#and used them for other mechanics and had it spelt out to them

[ellraiser]

ellraiser make a game without some cryptic UI designs challenge: impossible

[hurthermore]

»»------► 𝙰 𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 (18+) - 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚠𝚘

Pairing: 𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗!𝙰𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝚡 𝙵!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Summary: 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚕 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗. 𝚂𝚘 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚐𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚏𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚛 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚞𝚜𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘.

Word Count: 𝟸.𝟿𝚔

Warnings: 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚡𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚍 𝟷𝟾+ 𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚋𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚐𝚛𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚎𝚡𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢, 𝚘𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚢𝚙𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚋𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝. 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜.

𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚖, 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚎𝚗, 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚖, 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢, 𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎, 𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚞𝚕𝚝, 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍, 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚐𝚢𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠𝚜, 𝚎𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜, 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚘𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚎𝚡𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚞𝚕𝚝

“And what can I do for you today, little lady?” The burly man behind the counter offered you a smile as you examined the different types of meat in the display counter, the same one that divided the room between yourself and the butcher.

Your eyes narrowed as you scanned every label, yet not one spelt out what you were looking for. “I don’t suppose you have any venison in the back do you?”

This had been the third butcher you had visited, and quite frankly, you were getting antsy. You knew the repercussions that were to unravel if you failed getting your hands on the exact type of meat your vile husband demanded you retrieve for tonight. And due to the brute demanding you make a dish that thankfully your mother used to dabble in –the only good thing she had done for you since birthing you– in the late morning, you knew you hadn’t much time left before you needed to begin the process of making the dish. 

You didn’t want a repeat of what occurred the few times you had made dinner late; and god forbid you find out what he would do if you made it late whilst a guest was present.

The man before you clicked his tongue before eyeing you up and down, setting insecurity and anxiety to seep under your skin. 

Why was he looking at you like that? 

Instinctively, you moved your hands to grip into the fabric of your flowy garden dress as a defence mechanism. Averting your eyes, you attempted to look at anything other than the man before you. Men were unpredictable, you couldn’t trust them or their intentions. Your husband taught you that.

“I do have some in the back,” Letting out a breath in relief, you instantly lit up and looked him in the eyes with pure joy; maybe some men were okay, despite the ideas your husband embedded in your mind about them. And with some wishful thinking, maybe the rest of the day could be pleasant for you. “It’s not a great amount, little lady, depending on what you’re planning to make with it that is.” Maybe not.

“Well, I was hoping to make some Jambalaya for three, do you have enough spare for that?” Your eyebrows threaded, begging to whatever god that there may exist that they’d have some mercy on you and just give you the right amount of stupid meat.

Unfortunately, the butcher shook his head negatively. “Unless you’re happy with rations, there’s enough for about half of what you’re wanting, little lady.” Shit. Your top teeth impaled your lower lip as you quickly analysed what the hell your next move would be. Should you go to the next butcher in hopes that they might have some venison? More than what this man had? With how today had gone so far, your doubts were high. And even if you didn’t buy this meat, there was no guarantee that anyone else wouldn’t buy it whilst you searched elsewhere.

Closing your eyes you debated with yourself. Maybe you could mix it with some other meat? The way your mother used to make it only involved one type of meat, but you were aware that it typically involved different types of meats. “Then I’ll buy it, along with a pound of chicken please.” You could easily just distribute the venison between your husband and his guest. It was the only solution you could come up with, one that you hoped would save yourself from another beating.

Watching the butcherer nod before heading in the back, you tapped your T strapped heels against the floor as you waited for him. You’d be able to make dinner on time now, it was a small weight off your shoulders, but a weight regardless. You could finally let yourself relax, just for a little bit. 

Humming one of your favourite songs to yourself, your eyes drifted off to the windows that revealed the main street. As you watched the crowds of people pass by the shop, a sad smile tugged at your lips as you watched families that seemed to be living their best lives. It was something you truly envied; people that belonged to a loving family. If only your husband wasn’t such an ugly truffling pig, you’d be able to be happy and content with your life. But no, your husband just had to be one of the worst human beings alive. One who was hell bent on destroying you from the inside out. 

You often wondered if you would’ve met your true love if he hadn’t stormed into your life. If he hadn’t demanded you be his. Would you have a family with this faceless person? Would they hold you with love and softness? Would they protect you from the types of horrors that your husband had inflicted upon you? These types of thoughts were the only thing that kept you sane within your abusive marriage. Just imagining being with some faceless stranger who loved you the way you wished to be loved.

Letting out a sigh you averted your view onto the meat that laid behind the glass counter. Focusing on the glistening carcasses before you, your pupils dilated as the imagery and fantasy of the meat in front of you being your husband turned your saddened smile into one of a deranged grin. One that brought a glimmer of light into your dulled eyes.

You wondered what it’d be like to cut hi-

You snapped back into reality once the butcherer returned with a bag of red lean meat, placing it on the counter for you. You offered him a smile before he began to wrap up a portion of chicken for you, placing it within its own bag before giving you the total cost. Pulling out a masculine wallet -because your husband would never allow you your own carrier for money- you offered the man double than what he asked. It was a very rare pleasure you could indulge in nowadays; wasting Vincent's money.

With a smile and a wave, you bid the man farewell before exiting the store with the bags in your hands. As you took a breath of fresh air in, you felt a cold tremor sliver down your spine. Immediately, your eyes darted around as you felt someone's piercing gaze on your form. Turning around in an attempt to take in your surroundings, a man entered your view. One with round rimmed glasses. His smile was one you’ve never seen before; wide and intensely stretched. It was sinister in a way, yet it suited his unconventionally attractive features well. Apprehensively, you returned his smile with your own along with a small shaken wave, only to still when your reciprocation made his smile stretch further than humanly possible.

Why was he smiling at you like that?

It felt as if all time had halted as you both stood there, gazing into each other's eyes and memorising each other's faces, yours stunned and mesmerised whilst his remained charmingly sinister. The way his smile curved his eyes made you think he was attempting to be sweet, but the way he refused to look away from you had you second guessing his intentions. Was he trying to assert some sort of dominance over you? Did he just creepily smile at anyone who came into his view? 

Had he been watching you since before you left the shop?

Another shiver shook your entire body this time, alarm bells ringing in your mind, screaming at you to run. Taking a step back, you slowly turned around, letting him win this strange staring contest you both participated in. You already had a man that made your life a living nightmare, you sure as hell didn’t need someone else making it even worse.

Despite constantly looking over your shoulder on your journey home, the facial structure of that… man was etched into your retina. 

Why was he staring at you in the first place?

Arriving at your home in the garden district, thoughts of the strange man slowly evaporated from your mind. Opening the front door you closed it quickly, letting out long quivering breaths as you leaned against it. You were thankful that your husband was busy during the afternoons with his business, it was the only time of the day you felt you could truly breathe. Even if you were currently breathing from hyperventilation. 

If he were to witness you in this state, he’d only make you learn a lesson; one that involved making sure you only shook in fear for him. 

Standing up straight, you pinched your arm. Hard. It was one of many ways you forced yourself to come back to your senses. To ignore all the bad things in your mind. 

You strutted into the kitchen, placing the bag of meat on the counter before going to grab your apron. Despite all the ungrateful, back handed comments your dim witted husband gave you in regards to your cooking, making food was a way for you to distract yourself from the hell you were living. It was also the only activity that prevented your husband from putting his grimy little hands on you. He hated messes, and you made sure to always make your hands and apron messier than need be, only to alleviate yourself from him and his touch.

He’d always make you clean yourself and dress up nicely before you were allowed to eat too. He believed that a wife should look her best whilst with her husband, which made you scoff considering how he didn’t harbour those same views for how husbands were to present themselves to their wives.

Always the double standards with him.

Taking out the ingredients, you began the process for the meal tonight. Watching your fingers as you cut the meat into thick cubes, your stomach began to rumble. You hadn’t eaten since the day before yesterday. All thanks to that stupid man-thing you hated more than anything. 

He never allowed you to eat without him present. That included lunch and snacks. And if you did? You’d get beat.

Your husband believed that a wife should eat second to her husband; and that meant that if your meal for him didn’t satiate his hunger, he would simply eat yours. You were given the scraps of the meals you made. Always the fucking scraps. Even when you made larger portions to combat this problem, he just seemed hell bent on eating at least a spoonful of your food, even if you knew he couldn’t handle anymore food in that vile body of his.

He enjoyed making you feel as though you were beneath him, you knew that for certain.

But thankfully for you, your husband never attempted that pathetic habit of his whilst he had guests over, which meant you could finally indulge in a full meal; something you hadn’t been able to do in a couple months now.

As the lighting in the kitchen began to dim with the day getting later, you took a breath as you turned off the gas stove, patting your hands together as you finally finished. Putting a cover over the pot that held the food, you took your apron off. You would need to wash that later, before Vincent noticed.

Heading upstairs, you entered your bedroom, only to frown as the bed came into your line of sight. Memories of what transpired earlier imbued your mind, narrowing your eyes as you viewed the blood that stained the sheets. Your blood. Dried and bordering on black. Air sucking through your teeth, you grabbed the bloodied sheet before stuffing it under the bed, only to replace them with clean ones from the wardrobe that hugged the corner of the room. You took a mental note to wash that later too. You had to. Vincent would never get off his rear end to wash anything, and you had to avoid his violent tendencies.

Because it would only be your fault if nothing was clean.

Stripping down until you were bare, you sat down at your elegant vanity. Staring into the almost misty mirror as you examined your face. You didn’t want to look below your neck. You didn’t want to see the bruises. But it was inevitable.

Placing your hand onto your products that neatly laid out on your vanity, you began to pretty yourself up whilst also using some foundation and powder to hide the impact of your husband's anger on your upper body. Vincent's words echoed in your mind; he wanted you to wear a revealing dress. He always did when guests came over. It was his way of putting you on display. To show you off in order to induce some sort of hierarchy onto his guests. To make them aware that his wife was a trophy. His trophy. 

After you finished styling your hair, you slipped yourself in the red floor length dress that Vincent demanded you to wear for tonight. The same dress that held tight to your body from knee to waist and draped dangerously low on your chest and back, leaving very little to the imagination.

Despite once harbouring a love for dresses and clothes, especially the ones that went against the norm; the ones that made you feel sexy, your husband replaced those feelings you had towards fashion with disgust. He made it feel so objectifying and rancid. He inflicted worry and panic within you when you wore revealing garments due to the sexual reaction it brought out of him towards you; a feeling you could never reciprocate.

Flattening out the dress, you slipped your feet into a pair of black heels before making your way downstairs. Sitting down in the parlour room, you glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and sighed in relief. Your husband still had a few minutes left before he was due home. Would his guest be with him? Or would the guest arrive later?

What if his guest never arrives at all?

Dread pulsed through your veins, fingers gripping into your dress as you allowed your thoughts to consume your mind. What if this guest scenario was just to get you to relax? To make you think you were safe for a night? To get your walls down before he stormed in and hurt you? It would be a truly evil situation to put you in; but it was one you were positive he’d enact. He always did like to try new ways to break you, afterall.

Freezing in place as you heard your husband's car park in the driveway, you waited for the moment of truth. Clasping your hands together, you closed your eyes and listened intently to any noise. Any noise that indicated he wasn’t alone. Letting out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding, you perked up as you heard two voices from outside. Not one. Two. You couldn’t help the excitement that took over you; you’d be free from harm. Only for a night, but a night of freedom nonetheless. Standing up straight, you placed your hands together towards your thighs, waiting for your husband and his guest to enter the house.

Once the door opened, your husband's voice seemed to carry the conversation between him and his guest. You rolled your eyes as you overheard him obviously talking about himself. Because of course he would be, what were you expecting? Before you could begin your flurry of insults to your husband in the realm of your mind, you heard his voice shout your name, calling you to reveal yourself. Like you were some damn dog.

Grinding your teeth sharply, only to quickly relax your mouth into a false smile before you left the parlour room and into the hallway connected to the front door, you froze.

Linking your eyes with your husband's guest, you recognised the man instantly; the man with the strange attractive smile that you had some weird staring contest with earlier. “Alastor, this is my beautiful wife,” Your husband spoke, causing you to become attentive whilst he introduced you. He gave the man- Alastor, your name, before addressing you. “Doll, this is our guest for the evening; Alastor Hartfelt.”

Studying the man, you came to the quick conclusion that he was much more unconventionally attractive from up close. His tawny skin tone was a huge contrast to your husband's ghostly white one. His brown hair, although somewhat followed the common hairstyles you saw on men whenever you were allowed out, was much more volumized and fluffier. His eyes seemed almost black, with a soft shine of a yellow hue that was barely visible. His height was frightening considering he towered over your husband who you knew was 6’1 at least. And oh, you couldn’t ignore that inhumane smile that he seemed to pull off flawlessly.

Every feature about him seemed so dark and disturbing, yet at the same time, every feature seemed to hold a sense of softness to them as he looked at you. He was handsome. Not a stereotypical version of handsome like your vile husband was, but uniquely handsome.

Slowly, Alastor approached you, offering you his hand; inaudibly asking for yours. Settling your fingers into his palm, you noticed how contradictory his skin was. How was it possible to have such rough yet silk like skin? Gently, he guided your hand closer to his lips before placing them on the back of your hand. Pecking your dorsal with a sense of intimacy that had your heart racing. His eyes never leaving yours throughout the whole ordeal.

“It’s lovely to finally meet you, darling.”

← 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 ✦ 𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 →

✦ 𝙰𝙾𝟹 ✦

A/N: Initially I was going to wait until I had finished the third chapter before posting the start of this series, but I know the third chapter wont be finished for a couple days (probably) as I'm at uni, and I'm desperate to get this out to get some feedback and see if this kind of story is something people are actually interested in. See you next chapter ;D

[flaylore]

CHURCH OF RUNE

"I guess I should formally introduce you. I haven't even introduced myself. "I"… or… hm, you may call me Machina. Father Machina. And I welcome you to the rune monastery, a place offering shelter for those in need, all those who suffer from the supposed corruption, all those who disagree with the guild. Here, if you put your hopes in me, your faith, your love, your dreams, your everything, I promise you will be saved."

Church of Rune features a priest-like figure welcoming you to his church, the Rune Monastery, and invites you to join his mission on spreading corruption. It was uploaded on December 1st 2023, and had a small teaser dropped on November 23rd 2023.

A mysterious waiting room also appeared right after the teaser. However, it was eventually deleted. (1 , 2)

Summary:

The screen glitches a bit, with a figure standing over us

The figure says: “You have multiple “you’s in you”, saying it’ll be difficult to determine our true thoughts

After a few minutes, we finally get ourselves to stand and figure out where we are

The area looks deserted in snow, the sound of bells can be heard (?) ringing in the background

The figure can read our minds

“Looks cold”? Of course, it is that time of year.”

Says that there’s better lighting in the church than outside

Seems confused that we don’t recognize the current area, then states that this is Elysium—or what’s left of it

Further elaborates on how there’s multiple versions of “us” inside of us

“There are… multiple "you"s inside of you. At the same time, you hold a consciousness of your own, or so I think. Do you know why that is? "We're all one," now that's the correct response.”

The corruption inside of us has spread, according to the figure

"It’s nothing to be worried, though 3 years ago this wouldn’t have been tolerated." “It makes up a part of you, as flaws try so desperately to hide.”

Asks us further if we don’t remember what happened 3 years ago. Mentions when activity spiked in the south, and when “The Great Debate” occurred

Explains that The Great Debate consisted of when the world did not know what to do with corruption

TEMPUS seeks to understand and pacify the “beasts”, while the mercenary group kills them off

Says the corruption isn’t bad

💬: “Would ARMIS kill us”? "Now that's a name I haven't heard in quite a while…”

Mentions how some people refuse to “take in the current reality”, and brings up how they jest as a coping mechanism

Assures us that he too is also pathetic in nature and accepts us

“Believe me, under my care, you will have no need for such things. Your worries, your fears, your anxieties… you may leave it all here, in my care. I will love you thoroughly.”

Our current form is “small”, but “quite familiar” to the figure

“You’re just a bit different.”

Takes us inside the church, holy music now playing subtly in the background

Calls himself “Father Machina”

He has no other name according to himself

The church is meant to be a “rune monastery”, offering as a shelter for those corrupted and in need, as well as a sanctuary for those who disagree with the guild’s methods

He then holds up a small figure, similar to a machiroon, to us. He asks us what this is

It looks to be physical, almost like goo

Its eyes are swirling, along with having two cat ears and a tail

The figure is referred to as a “machirune”, the end prefix spelt R-U-N-E instead of R-O-O-N

“These “runes”, these are souls, human souls, or rather, corruption in its purest form.”

There’s no malice in them, though there’s anxiety inside of them

“Corruption Beasts” are:

Referred as “The Afflicted” in this world

According to him, it is also considered an "old and jaded" term

Corruption is linked to emotions

“No one supposedly knows what happens after. But, when those emotions hit that stride, anything that is corrupted will start to spread. Consider it any extreme human emotion. Isn't that sad? Whether it be happiness to the point of being manic, sadness to the point of despair, even lust. But humans are already aware of that, aren't they?”

Someone asks if Father Machina is also afflicted, to which he laughs before the screen zooms into his mouth. His eyes dim, showing irritation

“Excuse me? Are you in good health? Oh, my apologies. I just couldn't tell with all that stupidity living in your brain. Do me and the world a favor, and shut up. Thank you.”

His god is Miyabi—the “man of flowers”

“We fight for him. Clearly, he knows what is best for this world and even though he is not here to decide his fate, I shall meet(?) it for him.”

His sermons are meant to introduce those who’re new to the church

He also accepts donations, though vague on what kinds he means

Once the sermon ends, he and his followers exit the church to “make the world a better place”

When asked about the hollow tree, Father Machina says it’s already been corrupted recently in the last year (whether in this world or in Elysium is unclear)

Shinri has helped out Father Machina during these expeditions

“The world in danger?” No! [laughs] My beloved lost lambs, I'm saving the world! I’m saving you. I have nothing but countless amounts of love for all of you.”

The X-TRUS is known as an “ancient Xenokunian weapon”, and it’s the object of “our will and love”

“I’d rather not refer to its name given when it was part of the guild.”

Father Machina is 21,000 years old

He aims to create a new world/new beginning where the corrupted reign over everyone else

"Are there still corruption beasts?" laughing You still don't get it? Don’t make me spell it out. The one rule of the rune monastery is to spread the “afflicted” everywhere.”

Doesn’t seem to know who X is, but knows who Flayon is

“I told you, stop mentioning his name. Is that understood?”

