#and for some reason Mark gets a pass because he sounds nice as he says it?????

[tsarinajissa]

I really wish commentators would stop saying things like "she lacked the conviction" [to land the jump].

Poor Chen Hongyi is clearly ill. At a guess she might be lacking in the current strength and stamina she needs to do well. You don't have to make baseless speculations about skaters' "convictions"

[a-998h]

Steely Secrets

Reader's POV

Well, it's been about a week since Sir Pentious got his character development. Charlie is bouncing off the walls with energy. She, with the help of Vaggie, Razzle, and Dazzle, is putting up a banner to commemorate Sir Pentious's first full week and agreement to stay at the hotel. I really wanted to say something about how the guy has full redeemed himself, but I also don't want to hurt Charlie's feels. Thankful, Vaggie lows Charlie's expectations for me.

"Um... Pentious was just trying to take over the city with his werid steampunk bullshit a few days ago," Vaggie tells Charlie.

Charlie tries to calm Vaggie down, saying she hasn't seen him do any of that at the hotel. I'll give Charlie that, this Sir Pentious guy hasn't tried to destroy us or the hotel. Just as that thought leave my head, Sir Pentious slithers in, with a steampunk cannon/excessively large machine gun with some egg bois riding on top over it. Vaggie demands to know what Sir Pentious is up to, while I'm starting to reconsider my stance on the guy.

"Oh, hello purple female," Sir Pentious greets with a tip of his sentient.

He goes on about how he invent something called the "Skin Flyer 11,000" and how he's looking forward to shooting everyone else, that isn't Charlie, in the hotel. Ok, this guy is a major league cuckoo clock and I should probably keep as much distance from him as possible.

"What? Why?" Charlie asks in concern, once she's fully off that ladder.

I step behind Vaggie cause I'm now genuinely concerned this guy might shoot someone. The three of us here his reasoning for the new steampunk weapon.

"Everyone is being too nice. Obviously, it must be a lie. I can sense they are planning to kill me, but when? How? I must be prepared!"

I facepalm so hard it probably left a mark on my skull. I get this is Hell, and it makes being that paranoid in a place where the biggest threat is a "strawberry pimp" as Angel likes to call him, who could probably kill us all. But, Alastor keeps his distance from Sir Pentious and no one else has done anything to make him this high strung.

Before anyone of us can say anything, Sir Pentious grows excited, saying that the new parts for this Skin Flyer 11,000 thing have just arrived. Following his gaze, I see two women walk in, one has fluffy looking white hair, black horns, and red and white eyes, is pushing a cart that has crates piled on top of it. When Sir Pentious walks over to the pair, the woman dressed like a scientist, with the strange eyes as the one pushing the cart, hands him a clipboard and pen.

"Thank you for your business. Enjoy your Carmine purchase," scientist lady says and her and her delivery partner go to leave.

As the pass by, I see them both stare at me, with the scientist lady writing something down in a notebook. It feels werid being stared at by these two strangers. But, as quickly as they started to stare, they continued on their way. That unnerved me a bit, but that gets pushed aside as I see Vaggie tearing into Sir Pentious about something.

"Carmine, as in Carmilla Carmine? you are buying parts from an overlord?" Vaggie asks, sounding very annoyed.

Sir Pentious responds by saying that this Carmilla lady is the top weapons dealer in Hell. I sit there like an idiot because, I didn't know Hell had overlord or what that even means. I look at Vaggie, and she looks at me.

"Hey, Vaggie, what's an overlod?" I ask her.

Vaggie pauses for a moment, almost as if searching for the right words to explain something complex to a small child.

"Um... Overlords are powerful demons that control parts of the city here in Pride, with Alastor being a very powerful one," she explains.

My brain freezes. This whole time I thought Alastor was some werid demon guy, which he is, but he's one of the most powerful demons in hotel, behind Charlie. I'm back to square one in trust because I'm now scared that Alastor might annihilate me just for giving him a werid look!

Vaggie goes onto explain to Sir Pentious that we are not trying to kill him, and that "people are being nice because they want you to feel welcome". Sir Pentious ducks behind his invention and watches as Husk and Angel flip him off and Niffty gives that ever creepy smile and sinister little giggle as she's dusting the pool table.

"I have my doubts," he says, still ducked behind his invention.

Vaggie tells him that yes, we're trying to be nice to him and that he has to trust us. He responds with a "but I don't". Charlie says that trust can be the theme of today's summer camp like activities, and Vaggie agrees but say ground rules must be set. The new ground rules for Sir Pentious are

No more building weapons

No more plotting against the other hotel guests

And 3. No more egg bois

I was kind of upset at that last one, cause I find the egg bois adorably dumb. As Vaggie says the last rule, the two messing around with something akin to a laser pointer pushes a button which leads to a burn hole in the ceiling/second floor. Vaggie scold Sir Pentious, while he is on the ground holding the egg bois close and begging to keep them.

"Do you want to stay are redeem yourself?" Vaggie asks him

"Yes?" He answers, a clear uncertainty in his voice.

Vaggie says that means he'll have to get rid of the egg bois. Sir Pentious sighs, and in a very dramatic fashion, tells the egg bois to go. They salute him and follow his order and follow Vaggie. As soon as Vaggie and eggs are out of the room, Sir Pentious and his hat start balling. Me and Charlie give him awkward yet comforting pats on the back.

Alastor's POV

The other residents have been as rambunctious and annoying as ever this morning. I've prepared a delightful breakfast of venison of myself. I had thougth about inviting mon petit ange to breakfast with me, but from the looks of it they don't appear to enjoy venison. Well, once I have them they'll have to get used to the taste, or maybe I'll have to breakout mama's old cookbook to satisfy their youthful appetite. Well, I can't dwell on what could have been, instead I should focus on what has happened. I have barley started my breakfast when Vaggatha shouts my name from the hallway.

"Do you mind, I'm was in the middle of breakfast?" I ask her.

She explains how the egg creatures of Sir Pentious's are being a nuisance, and how she wants me to get rid of them. My smile grows as I think about all the ways I could dispose of the pest, but Vaggatha ruins that be saying I must "humanely" dispose of the egg creatures. I "joke" about how humanely is not as much fun, but tell her I'd be able to take care of it on my outing today. She gives me her "approval" and I walk out of the door with the egg creatures in tow.

Reader's POV

Everyone, but Alastor and the egg bois, in the parlor of the hotel. Charlie takes center stage, and explains to us what's going to happen today. Charlie thanks us all for coming, like we have much of a choice.

"It's been brought to our attention that there may be a little... tension in the hotel," Charlie says as Vaggie walks behind her.

"Tension that can be counterproductive to what we're trying to do here," Vaggie says as she snatches a small ray gun Sir Pentious had aimed at Niffty, who he had grabbed with his tail.

As Vaggie walks back next to Charlie, Charlie says that she thinks we could benefit from... trust exercises. This is said as both her and Vaggie jump into the air in from of a stage, but only Charlie lands on her feet. Charlie pulls Vaggie up and restates that we'll be doing trust exercises.

"So, what's with the whole, uhhh... This?" Husk says, gesturing the stage.

Husk says something about not putting on a show for us, I don't blame him, and Angel saying he will but that he only takes cash up front and it has to be after my bedtime. Angel then points at Sir Pentious, saying that he can't afford him. Sir Pentious and his 19th century values are disgusted by the idea, and Vaggie cuts in so we can start the activity. Charlie passes on the leadership role to Vaggie, who after some nervousness, goes into military mode.

"All right, we are starting with trust falls." Vaggie says in a drill Sargent voice.

While getting in Husk's face, she explains how we'll share something valuable with the group, then fall backwards and hope that everyone else will catch us. This does not sound like fun in any form, but I don't have a good way of escaping this. It starts off with Charlie, being sentimental as always, then Angel who says something as Charlie covers my ears with her hands. After Husk drops Angel on the floor, Sir Pentious gets on stage and with a dramatic flourish, says that he can't live without his eggs and tells us not to catch him. We all do, cause not catching him would defeat the whole purpose, and I hear a slightly muttered "damn it". Now, it's my turn, walking on to the stage I take a deep breath.

"I... I never met my mother," I tell the group.

A silence is heard as I close my eyes and fall backwards. Thae silence is broken by the grunts on the group catching me. I get put down, and Charlie gives me a tight hug.

"You poor little rose, that must've been awful," she says.

I tell her I'm over it, mostly so she doesn't kill me again with a hug of death, but she shushed me, saying it's ok for me to express my true feelings. I stand there, being squashed and confused before Charlie let's go and Niffty walks on stage. I'm kind of worried about what she'll be willing to share, who knows she might admit to murder.

"Sometimes, I kill mother bugs in front of their children as a earning to others," she shares.

We all stand there scared, and when Niffty leaps off that stage no one catches her and she lands on her face. She laughs and cheers, repeatedly jumping and landing on the floor with her crazy laugh. Vaggie and Charlie walk off somewhere as the rest of us just watch Niffty jump off the stage over and over again with looks of concern and fear on our faces.

***

Alastor's POV

As I stop myself from crushing those egg creatures, while enjoying a reunion with Zestial, my thougth wander back to mon petit ange. The child still has some adjusting to do, and it is clear they don't know about the power they possess. If I can't get them under my wing, not only would that give Hell and new overlord, but it could get me closer to freeing myself. Though, the child is quite adorable despite being rebellious, but that is to be expected of a teenager. They'd make a wonderful overlord, under my wing of course.

Once the meeting begins, the girl who works with Vox kicks the door in and hijacks the meeting, revealing the head of an exorcist.

"Also, we've got photo evidence that there's an angel in Hell," she declares.

She uses her small picture box and shows an image of the hotel's exterior, and... mon petit ange. I have to contain my composure, but it's hard when I want to snap that woman's neck here and now. Rosie and Zestial look at me, they both seem to know I have some relation to this. As she prattles on, I sit there silently. I thought the angelic features were reflecting a relationship with religion, but being angelic in some aspect should have been my first guess. Well, now I have an excuse for when I pull mon petit ange under my wing, right where they belong.

*Respectless timeskip*

I send one of those little egg creatures to follow Carmilla and Zestial as they depart to another room. As I wait, I wonder what mon petit ange is doing. Maybe they were helping Niffty keep the hotel clean, maybe they were sleeping, or maybe they were having fun with Charlie? Now, I just have to wait for when the egg creature brings me useful information.

Reader's POV

I want to leave. Vaggie told us Angel had an idea for a bonding activity, and I feel like Arnold from the Magic School Bus hoping for a normal field trip. Looking around I see things my eyes should only see through a computer screen late at night. The whole place smells like cologne, latex, metal, and sweat. I try to keep my eyes on the floor using my wings as a barrier from everything happening around me. Vaggie has a tight grip on my shoulder, with Charlie covering my ears as best she can.

Husk is getting a massage, before Niffty makes things weirder, and Charlie keeps getting stared at. I just want to home. I look at Vaggie, her reassuring Charlie that she'll be able to handle the task of running to days activities. She turns her back in thought, and I go to reach out to her.

"I just need to teach them, the way I was taught," I hear hear say.

Im confused, because one minute were in a BDSM club, and the next we're in an active war zone part of the city. Looking over the edge, I see demon fighting each other and I hear a distant explosion. I look at Vaggie, wondering what the hell she went through to see this as a way to trust people.

She turns to us, saying that today we become men. I see Husk starting to sneak away as Vaggie picks up Sir Pentious and throws him off the roof and follow him.

"D-don't you even think about it!" I hear Angel beg before hearing him screams as Vaggie probly also throws him off the roof.

By then, I'm with Husk, on the ground and not thrown from a roof. After minutes of waiting, a tired Angel, Sir Pentious, and a sad looking Charlie walk by, Charlie telling us we're going home. I walk next to Charlie, trying to make her feel better.

*One Muiscal Number Later*

Sitting in the parlor with everyone else, we share the mayhem we experienced today. Seeing everyone laugh felt nice, and this felt like the evenings me and my dad shared. As the story sharing continues, we hear a door open. Looking over my shoulder, Alastor waves at me. I wave back, knowing how big he is on manners with me.

"Alastor, failed to get rid of the eggs I see?" Vaggie says.

"Well, the little monsters proved to be quite useful," Alastor tells her.

Vaggie tells him to give the egg bois back to Sir Pentious, who tears up at the news. Once Vaggie gives the go ahead, Sir Pentious runs and hugs his egg bois, before ordering them to clean his room this instant. As they walk away, Alastor takes a spot next to me.

"How was your day, petit ange?" He asks.

I tell him everything we did while he was gone, and then I ask him what he did all day. He pats my head, telling I shouldn't worry about his business. He continues on hiw way, using his staff to point at the clock, asking me if I had dinner. Shaking me head, Niffty runs into the kitchen and I smell something good. Just as soon as she ran into the kitchen, she runs back out with a plate of Chicken and Gravy, along with a side of green beans amandine. It all looks and smells delicious.

"Thank you, Niffty," I tell her.

"Of course, anything for my little Sparky," she says before running back to her seat.

The nickname confused me, but I was to hungry to care. As I eat, I feel Niffty's single beady eye staring at me the whole time. It's creepy, but everything about Niffty is so damn creepy. The moment I sat I'm full, Niffty runs over and takes the plate.

"Want any dessert, Sparky?" She asks.

Before I can answer, Alastor cuts in and tells her that I shouldn't have too much sugar. Niffty nods and runs off with the plates in hand. I glare at Alastor, pissed at him robbing me of sugar. He walks away, wishing us all a good night.

After Charlie makes me go to bed, I finally sleep calmly, no nightmares the hotel, no strange ladies, just a blissful mess of dreams.

[genshin-scenarios]

Adopt a Wanderer: Assimilation [Part 2]

Summary: After meeting Kuni, who's isekaied into your world, you both try to settle into a new normal.

Note: This is meant to be a found-family series with Scaramouche, who you address as Kuni in this AU! Mostly meant to be interpreted as platonic.

Part 1

Your first few days with Kuni were nothing short of lively. The first morning, well – no one can blame you for having to process the situation a second time, after accepting that it wasn’t a dream after all – but you also went over a conversation about him being non-human.

See, you weren’t sure if puppets had to eat to function, or if they had any special dietary requirements (as ridiculous as it sounds, you truly didn't know) - so when you bring up the question to Kuni, he freezes for a moment before sheepishly asking you how you figured it out. In light of not wanting to seem even more suspicious in his eyes (what kind of lunatic adopts a random person from the streets anyways?) you say something about how you noticed the connective markings on his elbows when you leant him your clothes - which was true enough, seeing as you gave him a t-shirt instead of something long sleeved.

You didn’t want to dishearten him any more than he already looked from the reminder, so you give him a smile and ask if he’d like to go shopping for clothes that suit his tastes better.

“Shopping?” Kuni repeats, putting on the jacket you retrieved and his sandals. “Is there a marketplace nearby?”

“Something similar to it, yes.” You lock the door and guide him downstairs, onto the street, and towards the bus station. “We need to get you clothes that fit you properly, and it’ll be easier for you to blend in and visit places that way.”

You’ve thought about this last night, when you were getting extra blankets and pillows for him to use the living room couch as a bed. Even if he was just staying here until he could find a way home, it’d be no different from being a caged bird if you just confined him to your apartment.

You wanted to give Kuni the chance to enjoy your world a little. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows here, but if his current reaction was anything to go by you’d say that the city you lived in wasn’t too bad. It’s peaceful and free of conflict, albeit busy with workers and students and business. There are some nice cafes and affordable restaurants, the public transport is fast, and Kuni is taking in his surroundings like he’s drinking in the colors on a painting. It’s overwhelming and foreign, but his eyes are full of wonder.

When the bus doors open and he hesitates to step on, you offer him your hand as you lead the way. Everyone’s at work or school so the streets are fairly sparse compared to peak hours, and Kuni treats everything you pass by with a quiet curiosity. You mention what each thing is to answer the questions written on his face, and after you exit the clothing shop with his haul, Kuni tugs on your sleeve to ask if you should head to eat next.

You don’t oppose, making a beeline to the cafe that has a promotion on weekdays like these. “Let’s see… I’m not sure what your food preferences are, but their menu has quite a lot of things. If you’re hungry, this place should do the trick!”

Kuni stays close to your side as you navigate the mall, glancing at the other half of the bags that you insisted you could help him carry. “Actually, I asked because you seemed hungry earlier. Um, your stomach sounded, I mean - but anything’s fine! I can eat anything I think, but probably not too much.” He could go without eating too, but when you reach the cafe and sit down with the menu, the images look new and interesting enough that he’s curious about trying them all.

Embarrassment burns when you realize he heard your stomach growling earlier, but you put it off by bulldozing to the next relevant question. “Oh! In that case, why don’t we order a few things to share?” A part of you wants to spoil him for some reason - you’re aware it might also have to do with his potential future once he returns to Teyvat - but another more accurate reason was simply because of how his eyes would light up when there was something he liked; most children might enjoy the moment of sweetness and move on to the next, but with Kuni the sensation seemed to linger with fascination. “That way we can try to pinpoint what kind of food you like.”

“I liked the tea from that day,” he tried to help. “It was bitter, but the aftertaste was nice.”

