#Machete the librarian

[canisalbus]

Role-reversal AU where Machete opens a library on Florence and slowly becomes a very influencial local political figure, while Vasco's parents become fed-up with his "lifestyle" and send him away to the clergy (he probably has a brother in this AU, to make their decision more believable)

They reconnect in a similar way to the original, but their relationship is much more tragic as Vasco became self-hating and thinks he corrupted/doomed Machete in their youth and meanwhile, this Machete is trying to protect him from the corrupted side of the Church and possible assassination plot, that he's too indoctrinated to see happening around him

A interesting ending for this AU should be that Machete still dies, but results in Vasco finally running away from the clergy/inquisition (not sure if Vasco joins the inquisition or not, you can decide) and hiding in the country-side. Where he grows old dedicating various paintings and poems to Machete and possibly taking care of some noble's horses for a living

.

[danascullysjournal]

Tamika Flynn, detail portrait. Welcome to Night Vale.

I don’t know how long I spent but I *adore* Tamika and her origin as a strong, bad ass girl who refused to let the librarians destroy her and her friends. Thank you Night Vale writers for making such amazing, strong woman characters (Laura excluded ofc)

As always click for better resolution.

Alternate version (darker) and details of librarians hand, book, and machete under the cut:

[wt-nv-quotes]

I’m always ready for a showdown with those Librarians. I got my bandoleer, my machete, some Librarian spray, and my Community Radio Tote Bag full of flash grenades.

[candywife333]

Light A Candle for Me

Hey guys, here is a Diwali special fic. It is a two shot and revolves around this beautiful little holiday of lights. The first part sets up the rest of the story. Second part should be a little bit more comedic.

ugly duckling/late bloomer chubby reader x rich idol Jungkook

Triggers: non-con picture taking (Y/N is still clothed) , eventual smut (rough)

Disclaimer: The Jungkook written in this fic is not an accurate representation of the real life Jungkook's thoughts or actions. Keep in mind that this is fiction. has minimal to no proofreading.

What is she doing out of her lair? You mean, Y/N, the girl who shall never be named?

That was the manner in which everyone at HYBE perceived Y/N. She was a desolate, mousy , rather quaint girl that lived in what you could call the basement of HYBE. She was head of tech support and she lived in her little dungeon till they needed her expertise to access their security footage or if there was a glitch with any of the computers upstairs.

She rarely came upstairs to the cafeteria or upstairs in general for that matter, preferring to pack her own lunch ----a green bamboo circular bento set that nobody had ever seen the contents of. The three other people working in the IT department would come and go easily, socializing with the rest of the building, but Y/N, the big boss, or "Bowser" as she had been dubbed by Jungkook and Jimin, kept to herself.

Y/N always wore a black baggy cotton shirt with black cardigan, black framed circular glasses, and black slacks that looked freshly pressed every morning. She smelled of laundry, baked cookies, and tangerines. The only reason Jungkook knew her scent so well was because of one incident in which he had spilled coffee over his keyboard. The wireless keyboard had died on him, and so when he summoned Y/N, her majesty, from her underground dungeon, she had just slightly brushed up against him to reach the keyboard.

That was when he had come to the conclusion that she was the equivalent of a librarian, ghostly, quiet, and strict with a very convincing resting bitch face. Y/N never spoke. It's not as though she didn't communicate. But she just never spoke to fill the silence, as most people tend to do. It's as if she reveled in it. To add insult to injury, her quiet demeanour along with her resting bitch face (which Jungkook swears to the this day, was ready to kill him with a machete for the damage to his keyboard ) made people fear her.

She only every speak when it was required and when she did speak, in a resounding, firmly assertive voice, devoid of any doubt, she intimidated most of the staff and even the boys to some degree. Even Yoongi had been scared to call her for help when the computer in his genius lab was malfunctioning.

Her clothes, her attitude and her overall aura presented as a festering ground for rumors to spread. Some said that she was so ugly and drab, that she had never been approached even once on a casual date. Other absurd rumors stated that she had a string of boyfriends, who mysteriously disappeared one by one.

None of them were true. But that little tidbit was irrelevant to the gossipmongers of HYBE. Bang PD knew how much of a hard worker Y/N was. She kept all the viruses, firewalls, and glitch errors out of HYBE. Her work spoke for itself; impeccable at cybersecurity, Y/N as head of IT made sure that there was never a data breach at HYBE and she even went so far as to trouble shoot for errors before they even happened. If there were malicious online rumors about any members of any group at HYBE , she and her team members made sure to take those down, and to get rid of them without even a peep.

Y/N sighed wearily at her office desk, holding her pounding head in her hands . Tomorrow was Diwali and she really wanted to celebrate. She had been pulling late nighters for the past few days, as she had to help the PR team handle all the online press regarding Jungkook's solo album release in the US. It was so hectic, that at this point she felt as though she truly lived in her office. But, she really wanted to celebrate the festival. The holiday meant a lot to her as a kid, and even now. Her family had celebrated it growing up and she wanted to uphold the tradition annually.

Getting up from her chair, she packed her bags, ready to go home and clean up. There was a party for the Diwali at her cousin's house tomorrow evening, and she would have to wear a sari to work. Y/n usually maintained her drab and rather somber business attire without fail, but she didn't have enough time to go home and change before the party. She would have to brave it out. Being an introvert, she was sure the extra attention would freak her out. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Everyone in HYBE were functioning normally the next morning. Yet, as soon as y/N arrived, they all felt like they were either hallucinating or experiencing a collective brain aneurysm. Since when did Y/N wear color? Any color other than black that is?

Suzy, the receptionist felt like she was about to faint. She took a double look to make sure that it was truly Y/N entering the front door. Who the hell was this goddess? Y/N had on a red and gold sari in a chiffon, silky material draped over her curvy body. She had a bright red circular bindi over her forehead with gold bangles gracing her wrists and a gold chain adorning her neck. She looked like something divine, as she entered the building in her red high heels which couldn't have been more than 2 inches tall. Yet, the diminutive heels changed the way she walked, or shall we say glided. She had put in contact lenses as she had left the glasses at home.

Just as Suzy almost accepted Y/N's fabulous appearance, she saw the back of Y/N's outfit and almost had a seizure. It was backless, showing off her beautiful soft skin glinting in the morning light. The only thing keeping her blouse together was a singular golden thread that was tied up at the back. Suzy could see Y/N's spine all the way till right above her bum. Damn, Suzy needed a fan and water. If she was lesbian, she would've jumped on Y/N already by now.

Y/N decided that she would get some food at the cafe since it took her so long to get ready in the morning. She had no time to pack her usual. She sauntered over to the cafeteria in her traditional ensemble to pick up some coffee and a scone.

Mark's jaw dropped so low, it almost felt like he had dislocated it. Was this really Y/N? She looked like an otherworldly being, her expressive eyes framed with long lashes pulling him in. Her body called to him, and surely any other male in the room. The sari was draped so perfectly such that it showcased her figure. Her breasts covered by a sheer layer of chiffon, showing off her midriff , sloping down to wide hips that revealed skin as she bent down to pick up money she had accidentally dropped.

Her eyelashes fluttered on her cheek as she whispered out, "So sorry Mark, just happened to drop the money". She turned around as she took her order and just about every damn employee at the cafe decided that they needed a fan club just for her back. How had she hid her beauty for so long? She looked so perfectly feminine, that they didn't know how to process her in their brains and in.... other places.

Yoongi had come towards the cafe to grab a quick americano, and thank god he had no water in his mouth. Otherwise he would definitely have spit it out. He saw Y/N walking in his direction, and almost collapsed on the ground. His eyes couldn't believe what they were witnessing. Was this really Bowser? Their stoic tech support boss? How had she not been snatched up til this point?

As he pondered all this, he decided to do something that he wasn't exactly proud of. But, if he was going to have such a disjointed and jarring morning, he was going to make sure the rest of his members felt the same bizzare amazement and confusion as he did. He took a picture of her without her knowing, front and back, as he salivated, and put it on their group chat.

Jungkook had just arrived at HYBE, having gotten back from New York last night after his promotions in the US. He was so ridiculously tired, till he got a notification on their group chat. He never responded on it anyway. But he decided to randomly see what someone had sent.

He almost tripped on the pavement as he saw the picture that had been sent. whAT THE FREAKIN HELL?!!!! WHO WAS THIS BEAUTY AND WHEN DID SHE EXIST IN THEIR BUILDING??

