#I’ve also been piecing together that one will wood song about skeletons in my head without listening to it

[schmope-is-dead]

I feel like I’m high

[trashyswitch]

Logan's Trip to [REDACTED]

Chapter 1: The First Ever Foreign Visitor

Logan visits one of the SCP Foundation sites, that houses SCP's of different classes. Though most of it should remain classified information, Logan is allowed to interact with the SCP's of the safe class. This is where things get much more interesting...

WARNING: Bits of the writing had to be redacted and expunged to keep names and locations classified.

Ever since I found out about SCP-999, I wanted to make a fanfic on it. It's SO CUTE!!! I WANT ONE!

Logan had brought Thomas, Patton, Virgil, and Roman all together to discuss a mostly classified trip he was going to take. Though he couldn't tell them where exactly he was going, he could tell them the name of the company and fill them in on the creatures he looked at and interacted with.

"So...how long will you be gone for?" Thomas asked.

Logan looked at his watch. "My ride should arrive at 12 am exactly, and I will be back at 12 o'clock noon, on Saturday." Logan replied.

"Okay. Very specific." Thomas commented.

"I'm aware of how specific it is. This is a highly classified trip that has been rewarded to me for...reasons I'm not aware of. But, it is a one time opportunity I could never say no to. I am very excited to go." Logan told them.

"I can't wait to hear all about it! Especially that orange goop one." Patton commented.

Logan looked at the paper he had in front of him. "I believe you mean SCP-999. And yes, I am eager to see what that SCP is like." Logan replied.

"Are there any SCP's you're nervous about?" Virgil asked.

Logan thought for a moment. "I am a little nervous of seeing SCP-173...And SCP-682. 173 being the baby thing, and 682 being the strange alligator being." Logan replied.

"Is there anything specific you're bringing for the trip?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, there is. I have been granted permission to give certain safe-class SCP's gifts. I wish to give SCP-2295 some fabric ribbon and needles. I hope to give SCP-131-a & b a couple hair accessories, or a couple toys they may like." Logan started. Patton let out an 'aww'ing sound at the cute idea. Logan continued. "I would also like to hand SCP-914 a piece of wood, and see what the machine creates out of it. To end it off, I want to offer SCP-999 a package of M&M's, and Necco™ Wafers." Logan told them.

"Didn't the Necco™ Wafers factories closed? And I thought they no longer sell them?" Thomas asked.

"They are in high demand and in low numbers, but I successful in finding a couple packages of Necco™ Wafers that were on sale on Amazon. I opened one package of them already to taste them, and determined that they weren't expired. Then, I decided to share them with Virgil, Patton and Janus." Logan explained.

"Nice!" Thomas replied.

"They were so good!" Patton exclaimed excitedly, remembering the taste of the wafers.

"They were, honestly. It was a nice treat." Virgil commented.

Logan smiled. "I'm glad you two liked them." Logan commented.

"So...how do you feel about it the transportation aspect?" Thomas asked.

"It's a lot, but I can manage. I won't be able to tell anyone how I got to the site, or how I got back. What I DO know, is that according to the handbook: I'll be taken to the site in a jet." Logan told them.

"Ooooh! Sounds fancy!" Roman reacted. Logan shrugged.

"It's certainly gonna be a new experience." Logan told them.

After everyone bid their goodbyes to the logical side, Logan calmly kept himself busy while he waited for 12 o'clock midnight to roll around.

By the time 12 o'clock had rolled around, Logan had already packed his bag and was all ready with an empty notebook and a pen. When Logan had walked up to the car with his suitcase, Logan got to see the two unidentifiable passengers that were going to drive him to the jet. The driver and the passenger were both completely bald and dressed in identical suits, with sunglasses on their faces. They looked like something out of Men In Black.

Before they left, A few precautions had to be taken: the driver had taken hold of the suitcase and his backpack, and began checking both bags for liquids, weapons and any other dangerous or illegal items. At the same time, the passenger on the right had walked up to Logan and had quickly checked him over for any harmful weapons. With Logan confirmed to be unarmed, the passenger instructed him to take off his prescription glasses. When his glasses were in his case, the security guard took them from him and placed them into a small compartment in his backpack. Then, the passenger placed an eye mask onto Logan's face that surrounded the skeleton holes of his eyes with comfortable memory foam. This memory foam helped to block out all light and therefore: all sight. Thankfully, Logan was well aware that this would happen. Logan had received a book of information that would prepare him for the trip. The book even gave him a warning that he would be blindfolded on the way to the jet location. Logan was prepared with something to busy himself. Logan had put a pair of air-pods into his pocket, and put together a playlist of his favorite songs and his favorite audio-books, to listen to on the car ride down. Though the extra precautions seemed over-the-top, Logan understood that the precautions were for the safety of himself, and the safety of the SCP Foundation. They didn't want anybody getting tortured into giving away top secret information.

Logan listened to his playlist on the way to the jet location. Surprisingly, the ride wasn't as boring as he thought it would be! It was really fun! He even went as far as to start dancing to his music on the way. Sure, the passengers might've judged him. But, Logan didn't care. They needed to know that he was human, and allowed to have lots of fun. Another surprising part, was that the car ride was shorter than he expected. By the time Logan had gotten through only half of the playlist, Logan had gotten a light nudge to the shoulder. Logan carefully took out his air-pods.

"We're here." someone told him.

Logan nodded. "Okay." Logan replied. Someone turned his head around to reach the back, and carefully removed the mask from his eyes. Logan had to take a moment to get used to the light. When he did though, travel became a little more smoother. Logan went through another quick round of body checks and luggage checks before Logan was led out towards the jet out in the field. The jet was big, but somewhat small compared to the usual airplane sizes. Logan climbed into the jet, and walked into the sitting area inside the jet. Logan smiled at the interior. It wasn't luxurious, but it wasn't poorly designed either. It was a pretty nice interior for a middle class flyer. Logan happily took a seat in one of the chairs, placed his backpack under his seat and readied himself for the takeoff. Logan couldn't wait!

Logan listened to the plane safety information that usually came with it, before hearing the flight attendant announce the jet's take off. Logan opened the window flap, and watched as the jet started rolling. Logan watched as the fields flew by faster, and faster and faster, until the plane started flying up! The ground became smaller and farther away, while the view down became larger and larger and larger! Then, the view was sadly forsaken, and replaced with fluffy clouds. Now the entire view was a mix of dark clouds and dark sky. Logan sat back in his chair, and sighed with a smile. This is the life.

A long 5 hours later, and Logan was getting ready to leave the jet! The announcer gave him the orders to fasten is seat belts, and Logan began to feel himself descending. Soon, the wheels hit the landing spot below, and slowly brought itself to a nice, perfect halt. Logan smiled and waited for the announcer to give him and the rest of the staff a go ahead to leave the plane.

"All passengers are ordered to leave the plane and descend the staircase below." Logan heard. Logan was ready. The door opened, and Logan collected his stuff and gave everyone a polite 'thank you', before walking himself down the stairs. A couple new security guards gave him his luggage, and instructed him to follow them. Logan did as he was told, and dragged his wheeled suitcase behind his back. Logan was led right into the main opening of the SCP site. A man with darker skin but similar attire to the passengers, met Logan at he entrance.

"Mr. Sanders. I'm Dr. ████, The General manager in this corporation." The man said.

Logan shook the hand. "I'm honored to be here and under your care, Doctor." Logan replied to him.

"How was the flight? Fairly smooth, I hope?" Dr. ████ asked.

"The most smooth plane ride I've ever experienced." Logan replied.

"Excellent. And can you tell me how you got here at all?" the Doctor asked.

"Nope. Not a clue." Logan replied.

"Perfect. This is a very special privilege. We wouldn't want to ruin it with unwanted leaks." Dr. ████ explained.

"Understood." Logan agreed.

"Shall we take you to your room?" Dr. ████ asked.

"Of course." Logan replied.

"24639 and 58227, lead the way." the doctor ordered.

"Yes sir." 24639 and 58227 both said. The two men began leading the way, while Logan and the Doctor talked.

"So Sanders. Are you overwhelmed yet?" The doctor asked.

"A little bit, yeah. But, it's nothing I can't manage." Logan replied.

"You're keeping in good spirits. I like that." The doctor commented. "Say, how many rumors have you heard about?" The doctor asked.

"Uuuuh...A couple. The only rumor I personally knew about, was SCP-173." Logan explained.

"Oooh. What about it?" The doctor asked.

"Barely anything. Just one leaked photo, and that it's dangerous." Logan replied.

"Okay. I just wanted to make sure I clear up some rumors, if you've heard any. But, it looks like you haven't. So, that leaves us a bit more time to talk." The doctor said.

"Okay." Logan replied.

"Are there any SCP's you'd like to look at?" The doctor asked.

"Yes, actually. I'd like to look at SCP 173 and SCP-682, if that's possible." Logan commented. "I don't wanna go into the actual room with them, but I would like to look at them through a window." Logan further explained.

"Aaah...I see. Anything else?" The doctor asked.

"Yes. I also want to look at SCP-067, SCP-294, and SCP-530." Logan replied.

"Okay. So, the World War 2 pen, the vending machine and the dog with multiple limbs. Alright." The doctor replied.

"I really wanna see SCP-131-a and 131-b. And perhaps I could see SCP-999?" Logan added.

"Of course! Those are the most playful SCP's we have." The doctor told him. Logan smiled excitedly. "And, here we are!" The doctor told him. The doctor opened up the door, and allowed Logan a chance to drop off his suitcase.

"I'm gonna let you get comfy in here. When you feel ready, just give us a call on our walkie-talkie." The doctor ordered before handing Logan a walkie-talkie of his own.

Logan looked at the walkie-talkie, put it up to his mouth and pressed the button. "I'm ready now." Logan told him.

The doctor's eyes widened in surprise. Really?! Even after all that, Logan wanted to start now?!

"Okay. Here's your map, and your key-card. Just highlight where you wanna go, and follow the map." The doctor told him. "And don't think of doing anything stupid. I have eyes on the entire building. You will be kicked out of the building site." The doctor warned him.

"I fully understand. No need to worry. I am capable of following proper guidelines and regulations." Logan replied humbly.

The doctor smiled at the man. "Okay. Just be sure to give us updates on your observations." The doctor ordered, before walking away. The Doctor truly believed he could trust Sanders. It was a nice change. Perhaps he had been blessed with a wonderful first-time tourist...

Logan opened up the map and opened up his handbook, and began highlighting the specific SCP's he wanted to check out and/or interact with. It took a few minutes, but Logan soon had a list of SCP's to visit and interact with.

Can you guess which SCP was the nearest to him? It was SCP-294. The vending machine! Logan walked himself up to the door, and used the key card he had been given earlier, to get into the door. When it opened, Logan pulled the door open and walked in. Logan walked himself up to the vending machine, and eyed up the big thing. It looked like your typical large click-and-pour coffee machine, but it came with a keyboard below the touchscreen that presented itself in the top right corner of the coffee machine. Logan walked himself towards the keyboard, and began to think of what he wanted. He could ask for any typical beverage. A soft drink, a glass of milk, an alcoholic beverage, or even a smoothie! But Logan began to wonder what other things can be made with the coffee machine.

Logan decided to test it. Logan typed the following words into the keyboard:

[Chicken nugget smoothie]

When he felt ready, Logan clicked enter. Logan watched as a paper cup fell into the machine dispenser, and produced a orangish-brown looking thick substance. Logan removed from the dispenser, and took a breath before taking a sip...Logan let out a dry heave in disgust, but stopped himself when he realized what he was actually tasting: chicken meat split up, breaded and deep-fried...Also known as chicken nuggets.

Logan threw the rest of the chicken nugget smoothie into the garbage, and smirked as he type in his new request:

[Juiced Strawberry Crofters Jam]

Logan clicked enter and licked his lips as he waited. The coffee machine spit out a paper cup, and dispensed a red-looking liquid with teensy bits of strawberry seeds mixed into the liquid. Logan took the paper cup out of the dispenser, and looked up at the touchscreen. The touchscreen had a few words displayed onto it: 'Crofters, the only jelly I will put in my belly'. Logan giggled at the message, and brought his walkie-talkie up to his mouth. "I was able to make liquefied versions of food options from the machine. Not only did I get an actual Chicken Nugget Smoothie, I was also successful in getting a liquefied, strawberry-flavored jam." Logan told the Doctor.

"Crofters?" The Doctor specified.

Oh gosh...He watches the YouTube channel..."Yup. Crofter's jam." Logan replied with an awkward chuckle.

Next: Logan moved onto the next SCP on his list: SCP-067. Logan used his key-card to unlock the door. When it allowed him in, Logan opened the door and looked inside. Inside of the room, was a table with a felt-covered wooden box. Logan looked around the room as he walked himself closer and closer to the middle of the room. In the middle, there appeared to be a wooden desk and a wooden chair. Logan took a deep breath before sitting himself down and opening up the drawer. On the inside of the wooden desk, was a built-in drawer that held pages of lined paper. Logan pulled two pieces of lined paper out of the drawer, and placed it onto the table. After taking one more big breath, Logan picked up the pen. Almost immediately, the pen began moving his hand. This was to be expected. The pen was known for taking over a person's arm until they placed it down. So, Logan allowed the pen to do its thing. The pen began to write in a pretty, but somewhat messy version of cursive. It looked like the type of cursive that had been worked on by a person for decades. This was very strange because Logan has never developed legible cursive of his own style. Logan was simply a printer, who often started every single word he wrote, in all capitals.

Logan watched as the pen continued to write out a long page of writing. As his hand was taken over, Logan skimmed through some of the writing. It appeared to have been school notes Logan could recognize from one of his high school years. The subject appeared to be science, and the writing had also recalled the following units: [DATA EXPUNGED]

When the pen was done, Logan's hand had placed the pen down and gave Logan control over his hand again. It was a strange, but interesting experience. While the pen dried, Logan kept on skimming some of the words on the page. The writing had showed him some of the chemistry and biology he had taken back then. A lot of the notes appeared to resemble Logan's...cheat sheet for the exam. Logan's eyes widened at the unbelievably accurate resemblance of his cheat sheet. Logan nodded his head slowly and nervously, before lightly pushing the paper aside and pulling out his own pencil. Using the second piece of paper, Logan described his science exam and the cheat sheet he had made at the time. He explained how the writing wasn't his own, but that the words written and the format of such words were perfectly replicated by the fountain pen, in great detail and accuracy. It was as if the pen had collected all of his high school memories of the science classes he had taken, had re-entered his mind for a good half an hour! It was strange, but very fascinating. When the ink appeared to be dried enough, Logan put the two papers together and inserted them into a hung up mailbox, for research purposes. When Logan left the room, he told Dr. ████ that the written paper was in the mailbox, and ready for analysis and research.

