#and my worst enemy my bully wanted to copy me ! !

[sleptting]

I need to talk abt my school day today

[leexenotarsosaurus]

xeno’s fic recs!! pt 2!!

note: summary, pairing, genre, word count and contains are copied from the authors!! it’s all jeno and jaehyun,,,sorryT____T

fiending. by domjaehyun

summary: you'd realized fairly early on that there's something very slightly different about jeno and jaehyun; not bad, just...nothing you've ever known before. you do your best not to think about it and not to think about them, but it's getting harder and harder to keep your mind off of the two most coveted frat boys on campus, especially as they make it clearer and clearer that you're the only one they want... and that they always get what they want. between jeno's pointed teasing and jaehyun's gentler goading, it's obvious that they've put self-serving targets on your back. jeong jaehyun and lee jeno are nothing if not notorious for their aim. pairing: lee jeno x reader x jeong jaehyun genre: smut, mild humor word count: contains: 27.1k

FUCKIN’ AROUND  WITH YA! by aehyei

summary: -- pairing: nerdy! good boy!lee jeno x reader genre: !fluff, !nerd! au, !senior high school!au, !crack, !angst, !smut, kind of !bad girl!au, and a little !enemies to lovers!au word count: 6.91k contains: cuss words, angsty hehehe, smut, masturbation, bullying, slut shaming, parties, dirty talk, sexual jokes, a very much horny Jeno and I don’t know why, mentions of broken families, loss of virginity, unprotected sex (safety first please)

onlyforyou by loviejaehyun

summary: jeno is your best friend, and he’s unaware that you’re a cam!girl. what happens when you put on a show specifically for him? pairing: jeno x reader genre: smut, bestfriend!jeno, camgirl!reader, friends to lovers, a lil fluff word count: 3.8k contains:basically just smut, swearing, masturbation (on camera), oral (female receiving, fingering, overstimulation, penetration (protected and unprotected), kind of cum eating?

birthday boy(s) by markresonates

summary: You and Jeno sneak off from his fancy birthday party because he wants your special "birthday present" right now. Unbeknownst to you, he wants it one hallway over from the party and a few others want to watch the gift giving. pairing: rich kid au!Jeno x fem!reader (ft: Renjun, Haechan, Jaemin) genre: smut word count: 2k contains: unprotected sex, exhibitionism, voyeurism, fingering, lil degradation, lil masturbation, dom!Jeno, sub!reader

long overdue by markresonates

summary: Jeno has had a crush on you since you were little kids. When he leads you to his back office and tries to explain what’s wrong with your car, you manage to end up in his lap pairing: mechanic!Jeno x fem!reader genre: smut, lil fluff, lil angst word count: 1.9k contains: thigh riding, on camera, degradation, little spanking, semi public, mentions of masturbation, dom!Jeno, sub!reader

kiss me through the phone by domjaehyun

summary: -- pairing: jaehyun x reader genre: --  word count: 1.9k contains: --

My Oh My by yunho-1999

summary: Your boyfriend Jeno is the worst influence you could ever have, but you're way too deep to leave him. So you give up everything to be with him. Even your self worth. pairing: badboy!jeno × fem!reader (ft. Jaemin) genre: smut word count: 8.9k+ contains: drug use, drug addiction, fight, double penetration, oral (m receiving), chocking, slapping, dubcon, rough sex, alcohol consumption, drunk sex, cursing, nicknames, degrading names, dacryphilia, dumbification, creampie, anal, and probably more that I don't remember

bad boy!au by solarhyuckssolarhyucks

summary: --  pairing: jeno x reader genre: -- word count: 4.8k contains: kind of crack? violence, profanity, slight nsfw, implied sex

Wakey Wakey by jenonctcity

summary: -- pairing: jeno x reader genre: Non-Idol!au word count: 1.3k contains: Dry Humping, Masturbation (Male).

angel by yunoysl

summary: You and jaehyun have fun while jungwoo is asleep. pairing: jaehyun x reader genre: word count: 0.6k   contains: fingering, riding, small size kink, slight creampie

[mitamicah]

Spoilers from both Trollhunters the book and Trollhunters the series!

While reading the book I was really impressed with how many differences there were between the character so I have worked on giving my take on six characters from both media, book vs series, and how they differ from each other :3 

I should mention that while there was illustrations in the book I tried for the challenge not to copy those but follow along the describtions in the book - when possible - to give my own interpretation of the characters ^v^ 

Steve

First up we have Steve. Starting out as the stereotypical bully in both version their paths seperates quickly resulting in two different ending for the musuclar blond Jorgensen-Warner is the book version of Steve. Here's how he is described from our first encounter with him: "He was handsome but in the oddest way- He eyes were too small and his nose piggish: he had a ridiculous amount of hair and a couple of teeth that looked like fangs. Yet somehow in combination these features were sort of mesmerising. His unnatural muscular bulk and odd way of speaking -crisply, politely, as if he were a foreign student who had learned English in class - completed the strange package." page 21-22 For his outfit I went with the description of him on page 224 "[my clothes] ... didn't cast me in the best light when compared to Steve Jorgensen-Warner, who looked rather rakish in blue jeans and a shirt - definitely not a blouse - opened to the third button. He dribbled the ball casually with his left hand." The bold passages is added by me   This Steve is later revealed to be a changeling aka a troll   Before we go on: can any of you explain to me what a "ridiculous amount of hair" even means :'D? I had a lot of trouble with this prompt because isn't this so darn subjective :'D? and the official art look way less ridiculous than I'd figure it'll be :'D x'D Palchuk is the series version of Steve. His facial appearance being way less specific (I'd say he has normal sized eyes, a big roman nose and some more or less normal teeth) and his way of speaking is definitely not polite. Like book Steve, this Steve starts out with pushing smaller guys into lockerrooms yet after that he becomes way less of a terrifying bully and much more of a silly goose who brings a lot of the comic relief in my opinion Douxie says it best in Wizards when he calls Steve the "village idiot" x'D I do not recall seeing Steve being that sporty in the show, he is much more interested in becoming homecoming king  no basketballs around x'D While book Steve is revealed to be the enemy (a troll) series Steve joins the "good guys" creating the creepslayerz with the character Eli Pepperjack

Blinky

Blinky is just called Blinky in the book  Here's a bit of description of him "The third [troll] had scarlet eyes, eight of them on long stems. (...) The thing from my house glided toward me with a surprising grace for something with an indetermined number of legs, all of which were hidden behind a patched kilt scaled with layers of medals, prizes and trophies and award ribbons. An incalculable tangle of tentacles twined around one another as if dying to squeese something to death. As it passed the oven, the firelight revealed olive-green skin, reptilian texture, and lacquer of slime lubricating its undulating appendages Its moth a horizontal gash.. " The bold passages is added by me   So yeah this Blinky is quite something :'D I stopped caring to draw tentacles after a while but overall this was silly but fun to draw  since his teeth later is described as big as traffic cones I believe he must be very tall :'D Also he's close to blind   Has a bit of a dirty mouth but in a very "read" way if it makes sense :'D cannot seem to stop calling Jim dimwitted and tiny and Tobias big :'D Blinky's full name in the series is Blinkus Galadrigal  he has six eyes instead of eight and they are all working just fine, thank you very much x'D His tons of tentacles and legs has been replaced by four arms and two legs and while he is still olive-green he is now made of tone like texture just like the other trolls  the kilt turned into shorts and he is quite a bit smaller now not even as tall as Jim  He still has this very academic way of speaking yet he is way nicer to Jim calling him "Master Jim" instead of "the short one" x'D

ARRRGH!!!

Book ARRGHHH!!!s full name is Johannah Mmmm ARRRGH!!! and she is a pretty big deal warrior among the trolls in the book - she's so badass in fact Blinky has decided to call her by her last name to honor her for her deeds for trollkind   Here's a qoute from the book describing her appearance   "The goliath emerged from the tunnel as comfortably as a dog from a doghouse, coarse black fur pouring into the chamber before I could make out any actual arms or legs (...) Even beneath the fur I could see loops of muscles flexing. (...) ARRRGH!!! was built like a gorilla but three times larger: Two arms, two legs, and, thankfully, just two eyes. Horns, curled like those of a ram (...) The thing's orange eyes cast about with animal perceptiveness, and it used its snout and sniffed. Its jaws fell open to reveal a purple, slavering mouth armed with haphazard daggers of teeth." Page 75-76 The bold passages is added by me   (Also worth mentioning: the qoute is from before the protagonist knows of ARRRGH!!!'s gender which is why he calls her an 'it') At other times in the story we learn that ARRRGH! has quite scarred arms and really wishes for better tooth hygeine; so much so that Tobias actually end up making her a brace out of chicken wire :'D Idk I find it quite adorable :'D Now unto the serie's ARRRGH!!! - first up he is male, his name is Arghaumont and he is famous for another reason than Johannah: he was a general of Gunmar but retreated from the war making him a traitor to his people yet a hero for the good trolls in the series. Series ARRRGH!!! is likewise built like a gorilla but made of stone and having a mane long and green like it is moss  his horns is way smaller and less curvy and his teeth hygeine is never brought up  also his face is way less dog like x'D 

Tobias 

Book Tobias' full name is Tobias M. Dershowitz yet he is going by 'Tubby' or 'Tub'. Here is a describtion of him from the book: "You could call Tobias Dershowitz chubby, if you were being cute, or husky if you were being diplomatic. The fact is he was fat, and that was only the beginning of his problems. His hair was a thick, orange, out-of-control hedge. His face spilled over with the kind of freckles that make kids like Tub look like overgrown toddlers. Worst of all were his braces, marvels of modern torment: whips of stainless steel crisscrossing each tooth seperately and lashed to a dozen silver fasteners. The braces clicked so much when he spoke, you expected sparks. At least he was tall..." page 27 The bold passages is added by me   The outfit I went with is described on page 259 like this: "He stood in the driveway decked out in his best approximation of a ninja: black tennis shoes, black sweatpants, a black hoodie, a belt made from a red curtain sash, and an oversize fanny pack holding his gear (...) It was unfortunate that the fanny pack was lime green..." To describe Tub is a bit difficult because sadly he is not much in the story as I'd liked - mostly he is being quite serious and let us know he is not happy by being sidelined not speaking troll nor being invited on hunts which I completely understand tbh :'D What I do find interesting is how Tub and series Jim has seem to have switched roles a little bit: In the series Jim is the one giving a speech about how he is insecure about his place in life and how he wants more - in the book this is Tub in more than one occassion: "We have to accept who we are. And before you ask, I'll tell you. We're nobody. We have no life. We have nothing to look forward to. We're not special. I just want it to go away. All of it. The stupid being scared. Doesn't it seem we've been scared forever?" page 37 "Jim, you're wrong. We were meant to do this. This is exactly what we've been waiting for. They've chosen us. Of all people! Us! (...) Jesus, Jim, take a look at my life! You know what I'm worth! To anyone? Zero! Nothing! I'm a fat loser and will always be a fat loser. Until this. This is like a present. Full of, man, I don't know. Hope?..." page 196 (talking about trollhunting here btw) Oh yeah and book Tobias gets this badass scene where he uses his dentist's tool to kill trolls I loved that   Now series Tobias is way different :'D first up his name is Tobias Domzalski and his nicknames are Toby and Tobes. He is way shorter and has more neat hair (what is it with the series neating up the hair :'D? x'D). He also seems way cheerier and pretty happy with his place in life more or less  Unlike Tub, Toby is in it from the start being an important player in the story   He doesn't have the same drive to be something more than he is as Tub has instead Toby is going with the flow starting out quite afraid of everything troll and ended up being as brave as the rest of the team *tbh Jim's scared out of his wits too so they mimic each other x'D* Where Tub has dentist tools Toby gets a badass hammer so I'll say its an upgrade  

Claire

First off we have Claire Fontaine, a foreign student from no other than Scotland with a taste for military clothing and liqourice   Here's how she's described in the book   "She tucked her long dark hair behind her ear and left ir with an adorable smudge of white dust. I thought she was beautiful, though she wasn't in the classic sense. The popular girl would say she wasn't skinny enough. They would also point to the fact that she didn't wear makeup or do anything to tame that hair. And her clothes -well, what could be said about her clothes? Her boots were not sexy and knee-high: in fact, they were ankle-high and rubber-soled and looked picked from military surplus racks, an array of pea-green coats and multi-coloured slacks, all of which looked as if they'd been through actual World War II combat. And that beret she wore before and after school wasn't of the look-at-me-I'm Frensh variety: it was more in the style of I'm-going-to-invade-your-country-and-be-your-new-dictator. Only one thing didn't make sense: that bright pink, exceedingly girlish backpack that inexplicably hadn't one anti-establidh patch sewn onto it (...) Oh, I forgot to mention that Claire Fontain came from the UK. That's right- the girl had an accent. I think you are starting to get the picture." page 30-1 The bold passages is added by me It is hinted at that Claire is quite tall and a great deal taller than Jim (more when I get to him) and she is actually a whole year older than Jim since they both have birthday May 2 but Claire is 16 while Jim is 15  Since Trollhunters in this story is not a "protected title" (aka the chosen hero type) Claire ends up being one herself even though nobody even herself didn't know: AND. SHE. KICKS. BUTT! She's even better than the guy that had 40+ years experience so yeah safe to say she's badass :'D Even before that she has a hilarious scene calling out Steve in the wildest shitstorm of Scottish slang I lived for it x'D She's described quite a few times with lots of bracelets, sometimes made of wire so I gave her a bit of both   She's not really a part of the popular group but has her own thing going on   Now onto Claire Nuñez the series' version of this badass   Here Claire is hispanic and pretty much one of the most popular girls seen around  her style is way more ... I've called it punk rock in purple but Idk exactly what to call it x'D she's shorter than Jim and slimmer looking than her book counterpart   She enters the story not as a trollhunter but as a victim of having her brother stolen by changelings and as time progresses she becomes a fastlearning and quite competent sorcerer dealing in shadow magic   Unlike Fontaine, Nuñes is seen wearing make up, shorter hair with dye in it and hair clips instead of bracelets  

