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frost-queen · 1 year ago

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Below the surface (Reader x Ed Warren)

Requested by: @hwangrimi ,Forever tag:@missmelodramatic, @merlin-dahlia, @alex--awesome--22, @elllie-does-the-posts, @floatlosers, @merlieve, @queen-of-books, @glimmering-darling-dolly@denkisclown, @wildieflower, @meyocoko, @bubblybrianna, @justanothercoco@subjecta13-thefangirl, @m-rae23, @harleyquinnswifeyfrfr, @swampthing07, @melsunshine, @panhoeofmanyfandoms, @venomsvl, @the-uncoordinated-house-cat, @rosecentury, @imagines-by-her, @evilcr0ne, @vviolynn

Ding dong.

Lifting your head up, you turned to look at the door. – “Hang… hang on I think someone is at the door.” – you spoke through the telephone cutting through your friends rambling. – “I’ll leave you on hanging. Wait a second.” – you told her before putting the horn upwards down. Faintly you could hear her voice call out your name. Hesitantly you went towards the door, wondering who it could be. Grabbing the doorknob you opened the door expecting to see anyone. To your surprise there was no one.

Furrowing your brows you wondered if you had imagined the doorbell. Needless you looked around, yet no one was around. Wanting to head back inside your eyes fell down on a stack of letters and a package on your doorstep. Bending down you picked it up. Moving the letters to the back to get to the package. Wrapped in brown paper packages. – “I didn’t order anything.” – you mumbled to yourself.

Returning into the house you placed the items on the counter near where you had left the horn. Still hearing your friends voice call out to you. – “I’m here.” – you said speaking into the horn. – “Goodness you took your time. Who was at the door? A handsome man?” – you heard your friend say in your ear. – “No…” – you answered looking down at the package. – “Just some letters and a package.”

“A package oh what did you buy. You have to tell me. Did you buy the hairdryer? I heard it’s great. Saves you a trip to the hairdresser.” – she replied excitingly. – “I… I didn’t order anything.” – you told her staring strangely at the package. – “Well open it up then. Maybe it is from an admirer. Maybe that guy Ed that used to live in your parent’s neighborhood?” – the mention of Ed’s name made you snap out of your stare. – “Oh hush!” – you told her playfully. – “I haven’t seen him in years. I doubt he would gift me something out of nowhere.” – you explained to her.

“Who knows?” – was her answer. – “Now open it up and tell me what it is.” – your friend encouraging you more to open it. You pressed the horn between your cheek and shoulder to use both hands to open it. Neatly you unwrapped it not wanting to damage the paper. – “What is it?” – you heard your friend say frantically in your ear. Eyes glued onto the package as it revealed to have been hiding a doll. An old raggedy doll with one eye missing that used to be a black button. – “It’s… It’s…” – you started slowly bringing the doll up to eyes-height.

“A doll.” – you finished confused. – “A doll?” – your friend called out. You hummed loud holding the doll in many angles to get a good look at it. – “Why would I have this?” – you wondered setting the doll down to sit. – “Maybe it was wrongly delivered?” – she questioned over the phone. You examined the brown paper package trying to look for a street address. – “It has nothing on it.” – you told her.

You heard her hum loud. – “Is it cute?” – she asked. You took a second to admire the doll once more. – “It’s old.” – you told her. – “Dirty and rather ugly.” – you told her pulling your nose up at the doll. You picked it up once more holding it by the arm as it dangled in the air. The doll’s dress yellowed out from over the years. The dress’s edges ruffled. The stray like red hair tied together in two ponytails. Dust stains on the doll’s face. Then there was that one black button eye.

You stared at it for a moment seeing how shimmering it was. A shudder rushed up your spine making you toss the doll on the counter. You hung up on your friend, saying your goodbye’s over the telephone. Placing the horn back you looked back at the doll. – “I’m not keeping you.” – you said out loud, grabbing the doll by her arm. The doll bounced in your hand as you made your way outside. Going behind your house to open the garbage can.

You opened the lit looking down in it. – “In you go.” – you said tossing the doll down in it. The lit closed leaving the doll in utter darkness. Wiping your hands you headed back inside. Inside you came to a stop hearing water drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Slow and at a constant pace. Following the sound you went into the kitchen seeing the faucet drip. You turned on the handle to block it out. The dripping stopped. Sighing loud you calmed yourself. Somehow you felt lighter with that doll out of your house.

The next morning you woke up, startled to find the doll at your bed’s end. – “I threw you out!” – you said frantically knowing you did… or did you? Moving your fingers through your hair you weren’t sure anymore. Getting out of bed you grabbed the doll with you. – “You’re going in the trash.” – you told it going down the stairs. You froze hearing the radio turn itself on. Static filling the room. The channel constantly changing as a distorted voice came through the static. – “Are… you feeling… nervous?” – the words came through distorted and robotic with a deep growl.

Blinking confused you weren’t sure if you had heard it correctly. The radio only blasting static. Rushing over to it you turned it off. Shaking your head you rushed outside, tossing the doll once more with the trash. Heading back inside you suddenly stopped looking down at your hand. Gasping loud you saw you were still holding the doll. Had you not thrown it out? Something felt odd. As if you couldn’t remember your last actions. You jumped out of your skin when a music box started to play music.

The melody sweet and melancholic. Panicking you dropped the doll on the ground. You snatched the music box from the shelve, throwing it on the ground. The box clattered open, pieces scattering around. Breathing loud, you felt like losing your mind. Heart thumping loudly in your chest. Your eyes fell upon the doll laying down on the ground. Tilting your head to the side, you stared right at the doll. Somehow you felt like it was laughing at you.

Shouting loud you rushed up to the doll, throwing it outside through the door. Exhaling deep you felt a bit at peace. Moving into the living room you hoped to be rid of it forever. The tv flashed on without a warning. Static drizzling the screen. You slowly moved closer to it. How was it possible for it to turn on by itself? Kneeling you came face to face with the tv. – “Mommy please.” – a child’s voice echoed out sounding both haunting as desperate. It made you gasp loud, falling back. The tv shutting out, turning into a black screen.

You screamed seeing a reflection in the blackness of the screen behind you. Turning around your eyes widened seeing the doll sit in the armchair with the remote near it. – “What is going on?” – you frantically called out getting up. Holding your hands over your ears you were panicking. Panting loud as the lights around you started to flicker on and off. A distorted voice laughing as it sounded like all around you. The voice glitching from sweet to deep. A deep tremor you didn’t know anyone possible could bellow.

You took a run for it to the front door. Grabbing the handle you started pulling at it. The door not opening. – “No! No! let me out!” – you called out thumping loudly on the door. From behind you, you felt like someone was approaching. – “Let me out! Let me out! Help!” – you screamed out panicking while jamming frantically on the doorknob. A deep growl rumbled down the hallway. Looking back you saw how blacked out it was. Barely able to see further into your house. – “Help! Help!” – you kept calling out feeling powerless. The door wouldn’t budge as the feeling grew closer.

Creeping up on you like a shadow’s blanket. You heard the radio turn back on. As before only static coming through. – “No! Let me out! Please! Help me!” – you cried out pulling as hard as you could on the handle. – “You’re going to serve…” – the disrupted voice came through. – “No…no please!” – you cried louder, eyes suddenly widening. – “Us.” – a clear voice spoke in your ear. Before you knew it you were grabbed pulled back into the shadow. Your eyes shot awake, slowly lifting your head as you found yourself in bed.

The doll you had thrown out numerous times sitting on the other end of your room. Rubbing your eyes you weren’t sure what hour or day it was. A hazy feeling lingering in your mind. Touching your forehead you felt out of place. Looking up to the doll, it appeared to be staring back at you. The forever attached smile to her face smiling creepily back at you. Gasping startled the light on your nightstand started to flicker. As a response you jumped out of bed, taking the doll with you.

From that day on, you never went anywhere without the doll. Thinking it might have resented you for calling it old and ugly, specially for tossing it away. No matter how many times you threw it away, it always ended back with you. Best not to anger it further you thought. Some days you felt like yourself as other days you couldn’t remember how or when you got to a certain place around your house. Suddenly standing somewhere with an object in your hand, haven forgotten what happened before.

It had been a while since you left the house, but here you were. Outside in town meeting up with your friend. You greeted her from afar, crossing the street. She waved back at her, her brows furrowing at you. From inside your purse she could see the head of a doll pop up. – “Is… is that the doll you had been given?” – she asked confused. You hummed loud. – “Why… why in God’s name are you carrying it with you?” – she asked further finding you very strange. – “Because it doesn’t like to be alone.” – you answered. – “It’s a doll Y/n. A f*cking doll it has no feelings!” – your friend called out finding you a lunatic for even thinking such a thought.

“Shut it!” – you snapped at her with a louder voice than you anticipated. It made your friend flinch. – “Sorry…” – you sighed out rubbing your forehead. – “I don’t know what is happening to me.” – you told her. – “Weird that is what is happening to you!” – she called out with a deep sigh. – “Jeez Y/n when was the last time you went out, or even had a man?” – she questioned looking at you. – “I don’t know.” – you replied exhausted.

Your friend looked behind you, eyes blinking surprised at the sight of someone familiar. – “We’ll change that.” – she hooker her arm with yours, waving excitedly at someone. – “Ed!” – she called out. – “Ed Warren! Ed!” – she kept calling out till she got his attention. You shot her glare wanting to break free from her grip. – “Oh no you aren’t going anywhere.” – she mumbled to you, keeping her smile up.

Ed came over, smiling. – “Y/n is that you?” – he asked. Your friend hummed loud scooting you closer to him. – “It has been a while, perhaps you two should meet up to catch up on lost time.” – she proposed with a cheeky grin. – “I… uhm.. of course… if you don’t mind of course Y/n.” – he felt a bit nervous. – “She doesn’t mind.” – your friend answered pushing you closer to him. You bumped against Ed, smiling sheepishly at him. – “Hi.” – you breathed out. – “Hi.” – he responded smiling shyly down at you. – “Good you kids have fun then.” – your friend wished you the best of luck with him.

Knowing how crazy you two were for each other when growing up. If only you hadn’t moved into another neighborhood, things might have played out sooner. Ed gestured for you to lead the way. The two of you settled in a nice coffee shop down the road. You sat down taking your bag off, setting it beside you on a chair. Ed quirked his brow up at the sight of the raggedy doll’s head sticking out of it. – “Is that yours?” – he asked pointed at the doll. You looked down at it as if forgotten you had it. – “It was gifted to me.” – you replied.

“By who?” – Ed asked further curious about the doll. You pulled your shoulders up. – “I found it at my doorstep, and it won’t leave me.” – you told him, not sure why you said that last part. It felt as if the desperate part in you wanted to share it with anyone. Ed quirked his eyebrow up once more. – “May I see it?” – he held his hand out. You reached for the doll taking it out gently. – “Be careful with it.”

Ed accepted the doll from you, taking a close look at it. He stared into the black button eye. Staring intensely till an apparition in the button made him flinch back. – “What is it?” – you asked concerned. Ed looked from the doll to you with shock. – “Y/n… this doll…” – he started not sure how to put this into words. – “It’s haunted.” – he whispered making you laugh loud. – “Now give it back.” – you extended your hand to him.

Ed stared baffled at you. – “I can’t give this back to you Y/n. You need to get rid of it.” – he explained, feeling yourself grow angrier. – “Give it back!” – you called out louder snatching at the doll. Ed kept it out of reach from you. – “Y/n I don’t think you understand the situation. Let me help you. You see I am a demonologist. I can…” – he went on as you grew impatient. – “Give it to me!” – you shouted getting up. The light in the coffee shop flickering around you.

Ed looked shocked around then to the doll he was holding. You snatched the doll from him. Staring down at it you felt yourself slip in a frozen position. Unable to move while staring into the black buttoned eye. – “Y/n!” – Ed called out grabbing you by the elbow. – “No!” – your mouth said although it wasn’t your voice coming through. A voice much deeper and distorted then yours.

Ed grabbed you firmly by the shoulders, staring at your eyes. He saw how dull your eyes appeared. No sign of light in them. – “Y/n.” – he said cupping your cheeks. He was searching for any signs of yourself. – “Looking for something?” – you replied with a sly smile. Ed clenched his jaw, hardening his gaze on you. – “You’ll burn in hell.” – he whispered threateningly. You could only chuckle devious. – “I already am.” – you answered. Ed grabbed you firm by the arm, pulling you with him.

Outside you seemed to have snapped out of it. – “Are we leaving yet?” – you asked. Ed sat you in his car, shutting the door. – “Ed? Ed where are we going?” – you questioned watching him go around the car. He glanced your way once sitting down. – “I’m going to save you.” – he answered starting the car. Your eyes widened when he stopped the car at his house. – “Why are we here?” – you asked when Ed pulled you out of the car. He pushed you inside his house, locking the door behind him.

“Give me the doll Y/n.” – he said as soon as he had entered his house. – “No…” – you answered shaking your head. – “Y/n give it to me!” – Ed repeated in a more demanding matter. – “No…” – repeating your words louder. – “Y/n give me the doll and all will be well. I want to help you. Y/n you need help.” – Ed called out desperately. You kept shaking your head, pressing the doll against your chest. – “Y/n! That thing!” – Ed shouted nearly losing his patience. – “That thing is haunted by a demon!”

You looked down at the doll. A whisper filling your ears. – “His words mean to deceive you.” – the whisper said. – “My voice just wants to lead you.” – the whisper continued with a deep grumble. – “Liar!” – you shouted at Ed. Ed tensed his jaw, snatching the doll out of your hands. – “No!” – you called out as he tossed it into the fire. You wanted to run towards it to save it, but Ed grabbed you by your waist. – “Y/n no!” – he called out keeping you close by him. Falling to your knees you watched as the doll burned away.

The black button falling off and dropping into the fires. A loud breath emerged from the fireplace like a breath. – “Who are you?” – Ed asked loud knowing it was released now. He heard a bellowing deep chuckle. Looking down in shock, he heard you chuckle devious in his arms. Ed inhaled sharp pressing his hand up against your cheek. – “Y/n wake up.” – he begged. You kept chuckling as Ed knew it wasn’t you. – “Who are you?” – he asked loudly.

“Don’t you want a kiss?” – you spoke with a voice deeper then yours. Ed moved his head back when you leaned in closer with your lips. – “I command you to tell me your name!” – Ed called out shaking you a bit in his arms. Your eyes closed as your body suddenly started to spasm in his arms. – “No.” – Ed breathed out. – “You will not have her!” – he demanded holding you close to his chest. Closing his eyes he started to recite verses of the bible. Your spasm increased as Ed had to press you hard against him to deafen it out.

“Speak your name!” – he ordered looking up. – “I order you to speak your name!” – Ed continued. Your cheeks became purple having lost any control over your body. It kept spasming, feeling as if you couldn’t breathe. – “Your name!” – Ed screamed out pulling the cross from around his neck off. He pressed it against your chest to protect you. – “Baphomet!” – the demon roared out. Ed tensed his expression, finally knowing it’s name.

Ed started shouted verses of the bible to cast out the demon itself. Your breath shocked, grasping for air as you weren’t getting any. Ed looked down at you, tears in his eyes as he slowly lowered his forehead against yours. He kept on speaking the verses closing his eyes on you. Around him whirled a wind as strong as a storm. The demon was fighting back. His house filled with hundreds of whispers gibberish. Ed wouldn’t listen to it, lifting his head up to shout the verses louder. Repeating them each time with more power.