Next on his list, was SCP-2295. Logan used his key-card on the door, and opened it up. Upon looking inside the containment locker, Logan smiled as he gazed his eyes upon the multi-fabric teddy bear that sat onto the ground. Logan placed the key-card into the slot and removed it as he opened up the door.

"Hello." Logan greeted. The teddy bear seemed to not be asleep, but rather unresponsive. Logan closed the sliding door behind him, and knelt down a few meters away from the teddy bear. "My name is Logan. I believe your name is Kairos, right?" Logan introduced. The bear seemed to stay unresponsive for a bit...Logan slowly sat himself down in criss-cross apple sauce, and gently waited for SCP-2295 to make a gesture. After a minute of waiting, Logan pulled out his walkie-talkie and began talking into it. "This is Mr. Sanders, giving you an update. The bear appears to be unresponsive, which is unfortunate considering I brought it a little gift." Logan said.

"Can you specify what it is? Or would you like me to wait and see?" The doctor asked.

Logan waited a couple seconds for the teddy bear to do something. He was about to reply with a hint, but immediately stopped himself when he saw a small wave from the bear. Logan made a slight gasp, before answering the doctor's question with a small smile. "I'm gonna let Kairos open it up and reveal it." Logan replied. After he placed his walkie-talkie down, Logan decided to open up his backpack and gently pull out a little boxed present wrapped in fabric and ribbon. "I brought you a present. I thought you might like it." Logan told it, before gently dragging it across the floor towards the teddy bear.

Though it took a bit, the teddy bear moved his head! The teddy bear gave itself a scratch on the ear, and slowly brought itself up onto its feet. Logan's smile grew wider as he watched the teddy bear walk over to the present. The present appeared to be more than half its diameter, but quite long and wide. The teddy bear grabbed onto the ribbon with both of its hands fabric hands and pulled the bow on the top free. The bow collapsed onto the present, and allowed Kairos to unwrap the fabricated wrap. When the wrap and the ribbon was removed and pushed aside, the teddy bear opened up the box lid and pulled out the contents inside: It was fabric! Tons of different-colored fabric! The teddy bear's sewed-on smile widened as it looked at around 15 different patterned fabrics. The box also included multiple sewing thread colors! Black, pink, yellow, blue, red, even a light pink-colored thread! Kairos made an excited smile and showed off all the different fabrics he had now!

With his fabric stack all filled up for a while, SCP-2295 placed the fabric onto the floor in the corner of the room, and walked up to the generous man. Kairos reached his arms up, to ask Logan to pick him up. "You...want me to pick you up?" Logan clarified with a smile. The teddy bear nodded in reply, and reached his arms up as high as it could reach. Logan giggled and picked the guy up by the middle, like he would a toddler. The teddy bear reached his arms out in front of him this time, as if to ask for a hug. Logan didn't wait even a second, and happily gave the teddy bear a hug.

Logan had been hugging Kairos for about 2 minutes, when Kairos had taken something out of his mouth and had began...tickling him with it! Logan let out a few surprised giggles, and pulled away with an eyebrow raised in curiousity.

"Whahat are you dohoihing?" Logan asked. The teddy bear had held up a multi-colored feather with yellow at the top, and red and black at the middle and bottom of the feather. It was really pretty. "That's a lovely feather." Logan commented. the teddy bear's smile got bigger as it brought the feather onto Logan's neck and began fluttering it quickly. "Hehehehey! Thahat tihihihicklehehes!" Logan giggled, tilting his head to the side to cover up the spot. Kairos stopped the feather for a moment, and switched hands. With the feather in his right hand now, Kairos started fluttering the feather onto the right side of Logan's neck."Hahahahahaha! Stahahahahap thahahahat!" Logan told him through his newfound giggle fit. If Kairos' button eyes could've gotten bigger, Logan thinks they would've. Kairos must've discovered something new!

Logan stuck his tongue out at the teddy bear playfully. When Logan tried to get a better grip on the bear, Kairos made a jolt and dropped the feather in surprise! "Oh! Sorry, buddy." Logan apologized as he continued to grip the bear better. Amidst Logan's moving and gripping, Kairos started shaking and pushing at the fingers. Logan lifted an eyebrow. What was he doing? Logan paused his gripping for a moment, before continuing with it a second later. Kairos started shaking again and this time, it started covering its mouth with it's left hand! Logan gasped as it all clicked in his mind! "Are you...laughing?" Logan asked. The teddy bear gave Logan a small, but visible nod of the head. As a test, Logan tried squeezing the bear's side. The bear actually jumped again and began shaking with laughter! Logan's smile got wider as more puzzle pieces fit into the puzzle. "Are you ticklish?" Logan asked in a teasy voice. The teddy bear nodded back! He WAS!

Logan cradled Kairos with his left arm. When it was balanced enough, Logan began skittering his fingers all over Kairos' tummy and sides and started making ticky-ticky noises to further tease the bear. Kairos jolted in surprise and began shaking with laughter and squirming back and forth. When the bear wasn't reaching for Logan's fingers, Kairos was covering its mouth with both hand stubs to almost cover up the giggles and laughter. Unsurprisingly, Kairos didn't really have a laugh that came with a sound. Its laughter was merely shaking. Its hand-covering actually helped a little, to prove that he was laughing happily. Logan began to giggle along with the teddy bear as he tried out different spots. Unsurprisingly, the bear's big, multi-colored belly seemed to be the only spot that got it squirming and shaking the most! The sides still kept it laughing, but the squirming would lessen a bit. Logan even gave the ears a few tickles! And amazingly, the bear had covered its eyes and began rocking left and right uncontrollably! It was a very cute sight to see.

After a few more seconds of tickling, Logan stopped tickling the bear. Even though the bear didn't really have a pair of lungs, Logan still wanted to make sure he didn't go overboard. This was only a one time event. When the bear stopped its heavy breathing, Kairos lifted itself up onto Logan's arm and began giving Logan another hug. Logan lifted the bear up a bit, so it could hug Logan around the neck again. Logan gave the bear one last hug before saying good bye. The bear happily waved Logan good bye, and sat back down to resume to its inactive state. With the bear now inactive, Logan put his backpack on and left the room.

Logan pulled out his walkie-talkie as he walked. "It would appear that SCP-2295 has nerves. He's pretty ticklish." Logan told him.

"Interesting...I wonder if SCP-2295 might like SCP-999?" Dr. ████ asked to himself.

"Maybe..." Logan replied before putting away the walkie-talkie.

Walking down the hall, Logan smiled as he looked at the map. It looked like SCP-131-a/b was next! Logan walked himself up to the door, and placed the key-card into the slot. when the door opened, Logan walked into the room and walked up to a vault with a huge window that showed him the artificial teardrop-looking eyeballs. Logan made a smile when he saw that SCP-131-a & b had a Kids Road play mat on the ground. Logan watched as the two eyeballs rolled around on the rolling ball that was attached to them. They were tiny, but quite quick and observant (I mean, they are eyeballs afterall...). Logan walked up to the vaulted door, and placed the key-card into the slot. When given the right code, the door vault slid open on its own, revealing the eyeballs in its full glory. Logan walked in, gave the little eyeballs a cheerful "Hello", and knelt down to look at the little rolling balls. The eyeballs appeared to be teardrop-shaped Cyclopes. One of them was darker orange-colored, while the other was a darker, pretty yellow color. Logan smiled and gently scratched his fingernail around the bottom of the orange one's point on its head. The cyclops creature closed its single eye for a moment, and let out an electronic, cheerful noise in reply.

Wow! The eyeballs really are like house cats!

Logan gave them a small smile and offered a hand to jump onto. The orange one happily rolled itself onto his hand, and looked up at Logan. Logan carefully bought SCP-131-a up closer to inspect it. He tried caressing the left side of the eye pod, to see what would happen. Logan watched in admiration as the orange eye pod's eye dilated happily, and closed a little bit as it melted into the touch. Logan realized the orange eye pod liked to be petted too! Logan slowly moved his right hand away from the eye pod, just to make sure that the eye pod wouldn't try to roll off his hand or something.

When he felt he could trust the orange pod, Logan grabbed his walkie-talkie from his pocket, and clicked the button to talk. "Dr. ████: With your permission, I have brought a few of the safe SCP's little gifts for them to enjoy. for SCP-131-a & b, I have brought a couple customized wooden cars that I made and customized myself." Logan told him.

"Oh wow! You say you made them yourself? Okay. You can give them to the eye pods." Dr. ████ replied.

"Thank you." Logan said, before placing the orange eye pod down. Logan reached into his bag and pulled out little wooden toy cars, little pieces of black shoe lace, and little plastic rings that were meant for a toddler. Logan placed the shoelaces and the rings aside, to see what the were capable of.

"Here." Logan said, giving them each a little toy car. Both cars were a blue color, with black windows, a black windshield and grey small handles painted on. Logan had covered them in clear varnish to make them shine and keep them from breaking down. To encourage them to push it, Logan gave the car a light push. SCP-131-b looked at the car curiously, and tried pushing it with the side of its body. The yellow pod repeated the pushing, and even went as far as to roll itself around while pushing the car to go faster. Amidst the 'running', the car slipped right off the eye pod's body and slowed its rolling almost immediately. But, much to Logan's surprise, the eye pod couldn't stop itself! It didn't have a brake system! Logan covered his mouth as the eye pod hit a glass wall on the other side of the containment room. Luckily for Logan, the eye pod seemed to be okay after it shook itself off. Logan walked up to it, knelt down to the pod's level, and gave it a few pets to keep it calm. SCP-131-b gave Logan a little babble that could've been its version of saying 'thank you'. Logan smiled and began working on the cars.

Logan had a sense that because the SCP's lacked arms, Logan would need to customize the wooden toys further. Logan had actually prepared himself for such a repair. Logan pulled out the shoelace and the plastic rings, and placed them onto the ground. While one set of lace and ring was set out for the eye pods to investigate, the other shoelace and ring was being tied together, and tied the shoelace to the car. Beforehand, Logan had drilled a small hole into the car so that he could do this. But if it ended up not being needed, then it could be left there as a hole.

When he finished customizing both cars, Logan got their attention by waving the rings in the air for them to see. SCP-131-a rolled itself up first, followed SCP-131-b. Logan placed the ring around the little narrow cone on the top of the SCP's. Then, Logan gave the car a little push to encourage them to try it out. SCP-131-a was the first to go. The orange eye pod started rolling around slowly, just to test out the wooden car. When the wooden car started rolling too, the orange eye pod started going faster and faster! When the eye pod would roll itself faster, the car would roll faster as well! SCP-131-b had turned itself around to face the car, and was currently rolling around the room backwards! Logan giggled at the adorable sight, unable to take how cute and hilarious this was!

After a few minutes of having fun with their new wooden cars, SCP-131-a and b rolled themselves towards the door. Logan smiled and pulled out his walkie-talkie.

"Dr. ████, would I be allowed to let the SCP's roam the wider room with their new cars?" Logan asked.

"Of course! These SCP siblings are one of the only SCP's we allow to roam around." The doctor replied.

Logan smiled as he put the walkie-talkie away, and opened up the automatic door. Almost immediately, the two SCP's went barreling into the wider space with their car toys! Logan giggled at the silly eye pod creatures raced each other around the room. They drove around towards walls, and soon learned how to turn themselves around before they hit the wall! It was like seeing Star Wars-looking droids driving around while high on caffeine AND sugar all at once! It was really funny, and slightly fear inducing! But, they seemed to be having fun. After a few minutes of rolling around to the speed of race cars, SCP-131-a and b rolled themselves over to Logan and began babbling to him. SCP-131-a was attempting to fling the toy off its cone, while SCP-131-b was trying to help its twin. Logan smiled and removed the ring from the orange eye pod's cone. The orange eye pod began rolling around again, and brought itself over to the other door. When the yellow pod's ring was removed as well, SCP-131-b followed its twin over to the door. The two pods started jumping on the spot excitedly. Logan bit his lip. He wasn't sure if the SCP's were allowed to completely leave the perimeter...

"Hey Mr. Sanders..." The walkie-talkie talked.

Logan picked up his walkie-talkie. "Yes Dr. ████?" Logan replied.

"I think you should open the door and follow them. They want to show you something." Dr. ████ told Logan.

Logan nodded. "Roger." Logan replied before putting away the walkie-talkie. Logan walked up to the room button and clicked it to open the door. As soon as the door slid open, the two SCP's headed out the door and began rolling down the hall. "Wait up!" Logan warned them. Thankfully, the SCP's stopped and turned themselves around to wait up for their new slow friend. Logan did catch up though, and even kept his map in his bag to keep it a surprise.

Interesting enough, the eye pods stopped in front of SCP-173's door. Logan kept his key-card in his pocket, but did look inside to take a peek. The gigantic baby-looking statue was standing in the corner of the room, with its black eyes staring at him from over its shoulder. Logan's eyes widened at the size of the statue, and became more and more intimidated by it, the longer he stared. Logan took a moment to blink. When he opened his eyes, the statue had turned itself around! Its front was now facing him, and its black eyes were staring directly back at him. Logan gulped and looked down at the eye pods. Both of the eye pods were looking in SCP-173's direction. They were staring at him through the door, and making sure they didn't take eyes off him. When Logan looked at SCP-173 again, the SCP hadn't moved places at all. Logan narrowed his eyes curiously. The eye pods seemed to understand that they needed to look right at SCP-173 to remain safe. While Logan had been gaining fear from staring at it, the eye pods seemed completely un-phased by it. Logan decided to walk away from the window and keep on going.