The rest of the boys in the chat were just as incredulous. Jungkook saw all the interest all the boys were showing in the chat. They were literally thirsting over her. But no, he would have to have her. Her beautiful body , curving exactly where it was supposed to, with her lustrous curls tossed on her back, called to him. She was a siren, and her beauty was beseeching him. Who was this goddess?

He knew her body, but he didn't know her face or name. Yoongi hadn't posted her face. He would have to find out who she was. Not a difficult task for the golden maknae.

[forlix]

MOOT GAME: " make up a trope for your moots and their biases. doesn’t need to be romantic. can be crackfic/funny/anything you want ^ㅇ(๑>◡<๑)ㅇ^ "

omg how fun, thank u for sending this in nonnie !!! let me see...

@astraystayyh and hyunjin would have to be some 800k ao3 slow burn about forbidden love between royal families ... the grandest and most poetic of period drama romances that persists through backstabbing and betrayal and trial after tribulation. nothing less for my artistic soulmates

the first tropes to come to mind for @rachalixie and minho are literally just. not even really tropes. established relationship. domestic fluff. slice of life. they're That Couple. nobody remembers when they weren't together. they invite me over for dinner when i've had a bad day. mom and dad

@like-a-diamondinthesky and seungmin are the EPITOME of (fake) enemies to lovers. they're the sweetest, silliest, most sinister people and i just know their dynamic would be a dream come true for each other and a nightmare for everyone else

sue is just her "eighteen" mc in my head so @soobnny and seungmin scream best friends to lovers + college au to me. seung being the best cheerleader for her while she's crazy busy :') also she flusters v easily and i think he'd get a kick out of that (ik i do)

@luvtak and felix are giving childhood friends to lovers! the sort of relationship where they know each other better than they've ever known anything; really just the safest, warmest, and kindest of affections for the safest, warmest, and kindest of people

i'm gonna cheat again and hc @sunboki and chan as a trope from august's mafia au "korea's most wanted"; augs is so creative and badass and SEXY and so is the main couple's dynamic in that fic. chan's a lucky man. DITCH HIM FOR ME 🗣️

@txtxlz and jeongin would be a multipart messy love triangle ft. jealousy and pining and so much chaos bc haz has more biases than i have fingers or toes and i love love the idea of her favorite idols going to war over her. it's what my baby deserves fr

for @2baabbies and felix, i imagine perhaps a barista au or a librarian au (hehehehe) where he finds stupid excuses to come back and pick bae's brain every day because he's utterly enraptured by her. she has that effect on people and lix would NOT be immune

@starsandrqindrops and seungmin are so fwb-coded. think suffocating chemistry every time they interact. could cut the tension with a dull machete. then inevitably complications like Feelings come into play and they dance around each other for ages before finally giving in ... mm yes all that good stuff

last but not least, @hyunnie04 and hyunjin would be so perfect for an art school!au. mira is an incredible artist so i'm picturing these two sketching each other instead of paying attention in class ,,, gallery/museum dates ,,,, maybe a sprinkle of healthy competition who knows ,,,,

[vintagegeekculture]

The Most Beloved Adventure Novel in Thailand

If you’re Thai, you already know what I’m going to say: เพชรพระอุมา, “Petch Pra Uma,” or “Diamonds of the Goddess Uma.” A jungle adventure yarn written over 25 years, from 1964 to 1989, it is a good candidate for the world’s longest novel. And to call it inspired by H. Rider Haggard’s “King Solomon’s Mines” is a bit generous: the basic plot comes from that book, at least to start with, before it went off in its own strange directions guided by local Thai folklore. The 19th Century Adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard is widely loved in Thailand, and it is surprising that a 19th Century British colonial author is still such a significant influence. 

The story of “the Goddess Uma’s Diamonds” begins when a he-man jungle explorer skilled in hunting and hiking, Raipin Praiwan, is contracted to help discover the Emerald City in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Along the way, a young hill tribesman asks to be his expedition’s servant, only to discover that this young servant is in fact, the rightful outcast prince of the City of Emeralds. So far, this sounds absolutely identical to H. Rider Haggard’s “King Solomon’s Mines” transplanted to Asia, but where the jungle action in the novel gets strange is that it very quickly veered into the folkloric and paranormal of Southeast Asia. Haggard flirted with the fantastic in King Solomon’s Mines, but this one has a full on love affair with it. When seeking the Emerald City, Raipin Praiwan encounters forest spirits, ghosts, and intelligent, red-eyed glowing ape creatures able to use swords.

Or at least that was the first story arc. The novel was originally published in newspapers, but it was so widely popular that it kept on going well past the natural ending. To this day, Thai librarians have trouble keeping it on the shelves, and there have been numerous film and television adaptations in the Elephant Kingdom. To read the entire book in collected form now requires over 48 volumes.

One amusing part that surprises me is that it contains explicit and very casual descriptions of cannabis use. I knew....but it hadn’t quite sunk in until I read this...that the bong or water-pipe was a Thai invention (more accurately, rendered as baung). 

The funny part about this book is that Thai nerds love it and base their lives on it, getting a model rifle and machete just like the manly Raipin Praiwan’s. It’s exactly like, when lots of Western nerds get money, they buy a Walther PPK and an Aston Martin to be as cool as their hero, James Bond. I cannot help but think that if you are a cool, exciting guy like 007, you could drive any reasonably stylish car and make it look cool, it doesn’t have to be that specific one....but remember, we are deep in “cargo cult” thinking. 

Unfortunately, it is known that the author of the books is unpleasant to online fanfic authors, which leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth equivalent to learning your favorite actor is a scientologist. 

[strangesthirdeye]

Prologue

Unspoken Love masterlist /Chapter: 1

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Cling.. Cling..

The sound of the bell began to be heard just after the night wind blew making the bells collide with each other and produce a sound that can be said to be quite noisy. The night in the Kamar Taj was very quiet when almost all the occupants there were lulled into dreams except for a few people dressed in long robes and their heads covered with a hood who were walking in groups towards the library.

Meanwhile, a librarian who was still in charge of tidying up and looking after the library began to put some books into the labeled bookshelf. Unaware of the existence of a man who may also be the leader of the group dressed in robes and a hood, began to appear behind the librarian before some of his followers began to stand out and began to swarm the librarian such as predators preventing their food from escaping. Making the librarian pay attention.

librarian, umm let's name him Umar,(i forgot his name btw) start noticing the situation now. Meanwhile, the leader of the group began to approach Umar before some of his followers followed him. Two of his followers began to cast spells holding Umar's two hands , and the other two cast spells with sticks holding Umar's two feet. makes him lift.

Umar grimacing in pain until his mouth opened wide trying to hold back the pain. After that, one of the followers of the group began to place an iron bucket just below Umar's head before the leader of the group walked over to Umar. The leader took of his off his hood looked at Umar with a small but wicked smile. Shortly Afterwards, the leader places his hands onto his back and holding a pair of blades as he chops Umar's head off as if slaughtering a cow with a sharp machete which falls into the iron bucket.

After that, the leader started to pick up the book that Umar had just placed before he opened it and started flipping through a few pages. shortly after, the leader found the pages which has a Dark Dimension symbol in the center of the pages he wanted before tearing the pages apart and dropped the book to the floor with a loud thump.

Before he and his followers began to walk out, another silhouette in a yellow robe and a yellow hood appeared behind them.

"Master Kaecilius. That ritual will bring you only sorrow" said the woman in a yellow robe and a yellow hood or known as The Ancient One with a firm tone of voice toward Kaecilius and his followers.

The Leader or known as Kaecilius as what The Ancient One said earlier, sets his hands to his back, holding his blade as if ready to attack The Ancient One. The Ancient One walks closer with both hands on her back with her sharp gaze. Even though her face was not visible behind the hood. Kaecilius and his followers began to retreat and tried to escape by opening a portal leading to a city swiftly ran along the side of the road heading into an alley before they all stopped at the same time as they saw their own faces that looked like broken glass in front of them.

Silently, a second silhouette appeared dressed in a gray robe and hooded stopped behind them, controlling it and twisted her right hand forward making them enter the Mirror Dimension. Kaecilius turn his back as the hooded gray -robed silhouette makes a wave pattern with her hand that makes buildings around them start to move unpatterned. The Ancient One began to appear behind the woman in the gray robe with her sharp gaze.

Kaecilius began to look at the surrounding situation fiercely before looking at the two women.

"Hypocrite!" Exclaimed Kaecilius towards the two women angrily.

The Ancient One making a round pattern with both of her hands and turn the gravity as she and the woman in the gray robe hops off a wall of a building, and Kaecilius with his team do the same. The woman in the grey robe start making upward movements with both hands when the building behind them starts rolling on its own. Without wasting time, Kaecilius pulls out his blades as the others making spell and pull out their staff.