In his arms were you wheezing for air. – “You will never have her!” – Ed called out between his verses. You gasped one time loud before your chest fell still. In front of Ed appeared a sigil. It burned up till the light died out. Along with the storm that was swirling around him. Ed gasped for air, panting at the effort he just put himself through. – “Y/n?” – he said looking down at you. For a moment your chest didn’t move. Still. – “No… please… Y/n stay with me…”

Then. Your chest started to rise and fall again. Ed exhaled relieved to see you were still breathing and alive. He pulled you a bit up in his embrace to kiss your forehead. – “I’m sorry for not being sooner in your life Y/n. I have found you now and I am not letting you go.” – he whispered. – “You are save now and I’ll keep you save for as long as I live.” – he left a kiss right above your lips.

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luxury-nightmare · 5 months ago

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mom says it’s my turn on the writing

tw for mentions of abuse. Nothing to graphic because I cannot write well enough to write something like that with the tact required but it’s there. I would’ve removed it but the video where I get most of my info from described Jack Walker as an “abused toy store owner” and this is what I picture

I do not condone any of the of the actions mentioned in the section and I will take this fic down if it triggers anybody. Jack is an unreliable narrator in this section and I do not believe his thought process

Section starts at “Away from her” and ends at “He moved into the office down the hall.”

Hiding a velidgun from the asylum was way easier than it should have been.

He had been sneaking Klaus into the asylum to keep an eye on him. The velidgun was young, in both lives he had lived, and believe it or not, it’s kinda hard to hire a babysitter for a pink mouse demon that feeds on your sanity.

He knew this was a stupid idea, but the asylum would get suspicious if he took too many days off, and telling Klaus to use his illusions to hide himself whenever anyone walked in was surprisingly effective. He had been trying to keep himself busy as he worked, but Klaus asked a lot of questions.

“Hey Mort?” He asked. Mortimer looked up from his desk and at the young velidgun “yes Klaus?” He said. Klaus leaned against Mortimer’s chair “why do you work here?”

Mortimer put his pencil down. “It pays well, why?” Klaus fidgeted with the pen he was holding “do you, want to work here?” He asked, disgust in his voice. Mortimer rolled his eyes “Absolutely not” he snarled.

“Then why are you here?” Klaus replied bluntly. Mortimer paused, stewing over his thoughts. “I have to, who else would hire, y’know” he gestured to his body. It had been a particularly bad day for his symptoms. The stripes were fully defined now, and his face was completely obscured by inky shadows, two yellow eyes peaking out of the blackness.

“So?” Klaus shrugged, standing up and looking at Mortimer with confusion “can’t you just use your illusions to look human like Auncle Alex does?”

“They haven’t kicked in yet.” Mortimer said.

He still didn’t know why Alex was still making themself look human. They knew what they were, what they were becoming, and they all accepted it. Why would they need to deny it?

Maybe they still hadn’t accepted it themself.

Klaus’s crestfallen face struck at something in Mortimer’s heart. “I never wanted to be here,” he started before he could stop himself “I had a show I wanted to make, got the degrees and learned how to animate. Drew for it a lot too. But it takes a lot of money to start up a show that maybe won’t make it back. I needed a steady job so I could start it up eventually, but now I’m stuck here,”

A hit of malice snuck out of his voice as he spoke those last few words. He shook himself out of it, “it’s not all bad though, I guess.” He finished, then turned to look at Klaus, who looked almost lost in thought.

“Alex said something about a ‘candy mouse’ when I was first created, that was your show wasn’t it” Mortimer blinked a couple times. He had hit the nail right on the head. “Yeah” he said, putting his hand on Klaus’s head

“You look just like him”

————————————————

Needless to say Klaus was bored.

Mortimer said that he needed quiet to work, and Klaus could understand. He didn’t like loud noises very much either.

But what Mortimer didn’t tell him was that his work hours were so long.

The hunger was back

He had been looking through some of the older papers in the back of the office, some older concept art for Candy Mouse that Mort was to sentimental to throw away. Klaus was drawn to them as well. These are technically where he was created, he shared a face with Mort’s favorite character after all.

Some drafts of older character were stored back here, and Klaus got a good look at them. An odd fusion of a snake and a bat dressed as a news reporter, a demon-like character with twisted horns, and in the very back, a green rabbit character.

Klaus quickly became fascinated with this particular draft, digging through the papers and cardboard boxes to find more drawings. He bumped into a particular box with a bit to much force, leaving a dark stain on the cardboard.

“Klaus?” He heard Mortimer’s voice from the desk. He barely noticed until the animator was right behind him. Mortimer had a pension for appearing unnoticed. Klaus jumped and knocked the box with the stain over, spilling drawings all over the floor. “Oh, careful there” Mortimer turned to clean up the mess “I was just coming over to tell you it’s time to go.” He moved the drawings into a pile, then turned to put them back in the box.

He paused, looking at the box, then back at Klaus. “Did it look, like that when you saw it?” Klaus turned back to the box.

A box now completely covered in deep, black ink.

The two watched in confusion as the ink dripped off the cardboard , revealing green patterns that resembled a Jack-in-the box.

“Honestly, I’m too tired to be worried about that right now” Mortimer sighed. Klaus was still confused, but moved closer to Mortimer “come on, let’s go home”

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Jack had been here since the Halloween incident. He had been offered a janitorial position in the asylum, and with Grimso’s not doing so well after the break-in, he had taken it. The shifts were long, but any excuse he had not to be at home, he would take.

Away from her.

He shudders. Dear lord he needed to man up. A couple mean words wouldn’t kill him.

His check still burned from the times she had slapped him

He moved into the office down the hall. This one belonged that animator guys he believed, Mortimer Gray. He was not looking forward to this.

He opened the door and sure enough, the place looked like a tornado had run through it. Papers and pencils were strewn across every surface. He sighed, and grabbed his broom. This was going to be a long night.

As he turned the corner though, something caught his eye. A box. He turned to get a better look at the thing, accidentally dropping his broom as if in a trace. The thing remained him of an old school Jack-in-the-box, with elaborate designs and twisting green patterns covering every surface. It almost gave him a headache to look at.

Why would an animator need this? Better yet, why would the asylum even give it to him? Was it a personal belonging? He had found weirder stuff in here before.

He couldn’t help himself, he opened the lid and looked inside.

He was greeted with a darkness so intense he swore the world look brighter when he finally managed to tear his eyes off the thing. He stepped back. Something was wrong about this thing, and he wasn’t about to find out what. He grabbed his broom and moved out of the office, planning to just come back later.

Then something grabbed his ankle.

He looked back in horror to see a goopy black tendril emerging from the box. He tried to run, but the thing dragged him towards the box’s open maw no matter how hard he squirmed. He tried to bat it off with his broom the no avail.

The box’s open lid looked more and more like a predators jaws as he was dragged closer to it. He watched in horror as his foot was dragged into the darkness.

And suddenly, the darkness was looking back with yellow eyes.

His screams blended in with the patients.

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Mortimer walked into his office, tired from the night before. Alex had volunteered to look after Klaus, and he just needed to work.

So when he found a new velidgun lounging on his desk, emerging from the box from last night like a Jack-in-the-box from hell, he was both shocked, confused, and incredibly frustrated.

Dear Six Lord he had made another one.

#dreams of an insomniac #doai #doai sitcom au #doai mortimer #mortimer gray doai #doai klaus #doai Jack #Don’t ask me why Jack Walker is an adult when in the timeline he should’ve been around Klaus’s age

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silver-tooth-the-panther · 6 months ago

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I may or may not have cried over this.

A Whole New World

(A DOAI Fic)

Word Count: 1750

Warnings: None!

It had been a few days since Alex had their conversation with The Hijacker and they were incredibly anxious for any news that may come. Work continued as normal for them and there hasn’t been an increase in the foundation surveillance of them. So, Spec had not been detected.

On Friday, Alex decided that they would try to do something special with their Veldigun roommate. After work, They drove over to their nearest supermarket and picked up some items for their partner. Then, they quickly drove home.

When Alex opened the door, they saw Spec editing one of their stories. “Whatcha working on?” They said as they leaned on the back of the desk chair. “I’m finishing up a rewrite of one of my favorite urban legends.” Spec grinned as they flicked their tail. “Hm, I’m not too familiar with urban legends.” Alex said with a soft hum. “Would you like to tell me about it?”

The Veldigun nodded excitedly. “Yes! I would love to!” Spec’s excitement made Alex smile. “Great, but first, I have something to give you.” Spec tilted their head as they watched Alex rummage through the bag they brought in. Alex took out a black hoodie with an embroidered pumpkin on the upper left hand corner. Bone prints covered the sleeves of the hoodie. Then, they took out a comfortable pair of jeans and a sleek, leather belt. Spec was rather confused by the items, but smiled regardless.

“I know that you’ve been wanting to see this town properly, so…” Alex said softly. “Would you like to head to town with me tomorrow?” The opportunity to see the human world made Spec’s heart beat with excitement. Their tail now wagged with joy. “I WOULD LOVE TO!” They wrapped Alex in their arms and patted their feet rapidly.

Alex laughed and hugged them back. “You’re welcome, buddy.” They could feel their heart warm, knowing that they were helping their friend. “That’s why I got you these clothes. You do need a disguise in order not to get noticed as a Veldigun, but it’s a good thing that Halloween is right around the corner. ” Spec gently took the clothes from Alex and examined them. “They look spooky. I love them!” Spec looked at Alex with a grin.

They returned the smile. “I’m glad you do. Just remember to tuck your tail when you put it on, okay?” Spec nodded before slicking off to try on the outfit. After a few minutes, the Veldigun came out. Their tail was tucked, so it wasn’t noticeable. The hoodie and jeans fit them wonderfully. It made them look as human as possible. Sure, their horns and face were still abnormal, but Alex could just say that they’re a huge Halloween fanatic, which wasn’t really a lie.

“You look great, bud.” Alex smiled while giving them two thumbs up. Spec admired the clothes with a wide smile. “Heh, even my tail feels comfortable.” They chuckled as they walked over to Alex. “I really owe you a lot for this.” Alex waved their hand with a soft chuckle. “You don’t owe me anything. Your company is good enough for me.”

Spec intertwined their claws and patted their feet, Seeing how much they melted under any sort of affection both saddened and warmed Alex. They wondered if they were the first person that made the Veldigun feel wanted and loved. It wouldn’t surprise them if that was true. So, Alex was determined to show them the love they needed.

“Tomorrow, we can do what you want to do, okay?” Alex said softly as a little tear formed in their eye. Spec hugged them tightly and rested their head on Alex’s shoulder. “Thank you, Alex.”

After a night of listening to Spec’s newest fixation, Alex woke up feeling rather refreshed. They decided to wear their beloved trench coat and a Misfits t-shirt. Another wonderful smell filled their house. It was clear that Spec was making chocolate chip pancakes.

“I can tell that you’re really excited for today.” Alex chuckled as they walked into the kitchen, seeing that Spec was already dressed. “Well, of course I am!” Spec’s claws clicked on the counter as they poured some goopy batter into a hot skillet. “It’s a goopy boi!” They squealed happily as they poured it, causing Alex to chuckle

After a fulfilling meal, the duo went outside. Spec scanned the neighborhood around them. They had never seen an area like this in the daytime, so their pupils dilated to absorb the light. “Woah…” They mumbled as they walked down the steps of Alex’s house.

Alex watched and admired their curiosity, leaning against their car. They even found themselves looking around the neighborhood too. Watching the leaves flow by, watching the trees dance in the wind, watching the clouds go by. Everything felt…more alive.

“You ready, bud?” Alex asked in a gentle voice. Spec nodded with a wide grin before heading to the passenger’s side and hopping in. They rested their hand on the console and tapped their claws. Alex slipped into the driver’s seat and popped the keys into the ignition, starting the car. “Remember, you get to pick what we do today, so let me know when you see something that interests you.” Alex said as they put their hand on top of Spec’s. “Alright. I will.” The Veldigun smiled.

The duo began to drive away. Spec couldn’t help but watch out the window in wonder. They looked all around them, seeing the houses and trees of the neighborhood turn into the local town. They watched as the people moved from place to place. Work to shops, offices to nice or cheap restaurants, all of it fascinated Spec. Eventually, something caught their eye.

“How about that place?” Spec pointed to a building with glowing pictures that covered the front. Neon letters spelling “Eastridge Theater” were built into the top of the building. Alex grinned as soon as they saw what interested them. “Oh, that’s a movie theater. Most new movies and even some reruns end up here. In my opinion, it’s the best way to watch movies. Much more immersive than streaming.”

Alex could see Spec getting more and more excited with every sentence, so they decided to pull into the parking lot. “Luckily for the both of us, they tend to play a lot of horror movies around this time.” After finding a parking spot, the duo quickly got out of the car. Spec couldn’t help but pat their feet as the two of them walked up to the theater. Alex looked across the glowing movie posters and noticed something of interest. “Looks like the first Critters in their rerun for the week.”

Spec’s claws clicked and clacked when they heard those words. “That movie franchise is great! May not be the scariest movie out there, but it’s a lot of fun!” Alex nodded. “I completely agree. Wanna go watch that then?” The Veldigun nodded and gently took Alex’s hand. The two picked up some popcorn and a few snacks before heading into the theater. Luckily, no one seemed suspicious of Spec.

Both of the friends quickly sat down in one of the middle rows. “Just one thing before the movie starts.” Alex began to say. “In movie theaters, it’s generally considered polite to stay quiet while the movie is playing.” Spec looked at them and nodded. “Ah, I gotcha. That makes sense.”

Then, the movie started after the trailers. Alex had already seen this movie and has been to the theaters quite a few times, so their attention was mostly on Spec. The Veldigun had a wide grin during the entire film. Their legs slightly bounced whenever the ticular Critters or the bounty hunters were on screen. Alex could hear them slightly chuckle whenever anything funny happened on screen. They could tell that this was one of the happiest moments of the Veldigun’s life.

“That was amazing!” Spec squealed with excitement after the movie ended. “It felt like I was right there in the movie!” Alex chuckled at their joy. “I told you that you would like it. Movie theaters may be expensive, but I always think they are worth it.” Spec looked at their best friend with a wide grin. “They really are.”

Twilight glowed in the skies. Alex saw something behind the Veldigun. A decently sized park was now empty, a perfect place just to sit and talk. “Hey Spec, wanna go visit the park?” Alex pointed to the empty place. The Veldigun looked back and nodded. “Looks like a lovely place. Sure.”

Both of them hummed as they sat down on the swings. Spec gently swayed and hummed a soft, yet unfamiliar tune. They admired the beautiful twilight sky, the chirping of birds, and the beauty of nature. “You know what Alex?” Alex turned to them with a soft ‘hm?’ “This was easily the best day of my life. I mean, not only was I able to see the human world like you do, but I also got to spend it with a good friend.”

Alex couldn’t hold back a warm smile. “I understand that. I think you see the world in a better way than I do. If I’m being honest, I haven’t felt this alive in a long time.” Spec turned to them with a raised eyebrow. “Really?” Alex nodded. “Yeah. Everything is new to you. That honestly makes me appreciate everything a little more.”

Spec gently swayed on the swing with a big grin on their face. Then, they thought of something. “Alex, can I ask you something?” Alex looked at them with a warm smile and nodded. “Of course.” The Veldigun then sighed. “Why can’t other Veldiguns be as kind as you?”

Alex was caught off guard by the question. “What do you mean?” They asked. “Well, you already know about my brother, but the other Veldiguns either mock me or keep things from me. I never understood why. I do have friends, but none of them are Veldiguns..like me. I feel like I don’t belong in the species.”

Alex carefully leaned over and took Spec’s hand. “I’m sorry that they treated you like that. I don’t know many other Veldiguns, but you are easily the most friendly one I know. I may not be able to change them, but I will always be here for you. I promise.” Spec smiled sweetly at Alex and squeezed their hand slightly. “I’ll be here for you too.”