Jim 

First up we have book Jim. His full name is James Sturges Jr. and lives with his single parent, his dad, after his mother went away the day before his birthday in start May and never returned. Sturges Sr. had been traumatized loosing his brother to trolls although none of the characters didn't know this yet - only Senior had seen the creatures making him paranoid and in turn making Jim very embarrased about his father. At the same time Jim seems to honestly worry for his father and his behavior too makes Jim very cautious and fearful a character. Book Jim is pretty much a typical teenager for the most part  He is seen to be a tad clumsy and not exactly brave really. And the author's choice of basically not describing him anywhere made my job way harder trying to be book accurate :'D So I've mostly inspired him of the official illustrations in the book   Here's what I could find about our little trollhunter   First off: he's a short fellow  that is first mentioned on page 14; "Sunshine is important for growing boys." (...) "I am not growing" I took after my dad when it came to size and was still waiting for that growth spurt everyone kept raving about. "In fact I think I'm shrinking." This is brought up most of everything Jim through the movie from him not being able to reach a point of a chalkboard (page 32) to people's dissapointing sighs taking meassurements when he is chosen as Romeo (107) and him wearing super high heels for the same reason (224) but also Blinky directly calling him a "little fellow" (page 127) On page 27 we learn that he is getting a bruise on his chin after being slammed into his locker by Steve  Lockers he has been thrown into enough to have learned to open them on the inside :'D He is a skinny fella which Tobias so politely call "lack of muscletone" due to "glandular" at page 120 He is not very good at anything describing his room full of stuff from hobbies he tried and failed at (page 63) The longest describtion about his appearance is probably page 105: "I lowered my eyes and regarded the chewed, dirty fingernails holding my script, thes scuffed shoes on my feet, and realized that these were the symbols of my pityful life: worn-out, insignificant, ready to be thrown beneath Dad's industrial mower" It pretty much says it all when this is the longest quite I could find :'D For the outfit I mostly went by the small describtion on page 89-90: "I tucked the medallion beneath my shirt. After a full day of wearing it, maybe the rest of the suffocating fear would go away too. My plan was to dart into the kitchen, grab my sweatshirt and be out of the house. " I added jeans since he is said to wear jeans on page 283 - the medallion sneak out beneath the sweatshirt/shirt on page 97 which is why I added it on top here as well   Now since there's a bit more to both versions of Jim due to their role as the protagonist I've added in a little extra features here being the medallion in the book vs the amulet in the series and the weaponry given to the characters   For Sturges we have the medallion who's described like this: "It was a bronze medallion conntected to a rusty chain. It was engraved with a foreboding crest: a hideous, snarling face; indecipherable markings of a sevage language, and a magnificent long-sword across the bottom." page 9 The medallion is treated like it is a common artefact if a bit rare in the book - its purpose is to translate trollspeak for the wearer. Jim is giving two swords in the book; a rusty longsword he calls Clairesword (do I need to explain this one?) and a cutlass he calls Cat #6 after the one cat at Tobias' house that liked Jim  x'D For Sturges' personality my feeling about him is that he is a bit more ... passive than his series counterpart. He is not really standing up for himself that much and would rather blend into the background. This qoute from Claire sums him up pretty nicely I believe   "You're a good person, Mr. Sturges. A bit gloomy, but good" page 246 I do like that Jim in this version is a Taurus  (I am a taurus too x'D) born on May 2nd so that's a plus   It is probably also worth mentioning that in this world trollhunters aren't a chosen hero type like in the series: trollhunters or paladin was once a title held by many warriors yet now there's very few left. Sturges was a proud paladin family making Jim a chosen candidate for the honor of becoming a trollhunter but he is not the only one - or even the best - in the book. In fact out of the three trollhunters we learn about I'll say Jim is the weakest (and he is not even the least trained; ouch :'D) Jim doesn't get a nice armour like his series counterpart either but is seen in the illustrations wearing a blue hoodie (like the one in the little doodle)   The full name of Jim in the series is James Lake Jr. He is the child of a single parent and lives with his mother whom Jim "mothers a lot" (Tobias' words in the first episode) This Jim is pretty "tall for his age" (Jim's own words uttered quite a few times across all three series) yet with quite skinny legs (he is called out for this by multiple characters). He is much more competent in life than his book counterpart being an exceptional cook, good at Spanish, seemingly alright in PE and at school he seems to stand pretty good if only holding himself back. Unlike book Jim, series Jim seems much more active and longing to be something more than he is - he is seen to be quite brave and protective of his friends, very kind and selfless. Also even from the start he seems much more nimble than his book counterpart being able to climb the robe (a feat book Jim didn't do before later) and with his training as trollhunter he becomes even more badass   Trollhunter status in the series is way more important since the title is given to only one chosen warrior of Merlin chosen by the amulet of daylight (the medallion in the book). This also makes the amulet way more special and important in the series which probably explains its shine up from rusty bronze thing to silver and blue. While Lake Jr doesn't have named sword he does have a magical armour and sword made of daylight   We do not know the exact birthday of Lake Jr but the creators have replied to a fanquestion saying it would be around fall especially October so by that estimate Jim is probably a scorpio  pretty far from the before mentioned taurus in the book   While Jim Lake Jr isn't seen with long lasting bruises in the original series he does get two more permanent scars in Wizards  

[muertawrites]

hi again! saw my name (my emoji? you get it) being mentioned in one of your posts and i shall return to your askbox <3

that idea of eddie liking their girl a little unhinged + the whole thing with cheerleader!reader got me thinking of what makes me like that idea so much. i wouldn’t describe myself as feral, and my high school experience definitely didn’t revolve around that whole hierarchy that involves cheerleaders and “freaks” and all of that (maybe that’s just because i’m not american? lmao) so I was never seen as a “freak” or as anything really cause that wasn’t a thing in my school (although bullying definitely happened at some point, so in a way I was seen as bookworm/outcast even if it wasn’t in that extension?) but i do come from a very problematic religious upbringing and getting out of that made me go through the “being villainized” experience. that’s what really got me into eddie’s plotline, the idea that he’s just normal guy, living his life in a way that he wants to, and people tend to see him as the devil himself for not living accordingly to their beliefs, that was the most relatable part for me, eddie isn’t this freakish demon that corrupts innocent girls, he’s just a guy!!! living his life!! and it kinda bothers me when he’s described so.

anyway. that was a lot of thoughts huh. maybe i’m over sharing! but I do think eddie would want someone that he feels comfortable in expressing himself. it sucks being around people that makes you question and/or give up your interests and passions in life, i wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, and i definitely wouldn’t wish that on eddie, that boy deserves someone that loves him with every one of his interests. and I’d fucking love to read tolkien to him!! (oh my god that was so long i’m sorry!!) - 🕊

oh dude good for you for breaking away from that. religion can be hard to get out of and it's super badass that you were able to do what's best for you. definitely something to be proud of.

and YEAH like?? eddie's just some guy?? doing his thing and not hurting anyone?? god forbid it be different from what everyone else does (which americans have serious problems with). all these girlies who see him as someone hell bent on corrupting the innocent missed the point in it's entirety.

ohhhh god eddie would love to read and be read to. that big softie will go to the library and check out books specifically for you to read to each other. if there's a favorite book of yours that he hasn't read he'll insist you read it to him ("because you'll tell it best babe"). if you haven't read any tolkein? he's pulling out every copy he owns and reading all of them to you. he honestly doesn't even care if you get into them he just likes having you close and spending time with you and the fact that you're willing to share his interests with him <3

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, ep 12-16 thoughts! these episodes, in comparison to the first 10 or so, felt way more laid back and low-stakes, which I appreciate sometimes. I didn't appreciate how lazy jack's halfa design was in masters of time, it made me so annoyed I redesigned it. 👎🏻 u_u

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-'picking a fight with me and my upgraded form!' 'you upgraded to a mullet?' DANNNNY. YOU CANT SAY THAT TO TECHNUS. YOUVE HAD A MULLET TWICE NOW ('fun' split danny, and evil future danny BOTH HAD THEM). I HAVE THE RECEIPTS.

-danny seeing technus hurting valerie and yelling I AM GOING TO BREAK YOU IN HALF. SAMEEEE <3

-axion labs is now a part of vladco. FUCK YOU VLAD. hes not even really IN this episode, but just thought I'd throw out a nice fuck you anyway.

-'capable of blasting a single person into space in (2) minutes!' tucker. that would kill someone. i mean yeah they might get to space, but theres NO WAY THEY WOULDNT CATCH FIRE, OR THEIR ORGANS WOULDNT LIQUIFY BECAUSE OF THE STRAIN. THEY'D PROBABLY PASS OUT BEFORE THEN, BUT. ...no, okay, I get why vlad bought this company. this is RIGHT up his alley.

-danny KNOWS VAL DIDNT DO THIS, THAT SOMEONE STOLE THE SUIT. AND SPENDING ALL NIGHT CHATTING WITH HER. <3 and val is a 9TH DEGREE BLACKBELT?? danny's mom is, too!! omg and she hunts ghosts, his parents would love her. and her fav fruit is kumquat bc its a funny word. im so with danny val is amazing. I love her and I Do Not Want To Hear It From Sam.

-I knew danny wanted to be an astronaut, but the bowling tidbit is like. yes give me more useless info abt these characters, I love tiny details that make them feel more human, and im glad hes got hobbies aside from ghost stuff, we dont really see a lot of that!!! (I mean, we knew 'fun' danny from when he split himself in half liked bowling, so obv it makes sense he LIKES it, but hes very GOOD at it. so proud of him, bowling king) val calling him neil armstrong and them teasing each other. LOVE THAT.

-technus you are my favorite grandpa for setting this up. SAM WHY ARE YOU BEING SO CREEPY BE HAPPY FOR YOUR FRIEND!!! STOP SPYING ON THEM!!! who actually cares if technus did 'set them up' together, theyre having fun and enjoy each others company!!! 'you think the universe wants you two to be together?' 'i dunno, but maybe /I/ do!' EXACTLY DANNY!!! SOO TRUE.

-and valerie being happy sam said she wants to try and be happy for them and make room at the lunch table for them. and hugging sam over it. VAL NEEDS MORE FRIENDS.

-VAL GOING AFTER TECHNUS IN HER SUIT WITH (1) MILK, AND (1) TREE BRANCH AND KEYS!!!. I LOVE YOUUUU BEST GIRL. her new suit kicks ass

-dannys like 'HEY IM AN ASTRONAUT :D' AW. ...HES IN SPACE... the fact he's actually intending to give her the ring. with SAMS NAME ON IT?? IM CRINGING DANNY NO. YOU CANT DO THAT...thank god he didnt. thank god valerie cut it off and said they can just stay friends for now. tbh, they both have a lot on their plates!! they obv both still like each other...it can be a future thing!! when she knows about phantom! youre 14 theres no need to rush. I just want her to have friends and be happy :(

-...danny struggles to do (1) pull up. SAME. but all the ghost fighting in phantom form REALLY doesnt carry over at ALL? that sucks

-sam being as fit as she is, is not just a goth. shes a goth jock.

-honey I Shrank Our Kid, One of his Enemies, and his Bully: the episode

-dash's crush on phantom is So Obvious. fitness buddies :) watching them interact always makes me laugh. also, phantom, with PANTS. 'how many costume changes you gonna go through, what is this, vegas??' DASSH DJKSFHASKDF

-MADDIE GOING AFTER THE MOUSE WITH A BROOM, WHAT THE FUCK. AAAH. JUST BUY SOME KIND OF MOUSE TRAP.

-danny likes lime and vinegar chips. which sound very good.

-'our boy finally has the physical prowess of a 60 year old president!' ...poor danny LMAO

-'what's wrong with beauty pageants' oh tucker you sweet naïve child. what ISNT wrong with them. who approved this for a high school?? (I mean, yes. unfortunately child pageants exist, but...) also danny and tucker once again treating the pretty girls like objects. I need to meet the grown man who wrote this, I just want to talk...

-prince aragon's dragon form reminds me of maleficent (color scheme wise) which is always a bonus. considering the episode is called beauty marked, I feel like the sleeping beauty references are deliberate

-sam with the fake fangs. once again her accessories never miss. hate the 'not like other girls, girls who get sucked into this kind of thing are all shallow and all want to be carbon copies' bs tho.

-sam trying to be the Worst Bride, being rude as shit. DORA IS GOING TO GET KILLED. DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE SHE SAID THE PRINCE WILL HAVE HER HEAD IF YOU ARENT THE IDEAL BRIDE. YOU /KNOW/ DANNY WILL COME SAVE YOU. JUST ACT CHILL UNTIL THEN. even if you were doing fine to get him to take off the crown, consider maybe not letting his poor sister get punished also?? sure, she could also take off the crown and has dragon powers, but did you know that for sure?? dora didnt even really realize it until you guys talked!! (or at least, she was scared to stand up to him. you had no guarantee she would...) but. good for dora. ANOTHER friendly ghost to add to the List :)

-tucker is so under appreciated in his time. if he was doing a tech-based campaign today he'd have a better shot. people in 2004 had NO IDEA how much tech would be a part of our day-to-day lives...altho. tbh if you're going to be running for student council president, maybe you should..focus on things to actually improve the school? since he's going for a tech angle, he could say like, he would be running fundraisers for the schools computers to be upgraded, etc? we've already SEEN he can be good at money-making entrepreneur type stuff!!

-oh my god wait. this episode is JUST YUGIOH?????! A REBORN PHAROH USING A TEENAGER AS A VESSEL?? YESSSSSS

-tucker using his new minion to feed him grapes and carry him. AND LOCUSTS ONTO THE BULLIES. I love how when he's possessed, he gains winged eyeliner.

-this episode is giving me big 'plankton makes everyone in bikini bottom his slaves and build monuments of him from the spongebob movie' vibes. and the pharaoh has a traitor who works for him? VERY big yugioh vibes. aknadin confirmed

-I like that danny is still completely exhausted after using ghostly wail. (still patiently waiting on him to get duplication)

-LOVE the fenton's 80s outfits. I get hes 14 and embarrassed by everything they do because theyre his parents, but. cmon, this is one objectively cool thing theyve done. love 80s fashion.

-...was vlad just standing on that streetlight waiting for danny to come out? how'd he know they'd be coming out the back? how long has he been up there???

-oh, wait, his ecto-acne has flareups? that SUCKS. danny was...well I dont want to say he was LUCKY HE HALF-DIED, but he was lucky his was pretty instant (I'm assuming that had to do with the power/scale of the portals being different?) I remember in the ep we met him, vlad made a point of saying he was stuck in a hospital for a long time, so. that really actually sucks and I feel bad. not that it excuses anything he's done...but like. it does suck.

-vlad being so sure danny wouldnt help him he made it somehow contagious to his friends to make sure he'd get help? danny is a nice boy, he wouldve helped if it was anyone else. the only reason he wouldn't have is because of the shit vlad did to him, on purpose. vlad 100% dug his own grave by being the biggest asshole, so it is very hard to feel bad for him.

-clockwork is back!!! and making danny learn lessons The Hard Way. Uhhh, okay. I kind of get Danny’s logic, that time traveling this far back would prevent vlad from becoming a halfa also, ergo no arch nemesis or ectoacne to worry about. But the fact that was basically the first solution Danny came up with to solve this problem is actually so funny. It’s so extreme

-APPRICIATION FOR THESE 80S LESBIAN BG CHARACTERS.

-vlad telling maddie in the lab (in the 80s) he has something he's wanted to tell her 'for a long time'...how long have they known each other? I assumed they met in college, since jack always calls vlad his college buddy/roommate, so jack and vlad for sure met in college, but did vlad know maddie longer? thats surprising if so. Tho we don’t know what year of college they’re in so they could mean they met as freshmen and a few years have past…speaking of maddie shes crushing the 80s look.

-vlad blames jack, but. maybe dont stick your face 2 inches from the portal??! THIS FEELS LIKE LAB SAFETY BASICS. IF SOMETHING HAS POTENTIAL TO BE DANGEROUS, DONT GET NEAR IT. WITH YOUR FACE UNPROTECTED IN ANY WAY. (altho jack didnt really give a Big Warning besides screaming BONZAI. so. also that, but cmon.) also, they need gloves, goggles, and to pull all of their hair back tbh. but fuck lab safety, I guess!

-cryyyyinnng at how lazy they were with jack's ghost form design, its just plasmius' design on jack!!! you couldve given him his own design!!

-there. I did that in about 10 minutes and its somehow less lazy than what made it into the show. embarrassing! better yet, I think the episode would've been better if maddie would've gotten the ectoacne. or maybe its just me, wanting to see her design! anyway. I'm sure people have already done redesigns of them both as halfas. I have to go look after I finish this watch through. Also mildly frustrated jacks resentment and bitterness is basically also a copy paste of vlads backstory. They’re different characters, I really don’t think jack would stew in bitterness and jealousy the same way vlad would!! I also don’t think he’d give up after one time of trying to hunt ghosts and getting laughed at. Our canon timeline says different…I dunno, I get it was for laughs, but I’m annoyed because the POTENTIAL this plot has…

-did vlad really wear a stupid cheese hat to his wedding. ok actually that kinda rules. and the cheese door knocker. the dairy-only buffet table. vlad still got rich, just on being the New Dairy King. (Assuming that means he owns a lot of dairy businesses?) ok! this actually is great. hope maddie isn't lactose intolerant!

-'no matter how hard I tried, I could never get rid of my ghost half, the half I knew Maddie could never accept' ohh, ouch, what a horrible thing to say to her HALF GHOST SON. 'YOUR MOM WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU' BASICALLY.

-maddie strapping danny to the table with a lazer pointed at him in a secret lab she keeps from vlad that she makes a point of saying is sound proof so he can scream all he wants...CHRIST. DANNYS POOR PYSCHE.

