#The way he runs I could actually easily see her never appearing in the story but at the same time that's probably not going to happen

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Zahard x Arlene is SO "strangles you with the red thread tying us together" core... Zahard remaining haunted by Arlene's prophecy for the rest of his life and Arlene devoting the rest of HER life to her all consuming hatred for Zahard and setting said prophecy of his downfall into motion.

Forget about her so far pretty generic romance with V, (often further distilled down into the blandest possible core of m/f ('he was a boy, she was a girl', 'wholesome') without even acknowledging the edges canon gives them (going to war together - the whole "battle couple" thing you could make out of that alone - , what about their underlying ideals? Edahn doesn't mention Arlene as particularly taken with Tower residents and even acting as frequent intermediary between Zahard and V, so how did they mesh in that regard? Having to watching it all crumble, slipping away as literal fugitives, the breakdown of their relationship potentially even prior but definitely following their sons murder, etc.)), Zahard and Arlene is where it's at. It's literally the dynamic that created the plot of Tower of God.

[metalandmagi]

Romance Anime Starter List

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of seeing “Top ___ Best Anime of All Time” lists that are nothing but shounen. So, with "My Happy Marriage" getting a little attention from the anime community, I wanted to put together a list of some romance anime that I consider good “starters” for the genre. Because if I were just now becoming an anime fan, I’d think all there was to offer was shounen action series.

And by “starters” I mean basic stuff that’s not too…out there, and actually involves the characters getting together instead of just harems or using romance as a side plot (sorry Ouran High School Host Club and My Next Life as a Villainess). 

So if you’re new to anime and want stuff that’s not just guys beating the shit out of each other (which is also fun, don’t get me wrong), here are some basics.

Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale- When the pessimistic Tamahiko Shima loses all function in his right arm, his family sends him away to live in the mountains with the cheerful, hard working Yuzuki Tachibana…who was purchased by the Shima family to pay off her family’s debts and basically act as a caretaker/future bride for Tamahiko so they’d never have to deal with him again. It’s a more cheerful version of My Happy Marriage (without the supernatural stuff), except in this one, the guy is the one who has massive self-esteem issues and an abusive family. There are still very serious themes, but ultimately it’s not meant to make you cry every episode. I swear it’s so good, but nobody watched it!

Horimiya- A slice of life in which pretty and popular high school queen bee Hori, finds out her quiet, unassuming classmate Miyamura is hiding piercings and tattoos that could get him expelled. The two gradually find out more about each other and get together in the most realistic way I’ve seen depicted in an anime. It’s also fucking hysterical and genuinely emotional.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie- Another slice of life that focuses on two adults who meet in an MMO game without realizing they also know each other in real life. I don’t want to say much more than that. It’s adorable, and the main character is so relatable it hurts.

Love with Yamada-kun at Level 999- Speaking of MMOs, this is a newer series about Akane Kinoshita, a college first year who’s reeling from a bad break up. In an attempt to get back at her ex, she winds up meeting Akito Yamada, a popular gamer who happens to be in her guild in the MMO they both play at an IRL meetup. The two go from acquaintances to something more as they keep running into each other. Even more relatable main characters and just wholesome relationships all around.

Snow White With The Red Hair- A fantasy in which an apothecary named Shirayuki (meaning, you guessed it, “snow white”) runs away from her home in order to escape becoming the concubine of her town’s prince. While fleeing, she is rescued by Zen, the prince of a neighboring country, and she ends up becoming an herbalist to repay him. It's super cute with some genuinely swoon worthy moments and a couple that just works so well together. I have a habit of comparing this to Akatsuki no Yona, even though the two aren’t really that alike. This is more romance driven while Akatsuki no Yona is more of a serious historical fantasy with romance elements (Yona manga is amazing, but the anime barely scratches the surface, so that’s why I didn’t include it).

Sasaki to Miyano- When the shy, easily flustered Miyano meets Sasaki, a cool “delinquent” upperclassmen, the two end up bonding over manga…specifically BL manga. That’s right, Miyano is a fudanshi, but due to his small stature and somewhat feminine appearance, he’s constantly trying to convince others that he’s not interested in having his own love story where he’d be reduced to a stereotypical doe-eyed uke. But as Sasaki and Miyano spend more time together, they realize that what they have is more than friendship, and they have to come to terms with their own perception of gay relationships. This is my favorite romance of all time. It’s a slow burn, but boy is it worth it. Their relationship is so natural and realistic, just like Horimiya. Just two people hanging out and bonding over things the way people do in real life!

Given: The story of some boys in a band with trauma. Enough said. It's great. Go watch it.

Bloom Into You- Yuu Koito is a high school girl who’s been waiting her whole life for her own perfect romance to start…but when she receives a confession, she realizes she doesn’t know how to respond when she’s just not into the guy. And then she gets another confession…this time from the cool student council president Touko Nanami, who basically jumpstarts her lesbian awakening. Very cute story about how we perceive the concept of love vs actually feeling it. Also has a canonically aro/ace side character, so that’s a win for me. Another show like this is Adachi to Shimamura (but I honestly don’t remember much about it. It just didn’t stick with me as much).

Ore Monogatari- Takeo Gouda is a tall, bulky high school first year with a sensitive heart of gold. He wants nothing more than to find his own true love, but most girls are intimidated by his enormous stature, and they end up falling for his conventionally attractive friend instead. That is, until he meets the tiny, adorable Rinko Yamato. He falls in love instantly, but he’s sure she’s interested in his best friend like everyone else, so he vows to help get them together, even though his heart is breaking. Peak himbo behavior. Pure of heart, dumb of ass.

Yuri on Ice- Yes it’s the gay figure skating anime everyone knows. And yes it’s a fucking romance, okay? I will die on this hill. The romance between Viktor and Yuri is just as important as the plot!

Kaguya-sama Love Is War- Two insanely smart high school students both have a crush on the other, but since they’re…you know…high schoolers, neither of them wants to admit it first. So they come up with increasingly convoluted plans to get the other to confess first. This will go down as one of the best of all time. It’s a hilarious yet poignant modern classic.

Fruits Basket- I’ve talked about it before and I’ll talk about it again. A romance “comedy” that slowly morphs into a drama about a girl named Tohru who finds herself living with the mysterious Sohma family after her mother dies. Little does she know, the Sohmas are the victims of a  (somewhat silly, but ultimately tragic) curse that she must fight to break. Even though I’m more into it for the family drama, the romance is still top tier and plays an important role in the story. This is my second favorite anime of all time, and it’s a classic for a reason. If anyone hasn’t watched it yet, GO WATCH IT! IT WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!

Blue Box- A sports romance about an aspiring badminton player named Taiki Inomata who has a massive crush on the girls basketball team's star player Chinatsu Kano. Through a twist of fate, the two end up living together and having to hide it from the rest of their classmates, all while Taiki tries to work up the courage to ask Chinatsu out. It's so sweet and wholesome, and it's a great blend of sports anime and romance that can appeal to anyone who is more hesitant to get into the romance genre. The animation is also so freaking gorgeous!!!!

365 Days To The Wedding- A workplace romance between the two most awkward people you could possibly imagine! The story takes place at a travel company that is about to open a new branch in Alaska, but because our two main characters are...like I said...very awkward, they come up with a plan to avoid being sent to work at the new branch...by telling their boss they're getting married. Because they wouldn't want to split up a married couple by making one move away, right? As ridiculous as the premise sounds, hilarious shenanigans ensue, but there's also a surprising amount of serious discussions about romance and marriage. The main characters also have major autism coding, so if you're looking for a neurodivergent romance, this is it. (There's also an episode that involves a princess wanting to give up the throne to pursue a life with her girlfriend!)

And now for some honorable mentions that didn't quite fit into the regular list:

Ride Your Wave- A movie about a surfer who falls in love with a firefighter……and I’m not going to say any more than that. Go into it blind. If you like stuff like Your Name, this is a good one to watch.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun- A comedy about a high school girl who finds out the upperclassman she has a crush on is actually a shoujo manga artist, and no matter how she tries to confess to him, he just never gets it.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague- A slow burn slice of life that focuses on a guy with ice powers who has a crush on his coworker. That’s it. That’s the show. When I say slow, I mean SLOW. It’s perfectly cute and fluffy, but my god does it take forever to get anywhere with these two.

Skip to Loafer- A high strung, small town girl decides to go to high school in Tokyo, where she meets a variety of classmates, including the laid back Sousuke Shima. The unlikely pair become friends, and soon enough, she starts to feel something more than friendship. The only reason I didn’t include it in the main list is because they don’t get together by the end of the first season, but it’s still really cute (also canonically trans character for the win!?)

So that’s my starter list. And no, I didn’t include Toradora, even though it’s a classic. I know it’s blasphemous, but I like it more as a comedy than a romance. It kinda lost me with the ending. But anyway, maybe someone will find something they like. Or maybe you'll just want to roast me and my picks 😅

[lie-lacdreams]

Thermodynamics and Turmoil (Curly x Reader pt.2)

Hi friends -- I'm putting out the second installment to this quickly to gain some more momentum! Thank you for all of the support so far - I wasn't sure how well this was going to do but I hope you've been enjoying it. If you have any questions about the story so far, pls ask! I love interacting :)

Last Next

engineer! reader x Curly TW: vulgar language, mention of thermo transfer theories (EWWWW), and catching feelings (ew pt.2), oh, and the existential dread of unsatisfaction that ambition can bring to your life, leaving you hungry and wanting more Word count ~ 2.0k

“Daisuke, come back here! I’m going to kill you right now!!” A flash of pink passed Curly before halting to a quick stop to hide right behind him.