“Hmm… So something more savory, maybe?” You hum to yourself, ordering a set to share and a side. Remembering how Ei’s favorite food was dango from the game, you were surprised by the way Kuni froze after he tried the pudding that came with the set - the grimace he wore was enough to make you laugh, and you try to stifle your giggling for his sake as he looked away in embarrassment. “It’s alright if you don’t like it!”

“I didn’t expect it to taste so… syrupy.”

“Maybe you’ll like herbal jelly instead, if that’s the case.” You say thoughtfully as you finish the cube of custard. “It still has syrup, but that part is optional and the jelly itself is bitter.” You pause, realizing something. “Huh, the same shop should sell tea eggs too. I’ll try getting some the next time I come back from work.”

“Speaking of… how come you were able to bring me here today?” He tilted his head with the question. “The streets seem quiet, but there are so many residential buildings.”

“I have Mondays off,” You give him a wink. “So I guess you could say your timing was impeccable, for someone that didn’t know how they got here.”

Kuni huffs, a small smile gracing his lips. “I guess so.” I must’ve been really lucky to have run into you.

As the day progresses, you bring Kuni along to buy some groceries and return home. By the end of it he’s grown to walk more comfortably through crowds of people, and even asked if you could teach him to do some of the household chores.

“I don’t want to just live here without doing anything,” Kuni explained, remembering how he’s seen families in Inazuma drying the laundry outside the house. “If you teach me, I’ll be able to earn my stay and make things easier for you.”

Was that why he chatted with the clothing store’s clerk for so long? You remember bits of their conversation being about how most clothes could be washed in a machine, but others might need to be done by hand. You were paying the bill at the time though, so you didn’t hear the entire thing.

As you fold the laundry and show him how to use the washing machine, Kuni stays true to his word and continues to learn household chores from you as the days go by. The week passes by in a flash, but you surprise yourself by how normal it feels to return home and see him there, busying himself with work or reading something from your shelf.

You learn that he tends to not watch the TV unless you’re there, thinking of it as something to do with company rather than alone - not that you were complaining, of course. It was touching how he’d wait for you to come home before watching the newest show you’re binging together, but he'd also get excited about the movies you've watched before and mentioned to him were good (he agrees with some of your opinions and is open to debate about others, but at the end of the day isn't too worked up about it).

Kuni’s also started to mess around with the newspapers that you brought at his request, so that he could learn more about the type of world this was - and also do the crossword puzzles and pick out shopping vouchers for you.

You’ve thought about teaching him to use a computer, but the chance of him coming across his own information on the web held you back - that was, until you tried googling for the game, and it seems like it disappeared into thin air.

Eh?

You’d tried doing the same search on other devices not in your home, and it seems that the erasure only occurs when Kuni is nearby. It was a convenient sort of phenomenon, but it also made you start to question your entire reality; was his presence the thing that caused this? And if so, why were you the exception that’s able to remember the truth despite being by his side?

A knock on your bedroom door pulls you back to reality, and Kuni lets you know that he’d finished prepping ingredients for dinner while you were drying your hair. Despite how he doesn’t have to eat, he indulges in trying a little of everything so that he could get better at cooking - you’ve tried to tell him that the other chores he’s done were more than enough, but he insists that it’s just another skill that would be good to learn regardless.

Unable to refute that, you agree to let him make breakfast and dinner on days where you were busy, but would usually cook with him whenever you can. The speed at which he learns is a little inhuman, but then again it makes you a little proud to know that he’s a quick learner. Everyone that’s met him so far has been enamoured or at least begrudgingly accepting of Kuni, including the neighbours (who now believe he was your cousin).

Despite how you were used to being independent, you had to admit that it was nice to have someone’s company like this - even if it was a person you’d previously thought was fictional. And as for the mystery that surrounds your situation… worrying about it won’t give answers for now, so you push away the thought in favour of enjoying the new normal of your household.

“Oh, and if you don’t hurry, I might add those spices you don’t like without you seeing.”

“What?! Don’t you dare!”

>> Part 3

[polka-popia]

Worth it (Part 1/4)

(A Huskerdust story)

or

An AU where Husk has had enough of watching Angel's abuse go down from the sidelines and challenges Val to a game. Winner gets a new soul...

Warning(s): Mentions of Abuse, Suggested SA, Cursing, Fluff, Angst, Happy Ending though...

Author's Note: Now this is based off of an idea by "Maddie's Minis" on Tiktok. It sounded too good to pass up writing. I hope you enjoy!

*********************************************

Husk loved midnight.

The hotel was quiet at this point. Charlie had a sign up encouraging guests and other staff members to use midnight as a sort of... 'curfew' if you will. A guide on when to call it a night and hurry up to their rooms after a long day of trying to be productive members in hell.

‘After midnight, bad choices can get made!’ She had tried reasoning while Alastor snapped his fingers, making the signs appear all around the hotel.

He had also offered to stay up for that time being, stand in the shadows of the hotel, punish any guest or… ‘scold’ any staff member who refused to listen, but Charlie liked to trust the people around her. So, it was an obvious No from her and a slight shrug from her more... Intense counterpart of a girlfriend.

Vaggie kept the mere suggestion from the princess of hell as an actual rule of the hotel. Only exception to it was Angel. He couldn’t control when he got off of work. Sometimes he could rush these things, other times Val would demand him to stay back.

But where was Husk, again? Oh right...

He loved midnight...

He could never fully explain why he did though. Of course, nobody ever asked. But if someone ever did get curious enough to, he'd probably just shrug. Say cause it's quieter. But it was more than that. Because deep down, Husk couldn't stand when shit was too quite. Made him feel on edge. Like he had to prepare for something. Like a scene in a horror movie that keeps the audiance at the edge of their seats.

In reality, maybe he liked midnight cause of Charlie's rule about sinners staying in their rooms. Maybe he liked it because he didn't have to deal much with people bothering him. He could focus on keeping this bar nice and tidy the way his casino used to be.

And as the side door of the hotel swung open, Husk found himself absentmindedly reaching for the rum Angel always wanted mixed with some vodka. Deep down, like way deep down, Husk questioned if this was really why he looked forward to that clock striking midnight...

The clicking of high heeled boots tap against the marble floor as Angel approaches while Husk works on that drink.

‘A strong drink should always have two or more things in it!’ Angel had informed Husk many times before while knocking over the glass when it wasn't up to his standards.

“Long night?” Husk mutters casually when the clicking stops in front of the bar. No sound of a stool getting pulled out, no usual greeting... That was weird for Husk. Angel usually started off these midnight drinking encounters with a ‘Hey daddy...’ or on the real tough nights Husk would get a sharp ‘drink’ demand from the seven-foot-tall jumping spider.

Instead, he gets something else. A sniffle. Husk pauses his pouring to finally turn to Angel and see him standing in front of the bar, trembling, his blazer ripped open, dirt mixed into his usually perfectly groomed fur, a black eye and scratch marks littered his face, and Husk gripped the bottle tighter.

“Legs…” He whispers as Angel finally falls to the floor, sobbing. The scene catches Husk completely off guard. There were no snide remarks, no casual insistence that this was fine. No excuse that he’d done something wrong. Just the exhausted cries of a man who walked around like he had everything together.

Husk walks around the bar counter, wrapping his arms around the slender frame of the 'Angel Dust' who was gone for the moment, replaced by the, in Husk's opinion, far more likable Anthony.

Angel stiffens for a second before he grips onto Husk tight, all four hands finding a different spot to hold on to. They find their way to Husk's arms, his waist, his chest as he buries his face deeper into Husk's neck.

“Do I even wanna know what that asshole did?” Husk growls slightly. Angel never got into the details when he’d come back to the hotel messed up. But this? This was a whole new level that Husk had yet to witness before.

It was getting worse...

“I-I lost the chain...” Is all Angel says, voice gruff from the sobs and other vocal strains. It takes Husk only a few seconds to understand him though. For Angel’s birthday, that he still celebrated because it’s one of the many things he refuses to forget, Husk had taken bar tips from the guests and used it to buy Angel a simple and modest gold chain.

Husk was thinking it was gonna be met with a forced smile, maybe even some teasing, but instead, Angel held it with all four hands like it was his ticket to heaven.

And a lot happened that night...

The major thing being Husk seeing Angel in the necklace. Wearing just the necklace. But none of it was spoken about again after that night. Much to both of their understanding...

There was too much happening to ever get too lost in the sheets of Husk's bedroom..

“I... I couldn’t stop him from taken it. I-I’m sorry. I… I’ll try and get it back, or maybe I’ll just… how much was it? I’ll pay ya-“ Husk cuts Angel off by bringing his head back to his chest. Angel slightly grips his fur, eyes shutting tight.

“He coulda killed me tonight...” Angel whispers finally as if it’s just now dawning on him. As if it’s never been like this before. A quick hit here and there, or some very loud yelling, but it’s never been like this. Angel had feared getting hurt.

But tonight… tonight was the first time he ever feared dying...

Husk softly shushes him, stroking his hair as they sit there on the floor.

The hotel was quiet at this point.

Charlie had a sign up encouraging guests and other staff members to use midnight as a sort of curfew…

And Husk hated midnight...

**************************************

-Part 2 will be out by tomorrow. I do anything Hazbin or Helluva, and requests are open!

[thrown-away-opinions]

So I made the mistake of watching the hbomberguy plagiarism video. I don't know why, because I kinda hate him and his entire shtick and his entire sanpaku-eyed desperate style of presentation that screams "please think I'm smart and that I am a moral cool guy who does good things!"

Anyways, the dumb fuck kinda missed the mark by a mile and the urgency and drama he tries to invoke amounts to being very angry that some people have made careers out of regurgitating other people's work. There's a few reasons why, but let's set this right up front: Yes, plagiarism is bad. It's a terrible thing to steal someone else's work, pass it off as your own, and then try to weasel out of it when caught. It's also an extremely stupid thing to do, especially if your job is writing reviews or giving your own opinions on some piece of media and plagiarism leads to reciting factually incorrect information.

That said, there's a few assertions and implications in this retardedly long video that stuck out to me and I want to talk, at length, about them. That these people have made a lot of money and are therefore bad. That citations or crediting sources would have changed something. That people careers have been damaged or somehow denied big piles of money because they were plagiarized.

Making a lot of money seems more like a vague sort of "rich people bad" but it's such a hollow assertion to make. Youtube financially incentivizes content creation or a certain type, quantity, and regularity. The algorithm is a slot machine. Ad revenue is just money on the table, and if someone disables the ad revenue on their videos, youtube runs ads anyways and the channel just doesn't get any of the money generated. As for stuff like patreon and parasocial simp behavior, you can't really stop people from doing what they want with their money. Hasan Piker became a millionaire because retards like throw money at him to watch other people's youtube videos and occasionally say the dumbest shit imaginable. If we could stop people from watching, let alone financially supporting dipshits, we would, but we can't. Being mad that they're making money from is just petty, especially if the implication is that being rich makes someone evil and bad, but at the same time, wishing that other people whom Hbomberguy ideologically jive with should be the rich ones instead. It's moronic.

It sounds reductive to just say "don't hate the player, hate the game" because the sort of shameless scumbags who will eagerly plagiarize and openly steal other people's work are detestable. I don't want the takeaway here to be that I think they are harmless or absolved of guilt. The problem is simply something far larger than youtube or social media. It's something that is not caused by the temptation of getting easy money from stealing ideas, but something that is inherent in the sorts of opportunistic scumbags that have always existed all throughout human history. Trying to shame them or expose them can only accomplish so much when they are already shameless to begin with.

Moving on to the value of citations, aside from being a genuinely nice and professional thing to do, it would not meaningfully change the profitability of content mill channels who largely use other people's work to rapidly produce videos faster than a real writer/researcher could script them. At most, it would add a slight bit more runtime and put more text in the very easy to ignore "about" section of a video, which would never get seen by 99% of viewers. Trying to impose some sort of labor speedbump by demanding citations and credits won't meaningfully stop these people from profiting off other people's work at a speed honest creators couldn't match anyways because they've been burdened by a sense of self-respect and honesty.

Furthermore, properly cited credit will not divert viewers and fans towards monetarily supporting the sources, nor encourage the diehards on patreon to stop donating. Youtube will still give the payout for the views and clicks and engagement on a video that can be 100% regurgitated, copied content, cited or not, regardless.

Additionally, the reasons people watch certain youtubers and types of content is often totally divorced from any thoughts about academic ethics. Most of the time, the audience doesn't even care because that doesn't even factor into their enjoyment of some background noise video or hearing a youtuber they like talk about something they might be mildly interested in.

Not to mention that there are countless successful youtubers who making a living reading reddit posts, reciting lore from fan wikis, reading 4chan greentexts in funny voices, or just "reacting" to other people's videos, just literally reading things other people have written word for word. This is content that is both directly cited and stuff that has no author to credit or cite at all but is still stolen. Despite knowing the content is stolen, uncited, plagiarized, etc, people watch them anyways and ad revenue payout happens regardless. There's functionally no difference, credited or not, but one is seemingly permissible because it's open about using other people's writing or research or ideas.

Is it a huge fucking problem that is turning the internet into a terrible place? Absolutely, but it wouldn't make a fucking difference if they cited the content they were reposting, because the core problem is actually the way youtube and other social media sites tell people they'll pay them for generating that sludge content, even if it's stolen, reposted, or purposefully made in a way to abuse the algorithm.

The last point I feel like covering is the idea that the specific plagiarists are denying money and career advancement to others by stealing from them. The implication being that because someone thinks the guy who makes awful video essays about Disney and Queerness who lifts his scripts almost 100% from books he never credits, the writers of those authors are being denied money and their careers as "voices of the queer community" or whatever, have been kneecapped because one other guy took all the credit. Implying that they would be the recipients of all the success, money, and career growth that Queer Plagiarist man, and others, have gained if they hadn't be plagiarized from.

This is moronic for a number of reasons, most of which I've already discussed. The most obvious reason being that they are often competing in completely different areas. The audiences giving clicks and views to the plagiarist aren't making the choice between purchasing a book or watching a youtuber. Published books aren't listed in youtube searches or recommendations.

People can both read books and watch youtube videos, if they want, but clicking on a youtube video isn't at all the same as shopping around to decide which creator is the most ethical and deserving of any sort of financial compensation. Even if the books were cited and listed, at most it amounts to a few sales, if any. However, the supposed outrage is the lack of citation and credit, not that we should be demanding promotion and advertising from youtubers or that every quotation or idea lifted from someone else needs to come with a proportional amount of reimbursement

If it's an article instead, like the case with the 'Man in Cave' video, there's nothing being sold and and the youtuber's career maintains the same trajectory, even if clearly cited and credited, still gains the same audience, the same patreon donors etc. At best, the article might get a few more clicks, so the outrage there is that some clickbait factoid site like Mental Floss didn't collect more ad revenue of its own, which is especially interesting since most of what Mental Floss does is repost articles from other sites with a little link at the bottom that shows you they didn't write shit. Fancy that.

But there's also this direct assertion that other people making similar content about, for example, queerness in Disney media are being denied the fame and success they rightfully deserve because someone else got more popular by being a plagiarist. While there may be a finite amount of time in the world for people to watch youtube videos about stupid bullshit, it is not so finite that it is an all or not situation. People can subscribe to more than one person about a given subject. One person being successful through plagiarism does not exclude anyone else from also being successful on their own merits. If they aren't successful, you can blame the algorithm, lack of interest, or the quality of their actual work.

A similar implication is that if someone were properly recognized for their work through being credited on a video that gets millions of views, that more job offers or interviews or some kind of improvement to their general socioeconomic status would be dropped in their lap. That may be true in matters of outright content theft where a relatively unknown creator loses all views and clicks on something that got stolen by a bigger channel, but not when we're talking about someone who already had a book publishing deal or peer reviewed research.

This kind of echoes the first point about money, but with popularity instead. Impotently whining that someone else got famous when what he wants is for someone better, less objectionable, to get the popularity... and I think that's what's really at the core of hbomberguy's stupidly long video (and this stupidly long rant). He only wants people he likes to be successful and is upset that he can't take that away from them. Plagiarism is just a convenient moral cudgel to wield and a convenient way to whip up his simple minded fans into another witch hunt.

If you go and check Internet Historian's latest video, you can see a significant amount of dislikes, and the comments section is full of people screaming about plagiarism and Tommy Tallarico, who was another target of hbomberguy's obnoxiously elaborate bullshit previously. There's no chance in hell that these people are actually outraged that mentalfloss wasn't properly credited, but they love that sensational self-righteous high they get from joining the latest angry mob whipped up by famous internet smart guy and maker of pretentious videos, hbomberguy.

Now, where does that leave us after all of that shit I just wrote? Well, if there's anything to take away, it's to understand that there are shameless, opportunistic scumbags out there who are constantly looking for their chance to exploit a system for personal gain. Not just on youtube, but everywhere. Crypto. Life coach sigma male shit. Politics. Twitter engagement farming. etc etc. As long as their behavior can be rewarded, they will continue doing it. So get better about spotting it and learn to block, filter, and excise it from whatever feeds you use and expect the same of your friends.

When it comes to the creators you follow, hold certain standards, but know that there is a limit to the moral purity you can expect from them. For most of the big ones out there, the goal is to make money. You can demand proper citations and such from all of them, but then they'll go and take a sponsorship deal from Established titles or Better help or some NFT scam, and that's exponentially worse than presenting information in a way that may making the audience incorrectly assume they've done exhaustive research on a topic when they're just quoting someone else.

