#anyways it doesn’t seem too bad so i guess we’ll go without it

[okkalo]

morning workout

sae x reader

genre(s): fluff

warnings: none

I WANNA WRITE FOR RIN SO BAD BUT I ALREADY HAVE SO MUCH RIN SO IM TRYING TO EVEN IT OUT AND IT SUCKS BC RIN WOULD BE SO CUTE IN THIS SCENARIO

“sae…i think i’m actually about to die,” you claimed in between your tired pants, hands resting on your waist. sae could only roll his eyes at your statement, which wasn’t even close to the first one this morning.

“you’re the one who wanted to join my morning workout,” he mentioned while watching your exhausted form. “besides, you’re on your last set anyways.”

when you begged sae to let you accompany him to the gym this morning you were expecting nice couple time. maybe even a time to watch him sweat and show his muscles. besides, you’ve heard how working out can make you feel better. so, of course you persisted on joining sae this morning.

big mistake. it was sae’s leg day and he gave you the same workouts as his, of course with less weights. that didn’t make it any easier.

so here you were, on the last set of your weighted squats feeling the immense aching of your legs. “my legs won’t do another one, sae.” you finally got over your heavy breathes, meeting his eyes.

“this is the last workout of today, you can do it. and if you really can’t then i’m right behind you. i won’t let you get hurt,” he tried to compromise, knowing how much you looked forward to this morning. it made you feel warm—well, warmer than you were—seeing him actually care enough to try to push you a little.

“you’ve already hurt me with this workout, babe,” you sighed, letting your hands fall to your sides as you looked towards the bar. he walked up, stopping in front of you and letting his hand meet your cheek while he occupied your other cheek with a kiss. he gave you a small push to make you look at him.

“ten more, you’re so close,” was all he could say, struggling to come up with more inspiration to give you. really, him saying anything at all was a lot coming from him though. knowing this you gave him a hesitant nod, walking out of his hold to the squat rack—you’re new worst enemy.

“don’t let me die here, please,” you added, dipping your head to the other side of the bar, adjusting your hands as you saw fit. you took a minute to breathe and ready yourself, sae giving you a small squeeze on your hip as you did so.

“i’m right here,” was all you needed to hear before you took your last breathe and lifted the bar. it was a painfully long last set, your legs shaking each time you pushed yourself up. sae noticed, hands carefully hovering around your figure as he mumbled the count. he immediately took the bar once you finished, taking the weight off of you.

“good job,” he gave a muttered praise, hand meeting your back as you went back into your earlier position. he leaned forward to give you another kiss on your flushed cheek before retreating to take the weights off the bar.

“sae, never let me join you again,” you struggled to say in between your breathes, watching as he put the equipment away. “i’m so glad i’m done.”

“we still have to do our cooldown stretches,” he reminded you, prompting a long and loud whine to escape your lips.

unedited thanks for reading!

[syntheticfoxfire]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ niragi + companionship [tw: dying, physical injuries]

You’ve been close to death before. Who here hasn't? This world isn’t particularly forgiving, so it’s only to be expected.

Still, you’ve never been this close and getting closer.

Putting more pressure on the bleeding hole in your stomach, you brave on. This isn’t how you meant to die. No matter how ruthless the games and this whole experience made you, how it all changed you, you still longed for happiness. And dying cold and alone wasn’t part of it. One would think that among the bodies that littered the streets there would be someone barely alive to keep you company at least, but that’s just your luck.

Then you hear a wet, disgusting couching. Great, that sounds promising. You’re not sure for how much longer you’ll be able to move, so you try to hurry.

What’s good is that the person in question isn’t too far and his wounds seem pretty bad. He’s been shot like you, and clearly you’re both at the end of your life spans unless a miracle happens. The bad news is who this guy is.

Then again, it’s the end of this world, seeing as only one last game remains. It’s most likely going to be your end too, so why not let go of all the hard feelings. You barely have any strength left anyway and you’d like to use it to breathe for a while longer.

You lower yourself to the ground, leaning for support on the car Niragi’s resting against. You sit right next to him, ignoring his scoff and venomous ‘fuck off’. Fuck him, though, so you move even closer, letting yourself fall over him and resting your upper body on his lap and stomach. His blood soaks your hair. You don’t care, it’s a mess anyway. Being like this feels pretty good though. Who would’ve thought.

“The fuck you’re doing,” he growls, his chest rumbling with blood slowly filling his lungs. You suppose he’d like to remove you from himself, but neither of you have enough strength to really move.

"Dying, the same as you," you shrug, or try to, "Don't wanna do it alone."

It's too late to hide now, to pretend. You're scared. You don't wanna die, period, but the prospect of dying alone is even more terrifying. While you were never more than a casual acquaintance or reluctant ally with Niragi, he’s a piece of familiarity. He’s not a good person, but he’s been decent enough to you. And you figure that here, on the brink of death, it doesn’t matter if he sees you open and vulnerable.

“Should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” he sighs, as exaggerated as his busted lungs allow. His wheezy breathing sounds terrible. You almost feel sorry for him. 

“Should’ve fucked me too, now we’ll die without ever having fun,” you chuckle. Ah, the memories. Maybe you were more than acquaintances. Where’s that line anyway? He huffs.

“Where’s the fun if you can’t fight back,” as he speaks, he lazily trails one of his hands up your thigh. You can tell it’s a lot of effort.

“I wouldn’t have fought back before either,” you hum, “You’re an asshole, but you’re hot. Back then and now.” His hand pauses on your leg, resting on your thigh before getting anywhere inappropriate. 

“You know, I always wondered how you were in our world,” you continue. Blood loss is probably making you too chatty for your own good. It feels comfortable though. He’s warm even as he’s bleeding out on you, you on him, your blood mixing with his in a puddle under your bodies. “I’d like to meet you there. I’m curious if we’d be friends.”

“You hate me,” he deadpans.

“You think I’d come to die together with you if I hated you?” you roll your eyes weakly, too afraid they’d really get stuck up there with how weak you were feeling, “The point is me hating you, not myself. I mean it’s not like I like you, but I guess there might be potential if we met under different circumstances.”

You close your eyes. You really shouldn’t have talked that much, but at least it’s taken your mind off things. He’s really warm. Soft, and his hand feels nice on your thigh. You let your head swing closer to his body, gently rubbing on his chest. His blood smears on your cheek and he hisses as you brush against his wound.

You feel him move, his hand lands on your shoulder and you think he might push you away. Yet instead of retaliating he just wraps his other arm around you. His hold is loose, and you guess there’s not much time for either of you. What a shame. You’d love to tease him.

Faintly you hear explosions somewhere both far away and all around you. A voice informs you about something, but you only make out the key words over the sound of Niragi’s barely-there heartbeat.

You make your choice, and you wonder where you’re going to wake up.

[part 2??]

[medusapelagia]

8 Au-gust: Robots and Androids - Part 1

Parta 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 [...]

Ok. I wanted to join the Au-gust prompts but, as we all know, I'm totally unable to write drabbles… So here is a sneak pic of the new fic I'm working on right now (yes, another one. I'm a horrible person!)

Android Au [Untitled for the moment]

"Come on cowboy. You got me. Now do you think we can rest a little?" the dark-haired man asked, his face covered in sweat and breathless.

"I'm no cowboy, and no, we can’t rest. Come on." the other replies, pushing him forward.

"Ok, ok, so no cowboy. Sheriff? What's your title man?"

"I'm a Standard Electronic Vehicle Evolution, and you can't rest."

"Not all of us are made by engineers, you know that? Human beings need rest!" he complains.

The android sighs, the hunt was an easy one. He found the criminal soon enough, he was hiding on a casino planet. What a stupid thing to do, even for a human.

All the rest of this mission has gone wrong.

The planet the criminal was hiding in was too far from any military base and he had to drag the unwilling man on his ship. Then somehow he managed to free himself from the basic handcuff he had put on him and damaged the ship before the android was able to stop him and put the higher level of handcuffs on him.

But that wasn’t enough to prevent the crashing on the desertic planet they were on right now.

"I know that, and I know that if I let you rest in the middle of the desert with no water you'll be dead in less than two hours. So stand up and follow me. My sensors detected a human outpost a few miles away. If we keep walking at this pace we'll be there in three or four hours max."

He could drag him across the desert but he sustained some damage during their crash and he doesn’t want to add more damage fighting with that stubborn human.

"But you told me I'm going to die in two!" the man whines.

God, this human was so dramatic! 

"If you stop, yes, if you come with me, maybe not."

The man looks at him with anger.

He is just an android, but after years on the field, he has learned how to detect some human emotions. They have this strange thing called "facial expressions" that sometimes he is able to read. What he doesn't understand is what humans call "tone".

Irony, sarcasm, amusement.

His internal program knows what they are but he is not able to identify them correctly. During the academy, when he trained with humans, they mocked him a lot of times. He knows they did but he never truly understood that.

Ha had a human partner once, a few years before.

He wasn't bad but it wasn't nice either. They just worked together, but Tommy Hagan was always too irrational and that got him killed. After that, he refused to have another human partner and he definitely didn't want another android as a companion, so he kept doing his job alone.

His trainer gave him a little nickname, years before. Lone Wolf. He liked that and he made an incision on his biceps with those words. Just like a human’s tattoo.

It's so small that it seems like a scratch, but to his advanced vision, the letters are perfectly clear.

It is his little dirty secret.

"Move. One step in front of the other.” he tries to coax the other man who keeps protesting loudly.

"If you bring me back they are going to kill me anyway, so why don't you leave me here dying an honorable death, stupid piece of junk?"

"I can't. I can't let a human being be hurt if I can prevent that. It's in my code."

"Fuck your stupid code. They are going to sentence me to death in any case. So let me rest, wait a couple of hours, and bring back my dead body! I'm sure they will give you a medal in any case!"

The android keeps his eyesight on the horizon, trying to guess how far the human outpost is and if he has enough energy to drag the man there.

"They don't give medals to androids. We just do our job, as it is expected." he replies without even looking at him.

"Can you tell me at least your fucking name? I'm Eddie Munson, at your service." the man says bowing and spitting some sand.

"I know. It's written on your wanted poster."

"Cool. Now can you tell me your name?" he smirks.

The android turns toward him, almost annoyed "I already told you, I'm a Standard Electronic Vehicle Evolution." 

"You don't look like a fucking vehicle!"

"The early prototypes used to have wheels and their human partner could use them as a vehicle. I'm a newer model." He was built to help in police or military operations, it doesn’t matter that now he is more or less a hunter. 

"And where is your partner?"

Oh, this human likes to talk.  A lot. He knows two ways of making humans shout but the first is against his code. 

"Dead."

"I'm sorry."

"It was years ago."

"I'm still sorry for your loss."

"I didn't lose anything. He died and I know perfectly well where he is." Tommy's body is buried under the central station, like all the other humans.

