clothing optional."

He wags his eyebrows at the last sentence.

Rolling your eyes, you agree,

"Fine, we can play it but you have to make the next round of drinks."

Jake snickers,

"Because making a G&T is sooo hard," he grabs your hand and pulls you to the couch. He rips the box open and peels off the plastic wrap. You pick up the folded paper directions and read them.

"Umm, we can either go through the deck in order increasing 'spiciness' or," the sound of shuffling cards distracts you, "Mix them up."

You look up and Jake is sheepishly neatening up the cards on the table. "Well that decision has been made," you sigh,

"Says everyone has to answer the question, truthfully."

Jake nods and draws a card. He snickers,

"Well that's a doozy to start with. Worst sex partner.”

You take a swig of your drink,

“Second serious boyfriend in college. He was just lazy, only liked missionary and would do this weird horizontal thing every other thrust. It did nothing for me. Once he’d come he was out andI had to take care of myself. We didn’t last long after we started sleeping together. Not the greatest kisser and never gave me oral. My rule is that I have to get oral before I give. So you were a wise man to go down on me right away.”

A smile blooms across Jake's face as he relives the exact moment you're referring to.

"Your turn," you tease in a sing-song voice.

He takes a breath and groans,

“My first one night stand, while I was at Academy. Went home with a local girl and she just kind of laid there despite anything I tried to do, not that I was the most experienced at that point in my life, but I was enthusiastic. When we went doggy style, she moaned so loudly kind of like a donkey every time I pushed into her. It was distracting and weird. When she finally came, she didn’t make a sound and then just got out of bed and left me to my own devices. Yeah, that was definitely the worst.”

You snicker at the thought of a young Jake trying his hand at sleeping around. It's your turn to draw a card and you pull one of the garish pink cards off the deck and read aloud the question,

"Who was your first kiss? Huh, that must have been one of the starter questions."

“Sandra Leonard, 6th grade at a dance. You?” Jake responds.

“Mark Simmons, Homecoming dance, sophomore year of high school," you answer.

“A bit of a late bloomer?” Jake asks.

“Yeah, I didn’t really have time for much social stuff when I was training for the Olympics. Your turn.”

Jake pulls another card,

“What is your favorite genre of porn?"

“Ooh, good one. I’d probably say Gay," you answer, enjoying how Jake’s eyebrows raise.

“One, the guys are always hot and hung,” that earns a hearty laugh from him, “The guys are genuinely aroused and actually get off. There’s no exploiting a woman just for a man’s pleasure. Everyone enjoys themselves.”

He considers your words and nods in agreement. There is a brief gleam of mischief in his eye as takes a swig of beer before answering the question,

"Granny."

You're not smooth enough to school your facial features into a neutral look, whatever thought you're having is on your face making Jake laugh.

“Just kidding, I’m a pretty straight laced guy, usual man/woman couples, lesbian, and solo women.”

“Those are pretty mainstream, although that would have been the time to slip in any weird fetish you’ve been holding back. Not to kink shame you or anything."

Jake laughs,

“I promise you don’t have anything too crazy in the spank bank, just being around you is enough to get me going at an instant.”

He leans over to kiss you, the taste of the IPA heavy on his lips.

"Mmm, you taste like a pine tree. My turn!"

You read the next card aloud,

“Who was your first steady boyfriend/girlfriend?”

“Tiffany Meadows, she was my girlfriend through high school. We broke up when we went away to college. Thanks or no thanks to Facebook, I know she is happily living as a suburban stay at home Mom in Dallas with three kids.”

“Melvin Markham, freshman year of college. He was a fellow gymnast at Notre Dame. He was two years older than me.”

Jake draws the next card,

“Who'd you lose your virginity to and where?”

“Melvin, freshman year, he lived off campus. Couldn't get away with a lot of the dorms at Notre Dame, nuns and other minders everywhere.”

“I’m just laughing at the idea of you sneaking around nuns to get sexed up.”

“The joys of going to a Catholic university.”

“Sounds more strict than the academy. Which is saying something.”

“Your turn.”

“Tiffany, my senior year of high school, in her bedroom when her parents were out of town for the weekend.”

Jake picks up the next card,

"Have you ever slept with someone of the same gender?"

"First of all, what a heteronormative question, but yes I have slept with a woman, once."

Jake perks up,

"Details, please."

You pause, and then tell him,

“You have to swear never to let anyone know, especially the person I’m going to mention and their significant other. Swear you won’t.”

You hold out your pinky for the most solemn of all oaths, Jake laughs at your seriousness and agrees,

“Pinky promise.”

“Lydia and I had sex one time in college," you blurt out, enjoying how Jake's eyes bug out a little as he tries not to spit his poorly timed sip of beer out. After a few coughs his look shifts as he is probably imagining you and Lydia having sex. You give him a mock slap to stop his imagination running away on him.

“I don’t think you know, but Lydia is bisexual. She’s had a few girlfriends here and there but has tended towards men in the past couple years. Well, we were a little tipsy one night in my dorm room and Lydia confided in me she was attracted to girls, but was scared to do anything about it. She was afraid of getting involved with a girl and getting to that stage and realizing that it wasn’t for her. My tipsy brain, plus it almost feels like a rite of cliche passage for college girls now, thought the perfect solution was for Lydia and me to mess around for her to see if she liked it and I was curious too. It was good, a lot different than being with a guy, all soft and smooth versus hard muscles and stubble. I like being penetrated too much to be exclusively a lesbian, good for you.”

“What happened the next morning? Did things get weird?” he asks, his curiosity getting to him.

“It was surprisingly okay the next day. Lydia said thanks for helping her figure out some stuff. I let her know it wasn't my cup of tea, but that I was glad she got to explore that with someone she trusted. I think our friendship is so strong that that bond prevailed rather than a romantic or sexual one.”

You can tell Jake’s mind is blown.

“That’s incredibly…sweet in a way. And yes I’m glad you enjoy dick, specifically my dick.”

"You're welcome, now it's your turn.”

“Nothing quite as poetic as yours, but a few things have happened at sea. It’s really hard to say no to anyone who wants to suck your dick, female or male, when you’ve not had sex for months. You say yes and it feels polite to at least reciprocate a hand job.”

“Makes sense, and seems like a nice thing to do.”

You pull the next card,

"What sex act do you want to try?"

"I really want to watch you get yourself off, the whole thing without any help from me. I know you have some toys, but never seem to bring them out during sex."

"I didn't know you'd be okay with that."

"Want to see how you use them, give me some ideas for later. Plus it'd be like my own personal porn."

"Okay, I think I can do that."

Jake looks at me,

"What do you want to try?"

"I like the idea of some roleplay." He raises an eyebrow,

"What specifically?"

"Like the idea of us meeting up somewhere at a bar as strangers and you picking me up for a one night stand. Maybe fucking in the parking lot."

"I like that idea, we can definitely work that one out,"

The rain starts to come down harder, a dull roar on the roof.

You put your drink down on the table and take Jake's beer to join your glass. Your hands free you move to straddle Jake's strong thighs,

"All this talk of sex stuff has got me going, you want to check?"

Jake's hand slides down under your dress, up your thigh, and to your warm core. His jaw flexes the moment he realizes you forwent underwear. A strong finger ghosts over your clit causing you to gasp and slides into your wet opening.

"Fuck, El, you're soaked."

"Want to try out your idea?"

Jake nods enthusiastically,

"Yes, El, whatever you're comfortable with."

Slowly you stand up and pull Jake up with you. He follows you as you lead him by the hand to the bedroom. You pull the armchair that usually sits in the corner of the room to the foot of the bed and motion for him to sit. He complies and adjusts himself when he sits down, just the initial idea getting him excited and starting to tent his pants.

After arranging the pillows on the bed to your liking you pull out your trusty vibrator. The ridiculous pink and sparkly coloring a bit much in the muted daylight of the bedroom. The lube is fished out of the top drawer of your nightstand and placed on the bed next to the toy. Jake is watching you intently as you go through your preparations; finally you strip the dress you have on, letting it fall to the floor as you slide onto the bed naked.

"You okay, El?" Jake asks, soft concern on his face.

"I'm good, Jake. Enjoy the show," you respond. Leaning back into the pillows, you have your legs modestly together still, knees touching. You know that you wouldn't go through all these motions if it was just you, but that's the fun of the fantasy, everything is just a bit heightened, a bit more production value.

Making sure your supplies are within arms reach you start to caress yourself, long sweeps of your body and curves. Your hands glide over your breasts, down the slope of your stomach, to the outer and inner reaches of your thighs, but you don't touch your pussy yet.

The soothing touch entices you to close your eyes and just enjoy the sensations of skin on skin. On your next round your hands stop on your breasts, cupping them and rolling your nipples between your fingers gently. The action pulls a light moan out of you and for the first time since you started Jake speaks,

"El," he rasps, his voice thick, "Talk to me, tell me what you're thinking about, what you're imagining."

A slight flush creeps on your cheeks, somehow this feels so much more intimate than some of the things you done with Jake and you realize because he's really the first person you've ever let this far into your life, your mind, and your heart. You trust him with all of you, so you take a little settling breath and start to talk, with your hands squeezing your tits and nipples.

"I love how big your hands are, how they feel on me. How you can just cover big parts of my body with one hand, makes me feel protected."

You let one hand slide down to your apex and gently part your folds and your legs finally open to Jake's gaze. A deep groan resonates from the end of the bed when your legs fully part exposing your glistening cunt.

You tease around your pussy, letting your fingers dance on your lips as you hold them open with your other hand.

"The way you eat my pussy like it's your last meal drives me crazy. If it were up to me I'd keep you between my legs all the time. Under my desk at work, here in our bed, anywhere I could get you, because no one, no one, has ever eaten my pussy as good as you do Jake."

You finally give in and let your fingers slide over your clit and down into your wet slit. Gathering some of your slick on your fingers you rub small circles around your clit. A soft sigh of relief escapes from your lips as some of the ache eases with your motions. You take the opportunity to look at Jake and he has slipped his sweats and boxer briefs down releasing his dick. His hard cock is in his hand, precum leaking out the tip. His green eyes look dark and intense as they watch your every move.

Your mouth waters at the thought taking him in your mouth, you begin to speak again, your sex stream of consciousness if you will,

"Love your cock, Jake. The taste. I want it in me all the time, my mouth, my pussy. We should try cockwarming. Think about having me wrapped all around you while we do something, like watch a movie and see how long we can hold out being that close and connected to each other without fucking our brains out." The image of you just being with Jake, perched on his dick gets you going even more and your fingers begin to speed up on your clit. You decide it's time to get the vibrator involved. When you pull your hands away to get the toy and lube, Jake lets out a little whine of disappointment.

You apply some lube to the vibrator and click the cap shut before tossing it to the foot of the bed for Jake. Laying back you hear the click of the lube cap and know Jake has slicked himself up. You click the toy on, and tease it down your body to your pussy. Even then you don't go straight in, enjoying the pleasant vibrations on your clit and swirling it around your hole to heighten the anticipation some more.

"I need to get a bigger vibrator, this one feels small compared to you," you pant out as you tease yourself with the aforementioned toy. Jake huffs out a small laugh at your statement.

"I like how you stretch me when you first slide in," you try to say in a sultry voice as you slide the vibe in, slowly pumping it in and out. The sounds of Jake's breaths speed up.

The satisfaction of knowing how turned on he is spurs you to keep talking,

"I like to think of all the ways you've taken me, how we've fucked, Jake. I always love it when you push me up against a wall and just rail me," you can't help but let out a loud moan at the thought and memory,

"Going as deep as you can, can practically feel your dick in my throat and almost taste it."

A small "fuck me" rumbles from Jake's mouth and you continue to let the dirty talk spill out of your mouth.

"Or when you take me from behind, it lets you slap my ass how I like it. I love seeing your big hand prints on my ass."

With that last verbal volley, everything speeds up. You click the next level on the vibrator, pump it faster, and rub your clit harder on your quest to come undone.