The Ancient One began to walk in front of the woman in the gray robe as fast as if trying to stop Kaecilius or his followers from attacking the woman. Both followers of Kaecilius catch her feet with their spell as she pulls her feet back and makes them fall and she hops on them making a fan being spell for cutting their spells and they two got milled by the building under them as they scream.

Then, the woman in the gray robe fights two other people and knocks them down by using a spell. Not noticing with another one behind her, the Ancient One changes the spell to a round being spell as she kicks the one who nearly stabbed the woman with a blade to the rolling building that is getting closer to them. The woman in the gray robe bowed her head toward The Ancient One. Then the woman turns the spell into a fan being spell and she tackled two of them as she throws her spell to the other people left and holds it back. The Ancient One then makes a turn around move with her hands that makes the gravity turn upside down.

Kaecilius and the other are close to the position of falling, then Kaecilius makes a portal with a round and round pattern with his hand for him and his team to escape by opening a portal to a park around London. Without wasting time, his followers hop onto that with Kaecilius still holding it open as The Ancient One and the woman still fighting three of them left. Then Kaecilius hops onto the portal and closes it as The Ancient One and the woman knocks out the three people, and stares as the portal closes. The woman in the gray robe began to scoffed angrily.

"coward" said the woman in the gray robe quietly.

The Ancient One rewinds the rolling building and makes it as if none of this happened and hops of the building to the ground and she makes a portal out of the mirror dimension to the real world and walks through the street along with the woman in the gray robe before The Ancient One removes her hood showing her bald head and the woman in the gray robe starts removes her hood showing her short dark brown hair.

                ドクター・ストレンジ

[leche-flandom]

It is pretty unlike me to do more than one social thing in a week, but our former neighbors invited us over to for a small Diwali party and it was awesome? T is a loud extrovert university professor. Her spouse, C, is a quiet army retiree (I think that's the right word). We all got on like a house on fire. T, being Indian, could totally relate to my summer woes of visiting unwanted family in the hot motherland. C showed me their LARPing swords and an actual fancy machete. The food was SO GOOD and brought me back to my librarian days when my awesome Indian bosses would bring in their home cooking for potlucks. Other folks I talked to were just as bewildered/horrified by the thought of monthly birthday neighborhood potlucks or losing iPads like hair scrunchies. I learned about ziplining in Colorado and local coyotes from chatting with these friendly strangers. At one point, I mentioned being a librarian and one lady went, "Oh, everyone in this room was a librarian at some point in their lives!" And of course I felt even more at home.

After my kid played board games with a grown up and a 12 year old, we went out for fireworks and sparklers lit by candles in the guest-made diyas. They had stencils to make Rangoli sand art on the porch. C, bless them, severely overestimated my daughter's maturity and handed her a lit firecracker to throw (thankfully, my husband intercepted just in time). There were guests of all ages, genders, and colors and I was just so surprised by how much I was enjoying myself without any alcohol. At the birthday potluck dinners, I heavily fortify myself with wine and am usually still miserable.

This whole time I thought that the pandemic broke that part of me that enjoyed big gatherings. But it turns out I'm just no good at enjoying big gatherings full of people with whom I have nothing in common except our area code. It looks like common sense now that I type it out. Anyway, yeah, I'm going to tell this to my therapist and I am gonna unenroll myself out of the birthday potluck club.

[quitethepirategal]

                          Plotted Starter   ~   { @elxgantcaptain }

   This had to be it.        Her compass never steered her wrong.

   Hazel eyes flick up from the magic compass in question, and calloused fingers snap it shut with a twirl.  She was here, Sugar Tooth Isle, a sand bar with hardly enough space or vegetation to be an island and aptly named for the massive sea rocks full of holes and arches at it’s center.  It was a tiny sneeze of land and honestly a beautiful formation geologically speaking... It kind of did look like a giant cavity ridden tooth if you squinted... and the swaying palm trees and nearly artistic composition of the brush and vines absolutely made the place a perfect subject for a painting.  As if it wasn’t picturesque enough, the rain had finally stopped, and the dark clouds broke just along the horizon in a strip of brilliant blue to the west while the sky retained it’s dark and moody lighting. The perfect recipe for a brilliant sunset in a few hours time.  Good thing she brought her watercolors!

   Weathered boots hopped eagerly from the wet hull of the little pink boat and onto the slushy grey-peach sand.  It was a tiny, barley sea worthy single sail but hey, the trip was a short one and the prize was too good to pass up.  Jess had enough money from the Mortared Petals and enough left over treasure from her previous captaincy; treasure was nice but these days it was information she was after.  Tomes, scrolls, maps, charts, essays, journals, BOOKS; those were the real treasure in a world so vast, and there was only so much one could rescue from Magpie Point.  See, rumor had it that a years dead Captain named Larry Leather-Knot had himself an affinity for literature.  Most captains bury treasures of gold and silver all the time but it was said that he buried his books as well.  Who knows what they could be; poetry, research, novels, guides, and who knows if there was any buried books at all.  Either way, there was still the possibility of treasure, and a new island to paint and survey in the worst case.  But was a rumor from an elderly customer of hers worth a two day solo sail?  Well...

     There was only one way to find out.

   The librarian finished tying her little boat to a tree and wiped her hands together with a satisfied smile.  It’ll be hell trying to shove the thing back into the ocean come low tide but she didn’t mind spending the night.  Shedding her coat and rolling up her sleeves she pulled out her notebook and gave it a once over.  What did that old pirate say?  She flipped to the page where she wrote down what he knew. In grey ink she’d scratched;

     “- Enter tooth from creek side ( waterfal? )       - Go to middle o the toothe,       - find arch were see the sunset / moonset thru it ( westish )       - Turn complealy round ( 180 d )       - Look up / climb ledge ( why up not buried? no water damage? )       - Best take treasr out in trips ”

   .....Right.... Easy enough.  But there was no telling where this creek was and Jess couldn't make out any water from the beach other than the stripes left by the rain.  Must be on the other side of the Isle, she thought, trading the notebook for a machete and stepping at last into the water-slicked brush.  Looks like she had to take the long way.  But she had all day anyway so, why hurry?  The brush was beautiful and the rain clouds brought cool breezes.  Why worry about time or tide, right?

                                      After all...                                                        she had the whole island to herself.....      

[destiny-in-the-universe]

A/N: I haven’t posted in ages. Though it is now Whumptober and I decided to post my prompts here as well! They are also up on my Ao3 under my user — Destiny_in_the_Universe

WHUMPTOBER PROMPT: Infection

The virus had come six months ago; on a crisp autumn afternoon — civilians remained blissfully unaware, well, until a human came stumbling blindly - eyes bloodshot and mangled, bloody teeth - turning to bite a random bystander. From there, all hell had broken loose… as the panic ensued - people scrambling to escape from the chaos which followed, trying to make sense of a world infested with something other.

Well, as expected - like this truly was a movie of zombies - turmoil was the ending result. The infected roamed the streets, cars were hard to come by; forcing many to travel on foot while supplies declined steadily. As the expression went, it had become a dog-eat-dog world and among the survivors were Karl Jacobs, a young librarian with messy, brown curls, and Quackity who had been chasing after a law degree before the virus hit their city.

“Karl,” the silence was broken by the quiet whisper from Quackity, his boots slowly crunching dead leaves, “what- where are we going now?”

For a moment, his companion didn’t answer before Karl sighed softly, “we just need to find shelter. Then we can figure it out.”

Quackity glanced away, glaring at the dirt-covered ground like it had personally wronged him - only to break the moment again.

“What if there’s no one else, Karl?”

Karl walked close to Quackity, still a bit further ahead - checking their surroundings for any sign of, well, life. It had been nothing but a desolate wasteland for a while, save for - of course - undead creatures, mutated animals, and the raiders. They’d been lucky somehow not to run into the organization known as the Crimson. He tightened his grip on the strap of his messenger bag, the quiet extending for what felt like hours before he dared to open his mouth.

“�� I don’t know, Q,” he got out softly, “but- we’ll figure it out. I- we have each other.”

“Well, we can’t be the only ones left!” Quackity exclaimed, eyes narrowing - only to frown. “Karl, I- that’s not what I meant.”

Karl paused, holding a hand out - releasing the strap and then…

“Q, wait-“ He hissed, and then the unthinkable happened; startling as an undead - beady, red eyes staring unblinkingly at the brunet - seemed to come out of nowhere. Gasping from the alarm, he stepped back before hastily unzipping his bag and gripping the handle of his machete. “Run. I got this!”