"Fucking android. Ok. So you have no name. Do you have a serial number at least?"

"Yes. STE2UTK7NQ."

"Ok. No. That's not working. Ste, uh? Can I call you Step?"

"Actually my creator called us S.T.E.V.E."

"Steve?"

"It’s an acronym for Standard Electronic Vehicle Evolution. We are all Steves."

"That doesn't sound really personal."

"Will you stop talking if I let you name me?" It's not a big deal. He has had names before. None did stick, but he can understand the difficulty of the human mind: humans need a name to identify things, so the android will let the man name him.

"What about Stevie?"

"Isn't that a nickname?"

"Yes."

"Close to my definition?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Ok. I don't mind. Now can you move?"

With a huge grumble, the human gets up and starts walking. 

As the android suspected, he doesn’t shut up. Not even for a second.

He keeps talking and talking, even when the android tries to make him understand that he should save his strength, and when after the umpteenth time he falls and is unable to get up, the android is not surprised.

"It seems that our adventure came to an end, Stevie. I hope you find your way back home." he whispers, before passing out.

The android sighs, picking up the other man like a doll, and he keeps walking toward the human outpost.

[continue...]

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

jk has armys so he wont crash and burn but he also isnt new justin, far from it. armys would never believe it but seven is not a hit for an american industry scale. he is staying on charts thanks to radio and crazy amount of remixes and his biggest streams are from thailand. he is not gonna become huge pop star just for having abs and singing generic repetetive songs. he is still just bts member that had many streams on his new song and thats it. but well we will see what scooter will mold him into beacause jk doesnt seem to mind anything if it will make him biggest pop star

I guess that was Scooter’s way of thinking.

Jungkook has a fandom because of BTS, BUT he is new at being solo. So Scooter doesn’t have to start from 0 while also being the one to take credit for “making” him and his stans and pjms too can say what they want but BTS is more well known and successful than any member (we’ll see if it’s going to change) do if Scooter succeed in making him a Harry he will see it as a win.

Anyways, these are the reasons I think it’s not going to work(no particular order):

-racism

-like anon said Jk is not fluent enough in English

-Kpop/armys have a bad reputation which is going to stop many people from taking Jk seriously(kpop is like anime: everyone’s heard of it, but outside of the country of origin it’s still niche)

-Justin blew up in a veeery different era and he was a phenomenon. Things were different a decade ago. Now we are in the digital era where people can pull crazy numbers without their music being actually a hit worldwide(ex:Bad Bunny, Bts, Jungkook himself)

-enlistment(even if Jk doesn’t enlist for the 2025 “reunion” he still has to at some point so the only chance for Scooter to make him mainstream is before that)

-having Gp hit is very different from having Western’s pop stan’s respect. They are heavily into pop girls and are very critical of the men stars for doing the bare minimum(including JB) so if Scooter’s team doesn’t give him something “unique” like Harry’s clown clothes and queer image and let’s him be straight up a copy of JB (basic songs with basic vocals and basic dance-now that I think about it that’s why the choreo was so bland cause Justin has easy choreos too lol) he will not have these people’s “approval” and will be a laughing stock

---

I think the fans thing is a very good point. It's real. Most of these groups or even soloists aren't taken seriously because of their fans. Nobody likes dealing with people who take everything personally and are fighting others on internet about who has the most monthly listeners on Spotify. One direction had some really good, geniunely catchy pop-rock music but they weren't taken seriously because of their fans. And the same happened to BTS. Mind you, the SK goverment would use BTS for clout and brownie points but they never respected them as a group enough to give them exemption. They're definitely more popular than Son Heungmin or any other sports figure, but does popularity equal respect? No. Never has, and never will.

In fact, I'd say Harry started being taken more seriously when he stopped having such a hardcore, pintpoint-able online "rabid" fanbase. Meaning, once he stopped being so associated to one direction. And that took a few years. 1D broke up in 2015, and in 2018 he was still "Harry from 1D". I think I started noticing a shift and more people acknowledging him just as Harry well after his first tour as a soloist was over, which was in like 2019. I barely see "harries" on twitter, too. They exist, obviously. But they're not really a strong online presence, like even Nicki fans are.

All BTS members are still "---- of BTS". I've said it even before the hiatus, and my opinon still hasn't changed. It's probably only Jimin who random people can say "Jimin" and others will know who they're talking about. It doesn't mean they're fans of him or anything, but just that his name stands for itself.

I'm what everyone would call a local, it sounds really stupid to say it like that but it's the only way I know how to say it. When I said this is just an online thing for me, I meant it. I don't have friends irl who listen to kpop or care about celebrities at all; I don't know people like that, people who are "fans" of anything. In 6 years or so I must've probably said BTS outloud like only a dozen times, and I don't really talk about them -or any other celebrity for that matter- with people irl. So I kind of gauge how "viral" and known something is through the people I know irl because if they're all posting a song on Instagram stories and whatever, then I know for sure it's reached the normies. That was Justin after 2015, Taylor after blank space kind of?? But more than anything after lover. Miley had that moment after wrecking ball, though she's had up and downs. Ariana only kind of picked up internationally in like 2020, but not even that. People here know who Ariana is, but they couldn't name you two of her songs. For Harry, it was watermelon sugar which was a song in his SECOND full album that was released five years after 1D. Anyone who thinks Harry got "international mainstream whatever" success right after one direction... is wrong. It happened in his second album. Even more so, despite one direction having had tours in stadiums, Harry's first solo tour was an arenas tour. He literally had shows for 15k, 20k people, not more than that. Any BTS akgae would've called him a flop. Hell, if they looked at his youtube/instagram/tiktok numbers right now they would still call him a flop.

Because that's usually how it goes for good, remarkable people who are meant to be remembered and even more loved as years go by. Olivia started off her career with a bang, but will people remember her 10 years from now? That's yet to be seen. Deep down, that is the ultimate goal for a lot of people. They want to make an impact and be rememberd in the long haul. Frankly, I believe that's the real definition of "success". Or at least the only respectable definition.

I'm working as a teacher right now, and the other day I asked my class of teens (they're all around 15 years old) who are they listening to these days so I'd take them a song to work with during class, and all the girls in the class immediately said Taylor Swift. I was so pleasantly surprised! I liked Taylor Swift in 2009 and back then nobody I knew listened to her.

I'm seeing Taylor in November, me and my little sister bought tickets to her show. My sister is 15 right now, about the same age I was in 2009 when I started listening to Taylor. One of her classmate's mom called me to help her get a ticket because they weren't able to the first time and her daughter cried the whole day. Now, that's legacy. How is Taylor, two decades into her career, still gaining fans and still getting bigger and bigger everyday? After getting the tickets I mentioned to my brother how I was listening to Taylor when I was 15 and now our sister is litening to her at 15 too, and he was like "it's not easy, having that kind of career especially right now when everything comes and goes so fast; she's almost like coldplay or the rolling stones now." You know, those bands that will always have an audience no matter how many years pass. I think BTS as a group is definitely in that category, but I can't say the same for any solo member as of right now. Ask me again in 10 years, maybe.

As for music, sometimes songs are a hit in the US and not the rest of the world. Sometimes they are everywhere else in the world but not in the US. More often than not, a certified Hit song happens when it's a hit both in the US AND worldwide. Like it or not, the world still looks to the US for "approval" in a lot of things, if it's cool there then they'll think it's cool anywhere else. I don't like in the US so I don't know if Morgan Wallen is a "household name", but he's already got the longest running #1 or whatever, even more weeks than as it was. Yet I've never heard his song, meanwhile everyone knew as it was. Either way, even "hit songs" have an expiration date. People don't hold on to one-time wonders for a long time, the next one comes and they forget about the previous one.

And then there's that thing I've talked about before related to trends in music and how the world seems to have moved on from pop songs and are more into a "mature" sound, and a more developed sound, something that sounds like people actually worked on them.

If we're talking about hits in the US, just look at these numbers. And it's a song with no remixes or anything. She barely did any performances for it. She literally didn't even try.

This isn't really relevant, just a shameless Harry plug, but I wish people knew more of Harry's music apart from watermelon sugar and as it was lol. I also liked him better before the clown clothes (tho he used to dress like that even when he was in one direction, he's always been ~quirky and no, he's not forcing that trait, he's just really always been like that since he was young). I actually don't even like as it was, and his last album is my least favorite one. I like this style of his:

It's understandable though, that singers like to experiment and try different things, they like reinventing themselves, and that's okay.

And this one is a song that he wrote but then gave to Ariana Grande. And he doesn't change pronouns even if the song is sung by a woman. If I recall correctly, I think even the original leak of the song had these lyrics, as if they were written about a man (but don't quote me on that because it's been way too many years and I can't find the original leak).

[madds-is-ace-trash]

Waite the dudes gay who would have thunk it

Read on ao3

Chapter 3: yanked out the closet

Ok Danny was not going to screw this up. He could do this he was still human after all he could ask someone out like a normal fucking person. Shoot good thing his ghost form doesn’t have a heartbeat or it would have flown out if his chest by now.

  Right on que, the familiar sensation began to climb up the back of his throat. The light tingle of his ghosts sence, but if it were locked in his throat not quite able to escape. He had begun to associate this new feeling with the other halfa.  

  He was close and that meant it was time to get this over with. His cheeks burned hot, as he peaked around the corner of the ally. 

  Hood was standing in the middle of the street waiting. He had sensed him too. No chickening out now. 

  He stepped out of the alley and towards the street.

  —————————————————

  Dick had texted him to ask if he wanted a tag along for patrol. He knew he meant well but Jason could Handle his own shit….. he hoped. Also he didn’t want to scare off this ‘phantom’ he had already fled the scene once. 

  So here Jason was running around crime Ally on  his usual patrol route. Waiting for the tingling sensation that accompanied mister Cheshire cat to start up. He rounded the corner in one of the nicer segments of crime alley( well as nice as crime alley could get anyway) and it started. He stood still looking for any sign of the person that had been following him for months. 

  And out of the alley steps a man,no older than 20,  his hair is as White as snow, it floats on his head like he was underwater, skin tinted a light blue, his ears slightly pointed. His figure was slim but he was toned, much like his eldest brother. He wore a hoodie and some jeans over a black under suit, his boots white and his hands in his pockets. He let his eyes wander back up, and green stared back. But it’s not quite pit green, it’s softer and more gentle. Like a field on a spring morning. 

  The man smiles at him, rubbing the back of his neck. “Hey…so um guess I should introduce myself.” His voice was low but soft. Not nearly as grumbly as Jason’s. 

  “Yeah no shit,” he responds on instinct without thinking.