#dreams of an insomniac #doai twins au #doai alex williams #doai pastra

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kaylinalexanderbooks · 4 months ago

Text

OC questionnaire

Thanks @oliolioxenfreewrites here and here, @winglesswriter here, @the-golden-comet here, here, and here, @paeliae-occasionally here, and @drchenquill here!

Rules: answer the given questions in the POV of your OCs, then give the next people three more questions!

Holy shit I'm actually caught up?!?!

Previous Questionnaires:

Rounds One and Two Masterpost

Maddie, Ash, Noelle, Ewan, Jazlyn, Lexi, Alex, Carmen

Gwen, Gabriel, Liam, Xitlali, Akash, Jedi, Rose, Sam

See below for: Robbie, Hye-Jin, George, Wade, CJ, Teo, Atsila, Niri

#1- Robbie

Would you consider yourself loyal?

“Well, I don't exactly want to toot my own horn or anything but yeah, I consider myself loyal. If anything happened to Akash, I'd actually lose it. I got into a physical fight in his honor. That was how I displayed my powers for the first time, actually, so that was pretty cool. Sammy, too, I'm very loyal to my sister. And my friends at Alium, they're so dope, I love them, okay? So, yeah, loyal. Me. I'm that. I'm like a dog that way. ... I think that's a good thing. I dunno why I had to say that, I was done. *Sigh* okay I'm just gonna stop now and move onto the next question because holy shit I'm rambling, and I always do that, and I never know when to stop annnd I'm doing it again, okay for real this time. I'm done.”

If you saw someone unhoused on the corner asking for money, would you stop and give or keep going?

“From personal experience, I'd stop. My mother always makes sure I have money, cash, on my person at all times. And unfortunately - well, maybe not unfortunately, I dunno why I said that, the POINT is, I have this thing where if I see something bad happen, and I know I could help, but then I don't, I literally cannot stop thinking about that for anywhere between a full 48 hours to the rest of my life. I passed someone before, because I was late, and then ran back and gave them like five dollars because it ate me up, but they were happy, so that made up for the fact that I was late. Great, now it sounds like I'm humble-bragging. I swear I'm not trying to. My point is that I want to help people. And I'll stop there before I ramble again.”

Pineapple on pizza. Thoughts?

“Gonna be honest, never tried it. But I'm SUPER curious. I gotta know what it tastes like, but I'm scared. Both Ash and Noelle like it. Ash I don't trust at all - that girl likes the dumbest food combinations - and Noelle is interesting because she likes food and knows what goes well together, but also I don't remember when she's ever described food as bad, and she has other pizza toppings that she claims are better anyway. Point is, I'm curious but scared to try it.”

✨ Robbie intro post✨

#2- Hye-Jin

What's your earliest childhood memory?

“Oh, that's difficult. Hmmm... I'm not sure which is the first memory, actually. It's not like I memorized the time and dates of everything haha! [Pause] Okay, fine, I remember. It was the first day of preschool. I had only just turned three. Everyone in the class had these, uh, Assignments, I guess. Roles? Hm... Ah yes, jobs, so everyone in the classroom had responsibility. It was randomized, but I got the "caboose," or the person who stood in the back of the line. I cried really hard because I thought that was the worst job in the world, and my teacher probably hated me. I got to carry a flower, though, so I think that calmed me down.”

Do you dance?

“It's more like did. From, hm... Ah, kindergarten grade through sixth grade, I did ballet, tap, and jazz at a local dance studio. But middle school kinda allowed me to take more extra curriculars that were more convenient, so my parents told me I should probably drop dance after my sixth grade year was a mess. I didn't want to, but y'know it is my parents' money. I wish I could've kept it up.”

What smell you can't stand?

“Oh, cinnamon. I'm so sorry, but I don't like it. The smell, anyway. It's weird, I don't mind cinnamon as a taste. But the smell is too much. Maybe that's weird.”

Other Hye-Jin: OC in three, fun facts, bingo, deep dive, origin, outfit, questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#3- George

What never fails to make you laugh?

“A couple things. One: my sister, Carla. She's actually really funny. Watch a movie with her, and you'll see. She's yelling at the screen, insulting her favorite characters, getting way too invested. She tells me all of her thoughts. Two: stupid customers. Hilarious! Someone told me their newly installed voice activator was broken. They were going to pay me a LOT of money. They programmed their voices and everything! Turns out, they hadn't turned it on yet. Three: Liam. The guy can turn everything into an argument, it's fascinating to watch. But funny as in he's super clever, and he can roast anyone. The funniest day for me would be if they came with me on my job, i had to deal with a dumb customer, Liam roasted them, and Carla ranted about a new movie she found.”

How can you tell if you’ll get along with someone?

“Haha, that's funny. People skills are just a little overrated. It's been Carla and me in our house for a while, and we've been doing fine! I'm certainly not going to make friends doing my job no matter how much the homeowners want to talk to me. Liam is cool, and I knew I was gonna get along with him when we met, so he's literally the only example I have for this question. Okay... I knew I was going to get along with him because I was getting everything hooked up to move a lot of the data to our place, and I was talking out loud and Liam seemed bored so he inserted himself into the one-sided conversation and helped me figure out everything. Then the next day, I was working on one of the computers, and Liam came up to me and just started talking. He said I seemed bored, and I was. Sometimes I can't fix things at superspeed because I have to wait for the computer to respond, or the hardware is delicate or something. He asked me to 'infodump,' he said, about any topic I wanted to. The previous night, I stayed up late reading the entire file on jellysponges, so I just talked about them and suddenly, it was like no time had passed and the computer was done! Liam nodded, said my information would be helpful if he ever got into an Alii marine biology debate, and then he invited me to sit with him at lunch. That was cool.”

Do you prefer sweet, savory, sour, or salty snacks?

“I have been talking for way too long. Well, I mean, you may not think it's that long, but I don't do this unless I'm excited about something, and being a speedster it feels like it's taken forever. Anyways, I like all snacks because I have to eat a lot for my metabolism, but honestly out of those snacks I like salty chips.”

Other George: OC in three, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, fun facts

What is your favorite season?

#4- Wade

“Ooh, that's hard. [A couple seconds of silence.] Sorry, Liam's in my head debating all of them. Alright *claps hands* I think it has to be summer. There's so many things to do, and it is always pretty fun to just make a vacation plan. And the beach is awesome. Teo and Parker and I plan our summer - well I plan it; if the others did it'd be a disaster, and they know it. The point is, our summers rock.”

Where would you like to visit?

“I would like to go to Japan. There's so much stuff to do in Tokyo alone. I haven't been to Comic-Con, and I'd really like to, or an anime con. Being from Florida, I've been to Disney World a few times, but not Disneyland in California. Then again, the one in Tokyo... Man, there's a lot of planning that'd be involved. Can't wait til I graduate.”

When do you usually go to sleep?

“I try to be in bed by ten so I can get to sleep before eleven because high school times are shit and I want at least six hours before I have to get up, and that's still not enough sleep! Parker and Teo have it worse, though, since they both can't get settled down until, like, midnight. Uggghhh, we should ban school before nine.”

Other Wade: OC in three, interview, kiss, questionnaire one, questionnaire two, two truths and a lie

#5- CJ

How long has it been since you last travelled?

“Last summer, my family went and traveled around Sector 8 in Alium. It was so fun. Though I admittedly kinda missed Issa. She would've loved it. My favorite part was seeing an opera, actually. It's quite fascinating.”

Where is your favourite place?

“I find it a little strange to have a favorite place. Sometimes my room is a good place to be but sometimes I just want to leave it. Now, I think you're probably just referring to a place that statistically I'm more likely to be happy in. In that case *shrug* not enough data to say definitively, sorry. However, I sometimes stop by the library and just organize books that are there. They're always out of place. And the librarians know me by name. I don't think I have any bad memories there, so even though I don't go to the library every day, I think that's my answer.”

If the inciting event never happened, what would you be doing?

Other CJ: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

*bursts out laughing* “'Inciting event?' Like, as in stirring up something or like, in a story? Cause this is real life, baby. Okay, I'll play along. I guess one could say it was Rose showing up. I suppose if that never happened, I would just be living life like normal. Rose and I don't have a lot in common, but I enjoy talking to her. She is really friendly and thoughtful. So I guess I would be a friend short. And I would be content, but not as happy as I am now.”

#6- Teo

Do you speak more than one language?

“Uh-huh. Three, actually. English, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language! I'm fluent in all of them. My parents decided to try and teach me ASL when they realized I'd need, like, hearing aids, so they, like, took classes and taught me! And not to toot my own horn but, like, having three languages down meant my brain was, like, SO ready for kindergarten.”

What is your favorite thing to eat?

“Do NOT make me choose. It's literally, like, whatever I'm eating in the moment. Right now *holds up* it's this sandwich.”

What drives you to succeed?

“My boyfriend. And also, like, my own ambitions. I can do a lot of things. Again, not bragging, just a fact. I know, like, gymnastics, acting, improv, role play, those are similar I know, playing the guitar, singing, photography, ballet, graphic design, editing, I can go on. It's literally just me wanting to learn how to do more stuff, y'know? I want to build an impressive ass resume. Not just for, like, jobs, life in general. I'm always looking for new skills.”

Other Teo: questionnaire one, questionnaire two, kiss

#7- Atsila

What's the worst thing you've ever done? Do you regret it?

“The worst thing? Ha-ha-ha, what a question. What, in my opinion? Well, I wasn't paying much attention in my literacy class, so I failed! Hahaha, I'm kidding. I'm just not the kind of person to do terrible things, baby. I guess sometimes my competitive nature has made other people upset, but that's technically not anything I've done. Well, that's settled.”

What's the quickest way to make you laugh?

“I do love watching someone make a fool out of themselves. Deserved, though. I have standards. I won't kick people while they're done, but it's sure funny when those who get in my way fall over. Also, make a sexual innuendo and I'll be on the floor in stitches.”

What is your favorite song right now?

“There's this lovely piece called ‘Who We Become in the Shadows’ by Keano Adler. You wouldn't have heard of it, being Ceter and all. Anyway, I should get back. It was lovely talking with you.”

Other Atsila: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

#8- Niri

Do you sometimes wish to be someone else?

“Sometimes, yes. I don't want to lie. I'm thankful that it isn't constant. Usually, I am happy. Sometimes I'm not. It depends on the situation.”

Do you push forward or take time to rest?

“Hard question. [Thinks about it] I think I rest if I find a task boring. I push forward when I like the task.”

What is your favorite drink?

“I like hot chocolate. It is not just a winter drink!”

Other Niri: questionnaire one, questionnaire two

Tagging @sarandipitywrites @theeccentricraven @reininginthefirewriting @paeliae-occasionally @bread-roses-and-chrome

+ ANYONE ELSE

Y'all's questions: 1) Describe your ideal life. 2) What are you most looking forward to? 3) What's your most unique trait?

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet

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copyrightcreep · 6 months ago

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Searching Souls (Dreams Of An Insomniac AU) Arc 1

Xeriva looked at their hands. The hands that moments before this had... touched? The creature- they didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. This creature, in this orange jumpsuit, who had a menacing smile, curled horns, and sharp teeth. This creature, who looked at Xeriva with such sadness. This creature, who had taken Xeriva’s hands before flinching back, then looked in curiosity. Xeriva looked into the yellow, uneven eyes and curiously asked, “Hey, can you talk? I’m Xeriva.” The creature tilted its head. Then it opened its mouth, but out came a child’s voice. “I call myself Clyde. You have my partner’s likeness. They have been missing, and you have their likeness. Have you seen them?” The voice jumped in tone and worry. This creature cared…

…Which made Xeriva certain of their next decision. "Yeah, I uh, I’ve seen them. Bastard of a doctor keeps them as an experiment.” The creature - Clyde’s - posture changed. It became hostile. The child’s voice was now sharp as a razor when it snarled. “How do you know that. And why do you look like Winfrey.” It wasn’t asking questions any more, it was demanding answers.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Xeriva gasped out, slightly panicked. “I got kidnapped by those crazies. They forced me into the room with your partner. They thought that you partner would kill me.” Xeriva hesitated for a bit, then continued their story. “But, I uh, I changed instead. They- they weren’t violent towards me, either. They seemed happy actually?” The moment Clyde heard those words, all the composure it once had melted away, and words spilled out with abandon. Clyde softened immediately, carefully curling its tail around Xeriva’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry. I get protective of them. But with what you said. It sounds like you are Winfrey’s child, somehow. Which makes you mine.” The child’s voice shifted into one more mature, with a soft undertone meant to soothe them. And it worked wonders on their stress. The stress melted out of their shoulders. Xeriva thought back to meeting Winfrey. They didn’t stop for a minute to think about how their body had changed, how their bones cracked and popped, and how their flesh had shifted into something else, how eyes appeared and opened where they hadn't been before, and how their insides became tendrils. Xeriva had always felt more in touch with their inhuman side. But this, this was insane. They didn't know who they were anymore. But they could figure it out, with their…parents? It seemed like both of the creatures had adopted them, if they weren’t considered their biological parents.

The weight on their back finally cooperated with them as they slowly accepted their new reality. Which meant they noticed everything, now, all at once. Their horns, their wings, how their eyes had become misaligned, and how their mouth had widened as their teeth had grown and sharpened. They noticed how their tailbone stretched and stretched, and they realized how they probably looked like a monster. But somehow…it felt right. They leaned into Clyde before rasping, “We’re gonna rescue Winfrey right?” Clyde’s smile widened before nodding.

Clyde led the way, its child following clumsily, still unused to their new body. Xeriva’s tail - similar looking to its own - was dragging on the ground. They had been through a lot, and Clyde’s mind and instincts screamed at it to drag them in a hug and force them to sleep, to keep them safe. But first, it had to let its kids meet, and then save Winfrey.

They had little time. Lankmann was currently on his way to get Alex. It had no other choice than to drag its kids and go to Simon’s barn; it had to keep its babies safe.

Xeriva kept stumbling, trying to walk like a human. Clyde had no idea how to teach a veldigun to move. Xeriva and Alex weren’t born veldigun; they used to be human. Instinct probably didn’t come naturally to them like it did to Clyde. It grumbled at that thought, before getting an idea.

Its chest rumbled with a purr as it hooked its tail around Xeriva’s, who let out a small yelp. It picked Xeriva up and started moving faster, letting its instincts guide them out of obstacles, hoping that by showing them, Xeriva would follow. Xeriva was startled, both at being picked up like a toddler and at how fast Clyde was going. Then they realized they could sense objects, way before seeing them. This must be what Clyde was trying to teach them - they weren't human anymore, they had to stop acting like they were.

Closing their eyes for a bit, Xeriva focused on their changed body and new body parts, before opening their eyes and unhooking their tail. And then, they started running alongside Clyde, letting their body use their new parts to help guide them, while using their wings to get speed or make small jumps. Their tail was swinging with abandon and glee - they were so fast! They could feel a rumbling jumpstart in their chest, and heard Clyde respond in kind.

The two of them must have looked ridiculous, booking it like they were, but they couldn't care less. Buildings, cars, trees, nothing was an issue. Xeriva wanted to laugh at how free they felt.

After a short while, Clyde started slowing down before coming to a stop at one particular house. Xeriva followed their parent's lead and stopped next to it. Clyde gave a proud grin and ruffled their hair with its claws before knocking on the door. A light clicked on, followed by footsteps on hardwood, and finally, the door opened. Alex had been having a weird couple of weeks. Their house got broken into by an eldritch creature, presumably the Eastridge demon. A pretty darn scary thought, but for some reason, Alex’s first reaction was to offer it a sandwich. And this terrifying horned creature tilted its head, and then just plopped on the couch and started eating the sandwich, its tail - all raised and menacing before - was now slightly swaying and curling.