When Logan started walking, the eye pods took their eyes off the SCP as well and sped right past Logan! They began leading Logan further down the hall, and stopped in front of one of the rooms. Logan caught up to them, and looked at the door label:

[SCP-999]

Logan immediately made a toothy smile. Logan had been waiting to see this one! But, it looked like the Eye Pods wanted to visit the slime as well! Or, the eye pods wanted to introduce Logan to the SCP. Logan pulled out his walkie-talkie. "SCP-131-a and b have led me to the chamber of SCP-999." Logan told the doctor. Logan out the walkie-talkie back into his pocket and pulled out the key-card, before placing it into the slot to open the door. When the door opened, Logan let the eye pods go in before him, so that Logan didn't have to worry about stepping on them by mistake. Logan closed the door behind him, and walked up to the chamber window. It looked like some kind of translucent orange slime. Logan smiled upon looking at the slime, and walked up to the chamber door. Logan placed the key-card up to the door. When it read it, the door slid open to reveal the orange slime. Logan looked down, and watched as the eye pods rolled excitedly towards the slime. The slime turned around to face them, revealing its black eyes and orange mouth, and happily pulled the eye pods into a big group hug. Logan smiled at the cute scene. While he waited, Logan walked further into the room and closed the door on the inside.

He pulled out his walkie-talkie. "I'm in the room with SCP-999 right now. SCP-131-a and b are hugging it happily." Logan updated.

"Do you feel 999's effects yet?" Dr. ████ asked.

Logan smiled and blushed. "I do feel some of the effects." Logan replied.

"A little warning: People have stated that the longer they stay in there with SCP-999, the more giddy and happy they get." Dr. ████ warned him.

Logan nodded. "Okay." Logan replied, before putting his walkie-talkie into his pocket again.

SCP-999 walked itself up to Logan, with the eye pods in its slime hands. SCP-131-a and b hopped off 999's hands, and rolled themselves behind Logan's feet. They began rolling and attempting to push Logan's feet closer, to meet the slime.

Logan giggled. "Okay, okay. I'm getting there." Logan told them. Logan walked a little closer and knelt himself down. "I'm Logan. I'm visiting the safe SCP's for research and tourist purposes." Logan told the slime. The slime didn't seem to get what Logan was saying. What it DID get though, was that Logan is not a very emotional person. Why, how can that be? That just won't due! A person must express their emotions. It's healthy that way!

SCP-999 brought itself closer to Logan with a smile, and brought him into a big hug with its stubby pseudo-pods. After turning himself around to face the front, Logan gasped as a sudden wave of happiness took him over. The slime was cuddling him firmly, giving him nuzzles with its cheek while making gurgling noises. If it weren't for the overwhelming feeling of happiness, Logan might've felt some awkwardness with this hug from an orange slime. But...the slime was giving him so much happiness! To top it off, the smell of cookies was filling the air as he was being cuddled! How can one feel anything but happiness when you're being cuddled while cookies are baking?!

Logan's toothy smile was impossible to wipe off, and it didn't take long for small, joyful giggles to start pouring out of his mouth. the gurgling and cooing noises the slime was making, only added to the happiness! Things got better and a little more silly, when Logan began feeling the slime suck him into the slime's body. Logan's giggles got a little louder as he felt ticklish sensations against his entire upper body, and some of his lower body as well.

"Hahahaha! Hehehehehey! Yohohohou're tihihihicklihihing mehehehe!" Logan reacted. The slime seemed to like this reaction because the tickling sensation got stronger and stronger. "BAAA! NAHAHAHAHAHAHA! IHIHI'M TOHOHOHOHO TIHIHIHICKLIHIHISH!" Logan shouted.

The slime began letting out excited cooing noises in reply. He hasn't said stop yet, meaning he could keep going! SCP-999 began enveloping its slime around the bottom part of Logan. Now, his belly to his ankles was covered in orange slime, that was tickling him! Logan let out a long, high-pitched squeal! "WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WAHAHAHAHAIT! NAHAHAHAT MYHYHYHY KNEHEHEHEES! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Logan yelled desperately. Logan began to lose some of his balance. So, SCP-999 brought him down with its pseudo-pods, before continuing the tickle-fight. With two of his stubs, SCP-999 managed to make them thin enough to tickle Logan's armpits. With another stub, SCP-999 continued tickling Logan's belly and his belly button. "NOHOHOHO AHAHAHARMPIHIHIHITS! GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STAHAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIHIT! IHIHIHIHI CAHAHAHAHAHAN'T!" Logan begged helplessly. There it was! There's the word! SCP-999 lessened its tickles exponentially, and only continued the tickling on his belly. "HAHAHAhahahahaha! Ohohohohokahahahay...thahahahahat's behehehehetteheheher..." Logan reacted as his laughter turned into giggles.

SCP-999 smiled and got off of him. The slime slid itself towards Logan's backside, and placed its pseudo-pods onto Logan's shoulders. Logan gasped at the touch, but slowly relaxed as the SCP gave it little massages on the neck and shoulders. The massages were really nice. They were a teeny bit tickly, but nothing that Logan couldn't handle. Logan let out sighs of relief as he melted into the touch. It felt unbelievably relaxing for him. It wasn't painful like most massages were. This was just a gentle, slightly tickly massage.

SCP-999 must've noticed the small smile that was showing up onto Logan's face the higher it went, because the moment SCP-999 began to massage Logan's neck, Logan bursted into giggles. "Cahahaharefuhuhuhul. Thahahahat tihihihicklehehes!" Logan told the SCP.

"Hey Mr. Sanders," Dr. ████ said through the walkie-talkie. "I don't know if you know this, but SCP-999 has also been nicknamed 'The Tickle Monster' by the staff." Dr. ████ told Logan.

Immediately following that helpful fact, SCP-999 abandoned its massages and started enveloping Logan in its orange slime! Logan immediately knew what was next. He could already feel the tickle sensations against his ribs. Logan's giggles continued to fill the room as the eye pods watched eagerly. The eye pods seemed to make Logan slightly more giggly. Why, you may ask? Because it was like having an audience! To top it off, Dr. ████ was also watching him get tickled by 'the tickle monster'.

"Ohohohokahahahay, Heheheheheh! Ohohohokahahahahahay! Thahahahat's ehehenouhuhuhugh nohohohohow!" Logan warned. SCP-999 seemed to have thought otherwise, because the SCP made a gesture that was similar to a shake of the head. SCP-999 brought an pseudo-pod up to the back of Logan's neck, and began tickling there as well. Logan let out a squeal and lifted up his shoulders. "NOHOHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHA! IHIHIHIHI SAHAHAHAHAID THAHAHAT'S EHEHENOHOHOHOUGH!" Logan reacted, squirming around as much as he could through the slime. Surprisingly, the slime was thick, but still movable! It...kind of reminded Logan of peanut-butter. Amazingly as well, none of the slime seemed to stick to him or detach from the SCP at all! So, Logan didn't end up with any slime pieces stuck on him.

SCP-999 began letting Logan go and making apologetic gurgling noises. Logan laid himself down on the floor and panted in exhaustion. Worried for their new friend, the eye pods rolled themselves onto Logan and jumped onto Logan's belly. Logan made a surprised yelp from the sudden feeling of pods on his belly, but quickly fell into a fit of giggles as the pods rolled themselves up Logan's ribs. SCP-131-a started letting out electronic babbles in worry.

"Ihihihi'm fihihihine. Cahaharfuhuhul whehehre yohohou're gohohoHOHOHOIHIHING! IHIHIHIT TIHIHIHIHICKLEHEHES!" Logan reacted, falling on his back as his laughter hot louder. SCP-131-b had started attempting to climb up Logan's body, but was stuck rolling on the spot on Logan's belly. Logan's hands were squeezed into fists, as he struggled to not squirm too much to the point of knocking the pods off him. Now that Logan had let his giggles out of his mouth, he couldn't even try to push them back in. It was impossible. "GEHEHEHET OHOHOHOHOFF MYHYHY BEHEHEHELLYHYHY!" Logan begged. The yellow eye pod didn't seem to understand. So, it just kept on attempting to roll itself off the man's belly. This only made Logan's laughter continue. "THEHEHE ROHOHOHOLLIHIHIHIHING IHIHIS SOHOHOHOHO BAHAHAHAHAHAHAD!" Logan yelled. Again, SCP-131-b didn't understand him through all his giggles. But what 131-b DID understand, was that the blue man's belly was very bouncy.

Thankfully for Logan, SCP-999 seemed to understand him perfectly. SCP-999 slid itself over to the yellow eye pod, and picked it up with one of its pseudo-pods. With the other pseudo-pod, SCP-999 picked up the orange pod. Now that both eye pods were no longer tickling him, Logan could finally get some air. Logan stayed laying on the ground, and kept on giggling amidst his breathing. When the eye pods were placed aside safely, SCP-999 picked up Logan and engulfed him in a big, cuddly, slimy, yet comforting hug. Logan happily took the hug, and began to hug SCP-999 back. SCP-999 began nuzzling its cheek into Logan's scalp, and gently ruffled Logan's hair with a third pseudo-pod.

"Ihi lohohove yohohou too...Ihi lohove yohohou tooho, buhuhuddy..." Logan told him, giving it a few light touches on the cheek. Logan gasped at how squishy and surprisingly soft 999's face was. "You're so squishy! You're such a squishy-squish! You're such a good squishy-squish!" Logan cooed in a high-pitched voice. SCP-999's eyes widened as its smile grew wider. If it were a dog, SCP-999 would've probably wagged its tail and jumped up onto its hind legs in excitement. So in happiness, SCP-999 gave Logan a few more tickles with its pseudo-pods. One of them tickled on the neck, while the other two went for Logan's belly. "Ohohokahahay. Ihihihi gehehehehet ihihit...Yohohohou lohohohohove mehehe toohohohohoho..." Logan replied.

To further prove the SCP's love for Logan, SCP-999 tickled Logan under the chin as well. Logan made a wide smile and let out a cackle, before pulling his chin away. When his chin left the pseudo-pods' grip, SCP-999 made a forth pseudo-pod and tickled under his chin on the other side! No matter where Logan would move his head, SCP-999 would tickle his chin. Soon, Logan was letting out little snorts as well! SCP-999 AND SCP-131 a & b were all excited to hear THAT!

Even the doctor had something to say about it! "Wow! Even serious men like you can snort when tickled hard enough! No wonder SCP-999 loves you!" Dr. ████ reacted through the walkie-talkie. Unsurprisingly, this bit of teasing, along with SCP-999's cooing and gurgling noises, were all making Logan's face turn red! Logan was unbelievably embarrassed. He should've known that something like this would happen. He should've prepared himself for lots of tickles and giggles from SCP-999! But...he didn't! And now, Logan was really regretting it.

"HEHEHEHELP MEHEHEHEHE! IHIHIHIHIT'S *Snort* TOHOHOHO MUHUHUHUCH! *Snort* HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Logan yelled through his laughter.

"Okay, okay, okay. I'll help you." The Doctor replied. Logan let out a breath of relief. He was finally gonna get out of here! He loved it, but BOY, was it tiring! Logan made his body go limp as he believed he was getting free.

But suddenly, a vibrating feeling could be felt! Right on Logan's hip! Logan squealed and attempted to reach for the walkie-talkie that was in his front, right pocket. But, SCP-999 had grabbed his hands and placed them above his head! How DARE HE! That doctor is SO gonna get it!

"WAHAHAHAIT! LEHEHEHET MEHEHE GOHOHOHOHO! STAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIHIT DOHOHOHOCTOHOHOHOR!" Logan shouted, hoping the doctor could hear him through the cameras. But, the walkie-talkie didn't stop! It just kept on going and going! The worst part, was that it was right on the hollow of his hip! That's what was making it tickle so much! The walkie-talkie was right on a really bad spot! "PLEHEHEHEHEAHASE STAHAHAHAHAHAP!" Logan begged. SCP-999 looked at Logan with a confused expression. Why was he laughing? What was making him laugh so much? Even though the SCP loved hearing his full-blown laughter, it also wanted to know what was causing it. Thankfully though, the eye pods seemed to have figured it out! SCP-131-b rolled itself over to Logan's pocket and made babbling noises at the slime. When it got the slime's attention, the yellow pod stared right at the bulging pocket. The slime let out a few surprised gurgling noises!

SCP-999 let go of one of Logan's hands, and reached for the walkie-talkie. But, Logan beat him to it. Logan grabbed onto the top of the radio, and clicked the talk button to stop the vibrations. Then, Logan pulled the walkie-talkie out of his pocket, and slid it away from him. As the walkie-talkie slid away, the walkie-talkie buzzed and vibrated all over the ground. To make matters even funnier, SCP-131-a and b took off racing after it! It was like a new toy to them, that they could chase! Logan giggled at the scene, while SCP-999 made little happy gurgle noises.

"Thahahank yohohohou, Nine-nihihine-nihine." Logan said, giving the slime a few light pets on the head. SCP-999 happily melted into the calming touch. It appeared that SCP-999 liked being given touch as well as touching others! Logan smiled at the reaction it gave him. "Ihihi have aha gihihift fohohor yohohou..." Logan told SCP-999. The slime let Logan go, and began making excited gurgling noises while bouncing around excitedly. Logan smiled and opened up his backpack. Excited to see the slime's reaction as well, Logan pulled out a pack of M&M's, and a pack of Necco™ wafers. Upon seeing BOTH of the slime's favorite food, SCP-999's mouth started watering profusely. Logan smiled and opened up the M&M's. When the smell of M&M's filled the air, SCP-999 started bouncing around, clapping its pseudo-pods together and sliding around the room.

"Wow! What a lucky slime! That slime gets to have a bedtime snack!" Dr. ████ reacted from the walkie-talkie. Logan looked over, and noticed that the walkie-talkie was right beside him now. Then, he noticed the pods, happily squirming in place and waiting for a reaction. Logan smiled happily. "Thank you." Logan said before dumping out the M&M's for the slime. After the garbage ended up in the bag, Logan reaching his hands out to give them both 'good boy' pets. Upon the invitation, both pods came barreling over to Logan for pets. Logan giggled and began caressing, petting and scratching the little guys. "You too are such good pods! Yes you are! Oh yes you are! Such good little pods!" Logan cooed in a high-pitched voice. Both pods closed their eyes happily and deeply melted into the loving touches. The hands were so soft, so caring, so delicate! It even got to the point where the pods turned themselves so far to the side, that they just flopped onto the hands. Logan tittered at the reaction, and held them up in his hands.