  The other man tensed a little at the outburst. His helmet kept the tone Neutral which may have hurt more than it helped. “Yeah you're right.”He mumbled to himself. “Ok so umm let’s do this. My name is Danny and it’s a pleasure to meet you. Well I guess technically we already met but I didn’t induce myself. SoIdon’tthinkthatcounts”  The man Danny nervously rambled his words running into one another.

  “Danny? I thought your name was Phantom?” Jason prodded after all that is what the other ghost called him. Oh Waite shit did that mean this dude was like dead, like dead dead. 

  “ Oh Yeah we’ll it is kinda… sorry Yeah my name is  Danny phantom it like kinda my last name but not it’s weird.”  Danny continued rubbing the back of his neck; it must have been a nervous habit.

  Jason weirdly didn’t feel particularly in danger. He figured if the pit liked this guy he must have been bad news but he was just some cute guy.  Actually the pit seemed calm and weirdly quite the buzzing had died down from the other time phantom had been following him.  strange.  So in an act of reckless stupidity( we’ll if that wasn’t his M.O at this point honestly) he took his Helmet off. 

  And Danny processed to float off the ground to meet Jason’s eyes, we’ll his domino but his eye level at least.  He came closer and Yhea Danny was definitely shorter than him by like a few inches. Actually if Jason took his boots off maybe it would be about the same. 

  “Names Hood,” Jason stuck his hand out. “ Nice to actually meet you, any reason in particular you been stalking me like a fucking curse.” Danny had taken his hand easy enough, a weird sensation climbing it’s way up Jason’s arm. It wasn’t unpleasant, it was like he had stuck his arm in an open freezer. 

  “Um ok about that I uh” He putters out the blue on his cheeks deeping, outlining the freckles that peppered his cheeks. And fuck Jason was starting. “ I was trying to well uhhh…it’s a ghost thing and I was doing it cus I thought well. I thought you would get it? But I realize that was stupid and I should probably talk like a human being.” 

  “What’s a ghost thing?” He reached for the knife in his pocket gently rubbing the Handel in his pocket. 

  “Ok don’t laugh but I was…. I wastryingtocourtyou.” 

  “I’m sorry what?”

  “I was trying to court you!” Danny’s face goes completely flush. And to be honest Jason may have flushed back just a bit. It was different to have Danny tell him it was happening himself. “Look I just… I think you're really cool and” he fidgeted with his hands, “ok Danny you promised you would do this the human way” he mumbled to himself. 

  He took a deep breath in and with a wave of light the ghost boy no longer stood in front of him. Instead was a 20 year old man with jet black hair and eyes so blue they looked like sapphires. His ears still slightly pointed, his skin olive toned. His freckles still peppered his face, his cheeks a bright red.He was still wearing a hoodie but this one had a nasa logo on it. His jeans were ripped and his shoes looked well loved. “ Do you maybe wanna I don’t know grab a Coffee or something sometime?” 

  Did he? This dude made his chest feel tight and his face heat. But he was clearly some type of meta or worse actually dead. And he has no idea of his true intentions. Maybe he could try to run a background check he needs to investigate-.

  Fuck no he need to get the inner Bruce out of his head. “ You know what,  why not. You gotta a phone or did you leave that in the coffin.” Danny laughed it was soft like a bell, fuck his laugh was cute. 

  “ Oh Yeah, I wouldn't be caught dead without one.”Danny giggled handing Jason his phone. It was old and cracked but hey it seemed to be holding up fine.  Jason put his name in as well as a bunner number and set a text so he had Danny’s number. 

  “ So you make death jokes too hu?” Jason asked, it felt more natural around Danny for some reason and maybe it helped that he actually laughed. 

  “Oh yeah all the time, they always kill.”  Danny chuckled, “that's actually why all those gifts were, well, death related.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, “ I thought you would enjoy it you know.” 

“From one dead guy to another, leave a note next time maybe?”

  “Oh, you can't emotion project after all?”

  “I'm sorry , can't what?” 

  “Emotion project it's what it sounds like. I did leave a note kinda, it was just you know in a language you can't speak quite yet.”

  Ok this guy was kinda of an idiot, “Are all ghosts this Awkward and clunky about the supposed courting process or is that just you.” Jason teased his cheeks red and heart a flutter. Danny has tried so hard and even though Jason's apparently ghost dense, hasn't given up on him. It felt nice to be thought about. 

  “ Just me” Danny glanced down at his phone and smiled, “ Jason, just me.” 

  “ Well it's about time, '' Gatta says, though you're pretty good at staying out of sight. also we’re did you get that knif-“ 

  And then Jason's phone rang, it was the madam of one of the houses he ran, Not good. That only meant one thing: someone was stirring up trouble. 

“It's ok, take it, “ Danny nodded and smiled. “ I'll get out of your hair for now.”  Danny transforms again floating into the air. “ See you soon?” Danny asked hopefully.

  “Yeah I'll try not to ghost you.” and Danny laughed again. And Jason shot a line and swung away, before his heart jumped out of his chest.  The tingling did not follow and Jason had to admit he felt a little sad about it. 

—-----------/—---------------------------------

Danny stood in the street for a good 10 minutes after hood Jason left. He had given Danny his name so that was a start. An unnatural Trill escaping his through as his core fluttered with the realization of what he had just managed to pull off. 

  He slapped his hand over his mouth and turned invisible, speeding off towards his apartment. He did it, he asked him out and with only mild embarrassment. 

  Wait a minute, how did Jason know his name was phantom? He knew for a fact that he had kept himself hidden.  But he was a bat, right? O shit he just…. He just transformed in front of a bat.

  “ Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit ”

  —————————————————

  This was not good, a brawl had broken out after some of the girls refused to sleep with some drunk thugs.  Luckily his secerty staff was doing their job the best they could, no casualties so far and none of the girls had been dragged in. So it was time for Jason to put some dick wads in their place. 

  He swung down kicking one of the gang in the head, pulling the gun from his waist belt he shot another that was grappling with one of his security in the shoulder. The guard took the opportunity to pin the guy to the floor, good at least he was earning his keep. The bullets in his gun were modified, at least he wasn’t really going to kill anyone. But they still hurt, quite a lot actually. 

  Another tries to sneak up behind him, but Jason turns around sweeping his legs out from underneath him and hurling him into the floor. To his left another guy is pined by 2 of his security staff. The other 2 men see that they are now in way over their heads, turn tail and leave.  So he lets them screw ‘em they can go and spread the word. 

“Hood!” One if the girls called from the doorway. “ Thank god you came.”  She leaned out and took a glance around, Jason took note of the red ring around her wrist, she must have been one of the girls who refused in the first place. 

  “That’s my job, after all, can’t have some thugs thinking they can cause trouble in our terff and get away with it.” He zipped tied the man’s hand behind their backs. Directing his guys to hang back and keep an eye on them tell he could handle them.  He still had to talk to the madam and get the full story to decide just how black and blue he should leave these guys. “You seen Miss Cleo?” 

  “Yeah she’s inside, she’s trying to wrangle the customer complaints”  The girl grimaced obviously not wishing to be in the other place. 

  “I'll go lend her a hand, get that wrist checked out for me. Hate to see one of you hurt.”  He gave the girl a nod on his way in. 

  The place wasn't too wild all things considered, pretty tame just a group of men shouting discrepenties.  Jason was sure the moment he walked over they would shut up real quick, and he's shure Cleo would appreciate it. “ Do we have a problem, gentlemen?” He chimes after sneaking up behind the group. 

  “ Yes actually we d-” one man turns around boldly and then identity shrinks at the site of jason's imposing figure. “ Oh Red hood, No no problems here.” 

  “Good so i suggest you fuckers leave poor Madam Cleo alone hm?” he said as he pressed his gun against the man's chest. Jason wasn't actually going to shoot him but he didn't know that. 

  “Yep of course no trouble!” the men squawked losing any steam they once had as they scurried towards the door. 

  “Hood” the madem shoots his a nod. “Thanks for showing up so fast.” 

  “Course Cleo after all, I don’t think any one in the gang would want something to happen to you or any of the girls.” Jason chuckled to himself, “Waite actually scratch that everyone but phin I’m pretty sure he would bash you head in on site.” 

  “Yeah well servers him right, not my fault he's a gremlin,” Cleo let out a big sigh, “ but a brother is  a brother.” 

  Jason tenses a little at the comment, a tinge of gilt gathering in the back of his mind. After all he wasn’t exactly the best brother himself. He wasn’t dick, he couldn’t play the ‘cool’ older brother role. He was damaged and broken, he was wrong . Shoot, he had tried to hurt a few of them, he almost… he almost killed Tim. 

  Jason shook his head a bit to clear his thoughts, like his brain was an Etch A Sketch. The almost empty back counter caught his eyes, perfect time to redirect from his family drama. He doesn't want to deal with that right now, no thank you.  “Looks like you guys are running pretty bare, I’ll make sure to have the guys bring a restock.” 

  “Thanks Red, I’m sure the girls will-“  Jason’s phone dings, cutting Cleo off. 

  Jason takes the phone out and checks who it is, after all it’s been pretty quiet the past few days, that usually means someone’s plotting.  But it wasn't any of his guys, in fact it was ghost boy.  

  Fellow Dead guy: Hey! Know you're probably busy. But it was nice getting to talk to you. Do you think this weekend will work or are you *buried* at work. 

  You: I’ll Have to check but I don't see why not. I know a place that's killer.

  Fellow Dead guy: Pff Ok, stay safe. Don't want to get your coffin resized. 

  Jason was glad he chose a helmet for his suit, it was able to hide the small smile creeping across his lips. The pit  letting out a light buzz underneath his skin. 

  “Soooo, are you going to tell me who that is?  The girls are gonna be so heart broken.”  Miss cleo teased.

  “ What are you talking about, Cleo? It was just-”

  “Don't think that fancy helmet can fool me, reading body language is part of the job description.” When Jason didn't respond she continued. “ You melted, that whole tough guy act flew out the window, your shoulder dropped and you leaned back on to your heels instead of your toes.”

  Cleo had known him for a long time, her house was one of the first that Jason took over. It was a no brainer she could read him but still it sent a slight chill down his spine. She was alway scarly aware of people's emotions, after all he was trained by the big bat himself and he was still an open book. “ The girls are going to be sad though, a few of them like you a lot hood. So who's stolen that heart of yours, would we know her?”

  “No, it's not a working girl Cleo, “ Jason reached for his pocket knife and began to fidget with the blade. “ Its some… Its some guy I met, he seems pretty cool.” 

  “Got ya that knife then i'm guessing,” then cleo did a double blink, “ Waite some Guy?” 

“Yhea a Guy, is that a problem.” Jason's shoulders squared a little. He never really talked about relationships as hood for obvious reasons, but Cleo was one of the few people who knew Jason from redhoods crew, was well red hood.  He would even consider her a friend. 

  “Don't get ya panties in a twist,” Cleo chuckled, “ It just explains so much.” 

