#and doesn’t respond to my dms in under 30 minutes

[wonysugar]

guys. i miss her. I MISS ENAAAA😭😭😭💔💔

hai guys let’s talk about ena because i miss her oh so dearly please i’m getting withdrawal symptoms.

[theboywithburninghands]

Alright. Tentative Comm Info Under the Cut. I’m at work rn so it will be a while before I can talk in depth

18+ commissions only: I only take commissions from adults. No ifs ands or buts.

Will Do:

TADC Content: Yup. Might expand to other fandoms as time goes by.

NSFW: Also yup. This includes any ship and character x reader. Within reason. Do NOT make me have to report you for requesting something illegal.

Heavier Themes: A lot of my work deals with mental health, so I’m okay with writing about things like depression, anxiety, dark thoughts and the like. I also don’t mind discussing addiction, discrimination or certain kinds of trauma. Again though, within reason. See what I won’t do below.

Might Do:

AU’s: If I’m familiar with the AU or it’s one I’ve created, yes. If it’s one I’m unfamiliar with and would take a ton of extra work to get correct, no.

Won’t Do

Dead Dove: You know what I’m talking about. Extremely toxic relationships, graphic death or torture, noncon/SA of any kind. I do this stuff for fun, people, I’m not writing misery.

Kinks/Fetishes: Sorry, but I don’t want to become known as “the x guy” or “the y guy.” I’m sure there are other talented authors that could write you the perfect niche fic, but I am sadly not that author. I MIGHT make an exception for close friends, but those will be strictly private.

OC’s: Nnnope. I don’t really feel equipped to write anyone’s character unless I’m familiar with them. The last thing I want is to do a disservice to your intimately crafted character. That said, I will make an exception for close friends.

General Rules:

I work full time so please be patient.

Please don’t cancel at the last minute. I’ll make it clear when I’m working on the story and how progress is going, so please don’t ask for your money back when I’m almost finished. I’m more than happy to refund people, but if you try and pull this, you may not be refunded.

DBAA (Don’t Be An Asshole). If I say no to your request, the answer is no. Begging will get you blocked. Harassment will get you blocked and reported.

I don’t mind doing rewrites, but I will charge extra for excessive rewrites.

One-shots only atm, yeah? I’m not ready for another novel like Primum Peccatum…

I’ll only take your money when I’ve gotten started, and I will only get started when I receive your money. If you’re in line, I won’t take a dime from you until I actually begin writing.

Your commission can be public or private. I will never make anything you want not out in the open available to the public.

We can talk about your idea as much as you feel like we need to, but I might dip in and out of the conversation. Doesn’t mean I don’t like you, I either forgot to respond or I’m busy/tired/depressed.

Rates start at $30.

Two close friends already have slots secured already. I’ll keep another one open.

DM me if you’re interested, but remember, I only accept commissions from adults.

[uta-no-sin-sama]

Birthday Cake-tastrophe! (HEAVENS x Reader)

My birthday is tomorrow at the time of writing this, so I figured I’d write an imagine for the first time in a while. I hope you all enjoy!

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Reader is gender neutral in this imagine, like in most of my work on this blog so far. 

Summary: The HEAVENS boys have a day off for once, and that day happens to be your birthday. Since you’re their beloved composer, the boys want to make your birthday extra special and throw you a surprise party including making the cake. However, their baking skills might need a little bit of work....

Word Count: 1,568

slight content warning (CW) for light swearing, but it doesn’t happen often in this imagine

Fluff, no major trigger warning (TW), but please dm me if I do need to possibly add a TW or CW for anything in this imagine for future works. 

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Key:

(Y/N) = your name

(N/N) = nickname

(F/C) = favorite color

(2/F/C) = second favorite color

(F/C/F) = favorite cake flavor

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Imagine is under the cut, I hope you all enjoy it!

“Yamato..., I don’t think... we’re supposed to add... protein powder... to the... cake mix,” Kira said, growing more mildly annoyed when he realized that neither of the other two HEAVENS members seemed to have any idea what they were doing. 

It wasn’t often that the boys’ days off managed to coincide with birthdays, so whenever they got the chance to celebrate, they did whatever it took to make that person’s special day all the more memorable. Their beloved composer, (Y/N), was certainly no exception to this idea. As soon as (Y/N) had casually dropped the fact that their birthday was coming up during a conversation with Eiichi earlier that week, the boys knew they had to do everything in their power to make this birthday the best one yet for the composer they loved so dearly. 

They then decided it would be best to throw a surprise party, with that being Yamato and Van’s idea on how they should celebrate their composer’s special day. It was Nagi’s idea for them to try to bake a cake, his reasoning being that a birthday party wouldn’t be a birthday party without cake. Of course, the older HEAVENS members all knew that he just wanted an excuse to eat something sweet, but they were happy to oblige since they wanted a way to show their gratitude for all the hard work and love their composer has put into all the song they’ve produced together so far. However, as Eiichi, Shion and Van worked on setting up the decorations for the party and Eiji focused on distracting (Y/N) under the guise of needing help in his garden, Kira realized that neither Nagi nor Yamato had any idea on what they were doing when it came to baking. 

“What are you talking about?” Yamato grumbled as he begrudgingly put the box of protein powder back into the cabinet above the stove where they were working. “A little bit of protein never did much harm. Besides, don’t you want our manager to be in their best condition?” “For frick’s sake, Yamato!” Nagi whined. “If our (N/N)-chan wants something sweet for their birthday, that’s what they’ll get! Protein will just make the cake taste gross, and no one wants a gross cake!” “What are you trying to say about my cooking skills, Nagi?” Yamato growled, struggling to keep his temper in check while working with the complaining teen and trying not to make too big of a mess while mixing the (thankfully protein powder-less) cake batter. “Please..., no fighting... especially not... today...,” Kira warned, which thankfully worked to help calm the two younger members down, causing both Nagi and Yamato to mumble out in unison a brief “Sorry, Kira,” before returning to work. 

“I’d like... to be done... before the others... so we can... help them... while the cake... is baking...,” Kira explained. “Yeah, good idea,” agreed Nagi as he added a few drops of (F/C) food coloring to the frosting mixture he was working on. “I heard Shion was struggling with putting up that strand of lights we wanted up, they’re probably going to need more help once we’re waiting for the cake to bake.” The older two members hummed in agreement as they finished pouring the now ready batter into the cake tin and were now preparing to place the tin in the oven. “Alright, it’s 3:30 right now,” Yamato noted after Kira shut the oven door. “How much time are we supposed to let this bake for?” “Fifteen... minutes...,” Kira replied. “And let... the frosting... chill... for thirty....” “Okay, then,” Nagi answered as he covered the top of the frosting bowl with plastic wrap before gingerly placing in the fridge. “Let’s go check on the others and see what we can do to help them.” So, the three HEAVENS members did just that. Unfortunately for them, Kira had forgotten to set the timer to let them know when the cake was done baking.... 

“iiiiii~!” Eiichi exclaimed, proud of the work that he and the rest of HEAVENS had put into decorating the living room and dining room for the party. It truly was something to be proud of: stunning fairy lights and beautiful streamer strewn across the walls and stairs’ handrails, (F/C) and (2/F/C) balloons tied to the handrails, the gift table all arranged neatly in the dining room courtesy of Shion, all that was missing was the cake. “Awesome work, everyone!” Van cheered. “(N/N)-chan’s gonna love it!” “Well, of course they will,” Eiichi assured. “What would HEAVENS be without the passion we put into everything we do? It’s no different here. Besides, we’ve all put a lot of thought into this party. I have no doubt in my mind that (Y/N) will appreciate our gesture for them on their special day.” 

“Oh, it sounds like Eiji’s having a hard time keeping (Y/N) distracted,” Shion pointed out shortly after checking his phone for the time to see that Eiji had texted him letting him know that since he didn’t have any more work that needed to be done in the garden, he and (Y/N) were going to a nearby hardware store to find more plants and seeds for the newly cleared section of the garden. “By the way, what time were you supposed to pull the cake out of the oven, Kira?” “3:45,” Kira answered. “What time... is it... now?” 

A brief moment of silence followed as Shion began to panic in realization that it was now 4:05 and the cake was now overbaked. He was hesitant in trying to tell the other members the time, much to Yamato’s frustration. “Cat got your tongue, Shion?” Yamato groaned before he snatched the phone from Shion’s hands, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull when the read what time it was. “Shit! The cake!” “Hm? What’s wrong, Yamato?” Nagi inquired. “We fucking burned (Y/N)’s cake!” Yamato exclaimed in a mix of panic and anger. “It’s still in the oven!” With that, the athletic HEAVENS member hurried back to the kitchen to try to save the cake from being even more burned, the remaining HEAVENS members following suit. 

Once Yamato had pulled the cake out of the oven, he could tell that the top part was almost completely burned. There was no way for him to initially tell that the cake was supposed to be (F/C/F), so he nearly slammed his hands on the stove in anger at himself for ruining the cake until Eiichi stopped him. “Let’s take it out of the tin first and we’ll see if we can salvage it,” the group leader insisted, hoping to soothe the frustrated Yamato, who simply huffed and agreed to let Van and Kira remove the cake tin. Thankfully, the rest of the cake was not burned from being in the oven too long, so all that had to be done was to cut the burned part of the cake off before Nagi and Shion spread the frosting and (2/F/C) sprinkles on the now-salvaged cake. 

By the time Kira had set the cake down on the dining room table near where all the gifts were set, Eiichi received a text from his younger brother. “Eiji and (Y/N) are here,” he directed. “Quick! Everyone, get into your hiding spot! Van, turn the light off. As soon as (Y/N) turns the light on, jump out and yell ‘Surprise!’” “Yes, Eiichi!” the remaining members responded in a whisper-yell as Van rushed to turn off the light and the HEAVENS members hid, waiting for Eiji and (Y/N) to open the door. Sure enough, just a few seconds later, they did just that. 

“Thanks for coming with me on such short notice, (Y/N),” Eiji said with a soft smile as he shut the door behind him. “Yeah, no problem,” (Y/N) replied before pointing out, “Geez, it’s dark in here. Where’s the light switch?” “Oh, here, I’ll get it,” Eiji answered before he flicked the lights on. Just as Eiichi had instructed them to do, the rest of the HEAVENS members jumped out from their hiding spots. 

“Surprise!” they shouted, causing (Y/N) to jump a little in shock before they turned to Eiji with a shocked and ecstatic look on their face and taking in the decorations before them. 

“You guys remembered!” (Y/N) beamed with happiness as all seven members were now standing near them. “Well, of course,” Van stated with a wink, making (Y/N) laugh slightly. “How could we possibly forget?” Eiichi asked as he took (Y/N)’s hand and led them to where the cake was waiting. “You didn’t have to do all of this!” (Y/N) exclaimed with a light laugh. “This is amazing, thank you all so much!” “It’s nothing, (N/N)-chan!” Nagi replied. “After all...,” Kira noted. “It’s your... special day....” “You’re always putting in so much effort into our music, (Y/N),” Eiji added before Yamato continued, “So since we have the day off, we wanted to make your day even more special.” “Thank you for everything you do, (Y/N),” Shion muttered just loud enough to be audible. By the time the group had all sat down to cut into the cake, the boys all cheered together: 

“Happy birthday, (Y/N)!” 

[dmcfsstory]

Also available on Ao3: [link]

Proofreaded a bit by @wikimb​

Partner Artist: @wikimb​

Word count: 13143

Trigger Warning: Graphic depictions of heavy violence/gore, depression cases, PTSD breakdowns(abandoment/bullying/death), severe illness, physical torture(due illness) and emotinal breakdown.

Note: I’m not a native english speaker, fell free to point out via DM any mistakes.

Void Realm(aka Human World) - Same Day 11:30 PM

Victor decided to tell his three visitors everything he knew about the Sparda's twins; Sparda's story, the day Eva was killed, the mess of Temen-ni-gru, and at the end what happened in Mallet Island.

During dinner, Nero, among Kyrie and Nico, told Victor all what they knew and remembered about the Fortuna Incident and the Qliphoth Event.

"And now they're probably stuck in Hell", Nero finished.

"I see…" Victor said, quite thoughtful. "The problem is… the Qliphoth fruit helped Vergil to recover his heavily wounded magic and not make him overpowered like he thought it would happen. But I can't be sure if it also helped with his synchronization. Either way, you two doing Sync will be of great benefit for both."

Nero didn't say a thing. Just the slight idea of having to interact with Vergil, his so called blood father, again was making his nerves itch.

"But…" Victor kept saying. "How could you live this long? Without one of your parents to sync with, you should have died at a very young age, like… two years old."

Nero continued quiet, trying to understand why Victor was insisting so much about that.

Initially, he thought about the day he met Shooting Star Man; he was two years old, the "death age" Victor mentioned. But he’d rather not talk about that with a new person just like that, not even Nico knew about it yet.

"Don't you remember Sync with some woman?" Victor tried to help Nero recall some memory.

"I don't even know how's the sensation of being in Sync, dude." Nero contested, a bit annoyed.

Before continuing to speak, Victor had to adjust his glasses. "Well… as what my mother could briefly study about the twins, Sync in hybrids have some sort of 'bonuses'. Both parts can somehow connect mentally; they can feel what the other is feeling and as well share memories and theoretical knowledge. As for the magic, the twins described it as something very relaxing and peaceful - they didn't know it was a demon magic thing back then, but you got it."

"The peace thing makes sense since the magic energy is calming down," Nico added to Victor's explanation.

After the brief explanation, Nero couldn't hold but make a surprised face.

"Oh. Have you just remembered something?" Victor asked when he noticed Nero's reaction.

Nero was able to recall something, but just the fact of having to tell them that was making him sweat cold. He had a feeling it wasn't a good idea.

Hell - “Same moment”

Vergil and Dante were able to find a shelter to protect themselves from the fire rain: in the middle of the decaying remains of the Qliphoth tree they both sat inside a small cavern inside a massive root.

Dante was quite relaxed, he was laying his back in a small root, calmly waiting for the end of the rain.

Vergil sat a bit in front of his brother, he seemed to be tense for no apparent reason; he was tapping his feet nervously and rubbing his hands as if they were itching or something.

Once Dante couldn't stand his brother's silence anymore he got out of his place walking on his knees, when he got closer he said, "Bro, relax a little. You're too tense" and he gave a small tap on Vergil's right shoulder, unexpectedly making him do a little hop like a cat.

"Geez! Chill it." Dante said, quite surprised. "I'm not gonna attack you." and he moved a few steps backwards when his brother stared at him with eyes wide open scared.

Vergil couldn't think of something to reply to his brother, he was too surprised by how calm he was at that hostile place, such behavior didn't make sense to him; they could be attacked at any moment by some wild demon, but even so Dante was very chill.

Vergil then returned his gaze to outside, leaving his brother in an awkward silence.

The atmosphere was starting to make Dante feel uncomfortable; he recently had made up with his brother, thus regaining their brotherly rivalry, but that was the first time since their childhood they weren't fighting or discussing, instead, they were just in silence sitting close to each other.

Vergil could feel Dante's restless energy coming from behind him, but he had no idea what to say either.

Deep down their hearts, both had a lot of questions to ask each other, but none of them had a single clue in how to start a conversation that wasn't about who's with the highest score.

After long minutes of watching a literal fire rain, Dante was the one who finally took courage to break the ice: "Soooooo… Brother… Who was that 'Baby' you whispered about earlier? I swore you were talking about Nero's mom… Also! How was sh-?"

Vergil quickly interrupted him, rolling his eyes in annoyance, "I told you already, you will learn more about her when I tell Nero about it, he deserves to know that first."

Dante got annoyed by his brother's supposed etiquette, but regardless, he continued in his attempt to create a conversation: "Okay… but, what about the 'Baby'... person…? I guess? You got me curious, man! Especially about the part: 'this wouldn't be happening' thing," he said as he was getting a bit closer to Vergil again.

Vergil's normally stoic expression drastically changed to an uncomfortable one, he looked at the sky, took a deep breath, and let out a very sad sigh,"'Baby' was… a child… That wasn't his name, just how I used to call him. I never knew his name or how he truly looked like…"

Dante highly doubted Vergil's words. "What?! How? That doesn't make any sense yet. You gotta work on those explanations, bro"

"You remember what happened on Mallet Island? After you… -sigh- beat me?" Vergil replied with a bit of annoyance in the end.

"Uhh… yeah, you disappeared in a light…" Dante said a bit confused.

Vergil took a few seconds of silence, mentally gathering all the information he felt necessary to tell his brother before starting his explanation: "I honestly don't know how I did that… probably had something to do with Mundus' magic… I got teleported to somewhere else."

Surprisingly, Dante got quiet and Vergil had his full attention. Vergil didn't look behind him, but he could tell that Dante was staring at him like a curious child waiting for a new bedtime story.

Vergil cleaned his throat before continuing - "Thanks to you, I started to be able to have myself under my control again. I then began to try to fight Mundus' corruption over me, although the more I tried, the more it tormented me. Until I had an idea that would cost much more than I expected…"

Dante's eyes wide opened with curiosity but also of worry about the incoming words.

"Under all that pain...I truly panicked… and tried to Devil Trigger in an attempt to fight the corruption… " Vergil said low, recalling the pain of the said moment.

Dante gasped silently, even not knowing what happened, he was sure that terrible things had happened.

Vergil's voice started to get low and crumbling as those memories were like a living nightmare. "I could feel all my muscles and bones being crushed and twisted by the fight of the magic energies inside me. I couldn't scream, I could barely breathe and move either… I have no idea how much time has passed too."

Dante noticed that his brother started to feel apprehensive about that subject; Vergil was slightly sweating cold and pressing his hands against each other strongly.

But before Dante thought of something to say, Vergi continued to tell the story: "I can remember some very random and quick things that happened… I fought other demons… even humans and perhaps Devil Hunters too? I don't know, but I swore I was destined to feel that pain for eternity, until…"

Void Realm - “at the same moment”

“So, Nero” Victor called his attention. “Have you just remembered something?”

But Nero didn't respond, he was being reluctant to speak, they couldn't tell if it was because of his health state or something else. Kyrie tried to call him back to the conversation, “It’s about Monster, dear?” she said in a soft voice.

He raised his head a bit to look at her, with a visible sad face he replied low and insecure: “Yeah... “

He stayed quiet once again, staring at the void for a few seconds and avoiding eye-contact; Nico was getting anxious to know what was passing through Nero's mind, but Victor kept patiently waiting.

Finally, he looked at Victor and said, "I think… there was someone I connected with this way… but… he was a human that turned into a demon."

Victor raised his eyebrows in surprise, that didn't make much sense but he decided to not question, Nero was already emotionally unstable, it was better not provoke.

"Let's see then. If you don't mind telling the story," he asked politely.

Nero took a deep breath before starting, that subject wasn't that comfortable for him to talk about freely: "I was around six to seven years old, the de-sync started to happen with a higher frequency day by day… The other kids from the orphanage, especially the older ones, never liked me, and one day they were chasing me down in the woods on the outskirts of the city. Even not wanting to fight they still kept hunting me, they weren't satisfied until I passed out." Nero explained.

"Why?" Nico asked confused.

A bit uncomfortable with the subject, he tried to avoid, "I'd rather not talk about…"

He then continued, without making eye contact with Victor, he just continued to look at his own hands and sometimes to the void or away. "I couldn't run anymore, that's when they got me. The oldest was ready to punch me, but suddenly, a horrendous deformed… giant demon appeared from behind the trees. He was like what? four meters(13ft) high? He didn't need much to scare the shit out of them and send them back to the city, just a roar was enough."

Kyrie was the only one that already knew the story and how Nero would feel about it. She honestly wanted to speak in his place, but she felt better letting him put his feelings out by himself.

"I was the only one that didn't run. I was too tired already… and I didn’t want to return to the orphanage either." Nero said in a depressing tone.

(Hell)

"Have you attacked?" Dante asked curiously, yet worried.

"No" Vergil responded. "The others fled away very quickly and the one that left didn't do anything either. I wasn't going to waste my energy and feel more pain for no danger at all."

(Void)

"But the motherfucker didn't do shit", Nero added. "He left me hanging and just turned away!"

"When I saw him turning away, I yelled: "What are you doing?" But he completely ignored me"

"I yelled again, 'What's wrong with you?'."

(Hell)

"The kid came after me, but I didn't want to waste my energy. When I felt him touching my arm and yelling something - that I can't remember - I instinctively just waved my arm and threw him away."

(Void)

"I flew into a tree and all the stuff I was carrying in my small backpack got scattered around," Nero continued, his voice slowing down.

"You will need more than that to get rid of me!' I shouted to provoke him… but…"

He made a pause.

"But when I looked at him…"

"He was staring at one of the books I borrowed from the public library. He simply stayed there, kinda hypnotized by the thing, you know?"

"With the only hand he had entirely -the right one- he tried to pick up the book. His hand was huge and he knew that… but I think… he had terrible eyesight. The first few times he tried to hold the book, he let it fall because he didn't want to… 'hurt' it."

"He tried, over and over again. That scene was pitiful, to be honest. At a certain point, he started to wimp… kinda like a dog's painful crying: 'wimp wimp wimp'."

"and he tried... again and again, and again... the more he tried the louder the wimps we're getting."

"He was clearly in a panic… until then… he let out a very long and painful scream. It was when I noticed… he wasn't supposed to be like that...."

Victor interrupts, "why? What made you think that?"

Nero responded with sadness in his voice as he looked at Victor, "He was crying… Only through the right eye, but he was truly crying."

"'Do Devils cry?' I asked myself."

"During the screeching, he suddenly lost support on his left arm - the most severe and disproportionate one - and fell to the ground. The arm started to bleed around.. where I think it was the pulse… I couldn't tell, but the broken bone pierced through his skin. I noticed that the rest of his body he had various open wounds, that shit surely was hurting him badly. He then started to wimp uncontrollably while he was spitting blood out of the month, he was insanely trying to get up again but he barely could move his body."

"I don't know what the hell happened with me at that moment, but seeing and hearing all that suffering from him was starting to hurt me. I could feel my heart being pressed. My body moved by itself, I took off my jacket and went to try to... somehow help with the wound on his left pulse."

(Hell)

"I don't clearly remember how I got into that situation," Vergil continued. "I only remember very blurry images and immeasurable pain all over my body, especially at my left arm."

"In the middle of all that pain, I somehow could notice the kid getting closer to me. I tried to move away from him but that only was making the pain worse… I was unable to move."