It started visiting more often, then they started working together. First on understanding each other, then on the plan to get Winfrey free, and finally to get away from Lankmann. Thinking about their horned friend made them worried. They hadn’t seen it since yesterday, and it was already nearing 2 am. They couldn’t bring themself to sleep, worry gnawing at their mind. They had been lying in their bed when some knocks sounded, way too sharp to be anyone else. They had turned the light on, walked to the door, and opened it to find two horned creatures in front of their door.

One was Clyde, its orange jumpsuit and yellow eyes and sharp-toothed grin hard to miss. The one next to it was strange, though. Their hair was unkempt and wild, their eyes were yellow like Clyde’s - as were their teeth - and they held a terrifying stature, seeming taller than Clyde (but it was hard to tell with them hunched like this). The creature had multiple eyes, large wings, a sharp tail, and a…hospital gown? And then Alex noticed that their body was softly colored, almost pastel-like, soft blues and purples.

Clyde quickly zoomed around Alex to go inside their house. The pastel-colored Veldigun quickly followed. Alex took a moment to breathe with their back against the door after shutting it, before heading into their living room. Clyde was watching both the other veldigun and Alex with a sharp eye. Speaking of, Alex looked at the pastel-colored one and asked: “Can you, uh, speak?”

The stranger folded their wings and curled their tail around themselves, before saying, “Hey, uh, name’s Xeriva. Clyde said your name was Alex? Nice to meet you.” A short laugh escaped their lips, and Alex noticed that their voice sounded almost melodic, like melancholy and nerves.

Alex was startled for a moment, not expecting such human manners. Clyde seemed pleased before rasping, “Xeriva is a child of Winfrey. You have to hurry Alex. Our plan needs to happen today.” Its voice was somewhere between maternal and stern.

"Already? Okay, well, I have my bag packed so-” they got cut off when both Veldigun sprung up with alarm, seeming to hear something outside. “Too late,” Clyde whispered hoarsely.

It covered its arms with its hoodie before quickly picking Alex up, snatching their pre-packed bag on the way with its tail. Xeriva disappeared into the kitchen. Clyde jumped out the window, running up the hill near Alex’s house, going to some bushes and depositing Alex near one before flattening to the ground. Alex couldn’t see much but hoped Xeriva was okay. Xeriva acted quickly, they needed a distraction. Upon seeing that Clyde had Alex with it, they bolted to the kitchen, turning up the gas and activating the microwave, oven, and whatever apparatus they could find. Then they filled a plastic bag with mugs, glasses, and random cutlery, before quickly leaving the no-doubt ticking time bomb by now. They grabbed the biggest hoodie they could find, hoping Alex wouldn't mind, to hide most of their inhumanity. After that, they jumped out the same window as Clyde and then ran towards some bushes on a hill.

Xeriva could tell Clyde was there somehow, and proceeded to quickly crouch down next to Alex. Then Xeriva handed them the bag. “Sorry about your kitchen, saved what I could.”

Before Alex could question them, a small explosion was heard, and several figures were seen storming the house. Alex looked shocked, eyes tearing up a bit. Xeriva understood it probably wasn't easy, and they wished they could hug Alex. But there was no time. Sharing a glance with Clyde, it seemed both of them knew the time to move was now.

They carried Alex and the two bags to one of the cars parked nearby. Xeriva jumped into the driver's seat and used the tip of their tail to hijack the car. Although they'd never gotten their license, they knew where the gas and brake pedals were, plus a basic idea of how to steer. It would have to do.

They pressed the pedal and started driving like hell, following Clyde’s cues and directions - its tail pointing left, right, and up ahead - while trying to give it and Alex some privacy.

#dreams of an insomniac #DOAI #Dreams Of An Insomniac #DOAI AU #alex williams doai #clyde doai #sitcom au au #mom said it was my turn on the writing

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foxes-that-run · 1 month ago

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Daydreaming

The title is the verb daydreaming, although the song only ever uses it as a noun. To me that sums up the desire for a fleeting moment to last, feeling like once Harry reaches a feeling it is already gone because he is in constant motion.

Love on Tour Opener

Daydreaming opened Love on Tour after HH's release. It is the perfect song for that, happy, light, upbeat with a fast tempo to dispel some of the crowds anxious energy to see Harry. He bounced out triumphantly to it too, it's such a fun moment. The screens showed Harry's house on a journey through London, Paris and New York:

youtube

He used parts of an Alan Watts 1969 lecture 'Out of Your Mind' here. That piece delved into perception of reality. The part Harry chose is saying that we are not seperate entities but rather interconnected in the universe. So many songs on HH are about the theme of connectedness and also perception vs reality, this song included. As the tour opener I take this part as a message to his audience that Love on Tour was about coming together, shared joy. Harry used part of his final show speech in Love on Tour, Forever and said 'none of you are alone, I feel what it that you create together.

When was it written / who worked on it

Daydreaming is from the first group of songs for the Harry's House sessions, before he went to UK, before he joined the DWD cast. Harry said at the ONO in NYC: "Tyler first sent me a voice note when I was driving from Palm Springs to LA & since that point, I think it was called 'idea on the 101 rough'. It's no longer called that, thank God, but I haven't stopped singing it since".

It and Satellite are the only songs recorded in The Cave Studios, Tylers Nashville home only now do I realise Satellite’s recording there could be Tylers contribution done remote

It is another song that Pino Palladino played Bass on and John Mayer played guitar. As I have in detail in the post about them in Cinema. Harry told Howard Stern that he was across the corridor from JM and spoke about Daydreaming and Cinema together:

youtube

The horns are interesting, there are two horn players:

Ivan Jackson, of Brasstracks, also plays on MFASR from this same first set of songs as well as Watermelon Sugar and lights up on fine line.

Cole Kamen-Green of The Superpower Horns. He is in demand and also played horns on Taylor’s re-records, they met through Jack.

Daydreaming samples "Ain't We Funkin' Now." from 1978 so includes co-writing credits for Louis Johnson, Valerie Johnson, Alex Weir, Quincy Jones and Tom Bahler accordingly.

Lyrics

Ooh-ooh Ooh Livin' in a daydream She said, "Love me like you paid me" You know I'll be gone for so long So give me all of your love, give me something to dream about

Daydream and dreams are in several of Harry's songs and daydream is also in Boyfriends on this album. In both songs it means lying to yourself, or rather ignoring that something is fleeting because you want it to last, a theme on Harry's House.

'Paid me' is a theme in Harry's songs, and a Haylor theme also. Here it means that it's transactional, she wants all of Harry now because he is leaving and will be gone for so long. This line conjures up for me leaving to go on tour, which is the same premise as One Directions Back for You which Harry wrote on, though Daydreaming is more mature and jaded. It could equally be parting to go back to England in the Pandemic.

Ooh-ooh Stay until the morning 'Cause, baby, loving you's the real thing It just feels right When you give me all of your love, give me something to dream about (All of your love, give me something to dream about) So give me all of your love, give me something to dream about

Real is so interesting for Harry, in other songs (other than 'Something I've been waiting for) love has not been real, like in Two Ghosts "Tastes so sweet, looks so real" and Fool's Gold - "Yeah I know your love's not real" here he is staying longer than he should because the love is real, but if that is the case why should he leave sooner and the song's premise is that he knows it's a fleeting daydream.

"it just feels right" reminds me of Cinema's 'Don't know why, but it feels so right to me" but also Back for You which the setting of this song (in my mind) is the same as Back for You, Harry is leaving a love to go on tour.

"Give me something to dream about" reminds me of Perfect's "If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about" - but a reverse.

Ooh-ooh Livin' in a daydream x3 Give me all of your love, give me something to dream about Livin' in a daydream x4 Livin' in a daydream (it's alright) Livin' in a daydream Give me all of your love Give me something to dream about (give me all of your love, ooh-ooh)

Harry sings about 'Alright' a lot, like an anxiety bubbling up, he never sounds sure it will be even when he says it is. Here it's almost like he is saying it's OK that it's a daydream, that he knows it is fleeting and that is OK.

The outtro is repeating 'Living in a daydream' the whole song is one last night with someone before time apart, accepting you will part and pretending it is real and forever when he knows it is not.

#harry styles #haylor #harry’s house #song analysis #Lyric analysis #Daydream

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alexiafeyblogpost · 2 months ago

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Here Comes Justice! (Alexia AU)

2027, Wright & Co. Law Office

Trucy Wright was flipping through a thick law book, her eyes shining with excitement as she reviewed the sections she had highlighted. The afternoon sun poured through the office windows, illuminating the cluttered desk where her father, Phoenix Wright, sat. Ever since Trucy had decided to follow in his footsteps as a defense attorney, she had devoured every case, every article, and every legal text Phoenix provided.

Phoenix watched her from his chair, smiling proudly. He still remembered the day Trucy had expressed her wish to become a defense attorney. He knew it hadn’t been easy for her to turn away from the magical legacy of the Gramarye troupe, but he and her sister were there to support her every step of the way as she forged her own path.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Before Phoenix could respond, the door swung open.

“I’M HERE!” a cheerful brunette shouted.

Phoenix sighed, feeling a bit weary. “Alex, if you’re going to burst in like that, why knock at all?”

“Hello, sis,” greeted Trucy without looking up from her book.

Alexia walked into the office, still smiling widely. “Hehehe! Greetings to both of you!”

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” the lawyer asked, rising from his desk.

“Oh! It just so happens that I was wandering around Themis Legal Academy,” Alexia answered. “And… I brought something, or rather, I brought someone.”

“Oh? And what were you doing at Themis Legal Academy?” Phoenix crossed his arms. “And who did you bring?”

“Well, listen up, Phoenix. To be honest, I was just strolling around there for fun, reminiscing about my time as a student, chatting with a few professors who taught me, and catching up with some old classmates. But while I was walking around the academy, I ran into several students who are fans of our great work.”

Phoenix chuckled. “Well, that’s something new. I never thought I’d have fans because of my profession.”

“That’s right, and I suppose it’s no surprise some of them asked me if I could pull a few strings so they could gain experience here.”

“Here?” Phoenix echoed, wanting to be sure he’d heard correctly. Alexia nodded in confirmation. “I see... Well, that explains where you were and what you were doing. But you still haven’t told me who you brought along.”

“It’s a friend who’s studying at the academy to become a defense attorney. And let me tell you, he’s the top of his class and generation, so you could almost say he’s a prodigy,” Alexia explained. “Although, of course, that was only after I graduated early from our class, but I think he still deserves a lot of credit.”

Alexia’s description of the young man piqued Trucy’s curiosity, and she glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, momentarily distracted from her book.

“Besides having a strong sense of justice. Something that I think fits quite well with his last name.”

Phoenix now looked at her with interest, “Interesting… is the kid here?”

Alexia grinned. “Of course he is! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have mentioned it!”

He settled back into his chair. “Let him in.”

“Aye aye, sir!” Alexia replied, turning toward the hallway outside the office. “You can come in now, Polly.”

“Polly?” Trucy thought, raising an eyebrow.

The door opened further, slowly, revealing a young man with dark brown hair styled into two horn-like points and a serious but slightly nervous expression.

“Come on, come on, Polly. Don’t be shy…” Alexia teased, a small sweat drop on her forehead. The boy took a deep breath, exhaled, and composed himself a bit.

“G-Greetings, Mr. Phoenix Wright. My name is Apollo Justice... Um… Alexia here said I should come with her to this address to discuss an employment opportunity…”

Trucy looked up from her book, intrigued, and fixed her gaze on the newcomer. Something about him seemed familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it.

Phoenix welcomed him with a warm smile, “Ah, yes. She just filled me in on that. I hope you feel welcome, Apollo. From what little I’ve heard from Alexia; you seem to have a lot going for you. Why don’t you take a seat?”

Apollo nodded timidly and sat in the chair across from Phoenix’s desk, stealing a quick glance at Trucy. He hadn’t expected to find a young girl reading a law book with such focus in a place like this… no, that was a lie. This was literally a law office, and considering her guardians were lawyers, it was fairly predictable that she’d have at least some interest in the subject.

After that, a brief interview ensued between Phoenix and Apollo, with occasional interjections from Alexia. Several minutes into the interview, Phoenix asked Alexia to accompany him to his office to discuss something, presumably about integrating Apollo into the law firm.

With the two senior attorneys out of the room, the two younger ones were left alone in the reception area. Trucy figured it was only appropriate to greet the new guy—after all, he’d be working here.

Yes, she was quite sure he’d get the job; it seemed obvious. She didn’t know what her father wanted to discuss with her sister behind closed doors, but for now, she decided it didn’t matter and walked up to the young man.

“So your name is Justice Apollo, huh?” she said, making Apollo look up at her. She extended her hand. “Nice to meet you! I’m Trucy Wright, the boss’s daughter and Alexia’s little sister.”

Apollo couldn’t help but smile a bit at the young girl’s energy and confidence.

He shook her hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Wright.” He glanced curiously at the book in her other hand. “What are you reading?”

Trucy chuckled, “Come on, no need to be so formal. Just ‘Trucy’ is fine, and feel free to speak informally. As for your question, what I’m reading is…” She dramatically snapped the book shut. “Criminal law! I’m learning everything I can to become a defense attorney like my dad.”

Apollo blinked, a little surprised.

“A defense attorney? Really?”

Trucy nodded, “That’s right! My dad and sis always say I have a keen eye for details, and I want to use it to help people who can’t defend themselves,” she sighed, “In the past, I had another reason to use my perception, but I suppose, as I said, that’s all in the past. Besides, I feel like I can do more as a lawyer than what I wanted to be before.”

Apollo nodded slowly, impressed by Trucy’s words. He had decided to become a defense attorney for personal reasons and knew what a commitment like that entailed. It seemed she had several reasons of her own, more than she was letting on. But he wasn’t going to pressure her to reveal them; if she wanted to tell him someday, that would be her choice.

“That’s quite admirable, Trucy. The path to becoming a defense attorney is a great challenge, but it can also be very rewarding,” he smiled at her, “I hope this path is as fulfilling for you as it’s been for me.”

Trucy grinned widely, encouraged by Apollo’s words.

“Thanks, Apollo. I’m sure we’ll make a great team when you start handling cases on your own!” she said, beaming.

Phoenix and Alexia watched the interaction from the head office in silence, satisfied with the instant bond that had formed between them. They knew that with Apollo as a partner and Trucy with her unstoppable energy, the future of both was in good hands.

“You planned this, didn’t you?” Phoenix asked, raising an eyebrow. “You knew exactly this would happen, didn’t you?”

Alexia let out a small giggle, “Maybe yes. Maybe no.” She gave him an innocent smile. “I just wanted Trucy to have another older sibling figure in her life.”

“Just a ‘figure’ of an older sibling?”

Alexia put her index finger to her lips, “Not yet, Dad. Not yet…”

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fallingforel · 2 years ago

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arabella pt 1

masterlist

you meet alex turner on a night out with life long friends matty george ross and adam. what happens when the night digresses?

warnings: not too sure i think slight mention of drugs, food if I’ve missed anything off please let me know and I will add them in

"Cmon Y/N" Matty states blaring through my phone speaker, while pulling it away from my ear because of how loudly he's speaking

"No I simply won't" I said back in the same tone and loudness replying to my best friend "look Matty we've been out every night this week I simply can't, because A) i don't have the funds B) I'm turning into a little alcoholic because of you, personally I think I'm being somewhat reasonable. Look if you want to go out with everyone, go ahead, stink I won't stop you but don't drag me along."