Soon after, a progress bar appears on the screen, filling up to 50%

The sermon begins, Father Machina preaching atop the altar

Father Machina calls himself “God’s messenger”, and those who do not love him will be sacrificed for “the greater good”

“I will not have a repeat of any of you abandoning me. Those of you that wish to play with a shiny new toy again can repeat the same mistake that you made three years ago.” “But, don’t think that didn’t hurt me. Or, “him” per se.”

Says he loves the Machiroons all the same, but wonders if they take his love seriously

“All who stand against the church will die. I will kill you myself personally. Those who wish to “study” the beasts, as they call it, will be put to death. Those who kill the afflicted on the spot will be put to death.”

The whole church is centered around Father Machina, rewording “Amen” to “Flaymen”

“Yes, praise me, revere me! Love me, do so and I will bring you to salvation. Look at no other idols, no other men. I am the only one you should know. In return I shall give you love everlasting.”

In this world, TEMPUS seeks to study and eventually kill the corrupted on sight. ARMIS on the other hand kills them without any hesitation

“I'm sure I would’ve agreed with them years ago but now I know the true nature. Why would you harm the afflicted?”

Goldbullet claims that Father Machina was threatening and killing people

“He’s still around, but do not worry. We will find him and the rest of this TEMPUS.”

Claims that TEMPUS thought they could come to a solution in understanding the corrupted beasts, to study them

“I’m sure you’re all aware, even those of you afflicted with some sort of memory loss. They’re seen as heroes? Righteous? I think we have all unfortunately bore witness to their violent tendencies, their extremes.”

Axel was almost killed by the church, running away after attempting to kill Father Machina himself

“He still evades us like the rest, but he is the most dangerous and on top of our list, he did not hesitate. The first one to go against us, and for that he is probably the most foolish of all. But dare he come back to this church.. I shall make sure that all of his beloved followers will be cooked alive, like the food they are.”

Suddenly, he brings an announcement. After some persuasion, Shinri is joining support for the church

“Now he… he is a man fit to lead the world. He is a man.. That if anything were to happen to me, I would have him take our place. However, should he stay his corrupted hand at slaying the enemy, I shall make sure it spreads to the rest of his body. until there is nothing left.”

Claims that Bettel—the Jester—is the largest enemy to the church

“We will bide our time then strike when he least expects it. Those of you, of the roons, that have managed to fuse with his so-called “Bettelion”, we will strike tomorrow at dawn. And then, if a god is on his side, surely it is not ours. Therefore, his luck will eventually run out.”

Originally thought of Hakka as “his brother”, but after numerous attempts of killing Father Machina, he is not forgiven

“I thought he’d understand the most. After all, this is what is best for the world, am I not wrong? But, whatever righteous morals he has he will be dealt with. Or rather, he is already dealing with himself.”

Claims that the corruption on Hakka makes him rampage like a “mindless demon”

Altare is mentioned to try and “pity him”, which makes Father Machina envious of him

“Did he think I wanted his pity? I don’t, I don’t need it. He.. pains me most of all. A kindhearted man with a voice that soothes the souls of thousands. A roundabout hero with a moral compass that doesn’t hesitate to make the.. worst of calls. Isn’t that nice? However, despite all these compliments, all these praises sent to him instead of me. Don’t you think it’s strange?”

Claims that Altare has formed his own cult, in which kidnapping some of his followers and torturing them

Hates the church being compared to a “cult”, claiming that he does this out of love

“Hahahah. Now, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me and me alone. Love me, and only me. No other idols, no replacing me for whatever reason you deem fit. The minute you give your love to me, you must take responsibility. Is that understood? Hm..? You think I’m “broken”?”

The music stops suddenly, zooming in on Father Machina’s face.

“You’re a fool. You know, I told all of you to keep your mind in check. Even, it would’ve been fine, fine if you all disobeyed me. But, we have no room for such foolish ideals and so.. Haven’t you noticed? Hahahaha ..hahah! You didn’t notice yet, did you?”

[The bar fills to 100%.]

“Have a safe trip. I love you.”

Suddenly, the screen cuts to black and begins to glitch

Warns us about the “raging thoughts/voices” inside of us, and that the corruption is continuing to spread

“Remember what I said earlier? You have multiple “you”s. Multiple even inside each individual one. This creates discord and chaos within your soul, your emotions as one person are running rampant.”

Is aware that we’re from another world

“Wait.. Stop mentioning that name. You even made my beloved rune stop moving. [He sighs.] Hm? It seems you’re running out of time. You know what to do, right? Hnk. Damn you, you riled up memories I didn’t need.”

Glitching continues as multiple images now appearing on the screen, Father Machina’s eyes swirling

“We love you!” “I love you guys too…” “Am I not enough?” “I can’t have you leave” “I want to be enough for you” “Love me, Love me” “I don’t want to be alone..” “Don’t leave me”

Before the stream ends, he reminds us of the corruption. It begins in a notion, and he assumes there’s a catalyst

“Whatever emotion that he has, whenever he gets corrupted, I’ll see you again.”

His last words:

“Goodbye, roons. I hope when we meet again that you will follow my endeavor. I love you guys.. Don’t leave me.”

[phoenixmaiden-gaming]

The Room part 2

In this part was Chapter 2 and I had to find out how to open the next box that was in the safe. This one was quite a bit harder and I really had to think about it, there were also 3 locks to get it open, so I had to find out how to do all 3. But for this part, I will focus on the first lock. So here we go.

Chapter 2

Now that I have the next wooden chest, I have to figure out how to open it. There are three locks that I have to open in order to get inside.

I was looking around the chest and found a lock that had 4 numbers around it that I could move around, I just needed to find the code that had to open up the middle panel. I had to use the eye piece and the whole panel was now see through and I could rotate around a cube that was inside to find some numbers.

Once I had the numbers for the panel, I put them in on the correct sides that were on the cube. The middle panel popped open to reveal a switch. It opened a side door on the chest and out popped what looked like an old projector.

On top of the projector was a note from the owner of the chests. He had been doing research. And said something about finding a new element, Null. I have no idea what it all means, but it looks like it has something to do with Alchemy.

Moving on, I tried to find out what I needed to do next and got a little stuck. I kept looking around and around the chest until I clicked on one of the legs of the chest and it popped open to reveal a book as well as a symbol on the inside of the compartment. I kept that in mind.

I opened up the book and found a key that was for the projector. I put the key in a mechanism on the left side and that turned on the projector.

I found the rest of the symbols around the chest and on one side of the chest where there were the symbols on a panel that matched the ones I had found. I put them in the right order and a compartment below it opened to reveal a heavy key that looked like a cross on top.

I looked around again and found one of the leg corners that a different decoration and found out I could twist it and the top would come up and inside was a miniature telescope.

I took a look at the telescope and was able to extend it out and put it on the projector. I still needed to find something that goes in the little door as there was a wheel that provided a spark. So something is supposed to be on fire.

I had a hint that said that one of the feet of the chest looked different, so I took a look. I found it and was able to spin the foot to reveal a piece of cotton, so that was what I needed to burn.

I went back to the projector and put the cotton in the hole, used the spark wheel and put it up to light up the projector. I looked in and it was just a man sitting at a table with the chest. 

I had to take a look again with the eye piece and this time, it had the word ‘Trial’ on the wall. I knew where it goes, but there was not enough letters.

When I exited the round panel to the left opened that had to turn the dials to line up the image. Once it did, the panel to the left opened and it was the letter L.

I went to the other side of the chest where there was a panel with letters. I put in the last letter I had found. Then moved the other letters so that it spelt out TRIAL.

Once I put in the letters it unlocked the first lock on the chest. Wow that took a while, but I got it done. Now it was time to get the second lock done. That will be in the next part. Until then, Happy Gaming!

[takadasaiko]

Near Death Experiences (a SkyJade fic)

Summary: Every time Luke and Mara run across each other it seems like a new near death experience.

Notes: A while back I read the lovely @myevilmouse's 31 Days of Drabbles, Day 16 about Luke in the bacta tank and Mara staying. EvilMouse was kind enough to offer to let me run with any ideas I had linked to the drabble so here we go! I'm all in for some hurt/comfort :D

Read on AO3

----

She should have seen it coming. It wasn’t like all the signs hadn’t spelt out disaster from the moment she’d landed. From the nagging feeling pulling at her that she’d told herself she could handle to the way that the clients tried to change the terms of what had been a settled agreement, and then finally to the shootout that had left three of the five of them dead and Mara with what was proving to be a painful blaster burn along her thigh. They had almost gotten away with the data disk they were supposed to be purchasing as well when all the chaos had started, but a quick tug with the Force had pulled it across the old warehouse and into her hand. Now, several hours and enough redirects to lose even a talented tail, she limped her way up towards the smallest hangar where she’d left her craft and the new recruit that she was now glad she’d assigned to watch it. 

 Not that he was watching it very closely. Cid Gesk - a bright eyed kid from the Outer Rim with an inclination towards hero worship that had already proven an annoyance - was chatting with another pilot, hands dancing as he told some sort of story. Mara didn’t need to see the pilot’s face or even recognize the style of flight suit he’d worn since his days serving with the Alliance to know who had gotten the kid so riled up. 

 And from the brief flicker through the Force, Skywalker knew she was there too, even if he was too polite to interrupt Gesk mid-story. 

 “You know he’s on the clock, don’t you?” she called and watched Gesk pale, suddenly keenly aware that his new boss - the woman responsible for giving a report to her boss on how he did this trip - had caught him outside the ship. 

 Skywalker turned, the smile reaching his eyes. “Don’t blame him, Mara. I recognized the ship when I landed and we started chatting.”

 Gesk tried for what only managed to be the most awkward grin Mara had ever seen. “I swear I didn’t leave the hangar. Right here, just like you said.”

 “Don’t worry,” she directed at Skywalker, “it’ll just come out of the New Republic’s line of credit for consulting.”

 “Of course it will,” he chuckled, but those blue eyes of his narrowed as Mara’s leg gave slightly, the stumble barely noticeable to anyone but him. “You’re hurt.”

 “I’m fine.”

 “What happened?”

 “Clients tried to change the terms of the deal.” She reached into her pocket and pulled the data disk, tossing it to Gesk. “Make yourself useful and lock this up.”

 He caught it and muttered something to Skywalker before returning to his duties. She turned back to the Jedi Master who had an eyebrow quirked at her as if waiting for the full story. She frowned. “So what are you doing here?” she asked instead.

 For the briefest moment, he looked like he might not let it go, but then nodded towards the back of the hanger where his X-Wing sat out of immediate view. From the looks of it, it had seen some action. “Had a surprise run-in on my way back to Yavin IV and had to stop for some repairs.”

 A shrill sound caught her attention and she saw his R2 unit following after one of the mechanics back into the offices, fussing the whole way and refusing to be waived off. She shook her head and let the first real smile since they’d landed touch her lips. “We always seem to run into each other when you run into trouble.”

 He flashed her a grin. “Could say the same for you, but I think it’s a fair bet we find plenty of trouble on our own. Are you staying for a while?”

 “No, I should get going. Things went pretty bad in the deal and eventually they’ll realize I didn’t dock at the main hangar. No reason to tempt fate.”

 For the briefest of moments, she thought she saw disappointment in his eyes - maybe even felt it - but it was gone just as quickly. “Next time we’re on the same planet, we should catch up. It’s been a while.”

 “Miss me, Skywalker?” she teased, but didn’t expect the honest “Yes” in return with that painfully earnest look he got. She rolled her eyes, trying to hold onto the playful mood. “Well, if you can promise neither of us will walk away from it bleeding, I might be persuaded.”

 His lips parted, a response looking ready to roll off his tongue to continue the banter they’d become accustomed to, but he stiffened ever so slightly. Mara felt it a half moment later and shifted so she could see around him even as he turned. 

 Everything happened in what felt like a fraction of a second. Her brain registered  a figure approaching at a quick pace, something clutched in hand. It went up in the air, the lights on it already showing all the signs of detonation, and she heard Skywalker shout something. A bright light ripped at her eyes, the ear piercing sound of an explosion the warning that they wouldn’t have long to care, but the flames from the explosion didn’t touch her. Luke stood in front of her, both hands outstretched and his face strained as he fought to keep the blast from killing them both. 

 But the explosion had to go somewhere, and Mara barely registered where as the steady hangar floor suddenly rippled and broke beneath their feet, sending both her and Skywalker crashing down to the next level. 

 ——-

 She came around slowly, wincing as she pushed her body off the ground and felt bits of debris fall away, struggling to pull the details of what had happened together. Mara blinked hard and dim, flickering lights that hung unsteadily from far above gave a limited view of her surroundings. The next level down? Couldn’t be. A hangar bay had to be big enough to house ships. The fall alone would have killed her…. but they weren’t in the main bay. That was right. She and Gesk had landed on the outskirts to avoid prying eyes. Then the deal has gone bad, she’d come back, and…. Skywalker. 

 Mara’s gaze swept the room she’d landed in and found only pieces of the hangar bay floor that had come crashing down with them, but no sign of the Jedi Master. She pulled in a shaky breath, forcing herself to relax with the exhale and reach out through the Force. She could feel pain, fear, panic…. But they were all distant and they weren’t Luke. She pictured him in her mind, focusing, until there was a flicker that felt like him a handful of meters away. She let her eyes flicker open and found a pile of debris where she could sense him. That couldn’t be good. 

 She picked her way over carefully, trying to strengthen her connection to him. Slowly, deliberately, she studied the pile of rubble to see what would happen if she started pulling it away until she found a place to start that she was relatively certain wouldn’t collapse in on him or outward on her. She couldn’t help him if she was pinned too. 

 It was painstaking work, but as she got closer and closer she could feel that flicker of consciousness start to grow. “I'm coming,” she huffed the promise, feeling sweat trickling down the back of her neck. He just needed to hold on a little longer. 

 Mara sent a chunk of metal tumbling out of her way and cleared an opening. In it she saw a mop of dark blond hair and relief flooded through her. She carefully tugged more and more debris out of the way, showing that he was twisted over, under, and around pieces of the floor and ceiling and whatever had been between, half on his side. As she pulled at a larger slab that was pressing down against his ribs she felt a jolt of pain from him. Blue eyes popped open and Skywalker choked on the sudden inhale that came with his abrupt return to consciousness. Mara froze, fingers latched around the best handholds she could find, unsure if she was somehow hurting him more by removing it. 

 “Hey,” she growled out, voice straining as she felt the tension on her hands and arms from holding the heavy slab just slightly off of him. “Skywalker.”

 His gaze snapped to her and he seemed to piece together what was happening. He gave the barest of nods and, with a breath and a little help from the Force, she finished the task of freeing him. 

 Skywalker shuddered, turning to curl on his side and Mara let her gaze travel down the length of his body until she spotted where his left arm was wrapped around his body, hand clutching at the ripped fabric of his flight suit. Blood leaked through his fingers as he struggled to catch his breath.

  Mara looked up at the severely damaged ceiling above them to verify they weren’t in immediate danger of another collapse before she sank down to a knee next to him, reaching out through the Force and with a hand, both gestures as soothing as she could manage. 

 He flinched under her physical touch, but didn’t pull fully away. His skin was clammy, blood smeared on his face from a cut above his right eye that was already starting to swell. She let her fingers linger at his hairline, the movement careful as she searched for any sign of head trauma. Well, at least there was one positive sign. 

 One more brush of his hair and she let her hand drift down, simultaneously checking for injuries and making sure he knew where she was looking. He must have had enough wherewithal to follow, because his left hand tightened around the fabric of his tattered flight suit as she drew closer to the injury. “I need to look,” she said, her voice rough than she meant for it to be. “Skywalker.” She received no acknowledgement and she loosed a soft sigh. “Luke.”

 He tensed slightly, but one by one his fingers started to loosen so that she could gently move his hand to reveal the jagged, deep gash that stretched along and below his ribs. She frowned at the wound, trying to push back the fact that it had likely been made worse when she’d removed the piece of ceiling from him. 

 “Not your fault,” he managed, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Couldn’t breathe.”

 She blinked, filling in the missing pieces of the explanation. “Bleeding out or crushed to death, how do you want to go?” she snarked softly. 

 Somehow it pulled the barest of laughs from him. “Neither?”

 “That’s got my vote.” 

 “Jade!”

 Mara’s gaze jerked to the massive hole in the ceiling to see Gesk inched carefully to the edge. As far as she could see, he looked to have missed the brunt of the blast. 

 “It pushed the ship back!” he called down. “Not sure if she’ll fly or not but —“

 “I don’t give a kriff about the ship!” she snapped. “We need medical attention down here now .”

 He gave her a startled look and started nodding enthusiastically. “Yep. Yeah, of course. They’re uh… on their way. I’ll go check.”

 And then he was gone, not leaving Mara with a whole lot of faith in him. She sighed, shrugging her jacket off and turning it inside out to find the cleanest stretch of fabric. “This’ll hurt,” she warned, but didn’t give Skywalker a chance to protest as she pressed down. 

 His body went tense under her hands, blue eyes squeezed shut and she felt the fingers on his right hand graze her bent knee before taking hold of a piece of rubble to squeeze against the pain. She saw a flash of metal and, for a moment, she thought some of the ceiling was embedded in his hand before she remembered that it was mechanica under the synth fleshl. It was the metal casing that helped to protect the wiring she was seeing. He really had taken the full force of the attack. One likely meant for her. 

 “Not your fault,” he repeated through clenched teeth. 

 “He was probably after me,” she confessed quietly. “Two people got away in the botched deal.”

 “You recognize him?”

 Mara struggled to recall the approaching figure that had held the detonator, but she couldn’t recall the face. “I don’t know.”

 “Could have just as easily tracked me.” His grip on the rubble loosened just a little. “You okay?”

 “You took the brunt of it.”

 And tightened again, a fresh wave of pain evident. “Not an answer,” he managed. 

 “I’m okay,” she promised. “Hell of a lot better than you.” 

 A rough chuckle left him and she felt his hand on her knee. “Good.”

 He was drifting again. “Luke?”

 “Hmm?”

 “I meant it earlier. No more near-death experiences when we see each other.”

 “Reasonable,” he huffed, amusement flickering through the Force. 

 “Good.” Because, somewhere along the way, she realized that she wasn’t ready to lose him. 

 “You too,” he murmured. 

 She hated when he did that… but for what it was worth, she doubted either of them had their barriers up. Before she could talk herself out of it she leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to his temple. If he knew or not, she couldn’t tell, and she’d just as soon prefer he didn’t. 

