#I'm so sad for all my other stories though... poor little things can't get any progress lol

[maybecoffeemixed]

MAIN PLOT LINE OF DLC HAS BEEN FINISHED, SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT (long post, be warned)

7.8/10, kieran doesn't actually kill us.

Seriously though, I enjoyed it!! Since I don't actually own the game (we poor), I watched a no-commentary playthrough so there are plenty of things I very likely missed, including optional dialog, side-quests, and whatever that thing with the professors is (still lookin' for a video without some guy over it), so I can only comment on the bits I saw! That being said, here we go.

First of all, the BATTLES!! Despite not being able to play them myself, they looked SUPER fun!! I screamed when I saw Lacey's tailwind/lightscreen prankster whimsicott, and even MORE so when I saw it was sashed! I loved the usage of competitive items, and the fact that all their teams weren't completely mono-type, each having one exception to their type (Lacey's excadrill, Crispin's Exeggcutor, Amarys's Reuniclus, and Drayton's Sceptile) that they DIDN'T terrastalize was lovely touch!! Amarys's fight was super hype in particular, despite having an over 20 level advantage, the person I watched still nearly wiped to her! Her trick room AI does appear a bit goofy, but it's a small flaw. Finally, Kieran's battle... I personally adore a good rain team, but unfortunately Kieran's politoed was frozen at the start of the battle, and remained that way all the way til the end, so I can't honestly say how difficult it looked. The one thing I will say is that before the indigo disk was out, I created a hypothetical team for Kieran, and I CALLED that Grimmsnarl!! Literally even the focus sash. If anyone's curious, here was the hypothetical team I made. I'm a nuzlocker, not a competitive player, so it very well may be shit. Apologies in advance.

Next is the characters!! Every design slapped as always, and I enjoyed their personalities! Lacey was adorbs, Crispin was fun, and Amarys might just be one of my new favorites! As for Drayton? Let me tell you, I was side-eyeing him the whole time the MOMENT after he said THIS to Kieran.

After all the hype around dokutaro/peechikeen (now know as pecharunt, apparently), and all the speculation that Kieran would fall victim to its influence, him saying "that's just peachy" made my rat brain go into overdrive. In the end, I think it was just Legends Arceus giving me Volo flashbacks.

Now, the main event... KIERAN! Let me tell you, he gave me GOOSEBUMPS. Every time he appeared, I could feel a chill run up my spine, and his battle had my heart RACING. ESPECIALLY his breakdown at the end of it! One of the best times I've had in a good while. The animation, his reaction, all of it was GREAT!! It was so refreshing to see him not immediately heel-face turn.

Unfortunately, though, what happened after that all disappointed me. I admit I got too attached to the Dokutaro Posession theory, buy it was still disappointing for Dokutaro (I know that's not its name, leave me be) to not play any role in the main story. It felt like a natural conclusion to what the game was setting up, I thought he'd throw the master ball at terapagos, it'd fail, and he'd become so overwhelmed with everything that has happened that he'd succumb to Dokutaro's control and we'd have to fight the Dokutaro-Kieran with Terapagos's aid. That's not what happened, and I felt a bit sad. His recovery from his breakdown was still set up nicely and had some atleast sufficient justification, but it still felt like too-little too-soon. It felt more like he just gave up all together rather than defeated his demons. He'd never be as strong as the player, and that's that, which is a sour note to leave off on.

We see that he legitimately has nothing. All the other students left the MOMENT he was defeated. No one came to help the kid who was clearly having a panic attack. The BB league cares about him, sure, but I wouldn't consider them his friends. They all thought Kieran getting defeated would "fix" him, and even when he clearly wasn't any better after being defeated, they didn't do anything to assist him. Sure, sometimes when someone has climbed so high, you gotta let them fall, but once they do, you can't just leave them lying on the ground. You need to be there to lift them back up before they start digging.

This isn't an attack on the BB league at ALL. Like I said, I really enjoyed their characters! In fact, this reaction is part of the reason I like them so much. It adds depth.

I just wish that Kieran DID start digging, and that it led to something bigger. Even if Dokutaro wasn't involved, I atleast wanted the final battle with him to be that big thing, and not just a turtle that can't do anything but throw out weak earthpowers.

Though the biggest failing to me is that Kieran apologizes to us, but we don't apologize to him. We as in the player, and Carmine

Kieran's actions are his own and I'm not saying he shouldn't have apologized, but he wasn't solely culpable for how things turned out. We and Carmine purposefully lied, kept a secret that was dear to him, and were the straw that broke the camel's back. Even if we the player didn't apologize, Carmine should've!! Her treatment of Kieran heavily impacted him, and he mirrored her abuse (Kieran telling Carmine to "Shut it", just like she did to him, for example).

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was in the wrong here. Kieran took things too far, Carmine behavior is a serious problem, and the played character was complicit.

I'm not demonizing anyone here, I am the number one Carmine defender after all, but everyone needs to take responsibility. Not. Just. Kieran.

I relate heavily to both Kitakami siblings, as both an elder sister with younger siblings who she's accidentally mistreated, and as a little sister with an older sibling who treats me like I'm lesser.

I've lashed out at my older sibling, and while my reaction wasn't proportional, it doesn't mean my emotions weren't justified.

I have severe genetic anger issues (that I'm now thankfully medicated for), and have unjustly taken them out on my younger siblings.

Carmine needs to apologize too, or the cycle will just continue. Maybe she already did and I missed it, or maybe it happens in the post-game. However, if she didn't? It makes me feel unresolved.

Anyways, that all I gotta say on it!! Hope someone enjoyed this overly long rambling!!

(P.S. I still don't trust dragon boy. "Thats just peachy" my ASS, you know something ya toothpaste haired cunt. Why did they request to bring ya along to area zero anyways, ya plot relevant FUCK.)

[piracytheorist]

Spy x Family 30 Day Challenge

Day 3: Least favourite character

This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me a bit, but that's Damian.

The interesting thing about this story is that there aren't any characters I actually find poorly written or too leniently treated by the narrative. Damian's behaviour is called out for what it is, and though the story gives him depth, it's not excusing him nor white-washing what he's doing.

The fans, on the other hand...

So yeah it's not that I think Damian is a "bad" character, or that he offers nothing to the narrative, or that I actively hate him, or that I believe he can't get any better. It's just that his behaviour annoys me, tapping all the way back into my own trauma as a victim of bullying, and I often find myself cringing and thinking "shut uuuuuup" whenever he appears in a scene and starts talking shit.

But the thing is, he does have interesting dynamics and moments. He can genuinely show compassion, and he's an emotionally neglected kid who is starving for his family's affection. That's the environment he was born and grew up in, he doesn't know any better, and he's just trying to live up to the example his older brother set, in the hopes of getting the bare minimum of some familial love shown to him.

Through all that, the narrative recognizes that his behaviour is snotty and privileged, and that his circumstances don't justify his poor treatment of Anya.

And yet, I couldn't avoid talking about any of that without fans getting all upset at me for using the word "bully" to describe him, because apparently "bullying" is only when you shove a kid into their locker. Guess the fact that I was scared to go to school because my classmates would constantly call me names doesn't count, guess I don't really have bullying trauma, huh. So pretty much every time I've had a discussion with a Damian fan we ended up disagreeing not only because we see the character and his dynamic with Anya completely different, but also because there seems to be a different narrative among his fans where certain things didn't happen or they happened in a way that makes Damian's character look more sympathetic than he really is. And as I've said in another post, I'm here to do literary analysis, not to look for excuses to find characters to ship together. So for me, right now, Damian is a little brat and a little shit who can definitely get better, has a lot of emotional baggage on his own, and can absolutely afford not treating Anya like shit.

It's actually a little sad, because I understand his fans' passion and their want to share their love with others. They really like him and thought they could help me see things from their point of view, in the hopes that I will also like the character, but in my experience they've done it through biased views and incorrect analysis of his scenes, and that ends up actually making things worse.

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Cat AU

Okay, so, two particular pieces of beautifully drawn fan art have collided together in my head to create a light and fluffy self-indulgent image that I just had to share with you all.

@okamiliqueur's heartbreaking picture of Jack's lonely and forgotten box from the new demo made me think of cats abandoned in boxes, "free to a good home." Only in the case of the game's story, he was left out in the rain to rot, the owner having given up giving him a good home.

@jazzylovetodraw's picture of Jack as a cat has been buzzing in my mind for quite a while. I just love how precious he looks in both forms, and when I was thinking of Jack being like those abandoned kittens in cardboard boxes... well, the combination was obvious.

I know that Jack's fursona is a snake, and I know being a cat is Shaun's thing, but I'm a sucker for kitties. I'm as biased towards cats as I am for dragons, if my avatar and username didn't offer enough of a hint. ;3 I'd love to see all the characters as kitties honestly.

Tempting though it may be to go with Fruits Basket rules for kitty Jack, like I toyed with over on twitter, I think I'm going to play with a different and simpler set of rules. In this universe, Jack is stuck as a cat until his sunshine's love allows him to become human again.

Admittedly, it's kind of hard to imagine Jack being alone for very long when he looks so adorable. Who wouldn't fall in love with that precious kitty face instantly? Most everyone would be putty in his paws.

Content Warning: I wind up touching on a couple explicit headcanon details near the end. I mean, I did say this is a pretty self-indulgent image with my OTP.

Maybe Jack was stuck as a cat via a curse ala Hocus Pocus and is guarding the box/tape/etc. Maybe he was stuck as a cat instead of in the tape and no one could see him until MC came along. Maybe he's got a tragic backstory like the cat from Fruits Basket.

Since this AU is more about the vibes, I'm just going to leave the how and why parts of the lore up in the air. All that matters is that Jack is stuck as a cat and left out in the rain in a cardboard box until MC decides to take him home.

I'm just going to switch over to Alice and what she would do in this scenario. Poor lonely Alice is out on the town, when she comes across the box out in the rain and sees an equally lonely kitten. Poor little thing, all wet and sad... She just has to take him home with her.

Alice cleans Jack up, gets him wrapped up all nice and warm in a blanket, and even gives him some chicken she bought for her own dinner that night. She'll have to get cat food and other things for her new furry companion tomorrow, though she should probably look for his owner and take him to a vet.

At first, Jack isn't sure what to do about the situation, though he is grateful. No one has even acknowledged his existence until Alice came along. She's so soft and warm. He loves it when she holds him. She's so kind too.

Alice does find it surprising Jack doesn't put up a fuss when being given a bath. Jack didn't exactly like the feeling of being all grimy, and don't get him started on fleas and other gross things cats have to deal with on the streets!

The vet isn't as fun, though Jack is well behaved, though very clingy to Alice throughout the appointment. He can't help but fear that she'll abandon him too. He'll keep up the helpless and adorably needy kitty act if it means she'll stay with him.

There's no ID chip, no tag, and no missing notice for any cat that looks like Jack. It's clear that the poor guy is a stray.

Alice is hesitant initially. She's wanted to get a pet cat for a long time now, but she has barely been able to take care of herself. How can she handle taking care of an innocent life that needs her when she's struggling so much with her own life?

That hesitation doesn't last long. Jack loves on Alice so much, constantly purring and snuggling up to her. He curls up with her when she sleeps or relaxes. He was hesitant at first, and she assumed that was because he was wary of her, when in reality, he just didn't want to cross any of her boundaries. He didn't want to do anything that might upset her and make her get rid of him. When she started petting and cuddling him, he wholeheartedly returned the affection, absolutely starved for it.

The first thing Alice thought when she saw Jack was that he was lonely, just like her. He's so sweet and can't stand to be apart from her. How can she just get rid of him when he makes her feel loved and needed?

Of course, a cat's life isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Cat food is a step down from people food, and a litterbox is anything but sanitary. Jack just skips that nonsense and goes straight to using the toilet despite the awkwardness, which shocks the heck out of Alice. He also snubs all cat food in favor of human food.

Yes, I could go with Jack being a ghost(?) cat that doesn't need food or to use the toilet, but then he wouldn't have gone through the indignities of a vet visit.

Then again... it would be funny if Alice brought Jack to the vet, only for them to think she's crazy, since to them all she's carrying is empty air.

Hmm... yeah, I think I'll go that route. As hilarious as vet hijinks and typical cat care with Jack while he possesses a human mind and identity might be, this would be a more interesting and tragic route. No one else can see Jack but Alice. He's lived for who knows how long in a world full of people that don't see him at all, unable to even be human anymore. It'd be a different type of hell than the one in the video tape, similar to what I talked about in my previous ramble.

Imagine if the 1984 incident Jack died and became a ghost(?) cat because he was secretly a cat shape shifter or something. Or maybe something more supernatural happened during the incident. Either way, cat ghost(?) Jack is very, very lonely.

Man, I just realized, it would be even more tragic (and complicated) if I go with the reincarnation route for this AU. Ghost(?) cat Jack probably had to watch Mary die slowly in the hospital after the incident, unable to help her or let her know that it's him. He couldn't even offer her comfort in her final days. It would've been so traumatizing.

For now, let's just play with this AU without the reincarnation angle, since this is supposed to be mostly light and fluffy feline fun with the OTP.

Jack, even as a cat, tries to do his best to help Alice out. If he can make himself useful, make her need him, then he won't ever lose her. He sneaks out when she goes to work to keep her company even though she initially tried to get him to stay home. No one sees him, so it won't matter. Besides, petting an invisible kitty is a good stress relief when dealing with awful customers, and certainly beats regular stimming.

The more Alice cares for Jack, the more powers he gets back, starting with the ability to talk. It's a huge shock for Alice of course, but Jack makes it clear that it's because of her love for him that made her stronger.

Of course, that love is platonic, at least at the start, which Jack knows full well, but he'll work on shifting things to a romantic love... especially after he gets the power to shift back into a form that has hands.

Like in typical canon, Jack answers Alice's questions as best he can. He probably lost his sense of identity like in game canon, so he references CloudyTown and stuff "he" did there, mixing up the show's lore with his own past. It's also intermingled with his many years spent wandering the streets being ignored and going crazy from the loneliness.

Jack does let Alice know that he used to be able to change from a cat to human. He just... can't anymore. He thinks it was because he was forgotten. He doesn't know why no one can see him until Alice came along.

It's so sad and tragic that Alice can't be unmoved by his plight. Sure, it makes things a bit awkward knowing that Jack is sentient and used to have a human form, but she feels for him. It also makes sense now why Jack always turned away whenever she changed.

Yes, Jack could have peeked. He could have even watched Alice while she was bathing, but he didn't. He refuses to do anything she won't allow. Cuddling her and sleeping in her bed is innocent, but the thoughts he'd have about her when she was undressing were anything but. He loves her too much to take advantage of her innocent trust in him. He needs her to want him to see her in that vulnerable state... even if it drives him crazy lusting over her. Poor pitiful kitty can't even have a good wank off session with his paws.

Still, despite knowing that Jack was human and is sentient, it's hard for Alice not to fall for his feline charms and not think too deeply about that fact. She still winds up cuddling him and petting him.

Of course, when it first hits Alice that she's treating a human like a pet, she stops and apologizes, but Jack insists that it's fine. He enjoys their cuddle time. He gives her the big, pleading kitty eyes as he begs her not to stop, and she can't help but give in.

Awkwardness soon fades and settles into a strange new normal. Alice does wonder if Jack really is real or if she was just so lonely she imagined something this crazy... but his presence is comforting. He keeps her company almost all the time. She doesn't feel alone anymore thanks to him.

Also... now that Jack can talk, he says such sweet things. It's weird to have a "pet" take care of her, but he reminds her of when it's time to brush her teeth, wakes her up for work, helps her get chores done despite how awkward it is with his paws and small size... It's so endearing.

The encouragement and assistance Jack gives Alice is wonderful, and his jokes are so fun and silly, but it's the praise that leaves her feeling flustered. If she didn't know any better, she could swear that he's almost flirting with her sometimes. She's in denial that's what it is, but it feels nice to be told that she's cute, and Jack is so sincere about it... and how can she not melt when he says sweet things with such a sweet face?

It's one morning that things change drastically. Alice's bond with Jack strengthened over time to the point that Jack finally can change back into a mostly human form, though he does have cat ears, a fluffy tail, and whisker markings.

It was a big surprise to them both really, as Jack transformed in his sleep. Alice had gotten used to cuddling up to a talking cat during the night, so it was a shock to wake up in a pair of big muscular arms. Jack was so happy when waking her that morning, giddy to show her his (mostly) human side, that it slipped his mind what a shock it would be.

Naturally, Alice bolted back against the wall away from the stranger in her bed. Jack quickly started reassuring her of who he was and that she wasn't in danger. He stooped down to her level, pretty much wilting really, with ears folded back, as he apologized for scaring her. He was just so happy that he wasn't thinking about how it must look from her side...

Seeing Jack so pitiful and sad, Alice feels her heart go out to him. Once things calm down, she can't help but be amazed by how he looks. Unthinkingly, she reaches up to pet his ears and feel how they attach to his skull. She only fully realizes how forward she's being when Jack starts purring.

Flustered, Alice immediately pulls back, only for Jack to whine at the loss of her touch. He didn't mind it at all. He always loves it when she cuddles with him.

It's a complicated feeling for Alice. On the one hand they've been very close for so long. On the other, Jack is definitely a human, so it feels different now.

Yet, Jack is so sweet. He's mindful of her hesitation, even if he's disappointed. It's harder for him to hide his feelings with such expressive ears. Alice can't help but want to reach out to him, especially after they've already spent so much time together, getting to know one another. He's chased away the loneliness that had been haunting her for so, so long.