-also, not to feel bad for alternate vlad (because, he did lie to maddie saying jack blames her and never wants to see her again...) but. being married to a woman 20+ years and she immediately goes back to jack? if she didnt love vlad and feels like she had to hide shit from him, and says she wasted her best years with him, WHY MARRY HIM. it feels like leading him on!!! cannot believe im feeling bad for vlad, but. this alternate timeline vlad is significantly Less Horrible than Our Vlad. did she not think she'd get funding for her ghost stuff? (which, fair assumption since they're considered 'ghost fanatics/nuts in canon...but...) why did she think jack or vlad would be her ONLY OPTIONS? be like your sister. be single. Actually, this au could’ve been really interesting if after the accident, vlad lied to her and said jack never wanted to see her again, but she stays single. Imagine how much that would bug vlad… like, in her mind, it was never a competition it was jack or no one type situation…

-danny being like 'leave him ALONE' this jack is a HOMEWRECKER, DANNY. let them go to court and settle this at the least. ...or just throw vlad into the portal. (100% human, defenseless vlad) CHRIST, MADDIE THATS BRUTAL. THATS MURDER.

-danny seeing his mom immediately accepting him and his dad being half ghosts in this universe, if I was him this would be a great sign that his universe's maddie would also.

-*maddie voice* "clockwork will help!" *2 seconds later, with clockwork* "I will Not Help." TOUGH LOVE KING. YES LET DANNY SEE THE SODA HIMSELF AND DEVOLP BETTER OBSERVATION SKILLS.

-when clockwork ""reset time to the way it was"" just before danny "meddled"" ...did he really erase a whole alternate timeline? ...damn. because maddie and danny both called it an alternate timeline by name, it splitting when the college incident went different, so it wouldnt have really mattered if he reset it, right. like because danny's timeline is on a different stream? why didnt clockwork just. show danny a replay and not Reset That Timeline. wh...I wonder how many people that Erased From Existence. Anyway! once again stating clockwork is casually terrifying!

[emmy-writes-sometimes]

Attention

You’re Jacob’s twin and always get the short end of the straw, but your dad gives you no choice but to tell him why you’re such a troublemaker.

-

           “Promise me you’ll be good today?” Andy asked, looking over at you. You looked back at him and rolled your eyes as you opened the Audi’s passenger side door.

           “I’ll keep her in line,” your twin sighed.

           “He’ll keep me in line,” you reiterated. Your dad sighed, took a sip of his coffee, and watched the two of you start to walk inside the building. “You really don’t have to watch me, I’ll be fine on my own.”

           “You heard what the principal said, though. You’re one problem away from a suspension.” You walked backwards into the school’s doors, making sure no one was behind you, and watched as your dad pulled away. The two of you used to be close, really close. Actually, you used to be close to both of your parents. And then you started growing up and they picked a side. Jacob’s side. All you really knew was that Jacob was the favorite of the two of you. You were known as the troublemaker, the one who was always doing something wrong even if you thought it was right and nobody would ever listen to you about it. You always got the short end of the straw and you were sick of it. You loved Jacob, he was your best friend, but he was your mind’s worst enemy.

           “I’m really not that much of a bitch, am I?” You asked him. He scoffed.

           “The ninth graders are scared of you, y/n,” he said.

           “As they should be. I’m going to history.” You walked away from your brother and went to the school’s history wing, where your first period was. Jacob did have the same class until about three days in when they decided the two of you shouldn’t be in any classes together because you just talked to one another. You’d ended up in the same English class, though.

           You sat down and looked around to see that none of your friends were there yet. Most of them were usually late since they took the bus – not everyone’s dad was the assistant DA. You and Jacob were some of the luckier ones at Archer, or so you were told, because your parents actually cared. You weren’t sure how true that was, at least about your dad, because he never seemed to unless it was impacting him. Today was going to be an example of that, but it was also going to be the turning point.

           “Hey, little Barber, your daddy put any innocent people away again?” Brett, one of your least favorite people ever, asked from behind you. You turned around and rolled your eyes.

           “Don’t you have anything else to be concerned about? Like your grade or… football or something?” You shot back.

           “Yeah. Like how I’m going to plow the shit out of your brother on the field at flag today.” That was right. It was flag day in gym, meaning they were going to drag your whole grade out onto the field and play capture the flag, which gave an excuse for all of the football players the chance to prey on anyone who wasn’t them. You didn’t stand for that shit, but your brother wasn’t exactly going to stop them.

           “You try that and the only thing getting plowed is your body off the field,” you responded with your arms crossing over your chest. You tried to forget about Brett, and the rest of the people on the football team, as they all sat down behind you. They sat behind you in your other two classes before lunch and you noticed them eyeing you as you went to sit down across from Jacob.

           “Why is half of the football team looking at you like you flashed them in the locker room?” Jacob asked as he drank some milk. You kicked him underneath the table.

           “Because I threatened them.”

           “You know not to…”

           “I’m not going to do anything and they’re not going to do anything, Jake. It’s fine. I promise.”

           “As long as you promise.” You two ate the rest of your lunch and went your separate ways – him going to find Sarah, who he had an insane crush on, and you going to your English classroom. Your daddy issues led you to be good friends with your English teacher, Mr. Marx, and you were supposed to help pass out copies of Catcher In The Rye. You were looking down at some meme Jacob had sent you when you literally ran right into Brett.

           “Whoa, little Barber!” He said. You felt your breath turn to pure fire as you sighed out, kneeling down to pick everything up that you’d dropped. “Better watch yourself.”

           “Yeah, you too.” You rolled your eyes and started walking away, toward the classroom, and for a few minutes you forgot all about Brett. You saw Jacob sit down a few minutes later and went to sit beside him, at least until the bell rang that it was time for the capture the flag game.

           You were lucky. You were on Jacob’s team, thankfully, because the person who was choosing knew that the two of you had some kind of twin telepathy. You were against Brett, which gave you the chance to kick his ass.

           “Come on, little Barber. Daddy’s not here to protect you now. You and your big brother are all alone now, and nothing is going to stop us from stomping on the two of you like a couple of cockroaches.” That was it. You’d had enough of the taunting, enough of the teasing, enough of the fucking bullying. Something just rose up inside of you and your fist collided with Brett’s face.

           “Miss Barber!” One of the coaches yelled, grabbing your hands and putting them behind your back like you were about to be handcuffed. “Miss Barber, that is enough!”

           “No, I don’t think so!” You said loudly, lunging back at Brett. He was laughing, even as his nose was bleeding, and he wiped the blood away.

           “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” Brett said. You rolled your eyes and walked to the principal’s office, right through the double doors and right into the actual office. The coach sat you down in one of the chairs and walked off, leaving the principal to tell you how things were going to go.

           “Who am I calling? Your mom or your dad?”

           “My dad, I guess,” you shrugged. Usually it was him that dealt with things like this since the courthouse wasn’t too far from school. He was also a lot nicer to you than your mom was, and the earlier he came home the later she was able to work. You watched as the principal called your dad and hung the phone up after he said he was coming.

           “So you’ve progressed from acting out in class to punching other students?”

           “A natural progression, don’t you think?” You said, crossing your arms against your chest. You heard the bell ring and not a minute later, your brother was walking in there, still in his gym clothes.

           “What did you do, Y/n?” He asked you. You could tell that he was angry.

           “I punched him because he was being an asshole.” You looked behind you to see that he was looking at the principal.

           “Mr. Barber, you should go back to class. Your father will be here soon too deal with your sister.” Jacob looked at you this time. You nodded and he left, turning and walking out of the office. “Miss Barber, you do realize that this is a suspension?”

           “A suspension? You’re kidding me, right? He provoked me. I didn’t just try to break a guy’s nose!”

           “You did break his nose, regardless of your intention,” the principal said.

           “I’m not saying anything else until my dad gets here,” you replied, sitting back in the chair, arms crossed.

           “Fine by me.” The principal left you in the room, probably to go complain to one of the ladies at the front office who just agreed with everything he said because he was kind of creepy, and you sat there. You texted Jacob back, saying apparently you were getting suspended, and he only responded that your mom was probably going to be pissed. You were counting on your dad being a little less angry at you. He always understood. You just hoped this wasn’t an exception to that.

           Your dad walked in a few minutes later, obviously not happy, in his suit and tie. He sat down beside you, barley looking at you twice, and the principal walked in behind him. Then he adjusted his seat at his desk, turned his computer monitor the other way, and glared at you. He looked from you to your father and then back again, finally sighing and clasping his hands together.

           “So, Miss Barber, are you going to explain what happened to your father?”

           “Brett kept attacking me, verbally, until I lost my temper. Apparently I broke his nose.” Your father turned toward you, a look of disgust on his face.

           “You what?”

           “Did you even hear me? He was attacking me all day, he always does and he always gets away with it because he’s a linebacker and they get away with everything,” you explained further, hoping that your father would just fucking listen to you. But he wasn’t having any of it. He glared at you, rubbing his temples, and shook his head.

           “I’m proposing a one week’s suspension for her. Her brother can get all of her work for her, but for the next week she is not allowed to step foot on school property. And on top of that, she’s going to write a letter to Brett explaining that she’s sorry for breaking his nose.” You sighed.

           “Un-fucking-believable,” you muttered under your breath.

           “LANGUAGE!” Your father turned to you and grabbed onto your arm. “I need to get you home before your mom starts to wonder.”

           “But I-” You started to say. But your father yanked you up, barely giving you enough time to take your backpack with you, and nearly pushed you out of the school. His car was parked right in front of the doors and you got in, kind of afraid to hear what he was going to say. He drove aggressively, even by his standards, and pulled into the house a little bit father than he normally would. You didn’t want him to talk to you, so you tried to get your key out. But he came up behind you and pressed his palm to the kitchen door. You looked behind you before letting the door swing open.

           “What the hell, Y/n?” Your dad asked you.

           “I don’t want to talk about it. I already tried and you didn’t listen to me.” You started walking up the stairs, trying to prove your point, but your dad wasn’t in the mood for games. He ushered you over to the couch, all but making you sit down, and you could tell that he was absolutely fuming as he walked back and forth.

           “Why would you do that, Y/n? You already knew you were on thin ice with us. You know your mother was looking at boarding schools for you? So we could keep you out of trouble?”

           “If you’d listen to me you would know that I didn’t just punch him to punch somebody!” You said over him. Tears were coming to your eyes and you knew you were about to break down and cry even though you didn’t want to. You wanted to stop being such a crybaby at everything.

           “So you’re telling me you did this, for what? To get attention?”

           “No, I did it because he was bullying me and Jake and he wouldn’t leave me alone! I just got mad and I reacted.”

           “You just reacted. Right,” he said, hands on his hips, shaking his head. “This isn’t a reaction, Y/n, this is assault.”

           “I didn’t do it just to do it! I’m sorry!”

           “Sorry isn’t good enough!” You stood up then, tears in your eyes, and walked away. You knew that wasn’t what he meant. You knew he meant that you weren’t good enough. He never saw the good things you did, only the bad, so why would this be any different? Why would he actually fucking listen to you this one time?

           You slammed your bedroom door and slung your backpack onto the floor, making sure you didn’t hit your laptop, and you took out your phone. You opened up the text messages between you and Jacob – Week’s suspension. Dad still won’t listen to me.

           A whole week? It’s not even that bad!

           That’s what I said! He hates me J.

           He doesn’t hate you.

           He thinks I’m doing it to get attention.

           You are doing it to get attention.

           Not like that! The blue bubble said that Jacob was typing for another few seconds before you got a ping.

           I’ll talk to him when I get home. Mom said she’d be late so maybe everything will be fine when she gets home.

           Thanks. You shut your phone off, knowing that your dad was probably going to do something crazy like log into your account and try to say that you were planning all of this all along, just to get his attention. You kind of were, but not in the way that he thought. You just wanted him to fucking listen to you about this, to listen to why you had punched the guy instead of focusing on the fact that you’d done it.

           You heard the door open and shut in another few minutes and looked at your phone, realizing Jacob must be home. You didn’t even notice you were crying until you wiped your tears away. You were sitting on the floor of your bedroom, crying, and you were absolutely ridiculous. All of this over a stupid bully, but all of it came down to the simple fact that your dad just didn’t listen to anything you said. And if he couldn’t even listen to you about this, what would he listen about?

           You couldn’t really hear what was going on downstairs, but there was no yelling. Of course there wasn’t. Sometimes you thought that maybe things would be better if it was just your parents and Jacob – no you, no problems. That’s what you were, to all of them, even if Jacob didn’t want to admit it. A problem. A big fucking problem.

           There was a knock on your door a few minutes after that and your father walked in, looking at you on the floor, and he sighed. He took a seat across from you, crossing his legs, leaning his back up against your bed. He looked you up and down, noticing that you’d been trying to be quiet and there were little half-moon shapes on your arms from your fingernails digging into your skin. He noticed that you were crying.

           “Jacob told me what that guy said to you.” You sniffled.

           “What, that the kid called us cockroaches? Or said that Daddy wasn’t around to protect us? Or the cracks that he makes all the time and expects me to be okay with it?” Your dad sighed.

           “He didn’t tell me all of that.”

           “I can’t believe that it took him telling you for you to stop hating me.” Your father thought about it for a minute, eyebrows furrowing, and shook his head.

           “I’m sorry. I should’ve listened to you from the beginning. But I’m listening now, so tell me what happened.”

           “I just lost it. And I knew I would be in trouble because he never gets in trouble, for anything he does. And he does this all the time, not just to me and Jake. He does it to everyone. And I just got really really mad. And then the principal didn’t listen to me, and you thought I was just doing it for attention, which brings us back to the fact that you don’t listen to me. You never listen to me. And the only reason you are now is because Jacob is making you, because let’s be honest, everything would be so much better if I wasn’t such a problem.”

           “A problem? Sweetie, you’re not a problem.”

           “Then why won’t you listen to me? Why do you always assume I’m the one to throw the first punch?”

           “I don’t know. Maybe it’s easy to believe that you’d be mad at us instead of some other kid. But that’s our fault. That’s my fault for not listening to you and believing you. But that also doesn’t change the fact that you got physically violent with a kid just because he talked you into it.” You nodded, knowing that he was right.

           “I don’t know if I’m doing it for attention or not, but maybe if you’d pay me some I would know.” Your dad reached his arm out for you to come hug him so you did, leaning against him as he hugged you to his side.

           “I’m sorry, sweetie. But you still can’t punch him. Even if he is a stupid linebacker.”

           “I know. I just got mad.”

           “You’ll have to work on that.” You both sat there for a few more minutes before your mom’s car door shut and your dad sighed. “I’ll go talk to your mom. Everything’s gonna be fine, okay?”

           “Okay.” You watched him leave your room and sniffled once again, ready to face your mom the same way you’d faced your dad. Jacob walked into the open doorway, leaning against the frame.

           “I didn’t hear any yelling. Is everything okay?”

           “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

A/N: I’m sorry this took so long to get out! I’m having a lot of family things going on at once so I haven’t been able to write. I hope you like it still!!

Taglist (if you’d like to be added, send me an ask or a message!): @an-adventureland, @firstangeldragonranch, @ssebstann, @winterreader-nowwriter

[turqrambles]

The Five Worst Things About Digimon World

I did it.

It took 20 years but I did it.

I finally beat Digimon World for the Playstation 1, a game that has haunted me for most of my lifetime, and I did it with a Phoenixmon, the reason why I use “Turquoisephoenix” as a handle!

This is who I used to beat the game, named after an obscure Ratchet and Clank character because that’s just how I roll. The final boss battle involved a lot of Prominence Beam spamming and med recovery floppy spamming but I did it fair and square. 

Before I get into what I thought about this game as a whole - and I do have a lot of good things to say about this game since I obviously enjoyed it enough to get to the end - I gotta talk about my least favorite things about this game. In a concise, Buzzfeed-esque list because I like writing things in easy to digest chunks.

Because, like most charming yet difficult games of the late 90′s, this game is very flawed and the flaws are pretty annoying!

1. Care Mistakes

The three emojis - Smile, Cool, and Poop.

Okay. This one - my least favorite part in the game - is going to take a bit of explanation.

First off, I don’t actually hate care mistakes existing as a mechanic. I think it’s a cute, virtual pet-y way to add a different wrinkle to evolution requirements, even if I think it’s a bit counter-intuitive to have to suddenly abuse my little companion once they reach Champion just because I want them to evolve into a floating metallic ball with a chainsaw.