“Captain, please save me! Aaaah!” Daisuke screamed as he caught sight of (Y/N), who just came around the bend of the hallway hunting him down. 

“What’s going on here?” Curly asked, observing (Y/N’s) disheveled appearance. Her jumpsuit was zipped halfway up to her torso and her hair still looked disheveled from sleep. 

She slowed down to a stop, now embarrassed that she had been caught in such a state by the captain before replying, “This… one over here had the genius idea to turn off my alarm and I slept in three extra hours. Could you please hand him over so I could maim him?” She peered to the side of Curly to narrow her eyes at Daisuke, who let out a shriek and made himself smaller behind the man in front of him. 

“Oh? I had asked him to do that, actually,” he mused. 

“Pardon me?” she straightened.

“You looked so exhausted yesterday, you deserve a few extra hours of rest after giving yourself no breaks. He was just following Captain’s orders.”

“Oh… I see. Uhm, thank you. I guess you’re off the hook then, Dai. Has Swansea got you working on anything right now or do you want to come shadow me? I have to take a look at the pressure in the steam pipes.” she asked the intern. 

“Yes! Let’s go. I wanna hear about what you were up to all of yesterday. Swansea and I like, didn’t see you at all. Will you let me help out today?” He came out from behind Curly and started walking ahead of (Y/N), eager to please and for something to do. 

“Heh, sure. See you around, Captain.” she said a bit sheepishly, trailing behind Daisuke. After a good night’s rest and the initial panic of waking up late, the interaction with Curly finally sunk in for (Y/N). She typically kept her emotions so detached from the crew and her work and it almost horrified her how easily it was for her to open up to him last night in a moment of vulnerability. As much as it made her uncomfortable to realize that she had run her mouth and ranted to him, she woke up with a feeling of relief. Sure, her job was still going to be hard, but knowing that her captain believed in her and was willing to help in any way he could gave her a sense of peace. 

She stopped by some pipes in the corner of the hallway and turned to Daisuke. “Okay, let’s get to work.”

After a few hours of working and (Y/N) explaining Nusselt theory with Daisuke half listening, she finally called for a break. 

“Nerd,” he teased as he stuck his tongue out at her. “How did you even come to like any of this stuff anyway?” They leaned on the wall, sitting on the floor together.

“I don’t know. To be honest, I never really knew what I wanted to do in my undergrad. I just picked chemical engineering because it was kinda interesting but hard and so rewarding when I understood it. Getting my PhD in it after working for a few years just seemed like a natural next step.” She turned to Daisuke. “I know you’re in college now, and everyone is probably asking you the same thing and you’re sick of hearing it but what do you want to do?”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” he started. “I think everyone around me has these expectations that I’ll do something great, and I’m so scared of disappointing them. They say the sky’s the limit and that’s what scares me. I could do anything with my life, so how do I know that whatever I choose won’t be the wrong path?”

“I don’t believe in such a thing as a wrong path,” she responded. “Whatever you choose, you make the best of it and try your hardest. Everything happens for a reason.”

Under his breath, Daisuke laughed. “Man, maybe Anya should hand over the wellbeing check-ins to you. You’re like, so philosophical.”

“Oh God, no. I could never be held responsible for people like that. I’d go mad.” She stood up, dusting off her pants and held a hand to him. “I think we’re pretty much done for the day, believe it or not. Wanna go play some Uno?”

Spending the rest of the day relaxing after the past few days of struggling was refreshing and just what she needed. That night she finally joined the rest of the crew for supper, laughing with Anya about something too far away for Curly to hear. Their little family was complete tonight and it was moments like these that Curly savored. He wished that every moment on the Tulpar could be like this. 

A few days later, Curly was exiting the cockpit and was startled to nearly trip over (Y/N). “I’m so sorry, Captain. I had no idea you were in there.” She looked up from her mess of manuals, a notebook, and trusty abacus, a pencil tucked behind her ear. 

“It’s alright. Are you alright?” He asked.

“Yes, just looking at our fuel today and trying to make the Tulpar cooperate with me.” She furrowed her brows. 

“Need a hand with anything?” He offered, crouching down to look at the paper in her hands. 

“O-Oh, only if you aren’t busy, then yes, I would love some help, actually. But I don’t want to be a burden.”

He shook his head. “Nonsense. The ship’s on autopilot right now and Jimmy will take over for me in fifteen minutes anyway so I’m all yours.”

“Okay,” she flushed. “Thank you, come with me please.” She led him a few paces away. “See this? If you could read me some of the values over here that would be great. This here is the manometer, it measures pressure and over here is the oxidizer. There are a few things I need you to read aloud to me.”

After getting all the information she needed, she bid Curly goodbye and looked around for a place for her to do her calculations. Settling for the couch in the lounge, she got to work when Daisuke plopped down right next to her. 

“Hey, (Y/N),” he started.

“ ‘Sup?” She asked, distracted.

“Fuck, marry, kill: anyone on this ship.” His lips spread into a shit-eating grin. 

“Fuck Curly, marry Anya, kill Jim– wait a minute, what??” She looked up from her notebook. 

Daisuke’s eyes lit up before his face twisted into an expression of evil delight. “Ohohohoo yooo (Y/N) you wanna fuck the captain?”

“No!! Stop that!! You asked me that while I was distracted and not really paying attention. That’s not true.” She swatted at him.

“Sure, but that doesn’t change your answer now, does it? Damn, you answered that shit with no hesitation too!” He shrugged his eyebrows. “Since when did you have the hots for the captain?” 

“Sure, I find him really attractive, okay? I admit it. It’s not that big of a deal. Okay then, what about you?” She crossed her arms, face flushed and flustered. 

Daisuke’s face contorted to one of disgust. “Eww nah I can’t do this! Swansea and Jimmy are just-” he made dry heaving sounds. “You and Anya are like my older sisters, so that’s absolutely not happening. And Curly – okay I agree with you on that one but like, he’s so much older.” he shrugged. 

She let out a ‘harrumph’ before going back to her work. “Doesn’t Swansea have something for you to do, huh?” 

Daisuke shook his head. “I’m just waiting ‘til dinner.” He kept her company on the couch as she worked, playing on his gameboy and trying his best to stay quiet so she could concentrate. Supper was a quiet affair today, with not everyone showing up to eat at the same time. People came and went, in and out of the lounge, eventually going to bed. (Y/N) was still up, now in loose pajama pants and a sweatshirt, criss-crossed on the couch and reading a book in the light of the night time screen. Anya had already gone to bed and so she sat in the lounge so as to not disturb her sleep.

“Hey,” said the captain. “Mind if I join you there?” She smiled up at him before patting a spot next to her on the sofa, inviting him to sit with her. She noticed that he was still in uniform as he sat down, draping an arm over the couch and facing her. 

“You weren’t there at dinner today, did you have a chance to eat?” She asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Anya brought Jimmy and me dinner. We’re heading straight for a belt of asteroids so we had to do a bit of charting and manual steering to make sure we don’t crash. We should be fine and taken care of now,” he massaged his temples with a hand.

“You look pretty tired, Captain. If you were busy today, you know you didn’t need to help me out, right? Take care of your obligations first.” She looked up at him and the blue glow of the large screen somehow seemed to soften the look in his blue eyes. Dammit, Daisuke, she thought. Admitting the captain was handsome out loud only made her more aware of it. Even with bags under his eyes and the rugged state of his beard, she couldn’t help but blush under his gaze, so she turned to look at the fake moon on the screen. 

“No, I enjoyed helping out today. Ever since you opened up to me, I want to make sure that you have the support that you need. It’s my responsibility, after all.” He followed her gaze to look at the display screen as well.

“Don’t you ever get burnt out juggling all of this? It’s a lot to pile onto just one person, and the company makes it even worse by making things accessible only through you. And in the end, you’re the one who’s responsible for our performance on this trip.” She turned back to him now, concerned. 

“Sometimes, I guess. I started here on a pretty low rung of the ladder, but I always dreamed of doing something greater. The higher and higher I climbed, the more complicated things got, more liabilities were piled on, but I couldn’t help but keep climbing. There’s still something missing from my life, and even if I get to the top, I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever be satisfied.”

(Y/N) paused for a moment to think. “Would you ever leave this line of work to pursue something completely new, even if it meant having to start over from the beginning?”

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’ve done it once before, so it isn’t that intimidating to have to do it again.”

She nodded. “That’s very admirable. In a sense, it seems like you know what direction you know you want to go in, even if what you want isn’t clear. I respect you a lot for that, Captain.”

Curly shook his head. “Please, I think we all in one way or another are trying our best out here. We all have responsibilities we have to take care of by being on this ship.” He glanced at her again. “And honestly, you know you can call me Curly, right? Jimmy does it, my friends back on Earth called me that too. At this point we’ve gotten pretty vulnerable with each other over the past few days.”

“Okay, C-urly. Maybe not on duty, but right now it doesn’t sound too bad.” (Y/N) was praying that the glow from the screen concealed her hot and flushed face. After these past few days of getting to know the captain a bit better, it was so easy for feelings to snowball. Brushing the fluttery feeling she had aside, she stood up. “I think I’m going to head to bed now. I hope you’ll do the same, Curly. Thank you for being vulnerable with me.”

After he heard the door shut quietly, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, giving the display screen one last look before getting up and going to bed himself.

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

Thanks for reading! Give me a few days and I'll be back. Cheers!

[undertheorangetree]

Cherry Wine

Summary- Coriolanus returns to the Capitol with his most prized possession.