 “Jade! I got help!” Gesk called from above and there were several locals with him along with Skywalker’s nervous little R2 unit. 

 “Hear that, Skywalker? Gesk actually did what he was told.”

 Luke’s amusement flickering over was the only sign he’d heard her. She stayed with him, unmoving from where she was knelt with her hands pressed against her jacket that was staunching the flow of blood from the gash along his ribs. The locals descended with a medical droid and only then did she force herself to stand and take a step back, feeling his limp hand slide from her knee as he did. 

 He was going to be alright. He had to be.

[violentmouths]

Heeeeeellllllooooo in theeeeeere...

So good to see old friends and readers, now my blog isn't always gonna be about Devil May Cry as I do like these deep dives whether you do or not. I've been in depression since early December but I'm feeling grander than ever! I'm happy to say that Uncharted 4 and RE8 helped a lot.

But I'm not gonna talk about the whole RE8 game...

I just wanna talk about one specific character...

Karl Heisenberg

First off, I love his name! Instead of being spelt with a C, it's spelt with a K! And the lastname alone is just fucking sexy!

From the information I've gathered (my observations, Wiki, and YouTubers), I couldn't help but find myself infatuated by him:

- He was kidnapped and subjugated to the Cadou Parasite Experiments (said in the Wiki and his diaries).

- Kept himself cooped up in his factory to work on his inhumane experiments for his rebel army (introvert, maybe?).

- Has a grudge against Mother Miranda.

Alright let's get this out of the way, I LOVE his appearance, he looks so rugged up and I just love it!

From his trench coat, to his hat, to his shades?! So adorable (nope, not hot... adorable...) especially when he says:

To be honest and blunt, he stammers and stutters before he starts yelling, an example of him not liking to be interrupted, which happens three times; by Angie, Moreau, and that experiment with the propellers ( can't think of his name at the moment).

Let's be honest, no one likes being interrupted when speaking...

Back to the Dive-in...

I was listening to a YouTuber called  Video Game Sophistry, who said that Karl Heisenberg was supposed to actually be a pair of TWINS, they'd both do brain experiments on their mother while his father was supposed to look like Karl during his boss fight... As well being the ruler of the land, not Mother Miranda... But capcom discarded that idea (glad they did)...

His body is made of electrical organs that are connected to his nervous system where he can pass and control electricity throughout his whole body, allowing him to control magnetic fields which moves the metal!

Mother Miranda didn't see Heisenberg as a good enough vessel for her daughter. Only seeing him like an experiment, which he mentions in his diary.

"She took me. Took us. To be her children. She locked us away in the village. Decades of serving her. Can you even understand that humiliation?"

- Karl Heisenberg

It is extremely clear that his life was taken from him, but it's his next line that made me think...

"I'm not my siblings. I want nothing more than to be free of that bitch."

- Karl Heisenberg

Wanting to be free, eh?

Sound familiar?

Yeah, Karl and Zoe have some things in common:

- Stuck with their 'families' for years

- Want nothing other than being free.

- Relying on Ethan to help them

Unfortunately Heisenberg dies before getting his wish... Zoe doesn't...

Gonna skip to the scene when Heisenberg explains his plan to Ethan... I don't know how, I don't why no one looks to the left...

But I did...

In red, BOLD LETTERS next to Donna Beneviento and Salvator Moreau's pic says and quote:

"BSAA COME!!"

Why does he want the BSAA to come to wherever he lives? Does he want to join them? Does he work for them secretly? Also, how does he know about Chris...? As well as American Ground Beef (That part makes me laugh as well as question him)...?

Like:

- Did he ever travel to America?

- Did he ever eat something that had ground beef in it (not all ground beef is used for burgers, guys)?

- Was he going to travel to America if he gotten free? Maybe keep a low profile?

We'll never know...

Another thing I've discovered while scrolling through the comment section of YouTube vids that have Heisenberg in it was that it didn't look like Heisenberg actually died, most of the time the characters would calcify and crumble... But he just exploded! No calcification, no nothing just... BOOM!

Someone also said that his 'form' looked like armor rather than a transformation... Which I had to agree on, it does look like armor!

The transformation even looks like a Splendid Royal Moss Caterpiller ( VGS even says it himself) which was supposed to move faster than the other Lord's transformations.

I was personally thinking he'd turn into a mechanical horse thus to his symbol, but, oh well!

Alright this is getting too long, hope you liked my deep dive, I'll probably do more, I kinda wanna talk about Ethan and Heisenberg in the next one...

See you soon...

[shazos]

Rouxls is Hiding Something Big: A Deltarune Theory

FORENOTE- For some needed context, it may help reading my previous Deltarune theory here for important details that I will cover in this post. (My previous theory provides notable evidence on why Gaster is indeed the “Knight” figure talked about by multiple characters in Deltarune.)

Now, this is going to sound crazy. But after much time of poring over and analyzing Deltarune, I have come to a conclusion. One that I’ve been convinced of for awhile now. Something that’s been lying right under all of our noses without many of us even realizing it. We have all been bamboozled. Hoodwinked. Tricked. Why, you may ask?

Because the comically stupid and inept Duke of Puzzles is actually... not an idiot. No, he’s the complete opposite. He is a downright mastermind.

As collective players, we are all falling into the same trap once again. Putting faith into a character’s preconceived personality !

When their true personality turns out the complete opposite of what we expected...

It is here, my evidence for this claim begins—and we delve into the true identity of Rouxls Kaard. Buckle up everyone, cause this one’s gonna be a fun ride. 👀

So, to spill the beans up front, and get it over with. I believe Rouxls Kaards identity... is none other than W.D. Gaster in disguise.

Now. I didn’t immediately become invested in this theory—I was skeptical at first like everyone else. But, once I began examining Deltarune and all of its characters a bit closer...things weren’t exactly adding up about the Duke of Puzzles.

Point #1: Anagrams

I initially began to become suspicious of Rouxls Kaard because of his odd name. Sure, it is a play on the words of the term, “Rules card”. But it is spelt in such a peculiar way. If it were just simply a play on words, I think that there would be a much better way of going about spelling it rather than just jumbling a bunch of random letters together. There is a very intriguing reddit post found here that goes more into depth about his name that ties well into my theory. The thing that stood out to me in particular, is that Rouxls’s name is actually also an anagram for “A Dark Soul RX”, (with the left over RX typically being used in terms relating to doctors/medicine.) Not only is Gaster a Doctor, but he’s also always associated with darkness and the research of souls. Toby loves his anagrams—so I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if this was intentional. But it doesn’t end there.

I’ve noticed that Toby Fox has a tendency to tease certain things about his games through merch. And wouldn’t you know it—he has in fact, a particular item on fangamer of a “dark heart.” One which description describes the Angel’s Prophecy. Hm...

But let’s back on track onto my second observation, shall we?

Point #2: The Physical Resemblance to Gaster

Now, there seems to be some interesting foreshadowing related to inverted colors in Deltarune. Before Ralsei takes his hat off, he appears black. But once he takes his hat off, voila, his colors are inverted, and he is revealed to actually be a white goat highly resembling Asriel.

In addition, the entire Dark World is literally just. An inverted version of a normal world.

The Dark World could have hypothetically been the created world/experiment that Gaster had fallen into in the first place. After all, his experiment had to do with “darkness”, and “negative” photons--AKA the Dark Fountains, and the negatively/inverted landscapes of the Dark World.

And how does Rouxls Kaard appear inverted anyways? Well, he looks like THIS.

He even has the strange dangling lip thing—which another character said to directly resemble Gaster, Seam, has as well:

In addition, if you look at Rouxls’ text-box profile very closely, his eye colors are actually mismatched which is a rather interesting detail!

Point # 3: His Accent is Extremely put on.

I think anybody that has read any sort of Shakespearean/Old English writing, can instantly realize that Rouxls is as bad as imitating an Old English accent as a high-schooler reading Hamlet for the first time. Rouxls absolutely butchers it. He practically adds eth, and est at the end of any word he chooses, and calls the job done. What is even more interesting though, is when he gets nervous or panicked, he drops the act all together and talks normally.

Point #4: He is Pretending to be Dumb; His Puzzles are Actually Impressive!

I found it intriguing how there are countless puzzle traps in all the forest areas and in the Card Castle prison that were actually very well done. You have to flip the spades, diamonds, hearts, etc to unlock doors, and open secret chests. They require a decent amount of thinking skills, and are actually competent. But who made them?? Oddly enough if you observe one of them in the forest areas, it appears that Rouxls Kaard vandalized one of the puzzles to make it harder for the player to beat it—which further implies that he actually indeed made those puzzles himself. This shows that Rouxls is much more competent than only being able to make a single box shove puzzle that is comically easy. Where else do we see a place full of plenty of rather well made puzzles + traps seen? All throughout the Core in Undertale—a place which Gaster himself created!

Point #5: Rouxls IS Aware the World is a Game--AKA DON’T FORGET TO READ NPC DIALOGUE FOLKS!

I think it is well aware by now that Rouxls likely wants us as the players to underestimate him--and deem him a fool so we wouldn’t bat an eye at what he’s actually up to. But the most biggest give away to this is something that I have surprisingly seen no one mention at all. And oh boy, it is the most damning evidence that Rouxls is no idiot to be trifled with.

To the left of Seam’s shop, there can be found a little group of former puzzle-makers that used to live at Card Castle, until they were fired and replaced with Rouxls Kaard. They are now all out of a job, and are just barely scraping by since the Spade King didn’t give them any severance pay. However, Rouxls Kaard offered them a way to get money--by selling the tutorials he made.

These tutorials go over TP, stats, information about Susie, Ralsei,  and Kris. Rouxls Kaard has never once met any of the players yet--and he knows everything about them. He knows about stats. He knows the world is a game.

HOW??

In addition, when you talk to Rouxls in his shop, he calls you three the Heroes of Legend. He is well aware of the Angel’s Prophecy. He knows.

Whenever any character in the world of Undertale & Deltarune knows that the world is a game, it is an instant red-flag. It goes to show that they know much more than they let on. Flowey and Sans are big examples of this in Undertale. Pure hearted, dorky idiots that we trust earlier in the game--but wind up seeing the real side of them later on.

...So why should we treat Rouxls any differently?

Point #6: The “Control Crown”

Something that I immediately thought was kind of weird, was the fact that Rouxls Kaard was able to control the K. Round with a “Control Crown” device. If he is so stupid, how was he able to create a full on mechanical device that can brainwash a life-form into being violent/cause it to triple in size?! That is genius material right there!

But things start to take on a much darker side when you begin to look at the subtext of this realization, which I will get to in a moment...

First of all, Seam claimed these exact words.

The remaining king was the Spade King-- as the King of Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs are seen to be locked up in the Dungeon. Therefore, the Spade King put the Knight, and his strange son into power. IF it were the Spade King in power, the dialogue box WOULD have said “himself”. Therefore, the Knight, and his strange son were put in place to control the kingdom. And who are they?

Gaster/Rouxls Kaard, and Lancer.

Evidence to back this up:

Lancer calls Rouxls his “Lesser Dad”. And Rouxls calls Lancer, his Strange little darling/son.

The Spade King is not in charge. During his boss-fight, he states that he obeys the word of the Knight.

If you observe more of Lancer’s dialogue in the scene right before the gang enters Card Castle, he states that his dad, (Spade King), recently forced his troops to listen to Lancer instead. Therefore, Lancer is by all respects actually second in command to the Knight.

One of Rouxls main interests is...Lawmaking. Even though he is just supposedly an innocent Duke of Puzzles.

Another one of Rouxls main interests is...Cages, and long strolls in the dungeon... 

There are innocent puzzle-makers locked up in the Prison who are terrified--they were arrested for the simple act of making a puzzle without a license. HM, I wonder who could have possibly locked them up? *Wink wink nudge nudge*

And what ties this all together, is perhaps the most obscure, tiniest detail that no one would have likely observed on a first play-through. If you go to the first floor of Card Castle and click the description tablet next to the elevator to the Prison, it claims that the Prison used to just be a Basement Which Just Happened to Have a Lot of Cages. This is backed up by the caged animals in the basement, who say that they miss the “good old days” when they used to be the only ones there in cages, and not a bunch of people behind bars.

In summary, Rouxls is locking up a bunch of innocent people, and playing nice to our faces. He IS the knight. And he is not to be underestimated.

Point #7: Rouxls’ Plan is Already Set in Place

The part where this theory gets a little dark, ties back to my mentioning of the control crown earlier.

If you observe the throne room, it looks like it was recently torn apart in a sort of...conflict.

Why was the Spade King the only king left un-caged to begin with? Why wasn’t he locked up too?

Well...Rouxls Kaard needed someone to put him in charge. But not only that—he needed a scapegoat. Someone to blame. Someone to be “The Bad Guy” for the Heroes to fight.

The Spade King...is actually innocent. He is obeying the Knight, because he is being controlled by a Control Crown. The throne room is in ruins because the Spade King likely fought against this at first, but Rouxls won and successfully put the Spade King under his command. I thought it was strange how the King was so...violent. So irredeemably evil, and even murderous toward his own son Lancer. Yes, it could be argued that this is indeed his true personality, that he is a complete, abusive jerk. But, the whole ending battle of Deltarune chapter 1 feels so...set up in a way? It feels so starkly good vs evil, black and white. Almost like a play.

And oh boy. I think I was onto something.

If you pay close attention to the fight with the Spade King, there is a brief moment at the beginning where he is completely shrouded in shadow. Except. For. His. Crown. It glows stark white in comparison to himself. Like a Chekov’s Gun if you will.

And even more interesting, in the supposed good/pacifist ending, the Spade King is locked up in Prison, the other three kings are still locked up in cages, everyone else is freed, and Rouxls and Lancer now have full control of the kingdom...

Guys. We just played right into Gaster’s hands.

Point #8: Seam Knows that Rouxls is the Knight...

The final observation that genuinely makes me convinced in this theory, is a small detail I noticed at the end of the Pacifist run of Deltarune. Once you have beaten the game, and all of the prisoners are freed, everyone comes to celebrate at Card Castle for your victory. Everyone, except for Seam. That is because Seam knows what the “Strange Knight” did to Jevil. He knows who the Strange Knight is. And he knows what the Knight’s true intentions are.

Point #9: Extra Tidbits I noticed:

When compared to the other denizens of card castle, Rouxls seems out of place. He is the one vaguely humanoid character among a bunch of card and chess themed Darkners. 

His puzzle is... too easy.

Rouxls is oddly excited about overthrowing the king/taking his place. 

Rouxls is well versed in calligraphy of all things. (Relation to fonts + letters.)

Rouxls “sparkles” have an odd resemblance to the shining save states...?

He makes pop culture references, such as ones seen here and here. Could just be random throwaway jokes, but often times more “aware” characters such as Sans and Papyrus are keen on breaking the fourth wall at times/making references to relate with the audience.

His hair looks strangely out of place. Especially the hairline which is really receded to an unnatural degree on the left side. It’s a wig guys...

He gets a suspiciously new position for no reason at all. In any normal situation, he would be extremely unqualified for it if he were as stupid as he makes himself out to be.

Rouxls is literally wearing armor, akin to a medieval knights.

If you pay close attention, Rouxls has a few very subtle similar speech patterns to Gaster. They both occasionally repeat words twice. They both use the words wonderful and truly a lot, etc.

When Kris and the gang beat the K. Round, Rouxls said it was just to test their abilities.

Rouxls theme has leitmotifs from Gaster’s theme.

End of discussion. Deltarune’s finale is legit going to be Gaster getting his wig snatched.

[psychcomposer]

Alright, I have too many feelings about a video game that’s going to come out in a month that I really just need to get out. It’s been over a decade and one of my favorite games, The World Ends With You, is finally getting a sequel. I’ve been brooding on the trailers for months, and I just finished the demo, so it is time to put down my capital T Thoughts on Neo: The World Ends With You.

As a warning, this will be entirely too long. But I’m not about to keep this bound up any longer.

TWEWY is my favorite title for the Nintendo DS. It is a JRPG starring Neku Sakuraba, an aggressively antisocial teen living in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. He is suddenly pulled into a test of survival called The Reaper’s Game, where he is forced to join forces with a partner in order to survive a week of lethal objectives in a sub-planar version of Shibuya. I love the story, its such an honest and interesting take on learning to get outside of your comfort zone. But more than that, it is a game that does so much to put a modern twist on every piece of your typical JRPG. You control two characters at once, Neku with the touch screen and his partner with the control pad, forcing you to split your attention and giving mechanic weight to the idea that Neku can’t survive alone. Armor and weapons are replaced with clothes and outfits, with a character’s ability to wear them restricted not by class but by a character’s bravery. The music list is filled with punk, alt-rock and hip-hop that are a stark contrast to the symphonic tracks of other titles. Battles aren’t random impediments, but fun diversions that sport a robust reward system that encourages players to push their limits.

But even more than that, the most modern thing I appreciate about TWEWY has to be the characters. Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme all feel like believable teens that grew up in the 2000′s. They bicker, clash, and banter like teens struggling to survive and make sense of their situation. One of my favorite little gimicks of the story is just how many nicknames there are for every character. Almost everyone has earned a few nicknames. One of my favorite examples is Sho Minamimoto. He’s a reaper with an obsession with math, often infusing his speech with mathematical jargon or expressions, and seems to enjoy erecting “art installations”, which most people can only decipher as towers of trash. Over the course of the story, he gets called Pi-face, the Grim Heaper, and another nickname I can’t even mention because of spoilers. It’s just... such a nice little human touch, these kids throwing crafted insults at a human enforcer of their doom that could almost certainly tear them apart.

I’m getting into this to try to give a sense of why I enjoy TWEWY so much, why it has such a unique place in my heart. Its a game I’ve 100% completed several times over, a task that’s no easy feat with the sheer amount of collectibles and post-game objectives. Unfortunately, for the last year or two, I’ve been kind of dreading this sequel.

Neo:TWEWY has been... a long time coming. Way back in 2007 they had a whole website counting down to some sort of announcement, with the music slowly building in intensity. I remember following it with bated breath, until it finally hit zero! And we got... An ios port of the game. Talk about a let-down. To be fair, apparently it is a solid port, even managing to re-work the old battle system, one that required a second screen to work properly, into one that only needed one. But what that really offered to someone like me was the hint of a sequel, a single image of a new character being shown. They kept flirting with the idea of bringing the series back. The main cast even featured in a Kingdom Hearts game, of all things, even if they didn’t really do a whole lot. But these acknowledgments grew sparser and sparser.