"I couldn't see him clearly, but I heard: 'you weren't supposed to be like that, right?' from him."

"I remember… my heart and breath stopped when I heard he saying: 'Let me help you, stay quiet.'"

Vergil started to get visibly shaken from that point in front.

"Why? He could just have run away… but instead… he came to help me?! Why?! WHY?!"

"I guess... he did some bandages on my left hand… I couldn't move or see it anyway…"

Dante, a bit shocked by his brother's confusion, asked "Why are you so incredulous?"

Vergil turned at him quickly, his face of both anger and sadness. "WHY?! Because never in my entire life someone had lent a hand to me like that! Not even if I asked!"

Vergil recalled for a moment the difficult time he had after his mother's death; food shop owners didn't want to spare not even the smallest thing for him, some even shout him out, with the excuse he was acting. He couldn't find a good place to sleep and winter was a pain. He had to fight demons all alone. He had to manage to steal sustenance and clothes or get from the trash as the last resort.

"I didn't have the same luck as you, brother…" Vergil said harshly.

(Void)

All those memories were starting to make Nero more emotional, recall the monster's pain was very hurtful even to himself.

"I never discovered what turned him into that… but he was destroyed…" he added.

Victor then questioned, "And you just decided to help him? Just like that?"

"Yes… something told me he needed help… a feeling of he didn't deserve that…" Nero said quite sad.

But even being visibly shaken, he continued the story either way, "through the next days I decided to start stealing everything I thought could be the use of help with his open wounds."

Nico interrupted, "steal, man? why?"

"Who would believe in a six years old saying it needs help with a dying demon?!" Nero replied annoyed. "I had to do that myself. Blankets, towels, curtains, all those kinds of stuff I could get around the city, not just in the orphanage…"

-a pause-

"Also food… and the medicine I knew helped with such changes wounds, the one I remember the caretakers using on me."

Nero's tone slowly began to sound grievous, "He didn't leave the place I first saw him… he just waited for me there every day…"

“He couldn’t move, every time he tried he had to do so much strength. He was also… so cold... I tried to cover him the most I could… but even so… he couldn’t stop shivering. I could see that even those smallest moves hurt a lot… even breathing...”

“His wounds weren’t fresh. It was very difficult for me to make some bandages and mostly use the medicine… because whenever I tried he would start panicking and wimping all over again.”

“I used to say things like: ‘Stop, please! I can’t help you like this!’ or ‘collaborate, please!’ to try to keep him calm, but his pain also made me nervous as well.”

“The food was most difficult, the merchants got sharp eyes. The ones that knew me even got so mad that they started to throw stones at me."

Nico quickly stopped Nero's talk, "What the hell?! Fucking stones?!"

He stared at her, his eyes were blank, and then he said, with a low and grievous voice, everyone could sense the pain in the words, "When you are the... 'bastard, son of a whore, demon magnetic child' people just don't care about you…"

Nico didn't expect that, her face was of utter shock, which made her dead silent.

“I didn’t care about my wounds, tho… I just wanted to bring him food and water too. He needed help to eat and drink nonetheless. He used to eat and drink desperately, getting himself dirtier than he already was… he was definitely on his limit…”

Nero let out a desolate sigh while his eyes were getting teary.

(Hell)

Vergil's voice started to sound more painful the more he talked about the child: "The kid kept bringing new things everyday… cover sheets, bandages, food… even water and… medicine...I think? I barely could move anymore either way… I could only stay in the same place and watch…"

Dante started to feel his brother slowly getting more emotional with the subject; Vergil’s voice got low and he was also starting to discreetly sniff, his body was tense and his expression was of sadness: "He… he wasn't bringing all that stuff for himself… he brought blankets for covering me, to help me not suffer that much from the cold nights in the woods…“

“His voice… I’m sure I was hearing every pitch wrongly… but he sounded so… soft anyway: ‘here’s some food’, ‘come on, try to drink this’, ‘I hope you don’t feel so cold now’... and some many others.”

“My vision was a total mess, the colors were switched, the forms were distorted, I never got to know how he truly was or how he sounded… or even if the scent I remember was his true smell…” Vergil vented, as he remembered every single sensation of the kid taking care of him; the way the child had to hold his huge head up for him to drink water, how he had to pick every single food into tiny pieces because Vergil couldn’t chew. The child trying to cover his gigantic deformed body with small cover sheets or even towels.

Breaking Vergil's recall to the past, Dante asked him, “So… you never actually got to ‘know him for real’?”

“I think…” - a pause - “yeah… you’re right…” Vergil told him but looking away to the dark sky and the raining fire in Hell.

"I don't know how he did that… but there were times he used to hug me, or even just touch, and the pain almost got away completely… it was when I was able to breathe without pain for a few minutes..."

He closed his eyes, deep recalling those moments of calm and inner peace. Those were some of the memories he holded dearest, the sensation of being hugged by the child, or at least he thought it was. The kid stroking his head and singing lullabies to calm him down. Such gentle touch from his tiny hands on his wounded head and skin was something he could never forget, even if that used to hurt as well.

Before opening his eyes, Vergil let out a deep sigh, that made Dante get an idea of how much that unknown kid meant to his brother and he was starting to connect the dots with what Vergil said earlier.

"Why?" Vergil said in an indignant tone. "Why did he do all that to me?!"

He turned to Dante, he was very confused and incredulous, "What I did to that kid?! Why did he help me not wanting anything in return?! He never requested something back!"

Dante's eyes wide-opened surprised about his brother's confusion and he asked himself: 'He didn't understand what happened?'

Vergil's voice became louder as he was letting out old thoughts of painful memories, "Why, brother?! WHY!? There were even some days he appeared with wounds; he said it was the people that didn't like him, they hurt him to push him away because they didn't want to give the stuff to him. I could smell the blood, his wounds...he…-inhales- Why was he sacrificing himself?! He was doing all that to me… TO MEEEE! A PITIFUL WEAK USELESS THING I WAS!"

Dante even leaned back scared after Vergil's last scream, that behavior was quite unexpected coming from such a person that is always composed.

"I was weak! I was dying! No one cares for a weakened demon, they just let them die! He could have called hunters to finish me… BUT NO! He did the total opposite!" Vergil kept yelling extremely confused.

"I remember the stories he told me… and sometimes, during moments of physical contact, I saw some of his...memories? -I guess they were - he was an orphan! No one wanted him, everyone else hated him for no reason and the older kids used to hurt him for fun! HE WAS JUST A LITTLE KID! Why didn't he request me to pay back those people in return for the favors he was doing to me?! That's not how it was supposed to work?!” Vergil yelled while huffing out of breath.

Dante gently touched Vergil's shoulder and just gave a calm look at him, like telling him to take easy on his nerves; Understanding his brother's signals, Vergil took an incredibly deep breath in an attempt to calm down, but his disturbed face and stiff body remained.

"That's called empathy, bro…" Dante said softly.

Vergil took a moment to process what Dante said, but he kept looking at him confused. "What?!" he yelled.

Dante hardly believed that his brother never experienced an act of empathy before and stared at him confused as well.

"Empathy. You know… that thing of being able to understand what the other is feeling? To put yourself in the place of the other?" Dante tried to explain, but that only made Vergil more confused. His silence and as well doubtful face made the situation more awkward for Dante - making him visibly worried.

"Well… it's a human heart thing… Empathy generates compassion and that's what moved the kid to help you. He understood your suffering and decided to help you out. He didn't see you like what you described, he saw you as a living being." Dante tried again.

Vergil was slowly starting to understand; it didn't need much for him to recall Nero helping him when he was V and also the people himself helped when he was V during the Qliphoth roots' rampage.

"That's what moves humans to help others? That's how it's called?" Vergil asked confused.

"Yes!" Dante replied happily and a bit relieved. "Such strong empathy like that kid is incredibly rare to be witnessed, especially nowadays. People like that must be protected at all costs, not just because of their kind heart, but also because they can kill themselves because of it. Humans like that are worth fighting for."

Dante's words made Vergil a bit uneasy as if he did something wrong with the kid during a part of the story he hasn't told yet.

And Dante kept talking: "That's what is amazing about humans. But... demons think that's a weakness… well, that's, in fact, a weakness, it's incredibly dangerous but it's also their strongest point! For demons, self-preservation is more important than anything, meanwhile, some humans don't give a shit about that if it's necessary to protect what is important. They rather die sacrificing themselves, and for demons that's a shame, especially coming from a species that's magically and physically inferior…"

*Unfortunately…" Dante's enthusiasm vanished away very quickly. "The own mankind created such a society through the past decades where that kind of stuff is being suppressed...by themselves! And apathy is going apeshit everywhere… This is another reason why that kind of person should be safeguarded… otherwise, mankind will only keep hurting itself."

"I think… 'Apathy' should be considered a Deadly Sin… since the current seven are all based on it…" he said scratching his head.

They stayed in silence for a few seconds, hence Vergil had no idea about what Dante said at the end. They both returned to gaze at the fire raining (supposedly)night sky for a few minutes until Vergil broke the silence: "These kind people you said… It's pretty much like Baby and… Nero…"

"Yeah, you're right…" Dante said calmly without looking at Vergil.

"This thing of sacrifice itself…" Vergil then continued the story, but talking at a more slow pace, "There was one day… Baby didn't come… I was like 'I was abandoned again?'

"Aah…About that..." Dante interrupted a bit unnerved.

But Vergil responded quickly "I know! But back then I didn't! -ahem- I was finally able to get up a bit and worried something may have happened, I decided to pursue his scent…"

(Void)

Nero continued his side of the story, even with the feeling of his throat closing because of the incoming subject: "It was very difficult to take care of him… He didn't have the strength to lift his head or to chew some food… gosh… he smelled so bad, such a strong scent of dry blood and… other disgusting stuff -if you know what I mean- but eventually, I learned how to ignore that awful scent. He used to shiver so much… his extremity members were cold like ice…"

-a pause for a deep breath-

He then continued: "every little movement he tried to do he whimpered in pain… he barely could leave the place we first met. I was getting used to calming him down with some gentle physical contact like strokes on his head… but even so…"

-sigh-

"There were some moments I hugged or when I just touched him and I could feel what he was feeling… it was an immeasurable pain… Other moments… -It's very confusing, to be honest- But I think I was able to see his memories? I guess...?"

"How did they look?" Victor asked, interrupting Nero.

"Aah… well… a huge old man, long-ass beard and with feathery wings… hmmm.. aaaaand... aaaa... red third eye…? He was all white as if he was a statue and had a huge hole in his chest. He always appeared to be torturing him…" Nero said a bit uneasy, he remembered that as if it was his memories.

Victor closed his eyes and let out a concerned sigh, he knew Nero was talking about Mundus, but that wasn't the moment to tell him.

Nero looked at him worried, not understanding what was going on, although he suspected it wasn't something good.

"Just… keep going," Victor said apprehensively.

"The ones that most scared me was when the old man was taking off his members, like, literally. He used them to create monsters…" Nero shivered just with the slightly recalling his eyes even got teary from thinking about that.

He quickly passed his hand on his eyes to clean up the tears, before someone could notice them, "that always made me jump off the place, those images and some others were always storming his thoughts… I guess it was his thoughts… He cried every time I saw them…"

"Considering his reactions about those images and the state he was… I think he didn't deserve to be like that… he wasn't like that because he wanted… I think that old man did that to him…  -sigh- ...he was so needy… he hanged his head in my lap every time I used to sit closer..."

Nero's eyes got more watery than before, he tried once again to hold his emotions and clean his eyes.

Before continuing, he took a deep breath to focus back and keep posture. "Well… there was one day I was trying to stealthily leave the orphanage… but the older kids got me. They were so pissed at me because they discovered it was me that had stolen some of their things… Pfft! They used to destroy and also steal my stuff… so fuck them. But I couldn't escape that time… and I was missing the hour to go meet with Monster…"

(Hell)

"I followed his trail with a bit of difficulty, mostly because of the pain all over my body, but I could find him," Vergil continued.

"Somehow I could hear more people around… so, I stayed behind some trees… or was it a wall? well..." but he hesitated to continue.

"What was happening?" Dante asked curiously.

"Some other kids… I guess… they were not so taller than him and were apparently fighting him. They had the advantage in numbers, he couldn't handle them all." Vergil said low.

"How did you know who he was?" Dante questioned.

"I learned how to recognize him… somehow… his shape and colors we're different from the others and as well his scent…" Vergil answered.

"I remember the other ones saying 'you freak! you're not just the son of a whore but also a thief?', 'what are you doing with our stuff?' I could feel his tiredness of the fight, he then replied: 'I needed them for a…" Vergil suddenly paused as if something got stuck on his throat.

"I needed them for a…?" Dante repeated, anxious for the end of the phrase.

Vergil kept quiet for almost a minute, holding back his next word. He was visibly tense, but Dante attempted to incentive him to continue with the story: "Brother? What happened then?"

No answers, although Vergil had closed his eyes and was biting his lips in tension, he was holding his emotions the maximum he could.

"Bro… listen…" Dante said softly while he put his hand on Vergil's shoulder. "Don't hold back your feelings like this… Put it out, let then go…"

But his brother continued immobile.

"I'm not gonna judge or mock you… I promise." Dante continued to try to convince Vergil. "Look, you can even stab me as much as your heart desires if I do something I shouldn't."

Vergil let out air since he was also holding his breath a little and something Dante never expected happened, not even when they were kids: Vergil's eyes started to become teary.

Yes, tears. Dante couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

"Friend," Vergil said low and with grief.

"He said… 'I needed them for a friend' -sniff- 'I have a friend that needs help, but you wouldn't help me anyway," Vergil said with agony in his voice.

"Friend… friend… friend...FRIEND!" He then looked at Dante with a quick turn and shouted in pain, "HE CALLED ME HIS FRIEND!" and a few tears rolled out in his face.

"WHAT DID I DO?! BROTHER, PLEASE! TELL ME!" Vergil screamed in panic and confusion. "WHAT HAVE I DONE?! WHY HE WAS DOING ALL THAT TO ME?! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND!"

"Why do you think you didn't deserve that?" Dante nearly broke Vergil's sanity with that question.

Vergil suddenly got an empty look, as he never thought about that, he could only stutter trying to come up with an answer.

"T-T-That's not how it works… That never happened before… Y-Yo-you got to do something to receive such a thing… right?! RIGHT?!" Vergil was on the edge of freaking out.

Dante took a long breath, to not absorb his brother's messed up aura. He kept his voice calm and low for don't provoke him more: "No, bro… Kindness is not an award, it is a gift. The kid saw something in you and thought you deserved that… What was it? I don't know."

Vergil's face turned blank, he'd never thought like that before… the way he lived didn't let it anyway, he had no idea about why and how that happened with him.

"So… what did you do to help the child?" Dante asked rather calmly.

(Void)

"The kids were beating the shit out of me… but I didn't give up on trying to flee from them. I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to return to my… friend." Nero continued, his voice getting low while sadness was taking over him.

"I even tried to explain to them that I was doing that for someone that needed more than them, but that only made them madder…"

-a pause-

"I don't know where he came from, but Monster just suddenly jumped off in the middle of the orphanage's backyard. He roared so loud that he even let a huge blue fire column go out of his mouth. He came straight to the bullies and swinging only his right hand he tossed all of them away in a single move! POF! ...He then stayed over me as if he was trying to shield me or something."

"His wounds were bleeding all over again, he must have made a shit ton of strength to reach the orphanage."

"The other kids recognized him from that day… the oldest even shouted: 'I knew it you were a freak, but this is too much!' That only made Monster angrier, he wanted to go for the kill."

"He started to prepare another fire breath, but I couldn't let him do that. I jumped in front of him and shouted 'NO! Don't kill them! It will only make it worse for you!' hoping that he would understand me…"

"And that worked?" Nico asked nervously with the story.

"Yes," Nero responded. "He stopped at the same moment and looked at me very confused. I also could hear the adults screaming to call the Order's knights at the same moment."

"'You have to get out of here' I yelled. 'They will kill you!'"

"I don't think he understood what I meant at first because he suddenly grabbed me by my shirt's collar using his mouth and threw me on his back. He got away from the place very quickly into the woods, I don't know how he was able to stand the pain… he was going relatively fast… and when already far from the orphanage, he tripped on his own legs and arms."

"I was launched out of his back and surprisingly I didn't blacken out when I crashed over a tree. I got up in a rush and the moment I spotted him I saw he was all bleeding… all again, he was back to zero. He was whimpering in pain again, but even so, he was trying to get up."

"I ran to help him out, I didn't know how I would help him, but I went to try anyway."

(Hell)

"I don't remember exactly what happened… The next thing that's more clear in my memory is both of us in the woods. I was trying to get up, but my weakened body and the extreme pain weren't letting me." Vergil explained with a bit of confusion on his face.

"'You have to go! The Order's Knights will kill you!' he yelled at me"

"Hold up!" Dante interrupted. "’Order’? The Order of the Sword?!”

"Yes…" Vergil replied low and slow.

"You were in Fortuna?!” Dante yelled at him quite stunned.

"Yes… Don't ask me how…" Vergil said with a bit of embarrassment.

(Void)

"I was trying to make him get up… but like… he was countless times bigger than me," Nero said with a sarcastic smile.

"I was starting to hear the Knights' yelling and running around the woods looking for him. That only made me more nervous… The only thing I had in mind was: 'they will kill him'."

"Out of nowhere, blue light strips appeared around us and I could make one hell of strength to make him get up. And when I looked at my arms and hands… there were my spectral arms, helping him to stand and move away, they were rather proportional to his size."

"I thought out loud: 'What is this? Your magic?! Thanks! That's gonna help a lot!'"

"Wait!" Victor stopped the story. "Through years you thought your demon magic was a gift from him?"

Nero kept staring at Victor with a surprised, yet embarrassed face. "Oh, well… -scratches his head- I could only use my spectral arms while in contact with him…so..."

"Hmm… makes sense...I would also expect such thoughts from a six years old that grew up thinking it was a human… well, part human in this case." Victor said calmly.

"Sorry for interrupting, continue, please." He asked politely.

Already thinking about what was coming along the story, Nero was already getting nervous and more shaken once more.

The sadness in his voice we're getting apparently the more he spoke: "We ran… and ran… and ran… and like everything can get worse, it started to rain, at least it helped clean his wounds a little. It was so dark, but my 'magical arms' could illuminate the way. At some point, we were able to find a small cave. Monster's absurd size and disproportion nearly didn't let him get in, but he could lay down to rest."

"I could make my spectral arms disappear, but there were the blue strings there yet...They weren't making any illumination tho." Nero said it was a bit uncertain.

"That's because isn't something 'material', it's like...infrared and ultraviolet rays, and only demons and half-demons can see it," Victor explained. "although, it can be seen with special cameras," he added.

Immediately, Kyrie made a worrisome face and Nico looked at her scared as well. The lights that only she could see and apparently, Trish as well, was an actual demon thing and not demon-magic related. That would also explain why Nico couldn't see them. What could that mean? Haven't Kyrie only obtained demon magic but it also turned into one… or she was still turning? After Nero's case, she was the next one to talk with Victor but the feeling of uncertainty we're only making her anxious.

"Ah… that would explain how they didn't find us…" Nero continued, without noticing the girls' reaction. Unfortunately, Victor did and he was already preparing questions for them.

"When the rain stopped I went back to the first place I was taking care of him and got our stuff back. Monster had fainted from tiredness and only woke up the next day."

"I haven't returned to the orphanage either."

(Hell)

"I don't remember too much of how we got in that cave, but the kid didn't return to the city, it was the first time he passed the night with me," Vergil said.

"That night was also the first time I had dreams in a long time… but I don't think they were mine, they were memories from the kid…" Vergil then made a pause, he remembered the child's memories as if they were his.

Dante was getting nervous since he discovered that little kid was from Fortuna; he had a feeling that 'Baby' could actually be 'Nero' since he was aware about the Sync's traits and many of what his brother described matched with.

Vergil had let out a depressing sigh before continuing to speak: "I could see more clearly than before how his life was… It also reminded me of mine… loneliness, pain, and sorrow… But that child didn't have a special sword or demonic powers to take care of himself alone… he was dependent on people that didn't care about him."

(Void)

"When Monster woke up I was outside the cave, wondering what I would do about my little life… the people from the orphanage definitely wouldn't want me back and I was one hundred percent sure I wouldn't be adopted after what happened. I had nowhere to go." Nero said quite sad, his eyes were getting teary again.

(Hell)

"He was just sitting right in front of the cave entrance." Vergil continued. "The pain on my body had returned, I could barely move again."

"'What I will do?' he asked me. 'No one will ever adopt me now… not after they discovered I have a demon friend…' and he started to cry… it was a quiet cry."

"…and ...I still can't understand what happened to me... His painful crying made my heart hurt… psychologically hurt… not literally. I didn't want to see him like that… I knew how much that was painful…"

Dante made an embarrassed smile without his brother noticing; Vergil just had described a moment of empathy, a thing that a few minutes ago he had no idea even how it was called.

Dante then thought: "You have so much to learn about your humanity, bro…"

"He then turned to me and said, 'I don't want to come back…' his voice was more trembling than before." Vergil continued with sadness in his voice. "His face was a big distorted blur to me, but somehow I could identify his tears dripping down his face."

"I honestly didn't think rationally at that moment, I just wanted his welfare. That child… he's been doing so much for me without me saying a thing and for nothing in exchange… I couldn't leave him hanging in the wind like that."

Dante, even having an idea about what was coming, became so hyped to know what would happen next that he got very close to his brother, nearly starting to invade his personal space. Vergil didn't like all that proximity, but he hasn't complained… yet.

"I extended my right hand to him, inviting him to get closer to me, hoping that he would understand what I meant with that."

"He did?" Dante asked curiously.

"He hasn't understood the first few times I made the signal, he kept staring at me for a brief moment, until he said 'Do you want to adopt me?'" Vergil explained.

(Void)

Nero was already in tears without even finishing to tell that part of the story. He was sobbing and crying as if he was living that moment all again. He began to desperately try to stop crying and to clean his tears, Kyrie even got closer and handed a soft tissue to him.

"It's okay to cry, Nero. No need to be ashamed of your tears." Victor said in an attempt to tranquilize Nero.

"Yeah, man," Nico said worriedly. "No one will judge you, I promise."

Nero tried to take his breath back between many hiccups and sobbings in an attempt to regain his posture, but that was impossible, that moment was too shocking for him.