And lastly: stop watching Hbomberguy. He's a sanctimonious retard.

[raptorrobot]

how would a 𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓬𝔂 dinner go between gabriel and icarus? (like what would they eat, do, honestly any and all details related to the two of them on a date? of sorts mayhaps)

*beams an image of them being sweet in a restaurant into your mind*

OHH THIS IS REALLY CUTE...... ignoring the fact that neither of them have tangible mouths to eat with, i will happily indulge this hypothetical

first off, gabriel is VERY dressed up. serving unfathomable cunt. even if they aren't going to a particularly fancy place, he's dressed like he's attending a fucking wedding reception. on the contrary; icarus is either in completely casual wear (along the lines of jeans + a faded shirt) or dressed in a nice outfit that gabriel very clearly put him in

gabriel insists on picking a booth. icarus wants a table. gabriel starts pouting because they "dont have enough privacy at a table". icarus gives up. they end up in a booth

gabriel takes one billion fucking years to decide on his order. icarus knows what he wants before he even walks through the door. he lets it slide because he thinks it's funny when gabriel goes "oooh but that one sounds really nice" to every single item on the menu

when gabriel finally makes a decision, they order; icarus just gets a slab of fucking meat. steak medium rare. does not care about what kind of cut it is. gabriel orders some fancy ass bullshit that is probably the most expensive item on the menu. gabriel is paying so icarus doesn't care. he does however, make fun of gabriel for ordering something ridiculous for the rest of the night

their drinks arrive - some fruity fuckin cocktail for gabriel, probably a coffee for icarus - and they just chat for a while. they're give old married couple - casual flirting, a couple of chuckles - quiet, but clearly having a good time

when the food arrives, icarus' is gone in 8 minutes flat. he's locked the fuck in on this steak. gabriel tries talking to him but it's no use. the steak is his new date until he's done with it. conversation resumes as normal after the fact

gabriel picks at his food. he says it's nice and he likes it. icarus is still making fun of him. "you payed 40 dollars for that and you've barely even touched it." gabriel is grumbling under his breath. icarus steals a bite, and to his dismay, it is unfortunately Rather Good. he keeps stealing little portions of it. now it's gabriel's turn to make fun of him. hilarity ensues

when it's time for dessert, icarus says he'll pass. gabriel knows that he's going to end up picking at whatever he orders regardless; so he gets something that he knows icarus will like. probably something doughy and cinnamony. icarus eats more of it than he does. gabriel sees this as a win

they leave at a completely reasonable and respectable time. icarus is an old man who likes starting his bedtime routine early, and god forbid gabriel keep him from that any longer than needed. a successful date night has been had, marking down another win for team icariel

[late-to-the-party-81]

The best laid plans...

AN: This silly little fic was written for @buckybarnesbingo Square C5: A picture of Bucky waiting against a wall, holding a gun. I hope you enjoy the sass and crack. Thanks to @drabbles-mc for cheerleading and beta-ing

Dividers by @firefly-graphics. Moodboard by me, with robot image by Rafael Amarante 

Master list| BBB Master list

Summary: Bucky and Nat had a date night planned, but you know what’s said about best laid plans?

Relationships: Established Bucky x Nat, Established Sam x Steve, Cap Quartet friendship.

Word Count: 2.4k

CW: Crack, Sass, Snark, Flirting, Innuendo, Swearing, Robots being smashed, a bad-guy getting his come-uppance, Sam and Steve are like a pair of horny teenagers, Bucky is done, Nat is always right.

Bucky came to a halt a few feet from the bunker entrance, his back pressed to the smooth, grey concrete with his assault rifle held in his right hand. Snowflakes swirled around him.  

This was not how he’d intended spending his Friday, but here he was. The bad-guys never had any respect for his plans, the bastards. Or rather his and Nat’s plans. Not that they’d had anything major organised, just a quiet night in, the pair of them, the cat’s, a box set, some wine and some blini’s. Maybe a little ‘something-something’ later on, if he played his cards right.

But, here he was, in the freezing cold - and god-knows he hated the cold for many legitimate reasons - waiting for the signal from Nat, before the pair of them stormed in to save Sam and Steve from whatever-the-fuck mess the pair of them had managed to get themselves in to. If Bucky recalled the briefing notes he’d skimmed over on the way here, it was robots of some sort. Which was better than aliens, and a one hundred percent improvement on wizards. That Strange guy gave him the willies, despite Tony’s assurance that his cough friend was on their side. He still wasn’t sold on Howard’s son’s judgement, despite the years that had passed since the ‘Siberia Incident’.

Robots, though - he could handle those. To steal a line from Bruce, with robots he could “smash”, and not feel bad. Not that he felt bad when he punched aliens. Or wizards. But robots were like Nazi’s. Not sentient in Bucky’s humble opinion.

He did briefly wonder how Steve and Sam had managed to get themselves captured, but that knowledge would wait for later. They’d probably got distracted from the mission because they were making out or something equally as stupid. They could at least keep the PDAs to a minimum in the field, like he and Nat did. Although he did get it - Steve could let himself be seen now, in a way he hadn’t been able to back in the day.  And Bucky wasn’t blind, Sam was an attractive man, even if he did act like a cocky dickhead about it ninety nine percent of the time.

“Stupid Steve and stupid Sam.” He hadn’t even realised he’d muttered under his breath until a slightly tinny voice sounded in his ear.

“Be nice, Yasha. They are our friends after all. Even if they did ruin our date night.”

Bucky’s lips twitched upwards at Nat’s admonishment. “Can you blame me, malyshka? I was looking forward to a night-in with my best girls. All cuddled up together, all cosy. Maybe a bit of kissing, a bit of…”

“Okay, cool it lover-boy. I don’t think Al and Liho would be appreciative of your kisses.”

Bucky’s smile broadened and he let a bit of ‘40’s’ into his voice. “Is that your way of saying that you would be?”

“I plead the fifth.” He could hear the smile in Nat’s voice. “Now, get ready. I’ve almost reached the East Entrance. We need to breach together.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, glad that Nat wouldn’t be able to see.

“Not my first time out, Natalia. Just because Steve likes to go in without a plan and Sam seems to have adopted his technique, doesn’t mean I’ve lost my sense of strategy. I’m ready on your mark. As always.”

“The way it should be. But James, don’t roll your eyes at me. You know how it annoys me when you’re passive aggressive. Now…breach!”

Bucky pushed away from the wall and kicked in the door. He rolled through the opening, coming to a halt on his knees, gun raised. 

There wasn’t anyone or anything there.

“No bogies here, Nat. You?”

“Nothing. It’s suspiciously quiet.”

Bucky rose to his feet and slung his rifle over his shoulder.

“I’ll work myself toward the centre and meet you there. First to find our disaster gays buys pizza.”

He heard Nat laugh over the comms, clear and unaffected. “You always make it so easy for me, kotenok.”

“Only because you’re easy for me.” Bucky couldn’t help but tease her. He could imagine the faint pink blush dusting her cheekbones about now. She was probably doing that cute nose wrinkle too.

“Bucky!” Nat hissed, but her tone didn’t hold any real censure.

“Okay, okay. I’m all business now. I promise. See you soon.”

Bucky pulled one of his knives from its sheath, gave it a cursory flip to check the balance, and then made his way toward the next door. If there was anything behind it, it would know Bucky was there - he hadn’t exactly been quiet when he’d come through the first door. He placed himself on the hinge side of the door, noting that this one opened towards him, and with a steadying breath, he pulled it open.

Immediately, laser blasts peppered the space Bucky would have been standing in if he’d opened the door like a normal person. He observed the rhythm of the shots for a few seconds, then rounded the door, his knife flying forward from his hand. There was a satisfying thunk, followed by a crash as the robot landed on the floor. Bucky walked towards the pile of metal, taking in its form as he pulled his knife from its ocular sensor. Why mad scientists had to mimic human biology by putting the CPU in the most obvious place constantly baffled him, but at least it made it easy.

He didn’t have long to ponder though. He heard a whirring noise and looked up to see four more robots bearing down on him. Sheathing his knife, Bucky unslung his rifle, holding it in his right hand. With his left he picked up the late robot to use as a shield. He felt the impact of the laser blasts, and peaked around the metal shell to aim his weapon. He squeezed the trigger, letting off three bullets at a time, and kept moving forward. One of the robots wouldn’t go down, so as Bucky approached it, he decided to use the one he was holding as a bludgeon. There was the screech of metal on metal, and the fizzing of wires as they broke, still sparking, then there was a pile of twisted steel on the floor. He opened his comms.

“Everything okay, sweetheart? I’ve had a few tin cans to deal with over here.”

“Doing fine, baby. Hang on…” Nat went silent for a moment, but Bucky knew it was just because she was concentrating. He heard the high-pitch whine of her Widow’s Bite deploying, followed by a hollow clang sound and then she was back. “How many have you taken out?”

Bucky looked around him.

“Five.”

“Ha! Six. I’m winning.”

“Malyshka, our competition isn’t about numbers, remember?” Bucky drawled, letting a small amount of condescension into his voice.

“Yours might not be, but mine is.” God, he loved this woman. She challenged him everyday and he couldn’t get enough.

“Always gotta be the winner, huh?”

“No ‘gotta’ about it. Just ‘am’, kitten.” He could see her smirk in his head. She was probably coyly twisting a lock of hair around her finger as she spoke as well. “Now, I gotta get into that next room.”

The comm line went quiet again and Bucky smiled to himself as he thought about all the ways he was gonna worship her when they got home. After he’d torn a strip off Steve and Sam for being idiots. However, he had to find them first.

He wasn’t surprised to discover more robots as he entered the next area of the bunker. They weren’t too difficult to deal with, especially considering how frustrated Bucky was feeling. A couple of laser shots grazed his jacket, the burning leather smell filling his nose unpleasantly. A replacement jacket was definitely coming out of Steve’s pocket.

Six more robots lay in a sparking, dented mess on the floor, but he just walked around them, moving forward. It was only a minute until he came upon a bulkhead door, the mechanism for opening it on his side. Bucky could also see that the door was dented, hit from the inside in what he assumed was an attempt to open it from the other side by someone exceedingly strong. It would take a lot to deform it like that.

“If you’re not behind this door, Steve”, Bucky muttered under his breath, “I’m gonna kill you.” He reshouldered his rifle and grabbed hold of the bulkhead wheel. It was tightly closed and the metal groaned under Bucky’s hands as he turned it. “Fuck Sam and fuck Steve, idiotic, stupid idiots.” He didn't know exactly what he was going to find when he got in there, but he wasn’t too worried. They might have some scrapes and bruises, at the worst be unconscious, but they were tough and no two-bit robot maker was going to get the best of them. Not for long anyway. 

The catch on the door fully opened and Bucky pulled it ajar. He slipped through but came to a dead halt at what he saw. This was definitely not what he expected to find. In fact, he was so taken aback that he didn’t notice the door swinging shut behind him, until he heard the clunk.

Sam and Steve leapt apart. Steve’s short blond hair was sticking up all over the place, evidence of Sam’s fingers having been threaded through it. Both their lips were kiss swollen, and their chests were heaving. Steve pulled the shield across his lap. Sam just used his hands to cover his crotch.

Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose and screwed his eyes shut. “Really, guys? You get stuck in the lair of a mad robot inventor, so you just end up making out like teenagers?” Steve flushed, his ears going bright pink, but Sam just gave Bucky a grin.

“What can I say, man. Stevie boy can’t keep his hands off me, even when we’re in mortal danger.”

Steve shot Sam a glare. “It wasn’t like that. We tried to get out, but the doors were too thick, and glass didn’t want to break either.” Steve waved over to the far wall, which was half glass, and appeared to have some kind of observation room on the other side. There was a door in that wall too, as equally as dented as the one Bucky had come through, giving credence to Steve’s story that they’d at least attempted to get out before getting bored and starting to get handsy with each other. “We knew you’d come when we didn’t check in, so we were just waiting. But you’re here now.”

“Unfortunately, though,” Sam drawled, “Because you let that door shut behind you, we’re now all stuck.”

“As long as you two don’t start sucking face again.” Bucky made a gagging noise.

“No chance of that, Bucko. Don’t you know that cyborgs kill the mood,” Sam fired back.

Bucky raised an eyebrow and cocked his hip. “Nat doesn’t seem to think so.” He held up his left hand and wiggled his fingers, the vibranium plates clinking and servos whirring. “In fact she…”

“...Would most likely kill you for having this conversation.” Steve cut him off. “And speaking of Nat…”

Steve pointed into the observation room, where the door into it had burst open and a man in a white lab coat and goggles was staggering through it, a very angry Russian redhead sat atop his shoulders. Nat rained blows down onto the man's face before doing her patented twisty thing where she spun herself down and hurled the guy across the room by his neck. He crashed into a table which had various electronics and tools across it, and didn’t get up. Nat, of course, landed on her feet and tossed her hair back. At that moment, Bucky didn’t think he could love her more.

Nat walked over to the control panel, a swagger in her steps. She peered down at it for a few moments and then pressed a button. The door to the side of the glass opened with a creak and Nat sauntered over and pushed it further open.

“I win, kotenok.” 

Bucky reached in a few long strides and, in an uncharacteristic display of public affection, wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her close.

“How do you figure that, sweetheart? I was obviously here first, and we haven’t done the final count of robots dispatched.” He smiled down at her and brushed a stray lock of hair back from her face.

“But I took out him,” she jerked her head in the direction of the felled robot creator, “and you got yourself trapped in with Dumb and Dumber over there. I think that means I can rightly claim the win.”

Somewhere behind them, Sam shouted out “Hey!” but both Bucky and Nat ignored him.

“You think, do you? I’m not sure I agree.” Bucky’s lips twisted up into an amused smile and Nat reached up and bopped her finger against the tip of his nose.

“Of course you don’t agree. You’re always wrong, Yasha. Now, let’s get home and you and I can try and salvage the rest of date night. You owe me a pizza.” She slipped effortlessly from his hold and spun away. Bucky looked over his shoulder at Steve and Sam and shrugged his shoulders, as if to say ‘what are you gonna do?’ and followed in her wake, picking up their unconscious captive and throwing him over his shoulder on the way.

They got outside and as they neared the two jets Bucky looked over at Nat, silent communication passing between them. She jogged towards the jet they’d arrived in for their rescue mission and Bucky peeled off toward the one that Sam and Steve had used. He jogged up the ramp ahead of his friends, and as he reached the top he pressed the ramp close button and dumped the robot maker on the floor.

“Um, Buck… What are you doing?” Steve called out to him through the narrowing gap. Bucky grinned back. “It’s only a two hour flight back to the compound. Surely you can wrap your legs around your boyfriend for that long.” He shot a wink at their outraged faces as the ramp closed and then whistled to himself as he made his way to the cockpit. 

Childish? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

Bucky sat down in the pilot’s seat, put the headphones on and switched to his and Nat’s private comms channel as he started the jet up.

“So, malyshka, what do you want on your pizza?”

Tag list: @km-ffluv @christywrites @alexakeyloveloki @doasyoudesireandlive

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Been talking about Roxy being cute and nice a lot lately. I just wanna say she's petty as hell, causes trouble on purpose for funsies, will absolutely throw hands if a competition gets too heated or just cause she can, absolutely vicious with her words if pushed, destructive as all fuck, and does not need another excuse to punch Freddy so hard his head falls off.

She's literally banned for life from Fazerblast she and Freddy hate eachother that much and Freddy is notorious for never banning anyone for more than a day at most. Roxy has seen the inside of Fazerblast a whole two times ever. To be fair, she hates cheaters and unfair games so with her fancy eyes, she wouldn't feel comfortable playing when she has such an unfair advantage she can't switch off, but that's not the point. Their beef is so bad that Glitchtrap fucking bails on Freddy whenever Roxy catches them luring a kid because he doesn't want to get his shit kicked in while she has way too much fun doing it. It's on sight. No fucks given.

Roxy is the bane of the managers and the staffs existence. Unless the rules make sense to Roxy, she's not following them for shit. What gets them is that the higher ups really like Roxy for some fucking reason, and by that, I mean her misbehaving makes them money. She was pre-programmed to play acoustic guitar, violin, and the drums. She was primarily meant to be the band's drummer but this motherfucker found an old ass keytar in the dusty as basement and fell in love with it. Showed up to her debut, too late for anyone to have a chance to stop her, and played keytar instead. Literally kept deliberately stealing the spotlight to give herself a solo or to drag out the song a little bit longer, she had an absolute blast with it and because the audience loved it, she fucking got away with it.

If literally any of the others had done that, they're convinced they would have got in such big trouble they'd be at risk of getting scrapped. Yet they're currently watching the staff hastily swap Roxy's art and posters for new ones without the drums like it was totally fine what she just did. And she never stops doing it! The others start to join in with it, but god damn that's frustrating at first, even more so when she refuses to stick to the script for five fucking seconds.

She's sworn in front of kids a good few times too. Wise enough not to do it in front of parents though, but it has happened and she's barely got a slap on the wrist for it. The higher ups don't really like when she ignores the pass system and takes kids into attractions they don't have a pass for without charging them, but it's only one or two every so often it's fiiiinnneeee... Bonnie did that one time and they had a real go at him though and she couldn't help but laugh about it cause haha lmao sucks to be him sounds like he did it wrong smh what an amateur!!