The sounds of slicked up movement mixed with Jake's heavy breathing and muted grunts at the foot of the bed tell you he's getting closer to his own release. You hold your head up long enough to take in the sight of Jake, shirt discarded somewhere along the way, muscles tensed, eyes transfixed on your movements as he slides his hand up and down his cock.

Your own climax is building rapidly and you start to shout as you peak,

"So close, Jake,I'm coming, fuck yes, oh my god."

You finally break into that plane of bliss and the pleasure washes over you as you thrash about on the bed.

Chest heaving, you pull the vibrator out and turn it off. You collapse, boneless, into the softness of the bed.

The bed dips and Jake crawls up to kiss you. It is hard and messy, saliva and tongues as he keeps up his rhythm on his dick, slowly jerking it as he hovers above you.

"El, how you keep getting sexier and sexier I don't know, watching you get yourself off and knowing how much you think about me got me so fucking hard. Can't wait to fuck you after this," he pants against your lips.

You grasp his cock, displacing his hand, as you moan,

"I want you to come," you pause, "Come on me."

"Fuck, El."

You speed up your strokes on his dick, his eyes starting to screw shut as he focuses on you.

Jake lets out a deep moan as his

hands grasp and bunch the comforter on either side of your head.

"El, I'm going to come," he pants, his hips bucking into your hand.

"Want you to feel good. Come for me."

That is the magic set of words that pulls Jake's release from him, warm spurts of come land on your chest as a loud strangled grunt emits from Jake his head pulled back, veins bulging on his neck, chest heaving.

"Holy fuck, El," he groans out as he flops on his back next to you on the bed. He looks your way just in time to watch you drag a finger through the mess on your chest and bring it to your lips to clean.

He groans, almost painfully,

"You're going to kill me, El. Jacob Thomas Seresin dead by sex at age 33."

You laugh and stretch your neck over to him to catch his lips in a sweet kiss. "That was the one of the sexiest things I've ever seen," he says against your lips. You pull back enough to look Jake in the eyes.

"I'm glad you liked it."

He laughs,

"I loved it."

You find Jake's hand with your own and interweave your fingers together.

"I've never done that with anyone," you say into the space between you,

"I didn't really trust any guy enough to give them an all access pass to my brain and body.

Jake raises your intertwined hands and kisses your knuckles softly,

"I'm honored I'm the first and last man who gets this privilege."

You raise an eyebrow,

"The last?"

"Darling, I'm never letting you go."

"Ditto."

"I'm thinking we need to explore that porn shower of yours some more and clean you up," Jake says pulling you up.

"Sounds lovely, lead the way, Jake."

@mygyn

@kmc1989

@starswholistenanddreamsanswered

@mayhemmanaged

@callmemana

@dempy

@hangmanscoming

@lanie-k

@callsign-viper

@senjoritanana

@djs8891

@atarmychick007

@memoriesat30

@midnightmagpiemama

[missnight0wl]

Y7Ch57: The Final “Battle”

*sigh*

Ok, let’s talk about this disaster.

Ah, yes. Because everyone knows that as soon as Dumbledore is not at Hogwarts, the faculty becomes totally incapable of doing anything – including people like Minerva Badass McGonagall or Filius Former-Duelling-Champion Flitwick. Yes, of course.

Funny that you say that, Jae. I’ll actually come back to it a little later.

You know what? No. Rowan would cry at least for a week straight if they knew how fucking stupid everyone is at this point.

All right, that might be my biggest problem with this whole “battle” because… WHY?? Why do we even care whether or not they get to Hogwarts? Minnie alone would kick their asses in under a minute – and quite frankly, I’d love to see it. Just let them through!

WHY THE FUCK DO WE CARE?!

Ok, so it’s never really explained who’s exactly Perry’s target here. Sure, we’re told it’s about an adult Legilimens, and MC deduced that both Dumbledore and Snape are adult Legilmenses. Still, it’s never addressed directly again, and it kinda bothers me. But whatever, I guess. Apparently, we’re supposed to assume that it’s indeed Snape who’s Perry’s target. But like… if there’s anyone at Hogwarts fully capable of defending themselves... IT’S SNAPE. Like… just imagine this encounter.

Perry: Severus Snape? I have a proposition for you that--

Snape: *lazily waves his wand*

Perry: *flies over the Black Lake, slightly smoking because of the impact of Snape’s spell that hit him*

Or…

Perry: Severus Snape? I’m Peregrine Lastname, I’m the father of MC and Jacob. I--

Snape: Sectumsempra!

Perry: AAAAAAAAAA!

Snape: I suffered years because of your two spawns.

Perry: Help! I’m bleeding out!

Snape: Yes, that’s a very accurate description of my suffering.

Seriously, why do we care?! I swear, this fucking “battle” has no stakes whatsoever, and I just don’t understand why it even exists.

Another absurd: why the fuck Verucca wants to kill Peregrine?

Ok, so at least it’s clear that Verucca is indeed a Snyde because apparently, all the Snydes are stupid bitches. If Verucca thought just for a moment, she’d realise that the Ministry focusing on Peregrine meant they’re focusing less on her. And that means she can do whatever she wants more freely. But whatever, I guess.

And here’s another stupidity. If Verucca wants to lead R, all she has to do is to convince other members that Perry is insane and that she’d be better for the whole organisation. Like, it should be super easy after he fucked up with the recent mind control test. And who fucking cares that he ruined R’s name or whatever? Rebel people against Perry, lay low for some time, change the name of the organisation, and enjoy your fucking profit! What would Perry do when left alone??

Because I’m gonna do it myself!

A friendly reminder that Verucca is also Merula’s mother’s sister (according to Y5Ch28) which means it’s quite likely Merula’s parents are cousins – which is not rare among pureblood families, after all :)

I know, it’s really disappointing.

Also, the Circle of Khanna behind us, especially Ben and Corey (and especially if you chose to ban Merula from the Circle a couple of chapters ago):

No, really, it’s just… so pathetic, considering that the vast majority of the Circle never cared about Merula and Merula never cared about them.

I… I’m…

HOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS SO BAD??

Also, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS FIRE?!?!?! How anyone at JC looked at this and was like: “Yeah, that’s good enough”?! I swear we had dragon fire animations before better than this abomination…

Ok, but Ben’s utter disappointment in this scene is the only good thing in this damn chapter. I can even say I actually enjoyed it.

I mean… Yeah, there were 17 of you and 7 of them, so… By the way, I talked more more about the fighting alone in this post.

Ok, but does anyone remember that R is supposed to be an international organisation? Was it simply retconned or are we supposed to believe that an international organisation has like… 14 members? Am I counting it correctly? Perry, 7 idiots he brought with him, Verucca, Merula, Shiratori, Burke, Zenith Xeep, and Rakepick. Right?

I don’t know how it’s possible, but this whole situation gets more and more pathetic the more I think about it.

Also, I mentioned in the post linked above that I felt more threatened by Mrs Norris in Y1. But you know what else had more tension than this damn “battle”? Our very first trip to Knockturn Alley. Remember this?

Now, let’s compare those situations.

Honestly, it’s just so upsetting that this game used to be created by people who actually could create tension for one simple event that doesn’t even matter that much in the great picture, and now we’re getting… THIS. The final “battle” with R had literally no stakes. There was no logic and therefore also no threats. I felt absolutely nothing, and I’m truly baffled remembering how many emotions this story could give me back in Y5.

Unfortunately, it all changed with the extremely stupid end of Y5, and it was getting only worse ever since. It’s like JC’s greatest ambition is making things worse than Y5Ch31 was.

But let’s move on because I’m not done.

MC’s reaction is about as emotional as I felt during this whole chapter. It’s just hilarious, sorry not sorry.

Ok, so at first, I wanted to leave this part because JC clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing anymore. But you know what? I’m gonna rant. Because no, Rowan’s sacrifice was not honoured. And quite frankly, you keep desecrating it by still using it at this point.

Learning the truth was something very important for Rowan. I mean, this is our conversation from the end of Y1:

By the end of Y7, I’m pretty sure we didn’t solve a single mystery of the story. And what’s the worst is that we didn’t solve the mystery of Rowan’s death. Sure, Peregrine told us that Rakepick went rogue or whatever. But it still makes no fucking sense.

First of all, only an idiot would believe in anything Peregrine says. But more importantly, we actually know about things suggesting that Peregrine lies. In the insane route, Rakepick in Azkaban is absolutely terrified of R, so how she’d go rogue if that’s the case? On top of that, we saw in Olivia’s memories that Rakepick talked with someone from R about Duncan brewing his potion. Yet, Peregrine claimed that R didn’t get involved with the Cursed Vaults until Jacob went missing. You know what it means? It means that Perry fucking lied. And if he lied about something this important, why should we believe him about anything else?

Moreover, we still don’t know why Rowan died. Rakepick told us in Azkaban that it wasn’t Rowan who was supposed to die that night. Then who? Ben? Why? Sure, Rakepick herself claimed in the Forest that she wanted to kill MC. And sure, you can say it makes sense if she saw MC as her competition – except it makes no sense! Why? Because it only made things harder for her. And the game even addressed that!

Why would Rakepick make things so much harder for herself just to get rid of her competition? Especially since she should’ve known where the Sunken Vault is because we know that R was there before (thanks to the note from the Weird Sisters TLSQ). But even if she didn’t know… it still would be more reasonable to not draw attention to herself and simply use it to work on getting to the Vault before MC.

You didn’t honour Rowan’s sacrifice. You ignored about 95% of things that ever happened in the game.

[pippin-pippout]

So I dragged myself kicking and screaming and, yes, mostly in denial, through the last episodes of A Journey to Love.

My thoughts can be summarized as follows:

Obviously this is mainly due to me being horrifically traumatized by Yuan Lu’s death. After all, they told us from the get go he wouldn’t live to 20. They made it clear he had a deadly heart disease. And then. They had the nerve. They had the audacity. They had the actual fucking bahoonga BALLS to follow through!?

But then I found myself sobbing at literally every good guy death scene, plus all of the mourning scenes. The latter was in large part thanks to Alen Fang's acting - deepest apologies to him for just referring to his character as 'the slutty one' for the majority of the show. Not that I was wrong. Also thanks to strong performances from He Lan Dou for Yuan Lu's death.

Anyway so I need to add this gif x4 for the Liudao Hall babies:

Qian Zhao, da ge, who made mistakes but always did right in the end

Sun Lang, who just wanted to hold something fluffy at the end, dying a hero

Yuan Lu, who died in his princess's arms after running to deliver a letter rendered useless by the Emperor of An's greed.

Yu Shisan, who lived as he lived and had such a happy moment with Chu Yue right before it all became irrevocable.

When they added Yu Shisan to the snowball fight, I just about lost it. Liu Yuning's acting there - having the realization about Shisan's death as he watched them play in real time was so well done. Really hurt.

Plus I'll make a couple of versions with edits.

For the Wu Emperor. I knew it was gonna happen from the spoilers but damn, him genuinely learning the value of friendship and brotherly love made me root for him. Dude did not deserve to go out like that. Thank goodness for the magic of CDramas where he lived just long enough to pass on his will to Ning Yuanzhou, and do one last act of good.

It also ensured Duke of Chu was able to pass on his command to his daughter, Chu Yue, before dying of the same (was not clear if her bro died or not, or if dad was always going to choose her).

And for Deng Hui. Started out thinking he was just a sexist bastard. Turns out he was one of the most principled characters in the show.

Their deaths didn't make me cry, but I respect them.

Also loved Chen Du Ling's (Empress of Wu) small part in this. I may not like all of her characters but she can deliver a scene and hold a room. It was a bit cathartic to see her put every man in their place, and basically decide the fate of two countries, even though her lament that she'd only ever have power through another held true.

Ah Ying, my baby girl. This is a character that could have turned people off from the beginning. Thanks to strong writing and stronger acting, it did not. I was super impressed with He Lan Dou. She can dial it up and dial it down in a single take, and can play big dramatic scenes with a subtlety that some older actors cannot grasp. This was the first thing I've seen her in, though for her and Chen You Wei (Yuan Lu) I might watch Tiger and Crane if someone tells me it's good.