"H-He.. he.. -sob- He wanted me -sniff- he was the only o-one… tha-that… -sniff-  aaa-accepted me… that didn't see me as a… -sob sob- freak… a-a-a problem…-sniff sob sob-"

(Hell)

"I just waved my head confirming what he asked and he suddenly broke. He began to cry out loud like a newborn baby."

"sniff"

That "sniff" totally surprised Dante; Vergil was unexpectedly once again shaken and teary with the story. That kid surely meant a lot to him after everything they passed together.

"He came at me running for a hug… and kept crying like that for so long that he nearly lost his voice. He hugged me tight around my neck -sniff- as if I just had saved him from. death..."

Vergil stopped to take a breath and, surprisingly, he tried to clean a few tears. "And then... -sniff-...after that we began to live together… but I have no idea for how long… I just remember that he grew up a lot."

(Void)

"We then lived together for… six years…" Nero said between sobbings.

"He was my best friend… almost like a father… still… -sniff-... we had to take care of each other. But through the years his condition was getting better -sob- his body was getting more proportional and looking 'human-ish', he didn't have more pain like before… almost none to be more exact -sob- the pieces of the some short of armor he had started to fall off his body too."

"What do you mean?" Nico asked. "He was like… 'healing' or something?"

"I think?" Nero replied a bit confused as he scratched his head.

"Most of the time his actions weren't like a demon's, he mostly looked like a human in a demon body." Nero tried to explain.

"One day I asked him if he was a human once, he took a long time to answer, like five minutes almost, but he said 'yes'. Although… It took him hours to explain to me that he was half-human. He tried to explain other things but he couldn't because of his condition; he couldn't write or draw and much less speak. He gave up on the explanation and we never talked about it again."

"So, you never asked him how he was when human?" Victor asked with a bit of suspicion.

"No…I was waiting for him to speak and move better..." Nero answered quickly. "But I would be lying if I say I never tried to imagine…"

-a brief pause-

Nero giggled when he remembered about a silly thing.

"We.. we made up a 'special handshake' if he returned to be human when I wasn't looking…" he said with an embarrassed smile. "I never forgot how it was -sigh"

(Hell)

"It was very difficult to live around a demon-infested forest with a dependent child, a debilitated body and the Order of the Sword hunting us down," Vergil said sadly.

His face became sadder and more tears started to form as he continued to speak

"But he was someone I swore to myself I would protect", he said fiercely but still with a sad tone in the voice.

Vergil quickly cleaned his tears, expecting that his brother hadn't noticed them. But even sitting a bit behind him, Dante could tell by his movements what was happening.

"I tried to teach him what I knew of sword and fist fighting, fortunately whenever we touched each other and some kind of...lights...? I guess, appeared around us, I only had to think about the theory and he would learn right away, he just had to practice."

"While the time was passing I could feel Mundus' magic fading away veeeeeery slowly... as if I was being purified somehow. My body was getting back to normal, I wasn't feeling that much pain anymore, sometimes I even felt nothing wrong… but I was still a mess."

Dante dry swallowed a bit audible; that was more proof of Sync, a Parent and Child or Siblings of same parents exclusive stuff. A little brother of them the kid couldn't be, so the only possible conclusion was a child from Vergil.

Confused, Vergil turned back after hearing his brother's nervous noises. Dante couldn't hide his anxious face, that gave to Vergil a very suspicious feeling.

Dante then giggled nervously, "sorry, keep going…"

Vergil stared at him with skepticism, but he continued the story either way. "There were some moments I… I just wanted to hold him closer… comfort him with gentle strokes and give him kisses in the head."

He then wrapped his arms around his chest, like demonstrating a hug, while he made a face of joy and he said with a tender voice: "I wanted to tickle him to make him laugh… Play silly children activities like hide-and-seek…I wanted to read bed-time stories for him, cooking him food… and so many other things…sigh..."

His face was of pure happiness, that kid was very precious to him; thinking about the good times they passed together was one of the few ways for Vergil to be able to smile, a discreet but honest and pure smile of happiness.

Dante finally came to a concrete realization and interrupted Vergil: "You mean… The things mom used to do for us?" he asked, expecting a certain reaction.

Vergil stopped to think for a brief moment; his brother was right. Everything he wished to be able to do was everything he remembered what their mother did for them.

He turned to look at Dante, his face was of surprise, he never related the things like that before. It was when Dante knew that his brother had some parenting instincts and love hidden somewhere inside him. He just needed a chance to put them into practice.

But the problem was: what if Baby is Nero? Vergil had hurt the most precious person in his life for his "more-power-quest"? And how both parts would react when they discover they already knew each other?

Should he tell Vergil his thoughts? Tell him the deep details about Sync, since he seemed to not know them? Dante saw himself in a very complicated and delicate crossroads.

"I think...I understood why you called him 'baby'" Dante said calmly, trying to keep his anxiety away.

"Ahn?" Vergil blurted. "That was a misunderstanding, to be honest: a few days after I invited him to stay with me, he asked if I would give him a name. My debilitated mouth and tongue didn't let me speak a single comprehensive word. I tried to say 'maybe', but he understood 'baby', and no matter what I tried there was no way I could either speak or he understood me. So, we stuck with 'Baby'".

Dante surely wasn't expecting that; the disappointment had hit him like a truck, he was expecting something cute, something special… but no, it was just a misunderstanding.

"But… Why… "wanted"? You weren't able to do a single thing of that?" Dante asked, even already knowing the answer.

Vergil's joy quickly vanished, as if Dante just had stabbed him on his back. "How could I? In that state?! Even after all that time, we passed together, in the end, I could not even speak or see him clearly. The maximum I could do was hold him closer and nothing else."

They passed a few seconds in silence until Dante came with the worst question he could have done about that subject: "Well… what happened with the kid then?”

Vergil's soul left his body at that moment. Only to think about it made him visibly depressed. He started to stare at the void, his eyes had no shine anymore as if he just died that moment.

(Void)

"He used to teach me how to sword fight and also how to fight bare hands. I learned all the basics with him… although… I don't know how, but when that lights appeared, I used to instantly know about whatever he wanted to teach me." Nero explained, with a bit of confusion on his tone.

“Sometimes I had those… ‘de-sync breakdowns’… but being with him helped me endure the pain… I don’t know how that happened…but somehow it hurt him a bit as well. With time that stopped to happen and only came back a few weeks ago nowadays."

Now even Nico and Kyrie were with the feeling that Monster was in fact, Vergil. Everything Nero was describing matched with the description of Sync Victor gave to then early.

Nero giggled remembering every good moment he passed with his best friend. "When he was feeling good, we used to go to the city late at night and steal stuff. Clothes for me, food, cover sheets, and so on. Hehe. When he was in a good mood, rare times, we used to steal food from delivery guys, especially the ones from pizzerias. Or even watch TV from the windows of some houses… I could watch something, I don't know about him. I remember he loved to hear me reading books to him too… He always wanted to try to read them too, but he definitely couldn't because of his wounded eyes… - sigh."

"Why did you call him Monster?" Nico questioned, quite curious about.

"I don't know exactly, I just started to call him like that… Nowadays I think it's quite an ironic name… he only looked like a monster… but he was more human with me than every actual human I ever met…"

"He was so affectionate…" he said with a smile. "Not at the very beginning, he turned with time. He liked to hold me closer, especially during bedtime. He tried to do some gentle moves like… stroke or pat my head, but his size and lack of better control of his moments didn't let him do that so well…"

"... he even made up a clicking noise to pretend it was a kiss… sigh…"

"But… what happened to him?" Victor asked, taking off Nero's happiness from his face. That was the worst question someone could make about the monster.

Then, both Nero(at Void) and Vergil(at Hell) started to recall and talk about that fateful day:

Fortuna - back to 13 years ago - 04:00 AM

Baby and Monster were sneaking their way through the city, going in the direction of the port area.

Monster was wearing a dirty cloak, he was almost the size of a tall human by that time, although his large horns made a weird shape on the cloak’s hood. Since his body was almost proportional now, he was able to walk on his legs, only needing an improvised cane Baby made using hardwood to support himself standing.

Baby was at the end of his childhood, around twelve years old. He was wearing some humble clothing that he stole from a shop and on his backpack, also stolen, he was carrying the few material things they had. On his waist, it had a badly forged iron sword, a failed attempt to recreate a katana that he made among Monster.

When the Port got on sight, Baby whispered, "Finally! We need to get into one of those big commercial ships and we will finally get out of this hell.

They both went slow and silent through the darker areas of the place, contouring every lamp post and the one or two workers they spotted. Until they reached a medium-sized cargo ship; an uncommon kind of commerce ship that docks on Fortuna's Port bringing special products from the continent.

"Now we just need to get in thought the anchor" Baby whispered excitedly.

But before he gave the next step, Monster gently touched his shoulder calling his attention to him. Baby turned at him visibly confused but when he saw the gesture Monster was doing he understood what it was: he was calling him for a hug.

Baby could tell that his friend was trying to smile, Monster had to kneel to look at him eye to eye and his arms were stretched toward him, calling him closer.

Nero didn't get why that right now, but he didn't question, he went straight to the hug. They hugged tightly and tenderly and the time seemed to have stopped, they were enjoying every second of that comforting hug. Monster felt his heart warming, that feeling of seeing Baby happy was indescribable. While Baby was immeasurable happy about how much his friend got better.

They didn't want that moment to end, it was the first time they were able to do a decent hug, even if Monster's arms weren't totally recovered. Monster was even purring like a big cat for much of Baby's fun.

"Thank you...I love you Monster, you're my hero." Baby said from the bottom of his heart.

Those words were going to get stuck on Monster's mind forever, but it was him that wanted to say that most.

'No… you that saved me, my baby… I love you too' Monster thought. But he was so desperate to say such words that he tried to talk, unfortunately his vocal cords and tongue haven't healed enough and he could only mumble mostly random demonic noises and a syllable or two.

"it's okay…" Baby said when he noticed his friend's despair. "I can't wait for your mouth and neck to get better so we can have actual talks" he giggled.

"Let's go" he called him, gesturing for them to keep walking.

Once they were side by side with the anchor's huge chains, Baby said quite confidently:  "Are you rea-?" he suddenly was interrupted by a loud painful screaming from Monster.

When he turned, he couldn't believe his eyes, Monster got stabbed on his back by a silver sword that pierced through his chest. It wasn't the same sword type the Order's Knights used.

The sword slightly opened its blade in the middle like a jaw and quickly drained Monster's energy, making him scream in pain again.

"MONSTER!" Baby shouted with all his strength.

He sprinted to help his friend, but twenty or more Order's Knights jumped out from inside the crates that were closer to the ship.  

"The Order?! How?!" Baby yelled in panic. All those years living hidden from them, how they finally found the double?

The silver sword got out of Monster's body quickly; the fatigue caused by the energy drain made his -already unstable- body fall to the ground. Behind him, it had a woman in the Order's Knight uniform, the hood and low light were hiding her face and she was holding another sword, of the same look, on her other hand.

"Finally found you, you brainless beast," she muttered. "What's your problem in dying?"

Baby ran towards his friend's body on the cold metal floor of the dock, he was bleeding tremendously. He didn't have time to think about what that sword did to him. The moment he got closer Monster was still conscious, but he was weak once again.

Baby was on the edge of freak out: "No. No. No. No. No! You just got so much better! Why?!"

He tried to help him get up, but two Knights rapidly dragged him away from Monster. They quickly turned his hands to his back and wrapped his pulses together with a silver rope that had some strange runes written on it - immediately he felt his strength being drained and he kneeled tired as if he had just trained for the entire day.

"NO! Monster!" He shouted, feeling even his breath getting heavier.

Monster was feeling weak because of the energy drain, he felt the same tiredness he had years ago. But this time there wasn't pain aside from the stabbing on his chest, he could do that, he MUST and he WILL protect his child.

He started to concentrate strength on his arms to get up, his almost fully regenerated wings opened wide to intimidate the Knights, revealing his demonic body under the cloak, they also now had a blue glow inside that helped to illuminate just a little the place.

The woman with the pair of odd swords rolled her eyes before going straight to stab Monster's left hand against the floor. He didn’t scream but his face was of real pain.

She stabbed his hand so strong that the sword got stuck on the metal floor, with the strength he had left he couldn’t take his hand out of the place so quick and easy, dragging him into the beginning of insanity.

He roared scared, kinda telling Baby to run away.

Baby tried to untangle from the Knights' tight grips: He jumps and shakes his body, fighting to get free… But the ropes had cut off all of his strength and the Knights were being able to hold him like a normal kid. All that effort only made him more breathlessly.

Under all that stress he could only think: "What's going on with me?! If I don't do something they will kill him! He's not one hundred percent yet!”

Monster realized that Baby wouldn't get out on his own, he tried to get his hand out of the sword trapping, with no results. The only way would let the sword cut its way through his hand for he can get out, leaving his left hand useless for the moment.

"Spare me of this shit…" the woman said, annoyed by the attempts of the double to get out of that situation through the last minute.

"Listen, you piece of shit!" She called Monster's attention. "If you come with us in peace, we won't do anything with the kid."

She gets very close to him and whispers, for only him to hear it: "I know you can understand me… Nelo Angelo."

Her last two words made his blood boil.

Hear that name again triggered nightmares and traumas that he already had suppressed years ago thanks to his life with Baby.

Monster roared loudly and in despair, just for the fact that the woman had that information, she was surely dangerous and probably somehow knew Mundus.

He goes fully charged with his right arm at her, his claws ready to slaughter, but she could easily dodge by kneeling.

Monster barely could move his chest to turn around because of his stuck hand.

He threw his body forward, his mouth was wide open to get her.

Unfortunately, the woman was countless times faster than him.

He got close enough to take a piece out of her, but he had bitten the air. She did a high jump over his head and landed on his back, going down with everything she got and smacking his chest against the metal floor.

For some reason, she hated Monster and that could easily be seen in her vicious eyes.

With the other sword she had in her hands, she began a quick yet cruel multiple stabbing on his back.

The sword had not just pierced him, but it also drained his energy and magic at every stab.

Baby screamed in pain so loud that he almost lost his voice. Monster could do nothing either except shout in pain.

"STOP! STOOOOOOOP!" Baby screamed in panic and started to cry uncontrollably, that was the only thing he could do in that situation.

The woman jumped off from Monster's back, her sword dripping his blood as well her leggings and cape dirty with it as well. She took off the sword from his left hand and stabbed in his right hand, but he couldn't move anymore, he returned to zero all over again.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! YOU ARE THE MONSTER HERE, YOU SCUM!" Baby shouted with his most honest anger and panic towards the unknown woman.

Baby couldn't see her face but could feel her stare at him. The pressure was immeasurable, but it hasn't shaken him anyway.

She made a hand signal to one of the Knights to let the kid go. At the moment they had taken off the rope from his pulses, he ran away towards his friend - his face was completely wet with his desperate tears.

"Monster! Monster please… no… you have to get out of here!" Baby cried in panic, trying to help him get up.

But he was so weak… again. He tried to give his arms some strength the maximum he could, but the energy-draining made that an impossible task.

The woman pulled Baby, holding on the neck collar of his jacket, with ease away from Monster.

Very close to losing his conscience, Monster kept trying to get up and even charge some magic to help Baby. Unfortunately, all of his efforts were useless, he was already out of battle.

Baby couldn't speak, he only could stare at the image of his best friend dying in front of him and he couldn't do a thing about it.

Mentally, Monster was in a total panic, his body and magic weren't responding to his commands anymore, but he kept trying to get up anyway.

"AAAAAH!"

Monster had a bad vision, but he could see and understand what happened right in front of him: Baby was stabbed in the chest by the woman and a few blood drops had fallen on Monster's face.

The sword then electrocuted him with a deadly high voltage: "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Monster's heart and soul slowly started to die together with Baby.

"You two can't stay together, that's not how it's supposed to work," she told him drily and dreadfully while she threw Baby's dead body in the ocean.

Monster died inside together with the sound of the “splash” of Baby’s body in the water.

The Knights could easily chain him up and take him to a big vehicle, transporting him to the Order's Headquarters after that.

Through a few years, the Order used him and the pieces they found of his armor to create their Angelos. They thought they were draining his magic, although, somehow he managed to hold the most he could his own magic and he made them drain all of Mundus' corruption out of him.

That nearly had the cost of his life, but he was able to regain his full consciousness and "original form" at a high cost.

One day we faked his death and was able to flee from the facility in a killing spree. That happened a few weeks before the Fortuna incident.

Through the next years, he lived that moment of Baby's death over and over, corrupting him from inside out; making him realize once again how weak he was, that he didn't deserve a human life or either love. His human side was only responsible for his and his loved ones suffering and that he had to return for his search of power because of his weakness and this time… no matter what, even if that meant discarding a part of himself.

Meanwhile, Baby survived the stab of that day and found himself on a shore later, still at Fortuna.

He went to live around the outskirts of Fortuna for a long time, attacking and sometimes even killing by accident every Knight he spotted on the path between the city and the Order's headquarters. He questioned every single one of them about Monster, but none of them knew what he was talking about.

Until he attacked Credo, that had an idea about what he was looking for.

Credo and Kyrie's parents accepted Baby to live among them since he had white hair and some connection with demons, very similar to the description of the figure they worshipped: Sparda.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later they got killed by a demon, thus, bringing the "demon magnet curse" back to haunt Baby.

He then joined the Order with the only intention of getting good equipment and to get inside the HQ to look for Monster.

A few weeks before the incident with the Savior, Credo was able to bring for Baby, in secret, a copy of documents talking about Monster… only for him to discover that his best friend had died.

Void Realm - Pitch Black City: Back to the present

Kyrie had to finish the story from Nero's "death" in front since she knew it as well, all because Nero was sobbing and sniffing uncontrollably, his tears were too much for he could clean it and he was too shaken to be able to speak.

Nico never expected to feel so sorry for Nero, she was aware he had a tough life, but not that much… Victor was also feeling bad for him, but he had to tell him the truth, the only possible truth. What he didn’t expect was the reaction that was about to come.

They waited in silence nearly an hour for Nero to calm down, it was already very late in the night.

“Nero...” Victor started slowly, breaking the silence. “I don’t think Monster really died…”

Nero raised his head to look at him, he couldn’t understand how Victor got to that conclusion.

“Have you payed attention… on the things you described?” Victor continued calmly. “Be able to feel what the other is feeling… see memories… receive the knowledge from the other…”

Victor’s words weren’t clicking Nero’s memory, he was still a bit shaken with the story.

Noticing that, he decided to be more direct: “You described every characteristic of Sync”

Nero’s brain gears began to work again, Sync was a recent subject Victor explained to him: an exclusive ability of Siblings of the same parents and… Parent and Children exclusive thing.

“No! Wait!” Nero blurted confused. “Ar-Are you… Are you trying to tell me that Monster… - a pause- was Vergil?!”

“I’m sure about that,” Victor said quite seriously, staring at Nero’s eyes.

Nero immediately got up from the seat, scaring Kyrie that was closer to him. His face had changed so quickly as if someone had pressed a switch. He began to yell angrily at Victor for no apparent reason: “VERGIL ISN’T MONSTER! No way that cold-blooded motherfucker is Monster!” he screamed between tears, but this time tears of anger.

“Dude! Chill! What’s up?!” Nico yelled scared with his reaction.

“Why are you in denial?!” Victor questioned, keeping his calm and serious posture. “Can’t you see that everything you said described Sync perfectly?”

���NO!” Nero shouted angrily.

Kyrie could see some sparks starting to blink around Nero, but before she was able to say anything Victor went first: “Why then?!” he yelled confused.

Nero took a deep breath and concentrated all his anger and depression on his next words and tears: “I’M NOT THE BASTARD CHILD OF A DEMON!”

And immediately after those words of sorrow, he started to bleed through his eyes, nose and mount at an alarming quantity. He lost control of his body and fell off the ground, shaking so much as if he was having a convulsion.

Only Kyrie could see the mess of blue and red bolts circling around Nero: “Oh my God! He’s desyncing again!” she shouted scared and instinctively rushed to help him out.

“Kyrie! Wait!” Nico shouted, but it was too late.

The moment she touched him, purple and white energy strings came out of her and touched his energy streams. At exactly the same moment, his energies repealed hers away, sending Kyrie a few steps backward.

“Are you a demon?!” Victor shouted quite surprised. “Or a half demon?! - he quickly turned to Nico - “You said she was human!”

Hell - at same moment

The situation got quite awkward between Dante and Vergil.

Vergil was holding his feelings the maximum he could, he was even holding his breath to do so, his body was shaking of so much tension and a tear or other was going down his cheeks, his face was red of stress.

“Ah… That’s why you did that then…” Date said low, finally understanding what initially motivated his brother to go after the Qliporth and throw away his human half.

There was no way Vergil’s uneasy and tension could pass unnoticed. Dante started to feel sorry for his brother like he never thought he would; Vergil lost the most precious person in his entire life. Baby was his savior and he barely could do something to help him in return.

The way Vergil was holding himself made Dante recall how he felt that day; Yeah, that fateful day he couldn't hold Vergil to destroy his own life. That killing sensation of feeling useless and powerless. The thought of 'everything could be different IF...'

“Bro…” Dante said soft and low, trying to call Vergil’s attention. “Listen… even a Devil may cry when they lose a loved one.”

When Dante thought he couldn’t see his brother more shaken, the inevitable happened: Vergil couldn’t hold anymore, not after his brother’s last words; he started to sobbing and crying in grief. Baby's death was too painful for him: he hugged himself trying to endure the pain and he stuttered uncontrollably many incomprehensive words, he brought his legs closer and assumed a fetal position.

Dante got closer and in an attempt to comfort the desolated man he laid his left hand on his left shoulder. Vergil couldn’t resist and laid his head on his brother’s shoulder; he was crying and sobbing as if Baby just had died that moment and even being a silent crying, he was in pure pain. His chest and shoulders were giving small jumps because of his strong sobbing and hiccups, his lips and jaw were trembling as if he was shivering and his nose was very runny.

“I-I-It-t-t w-as just like… just like that day… - sob- just like… -sob sob- just like that day…! -hic hic!” Vergil cried. “I-I-I I couldn’t protect him! I WAS WEAK! t-t-THE SA-ME SHIiiiT-T! ALL OVER AGAIN! -sob sob... hic- aaaaahh...!”