She's the king of getting away with shit. She'll find a loophole to anything she doesn't agree with, make her own rules, or just straight up not get caught. She's also the king of never letting anything go ever. If you wrong her, she will not let it go until justice has been served you mark her fucking words.

She's also a pretty sneaky lil shit. She's the fastest in the Plex, can see through walls and has the perks being a guard dog to Mimic gives her too. If she doesn't want to be found, well shit, she's just gone and no one has any idea where to. Completely vanished. Is she even still in the Plex? Who fucking knows!

Prides herself on being able to find anything and anyone in the building just you fucking watch. So long as it's in the Plex, she can find it. Don't ever doubt her on this. She will not hesitate to prove it. She loves showing off too much to let it slide, she will bet her life on being able to find shit and while sometimes it does take her a while, she's yet to meet her match.

The manager was threatening to scrap her one time when she was feeling particularly ballsy after she'd done something actually serious, and she really did bet her life on being able to find something. This fucker didn't believe anyone could be that fucking stupid, and given how much trouble she causes, it would be nice to kick her down a peg... She found the prototype drummer Roxy figurine he asked for within the hour. And then a plushie of one of the much older Bonnie animatronics within a day. And then a discontinued arcade cabinet his daughter wanted to play within the week. Like god damn she was not joking whadda hell. She's so fucking smug about it too like god. Whadda hell.

There's so much more to say about her there's just so many elements to her personality I could do this all day lmao

[blackjackkent]

There's definitely a lot going on in the ominously-named "Blighted Village" leading up to our quest marker for finding Halsin, and to be honest I'm skidding past most of it cos I want to at least start the quest soon. :D As with my BG1/BG2 liveblogging, I think I'm endeavoring not to get TOO hung up on side questing for this first playthrough (though I fully expect Hector to have a similar lack of attention span if something catches my interest :P ).

"Lookit, Klaw! Supper's here! Unless you got another reason to be here, feck-shite."

Charming people.

"Let's try to be diplomatic, shall we?" Gale points out in an undertone. "Goblins don't come by the handfuls but by the dozens."

Hector has a LOT of possible dialogue options here - simply asking for Halsin, plus [INTIMIDATION], [MONK][INTIMIDATION], [DECEPTION], [DETECT THOUGHTS] (from a scroll we've been carrying around), and my personal favorite, [NATURE]:

Incredible.

We also have the option of an [ILLITHID][WISDOM] check, making use of the tadpole to control the goblins since they're clearly also marked in some way by the mind flayers.

However, we're going to go with the nature check, because I am really trying to lean in, as much as the game will let me, to the idea that this is Hector's first real experience out in the world getting things done, that he's spent most of his time training martial arts or with his nose in a book, and that sometimes he just is completely lost on the idea of how normal conversations work. Even if this was a passed check, it would be an incredibly strange thing to say, but as it is:

Amusingly, the goblin doesn't even get angry - he just sort of stares at Hector in bewilderment.

He then suggests:

"Celebratin' a raid, we are. You'll need to wear our war colors." He points at a pile of animal dung in the middle of the path.

"Nice dab o' this across the mug oughta do it."

Gross.

"You can't be serious."

"Come on. Don't skimp, neither!"

Damn it. They need to get into this camp, and welcome visitors would be much better than combat. If this is some sort of...goblin tradition...

Grimace and do what you have to do.

The goblin immediately bursts out laughing. "HA! Hahaha! I can't believe you did it! You stupid idiot." He waves a hand dismissively behind him. "Go on, mate. Enjoy the festivities. You earned it."

Hector can feel his companions' eyes boring into his back, and flushes with humiliation. It takes all the self-control of the monastery to prevent him from dropkicking the little bastard, but instead he says, through his teeth, "I'm looking for someone named Halsin."

"Who?" the goblin asks disdainfully. "If he ain't one of us, and he's here, he's down in the pits."

"Down in the pits, no less," Gale murmurs. "Sounds ominous among creatures that love bloodsports. Better step to it."

Without another word, Hector turns and stalks away from the goblin, deeper into the camp, wiping the dung off his face as best he can. He deliberately avoids eye contact with any of his companions, but he can hear Astarion's soft snigger, and Gale's sardonic commentary drifting on the breeze.

[soft-bellied-tannies]

Stop Thinking & Just Listen

Read here or on AO3!

Yoongi stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom with a defeated sigh, finally giving up on buttoning his pants. He should never have agreed to go to Jungkook’s birthday dinner, but he also knew his friends would never let him pass it up without a good reason. 

His weight had slowly been climbing up over the past few months. Shifting to a full production studio at home and the ability to work fewer hours due to a more stable income had been a double threat on his waistline. 

The snacking, the takeout, the early nights, the late mornings. It was all starting to add up on the scale. His clothes were getting tighter and the insecurities were getting more intense with every pair of pants that left marks on his pale skin and every t-shirt that clung to his softening midsection.

Yoongi never thought he would care about something like his weight. He didn’t consider himself vain or caught up in what people thought about his looks, but when the number on the scale was higher every time he weighed himself, it started to chip at his hardened resolve. 

Hoseok was watching him from the bathroom where he was fixing his hair with an endeared expression. Call him strange, but he thought his partner was more handsome than ever with his new added weight even if Yoongi disagreed. 

“Yoon, would you just try on the pants I bought you? I think they will look great,” Hoseok suggested, having known this exact scenario would play out so he went out and bought a few bigger options to have on hand. 

Yoongi sighed again and ran a stressed hand through his hair. “It feels like I’m giving up if I wear those.”

“Giving up on what? Comfort?” Hoseok asked with a confused expression. He couldn’t understand his partner’s opposition to new clothes. 

“Losing the weight! I’ve really been trying, but nothing is working.”

Yoongi was getting afraid of how often they were having this conversation. The last thing he wanted to do was push Hoseok away. That certainly would destroy him much worse than putting on some weight. 

But, at the same time, it felt like Hoseok wasn’t hearing him. His partner wasn’t exactly sabotaging his diet, but he wasn’t helping either. If Yoongi mentioned he was craving something, Hoseok got it for him. He had always been one to treat Yoongi and their friends, but now that Yoongi was actually eating more - treating was baked goods and snack foods instead of an iced Americano or a glass of whiskey. 

“Babe, first of all, you don’t need to lose anything - you look great. Also, that is the worst reason to wear clothes that actually fit. Just try on the pants, for me, please?” 

Yoongi mumbled something that sounded like ‘low blow’ before grabbing the pair of black jeans off the stack on their dresser. He pulled them on and they slid up his body perfectly, zipping without any resistance. 

“See, those look great and I bet they feel much better, right?”

“Yeah, they are nice,” Yoongi replied, sounding more positive. “You really think I don’t need to lose any weight?” 

“Yoongi, I will love you no matter what you look like, but no, I don’t think you need to lose a pound. I’ll be honest, I’m happy that you are finally eating regular meals,” Hoseok explained, walking over to hug his partner while he did. 

Yoongi hummed in agreement. “I love you, too,” he replied before leaning in for a kiss. He took Hoseok’s words in and he really did try his best to believe him, but that angry little corner of his brain was still chattering. 

He knew his partner never said anything he didn’t mean, but Yoongi’s brain was making that very difficult to understand at that moment. Surely Hoseok was just saying those things to be supportive, not because he meant them. 

His brain was telling him that his grumpy disposition and introverted personality were already enough for Hoseok to put up with. The last thing Yoongi needed to do was add fat partner with a lack of self-control to the equation. 

Yoongi tried to reason with himself that he hadn’t gained enough to be considered fat, but he was aware that he was definitely considered chubby now and on his way to being fat if his appetite and poor eating habits didn’t slow down. 

“Hey,” Hoseok said, effectively cutting off his divisive thoughts. 

“Yeah?” 

Wrapping his arms around Yoongi’s shoulders, Hoseok pulled him into a warm embrace. “Would I lie to you?” 

Yoongi pulled back and looked at him with wide eyes. He never understood how Hoseok could literally read his mind sometimes. Letting out a low sigh, Yoongi pushed the thoughts away once again. “No, you wouldn’t. I know that, I promise.” 

Hoseok smiled and whispered that he was proud of him, taking his hand to leave their bedroom. Yoongi was silent throughout the entire time of putting on their shoes and heading out to the car so Hoseok decided to give him some time to think everything over. 

Although he wouldn’t admit it out loud, Yoongi was nervous about going to dinner while also feeling guilty about being nervous. This was a birthday dinner for one of their best friends with all of their other best friends attending, but there was also more to Yoongi’s insecurities than simply some outgrown pants.

He knew they wouldn’t say anything hurtful toward him with genuine intentions, but Yoongi also feared the potential interactions. Jin and Tae liked to tease him and weight was an easy thing to poke fun at while Namjoon and Jungkook both were unintentionally insulting at times with the way they spoke so bluntly even though they never meant any harm. 

And, of course, his friendship with Jimin thrived on banter and sarcasm. He knew they never took it too far, but they also hadn’t seen each other in nearly two months with their conflicting work schedules. Yoongi’s recent weight gain would likely be the very first thing Jimin noticed. 

Yoongi was so caught up in his head that he jumped when Hoseok parked the car, not even realizing they had left home let alone arrived at Jimin and Jungkook’s place. 

Hoseok nearly gave him the option to back out of going in, but he decided that Yoongi shouldn’t let the insecurities stop him from enjoying a night with their friends. Besides the fact that Jungkook would be quite upset with him bailing on dinner which would lead to an angry Jimin and no one wanted that. 

The entire walk through the lobby and the ride up the elevator were silent. All Hoseok initiated was a gentle hold of Yoongi’s left hand, tracing his thumb across his skin in a comforting way. It felt like the best way to support him at that moment. 

Yoongi was bracing himself for their entry into the apartment, knowing they were the last to arrive considering his lengthy try-on session of nearly every pair of his too-small pants. Hoseok knocked on the door without a moment of hesitation and Yoongi tried to ignore the fact that his heart rate was picking up as they were getting closer to potential discussions or comments about his growing waistline. 

Namjoon answered the door after they heard a voice directing him to in response to the knock. Yoongi let out a small sigh of relief knowing that he felt less exposed with Namjoon greeting them which brought the guilt right back about thinking poorly of his other friends. 

Sensing something was eating up Yoongi’s thoughts, Namjoon greeted them calmly and allowed Hoseok to pull Yoongi inside with him. Before they even had a chance to remove their shoes, Jimin was barreling into the entryway. 

“Yoongi-hyung! I missed you!” Jimin called out, throwing his arms around Yoongi and tucking his face in his shoulder. 

Hoseok didn’t miss the way Yoongi tensed under Jimin’s hold. If their dongsaeng noticed, he didn’t say a word. He hoped that Jimin’s happy demeanor would offer Yoongi some relief. 

With the lacking reaction, Jimin pulled back and placed his hands on Yoongi’s shoulders. “I know you say I annoy you every chance you get, but you really didn’t miss me at all?” Jimin asked with an exaggerated pout. 

Yoongi was waiting for more, waiting for the sting of his best friends noticing his lack of self-control, waiting for Jimin to look him up and down while trying to hide his shock or disgust. Surely Jimin noticed the added softness around his middle when he hugged him or realized the larger difference between them now that was never present before. 

Deciding to end the awkward silence and prepare for the impending comments later on in the night, Yoongi pulled Jimin back into a more genuine embrace. “Of course, I missed you, you brat.” 

Jimin just laughed and accepted the second hug with enthusiasm. He even smacked a kiss on Yoongi’s cheek which caused another bout of worry to flare up, hoping that Jimin wouldn’t say anything about his softening face. But, again, Jimin said nothing of the sort. 

The anticipation of their eventual comments might have been worse than them just saying it outright. Yoongi felt on edge and exposed like a raw nerve waiting for the sharp pain of his friends’ words to target his body. 

He hadn’t even noticed that the others had joined to welcome them while Jimin turned his focus on Hoseok, pulling him in for a hug that was just as tight and loving as Yoongi’s. Tae and Jin greeted them both with equally warm hugs, again with no comments. 

His breath caught when Tae hesitated before pulling him in for a hug, thinking the worst. What Yoongi would have realized if he were in a healthy headspace was Taehyung wanting to make sure his hyung was alright, the tension blatant on his face. 

Yoongi had to take a moment to breathe as he felt his hands begin to shake from the anxiety. He hid it behind the need to untie his shoes, thinking the entire time that they must be staring at the growing love handles that pushed out over his waistband when he bent over. 

He was berating himself for taking off his jacket already and not wearing an oversized hoodie to hide under. Yoongi had to restrain himself from the instinct to pull down his shirt even though he wasn’t at risk of showing any skin. It registered that he was taking way too long and stood up too quickly.

Jungkook was waiting patiently for him when Yoongi stood up, catching his hyung from stumbling over. Yoongi felt the blood rush to his face and forced out a strangled laugh at his clumsy movement. 

He was a little thankful that it was the youngest who would have seen him since Jungkook was unlikely to say a word on his own. He would possibly jump into a later conversation, but Yoongi felt safe at that moment at least. 

“Happy Birthday, kid,” Yoongi said as he opened his arms for Jungkook who accepted with a smile, trying to move past the odd interaction as quickly as possible. 

“Thank you, hyung,” Jungkook replied, stepping back after he realized that Yoongi felt a little tense. Jungkook knew the perils of social anxiety and assumed that his hyung was having a rough night or felt embarrassed by his near fall.

Yoongi, of course, took that as Jungkook realizing the added weight on his body and wanting to cut the hug short out of discomfort or judgment. His brain was calling him an idiot for not recognizing that Jungkook clearly felt how heavy he must’ve been trying to keep him upright. He awkwardly excused himself to the bathroom while the others went back to their spots around the apartment. 

Namjoon and Jungkook headed back to the couch to continue the discussion of a recent album they were having while Jimin continued showing Taehyung photos of his and Jungkook’s recent trip to New York. Hoseok felt himself being pulled toward the kitchen before he even had a chance to decide where to go or what to do.

Yet, in Yoongi’s mind, they were all obviously talking in hushed tones about his growing belly and chubby cheeks. Although, he wasn’t entirely wrong - there were two talking about him but not quite in the way his mind had convinced him.

“What’s up with him?” Jin asked as he made himself and Hoseok a cocktail, tilting his head toward the hallway that Yoongi had just walked down.

Hoseok rolled his eyes and leaned against the counter. “He finally agreed to wear the new pants I got him and agreed they fit well, but he’s been weird ever since.”

“Oh, he’s still on the weight thing? I think he looks great. He doesn’t look like a sleep-deprived toothpick anymore,” Jin replied, both laughing at the description. 

“I mean, I agree, but I also think he looks great all the time,” Hoseok said with a fond smile before he added, “I just want him to stop worrying about it so much.” 

Jin went to respond when they were cut off by Jimin’s voice addressing Yoongi who had returned from the bathroom. “Oh, Yoongi-hyung, are those new pants? Where are they from? Your ass looks fantastic.”

They heard the others laughing at the assumed blush on Yoongi’s face, especially since Jimin sounded completely genuine. 

“Well, I think that is certainly a start,” Jin said with a smile as he tapped his glass against Hoseok’s and walked away. 

Hoseok found Yoongi’s eyes as they walked back into the room and couldn’t help himself from sending a wink in his direction, only intensifying the pink color in his cheeks.

“U-Uh, thanks, Jimin-ah. Hobi got them for me,” Yoongi answered softly, caught off guard by the compliment when he had been preparing himself for the worst all day. For the first time since they left the house, Yoongi ignored the thoughts racing through his brain and listened to Jimin’s words instead. 

Jimin immediately jumped into asking Hoseok where he found the pants while he took a seat on Jungkook’s lap. He motioned for Hoseok to sit beside them while Taehyung also listened in on the conversation, interested in anything clothing related. 

Namjoon excused himself to refill his drink in the kitchen while Jin took his chance to talk with Yoongi. He walked over and bumped his shoulder into him. 

“Hey, you know Jiminie’s right,” Jin said nonchalantly, sipping on his drinking as he waited for a reply. 

“I-I..hyung, you know how Min-ah is, any chance to tease me,” Yoongi said, denying that the compliment was legitimate even though his heart was holding onto Jimin’s words tightly. 

Jin shook his head. “Come on, that wasn’t teasing and you know it. He meant it. You look great, healthy. I’m happy about it, honestly.” 

Yoongi’s brain came to a screeching halt as if Jin’s words simply would not compute or register. He coughed like he was physically choking on the words and felt Jin’s comforting hand on his back. 

“Oh, so dramatic, take it easy,” Jin joked, lighting the mood after dropping on bombshell on Yoongi just a moment before. 

“Hyung…I-I…what?” 

“Yoongi-ah, seriously, I mean it. You used to worry me, you know. I felt like I could see right through you when you used to run on Americanos and random naps. Knowing that you are actually eating real meals and getting full nights of sleep makes your hyung’s heart very happy,” Jin explained as if it were the easiest thing in the world. 

The tear fell down Yoongi’s cheek before he even realized he was crying. Jin tsked and wiped it away, thankful that the others hadn’t tried to barge into the conversation. 

“Thank you, Jin,” Yoongi said finally, feeling like a heavy burden had started to lift off his shoulders. 

“That’s hyung to you,” Jin replied, jokingly scolding him as he tapped Yoongi on the chin. “Let’s go get you a drink. You need one.” 