I still think Li Tongguang is a perverted and creepy child, who never managed to learn (except in literally the last ep), but at least I trust that he will treat Ah Ying well. I don't hold it against him for screwing up the battle - he was trying to be benevolent but made a bad choice.

The main couple win it for me this year. What an inspired pairing. They beat out heavy hitters including Bai Lu x Everyone which was near impossible. Something to do with letting Liu Shi Shi use Liu Yuning's height against him at every possible moment. Also the 'if you die, I'll finish the job and then follow you' is my favorite dynamic. I swear when Ruyi threw those bombs, NOT NEEDING TO HAVING ALREADY SUCCEEDED AT KILLING THE KING AND PRINCE, just to join him, y'all I died. Good for whoever posthumously gave her the Marquis title on her own (not just furen) - couldn't tell if it was Li Tongguang acting as regent or Dayang (great shot of those two at the end).

The final episode was one of the best final cdrama episodes I've seen. I might have to make another post about that. In sum, despite losing a large portion of the well-loved cast, the remainder gave a world-class finale. The visuals were incredible (explosions are my favorite). The final scene was beautiful (though I'm a bit surprised they gave it to Chu Yue instead of Ah Ying who knew all 6 of them closely).

[katyspersonal]

Sort of continuation of a previous post about SOTE stuff from today gnghvb

1) I really liked it when I've spotted an owl with horns in Abyssal Forest :^)

Horned animals in Shadows Realm drop the horns explaining how here Crucible is stronger and that's why some animals here grow horns even if that doesn't fit their species!

2) Like I said, I asked @jarognieva 's help to defeat Midra and then accidentally defeated him myself while she just needed like 3 minutes to help me 🤡 So instead, I asked her help to defeat that awful Knight in the purple flowers place that from my knowledge was keeping me from finally meeting Trina! But she kept being summoned by random people (🤡🤡🤡) so I FINALLY helped to solve the problem by recommending a set shared password for summons XD Thank you @fantomette22 for this idea, it is always helpful

3) Jara also shared with me that this knight was weak to Holy! I still needed a rebirth after having to change my built for Midra earlier, so I decided to make it Faith instead of Intelligence! I swear every other DLC boss has me figure out how to cleverly change my character.

So I forgot to screenshot our epic encounter (🤡🤡🤡) gghyhgj And we went straight to get our asses kicked XD She also gave me useful advice on eating turtle necks for stamina (that I legit always forget to do) and to alter my Cracked Tear mix! It helped! Then she asked to not attack until she joins (that was with a delay due to arena specifics)... and that ALSO helped! Then she reminded me to use anti-frost items. And she was RIGHT about Holy damage hitting like a tank!

4) It was really hard though, and I was about to give up and drop it again but she told me to shut up and that we got it gfhghhh Bit by bit, our attemps got better, but eventually...

YEEEEES THE BITCH DIED!! It was basically the very last moment too!!!!! I was out of EVERYTHING AAAAA

5) Honestly though, as much as I dread this boss and never want to fight him again, these items are cool:

6) Basically every single advice Jara gives is super useful, girl never underestimate yourself gfhtfhg And separate thanks for encouraging me to not give up xD

7) Like I said, Midra exhausted the culmination for today so I decided to not go meet Trina yet and instead pick remaining items I missed today! I went back to Darklight Catacombs first! Hey remember how I was surprised that it didn't have a Knight of Death, after all? Well,

It actually DID! There is a nook where you can loot the full set from a corpse!! It is on the second "floor" of this place! Remember that odd ladder you saw and strangely a rooftop down in the pit? That area has a tiny crack in the perils on the side where you go to activate the light! Here is ( x ) just the video how to get this set!

So basically, they are like this because they refused to turn on Godwyn just because he died a little and had a bit of rebranding from Electric Knights to Death Knights 😔 Really bittersweet

8) And the next item I've missed was this torch!

They are ACTUALLY committing to making a torch for every type of fire here! I bet there will be one for Messmer's fire too!

This torch became accessible after the lever to move the bookshelf was pulled, as now you can jump ON that bookshelf and access the platform above!

9) It is also actually picked from a distinct corpse of Nanaya herself!!

Someone also placed a note RIGHT on her, so I had to go offline just to take the screenshots 🙄 She has black hair, and suuuuch detailed clothes..

10) Remember the note revealing that Aging Untoucheable CAN, in fact, be touched? It is all to get this item:

And that was a ROYAL PAIN to get

Okay so like... Basically I am SO bad at Soulsborne games that the journalist who couldn't complete the Cuphead tutorial would probably laugh at me -_- That includes the fact that until this day, I honestly had NO idea how TO parry in Elden Ring! This whole time I assumed that parrying just meant attacking right after blocking! After about five minutes of back and forth screaming at @val-of-the-north over how nothing seemed to work we deduced that the shield itself needed to have 'Parry' as it's skill!

So I've learned about a gameplay mechanic crucial for close combat 2 years later after the game got released (🤡), but that wasn't all. It was very, very, VERY hard to catch the window to deflect that enemy's attack! In like 20 attempts only one was successful, but the critical hit that followed didn't KILL it! I complained to VA about it... and learned that I could actually have attacked it for a few more seconds after critical hit! So........ like other 30 attempts followed (🤡)

I basically had to muscle-memorize every single step and move, but I did it as you can see!! No reason in particular, just completionism, but I actually start to love how this DLC makes me overcome my natural weaknesses as a player! It is designed to not let anyone win with the level alone x)

11) Directly you say? :p

How many things that plague the Lands Between originally come from here? Formless Mother, those red Kindred of Rot I've seen earlier probably hint that God of Rot comes from here, now this?

____________

Okay I think the next time I'll go meet Trina and explore other paths which Shadow Keep leads to! At least half of the locations is done by now *cries knowing all my friends already beat or almost-beat the whole DLC days ago*

[itsmm4hiii]

Rematch Of Feelings - S. Baro

Synopsis: Y/n and Baro's usual soccer 1v1 rematch brings in a large crowd monthly, however this month is not what she expected. With a sick Baro on her hands she simply can't verse him. Taking him back to his house she runs into more unsuspected issues, including Baro's usual afternoon routine. Pairing: Shoei Baro X Reader Warning: N/a - slight swearing/name calling

Shoei Baro, just the thought of him made my lips curl and a grin begin to entertain itself upon my lips. The soccer ball rolled under my foot, back and forth at pace none of the looming crowd could ever do, all for this one moment they were here. A monthly habit that always falls on the first of the month. A greed between two egoist that had to be settled to see who was the usual victory, the best striker out there. We all knew I was, just gave him the crown to feed his usually big ego. 

‘He’s late.’ they shouted, 

Who wouldn’t be late with the title of “king”, I looked to the distance where the crowd had begin to loosen and draw to either side. When he stepped against the flatten grass I could feel something was up, it wasn’t in myself rather him. His whole aura was off, and affected and I questioned if I should be concerned as it didn’t feel like him rather flat and tired. His eyes drew to the floor as he made his way over till he loomed over though in actual fact it felt like I was looming over him. With one look I knew that if we would play it would be mine without hassle. 

‘Baro?’ I whispered, 

The boy’s eyes loomed with heavy bags, his face pale and he was already breaking a sweat. His eyes danced, casted by dizzy spells and I knew he was too sick to play a good game. I kicked the ball up and caught it, throwing it into my bag cursing that I wouldn’t go against him if he’s in this physically unwell for this, it only made him angry. 

‘I’ve been waiting all month to go against you and you call it off?’ An onslaught of coughs and words that obviously caused him much pain slipped his lips, 

By the time it had slipped his lips, my things were collected in one bag and hung over my shoulder in a duffle bag, arms crossed as he gripped my collar in anger. 

‘I’m not going against you when you're obviously unwell, if I go against the king then I go against him when he’s at his best, you got that?’ I questioned him in annoyance, a spiteful tone lifted from my lips.

 It wasn’t rage, just annoyance, and he was sick, and though it was weak for me to say I cared for him, there were some underlying feelings there, ones I couldn’t act on for more or less obvious reasons. The collar of my shirt scrunched within his hand, it held my weight as my feet dangled though it was for a spilt second too much energy just to pick me up. He had begun to sway in front of me and I questioned if I had to catch him. 

‘I’m fine, just a common cold. Too scared to fight me, princess?’ 

Princess wasn’t his usual nickname for me. His cheeks burnt and I questioned if it was a misslip of the tongue, where were the usual commoner or snarky side-remarks? I grumbled releasing that that there was no point in arguing such nonsense to someone who obviously wasn’t with it. I turned to the upset crowd and smiled. 

‘It’s over losers, see ya next time.’ 

‘Don’t say that shit to me princess.’ he growled, 

He was weak and I estimated he would be roughly eighty kilos with a physical physique like that. I lifted him over and he flopped over my shoulder. His stomach engulfed my shoulder, and though I would probably drop him on any normal day, him just standing there swaying over and over caused more questions than it answered.

‘Fuck Baro, couldn’t you’ve been lighter today.’ 

I knew he was passing out, in residual comfort as he began to weigh down more upon my shoulder than he originally did. He gave me his address slowly out of spite or confusion- whichever came first. He was sure tough, it wasn’t a regular common cold to take down a mammoth like him but I was sure his mother of three children would have at least some medicine to ease the sweltering temperature forming on his forebrow otherwise I'd have to buy it, and make him pay me back. 

꒪   യ   ★    🍙    。ﾟ

His body bounced as I threw him onto the doona of his made bed. He grumbled how it was now messy and began to crease yet that wasn’t the first thing on my mind. I slipped the messily tied shoes of his feet, then the socks and shin guards, the rest he could easily take off when I leave as I wanted to not see other unmentionables. I sighed and grabbed a clean training towel of his wiping the sweat away from my face before throwing it into his dirty laundry basket. I could see him begin to stagger up yet pushed him down with my hand in annoyance. 

‘Baro, you're sick, you need to rest.’ I grumbled, 

His hair had fallen out of its usual gell position, laid in strands around his face. He was agitated but both agreed and disagreed with what I had said. Still trying to get up it took most my weight to keep him down, in annoyance I bluntly questioned him, 

‘What’s you deal, You need to rest so can you just fucking res-’ 

‘Big brother we’re home!’ 

I heard the faint angelic voices from downstairs, his eyes widened as if he some sort of consciousness left. My lips parted as he was becoming more of the vein of my existence than an issue he I thought originally. I pushed him back down and fumbled with my things, throwing them to his desk as I stretched to deal with the situation. 

‘They’re my sisters.’ 

No shit sherlock. I grumbled and told him I’d distract them until the medicine at least took some effect and he could do something even if it was sit on the couch and watch whatever eye gouging show they thought was brilliant. I left his room to see two bug eyed, black haired girls standing in the hallway grinning at me as if I wasn’t some random person who had broken into their house with their unconscious brother momentarily. I smiled. 

‘Hi there I’m Y/n-’ ‘Are you big brother’s girlfriend?!’

It was the first time my cheeks have gone pink, they were warm and I looked away. It was too hard explaining my rivalry with Baro and just to add extra salt to the flesh wound of being carried away by his rival who was a girl I said yes. They giggled and questioned where he was, their innocent eyes staring upon the door with big frowns that took up most of their faces. I closed the door and gave them a soft smile, the medicine should sink in soon otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do with two children especially if they were as horrid as Baro. 

‘He’s sick, mind if I get you some afternoon tea and watch a few things till he feels a little better?’ 

They nodded and jumped in glee and as the two hours rolled passed and the girls had fallen asleep within my lap. By their looks on their faces they would be asleep for multiple hours, kindergarten must have made them pass out. I slipped up and toppled over the back of the couch knowing my presence wouldn’t be needed anytime soon. I snuck into Baro’s room, pulling up a spare blanket on to the cold body of his I couldn’t help but kiss his forehead as I collected my things and left. 

꒪   യ   ★    🍙    。ﾟ

‘I heard it didn’t go down to good for you yesterday,’ the small talker had paused looked down at his books and back up where still no eye contact between me and him was made, I was preoccupied by an incoming message from a certain someone, ‘I know you were excited about the whole thing, ya know going against the king and all. 