At the current moment I hate Matty. Why you may ask? Matty was trying to get me to go out to drink with him. Don't get me wrong I love him, we love each other, but sometimes he is so awfully annoying: right now he's trying to get me to come out, I stand my ground and somehow, somehow he always wins me over I don't understand why? but I don't mind him for it because we always have the most fun

"loooooook if you're so worried about money i'll buy you all your drinks, and so what who cares if you're turning into a little alcoholic because of me we're young we've got our whole lives ahead of us. just come out for one drink please besides George Adam and Ross all want you there. don't you guys"

a whole chorus of yeahs was heard on the other end of the phone he convinced me, I swear that boy had me wrapped around his finger. "Matty I hate you" "awwh come on you love me" "You're right I do. Catch you in 30 come pick me up yeah?" "Of course i always do, love you" "love you too" I replied and quickly hung up the phone.

30 minutes later, I was suited and booted clad in a leather coat, my snakeskin boots. My hands littered with rings and of course my red lipstick. Beeping of a car horn was soon heard outside of my flat, signalling Matty was here. I shut all of the lights off, making sure Arabella's food bowl was filled, I gave her a stroke and left my flat. Heading downstairs I saw Matty in his convertible; George Ross and Adam missing though.

"There's the lead singer of the 1975 but where's the rest of them" I say placing my hand above my eyes pretending to search for them. Matty chuckled and replied with a simple "at the club already, come on bug" I hopped in and we soon sped to the club. Turning on the radio, I soon noticed that sex was playing "Oh my god! Matty your first radio play. I'm so happy for you!" I exclaimed giving him a side hug. "Thanks love! this is so cool wait till the boys hear about this" Matty said in reply turning his head for a split second to smile at me "I'm turning it up!" I simply said in return .

Both Singing along pulling up to the club as the songs finishing "THEY'VE ALL GOT BACKCOMBS ANYWAY THEY ALL GOT BOYFRIENDS ANYWAY". Laughing and singing along I was happy in my own world until Matty opened the door for me bringing me back to reality "you comin' bug?" "course I am stink!"I stated back.

We were making our way to the back of the line before the bouncer stopped us. "OI!" his yelling shocked Matty and I before we turned though Matty whispered to me "don't worry I've got this, bug" uh huh sure you have tough guy I didn't dare say it out loud though, it would just start another one of our silly bickering's.

Turning to the bouncer "yeah? what's up?" "ahh sorry didn't mean to scare you there lad, just wanted to ask if you were from that band what are they called? the 1957?" I chuckled to myself before correcting him "you mean the 1975?" "yes that's the one!" "yeah he is." "ahh nice one my daughters a massive fan can I get an autograph and a photo she wouldn't believe me if I didn't have a picture you see?" Matty turned to me looking at me as if to say "is it okay?" I mouthed "course it is" and smiled.

After pleasantries were made, the bouncer let us in skipping the queue of course because the bouncer said "it'd be rude not to" and that his daughter would "kill me if I didn't let you in" and Matty headed straight for the bar while I went out to seek the rest of our friends. Of course, they were in a corner sipping on their drinks where they usually are. Going to join them I shouted at them in a joking manner "You boring fucks. G I would've at least expected you to be out on the dance floor by now, Hann and Ross I understand you, G I'm very disappointed "

They just all nodded their heads at me,knowing I was joking, "ya alright Y/N/N? Where's Matty? where there's one of you the other one is never too far behind" George asked me "I'm dandy G. and Matty is at the bar getting us drinks. when he comes and joins us will you dance with me?" I ask him. Getting a shrug as a reply so I follow it up with "I came out to have fun. Not mope around in a corner all night just drinking" "OI IM HAVING FUN" Ross shouting back at me "Ross you're literally bopping your head shut up" Matty shouted back handing me my rum and coke "here you go love. Get that truth serum in you" you just laughed at him sipping on it through a straw. "come dance with me Matty these lot are being boring." "Of course I'll come dance with you bug! this song seems very fitting though"

with Dizzee rascals dance wiv me was blaring through the speakers of the club. matty and I ran down the stairs heading to the dance floor dancing with each other. "THATS WHY IM ASKING B! SO LETS PARTY B COME AND DANCE WIV ME" we shouted at each other.

After some time both our drinks were finished so I headed to the bar to get some more Matty giving me his card to get some more. "hiya love what can I get you?" the bartender shouted at me over the music "one rum and coke and one red wine bottle please" I replied "of course i'll get them sorted and i'll come back in two secs" "thank you" i replied as he was walking off.

While waiting for the bartender to come back to my drink I look around for Matty and the others: Matty was dancing with George (rude if you ask me!) Ross was still sitting at our table booping along to the songs, and Adam was in the corner necking off with some girl, good for him he deserves some action. He's been upset a lot ever since his girlfriend broke up with him a few weeks ago, turns out all he needed was a night out with us.

The bartender soon came back with our drinks, tapping Matty's card i thanked the bartender again and walked off with our drinks, joining Ross at the table. All of a sudden there was a silence followed soon by excited cheers were heard throughout the club. "What's going on?" I asked Ross nodding my head to where the commotion was happening on the dance floor. "Some indie band performing tonight. think they're quite big won't lie. not too sure though" Ross said in reply to my question.

All of a sudden, the opening chords of you look good on the dance floor were heard and I immediately screamed. "OMG! ROSS ITS THE ARCTIC MONKEYS WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!!" "I didn't realise you liked em y/n/n" replying to my shouting in a calm manner "like em? I LOVE THEM ROSS!" soon Matty came by my side dragging me onto the dance floor.

We danced for the rest of their set. This is how I always wanted it to be, Matty and I with the rest of our mates dancing to absolute tunes. "this is the whole reason I dragged you out bug. Wanted it to be a surprise for you." Matty said to me grinning ear to ear, drunk yes but happy nonetheless. "you little fucker! stink " I simply said drunkly grinning back at him.

Granted the Arctic monkeys only played a few songs keeping their set small. It was a great set, covering the classics. I stayed out on the dance floor Matty went back to the table claiming he needed a break "feel the alcohol coming back up bug, need a breather" "okay i'll stay here". After a couple of songs, I looked around for Matty and the crew and couldn't find them anywhere, only Hann still necking off with that girl, didn't fancy staying with them on my own. Besides, it's not like Hann would show interest in me and I didn't want to interrupt either "Damnit Healy" I said grabbing my bag off the table and walking out the club going to find them probably shacked at the smoking shelter either smoking weed or cigarettes .

Once I got out of the club the cold air hit my face, sobering me up quite a bit, I walked to the smoke shelter, pulling my cigarettes and lighter out of my bag lighting one. waiting around searching for matty or anyone at this point, popping my head out and occasionally moving to keep me warm, Oh how I hated being on my own.

giving up and walking away because they weren't here anymore lighting another to keep me warm, suddenly I felt someone tap my shoulder with an "scuse me love" turning around with a "yeah can I help you?" not catching on that my favourite artist, had just tapped my shoulder "look it's just I saw you lighting your cigarette normally I wouldn't ask this but could I borrow ya lighter my mate took mine and I don't know where he or my lighter for that matter, is?" "Of course you can, here you go. My mates ditched me too I don't know where they are"

Looking up at me he noticed who i was "holy shit you're like the really hot model who stars in that 75 video" laughing to myself "yes that would be me, although i do have a name other than 'really hot model' it's Y/n. and the 75 are the friends who ditched me" "nice to meet ya y/n, the names Alex Turner" "yes I know who you are alex, I'm a big fan!" chuckling to himself I think more than to me. "that hilarious, such big fans of each other" laughing along too I said "yeah i guess so"

keeping each other company for a while talking about how demanding each of our jobs are George ran over to me shouting "There you are, y/n/n, been looking all over for you". "looking for me? I've been looking for you lot I came back from the dance floor and you were gone all of you. well apart from Hann, he was still there wasn't interested though. think he was more interested in that girls lips, was just about to give up and go home before you showed up" "haha yeah. well we went to go smoke a zoot but didn't think you'd want to come." george caught alex gawping at him, as if he had just seen the queen of Sheba.

Leaning into me george said in a whisper "is he alright?" "yeah he's fine, just a little starstruck that your in front of him, big 75 fan ya see, like I am of him, I don't show it though" nodding george understanding how big fan I was of the arctic monkeys he held a hand out and introduced himself "Hey, George nice to meet you" Alex tried to keep his cool "nice to meet you too, big 75 fan. isn't there more of you?" "yeah Matty and Ross are coming they're just having a heart to heart you see. came to find our best friend and adopted 5th member of our band y/n here. and our guitarist Adam is inside necking on with a bird, shown disinterest in all of us tonight"

Not too soon after, Matty and Ross came up and joined George Alex and I. Matty came up next to me and put a hand round my neck and kissed my temple, "there you are been looking all over for you bug" "went looking for you,dick" shoving him adding "you disappeared stink" with a pout. "sorry y/n/n drug duty calls" standing to attention like a solider in a jokey matter,

coming back to whisper in my ear while Alex and george were still talking "Isn't that Alex? as in arctic monkeys Alex?" "yeah it is. nice innit apparently he's a big 75 fan and big fan of me too" whispering back. Matty just smiled and went up to introduce himself to Alex but not before nicking on of my fags. taking his iconic 75 lighter and lighting it.

After pleasantries we're made. we all decided to take a walk, Alex joining us, leaving Hann behind deciding that he wouldn't want to come anyway being too distracted in some girl's lips, wandering around the streets aimlessly with no end goal that until our drunk cravings were shouting at us to get greasy kebabs. so that's what we did, we got them from the nearest kebab shop and took them to a local park and sat in it eating our kebabs. Alex got to know us, and we got to know him.

"And it was her foot!" Matty said finishing his story, we all laughed "still can't believe that happened, what drunken nights can do to us hey stink?" I chimed in running over to the bin throwing my rubbish away. the others soon finished theirs and we headed out together, deciding it was late and we should all probably head home.

Stupidly though I ended up inviting everyone back. Matty stating that it would've happened anyway "you just want to see Ara" "that's true I love her more than her own mother" "not true you just give into her because you think she's too cute" "okay yeah. but we love her equally"

Alex being confused chiming in with a "who's Ara" ross sighed with george adding in a "you just got yourself into a whole mess pal " giving Alex a pat on the shoulder knowing that Matty and I would get into a heated bickering about who's cat it was. Alex obviously knowing us for a night so didn't really know the whole depths of it. "so it's my cat, her names arabella, matty of course decided to adopt a cat as well not to mention it looked the exact same as ara, we introduced the cats one day because we thought it would be cute because well it would be nice to have our cats as best friends, turns out it was a stupid idea as one of the cats jumped out the window and it was never seen again. but the fight happened so fast we weren't sure which one was which because we hadn't gotten them collars yet. so Matty thinks Ara's his cat, but she's not" "she is she answers to Caroline" Matty added in "she answers to about anything mate" George chimed in before putting a hand round his neck taking him off so he could cool off before the bickering got any further to save Alex, he wasn't ready for the constant bickering yet.

With George Ross and Matty walking ahead and Alex and I walking behind we got to know each other better until the question i've been dreading all evening came up "so...are you and Matty like a thing?" "no of course not just best friends. although you wouldn't think, we argue like a married couple and are very cuddly but that's because we've been through a lot together, I think of Matty like a brother you know, besides Matty would be too high maintenance for me." "Good because I was hoping you and I could become something sometimes"

— end of pt 1

#alex turner #alex turner x reader #matty healy #george daniel #mattyhealyxbsf!reader #matty healy x you #matty healy x reader #matty healy x y/n #alex turner x you #alex turner x y/n #ross mcdonald #adam hann #alex turner meet cute #fanfiction #fanfic #Spotify

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panelshowsource · 1 year ago

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random thoughts dump of the week bc none of this deserves its own post

coming down from a smol john kearns kick and really enjoyed it, guy has a ridiculously sweet presence and i really like his voice. it also brings me great joy his previous career was working in museums and as a tour guide. i would like that life, i think (i worked at universal orlando for a little bit in 2013 and was always super jealous of the vip tour guides lol). he mentioned on one of his rhlstps that despite winning arguably the biggest (british) comedy awards there are, he never released a standup special or dvd, and he kinda wants to keep it that way so he has something special between him and his live audience — and that really made me sad face. like, my guy, what about those of us who can't see you bc won't leave that damn island. (also ed gamble's new tour having no nyc date felt personal...) in another episode, he talked a little about, in great part due to social media, people want comedians they can know everything about, get the whole look of; comedians who are the same people onstage as off. he's not like that and doesn't really like the idea of that. i think there's a lot to say about that subject but i'll just leave it for now...

speaking of touring ed byrne next week!!! and jimmy and alan carr coming up!! what a fun time :')

speaking of rhlstp and ed, one thing that occurred to me and i thought was quite funny upon listening to his recent episode is that both richard and ed have that self-aware side of them that admits to bitterness, professional jealousy, annoyance with critics/haters, believing they're not as successful as they deserve to be, etc. while it can come off whiney here and there, it's not too obnoxious or anything, i just found it amusing they had this (often concealed or private) quality in common. i might even put jenny eclair in that camp (others too but that's a discourse i don't really wanna start lmao)

if another youtuber, following amelia dimoldenberg (and munya? does he count?), had to go on taskmaster i would probably vote for ollie kendal off of jolly. in my mind he and alex would be genuinely good friends outside of the show

man i miss the horne section podcast so bad

honestly, i'm a little surprised david mitchell doesn't have a podcast. he loves radio, it's not too demanding of a gig, and he's got tons of interests that could make engaging premises for podcasts... i'm sure someone has floated this to him before, so i need the reason why he said no. maybe he was busy with his book. would love a history pod fr

does anyone else ever remember when david mitchell was in rick and morty and just sit back and go O_O also when he was on graham norton with hillary clinton like lmaooo i just love the idea of the booking agents for that show being like "we're having fucking hillary clinton on who can we bring for comic relief who is a household name but not problematic but intelligent but actually funny" i mean they hit the jackpot of course but it cracks me up that that's his brand

did david ever watch succession? rob def did but i need more about it from both of them

sometimes i think about when david accepted his bafta for peep show and the music that was playing while he walked to the stage was "sex on fire" by kings of leon hahahahaha like what who was djing that night fr

where did charlie brooker go

speaking of back in the day — and i do mean back, like 15+ years ago — and my main panel show obsession was buzzcocks, there were a few non-comedians who would come on panel shows who were properly fucking funny, like martin freeman and josh groban, and i'd always pray they'd eventually come on again. and i think at the time the person at the top of my list was professor green. how random is that TT he was just always up for laugh and just so likable. i also LOVED the song "just good to be green" with lily allen in like 2010 lmaooo this really ages me :)

been really enjoying some old angus deayton-hosted stuff, like old hignfy and wilty. i got into panel shows after he'd stepped out of the spotlight, but i remember being crushed when i found out about his scandal. i also remember stephen fry standing up for him and chastising paul & ian publicly after That Episode of hignfy — which absolutely blew my mind, even though stephen has always said what he thinks — and i agreed with him and am not sure even today if i fully forgave paul & ian for how they treated angus. ik he's still here and there, but i wonder if we'll ever see him in any properly notable capacity again

just watched the latest hignfy actually and jack dee pheww he's ageing very nicely let me just say it and pheww emmanuel sonubi please and thank you. also, paul's outfit was quite nice. an enjoyment of the eyes indeed

i've been making a lot of typos in my gifs lately for literally no reason other than not proofreading my rushing and it's embarrazzing i'm gonna do better

speaking of gifs i have NOTHING!!! in my drafts folder. nothing. no content. nothing is made. nothing in the queue. [sigh] sounds like tonight we be bustin it out huh. idk about other gifmakers (i actually don't follow any other panel show blogs, but this isn't necessarily a panel show blog thing, just a regular original content thing) but i don't usually make gifs throughout the week — instead, like, marathon gif like two times a week and build up 10–20 drafts to post throughout the week. if you gif every single day or to keep up with all of the new content, it starts to become a chore, which is never fun :(

speaking of which i probably won't gif outsiders too much because people don't seem to care too much about it + the webrips are just...so ugly in gif form, even at 1080p! it's a dave thing fr, taskmaster used to be the same way -_-

okay here we go into gif mode btw i got some of your requests and will def make them!!