“Karl!”

Karl lunged forward, slashing at the zombie’s arm - eyes ablaze as he moved to keep it away from Quackity; gone were the softness in his eyes, that had faded long since with the doom of surviving an empty world. He hacked forward, ignoring the shouts from his best friend - downright feeling the burst of adrenaline, blocking attack after attack before a sudden loud screech got his attention.

Shit.

Somehow they had managed to attract a horde and Karl tensed, backing away slowly before he grabbed Quackity’s hand - breaking into a run. The brunet wouldn’t couldn’t stop, ignoring the sudden protests from his ebony-haired companion. His own heart was beating frantically in his own chest, hearing the snarls and growls - animalistic, feral sounds - somehow getting closer.

“Wait, slow down!”

“We can’t! Not with those things on our- Quackity!” Karl shouted, eyes widening as one of the zombies lunged - immediately shielding the other from the incoming attack, and kicking at the undead; ignoring the squelch of green ooze and uneven bones. He hacked with the machete again, striking at two infected - swift and with careful precision.

“No. No! Karl, you’re going to get-“

Karl didn’t seem to listen as he took another swing, suddenly crying out as something snagged him on the collar-bone. He stumbled backward - barely registering when Quackity took two clean killing blows toward the infected. The crowbar slammed into their heads while Karl let out a confused mewl, watching blood trickle down his skin.

“Karl, ay mierda,” Quackity gasped, rushing to the brunet’s side. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Karl-“

“It hurts,” Karl panted weakly. “What- What do we do? We should…”

If it had been on his arm or a leg even, an amputation would have worked just fine but this - there was no walking back from this. Karl was bitten; a dangerous risk to Quackity, and well, even if by some miracle he survived - he would never be the same again.

“No, don’t- don’t make me do this- lo siento…”

“Quackity, look at me. It’s the only way,” Karl frowned, reaching a hand to squeeze Quackity’s own. “I- I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Karl-“

“It’ll be okay,” the brunet chuckled weakly, his hand dropping from the other’s hold. He paused for a second, sighing, “I’m not turned out yet. We might have a little… more time, but-“

There was a pause as he groaned weakly, gasping out at the horrible sensation of the bite. His knees buckled out from underneath him, at least thankful Quackity caught his fall.

“Karl,” Quackity breathed, pulling the other closer. He could do this - the other wasn’t turned yet, which meant it was okay, this was okay. “Don’t go. You have to stay.”

There was an uncomfortable beat of silence and Quackity could hear the pained groans; knowing full well the virus was eating away at Karl’s system. He closed his eyes before leaning in close - holding the brunet in his arms - and then slowly bringing him into a kiss. Karl had to still be conscious, deep down, as he suddenly kissed back - a soft, gentle touch before it turned into something hungrier. They remained in contact for a moment longer before inevitably Quackity needed to breathe.

“I- I don’t have a lot of time, Q,” Karl got out, exhaling. “I thought… it would last as long as the others.”

“Stardust-“

“I’ll see you on the other side, Q… this isn’t the end.”

Quackity exhaled, “I’ll make it quick… is it- do you still have it in the bag?”

Karl slowly nodded, the messenger bag being handed over to the raven-haired survivor who just frowned, “why- why didn’t you use it before?”

“… I just had to protect you. They make too much noise, but- I guess it is wasn’t-“

There was a blank look in Quackity’s eyes and he finally exhaled, “It should’ve been me. Mierda, it could have been us against the world. You can’t leave me like this… turn me.”

“No, Quackity! You need to live and find the others. You have to! For me-“

“… lo siento.”

Quackity slowly removed the gun from the bag and aimed it at Karl who hissed, growling in pain and confusion; a blank stare evident in the brunet’s irises. He steadied his hand - watching his companion, his one love, closely. Taking off the safety, he exhaled; squeezing his eyes shut before whispering, “te amo.”

He fired one round, the ricocheting bang of the gunshot making Quackity flinch.

The sight of Karl’s still body, chocolate-colored eyes - now void of light - unblinking and staring was horrible. The bite mark made it all the more worse, and Quackity gritted his teeth. He couldn’t handle it; knowing the brunet still seemed warm. It was too recent, nothing could hide this god awful feeling. He frowned, letting the gun drop back into the bag.

He couldn’t leave Karl out here.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, cradling the other close before slowly picking up Karl and holding him bridal style. “I’m so sorry.”

He couldn’t live with the knowledge he had killed his love. This was a nightmare.

The world felt bleak and bland and cold. Quackity hardly recognized the wetness on his face, the bitter anger that things had turned out this way. Why why why but he knew…

He just knew he could never return to normality.

Quackity would never be the same again.

Word Count: 1,297

A/N: The next prompt will be up soon! I will continue posting even if they are late as I want to do all of them regardless of whether it is October or not! I work full time now, hence the inconsistencies. I will also link the Ao3 version at the bottom of each finished prompt!

[historyhermann]

Behind the Screen: Asian and Latin American voices of fictional librarians

From left to right: Benedict Wong, Ashly Burch, Joey Haro, Elaine Del Valle, and Kenn Navarro

There are Asian and Latin American actors who have voiced many librarians in fiction over the years. Part of understanding fictional librarians is understanding those behind the screen and this article contributes to that. Part 1 of this series focused on Black women and men who voice fictional librarians.

This post is reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine.

In this part, I am profiling Asian and Latin American voice actors who voiced librarians.

About the voice actors

There are many talented voice actors who aren't White men or White woman, who comprise the majority of those who voice animated librarians, especially in Western animation. These talented voice actors include Benedict Wong as Wong in What If...? episode ("What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"), Ashly Burch who likely voices an unnamed librarian in a We Bare Bears episode ("The Library"), and Joseph "Joey" Haro as Mateo in Elena of Avalor. Specifically, Burch is of Thai descent, Wong is of Hong Kong descent, and Haro is of Cuban descent (and is gay).

There's also Elaine Del Valle as Val the Octopus in Dora the Explorer episode ("Backpack") who is Latine, and Kenn Navarro as Flippy in Happy Tree Friends episode ("Random Acts of Silence") who is a Filipino animator. Additionally, there is Emanuel Garijo as Kaeloo in French in Kaeloo episode ("Let's Play at Reading Books"). Doug Rand voices Kaeloo in the English dub, and Domenico Coscia in the Italian dub, to name another character. As it turns out, Navarro is one of the creators of Happy Tree Friends, while Valle is known  as the actor and writer of an one-woman stage play she created: Brownsville Bred. Garijo has done French voice work for years, while Rand has done English voice work, while I couldn't find anything on Coscia.

Another person worth mentioning is Vivienne Medrano, a Latine animator of Salvadoran descent who created the animated shows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss along with a video for her webcomic Zoophobia. She voices Sarah in Nico Colaleo's series, Too Loud, replacing Julia Vickerman, who was racked by controversy following allegations that she engaged in pedophilia, after beginning her series, Twelve Forever, which was sadly cancelled by Netflix after the end of its first season. The reason for its cancellation is not known.

It is also highly probable that Janice Kawaye, an actress of Japanese descent who has voiced characters since 1983, likely voices the librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched"). Kawayke has voiced characters like Couchpo in Edens Zero, Shiori in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, Jenny / XJ-9 in My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Sara in Invader Zim, to name a few characters she has voiced.

An additional late entry to this list is Jenny Lorenzo, who presumably voices the skeleton librarian, Eztli, in an episode of Victor and Valentino. Lorenzo is known for her role as Lupe in the same show, but she has also voiced Choo Choo and Spooky in Jellystone. She is a Cuban-American actor known for her work on We Are Mitú and is a co-founder of BuzzFeed's Pero Like, becoming a viral sensation for her Abuela character, and what her IMDB page calls "relatable, Latino-based content seen through the comedic and nostalgic lens of a 1st generation Cuban-American."

Another additional entry is Danny Trejo. He voices Bobby Daniels, a bad-boy librarian in an episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee. Trejo, who is of Mexican descent, is best known for his role as Isador "Machete" Cortez in the Spy Kids franchise films. In terms of animation, he voiced Enrique, Victor Velasquez, and other characters in multiple King of the Hill episodes, along with assorted roles in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, The Cleveland Show, Young Justice (as Bane), Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, and Tangled: The Series (as Wreck Marauder / Malice Marauder). He also voiced characters in Big City Greens, Elena of Avalor, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia (Tronos), Victor and Valentino, and The Casagrandes.