My problem with care mistakes is that there’s literally no way of telling many care mistakes you have on your given Digimon. 

Literally everything else in this game is concisely recorded and easily displayed on your Digimon’s stats screen. You can see how much your Digimon weighs. You can see their Happiness, their Discipline. How much Life they have left. Their Age. Even how many poops they need to make before they digivolve into a sentient pile of feces.

But Care Mistakes? Naaaaw, you just gotta remember every single thing that you did to your Digimon from the moment it evolves in your fallible human brain. What’s that? A good portion of this game involves grinding in the Green Gym and it’s really easy to make a Care Mistake there without knowing you did so because you mashed A too fast like the stat-grinding numskull that you are? Well, that’s just too fucking bad for you, then! Enjoy not getting some of the best evolutions, you piece of shit. You stooge. You moron!

This game, multiple times: You know who I hate? The player.

Care Mistakes are such an invisible mechanic that, to this day, there are many guides with misleading info about what counts as a Care Mistake and what doesn’t, which...really stinks for a game such as this where you will be using a guide pretty extensively to get the Digimon you deserve. And you know why that is? Because we don’t get any indication as to whether or not some random event counts against you when raising your Digimon.

And honestly, having one of your main mechanics of the game being entirely invisible to the player is a terrible idea. Just put a little number in my profile that says “Care Mistakes: 0″ in there. Let me know this information without guessing.

2. The Glitches

Pictured: Something that will CRASH YOUR GAME if you try it on a physical copy.

Let me start with a disclaimer that most of the glitches I’m going to complain about were added into the game when Digimon World was localized and therefore aren’t the original intent of the developers. There are certain versions of Digimon World that are more stable than others (The English PAL version is the best version to play because of this) and, if you play this game via “certain methods”, there are patches to circumvent some of the bigger problems.

That being said! Boy! Isn’t it ironic that a game where I’m exploring the digital world is plagued with so many annoying, game-ruining glitches? Especially if I’m playing this game on a physical 20-year old copy like a dunce?

“Ohhhh...so Agumon thinks that they can block the Digimon game with their big fat Digimon-blocking head, do they?!”

The NTSC version of this game has a jukebox that will crash the game if you try to use it, keeping you from ever using a bonus feature meant to be a fun little reward for completing a certain dungeon, but that’s not as heinous as the Spanish, French, German, and Italian PAL versions of this game locking a good portion of the game to players because they forgot to make the Agumon in front of Ogremon’s Fortress an object you can interact with.

So that means, if you happened to get this game in one of four lucky countries, you can’t complete the Ogremon mission, you can’t recruit Whamon, you can’t recruit Shellmon, you can’t recruit anything tied to Shellmon’s bulletin board (which means no Vademon or Skullgreymon), and you can’t go to Factorial Town and recruit Giromon, Andromon, or Numemon. Ogremon is a key part of the Digimon World storyline and causes so many different things in the game to change, meaning that it should’ve been imperative to make sure this part of the game works!

But no. Instead this one little bastard Agumon keeps most players from finishing the game, because it starves players of those PAL regions of a bunch of Prosperity points, the main source of progression in this game. That means that Mt. Infinity and the final boss is just that much harder to unlock. It’s doable, but it’s more grueling process.

This really is a problem with the translators and really highlights a lack of general care with testing this game. Why this game was allowed to be shipped with such glaring bugs is anyone’s guess, especially in an era where you couldn’t release any patches over the Internet to fix retail versions.

3. The Monochromon’s Shop Minigame

Ohhhh....this one was so close to getting the top spot. When I first wrote this draft, this was the top spot.

Monochromon was only spared of my true ire on account of the fact that it really only exists for one part of the game (rather than being a constant problem like the Care Mistakes and the Glitches are) and you can easily cheese it by sleeping in front of the store so that you can save scum your way to victory. Like a true Digital Champion!

At one point in the game, you gotta help a entrepreneur dinosaur rhino man make a profit, because he was stupid and put his convenience store in the middle of a giant canyon next to a gaping chasm. So you play a little game of haggling, where you try to ruthlessly oversell a bunch of random items to customers until you make enough of a profit that this talking dinosaur tells you that you passed his secret test of character, abandons his store, and moves into File City.

There’s just one problem with this minigame - everything is decided by RNG.

“Get the hell out of my shop”

This minigame hates you. It wants nothing but to see you fail and to waste your time. The difference in profit margins of the three items (Meat sells for 50g, Portable Potties sell for 300g, and Medicine sells for 1000g) are so stark that, if you get too many customers asking for Meat, you might as well just reset the game and start over because it will be literally impossible to meet the requirement even if you busted the customer’s proverbial balls and squeezed every last bit out of their cutesy penguin faces.

Oh! It’s also RNG as to whether or not your customers will take your asking price or storm out of the store without buying anything!

It’s all the fun of working at retail! In a video game!

4. Three on One Battles

What you see before you is a battle system that is really fun when it’s one vs. one, manageable at two vs. one, and downright unbearable at three vs. one.

The battle system works for the most part. You don’t have full control of your Digimon (and yes, you only have one Digimon with you at one time, so you can never stack the numbers in your favor) so you shout commands at it, commands that the Digimon’s AI are pretty good at following, and hope for the best as you chuck healing items at it.

It’s not the best battle system, but it’s fun. And it definitely reinforces the whole “this is a pet you’re taking care of with its own thoughts and feelings” atmosphere that this game is going for.

However, nothing can protect your Digimon from enemy fire concentrated on them, especially if you did the thing that most players do and equipped your Digimon with the most powerful attacks that also happen to have slower cast times than the faster, weaker attacks.

What then happens is your Digimon’s Health is slowly whittled away as you are powerless to stop it, watching as your digital friend is straight up bullied by enemy Digimon as they keep falling to the ground over and over and over and over again.

The one saving grace is that Friendly Fire exists in this game so that oftentimes the enemy Digimon will damage each other in their mad dash to ruin your day, but that seems more like a band-aid than an actual fix to this system.

5. Fishing Seadramon

“Hi, kid. Let me guess - you also thought you had to talk to the Tankmon in Factorial Town in order to unlock me, huh.”

This one is a lot less of a pain than the other four and it’s only a little annoying but boy...getting Seadramon kinda sucks in this game.

It took me almost a goddamn hour to catch Seadramon. One hour of gameplay devoted to catching one fish. Just like real fishing!

I will say, besides Seadramon, the fishing minigame in this game is pretty competent. It’s just that Seadramon is very elusive, showing up at only two hours in a 24 hour day, and is a very finicky fish that won’t take your bait even if you literally placed it in front of his dumb fish face.

Don’t be fooled by this screenshot. The heart just means you have the right bait. The heart means that you didn’t actually get within range of hooking him.

IT’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!

Seadramon is also subject to almost as many gaming myths as the Care Mistakes are, due to how elusive he is, but that’s less to do with poor communication (the game does at least explain multiple times in multiple places how to find him) and more to do with the fact that catching him is just such a goddamn chore to do that players of this game always assume they’re doing something wrong.

When in reality, Seadramon is just a picky little bitch.

Next time I discuss Digimon World, I’ll talk about things I liked, don’t worry. I just had to get all of this negativity out before discussing the full game proper.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 44

Last time: Doctor Marcoh broke the Hippocratic Oath, Envy chose the worst possible host, and a Central Officer showed Armstrong the Great his collection of action figures. Onwards!

Episode 44 - “Revving at Full Throttle” Oh heck yeah, we’re starting at the family reunion in Liore! Camera shows the radio fixed by the Elric Brothers way back when. [Beard]: “It’s been a long time, huh Al?” [Al]: “Yeah.” *awkwardness intensifies* [Beard]: “So, uh… I saw Pinako recently.” *Rose is standing off to the side, probably wondering about this ‘Pinako’ character her new boyfriend is talking about* [Beard]: “She told me about your body.” *awkwardness intensifies* *awkwardness intensifies* *awkwardness intensifies* [Villagers]: “Hey Mister Ho, could you-” [Beard]: “Oh sweet Leto yes get me out of this family drama. Absentee Anime Father, away!” Wow, really? Al are you just gonna let him walk away from this conversation? You haven’t seen him for a large portion, if not most of your life! Demand some friggin answers! Well at least the cook is trying to cheer Al up, thanking him for fixing up the radio. Al apologizes for the riot being caused by them exposing Cornello, but Cookie insists on looking at the good stuff that happened.

Sure people reacted “badly” at first, but now everyone’s all happily working together to rebuild from the ashes of their home! Can’t fault the man’s optimism. Inspired!Al goes running off to help build, seeing their General getting his hands dirty Toad and Boar (still wearing their winter clothes?) tag along, dragging a protesting Yoki with them. The Villagers are realizing Oh Crap We Interrupted Family Reunion, but Beard’s brushing it off. He left when Al was super young, he probably doesn’t even think of Beard as his father anymore. And have you seen the guy try to smalltalk? He doesn’t know what to say- [Al, clanking towards the group]: “Hey pops! Imma help with the building, cool? Cool. Hey NPCs, gimme that heavy stuff to cart around.” Aw, Beard gets to see that Al being trapped in a cold, unfeeling suit of armor hasn’t kept him from being a decent person. Whoa okay bath time for Winry, apologies for interrupting. Winry’s happy to finally get a good bath after traveling for so long. Rose is chatting with her while laying out clothes, admiring Winry for being a independent Automail Engineer at her age. And she was the one who literally got Ed back on his feet, which would mean later he would help Rose get back on hers. *Goes back to Ep 3 Recap*. That’s right, he told her to Keep Moving Forward, that she needed to use her two good legs to make her own path. Rose tells Winry about her misplaced belief in Cornello, when Winry gripes about Ed’s Tough Love routine Rose says that’s just his way of being nice. [Rose]: “But you already know that, don’t you?” [Winry]: *Stammers, blushes, and tries to hide her face in her tea.* So yeah, Ed exposed the truth behind Cornello’s miracles, and now Liore is learning to stand on its own. “All thanks to Ed and Al.”... yeah, calling it now. We’ll come back to this place in a decade or two, and the old Church of Leto will have been replaced with one to The Armor and the Alchemist. Hey, it’s Lizard dude! Bido, according to Bag of Magic Food. He’s going through a tunnel, griping that it was a bad idea to follow those MPs aw crap he’s wandering into Uncle’s sanctum, isn’t he? Turn around dude! But he’s still looking for Mister Greed, squeezes through some pipes to crap it’s the Golem Room. And are the Officer and Armstrong the Great still there? Quick, pull an Igor!

Ok, so it looks like he got there just before the Officer did his “Look at my cool toys” reveal, he’s hiding behind the pipes again. Officer’s explaining that the Golems are empty dummies that they can bond souls to. Oh, so they’re like Advanced Soul Armors, then? Tell me, have you gotten around the problem that Al’s having of the body rejecting the soul? Anyways, the Golems are immortal and apparently any bonded souls will be completely obedient. Alright Armstrong the Great, here’s the kicker; where do the souls to activate the Golems come from? Officer says that they’ll come from rival nations, “through the course of war”. Hoo boy. This was what I was afraid of way back when the concept of Philosopher Stones was introduced to Armstrong the Great. She is fiercely loyal to her troops and those she chooses to protect, it was the threat against her own forces and the reveal that the Goths were going to harvest the entire country that allied her with our main characters. But an army fueled by the conquest of Others? A chance to not just defeat her hated Drachman enemies, but fully convert them to her cause? Weapons that only grow stronger the more she uses them? I mean, with all the pushing around by Central and bullying of her troops I’m giving her 80% odds to still reject the Golems. But that remaining 20… We don’t get to hear any more as Bido freaks the fuck out and bolts back down the tunnels, screaming his head off. [Bido]: “This place is evil! Pure evil! Why did I ever come here?! Mister Greed would never be in an awful place like this-” Oh hey, it’s Ling! How’s Greed going to react to seeing an old “possession”: happy to see something of old that he gets to claim again, or annoyed that one of his old crew fled rather than try to help him? We’ll get back to that, we’re back in Liore where Al is warning Beard about the giant tunnel running under Liore. Beard tells him to stop talking about the Super Secret Goth Plot To Harvest A Country in the middle of the town square, waits until they’re in the ruins of the Church to discuss the story. He’s letting Al explain everything, does he want to keep his own involvement secret for- well never mind, Al’s brought up his Identical Brother chilling in Central. Beard turns away still acting all Mysterious wait what [Menacing!Beard]: “Did it ever cross your mind that I might be on their side?” But you’re not, unless… NOW HOLD UP. If you’re telling me that we’re looking at a Triplet situation, that Uncle made another copy to Oh ok I get it now. Beard is just emphasizing how trusting Al is, at least with him. But seriously dude, now that I’m thinking about it spilling your entire plan to a guy because you think he’s your father is a terrible idea. Maybe ask him to repeat a childhood memory, or somesuch? So after Al gets his non-corporeal heart to calm down from that scare, Beard says that he wants to tell his Backstory to both brothers in order to save time. Right, about that… Back up in the land of snow, at… “Bank’s Bank”? Really? That’s like a restaurant owned by Mister Burger or a law office run by Johnny Litigator. Whatever. Registers are ringing and checks are being cashed when huh. Sorry, just distracted by the banker’s appearance, she’s a lady with blonde hair but brown eyes and Ishvalan skin. What’s her story, is she an Amestrian/Ishvalan child like Sideburns? Moving on, a giant of a man is making a withdrawal oh hey it’s Monkey, he’s drawing from Ed’s account. Uh, are you that badly strapped for cash? You know that a withdrawal from the Protagonist’s account, by an unknown party no less, is going to raise all kinds of flags in Central. Yup, Monkey got the cash from Ed’s research account, but another banker’s already making a call. Ah, so it was for the medical bill. How much was this doctor charging? Oh jeez, the guy’s chuckling and saying he could charge them even more, Monkey complains that he’s already ripping them off but the doc’s likewise squinty-eyed wife says it’s only “reasonable” considering the risks involved.

Well, as long as they keep their mouths shut well never mind, looks like the cops are already on to them. I don’t suppose they can get a refund? The cops show up and push past the doctor, Lion’s getting bandaged by Mrs. Doctor. Oh great way to sell out the resting patient, our guys had better get a refund if he’s going to cave this quickly. No wait it’s just Monkey scowling from under some covers wait is he trying to hide Ed under the sheets? The cop asks if Monkey was at the bank earlier, and pulls a gun… Outside a guard hears someone walking, another white coat? Doctor #2? Cop #1 is ordering for Monkey to put his hands up oh hey the white coat outside is Ed with some groceries! Outfit change? I suppose his red coat was pretty distinctive. While Monkey’s at gunpoint Lion readies his own pistol and Monkey starts drawing his own gun, things might get loud pretty soon. Wait, is Ed’s hair loose? What happened to the ponytail?