‘It’s fine.’ I grunted out a mutter, fingers playing around loosely with the sides of my phone as he moved away to class with urgency, 

My cheeks fluttered a peach color, my eyes snapped around to see if someone had seen me blushing before I disappeared quickly into the bathroom. The stall door closed behind me with a thud. My hands trembled around the edges and an uncomfortable feeling was looming over one that left my stomach in knots of butterflies. 

Shoei Baro (11:30am) - “Thanks donkey for yesterday. Though calling yourself my girlfriend was a low blow, guess you ought to come around soon they can’t stop speaking about you.” 

You (11:43am) - “Is it just the girls or are you just saying it about yourself because if I remember correctly I was a princess to you yesterday, dumbass.” 

I could see him typing and got nervous, though it was only Baro- nothing more nothing less. I’m sure he got a shock when I revealed his secret nickname to his now aware and conscious state and I wished I was the fly on the wall. 

Shoei Baro (11:45am) - “It’s that the pot calling the kettle black? Didn’t you kiss my forehead yesterday too if i’m not mistaken? I can tell it pissed you off that I know that- why don’t we have a rematch my place tomorrow or not if you’re too afraid.”

You (11:50am) Unfinished - “Sure you royal pain in the arse, just don’t cry when I win. Now go back to whatever work studies you got, I gotta go do actual school-” 

It laid in the box for a while, unfinished the sentence because when you minus the egos he scared me yesterday. Got my stomach in knots and myself all worked up because he was sick. I didn’t want to see him like that again. I stiffened out a sigh, my head pressed against the door rolling back and forth until I had found the words to finish my sentence to add onto the unfinished messaged to Shoei Baro that showed I actually cared.  You (11:52am) - “Sure, you royal pain in the arse, just don’t cry when I win. Just don’t ever scare me like that again, I honestly thought you were going to die, you stupid moron. - I’ll see you tomorrow for that rematch I’ll obviously win, bye for now, Baro.”

[revalentine2]

A Rocky Start! - Team Objective plays Pokemon Emerald

[Back to our next objective...]

GEODUDE!  It’s…a completely average rock pokemon.

And by that I mean it’s BEAUTIFUL!

Sadly, I have to fight my way through these gym trainers in order to have a word with the leader.  I promise it’s nothing personal, you wonderful rocks!

Miss Roxanne, can I say you’re looking gorgeous today?  I’m not here for a battle, just a few words.  If you could tell me where to find rock pokemon like the geodude your entire gym trainer entourage seems to have, I’ll be on my way and will return for a battle once I have a proper team-

Wait-NO-NOT NOW, I do NOT have the pokemon I wish to use yet-

Dang it.

I suppose I will have to prove myself to her first, then.  Go on then, Intern.

NOSEPASS…what a fascinating object!  Is it some sort of statue, come to life, or was it naturally formed in this shape…?  I must find one for myself!

Well, that got a bit dicey at times.  Just goes to show the strength of object pokemon!

One badge for my trainer card…seven more to go.  Oh, yeah, also, for some reason the trainer cards in this region only allow for seven characters, so I had to shorten my name a bit.  Pay it no mind.

Roxanne informed me that several rock pokemon can be captured on Dewford Island, south of here…how am I supposed to get to an island-huh?  

Oh this pathetic man.  Did he seriously get robbed again?

Fine.  I suppose I will help.

Hm.  I am…not sure how to feel about my first evolution being a non-object pokemon, but I suppose congratulations are in order.  Good work, Intern.

What.  Is a peeko.  Is that an object pokemon.

(it was not an object pokemon.)

Yes, sir, here is your peeko, which is just that seagull thing again.  I kicked the guys’ butt and sent him running home from this cave to nowhere.  …What kind of self-respecting cave doesn’t have a SINGLE object ‘mon in it?

…Sea?  Sir, are you perhaps…A sailor?  I may have to take your offer up at once!

...

So, update-the pathetic guy brought me to his boss, asked me to do some menial task, said something to me that I SWEAR was flirting, and then his boss gave me some OTHER menial task to give a letter to some guy named Steven Stone.  And now apparently there’s ANOTHER evil team running about!  What an absolute mess.  

…Oh well.  If the man is named Stone, he can’t be all bad.

BRENDAN LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOOOONE

Yes!  Yes sir, please take me across the ocean to the cave of our first object pokemon…I can nearly taste them on the ocean air…

I do not care what is in this tiny island town right now i am going to the cave

HERE WE GO

YES…YES!!!!!!!!!!!  JOIN ME, GEODUDE

As the first true stepping stone on our journey, her name shall be StepStone. ...She will grow legs eventually.

And deeper in this cave we find…hm.  

I’m aware this pokemon has gemstones in its body, but it’s because it EATS gemstones, and I’ve even heard in other regions it consumes a gemstone pokemon!  Scary stuff!  Either way. I’m doubtful at including it as an object ‘mon.

Maybe not now, but I’ll consider it.  What do you all think?  ...assuming anyone’s giving me the time of day…

Now Aron…this is a creature with, and I quote, a “body of steel!”  It WILL be joining us!

“Bulwark; a defensive wall!”  Welcome to the team, friend!

Hmmm…two quirky, sturdy buds.  Wonderful!

And with that…I shall take my leave for now.  Until next time, followers!  For the object pokemon, we are TEAM OBJECTIVE!

[sol-draws-sometimes]

Disc World Book Club Thoughts- Monstrous Regiment

Pages 33-62

Hey @anna-neko, and uh anyone who's still following this... haaaa remember this....

Anyways, ha! Me when I lie!!!! Look, the end of the semester started kicking full gear and then holidays but I'M BACK(what I always say, but I swear I mean it this time!) Ugh, as I keep reiterating in this series, reading hard for me, not because of the act of reading in itself, but the motivation it requires for me to stay focused long enough on a book to actually finish it. In the past I was using the the audio book for quick 5-20 minutes stints, but I was mostly doing the combo of audio+book because I want to process everything. Anyway, I made the executive decision to treat this book like a podcast which means I am missing more little details BUT it has made getting through the book easier. That sounds like the book is a slug to get through, and that's not true, I'm really enjoying this book. It's just, getting my brain to actually start reading is a hassle and a half. I've gotten through an hour of book in a week though, so that's pretty exciting!

Anyway, onto scatter book thoughts as I was having them!

YOOOOO SOMEONE'S PREGOOO

Yah you spoiled that to but I finally got that point! Also, I forgotten WHO it was but was SHUFTI

Actually we have a small problem where I just can't remember half of the casts names so ESPECIALLY their last names, but me as of 1/8/2024 has written their full names down so hopefull I'll remember now. Also I read Blouse's fanwiki cause I forgot who he was and spoiled myself a little but nothing too serious I don't think. Oopsies! Anyways, I have their names written down so no more confusion!

EYOOO STRAPPI'S A COWARD AND THEY'RE GONNA FIGHT IN THE FRONT LINES

The way I was thinking "Polly's crossdressing!" like no, she's literally just being her normal gender!!!!! We love a girl crossdressing as a guy crossdressing as a girl.

In all seriousness, I really enjoyed that whole sequnce of her beating up guys crossdressing as a girl, and the Maldict joining her and the whole Jackrum taking the as prisoners and talking to them. Just a fun section of the book I really enjoyed. I love Polly and Maladict's friendship! It's so fun, and they got great chemistry

Also, interesting how the whole thing is that men go to war cause they're strong and stuff, but the first enemies Polly fights, she does as a girl. Idk just neat!

Also I've already mentioned this, but I'm obbssed with Polly as a character, she's so interesting because she's so judgy of the others. And she's the epitome of the "I can tell crowd."(looks at her being surprised that Tonker's a girl) Obviously, she's not doing it for transphobia reasons, but it's facinating to me how her stress of getting caught and stuff leads to her being overly critical of how the other girls are trying to pass. Like, Lofti got caught for saying "sugar" but Polly caught herself not cursing either, also I think she starts making the active effort to curse more after that. Just interesting how she adds on her act of being a guy with everyone else's mistakes.

American moment: Me learning bugger is vulgar?????

YOO THEY'RE REVALING THEMSELVES!!! I thought Maladict was included in that, but I guess not cause she was interrupted.

Also I think???? Jackrum is openinly showing he knows???(lets be real he knows they're girls). He refered to them as ladies but then used he/him for Polly, so I'm kinda confused on that front, but I'll just wait for a scene will clarify that for me

Also learning they’re reasons for joing are all pretty interesting!

Anyways this quote was cool (quote bellow)

It was for the other one, the little lesson that life sometimes rams home with a stick: you are not the only one watching the world, other people are also people, while you watch them they watch you, and they think about you while you think about them. The world isn't just about you.

OH DEATH MENTION!!!! This is a war book so he'll probably appear in this book. Obviously I don't want any of the characters to die, but I've heard GREAT things about Death, so I'm excited to meet him!(hopefully is a near-death moment and not a real death moment, but lets face it, someone's gonna have to die)

They're cutting to Vimes and stuff, and they're defineitly some "wink wink" "nudge nudge" moements that I'm missing, not to say that I'm not understanding anything, but I can just tell I'm in the know, you know. That being said, the sections with Vimes are pretty intresting and Angua seems pretty cool.

Also idk why but "bitch" caught me off gaurd??? Apparently they've been cursing and shit thorughout the book but bitch is the first curse word that actually means something to me. I'm sure they've said some other curse words that I recognize but I stopped reading the books for a couple a months. Also I have the mouth of a sailor, so it's not like a care, I guess I'm just confused that it surprised me. Also, Polly herself said she doesn't curse much so that probably means that the curse was light in the book since it's in her POV(also, curse words like "damn, bastard, etc. mean nothing to me")

Also I don't know how elaborate on this besides, "Wow, this is totally not a commentary on how British people view Christianity and the royal family!"

[insert pic]

Yah yah, jokes aside, I grew up agnostic and in the US, so not much to say beside monarchy bad(hot take am I right) Tho, tbh even the obvious connection is the royal family, man sometimes to does seems like certain groups worship politicians on a religious level. Also, there is smoothing to be said about a lot of manipulation tactics of authoritarian governments is the whole 'make them have problems' and then say, "I am the solutions to all your problems." And so with all the abominations being things that are so bad that it leads to the citizens not being able to eat well, it makes it easier to get the population to manipulate say that "X" is the bad guy.

Interesting seeing Polly have disphoria. I don't know if that's the terminology they would've used when the book came out, but Polly being like "damn, do I really that convincing as a boy" and feeling akward that everyone was 100% sure she was a guy. Like that is the goal, cause she's trying to be undercover, but also it's weird knowing people percive you the wrong gender, you know.

Also side note but I recently watched Blue Eyed Samurai, so spoilers for the first ep, but Mizu is also an undercover girl, and it's like damn, it like, in alot of these stories, these women are able to pass as guys cause they're natrual frame helps them alot in that regard. Like I have pretty boxy frame, so maybe when I was younger I could've passed as a guy if I tried, but me now, that would be way harder cause of my chest. And idk like, man it'd be cool if I could try to pass as another gender pretty easily you know?? I'd just have to work on my voice cause it's super high. Tho, I have been gendered as a guy cause of my hair + buttondown combo, so who knows, maybe I could. Anyway, back to the story

Not me reading a really dark scene of Polly and Maladict finding bruttally murdered bodies and laughing at the, "they would not grow older" line. SOLL GET IT TOGETHER!!! Anyway, despite what that sentence may imply, that whole scene was like, wow that's dark. Like the scene in Mulan right after girl worth fighting for.

Watching Polly gasp for air was like AAAAAAAH

Also Maladict having to contain herself cause of the blood, just an intresting scene!