About the characters

From left to right: Wong, unnamed librarian, Val, Flippy, Kaeloo, Sarah, unnamed librarian, and Eztli

As I described Wong, he is the first librarian shown in the series What If...?, trying to guide Doctor Strange, warning him that tinkering with time will threaten the entire fabric of the universe, but he cares little. Even so, he later helps the good Strange train to fight the evil Strange. Unfortunately, he has less of a role in the episode as the other librarian, Cagliostro. Luckily, he has more of a role in the live-action films, as Jennifer Snoek-Brown has written about time and again.

The librarian in the We Bare Bears episode, on the other hand, is stern, has some characteristics of a spinster librarian, professional work attire, wanting to do her job and following the rules. I concluded that she is probably overworked and exhausted, something you don't always see when you see depictions of librarians in animation. She also is helpful to patrons, even letting them sleep in the library, which I found surprising. Mateo, on the other hand, is a wizard and royal advisor to the show's protagonist, Elena. He bucks stereotypes of Latine people, not shushing people at all, remaining as helpful as he can instead.

Val the Octopus is a minor character in Dora the Explorer, having a variety of odd jobs like running a cash register, driving a mail truck (or an ice cream truck), being a lifeguard, or a librarian. She is the latter in the episode ("Backpack") and is vary courteous to Dora.

Flippy in Happy Tree Friends episode ("Random Acts of Silence") is perhaps the most murderous librarian I have ever seen in animation to-date. This not unique to this episode, as he often causes other characters to die on purpose. Despite this, he seems to die very infrequently during the run of the series.

Kaeloo is the protagonist of Kaeloo. She is the guardian of the place known as Smileyland and has an ambiguous gender. And in the episode "Let's Play at Reading Books" she acts as a librarian, attempting to shush people and get them to listen, even though this is a failure.

Sarah in Colaleo's series, Too Loud, is a new librarian who joins Sara and Desiree (going by a different name for much of the series), brought in to help out with the library. While Sara nor Desiree are big fans of her at first, they come around to her, and she becomes more of their friend as the series moves forward, helping with librarian matters.

Librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched") is one of the most interesting librarian characters in fiction that I have ever seen. Due to a personality switcher, which switched her personality with that of a wrestler, she becomes buff and even throws a patron across the room. She is later shown listing weights and doing jump rope. Hopefully she becomes a stronger librarian and better to her librarian.

Another entry is Eztli in the Victor and Valentino episode "An Evening with Mic and Hun". In the episode, Victor and Valentino, who are in the underworld, have to get past Eztli, a skeleton librarian, who shushes them. Victor won't stand for this, while his brother, Valentino comes up with a plan. This is disregarded as the librarian is smashed by a boulder and they get the extra skeleton arm she is holding. In the episode, she is also shown putting a book on a cart and stamping a book with a past due stamp, with the fee of one soul.

One final entry is Bobby Daniels in an episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee which is aptly named "Bad Boy Bobby Daniels". In the episode, Molly, her father, and Scratch go to the Mewline Public Library to find the Bad Boy of Brighton, Bobby Daniels, to help her elderly friend. They attempt to turn Daniels "back" into a bad boy but it doesn't work and they let him stay as the librarian. Later, Bobby and Patty get together after Molly put in a false book delivery notice. Their love ends up blossoming and it seems that he is taken away from his library job.

That's all for this post! Until the next one!

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[mandareeboo]

Fanfic Preview: “And they laughed out at me and said "what is your plan?"” #3

Title: And they laughed out at me and said "what is your plan?"

(Temp) Summary: Della gets jelly and Louie commits high-stakes crime

"Really? I thought you'd be cheaper than most scientists." Gandra glared at him. Louie held his hands up. "Not like that! I meant because you do all the experiments on yourself."

"Heard about that, huh?"

"My brother can be quite the nark."

The chickadee tapped her pointer and thumb together, creating a weak jolt of electricity. "You might not believe it, but I actually started upgrading to help people."

Louie raised an eyebrow. "By electrocuting them to death?"

"I studied biochemistry in college. You know, the reactions in the body. The electricity was supposed to make you into a sort of natural defibrillator, so EMPs wouldn't have to carry as much when they had lives on the line. It'd also cut out a lot of danger if there were blackouts in hospitals- paramedics could just manually keep machines humming. My eye-buds could help transfer data to various legal systems- John and Jane Does, suspect photos, injury documentation. It all had a purpose." Gandra had taken vicious bites out of her snack with every sentence, and swallowed the remains of it with a bittersweet chuckle. "But no one ever takes kindly to a random woman asking to insert wiring in your brain, so I never got funding to implement it."

"So you chose to work for a cranky boomer with issues?"

"I gotta make ends meet somehow, man." She sighed and pushed the tray away. "But, you're right. I am a sellout. Least I own up to it."

"You don't have to work for him, you know," Louie said, quietly, wary of jumping onto the thin ice. "There's plenty of other bajillionaires who'd be happy to have you. Scottish ones."

Gandra stared at him. It was a very neutral look- no surprise he was pointing her towards the enemy lines, but also no enthusiasm, either. "What makes him any different than Bradford?"

"Scrooge loves this kind of stuff. Wild, weird science that can get him plenty of money. He'd get you any grant you needed if you showed him what you could do." She still didn't look convinced, so Louie amped it up a little. "I mean, he hires wackos all the time! You know Gyro Gearloose once blew up Toyolk, right? He's wanted in basically every country. Scrooge invites him over for dinner once a month and lets him do his thing."

"I don't play well with others, kid."

"None of his employees do. They're all off the chain. That's why he likes them so much. His librarian once tried to chop my head off with a machete because I 'put a bookmark in incorrectly'. You'll probably be the sanest one there."

[disneytva]

September 2020 Programming Highlights On Disney Networks

Saturday, Sept. 12

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Present Tense/Hurt Bike”

(8:00-8:30 P.M. EDT)

“Present Tense” – Cricket struggles to get the best birthday present for his best friend, Remy.

*Lorraine Toussaint (“Orange Is the New Black) and Colton Dunn (“Superstore”) return as Russell and Rashida Remington; Danny Trejo (“Machete”) returns as Vasquez.

“Hurt Bike” – After almost getting in a dirt bike accident, Cricket decides to live his life in shelter.

TV-Y7

Original Series – Season Two Premiere on Disney Channel

Amphibia “Little Frogtown/Hopping Mall”

(8:30-9:00 P.M. EDT)

“Little Frogtown” – Hop Pop investigates the disappearance of an old friend and the shadowy crime syndicate he suspects are behind it.

“Hopping Mall” – Hop Pop takes the kids to a Newtopian shopping mall to buy souvenirs, and Anne will do anything to get the perfect gift for her mom back home.

*Misty Lee (“Lego City Adventures”) and Romi Dames (“Winx Club”) guest star as Priscilla the Killa and Pearl, respectively.

TV-Y7

Saturday, Sept. 19

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Quiet Please/Chipwrecked”

(8:00-8:30 P.M. EDT)

“Quiet Please” – When the Green’s visit the library, the librarian threatens to throw them out if they make a sound.

*Linda Hamilton (“Terminator” franchise) guest stars as the librarian, alongside Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Artemis Pebdani (ABC’s “Scandal”) as Gramma Alice, Marieve Herington (“How I Met Your Mother”) as Tilly Green and Bob Joles (“Puss in Boots”) as Bill Green.

“Chipwrecked” – Chip Whistler attempts to make Cricket lose his job by running Big Coffee out of business.

*Mary Holland (“Robbie”) guest stars as Chairwoman and Paul Scheer (“The League”) returns as Chip Whitstler

TV-Y7

Original Series – Season Two Premiere on Disney Channel

Amphibia “The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers/A Day at the Aquarium”

(8:30-9:00 P.M. EDT)

“The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers” – Anne and Marcy issue a Scare Dare Challenge that brings Sprig and Polly into forbidden areas of the castle.

“A Day at the Aquarium” – Anne and the Plantars look to spend what could be their last day together at the Newtopia Aquarium.

TV-Y7

Monday, Sept. 21

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney XD

DuckTales “The Phantom and the Sorceress!”

(7:00-7:30 P.M. EDT)

When a mysterious magic thief arrives in Duckburg, Lena must confront her past and team with her treacherous aunt, Magica.

*Giancarlo Esposito (“Breaking Bad”) guest stars as Phantom Blot and Catherine Tate (“Doctor Who”) returns as Magica.

TV-Y7

Original Series – Season Three Premiere on Disney XD

Big Hero 6 The Series “The Hyper-potamus Pizza-Party-torium”

(7:30-8:00 P.M. EDT)

Hiro and a short-handed Big Hero 6 team attempt to stop Noodle Burger Boy and his new family.