A few years ago, they released a switch port of the game. Not only that, it included an epilogue! They were finally getting a sequel rolling! Of course I bought that game, beat it yet again, and fought my way to the new content and the hint of the new story ahead.

It was... Well. I found it disappointing.

The gameplay was competent, even if it was clear that the epilogue itself really hadn’t had too much put into it. One new character,  new enemies just being reskins of old ones. It wasn’t meant to be dlc itself or anything, it was just there to herald a return to the series. That wasn’t what bugged me. What bugged me was the writing. It was heart-wrenching. It just didn’t feel right. It just felt flat compared to the story I’d enjoyed so many times. But what really killed my excitement was the new character, Coco.

Now, odd personality quirks are not too unusual among the ensemble of TWEWY. Pi-face is just one of the characters that is so infused with a particular theme that it shows in how they express themselves. It’s part of the charm of them, discovering the personalities that live in this dark underworld of Shibuya. But Coco... she talks like the most stereotypical young teenager possible. unironic lols, totez (yes, spelt exactly like that, in a speech format), OMG’s, and just, like, likes everywhere! It felt like someone who knew they needed to make a quirky character but had no idea how to write one well, and just made the most stereotypical caricature possible. I hated seeing that. It embodied every fear I had about the sequel being just a cynical project, pushed forward after so many years  by people who just didn’t understand what made the original great. That mild dread was so persistent that even the release of the first few trailers couldn’t really get me excited for the game. Neo:TWEWY was shifting into 3d from the original 2.5d, with all the problems that could cause. What I could see of the story felt so much more like a generic fantasy tale with some modern buildings than the story I had grown through my teenage years with. And, well... Just look the original Neku and the new one they showed off.

Look at this. Look at one of the most vibrant, eye-catching character designs on the market for any JRPG in history, one that manages to mix purple and orange with striking lights and darks. And then look at the teenager edgelord bullshit they did with him. It’s atrocious. I hate it. He’s just another guy in a black outfit and just too much fucking cool guy protagonist power to not have the story be about him at this point. And look, I know that there’s Story LoreTM, I know that there could be some twist that explains this, I know that him being such a denial of his old self could be the entire fucking point. But let me tell you, when I saw this, I felt years of shifting, misplaced unease coalesce into a hard lump of dread.

And... Even... So... I did the stupidest thing I could have possibly done and preordered the game anyway. Don’t look at me like that, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

But you know what? The damnedest thing happened. They released a demo for the new game a month before its release. And I played it, and... I enjoyed it.

Did you see that coming? I certainly didn’t. Welcome to the roller coaster.

Right off the bat, the writing soothed a lot of the fears I had. It felt right at home, like being plopped between to teens exchanging banter. One of the first exchanges is Rindo and Fret, his best friend, trying to meet up. Fret wants Rindo to meet him at  someplace called Wunafo, an area Rindo is clueless about. After some annoyed texting, it turns out Fret is actually referring to 104, a local landmark of a building. Fret insists that its a stylish improvement on the name. Rindo only gives him some grief about it..

I’m not doing the scene justice, or I could just be really desperate for half-decent writing, but I can’t deny that it quickly put a smile on my face. I am almost sure I’ve had this conversation before in years past myself. And beyond that, this game boasts voice acting that brings out a ton of personality in the large cast they are introducing (besides Rindo, which is a shame because he’s the protagonist... hopefully he gets over his apathetic teenager shtick eventually). Not everything is voiced, but it conveys so much appeal and personality, and even when the character’s aren’t voiced there is a conversation screen that occasionally breaks out some stylish layouts to convey mood and temperment and clearly draw from the style that made the original game pop so much.

The battles, of course, have been completely revamped. TWEWY had you control two characters, one of which you could customize by equipping up to 6 different pins that all used different motions and unleashed different attacks. Now you control up to four characters, but each one can only use one pin. But even so, it feels very genuine to its roots. An effective build in TWEWY was usually one that let you stagger an opponent so you can unload a bunch of attacks on them, and in Neo:TWEWY the game actively pushes you to folllow up attacks with characters in succession. It would be easy for this to devolve into a mash-fest, but even with the little time I had with the game it introduced a wrinkle in that- an attack that unleashed a single powerful blow, but couldn’t just be unleashed at the end of the previous combo. It needed to be charged for a while, long enough for the combo timer to deplete. So now an effective combo requires thinking ahead, and even after that you’re paying attention to enemies to dodge out of the way when they strike back. It’s entirely possible this system will flop in the late game, but so far it is robust enough for me to think that it will be one that could make me look forward to battles.

The music hasn’t impressed me so far, besides the tracks that have made the transition from the original. But I remember those strange tracks needing some time before I appreciated them too.

Finally, the story has hooked me. I don’t think that needs much more explanation. I want to see more of these characters and see the changes that have been made to the world in what I assume is years after Neku’s game. And to address the elephant in the room, Neku has not made his appearance in what is available in the demo. Odds are I will probably hate whatever they do with him. But there is enough happening in the space around it that I’m interested in exploring, and a bruised apple can still taste sweet.

Almost all of this, of course, is mostly just saying that Neo:TWEWY is not doomed to fail. There is still plenty of room for things to go wrong later on. There are entire systems I haven’t really seen in game, like shops, pin evolution, clothing and food (Though it looks like they have changed the food system significantly, which I approve of). The things that unnerved me so much in the trickle of information after this game’s announcement could still be enough to turn this sour. But I’m smiling as I’m strapping myself in for this ride now, one I’ve waited quite a long time for. Whatever’s coming, I’m excited.

[annsparksthegmr]

Pokemon Black Nuzlocke - Part 4

Hello! Surprise everyone I got another Nuzlocke update. And for a quick minor spoiler. I tackled two Gyms down in the next part. Might surprise you but I got a feeling the last two Gyms may pose a challenge. But you can read more below!

Back into we go with a Vanillite encounter at the Cold Storage. Once again, I caught a female one and decided to name her BananSplit. Totally spelt it wrong but that shall be her name for now on. Then I went inside of the building to go deal with Team Plasma and level up my team. After that I went to the Gym, watched Ghetsis truly do “totally not villainous” things before busting down the door to challenge his Gym. After buying a bunch of Moomoo Milks because they are surprisingly affordable for the time being.

I managed to reach Clay with no casualties. But then came our battle and immediately after his Krokorok used Swagger, he got a critical hit Bulldozer which Captain thankfully survived. I switched into Queen to handle the incoming Palpitoad and heal Captain back up. Queen then easily took out Palpitoad, but then came Excadrill. Which I’ve heard can be an end runner if I wasn’t careful - or at least I thought so. My main goal was to use Leech Seed and have Queen slowly take it out. After all, she resists most of its moves besides Slash. And I can switch into Captain if her HP gets too low. But thankfully Leech Seed secured the victory after using a hefty Grass Knot.

Another Gym secured with no casualties! I am so happy for my team. Queen and Captain really helped pull their weight. It might be because I get over prepared at times. Maybe a bit too much with items, but I feel like it's fair to use items. I headed to Route 6 and had a battle with Bianca. Not sure if I was supposed to do this before the Gym Battle, as all my team was around level 30 and her team was level 28. But she was easy to deal with.

Route 6 arrived so far all I am getting are Vanillites, which I use dupes to ignore for another. I understand it is because I am playing in winter so most options don’t appear. But I ended up running into a Foongus. A male one, who I decided to cheekily name Voltorb for the encounter. Never really going to use it right now but it shall hang out in the box.

Clay opened the way to Chargestone Cave and I got the TM Bulldoze. And I remember why I like Clay so much. Just like with all the other Gym Leaders. Oh, also N sent ninjas - I mean Shadow Triad - so we could chat. Here comes when N reveals Cheren is ideals, Bianca is truth and the main protagonist is somewhere in between. And it's kind of scary after N apparently walks off and teleports away then Bianca and Professor Juniper appear to explain the floating blue gemstone mechanic. I really miss stuff like this. I get the Lucky Egg and manage to find my encounter for Chargestone Cave - a Klink. Never got one of them before, so I nicknamed it Geartown.

After defeating more of Team Plasma I finally fought against N. We beat him no problem. I arrived in Mistralton City. Skyla had her little speech which led me to Route 7. On the way, Odette evolved into a beautiful Swanna. And I got my encounter as a double - with a male Watchhog and a female Cubchoo. I decided to go with the Cubchoo because I have found memories of my Beartic on my first one. Plus, if memory serves - a Beartic can learn some potential HMs. I named the adorable Cubchoo Snowball and she’ll rest in the PC until I need her.

Arriving at Celestial tower, I climbed up to the top and on my way caught a male Litwick. Decided to name Gracey after Master Gracey - neat Haunted Mansion reference because why not. At the very least, if Ramona faints before I reach the end I can use him. Or if the Modest nature on Ramona becomes too big of a problem to ignore. Plus Ramona also has Hustle as an ability. Though speaking of Ramona, she evolved into a Darmanitan. I reached the top and rang the bell. I really miss stuff like this. But a quick check of the PC revealed how both my Fire-Types have their natures lowering their respective attack/special attack. Whelp. Guess I have to wait and hope Reshiram will have a decent nature.

But now, I’m about to do something risky. I’m going to take down Skyla’s Gym at the same time. I already have a decent pick of Pokemon already prepared for this. Which hopefully, she won’t be too much trouble. By the way, what are the odds of a Trandquill getting off three Detects in a row? Just curious. There were no problems and with my confidence boosted so high in the sky, I challenged Skyla to showcase the power and potential of my Nuzlocke team. And I’d like to say, Pebbles and Zigzagzop clearly brought Skyla down to ground level.

Two gyms down a single update? I might be getting a bit too cocky, considering how N nearly spooked me as I exited the Gym. He wanted to chat with Pebbles - and seriously N, call Pebbles by her nickname and not Boldore. She takes great offense after defeating Skyla. He left about spouting about the Light and Dark Stones.

I plan to end things on this high note for the time being! I am only slightly considered regarding the next two Gyms. Brycen is Ice-Type, but with Ramona I feel okay with challenging it. But the bonus of Ramona getting Sheer Force now, I’m fairly confident in her performance. Though I may train up Gracey a bit, since I don’t think having Zigzagzop would be totally okay. My Zebstrika might have Flame Charge, but I don’t think it would help out as much as another Fire Type. 

Though after that will come the final Gym Leader. Who I currently have is either an Ice or Dragon Type in my party. Meaning that Drayden could honestly kick my butt if I went with how I had now. *has flashbacks to his Gym Battle* His Haxorus is scary… I do, at the very least, have BananSplit and Snowball currently relaxing in my PC. I may have to plan to do some extensive level grinding to get up prepared for that challenge. If I don’t end up suffering any unsuspecting battles which end up taking out members of my team.

Maybe it is my experience with casually playing Pokemon and trying to keep a balanced team of Pokemon which has me pretty much not having any deaths so far. Though, I won’t be surprised if an upcoming battle decides to add a bunch into the death category. But for now, I played enough for the time being. Next time, I plan to at the very least challenge Brycen or hopefully get a considerable chunk of the way through to the eighth Gym. Not entirely sure if I’d be up to face Drayden - since I am playing Pokemon Black, which means no Iris fight. 

But overall for my team, I can’t help but feel extremely proud of them so far. I knew for the later Gyms, Queen would have to practically be benched since Grass does not fare well against Flying, Ice or Dragon Type Pokemon. But she still carries herself well otherside of Gym Battles. Pebbles was definitely a surprise pick who I thought I’d bench her right after Lenora’s Gym. But this girl’s been proving her weight with her massive defenses enough where I want to keep her around. (And I swear if Pebbles dies, I will actually cry. She may not be able to fully evolve but I’ve grown attached to my rock). Zigzagzop was meant to be dropped after Elesa’s Gym, but he’s actually been proving himself with this latest Gym to keep around. I feel like he has a strong friendship with Pebbles considering I got them back to back. (Even with the funny Jaiden Animation reference.) Captain has been… well, I don’t really like his final evolution but having the Water/Ground typing makes him a good enough tank and Water-Type Pokemon to have on the team. Even if Odette is on the team. He might end up being Boxed, but it may just depend how things go. And Odette has already been showcasing why I needed a Flying-Type Pokemon on my team. Even if she is x4 weak to Electric. Even after fully evolving, she’s already showcasing her worth. 

The only dilemma I have will have to be addressed soon. But I really hope even with losing Puppy and Fountain, I won’t have to say goodbye to anyone through a death. I expect to have to switch some out for the upcoming Gyms. Until next time though, which, I do plan to draw what my final team will end up being. And who knows? Maybe I’ll end up finishing the main story of Pokemon Black right on Christmas? Wouldn’t that be a treat? 

Smell ya later!

Team Recap:

Queen - Female Servine (Lvl 35)

Pebbles - Female Boldore (Lvl 36)

Zigzagzop - Male Zebstrika (Lvl 36)

Captain - Male Palpitoad (Lvl 35)

Ramona - Female Darmanitan (Lvl 35)

Odette - Female Swanna (Lvl 35)

In Box/Reserve:

Ghost Girl - Female Liepard (Lvl 20)

Cassandra - Female Sandile (Lvl 21)

Trashie - Female Trubbish (Lvl 22)

Lowen - Male Cottonee (Lvl 20)

Lady - Female Minccino (Lvl 23)

BananSplit - Female Vanillite (Lvl 21)

Voltorb - Male Foongus  (Lvl 23)

Geartown - Klink (Lvl 26)

Snowball - Female Cubchoo (Lv 30)

Gracey - Male Litwick (Lvl 26)

Deaths: 2

Fountain - Male Sampour (Lvl 15)

Puppy - Female Herdier (Lvl 25)

[konako]

Hallo, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever. Do you want to cry and scream a bit? Because, well, you made me think of all the Red ships all at once. Including the minor ones like Red Swan. And then I had to think about a world where they all happened.

And it’s funny how depending on the genre you’re in, the same situation can be so wildly different. Because at first I giggled, since I thought about it as a comedy. Like when Snow has calmed down that Ruby had sex with Emma, she’s also “well, I mean, if my daughter has to have sex with someone… at least I know it’s someone who… well, can take care of her…. like *that* and makes sure it is actually pretty damn fun”. And they compare notes and omg Red is so good at finding all their weak spots. It’s not like she has this playbook she uses on all of them, oh no, every seduction is personalized. Damn, that’s sexy.

But what if this is actually the greatest tragedy of Red’s life?! Hm? HMMM??? Wanna think about that?!

Because Red’s first kiss is with Peter. And she has all these fantasies about the one true love and running away with him and building a life and finding happiness. Because True Love and Happiness are THE biggest trademarks in the Enchanted Forest.

Yep, well, so that didn’t happen. She eats him. Oops. At least she is running away from home. But with Snow. Whom she crushes on. HARD. And there are nights they snuggle up. And okay, some kisses and all. Wow, even more. Guess this is the sinful lifestyle Granny talked about. She didn’t mention that this was fun! They never define what they have, but it makes them feel good.

But it ends when Charming enters the picture. Red isn’t actually jealous or truly hurt. It stings a bit having her life changed, but there is war and she is here for Snow. And her shot at happiness is something to fight for. (Red’s is dead, right?)

Then they are cursed and Ruby’s existence revolves around everybody calling her a slut - including Granny - because, yeah, okay, her clothes are provocative, she likes her boobs and cleavage and heavy make-up and flirting and all the attention. But there is never a relationship or anything. Ruby wants to leave town one day to find that. There is nobody really interesting enough for her here.

And when the curse does break, wow, what whiplash. Her style changes a bit. Dark, heavy, layers, more covered up, but not hiding all her curves. And she has to get used to the wolf all over, but omg isn’t Belle the sweetest darling? Who herself is trying to get over a bad relationship. Gold… pffffffff….. so Ruby and Belle get very close. It’s nice. Awkward dates in the library they keep calling “just hanging out”. The first tentative kiss while walking through the park at night, because there’s a meteor shower. And Ruby wishes to freeze this frame.

But wow, who could’ve known, Gold does change. He does noble shit, sacrificing his power. And Belle is so happy for him. What could Ruby do except to push Belle towards the happy ending the fairy tales promised her. When her beast can be free. Because surely she wasn’t the right beast, her curse is permanent, no kiss can take the wolf away (not that she really wants to).

Red’s shot at her happy ending is dead. There is no one true love. There’s only the distant memory of a very random hook-up she had with Emma during the curse and now they never speak about that, because it would be too awkward if Snow knew. Yet, such a random hook-up might help her get over losing Belle. (She was never hers anyway, it was spelt out from the start, right?)

And that is how she finds herself nursing a drink on the porch of the B&B, when Regina walks by. She is upset after an argument with the Charmings and tries to walk it off, instead of just poofing back home. A bit afraid she might crash her car. Ruby catcalls her and an empty bottle of scotch and an hour later they have raw hate sex upstairs.

Regina understands. Fuck, this whole thing started because Daniel died. Regina’s big true love died and everybody had to pay the price. Ruby feels pity, because Regina didn’t have those blissful years of forgetting it all. So she gives her a few moments of shutting her brain off due to orgasms. It’s such an unhealthy coping mechanism.

So they break it off, because they both get a bit too lost in this. Too much pain and misery and using each other. And Regina is trying to be better. To be part of a family. Ruby can’t keep calling in the middle of the night, climbing through Regina’s window and fucking her unconscious.

There is no place for Ruby to go. Whatever she has lost, it isn’t here. And she says tearful goodbyes without any kisses and months later Mulan rescues her. Oh Mulan, that beautiful hurt soul. Ruby talks herself into needing a wolf pack and she brings Mulan along, because that girl needs a purpose just as much.

It’s not as tragic as it is with Regina, because nobody died. But the night when Mulan finally confesses that her heart broke because of Aurora, Ruby holds her for hours and lets her cry. Mulan carries this weird sense of shame and Ruby could never be more tender than she is when she spoons up behind Mulan, gently stroking her arms, her stomache, just showing that human touch can be so wonderful. And never before has she so directly asked permission to kiss someone. And it’s amazing when Mulan says yes.

But there is this problem. What even are they doing? They haven’t found werewolves. Nowhere close to a lead. Mulan has her own home that she has been avoiding for so long. The land they are currently in is foreign to them both. They long for a place to settle, but both are incapable of forming roots. They just don’t know how and they are alone out here, even if they are together. It’s so scary. Mulan seemed a bit happier in Dun'broch, Merida might have a place. Ruby is still too mad at the witch to follow.