Of course, now that Jack has a human form, Alice finds her feelings slipping into "dangerous" territory. He makes her feel so good, so loved, and she feels for him too. She doesn't want to dare assume he might feel anything more for her than just a friend, but she can't help but notice the way he looks at her, the way he clearly longs to be near her. He's so tender and gentle... and they've already been so cuddly.

It's easier for Alice to find herself cuddling up to Jack, letting him and taking guilty pleasure from his gentle warmth. He pets her hair too in return, and it feels surprisingly good... a bit too good at times.

The line between friend or something more blurs with all the cuddles and petting. Alice feels guilty about it, but Jack keeps encouraging her until, finally, something has to give and their relationship changes. Both of them feel relieved when it does, as they couldn't help but worry that their feelings might not be reciprocated.

In a lot of ways, it's pretty close to the normal continuity, just with some fuzzy ears on top. Jack can change into a cat at will now. As he gets stronger, people can start to see him, perhaps as a feline silhouette, or maybe with some unsettling shadows not from a cat. He's certainly going to be a bit territorial and not be afraid to hiss and use his claws if absolutely necessary.

Still, this kitty is pretty content thanks to Alice. Jack loves it when Alice carries him around as a teeny kitty, warm and snuggly against her chest, even in the cleavage of her shirt at times. Naturally, he returns the favor, carrying her around the apartment as often as possible. It's only fair after all~!

Naturally, Jack wants to get intimate with Alice as soon as she lets him. He's so pent up. Even with hands to take care of himself, all the cuddling and now kisses just make him ache for her even more. He longs to be inside her, biting her gently and growling in pleasure as he takes her.

A bonus with Jack being part cat is that he gets to have some vibrating action when he purrs. It adds a whole new dimension to their lovemaking, whether he's using his mouth on her sensitive parts, or thrusting himself deep inside.

Oh, I'm reminded of the cat-like features I mentioned in the Omegaverse AU. I guess Jack, having feline features, would have a dick that's ribbed for her pleasure too. Tongue too. Neither would be sharp because rule of sexy, but it would add a very pleasurable texture that a clever man like Jack is going to take full advantage of~

Of course, Alice can take advantage of those feline features too. The base of Jack's tail and ears are quite sensitive, and she quickly learns what spots get his motor running. Of course, getting Jack excited will lead to him pouncing on her and getting rather frisky, but Alice would certainly be expecting that result~

I can imagine Jack could make himself look fully human without any feline features, but he knows Alice finds his cat side to be adorable. She has a hard time resisting petting him when his ears and tail are out, and he certainly wants to encourage her to pet him as much as possible. He also wants to encourage her to let him pet her as much as possible.

Of course, if Jack can become powerful enough that other people can see him, he'll have to stick with only cat or human form when out in public. Still, even when other people can see and hear him, he prefers to be in Alice's company. Cats have their preferred human, and Alice is Jack's.

Naturally, Jack would have to be sneaky about showing Alice love when in public if there's a chance of getting caught. Good thing he has that perfectly innocent little kitty form to hide in. I can imagine it would lead to some interesting interactions where someone shows up only to find Alice incredibly flustered with a slightly disheveled appearance, while her "pet" Jack is just casually looking smug, as all cats do.

Person: Whoa, what happened to you?

Alice, not looking them in the eye: Uh... Jack, m-my cat just... ah, got a bit excited.

Person: Heh. Cats, am I right?

Alice: Haha... right.

Jack: :3c

Hmm... I wonder then if the other love interests should have cat transformations in this AU too. It'd be a crime if Shaun doesn't have that ability but Jack does. Jack already gets together with Alice, so I don't want to be extra cruel to Shaun.

Admittedly, I don't have too many ideas for other characters with cat modes. Well, aside from an image of Shaun taking care of his baby MoonPie by carrying her around by the scruff. This post was mostly just indulging in sweet moments with my OTP with a bit of feline flavor sprinkled on top. Maybe I'll revisit the idea again if I get more ideas than just a bit of fluff.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this silly romp with Alice and Jack having some feline fun times!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

[honeybunniii333]

Was asked for Bedwarry angst by a friend! And I realized I've never written for them, so :P

Sorry it took literally 2 months. My lore has gotten so crazy lately.)

TW: FOR MENTIONED PET DEATH! (It's not in detail by any means. But the story is centered around Barry losing an animal. So if that's sensitive for you, I'd recommend not reading any further.)

"Blue?.." Ed's voice called out from the sliding glass door. It was soft, gentle... like he was afraid Barry would shatter if he spoke any louder. He wasn't sure why his first insinct upon finding Lily had been to call Ed... and not bury her. Maybe because he knew he couldn't do it by himself?... or at all. Ed had buried Mavis, and Emmie and Figaro... and clover, after all. Barry had simply stood there and watched him do it. He didn't even have it in him to bury them. Another way he failed those poor babies.

Ed had found his way to where Barry was hiding. Tucked against a tree staring into the window of the little house he kept the animals in. It was a shed he's fixed up, with a little fenced-in area to play outside in... painted bright colors that right now felt mocking. Ed's face was downcast, eyes somber and eyebrows furrowed with sorrow. He knelt down beside him and reached out to brush hair out of the other boys face. "Hey.. look at me...please?"

It took more effort than it should have to force his eyes up to meet those of his best friend. "There we go." Ed forced a smile, but it was twinged with a sadness they'd both grown pretty used to. That was the downside of this... the loss it came with.

"I'm sorry..." he managed to choke out, leaning forward to rest his head on the taller teens' shoulder. Edward was quick to wrap his arms around him. "And why in the world are ya sorry?" He whispered, rubbing his thumb over the stitching at the hem of his best friends shirt. Always fidgeting with something, it almost made Barry laugh... almost. "For making you do this every time... I know you hate it just as much as I do, and I sti-"

"That's my job, man." He laughed, pushing the shorter boy back a bit so that he could look over his friend, who was now looking very puzzled. Though that was nothing new, Edward Quinton was an enigma, and Barry was positive regardless of the length of their friendship. Edward was never EVER going to stop confusing him. "What do you mean your job?"

"I'm your best friend Barry, I do what you can't do for yourself." And maybe Barry preferred it that way... after all, what was Eddie if not confusing? "You're such a dork.."

"Hey, that says more about you than it does me! You're the one who keeps me around Bluebell." He huffed, shoving the other back with much less force than he normally would and getting quickly to his feet. "Now, where's the shovel at? Let's get this done so we can have a nice memorial and go watch a movie."

"Garage." And off Ed was, grabbing the shovel from the garage and beginning a task he'd grown somewhat used to over the years. Adding another tiny grave to the little cemetery. It wasn't a large cemetery, and Barry prided himself on that. He was able to patch up and nurse most animals back to health. The majority of the pets buried there had simply passed of old age or terminal illness... but a few of them hadn't, and that fact would never bother him. But Ed was there, and Ed always made things a little easier. Picking up the slack and helping with the heaviness of it all. Before he even knew it, they were both standing in front of a tiny little grave. Ed wrapped his arm around him, and they both gave their best wishes to little Lily before once again, making the somber walk back up to the back door and on inside.

Barry could still recall first meeting Ed. It was hard to forget, of course. Considering it had changed his whole life. Barry had always been alone, his parents were always gone, his older brother ignored him the majority of the time, and he wasn't very good at making friends. And he had been content with that, and then he'd been smacked upside the head with a soccer ball, and after that, he'd never been alone again. 2 years old onward, they'd been attached at the hip. And here they were 16 years and counting still spending most weekends like this. Huddled up together on Barry's couch, binging old horror movies with graphics that looked more like a highschoolers experimental art piece than certified animation. And maybe Barry preferred it that way,

[lisacomeuseucu]

Curses Ending

• Fear Street . 1978 - "I swear, if I could I would change their story, I would try to make them live" That's what she told herself.

I honestly thought this chapter would be shorter, there would be so many different things that I decided to change to make it shorter. Anyway, I apologize for any spelling errors. :)

I hate what I've become, the nightmare has just begun. I've been walking in this forest for about a few minutes, I don't know for sure, I lost track of time. My clothes got more torn because of the tree branches getting stuck but that doesn't matter what really makes me relieved is the fact that I didn't find any Shadyside in the forest, rather none of the children, I hope I don't find one in the end . I managed to make myself run as much as I could when I was conscious but now the only thing I can have some control over is my speech. I thought of a perfect way to attack Nick, he got dirty with the blood of several victims and that made Tommy hit him in the leg, unfortunately I already know that I will have to sacrifice children to be able to save others, that's not fair, that makes me sad. Looking around me I see that the trees are now less crowded which means I'm getting closer to the camp. Tommy. Cindy. Alice. Get out of this damn caverns as quickly as possible and kill me before it's you. Just a small sacrifice. I feel my left foot hit something making me almost fall, I balance myself again and look at the ground. It's a stupid rock. I ignore it, I start walking again but feeling a little pain from the crash, great, not ironically that's great, making it difficult for my body can help them gain more time! I can see a little of the camp here, that's terrible. Oh shit, shit! This is the cabin where Jeremy stays!! No no!! For the love of God, turn in another direction! This damn body that I can't control, please Jeremy, don't you be there, don't arrest those kids from Sunnyvale, please just confirm these lies for me! I'm getting closer and closer to the cabin and through the window I can see that Jeremy has spotted the other lake group from outside his cabin, I might be competent enough to kill this group, right? Jeremy kicks the door open and looks around just looking for someone when the boys come out of the dark throwing eggs calling him a nerd and quickly they enter the cabin saving the rest of their prisoner team, poor Jeremy tries to make them listen. — " Hey! That's not fair! No!! Hey Hey!! Dude.. " He swings his arms and wipes his egg-stained face and glasses, without me realizing I'm in front of the cabin and Jeremy is turning back, when he turns around he sees me, all bloody and dirty with branches and dirt, I feel my eyes filling with tears. — " Y/n? " He calls me confused. Stay away from me, the beast is ugly. I enter the hut holding the ax firmly and quickly attack it in the face, giving several blows. Jeremy, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!! You're a good boy, you didn't deserve to be going through this! You didn't deserve to die at the hands of someone you had your first crush on, for someone who always praised and supported you,I'm sorry for making you go through all this suffering of death, first you feel pain and then emptiness, right? I gave it as it is, this is too painful for a simple little boy. Seeing the final state of the body, no, this is no longer a body. I sliced ​​this boy into pieces, scratched his arms, opened his chest, disfigured his face and tore off his head, I can see a bit of his brain because of the entrances and I see his bones all broken. I feel my stomach turn at this sight, a tear falls from my eyes and rolls down my face, I leave the cabin and return to my search. You deserved to live, Jeremy. I feel the anger and I just can't hold it back.

Even though I'm far from the place I can hear the screams of the crowd of people who gathered just to discover the body, I try not to look back so I don't have to deal with this scene but I can hear Nick ordering everyone to go to the cafeteria, just hearing his voice I wanted for a moment to turn around, but I'm not stupid, not at that level. As I'm walking a quick view of all the Shadyside killers, all the deaths they cause and lastly was me, killing Arnie. I catch the breath I lost for a moment, Alice must have touched that disgusting pile of meat, I'm sorry you saw that. Alice, just please don't hate me. I hear Gary knocking on the sign trying to get everyone's attention at the camp, he also shouts, Nick must now be counting the number of people, wait, Joan and Kurt. Joan, you idiot, if I find you and you had sex with Kurt, I will kill you! Not in the literal sense, but unfortunately I will. I see Kurt's cottage and his window is open which gave me a vision of Joan, well, I can even hear her moaning from afar, she is wearing a blue blouse and lit a joint in the few seconds she was forced to put it out because of Kurt, I enter the chalet without the two of them hearing but I leave the door half open and then I see Joan walking past me realizing that someone had entered her partner's room. When she turns back she notices me. — " Y/n?! " Joan asks, surprised to see me like this, when she gets closer she lets out a scream and I hit her in the chest and head, I close my eyes tightly and quickly leave the place. Sorry Joan. I can feel it beneath my skin. I must confess, I feel like a monster.

I open my eyes and look around looking for more people, I shouldn't have killed them both, I could have just killed one person and waited for Nick to get dirty but I'm sure not an employee, as much as I wanted it to be that way . I don't deserve forgiveness. Everyone deals with Shadyside in their own way, like Alice said. I hear Ziggy shouting at Nick trying to remember Sheila, the bathroom scene! Maybe I can change that! I feel my face give a shaky smile, maybe I still have a little control, I notice a light coming from one of the cabins, the arts one, my damn time has come. My body walks towards the hut, the flame goes out once but is lit again, giving both of them the view of me at the entrance, I'm sorry, another tear falls down my face. — " Monitor Y/n? " The girl questions me but I don't answer, I just hit her body with several blows from the axe, I have no light, I don't see what I'm doing but I know I'm being cruel to them. Your screams of pain. Agony. Despair surrounds me. I will never forget them. I'd rather die than live a lifetime dealing with this, dealing with the weight of these deaths. Why doesn't anyone come and save me from this? This is breaking me. Outside the cabin I see Ziggy going to the bathroom to help Sheila, if I could I would kill this girl, automatically my body starts walking towards the bathroom, I hear Ziggy fighting with Sheila, she begs to be heard and then punches her face after being slapped. Gary entered the bathroom as he also heard the sounds of the fight. Cindy, Alice and Tommy started screaming for help! Thank God you are okay! My face has a bad smile but it's better than the previous one, that means I have more control, wonderful! — " My sister is deprived! " Ziggy says to Gary, is she so loud that I heard her from a few meters away? But I wanted to laugh at that line, Nick must already be finding Kurt's body, now I can kill this bastard. I start to take my first steps entering the bathroom and I feel a great adrenaline invade my body. I like adrenaline. When Alice was about to leave that cave I enter the bathroom holding the ax with both hands, Gary looks at me but before I could think of what to do I hit him in the neck, ripping his head off and making his blood spurt, Ziggy screams Upon seeing the scene, Alice falls and Gary's body is taken with her, leaving only his head in the bathroom, and upon seeing the corpse, all three scream. A scared Ziggy starts to move away from me but I scream shakily.

— " No!! Do not go!! " Which makes her more scared and surprised which results in her looking at me confused, Tommy must have heard me because he was the first to stay silent, I start walking towards Ziggy holding the ax in one hand. I look at her from top to bottom with sadness, I place my hand on her cheek and move it down to her neck, lifting her chin, I feel her swallow dry for fear that I will choke her. — " Ziggy...! " I say sadly happily, I managed to smile easily, I feel my eyes filling with more tears. — " Please just kill me. " I ask her trying to hold back my tears but some escape, Ziggy looks at me stunned and starts to shake her head and say. — " No no! I can't! You-" I interrupted her. — " You can! Just take that damn ax and hit me in the head! There is no escape for me, he wants my soul, my heart." I say while he's still disagreeing with me. — " You will come out alive, with the one you love and you will be very happy, just say that I was to blame for everything! " I say but Ziggy lets out a scream. — " No!! " This makes Cindy start to scream even more worried, I can hear that she is crying. — " I can't kill the only good person I have left! " I open my mouth to speak but I hit myself with a punch in the face, making me fall to the ground, I feel my consciousness fading and my vision darkening until I can't hear anything anymore.

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I start to open my eyes, my body is wet and someone calls my name, slapping me lightly on the cheek, my vision gets used to the light and I can see the person in front of me, it's Sarah Fier! — " Sarah? " I call her confused, she lets out a smile of relief when she hears me. — " Thank God! I thought she had died! " She answers me and hugs me, even though I'm wet, her hug is strong. — " What happened? " I question her confused, I have no memory of what happened before I woke up, she loosens the hug and looks at me. — " We were walking together when you decided to play walking on the river rocks, I warned you it was dangerous but you didn't listen to me and that was when you fell into the water and hit your head, for a moment I thought you had died. " She explains the events to me and a flash comes into my head, she was telling the truth, I look at her and give a weak smile. — " No, sorry, I should have listened to you. " I asked her for forgiveness and the answer was her laughing and getting me up. — " Now come on, I have to hand this brat over to Solomon. " She says with a smile on her face, walking again and I follow her. — " With those clothes all wet? I'd better stay outside waiting for the sun to dry me. " I just told her about my situation with the outfits and received a sweet laugh from her in response. When we arrive at Solomon's residence, I sit on a rock so I can dry myself, as I was dry the whole way here, Sarah looks at me but continues entering the house, I look at the two tombs next to me , wife and son, it was a sad tragedy. I see Sarah leaving the house and Solomon is standing there at the door watching her leave until he notices my presence. — " I thought mermaids liked water. " He mocks me, I roll my eyes laughing at his joke. — " I catch the fish, I'm not one of them! " I respond and link my arms with Sarah's, I see the girl laughing at me and I slap her on the shoulder making her laugh.

We are back in the village, I nod to some people as a way of greeting, I see Thomas walking drunk until his eyes find me and he comes towards me. Sarah sighs in irritation. Thomas comes close to me and starts to say. — " Did the mermaid just feed on another fisherman? " He asks teasing me. — " I would never eat my own father. " I return it in kind, the drunk smiles, I use my hand to place it on his chest and push him away. Continuing to walk with Sarah I see the woman roll her eyes and look at me. — " Why do they call you a mermaid so much? " He questions me curiously. — " Maybe because of my appearance, or just because I'm a fisherman and the only thing I do is scare men away from my targets. I don't like sharing my food. " I respond with my nose in the air and throw a sarcastic look at the brunette, she smiles. I leave her at the door of her house and wave goodbye, I walk towards my house and see my father looking at our plantation, I open the fence door and enter the garden and say to my father: — " Not going fishing today? " Caught by surprise, he turns to me and smiles before responding. — " Later, the fish should still be waking up. Your mother must need help, better come in. " He suggests and I nod my head in agreement as I enter the house, finding my mother preparing our food, too distracted to notice me. — " Need help? " I ask her. — " Take the carrots and cut them for me. " He orders and I obey, taking the knife and carrots, I feel the older girl look at me and turn her focus back to the food. — " You're going out tonight, aren't you? " My blood runs cold at her sudden question, how did she find out? I stutter before speaking. — " N-No! Why do you think that? " I question her, trying not to seem nervous. — " There's no need to worry, I've done this too, just be discreet and don't make any noise so as not to wake your father. " She answers me, looking into my eyes, I breathe a sigh of relief and give a smile of thanks.