#p #long post

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victorluvsalice · 1 year ago

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Merry Christmas Newt!

@dont-offend-the-bees Sooo, you had no specific prompts for me, which opened the floor for me to write something -- weird. Something that combined a couple of things I know you're interested in, because I've seen them on your tumblr. Something that, specifically, crossed over your new obsession with the Saw movies...with a certain British gameshow hosted by Greg Davies that I myself rather like. I actually came up with this idea a little while back and meant to message you about it, but forgot -- and I'm kind of glad I did, because that allowed me to write this ridiculous thing as a surprise. XD Hope you find it funny!

Tasksaw

“Well – we’re in a bit of a pickle, aren’t we?”

“I’d say it’s more than just a pickle,” Josh snapped back, tugging on the chain attaching his leg to the wall to test its strength. Depressingly, it seemed to be pretty damn well bolted in there. “Or do you get drugged and wake up in moldy old bathrooms with your leg manacled to the nearest wall often?”

“I can’t say I have,” the other fellow – who’d introduced himself as James – admitted, giving his leg a cursory kick. The chain attached to it rattled, snaking across the filthy floor. “Though I have been in my fair share of shitty bathrooms before.”

Josh squinted at him. “Was that an intentional pun, or. . . ?”

James just gave him a smirk – which was quickly replaced by a frown as he looked around the room again. “It is a very odd place, though. You have any idea why we’re here?”

“Not a bloody clue, mate,” Josh said, letting his chain slip from his hands. “I mean, obviously we pissed off somebody, but I don’t know who or why.”

“Yeah, me either. The guys in Pindrop weren’t that upset about us breaking up,” James muttered, scratching his head. “Which was actually a bit insulting, if you think about it – oh! Hang on!” He snapped his fingers, pointing frantically at Josh. “We need to check that our kidneys haven’t been stolen!”

“Our – our kidneys?” Josh repeated, baffled.

“Yeah! That’s the main reason people get kidnapped, isn’t it?” James said, rolling up the side of his shirt to stare at his abdomen. “To get their organs harvested? And I rather appreciate having my kidneys inside my body!”

“You’ve been reading too many conspiracy theory sites,” Josh said – though he did slip a hand under his shirt, just to feel for any new scars. “Besides, I think we should have woken up in a bathtub full of ice if that was the case.”

“Nobody said our kidnappers had to be good at harvesting organs.”

“Excuse me!”

Both men looked up as the door on the far wall, just out of reach of their chains, opened, admitting a rather awkward-looking man with a scruffy beard and gapped teeth, dressed in a smart black suit and carrying an iPad. “Hello,” he greeted them, with a smile that didn’t seem entirely natural. “Would you like to play a game?”

Josh stared for a moment, trying and failing to come up with an appropriate way to respond to this. “Um. . .”

“What game?” James said, rolling his shirt back down and giving the newcomer a suspicious look. “Who are you?”

“Right, right, let me just. . .”

The man did something on his iPad, then held it up, displaying an image of a rather portly and extremely tall late-middle-aged man in glasses, sat upon an ornate golden throne. “GREETINGS, PEONS!” a powerful voice rang out from the tinny speakers. “Allow me to introduce myself – I am THE TASKMASTER! Your one true love, your reason for getting up in the morning, your NEW GOD AND MASTER! Over the next few days, I shall set you a series of tasks, overseen by my admin and general puppet-man Little Alex Horne! I shall score these tasks according to my whims, and at the end of our time together, whoever scores the most points wins the most valuable prize of all – THEIR LIFE! The loser will be killed in an appropriately ironic fashion. So play well, and amuse me. Puppet-man, I leave things in your hands. DON’T SCREW THIS UP!”

The recording ended in a burst of simulated static. The man – Alex – immediately pulled a piece of paper, folded and sealed with a red wax bearing a “TM” logo, out of his jacket and delivered it to Josh. “If you could just read that aloud, please?”

Completely and utterly baffled, Josh broke the seal and unfolded the paper. “‘Clean your half of this bathroom,” he read out. “‘Cleanest bathroom half wins. You have one hour. Your time starts now.’” He blinked, then looked up at Alex. “Clean – what? How?”

“All the information’s on the task,” Alex replied calmly, starting up a timer on his iPad.

Josh facepalmed into the paper. “Seriously? You’re going to be like this?”

“Well well well – looks like we’re going head to head on this one, Josh!” James said, with perhaps more enthusiasm than the situation warranted. “And I plan to win – puppet-man! Get me a cabbage and a red dress.”

#dontoffendthebees #merry xmas #christmas fic #xmas fic #fanfic #taskmaster #saw #okay first things first #yes that is Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster #no I didn't pick them because they host Hypothetical together I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT XD #I picked them because Josh is everyone's favorite bullied champion #and James just one of my favorite British comedians in general #and come on his season (7) is one of the best of the series #I probably had a lot more fun than I should have imagining this scenario in everyone's voices #I hope you do too XD #queued

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baphomet-synopsis · 2 years ago

Text

Grasping Shadows: Chapter 0

Aeruudine woke at the knock on his door and lifted his head from the cushion. The monks, it seemed, were trying to get to his attention. He did not know why his sire had left him in the care of these monks, only that it had been so. The monks were of a sect that worshiped dragon kind, and while it was pleasurable, feeling the awe that they had for him, it was tiring, being their god.

He lived on earth, currently, and upon looking out the window that had been carved into his mountain, and looked out over the towering buildings, the latest had not quite reached his level. Sighing, he stretched his wings, and stood up. Gathering the flow of mana about him, he took on a more…human shape. While he was not old enough yet to take on an entirely human appearance, he could get close enough. Putting on the monk robes given him for when he desired to be among the masses, he stepped out onto the balcony, and stepped off, walking across the sky. His subtle spell Mind Mirror prevented all but the most observant and strong willed from seeing him.

He had in his item box, all he needed to survive away from the monks, and it was high time he left them. Oh, yes, they would mourn their god’s absence, but he really didn’t care. He did not love humanity, not the way his sire had, he had no personal feelings for mankind, only a calm indifference. Stepping calmly onto an empty street, he pulled back his hood, and activated the mirage band that hid his horns. As he walked, he saw the depravities of mankind, and shook his head. However, when a young woman, cleanly dressed, and decently so, approached him, he paused.

“Father,” the woman said “If I can have but a moment of your time. Walk with me, please.”

He inclined his head, and reached out an arm, and she took it. They walked past a group of rowdy looking men, who leered at the young woman, until at last, they came to building. A building that was surrounded by more of the rowdy men. The leader of which stepped forward and began to speak.

“Well, Amy, do not think that walking with a holy man will keep you from us, from me.” The man said, “You belong to me, and I will have you in my arms.”

Aeruudine had noticed the men surrounding them, and he braced his legs and tail. The moment they reached for the young woman, he lashed out, with both body and mind, hurling psychic spears with each punch, and kick. He had ordered the monks to train for hand-to-hand combat, as his father had before him, and he had enforced it, learning himself the trade. He had taught the monks the art of mental combat, of spiritual warfare, and the secrets of old magic. Earth was overflowing with mana, especially in this age of science. Taking out a paper talisman, he held between his first two fingers.

“Alex Hideo, in the name of the Arna, I forbid you to move.” The leader gasped, and was stuck in place, he strained against the invisible binds.

As the men groaned, he took a paper arm, and crushed it, slowly. The leader, Alex Hideo, cried out, and was held upright when he tried to fall. Releasing the paper arm, he crushed the other one. Then, he dropped the paper.

“Alex Hideo, I command you to fall.” The paper dropped like a stone, and so did the man. Taking out a pebble, he placed it on top of the talisman, and then took the woman’s arm again, and led her to the doors.

“My lady, I shall see you in time, I trust the law enforcement will be able to take it from here.” As he turned to leave, he heard the woman ask who he was, and he told her “I am Aeruudine. Now I must return to the abbey.”

<0..0>

Amy Rosenstein turned back to thank the monk, but he had vanished, as though he hadn’t been there to begin with. Aeruudine, now, where Have I heard that name before? She thought to herself. Her ship was due to leave in three days, and while she had hoped to convince the monk to come with her, he was as gone as the moon at noon. Looking at her watch, she swore, she was due to meet with the Ardakshii ambassador in three minutes. Hurrying, she went to her office, and finished getting ready. The Ardakshii were humanities closest ally in The Confederacy of United Worlds, and the two races were trying to close an agreement between the Youldigai and the Mondarii. The two races had been at war for nearly a century, and both were trying to enter the Confederacy. The Ardakshii were natural diplomats, and Humanity led the Alliance, having founded it alongside the Ardakshii. When the diplomat arrived, precisely on time, unusual for them, they were normally fifteen minutes early, she set aside the papers the two races had submitted.

“So, even the mighty humans have their miscreants.” The ambassador said, with what passed for a smile on their mouthless faces. “I was delayed by your venerable Law Enforcement, cleaning up the mess outside your office.”

“They seemed to be having difficulty with one of them, before noticing some sort of paper, with a pebble on it. Once they removed it, they could take away the leader.” The Ambassador continued.

“Ah, yes, those men had gotten it into their heads that I belonged to them.” She told the Ambassador. “Forgive me Diplomat Threni’Darn. I was preoccupied with my thoughts.”

She handed him his copy of the papers, and they sat down in their respective chairs, and went over the papers. They sat in companionable silence for a couple of hours, before Threni’Darn looked up.

“Yes, I believe we can manage this.” He told her.

“I believe so as well. There is just one issue that bothers me,” she said.

“And what is it?”

“Entry into the Brotherhood of the Arn. For the spiritual leaders of the Youldigai. As far as I know, the Brotherhood has only ever accepted humans. I will have to speak with their leader, whomever he is.” Amy told the Ambassador “The issue,” she continued, holding up a hand “Is that not even most of the Monks have the opportunity to meet with their leader.”

At that moment, there was a knock on her door. Opening it respectively, was her secretary, a kind young man, by the name of Avatrar. He was a Guldonii, one of the numerous races that had been accepted into the Conclave of Humanity, after warring with them. He bowed with respect for both, and then after a moment’s hesitation…

“Ambassadors, there is a representative of the brotherhood of the Arn here, he says that their leader most desires word with the both of you. That it is most urgent.” Avatrar told them.

“By all means,” Threni’Darn said, “Send him in.”

The silver and blue robed monk came in and gave them the bow of equals. Then gestured softly.

“My lord, my lady, Aeruudine, our most esteemed leader has me to bring you to him, he says that you understand why. That it involves a dilemma both you and he are facing.” The monk told them.

“Then, let us go.” Threni’Darn said, standing.

“That is not necessary,” the monk said “I am to bring you to him with much haste. Please, wait but a moment.”

The monk kneeled, and then began to murmur words. After a couple of phrases, the room blurred, and they found themselves in a pure white void, and then in an audience chamber in a mountain. The monk stood, then bowed to a pair of eyes in the shadows and left.

“Lady Rosenstein, Lord Madagast.” There was the sound of something massive uncoiling from something. “I bid you welcome to my hall.”

An orb of light, like a miniature sun appeared above their heads, and sitting upright before them, was a dragon of old. The force of being before them nearly drove them to their knees, the monks in the room, fell to their faces, and began to intone prayers.

“I have heard the pleas of those in the stars, and the crying out of the voices of the Youlgidai, but I have no place for them here.” The dragon told them. “We have not the place for all who would join us.”

Ambassador Threni’Darn kept his calm, and bowed respectfully, asking, “And what would you require of us, oh venerable being?”

There was the deep laughter, sounding like the clashing of metals, and the booming of thunder, and then “A new temple, one in the Stars, where all of mine may gather. I have heard the prayers of the desperate, the calling out for the end of a war, and say, NO MORE.”

After a pause the dragon continued “We have the money and the manpower but not the materia needed. You will provide this to us, and I shall welcome the Youlgidai, and all those who would take shelter under my wings.”

The murmurings of the monks echoed. What sounded like “It is written, it is decreed.”

One of the monks, and elder, came forward, and spoke “My Lords, my lady, we honor the truth that all are equal in the eyes of the Arn, but our monastery barely holds our own number, as well as our Lord, we must have a new place. There are amongst our number, former Battleship, and station engineers, who have already designed according to our lords will, but, even with our wealth, we cannot obtain the materia without the Confederacy’s backing, according to the strictures placed upon all faiths.”

Amy stood firm, and asked “What do you desire, A planet, a moon? We cannot give those to you. Lest all the other religions demand the same.”

Aeruudine focused, and the map of a star system appeared. One full of dwarf planets, and asteroids orbiting around several gas giants, and its binary star system.

“Eta Prime.” Aeruudine said simply “I would propose that you turn this place into a gathering of all the faiths present, a grand collaboration. The faiths have grown too large for their temples and places of dwelling. I and the others have agreed upon this much. Each faith shall send forth their workers, and their leaders, to build here, and leave the temples for worship as they should be.”

For a moment, Amy and Threni’Darn could see surrounding them, the gods of all the faiths, and their prophets and vanguards with them. Then holograms of the leaders of each faith stood before them, watching with care. Only the Hedrinaites were missing, as they had no central leader, instead, they say its conclave kneeling in a double rowed half circle, one of who stood up.

“While we have no need for a central place of worship, we who follow the gods of the hunt, we support this notion, and will even rotate amongst our great shamans, who will stand in Eta Prime’s grand temple.” The Speaker said.

Amy and Threni’Darn looked at each other, then bowed to the leaders, and Threni’Darn asked “Can you connect us to the Parliament?”

Aeruudine looked pleased, and nodded, activating the projector at the back, revealing the parliament of the Confederacy. Amy turned to them and bowed.

“Members of the Parliament, have you heard this coming together of the faiths?” she asked,

The chorus of assent answered her, and the leader of the Parliament, Speaker Drezdin, said “if this Community is truly agreed to such a thing, then we have voted to grant the Faiths of the People Eta Prime, on condition that it is treated as any other beholden. With tax, and a council building, and that they send a representative, who shall rotate amongst the faiths, to the Parliament.”

Amy watched as the dragon, Aeruudine, looked between leaders of the faiths, nodding, to each of them, who nodded in return, before looking back at the speaker fo the parliament,

“Then we are agreed, speaker Drezdin.” The dragon said, “The Council of Faiths shall stand by your demands.”

#writeblr #original content #humans are space orcs #Dragonsoftumblr #humans are space fae

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cartograffiti · 11 months ago

Text

January '24 reading diary

I finished a whopping 17 books in January, thanks to picking up a lot of quicker reads (novellas! poetry! manga!), and a bunch of them were really exciting!

At Christmas, my mother bought a copy of Taskmaster: 220 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People for the assembled family to pass among ourselves. It's fun and funny, but there's very little in it I'm likely to try. It's also worth noting that the book was published in 2018 and Alex Horne ran a contest alongside it, which means that there are some prompts with a 2019 deadline, and some that require going to specific places in the United Kingdom.

Some cookbooks! Pieometry: Modern Tart Art and Pie Design for the Eye and the Palate was another Christmas gift to me, by the amazing Instagram sensation Lauren Ko. I've always found her very precise decorations intimidating, and I doubt I'll attempt more than the simplest of the ones she gives instructions for here, but they're inspiring to look at, and I very much want to try some of the recipes for interesting fillings and naturally colored crusts.