"You know what? How would you like to come over and visit the safe SCP's more often? I think we need a person like you, who's loving, understanding, and very playful. Often the thing the SCP's miss, is the playfulness. And you seem to have it." The doctor offered.

Logan smiled and looked up at the slime. SCP-999 offered its pseudo-pod to Logan, and Logan calmly placed the orange pod into the slime's makeshift hand. With his hand now free, Logan picked up his walkie-talkie. "I'd love to!" Logan replied.

"Excellent! Would 20 bucks an hour work?" Dr. ████ asked.

Logan blinked, confused. "...What?" Logan clarified.

"Would 20 bucks an hour work? For looking after them?" Dr. ████ explained further. "You're getting paid to play with them. This is a one-time opportunity, that's being extended under the SCP Foundation. You minus well get paid." Dr. ████ further explained.

"I...I appreciate the offer, but..." Logan attempted to reason.

"Is that a yes for hourly pay?" Dr. ████ asked.

"I- No." Logan replied.

Dr. ████ paused his speech. "...What would you like then?" Dr. ████ asked.

"I'd like to play with them for less money. Much less. Heck, I'd love to just volunteer my time." Logan told him.

Dr. ████'s eyes widened. "...Are you serious? You want to volunteer your time to play with a bunch of unknown SCP's for a few days monthly?!" Dr. ████ clarified.

Logan smiled. "Yes. As long as they're safe, I'd love to do that." Logan told him.

Dr. ████ didn't know what to say. "...Wow...I-What can I even say to that? Other than...thank you!" Dr. ████ reacted, unable to properly process the information he was hearing.

"You're welcome. I'd love to help. I love these SCP's. I don't normally form bonds with people very quickly, but this...was an extraordinary experience." Logan told him.

Dr. ████ smiled. "I'm glad you agreed to my invitation." Dr. ████ said.

"I'm glad I did too. Though, who can turn down a chance to visit a predicting pen, a surgeon teddy bear, a coffee machine with endless beverages, a couple eye pods and a happy slime? I certainly wouldn't." Logan told him.

Dr. ████ let out a chuckle. "I'm glad to know." Dr. ████ replied.

Suddenly, Logan was pulled out of the conversation by an alarm clock in the room. Logan looked at the time.

[8:30 PM]

"That's the 30 minute warning for workers. It's their time to ready themselves to head home. You can choose to leave if you want. If you are going to leave though, I'd like you to take the pods back to their chamber." Dr. ████ told him. Logan looked at the pods, and noticed they had woken up and were ready to go.

"Okay. I'm gonna take them back then." Logan told the doctor.

"Alright." Dr. ████ said. "Have a good rest then." Dr. ████ told him.

Logan smiled. "Thanks, you too." Logan replied. Then, Logan picked up his backpack, and began zipping it up. As Logan began to leave, Logan couldn't help but notice that the pods were getting slower and slower. Their eyes were starting to droop as well. So, Logan stopped in front of them, and opened up a small, front pouch. "Here. You guys can ride in here." Logan told them. Logan lifted up the orange pod first, and placed it into the pouch. Then. Logan lifted up the yellow pod and placed it in beside the orange one. When the two pods were ready, Logan carefully carried the backpack up to their chamber door. When the door unlocked with his key-card, Logan opened up the door and walked into the room. After opening up the sliding door with the key-card, Logan walked in and placed the backpack down. Logan carefully lifted each pod out one at a time, and placed it onto the kids play mat they had.

Then, Logan gave them one last good night pet before walking out the door...

[falloutforties]

Five Years {Chapter Two}

Description: Nora meets some new friends, and encounters some of the worst creatures the wasteland has to offer. But it’s no big deal, really. Lemons into lemonade, right?

Warnings: Again, no real warnings for this chapter aside from language and some violence. 

Note from the Author: This story is also on ao3, if you’d rather read it there, but I will continue to post it here as well! Writing and publishing this story has given me something exciting to do during quarantine, so I hope that someone sees it and also finds some excitement.

II. BAD RADS

From the second she hit the ground, she decisively ignored the pang in the soles of her feet and sprinted across the mottled street, dodging upturned cars and pieces of unsettled tar that littered the road. The thing was moving fast, faster than she would ever have imagined, sweeping great gusts of wind across the city as it moved.

It was beautiful in an incredibly terrifying way, she had to give it that. If it were stuffed and displayed behind a glass case in a museum, she would have gawked at it, but it wasn’t stuffed, its heart was still beating, and she was losing stamina.

“Fuck it!” She shouted and hoisted the mini-gun onto her hip with a wretched groan. Everything she did hurt her physically, but the thought of being ripped limb from limb by the creature seemed to hurt more, so she suffered the massive bruise that would certainly grow from her hip bone into her ribcage where the mini-gun sat spinning idly.

“RED BUTTON!” Screamed Garvey from the museum’s balcony. “THERE’S A RED BUTTON! PRESS THE RED BUTTON! RED BUTTON!”

He kept repeating it, over and over, and it took her mind a few seconds to process before she spotted it, and the mini-gun began to whir at a frightening pace. As it heated up, the creature lunged towards her with the bloody debris of a raider stuck between its teeth and on its horns, dripping bits of lung onto the street. She could have vomited, but there was no time. She would have to reschedule.

“GET FUCKED, YOU SLIMY BASTARD!” If her plan didn’t work, she would have looked foolish screaming such harsh words just before getting ripped apart. They would have been excellent last words, but they wouldn’t look very pretty printed on a marble tombstone. Much to her surprise, and the aesthetic benefit of her epitaph, the gun began firing right into the monster’s chest, finally sending it sprawling out across the street.

As the ringing in her ears died, she watched the monster’s enormous chest heave ragged breaths as it died. The mini-gun still spun in front of her, ready in case the monster had a friend, but the streets grew an eerie quiet that replaced the ringing with a stale, audible silence.

“Fucking shit, fuck, fuck, shit, fucking fuck,” she muttered. The mini-gun finally gave way and crashed into the gravel beneath her as her knees buckled, sending her face-forward into the rubble. She heard Garvey’s feet hit the pavement and the frantic calls of Sturges behind him.

“I’m fine, guys,” she assured. In her mind, she was waving her hand at them as a sign of life, but her physical body was unaware of her intentions as it lay limp and crumpled like a rag doll. “Don’t worry, I’m alive. Just a little tired. Just gonna take a little nap here, right on the road. No worries, no worries.”

“Get her off the ground, Sturges, we’ve got to get her inside.”

“I’m on it, boss.”

She felt Sturges’s roughened hands scoop beneath her armpits, hoisting her from her pathetic position into his arms. She vaguely understood that this was the first real human contact she had in so long, but she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by it. She imagined Nate’s face, scornfully watching her as another man carried her to safety.

“Thank you,” she said as she was set on a cushion on the lobby’s floor. The Minutemen surrounded her, watching to see if her eyes would shut permanently. “I’m fine, folks. Don’t worry about me.”

“That was some show, ma’am. I’ve been handling a gun as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I would last that long against a Deathclaw.”

“Is that what it’s called? Man. I guess that makes sense, though.”

“Never seen a Deathclaw before?”

“Nah, never had the pleasure,” she intoned with a dreamy smile. Nora was just happy to be alive, even if it meant she might live to see another Satan-Lizard hybrid. The sight of Preston Garvey sat in front of her with a concerned expression on his kind face made her swell with pride, and Sturges posted by the front door made her feel safe. She liked the wastelanders. She liked all the people she’d met— she even liked the raiders, in a weird way. Everyone was plucky and happy to just be alive.

“Once you’re feeling up to it, you ought to come with us. We heard of an old neighborhood close by that would make a good spot for a settlement. Sanctuary Hills. Appropriate name, huh?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Garvey?” Marcy questioned from her place against the far wall. “We might be safer holed up in this place.”

“We’ll never know unless we try. Sanctuary might be exactly the kind of place we need.”

“Sanctuary will be good for you,” Nora interrupted, and Garvey turned to her in surprise. “I used to live there. Before the war, that is.”

“The war? What war?”

“The war. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I’m not at death’s doorstep, but I think Sanctuary Hills would be a perfect home for the Minutemen.”

She closed her eyes and pictured the little settlement in her mind, but for the first time, she saw it as it was, the wrecked little suburban paradise that sat just below the looming hill of Vault 111. She saw the skeletons of houses and the spindly arms of irradiated trees that grew through the empty windows. She saw the empty beds, the dirty halls, the rusted doorframes. And she saw life in that. She saw Preston Garvey stepping lively down the neighborhood streets at night with his hands in his pockets, whistling a song no one knew the name of. She saw Marcy and Jun huddled together in bed on a cold night, listening to the crickets chirp in the woods outside.

There was life in Sanctuary Hills. It was hidden in the darkened corners of ruined houses, but it was there, and it was perhaps even more meaningful than before the war.

“Alright then. Everyone rest up. By morning, we’ll move on to Sanctuary Hills.”

On the afternoon of the next day, she sat cross-legged on the floor of her Sanctuary home, where she once would have kneeled on the sticky plasticky linoleum, scrubbing at grout because the Hawthorne’s were coming over for Sunday brunch the next day, and they would be keenly inspecting the grout.

Recently, she had been practicing a train-of-thought exercise in which she let her thoughts go wherever they wanted. Most times, she kept a strict adherence to thought-rules. She couldn’t afford to think with too much sentimentality or hope, because the word no longer conformed to such things, but she allowed herself moments of wildness when she felt that her feelings could no longer be restricted to the dusty back corners of her head.

My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare. I had to cram so many things to store everything in there.

She wondered where she would be in five years, and for the first time, she seemed to notice that her prescience did not extend to the rest of the year, even. She would just have to wait and see the next morning, and then the next, and the next, until she woke up and knew she would die.

Assuming she would be alive in five years, would she have wasted away? Turned to chems in her misery, taking hits of jet between grand Nietzschean thoughts about the meaninglessness of life? Would she succumb to the horrors of radiated life, her skin beginning to pool in rough gauntlets down to the tips of her fingers?

I do have to admit— being irradiated enough to glow green would look cool as fuck.

Fuck, fuck. FUCK.

She loved swearing. Even in her head, it felt liberating. Before the bombs fell, she had never once swore aloud, much less for people to hear. The language of the wasteland was beautifully rough, and she loved hearing even the most profane raiders spit vitriol at her, even as she shot back from behind an old Gunner’s barrier.

“FUCK!” She yelled out loud, with a smile. She wasn’t sure if Codsworth heard her, or if he was appalled at her sudden outburst of foul language, but she didn’t care. He would understand.

She wondered errantly if he was programmed graciously enough to be able to swear so violently himself.

If Codsworth said ‘fuck’, that would make this whole thing worth it, I think.

It had been three weeks since she had pulled herself from that damned vault, and so far, she had to give the Nuclear Apocalypse credit. It had really done a number on good ole Planet Earth, and it was certainly creative in its exploits.

Two-headed cows? Beautiful, brilliant, exceptional storytelling. Conceptually, it was all very nice. In practice? She thought it could do better.

Three weeks out of cryogenic storage, and the worst the wasteland had done to her thus far was get a switchblade stuck in her leg, which she in turn stuck into a raider’s leg. She was turning radioactive lemons into radioactive lemonade, and it was spicy in ways that lemonade shouldn’t be, but at least she wasn’t dead.

“Mum,” Codsworth interrupted her train of thought as he meandered into the living room. He had a few spots of rust on him now, an addition she was sure would infuriate him if she knew whether he was able to see himself in a mirror.

He’s not a vampire, he’s a robot. Of course he can see himself in a mirror. Just like he can see me.

“Hi, Codsworth,” she replied. She stood up from the floor and her joints creaked. That was a fun new problem that came with being over 200 years old, she had discovered. Her joints now sounded like the sputtering of an old car engine. She wasn’t built for this apocalypse business.

“Your friends from Concord have arrived, and their leader requests your presence.”

“Thank you, Codsworth.”

She wiped a stray tear from her eye that she hadn’t been aware of prior and headed towards the door to see her new ragtag group of friends making their way across the bridge to Sanctuary Hills, the Red Rocket Truck Stop looming behind them.

She hadn’t been completely useless in her three weeks in the wasteland. In fact, Nora was quite proud of herself. She had always wondered if she would survive in one of those tacky zombie movies that ran on weekends on Channel 42— “The Commonwealth’s Home for All Things Sci-Fi and Horror!”— and now she knew for a fact that she would survive.

In three weeks, Nora had restored the necessary parts of her old Sanctuary home, given her old robot butler a dusty bowler hat, traveled to Concord, beat the Ever-Loving Shit out of some giant glowing cockroaches, fought a Satanic Lizard, and met a really cool dog. The dog was now sleeping in a little red doghouse she had moved to her front lawn.

She had always wanted a dog. Having a baby, Nora had once thought, would be a gateway drug to getting a dog. That was Pro #4 on her list of Pros and Cons of baby-having. Now, she could have a dog, totally baby-free.

Take that, Nate.

As soon as Preston stood square-shouldered before the first house on the street, a menacing roar of thunder split the sky, and nauseous yellow clouds rolled in over the horizon. Nora wanted to think that it looked like the end of the world, but the apocalypse had already happened. This was just another awful thing she would have to live through.

She stood up and gazed at the sky under the shade of her palm as Garvey approached.

“Radstorm coming,” he mentioned casually.

“Radstorm?”

“Radiation storm. Bad news for anyone without a gas mask.”

“Radiation storm,” she muttered under her breath. “Of course there are radiation storms. What do people typically do during a radiation storm?”

“Stay inside, if you can. In your case, I would recommend getting a good sleep. You don’t look so good.”

“You sure you don’t need my help?” She asked, praying that the answer was no, but she couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep without at least asking. Damned maternal instincts.

Preston chuckled, “No, you go ahead to sleep, ma’am. You’ve already done more than we could ask for.”