The waters of the river touch my feet, it's afternoon and my father gave me permission so I could stay a little longer in the river, I'll take the opportunity to bathe for the meeting I'll have at dusk. I remove my clothes starting with the blouse, untying it, taking my big skirt off my hips, being totally naked I slowly enter the water hugging her with passion. I go in and out to the surface to catch my breath. I swim as if I were dancing around a fire, the feeling of being alone is only with what I connect with. — " Are you trying to seduce me? " I'm startled by the male voice and I turn my head towards him, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that it's Thomas, he's not the best person to meet but he's better than anyone else, I run my hand through my hair and look at him. — " Do you feel seduced? " I provoke him. — " Perhaps. " He responds making me laugh. — " So let's say yes. " He comes closer to the river's edge. — " We are not married, Y/n, I have to resist carnal desires. " He tries to provoke me again but that only makes me laugh again, I look at him, we stay for a few seconds looking at each other intensely, his eyes are as clear as these waters, his hair is blonde but with this dirt it is darkened, his beard is grown but this It just adds more charm. — " You're dirty, go in and take a shower. " I make a bold offer, his eyes widen in surprise but a mischievous smile soon appears on his face. — " It's a tempting offer, you're wicked, y/n. " I roll my eyes and respond: — " I'm being generous with you, I don't like sharing. " I correct him, I turn my back so he can undress, the noise of his clothes being removed and thrown away becomes dark, the water begins to move with his movements, his body is increasingly closer to me and when he was very close I pull away and turn towards him. — " I'm not easy prey, try to catch me. " I encourage him, I start to walk in circles around him but he enters the water, taking me by surprise. I look around for his presence when I'm caught underneath, I let out a startled scream and look at his face, which shows amusement. — " I achieved. " He responds by whispering in my ear, a smile appears on my lips and I look at him. — " You got me. " I say, he doesn't answer me, we start looking at each other, his eyes go from mine to my lips and back, I look at his left eye and then at his right and I look down at his lips, which look so tempting. A strange tension has arisen between us, it's so exciting, I don't know when we started to get closer but his face is inches from mine, I place my hand on his cheek and pull him into a slow and passionate kiss, it would be strange to confess that I have a crush by drunk Thomas, his hands go to my waist pulling me closer,We pull away to catch our breath but he returns with a more intense kiss.

I find myself in my room looking at the window waiting for nightfall, I see if Sarah and the others have already left their house, when I notice some people leaving, I see my hood and I leave my room, going down the stairs in silence at the entrance to the house, I close it. the door and go out towards the girls. We are walking through the forest in search of the widow, a long walk. — " The fruits allow us to see a world beyond our own. Just with one bite. " Lizzie told us. — " Why does an old woman need this? " Sarah questions Lizzie. — " She is not just any old woman, the widow is a thousand years old! She drinks the blood of virgins to keep her young. " Lizzie says something curious which makes Sarah smile before saying ironically. — " Then you are saved. " Lizzie looks at Sara, Sarah laughs and then looks at Hannah. — " The widow sacrificed her husband to become the devil's bride, that's how she gained eternal life. " Lizzie talks more about the widow, making me curious. — " Solomon told me that she lives with the natives, and that she even fell in love with one of them. " I say looking at the floor remembering this fact told to me. — " for this she was exiled, and also learned their medicine. Solomon told me. " Sarah says, making me pay attention to every word she says. Sarah closes her expression a little before returning. — " He took his wife to her after losing his son but.. it was too late. " She says sadly, I feel sorry for everything he went through, Hannah looks at the road and then looks at Lizzie and says: — " Are you sure this is the right way? How do you know where we're going? " The blonde questions her, making her stop walking and turn towards us. — " I've been here before, remember when Abigail had the ring on fire? " She remembers us, making everyone laugh. — " She was scratching herself like a dog during my father's sermon. My mother said she had slept with the devil, the devil's gift. " Hannah tells us. — " She's more like crazy Thomas' present. " Sarah speaks sarcastically but I remain silent at the comment, maybe I felt a little jealous, maybe I rolled my eyes a little, just maybe. — " Whoever Abigail was made me accompany her to the widow. " Lizzie says making us walk again. — " And the widow healed with witchcraft? " Hannah asks her curiously. — " Yes, witchcraft, and a smelly paste made for bitches like Abigail Berman. " Lizzie says making me smile, just a few meters away was the widow's house.

Lizzie sent us to look for the fruits, she went with Hannah and I stayed with Sarah, looking around the place analyzing its strange magical objects. I came face to face with an eye-catching box. — " Hey Sarah! Come see this! " I call her to find out what is inside the black box that luckily is open, when we open it we find a large book with several pages, more pages than the Bible itself, Sarah opens the book stopping at a page with several things written on it, she passes Analyzing the pages, we stop at one where there is a drawing of the devil. — " Abaddon. " Sarah reads. — " Azazel. " I read. — " Beelzebub. " — " Moloch. " Sarah stays silent for a few seconds before saying. — " Satan. " She says. — " No! " We quickly got up and came face to face with the widow behind us. — " Widow... " Sarah whispers. — " The veil has grown thin with the turning of the moon, and with it the morning star rises. Beware the devil. He lives in this book. This is how he is invoked. " The widow grabs Sarah's wrist, which was holding a knife, as a way of protecting herself, she leaves the knife on her cheek, almost piercing her. — " He feels you now, and if you're not careful, he's going to get under her skin and devour you from the inside out. " I look at the scared situation when Hannah appears calling Sarah's name. The widow begins to order us to leave. — " Go away! Go away!! Out, out!! Everyone get out!! " We ran out of the witch's house, her house was shaking in the wind and her bonfire was agitated. When we arrive at the designated place we see several people, some are dancing, talking, others are kissing, surrendering to the sins of the flesh, everyone is drunk. We find Abigail at the campfire having something with our companion, when we catch their attention they both look back and face Lizzie. — " The full moon rises. " She says extending her hand showing the fruits she had picked. We all gather in a circle and start to take a fruit from her hand, Hannah looks at Sarah before eating the fruit. — " To the fruits of the earth. " Hannah says with a smile on her face, Sarah looks and then eats the fruit and then I do the same. I don't know what's in this fruit but it's incredible, I feel like I'm in paradise, my body is light while spinning, my mind is somewhere else while I'm dancing, it's like I'm in the sea without actually being in it, my body is smooth. I see a man grab Hannah, forcing her to take off her clothes when Sarah gets in the way, the man says something about her being a bitch and gets punched in the face. — "I should look for a mule, she doesn't notice how short his organ is! " I tell him defending Sarah, people laugh, I have a provocative smile on my face, the man looks at me and leaves irritated, meanwhile Sarah and Hannah leave hand in hand to somewhere more private,I already know these two are going to get ready.

I walked through the entire forest alone, it was the best feeling I had, being alone just in the presence of the moon, the trees, the birds, the insects, without being afraid of being raped, I walked so much that I didn't realize that I had already I had returned to the village where I see Sarah and Hannah kissing goodbye, I smile when I see the two together and I start walking towards my house again when I hear someone calling me. — " Y/n, y/n, you shouldn't be out so late. " Thomas, drunk, says to me as he takes a sip of his drink, I remain silent for a few seconds before responding. — " I say the same to you. I should drink less. " I advise you to go back to walking. I enter my house silently and go towards my room, I remove my skirt leaving me in just my nightgown. I am violently woken up by my mother. — " Wake up! It's already half past six!! " I get up, scratching my eyes and giving only a grunt in response to my mother, the woman leaves my room and goes back to doing what she did before, I put on my clothes and tie up my hair, I go to I go to the kitchen and grab some bread so I can eat and out of the corner of my eye I see my mother praying some rosary, I get closer to her and question her. — " Did something happen, mom? " She shuts up before answering me. — " The pastor is sick, I'm praying he gets well. " She answers me curtly, which leaves me confused and sad, but I ignore it and leave the house, my father is not on the plantation, strange, I open the door to the pen and go out to the village, taking a few steps until I see Sarah being thrown out. from the shepherd's house. — " God knows who you are girl! Pray that he has mercy on your soul! " The older woman shouts to Sarah, I stay paralyzed watching the whole scene, I noticed some people looking at me and whispering a few times but I ignored them and ran towards Sarah, helping her to get up, people looked at us, little Sarah to accompany me to her house . — " Thomas said things about you. He said you seduced several men and gave their flesh to the devil. Most didn't take it seriously but many wonder. " I feel my body freeze when I hear this, my heart hurts, my lungs hurt, my stomach hurts, I feel my eyes want to fill with tears when I hear these words. That bastard, he betrayed me! He used me! I let him taste my skin so it wouldn't end up being that?! This bastard will get what he deserves. I swallowed hard but continued taking Sarah to the entrance of her house, when we arrived she told me to go back home, she wanted better for me, I listened to her advice but before I could even walk I felt my arm being grabbed tightly and I was being dragged to the door. my house, when I enter I am thrown to the floor, I look back and see my father furious. — " What did you do, Y/n?! What did you do in that lake?! " He asks me violently, I drag myself back trying to keep my distance. — " I just bathed! I swear! " I lie, I lie to your face. — " That's not what Thomas has been saying! Is there anything you want to tell me?! Did you go out at night?! " He asks me, holding me by my hair so I look at him, I shake my head frantically no. — " Your mother can't even bear to look at your face, she feels disgusted, as I do too. I fear her lack of education has failed you. I failed creating you. I shouldn't have given you so much freedom, you're not a boy. I should have tried to continue having a boy instead of investing my teachings in you. " His eyes are deep and full of anger, anguish, sadness anddisappointment, he lets go of my hair and leaves my face, going to the kitchen to get a drink, I feel a tear run down my face and a knot As my throat grows, I look to the side and see the figure of my mother, she doesn't show any ounce of empathy towards me.

if a day has passed since what happened, I'm lying in my bed, no one comes and wakes me up with a good morning, no one will come and kiss me on the forehead, no one, I get up from the bed and put on my clothes but I leave my hair down, it reaches my waist which is what I like about it, when I left the room I noticed that every room is silent which is strange so I go to the kitchen looking for food but a strong odor invades the air, some Mosquitoes are hanging around here, I look at the food and realize that they are all rotten, I can see maggots in the flour, I feel my stomach turn when I see that but I hold on and leave the house. Walking through the village I find Sarah Fier with her clothes slightly stained with blood, I stand next to her in silence, our looks already say a lot for us, I hear Thomas saying things to the people in the village, about the devil, the horse is moving, people are around the can trying to pull something out of it. — " What it was? What is happening? " Sarah asks Abigail. — " The bucket got stuck on something. " She responds simply, seeing the men doing their best to pull out whatever was inside, after a few more efforts they begin to lift the bucket, attracting the attention of several people who came closer to the well. — " Is coming! Is coming! Here it comes! " An old bearded man says, Thomas stays near the well, after the bucket rises you can see the corpse of a dog wrapped in ropes, they are around God's neck, this dog is Sarah's. — " Our water is poisoned! " The older woman says through tears. — " Do not come?! We have already drunk from the cup of darkness! " Thomas says to the people around him, I squeeze Sarah's hand as a way of comfort. — " This is the work of the devil. He came to take our lands! " Thomas exclaims to everyone, making my eyes go to him. — " Which one of you brought the devil to Union? " He asks abusively, I close my eyes at him and leave so I don't have to hear any more nonsense from him. I'm in the lake, in that same lake, I place my hand on my belly, this period was supposed to have already started and this is worrying me, I worry that my actions have brought a bad father to a possible fetus. I can't confirm. Not for now. When this belly grows bigger, my breasts swell, I will tell everyone the true truth, but a much more painful truth, the sky is already late, it's the middle of the day, I start walking back to the village. People look at me, they whisper about me, they judge me, but the only one who looks at me with amusement is that damn drunk, damn Thomas, our eyes meet, my smells of hate and his are full of malice.

A crowd of people are around the meeting house, I see Sarah arriving with Solomon, I hear that the pastor has all the children inside, shit! Constantine and Henry!! I get closer to the door trying to open it but it doesn't work, I see Solomon go to the back doors and I follow him, more men come after and soon after Sarah appears with the rest, after pushing the door so much it opens and nothing is heard . — " Keep everyone away. " Solomon orders and Sarah tries to call for him but he has already picked up a gun and he enters, a crowd of people starts surrounding the entrance trying to get in, I get closer to the entrance and push the people blocking my way and I enter the meeting room and a crowd enters with me, when I enter I come face to face with the pastor with his eyes gouged out and the children too, their eyes were together on the ground, a disgusting pile Sarah screams when she sees her brother's body, the pastor starts walking towards her When I realized I shouted his name. — " Sarah!!" Solomon runs towards the shepherd pastor and attacks him from the side, his body falls next to Sarah who is terrified, I run to her and hug her tightly, people are scared and Thomas with his speeches is only getting worse. Me, Sarah and Hannah are at the window watching the men argue about what will be done. Mr. Berman begins to make a speech saying that we need to find out who caused all this, that the pastor was possessed by darkness, by darkness. Thomas starts to say. — " I saw three lambs from our city, laughing, having fun, on the last full moon! " He argues, making the men scream, idiot, Simon begins to tell the truth that several were there, that they were there for fun, we danced, we drank, we celebrated! We are not sinners! But the men were furious, Thomas said that we would have the mark of the devil which made many feel like taking off our clothes to see our bodies. Solomon's brother spoke beautifully, then another old man began to speak. — " I mapped it out on my patrols. This scourge is in Union, I searched the forest! It does not extend beyond the village. This one. It's in Union! We are being punished, and I have a list of names!! " The men celebrate when they hear the possibility of having people who can hang, they beg for them to be said, Solomon enters the middle asking them to stop making everyone pay attention to him. — " Listen to yourselves! Speculation! Hunting.. shadows! Imagining curses. " Solomon points out the holes in these accusations. — " Now I ask, do you have any proof? " The man remains silent. — " No? And you? " Solomons asks Thomas and I only respond with a snort and an eye roll, you pathetic guy. — " or any of you!! " A man stands up. — " I have evidence! " Damn, the same mule I looked at penis size. — " A few nights ago, when the full moon rose right next to the sun. While I was sleeping, she came to me. She bewitched me! And she took me to the forest, she was naked... and riding a red mule. And the red mule became a man with horns! She made me watch while she slept with the devil. It made my organ shorten like a threat!" He said, leaving everyone in shock, I didn't need to use a spell to shorten his penis! You did this alone. — " Who?! " A man asked. — " He made me watch as the three lay with the devil... & quot; He adds leaving more shock in the air. — " Who are the three of them lying down?! " They ask, a moment of silence before answering. — " Hannah Miller, Sarah Fier and Y/n. " The woman begins to disagree with her daughter's accusations, Mr. Fier stands up in shock and my mother and my father are in a state of shock. — " Witches! " Thomas and thousands of men gather, thousands of men begin to say they saw us, even those who must have been in a deep sleep when it happened! The men all join in a hunt against us, the man, upon realizing that we were watching them, points out our hiding place, a crowd of men left the house going after us.

Thousands of men chase us behind our figure, we are running as fast as we can. — " We need to get out of here!! " Sarah says desperately. — " Where?! " Hannah asks her even more desperately and trips over a rock, we are both close to the fence if we go back we will be caught! — " Run! " Hannah asks us, I hold Sarah's hand and we run into the forest while men surround her. Crowds gather to invade the houses in search of the two of us, Sarah and I are at her house and we find her father lying on the floor completely drunk, Sarah whimpers when she sees this scene, my heart hurts, we quickly hide when we see that they are searching the residence, Sarah grabs her knife and we run after another house, they are after the Fiers, my parents, they are threatening to kill us! Sarah and I walked towards the meeting room being discreet, I picked up a stone and threw it in another direction, attracting the attention of the man on guard, making him leave the place and we quickly entered the house. Poor Hannah was deplorable, clothes torn, chained, completely dirty, Sarah runs to her. — " What they did to you? " The brunette asks. — " I.. I will be hanged in the morning.. and if you don't run away you will be too. " Hannah alerts. — " No! " Sarah whispers. — " Pay attention, you need to escape. " The two look at each other then Sarah starts talking. — " No, I won't leave you. " Sarah denies it. — " But she must. " Hannah demands, the blonde sits on the floor tiredly. — " It's my fault after all. " The blonde confesses, Sarah shakes her head. — " No-" Hannah interrupts.— " I brought the devil. " Hannah states. — " That's not how it works, you don't summon the devil by accident. A choice needs to be made. " Sarah corrected her by saying what she learned from Solomon. — " Don't you understand? " Hannah questions her. — " It doesn't matter if we did it or not. They think we are guilty so we are. " Hannah says seriously and looking deeply at her lover, Sarah looks at her thinking about what she just heard. — " You're right. Everyone believes we did it. So what difference does it make if we did it now? " Sarah says, leaving Hannah confused with her words. — " what are you saying? " The blonde asks. — " I'll look for the widow. I'm going to make a deal with the devil. Maybe this can save us. " Sarah says one with a shred of hope, Hannah issurprised by the crazy idea. — " But what with the devil... Are you crazy? " Hannah questions Sarah's insane idea. — " I don't fear the devil. Hannah, I fear the neighbor who accuses me. I fear the mother, who lets her daughter be hanged. " Sarah says in a melancholic and poetic way, running her fingers over her beloved's face. — " I fear Union. They take us to the slaughterhouse and like lambs wait for us to follow. But you'll see, I don't give a lamb. " The brunette says bravely but the noises of the men looking for us make us come back to reality. — " When this is all over, we will leave this place, we will go far away. And we dance all night, and we'll fight in daylight. " Sarah quickly kisses Hannah. — " I can not lose you. " Hannah says sadly. — " And she won't. If they want a witch, I'll give them a witch. "

Sarah and I are at the widow's house but before I enter she stops me and looks into my eyes. — " You're pregnant, aren't you? " She takes me by surprise with her question, I open and close my mouth before responding, swallowing hard. — " It's not a certainty, but-" she interrupts me. — " Well, I confirm, your belly is bigger, your breasts are fuller, with milk. " She speaks to me, I look at her with tears, my mouth trembles. — " I can't allow you to live this, run away, run away! " She orders me pushing me away but I stop her. — " No!! I can't leave you!! You can die!! " I argue. — " You too!.. who is the father? " Sarah asks me while she looks at my belly, I take a deep breath, holding back the tears even more. — " Oh Thomas.. " Whispers in an auditory tone, I hear her whisper. — " Traitor. " She stays silent looking at me, she hugs me tightly, I return her hug, finally letting some tears flow, she lets go of me and walks away saying: — " Go. Go now! " She ordered and I obeyed, like a dog, no matter how much I fight she will insist and will always win, I turn my back and run towards the waters, may they take me wherever I need to go.