  “Explain what exactly?” 

  “ Red you have never once, and I mean once ever spent a night with one of the girls, not even one.” She walks over and pats Jason on the shoulder, “ We were worried about ya we even called some of the other houses in the gangs.” 

  “Wait, why would you be worried exactly?” 

  “Because a softy like you all on your own is asking to end up pulling a batman. Don’t get me wrong, hood your violent as shit but no other gang leader helps a kid with their English homework.” 

  “ I’m not…. I hold on” ok so nice to know Cleo doesn’t care if he’s gay but the idea of the girls snooping around in fear of a mini hood on the rise was kind of shocking to say the least. 

  “So a guy, hmmmm. It that one who came to viste  you a while back,” she taps her chin in thought. “ O waite Arsenal was his name right? You two seemed real chummy. ” 

  “ What no its not him!” They had actually dated at one point but Cleo didn't need to know that. “ new guy don't even think he's originally from Gotham. He has an accent. I doubt you've met him.” 

  “ Well, if things go well I demand to meet him, whether that's as J or Hood understood.” 

  “ We’ll see Cleo, we’ll see.”  Jason's salutes her farewell, and leaves out the back door. He shoots his men a text to Handel the thugs. 

  The minute he makes his way to the rooftops his coms rings, “ Hood how did it go!” His big brother asked hopefully.

  Oh this was gonna be fun, “ Oh it went pretty well, I got myself a date this weekend. Bye blues I got work.”  Jason turns off his coms, A machivus smile crosses his face as he imagines his brother freaking out on the other end of the line.  

  —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ …I got a date this weekend…” *click*

  “ Oh my God! BABBY BRO. Hood! RED HOOD! Wait, please come back. What's he like, is he a threat HOOD!”

Bruce tunes out of the com link line. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop he just knew if he made himself known Jason would drop the line. He has to talk to Jaylad. He had a date, who, when? Wait a minute Dick just said “ Is HE a threat,”  is …. Is Jason. 

  —————————————————————————————-

  Jazz opens her brother's door only to find him face first in his pillow kicking his feet against the mattress. He was chirping again so that was a good sign at least. 

  “I’m guessing things went well?” 

  Danny lifted his head, his hair matted from it being pressed against the pillow, “ yes he said yes! This weekend jazz that in like 4 days I’m freaking out.” 

  Jazz chucked to herself , time for big sis to swoop in and save the day. “ Yes, that gives you plenty of time. Did you get his number?” 

  “ Yes actually turns out his names Jason,” his brother reached for his phone to open the contact to show her. Excitement was clear in the way he stimmed with his unoccupied hand. 

  “We'll, I'm sure you and Jason will have a wonderful time, but you do have morning classes tomorrow.” Jazz pointed to the clock beside Danny’s bed. “It’s already 1am and you should really head to bed.”

  “Jazz I don’t need that much sleep you know that.” 

  “Yes but maybe Jason would like to see ya without eye bags” she pointed out knowing it would probably work. 

  “Oh shoot your right,” Danny hopped up and fazed some pjs out of his drawer, “ thanks jazz, for everything.” Danny calls out in a low voice as she goes to leave her brother's room. 

  “Any time baby brother mine any time.” 

If any body has a better name for Jason to put Danny as in his phone I’m all ears.

I just went with fellow dead guy cus it seemed like something Jason would do on the fly.

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[ternfic]

Reboot

Chapter Fifteen

Mayhem watched, impressed, as Benny and Bad Cop threw together a sturdy-looking starship in roughly a minute. Learning how to Master Build was still something of a work in progress on Systar, so to see two actual Masters at work was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

However, there was one minor problem that needed to be addressed.

“You don’t have a space suit,” she said to Bad Cop. He gave her a startled look at her abrupt announcement.

“We need one?” he questioned. “Last we checked, your ‘outer space’ had atmosphere and we could breathe out there.”

Mayhem tilted her head at the ‘we’ bit, but didn’t question it. “You won’t need it to breathe, no, but you might find it useful for maneuvering out there.” She gave him an amused smile. “The wings aren’t just for show, you know. These suits are flight-capable.”

“…Right,” Bad Cop agreed. “Sounds good.”

“Come on, we’ve got several spare suits yet. One of them should fit you.” She motioned for him to follow and left Benny in the hangar to put their new ship through its startup sequence. Bad Cop followed without a word, pausing only once they reached the armory. She approached the spare suits, much like her own in design but plain white. “It’s a good thing you’re about as tall as us, otherwise you’d be out of luck.” She pulled one out, slightly shorter than the others. “This one should fit. Once you put the helmet on it will adjust to your build, and then this suit will be yours to keep- it won’t fit anyone else.” Bad Cop nodded and accepted it, and Mayhem looked away as he stripped down to boxers and t-shirt before putting it on.

“…This is surprisingly comfortable,” he remarked before putting the helmet on.

Mayhem laughed. “Yeah, that’s kind of why I wear mine so much. Sometimes I’ll even forget I have it on and go to bed still wearing the body suit.” That pulled an amused snort from her companion. She watched to make sure he had the helmet on right-

-and her jaw dropped when it beeped and the mesh of his suit changed, pitch black bleeding through most of it, and leaving the strangest markings in white and silver. Part of her shock stemmed from the fact that the chameleon mesh technology had worked on someone not of Systarian origin, but mostly from the markings she couldn’t make sense of. They looked more organic, compared to the rather technical nature of her and her scouts’ markings, but it looked like he was someone of very high rank on his homeworld, from what she could guess. The massive double-pair of wings that sprouted from the suit’s back, reminiscent of dragonfly wings, only further proved her assumption, even if she found the red glow of the glass to be somewhat intimidating. She cleared her throat. “If you’re ready…?”

“As ready as we’ll get,” Bad Cop agreed, then tilted his head. “This helmet doesn’t have a voice modifier?”

Mayhem blushed. “Ah… No, that doesn’t come standard, I just had one put in mine so I could… you know, seem tough like you all…” They left the armory and returned to the hangar to find Batman waiting there for them. He was decked out in his own suit of Systarian armor fit for a king- likely Watevra’s doing. “Your Majesty,” Mayhem greeted him. “…What are you doing here?”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “My people are out there too. I wouldn’t be much of a hero if I left others to do all the rescue work, would I?”

“Which is Bruce-speak for ‘I’m a glory hog and can’t stand not to get at least some credit’,” Benny snickered. Bruce huffed at him. “But hey, the more the merrier!” He turned to Bad Cop. “You ready to- whoa.” He looked the officer up and down, and whistled in appreciation. “Dang, man, that really suits you.”

“Ah- thank you?” Bad Cop replied, somewhat embarrassed.

“You’re welcome! Now let’s get moving, I’ve got a spaceship to fly!”

“After you, Your Majesty,” Bad Cop said dryly, gesturing for Bruce to go first.

“I don’t think I like your tone, Bad Cop,” the super hero grunted at him, but boarded the ship anyway. Bad Cop followed him.

“’That tone’ is the only way you’re ever going to hear those two words coming from me, Bruce, so you better get used to it.”

“And stop calling me Bruce!”

Mayhem rolled her eyes at their bickering. She’d have to find out what sort of history the two of them shared. She watched long enough to make sure Benny’s ship made it safely out of the hangar before running off to retrieve her own. They had to hurry before Rex decided to sic his raptors on the survivors.

It was easy to see Rex’s dark mood as he boarded the Rexcelsior, even before he removed his helmet. His raptors kept their distance, chittering quiet concern amongst themselves.

His Master Breaker punch hadn’t caused Armomageddon. Not that he’d really been expecting it to- there was a reason he’d needed Emmet to do it, after all. His younger broth- he shook his head tersely and corrected himself- his past self felt things so much more strongly than Rex could. Oh, he had hatred and anger in endless supply, but to start Armomageddon, sheer rage wasn’t nearly enough.

But it had bought him some time, destroying the Temple and damaging several of Systar’s inhabited moons. Now he just needed to figure out how to finish the job.

“What’s our next move, sir?” Ripley chirred at him.

“Rev her up, Ripley. She was built to be a battering ram, it’s about time she lived up to that purpose. Set course for Suburbia.”

“Yes sir!” She turned to bark orders at the rest of the crew. “You heard the boss! We’re running full steam ahead for Suburbia!”

Satisfied that the crew had things well in hand, Rex turned his attention toward the window, giving the solar system ahead of them a dark glower. If he truly was being retconned into his own separate entity, then he no longer had to worry about preserving his own existence and could go on an all-out offensive.

But some part of him hesitated. Even after remembering everything Rex had done, even after initially being suspicious and angry at him for it, Emmet had still forgiven him. Emmet had still been willing to call Rex his friend, his brother. To hear him introduce Rex as such to the former president with pride…

It ached.

He clenched his fists.

Emmet showed such faith in him even now, after everything, and here Rex was about to betray that faith again.

No! He had to focus. He’d come here with a goal in mind, he couldn’t back down now. He needed to make the Systarians pay for everything they’d taken from him.

No regrets.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 21- Part 10

Well look at that, look at her being all happy and stuff with her special interest- that’s nice to see, given everything she’s been through lately.

Hm-!? Johto mention!? Wait- BUGSY mention?? Who else could she be talking about, he’s got purple hair and a love of Bug-types too! Apparently it’s hereditary! Well dang, that just makes me even more convinced she’s got a Scizor- wasn’t Bugsy’s ace Pokémon a Scyther? So her having a Scizor would be a neat nod to her relation to him.

…Really? That doesn’t seem to line up with Bugsy’s personality as far as I remember it- he was really, really, really, really, really passionate about Bug-types and how strong they are, but he didn’t seem like a bad kid besides that. Then again, there was little to no mention of family stuff with Bugsy, so I guess that does leave room for the writers of this game to do what they wanted with his relationship with Shelly.

Aw, the wording of that is as cute as it is sad.

Aha, I was right! She’s got an Illumise and a…Masquerain? I mean, the Intimidate is beneficial to her side to an extent, but that quad weakness to Rock is still…y’know, there. 

Alright, now, the question is…which one is the Rain Dance setter? Both of these Pokémon can learn it, so I need to figure out which and focus down that Pokémon so Shelly can’t recall it and switch it back in later to bring the rain back.

Hm…well, I don’t need to worry about Wide Guard on either of these two, so Rock Slide from Ravine should be a safe bet. And as for Lake, um…maybe use Air Slash on Illumise? It could have Prankster, which would give priority to Rain Dance…assuming Illumise is the one that sets up the rain, anyways.

Aha! Illumise is the rain setter! GET HER!

Wow, Illumise took less damage from that Rock Slide than I thought it would-

Alright, they’re both still alive somehow- not sure what that’s a testament to. The stats of Shelly’s Pokémon? The power of Intimidate? Onix’s lackluster Attack? Maybe all three? 