TV-Y7 FV

Friday, Sept. 25

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Mira Royal Detective “A Mystery Fit for a Queen/The Case of Pinky and the Goat”

(8:30-9:00 A.M. EDT)

“A Mystery Fit for a Queen” – When Queen Shanti’s lost jewelry suddenly turns up, Mira enlists the Queen to join her on the case.

“The Case of Pinky and the Goat” – Mira asks her friend Pinky, the goat expert, to help find Dhruv’s pet goat.

*Hari Kondabolu (“Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell”) guest stars as vegetable cart vendor, Mr. Walia.

TV-Y

Monday, Sept. 28

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney XD

DuckTales “They Put a Moonlander on Earth!”

(7:00-7:30 P.M. EDT)

Webby sets out to prove to a homesick Penumbra that Earth can be a lot of fun by riding Glomgold’s newest gift to Duckburg, the suspicious Flintferris Glomwheel.

*Julie Bowen (ABC’s “Modern Family”) returns as Penumbra.

TV-Y7

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney XD

Big Hero 6 The Series “Mayor for a Day/The Dog Craze of Summer”

(7:30-8:00 P.M. EDT)

“Mayor for a Day” – Big Hero 6 responds to Richardson Mole’s every whim when he is made mayor for the day.

*Jane Lynch (“Glee”) and Sean Giambrone (ABC’s “The Goldbergs”) return as Supersonic Sue and Richardson Mole, respectively.

“The Dog Craze of Summer” – Hiro enlists the help of the team when Granville’s three dogs go missing while under his watch.

*Jenifer Lewis (ABC’s “black-ish”) returns as Professor Granville.

TV-Y7 FV

[walker-journal]

Legend of the Vermilion Bird (Adam +Leah)

Characters: Leah Ramirez (Phoenix- Julie), Adam Walker (Hunter-Tapir)

Location: Just outside the Vural Property

Timing: Shortly before the events of And From the Ashes

Summary: After killing a Torple, Adam consults a wary Leah about the nature of phoenixes 

Content Warning: Woerm gore

The forest road was alive with the subtle rustling and animal calls of spring as Adam skinned a large Torple that’d shuffled onto the Vural’s property, instinctually drawn by the taste of spellcraft that practically saturated the area. The Hunter supposed such predators were a hazard of having so much mojo concentrated in one place. Being a muggle himself, Adam wasn’t in much danger from these lumbering magic-eating worms, but the Hunter felt it behooved him to quietly take care of threats to his significant other’s family. 

The Torple looked like the big-mouthed lovechild of a naked mole-rat and an earthworm with massive human teeth. Even seated on a hefty moss-covered rock, Adam was barely taller than the corpulent segmented creature. It’s webbed limbs were spindly in comparison to its body while its enormous yet unsettlingly humanoid mouth made it a wonder the Torple could move at all. It jaws were immovable once latched on, but it was the thick glistening layer of magic negating mucus covering the magivore that made Adam preemptively take a machete to it outside the boundary of his hostesses’ wards, lest its mere presence unravel them. 

Adam worked a curved ulu knife down the dead Torples’ sides, scraping the anti-magic slime off with the skinning blade and scooping it into nearby barrels. He vaguely felt Leah’s approach before he heard her footsteps, the icy-heat of her paranormal presence growing stronger as she approached. Once he caught sight of the familiar face, the Hunter took his hand  off the handle of a hidden blade and got back to scraping Torple slime. 

“Hey Library Warrior, could I have a minute? I need to ask you about something.” 

Having Bea back in town felt like relief.  When she died, Leah had been so caught off guard that she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop now that she was back to life.  At any given moment, she expected another phone call from Nell or Felix or anyone telling her that it happened again, that there was no way to fix it this time.  And New York felt so tauntingly far away, especially to someone who had barely ever left White Crest.  And so the news that her best friend was coming back to town made the tension ease from her neck- had she been holding her shoulders that tight the whole time she’d been away?

Maybe she had been spending too much time at the Vural Sister’s house that weekend (to be fair, one-third of the sister trio would have said any time Leah spent there was too much, but that’s besides the point), but for the tension to truly escape her, she need some real, tangible time with her friend. 

While Bea was busy inside cooking, Leah chose to explore the property outside, eager to soak up some sun and enjoy the chill of winter finally breaking.  She grimaced when she happened upon Adam, and watched him with an unamused expression.  It was kind of easy to ignore that he was a hunter, most of the time, but not when he was slicing something up right in front of her.  She let out a breath when he called out to her, sitting on her hip.

“What’s up?”, she asked.  She was sure he was just curious about a book, or something- maybe he lost his copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

“What is that there?” she asked, gesturing to the creature he was scraping.  Damn her and her innate curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

“I need to ask you about Phoenixs,” Adam replied with the blunt directness that frequently came when one was focused on multiple tasks at once. “There is a fire chicken that’s gone supernova in a valley. Luce is like...a fire scientist but she isn’t sure what would make em go..” Adam made a sound in his throat evocative of an explosion. I was wondering if you’d heard of anything like that,” the Hunter asked of the Not-Spriggan. 

Adam patted the enormous human-mouthed earthworm with a gloved hand as he scrapped more slime from the corpse into a bucket. “This is a Torple, they hunt people who do magic,” Adam supplied. “The Vural place is kinna a beacon with the Hogwarts stuff going on.” 

Leah felt her eyebrows furrow at Adam’s statement- both at the boldness with which he said it, and the statement itself.  She felt heat rise to her cheeks- did he know about her?  Was the knife he held over the creature actually intended for her- her tears or information or life? But no, Nell wouldn’t let that happen, right?  Nell would have at least warned her if he found out.   She felt herself visibly relax when he explained more, swallowing before she responded.  “Luce told me about this, but… what makes you think I know anything about phoenixes?”, she asked, trying to remain stoic and unblinking.  “They’re just about the rarest known creatures- information is pretty rare on them.”  The last time they spoke on the subject, Adam himself had thought phoenixes only ever spent time in their firestate, which was laughable, at best.  “You want to explode them?  I don’t think Luce is down with that idea. And neither am I, if you’re taking my help.  You need to find a way to cure them, not kill them.”  Killing the corrupted phoenix would be very, very easy.  Adam could take notes from Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West, if he wanted to be cruel like hunters tended to be.  

She pressed her lips together, unable to look at the slaughtered earthworm for too long.  Torples.  She’d heard of them, but not a ton.  She’d have to see if they had anything written up on them when she went home later tonight.  “Well- it’s good that you got it, then”, she said with an awkward nod, glancing at the bucket.  “Is the slime useful, or something?”

“Because you’re like... a supernatural librarian lady,” Adam pointed out as if this somehow gave Leah some form of nerd-omniscience. “I figured that you’d be a person to ask about something that rare y’know?”

Leah seemed to misinterpreted his amazing sound effects. “Hey hey hey,” Adam exclaimed with a note of petulance, holding up his slimy free hand in a staying gesture. “Look, that Phoenix was already exploding when we found it ok,” he asserted with boyish pique. “What I mean is that I was wondering if you knew how we could switch them into I dunno... unexplode mode, like a song, some herbs they like, an off button, we’ll take anything.” 

Adam went back to driving his blade into the annelid’s side, exposing the yellowish nerve cords beneath its ridged skin. “It interferes with magic,” he explained. “Honestly, because of how many damn Chickcharneys there are around here, I end up dunking alotta people in this slime to try and bounce the Chickcharney curse off them.” Adam chose not to mention the part where he’d erased a wizards wards with this slime and accidentally become an accessory to murder. 

Leah let out a slow breath, watching Adam carefully.  He wasn’t… wrong.  But what were the ethical implications involved with helping a hunter learn about one of the rarest, most vulnerable species that existed? 

What were they if she let someone like Adam try to figure it out on his own?

She rolled her eyes at his defense, but held her hands up in apology.  “Sorry- I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”  Even though it was so hard not to with a hunter. She walked closer to him as she continued.  “I told Luce that I have an idea of how the phoenix got so out of control, but up until now, I thought it was only a myth.”  She paused- could she really trust him?  When she thought about it, she wasn’t sure, but maybe it didn’t matter.  What difference would it make if Luce and Adam were working together in this?  One way or another, Adam was going to find out.  Better it be out of the horse’s mouth.  

“We call them corrupted- it means that their ashes were on corrupted ground when they were reborn.  Sometimes the corruption happens right away, and other times the phoenix could be well into adulthood, with a life and a family before it happens.  There are no warning signs, either.   I don’t… I still haven’t found a cure in my research, but…”  She took a deep breath before continuing, and her next words came out faster than she intended.  “If this phoenix doesn’t survive…whatever you end up doing... the best way to help them in the next life is to keep their ashes somewhere safe and sacred.”