I'm surprised Polly was saying " I thought we were the good guys" cause she seemed to have pretty good media literacy(for being a Boragravian) like, she was mention how the newspapers would proabbly not be trustworthy(cause she only knows her current governement), and she knew that the whole "Boragravia is winning" stance that everyone was saying is wrong. Also way back earlier in the book she talks about there always being a war, but I guess she wasn't being satrical??? (here's the quote)

There was always a war. Usually they were border disputes, the national equivalent of complaining that the neighbor was letting their hedge grow too long. Sometimes they were bigger. Borogravia was a peace-loving country in the midst of treacherous, devious, warlike enemies. They had to be treacherous, devious, and warlike, otherwise we wouldn't be fighting them, eh? There was always a war.

Guess Polly wasn't immune to propaganda (insert Garfield pic). I guess it makes sense tho, cause it's hard to process that your homecountry does horrible shit.

Also intresting how Jackrum dismissed it, like, I guess I thought he'd be more in the know that the government aint the best. Idk, he's pretty intresting, cause Idk his full stance on things. He telling Blouse that the news is coming from the enemy, but like, it's hard to deny that Boragravia's doing well. Guess that now that he's fully encharge we get to see him more than him just him being a nice relif from Strappi. Anyway, WOW Jackrum is a nuanced charcter???!!! Sarcasm aside, I think I need to read a bit more get my full thoughts on him.

Also something something, they're getting deprogrammed(for example, shufti and wazzer realizing they're losing) through experiencing war.

Anyway TONESHIFT Polly trying not to kill Blouse while shaving him is hilarious

K where I left off!!! Strappi(or so Polly thinks, and I'm inclined to believe her) has stolen a bunch of shit from the girls, so shit's about to go down. Poor Maladict doesn't have her cofee, and POLLY'S HAIR IS MISSING.AAAAAAH! Tbh, I thought her letter from Paul would be missing, so at least she still has that.

It's like 2:00 rn, so I'm pretty tired but I'm pretty hooked on the book rn, and maybe this semester I'll read more! Well, Feburary's gonna be busy cause I'll be auditioning to schools, but I'll try to make space to read. Also apperantly the hoopla has sections they've marked as chapters???? Tbh, it's proably whenever the audiobook plays the little military music. Anyways, I think another issue with the discworld books is that Terry Prachett doesn't do chapters, so I don't have that dopamine hit of "chapter completed!" But yah, maybe I'll try to keep track of the "chapters," to see if that motivates me more. Anyway, uh, I'll proabbly quee this for like 3:00 cause it's 8:00 in England and the book series is more popular over there. Okay, think that's it I'll talk next week.

Ps: idk how I indedent in the bullets, did it by accident on laptop and then copypasted it, I don’t know how I did that

First | <-Previous | Next->

[bagsybaggins]

Chapter 1: The Disappearance

I open my eyes, staring out the window as I wait for the bell to ring. It was the most boring class of the day, Math. But I still had my good grades to keep Mom happy, even though Dustin always got better grades than me.

Not that I cared about that.

Sure Mom cared about the good grades the 'reputation' of being a good kid and all that shmuck. But I am not exactly a good kid. Not that anyone knows of what I've done. Not even my little brother who is 4 years younger than me, and I tell practically everything.

But Hopper does, and some of the other police officers do. 

But Hopper has 'taken care of it'. I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, but I trust him. After all, he was my dad's best friend. At least he was until my dad died. And after that happened, I wasn't exactly okay. I'll admit, I acted out. Didn't deal with the whole grieving thing properly. Got into picking locks and stealing occasionally.

But I stopped doing that, a while ago actually! I swear.

"Dare! Have you seen my supercomm?" I hear my little brother yell from his room.

I snicker as I toss his walkie under my bed, making sure that I had turned it off.

"Haven't seen it Dusty! Maybe ask Mom for a new one!" I smile as I hear him cursing under his breath, turning into my room's doorway.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for school too?" He asks as he notices me laying on my bed, with a book in my hand.

I roll my eyes, kicking my feet over the side while closing the book. "I've been waiting for you, you dork."

He rolls his eyes. "I needed to find my super-"

"Mom will get you another one Dusty, don't worry about it. Hell, I'll get you one if you just move your butt so we can go." I say as I walk towards him, slowly pushing him out of my room.

He sighs and nods his head, turning into his room. 

"I'll be waiting!"

"Are you going to be at the campaign Sunday?" I hear him ask as I swing my bag over my shoulder, heading towards the door.

I click my tongue as I swing the front door open, hearing his footsteps rushing after me. "Well I have a dinner date with myself at 6:30, and a midnight slumber party including me myself and I. But I think I can rearrange the dinner for another day." I grin as I look at him over my shoulder, noticing his false glare directed at me.

"Ah, you know I wouldn't miss this one for the world Dusty. We've been planning this for what, months? I'll be there, and I'll even order pizza!" I throw my arm over his shoulders and rub my knuckles into his head, knocking off his hat.

He laughs as he shoves my hands away, giving me a nudge with his elbow. "Well good, we'll need you to help us win the fight. Do you think Mike-"

He rambles on but I glance down the street, noticing the familiar car that I had seen many times before.

"Hey Dusty, why don't you start peddling to school before you're late. I'll catch up." I say as I push my bike off the lawn, towards Hopper's car. I hear him mutter an okay, but I can feel his eyes on me as I hop on my bike.

"I haven't committed any crimes Hop, I swear," I state loudly as I press on my break, slowing down as he steps out of the car.

He chuckles down at me, shaking his head. "I would hope so Kid. But I'm here to give you something, for staying clean for so long. Or something like that."

He reached into his car, pulling out a hat. It was dark army green, and it had some pins in it. One flag pin on the right side, with a small bronze star next to it. 

"It was mine, but your dad added that to it." He said as he pointed to the other side of the hat.

I turned it and stared at the words that seemed to be embroidered on the left side of the hat. Stretching from the front to back.

"I didn't know Dad could sew," I mutter, and Hopper laughs softly.

"Was full of surprises."

I run my thumb over the wording, feeling the bumps and the smoothness of the string.

'All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.'

I scoff a laugh as I realize where they were from. "Of course, he put a quote from his favorite Disney film."

"And he put it on my cap, not his. Thought you would want to wear it since he lost his original one." 

I nod my head with a smile, turning to look up at him. "Thanks, Hop."

He pats my shoulder. "Not a problem Kid. Promised your old man I'd look after you, and Dustin. Though he never warned me of how much trouble you'd get into."

Grinning widely, I place the cap on my head, moving my light brown hair behind my ears. "He was good at keeping secrets, but I think he just thought you knew. Besides, my first word was ‘dare’, remember?"

He shakes his head with a snort, "I remember, he wouldn’t shut up about it either. You're just like him Kid. Stalling to try and get out of school."

Pushing on the bike peddle, I smile as I start rolling down the hill. "I'm not stalling! And I won't be late for school! Later Hop!"

"Later Kid!" I hear him yell as I turn the corner, sighing as I see four kids waiting for me on their bikes.

"I thought I told you to go ahead!" I glare at Dustin as I slowly pass them.

"What was that about?" Dustin asked, dodging what I had said.

"He was telling me to keep out of trouble. Said he didn't want to arrest me again for picking another lock at the little corner store. That and he wanted to give me this hat." I explain as Will speeds up and looks at me in shock.

"You've been arrested?" 

"Yeah-" "No you haven't!" Dustin yells, and I roll my eyes.

"But why'd he give you a hat? It's kinda a weird thing to do." Mike says as he moves to my other side.

"It was something that Dad had for a bit. He thought I would like it." We turn the corner, and I can hear Dustin's bike move up next to mine.

"Why do you get something of Dad's?" He asks, causing me to scoff.

"Look Dork, I said it was something dad had for a bit. It's Hopper's old army hat, I think. But Dad stitched it a Peter Pan quote and so Hop gave it to me." I look over at him and give him a look. "And you have multiple things of Dad's. But you lose them! So I keep them safe until you stop losing your junk." 

He frowns, opening his mouth to say something before Lucas interrupts. "She's not wrong. You already lost your Supercomm this morning."

Dustin sighs and nods. "Fine, alright. But why does Hop come to visit you? You still haven't told me that!"

"What do you mean I haven't told you? You know why he does."

Dustin gives me a look and shakes his head. "No, you haven't. Every time I ask, you just say it's because he was friends with Dad."

I groan as School comes into view, a bubbling feeling of math equations sends my stomach into knots.

"He is- was. But he promised to make sure we didn't into trouble. That and it was to help Mom take a load off so she could watch you more. I just got into trouble."

And before Dustin could say anything else, I push on towards the High School, dodging people and cars. 

"BYE, BOYS! SEE YOU LATER!" I yell as I wave to them.

"BYE DARE!" "YOU NEED TO TELL ME ONE DAY!" 

I laugh at Dustin's voice, rolling my eyes as I press on my breaks, slowing down at the bike stand. I hop off, inhaling deeply as I feel a slight burning in my chest tighten up. I hold my breath, leaning against my bike as I try to shift the feeling away. After ten seconds I exhale, the feeling lingers but it wasn't as bad anymore.

"Hey, Dare!" 

I turn my head, giving Nancy a thin smile as the urge to cough erupts from my lungs. And she notices it, like always. As she sends me a look, I sigh and let myself have a small mild coughing fit.

"You need to stop doing that. It's not good for you." Nancy says as she pats my back. 

I shake my head as I slowly stop coughing, my throat hurting from it. I give her a smirk as I grab my bag from the front of my bike. "I was told to do that, by a doctor Nanc. It's supposed to help me grow out of having asthma. Or something."

"Well." She looks at me before she adjusts her books. "I think that's a lie."

I laugh as Barb comes out of her car, a smile on her face. "What's a lie?" 

"Nance says my doctor's tips for getting rid of Asthma are fake," I explain as we walk into the hell pit called school.

No, I don't like school. But hey, It's that or child labor.

"I mean, sometimes doctors can be wrong about things," Barb says as I dodge another basketball player, who doesn't know how to walk.

"Yeah, but they should know what helps or not, right? I mean, they studied it for how long to get a doctorate?" I ask as I stop at my locker, which was next to Nancy's thankfully. Can't stand my other locker neighbor though.

"Look, I'm not saying he's lying. I'm just saying that it doesn't help to not breathe. Or to hold back a cough. Where is your inhaler?" Nancy asks as she leans back to look past my locker door.

"It's in my bag, and the nurse has my other one just in case. But I've been fine so far without it Nance, Stop worrying. If it gets bad I'll use it. But, now that I think about it," I pause as I take out my inhaler and shake it. "I don't remember when I last had an asthma attack."

"It was last week, on Monday. You laughed too hard after you saw one of the cheerleaders slip on milk and flipped her skirt, and her entire lunch onto herself. Which I think was sloppy joe day." Barb recites from memory, squinter her eyes as she recalls the incident.

I snort, laughing as I remember it. And like before, I feel my chest tighten and I feel my breath shortening. I hastily cough as I shake my inhaler, Nancy, and Barb rubs my back as I inhale deeply with my inhaler. 

"Thanks." I croak, coughing once more. "I needed that laugh."

Nancy sighed heavily while Barb nodded, understanding what I had meant.

"Yeah well, don't leave your inhaler in your bag. I want you to carry it with you at least." Nancy says as she closes her locker, holding her first and second classes books. As she turns to me, I close my locker and I see her looking at my hat. "Where did you get that?"

I smile as I flick the front up a little. "A friend of my dad's gave it to me, said my dad had it," I explain, before waving off their questioning looks. "It's a long story, but it's mine now. that's all that matters."

Barb nods her head quickly. "Alright, well I think it suits you. But I think we should head to class before we're late."

Nancy nods her head and I pat her shoulder as I walk around her. "Don't worry Nance! I won't have another attack so soon. It's uncommon-"

I later did have another attack in my first class. Someone had sprayed too much bad cologne and I ended up having to leave the room for a few minutes.

---

"What did I tell you, I knew-"

I sit my lunch down and wave my hands around. "I'm sorry Nancy! You were right! But I wouldn't have had another attack if SOMEONE DIDN'T HAVE THAT CRAPPY COLOGNE THAT CAUSED ME TO HAVE A COUGHING FIT!" I yell as I slowly look over at the basketball team. 