And yet, somehow…Ravine outspeeds the Masquerain. So here’s what we’ll do: Rock Tomb the Illumise to get rid of the rain-setter, then Air Slash on the Masquerain.

So far so good, but who is Masquerain going to target-? Oh, Ravine, okay-

But it’s fine! Revenge-killing is always welcome! And just like that, Shelly’s down two Pokémon and we’ve still got five! I don’t know what her next Pokémon will be, but I think now’s the time to change the weather, so let’s bring in Meteo!

Okay, Anorith, I partially expected that. But a Yanmega, too? Another part Flying-type? That’s- oh! Oh, wait a second! Shelly named her Yanmega after Heather! Awww, that’s so cute! Too bad I’ll have to take it down sooner or later.

But maybe we shouldn’t set up Sunny Day just yet, not while Anorith’s out. Crater can handle Rock moves just fine, but Meteo won’t be able to. But maybe we can use the rain to our advantage for a moment! It’s got a Telluric Seed of its own, so it has a Spiky Shield up, but if we double-up attacks on it with Weather Ball and Bubble Beam, the damage should be devastating.

Unless- oh dear, the Yanmega’s faster, wait-

And without Lake, Anorith’s not taking any damage this turn because of the shield, oh no-

Okay…well, we can still handle this. This is why I brought Riptide, here we go!

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[twilightmalachite]

Altered - Heaven and Hell 5

Author: Akira

Characters: Natsume, Rei, Kanata, Wataru, Shu

Translator: Mika Enstars

"Ugh, my soul is stained by my tongue, now that I’ve spoken about vile things such as money."

Season: Winter

Location: Sakura Park (Cherry Blossoms)

⚠️ This is an import from a unproofed Twitter Livetweet!

Natsume: UnfortunateLY, we no longer have the time for such reunioNS… Niisans, do you have your smartphones on yOU?

Though I doubt you’re interested and have looked into iT, they rank and announce the amount of votes received in OO performancES.

Rei: Mhm. It’s very nostalgic. It’s the same system as the Yumenosaki Dream Fes, where the winner’s determined by the amount of votes your performance gets.

For OO, the winning unit is who can receive the most votes over the event’s course of three days… At least, that’s the pitch.

Wataru: Indeed. There are no restrictions to how much you can perform, so the winner will be the unit that can continue to stand on stage for the entire three days.

Rei: In simple terms, yes. But since we are charged a performance fee every time we go on stage, you have to maintain a profit else you’ll be left in the red.

Wataru: So instead, you’re stuck with the fear of being in debt.

If you have to pay up 100 votes in order to perform, then if you can’t earn back at least 100 more votes, it’s a financial loss!

The longer you stand on stage, the poorer you become. You become the working poor.

At the conclusion, your vote surplus gets converted into L$, and that’s to be your paid reward.

Rei: It appears that ES wants to recover the money they splurged off in SS…

Because the performance fee is quite high, it feels like there’s no way to make a profit.

As a result, we’re not moving too aggressively , else we might end up losing money every time we take to the stage—Instead, we’re taking it easy and enjoying our time like this.

Once the government and banks become reluctant to lend money, companies slow their functions to the point the economy stagnates. It’s a bad capitalistic scenario.

Kanata: This is a difficult “topic”, huh.

Rei: Mhm. But you can’t move forward without understanding it properly. It’s an important thing to know in this day and age of which we live.

We idols are like sole proprietors, so we must have some degree of economic knowledge, else we’ll lose money.

Shu: While I get paid by ES, I’m treated like a temporary employee, not as a full-time one.

Ugh, my soul is stained by my tongue, now that I’ve spoken about vile things such as money.

Wataru: Money’s not all that bad, is it~?

The monetary economy is the world’s most powerful illusion. A concept that exists only because everyone believes that it does… The last remaining magic of the modern era.

An illusion shared by us all, because everyone believes that cash and coins, mere pieces of paper and mineral, hold value!

It’s magic. One that shares its roots with art, where value is found in paint and carved lumps of rock.

Shu: You’ve always been obnoxious, but lately you’ve been speaking more and more about money. Just whose influence is this?

Wataru: Fufufu, my apologies for going on about my love. ♪

Natsume: We’ve gone off topIC. It’s always like this when close friends get togethER…

But anywaYS, could everyone check the ratings on their phonES?

There’s nobody aggressively taking on the staGE, as it’ll only be a loSS. Though that’s just to be expectED, given OO’s atmospheRE.

You would expect the mood to run stagnaNT, yet somehOW, there are those making a fortune through OO.

And they have performed again and agaIN, and are completely unrivalED, currently ranked one with a massive amount of votES.

Rei: I guess not everyone can read the atmospheRE, or at least think ahead. They seem to be taking the festival’s premise super seriously.

Natsume: You speak as if this doesn't concern yOU. No—After seeing how you all are reactiNG. I understand nOW. Those guys really don’t have any relation to uS, the Five Eccentrics.

No, rathER… Those guYS, they’re faKES.

Kanata: What do you mean, “fakes”~?

Natsume: The unit in questiON, the one currently at the top of the rankinGS, it’s called “Altered”—

Their true identity is a mysteRY. All over the internET, there are rumors that they are a completely new unit formed by the Five Eccentrics.

Shu: Wha? The Five Eccentrics? What do you mean, this is the first I’m hearing about this…?

Rei: Given everyone’s reactions here, it appears it’s a surprise to all of us.

It doesn’t make sense. None of us Five Eccentrics are involved, but for some reason there are some people calling themselves the Five Eccentrics running amok.

Something certainly is up. This really may not be the time to lay back and enjoy the cherry blossoms.

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[scorpiongrassfield]

You Aren't Sure What's Wrong

Start | Prev

Eventually, Pat looks back up from their journal. 

“Okay. Ignoring all that. How did hanging out with Theo go?” 

You try to school your face into something that doesn’t scream “I accidentally made him relive his drowning”. 

“It went well. He gave me a tour of his house and talked a bit about his family. And we played video games together, which was fun. And he showed me his art studio which was pretty cool. And he taught me some stuff about tarot,” you say. 

Pat raises an eyebrow. “Uh huh. And what happened to give you that ‘I’m trying not to look guilty’ face?” 

Damn it. 

“You haven’t already guessed?” you say with a sigh. You push the bowl back to them. 

They pull it a little closer and smush their spoon around in it without taking a bite. “Knowing you I certainly can. But I’m not going to make you feel guilty about a guess.” 

Your shoulders rise toward your ears. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”  

Pat just stares you down. 

“Okay. I kind of. Accidentally. Made Theo relive his drowning a little bit. But not all the way! I stopped it before he completely drowned!” 

People in the smoothie shop may or may not be staring at you for your outburst. You aren’t sure you care.

Pat continues to look at you for a long silent moment. Then they sigh, their shoulders drooping, their usually good posture slouching. 

“Okay. Look, kid. I’m going to try not to make you feel more guilty about this than you already do, because I know that’s a dick move. But. I am sometimes a dick, so that won’t be easy,” they admit. 

You wonder, not for the first time, where Pat learned to communicate like this from. 

“The thing is. From my perspective. This is something that you’ve done over and over and over again. You are very bad at not making ghosts relive their deaths when you’re asking them questions. However. From your point of view, this is the first time you’ve ever had something like this happen. And even on my end, you’ve only got a couple years’ worth of experience at it, and it's not like we’re constantly dealing with ghosts. I was bad at it too, at first because it’s tricky. Getting the information you need to help them without pushing them over the edge,” they sigh again. 

You get the feeling that rather than talking to you, they’re trying to talk themself out of being upset with you. 

“Anyway, good job on not completely drowning him. That’s progress at least. Try not to do it again, if you can help it,” they say, a little helplessly. 

“Okay. I’ll try my best,” you say. And you will. You don’t ever want to cause something like that again. 

“You said it went well otherwise?” Pat asks after taking a sip of their smoothie. You can practically see them steering the conversation into less emotionally charged waters. 

You shrug. “I think so. I get the feeling he was really lonely before he died. And I don’t think he ever got along with his family very well, even before they cut him off,” you say. You rub at your face a bit as you think. “He seems to be indirectly aware of his own death, somehow. I don’t think he’s really a lost ghost.” 

“That’s interesting. I wonder what he wants, then,” Pat muses. They sip at their drink thoughtfully. 

“What do you mean?” you ask. You don’t quite follow. 

“Well… If he’s not lost, and he’s not trapped, which I don’t think he is, since he’s not confined to the area around the creek, then he must want something. That’s how ghosts work.” 

“Right,” you remember now. 

Pat finishes the granola bowl while the two of you think it over. 

“If I had to bet, and I did try to confirm this before, I’d say that the reason he’s still around is so he can feed his cat,” Pat says. 

They have a point there. Poor Concrete wouldn’t fare well without Theo there to feet it. 

“We’ll still need to talk to him about it, though. Won’t do him any good if we fix one attachment but leave another stuck, y’know,” they say, standing up and stretching. 

“You done?” they say, gesturing to your cup. You feel a little guilty about nodding, but while your cup is still half full, you are done with it. 

You throw it out for yourself instead of handing it to Pat, like they were offering. 

They give you a flat look, but don’t comment. 

“Let’s get to the other stuff on our itinerary, then,” Pat says after tossing their own trash out. 

“What’s next?” you ask as you follow them out the door. 

“I would say it’s research time… But, unfortunately for us our collection of reliable sources went up in smoke. And the other collection of reliable sources that we know of is unfortunately in the possession of someone we aren’t on speaking terms with. So. No research for us right now. Until I can figure out if there are any other collections of paranormal books that aren’t complete bullshit,” Pat says with an edge of forced cheerfulness. They unlock the doors to the car and get in.

You follow suit. 

“So it’s not research time. What will we do instead?” you ask, ignoring Pat’s strange and ever-shifting mood. 

“Well. We’ve got three things we can do. We can go look where Theo died again, there’s some things I want to check… Or we could go bug Theo about what his lingering attachments to the world are. Or, and this one would take quite a bit of a long drive, we can go find Theo’s actual grave and see what it has to tell us,” Pat says, laying it all out for you. 

“You don’t care which one we do first?” you ask, buckling your seatbelt. 

Pat seems to be reminded to do the same. They also put on their sunglasses. 

“I don’t think the order matters, except that if we do the last one it will take all day, and if we do one of the other ones, we might have time to do both of them,” they explain. “We can’t get going until we decide though, so let’s pick.” 

Next

[mannatea]

Starting a new “thread” of these because the other is getting way too fucking long. You can read it here if you’re just finding this one. Starting at Ep242 “Learn to Fuse!/Gohan Revived—Kaoshin’s Secret Weapon!?”