Ok yeah, that was pretty distinctive like his coat. Outside guard is listing off the red coat, blond hair worn in a braid… uh oh. Here it comes. [Guard]: “... and short.” [Ed]: *bites through wooden skewer in annoyance* Nice knowing you, guard. The cops in the apartment hear a thud, and #1 tells another to check out the noise. Outside Guard is out cold, Cop #2 tries waking him up before there’s another thud, #1’s left yelling at the other two for answers when

Wait hold on, is Ed grabbing this guy around the neck? Is he standing on a box or something? Unless… no. No! Is it finally happening? Is my little boy finally getting a growth spurt?! … Wait, but if he’s growing taller, but has an artificial leg whoops better find Winry quick to upgrade, fighting might be a bit difficult if you’re all lopsided. Monkey snarks that Ed just had to take out three MPs on his own, when he hasn’t fully recovered yet. [Ed]: “Don’t treat me like an invalid. My injuries are fully healed, and I’m revving at full throttle!” Title drop! And damn but Ed’s rocking the new look. White coat, loose hair, and a growth spurt? Leg imbalance aside, I am totally down for this. Wait, is this because he “used his own life force” to patch himself up earlier? His body aged up from the energy expenditure? Cool! Mid-ep pictures of Bath!Winry and Older!Ed. So is carrying a wooden skewer in your mouth just a thing now, Ed? The doc’s telling Ed and the Chimeras to shove off, doesn’t look like that refund’s coming after all. Ed snags the Guard’s note in passing, thinking about how they’re just looking for the red coat and braid (pointedly ignoring the “short” comment), guess the outfit change is staying around for a while. Whoops! Took too long, some other MPs have shown up and are demanding they freeze. Wait, “move it kid”? Oh yeah, they’re just telling the guys with visible weapons to stand down, they think that the kid chowing down on bread is a bystander. Who just got grabbed by Monkey and threatened with a weapon! Monkey uses the MPs shock at the hostage-taking to tuck Ed under his arm and run for it, outside some more MPs spot them but Lion shoots some snow down on them. Run for it! One hotwired car later, Ed tells ‘Gorilla’ (“Don’t call me that!”) to step on it, but their stolen car isn’t fast enough to outrun vehicles from Northern Command. Dodge a truck so the MPs crash into it? That they… can’t do, actually. The MPs are catching up when Ed says to turn a corner and park. Plan? Transmutation sounds as they round the corner, the MPs follow but… it’s gone? Wait there’s another car in the road, but… … Ow. Ow ow ow. OW! Sweet Leto, but that hurts the eyes. Really, Ed? I can only assume that the MPs brains have shut off from the sheer garishness of that thing, they drive past the parked car looking for something a little more sensible. The Chimeras immediately ask for the car to be turned back to normal. [Ed]: “And why’s that? I think this car looks cool as hell!” [Monkey]: “Just change it back. Please, we’re begging you!” [Ed]: “You guys got a problem with my sense of style?!” [Monkey/Lion]: “You don’t have any!” Outside of town, Monkey’s answering the call of nature while they all discuss being drifters again. Ed’s wait buddy you’ve got your hair back in a ponytail, it’s not a full-on braid but it’s still close enough that any guards are going to give you a second look. Go back to the loose hair disguise! Ed’s thinking about how he let his guard down around Kimblee, and hoping that Al’s ok. For now, the Chimeras are asking their new boss where to go, Ed says that they need to find Al who’s probably with Marcoh now. [Lion]: “You do know how to find them, right?” [Ed]: “Right, about that…” In Liore, Al’s trying to wrap his head around Beard’s Backstory. Beard understands if Al doesn’t believe him, it’s a pretty crazy story. Then we remember that Beard’s talking to a soul bound to a suit of armor, so the idea that Beard is a Philosopher’s Stone isn’t that far fetched. They chat about being immortal, and thankfully Beard acknowledges the advantages of his form before settling on the fact that seeing everyone he knows and loves wither and perish sucks. Hey yeah, if you have a Philosopher's Stone body, did that affect Ed and Al’s development? Apparently not, Beard says he still has a human body. Unlike Uncle, who’s likened to “a leather bag”. He built a human body around himself and his gathered souls, so if they can destroy the body… Speaking of, the Nationwide TC! Beard looks over the TC and reverse-TC while Al says they can destroy the tunnel below Liore, but Beard shuts down the idea. Pride’s watching over the tunnel. But can they still try before nope we know the tunnel’s finished, and Beard is rather relaxed about the idea it’s complete. “Because it’s not yet time”? How do you know? [Beard]: “Look up, son. You’re too busy looking down when you need to look up.” Oh! I get it, it’s a constellation thing! That explains why the Xerxes King was talking about carving all the Crests before it was too late, the Nationwide TC needs the right positioning of the stars. Can’t do it until then.

Yes please follow along Al, look up to the sky, to… LETO! Bwahaha, Al thinks that Beard’s talking about Sun-God Leto. There we go, turns out Beard has converted to Letoism and plans on praying the Goths away. Or the Man in Central could indeed be waiting for the right star positions, that works too I guess. Oh hey, back to Bido in the pipes. Running? Oh shoot, looks like it was “Annoyed his possession abandoned him” Greed after all. Greed laughs about the chance to kill his boredom, Bido’s shocked to see the Ultimate Shield and hear the voice, yells at Greed for imitating Mister Greed. Wait, does Greed not recognize Bido? Greed boasts about wanting everything, Bido finishes his spiel about demanding the finer things in life. Greed asks who Bido is wait static? Ok, so Greed really doesn’t remember his past iteration? He lost his memories when Uncle reconsumed him? Bido’s struggling to reconcile the Mister Greed he knew with this new guy, while Greed demands Bido answer his questions. [Bido]: “It’s me! I’m your friend, Bido! You haven’t been gone from Dublith long enough to forget!” [Greed]: “Oh, you’re from Dublith! Ooohoho, now it makes sense!” [Bido]: “You remember m SHIT Greed just stabbed Bido! [Greed]: “Afraid not. You must have been buddies with the previous Greed.” Well this sucks, Bido’s trembling in pain and grief while Greed says they’ve never even met wait the static’s back and his arm is trembling and the static is becoming visions of Greed’s old crew. Is his memory returning? Hoo boy Ling’s calling Greed out for killing his old friend. Greed protests that Bido wasn’t his friend, that those memories belonged to the previous Greed. [Ling]: “Then why are you in so much pain?!” Ling’s threatening that if Greed doesn’t pull himself together that he’ll take control of the body again. Greeds gritting out that his old memories were purged by Uncle, that they aren’t part of him anymore- [Ling]: “No, you’re wrong Greed! It’s not that easy! They’ll always be a part of you! You can’t just erase them from your soul! They were the only part of you that you chose! Look at them! Can you not hear their souls crying out? You abandoned them, your real family! You threw them away like trash! Fool, you turned your back on something you wanted. You don’t deserve to call yourself Greed!” Clutching the still form of Bido, Greed screams. End Credits. Post-credit scene in Central at the Bradley Manor, Mama Bradley is suggesting a book to Selim. About an adventurer who travels the world- Bradley’s looked up and Mama Bradley grabbed Selim at the sound of rustling and footsteps. It’s Greed. And he’s not happy.

[theangelssecondwing]

Chapter 10

It wasn‘t easy to pretend that everything was normal. While Director Lazard had promised to keep us updated, there were no news on Genesis‘ whereabouts for a long time, and he didn‘t show up again. Sephiroth and Angeal were occasionally sent on new assignments, but none of them were particularly long, and they usually returned within a day or two. Then, one day, they returned and asked Yui and me to meet up at my place again.

„Clones“, Sephiroth said grimly as we sat down on my couch.

„Clones?“, Yui asked.

Sephiroth nodded. „We were attacked by a surprising amount of people looking like exact copies of Genesis.“

„So wait, you think Hollander is out there, cloning my boyfriend?“, Yui asked, sounding positively appalled.

„It‘s a reasonable assumption, don‘t you think?“, Angeal asked. „How else could this be explained?“

„I suppose you‘re right, but the question is… why? What could he possibly gain from creating an army of Genesis clones?“, I asked.

Angeal lifted an eyebrow. „You mean apart from having an army of 1st class SOLDIER powered superhumans under his command?“

„Hm. I knew something was off about this guy, but not in the ‚establishing a clone army to take over the world‘ way.“

„Nobody had any idea just how mad this madman is“, Angeal replied grimly. „Otherwise, Shinra wouldn‘t have employed him.“

„You sure?“, Sephiroth asked in a deadpan voice. „I mean they also employ Hojo, who treats the entire world like its his third grade science kit. Shinra has a tendency to specifically employ the maddest of madmen they can find.“

„That‘s not true. You‘re not a madman“, I countered.

„Are you really sure about that?“, he asked teasingly, putting an arm around my shoulders.

„The point is: There have been no further developments, and your orders are basically to eradicate any Genesis clones and forget about the whole ordeal otherwise. It feels like Shinra has just given up on Genesis, and if we want to save him, we have to do it independently of the company“, Yui stated.

„As we have already established. But Director Lazard is keeping us busy lately. Almost like he doesn‘t want us to have the time to dwell on the topic“, Sephiroth mused. „Good thing that as 1st Class SOLDIER, we do have right to refuse certain orders. That could grant us at least a bit of time to investigate. We would only have to find out where to start.“

„I can do that!“, I exclaimed. „I work in the archives. I can get all information on Hollander, including all sites where he worked while in the employment of Shinra. Most of these sites have been abandoned by now, but I‘m sure we can find some kind of clue somewhere in one of these labs!“

„Great idea, Cora. So you gather as much intel as you can, and then we all meet up here again once you have enough, so we can plan our next step.“

The next day, during lunch break, I snuck away into the archives, which at this time were deserted. Surely there was something I could find… I was so distracted while going through the endless masses of files that I didn‘t hear the footsteps until the person they belonged to cleared their throat. I yelped and lost my balance on the ladder I was standing on, falling backwards, crashing hard onto the floor and hitting my head, so stars exploded in front of my eyes.

„Ow...“, I groaned and rubbed the back of my head until the pain subsided a little and I could see again. Luckily, the filing cabinets weren‘t particularly high, or I could have gotten seriously injured.

„Serves you right for snooping around here all alone.“

I recognized that voice. I got up, though my back was killing me. „Vice President. Sir. Is there anything I can do for you?“ I got to my feet, but wobbled a little and Rufus actually motioned to catch me in case I would fall. But I stood, so he returned to his stoic posture of keeping his arms behind his back.

„Nothing in particular. I just saw you walk in here and got curious. While I do appreciate eagerness in my staff, something tells me that you haven‘t come here during lunch break to get some extra work done.“

My breath hitched in my throat ever so slightly. But still, there was nothing hostile about him. „Who knows. Maybe I was just curious myself.“

„Did curiosity lead you to the shelf specifically dedicated to information about the researchers in our employment?“, he asked without humor.

I grit my teeth. „And if that were the case?“

„I would like to know why.“ For just a split second, there was something akin to fondness in his features, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. „You used to trust me. So why can‘t you trust me now?“

„Because we were both different people back then“, I retorted.

Rufus looked at me for just a little moment longer, before pointing at a specific part of the shelf. „You will find what you‘re looking for there. Make sure that you and your friends make short work of Hollander, and keep the whole thing quiet afterwards.“

„Huh? You know?“

He smirked. „My father is so caught up in his own ego that he doesn‘t realize what is going on around him anymore. But I‘m not like that. You should know that.“ Then he turned around, giving me a dismissive wave. „As long as what you‘re doing doesn‘t endanger Shinra Corp‘s reputation or endeavors, I will not hinder you. In fact, it seems you are more willing to be helpful than Lazard is currently. Whenever I ask about the status of the operation around finding the doctor and our wayward SOLDIER, all I get are platitudes and excuses. So go ahead, and do tell me if you need a few days off for your investigations.“

I waited until he was gone, then I scrambled up the ladder again, despite my aching back, and got out a few files that indeed contained the information I needed.

During the subsequent meeting in my apartment, which turned into a headquarter for our private missions more and more, we concluded that our best starting point would be the reactor in Sector 5 of the city. Sephiroth stayed with me the night before they wanted to go investigate it, to ease my mind since I wouldn‘t join them. We were in my bedroom, Sephiroth already lounging on my bed and reading a book while I changed into my nightgown. I had bought it a few days before, in a sudden urge to get myself some sexier nightwear. I still couldn‘t believe that a nice nightgown like that actually existed in my size. It was black silk, with spaghetti straps and lace on the hems, and ended right underneath my butt. It actually didn‘t look too bad on me. Still I looked at my reflection in the full-length mirror mounted to the door of my wardrobe as if it was my worst enemy facing me. But it wasn‘t the deep self-loathing I used to feel. More like casual annoyance.

„What‘s this?“, Sephiroth exclaimed suddenly, and I turned around and approached the bed. An old photograph had slipped out from between the pages of the book. It showed a pair of children; a stern-looking boy with short, blonde hair and a pudgy girl with her dark hair in two braids.

„Oh. I completely forgot that was in there.“

But Sephiroth hardly seemed to notice me. He picked up the picture to take a closer look. „...That‘s you? With Rufus Shinra?“

„Yes“, I replied and sat down next to him.

He turned his head to me. „...I don‘t understand. I thought you hated each other.“

„That wasn‘t always the case, though.“

„Oh? Why didn‘t you tell me you used to be so close to him?“

„There are days where I forget that myself. We haven‘t really spoken to each other beyond polite, empty banter in years.“ I took the photo and gave it a long, thoughtful look, before stopping short. „Wait… is that a hint of jealousy I hear?“

„Possibly. Especially since your father seems so obsessed with you marrying him.“ Sephiroth‘s voice had become harder.

I let out a deep, resigned sigh. „And that was the problem.“

„What do you mean?“ I got comfortable, laying down next to Sephiroth. „Rufus and I used to be best friends. My father tried to suck up to the Shinras enough to make me seem like wife-material for Rufus from pretty much the moment the doctor said ‚It‘s a girl!‘. So I often spent summer vacation at the Shinra estate. Rufus and I were both rich kids with absentee parents, and we bonded over that. Became like brother and sister, we even started calling each other brother and sister eventually. He kept me safe from bullies, I brought him candy when he was frustrated. Our fathers were delighted, of course. After all, us getting along would make setting us up with each other easier, right?“

Sephiroth tilted his head attentively. „One might assume.“

„Well, no. Not in our case. As I said, we were like family to each other. But pretty much as soon as I started puberty, they upped their efforts to force us to fall in love. That went from forcing us to spend even more time together, which was honestly fine by us, to setting up ‚romantic‘ meetings for us and calling public attention to us while we were together. And it just got so uncomfortable that we started avoiding being seen together. We never said more than necessary to each other from that point onward. Then he started working for his father‘s company and he… changed.“ I paused for a bit, trying to find the right words. „It‘s true what people say. He never cried as a child. But he also wasn‘t always the complete jerk he is nowadays. But once he became involved in Shinra Corp., he became cold and cruel. And that was the end of even the last remains of our friendship.“ I tightened my hands into fists. „I will never forgive my father for this.“

Sephiroth had become a lot more relaxed while I was talking, and let me snuggle up to him. „And you shouldn‘t. I‘m so sorry.“

„It‘s okay. That‘s just how it is sometimes.“ I sniffled a little, upset by the memories of days long gone. But thanks to Sephiroth‘s warmth, I soon drifted off, the photo still in my hand.

[lazyeggpoetry]

You Changed

Back in freshman year

I found you dressed in black

But they say those who wear darkness have the most colorful mind

You proved that to be true because I could see the raw red anger and a sickly brown bitterness

Back in freshman year I was a straitlaced corset with old fashion branded into my mind with the hot iron of 1950’s parenting

The awkward new girl who begged and pleaded to fit in

Back in freshman year you had not one care in the world

Not grades

Not boys

Not people

Your empathy level was dripping slowly below ground level

And I didn't like you

Sophomore year and came around and we were close

Closer than Bonnie and Clyde

Black hawks games

Deep talks

Sleepovers

Shopping

And so much more

Sophomore year we had a fire burning a friendship so bright

But now the fire’s dying

It's gone up in smoke

What happened because something snapped

Something changed

And now there's a crack

You started to be artificial

Nothing but plastic

Nothing but the carbon copy I had hoped you'd never be

You've turned out just like the others

Just like the snakes

Who pretend and pretend

And just never back off

And now here we are in junior year and I feel like I'm watching my friend be slowly strangled

Strangled by the ropes of what society is “supposed to do”

Look at yourself

Look really hard

Because we've drifted apart like sand in the Sahara

Because it's now junior year and you're glamorizing things that shouldn't be glamorized

Depression isn't pretty

You should know

It's like watching paint dry and being suffocated by the hands of mental instability

It's staring at a wall for hours on end wondering why you can't just die

Anorexia isn't hot

It's a sickness

It's the feeling where eating lunch is like giving up or licking a sugar free Popsicle is a cheat day

It's skin clinging onto you, starved and parched from lack of the nutrients and love you're supposed to give your frame

Cutting isn't beautiful

It's destroying your body

It's dragging a razor through the skin and watching the blood drip in the sink as you stare

It's about creating scars that will never fade. It’s about pain and punishment

Look at yourself because here we are in junior year and you think you're entitled to things people would kill to have.