Dante tried to stroke Vergil’s shoulder to comfort him more, it wasn’t helping that much, but he was trying. He had no idea what to do, he’d never been in a situation like that before. Now… should he tell his thoughts to him? He was more than certain now that Baby is Nero. But how would his brother react? That would help? Would it make it worse? There was only one way to know.

Dante waited for a long time in silence, for his brother to catch his breath back before he could say something again.

For several minutes, if not an hour, Vergil's crying was the only sound around, echoing in their hideout.

“Vergil… Do you remember… that thing… we used to be able to do it when we were kids?” Dante tried to start slow, touching the wound with a bit of care.

“Sob - W-What… - hic - thi-thing…?” Vergil asked, very lost.

Dante got a bit nervous, he didn’t want to go to the point so quick. “You know… that when we touched… we could see each other’s memories, learn what the other learned… and so on…”

“Sob- Th-That thi-ing... -hic- Rose was studying about us - sob - ?” Vergil tried to remember but it was a bit blurry at that moment. “Sob sob - that later I dis-dis-covered -hic- with Vi-Victor that it was… -sob- a demon thing?”

“Yeeeeaaaah…” Dante said a bit awkwardly.

There’s a moment of silence before Dante gets the courage to continue: “Sooo… Have Victor told you everything about that?”

“No -sob- why?” Vergil replied as he raised his head to look at his brother.

Dante let go of him and gave a small distance, afraid of his reaction.  “Well then… Victor explained to me… that’s a demon thing like you said… BUT it’s a thing… exclusive to siblings of the same parents… and...”

“And?!” Vergil started to notice Dante’s reluctancy on the subject.

“And a parent and children thing too… and a lot of you described about what used to happen between you and Baby matches with what Victor explained to me....” we said very slowly. “So… I’m afraid that… maybe... Baby…”

“NO!” Vergil understood very fast. “No no no no no no no no no no no! NO!”

“I’m afraid that maybe… Baby was your child all this time… He’s...Nero.” Dante finally said.

Vergil’s soul left his body and returned for a brief moment. Had he hurt Baby for real? Someone that only deserved love and care met his worst? His face became full of total despair and panic, he brought his hands to his head, pressing his fingers against his scalp. The more and more he recalled what he did wrong with Nero the thoughts started to storm his mind like a hurricane. Until he let all the panic concentrated on his gut explode away in a loud despair scream, that even called the attention of nearby demons.

Vergil began to freak out in tears, he was insanely crying in pain that he started to hurt his head with his nails, digging them on his scalp. Dante quickly grabbed him by his arms to hold him still, for he didn't get himself hurt in the middle of his panic.

“Bro! BROTHER!” Dante tried to call. “Easy Vergil!”

Between the heavy sobbing, he could split out a few words. “No no no! -sob sob-  I would ne-never -sob- hu-hu-hurt him! - Sob sob”

“You can’t blame yourself for that, man!” Dante attempted to help him get in control. “You thought he was dead, you saw him being killed in front of you and you didn’t know he was a hybrid like us!”

Vergil looked at him, a desperate face and eyes red of so much crying, but he was listening to his brother.

“If you explain to him what really happened I think he will understand.” Dante said, very worried with Vergil.

It was very hard for Vergil to believe that he would be forgiven for such doing, especially the arm literal take off. He couldn’t think clearly about that now, he was too worried that it was very likely he had hurt the most important person of his life.

By now, he laid his head on Dante’s shoulder once more and let go all the tears as possible.

Inside Vergil (figuratively)

The place was close to being dead for real, the sun was hidden behind very heavy dark clouds, the ground was totally dry and crackly and there was a small pool of water at the center of the place. A loud painful crying was echoing very high around that infinite desolated place.

It was V, crying uncontrollably as he stared at a very small dying flower, smaller than his fingers, with another one starting to blooming at the side. He got his arms, legs and neck chained to a dead tree stump in front of the pool that had scorched marks at the roots. Although the chains were heavy, he could move his members. He was wearing the same clothes as Vergil and his hair and facial hair was purely white now.

Urizen was sitting behind the stump, he was quiet, only listening to V’s painful crying.

V kneeled to the little flowers that were at his side, with the point of his fingers he gently touched the dying flower, and raised it a little.

“My little one.. -sob- my little little one…. - sob - I’m so sorry… -sob sob- I’m so sorry for having hurt you… - sob - my baby…!”

To be continued...

[transmogrified-in-the-void]

Powered Shorts: BI DND

the band plays some good old fashioned dnd

“The looming ruins of the Cathedral of Glaudem shadow over all of you. Part of the roof has caved in, vines cover most of the old brick that make up the cathedral, and the only standing structure, the front, is about 350 feet tall. As you get closer, a storm is brewing, wind whipping around you. Trees groan under the wind before torrents of rain start to pound on you. There’s no doubt, this is the cathedral that the elder was talking about.” Airael describes from behind their DM screen. “Before you enter, what do you do?”

“Myathethil takes out her quarterstaff and readies her darts.” Virtue says simply. It makes sense, Myathethil is a to-the-point character. If she thinks a fight is coming, she readies her weapons. If someone is trying to poison her, she punches them. Simple and easy.

Bug looks through their notes and character sheet. “Wena holds onto eir amulet from Tulai, whispering a prayer in Halfling. Ey have been in many battles, but a small part of them worries ey won’t make it out alive this time. Ey will need all the luck ey can get.” 

Airael nods. “What is the prayer?”

“Uhh,” Bug thinks for a moment. “Tulai, wherever you are, please give me the strength to come home.”

Airael nods, writing something down from behind the screen. “Cato, Gemini, what are Hotaru and Tragedy doing?”

Gemini smiles. “Tradegy is tying the charm her mother gave her to the end of her mace. If this is where her journey ends, then she wants to do it knowing her mom is nearby. She wants her mom to know that her baby found people who care for her.”

Airael smiles, and looks at Cato. “And Horatu?”

“Horato is staring at the Cathedral, feeling a familiar sense of oppression in his soul. He is mentally preparing to have to betray everyone if it means finding his fiancee and family before he dies.” Cato says carefully. “He made a promise to himself in the Feywild, and he’s not going to break it today.”

“With that out of the way.” Airael gives a feral grin. “You all walk into the cathedral. Normal formation I’m assuming?”

Everyone nods. 

“Good, good. Uh, Wena, what’s your passive perception again?”

“Um, 16.” Bug answers.

“Cool, cool, cool. Wena passes through the threshold. You see that the inside is just rubble. Anything that could have been destroyed was. As you look forwards to where the cave has collapsed, you see a fucking dragon.”

There’s cheers around the table as the band rejoices at fighting a dragon, before going quiet at having to fight a dragon.

“Can I see the color of the dragon?” Bug asks.

“Make a perception check.”

Bug rolls, looking at the dice then back at his sheet. “That’s an 18 plus . . . that’s 24.”

“There’s a flash of lighting, and you can see this is definitely a young blue dragon.”

Bug nods. “I’m going to whisper back to the group.” Xe turns to the players. “Hey, uh, be quiet, and has anyone picked up Draconic in the last 5 or so minutes?”

A chorus of ‘no’s, and Bug nods again. “So we can see the dragon, but it hasn’t noticed us. Should we make a plan?”

Everyone starts to discuss amongst themselves, Gemini throwing out the idea of all attacking one wing at once to disable its flying. 

“I have animal handling, would I be able to know which part of the dragon needs to be hit the hardest from like, birds and shit?” Bug asks.

“Sure, make the check.”

Bug rolls again. “Haha, oh fuck, uhhh that’s an 8?”

“You need to hit the wing.”

“FUCK!”

Everyone laughs at that, taking a moment to get back together.

“Okay okay okay, so who has no throwing weapons?” Cato asks, and Bug and Gemini raise their hands. “Sweet so I can give you my daggers-”

“I can cast spiritual weapons to make a longbow instead. Give your daggers to Mya.” Gemini interrupts. “I can cast it as a bonus action too. It’s like, glowy and shit so it probably would be better if I cast it after the initial attack as a bonus sneak attack.”

The group nods in agreement. “So do we need to get closer?”

“Those who are using throwing weapons will need to.” 

Bug and Virtue roll, getting an 11 and unnatural 20 in the process. 

“So Wena barely gets close enough, almost tripping on some rubble. Mya, you’re having a great time. You’re basically dancing your way to this dragon.”

“I give the signal and attack.” Bug says. “I’m going to throw both of my hand axes at the same time.”

“Cool, roll to attack with advantage on both. Actually, everyone but Gemini roll with advantage. Gem, we’ll get to you.” Airael says, with the group nodding. Everyone rolls. “Uh, let’s go in order of Bug, Virtue, then Cato.”

“22 and 12.”

“19 and 18.”

“18.”

Airael looks at something behind the DM screen. “Sweet. So, Gem, make a perception check real quick?”

“Uh, 15.”

“Cool, you notice when everyone throws their weapons, and are able to time it just in time to make your spiritual weapon. Roll with advantage.”

“That’s a 24.”

Airael checks behind their DM screen again. 

“All but Bug’s second attack hit. Go ahead and roll damage.” They do, and Airael scratches something on a paper behind the screen. “You all attack the dragon’s wing. Bug, your first handaxe snaps one of its outer bones. Gemini, your sacred arrow shoots right through its joint, rendering it completely useless. The dragon roars, lightning striking as the storm gets worse. Roll initiative.”

After writing some more things behind the screen, Airael looks at Cato. “Hotaru goes first. What’s your move?”

Cato thinks, looking over their sheet. “I’m going to use an action to Disengage. How bad do the pillars and supports look?”

“They’re pretty worn, but seem to be bolted together well. The wood looks to be starting to rot though.” Airael answers.

Cato nods. “Okay so idea one out. I’m gonna use my action to hide.”

“Roll stealth for me?”

“23?”

“You fucking melt into shadows and disappear. Not even Tragedy can see you.” Airael says, and Cato laughs. “Now, speaking of said tiefling, it’s your turn!”

Gemini laughs sinisterly, looking over her spell sheet. “How far away is the dragon at this point?”

“About 70 feet ish.”

Gemini nods. “I’m gonna cast Guiding Bolt as my spiritual longbow dissipates into nothingness.”

“Sounds good, roll to attack.”

“Does a 22 hit?”

“Yes it does, damage?”

Gemini rolls 4 six-sided dice. “That is . . . 25 radiant damage!”

Airael writes something down again. “As Hotaru disappears into the chaos of the storm, Tragedy’s shining bow disappears into a mist that swirls into a line of light that strikes the dragon. It roars in pain as the light is absorbed into its wet scales. Bug, your turn.”

“I’m taking out my longswords and attacking this bitch with them.” Ey roll the d20. “NAT 20 MOTHERFUCKERS!”

The group chants ‘20’ over and over again as Bug takes a celebratory walk around the table. They roll for their second attack. “Ahem, does a natural and an unnatural 20 hit?”

Airael rolls their eyes with a smile. “What do you think? Both of them hit. How does it happen.”

Bug grins. “Wena storms, haha storms, towards the land-bound dragon, unsheathing eir swords. Lighting flashes in the sky as eir amulet starts to glow, and ey shove the longswords into the belly of the beast. For . . . 23 damage.”

“23 damage.” Airael repeats, scratching more things behind the screen. “It is now Virtue’s turn.”

“Can I actually take my turn to run on top of the dragon?” Virtue asks.

“That’s gonna be a dex check.”

“That’s a 19 for the monk lady to run up a dragon.”

“The monk lady runs up the dragon.”

“Hell yeah.”

“It’s the dragon’s turn now.”

“Un-hell yeah.”

Airael smirks. “First the dragon is going to swipe at Wena, who is the closest to it.” They roll. “What’s your armor class again?”

Bug checks their sheet. “16.”

“So both attacks hit for . . .” more rolling, “20 slashing damage.”

Bug groans as they write their current hp down.

“Now it’s going to make a breath attack against you.” Airael points towards their girlfriend, who gasps. “Don’t you gasp, Tragedy did a lot of damage. Make a dex saving throw.”

Gemini rolls. “11?”

Airael doesn’t respond, and instead starts to roll die after die after die. “45 lightning damage.”

Gemini groans. “You’re mean.” She grumbles as she writes her new hp.

Airael shrugs, smiles, and turns to Cato. “Your turn, bucko.”

Cato grins. “I’m making a sneak attack with my bow.” They roll. “26 hit?”

“It sure does. Roll damage.”

Cato rolls their d6 six separate times. “That’s a 27 piercing damage for the blue dragon in the back. And I’m gonna hide again.”

Airael nods and looks up. “Gem, your turn.”

Gemini looks at her spell sheet. “I’m running up to this bitch and casting inflict wounds as a 5th level spell.”

Airael’s eyes light with interest. “And do tell how this looks.”

“Tragedy has a giant blast mark that’s burned off part of her armor. She’s tired, she’s pissed. She runs 30 feet towards the dragon, writes the words “pain” in glowing infernal letters, and screams as the letters become dark and twisted and strike the dragon in the face.”

Airael nods. “Roll to attack please.”

“I’m adding 10 as per my channel divinity.” She says once she rolls. “So that’s a 21 to hit the dragon with my overpowered spell.”

Airael sighs. “Roll your damage.”

Gemini rolls 7d10. “40 necrotic damage.”

“The dragon’s glowing blue eyes stare at you with anger and hatred as you scream. The letters strike the creature’s face, causing the flesh to rot and die away, the word ‘die’ clear on its forehead. With that, it’s Wena’s turn.”

“Nice. I’m just gonna hit again with my swords, that’s a 13 and a 12.” Bug reports.

“You wrench your swords out, and try to hit again but miss the angle. They clink off the scaly underbelly.” Airael says in response. “And now the monk lady who is on the dragon’s head has a go.”

“I’m gonna beat it on the head with my quarterstaff.” Virtue says. 

Airael sighs again. “Roll to hit.”

Silence. “That’s a nat one I’m afraid.” Virtue says, and Airael smiles.

“You smack the dragon on the head, and your quarterstaff shatters. The staff given to you by Moss, your partner and beloved, the staff that you’ve had for all of your crazy journeys. Gone. Poof.” They say, a grim smile on their face. 

“Oh God.” Virtue mutters, putting their face into their hands. “Oh fuck, my staff.”

The players are quiet in fear as the dragon starts its turn.

“First off, it’s going to shake its head to get rid of you. Make a dex check.” Airael starts.

“That’s a 27.”

“You stay on the dragon, grasping its scales and spine as it twists and turns. Next, it’s gonna try and slash Wena again.” Airael rolls some dice. “You manage to dodge the first one, but the second one comes from behind and gets you for 8 damage.”

Bug silently cheers at that, editing his current hp.

“And finally, it’s gonna try and bite Tragedy. What’s your ac?”

“14.”

“So it gets you pretty hard. You’re lucky you have armor, otherwise you would 100% be in half right now.”

Gemini curses silently.

“But now it’s Hotaru’s turn.” Airael looks at Cato. “Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

“Oh totally.” Cato says. “Does a 27 hit?”

Airael nods.

“28 damage, my good sir.”

Airael smiles. “Hotaru comes out from behind Tragedy, seeming to have melted out of the shadows. He has his bow notched and drawn, and he stares the dragon down. The dragon roars at the human, trying to intimidate him, and Hotaru lets the arrow fly. The dragon’s roar is cut short as it stumbles around a little before collapsing down, dead. What is everyone’s current hp?”

“Full hp.” Cato says, with Virtue saying the same.

“Mine is 76.” Bug reports.

“2.” Gemini says, and Airael’s grin grows wider.

“Tragedy falls over, almost dead and bleeding out. You look up to see a glowing figure with a familiar smile. It’s your mother.”

Gemini smiles. “Mom?”

“Your mother floats next to you, crouching by your head. ‘Oh Sorath, my sweet baby look how much you’ve grown,’ she says, smiling at you like you didn’t kill hundreds in her name. ‘I know you hurt with my leaving, but let yourself grow with these people. They’re good folk, I know you can sense it too.’ She starts to fade away, her time here is short.” Airael describes the scene, tears coming to their eyes.

“No, mom, please! I need you!” Gemini says. “Don’t leave me again!”

Airael smiles. “She gives you one last sad look. ‘I’ve never left you, baby. And I never will’ And like that,” they snap, “she’s gone with the sun coming out of the clouds.”

“So did anyone else see that, or was that just a spirit thing?” Virtue asks.

“Hmm, make a perception check, everyone.” Airael decides. 

Cato gets a 21, Bug a 18, and Virtue a 17.

“Hotaru is the only one who sees the apparition, and is the only one who hears it. And with that, our time is up!”

Everyone groans, standing up and organizing their papers and dice. Cato smiles to themselves. They’re so excited to see what’s next. They feel safe here, and so so happy. It’s nice for a change. 

[winglessnymph]

Who the Hell Decided to Call Them Cockapoos?

tw: sympathetic deceit, tw: animal abuse, tw: abandonment, tw: yelling, tw: cursing, tw: minor violence (someone gets punched and another shoved that's it), tw: mention of past injury

Logan had gotten a call late last night from a kind local resident. The elderly man had called in to report his neighbor who had chained up his dog and hadn't been seen in a week. Assuming it was a now abandoned animal, Logan promised he would send someone first thing in the morning to check into the matter.

Dee was the lucky person and first thing in the morning meant he was called at 7 a.m. to arrive at the house by 8. He did have to stop in to talk to Logan and pick up supplies but arrived in time to chat with the elderly caller in person.

After getting a description of the dog Dee was fairly certain he was looking for a Cockapoo. Ridiculous name but that sure as hell wouldn't stop him from saving them.

Dee tended to prefer the scalier rescues; the Crested Gecko he babied at home being proof. Reptilian preference aside, Dee couldn't stand animal abuse of any kind which made him a fantastic fit for the job.

Dee arrives at the house, unimpressed at the state it's in. The place is clean. Front yard trimmed, trash can sitting nicely on the curb, fresh padlock on the tall wire fencing. The owner has money or at least likes to look like they do.

Dee wrinkles his nose and walks to the door. If the owner can afford a dog then why not take care of the dog? Dee knocks on the door, waits, and then repeats the process with a few yells when no answer comes.

Swearing, Dee walks to the side of the house and spots a dirty lump attached to a chain in the middle of the backyard.

Dee lets out a string of angry Russian upon seeing the dog's state. He's unsure if the dog is even alive until they flinch at Dee's volume. Dee apologizes and coos a promise to return. Turning back to the van, Dee decides he's beyond playing nice and gets a pair of clippers to break the fence and the dog's chain.

Dee slips gloves into his pocket then grabs the clippers and a soft rope for a makeshift leash. As he fires off a quick text to Logan about the state of the animal Dee hears a car pull into the driveway.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing here?!" The man looks to be in his late 30s. Pressed button up shirt and slacks. "Don't think I didn't see you trying to break into my house on camera!" He's out of the Lexus and storming towards Dee with a bright red face.

Dee takes a deep breath and tosses the clippers back into the van. He's learned to not have something easy to use as a weapon out during these types of confrontations. Nearly half his face is still scarred from the first time Dee learned that lesson.

"I am not looking to break in to your home. I was looking for the owner of the dog in the backyard." Dee grits his teeth, hoping to avoid a fight.

"Yeah right, you fuck! I already know what you're trying to do! I've already called the cops, asshole!" The man has crept uncomfortably close to Dee in order to stab a finger into his personal space.

"Sir, does the dog belong to you? I'm here to check on them and need to speak with their owner." Dee's tone of voice at odds with his glare. He refuses to back up or give the man the satisfaction of seeing him flinch. Dee loathes being touched without permission and would rather eat the pristine grass under his boots than let the man jab at him again.

"Yeah it's my damn dog! I'll do whatever the fuck I want with it. I'll kill it if I want to. Fuck you! You can't tell me to do shit."

"Don't you dare touch a hair on their head!" Dee snarls and leans in to tower a few inches over the man. It takes a half second but Dee realizes he just screwed himself. By not backing up when the man invaded his space Dee has given himself no room to dodge. The owner lands a sucker punch to Dee's jaw just as a cop car pulls up.

Dee has time to shove the man back just as a familiar face steps out of the squad car. Officer Nate "Procastination" Slack strolls over so slowly it's as if they're all in an episode of Baywatch. Dee's deadpan glare and the man's

insistent chatter about arresting Dee do nothing to motivating the officer into moving faster.

Dee would later find out that after the man placed a call claiming Dee was breaking in that Officer Slack heard the description of the suspect and called Logan. Once confirming that Dee was at the house trying to save a dog Slack then called dibs on responding and told Logan to get someone else out there too. Slack, for once, was procrastinating for the greater good. The longer he dragged this out the more time another worker had to show up and vouch for Dee being a part of the rescue team.

After finally walking close enough Office Slack finally introduces himself and begins with pleasantries. The owner begins talking over him until Slack throws out a line that stops him dead. "Geez Dee that's a pretty nasty mark you got on your jaw. Shame how that's gonna bruise up pretty good. You don't need me to file a report for physical assault do you?"

The owner blanches as Dee pretends to think it over. Before Dee can answers the man stutters out, "Now w-wait just a minute." A nervous chuckle escapes him. "This man was breaking into my house, trying to harass me, and steal my dog."

Officer Slack whistles and raises an eyebrow. "That's quite a list. Be a shame if none of it turns out true. Could really damage a dude's reputation."

A horn interrupts the conversation. Dee spots Virgil and Remy hopping out of the other company van before Roman even has a chance to kill the engine. It doesn't miss Dee's attention that the pair, and likely Roman as well, are wearing the same Rainbow Rescue shirt as him. He grins as the pieces start to click into place.

After a long conversation Office Nate verifies Dee's employment with the rescue shelter, convinces the man to give up the dog, and orders the last arriving three men to take the now happily barking boy to Dr. Picani's for a vet check.

Dee gets one last glance at the Cockapoo before Remy dramatically hauls the baby up to sit in the back with him. Still a stupid name but he's glad they saved him.

Rainbow Rescue AU Taglist: @asleepybisexual , @daughterofsomnus , @fluidityandgiggles , @irrelevantbutsanders , @merlybird500 , @notalwaysthevillian , @pastelpatton , @princeanxious , @satanblessi , @thepoolofthedead , @whymustibedraggedintofandomhell

If you want to be tagged or removed from the list just let me know. If I missed any triggers you need tagged send me an ask or dm me so I can add it and keep using it if it comes up again.