Yoongi laughed, a deep and genuine one that he felt hadn’t come out in quite a while. When Hoseok looked at him with a bit of watery expression, he realized that he had been stuck up in his thoughts for too long. 

Making a mental note to talk it over with Hoseok and apologize for worrying his partner, Yoongi decided to let go for the evening. “Hey, I thought this was a dinner party,” Yoongi said as they rejoined the group. 

Jimin’s smile grew as he stood up from his perch on Jungkook’s lap. “Well, we were waiting for you two old men to get on with it. You know we can’t eat without Jin-hyung; he gets cranky.” 

“Yah! Park Jimin!” Jin called out, chasing after the younger who escaped to the kitchen. 

Yoongi’s worries only drifted farther away seeing Hoseok’s proud smile followed by Jungkook’s excited voice. 

“Yoongi-hyung! I had Jimin-hyung order us lamb skewers from the place up the road we like. Sit next to me so we can share them.” 

“Of course, Gguk-ah,” Yoongi replied, laughing as Taehyung started bickering with Jungkook about how he liked lamb skewers too. 

Hoseok grabbed his hand again to guide them toward the table, a silent yet strong pillar of support as always. 

Although he was actually starting to feel like himself again, the insecurity wouldn’t disappear just like that. The worries would come back after a bad day or when he inevitably gained more weight, but instead of being afraid of his partner and friends, Yoongi knew he would rely on them.

[goodtojisoo]

ilichil as seventeen songs

a/n i couldn’t think of anything and i’m in writers block so i’m shocked i came up with this..? but nct and svt are two of my ults and i love our neoteen crumbs we get every other few months so heres this. stream all of the songs mentioned btw!

with taeil i had to debate a little bit. i even used a randomized wheel thingy and nothing seemed right but i thought about it.. and i’d say our dawn is hotter than day OR come to me. that entire album reminds me of him but mainly those two. especially as a vocalist, i couldn’t imagine him doing a cover to one of those songs. i’d simply just pass AWAY bro omg.

now taeyong wasn’t too hard to find. i thought he’d be just a hhu song but then i remembered his alter ego, bubu. i chose crazy in love for taeyong. tbh i still have a small doubt for him being this song but seungcheols rap in the beginning reminds me of him. especially the tone when he says “blah lah lah”. plus it’s a sweet song in my opinion so the pre-chorus is very taeyong imo.

for johnny i literally just thought about my favorite mingyu era and i WOULD say hot until i remembered the absolute bangers on that album. so instead, i said shadow. i don’t know what it is about johnny but him and mingyu remind me of each other so much. sticker johnny 🤝 shadow mingyu

ironically i chose a japanese song for yuta but THERES A GOOD REASON. i’ve been a consumer of nct content for exactly 826 days and i can assure you that betting is yuta. that song just sounds like you’d listen to it and think about scamming the rest of your way through life. to be honest it was either betting or lilili yabbay because the song has such a interesting concept too. i just said betting because of my favorite jeonghan line, “yes ima bet my all”

i had a similar problem with doyoung like i had with taeil. i just didn’t know like i really had to sit and think about it for a good minute or two. i think doyoung is lie again since it’s nice and slow you know? and like i said for taeil, if doyoung covered this song i would ascend to heaven.

oh gosh jaehyun.. jaes was actually kind of easy? i did think about it for a little bit but i didn’t use as much brainpower as i did with taeil and doie. jaehyun is DEF lean on me. if him and wonwoo just did a collab where they covered lean on me it would be so freaking amazing. all caratzens would be dead i SWEARR

jungwoo is kidult. when you read the lyrics not only do you want to bawl your eyes out but a small, very small, extremely small part of your brain is screaming, “JUNGWOO. JUNGWOO OH MY GOSHHHH”. and i’ll admit i have cried to kidult a few times.. i’m listening to it right now and the tears are coming but i’m fighting them 🫰

THIS WAS THE HARDEST ONE. i listened to my entire seventeen playlist and scrolled through mark pictures on pinterest. after some thinking and a few headaches i have came to an conclusion, mark is fronting. yes you heard me right. that song where vernon starts with “yea, she said she loves my rap”. that song. IT’S JUST SUCH A MARK SONG LIKE THE BEAT THE LYRICS ARE JUSF SO PERFECT FOR MARKIE POO.

i don’t think this song is really popular amongst carats but if you know this song i love you. haechan is no f.u.n. like i dunno i think his voice would fit a song like this. if they featured him on this i’d listen to this more than i listen to my therapist (which is almost never)

[fervency-if]

I really love how you write the scenarios, Niko! All of it is very sweet and cute! Personally my favourite is the Elan scenario with Gardener MC! (Or it's just my bias for Elan talking and add in the happy coincidence that I choose Gardener background for my Elan-Romancers MC LOL). I imagine as they both have long lives as an anemiac, the little sapling they planted would grow into a big tall tree someday, symbolic of how MC and Elan love for each other grew as they spend their time together. Their love may even helps the tree to grow in a way, as they took care of it together. Anyway what would Elan think when he see the sapling grow into a towering tree? If you don't mind another scenario, perhaps one where MC asked him if he wants to carve their initials on the tree that they grow together? MC might have become Elan spouse at this time hehehe

Aw, thank you most kindly, I'm really happy that you enjoy those little scenarios! Thank you for telling me, and for this sweet message overall! And that's a really nice coincidence indeed - I actually use a gardener main character when I playtest his romance route myself... no particular reason, actually, it just happened that way! He's popular among gardeners, it seems, because I know about a few other readers who romance him as a gardener. This is fun!

That's such charming thoughts you have, I really like them. The symbolism of it all is really sweet, and the love and care they would put into it. This made me smile! Here is the scenario:

"It's gotten big and strong," Elan says with a gentle little smile on his lips as you look at the tree together, hand in hand, thumbs caressing from time to time. The tree is large and towering. Healthy, thriving under your care. Far from the delicate little sapling it once was. "I sound like a father talking about his child..." He chuckles quietly. "Happy that it's getting big and strong."

"That just means that we're proud of it, no?" you reply, smiling, too. "I'm glad to see it look so well."

"I don't know how it would have looked if I took care of it alone," though, he replies. A slight frown that passes as quickly as it came.

"It would probably be alive still," you reply. "I was there to guide you from the start, but I doubt that you would have killed it. However that may be, though, it's not worth thinking about, is it? The important thing is that it is thriving."

"You're quite correct..."

"I have been thinking," you say. "The way I sometimes pass trees as I walk through forests and parks, and I see the initials of friends or lovers carved into it." You give his hand a little kiss. "I wouldn't mind doing the same, with my spouse here..."

"You say?" He smiles, almost shyly. You know that he is entirely comfortable in your presence, that he has been for a long time - yet there are some shy smiles from time to time still. A bit of a bashful personality even now. "I would like that... Very much, even. Can I carve yours, then? And you carve mine? If you find this all... romantic... I would see that as the most romantic option."

You're the one starting it - he insists, since it was your idea. He passes you his large hunting knife that he tends to carry with him. Even though it's sturdy and sharp, almost intimidating, you carve the E with utmost care. His movements, too, are gentle and delicate as he carves your initial into it. A large, rugged hand, a large rugged knife, but exceedingly tender here.

You back off a bit as the both of you are finished. A strong tree with a personalised little mark upon it. It thrives, and it will continue to thrive under your care.

[my-lost-darling]

Clever Whispers {Wendy & Hatter}

In which Wendy seeks out Hatter to out smart Nimble.

@davidhatter

Read It From the Start:

Challenge 1. Challenge 2.

WENDY

Wendy needed to work quickly, the snowstorm had put her on a hold but that didn't mean that Nimble would wait. If she needed to gain the advantage then she had to act now.

Strolling into Hatter's she only paused long enough to make sure the Fae Prince wasn't here. 

"Excuse me, Hatter? I have information that will benefit you but it will require you ask no question as I will not provide answers."

HATTER: At the sound of his name being called Hatter looked up from where he was pouring hot water into a mug. His eyebrows were raised, open and ready for whatever was going to be asked next since he was expecting the usual question. Things like Do you have extra napkins? and May I have a refill? 

Instead he was met with something he was entirely not prepared for, so the water continued to pour for a moment, then he set the kettle back down in order to give this person a proper look. When he couldn’t seem to understand whether they were being serious or not gave a cautious, “Alright.” 

WENDY

Wendy nodded her head, that was good, he might be cautious but he was willing to give her a chance. Perhaps a reason he would have been easily manipulated by Nimble too. 

He had been manipulated by some Fae most likely. Or maybe he was more than aware of how to handle a Fae. She would give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Follow me then. It’s time sensitive.”

HATTER: 

His mouth opened, a question wanting to be asked but he stopped himself before it could. That had been the only rule, hadn’t it? 

He turned, giving a quick sweep of the floor to see if he could follow this person without leaving those on shift high and dry. It wasn’t too busy right now and the ones working were more than trained by now to handle what they were doing. 

“Alright,” he repeated, more resigned now in that way someone would say after a very long argument knowing they hadn’t won and weren’t willing to continue it. Except nothing like that had happened because he figured it was better to skip the argument altogether. Hatter moved to tell his employees he was stepping out, pulled his apron off to go toss it in the bin where dirty aprons lay at the end of the day, and then went out to follow the stranger to…whatever it was they had information on. He figured this was a very bad idea but also figured that didn’t really matter. 

WENDY

Good. Wendy had expected more resistance. More of a fight, more questions. She couldn’t tell if it was good or bad but at the moment it was good for her. Stepping outside she waited for him to finish whatever he was doing.

She was more concerned about getting out before Nimble showed up. There was no telling if he wanted to make her sweat or he would act right away.

When Hatter joined her, Wendy wasted no more time, no words heading straight to the forest. Before she had even come to get Hatter she had walked the path to the point her trail of blood marked trees would lead her back to the girl.

And while the forest had been a little troublesome earlier, with Hatter it played nice. The paths were open, the markers she left easy to view. Wendy only glanced back to make sure he hadn’t got lost but offered him no other words considering he had followed her this long anyway.

Finally getting to the vines that separated them from Aurora, Wendy pushed back some of the brush to let them in.

She hadn’t moved from how Wendy last saw her, the vines around her still lush and green, even as you got closer it felt a little warmer that no snow touched her. She looked at peace, asleep with her hair spread out around her, her hands resting against her chest.

Still no words, Wendy stepped aside to let Hatter pass.

HATTER: Hatter knew he should have been more alarmed than he was by this situation. There should have been an edge to him, sharpened enough to cut paper clean through. Maybe he would have been had he not lived in a place like Swynlake in the manner that he had, where it was easy to trust a stranger. At least with his own life, he wasn’t one to gamble anyone else’s. Here everyone knew everyone, except if you were a tourist, but since this stranger knew his name Hatter had to assume that someone who knew him knew them, it just hadn’t come back around where he knew them, and since he couldn’t ask any questions he couldn’t ask where this circle started.

They led him into the forest and since he spent a lot of time out there collecting reagents or just to not have to listen to humanity for a little while it didn’t scare him. Again, it probably should have. A stranger leading another into an isolated area with nothing but a command for him to follow? It was written on the wall that this did not turn out well for him. Still, he followed, not thinking this stranger was an axe murderer but instead just a stranger who had information to give him and didn’t want to be overheard or something. Or maybe they were in trouble, needed help. Though that begged the question why they were asking some fool who stood behind a counter and baked bread for a living. One he couldn’t ask.

He didn’t even notice the blood, didn’t notice that they were going any particular way, just sort of huffed and puffed quietly behind her in an effort to keep up. It wasn’t until the forest started to look more alive than it was supposed to for this time of year did he start to pay attention. Hatter paused a few paces behind the stranger as they came to a curtain of vines, their hand pulling them aside. He waited until she moved and he figured that was his indication to get a leg on before she let them fall in his face. So he moved again, turning to the side as he bent through.

At first he was just confused, contemplating breaking their request and just asking them a question. They weren’t around anyone else now, maybe they would answer since no one but the trees were around to eavesdrop.

Then he peered around them, magic thick in the air, eyes passing over this area she had brought him to. Over the growing plants and the plush ground. It was there that he had to do a double take because there was someone laying on the ground.

Not just someone.

“Aurora.” Hatter was on his knees beside her in an instant despite their protests, looking her up and down in a bit of hysterics. There didn’t seem to be any injuries that he could see but there was something else there entirely. The magic that was radiating off this spot was coming from her, or maybe it was her, he couldn’t quite tell. His hand reached out, as if to touch her, like she was just asleep and he could wake her up, but it stopped. Somehow he knew better.

He didn’t take his eyes off the girl’s body, the girl who he had thought, had hoped, had gone off to live her life elsewhere without the weight of a curse to keep her tethered, when he finally addressed the stranger, “I’m going to have to start asking questions now or assume you had something to do with this, and that won’t be good for either of us.”

WENDY

Wendy didn’t blame him for wanting answers now, in fact she was impressed that he was willing to come so far with no information but when it came to a friend he was willing to risk it.

“You may ask but I may not have the answers you’re looking for. I do not know why she is here, why she is asleep nor how long she has been here.” Wendy did know the plants though, she knew Aurora was a game piece to Nimble and who knew if he was involved with this.

“What is your question?”

HATTER:

…well that had pretty much summed up everything he had been going to ask. He managed to turn enough to look at the stranger from over his shoulder for a brief moment before looking back to Aurora, letting himself pull a face of mystified annoyance since it wasn’t like Aurora could rat him out at the moment. Not that he would think she would even if she could. 

So, they didn’t know anything useful. But they had brought him out here to her. That might have been good to know, right? 

“How did you find her then?” he asked finally. 

WENDY

“There is someone in town who wanted to use the knowledge of her location to extract information from you. Perhaps she lead me to her to prevent it. Perhaps the forest did or perhaps it was luck.” Wendy didn’t know but she did trust the magic of the forest, there was no way it wasn’t alive. Especially not with the Elfhame plants living they way they were in the middle of winter.

“The answers may not be what you seek as I only understand part of this situation myself. What happened to her?” Heartless Wendy might seem she didn’t like leaving someone helpless in the forest.

HATTER: Hatter’s first instinct was to ask who the hell that was but then he figured it was the only person in town sick enough to hold a life over his head for leverage. Thistle. Of course it had to be Thistle, probably coming back for round two of questioning. Although this didn’t necessarily seem like something they’d do. They were always more of a brute force and intimidation sort of fae. And if they had done this since Aurora had been gone, why only just now try to use her against him?

He gave a bit of a huff, positioning himself into a sitting position to keep his knees from yelling at him any more. “You’re asking me? I had no idea she was even here. I thought….I thought she was finally out in the world living.” 

Yet there she lay. It reminded him of when her dog had come to find him, when she had seemed to be passed out or forced to sleep by whatever it was that curse had been taking from her. It made a tremendous weight of guilt sit heavy in his chest. Had this been where she was all that time? And he hadn’t thought to…

It didn’t matter. None of that mattered. What mattered now was getting her to open her eyes. Hatter wished he was a more capable sorcerer, one who studied things like this, who knew more than just how to make a soup that could unstuff your sinuses or a cookie that could bring enough warmth to you to make it home in the freezing cold. This was well above him and it made him feel sick with regret. 

He had to focus like he never had before, touch a hand to the Earth beside her and dig his nails in. Even then it was difficult to really know what he was looking at to begin with. It was all jumbled, he had no clue what he was trying to find or where he could get clued in. The amount of magic, the type of magic, it was just too complex for someone like him. 

Hatter sighed, shaking his head as he was getting ready to give up and tell the stranger that he didn’t know, but then he caught sight of Aurora’s face again. She looked peaceful, and normally that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing to be had it not been for the thought that peaceful might be all she ever looked like again. That she may never smile again or frown or laugh or even cry. 

It made him double down on himself, feeling stupid for being willing to throw in the towel with such ease. He placed his other hand on the ground, too, a slow breath releasing from his mouth. 

The magic was easy to find, it was everywhere. Hard to miss really in its overwhelming intensity. Instead of trying to focus on the whole Hatter tried to find a piece, one thread. When he did, he could feel the movement of it and followed as it traveled to the Earth, from there to a root, from there to a stem, from there to a leaf, and back again. The movement of the magic was like a wave touching at the beach, back and forth, there and again. But where was it coming from was the question…he followed it back to the source, having to hold on a little bit tighter, fingers digging in that much deeper, as it got closer. Closer to where Aurora was laying, her body still, and yet all around her was movement. That magic seemed to sense him now and sent something his way. 

Hatter opened his eyes, yanking his hands back before it could reach him. Where his fingers had dug up the grass, new blades had already begun to sprout. 

Oh. 

“She was cursed. I don’t know the details of it but it seemed like it was taking the life from her. It drained her to the point of passing out sometimes. But she had gotten free of it somehow,” he explained, not usually one to share someone else’s secrets with anyone, let alone a complete stranger, but this was different. He was also trying to explain it to himself. “This…this magic feels like it’s coming from her. And she’s obviously asleep deep enough where I don’t think a splash of water on her face is going to do anything. I don’t know, maybe it was a relapse. Whatever this is seems like the magic is taking from her to make all of this.” 

He gestured to the life around them, the vivid colors of the forest. The forest that should have been sleeping at this time instead of the girl that lay there instead. 