Red killed Peter. And in fairy tales there is only one true love. She never had a chance… right?

[kwameafrica]

Gaining Muscle on a Vegan Diet

“When I began my vegan journey after 20 years of being a vegetarian athlete, the transition was surprisingly smooth relative to my power output, performance, and overall strength and mechanics.

From Bodybuilder to Fighter

As a teenage bodybuilder, weight training had always been a large part of my regimen and who I am as an athlete. When I transitioned into fight sports around 19, I learned that my muscle power needed to be explosive without hindering my speed and agility. Fluid movement is a must: turning angles, abruptly snapping your right hand, and shifting your hips in one fast motion to drop your opponent. My body also had to be hardened to cope with the punishment I’d receive in the ring and in the cage.

When I decided to completely cut out animal products in my early 30s, I never second-guessed my decision to go vegan, because it was an ethical choice to abstain from using any animal product. Nonetheless, I wanted a body based on symmetrical science and to still be the strongest guy in the cage. I hoped my mission to go plant-based would be a plus and not a hindrance to developing powerful muscles.

When I won my first USA Boxing Metro fight at 34 years old and went on to win several MMA matches, including Extreme Cage Fighting bouts, I knew veganism wasn’t a weak man’s diet.

Emphasizing Protein

In America, and much of the Western world, veganism is generally thought of as a weakling’s diet — not just in the strength community.

Science holds that protein is not only a source of regenerating new cells but also the primary source for building muscle tissue. In the late 1900s the “father of nutrition”, Carl Voit, established 52 grams of protein as the requirement for adequate consumption. Nonetheless, Voit recommended 120 grams a day for the average person. During this time, animal protein was associated with physical strength and body size and a higher biological value. This notion of animal protein being the best source for our bodies continues to this day.

Are Plant-Based Proteins Incomplete?

To the strength community, a plant-based or vegan lifestyle is sometimes seen as inferior when it comes to “complete protein,” a term that indicates a protein has all of the essential amino acids in roughly equal amounts. But the notion of “complete protein” is irrelevant for two significant reasons.

Firstly there are plenty of “complete” vegan proteins, like soy, quinoa, and buckwheat. But all plant foods contain all the essential amino acids, including the branched chain amino acids — just not always in equal amounts.

But there’s a solution. Plant-based meals like Mexican bean burritos, Jamaican rice and peas, chana saag (chickpeas, spinach, and Basmati rice) are complete meals in terms of amino acids. Legumes tend to be low in methionine and high in lysine, while rice is low in lysine and high in methionine, so combining them makes a “complete” protein.

These meals also provide an excellent source of fiber, iron, B-vitamins, and other vitamins and minerals while being complete protein meals.

Are Plant-Based Proteins Less Digestible?

For power and strength athletes, plant protein is normally written off as useless protein because of the myth about plant protein’s lack of digestible indispensability. In a 2015 rodent study conducted for the American Society for Nutrition, Shane M. Rutherford, et al compared the digestible indispensable amino acid quality of several plant and animal proteins. The study produced scores for each protein from both the ileum (small intestine) and fecal matter.

Interestingly, they found that pea protein concentrate, roasted peanuts, and soy protein isolate were all comparable to animal proteins, landing scores in the mid-to high 90-percentage in both ileum and fecal tests. Not only did the study show high digestibility as protein sources, but pea protein concentrate and soy protein isolate produced higher scores of true nitrogen digestibility in both ileum and fecal matter tests than whey protein concentrate and milk protein concentrate.

Cooked peas and cooked rolled oats scored 88% in their ileum tests, only 11 points lower than whey protein isolate. Rice protein concentrate produced a 95% score in fecal tests. Kidney beans and rice protein ranged from 70% to 88% in both ileum and fecal matter tests. Although, whey protein isolate produced a relative score of 99% and 102% in ileum and fecal tests, is it really worth using whey when it edges out pea protein by a measly 2-3 percentage points?

The Rutherford study suggests that plant-based amino acids can provide mammals with mostly usable protein.

B-12, Iron, Calcium & Vitamin D

Can a plant-based diet be a long-term solution? Regardless of the misinformation, vitamin B12 derives from bacteria and can be sourced straight from rich soil, mushrooms, nutritional yeast and seaweed, but in any case, vitamin supplements are cheap and easy to obtain.

Most legumes such as lentils, black beans, and kidney beans have above sufficient amounts of iron. For your calcium and numerous phytonutrients, dark leafy greens rank among the highest food sources per 100-gram serving. With regards to another nutrient thought to be missing from a vegan lifestyle, vitamin D, we can be absorb it just like a plant or Superman: directly from the sun.

Plant-Based Recipes

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes when I need carbs and protein to fuel a workout.

Pea Patty (sandwich) recipe

Grab a cup of cooked peas, mix in seasonings, mash them, add to a pan on medium-high with a little olive oil. Top with lightly cooked red onions, kale and tomato and slide it in-between breads made from whole grain, kamut, spelt, oat, or teff flour. Now you have enough delicious protein to match a monster workout.

Calories: 134 Carbohydrates: 25 grams (76%) Fat: 0.4 grams (2%) Protein: 8.6 grams (22%)

Sweet Plantains & Spinach

Choose a large darkened yellow plantain and slice several pieces and a cup of spinach cut down. On medium-high, fry the plantains in a little coconut oil on both sides until brown. After draining the excessive oil on a paper towel or napkin toss them in sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder. In a separate pan on medium stir-fry onions and a little garlic. Add a cup of chopped spinach.

Calories: 225 Carbohydrates: 193 grams (76%) Fat: 8.5 grams (6%) Protein 19.5 grams (18%)

Wrapping Up

It is possible as an athlete focused on developing better power and strength to incorporate a healthy diet and not miss a step in maintaining strength. Just increase your healthy macros, get plenty of rest, and kill it in the gym.

Featured image via @omowaleadewale on Instagram.”

https://omowale.org/

source

[theloveofscience]

The Great Gift Hunt

At last the day had come to put his plan into action. The plan he had been carefully working on since White Day last year, that moment when his friend had managed to overwhelm him with his thoughtfulness. He was determined to turn the tables this time.

There had been a potential flaw in this plan, since there had been no way of knowing what Shugarl’s schedule for Valentine’s Day would be like until the Faculty arranged it in January. Luckily for him, the other professor’s classes only started around 10AM which would be more than enough time to accomplish the Valentine’s Day Hunt he had compiled. 

Now before Shugarl arrived, it was time to get to work setting things up.

First on the agenda was Shugarl’s office, the place he would be entering first upon his arrival on campus. As soon as he entered, Komui made his way over to the desk and spread out a cloth to protect the wooden surface before proceeding to arrange an assortment of chocolate-coated cinnamon cookies that he had baked himself. He had made several batches to ensure that the final version would come out just right as it wouldn’t do to gift mediocre cookies to someone who was skilled at baking. 

The key point was that these were no ordinary cookies. They had been baked in a mold to form letters of the Greek alphabet and with some of them arranged on the protective sheet like so:

Lambda Alpha Beta Omicron Rho Alpha Tau Omicron Rho Ypsilon Omicron Nu Epsilon

It spelt out the location of the next gift and clue which was Laboratory One. The lab in question was one of his primary ones and since no practicals were being conducted in it that day, made it the most convenient to use especially since the next gift was on the bulky side.

With a cheerful grin, the scientist strode off to his next destination with the second part of his hunt in hand. Upon arrival, he carefully set the container down and admired it with some appreciation. He had put a lot of thought into this container, which his friend would need to put some effort into opening.

The container itself was simple enough but it had a locking mechanism which would only open upon inserting the ‘key’ into the space provided. The key in this instance were four segments hidden throughout the room which when joined together would form a ‘pie’. He had conveniently left a note underneath the key hole which read:

Inside the container, three gifts had been concealed which Komui was admittedly fairly proud of considering he had made them with one of his talents that he seldom got to use - sewing. The first was a pair of oven gloves, a deep red in colour with the pi joke embroidered on with white thread. The second was an elaborate table cloth. 

The third gift wasn’t actually for Shugarl or at least not directly. It was for Jupiter. This was perhaps the trickiest of all the gifts as he wasn’t as familiar with the younger girl’s tastes. He thought of the soft yellow dress with it’s flowing chiffon skirt patterned with embroidered pink and purple flowers, the delicate bow and puffy sleeves and hoped she was pleased with it.

The last clue was tucked into one of the gloves and simply read: ‘You’ve got mail.’

Komui’s final destination was of course to the staff pigeon-hole cabinet to slip a sealed envelope into Shugarl’s compartment. Hidden inside the envelope was a card which read:

You’re a friend who I can turn to When my spirit needs a lift. A friend who I can treasure, For your friendship is a gift. You’re a friend who fills my life With beauty, joy and grace. Who makes the world I live in  A happier, better place. For me your precious friendship Is truly a delight. It would be my greatest pleasure If you would dine with me tonight~

With his preparation of the grand hunt completed, it was time for the scientist to head off to finalise preparing for his first lesson of the day. It was a pity that he wouldn’t get to see any of his friend’s reactions to the surprises that lay in store for him and since he planned on heading home as soon as his last class was over in order to prepare for dinner, he would have to wait even longer to find out.

Oh well...

The scientist allowed his mind to dwell on the plans he had for their dinner that evening which included marinated meat skewers, creamy spinach, roast potatoes and oven vegetables. He wasn’t at all fond of drinking alcohol but figured the situation warranted a diversion from their standard tea and coffee so he had sought and purchased a 100% natural and alcohol free sparkling grape juice. For dessert he planned on a standard chocolate mousse which was easy to make and he wouldn’t have to worry about messing up.

Komui had momentarily considered getting candles but quickly tossed the idea as it seemed too romantic a notion for a friendly dinner to thank his friend for his continuing friendship. Flowers though... there shouldn’t be anything wrong with a nice, fresh bouquet of flowers as a centrepiece to brighten up the table...

Hmmm... I’ll think I’ll buy some on the way home...

_______________________________________________________________

Sometime later found the scientist humming in the kitchen as he prepared the meal for that evening, feeling a mix of anticipation and nervousness for when his guest of honour finally arrived. He wondered if Shugarl had enjoyed the gifts he had prepared and the process of obtaining them but he suppose he would find out in good time.

Now then...

Turning down the heat to keep the food warm until it was ready to be served, Komui was just about to remove his cooking apron when he heard the doorbell chime. His heart stopped momentarily from the unexpected surprise before it continued at it’s regular pace and then he carelessly tossed his apron to the side before he exuberantly went to welcome his friend.

The time had come...

[creamypudding]

Combo story sneak peek

I sort of finished the Clack/AkuRoku combo story I started in 2017, waylaid for The Two Penguins, and picked back up this year to complete it for a Big Bang, which died before it ever took off. I say sort of finished because I haven’t written the very last chapter yet, which is an epilogue set several years after the end, and which I am not very invested in writing at the moment (if at all). I haven't read through the entirety of this story yet. It’s still in first draft. I’m going to put this to bed for now and get going on some other projects I’ve yet to start/complete. The break will let me come back to it with fresh eyes and opinions and I hope a feeling of wanting to refine it. 

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I don’t feel very satisfied finishing this story. Well... ok, thinking about it, I think I do know why I feel this way. In part, it’s because this story isn’t satisfying. It’s not got a happy end. But I suspect the main reason is that I don’t feel like the emotion I wanted to transpose from my own experience into this story is adequately portrayed. At least that’s how I feel not having read the whole thing in one go, nor even the last chapter in one go. Maybe I need to be kinder on myself. Maybe the story isn’t even so bad. And if the story does lack the emotional punch like I suspect, it’s probably something I can fix in the subsequent drafts. Anyway, for anyone interested, you can have a sneak peek at the first chapter. May it pique interest. If anyone wants to be a pre-reader for me please get in touch with me. I would appreciate at least one person to read through this and give me feedback on the story, pacing, character development, and relationships. Title: Fleeting Moments (working title) Chapter: 1/(possibly)7 Fandom: FFVII/Kingdom Hearts - Modern AU Pairing: Cloud/Zack and Axel/Roxas Rated: Mature (drug use -smoking and drinking-) Word Count: 8,170 Summary: Cloud and Roxas meet Zack and Axel in a laundry, of all places.

CHAPTER 1 -

The mechanical whir and swish of the washing machines was almost hypnotic, and drowned out the dripping of a leaky faucet somewhere within the laundry room. Cloud, with his back pressed to the wall, sat on the wooden bench lining the side closest to the door.

The laundry was wholly unremarkable. It smelt of washing detergent and liquid softeners. Garish lights above only served to wash out the drab, peeling paint of the walls even further. The cold, gray concrete floor had lost all its polished sheen, and the change and vending machines had all seen better days.

Yet this was one of Cloud’s favorite spots. Winter was dismal up in the mountains, with long hallways and wide open expanses lying between the laundry and his temporary residential housing. So Cloud chose to sit, cocooned in the underground warmth of this room, while he waited for his clothes to be washed so he could move them into the dryer.

He got a lot of reading done down here, which was a definite benefit. Most sane people chose to go do other things than hang in the laundry while their things got clean. So it was mostly quiet and empty in the laundry, and for Cloud this spelt sanctuary from society and his own rather busy life.

People came and went, and Cloud took no notice. He only looked up whenever a machine beeped, checking if it was his one announcing the completion of its cycle. It was never his, so he continued on with his book, an auto-biography. He found himself deeply engrossed in it when eventually a beeping did faintly register. He looked up again, like so many times before, searching out his machine. From where he sat he could make out the LCD display. There were still ten minutes left.

“Hey. Whatcha reading?”

Cloud jumped with a start and then frowned. Eyes darted to see where the question had come from. He found the source in seconds. A man stood by one of the machines facing the opposite wall. He was hauling clothes out of the toploader but looking directly at Cloud. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” came the apology, along with a smile, which lit up the man’s whole face. 

Cloud couldn’t fathom why he was being spoken to. “It’s fine. And, um… it’s a auto-biography of Ferdinand Papora.” Cloud flashed the front cover up, so the man could see it.

“Who’s that?”

“A racing car driver.”

“Pretty famous?”

“Obviously not famous enough if you’ve never heard of him.”

“Well he might be. I’m completely oblivious to that sort of thing. You like racing?”

“Not particularly.”

A confused look was followed up with the question, “So what’s with the book then?”

Cloud inspected the paperback cover before he spoke. “I just like to read biographies. Doesn’t really matter whose it is. And the library here has tons of different ones.” The man continued smiling. “That’s a cool way of expanding your horizons. I might take inspiration from you, if that’s all right.”

Cloud shrugged. “Go ahead. It’s not like I’ve got copyright over reading books on subjects I’ve no interest in.”

“Well, you must have some interest, right? I’ve been here for five minutes, trying to ask you a question but you were totally engrossed in that book.”

He felt slightly taken aback and said, “Oh. Sorry.”

“No worries. So the book’s a real page turner?” The man hoisted up a collapsible laundry basket and moved toward the dryer section.

“Mmm. It has its moments.”

“Think you’ll finish it?”

“Of course. I see things through to the bitter end.”

The man laughed. “That sounds dire. You a perfectionist?”

Cloud hummed thoughtfully. “Nah, I’m just a completionist.” “I stand corrected.” The man dumped his load of laundry into the dryer, inserted coins and pushed some buttons. “So this Ferdinand—ah…”

“Papora,” Cloud assisted.

“Yeah, him. What are some of his more notable moments?”

“Well,” Cloud inspected the book, to help jog his memory, “He survived three near-fatal crashes. Went through some pretty hefty rehab in hospital, and continues driving even to this day, despite the peg-leg.”

“Woah, seriously?”

“No. I made up the peg-leg, but the rest’s true.”

The man laughed loudly. It shook into Cloud a little. “What a shame. That would have made even me read the book.”

“It’s still a worthwhile read. The guy’s pretty… driven.”

Another laugh and a great big smile lifted and turned the other man’s rather tanned complexion a little darker. “Nice one.”

Cloud cracked a smile. He wasn’t usually this chatty, particularly with a stranger but… well he put it down to being in a relatively good mood.

The man closed the lid of the machine and leaned against it, looking across the room at Cloud. “I’m Zack, by the way.”

“Cloud,” he responded.

With raised eyebrows Zack said, “Nice name.”

Cloud gave a small sigh. His mood was about to go south. “Here we go,” he muttered.

The raven-haired man tilted his head to the side. “Go where?” 

“The weather related puns. Go on. I’ve heard them all.” He resigned himself to the inevitable. Cloud opened his book again to give a clear indication that he was done communicating.

“Really? That thought didn’t even cross my mind.”

Cloud laid eyes on him without lifting his head. “What was with that look, then?”

“What look?”

Cloud imitated what he had just witnessed.

Zack shrugged and pushed off the machine, walking toward Cloud. “It’s just how my face works. I think Cloud’s a cool name. They’re my favorite things about the sky, you know.” He came to a standstill a few steps away from Cloud.

Cloud skeptically scanned the man before him, dressed in dark jeans and a dark wool-knit turtleneck sweater. This close the man looked rather tall. It wasn’t even the thick heeled boots. He was probably really tall even without those on. Cloud wondered if he should he believe him. The man looked sincere enough; that soft smile plastered on the rather handsome face—broad cheeks, pointed jaw and nose—spoke of gentle earnestness. But with distrust in his voice Cloud questioned him, “Even more than stars?” Because everyone loved stars. It was a fact of life.

“Yeah. Even more than the stars and moon. Give me fluffy altocumulus or wispy cirrus clouds in a wide blue sky any day of the week. Even these nimbostratus clouds around here, bringing all the snow, are nice. But I do prefer the other ones. If I had to choose.” Zack tapped at lips, thoughtfully.

That response took Cloud by surprise. “Well, I’m impressed. Look at you, totally nerding out about clouds. You a meteorologist or something?”

“Nup. Just an amateur cloud fancier,” Zack grinned.

Cloud’s heart thumped a bit at that wording. He paid it no mind and returned a small smile of his own. Both men stayed like that for way too many moments. Cloud grew uncomfortable, desperately searching for something to say. He didn’t like people just looking at him. “What did you want to ask me?”

“Oh, right,” Zack slapped the side of his head. “I wanted to know if you’d have a drink with me this Saturday. I’ll be at the Clay Bar. Eight til late,” Zack positively beamed.

Cloud blinked, not comprehending. “What?”

“I mean, if you’re into it. If not then don’t worry.” The man’s toothy smile simmered down.

Had he heard right? Was he being asked out? By someone he just met? No way. Cloud opened his mouth to say… he knew not what.