I just have to admit that the sub voice for Boo is literally the most terrifying shit imaginable, like…the dub made him giggly and cutesy…which is also creepy but not nearly to the degree the sub Boo is. He’s honestly just horrifying lmfao.

Imagine being unfortunate enough to look even remotely like Trunks or Goten right now lmao.

“Everything can be brought back with the dragonballs.” Except Gohan and Vegeta I guess, because you guys just ignore them. What am I missing here. I mean, I get why they'd accept Vegeta's death but GOHAN? Am I insane.

I love how the first thing Gohan does upon waking us is accept that he’s dead and look for a halo LOL. I love him so much 😭

Sorry, Goten is the funniest character. When Trunks tells him it’s bad manners to talk at the table and not eat politely he just starts sippin his soup and ignoring everything to "be polite". What a fucking masterpiece.

Goku telling the boys to stop crying because there’s not time for it lmfao. Goku I am going to flick you back into the Other World with my middle finger, jfc man. Sorry they wouldn’t give a shit if you died, but they do care about Vegeta and Gohan lmao.

But also why is this continuing to be such a big deal when THE DRAGON BALLS SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT GOHAN BACK ANYWAY. They should be looking for him right now. And Shin too actually… wtf.

Goku doesn’t even give them a hug or any comfort or anything. I mean I know Goku’s like…a dummy but mannnnnnn they’re little kids. “You two, stop your endless sobbing!” My brother in christ I will kill you again myself. This is probably like 50% of the reason Gohan ended up so traumatized lol.

Honestly more people should feel badly for ChiChi, since they imagine she lost her son and husband now.

Poor Videl honestly. Imagine having to deal with all these weird people. They’re just like. Heard it from a friend whoooo heard it from a friendddd whoooo heard it from another that Gohan is deaaaadddddd. 🎵 No wonder she’s like WTfing all over the place. Nobody’s explained this ki shit to her to an extent where she would understand they literally can’t sense his lifeforce anymore so it has to sound absolutely bonkers that they’re just all believing it without even one shred of proof.

Krillin just giving her the most “oh, honey ☹” look that I’ve ever seen in my life HAHAH.

YOU GUYS LITERALLY WISHED EVERYONE BACK WHO DIED TODAY IS THIS A PLOT HOLE THAT EVERYONE IS SO STUPID OR WHAT. Like Vegeta not coming back makes sense: he’s definitely falling into the “bad guys” list of people not to bring back. BUT GOHAN? NO WAY LOL. I feel insane.

“I absolutely won’t believe such a thing!” Honestly Videl, you’re correct here…even though it’s weird for you to be that confident after you just saw what Boo is capable of and haven’t ever seen Gohan truly fight anyone lol. BUT ASLO AGAIN WHY ARE YOU NOT ASKING ABOUT THE DRAGONBALLS YOU JUST SAW THEM WISH EVERYONE BACK TO LIFE LMAO. WHY AREN'T YOU QUESTIONING THAT SPECIFICALLY.

I mean this is obviously a plot hole/something nobody thought through.

If the wish had been made much earlier (i.e., Bulma and Co. left to make the wish before Gohan had “died”) it would make sense that people were sad about him being dead—because he really would be dead. It doesn’t explain why nobody’s just like “eh, we’ll bring him back in four months” but at least in every other regard this would make a lot more sense.

They could have played around with the idea of Gohan being unable to come back thinking the manner in which he died might have been particularly horrific…or even that Gohan chose not to return, but all we have is this silly plot hole.

(I’m rolling my eyes because it makes all these characters just seem so incredibly stupid and NONE of them are that dumb.)

Something something everyone is like actively grieving and I’m not surprised more people don’t try to think of, say, Videl’s feelings, but man oh man with that plot hole staring me in the face it’s hard to take seriously.

ALSO ALSO they don’t HAVE four months to wait to revive Gohan anyway, so I’m sorta surprised nobody’s says that…or even just, “honey in five days we’re all going to join Gohan anyway soooo.”

I googled this shit because it was driving me insane, only to find a Reddit thread that pretty much told me that DBZ fans don’t possess even one grain of media literacy whatsoever. Fellas it’s called a plot hole; sometimes authors make mistakes just admit it and move on. LOL

Mr. Satan still not concerned about his daughter at all.

Krillin is actually the best, I love him so much.

SSJ3? Hideous. But that’s the price you pay for power.

Goku should just instant transmission himself and Buu to the sun. It'd save me a lot of time.

[chaotic-super]

Back To Krypton - Chapter 17

Alex’s boots sink into the mud left behind from the heavy rain, sopping wet through. Every step feels disgusting, and her feet are not appreciative of this mud bath, no matter how sore or damaged they’ve gotten.

Kelly and Nia are trailing behind them, Esme on Kelly’s back happily blabbering away about each plant or rock they pass as though they are any different from the thousands they have already passed.

Alex is a little ways ahead, Kelex hovering by her side as they try and find a way around the slope they had all fallen down to get back in the direction they came, where they had seen the guards of some sort take Kara and Lena.

She has her guesses for who they are and what they may want but doesn’t want to put any decisive labels on them, just in case they are someone different, someone worse.

They’ve been walking for a couple of days now, searching for another way back, praying that they’re walking in the right direction. She thinks they might just be able to find Kara and Lena because it’s obvious that they have been taken back to the accommodation, there’s nowhere else they could go unless the pods took them back to a city.

They owe it to them to try though, so they are heading back there and praying that they’ll be there. The only problem they’re having with their plan is that they don’t have one. They have zero clue what they are going to do when they get there, they have a child with them for Rao’s sake, and there isn’t a lot they can do.

It would be a bad idea to try and continue on without them anyway, without Kara and Lena to help ground them and guide them through sticky situations they would struggle, and it would reduce their chances of making it all the way to Kandor significantly.

They haven’t heard a peep from the people that took Kara and Lena, not since they marched out of view. She was hoping they would for the first day or so but then she realised how selfish that would be to want to be caught after Kara and Lena gave themselves up to protect them back at the trees.

They have all noticed something odd as they walk back in the direction they came from originally; there is a much higher number of plants from The Scarlet Jungle around. They can still avoid them fairly easily but there is a distinct side effect that seems to have come with them.

There’s an increased number of locust-like bugs surrounding them and while for the most part, they are staying away from them, if bugs follow the plants, then other animals may follow them too. That is not something they want to find out first hand though, so they want to get a hustle on.

Alex spots more red plants up ahead, grouped quite close together so she decides to stop and wait for the others to catch up with her. Unlike most of the ones they have seen, these ones don’t have palm tree-looking leaves, these have much smaller leaves and look slightly spikey, similar to that of a rose bush, minus the roses. They are also much taller, but spindlier, like they are still young plants, barely more than seedlings, even if they are more than a metre tall.

As soon as they reach her side, she points at the plants with a sigh. “We’ll have to go around them, they are way too close together for my liking.”

“I agree,” Kelly states, looking over Alex’s shoulder at them and huffing since this means that they will have to walk even further, even if it is only by a little bit.

Nia decides that she really isn’t feeling up to those extra steps, she’s already doing way more than the recommended ten thousand a day and isn’t really interested in furthering that. “I think we could probably –“

“No!” Alex and Kelly cut her off at the same time, both pitching her with matching glares.

“Alright, I was just saying.” Nia sulks, holding her hands up in surrender.

Kelly moves on to a softer look while Alex keeps her glare firmly in place. “We know, none of us wants to keep walking right now but we can’t afford any more injuries now, especially none like that you got on your hand, that was nasty.”

“I know, I know. Mother knows best and all that jazz.” Nia shrugs and walks past them both, taking a right to try and avoid the dangerous plants.

Turns out, they really aren’t a lucky bunch because Nia barely makes it two steps before she is stopped by an impromptu rustling coming from some of the thicker foliage around them.

All of them find themselves frozen, waiting for the penny to drop. Then another rustling comes from the other side of them, pinning them between the two rustling bushes with nowhere to go, the plants from The Scarlet Jungle blocking their path forward.

They back up as much as they can, not turning their backs to the bushes but don’t get too far since something begins to emerge from between the leaves, showing itself and the danger it presents.

None have them have ever tried to envision an emu crossed with a horse before and none of them have ever tried to envision an emu crossed with a horse that also has multiple rows of dagger teeth. That’s a big nope from The Superfriends.

Kelly breaks the silence as they stare into the eyes of the beast. “I really wish Kara and Lena had left us that sword.”

More emerge beside the first one, making a group of four, all staring right at them, watching them. A tingling runs down their spines, a hot sweat builds on the backs of their necks and their veins run cold. These creatures are not friendly, that’s easy enough to tell.

Esme is the first one to break out of the spell they’ve fallen under, not at all enchanted by these strange animals, so she lets out an almighty scream when they step towards them, eyes dark and full of danger.

Kelly grips Esme’s legs tighter, keeping her pressed to her back. She’s glad that she’s between Esme and the animals, glad that there is some kind of a barrier between them and her.

This is one of the reasons they had wanted to leave Esme with J’onn, to keep her out of situations like this, but they had naively decided that they could protect her, keep her away from anything that could put her in harm’s way, she sees now that was nothing more than a fantasy, a lie they told themselves to keep their daughter with them, unwilling to part for a little while could cost them a lot longer.

There’s nothing they could realistically do in this situation, they have knives and Alex has a gun, but these are not like animals on Earth, they have no idea if they would even have the chance to get their weapons free before they were already on them – killing them even.

If they survive this, they need to come up with a plan, they need to figure out how to keep Esme safe and stand by that plan, everything needs to be done to keep her safe and what they’re doing right now doesn’t fit into that plan.

Apparently, the enemy of scary bird horses is little girls with a good set of lungs because they recoil at the noise, rushing back into the bushes, and right through the scarlet ones, trampling them enough to create a path for them to use to continue on their trip without any more detours.

All three women let out their held breaths, Esme still screaming with her eyes firmly shut so she doesn’t even know that they’re gone until she runs out of breath and Kelly is lowering her down to the ground and crouching in front of her, Alex rushing to join her too.

“You’re ok, we’ve got you.” Alex pulls Esme into their embrace, holding their precious little girl between them. One shared look between the parents tells Kelly that Alex had the same realisations as she did when those animals were coming towards them.

Kelly pressed frantic kisses to the crown of Esme’s head, aware that all three of them are crying now. “You are so brave, you scared them away and made it all better. You’re our hero.” She whispers into Esme’s ear, desperately trying to calm both herself and Esme.

Nia watches them, still quaking in her boots and every breath she takes is a struggle, her body trying to fight its way out of panic mode. Alex notices over both Esme and Kelly’s shoulders, so she extends an arm outward, offering her a space in their group cuddle.

“You guys make me soft.” She mumbles as she sinks into the embrace of the Olsen-Danvers clan.