I picked up Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi after seeing someone claim that an earlier Arefi book, Snacking Cakes, had changed the landscape of home baking in the US. I found the recipes in Bakes really basic, but I hopped into the much longer hold line for Cakes, so maybe in a couple of months I can tell you how much that's hype.

I probably won't make anything from Tasting History by Max Miller, but I like him on YouTube, and expected that. This is a book for reading about historical cooking, and the recipes are a bonus if one really intrigues you. Nice details, well laid out.

It fit in nicely with a couple of reading challenges to read a Pablo Neruda collection--I chose The Essential Neruda on the basis that Hoopla had it--and I enjoyed it hugely. I'd read Neruda poems from time to time as a child and student, mostly ones about nature and love, but this collection has a nice breadth to it, introducing me to examples of his work that deal with labor exploitation and political events. I can't speak to the quality of translation, but even only knowing his work in English, I find the rhythm and imagery really special and memorable. I'm especially fond of "Drunk as Drunk on Turpentine." He's one of the most famous Chilean writers, and I'm glad to be more familiar now with the reasons why.

Last month, I said that my mother and I had started working through a hard Nick Bantock puzzle book, and we were very impressed with it. It's called The Egyptian Jukebox, and it's a succession of interesting puzzles about interpreting the contents of photographed shadowbox "drawers." Mom, who is an excellent codebreaker, worked out a core mechanic pretty swiftly, while I floundered with wrong approaches for a bit and then asked her to confirm whether I was finally on the right track; that made the first few pages the hardest part, and the rest relied more heavily on my strengths of observation and lateral thinking. We both found the final solution extra fun because of a personal connection, but I think the journey will be satisfying enough for most puzzlers.

I've been trying to read literally any Becky Chambers book for multiple years without getting around to it, but this month I listened to the audiobooks of A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy and just adored them. This is a duology about Sibling Dex, a monk whose role is to serve tea and listen to people's problems, and Mosscap, the first robot anyone has seen since robots became sapient and withdrew from human society, generations ago. They travel together, with beautiful writing about nature, spirituality, and various kinds of social responsibility. Every bit as good as I'd heard.

Dumb Witness is a solid mid-range Agatha Christie mystery (which is to say better than most people's), an inheritance murder plot involving a letter sent months after it was dated, interesting poison facts, and key evidence from a dog. It's a bit dated, because it relies on subverting some ideas about mental health and xenophobia that have changed since 1937. I can appreciate what she did, but at a remove.

More than one of the reading challenges I'm doing this year call for reading a manga. I like manga, but I probably haven't read any in about 10 years, since I read all sorts of Clamp and shoujo and shounen with high school friends. I fell off as my tastes moved to series aimed at young adults, which were at the time harder to find in my area. Anyway, I'm excited to have gotten sucked into a manga again! I'd seen some of Shirahama Kamome's beautiful art from Witch Hat Atelier and I quickly fell in love with the story, which surrounds Coco, a young witch being taught to work magic using art supplies. The interpersonal relationships are strong, the apprentices are real people with distinct outlooks, and the larger plot about what kinds of magic are banned, and whether they should be, is fascinating. I tore through volumes 1-5, and I have two more checked out and another on hold. Both cheerful and serious, original, and not set in a school environment. Lovely, and one of several things motivating me to try drawing again lately.

The Emelan group read has gone into the Circle Reforged novels, and we're reading in chronological order. Battle Magic was...fine? Not the most interesting Pierce major arc, but lots of interesting things woven through it. It was written in her period of slower pacing, which I don't like as much.

I know several big fans of Dorothy Dunnett's 16th century historical fiction drama the Lymond Chronicles, and oh man am I on the boat now too. The Game of Kings is so confusing (complimentary), full of emotion and grabby characters, and I fell in love. She expects a lot of her readers. I sent in the chat where I'm live blogging that, "Here's an obscure Ancient Roman. Now understand an allusion to how a particular beetle moves. Jokes in five languages. And there's even a plot." Sometimes it's overwhelming, but it's also exactly my kind of thing, every chapter has at least one perfect scene, and Dunnett does some incredible literary magic tricks. One night I felt like I felt like I was being crushed in a vise. I'm already reading the next one, which has a reveal that made me stop reading for fully 40 minutes while I unpicked what I'd missed. I want to write fanfiction. God.

And yesterday I put on a sim game and listened in one sitting to all of Malka Older's The Mimicking of Known Successes, a wonderful sci-fi novella about a detective (Mossa) on Jupiter collaborating with her former college girlfriend (Pleiti) to investigate a case that touches on Pleiti's research, the study of ecological history with the hope of repairing Earth's ecosystem enough for humanity to return to it. Their chemistry is great, the plot is clever, and the dialogue in particular is shiny and tender. I found a couple of world-building beats underdeveloped--there's a thing about "conservative" being a slur in this future that I don't think stuck the landing of indicating the threat being conservative posed to people who had to change or die--but I look forward to reading the next.

#To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June #reading diary #bookblr

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halothenthehorns · 2 years ago

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Chapter 15: NOBODY GETS THE FLEECE

"Like Annabeth-Nobody, or nobody-nobody?" Percy demanded of his friends. Why were these stupid chapter titles here, they were never any help!

"Or is it the original Odysseus Nobody, back as a ghost?" Alex played along.

Nobody answered, in any sense of the word, so Percy grumbled for only a moment and kept reading.

"I got Nobody!" Polyphemus gloated.

"We can only hope," Percy scowled at the capital N in hopes the book was deceiving him.

We crept to the cave entrance and saw the Cyclops, grinning wickedly, holding up empty air.

The monster shook his fist, and a baseball cap fluttered to the ground. There was Annabeth, hanging upside down by her legs.

They all saw the fear and worry radiating off of Percy, Thalia even shivered at the blast of icy ocean water that was trying to engulf him, but it was just that. They were only seeing it, Percy's soul attention was concentrating harder than he had on any book in his life on the words in front of him so much so even his inherited abilities weren't managing to make these dangerous waters.

"Hah!" the Cyclops said. "Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife. Means you gotta be grilled with mango chutney!"

"I'm sure Grover's offended he didn't get that first caught, first wed treatment," Jason frowned.

"This guy is seriously making me crave whatever mango chutney is," Alex shrugged, he sure wouldn't shut up about it.

Annabeth struggled, but she looked dazed. She had a nasty cut on her forehead. Her eyes were glassy.

Percy's grip on the book tightened, though he wasn't sure if he was imagining strangling this cyclops or pulling Annabeth close, both warred like crashing waves in him to be done.

"I'll rush him," I whispered to Clarisse. "Our ship is around the back of the island. You and Grover—"

"No way," they said at the same time. Clarisse had armed herself with a highly collectible rams-horn spear from the Cyclops's cave. Grover had found a sheep's thigh bone, which he didn't look too happy about, but he was gripping it like a club, ready to attack.

"Both of them deserve revenge," Thalia agreed, resisting the urge to smack Percy again for trying to be the hero they already knew he was.

"We'll take him together," Clarisse growled.

"Yeah," Grover said. Then he blinked, like he couldn't believe he'd just agreed with Clarisse about something.

"It's really not so bad as having agreed with Percy about something," Thalia smirked.

"Do you want me to threaten to shove your arms down your throat?" Percy asked. "Because this is how I'll agree with Clarisse."

"All right," I said. "Attack plan Macedonia."

'They're going to do the Macarena?' Hearth blinked in confusion.

"You're going to send him to Europe?" Magnus repeated in confusion even as he corrected the word for his friend.

"How come when we get attacked by you we don't get a vacation out of it?" Alex pouted.

"Sush, listen," Percy ignored all of them.

They nodded. We'd all taken the same training courses at Camp Half-Blood. They knew what I was talking about. They would sneak around either side and attack the Cyclops from the flanks while I held his attention in the front.

Jason looked particularly thrilled about getting to hear of one of their battle strategies and muttered something about turtle formation.

Probably what this meant was that we'd all die instead of just me, but I was grateful for the help.

"Honestly, without you steering that giant ship they probably would have died anyways," Nico reminded.

"This is just faster," Thalia nodded.

"You guys have such faith in us," Percy huffed. The fact that they were joking about it made him at least hope he hadn't gotten anybody killed though.

I hefted my sword and shouted, "Hey, Ugly!"

The giant whirled toward me. "Another one? Who are you?"

"Put down my friend. I'm the one who insulted you."

"You are Nobody?"

"That's right, you smelly bucket of nose drool!" It didn't sound quite as good as Annabeth's insults, but it was all I could think of.

"You expect witty retorts from her though, that knowledge has to be good for something," Alex shrugged. "You've perfected the classics with practice Perce."

"Thanks," he snorted.

"I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it! Now, put her down and get over here. I want to stab your eye out again."

"RAAAR!" he bellowed.

The good news: he dropped Annabeth. The bad news: he dropped her headfirst onto the rocks, where she lay motionless as a rag doll.

The wince that encircled the eight of them might as well have come from one person attacking them all, though Percy hadn't done anything again as he kept his focus. Thalia's hands were twitching as she longed to draw her bow and help, Will was clasping his hands with nobody to heal in here, even Alex, Nico, and Jason were resisting the urge to grab their weapons while Hearth was gently reminding Magnus Annabeth was surely okay out there now.

The other bad news: Polyphemus barreled toward me, a thousand smelly pounds of Cyclops that I would have to fight with a very small sword.

"We will not be judged by the size of our blades but the courage of our hearts-"

"Stop quoting cooler movies during my fight scenes!" Percy interrupted Alex in exasperation.

"It was supposed to be motivating," he huffed.

"I'm motivated enough to finish," Percy assured.

"For Pan!" Grover rushed in from the right. He threw his sheep bone, which bounced harmlessly off the monster's forehead.

'He gets credit for trying,' Hearth winced and hoped it at least annoyed Polyphemus.

Clarisse ran in from the left and set her spear against the ground just in time for the Cyclops to step on it. He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way to avoid getting trampled. But the Cyclops just plucked out the shaft like a large splinter and kept advancing on me.

I moved in with Riptide.

The monster made a grab for me. I rolled aside and stabbed him in the thigh.

I was hoping to see him disintegrate, but this monster was much too big and powerful.

"Great," Will said in a way that didn't sound so great.

"Get Annabeth!" I yelled at Grover.

He rushed over, grabbed her invisibility cap, and picked her up while Clarisse and I tried to keep Polyphemus distracted.

I have to admit, Clarisse was brave.

"Twice in one book," Percy shook his head at himself, "it is a good thing she isn't here or she'd never let me live this down."

She charged the Cyclops again and again. He pounded the ground, stomped at her, grabbed at her, but she was too quick. And as soon as she made an attack, I followed up by stabbing the monster in the toe or the ankle or the hand.

Jason was all but bouncing in his seat, his hands twitching with the urge to jump in and help that wasn't needed. These two made an excellent team, as if Annabeth herself had given them this perfect strategy. It wasn't great for long term, but a perfect distraction, if only they had more forces to finish this beast off!

But we couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually, we would tire or the monster would get in a lucky shot. It would only take one hit to kill us.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grover carrying Annabeth across the rope bridge. It wouldn't have been my first choice, given the man-eating sheep on the other side, but at the moment that looked better than this side of the chasm, and it gave me an idea.

"Fall back!" I told Clarisse.

She rolled away as the Cyclops's fist smashed the olive tree beside her.

Thalia winced again at just sitting here doing nothing. Even knowing the gods would never intervene in this fight, she kept hoping Athena would take something of this personally and help another Perseus, if not for her daughter, then the tree!

We ran for the bridge, Polyphemus right behind us. He was cut up and hobbling from so many wounds, but all we'd done was slow him down and make him mad.

"Grind you into sheep chow!" he promised. "A thousand curses on Nobody!"

Nico wondered for a moment if the arai would take that literally, then frowned as he decided they wouldn't care and enact it on anybody with the misfortune to say the word nobody around them.

"Faster!" I told Clarisse.

We tore down the hill. The bridge was our only chance. Grover had just made it to the other side and was setting Annabeth down. We had to make it across, too, before the giant caught us.

"Grover!" I yelled. "Get Annabeth's knife!"

His eyes widened when he saw the Cyclops behind us, but he nodded like he understood. As Clarisse and I scrambled across the bridge, Grover began sawing at the ropes.

The first strand went snap!

Polyphemus bounded after us, making the bridge sway wildly.

Magnus was biting his lip and making some very odd signs about an ogre, a donkey, and a dragon to Hearth Alex was jealous he couldn't understand yet, but the meaning was clear, this really couldn't get any worse.

The ropes were now half cut. Clarisse and I dove for solid ground, landing beside Grover. I made a wild slash with my sword and cut the remaining ropes.

The bridge fell away into the chasm, and the Cyclops howled ... with delight, because he was standing right next to us.

Percy's anger swelled as he glared down at those words, his hands tightening along the spine of the book sending an ominous cracking noise in the room. Thalia suddenly decided maybe it was a bad idea if he broke that thing instead of blasting water around and braced herself as she said coolly, "but how's he going to get back to his cave? He might miss sheep vs shark on cable!"

Percy looked around at her, at least vaguely distracted from doing anything permanent as he scoffed, "I'm going to make you eat mango chutney the rest of the time we're here if you don't shut it." It was good for her she knew Annabeth was okay, he'd still like to get through the surviving it all part first.

Thalia smiled without regret and grandly waved him on.

"Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"

Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him, but the monster swatted them aside like flies.

My anger swelled. I couldn't believe I'd come this far, lost Tyson, suffered through so much, only to fail—stopped by a big stupid monster in a baby-blue tuxedo kilt. Nobody was going to swat down my friends like that! I mean ... nobody, not Nobody. Ah, you know what I mean.

Now everybody was grinning along too, Percy most of all as he hadn't looked up once from narrating his thoughts, because they had known what he meant. He was glad he wasn't going through this alone right now or he might have broken the Titan's domain.

Strength coursed through my body. I raised my sword and attacked, forgetting that I was hopelessly outmatched. I jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over I smacked him in the nose with the hilt of my sword. I slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing I knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye.

The others kind of wished Percy would at least put himself in a bubble for his time down here as they sat watching him now. Nico looked like he'd never shut his mouth again he was gawping at him so much.

Percy looked up and shrugged like, 'what?' before he kept going.

"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.

"Percy!" Grover gasped. "How did you—"

"Please, noooo!" the Cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at me. His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in the corner of his half-blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!"

"The man eating sheep, that he was threatening to feed you to seconds ago, not to mention his countless other eons of harm," Jason was frowning at Percy's mellowing tone, the way the tension was easing out of him and there was something new growing in its place overpowering the anger.

He began to sob.

I had won. All I had to do was stab—one quick strike.

"Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

The Cyclops sounded so heartbroken, just like ... like Tyson.

"He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!"

Thalia sighed for Grover. He knew nothing of Tyson, he probably felt particularly indignant Percy was hesitating after all his best friend had been through and falling for this act.

I knew he was right. I knew Annabeth would've said the same thing.

They were still gawping at him, every one of them. Even Will apparently couldn't wrap his head around the idea of showing mercy here when his friend's lives were on the line. He couldn't really blame them, he'd never thought of all monsters he'd hesitate to kill, it would be this one who'd hurt Annabeth and tormented Grover...but...

But Polyphemus sobbed ... and for the first time it sank in that he was a son of Poseidon, too.

Like Tyson. Like me. How could I just kill him in cold blood?

"Ah Percy..."

For a moment Percy thought Thalia was laughing at him again as she shook her head with a whisper of a smile, but that wasn't it. She just seemed, resigned about him. She'd never really understood before this moment how Percy had set aside everything to let Luke make the final blow though.