Nora wondered if she would be able to sleep in her old bed. She hadn’t even tried, opting always for the Hawthorne’s old queen bed, now doubly-stuffed with Bloatfly larvae in the seems. Every time she walked into her old bedroom, she had to walk down the hall, and when she walked down the hall, she had to walk by Shaun’s room.

The child haunted her in so many ways, and she decided, after breaking out of a high-security vault and killing a Deathclaw in the middle of Concord, perhaps she was more able than she thought. She was going to find that child. Shaun was going to come home.

[calucadu]

The Camping Trip, a Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia One Shot.

This is my piece for the @summerexplosionzine! I love going camping and I couldn’t this year so at least I still got the chance to experience it by writing this. I had so much fun writing it and I'm actually really proud and happy with the result! I hope you like it too ❤ It's a free zine full of incredible content and vibrant colours and I really recommend downloading it!

Summary: Kirishima, Bakugou and Uraraka go on a camping trip together!

Pairings: Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou/Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Kirishima Eijirou/Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki/Uraraka Ochako

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Kirishima Eijirou, Uraraka Ochako.

Rating: Teen and up

Read on AO3

Or read below the cut

I feel like a little kid again as I kick my legs, enjoying being driven around. I’m in the back seat of Eijirou’s car, and he’s taking us to the campsite where we’re going to be spending the next day and night. We weren’t able to get more time off work, unfortunately, but I’m still looking forward to our small trip.

Since the redhead is driving, he has total control of the music being played. He brought a mixtape he’d made and is now blasting it at full volume while tapping his fingers against the steering wheel to the rhythm of the songs I know he picked for us. I know this because the first one that starts playing is Katsuki’s favourite.

The blond, who called shotgun weeks before our trip, gives an exasperated sigh as he looks at Eijirou before snorting and rolling his eyes. The redhead excitedly slaps his arm, trying to verbally encourage him to sing along with him. The other just looks away, hiding his mouth with his hand, which I know he’s doing because he’s trying to pretend he’s not actually smiling. I squeal, watching as his reflection blushes.

The next song that starts playing is a soft piano melody. The redhead adjusts his rear-view mirror to look at me cheekily before nudging Kat again.

“Hey, sing this one with me.”

“Hell no! This is one of those romantic slow ones. I ain’t singing shit.”

Ei chuckles, but clutches his heart dramatically, belting out the first few words of the lyrics. The blond groans audibly and shakes his head as he feigns having lost interest. The redhead persists, tilting his head towards Katsuki when traffic allows him to and singing romantically to our boyfriend.

“Shove off!” Comes his answer, pushing the other away gently.

Eijirou laughs just as the melody slows down again but continues intoning. “And you’re my sun and my moon, you’re my stars” I croon with it, since I know the song well. The redhead lifts his gaze and our eyes interlock through the reflection in the rear-view mirror. He smiles at me and I feel my heart swell in my chest.

The ballad ends with Katsuki threatening to go back home the moment we arrive if Eijirou plays another romantic song. The latter chuckles but puts another one of the blond’s favourites on to lighten the mood.

The rest of the drive goes by quickly enough. It’s not far anyway, and since it’s not a holiday there’s not much traffic. I spot the sign for the campsite when we’re still on the highway and I immediately start bouncing up and down in my seat excitedly. I’ve never been camping before, and if I recall correctly, neither has Eijirou. We both know Katsuki used to do it a lot with his parents when he was small, and when the redhead decided to surprise him with this nostalgia trip, neither of us missed the glint of happiness in the blond’s eyes. We knew just how important camping and hiking is for our little hothead, and how much he enjoys doing these sorts of things, so we planned this holiday for him. He helped us with the details of it, since he’s the one with experience, but now I’m as excited for the trip as he is. I know he worked hard on it so we could enjoy our first time and I’m very proud of him.

The campsite is gorgeous! The entrance is in the middle of the forest, but there’s a giant sign at the entryway, like in a film. I gape at the parked caravans in amazement as we drive by them. There are also cabins, but we drive past them as well, since we’re heading over to the area reserved for tents. They give you a spot in the middle of the woods and you can park your vehicle there. There are plenty of trees surrounding our section, isolating us from any potential neighbours – although they seem pretty far away so they won’t be much of a problem – and giving us a lot of shade.

The first thing Katsuki does when we arrive is set up his hammock. He lies on it as he watches us struggle to pitch the tent, smiling smugly and boasting about how easy his job was.

“You’re helping with this too!” Ei counters, going over the instructions again. He frowns as he reads. “After all, you’re supposed to be the one that’s good at this sort of thing.”

The canvas is a small four-person dome tent that was the Bakugous until their son decided to take off with it a couple years ago. It’s a bit battered and old because they used it a lot when Katsuki was younger and they took him on camping trips. It’s got a few holes here and there, but it still works perfectly. It’s not really visually appealing, since it’s a creamy sort of colour, but it’s supposed to be functional and practical, not pretty. It seems relatively easy to set up, even though both Eijirou and I are having trouble figuring it out.

Katsuki grumbles and hops off from the hammock, going over to us in two strides and extending his hand to ask for the instructions. The redhead clicks his tongue, frowning slightly as he gives them to him.

Turns out that even the blond finds setting the tent harder than he thought. He complains that it’s been a while since he last used it, and even then, he’d been a child and didn’t recall helping his parents, to which Eijirou remarks a low ‘what a surprise’ that Katsuki outright ignores. I manage to calm him down by pressing my lips lightly to his, and he immediately gets his act together, picking up the poles and instructing us on what to do.

We end up setting it up pretty quickly after that. It isn’t perfect – especially on my side, I don’t think I pulled the corner guyline as far as it could go, and I didn’t have enough force to put the pegs in properly – but it’ll do. Ei makes it steadier by hammering my loose pegs into the ground a bit better and then he smiles at me proudly.

“I knew we could do it!” He announces, tying the door flaps to the side neatly so the mesh entryway is open.

“Don’t do that, you’re going to let the bloody spiders in.” Katsuki scolds, coming over to quickly undo his knots.

Eijirou huffs, rolling his eyes lightly. “Whatever you say.”

“Of course it’s whatever I say. I’m the one with the experience.”

I stop their stupid bickering by asking them if they want to eat, which they gladly prefer to do. Lunch consists of the sandwiches we brought. We all made different types to share with each other, sort of like in a picnic. Katsuki eats his in his hammock, gently rocking himself in the shade. Ei tries to get him out of it – I suspect so he can have his turn – but the blond won’t budge. I eat my tuna fish, mayonnaise and sweetcorn sandwich sitting in the front seat of the car, fiddling with the radio while they’re distracted squabbling.

I feel so content just by listening to a low song play, the musical notes intermixing with the various sounds of nature. I can hear some insects buzzing in the background, and instead of finding it creepy or disgusting like always, I think it’s interesting. My eyes roam over the leaf shaped shades dancing on my legs as I dangle them out of the seat. Everything’s perfect.

We head out for our walk after lunch but not before Eijirou’s finished fussing about us. He always does this, and while I should probably be annoyed about it, it honestly makes my heart swell that he’s there to take care of us in his own way.

Kat and I are prone to getting sunburnt. Ei, on the other hand, easily tans. It’s only been half a day and he’s already a lovely brownish colour, his freckles showing thanks to the sun.

He’s overprotective of us, though, especially about this. He’s the one carrying the cream and applying coat after coat of it all over our skin, tenderly reminding us that it’s for our own good.

I don’t complain; it’s fun to watch Katsuki squirm as Eijirou rubs sun cream on his nose while saying “remember what happened last year?” until the blond finally gives in and stops struggling, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest.

And he got us hats for this trip too. Mine’s a pretty pastel pink sunhat and Katsuki’s is a rather tacky looking black cap, a skeleton on it probably with the only purpose of satisfying the blond. Ei insists we wear them before going on our walk and puts them on both of our heads after applying a generous amount of sun cream on us. He puts on his own ugly red cap and beams at us.

The redhead offers me his hand, which I of course take. He smiles at me as we stroll, watching as Katsuki quickly overtakes us, grumbling at us to hurry up.

The chirping of the birds mixed with the slight breeze rustling the leaves in the trees makes the walk all the nicer. It’s comforting to hear my other boyfriend treading hard in front of me. Kind of makes me feel like I’m not alone, that he’ll be there in case I need him. I know it’s stupid to think that, especially when I’m walking hand in hand with Ei, but I just feel complete when I’m with them.

I find that the trail is pretty simple. It’s not a long or hard walk by any means, so it’s a nice opportunity for us to relax as we enjoy nature. I amble at a leisurely pace and stop from time to time to have a better look at interesting insects and pretty plants. Eijirou sticks with me, maintaining an engaging conversation as Katsuki marches off on his own, glaring at us from time to time and complaining about how slow we are. I laugh it off because I know he’ll never really leave us behind.

My feet are a little sore by the time we get back. It’s obvious I’m not used to my mountain boots, so it’s comes as a relief when the redhead suggests we play in the little stream near the campsite.

We change into our swimming gear quickly and head over there. Ei is wearing those ridiculous lime swim trunks he likes so much. They’re flashy and tacky, but at least it makes him easier to spot when at the beach. Kat’s are a dark red, a white pattern all over them; and I’m wearing the pink and purple bikini they got me as a present for my last birthday.

It isn’t a long walk to the river, but as we make our way towards it, we cross by friendly people who wave at us and wish as a pleasant day. Eijirou and I answer back cheerly while Katsuki mumbles out a curt hello when the redhead remembers to nudge him in the ribs.

The area we finally decide to relax at is mainly in the shade, and it’s littered with big rocks. We’re far away from the families with kids and couples being all affectionate in public, so we’re in a relatively peaceful spot. I make my way over to one of the boulders and sit myself on it, taking my flipflops off to soak my sore feet in the cool water. A relieved sigh escapes my lips as the cold temperature soothes them.

The stream is nice, and the water is so clear that I can see the little insects and fish that live there play around and do their things. Sadly, their peace is violently disturbed by Ei and Kat, who jump in and start splashing around.

I would normally be annoyed, but I care too much for them to find their shenanigans anything but adorable and charming. The redhead howls in laughter as he chases the other around, trying to get him wet, but the blond is agile even in water and manages to not get drenched.

He goes over to where I am and threatens to use me as a shield. I shriek, playing along, until I have to actually cover my face because the redhead has decided that I’m worth sacrificing for the greater good.

It’s cute how they have fun. I pretend I’m above their childish playing, but I indulge myself and splash them too, which spurs them on. The three of us end up turning it into a competition to see who can wet the others the most and we scream and giggle as we run around.

We play, splash and laugh for what seems like hours until we get tired and go back to sitting on a rock big enough for the three of us. Ei intertwines our hands together and kisses me on the cheek lovingly before rubbing our noses together cutely. Kat pretends to be jealous and starts splashing him again, but the redhead laughs and pecks me on my lips before asking us if we’ve had enough.

Since I can’t feel my feet because of how cold the water is and Kat seems to be getting tired, we get out of the river and dry ourselves before heading back to the campsite. Ei talks excitedly about how lovely the day’s been and how pretty the sun is now that it’s setting as we walk, towels wrapped around our necks.

Katsuki made our dinner at home, which is a relief since by the time we get to our car and tent, the sky’s already dark. When we’d been preparing the trip, we’d gone over the equipment we would need, and found his parent’s old camping stove. He had complained bitterly about how much of a safety hazard it seemed and had forbidden Ei from even coming close to him while he was using it, if he decided to use it. Instead he’d chosen to bring a nice pasta salad that we could enjoy cold.

We take turns to grab a plate and sit in a circle this time; the hammock completely forgotten at this point. The meal is really nice, and unlike Kat’s usual cooking, it isn’t spicy. We devour it quickly and in silence, tired from all the fun we’d had all day.

After we’ve eaten and we’ve cleared the plates up, Ei picks up his guitar and sits on the ground in front of the tent. He strums his instrument, humming lightly to himself. I turn my head to watch him just as his head drops back and his eyes glance at the sky, a smile forming on his lips. He agilely moves his fingers of his left hand to form the chords he needs for his song, and immediately starts playing. His voice starts off low as he glances nervously between me and Katsuki.

Surprisingly, the blond doesn’t even click his tongue. He sits down next to him, his eyes fixed on the ground as he starts to sing along with him. It’s a song I don’t recognise, but it sounds lovely. It’s not slow but it isn’t fast paced either; the rhythm is gentle and sweet.

There’s something about the melody that raises goose bumps all over my arms and legs. It’s not a sad song, but I feel myself being moved by it nonetheless. It looks like they’re both quite fond of it, too, especially since the blond is singing along. It feels powerful for some reason I don’t understand, and, for a moment, I feel left out.

Ei and Kat are glancing at each other. They share this song and whatever memories they formed while listening to it the first few times they did. I’ve never heard it before. I don’t know anything about it.

It’s true that they started dating before they included me in their special relationship, and, sometimes, more often than not, and despite how hard they try to not make me feel like this, I feel weird. I feel like a stranger in their love. Not because they don’t love me – they do, and I know, I can tell – but because of their history together. They did so many things before I arrived that it makes me feel insecure. Like I don’t belong with them, like they’re better off without me.

I try not to let the sadness overcome me as I sit myself on the redhead’s other side. Clenching my fists against my legs I force a smile on my face and wait until they’ve finished.

“Chako.” Ei mutters, his eyes never leaving his guitar. He’s still strumming it, his movements slower and less fluid than before. “That’s the song I wrote for Katsuki. I wanted to confess to him with it.”

“But you never did.” The blond whispers.

“But I never did.” He chuckles, but it sounds dejected and wrong, like he forced himself to do it.

“It’s only ‘cause I did it first, dummy. Don’t get all sad and nostalgic on us.” Katsuki berates him, but his voice lacks his usual gruff tone, and instead just seems tired.

“Yeah. He’s right. And I ended up singing it to him a lot anyway. I don’t want you to pull that face ever again, Chako.”

“Wh… what face?” I stammer, trying to laugh it off.

“I saw you. You looked sad. I’m going to play it again, so you can listen to the lyrics.”

“Ei…” Katsuki warns him, his voice softer than before.

“But it’s okay, I wrote a song for you too.” The redhead whispers, locking his eyes with mine. The melody starts again and they both start singing.