It's been a few weeks, a few weeks since Sarah died and cursed these lands, I saw her hanging from afar and for the first time I cried until my body hurt, until my body was exhausted, I joined my group to bury her in a worthy place. Only we know where it is. But only I know that she will not rest. My belly is more visible than last time, it is small but visible, because my body has a flat belly I believe it has resulted in it being more visible. I'm always coming to the lake just to watch it and remember the memories, remember what I did, what it resulted in, and how I'm going to end up, I feel very small but you don't deserve any of this. The sounds of footsteps take me out of my thoughts, which makes me step back in surprise, then look to the side I find the one I least want. Thomas. — " Are you alive. " She states surprised to see my presence. — " Yes, I'm alive in the flesh. " I tell him. Thomas tries to walk towards me but I walk back keeping my distance, he stops, he looks at me from top to bottom as if he was analyzing me. I let out a sigh before speaking. — " I'm Pregnant. The child is yours. " Her expression melts into one I don't quite understand, a mix of sadness and surprise, I imagine. He takes a step trying to get closer but remembers what had just happened, I pull out a knife that was hidden and look into his blue eyes that I love so much. — " This is the last time we will see Thomas. " I tell you, Thomas' reaction is one of confusion, he tilts his head and continues to look at me. — " What do you mean? " He asks and I quickly answer. — " I'm leaving. I cursed you, Thomas. You will spend all your last years alive suffering in regret over the accusations made. He will suffer for having killed an innocent man. You will hear the cries of a newborn child every time you walk through the night feeling the empty moonlight. When you're in your dreams I'll be there to drown you. " He cursed, he cursed, saying every word with hatred, I raised the knife towards my neck, Thomas, seeing what would happen, tried to run towards me but it was too late. I already ran the blade across my throat. My body falls and I feel myself being grabbed. My breathing getting weaker, I hear the sound of the waters. Is cold. My eyes start to blink slowly and I finally take my last breath.

__________________________★___________________________

Pov'tommy

She hit Arnie in the face several times with the axe, blood splashed all over his face and clothes, Alice and Cindy are terrified on the same level as me. — " Let's go! Now! " I tell them pulling them, Y/n looks back giving a full view of her bloody face, no that's not her. Her gaze is empty, soulless. As if something had worn her skin. Cindy screams, breaking me out of my thoughts, I pull them both to the other side of the cave so we can escape. Both are quick to look for a way out, Cindy goes to the bookshelf trying to push it. — " He comes! It helps me! " She asks desperately, Alice and I run to help the brunette and quickly knock down the shelf. She's close! — " Go Go!! Now!! " I scream pushing Alice and Cindy to go faster, when I was close to entering my legs are grabbed and a fight is started, Cindy and Alice try to pull me while I'm trying to kick the hands of my best friend, she has the slip of Let go of one of my legs and kick his nose out of his face. I'm sorry about that y/n. An avalanche of rocks begin to fall on the entrance and I drag myself back to avoid being crushed. A pile of rocks is blocking the entrance, I look at Cindy as she holds herself back from crying. — " Listen to this. " Alice catches our attention, I hear the sound of unregulated breathing, coming from the other side. — " Is she still alive? " I ask myself worriedly but deep down I'm relieved that I didn't kill her. — " She's trapped. " She says trying to bring comfort to us. — " She's trapped. " She whispers more to herself, a way of trying to calm down. — " I... I'm a monster. " I hear a/n whispering on the other side, she's conscious! But it seems that only I noticed what was said.

— " This is a cave but it looks like, like, I don't know! It seems like it never ends... " Cindy says analyzing the entire cave. — " I don't call. " I look at Alice after hearing what she just said, Cindy walks to the rocks that are blocking us. — " Alice... can you please help me! Tommy! " She asks Alice and then calls me. — " For what? For you to keep pretending that everything is fine? " Alice says. — " Alice, please. " I beg you not to have any fights, we are already too screwed for that. — " Alice, I just.. " Cindy tries to formulate a sentence but nothing then sits on top of one of the rocks. — " Y/n... Opened Arnie's head in half. Can you understand this? " Melancholic Alice tells us what's going on in her head. — " Please, can you, can you help me? " Cindy asks her again, making her angry. — " With what?! That shit weighs a million pounds!! You didn't get an A in physics?! " The blonde fights. — " We need to get out of here!! " Cindy reminds her. — " What a shame, because it can't be done!... We're going to die down here. Cindy Berman. " The blonde spoils the bitter truth she believes, I go to Cindy and offer her my hand to get up, a gesture she accepts. She runs towards Alice. — " No no! We have to get out of here, we do! Those names on the wall... they didn't stop at one death. " Cindy remembers the murders that happened to several people. — " Seven, nine, ten, fifteen people! They are serial killers! The children.. " Cindy stutters while speaking to Alice trying to find a way to change her mind. — " Your sister.. " I remind you — " Everyone is out there. And now she is too... " Her voice cracks briefly as she says. — " I thought you didn't believe in the witch. " The blonde argues. — " Not even! But, but, but, there must be some explanation. Must have-" Alice comes closer, interrupting her. — " Oh my god, you are unbelievable, Cindy! You knew?! She was possessed!! " Alice trying to make the brunette listen. — It could be... it could be that she took some pill. " Cindy tries to argue. — " No! No! Cindy, no! It wasn't the paracetamol! It was the witch. You saw the names, and that ritual! The witch is real, and she is using some spell to possess people. She understood the names on that stone! " I step in, taking Alice's side and arguing against my own girlfriend. — " And Mary knew, okay? She knew and it's all here! " Angrily Alice points out the facts. — " this is not real! " Cindy violently pushes the book away. — " Do you want an explanation? I'll give you one. Okay?" Alice impatiently questions Cindy. — " She went looking for the hand bones to break the fucking curse to save Shadyside, but she didn't find them! Want to know what she found?!My friend's name on that shitty wall. " Cindy tries to interrupt. — " No, it wasn't that! " But Alice continues. — " So she tried to kill her. What I would have done too if I had a chance to kill bitch Y/n, if I was going to take an ax to my boyfriend's head! " An irritated Cindy with no patience pushes Alice. — " Oh shut up!! " Cindy orders leaving everyone silent, until Alice cuts him off. — " Finally. That's the Cindy Berman I know. " Alice says, Cindy turns and starts walking somewhere else. — " Where are you going? " I ask her making her turn towards us. — " I'll look for another way out. Don't come after me, come on Tommy! " Cindy calls me and I follow behind, leaving Alice alone.

Alice screams saying not to come back, Cindy and I ignore the screams, we are looking for something. Cindy is panting. I squeeze her hand, trying to calm her down, which doesn't do much good. — " All good. It is good too. " Cindy whispers to herself trying to calm down until Alice appears behind us, scaring us, I put my hand on my chest in fright, Cindy goes to the blonde and pushes her by the shoulder. — " Damn, are you crazy?! I ordered you not to follow me. " Cindy remembers Alice who just looks at her confused. — " Yeah, I didn't follow. " Alice returns the push. — " You went in circles " Alice counts her and passes her. — " It's a fucking circle. " The blonde remembers what makes Cindy and I remember something, I pick up the book lying on the floor, leafing through its pages looking for one, Cindy lights up the book, I stop at the page with the symbol design and we start counting the entries. — " What are they doing? " Alice comes closer asking. — " The symbol divides four times, three there, one there, like this cave. " I explain it. — " Equals. Sarah Fier cut her cursed hand on Satan's stone, carving the witch's mark into the ground below. Carving into the ground " Cindy explains, pointing out the places so Alice can understand. — " Wait what? The witch who did all this shit? " She questions us. — " Or the colonists said she did it. It doesn't matter. What matters is that this is a-" Alice interrupts me. — " A map. "

— " There's another branch here, so it's to the left. " We started walking towards the entrance. — " I don't believe this shit works. " Alice comments, I look at her but quickly return to my main focus. — " It's taking too long, we should already be at camp. " Cindy says worriedly, I look at her and give her a look of confidence to reassure her, I'm not very confident about this myself but it's the only thing I can have a shred of hope that will work, that will lead us to a way out and we can save her. The conversation I had in the forest keeps playing in my head, maybe you were trying to warn us, maybe you wanted to save us and I didn't know how to understand. You asked me if I would kill you, I would never hurt you. Hurting you hurts me too. I promise that I will save you from this, I will make you free from this curse. — " If they have to kill her. Can you? " Alice takes me out of my thoughts with her question, taking us by surprise, Cindy remains silent thinking so I answer first. — " At that moment in the cafeteria, when the nurse attacked, all I thought about was saving her. So I couldn't do it. " I answer truthfully, Alice looks at Cindy waiting for an answer. — " I don't think so, she was the first person to offer to talk to Ziggy, she listened to me venting about my complaints about her. So I don't think I could do it. " Cindy says, Alice has a small smile and then speaks. — " Well, I would gladly kill Y/n. " She says without any remorse. — " Wow, even after all this you're still an asshole. " Cindy says, talking about her makes me happy, she has no control over anything. — "Okay, sorry. It's just that it's not easy to see a friend killing her boyfriend. " She apologizes and explains a little sadly. — " I never understood how she managed to fit in with us so quickly. " She exposes her doubt, Cindy turns to her and so do I, Cindy starts to speak. — " Look, Y/n, she was sweet. She was always willing to help, to listen, always protecting the people of Shadyside. Protecting my sister. She had no obligation but she did it. It was funny to see her swearing at everything when she got angry. " Cindy says with a weak laugh, memories of her swearing come into my head making me smile weakly. — " Once I left her doing a task alone and I went to offer her herbs to calm her down and she responded with: " Holy shit! I don't want anything to do with this shit.”, it was the first time I heard someone say four swear words in one sentence. " Alice tells us, making all three of us laugh, I remember an event with Ziggy's sister. — " These days she had gone to defend her sister, Cindy, she told one of the girls to get out of her way, then called her a son of a bitch. & Quot; I tell her making her laugh and smile that her sister is being protected.I hear some noises coming from deeper in the cave, I point the flashlight in the direction of the sound. — " Are you listening to this? " He asked, turning to where I'm pointing, Cindy looks at the notebook. — " There's a space right here, in front. All paths lead to him." Cindy tells us how she looks at Alice. — "Is there any way we can turn around? " Alice asks. Getting closer we see several dark spots on the wall and thousands of mosquitoes surrounding them, this sight makes your stomach turn. Alice and Cindy point to goo on the floor. — " Holy shit, what the hell is this? " Alice asks in surprise. — " It's everywhere.. " I say looking around, Alice lights up something and her face panics. — " Cindy.. what the fuck? " The blonde asks, making us both turn towards what she is seeing, faced with completely dirty flesh full of flies circling it, it pulses as if it were alive. — " Let's get out of here. " Cindy asks in fear, Alice gets closer to the flesh, crouching down to be at her level, she touches the flesh and freezes in terror. Cindy pulls her hand and calls her name, Alice lets out a scream.

Alice runs, leaving Cindy and me behind, we look at each other confused and go looking for her. We hear Alice running everywhere and letting out terrified screams when suddenly her scream becomes one of pain, Cindy hurries her steps right in front of me. Within minutes we found her with her injured leg. Cindy comes down and puts her hands on Alice's shoulders. — " Are you well? " Cindy asks worriedly. — " I saw the killers. They killed many, and the rest will be next. The children. " Alice says what she saw in terror, Cindy shakes her head in disagreement before interrupting her. — " No, it's not true. Everything will be fine. " She speaks words of affirmation to comfort. — " The witch did it. She did it all. She cursed Shadyside. Mary was right. " Alice begins to explain, I look at the wound seeing its exposed bone. — " I know. " Cindy says, taking her by surprise. — " The cave was alive, Alice. Paracetamol doesn't do that. " Cindy said she made her change, Alice groans in pain, my girlfriend takes her bag and throws her belongings on the floor. — " You are right. I'm a snitch. The day after we stole Mr. Evans' stereo, Harold Hines saw me with it. " Cindy is opening the pad while my hand is on the bone. — " Damn Harold Hines. " Alice curses but stops when she feels me putting the bone back in place. — " Soon after, I ended up at the director's office, and my father couldn't go because he had run away with a girl not much older than I am today. " Cindy puts the pad on the wound as a bandage. — " And my mother was drinking at O'Connell. " She looks at Alice with a fake smile. — " That's when I understood... that I was no different from the others in Shadyside. I was cursed. And I convinced myself that if I was perfect, if I did everything right, I could escape. " Cindy looks silently at Alice before she speaks again. — " I ratted you out, made new friends, and started dressing like this. " She tears off a piece of her blouse as she says, placing it in the pad. She turns to me and says.— " I started dating you. " Her eyes are full of tears. My world collapses. — " I avoided you, but I couldn't avoid Ziggy. Because she was always there, reminding me of the truth. " Cindy places something on top of the pad before tying it. — " Because she was always there, reminding me of the truth. That this city is cursed, this place... It's cursed. And we too. And now I know. She was right, all this time. " Alice screams after Cindy tightens the bandage.

— " I was a bad sister. I was a terrible friend. I should have skipped class, gone to parties, had sex, had fun " Cindy is interrupted by Alice. — " I hate to tell you this, but the fun... It's as real as you and your shirt. I use Styrofoam for a reason. " Alice started taking off her bracelets which left me confused. — " It's not just because it looks good on me. " She shows god slit wrists leaving us in shock. — " Holy shit... " I let it escape my lips. — " Everyone deals with Shadyside in their own way. " I look at her sadly, Cindy was about to start talking when something catches her attention. She gets up and picks up some moss, red moss, the scene of the moss getting on her shirt flashes through my head. — " This. That moss stained my shirt. The bathroom. " She quickly gets to her feet, pointing the flashlight at the trail of moss on the wall. — " The bathroom is covered in this stuff. The camping. It means we're close. " Cindy states. — " Let's go! " I call them going deeper into the cave, Alice passes me leaving Cindy to stay by my side. She looks at me and I look at her. We have to talk. Cindy looks down thinking about what to say, she opens and closes her mouth before saying. — " I'm sorry I had to hear all that. " She apologizes, I shake my head no. — " It wasn't your fault, it's okay. I understand you. " Cindy interrupts me by shouting. — " No! I'm guilty! " She starts to speak and pauses before saying. — " You deserve better. You deserve her. " She says about someone, I furrowed my eyebrows looking at her questioningly. — " Who she? " She laughs at my question as if I'd just made a joke. — " I'm talking about her, Y/n. I see how you look at her. " Cindy has a smile on her face, she is taken by surprise with her insinuations, I remain silent and let her speak. — " When you know, you know. She already told you that phrase, didn't she? " She asks looking at me. I shake my head in agreement, she gives a weak smile for a few seconds. — " Did she tell you it was the lyrics to a song? "She questions me, leaving me surprised, it was never said that it came from a song. — " No, she never told me. " I speak without looking away from her. — " I once caught her singing. She said it was a song a woman sang in a bar. 'When you know, you know. It kind of makes me laugh. Passing that way. When you're good, you're gold. Because when you know, you know'. That's the lyrics" Cindy sings the part of the song, the song brought back memories of when I saw her for the first time. When I accompanied her to welcome the children. When we first spoke. — " Save her. Save her and stay together. " Cindy asks me, making me look into her eyes when she hears this request. — " I will save her." I speak, Cindy smiles and we continue to walk together just accepting that we are okay.