"We only want the Fleece," I told the monster. "Will you agree to let us take it?"

"I would, he wouldn't," Will was frowning at Percy like he'd lost his mind, again. Nico finally came out of his daze and gave a soft laugh for the pun at least.

"You're insane," Alex politely informed Percy.

"And your hair is green," Percy said without looking up. He didn't care to give himself a headache to find out if he was right or wrong to do this, he was ignoring Thalia and his own sixth sense of what the outcome was. He didn't regret giving this chance.

"No!" Clarisse shouted. "Kill him!"

The monster sniffed. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."

"I'm going to step back slowly," I told the monster. "One false move ..."

Polyphemus nodded like he understood.

I stepped back ... and as fast as a cobra, Polyphemus smacked me to the edge of the cliff.

His rib cage on the other hand sure regretted his actions right now, he swore they throbbed with the remembered cracks they'd gotten from that. He sat and waited for a moment for somebody to call him a fool and say they'd known it, but Jason looked as resigned as Thalia at his actions, their faces looked oddly similar the way they did that. Nico was just looking at him casually waiting for him to get up and keep going while Magnus was still studying the book with as much concern as Percy felt, waiting to get to the important part where Annabeth was okay than really anything else going on.

"Foolish mortal!" he bellowed, rising to his feet. "Take my Fleece? Ha! I eat you first."

He opened his enormous mouth, and I knew that his rotten molars were the last things I would ever see.

"It's to bad he and Charybdis can't just match already," Alex was right back to being sarcastically unhelpful in the face of Percy at least being very much alive.

"Maybe she has commitment issues," Percy nodded along.

Then something went whoosh over my head and thump!

A rock the size of a basketball sailed into Polyphemus's throat—a beautiful three-pointer, nothing but net.

"Only you would make a basketball comparison at a time like this," Thalia informed him, choosing now to look offended at his thoughts.

"If it was one of the piranha sheep that did it, I promise I won't stab that one," he grinned like that was the concern here, but he hardly looked up, attention suddenly riveted on the book again. For something good this time though...that had been a huge rock. Surely Clarisse hadn't...

The Cyclops choked, trying to swallow the unexpected pill.

"He should try drinking water with it," Will offered.

"New favorite mental image for hard-to-swallow facts," Nico snickered.

He staggered backward, but there was no place to stagger. His heel slipped, the edge of the cliff crumbled, and the great Polyphemus made chicken wing motions that did nothing to help him fly as he tumbled into the chasm.

A hearty laugh encircled the room, Percy more than happily joining in. Just because he hadn't been able to do the deed himself didn't mean he was going to feel bad at this turn, and he was now reading as lightheartedly as ever as if nothing else could possibly be wrong.

I turned.

Halfway down the path to the beach, standing completely unharmed in the midst of a flock of killer sheep, was an old friend.

"Bad Polyphemus," Tyson said. "Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."

"Tyson's alive!" Percy shouted with such joy he lobbed the book into the ceiling above and didn't watch it sink back down as he beamed. The sensation swamped over him so much he looked ready to literally start jumping with joy, if only Annabeth wasn't hurt so badly this could have been a perfect moment...

Alex made a grab for the book as it came floating down with his own pleased smile, Tyson was a cool outlier and he couldn't wait to get back to the surface and meet him- but Percy snatched the book back to him via the current again as he told Alex, "wait your turn!"

At least he'd controlled it enough this time he hadn't sent him crashing to the ground so Alex only brushed his fingers under his jaw at him as Percy read eagerly.

Tyson gave us the short version: Rainbow the hippocampus—who'd apparently been following us ever since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him—had found Tyson sinking beneath the wreckage of the CSS Birmingham and pulled him to safety.

"Remind me to give Rainbow all of the extra treats when I get back," Percy was still grinning like he'd won the lottery, like he'd be running over and hugging Tyson and that hippocampus now, even looking around the room eagerly for a moment like the two would just happen to pop up down here.

He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find us, until Tyson caught the scent of sheep and found this island.

I wanted to hug the big oaf, except he was standing in the middle of killer sheep.

"Note to self," Nico muttered. Will gave him a very odd look why Nico would avoid a hug from Percy, and where he'd get the killer sheep.

"Tyson, thank the gods. Annabeth is hurt!"

"You thank the gods she is hurt?" he asked, puzzled.

"Punctuation matters," Magnus couldn't help the laugh that burst out of him.

"Uncle Jack and his horse can explain it to him later," Alex smirked.

"No!" I knelt beside Annabeth and was worried sick by what I saw. The gash on her forehead was worse than I'd realized. Her hairline was sticky with blood. Her skin was pale and clammy.

Some of Percy's enthusiasm finally faded, he stopped half shouting everything even at the revelation his brother was alive and turned a concerningly matching description of that now. He couldn't lose her right after he'd just gotten Tyson back!

Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Then an idea came to me. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for me?"

"Duh!" Magnus sighed in relief, though there was still a rush of feeling coursing through him with the urge to do anything to actually help. He was almost glowing, and not from a blush for once, Alex noticed, but it was so faint only he did as Hearth was still concentrating on reading Percy's lips. "The entire reason you came on this quest! If it can heal a magic dying tree it can for her too, right?"

"Finger's crossed," Percy said fervently.

"Which one?" Tyson said, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.

"Valid question," Jason couldn't help a little chuckle, "though I wonder if it would be divine too and kill whoever it was draped over."

"Magic devouring fleece, the opposite of this one, yeah I can see it," Nico nodded.

"In the tree!" I said. "The gold one!"

"Oh. Pretty. Yes."

Tyson lumbered over, careful not to step on the sheep. If any of us had tried to approach the Fleece, we would've been eaten alive, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus, because the flock didn't bother him at all. They just cuddled up to him and bleated affectionately, as though they expected to get sheep treats from the big wicker basket. Tyson reached up and lifted the Fleece off its branch. Immediately the leaves on the oak tree turned yellow.

Magnus and Percy exchanged uneasy frowns at that development. Even if it healed Annabeth short term, the effects might not last. They had to get her real help. Then Percy's concern grew more as he studied Thalia for a moment, troubled all the more if her life was tied to that tree always having this fleece around it or something...there was definitely some kind of connection there he was missing...

Tyson started wading back toward me, but I yelled, "No time! Throw it!"

The gold ram skin sailed through the air like a glittering shag Frisbee.

"We seriously need to get Tyson into the NBA when this is over, he's won this for you guys twice in as many pages," Jason grinned.

I caught it with a grunt. It was heavier than I'd expected—sixty or seventy pounds of precious gold wool.

I spread it over Annabeth, covering everything but her face, and prayed silently to all the gods I could think of, even the ones I didn't like.

'Isn't that, all of them?' Hearth asked. Percy hadn't exactly mentioned he even liked his dad much yet.

'I'd be doing it too if I could remember half their names,' Magnus signed.

Please. Please.

The color returned to her face. Her eyelids fluttered open. The cut on her forehead began to close. She saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not... married?"

"Is he still a goat in white?" Nico barely sounded coherent he started laughing so hard.

"He's got more virtues than half the humans I've met," Jason went a little cross-eyed for making such a broad statement, but he was still smiling along nonetheless.

Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

"It wouldn't have been a very holy matrimony," Percy nodded seriously.

"They never would have made it out of the honeymoon phase," Alex smirked.

"Besides, we all know it never would have gone off without Annabeth being the bridesmaid," Thalia chuckled.

"Annabeth," I said, "just lay still."

But despite our protests she sat up, and I noticed that the cut on her face was almost completely healed. She looked a lot better. In fact, she shimmered with health, as if someone had injected her with glitter.

Alex wolf-whistled at Percy but gave a little wink to Magnus...like Alex was picturing him glittering? Magnus could feel himself glowing a different kind of way, because he was blushing more than ever and yet not bothering to turn away as he smiled back. If Alex was imagining injecting him with glitter, he wasn't going to protest.

Meanwhile, Tyson was starting to have trouble with the sheep. "Down!" he told them as they tried to climb him, looking for food. A few were sniffing in our direction. "No, sheepies. This way! Come here!"

They heeded him, but it was obvious they were hungry, and they were starting to realize Tyson didn't have any treats for them. They wouldn't hold out forever with so much fresh meat nearby.

Percy would bet his pen at this rate he'd yet gone a whole chapter of any of these without something going wrong and was increasingly wondering which of those gods were going to never let him live down how he was alive in exchange for Annabeth still breathing.

"We have to go," I said. "Our ship is..." The Queen Anne's Revenge was a very long way away. The shortest route was across the chasm, and we'd just destroyed the only bridge. The only other possibility was through the sheep.

"I don't suppose they'd let you play leapfrog on them?" Will frowned.

"I'd rather have another round with Polyphemus than try," Percy shook his head.

"Tyson," I called, "can you lead the flock as far away as possible?"

"The sheep want food."

"I know! They want people food! Just lead them away from the path. Give us time to get to the beach. Then join us there."

Tyson looked doubtful, but he whistled. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!"

He jogged off into the meadow, the sheep in pursuit.

"Keep the Fleece around you," I told Annabeth. "Just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you stand?"

She tried, but her face turned pale again. "Ohh. Not fully healed."

Clarisse dropped next to her and felt her chest, which made Annabeth gasp.

"Ribs broken," Clarisse said. "They're mending, but definitely broken."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

Clarisse glared at me. "Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."

Before I could argue, Clarisse picked up Annabeth like a sack of flour and lugged her down to the beach.

"Remind me to mention this in my wedding speech if Clarisse ever gets hitched," Percy said warmly.

"I'll bet Clarisse will during yours," Thalia said slyly, causing Percy to flush and keep reading quickly.

Grover and I followed.

As soon as we got to the edge of the water, I concentrated on the Queen Anne's Revenge. I willed it to raise anchor and come to me. After a few anxious minutes, I saw the ship rounding the tip of the island.

"Incoming!" Tyson yelled. He was bounding down the path to join us, the sheep about fifty yards behind, bleating in frustration as their Cyclops friend ran away without feeding them.

"Show this to someone who ever laughs at the idea of running away from a chicken coop," Percy said as he still shifted about in his chair uneasily. This was almost over, they were almost home free.

"They probably won't follow us into the water," I told the others. "All we have to do is swim for the ship."

"With Annabeth like this?" Clarisse protested.

"We can do it," I insisted. I was starting to feel confident again. I was back in my home turf—the sea. "Once we get to the ship, we're home free."

We almost made it, too.

"Did I piss off the god of jinxes too?" Percy was glaring down at that stupid sentence.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Thalia said with honest sympathy.

We were just wading past the entrance to the ravine, when we heard a tremendous roar and saw Polyphemus, scraped up and bruised but still very much alive, his baby-blue wedding outfit in tatters, splashing toward us with a boulder in each hand.

"Do I even want to know what else could go wrong?" Thalia actually hesitated to grab the book from Percy as she looked over his shoulder at that horrid last paragraph, a promise for even more carnage to come. "Does Luke's cruise ship come around too and attack again? Do you and Grover get drunk and accidentally get hitched?"

"You tell me," Percy restlessly reminded. He couldn't decide if he was reluctant to hand the book over or should just keep reading to get it over with himself.

#PJO #Percy Jackson #reading the books #fanfiction #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #Alex Fierro #Will Solace #Nico di Angelo #magnus chase #Hearthstone #SoM #percabeth

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d1nosorcerer · 2 years ago

Text

a rant about medieval periodization which no one asked for

alright, we're about to get REAL nerdy. Ahem.

so, for a bit of background, a while back I was reading an article by historian Alex West about his view of the Middle Ages; it's interesting, but I'll link to one of his later ones that summarizes things more for the sake of your time: The Hemispheric Middle Ages — Part I. I agree with many of the points made and reading those ideas is part of what inspired what I'm about to go over here.

The extra-quick TL;DR is that, in his and my opinion, the "Middle Ages" are best defined as having ended with the Columbian Exchange (for lack of a better term*) that started in the 1490s, and that the term should be applied to (most of) Afro-Eurasia, not limited to just Europe, but also shouldn't be used for the Americas or Oceania. For more on why that is I'd suggest reading the articles, he explains better than I could.

*the Hemispheric Exchange, perhaps? The term doesn't necessarily endorse Columbus' awfulness, but it feels misleading to center such a broad and large-scale event on a single person who wasn't even alive for all of it

What I have to add here is my own idea of when the Middle Ages, for lack of a better term** began. Of course, to some degree this is inevitably going to be arbitrary. Creating a unified periodization for a region so large, even one more interconnected at that time than most are led to believe, is kind of nonsensical. I'm just having fun, to be honest, but it's not like historical academia is suddenly going to change course just because of what I said in this post. I'm not even a historian!

**Post-Classical" is a different term, but not a better one: it's just as Eurocentric and still named in relation to the surrounding eras. In any case, if I were attempting to challenge the concept of the Middle Ages entirely, I wouldn't bother talking about all this

With those probably-unnecessary tangents out of the way, here's what I think: the best starting time for the Afro-Eurasian Middle Ages (as opposed to one centered on western Europe/the western Mediterranean, where the fall of Western Rome works well enough) is the first few decades of the 7th century, roughly coinciding with the Byzantine-Sassanian Wars of 602-628. This can be seen as a transition period of sorts between Late Antiquity and the Medieval era.

I pick this time because numerous events could each work as the start of an era in certain parts of Afro-Eurasia within that timeframe, and multiple of those had ripple effects that led to them being important to other regions in that area as well. These are:

The aforementioned Byzantine-Sassanian wars, which impacted areas including southern/eastern Europe, west Asia, and north Africa, weakening both of those powers enough to pave the way for the rise and rapid expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate (and also Heraclius' rise to power & formalization of Greek as the Roman Empire's official language during that era)

The formation and consolidation of the Tang Dynasty of China

The formation of the Tibetan Empire (which covered a larger area than modern Tibet) in 618

The collapse of the Gokturk Khaganate in 603

The decline of the Empire of Aksum in the Horn of Africa

The formation of Islam, a religion followed by a quarter of the world's population today, which would (together with the first point) lead to imperial conquests that greatly reshaped the Mediterranean, West Asia, and adjacent regions

Again, it's just as arbitrary as any other, but I think it works better than 476 or ~500 which is mostly only relevant to the Western Roman Empire, and maybe arguably the Gupta Empire. My list is missing things from west Africa, northern Europe, and most of south and southeast Asia, but multiple of the above events would become relevant to their history by the end of this period. It works less well for Africa south of the Congo and west of the Great Lakes (no, not those Great Lakes, these Great Lakes), but there's not a lot of detailed information about the events going on there in the 7th Century CE anyway, at least not with precise dates, so it'd be harder to properly include that.

I suppose if we're going with the theme of connections between regions, an argument could be made for the 8th century when you could cross the middle-ish latitudes of Afro-Eurasia and mostly be within the territory of two empires (Tang & Umayyad) and the trans-Saharan & Indian Ocean trade were beginning to increase in scale (not to mention the Radhanites). Or perhaps the late 13th century when those trade networks reached their height and Eurasia was also linked by land due to the Mongol Empire's facilitation of commerce along the Silk Road(s). But both of those stray far enough from the commonly accepted definitions of "Middle Ages" that they could be confusing.

It's probably better to just employ more specific and malleable periodizations that are tailored to the contexts they're used in. But A) i'm a goofy little nerd who likes to categorize things, and B) the concept of the Middle Ages isn't going anywhere, so it might as well at least make a bit more sense. In my view of the world, the Middle Ages of Afro-Eurasia began from ~600-630 CE and ended in 1492.

And that's on period.

#history #middle ages #medieval #world history #time period #periodization

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