It is about Katsuki. It never says his name, but now that I know the meaning behind it, I can tell it’s about how brave and strong he is, how he looks like he’s hard and undefeated on the outside, but he’s actually as human as the rest of us are. It speaks of how soft he is with the people he loves and how he’ll do whatever he can to make them happy, in his own way. Every word in the lyrics is beautifully arranged to make the most perfect song to describe the most perfect blond I know. Speaking of, when I manage to peel my eyes off of Eijirou, I spot tears running down Katsuki’s cheeks. He wipes them away discreetly, but we’ve already noticed the song brings out an emotion he tries to keep locked away.

The song slowly dies down and the redhead clears his throat before he starts a new one. This new melody is much more upbeat, but the lyrics are no less deep. It’s about a pretty face that doesn’t try to deceive you, because she’s as sweet as she looks; cute, simple and strong in her own way. It tells a story of how she saved two boys and how she never knew just what she meant to them. It’s beautiful, too, far prettier than I expected anything sang for me could be. Tears are rolling down my cheeks by the time the song ends. Ei is looking at me expectantly while Kat is doing his best to avert his eyes.

“We kind of wrote it together.” The redhead mutters, a small smile on his face.

“He wrote it basically. It was also his idea. I just helped.”

“You called her pretty and insisted I added that into the song.” Ei teases him, nudgingly him gently in the ribs.

“Shut up!”

I can’t help myself and start laughing, closing my eyes to try and stop the emotions bubbling out of me. The tears can’t be halted at this point, but it’s okay, because I’m smiling despite them. Before I know it, I’m being pulled into a hug, and I feel overwhelmed by their warmth and love.

When I’ve finally calmed down enough, I ask them to let me go and they do, slowly releasing me from their embrace. Kat looks at me worriedly, but I reassure him that I’m fine with a sweet smile and he ruffles my hair lovingly. Ei picks the guitar again and positions himself once more to continue playing songs. This time he sings some classics and I try to keep up to him, but I can’t remember most of the lyrics, so I just hum along when I don’t. The blond sometimes sings too, but he prefers to look up at the sky and enjoy listening to us.

I mimic Katsuki and tilt my head up. The stars look lovely in the sky tonight. There’s just something in the atmosphere that makes me feel happy, blessed to be there with them and glad to be alive. The gentle music in the background, the lovely sparkling lights, the feeling of love and friendship and being with the people you can’t live without make me feel elated. I don’t want this to end.

“Do you think it’s going to be colder later tonight?” I ask a bit later, frowning as I gaze at the dark sky. I got lost in the songs and time flew by, and now it’s a little bit chilly.

Ei sets his guitar aside before moving closer to me and wrapping an arm over my shoulders. He pulls me in tightly, nuzzling me against his broad chest. “You’re not cold, are you?” He asks, worriedly.

I snuggle closer to him and shake my head. “I’m fine like this.”

“Good!” He hugs me closer to himself, and even invites Kat into the embrace as he whispers: “I’m having the best day!”

It doesn’t take us much longer to crawl into the tent. We’re tired and I can feel my own eyes closing. Once inside, we spread out our sleeping bags and mats, trying to decide how to lay them and where to sleep.

Katsu’s looking at his dark blue sleeping bag in disgust, pondering something. When he finally gives in to his thoughts, he sighs, letting it drop onto his lap.

“It’s going to be hot tonight. In the tent I mean.” He mutters, calmly.

Ei looks up at him, frowning. “So?”

“So, we won’t need these.” He answers back, sounding exasperated.

“What if it gets colder later on?” I ask, unzipping my red one.

The blond grumbles something under his breath before he picks his sleeping bag again and tosses it to me. I just look at him, watching as his eyebrows frown and his lip curls slightly.

“Just… fucking… understand me already or whatever.”

Ei laughs gently, crawling over to the other.

“You okay there, bud?”

“I… just… look. Let’s just sleep together.”

The redhead pulls away and looks at me with his ‘adoring Katsuki’ face. “He wants us to open the sleeping bags and use them like blankets.” He coos lovingly.

“Oh my god, that’s adorable! He’s so cute!”

“He is!”

“Shut up. I can hear you perfectly and it’s creepy.”

“You want to sleep with us so much, Katsuki?”

“Stop talking like that or I’ll change my mind!”

“Okay, okay!” I whisper, unzipping my sleeping bag completely and spreading it. “Let’s do it!”

“Alright!” Ei enthusiastically nearly yells as he forcefully unzips his. Kat does his very unenthusiastically, and still blushing. He avoids looking at us as he lies down next to me and spreads his sleeping bag over me.

“Wait.” I say, pulling his down a little bit and taking a closer look at it. “We could zip them together.”

“That’d be so cool! But is it possible with our sleeping bags?” Kiri asks, searching for his zipper.

It turns out it’s very possible and we link all of them together to form a blanket of sorts. Katsuki pushes me back so that I’m lying in the middle and tells Eijirou to hug me too. The redhead smiles and snuggles up to me, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me towards him just slightly. The other grunts as I’m taken away from him but gets up just slightly to kiss me on the mouth and wish me a good night. He presses his lips to Eijirou’s too and turns the light off before going back to my side, where his arm goes to join the redhead’s at my waist.

Honestly, I’ve never been happier.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x01: Lines We Cross - Details

Training Day:

Okay, let’s talk details! I mentioned how during Training Day, the boat reminds me of Beth and what happened to her. It’s half-buried in the sand, which may be part of the “what is hidden” theme. 

We also saw a walker impaled on an X-shaped piece of wood floating in. It reminds me a lot of the bear Cyndie and Rachel found in S7. It represents something floating in from the ocean that’s important. (Another set up for that happening in this arc.) And we’ve always associated the X with Beth. (X Theory).

We also hear Judith singing a song with the lyrics, “15 miles on the Erie Canal.” Yeah, that’s super important. It’s part of the bridge symbolism. I looked it up and it’s from an old song called “Low Bridge.” I don’t want to go into all the details now, as that’s a post unto itself, but I’ll try and get a post about it together soon. (Seriously guys, I’m going to end up with seven or eight different posts from this ONE episode!)

Then the kids dump out their buckets and find the skin mask. Notice the star fish, Xs in the buckets (X Theory) and the colors of the buckets: red and blue.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the context of these details than what I’ve already said. Judith’s song, Low Bridge, may represent all the bridges we’ve seen thus far, all the characters and arcs and death fake outs. And now, we’ve arrived at the Whisper War.

Skins:

Michonne tells Daryl to tell Carol not to leave again without saying goodbye. Definitely callback to Beth hating to say goodbye. But @frangipanilove pointed out something I hadn’t even thought of. By extension, Michonne saying this tells us that Carol DID leave without saying goodbye the first time. That makes her an obvious Beth proxy. Because at some point, she left Daryl and TF without saying goodbye. To be on a BOAT. Under the STARS (all details they felt the need to have Carol let the audience know about). And now she’s returned to him. Just saying.

When Michonne’s group (on the horses) split up, she and Aaron end up on a bridge. She says she lost Rick on one, which I said the other day probably foreshadows her leaving to find him soon.

When Magna’s group shows them the camp where the skinned walker is, it keeps showing skeletons with their rib cages showing. 

That always reminds me of 5x09 because one was featured so prominently there. 

Not sure exactly how to interpret it, though. Was 5x09 a foreshadow of the Whisperers? Definitely could be. Especially with the “Silence the Whisperers” graffiti looking so much like the “Wolves Not Far” graffiti from that episode. Or it could be the opposite: that this is a callback to 5x09, an episode in which Beth was featured. Either way works for me.

Also, this camp has a lot of Bethyl callbacks. Cans strung up and used as alarms, a blue sleeping bag, etc.

Then we also have Judith telling RJ about Rick, only disguised as the “Brave Man” in a story. I want to say two things about this. First, it kind of shows that every story they tell or read has a mirror reflection in something to do with the show. So, The Wizard of Oz, The Little Prince, Crime and Punishment. These are books we’ve seen on the show and have said we ought to be reading into them. This is proof of it because Judith is telling Rick’s story disguised as a different one.

The other thing that struck me about this is that Judith actually says Rick is dead here. Sort of. RJ asks if the Brave Man lived and went to see his friends afterward. Judith says no. He died and went to heaven. We KNOW Rick isn’t dead and Michonne is going to go find him. So, there goes the argument that just because Kirkman once confirmed Beth is dead, that means she is. Nope. Not necessarily. 

I also think Michonne’s line about how there are some people you would do anything for is a foreshadow. She names Judith and RJ as the ones she’d do anything for, but then RJ asks, “And my dad?” And she says yes. So obviously, she’ll go find him. We already knew that.

Bird Wisdom:

Okay, lots of bird references in this episode, which is important given that Beth is the song bird, and all other bird references we’ve had (Phoenix, Heron, Yellow Wagtails, black and white birds, the bird in 9x05 that pulled the worm out of the walker’s ear while Daryl watched, etc.).

This was the somewhat humorous part where Eugene measured Rosita’s baby, Coco. A lot. We saw paper birds being used for Coco’s crib mobile. Not unlike Gracie’s back in S10. The suns on the blanket covering her window. The suns may be part of the ABIBEL theory. The blanket itself looks like the one we saw in Beth’s cell in 4x01.

Couple of Beth callbacks I noticed. The baby likes music. When Eugene turned it off, the baby started to cry. Rosita turned the radio back on, and the baby was happy again, lol. But definitely a pro-music reference. Maybe Coco represents Daryl crying when he loses his songbird. He’ll be happy when she returns. Okay, kind of a joke, but it works, right?

Also, Eugene tells Siddiq to warm the baby’s bottle for exactly 5 minutes and 16 seconds. 5x16 was Conquer (end of S5) where we first saw the wolves (foreshadow of the Whisperers) kill someone in a red poncho. I think this is a significant reference as the Whisper War kicks off.

Actually, my fellow theorists and I were discussing this just last night and @frangipanilove gave me some insight into it. 5x16 was the first episode where we saw the wolves in a big way. And remember that I think the wolves foreshadowed the Whisperers. When Aaron and Daryl found the Wolf trap with all the trucks, many of them said “how the harvest gets home.” TD has long thought “the harvest” represented Beth. She’s definitely connected to the “home” theory. (Remember Carl telling Judith in 6x10 about using the North Star to find your way home?) So this is probably yet another way, just like Connie returning Dog to Daryl, of saying Beth will “come home” in this arc. Probably via the Whisperers in some way.

Also, later in the episode, Daryl mentions the home theme. He says to Carol, “why don’t you come on home, now?” I think that is for Carol and part of her arc, but it might also indicate that someone else will finally come home to Daryl.

It’s also been noted that Eugene’s chart of the bay’s growth and patterns looks like Morse Code.

Lydia and Negan strike up a conversation, which is kind of interesting. I noticed that they said everyone was on yellow alert. Aside from a Star Trek reference, it’s the yellow that caught my attention for obvious reasons. It’s also important to note that Negan is picking tomatoes. His job seems to be vegetable collection, much as it was in Carl’s vision of the future. That much of what he wanted has come true. I’ll talk about the significance of this a little more in my predictions post in a day or two.

Siddiq is going through some pretty serious PTSD in the wake of the beheadings. And there’s a new doctor in town named Dante. He’s super arrogant and I found him annoying. Yet, I had to laugh that they gave him that name. Super-significant given how many times they’ve used Dante templates for the story (The Divine Comedy and The Inferno). AND he’s a doctor? Not even sure what to say about this, but I’m side-eying it hard.

Negan and FG’s talk is very significant, but it’s hard to say exactly how yet. The reason being, I don’t think we’ve actually seen the entire foreshadow yet, and it’s hard to say what it will lead to if we don’t have the full sequence.

I’m sure that just confused everyone. Let me explain. Negan says he’s afraid of people lumping him in with the Whisperers and thinking of him as the bad guy again. He also says just being “on alert” feels to him like indecision. There needs to be a show of strength so people feel secure and don’t panic. Initially, FG rejects this, as he doesn’t want to lie to people. Negan says it would be manipulation, but may ultimately keep people safe. And then we see FG taking Negan’s advice by telling them to lock the gates and double the watch. He’s giving a show of force to try and make people feel more secure.

Now, I don’t think doing either of those things is necessarily bad when they think the Whisperers might be in the area again. But in the show, it’s being billed as a manipulation. And the fact that they’re addressing this at all tells me that something is going to go wrong. It’s probably going to backfire somehow. But without knowing how, it’s hard to know exactly what this is heading toward. That’s what I mean when I say we don’t have the full sequence. It ends after Gabriel tells the people to lock the gate. We certainly don’t see it backfiring here. So I’m waiting to see what happens with this.

That said, I do think they’re setting up an interaction between Negan and the Whisperers. In the CBs, he goes over to Alpha’s camp, not because he’s defecting, but to help Rick’s group. He ends up beheading Alpha. The show rarely follows the CBs very closely and I don’t think this will happen in the show. If anything, I think Carol will be the one to kill Alpha, whenever that happens. But given that Negan is talking about his disdain for indecision and needing a decisive show of force, I think they could be setting up something where he still goes over to the Whisperer camp, as he did in the CBs. I just don’t think it will end up the same way. (Incidentally, check out THIS POST for one possibility for the scene when Negan is in the Whisperer’s camp and how it might possibly involve Beth.)

I will also say that I think Negan’s interaction with the Whisperers may lead to Beth in some way. I’ll get into the symbolism that’s telling me that, later. Just know that I think what they’re setting up for him here is important from a TD perspective. And the Details we see in this conversation support that.

FG has “seriously” reference. So we have some Sirius/return symbolism. They talk about baby birds, etc.

Sea Dogs:

Connie and Kelly are helping to haul in a net from the sea. We learn the interesting fact that Kelly is losing her hearing. I don’t know about anyone else, but I always assumed Connie was born deaf. Yet, Kelly’s hearing seems to be degenerating, so maybe Connie’s did at one time as well. This, of course, is when we have the Connie/Daryl/”You seem to have lost something” reference, which I’ve already talked about.