We arrived at a big place full of moss and with shit, piss, toilet paper, players everywhere. Not one of the best places to be. — " Is that toilet paper? " Alice asks more to himself. — " It's the bathroom. Can be. " Cindy states hopefully. — " Holy crap. " Alice whispers. — " It's him. Look. " Cindy points to the stone that goes up to the entrance to one of the toilets. We started to hear noises coming from above, it sounded like two people fighting, my eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. We come together to scream for help, people are silent. We start to scream louder so they can hear us, the lid opens and a head appears. — " Cindy?! " The girl asks in disbelief. — " Ziggy? Oh my God! " Cindy is surprised to see her sister, I admit that I would also be surprised to see my sister's head in the toilet. — " What are you doing down there?! " She asks us curiously, Cindy stutters before answering. — " It's a long story. Are you well? "The worried question. — " OK, just wait a minute. " The redhead asks before closing the toilet lid. — " Ziggy, are you okay? " Cindy asks her again but receives no answer. The toilet lid is opened again and Ziggy throws a trunk with a rope attached so we can climb up. — " Use this. We're going to pull you. " I look at her confused and ask her. — " Us? " The redhead is quick to respond to me. — " Gary's here too. " Meanwhile Cindy offers Alice to go first and the blonde doesn't refuse, she already sits on the bucket. The rope begins to be pulled making her rise, when Alice was close to leaving we hear Ziggy screaming and the rope is released making Alice fall but something is brought along. When we look we see that it is Gary's headless body, the two scream in fear. Cindy starts screaming her sister's name and I join her. I shut up when I hear Y/n's voice asking her not to go, I put my hand on Cindy's mouth making her shut up, she tries to remove my hand but I gesture with my eyes for her to pay attention to the conversation. — " Ziggy...! " She speaks sadly but seemed to have a hint of happiness, a few seconds of silence is interrupted by her saying. — " Please just kill me. " She begs, my eyes widen in surprise upon hearing. No! I can't let you die! I can't lose you. — " No no! I can't! You-" Ziggy tries to make her listen but is interrupted. — " You can! Just take that damn ax and hit me in the head! There is no escape for me, he wants my soul, my heart." She tries to convince Ziggy. — " You will come out alive, with the one you love and you will be very happy, just say that I was to blame for everything! " I start to despair about this conversation but before I can do something dark Ziggy says.— " No!! " Now Cindy despairs that something might be happening to her sister. She screams tearfully. Ziggy says something I don't understand and then we hear the sound of someone falling. We remained silent waiting for something. — " Ziggy!! " Cindy calls for her sister again, but this time we are answered with the girl putting her head in the toilet, Cindy sighs with relief to see her sister intact. — " What happened?! " I ask her worried about what might have happened. — " She started with this story about being killed, so I put her to sleep! " Ziggy tries to defend himself, Cindy lets out a weak laugh, and I breathe a sigh of relief. — " Can you load it?! " Cindy asks her, Ziggy takes his face off the toilet, probably looking at the unconscious body. — " I think so. " She answers us. Cindy takes the notebook and looks at the map analyzing it and analyzing the cave, she looks up and then questions her sister. — " Can you handle taking it to the cafeteria?! " The question is peacefully answered with an affirmative nod.

After Ziggy left the bathroom and took A/n we started walking towards the exit of the cafeteria. Only Cindy and I came, Alice stated that we would be late but that he would arrive soon. Getting closer and closer the path becomes tight, making us have to start walking on all fours, when we see a crack of light we start to crawl faster, as I'm in front I'm the first to come face to face with the exit blocked with a metal plate. I lie down and start to put strength in my legs, I kick the plate for the first time which makes it go up a lot, the second time I feel the nails starting to come out, the third time the entrance is finally free. When I go up I see Ziggy in the middle of the room, she probably came to check the noise, when I go up Cindy is next, I extend my hand which is accepted, I pull it making it go up faster. — " Where is Alice? " Ziggy asks us, noticing the blonde's absence. — " She will come, she just needs to regain her strength. " Cindy is quick to answer the question. — " Where is she? " I ask her, she makes a gesture asking us to follow her. We found the scene of Y/n with her hands and feet tied, her body is leaning against the wall of the cafeteria. I get close to her, crouching down to her height. I run my hands over her cheek, caressing her, the girl snuggles into my touch which makes me smile. I promise to save you. I stand up looking at the two girls behind me. A noise is heard from the room we left, we all stay alert, I slowly walk towards the sound, take advantage and grab a knife as defense. A hand comes out of the hole and we see Alice coming out of it, a sigh of relief and Cindy runs towards her swearing to climb up.

— " Why did it take so long? " Cindy asks, relieved to see her. — " Did you manage to arrest her? " Alice asks referring to Y/n. Cindy nods before speaking. — " We did it. " Cindy confirms and immediately hugs her, but Alice pushes her away saying. — " Be careful. This thing must be a million years old. " She puts her hand in her bag, Cindy is confused. — " I bought this bag last month. " - Cindy informs. — " I'm not talking about your stupid bag, genius. 'Blood will be spilled'. Demon stone, got it? She was there. " I begin to understand what Alice means.— " It was buried under the moss all this time, and I found it. I found. " Alice states happily about her discovery of hers. — " What did you think? " Cindy asks, still confused. — " Three guesses. " . We sat at the cafeteria table. Alice removes the bones of a hand from the bag, leaving the girls surprised. — " What? What is that? " Ziggy asks looking at the two girls at the table. — " Sarah Fier's severed hand. " Alice responds. Everyone stays silent until I break it. — " Nurse Lane... spent her whole life looking for this. A way to stop the curse that took his daughter. " I comment remembering all of Mary's hunting. — " Without her hand, her power remains firm. The curse will last until the body and hand unite.' this took us to the hand. " Alice explains the curse to the redhead by taking the notebook to her. — " And if the legend is true, the body will be buried-" Ziggy interrupts her. — " In the gallows tree. " She finished completing it. — " We can end this. The end of the murders, the end of the curse, the end.. " Cindy stops and looks at the tied up body. From suffering. " She finishes. — " We can save Shadyside... tonight! " I speak with hope. Ziggy takes his hand closer to him. Blood drips from her nose and falls into her bones, she jumps in fright and freezes for a few seconds until her sister takes her hand and makes her come back. — My nose bled on my hand and I thought I saw her. " Ziggy says scared as she catches her breath. — " Who? " Cindy asks in surprise. — " Sarah Fier. " Everyone at the table looks shocked.

— " She was... She was very angry. " Ziggy warns. — " We have to bury this right now. " Alice commands. Before we could say or act, we were startled with an enraged growl. We all looked at Y/n who was struggling trying to free herself from the ropes as he grew. I get up and go towards him, side in front of him and crouch down, he stops struggling when he notices me. His eyes meet mine. Empty. But there's still something about them. — " Tommy... " She whispers, leaving me surprised, a smile invades my face when she hears me call. — " We will save you, I promise. " I reassure her, she tries to say something but Cindy has already gotten up to get the big shovel and another small one. — " Let's go. " She orders. Alice is confused about not receiving something. — " Will I have to use my hands? " He asks with a bit of irony. — " No, you stay here. " Cindy demands. — " Come on, I can safely jump. " Alice tries to argue as she shows off her limp. Cindy looks still unconvinced, Alice sighs and surrenders. — " Tommy, you too. " She asks me too, I nod my head then see her leave with her sister.

I'm left alone in the cafeteria with Alice watching over Y/n. Alice keeps a distance between me and her but keeps close to Y/n, she has her hands on her knees looking thoughtful. — " Seeing you kill my boyfriend hurt. " The blonde started to speak. — " I hate you for what she did, and I miss you like a child. I loved that junkie. " She says sadly, her words catch the attention of Y/n who remains silent but looks at her with a certain empathy, even though her eyes are full of hate. Alice sighs and gets up, something stops her, she looks at me with a frown. — " Did you hear that? " She asks me leaving me confused. — " What ? " She doesn't answer me, she heads towards the place we entered, her steps are slow and careful. Seconds later we hear as if someone is singing and a female hand appears, I get up and go towards Y/n, helping her get up, I take a razor I found and cut the ropes on her feet. Alice moves away from the place, realizing the situation even more. — " Holy crap. Run!! " She shouts at us, I pull Y/n by the arm making her follow me as we run, Alice is behind us running with difficulty. We stop halfway to check if we are still being followed. I release my hand from Y/n's arms. — " Did you see it too?! It was Ruby Lane!! Ruby! " Alice questions me scared, I catch my breath before answering. I saw it, why are they coming back? " I ask her, confused and startling, she shakes her head not knowing what to answer. — " I don't know... maybe they want to stop the curse from being broken! " She suggests, she looks behind me then her face changes to one of concern. — " Tommy. Where did she go? " She looks at me for an answer, I look back and see that y/n ran away. We lost sight of her!

__________________________★___________________________

I managed to steal the razor that Tommy was carrying in his clothes. Why did he have it? This is the question that hits my head the most. I use my feet to hold the razor while I quickly run the rope through it so it can be cut as quickly as possible. I feel my hands free and remove the ropes, take the knife and hold it firmly in my pocket. I need to find Sarah's body. I need to find Nick Goode. It boosted me and I started running as fast as I could towards the forest and entering it in a few seconds, I looked everywhere looking for the same red moss that was in the bathroom, branches passed over my skin, scratching and hurting me. Leaves are in my clothes and hair. I stop to rest a little, look at the floor and notice the texture becoming different, redder, redder! I start to crawl quickly looking for Sarah's bones, I feel blood start to run from my nose when I grab a chain. A smile appears on my face. I take off my cold sweater and place it on the floor, I take the bones and chains and put everything in my shirt and tie it to make sure it doesn't fall. I get up and run again but this time towards the tree.

I feel the wind passing by my face, the dreams of bats hitting the ground, a woman singing become closer. Tommy. Are you, are you coming? To the tree where they hanged a woman, who they say was a witch. I quicken my steps, feeling my legs start to hurt because of the effort I'm making, all the effort, for a moment the memories of my ancestor flash through my head. I'm sorry I had to go through all this, but I'm not you, I'm going to make everything right. I see Cindy and Ziggy desperately digging the hole in the ground as the killers get closer, Tommy and Alice are close by trying to reach them too, they must think I'm going to attack. Ziggy, upon seeing that he had no body, despairs and shows his sister who only finds a stone saying that the witch lives forever, she pulls Ziggy close and holds his bone hand in hers. I manage to get past all the killers and fall to the ground tired, my legs are wobbly, Cindy puts Ziggy behind her afraid that I will attack, I untie my blouse and place my bones on the ground, leaving them both shocked. — " I found!! Put your hand up! " I order them, Cindy and Ziggy are quick and put their hands close to their bodies, I take advantage of the fact that they are both seeing the truth of the whole curse and I take Cindy's shovel and go towards the milkman and hit him right in the face, which he does. As he fell, Tommy is taking care of Ruby while Alice took the stolen knife and went after the little boy. I see Nick Goode coming in the distance behind Ziggy, I get off the milkman but I didn't expect him to be quick to recover and start to follow me, I quicken my pace enough to get close to Nick. I use the shovel to hit his head, he puts his hand on the spot, hitting him again, only on the leg, which makes him fall, I put myself on top of him, letting my feet keep him stuck on the ground, I feel being hit on my back but I don't let myself give in to the pain and I'm hit again but I stay with Nick underneath me, I put the seal in my arms and hit his neck with the shovel, blood splashes to the sides, his eyes freeze on mine. figure with the milkman stabbing me in the back but little by little he disappears like smoke, just like the others. Blood is coming out of Nick's mouth, I put more force on the shovel, completely cutting his neck from his head, now his eyes are empty and dead. I feel my body start to fail, my body is weak and I'm losing a lot of blood, I fall next to the corpse, I'm looking at the sky seeing the stars shining, but no brighter than the moon. My consciousness slowly fades away. At least I managed to make you live.

__________________________★___________________________

Pov'tommy

Ruby's body disappears as if it were dust. The curse. She was broken. I look to the side and Ziggy and Cindy are back but their noses are bloody. I'm looking for Y/n. I find her standing completely bloody and injured in the back, she is on top of Nick with the shovel dividing his head from his body, her body weakens and staggers until she falls to the ground, I start to run towards her. Please do not. Please don't die. We did it! Are you free. I start to crawl and stop on top of her body, she is freezing, I shake her body calling her name but I am not answered, tears are already rolling down my face, I place both hands on her chest trying to give her a heart massage so she can to go back. I need it to work. I opened her mouth and put our lips together forcing air into her lungs, again I put my hands on her chest, I repeat three times second and when I start to feel hopeless I see her eyes slowly opening, she coughs a little blood, I put my hands hands on his face, cleaning it. — " Everything is fine. I am here. We did it. " I reassure her by pulling her into my arms, she wraps her arms around my neck and I can feel her tears.

— " What is your name? Me, look at me. What is your name ? " The doctor tries the question but she is too stunned to answer. — " It's Y/n. Her name is Y/n. " I answer her which makes her look at me. — " Where... where are they? Where they are? " She asks me with difficulty, I look in the direction that Alice, Cindy and Ziggy are, she automatically looks in the same direction, when she sees the doctors examining them a smile appears on her face. I stay next to her stretcher and help the doctors carry her. — " Tommy. We did it. I managed to keep you alive. " She is panting when she speaks, I make noise to make her quiet. — " I know, now you need to be okay. " I remember her injuries, the doctors pull her stretcher and put her in the ambulance, before I could get in to accompany her, a police officer puts his hand on my shoulder and asks me. — " What the hell happened here? " He is incredulous, I think carefully before answering him, I keep my head down. — " someone broke into the camp, he was freaking out. He killed everyone and fled. " I lie to him hiding the truth, hiding the real killer. — " Shadyside's shit. " He whispers so that I can't hear but I can hear him, I walk towards the ambulance, climbing into it and sitting next to Y/n who is being taken care of. The engine starts, the car starts driving towards the hospital. Goodbye Camp Nightwing.

[myfanfic-urfantrash]

Another story idea that I may or may not write that you can write for in any way so long as you do not feed it to AI or use AI to write it for you :V

I am sorry to those who read these story ideas when I write these since they are walls of texts it's literally how my brain spits everything out so I don't forget

Cw: yandere(self aware), stalking, taking of items???, a little nsfw, manipulation

Yet another yandere story because I love yandere stories they are so interesting to me this one being a self aware yandere because those are super interesting also this is leaning towards romantic not platonic because Dr. Ratio gains feelings for them though it is one sided as he does not confess but he could in your version

Anyways for this story it can be one-shot or a series if you pace it right because who doesn't love a long story with good pacing where Dr. Ratio meets someone that frequents the library could be just a regular maybe a student probably a student close to his age??? or a librarian maybe even a modern AU or with what I'm leaning toward regular universe and he's just visiting a planet for work or something and seeing what books they have at the local library after all all planets have different histories and languages he's bound to find something he hasn't read before

Point is he visits this library almost every day for a while to read something new he stays for a few hours and leaves before closing and he notices the same few people entering and leaving but he notices them the most as they're always in the same spot and a little noisy for a library at least with their sighs and tapping of their pencil on their notes he doesn't mind it much and assumes they must be a student of some sort studying hard for their next exam or something and he has to commend them for at least trying to get the material down

Out of curiosity over a particularly loud sigh of theirs he passes by their table to put his book away and glances at the book their reading and their notes to find that while they've been doing well so far they've made a simple but fixable error that they haven't been able to figure out probably due to lack of sleep judging by the darkness under their eyes

Not one to leave errors alone he puts his book away and comes back to them tapping them on the shoulder startling them and explains to them where they went wrong and they sigh thanking him for his help and fix the error though they're frustrated with themselves for getting the same thing wrong again for the fifth time he looks over their work and sees that they are indeed brilliant and clearly passionate about learning their subject though they struggle because of stress, lack of sleep, and maybe even a disability like depression, adhd, dyslexia and etc if you wanna go on that route which I might because god learning with a disability so dang hard and so dang demotivating when you see others do so well around you while you struggle with things that seem so easy for others like UUUUGGGGGGHH 🙃

So Dr. Ratio unable to leave this poor soul alone because he can't stand ignorance in any capacity learning issues be damned takes it upon himself to teach them while they are at the library during his time in the area and over the next few weeks they learn bit by bit and struggle much less under his tutoring and proudly show him their passing grade though it's something that could definitely be improved but compared to their original scores this is amazing improvement

They thank him for his help and while they are sad that he won't be around to tutor him anymore once he has to leave they are immensely grateful for his help and it makes him pause cause a part of him doesn't want this to end and he's not so sure how he feels about not seeing them even though he does have to leave as his time there will inevitably come to an end in a few days and without any thought he gives them his contact information so they can ask him for study help in the future even when he's no longer in the area

He feels his heart skip a beat when they eagerly exchange contact information with him and later he stares at their number in his phone for a long long time only to be snapped out of it by their first message asking about this or that it goes on like this for a while just him helping them with their studies until they start asking about his day and sharing their own and he looks forward to their messages while he's doing his own work or while idle at home he thinks of them often and when they begin to consume his thoughts more often than not he makes note of how ridiculous this all is as they are nothing more than a student, perhaps even just a friend

But his thoughts get more and more twisted and while he knows it's definitely not a good idea it's hard to resist the urge to look more into his friend and their life he makes notes of the drinks and food containers on their table through the photos they send of their notes and figures out what their favorite food places are he makes note on the structures of the street where they took a picture of a plant or animal and slowly but surely through every photo that they send he pieces together just where they may live what route they take to get to and from places and he finds himself disgusted by his own actions when he on one of his weeks off finds himself walking down their street to see if he can get a glance of them going or leaving home

He hates how giddy he feels to catch them coming home from down the street and how me makes it seem like he's just on a walk to clear his mind from work when they approach him and he wants to scold them for letting someone like him enter their home unaware of how much of a threat he is but he holds his tongue besides a simple warning that they shouldn't just let anyone into their home

He stays for some snacks and some light conversation before helping them once again with their studies that they've massively improved on once again he's proud of them and glad his teachings are helping them but feels his chest twist when they say they feel confident enough to study on their own from now on and while part of him wishes to sabotage them so they have to rely on him for help he instead encourages them to study on their own and let him know if they do need help with anything in the future and that they can contact him regardless if it's about their studies or not