“Cloud!” His name rang out several times, down the hallway, getting louder and louder by the second. 

Both men turned their heads to look at the source of the tumult. 

Roxas flew through the open doorway, “Cloud! Guess what! Sophia Tiller will be giving a symposium right here in the center!” By the time Roxas had finished that sentence he had slid with great force along the bench and was now in Cloud’s face, with hands resting on Cloud’s thighs.

“She is?”

“Yeah,” Roxas nodded eagerly.

Disbelief melted and excitement bubbled inside of Cloud. “We gotta get tickets.”

“Already sorted,” Roxas grinned.

“Nice one.” Cloud put his closed fist up and Roxas completed the gesture by fist bumping him.

The sound of a slight cough drew both men’s faces up and over.

Roxas frozen. The bubbling warm excitement gave way to overwhelming and sheer dread. Who was this guy? How long had he been there for? Had Roxas just embarrassed himself completely before a stranger? He looked to Cloud for a minute second.

Cloud saw the tension which seized Roxas. He gave him a quirked lip and a slight eyebrow raise to encourage him and let him know it was alright. That seemed to snap Roxas out of the panic. 

“Oh. Hey! Uh—” Roxas glanced between Cloud and the stranger. Could he regain some dignity? Could he just… avoid? “Did I… interrupt something?”

“Ah… this is Zack. Zack, this is Roxas. We were just…”

“I was just leaving. But it’s nice to meet you, Roxas,” Zack said with a big smile.

Cloud was relieved, because he didn’t know how he would have finished that sentence had he been left to his own devices.

“Ah,” Roxas let out, half in relief, half in reply.

The room was quiet other than the sound of the clunk-clunk-clunk of the dryer going around. The men all looked between each other. The whole situation felt unnaturally awkward.

A loud beeping startled everyone. Cloud saw that his load was finally done, so he got up and made his way over to the machine, thankful that it alleviated the weird tension. He walked right past Zack. It was unavoidable and made Cloud full aware of the man’s height. He barely came up to his shoulders, and in no way was he short, not like Roxas. 

“Do you need some help?” Zack asked as Cloud squatted down and pulled open the front loader door

“No, it’s what I’ve got Roxas for,” he said without looking up. “Roxas,” he commanded.

Roxas snapped out of his panicked thoughts which circled around telling him how he had embarrassed himself and how he was to blame for the absolutely stifling awkwardness which was in the room. “Coming,” he muttered and slid off the bench and shuffled over to Cloud, with his head bowed so as not to be seen by Zack. But Roxas still felt the towering presence. He reached Cloud, held out his arms and received the dumping of wet clothes. He then scurried over to the dryers, relieved to have his back to the source of his embarrassment.

Cloud stood up and followed Roxas with his eyes, but was brought back to himself as warmth radiated next to him. He turned and looked up at Zack out of the corner of his eye.

“Cute kid. He yours?” Zack nodded toward Roxas.

Cloud glowered. Roxas froze, somehow even more embarrassed. Kid? Roxas looked down at himself, dressed in his big blue Cookie Monster hoodie. He winced. 

“We’re brothers," Cloud almost growled.

“Oh.” Zack laughed and rubbed at his neck, “Shit, sorry for assuming. That’s embarrassing. Sorry. My mistake.”

Exasperated, Cloud said, “Can you just leave?”

“Oh.” The way Zack’s face fell felt a little comical to Cloud. “Yeah, sure. But.. before I do… are we… okay?” He looked at Cloud with concern, and then throwing his head in the direction of Roxas said, “Hey, Roxas, man, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Roxas was focusing all his energy on putting each individual item of clothing into the dryer separately. He waves with one hand, not turning to look at the other man, and said, “All good.” His face was burning up. He wanted to strip off his hoodie and dump it in the trash.

Cloud looked over at his brother; the tension in his shoulder, his slow movements. He could feel Roxas’ discomfort and embarrassment. Why was Zack still here? Maybe Cloud wasn’t being tough enough? He needed the other man gone. Cloud pressed his lips together, leaned against the washing machine with his arms folded across his chest and gave the other man a pointed staredown.

Zack took a step back as if Cloud’s stance had put up a physical barrier. “Uh-oh. I’ll leave, no worries. Bye, Roxas,” he said loudly, and then more quietly, “See ya around, Cloud, yeah? I hope we’re okay. Clay Bar. Eight to late on Saturdays.” Zack gave Cloud a little smile and a casual two-fingered salute and hurriedly left the laundry. His hasty footfalls echoed and faded down the hall.

Cloud let out a deep breath, peeled his eyes off the doorway and onto Roxas who turned around to face Cloud across the way. His cheeks were a deep, splotchy crimson. Cloud felt terrible for him.

The two brothers stared at each other for a few beats and then the smiles grew and the laughter started out of both of them.

“You really let him have it with your Cloud-stare-of-death,” Roxas giggled madly, feeling so good to have the anxiousness replaced by a different sensation.

"Well, he was making everything really uncomfortable."

Roxas stopped laughing. "I think that was just me."

"It wasn't."

"Oh." Roxas left it alone. They argued way too much about what was and wasn't his fault. Roxas supposed life would be easier if he could believe Cloud, but they were brothers, so Cloud would always say stuff to make him feel better. "Was that a friend of yours?" he deflected.

Cloud returned to the bench to collect his discarded book. “No. He’s just a random guy I literally only met about ten minutes ago.”

Roxas chuckled. “That’s so unlike you; making random friends in the laundry.”

“We’re not friends.”

“But he said something about going to the bar?”

Cloud didn’t want to think about it. “How’re you feeling?”

“Oh… yeah… okay, I guess? Now anyway. Do you think I dress like a little kid?” He pulled at his sweater, looking down at Cookies big smiley face.

“You shouldn’t worry about it. There’s nothing wrong with liking Cookie Monster.” “Yeah, but I’m twenty and a guy. I had to go to the women’s section to find all the cute stuff.” 

“Stop doubting yourself.” “You know I can’t do that. I wish it was easier.” Cloud sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. Is it getting better at all?”

“Little by little, I guess?” he shrugged.

Cloud smiled at his brother. “I definitely see the improvements you've made since you've been pushing yourself.”

The smile that should be on Roxas’ face never came. He just looked down at his sweater some more and frowned harder. “I still feel like I fall apart when you're not around.”

“Keep practicing. Worst case scenario; pretend I’m behind you, giving you this look—” Cloud gave him a dead serious and slightly angry scowl.

Roxas broke into a smile then and laughed. “Got it. The disappointed-dad glare. You do it so well.”

“I got it enough times to have mastered it.” Cloud rolled his eyes.

“He only looks at you like that because he loves you the most and expects the most from you.”

“Why couldn't you have been the older brother? It's all your fault,” Cloud threw out with a dismal and exaggerated sigh, ribbing Roxas.

Roxas stuck his tongue out as way of reply. “Hey, but that guy; Zack.”

Cloud sat down, trying to cast his mind back on that weird encounter. “What about him?”

“I think he’s got the hots for you.”

Cloud gave a startled cough. “Huh?”

“He was totally checking you out when you got the laundry out.”

“No.” “He did. I was stressing out but I still noticed. He totally was.”

Cloud groaned. “How about you get the dryer started or our clothes’ll never dry.”

“Oh, shit, yeah.” Roxas remembered what he came down here for. He turned back to the forgotten machine and inserted the coins.

Having Roxas’ eyes off him gave Cloud some reprieve to acknowledge what he was trying to deny himself. “You really think so?—about Zack?” he asked tentatively.

“Yup.” Roxas smacked the machine and felt it jolt to life with a loud rumble. He turned back around and walked over to where Cloud was sitting.

“Damn.” Cloud wrinkled his nose and looked at the floor. “What’s up?” Roxas returned to Cloud’s side giving him an inquisitive look.

“If you’re right then he also totally asked me out on a date before you came in.”

Roxas’ eyes and mouth sprang open. “Ooooo,” Roxas sing-songed and giggled. He snappily sat down next to Cloud and nudged his side with his elbow. “So I did ruin the mood, huh.”

“There was no mood to ruin,” Cloud denied and stood up. He hadn’t even been sure of what it had been before Roxas had bombarded him with his observations.

“You gonna take him up on the offer?”

Cloud pressed his lips together, thinking about it

“Hmm? Well?” Roxas grinned up at his always too serious brother.

Cloud grimaced and turned away from Roxas a little. He wasn't used to people asking him out, preferring to keep to himself as much as possible. But… “He is sort of… attractive,” he understated with a mutter. 

“Only sort of?” The tease was unmistakable.

Sexy chiseled jaw, tight jeans, cool leather jacket, and did he already think of those tight jeans? He had smelt really nice too as he had passed him. Cloud merely grunted and then conceded with a small, “Maybe.”

Roxas sniggered and wore a satisfied smirk. “Attaboy.”

“Shut up. When’s this Sophia Tiller thing happening?”

“Oh right. Two weeks from now. I left the flyer with all the info on the kitchen counter.”

“Okay. I’ll go email it out to both our groups and then I really need to get ready for work. Don’t forget to take the clothes out.” “No worries. I’m on it, and thanks!” Roxas waved as Cloud took his leave of the laundry room. --------------

Roxas sat in the laundry, fiddling around on his phone to pass the time. He played some mindless games, trawled through online message boards, and checked the clothes, separating and pulling out the items which were drier than the others and putting them in a plastic bag he had pulled out from his pocket.

Dark hair and a somewhat familiar face popped through the doorway at some point, attracting Roxas’ attention.

“Hey, Roxas. Is it okay if I come in? I need to get my stuff out of the dryer.”

Roxas felt his stomach drop and butterflies kicked up a storm. His heart jolted into an uneasy pace. He pulled his arms around himself, trying to hide his sweater. Heat prickled his chest and cheeks. “You don’t have to ask me. It’s a public space,” he got out, trying to shut off his thoughts.

“I just thought… if I make you uncomfortable I can always leave and come back later.” 

That offer took Roxas aback. “N-no, you’re fine to come in.” 

“Oh, cool.” Zack grinned and he strode into the warm room. “I didn't mean any offence.”

Roxas just nodded, hoping Zack would leave him alone, and he pulled his phone out again, hunching in on himself with his feet up on the bench, knees up and slouching against the corner wall. But apparently Zack took Roxas’ silence as something entirely different— 

“I'm sorry, really. I just wanted to figure out who you were to Cloud. I didn't wanna overstay my welcome if you were… well, you know.”

Roxas didn't, but figured he had to make conversation if he was ever going to have Zack believe that he wasn't angry at him. He tried to picture Cloud’s disappointed-dad face and told himself it was fine because he had already made a fool of himself once. He took a deep breath and then, “It’s all good. All fine. Really. A lot of people assume I'm much younger than I am.” And no wonder with the way that he looked and often times acted. If he wasn’t running away from social situations he ended up saying dumb shit which made him look like a complete imbecile.

Zack advanced further towards Roxas’ position. “Well, I’m sorry anyway.”

“You don't have to keep saying that. You're not in Cloud’s bad books or anything,” he muttered, wondering—hoping—that this wasn't really about himself.

“Well, he does love reading,” Zack chuckled to himself. “Ah… hey, Roxas,” Zack sat down and slid across the bench toward him. Roxas pulled his knees closer to himself. “You think I'm in with a chance? With your brother, I mean.”

The tight coil of panic eased a little bit and he felt breathing to be a little easier. It really was all about Cloud. Thank god! Zack clearly didn’t care about him at all. Such a relief! He shrugged by way of reply. Cloud would definitely hurt him if he told Zack what they had discussed earlier.

“Got any tips for me?”

Roxas shook his head. He wanted to be left alone, so he looked back down at his phone.

The hint seemed to finally be received. Zack sighed and got up. “It wasn't supposed to be an interrogation. Just came to get my stuff.” He walked to a dryer and started pulling clothes out.

Roxas would have felt relieved… if he didn’t feel so bad. He wished for Cloud to be around to make him feel more at ease. But he wasn’t, and Roxas was stuck in his own anxiety-riddled skin. He stared blankly at his phone, tapping the screen to keep it from going into sleep, while all his senses were trained on Zack, without directly looking at him.

He worried and wondered what Zack thought of him to an unreasonable extent. Why should it matter to him? He didn’t even know Zack. But no amount of reasoning ever seemed to do him any good. He wanted to leave a good impression though. He didn’t want Zack to hate him, especially if he would be around for a while. The fact that Cloud had apparently engaged Zack enough for them to have talked for a bit was significant. Unless it was for business, or a close friend or family member, Cloud didn’t give people so much as the time of day. For some weird reason this felt weighty, in his chest and limbs, and especially in his head.

Lid slammed. Roxas tore his unfocused gaze away from his phone and up toward Zack, who walked carrying his load of washing in a cloth bag. His unhurried but determined footsteps echoes around the quiet space. “Later, Roxas.” He gave a wave and a congenial smile.

Roxas was totally leaving a terrible impression right now. He could feel it. “Peanut butter,” he burst out as Zack vanished through the doorway.

Footsteps ceased and seconds later Zack leaned backward through the doorway and looked at Roxas, confused. “Huh?”

“Cloud. He loves peanut butter. Smooth. Not crunchy.”

Gray-blue eyes lit up and Zack’s smile stretched wide across his face. “Thanks, man!” and with that Zack was gone, his steps fading off into the distance of the long concrete hallway beyond.

Roxas was left alone once more and he breathed out his nerves. He had managed to not make a fool of himself this time. But what if Cloud got angry with him? Should he really have given the man any information about anything pertaining to his own flesh and blood? Had he become some sort of an accomplice? Roxas tried to take a deep, calming breath. And another. And another. “Fuck!” He got up, poked his head out past the doorway to see if anyone was around. The coast was clear. He went toward the back of the laundry, around a corner where the wash basins for handwashing were situated. He went to the very back corner, squeezing in between the end of the washbasin and the corner wall to where a ventilation grate sat recessed in the wall. He loosened the screws which held the vent grate in place. A bit of jiggling leant itself to the metal coming out of its wall fitting. It revealed a hollow and dark cavity, leading out of the building. Roxas reached into the void, expertly finding what he had put there himself; a ziplock bag with a stage of cigarettes and a lighter inside. He looked at the bag and swore. He only had one left. 

Without thinking about it he took the lone smoke and lighter out and shoved the empty bag back in the hole. He’d have to bum a few smokes off someone when he got another chance. That thought made him feel even more stressed out. 

His hands jittered a little but he got himself lit up after two tries. He took a deep dragging suck of the heavy smoke. It delightfully hit that spot right at the top of his throat and instantly soothed his nerves. He took a few more longer drags, exhaling into the vent and then stubbed out the cigarette and returned it into the bag. He wasn’t a heavy smoker. It was just a vice to help soothe his nerves. If he could save this cigarette he’d be spared the anxiety of having to ask strangers for a new one. 

“Blowing-fucking-hole-of-motherfucking-shit!”

Roxas jumped with fright and snapped his attention to the main part of the laundry. He quickly worked at securing the vent and quietly walked over to the corner, to peek around and see what was going on.

He saw the source of the profanity and it certainly wasn't hard to spot; a lanky redhead, sporting hands on hips, staring at the detergent vending machine which was mounted on the wall near the first row of washing machines.

Roxas slunk back around his corner and took deep breaths. The few puffs he had of the nicotine still calmed him. He could stay hidden here. He could go over to the dryer and check it to make himself look busy. There was no need to be shy or nervous.

“Why’re there so many Goddamn brands to choose from in this metallic piss pot?” A loud metallic thump sounded through the space. 

Roxas felt his heart sink. He probably should help. No one else was around after all and the longer he lingered in indecisiveness the worse his embarrassment would be if the guy realized he had been in here all along. Roxas pictured Cloud’s stern stare. He told himself to play it cool, took a deep breath, clenched his trembling fists, and stepped out of his hiding nook, saying, “You need a hand with anything?”

The man jumped and yelped. He whirled around, squeaking slightly, “Oh geez. Where’d you come from?”

Roxas stared at piercing green eyes, high cheekbones and pointed chin. An overwhelming sense of inadequacy rushed through him. This stranger was completely handsome. Roxas shrunk in on himself, crossing his arms in front of himself, trying to hide Cookie Monster. He screamed at himself for still wearing the sweater. 

“Eh…” the man said.

Roxas blinked rapidly. Shit. What had been the question? “My mom and dad?” 

The redhead’s eyebrow rose as did the corner of his mouth.

Roxas screamed internally at his stupidity. He was aiming for cool - not complete dork. “I-I mean I’ve just been here,” he gave a vague shrug towards the dryers. Had he saved it? “Need help?” he tried to deflect walking closer and calling himself names.

The amusement the other man wore melted away, “Yes! I don’t normally do laundry. I have no idea which of these to use.” He pointed at the dispenser and stuck his hands deep into his jean pockets.

Roxas' heart raced uncomfortably, his palms sweat, but he could handle the topic of laundry. He’d just focus on that instead of vivid green eyes. He walked over with a bit of confidence as he fixed his gaze onto the vending machine. He tried to ignore the fact that the redhead was very tall. He hugged himself tighter, really wishing he had worn something cool today, instead of childish. “Well,” he began, “most of these are all the same. You can have liquid or powder—not that it really matters. The only thing you might need to watch out for is if you’ve got sensitive skin. Then you’d want this one or this one,” Roxas pointed and looked ever so briefly at the other man. “And don't even worry about all these at the bottom. No one needs fabric softener in their lives.”

“But what if I hate scratchy fabric on my delicate skin?”

Roxas looked up and studied the man next to him then, not sure if he was being messed with or if the guy was sincerely concerned. But he couldn’t tell because he got too distracted by porcelain skin which accentuated and drew out the color of the green eyes and the red hair and Roxas had never seen someone like this before, and he hung out with artists all the time, but still nothing compared to that color palette and what was he looking at the man for again?

The mesmerizing green eyes flicked onto Roxas. Thin lips quirked up into a smile.

Roxas quickly looked away and pulled his stupid mouth shut. How long had he been slack-jawed for? Washing Powders! “Ah—” he cleared his throat and tried again, “Then maybe do buy the softener?” 

“Nah. Think I'll manage without it.” 

Whether on purpose or by accident the man's arm brushed Roxas'. He hardly heard the next part because he was so focused on inconspicuously shifting away from the redhead. 

“I’m pretty easy. I could wash my clothes in dish soap and I’d be fine. Why don’t we use dish soap for clothes?”

Roxas shrugged, trying to catch his breath and tell his head to shut up and to not say anything more embarrassing. “Wouldn’t want your clothes squeaky and sparkling, right?” An internal groan followed. He couldn’t pull off cool in a million years. Dork it was always destined to be.

A small laugh came out of the other man and then he said, “Right.”

Roxas’ heart pounded. His cheeks were so definitely red and hot and fuck he wanted to vanish. ‘Just focus on the topic,’ he told himself. “Anyway, you’re better off using this one,” Roxas pointed to the brand Cloud always used. “That seems to work best with these old machines.” “Cool. Thanks.”

Roxas gave the briefest of smiles to the stranger, not daring to focus too hard on his face. He turned his back and walked to his machine where he was definitely going to throw himself into it and disappear from view. He got to his destination, opened the lid but determined he wouldn’t fit. Instead he checked on the clothes, especially the jeans; checking the hems to see if they were drying properly.

“Yo, guy—dude—you. Cookie!"

Cookie! Roxas was mortified and absolutely wanted to die. He turned his head to take a look and saw flailing hands, beckoning him over.

“Roxas,” he offered, shutting the lid of the dryer to let it continue its tumbling. He reluctantly walked toward the redhead, still trying to distort Cookie Monster on his chest by bunching the fabric up.

“Sure. Sup. I’m… Axel. So this machine… what gives?”

“Whaddya mean? Have you never used one of these?”

“No. Well, yeah. But usually there’s like one button to push and I walk away. These things are ancient.”

That made Roxas huff with a small laugh. “Yeah. Their almost like lost relics from another dimension.” Roxas’ smile fell when he saw Axel give him a confused look. He kicked himself. Why couldn't he stick to simple yes and no answers? He didn't know, but he grew determined to be helpful and just focus on the machine, and not the man. “Ah… you just set the cycle here, hit this, spin that and you’re done. Oh and don’t forget to put the detergent in there.” Roxas pointed to all the things he mentioned.

“Awesome. Thanks, man.”

Roxas gave a small nod and turned to get distance between himself and Axel. He barely made it back to his machine before he heard a frustrated grumble.

“I did what you said. So why isn't it starting?” A metallic thud echoed.

Would this troubleshooting nightmare ever end? Couldn't Roxas be left alone? How much more help did he have to give? Clearly, this was a cruel test on his determination for self-improvement. Roxas turned back around. “Kicking it won't help.”

“Maybe. But it's fun. Wanna try?” Axel grinned.

Roxas’ nervousness died a little bit. He shook his head and returned to Axel's side, checking all the settings, redoing them himself and then they both stood around, hands on hips, looking at it.

Axel gave a loud groan and bowed his head. “I’m not cut out for domestics.”

“I don’t know why it’s not working. You put money in, didn’t you?”

Axel raised his head, stared at Roxas and suddenly looked behind Roxas and pointed, “What’s that over there?”

Roxas snapped his attention behind himself. Was it a fire? A large bug? Another person having walked in? He saw nothing bar the empty doorway. Had he just been made fun of? Roxas turned back around fully prepared to get laughed at but saw the other man slip two coins into the coin slot of the machine and push the start button. 

The machine sputtered to life.

Axel side-eyed Roxas, and Roxas quickly looked away. 

“Oh look, magic! It works now!”

The smile grew and Roxas tried to stifle it but he laughed anyway and Axel let out a small laugh as well. They looked back at each other, smiling.

“Amazing magic,” Roxas remarked, nervous tension sliding off his chest.

Axel nodded. “Hey, uh… Roxas?”

“Mm?”

“You seem like the kind of guy who would know where to get a smoke around here.”

The good mood froze inside of Roxas. “Why?” he asked as he stared.

“Well, I can smell it on you.”

Shit. Roxas frowned and snapped at himself for having been so careless. He was so fucking lucky that Cloud wasn’t around right now. “And?” he asked, hesitant of where this would lead.

“I could really use one right about now.”

Roxas could relate. He debated with himself whether or not to give Axel directions to the tobacconist down in the town or if he should keep Axel around. He heavily leaned toward sending Axel away but… “Well—” He looked around, making sure the coast was clear, and then beckoned Axel to follow him around the corner to where the handwash basins and his hidden stash were.

This was unprecedented, but Roxas thought they had shared 'a moment' so maybe it would be all right. He walked with purpose to the corner of this section of the room and squeezed into the gap between the washbasin and the wall. Axel was right beside him, squeezing into the small space as well.

Their sides were pressed together. Roxas could smell a hint of musk and feel the other man’s radiating body heat. He really hoped he wasn't going to say something stupid as he began talking, “Can you keep a secret?” he asked in a hushed tone.

Axel leaned down. “I’m master of secret keeping.”

Roxas swallowed down the lump forming. Axel’s warm breath brushing against his face was caught and detected by every fine hair on Roxas’ cheeks and caressed his lips. Nervous butterflies swirled around inside himself. “Ah… normally I wouldn’t do this but—” The tremble and buzzing radiated outward from the pit of his stomach. Roxas really needed to calm his nerves. A smoke would help. He shifted, turning toward the wall, and swiftly got the grate undone and his half-smoked cigarette and the lighter out again.

“Ooo, a secret stash!” 

Roxas heard the excitement in Axel’s voice as he slotted the grate back into place, without redoing the screws. He pressed his back against the opposite wall, trying to get an inch of space between himself and the other man, before offering up the nearly half-smoked cigarette.

"Sorry, this is all I've got left."

Axel took it, but not without dragging a finger down the length of Roxas’ hand. "Thank you for sharing it with me." 

The touch nullified all of Roxas’ thoughts and sent his heart racing. He looked up at green eyes, which looked down at him, half closed. Roxas didn’t know what to make of it. He simply watched long fingers holx and push the cigarette against thin lips in a well-practiced manner.

"We'll share the rest of this one?" Axel mumbled past the obstruction in his mouth and leaned towards the lighter which Roxas held up.

Roxas nodded and flicked the lighter a few times. He could hardly breath. Green eyes kept looking at him in a way that was too sexy for Roxas to comprehend. He needed to smoke a whole packet if he was ever going to recover from this.

Roxas kept flicking the lighter, hating himself that he couldn’t get the blasted thing working. He never had a problem doing this in the past. The one time someone was watching him—someone insanely hot, no less—and he couldn't get the blasted thing working. Well, of course, it figured.

“Here.” The other man's warm hand clasped over Roxas’, steadying him enough so the flame could be lit.

The touch was almost electric with the jolt it sent through Roxas and the flutters it caused. He felt so embarrassed that it made him nauseous.

“You don’t do this very often?” Axel leaned the cigarette into the flame and took a few drags to get it lit.

“Only sometimes—blow into the vent,” he instructed. “Stops the place from stinking, and the fire alarm from going off.” 

Axel hummed in appreciation. Whether it was from the nicotine hitting him or from Roxas’ instructions he couldn’t tell.

Smoke was exhaled into the ventilation system. “Clearly you've done this enough times to know the ins and outs of the place. A real veteran at doing the sneaky sneaky, huh” Axel grinned and winked before passing the cigarette on.

Roxas took it, trying his best to ignore the way their fingers touched and connected. The longer he was pressed up against Axel like this the more in need of a smoke he was. He took a drag, and pulled thick air into his lungs, where the nicotine could do its magic. He let out a shaky breath into the ventilation system and coughed a bit at the end.

More embarrassment welled, counteracting the calming effect the smoke was supposed to have on his nerves.

Roxas passed the cigarette back and saw the way Axel barely held laugh at bay.

“Go on. Let it out.”

“Nah. Couldn't do that. Not after your generosity.” Axel took another puff. “Ah… what about the ashes?”

“Tap them into the sink behind you. We’ll wash them down after.”

Axel did laugh at that. “Nice. You got this all figured out. But why the covert operation? Last I checked smoking wasn't illegal—outside that is. Pretty illegal us doing it in here. You doing it for the extra buzz?” Axel chuckled, passing the smoke once more and as it got smaller and smaller their fingers grazed and connected more and more.

“My brother would lose his shit if he found out.” “Why’s he such a busy-body?"

“Our grandad and uncle died from lung cancer. So it’s probably a genetic predisposition and probably in my best self-interest to not smoke. But… you know,” Roxas shrugged, feeling more relaxed in his own skin even as he could feel himself trembling and feel his cheeks oh so hot with the flush he was experiencing. “Once in a while won't kill me, right?”

“I hope not. Would be a waste.” Axel smiled and Roxas chose to look at the wall instead.

They passed the cigarette between one another for a few more pulls before it was all used up. Roxas was glad when it was all over. Having to reach his arm around the guy so he could ash was wearing on him. As was all the body contact, if Roxas was honest with himself. He tried to ignore it because he could feel his heart race every time he noticed the sensation of legs against his own and the man's pelvis and hips digging in. He shifted as discreetly as he could because he was getting hard and he would die if Axel could feel.

Roxas turned away a little and pulled the grate off the wall once more and disposed of the butt in there and replaced the lighter. He really lamented the fact now that he would have to try and bum another smoke off someone in the near future. That activity alone was so nerve-wracking that he really considered forking out the cash to buy a whole pack for himself. But that seemed too risky for the once in a while medicating relief the cigarettes provided. He sighed to himself in resignation and Pulled out a packet of gum.

He turned back to face Axel, pressing himself tight against the wall to create some space between his groin and the warm delicious and ridiculously hot man before himself and held out the packet. “You want?”

Axel laughed and took a stick. “Thanks. What else you got hidden in there? Drugs?”

Roxas took a piece of gum, popped it in his mouth and threw the packet back in the vent. “Um… just this,” he reached in and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. What the hell. He figured he might as well go all the way with incriminating himself. 

“Oh my God, Roxas!” 

The look of surprised mirth, coupled with the laugh Axel gave, sent a tingle down Roxas’ body. “What?” he asked, trying to hide the smile. He figured his blush couldn't get any deeper so chose to ignore that, and instead focused on how maybe, just maybe, he was pulling off cool?

“Don't be giving me that cute little smile. You're way too badass for that.” Axel laughed some more.

Roxas let the smile spread. He totally was pulling it off. If it wouldn't have a detrimental effect Roxas would have cheered and fist pumped the air. “You wanna?” He held the bottle aloft.

Axel accepted it, unscrewed the top, took out his gum, and took a long swig. He passed it back to Roxas when he was done.

“I shouldn't have accepted the drink,” Axel lamented, popping the gum back in.

“Why not?” Roxas looked at him, confused, and took a deep gulp of his own. It tasted weird with the combination of cigarette smoke and minty gum freshness, but the taste wasn't the reason for drinking for Roxas.

“Well, now I can’t use my line of 'we should go out for a drink some time,’ on you, now can I?”

Roxas choked, coughed and sputtered, bending over a little, sending his forehead right into Axel's chest.

Axel's hand was on Roxas' back in moments, patting and rubbing, which only made Roxas sputter more.

“Take it easy.”

Roxas got control of himself, screwed the cap back on, replaced his gum, and thrust the bottle deep into the vent, closing it up. He was making a colossal fool of himself. His mood sullied considerably. “I can't go out for a drink with you anyway.”

“Why not? Do you need your brothers permission for that as well?”

“No. But I'm twenty, so legally not allowed in this dumb country.”

“I should probably be upset about you callin’ my country dumb—” Roxas suddenly froze, but then breathed out a small sigh as Axel continued, “but the drinking age is dumb. So I’ll let it slide. Do you really have a reason to complain though? You somehow got your hands on a red label,” Axel grinned. “You certainly are something else, Roxas, I'll give ya that.”

“Uh… thanks?”

“You're welcome.”

They were still wedged against each other, between the wall and the wash basin. Neither of them giving the slightest hint to the other that they should move. Well... Roxas couldn’t. He felt frozen in place, party by want and party due to sheer terror. He thought his legs would buckle and collapse under him. Axel was keeping him upright and as Roxas looked up at him he hoped he remembered to blink as he stared deep into pools of green. 

Those eyes were so damn sexy.

Axel’s mouth drifted open, his eyes widened a fraction and softened just as quickly. “Ah, thanks. Yours are gorgeous too.” He smiled gently.

Roxas tensed up and forgot to breathe. He swore he could feel all the blood drain away from his face. Had he said something? Shit. He stammered out, “S-sorry. I shouldn't have—they’re not—I mean you’re not—you are—but—just… sorry.” He quickly extracted himself from the tight corner.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” It came out too hoarse and harsh for his own liking. Roxas berated himself for being a massive idiot.

“Is there anything I can do to repay you for sharing your secret stash with me?”

At least Axel wasn’t teasing him about it. That made him feel somewhat relieved. Roxas, feeling a tiny bit more composed, turned around. Green eyes darted upwards, where they exchanged looks. Fuck! Axel had seen Cookie Monster. Thought Roxas had lied about his age. Thought he was a complete moron and a little kid. Roxas crossed his arms. He was going to burn the sweater, he swore he would. But first he needed this to end. His nerves were getting shot again and he felt like he might need to down the whole bottle if this went on for much longer. With a bowed head and a deep grumble he said, “Can you please just forget what a massive dork I am?” 

“Dork? I think you’re really cute… and a bit sexy.” Axel stepped out of the corner to stand right in front of Roxas.

That froze Roxas up completely. He stared at the black boots with a red trim. Swallowing down the tight lump in his throat he slowly lifted his gaze up over jeans, and the red and black sweater up to Axel’s face, where he saw a soft expression.

With hands deep in pockets, Axel said, “If I can’t buy you a drink at least let me take you out.”

“Like… on a date?”

“Mm. Not really but kinda?” he shrugged.

Roxas didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean. “No. Look, that’s not necessary. I didn’t share this with you ‘cause I wanted anything back.”

“Aren’t you nice.”

Roxas frowned and hugged himself tighter, looking away.

“Roxas?” “What?” he snapped, shooting Axel a grumpy look.

“I’d really like to hang out with you some more.”

It was bizarre and out of left field. Roxas looked around himself, half expecting someone to jump out and yell, 'Gotcha!' “Why? I suck.”

Axel chuckled. “Do you now?”

Roxas wanted to die to escape the embarrassment. “No. I…”

“It’s all right. I blow, you know,” Axel winked.

Roxas choked a bit on his spit. “What?” he croaked. What was even happening right now?

“I blow. I’m in this band and I play the sax. What did you think I meant?”

That cheeky smile said it all. Axel was teasing him. For good or for bad Roxas couldn't tell. “I didn’t think that. No.” He grumbled some more and hunched in on himself more.

“Shame, 'cause if you did, well—” Axel flashed his eyebrows up and a smirk bloomed while he flicked his tongue out to wet his lips.

A swirling hurricane of emotions and thoughts whirled through Roxas. What was going on? This stuff never happened to him. People didn’t hit on him. Axel was doing that, right? Or maybe he did just delight in making Roxas flush deeply and to make him uncomfortable? Roxas opened his mouth, but nothing bar incoherent sounds come out.

A low chuckle flowed from Axel. “It’s all right. Come and watch me blow—this Saturday. Any time after eight.”

Had Axel moved closer to Roxas? It felt like there was no space between them. He took a step back. “I ah—I’ll think about it, okay?”

“Good.”

The harsh beeping of the dryer was like a warm embrace from a dear loved one. “That’s me,” Roxas said with haste, turned and almost bolted to his station. As he pulled out the clothes with great speed and determination he heard Axel’s footsteps drawing closer.

“It was fun, Roxas. Don’t forget, this Saturday at the Clay Bar, yeah? You need to see me in action.”

“Yeah, I’ll… maybe.” Roxas slammed the lid shut and almost ran out of the laundry, the bag of laundry thrown over his shoulder. If he had left anything behind he wasn’t coming back for it.

That’s it for chapter one. Feedback appreciated. If you’d like to pre-read the rest for me get in touch on here or Discord or twitter. All my relevant contact info can be found on my AO3 Profile page.

[impulse-writing]

prompt: a dragon nesting

“Yang, love of my life, woman of my dreams.” Blake watched a roof shingle fall and shatter on the patio, cracked pieces of slate scattering on polished wood. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m fixing the roof, babe.”

“... Why?”

She winced at the sound of wood splintering in a thousand pieces, which was loud enough that her faunus ears pressed against her head, trying to block out the ruckus. There was another bang. Something heavy fell (“…shit.”). And it sounded like Yang ripped something from the foundations of their house, while the roof shuddered from something heavy being dragged across.

Despite dreading her wife’s antics, Blake was too tired and cranky to climb up the roof and investigate it herself.

“I noticed one of the shingles were cracked.”

“Why does it sound like you’re replacing our entire roof?”

Sweet silence graced her ears. Blake crossed her arms over the swell of her stomach, knowing perfectly well her imposing figure was less effective thanks to the glow and healthy roundness of her face. Nonetheless, she felt pleased to see Yang’s golden head come into view not a second too soon.

She winced at the sight of Blake’s glare, visible even from two stories below. Her yellow eyes narrowed into slits, ears pushed back, and hackles raised. “Yang Xiao Long.” Her words dripped with false composure. “Get down here right now.”

Yang’s head disappeared from view in a flurry of hair. A minute later, she appeared again, standing at the edge of the roof carrying a toolbox, a shovel, and what seemed to be a shoddily constructed birdhouse tucked under one arm. Blake had no idea where the birdhouse came from. The birdhouse did not exist yesterday, and it eerily looked like something made from their broken backdoor -- which Yang promised she would fix a week ago. And just like their old door, the wood was tainted green. And the doorknob was still attached.

Blake did not want to know why her wife took it to the roof with her. So she bit her tongue and waited, patient as Yang jumped down and landed in front of her, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“What’s up?”

“Yang--”

“Hold that thought.” She rushed over to the wheelbarrow by their shed, throwing the shovel and toolbox next to it. She tucked the ‘birdhouse’ under one arm after a moment of struggling, and began to dig through the mess of rusty garden tools half-buried under fertilizer, dead leaves, and recently cut grass. “Babe, have you seen the garden hose somewhere?”

Blake pressed her thumb and forefinger against her throbbing brow.

“No, Yang. Why do you need a garden hose?”

“Makin’ a frog pond.”

Blake heaved the world’s longest sigh. Deep breaths, Blake.

“Honey, maybe you should take a break from all your projects? We can get someone else to fix the roof.” Or what’s left of it. “And we can hire a professional... frog pond person.”

“Nope, no can do.” Yang said, effectively dashing Blake’s hopes for a wonderful morning of peace and cuddling with her fertilizer-smelling, grass-stained wife. “Remember those stories I told you about when Ruby and I were kids? We used to play around the lake near our house, and we had fun catching tadpoles, setting cattails on fire, and -- okay maybe I caught hypothermia that one time, but it was mostly sweet kid stuff!” Yang finally kept herself from vibrating in place to turn around and give Blake a better view of the smile on her infuriatingly pretty and adorable face. “This will be awesome. Trust me.”

“That’s great.” Blake said, thinking about how not-great this was. “But maybe you can work on the frog pond next time and come back inside? You’ve been doing these things non-stop for weeks now, Yang. I miss you. I’m sexually frustrated, and I have no idea what’s happening to our house anymore.”

“I gotta get everything ready before the babies get here.” Yang said, waving a giant pair of garden shears in the air. “It’s my job to make sure everything’s perfect when they arrive. Besides, the pond’s gonna tie the swing and treehouse together. Just wait and see, Blake, it’s gonna be gorgeous.”

Treehouse?

Before Blake could ask her to repeat and kindly specify what the hell she was talking about, Yang ran off again, grabbing the shovel by her feet. She made a beeline for the beautiful great oak in their garden, and Blake didn’t have the strength or will to stop her. Instead, she watched as Yang jumped onto one of the branches, and proceeded to shimmy up the tree; disappearing behind the thick foliage with the shovel sticking awkwardly amongst the swaying branches and leaves.

This was how Weiss received a frantic call from Blake that morning.

“Weiss, I need you here right now.”

She could hear horrible noises from the other side of her scroll. Blake’s voice loud enough for Weiss to hear, and it was apparent how rough and tired she sounded; an edge of desperation begging to be released behind the calm veneer she barely managed.

“Blake?”

“I think my wife is possessed and I don’t know what to do.”

“Whoa, wait. Slow down... Ren, are you still there? Yes. Can I call you back? … Yes ...Of course, yes. I will speak to you later. Good-bye.”

“Weiss?”

“Belladonna, this better be good. Ren was telling me about the dreaded syllabus for the next semester.”

“I need you and your sanity to come here right now. Where are you?”

“I’m visiting professor Port --”

“That’s just an hour long drive from here, right?”

“Yes, Blake. Just an hour-long drive.”

“Please come over?”

Weiss cursed her inability to express sarcasm without sounding too much like Weiss Schnee.

“... Fine.”

“Thanks, Weiss. Oh, and can you bring me a bag of shrimp crackers? Thanks.”

Weiss left Professor Port’s house in a rush, trying to estimate what time she might arrive on the couple’s doorstep. She wondered if she could cut an hour to a half by speeding over a hundred, but decided against it. Instead, Weiss spent her hour long drive to Blake and Yang’s house thinking.

Thinking, Weiss thought, was good  ‘Thinking’ was also something Weiss was particularly good at doing. Having an unpredictable force of nature as a partner for more than a decade, in both profession and matrimonially, demanded her mind to work like a detached, mechanical processor most of the time. Like a dot matrix printer arranging a billion dots until they created a picture anyone could comprehend. Some people called it a gift, but Weiss proceeded to call it ‘necessary for her mental health’.

“She’s the team’s Weiss of reason.” Yang once said, three seconds before everyone pelted her with peanuts and tiny cocktail umbrellas.

Chamomile for Blake, and black coffee for Weiss. One of their many comforts were small reminders of things that never changed.

Blake had her face in her hands, fingers pressed against her temples as if she could ward off the source of her predicament by the willpower of touch alone. The pair were alone in the humbly decorated kitchen, a few plates piled up in the sink, the smell of breakfast escaping from the open windows. Toast, eggs, dried fish, sweet tomatoes. There were sunflower-themed drapes, the drawers, tables and chairs were painted yellow, and the fridge had pictures of the couple in happier times. The colorful fridge magnets below spelt: ‘help me’.

Weiss concentrated on the hot water kettle.

“This is beyond asking for fritos in the middle of the night, Weiss. Or carrying around dirty laundry in my pockets.” Blake said, her voice muffled. “I swear, it’s not my hormones or mood swings acting up. Yang is driving me crazy, and you’ll know why when you see what she’s been doing to the place.”

“Well the house looks like it’s still standing.”

Weiss watched Blake ruefully reach for a shrimp cracker.

“Although I do admit, you look like someone just died.” Weiss said, leaning her hip against the table top counter.

“Thanks.”

“So let’s take a breather and think about this.” Weiss crossed her arms. “What else has she been doing? ”

“Other than dumb DIY projects?” Blake exhaled. “I found her ‘baby-proofing’ the living room with pool noodles a week ago.”

“Ah. I was wondering why Yang had boxes of those in your garage.”

“She almost booked an expensive birthing room from a hippy compound in Vacuo--”

“There’s a hippy compound in Vacuo?”

“... which cost a thousand lien.”

“Why is it a thousand lien?” Weiss scoffed, rubbing her forehead. “That’s a ridiculous price. I mean what do they do, birth your child in a diamond encrusted pool?”

“Weiss, do I look like I bothered to find out?”

“Point.”

Blake relaxed into the chair, as much as she could, her hand resting on the curve of her belly. “We have coupons for cup ramen and free dumplings everywhere, several different colors of paint because Yang can’t decide ‘which shade is the best for the baby room’.” Weiss tried not to laugh when Blake managed an exaggerated imitation of an annoyed Yang.

“That doesn’t sound too bad, all things considered.”

“Yang has dismantled and put together our doors, windows, and chairs multiple times because it didn’t look safe enough or it looked ‘wonky’. Our unborn children own several pairs of shoes and sunglasses than both of us combined, and she bought a jackhammer and a woodworking chisel set the other day.” Blake caught her eyes, her face drawn with palpable fear. “I have no idea where Yang put them, or why she bought them in the first place.”

“I see.”

“I have a strong feeling, Weiss. A strong, very bad feeling.”

“I’ll make sure Ruby finds them so you can return them to the store.”

“And she fixed ‘the pipes’.” Blake threw her hands into the air. “I have no idea which ‘pipes’ she was talking about, but I found her tinkering around underneath the space of our house with a rope and a screwdriver. I dunno Weiss, I just don’t know.” She inhaled a shaky breath, raking her fingers through frazzled hair. “It’s actually happening. I am losing my mind. I never thought this day would come.”

“Okay, first of all: sweetheart, this is Yang we’re talking about, right?” Weiss clicked her tongue. She turned her attention to opening one of the kitchen cupboards, and reached in for a clean teacup. “You know her, she’ll tire herself out soon enough after doing a half-ass job of everything. I’ll help hire a carpenter to fix whatever she breaks, and I can even throw in a treehouse if you want. Easy solution, and nothing to be overdramatic about.”

“Am I, Weiss?” Blake’s ear twitched. “Am I overreacting?”

Weiss was glad Blake couldn’t see the smirk on her face. She liked to tease, but she knew Blake would snap with her pregnant lady fury if she pushed too far. If she sensed even a shred of mirth from her, Blake might do something drastic, like force Yang to live in her house during the remaining four months of her pregnancy. Weiss loved her sisters-in-law, but she also loved her modest house too much to invite a literal walking cyclone of repressed mommy issues near her furniture. She already had a walking disaster with a penchant for sharp things living with her in it, and that number was her limit.

“Weiss, you are totally not helping.” Blake said.

“I’m sorry! But maybe it’s better to stop worrying, maybe sleep-in, visit that new bookstore in Vale before your paperwork drags you back behind your desk. Let Yang do her Yang things, and assume everything will be back to normal by the time my nieces are–”

It took Weiss a full minute before she realized she was holding a rock.

She raised the rock up at eye level, confirming to herself that yes – it was a rock. A real-life rock. She sent Blake a look.

“Yang started hoarding them a few days ago.”

“Hoarding rocks?”

Blake bounced her shoulders with a tired shrug.

Weiss carefully placed the rock on the counter, looking as if it would transfigure into a teacup the instant she takes her eyes off it. She pulled the cupboard doors wide open, and gasped at what seemed to be a rock collection hidden amongst the fancy tea cups and glass mugs. All of them piled on top of each other, all in different shapes and various sizes, with the largest as big as her head.

“What is this?”

“Is that a rhetorical question, or are you still having trouble taking me seriously?”

Weiss poked her nose inside the cupboard to take a closer look. There were rocks inside the teacups. There were rocks inside the mugs.

She looked at Blake and pointed at the extensive rock collection, an eyebrow raised, and Weiss could almost hear her say ‘told ya so’ with her derisive look.

As if needing further confirmation of Yang’s recent habits, she continued to open one of the utensil drawers and gasped in scandalous horror when she discovered bottle caps, smaller pebbles, and tiny cereal box toys filling the tiny space from corner to corner. Other than the geological refuse mingling with the sporks were fancy hair clips buried underneath with the butter knives.

In the cupboard under the sink were coins in tupperwares, a random assortment of fancy beads, and buttons filling a lone boot in the dark corner.

For the life of her, Weiss couldn’t keep the mirth from her voice.

“I can’t believe Yang Xiao Long is nesting.”

[badgalyadi]

random survery. / 474 + 560.

How’s your mood? Do you feel any different than you did earlier today? def better than it was earlier

What do you look for in a friend? Is it important that your friends have similar hobbies and interests to you? Or is it more important that you just enjoy their company? i think as long as i enjoy your company, we’re good.

Has anyone ever spread a malicious rumour about you? people have been doing this since middle school lmaooo

Are you comfortable with talking to the opposite sex, about sex? yeah, sex isn’t that deep of a topic lol.

What are your views on people who claim to have had spiritual or paranormal experiences? damn that’s crazy.

Have you ever had a friend that you were really close with, but you ended up drifting apart? Why do you think this happened? lol, life.

How much of an issue would you say peer pressure is for you? FAKE. no way ur gonna get me to do something i don’t wanna do, idc.

Would you be able to give up eating your favourite food(s), if your doctor said you had to? nope.

If you’re single, do you ever feel jealous of people who are in relationships? And if you’re in a relationship, do you ever feel jealous of people who are single? no.

What’s in your pencil case? pens, unsharpened pencils, mechanical pencils, erasers both big & small, a sharpener, a stapler, extra staples, and highlighters.

Is there anything in your room that you wouldn’t want your parents to find? maybe so.

Are you wearing anything fragranced atm? i’m wearing the fragrance i brought back from cuba. it was only $3 and it smells so good, deadass makes me it :(

Was your last illness something contagious? i had a cold, so i guess yeah.

When did you last update your Facebook profile photo? it’s been a year.

Have you ever felt confused about your sexuality? in middle school. terrible time to wanna figure that shit out but 💀

If you found out your friend was sleeping around, what would you say to him/her? nothing b/c i don’t care lmao do you.

How should someone of the opposite sex go about starting a conversation with you? it’s not that deep, just say hi.

Tell me about someone you dislike. Why do you dislike them? Do they know that you dislike them? obsessive and shady asf, can’t mind her business.

Have you ever felt so strongly for someone that you believed them to be totally irreplaceable, as if you could never be happy with anyone else? yeah, and i don’t think i’ll ever feel that way about somebody again b/c i learned u really can live without anybody whether u like it or not.

Out of all the horror films you’ve ever seen, which one scared you the most? uhhhhhh sinister or insidious idk

Who was the last person to tell you that they were disappointed in you? not airing out names. she didn’t directly say it, anyway.

If you’re an only child, do you ever wish you had some siblings? And if you have siblings, would you like any more? i always wish i had other siblings lmao i see people w theirs and be feeling sad as hell :(

Are you friends with the last person you texted? yeah.

Your last Facebook friend request - was it from someone of the opposite sex? no.

What does the eleventh text message in your inbox say? issa meme.

Has anyone ever called you easy? yeah LOL

Would you consider having a child with the last person you kissed? whommm... can’t be having a baby rn when i’m still the baby myself

Is there a cover version of any song that you like more than the original? soooo many.

Have you ever liked someone who was a player? yea lol

Do you own anything that has sequins on it? also yes.

Have you ever done anything to embarrass your parents? not on purpose but they def do shit that embarrasses me too so we’re even 

Do you own a teddy bear? yethhhh

What’s the worst relationship advice anyone has ever given you? all of it. nobody ever knows what they’re talking about LMAO.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you with yourself as a person? a 6.5 lmao.

Would you ever kiss someone with facial hair? yeah. Have you ever drooled in public? nah. Do you agree that facebook is taking over the entire teenage population? ???????????? what 80 year old wrote this Have you ever met a mainstream band? no. Have you ever yelled at an electronic as if it could hear you? i get mad sometimes & be fighting random shit LMAOOOO so yes Have you ever been bitten by a dog? yeah LMAO

Would you ever shave your head? if i didn’t have to? no. Have you ever spelt your name in Alphabet Soup? no. What do you think would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning? my stupid ass has no idea & i’m not boutta guess so i can be made fun of What did you want to be when you were little? probably some generic shit like a princess idk Have you ever drawn a picture with sidewalk chalk? yeah. What is the worst possible way to die? slow, painfully. Have you ever burnt yourself with a lighter? sooooooooooooooo many times. Would you ever meet someone you met online? mayhaps. What’s your favorite online game? cricket noises.. What do you think of gay/bisexual people? A1. Have you ever kissed the TV? no. Have you ever thrown your cell phone across the room? yeah, then regretted it LMAOOOOO Have you ever been hit with a ball in gym class? not often but once in hs i got sockedddddddd in the face during volleyball & thought it was on purpose so i hit her w the ball even harder and ended up getting suspended cuz i wasn’t discreet about it lmao Will you be single over winter? [brain muscles overworking themselves] what season is this Where do you wanna live when you grow up? out of miami mayhaps. Are you wearing jeans, shorts, sweatpants, or pajama pants? pajama pants. Would you get married if you could right now? nope. Do you consider yourself spoiled? maybe so. Do you get annoyed when you see someone you don’t like? i usually just focus on other shit. Could you see yourself dropping out of high school? surprised i didn’t. Is there anyone you want to see right now? santi?! What were you doing 12 a.m. last night? fixing my living room. Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 months from now? :] Are you a mean person? no, i really try not to be. What woke you up today? yesterday*, alarm clock. Have you kissed anyone whose name started with a T? probably lmaoo

Did you date anyone last summer? nah, i was minding my business, enjoying my life. Where will you be twelve hours from now? class. Do you remember the first time you kissed the last person you kissed? yeth Have you ever slept on a couch with that person? also yeth Have you written a letter to a soldier? no. Ever been in a perfect relationship? lmao “perfect” How do you feel about the person who texted you last? loveeee me some them. What are you looking forward to? cricket noises.. Do you think you are an argumentative person? hhhh.. maybe..  How did you feel when you woke up today? tireddddddd asf. Have you ever had a best friend who was of the opposite sex? mhmmm What time did you go to sleep last night? i always go to bed late asf. i’m boutta go to bed now just to be up in two hours. What color are your eyes? brown. The last song you listened to? a veces, it’s literally on repeat. When you shut off your alarm clock, do you tend to fall back asleep? if i don’t get up, yeah. Do you believe change is always good? sometimes.

How long was your longest relationship in highschool? 3 years. Do you know who Philip DeFranco is? nah. What’s the most illegal thing you’ve EVER done? 💀 the OP responded to this with weed, i’m really screaming rn.. Where did/do you want to get married? all these questions about marriage, whew. What’s the highest level of education you’ve reached? i’m in college rn Is your last name extremely common, like Gonzalez? no, but i don’t think it’s rare either. Ever notice how most flags are red white and blue? no. Have you ever had a crush on a family member? what the fuck How old is your YOUNGEST friend? bitch.. i don’t know How old is your OLDEST friend? i don’t. know. How long should people be together before they propose? these questions are starting to make me uncomfortable lmaoo Have you had your first touch screen phone yet? that’s how you know this survey is old. Don’t you hate when parents divorce but then still argue regularly? can’t relate, hope i never do. Would you ever join the military? sike. If you could have any dog, what dog would you have? a shihpoo. Would you ever kill a bunny and make soup out of it? what the fuck x2 Do any of your friends own a ferret? no. Do you believe that Christians are better than non-Christians? no? Do boys really rock pink more than girls do? ????????????????????? Do you own a pair of skinny jeans? yerrr What’s your view on the Islam culture? hard to have an opinion on something you know nothing about. Do you know what, “C'est la vie” means? i know i’ve seen this but idk what it means Do balloons make you have a better birthday? nah; they’re loud asf too when they pop, so. Krispy kreme donuts aren’t as good as Dunkin Donuts, are they? DELETE THIS. What is your favorite song from, “Aventura?” THE SPANISH GROUP?! WAYMENT...... i don’t even know. prob something generic. yesterday i was listening to por un segundo lmao :( If you could legally assassinate any celebrity, who would it be? bro.. Do you use Twitter or Formspring? twitter. rip formspring babie love you. Why did you last cry? a few hours ago, real crybaby bad bitch hours. If you had to lose 5 lbs, how would you do it? lower my calorie intake. Is there anyone who seems to think that you are a pillow? ???????? Tell me about your BEST New Year’s Eve ever. wasn’t this one. If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to? alejandra, idk why that name sticks with me. i just feel like i look like someone named alee & idk how that makes sense but it does to me LMAO. Lunapic editor is amazing, no? whommmm... How do YOU write, “Okay?” depends on my mood, who i’m talking to, what we’re talking about.

How old was the last person who kissed you? 28. Do you have any plans for the day after tomorrow? not that i know of. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? yeah. What time did you wake up today? 7. Name something you can’t wait to do: idk. If you had to choose, would you rather be an alcoholic or a pothead? pothead. What has pissed you off today, if anything at all? cricket noises. Can you honestly say that at this point and time you’re happy with the way life is going? no lmao. Can you easily tell if someone’s fake? mmmmmmmmmmm.. depends. Is there someone you don’t ever want to be out your life? yeah. Did you kiss or hug anyone in the last 48 hours? yeah. Looking back in time did you ever waste your time on a certain boy or girl? feel like most ppl have been thru this. Has anyone ever sang to you? yeah bfsjklj Can a boy and girl be friends without having feelings for each other? LMAO yeah. Coffee or alcohol? oof.. both. together. Have you ever kissed anyone whose name started with C or J? yeth and yeth. Do you ever cry during movies? hell yeah w my crybaby ass Do you have any piercings? ears. Have you ever found someone you really like? my BOO. 🗣 Did you go outside for more than 30 minutes today? yeah LMAO Do you remember who you liked three months ago? was that november... idk how to do math LMAO pretty sure i liked ques by then.

[orcommaj369]

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