Thanks for reading and big thanks to @princeanxious again for being an awesome beta! (If you guys love dragons and Sanders Sides fantasy AUs go send him an ask about A Dragon's Heartbeat. 😉)

[itspixelberrychoicestime]

A Date with a Ghost part 6

Book(s): The Freshmore Series & Haunting of Braidwood Manor

Summary: After My Classmate’s (Ghostly) Girlfriend, Hannah (HOBM MC) and Eleanor decided to have a double date with Kaitlyn and Emily (TF MC). And things get weird.| It’s time to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Pairing(s): Kaitlyn x TF MC, Eleanor x HOBM MC

Tags: @kennaxval @almogchoices @jbzxls @mfackenthal @helentwombly

Note: PLEASE COMMENT/ REBLOG/ DM ME IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED IN FUTURE STORIES!!

Warning: THIS CHAPTER WILL GO INTO THE THEMES OF FAMILICIDE, ALCOHOLISM AND THE MENTIONS OF SUICIDE.

Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (You are here!), 7

Eleanor sighed as she sent out the text of when to meet up with the girls. “I told them tomorrow afternoon.”

“I know asking this is going to annoy you, but are you sure about this?” Hannah asked her.

“Don’t be. I can reassure you that I am.” Eleanor got up to face the window. She hugged herself with her phone still in her hand.

Hannah got up to hug her girlfriend from behind. She kissed Eleanor’s cheek, and in comfort she said, “Don’t worry.” 

Eleanor’s phone dinged! She took a look at the text and let out a shaky breath once she got the “Okay!” from Kaitlyn. She softly cursed under her breath.

“What happened...?” Hannah took a glance at the text. “Oh!” She exclaimed.

“I guess there’s no turning back.” Eleanor frowned.

“Nope,” Hannah muttered. “Do you want to go out? It’ll get your mind off of this.”

“I’ll be fine.” Eleanor said. “I’m too tired.”

“There’s still light out, but whatever is fine.” Hannah grabbed Eleanor’s hand and led her to the bed. Once in bed, Hannah had thoughts running through her head, worrying about the next day.

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

The next day Kaitlyn and Emily stepped out of the subway train in Downtown Northbridge’s stop.

“So how long til we get there?” Emily asked.

Kaitlyn pulled out her phone and searched for directions. She read the estimated time, “It’s going to take us 30 minutes if we take the fastest route. We just have to take the number 5 bus and Braidwood Manor is a couple blocks away.”

“We should catch the bus asap then.”

“Right.” The girls rushed to catch the bus.

Nearly an hour later, the girls finally arrived to the front of Braidwood Manor. Kaitlyn and Emily sat on the steps and waited for Hannah and Eleanor to come.

Emily pulled out her phone from her jacket pocket, and went on group chat.

Emily: We’re here, but the other girls are nowhere to be found.

Zack: WHAT 😨

Becca: Are you out of your freaking minds???

Kaitlyn: Chill, we’re just going to hang out, Eleanor texted me this:

*Pulls up a screenshot of the text conversation between her and Eleanor*

Becca: WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE GOING TO GET KILLED OVER THERE

Chris: You could’ve have us come with you! @ Becca, wth?

Zack: BECCA NOT HELPING

Emily: We’ll be fine. Hannah and Eleanor wanted to talk to us about something, don’t know what.

Zack: Can you two at least promise you’ll come back in one piece?

Emily: Promise!

Kaitlyn: 🤞🏼

Emily sighed at her friend’s responses and tucked her phone away back to her pocket. “Well, this is going to take forever.” Emily rested her face on her hand. Kaitlyn played with the dead leaves with her boots. She hummed her new song’s tune.

“So how’s the song going?” Emily asked.

Kaitlyn sighed, “Not that great. It’s still missing that dumb chorus.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Let’s hope it’s soon. Any new update about the house?”

Emily looked up to see the trees. “Eh. It’s still a long way coming. Stupid Delacroix...”

“I could punch him, y’know.”

“Sebastian or his dad?”

Kaitlyn smirked, “Both?”

Emily playfully rolled her eyes and laughed. “I don’t want you to go to jail for assault.”

“You and your morals.” Kaitlyn kissed her cheek. Emily giggled.

The girlfriends sat at the porch until they spotted Hannah and Eleanor. Emily and Kaitlyn noticed how disheveled Eleanor appeared to be. Her short hair was barely brushed and her face pale with dark circles forming around her eyes. Hannah wasn’t any better as she looked tired as before.

“Sorry we ran so late-- we overslept!” Hannah explained.

“Nah, it’s nothing.” Kaitlyn said. “Are we even allowed to go inside?”

“Yeah, let’s hope the doors are unlocked.” Hannah walked to the door and pulled the doors open. “After you.” She signaled the girls.

The house was restored to what it use to be. No broken chandelier on the floor, no tattered wallpaper and no dusty furniture.

“Guess they changed it once they did the documentary.” Emily whispered to Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn nodded.

Eleanor touched a wall. She frowned, “You’re right Emily. It looks like home, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

“Huh?” Kaitlyn cocked her eyebrow.

Eleanor turned to the girls. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She guided them to the upstairs hallway where the individual portraits of the Waverly family were located at. Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What’s up?”

Eleanor took a shaky breath in and out and asked. “Do you see that portrait of her?” She signaled a portrait of a young woman, somewhere in her early twenties with a braid passing to her breast. She was wearing a a red and black gown with laces stitched and a black collar covering up her neck. 

Emily responded. “Yeah...?”

“Her name was Eleanor Waverly. She had just turned twenty when she had her portrait taken.”

Kaitlyn looked at Hannah, who grabbed her girlfriend’s hand and whispered in her ear. “I got you.”

Eleanor confessed, “I am that girl. I am Eleanor Waverly.”

Emily and Kaitlyn looked at each other and back to the other girls. Frowning, Hannah spoke up, “You don’t believe it, do you?”

Kaitlyn looked back and forth of her and the portrait many times. All she could say was, “Uhmm...” Emily stepped in. “What she meant to say is, is that we just thought it was a coincidence that you look like her.”

“Allow me to explain.” Eleanor stated, “But we need to find a place to talk in private. Hope to God there’s nobody here besides us.” She took them downstairs to the parlor where she signaled Kaitlyn and Emily to sit down. “It’s better to hear about this sitting down.”

Eleanor took over the conversation. “Well, here it goes... My family and I moved here when I was fifteen from England once my father found employment. This was about a few year before he was sent to the war. As you may know, my mother was... not well. I don’t know what happened, but she forbade my siblings and I from ever going outside. She sent people to do errands. She was small, but somehow had us under her power. Often times she even gives us a smacking if we’re caught outside.”

Emily’s eyes opened in shock. Kaitlyn covered her mouth in shock and disgust.

“One day something happened. My siblings were sick and I knew I had to leave to find medicine, but my mother was persistent in me drinking some hot cocoa. I don’t know why she was pushing me, but... I heard my brother Thomas falling in the hall. He got up from his bed to tell me that my sister Clarissa had passed.”

“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” Emily said.

Eleanor continued. “It was a long time ago. Literally. My mother told me it was the only way to protect us. I knew something about that damned drink. It was too obvious for me to figure it out. I tried to get away from her. I could still hear Simon crying for mother and Thomas having little time to live.”

She lifted her shaken hand to her hand and took a sharp breath. Exhaling she finished, “Mother grabbed my hair from behind. She had a broken piece of vase that Thomas broke earlier... I plead to her to not hurt me, but...” Eleanor choked up into a sob. She clenched the necklace she had once she came back to life. A painful reminder about what had happened. She then placed her hand onto her neck, indicating the result.

Emily wiped her tears away while Kaitlyn sat down on the couch. She covered her face and muttered “Damn” under her shaky breath.

Hannah and Eleanor sat on the couch where Hannah hugged her girlfriend and stroke her hair in comfort. Eleanor was still holding on to her necklace.

The four girls sat in the parlor in silence. Minutes that seem like hours rolled by with silence, except the wind hitting the leaves outside. Eleanor spoke up. “I want to show you two something.”

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

The family cemetery was located outside of the manor. The girls looked at Eleanor and her sibling’s tombstones. 

“You mentioned your dad earlier, what happened to him?” Emily asked.

Eleanor sighed. “My father found out about what happened to us.” She frowned, “It broke him to the point where he developed a drinking problem. He died within the next five years.”

“Oh shit.” Kaitlyn muttered. “I’m so sorry.”

Eleanor said nothing and knelt to her late father’s tombstone. She placed a hand on it, running her fingers through her dad’s name. 

William C. Waverly. 

She got up and noticed that the sun will be setting. “We should go. It’s getting late.”

Emily meekly asked, “Hey Eleanor?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to sound rude, but why did you bring us here?”

Eleanor’s lips trembled, “I started getting these horrible nightmares. About what my mother did to us. Something tells me that I need to do something about this.”

“When I died, I remembered everything that my mother did to us. My siblings fortunately, to say the least, didn’t remember a single thing about that day. 

Hannah confessed. “My brother Jonathan actually...” She exhaled with dread, “He, um took his own life.”

Emily gasped with her hand covering her mouth.

Hannah hold herself together. “I found his note and the only thing I did was hiding it away from our parents. I didn’t want them to find out like this, so they thought he was in an accident.”

She tensed up and took a deep breath. “Oh god.” She muttered. “And I, uh, I started to get those nightmares too. He kept telling me how much I was a liar for doing this. I couldn’t tell anyone about this because, becau-” Hannah sobbed.

Hannah slumped on the ground and covered her eyes. Eleanor crouched near her girlfriend and put a comforting arm around her.

“Hey, hey, hey...” Emily helped Eleanor picking up Hannah. “It’s okay to feel hurt, but it doesn’t mean you have to go through it alone.”

Kaitlyn nodded, tears streaming down. She wiped them with her jacket sleeve, not caring if her makeup had already dirty it.

“Hannah decided to come here to fix whatever was happening. Her friend Victor dropped her off to spend the night here.” Eleanor replied. She rubbed her girlfriend’s back, “Just take a few deep breaths.” She said to her softly.

Hannah composed herself. “I can’t explain it, but I had a gut feeling that this house could fix my problem. Ironic now that it’s El’s turn.”

“So, that’s how you two actually met?” Kaitlyn asked.

Eleanor nodded. “She spent such a short time, but with her... I wasn’t so afraid. of my hellish mother. That’s what I love about her.”

Hannah chuckled. “Yeah, just witnessing her world wasn’t exactly in the agenda, but it was worth it. I still miss those kids.”

“Who? Your brothers and sister?” Asked Emily.

“Yes, it took Thomas some time to ease on Hannah, but we welcomed her as if she’s family.” Eleanor answered.

Hannah gave a small smile. “I could imagine this now, ‘Hey kids, you wanna hear the story of how I met your mom?’“

Eleanor rolled her eyes, but laughed. “I guess you can say that your mother made me feel so... alive.”

The girls laughed at this future scenario. They then left the Manor once it was nighttime. Each pair left hand in hand.

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

Once they reached the train stop to Hartfeld, the two pairs stepped out to the platform.

“You must never tell anyone about this.” Eleanor warned them. “I don’t think the world is ready to hear that the dead are alive.”

Emily crossed her heart. “Swear, cross my heart and hope to die!”

Eleanor’s eyes went wide. “Emily, you mustn’t say that-!”

“El, she swore it.” Hannah placed her hand on Eleanor’s shoulder. Eleanor blushed hard of embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, we gotcha back,” Kaitlyn smiled. “See you girls later!” She put her arm around Emily.

“Bye! Take care!” Emily waved goodbye.

“Bye!” Hannah said.

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

“It’s crazy to know that ghosts exist?” Kaitlyn flopped onto Emily’s bed. Emily finished changing to new pair pajamas.

“Yeah, I guess you could say I was kinda skeptical about the paranormal.” Emily sat down beside her.

“Just imagine; there might be witches and werewolfs!” Kaitlyn’s face lit up. “Or vampires!”

“I think we have to take one creature at a time,” Emily laughed, but yawned as she had to go to bed soon. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

Kaitlyn got up from Emily’s bed. “You sure you don’t want me here?” She cocked her eyebrow and bit her lip.

Emily replied, “As much as I want to, I can’t. Gotta meet up with James and Reyna first thing in the morning.”

“You’re lucky I like that cute butt of yours.” Kaitlyn stuck her tongue out and winked. Kaitlyn began to close the door behind her. “Alright, g’night.”

“Night.” Emily gave a soft smile just before sleeping.

Kaitlyn held her head high to complete the new song. Once she got into her room, she grabbed her guitar and notes to finish this once and for all.

About an hour and a half later and

“See you in my dreams,

Feel you in the dark-”

As she hummed the tune, she sang “Take me anywhere, figuring who you are, the ghost of you has now become a part of me- OH MY GOD!” She screamed. Kaitlyn jumped from the bed, and ran out to Emily’s room.

“Em! Emily! I got it! I fucking got it!” Kaitlyn yelled.

Emily opened her door. Her eyes were slightly opened and her hair was messy from turning too often. “Yeah...?”

“I got the chorus! I got it!” She embraced Emily.

“That’s awesome,” Emily yawned. “I’m really tired...”

Kaitlyn blushed. “Oops- I didn’t noticed that I woke up everyone, did I?”

Becca came out of her room. With a hand on her hip and narrowed eyes, Becca said, “No, you really didn’t.”

[continuouscalamity]

CHAPTER 2 - EVENT - ELECTION

[MAGGIE! is online]

[MAGGIE!: the election 🗳️ is happening RIGHT NOW!! 😲 make sure to support and make this mansion a better place 😏]

GM’S NOTE: This is a direct transcript. Not a summary.

[3:00 PM] Monoboar!: As soon as you step inside, you are greeted with the foyer decorated by balloons and partied-up tables. All sorts of colors depicting of the campaign runners are represented in the decor and tables, and one table is decorated for each of the people who are running for leader. If you have a good eye, then you see that there's things on the table! On the tables are portraits of the campaign runners, their interviews, and some trinkets for you to take.

The interviews are shown here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y5x3X10aCUtKbnhaQB8j79-pfGqRLO5uNY5kA0Ir0jM/edit

The ballot box, pencils, and slips of paper lay in the dead center, along with a small list of rules: - If you are a campaign runner, you may not vote for yourself - No more than one vote per person - You cannot vote for someone who is not running - Ask Maggie for any clarifying questions

If you are voting, DM me.

Ignore the. Birthday in the visual.

[3:01 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana reluctantly leaves her room to stand inside the room. Eugh, there was so much yellow! [3:01 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel is disgusted. [3:01 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana stands next to Hazel. [3:02 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel smiles at her. [3:02 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie waves to the people coming! [3:02 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko is at her table! Hi. :>

She waves to Hazel and Hana as they come in. [3:02 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy has set up some of his doves at his table. [3:03 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel is a bit hesitant. She likes the doves. [3:04 PM] Wawwace Cawwaghan || Election: Wallace stands behind his table with his unnaturally impeccable posture, nodding to those who enter. Since CK didn't get around to doing the interview, he is open to being approached by voters who may have questions for him. [3:04 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel avoids Wallace's table like the plague. [3:04 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana also does that. [3:04 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko is also open, even though she has been interviewed. [3:05 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel trailed in, a little curious about this whole thing. He didn't understand what was going on, but he wanted to support his friends. He waved at Keiko and Wallace. [3:06 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel turns to Hana, quietly greeting her under her breath.

"Lady Hime-sama.. I haven't spoken to you s-since... ah, well, how are you...? What are your thoughts on this..." She bites her tongue, resisting the urge to show her distaste. "...event?"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:06 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy is shuffling a deck of cards. [3:06 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie offers everyone in the foyer a glass of water after getting a platter in the kitchen. [3:07 PM] Eri [arcade]: Eri walked over to the foyer. [3:07 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Stupid," is what she responds with, frowning and crossing her arms. "Let's just get outta here already."

"I'm okay, though! I'm, um, yeah. I'm fine!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:08 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis looks around the voting areas upon entery. Oh god that's a lot of yellow. [3:09 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel waved at Eri. Another one of his friends! He's still carrying around that stuffed animal. [3:09 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Hm..." Hazel nods in agreement. "I tried... well, I wouldn't say talk to Lady Maggie about it, but I definitely told her my own thoughts... I wouldn't vote for most of these people, if I were you..."

She's basically whispering to Hana now. The poet is a bit judgmental.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:10 PM] Eri [arcade]: Eri waved back. [3:10 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko doesn't glare at Artemis as she walks in, despite her bread crimes. You're on thin ice :unamused: . [3:10 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Yeah!" she whispers, a bit loudly. "Everyone's a fudgin' nutjob! What the heck is with the prizes? The decorations? I feel like I'm at a circus voting for which clown should perform first!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars)

[3:11 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: She giggles, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "Fufu~ that's almost it, isn't it...? I do not wish to be very rude, but I suppose I'm a bit nervous... I feel as though this has happened before..."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:14 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Ugh, me too, it's like deja vu or something, right? I don't feel like any of this is gonna change anything! Like, it's totally just that STINKY PIG," she yells that last part, "trying to set everyone up!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:16 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Perhaps... but we might have to vote... who knows what Sir Piggy will do if we do not..." Hazel looks troubled, hand near her mouth curling into a loose fist.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:17 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis waves at Keiko, Hello Lady. [3:17 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana frowns again, looking utterly annoyed. She groans. "I'll just vote for a cute girl or something. It's better than nothing."

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:18 PM] Monoboar!: Monoboar waddles around with a glass of water in his hoof, waddling eventually to Artemis.

"How're ya? Have you been breathing, oink?" He asks.

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:19 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko waves back. :unamused: Thin ice. Very thin. [3:19 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "I don't know if that'll work out... I think the girls running would probably kill if provoked." Hazel comments.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:21 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana whimpers. "I'm tired of this place! I just want out already!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:23 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis gives the little boar a glare. "Wadda want."

...

"Wait- First. How the fuck are you holding that."

@Monoboar! [3:25 PM] Monoboar!: "I asked a question, have ya been breathing? Snrff."

I imagine it like this. It's so weird to draw him with thumbs.

@Artemis Black (Alex)

[3:27 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: That is not natural.

"...yes. I've been fuckin' breathing."

@Monoboar! [3:28 PM] Monoboar!: "Cool. Snff."

"There's been alotta breathin' lately."

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:28 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "I as well... maybe we could just settle on who to vote for, I at least have an idea, as much as I dislike this election idea."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:29 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "We-- Living things breath to live...?"

@Monoboar! [3:30 PM] Monoboar!: "Yeah..."

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:30 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie walks around, announcing "Runner speeches will occur in 30 minutes!" [3:31 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Yeah, me too, I think. I dunno though. What's your idea?"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:32 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel moves to whisper into Hana's ear.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:32 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "..."

...

"Anything else ya wanna fuckin' chat about?"

@Monoboar! [3:32 PM] Monoboar!: "Just checkin' up, oink."

He starts to waddle away.

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:33 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Oh my god, me too, like, how'd you read my mind like that?" she said, giggling.

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:33 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko is waiting for someone to come talk to her. [3:33 PM] Eri [arcade]: Eri grabs a pair of sunglasses from Keiko's table. [3:34 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Fufu~ Great minds think alike, I suppose?" Hazel giggles, and looks around at the other candidates like someone probably about to dump milk on a boy and ruin his doll.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:35 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Ah...Hello, Eri-san." she says, nervously rearranging the things on her table.

@Eri Nakama (Rozen) [3:35 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy makes a staff appear in his hand and starts twirling it. [3:36 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "I suppose so too!" she puts her hand up to her mouth. Schemin. [3:37 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel is just nervously clutching his stuffed animal to his chest off to the side of the room. [3:37 PM] Eri [arcade]: Assuming they are just regular sunglasses, Eri puts them on. "Hey" @Keiko Taisei (Heather) [3:38 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie goes up to Willy's table, seeing the man play around with a staff.

"Oh my heavens- is this going well. I never hosted one of these before." She mummurs frantically.

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:39 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Strange. [3:40 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel stops for a moment, quirking a brow at Hana.

"Lady Hime-sama... by all means, you enjoy being a princess, yes? I'm almost a bit shocked you didn't try running."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:42 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: He glances over as he slides the entire staff into his sleeve. "I'd say its going fine." Willy takes out William Jr. and starts petting him. "I mean, we haven't even given speeches yet, so nothing can really go wrong at this point." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:43 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Oh, yeah, of course! I dunno, though. Like, I don't want people in my kingdom to end up, like, killing people." she answers simply. "I thought about it, but half these people are smelly anyway! I shouldn't have to show them I'm the princess, they should, like, just know already!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:43 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Yeah... speeches..."

"But what if it goes on for too long? Will people get bored?" She asks with an anxious expression.

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:44 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Oh... fuu, I see." Hazel nods, a hand pressed to her chin. "That's reasonable, Lady Hime-sama..."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:45 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "I know." she responds, smirking to herself. She's was so great!

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:45 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: "Maggie." He puts a hand out in a 'stop' motion. "Chill. Some people might get bored, who knows, but the point of this is to elect a leader, not entertain people like a carnival or something. Besides, if it were, I'd be killing it right now." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:45 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Mhm...

...

"Ummm, do you think, uh, A...A.." She's struggling to say the name. "Akihiko... what would he think of this?"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:47 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie, does indeed chill, clicking her pen as stress relief. "You're right... Just concerned that this might fall apart... Anxiety with these things, ya know?"

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:48 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana jumps, expression saddening. "W-Well...he would..." she put her hand to her mouth.

"...he would be happy to see his friends all together in one room, and...he would cheer everyone on."

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:48 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma sidles in the room late, which isn't exactly good for her leadership image, but she doesn't seem ashamed or when put off by it. She glances around the room, as if making sure everyone is here, and then heads to her own table.

She gives the objects on the table a skeptical look. It's nice of Maggie to do all this, really, but...Wilma isn't much for politics. [3:49 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel lets out a struggled noise of pain, and clears her throat. "Mm, well.. I suppose it's good to make the best of it, yes?"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:50 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana looked away, nodding.

She looked back at Hazel. "You're, um, gonna be safe, right?"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:50 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: The magician chuckles a little bit. "You've got stage fright and you're not even doing a speech! That's funny..." He puts the dove back in his cage not before giving it a little kiss. "You're doing great. Believe me, if you weren't this whole shebang wouldn't be going as smoothly as it is." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:51 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Ehhh?" Hazel tilts her head at the princess, a little shocked. "Of course I will be, Lady Hime-sama! I ensure you that I may be cute and small, I am no easy target."