Before she brings Dog back to him, Daryl and Ezekiel have a funny little conversation about bird shit and guano & whether seagulls taste like chicken. I suspect this may have to do with foreshadowing Ezekiel’s death fake out arc. Funny story: I totally thought bats were included in this convo because “guano” is technically bat shit. It can be used as a term for the excrement of sea birds as well, so the convo isn’t incorrect, but I just assumed Ezekiel mentioned bats, too. But he didn’t. Still, seagulls are white and bats are black. Similarly, bird crap is white and bat guano is black. (Yes, I totally googled that, lol.) I think the writers are having a little too much fun with this.

But just as we saw black and white around Beth’s fake out (her laces at Grady before and the ties on Daryl’s legs after) I think this foreshadows Ezekiel’s coming death fake out. I also think Daryl is involved in that death fake out somehow. We see more evidence of this in Daryl and Carol’s scene together. I’ll get to that in a minute.

There is also an artificial “guano” that is made from fish. So it’s all about the ocean theme, isn’t it?

Next, we see Daryl and Carol killing walkers together and get the Claimers callback. I’ve thought a lot about why they chose to use this exact callback here. I’m seeing two possibilities.

1. The Death Fake Out Sequence. Daryl met the Claimers in S4 after he was separated from Beth (their trial separation) but before the actual death fake out happened. Carol and Ezekiel are in that same place in the sequence. Carol leaving Zeke at the end of S9 was the beginning of their trail separation. And I do think his fake out is coming soon. (Perhaps in the MSF?)

In fact, you could think of Carol and Zeke’s brief hug on the dock as a mirror of Daryl briefly finding Beth in the hallway of Grady. Then the death fake out happens. Obviously, it happened in the same scene for Beth, and Ezekiel’s didn’t, but the sequence is the same, even if the exact timing is not.

2.    The second thing I’ve thought about is The Red Machete. We saw the Claimers there, as well as the machete traveling a long distance. So this could be yet another foreshadow of an upcoming journey for Daryl and Carol. That might result in them finding Legs. I mean Beth. ;D

New Mexico:

Daryl and Carol hunt a DEER together. We know the deer represents either a death or someone who should have died and didn’t. When the deer dies (5x10 for Beth; 7x12 for Rick) the person lives. When the deer lives (4x14 for Lizzie and Mica) the person dies.

But keep in mind that the deer doesn’t HAVE to be present directly at the death fake out. Again, we saw Rick’s in 7x12 and his actually death fake out didn’t occur until S9. We didn’t see Beth’s deer until two episodes after Coda. But, on the other hand, Carl’s deer (2x01/2x02) and Lizzie and Mica’s were both present when the actual death or almost-death happened. So it can be either.

So, here’s the gist. I’m fairly certain this deer foreshadows Ezekiel’s death fake out. The deer ultimately dies, which means Ezekiel will live, but Carol will be upset, because she thinks he’s dead.

Let’s look at the symbols in this scene. First, there’s this. This looks EXACTLY like the place in Inmates. 

Why is that important (other than a general callback to Beth, I mean)? Well, in this scene from Inmates, Beth sees the disembodied shoe. That’s another sign of the death fake out. They don’t use the exact same symbols for each death fake out, but several that are similar. So, for example, Rick pulled the shoe/foot off a walker in 7x12, which was also a symbol of his coming fake out.

So even though we don’t specifically see a shoe/foot thing here with Carol, I still think it’s important that they’re calling back to that scene in Inmates. It’s to hint that this is a foreshadow of the coming fake out arc.

I also said above that I thought Daryl would be involved somehow. This is why. At first, I thought maybe Daryl would stop Carol from going somewhere or doing something and that would lead to Ezekiel’s death fake out and she would be angry with him. But I’ve revised my opinion on that. I think the deer itself represents Ezekiel. Because we have the deer being eaten by walkers. And that’s exactly what we think happened with Beth. (Not that she was actually eaten by walkers, but that TF thinks she was.)

I think it’s more likely that, as with our other three death fake out characters (Beth, Glenn, Rick) Ezekiel will become surrounded by walkers and it will look like he’s going to die. As with the deer in this scene, she’ll want to run in and get Ezekiel and keep insisting there’s still time and they can help Zeke, but Daryl will hold her back, for her own safety, saying, “Stop. It’s too late.” And of course she’ll be angry and upset, probably more with herself than him.

Notice how it’s not until after that that she and Daryl start talking about leaving on the motorcycle.

I’ll lay this all out in a less convoluted way in my Predictions post, but I think this signals that Daryl and Carol will be prominent figures in the Whisper War. Ezekiel will have his death fake out, and sometime after that they’ll leave together. There’s a specific reason I think they’ll be leaving together, and no, it’s not because they’ll just be running away together. Even though they say that here, it’s just a foreshadow, but it won’t actually go down that way.

The show actually has a precedent for doing this. I’m having a hard time coming up with a stellar example. Here’s a semi-good one: Lizzie and Mica were heavily compared to Sophia through Carol’s dialogue with Lizzie. If I’d been interpreting symbolism back then, I might have said Lizzie and Mica would die, exactly like Sophia did. Now, they did die, and they were more children Carol lost, so the parallel is there. But they also didn’t die EXACTLY like Sophia, who died from a walker bite. Mica was killed but Lizzie and Lizzie was killed by Carol. So while they DID die, much like Sophia, what led up to it was different than how it was with Sophia.

Similarly, Daryl and Carol will leave together, but not for the reasons they lay out here. More on that to come.

The other thing I find interesting here (that I haven’t talked about yet) is that when Daryl says, “New Mexico” (which, let’s face it, is a pretty random suggestion) Carol asks what’s in New Mexico. He answers, “people who weave bracelets.” 

I had to sit and think about what this meant. Carol doesn’t question it (these two don’t question one another’s random lines much, do they? ;D) but it doesn’t make a ton of sense, and he doesn’t explain what he means.

Watching it several times, I think he just means them. Since Carol wants to weave the friendship bracelet for him, if they go, they’ll be in New Mexico. They’re the people who weave bracelets. (Yet more evidence that they will go there together at some point.)

But, extrapolating from their conversation, people who weave bracelets = friends. Daryl is implying they have friends in New Mexico. Yeah, that’s totally symbolic/foreshadowing. And of course we could point to Morgan for the fulfillment of this, given Fear, but I like to think Beth and Rick are there also.

Lines We Cross:

Let’s talk about Ezekiel coughing and wheezing. I know there are theories out there about it pointing to his death. I’m not completely opposed to that theory, but I’m not completely convinced of it, either. I even think he could be sick, but ultimately won’t die. But, if he is dying, or it foreshadows his death, I don’t think it’s happening just yet. I don’t see it happening until after the Whisper War. This COULD be foreshadowing his death, though. I’ll explain more about my theory on this tomorrow when I finally get to my radiation post.

Embers:

In this section, they finish fighting the fire. Luke asks about radiation. I don’t have tons to say about this part but I’ll mention it more tomorrow.

Carol and Daryl go to where Daryl and Alpha talked last season. Daryl says, “You still want to run away together?” Carol says, “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

Daryl says he needs her to stay. He might have to punch holes in her boat.

Then he walks away and Alpha appears and looks up at Carol.

This little conversation between them is really significant. In the short term, it simply shows that she will stay and help him fight Alpha during the Whisper War. But it was the “tomorrow” that really caught my ear. First of all, it’s more foreshadow that they will leave together at some point, but not just yet. They have Alpha to deal with first.

But it’s much more than that.

I don’t know if you guys remember this, but during S8 (All Out War) we identified a theme of “tomorrow.” They kept saying things would happen tomorrow, or they’d deal with something tomorrow. Stuff like that. We came to realize that it wasn’t only literal. It also referred to some future time and it was often paired with Beth symbolism. So, we came to believe that “tomorrow” was a term for when Beth would return, sometime in the future.

In 5x16 of FTWD, Ginny says, “Goodbye Yesterday, Hello Tomorrow!” I firmly believe Morgan’s group has reached the part in the narrative where they’ll run into Beth. Of course, we won’t see anything like that until at least next season. 

Then here, Carol says they’ll run away together “tomorrow.” Again, it’s some undefined period of time in the future, but you all know I think they’ll leave together and when they do, they’ll find Beth. So it, once again, ties Beth to the “tomorrow” theme.

And of course we end with Alpha seeing Carol, which I’m sure will kick off the Whisper War. Phew! If you’re still reading this, you’re a rock star! I’ll finally get to my radiation post tomorrow and my Predictions post on Saturday. Stay tuned! 😉

[fox-household]

Act 4: Education and Moral Standards, Chapter 2

Alright, this one took even longer, I know there’s definitely a pattern here. But this sort of got delayed with personal issues, life stuff, school work and now the end of the school year is coming up, so yeah. While I’m not sure how the length of this chapter really compares to the others, but because of the fact that school is going to get harder soon and my feelings when it comes to progress, I’m going to start trying to post shorter chapters. One of the worst feelings I get is that since I haven’t posted anything for ages, I feel like I’ve made no progress at all, it really pains me sometimes and since I’ve been holding myself to some sort of standard of length, it feels daunting to write a new chapter even if the length probably isn’t as much as others do. Anyway content shouldn’t be lessened overall, just there will be a larger number of chapters. Thanks for being patient, hope it was at least 2% worth the wait if even that.  FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT, INFO