Warnings- MDNI 18+ Female reader. Technically TBOSAS spoilers. Reader is essentially Lucy Gray. Really incredibly toxic relationship. Choking. Fingering. P in V sex. This is technically kidnapping.

Author’s Note- I wasn’t sure if this was ever gonna actually see the light of day but I am a lush little creature so enjoy. This is part 2 to In the Woods Somewhere but can probably be read as a standalone?? Either way full story linked below :)

She hates the Capitol. She has hated it since the first moment she set eyes on it. Admittedly, she had not seen much when she first arrived- thrown in a cage at the zoo, paraded through the streets, dragged into the arena- but it had been enough to forge an opinion. She hates the opulence, the disgusting displays of wealth. The way everything of value is flaunted and passed around as if it’s frivolous and easily replaced. How the towers loom over the wide streets, so different from the ramshackle buildings that make up Twelve. The way garbage is swept from the roadside the moment it appears, refusing for even a moment to appear as anything less than immaculate. Everything manicured. Everything perfect. Designed to make an impression, everything about it seems to grab you by the jaw and force you to look at the perfection of it all, nails dug in lest you attempt to look away. A perfectly ripe peach, all sunset pink with its soft, near endearing fuzz, hiding the rotten, maggot-ridden center underneath.

It's enough to make her miss the coal dusted streets of home.

The Snow penthouse- Coriolanus’s penthouse- seems to be the perfect example of Capitol excellence. The perfect patterns built into the tile in the bathrooms, the marble floors that seem to glitter beneath her feet, the paintings displayed behind thin sheets of glass to keep them perfectly preserved. She can see everything from up here, the highest apartment in the tallest building, and the longer she stares out the window, the more she comes to realize she hates to be so high up.

Or perhaps she simply hates that this bay window is the only view she gets of the outside world. The only view she has gotten in weeks.

She had regretted following Coriolanus onto that train the moment she set foot inside it but by then it had been too late. The doors had slid shut as silent as a wraith and she knows her face must have changed as he had half hauled her into one of the padded chairs and made her sit, watching her with his too blue eyes as if he were waiting for her to run. And had she thought she stood a chance, perhaps she would have. She should have. But then she had caught sight of the Avoxes serving them, standing silent and resigned in the corner and knew that should she cause a scene, she would likely share their fate.

So she had sat there uncomplainingly. Let him parade her back home and listened as the lies he told Grandma’am and Tigris flowed off his tongue like honey, hating the bits of truth sprinkled throughout. Holding her hand like a shackle as he told them how they had fallen in love. That he couldn’t possibly leave her behind. That she wasn’t really district, was she? Not like the others, not when she had never truly been one of them, not now that she was a Victor. The perfect lovestruck boy and his pretty little prize. Who could make them part now, separate them so soon after they had found each other? They had fawned all over him- and Tigris over her- so quickly it had made her skin crawl but still, she had said nothing, offering smiles she knew didn’t reach her eyes.

She had continued to say nothing when she heard him tell the Plinths just how sorry he was for Sejanus, that if he had known what he was doing, he would have stopped him. As he told them how dear his dead friend had been to him. Best friends. She had listened silently as the Plinth’s rewarded him for his devotion, handing him the keys to a lavish new penthouse for little more than his supposed loyalty, for loving their sweet, kind Sejanus. The keys to her self imposed prison.

Coriolanus had never told her how the Capitol had gotten its hands on the jabberjay that damned his lone friend to the hanging tree but he didn’t have to. She has had plenty of time to put that story together herself, sitting alone in his locked apartment while he attended the university and worked under Doctor Gaul planning for the next Games.

She is a Victor and though perhaps that should mean something, it has become clear that it doesn’t. Though people watched her Games, though she made an impression, the memories of those in the Capitol are fleeting. No Victor is remembered following their Games. They are congratulated for their victory and sent home on the first train, never to be seen or heard from again. They fade from the public eye quickly, forgotten before the next moon, and perhaps she would have been as well had she not caught Coriolanus’s attention. Had he not been her mentor, so enamoured with her that he would cheat to save her.

She blames herself just as much as she blame him. Curses herself for not being able to see behind that perfectly curated mask he presents to everyone who looks at him, for being distracted by his pretty blonde curls and handsome face. Had he been ugly or cruel or anything other than deceptively kind, perhaps she could have escaped all this unscathed. Gone back home to Twelve without having him falling behind her like some forgotten shadow. Even if she had lost the Games, at least then she would be free of him. But instead she had been little more than a moth drawn to a flame, her wings now singed and leaving her an easy meal to the predator who first spotted her.

Read the full story here

[deepdreamnights]

Vidu 2.0 - First Reactions

I am in the Vidu Artist's program, so I've had a chance to play with version 2.0 before the official launch on the 15th. What I'm working with is a pre-launch build, and has improved day-to-day, so this may not reflect the final release.

I haven't yet had a chance to give it the full paces-run-through it deserves, but here's some early samples, and early thoughts. (Converted to GIF because you can only upload one video per post.)

The short version is that everything has been incrementally improved: Better coherence, better prompt responsiveness, better motion, and way, way better speed. Without doing exact time-tests it's say it's at least 25% the time to generate a video of the same dimensions.

While there's still some of the "smudge-blurring" that you got with 1-1.5, it happens less frequently, and is more mitigated with an image/animation that match.

Motion varies gen-by-gen, but impressive results seem to be the norm.

While his sticks are somewhat flexible at full framerate, the cat drummer's cymbal hit struck me as particularly nice.

Control and Coherence

While the roar may not seem particularly impressive, roars, howls, and other emotional outbursts didn't work well in previous versions. Aunt Acid's fumes and drips are are particularly fun, and while it still has problems with her tail, PteroDarla's crest and wings are actually working the way they should (after a number of attempts).

For a long time, I've wanted the last shot of the TMax opener to be Max starting with a zoom-in on the eye going out to a roar and pose. While this isn't quite where I want it, 2.0 is the first time I've gotten him to go through the whole sequence. Which is promising.

Weird Stuff Works

What remains impressive about Vidu is how well it handles concepts and characters that are off-the-beaten-path. Hailuo just released a character consistency feature that only works with humans, but here...

Here's my friend Cole's OC, the Waffler (Intergalactic Bounty-Hunter.) He's one unbalanced breakfast. He's also rather resistant gen AI replication because he's an SD space man with a waffle for head, a very specific waffle for a head turned at a 45 degree angle. Vidu 1.0 wasn't able to work with him, almost always giving him a mouth or rotating his waffle, if not completely glitching out. 2.0 is much better to handle it.

The numerous dino-anthros above are all in the "Tricky for AI" box. If I was into doing what could be gened easily, however, I'd just be pumping out an endless parade of pillowy waifus.

In my defense, I classify SexBomb as more of a 'strifu'. This particular one was an attempt to see if a toony image prompt could be rendered live-action with text prompting. Long story short it can't, but it can produce some interesting effects like the faux-posterized background.

I've had AI gen close to her costume before, but it never adds the fuse or does the boob-window right, and here we are.

One of my old bits of Transformers fanart of the Pretender Monster Icepick served as the character model for the one on the right.

Fantastical Creatures in general are a lot easier to execute in this version as well.

And... Action!

Motion is a lot more natural this time around.

Weapons fire (though sometimes a bit literal) tends to come out of the barrel semi-consistently now, characters can fight the waves without melting themselves and...

A giant rubber monster can eat your protagonist (if you're lucky.)

Quirks and Flaws

Nothing is perfect, and all AI you see is curated. So lets talk areas to be improved.

A lot of stuff presently generates with multilingual gibberish captions sometimes, which I expect is an early model bug. Versions 2-3 of Midjourney would have similar artifacts, and that sort of thing isn't hard to correct for.

There are still issues with blurring/smudging, especially with things like tail-tips, hands, and any motion the robot doesn't quite get.

Sometimes stuff shapechanges or appears that ought not to, like the knight's floppy second blade.

Or speed gets off requiring being fixed in post.

And stuff just goes dumb sometimes, which one should expect (and in my estimation, desire) from any generative system, artificial or analogue. Should the water go on the fire rather than the firemen? Yes. Do I regret this gen? No.

One quirk of the system is how it resolves incongruous multi-prompts. I've been accustomed to Midjourney, which, when generating an image must blend everything requested. You can put two completely different backgrounds in as image prompts and it will blend them into something new and wacky.

Vidu resolves problems like having two background images at once by taking advantage of the 4th dimension. Confuse the robot too much and it will just cut/fade from one idea to the next.

And then there's stuff that just happens, like, a shot being perfect except a painted (and thus ought to be static) background object animating beautifully (going retro is a path wrought with irony) and the robot deciding it'd rather do CG-style than 2d.

And while it doesn't show up great in the gif of Max at the construction site there, 2.0 is more vulnerable to interpreting bad transparency-clipping as part of the character design, so be careful if you're using transparent PNGs.

Also, if you slap a character and a background together without elaborating on the setting with the text prompt, it will often slap the background back there as a static backdrop and produce a very "greenscreen-y" effect.

Rather than laden this post down with more animated GIFs, I'll be setting up a batch of them as posts for the upcoming days. At least, that's the plan.

[chipi-chupi-chips]

I hope I'm not too late for this

But I finally managed to finish this character!

(★Click for better resolution/quality★)

⚙️Felice⚙️

An Oc for the "Milkshake House"

"Milkshake Mansion" belongs to @boiling-potato

It was such an honor to make this Oc! And thank you so much for accepting one more for your family! TToTT 💖

Felice is a living doll made of porcelain

(She was inspired by the story of Pinocchio)

Story:

An inventor who worked on a fabric decided to create live by making a doll, he wanted to create show people the wonderful things she could do to make anyone smile even if she had a hard time trying to get used to it and from the people who used to be scared by her appearance.