That BMW that your father worked long hours day and night to save up for

You think it's yours

The money in your bank account that your parents deposited

You think it's yours

Look in the mirror because guess what

You've never once lifted a finger for anyone or anything unless it benefits you

Never has it even crossed your mind that in life you have to put effort and determination into something you want

Because you've always had it handed to you or you just snatched it away

Here we are in junior year and you've flipped a switch

Because all of a sudden marijuana is more important than whether Corey Crawford blocked the goal that would've let the Red Wings win

Suddenly teenage boys have taken center stage in your life rather than the new fan fiction

It's not you I'm looking at & don't try to tell me otherwise

You used to be real

Real as hell

But now it's all about sex and drug

You call yourself a feminist but you beg boys to degrade you and make you crawl

Cats are cool don't get me wrong but not for the bedroom no not there

You crawl on your hands and knees, begging and pleading for attention of any boy or girl now

Bisexuality might be the path for you but you don't see any real LGBT human screaming “I’m Bi” on a bus

It's junior year and I'm sick of you

Actin like the world is yours

And you're the smartest kid on the block

I'm sick of you and your artificial interest in me

Because trust me you've thrown me to the wolves more than once

But here I am leading the pack

While you sit here carving the word secret into your skin so that you can show everyone tomorrow

While you talk about a pure sweet girl in

vain solely so you get some pity

I'm here leading the pack

While you pretend you have panic attacks

And compare a coach abuse case to a third grade bullying experience

I'll be here leading the pack

While you go get high with the burnouts

And mess around with boys who want nothing but sex

I'll be here living my life

And you'll be stuck looking in the mirror at your worst enemy

Yourself

[shoofworldwide]

more beta au stuff because another character that has interesting stuff?? chloe.

chloe, like felix, has a lot of cool potential. one way is that she was originally supposed to parade around not just sabrina, but alix as well, which makes for a very peculiar dynamic between alix and chloe if alix is willing to put up with her. that also adds the question of WHY - yes i know it's probably because alix was supposed to be a sabrina clone, but it adds a better dynamic if, say, chloe and alix were childhood friends. i still haven't decided whether or not i want adrien in this au, but i know i wanna emphasize the importance of the childhood friends, which would also include marinette, nino, and kim, since the three of them grew up together, and, most likely, with chloe as well. considering the fact that marinette and nino HATE chloe at the beginning, and kim has a crush on her, as well as kim's rivalry with alix, that creates an entirely new dynamic between the five of them. what happened that caused chloe to start bullying marinette? probably her mother leaving. chloe probably confided in alix about her mother, since we haven't seen alix's mom in the picture yet either. marinette has a mom, and a loving stable family to boot. somewhere along the line, chloe starts bullying marinette out of jealousy, to feel better about herself, etc. starts pumping herself up more to get rid of the feeling of inadequecy. nino sticks to marinette because i am riding this brotp train. alix, only knowing chloe's side, doesn't know why marinette and nino start treating chloe so poorly when she's going through so much, and starts to avoid them. eventually kim tells her what happened, but it's never the same between alix and marinette. meanwhile, kim kinda bounces between both groups. as chloe gets older, and subsequently worse, alix gets more and more guilty and unsure of how to stop her friend. but the alix rant is for another post this is chloe time.

chloe, in season 1, is basically the same awful mega bitch. she'd probably try to boast about being felix's gf in origins but he'd shut that shit down quickly. i can't see the two of them getting along at all. felix would probably call her out in class, to which everyone supports, but then rag on her a little TOO hard to the point where it just becomes malicious. i could see antibug being because of chat instead of ladybug - not because marinette wouldn't do what she did in antibug, but because felix would do it WORSE and ladybug, at most, would probably pull him aside privately and tell him that was way too much.

i don't have much change for her actions up until volpina, where chat and ladybug have the huge fight and ladybug kicks chat out of paris. chloe's there - i imagine the whole class is. with volpina being probably the most difficult akuma thus far and with ladybug having to face it alone, marinette, by the end, is EXHAUSTED. she's swinging back when chloe stops her.

chloe DEMANDS to be brought back personally by ladybug, and to get selfies with her best friend, etc etc. and ladybug snaps. ladybug starts going off on her for being selfish and pretentious and a bully. her earrings are beeping. chloe tries to tell her but ladybug's screaming her head off and won't listen--

and the transformation fades. marinette is left in her wake.

marinette goes dead quiet. chloe gapes - she wasn't really listening to what ladybug was saying, she knows it had been a long day - and doesn't say anything. marinette falls to her knees, just staring. staring at the biggest mistake at the worst time.

but this is ladybug, chloe's idol. so chloe calls her butler for a car and tells marinette they're going to her hotel where it's safe and she can rest. marinette weakly nods and follows along because, at least, chloe's being nice. even if it's weird.

so once tikki is settled with cookies and the two are safely in chloe's room, marinette explains that she's ladybug. how it happened. that yes, it has been her the whole time. yes, volpina was lila. and lila was a liar. no, she had no idea who chat noir was. she's not sure she wants to know.

and chloe takes it all in. she processes it, and it's a cold wake up call. marinette, the girl she's tormented for YEARS, is her biggest idol. and chloe has to choose between whether or not to keep ladybug's secret or tell the world marinette's.

chloe decides to do the right thing.

season 2 is different. chat noir is ladybug's enemy and ladybug has to do things herself now. lila is manipulating the class in between her "excursions to achu". and chloe, somehow, has become marinette's friend, and ladybug's self proclaimed "sidekick". she helps ladybug from the shadows in her own weird chloe way. eventually, when nino finds out marinette's identity, the three of them become team ladybug, with chloe even buying them a secret lair (lb and cn had one in beta....and they AXED IT....but it's back no one can stop me) and chloe becomes invaluable.

when her mom comes back, chloe practically trips over herself to be her mom's ideal child, trying to copy everything she does, but she becomes a bitch again. alix pulls her aside and begs her not to go down this path again because it's not good for her, for anyone, and that deep down, she's a beautiful person and she shouldn't let anyone - not even her mom - get rid of that.

and it sits with chloe. and she's so, so torn about it.

the decision comes to a head when master fu presents her the miraculous of the bee. he tells her that her efforts have not gone unnoticed, and that she deserves this. that deep down, she is a hero.

(nino also gets a miraculous obv but that's another post)

queen bee becomes a permenant member of the team, and no longer ladybug's sidekick, but her new partner. and while chloe still has a lot of growing to do, she's headed down the right path.

i'm considering giving her a romantic subplot too but i'm not sure who with? i love chlonath but marcnath is pretty great. i've considered lukhloe but idk where luka fits into this au yet (pls send ideas) and obv onesided chlonette has sooo much potential. the more i write this the more i like alix/chloe but??? idk we'll see. that's my chloe rant kids stay tuned for more beta au shennanigans and send ur thoughts

[havntednlost]

The main problem: my mother.

Her and my social life.

She's my fucking hell. Since I was born. She never allowed me to do anything along with my father (that was waaaaaay more possessive and jealous when I was a child while now with my little sister he's all like "do whatever you want it's fine").

She never respected my privacy. My spaces. My decisions. My opinions. I wasn't allowed to have an opinion. I wasn't allowed to speak when she decided something. I wasn't allowed to choose my friends. I wasn't allowed to speak to some people I defined friends because they weren't okay for her. She'd always decided who I had to talk to and how I had to behave. She always shushed me when I wanted to say something that she thought could've been against her decision. I grew up with her ideas, with her ways of talking and acting. She was manipulating me, creating a copy of her. She wanted to see her in me. (You failed. Ops?🤭) And I was always alone. I never had friends. The only friends I could make were people with disabilities. Because others couldn't stand me. Others hated me or made fun of me. Since I was 6 (elementary school) to being 10 I only talked to people who had difficulties at school or were handicapped. I felt like they didn't judge me. And I felt like they were okay with me being their friend.

What does not having friends has to do with my mother?

Well easy: my social life was in her hands. And that's why I never had anyone by my side. Because no one was okay for her. Only one or maybe two people. And I never complained about it. Because she made me grow up like that. I had to shut up and just do what she said. In my childhood I remember disobeying just a couple of times to my mother. Consequences? Being hit. She slapped me in the face so hard she made me cry. Once she slapped me in front of my classmates in that way. My teacher told her it wasn't necessary and mum just used a polite way to say "fuck you I am her mother and I decide how she has to grow up". My teacher had to shut up while he was caressing me and making me calm down. In that moment I forgot I was in class. I must remember being in my teacher's arms and feeling safe, far from my mum's hands. I was 8 if I'm not wrong.

So, elementary school ended. Middle school started. First year. Me, still with the mentality of a child. Naive. Too innocent and silly to understand the world I was going to face. Middle school was the worst period of my life. I've been bullied all the three years.

First year: Afraid. Always defensive. But willing to be a perfect student just as I was at the previous school. It was just me and other four girls (way smarter than me because they didn't live like they were perfect dolls to keep in a house-cage) and then 15 boys. One of them had a crush on me. I rejected him. I got no will to talk about that embarrassing story. After that also this boy + all the girls made fun of me and bullied me and called me names like: horse, camel, annoying, stupid and stuff like that. I was absolutely not used to being talked to like that, consequently it was one of the first traumas I've experienced in first person, without having my mother "by my side" "to dEfENd me". First year ends and I made no friends.

My parents decide to move to another city. Caserta. Close to Naples. I spent two years there. It was a fucking hell. People there were like... the plastics of mean girls. We were 10 girls and 13 boys. Way better, I thought. Ugh, I was wrong. Boys were terrible, worse than the ones at the other school and girls? Damn, they were all Regina George. It was when my depression symptoms started, along with anxiety. They talked at my back, saying bad stuff about me. How I found out? My mother was going through my chats (without me knowing, of course) and she called me to tell me. I read the group chat. They started saying "Is Maria in this group? No? Are you sure? Yes". So after establishing that I wasn't there they started saying things like: Oh luckily she isn't. She's so annoying. Why the fuck did she came to our school? Couldn't she stay at her old one? She's so ugly and stupid. No one can stand her. No one wants her. And she thinks we're her friends! 😂😂😂 She thinks she's better than us! (totally untrue) She's no one. etc...

Now imagine me crying while reading everything because I didn't expect it.

My mother: Didn't you expect all of this? It was obvious.

Well sorry if I was too stupid because I grew up thinking people were good and I would've faced a world full of roses and love.

I just told her I didn't. Your fault, darling.

Day after. My mother goes to school and talks to my teacher about it. My teacher defends me and helps me with that and the thing is solved. But my classmates just hate me more and more. And they just keep bullying me but more subtly so that no one notices. But I was a bit smarter because I had my cousin (I will dedicate another post to this special person ❤️) that was helping me to go through all the shit and giving me advice.

Middle school ends.

I am not homophobic anymore (like my parents taught me to be). I start having doubts about my sexuality but ignore them. My depression gets worse and worse.

My mother gets worse and worse. Starting to prefer my two brothers and little sister over me for everything. I was needed just to clean the house and to be yelled at for wearing always black, being unsocial, always staying on my own in the dark, always with my phone, always listening to music, always being sad or angry, never smiling, staying up after 10pm for watching TV series or reading, not studying much etc...

(Want a hint my dear mother? I was/am depressed.)

In this period I start having suicidal thoughts. Still because of my parents. My cousin supporting me and telling me is silly and that there are other options.

We move back to Naples.

I am now 14.

Highschool starts. First year is shit because I get bullied again but I start making friends. A group of 7 people (me included). My mother says they're okay. Fucking finally.

Alessia, Gabriella, Chiara, Simona, Sara, Andreea (romanian). Fucking amazing friends. Disgustingly amazing.

My grades are low. My parents keep hating on me and yelling at me for that. But my friends support me.

In the meanwhile I get to know a girl on the Internet. We become close friends and that develops in feelings. We start a relationship. Let's be clear. It wasn't. It was just based on the fact that we had the same problems and she gave me a lot of affection, and I thought it was love.

One day my mother takes my phone, again, without me knowing, and reads all of my chats.

She finds out about this girl. I was terrified and so I confess. My first coming out. She says nothing. She goes to my dad and tells him. My dad yells "Go away! Go away from my sight!" and I go to the kitchen terrified. Crying and sobbing. We sit. Me, my mother and my dad. They start talking to me. A sum up:

I don't remember how my mother started talking. I removed it because it was traumatic, all I remember is her saying shit about that poor girl.

I say "Mum, what's wrong with gays? They're just like us"

Mum slaps me. Hard as fuck. I was shook. Scared. Hurt. Confused.

After that they start talking about how wrong is being gay, that God doesn't accept it, that it's not natural, that it's just a phase, that only animals have gay sex and that's why we humans are different from animals that must follow their instincts. They keep repeating the same things in different ways for 3 hours. I am not kidding. 3 hours. From 3pm to 6:30pm only talking about this. (Want to know what I've done all this time? I just nodded. I kept on nodding because I was afraid to talk.)

Mum deletes and blocks every number and friends from Internet and takes my SIM card and puts it in her phone so she can check all my chats from her phone. She throws my phone away breaking it.

Nighttime: No sleep. Everytime I fell asleep I had nightmares so I woke up. Sobbing. Crying. I can't fucking breathe. A fucking hell.

Morning: I wake up totally empty and with a dead face. My parents are in the kitchen. They warmly say "good morning" and ask me to sit. I sit on the couch. They ask me "how are you". My answer: HOW AM I?? HOW AM I YOU FUCKER?????!!!!! YOU'RE REALLY ASKING ME HOW ARE YOU WITH THIS NONCHALANCE???? FUCKING KILL YOURSELF. My actual answer:.... i'm tired.

I don't remember anything else after that. Trauma I guess.

I am not a psychologist but I'm pretty sure I'm fucked up.

So after this happens I tell everything to my cousin. She doesn't believe that. She actually doesn't. She was too shocked to believe it. Haha, same sis. I don't either.

So, it takes a while for her to process everything and that's when our friendship starts for real. (We were good friends since I was 12. We grew up together, but there has never been an actual friendship because of how I was as a child. A pretty horrible child.) She starts helping me with my mother and all the stuff. We start getting closer and closer as time goes by and as my mother keeps being a bitch.

Second year of highschool.

My fucking favourite. It was such a good time. My grades weren't the best, my depression was fucking me up more than ever, my anxiety was kicking me out, but.. I had my friends. With a new entry. Simona. Yeah another one. Alessia changes school. So it's still 7 of us.

I swear if it wasn't for my friends that year and my cousin. I would've killed myself. Going back home from school everyday was basically going back to hell every fucking day.

dude: go to hell

me: awww where do you think i came from honey?

Then... that summer comes. Summer 2018.

I argue with my friends because of my parents, giving them the fault of everything. I keep them away from me. My mother gets even worse. She's against me like I am her enemy. She yells at me for everything. Every single thing.

me: *wakes up*

mother: WHY DID YOU WAKE UP GO BACK TO SLEEP AND SLEEP PROPERLY LIKE A LADY YOU'RE DISGUSTING.

She separates me from my cousin because she talked back at her (after she said bad things about my cousin's mother at her face) and here, another trauma. She calls me whore, liar, bitch because I didn't defend her like my cousin did with her mother (sorry but i hate you bitch). She says it's all my fault because I told my cousin everything about the bad things she did to me. That day goes away and my mother calms down and says it's not my fault but my cousin's because she's a bitch. I have no chance to talk to her for a month then we finally meet when my mother isn't at home. Since then we talk without no one of my family knowing. (It will be 3 years this summer, she never knew we do. How stupid can she be thinking I wouldn't talk to my favourite person ever because she said so).

September comes. Back to school. Third year. No friends. Low grades. No will to study. No will to live. But my cousin has my back. She keeps me alive, in fact I tried to kill myself multiple times. I failed. (Now I'm happy I didn't.) I pass that year. Not after another trauma. I seek for help at school. My teacher tells my mother about it and tells her that I am bisexual, atheist and I'm not okay in my family.

Thanks for ruining me, teacher. I expressively told her not to talk about it with my mother buuuut okay.