He leaves their home and heads to his hotel room internally ashamed as he's painfully aware of the cloth he doused with their favorite scent while he used their restroom tucked into a baggie in his pocket his shame gets worse when he looks at his cum stained hand later that night and he swears he'll stop but he knows this will just get worse the more he keeps trying to deny these twisted feelings of his so while he hangs out with his friend during his little break he gives in just a bit taking in as many details about their life as he can before going back to his daily life

And it works for a time things are a bit normal he responds to their daily texts and calls and doesn't feel the need to know more about their life as he feels he's learned enough through what they've shared and their social media accounts he follows things are fine and he hasn't felt any urges to break into their home or isolate them all for himself and he thinks things are better now that he's better now that is until they text him asking him advice on how to confess to their crush and he feels his gut twist at the possibility of losing them to someone else but they need help and who is he to deny them his guidance

So he teaches them how to flirt how to appeal to them and etc all the while he's teaching them he's learning more about their love interest and as soon as he gets their name he's looking them up and getting a full background check on them and while they had maybe one or two late book fees he can't find anything wrong with them they're a pretty great person and he can't help but want to tear his own hair out at finding out they're a good person and that they'd make a wonderful partner for his friend the love of his life even he can't just say they can do better because their love interest is better better than himself even cause they surely aren't stalking them nor are they taking minor objects from their home or thinking about locking them away so no one can have them they're so good and it pisses him off so bad

Now this could go any direction like Dr. Ratio letting his thoughts win and he kidnaps them or kills their crush so they don't get with them or who knows maybe he makes it so their crush has to move because of a work transfer or something he could really do anything and get away with most things as he's smart enough to figure out ways to get what he wants without a trace he could even get their crush arrested for a crime if he did things right he could even have it appear that their lover is cheating on them if he wanted possibilities are almost endless

I'd like for him to slowly isolate them with with rumors or such that have some truth to them so they aren't easily passed off by people and have them get bullied by others and rejected by their crush so that they feel like they aren't worth anything even to him but he reassures them he doesn't think poorly of them and if they can't stand living in that area anymore they could move in with him and study with him and they get a bit hesitant but they go with him because they can't stand the harassment any more and Dr. Ratio feels guilty for using such a tactic against them but he at least has them by his side now and eventually they wind up together all while they never realise what he's done to get them to come with him idk it'd be nice to have a yandere that doesn't resort to murder or kidnapping to get what they want is all I'm saying

[lesbianspeedy]

Connor has called Ollie solely "dad" since Quiver why is he calling him "Ollie" now 😭😭😭

This is mean but I laughed out loud when Connor said Tim was the first person he talked about when he was figuring out being ace years ago. Lol. Lmao even. Tumblr really gaslit that poor writer into thinking Connor and Tim had an actual friendship with all their clamoring about him being with the wrong Bat huh. "Where were you?" GEE I didn't know you had to give daily updates to that one kid you teamed up a few times and had some friendly banter with. I love queer solidarity and the whole thing about us finding each other before we even know we're queer but. NO Connor would not have talks about his sexuality with Tim. Cmooooon you're telling me the first person he'd talk to about being ace wouldn't be Kyle "you can tell me if you're gay, Connor" Rayner?

At least that "this is just another thing me and Ollie don't have in common" anxiety is something already established. Like, that's basically the same thing he says to Roy when Roy takes him to that strip club even if it's an issue by Winick (do you ever stop to think about how unintentionally well laid out Connor being ace is and lose your mind a little bit?)

I'm just. Really sad about how Ollie and Connor's relationship is being presented to this new generation of readers. It's like we regressed to the time Ollie was dead, ya know? And I don't like Connor solely for his relationship with his dad, I want him to be a character on his own. But I can't help but being saddened by how he is losing his relationship with everyone that matters. For better or for worse, at least the new GA series is gonna have him interacting with his family (but what about Kyle, Eddie, Jansen and Moonday, ya know?)

The thing is that the story is good and I like its message. It just... Could be with any other character

im tempted to post this without an "answer" because its really well laid out and deserves to be a post on it's own. but i just rlly like ur points and want to interact with them so.

i think there were a few times between quiver and now where he interchangebly used dad and ollie but i get what you're saying, referring to him like hes estranged still was odd.

i totally agree, the idea of queer solidarity is important and should be shown, but i think this was a weird choice to go with. i think the most intimate (from my memory, i havent reread connor's run in a while) question connor ever asked tim was whether batman was his dad (at that time the answer was still no, as jack hadn't been killed yet). and that was only asked because connor was still his charmingly-awful-at-secret-identities-self. the part of their limited friendship that was interesting was the dynamic of new-sidekick-legacy meets new-main-legacy (for lack of a better descriptor), both struggling to uphold what they thought was expected of them. they never got to really advance from that stage of knowing each other to being at a place where they are friends out of costume, let alone discuss their SEXUALITIES.

i agree that the not being in common thing was a nice nod to past character complexities, though it felt slightly like it was the writer genuinely believing that to be true, and not just a rehash of connor's complicated feelings.

i know, its a weird stage we're at now, the resistence to fully accepting the connor that came from the end of his green arrow run, not just the beginning of it. by the end he had come to peace with being green arrow, and not being his father but that being okay. and that's not to say this is all the current writers fault (though williamson has done absolutely no favours with his writing), as winick and krul absolutely demolished any character connor had for their angst and whatever. (remember when connor aggressively yelled at mia for complaining about being stalked by zatanna without being told? or when after being turned into plastic and losing his memories he then decided he hated buddhism and oliver?). (not to mention the seperation from eddie jansen moonday kyle and. despite all of this complaining. tim cass and steph. winick set this precident and i will never forgive him)

i agree, it had good framework, and it couldve been a much more cohesive story if they. had just not used this friendship.

[ashxketchum]

For the requests:

“Wanna hear a joke?” “Absolutely not.” TyHil obvs.

I HAVE A VERY GOOD REASON FOR WHY THIS TOOK SO LONG

This dialogue is so perfectly TyHil that it fit well with 3 of my ongoing WIPs and I tried to write all of them ( w h y ) and ended up getting too lost and invested in each of them that the reason for including the dialogue kind of slipped away from me...TyHil really is a virus in my brain...

So finally I'm deciding to post the one I think makes the most sense (who am i kidding) since I still have 2 more requests to go and not enough time lol.

This is from my Fake Dating AU which is also a Rich Girl/Poor Boy AU. Since this particular excerpt skips ahead in time I tried to add as much background information about what's happening as I could without it getting boring. I can't post the whole thing yet because it's around 8k and the main angst/fight scene hasn't even started yet (can't wait to dump a super long update 6 months later that no one will read haha 🥲).

Thank you for requesting, and so sorry that my power of TyHil brainrot actually ruined the whole thing in a way 😭

Post dividers by @/cafekitsune

Prompt: “Wanna hear a joke?” “Absolutely not.”

One of the most distinct memories Hilary had of her childhood was when she’d told her first lie, blaming one of their house helps for a vase she’d broken and having her mother catch onto her immediately. The disappointed look on her mother’s face as she’d told Hilary that the consequences of her actions would always catch up to her, was forever etched in her mind, and even now, every time she decided to lie, that scene would play in her mind like clockwork. Yet, somehow that hadn’t kept her from lying to make things easier and only made her a little more paranoid about getting caught. Almost two months had passed since she’d announced to a room full of her close acquaintances, that she had a boyfriend and his name was Tyson, and two more since she’d somehow managed to rope in that very Tyson into playing the part. 

She was spending every day looking over her back and covering her tracks, hoping that at least this time she would be able to escape facing any of the consequences of her actions. 

Tyson obviously, did not make things any easier for her. 

After she’d gotten him to agree to her ridiculous demand, they’d met once for coffee to set down some simple ground rules, every which one he’d managed to flout shamelessly. Hilary was very particular about keeping their stories straight, since any discrepancy would lead to suspicion, while Tyson on the other hand, loved to make up answers on the go. Even if she spent a whole evening texting him the correct responses to any questions they may get asked at the party they would attend the next day, he made sure to make up extravagant incidents that anyone would find hard to believe as true. Hilary would then need to improvise her own version of the story on the spot, and that often led to the two of them arguing in front of her friends. 

To her relief, however, this oddity in their so-called relationship had earned them the reputation of 'the cute bickering couple' and managed to keep her lie afloat so far. Not that it stopped Hilary from trying to get Tyson to listen to her plan, or Tyson from trying to make sure that Hilary always looked like the loser in his stories. For instance, in Tyson’s version of their first meeting, Hilary had been the sad nerd pretending to read in a corner when all she really wanted to do was have somebody ask her to dance. Hilary always tried to interject and make it clear that she had been enjoying reading her novel, but somehow people always gravitated towards Tyson’s version more. 

Tyson’s only rule throughout all of this was that they shouldn’t get involved with each other too personally, though he did a bad job of explaining his reasoning, what Hilary gathered from his incoherent stuttering was that if they got too close, this thing would blow up in their face. She agreed with him, to a certain extent. Since the two spent most of their time together attending parties and events in her social circle, Tyson knew more about her than vice versa. Her acquaintances were notorious for wanting him to know just how much Hilary didn’t fit in before his appearance, and in doing that they overshared information about her life that she wouldn't have brought up with Tyson had it just been the two of them hanging out. 

In an attempt to keep things even, she would try her best to coax information out of him, about his family or about college, but he was a master of evasion tactics. He’d already made himself aware of all the things that made her tick, so anytime she tried to flip the question towards his personal life, he’d go ahead and do something to annoy her. If that didn’t work, he’d give the vaguest answer which would keep Hilary guessing about what her follow-up question should be, and by the time she was ready, they would’ve reached the venue or Hilary’s house and it was already time to say goodbye to the small amount of time alone they got with each other.  

She couldn’t be too mad at him for this either, since he was still playing along to her ruse and if she was being honest, he did clean up well after himself. There was no denying the fluttering of the butterflies in her stomach every time Tyson held out his arm for her to take with a lopsided smile gracing his lips and dark eyes shining with excitement as he took the lead. It was also hard to control the giddy feeling that swelled in her chest every time he led her to the dance floor and heads would turn to catch a glimpse of them. And of course, she couldn’t hide the smugness she felt when the girls who’d spent years laughing at her non-existent relationship status, drooled at the sight of him showing up on his bike to pick her up. 

That’s also why it was hard for Hilary to be afraid of the lie and all the things that it could lead to when it felt so good to live it every day. Until one day the ripples she was most afraid of setting off finally took effect. 

Her parents were bound to find out about her boyfriend sooner or later, Hilary had braced herself for this from day one. But she’d hoped that she would gather the courage to lie to their faces before this news reached them via different channels. But she had so much going on in her mind lately, that she kept putting the task off until her parents very dramatically confronted her about it over dinner one night. Caught like a deer under headlights, Hilary found it hard to argue back and instead became part of a very one sided conversation where her parents lectured her about mutual trust. They spared no antics in expressing how sad they were about being left out of her life like this, and somehow, in the middle of apologising for keeping them in the dark and consoling them about how she was still their little girl, Hilary ended up agreeing to let them meet Tyson. 

The graveness of her mistake only set in when Tyson was the one to put his foot down about going ahead with it. He echoed all of her thoughts out perfectly, and she wished that it would’ve been him sitting across from her parents at the dinner table that night. But what stung Hilary slightly was how adamant he was about not wanting to see her parents. She tried her best to apologise for slipping up and offered many services, such as writing his assignments for a month, in return, however, Tyson didn’t budge until she broke down and cried. Knowing that the only way to get her to shut up was to agree to her plan, he finally gave up with a loud huff and sigh. 

Setting up the meeting had been easy, as much as her parents insisted on having Tyson over for dinner at their house, Hilary managed to convince them to do it in a much more private setting considering how short notice the whole thing was. She patted herself on the back for picking a party her mother was throwing for a friend as the meeting place, giving her parents the restriction of behaving well in front of their guests and Tyson the chance to manipulate that restriction to his advantage if things went south. 

Luckily the evening had gone exactly how she had expected it to so far. Her parents were busy attending to the many guests and only had the chance to wave at Tyson and her from afar once. Hilary hoped that by the time they finished their social round and reached the two of them, they would be a little exhausted, giving Tyson and her the upper hand in the conversation. However, as she stood close next to Tyson in a corner and watched her parents hop across the room, the tension in her veins kept rising when her father only looked more excited the closer he got to finishing the required greetings. 

“Wanna hear a joke?”

Hilary averted her eyes from the party in front of her and turned to look at Tyson, leaning against a wall column, completely at ease as he gulped down the champagne in his hand at an alarming speed. While she had been tracking the movement of her parents, his dark eyes were fixed on her and his voice lacked the usual charm and humour he used when he spoke to her. Even his eyes, she noticed, seemed to be clouded with an emotion that was difficult for her to read. 

“Absolutely not,” she said, feeling a shiver go down her spine at how distant Tyson felt from her tonight, despite of standing so close to him. In an attempt to mask her nervousness, she shot him an annoyed glare before asking, “Why would I want to hear a joke right now?”

He rolled his eyes at her reaction, shaking his head before turning it around to signal to one of the waiters. Within a minute, he’d exchanged his empty champagne glass for a new one, and once again made to gulp it down in a way that he knew would get on her nerves. 

“So that your parents think you’re happy in this relationship and not so much constipated.” His lips curved up in a smirk as he gestured behind her, choosing to gulp down his drink after all. 

Hilary turned away, partially annoyed and partially anxious, only to have her heart jump out of her chest. It looked like her parents had rushed through their greetings and were now heading towards her and Tyson. She waved at them half-heartedly, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves as she edged closer to Tyson, who straightened up next to her. Her heart kept screaming at her to grab his arm and run from the scene. It may have just been the anxiety of having to lie to her parents so straightforwardly, but she still felt like something was wrong with Tyson and he wasn’t being his usual supportive self. The warmth that she always felt when she stood next to him was missing tonight and that itself was enough to make the alarm bells ring her mind.

“Here they come,” Hilary stated out loud, more to keep herself grounded in the moment than to let Tyson know. Risking a glance at his face from the corner of her eye, she fought the urge to bite her lip at the impassive expression that covered his face. With whatever courage she could build up, she added in a low voice, “Please, remember everything I told you.”

For a brief moment, just before her parents announced their presence, their eyes met and Hilary felt as if time stood still around them. She searched for any signs of familiarity in Tyson’s face but was instead met with a look of hurt and what she thought was betrayal. It confused her and made her mind turn into a bigger mess than it already was, but before she could ask him what was wrong and why he was so mad at her, Tyson gave her his coldest smile ever as he gritted his teeth together in response, “No guarantees, sweetheart.” 

Thank you for reading!

[valeriefauxnom]

Euden's Moral Confusion of Self

Let me introduce this rant/analysis (rantnalysis?) in a more humorous way: did you know that the act Euden did for the circus event never was specified? No, it never was, but I have a pretty good guess what he excels at: mental gymnastics!

Jokes aside, Euden had a very... robust set of tendencies that were not quite so healthy, and sometime in the future I'll probably go over more of 'em. First, though, I'm attempting to tackle his deceptively-poor self-image. Of course, long post ahead!

To start framing what I'm getting at, I'd like to cite the scene I used in a previous rant, wherein Euden declares his efforts to continue the path he's pursuing 'selfish.'

It's a very small footnote of his overall character, but it is consistent. He, in short, has flipped his (well-known) tendencies toward self-sacrifice and otherwise protecting other people from a 'virtue' to a 'vice'. We can see this in anything from Jurota's to Mitsuhide's stories, the latter wherein he wins her otherwise unwinnable game by framing his act of saving villagers as 'selfish' instead of 'selfless' to beat Mitsuhide's "no acting for others' sake rule" in her Uprising Game.

Taken to its logical extreme, this means that pretty much all those times Euden was being recklessly selfless or otherwise sacrificial, he himself views it as a completely selfish action. There is something to be said, in that he's not entirely incorrect: he is acting because acting that way makes him feel good/reaffirms his moral code, but past a certain point this view is...harmful.

For Euden also outright will raise a rare criticism to those being selfish to the point of endangering others. It is a 'bad' thing to be selfish in his mind, especially when it starts endangering others, and understandably so. I think largely that's a view many cultures share.

Still, it is a twisted little part of a psyche when you can frame any degree of self-sacrifice as being selfish in my view. In what probably will be another rant/analysis someday, Euden seems to have a lot of trouble with identifying himself as his own person, on his own merits, even before Nedrick entered the picture. Even in a bit of a lighthearted note, he rarely identifies himself as a prince or otherwise someone held in esteemed position very quickly, often leading to miscommunication and surprise on many people's behalf to learn that this teenager is actually lord of the land, like Elisanne experienced first when she took him as Zethia's manservant.

But I digress. The end result of that is the same: Euden seldom voices thoughts about himself as a person, but even rarer are positive ones, and this is a prime example of it. He's cultivated an self-image of mediocrity, 'nothing special', and with him flipping 'virtue' to 'vice' with his extraordinary (say, supernatural) selflessness, he can't even take some esteem in "I think I'm kind/generous/good at giving back" we might throw around in a 'introduce yourself to the class' introduction.

We can see the overall message I'm trying to get across plain in Gala Leif's story. Here's two notable highlights for my ideas:

(Oh, Luca, yes they do have 'unique personalities', and they're all their own unique messes. I love them, though, disasters that they are.)

Ahem. Here, Euden lays out plain that he views his desire for a future to be built without sacrifices and making everyone happy as selfish, himself as arrogant instead of kind, and otherwise unremarkable in any other sense.