Still he made sure to no one sees him as the fabric was only for weapon inventions.

He decided to call his creation "Felice" and he was the only person in the world that Felice trusted no matter what, after all he promised to give her a good peaceful life.

But one day he was discovered by the others as they assured him to have mercy on his life only if he gives them Felice since they could see more fighting potentials for future wars.

Felice ended up hearing this and unfortunately she saw this as a betrayal even if her creator didn't accept the offer she already was feeling abandoned.

One night Felice had a rebellion against her creator and as the days passed by he never showed around the village anymore (His destiny is still unknown but rumors says that his life was took by the doll) Felice tried to escape from the village, the people only saw her as a monster at this point.

Authorities chased after her, Felice ran away and fought against however got in her way but she ended up running far enough as the bolts and nuts inside her body began to fail, Felice could see a Mansion not very far away, she tried to reach it but ended up passing out nearby with some broken pieces and cracks on her porcelain skin, even so her anger towards everyone from the village she use to live in never faded away.

(Aaaa this was too long so sorry ;_;)

Personality:

•Sour

•Stubborn

•Pessimistic

•Sarcastic

•Patient

•Quite aggressive/ easy to anger

•Feisty

Facts:

°She has mechanical nuts, bolts and more metallic pieces inside her body so she doesn't break easily.

°She can pull out pieces of her body or sometimes it can be by accident (Can be very practical or useful to her).

°Has mechanical skills so she can fix her own body.

°The black goggles on her head belonged to her creator but she stole it the night she decided to rebels against him.

°She was made and lived on a Steampunk village.

°Felice talks without open her mouth and only showing her teeth (Sharp teeth mades for self defense) still she can open it but mostly do this to bite.

°Her biggest dream is to become an inventor.

°Even if she hates a betrayal Felice would actually betray someone for her own benefits or only for survive.

°If she gets trapped into the Milkshake House, deep down she wouldn't want to leave during the fear of someone finding her (doesn't mean she would not try to fight for freedom).

°The cracks on her skin are from the escape she had and some fights.

There are more things but it would be a long post XD again thank you for this opportunity! >□< ♥︎♥︎♥︎

[bluemoonscape]

Countdown to Wiege

So holy shit! Wiege! In less than a week! On Valentine's Day! Funny enough I predicted that in the server a few months ago because "haha wouldn't it be funny if the hyuluka round was on vday" and lo and behold I had a correct prediction for once

As always, vivimeng are stars at foreshadowing, so the best way to suss out the type of story points we'll be hitting is to look at the more recent posts about Luka, Hyuna, and Wiege as a whole.

Three lyrics teasers (the only ones we've gotten since there were no lyrics in the actual video teaser):

After turning these over in my head for a few weeks, I've realized that I find these images in relation to Luka and Hyuna as really indicative of their characterization and motivations. Luka seems so heartless to the viewers, especially after Round 7, but what we've gotten from the teaser paints him as so emotional, sentimental even. It's clear he's having more than a few flashes to the past in his POV. Hyuna has had flashbacks too, cough Hyunwoo rock cough, but whenever she has them, she quickly panics and pushes them from her mind. She's always running from the past while Luka seems to hold onto it as the only thing he has left to live for - something that's already gone. Hyuna, on the other hand, is literally crawling on her hands and knees with a stump of a leg to escape her past. Everything she had to live for is gone, so she has to find something else to live for. She has to push on.

(The lighting and composition of these is also fun to think about. Luka's is so bright, detached and dreamlike and Hyuna's is dark, personal, nightmarish.)

There's the Hyuna comic. It goes into a lot of detail about her past - not necessarily her childhood, but it fills in the gaps from Alien Stage to where she is now in the rebellion and really highlights Isaac since it's from his perspective, additionally giving him more depth as a character with the existence of Jacob and the development of his relationship with Hyuna. We wouldn't be getting Isaac content if Isaac wasn't about to appear. In the video teaser released today, we also see a human hand holding a gun to Luka's head that matches Isaac's skin tone:

So Isaac and Dewey, crashing the party? It's more likely than you'd think.

We have this ALNST Friday gem:

Interesting that it's titled "Disgust" especially since Luka parades around with such a sense of superiority when he performs. But it's just that. A performance. He's disgusted by these failed versions of himself. He's made to be this "angel" but deep down he's revolted, by himself, by what he's made to be, to do. So much of his fascination and infatuation with Hyuna comes from how different they are from each other. He sees in her something that could never grow in something as inhospitable as him. Hope.

In the childhood reflections of each Anakt group, Luka is the only one of any group whose face is scribbled out.

This could easily be from Hyuna's perspective, but it's equally likely and I think perhaps more probable that it's Luka's. He doesn't want to remember himself. He doesn't want to remember the things he did (hence the extension of the scribbles over Hyunwoo's face, leaving Hyuna's face as the only clear one). Hyuluka's relationship is often described as so different from Mizisua and Ivantill, but it really isn't. In all of these images, one thing is obvious: The perfect memories within are all being desperately, painstakingly preserved, protected and hidden from the world. Even as the darkness closes in around Mizi and Sua, Sua keeps Mizi in their safe bubble for as long as she can, protecting her joy, her innocence. Till creates a fishbowl around himself and Ivan - they're isolated, but they're isolated together, alone together. Till keeps their memories safe inside where even he can't touch them, the pain of doing so too great.

And Luka preserves Hyuna's face and fruitlessly tries to rewrite the past by erasing himself from it.

Hyuna and Luka's relationship hasn't had the chance to be fleshed out yet, but now we're here, and if those screencaps from the teaser of Luka flushing and teary-eyed like a child as he looks at Hyuna are anything to go by, it can't be said anymore that she's just a fascination for him. He loved her. He loves her still even after the pain he's caused her, and she's caused him by abandoning their round, their moment in eternity together.

Every other kid had their special person. Mizi and Sua had each other. Ivan had Till, and Till had Ivan and Mizi. Hyuna and Hyunwoo had each other.

But Luka is inhospitable. He is no one's happy memory. He just haunts, and every failed version of himself haunts him.

Will he make a choice like Ivan and Sua did this round? He could throw his life away to cement his place in Hyuna's life. Or he could let her die to "save" her. Either way, he's preserving his perfect image of her - my savior, beautiful lady. I can't see an ending where they both live, personally, though nothing is impossible.

And finally, the morse code at the end:

A-L-I-V-E.

(breathing into a paper bag) which could mean nothing (it definitely doesn't) but I've been team Mizi's friends come back wrong to haunt her since day 1 let it be known

Till has a lot of green flags for having lived through his round altogether. And Sua, mark my words, is coming back for Mizisua round 2 to bring things full circle.

(Could we please have Ivan back too for the holy trinity vivimeng please I'll owe you my life)

So to sum it up:

Isaac and Dewey come for their girl with firepower.

Luka POV all the way; we're probably finding out how Hyunwoo really died and getting a more sympathetic Luka.

Luka is not giving Hyuna up without something.

Someone or someones is not dead and it will be revealed on Friday.

And on that note, we could be getting a teaser for Sua's probable return at the end based on Mizi's capture and apparent absence from the Hyuluka rematch.

Will be releasing my round bingo card soon!

[ghcstao3]

Im currently watching brave and it’s given me brain worms hehe

It’s to do with the will o’ the wisp!

Either soaps been seeing them his whole life guiding him to the task force or after a rough mission, totally lost/injured and with no way to contact anyone they guide his way back to ghost :D

Thanks for everything you write it genuinely makes my day to read all your works!!

ooh i really like this. also- apparently will o' the wisps are actually Not good in folklore so i wrote a little twist to fix that ;)

-

Throughout his life, Soap's nan had always liked to tell him stories about the many malevolent creatures he should hope to never have the misfortune of encountering—kelpies, redcaps, sluaghs; just about everything that existed in his homeland's folklore.

A little cruel in retrospect, Soap thinks, but for a while he'd just understood it as his nan's way of ensuring her grandson was to behave. They were myths, old tales and explanations for the unexplainable, and he can appreciate the determination to share tradition.

But now, as Soap is stranded in thick woods after an operation gone awry, blood sticky on his temple and a bullet stuck in his leg, he's not so sure they were just stories. Not as he's currently staring down an unnatural wisp of light in the darkness, hovering just a few feet away from where he'd collapsed against the thick, gnarled trunk of a tree.

Will o' the wisp, his mind supplies. Omens of death, his nan had told him, like many other creatures and spirits. They appear to the weary and lost like himself, flickers of glowing blue light almost hopeful as they guide one along a seemingly nonsensical path—but instead of leading someone to safety, they lure people to their doom.

The wisp just floats, unmoving, as Soap sits frozen. He tries his radio to no avail, and realizes with a great dread that he only has two options: attempt to find his own way back to his team, to anyone, anywhere, with the great risk of only getting more lost—or follow the wisp in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, it may actually lead him somewhere useful, no matter how bad the destination. Soap could only hope that doom is something he can fend off with a gun.

His decision is made rather easily because... he supposes it doesn't really make a difference, does it?

So he pushes himself away from the tree and toward the light—it vanishes as soon as he steps toward it, but with another step forward, another wisp appears.

Soap limps along, following the wisps. They weave him through trees and take sharp, sudden turns, disappearing and reappearing endlessly as Soap pursues the trail they leave. His head is on a swivel with every sound that isn't the crunch of branches beneath his own boots, with every flash of movement in his periphery.