She pats her chest in reassurance, smiling at the blonde.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:52 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana smiled, too. "Okay, I trust you, so you better not break my trust! Or else I'll be really mad at you!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:52 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie gives Willy a thoughtful smile, "Thanks, Wonder Boy."

"Still, I hope this goes well..."

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle)

[3:27 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: That is not natural.

"...yes. I've been fuckin' breathing."

@Monoboar! [3:28 PM] Monoboar!: "Cool. Snff."

"There's been alotta breathin' lately."

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:28 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "I as well... maybe we could just settle on who to vote for, I at least have an idea, as much as I dislike this election idea."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:29 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "We-- Living things breath to live...?"

@Monoboar! [3:30 PM] Monoboar!: "Yeah..."

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:30 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie walks around, announcing "Runner speeches will occur in 30 minutes!" [3:31 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Yeah, me too, I think. I dunno though. What's your idea?"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:32 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel moves to whisper into Hana's ear.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:32 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "..."

...

"Anything else ya wanna fuckin' chat about?"

@Monoboar! [3:32 PM] Monoboar!: "Just checkin' up, oink."

He starts to waddle away.

@Artemis Black (Alex) [3:33 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Oh my god, me too, like, how'd you read my mind like that?" she said, giggling.

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:33 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko is waiting for someone to come talk to her. [3:33 PM] Eri [arcade]: Eri grabs a pair of sunglasses from Keiko's table. [3:34 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Fufu~ Great minds think alike, I suppose?" Hazel giggles, and looks around at the other candidates like someone probably about to dump milk on a boy and ruin his doll.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:35 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Ah...Hello, Eri-san." she says, nervously rearranging the things on her table.

@Eri Nakama (Rozen) [3:35 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy makes a staff appear in his hand and starts twirling it. [3:36 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "I suppose so too!" she puts her hand up to her mouth. Schemin. [3:37 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel is just nervously clutching his stuffed animal to his chest off to the side of the room. [3:37 PM] Eri [arcade]: Assuming they are just regular sunglasses, Eri puts them on. "Hey" @Keiko Taisei (Heather) [3:38 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie goes up to Willy's table, seeing the man play around with a staff.

"Oh my heavens- is this going well. I never hosted one of these before." She mummurs frantically.

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:39 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Strange. [3:40 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel stops for a moment, quirking a brow at Hana.

"Lady Hime-sama... by all means, you enjoy being a princess, yes? I'm almost a bit shocked you didn't try running."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:42 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: He glances over as he slides the entire staff into his sleeve. "I'd say its going fine." Willy takes out William Jr. and starts petting him. "I mean, we haven't even given speeches yet, so nothing can really go wrong at this point." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:43 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Oh, yeah, of course! I dunno, though. Like, I don't want people in my kingdom to end up, like, killing people." she answers simply. "I thought about it, but half these people are smelly anyway! I shouldn't have to show them I'm the princess, they should, like, just know already!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:43 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Yeah... speeches..."

"But what if it goes on for too long? Will people get bored?" She asks with an anxious expression.

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:44 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Oh... fuu, I see." Hazel nods, a hand pressed to her chin. "That's reasonable, Lady Hime-sama..."

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:45 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "I know." she responds, smirking to herself. She's was so great!

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:45 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: "Maggie." He puts a hand out in a 'stop' motion. "Chill. Some people might get bored, who knows, but the point of this is to elect a leader, not entertain people like a carnival or something. Besides, if it were, I'd be killing it right now." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:45 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Mhm...

...

"Ummm, do you think, uh, A...A.." She's struggling to say the name. "Akihiko... what would he think of this?"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:47 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie, does indeed chill, clicking her pen as stress relief. "You're right... Just concerned that this might fall apart... Anxiety with these things, ya know?"

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:48 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana jumps, expression saddening. "W-Well...he would..." she put her hand to her mouth.

"...he would be happy to see his friends all together in one room, and...he would cheer everyone on."

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:48 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma sidles in the room late, which isn't exactly good for her leadership image, but she doesn't seem ashamed or when put off by it. She glances around the room, as if making sure everyone is here, and then heads to her own table.

She gives the objects on the table a skeptical look. It's nice of Maggie to do all this, really, but...Wilma isn't much for politics. [3:49 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel lets out a struggled noise of pain, and clears her throat. "Mm, well.. I suppose it's good to make the best of it, yes?"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:50 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana looked away, nodding.

She looked back at Hazel. "You're, um, gonna be safe, right?"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:50 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: The magician chuckles a little bit. "You've got stage fright and you're not even doing a speech! That's funny..." He puts the dove back in his cage not before giving it a little kiss. "You're doing great. Believe me, if you weren't this whole shebang wouldn't be going as smoothly as it is." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:51 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Ehhh?" Hazel tilts her head at the princess, a little shocked. "Of course I will be, Lady Hime-sama! I ensure you that I may be cute and small, I am no easy target."

She pats her chest in reassurance, smiling at the blonde.

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:52 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana smiled, too. "Okay, I trust you, so you better not break my trust! Or else I'll be really mad at you!"

@Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) [3:52 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie gives Willy a thoughtful smile, "Thanks, Wonder Boy."

"Still, I hope this goes well..."

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [3:52 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "I won't, I won't!" Hazel shakes her head adamantly. "It's for my passion of life that prevents me from facing Death himself~"

@Hana Minami (Melody) [3:53 PM] Eri [arcade]: "Well good luck" Eri leaves to grab a glass of water. [3:54 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma waves at Hazel and Hana, since they're friends ....or friend-ly, at least.

She's bored. [3:54 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel waves at Wilma! [3:54 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana waves at Wilma, too! She looks at Wilma with the least distain out of the rest of the contestants. [3:55 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: "Guess there's only one way to find out." Willy starts doing the Ball and Cup Trick™. "But I think it'll be fine." @Maggie (Lexi) [3:55 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko waves in Eri's direction as she leaves. Sorry, she was too nervous to say anything. [3:56 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie sighs out, getting up to announce "The first speech will happen in 4 minutes!" But who though...

She walks up to Keiko, whispering to her "You'll be up first, honey. Hope that's fine with ya!"

@Keiko Taisei (Heather) [3:57 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel decides to grab Hana's wrist and drag her over to Wilma before any speeches happen. Engage in conversation. [3:58 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko gulps. "Y-yes...of course it's fine. I'm totally fine."

@Maggie (Lexi) [3:59 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie nods, setting up the center for Speech Time. [3:59 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: She gestures Keiko to come.

@Keiko Taisei (Heather) [4:00 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Ok. You've got this, Taisei. You can do this.

She follows Maggie.

@Maggie (Lexi) [4:01 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "Howdy ladies," Wilma nods her head to the two, a tense smile on her face. "This is a whole rodeo, now ain't it?"

"Been a while since I seen ya, princess and poet. You doing ok?" She pops the 'p's in both of those, either unaware or uncaring that a speech is about to start.

Don't answer her, probably. Or answer fast. I truly don't want to interrupt Keiko. @Hazel Hazeldine (Mars) @Hana Minami (Melody) [4:01 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "And first up to say her speech," she booms out, "iiiis Keiko Taisei!"

She gestures to her, hopefully her loud voice brings everyone's attention. [4:01 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "I'm doing. I... I.... I'm alive!"

An answer, she supposes. Her attention is grabbed by Maggie, uh oh!

@Wilma Ortega (Auz) [4:02 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "Good enough, I spose." Wilma also turns her attention to Maggie. [4:02 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana was about to answer, but then she looks at Maggie. [4:03 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel turned his attention to Maggie. He's curious. [4:03 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy put away all of his tricks and looks towards Maggie. [4:03 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma offers the chairs at her table to Hana and Hazel. She's been standing anyways. [4:03 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel sits down delicately and thanks Wilma. [4:04 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis snaps to attention. She runs out to grab a seat near the stage. Go Keiko! [4:05 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana sits down, too! But less delicately. The chair scoots backwards. [4:06 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Thank you all for coming..." Keiko starts, a bit nervous, "I'll try to be as brief and as simple as I can, I know no one likes long-winded speeches." she chuckles.

"I want to start by stating my reasons for  joining this election." she places both hands on top of her cane, taking a deep breath, "I care about all of us. Not only because it is my duty as the Ultimate Moral Compass, but because I consider you all my friends, even if some of us haven't talked much to each other. And it is for being my friends that I know it's the least I can do to run for this election, to serve as the person who will help us unite and find our way out of here." she pauses.

"For what is a compass, if not a tool to help one find its way? My objective is not to be an unquestioned leader, but someone who will help us realize our true potential, and ultimately, someone who will make sure no one else leaves this mansion inside a body bag."

"That's not to say my motivations are wholly selfless, of course. Nothing is." she states, "I have so many things I want to do after I get out. I want to finish high school, then go to college...I want to work as a teacher, for little kids, you know?" she smiles, "I want to get married and build a family..." [4:07 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "I don't want to die at age seventeen. I don't want this horrible place to be where my life ends. I won't let it." she states, no doubts in her voice, "And I don't want any more of us to die, either."

“All of us have things we want to do, dreams we want to accomplish. And even those of us who don’t should have time to figure out what they want. We are so young, and none of us deserves to die.”

"This is why we must act. What happened to Oshiro-san and Bishop-san was a tragedy, and I refuse to let it happen again. And the only way I see to stop it from happening is if we trust each other and work together to beat this game."

"Which brings us to the motives. Monoboar clearly meant to single us out using them --a sort of 'divide and conquer' strategy on his part- so we must do the opposite of what they want. We must unite, because together, we are strong. Together, we are unstoppable." [4:07 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Whoever put us here has underestimated us. They expected us to panic, to lose ourselves in this terrible game, but they were wrong. We will make them regret it, and we will persevere! Together!" she finishes her speech, determination shining in her eyes. [4:09 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Aaand that was Keiko Taisei, everybody!" She gives a clap to her. [4:09 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel claps as well. Very nice very nice. [4:10 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps. [4:10 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel is in tears now. This is fine. [4:10 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie gives a look to Willy, silently telling him "Are you ready for your speech now?" with her expression.

@William "Willy Wonder" Sherman (Dingle) [4:10 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma claps as well. [4:10 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis claps loudly, in an excited manner. Go Keiko. [4:10 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: He gives a nod. @Maggie (Lexi)

[4:11 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Oh shit was it that bad? People are crying...Keiko bows awkwardly, all her earlier confidence seemingly gone now that the speech is over, "T-thank you..."

Then she hurries back to her table. [4:11 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana also claps. She reluctantly admits that she liked it... [4:11 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Next up, iiiis..."

"Willy Wonder!" Maggie gestures to the magician to come to the center. [4:12 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel claps. [4:12 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma claps too. I can't think of an interesting way to say this. [4:13 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy takes the stage, cleared his throat and looked around at all the audience, glancing at his cards, then back to the audience. "My fellow ultimates. For too long have we felt the iron fist of the pig and been trapped here! Four weeks without access to the outside world and what do we have to show for it? Two of us, two human beings, dead. We have nobody to blame except the one keeping us here. Why did we see such horror? Why did one of us succumb to such villainy?"

A pause.

"We were not united. All of us were not trusting of each other, not wholly. The pressure put on the by that disgusting boar was what separated us! A chain is stronger when linked than when apart, and that chain is what will set us free from this killing game! With me as leader, I am going to listen. I am going to hear all of your ideas and put forth what the people want- what we want. We must band together, as human beings, to free ourselves of this prison- emotionally and physically. Stop this reckless thieving of people's lives and take a stand! We say no to the motives! We say no to the pig! We say 'We're going to live and we will survive!' " Another pause after finishing his speech, with a determined smile on his face. "Thank you." [4:14 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Damn... Hazel is moved. She nods intently and claps. [4:15 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma claps, looking impressed. He may look like a clown, but he speaks well. [4:15 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana claps, too. Damn!!!!! [4:15 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie quickly comments "How verse!" and brings her hands together. Clap clap clap. [4:15 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps politely. [4:15 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Willy Wonder, everybody!" [4:15 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy bows and heads back to his table. [4:17 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie exchanges a look to Wallace.

CK is out, so I'll be using the mascot account to fill in for hir. [4:17 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Next up, Wallace Callaghan!" She gestures to the debater. [4:17 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel's stone cold expression speaks everything. [4:18 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps as Wallace walks up. :open_mouth: friend. [4:18 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel's full attention is back. [4:18 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps once. [4:18 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Hmph." [4:18 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma claps...slowly. [4:19 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis scowls. No claps from her. [4:20 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana yawns. [4:20 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie sees the reluctant looks of some folk, mirroring the same expression. [4:20 PM] Monoboar!: Wallace brings himself to the center, clearing his throat. [4:20 PM] Monoboar!: “Fellow Ultimate students,” Wallace begins, drawing himself up to his full height and clasping his hands behind his back, “we find ourselves today in the midst of a situation that I can only describe as harrowing. We have been cut off from our families, our friends, the outside world; kidnapped and thrown into a situation beyond our control with an adversary we cannot even properly identify -- and what’s more, we have already lost some of our own in just this short time. I believe we are all well aware of just how dire this situation is. Therefore, I will not waste any more of your time attempting to convince you of this; nor will I waste effort coating my words with platitudes and telling you such things as ‘everything is all right’ and ‘we’ll all be okay.’ I am not here to mislead you for the sake of promoting a false sense of security. Instead, I choose to approach you all as equals, with utmost respect and honesty, so that we can look at our current predicament with unclouded judgment and collaborate to come up with the best solution. [4:20 PM] Monoboar!: “Right now, we are at a pivotal point in this journey. We’ve lost some of our very own peers; people who we’ve befriended and bonded with; people who have been important to us. Unfortunately, I personally never had the chance to meet Mr. Oshiro or Ms. Bishop before their deaths -- something I do highly regret -- but it has been impossible for me to overlook the impact that the loss of them has had on all of you. It is, no matter how you frame it, a true tragedy. And with all tragedies, there is a period of mourning afterwards, a period where the loss seems almost too much to bear. But eventually, with time, the situation shifts and you must decide how you are going to move forward. How you are going to take the lessons you’ve learned and make the most of your future, for the sake of everyone affected. How you are going to make sure something like this never happens again. So yes, where we are right now, and what we choose to do at this very moment, is absolutely vital. [4:21 PM] Monoboar!: “Which, naturally, brings us to this question of leadership. One of the many reasons I have decided to campaign is that I believe the idea is an incredibly valuable one, and I do commend those who originally came up with the idea.” He nods in Maggie’s direction. “In strenuous times like these, things could swing in either direction -- the direction of order, productivity, and growth, or the direction of chaos, irrationality, and regression. One will help us move forward, and the other? The other could very well cost all of us our lives. The right leader will have the power to direct our course. And, I believe that I am that leader.

“My leadership experience speaks for itself. I’ve captained my school’s debate team since my freshman year, and led us to victory in multiple nationwide competitions. I have always shown myself to be highly dedicated and passionate -- after all, I have been at the top of my class for my entire academic career. Believe me, no one is more committed to ensuring that those with bright futures will go on to succeed in life.” His eyes sweep over the crowd. [4:21 PM] Monoboar!: “At my booth are flyers, free-to-take, containing a more detailed description of my plan for action. To briefly summarize, it involves assembling a dedicated team of investigators to explore the area and note down important details, clues, and potential escape routes. I would also be implementing a rotation-based, multi-person night watch to prevent suspicious activity during that time period, and would also encourage an open channel of communication between myself and all of you. I would be establishing an office for myself in the library, where I would reside during the day when not investigating and where anyone would be able to visit at any time to report suspicions, findings, or undesirable activity by their peers.

“I will reiterate that we are Ultimate students. We are the best of the best. Our loss is the world’s loss. I promise to do everything in my power to ensure that the worst does not come to pass.” He pauses to let that sink in. “Thank you for your time.” [4:22 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel's head is in her hands as she waited for Wallace to end. [4:22 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel claps enthusiastically. That's his friend! [4:22 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: clap. [4:22 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps. Well, Wallace is good at speeches. [4:22 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "A lengthy one! A man of... words!"

Maggie gives a clap.

[4:22 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana looks at her nails. [4:23 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma mentally checked out after the first five sentences. [4:23 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Wallace Callaghan, everybody!" [4:23 PM] Monoboar!: Wallace returns to his table. [4:23 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: The poet will at least give credit for his determination. She sighs and looks up. Claps twice. [4:24 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "And to the next one..."

She gives a look to Wilma, silently asking if she's ready.

@Wilma Ortega (Auz) [4:24 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana looks a little more excited. [4:25 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma gives Maggie a grin.

"Sure, Magpie, I 'spose I'm ready as I'll ever be." [4:25 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Wilma Ortega!" She gestures her to the center. [4:25 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps. [4:25 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps. [4:26 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie claps! [4:26 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana claps! [4:26 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel claps enthusiastically. [4:26 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma makes her way up to the center, hat pulled down so the brim is shading her eyes. She doesn't seem shy, not really, just...humbled.

“Howdy, folks.” She starts quietly. She raises her voice a bit. “I ain't got much to say that hasn't been said.”

“I ain't much for wide-eyed idealism or debbie downers. I know we can get outta this place, but we gotta get our own horses in order ‘fore we can do that. And I might not know y’all, but I been a sheriff fer several years now, and I know a thing er two ‘bout justice ‘n about order.”

She flicks up the brim of her hat, revealing the fire burning in her pink eyes.

“The world ain't gonna end yet, and none of you are, either. Whether y’all elect me or not, I’m gonna be makin’ sure of that.”

She pauses and shrugs.

“That's all I got fer ya, though I sure hope ya listen. Thanks.”

She goes and stands back by her table. Short and simple. [4:27 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel nods, clapping happily. "That was very eloquent...!" [4:28 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "To!" Clap. "The!" Clap. "Point!" Clap.

"Wilma Ortega, everybody!" [4:28 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps and nods. [4:28 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "Wilma-chaaan!" [4:29 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps. Keiko appreciates that she didn't need many words to convey her point. [4:29 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma pulls her hat down further and looks a little flustered from the attention, especially from the girls sitting at her table. [4:29 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Now last, and certainly not least..."

She gives a look to Renzo, silently asking them if they're ready.

@Renzo Fujita (Keon) [4:46 PM] Renzo Fujita 🔥 God Bless America: Oh boy! It’s their turn! Renzo stands and travels to the center, smiling down at everyone- not that they’d be able to see it. They clasped their hands together and took a breath.

“Hiiiiiiii.” It is at this point that the fact that they did not prepare a speech actually dawns on them, but that’s no problem! They were always good at improv. This wasn’t exactly improv, but it was close enough. “Let us start by saying that this- all of this- is no coincidence. We were chosen to play this game for a reason, and though we may not know it yet... we all will know soon.” They put a hand to their chest. “We are sure of it, we feel it in our blood.”

“...It is obvious that none of us plan to play this game the whole way through, and run around like mice. But that is all part of the world’s plan for us! And we are determined to make sure you all survive to see what your future holds.” They shift a little, eyes darting from person to person. “They, see a bright future for each and every one of you. And each and every one of you deserves what will one day come to you.” That was accidentally ominous. “So we will do everything in our combined power to protect you from the evil forces that first brought all of us together. It is our destiny to do so.”

“We will escape. We know this. Together we are meant to change and grow, and discover our true power- like friends do! Because we are all friends. And it would be such a shame if anything bad happened to any more of you, so please, allow us to protect and lead you.” They tilt from one side to the other, before bowing not-so-gracefully. “We love you all ssso much! Thank you.” [4:48 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie cheers, kinda, and gives a round of applause! [4:49 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel is a little unnerved but claps anyways. [4:50 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps a little. [4:50 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps slowly. Ok...that was weird. But a speech nonetheless. [4:50 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel just shifts uncomfortably. Ok? [4:50 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "And that was Renzo Fujita!" [4:51 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana blinks. She still doesn't trust that weird looking cosplayer. [4:52 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma claps, but she looks...suspicious of Renzo, now. F. [4:52 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: She grabs the ballot box, holding it out to the crowd. "Now! Pick your vote (if you haven't already) and deposit it in here-" [4:53 PM] Monoboar!: The lights dim suddenly for a moment. [4:53 PM] Monoboar!: ... [4:53 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "...?" [4:53 PM] Renzo Fujita 🔥 God Bless America: “...!”

[4:53 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel hugged his stuffed animal tighter. [4:54 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: "Huh?" [4:54 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "What the fuck?" [4:54 PM] Monoboar!: "Whadda hell-" Monoboar quietly blurts out. [4:54 PM] Monoboar!: ... [4:54 PM] Monoboar!: The lights brighten back up to normal. [4:54 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "...that was odd?" [4:55 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "..." [4:55 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Looks like Monoboar hasn't been paying his bills!" [4:55 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel pouts towards the boar. [4:55 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Ess Em Atch." [4:55 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Well, hm... I'm gonna..." Hazel gets up to vote. [4:55 PM] Monoboar!: "..."

Monoboar waddles out of the foyer. [4:56 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma has her hand on her pistol. [4:56 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Hmmmm. That is not good at all. Not at all. [4:56 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana looks at Wilma, and then at Hazel. [4:56 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Let's hope that's fine..." She murmurs under her breath. "I think we can... vote...?" [4:56 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: "I don't fuckin' trust this shit." [4:59 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma slowly relaxes and goes to vote, tipping her hat at the other students as she does so.

"Y'all spoke mighty fine."

She returns to her table once she's done. [5:00 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "A-ah...thank you, Ortega-san. So did you. I appreciate being able to be brief when expressing yourself." she says as she heads towards the box, putting her vote in. Nice. [5:01 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel hesitantly moved to vote, still clutching the weird yellow blob to his chest. He's nervous. [5:01 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana goes to vote, too. [5:01 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis shuffles up and slams in her vote [5:02 PM] Renzo Fujita 🔥 God Bless America: Renzo goes to vote! [5:02 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy votes.

And shoots out a dove as he does. [5:04 PM] Wawwace Cawwaghan || Election: Wallace votes. [5:16 PM] Kubo Tachibana | Vampire: Kubo IS here!! He votes! [5:16 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel waves at Kubo! Sup. [5:17 PM] Kubo Tachibana | Vampire: Kubo waves back! [5:18 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie gets all the votes, and tallies it up. [5:19 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: She gives a hearty single CLAP out of nowhere. [5:21 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Ladies, gentlemen, and variations thereof..." [5:21 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "I thank you all for attending this lovely election!" [5:21 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Now, say hello to your new leader..."