Asgore The ten-minute drive was completely silent for the most part, all the goat child had to do was listen to the rumblings of the engine and Alphys make a few comments as she drove in her car, which the other two secretly found quite cramped compared to what they were used to. The light green Volkswagen had probably only been bought since the small stature of the owner was the only thing considered in the thought process of the buyer. Asgore continued watching all the familiar buildings go by, day after day he had seen them, yet despite this visual familiarity, he probably only knew about under half of them and what was inside. All these buildings had history, with people who ran it with their own fascinating stories to tell, tragic backstories to tales of luck and fortune, anything was possible within his ignorance and lack of knowledge, he much preferred it that way. The truth would only leave him one conclusion, no room for imagination, where was the fun in that? ‘’So Asgore, anything we should know about the school? Any warnings that we should be aware of?’’ The child turned his gaze from the window and looked to the skeleton in the front passenger seat, leaving a small moment of thought before answering, ‘’Not really, it’s pretty normal I guess. Got a pair of buildings to split the large amount of year levels, it goes P-12. So there might be a decent few people there… otherwise just talk to the people you need to talk to and get out.’’ Asgore’s words were slow and deliberate which appeared to amuse Sci slightly judging from the way he let out an amused huff, ‘’Fair enough. I’m sure it won’t be that bad buddy, everything’s going to be ok.’’ The backseat passenger didn’t appear too convinced, ‘’Well, we’ll see shall we?’’ The car took a sharp right turn and the three of them ended up leaning in the other direction before straightening up again. ‘’Alright, how about this, we go out and do something fun later tonight, something just a little different?’’ This seemed to intrigue both Alphys and Asgore, the goat tilted his head slightly and watched the skeleton while the driver gave a small glance, ‘’Th-that does s-sound nice, d-do you have something in m-mind?’’ ‘’Yeah, like maybe we could go out tonight and get some sweets? Brighten up the mood a little bit. Would something like that please everyone? I’ll even shout for us all.’’ The other two looked at him, both with a smile, Asgore found it was him that was going to speak for the both of them. ‘’Alright Sci, I’ll hold you to that, sounds like a plan. Better not forget buddy’’ He chuckled lightly, a happy smile appearing on his face, ‘’Guess I have something to look forward to now’’. The child’s gaze returned to the window, except this time it was in higher spirits, deciding to now focus on the potential positives of this experiences, whatever they maybe. Eventually the vehicle reached their destination, turning into a carpark outside a large brick building with multiple floors, windows and even a bit of a garden around the edges. Looking from the outside the place seemed a bit unremarkable as the building didn’t really have any decorations or any sort of grand design on it’s exterior and the yard around was just paths and grass for the most part, at least on the side they were on, if it wasn’t for the size of the place there might’ve been a slight question to how much money they actually had. The trio left the car and looked up at the closest building, the silence being broken by Sci, ‘’Uh Asgore, is this…. It?’’. The goat seemed the be in happier spirits now, some of his usual energy being rejuvenated, ‘’Yes of course it is, this is the high school building, you know, 7-12?’’ He crossed his arms and shook his head slowly, ‘’Although I assume you’re talking about the lack of uh… colour and variety? Well we personally think they decided that design doesn’t matter for high schoolers, like all people only care about the facilities, if you head over to the primary building, it looks quite colourful and child friendly.’’ Asgore shrugged and with putting his hands in his jumper pockets, he started to walk towards the front entrance to the school. The other two followed behind, letting him lead the way, ‘’I-it’s uh a l-little bigger th-than I th-thought it would be… do a lot of p-people come to this school?’’ ‘’It holds a good number, a thousand maybe? I’ve never really thought about it before, but there’s enough that I don’t really know everyone, probably don’t take my word for it at all’’. The entrance held a little above ground level, access being restricted by up by stone stairs or a ramp that came from the side, above the glass-wood doors was the name of the school in a bolded, fancy font that he hadn’t ever really cared to co ’McConville Academy’ They went to the front desk at first and signed in at a record book, being greeted by a middle-aged turtle monster who asked the adults a few questions about who they were, a suspicious tone pervasive throughout, they both deemed it was fair enough that they questioned two random people that just had wandered into the school. After a few minutes and one explanation from Asgore about why they were here, they were free to go on their way. Alphys looked at a crumpled piece of paper that she’d been gripping onto, ‘’S-so it s-says here th-that, um E-English is first i-in l-like fifteen m-minutes? You know wh-where to go?’’ Asgore nodded, ‘’Yep, second floor, room 14. Honestly not to bad for a second-floor room. The teacher I suppose isn’t to bad either.’’ ‘’You like English kid?’’ Sci’s question prompted a small shrug from the prince leading them, ‘’English is fine half the time, I think I do ok. Depends on what we’re doing I suppose.’’ Being led by Asgore, the group arrived at a classroom with seats outside it as an obvious station to wait. They sat down on the chairs that were closest to the door and remained silent, thinking to themselves. Asgore looked at the other two, Sci seemed as calm as ever but Alphys on the other hand seemed more nervous than usual, the way she had her hands together twitching and tapping made him worry a little, was she going to be alright, did she realise she didn’t have to do anything except listen? The seconds waiting there turned to minutes until finally a pair of adult monsters left the classroom and they heard a yell from inside for ‘’NEXT, COME IN!’’. They obliged and ended up finding what amounted to a mostly empty classroom, all the chairs that were normally there could be found stacked up at the side of the room, the tables were nowhere to be seen, the windows showed back out to the front of the school, the entrance they came in quite visible from their elevated position. The main attraction, made obvious by being the only thing of note, was the teacher’s desk with four chairs in the front of it, the desk itself was recently cleaned and had nothing except for a small stack of paper and a nameplate that matched the large name written on the blackboard on the wall behind the desk. ‘’Mr Breve’’ Although the blackboard included underneath it ‘Music and English Teacher’. The teacher himself was sitting behind the desk, a Shyren cladded in a white t-shirt, leaning backwards on his chair and humming a slow tune to himself. As the three of them took their seats, he decided to get the opening word in, his voice having some sort of song like rhythm to it. ‘’Something seems off here… one of you may be a skeleton yet, none of you are Doctor Gaster, you are the same Asgore right? Or has there been a mix up?’’ The Shyren’s tone didn’t portray any worry or annoyance as he moved forwards so his chair and himself were properly upright, looking between the visitors. ‘’O-oh uh, n-nice to meet y-you sir, we’re umm… stepping i-in for G-Gaster, he couldn’t make it sir.’’ A sympathetic smile came across the teacher’s face as he watched the female monster fumble her words, ‘’Well that’s a shame, but no worries, I’m just as happy to meet you two. Oh and please, don’t call me sir, just call me Breve’’. Now getting up from his chair to give a handshake, both taking the handshake one after the other. ‘’A-Alphys’’ ‘’Sci’’ ‘’Oh lovely, may I also implore your relationship with this fine young man here? Why you have taken him instead of the good Doctor?’’ Sci gave a shrug, deciding to take this question for the two of them, his smile being a calm one, yet his eyes seemed to be approaching half closed, as if he was just going to fall asleep in a few minutes. ‘’Yeah I guess we’re mostly just friends, at the moment acting guardians I suppose you could say, right?’’ Concerned looks were given towards Sci by the other two as he looked over, but nothing was said quite yet about his tired expression, ‘’Uh y-yeah, we’re his g-guardians.’’ The child spoke up now, his tone rushed as his desire to get things moving along, ‘’So shall we talk about how well I do in English, we’re in here for that reason after all.’’ Mr Breve gave a relaxed sigh and smiled, ‘’Guess you don’t want to be here long huh? Well let’s begin shall we?’’ He brought his hands together and stretched his fingers, making a cracking noise. Using the next few moments of silence to his advantage, he thought about what he was going to comment on first. ‘’Well I suppose to start with negatives… the kid’s not that great at analysing things, just seems to struggle with it… disagree?’’ Realising the question was pointed at him, the goat shrugged dismissively, ‘’Yeah, I mean I guess, don’t really get it honestly, really hate trying to figure out those persuasive articles.’’ Asgore started to smile slightly, his eyes bringing a slight spark of hope, ‘’But I am improving right Mr Breve? My marks are getting better I’m sure of it’’. A kind smile approached his lips, ‘’Yes you are, I think with a little effort you’ll get there… and let me tell you guys, he doesn’t slack on the effort that’s for sure. Real hard worker this one.’’ With that the goat seemed quite happy and prideful, looking to the other two now, Alphys appeared to be happy with that at least, while Sci seemed… almost asleep? ‘’Also Asgore here is quite skilled at writing his own stuff, like stories or even argumentative pieces sometimes. Also, surprisingly, this trooper here is quite the poet, he has a way with words that help portray emotions and sometimes even make you feel things, probably one of the only ones in my class that doesn’t mind when poetry comes up. Even with those argumentative pieces, while he maybe weaker when it comes to using logic, reason and some of the more nitty gritty stuff, he makes fine work when it comes to making you care, making you actually want to agree with him through feeling. All in all, for what he lacks in some areas, I believe he well makes up for in others… anything you would like to add Asgore or even anything you two would like to ask? Man, the compliment part is so much more fun the other stuff. ’’ Asgore beamed at his teacher, ‘’No sir, I’m good.’’ The lizard monster shook her head, giving a smile, ‘’N-no I th-think that’s g-good to h-hear. Thanks s-so much f-for seeing u-us’’. ‘’No thank you for coming in, always appreciated. Also here, catch, can’t leave without the complimentary treat.’’ Mr Breve pulled out two things out of his desk, one being a small chocolate in a blue and silver wrapper which he chucked to Asgore, another being a bouncy ball which he started to throw up in the air once he was leaning back in his chair. ‘’Oh, by the way, I don’t know if you guys knew but Asgore doesn’t actually have to be present for these interviews, you could’ve just left him home, you guys seem pretty chill, so I’ll let you onto a little secret. Bringing the student always makes things just a little more awkward, or at least to me it does.’’ Asgore and Alphys had already got out of their chairs by this point, both looking surprised, the prince a little more than the other. ‘’Wh-what? But I thought it was mandatory, isn’t that why I’ve always had to come?’’ The monster let out a chuckle, ‘’Nah my dude, it was Gaster who was making you come. A real scary time usually, like you guys are cool because you’re chill. But he’s always so serious and down to business, can tell he’s calculating every negative I feed him… the guy could just learn to calm down you know, or at least put on a smile? Maybe he needs a soothing song once in a while… but you didn’t hear this from me alright?’’ Asgore giggled and let out a very amused expression, ‘’Your secret is safe with me Mr Breve, trust me’’ ‘’Also uh, can you make sure you guys take your friend with you ok?’’ The two suddenly became aware of a snoring noise coming from the room and they both could only give puzzled and concerned looks towards their now fully asleep companion, his bones rattling slightly with each breath. ‘’Hey Sci, is something the matter?’’, Asgore closed the door behind him after letting another family into the classroom, now they stood in an empty school hallway. Sci mumbled something inaudible before speaking, he had the type of tone that someone would make when they were trying to brush off a situation, ‘’Yeah I’m fine sorry, j-just not feeling great, maybe I’m getting sick? Would you mind if you let me freshen up or something in the bathroom?’’ ‘’Y-you s-sure you’re going t-to be ok? Th-this doesn’t s-seem r-really n-normal… a-also do y-you need Asgore t-to show y-you where to go?’’ Alphys watched him, no one could tell what doom bringing possibilities she was going over in her head. ‘’Nah I’m fine, don’t worry, I um think we passed one on the way here?’’ The skeleton in a manner that made it seem like he was in a rush, started backing away from them. ‘’R-really… I g-guess I didn’t n-notice it, w-well you stay safe I suppose’’. ‘’Make sure to give us a call if you need anything alright, don’t want you to be our school’s first injury from falling asleep.’’ With a surprisingly hearty chuckle, Sci gave a thumbs up and walked out of view. The remaining two looked at each other. ‘’Hey uh Al, you think he’s actually alright?’’ Alphys stopped her a moment and thought for a second before answering, giving a faint smile and the goat a slight ruffle of his hair, ‘’I hope so, b-but wh-whatever happens, w-we’ll m-make sure to w-work it out.’’ She gave a small sigh and a bigger smile towards Asgore, ‘’Y-you can g-go you know? Do wh-whatever you w-want, wander a-around, I’ll t-take care of th-this ok?’’ The boy crossed his arms with a suspicious gaze, ‘’Are you sure? I mean you’re going to be all by yourself and you don’t know this school… sounds like you could use a guide’’. ‘’N-no, no, d-don’t you worry about m-me, I’ll uh f-figure it o-out, I-I j-just don’t want t-to drag you a-around. Plus i-if all y-your teachers are like h-him, than things sh-should be fine.’’ ‘’Well at least head to the front office and ask for a map, take a picture with your phone or something, that way you’ll know where to go…’’, Asgore grinned and grabbed Alphys in a hug, ‘’…thanks Al, you’re the best, you’ll go great… just uh watch out for the art teach alright? She’s a little full on.’’ The scientist was smiling just a moment ago, giving a tight squeeze, before worry went over her face. ‘’U-uh full on in umm wh-what way?’’ The response she got from that question wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for, a chuckle and an ominous ‘’Oh you’ll see.’’ 

[djzena]

Article Halloween Song (115)

Halloween Songs This psych-rock traditional has surreptitiously been something of a giant Halloween tune for many years, which is totally comprehensible given the subject matter — even when it does have little or no to do with spookiness and extra to do with outright trickery. Halloween could also be a vacation rooted within the macabre, however nowadays, it provides something for everyone (as well as a wine pairing for all of your favorite candies ). Whether or not you are a proud pet-owner with an eye fixed for a good costume, a historical past buff who loves a backbone-tingling story, or a tradition vulture searching for a dynamic dwell efficiency, we have the products on what to do for Halloween, in beloved metropolis's world wide.

That is the extra fun time if you can provide your kids Halloween pencils,little toys or other enjoyable objects. As a former educator and mother of 2 (ages 3 and 7), this guide captured what Halloween is all about. There's fairly actually no Halloween party with music that has ever occurred with out the taking part in of this track.

In response to their publish, the record is predicated on Nielsen scores throughout Halloween week last yr. Guaranteed to raise some pretty weird dancing that's scary in all of the improper methods, let's do the time warp once more this weekend. I do not assume I have a Halloween music I sing with the youngsters, but we do say the trick or deal with.. scent my feet… and so forth.” poem a lot. Much more free Halloween music downloads may be had over at Haunted Bay - an ideal identify for a website with dozens of haunted sounds! At the time they were scary they usually did ship chills down your backbone but when you look again at them now, they really are just a cool group of men. Jennifer Kelly Geddes has hosted Christmas cookie swaps, New Year's open houses, Thanksgiving for 22, and all manner of dinner parties http://www.costumeexpress.com/ in her Manhattan and Ghent, NY homes. Set the temper for a spine-chilling Halloween spooktacular with this ghoulish assortment of scary sound effects, trick-or-deal with greetings and all-time get together favorites. Usually folks belongs to the category of western Christians and Non Christians around the globe will have fun this present day with more joyful by offering some prayers and prefer to sing Best Halloween songs of their interest. From the movie of the identical title, the cheesy track was nominated at the 57th Academy Awards for Finest Unique Song in 1984. It is also the one music that seems on this list twice, though more on that later.

Whereas Nina Simone made this haunting tune a classic, the jazz standard is more suitable for a relaxed Halloween night time in. The Divine Miss M's pizzazz-stuffed rendition from Hocus Pocus will get everybody singing alongside. Checklist: At first, create a Halloween occasion planning checklist to verify your Halloween celebrations have the entire requirements. Pick a model of the track that's not too excessive or too low for teenagers to sing alongside. Sounds spreading many genres might be played by the night time including all of the IN DEMAND songs & Tabula's very personal TOP one hundred! DOES THE SONG SOUND SCARY?: Yes, it sounds https://family.disney.com/ like a music that would play in goth '80s hell. This free printable piano music is likely to be your student's favourite for a long time!

For this listing, we decided that it was vital to include this tune for these of us on the market preferring the quirkiness of Halloween to the remainder of the year, which may be relatively mundane typically. I can bear in mind sitting in a 1976 Monte Carlo each Halloween ready for It's A Monster's Holiday” to return on the one Country station we had.

Let's face it, any of the music from The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas goes to be the perfect compliment to your Halloween get together. DOES THE MUSIC SOUND SCARY?: It does, it has a spooky beat and you actually can not help however notice how much it is about a plan to homicide somebody. Loss of life Valley ‘sixty nine” has steadily been cited as one of many scariest songs of the trendy rock era, and I am not ashamed to second that emotion. A lot of the ringtones are absolutely freed from cost but the websites won't allow you to immediately obtain the ringtones. To make your life simpler (and mine extra enjoyable, if I end up at your own home), I've put together a list of songs with a creepy, foreboding impact which can take your All Hallow's Eve festivities to the subsequent degree. Different nursery rhymes have controversial connotations corresponding to Humpty Dumpty insinuating somebody was overweight, or Ring Across the Rosie , which was originally about the bubonic plaque. Total families have been getting into the Halloween spirit - we saw a family of four at dinner dressed because the Nightmare Earlier than Christmas characters (the daddy made a Jack Skellington paper mache masks for himself!) and another family dressed as Aladdin, Princess Jasmine and Jafar (hat and walking stick included). On the tenth day of Halloween my real love gave to me ten ghouls a groaning, nine ghosts a booing, eight monsters shrieking, seven spells a going, six goblins gobbling, 5 scary spooks, 4 skeletons, three black bats, two trick or treaters, and an owl in a lifeless oak tree. Many songs on Speaking Heads' third album Worry of Music are about concern,” John S. Hall, poet/lead singer of King Missile pointed out. So take a while to comb over every observe and make sure that what you might have chosen is acceptable on your crowd. Performed initially by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the track I Put a Spell on You” is a superb addition to any Halloween bash. Analysis of those Nursery Rhymes will reflect the historical background wherein these Nursery Rhymes have been written. Dead Man's Celebration” - Oingo Boingo You may't have a Halloween bar party without this joyous ode to the lifeless! Kids Spot: Nursery Rhymes - Find out about music, rhyme, and language when reading these nursery rhymes. The music has a implausible means to spice up Halloween spirit even at the most boring get together on the earth. With a view to find out, we've judged fifteen of them in response to a series of strict categories and rated them on a scale of 1 to 10 very scary ghosts. It is a Halloween twist on the games of quoits and hoopla, through which folks try to throw hoops over objects. Often the piano sounds a bit clunky (I am not Schubert's largest fan), though it is purported to represent the sound of the horse running by means of the woods. The tune A Nightmare on My Road” will tell you a spooky story that will not leave anybody laughing. Easy nursery rhymes like Itsy Bitsy Spider or Wheels on the Bus are staples of childhood, and there is a good motive for it, too. The actual music Halloween Songs Its Halloween Night time is just intended for demo while you similar to the music you can purchase the primary mp3 format. There's a efficiency of the Erl König by Franz Schubert with Daniel Norman, tenor and Sholto Kynoch, piano. Arguably probably the most iconic Halloween track on the list, Monster Mash is certainly a classic. They embody all the pieces from basic Halloween celebration songs, to oldies, to modern basic Halloween music.