He feels like he’d been walking forever by the time the forest has grown less dense and the wisps fade away for good—and that's when Soap sees it.

The large, imposing silhouette. The hulking figure cloaked in black. The glimpse of a skull in the sliver of moonlight that had managed to break through the forest's canopy.

Soap swallows a laugh. The will o' the wisps must have led him to Ghost, not realizing doom would have only been certain for Soap had he been the enemy.

Funny.

Ghost spots him and raises his gun, pauses, then after a moment lowers the barrel.

"Johnny?" Ghost grunts. "Where the fuck've you been?"

Soap shrugs a shoulder, wincing as he steps closer. "Lost my way running from the facility. Comms were dead." He flashes a crooked grin. "Worked out though, aye?"

Ghost snorts. "Aye," he echoes. "C'mon, then. Exfil's waiting. Save your explanations 'til then."

Soap gladly follows, relief nearly exalting.

But as they walk shoulder-to-shoulder, Soap can’t help but cast one last glance back at the trees from where he had emerged.

He wonders if the wisps had really made a mistake. He wonders if maybe they hadn't been done leading him, but Ghost had gotten in the way.

Questions he'll likely never find the answers for.

But regardless, now in safe hands—Soap thinks he had better refresh himself on his nan's stories as soon as he gets the chance.

He doesn't know now, whenever they might come in handy.

[dayas]

@saudade-life requested 41 and/or 43 for Fiyeraba so here you go!

43. “YOU DID WHAT?!”

Drabble Prompts

Bodyguard AU! Cause I can 🥰

—

Elphaba Thropp knew her sister was supposed to be protected. Whether or not she actually agreed with her father’s overprotectiveness was another story (though her thoughts and any individualism whatsoever was decidedly unwelcome among the hyper crust circles she frequented). However, she had not expected her own personal security detail, nor the fact that her bodyguard, Fiyero Tigelaar, was prone to flirting with anything that walked during his shifts. Including her. She found it easy to brush him off, dodging his advances as easily as she dodged inquirers questions about why she and her sister did not look as alike as they ought to. Still, it wasn’t until she was at a party one night and Fiyero’s hand was against the small of her back as he rushed her from a room that she realized he might actually be half decent at his job. It was horrific, watching him push her forward and turn to face her assailant. Watching his body jerk from the bullet that pierced his shoulder, another into his leg. Both meant for her. She felt herself scream, heard it as though it had come from someone else’s body. His gun was in her hands, three shots fired off into her masked assailants chest. It clattered to the ground, replaced by Fiyero’s body. Thankfully, she could carry more weight than many supposed. That being said, it was still quite difficult to drag him outside, down the stairs, and into the car that was waiting for them.

“Fuck,” Elphaba whispered, her fingers stained with Fiyero’s blood. “Take me to the hospital. Now!”

She turned her attention to her bodyguard, fighting off the knots in her stomach.

“Come on, Fiyero,” she murmured to him, “You can’t die before I get to thank you for saving my life. That’s not fair.”

Her arrival was a whirlwind of camera flashes and further screaming, but she stayed with him as they loaded him onto a gurney, rushing through clean white walls, pristine coats and blue scrubs.

“I’m sorry, Miss, you can’t be in here,” an orderly attempted to tell her.

“I’m family,” was what came out of Elphaba’s mouth, equal parts whispered and snapped. It wasn’t true, she knew that, but she also knew they wouldn’t question her, not while she was still covered in his blood.

No one came to join her during his surgery, nor afterwards. Her phone, however, rang so much she turned it completely off. Eventually, they allowed her to see him. Elphaba walked into the hospital room and cautiously sat at the side of Fiyero’s bed.

He was awake, though his eyes appeared slightly glassy.

“What happened?”

His question was heavier than she liked.

“I shot them.”

Clarity snapped into Fiyero’s irises. He tried to draw himself up, “You did what?” Elphaba was confused to see anger marking his partially hazed features.

“You were supposed to run, Elphaba. That’s what I told you to do.”

“You’ve guarded me long enough to know that I won’t just blindly do what you tell me!”

She hissed her answer at him, narrowing her eyes.

“What was I supposed to do, Fiyero? Leave you there to die?”

“Yes! That’s the job!”

“It’s not right!”

Fiyero took a deep breath, his eyes closing. Through clenched teeth, he told her, “I am supposed to protect you. Not the other way around. And that’s not some stupid pride thing, Elphaba. It’s my job. To keep you safe from harm.”

“I will never be the sort of person to abandon those who need help. You needed my help, Fiyero. You could have said thank you instead of berating me the moment you woke up.”

He sighed, his eyes open and looking at her.

“Thank you.”

She ducked her head in a brusque nod.

“You’re welcome.”

“Next time, though,” he said, “you leave me. Do not engage with your assailant.”

“You know I can’t promise that.”

“That’s why I didn’t ask you to.”

A few minutes slipped by before Elphaba whispered, “Thank you.”

Fiyero said nothing, so she clarified, “For saving my life.”

His good shoulder lifted and fell in an approximation of a shrug.

“You saved mine. Now we’re even.”

“Let’s not make a habit of it, alright?”

A small smile rose up to Fiyero’s lips.

“I’ll try my best.”

[petew21-blog]

Charmed: Leo's jealousy

Could you believe her? I know we split up, but it didn't even take her that long and she found herself a new guy. Her neighbor, Dan. Oh piss off Dan. Me and Piper were amazing together, just the nature of me being a whitelighter and her a Charmed one got in the way sometimes. I was still their whitelighter so there was no way we would end up seeing each other. Which was even worse for me to see her with a new guy in his arms

Dan moved in few months ago. He was always observing Piper and the girls, just trying to seem like a sexy non chalant neighbor, who doesn't know that the three girl nextdoor are gonna observe him washing a car. Just get a life Dan

Deep in my mind, I knew that me and Piper were gone. Not to be a couple ever again. That's why I was so jealous of them. I made their life a bit of hell to be honest, not really fullfilling the duties of a friendly guardian whitelighter, but a bit of a crazy ex boyfriend. The elders wanted to take the girls away from me and ban me the entrance to their house. But I was faster. I knew what I had to do.

I arrived at the Halliwell house. Watching Piper in the window doing what she loved the most. Cooking. I always loved to observe her making her way in the kitchen. But Leo won't be going there tonight, no. My location is nextdoor actually.

I hid in his bedroom. I heard a car pull up and then the door. I was ready. The memory dust in my right palm, ready for Dan.

As he entered the room in shock, he couldn't even react. I blew the dust into his face. He coughed for a bit and then just stared blankly.

"You will forget everything about who you are. You have never lived in San Fransisco. You stole the car from someone in the city and you are on the run. The one you stole his wallet and money is me. I am Dan. You felt bad so you returned me my wallet, ID and everything you wanted to steal from me that is in your pockets right now. You will leave the shirt here too. You are just a thief, as you have always been. You will take only the car and you will leave to Mexico. There you will find a job as Mike, the surfer. You won't come back to the States. You love Mexico. You will never come back. Now go and leave."

His eyes blinked rapidly. Then he took everything out of his pockets as I told him so. He took of his sweather, that he got from Piper, and revealed his manly torso. "Damn, that's gonna be me soon." Then he just turned around and I saw him through the window driving away.

"Great. Now there is only one thing left."

I said as I put glamour on me to pass off easily.

Long hair appeared over my head, muscular torso underneath my shirt. His thighs were more mascular than mine. His dick looks nice, but I still think mine was bigger. Nevermind, if it pleases Piper, that's all good for me.

Now all I need is the girls to invite me to the house in case that they enchanted the house. If they invite me in I am allowed to. So there is one move I know from Dan that I'm gonna use

Just as I expected. Piper didn't even let me finish watering the lawn.

"Hey, Dan. Where is your car? Thought you were gonna wash it."

"I had to borrow it to a friend. But something tells me he might now give it back."

Piper laughed even tho it wasn't mean as a joke. This woman is so into him

"Hey, wanna come inside? I baked fresh cookies."

Haha. This was easier than I thought

The next morning:

"Wow, you prepared this all for me? Dan that's so lovely. Thank you."

"Well, I thought that maybe after last night you might be hungry. Or are you hungry for more of something else?" I crawled over to her over the bed.

I could se that she was really in love with him. She liked Dan. She likes me. Hahha. I am Dan now and I have Piper all for me. We are gonna be forever together.

"Hey, I was thinking we could go for vacation to Mexico. I always wanted to try surfing. Haha"

Fuck. Maybe I should get more of that memory powder

Anonymous story request in inbox:

Charmed: Leo is extremely jealous of the relationship developing between Piper and Dan and decides to take Dan‘s place by using memory dust (seemed somewhat like hypnosis from what I remember) on Dan to make him leave, never come back and leave everything he owns behind, including ID, wallet, etc. Leo then glamours into Dan, taking his place.

[nicos-archive]

The Perfect Victim

Darla had been on her phone as she leaned against the building. She didn’t bother with aging up her body so, it was stuck in its normal 14 year old body. Wasn’t like she needed to be an adult right now. Today she was focusing mostly on dealing drugs.

As she texted her currently supplier someone walks up to her. She was quick to flip her phone closed and put it in her pocket. Her first thought was this stranger was going to yell at her for loitering. Then she gets a feeling. She has met more than enough abusers, killers, and the like in her life. Whenever she was near them her stomach would drop and her mouth would taste sour, like stomach acid had already made its way to her mouth and she had to spit it out.