"Wilma Ortega!" [5:21 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Jazz hands to Wilma. [5:22 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel jumps up, slamming her feet on the ground in the process.

"FUCK YEAH!" [5:22 PM] Kubo Tachibana | Vampire: Kubo claps! Yay!!! [5:22 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: "WILMA-CHAAAAAAAAANNNNN!" Hana screams. [5:22 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "WOO WOO! CHEERS!" Hazel claps. [5:22 PM] Hana Minami! | I can';t: Hana jumps. [5:22 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel claps out of politeness. He has no idea who that is [5:23 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: Maggie is gesturing to her right now. [5:23 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps. [5:23 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps with a smile, though she's kinda disappointed she didn't win.

[5:24 PM] Renzo Fujita 🔥 God Bless America: Renzo gives Wilma jazz hands. Jazz hands to Wilma. They then scratch at their mask a little. [5:29 PM] Wawwace Cawwaghan || Election: Wallace’s expression is tight and unsmiling in a perfect :| face as he claps politely. [5:29 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel resists the urge to sneer. She's polite and kind she won't succumb. [5:29 PM] 🔫Artemis Black🔫| Pyrotechnics: Artemis claps slowly. [5:42 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: WIlma looks a bit, um...Out of her element. She genuinely didn't expect to win. She's not nearly as well spoken as literally anyone here.

"Well, I'll be." She mutters softly, taking off her hat and holding it to her chest. "I mighty appreciate y'all's faith, and I'll try my best to be deservin' of it."

Wow, um. Even her mun didn't expect this and is unsure what to do. [5:43 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: Hazel is smiling at her proudly. "I trust you to take care of us, Lady Wilma!" [5:44 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Got trust in ya! Just implement whatever ya need to do as a leader whenever!" She has both of her fists up. [5:45 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Well...the people have spoken. Our classmates think you're trustworthy, so I will be putting my trust in you as well, Ortega-san." [5:56 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "Thank ya kindly, Taisei." Wilma takes a deep breath, places the hat back on her head, and straightens up.

"Well, I'm guessin' that's my cue." She looks to Maggie. "I ain't sure if there's any protocol for after an 'lection, or whatever...Think people usually have parties, but I ain't much good at plannin'."

"Might 'swell get straight to work, though." Wilma nods, mostly to herself, and addresses the room. "First of all, I'd like everyone to know y'all got power here. Y'all 'lected me, which I mighty appreciate, but authority ain't nothing without the people. 'Specially y'all that was running with me," She nods to Keiko and Willy. She pointedly doesn't look at Wallace or Renzo. "No man's an is-land, as they say. If we're gonna create some semblance o' order we gotta do it together." [5:58 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "I read you interview...and I must admit I thought your proposals were very interesting. Maybe we could all merge our proposals now that the election is over?" she suggests. [5:59 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "And that concludes this election!" Maggie dutifully announces.

"Feel free to hang around and talk or return back to your dorms. I'm gonna message the group chat now!" [5:59 PM] Monoboar!: Monoboar returns, but not to party. [5:59 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "Hey, wait a minute." [5:59 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Fuck OFF MONOBOAR. [5:59 PM] Wawwace Cawwaghan || Election: Wallace glances over at Keiko, now officially listening in on the conversation. :ear: [5:59 PM] Monoboar!: Monoboar walks away. [5:59 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Oh. [6:00 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma thought so hard at Monoboar that he left. Gay rights! [6:02 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "Wait just a minute, Miss Magpie." Wilma says. "I think we all owe you some sorta rec'nition." Please stop skipping the middle syllable of words, Wilma.

"You set all this up and did all these interviews, all by yerself. You deserve some applause, too." [6:02 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: !

Maggie is flattered!

[6:03 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: Keiko claps. "You're right...none of this would've been possible if Maggie-san hadn't organized it." [6:03 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: Willy claps real loud and lets out doves as he does. "YEAH!!!" [6:03 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma Been Clapping. [6:03 PM] Wawwace Cawwaghan || Election: Wallace gives a round of applause that’s actually somewhat legitimately polite this time. [6:04 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Aha! Thou art right, Lady Maggie deserves a round of applause! WOO!" She claps excitedly. [6:04 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: She feels her face heat up, glowing red. "Guuuuys! It wasn't that much..."

[6:05 PM] Keiko Taisei | :O: "Nonsense. You went above and beyond to make all of this happen, Maggie-san. Applause is the least we can do." [6:05 PM] Willy | Guess I'll Lose: "Pffft! As if! Weren't you coming over to my table worrying your head off about making it go smoothly?" [6:05 PM] Cerviel Winter | Nest: Cerviel is the physical embodiment of :>. [6:06 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "...A bit!" She replies back to Willy. [6:06 PM] MAGGIE! 🖊 POLITICS!: "Thank you all though... For attending!" [6:07 PM] Hazel Hazeldine | 🔖: "Fufufu... it was no problem, Lady Maggie~ thank you for hosting such an exciting event." [6:08 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: Wilma nods, pleased. Monoboar can come back now if he wants but also I hate him. [6:08 PM] Wilma Ortega || GET DOWN MS PRE: "If any of y'all -prospective leaders er not- wanna come 'n talk with me, feel free to anytime. I got some ideas of my own 'n once I work out how to implement 'em, I'll send 'em out." [6:09 PM] Monoboar!: Monoboar waddles back, just staying for the after party to set things away.

[newtosaur250]

I was named the Greatest Glader

If you haven't heard by now, FX Network played the first two Maze Runner movies back-to-back on Wednesday 1/24. @MazeRunnerMovie and some of the cast were going to be tweeting along with the west coast, but unfortunately for me, I live on the east coast, so the movies were playing 3 hours earlier for me. Still, I live-tweeted with the west coast - for 5 hours. I spent a good 2.5 hours glued to my phone, and subsequently the wall because my phone barely holds a charge, tweeting back and forth between my personal account and my Maze Runner account before I had to get off my phone and "go to bed." Keeping up with whatever was happening was important to me, especially knowing that copies of The Death Cure signed by the cast were being given away (they were also giving away signed Death Cure posters too, but I didn't find that out until later). I decided I would need to go downstairs and login to twitter from my home computer so that I could continue tweeting. My mom keeps my phone in her room overnight - even though I'm a legal adult - because she thinks I'll stay up all night, every night. Anyways, I snuck myself downstairs and pulled up twitter. Apparently, twitter doesn't allow you to be logged in to multiple accounts unless you're on mobile, so I figured I'd use my Maze Runner account since I'm more active on there anyways. So I spent several more hours tweeting relentlessly with the west coast. I had to be up at 7am the next morning for my early bird class, so it might not have been the best decision to tweet with the west coast from 7pm-midnight my time. The movies were playing until 1am my time, but even the official Maze Runner account was telling me to sleep, so eventually, I did. I figured I'd probably solidified any chance I'd had of winning a book, if I'd even had a chance at all, by that point. I had already been followed by the official account and retweeted, liked, and responded to by them countless times, so how could they not know of my existence? I slept well knowing I had at least been getting some action on my account from some of the higher-ups in the Maze Runner world.

The next morning, I opened twitter to see a picture of MY FACE right under the account name and official blue check of @MazeRunnerMovie. At this point I was already sitting in my band class, so my freaking out had to be a little quieter than it would've been. I thought I'd been chosen through my personal account because I don't have any personal pictures of myself on my Maze Runner account. The only link to my personal life is the "tweets by" tag to my personal in the bio. But the account name mentioned in the tweet when I finally read it (once I'd gotten over the initial shock of seeing a big picture of me first thing) was @TDCCountdown. They must have seen the link to my personal and taken the picture from there, but who cared? I checked the official account to see if anyone else had been mentioned like this as well, but it was just me. If I was the only one mentioned, shouldn't I have definitely received a DM telling me I'd won something? There was no DM and I was really confused. I was almost anxious about it all day. When I had the chance to do some digging at lunch, I discovered that my Maze Runner account was giving me an error message on the DM page and that my other accounts weren't saying there was an error in the DMs. Finally, I decided to go ahead and DM @MazeRunnerMovie on my own because typically in a giveaway if the winner doesn't respond within 24 hours after contact is first made, they lost the prize and it goes to someone else. I explained how my DMs weren't working and was wondering if by chance I'd won something. I said that if they contacted me and I hadn't responded because it hadn't gone through, I was acknowledging it now and maybe sending the DM myself would get my messages to start working again. Well, it must've worked because when I got out of my final class and checked back with twitter, I had a DM from @MazeRunnerMovie asking for my full name and address! They didn't specifically say what I'd be getting, if anything, but clearly I should be expecting something because asking for an address only means one thing. I was so excited I was physically shaking! The day was going great; I'd convinced my criminal justice teacher to let us watch American Assassin in class and I'd had plans to go see the early showing of The Death Cure that evening and now I was potentially winning a signed book!

Jump forward a few hours to the theater, where my friend and I showed up 30 minutes early for no reason because we were too excited after planning this day for over 2 years. I had dressed up as Thomas (and my costume was pretty WCKD if you ask me, especially considering it was a last minute thing I'd thrown together from what I could find) and brought a full-sized entire box of tissues with me. My friend admired my ability to walk around carrying a box of tissues so confidently. We picked up the free popcorn I got for my 18th birthday on 1/23 as a Regal Crown Club member and found our seats. We sat exactly in the middle of the top row, giving ourselves the perfect view of the movie. It was phenomenal! There were many tears shed all throughout the movie - I think the first time I started crying was actually only about 15-20 minutes in. I was practically speechless after the end of the movie, partially because I just couldn't believe it was over. If you haven't seen Maze Runner: The Death Cure yet, you need to! And don't forget your tissues when you go!

[daddyconfessions]

daddy’s journal: 2/17/16

previous journal entry 2/10/16

I slid the curtain to the side just enough for me to see the parking lot. I killed the lights in the room to mask my silhouette as I looked out. I’m at a semi-cheesy motel. Kimberly, my new exotic dancer friend, told me to get a room there. She’d be along shortly. I was smoking one of my Cohibas. Usually I don’t smoke when I’m about to meet ladies, but I knew there would be no kissing Kim. After a few minutes I sat down in front of my laptop & began writing this journal entry. I had a feeling Kim would be late.

It’s Tuesday evening but felt like Friday already. 30 hours ago I was sitting in my office when my phone rang. It was Pops, my boss, calling me to his office. As I walk past all the vacant offices of the recently slain I can’t help but feel I’m next. Am I a dead man walking?

I close the door behind me and sit down across from him. “Pops” is cool. He’s 7 years younger than me. He’s been to black strip clubs, likes rap including Jay Z, UGK and Big Sean. “Well I’ll just get right to it,” he said. He leans back and puts his feet up on his desk. My financial life flies past my eyes and I get nervous. “We’re doing salary reductions,” he says. He spent a few minutes explaining why then said, “Everyone over $100k gets 11% and everyone under gets 6%. I tried to fight for you but the board  want’s to continue to cut costs so we can remain viable.” I make a scene like I really care. And appear visibly upset. But really I’m not. I got my side business going. I’m good. The cut just means one less vacation we’ll take this year.

I walk out keeping up my disappointment ruse and head back past all the empty offices. The layoff has left it bare and quiet. Boring even. I flop down behind my desk. I got some tumblr DMs from Muffin to answer and some messages from this new girl I’ve met on SA. I call her Bubbles. With the layoff it ain’t much to do though I pretend I’m super busy. On the way home Kimberly texts me. We’ve been texting since Sunday. She wants to get a room but I’m not in the mood. I go home, grab a glass of wine and watch some Love and Hip Hop to get my mind off things. Nothing clears the head like reality TV. I swear I’d marry Cardi B if I could. And Muffins keeping my DM lit up. I decide to move her to text.

The next day I keep up the texting with Muffin. I like her. She’s cool, sweet and definitely has some game. I like that. Pops comes by to make small talk but its just bullshit. He just wants to know if I’m still mad. I let him know I’m good even though I’m down to one direct report now. I hate corporate America.  That afternoon Kim hits me again. She’s aggressive.  “Can we meet tonight baby?” Throws in a couple of pics. “Yes,” I reply. A few hours later, I’m sitting here typing away at my keyboard. Cohiba in my mouth. I hear a car pull up and rush over to the window. It’s a black BMW. 4 series. Can’t be too old. New shit. Kim pops out the passenger side. Whoa. I go back and close the lid on my laptop and turn on the lamp. She knocks at the door, I open, and she walks in smelling like a bag of weed. The BMW she rode up in is parking. Probably her pimp. Sigh. That’s the game in these parts. Pimps have their girls working the clubs turning tricks and what not. Kimberly’s fine af though so I’m going to have to overlook this little situation.

I put out the cigar and we hug and chit chat briefly. She’s all business though. She strips down to nothing in less than 30 seconds. I salivate at the thought of licking that pretty ivory skin all over. But it’s not to be done. No oral contact. I quickly undress and lay on the bed. Kim pulls out a condom, puts it in her mouth and slides it on Bartholomew all in one move. She gets comfortable in between my legs while she licks here, there, and there. Its ok. Would be better without the latex. I ask if she can take it off. Offer more $$$ even but she says no. After a few minutes I’m hard a as a rock. Mostly from looking at Kim’s voluptuous body. Damn sure wasn’t from that dry ass knowledge she was giving me.

I get on top, enter, and pound that 23 year old muff.  Sadly it wasn’t exciting as the Saturday before in the champagne room.  I was going to cum quick until I felt her get wett. She wrapped them creamy thighs around me tighter and dug her fingernails into my back. I got turned on and for the next few minutes I felt like a King all back in touch with my 21 year old self until I came. I laid down while Kim jumped up and went to the bathroom. She came back with a warm towel and pulled off the latex. Then she did something unexpected. She ran her tongue along my dick. Lawd have mercy. I almost passed the fuck out. I was looking at her with this frown/half confused look on my face and she smiled and chuckled as she cleaned me up with the wet towel. She went and disposed of the latex and then came back and laid on the bed with me. Surprised me with that shit. With a pimp in the car I knew the clock was ticking. Sure enough she jumped up after 2 minutes and started getting dressed. I barely had my socks on before she had walked over, gave me a hug and left.

It was fun but not the thrill like the champagne room. I save my journal entry and kill my laptop. I’ll finish typing after the fact.  I head home, answer a few tumblr posts and text Muffin. We’ve setup a potential date and I’m looking forward to meeting her in a few days at that point. Before I go to bed Bubbles texts. I kind of had blown her off. Her pics on her profile were of this drop dead gorgeous model looking chick. I’m thinking no way this chick is real or maybe she’s a flake. Like a mind reader she randomly text saying its her in the profile. Cute. Half hour later we have a date for Thursday. I love it when things move along.  

I met up with Firecracker Wed. afternoon. Things have been different between. Now that I have my perspective back I’m good. I’ve decided to get back to just enjoying our arrangement for what it is. Since then I’ve been over my puppy love. Firecracker has always been a complete turn on for me so I quickly undress her, ready for that kitty. I’ve had some anons asking what about FC has me going crazy. One thing is she’s consistent about her body and looks. That stuff’s always on point. Always smells fresh. Skin softy and creamy. Not sure what lotion she uses but it smells good. The kitty doesn’t even smell or have  taste…well there was this one time I could swear I tasted vinegar. Body always clean. Toes. Nails always done. If she’s not wearing some cute ass outfit…she’s wearing some cute ass outfit. LOL. Hopefully some of you will get that.

20 minutes after getting into the room we’re laying beside each other panting, sweaty. The sex has been different lately too. Not sure if it’s me or her or a weird combination of things but sex is definitely more sensual. Ironic since I’ve decided to back off all the drama.  We talked about her leaving this summer, her new boyfriend and several other things. All that talking got me hot again. Bartholomew was hard as a rock. I started kissing on her as she talked. At first it had no affect but then her eyes started closing and she stopped talking on occasion as I kissed all the spots I knew she liked. Then I made my way down her body to the kitty. I kissed her inner thighs and ran my fingernails along her legs and up her body to her breasts. I followed it up with kissing all the places my fingers had been until she just stopped talking altogether. I went to the bathroom, got a warm towel and came back and cleaned her up from round one.

Firecracker actually cums a bit. Then I started all over again, kissing her neck, sucking on her breasts, working my way down to the kitty. Before I did I kissed the thighs again. I went back to the kitty and sucked the clit while I thrashed it with my tongue. Then I did some side to side motion while I sucked the clit. She came in less than a minute. I put on the hat and slid back in for my second course. I don’t know what had got into me but I pounded that pink little muff like It was new to me. I’d love to tell you I fucked her for another hour but nah. I came quick, 5 minutes tops.

Time got away from us. She needed to get to her life. I needed to get back to mine. How it’s supposed to be really. As we got dressed she told me she bet I was going to go and fall asleep in my office since I had cum twice. I told her probably not. She had me all confused with them young boys. A couple of hours later I was in my office with the door closed, dozing off.

I texted Lala late that afternoon down in Miami. By the end of the night she hadn’t responded. She had been feeling some type of way about sugar and vanilla relationships. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. I started to text again but I let her make it. She has my number. She’ll hit me when or if she’s ever ready. Meanwhile Muffin’s keeping me distracted. You would think the conversation would haven’t gotten boring but nope.

The next day I woke up in a good mood. The week was crazy and judging by the signs of it, had no intention of getting better. By Midday Muffin and I were blowing up each others phone. Shit, I almost forgot about the date with Bubbles until she texted to confirm. We met at a swanky restaurant that evening. Lots of upscale patrons and what not. I was a little on the fence about meeting her there. She could be a catfish and I’d be fucked for an hour sitting across from some hound puppy looking chick. But I was wrong. Bubbles walked up living up to every pic I’d seen of her. I was like

Skinny girl. But pretty af. Dam if I didn’t feel like a stud as I entered the restaurant with her on my arm. We sat out on the patio. It’s early so not a lot of people out with us. Two chicks are at the table next to us but other than that we’re alone. Bubbles was simply refreshing from the start. We laughed and talked about all kinds of shit. I had forgot what it’s like to be out on a date having fun. Turned out she was half Dominican with a 25/25 mix of some German and Dutch lineage.

Right before the food came I realized the two women at the table across from us were touching each other and holding hands. I told Bubbles and she giggled. “I know. I’ve been watching them the whole time.”  We both laughed then she said. “I’m bisexual.”

I stopped laughing.

We talked about her sexuality but we had to lower our voices because another crew came to the table behind us. Some grown ass women too. 30’s. And they were all up in our table. At one point I had turned to look behind me and one of them locked eyes with me. Good looking chick too. Mature 35, 36ish. I could fuck with her. Then I thought about all the lies I’d have to tell. How I wasn’t married. I got my own place blah blah. Fuck that. I’ll stick with the sugar.

The food came and went. By that point I knew she had a newborn at home and a baby daddy. We also went over the arrangement again. She wanted per meet and I was cool with that. Seems like that’s what most girls are wanting these days. She was open to something more structured and committed down the line. I told her we could do another date or two to loosen her up. And then she dropped the bomb on me, “Um. We can go ahead and get started tonight if you like….” I was like

40 minutes later, we were naked kissing each other as we fell onto the bed. Her body was flawless. You would have never known she had a baby. No stretch marks whatsoever. I started down towards the muff. “Great,” she said, smiling at me. “I’m multi orgasmic.”  

And indeed she was. I started licking on the clit and she looked at me with that “Oh you know what you doing” look. I stopped and got her a pillow and put it under her head so she could watch the show. She wasn’t watching though. She was cumming left right for the next 10 minutes as I licked that clit mercilessly.  She literally had a fit the whole time. When she came the first time she grab one of my ears and damn near twisted it off.  The second one she squeezed my head together with her thighs. The third she grabbed the top of my head and squeezed it like a basketball as I slurped. The 4th … nevermind

She stopped me and told me, “ I want to taste it baby…” We kissed…well she sucked my tongue then ran her tongue all over my lips, jaw and chin, trying to taste her own kitty and savor the flavor. I put on the condom quickly and dove right in. All carpe diem and shit. But that that kitty was tight af. She loosened up a little bit but my gosh. She was tighter than frog’s ass. We went at it for a few minutes before she stopped me and asked, “You want to finish off in my mouth baby.” Why yes. Yes I do.

I laid down and she pulled off the hat and went to work. Man she had some good knowledge. She licked the shaft, tip, balls and then repeated the cycle a few times before concentrating on Bart completely. Man, those full lips and suction had me going. I tried to resist, holding back my cum but I couldn’t. Before I knew it I let go the hot protein treat into her mouth. She took it all in, every drop. Then she jumped off the bed and went to the bathroom. Not sure if she swallowed or spit. I was out of it.  Bubbles came back and laid down next to me. We talked about how good it was to have met. How much we both hoped things would work out and we’d see each other again. We both vowed to at least give it a good try.

Outside we hugged and said goodbye. She didn’t want me to walk her to her car but I had to. It was kind of dark in the parking lot. When we got to it I could see why. Man, that little Honda had seen better days. First it was little, the hood was off another car and the bumper looked like someone had scrapped the paint off it. “I’m so embarrassed, “ she said, putting her hands over her face. “Its no big deal baby,” I told her. And it wasn’t. I’m a car buying motherfucker. And I let her know as much. She was all smiles. We hugged once more and left.

The next few days I mostly talked to Muffin. I asked Bubbles out for that Saturday but she rescheduled for Sunday, Valentine day. Surprisingly. I thought she was blowing smoke until we were actually sitting in the restaurant sipping margaritas. Mama had her hair up in a bun in jeans and t-shirt now. The wife and kids were gone to some kid shit functions so this was a good little getaway for me. I couldn’t’ tell you what the hell we talked about to be honest. It was a lot of shit.

At the end of the brunch she grabbed my hand and told me how great a time she had. How she hadn’t expected it to be that fun. Me neither really.  As we left the restaurant the hostess stopped her. “Oh my god, you’re soooooo pretty,” she said. “I just wanted to tell you. I saw you when you walked in….” and she went on for another half minute. It seemed like some lowkey lesbian stuff. Typical man reaction I guess.

