#I’m also waiting for the Set B box to unlock since I’ve been saving for it

[yourlocalgrass]

(Event spoilers for current event) Now that the next event stages are coming Im only waiting to see if we’re gonna see the brothers go berserk over the news that they might have to sacrifice MC or Devildom goes shambles.

If we don’t have them feral over this at least idk what I’m going to expect anymore.

However it seems as if the the beast wants his answer this moment so there’s a chance we’ll only get the characters we have now: Lucifer, Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Luke, Solomon, but all I want to see the feral ones go feral. PLEASE somehow get the rest of the brothers in this too I beg you

[absolutepokemontrash]

The Brothers and Side Characters Play the Sims

I don’t know what possessed me to make this but WHATEVER. I’ve been playing the Sims since I was a wee little girl, and I’ve seen my fair share of weird Sims stuff that I feel would fit these bozos perfectly.

My Sims have a Functional Family Life Because I Don’t (Lucifer)

God dammit Levi’s obsessed with another game... ugh.

Spends 5 minutes in Create-a-Sim and hops into a starter home.

Lucifer’s the type to start with all the average stuff and then build their stuff up as his sim gets promotions.

It’s just... so peaceful...

...he’s adopting a dog.

Look at his new little virtual family... his sim-kids are self sufficient and getting A’s in school, his Sim spouse MC or Diavolo take your pick loves his Sim-self, his sim-dog-

WAIT NO- THE DOG’S AN ELDER?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

...

He’s fine. It was just a virtual dog. *sniffle*

He’s now spending his free time drinking Demonus and playing the Sims.

What’s a mod? Levi why does your sim have gun?

Behold, My Gorgeous Home... It’s a Box (Mammon)

Mammon, like the rest of the HOL, is mooching off of Levi’s Origin account.

“AW SHIT! This house looks awesome! I’m gonna build it for Sim-me to live in!”

Mammon proceeds to build a box with rooms. Yay...

He just picks the funnest sounding job if he picks any job at all for his Sim. That’s how he ended up making 9 dollars an hour in the criminal career.

Didn’t stop Mammon from buying that solid gold bathroom set from Get Famous... a box with solid gold bathrooms.

His Sim is broke send help-

“Leviiiiiii my sim needs money... the people my sim kidnapped and is forcing to paint aren’t making enough money...” “Ugh... press control shift C and type ‘motherlode’.”

...Levi made a mistake.

“FUCK YEAH! MOTHERLODE!”

His sim’s life is so chaotic, he has a piranha pool that his sim has almost died in twice, the sim is carrying on several torrid love affairs, his sim got struck by lightning, his sim has nearly died in a grilled cheese making accident twice... in the same day.

At least once Sim-Mammon and Sim-MC get married things calm down a little.

Mammon finds out what custom content is and proceeds to download EVERYTHING HE CAN FIND.

And now he’s asking Levi why his computer is running so slow.

Expansion Pack King (Leviathan)

He got into it back when the Sims 2 was new, he’s a veteran fan.

“Bro remember when Agnes Crumplebottom would show up and whack the shit out of your sims if they were flirting?”

“Remember when that witch would show up randomly on the lot you were on if you had Makin’ Magic?”

“Remember when Bella Goth was abducted by aliens and we just... didn’t question it?”

He whines about the Sims4 and how crappy it is but still buys every expansion pack, game pack, and stuff pack.

This boy watches like 40 hours of built tutorials and ends up sobbing over his weird roofs.

“WHY DOESN’T IT LOOK AS NICE AS THE ONE I’M LOOKING AT?! THIS ISN’T FAIR!”

The mod folder is so full istg-

Levi gets custom content for the sole purpose of making his favourite fictional characters.

This is why Henry and the Lord of Shadows are married and Ruri-chan and Sim-Levi are roommates.

Oh my god they were roommates-

Levi also added his brothers to the world and uh... Sim-Mammon died in a tragic pool accident F.

Levi then proceeded to befriend the Grim Reaper.

He’s anxiously awaiting the release of Paralives.

Wait Gameplay? In This Build Simulator? (Satan)

Satan’s here to build and leave. Gameplay who?

Our favourite bundle of rage is a master architect and the amount of followers on the Gallery he has shows it.

He takes up those build shell challenges and always ends up making them look positively perfect.

Asmo’s always using his houses, and Satan often takes requests when he gets bored.

No Mammon, he reserves the right to refuse to build a golden castle for you- YOUR SIM HAS 40 SIMOLEONS-

No mods, no CC, he’s building with what EA gave him.

...and EA gave him debug objects, and he’s not going to explain how to get them.

The one time he did actually play with a family... it was one sim and seven cats.

He tries to play without cheats... and ends up getting frustrated and turns on cheats.

All hail the Pets Expansion Pack.

Custom Content Soap Opera (Asmodeus)

Asmo spends 5 hours in Create a Sim then just... clicks out of the game.

That’s how it goes most of the time, buuuuuut when he gets super invested in a family he’s made, boy howdy is he INVESTED.

Sim A is carrying on an affair with Sim C who’s in love with Sim B who’s married to Sim A but Sim D wants to kill Sim A and C even though they’re the illegitimate child of Sim C-

When Asmo realizes that in the Sims 4 he needs to manufacture all the drama himself and he can’t just sit back with a glass of wine and watch the fireworks, he switches to the Sims 2 and 3.

“...why is this old lady beating up my Sim..?”

He immediately recoils in horror upon seeing how ugly the Sims are pre Sims4.

HE NEEDS TO FIX THIS-

Ah, there we go, perfect. Custom Content to the rescue!

He ends up remaking the entire world just so he doesn’t have to look at weird looking Sims.

Asmo is the only one to have finished a proper Legacy Challenge, but it gets crazy chaotic after gen 3.

“My sim just got abducted by aliens and now he’s pregnant- WHAT?!”

He has about 40 saves and only two he actually plays.

Just a Big Ol’ Happy Family (Beelzebub)

Beel found the game, proceeded to make everyone in create-a-sim to the best of his abilities, and made everyone get along.

That’s why Sim-Lucifer and Sim-Belphie are on a swing set together, they’re friends :D

“Hey Luke do you think you can make this?” “I-is that a cake shaped like a hamburger?” “Yes. Please make.”

He took one look at the cooking options and decided to max out his Sim’s cooking skill to unlock all the options.

Beel proceeded to drool all over his keyboard. Gross...

Boy howdy did he have some crazy dinner suggestions!

Overall, very wholesome Sim-life, except for the time Sim-Levi died because the toilet caught fire, don’t worry, Sim-Beel knows how to make ambrosia.

All is good in the Sim save...

...until Sim-Beel ate pufferfish nigiri and fuckin died-

Wait Did I Not Pause- (Belphie)

Huh, this game looks fine... I’ll play for a little- *SNORE*

Belphie makes some sims, plops them into a starter home, plays for an hour, then falls asleep.

He wakes up five hours later to absolute carnage.

Three sims have died because someone decided to make Mac and Cheese and the oven caught fire, the kids were taken away by social services, and the dog ran away.

“...heheh, holy shit everyone look.”

He doesn’t play often, but when he does, death occurs. He has found out every death method for every game from Sims 2 to 4.

And that INCLUDES the Sims Medieval! You guys remember that game?

Sometimes it’s not intentional, but Belphie got bored with the totally normal life his sims were living and decided to spice it up.

“Why are the ghosts breaking my showers..?”

Help There’s a Bug- (Diavolo)

The Crown Prince started playing when he noticed Lucifer was playing it.

He was immediately obsessed.

Dia mostly plays the Sims Medieval because he likes the feeling of achievement after completing a quest!

“Barbatos... why isn’t my Sim completing their task? The icon won’t show up.” “My lord it appears the game is bugged.” “:(“

No one thought to tell Diavolo that EA doesn’t plan on offering bug support to a game made in like... 2009

This doesn’t matter! Look at how great his kingdom is doing- oh no his hero has the plague-

He plays through the Pirates and Nobles expansion and manages to get the peaceful ending, he’s so proud of himself.

“MC! Look! My Monarch’s sword is permanently on fire and I’m fighting an evil wizard!”

When he does play the other Sims games he’s pretty basic, though, he does a great job at furnishing!

Dia gets crazy sad when his Sims die... he turns off aging.

Builder no. 2 (Barbatos)

Barbie doesn’t have time for this... but when he does, he builds.

No create a sim.

No playing the game as intended.

Just builds.

It’s relaxing, okay? A nice little suburban house he’s never going to play in, maybe a treehouse, maybe a big Hollywood Mansion...

The only time he actually plays the game outside of build mode is when someone needs his help to fix something in-game.

He does download custom content build items if he feels bored by the current selection.

Oh Crap What Am I Doing?! (Simeon)

Help him. Please.

He’s so confused.

“Luke, why is my sim upset?” “He’s hungry, Simeon.” “Oh, how do I fix that?” “...Simeon-”

There’s a toilet in the middle of the living room.

The fridge is facing the wall.

There’s no bathtub or shower.

The house is on fire- there is no god- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Okay, once he gets the hang of it he’s sitting pretty. His sims have good jobs, the kids are getting good grades, everything’s fine.

...

But Simeon won’t forget the nightmares.

What Even is This Save? (Solomon)

Solomon’s save is the definition of chaos.

One sim’s a vampire, the other is a spellcaster that really wants to fight the Callientes for some reason, there’s one normal sim that’s always sick for some reason,

It gets weird, confusing, and horrible.

Just how Solomon likes it.

His house makes no sense, like, what even is architecture?

Money cheats are needed because Solomon‘a goal of chaos and confusion is proving to be kind of expensive.

Square up Mortimer Goth, Solomon’s sims are here to steal your weird knight statue that’s worth a shit ton of simoleons for NO REASON.

He joined the scientist career for the sole purpose of getting to the alien planet and kidnapping adding an alien to the household via cheats.

The vampire ended up dying on their wedding day because Solomon forgot that he gave them the sun weakness.

Oh well, the ghost got added to the household! VAMPIRE GHOST!

The Child (Luke)

Before you say Luke’s too young to play the Sims, you should know that I was nine when I first started playing, and I turned out fiiiiiiiiiine.

He’s just happy to be playing.

Look, his sims are gardening :D

Look, two of them are getting married :D

Look, they had a baby :D

Look, his sims are building a rocket ship :D

Look, his sims’s rocket just crashed-

The concept of death hit the little angel right in the face that day.

“*sniffle*... my sims...”

Don’t worry, with tears in his eyes, Luke quit without saving and everything was fine!

Speaking of My Sims, Luke played MySims Sky Heroes and that was when Luke had his first bout of gamer rage.

MC came over to hang out with Solomon and Simeon, and in the distance they could just hear:

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY TIME WASN’T FAST ENOUGH TO CONTINUE THE STORY!? I’LL SHOW YOU FAST ENOUGH TIME!”

Okay, maybe Simeon should take the game away... just for a bit... he should take heed not to be bitten by the incredibly angry chihuahua.

Bonus:

MC: Why are our Sims married?

*Insert Boy Here*: Uh... that’s weird... I have no clue why they’re doing that...

[celestias-right-hoof-mas-au]

WARNING: Although this particular chapter does not depict violence or cursing, future installments will. As this story is based on an adult parody of MLP called The Mentally Advanced Series. I would encourage that if you had not watched it to do so to get a grasp of the world in which this takes place. Many of the jokes, lore, and otherwise are in reference to MAS, not just simply My Little Pony. I have also made a supercut that includes every reference and appearance of Celestia in the series. In case watching the entire MAS series maybe too time consuming. If you find Celestia, or other canon characters, used in crude and unpleasant depictions offensive, this is your warning. However, I would appreciate that you take a look anyway with an open mind.

Celestia Supercut Link

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  “And here’s your armor and weapons. You should be able to start working tomorrow, but take it easy when you can. Magic works wonders, but if you’re not careful you’ll black out from exhaustion.” The front desk nurse recommended sliding over Valiance her belongings.

  “I will. Thank you, ma’am. It feels great to stretch my legs after being in bed all week.” Valiance chuckled as she quickly put her body armor on, hooking her helmet and weapon onto her side.

  “I could only imagine.” the nurse smiled, “There’s a soldier waiting for you in the lobby. I’m sure it’s important, so I wish you luck.”

  Just as the nurse had instructed, a soldier in royal guard uniform awaited for Valiance at the medical bay’s entrance.

  “Valiance Ascalon?” he gruffly asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well come on, soldier. I’m here to take you to your quarters.” the soldier informed as he began leading away with Valiance in tow.

  The walk was mostly quiet, but in time, Valiance noticed the regality of her surroundings. Banners and painted glass of the sisters’ various achievements adorned the halls with very little modesty. As they continued, one photo in particular caught Valiance’s attention enough to stop in her tracks. The photo contained Celestia wearing a suit with a leather overcoat hanging from her shoulders.

   Valiance raised a brow dumbfoundedly. ‘Huh. Not the kind of attire I’d expect her to wear… but not bad at all.’ she thought to herself while gazing into the picture.

   “Come on, you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery on your days off. Don’t fall behind!” the soldier called from further down the hall.

   Snapping out of her trance, Valiance trotted back up to the soldier as they continued. Although, the scenery did spark some questions in her mind. After a moment, she finally decided to ask, “What does an acolyte do anyways?”

   “That’s just a fancy name for a personal assistant. Though, judging by your particular skills, my guess would be being a personal bodyguard and just generally following her whim.” the soldier pondered as they approached a door and unlocked it.

   Stepping into the room, Valiance softly muttered, “Wow, this is… lovely.” It was spacious with a large bed resting at its center, accompanied by a nightstand on each side. To the far left was a personal restroom along with a panoramic window with a beautiful view of Canterlot. To the right side of the bedroom rested her wardrobe and a bookshelf.

   “I’d say I’m jealous of you, but in reality I can’t.” the soldier commented while handing the keys over.

   “Why do you say that?”

   “Acolyte’s are hard to come by. The last one that worked here was before I was old enough to get a job. Let’s just say he didn’t have the heart for it.”

   Valiance was perplexed by the soldier’s warning. However, she knew that no matter the task, it would be done in Celestia’s name.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Back at the medical bay, a small pink pony with a satchel and large tight curled hair briskly made her way to the front desk. In a soft spoken voice the little mare asks the front desk clerk, “Hello, Nurse Flatline.”

  “Hello, Mentee. Can I help you with something?”

   “Um, do you know of a large pale mare who was committed here recently after the attack? She wore a purple and gold set of armor, not like the castle guards.”

  “I'm sorry to say that the patient you're looking for was released earlier today.” The clerk replied, looking the pink horse up and down.

  “Oh, well, can you tell me where she is then?”

  “No Mentee, you know I’m not at liberty to release that information.”

  Mentee groaned, “Pleeease, I really have to talk to her. She saved my life during the changeling attack, can’t you just give me a hint where she might be?”

  The clerk pony pondered momentarily, letting out a deep sigh, before firmly answering, “If I give you a hint, you didn’t get it from me, is that clear?”

  Mentee eagerly nodded with a small smile as she leaned in closer.

  “She’s a castle employee as well, if you ask around you could probably find her.” Flatline whispered.

  Mentee gasped and shouted, “Thank you so much, Flatline!” Only to be shushed and shooed away.

  After asking around, Mentee had finally made her way to Valiance’s room. Her body began to rattle as she grew ever closer to the door. Closing her eyes to compose herself, she finally mustered up the courage to knock on the door… nothing. Maybe she just hadn’t heard the knock on the door. Mentee tried again, this time louder… still nothing. She pressed her ear up against the door only to find absolutely no noise on the other side.

  “No one is in there, miss. She left for a walk.” a disapproving voice slated.

  Mentee flinched and quickly spun around to see a blue coated maid sneering at her. Rather than attempt to explain herself, Mentee panicked and bolted.

  Sweat gathered on Mentee’s brow as she came to rest in an empty corridor. Running a cloven hoof through her bangs she uttered to herself, “This is ridiculous, I just wanted to thank her for saving me.” She glanced down to the satchel dejectedly, “Maybe I can find her tomorrow once my shift is over… I need to get some air.”

  The cool evening air was a blessing that gently kissed Mentee’s face. She had made her way to the castle courtyard and basked in its soft serenity. Plopping on a nearby bench next to a batch of daffodils, she gingerly took off her satchel to lean back and relax. Their light aroma invited Mentee into picking one and absentmindedly twirling it around. Taking a light whiff, she smiled and placed the flower in her hair. Stars twinkled in the strawberry sunset while a few ponies walked the courtyard to head home.

  ‘Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.’ Mentee thought, as she scanned her surroundings. Suddenly, a glint caught her eye. When she focused, she could swear her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. Before her was her knight in shining armor, casually walking around the courtyard smelling flowers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Valiance took comfort in the beauty of the flowered and marbled plaza, having spent the entire day getting to know the castle’s layout better and what would be her new home. The giant fountain gently ran in the center, soothing all who heard it. Giant hedge sculptures, vivid red roses, and yellow daffodils were all perfectly nurtured to be a sight for even the sorest eyes.

   “E-excuse me.” a small yet eager voice called from behind. Valiance turned and was greeted by a small pink pony, with thick ringlets for hair, and spectacles. The mare shuffled slightly closer and gently continued, “Uh, h-hello. I don’t mean to disturb but… um, well, you probably don’t remember me but-”

   “Oh! You’re the mare that was almost carried off during the attack!” Valiance blurted out with a smile.

   The little unicorn blushed, surprised that Valiance had even remembered her at all, “Yes, that was me. M-my name is Mentee, Mentee Prim.”

   Valiance’s face softened further, “It's a pleasure to meet you, Mentee. My name’s Valiance Ascalon.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Valiance and Mentee were not alone, the God Princess, Celestia, too had wished to enjoy a stroll to revel over her recent success. True to her word, the Princess oversaw the remainder of the changeling hive eradicated and their maggots turned to fertilizer. With that, and the acquisition of a new acolyte, Celestia had almost considered relieving her favorite student of her friendship studies for the day. Almost.

   Voices had tickled at Celestia’s ear from the courtyard. Since the sun had set, most ponies would have gone on their way to the dining halls, barracks, or home at that point so she had a small interest to inquire the purpose of the conversation.

   It didn’t take long for Celestia to find the source of the whispers. She easily spotted her new acolyte talking to one of the castle’s library assistants, Mentee Prim. The conversation itself was harmless, with small talk abound and a few thanks sprinkled in. However, when Mentee pulled her gift out of her satchel, Celestia’s cold stare stabbed at Mentee’s glimmering eyes. Celestia scrutinized deep into Mentee’s heart, seeing through her feeble façade. This was no mere thanks, the pink mare’s soul pounded with infatuation. The way she kicked the dust and tugged at her hair all the while coyly glancing at Valiance left no doubt in the Princess’ mind; and it filled her with vile intrigue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   “I, uh, wanted to let you know how thankful I am for saving me. I really thought that I was gonna be a goner until you came along.” Mentee said, rubbing her neck. She tapped her hooves together in thought then reached for her satchel, “This isn’t much, b-but I hope you still enjoy it well enough.” Encased in periwinkle blue magic, Mentee unlatched her satchel to reveal a small pink box tied in a red laced ribbon.

   “Oh! Well thank you, Mentee. You really didn’t have to do that.” Valiance assured, gently taking the gift.

   “You know, I’ve been working at the castle for a while now. There've been plenty of acquaintances I’ve made… but no one to really call my friend. I was just wondering… if you would… maybe…” Mentee sheepishly stalled.

   Valiance chuckled heartily, “Of course we can be friends. It’d be nice to have company with someone who knows their way around here, not to mention someone so sweet.”

   Mentee’s stomach twisted into a knot, her already flushed face was now blistering red. In an act of feverish joy, Mentee sputtered, “T-t-thank y-you! Y-you too!” With nothing holding her back she sprinted away, nearly tripping over herself as she spun around a corner and out of sight.

  Perplexity gripped Valiance’s thoughts, ‘I wonder where she ran off to, I hope I didn’t say anything stupid. That would be embarrassing.’  Turning her attention to the box, Valiance pulled the ribbon and peered inside. Her benign smile graced her lips again. Inside, were cookies in the shapes of flowers, hearts, and bunnies. Each one was carefully decorated in a shiny pastel colored frosting, some were adorned with cute smiles to top it off.