As much as she hated her parasite she was handy in moments like this. She knew when someone around her was dangerous or intended harm. Regardless if she was the target or not. That’s when reading thoughts and souls came in handy. She didn’t need to do either now as it was already pretty clear. This stranger wanted to hurt her. 

“Hey, isn’t it a little late for someone your age to be here? Did you want a ride home?”

The man, if you could call him that, was only a little older than her. Well, her true age that is. An average looking young man. To any bystander he would seem like a concerned young adult. She knew better though. Just looking into his eyes she could see the evil lurking beneath. 

He was dangerous. 

“No, I’m waiting for someone to pick me up now, thanks.” She gave a smile in turn and he walked off.

If that was the end of their interactions that would have been fine. 

The building had become a common spot for her to hang around. In turn, she saw the man often, whose name she soon learned to be James. 

Every day he would come and talk to her. She mostly saw him in the late afternoons. A few times he had seen her earlier in the day, and he easily ate the lie that she skipped school. To his credit, he never came off as creepy.

Even when he complimented her it never came out of nowhere or taken a step too far. A complement about her jacket or a hair clip. Only one compliment was a fish at wanting to know more about her.

“A pretty girl like you probably has a lot of friends that are missing you. Maybe you should go back to school?” 

She gave a small smile and a forced blush. A skill she learned long ago. “Really, you think so? Um, thank you… I don’t really have any friends though.” She frowned.

She knew how to play the perfect victim. It wasn’t very hard, actually. People like him were always so wrapped up in their own plans and ideals they never thought about how they could be falling in to her trap. 

As the days went by she would let little things ‘slip’. How she was an only child. She had no friends and was invisible at school. How her parents hated her. She knew just the kind of sob story he was looking for. Over time, she had to pick a new spot to deal drugs. Business was booming and him coming up to talk to her was running her flow. It was also getting harder to hide.

It was sunset and it was getting warmer out. Instead of having her jacket zipped up she had it open and hanging off her shoulders just the way she liked. Of course James had to comment on it.

“Oh. Were you trying to catch someone’s attention?” 

She wonders if he realizes he’s leering at her. She has to force herself not to shudder at the look. Why is it that creeps all look the same when they look at her underage body? With all the time they spent together she’s never shown what she wears underneath the jacket. It had been cold, and she was trying her best to appear normal. Maybe, he had taken it as a sign of body insecurity? 

Either way, this left her with the perfect chance. She was leaving tonight, and he probably hadn’t told anyone else about her. 

“Y-Yeah.” She stuttered and looked away. Doing her best to act shy.

From the corner of her eye she could see he was smirking. Her stomach twisted into knots she was so disgusted.

A look into his head revealed they had similar thoughts. He already had rope, morphine, and trash bags in his car. She knew he was planning on kidnapping her for a while now. They both had spent the better part of a month and a half building each others trust just to betray the other. She wonders if they had met in her adult body if he would have the same plans with her. 

Not like it mattered. As long as he saw her as his victim she was always going to become the abuser. 

This time when he asks if she wanted a ride home, like he did at least once a week now she said yes. She knew he wasn’t going to take no for an answer anyhow. 

The car ride was normal at first. 5 minutes in he struck her with a needle full of morphine. It doesn’t even effect her remotely but, she knows how to act like it does. In a way it makes her nostalgic for the first time a man had tried to kidnap and abuse her. She hadn’t been so willing to play along back then. It had been her first time experiencing the perverted cruelty of men, and she had reacted accordingly.

James drives for a while with the radio low. Ugh. He had terrible taste in music. Eventually, they come to a stop, and she wonders if he is going to assault her in the car or wait till he drags her off to somewhere more secluded. 

The first thing he does is tie her hands together. Then he gets out and opens the door. She hears the sounds of crickets and knows right away he dragged her to the woods at the edge of town. With the time of night they didn’t have to worry about being spotted. He easily carries her over his shoulder as he walks into the woods. 

She waits until he’s about to drop her anyway when she summons a dagger into her hands and drives it into his shoulder blade. He shouts in pain and shock and easily drops her. She rolls and quickly gets up. The rope now at her feet.

“You sick fuck.” She then spat right into his face. 

His surprise quickly gives away to anger and of course he tries to fight her. She was just a little girl after all. He must’ve gotten the dosage messed up, and she had grabbed a hidden pocket knife. With her youth she was just cocky and thought she could get away easy now. He was going to take what he wanted from her anyhow then torture her and kill her.

As she reads his thoughts she can tell now that she wasn’t his first victim, and it fills her with a righteous anger. How many girls had he killed exactly? It makes her sick but, it leaves her with a satisfaction that she is going to give him exactly what he deserves. 

He didn’t put up much of a fight in the end. He screamed she was a monster as she mutilated him. 

He was pathetic.

Now she was covered in his blood, smoking a cigarette as she called her brother.

“Hey, I got us a pretty nice car. Did you decide where we ought to go next?” 

She would have to call Roy and Mia later about a tip to help find his past victims. 

[myimaginarywonderland]

I am certain that Roger ap Gwilliam will play a bigger role in season two and I am also fully convinced that he is related to Ruby in some way.

We learned that the name of Ruby's father is William Benjamin Garnet. I would assume seeing as he now is 34 he might have had another child, who could maybe be around 5-8 years old. I feel like Ruby finding out she has siblings is an obvious plotline and I think her mother wasn't show with children so they would have to be from her father.

Now, Roger ap Gwilliam in 2046 is in my opinion in his early 30s? I know the actor is older but to me it felt like the character was angled to be a younger politician from what we have seen. Ap is used to say son/describe someone's relation and I personally just don't think Gwilliam was his actual name (might be, not much idea on any sort of genuine Welsh last names.) I assumed it was William and some other name, maybe a first or last name. With just his whole image he has I assumed that it was his dad's first name and last name mixed together that he used to run his campaign instead of going by his actual name. I figured someone with that much dramatics would have maybe assumed a slightly different name to appeal more to the masses, to make himself more interesting. And seeing as this is set in the future, who is to say he even has to run with his actual name, he might as well just have made something up to hide his actual identity of he maybe had a fallout with his family etc.

William Garnet could easily shortened to Gwilliam.

To me the entire hints about him plus leading to his actual appearance in 73 yards never felt like a true resolve. I always thought that there was sure to be more to his story because the way he has been talked about made him seem like a genuine threat that could potentially endanger the entire planet. Remember that regardless of what Ruby did in that episode, it never actually carried over into the actual timeline so he will still happen and the Doctor will clearly be the one to stop him in the future.

Ruby's father almost felt like an afterthought and I just refuse to see that as not deliberate. The entire time we were so focused on her mother who turned out to just be a teen in a bad situation that the real possibility that Ruby's father could be trouble never really occurred to us. I feel like they are definitely lying some groundwork for Ruby to have a bad or rude awakening because so far her story has been so positive really. She grew up with an incredibly loving and caring family and now has potentially found another member for that family that wants to get to know her. There is a rude awakening coming and what could be worse than finding out that not only does your father not want you but he is also responsible for one of the most dangerous man of the planet? One of the worst people you can think off?

It would perfectly fit that gut punching feeling most companion stories have at some point and lay a true ground work for her and the Doctor to have a conflict. Maybe somehow Ruby starts to remember the events of 73 yards and can't do it again because now she has seen this sweet boy and she can't imagine that is the same person. The Doctor would have to make a decision that will hurt in one way or another.

I think Ruby and Roger have a deeper connection than we think and being siblings would absolutely make sense for me.

[carriagelamp]

Found some excellent horror-related and horror-adjacent books to read this month! Not a common genre for me, so this was fun. Really can't recommend Grady Hendrix as an author enough, Horrorstör was definitely my favourite novel from this month

Eric

I hate saying it because I love the Discworld and Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author, but man Eric did not do it for me. You could see some good bones in it, but as far as I’m concerned all the interesting bits that appeared were done significantly better in later books. It had some humour moments, but the only bits that I really enjoyed were when the Luggage was around.

This story followed a young, teenaged, would-be demon summoner who, instead of summoning a demon, accidentally winds up with the incompetent and fearful wizzard Rincewind. Obligated to answer this kid’s wishes, they end up bouncing through time and space while attempting to survive what each wish had to throw at them. 

Fantastic Mr Fox / Esio Trot / George’s Marvellous Medicine / The Enormous Crocodile

I went on a Dahl kick this month, I wanted to work through some of his shorter works that I’ve never bothered to read before. All of them were honestly delightful, I had a blast. Esio Trot was probably the weakest of the lot, but the other three were so much fun. The Fantastic Mr Fox may be my favourite just by virtue of being the most fleshed out, but listening to The Enormous Crocodile be read by Stephen Fry is an unparalleled experience.

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

A story I enjoyed more than I expected. I have a strange soft spot for hockey narratives, but that might just be the Canadian in me. Alix’s one true love is hockey, it’s the one place she feels competent and happy, but her team captain is making the space increasingly hostile until, unable to take the bullying, she strikes out and punches her captain. Shocked by her own violence and given an ultimatum by the coach to get her temper under control, she ends up going to popular and poised Ezra, hoping that he could show her how to deal with harassment without losing her cool in a way that scares her.

Horrorstör

Easily the best book I read this month, this book was amazing, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a “haunted house but in a knock-off Ikea” and I mostly picked it up as a joke because the premise sounded hilarious. But I was familiar with the author (I’d read The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires a couple years ago) and trusted him to do something interesting with the premise. And wow. Just wow. It is very much a classic, grisly, nauseating horror premise, but in a way that explores capitalism, exploitation, and treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill. It’s been  a long time since I read a book that actually gave me chills, but I had to put this book down and walk away from it occasionally, it was intense enough.