Quick sum up: I come back from school, my mother is crying. She starts saying things like "You don't want me as a mother? You don't like me? You hate me?" and I said no (not knowing that she knew what I said at school). Then the evening she walks to me and sits near me.

"Tell me the truth"

I was obviously confused. So she confesses what she knows. I was expecting the worst. It ended up with me talking to my uncles because my mother was "tOo hUrt" to talk to me.

"It's just a phase." "I hated my parents too." "You're too young to say these things." "You can't say you're bisexual if you never experienced anything."

It ended up with me faking a hug and "I'm sorry mum, I exaggerated." (obviously it was just to make everything stop).

bonus

me: *wants help to fight a difficult situation*

mum: *gets to know about it* YOU HURT ME YOU UNGRATEFUL BITCH.

also mum: *reproaches it to my face everytime she's mad at me*

Fourth year starts. This is my year. This year. 2019/2020. It started perfectly. Good grades, my friends are back.

We move again. Tivoli (Rome). I am fucking happy with that. Expect for the fact that I can't meet my cousin anymore. But of course we can chat. Secretly on Telegram. Because my mother doesn't know what it is. Also, she stopped checking my phone, finally.

So, now. I'm 17, fourth year of highschool. Here I have no friends because they all suck. I miss my friends from Naples. And I wish I was free from my parents.

Some parts are not detailed. This because I will dedicate to them other posts otherwise this one would've been waaaaaay longer. And it's already too long.

No one will read these long posts but in case you're doing it, thank you ❤.

[lightningmastertrilogy]

Path of Lightning: Origins chapter 16: The heat

Summary: Yuki and Tara end up facing a dilemma as well.

Total word count: 2k words.

Read on wattpad.

Read here:

The sniper and the ice user walked through the hallways. Yuki was trying to calm his nerves, but it wasn't working.

Were his wishes about to come true? Could it be possible that Tara liked him?

"So, why are we here?" He finally asked, subconsciously freezing a bit of the ground near his feet.

"I wanted to… I wanted to give them s-some time alone so that they can… they can make up." Tara said cheerfully, while all of Yuki's hopes got destroyed.

"Oh." Of course she didn't do that to talk to him. What was he thinking?

"You… You sounded disappointed." She remarked and he cleared his throat quickly and tried to hide the disappointment.

"Why did you join Aether anyway?" He asked, hoping to change the subject. He was rubbing his neck, realizing that he never had an actual conversation with her.

"I wanted to see more of the world." The sniper answered as a warm smile appeared on her face. "I might not be a Penergy… a Penergy user, but I can take c-care of myself."

"You don't have to be a Penergy user to be amazing! Being a sniper requires a level of patience that most us can't achieve!" The Ice user complimented and hoped that his blush wasn't too obvious. He truly thought that she was amazing.

"T-thanks! That's sweet." She bit her lip and looked thoughtful about something. She then smiled as she decided what to say. "What about you? Why did you join?"

"My family was really poor. So when I discovered my powers and heard about how well Aether pays for their missions, I decided to join to support my parents." He admitted with a shrug. "Thankfully, we're doing fine now."

"Aw, you really a-are sweet." Tara said while Yuki laughed nervously.

They stopped when they saw someone knocking a wizard out in the distance. His hair was a soft shade of orange, and his clothes were a mix of the black and yellow. He glanced at them then looked around as the walls started forming together isolating them in one room.

"That idiot! I can't believe he trapped me here! Stupid shape shifter." He complained then glared at the pair. "What do you want? Look, I had a terrible day! Fox was such a bully this morning, then Chameleon 'accidently' knocked books and files on me and NOW shifter trapped me here! So EXCUSE ME if I'm not in the mood for anything! I did not even agree to come here!" He huffed as he finally finished his complaint, and even his skin turned into different shades of red.

Yuki raised a finger and his mouth hang open as he tried to think of something to say, then he exchanged a look with the sniper who raised her hands in a questioning manner. They remained silent, afraid of causing another rant.

The intruder's glare hardened as his body became redder. "There's so much heat…" He muttered. "I'm SO angry!" He yelled as smoke started coming out from his burning body.

He suddenly ran towards the pair in an attempt to attack and release his anger. Yuki took a step back, surprised then he created an ice shield. The heater's fist collided with it, causing a wave of steam that filled the room. The Ice user took the opportunity and slammed his hands against the floor, freezing the room and created pillar so that the sniper could gain higher ground. Tara wore her goggles and pulled her cloak around her body, making her invisible. She then took her position on one of the ice pillars.

The ice and heat users waited for the steam to disappear. Yuki created multiple ice fists that attacked the heater, but they all melted before touching him.

"I'm burning up!" The orange haired man yelled and sent a wave of heat towards the ice user.

Yuki used his arms to block the air wave from his face. He felt the heat starting to affect his skin so he slammed his feet against the ground, creating Ice spikes that served both as a shield and as an attack, but much to his dismay, the ice melted before it could reach his enemy. He knew his powers were useless in this fight, but he was doing his best to distract him for the sniper.

Suddenly, an energy bullet hit the heater's arm. He yelled in rage and sent heat waves towards the direction of the bullet. Luckily, Tara switched places the moment she fired it, so the attack only hit one of the pillars melting it in seconds. She took a new position and looked for the right bullet. The bullets she had would have melted before reaching his body, so she had to find a specific type that could bear the heat. The one she used was an energy bullet that manipulates the body heat, so she had to wait until it starts to take effect so she could knock him out.

Yuki moved his hands in circles and created an ice tornado that surrounded the heater. The latter melted it as his skin became redder, he then ran towards Yuki. He was so fast that the ice user couldn't create anything.

In that moment, an idea came to mind and he raised his hands and prayed that his actions would work. He closed his eyes waiting for the burning impact, but nothing came, so he opened them and was met with the sight of his enemy's hands surrounded by blue energy that held them back.

"You… you're using basic Penergy?" The attacker asked in surprise and tried to free himself, but his heat didn't work on normal energy.

"I guess Aiko was right after all… no matter how evolved the power becomes, nothing beats the roots!" Yuki exclaimed with a smile and used the energy to throw him away then used ice fists to hit him. Some of them melted but others managed to reach him.

The heater fell, and his body was starting to regain its normal color due to the bullet he received earlier. He groaned and gathered all of his heat and sent it towards Yuki. The ice user fell to his knees and couldn't move. He started to feel as if his body was burning, and his skin was about to, but luckily, a bullet that went through the heater's head, saved him.

The heater fell, motionless.

Yuki sighed in relief then turned to see Tara pulling her hood up and becoming visible.

"What took you so long?" He asked with a smile and raised his hand for her to take.

She took it with a smile and he helped her jump off the pillar. "A sniper waits for the perfect shot."

"He's not dead, is he?" He asked as he turned to the man he was fighting.

"Of course not! My bullets are made of energy, they don't touch the meat or bones, they just manipulated his energy. He is now in a deep sleep." Tara explained. "G-good team work?" She asked.

"Good team work." He confirmed with a smile.

Meanwhile on the other side, the shape shifter created hand made of rock to replace his messing one and stop the bleeding. He couldn't use it to shift but it was better than nothing.

The intense pain all hit him at once, and his breathing and vision worsened. But he knew that if he didn't fight back, he might lose more than a hand.

He turned the ceiling into spikes that fell towards the blue haired girl, but the knight's phantom blocked them with his shield then raised his sword to strike. The shape shifter managed to jump away at the last moment, but he wasn't safe yet. The moment his feet landed, he moved to the right, hardly avoiding Nosaru's sword, resulting in a cut on his cheek. He then moved his hand to shape something but Nosaru was faster. She turned and grabbed it then equipped a dagger to hit him. He used his shifted hand to block the blade out of desperation. She unequipped it to free her hand then kicked him away.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" She said as she walked towards him. "Do I have to cut your other hand?" Her words were spoken so calmly and coldly that they sent chills through his body.

"Don't you underestimate me!" He yelled then created spears from all sides of the room, so that they would be impossible to block or avoid.

Nosaru moved her sword in multiple directions, cutting through the air, and the phantom copied her movements. All the spears he created were cut in the blink of an eye.

"No way! There is no way you could do that!" He said and attempted to make one more attack, but he received a hit in his stomach, making him lose conscience.

Nosaru glared at him then unequipped her gauntlet.

She turned and looked at the phantom watching over her. The knight nodded then turned into a small energy ball that flew towards her. She felt a strange warmth overwhelming her as the energy fused with her body. It felt as if a part that was always missing, returned to her.

She rested a hand against her chest, where the energy touched her. She finally felt the knight's presence, a part of herself that she never accepted until now.

She gasped and turned and ran towards her partner who was lying unconscious on the ground. She noticed that the shifted object was removed from her shoulder. She must have removed it while she was fighting the shape shifter, but that caused her to lose a lot of blood.

"Liz! Wake up!" She said as she shook her partner, hoping she'd open her eyes. She was feeling more desperate as she tried to wake the blonde. She felt a tightness in her chest as the worst outcome started to fill her thoughts. She was so scared. So scared that she'd lose someone else. "Please…" She said so softly that it was impossible to hear. "…Don't leave me alone…"

A short and soft laugh startled her. "Did you seriously think that something like that would kill me?" Liz asked as she sat up slowly, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. "I just got a bit dizzy." She said with her usual smirk.

Nosaru stared at her for a moment before punching her lightly on the shoulder causing the blonde to wince in pain.

"What was that for?!" Liz asked but she was startled when Nosaru hugged her. Her grip was strong enough to hold the blonde, but not to the point of hurting her injured shoulder. Liz felt something wet on her shoulder as she used one arm to return the hug. "Are you crying?" She asked.

"Shut up." That was her partner's answer, and her voice cracking voice was proof that she was crying. However, those weren't just the tears of the fear that she felt in that moment, they were tears that she held back ever since her mother's death. They were tears that has been begging to come out for a while.

That was what Liz felt when she silently hugged her.

                                           -P.O.L:Origins-

Bob stood in the transportation room, facing a mysterious figure. The person wore a black cloak and white mask that looked like a fox's face. They wore tight black pants and a black tank top. They had a white belt, making the clothes a mix of white and black. Their hair was raven colored and it looked long, but wasn't too visible because of the hood.

However, the only thing that was obvious about the person's identity, was their gender. The infiltrator was a woman.

"I don't know how you infiltrated the place, but I prefer you'd leave now." Bob said and his eyes wandered to what was attached to her belt. Two katanas waiting to be pulled from their scabbards.

The woman didn't say a word, perhaps to keep her identity hidden. She pulled her swords and stared at him silently.

"I guess you made your choice." He said and pulled a small notebook and a pen from his pocket. "Let me start by introducing myself. They call me the author."

Next chapter: The fox.

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Chapter: 8/18 Word count: 2165 Summary: When Tobirama is exiled from the Senju clan without warning, without even the chance to plead his case, it feels like his life is over. What does he have to live for now without his older brother to believe in him? Captured by the Uchiha in his moment of weakness, Tobirama slowly learns to live again with the last people on earth he would have ever expected to care for - or to fall in love with.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the blog header!

Chapter 8

“Did you have an aneurysm?” Tobirama continued to stare in bafflement as Madara snorted.

“Is that any way to talk to the man offering you your freedom?” he asked. Tobirama pinched his brows together and hesitated, unsure if he should speak his mind or not.

“Perhaps not but is it the best idea to offer your worst enemy free rein of your home?”

“I wasn’t offering you free rein,” Madara corrected him with an overly casual shrug. “And you’re hardly our greatest enemy now. You’re not a threat and you’re not a bargaining piece; actually you’re kind of alright to have around, much as it pains me to admit that. So I figured I would make the offer.”

Running his fingers across the seals on his wrists, Tobirama watched the other man closely for any signs of duplicity. “The offer that I can stay and live here with you. In the Uchiha compound. In your house. As…what? Your new pet?”

“Why are you making this so difficult? Ugh, just give it here!”

Madara grabbed his arm and began to pick at the seal with his own hands, looking for the right characters to push his chakra in to in order to deactivate them. It took Tobirama clearing his throat and using his other hand to point it out for Madara to set him free with a simple press of one thumb. He took care of the second one just as quickly and then unlocked the cuff-style bracelets while Tobirama was still settling in to the sensation of being able to access his own chakra again.

Taking his arms back, Tobirama rubbed at one wrist with the opposite hand and dipped his head to stare at the ground while his mind raced.

“So you’re asking me to, what? Become an Uchiha?”

“Fire and flames, no!” Madara huffed out a startled laugh. “Half a minute ago you were in cuffs, I’m not about to slap an uchiwa on your back and call you brother right out of the gate. But…your situation is quite unique and if I must explain myself for you to understand then I have to admit I’ve grown sort of – maybe a little – fond of your presence.”

“Oh. Right.” His lip stuck when he caught it between his teeth but Tobirama paid that no mind, chewing harder with thought. “Would I be expected to…”

“No. I would not ask that of you.”

He looked up to see all traces of amusement gone from Madara’s expression, replaced with solemn understanding, and relief crashed through him with unexpected force. Until now he hadn’t realized that was even a worry but now he acknowledged that it had always been there in the back of his mind, the possibility that he might someday be forced to attend the battlefield and face his own kin.

Or the ones he used to call kin.

Nearly three months had passed since his exile, just under two months since he had been sealed and put to work around the Uchiha compound. Thinking about it now, he wondered if Madara had simply pitied him or if even then he had intended for Tobirama to stay. It wasn’t something he cared to have clarified but it was something he knew he would be turning over in his mind a great deal from now on.

“If I stay,” he began slowly, “I would like to earn my way. Just…not with laundry. I’ll stay if you promise I don’t have to scrub your dirty underwear anymore.” Something thumped pleasantly in his chest when Madara tossed his head back to roar with laughter. It felt a lot like his heart, jumping and fluttering with a feeling strangely close to fondness.

“Deal. No laundry except your own.”

“I suppose I can live with doing my own.”

“Nice!” Izuna tumbled in to the room then, entirely giving up the pretense that he wasn’t listening at the door. “Now we can spar, right? I’ve been going crazy without any good sparring partners. Aniki likes to sleep in when I like to train and Hikaku is always busy running around with the patrols.”

Tobirama tried to bite down the comment but it slipped out anyway. “Are you sure you want your ass kicked by a former slave? Can your ego even survive that?”

His old rival’s offended squawk was all but drowned out when Madara began to laugh again, bent over double with no shame and clearly not intending to defend his brother’s honor in any way. Tobirama smiled faintly at their antics. Staying here might not be the worst decision he would ever make.

Adjusting to life in the Uchiha compound didn’t sound like it should be a difficult task when he had already been here for months and yet to Tobirama it felt like removing the seals from his wrist had thrust him forward in to yet another completely foreign world. The clan members within the compound looked at him differently. Not in a friendly sort of way of course, not at first, but at least mostly without the hostility and suspicion he had almost grown used to. Moving around outside the house no longer ended with him hurrying back to avoid the stares that followed him everywhere he went. It seemed they had finally had enough time to get used to his presence.

Now he was met with cautious nods and children wound around his legs just the same as they did to all the other adults, no longer warned to stay away from him. Izuna dragged him out to an open forest clearing within the grounds specially set aside for sparring every morning that he could. And when they returned to the house they usually worked together to cook a massive breakfast for when Madara finally managed to drag himself out of bed.

During the day he spent his hours rifling through the surprisingly well-equipped library Madara unlocked for him. By the layers of dust he could tell that not many had bothered with the treasures within for a long time but they found a new life in his hands as he learned the clan’s history, learned the truth of the rumors other clans told about them to cast them as villains. When he wasn’t learning he used the ink and paper freely provided to him and painted seals – proper ones, not the slapdash copy method they had been using until now. Never anything that could specifically be called a weapon but earning his place by making things useful for travel and for everyday life. A massive difference from how he had spent his time before, his efforts going always to methods of death.

The biggest changes came at night, though.

It took weeks to get used to having one or both Uchiha brothers lounging against him like some kind of body pillow as they all ended their day in the den, sprawled out on the couch or around the kotatsu, passing the evening with easy conversation or simply spending time in each other’s presence while they each entertained themselves with something of their own. It reminded him of his childhood, the days when he had three brothers to pull his head out of the library he’d grown up in and bully him in to playing silly games with them for no reason other than that they wanted his attention for a while.