Outside we started talking again. But I know she had to go pick up the young’in. So we hugged and kissed good bye. Lots of kissing. Lots. Damn, mama didn’t even care if we was outside and could be seen. I liked that shit too. Sugars supposed to be fun, exciting, thrilling. And Bubbles was delivering on every point.

I won’t get too excited about Bubbles. I know the game. In 4 weeks this could be all over and I’m like Bubbles who? As I drive home, checking the mirror for lipstick, I get a text from Kim with a few pics and the question, “Can I be your Valentine?”

It never ends.

[dungeonsanddying]

Bargain Box Wands

below is my homebrew list of humorous but possibly useful wands, with some magical effects taken from wild magic lists. In the game I'm GMing, these can be found in the clearance bin of a wand shop, with only the price and physical description of the wand, and the players have to buy them and use them to see their effects. Anything that effects another person gets the chance to roll a will save. You are more than welcome to use these in your game, but please think carefully before including them, as there is a chance your players can find a loophole and tear apart your game. These should be primarily for fun, and probably aren't for serious game. ---------------- Blueish green iridescent peacock wand - gave a third eye that allowed caster to see auras (alignments) for 6 seconds. Might be false. Peach colored wand - gives the target permentant horns / antlers of GMs choosing Guacamole colored wand - makes the taste of drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. The higher the caster rolls on a 1d20 the worse the taste is Twisted wood in a braided wand- gives the target a random hairstyle, the less they want it the sooner it will disappear a opal wand that has a toothy grin carved into it- gives the target cat fangs, giving them a bite attack of 1d4. Fades in 1d6 hours Crystal frosted wand- make a 10ft sq area snow and little baby snowmen come out to help you, they also call you dada Black grey ombré wand- creates a 20x20 ft fog cloud in a random direction Obsidian wand- takes a photo of what the caster is pointing at and prints it out Cotten candy pink fading into pastel blue- target turns into a baby for 1d10 rounds. Pink, black writing "RATZ"- summons 1d100 rats around you. They are not controlled by you Black, grey writing "BATZ"- turns the target into a bat for 1d6 rounds. 10% chance of also turning you into a bat for same amount of time A maroon knotted wood wand with three orange feathers tied to it- summons a random god, they may or may not respond A light colored wood with metal coiled around it- the target becomes illiterate for 3d4 days Pitch black wand with a glowing red crystal at the end: target is suddenly aware the next person they tell their name to will instantly attack them Navy blue wand with little pink elephants painted on the side- target hallucinates for 1d12 weeks A partially leather bound wand with a small hilt, with a flat sharp metal rod for 2/3 of the wand, and you know what it's a knife, its a fucking knife wand- summons a random knife object. (Object with a knife taped to it, E.G. a knife fish, which is a fish with a knife taped to it, or a knife gun) Silvery grey dragon hatching horn, with small grooves in it- Everyone in the party hears an announcer voice in their head, announcing what they are doing and critiqueing it. Lasts until combat is over or 1 hour, which ever comes first. It then gives a synopsis of what happened Radio antenna that you have to stretch out before you can use it- caster's arm stretches out (up to 50 feet) to bitch slap the target. Deals 1 dmg Olive green branch- random person polymorphs into something that rhymes with their name, or is a pun of their name Copper wand with a hollow copper hand at the end- Target becomes mute for 1d20 hours. Purple wand with three eyes, the two outer closed and the center eye open- The dm gives you three pieces of information (dm chooses what it is about), two are lies and one is the truth A gradient dark brown to pale flesh tone wand, with black markings scrawled across it- target gains one tattoo, of dm's choice. The target experiences all the pain of getting a tattoo at once, but the pain is completely gone by their next turn A blue wand with childish yellow stars on it, like a cartoony wizard hat- caster swaps all their spells with the target. If you do not have spells, you swap your feats for their spells or feats instead Black wand with completely transparent crystal for the center 1/3- random body part of target becomes invisible, permanently. Only works on each person twice This wand has the aesthetic of an angsty 2003 teenage garage band- freaky Friday !!!1!!! Caster switches bodies with a random creature nearby, DM can choose or leave it to the dice. Is reversed in 1d8 rounds An uncomfortable shade of beige wand- Target's face turns into that of Nicholas cage's for 1d20 minutes A charred husk of wood- a random object within 40 feet of the caster shrinks Slightly translucent brown wand, with the tip a creamy color, and little lighter brown spots throughout- changes what ever the person is holding into a mug of beer. The person gets a will save to resist it A dark green wand with small runes that is slightly sticky: reverses your alignment for 1d6 days (e.g. Lawful good would be chaotic evil). The person can then choose to keep it or revert back. Cannot be used on an unwilling person more than once A white wand with blue horizontal stripes, and three holes cut out- you turn into paper for 1d6 rounds. From head on you are nearly invisible (seeing as you are paper thin) but you are highly vulnerable to fire and your weapons do no damage, except to rock Light yellow wand with brown ends, and brown spots- one random person around you (including yourself) falls over Two rusty orange wooden wands, bound together by a chain- creates a doppelgänger of the caster, who can communicate telepathically with the caster. I roll to see the doppelgänger's alignment and if they will help your group or cause you trouble. HP of 2 A wand completely covered in soft creamy down feathers- random item in target's possessions sprouts wings and flies away. If the item is grabbed the wings disappear Ten twenty sided dice, all glued together- target suddenly has a vision of the players sitting around the table. They hear who ever controls them saying the action they just took, and starts describing them hearing the controller describing them hearing what the controller is describing them hearing what the controller is describing them hearing... then their sight flares red, and the vision ends. Roll a will save for how they take this info Slightly transparent white wand, with golden glitter in it- Caster can see ghosts for 1d4 hours. Ghosts may be friendly, neutral, or aggressive. Orange wand with darker orange stripes and a white underside- Target smells of catnip, and nearby cats will casually swarm around them for 1d6 hours A sky blue wand with a internet explorer symbol carved into it- After using it, the sound of an action preformed by someone in the next round will be delayed for 1d4 rounds. The caster chooses which sound, and it has to be something they know is coming (e.g. A teammate telling them they will clap next round) A oak wand with a carved sad dog head at one end, and has the words "god damn it Sarah McLachlan" painted on the side- Target begins crying for 1d4 rounds. Roll 1d20 to see how badly they are weeping. A fucking rad lookin glow stick-for 1d20 days the target becomes a living glowstick. Any time they get injured the area around it begins to glow a neon color, like cracking a glowstick. A shimmering black twisted wood wand with a quartz crystal at the tip- Random person in area can now only speak in rhymes for 1d4 hours. A wand made of malachite carvings of spiders, snakes, and wasps all intricately layered-Target gains 1 phobia of GMs choice (players wishes can be considered). Can only be used on the same person twice. A rubber chicken on a stick- the wand spews out 1d10 x 30 feathers up to 30 feet. Doesn't cause any damage. A vial filled with clear liquid, with a button on the side of it- The liquid becomes a random magical potion, good or bad. GM can choose or leave it up to fate. A boring ass black wand- User has X-ray vision for 6 seconds. GM can decide when an object is too thick to see through. A soft grey wand with buttons 0-9, with each of the buttons also having 3 letters, like a flip phone- player can take a few moments to type a message to send to anyone they know who has a blank piece of paper available (journal, scroll, etc all work). The message then appears on the paper, and the sender can decide if it makes a notification sound or not. Depending on the length of the message, it takes a different amount of time. For 3 characters or under it is a swift action, for 10 characters or under it is a standard action, and for 20 characters or under it is a full round action. There is a maximum of 100 characters available per each use. An extremely old yellowed wand, with a wine colored leather hilt. There is a ominous feeling to this wand- the target/s (can target up to 5 people) and the caster are transported to a different world, that of a common story book of the GMs choosing. They must try to make it to the end of the story alive to escape. The people may change species / gender, but they will be able to communicate to the others. (Some story ideas: Charlotte's web, the tale of peter rabbit, Charlie and the chocolate factory, green eggs and ham) A sea foam green wand with little fishes painted on the sides- Target grows gills for 1d6 minutes. Can breathe underwater and in air. Roll 1d20, if 20 you also grow a little dorsal fin, shark tail, and connective tissue between fingers and toes to allow you to double your speed underwater. These modifications are now permenant. This wand appears to be a bone from a human ribcage. Curious.- Target forgets their name and profession for 1d6 hours. Player to the right decides what they think their name and profession is. If the wand is used on a NPC, they still know what they are currently doing (trying to kill the players for example). With NPCS the gm can choose which player to pick the new info, so it isn't always the same person. A carmine pink metal wand with a large crystal ball at one end- tells you one thing you missed in a situation 24 hours or more before.

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Justin Baum of ZZZ Bears, a brand that sells military teddy bears.Some stats:Product: Military teddy bears.Revenue/mo: $7,500Started: June 2015Location: Winston SalemFounders: 1Employees: 0Hello! My name is Justin Baum and I’m the founder and ZZZEO of ZZZ Bears (like getting your zZZ’s). We make a line of teddy bears dressed in military uniforms named SGT SLEEPTIGHT that protect kids as they sleep from bad dreams, fear of the dark, monsters under the bed and more!But SGT SLEEPTIGHT is much more than a bear in a military uniform. He’s part of a military grade sleep system that includes a door hang, sleeptight oath, and stickers shaped like military commendation medals awarded to kids who sleep through the night.Our customers are primarily military families - both active duty and veterans - and we sell both online and on Marine, Coast Guard and Navy bases around the world. In the last two years, we were also carried by Target stores nationwide and appeared on ABC’s The View!imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?My full-time job is in advertising. (Think Don Draper with less Brylcreem,) And from 2005 to 2012, I worked at JWT, the United States Marine Corps’ longtime ad agency. As the Creative Director, I was in charge of recruitment advertising - writing the television commercials, print ads, billboards, etc - for the Marines during two of the most unpopular wars in our nation’s history.Every time I’d go to a Marine base to film a commercial, I’d bring my then 5-year-old daughter back a small gift from the Marine Exchange. At the time, she was having trouble sleeping - bad dreams, fear of the dark, monsters under the bed - the usual fears of a young kid.So I bought her a teddy bear and told her a story.I said, “This is Marine bear, and for 200 years he’s protected our nation. And now he’s going to protect you while you sleep.”“What if he falls asleep?” she asked.“He’s a Marine. He would never fail his mission!”That night, we put the Marine bear on duty and she slept like a bear in hibernation.I realized that if this military teddy bear could help her, it could help others suffering from the same nighttime fears. Although I had a full-time job at the time, I began thinking about how to bring these bears to boys and girls everywhere.I also realized that the bears could have an even bigger mission than simply helping kids sleep. During my time with the Marines, I learned the true meaning of selfless sacrifice - not just from those who put on the uniform, but the families as well. So I decided that our mission would be to give back to those military families who sacrifice so much for us.Today, we donate ZZZ Bears monthly to children who have lost a parent in the line of duty through our partnership with TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors).imageTake us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.I had no idea how to get a teddy bear made. So I did what anyone in my position would do. I Googled it.That led me into the abyss, AKA Alibaba. I quickly found a manufacturer in China who was willing to make a small quantity for a reasonable price. We traded emails, thoughts and sketches for a design and finally landed on something I was happy with.I wired him the money not knowing if I’d actually ever see a bear. After all, I had no idea who this guy was. For all I knew, he was emailing me from his new yacht in Bali, paid in part by me!But lo and behold the bears arrived! And they were… okay. The uniform looked good but the stitching on the embroidery was inconsistent and sometimes crooked. The bear’s fur looked a bit cheap. While not perfect, it was good enough for now.Describe the process of launching the business.My personal portfolio is hosted on Squarespace (JustinBaumCreative.com in case you’re interested) and I really liked how easy it was to build my site. So without much research, I decided to host my e-comm site with them as well.imageI called in favors from my agency co-workers who were designers and wrote the copy myself. (Sometimes it pays to be a writer.) Then, I sent a mass email to friends and family assuming they would spread the word far and wide. After all, I had a genius idea that solved a universal problem for parents that I knew would spread like wildfire.With a deep breath, I hit publish on the site.And… crickets.Besides a couple sales from friends (thanks Marcus and Andrew) and family (thanks mom), nothing.I was desperate. And after two whole days, I declared ecommerce dead to me.On a lark, I sent a DM to the Marines through their Facebook page. Despite my experience with the Marines, I had no contacts that could help me in getting the bear into the on-store bases called Exchanges. However, within 24 hours, the buyer from the Marine Corps Exchange emailed me. After several emails, we had a deal. The only catch? She wanted the bears to be wearing the unique camouflage pattern of the Marines. The problem was the bears I had in inventory were wearing a generic camo pattern.Ugh.This turned into a familiar theme. Soon after landing the Marines, I got into the Navy Exchanges which wanted bears in a Navy uniform and oh, by the way, they don’t have sergeants in the Navy so I had to trademark a new name - Sailor Sleeptight.This story repeated itself when I got into the Coast Guard Exchanges and the bear’s name became Coastie Sleeptight.The lesson? Adapt and go with the flow.When I first got into the Marine Exchanges, they sent me a bunch of new vendor paperwork to fill out. And I panicked. The only questions I could answer were my business name and address. Everything else was greek. They asked about case packs, wholesale price, chargebacks and there were more acronyms than I could count. I had no idea what any of this meant. As the days turned into weeks, I thought for sure I would lose the account over my inability to answer basic questions.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?So while the bears were selling well in the military exchanges, my web sales were pathetic. That’s when I learned the power of Facebook. I’m not sure how it all happened exactly but I got a Facebook account and immediately joined a bunch of entrepreneur groups. There I met a bunch of people who would change the course of my business.I met a generous Navy veteran named Juan who also had a plush business and who generously agreed to share the name of his manufacturer with me. Today, three years later, I still use that same manufacturer and probably will for the life of my business. He also told me about the power of Facebook ads. And then things started to get rolling.I hired a Facebook ads guy, a friend of a friend, and we started running ads. At first, the idea of spending $20 a day for a product that costs $30 sounded crazy. But as the ads started to work, I kept upping the daily spend to as high as $100 a day with good success.I started posting almost every day on Facebook and Instagram and figuring what people responded to. One of the best uses we’ve found for Facebook is seeking input from our followers. When I post a cute photo of a girl with SGT SLEEPTIGHT I might get 25 or 50 likes and 1 or 2 comments. If I show people two options for packaging or a tagline and ask their opinion, I’ll get hundreds of comments!https://www.facebook.com/ZZZBears/posts/1403349023135824This strategy works great for me on Facebook but doesn’t work at all on Instagram. To this day, I have a very hard time getting engagement on that platform and I no longer waste my time trying.Another important relationship I made online was with another veteran and aspiring entrepreneur named Blake Wayman. Blake was just getting started with a plush product in the same category as mine. Although we knew were going to be battling for the same customers, we became instant friends and I shared my manufacturing contact with him. But Blake taught me something even more valuable that a contact. Blake created a really emotional video for his Facebook page and with only a $50 boost, got over a million views and thousands of comments and shares. That not only taught me the power of video on Facebook, but also showed me what our audience responds best to. It wasn’t comedy or even a product centered approach. It was his personal story.In an effort to break into retail beyond military exchanges, we attended the largest toy trade show in the world in New York. This turned out to be a waste of money. With a very small booth and unknown product, it was almost impossible to get any attention. The buyers from major retailers had pre-arranged appointments and walked right by. Some of the mom and pop stores showed interest but not enough to make it worth the time. Time to move on.Someone on Facebook told me about ECRM - an organization that connects sellers with buyers from major retailers looking for products in their particular category in a hotel setting. Long story short, I got approval to meet with 3 Target buyers for 20 minutes in a Miami hotel room as part of one of their toy events (without actually attending or paying for the event itself). They loved my product as well as my genuine enthusiasm and belief in my product and after several follow up emails we had a deal. Fast forward 6 months and we were in 500 stores nationwide. Every day, I checked the numbers to see how we were doing. I also went to several stores to see how it was merchandised. Much to my dismay, there were some stores where the product was stuck in the back room. At this point, I hired several college students to call all 500 stores and ask for SGT SLEEPTIGHT. The majority of stores had them on the shelves but some didn’t. At the end of the test, we simply didn’t sell well enough to be carried in the future.imageWith all of the time and effort it took to get into Target, I changed course to shelve retail and focus on killing it online.I think it’s common for new entrepreneurs to be obsessed with getting into big box. They think, if I can only get into Target or Walmart I’ll be set. But nothing could be further from the truth. The margins are slim and the rules are stacked against us. For example with Target, I had to agree to pay 100% of the markdown costs. So if sales were slow and they marked the bears down from $24.95 to $10, I was responsible for paying Target $14.95 per bear! You can see how that alone could bankrupt a small business.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?From the beginning, we’ve done most everything ourselves. The hard way. From assembling the bears into their boxes in our living room to shipping out a thousand bears to the military exchanges from our basement. While this saved us money, it took a lot of time which in hindsight could have been better spent developing new products, marketing, engaging with customers, etc.imageTo that end, we’ve recently hired a fulfillment house to handle all of our orders to the military exchanges. If that goes well, we’ll have them handle all of our shipping needs in the future.In the last year, we also started selling a bear not wearing a military uniform. That bear, dressed in a police uniform, has become one of our top sellers. We’ve had a lot of requests for a fireman bear so that will likely be next. We always start by ordering a small quantity - we’re fortunate that our manufacturer has a very low MOQ - to test the market before committing to larger numbers and more cash.With the exception of year one, we’ve turned a profit every year. That’s because we’ve learned what works (FB ads, for example) and what doesn’t (hiring so called “experts” and consultants).Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned is that nothing happens as quickly as you’d like. I thought I’d put up a website and be a millionaire in year one. When that didn’t happen, I panicked and got desperate, making mistake after mistake. The fact is, building a business takes time. So I’ve learned to be patient, and enjoy the journey - both the ups and downs.Here’s my top 6 mistakes I made that you don’t have to.#1. Not having a mentorAs a small business owner, you’re going to be faced with lots of daily decisions. Micro ones. Medium ones. Massive ones. And the unfortunate fact is, you’re going to get a lot of them wrong. Some are unavoidable.After all, small business isn’t a science (it’s more like a toddler’s messy art project.) So, find a mentor. Someone who’s been there, done that. Someone who’s willing to share their time and their wisdom. Someone who has no financial interest in your company. Here are a couple of good starting points to find your perfect mentor:LinkedIn is a professional networking site that makes it easy to connect with buyers and businessmen alike.Reach out to an organization affiliated with your category. For example, if you’re in the toy industry you might contact the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA).SCORE is a mentoring organization over 10000 free business mentors in 300 local chapters across the county#2. Trying to do it all yourselfGrowing up, my mom used to tell me how good I was at everything – from drawing to baseball to brushing my teeth. I now realize it was a well-meaning lie. Nobody is good at everything, and nobody can do it all. So be brutally honest in assessing your strengths and weaknesses. Then get help.For example, you might be really good with numbers but not so good at digital marketing. No problem. Go to Fiverr and find someone to write a blog post, handle your SEO or color correct an image in Photoshop. There are plenty of subject matter experts out there. Find the ones you need, put them to work and stayed focused on what you do best. PS, I love you mom.#3. Not requiring references from new vendorsI learned this one the hard way. In fact, I almost lost the business in year two because of a dishonest manufacturer. (Ask me about it over a beer.) Now when I hire someone to do a job, I require at least three references from someone who has used their services in the past. And I speak to every single one. If a vendor refuses to provide references for any reason, including customer privacy, I thank them politely and move on to someone who will.#4. Assuming you know what your customers wantIt’s amazing to me how many people start a business or continue to operate a business without seeking feedback from their customers and potential customers. For us, Facebook has been a great platform to ask questions and get real time responses. And our fans love it. If I post a photo of a bear and a child, I’ll get 50 likes with a couple of comments and shares. If I post a question asking if they’d prefer the bear come with a pillow case or a drawstring bag, I’ll get literally hundreds of comments. And the best part is, this kind of interaction builds a connection between our customers and our company. Customers feel invested in our success because they’re contributing to it. This type of research used to cost thousands. Now it’s practically free.#5. Having tunnel visionYou know that thing that you’re absolutely, positively certain is a home run? I hate to break it to you, but it probably won’t be. Believe me I know. I thought getting ZZZ Bears into a big box retailer would be the holy grail. So when Target decided to do a 500 store test in our second year, I thought, WE’D MADE IT! Wrong.Ultimately, we didn’t have a high enough sell-through rate to get picked up. So what did we do? We pivoted. (After a good cry of course.) We decided to refocus on boutiques where owners or sales staff would always be on hand to tell the story of the bear to moms and dads. It’s not easy. The orders are smaller, and the logistics are more complex. But the upside is huge.#6. Being in it solely for the moneyA warm fuzzy feeling isn’t the only reason to adopt a social mission. In fact, research shows purpose fuels profits. Which, if you think about it, makes sense. After all, employees who drive meaning from their work are happier and more engaged. Plus, having a purpose makes you stand out to customers, creating a loyal, passionate following. The key is choosing a mission that naturally aligns with your company.For example, because we make a teddy bear dressed like a soldier, we give back to children who have lost a parent in the line of duty. Mark Twain said it best. “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.” Find your company’s “why” and success will follow.What platform/tools do you use for your business?Our favorite tools and platforms:ShopifyOur first site was created on Squarespace which makes web design super simple but didn’t have the apps to scale our business. We now use Shopify which is awesome. Their app store has almost anything you’ll ever need and we use ones that increase average order size with upsells and enables people to personalize their bear.FacebookSounds obvious but Facebook ads account for an overwhelming percentage of our online sales. Plus, the feedback we get from our followers on our page is invaluable.To collect emails, we use pops by Privy . It’s free and couldn’t be simpler to set up and use. We’ve also experimented with some of their other features including abandoned cart emails with great success. So while we currently use Klaviyo** as our email platform, we may completely switch to Privy in the near future for all our email needs.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?Some of my favorite podcasts are How I Built This and Without Fail. They both feature founders and their story of growing a business from nothing to something big with all the ugly parts in between.I also like The Pitch which features founders pitching their ideas to investors looking to get in early on the next big thing. All of these are inspiring and also make me feel less alone in this crazy rollercoaster ride.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I still hold a full-time job and ZZZ Bears is purely a side hustle. With that in mind, we are not looking for full-time employees at this time. Instead, we pull specialists from Upwork and Fiverr as needed for everything from graphic designers to developers.Where can we go to learn more?zzzbears.comFacebook.com/zzzbearsInstagram.com/zzzbearsIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM