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cryptidofthekeys · 2 years ago

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Addison OC

I uh remade the sona I once had into a full OC and I like the redo SO much better than the old version like holy shit gkjfld;jkgfds is this a new comfort OC that Imma love and cherish for awhile? It is, it 100% is

anyways meet Purp, Purps, Addy, or Dison- whatever you wanna call him (...I was thinking of an ACTUAL name aside from just nicknames but I literally got NOTHING whatsoever)

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| Name: Purple Addison

| Nicknames: Purp/Purps, Addy, or Dison

| Gender: Trans FTM (He/Him)

| Age: I’d say… Mid 30s to 40s

| Height: 6’3” but technically speaking he has sizeshifting powers, they are just completely out of his control, the limit for shrinking is 5 inches tall, the limit for growing is 100ft

| Species/Race: Addison which- is p obvious I suppose

| Eye Color: Royal Purple

| Hair Color: Light pastel lavender purple (he usually keeps his hair up in a man bun)

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| Fur Color/Body Type: The same as his hair p much lmao (he’s got very plush fur, so soft that if you push your hand on him you’ll sink into him lmao) and he’s fat- Fat, wide, and tall! (he can be a bit insecure about how wide he is though, not being fat- I need to be VERY clear on that, he’s not insecure about his weight it’s just the width- he’s worried he’ll accidentally bump something or someone over)

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| Appearance: His main outfit (I don’t mind the Addisons’ main attire but I wanna do something different for Dison) but it's a sleeveless black turtleneck with a boob window (he has a rather large tuft of fur sticking out and honestly? It’s shaped into a heart thanks to the boob window) he wears a long dark purple trench coat (not leather) but he usually keeps the sleeves on it rolled up to his elbows (he rarely ever buttons the coat either), he wears green pants (not the green ones the actual Addisons wear, it's like a darker green tbh) and then finally he wears some simple black slip on shoes.

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He doesn’t have claws (it’d be really hard to make miniatures if he did) but he does have fangs, both on top and bottom- (god I hate describing his head shape bc the Addisons are all so… weirdly shaped jkgljfgdls) Imma just leave it as Octagon shaped so yeah, its wide n big enough to fit tbh- he doesn’t have a beard as he’s just got plush fur all over, he has a pointed nose like all the other Addisons, and the only other detail I can think to add is literally just his top surgery scars (the only scars he’s got actually)

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| Personality: Dison is literally super sweet, kind, polite, caring, and loving as can be- He isn’t like the other Addisons in a lot of ways tbh, seeing as he won’t just try to push his products and sell them all the time like he’ll ACTUALLY have a decent conversation with you, now don’t get him wrong he DOES still advertise his miniatures, he IS still an Addison …Or well he thinks he is? …H…He’s not sure what else he could be? He’s shaped like them n shit like that-

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He does get disappointed if you show no interest in his crafts but he’ll accept it and move on, he won’t try to push or force you into anything like that, after all you must have no need or no place to put something like these, he knows it’s… Very different from the other Addisons- but it’s something he’s actually passionate about and he figures if he’s going to advertise something he wants to actually like doing it and have fun.

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He’s kinda like a dad friend tbh, he’s very caring and can be concerned about others, whether it be Darkners or Lightners, he’ll make sure you’re doing okay and if you need to talk about something then come to him, he’ll help out in anyway he can- (if someone’s bothering you? Go ahead, tell him, he’ll sort it out) …Not with violence I should say, he HATES violence, honestly terrified because he can’t fight to save his life so he wouldn’t be very good in a situation like that (he’s a true pacifist, prefers to talk his way out of situations) …BUT… If he’s pushed to his breaking point he’s not just gonna let himself or the others he cares about die ya know?

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Is the type if he joins your adventures, like I said- VERY much a dad friend, brings plenty of healing items, definitely carries snacks in a lil fanny pack and mm various other items tbh (probs a good amount of comfort items like plushies, blankets, stress toys, etc) he literally just wants to make sure you’re alright in the end.

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Despite not knowing how to truly fight and sucking ass at it, he is actually fairly strong! …Which is why 1: He has to be extra careful when making his miniatures (has broken a l o t in the past with carelessness) and then 2: He gives BIG bear hugs, like he’ll wrap his arms fully around you and then just kinda twist side to side (you will be enveloped with the plush fur …just don’t sink too far) …He’d be devastated if he actually crushed someone with a hug and never forgive himself.

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Due to his size already in more ways than one, other Darkners are often intimidated by him and he absolutely hates it, the only time he actually loves being intimidating is when it comes to protecting those he cares about (he can be very overprotective)

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Despite asking and making sure everyone else is okay n shit like that, he’s… Not very good at that himself, making sure HE’S okay, he’s got dark circles under his eyes (he stays up too late sometimes working on miniatures and mm for... OTHER reasons...) he’s definitely got his anxieties and fears and VERY MUCH unlike the other Addisons he won’t deny, he does have a bit of social anxiety and he can be kinda awkward …But he tries to be as nice and polite as he can!

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| Side Facts: Alright I’ve mentioned the others SOOO very much, I have to state something- …Purps actually has no fucking clue what the other Addisons are like LMAO, he’s never personally met them, just saw them selling things and going about their business in the city but he’s never met them personally, honestly? Despite them probs thinking he’s intimidating bc of his size, he’s actually more intimidated of them than they are of him.

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Addy has no clue what the other Addisons are like but he has seen the products they sell…

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They sell much more… Normal things than he has so he wonders if he’s being too particular about this, he does want to fit in so badly, even though he’s never actually properly interacted with the other Addisons, he wants to be like them, he wants to fit in because if he’s NOT like them …Then is he just… a defective Addison? …He sometimes worries about that, that he’s not doing what he should be doing, that he’s going too far outside of the box by making minis and selling them.

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Sometimes he wonders if he should just give that up and sell something a bit more, in the norm… And even start being more advertise-y …and pushing his products more, etc- It seems like they all do that from what he’s seen anyways, he worries about that a lot because he really would like to properly meet them one day, but he’s worried they’ll see him as just merely some kinda glitch or flaw of an Addison because of what he sells AND the fact he’s not as pushy or anything with his products.

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And not even to MENTION the whole size shifting problem, that’s caused him to lose business before multiple times and still continues to do so as well, that’s also why he’s afraid to meet the Addisons bc if they see that well then it just proves that he really is a glitch, a flaw so to speak- …And plus another thing, being suddenly overwhelmingly tiny? Around now a giant place and giant people? …Not fun and even when he’s the one that’s giant? ABSOLUTELY NOT FUN- It’s just completely distressing and he literally freezes in place until the size shifting ability decides to fuck off.

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…I uh haven’t got the situation fully planned out as to why he does that but I’ll have something later on gfjkldkfgdf;s that’s not the main focus anyways- just,, trust the process- Likewise, all my ocs/sonas have the very tiny fine print that you need to zoom in to read! All things are subject to change in the long run (mostly that goes for personality wise and anything in the side facts, not really description wise)

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The one Addison he thought was strange was that one little guy, he was a White Addison and well, Purp hadn’t really seen him before- it’s like he just kinda appeared one day …Or maybe he just didn’t come out that much, either way, likewise- he didn’t know him personally but he knew that very same Addison went onto become the biggest name in all of Cyber City, his name was… Spamton, yeah- that’s it- It’s hard to NOT know about that guy, even now with him… Well, gone pretty much-

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He used to see commercials, ads obviously, etc all the t i m e about this dude, he just suddenly blew up one day it seemed- …While Dison never interacted with him (not in pre-big shot era or actua big shot era) he was happy for the lil fella nonetheless …He did notice the other Addisons seemed tense during that time period and even now, even though he still doesn’t know them personally and hasn’t interacted with him, there’s a certain energy, a certain… Tense aura in the air still surrounding those remaining four.

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…Bc I can say so, imma be honest- literally the most intimidating Addison of all the ones for Dison would be Pink, hands down- I can say that with confidence bc well, I mean he IS my OC- ...Also bc for reasons I won’t be explaining, I think it’s funny as hell that Pink would be the most intimidating for him.

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Lmao the Pink one would scare him the most. But ahem- aside from all that, back to the size shifting ability- if Dison could control it? He would actually fucking LOVE it! He did always wonder what it’d be like to actually be, well, miniature (way more so than a giant, he does not like being a giant period, his width and height already makes him nervous, he always feels like he’s one step closer to hurting someone)

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…He supposes even though he CAN’T control it, when he does become tiny or giant, the ONE singular pro of the both of them together is that it gives him s o much more perspective than what he once had, which definitely caused an increase in quality in his miniature sets.

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(btw I should say I do actually know how he’d feel/what he’d think of all the Addisons, plus Spamton, both pre-big shot and big shot era …And even n o w, I got that in my head) but the final bits I can think to add is just, when he’s not working on miniatures, he likes to relax with some calming music (most of it is instrumental music imma be honest) and or just go for a nice walk …Even though the City can kinda be a pain in the- …ahem- anyways, he has a deep voice + a southern accent (despite being in a city, sh-shut up, just let him have this) but is usually soft spoken (never raises nor wants to raise his voice) and finally…

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Dison is Pansexual and Polyamorous.

#deltarune oc #deltarune #deltarune addisons #deltarune addison oc #i fucking hate describing the head shape but I want him to have a funky lookin head shape like the others #so just- o C T A G O N-#oc #original character #i gave him a bit more... Depth if you will #and redid some of the way I phrased or said things #...also yeah yeah- I love large characters ..a l o t- large n tall

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rosemaidenvixen · 3 years ago

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A Secret’s Worth

Chapter 19: Toby

Ao3

Toby's chest hurt so bad it actually felt like someone was literally stabbing him in the heart. Still he didn't slow down, if anything he pedaled even harder.

The girls were riding neck and neck with him, in just as much of a hurry to reach their destination.

He shouldn’t have flipped out at Jim yesterday. He shouldn’t have thrown back what he knew about the scars on his ankle just because he was pissed. Now this whole thing was ten times worse and it was all his fault.

It had been so hard, watching Jim go home every day for the past month and forcing himself not to say anything, even when Jim started to look more and more anxious every day. But you know who had it even worse? The guy doing the actual suffering.

Toby had heard the phrase victim blaming before, but he never really got it until now. He’d just been so insanely furious hearing Jim yell at them for lying when he hadn’t said an honest thing to them in months, and when they’d been doing everything they could to help him he hadn’t responded right--

The guy’s mom locked him in the basement and slashed up his ankle; what the hell was the ‘right’ way to act after that?

Now Jim was hurt really bad and he’d had to go to the hospital and he wasn’t in school today and he wasn’t answering his phone--

Toby needed to see if Jim was ok.

A throbbing pain that had nothing to do with the strain of pedaling uphill stabbed through his chest.

Or if not ok, alive and kicking.

He skidded to a stop on Jim’s lawn, stumbling off of his bike and running up to pound on the front door “Jim you’ve got about ten seconds to open this door before I’m breaking it down!”

Ok maybe that was the wrong thing to start off with considering he was there to apologize, but Toby would just add it to the list of things to grovel for forgiveness for after he saw that Jim was alright.

And just when he was about to make good on his threat, a hand grabbed his shoulder and started tugging him away. Toby jerked around to see who it was.

“Don’t try to stop me Darci,”

Her expression was soft in a way that made him feel even worse “I’m not, but Toby, I don't think anyone's home. All the lights are off and the car’s gone,”

He snapped back around, heart plummeting when he saw that she was right.

Jim and Dr. Lake weren’t here.

“And your Nana’s watching,”

Toby whirled, spotting Phil, one of Nana’s chess buddies, sitting in his car in their driveway with Nana stepping into the passenger seat. He stood there frozen for a few seconds before darting around Darci and sprinting across the cul de sac.

“Nana, wait! Stop stop stop!”

Phil, clearly startled, stopped the car in the middle of the street, Nana rolling down her window and poking her head out “Toby? What on earth is the matter?”

Besides the fact he didn’t want Nana witnessing him busting into Jim’s house, just because Jim had gone radio silent on them didn’t mean that Nana had stopped talking to Dr. Lake. So there was a chance she knew something they didn’t.

He slowed to a stop, panting “Have-- have you- have you heard what’s going on with Jim?”

Immediately her face shifted from confused to contrite “Oh yes Barbara told me, so sad that he got hurt, but he’s doing much better now,”

Toby heard the girls scurry up behind him.

“Do you know when they’ll be home from the hospital?”

“Didn’t Jim tell you?” Nana glanced at Phil, who took the hint and put the car into park before Nana turned and faced them again “They came home about two hours ago, but left for their spring break trip right away, Barbara and Jim won’t be back for about ten days,”

Toby actually felt his jaw drop open.

“B...But…” Claire stammered “Are they seriously going backpacking in Yosemite with Jim being all busted up?”

“I was surprised to, but Barbara said that Jim really didn’t want to miss their vacation, so they’re going to San Francisco and staying in a hotel instead,” the corners of Nana’s mouth tugged downwards into a frown, eyebrows drawing together “Did Jim not tell you any of this?”

Ok she had clearly picked up on the fact that things weren’t ‘Ok’ between Jim and them, and normally Toby would be trying to reassure Nana that everything really was cool, but right now he was too busy concentrating on not puking.

They were gone. For ten days. Ten whole days Jim and Dr. Lake would be gone.

Plenty of time for another 'animal attack'.

After an uncomfortably long silence Nana leaned back in her seat and redid her belt “I need to get to my cardiologist appointment now, but we can talk more when I get back,”

With that she nodded at Phil, who looked incredibly uncomfortable, but restarted the car and pulled away, leaving the four of them alone in the cul de sac, with nothing to do but slowly pick up their bikes and trudge into Toby’s garage.

They’d screwed up. He’d screwed up. He’d screwed up so freaking bad. Yeah Jim was being a gigantic freaking hypocrite about the lying, but his mom locks him in the basement every other Tuesday. Of course the guy wasn’t acting rationally.

He could still see the terrified look on Jim’s face while they yelled at him yesterday crystal clear.

And just because Jim was being a hypocrite didn’t mean that it wasn’t a dick move to lie to him about calling CPS.

And what they did yesterday….

Toby swallowed back another wave of nausea. Just thinking about what he’d done was enough to make him sick, he wanted to go back in time and smack some sense into himself.

He’d let his anger win out over everything else and started firing back at Jim, and then the girls had followed his lead. Pushing Jim so far over the edge that he went and started a fight with Psycho Steve of all people, who put him in the freaking hospital. Now Dr. Lake had taken him out of town and he wasn’t answering his phone--

His train of thought flew off the rails and crashed to a halt.

Jim and Dr. Lake were gone, and wouldn’t be back for over a week. Which meant that their house was going to be completely empty for that whole time.

Before the idea had even finished forming Toby knew what he had to do.

Immediately after propping his bike up against the wall Toby strode over to the toolbench and grabbed the items he was looking for. A doorstop, an unraveled wire coat hanger, and the biggest pair of bolt cutters Nana had been able to find at Home Depot.

Darci was the first to notice him “What are you doing with all that?”

“Snooping,”

Now Mary and Claire were looking at him to “What do you mean?”

“Jim and Dr. Lake are gone for spring break, and I think we all know that Jim is going to ignore any texts or messages we send. So I’m going straight to the source, I’m going into their house to get some real answers,”

The girls all shared an uncertain look “Toby…” Claire said slowly “You know that if you break in they won’t be able to use anything you find as evidence, right?”

He wilted a little, but tightened his grip on the bolt cutters at the same time “I know, but this might be the only chance to find out what’s really happening to Jim. And if I can figure that out, maybe I can figure out how to get Jim to let us help him,”

Toby turned and then hesitated, dragging the toe of his shoe on the concrete “I won’t ask you guys to come with me, but I need to do this,”

Knowing that if he waited any longer he was going to chicken out, Toby raised his foot and strode out of the garage, making a beeline for the Lake house. After a few seconds he heard footsteps behind him as the girls started to follow.

And even though he knew he’d do this alone if he had to, it felt really really good that he didn’t have to.

Once he got to Jim’s garage, Toby pulled a trash can up to the door and stood on it. Boosting him up high enough to wedge the door stop between the garage door and the frame, reaching in with the coathanger until he snagged the cord and pulled it down within arm’s reach. Cord in hand, Toby yanked until he felt it give, allowing him to slide up the garage door with ease.

Stepping down and picking up the trash can, Toby turned to go put it back when he saw Claire, Darci, and Mary staring at him with big eyes.

“Toby…” Mary said slowly “How did you know how to do that?”

“Oh, uh…” he felt his face heat up “Nana showed me how when Meow Meow PI got locked in our garage, then she made me promise not to tell anyone….so please don’t tell anyone,”

“We won’t but you are going to have to teach us that one,”

Once the trash can was back in place they headed in, Toby pulling the garage door shut behind them “Where should we start?” Darci whispered, even though it was only the four of them in the deserted house.

Toby glanced around, tool bench, picnic coolers, spare fridge, chest freezer-- He froze, eyes locked on the chest freezer pushed back against the far wall. The one that was always kept padlocked for reasons he’d never questioned until now. The only reason he could think of to keep a freezer locked would be--

He shoved the idea away before a picture could form in his head.

But now he needed to see for himself to make sure that the thought he was desperately trying not to think about wasn’t true.

“Here,” he strode over, and with only slightly shaking hands, cut the metal U of the latch off with two snaps of the bolt cutters, the unopened lock clattering to the floor. It was actually easier than he thought it would be, of course the bolt cutters were ginormous compared to the latch.

The girls gathered in close as he popped the now empty latch and slowly lifted the lid.

First off there weren’t any dead bodies staring back at them, so that was good. It looked like the freezer was just stuffed with regular plastic grocery packages. But why put a lock on ordinary food? Maybe they really were worried about racoons, those were a menace in this neighborhood.

Despite that perfectly rational, reasonable explanation, Toby couldn’t shake the feeling that something looked off about the food in front of him, something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

It only took a few more seconds of staring for him to figure it out. He didn’t recognize any of the labels on these packages. And he and Jim had done a lot of grocery shopping together. Jim going on and on about all the subtle differences in flavor between different items and different brands.

That’s how Toby knew with absolute certainty that this stuff wasn’t anything you could buy at any grocery store in Arcadia Oaks. Because in all of their trips shopping together, they’d never bought any of the items in this freezer.

Reaching past him, Claire gingerly picked up something shrink wrapped in blue and yellow plastic “Beef sweetbreads?”

Toby eyed the package suspiciously “Bread doesn’t come from beef,”

“Sweetbreads aren’t bread, they’re organ meat,”

“Ew,”

“Hey they’re actually pretty good when you cook them right,”

Even more curious now, they all started reaching in and rifling through the frozen packages in front of them.

“It looks like this is just a bunch of meat,” Darci said while holding up a bag of beef bones by the corner between her thumb and forefinger.

Mary wrinkled her nose at a package of chicken livers “Yeah, but I’ve never seen Jim cook with any of this stuff,” she peered in Toby’s direction “Have you?”

His mouth went dry, nausea creeping back in “No, I haven’t,”

They kept digging, plastic packs of meat piling up on the floor around them, and the deeper they went the weirder things got. Eventually hitting what looked like whole small animals, cleaned and skinned and sealed in shrink wrap. Toby lifted one of them out, guts squirming in his belly “Guys, what are these?”

Claire leaned over and read off a tiny label on the corner of the package “It says whole rabbit,”

This kept getting freakier and freakier, Jim had never cooked rabbit meat before, let alone roasting them whole.

Darci and Mary cleared off the rest of the rabbits to uncover a massive package at the bottom, one that would have taken all four of them to lift out, bright red of raw muscle showing clearly against the white of the freezer. But unlike everything else in here, this one had clearly been opened and resealed multiple times, with chunks of meat taken off, proving that someone was taking stuff out of this freezer and using it on a regular basis

“This one says whole bison leg,” Darci said quietly.

A chill went through him, and not because he was standing in front of an open freezer.

“Oh my god, I just can’t--” Mary darted away, running to the wall farthest away from the freezer and slumping against it, gasping and shaking. Claire immediately ran over and put an arm around her shoulders, leaving Toby and Darci standing in front of the freezer.

“Toby,” Darci’s voice was a monotone, her eyes locked on the frozen leg in front of them “Are you absolutely sure that Jim never cooked with any of this stuff,”

“Positive,”

“Then...what do they do with all this?”

Toby’s stomach shrank in on itself “I don’t know,”

Were they trying to bait racoons or something? It was the only thing Toby could think of, but if they were, why? And he was pretty sure there was a lot cheaper stuff out there they could use for racoon bait. But if they weren’t using it as bait then what they hell were they doing with all this weird meat? And why the lock?

Pulling in a deep breath through her nose, Darci slowly started putting the packages they’d taken out back in the freezer “Ok, we’re not going to find anything else out here, we need to clean up and keep looking,”

Fighting past the painful tightness in his abdomen, Toby grabbed a rabbit and joined her. Claire eventually came over to help them, but Mary stayed far away until the lid of the freezer was shut.

“Um, Toby…” she said, walking back up to join them “How are we going to put the lock back on when you cut it off?”

“Easy,” he walked over to the toolbench and picked up a small bottle “Instant set Gorilla glue,”

And with two quick dabs of glue and Mary holding the pieces for him, the lock and the latch looked nearly as good as new. The latch did look a little funky from where the cutters had gone through, but Toby was pretty sure Jim and Dr. Lake wouldn’t notice it.

Now time to search the rest of the house.

Toby headed through the side door into the main house with the girls just behind him, pausing just inside the hall while he tried to figure out the best place to search first.

“Let’s look in Dr. Lake’s bedroom,”

All three of them slowly turned towards Mary.

“I mean…” her cheeks filled with red “If she’s hiding something chances are it would be in there,”

Claire nodded at that “You’re right, let’s go,”

The girls headed towards the stairs, but Toby hung back. Darci paused at the foot of the stairs, glancing back at him “Everything ok Toby?”

Even knowing what he knew, about the basement and the scars and all the other strange stuff. There was a part of him that still thought of Dr. Lake as….Dr. Lake. His friend’s fun, sometimes goofy mom, the one that took them to theme parks and gave the best presents on birthdays and holidays, who was never too busy to talk and always happy to see him. Going into her room and snooping through all her stuff felt...wrong.

All the girls were looking at him now, seeing what the hold up was.

Toby clenched his jaw and raised his head.

But no matter how bad he felt about it Toby couldn’t let his guilty conscience get in the way. Dr. Lake….Dr. Lake wasn’t who he thought she was, and Jim was in real trouble. This was the only way he could help him. That meant he had to suck it up and follow through.

He’d come this far already.

“Y-- yeah I’m fine, let’s go,” Toby forced his feet to move and followed them up the stairs into the back bedroom. His throat tightening when he saw Mary dive straight into going through her dresser, even as he set aside his tools and got down on his knees to join her.

They spent nearly two hours going through the room from top to bottom. Searching the closet, every drawer in the dresser, under the bed and in the nightstand, every single nook and cranny in the room, even under the mattress. But they didn’t find anything. Just clothes, jewelry, and books.

Toby glumly replaced the socks back in the drawer he pulled them out of. If there was anything hidden in the house it wasn’t in here. So all they’d managed to accomplish was violating Dr. Lake’s privacy. But if there wasn’t anything in her bedroom then where else would--

“Toby,” Claire spoke up, startling him “Do you know if this house has a crawlspace, or an attic?”

He paused with his hand halfway out of the sock drawer. The Lakes had both a crawlspace and an attic. He’d seen the crawlspace, a small cubby in the basement full of their Christmas decorations, but the attic--

Dr. Lake had only mentioned once that they did have an unfinished attic, even shown him where it was.

And then said that he should never ever go up there.

“Their crawlspace is full of Christmas decorations, but I’ve never seen inside the attic. Dr. Lake said it was off limits,”

That got the girls’ attention.

Mary got to her feet “Where is it?”

“Closet, in the ceiling,”

Immediately they all made a beeline towards the closet, Mary pulling open the doors and revealing the square cut out of the plaster in the ceiling.

Claire frowned “How is one of us supposed to get up there?”

“I’ll do it guys,” Darci stepped forward, shoulders square and mouth set in a firm line “I’m the tallest, just give me a boost,”

Positioning themselves directly under the hole, Mary and Claire each grabbed one of Darci’s legs and lifted, allowing Darci to push aside the cut out square of ceiling and poke her head into the darkness of the attic beyond.

“A little higher guys, I need to get a good grip to pull myself up,”

Claire and Mary obliged, raising Darci until she was waist deep in the attic, allowing her to kick off from the palms of their hands and vanish into the dark hole. After a few seconds Toby saw a small light, which had to be from Darci’s cellphone, blink on, illuminating the bare wooden beams of the unfinished space.

“You see anything Darc?” Mary called up at her.

The light bobbed around in the small space above them, ceiling creaking under her as Darci moved around “Nothing so far, there’s a lot of fiberglass insulation so I have to be careful not to…”

All of a sudden the creaks stopped, the light staying frozen in one spot.

“Darci,” Toby forced the strangled word out “What’s going on?”

Things were silent for a few more seconds before they heard her voice again “There’s a box here guys, and it doesn’t look like Christmas decorations,”

With some tricky maneuvering, Darci managed to push the box down the hole, where Toby and Claire caught it. Quickly moving it off to the side so the three of them could catch Darci as she jumped down. Once she managed to untangle herself from them they all turned their attention back to the box.

Toby pushed it out of the closet so there was enough room for all of them to huddle around it. The box was about the size of a microwave, dark metal and surprisingly heavy for its size. It looked like one of those heavy duty water/fire/apocalypse proof boxes, and fortunately it wasn’t locked, meaning they wouldn’t need the bolt cutters. Trembling, terrified of what he might find, Toby popped the latches and lifted the lid.

Part of him was worried that when they opened it they wouldn’t find anything but boring adult papers, bills and insurance stuff like that, but one look and he knew that wasn’t going to be the case.

Inside were two black bags, a large plastic one and a small felt one, and some kind of weird plastic rectangle. Mary reached in and pulled out the small bag first.

They all watched her tug the drawstrings open, not even daring to breathe as she turned the bag over and dumped the contents out.

A bunch of loose teeth and a bundle of black hair in a rubber band tumbled onto her hand.

Just when Toby thought this couldn’t get any more confusing “What the hell is all that?”

Claire poked at one of the teeth sitting in Mary’s palm “This looks like stuff from an animal,”

It certainly did. That hair could easily be fur, and those teeth would have been right at home on a bear’s mouth. Big and sharp and clearly from a meat eater.

A locked freezer full of strange meat, animal parts hidden away in the attic. Toby still couldn’t put the pieces together, but it wasn’t shaping up to be anything good.

They spent a good minute staring at them before Mary poured the teeth and hair back in the bag “We aren’t going to learning anything by staring at teeth, let’s keep going,”

Claire grabbed the large bag just as Mary was replacing the small one, setting it in front of her and untying the straps to peer down inside.

Toby crawled closer “What is it? What’s in there?”

“It looks like...bath bombs,”

“What? No way,” Darci scooted up to Claire’s side and glanced down at the open bag “Huh, it does look like bath bombs,”

It took Toby a few seconds to realize they weren’t talking about actual explosives “Bath bombs,” he said incredulously “You mean like those fizzy scented things you put in the tub, those kind of bath bombs?”

Claire got to her feet “Only one way to be sure, follow me guys,,”

They tailed after Claire down the hall into the bathroom, where she promptly started filling the tub. Once there was about a half a foot of water inside she reached into the bag, pulled out a grainy pink ball, and dropped it in the water.

As they gathered in close and watched, a cloud of pink bubbles fizzed up around the sphere, filling the tub with pink foam and the scent of--

“Huh,” Toby sniffed “Roses,”

Mary reached a hand into the water, swirling it around before emerging slightly pink “It looks like they are just bath bombs,”

Ok this was getting really weird. Bath Bombs and animal parts weren’t exactly criminal, but what were they doing locked up in a secret attic box?

For a long time Toby had thought that the curfew and the locking in the basement was because of what Nana told him. That Dr. Lake was so scared of losing Jim she’d started doing some messed up things in order to keep him.

But after learning about the scars he started wondering if that was actually true. And now after seeing the meat and the animal parts and the bath bombs…

It was starting to look like all of this was just scratching the surface of something a lot bigger.

And there was still one more thing to check out.

After draining and rinsing the tub, they all went back to the bedroom and gathered around the box again, where Toby picked up the final item inside it, the plastic rectangle.

He turned it over a few times, trying to figure out exactly what it was when it clicked, filling him with a jolt of exhilaration.

“Guys I think this is some kind of book,”

Books meant data, information. Maybe even the answers behind the bath bombs, teeth, and weird meat.

Mary kneeled down next to him “Can you get it open?”

“I’m trying, but there’s a combination lock, and the thing’s completely sealed so I can’t just bust it open with the bolt cutters without destroying it, and--”

They all jumped as a deafening chime rang through the house.

The doorbell.

Toby’s heart shot up into his throat like lightning, beating hummingbird fast as the bell kept ringing again and again.

Hearing the sound shattered his focus like a harsh slap, forcing Toby to remember exactly where he was and what he was doing.

He was in someone else’s house.

They’d come in without permission by breaking into the garage.

They were breaking and entering.

They were committing a crime.

If they got caught it wouldn’t be extra homework or detention they had to deal with.

If they got caught they would get in real trouble.

For the first time Toby knew he wasn’t being melodramatic when he imagined getting arrested and sent to juvie.

Toby shot his head up and saw that the girls had the exact same panicked, horror-stricken looks on their faces that he knew he had on his. From down below the doorbell kept ringing again and again.

The locked book slipped from his hands and fell to the carpet with a dull thunk.

Oh fuck.

“Guys we need to get out of here now!”

They all simultaneously jumped to their feet, Claire practically throwing the bag of bath bombs back in the box, and after fumbling with it for a few seconds Toby managed to toss the book in after it, Darci slamming the lid shut while muttering ‘oh god’ over and over again.

Frantically dragging the box back towards the closet, they figured out really fast that getting the box up was going to be a lot harder than getting it down, especially considering they were all freaking out. After running around like idiots for a few seconds, they got it together enough to hoist Darci up to the attic again, and then raise the box to where she could grab it and put it back, before dropping down from the attic herself.

Meanwhile the doorbell continued to ring over and over, each chime practically giving Toby a heart attack, as they raced around the room, replacing items and shutting drawers and removing every trace of their snooping.

“Claire what the hell are you doing!?” Mary hissed.

Toby glanced over to see Claire standing in the doorway staring down the stairs to where the front door was “C’mon Claire we have to hoof it before Jim and Dr. Lake come in!”

“But...why would Jim and Dr. Lake be ringing the doorbell of their own house?”

Toby, Mary, and Darci all stopped dead

Claire was right, if Jim and Dr. Lake were back they’d just come right in without even touching the doorbell. But then who was ringing it? If it was just a salesman or something wouldn’t they leave as soon as they figured out no one was home? Whoever this was had been ringing the doorbell for nearly five minutes with no sign of stopping.

“New plan!” Mary piped up, voice a full octave higher than normal “Sneak out the back, then circle around through the bushes, act like we’re just out walking and see who it is,”

Toby nodded shakily along with Claire and Darci, leave it to Mary to come up with a plan under extreme pressure.

After double checking and making sure they’d gotten rid of all evidence of their break in, Toby grabbed his tools and ran to the stairs “Quick guys, go go go!”

Not wasting a second the girls scampered down the stairs on light feet, Toby following after, the unrelenting doorbell even louder on the first floor.

They made a beeline for the back door, Toby going out last and locking it behind them. Following them, he ran over to the fence and, in a feat only possible to the insane amount of adrenaline shooting through his veins, hopped it in two bounds and dove into the shrubbery, joining the girls.

“Everyone ok?” Darci whispered, crouching low in the undergrowth.

“Yeah,”

“Uh huh,”

“Yep,”

It was all Toby could do not to collapse, gasping for breath and quivering all over from equal parts relief and leftover panic.

They’d gotten away with it. He was pretty sure they’d gotten away with it. No one had seen them and they hadn’t left any evidence behind. Although they hadn’t had time to wipe their fingerprints off of everything, or get rid of their DNA, hopefully Jim and Dr. Lake wouldn’t realize that their house was broken into at all. And even if they did there was no reason for the four of them to be suspects.

They were fine. No one was going to get arrested.

Although now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, Toby was pretty sure he was going to have some wicked bruises from his landing.

Mary sank lower the the ground, perched on her hands and knees “Keep to the plan guys, let’s sneak around to the other side,”

They all followed her lead, Toby forcing his breathing to slow and become quieter, crawling through the bushes until they emerged on the sidewalk around the corner. Standing and shaking off the leaves and branches, Toby tucking the cutters, hanger, and stopper in a bush to retrieve later.

“Let’s go,” Mary took the first steps towards Jim’s house. A few months ago Toby would have thought she was completely relaxed about the whole thing, but now he could see just how on edge she was.

Toby walked after her, along with Claire and Darci, trying to be as casual as humanly possible without completely overdoing it.

Nothing to see here. Just a group of teens out walking around, as teens did. No criminals here.

He had to try especially hard to act normal as they were heading around the corner of the block, breath catching in his chest as Jim’s house, and the mysterious bell ringer came into sight.

It was some scruffy looking guy, messy looking beard and jeans and a jacket that had certainly seen better days. Not a particularly scary looking guy, but it certainly didn’t look like he was there to sell anything.

Feeling bolder now that they were out in broad daylight and not at risk of being caught mid-felony, Toby came right up to where the front steps met the sidewalk, the girls stepping up next to him, with scruffy standing less than ten feet away. Fidgeting and pressing the bell every ten seconds or so, face crimped in frustration.

Of course this close they should have realized it was inevitable that the mysterious scruffy man was going to notice them.

“Oh hey!” he jogged across the porch towards them, causing them all to shuffle backwards involuntarily “You kids know the people who live here?”

“Why do you want to know?” Mary said warily

“Oh-- I heard from my buddy that CPS has been sniffing around, and Barb took Jim out of the hospital without checking him out yesterday, so I’m trying to see if they’re ok,”

Instantly uneasy, Toby glanced over at the girls, the three of them looking just as tense as he felt. The whole leaving the hospital without being checked out was news to him and definitely not good. But even more alarming was the fact that although this guy apparently knew Jim and Dr. Lake, Toby had no idea who he was. And by the looks of it, neither did Darci, Claire, or Mary.

“So do any of you know when they’ll be back?”

Claire took half a step forward “Sorry but...who are you again?”

“Oh! Well I…” scruffy trailed off, letting out a gusty breath and running hand through his hair “You see I’m--” all of a sudden he cut off and looked over at them sharply, Toby flinching as the man locked eyes with him.

“Toby! Come on, you know me, right bud?”

His heart stopped, blood running cold. From the corners of his vision he could see the girls pull around him protectively “Who are you, how do you know my name?”

“Come on,” the man grinned, as if they were all old buddies “You know me, from back when I used to live here,”

Toby just kept staring at him blankly. Used to live here? The only person he could think of that used to live here was--

No. It couldn’t be.

He looked at him again, really looked, comparing the shape of the jaw, the scraggly beard to the ones from his murky, half faded memories.

“Hang on,” Toby slowly raised a finger to point at the stranger who might not be a stranger “You mean that you’re--”

“That’s right,” he flashed them a smile, painfully familiar now that he could see the resemblance “I’m Jim’s dad,”

#tales of arcadia #Trollhunters #A Secret's Worth #rmvwrites #fanfic #toby domzalski #darci scott #mary wang #claire nuñez #nana domzalski #nancy domzalski

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rocket-remmy · 4 years ago

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Don’t You Forget About Me || Morgan and Remmy

TIMING: Current PARTIES: @mor-beck-more-problems and @whatsin-yourhead SUMMARY: Remmy says their final good-bye.

Morgan sat in her car for a long time after she pulled up to the Haunted Mansion. The last time she’d seen her friend, Constance had just finished torturing her for funzies and she was yelling her head off because she was so hurt. She didn’t understand why Remmy had acted the way they did any more now than she had then, just that none of it seemed to matter so much anymore. She wanted...well, maybe not the kind of relationship she’d had with Remmy before, where they mostly talked during fighting lessons and tried to talk each other out of their self-loathing. They both needed better than that. And not what they had before then, where she couldn’t even look at their username without seething with rage. And not what they had when she was alive, because that was impossible. That Morgan was at rest somewhere, as avenged as she was ever going to be.The thing now was to honor her and this new self she was finally coming around to. Maybe she and Remmy could become a new them too.

Holding tight to her nerve, Morgan got out of the car and came up the front walk, hands in her pockets. She felt the imprints of the other times she’d come up here since she died, mostly awkward, some worse. More than anything, she wanted to shake off those cobwebs and exorcise the ghosts of their past selves and step into something new that wouldn’t hurt so much. She knocked and leaned against the doorframe while she waited. When Remmy opened the door, she gave them her warmest smile.

“Hey, you,” she said. “Long time no see.” She tugged lightly on the ends of their hair, which was getting long, nearly past the end of their neck and a little shaggy. “Happy almost new year. Has it been too long to get a hug?”

As Remmy looked around the entryway of the mansion, they decided that, yes, that picture looked better in the spot over the staircase. Nora was out for the day, which Remmy was grateful for. Not that they didn’t enjoy her presence, but they’d wanted some private time with Morgan here at the mansion, and despite the large size of the house, knowing someone else could’ve been listening, or was around, didn’t feel like enough. They’d already packed up most of their room, it was in boxes and labeled for shipping-- they’d rented a moving truck that someone else was driving-- but the rest of the mansion sat as a beacon, colorful and bright and welcoming. There was even a guest book, now, and even though Remmy and Nora’s names were the first ones in there, they wanted Morgan’s to be the first real guest name in the book. Proof that she existed and was here and was a part of something Remmy wanted in their life.

The knock sounded at the door and Remmy drew in a breath before turning to open it. Morgan looked almost dreary, sagging under the weight of everything she’d been through since they’d last spoke-- and more. “Hey,” they answered, putting on a gentle smile, because despite everything that had happened between them, they were genuinely happy to see her standing there. Alive, smiling, soft-- maybe a bit worn, but okay. They watched her play with their hair. “I’m trying something new,” they said, pushing the door open to let her inside. “C’mon, I’ll show you around.” A slight pause. “No, I think that would be nice.”

Morgan jumped onto her toes and put her arms around Remmy’s shoulders as tight as she could. She lingered there, almost dangling from their neck as she nuzzled in. “I like the hair. With the bleach, it makes you look like a real stud.” She mussed their scalp fondly and gave them a squeeze. “You’re gonna get a lot of looks from pretty girls this way, I hope you know.” She pulled away and smiled up at them once again. Something was different. Remmy seemed steadier on their feet, even confident. Morgan took their hand and followed them into the house.

The walls had all been done up in bright pastels and neutrals that reminded Morgan of springtime. Gone were the cobwebs, the squeaky floorboards, the peeling victorian wallpaper, the dusty, moth-ridden drapes. The parlor looked like more of a lounge with cozier, more modern furniture. Off that, she could see a game room, a computer room, and on the other side of the main hall, a kitchen and dining room big enough to sit at least ten people. Her head swiveled to catch everything at once, but she felt the thoughtful Remmy details slipping past her gaze. “Holy shit,” she said. “This is incredible. How long did it take you to make all of this?” Smiled, pride mixing with embarrassment. She wasn’t exactly someone who would fit here, if she ever needed another place to go. She had a lot of blood on her hands and some fairly complicated regrets. “You’ve, uh, you’ve done really well here...”

“About a month,” Remmy replied, “it was gonna take longer before Nora got back, but she’s been really good at helping me out and fixing up the place with me. We took like two whole days just to paint, then the next few days to refurnish. We wanted the place to be welcoming to as many people as possible. We’re uh-- we’re making the mansion into a Supernatural Sanctuary. Nell, Bea and Lu--” Remmy choked on her name, clearing their throat, “Luce uh...did a spell to help protect the building from attacks and...violence.” They turned to look back at Morgan. “I’ll show you all the bedrooms, too, if you want?” Telling everyone else that they were leaving had somehow felt easy, almost relieving-- but the thought of telling Morgan, of telling her they were leaving her behind, it made Remmy’s throat close up. “We even redid the master, though Nora wants to keep it closed off for Blanche.”

Morgan noticed the tension creeping up Remmy as they explained the new set up to her. “Nora mentioned you had something like this going on when I ran into her at my family’s old place.” She gave them another squeeze. “I know we have some differences with the lines we won’t cross and what we’re willing to let in or be around, even as much as I’m uh--” She let out a sad, breathless laugh. “--coming a lot closer to where you are, after everything. But I’m so proud of you, and this huge accomplishment. I’m sure it’s going to help a lot of people.” She mussed their hair again, teasing gently like a sister might. “I’d love to see it. Come on and show me, okay?”

“You’ve seen Nora since she got back?” Remmy asked. “Good. Good, she-- I think she’s a little lonely. She wants people like her around, even if she won’t admit it.” They shook their head after Morgan ruffled their hair again and straightened it back out, giving her a soft smile. Even if it felt strange being like this again, after what she’d said to them in her backyard-- they couldn’t lie, they were relieved to know she wanted to move past that. Remmy still wanted very desperately to be Morgan’s friend, despite the cruelty she’d shown. “Are you?” they asked, perking a little at the statement. They looked upstairs, then back at Morgan. “Yeah, i’ll show you.” Looped their arms and led her upstairs, showcasing the many rooms they had refurnished and redecorated, before stopping just shy of their own room. “So, what do you think? Think it’ll um-- work?”

“I am. Seriously.” Morgan said. She beamed at everything they showed her, reminded of that stint during the summer when almost every spare bedroom in her house was decorated to the taste of every guest they had passing through or standing by. Those had been better days for a lot of reasons, but not in the least because Morgan felt like she was doing something to help the people she cared about. “I think it really might, yeah. Why wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” Remmy admitted quietly, glancing back over at Morgan. “It-- I love Nora, and I think she’s going to try her hardest, but I…” they scratched their head, trying to think of how to phrase this, “I think she might need some help. With...everything.” Morgan was looking at them with those expectant eyes, and the door behind them was hiding a big secret. “So, um-- about that thing I need to tell you.” They sidled around Morgan and grabbed the knob of the door, turning it but not opening it. “It’s not a bad thing, but I--” their eyes fell to the floor. They opened the door and let it swing on its hinges to reveal the packe boxes inside. They couldn’t find the right words, not when Morgan was the one thing that could’ve made them stay. “I got accepted to MIT.”

There was a weird dissonance between Remmy’s words and what they showed Morgan, like an out-of-body experience. She had pushed Remmy to do something for themself for so long, and they were so brilliant in so many ways. Applying to MIT was some kind of miracle in itself, getting in was even better. It was proof that none of them were making it up when it came to Remmy’s potential, that anybody, even some stuffy admission’s board, could see it.

And then there was the empty room. The packed up boxes. It was like Remmy hadn’t even settled after they’d left their home, like they couldn’t wait to get out the door. Morgan stopped short, covering her mouth as she stifled a cry of surprise. “You’re---leaving?” She rasped. “You’re...going to Massachusetts.” Her voice cracked and she stiffened, straightening as she tried to reign her feelings in. This wasn’t personal, she reminded herself. This wasn’t about her This may not even be permanent, this was just… sudden. And something small inside her was crying and hurt about it.

Morgan turned to Remmy, eyes wide. “When did you decide?”

“Yeah,” they said quietly, trying to parse out what Morgan’s expression meant. But the stuttering, the words, they made Remmy begin to panic quietly. They swallowed. “It’s-- yeah. I am.” They didn’t know what else to say, how else to explain it. Leaving for school was about as open as they could be about it. That Morgan couldn’t blame them for wanting to get out if there was a reason other than that White Crest was destroying the person they wanted to be. They shuffled around her and looked at her with as much gusto as they could. “Not very long ago, but also-- kind of a while ago. At least...I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Since--” they paused, swallowed, “--since we found Chloe.” They didn’t want to say it was because of Lydia, they didn’t want to give her that credit. But it was. In the end, it was. Their eyes lowered to their feet. “I applied to some places just before that all happened. MIT was one of them…They um-- they liked my military engineering background a lot. I got a phone interview and then a little after that, I got the acceptance. I-- wasn’t going to go, originally, but--” they shuffled over to one of the boxes and sat down, “--I guess I just wanted to try and do what you wanted me to all this time. I really, really wanna go. I wanna do this for me. Can you-- can you understand that, just a little?”

Morgan’s eyes spilled over as she listened to Remmy. “I remember telling you to--” To apply. To let themself have something more than a small room and a duffel bag. To let themself be loved as much as they loved their friends. And Morgan didn’t need to hear Chloe’s name in order to remember their long talks about morality. For two people who didn’t like to see people get hurt, she and Remmy had different lines around their social circles, and what counted as an exception or something dire. For all that Constance had rattled her, there was one thing Morgan still believed: the world Remmy wanted to live in didn’t exist in White Crest and probably never would. She had kind of hoped that Remmy would concede a little ground so they could stay and make things as good as they could get here. But of course, of course not… “I remember,” she repeated.

Morgan came over to Remmy and sat down beside them. It took her a while to pry her hand off her face and find her voice. “Why wouldn’t you go? Why is that even a-- Of course you should. Why not?” She whispered, more harshly than she meant it. Morgan grimaced and reached out for their hand, squeezing it tight.

Remmy waited patiently for Morgan to work through whatever it was she was struggling with, watching her with patient eyes. She sat down beside them finally, letting out her quiet answer, even if it felt sharp. Remmy accepted it, for what it was worth at the moment. Squeezed her hand back. “I was gonna go even if you said I shouldn’t,” they teased quietly, bumping shoulders. “I have a life here, though,” they went on quietly, “I have people here who I’m leaving behind, responsibilities--” a hesitation as the lump began to rebuild itself in her throat-- “but when I think about it, I only feel sad. And I don’t-- I don’t want that anymore. I want to be able to think about his place one day and be happy. I want to...I want to be happy. As much as possible.” They turned to look at her finally, giving their same old gentle smile. “The good news, though, is like...because of this place, I’m gonna be visiting frequently. So it’s not like I’m just disappearing into the void. I couldn’t do that,” a quieter sigh, “especially not to you…”

Morgan let go of Remmy’s hand only so she could throw her arms around them in a crushing hug. “Don’t come back here too much,” she whispered in their ear. “Don’t--fuck, don’t look back at all as much as you can.” Her voice broke with held in sobs. For all the times she and Remmy had stopped speaking, Morgan had imagined that they would always be somewhere on the other side of town, sketching and brooding and making friends wherever they went, just being Remmy, right in reach if she needed them. “I want you to be happy too, I do. I just wish that didn’t mean losing you here. I know that’s so stupid, wanting two completely different opposite things, I’m being so--” Awful. But it had been so many years since she’d had a best friend. And Remmy was the first who hadn’t been pulled away from her or killed. Morgan shuddered and squeezed them tighter. “Please don’t leave me,” she said. “I mean, leave this place, don’t come back if you can help it, because it’s not good, not the way you want it, but maybe Massachusetts…” One of her sobs broke free. She didn’t want to think about this being the end of anything. She didn’t want to be alone in her death, alone in her hope, in this place. “Just don’t leave me. I can come visit. I um...could help you move? Make sure you don’t live in some shitty shoebox apartment and have a real couch and a kitchen and a big fridge? if I can do that, you know? If I can just not lose you, Remmy. Things have been so shitty and Cece is is gone too and I’ll be a better friend, I will, okay?”

A vast distance had seemed to grow between Morgan and Remmy, but as they looked over at her, and across that chasm, they were sure now more than ever that it could be bridged. Perhaps never drawn back together, but definitely crossed. With time, with effort. “I’m not gonna leave you, Morgan,” they murmured quietly, folding their arms around her. “I could never do that. You’re my family, and I love you. I just need--” time, they thought silently, time and distance and space. They didn’t know who they’d be at the end of all of this, but they looked forward to finding out. Even if they couldn’t guarantee that they’d be someone who still fit into Morgan’s life somehow. They breathed in and out deeply, enjoying the sensation of the unnecessary act. “I don’t need you to be a better friend, Morgan. I think...I think you need to just, figure out what kind of person you want to be from here on out. And then whoever that person is-- she’ll be great and wonderful.”

Morgan nodded along to Remmy’s words. The tension in her shoulders fell away, surrender more than relief. She kissed their temple and combed her fingers distractedly through their hair. “You need space,” Morgan said with a wet laugh. “I get that. Oh, stars, you should see my studio before you leave, speaking of space. We uh, built it together. Deirdre is really good with power tools, as it turns out, and I made everything nice inside so it feels like me and not just some weird codependent time-out corner.” She scrubbed at her eyes and pulled back, smiling at Remmy. “I know I wanna be someone you’re proud of, even if we take things on differently. That’s a start, huh?” She sniffled. “I love you too, Remmy. Can I help you do this, please? Maybe it’s some lame delaying the inevitable thing, but hauling furniture upstairs to your apartment and stocking your fridge is something family does, right? Or at least driving you to the bus stop? Stars, you’re not bus-ticket-far into this, are you?” She pleaded with her eyes.

Remmy gave a short chuckle. “It’s funny you say that,” they said, shaking their head, “Deirdre asked the exact same thing when I told her.” Which had, in fact, just been earlier that day. They looked over to Morgan beside them and took her hands again, giving a squeeze. “I have a bus ticket and movers coming this weekend for my boxes and stuff. I...think I’ll probably buy new furniture there. I know you really want to help, but...I think I want to be alone when I get there. The uh-- the university put me up in the really nice apartment that’s nearby. I got lots of scholarships money. Did I tell you that part yet? They basically wanna pay my tuition, thank to the VA and stuff.” They gave her a smile, gentle and soft and sad. “Besides I-- I think you’re needed more here.” Gestured around them. “And if you-- if you want to start picking up the pieces somewhere, giving back somehow...I think this place is gonna need a nice touch. Nora is great, don’t get me wrong, but I think it might need someone more...welcoming. You know?”

“Fucking fuck, you don’t do anything halfway, do you?” Morgan said tearfully, trying to turn her sob into a laugh. “I know...shit, I know we’re not the best family anyone could ask for, but...we’ve gotta be better than a cab to the bus, right?” She shuddered, smiling bravely. “Can I have something, Remmy? So this doesn’t feel like…” Like it’s for good. Like this wasn’t some very kind way to friend break up and never talk to her again. She didn’t have the bandwidth to process what they were offering her. Faintly, some things made sense, even as a whisper of guilt recoiled at stepping into someone else’s dream. But Morgan was stuck on Remmy’s hands, which were so strong neither of them had to hold back, so steady they stopped her trembling in its tracks. She’d taken it for granted how good they were at holding things together; she wasn’t sure how she was going to hold up without them. “Please, Remmy….” She whispered.

“Not really, no,” Remmy said with a half smile, “my lieutenant always said, never do anything half-assed, or you might end up assed in half.” They contorted their face a moment. “I guess that applied much more when you realize it was for being a bomb technician, but--” a shrug-- “guess it can apply in life, too.” They squeezed Morgan’s hands once more, hoping they could continue to steady hers, as they felt her desperation growing in her words. “Yeah, you can. I already told Deirdre you could. I’m not just gonna disappear into nothing, Morgan,” they muttered quietly, pressing their foreheads together, “I promised I wouldn’t.” At her plea, it reminded them of the second reason they’d asked Morgan over. “Right, yeah--” they stood up, then, slowly as to not rustle her, and started rifling through boxes. Finally, they pulled out a small box, before coming back over and sitting down again. “Here. It-- it’s not much, but I’m really not good at gift giving,” they said, shrugging. “It’s more a...going away gift than anything, though.” Because inside the box was a key to the mansion. A small charm was attached to the key, of two clasped hands, and another that was a rainbow flag. “It’s not forever, Morgan,” they murmured quietly, “we have forever, anyway.”

Morgan pressed her head firmly back into Remmy’s, holding them steady with a hand on the back of their neck. “Only you would give someone else a present for your own going away. Thank you. For all of it, thank you.” she whispered. “I’m just not used to this, you know? I don’t usually get to have people come back when they go. And after Deirdre, I don’t know if there’s anyone I want to lose less than you, Remmy. I mean, I’d get it if you needed a five or fifty year break from me someday. We don’t always have the easiest time. But just come back to me after.” She clutched the keys tight in her other hand, trying to anchor herself with the pinch of sensation. She breathed in, reaching for all the good of Remmy that was before her; breathed out, releasing their hurt and misunderstandings. In and out, together and apart and back again, two spheres of energy cycling through the world at their own pace.

“I love you forever, Remmy,” she whispered. “Even if you finish school and move all the way to Houston to build space ships and I don’t see you again til I’m a hundred, I love you forever.” She kissed their cheek and breathed them in one last time before pulling away. A fresh, brave smile on her bleary face. “So, hot shot. How about a nice goodbye dinner before I head home? You don’t really expect me to let you cook by yourself tonight, do you?”

“Guess I’m gonna have to be the one to change that, too,” Remmy said with a firm smile on their face. Now that Morgan had accepted it, now that Morgan was on board, everything felt so much easier, so much lighter. “It’s my only key, by the way,” they said jokingly, “so when I come back I guess I’ll have to come see you in order to get it.” And even if it was just that, a joke, they knew that the words themself were reassuring enough to let Morgan know that their meaning was true. They wrapped the hand she was gripping the key with in their own and squeezed tightly with her. “One step at a time, okay? Who knows, maybe there’s a place here I can work at to design spaceships.” They doubted that, but it was worth the mention. School would take a while, anyway, and all they wanted, for now, was to concentrate on the life ahead of them right now, and stop hanging onto what ifs and maybes. They were done with all that. It was time to put everything behind them and stand tall on the shoulders of the people they’d loved along the way. And the one holding them up the most, the one sturdy rock they’d had through everything, despite their differences, despite their shortcomings, despite their suffering, was Morgan. Always Morgan. They let out one last, long breath, and nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

#chatzy #chatzy: morgan #wickedswriting #don't you forget about me #morgan

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fakehousesrealawesome · 5 years ago

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MTS upload moderation

I’m feeling frustrated and wondering if anyone has had similar experiences lately. PM me!

I uploaded Dar Karawan, the Marinos, and the Tipton. All three were flagged for “Changes Required.” I’m going to explain everything in the order it happened, but what really is annoying me is the one for Dar Karawan, if you want to skip the prior ranting and head straight for that below. I won’t be offended if no one wants to read my rantings though 😂

First was the Marinos, for “advertising.” The MTS upload wizard automatically grabbed the text and hashtags in the description of the lot from the Library files. It added that info to my post, and there was no way to remove it while uploading. I didn’t see that it had automatically created a link from that after I posted it. So I edited the post after I got the Changes Required and saw that. Seems like a weird feature of their automatic upload process, but no problem there; I edited the post.

Next, I got a Changes Required for the Tipton. It said I did not clearly state what custom content was included: “Any content that has packaged with the lot must be listed as ‘Included’. Any content that has not packaged with the lot must be listed as ‘Required but Not Included’. If you are not sure what items are included in your file, you can check it with CUSTARD.” During the upload process you have to check a box to indicate what custom content is included: none, build/buy, or build only. I checked “none” because I didn’t include anything. So the sidebar, which is automatically generated based on the boxes I ticked, says clearly “no custom content included.” Then in the post I have a big purple heading for “Custom Content,” under which is listed and linked everything I used in the build. The CR message clearly specifies that “included” CC means content packaged with the lot, so I guess the issue is just literally that I didn’t say “required but not included”? This seems bizarre, because nothing is required in the sense that it won’t work; everything would be replaced and be perfectly usable. But quite obviously if I used a piece of CC, and took pictures of the thing with that piece of CC, and you want the thing to look like my pictures...then maybe you should....also get the CC??

I really don’t think this is enforced logically or evenly. I picked a random page in the residential lots category and clicked a nice-looking lot that I thought might use some CC. Sure enough, it had a list of build and buy content. The creator listed and linked everything they used, and mentioned in the text of the post that the CC was not included. But on the sidebar, under “Custom Content Included,” they had selected “Build/buy content.” So clearly they’re understanding that option to mean content used, not just included. But that’s fine; they’ve clearly listed and linked all the CC. And they didn’t spell out that it was “required” either; surely the downloader should decide what is necessary for them to have, and what they’d be fine with replacing. So what is the issue with mine? I will also mention that I have uploaded on MTS lots of other lots, and I did them all the same way: “no custom content included,” then a list with links for the CC I used. I didn’t use the exact phrase “required but not included” either.

Then the third “Changes Required” I got today was for Dar Karawan. Again, “custom content” included was apparently an issue, with the same form text given. Additionally, they had an issue with screenshots: “There is a front picture of the lot, but it is insufficient to see the lot well.” AND “There is one or more floor plan screenshots included, but they are insufficient to see the lot well.” Regarding the picture of the front, I included several pictures of the front as well as one of the entire front facade. I added captions as well during the upload process, which apparently were not saved. I redid those, and hopefully they show up. But even apart from that, I am super side-eyeing the idea that my pictures are “insufficient to see the lot well.” Please, look at my pictures and tell me if I’m wrong. I am honestly failing to understand. The part that really annoyed me though was the CR for the floor plan shots. I included one shot of the entire grounds, one shot with a closer view of just the first floor rooms, and one shot of the second floor rooms. I have to say, this is not unclear by anyone’s definition. And the fact they included that in the CR kind of makes me think they’re picking on bullshit.

#nonsims

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tonyglowheart · 5 years ago

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@imaginaryelle replied to your post:*me sipping tea* (x)

I would really enjoy seeing more of your thoughts on this, if you ever want to share them.

:’) a lot of my thoughts are salty rants and I’m TGCF on main right now so uhhh not at the moment but if you wanna hmu on like a chat thing of some sort I probably will eventually rant about my dislike of The MXTX Antis and the Problematic Culture people and the purity culture wank :’)

actually you know what, since I’m a parody of myself and I’m like always mood of "and another thing,” I’m just going to. go for it ig

so my biggest thing, is with the MXTX antis/MDZS wank/MXTX wank. is like....god it FRUSTRATES me so fckn much lmfao in so many ways and on so many levels. like listen. I’m not saying there isn’t stuff to critique in MDZS. But there’s people who are first off: critiquing the writing quality, when I’m like “there’s like a 90% chance you’re reading the EN translation, and probably from ExR, and honestly I know it’s not fandom etiquette to critique fan content bc we’re all doing this for free out of passion, BUT I do, in fact, have some major issues with ExR’s translation quality, and also I lowkey feel like they have a strong traditional yaoi bias and sometimes it leaks through in how they handle certain things.” Big mood of this twitter thread about how when you’re reading in TL you can’t be criticizing the writing bc you’re already reading it filtered and like. you gotta consider things like the TL’s own personal biases or takes, etc. Which I feel like some people don’t in their critique, or at least they don’t take the time to acknowledge it and instead start spinning off into more and more impassioned reactions to perceived slights or faults.

The other thing is like. I admit when I first read MDZS - which I did while simultaneously watching bc I was kind of using CQL as a vehicle to get into MDZS, I had the HARDEST time trying to read ExR’s translation when I was going into it cold many many many moods ago rip - I was also squicked out by the explicit scenes shown. It did remind me a lot of traditional yaoi tropes, and I wasn’t into it. HOWEVER I was also a psych major, and I want to point out that the T/N’s do read to me as having a strong yaoi bias, and also before ExR redid their site they had large “SERVING YAOI AND BL” banners on EVERY page lol. And I think that also primes people to see things a certain way. (I just. am :/ about ExR also bc like... their whole vibe as a “yaoi scanlator” and also I. can’t be sure the TL wasn’t 17 when they were tl’ing it lmfao,, and they did the whole rant - which fine they apologized for, but I think sort of reflects on a general attitude still w/ the team - about how some other TL had bad quality or something, but their existing TL has a lot of clunky English phrasing and actually a lot of editing issues, too, I was creating myself a back-up copy from their site and like google docs was already catching a bunch of typos and tense issues and such :’) and that’s beyond clunky EN translation phrasing. I just am like. they have a patreon lol, so I can’t say ExR is doing it wholly not-for-profit/dollars, and also like... it’s not like they’re licensed? I get that within scanlation circles, there’s an etiquette of “first come first serve,” but with translation, I think fans are only served with more translations? but I also care about the original work lol, I mean I get the vanity of “I want MINE to be the AUTHORITATIVE tl” bc I feel that mood too, but also I’m like. fam you didn’t bid for a license lmao.)

But yeah like. My petty gripes with ExR aside lmfao, I think when you look at WangXian, the whole “it’s yaoi tropes” gets really strawman. Like from a Watsonian perspective, I mean like... both WWX and LWJ really ARE useless virgins, lol, WWX’s first kiss was stolen by LWJ and his whole idea of sex comes from porn; LWJ is GusuLan and like. yeah. Who is teaching them about lube? certainly not porn. (but this also gets into the whole. like people saying explicit material is “problematic” because it doesn’t show “realistic” sex and I’m like. fam it’s smut, not a sex manual.) And like... they’re both kinky and WWX has a pregnancy kink, and like... good for them I guess?

From a more Doylist perspective..... I think for me, I’m like. well why not? gay media doesn’t have to be uwu to be “Valid,” and like, the people who start attacking mxtx personally because of the way she chose to write WangXian, or saying she’s homophobic because of WangXian or she doesn’t have the range... I already Know they didn’t read TGCF or SV lol. (and yeah SV is more “problematic” but I also think it’s VERY genre aware and both satirizes and also plays with and subverts some of the typical genre “problematic” things. not everything, but like. again the whole idea that non-mainstream media needs to be held to a higher standard to not be cancelled? I don’t hold by that). [But more on the Doylist thing: it’s dumb to me that people react like it’s a moral failing of non-straight works if they don’t fit EXACTLY their personal idea of what a thing should be. And this comes up EVERY time there’s some new thing. hell it’s not even just lgbt-related stuff; Hamilton, Crazy Rich Asians, etc all had nitpicking. Which again, isn’t invalid! but also like. :/ because we DON’T have enough representation right now to pick, and my take is always: the solution is to get to the point where we can pick and choose and can afford to have bad media just like the straights/whites do :’)]

The thing about WWX and LWJ is neither of them, as they’re written in canon, fit within “traditional yaoi” seme/uke stereotypes. The kiss I see people rail against as “dubcon” and also their sex scenes but I’m like. yeah I think it’s fine to say it’s not your cup of tea but to say that that makes them traditional yaoi rapey tropes I’m like. Fam that’s not it lol. LWJ is shown as being SO incredibly responsive and attentive to WWX’s wishes and desires. I mean that’s examples of his passion exploding out, but we consistently see LWJ being respectful of WWX’s wishes and autonomy even when it like. fucks him/them over :’) like when WWX was so hell-bent on hurtling down the mo’dao route :’)

plus also WWX literally fantasizes about them retiring as farmers and he’s the one out working the fields and LWJ is staying at home weaving lol, like c’mon, ya wanna talk gender roles, let’s talk about this.

the other thing is the whole mxtx anti stuff about “she’s homophobic” and “she’s a filthy fujo” and I think there’s issues that people aren’t considering, which I don’t know as much about but I feel like it informs my consideration of mxtx - such as like... not everyone’s internet is as wide open as, like, the West. I don’t know so much about Chinese censorship other than it exists, but I’m like. I think this would affect people’s access to resources which would inform them about how things work/where people are with LGBT thought? It reminds me of when young tumblr kids trash talk older queer people for using terms they see as “problematic” now, and I’m like “you really gotta pause a moment of (1) have some empathy (2) consider the person’s individual personal and cultural context.” MDZS wasn’t made for a Western audience in mind lol, it’s not going to reflect Western values! And China has a different history with its LGBT progression and it’s m/m media, which I don’t know enough about to comment specifically, but I think it’s incredibly disingenuous to judge it based on Western standards. A lot of people probably don’t realize they are! in that it doesn’t even occur to them, which is why they feel so free with their judgment! But also I’m like. lowkey THAT’s a problem for me bc of like. cultural imperialism lmfao. and also reflective of EN-language imperialism, when people are judging EN tl’s they’re seeing on face value without realizing or considering that they’re...reading... a translation... and that translations are NOT in fact direct one-for-one and that there’s a LOT of considerations that go into both translating and reading a translation of a work.

I think the points antis pull up against MXTX is like... stuff she’s said before in interviews - and I don’t know from when, but I imagine years ago at this point - where she was asked about shipping the other characters in MDZS, and she said something I think about how to her, she wants to write in a way that “preserves realism” or maybe she believes in (I only read a TL of it, so I hold the exact phrasing with a grain of salt), and for her, not everyone is gay so she doesn’t write all of her named characters gay. and I’m like. whatever that’s her prerogative as the author. And I think there’s also something that I don’t know if it’s an official “rules”/”guidelines” she wrote bc again I’ve only seen secondhand/thirdhand sources, but it’s something mxtx-antis also quote, where she said to not break up the main couples and also don’t “reverse” them. but again when we’re getting into the shou/gong dynamics, that’s where I don’t feel comfortable commenting because I don’t know enough about the sociopolitical implications of these terms and how they interact within that fandom/community subset. But I do think people need to be taking the stuff they read - ESPECIALLY if they’re only reading it in EN - with a grain of salt. or like a big ol pinch of it.

edit: I know more about this now lmao and I know exactly which question people use piecemeal of vilify her. Here’s a recent-ish translation someone did. Read it through - the WHOLE thing, and think about the wider context.

But also in general I just don’t think anyone is valid when we start getting into ad hominems lol. Especially when I feel like they’re not really taking a moment to consider what wider contexts and influences might be at play and instead are playing Tumblr telephone with outrage and virtue signalling

sidebar: I also fucking HATE CQL purists lmfao. I don’t feel like I’ve seen or encountered anyone saying CQL fans are less valid than novel fans except in the sense of CQL fans getting defensive about their dislike of the novel - which, whatever, people have opinions - or decision not to read the novel and saying anyone saying they HAVE to read the novel is gatekeeping - which I hold to less but mostly bc I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of fan language, some of us say you HAVE to read it not in a neckbeard way but in a I’m so desperately passionate and I want more people to know about this way, kind of like how the “I hate you” in fan language GENERALLY means “I love it so much and I can’t stand it”? - but I HAVE seen people say the novel “ruined” wangxian, or CQL people who seem to be like... purity-wanking, like idk if you were around but god after Infinity War and the number. of fckn ironstranges. posting in the tags. about “love how healthy our ship is” and I’m like. this is still anti culture/purity wank but the other side of the coin 8). I encounter sometimes this lowkey attitude of CQL (or other adaptations) “redeeming” MDZS from the author, and I’m like. y’all are wack lmfao. There’s people wiht MDZS or even TGCF main, and they hate mxtx? and they say shit like “mdzs was only good on accident”? and I’m like. can you just leave lmfao. if you hate her then why are you here. (bc they’ve mental gymnastics this into a virtue ethics thing about “o the work is good and therefore morally fine but the parts I don’t like are because mxtx is morally bad and unworthy and tainted it, and CQL with its Purity has Redeemed it” but I’m like. this is because of censorship lmao. The team did a FANTASTIC job working the character dynamics and story, but like it also is directly because of censorship.)

like I... have more thoughts than this lmfao bc ofc I do, but anyway, here’s... some of them lol

#imaginaryelle #replies #living la vida salty #*

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themonsterblogofmonsters · 7 years ago

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Monsterblog Guide: ITS OK TO MESS UP

Previously - Thematic Elements and World Systems

So, most of the guides after this are all going to be about developing and nurturing ideas and headcanons, adapting folklore and ideas from other canons to fit whatever canon you’re working in - or even your own - as somewhat touched on in the previous guide. There may be a few others on various topics, if any of you have specific requests, but as is: mostly guides on how to adapt, develop and nurture ideas.

Which is why you need to first of all get this principle down pat;

ITS OK TO MESS UP PROVIDED YOU LEARN FROM IT

Part 1. Trying your best.

Its a fact of life that, in truth, the most we can do is try our best. Sometimes our best feels awful, or a waste of time, or we think that even our best isn’t enough. Other times our best is amazing.

If you’re working on a world, a fic, a headcanon blog, you’re gonna want to try your best all the time. Sometimes you won’t be able to and that’s fine. Gods know I’ve half-arsed plenty of posts on my various blogs at various points. Sometimes we don’t have the energy or the knowledge or the patience to be or do all we could.

This is an aspect of life. Sometimes, we cannot be all that we want to be.

And thats ok.

Part 2. Your best and being better

Sometimes, however, we mess up big time. Sometimes we mess up small time but its enough to niggle at us, make us want to change it.

Ages ago, I did the American Thunderwing Dragon. When I first did it, it was the American Thunderbird Dragon. The idea being it was misidentified by indigenous groups.

There’s a lot of problems with that. Starting with the general racism of “whites know best” and continuing to the general idiocy of the idea that groups of millions of people who lived on the continent for hundreds of thousands of years wouldn’t be able to correctly identify a damn bird that was a key part of their own mythology.

Which, you know, is why I changed it.

This is what I mean by “your best and being better”.

We all make mistakes. We all have times where we aren’t at our best, aren’t doing our best, or fail to meet our best. Sometimes that’s ok, and doesn’t really have much of an overall impact. Like I said, I’ve got quite a few posts that I just completely half-arsed, both on @wandmore and on @thelethifoldwitch, which aren’t bad just not great. Other times (see example) it can be pretty damn bad.

Thus, “being better”. If you spot something where you’ve messed up? Figure a way to fix it. Figure a way to either work with your own mess up to both fess up to your cock up and fix it (I kept “Thunderbird Dragon” as part of the name, and used it to talk about the racist assumption of ignorance, the actual ignorance of white colonisers and to bring up discussion of the continued use of racist and appropriation names) or redo the whole thing from scratch (I redid the post on Jinn several times before it was ever even queued with the help of a blogger who has since deleted).

Try to do your best, and if you mess up and its bad or it seriously bugs you, see what you can do to fix that.

Part 3. Accept criticism. Learn from your mistakes.

We all make mistakes. Like I point out above, I have made some pretty severe ones myself. Sometimes you notice them immediately and they niggle and eventually you change it on your own. Other times you aren’t going to notice these right off the bat and it takes for someone to point it out to you for you to notice at all. (For an example on this blog, see the Petrified Cats, where @fromchaostocosmos kindly pointed out my error in originally calling them Golem Cats, or the case with the Akhlut. You guys are all some great followers, and kinder than I deserve in how nice you are about pointing out when I mess up.)

If someone says they think you’ve messed up, that something you’ve done may be hurtful or neglectful or poorly phrased, then listen. Learn. See what you can do to fix it. A lot of people are really quite hesitant about messaging their concerns in. Those who do, if you show you’re prepared to listen, are often extremely polite and kind about it. None of us have a perfect view on the world; the world we grow up in is a deeply flawed thing and we’ve all absorbed some pretty not-great messages from it, one way or another.

So.

Listen. Learn. If your brain niggles at you, telling you you messed up, at least consider it before mentally screaming your anxiety into submission for getting you worked up over nothing (I have Definitely Not Done This Before, No Siree, Never, Honest Guv’nor) (I have totally done this before because sometimes our brains will flag something as wrong when it really isn’t. It’s ok. This is normal. But it helps to consider it as best you can because Better Safe Than Sorry and also it gives you an excuse to mentally scream at your anxiety which can be very cathartic). If someone brings a concern to you, then listen and consider.

We all make mistakes, its a part of life. But it only becomes a problem if we refuse to learn from it.

Live. Listen. Learn. Try your best, and, when needs be, try harder, do better.

We all mess up, and that’s ok. Just make sure you learn from it.

#Monsterblog Guides: ITS OK TO MESS UP #Monsterblog Guide

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rockleefangirl987 · 7 years ago

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What You Love...(For Rock Lee Birthday Month!)

I wrote this last year as we had a challenge for Rock Lee Birthday Week. I thought I would post it again, and this was in answer to the challenge made by @sausage-fist. I thought it was a great way to start it out. Here was the challenge:

Lee has a passion for training and becoming stronger!! It’s what he strives for every day. What is your passion? What do you strive to become? Create something that involves you telling him or showing him the thing you are most passionate about whether it be sports, drawing or even comedy!! Show Lee what you train for every day.

What I train for? I try to write each day, as I have since I was too young to even know why. My inspiration included the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Margaret Mitchell and Daphne DuMaurier, because they wrote the books my mother loved and taught me to love. I wanted to tell stories full of unbridled passion and real human beings with all their little problems and life not always turning out as we hoped. I wanted my readers to visualize everything as though a movie was playing before you. So as a writer, you struggle with all the right words and...

Well, Lee, this is for you - one more time.

I...I do not...I do...not...understand,” he said between deep gulps. I watched his head bounce up, vanish, bounce up again, then drop out of sight - over and over as it had for the last ten minutes. No matter how often I saw him perform his push-ups, the idea of him managing a conversation and performing a countdown in his brain astonished me to no end.

“What do you mean? What don’t you understand?” I replied, drawing one leg underneath me as I readjusted myself in the large wicker chair.

The fall morning was too beautiful to stay indoors, even if your work engulfed you, preventing a full enjoyment of the day. Still, it was nice being close to one’s muse. One’s overactive muse...We had been out in the garden for hours, me with my writing and him performing what came naturally. At one point there were pull-ups and rotations from a stout tree limb fifteen feet off the ground. On another occasion, he did nothing but run. For the two of us, it was typical.

Once more I asked, “I know sometimes I feel like I’m talking in riddles.”

“No...No...it...it is not...not that. You said you...you were...having...problems.”

“Yeah.”

“But...what you are doing...it seems simple, right?”

Twirling my favorite pen as one might a baton, I stopped before launching into one of my habits: clutching the instrument between my teeth. How many times did I have to remind myself: you don’t know where that pen came from? Even if I was the only one handling it. Even if I kept it safe within any of my numerous notebooks. I snatched an antibacterial wipe from a nearby container, and while I cleaned the pen, concentrated once more on what he asked.

I couldn’t help smiling at the notion. From others, I might have taken exception, but from him? The innocent expression indicated one thing: his questions were because he was curious and cared about my well-being. For the last hour, I had grumbled, scowled, buried my face in my hands, torn one sheet from the binder, then another, doodled terrible stick figures - a couple with bushy eyebrows (seeing those made him giggle as he joked ‘I do not look like that, do I?’). Still, I wondered how I might better explain so he’d comprehend, not because he was stupid, but…

“Yeah, I guess it does seem simple.” Smiling, I tapped the notebook resting on the portable writing desk in my lap. “Every time you see me, I’m putting words to paper.”

“Or typing...typing away...on...your...computer. Sometimes...you never stop.”

“Neither do you.”

He paused, considered my words, then returned to his routine. “That is true...But...But is it that...difficult?”

“Writing?”

He nodded a response.

Chuckling, I used an index finger and thumb to massage the insides of my eyes. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it can be. Not all the time, but...I don’t know...It just feels like it’s all stuck up here.” I pointed at my head. “And it doesn't want to come out! I see it...I can hear it...Everything! Descriptions, what everybody says to each other, what characters are thinking or feeling! Then I try to write it, and I read it, and I think…”

“What do you think?” after I didn’t respond for several moments.

“That it’s the most godawful garbage anybody’s ever written.”

“Two thousand!” he shouted.

Was he already finished?

“But I have seen books in bookstores. I tried to read excerpts.” He sat cross-legged on the ground near me. “And I told Guy-Sensei the writing was so painful I thought I was going to cry. Tenten is more explicit. She said the authors should be locked in a room and forced to listen to the pain they have inflicted on their readers.”

I snickered, rolling my eyes, nodding in agreement.

The chunin continued. “And some of those books have been made into movies. Although truth be told, the filmed versions were not any better than their source material.”

I laughed again. “Who died and made you a movie critic?” Shrugging, he responded with a smile I'm certain he prayed would make me feel at ease. Under normal circumstances, it might have. Right then, nothing I felt empty, lost in the problems of my own making. “Yeah, well, I’d like to be a little bit better than that. Not that I’d sneeze at a million dollar contract from a publisher or a movie studio, but my name’s going to be on it. I’d like people to look back at my stuff and think ‘Wow! Another Gone with the Wind! Another Pride and Prejudice!’ Not ‘Oh my God - take away that woman’s laptop and paper and pen and break her hands so she never writes again!’”

There came that soft giggle which never failed to make me smile. I couldn't help it. “That is so silly. I have read your stories, remember? No one would ever accuse you of writing...well…some of the books I have seen. You do not write about vampires or werewolves or fifty whatever.” A blush came to his cheeks. “You write about...people, life.”

“I try,” I muttered, exhaling. I was frustrated. I had been working on one chapter for three weeks - bits and pieces here and there. What should have been a basic, informational few scenes stressing the heroine’s dilemma bogged me down a third of the way through. In that time frame, I rewrote one scene more than a half-dozen time. Another key scene faced four times under the knife. Each time I looked at the words, I groaned, cursed (I never did that in front of him), and either hit the backspace key or drew several furious lines through the sentences on the lined paper. That second scene annoyed me to Hell. It sounded stilted, forced. Characters I’d handled for almost a year fell to pieces. I imagined them glaring at me from my Chromebook screen or my notebook, each of them thinking ‘What in the world is her problem?’ I honestly didn’t know, so in the meantime, I returned to previous chapters - the chapters I loved, chapters over which I had also once struggled.

“You are seeking perfection.”

I looked up and into those large dark eyes. “I guess.”

“Of course you are! You have shown me so many wonderful chapters, and I am always honest and tell you how they are. They are good. No, how great they are. The old adage is right. You do have a way with words.”

I ducked my head. That was something I had heard since my school days.

“And then you return and tell me, ‘I redid this. What do you think?’ It will be the same scene, but you have added more dialogue, removed this or that, changed a phrase about, added a new thought...and it is still good. Then you work on another chapter or scene, but you keep returning to the other, although I did not think anything was wrong with it in the first place. But you know what?”

“No, what?”

“No matter how many times I read it when you make the adjustment, whatever that might be, it is even better than before, although I did not think it possible...But you must realize, the time is going to come when you cannot make another change. That it is as good as it will ever be. Otherwise...you will never finish.”

“Huh.”

He scooted closer. “You have been working on our story for a while.”

“I just want to get it right.”

“I know. I appreciate that. But you joked the other day you have barely scratched the surface and you have written...sixteen chapters?”

“Eighteen, nineteen,” I confessed. “Some of them don’t have chapter numbers yet because they come later in the story. And a few are so long, I could split those down into another chapter or two.”

“Yes...They are good too, you know.” He gave me a thumbs up accompanied by a toothy grin. “I especially like the one, you know, the one where…”

“I know.” This wasn’t the first time he told me he did. Every time he read that part, tears filled his eyes when he finished. “It’s kind of my favorite too.”

“How many revisions?”

“I deleted a sentence last night.”

“Not again!” It was his turn to sigh in frustration. “If you have not scratched the surface yet, it will be another year or two or three before you write ‘THE END’, and it will not be the actual end because you will revise and rework and rephrase it and…”

“Yeah I know, I know!”

It happened before I knew it. Pen, notebook, and portable desk were thrown to the ground. I was upset with myself, not with what he told me. He realized that too, having seen my temper flair before. He also said nothing when he saw me tear up, reaching down to touch the cherry wood of the lap tray he’d given me as a birthday gift. If I damaged something which came from his heart…

With great calmness, he picked up the items, placed them on the table in front of me, then raised the lid on the Chromebook.

“When I said I did not understand why it is not simple when you are writing, I was wrong.” He maneuvered the mouse, digging deep into the carefully organized folders in the Cloud. “When someone has a passion for something, and it means everything to them, others should not tell them they must give it up or lower their goals.” Although I observed him in profile, he was smiling. “I ought to know.” He turned briefly, winking at me. “This is what you work hard for. This gives your life meaning. It is your code - your Ninja way. I have made a promise to support you as best I can, just as Guy-Sensei still does for me. I am sorry if I do not always appear to understand.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not you. A lot of times, you’re the one who gives my brain the jumpstart it needs.” I gave the lap desk a quick once over, pleased there was no damage. “I’m sorry.”

“It is alright.”

“But it’s not alright. You gave me something special and I…”

“Your passion got the better of you.”

“That wasn’t passion. That was me and my stupid temper.” My voice dropped lower. “Lee, what are you looking for?”

“It is fine. I have found it.”

I saw that the folder he clicked bore the tentative title of the story I had given my nearly undivided attention to these last eleven months. “But I don’t…”

“Your writing means the world to you. One day you will finally show everyone what I consider myself privileged to read. But until then…” He squatted in the chair next to me. “Start it again. I want you to hear how good it is, and I find that reading it aloud can make a great difference.” When I hesitated, he gave me a slight nudge. “Go on. Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Black letters against a white background were plastered across the screen, meaningless when I first took a look at them. All of that came from me. The inspiration was the person at my side. Giving him a peck on the cheek, I smiled and began to read the words familiar to both of us.

@ten-all-over @fruitysmellz @sausage-fist @samlovesmaitogai @shock777 @nejicanspin @sincerelysinclair17 (is that you @Morganknightos), @teacher-monica @strikeelectricart and all you other Rock Lee fans.

#Rock Lee #bushy brow #asplendidninja #Rock Lee Birthday month #rock lee birthday

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helo-gudbue-blog · 7 years ago

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Seventeen NY Hi Touch Experience

So I haven’t seen anyone really mention how hi touch went and a lot of carats I talked to afterwards went completely blank lol

Basically NY had to do hi touch before the concert bc the boys had a flight right after. After splitting the VVIP and VIP the VVIP were taken hours before to wait on the roof (no one knows why the roof was the place to be but oh well). VIP were let into the venue at 5 after getting stickers that said VIP on them. VIP were split into 3 lines to go through metal detectors and then split again into two lines for hi touch. One around the left of this counter where you had to turn the corner which looked shady tbh and the other line was just straight down from the table the boys were at.

So they checked off tickets and kinda pushed us along into line. I was ofc on the line where you had to turn the corner so I had to awkwardly cut into the line near the table. Got to see Minghao for .3 seconds longer though so not complaining 😛

A staff member was right next to them explaining that we high five, not grab and only right hand. Had to switch all my shit over to the left hand mad quick at that point lol. They all lined up with their hand out. So as for order as best as I can remember

Minghao: He is actually so fucking beautiful you guys. Like he glows and his skin is so tan. I swear I saw him and I was like shit. Those .5 seconds were instant death.

Jeonghan: He is also beautiful. And he has really nice skin. Order starts to get a little messy here bc I have no recollection of where Jun, Vernon, Hoshi, and Wonwoo were in positioning

Jun: He looked really tired tbh, but his features are mad prominent. One of the frequently mentioned visuals for a reason no lie.

Hoshi: He has the squishiest cheeks ever. And his smile is absolutely adorable. Looked so cheerful. I’m glad he recovered in time 😁

Vernon: ??? Tbh idr him at all like I was actually fully aware of everyone at that point and I wasn’t even that nervous. No idea what happened here 😓

Woozi: Ok I either high fived him twice or almost missed him and did it again lol. So as I was passing through the line I refused to look at their hands bc there was no way I wasn’t making the most of being inches away from those beautiful faces. I think I aimed and either missed or hit the edge of his palm. So I was like oh oops and redid the high five. For anyone who is curious Woozi is like 5'2" at best bc Istg I was looking down at him. I am like half an inch away from 5 feet and decided to wear three inch heels so I was a good 5'2.5".

DK: He said something to me but I didn’t really hear it properly. He could’ve been responding to the fact that as I passed by each member I said “why are they all so pretty” and when it was his turn I said pretty lol. Could have just been a polite boy saying thanks for coming though.

Wonwoo: Idr much about him. He looked tired, but otherwise he was just quiet.

Dino: He is up there as my bias so I just have to scream about him. Yo his skin he is also tanner than I expected. Those whitewashed fan pics really do not do them justice. But I straight up looked him in the face. Like kill me I can’t believe I was this close to his face 😭😭😭 I am still screaming. He’s so beautiful and he looks so good with blonde hair. We were eye level bc I wore heels 😭😭 Those blisters were worth that. God my overdramatic ass but I swear time froze at that moment. I think I stared at his face too long bc he nodded and looked lowkey confused.

S.Coups: Y'all this man is so goddamn extra. He took those 5 seconds of high touch and managed to make it extra lmk how and why. Corny as hell I’m telling you. So instead of just leaving his hand out to high five he whooshes up for a underhand high five and I’m telling you he made a whoosh noise while doing it. He basically high fived me instead of the other way around lmao Istg my face was the same as the white guy blinking meme. Seungcheol wyd

Seungkwan: He is the cutest little thing ever. He said hi so cheerfully to everyone in the line. I think I said hi back bc that’s my automatic response, but can’t really remember bc it was a rush near the end (really hope I did though). Kill me he is too precious for this world. And his smile was so genuine. Melting my heart ❤️

Joshua: Such a sweetheart. Said thanks for coming with that cute smile he does where his eyes kinda scrunch up. I feel so bad bc he got cut off mid sentence since it was a kinda long phrase. Has the voice of angel

Mingyu: He is tall af lmaoo. Even in my heels I didn’t see his face just his chest. Everyone else was at least sorta in eye range, it was just him. He said something in English but I didn’t get to hear it properly since I was rushed into the venue 😔

Overall I really enjoyed the chance to see the boys this close up and would love if they could do this again ❤️❤️This hi touch went a lot better than I expected. Not sure if it was bc it was 13 members and took longer so it didn’t feel as rushed or bc it wasn’t actually that rushed lol. Usually during hi touch you can’t even blink it it’ll happen without you realizing lmao. Concert was amazing and I might try to post some fancams (most are kinda an aerial view of the group or Dino focused lol) and talk more about the actual concert. I am so upset that hi touch didn’t happen after bc once they left it sunk it that it was the end. Post concert depression is starting to hit hard 😢

#seventeen #ot13 #concert experiences #diamond edge nyc #Anika's nonsense

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andrewuttaro · 6 years ago

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New Look Sabres: New Coach 2K19

New Look Sabres! How I miss you so! It’s only been a month and a half, but I really enjoyed writing New Look Sabres and this little break is actually wearing on me. I have a need to blog about the Sabres! I have such a need to blog that you may have noticed I redid the whole blog this appears on and even broadened what I can blog about in terms of hockey. All that is well and good, but nothing beats my good old warhorse, my sweet sweet New Look Sabres! I couldn’t wait for the Draft or the Schedule release, I had to write this: a bonus blog! A bonus blog if anything in Sabres fandom right now can give you that rush of energy that a bonus does. If I am the only thing giving you that bonus rush then so be it. Luckily, I’m writing this mainly because I don’t think I’m the only reason you maybe excited about the Sabres right now. We have a new coach! I touched on Housley’s departure in the Season Retrospective but that was a whirlwind and what feels like forever ago in yet another offseason the Sabres have failed to make the postseason. There’s a new guy in Housley’s old job on the bench and his name is Ralph Krueger! The news first arose over the weekend when Elliotte Friedman first sounded the inside alert that Krueger had rocketed to the front of the pack for the Sabres Head Coaching vacancy. Then he sounded twice as sure it would happen on a radio hit on WGR550 Monday morning. It turned into the waiting game again until Tuesday Night when Friedman went on popular Canadian sports show Tim and Sid to say he thought it was more or less imminent, in his words: it could happen as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday). Then came the bomb from the king of all hockey insiders Bob McKenzie: Ralph Krueger will be named the next head coach of Buf. That’s about as official as you can get without the confirmation tweet from the team account but that came Wednesday morning. It’s official: Ralph Krueger is the 19th Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres.

Before we get into any of the dynamics of this hiring let’s just reflect on how we’ve not had a boring named coach since… Ted Nolan? Think about it: Dan Blysma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger. All great names to tell you wife to her bepuzzlement. Anyway, if you know nothing about this guy let me just say one word to you about him. Culture. No just kidding, we’ve been tortured enough in Buffalo; but that was a part of the interview apparently. No, the word on Krueger is he is an open mind. He’s not a math wiz so he’s not an analytics darling but by all accounts he’s far from turned off to it either. He’s a reliable leader but also a tactician not moored to coaching beliefs that haven’t worked since the 1980s. The word communication came a lot in the Press Conference too: communication with his bosses and the players under him. He is apparently such a good motivator of this generation of hockey players that he has helped groups overachieve their expectations time and time again. We could use a little bit of that for the Sabres couldn’t we? Believe it or not, players vouch for him. Imagine that! Tomas Vanek was excited for the Sabres to get him. Tomas Vanek. Let that sink in. Enough about the intangible stuff that is only talk until its proven on the ice next season, what is his actual record? Well, both of his most recent hockey coaching stints were with teams that were not expected to do great. He coached the Edmonton Oilers during the last lockout and did pretty well with the pre-McDavid club. His record there is nothing to gawk at but there are some layers to that onion that end up making you cry tears of joy. He coached Team Europe in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey all the way to the Final with a squad that was basically Leon Draisaitl, Anze Kopitar and a dozen other guys you didn’t realize were Europeans until you read their names on the roster. Just like with the Oilers he coached the team beyond expectations, this time he had a good enough team to give Canada a run for their money. He does special things with groups others see as nothing special and that fits so wonderfully into my narrative on the Sabres that I can’t help but be excited. It’s also worth noting he built a dynasty club team in Switzerland in the 1990s. He’s different than your average NHL coach for several reasons but the biggest and best maybe that he’s not a member of the old boy’s club that seems to still dominate hires in this league. For a Front Office that looked likely to hire Jacques Martin at one point and interviewed Lindy Ruff apparently, that is a huge, a giant confidence booster for fans who were prepared for a doomsday scenario this offseason.

Jason Botterill still has to have a big summer once he gets back from the World Championships, but this is one big sign he’s got his head on straight. Botts wasn’t afraid to tap the shoulder of a guy whose been an executive in the English Premier League for the last several years and that shows some big balls. He’ll need big balls to sign Skinner and do the roster surgery we’ve heard about. That’s right, he’s been in the Premier League as President of Southampton FC. If you got a problem with soccer that’s your flaw but it’s worth noting if he was rumored to come back to the NHL it would be for a Front Office job like President of Hockey Operations. In the presser after the hiring Botterill said the conversations with him were always about being Head Coach. I resist the idea Botts hired his successor, that’s a bit overzealous, but I speculate he was told if the shit doesn’t work again next season for the Sabres he can be bounced upstairs. This guy literally wrote a book on building a successful sports franchise so if that Armageddon comes I am fully prepared for Ralph Krueger to be our Bruce Willis and blow that asteroid to kingdom come! The key here is that he is 59. If things go good enough for him to be around more than two years he’ll probably retire from the job… and get bounced upstairs… ok we’ll sit on that idea. Only games will tell next season if this guy has the stuff, but Krueger is checking all my boxes. There is so much to like about this guy and its hard to really lend credence to individual pieces of information except this idea that he’s well respected around the Hockey world. Other coaches and players, like our old boy Tomas Vanek, vouch for this guy and that feels different from the last few years here. It looks like Chris Taylor will stay in his role and Steve Smith will stay on as an assistant coach. Otherwise you can look forward to Krueger bringing in some other new faces.

Perhaps a known face is what I’m most excited about looking forward here. Understandably Jeff Skinner was supposedly waiting to see who the Coach would be before signing. There are different reports out there locally and nationally but Botts himself said he would meet with Skinner and his agent again after returning from the World Championships later this month. I can’t help but say hurry up. Jeff Skinner is our Stanley Cup this offseason but when I say that I mean it more rhetorically. Getting him to stick around is really the break even point for this offseason. Look out for Botts to make moves before, during and after the draft. He set a bar in the hire announcement press conference that I will not let go of for months to come: “We should be in the discussion for Playoffs.” That’s as close to a guarantee as you’re going to get. Krueger’s phrasing was even more aggressive on that. The work starts now to make sure you got a roster that can do that. I for one am absolutely psyched for what might happen. Like, share and comment on this blog and keep your eyes open for non-Sabres content on this blog as well. I like to think this is a buffet now. Either way don’t expect another New Look Sabres post until June. If Jeff Skinner signs between now and then just know that I am on Cloud 9 about that. Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I didn’t bring up the Rochester Americans because I’m still very much mad at them for getting swept in a postseason they could’ve made the Finals. I’m not sorry.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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theyareskewed · 7 years ago

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Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Mason’s character name has been changed to Major because I’ve finally found a nickname that is even somewhat reasonable.

Chapter Two is finally here! Hopefully this introduces everyone to the inner workings of a group like this, and continues to build on character relations! Lemme know what you think through the Ask box, and don’t be afraid to send in asks for Fact Check or simply for your curiosity!

Razz woke with the dawn. The moment that the sun began to light up the street, her blue-green eyes were open and searching around for danger. It took her a few moments to remember what exactly had happened the night before, and she gave a small sigh of relief when she looked to her left and Gwen was still slumped against Major, her breath slowly stirring the air. She turned her eyes back to the street, noticing the few others who were awake. Dusk was sitting up, his dark hazel eyes staring absently down the street, and Lore was holding as still as possible so as not to disturb the girl asleep on her legs. Sin was awake as well, but those were all of the people she knew the names of that were alert, and she lost interest. She leaned forwards and pulled her backpack off, swinging it into her lap and unzipping it. Once it was open, she began to rummage through it. She knew the rough gist of what she had, and the exact numbers of the most important things. Most important things being the food she needed to survive. She grinned when she uncovered a can of mandarin oranges. They were the perfect breakfast, especially sweet for someone who had been eating canned everything for such a long time. She cracked it open, wiping her hands on her pant leg before poking her fingers in carefully. Like that she ate her breakfast, chewing slowly and trying to savor the taste. This was all she would eat until late that night, she had to preserve rations. There was really nothing to do until more people woke up, so Razz let herself zone out and tried to relax, staring out at nothing in particular. It was only about an hour until the majority of the group was awake and moving about, and Razz did her best to ignore them. She was uncomfortable with so many people around and played with the strings on her hoodie as a distraction. It was not long after that Gwen woke up, and she turned to Razz almost immediately. “Morning, sis,” she said happily. “Morning,” Razz said quietly, turning her eyes to Gwen after a moment of hesitation. The slightly taller twin squealed and dove at Razz from her sitting position, wrapping her arms around her. Razz spluttered, trying to restrain a laugh as she wiggled in her twins grip. “Oh cut it out!” she laughed, “I’m alive, alright! Let go!” Gwen cackled, letting Razz go and leaning back onto her palms. “You’re a dork,” she teased her. “Oh I know,” Razz said evenly, “and we share the same genetics so you are too.” Gwen smirked, and then perked up. She hopped onto her feet, holding out a hand. “Come on, let’s go get breakfast!” “I’ve already eaten,” said Razz quizzically, holding out her hand, “What do you mean by ‘go get’? Don’t you carry your own rations?” “Oh god no,” Gwen said with what was mostly a false disgust, still pulling Razz to her feet, “that shit’s heavy! We only carry what we need to, each group is in charge of something else!” “Groups?” “I’ll introduce you in a bit, but I’m starving. Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Razz watched her twin jog away, towards where a small group was gathering. She shrugged slightly and turned her gaze downwards to where Major was sitting. She had been under the impression that he was still asleep, but his eyes were open, and he was fiddling with something in his hands. “What’re you messing with?” she asked, glancing over at him again. “Nothing important,” he said with a small sigh, tucking the item back into a pocket. She decided not to push it and turned away. It was then that she noticed that her ponytail had slipped in the night, and was now a messy bunch that hung at the base of her skull. She reached back and pulled the ponytail off, leaning forwards to collect the hair again. She redid the ponytail with practiced ease, and when she looked up again Gwen was coming over to her with a small group of people following. As though Major could sense her sudden nervousness at the sight of the approaching people, he spoke up. “Just be calm. They’re the other leaders, all harmless.” Razz glanced at him, still uncertain, but she allowed her muscles to relax some, though she was still on high alert. Gwen walked all the way to Razz’s side, though the rest of the group she had brought halted a few feet away from them both. Razz recognized Ray from the night before. It struck her as odd that the timid girl was the leader of something, but she didn’t voice her confusion. “Razz,” Gwen said proudly, “These are the leaders of the different jobs that are used to keep us safe. I want to introduce you to them.” Razz glanced at Gwen but then focused back on the others. “Alright,” she said calmly, “Introduce me then.” “Well, if you’re going to fit in here, you need to know what the groups are and why they’re here. Our little group functions like a clock, with each cog turning to make the main mechanism tick. Each of these groups is a cog, and we need to figure out where you fit. I figured that I would let the leaders explain the basics of their job for you,” Gwen said evenly, with a smile on her face, “So, leaders, who wants to go first?” “Do we get to leave after we’ve spoken,” asked an extremely dull voice from near the back of the group. Gwen took a slow, deep breath, visibly irritated already. “Sure,” she said coolly. “Perfect.” A dark brunette girl shoved her way to the front of the group, tall and slim, with a glare like none other. “My name is Chrysoberyl,” she said with just as much distaste as Gwen had displayed held in her tone, “and I lead the Weapon’s Cache.” Razz did not have a good feeling about her likelihood to enjoy Chrysoberyl’s company. “The Weapon’s Cache is in charge of the deployment, repair, and upkeep of all of the weapons this group has to offer.” Her face was filled with cockiness as if she thought herself better than everyone around her, “and we are not to be trifled with. Thank you for your time.” Razz watched her stalk away and gave a small giggle. “Good heavens,” she said quietly to her twin, “Who uses the phrase ‘trifled with’ anyway?” Gwen snorted and tried to hold back the smirk that was curling onto her lips at her twin’s comment. “Next,” she called out, her voice holding back laughter. A small, stout, angry looking girl was the next to step forwards to the front of the group. “You can call me Dee, and I am the commander of the guards. You can guess what we do from the title.” Razz snorted. “What’re you, like ten?” “I’m thirteen,” Dee responded, without an ounce of humor in her voice, “and I could kick your ass blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. Watch your tone.” Razz didn’t know if she should laugh or be intimidated. Dee seemed to realize this, and she sneered. “You’re gonna learn some shit when you’re in my training session,” she said tonelessly before turning around and walking away. Razz gave a nervous laugh. “Erm… so what’s her deal?” “Nothing to worry about,” Gwen said with a wave of her hand, “Let’s have the next!” Ray timidly moved to the front of the group. “You should already know me,” she said slightly worriedly, “but just in case, my name is Ray. I lead the scouts, we do the nightly watch and run ahead from time to time to inspect the areas we’re going to be moving through so that preparation is at its maximum.” “I remember you,” Razz said with a small smile. Ray returned the gesture with a tentative grin before she turned and scurried away. Razz gave a little giggle and turned to Gwen, but her sister wasn’t paying attention. “Come on, Shay you’re next!” the taller twin called. The short, curly haired girl Razz had seen sleeping on Lore last night seemed to bounce to the front of the group, there was so much spring in her step. “Hi there,” she said with an extremely high pitched, excitable voice, “I’m Shay, and it is so, so, so, so, so good to meet you!” Her voice seemed to just gain speed the longer she spoke. Razz was extremely amused and rendered uncomfortable by the child. “Erm,” she said with a nervous laugh, “Where did you get the coffee?” Shay seemed to completely freeze, her face quizzical. “There’s coffee?” “Uh…” Razz was at a loss. She looked to Gwen for help, and the girl rolled her eyes, waving at Shay. “Let’s finish this, Shay,” she prompted the curly haired teen. “Oh, right!” Shay gasped, completely forgetting Razz’s earlier comment, “I’m the second in command for Major! Lore is my partner, we work together to help them out!” Razz glanced at Gwen and raised an eyebrow in question. Why would that be a second in command? Gwen chuckled and waved Shay away. “Thank you, kiddo! Go see if anyone needs help organizing the patrols for the day,” she said easily. Shay seemed to bound away without a moment of hesitation. Razz turned to the remaining people and perked up immediately. She lifted her hand and waved. Dawn and Dusk, childhood friends of Gwen’s and constant figures in Razz’s life even if she didn’t get along with them too well, waved back in turn. Gwen didn’t have to instruct them to begin. “Welcome back, Razz,” Dusk began, “I’m in charge of-” “Razz! I’m the resident-” “Goddamnit Dawn, I was saying something-” “WERE NOT!” “Was too! Knock your shit off!” “Fuck you!” “Fuck you too!” Their voices were rising in pitch and Razz smirked. “You sound like teenage girls,” she said with a snide tone, and both boys turned to face her with indignant faces. “Do NOT,” they said in unison, both obviously trying to use deeper voices. Razz rolled her eyes as Gwen cackled evilly from behind her. Dusk coughed loudly and nudged Dawn behind him. “Anyway,” he said, trying to regain his composure, “I’m the medic. I do medicine. That’s all.” “Good, now you’re done. Move.” Demanded Dawn shoving his brother out of the way. “I’m the resident culinary artist!” “Resident pack mule is more like it,” grumbled Dusk from the side. Dawn looked wounded. “I am the cook!” He gasped, obviously insulted. “Please,” Dusk said with a roll of his eyes, “all you do is carry the cans and hand them out!” Dawn huffed loudly and looked to Gwen. In a whiney voice, he sought her approval. “Gwen, aren’t I a cook?” Gwen smiled at him and patted his head. “Sure you are,” she said with hidden sarcasm. “SEE?” He shouted at his brother. “She was being patronising,” Dusk pointed out. Gwen deftly grabbed Dusk around his arms and spun him around before he could throw a punch. “Alright!” She shouted, grinning, “that’s everyone! You two get the fuck outta here away from one another and let me and Razz have some peace!” Both boys groaned but after a small hesitation walked in opposite directions. Gwen waited for them to be out of earshot before she turned to Razz again. “Alrighty,” she said calmly, “I think, personally, that you should trial run with the Scouts first!” Razz looked at her with one eyebrow raised before shrugging her shoulders. “If you think so,” she said with indifference, “pretty sure it’s going to be a shit show wherever I go, so it’s your choice.” Gwen grinned and nodded. “Love you, sis!” She said, turning and beginning to jog away, “Stay right there, I’ll be sending a few scouts your way to do their introduction to the job!” A few feet away she paused, turning around. “Just for clarification,” she said pointedly, staring Razz down, “you’re going to spend time with each of the groups unless you find one you really like early on.” Razz was slightly uncomfortable with being left alone, but nodded. “Alright,” she called back, “I’ll be here! Gwen smirked and turned away again, making her way towards the largest body of people. Razz stood by quietly and watched, waiting for her sibling to return. Gwen wasn’t long, and after less than five minutes she broke away from the group, followed by Ray and one other girl that Razz knew the build of. That must be why; if she was a scout then Razz would have seen her during the observation period. At least her silhouette. Razz lifted a hand to say hello to Ray, and the slim girl gave a nervous smile. “Heya, Razz,” Ray greeted her quietly, and Razz nodded to acknowledge the getting. “You know Ray already,” Gwen said, “and this here is Ace. They’re going to take you on your first run. I don’t think that you’re little enough for it, but Ace might teach you the tricks of roof running if you’re doing well enough.” Razz raised an eyebrow at the term ‘roof running’, but Gwen waved her off. “They’ll explain. Ray is in charge, you don’t do anything unless she gives you the ok,” Gwen said firmly, looking at Razz with the glare only a sister can give her sibling. Razz rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, off you get Gwen. We’ll be fine.” “Funny,” Gwen said without an ounce of her composure slipping, “don’t fuck up now, ‘kay?” “‘Kay,” Razz sighed in exasperation, “I get it.” Gwen flashed a smile before she turned and headed away. Razz turned towards Ray expectantly as soon as Gwen was on her way. “So,” she said calmly, “what’s next?” “Basics,” Ray responded, her voice gaining a little strength. “We have to lay a few ground rules out before we can start the run.” “And those are?” “Ace, let’s see if you remember,” Ray suggested, turning her ocean blue eyes to the Albanian girl beside her. “Oh! Alright, I got this!” Ace said energetically, before pausing a moment to think. “Ok, alright,” she repeated after a second, “number one is never to leave the other scouts.” “Correct,” Ray said happily, giving a small smile, “unless ordered by the team leader, you never leave another behind. Getting separated could mean death.” Razz nodded, her gaze switching back to Ace. “Number two is…” she paused again, and then continued, “Never take unnecessary risks.” “Correct!” Ray said, obviously happy that Ace had remembered. She turned to Razz. “Any risk that you take is endangering your entire group.” Razz once again nodded her head, watching Ace again. “And finally-” Ace began, but was interrupted by Ray. “Finally,” Ray said, her voice as stern as she could get, “Never, ever, engage in a situation. You observe and report, you do not ever create or finish one.” That last rule really didn’t bode well with Razz. She was immediately unsure about the job- she knew her own impulsivity and learned to work with it. At the same time, however, she was aware of the fact that she was the newbie here. Questioning the leaders, even just the tertiary ones, would lead to judgments she didn’t want or need. Her desires were mixed when it came to this group; part of her wanted to stay and fit in, to be with her sister, but the other hated the idea of conforming to the masses like was expected here. For now at least, she would wait. She would be silent, and would go along with the rules. Razz dipped her head in understanding. “Alright, Razz,” Ray said with a small smile, “Let’s go then!” Razz forced a smile, and gestured for her to lead the way. The brown haired girl nodded at her and gladly stepped forwards to begin leading them. The shorter Albanian girl took up the rear, and Razz walked between them with as calm a face as she could put on. They walked for what seemed like an hour, but was really more like ten minutes. “This is as far as we explored last time,” Ray said to the two people following her, “and for today we need to go at least five more miles this way. We’ll find a good spot to set up camp, and report back.” “How far do you guys explore everyday anyway?” Razz asked. “About twenty miles usually,” Ray said nonchalantly, “but because you’re newer to this whole thing, I’m not going to push us out that far.” Razz just stared forwards at her. “Where are we going, anyways? How do we know we’re going the right direction?” “Gwen knows where we’re headed,” Ray said with obvious confidence in their leader, “We travel towards the rising sun, to the east.” “But what’s to the east?” asked Razz again, slightly more adamant this time. “I’m not sure,” she said, shrugging, “but Gwen knows.” “You sure do put a lot of faith in what my sister knows,” Razz muttered. “She’s never given us a reason not to trust her,” Ace piped up from the back of the group, and Razz turned to her with a small glare. “Uh huh,” she said in disbelief, “because Gwen is definitely the one that I would be putting my faith in right now.” Both Ray and Ace stared at her with chilly looks. “Let’s move on,” Ray prompted, trying to put a bit more energy in her voice. Razz rolled her eyes and nodded at her, “Lead the way,” she sighed. They walked for awhile in silence, Razz’s eyes trained on the ground. She found the silence both peaceful and unnerving. When things were this quiet when she was on her own, she was always worried about what would come next. On the other hand, however, it was nice to have a break from the constant chatter of young Ace and nervous but gentle Ray. “Razz, remember to keep your eyes up and looking at the surroundings. You want to see everything.” Ace offered her advice from the rear of their trio, and Razz instantly jerked her head up, scanning the surrounding areas. “Don’t just rely on your eyes, either,” Ray said evenly from behind them, their earlier confrontation seemingly forgotten, “your ears are just as good of an indicator of where a threat might be.” “Is that so,” asked Razz dully, obviously unimpressed with the advice. She had been on her own much longer than any of them, there seemed no reason to her that she should require so much mentoring on how to pay attention to her surroundings. She could feel Ace’s eyes boring into her back, but she didn’t give either of the others the satisfaction of looking back at her. “Pick up the pace,” ordered Ray quietly from the front of their little group, “maybe the running will do us all some good.” Well, if good was dry heaving into a rundown payphone booth, then running had certainly done Razz that favor. “Come on, rookie,” Ray called, “It’s only been three miles.”. Both her and Ace were half trying to provide support while also chastising her for this lack of stamina. “Shut up,” Razz rasped from inside the booth, “I never had to run when I was on my own, at least for not this long.” “Then how did you catch up to us?” Ray asked disbelievingly “I,” Razz said indignantly, lifting her head up and pushing herself out of the booth, “never needed to rely upon a giant mass of people for my protection.” Her voice radiated sarcasm as she said, “surprisingly, it’s not that hard for a single, smaller girl to hide from a hoard of the creatures in comparison to an entire massive lumbering group.” She smirked, and added, “On top of that, I could travel at night, unlike the rest of you who need to rest with the entirety of your little protective bubble.” Ray just looked at her, and sighed. “Come on Razz, you’ve had your breather. We haven’t found anything helpful whatsoever, there’s been nothing but empty highway. There’s none of those creatures around either.” “That’s a good sign, right?” Ace piped up from her side. “Not necessarily,” Razz pointed out evenly, taking a deep breath, “because we don’t know where they are. If they don’t attack us now, the odds of us being attacked when we decide to bring the entire group this way rises significantly.” “Hmm?” Ace made a confused noise. Razz sighed. “All I mean is that every second something doesn’t happen the chances of it happening the next second raise bit by bit. It’s simple math really.” Ace didn’t look the most convinced but she nodded her head anyway. It quirked a small smile onto Razz’s face. Gwen used to make faces like that when she was in math. It seems that both her and Ace had a similar distaste for the subject. “Come on then,” Razz prompted, “you guys think we should keep going, so let’s keep going.” They set off again in relative silence, though it was obvious that the small show of positive emotion from Razz had eased the other’s misgivings about her. It was just over forty-five minutes of walking later when they came across the first gas station outside of town. Their particular interstate highway had exits every 5-15 miles, meaning that if they timed it right they could travel the same amount they aimed to travel each day (ten or so miles), and come across a place to sleep. “Alright,” Ray said as they came up to the station, “We should check it over and then head back. We’ll eat dinner once we’re back with the group!” Razz nodded at her, as did Ace, and they advanced on the gas station. The old store was slumped to the side, as if a particularly strong gust of wind had caused it to lean. It had shingles falling off of it, and was cracked in a few places, obviously unstable. There was no gasoline anywhere, the ground was scorched everywhere around the place the tanks had once stood. “W-what happened here?” asked Ace in confusion. “Gasoline is highly flammable,” Razz said mildly, looking at the place where her family had fueled up their car so many times. Her face was unreadable and she sighed, stretching out her arm with a small yawn. She was just lowering the outstretched limb when she heard a strange growl from behind them. It wasn’t an animal, but wasn’t quite human either. “Aww, shit,” she said mildly, whipping around as her arm dropped to her belt. She had her machete in its holster there, and within a second she had her hand on the handle. She was facing a few more of the creatures than she’d anticipated. It seemed like there was five or more, rather than the one or two she had been expecting. “Alright, Razz,” she murmured to herself, holding her machete so that it was across her chest and pulling out her tomahawk in a hurried fashion, “you’ve done this before, you’ve fought off more than this.” “Run Razz, run!” She couldn’t tell which one had screamed that, but it struck her with a small bit of irritation. Regardless, she turned, weapons still in hand, and took off sprinting. Ray was hopping and waving for her to follow not far away, and Ace was right next to her, eyes wide with terror. “Ace,” shouted Ray as Razz neared them, “you take to the roof as soon as we’re in range, if we’re still being followed. Alert the group!” Razz gestured at them to run, and both turned and began following her lead, the adrenaline pumping through their veins driving them as a much faster pace than she had expected to be able to maintain. By the time they reached the edge of the town, they had very much lost the creatures, and Razz nearly keeled over as she crouched next to a building to vomit up what was left of her breakfast. She finally was able to sit back, and sort of collapsed onto her back, breathing shallow and her eyes closed. Ray and Ace weren’t much better off, though neither one vomited. They were leaning against the walls, panting, sweat beading their skin. “God…. damn it,” Razz groaned from the asphalt, “that was absolute bullshit you know.” “Welcome… to this job…” Ray said between deep breaths, “Run for your life, remember?” “Bullshit,” Razz repeated breathily, keeping her eyes closed, “it’s bullshit.” It seemed as though the entire group of them came to the conclusion that shutting up would be the safest way to go, and so that they did. They stood after ten minutes of breathing, thoroughly exhausted, and began to make their way back to their group at a slow amble. They were spotted by a skinny boy stood up on one of the roofs, and he shouted down to the group. “Scouts incoming!” Ray lifted a hand to show that they were all still ok, and they walked into the camp to give a report. Gwen and Major looked up in near unison, the former grinning over at her twin. “Hey, Razz!” she called, her smile broadening, “How’d it go? D’ya like being a scout?” Razz shot her a look that very clearly said that they would talk about it later as the scouting group sidled up to the leaders. “There’s a gas station about 10 miles down the road,” Ray reported to the leaders, mainly addressing Gwen, “with minimal interference from the creatures until the station itself. We ran into a hoard of them there, between 5 and 15.” “That’s a rather large range, Ray,” said Gwen with a minor bit of disappointment, though she didn’t hold any judgement in her tone. “8.” “What was that Razz?” asked Major, the only one to catch her muttered statement. “8,” Razz said speaking louder this time, “There were eight.” “And how did you come across that number?” he asked. Ray looked a little miffed that Razz had caught the exact number and she hadn’t. “It was because,” she said, a little jealously, “she did not listen to the most important rule of being a scout and nearly engaged.” “Well no shit I almost engaged,” Razz snapped irritably, “there were only eight, I’ve taken on 12 at a time. You’re the ones who came up with the stupid ‘don’t engage’ rules, not me!” “Hey, hey!” shouted Gwen, stepping in between them, “Knock it off!” Razz locked her jaw, glaring down at the ground. “Gwen, go talk to Ace and Ray over there,” Major said evenly, his voice gentler than hers, “I’ll talk with Razz.” “Why, because I’ll not tell the truth to my own sister?” snapped Razz sarcastically, turning her icy gaze onto the much taller boy. “No,” he said calmly, “Because I think that you’ll be better off with a calmer person than you will with your little flame of a twin right now.” Razz glared, but didn’t continue to argue. They waited until Gwen had led Ray and Ace out of earshot before speaking again. “Let’s go get you some food,” Major suggested, not looking at Razz. She glowered back. “What makes you think that I want anything to do with the food you serve me?” “Suit yourself, Spitfire,” he said with a tiny bit of amusement, “but we need to talk at least a bit so that Gwen doesn’t fry me later on.” As much as she didn’t want to, the term Spitfire was one of Razz’s favorites, and she liked as a nickname. “I have my own food,” she muttered, refusing to show her small bit of appreciation of the name, “you can have some of that.” Major nodded at her, and she turned away, walking over to the place where she had slept. She irritably pulled open her food bag, and hucked a can of soup at Major over her shoulder, before pulling another can out for herself. “So,” she said coolly, turning to face him, “Let’s talk.”

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xiakha · 8 years ago

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An Act of Omission (2092)

Kei leaned against the wall by the stairwell in what she assumed was a ne’er-do-well fashion. She scrolled through the apps in her device with a cool indifference like the devil-may-care delinquent she was. Never mind the way her heart was syncopating, she was cool and composed and perfectly fine with breaking rules like this. She paused mid-flick as the clattering of a run stopped short echoed from around the corner. With a bit of a loping walk, another miscreant tried his best to casually drift into view. She looked up from the device with her best coolly skeptical look. "Lochmann." "Keiretsu."

There was a moment as both of them tried to look as serious as their greetings had been before their expressions split into giddy grins.

"Sorry, did you wait long?" Loch bent an arm by his side and offered his elbow. He was trying hard not to look like he had just run up a few flights of stairs, his breath forcibly light and his face a bit more flushed than he cared to admit. Kei reached out and accepted the proffered elbow. "Only a bit. It's not like a gentleman to keep a lady waiting." "You're quite right. Now where are we headed?" As they turned the corner to the landing of the stairwell, out of line of sight of any cameras, Loch dropped his arm and found Kei's waist and Kei turned to put a hand on Loch's neck.

After an extended muffled moment, they broke off. "Well, it's dinner time." Kei leaned forward a bit to touch foreheads, enjoying the feeling of Loch's thumb stroking her chin and lip. "Yes it is. Why are we meeting out here?" Loch said, his breath ticklish on Kei's face. "Oh, I just thought I'd meet up with you half way." "Doesn’t Student Council meet on the first floor?” "We do." "And you know Debate Club meets on the second floor." "I know." Loch looked across the stairwell at the bilingual sign for the fifth floor and studied its duality carefully. Kei reached her other hand around Loch's neck, interlocking her fingers, "And yes, I know the cafeteria's on the ground floor.” "So it's going to be like that."

"Perhaps it—mmph!" Kei let go of Loch as her back was pushed into the wall. She reached under Loch's arms back up to his shoulders and braced herself close. Her feet just barely left the ground.

A few more moments passed in quietly aching contemplation.

"Somewhat risky isn't it, out here?" The tension in Loch's voice vibrated like a string. As did his hands, but that was more from exertion than nervous urgency. "Fairly deserted with no classes in session. The teachers should be done for tonight too." Loch considered his positioning in the stairwell. If anyone decided to mount the stairs, his back would be exposed to them, and in a few minutes, maybe more than just his back. So with painful deliberation, he disengaged. He wiped his hand slightly on his pant leg and pulled out his key chain from his trouser pocket. "Let's play a bit safer." Kei breathed out slowly, coming back down to earth. She redid some buttons and smoothed her skirt out. Loch was right. Stairwell was probably just asking for trouble. No bones about it. She looked at the jangling keys, “So that’s what was pressing into my leg?” ”Maybe. Maybe something else.” "Oh, and here I thought you were just happy to see me.” He extended his hand, "Let me show you just how happy I am to see you."

The two speed-walked as casually as they could under the cameras. The classrooms were all locked now, but if you were a prefect, you could request a key after hours to unlock a door. That key was closely monitored and had to be signed in and out, which was a big hassle. So Loch made a copy of it and Kei figured out where all the blind spots in the CCTV network were. It just so happened that the sophomore science classrooms on the fifth floor were so old they were basically off the grid with only one camera in the wing.

And so, with the physical manifestation of his deeds in his hand, the son of a candidate for Prime Minister of RHK turned to the daughter of the CEO and heir of the largest Japanese biotech company. "Last chance." Kei looked up from the door knob that Loch had his hand on. "Last chance?" "We could go back up to your room, y'know?" Loch didn't say he wanted to avoid very publicly violating several co-educational guidelines in one of the most prestigious schools in the greater Guangdong area. They could do it in private instead. “But we’d have to walk all the way up!” “Well, if you think this is worth it…” Kei popped up on her tiptoes and dropped her voice in Loch's ear, "You chickening out on me, Lochmann?" She punctuated her intent with the tip of her tongue on his inner auricle.

Loch's qualms were pushed aside like the door before them.

After a few attempts, the door behind them locked shut. "So, how was club?" "You would have—liked it. We were debating—human cloning." Their conversation went on in odd, breathless bursts, like they were preoccupied with something strenuous. "Mmm. I do—love my b-bioethics." "Yeah, I was—thinking of you—the entire time." Loch paused to picked up their blazers from the ground and set them neatly on a nearby desk, eliciting a small laugh and a light push from Kei. "How was student—student council?" "Eh, same old. Class Repre—representative duty hasn't much changed—eep!" The desk they were leaning against scraped against the ground as Loch pushed Kei onto it. There was the twang and snap of roughly pulled elastic and fabric ejecting itself across the room. "Go on."

Kei looked down at the top of Loch's head, "Are you serious Johnny." Loch peered back up, planted a wet kiss on Kei's skin, and licked his lips, "I'll be fine down here. You were saying?" "Oh my god I don't belie—" She was quickly convinced, "Okay. Well. The budget for—for the junior class field trip was recently approved!" The lilt in Kei's voice shot up a few octaves and decibels as she clamped her hands in Loch's hair to steady herself. "I'm sure they'll be quite happy with that." "Thrilled! I-I'm sure! But that's—that's b-basically the only! Thing that we got d-done today!" "Bureaucracy was that bad today?" "Yeah, arguing back and forth, even—even with that sort of p-polite tone! Is—is the sort of thing that j-just ties me into knots!" It was a blessing that Loch could so dexterously untangle her like this. "The sophomores were being—being rather stupid, ohgod, today. But I can't—can't seem to remember why!" Kei drew a shuddering breath as Loch paused slightly to wipe his mouth, his breath hot and heavy and so close, "It'll come to you." "Oh god Johnny please. ...OhgodJohnnypleasepleasepleaserightthereright--"

After a few moments of released yet suppressed agony, Kei retrieved her breath from where it had become caught and released her death grip from Loch's head. She brushed her hair dramatically out of her face to better frame her goofy half smile, "This is going to put awkward wrinkles into my skirt." "We should have dealt with that before, huh?" Loch stood up, his smile half smug and half giddy. Kei stood up as well, shakily support herself first on the desk, and then on Loch. "Your turn."

"But Sammie I—" His protestations abruptly cut off as he became a bit tongue tied. There was the sound of jingling and zipping before something plopped to the ground unceremoniously. Kei pushed Loch gently back into a chair from where they were standing and then leaned forward onto her knees. "Tell me about the debate." "Turnabout's fair play, I gue—" Loch drew breath sharply. For a few moments, Loch was too distracted to find the words. Then, with subtle prompting from Kei, he continued, "W-well, ah, it was about human cloning, right?" "Mhm." "My side was assigned pro, and, ah, the t-topic went over to the—to the use of non-sentient clones." Kei paused slightly to tuck some wayward hair behind her ear, "The classic organ growing debate?" "F-funny. Well, es-especially now that your mother's company, ah, disclosed that their hyper—hypercompatible antirejection organs originate fr-from non-sentient clones, the discussion has, mph, has swelled with new blood, s-so to speak." "Mmmm." Loch cupped his hands on the sides of Kei's head, slowing her movement, "C-careful. An-anyway, the con side had—had their work cut out f-for them, but Al-Alexandria was able to press—to press forward with the question of wh-where the non-sentient clones, ah, come from, ne-never mind the good they—they currently do—Oh god, Sammy." There was a slightly wet popping sound, "Yes?" "You're about to get the better of me." Kei giggled at the turn of phrase and stuck her tongue out at Loch, "Yes and?" "W-Well, we still need to make it to dinner." "So lemme get busy then." "I mean, can we skip ahead?" Kei pouted and tapped her chin with something that was not quite her fingers, "But you already ate and I haven't had my fill yet." "...Right but if we do this and then wait around until I'm ready for the, uh, 'main course,' we'll surely miss actual dinner and go hungry. Mostly hungry." He got off the chair and pulled a small square from his discarded pants and helped Kei to her feet. After a kiss, Kei took the square and ripped it open with her teeth. "All right, then, will you fill up me in a different way?"

They did away with a few other frivolous details, like a certain wrinkled skirt, and Loch gently eased Kei back on that desk. As he made some last minute adjustments after Kei's somewhat slipshod sheathing, Kei folded up her legs, kicking slightly, teasingly. Loch wrapped a hand around her thigh, finding the nook behind her knee, "You present quite a persuasive argument." "Pssh, do you want me to guide you through it?" "Well, spread out like this in front of me, it should be easy to understand. But a little help wouldn't hurt." The desk creaked in a way that it probably was not designed to do. And then it did so again. Repeatedly. For a while, whatever conversation they had was made primarily in scattered, nigh inaudible pressing whispers made when their mouths weren't preoccupied with other matters. Then, as such things happen, Kei did her best not to scream as she did her best to crush Loch in the embrace her arms and legs made around him. And well, faced with that kind of tightness, Loch was about as tenacious and persevering as any man, who had previously been forced so close to the edge already, could hope to be.

As they came back down, Kei broke off the kisses to laugh, "I remember now!" "Hm?” "What the sophomores were complaining about!" "Oh, what about?” "Improper use of sophomore classrooms!"

As they finished putting the classroom, and their wardrobes, back together, Kei held Loch close as the buzzing in her head finally subsided. "So what was the resolution of your debate?" "Barely scraped by with a win, 3-2. In no small part helped by the notes you were able to procure from your mother. Next meeting we'll be talking more bioethics, but I'll be judging." "Oh, that reminds me, is your father still free to meet with the student council next week?" "Yeah, and he's usually good with these kinds of commitments. He loves teaching kids.” They parted, with a final kiss, to mask the nature of their delinquent activity. Loch had to discreetly dispose of evidence, and Kei needed access to a mirror. But for a few moments they held hands, fingers intertwined.

"Sammie just entered, south-side.” "Funny, because Johnny just entered from the east." Az squinted, "Oh my god he's got his sheepish I-just-fucked swagger on." Eri did a little fist pump at waist level, "And Sammie's practically glowing. I totally called it." "They could have been studying!" "Yeah because studying totally makes you glow and walk funny. Pay up." As the two miscreants met up again in an almost naturally unexpected kind of way, Az transferred money to Eri's account.

#story #Academy #Loch #Kei #Az #Eri #nsfw?#ish #Stands Still Universe

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queenbrandi-hernandez · 5 years ago

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✎ + chico, ☯ + branson, ♬ + melody/brandon, ∞ + matson, ☂ + jer/lilac

this is long as hell, so...

chico + an unsent letter from my muse

My dearest Charlie,

It has been four months since I have left for the army, and life has definitely changed. They made me cut me cut my hair short, and I am never doing that again. I’m missing you more and more each day. I can’t help to think that letting you go was a mistake. The guys here all talk about their girlfriends and their wives and all I can think about is you and how wonderful it would be to be able to run into your arms after all this is done. I’m afraid then I’m going to come back still completely in love with you and that you’ll have moved on to bigger and better things. I can’t bear the idea of you and me and our friends not being together because I was stupid enough to run away again. But I still believe that you’re going to do great things, and if I were with you, I may have just held you back. You’re going to change the world, Supergirl.

All my love,

Nico

branson + here, have a hug from my muse

mason inviting brandi to go on tour with him was, of course, a lifetime opportunity, and she loved seeing mason do what he had worked so hard to do, even if she did feel slightly like a groupie. after the first few nights, they were able to get into a routine- she would be waiting backstage with water and a granola bar so that he could get something in his system before his encore. while he performed his encore, she would make sure all of their bags were packed and ready to go so that he could get changed and they could get dinner as soon after the show as possible. but she never hugged him right after a show. “you’re so sweaty and gross,” she would say. “i need you to shower and exfoliate before you get near me.” his first arena show? no hug until later. his first televised performance? no hug until later. it was their own little tradition. but at mason’s last show of his first-ever tour, she wasn’t able to hold it in. mason, her absolute goofball of a best friend, got everything he ever dreamed of. so when he came offstage before the encore, she immediately ran and wrapped her arms around him in one of the biggest hugs she had ever given. . “i am so proud of you,” she said excitedly, looking up at him. “you really are the greatest artist i’ve ever met. now go give them an encore for the ages. drinks are on you tonight, rockstar.” Brandi quickly gave him a kiss on his sweaty cheek before handing him his water and granola bar.

melody/brandon + would you care to dance? my muse has to dance with yours

brandon's parents were hosting some fundraising gala, which meant that the whole family had to go. it wasn’t his normal scene- everybody was wearing a tux or an evening dress. and to make things worse? his parents had specifically asked them to do more participating and less hiding. so that’s how he had ended up asking melody, his go-to plus one, to dance with him. “i know, we usually spend these things making fun of people, but i’m doing this for my parents,” he close to begged, holding out his hand. as soon as they got to the dance floor, however, a slow song started. cautiously, he placed his hands on her waist, keeping a good distance away from her and hoping to every god out there that she couldn’t hear how fast his heart was beating. as the song progressed, they slowly moved closer and closer, until they were pressed together, her forehead on his. he was acutely aware of her fingers playing with the hair on the back of his neck, and the way that she looked at him with something unrecognizable in her eyes. that’s when it hit him that he wouldn’t mind doing this for another dance or two.

matson + a multiple random headcanons about my muse and yours

-> Whenever mason is on tour in the UK, instead of staying in a hotel, he stays with matty and lilac. they keep a room just for him (+ his kids once they got old enough to travel without mason) -> There’s a conspiracy theory among some of Mason’s fans that matson used to secretly be boyfriends and they were forced to hide it -> his slowly evolved into “mason/avery/lilac/matty were all in one big poly relationship” -> When matty and lilac moved to the u.s. permanently, mason was the one to help them find a house. strangely enough, he was able to find one exactly a block and a half away -> Matty takes his uncle role very seriously and was at every single one of mason’s kids’ events. once or twice, he’s gone to their parent/teacher conferences when mason and/or avery couldn’t make it -> Matty is also listed as an emergency contact for mason’s kids at their school, which means he’s signed them out of classes so they could have a day together -> When Matty and Lilac redid their wedding ceremony, not only was Mason the best man, they also asked Mason if he would sing for their first dance

jer/lilac + it’s pouring down and your muse forgot their umbrella

Seeing as it, on average, rained 250 days out of the year in Scotland, Lilac was always prepared for rain whenever it came. so when Jeremiah showed up at their normal meeting spot in Central Park soaking wet, it was hard for her not to laugh. “Come here, you loon. You can use my brolly, I’m used to the rain.” At the phrase ‘brolly’, Jeremiah started to laugh and Lilac raised an eyebrow, trying to hide her own smile. While Matthew’s accent had slightly faded over time, Lilac’s Scottish accent was still strong, and she still used Scottish slang, which was amusing for all of her friends. “Shut up,” she joked, putting away her umbrella. “Or I’ll take it back and we both can have soaked trousers. That’s up to you, Dr. Jeremiah.” So they walked together, both getting completely wet and cold, but laughing and splashing through the puddles.