They stay like that for a couple of minutes, basking in their heightened adrenaline and relief, giving their rapidly beating hearts a chance to slow down to a more stable level and only once they have all calmed themselves, do they part, ready to start again on their adventure.

The group starts off again, Nia carrying Esme this time and Kelly taking the remote to bring Kelex along with them so Alex can keep her hands free, her gun and knife sheathed at her side, her hands ready to grab them at any moment.

They manage to shimmy through the gaps in the plants thanks to the animals stampeding through them, so they don’t have to take a detour and the encounter did end up having some bright sides.

And so they keep on trudging on forward and had mutually decided to take a short break when they get to a relatively safe-looking clearing, if they find any, so they can take a load off and discuss their options, starting with what they can do to keep Esme safe.

All of them keep their eyes peeled, Esme especially since Nia bestowed the task on her as the chief look out but they don’t find a clearing before they hear the sound of rushing water. Their spirits are lifted right away with it, knowing that they are getting closer to their goal.

Once they get the source of the sound in sight, none of them could stop their smiles from forming, knowing that they’ve found the stream and little waterfall that they had stopped at just a day after they had left the accommodation. That means that they are less than a day away from getting to where they think their abducted teammates are and they are one step closer to being back together.

They step out towards the water, breathing in their small victory and even Alex lets her shoulders drop a little and her hands fall away from her holster.

That’s a bad idea.

Right as they are fully out of the trees, they find themselves surrounded, the same guards as before around them, more joining them until they have nowhere to go.

Alex knows she can’t fight all of these people, not without risking the others, so she holds her hands up, accepting their fate, for now, they will have to go along with these people. She tries her best to understand them with her limited knowledge of Kryptonese. She does know enough to make conversation, but she has to admit that she’s rusty.

She definitely doesn’t miss the weapon in her face and the order to drop all of her weapons and her pack though, so she makes her movements slow and clear, complying right away which then leads the others to follow in her footsteps, doing the same.

Nia has to put Esme down so that she can take off her own pack, just as she watched the others do just seconds ago. She was expecting Esme to stay with her or maybe just take a little step to the side to get to Kelly since she is right beside her but instead she runs right for Alex at full speed.

All of them freeze, waiting for a reaction from the guards but there is none other than a brief tightening of their grips on their weapons.

“Kryp sem urvish, sokao zhgamem bah kryp.”

The line is stated with no malice and Alex actually believes the guard, even if she doesn’t understand why. “They said, ‘We want peace, please return with us.’” Alex translates for the others.

“I think we should listen to them.” Kelly hisses to both Alex and Nia, keeping her eye on Esme, who is clinging to Alex’s legs.

Both of the other women agree with her right away, so Alex responds to the group with her limited Kryptonese knowledge. “Zhi. Yes. Yes. Zhi.”

While the weapons aren’t dropped or put away, they are lowered to the ground and a few of the guards come forward to take their belongings and to point them in the direction they are to walk in.

“Mommy, what’s happening?” Esme whimpers, clinging to Alex’s hand.

The question and the grip encourage Alex to pick her up, holding her to her chest protectively. “I’m not entirely sure but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that they’re going to take us to wherever they took your aunts.”

Esme nods and buries her face into Alex’s neck, an obvious attempt at hiding from the scary-looking strangers.

The strange thing is that the guards or soldiers, whatever they are, appear to notice that Esme is scared and make an attempt at making her feel safer because one of them steps towards them slowly, taking something out of one of their own bags and offering it to the little girl.

Alex checks to see what they are holding out to her daughter, wary until she recognises it from a description she’s heard hundreds of times from her own kid sister. There in a little wooden box sits lots of square little pink sugar-coated candies that from what Kara has said, they taste like pure magic and nothing on Earth will ever make her as happy as those candies.

“Hey, why don’t you try one of those? I think those might be Aunt Kara’s favourites, so you’ll probably like them.” Alex encourages her slightly and with a nervous hand Esme reaches over and takes one very carefully from the box.

She pops it right into her mouth, utterly overjoyed by the taste flooding over her tongue. “Mommy, it’s good!”

“It is? What do we say to the nice guard?” Alex reacts, smiling at Esme coming out of her shell again.

“Thank you.” Esme beams at the guard, who seems to get the message, even with the language barrier because they nod to her, offering her the box to keep.

Of course, Esme takes it, tucking into her gift right away. The interaction puts them all at ease, a level of trust and rapport now forming. It’s an unspoken mutual pact that nobody is going to fight, and they are all just interested in getting on with what needs to be done.

Esme only gets through about half a dozen of her treats before she has to put them away because they arrive at a group of pods. They recognise the general look of them from Kara’s pod, but they are clearly modified or a slightly different model since they are big enough for multiple people.

They are taken to a different pod each, but they do allow Esme to stay with Alex, a sign that these people do have morals of some sort. Each pod takes off as soon as the passengers are all ready and heading right in the direction of the accommodation, just as they had predicted so none of them are shocked that when they land, they are right where they started a few days ago.

What they are shocked by, is the greeting party waiting at the door. Standing there with big smiles and open arms are Kara and Lena, closely backed up by Astra.

Alex is the only one that recognises Astra, the others never had the chance to have met her before, and she has to remind herself that she hasn’t killed her yet and she doesn’t know what she is going to do to her in the future, so she is in the clear on that front.

Kara and Lena pull them all in for hugs and they spend a little while just standing there, all huddled together, checking each other over for non-existent injuries.

Once their reintroductions are done, they all head inside and Astra leads them into the library, no guards present with them.

“My name is Astra In-Ze, and I am Kara’s aunt. Thank you for accompanying my guards so freely.” Astra holds out her hand for a handshake, just as she has learnt from Lena.

Kelly takes it first, then Esme copies her which makes Astra smile brightly at her. Nia and Alex follow suit and make their own introductions.

“Your daughter is beautiful, she reminds me so much of Kara when she was young,” Astra states gently, wrapping her arm around Kara’s shoulder for a brief moment.

Alex clears her throat. “Thank you, but I really need to know what’s going on before I lose my mind, I’m a bit lost at what’s going on.”

“Well, that’s what we are trying to figure out but we had to get them to bring you here so they would trust us, and Astra is helping us navigate that,” Lena explains, taking up vigil at Kara’s other side.

“Why do we need them to trust us?” Kelly asks, Nia nodding along at her side.

“They would likely ask for you to be…” Astra pauses, not wanting to say anything to scare the little girl that reminds her so much of her niece, “removed if they don’t.”

Alex sighs, running a hand over her forehead. “I see.”

Click here to read the first 16 chapters on A03

Click here to read 5 more chapters early

[aeoki]

SHINSEKAI - Empire of Fantasy: Chapter 7

Location: SHINSEKAI Control Room Characters: Sora, Natsume & Tsumugi

Natsume: (But, well, it’s unfortunate and I feel bad towards Sora but I don’t have a choiCE.)

(That’s because as the unit leader, I’ve received a “secret order” as well as an “order” from the “SS” Administration CommittEE.)

(It seems my “secret order” is to make our activities this time revolve around me, the unit leadER.)

(They must have given me this “secret order” to make sure I don’t go against thEM.)

(If our activities revolved around Sora like usual, both Senpai and I would do anything for hIM – For the management, that can result in undesirable activity from our eND.)

(But someone as streetwise as me would never do something as foolish as going against the managemeNT.)

(I bet they’ve already figured that oUT. In another sense, I’m sure they’re just looking down on me by thinking that I wouldn’t do anything reckleSS.)

(At the same time, I suspect the “order” that Senpai received was he “must not go against the Administration CommittEE”.)

(Since I’ve guessed his order now, I don’t want Senpai to do something that would make him violate hIS “order”.)

(Which means I won’t do anything that would be disadvantageous to the managemeNT.)

(It feels like I’ve been given three warninGS. That’s quite irritatiNG. And we have to be obedient and stay put this time as weLL.)

(If we go against them, we’ll be punished and we’ll lose our position within “ES” without advancing at all in “SS’.)

(There is a spot that Senpai is maintaining with his skills in our current agenCY, NewDi.)

(But those who weren’t able to produce any results and are singled out by the higher-ups will never be able to keep uP.)

(It’ll probably interfere with future “ES” activities tOO.)

(That’s why we will never go against the higher-ups and we have to produce the best results without disobeying the “orders” and mY “secret order”.)

(...I’m sure if it was Baru-kun and his unit, they would do whatever they want without thinking about all these confusing thinGS. Unfortunately, I can never play the role of a supporting and indispensable charactER.)

(Ahh, being an adult is so restrictiNG.)

(In any case, my “order” was something along the lines of revitalising the Tohoku regiON.)

(To be precise, it was phrased more as if they were telling me to not do anything that would be disadvantageous to the Tohoku regiON.)

(It feels like I was led to do that, but there was something else I could use to fulfil that requeST. That’s “SSVRS” and the VR reality built inside of iT, “SHINSEKAI”.)

(That’s the true identity behind our trump card that will guide us to a happy futuRE.)

Sora: Master~ Are you not feeling well?

Natsume: I’m fiNE. I don’t dislike using my brain cells to the max to do some thinking and ponderiNG.

Sora: HiHi~♪ That tires Sora out so Sora doesn’t do much of it, but “SS” is like a game and it’s a lot of fun. Sora can do his best because it’s fun~

Natsume: YeAH. In reality, this is where we can show what the Game Research Club is capable oF.

Let’s clear it with a high scoRE. I do feel sorry towards Shuu Nii-san as he’s unfamiliar with video games, thouGH ♪

Tsumugi: It seems the two of them have been pulled in all sorts of directions~... I wonder if they’re okay.

Natsume: They’ll be fiNE. They’re making progress just as we expected, anywAY.

I thought they would be played like a fiddle since they weren’t used to VR in the beginniNG.

But thanks to the “Championship Match” yesterday, they’ve got a lot oF “SSG”.

Even if they fail and lose a lot, they’ve got enough stamina to endure iT.

Tsumugi: Is that why you held the “Championship Match”? Even if we didn’t hold that event, it wouldn’t put us in a disadvantageous position, right?

As per the contract with the management, as long as the testing for “SSVRS” yields good results, we’ll be involved in the finals.

Natsume: It wouldn’t have been disadvantageous for uS, but holding the “Championship Match” was rather meaningful emotionalLY.

You wouldn’t want to bring your victories or losses – your fate – from the real world into a game, rigHT?

I want the story created in “SHINSEKAI” to be happy and free from the various facets of realiTY.

Besides, the result for the Qualifying Round has already been decided by the “Championship Match” yesterdAY. At the very least, it’s been proven that “Valkyrie” is an exceptional idol unIT.

If they encounter some sort of trouble and “Valkyrie” fails to qualify for the next round, Shuu Nii-san will still be able to save faCE. 

If I didn’t do that, he would resent me and that would be terrifyiNG.