At that imagery, Leah couldn’t help but crack a smile.  “Are you telling me you make a habit out of performing Torple Slime Baptisms, so to speak?”

The palpable feelings of otherness intensified as Leah got closer, there’d been a time when Adam would have immediately gone into fight or flight mode when his Hunter senses reacted. But in White Crest he’d had to acclimate. That conditioning was an asset when hunting alghoul out in the sticks, but here it could end up him going all kill-zone on a librarian. 

Adam paused his gory worm skinning and listened to Leah as she spoke. He noticed the use of the word ‘we’ but kept silent and impassive during the explanation. It turned out that Luce had already tapped Leah on this matter, which was unsurprising. But while he’d hadn’t doubted that she was knowledgeable, Adam’d already suspected that Ramirez wasn’t your average bibliophile, but she knew even legends of the legend. 

“We ….as in the Maine librarian’s union?”  Adam’s question was playfully phrased. There were many species, secret societies, and so on that did not appreciate their ways being pried into, and Adam didn’t want to start shit with the one person who seemed to have solid intel on Chernobyl phoenix. 

“I would rather they survive,” Adam assured. “At the end of the day I’ll do what it takes to protect civilians, but from what you’ve said it sounds like this is some demon radiation juju that they didn’t have any say in.” 

Adam inhaled. “But, if it does come to that, has your research given you any idea of a holy place that’d work for keeping the ashes safe? Maybe some place sacred to uh...I don’t know if Phoenixes worship any gods,” he admitted. “But maybe somewhere that means alot to their culture?”

The unexpected jocularity of the question, from Leah especially, took Adam openly off-guard, teasing a sheepish smile from him. “Uh yeah actually,” he admitted while scrapping some more slime off the giant mage-eater worm into a bucket. “It’s not glamorous and the clients always hate it, but the Torple-dunkage sometimes works for really minor stuff like that.”

Leah blanched, blinking at Adam’s question.  Had she been so careless to say we?  “I uh… we as in, me.  Of course. Me,us.  And the other people who are interested in supernatural history.”  She swallowed, unsure if Adam were picking up on her status as a phoenix or her status as a scribe.  Possibly both, right?  This close, he had to be having those creepy senses that she wasn’t as human as she appeared.  Either way, it was bad news.  

“I’d rather that too, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to prepare for the worst, either.” Something Adam said struck a chord in Leah, and she couldn’t stop herself before she commented.  “I mean, that’s true of most supernatural creatures though, isn’t it?  Born or bitten, werewolves, zombies, and vampires didn’t have a say in.  Do you grant them the same courtesy when they’re out of control?”

“I know a few places that could work”, she said, crossing her arms over her chest.  Whether she would tell Adam unless he absolutely needed them- that was another story.  “Not necessarily a culture to be had per say.  Because of their rarity and ability to blend in, it’s not often a phoenix ever meets another like them in their lifetime.”  She and her family were so incredibly lucky to have each other to love; to grow and learn from when they were the most vulnerable.  “I...know a family that would take care of the baby once they’re reborn, too, so-... if it comes to that, it’ll be all covered.”   

Leah let herself get a good look at the creature, taking as many mental notes as she could to write down later.  Sometimes Adam wasn’t as bad as he seemed.  “I think most people would be pissed if you dunked them into a baby pool of slime and sludge.  I certainly would.”

“It depends,” Adam answered without any attempt at dissemblance. “Gotta measure their life against the lives of those they’d kill when outta control,” the Hunter continued as he got down from the rock he’d been perched on to move his flaying blade to the Torple’s lower portion. “Most humans just get ripped in half if they meet a vamp that's gone all hunger frenzy, but I was born strong enough to match them,” he reasoned. “In the ideal scenario I wrestle the vamp or whatever off the civilian and get them to snap out of it.” 

Adam took the long strip of worm skin over to a tree and slung it over one of the branches to dry in the sunshine. “But uh, reality doesn’t give ideal scenarios most of the time y’know? Sometimes you have to make a split-second judgement or alotta people die,” the Hunter admitted. “ But yeah, I guess the best answer I can give you is that I try.” 

“That uh...sounds pretty lonely, being all human torchy and not having anything to relate to what the hell is going on,” Adam admitted, as he walked back to the Torple corpse. “Do you do the supernatural foster care stuff alot Leah?” 

Adam rolled his eyes amiably at the resistance to necessary alien-worm slime dunking. “Hey  Chick-a-Curses are worse though. Like all of their hexes are bad, but the one your head twists backwards...gah!  I either have to bribe a witch to visit their hospital room and decurse them, or I have to sneak in and pour worm slime over some poor bastard in a hospital bed and hope it works.” 

“Most vamps get stabbed if they meet an egotistical hunter”, Leah countered immediately.  “I appreciate your attempt to be civil in the way you handle things, but I don’t find the same to be true for most hunters.”  She couldn’t help but get into these debates with the hunters in her life, and if she were being honest, she didn’t really tire of them, either.

“It’s not all bad.  I know you assumed at first that they’re literal chickens, but like I said- phoenixes spend most of their time looking like humans.  And while a lot of them end up growing up not knowing what they are until they sneeze some smoke or look for a reason feathers are popping out of their foreheads, they’re not lost for companionship.  I’ve even heard tell of families who are able to stay together throughout their cyclical lives, raising each other generation after generation.  This is incredibly rare, of course.”

She blanched at Adam’s next question, opening her mouth and closing it.  She thought of the golden goose egg, still safely incubating in her basement, surely ready to hatch at any moment.  “I… how did you know I meant myself?”

Leah couldn’t help but laugh at his anecdotes, no matter how much she wanted to disavow them for being those of a hunter.  “That doesn’t sound like a fun way to wake up- are witches so untrustworthy of you that they don’t trust that your slime is for good?”

Adam rolled his eyes with a smirk. “Y’know, if I made the same argument in reverse about ‘most vamps’ being violent and evil you’d call me out for generalizing and being a bigot Ramirez,” he pointed out. 

Adam decided not to point out the fact that statistically the deaths on humans at the hands of vampires were uncountable orders of magnitude greater than vampires dying to Hunters. But frankly, it was pretty fucking obvious that Leah considered one supernatural life precious, but human lives were just numbers to her, devoid of emotional significance unless she knew them personally. 

It’s pointless to argue with people like that. 

“You don’t know ‘most Hunters’ Leah, not even close,” Adam pointed out bluntly, “Look Ramirez you hate people like me for reasons that are obviously personal. I’m fine with that.” the footballer said with a shrug of his broad shoulders, as if he felt this truce of hate sufficient. “It’s chill. 

Despite the slip into harsh words, Adam continued to listen patiently to the talk of phoenixes, families, and cycles of rebirth. It was all pretty surreal honestly. What would it be like to be with his family across a thousand lives over and over?

He wouldn’t know. Adam had grown up being raised with the knowledge that every moment with his family was precious, that he needed to learn how to survive on his own before they fell one by one in the line of duty. 

Adam hacked into the Torple with an unnecessary force as his chest constricted. 

“Do they line...remember each other each rebirth? Or are they all new different people each time?”

Leah’s unexpected motion of surprise caused Adam’s attention to flick to her instinctively, but her following question dispelled the moment of tenseness. “I didn’t,” he admitted. “I more meant that you seemed to already have homes in mind as if you were a supernatural social worker or somethin.” 

“You….really down to be a fire mom Leah?”

Adam considered Leah’s question for a moment. “I think that magic, like all resources, should be used for the betterment of society,” Adam said, hinting at a certain level of utopianism behind the memes and crass commentary. “But I can’t force everyone to think that way. If I’m going to bug a busy sorceress to leave her research to cure some rando she doesn’t know, I need to be able to pay her. Just how it is.’ 

Leah rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.  Adam was ignoring the fact that the violence that came from vampires was out of their control, and many of the deaths that came from them were for a need to survive.  Hunters, however, had plenty of control over what they did, and though there were a few gentle ones like Adam or Kaden, most would do what they did for sport, if given the chance.

“Neither do you”, she shot back.  And he’d never had to fear them, either.  She’d read countless stories about the atrocities they’d committed, and so excuse her if she didn’t trust a hunter as far as she could through them.