WENDY

Perhaps the Elfhame plants were siphoning energy from her? How had she gotten the plant though. There were those humans that went to Elfhame, perhaps she was part of that bunch. Stupid girl then.

She was literally a battery for whatever was happening here.

There was part of Wendy that wanted to leave this here. She had stuck it to Nimble already, she didn’t need to do anything else.

“If it drawing her energy, I can suggest something to replace her part in the equation, but I will require a promise before I give you that information.” Wendy offered moving to lean against a tree.

“If anyone approaches you to find out how you came in possession of the Elfhame Tea in return for information about this girl you will not give it. Nor my involvement in leading you to her.”

HATTER: Hatter kept trying to think of an explanation as to why or how this could have happened. How was it that a curse that had been lifted could come back to cause…all of this? She had said her chosen speciality had been Earth. He remembered, she had said she had been searching for something sturdy. Could that have had something to do with it? Maybe it hadn’t been her curse at all and just some sort of terrible spell that had gone awry. 

That was wishful thinking, though, because if this was the curse instead of some mistake of the hand then it was going to be horrible work to try breaking. 

As caught up in his worry for Aurora as he was, the mention of Elfhame was enough to slice through it and have his whole person stop. He blinked, one hand touching the ground again so he could turn himself to look at the stranger. 

Now suspicion and mistrust flooded his system. 

“Alright, who are you and how do you know about any of that?” 

WENDY

Wendy sighed as she watched him grow wary, grow distrustful of her and it looked like his eyes shut on her.

“I grew up there. Not of my free will. The same person that will approach you to gain information, was the one the hinted your tea was from Elfhame.” A much simpler explanation then what it deserved but what else could she say.

“All I want is whatever secret you have to stay a secret. And if you can save your friend in the process I can try to help that as well.”

HATTER: “Good lord,” he said, having to face forwards again so he could put his head in his hands as he tried to process that. This. All of it! 

Hatter also took that there was probably far more to this person’s story than they were telling him but, honestly, it was for the best that they didn’t. What he didn’t know couldn’t be compelled out of him and used against them. Also, he didn’t really care to know much more than that. The Fae were all a bunch of complicated, ridiculous, and dramatic beings that even the streamlined version was enough to make his head spin. 

All and all he came to the conclusion that anyone who grew up in, what he could assume was, a hellscape like Elfhame disliked it just as much as he did. Moreso, actually. And that, paired with the fact they’d led him to Aurora, seemed to fall along the trustworthy side of the scale. …right? 

Finally he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face before he, with slow movement and annoyed sounds, pushed himself back to his feet. 

“I’m sorry. That must have been…well, I don’t know, but I’m sorry all the same,” is all he could say to their situation before he moved on quickly, away from the awkwardness of that apology. “The secret is safe with me, I promise. I’d give my life for it even if I wasn’t under strict magical rule against the subject. And I won’t mention you, either, so long as she’s unharmed.” 

He gestured to Aurora then. “You said you had a suggestion on how to…er, what was it? Replace her?” 

WENDY

Wendy shrugged. There was no need to be sorry for her life. She was the one that lived it and as much as she wished it was different, you couldn’t rewrite the past.

“If whatever is draining her, or her magic there’s someone in Swynlake that might have something that can take that place.” It was Elfhame in nature of course. But there were already Elfhame plants here it made sense.

“It will be risky. There will be a price to it and one you may not be willing to pay. But what you do with the information is up to you. Their name is Ren. You can find them at the Rock Shoppe if you have trouble finding them. They have access to items, crystals that can act as a conduit. Perhaps if it feeds off that, she will awaken.” Sending him to make another Fae deal, Wendy wasn’t sure this girl was worth it. “I also suggest you mark your trail. I will not come back here.”

HATTER: 

It took him a second to catch up, to have his proverbial light bulb moment, with what it was this stranger was trying to tell him. A price. A risk. Blah blah blah. Now, where had he heard all that before? 

The stranger could have been talking about a demon, or a very particular brand of sorcerer that liked to pretend that they were hotter shit than they reasonably were. But, given where they had grown up and what all this had to do with, Hatter was willing to bet it was a fae he was being recommended here. It made him roll his eyes and chuckle, a hand touching his mouth at the sound. 

All those years of thinking he would only ever make one deal with the fae and now here he was again, probably about to make another. But, to him, it was well worth it. Whatever the cost was. 

“Right. Wish I’d brought my breadcrumbs with me,” he said, looking around and trying to think of how best to go about setting up markers for himself later. Hatter stopped and looked at the stranger again, voice turning over with sincerity. “Thank you for this.” 

WENDY

“If you pay attention to the trees there is some blood on the bark.” Wendy lifted her hand where the cut was still visible. The thanks made her uncomfortable though. One, of course because Mortals were too free with the words, but two because while Wendy liked to think it was a good deed, she knew it was a selfish one as well.

“This is more selfish than it was for your benefit.” Wendy stated simply moving to walk away before turning back, a sigh on her lips. “I do hope you are able to save her though.” Maybe one day Wendy would see her around town and she would know.

Perhaps she would never find out, back in Elfhame by the time this girl ever wakes up, if she ever did. But Wendy couldn’t concern herself with this anymore. There was too much on her plate.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

The Karasu brainrot is too real….no I agree they added a little extra spice in the way they drew Karasu (I esp love the panel where nagi asks him if he and Otoya knew each other before bllk and he goes “no dumbass” like THAT EXPRESSION ugh >>>>)

Omg that title sounds like a banger..!!! Tbh I love the like nature vibe a lot of your titles give but oh god I think I got too comfortable with the crack/happy moments that I forgot about angst..gotta mentally prepare myself for that….

TRUE Brock is sooo malewife coded LMAOOO the first few seasons were really peak the comedy and humor was also so out of pocket sometimes like the characters straight up roasting the crap out of each other

Something about just reading “team z but not THE team z” made me laugh for some reason LMAOO honestly I forget so often about how there were technically four other team zs like….someone needs to reveal the other first selection stratums im dying to know…at least we have team v tabieita confirmed!! As they should

I love stupid emojis they enhance the twitter feel by like 200%

Anri and ego as parents I can’t even imagine that like whoever is the child would definitely need some help LMAOOO hiori having tabiy/n as his OTP because he desperately needs new parents is so funny

SO TRUE ugh I know there’s only so much an author can do in the scope of one work but seeing unlikely interactions is sooo entertaining to me…that’s esp why I love the game snippets too because some of the combos are so random or there’s just not enough time in the main plot for you to see them interacting!!!

Ok so far I haven’t seen much….i think the only thing was a new visual I saw briefly in passing but it’s so funny you’re right on the mark it’s Isagi Rin sae and aiku ofc….but the title for the new season is officially called bllk vs. u-20!! I fr am dying to see tabieita animated along w the other third selections characters like yuki hiori and Nanase!! So hyped the art seems to look a lot more intense too

- Karasu anon

karasu brainrot too real…and PLS that was the exact panel i was thinking of!! like otoya looks cute ofc but at least to me it feels like the majority of the detail was put into karasu LMAOAOA but like no complaints from me 🙂‍↔️🙅🏻‍♀️

HAHA i feel like i do tend to use plants/animals a lot in my titles!! idek why…but YES angst will always make a debut 🤫 although i’m worried that once i start honing in on an au it’s going to make more sense for another character 🤔 kinda like how hollyhock is such a perfect au for otoya 😩 like imagine i come up with smth and then karasu doesn’t even make sense as the male lead 😭💔 trust i will still write it but it would be crazy

BROCK THE MALEWIFE he needs to go to barou’s respecting women boot camp and then he’s set!!! and YES bro they are all such shitheads it’s so funny

LMAOO yes like she would be on team z but not the one we actually care abt just a random team z 😭 it’s so interesting to think abt which players knew each other from the first selection!! this is kinda unrelated but it just made me remember in the third selection when karasu scores and isagi is like “he’s…a villain 😰” but then shidou says smth like “nice job karasu-chan 😄” LMAOAOA shidou x karasu besties era?? maybe the real reason karasu is in the shidou system in pxg is because they’re both chill like that

hiori doesn’t care abt “healthy relationship dynamics” in the sense that he does NOT gaf if y/n and karasu are actually into one another he literally just thinks they would make excellent parents so they’re automatically his otp 😓

no i get it completely like there’s only so many relationships you can write while still advancing the plot which is why extra content + epinagi are so fun to read!! plus i love when fics expand on unexpected friendships too…not that i rlly read them that frequently nowadays but as a rare pair enjoyer both romantically and platonically it’s always fun to see new interactions like that

JFJCSJXJSN tbf rin sae isagi and aiku have a colored spread in that part of the manga too i think?? so it makes sense but even still 😔 AT LEAST PUT NAGI IN THE PROMOS HE’S THE FIRST BLLKER TO SCORE AGAINST THE U20s 😭💔 barou also does score but they definitely are going to make the barou entrance a cliffhanger for anime onlies so i can see why he’s not included as much…icl i’m actually more hype to see barou’s goal than rin’s breakdown/berserker flow because barou’s goal had me sm more hyped

[angelplayzgames]

Holy cow

I forgot about this one

It was an abandoned au I made for Undertale

Some parts aren’t even finished. So. If there are time jumps or things don’t make sense, that’s why.

Current setting of story: Waterfall

"hopefully paps doesn't get too upset with me taking a break from my post, heh." Sans muttered to himself as he treaded along past a field of echo flowers. The flowers seemed to mutter words they have heard. The flowers mumbled simple phrases like, "Why not?!" "How?" and "Okay."

Others mumbled entire sentences, stories even. Some playback sounds, like the splash of something falling into the water, or the footsteps of someone. Sans had always wondered how they were able to replicate sounds. And if he were to know how they were able to, he still wanted to know why they do so.

It's possible for the flowers to have evolved to use this as a technique to evade predators before all monsters were trapped in the underground. But, no one he knew ate echo flowers. Maybe the flowers kept this trait for some other reason.

Sans walked by an echo flower that was growing right out of the water.

* You hear a passing conversation.

"Hey Ma! Look at me!" There was the sound of a child giggling. "Watch what I can do!" The sound of someone jumping into water, followed by the sound of a mother chuckling. "That's very nice sweetie." Sans thought the conversation between the two was endearing to say the least.

Sans found some luminescent mushrooms. He thought that they were a neat little organism. He recalled overhearing some kids studying the previous week, that mushrooms were neither plants nor animals. They were in their own kingdom, and their stem being composed of hyphae.

He continued walking around Waterfall taking in the scenery. Sans heard an argument between a Woshua and an Aaron repeating from an echo flower.

* You hear a passing conversation.

"You smell like sweat! When was the last time you cleaned yourself?!" The monster, probably the Woshua, pouted.

"Chill my brah! I have no time for such things! I want to look and smell like a bodybuilder so Mettaton could let me in one of his shows ;)" The Aaron made an audible winking noise.

"NOT LIKE THIS! Why do I even hang out with you? You're so unclean." The Woshua scoffed,

"It's because you love me~ Admit it Woshy~ ;)" The Aaron flirted.

"Okay you're right." The Woshua sighed in defeat."

The flower finished up with someone getting pushed into the water, followed by laughter.

"that's cute." Sans thought to himself. He looked around at the scenery. It's pretty calming after waking up to a nightmare he had this morning. He's been having them since he was a baby bones. But they're not as frequent and terrifying as they used to be. There was this one time, a year ago or so, he had a nightmare. But, when he had woken up, his room was torn up. Bone attacks, scorch marks, everywhere. Sans was surprised to say the least. He's never done this before. The dream must've been an agonising experience.

Sans found himself standing on a platform across from one of the many waterfalls. He noticed a stray echo flower.

* I thought I saw something, behind that rushing water.

Sans was curious. What could be behind the waterfall? Was it some sort of treasure?

Sans took a moment to think about having to squeeze the water out of his socks. He pondered over whether he should check what's behind the waterfall or not.

He carefully stepped onto one of the stones.

*bzzzt* *bzzzt* Sans' phone buzzed in his jacket pocket. He checked to see who was calling.

It was Papyrus.

The sudden ringing had caused Sans to fall straight onto his bum. Getting completely soaked.

"SANS! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Papyrus yelled into the phone.

"chill bro, m'just taking a break." Sans shrugged, he knew he had to get back to his post. He never would've taken the position if it weren't for his brother.

"GET BACK TO YOUR STATION!"

"kay bro."

* Click.

"okay," Sans rubbed his hands together; "shortcut time." Sans opened a shortcut and hopped on through.

Papyrus was impatiently thumping his boot on the snow waiting for Sans to arrive.

"okay, m'here now bro—"

"—OH MY SWEET ASGORE!" Papyrus gasped, he put a hand against Sans' sentry post and attempted to regulate his breathing from being scared half to death by Sans.

"oh sorry bro, didn't mean to spook you," Papyrus rolled his nonexistent eyes, "out of your skin." Sans made finger guns and pointed them at his brother.

"Not funny Sans," Papyrus pushed himself back up, "What if a human came? WHAT IF WE HAD MISSED THEM?! WHAT IF WE MISSED OUR CHANCE INTO THE ROYAL GUARD?!" Papyrus stressed.

"easy there bro," Sans attempted to calm his brother down, "it didn't happen, no human. you'll still have your chances. you're the coolest monster i know after all." Sans reassured Papyrus as he walked behind his sentry station.

* Smells like ketchup, mustard, and relish.

Sans laid back on his chair and propped his legs up in a comfortable position.

"You better not fall asleep again you lazybones." Papyrus sighed before walking away to tend to his puzzles.

"no promises bro." Sans chuckled to himself.

Sans' eyes follow Papyrus as he turns a corner, no longer in his field of vision. Sans sighs as he looks up. He watches the snow slowly float down and settle on the ground. It's quite calming.

The snow collects onto some leaves on the conifers around Sans. Every so often, the snow becomes too heavy, causing the snow to slip off of the branches. One time, some of the snow flung, hitting Sans square in the face. He spent hours trying to get the rest of it out of his skull.

Sans rolled his metaphorical eyes at the thought. Sans decided to go on his phone, maybe that box of nuts and bolts is on. He didn't really like Mettaton, but in his boring situation, it was better than watching snow fall.

"aw man, there's not even a show scheduled for today." Sans sighed, stuffing his phone back into his pocket.

There's not really much to do while waiting for a potential human to arrive. One hasn't come for quite some years.

Sans thought to himself.

Sans looked around. Maybe he could just close his eyes. Not sleep, just close his eyes.

And rest.

Chapter 1

"No, I understand. You would just be unhappy trapped down here. The RUINS are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this. My expectations, my loneliness, my fear. For you, my child...

I will put them aside. If you truly wish to leave the RUINS.. I will not stop you. However, when you leave. Please do not come back. I hope you understand."

Sans was fast asleep, snoring away at his sentry station. He was having the weirdest dream, something about how his jacket turned into a duck, and it took on a personality like him. His brother was ranting about how he had to take care of two lazy monsters now. Snowdin Forest is very bland because of how little happens. It makes a nearly perfect napping spot, as Sans figured out. It was very quiet most of the time, aside from some Icecaps and SnowDrakes coming to have snowball fights every now and then.

One time, one of the SnowDrakes accidentally threw a snowball at Sans when he was sleeping. They of course had to apologise. He spent the rest of his afternoon trying to get the rest of the snow out of his eye sockets. He had to sit through his brother telling him "This is why you shouldn't fall asleep!" And whatnot. Sans hadn't been woken up so abruptly like that in a while.

BAM!

There was the loud slam of a large heavy door. Sans woke up and fell out of his chair. The snow cushioned his fall.

"eh?" Sans remarked, pushing himself back onto his feet. He brushed the snow from his jacket off.

"who could possibly be over there?" Sans muttered to himself. He peeked behind some trees. He was genuinely curious, nearly no one comes over here to this part of Snowdin.

Sans saw what he thought was a monster.. no wait.. Some kind of weird skeleton with flesh and skin? No..

Sans spotted.. a. What is that? Is.. Is that a human?!

Sans watched the human through the tree trunks. So many thoughts were racing through his skull right now. He should bring the soul to Asgore. But, it feels like somethings stopping him. He feels like his body starts to move on its own. It's odd.

The human bent down and looked at the stick in front of them. It was too heavy for them to pick up. They decided to leave it alone. They turned back around and continued to walk forwards.

Sans suddenly teleported on top of the stick, easily snapping it in two. The kid whipped their head around instinctively. But no one was there. They hesitantly stepped to the stick. A mix of fear and curiosity spread across their face as they inspected the damage.

*(It's been smashed like it was nothing...)

The kid decided to continue walking. They were getting closer and closer to Sans' sentry station. Sans followed them close behind. But his footsteps were heard, the kid whipped their head around, but Sans had teleported into the woods, the human only got a vague glimpse of this strange monster. Sans notices the kid was holding what looked to be a plush knife. This made Sans slightly uncomfortable. I mean, it's normal for kids to carry around toys, Papyrus had a stuffed tiger he dragged around with him for a long time, until he was 14 years old. He named it *Mister Orange*, his brother was much better at names than their king was. Sans thought it was normal for kids to carry around stuffed toys, but a knife?!

Sans watched as the kid approached the gate his brother made. He decided to talk to the human. Sans started to walk up to them, his steps echoing around the forest, slightly crunching in the snow. Frisk stopped in their tracks right in front of the gate.