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airoasis · 6 years ago

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Power Foods for the Brain | Neal Barnard | TEDxBismarck

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Power Foods for the Brain | Neal Barnard | TEDxBismarck

Translator: Peter van de Ven Reviewer: Denise RQ thanks for joining me. On February, 8, 2012, my father passed away. In truth that was once the day his coronary heart stopped beating. For all intents and purposes, my father had died years earlier. It started with reminiscence lapses, and as time went on, his reminiscence failed increasingly, and it got to the factor where he failed to understand his possess children who came in to see him. His personality modified, and his capacity to care for himself was completely long past. And… For those who could make a record of the entire things that might ever occur to you, the very last factor to your list, on the very bottom of the list, the item you want the least is Alzheimer’s sickness, when you consider that when you lose your reminiscence, you lose everything.You lose everyone who ever mattered to you. Should you might seem into the brain of a person who has this ailment, what you see is, between the mind cells are these exclusive watching buildings. Beta-amyloid protein comes out of the cells, and it accumulates in these little meatball-like constructions which are in front of you, on a microscopic slide. They will not be there, and they’re a trademark of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease impacts about half of american citizens through their mid 80s. You could say to your health care provider, "ok, I do not need that. What can i do to discontinue that?" Your physician will say, "well, its ancient age and it’s genetics." there is a gene – it is called the APOE-4 allele. If in case you have this gene from one parent, your chance is tripled; when you obtained it from both mum and dad, your threat is 10 to 15 times larger than it was before.What’s the reply? Get new dad and mom? No, i don’t feel so. That is no longer it. So, i am sorry: it is historical age, it is genes, period, that is it; there’s not a darn thing you can do simply look ahead to it to happen. Or perhaps now not. In Chicago, researchers began whatever known as the Chicago wellness and growing older project. What they did used to be they checked out what persons in Chicago were eating. They did very cautious dietary records in countless numbers and countless numbers of folks, after which they started to peer who, because the years go by way of, stayed mentally clear, and who developed dementia. The very first thing they keyed in on used to be some thing that I knew about as a child growing up in Fargo, North Dakota – My mother had 5 kids, we’d run all the way down to the kitchen to the smell of Sir Francis Bacon. My mother would take a fork, and she or he’d stick it into the frying pan and pull the sizzling 1st Baron Verulam strips out and put them on a paper towel to chill down, and when all of the publisher 1st baron verulam used to be out of the pan, she would cautiously raise up that scorching pan and pour the grease right into a jar to save it – that is just right Beaverbrook grease, you do not need to lose that! My mom would take that jar, and she or he would put it no longer in the refrigerator however she’d put it on the shelf, for the reason that my mom knew that as publisher 1st baron verulam grease cools down, what occurs to it? It solidifies.And the truth that it is strong at room temperature is a sign that Viscount St. Albans grease is loaded with saturated fat, bad fats. Now we have recognized for a long time that that raises ldl cholesterol, and there is quite a few in Francis Bacon grease. And incidentally, day after today, she’d spoon it back into the frying pan and fry eggs in it; it is amazing any of her youngsters lived to maturity. That’s the way we lived. The number one source of saturated fats is genuinely now not 1st Baron Beaverbrook, it can be dairy products, cheese, and milk, and so on; and meat is number two. In Chicago, some persons ate slightly little saturated fats, round 13 grams a day, and others ate about twice that much, and the researchers just looked at who developed Alzheimer’s disorder. And am i able to exhibit you the figures? Here’s the low group, and there’s the excessive staff. In other words, in case you are warding off the bad fat, your chance used to be pretty low, however in the event you have been tucking into the cheese and the Baron Verulam strips, your hazard was once two, three, or more-fold higher, Then they appeared now not simply at saturated fat, they seemed on the fats that is in doughnuts and pastries; what that is, that’s trans fats you can see on the labels.They located the very same sample in there, too. So, the people who tended to hinder the saturated fat and the trans fats, desired to avoid them for cholesterol and coronary heart disorder motives, but additionally they look to influence the mind. Then researchers in Finland said, "Wait a minute, let’s go extra." there’s a situation we call slight cognitive impairment. You’re still yourself – you’re managing your checkbook, you’re using, your friends are aware of it’s you – however you are having mental lapses, mainly for names and for words. They introduced in over 1,000 adults, they were 50 years old, they usually checked out their diets. Then, as time went on, they regarded to peer who developed mild cognitive impairment. A few of these persons ate reasonably little fats, some men and women ate a reasonable amount, and then they checked out whose reminiscence started to fail. They determined precisely the equal pattern. In different phrases, it is not simply, "Will I get Alzheimer’s ailment?" however, "Will I simply have historic age memory problems?" good, what about that gene, that APOE-4 allele the person who condemns you to Alzheimer’s sickness? Well, they then redid the be taught, they usually focused most effective on those humans, and some of these individuals ate relatively little fats, some folks ate extra, and– …Precisely the same.In different words, if you are keeping off the unhealthy fat, even though you have got the gene, your threat of developing memory issues was once cut by using eighty%. And that is my foremost point: genes are usually not fate. Let’s take an additional look in these plaques. We know there is beta amyloid protein, however there may be additionally iron and copper. Metals in my brain? That’s correct, there are metals in meals, and they get into the mind. Now feel about this: i’ve a solid-iron pan, and we had a outdoor barbecue, and every week later, I bear in mind, "Oh… I left my frying pan on the picnic table, and it rained last week." What happened to my pan? It rusted, and that rust is oxidation. Otherwise you take a bright new penny, and does it keep bright perpetually? No, it oxidizes too.Good, iron and copper oxidize to your body, and as they try this, they motive the production of what are referred to as free radicals. You have got heard of free radicals: free radicals are molecules which can be swimming around in your bloodstream, and they get into the brain, they usually act like sparks that seam by way of the connections between one phone and the following. So, how is this going down? The place am I getting all this iron? Where am I getting all this copper? How can that be? How many people have a cast-iron pan? Let me see arms. If that’s your once a month pan, i will say, "Who cares?" but when it’s each day, you are getting the iron into your food, and it can be extra iron than your body wants. Or copper pipes.Who has copper pipes? That water sits within the copper pipes all night time lengthy, and within the morning it goes into the espresso maker, and you’re drinking that copper, you get greater than you want, and it starts producing these free radicals that go to the mind. If you are a meat eater, of particularly liver, there may be iron and copper in those foods too. And we used to consider, "isn’t that excellent?" unless we realized iron is a double-edged sword. You want a little bit, however when you have too much, it turns into poisonous. Nutrients. Nutrition producers put in vitamin A, and the B nutrition, and diet C, and vitamin D. After which they throw in iron and copper, thinking, "well, you want these," now not recognizing you’re already getting ample in foods, and if they add it to your supplement, you are getting an excessive amount of. Ok, so what am I announcing? What i am announcing is with the exception of the fact that the saturated fats and the trans fats will broaden our danger, these metals will, too, and they’re causing sparks to type within the brain, free radicals to kind that seam by way of the connections.And if that is the case, then I want a hearth extinguisher. And we have one, and it can be called nutrition E. Diet E is in spinach, and it’s in mangoes, and it’s particularly in nuts and seeds. And in Chicago, some folks eat a bit of bit of it, and some folks devour various it, and the fantastic thing about that is vitamin E is an antioxidant: it knocks out free radicals. So, if what i’m announcing is right, then the persons in Chicago who ate best a little bit little bit of nutrition E could be at much bigger danger than persons who ate so much, and that is precisely what the research showed. Folks getting eight milligrams a day of vitamin E reduce their hazard of Alzheimer’s through about half of compared to folks getting less than that. Hmm, adequate, how do I get that? It is very, very convenient: run to the store and just purchase a bottle of vitamin E pills. No, i don’t suppose so, and here is why not.Nature has eight forms of vitamin E. It is constructed into nuts and into seeds, but when I put it into my supplement pill, i will legally name it vitamin E if it has only one form. And if you’re eating too much of 1 type of diet E, it reduces your absorption of all of the others. So, you want to get it from meals; that’s the shape that nature has designed for us, and that’s the form that we have now advanced with. We can go a step additional. Oh, by the way, I forgot to inform you. How much must i’ve? If I put some nuts or seeds into the palm of my hand, by the time it hits your fingers, that is just one ounce, and that’s about five milligrams of diet E, proper there. The trick is: do not consume it; considering that for those who do, you recognize what occurs. In case you have those diced salty almonds, and you may have eaten them: you fill your hand once more, and then you definitely consume it once more. There may be something about salty cashews and almonds, is it just me? There is something about them, they may be a bit of bit addicting by hook or by crook.So, don’t do this, that is going to be way more than you want. The reply is pour them into your hand, after which disintegrate them up, and put them to your salad, or put them in your oatmeal, or for your pancakes, or anything. Use them as a flavoring not as a snack meals, then you are going to be good enough. All right, researchers at the college of Cincinnati went one step extra. Not just saturated fats, now not simply trans fats, now not just vitamin E, however they said, "What about colour?" seem at blueberries and grapes: that colour that they’ve is dramatic. And the colors of blueberries are not just there to make them pretty, these are referred to as anthocyanins. They introduced in a bunch of members into a study be trained: natural age: seventy eight, and everyone was already having reminiscence issues. And what they asked them to do used to be to have grape juice, a pint a day. A cup in the morning, a cup at night. Three months later, they established all people, and their reminiscence was higher, and their don’t forget was higher.Three months? That sounds too convenient. How can that be? Good, suppose about it: a grape has a hard life. A grape has to sit on the vine, all day lengthy below the sun, and exposed to the elements, and it has no security. Or does it? That red colour, these anthocyanins happen to be strong antioxidants, identical to diet E, but they may be the grape type, and in case you consume them, they go into your bloodstream. And if that is genuine, it does not need to be grapes, it would be some thing that has that colour. Like blueberries. So, again into the laboratory: a brand new group of sufferers, they came in, all of them had memory problems. And three months on blueberry juice, Their reminiscence was better, their recollect was once better. Now, the moral of the story is not to have grapes and blueberries, and blueberry juice, and grape juice. No, the answer is colour. If you happen to appear on the colorful meals, there’s an major lesson there for us. You stroll into the grocery retailer, and from 100 toes away, watching at the produce division, which you could recognize beta-carotene, lycopene, anthocyanins.Your retina can discover them in view that that’s the orange colour of a carrot, or the crimson color of a tomato, or the red color of a grape. And the brain additionally tells you they’re pretty, they’re appealing, that you would be able to admire antioxidants, you are drawn to them. So, back in 2009, my organization, the Physicians Committee for responsible treatment, went to the department of Agriculture. We said, "that is major. Let’s throw out the pyramid." The pyramid was once a nice form, nevertheless it had a meat group, and it had a dairy group, besides the fact that children that people who do not consume meat or dairy products happened to be healthier than individuals who consume them. And also, who eats off a pyramid anyway? We devour off a plate. So, we devised a plate that mentioned fruits, and grains, and legumes – that’s the bean staff – and greens, these will have to be the staples.Good, we gave this to the USDA in 2009, and we failed to hear back from them. So, in 2011, we sued the federal government, the Physicians Committee filed a lawsuit against the USDA, without difficulty to compel response. And did you see what the U.S. Government came out with in 2011? I am now not taking any credit score for this, however that is now US government policy, it’s known as MyPlate, and it does seem by some means just like what we might despatched them a few years previous. Fruits, and grains, and veggies, and they’ve this factor referred to as ‘the protein staff.’ The protein workforce might be meat, nevertheless it might be beans, or tofu, or nuts, or whatever that is excessive in protein, it does not have to be meat.Correctly, there is no meat workforce anymore in federal recommendations. There is a dairy group there, but to their credit, soy milk counts. So, matters are making improvements to. Thus far, what we have talked about is getting far from the saturated fat, that’s in cheese, and 1st baron beaverbrook, and meats; getting far from the trans fat and snack meals; you’re having the vitamin E and the colorful foods; and there is one more step. It’s no longer all food, there is something to claim about recreation. At the tuition of Illinois, researchers introduced in a massive team of adults, one hundred twenty of them, and they stated, a brisk stroll, three times a week. After a 12 months, everyone went into the laboratory for a brain scan. They measured the hippocampus which is on the core of the brain, and it’s the seat of reminiscence: it decides what must be let by means of into reminiscence, and what must now not be let by way of.It grew to become out that this organ, which is progressively shrinking in older adults, out of the blue, stopped shrinking. The exercisers discovered that their hippocampus was a bit bit higher, and slightly bit larger, and a bit of bit higher, it was once as if time was going backwards: It reversed mind shrinkage, and on reminiscence assessments, they did radically better. So, I’ve devised my possess exercise plan.I might wish to present it to you, I do that 3 times every week. Arrive at the airport as late as feasible, lift massively heavy baggage, and just run for the aircraft. (Laughter) on the college of Illinois that they had their own recommendations, and their notion was a little less complicated. Do a ten-minute walk, and do it thrice per week. After which, next week, let’s do a 15-minute stroll, and the week after that, 20. All they did used to be add five minutes a week until they bought to forty minutes. And a forty-minute brisk walk – this isn’t a trudge, however it’s a excellent brisk walk – forty minutes, 3 times a week is all you have got to beef up reminiscence and reverse brain shrinkage. Very simple. What i would care to do is to return in time, and i want to sit down down with my dad, and that i wish to say, "Dad, I found out some thing rather principal. We can alternate our weight-reduction plan, we don’t particularly need that cheese and that William Maxwell Aitken.There is plenty of healthful matters that we can eat. Let’s convey within the colorful greens and fruits, let’s make them part of our day-to-day reasonable. Let’s lace up our sneakers, let’s exercise together." it’s too late for him. Nevertheless it’s now not too late for you. It’s not too late for me both, and if we take skills of what we have now learned about how we can look after our mind, then possibly, households will probably be equipped to remain collectively a bit bit longer. Thanks very a lot. .

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batterymonster2021 · 6 years ago

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Power Foods for the Brain | Neal Barnard | TEDxBismarck

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/power-foods-for-the-brain-neal-barnard-tedxbismarck-3/

Power Foods for the Brain | Neal Barnard | TEDxBismarck

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fitnesswomenshealth-blog · 6 years ago

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Parent's horror as Brandon, 3, suffers serious injuries after falling into bath

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Parent's horror as Brandon, 3, suffers serious injuries after falling into bath

It is a surprising situation which proves boiling water can lead to accidents as devastating as a fire.

Brandon was a few a long time previous when he fell into a bathtub of very hot h2o which still left him in healthcare facility for 6 weeks.

It was Christmas Eve in 2014 and there was lots of pleasure in the Bromby house.

But it all went horribly completely wrong late afternoon and it all took place in a split 2nd.

Brandon entered the rest room and times later fell into a tub of scorching drinking water entirely clothed.

His sister, then 12, managed to pull him out promptly but the destruction experienced presently been accomplished.

Brandon Bromby fell into a bathtub of scorching h2o when he was three and invested 6 months in medical center

Mum Sam, of east Hull, nevertheless will get psychological as she recounts what took place.

“He fell in and I straight away took off his clothes,” she said. “Brandon did not scream at all mainly because he was in shock.

“When I took his clothes off it was just horrible. The skin was slipping off his hand.

“We known as an ambulance and he was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary but, just about immediately, he was transferred to Pinderfields.”

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Pieces Sam remembers vividly but some of it was a blur.

“I recall exactly when it happened,” she stated, “but I was in entire shock. It was quite scary and we had been at Pinderfields in advance of we realized it.

“I didn’t realise scorching water could do as a great deal destruction as any fireplace.”

It was a tricky juggling act for Sam and husband, Steve.

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“We have 4 other children who were being all impacted,” Sam said. “We could not spend time alongside one another as a family.

“My oldest daughter was dwelling with her boyfriend and took the other kids in though we ended up in Pinderfields. They didn’t have much of a Xmas.

“The hospital was excellent and let me get a taxi about a week right after it transpired so I could commit some time at Xmas with my other kids.”

Brandon Bromby fell into a tub of incredibly hot h2o when he was three and expended 6 months in medical center

Brandon remained in healthcare facility for 6 months but even when he was produced there was however a prolonged highway of restoration in advance.

“He experienced different operations and needed skin grafts,” Sam stated. “Even immediately after he still left medical center he required product putting on each individual working day, wore strain clothes and experienced splinters on his arms.

“It also impacted equally his toes so he could not stroll for a extended time so he experienced to find out to do it again with plenty of physio.

“The skin will extend as he gets older so Brandon is almost certainly going to want a further skin graft when he is older.

“He will be scarred for existence and the burns included 24 per cent of his system.”

Brandon Bromby has bounced back following slipping into a tub of incredibly hot water when he was 3 and spent 6 weeks in hospital

What assisted Brandon and many other little ones was Pinderfields Burn’s Club which was recognized to enable children facial area the troubles of suffering a burn up injury.

The club, headed by Tracy Foster, assures kids facial area treatment in an ambiance of entertaining, aid and rehabilitation resulting in an enhancement in care and encounter.

It was made in reaction to the needs of burn-injured kids who lacked appropriate psychological assistance.

“The burns club has been great,” Sam stated, “and Tracy has served us so much.

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“Brandon is doing brilliantly now but when people today inquire him what took place he doesn’t know what to say and he will get self-conscious.

“But he has been to sites like Sherwood Forest and even Tenerife with the burns club and it has assisted him psychologically to be with other kids who have been by way of a thing similar. They even review scars and injuries.

“The club helps small children rebuild their lives and all those of their families.

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“Brandon is powerful and a fighter and is not ashamed of his scars.

“I am also relieved he is not frightened of water and even normally takes baths. I considered he would be petrified of them for everyday living.

“He has been amazing and even acquired an award from Humberside Hearth and Rescue Assistance.”

The Pinderfields children’s burns device

More than a 12 months, Pinderfields sees 600 small children in the Burns Unit who appear to be assessed/have dressings altered and then go residence and a further 400 children are admitted, could of whom occur from East Yorkshire.

They are told about MY Burns Club when they appear to their appointments and when they are inpatients and they are also given info about the club at their evaluate clinics. Assessment clinics are held at Pinderfields, Bradford and Goole.

Mrs Foster runs the burns club to help little ones arrive to phrases with their injuries.

She stated: “The burns camps provide an option for younger people today who have endured burn up injuries, to take component in a assortment of pursuits, satisfy some others, share activities and increase self-esteem. “

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By way of frequent “Burn’s Camps”, the club visits residential centres throughout the nation, supplying kids with options that they might not if not be supplied.

This features routines these types of as caving, climbing, canoeing, high rope difficulties and orienteering.

Mrs Foster explained: “Our focused Burn’s Camp volunteers try to deliver a secure natural environment where the younger individuals can be by themselves, away from some of the pressures which occur from being ‘different’.

“These camps let the youngsters to interact with some others with equivalent accidents, as a result taking away the cosmetic stigma, supplying them the opportunity to socialise without having issue as very well as supporting every other with the daily complications posed by their injuries.”

The children’s burns unit at Pinderfields Clinic in Wakefield

Although it all happened swiftly and was only a terrible incident, Sam admits lessons have been learnt and has urged other moms and dads to ensure it cannot transpire to their young children.

“Always place chilly h2o in initial,” Sam said, “or greater nonetheless get a blended faucet. Brandon was only in the h2o for a subject of seconds but it did a good deal of destruction.

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“After the accident I ripped out the rest room and redid it and created absolutely sure the residence was equipped with mixed taps.”

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