All in all, though, this starts to paint a sad picture. What good qualities Euden does have, he flips to negative attributes instead (Selflessness=selfishness, developed sense of right/wrong/kindness=arrogance, etc) and what negative attributes he does have are kept as-is, and neutral attributes are viewed as standard for anyone and not something that should be praised (he sometimes flips 'positive' to 'neutral' attributes instead, though, sometimes attributing his selflessness to nothing special or something expected of everyone).

So...yeah. Euden doesn't hint to it often, but he's got a bit of a twisted view regarding himself, something I'm sure has no negative repercussions in any other aspect of his life...(not foreshadowing at all, no, no...) He goes beyond modesty and into self-deprecation. Even worse, he has it perfectly straight when it comes to dealing with other people. Self-sacrifice is a virtue, even if it was done out of duty or pride, etc. This mess of morality is all for him and him alone. And that's kinda messed up.

If you've stuck around this long, though, thank you! I hope I'm not spamming the tag or anything. I guess all this new access to be able to articulate my many non-fanfic thoughts on Dragalia where people will actually understand them has been too tempting of late! I'd also like to reiterate that I'm always down to discuss Dragalia (I miss it!), so if you've questions/comments/rants you want to ask about it (or Tales of the Abyss, a lot of other JRPGs I'm not listing here, or my fanfics) feel free!

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 31: The Woman of Tanchico

Well I guess my laptop was only pretending to be dead or something who knows why it's stupid, let's read! Beware of spoilers for the whole series!

This chapter has the harp icon because Thom's back, y'all!

Mat knew him. He had saved Mat’s life, once.

Sure is lucky Mat hasn't forgotten a single thing that actually matters!

The old gleeman had nearly stopped the story dead when Mat came in. That was new, too. Few things startled Thom enough for him to let it show, and nothing short of Trollocs had ever made him stop a story in the middle that Mat knew.

Really at this point it's got to be ta'veren that doesn't have Thom up and running whenever he sees these lads. He does not want to be involved and yet every time they show up everything turns into an epic saga.

‘I’ve given them all the chances they deserve and more,’ she murmured to herself. Slipping Kadar’s crown into her bag with the first two, she climbed back onto her cart, clucked to her mare, and drove straight back to her village. And when Mara had told them all that happened, the people of Heape would have no king at all.”

Mara and the Three Foolish Kings is one of those background details that sadly fades out entirely before too much longer. Thom will definitely perform it again, but I think this is all the story we get of it. If Mara's a real person, she's definitely got Nynaeve vibes but who knows?

“Common,” he muttered. His voice was still deep, but it no longer seemed to reverberate. “The tale is a hundred times better in Plain Chant, and a thousand in High, but they want Common.” Without another word, he buried his face in his wine.

Another little way that culture is always moving on. It probably won't be that long into the Fourth Age when almost no one can perform High or Plain anymore, not even to kings and queens.

“Two,” Thom murmured. “Morgase had a temper, but I thought I could ignore that, so it ended with her wanting to kill me. Dena, I killed. As good as. Not much difference. Two chances I’ve had, more than most, and I threw them both away.”

Poor Dena, a great character concept thrown away so that a man could be sad about it.

“Rand is still well, then?” Thom’s eyes sharpened to almost the keenness Mat remembered. “I am not sure I expected that. Moiraine is still with him, is she? A fine-looking woman. A fine woman, if she were not Aes Sedai. Meddle with that sort, and you get more than your fingers burned.”

1. Thom can't even help but be dragged back in the game for the sake of these boys.

2. Half a chapter in and we're already adding more foreshadowing for the Thom/Moiraine outcome. Seriously folks, I could see this as a 13 year old boy who at the time assumed Harry Potter was going to end up with Hermione, how was I outsmarting so many adults?

“Cairhien,” the old gleeman muttered, the sharpness fading from his eyes again. “Such trouble it causes killing a man, even when he deserves killing.”

Oh good, at least part of Thom's breakdown is because of the guilt of having caused a civil war in a fit of rage, that's something. Sort of. And just remember folks, Thom's one of Rand's GOOD advisors.

Some of the Red Ajah still remember me. I saw Elaida in the street the other day. If she knew I was here, she would peel my hide off in strips, and then she would stop being pleasant.

Does Rand have any male role models who aren't masochists? At this point I'm assuming Tam al'Thor only left the Two Rivers because he felt that the women of Emond's Field were not sufficiently skilled at being dominatrixes and he really wanted to suffer.

“Caemlyn, Thom. Elaida will likely be going back there sooner or later, so you’d have her to worry about. And from what I remember, if Morgase puts her hands on you, you will wish Elaida had you.”

See what I mean about lucky memories? This came up like ONCE, back in Master Gill's inn! But Mat remembers because it helps him even though he probably doesn't even remember that Perrin has sisters and he probably saw them loads of times, or will have once they get retconned into existence.

The younger of the two women, Saal, stopped Mat as he reached the door. “Whatever you said to him, I forgive you for the wine, even if it is taking him away. I’ve not seen him this alive in weeks.”

For all of Mat's outrage at how mean the ladies were to him, the random stranger who shows up to get the drunk even drunker, this shows they're not nearly so capricious as he assumes.

His laughter shut off like the last drip from a wine barrel: Thom was there, but not the corpse. The windows of the taverns down the street put enough light across the cobblestones for him to be sure of it. The city guard would not have carried a dead man away without asking questions, at those taverns and at The Woman of Tanchico, too.

One wonders why Mat's enemies only did clean-up and didn't pursue him. Did they think that he must have run even further away, or perhaps back to the Tower? Do they think he's locked in the city so he has no way to run? Was Lanfear about to balefire the whole fucking inn when she suddenly realized Rand had fallen asleep again and had to rush off to visit him?

“The first bloody ship, Thom! If it’s sinking, we’ll be on it!”

That's not a very smart escape plan, Mat...

Next time: They find a ship that's not sinking right this second.

[dontirrigateme]

HELLO my dear!!

look you said you would give a lecture and i am ALWAYS here for it so please!! ramble to your heart's content if you so wish!!!

3, 12, 16, 19 for that bob ask game?? 👀👀

anyways anyways, i hope you're having a good day/night/evening/any time of day that vibes!! 🥰✨

HELLO HELLO 🙃 lol i say lecture, but when I'm all set to do it my mind goes blank, you gotta say "just short answers please" and then i won't be able to shut up for days! I'll give it a shot though, soooooooooooo

3. I wouldn't say there's a single episode that wrecks me, but there are two moments that stick out. The first is when Smokey gets hit (otherwise known as The Moment My Favorite Trooper Leaves the Story), the guy that cheers everyone up and makes them laugh is shot and scared and can't feel his legs, and then Lipton is holding him...it's a lot in such a short amount of time. The other moment is when Jackson dies in the Last Patrol - between his yelling and the faces on the guys in the room (especially Ramirez, that guy knows how to Sad Face).

12. I think I was more shocked at the things that were true than the things they got wrong (like Speirs shooting the sergeant and the POWs and his run through Foy, or the saga of Alton and the Photo Album), especially since they're going off the memories of guys recalling events that happened 50-60 years before they told their story. But I'd have to say Blithe's death surprised me the most. What surprised me first was that it said he never recovered from his wounds, but he died four years later...I was like "that's a hell of an injury if he was in the hospital for four freaking years COME ON." I figured it was a typo or an overlooked error - little did I know...I was also surprised that they decided to just be like "welp, whoopsies" and leave it. And Blithe was just like

16. This one is hard to choose, everyone gets so much love on here lol. But Skinny probably. The poor guy just wants to paratroop and go home, and then people show up and turn it into a Big Thing, and then there's fighting and arguing and he's like "dude, this is just my day job" because it somehow always gets him stuck in the middle. Even getting wounded, he had to go get blood on Perconte (really inconsiderate, honestly, contain your fluids, you human blood pitcher). He deserved more screen time. And Perconte deserves a new pair of pants.

19. I want to see either Luz, Bill, or Babe pet sit my bengal cat, and not because I think they'd be good at it. Because I think it would be hilarious. He's a needy, extroverted, talkative pain in the ass (the cat, not the characters) that literally hangs from doorframes like he's straight out of the exorcist or something (seriously, I looked down the hallway, and he was nearly to the ceiling with his paws on either side of the doorway...there's nothing to hold onto on either side). One of them would probably wind up calling an actual exorcist. Oh, and he meows when he drinks. Not between sips of water, AS HE DRINKS. It sounds like a cartoon sound effect of a cat underwater (think of a meow, then add gargling and bubbles and that's what it sounds like). And one time he took a flying leap from a table straight into the garbage can, which freaked him out so he knocked it over scrambling to get out. I'm not sure what the plan was there, because I watched him aim for it and prepare to jump. I'd like to see Luz in charge when something like that happens.

Here he is when I had to evacuate for Hurricane Florence

Anyway, if you read all of them together instead of separately, it's definitely more lecture length lol. but thank you so much for the ask! I hope you have an excellent part of whatever part of the day it is for you! 🙃😁

[cellsshapedlikestars]

What fandoms/pairings did you get into before Jonsa? Or the first work/story that made you discover fanfic?

Just randomly sharing, broke my phone other day and looking for my downloaded fanfics made me look even further back.

😭 Final Fantasy VIII rpg game was 25 years ago and beloved fanfics of it published 20 years ago (still there in internet).

Also realized my love for broody, sulky male protagonists with angry chip in their shoulders and female characters that receive hate just bc they’re “princess”-y, “damsel-in-distress” not-the-strongest type was there too. (Prob started it.)

(we def share a ship preference for broody/princess lol)

It's been so long, I can't remember how I found fanfic. Probably in my Sailor Moon phase (elementary school-ish) because I absolutely wrote Sailor Moon fanfic. (I never posted it online or showed anyone, though. I can distinctly remember writing a Sailor Pluto fic where she's still alive after all the other sailors are killed, and she just stands there as the keeper of time waiting sad and alone for millennia for them to be reincarnated. Really fun and chill story, 12 year old me!) I can't remember any fics specifically that I read, though there was this website that used to MST3K "bad" Sailor Moon fanfics, and I remember reading a lot of those. I didn't ship anyone in Sailor Moon.

If you want to know about any prior ships/fics I wrote, below the cut!

Considering how much media I have consumed over the years, I don't tend to ship very hard. I tend to go with what the piece of media tells me the ships are tbh. Jonsa is the first that wasn't canon.

InuYasha

The first fandom I had a ship for, and the first fandom I actively remember reading fic for. I was big into Miroku/Sango. Never wrote anything for that, though.

Harry Potter

I did vaguely ship Harry/Ginny while the books were coming out, and even wrote a few chapters of an alternate book 2. That was on ff.net and is probably purged at this point. I could not tell you what my username or the fic title were lol.

Later, I dipped my toe into the Marauders/Jily fandom, but never went all out, because by that time, I'd become disillusioned with Harry Potter. Every once in a while, I'll go read a Jily fic.

Buffy

While this is my favorite show, I didn't ship too much. I kinda shipped Buffy/Spike (have thoughts on it now) and also Angel/Cordelia. I never read nor wrote fic for either of these pairings.

Veronica Mars

Veronica/Logan. Read some fic, never wrote anything.

Skins

I wrote a one shot for Sid/Cassie. Posted on my old livejournal and now re-posted to an alternate ao3 account. I don't hate it. I'd probably change some things if I were writing it now, but I think it's pretty solid.

(No, I just re-read it and it's very solid. Kinda proud of this one)

Glee

I am SO embarrassed to say this, but I wrote a Rachel/Puck one-shot after the episode where they decide to date because they're both hot and Jewish. It wasn't a super shippy fic and mostly centered around him telling Rachel Quinn's baby was his. I stopped watching Glee after the first season lol and did not repost that fic from my livejournal to ao3. It can die on livejournal.

Elite

Carla/Samuel!! LOVE me some poor boy/rich girl dynamics. I got really into them and even read some fic, though there wasn't much out there. Never wrote anything. Have debated writing a Jonsa Elite AU

The Other Fandom

Now. I have hinted in the past that I used to be in another fandom that I wrote fic for.

Oh, the OC. You held my heart for so many years (well. 2 years). I wrote so much fic for you (mostly in the first year, kinda fell off and did more experimental stuff in the second).

That fandom was the O.C.

I'm kind of afraid to say the pairing, because there's only 1215 OC fics total on ao3, and for my pairing is not one of the popular ones, and I wrote about a quarter of those, so I feel like you could find my alt account pretty easily...

I dunno. I'm a little embarrassed about some of the fic I wrote back then. Some of it is SO unnecessarily dramatic (AND IN FIRST PERSON. I HATE FIRST PERSON POV!!). I also wrote a wild amount of smut for someone who didn't really know what the fuck she was talking about lmaooo. I've spoken a lot about how skittish I am about writing smut now, but as a teenager I was cranking that shit out. (ok I actually just looked and it's only 5 explicit fics, but still. That's about 1/5 of the fics I wrote)

I'm probably making too much out of it, because there are some fics I'm proud of, but enough that I'm embarrassed by that I have yet to be able to publicly say what my apt account is

[halcyonleaf]

South Park x Wings of Fire

This au takes place around ten years after the events of the third arc. (5,022 AS) It's the same dragon characters as in the book but I stuffed South park characters in it lol.

Why did I make this? Easy. Two fandoms I'm really into. :) Same thing happened when I made Sp x Dsmp.

I have no big story planned out for this au.. Right now it's really one of those school slice of life things… 

Also ignore the fact they don't have proper dragon names. I can’t think of any good ones..

Turquoise Winglet      Peridot Winglet        Gold Winglet

MudWing: Cartman          IceWing: Craig                  NightWing: Wendy

SandWing: Kenny             MudWing: Clyde                RainWing: Bebe

RainWing: Butters           NightWing: Tolkien         SandWing: Karen   

SilkWing: Kyle                   SandWing: Tweek            SkyWing: Red

NightWing: Stan              SkyWing: Jimmy               SeaWing: Nicole 

HiveWing: Ike                   SeaWing: Scott                  IceWing: Trisha

The Turquoise Winglet

Eric Cartman, Mudwing-SkyWing hybrid, Hatched: 5,015 AS (7 years old)

Although he looks like a normal MudWing there are little characteristics to his design that make him part SkyWing. He has one blue eye, he can breathe fire at any temperature and his wings end at his tail instead of his thighs like all MudWings. 

He would personally RIP OFF all your scales if you call him a Hybrid.

Eric only has one sib and that is his SkyWing half brother Scott.

Why doesn’t he have any other MudWing sibs? My only excuse for that is.. Liane had trouble when it came to having eggs and she got lucky with a random SkyWing she met near the Diamond spray delta.

Eric has scars all over his body from several fights with his FlameSilk classmate Kyle. The first one he got was when he was a little dragonet he hatched in a reddish egg (because of being half SkyWing) and Liane wanted to test if he could have fire-resistant scales. The answer to that was no and she gave him a pretty bad scorch mark on his right shoulder. (she deeply regrets doing that.)

Kenny McCormick, SandWing, Hatched: 5,014 AS (8 years old)

(In this au Jerboa III unsuccessfully got animus magic to disappear.)

Kenny’s egg was part of an experiment (most likely from Vulture’s dragons) to see if there is a way for animus-touched dragons to come back from death. Many eggs/dragonets were used for this test and all of them died except for kenny. Although.. He is still one of their failures. He can't die and come back but he still can get very bad injuries and not die from them. 

Before Kenny and his little sister went to jade mountain they lived in the scorpion den. (poor of course) Jade mountain was the only school that did not ask for any sort of money. And their parents did not want to homeschool any more dragonets.

Kenny often tries to keep Brightsting cactus on him or wrap up his tail so he can keep himself from getting poisoned because part of his curse made him a bit prone to accidents.

Butters Stoch, RainWing, Hatched: 5,015 AS (7 years old)

Butters is a typical happy RainWing; it's as if nothing can make him angry. Although.. he could've been even more happy if he grew up in the rainforest.

Before school butters grew up in santerary his parents thought it would have been better if their dragonet didn't live in the rainforest. Because they didn't trust Queen Glory for whatever reason.

One day something clicked in his mind and he took his anger out on a SeaWing student that is when his parents revealed to Tsunami and Sunny that he didn't grow up in the rainforest and now is the time he probably should experience the rainforest himself. 

Kenny tagged along with butters on his trip and the RainWings greeted him with open talons. He didn't stay however even though it is everything he could have wished for he didn't want his friends (especially kenny) to be sad for leaving school.

Kyle Broflovski, SilkWing, Hatched: 5,015 AS (7 years old)

Kyle and his family are one of a few families of Pantala dragons that decided to stay in Pyrrhia. His parents told him that he could go to jade mountain accatony after he got his wings but he convinced them to let him go before he got them.

Upon arriving at jade mountain he almost immediately made friends and… enemies with his winglet. A silly MudWing hybrid would always make fun of him for being wingless and for just being a SilkWing. Eric is always telling him that SilkWings should still be Second Class dragons for the HiveWings. He sure did pay for his comments when Kyle got his wings.

When jade mountain got its first SilkWings Sunny made a safe cave just for them so they can undergo metamorphosis. The day Kyle was meant to go into metamorphosis he noticed that his wrists were burning a little. This made him pretty excited because that meant he inherited his mom’s Flamesilk. It.. also meant he can give Cartman what he deserves. And to give his NightWing Friend Stan glowing Friendship bracelets. 

Stan Marsh, NightWing, Hatched: 5,015 AS (7 years old)

Stan and Shelly were hatched and raised in the old NightWing kingdom.

They were both hatched under similar moons giving them both powers. Shelly got strong mind-reading while Stan got pretty weak foresight, which means visions would pop up in his mind at random times and they would sometimes go from what he was going to eat for dinner to a big threat that could kill him and his friends.