The one who had the bad cologne ducked his head down in embarrassment because he had to use the showers to wash it off. The teacher had almost given him detention but I said it was fine.

Nancy puts he hand on my arm, causing me to stop and look at her. She gives me a look, one that tells me to stop. Like, a mom glare. 

"Well, I'm glad you're okay. Are you going to need a refill sometime soon? I'm sure Mom might have some at our house when you left it there."

I sigh with a smile, shaking my head while reaching into my jacket pocket. I bring out my inhaler and shake it. "No, I should be good for the rest of the night. Besides I can just sneak in and take my other inhaler from the nurse's office if I need to."

I see Nancy and Barb look at me, and I pause as I realize what I had said. 

"Guy's I was joking! I wouldn't break into the school for that! I have some more at home. I'll be okay!" I exclaim as I sit down next to them, shoving my inhaler back in my pocket.

'I wouldn't break into school again.' I silently repeat in my head as I open my milk.

Nancy and Barb shake their heads with smiles on their faces, looking down at the lunch and beginning to eat. 

"I wouldn't doubt if you did do that Dare. You've done some crazy things." Nancy says as she gives me a side glance.

I scoff and look at her. "And what are you insinuating that I've done Nance?"

She hums as she looks at Barb, who snorts in response. 

"Great, you're teaming up against me." I look down at my tray, frowning when I realize I forgot to grab a fork.

"Hey, if you ever need to run to pick up a refill, just call me. I'll come to pick you up." Barb says as points her finger at me.

I nod my head as I stand up. "Thanks, Barb. At least someone has my back."

Nancy laughs as she looks at me. "I got your back, Dare. Wait, where are you going?"

I wave my hand as I head back towards the lunch line. "I forgot my fork, I'll be right back."

"DO YOU HAVE YOUR INHALER?" She yelled, to which I glare at her from over my shoulder.

Now, you should pay attention to where you're walking. But I wasn't because I was glaring at her, so I ended up hitting one of the small brick pillars that are in the middle of the room.

"Whoa, are you okay?" I hear someone ask as I rub my nose.

I turn to my right as I hear the small sound of the music being blasted through headphones. A guy, with brown curly-haired mullet, and brown eyes. He looked at me with his brows furrowed, his hands holding his tray.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I think." I scrunch my nose as I take my hand away. "Quick question, am I bleeding?"

He blinks at me before I notice his eyes slip down slightly, and he shakes his head. "No, I think you didn't hit it hard enough." He smiles as he looks back up at my eyes. 

I sigh. "Damn, no chance of getting sent home then."

He chuckles and shakes his head. "I don't think so, but you could try again."

I laugh shaking my head. "I think I won't but thanks. Have a good lunch-" I pause leaning forward, grabbing his fork, and trying to hear the song that was playing through the headphones around his neck. "Oh is that Def Leppard? Rock of Ages right?"

He blinks as he visibly stills for a moment, I lean back tapping my fingers against the fork I had taken. 

"Uh, yeah it is. I didn't think anyone else here listened to them." He mutters a patch of pink lightly crawling up his neck. 

Shit, he's embarrassed. Didn't mean to do that, whatever I did. 

"Well, guess you were wrong. They're good, but I've only heard a few of their songs on the radio." I explain as I slowly step back.

He grins, his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. "Their album's really good! I can lend it to you if you'd like to listen to it-"

I laugh and shake my head. "Maybe some other time, but I gotta head back to my friends before they start having a panic attack. If I'm gone everything goes wrong, ya know?"

I can see his face fall, just slightly before he smiles again and nods his head. "Yeah, I'll bring the cassette another time."

I smile. "Yeah, thanks." I turn around, walking back to my table with Nancy and Barb watching me. I quickly turn around and lift the fork, twirling it around in my fingers.

"Oh and thanks for the fork!" I say as he turns back around, quickly glancing at his tray. I giggle as his mouth drops in shock as he looks back at me, and he smiles and shakes his head.

I speed walk back to my table, dodging another person holding their tray. As I sit back down, Nancy and Barb raise their brow at me.

"What?" I ask as I eat my crappy school spaghetti that barely has any sauce on it. 

"Who was that?" Barb asks.

"And what was that?" Nancy smiles with a devious look on her face.

I lean back from her as I twirl another strand of spaghetti onto the fork. "No idea what their name is, and that was me grabbing their fork instead of going back to grab a new one."

Nancy and Barb give me a look that just translates to, really?

"What?" I look at the two of them.

"What was that whole, leaning into him thing? Do you like him?" Nancy asks as her voice grows quieter as she leans closer.

I blink slowly and take another bite.

"He was playing a good song on his headphones. I leaned closer so I could hear it, it sounded familiar. And no, I don't like him, I don't even know his name. Yeesh, Nance, not everyone thinks about dating someone." I say as I give a look.

Barb looks at Nancy with a raised brow, and Nancy's eyes are blown wide.

"Wait- no, I don't think about-" Nancy tries to explain, but we cut her off by looking over at Steve Harrington's table.

He waves his hand as Nancy looks at where we had turned to, smiling at her before turning back to his friends. Nancy, in turn, blushes as she turns back around and looks down at her food. 

"Not think about dating huh?" I mutter as Nancy starts pushing her food around.

Barb snickers as she opened her book, pulling out a sheet of homework.

"Shut up." Nancy murmurs as she gives me a false glare, one that holds no bite to her 'mom' glares.

I smirk as our table falls silent, the two either invested in their food or their homework. I exhale silently, looking up from the table as I lift my milk with my left hand, still holding my fork in my right. My gaze shifts from table to table as I slowly drink my milk, and then I see him again. His headphones were on, sitting at the end of a loner's table his bag in the seat next to him. I press back a smile as I see him trying to twirl his new fork in his hand.

He slowly lifts his head, his lips mouthing whatever song had been blaring through his headphones. His eyes look away from his hands, and we meet gazes. I smirk as I lift my stolen fork, and salute him with it as subtly as possible. His lips twitch upwards and I turn away as I snicker to myself.

"Why are you laughing?" Barb asks, her gaze not leaving her homework.

I turn to her as Nancy looks over at me. I click my tongue and blurt out the first thing that popped into my head.

"I was thinking about T rex's trying to fist fight, but their arms don't even stretch that far so they just kinda lean back and slap each other's hands like this," I say as I lean back, bringing my arms close to my chest and flapping my hands around.

Barb and Nancy stare at me for a moment, before they turn to each other. Then our little trio bursts out laughing at my ridiculousness. I smile as I glance over at his spot, feeling a twinge in my gut when I see he wasn't there anymore. 

---

"No, I'm fine Mom! I didn't have any asthma attacks at school. I promise!" I say as I walk out of my room, to my panicking mother. 

"But they called and said you did! Twice!" She said as she turns to me.

I sigh and shake my head. 

'It was actually three times, but no need to correct her.'

"They lied Mom! They just want you to try and get me to be homeschooled. They don't want me to beat the highest grades or something. I was fine all day. I swear." I smile as I hug her quickly.

I see Dustin raise his brow at me from the kitchen, and I glare at him.

"Alright, Dare-bear. If you're sure. I'll be back later after bingo night is done." She kisses my cheek quickly as we part from our hug.

I shake my head. "I don't know why you play bingo Mom. You're not that old. Grandma's play Bingo, everyone knows that."

She smiles as she kisses Dustin's cheek, grabs her purse, and heads toward the door. "Don't flatter me, dear, I'm still going to take you for another visit to the doctors tomorrow."

My neck cracks as I look over at her, a feeling of panic filling me. "Sunday? I can't we-"

I feel my lungs constricting, her back still turned to me, but Dustin noticed.

"We have a campaign Sunday Mom, we can't cancel it! She can go after that!" Dustin comes to my safety as he walks to the door, skillfully moving her out so she couldn't see me.

I hold my breath, closing my eyes as I try to focus on counting. Drowning their words. When I slowly exhale, I fall into a wheezing coughing fit. My eyes water with each cough, and I feel my inhaler being shoved into my hand. I quickly inhale, the sound coming back into my ears. I slowly calm down again.

I slowly look at Dustin, nodding in thanks as the attack dissipates. 

"She still doesn't know about it?" He asks as he sits down beside me.

I shake my head. "I try to explain, but she doesn't quite get it. Fear of the hospital is normal, you'll be fine. I just try to push through it."

He nods his head and I smile. "Thanks, for the cover."

He smiles at me, and I chuckle. 

"I owe you one, ya I know," I murmur before I pull him into a hug. "But really, thanks."

"No problem, you're my sister. Plus, we can't lose our rogue right before the campaign." He says.

I laugh, shoving him away and shaking my head. 

"Whatever nerd, go get ready for bed. We're heading out early on Sunday, gotta go grab something from the store before we head over." I stand up, stifling a yawn as I look over at the clock.

"What are you grabbing?" He asks.

"Girl stuff." I look at him from the corner of my eye, smiling as he falls silent with a confused look on his face.

And then light bulb, he hastily says good night and runs to his room. I laugh silently as I walk to my room, muttering a 'night' through his door. I open my door and shut it, falling onto my bed with a slight bounce. I stare at the ceiling before clicking my tongue and turning onto my side, reaching down at the bottom of my nightstand and shuffling through my books. When I see my yearbooks from middle school, I smile, grabbing them and throwing them down next to me.

I sit up as I grab the oldest one, with little sharpie doodles on the cover and sides. I chuckle at the monkey drawing I had drawn in a bright pink sharpie. I open the cover and slowly sift through it to find a familiar face, that I had yet to put a name to. And page after page, I begin to frown in concentration looking at each face slowly.

When I turn to the M's, I finally see him. At the bottom right corner. 

"Eddie Munson huh," I mutter aloud as I look at the fourth-grade picture.

I smile as I flip through the book, smiling at pictures of Nancy and Barbra. They were all ahead of me by one year, I was one year behind despite being the same age. I had been born at the end of the year, December 28th to be exact. Of 1967. We were friends because of Dustin and Mike. I didn't have any friends because I had been sick, and so when Dustin was invited over by Mike, I tagged along. That's where I met Nancy and Barbra, and we've been friends ever since.

But, when I was supposed to be attending my first year of kindergarten, I ended up getting pneumonia. I fell into a coma for six months, missing my fifth birthday, and too much school to start first grade the next year. I mean, I could have gone to first grade with them. But my dad didn't want that, said I should get the joy of Kindergarten first.

And then halfway through kindergarten, Dad died. I was six, and Dustin was barely two.

I exhale shakily as the memories try to resurface, but I ignore them. I flip through the pages, looking at the pictures of different events that happened during that year. A Halloween costume competition. Thanksgiving lunch with little finger turkeys littering the walls. A Christmas choir concert and I couldn't help but notice the boy who stood up in the front. My memory was fuzzy from that, but I did remember someone had hit a really high note. 

And it had been him.

I giggle at the thought that that little head-shaven boy had grown a mullet. He had been good at singing from what I remember. I mean that high note, wow. 

I slowly close the book and I knock them to the ground, knowing that I would accidentally step on them tomorrow. I smiled as I turned onto my side, pulling the covers out from under me. I slowly drift to sleep, knowing that I would be his friend before this year was over.

---

I curse wildly as I bounce around on one foot, having stepped on the damn yearbooks. I huff and glare down at them, before noticing that they had fallen open.

"Oh shit, I forgot Jonathan existed," I say in awe at the bowl cut he had been sporting back in fourth grade.

"Dare! Dare, you up?" I hear Dustin yell from beyond the door.

"Yeah?" I yell back, kneeling down and closing the book. 

"Wanna get breakfast before we head out? Mom made eggs and bacon." He said before I look at the door.

"BACON?" I yell, before throwing the books back under my nightstand, and running to my door.

"Move Nerd, there's bacon." I push past him, heading to the kitchen.

I pause as I realize that there was in fact no Bacon. And Mom wasn't even in the kitchen. I slowly turn to Dustin who smiled.

"Can I request Bacon with eggs?" He asks as I glare at him.

I stare at him, not moving, and watch as he slowly loses his smile.

"Fine, but you owe me," I say quickly as I walk into the kitchen and open the cupboard. 

I hear him sigh in relief before he sits down at the table. 

"So where's mom?" I ask as I open the fridge, pulling out the eggs and bacon. 

He shrugs. "I think she went shopping. At the thingy store."

I look at him as I click my tongue, cracking an egg into the pan. "The thingy store?"

He nods. "The store where she got that, I forgot what- wait. Antique store! She's there."

I sighed heavily and shake my head. "So we'll come home to what, another weird cat statue maybe?"

He shrugs. "Or maybe she'll find another 'rare' plate. I don't think we even have a normal set."

I wince as I start scrambling the eggs. "Yeah, that's my fault. I had used them for target practice."

"What?"

I freeze before correcting the previous statement. "We had used them for target practice. Dad and I. Before and after I had Pneumonia. Which sucked, by the way, don't ever get it."

He nods his head. "I know you told me that before. I keep forgetting that Dad had taught you to shoot when you were five." He frowns.

I shrug. "Dad was paranoid for some reason, the whole PTSD thing ya know? But yeah that was weird." I hum as I think back on trying to shoot our plates. 

"I couldn't hold the gun ya know. I was too small, and it would keep flying out of my hand. it was fun, except it was really loud." I say fondly with a smile.

Dustin smiles thinly.

"Hey," I put my hand on his shoulder as he looks up at me. "You might not have had a lot of time with him, and neither did I. But we still have his pictures. And you are almost a replica of him you know. Mom might not say it, but you really do look like him. Except you got Mom's eyes and her hair. I got his eyes and hair," I pause as I frown. "But where did I get my asthma?"

Dustin chuckles and shakes his head. "I know, but I wish I had at least a memory with him before he died in the crash."

I inhale sharply before covering it with a fake hiccup, yes I have mastered the art of fake hiccupping and it's something everyone should do.

"Yeah, I wish you did too. He definitely would have helped you with that radio project that you have going on. He would have also provided the snacks. He had a major sweet tooth." I smiled.

"Really? A sweet tooth?"

I laughed and nodded my head. "Oh yeah, he carried around candy in his pockets all day. By the time the day was over, they would be gone. Anything sweet, he'd eat it. He enjoyed ring pops, suckers, candy canes, anything." I pause for a moment. "I think his favorite candy was 3 Musketeers."

Dustin's eyes lit up. "We like the same chocolate?"

I smile. "Yeah, he would only eat that type of chocolate. But candy, that was limitless. So long as it was sweet."

---

"Wait there for me Dustin, I'll be right back!" I yell as I hop off my bike, running into the music store. 

I cringe as the abundance of Elvis was on display. I walk around it, looking at the plastic labels for anything other than oldies music.

"If you're looking for Def Leppard-" I jump as I hear a voice say from the isle behind me. 

Eddie's head peeks out from above the self, a smile spread across his face. "-I'll be willing to lend you mine as I said."

"Jesus Joe Cricket, you scared the fuck out of me Eddie," I say as I wheeze lightly, my hand on my racing heart, ignoring the look he gave me. "I thought a ghost was talking to me for a second."

"An interesting selection of words, most people say Jesus H Christ you know." He said as he walked around the aisle toward me. "You know my name?"

I cross my arm, mimicking his stance, and nod my head. "Yeah, there's no one else named Eddie who hit that high note back in our fourth-grade choir class."

His smirk shifted into an embarrassed smile, pink spreading to his cheeks. "And that apparently."

I laugh and shake my head. "No, I looked you up in the yearbook. I'm terrible with names honestly. But the high note? Man, that's something you should be proud of. It was killer, no one else could have made that without some helium."

He looks at me through his hair, raising a brow. "Really?"

I nod my head rapidly, lightly hitting his shoulder. "Hell ya, it was great! I wouldn't be able to do that, so yeah it's awesome."

He smiles, nodding his head while looking down at the shelf. His fingers tap against some of the cassettes. I tap my foot to the song playing in the store, a rock song by a band I didn't recognize.

"Here, your copy of it." He said abruptly as he held out a cassette to me.

I glance down at it and notice that it was Pyromania, the Def Leppard album that he had been listening to the first time we met. I take it from it, turn it over, see the band on the back, and smile. 

"You know," I pause looking at him. "I think you would rock the long hairdo."

He stares at me for a moment before laughing, his hand drifting towards his mullet. "My hair not looking good? Is that what you're saying?"

I shake my head. "No, no-"

"So it's not good?"

I nudge his arm as he laughs loudly. "That's not what I'm saying! I just meant that it would look good on you. Not a lot of people can pull it off you know."

There's a moment of silence before he asks, "You really think so?"

Nodding my head, "Definitely. It would be wicked."

He nods his head before I see the clock above the door. My eyes widen as I realize the time. "Oh shit! I'm gonna be late, they're gonna kill me."

I put the cassette back on the shelf and turn to him with a smile. "It's been great seeing you Eds, but I got a campaign to get to." And I walk past him towards the door.

"Wait! Your cassette." He says while he held it back out to me. 

Shaking my head with a smile, I reply. "No, I think I'll borrow the one I was offered. We can talk more the next time we meet! Bye Eds!" I open the door and walk out. 

"Bye, YN."

---

"Okay! Break time!" I exclaim as I lean back in my chair, wincing at the verbal cracking in my back.

"We can't take a break yet! We're almost at the dragon keep!" Lucas said as he looked over at me.

 I stand up and cross my arms. "We are taking a five-minute break. I can hear your stomach growling like it hasn't eaten in two days. So we are grabbing the pizza and the drinks. Plus, I need a pee break and I need Nance to answer the diabolical question for Mr. Pickles's homework assignment."

"There's a teacher named Mr. Pickles?" Will asks.

I sigh. "No, I just call him that because he smells like Pickles, and so does his classroom. Now, five-minute break!" I clap my hands and usher them upstairs.

"Oh, you're coming out of the cave, how's everything going?" Mrs. Wheeler asks as she opens the fridge door.

I sigh as the boys answer, noticing how she tries to hold her smile as they talk about the campaign. 

"I got them out Mrs. Wheeler, for a short time. We need food to tame the hunger of the monsters they call stomachs." I smile.

She smiles at me, patting my shoulder. "Thank you for that dear."

"No problem, but I gotta go ask Nance something real quick," I state before moving around her and running up the stairs. "Nance! I got a question."

I open the door and walk in, falling onto her bed with a groan. She looks over at me from her desk, raising her brow.

"Is it already done?" She asks as she stands from her chair and sits next to my head. 

"No, I just demanded a break. Anyway, I was wondering." I pause as I try to think of my question again. "Oh right, Mr. Pickles gave me homework, and there's one problem I can't figure out. It's got like 50 melons and the cost of one is 5, but then the inflation is like, 2.2 or something. What do I do?"

She stares down at me before laughing. "Really? That's your question?"

I smile and shake my head before sitting up. "Nope, what up with you and Steve?"

---

"Wait, guys!" I yell as Will and Dustin start racing. "Guys, don't leave me! I have asthma!"

Muttering a curse I try to push myself to catch up with them, and I manage to catch up to Dustin as he stops at our corner.

"I want your X-Men 134!" I hear Will shout as I stop next to Dustin, wheezing.

"Shit," Dustin says, before looking at me. "Fuck, where's your inhaler!"

I flip him off, peddling forward slowly, digging into my pocket for my inhaler. I hear him apologizing but I wave him off, trying to breathe again. 

"Whatever. Do you think we beat it?" I ask as we go to our house.

He shakes his head. "No, we didn't. Will found the other dice, it was a seven. We lost."

Cursing again I crack my neck as I press on the breaks, stopping in our driveway. Dustin's breaks squeak loudly and I wince. "We should fix that."

He shrugs as we head to the door, ready to go to bed after a long campaign.

"Hey Mom, We're home!"

[Next Chapter]

[shadowonwater]

The songs mentioned:

a. Reganomics (I assume. Because this description of the song isn't accurate, so maybe there's more than one Ronald Reagan song)

b. Cabinet Man (again description not very accurate, the man turned himself into the machine on purpose, he is the machine and thus is not trapped in it)

c. Modify

d. Touch Tone Telephone

e. Amnesia Was Her Name (A guy with memory loss is in love with his doctor)

f. When He Died

g. Soft Fuzzy Man

h. Sweet Bod ("Let's eat this corpse mummified with honey, this is for health! I swear this isn't sexual in any way!")

i. Eight Wonder (inspired by the legend of Gef the Mongoose)

j. Two Trucks (having sex)

A bunch more weird songs with my own descriptions below the cut:

Ode to Crayola (a song about a guy who REALLY loves crayons. Maybe a little too much...)

Knife Fight (a pair of children challenge each other to a knife fight)

Spring Heeled Jack (a song about the urban legend of spring heeled jack, it includes many details)

The Machine (a guy builds a giant machine that does nothing, people don't understand it)

Bill Watterson (a song about stalking the creator of Calvin & Hobbes)

Ben Bernake (a weirdly homoerotic song in which a wizard is in love with a guy but also hates him. Also he needs the guys teeth to save the federal reserve)

The Satirist's Love Song ("Our relationship was meant to make fun of relationships, I don't actually love you")

Mask of My Own Face ("what if I did crimes while disguised as myself? Then nobody would think it was REALLY me!")

Aurora Borealis (Christmas love song, but also the Eldritch apocalypse)

Crypto Santa (The Santa Clause but if it was an Eldritch horror movie)

Dinosaurchestra parts 1-3 (a 3 part story about a kid using a magic eight ball to time travel and create a band with dinosaurs)

Action Movie Hero Boy (Kid wants to recreate the scene of a hero walking away from an explosion, it doesn't end well)

Lawnmower (a song about mowing lawn)

Archaeopteryx (a guy is so salty that humans can't fly that he goes back in time to kill the Archaeopteryx)

Really Cool Wig (a guy tells you about a dream where he was wearing a cool wig, but he can't for the life of him remember what the wig looked like now that he's awake and he's really upset about it)

Jaws (badly explains the plot of Jaws to you)

Goosebumps (love song that incorporates the titles of a bunch of Goosebumps books, to get the full experience watch the music video (trust me). Anyway a ghost is in love in the song)

My Trains (a guy loves model trains. He gets kicked out of the model train club. He wishes he could shrink down to ride his trains. Also he wants to get revenge on the guy who got him kicked out of the club)

Dead Sea Monkeys (a kids pet sea monkeys die and he's real upset about it)

Pumpkin Pie (Merchant makes damn good pumpkin pie. The king wants the recipe, merchant says no. Merchant gets tortured. The end)

When Robots Attack (a song about robots attacking)

Gonna Dig Up Alec Guinness (gonna use the dead body of an actor and create a tacky road-side attraction for money)

Rainwater ("Is it safe to drink the rainwater?")

Word Disassociation (word salad song, none of these words have anything to with each other and that's the point)

Smell Like a Cookie All Day (life sucks but smelling like a cookie would make it better. Something something small joys help make life good. Humans still suck, and why can't we all just get along)

Anyway this is a solid chunk of his discography but he's got plenty of other stuff. Like there are some songs that would be really hard to explain the plot of and that run more on vibes than anything else.

Anyway I focused on the albums Damn Skippy, I am become Christmas, View-Monster, Dinosaurchestra, and Nature Tapes. But there are other albums I didn't touch on.

A lot of OPs songs are from Spirit Phone so I wanted to focus on some of Neil's other work.

“ohhh i’m so tired of love songs i wish people would write more original stuff” literally listen to lemon demon. some of his song topics include

Ronald Reagan fights his evil shadow self

Guy is trapped inside an evil arcade machine that kills people

You can do what you want to your body! dye your hair! get that tattoo! pull your teeth out! stick screws in your eyes! rip your arms off!

disgraced scientist is disgraced

I forgor 💀

Guy died and a bunch of cool haunted shit happened and it was really spooky

Please date me i’m a really nice ghost i mean normal man

I’m eating a corpse and it’s soo tasty and homoerotic come join me

ohohoho i am a Creature

well you probably know what two trucks is about

[wykedstories]

The Small Town: Chapter 1: Dear Diary.