Again, his questions about phoenixes gave her pause.  Was this information relevant?  “It depends”, she explained.  “Not always concrete memories that you or I might have from last week or last year, but it’s more like… glimpses or feelings.  Sometimes even that doesn’t pop up right away, either.  Most phoenixes end up with a touchstone through most of their lives to help them connect.”  The touchstones didn’t always work.  She felt an invisible buzzing pull from the stone around her neck, taunting and teasing.  

She blanched at his elaboration, embarrassed that she’d assumed so quickly.  She didn’t hate the idea of that type of job, if she were being honest- supernatural social work sounded extremely fulfilling.  “Maybe I am on the side”, she teased.

“If it came down to it, yes.  But even if I couldn’t, there are arrangements I could make, if I’m being completely transparent.  Do you think you’d do the same thing, if you needed to?”

“I agree- but sometimes an idea like that is hard, because the idea of a better society can be so subjective and even divisive, you know?  What you and I think might be wonderful isn’t going to be the same as Joe who works at Excalibur.”  It was true,  Excalibur Joe had told her more than once that he thought the world would be better off without traffic lights.  “That’s not to say I don’t think betterment can happen- it’s just that the hard part is figuring out exactly what that betterment is for everyone.”

“You're right,” Adam allowed with the rueful triumph of someone who felt pain after a headbutt but took satisfaction in his opponent getting the worst of it. 

“Hmmm that sucks,” Adam mused as Leah explained firebird memories. “Guess that’s why we haven’t just solved all history questions with a few Phoenix interviews,” he reasoned.

Adam was quiet for a time as he flayed off more worm skin and yellow cutaneous tissues. “Maybe that’s better though,” he admitted after a while. “Dealing with one lifetime of going through shit is hard enough to deal with,” said the young man who trained and exercised himself to exhaustion in order to sleep. “Having to remember like other lives of horrible crap too? Don't think I could deal with it, i’d completely lose it.” 

Well ok, lose it sooner than most Hunters, Adam admitted to himself, knowing that after a time the human brain can only see so much before you start to break inside. 

“I think you’d do good at it,” Adam noted, meeting Leah’s joke with earnestness. “A foster advocate for kids i mean.” 

“Mhm. My parents adopted Hunters who were orphaned or whatnot, and I’d do the same,” Adam explained, to the question of whether he’d adopt as if there were only one answer. “Whether I take in kids or am a father, I’ll teach em how to survive,” said the Hunter, something in his tone suggesting this grim promise was the purest expression of parental love. 

“People are never going to agree on betterment,” asserted the young man born into a world of war with a shrug. “We just gotta decide what parts of our ideal world we have to get by force,”  and when talking things out is better,” said Adam. 

Leah had her mouth open, ready and willing to argue more, when Adam said that she was right.  She closed her mouth, sending him a resolute nod.  She sure was.   If only it were this easy to convince Kaden.

“Maybe, but I think it’s more the fact that they’re so rare.  Knowledge about them might even be scarce on purpose, in order to protect them.”  Did Adam know about the healing tears? Would he understand why they needed protection?  “Perhaps every life doesn’t have to be horrible, though.  It must be torture to know you’ve lived, say… three or four lifetimes before but have no idea about everything you learned throughout them”.

She smiled sheepishly at his compliment, pressing her lips together in earnest.  “Thank you”, she started.  “It means a lot.”

Adam raising children into more hunters was decidedly not what Leah was talking about, but his comments about his parents intrigued her.  “You had a lot of adopted siblings growing up, then?”  She didn’t want to delve into what he might have meant by ‘teach them how to survive’.

“I guess I just wonder who gets to decide”, she mused, turning back toward the house as she heard her name called in the distance. “My ideal would be to not have to do it by force, but I suppose that’s why Luce insists I’m an optimist.” She let out a breath, pressing her lips together in a smile.  “Did you have any other questions… about phoenixes?”

Adam nodded. “I mean I have alot of family in general like siblings, cousins, so on. As a kid it didn’t make much difference which ones had my blood or not. Some little Hunters were adopted fully, others just came to live with us and be trained for a few years,” the Hunter shrugged, indicating perhaps that his household had been a lively place full of both laughter and endless preparations for war. 

“That’s always the trick huh,” Adam affirmed with a grimace. “With Democracy you just get mob rule and decisions made without long term planning. With some elite body you get corruption and unaccountability,” the frat boy noted with a salience his professors would never hear him express in class. “I don’t think anybody’s solved that question yet.” 

Adam glanced toward the house and looked back to Leah, brown eyes intent for a time, hands dripping with the slime and blood of the massive witcheater. 

“Thanks Ramirez, I think I have what I need,” said the Hunter with the soft finality of someone who’d just come to a decision. “....sorry for keeping ya,” 

[fl-at-m8s]

Meet the flatmates!

Roxana Fjero: A confident and sarcastic waitress who does not suffer fools. She/her. 

 Machete: “A rich prostitute who’s in the circus and is also completely head over heels for his delivery boy and also trauma (quote)” He/they.

Levi Halliston: Everyone’s favourite friendship limpet. Don’t cross him or he’ll cry and/or force you to listen to his rendition of Wonderwall. Cannot handle confrontation. He/him.

Amilie Mindosa: If blue smarties were a person. She/her.

Beatrix ‘Bea’ Wilson: Pretty nerd librarian. Amilie’s girlfriend. She/her.

Jeremy: “The type of guy to steal the last beer can in the fridge and not tell anyone.” He/they.

Rat: Proud owner of Captain Joseph Twiglin the Thirty Third, best snake in existence. They/he. (The snake uses they/them pronouns)

Matt Hew: A drug dealer who married a police officer while drunk in the bathroom of a party. Currently in jail for receiving one too many parking tickets. He/him. 

Connie: A former flatmate. Gamer girl. Moved out to live with her partners Sophia and Zen. She/they.

Paul: The landlord. A jerk. He/him.

Darren Lloyd: Roxana’s clumsy, nerdy boyfriend. Someone’s got to tell the waitress he ordered mashed potatoes and it isn’t going to be him. He/him.

Tenki: The aforementioned delivery boy Machete has a crush on. No-one has heard from him in months and we fear we may never hear from him again. He/him.

Victoria: Levi’s ex-girlfriend and best (formerly only) friend. She/her.

Thomas: A random young child Machete once babysat. He called Roxana a bitch once. He is an absolute king. He/him.

Please feel free to send asks about the characters, or to ask us to tag any triggers!

[serendipitous-magic]

Soft Apocalypse aesthetic for anon (I seriously fuck with this aesthetic)

The world ended. Zombies, or aliens, or war. Does it matter? The world ended, and then the dust settled, and the survivors got up and brushed themselves off. And instead of taking up bats and machetes and painting war stripes on their faces, forming gangs with deep rivalries, and fighting over scraps in the ruined wasteland... Instead of any of that, they went on pretty much as they always had. 

The artists salvaged half-empty tubes of paint and turned plywood into canvases. The teachers started gathering classes of students again. The bakers learned, by trial and error, how to bake bread in clay ovens. Weddings are held, with everyone wearing their best clothes and decorations made from wildflowers and paper chains. Librarians begin curating what remains of their collection, even if it’s just a shopping cart full of paperbacks that they wheel around, loaning out books and keeping a record of checkouts in an old spiralbound notebook. That one guy with a generator and a projector starts up a mini movie theater, projecting movies on the side of his house at night. People bring camping chairs and blankets and sit on the lawn to watch them.

Neighbors sometimes go door-to-door with red wagons and laundry baskets full of goods to trade. Trade you three cans of tomato soup for six eggs? Trade you apples from our apple tree for baking soda? 

People adapt. Cars no good anymore? Bikes fill the roads. Harder to commercially transport food? Backyard homesteading thrives. Traditional energy sources shot? People are using more lanterns and candles after dark, now, and scientists are working on making green energy accessible. Many homes destroyed? People camp out in tents, gather together in the houses that are left. The local shopping mall has been retro-fitted into apartments. Need / want to travel long distances? People are organizing caravans moving east-west and north-south, using what vehicles there are left to carpool.

There are campfires. People are working to get the internet back up, once there’s enough green energy to power the servers. House raising parties and barn dances are gaining popularity. Children play in streets that no longer see any vehicle traffic. Every postman is a goddamn hero, marching over miles and miles to deliver the hand-written letters everyone has been writing while they wait for the internet to be restored. In the evenings, people play instruments and tell jokes.

Every billionaire and most politicians are, coincidentally, dead. No one really uses money anymore unless it’s physical cash, which some people will still accept as payment for their home-baked brownies or home repair services. No one has a 9-5, you just offer your skills to your community and that’s how you trade for what you need.

(This is not a coping mechanism daydream of mine at all.)