"human. don't you know how to greet a new pal?" He said, it was a bit forced. But it was what he wanted to say regardless.

"turn around and shake my hand."

The monster put his hand out, for a handshake. The human stood there facing away from the unknown monster for a moment. After a few seconds, they clenched their eyes shut, and reluctantly turned around. The human raised their hand to shake his hand.

*whoopee cushion sound lol*

Frisk had a look of surprise and confusion.

"heheh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick." Sans chuckled, before putting his hand back into his pocket.

"it's always funny," Sans looked to the side, seemingly remembering all of the times he did this prank before.

"anyways, you're a human, right?" He met the human's gaze again.

"that's hilarious," He smirked, "i'm sans. sans the skeleton."

"im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now," He shrugged, "but, y'know."

"i dont really care about capturing anybody."

"now my brother, papyrus," This sentence seemed to grasp the kid's attention.

"he's a human-hunting fanatic." Sans emphasised the last word. This made the human curious.

Sans heard his brother talking to Doggo in the distance. He was pretty loud, it was pretty hard not to hear him.

"hey, actually, I think that's him over there," Sans just barely looked over to the human's head, he spotted a conveniently shaped lamp around his sentry station.

"i have an idea. go through this gate thingy." The human looked back at the wooden gate, then back at Sans.

"yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." Sans led the human through the gate.

"quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp." The skeleton pointed over to a lamp.

The human was confused on why there was a lamp out here, there weren't even any power outlets. Frisk reluctantly followed Sans' instructions. The lamp was surprisingly clean despite everything else being covered in snow.

Soon, Frisk heard the footsteps of another monster coming. They slowly peaked behind the lamp to get a better picture of what was going on.

"sup, bro?" Sans looked up at the taller skeleton with a smug grin.

"YOU KNOW WHAT SUP, BROTHER!" Right off the bat, Frisk noticed that Sans' brother was very loud.

"IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T.."

"RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!" The skeleton ranted.

"YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!"

"staring at this lamp, it's really cool. wanna look?" Sans smirked.

"NO!" The tall skeleton started to get frustrated, visibly thumping his feet on the ground in anger.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR SUCH! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES BY SANS!?" Frisk felt like laughing out loud, but they muffled their laughter behind their hands.

"I WANT TO BE READY!!! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!" Papyrus struck a cool pose.

"THEN I WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT, RECOGNITION! PEOPLE WILL ASK TO BE MY FRIEND!!" Frisk couldn't help but feel pity for Papyrus.

"maybe this lamp could help ya." Sans smirked, this statement seemed to make Papyrus infuriated. "UGHH! SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING!" Papyrus raged while Sans snickered to himself. The energy these two brothers had were quite entertaining. Frisk couldn't help but wonder what it's like at home with these two.

"ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!" Papyrus roared at Sans.

"woah, take it easy paps, i've gotten a ton of work done today," Sans smirked, " a skele-ton," Sans made finger guns and pointed them at Papyrus. Papyrus was not amused by his brother's lack of cooperation, especially making puns during very inappropriate times like this. He does this all the time. It gets on Papyrus' nerves.

"UGHH! SANS!"

"aww come on bro, you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT," Papyrus sighed in defeat, "Why does someone as great as I, have to do so much just to get some recognition?" Papyrus' confidence seems to falter for a second before returning.

"wow, sounds like you're really working yourself. down to the bone." The final pun made Papyrus lose it.

"AGHH! THAT'S ENOUGH! I WILL GO TEND TO MY PUZZLES!" The tall skeleton started to storm off.

"OH AND AS FOR YOUR WORK," Papyrus smirked, "PUT A LITTLE MORE, BACKBONE INTO IT! NYEHEHEH!" Papyrus added before parading off.

Frisk looked at Sans, waiting for his approval to come out of hiding. Papyrus' footsteps slowly got quieter and quieter, until it was hard to make out any crunching of snow.

"alright, you can come out now." Sans affirmed, he watched as the human hesitantly peaked out behind the lamp.

The human watched as Sans stuffed his hands back into his jacket pockets. Frisk started to look around the area, they spotted a hidden camera behind Sans' sentry station. They thought this was pretty weird. Why would there need to be a camera here?

The human decided they would go and explore further. As soon as Sans noticed them stepping into the next area, he wanted to tell them something.

"hey, uh, kid. before you go." He sighed, "hate to bother ya, but, can you do me a favour?" Sans asked. He himself wasn't one who liked to make promises, since you have to deal with the sacrifices you have to make in order to keep that promise.

"my bro, papyrus, he's been kinda down lately, he's never seen a human before. and seeing you just might make his day." He was thinking of his interaction with his brother this morning. It made him sad to see him upset like that.

The human's face was full of confusion and a bit of fear. Sans noticed this and quickly added on, "don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be," Sans smiled to himself, he saw that after he said this, the kid seemed better, "thanks a million. i'll be up ahead." Sans grinned and turned around.

This however confused Frisk, didn't Papyrus go the other way?

Frisk shrugged it off and continued onwards.

Sans watched as the kid cautiously walked into the next area. Yet he couldn't bring himself to stop thinking about what could've been behind that waterfall. Sure someone could be playing a prank on him with an echo flower, but he feels like he would know if someone were.

Sans opened up a shortcut a bit further ahead of where the human would be, he nearly tripped and landed flat on his face because of a stray rock in the middle of the path.

"don't remember that being there before?" He mumbled as he regained his balance. Sans has been down this path hundreds of times, though he's never seen a rock in this path before.

"THERE YOU ARE YOU LAZY BONES!" His brother stomped over, "I KNOW TODAY IS THE DAY I FIND A HUMAN!" Papyrus grinned. Sans couldn't help but want to be like his little brother, and always have so much hope. Sans half-listened to Papyrus ranting on how hard he works on puzzles. And occasionally about how lazy Sans is. He really loved his brother, he really did. But sometimes, Papyrus can be a bit.. Eccentric.

Sans' mind started to wander, it often did when he's confused or curious about something. He couldn't help but think about what could've been behind the waterfall. It was probably just a Temmie, but if it wasn't.. Then what could it be?

He heard the faint cry of a kid behind him. Sans instinctively looked back to see what happened. But the only thing that gave him any idea of what could've happened, was the faint smell of dust in the air.

"AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE," Papyrus noticed the human Sans saw earlier. He noticed that the dusty scent was coming from the human. This sent a chill down Sans' spine.

"did.. did the kid just kill someone? nah, that can't be, they're just a kid." Sans tried to reassure himself, yet he still had that nagging feeling.

"OH MY GOD, SANS IS THAT A HUMAN?"

"uh, i think that's a rock paps."

"OH,"

"hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY GOD!"

"IS.. IS THAT A HUMAN?" Papyrus loudly whispered to Sans.

"yeah." He replied back.

"AHEM!" Papyrus cleared his nonexistent throat and struck a confident pose, "HUMAN YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL STOP YOU!"

Sans zoned out, his brother's obnoxious yelling at the human (who was only a couple yards away) becoming muffled as he drowned in his thoughts. He kept staring the kid dead in the eyes, something was off about them. They gave off a nasty feeling, one that would make you want to back away and hide. But he couldn't leave his little brother alone with them. Sans wanted to trust the human, but he wanted to see the surface with his brother as well.

His train of thought was abruptly halted by his brother placing a hand on his shoulder, "LET'S GO BROTHER, WE NEED TO RECALIBRATE OUR PUZZLES!" And without another word Papyrus paraded off, leaving Sans alone with the human.

Sans stood there awkwardly as he and the human stared at each other.

"so uh," Sans stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, "nice weather we're havin?"

No response.

That only made the situation even worse, not only was the kid probably a murderer, they weren't responding with any emotions. Blank as a sheet of paper.

Sans sighed and left the kid. Perhaps he shouldn't think about them, not that it wasn't important. They were a human, with their SOUL, the barrier could finally be broken. What he really was curious about was what could be behind that waterfall.

He opened up a shortcut to Waterfall, he stepped through into the same place he was last time: Beside the echo flower.

"now, let's see what's behind here." Sans thought out loud, he slowly approached the waterfall. He took immense caution since there were rocks falling down the waterfall. It was like something or someone was trying to keep him out.

The river stones beneath his feet made clacking sounds as Sans stepped closer to the mysterious thing behind the wall of gushing water. He pulled his hood over his skull, and prepared to get extremely soaked. Sans clenched his eyes shut and stepped through the rushing waterfall. After he took another step in, the water stopped pouring down onto his head, this confused Sans slightly. He rubbed his eyes and pulled his soggy hood down. To the drenched skeleton's surprise, there actually was something there, though not exactly what he was expecting.

Sans wouldn't admit it, but he somewhat thought it was going to be some sort of treasure chest or something similar. But instead, his gaze was met with an old, dusty leather journal of some sort. He gave a slightly disappointed sigh, and moved closer to try to examine its at a better angle.

"perhaps this is someone's diary, or some kind of book someone stole from the library?" Sans picked up the notebook, getting dirt all over his hands in the process. He placed a bony finger onto its cover, feeling how leathery it was. His finger was full of dust, not monster dust, just the kind you'd find in an old attic.

Sans blew on the book's cover, resulting in a cloud of debris that got into his eyes. He coughed a bit before taking a better look at its title.

"property of," he squinted his eyes in an attempt to make out what it said, "ehh, it's all scratched out? weird." He mumbled under his breath. Sans didn't even know how long this book has been here for, but if he were to guess, probably a while. He noticed how the edge of the cover was slightly damaged due to some water.

"welp, let's see what ya got." Sans sighed, turning to the first page. He squinted his eyes and tried to decipher what the text said. It was pretty difficult, it looked like a dog tried to write something in a hurry. Sans had seen Greater Dog's handwriting, which looked very similar to this except the text was smaller and somehow more detailed. Some of the words were scribbled out, while others were completely incomprehensible, like someone tried to bury it but something happened. He tilted his head in confusion as he attempted to decipher the first unnerving paragraph.

—

"Whoever is reading this, the following pages contain the [_____] to the game Un[___]ale. Please do not alter any of its [{o6e]. If you read any of the fIl3s, the book will automatically update to you having ownership. Trust me, trying to handle the res/////bi-_ity is too much. Please [s_v_] your[s_lf]. The b__k foll_ws [¥_°]. NØ €$C4_P3. RUN."

—

The rest of the passage was scribbled out, he was a bit more nervous flipping to the next page, but Sans took a deep breath and turned to find out what the next page could have to say.

—

[S@n$]

[j_dg€_ent_h4\\]

[" it's_^_8€4Ut!FU__d4¥_Ø_ts!6£___]

[U__D€RT_LE]

[EV€NTS]

[1_DAY_AGO]

—

Sans read the entire chapter, it listed everything that happened the day before. It was like someone was writing his perspective on how he perceived the world. With his exact thoughts. Was someone stalking him? This passage only made Sans more curious.

[CURRENT]

"Sans blows dust off of the mysterious journal, the book of [___________], he reads the previous paragraph. Sans begins to read this passage, which caused Sans to become [________]."

—

This passage made him think he was being watched. Sans looked up from the book half-expecting to see someone behind him. No one else was there in the room, except he, the book, and a slowly increasing feeling of dread.

—

"Sans begins to read this passage, which caused Sans to be̶c̶o̶m̶e̶ [feel] watched. Sans looks up from the book."

—

He watched as the page updated right before his eyes. Sans didn't know whether he felt intrigued or creeped out, perhaps a bit of both.

At first, Sans thought this was just some kid's old notebook at first, but this was starting to freak him out. But the thing that scared him the most, was when he turned back to the cover page.

The title that was originally only said, Property of, now read:

"Property of Sans Serif ☝︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎"

Sans' pupils became small white slits in a mix of fear and confusion, he dropped the book instinctively. The book made a deafening thud sound as it fell to the ground.

Sans staggered back from the book as if the pages themselves were evil. His soul was nearly pumping out of his ribcage. Sans had to manually breathe in and out to calm himself down, but even then he was still tensed up.

"that was...weird." He opened up a portal back to his house, already trying to move on.

Sans left the stalker book and went back to his house. He needed a break after what just happened. He tensely made his way up the stairs, unlocking his room, and face planting onto his mattress. He let out a long hard groan. He flipped over onto his back and thought about everything he just read. The way the words seemed to be writing on their own, made him feel uneasy. Especially his name embedded on the leathery cover when he turned it over.

He sighed looking around his room as his mind wandered as it often did in stressful situations.

There's no way that was a hallucination. Everything seemed so surreal. The writing, the way it described, heck even the scratched out bits made it seem like he was being watched. But how could this be possible? It doesn't take a Royal Scientist to understand that what happened was out of the ordinary. Even so, one of the only logical explanations for this phenomenon, would be a ghost playing a trick on him. But the only ghost in the underground that he knew of, was Nabstablook. But Blooky isn't the kind of monster to do that sort of thing. So that explanation goes into the trash. Plus, there would be some sort of utensil writing down the sentences, he knew ghosts had the ability to become invisible. But they weren't quite capable of doing so to other objects or entities.

Just, chill Sans. Maybe you're going a bit crazy. No big deal. No. Big. Deal.

No matter how hard Sans tried to forget about what happened, he just couldn't bring himself to it. His pupils darted around the room as he continued to think, until he noticed something out of place.

A book.

Sure Sans likes to read in his free time, but usually he stacks them in a corner, but this book was at the edge of his mattress. And it had an old, dirtied leather cover.

"so that's what it meant by "the book follows you." it quite literally does." He muttered a bit fearful under his breath.

He slowly crawled over to the book, clutching the brown leathery cover. Sans stared at his name etched on the cover with sloppy handwriting. It wasn't even his own handwriting. He attempted to try to make out what the last word said, but it looked like it was erased, scribbled and scratched out.

He took a deep breath before gazing back to its pages. Sans didn't really know what to expect from the journal at this point, he felt quite uncomfortable holding it.

Sans briefly skimmed through the pages. Everything after the tenth page was empty. The diagrams looked like they were just waiting for someone to come and fill them out. Then, he came across an unsettling piece of information. The thing that made it even more horrifying, was that it was still updating.

—

[PAPYRUS_SNOWDIN_FIGHT]

[PLAYER_LV_6]

"HUMAN. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE... THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL. THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!!!

I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU... LONELY HUMAN...

WORRY NOT!!! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR...

...

NO.. NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND! YOU ARE A HUMAN!

I MUST CAPTURE YOU!!! THEN I CAN FULFIL MY LIFELONG DREAM!!! POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS! THAT'S PAPYRUS! THE NEWEST MEMBER! OF THE ROYAL GUARD!!"

—

Sans wanted to get up and do something, but it felt like another force was keeping him from doing so. He knew the human was up to something, but he never expected them to battle his little brother. Sans could only read what happened, as the scene was being written down in front of him.

—

[BATTLE_ENGAGED]

[* PAPYRUS_BLOCKS_THE_WAY!]

[PLAYER_LV_6]

[HP_40/40]

—

Sans' pupils turned to pinpricks when he finally noticed the human's LV. It was 6. Which means... They had killed many monsters along their way, but will they kill his brother? Sans had to stop this from happening.

Suddenly, he remembered he had a pen somewhere. Sans shot up in search for the pen. He looked under his mattress, in his sock pile. The adrenaline started to get overwhelming. He hyperventilated, worrying that he won't be able to find it in time. Then, a thought came to him, he usually hides things like pens in his drawer!

Sans rushed over to his drawer, anxiously ravaging through the miscellaneous items. He eventually stumbled across a half empty ink pen. He ran back over to the book, clicked the pen, and attempted to try and overwrite the text that was still writing itself. But the ink wouldn't come out of the pen. Sans quickly noticed this and began to vigorously shake the pen up and down.

"come on! come on work!!" He pleaded to the pen, he thumped it against the floor, which was no use. He tried to break the pen open with one of his bone attacks. He figured that if he couldn't write with the pen, he will use his fingers with it's ink. This however, wasn't his brightest idea. It ended up in his face getting splattered with wet, black ink. Sans didn't care though, his only major concern was to try to stop the human. And something wasn't allowing him to shortcut over to stop it, so he had to use different methods. Sans wiped a bit of the ink off of his face. In a moment of panic, Sans scribbled out the words that read:

[TIME_97:06]

[/////////////]

Sans sighed in relief after he did what he thought he needed to do. He tried to wipe the ink off of his face. Yet it wouldn't come off, he tried again. No use. Again, and again, and again. Nothing, but not only had the ink on his face not come off, there was a droplet of the black liquid floating midair. This is what confused Sans the most, it was if time itself had stopped. He looked down at the book he clutched in his hands. Sans' eyes focused in on the door.

Should he check what's going on outside? It might give him a better idea of what he did. If he even caused anything at all.

He stuffed the book in his pocket, it slightly peaked out since it was a slightly larger book. He slowly made his way to the door, down the stairs, and to the exit of the house. Sans placed his hand, which was still slightly shaking from all of the adrenaline, onto the doorknob. He took a deep breath, and turned the knob.

Everything outside was still and silent. There was no chatter, just silence. The only sound that echoed around was his slippers crunching upon the snow. There's one place in Snowdin that's almost always busy, and that's Grillby's. The snow echoed beneath his slippers as he made his way over to the restaurant.