Now he was grown and there were two men with unruly hair, both of them with a bad habit of snickering to themselves or gasping out loud when they were reading a book, who seemed to understand somehow his distaste for the idea of being alone, something most people misinterpreted. While he did indeed enjoy his privacy and the time he spent with nothing but his thoughts, he had also spent his entire life surrounded by family. He needed human contact just like everyone else; he just happened to be more selective about the humans he was happy to spend time with.

Five months to the day since he had been sent away from one home Tobirama looked to his side at Madara, peacefully sleeping with his reading glasses knocked askew by the book his face was resting on, and felt his heart skip several beats at once. It was possible he had built another without realizing it just as this man had advised.

“You’ve got that panicky look on your face again,” Izuna informed him from the other side of the kotatsu, covered in cards and the small handfuls of pretzels they were using as gambling chips.

“I’ve gotten attached,” he murmured back.

“Must be a good hand.”

“Not to the cards, you idiot. Although yes, this is a fairly good hand, you should fold now if you want to keep your snacks. But that isn’t what I was talking about.” Shifting on his cushion, he looked over at Madara again. The fool was drooling on his book. It should not have been considered adorable in any way and yet that was the only word he could think of.

Frowning at his own hand of cards, Izuna waffled back and forth before dropping them to the kotatsu with a sigh. “Alright so what did you mean then?”

“I was talking about you two idiots. You know, I still say this is all a big trick. You’re lulling me in to a false sense of security, making me care about you, and then one day–”

“Bam! We attack you with hugs and affection and other disgusting things!”

“No!” Tobirama rolled his eyes but couldn’t resist the smile trying to grow.

He was about to say something else when Madara gave a light snort and jerked upright, blinked around the room and then settling his gaze on the man at his side. After the short moment it took his sleep-addled senses to recognize who he was sitting next to his whole face lit up in a way it wouldn’t have if he were fully awake. Tobirama stared back at him, feeling his insides melting. He’d never seen Madara look at anyone like that except his own brother.

“Did I fall asleep?”

“No, no,” Tobirama protested mildly. “You just closed your eyes and we shut off the whole world for you. It was no trouble, really.” Madara shook himself a little to clear his head and huffed indignantly.

“Rude.” Despite his apparent offense, he still shuffled over and draped himself against Tobirama’s side.

From what he could tell it seemed to be an Uchiha thing, showing affection through copious amounts of physical touch: leaning against each other, brushing fingers against arms during conversation, even tucking hair behind each other’s ears. The first time one of them had touched his hair Tobirama had spent the next fifteen minutes puzzling over the action before finally caving and asking what the hell just happened. Even after they explained it to him it had taken a while to sink in that they kept touching him for no other reason than that they liked him.

Which was a whole other basket of eggs to upset. The members of his own clan had oftentimes deliberately avoided him. He wished he knew what quality he had which these two seemed to enjoy that few others had before.

“If you’re tired you should go to bed,” Tobirama told the spiky black hair now resting on his shoulder.

“But I’m comfortable here.” In deliberate protest Madara snuggled even closer against him, unbothered with the way he tensed suddenly at the gesture. He still wasn’t used to being touched so easily by anyone other than Hashirama. Even Touka had projected her movements as much as possible whenever she got close to him. That was just how shinobi acted around one another.

“Unless you are planning to sleep on me I think a bed would be the better option.”

“Well, if the offer’s open…” Madara was asleep again in the next moment.

Tobirama appealed to Izuna with a confused expression but the other man only covered his mouth with both hands to muffle his pitiless snickering. When he looked back down at his shoulder he couldn’t help but notice from this angle that Madara was blessed with fantastically long eyelashes. They fluttered when his eyes moved under their lids, brushing against his cheeks, and Tobirama had to look away when he noticed his hand was halfway lifted to see if they were as soft as they looked.

Clearly he was not the only one who had gotten attached. Tobirama reached for his cards with one hand and smiled as he turned them over, revealing the crappy set he’d been holding.

“Thanks for folding; can you push the pot my way? I would hate to disturb him so soon.”

“You lied!”

“It’s called bluffing and of course I did. What sort of shinobi reveals his hand so easily?”

Staying here definitely looked as though it had been the right decision, more and more so with every day.

[kariachi]

Okay, y’all gave your approval, so I’m doing a partial liveblog of King of the Castle. Can’t get all of the episode right now, but I’m gonna do what I can and then redo the episode for a proper liveblog when it comes out in the states and I can, ya know, watch all of it.

This one won’t be rated, because I’m missing like 10% of the episode and so can’t judge fairly.

As someone who was once a young girl, it is incredibly nostalgic watching Gwen daydream about being crowned Queen of England. That is just how it be with some girls. Also Ben is just not having shit.

Lady Wilhelmina Warrick of Castle Bishopbrooke, nickname Willy. Huh. And apparently a cousin of some sort.

Gwen is going to die of joy for she is related to a Lady. Ben is going to die of horror for they’re going to a haunted castle. Sounds about accurate.

Ben running for the haunted castle for the sake of proving it’s haunted.

Kevin, lurking on either a roof or a balcony, waiting for a certain small Tennyson. Do we ever get an episode where he appears just, dive-tackling Ben from offscreen? I feel like we need that in our lives.

Gwen disappointed that the castle is in shit shape. I’d say just rough but, part of the floor is missing, including the area of rug that should be hiding it. Willy needs to step up her game, pick up a hammer or something. It’s called DIY.

Willy’s got some upper body strength. Also refers to Max as Cousin Maxie, so I have to assume the two are actually somewhat close. How close of a relation is it, I wonder?

Gwen curtseys and Ben tries to copy her but doesn’t have the balance for it. This is why we practice, Ben.

Gwen wanting to know everything about being a noble.

“There’s always work to be done” that’s putting it mildly.

The only thing here out to get you Ben is Kevin. Although I wouldn’t put it past him to be behind that, though I do think Gwen is right about it just being how bad of shape the building is in.

I’m fairly certain Willy’s about to put Max to work helping clean shit up (you brought it on yourself Max) while the kids escape, but given we lose some bits right here this is just an assumption. We jump from Max offering directly to Ben and Gwen wandering around.

Ben goes Heatblast to light a load of torches to keep ghosts at bay, and immediately the wind comes through and blows them all out again. And Heatblast himself while it’s at it.

More Kevin, sneaking about the halls. Child are you honestly behind this? I wouldn’t be surprised, you totally would, I just wanna know how. Also the fucking chord when he appears, it’s not Norman Bates fucking chill.

Ben is too scared of ghosts to wander around without his cousin.

Willy drinking tea while Max mops up and mice run about. I am not shocked.

Well Gwen, this is what happens when you go someplace labelled ‘haunted’. They tend to be very dusty and also a lot less elegant than the not-so-haunted castles. Besides, Willy’s a Lady not the Queen.

The Warrick family crest is a bear playing a harp like it’s a fucking electric guitar. Have you ever had that moment where you wonder where a character gets it and then the show just, answers you in the most unexpected way?

And Ben lights the tapestry on fire because an end curled up when Gwen went to look at it and so it is clearly evil and possessed. Gwen leaves, Ben panics, and the tapestry crumbles to ash after he throws it out a window. You know Kevin is behind one of those bookshelves going ‘this is why I bully him’.

Ben does not like being alone in a haunted castle.

Ben: “It’s clear what happened here- Gwen was eaten by a ghost, and you’re next if you aren’t careful! It’s too late for Gwen, but you have lots of options!” Followed by an imagine spot depicting him not being able to do shit to defend himself against a ghost with Gwen clearly visibly in it’s belly. 10-yos everybody.

I just love that as the imagine spot goes on eaten!Gwen gets more and more tired of the whole situation, ending with her kicking back and reading a book inside the ghost. He doesn’t half know his cousin, does he?

Also confirmation Ben knows he can’t go Wildvine or Overflow.

Gwen is very good at this ghost prank thing, though Ben does make it very easy. And the reveal the ghost is Gwen is where we leave off on this portion. Only one more clip to go and that seems to cover most of the rest of Kevin’s existence in this episode.

(Random, did y’all know CN Aus has the whole of Escape from Aggregor up on youtube? I’m not gonna liveblog it because I already did a few years back, but in case y’all wanna watch it, it’s there.)

We begin this next section with a Ben and a Gwen and a hedgemaze.

Ben has been eaten by the hedgemaze, it’s Rose Red all over again.

And Ben is panicking, not helped by Kevin taking full advantage of his fear of ghosts to be all eerie voice from out of sight. Because this child.

“Gwen is that you again?” Ben asks of the very Kevin voice. Like seriously, this kid isn’t even trying to hide it’s him. It’s wonderful.

Oh look, it’s, Thornblade I think? Kev’s Wildvine equivalent? Taking full advantage of location. I’m going to assume Kevin watches a lot of horror movies because he’s playing it well so far.

Dodging blows being thrown at you from the hedges right up until Thornblade forms himself out of vines in front of you while you weren’t looking.

Nobody would’ve expected Ben to be happy to see Kevin, but Kevin he can at least fight, unlike a ghost.

I admit, the way that was going, I was expecting the argument to devolve into yeah-huhs and nuh-uhs. Don’t know whether I’m sad or not that it didn’t. Although Ben claiming he’s fought houseplants badder than Thornblade is both hilarious and stupid given he is in Thornblade’s clutches at the time.

Ben goes Four Arms, surprising Kevin which I wasn’t expecting. But then Ben gets to be surprised when he knocks Kev over a hedge and it look like he times out, only for sudden- Undertow was it? Eh, I’ll probs find out in a second.

Ooo, nice use of the water powers, focusing on the ground so he can trap Ben in mud.

Okay, now Kevin is just showing off. ‘Look at what I’ve got and can do’. Seriously, Kev, 1) how did you get these aliens, and 2) stick with a shape child. What did you just add this feature? Oh my gods that’s exactly what’s happening isn’t it? You added the switching feature like, yesterday, and are having too much fun testing it out.

Okay, can I just say I really love Dark Matter’s design? Just, we went from a smol frog with no physical capabilities to speak of to balance out the brains, to an actual fucking horror movie monster with brawn as well. And I mean it, look at Dark Matter and how Kevin moves as him, that wouldn’t be out of place in something like Alien or Pumpkinhead.

Seriously, Dark Matter just, kicks ass. Never was big on Grey Matter but this is a frog I can stan.

Seriously those movements are just, exquisite. Also the crystal power? I don’t know what the fuck that red crystal he caused to overtake Ben is or how he managed it as Dark Matter, but it’s cool at fits the horror movie aesthetic.

Trying getting Kevin to monologue for those last few seconds before his watch times out. Not that it works, but it was a valiant attempt.

Not that it mattered anyway because it was literally seconds left. Also the look on Kevin’s face when he realizes he’s timed out and Ben is still Four Arms- you can hear the ‘fuckfuckfuckfuck’ going through his little head.

Exit, stage right, pursued by alien.

Ben, having timed out: Alright Kevin, it’s time to ask question and get answers, and I’m all out of answers. Kevin: This boy is a moron

(I know that’s not the line but still.)

Also immediately reminding Ben that in their normal forms he is bigger, smarter, and stronger. Which is true on all counts, given Kev is apparently a tech whiz and definitely older than Ben is.

And teasing Ben for being scared of ghosts just before they both get jumpscared by an inanimate object, the bear statue sending them both fucking bolting, complete with screams.

And Kevin tumbles through a hedge, poorly, just in time for his watch to time back in and an ominous shadow to appear over him.

Forever Knight is here and complimenting Kev. Apparently he ‘shows promise’ (on this we can agree). Kevin, meanwhile, responds to a stranger in full armor appearing out of nowhere and striking up conversation with glares and mild sass.

And while the Forever Knight is touting that old-ass ‘work with me and we shall crush our enemies’ line Kevin has walked away, scoffed at him, shut him down, and called him a nerd and a creep. I’m so proud of my child, he’s a shit but he’s so good.

Willy is gonna miss the fam, though the kids were a delight, Max was a big help.

Willy gives Gwen an antique family heirloom music box as a parting gift, because some people are cool like that. Ben gets forgiveness for all the damage he caused. And Max gets some quality tea to help him chillax after what was apparently the worst day of cleaning ever to look at him.

And we end on Willy having just gotten some contractors in to patch the place up. Good on her. There’s more to the episode but, well. Bits & pieces.

[simplynikstuff]

Pretty Reckless, an all-new standalone high school, bully romance from USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen, is available now!

We were supposed to be best friends

But turned out to be worst enemies…

Penn

They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

I’d had four years to stew on what Daria Followhill did to me, and now my heart is completely iced.

I took her first kiss.

She took the only thing I loved.

I was poor.

She was rich.

The good thing about circumstances? They can change. Fast.

Now, I’m her parents’ latest shiny project.

Her housemate. Her tormentor. The captain of the rival football team she hates so much.

Yeah, baby girl, say it—I’m your foster brother.

There’s a price to pay for ruining the only good thing in my life, and she’s about to shell out some serious tears.

Daria Followhill thinks she is THE queen. I’m about to prove to her that she’s nothing but a spoiled princess.

Daria

Everyone loves a good-old, unapologetic punk.

But being a bitch? Oh, you get slammed for every snarky comment, cynical eye roll, and foot you put in your adversaries’ way.

The thing about stiletto heels is that they make a hell of a dent when you walk all over the people who try to hurt you.

In Penn Scully’s case, I pierced his heart until he bled out, then left it in a trash can on a bright summer day.

Four years ago, he asked me to save all of my firsts for him.

Now he lives across the hall, and there’s nothing I want more than to be his last everything.

His parting words when he gave me his heart were that nothing in this world is free.

Now? Now he is making me pay.

Download your copy today for the special release week price of ONLY $2.99 or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LhNRqW

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/PrettyRecklessLJ

Audio: https://amzn.to/2DCyEui

Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2FZssQ7

Excerpt:

“I don’t want you transferring into my school,” I hiss out. Melody would gladly file a transfer request, and Principal Prichard would salivate over the chance to snatch him up for our football team.

“That won’t be a problem. You guys suck so much ass, you have shit-breath.”

“Still smells better than poverty. You’re poor, right? Your sister was just bullshitting about being rich.”

When someone hits me with a stick, I run over them with a tank. I’m so mean to him I want to throw up. I hate this part of being me. The striking harder at all costs part.

“Just to make things clear.” I put the brush down, batting my lashes. “You’re not my step-sibling, foster brother, or a part of the family. You’re a stray dog. Last of the litter, most unlikely to be adopted, and a charity case.”

Penn takes a step toward me, and my heart is fighting its way out of my ribcage. The closer he gets, the more I realize that my heart might succeed. Penn’s eyes remind me of a snake’s. Mesmerizing, but inhuman altogether. They weren’t like that before.

His scent messes with my head. I want to reach out and caress his face. Kiss his wounds better. Beg for forgiveness. Curse him. Push him away. Cry on his shoulder for what we’ve done. For how it ended. For what we became afterwards, because I’m full of crap and he is totally empty.

We ruined ourselves the day of our first kiss.

Penn looks down at me. Time stops. It feels like the world is losing gravity, falling into a bottomless depth in space when he clasps my chin with his thumb and finger, lifting my head up. I can’t breathe. I’m not sure I want to, either. My towel drops to the floor with a thud, even though I secured it over my chest. I realize that he tugged at it intentionally. I’m naked. My body, my soul, my heart. All my walls are down. Somewhere in my head, a red alarm blasts and my inhibitions are getting armed, ready to fight back. I’m trying to decode his expression. He is amused, irritated, and…playful? The mixture of emotions doesn’t make any sense.

“Mess with me, Followhill, and I will ruin you.”

“Not if I ruin you first.”

About LJ Shen:

L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.

Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets people's’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.

She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.

Connect with L.J. Shen:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorljshen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lj_shen

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/authorljshen/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorljshen/

Stay up to date with L.J. Shen by signing up for her mailing list:

http://bit.ly/2umcYPg

Website: http://www.authorljshen.com/