The Kaiju Preservation Society

As a Pacific Rim lover, this book was everything I’d ever wish for it to be. It’s such a love letter to the kaiju genre as well as environmental conservation, and it’s speculative biology is fascinating!

After being fire from his job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown in New York City, Jamie Gray is barely making ends meet by acting as a delivery driver. He doesn’t know how he can possibly continue on like this, until he runs into an old friend who offers him a strange and intensely secretive job offer. With nothing to lose, Jamie agrees and finds himself on an alternate Earth, helping to study creatures that he only knows from campy monster movies, now very much real.

The Last Wish

Felt an urge to reread a Witcher book, so I’ve been picking my way through the short stories. They continue to be a lot of fun, and it felt good to reconnect with the original narrative voice again after reading a lot of fanfiction over the years. For anyone who has someone existed post-Netflix version without picking up the general premise: Geralt of Rivia is a "witcher", a person who was specifically trained to wield weapons and magics to hunt dangerous monsters that threaten humans. This is a collection of short stories that show Geralt on some of the various hunts he's had during the decades of his over-long life. (It's significantly better than the Netflix version, very much worth the read if you like classic high fantasy and/or fairy tale retellings.)

Mortimer: Rat Race to Space

A very dull youth novel. Mortimer is a lab rat at Houston who has aspirations to go on the space program and prove that rats are better suited for colonizing Mars than humans. If you’re a seven year old who wants to consume space facts, this is the book for you. For everyone else, it’s a bit of a slog.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Another Grady Hendrix book. This book was undeniably well-written, just as masterful as his others, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. A bit too much high school narrative and not enough all out horror. The conclusion was pretty decent, but the rest was… fine. A fun love letter to the 1980s though as you learn about two best friends and how they grow up together. ...A bit of a debate whether or not it warrants a queer marker or not, I'm not even going to make that attempt.

The One and Only Ruby

The newest book from the One and Only Ivan series. Much like The One and Only Bob this book was… fine. The original of the series was really wonderful and felt quite inspired, inspired by the real life story of a gorilla that’s kept in a small cage in a mall complex. The next two books take place after that one and each follows one of Ivan’s friends (Bob the dog and Ruby the baby elephant). A fun enough addition to the series, the art is still cute, and it has decent things to say about the hunting of endangered animals, but it was nothing amazing. 

Paperbacks from Hell

Look, I really just felt the desperate need to read a bunch of Hendrix novels after being so violently consumed by Horrorstör. This is a nonfiction book in which Hendrix dives into the evolution and popular tropes of horror novels throughout the 1980s, with the cover art being the driving thesis throughout. You can tell how much he loves these weird, pulpy horrors and it makes you want to go and find a bunch of these and read them yourself. It really is an interesting book, even if you aren’t a great horror lover (which I wouldn’t consider myself).

The Salt Grows Heavy

Now this is a fucking novella. An absolutely unhinged, body-horror rich retelling of both The Little Mermaid and Frankenstein. Yeah. After the complete destruction of her husband’s kingdom at the hands (and jaws) of her own children, the Mermaid finds herself travelling with a mysterious Plague Doctor. I won’t go further into this except to say that the way it portrays morality, life, death, and the mutability of flesh is just… something else. Would recommend. But not if you have a weak stomach.

Scott Pilgrim

A classic. I watched the new animated series with my brother and felt the need to go back and reread the entire original series. Absolutely perfect, no notes, continues to be one of my all time favourite graphic novel series. The magical realism is just *chef’s kiss*.

[cyanogen-miasma]

Phoebe...save me Phoebe (she/her)

The largest irregular moon of Saturn, Phoebe has a pretty interesting story to me. It was probably a captured centaur, and could be a leftover planetesimal that didn't manage to grow large enough to become a planet in the early solar system. Phoebe likely formed in the Kuiper Belt and moved inwards over the course of the solar system's history, before being captured by Saturn. It used to have a near-spherical shape, indicating sufficient internal heat and gravity, but after the heat dissipated, lots of collisions battered its shape out of sphericity. You can read about Phoebe's possible origins here! As a moon, Phoebe has created a large ring around Saturn which is not visible with a telescope, and may be responsible for the two-toned appearance of Iapetus.

So Phoebe's backstory is very set in stone here. She left the Kuiper Belt (I had a whole paragraph here theorising why but I've come up with a concrete reason why she would leave, because there wouldn't have been a proper system of governance to exile TNOs, but I have come up with a reason why many TNOs would choose to become centaurs - in the territory of the gas planets, you could easily be destroyed, but you could just as easily become a captured moon. You wouldn't have much opportunity to grow, but you would have relative stability and safety. This is in some ways preferable to staying in the Kuiper Belt where you wouldn't have such protection and could be attacked by anybody) and spent many years as a centaur. Run-ins with other centaurs left her scarred, but never destroyed her. Eventually, she came to Saturn because she was tired of having to fight everyone. Saturn gladly welcomed her (we don't have an exact date for when Phoebe was captured, but for the purposes of lore it is before the ring-forming incident), and Phoebe managed to get them to terrorize the other centaurs (not to actually devour them, Saturn was big enough not to care at that point, but to at least get them to avoid Phoebe). The regular moons don't really like Phoebe, or the fact that Saturn still cares to maintain a relationship with her, but not anyone else. Saturn's reasoning is that Phoebe is not suddenly their child just because she is a moon - she's just some guy who showed up and she doesn't need 'protecting'. There is an exception in Iapetus, who is more friendly to her, because she is responsible for his 'makeover'. He is still very jealous, but, as mentioned before, he is very good at keeping up a facade.

Phoebe, herself, is rather ambivalent to Saturn's moons. She thinks they're all fine folk and sympathize with their parental issues, but can't help but defend herself when they are aggressive towards her. She thinks of Saturn as basically just a big guard dog who will ward off the other centaurs and allow her some peace for once in her life. She doesn't approve of their neglectful behaviour, however. Phoebe is generally crafty and quick-witted, but is also very grumpy and secretive, so good luck working on a group project with her lmao (I don't know why you would be working on a group project with her, or indeed why that was the first thing I thought of, but whatever) She prefers her own company, and will often rant to herself when she is angry, or even just bored. She needs to curl up by the fireplace SO BAD

also yeah, you can see she only has three legs 👍

this is the last of Saturn's moons that I will be doing for now, next up is the moons of Uranus

a straight-up clown posse, they are

[reigningqueenofwords]

You Won't Guess

Part 2 of Dropping In

So, something that you hadn’t thought of right off the bat? You didn’t even exist in this universe. Well, a version of you might. Which was a very weird thought. 

It had been one week since you appeared behind Clint, and you were currently in a room with Tony and his lawyer. He was trying to make it so you actually existed, and since you were a minor…he also was making it so he was your guardian (wrapping your head around him making you a Stark was hard). “I don’t get what’s so hard about this. Thor is from another planet and we were able to get him legal here. What’s so hard about getting a 17 year old girl some paperwork?” Tony was clearly annoyed. 

“She’s a human, Mr. Stark. Clearly there’s some worry about how you came to have her in your care.” His lawyer explained. Again. “Miss, are you here of your own will?” He asked you. 

You nodded. “I am.” Where else would you go? And why wouldn’t you want to live in Stark Tower? 

“And how did you come to be here?” That was something he had been avoiding asking. It was like he didn’t want to know too many details when it came to Tony.

“Magic.” You said bluntly, making him stare at you. “Are you telling me with everything that’s happened, you’re having trouble believing I’m here because of magic ? Aliens attacked New York, Thor is a literal God, and Steve is from the 1940s.” 

Sighing, he made a face that said ‘you’re right’. “I’ll see what I can do.” He caved. “I’ll call you when I get an update, Mr. Stark.” 

“My mom once told me I should be a lawyer. I’m glad that was never a goal of mine. He looked so done with life.” You mused as the pair of you made your way to his lab. “Or like he needs a vacation.” 

He nodded. “He’s my lawyer, so you’re not wrong.” He mused. “And you’re about to be my daughter according to the government, so I’m sure you’ll want a vacation, too.” 

You laughed at that. “Maybe I’ll be fine because I’ve seen the movies so many times.” 

“I am curious about those. You’ll have to tell us about them, because I’m sure the others are curious, too.” Did the movies actually have what happened in their universe? Or were they just completely made up stories? It was fascinating to him. “Maybe we can all go out to dinner tonight and you can fill us in.” 

“That could be fun!” You agreed easily, but then wondered: was Bucky alive in this universe? You hadn’t seen him, nor had anyone mentioned him. “What if there are people in the movies I haven’t seen here?” You asked, looking over at him.

Tony thought for a moment. “That’s a tough one. Would it affect us in any way?” 

“Maybe?” You honestly had no way of knowing. “How about I tell you what I can, only involving the people I’ve met. If things line up, then I can go on…because maybe it’ll help in the long run. If not, I won’t say, because I don’t want things to be weird.” 

He stopped, raising an eyebrow at you. “Weird how?” He wondered. 

You chewed on your lip. “Bucky is alive in the movies.” You blurted out. “No one here has mentioned him.” 

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“James Buchanan Barnes. Steve’s best friend. In the movies he became the Winter Soldier, and it takes seeing Steve to start breaking through the mind control. That’s like the really dumbed down version.” You rambled. “Steve didn’t know until Bucky tried to kill him.” 

“Oh wow. That’s…big.” What else would you call that information? 