He stood in front of the building he came to so often. It was strange not hearing any sort of noise coming from behind the door. Sans shrugged it off and treaded up to the entrance.

"hey guys, i'm...here..?" He expected to be bombarded with a bunch of greetings, as he usually does, but it's just the same immutable silence. He nervously makes his way to his usual stool at the bar, looking up at Grillby. The fire monster seemed to be concerned watching Dogamy sulk. Dogamy had his hood pulled over his head, as if trying to hide. Sans felt like something bad happened to him, he's never without Dogaressa. He looked back at Grillby, just as still as a statue. Even his fire seemed to be stagnant. A feeling of dread looms over Sans as he starts to feel alone. He sighed and slid off of the barstool. The wooden planks creaked beneath his slippers as he trudged over the door. Not even the bell rang as he left.

Sans tried to open up a shortcut to Waterfall to calm his nerves, only to find that it wouldn't work. He sighed, knowing he'll have to use the long way to get there.

Sans' pupils turned into small slits, in absolute horror when he noticed his brother and the human frozen in battle. There were bone attacks and dust scattered everywhere. Sans ran over to his little brother.

"pap...papyrus..?" Sans' voice quivered at the sight of his brother's severed head. He fell onto his knees, crashing into the snow in front of his little brother. The smell of dust lingered in the air, now even stronger as he sat next to Papyrus. Sans glanced over at his brother's battle body, completely covered in dust. There were a couple dozen knife marks embedded in it. Sans felt tears building up in the corners of his eye sockets, he didn't want to tear his attention away from his little brother.

"y...you're going..t-...to be alright...paps.." The skeleton stammered, trying to reassure Papyrus. Sans noticed his brother started to fade away. He staggered back as he watched what was left of his brother turn to dust.

"n-..no! p-pl...please stay with me?" He begged hopelessly.

Time does move, but at a very slow rate. All that was left of Papyrus was his scarf, battle body and dust, which was scattered across the snow. Sans wiped his tears away, taking note that the tears were as black as ink. But this didn't really bother him, the only thing that bothered him right now, was the burning in his chest. It was like a piece of his soul was being torn apart. Sans sat next to the pile of dust and grieved. After a couple of solemn minutes, he turned around and gazed at the human with the saddest expression.

"kid?" Sans anxiously squatted down to eye level with the human, only to get the same reaction. Nothing. The human had kept a neutral expression since they met Sans, but it seemed a bit unnatural to him. That's when he noticed the figure towering over the child.

They were a tall slender shadowy figure that towered the kid. The creature seemed too vague in appearance, couldn't be a monster. Plus, the Underground is a pretty small place once you get used to it, he would've surely seen them before. He noticed he had strings attached to their hands, sort of controlling the human with them like a puppet. Sans couldn't figure out what this thing was, although it seemed bipedal. It had one eye that had malicious intent smeared all over it.

This whole encounter was all too much for him, the sight of his brother dusting before his own eyes. But, he couldn't leave him like this. He stuffed his bony hands into his jacket pocket. Sans felt the leathery cover of the book. He had almost completely forgotten about it, he pulled out the book. Sans focused on the previous page he had read.

He realised he no longer had a pen, and sighed. He remembered his ink-like tears from earlier. He dabbed his finger into the liquid, and began to write.

[SANS_ITEM_PEN]

Suddenly, a pen appeared in his pocket. Sans wasn't really sure that would work. Since the human has DETERMINATION, that means they're able to reset. But maybe with this book he could also do it.

[RESET]

The world around began to rewind. He was engulfed in white light. It got brighter and brighter, until.

Sans woke up back in his room. But something was off.

[bigmpregnm]

Father's Day: Original - Part 8

[Story Collection] | [Part 7] [●] [Part 9]

I know it’ll sound repetitive but I’m getting massive and I can’t stop it. Even though I was simply huge when I was 24 weeks along, as the days and weeks pass and I reach the 28 weeks mark, I start growing even faster than before and the kids start moving so much all the time that I can barely have any sleep. I spend most of my days in bed or just sitting on the couch rubbing my belly because I can’t do anything else, I’m just too big and too heavy. I’m already bigger than the day I gave birth to the second quadruplets and I still have 12 more weeks to grow. I guess having octuplets really blows me up but even then I feel I’m getting too big and I blame my wife and Tate for that. Both of them make sure that I have something in my mouth all the time and they simply say: “We want big and healthy kids so please eat it all”. I just obey because I’m extremely hungry all the time but It also feels weird that both of them use the exact same words to convince me to do some things. I guess that’s part of their deal, making sure I’m as big as a whale. Funnily, their plan is working because I’m growing a lot and I can barely keep up with how much my weight increases every day.

Since my wife is in her last month of pregnancy, she’s on paid maternity leave so she’s permanently with me at home and even though I insist she must rest, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen preparing snacks or cooking ridiculous amounts of food for me. Even though I know she’s doing it on purpose, I can’t help it and I always end up asking for more even when my skin feels like it's about to tear because of how full I am. My wife says I need energy to produce milk and also feed the boys inside me but the fact that I’m overeating, leaves me with 8 huge kids blowing me up and a pair of pecs that produce way too much milk even though I’m still breastfeeding 10 kids. The twin girls and the older quadruplets are a year and seven months old while the younger quadruplets are 9 months old so each one of them drinks a lot of milk but the dairy cow produces way more than it’s necessary. Part of me wonders why this is happening and if somehow this is my wife’s fault, because even though I’ve been producing lots of milk from the very beginning, in this third pregnancy my milk production has been out of control. But just like with the growth of my belly, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Apart from my wife feeding me like I’m a prize winning cow or something (let’s not mention I look as big as one), Ed starts coming every weekend and he seems to be pretty interested in my pregnancy but in a very odd way. Even though I enjoy his attention and it’s nice to have him by my side whenever the babies kick or when any of the older kids need something, he makes me feel like a lab rat. You see, he arrives on Friday nights and he spends the evening helping me feed his little siblings and helping his mom with dinner. Since my wife is also really pregnant, Ed does most of the cooking on weekends and for some reason those days my portions are even bigger than the rest of the week. I always end up groaning and grunting with a belly so full that I fear my skin will give up. My complaints about how full I feel usually lead us to talk about how much I’m growing and how that makes me feel. Also, as soon as I wake up on Saturdays, he gets me on a scale and documents my weight. He always smiles when he sees how much I have gained over the week and always encourages me to eat even more so his little siblings get even bigger. I feel like I’m just a baby incubator for my wife, a dairy farm for the babies and an experiment for Ed.

Things change a bit the day I get to 29 weeks along on March 26th, because as soon as I wake up, I hear my wife groaning and she tells me her water has broken and the contractions are getting really close. Even though it’s Sunday and I’m supposed to go with Tate to the cabin, I stay in the house while Ed takes my wife to the hospital. You can’t imagine how difficult it’s for me because I want to go with her. I want to hold her hand while our baby boy is born but I’m simply too big to be seen in public. I cry a lot while I’m alone with all the babies and even though I play with them and breastfeed them all, my mind is with my wife and our baby boy. A few hours later when Ed makes a video call and I’m finally able to see our little boy, I cry even more because I already wanna hold him in my arms. My wife looks so beautiful even though she has just given birth. We talk for a while about the baby and we name him Carter. “Welcome to our big family, Carter Oakman”. I say and I move the camera around so the 10 kids I have in bed with me can see their newest little brother.

The next day when my wife comes home from the hospital, I wait for her by the door, with Emily, Emma, Fabien, Finn, Frank and Freddie by my side while the younger quadruplets are taking a nap. As soon as she walks in, the six of them run to hug her and as tired as she is, she kneels down to hug them all. Then, Ed comes in with Carter in his arms and even though I can barely stand up by myself, I take Carter in my arms and make him rest on top of my huge belly. “Welcome home my little boy. I’m so glad to finally have you here”. I say as he moves and yawns. “I think he wants a nap. He was crying on our way here but mom said you’d like to see him awake and maybe help him fall asleep?”. Ed says and pats my pecs. I immediately know what he means so I ask him to help me waddle to the couch. Since I’m so heavy I usually need to hold the walls or something for support and with Carter in my arms that’s kinda difficult so Ed helps me get on the couch. My wife sits next to me and the other kids climb up and get around us to see baby Carter as I get him close to my nipple and he starts suckling on it in hunger. At first it seems like he can hardly handle how much milk is going down his throat but then he gets a pace and continues. “He’s perfect”. I say while he drinks my milk. Then, my wife starts rubbing my belly because the babies are moving. “As perfect as all our kids”. She says and I turn around to kiss her lips.

After that day, even though I still feel like a dairy cow or as an experiment, I actually realize that’s all just part of the fun in my weird situation. The fact that every person in my family sees me as “something” in their lives makes me feel important and for a man who spent so many months alone or fighting with his mom because of his mistakes, being important is an amazing feeling. Since my wife is recovering from the birth, I have to take care of all the kids almost on my own even though she’s the one who cooks. I just want her to rest so even when Carter starts crying, it’s me who runs… or waddles… to get him and breastfeed him. That’s also a way to prepare for what’s about to come because my wife has to go back to work a month after Carter’s birth so I’ll be in charge of him entirely. I never thought I would have to take care of so many babies but when I had the quadruplets I managed, then with the second quadruplets and the twins I managed, now with Carter too and I’m sure I’ll manage with the 8 kids that are coming. I want to wean the twins and the first quadruplets before the octuplets are born but my wife insists I shouldn’t because I still produce way too much milk and that I’ll be pumping it all anyway. “We better give it all to our kids”. She says and even though I don’t agree that much, I think she’s right.

The first week with Carter passes and since we’re pretty busy with him and all the kids, I don’t see Tate that week. My wife insists I should go with him to the cabin on Sunday like always but on Saturday night my mom calls and tells us she’s coming the next day to meet Carter. It’s the first time in ages she’ll skip Bingo day and for the first time in ages I wish she’d put Bingo day over me. That’s a major stressor for me because she doesn’t know I’m pregnant again and I was hoping for her to come visit after I have given birth. I’m 30 weeks along and I weigh 373 pounds, according to Ed’s notes, and I look simply gigantic so imagine my moms reactions when she walks in the house and finds me on the couch with a belly bigger than when I was overdue with the second quadruplets, while breastfeeding Andrew and Aiden and with a line of kids waiting for their turn. She freezes as soon as she sees me and I don’t know what to say.

“What… What happened?” She says and looks at my wife. “Mom… let me explain… this… we… well… I’m having octuplets and…” I try to explain but she turns pale. “Octuplets? And… how? Who? Who did this?” She asks, looking a bit angry. “Please calm down. We have talked about this and we’re all fine. We would like you to be happy too. As happy as we all are”. My wife says looking calm and my mom has no other option than calm down and act like nothing is happening. She spends some great moments with Darcy, with Ed, with all the kids and even with me but I know she’s not as happy as she looks. I still remember her reaction when I told her I was pregnant for the second time and I don’t eat his calmness considering I’m pregnant again and even bigger than ever before. I try to be with my wife all the time but when my mom finds the opportunity to talk to me alone, she expresses her concern and asks me if I’m addicted to being pregnant. I explain to her that it was an accident, again, but her question makes me wonder something else, am I addicted to… Tate? Addicted to being bred?

My mom’s words and odd looks make me realize that even though my whole situation is part of my wife’s plan, I’m enjoying it and the fact that I’m so hugely pregnant is more of a benefit for Tate than for me or my wife. Tate is sweet and he cares about me but he’s always so eager to fuck me for as long as possible that I’m starting to think that I’m just a hole for him to dump his loads. A helpless beached whale whose only purpose is to satisfy his horniness. Don’t get me wrong, he’s always really passionate and I love when he fucks me long and hard but part of me wants more than just… sex. Whenever he comes to pick me up, as soon as he sees me he gets in some kind of frenzy mode that doesn’t stop until he has filled me with several of his big cum loads. After our short break when Carter was born, I see him again the Sunday when I get to 31 weeks along and when he comes to take me to the cabin, as soon as we get in the car, he unbuttons his pants and takes out his thick dick for me to stroke it while he drives. I guess he’s horny because we’ve been away from each other for over two weeks but it makes me feel like I’m just a whore who has to satisfy him. I don’t know if I’m hormonal or I’m finally thinking clear again but while he fucks me over and over again at the cabin, I wonder what will happen after I give birth to the octuplets. Will Tate want to get me pregnant again? Will I let him do it?

The week after that, Tate's schedule at the clinic changes so he can only come to fuck me on Wednesdays nights but our trips to the cabin on Sundays continue. Part of me feels relieved because I’m always tired and Tate usually leaves me even more tired after he has fucked me but at the same time I still want him to come and fuck me every single day of the week. He’s just so good and my hole even squirms in need when he comes to my house and I hear him walking in my room. He barely says a word while he undresses and jumps in bed to bury his dick in my hole, making me moan out loud. I love it but now I’m not sure if he sees me as something more than a huge baby machine who satisfies his sexual needs. Again, don’t get me wrong, I love it but my hormones are messing up with my mind and I can’t stop thinking that I’m just an object for Tate. Even then, I love how he rubs my massive belly while he thrusts into me. It always makes the babies move so much. I love how he caresses and squeezes my huge milky pecs and ass, it’s amazing. He’s definitely enamored of my body and I can’t deny I love how he touches me. He drives me crazy and I don’t want him to stop.

The days turn into weeks and as I get bigger, my hormones go crazy and my mind gets blurry. My body is going through so many things at once that I feel overwhelmed most of the time. By the time I’m 36 weeks along, I can barely get out of bed because I’m way too big. I weigh 414 pounds and my belly sticks out probably 3 feet in front of me. My belly is so heavy that I can barely drag it when I’m lying on bed and standing up or even sitting up is as hard as moving an elephant. Even then, I have to find ways to get out of bed and do stuff because my wife is back at work fulltime and Ed only comes on weekends. I have to take care of our 11 kids while I have 8 little giants kicking and pushing against the walls of my over-packed womb 24/7. “Uugghhh please stop… why do you move so much?” I groan one evening when I’m alone and my belly feels like it’ll burst. I’m lying on my side in bed and I try to rub as much as I can of my belly to calm the babies down. Andrew, Aiden, Adrian, Alex and Carter are sleeping next to me while Emma and Emily are suckling on my nipples. Fabien, Frank, Freddie and Finn are playing with their toys on the floor and then I hear one of them crying. I know it must be a little fight but I can’t see them pass my massive pecs or gigantic belly. I’m literally a beached whale but I have to take care of them.

“Kids. Come here. Come to dad to see what’s happening”. I say but the crying continues and the kids don’t come up to bed. I sigh and wait a few more seconds but finally decide to stand up to see what’s happening. Emma and Emily aren’t happy that interrupted their nursing so they start sobbing while I struggle to roll my huge body in bed. All the movement wakes the 5 sleeping babies up and soon they start crying too. While I try to find the strength to move my over 400-pound-body, my 11 kids are crying and the 8 in my belly won’t stop moving and kicking. “Shhh calm down… please… your dad is trying his best”. I say softly but all of them keep crying. By the time I’m sitting on the bed’s edge and I can finally see the older quadruplets, their crying won’t let me hear anything else. At least the boys come running to me and I manage to lift them up to get them in bed with me and the other kids. “What is it kids? Why are you all crying so much? You even woke your brothers up”. I say when I have them all in bed and I try to lie on my side again. I keep talking to them but every once in a while I groan in discomfort when one of the babies kicks me really hard and even leaves me breathless.

Even though it takes some time, I lie down again and start pulling them all closer to me. I bring Carter to one of my nipples and as he starts suckling on it, he calms down. I pull and hug the younger quadruplets and as I talk to them, they calm down. When they see this, the older quadruplets and the twins come closer to hug me. I hug them back and they start carefully climbing up my belly to get on top of me. Yeah, I’m big enough for my kids to use me as a mattress but I find it cute. Soon, I’m not only filled with babies but also surrounded and covered with kids and when they all calm down and even start falling asleep, I can only smile. There's only Ed missing in there and even though my life is pretty chaotic, I realize I wouldn’t change this feeling for anything else in the world. I realize I’m not an incubator or a hole to fuck. I’m not an experiment or a dairy factory. I’m just a father who loves all his kids and all his kids love him as well.

The next Saturday, on May 20th, it’s Ed’s 19th birthday and the time I spend with him that day confirms what I’ve been thinking through the week. The fact that Ed keeps asking questions and continues keeping track of my gains, doesn’t make me feel like a lab rat anymore because I finally understand that he just wants to make sure I’m fine. “So, how do you feel? Older? You’re 19 years old now” I ask him while he helps me waddle to the living room where we’re about to have a special dinner to celebrate his birthday. I don’t fit in the dinning’s chairs so we move our celebration to the couch. “I feel… the same. It’s just a number, dad. I mean, look at you… you’re 41 years old and you’re doing amazing with such a huge pregnancy. You’re not old and if you’re not old, then I’m not old either. Like father, like son”. He replies and smiles at me. I really appreciate how willing he is to help me because I can’t walk by myself anymore, I’m too heavy for that. But what I appreciate the most is that he doesn’t judge me because I have cheated on his mom, or because I’m pregnant for the third time or because a man fucks me twice a week; he just loves me as his father and that’s what really matters to me. As long as my son loves me, I’m willing to be his lab rat or his experiment or a subject for his investigation. That’s what a father does for his kids, being there for them.