  As Valiance innocently popped one in her mouth, a sudden chill ran up her spine when she felt the looming presence of some wicked soul behind her. “And what have we here?”

  Valiance twisted around to see the owner staring down at her through biting amethyst eyes. The moon’s rays illuminated the roses in the garden, bathing Celestia in the color red. Although initially shocked, relief washed over Valiance as she sighed, “Oh, Princess Celestia, it’s you. This is just a little thank you gift from a friend I saved.” Valiance passed the gift box to her majesty to see personally.

  The Princess shook the box slightly with a sneer, and with her magic, pulled out a heart shaped cookie. “How sweet.” she hummed as she jaggedly pulled the cookie in half. Without giving Valiance time to think, Celestia jammed one of the halves into her acolyte’s mouth before turning and walking away.

  Bewildered by Celestia’s actions, Valiance chewed her half and absentmindedly reached for another cookie, but was only met with air. It was then that she snapped back to her senses, realizing that Celestia had taken the entire box for herself. Conflicted, Valiance chose to keep her mouth shut. It was Celestia’s will, after all. But that doesn’t mean that I’m happy about it.’ Valiance huffed to herself, having really wanted to enjoy her gift. “Forget it.” Valiance groaned, throwing her hooves into the air, “I’m just gonna go to bed.”

[baezen]

hush | c.b

pairing: chris beck x reader word count: 4461 warnings: tooth rotting fluff,

prompt: librarian!au | college!au

summary: in which the good guy gets the girl

author’s note: repost

oneshot | masterlist

        If there was one thing she needed tonight, more than anything, was for the floor of her dorm not to host a party.  Yet, as she shoved her earbuds into her ears, she’s already packing her books and laptop into a backpack.  The earbuds do nothing to hide the fact that Ruby and her latest beau were going at it in the room next door, even with the music at a deafening volume.  The bed squeaking obnoxiously and the frame connecting with the wall.

        Y/N makes sure she’s got her key and purse before she leaves, locking the door to make sure no one goes inside.  It’s happened before and things have gone missing.  At least her roommate has finished her exams and gone home for break, which means no one will accidentally leave the door unlocked.

        Y/N nipped into the pizzeria on her walk to the library, tucking her earbuds into the pocket of her jacket as she ordered a large pepperoni.  Only needing to wait ten minutes before it was ready and she was carrying it into the library.

        You weren’t supposed to have food in the library, but the librarian on Tuesdays was more lenient than the one on Wednesdays or Fridays.  He didn’t mind if you ate, so long as you kept your area clean and didn’t use the library’s computers while you were eating.  The same went for the books.  Always keep them clean.

        The only reason she needed the library tonight was because of how quiet it was compared to her dorm currently.  She had one final exam to study for, which wasn’t for another two days, but she didn’t want to be cramming the night before.  She wanted to go to bed feeling well rested and prepared.  But knowing her, she’d be cramming, stressed she wasn’t going to pass.

        As Y/N entered the library her gaze turned towards the librarian’s desk.  He barely looked up from his astronomy textbook as she took a seat at a large group of desks.  Setting the box on the table as she unloaded her laptop and books from her bag.

        Y/N looked towards him, the librarian, as he scanned a few books for a customer.  Making small talk as he entered the card number in the system.

        He always looked so soft, wearing a slightly larger grey hoodie with a NASA symbol on the breast, his hair usually a mess from running his hands through it constantly.  Circles under his eyes making him look perpetually exhausted, which wasn’t a shock to any college kid.  Sleep was scarce around exam season.  Hell, it was scarce any season.  Y/N should know, the bags under her eyes were constant.

        The second she opened the box of pizza she’d caught the librarian’s attention.  He was in her space science class, but she’d never learnt his name.  He kept mostly to himself, except for when he dominated their professors questions, whereas almost every one else struggled.  He was effortlessly smart, and she’d admired him from afar for the longest time.  Noticing how some days he’d come to class wide awake and alert, but more often than not, he looked as exhausted as the rest of them.

        His fascination with space was incomparable to anyone Y/N had ever met.  His vast knowledge of the cosmos was intriguing.  Endearing.  It made no sense to her that she never saw him with anyone around campus, no bros, no girls.  It was always just him, with his nose buried in a new space book each time.

        Y/N typed with one hand as she ate, her eyes skimming her books for anything that she knew she needed to elaborate on with a further explanation.  Her hand grew tired of typing quickly and she sighed, wiggling her fingers and taking a break from staring at the screen of her laptop.  The bright white occasionally hurting her eyes, this time no different.

        She yawned as she shut the pizza box, unable to finish the last few slices.  Casting her gaze towards the librarian who’d gotten up from his desk and wandered towards a section of books, placing the ones from his arms back into their rightful places.

        Y/N looked at the clock hanging on the wall and groaned, it was almost eleven, which was when the library closed.  She rubbed my hands over my face to wake herself up a bit and started packing her things back into her bag.  She hadn’t thought it was that late when she’d first arrived, but clearly time had gotten away from her.  Taking one too many ‘breaks’ to admire the cute librarian as he spoke in a hushed whisper to himself.

        Scribbling out a little note on a scrap of paper before placing the half eaten pizza on his desk, the note sitting atop it.  Telling him he could’ve asked her earlier for a slice if he was as hungry as he looked, and leaving her name and number on the off chance he wanted to use it some time.

+++

        After Y/N left the library she had turned her phone off, too scared to learn whether or not he’d sent her a message at all.  She had a sudden burst in confidence, yet couldn’t even handle learning the truth; if he was interested in her or not.  No matter how hard a pill rejection is to swallow, no one wanted to learn that the person they’re interested in doesn’t share those same feelings.  It’s hard.

        At least that’s what Y/N kept telling herself.

        The day of her exam she turned her phone back on to see if he’d sent anything.  Clearing the notifications from a couple of apps, her breath catching in her throat when she realised there was a missed call from an unsaved number and a voicemail that’d been left.  She checked the voicemail first, holding her phone to my ear.

        “Uhh, hey, Y/N.  It’s Chris, uhh, the librarian you left your pizza for.  I’m just, thank you so much, honesty, I’ve been studying my ass off for finals and keep forgetting to eat.  So thank you.  You didn’t have to, but I’m glad you did.”

        Y/N smiled at the recorded message, finding Chris’ rambling adorable.  And his voice, god, his voice was like heaven.  She never wanted the rambling to stop.

        “I’m c-calling from the library’s phone because, well, long story short, I-I dropped mine in a puddle and someone d-drove over it.  And I don’t know w-why I told you that!  It’s not relevant, shit.  I’m s-sorry.  Um, I was just k-kinda hoping that m-maybe, on the off chance that you d-don’t already have plans this F-Friday, if you’d like to j-join me for dinner?  I, uhh,–” he couched to clear his throat, a nervous laugh sounded in the earpiece.  “I’ll be at t-the library all day T-Thursday if you wanna g-give m...”

        The dial tone sounded, letting her know that the message had been cut short since he’d exceeded the time limit.  But luckily he’d left another message which started off with a small nervous laugh.

        “I’m s-sorry, the last message was s-supposed to say I’ll be a-at the l-library all day Thursday if you w-want to give me a c-call or s-stop by.  I m-mean, if y-you don’t that’s...l’life, I guess.  I m-mean, I h-hope you do, b-but no p-pressure.  I – J-Jesus, you’re r-really nailing this w-whole thing, B-Beck.  Real s-smooth.  If I s-see you, I see you, a-and if I-I don’t, w-well, I’m sorry for w-wasting your t-time.  Good n-night, Y/N.  T-Thank you again for t-the pizza.”

        She saved the messages to her phone, unable to bring myself to delete them.  Spending ten minutes replying to a few texts before grabbing everything she needed and heading to her exam, a plan in her head to catch up with Chris at the library afterwards.

+++

        Y/N spent a total of two hours and thirty seven minutes in the exam, making sure she’d answered everything to the best of my ability before handing my paper in and making her trek across campus to the library.  SHe was nervous, to say the least.  Her hands sweaty as she gripped the straps of her backpack.  Blowing out a shaky breath as the building came into her line of sight.

        Campus was dead.  There were only two more days of exams and then it was Christmas/New Year break.  A few lights were strung up around the courtyard as she walked down the alley between two buildings.  The library was one of the only places still open, housing a few students sipping coffees from the shop next door as they tried their hardest to absorb any information they needed to prepare themselves for their exam.

        It was weird feeling like she’d done well in my exam.  Like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders the second she passed through those doors.  But it could have also been because she was going to see Chris at the library and confirm their date for tomorrow night.

        Y/N was excited.  Exams were over and she potentially had a date with the guy she’d been crushing on for months.  And it was Christmas in a little under a week.  Even though she wasn’t going home for the holiday there were a bunch of students in the dorms staying back and were planning their own Christmas shindig.  They had a tree put up and decorated on the 8th floor.  Y/N was making one of her favourite desserts.

        Hannah, on the third floor, had a friend who’d been buying them alcohol to stock up on since the shops would all be closed and the majority of our plans consisted of drinking.  Once they’d opened presents, of course.  They’re not totally uncivilised.

        Y/N unwrapped her scarf from her neck as she entered the library, automatically engulfed by a wall of warmth.  She walked towards Chris at his desk.  He was currently serving a customer but looked towards her when he noticed someone was standing to the side.  A grin forming on his lips as he went back to serving the customer.

        She didn’t mind waiting.  Watching him bumble around, stammering over his words as he kept sneaking a look in her direction.  The guy walked off with his books, leaving the pair alone to talk.

        “H-hey.  Uhh, hey,” Chris greeted nervously, walking out from behind the desk.  Rubbing the back of his neck as he walked towards her.

        “Hi,” she replied, breathing out a smile.  “I guess I should properly introduce myself, huh?  I’m Y/N.”

        Y/N held her hand towards him and he smiled down at it as he grasped it with his own.  “I’m Chris.”  He looked up at her with the most mesmerising smile, his blue/grey eyes catching the light from above.

        “So, tomorrow night…”

        “I was h-hoping I could c-cook for you,” he said, rubbing his arm.  “I’m a p-pretty good cook, and I-I’m kind of too b-broke to take you a-anywhere nice right n-now.”

         Y/N laughed, appreciating his honesty.  “A home cooked meal sounds lovely,” she assured him with a smile.  “Did you want me to bring anything?”

        He shook his head.  “Just yourself.”  He reached toward his desk for a pen and a piece of paper, quickly scribbling down his address before handing the paper to her.  “Does s-six-thirty suit?”

        “Perfect,” she replied, folding the paper and tucking it into her pocket for safe keeping.  “I’ll see you tomorrow at six-thirty, Chris.  Have a good night.”

        “You too, Y/N,” he farewelled, cheeks tinged with warmth and a smile on his lips.  “See-see ya tomorrow.”

        She gave him a slightly awkward wave before turning around and leaving the library, taking a peek over her shoulder to look back at him.  Still smiling after her.  Raising his hand in a wave before she braved the cold weather outside.  Wrapping her scarf around her neck and disappearing out the door.

+++

        Y/N stood in the middle of the room dressed in only her underwear, hands on her hips as she looked at the selection of clothes laid out.  A pair of jeans and a woollen jumper.  A cute dress and some stockings, with a lovely warm coat.  Her pyjamas.

        A chill ran up her spine, making her reach for the jeans even though she desperately wanted to put her pj’s back on and go to bed.  She wiggled the denim up her legs, doing a little hop, step and jump to bring the material over the curve of her ass.  Huffing as she finally managed to pop the button through the hole and tug the zipper up.  Grabbing a singlet to wear under a long sleeved shirt before putting a jumper on.

        Her bed looked extremely inviting, piled with a thick duvet and deliciously soft, warm blankets.  Still unmade from earlier today when she’d finally decided to crawl out of the warm nest and venture to Bobbie’s, since she’d agreed to buy her a nice bottle of wine for her date tonight.

        She was nervous for her date with Chris, but was also extremely excited.  It’d been awhile since she’d last been on a date, the last few having gone awry.  But those guys weren’t awkward, stuttering Chris Beck.  They were the over-confident, bordering on cocky assholes that assumed after a date she’d be willing to fuck them as a thank you.  The first couple of dates had been average, as well as the sex, so eventually she just stopped going on dates.

        She didn’t need a half-assed attempt at conversation when they both knew what direction the date was heading in, and more importantly, she didn’t deserve to be left high and dry after they came and left her to take care of herself.  College guys are the worst.  But she got the feeling that Chris wasn’t like that.  Even though he planned on cooking her dinner at his place, it didn’t feel like an attempt to get her into his bed.  she was excited to see how the shy, quiet guy treated a girl compared to the arrogant jerks she was used to seeing.

        Y/N spent a small amount of time on her makeup, since she’d already applied it this morning.  Just touching up a few areas here and there.  Not wanting to overdo it, but still wanting to look nice.

        She blew out a breath as she packed her makeup away and stuffed her feet into a pair of boots, sitting on the end of her bed as she laced them up.  Taking a minute to gather er nerves as she looked at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table, the glowing red numbers reading 18:04, letting her know she had less than half an hour to get to Chris’ place, and that her Uber should be here any minute.

        Rising to her feet, Y/N shrugged into my jacket and tucked the bottle of wine into her purse.  Her phone buzzing with a text from the Uber driver, letting her know he was outside, so hastily making her way down.  Locking her dorm behind me.

        The ride to Chris’ place took just over 20 minutes, Y/N’s leg bouncing with nerves the whole way.  Rubbing her sweaty palms against her thighs.  Thanking the driver as she climbed out of the car and walked up to the house, knocking on the door thrice.

        She exhaled heavily, a smile coming easily to her face as soon as Chris opened the door.  A bright smile on his own face.

        “H-Hey, come in,” he greeted, stepping aside so she could come in out of the cold, already shrugging out of her coat.

        “I know you said not to bring anything but I couldn’t show up empty handed,” Y/N said, hanging her coat up and pulling the wine from her purse, handing it over to him.  “The finest wine eight dollars can buy.”

        Chris chuckled as he closed the door.  “Then l-let’s open it.  S-Shall we?”

        Y/N was already on her second glass when Chris finally served dinner, the delicious smell of a homemade roast chicken with all the fixings filling the little space.

        The house itself was cozy.  He lived with three other guys who were all home with their families for the holidays, but it was kept nice and tidy.  She suspected because it was just him there at the moment.

        They sat at the dining table to eat, a candle was lit between them, their glasses full of wine.  A warmth to Chris’ cheeks from the alcohol, or from Y/N’s flirting.  Perhaps both.  Asking each other why they were still here instead of with their families.  Her reason being that she couldn’t afford it, and his being that it was easier being apart for the holidays.  Family is messy.  That didn’t mean it was an easy decision for him to stay away.  The hurt she saw on his face told her there was more to the story, but that he wasn’t ready to share it.

        Dinner had been amazing, to the point that after they finished eating they stayed at the table drinking.  Their faces lit up with the flickering light of the candle dancing over our skin.

        He was beautiful.  The way he spoke, wise beyond his years.  Voice smooth, the alcohol ridding him of his stuttering, but slurring his speech.  The corners of his eyes crinkling with each laugh, his hand covering his mouth as he giggled.

        God, she was in deep, and it was only the first date.

+++

        Y/N ended up inviting Chris to the halls for Christmas, telling him a bunch of them had plans to eat and drink and celebrate together because they couldn’t be with their families.  He’d agreed to think about it, but when she’d swung by the library to see him on the 23rd he’d told her he’d be there.

        It’d been a couple of Christmases that he’d spent the holiday alone, and now that an opportunity presented itself where he didn’t have to be, he’d be stupid not to go at least for a couple of hours.  That was what he’d told her when she’d happily embraced him, anyway.

        And now it was Christmas day and Y/N was waiting in the lobby of the building to let Chris in.  He’d said he’d be there around ten, and it had just gone five past.  She was starting to get a little fidgety when he knocked on the glass door.  She stood up to open it for him, my mood changing from upset to happy upon seeing his face.

        “S-Sorry I’m a little l-late,” he apologised, shrugging out of his jacket.  “It’s i-icy and I k-kept s-slippin’ over.”

        Y/N laughed and shook her head.  “I’m sorry for laughing,” she replied.  “I’m glad you made it here in one piece, though.”

        “So am I.”  He smiled.

        “C’mon.  The party’s already started.”

        SHe took his hand in hers and led him towards the elevators, his gloved fingers slipping between her own as the doors opened and they stepped inside.  She hit the button for the eighth floor and held her key to the sensor, and only then did the elevator work.  Taking them up to the eighth.

        “Thank-thank you for i-inviting me again,” he said softly.

        “Thank you for agreeing to come,” she told him, smiling up at him and giving his hand a squeeze.

       The party was in full swing when the elevator doors opened.  They had to wait for a couple of guys racing on swivel chairs in the hallway to roll past before they could exit.

        “You can chuck your stuff in my room to keep it safe if ya want,” I offered and he nodded, letting her drag him around the hallway until they reached her room.  Using her keys to unlock the door and then pushing it open, letting him walk in first.

        He sat his bag on the desk and hung his coat up on the rack, unwrapping his scarf from his neck.  “I h-hope ya d-don’t mind,” he said as she leant against the doorframe.  “B-But I bought u-us a b-bottle of that w-wine.”

        “I don’t mind at all,” Y/N said as he handed the bottle to her, smiling at him as she grabbed two plastic glasses from her desk drawer and set them on the desk.  Opening the bottle and pouring themselves a glass each.  Ignoring the chaos out in the hallway, handing one of the glasses to him.  “To the finest wine eight dollars can buy.”

        His hand came up to cup her jaw, thumb brushing over her cheek lightly as he stared at er.  Gaze flickering from her eyes to her lips and back to her eyes.

        “And to n-not being alone on C-Christmas,” he added softly.

        “And to not being alone on Christmas,” she repeated, clinking her glass with his and having a sip as he did the same.

        “Can-can I…” he stuttered, looking back down at her lips as he shuffled closer.

        “Kiss me, Chris,” she whispered.

        He dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers, no trace of hesitation in his actions.  Kissing her with certainty.  Lips firm against her own at first, softening when she kissed him back almost instantly.  Tasting like the wine they’d just drank.

        Only detaching when Brooke waltzed in and announced it was time for presents.  She was gone as soon as she arrived, moving onto the next room.

        “I, uhh...”  Chris downed his drink.  “I’m not c-expectin’ anything in r-return, but I wanted to g-give you some-somethin’.”  He reached into his bag and pulled out a tupperware container.  “I m-made you some cookies.  F-Family recipe.  I-I hope you l-like ‘em.”

        Y/N rose to her tiptoes and pressed another kiss to his lips as she graciously accepted the container from him.  “Thank you, Chris,” she replied, smiling as she set the container and her wine on the desk.  Opening one of her clothing drawers and pulling out a hoodie she’d seen at an op shop.  “I haven’t seen you wearing this design so I wasn’t sure if you’ve got it or not.”

        He took the hoodie from her and his eyes lit up when he unfolded it, a large grin spreading across his face.  Reaching for the back of the current sweatshirt he was wearing and pulling it over his head so he could put it on.

        “I wasn’t sure about the size…”

        He shook his head after pulling it over his head, sliding his arms through it.  Wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground, a laugh escaping her lips before he silenced her with a kiss.

        “It’s great–it’s the greatest g-gift anyone has ever g-given me,” he confessed.  “Thank you, Y/N.  S-So much.”

        Y/N laughed and shook her head.  “You’re welcome,” she told him.  “Merry Christmas, Chris.”

        “M-Merry Christmas, Y/N,” he said back, the most joyous expression on his face.

        “You wanna go and watch everyone else open presents or stay here and make out a little bit?”  She asked him, her hands running through his hair.

         Heat rose to his cheeks as he coughed.  “Uhh, m-make out a little b-bit,” he replied honestly.

+++

        With the holiday’s over and done with, a mistletoe kiss and a New Years Eve kiss crossed off her bucket list, college classes had officially started back up.  Chris and Y/N had made things official before they welcomed in the New Year together, and they’d been on several dates since he first cooked her dinner.

        She’d met his roommates, mostly because she spent a lot of her free time at his place.  They seemed nice enough – typical guy behaviour trying to piss Chris off by hitting on her.  Though he knew she only had eyes for him.

        He’d met her roommate, who’d badgered him with question after question since she’d given her no warning that she now had a boyfriend.  So she’d returned back from break to find him asleep in Y/N’s bed.  No funny business had been happening.  They’d just been sleeping after a long first day back of classes.

        Her flight had been delayed time and time again, which was why she had no idea when she was coming back; because she didn’t know herself until she was boarding her flight.

        It was fine.  She was cool with it.  And she was happy that Y/N’d finally met a guy who treated her the way she deserved.

        Y/N was too.  He was so good to her.  And she always made sure to look after him, too.  When he let her.

        It was Tuesday today and he still had his shift at the library to complete before he’d go home.  She knew he never took anything to eat with him – knowledge she’d gained from past experience, – so after making her own dinner, she took a container full of lasagne to the library for him.

        It was still warm when she got there, sneaking up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist, tucking myself under his arm.

        “Hi-hi, beautiful,” he greeted with a soft chuckle.  “I d-didn’t think I’d get t-to see you today.”

        Y/N hummed as she leant up to press a kiss to his cheek.  “Brought you dinner,” she told him.  “Because I know you never bring anything to work.”

        “Thank you,” he told her, kissing her forehead as he took the container from her hand.  “Lasagne?”

        Y/N hummed, producing a fork from her pocket and placing it on top of the container.  “Yeah.  I hope you enjoy.”

        “Can’t stay?”

        “Afraid not,” she replied.  “Got a lot of reading to catch up on that I was supposed to do over the holiday but I got a little sidetracked.”

        “It’s that b-boyfriend of yours, I t-tell ya,” he said, nuzzling his nose into her hair.  “He’s a b-bad influence.”

        Y/N laughed.  Loud.  “He’s lucky I love him.”

        “He–you, what?”

        “I love you.”

        And she did.  He was the kind of guy you knew from the moment you met him that you’d fall in love with him.  All the blushing looks and nervous laughter, piled in with how much of a genuinely nice guy he was...it was a no brainer.  She’d happily fallen in love with him.

        “I-I love you, too-too.  Shit, no.  I can say this without stutt-stuttering.”  He took a deep breath and steadied himself, cupping my face with both of his hands.  Dinner all but forgotten about.  “I love-lo, no.  Wait-wait.  I love you too.”

[lady-divine-writes]

Ineffable Valentine’s “A Treatise of Fruit Trees” (Rated PG13)

Summary: Aziraphale tries his hand at getting Crowley an expensive present, but ends up with a sour, jealous Crowley instead. (1740 words)

Notes: Written for the Ineffable Valentine's prompt 'grand gesture'.

Read on AO3.

“Thank you so much for the scrumptious lunch.” And for keeping me out over an hour, Aziraphale scowls, but mainly at himself. He could have excused himself a dozen times, but it’s hard to justify burning bridges when you may need to cross them again later. “It was quite unnecessary though.”

“What? It’s not every day a valued customer sends me on such an intriguing assignment. I wanted to thank you properly,” Aziraphale’s cohort says, too smoothly to be construed as simply a friendly response.

“You were more than qualified for the job.” Aziraphale puts on a slight burst of speed, staying one step ahead of the man in black who seems determined to accompany him to his door. He wishes he would have let him walk back to his bookshop alone from the restaurant. His presence unnerves him.

Plus, it would give Aziraphale less explaining to do.

Aziraphale can already feel him, hunkered down in the bookshop, seething on the sofa nearly five hours earlier than expected.

Since it’s a straight shot from the restaurant to his bookshop, Aziraphale has no luck shaking the man. The two of them get to his doorstep together, and Aziraphale sighs the long, exasperated sigh of a doomed man.

“Yes, well, I’d best get back to work,” he says, trying his best to politely blow his companion off. “Busy day ahead of me.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s so,” he answers and waits for goodbye, but the man looks at him expectantly. What in the world does he want? Aziraphale screams in his head. Aziraphale doesn’t have another job for him, and he’s already paid him for this one, including interest.

It doesn’t hit him fully until the man leans closer, hazel eyes locked on Aziraphale’s flustered face, the question “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” unspoken but etched in the lines of his grin because he can’t say it out loud, can he. Not him. Not in his profession. It’s not the sort of thing he’d want people to know about so he definitely doesn’t advertise.

But if it’s offered to him, who is he to turn it down?

They stand in close proximity on Aziraphale’s doorstep - Aziraphale with his hand on the knob, gauging the right time to turn it and duck in; the man lingering on the edge of kissing distance, waiting for the invitation he’s certain is moments away from coming.

When it doesn’t, when the pause between them goes on for so incredibly long that they’re starting to attract attention, the man backs away, frowning with more disappointment than anger.

“That wasn’t easy to come by,” he says, motioning to the cloth wrapped package clutched firmly but carefully in Aziraphale’s hand. “I hope whoever gets it … I hope it’s appreciated.”

There’s something veiled in that statement, but Aziraphale doesn’t dig deeper in search of it. He smiles, as warmly and genuinely as he can under the circumstances.

“As do I, my good man. As do I.”

He sends a hint of blessing his way, to soothe the sting of rejection and mend fences between them.

Again because Aziraphale may need his help fetching another difficult item in the future.

The man tips his hat. He turns on his heel, glaring at any passersby who dare shoot a glance his way, then walks off, blending with the crowd. Aziraphale deflates against his door. He doesn’t particularly like dealing with hired men. He avoids it when he can. The majority of the stuff he requires, even the gray area items, he can usually acquire through legal means.

This one, however - a book of particularly desirable provenance - was taking too long, and Aziraphale had lost patience.

But now that that’s done with, he doesn’t go into his bookshop right away. He’s dealt with one aggressive and domineering gentleman.

He has one more to suss out before he can call it a day.

He can’t linger on the doorstep forever. Someone might notice him there, wonder if he’s opening up shop.

Might want to come in and browse his shelves for something to buy.

He’d rather fend off a gloomy Crowley than a customer any day of the week.

He forgoes his key and unlocks his door with a turn of the doorknob. He’s greeted by thin streaming light from the afternoon sun blocked by heavy drapes; the musty smell of old books combined with a touch of magicked mildew, meant to keep the odd lookie-loos away; and one dreary demon, sulking on the sofa in the corner.

“Good date, angel?” he growls right as Aziraphale gets a look at him. And even though Crowley is staring him down like a predator, Aziraphale can’t help noticing how exquisitely handsome he looks. He’s gone all out, dressed to the nines - black suit, top hat, leather gloves, cane. On the table beside him stands a bottle of champagne, a bouquet of roses wrapped in thick pink paper and tied with a satin ribbon, and a large, gold box of chocolates.

Truffles. Aziraphale’s favorites.

They’re all Aziraphale’s favorites.

Especially the demon.

“Crowley! What a surprise!” Aziraphale counters brightly, trying to save the day. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Obviously. Didn’t see me here, didn’t return my calls, haven’t been in your bookshop for over an hour. If I remember correctly, you and I had a dinner date planned for tonight.”

“We still do. But you are tremendously early, my dear.”

“Don’t call me that,” Crowley grumbles.

“For Heaven’s sake, why not?”

“Wha---why no---why not!?” Crowley launches to his feet, tossing his hat and glasses aside so that Aziraphale won’t mistake his anger for anything less. “You’re stepping out on me and you’re asking me why not!?”

“I’m not stepping out on you. I did not go out on a date. I was having a meeting with an associate. It just so happened to take place over lunch.”

“On Valentine’s Day?”

“Yes. It’s also a Friday, you know. A perfectly respectable work day for many people in the world.”

“Don’t get cute with me.”

Aziraphale smirks even though he knows that will more than likely set him adrift in dangerous territory. “Then how shall I get, my dear? Tell me.”

“Apologetic might be nice.”

“Of course.” Aziraphale boldly walks up to his sour-faced demon and clears his throat. “Crowley … I’m sorry. Truly, truly sorry.”

Crowley tilts his nose up, sniffs contentiously. “That’s bet---”

“I’m sorry you saw me bidding adieu to an associate and decided to jump to outlandish conclusions without hearing my side of the story.”

“What’s the point!?” Crowley snaps, tossing frustrated hands in the air. “How do I know you’re not going to lie?”

Aziraphale’s brow furrows in offense. “I wouldn’t lie! I’m an angel!”

“In my experience, angels lie plenty. That includes you.”

“Preposterous. When have I lied?”

“You … you …” Crowley sputters, his face growing redder with each syllable “… you downright lied to the Almighty!”

“I mean recently. Besides, I may have bent the truth a tiny bit over one little thing …”

“It was about your bloody flaming sword!”

“Which didn’t turn out to be all that important in the long run. Heaven got it back.”

“B---but … but … She’s the Almighty!”

“Semantics don’t necessarily help your argument, dear. Speaking of, here.” Aziraphale thrusts the cloth-covered package into Crowley’s hands before he can continue his argument. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Crowley looks the package over suspiciously, which annoys Aziraphale to no end. If he’d simply unwrap it, he’d see what it is. It’s not even fastened shut in any way! “What’s this?”

“What does it look like? It’s a present. I would have wrapped it in paper like a civilized person, but you’re not giving me a moment’s peace.”

Crowley finds a loose edge and slowly unwraps the object from its cloth. When he reaches the worn cover (not the original - this book doesn’t have a cover, comes from an era where it wasn’t deemed worthy of one), he stops, breath hitched between sigh and sentiment.

“A Treatise of Fruit Trees?” he reads off the first page.

“A-ha,” Aziraphale says, stifling a grin. “It took quite a bit of finagling to track down and get, but yes.”

“But … that must have taken ages.”

“It did.”

Crowley turns the pages with a single finger lest they crumble under his touch. “And you wasted all that time, went through all that trouble for this boring ass book?”

“Yes, well, you wrote that boring ass book. Under the name Thomas Hitt, which I never understood.”

“It was an inside joke,” Crowley murmurs. “But it sold. Over a decade ago. For around four million, if I remember correctly,” he says, rather smugly. “Did you … buy it back?”

“Not exactly.”

“That man …” Crowley gasps, which sounds comical since Crowley isn’t normally prone to gasping “… he stole it!?”

“Of course, he stole it! It was in a museum. In a vault. It couldn’t even be examined by someone with the credentials to do so, and believe me, I tried.”

Crowley stares at him, mouth agape, a mixture of surprise, and possibly pride, lifting the corners of his lips. Aziraphale sees it grow wider and rolls his eyes.

“Come now. It wasn’t that big a deal. You act like I don’t dabble in the diabolical from time to time. You’re usually the one performing the grand gestures, hunting down the expensive presents. I wanted to try my hand at it for once.”

“But, angel,” Crowley says when his voice comes back to him, “I don’t …”

“I know, I know …” Aziraphale waves his discomfort away with his hand “… you don’t want expensive presents from me. You’ve said it before. You can buy me all the fancy gadgets you deem necessary, but I get you one little book …”

Crowley shakes his head over the remark about one little book. “That wasn’t what I was going to say.”

“Then what were you going to say?”

“I was going to say …” Crowley sets the book down on the plushest of the sofa cushions, then takes a rigid Aziraphale in his arms “… that with everything I’ve done wrong, I have no idea what I did right to deserve you.”

“I dare say you don’t,” Aziraphale says, melting in his demon’s embrace with the cheekiest of grins. “But I love you all the same.”

[solartranslations]

Vascello Fantasma Prologue: Arcana Famiglia

Start Up Messages

(If you have a save from the first game to import, the "Memories" and "Roulette" section of each character you've completed there will unlock.)

Do you want to change the name of the heroine? The current name is Felicita.

>Change >Keep

Do you want to change the nickname of the heroine? The current name is Fel. As the game proceeds, the nickname is sometimes used.

>Change >Keep

Configure the playback setting of the heroine’s system voice. This can be changed at any time in the game options.

>Yes voice >No voice

Do you want to change the name of the owl? The current name is Fukurota.

>Change >Keep

Configure the setting of Fukurota’s system voice type. This can be changed at any time in the game options.

>Type A >Type B >None

Is everything ok?

>Yes >Corrections Needed

We recognize that you are a member of Arcana Famiglia

Operation Hints ○ Button can be used to advance through messages. Long pressing will advance through dialogue at a fast speed. × Button can be used to clear messages. L Button can be used to open the menu.

Useful Functions You can see this description anytime in the “Descriptions” section of the menu by pressing the L button.

Prologue: Arcana Famiglia

The vigilante organization that protects the island of Regalo…that is Arcana Famiglia

Narrator: “Arcana Famiglia”

Narrator: They are the vigilante organization that protects the small trade island of Regalo

Narrator: Under “Papa” who leads the organization,

Narrator: They protect the people of the island from the dangers beyond the sea and possess the power to divide the rights and lords

Narrator: Only those who have contracted with the “Tarocco” and vow to comply with the law are allowed to enter the organization

Narrator: They abandon their family name, and work to the best of their ability for the organization

Narrator: The power gained from contracting with the “Tarocco” — Arcana powers

Narrator: And those powers that are beyond human understanding demanded compensation

Narrator: What supported them all was “The World”. What saved them was “The Wheel of Fortune”

Narrator: The growth of “The Lovers” heart changed fate, and fulfilled its role in sustaining The Wheel

Narrator: This is the story of those with Arcana powers, and their curious fates…

~*Opening Movie*~

“The Lovers” whispers to her of a new encounter…

~*Scene: Felicita's Room*~

Felicita: Zzz…

Gli Amanti: Hello, Ojou-san

Gli Amanti: I am Gli Amanti. The one who dwells in “The Lovers” card of the Tarocco…

Gli Amanti: Each of us in the Tarocco have our own will, dwell within our contractors, and fulfill each of our roles

Gli Amanti: And my contractor…is you, Felicita

Gli Amanti: We of the Tarocco were made with a purpose. But only the one who made us knows that true purpose

Gli Amanti: The Tarocco is life…and was made for the living

Gli Amanti: And…death…what was made for those who have accepted its slumber is…

~*Scene: Dining Room*~

Liberta: Huh?

Liberta: You don’t know about the Vascello Fantasma!?

Member of Intelligence: Liberta, holder of “The Fool” Major Arcana

Pace: What’s that? A new kind of dish?

Executive of the Clubs: Pace, holder of the “Strength” Major Arcana

Dante: Vascello Fantasma is known of as a ghost ship

Chief Executive: Dante, holder of “The Emperor” Major Arcana

Dante: You’re the Deputy Chief Executive, so you should at least have some interest in this

(*stomach growl)

Liberta: It’s a huge shadow ship that wanders the sea surrounded in a deep fog. Getting as far away as possible once you see it is common practice for sailors!

Nova: Hey Liberta…I know you’re familiar with it, but aren’t you boasting too much?

Executive of the Chalices: Nova, holder of the “Death” Major Arcana

Luca: Ahem. I don’t know if it is that ship, but I’ve received information that it was sighted near the Regalo coast recently

Attendant: Luca, holder of the “Temperance” Major Arcana

Debito: Ghosts? I’d welcome the ghost of a beautiful woman though

Executive of the Coins: Debito, holder of “The Hermit” Major Arcana

Luca: It might just resemble it, but a ship without a known nationality or affiliation shouldn’t have any ties with Regalo

Dante: There was also that incident of an unknown attack on the Regalo harbor just the other day… We should be careful

Jolly: Yes we should…

Advisor: Jolly, holder of “The Moon” Major Arcana

Jolly: So, the Chalices and Coins Serie will patrol the town, while the Swords and Clubs Serie will take turns providing security for the mansion

Jolly: Understood, Ojou-sama?

(*serious) Felicita: …

~*Scene: Hallway*~

Luca: …Well, we’ve been ordered to guard the mansion for a whole week now. Nothing has happened

(*smile) Luca: Nothing is a good thing. The weather is nice today too

Felicita: Yeah

Luca: Oh, it’s about time to chance shifts with Pace and the Clubs. Shall we go for lunch when we’re done, Ojou-sama?

>I want to eat something delicious

>We can’t let our guard down

Luca: *laugh*, then let’s go to the ristorante

Luca: Of course, we can order the dolce you like, Ojou-sama

Luca: You’re right, Ojou-sama

Luca: But those words…are proof of how you’ve grown as an executive. I’m happy

Luca: We can’t be careless since the problem of the unknown ship hasn’t been resolved yet

Luca: Well, shall we go through the patrol route one more time?

Luca: …!? What was that sound just now!?

Felicita: *running*

(*running) Luca: Ojou-sama! Please wait!!

~*Scene: Basement*~

Felicita: !?

Patrick: Guh…ah…

Luca: H-hold on! What happened here!?

(*shaky) Patrick: Ugh…I’m sorry…I was heading to the room we were supposed to guard…and a man…

(*collapse)

Luca: That means there’s an intruder… And, that room is…

Felicita: …!

Luca: Ojou-sama! I’m going to call for back up from Pace and the Clubs Serie, so don’t make a move for now!

Felicita: *runs*

Luca: Ojou-sama!? Don’t go! Ojou-sama!!

~*Scene: Mondo’s Office*~

(*bite) Ash: …Found it. This emerald design…it’s just like in the logbook, there’s no doubt

Ash: If I bring this back, everything will be back to how it was

(*bam!)

Ash: Another one. Guess they won’t hand it over so easily…

Felicita: …

Ash: Okay, bring it on. You want this back, right?

Felicita: *dash*

Operation Hints: In the Duello, press the buttons within the time limit

(*whish) Felicita: Hya!

Attack!

>Hit

>Miss

(Skip this box)

(*dodge) Ash: Hah, missed me!

Ash: Come on, weren’t you going to defeat me!?

(Try again)

(*whack) Ash: Guh!

Ash: Looks like she’s a bit better than the guards from earlier…

Ash: Now it’s my turn, try dodging this!!

(*grip) Felicita: !

Dodge!

>Hit

>Miss

(Skip this box)

(*whack) Felicita: !

Ash: What, is that all you’ve got?

Ash: There’s more where that came from!! Haa!

(Try again)

Felicita: *dodge*

(*slide) (*clink)

(*whish) Felicita: Ya!

Attack!

>Hit

>Miss

(Skip this box)

(*whish) Ash: Where’re you aiming? I’m over here!

Ash: Now this is how you attack!!

(Go back to the dodge box)

(*dodge) Ash: Like that’ll hit me…!

(*grip) Ash: Interesting. You use knives and I use a sword

(*whish) Ash: Let’s go!! Haa!

(*dodge) Felicita: !

(*whack) Felicita: !

Ash: Hmph…you’re pretty weak…

Luca: Ojou-sama!!

Pace: Ojou!! Are you okay!?

Ash: Okay, you guys better not take another step. If you do, the girl gets it

Luca: ! How cowardly!

Felicita: …!

Ash: It’s no use resisting

Pace: What’re you going to do to Ojou!

Ash: Her? I guess she’ll be a hostage until I get out of this mansion

Felicita: …!

Ash: Settle down, Strawberry Head

(*grab) Ash: Okay…

Luca: That box…, we won’t let you have it!

Ash: Huh…it didn’t look like the guards knew, but you do

Ash: You know what’s inside

>Don’t worry about me!

>Luca, don’t worry

Pace: Don’t say that…you’re the one in danger, Ojou

Ash: Well? If you take one step, I really will do it

Luca: Ojou-sama…

Ash: Heh, well at least she’s got resolve

(*yell!)

Ash: Enough wasting time. The weaklings are coming…

Ash: !

(*whish)

(*whack) Felicita: !

(*collapse)

Luca: Ojou-sama!!

(*glare) Ash: Didn’t I say not to move? Until I bring this box back, I’ll be taking Strawberry Head here

(*grab)

Ash: Okay, she’s actually pretty light

Pace: What are you after!?

Ash: Huh? I’m taking this box back

Luca: Do you know what is inside that box?

(*bam) Ash: Of course I know…it’s the Tarocco, right?

(*smirk) Ash: The Tarocco used to be mine…I’m taking it back

Pace: Huh!? What!?

(*reach) Luca: ……

Ash: I saw that! You think you’re clever, alchemist!

(*glare) Ash: Hah!!

(*whack) Luca: Uwah!!

Ash: Too slow, hat guy! I’ll shoot another one!

(*crackle) Luca: Guh!!

Pace: Watch out! Luca!!

Ash: See you!!

(*crash!)

Pace: Damn it! Ojou!

Pace: Luca, that guy jumped and landed over there

Luca: But this is the third floor!? …We can’t let him escape

Luca: Pace! Order your subordinates to block all the mansion gates!

Pace: And you, Luca?

(*glare) Luca: I…I’ll go after Ojou-sama!

~*Scene: Hallway*~

Ash: …What a big mansion. Where is this?

(*click) Debito: Found you, intruder

Ash: A pursuer? What a pain

(*glare) Ash: Take this!!

(*dodge)

(*jump) Debito: You’re nowhere near worthy of holding Bambina!

(*click) Pace: Debito! Don’t shoot! You’ll hit Ojou!

(*run)

Debito: I wouldn’t hit her! Tch! What a pain. Then Pace, go around and cut him off!

Pace: Got it!

~*Scene: Training Grounds*~

~*Scene: Rose Garden*~

~*Scene: Fountain*~

~*Scene: Courtyard*~

Ash: *panting*…. I didn’t want to use this power but…I guess I have to…

Ash: Can’t get results without some sacrifice

Ash: Doesn’t matter as long as I can make it back to the ship

(*grab)

(*growl)

Luca: A tiger!?

(*running)

(*whish) Luca: Ha!

Luca: Ojou-sama!

Debito: Luca!

Pace: Luca, where’s Ojou!?

Luca: A white tiger…jumped over the mansion walls…

Luca: With Ojou-sama in its mouth…

The mysterious intruder has brought about unrest and chaos to the Family…

~*Scene: Conference Room*~

Mondo: Make your report

Papa: Mondo, holder of “The World” Major Arcana

Dante: Yes. A summary of the situation is that the intruder entered the mansion and made off with the box containing the Tarocco and Ojou-san

Dante: The intruder was a man who seemed to be an alchemist

Dante: But Luca reported that a white tiger jumped over the mansion walls and that the man was nowhere to be seen

Liberta: He said that the tiger was holding Ojou in its mouth

Jolly: He’s an incompetent student, but it seems that he did succeed in attaching “Ariadne’s String” to Ojou-sama

Dante: “Ariadne’s String”…is that the string used to find one’s way out of a labyrinth?

Jolly: In this situation, I suppose you could call it our method of tracking down Ojou-sama

Jolly: By reeling in the string, it can lead us to Ojou-sama. But I don’t know if the Tarocco will be there

Jolly: It’s possible that he would leave her behind while escaping

Liberta: Ojou…

Dante: Intelligence has confirmed that an unknown ship is currently anchored in the limestone bay to the north of Regalo

Jolly: “Ariadne’s String” is moving in that direction. We can assume that they are headed to that bay

Liberta: But, the fog has been thick in that area lately so we can’t get close by ship

Liberta: There was never thick fog there until now though…

Jolly: Luca, Debito, and Pace are currently pursuing them ahead of us

Dante: You can follow the three of them, right Jolly?

Jolly: Yes

Mondo: …Got it. Then we’ll move immediately

Mondo: Listen. My daughter’s life, and all of yours, are the top priority

Mondo: After that, is the recovery of the stolen Tarocco. If you deem that to be impossible, then sink it into the sea

Mondo: There will be misfortune if it leaves Regalo

Sumire: An alchemist who stole the Tarocco and claimed it to be his own before disappearing…

Mama: Sumire, holder of the “Judgment” Major Arcana

Mondo: Mhm, this man is our enemy…but, capture him if possible

(*glare) Mondo: …The enemy has the ability to match you Major Arcana. Sending any lesser reinforcements likely won’t be effective

Mondo: Jolly, Dante, I’m counting on you

Dante: Yes. Intelligence will launch a ship…

Jolly: And we Major Arcana will head there personally…It’s a good plan

Mondo: Yes. I’ll leave it to you

Sumire: You all should be careful too…okay?

Liberta: Got it

Nova: We’ll be sure to save her

~*Scene: Forest*~

Luca: Ojou-sama, Ojou-sama!!

Debito: Shut up and run quietly, Luca!

(*shaky) Pace: *panting*…Debito, can we rest a bit…I’m hungry

Debito: Just eat the dirt or something

Luca: Ojou-sama was taken as a human shield…I’m ashamed at being so useless…

Debito: Quit grumbling. You were in charge of the mansion’s security with the Swords and the Clubs. Being able to track her is better than nothing

Luca: I’m sorry…

Debito: Found it…what a weird ship

Pace: This is the unknown ship in the northern bay…?

Luca: That ship looks like…, no, it can’t be…

~*Scene: Vascello Fantasma Deck*~

(*drops)

Ash: Hmph…I managed to get back

Ash: So we’ve come all this way and the Strawberry Head’s still out cold

Ash: She…seems pretty weak, so I guess I can just leave her here

Ash: I’ll set sail before they can catch up

~*Scene: Vascello Fantasma Captain’s Cabin*~

Ash: I’m back, Joshua. And I got the Tarocco

Joshua: Welcome back, Ash. You took quite some time

Ash: Yeah, a lot happened. There’s nothing else here. It’ll be a pain if they catch up with us, so I’ve set sail

Ash: Anyway Joshua, this is the right box, right? It looks like it’s locked though

Joshua: …It’s definitely this box. Now Ash, burn the box

Ash: Burn it? Alright but…oh, the cards inside won’t burn from alchemy right?

Joshua: Exactly

Ash: Now the Tarocco is back where it belongs. On this ship that my family has continued to protect

Joshua: Yes. Oh, Ash. Why don’t you take this chance to try performing the Tarocco’s contracting ceremony?

Ash: I should…contract the Tarocco?

Joshua: The Tarocco chooses its contractors. Those who are qualified are selected by the Major Arcana themselves

Joshua: *laugh*…You can call it a test of your luck

Ash: Is it dangerous? You’ll need an equivalent exchange, right?

Joshua: The Tarocco’s powers are unknown. Even I’m not aware of all the risks…but, those who succeed in a contract receive a power beyond human understanding

Ash: So that’s part of testing my luck…I guess

Ash: Joshua, that mark on your left wrist is the sign that you’ve succeeded in contracting the Tarocco…a stigmata, right?

Joshua: Yes. It’s the “Justice” Tarocco…“La Giustizia”

Ash: “La Giustizia”, huh…

Ash: …I guess it’s the nature of being an alchemist. If you say it like that, I just have to try it

Joshua: *laugh*

Ash: I’m interested too…I’ll do it. I know how to perform the contracting ceremony

Ash: The Tarocco originally belonged to my family after all…

(*bite)

Ash: There’s no way I can’t contract it…!

Ash: Uwah!!

Ash: Ahhhhhh!!

Ash: Ahhhhhgh…agh…

(*scatter)

Ash: …Ugh…Joshua…I didn’t know it would hurt so much…

Ash: And it burns…my neck…it feels like my throat is on fire

Joshua: That mark is…a stigmata!

Ash: What!? That means…the contract succeeded, right?

Ash: So…*panting*…which Tarocco was I chosen by?

Joshua: This is… “The Magician” Tarocco, “Il Bagatto”

Ash: “The Magician”, huh. Not a bad match…

(*reach) Ash: So…, what other Tarocco are there, Joshua?

Ash: Hm? Joshua?

Joshua: …This is…

(*whirring)

Joshua: Graaaaa!

Ash: Wha!? Joshua!

Joshua?: Ah…Ash…, the power of the Tarocco…

Ash: Wh, what happened? …Joshua…, why are you a skeleton…

Joshua?: …My name is “La Giustizia”…

Ash: Hey, Joshua! Do you know what I’m saying! Hey!

(*crash)

Ash: Hey, what’s happening…

Ash: This never happened before…why are there skeletons all over the deck…

Ash: Oh…damn it…I left that girl out there…!

Ash: Is this…is this because I contracted the Tarocco?

Ash: …Damn it! Hold on Joshua! I promise I’ll change you back!!

Joshua?: So I do….need “La Ruota della Fortuna”, “The Wheel of Fortune”…

~*Scene: Vascello Fantasma Deck*~

(*slide)

(*grab) Ash: Hn…!!

(*drops)

Ash: Hey, wake up Strawberry Head!

(*whack)

Ash: I said wake up!!

Felicita: !?

Ash: You’re finally awake, Strawberry Head

Description: The Lovers Arcana power allows you to look into another’s heart. The number at the bottom left of the screen, is the strength of your Arcana power

Operation Hints: You can look into a heart by pressing the analog button

Operation Hints: When more than one heart is visible, you can switch your target with the left and right arrow keys

Operation Hints: For a big heart, you can look deeply into someone’s heart by pressing the ○ button

❤≪Ash≫ Seems confused

Pain: What happened!?

Person: To turn Joshua back…

Person: This girl should know something

>Who are you!?

>Where am I?

Ash: Huh? Me? Who cares about that

Ash: Can’t you tell by looking? What’s it look like?

Ash: You’re sure relaxed for someone’s who’s been out for a while

❤≪Ash≫ Seems confused ❤≪Ash≫ Seems confused

Pain: What happened to Joshua…?

Place: Well who’re you

Person: This girl should know something

Pain: What happened to Joshua…?

Place: She’s confused

Person: This girl should know something

Description: The Arcana power is reduced when you look into a heart but it will recover when the scenario ends

Description: By knowing the heart of your partner, the distance between the two hearts will reduce and Amore will increase

Operation Hints: The Amore of each partner can be confirmed by pressing the Start button

Ash: Listen. I need to ask you something about the Tarocco

❤≪Ash≫ Seems irritated

Person: This girl should know about the Tarocco

Pain: Even though I took back the Tarocco

Person: What happened to Joshua…

Felicita: …

Ash: This ship’s already moving. You can’t go anywhere now. As long as you listen to me anyway!

>…First, give back the Tarocco

>I have nothing to say

Ash: I told you, it’s mine

Ash: Tch, I want to ask about the Tarocco though

Felicita: …

Ash: What…stupid Strawberry Head, are you defying me?

Felicita: …

❤≪Ash≫ Tarocco ❤≪Ash≫ Seems confused

Person: And I thought she’d talk…

Person: I want to turn Joshua back…

Pain: Even though I took back the Tarocco…

Pain: What happened to Joshua…?

Place: She’s confused

Person: This girl should know something

Ash: That face means…you’re not going to listen to me, are you

❤≪Ash≫ Seems to be plotting

Person: I don’t like those eyes

Arcana: The Tarocco brings misfortune

Place: If she doesn’t know, then the others in the mansion might

Ash: Fine then. You’ll listen to me if I use force

Ash: …Sorry, but I’ll be knocking you out again

Ash: It’s seriously a pain if you struggle

Felicita: Wha

Ash: I’ll unleash the power of the great Vir Ingeniosus

Ash: Miracolo di Nascita (TN: Miracle of birth)

Felicita: !

(*ignite)

(*skid)

Liberta: Ojou! Nova: Are you hurt? Dante: Are you okay!? Luca: Ojou-sama!! Pace: Ojou!! Debito: Bambina!

Felicita: !

Jolly: You’re so helpless…but that side of yours is lovely too, Ojou-sama

Ash: Tch, how’d you get here

Felicita: *glare*

Liberta: This is one creepy ship! There’s skeletons standing around everywhere. I really thought they were attacking…

Nova: This is an emergency and that’s what you’re worried about!!

Pace: Well, whatever happens I’ll be a shield that protects Ojou!

Luca: Pace, that’s my job!

Debito: Yeah. Don’t show off all on your own

Ash: Sorry, but I’ve got no use for you guys

Ash: …Oh, actually maybe I do. Hey you, old baldy

Dante: Who are you calling old! And this isn’t from balding…

Ash: Whatever. That’s a stigmata on your head, right? Which Tarocco is it?

Dante: Hm…this is “L'Imperatore”, “The Emperor”

Dante: Boy…where did you hear about the stigmata?

Ash: So it is a stigmata. Okay, I’ll answer one question for every one I ask

Jolly: Who did you hear about them from?

Ash: Which one am I supposed to answer?

Jolly: Obviously, my question

Ash: Hah…I heard about them on this boat—

Ash: And…hm

(*mad) Jolly: What…?

Ash: The one who answered my question was the old baldy, so I’m answering his question. Right?

(*smirk) Ash: It’s equivalent exchange, right old man alchemist?

Debito: Hahaha…. Maybe he’s actually a good guy? That was a good one he said to the old man

Jolly: Debito, shut up…

Jolly: Answer my question. Who did you hear about the stigmata from?

Ash: Hah? Like I care about your question

Ash: Now answer my question. Among all of you, who is the weakest…, and most important?

Liberta: *glance*

Felicita: !

Everyone: …!

Felicita: !

Ash: Heh…so it was Strawberry Head. I should have restrained her while she was unconscious

Ash: But, I’ve finished what I came here to do. I’ll make a plan and come again. Thanks, Chick Head

Liberta: Hey! Wait!

Nova: Liberta, don’t chase him! Besides that, the skeletons weren’t moving before but now they’re crowding together…

Liberta: Hey, Nova. Just put everyone on the ship to sleep!!

Nova: …Alright. I’ll use my powers. You…

Liberta: Hehe, got it! While you do that, I’ll slice them…huh, what!?

Felicita: !

Pace: Huh? Where is everyone? Debito, you didn’t use your powers, did you!?

Debito: Don’t be stupid, Pace. I wouldn’t use them…what is this…

Luca: This is…

Jolly: …Secure Ojou-sama

Dante: Something’s coming!

Liberta: What!?

??? (Joshua?): Welcome, my brethren…I hope you enjoy yourselves

~*End of Scene*~

Choose a person to act with

(Go to the section for your chosen route: Liberta, Nova, Debito, Pace, Luca, Dante, Jolly, Ash

(Back to Directory)

[mooskimedia-blog]

the best way to enhance your gameplay on the SIMS 4 Little Tricks To Help Make The Sims 4 A Whole Lot Better

The Sims is an all time FAVOURITE for generations now , We've been having a lot of fun with the game so far. But we've also encountered a few hurdles along the way. Don't worry, though, because many of these obstacles are easily overcome with a few small changes.

Here is a list of adjustments I've discovered over the past few days. None of them are profound game-changers on their own. But taken together, they have made The Sims 4 a much better experience already.

There are two different ways to use camera.

As I mentioned in my initial impressions of the game, the biggest problem I've had with The Sims 4 is that it's controls can be frustratingly imprecise at times. This is particularly annoying when it comes to adjusting the camera angle and moving around the world. I still believe that the game needs some fine-tuning in this regard, but what I neglected to mention earlier this week is that there are two different camera modes, one of which is more similar to the way it worked in The Sims 3. What this means in practice is that, in the Sims 3 mode, you can adjust the camera angle freely by moving the mouse around while holding down the middle button. The switch is available in the game's options menu, but you can also swap back-and-forth instantaneously by pressing control + shift +tab. This is very useful when you're working in build mode, where a great degree of precision is often required.

Speaking of controls, here are a some useful shortcuts.

Video Games Blogger has compiled a useful list of hotkeys. Since The Sims 4 often feels like the video game version of photoshop or some architectural modelling program, learning these will save you many a click.

For the tools in build mode:

Eyedropper Tool (toggle): E

Hand Tool: H

Sledgehammer Tool (toggle): K

Design Tool (toggle): R

Wall Tool: B

Toggles Day/Night in B/B: L

Allow off-grid placement while dragging around an object: Alt

Toggle Grid: G

Cycle Between 1/2 tile and 1/4 tile grid snapping for object placement: F5

Flood Fill a single wall while placing wall patterns: Alt

Flood Fill floor & wall paint while placing floor or wall patterns: Shift

Toggle to 1/4 tile floor paint while placing floor tile patterns: Ctrl + F

Reduce Terrain Brush Size while Terrain Paint catalogue is open: [

Increase Terrain Brush Size while Terrain Paint catalogue is open: ]

Move Terrain Brush Softness Slider to the Left while Terrain Paint catalogue is open: ;

Move Terrain Brush Softness Slider to the Right while Terrain Paint catalogue is open: '

Toggle Terrain Paint/Eraser while Terrain Paint catalogue is open: Ctrl

Move Whole House tool: U

Toggle Video Recording: V

Capture Screenshot: C

When you're placing objects in build mode:

Rotate held/selected object, block, roof, anything rotatable: < / >

Move object to next slot in surface with a slotted object selected and on a slot surface: M

Copy held/selected object on placement: Shift

Inventory held/selected object: Backspace

Delete held/selected object: Delete

Undo: Ctrl + Z

Redo: Ctrl + Y

For the camera:

Have the camera follow the Sim: Right-click on the Sim's portrait

Toggle Top Down View: T

Go to Next Floor Up: Page Up

Go to Next Floor Down: Page Down

Walls Up: Home

Walls Down: End

That's a lot of stuff, obviously, so give yourself time to figure out your ideal control scheme. Two that I'd highlight for building are using the free placement option when putting stuff down and having some fun with the quarter-tiles option. Much like the Sims 3 camera mode, this gives some much-needed breathing room to start experimenting.

If the tutorials are annoying you, you can make them go away.

When you first start playing The Sims 4, you'll get a lot of tutorial notifications. Unfortunately, the game doesn't have an easy way to disable this for seasoned Sims players or just people who don't like being inundated with an endless barrage of pop-up notifications. Thanks to the SimsVIP, however, I discovered a handy way to remove tutorial messages — you just have to do so through Origin, rather than the game.

Here are their very easy instructions:

Open the Origin Client

Right Click The Sims 4 game cover

Select "View Game Properties"

Click "Game Properties." This will open a popup box.

Add the following line to the Command Line Arguments box and hit apply: — — no_tutorial

It should look like this:

Add your own soundtrack to liven things up.

Are you bored with The Sims 4's soundtrack? I sure am. Granted, Origin tells me I've already played 20 hours of the game, so maybe moderation is the real problem here. In either case, EA has this helpful note about personalizing your copy of The Sims 4 with your own music:

You can play your own MP3s through the radios in The Sims 4. Copy them into the The Sims 4\Custom Music folder that corresponds with your genre of choice and tune your in-game radio to that station to hear your music.

If you want some suggestions, remember that you're always welcome to peruse the Kotaku Soundtrack, our ongoing series of songs that we're listening to — and gaming to.

It's very easy to take screenshots and record your gameplay.

For screenshots, all you have to do is press "C." To film something, meanwhile, you just have to press "V." A little camera icon will appear on the upper-left corner of the screen to indicate that the game is recording whatever's happening. Bear in mind that the recording feature defaults to only showing the Sims themselves, not the game's UI. If you want to capture exactly what's appearing on-screen, you can change that in the camera section of the game's options menu:

If you're planning to post your videos to YouTube, however, you might want to capture it at a higher quality than you can easily access in the options menu. Here are some handy instructions from The Sims 4 Blogger Tumblr:

To make your video files bigger, you'll need to adjust a small detail in The Sims 4's Game Files.

To edit your video size, open the folder where you install your Origin Games and then go to The Sims 4 > Game > Bin > res. In the "res" folder, you'll have to open a configuration setting file called "VideoRecording".

To make a video larger, simply rename the "Large =" section from 1024 to any bigger resolution you want.

Both the video and screenshot options are so easy that even I've managed to use them, and I can barely find my way around Gmail on most days. Sharing your stuff is another story. The game has a "share to Facebook" option at present for screenshots, but that also means that the images appear through a Sims-related Facebook app. The game doesn't offer any easy way to edit or share footage, meanwhile. That's frustrating. But the good news is that the game automatically saves all of these videos in a specific folder that you can pull from once you're out of the game.

Your progress can travel, but not with your Origin account.

You can activate and play The Sims 4 on multiple PCs, provided that you download Origin and activate your account. Your save data doesn't migrate quite as easily as the core game, however. If you want to travel with your most up-to-date Sims data, you'll have to copy your save files onto, say, a thumb drive and then dropping them into whatever device you're playing with. You can find this data by navigating to the "saves" folder: \Documents\Electronic Arts\TheSims4\saves.

Here's how you can unlock some of the game's first secrets.

We're still in the earliest of early days for The Sims 4, but players have already begun to uncover some hidden treasures in the game. Most notably, there are two secret lots, one in each of the game's starting worlds — Willow Creek and Oasis Springs. GameFront has a solid step-by-step breakdown of how to unlock these two lots. I haven't tried these yet because I'm doing my best to play The Sims 4 at my own contemplative (read: sluggish) pace. But if you're already full to bursting with Sims, then at the very least this is one easy way to free up some space.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself: "Hey, this arsehole left out [insert favourite Sims 4 tweak]! What gives?" Well, since we're just getting started with the game, I've chosen to shy away from certain things. Cheat codes are being tossed about, and the modding community has taken the smallest of tentative steps into the new Simsgame. I'm going to wait until there's more solid material to sink my Sim teeth into before I take all of us down that road. The same goes for a full list of gameplay tips and, of course, our review of the game.

In the meantime, however, please don't hesitate to reach out about anything and everything cool you're seeing, playing or hearing about in The Sims 4.

post credit -  https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/small-ways-to-make-your-sims-4-experience-way-better/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #62: They’re *Really* Back (9/14/18)

We knew going into this week that there was a real storm coming, and that was an understatement. Though the complete Trench album is still waiting to be released, it really feels like the band is back more than ever. 

This update is a novel-sized doozy. Grab your new merch, and let’s dive into it.

This Week’s TØPics:

A Complete Diversion in London Brings Trench (and a Flaming Car) to the Stage

The Boys Speak to the Press: Rock Sound and Alt Press Announce Special TØP Issues, and the Boys Hop Back Onto Radio

First Details Emerge About “Neon Gravestones”, “Pet Cheetah”, Clancy, Nico, and More As the Press Hear the Album for the First Time

Major News and Announcements:

The big one finally hit: after over a year, Twenty One Pilots returned to their home on the stage. They started making flex moves before the show even started. They arrived in London two days in advance, rehearsing and playing soundchecks into the night that die-hard campers could hear from outside the venue. They arranged for folks in Bandito uniforms to dispense 150 tickets to those that showed up at the box office.  The venue delivered food to the queue, and the Clique in turn donated their blankets and duvets to a local soup kitchen. Pretty darn sweet.

The real event was even sweeter. 

Twenty One Pilots did not quite pull out all of the stops for their first performance in over a year. The set was just over an hour, did not debut any never-before-heard songs, did not include any special guests, and mainly stuck to the skeleton of the Blurryface Era setlist. And you know what? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. If anything, Tyler and Josh keeping things focused on dusting off the old gears and introducing a few new elements for the Trench era resulted in a tight and emotional return for today’s greatest band. (Shout out to Ohio Clique for editing fifteen different Periscope and Instagram Live streams together to make a cohesive concert movie.)

Highlights of the show include:

There were no screens present in the smaller venue, but the production crew did make sure to bust out a ton of other great production elements, including tons of lights and, most notably, the car from the  “Heavydirtysoul” video that bursts into flames at key points during certain songs- including, at one point, when Tyler was standing on it.

The Clique brought the production value in the crowd, too: beyond all the folks dressed up as Banditos and Bishops, you also had plenty of people bring in yellow screens for their flashlights and yellow flowers and petals to offer Tyler.

The setlist was pretty sensible, with the four new Trench singles plus all of the songs that you would have expected them to play at an old festival show (minus “Guns for Hands” and “Tear In My Heart”, no I’m not sweating, why?). It is interesting that “WDBWOTV” and “The Judge” were played, but I suspect that it was mainly to justify bringing out the ukulele for “Nico”; if there are more uke tracks on Trench, I would not be surprised to see one or both of these songs dip out of the regular rotation.

Tyler had to stop the show twice to help people out of the pit- it was that kind of show.

The show opened with Josh coming out on stage in full Bandito regalia, torch in hand, looking like a badass. After sitting down at the drums and playing a few simple sequences, a masked man with a bass guitar walked out on the stage, started playing “Jumpsuit”’s gnarly riff, and yelled for the crowd to “GET UP!” Awesome. Twenty One Pilots is back, mate.

Tyler stumbled over a few lyrics in “Jumpsuit” and “Levitate”, but he successfully played it off- only the most diehard fans would have caught that he wasn’t just pausing for breath or to hear the crowd.

Tyler actually yelled “Why’d you come, you know you should have stayed?” at the end of “Heathens”, and it sounded damn good. Hope it sticks for future shows.

Tyler’s “WDBWOTV” pre-speech was a pretty good inaugural address for the Trench Era. He let the rabid audience know that he had been watching them since before the concert (both literally and metaphorically), joked about needing to get back in “show shape”, and thanked London for being a home away from home for them. In gratitude for hosting them, Tyler even announced that they were adding a third arena show at Wembley and joked that Mark should tweet it or something (he did).

Prior to playing “Nico”, Tyler adorned a bright yellow jacket over his usual uke kimono; Josh helpfully banged the drums dramatically for every successful button.

Tyler and Josh did the handshake during “Nico”, because of course they did.

For “My Blood”, Tyler drew from the old playbook and attempted to direct the two halves of the audience to sing harmonies. It worked even better than it used to with “Doubt”, much to Tyler’s evident glee- his smile and little dance to everyone singing his new song back at him was probably the best moment of the whole show.

The Trees Speech was short and sweet, with Tyler promising that he’s written “pages and pages” of things he wants to say, but for now all he can say is that they’ll be coming back on the new tour with “things we’ve never seen before” and that the fans look so good.

#YellowConfettiConfirmed

In the last bit of major news: new merch (that Josh stitched himself, be nice) and a new yellow Trench vinyl that I’m sure won’t immediately sell out. Have fun spending your life savings, kids!

Other Shenanigans:

The band was active in other spaces this week, of course. After Zane Lowe broke open the floodgates last week, both Rock Sound and Alternative Press announced that they would release some exclusive Trench Era Content (tm). Rock Sound’s came in the form of a thirty-page mag featuring a lengthy 22-page feature comprised of the first interview the two bands gave together since before the hiatus, Tyler and Josh’s first full photoshoot in over a year, and tons of awesome posters and Clique art. It definitely is not available in any form on the Internet that I’m afraid to link to lest I get pegged for copyright and sent to jail. Highlights of this interview that I certainly haven’t read include:

Lots of typical Rock Sound purple prose, in which the writer goes off on more tangential metaphors than even Tyler Robert Joseph.

The reporter describes Tyler’s house as “quite stunning” (yeah, with that Blurryface money combined with Columbus real estate values, I should hope so).

Josh laughs at the memory of some of their old costumes. “Those suits were so hot,” he says, as if those heavy coats aren’t a billion degrees inside.

Tyler: “There’s something healthy about realizing that the world keeps turning. Sometimes it can feel like the whole world is revolving around you- I think we all selfishly get to that point. When you have those moments, when you stop and realize that even if you weren’t there those other people would be, it lifts a weight that can feel very heavy. It motivates you to want to come up with a reason why you’re here.”

Tyler says they cut out social media during the hiatus in part because “removing the ability to run straight to it was important. For me, writing music is the thing I want to run to when I feel compelled or inspired. Whether it’s frustration or anger or compassion, whatever it is that I wanted to express, I wanted it to live somewhere new. I didn’t want one drop of meaningful expression to live anywhere else.” Additionally, they did want to test whether the Clique would stick around, and even kinda hint that they wanted to shrink how crowded some of the rooms they entered were becoming.

We are assured, however, that the next “hiatus” will not be the exact same as this. Tyler: “Going away broke my heart. It hurt that we weren’t able to tell people why we had gone, but I’m an advocate of showing people what I’ve been working on rather than telling them how hard I’m working. [...] That said, though we don’t know what the timeframe will be or if we’ll take another break, the manner in which we left... we’ll never do that again.”

I’m just gonna leave this here: “He tells us also of the beautiful relationship he has with his wife, Jenna, and the role that she played in helping him unlock the words and the sounds that would form the basis of this new chapter; of the times he would hand her the phone while behind the wheel of his car to allow her to record anything from melodies to simple poems.” Yeah, will someone sweep up all the pieces of my heart that are just lying on the floor, that’d be great.

Tyler has long had the idea to tell a geographic story, much longer than since the end of the last cycle, and he didn’t always intend to tell it through music. “I feel like in our mind there are places we learn we shouldn’t go.”

Tyler says that there are lots of songs that he writes that never see the light of day because he has moved past the season he wrote them in by the time it comes to record them.

Rock Sound is positively glowing in its brief advance review of the album, saying it is undoubtedly the best project of 2018, “a labor of love”, “a varied, often spectacular collection” with some of the band’s all-time greatest moments. It will be even more sonically diverse than we’ve come to expect: “Morph” is described as “old-school R&B”, “The Hype” “anthemic indie-rock”, “Pet Cheetah” has “stomping beats and a fiery rap verse.” The highlight, though, is apparently “Neon Gravestones”, “a piano-laden spoken word masterpiece” with lyrical content that “will save at least one person’s life”. Damn.

Alt Press will also be releasing a 24-page cover feature on the band and were even nice enough to include a fun video ad from the boys. They’re so cute, and I’ve missed them so much. (Also, Tyler’s checkered pants are a quality meme.)

After the Complete Diversion, Tyler and Josh performed a mini-press tour. First, they gave five-minute interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 and an Instagram Stories AMA on the station’s account. Highlights of this quickie include:

Josh and Tyler joke that specifying the exact number of months they’ve been away sounds like a mother saying their kid is “14 months” instead of a year old.

Tyler notes that this was the first performance in a long time that they’ve felt truly nervous, as they could no longer rely on muscle memory to carry them through after the long break, particularly with the new songs.

Annie references her last interview with Josh, where he confessed to be nervous about whether the fans would return. When asked if the first show helped them overcome those nerves, Tyler replied honestly, “To an extent, yes.” They chuckle about it, but the implication remains thick: the dedicated fanbase certainly turned up, but there is no assurance that they’ll have long-term mainstream success in the future. They seem cool with that.

Tyler states that they chose London specifically to make their return because, besides Columbus, it’s the only city where they have played in every size of venue, from the Barfly club to the Ally Pally and everything in-between over the course of fifteen shows. That type of home atmosphere made it feel right to start the new era there.

Josh says they played a bowling alley in London once. He did not wear bowling shoes in the set nor when he bowled afterward, which, as Tyler points out, is very punk rock.

Tyler reflects on how this show represents years of preparation and practice teaching them how to “trim the fat” and master the tempo and flow of the concert to appear as confident as possible and bring the audience along for a well-planned journey.

“My Blood” is one of the most challenging songs for both artists to play, particularly Tyler, as he has to balance the difficult falsetto with keeping that bassline groovy and consistent.

The IG answers were mostly just the dudes trying and failing to answer basic questions like “Are you happy to be back?” and “What’s it like to be famous?” in as few words as possible without giggling, hugging, and tickling each other. Best Q/A: Why did they watch the Grammys in their underwear? “We didn’t have air-conditioning.”

South African DJ Rob Forbes from Radio 5FM also conducted a truly fascinating interview with the band, the first that dives into the lore and one that gives us even more of a glimpse into some of the future songs. Additionally, Mr. Forbes briefly posted the tracklist w/ time-codes, revealing that both “Chlorine” and “Bandito” go over five minutes- get hyped, kids. Highlights from this interview include:

When asked about Clancy, Tyler responds with a pregnant silence before asking how the the interviewer knew about him. DJ Forbes stutters an answer about having listened to the record, but Tyler replies that Clancy’s not on the record. All he does say about Clancy is “I’ve heard about him, and I know we’re from the same place.” What is up with your cryptic nonsense, Tyler Robert Joseph?

The band intentionally left the Trench Trilogy open-ended to be able to continue it in the future. Tyler did not mean to make the timeline confusing, but did note that its cyclical nature left it open for the Clique to pursue that interpretation.

Tyler is careful with choosing his words to describe Nico. He admits the whole thing is pretty confusing (his grandma asked him once, “What’s a Nico?”), but that was his intention: he wanted to give the Clique a lot to think about and discuss as a reward for waiting so long. He does seem to confirm that Nico is Blurryface, or at least an aspect of him that represents how much more familiar Tyler has become with the nature of his own insecurities as he writes about it.

Tyler denies that the final verse of “Neon Gravestones” has a specifically political bend and actually sounds a little offended that something so important to him could be cast in that light. No idea what that means, I need to hear this song.

The interviewer says that Tyler calls his “Pet Cheetah” “Jason Statham” within the song itself in a fun rap verse. Tyler laughs and says that came from an inside joke between him and Josh that he was excited to bring to life. I am SO confused, you have no idea.

Tyler says that they had plans at one point to come to South Africa for a show that fell through at the last second, but that they’re still interested in going at some point in the future.

Additionally, the music production interest site Mix did a small spotlight on the producers behind Trench. We already knew that Paul Meany was handling main production duty; Darrell Thorpe, whose credits include Radiohead, OutKast, Paul McCartney, and Foster the People, joined him as an engineer while the band captured the album’s drum tracks at United Recording Studios in LA, the only studio they used outside of the one in Tyler’s home. It’s always cool to see the dudes who bring the band’s music to life, but, to be honest, the best part of this short little article is Tyler’s dad socks in the photo.

Oh, and music video director Andrew Donoho told Billboard that he can’t spoil the album or Tyler will burn down his house. So... yeah, okay, moving on.

Chart Performance:

After its first full week of sales and streaming, “My Blood” secured a debut at #16 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart ranking the songs that have yet to reach the Hot 100. The song gains at all metrics, and according to some industry sources like Headline Planet, it is receiving a concentrated marketing push to pop and adult contemporary markets that its predecessors have not. “Jumpsuit” continues to fade, but its run was respectable, and I remain optimistic about Trench’s commercial prospects going forward, especially in the midst of this hype wave.

Whew. That was a long run. Congrats to everyone who made it all the way to the end. We’re so close to Trench, you guys. Keep powering through. Stay alive. And power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[tessajayne18]

Wolf with Silver Eyes (Chapter 9)

Summary: Byun Baekhyun is an established detective in a world full of supernatural creatures. His life takes a turn when he transfers to a new town as one of the only humans in the town. Everything appears as normal as it can be until a mysterious group plagues the town. Will Baekhyun be able to solve this case or will a pseudo-deity put a stop to it?

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8

“May I help you?” the nurse behind the desk asked as she saw somebody walk up.

 “I’m here to see Anaise Merriball,” Jongdae answered as he flashed his police badge.

 The nurse checked the file for a moment and replied, “Room 223 and I don’t think she’s awake yet.”

 “Thank you,” Jongdae bowed his head as he headed down the hall in search of the hospital room. He checked each room number until he found the magic number. He slowly walked into the room without making too much noise. He kept his calm expression as he took in Anaise’s appearance.

 Her body was covered with bruising and bloodied bandages. Her usual makeup-clad face was bare and covered with more bruising, and her skin appeared paler than normal.

 Jongdae released a sigh as he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Junmyeon letting him know he was with Anaise at the hospital. He also sent a text to Baekhyun letting him know as well. He released a sigh as he sat down at the small couch by the window. He fiddled with his phone for a few moments until a nurse walked in to take Anaise’s vitals.

 “Hello there,” the nurse smiled as she placed the cuff on Anaise’s arm to take her blood pressure.

 “Hello,” Jongdae politely greeted. “How is she doing?”

 “She’s stable for the most part, just hasn’t regained consciousness,” the nurse answered. “But we do have an option for faster recovery, but we need her consent first.”

 “Since she doesn’t have any family here, it would be a little tough to have someone else consent for her,” Jongdae sheepishly chuckled.

 “Hopefully she’ll be waking up before too long,” the nurse smiled as she wrote down all of the numbers she needed. She grabbed the equipment and started to leave as she told Jongdae, “Let me or another nurse know when she wakes up.”

 “Will do,” Jongdae replied as he watched the nurse leave the room.

 He scanned the room while waiting for something to happen and came across a couple of bags on the table next to the couch. Curiosity overcame him and he looked inside the bag and found Anaise’s bloodied uniform in one and her weapons in the other. He looked at the uniform and felt a cold feeling overcome him. Before he had much of a chance to think about it, Anaise started to wake up.

 Jongdae waited a few moments before casually said, “Morning, sleeping beauty.”

 Anaise glared at Jongdae and replied, “I get nearly killed and THIS is the first thing I hear? I’d rather be dead.”

 “Harsh,” Jongdae feigned shock but failed to hide his smirk. “How are you feeling?”

 “I hurt, to be blunt,” Anaise simply replied as Jongdae hit the call button next to the bed.

 “Well, a nurse should be here in a moment to help you not hurt,” Jongdae chuckled to himself. Anaise took a deep breath and winced in pain. Jongdae took notice and added, “Hurting that bad?”

 “Would you believe me if I told you this isn’t the worst thing to happen to me?” Anaise replied, smirking slightly.

 “I’d believe it,” Jongdae chuckled.

 The nurse walked in and smiled seeing Anaise awake. “Good morning, Anaise. I can imagine how much pain you’re in,” she greeted as she looked at the papers in her hands. “Well, now that you’re awake, I can talk to you about getting you healed up completely.”

 “That would be wonderful,” Anaise replied politely and Jongdae was visibly taken aback.

 The nurse chuckled at Jongdae’s expression and continued talking to Anaise. “The procedure we’ll be doing involves a lot of fairy magic and could potentially cause unwanted side effects in humans. This is why we need a consent for the procedure because we don’t want the patient to wake up with crazy side effects,” she explained.

 “I’ve had a procedure like this done a couple of times before, so I kind of know what I’ll be getting into,” Anaise said as the nurse handed her the form to sign.

 “Sounds good. I’ll tell the doctor and we can start getting set up. Should take about an hour or so to get started,” the nurse smiled and walked out of the room with the form Anaise signed.

 Anaise took a deep breath, while trying to keep the pain minimal, and looked over at Jongdae. “Is there any reason you are the one keeping me company?” she asked out of curiosity.

 “Irene is helping out with forensics, Junmyeon is doing extensive research, Chanyeol is looking for the two stooges you ran into yesterday, and Baekhyun is questioning everyone that was around the park that night. So I’m the only one left to look after you,” Jongdae answered.

 “So what you’re saying you got stuck with me,” Anaise bluntly replied, causing Jongdae to become a little flustered.

 “I-I’m not trying to sound l-like a bad guy or anything,” Jongdae stumbled on his words a little bit.

 Anaise couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m only teasing you, calm down,” she said through her chuckles. “It’s perfectly fine you’re here, I don’t mind it, but I need a favor,” she added after her chuckles died down.

 “What is it?” Jongdae asked attentively.

 “Can you hand me my phone, please?” Anaise asked gently.

 “Sure thing,” Jongdae smiled as he found her phone and handed it to her.

 Anaise started typing out a text and Jongdae became curious. “I would ask you for the real favor, but I don’t need a detective snooping through my things,” she stated before Jongdae could even ask anything.

 “What exactly did you need?” Jongdae asked.

 “After this procedure is done, I’m going to get to go home. Problem is… I don’t have any clean clothes to wear since my uniform is probably torn and bloodied,” Anaise reasoned as she sent her text.

 “And why wouldn’t you ask me?” Jongdae challenged.

 “Knowing you… you’d probably just rummage through my underwear for a solid half hour,” Anaise bluntly replied.

 Jongdae tried to come up with a clever response, but his thoughts got cut off by Anaise’s phone vibrating. He peeked over to see who she asked the favor of and was mildly surprised.

    Kami looked at the motel key and looked back up at the corresponding door. Once she agreed with herself this was the right door, she used the key to unlock the door and walk inside. “I’m going to find the clothes, and head back to the hospital,” she mumbled to herself as she looked up to find… Baekhyun? “Umm… what are you doing here?”

 Baekhyun turned around at the familiar voice and chuckled nervously. “Nothing in particular, just thought I’d look for something of Anaise’s,” he replied.

 “Are you snooping through her things?” Kami asked as she opened the drawers and grabbing a few clothing items.

 “You caught me,” Baekhyun admitted. “I just wanted to find out what makes her tic.”

 “It still doesn’t make it right,” Kami said as she found a blue and white stripped t-shirt and a black pair of short shorts. “And you’re a cop for crying out loud.”

 “I know, I feel bad about it, but I also want to try and figure her out. I am working with her for quite some time and I don’t want to butt heads too badly,” Baekhyun replied as he studied what Kami was doing. “And why are you here?”

 “I’m here because Anaise actually asked me to come here, unlike somebody who just snoops around on his own free will,” Kami replied as she grabbed a pair of underwear and a bra and stuffed them into a bag along with the t-shirt and shorts.

 “I also needed some time to kill before going back to the station,” Baekhyun added in an attempt to make himself appear more innocent.

 “I believe that, but you don’t need to be snooping in other people’s belongings,” Kami scolded as she left the motel room with Baekhyun following her.

 “At least let me give you a ride back to the hospital,” Baekhyun offered as he walked toward his car. “I still need to go back to the station and report everything from the park, but I can save you the trouble of walking all that way.”

 Kami pondered the offer and replied, “Sounds good, thank you.”

 She sat down in the passenger seat and set the bag by her feet. Baekhyun drove away as soon as their seatbelts were on. As he drove carefully towards the hospital, he asked Kami, “Since Anaise told me about your run in with the two guys yesterday, are you doing okay?”

 “I’m doing alright, I just don’t like it when people get nasty for no reason… it’s not fair,” Kami answered.

 Baekhyun sensed Kami was not telling him the full story, but he let it be since they arrived at to the hospital. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know,” he calmly said as he looked at Kami.

 Kami stared into his eyes as if to look for something. After a few moments, she replied, “I will. Thank you.”

 Baekhyun smiled at her words. He waited for Kami to exit his car, but he was surprised when Kami leaned in and kissed his cheek. She pulled back and smiled and left the car.

 Kami giggled to herself as she walked in the hospital and to the room Anaise texted her. She walked in the room labeled 223 and was greeted by Anaise and Jongdae.

 “I brought what you needed,” Kami greeted as she carefully handed her the bag of clothing.

 “Thank you very much,” Anaise replied as she looked in the bag. “They still need to do one final check-up before I can be discharged.”

 “I’m just glad you’re okay,” Kami smiled as she sat next to Jongdae on the couch. She sniffed for a brief moment and looked at Jongdae. “Are you aware that you reek of kitty litter?”

 “I’ve been told that several times in my lifetime,” Jongdae replied. “But I used the litter box this morning… how could you smell that?”

 Kami shrugged and replied, “I’ve always had a great sense of smell.”

 “You can take your sense of smell and shove it right up your—”

 “Careful what you say, or I will shove you up to where you’re thinking!”

 Anaise observed the bickering between Jongdae and Kami and took a few mental notes. They get along just as well as a cat and a dog…

    Baekhyun arrived back at the station, walked right up to Junmyeon’s desk, and slammed his notepad on the desk. Junmyeon looked up from his computer and flinched at the noise.

 “I’ve got something interesting,” Baekhyun smirked as he let Junmyeon look over his notes.

 After reading the first few lines of the notepad, he said, “You traced the timeline of the attack?! I’m impressed.”

 “It took a lot of hard work, but luckily everyone had a similar story so it was easy to piece together an accurate timeline,” Baekhyun replied as he sat down in the chair opposite of Junmyeon. “From everything I’ve gathered, Wonbin only attacks while in his werewolf form, so nobody ever really pieces together who he is in his human form.”

 “But from what we’ve gathered before, we know he runs a small store but he’s never there… so he’s gotta be hiding somewhere under the radar,” Junmyeon replied.

 “Has Chanyeol had any luck finding those two guys?” Baekhyun asked.

 “Not at all, but if we can find those two guys, we might be able to track down where Wonbin is hiding,” Junmyeon answered, “or at least find out where he will strike next.”

 “Or maybe help us find Silver Eyes first,” Baekhyun pondered.

 “What are you thinking?” Junmyeon asked suspiciously.

 “I’m thinking if we can figure out where Silver Eyes is, we can lure Wonbin out and capture him for good,” Baekhyun answered honestly.

 “We’ll see what happens first then we go from there,” Junmyeon replied, “whether we find Wonbin or Silver Eyes, I think we’ve got a solid plan.”

 “So the first step would be to track down those two guys?” Baekhyun asked.

 Junmyeon nodded and replied, “If we can question those two guys, we’ll use whatever information we can to move forward with the case.”

 “Who’s gonna look for them?” Baekhyun asked as he stood up to leave Junmyeon’s office.

 “When Anaise gets back and is one hundred percent, I’ll send you two out to look for them since she knows what they look like already,” Junmyeon replied.

 “Yes sir,” Baekhyun said as he left the office to go back to his own work. He sat down at his desk and looked over his notes. “First we need to prioritize the safety of the citizens, but we also need to find Wonbin as quick as possible, but we know his target is Silver Eyes… we might need to prioritize searching for Silver Eyes in this case.”

A/N: I’ve realized we don’t see Kami enough... that will change soon. So if any of you are interested in Kami’s character or just want to see her again, we will focus on her a little more in the next chapter!

[neon-serpent-llc]

Time to stroke my ego and elevate my opinions to untouchable facts with the fourth annual Whatever Awards! Now, don’t let me being a veteran AAA game developer trick you into thinking this list has any merit. My pointless, subjective list carries the same weight as The Oscars, that is to say, none.

Now read my absolutely important, objective list of Best Games.

Intentionally Hardcore or Accidentally Impossible? - ELEX One of my gaming guilty pleasures involves wonky sandbox adventures from Europe. Colorful worlds with unconventional RPG systems make for...unique game experiences. Which means unpredictability; something AAA games sorely lack.

This year’s prime example was ELEX, from the makers of Risen. Adding a dose of sci-fi seemed like an interesting twist on this already bizarre sub-genre, but it may (or may not) have gone horribly wrong. Because I genuinely can't tell if this game is monstrously difficult by design, or by accident.

The leveling system is heavily balanced towards quest completion, yet most quests involve traveling to areas swarming with tough monsters (who reward almost no experience for being killed). The combat is extremely stiff, so fighting them is an uphill battle to begin with, but presumably easier with better weapons. Yet you can't upgrade weapons (or even hold fancy weapons, like a blaster pistol) until you level up your character...which is almost impossible, since you finish so few quests. There's no good way to break in to this loop.

So my brief time with ELEX devolved into cautiously exploring the world and running away from all combat. And reloading often from the never ending stream of one-shot kills.

The Tale of Two Takes Award(s) - Nioh and The Surge Both games offered a take on the Soulsborne formula this year, with varying degrees of success. Without naming names, one was fast, fun, and interesting, whereas the other was slow, awkward, and frustrating. I liked the settings of each, and the core systems, but ultimately one I finished and the other I dropped after getting lost for hours in the second level. And for me to get lost is an almost unheard of feat. Remember, I make virtual mazes for a living!

Phrases to Retire Award, part 1 - Love Letter Every indie game on Steam is a love letter to some game from the past. Just once, I'd like to see a reply from one of the games that’s been called out.

Dear Face Xploders Xcelsior, Thanks for the kind thoughts. I tried your demo, and it kinda sucked. Please, don't write me again. Ciao, Castlevania.

P.S. Stop mentioning my name!

Too Much of a Good Thing Award - Prey Prey is a smart, rewarding game with confident, emergent design. Except for the last four hours of backtracking and more backtracking through monsters that repopulate at mach speed. Because of this, there is little motivation to fight them, only to flee, leading to a marathon of speed-run style tactics to get from point A to B, and back again. That said, the ending IS great, and makes everything come together as a whole, but it could have arrived much sooner. AAA games are so afraid to cut any finished content, (hey, that cost time and money!), but sometimes its necessary.

Way Too Much of a Good Thing Award - Miitopia Miitopia is a quirky, cute game with fairly standard JRPG design. And there's a good dose of humor in the unexpected interactions between Mii characters. Nothing close to the likes of Tomodachi Life, the insane, brilliant Mad-Lib generator, but still amusing.

This is a slow paced game, one that I burned through over the course of many nights, falling asleep in bed. But the thing is, this game is HUGE. It keeps going and going, world after world. Long after it has run out of new things to show you, there is just MORE. Even beating the game unlocks two worlds and an infinite side-quest system. As a kid, I never imagined that a game could be too long. Sorry, Little Me, but you were wrong!

Bad Habit Award - Hyperbole Headlines Everything is either the Best Thing Ever or the Worst Thing Ever. This reaches much further than the game industry, but some (not all) of our news sites have jumped fully onto this trend, which is the Worst Thing Ever, by the way.

I Forgot This Came Out Award - For Honor One of my only repeat awards, the "I Forgot This Came Out" Award is not meant to downplay the award's recipient, its meant to humbly remind us that hype and excitement mean nothing when it comes to standing the test of time. For Honor was a big E3 reveal for Ubisoft, a new IP set to redefine online combat. It had the world's attention. I tried the beta and it never clicked for me, but I know some of my co-workers adored it.

And then...it was gone. Like so many of the games we pour years of our lives into creating, they get their 15 seconds of fame, and nothing more. No end of the year praise, no all-time best lists. Just another momentary fragment of joy.

Best MMO - Destiny 2 No matter what Bungie claims, Destiny 2 is an MMO...and it's pretty fun this time! There's a deep-seated momentum to the gameplay. You never sit still as you dance through a progression of ever more colorful worlds. And strong art direction bleeds through everything. Compare that to my only memories of Destiny 1: sitting around, waiting for a FitBit to decode computers in dull, empty rooms.

Phrases To Retire Award, Part Two - Blowing Up My phone is blowing up! This game is blowing up! These awards are blowing up! They got two whole retweets!!

Remasterpiece Award - Final Fantasy XII Sometimes its sacrilege to mess with a masterpiece. Even the phrase "Who shot first?" evokes memories of defending Han's trigger finger. Yet, in videogames we buy remakes and remasters with the express hope that our masterpieces HAVE been messed with. They better have spruced up them graphics and tripled the FPS, re-recorded the voice-overs, let me fast travel, save anywhere, and given me a new epilogue for good measure.

Such is the case with Final Fantasy XII, a masterpiece to begin with, and much more so now with the addition of one clever feature: the fast-forward button. One click and the entire game runs at either 2x or 4x normal speed. I was certain using it would cheapen the experience, but to my surprise, it greatly enhanced it. By speeding up the tedious parts, players have more time to enjoy the tasty bits. It encourages deeper exploration of the world and its content.

One could argue, of course, that there should be no tedious parts, but I can think of few narrative-heavy games without some tedium built-in. Every second of the story can't be exciting, we need peaks and valleys. A sprinkle of tedium helps virtual worlds feel more lived-in and authentic. Pure games like Ikaruga can dispense with tedium because the story of Ikaruga is "shoot or die!"

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Shadow of the Colossus next (this) year. A ground-up remake of yet another masterpiece, but by a completely different creative team. Every line of code is new. If I told you I had the exact blueprint to replicate the Mona Lisa, I doubt you'd be excited to see my "remake."

Trend That Needs To Die - Loot Boxes They've been lame since day one and everyone finally seems to agree. Companies, just let us directly buy the dumb consumer junk we want!

Game that Most Impressed my Parents Award - Horizon: Zero Dawn My Dad is a classical landscape painter, so I like to show him vast game environments. While he was impressed by Assassin's Creed's Egypt, and Zelda's rolling fields, he was blown away by the sheer beauty of nature on display in Horizon. And my Mom also remarked that it was "very pretty." I made a brief attempt to explain robot dinosaurs to them, but ultimately concluded with, "look, its a videogame, ok?"

The Inverse Xenogears Award - Mass Effect Andromeda Xenogears, if you'll recall, started strong and remained strong...until disk 2 where, frankly, the game kinda fell apart. Many games fall into this mold, most famously Mass Effect 3 which ended on a particularly underwhelming note.

So what happens when I game STARTS on a particularly underwhelming note, but gains momentum and finishes strong? Such is the case with ME:A. The game sets up a simple, awe inspiring premise: humanity goes to Andromeda. We've finally reached a new galaxy. Things beyond our imagination await here, just you wait!

Oh, never mind. Turns out its just the standard bipedal dudes-with-guns waiting for us, behind cover no less. Also, some animations were weird. Buzz killed. Understandably, most people bailed out around this point.

But, given about ten hours, the game opens up. For one, you start visiting proper alien-looking planets, and the scope of the story broadens vastly. Around the same time you've gotten enough abilities to zip around the battlefield, never needing to hide for cover again. This is where the game should have started.

By the end, the fate of Andromeda convincingly rests in your hands in a truly bombastic finale that hits on every level. And your character is a bona fide joy to control by this point. This is easily the strongest ending in Bioware's history, overcompensating for the ME3 ending fiasco. Shame that most will never see it, and the stage that it sets will never continue. Mass Effect is likely dead now.

What's the Fuss Award - Player Unknown's Battlegrounds This game has been around for years, more or less, in various forms. So why do people suddenly care? Why this one? Nothing about it is particularly new. If anything, it seems like a slower, clumsier version of almost any other shooter that comes to mind. The Zeitgeist is weird.

Might have been game of the year, if I had more time to play it - Persona 5 Even though I've played ten hours already, I know I'm basically nowhere in this game. Which is more than I can say for Divinity 2, another supposed GOTY candidate that I've yet to even start. There were just too many good games this year. Who has the time to play them all, especially these 100+ hour behemoths?

Movie and music critics can easily keep up with new releases, but game reviewers are obligated to complete these massive games before rendering judgement. Most professional game outlets divide reviews across numerous individuals and even then these outlets only review a fraction of new releases. Is there a single soul on Earth that played EVERY Steam game released in 2017? Doubtful. Given this, is any "game of the year" pronouncement valid? At best, GOTY is more like "Best game I played this year, of the 5% of total releases that I actually played"

Phrases to Retire Award, Part 3 - Is a thing. Apparently, Microsoft Windows 3.1 is still a thing. Listen, it might have been cute if it was said once, by one human, and then retired for a decade. But instead it's said by every human, every second, about every THING. How is this a thing?

The Long-Lost Everything Award - Xenoblade 2 This game reminds me of all the best bits of ye olde games of yore: A huge, sweeping story that keeps evolving and unfurling with none of the cut corners I associate with the PS3 era (where every game got really short, and every environment got reused 200 times). A huge, sweeping soundtrack with countless memorable songs and none of the generic movie-orchestration I associate with games made in the west. A huge, sweeping overworld that's intricately hand crafted to match the story (living on the shoulders of Titans is escapism at its best), with none of the generic cities/fields I associate with, well, most open world games.

Mostly, this felt like a great, overlooked space-opera Anime that we've all somehow rediscovered 15 years later. That said, the fan service also feels fifteen years out of date, and is the only questionable bit from ye olde games of yore.

“Hey, I Have a Fun Idea” Award - Super Mario Odyssey The award is named after how the game was designed. Just a bunch of people sitting around saying, “hey, I have fun idea,” and then making that into a tight, micro-slice of gameplay bliss. This game is loaded with brief, memorable moments that are novel, and never overstay their welcome. As the last drop of fun has been reached with one activity, the game is already moving you along to the next...hundreds of times in a row. Now that's impressive.

Everyone's a Speedrunner Award - Ys VIII: The Lacrimosa of Dana Most games try to mimic real-world physics when it comes to character movement. A character's jump, for instance, looks wrong if it doesn't match what we'd expect to see in reality. Speedrunners know how to exploit these pseudo-physics to great effect, and use this knowledge to "break the game" by moving and jumping in ways unintended by the game's developers. Usually this type of movement is difficult to perform, and requires hours of practice to master single-frame animation windows and pixel-perfect jump arcs.

But not in Ys VIII! Just mash on the jump and dodge buttons and you'll soon become a whirling dervish of energy, constantly increasing in speed. It requires no practice, and feels exhilarating. The music's tempo matches the speed, and nothing ever slows you down, making it clear that this freedom of movement was by design. Brilliant!

The Armchair Architect's Wet Dream Award - Gravity Rush 2 Gravity Rush 2 is a beautiful game. Maybe too beautiful, as I spent most of my time slowly walking the streets, taking in the colorful architecture. And while this world is obviously an impossible place, most of the buildings still seem like they could work. In particular, I liked that the bottom of every island was explorable as well. I guess there are literally no places to hide when your main character is a badass, flying-cat superwoman.

Game of the Year Award (or Best game I played this year, of the 1% of total releases that I actually played) - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Hardly surprising given that Zelda has won this award from...well, everybody I think, but there is no denying this game is just sublime. A profound sense of freedom and old-school Adventure permeates every inch of this vast world. And the game is greatly unpredictable, thanks to all the emergent physics systems built-in to the core gameplay. No two encounters play the same because of it, keeping this behemoth utterly engaging from start to finish.

Art of the Year Award - Nier Automata Videogames are an Artform, which we all (finally) know by now, but of course they're only one of many Artforms that fight for our hearts and minds: Movies, music, literature, painting, sculpture, and sandwiches made at Subway (hey, they're made by "sandwich artists," right?). And with this in mind, I offer up my first ever "Art of the Year Award" to the best damn Art I've seen in many years: Nier Automata.

It's hard to explain why this game packs so much of a punch, especially given that, at first glance, it seems like an easily dismissable fan service game. Do not be fooled! What starts as a standard sci-fi premise, becomes more and more involved both in terms of plot and philosophy. This buildup leads you exclusively in one direction, thematically. This theme is remarkably consistent, from the music to the side quests, even to the enemies you encounter. That is, until the credits of ending five roll (there are 26 endings, but you'll only need to see five to fully understand what I mean). Then everything gets flipped, so to speak, in what is EASILY the best ending in video game history. This turnabout is not only well earned, but it makes every second preceding it feel more important and absolutely necessary. In terms of vision, this is a Complete Thought, delivered in video game format.

Most importantly, Nier showed me that "art games" don't have to be boring. It's so fun to play! With my game, ULTRAWORLD EXODUS, I kept many exciting elements of movement out because I was worried players wouldn't pay attention to the message, which was the game's reason to exist. But instead, they paid attention to the lack of movement options, and missed the message anyway because they were too frustrated. Nobody wants a symposium, they want to smash giant robots. And hey, if someone is talking that philosophy stuff in the background, that's cool I guess, as long as I can keep smashing. This one will stay with me for years.

-----------

And that’s all; what an embarrassment of riches this year was! Feel free to disagree with me, because honestly, that’s the point. Your opinions will always hold the most weight, far more than mine, which suck. So, yeah, whatever :P

[justanotherinterludeff]

14

Wild, wild, wild When I’m with you, all I get is wild thoughts Wild, wild, wild When I’m with you, all I get is wild thoughts

DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna

I tapped my acrylic nail against the desk repeated, looking down at my phone every so often. It was 12:36 and my professor was officially her time limit. If it was a regular day, I wouldn’t mind the extra time to finish taking my notes. But today was the last day and all she was doing was thanking us for taking her course and how much she enjoyed having all of us as students.

I wish we could say the same. She was crazy. The way she graded almost caused a lot of us to fail. I thank the Lord I came out with a ‘B.’ Anyways, she needed to hurry it up. I didn’t have work today, so the fact that I could go home and not worry about school for a couple weeks had me happy and in a great mood. But she was messing it up.

“Well, if all hearts and minds are clear, everyone is free to go.” She announced. I sighed and said my goodbyes to the few people that I did speak to during the semester. I exited the room and plugged my earphones, instantly Kehlani’s voice drowned the hustle and bustle of the hallways.

I fished around in my bag trying to find my keys as Kehlani sang about how much of a good woman she was for a man not to appreciate her. It was probably one of my favorite songs on the album because I could relate. I wasn’t gonna ever settle for a man I knew I was way too good for.

I found my keys and stuck them in my back pocket before texting Amari and Adrienne, letting them know I was finally out of class. Amari and Adrienne were… a thing now? I was guessing at least. They were having sex with each other and only each other. It was weird as hell to me. 

They liked each other, had sex, slept at each other’s house from time to time… but they weren’t together. They both admitted to me, separately of course, that they just wanted sex from each other. But I felt, deep down, that was some bullshit. They were growing feelings more and more for each other every time they spent time together, had sex, and were in each other’s presence. 

Considering I hadn’t seen them since them since about a week and a half ago at the party, we were gonna try to link up either today or later this week. Adrienne and  were going to the nail salon sometime today, and I would get to see my bestfriend this weekend. 

I texted Adrienne and let her know I would be going home for a little, and then I’d meet her after she got off work at 3. It was hot as hell outside, and I thanked God for my choice of high waisted jeans, crop top and sandal combo. I slid in my car, and made sure to set the air condition on high before pulling off. 

Before heading straight home, I decided to stop at Chipotle. A chicken bowl was calling my name. I found a parking space, and got out quickly, still keeping my headphones in my ear. This time Tee Grizzley was in my ear talking about how niggas had been praying for his downfall. I really don’t know who I thought I was listening to music like this.

I ran my hand over my hair making sure I looked alright before swinging the door open. I joined the semi-long line and pulled m phone from my pocket to pass the time. I was strolling through my Instagram feed when I felt someone touch my arm. I pulled one of my earphones and turned to see Jelani. 

“What’s up Z?” He through his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug. “Hey.” I replied softly. He let me go and I settled back into my spot in line. “I ain’t seen you since the pool party, where you been at?” “School.” I shrugged. Our conversation was dry, due to me, but that was because Jelani could take someone’s ears off if you’d let him. Also, he was thirsty as hell. 

“So, what’s up with me and you?” He smirked. See? I rolled my eyes. “The same as always, Jelani. Nothing.” I moved up a few steps in line. “Here you go, being stuck up again.” He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and instead of giving him the attention I knew he wanted so bad, I slipped my earphone back in my ear and picked another song. 

When it was my turn to order, I turned my music down, and told the employee what I wanted in my bowl. I made sure to get guacamole on the side to eat with my chips. I couldn’t wait to get home. I skipped getting a drink, I needed to be drinking more water anyways. I paid for my meal, and left without saying goodbye to Jelani. 

Getting home took no longer than ten minutes. I kicked my shoes off in the living room, sat my food down on the coffee table, and went to the kitchen to grab a water bottle. When I returned to the living room, I pulled my jeans off, sat and crossed my legs before turning on the TV. I reached for my guac and chips first, before dipping into my bowl. 

While I snacked, I watched Omarion and Marques Houston get down in You Got Served. I watched as Liyah introduced her bestfriend, ‘ And that’s with two “L"s. You gotta accentuate the "L"s. You know, let it roll off your tongue.’” I recited from memory. BET played this movie way too often for me not to know it. 

Once I was stuffed, I put the rest in the fridge and made sure to grab a blanket from the closet in the hall. I got comfortable on the couch and I wasn’t too sure, when I closed my eyes. 

I woke up disoriented and my head was pounding. Someone was at my front door, knocking like the police. I didn’t know what day it was. What time it was. Nothing. I noticed the sun had went down, and I was confused as hell. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I stopped the time on the cable box. 9:59 pm. There was no way I sleep for a whole seven hours. 

Someone was still knocking at the door. I groaned and wrapped the blanket around myself and slowly made my way over to the door. I didn’t even bother to look through the peephole. I swung it open and was surprised to see Bryson. 

I hadn’t seen him since the pool party. And even then, we didn’t speak to each other. Despite him saving me and removing that creep form the party, I hadn’t said one word to him. It was just so awkward, at least on my part. After it was all said and done, I wanted to. But, he looked like he was back to enjoying himself and not even thinking about me so, I just kept quiet. 

No matter if we were speaking or not, I always took it upon myself to take him in. He had his iPhone to his ear, his grill was in, donning an all black ensemble with a denim jacket. It made no sense how attractive he was.

“Yeah, I’m looking at her right now.” He spoke to whoever was on the phone. I cocked my brow. Who was he talking to? “Alright, hold on.” He handed the phone over to me. “Hello?” I answered. “Zemora! What the fuck?!” I recognized Naomi’s voice. “Everyone has been calling your phone all day! What happened to you? Are you okay?” 

“What? I’ve been at home all day. I just woke up.” I ushered Bryson in the house while I searched for my phone. It was on the coffee table, and when I picked it up and tried to unlock it, I noticed it was dead. “Adrienne called me asking for you cause y’all were supposed to be going somewhere today. She said she texted and you never answered. Called a million times and you never answered. She said she even came by and no one answered the door.” 

My eyes bulged, I could not have been this tired. “I was staying at Kai’s tonight and I was gonna come check, but my brother said he was in the area and said he’d drop by to check. Thank God you’re okay.” “I’m sorry I had y’all worried. My phone died and I didn’t even know. Thank you for checking on me.” I said. 

“It’s nothing, Z. Seriously, just make sure you keep your phone charged.” “Okay, mom.” I laughed. “Tell Adrienne I’m fine, okay? I gotta charge my phone and then I’ll text her.” “Okay. Good night love.” “Good night.” I replied before the call ended. I handed the phone back over to Bryson. 

“Thank you for checking on me.” I said. “No problem.” He nodded. Without saying another word, he stood to his feet and was making his way to the door. “Bryson.” I called out to him. “Yeah?”  “Um, are you busy right now? Can we talk?” “Uh,” He started. He rubbed his hand over his head for a second. “I got something I gotta deal with right now, yeah.” 

“Oh.. okay then.” I replied disappointed. “Yeah.” He replied dryly. I followed him to the door, ready to lock it. But, he stopped once he was about to step out. “I don’t know what time imma be done, but I can come back when I’m done. Cool?” Seeing that I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon, I had no problem with it. “Yeah, that’s fine.” I nodded. “Alright, I’ll be back then. Charge your phone before my sister send the police over here.” He laughed before stepping out. 

I took the time that he was gone to try to find something for this headache, after putting my phone on the charger of course. I popped some ibuprofen and also took a nice, hot, long shower. I felt refreshed when I stepped out. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and made sure to moisturize my skin. I opted for something comfortable to wear for the rest of the night. 

I was clean, comfortable, and now I just needed some tea. I retreated to the kitchen and heated some water up quickly. While I was scanning my cabinets for the different boxes of teas that I had, my phone vibrated repeatedly on the counter. 

“Adrienne, I am so sorry!” “Z, I don’t wanna hear that bullshit. You scared me! I thought someone kidnapped your ass!” She huffed into the phone. “I knowww! I’m sorry. Thank you for checking on me.Are you busy tomorrow? We can go before work.” “Um, I’m busy tomorrow. Amari and I are going on a date.” I could tell she was grinning from her voice. 

“Like a date date?” I questioned while turning off my kettle. “Yeah.” She giggled like a school girl. “Ohhh, sounds like y’all about to get real serious.” Amari asking Dri on a real date? Yeah, he was really feeling her. “You think so?” She asked shyly. “I mean, y’all already had sex, what’s left?” I laughed. 

“True. Mm, and Lord knows he be putting in work! Oh! I forgot to tell you how he made me squirt the other night! Bitch, he-” “Adrienne! I don’t wanna know about that!” I stopped her mid rant. She kissed her teeth, “I swear I can’t wait until your celibate ass starts having sex again. Then we can share stories and shit.” 

“I don’t ever wanna hear about how Amari fucks you.” I rolled my eyes. That must have tickled her because she fell out in uncontrollable laughter. “Hearing you curse has to be the funniest shit ever.” She cackled. “Leave me alone, Dri. I-” A buzzing sound filled my ears and I pulled my phone away from my ear. 

Bryson: I hope you not sleep 

I let a small giggle leave my lips before responding quickly. “Um, who is texting us this late?” Adrienne inquired. “Bryson.” I answered quickly. “Bryson? Naomi’s Bryson? The one you had a crush on? Ah shit! Y’all talking again?” She asked. “I don’t even know Dri. He’s coming by in a little bit to talk about everything.” 

“Talk? Talk? Sis… It’s 1:34 am. Ain’t no talking going on around these hours. You about to get some penisssss!” I fell out laughing as she cackled on the other end. “I’m so serious Z! my mama always said there was nothing open beside legs at this hour.” She reasoned. “Well, all me and Bryson are gonna do is talk. It’s not going that far.” I told her. 

I pulled a spoon out the drawer before washing it off quickly. I found myself checking how I looked in the reflection on the silver spoon I picked out from the draw either way. 

I lowkey couldn’t help myself. Something about him made me tingle. In all the right places. And no matter if we talked or not, I always found myself thinking about him. How pretty his lips were, how deep his voice was, how buff he was getting lately, how fine he was. I was so attracted to him. And the fact that we were speaking was doing something to me. 

Although we already spoke about what happened the night of the house warming, I felt like we still had more to talk about. More so how I was doing way too much even though he didn’t owe me any kind of loyalty. We weren’t even talking like that so I had no right to be mad. But even with knowing all this, I couldn’t help myself. I was already so attached to him it was ridiculous.

A knock sounded at the door and I knew it was him. “He’s here Dri. Let me call you back later.” “Go get that dick bitch!” She yelled over the phone. I shook my head and ended the call. With all the denying I was doing with Adrienne, I could only hope my body followed my mind through this whole talk.

I opened the door for him, and he stepped in smelling like weed. “What’s up?” He greeted, while I noticed the red solo cup in his hand. I shut the door behind him and followed as he led the way to the living room. He took a seat on the couch while I went to fetch my mug of tea from the kitchen. When I emerged, I noticed the jacket he was wearing when he walked in was now slightly folded and draped over the top of the couch. 

He had to have been hitting the gym these past couple weeks. Not that he was scrawny before, but now, his muscles were literally bulking out of his shirt. I swallowed hard. “So what you wanted to talk about?” He asked as I made my way to the couch. I put my mug on the coffee table and sat a on the other side of the couch. 

“Um, I just wanted to.. to say thank you for what you did at the party. You didn’t have to help me out and I appreciate that.” I said. He nodded, “It ain’t no problem. He ain’t have no reason to grab on you like that.” “Right, right.” I agreed awkwardly. 

There was a whole minute and a half of silence before he cleared his throat. “So, where you been at? I ain’t seen you in a minute.” He asked. “I’ve been here.” I shrugged. “All I been doing is going to work and school. Where have you been?” “Just working.” He shrugged. He held a sexy smirk on his face. 

“Working or avoiding me?” I asked. “Nah, I should be asking you that.” He chuckled. “You ain’t been wanting to see me since that little accident with Cici. Straight up avoiding a nigga.” He laughed. Cici? I was guessing that was the girl’s name. “True.” I shrugged. There wasn’t any use in lying now. 

“And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I think I was doing wayyy too much with that whole situation. Honestly, you didn’t even need to come over here and explain yourself that night. You didn’t-” “Nah, I needed to. Me and you had a little thing going on, and yeah it wasn’t serious but it was something. Shit looked crazier than it was and you needed to know what happened.” He explained. 

I was still stuck on the fact that he liked me. 

“Look, I don’t get into people too often, but a nigga is attracted to you and I can’t help it. Everything about you is sexy. You smart, you funny, you independent. And the fact that you got a pretty face and a fat ass is a bonus.” He said. I bent over in laugh. That and I was hiding my blush. 

“Come here.” He tapped my foot. I scooted closer to him still leaving a little space in between us, but that wasn’t enough for him. He damn near picked me up and placed me on his right beside him. “I don’t know what the hell it is about you, but you drawing me in. And I barely know shit about you.” I was still blushing. 

“You just gonna sit here smiling or you gonna say something?” He smirked. I hid my face in my hands and giggling. “What do you wanna know?” I asked after I composed myself. “Whatever you wanna tell me.” He answered. 

We started out with birthdays. His was August 15th, which made him a Leo. Hm, an alpha male. I could see it. I wanted to smack myself for even knowing that. Adrienne had been filling my ear with astrology talk and even though I never paid any attention to it, I was soaking up some of the information. 

Favorite colors followed after, then it was favorite foods, music, things we hated, and things we loved the most. His daughter’s name was the first thing off his lips. I thought it was the cutest thing ever. He literally lit up as he told me all about Leilani. Deep down, I wanted to ask about her mom because I really wasn’t with the baby mama drama, but I knew better so I held off. 

“She’s my whole heart, man. I swear I can’t thank God enough everyday for her. And the fact that she acts just like me is a bonus.” He smiled, letting me see his pearly whites. “Yeah, she is a little cutie, just like her daddy.” “You flirting with me Z? Better stop before you make a nigga blush.” 

He had me giggling, before pushing his shoulder playfully. He chuckled before reaching for his red solo cup. “Hennessy?” I questioned. He nodded, “Want some?” “Nope. Not really a drinker.” I let him know. “You smoke?” He asked. I shook my head. “Oh, so you a real good girl then huh?” I rolled my eyes. 

“You mind if I light up then?” He asked. “Nah, go ahead.” I reached for my mug of tea and could instantly feel his eyes all over my behind. “Pictures last longer.” I quipped. He only chuckled as in returned to my upright position. The sound of his lighter went off next. We talked about some more stuff while he finished the blunt, and I could feel myself getting a contact. I was around Amari enough to know what that felt like. 

“You a virgin?” I spit some of my tea out. He was cracking up. “Excuse me?” I managed to say. He kissed his teeth, “What? That’s too bold?” “No, it was just… random? We were talking about colors and now we’re discussing if my cherry has been popped or not?” “Has it?” “Does it matter?” He smirked, “It hasn’t.” 

He was laughing again. “That’s funny?” “My bad, I ain’t laughing at you. Ain’t nothing wrong with being a virgin. So, what is it? You saving yourself for marriage?” He asked. “I’m not saving myself Bryson, I’m not a virgin.” Another smirk. “What?” I questioned the look on his face. 

“Nothing, nothing.” He smiled. He put the roach out and took another sip of his drink, I was still staring at him. “What?” He asked. I gave him a look that said, “Speak your mind.” 

“A nigga was just trying to figure you out. You ain’t a virgin, so that means you one of them quiet freaks.” This time, it was me who was cracking up. “I bet you into some kinky shit.” I was rolling. He figured this out by what? Looking at me? Bryson was really a trip. “Guess you’ll never know.” I shrugged. Instead of replying, he just sent me another smirk.

[your-missing-period]

Questions 7, 20, and 28 for Charcoal and Cupid (who is so pretty btw oh man). And then I kinda want to ask A-J but that's a lot and you might want to talk about characters other than those two so... Wildcard A-J with wildcard characters...?

Cupid thinks he’s pretty too. He says you have good taste xD

7. What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

Charcoal: Thinking, thinking, thinking. “I miss my old clan.” He started softly. “I’m from the Ashfall Waste, the Emberglow Hearth to be exact. I miss the dry air. The air isn’t dry, or heated, in the Labirynth. But the scouts bring food from there, and when we get to eat it, it tastes like home.”

Cupid: “Honey, my darling dear my little dandelion, I don’t focus on the past. I don’t miss anything! I have me and me alone and my two lovely little fae children and that’s all I need to get by in such a, ugly, clan.” 

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

Charcoal: “Uhh.” The difference? “Well one is like me loving Carolina, because she’s from my old clan with me, so I love her like a sister. That’s familial love. Platonic is me loving my friends, like Carolina, because we’re from the same clan. Oh but she’s my sister so I can’t love her twice uh.. I guess... Mayall, is friendly love?” He had his arms cross before holding his chin, or the bottom of his beak (dragon physiology) with a claw. “So I guess romantic love would be who you’d want to make hatchlings with. I don’t have anyone like that.”

Cupid: The dragon watched the other one try to mentally work it out. Oh boy. “Love is a very complicated thing.” He butt in with a smile. “But in the end, all love is the same in the end.” He raised a claw. “Hard to believe, I know, but think about it. You need to love your friends to hang around them, you rarely ever find a mate unless you’re friends with them first, and even with family you hear the phrase ‘they’re like my best friend.’ You need to be friends with those you love, and it needs to be love. Sometimes we confuse love with obligatory feelings, like how you need to love your parents, but that’s not always the case, because if you ask Ranch, Honeydew, or Eggplant, parents can be absolute shit.” He stood straighter, wishing he had a board to help describe all of this. “So it starts at friendship, so to speak, all love in the end is platonic love of some sort, because you want to keep your friends in your life forever. The difference moving on is just trying to box in love. If you love your sibling like a friend, but also love your friend romantically, which love do you choose? It all gets very very complicated. However, I can agree that romantic love is a person you would like to get emotionally and physically closer to, someone who you can see a future with,” he motioned towards Charcoal. “Someone you would like to raise a family with.”

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth?

Charcoal: “An unpleasant truth. It’ll hurt or be awful but at least you know. You can move on when you know things.”

Cupid: A laugh left the spiral. “Oh honey, it’s definitely a lie. You can attract more flies with honey and all that. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, and lies are just the way to do that. After all, you think I like you!”

Charcoal: He looked down, unamused. “You don’t like anyone trust me this isn’t subtle.”

With your A-J questions, I’ll use each dragon starting a row!! c: I love Charcoal and Cupid but they’re not as super fleshed out as other dragons.

A) Why are you excited about this character?

As my Clan Leader, Cici has a lot of potential. If you’ve kept up with other asks, you’ve heard that people actually think PomeGrape is the head of the clan because he makes the decisions and orders people around, which then brings the question as to why Cici allows that and allows that belief to live while she’s also Clan Head. I’m not too sure myself why she does it yet, but Pome always does come to her for final decisions, as do other dragons as well. So they know she’s clan head but they just like Pome more. I think she lets him be the figurehead the face of leadership, when she does most of it. We haven’t delved a lot into her backstory yet (especially since she’s my progen) but there’s definitely a lot of potential with her that I can’t wait to unlock!

B) What inspired you to create them?

So Honeydew is actually one of the few dragons to have some decent lore (at least decent in terms of how much there is). His father is the same as Ranch’s, making them half-brothers, and when my friend told me that Felix hatched another nest and asked if I wanted any, I had to look. Her Felix is know for being pretty gaudy, pretty full of himself (a lot like Cupid) so I figured, since him and his wife are both really bright yellows, Honey, who seemed a little less bright, would get thrown out. From there I knew he would be a lot different from his brother, and I really wanted Ranch to get out of his scared depressed state too, so raising someone who was his opposite was the surefire way to do that! I like character growth where I can get it.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

PomeGrape definitely had some rocky beginnings, he was a gift from a friend and he was supposed to be really cold and really mean and turns out he’s anything but that. So it was harder to develop his personality than it actually was his role. He sort of fell into his role of ‘organizing the life of the clan’ but since he was pretty solitary, I had to find reasons for other dragons to visit him. Turns out he’s a pretty nice dude. He ended up good thanks to his mate. 

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

HA YES I WAS HOPING THIS QUESTION WOULD LINE UP WITH ILIANA. Okay so Iliana is actually an original character of mine!! Her original appearance, as a human, which is what she is originally is based off Saoirse Ronan in Hanna. She’s a clone set in an xmen universe and she’s always been somewhat shy, sticking close to one person. To transfer that Iliana to dragon form was hard because she’s such a soft, gentle, very kind girl who was put through very cruel and unusual situations but still came out very nice. I wanted her coloring and her breed to reflect that, but I could never scry anything perfect. I forgot how I ended up finding the nocturne that is now dragon Iliana. I really don’t remember what I was looking for but I saw her and it wasn’t even a second guess I just immediately bought her for all the treasure she was worth. She still looked very soft and very gentle and very princess-like, but I’ve been saving up for a skin from here because dragon Iliana does go through the coliseum a lot with her now-girlfriend Georgiana, and it hasn’t been very kind to her.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Frir is an odd dragon. When I first joined FR I really really loved snaps so I was disappointed when I couldn’t make a snap, and he was donated to me. Naturally I loved his appearance half to death because I love brightly colored dragons but I never knew what to do with him, and I still don’t. I just know he’s mute, he follows Mayall around a lot (technically they’re dating) and he likes to go scavenging. I don’t think I’d get along with him, because I love to talk a lot and I love the conversation that happens, but I think Frir could get along with anyone. He’s a very loving dragon who cares about everyone.

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

So, Phosphorescence makes me feel.... I’m not sure. I kinda want to hate him but I don’t? He doesn’t have the same pack-mentality the other mirrors have. If anything he displays none of the mirror traits of bloodthirsty-ness and needing to survive. He does eat a lot but he’s managed it, especially in Viridian Labyrinth where there’s never a lack of food. But I feel bad for him, because he can’t relate to other mirrors, so he’s sort of friendless because that mirror stereotype is applied to him when he doesn’t fit it at all. He ends up working at night, because he glows in the dark so helps lost dragons find their way back, or helps Minnie and Carolina with plants that can only be obtained at night. 

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

So Heng is a recently created dragon (because her and Jian are part of my breeding project for another oc dragon) and I think what bothers me about her the most (aside from my lack of giving her lore) is that she seems really clever very early on. Or really possessive. She works as an acolyte for the demigod Jian, so she spends a lot of her time with him and she swears she loves him, but something about her just rubs me wrong, like, I know she doesn’t have good intentions but I haven’t figured them out yet.

H) What trait do you admire most?

Ugh, Anteros. He’s technically one of Cupid’s adopted kids but like all faes in my clan, he has a really hard time speaking the common tongue that larger dragons share, because faes mainly communicate body language through their head frills. And with a slightly neglectful dad (cupid swears he loves them, but their ideas aren’t always up to cupid standards) he’s sort of been sitting and doing nothing with his sister a lot. I guess I admire the way he cares for his sister and helps her out despite their circumstances. Cupid’s not a bad dad, but he’s not great. Anteros prefers to be alone because of it, but him and his sister will go talk to the other faes to get some socialization and understanding what’s going on. He’s learning to be independent, that’s what I like.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

HA. No. So Calzone is originally a subspecies of dragon called ‘Pizza Dragons.’ Which means, logically, he should be made of pizza. But lord knows I only loved calzone for his genes and not for his ‘canon lore.’ So I threw him out of it and made him the exalter of the clan instead. I loved the genes but not the lore. He’s actually friends with Chikan. 

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

Ugh, Lamp. So the thing with Lamp is that she’s for sale. I love her, I love her genes, I love the potential she holds, but I cannot for the life of me think of any lore or dress her but god I love her half to death. I haven’t created anything for her. I don’t know how. I love her and want to keep her but I don’t know how or what to create. I have scraps at best and nothing at worst.

[jimfromsales]

Frozen

Okay everyone buckle up for a sad ride.  Because it's sad, like I was listening to the theme song for Up on repeat while writing this.  So yeah.  Please give me feedback, tell me what you thought, I’d appreciate it!

Warnings: Major angst.  Major.  And a death.  An x-men death.  But you have to read it to find out which one...  Also some fluff, but it's small and for the purpose of the plot.

Word count: 2052

The world is frozen.  I watch the people pass by in their nearly motionless state, wishing away all feelings as I hide from Cerebro and the Charles that comes with it.    I can feel him trying to find me, the way he’s been trying to find me ever since- I break away from my unfinished thought as I angrily wipe a hot tear from my cheek and leave the still figures I have been watching behind.

   Y/N, come on!”  Peter’s silver hair flashes in the sun as he races around me.    “Don’t ask me to go any faster, because I can’t!”  I pant, laughing.    “You can…” he offers, wiggling his fingers at me.    “You know I’m not going to do that.”    He shoots into place next to me.  “It was worth a shot.”  I roll my eyes and laugh. Ever since Peter found out that I make a copy of any person’s mutation whose hand I touch, he’s been trying to get me to copy his.  I won’t yet though, since we’ve only been dating for three months and there’s no way for me to un-copy his power if we ever break up.  We agreed that I’d copy it at our one year anniversary, so now it’s all he can do to try to tempt me into taking it early.    “Imagine how much longer our dates would be!” he had exclaimed when I had first told him about it.

  I look around me.  I have managed to get to the gardens without even noticing my surroundings.  The people begin to move normally around me as I feel Charles’ presence in my mind.     “Y/N, are you ready to go?”    I push Peter off my textbooks.  We have to study for the test tomorrow, but SOMEONE keeps distracting me.    “Okay, fine, where are we going?”    “You decide,” he says, plopping himself down in the chair next to me to stare me down for a moment.  “No, you took too long, I found us a spot.”      I laugh at him.  “Where are we going?”      “Guess.”      Now it’s my turn to stare him down.  “You know I can read your mind, right?”    “Read it then, what does it say?”      “It says ‘I can’t actually read minds, but I am pretty cute-’ Hey!  That’s not true!”    I give him a smack on the arm and he teases, “partly true,” before he picks me up and zooms me off to dinner.        A tear falls down my cheek as I see Charles rolling out onto the patio.  “Y/N,” he says softly.  He wants to talk, but I am not ready to talk, to grasp the amount of pain I am refusing to feel right now.  I shove away his presence and turn so that he cannot see my face.

   “Hey, what are you making?”   “Spaghetti, you planning on helping me, or just eating my whole supply?”  I tease Peter as he takes a spoonful of sauce out of the pot and licks it off. “I can help! Give me a job.”  He puts his arms in a Superman pose at his sides, and then sets his face to look really serious. “Okay Silver, the citizens of the mansion need you to get some sparkling apple juice because I forgot.”   “On it!”  He crows, spinning me around in a circle and then flying out the door. “Hey wait!  You have money?”   Peter backs into the room, waving a ten dollar bill at me.  “Yes ma’am!” He re-enters the room a moment later, a bottle and a box in his hand. “Happy anniversary Y/N,” he says, putting the juice on the table and coming over to me.  “I love you,” Peter whispers with a cheeky grin, like it’s the biggest secret in the world. He gives me the box.  It’s got a replicate of his goggles inside, and he slips them onto my head with a silly smile. “Oh Peter...”  I gasp.  “I love you too.”

I pace through the garden, the taste of spaghetti hot on my mouth, the smell of Peter cloaking my body as I push away the memories as best I can, but of course, there is no pushing them away.

“Y/N?” The voice next to mine is quiet.  With one day until our one year anniversary, I wonder if Peter is planning on surprising me early, and I’ve never had to work so hard not to read someone’s mind. “Y/N, Charles needs us for a mission.”  Peter’s voice is shaky, and I can tell that something’s wrong.   “Peter, what’s the problem?”   He sits next to me at my table.  “It’s… it’s my dad.” “What about him?” “He’ll be fighting against us.”

I don’t want to think about it anymore.  I can’t think about it anymore.  Every part of me is screaming out, screaming to go back and stop it.  To stop time the way Peter could.  To tell him one more time how much I loved him.  I never did tell him as often as he told me.  And now it’s far too late.  But the pain inside of me has nowhere else to go but out, and before I can stop myself, I am running, harder and faster than I ever have before, the way Peter always wanted me to.  I break through the concrete wall of the school tennis court and hit it, again and again, not even able to see where I am through the tears pouring down my face, and with every gasping breath I take, another memory shoots through me.

“It’s gonna be okay, he’s not going to hurt you, right?” “I don’t know, I just… I just don’t want to fight him, that’s all.”  He looks up at me with tears in his eyes.   Breathe. “I’ll be there,” I say, holding him in my arms.  “You won’t have to do it alone.” Breathe. “I know.  I know, that’s why I love you so much.”  He gives me a sad smile, and I wipe away his tears. Breathe. “Okay, let’s go fight some bad guys and your dad.”

The entire concrete structure lies around me, crushed.  My knuckles are bleeding, the blood steadily dripping onto the pavement beneath me, and I collapse with a sob onto the hard ground.

   We are running, Apocalypse trying to catch us all.  He grabs hold of me, and begins digging through my mind.  I let out a scream, and try desperately to get him out.  Just as he is about to take control of me, Peter arrives.  Before I can even blink, Apocalypse is on the ground and I am several feet away, with Peter standing next to me.  His face is creased with concern and he speaks softly to me. “Are you okay?” I nod, and he turns back to face Apocalypse.

   “Stop,” I croak, looking ahead with blank eyes as the memory I am trapped in continues.

   He puts up his fists, but of course I can’t actually see him fighting, I can only see a blur as Apocalypse looks more and more angry, until there is a sudden snap and I hear Peter yell.  Apocalypse has trapped his leg and is stepping towards him.      “Peter!”  I can’t move fast enough to stop what happens next.  Apocalypse summons one of the four horsemen, and they swing back their sword to kill Peter.  I lunge at them, knowing full well that I won’t be able to make it before they’ve reached their target.  I manage to throw them off so that they miss their mark, Peter’s heart, and instead get him in the stomach.      I cannot comprehend what has happened, except that I know they have hurt my Peter, and I snap.  They are dead before they hit the ground.  When I turn back around to Peter, he is looking at me in shock.  “Y/N,” he says weakly, slumping forward.  I catch him in my arms, and he holds out his hand to me.    “Peter…” I take his hand, and feel his power running through me as time seems to freeze.  He’s not going to die.  He won’t die, I’ll save him.  I frantically search, and finally find Hank, who’s in Beast mode.  I drag the two of them back to Hank’s laboratory at the school, Peter watching me all the while, his eyes filling with tears.  “Y/N”, he whispers again.      I ignore him.  “Fix him, Hank.”  Hank looks around him in confusion.      “How did you-”    “Fix him!”  I shout.  This isn’t happening, my Peter isn’t dying, he can’t be dying.    “I- I…” Hank tries to look for something he can do to save Peter.    “Y/N,” Peter says, as loudly as he can.  I whirl around to look at him, and see Hank freeze in time beside us.  Tears fill Peter’s eyes and slide down his cheeks.  “I’m sorry I have to leave you behind.”    “I love you.”  I whisper, ignoring what he just said, because he is not leaving me.    “I love you too.  There’s an anniversary present for you… under my pillow…”  He gives me a weak grin.    “Peter, you can give it to me tomorrow.”    He shakes his head.  “No, Y/N.  I think I’m about to finish my last race.”      I lean down and give him a gentle kiss, our tears mixing together as we say a silent goodbye.  When I sit up again, he gives me a small wink, and then he is gone, the last of my Peter encapsulated in the boyish grin left on his face.

   I finally let it out, the pain I have been holding inside myself, the pain that I know will never go away.  I can never move faster than the memories I have of Peter, and I can never slow down enough to see them as clearly as I did before.    I pick myself up off the ground and make my way to Peter’s room, to smell him one more time before they clean it out.  The door is unlocked, and the bed is still unmade.  I collapse onto his bed, my head hitting his pillow at the same time my tears do.  I stay there, curled up and sobbing until my cheeks are raw.      Hank knocks at the door and when he sees me in the room, he bows his head.  “Y/N, Charles sent me.  If you need anything…”  His voice breaks, and I can see that he’s fighting back tears of his own.    “No, please come in.”  I wipe my cheeks and move myself over, so that I am sitting on Peter’s pillow.  I feel a lump under the pillow, and suddenly remember Peter’s anniversary present. I reach under and pull it out.  It’s a small box, with a letter attached.      I stare at it for a moment. “Would you like me to…” Hank offers.    I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat as I hand him the paper.    Hank opens the letter, clears his throat, and with a shaky voice begins reading.        “My darling Y/N,    We have almost been dating for a year!  I wanted this anniversary to be special, more special than all our other ones.  Because whether you’re studying, or making spaghetti, or being angry, or reading minds, I just want to be there when you’re doing it.  I’ve never felt so happy being with someone in my entire life; my heart feels like it’s bursting out of my chest even as I write this.  You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met, you’re caring and funny and so much better looking than me, it’s insane.  I can’t imagine anyone who I’d rather be with in the entire world.  I love you so much, and I know I can never measure up to you, but I hope that you’ll give me the chance to try.  So, Y/N Y/LN, will you marry me? ~With more love than you can ever imagine, Peter        Hank puts the letter down and I open the box.  The ring inside is beautiful; he’d obviously worked hard to find the perfect one.  I slip it on and watch the rainbow colours glint across the room.    And as the time around me freezes, I wish for only one word to reach across time and space, to reach Peter’s loving gaze. “Yes.”

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Made the most of the beautiful weather this weekend and went for a lovely walk early on Sunday morning. A few miles and several steps covered, I also cleared 40% of an audiobook so it is all good. Productive day for me then. Whoop whoop.

So – how has your week been? I’ve had a bit of an emotional one again this week unfortunately. Took my little kitty to the vets as he’s been under the weather and we’ve been monitoring him for the week. Sadly, this time he hd lost more weight and the vet felt a mass in his intestinal tract which doesn’t look good. He’s on steroids to manage his condition and hopefully improve his feeding but we both know it is simply a matter of time before I have to say goodbye to Mars too. I am trying to psyche myself up for it, but I have to be honest, as nice as the gesture was, it didn’t help that the same evening I came home to a card from the Vets with their best wishes after the loss of Kaycee the other week. Can anyone guess who was an emotional blubbering mess? No? That would be me. Again.

I did manage to complete two of my three online courses, which sounds like far more of an achievement than it actually is, but hey. I now have certificates. Go me, lol.

Taking my mind off things, I had a meeting in Crawley on Thursday so I took the opportunity for a quick stop off in the city the night before to attend the launch of Roxanne Bouchard’s wonderfully lyrical crime thriller, We Were The Salt of the Sea. The event was hosted by the Canadian Embassy, the venue and the evening amazing, and a big thanks to Karen Sullivan for the invitation. Certainly a very memorable event with brilliant readings by translator David Warriner (in English) and Roxanne herself (in French) which made the night perfect. Might have picked myself up a sneaky signed copy of the book too, courtesy of the lovely Karen again. The dedication is in French but I have just about enough knowledge of the language to translate. It was lovely to meet both Roxanne and David and their respective partners, and to see a number of my good blogging pals too.

You know my theory that book post is like buses? Well – proven again this week. While I was away I received three letters/parcels. The first was a book-plate for The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton. If I hadn’t been expecting it then it would have been quite unnerving lol. The second was a copy of Her Name Was Rose by Claire Allan from Avon Books. The third was something pretty special – a finished copy of The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl where I am quoted on the cover!!! My first (and probably only) time as a cover girl. I will treasure this for sure. Might even have to get it signed by the man himself as a super special copy.

Saturday saw me attending the blogger author meet up in Stoke organise by Stephanie Lawrence and Kerry Parsons. It was fab to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. I am crap with pictures so there is no evidence to be found on this blog, but if you search about you may find some in existence elsewhere.

I’m probably a very naughty bunny – depending on your perspective – but I did go onto Netgalley again this week, In my defence, I had to as I needed books for blog tours … I just might have strayed and requested a couple more while I was there. Whoops. I picked up The Date by Louise Jensen, Follow Me Home by DK Hood, The Puppet Show by MW Craven and Strangers on a Bridge by Louise Mangos. I also received an advance copy of After He’s Gone from author Jane Issac, the first in a brand new series which I am really looking forward to tucking into soon.

Purchase wise – not so well behaved I’m afraid. I made a few pre-orders (as you do) and picked up a couple of bargains too. As well as preordering Follow Me Home, The Puppet Show and  Strangers on a Bridge, I picked up Dead Blind by Rebecca Bradley; The Adulterer’s Wife by Leigh Russell; The Dying Place by Luca Veste; The Promise by Katerina Diamond; Dark Winter and Original Skin by David Mark. No audio books, the then I think I have enough to be going on with, don’t you?

Books I have read

Absolution – Paul Hardisty

Sequel to the critically acclaimed The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear and Reconciliation for the Dead. Claymore Straker returns in another gripping, page-turning, socially conscious thriller, with more at stake than ever…

It is 1997, eight months since vigilante justice-seeker Claymore Straker fled South Africa after his explosive testimony to Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In Paris, Rania LaTour, journalist, comes home to find that her son and her husband, a celebrated human rights lawyer, have disappeared. On an isolated island off the coast of East Africa, the family that Clay has befriended is murdered as he watches.

So begins the fourth instalment in the Claymore Straker series, a breakneck journey through the darkest reaches of the human soul, as Clay and Rania fight to uncover the mystery behind the disappearances and murders, and find those responsible.

Events lead them both inexorably to Egypt, where an act of the most shocking terrorist brutality will reveal not only why those they loved were sacrificed, but how they were both, indirectly, responsible. Relentlessly pursued by those who want them dead, they must work together to uncover the truth, and to find a way to survive in a world gone crazy. At times brutal, often lyrical, but always gripping, Absolutionis a thriller that will leave you breathless and questioning the very basis of how we live and why we love.

The final Claymore Straker novel but by god what a hard hitting, emotional read, full of social conscience and a clear passion for his subject. Paul Hardisty takes us on a roller coaster rise as Straker seeks to reunite himself with Rania, possibly the only woman he has ever loved. Full of action, tension and subterfuge this book has many facets, covering environmental and humanitarian issues whilst providing a compelling story told in such beautifully crafted language. Action with a heart. Loved it. It’s available now in e-book or from 30th May in paperback so you can pick up or preorder a copy here.

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The Reckoning – Yrsa Sigurdardottir

A chilling note predicting the deaths of six people is found in a school’s time capsule, ten years after it was buried. But surely, if a thirteen-year-old wrote it, it can’t be a real threat…

Detective Huldar suspects he’s been given the investigation simply to keep him away from real police work. He turns to psychologist Freyja to help understand the child who hid the message. Soon, however, they find themselves at the heart of another shocking case.

For the discovery of the letter coincides with a string of macabre events: body parts found in a garden, followed by the murder of the man who owned the house. His initials are BT, one of the names on the note.

Huldar and Freyja must race to identify the writer, the victims and the murderer, before the rest of the targets are killed…

The best thing about long drives down to London are the hours of audio book I can consume while travelling. I devoured the previous book in the Freyja and Huldar series and couldn’t wait to read this one. I was not disappointed. A dark central story and a very chilling aspect to this novel as a whole, not just its setting, but by god was it a good read/listen. You can pick up a copy here and I’ll be sharing my review soon.

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Summer at the Little Cottage on the Hill – Emma Davies

Take an endless stroll through wild meadows and breathe in the sweet aroma of flowers in full bloom. The first ever guest at the little cottage on the hill is looking for an escape, but her past is not far behind her… 

Thirty-two-year-old ‘ice queen’ Isobel slams the cottage door and pulls the curtains shut. She has just six weeks to practise for a secret project that could save her career and no one must know she is here. 

When Tom, the local thatcher with eyes as blue and deep as the ocean, hears the sound of her violin on the breeze he feels a tug at his heart-strings that reminds him of happier times. Who is this mysterious new lodger, and why does she look so familiar? 

Desperate to find out more, Tom is devastated when Isobel refuses to enjoy everything the farm has to offer. He won’t give in, but just when it looks like Isobel is coming out of her shell, someone recognises her and the troubles from her past threaten to take away everything she has been working towards. 

Will the lessons Isobel learned at the little cottage help her to stand up and face the music? Will Tom ever find a way to unlock the emotion she needs to move on? 

After all the darkness I needed a little time in the light. And it doesn’t come much lighter and brighter than summer days in the beautiful gardens of Joy’s Acre, in my home county of Shropshire, the setting for Emma Davies’ Little Cottage on the Hill series. More romance, friendship and feel good story telling and a set of recipes and delicious sounding dishes to get your mouth watering. I’ll be sharing my review soon but you can pre order a copy here.

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Thirteen – Steve Cavanagh

THE SERIAL KILLER ISN’T ON TRIAL.

HE’S ON THE JURY…

‘To your knowledge, is there anything that would preclude you from serving on this jury?’ Murder wasn’t the hard part. It was just the start of the game.

Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life. He’s done it before. But this is the big one.

This is the murder trial of the century. And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house.

But there’s someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn’t the man on trial.

Kane knows time is running out – he just needs to get to the conviction without being discovered.

I have been intrigued by the sound of this book since I first heard about it late last year. I’ve had it on preorder since before christmas and it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. I will admit – this was my first time in the witness box with good old Eddie Flynn but it will not be the last. Dark, twisted and ingenious, I loved this serial killer thriller with a twist. I’ll be sharing my review in a couple of weeks as part of the tour but you can order your own copy here.

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Four. Been better been worse. I am also slotting in short stories from the Ten Year Stretch anthology too along the way, so it’s not all bad really. Busy week on the blog – highlights below.

Dead Blind by Rebecca Bradley

Ten Year Stretch Part 2: Ten Years of CrimeFest.

The Retreat by Mark Edwards

Book Love: Sandra Danby

Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

The Louisiana Republic by Maxim Jakubowski

Ten Year Stretch Part 3: Ten Years of CrimeFest

The week ahead is a little slower. I’ve a few blog tours lined up and perhaps a couple of reviews if I get a chance to type them up but my main focus (other than the cat) will be attending CrimeFest in Bristol from Thursday. Really looking forward to it. Be prepared for much tweetage as a result.

Blog tours are for The Old You by Louise Voss, Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone, Dying Truth by Angela Marsons and Freefall by Adam Hamdy.

Hope you have a fabulous week all. I’m not sure if I’ll be back with a post next Monday – it really depends on how I feel after CrimeFest lol. We will know by this time next week if I am funny though so that will be nice.

Enjoy your week,

Jen

  Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 13/05/18 Made the most of the beautiful weather this weekend and went for a lovely walk early on Sunday morning.