Dear Diary, 

It's me Leah again here to vent about the day and probably go on and on about this new guy that came to school today! His name is Vince Myers and, boy there's so many rumors going around about him already. I mean he's only been here a few weeks, but you know how anything new and exciting spreads like wildfire in a small boring town like ours here in Amana. Some of the rumors are pretty extreme, but all I can say is damn he is cute! In the “bad boy from out of town” kind of way anyways. It's rumored that he got permanently kicked out of his last private school for some pretty extreme fighting! 

The rumor is that he was in a gang in New York and got kicked out of school for beating up half of the football team with his group of friends. I guess his reasoning was because they were picking on a “nerdy” kid and Vince didn't like that so he wanted to show them what it felt like to get bullied. It's said that two of the football players ended up in the hospital with really serious injuries. Injuries like one of the boys got a broken rib that popped a hole in his lung, I guess it was a pretty serious situation.

 All the girls think he is so hot of course including me but, I don't blame them he is indeed “ Hot”. I don't want to seem like a stalker but I do watch him from a distance pretty heavily. He seems to be very quiet himself, he doesn't really go out of his way to talk to anyone except the teachers. He seems like a keep your head low type of guy.

 Anyways less about this cutie vince and more about my day! Today was rather boring, since class was about as lame as ever. It was just another boring lecture and worksheet as always with Ms. Anderson. Then in math class today i wanted to kill myself because we were working on the quadratic formula and I “Suck” at math. Unlike the golden girl of our school Missy Eden, I swear she was crafted from the gods of perfection! Everything about her is perfect! It feels like everyone at school is obsessed with her for one reason or another whether that be her perfect teeth, banging cheerleader body or even her super sweet demeanor. I see beneath it though she's fake like all the other “popular girls”. I don't rate nearly as well on the scale of popularity as Missy Eden but I rate myself a solid six on a good day! 

My best friend Darcy always seems to boost my confidence when I need it and I'm grateful for her! As for the night at home it was pretty good which happens sometimes but not often. I've caught myself isolating myself in my room so I don't have to be social, I already have to be social at school so I really need a break. I spend a lot of time daydreaming about the life that I want when I decide to move out of this little town I live in here in iowa. Don't get me wrong but I really want to live in a big city with all the lights and opportunities. Speaking of pretty lights and big cities, Vince is from New york city, like he literally came all the way to Iowa! Either way it's getting pretty late so I think I'm gonna go to bed and figure out how I'm gonna manipulate a situation so that I can force myself to talk to vince. 

Goodnight Diary, Leah 

[selenityshiroi]

Because of FFXVI releasing this week I wanted to purge the Switch controls out of my head and refamiliarise myself with the PS5 muscle memory (whoever decided to make the Switch controls different from every other game console is someone who cannot be trusted) so I logged onto FFXIV for the first time since November.

(Pokemon, Theatrhythm and Zelda kept me busy with the Switch since then)

So, of course, the first thing I did was spend like 12 hours crafting and gathering.

I swear I am going to max out my weaver role alongside my WHM role.

And, yes, I'm still playing WHM as my primary role. Which is terrifying because I get extremely anxious when the game forces me to play with a team of real players for dungeons. Because if I fuck up my own run then whatever. But if I fuck up someone else's run then I actually want to throw up. And messing up WHM is almost guaranteed to fuck up a run. And half the time I fuck up because controller inputs are okay but not perfect (targetting is awkward in particular). I can't even type to apologise or say 'sry I'm new' because it takes twelve years to type on PS5.

So of course the few sidequests I decided to try and clear from my journal all led to duty finder quests. Because fml.

But I did find the 'hide from suggestions' option! ...After I abandoned a few quests...

So I guess I'm actually going to tackle some MSQ again tomorrow! Because I kind of ran out of new things to weave until I unlock new materials...and I keep running out of Lightning Crystals so I would like to do something other than hitting rocks for a bit.

In other news in the game:

I finally discovered how to throw clothing into the glamour chest so I could free up some room in my armoury chest

I gathered so many resources for my mission to complete the weaver crafting log (every item up to level 40 so far) that I ran out of inventory space. Again. Including two retainers and my chocobo saddlebag. I'm such a hoarder.

My chocobo is named Zapdos. Because I had to. I love it so much and I'm glad I'm no longer alone when battling on the overworld.

Also flight changes this game so much when it comes to the sidequesting and fetch quests.

Oh yeah... I'm still on base game. Like...lvl 50 quests after the whole 'beat the empire' missions but before the next expansion kicks in.

I thought my 3 outstanding mail messages were going to be nothing important. And then they were Zidane, AC Cloud and Firion outfits. Which was neat!

Met Greg. Then got sad because it turned into Duty Finder so didn't get to fight him

Hildigarde is the biggest himbo in Final Fantasy-a title I previously assigned to Snow

I know I'm going to abandon this game again at the end of the week, but I really hope I manage to not get distracted again and at least reach the next expansion properly because right now I can't even remember where I left MSQ and what my current objectives were

And I hear such good things about the story after the base game

(Also the music...the FFXVI demo had Soken go HARD but he isn't exactly slouching innFFXIV)

[incorrect-riordanverse]

final part (tg)

did nico just get mad at will for tricking amphithemis ru joking? nico is not this soft can we bring back him being cool please

like will just outsold with that. it was a very peeta mellark if-it-werent-for-the-baby move. and nico got angry??? he really is better than me…

now theyre arguing and crying again. hehehe. more hurt/comfort for me yayyyy

wish this was written in first person. the characters just don’t feel like they have their own voice within the prose. i feel like first person pov mayyy have helped it better

small bob is literally CARRYING them dude. these two would be so dead if not for this cat

“i remember annabeth and percy saying cheesy stuff helps” “lay it on me, i’m your grilled cheese.” <- that’s terrible omg. and not in a funny haha way 😭

sorry i can’t imagine anyone hitting a high note mid fight. apollo child cringe

“i am the ghost king!” <- doing too much

LMAOOOO NOT NICO BEING NYX’S BABY DADDY AYO LAWSUIT

WHAT KIND OF PLOT TWIST IS THISSS 😭

‘you are the father’ type of moment 💀🙏

“no i can’t abandon them” <- nico seriously annoying the shit out of me. soon as disney+ bought pjo every character actually started acting like a disney character. and here yall go telling me ‘this book is for middle schoolers’ a middle schooler can understand running away from literal demons trying to attack you and this is the… like… fourth time nico’s been so soft on the things he has to fight in tartarus. like i get the meaning of redemption and healing but cmonnnn. this shit’s for pussies 😭

cocoa puffs is such a cute name to call ur demon kids stop

if these mfs dont start skedaddling

nico kissing bob had me flinch ngl 😭 were those two always so close?

will had to open his fatass mouth asking some shit like “did we do it?”

these bitches are crying every two pages and im sick of it. like i know its an emotional time but jesus 😭 every single chapter???

i take back what i said in the first reblog. bob is cool asf

the cacodemons warming up to will makes me so… aww. theyre so cute tbh.

are we ever going to actually know what the sun and the star is. like what. such a stupid metaphor if its supposed to represent will and nico LOL

THAT DREAM SEQUENCE?? with bianca and maria and hades?? jailllll (im in tears)

“i need to let you go” <- GOD IM IN TEARS

i feel like this book is so tell-y about the meaning of healing but it is for middle-schoolers so im gonna lay off it and go kick rocks

something about nico being a hugger now makes so much sense actually. bro would hug anyone real and true

why is mr d. so nice? make him mean again cmon

nico & piper bromance was something i never knew i needed until now (still random as hell though— where was reyna or hazel? why is nico opening up to characters he hadn’t known well until this book instead of the ones he alr knows?)

nico and will now married with kids lets go

such a full circle ending i love it (wish the insecurities will had at the start of the book were more developed towards the end)

conclusions: the plot was good, all the concepts were good, but repetitive minor things from the writing really irritated me ranging from the stale dialogue to the cringe humour (pop culture references should be illegal to include in books), especially humour added at the wrong times of the book. like they could have so easily been fixed and the story could be much stronger as were the emotionally compelling scenes (because nico is suchhhh a good character), but its always offset by a badly timed joke that i could never really get into it. making the characters cry is not going to make me cry. find a build up and a release and dont break it up with humour, i swear the middle schoolers reading the book will survive some darker parts. like damn. it also didnt have the magic the other pjo books had imho, maybe because it was cowritten.

either way tsats is mid, and it’s disappointing because it didnt NEED to be mid. im going to gaslight myself into forgetting the bad parts though

finally reading tsats here are my live thoughts (spoilers, obviously):

i’m so excited because some pages are darkly decorated and its so cool. still don’t vibe with the title though (the sun IS a star and its peeving me)

why are we talking about dating darth vader 😟 where are we rn (anakin is a yes, but DARTH VADER???)

maybe i’m too old but the jokes are not funny 😭

“this whole place feels like my soul. empty and dark. dark as the pit of the underworld.” <- i don’t care if he’s joking nico would never say thissss 🙏😭 we’re only 10 pages in but please stop butchering my fav character he’s not himselffff i am cringing so bad

i know i’m being dramatic but if they do nico dirty in this book i’m going to end it all

oh my god i don’t think i’ve thought about the words “significant annoyance” in so long. bringing back good memories for sure.

i can tell which parts were written by riordan and which parts were written by oshiro. i don’t think their voices are blending very well together…

also, maybe it’s because it’s the start of the book and they’re trying to familiarise new readers quickly with the characters but it feels like they’re making nico the caricature of ‘emo and shadow and ebony darkness dementia raven way 🥀⛓️🖤’ and will the caricature of ‘happy and sunshine and blonde and flower gleam and glow ☀️🌈🫧’ and i usually like this dynamic when it’s not blatantly pointed out every other page. i have faith they’ll show more complexity than this later on though. future yan will let me know by the end.

oh ok so it is bob the titan

since when was nico’s actual name niccolo??? how did i forget this detail??

“you have to listen if not you’ll share my fate.” “ominous much?” <- ok he’s finally himself again guys it’s all good

the one-sided beef nico has with percy will never not be funny

“cookie monster appeared over the mouth of the jar, reached inside and gobbled up nico like the chocolate-chip cookie he was.” <- nevermind i’ve gone back to hating this book again

“what was one straight boy when you spent your whole life longing for the impossible?” <- i’m reminded of that time a few years back where everyone made ‘having an unrequited crush on percy’ nico’s whole fanon personality, so i’m glad they addressed this somewhat. this boy has been through so much and people really thought crushing on percy was the biggest thing to focus on about ‘nico angst.’

“we made a mistake. you have to fix it.” <- call me a red flag but if i was nico i would do anything and everything to not go. i would medicate myself so highly on sleeping pills that i can’t dream (doctor bf can go kick rocks). i would track percy and annabeth down and haul their asses into tartarus instead to do it. and if i had to go i would only go in to kill bob myself for sending me those traumatic ass nightmares. no thx. bro willingly jumped in himself and now wants me to save him. nuh uh.

not cupid being will 😭 its like his aphrodite 😭 i am not well.

they always have a really good and emotionally moving scene and they ruin it with a dumb joke. let it be heavy 👏👏

something’s really fishy and i have a feeling that it might not be bob calling for him

if this whole “grumpy ball of darkness” thing continues i will actually lose it

you can’t tell me the percabeth pep talk was actually needed. i will forgive it because i miss them though

im sensing tension in the gap between nico’s connection to the underworld and his relationship with will and i’m here for ittttt. give me the dramaaa

who is the gorgyra girl and why is she in their business sm?

oh shit a will solace pov??? christmas came early 🙏

nevermind that whole nightmare sequence was so fucked up 😭😭

somebody HELP HIM i never thought we would get will angst (nico angst fs, but will???)

DONT JUMP IN THE STYX PLEASE

SOMEBODY TELL HIM HE’S HELPFUL OMG

nico strangling epiales in his sleep is so fucking cool he’s literally HIM he’s literally THAT GUY