You nodded. “It is. That’s why I don’t want to bring him up if things went differently in this universe? They were best friends. Well, going off the movies it was more than that. One of the biggest ships ever.” It was very clear what you meant by your tone. 

He looked a tad amused. “That’s interesting. Capsicle had a boyfriend?” He motioned for the pair of you to keep walking. 

On the way, you told him all the little tidbits that hinted at Steve and Bucky being more. Tony was hanging on your every word, like a teenage girl with the juiciest gossip. You just knew that you were going to have a much better life here than you did back in your universe. 

“You ship them, don’t you?” He smirked, amused at how into that explanation you got. 

Laughing, you shrugged. “They’re one of my ships, yeah.” You admitted. “That’s all you’re getting from me right now.” You teased, not wanting to be like ‘I also ship you and Steve!’, because that would be weird.. 

“Oh, you wound me.” He teased right back. “What’s the weirdest ship?” 

You thought for a moment. “Nat and Bruce. It was so weird. They were totally setting up a Clint and Nat thing, but then boom. They were together. Out of nowhere, it was them ? So many people, myself included, were confused and annoyed.” You made a face. 

“Yeah, that is weird.” He agreed. “I don’t think I’d get behind that one, either.” It was an odd pairing in his mind, too. “Is that also the most hated ship? Or no?” 

“Not even close, but I think to mention that one would also need to play into things I’m not sure I should let you guys in on yet. I will tell you that it divides people. Like, full on twitter wars have been waged over it.” You snorted. “I kept my opinions to myself. People can be vicious online!” 

“You’re not wrong.” He agreed, opening the lab door. “I look forward to hearing what ship this is eventually. If I guess it, will you tell me?” 

Laughing, you nodded. “Sure, but I know you won’t guess!” 

[shadowscrybe]

Rayven's Revenge- Chapter 4

Summary: Rayven is the younger sister of Rhysand in the Night Court. She was banished 64 years ago for the murder of her sister. This is the story of Rayven earning her place in Prythian and finding out what it means to be family. We all know how her story ends...but how did she get there? I don't want to forget the demon princess with bat wings. Do you?

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: none- canon typical content

A/N: WE LOVE THE VANSERRA BOYS OVER HERE. Also I edited these first six chapters about a billion times at this point, so if there's still typos I will unalive I'm not kidding. But also if you see any please let me know so I can fix them bc if my stuff stays published and incorrect I may never recover

Eris Vanserra was a brutish male, with terrible selfish instincts. He was a frustrating teacher with cruel methods and an even worse temper. Always trying to confuse her. Just when she thought she had something, he’d change the rules. He would have fit in well in Windhaven. 

But as she scanned the words he scribbled for her, she could see the efforts of a fearful subject. He didn’t want Beron as a highlord more than anyone else. Maybe she and him weren't so different after all. Somewhat loving their fathers but still undermining them for the sake of their people. 

She grew to love him and saw some of the reasons he taught her the way he did, but some secrets would always seem to remain solely his. 

He described an area of land to investigate where there were whispers of a powerful fae trapped in the Spring Court. Beron wanted her for her supposed ties to the King of Hybern. The meeting had gone according to plan, besides the conflict of her potentially angering the spring court highlord. 

Over the years she began to understand his cryptic words more, but sometimes he stumped her. Only half of what he had written made sense. 

“What in Hel does ‘siphon’ mean?” She asked Rahne. She had no clue either.

He was always reminding her to destroy any evidence of their partnership with empty Eris threats. She couldn't leave any trace of his notes and if she jeopardized his position in the autumn court then he’d flame her. 

She told him if he was so easily caught by scribbles then he deserved it. 

As if anyone would know what he actually meant. Was the female suspected to be Illyrian? He knows she doesn’t have a siphon. No Illyrians fought on Hybern’s side either. If he was suggesting she needed the bastards for this, she was going to wring his neck. 

She read his words one more time, ensuring she had the coordinates right, and let her flame eat the parchment. She could at least scout a few areas Eris described before she had to be back at Velaris. 

Rahne raced back to her over the brush yelling, Shifter! Shifter! Shifter! 

Rayven felt him in the treeline over her left shoulder. The winds of the spring court hung still, like they were stalling to watch. She unsheathed her dagger at her thigh and spun the handle in her grip. She did not notice Lucien to her right when he appeared around a tall shrub. Rahne guttered in the folds of her wings, embarrassed she hadn't sensed him first. 

The Vanserra’s were invisible to her. What does Beron do to them under that rock?

His russet skin glowed under the red hair he and Eris shared. He was always darker than Eris, regardless of the sun they claimed to get in Autumn. His brown eyes were rich like ale, not the light amber of the bastards. 

He was breathtaking every time she saw him. He knew it too and used his stunning beauty to his advantage. 

“What a pleasure it is to see you again, Rayven.” He gave an emphasized bow at the waist. “A strange place to run into each other.” A sly smile. 

She kept her eyes scanning for Tamlin, who was no doubt in his shifter form somewhere. “I could say the same to you, Lucien.” She did not bow back. 

“I am a guest at the Spring Court,” he said. “Your business here has concluded. You are now trespassing these lands. What would your highlord say about that?”

“Quit scaring her,” the spring court heir’s voice came from behind. 

She pivoted to keep them both in her eyesight. Lucien laughed. 

“I thought I made myself clear earlier,” she said to the idiots blocking her way back to the open sky. 

They had penned her here. She didn't risk looking up to confirm, but the canopy here would tear her wings up. She thought about risking it and asking Azriel to help her later, but Lucien pulled her attention. He placed himself on a rock a few paces closer to Tamlin. 

Tamlin sighed at his friend. “We’re not looking for trouble.” He held his palms up. 

“Good. Then stay out of my way.” She could maybe make a run, hoping to break into open air, but these were his lands. Probably even more so than Tarin’s at this point.  

Rahne gravitated closer towards Lucien. His eyes never strayed from Rayven, but he was keeping her shadow in mind. She did not like when something was sneakier than her. And Lucien was a fox among wolves. 

Tamlin tracked her escape attempts and sighed. “We just want to talk.” 

The heir and her best friend’s brother had only a handful of years on her, but she was the one with the reputation. 

Lucien was from the flame, like Eris. She doubted her fire would be able to burn him even if she could manage to reach him. It barely ever reached Eris, and that was when he went easy on her. 

Lucien must have known where her thoughts led. He said, “You have shadowfire, but it’s two against one. Can we skip the dance and talk?” 

“I like those odds.” 

Some scary demon princess. They knew exactly who she was. Not the dark demon, but the outcast daughter. She hated them for it. 

Rayven leaned down and snatched up a few short bulbed weeds. Yellow and bright against the tan of her skin. 

“I apologize for my fathers behavior earlier.” Tamlin said. He searched her face, but she kept it neutral. “You will be safe here. I promise.” 

She could easily take any seasonal court male, so he was probably right. It was the Illyrian males she needed protection from. 

Rahne kept her silent focus on Lucien in the folds of her wings. 

“You followed me here to say sorry?” 

Lucien answered, “We tracked you here because you are a sloppy scout. You are lucky it was our beautiful faces that found you instead of the less favorable.” 

Flames licked up her throat. Did Lucien know his words mirrored hers earlier. Knowing the fox, she would have guessed it likely. 

“You're looking for her too?” Tamlin redirected. His eyes didn't search the woods, the way they did in the manor house. He knew how to monitor the forest with more than his sight.

“She must be special, to have so many lords placing bounties on one single soldier.” She hoped her opening was broad enough to get them to reveal themselves. 

“Is your highlord aware of her yet?” Lucien asked this time. 

“The Highlord’s will is mine.” Acid rose in her throat. 

“That doesn't answer my question.” He wasn't eager to ask where she received this information. 

“Why does Tarin want her?”  

Tamlin answered. “I think he used to know her.” 

Lucien casually laid atop his rock, but his eyes cut to his friend. A true statement from the heir, then. 

She owed him a truth. “I recently came into this intel, and as we already know, the Highlord does not appreciate his time being wasted. There's no point in relaying an unreliable tip.”

“You don't plan on telling your highlord?” Tamlin pressed. 

“I didn't realize this was an interrogation.” 

Lucien smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. “Cute. The princess of the Night Court has a sense of humor.” 

“Oh, I can be hilarious.” Her fire ignited, the shifter yielded a step, but Lucien lounged on his boulder. 

“Easy, we aren't looking for a fight. We want to help.” Tamlin said. 

“I am not asking for it,” she said. 

“And yet you need it,” Lucien snarled. “You're lost in the Oaks, she would never be here. Besides, most of Spring has been searched at this point.” 

“She's not here,” Tamlin said. 

“Then where is she?” 

“We don't know,” Tamlin admitted. “We’re searching Summer and Winter when we can, but half the time I’m busy running my father in circles. He never gave a name, but he asks about her like he knows who it is.” 

Lucien barely shook his head at Tamlin. He was telling her more than he was supposed to. She would’ve done anything to have Rhys there to read Lucien’s thoughts. 

“If I can get her back to Night then I can hide her.”

“Or give her over to your highlord,” said the fox. 

“The other highlords want her alive. He is the only one who will accept her death. I get to her, find what she knows, and dispose of her.” 

“That simple then?” He uncrossed his long legs and rose gracefully.  “I’m done here.” 

Tamlin kept his distance, but he offered one more comment in parting. “Don't tell him.” Then he was gone.

Lucien paused in his step. Her ears strained to hear his soft voice. “Do not meet him there again.” 

His brown eyes desperately met hers, and she knew it was not a threat.