Stan was introduced to jade mountain academy when semi-queen Fierceteeth gave his class fliers because “her brother made her.” and this school sounded a whole lot more fun than the old NightWing school to him. Shelly didn't go because she thought only dumb dragons go there and the NightWing school teaches more smarter subjects.

It took him awhile to warm up to his winglet when he got to school but his SilkWing and SandWing definitely helped him. He may have feelings for the SilkWing. MAYBE.

Ike Broflovski, HiveWing, Hatched: 5,019 AS (3 years old)

Around 5,015 AS a few HiveWing families thought about living in Pyrrhia. their families grew there but, out of all the new families of HiveWings some of them couldn't keep their eggs so they put them up for adoption that's when Kyle’s parents adopted Ike.

Ike and Kyle went to school at the same time and they got put into a winglet together because their parents thought it would be easier for Ike to be with his big brother. Ike doesn't really get into all the adventures and conflicts as the rest of his winglet does; he likes to go at his own pace wrapped up in his own hobbies.

[semi-sketchy]

I did it. I'm done with the Final Horizon.

The side stories...alright did anyone else run into issues where voice lines would randomly not play or was that just me? I had to keep reloading saves because it would glitch and be dead silent for like 10 seconds until the next audio file came up.

I heard lots of people didn't really like the writing in this update, but it really was just more of the same from Frontiers. Nothing scenes with poor character voice. Yeah, there were bad lines, but base game had those, too. The cyber corruption Sonic's friends go through is also just as meaningless here as it was in base game.

The biggest part I didn't like was how much this felt like an afterthought, which is because it WAS an afterthought. I didn't think the base ending was spectacular, but it also felt more in line with how the rest of the story was built.

Here, the first cutscene literally just tries to undo the Rhea island scene and everything is so tacked on. Sonic's friends face cyber corruption from interacting with cyberspace? But they're also TRAPPED in cyberspace, so why is this any different to what they've been doing? Weren't they technically helping Sonic get the Emeralds on the other islands, hence getting Emerald rewards for quests?

It's just a lot of fluff masking this basic "earn the respect of the Ancient's pilots to get a new super form that can deal with The End" and...alright. I've never been concerned over power scaling. You don't NEED to go bigger and better every time, all you have to do is make me care about the stakes and you have a good narrative. That final battle made regular Super Sonic look like a pussy so Hyper Sonic Super Sonic 2 could look so much more powerful. And I know why. This is the exact thing Ian Flynn said he wanted, only he skirted around the no Hyper decision by just changing Sonic's eye color.

But really, you have invincible Super Sonic here, WINCING and getting his hands YANKED AROUND by the cyber energy.

TWO ISLANDS AGO he was swinging a giant sword.

But now, he can't even DENT the boss without this power up. This either makes Super Sonic look weak or this stupidly easy titan tied to a rock mightier than a god.

The Sonic X reference though wasn't lost on me and I admit, I thought it was cool. Even if Super Sonic with blue eyes is a bit uncanny.

The fight itself though is...not very well choreographed. I lost my first attempt and still kinda fumbled around because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Seriously, when was quick cyloop EVER useful in one of these fights? And now I'm required to do it twice with the penalty of failing being forced to redo the Supreme fight AGAIN?

This is a case where Sonic's friends would've been helpful. I know, I know, I got sick of "THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT" very quickly, but a little thing like "Sever that connection!" or "It's down! Get the gun!" would've helped.

Though, I liked the fight alright and it certainly had the spectacle Supreme lacked.

New music was good, though! The vocal theme for I'm With You is 10x better than Dear Father and I LOVED the I'm Here remix.

Overall, I'm...conflicted. I don't think I liked the update? Really I'm trying to recall having fun with it at any point. There were a few cool moments, the Cyclone having that fuck u laser from SA2 was definitely one, but there wasn't a high point, it was just baseline and lower.

It really upset me at a few points and I couldn't even get performatively angry, it broke me and I was just sad, though I kept going. I think I've grown numb to the bullshit. Really, this was just more of Frontiers with some added jank and difficulty.

The worst parts were challenges 2 and 5. Aside from that, there's not really difficulty as much as bullshit and cheap design. Even my brother came in and asked why they stuck this platform you have to glide to at an angle that causes you to slide off. I rage quit 4-H because they ask you to do PRECISE platforming on tiny angled boxes. With physics that make that near impossible. That's bullshit design and not a difficulty issue.

Also, who thought the rescuing animal objectives were a good idea? ESPECIALLY IN 4-H. There's a glitch where when Sonic gets the animal to safety, he stays stuck in carrying mode which means low jump, no boost, double jump, homing attack, you're basically dead in the water. It goes away at certain points, so maybe this was intentional, but also, seriously?

This was a FREE CONTENT UPDATE that they announced a month before it got pushed out, so why was it rushed so badly that the physics sliders don't even work properly for the extra characters?

At the end of the day though, replaying base Frontiers right before this and running into the EXACT same problems made me realize that it's just more of the same. Base Frontiers has some big faults and pretty BS design, it's just dialed up to 11 here.

I don't want to play Frontiers again, much less this update.

[thegoldenshi-shi]

So, I have been busy making poor monetary choices again, in which I now own two different types of tablets specifically for art (ONE WAS VERY MUCH ON SALE, THE OTHER HAD A 50 BUCK COUPON, BOTH GOOD REVIEWS), and the first tablet I bought, that's honestly just a way of adding a touchscreen to a computer to me, cause like. It's a sensor pad? Well, it's proving that I can't mentally make myself apply a lot of pressure to technology, which my younger self with a ruined dsi touch screen would gape at. I have also gotten all my shelving units up! Not sure if they're staying where they are, or if I'm gonna move them around again, but I do know two that are staying where they are, mainly cause I am /not/ lifting that shelf all the way back up to chest level to take it back down again. Nuh uh, no ma'am, it will not be done. It's also gotten all my collectibles on it already, which has proven that I need to devote more of my budget to the Twins than Screamer. My frenemesis would be delighted to see my failure to my simpees.

Work has been better! Still hot, but we've slowed /way/ down, which means my supervisor has been letting me goof off on my phone or writing, cause we physically can't work too hard in the heat, but we also have no orders anyway, so... And because we've been able to get paid Not Working, I have gotten back into a werewolf story I started writing months ago! I'm setting it up one shot style rn, and posting the chapters as my brain accepts my pleading for their creation, but I also intend to make it a full and proper story once I've worked all the one shots out. I will openly admit to it being complete self service, cause I want a best friend who's 8 feet tall, fluffy, and has a crappy sense of humor. And is a cuddle monster, though that one is mainly cause I love glomming full force onto my people and displaying my awkward affection. I'm like a peacock, but instead of flaring tail feathers, I hug people in front of other people, whilst not actually really knowing socially accepted norms for hugging friends, tbh.

I also went through and completely reorganized my phones gallery, and got a very stupid laugh outta it. I have 461 transformers related pictures, and almost 400 writing prompts. Just. Saved on my phone. If I ever lose this sim card my writing career that i don't actually have will be over. On another other note semi related, I have been asked to design a friends tattoo! I don't know if I mentioned that in my last ask. He asked me to draw him a dragon to get tattooed, which, to be fair, dragons are among one of the very scant things I can draw well reliably, but also, dragon proportions curled into a ball sleeping are kicking my ass, and I am debating getting out my giant sketchpad to be able to completely control every tiny eetsy beetsy detail, cause my close friend wants me to do this thing that will permanently be on his body, and I really desperately don't wanna mess it up... Cause like. No one has ever asked me to ///draw/// for them before. I've gotten asked to paint, or do some small stuff with watercolors, but never /drawing/. And he knows I love dragons, it's part of why he asked. I just. It's a thing that happened that made me really happy, like hide in my pillow crying happy tears happy.

And then, on the fifth, I found an exactly 8 year old video of my childhood dog that we had to put down... it was from the summer before he was put down, which happened during the school year. He had been all that I'd had growing up, so, it hit kinda hard seeing something of him that moved. Even after 8 years, I still cry every time I think about him. He was the best dog any little kid could've ever been raised with, and probably helped boost my immune system against my allergies to boot, hehe. I cried for like, two hours, cause it was a video taken 7/5/2015. And, I thought I had lost all my images of him. It was a happy thing, just. A very sad type of happy. I wish I could tell him that I did love him, even if I didn't wanna lay on the ground and cuddle like he preferred. He was a dog that was born old, haha, never wanted to play or bark, he just wanted to lay on you and be loved. I was always running around on imaginary adventures though, but I did love him. If I was upset, he was my safe place. I promise this is a happy thing, it's just that I'm gonna be legally allowed to drink soon, and sometimes I forget that it's been so long since I got to see him. Especially cause sometimes, I still have dreams about playing with him in our backyard, right next to a giant pine tree covered in cicada sheds, laughing as he dug a little groove to lay in under the old rusted out trampoline. He was the most patient, tolerant dog, and it's because of him and the cat he raised with me that I'm not afraid of so much anymore. Ma and dad weren't there when we had him, but... I'll admit to giving them up forever if it meant I got to have him back

~Smooch

Hello there Smooch~

Sleeping babee dragon sounds so cute! I've never designed a tattoo, so I can only imagine the pressure (and of course the touching part of him asking you to draw his tattoo design).

Interestingly enough I too spent a loooong period of time where drawing was a dragon-only zone. I think it was back in like middle school? If you're struggling with a traditional four-legged two winged dragon, have you considered another type? There's Asian Lung dragons, Wyverns, Wyrms, or even a Quetzalcoatl style dragon that can all be very cool and might be easier for you to draw as a sleepy loaf. If your friend doesn't have a strong preference of course.

How exciting, on sale art supplies. It's kinda hard to decide sometimes between art supplies and if you're new to it, it's not a BAD idea to try multiple different types and/or brand names until you find what you like. I own two different art devices, one Wacom Intuos bought in High School and a Huion art monitor bought like four years ago. I was a traditional artist at the time I bought the Intuos tablet, so I quickly found that I prefer drawing on an actual screen I can look at instead of drawing on a tablet, BUT I had to try the tablet first to know that. What that all amounts up to is I hope you like one if not both of them ^J^ It's good to hear that your job is calming down. I'm sure that you're enjoying having the down time to work on your creative pursuits. At the risk of sounding too much like a hippie art teacher, I say it's very important to have some sort of creative outlet in your life. So it's wonderful to hear that you're getting to write on your werewolf story. I send you my best wishes that your muse stays nice and cooperative for the whole process hehe.

And lastly: The bittersweet memory of a good pet that has passed is something that I feel blessed to have as well. I hope that you can continue to enjoy your memories of a good animal without being bogged down in the sadness of their passing.

It's good to hear from you again Smooch, glad to hear you are doing well~

[groovy-crossing]

ACTUALLY!!! While I'm thinking about it, here's some stuff I would greatly appreciate in the next animal crossing

- Overlapping rugs (just think it'd be cute tbh)

- Villager gossiping (about me, about each other, about anything)

- Celeste museum exhibit

- More diverse dialogue, if we can't have villager stories or more in-depth personalities.

- I want Harv to live in my little town so bad PLEASE!!!!! I NEED HIM!!!!!!!!

- Special characters that weren't in New Horizons! I didn't get the chance to play any older games unfortunately, so there's a lot that I missed that I wish I had access to. Like the pelican trio!

- Mini games!! Solo mini games! Group mini games! Play with villager mini games! Play with amiibo mini games!

- I'm fine with tools breaking, and I love crafting, but it's a bit silly to me that golden tools break, so if we could take that one part away that'd be fantastic.

- Perfect fruit! More fruit! Tropical fruit!

- I heard that Tortimers island was a lot of fun! It'd be cool to experience that.

- More game references instead of just Mario. (please add waluigi to the Mario stuff too... please)

- This one needs a bit of explaining, but customizable warp pipes. If two pieces of the same color link together, then you could have a set of green pipes, yellow pipes, red pipes and so on for more options to explore the town or island or whatever it is.

- What if we appeared in an abandoned town and we had to restore it? That could be fun!!

- Caves. The children yearn for the mines.

- Please keep crafting, I really like it

- I think in pocket camp there's a thing to change the color of your camper or something. If we could have something like that for what is the equivalent to the airport, that'd be awesome.

- It would be SOOOOOOO fun to customize resident services or the shops or the museum to fit whatever vibe people are going with for the islands.

- I feel bad that Mr Nook is getting bugged all the time while Isabelle is getting super ignored.. What if she were in charge of bridges and inclines and stuff while Mr Nook just had housing stuff. That way their responsibilities were more evened out. I never talk to Isabelle anymore..

- I'm gonna be honest, I like the slow terraforming because it gives me time to think. But everyone else wants the fast easy terraforming and decorating of HHP, so if we could have a mode for that, that'd be sick.

- Oh!!! For some reason, I REALLY want a 360 camera option. I want to see the town how the villagers do. Live there how my character does. Explore it like everyone does. That'd be awesome if there was a first person 360 cam. Pleeeeeeease

- I know this is gonna funk with gameplay, but. I want the museum and resident services to be able to close. My poor Blathers, Dodo brothers, Mr Nook, and Isabelle are horribly overworked. Give them a break! (This is fully just a me thing, I've been pretending it closes and just not going in at certain hours of the day. Yes, it makes my life harder, but it makes my imagination happy.)

- For the tool ring tools to LIVE on the tool ring, rather than my inventory. A whole row of my inventory does not need to be filled with this nonsense if a tool ring actively exists. It doesn't make sense to me.

- I want to be able to choose what rooms to add. I want my back and left side room and a basement. That is it. I do not want anything else. I want my house to look like the villager houses. It makes me sad when it doesn't look like them. And I want to be able to upgrade my storage without tacking on a new room.

- If a villager asks to go, and you say no. The next time they ask to go, they're telling you they're moving out instead. I like that they can't move out without the bubble consultation though.

- Can I have more clutter or smaller sizes for objects so I can put multiple in one square? And can I put objects on my bed? Can I post up pictures I take in my house? Can I give villagers my photo when they give me theirs? Can I give my friends my photo?

- More sizes for custom designs. Like two block tall designs for example.

- Can I decorate trees myself? I want to participate..

- Can the holidays be bigger? I heard that Toy Day in New Leaf was a lot of fun..

- Can I get a cuter title than "Resident Representative"? I don't think I want to be a mayor, but I don't want something that big and bulky.

- Can I change my character name later in the game? I had to reset my island for the first time because of my transition. I'm sorry Punchy.. You were such a good friend.. I'll get you back..

- Can we use wheelchairs and bikes to move around? They're already in the game. And what about other disability inclusive things. I want canes and hearing aids and walkers and such.

- Can I display backpacks without the mannequin thing? I don't like it. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't have arms. How is it staying up. Just let me put them on the floor!

- .... pride flags? perhaps?? maybe just a little??

- Can villagers actually do stuff? Like shake trees, catch bugs and fish, talk to Isabelle, post on the board, Anything! I want them to be able to live their little lives while I'm living mine..

- I feel like I already said this or something similar, but more villager drama.

- If I could have a way to make my island a certain season all year round, after I already experienced all of them, that would make me so very happy.

- More Harv. Just more Harv. He's my favorite please I need more Harv.

- Can I actually have a Harv figure amiibo? maybe with a little yellow bird or something?? Please..

- More wildlife! Like little real birds. Real squirrels. I don't know..

- There was someone on Tumblr who had a list of actually beneficial things for the museum and general game with proper examples. That too. That whole post. All the posts that I like but don't fully remember the ideas and / or don't want to blatantly steal those ideas. Look at them!

- Let me work for the special characters. Let me do errands for my villagers. Give me a job at the shop. At the cafe. At the museum. At resident services. At the airport or train station or post office or whatever. Let me do tasks for Harv. (Give. Me. More. Harv.) Let me complete little chores for villagers!

- I heard that you could get little tiny model dinosaurs through Reese or Cyrus, can I have that? Oh! And clothes customization!

- An in game catalog that shows you how far you've gotten or what you're missing.

- For the little photo idea for the walls I had earlier, if we could run them to Harv and have him print them out for us!! Maybe??? And can Harv come to the town or whatever for ceremonies and take a picture and give you the print afterwards? Can he have a general photo service as well as photopia? He's my favorite little man..

- More villager types! Like bats! They're a pretty popular request. Or more personality types? Oh! Or if villagers could actually form connections and friends with each other? (Although that might mess with a few headcanons people have for their animal friends..)

- More convenient friend finding, instead of having to return home in between people you meet. And an easier way to invite people to your town or travel to their town.

- Special character houses. Give Mr Nook a house. Give Blathers a house or a little museum apartment. Give Isabelle a house. It isn't fair that Blathers has to sleep in his museum!

- Can I please place things on partition walls? Or set more than one accent wall?

- Better animal tanks. Some of them just aren't healthy or realistic. I get that it's mainly to just hold until you get to Blathers, but what if I want a little Betta Fish pet? That tank is not sufficient! It does not have the proper enrichment a betta fish needs!

- More flower types! I want to put sunflowers by Goldie's house.

- What if I could change the placement of doors and windows inside my house? Just.. think of the possibilities. It's great.

- Please let me build a conversation pit in my house.. And please let me craft bridges.. and please let me make a little deck with tiny steps..

- Can we add sounds to custom designs? What if we could make them have the same sounds as the in game pathing? That way my deck path sounds like the wood or my tile path sounds like the brick or stone.

- Can.. can I put custom designs on my tool belt? Like a funky umbrella my friend made, can I put that in my little ring?

- More furniture throughout the decades. I want a cute little 70s, diner style fridge.

- Can I see people's passports in their dream address? Please..

I'm gonna stop here before I go on another ramble about Harv. I know most of this won't happen, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there. PLEASE tell me your ideas or what you agree / disagree with. I'd love to hear.