I don’t want to make Nii-san sad or angRY. I’m not like a certain perverted “Emperor” who finds delight in being resentED.

Tsumugi: On the contrary, in Eichi-kun’s case, it wouldn’t make sense to do something awful and then be forgiven for it, so it would only feel revolting, though.

Natsume: HmPH. What bullies want is a reaction from the victim, like a scream, and not forgiveneSS.

Let him wallow in that disguST. It’s far too light for a punishmeNT.

This reality is complicated, mysterious and unfaIR. It also fails to reward good conduct and punish evildoiNG.

Once again, the devil’s children have the devil’s luck and villains suck the blood of the innocent and grow ever so stoUT.

However, in a game where everything is programmed, we can move everything in the world with simple logIC.

In a world where anything and everything can move according to our wishES, we can reign and run it all as the gOD. Everyone will be able to live blissfully in a small miniature gardEN…

Let’s allow everyone to experience a story where they can all reach a happy endiNG.

Ŵ€ŁĆØΜ€ ŦØ ỮŦØƤƗΔ, ƗĐØŁŞ ♪

Tsumugi: Uhh, no matter how you think about it, I think that’s more like a dystopia, though?

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[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 044

It’s the Potaufeu Trilogy, comin’ atcha!

So the only real value to the first 75% of Dragon Ball Super is the filler episodes they stick between each arc.  The Battle of Gods and Resurrection F episodes were crappy reruns, and the Destroyers Tournament looks like a crappy WWE B-list Pay-Per-View.  And the Zamasu arc.... well, we’ll get to that. 

But the filler episodes are generally fun and enjoyable, probably because they don’t waste time dragging out every little moment to pad out the series.  Like Dragon Ball GT, Super could probably be edited down to a much shorter anime if they just cut out all the pointless monologues and staredowns and reaction shots from minor characters.  These were always part of the charm with DBZ, but GT and Super just abuse the hell out of those tricks, with little to show for it.  What puts Super ahead of GT is that it can occasionally produce a good story once in a while. 

All right, so let’s dive into this.  Bulma’s doing some sort of experiment when Monaka shows up in his delivery truck to bring her more snacks.  She then borrows him to hold a funnel under a pipe while she generates a small amount of liquid.  There’s filter paper in the funnel, so I guess she needs to filter it.  Monaka just worries about falling behind on his route. 

See, this was what I was saying about Gohan’s career in the last episode.  They’re so vague about what he does and how he does it.  In this scene, Bulma’s working on an experiment which clearly has no basis in reality, but I can still recognize some of the equipment.  Glass funnel, filter paper, and a giant over-sized beaker.   The other stuff doesn’t look like anything in particular, but it still looks kind of authentic, like someone actually used references to draw this room instead of just winging it.  They should show Gohan in a room like this, only with biology stuff.  Like bugs and... more bugs.  That’s where biologists work, right?  They just hop into a big room full of bugs. 

Anyway, Goten and Trunks find Monaka’s unattended truck and start screwing around in the back.  Hey, those toys aren’t for you!

Monaka’s in such a hurry to get on with his route that he doesn’t even check to see if anyone’s in the back.  He just listens to the radio, and they read his letter on the air.  Under a psuedonym, Monaka confesses that he likes to take the packages marked “fragile” and set them on fire. 

Anyway, he doesn’t find the boys until he makes his next stop on Planet Potaufeu, where he has to warm them up because there’s no heat in the back of the truck. 

Monaka’s here to deliver a martial arts magazine to the planet’s sole inhabitant, Potage.  Potage kind of looks like a cross between a dog and a beetle, but not quite.  Anyway, he’s got bigger problems on his hands right now.

A bunch of bad guys, led by the evil Gryll, have come to this planet in search of “superhuman water”, but Goten and Trunks clobber them easily.

Gryll withdraws, but not without picking up the mysterious amulet that Potage dropped earlier.  Among other things, it’s the key to unlock the superhuman water. 

And while Goten and Trunks could easily stop him, he takes Monaka hostage, which allows him to take possession of the superhuman water.  Seems kind of anticlimactic, but...

Back on Earth, Bulma has finally discovered Trunks and Goten got into Monaka’s truck before he took off.  She calls Jaco to help them search, and when he tries to back out, she considers contacting the Galactic King and telling him about that picture she saw on Jaco’s ship with silly stuff drawn on it. 

More importantly, look how huge Vegeta is in this shot.  It’s ridiculous.  He’s supposed to be a little shorter than Bulma, and while I’ve gotten used to artists toeing that line, making him a little taller, this time they go way too far.  The character model isn’t meant to be this tall, which is why his shoulders and arms look so messed up. 

Here, they just screw it up in a whole different way.  Vegeta looks about right this time, except they just raised him up about six inches from Bulma’s level.  It looks like he’s standing on a box.

Back on Potaufeu, the bad guys are chasing the good guys, but these aliens look a little... different, don’t they?

Vegeta arrives in the nick of time (and so does Jaco) and he defeats the bad guys easily, but one of them melts into a puddle of purple goo, and it envelops Vegeta like a giant amoeba.

This is probably someone’s fetish, so drink it in, you sick fucks.

Vegeta emerges from the fluid seemingly unharmed, except he can’t use his powers. As for the purple goop...

It’s become an exact copy of Vegeta, with all his powers.  Uh-oh.

[atopearth]

Piofiore: Episodio 1926 Part 1 - Gilbert Redford Route

I'M SO EXCITED!!! I like to follow recommended route orders so I'll go with Gilbert first which I honestly don't mind because I love his personality and his respectful relationship with Lili, so yeah he's one of my favourites haha. Orlok is really the only one I'm iffy about but I guess we'll see. Love how the route already starts with Lili and Gil having a lovers spat in the lounge and everyone is just like .... Even Luca was there haha. Lili wanting to learn accounting to help the family is very her, so cute. Lmao when Gil wanted to show his repentance towards her by kissing her. I didn't expect to hear Yang so soon, I miss him so much🥹🥹 I'm surprised Lili isn't living with Gil already tbh haha. I love how playful he is though, I miss that. Seems like there's new characters from the Liu Huang Hui (head organisation of Lao Shu?) who are here to kill Yang so that's amusing. Loll at Lili being repeatedly hit on, she is beautiful though so what can I say🥲 Is Eugene Gil's father? Didn't expect the guy to be selling drugs even though he looked dodgy😰 Luca wanting to learn how to read so that Gil can give him instructions without personally saying it to him every time is so cute. He's such a good boy. Something I completely forgot about is that the LIs like to call Liliana Lili and it feels so weird to hear my name hahaha.

I hope Sister Sofia isn't dead, that would be terrible. I was so relieved when Gil appeared. It just feels really reassuring to have him there even if it's after everything happened. Luca is the sweetest boy ever! I love how he came all the way to the church to check if she was okay, and he spent time with the children learning with them too, it made me so sad but happy when he was like is this what going to school feels like🥹🥹 Oliver being sincerely concerned for Lili's wellbeing was very sweet too. OMG THE CG! I LOVE IT. It was so unexpected that I had to exit the game because I was playing on the TV though lmao. But yesss, them sharing a bathtub is so hot. I loveee Gil's wet hair. Little Gil looks like Luca haha! Lili is quite bold now! She kissed Gil on the cheek to motivate him to go to work haha, that's so cute, especially since she wasn't embarrassed at all! Anyway, Yuan has a very different appearance from what I expected. He looks very elegant. Honestly, with how reckless Luca is, I get so scared that he'll get himself killed. Jack really would have killed them if Orlok didn't appear. I'm glad Oliver and them reprimanded him but made sure to convey to him that they were mainly concerned about his and Lili's safety. I'm so glad that Orlok told Lili and Gil about how Eugene was ready to sacrifice Lili and Luca to protect himself because she hasn't thought of Eugene negatively at all but really, he's a selfish ass and Lili needs to get away from him. It was so cute how the twins appreciated Gil standing up for them against Yuan when he said that they're his guests. This is the reason why I love Gil! Another reason why I love him is because of how reassuring and kind he is. Even though it's risky to take Lili out, he recognises that she can't stay cooped up inside forever. Every time he says that the safest place in Burlone for Lili to be is right next to him, I admit that I swoon because when he says it, I feel like I can really believe in his words and feel safe, so I'm sure Lili feels the same haha.

Elena is the sweetest girl ever! I love how she made Lili realise that they won't necessarily be together forever since it's possible that she could find a husband somewhere else too and leave. Nothing is permanent, but as long as they let each other know that even if apart, they will always love and care about you, then that's enough. I can't believe Yang got injured so badly by Yuan. Why did Yuan just leave though? Suspicious.. Anyway, I can't help but feel bad for Dante... It just doesn't feel right for Dante to not have Nicola beside him. In other news, I love Jack's design, he's hot. ls Jack Gil's brother? Is that why I think he's hot?😅😅 Yuan is such a nut, can't believe he bit Lili and licked her blood to taste it, what a guy. Wow, the ruthlessness of Yuan to sever people's limbs, I feel sorry for those people.. I forgot about how Gil's father used to hit Gil and his mother. It was obvious that Eugene is a terrible father but he's even worse than I thought. I feel bad for Gil and Jack that they have such a father who doesn't care about them at all. I feel so sad that Orlok sacrificed himself to help Dante and Gil escape. Well, the ending really wasn't very compelling. It felt pretty rushed that everyone had to basically leave with Gil going Chicago and Yang very easily accepting to just go Romania. I guess I kinda feel robbed by how emotional it should be for Lili to leave her home and everything to follow Gil to Chicago but they just kinda left and it was like whatever lol. I don't even feel like the thing with Eugene was resolved all that nicely because he basically just left as if he never came, it really didn't have much effect on Gil's character imo lol. Like yeah, he was a piece of shit to the end, which I liked, but it never really felt like Gil got over it all, which I guess can be understandable in real life but it's just not very satisfying? Lili telling Gil all her feelings of loneliness and how she wants to go with Gil to Chicago at the beach was really sweet, I wouldn't have expected this to be the tragic ending at all. Honestly, Yuan dying at the sacrifice of Lili getting a concussion and losing her memories is a pretty good deal LOL, obviously there's other problems but still haha. I think the ending was quite bittersweet to have Gil stay with Lili in Burlone.

Overall, Gil's route was okay. I don't think it had the same charm as the original but I did enjoy Lili being more comfortable with physical affection. I really enjoyed seeing Gil tease her and make her all embarrassed, and I also really liked seeing Luca have a better chance at life with the help of Gil and Oliver. I didn't mind Jack but I think his character was wasted by being the random background guy chasing after Eugene but never actually doing anything. As for Eugene, I was excited to see his clashes with Gil but I guess there wasn't much to expect from him because he was quite disappointing as a person and as the "problem" of this route. It just felt very boring with how he constantly tried to take advantage of the people around him with his dumb decisions, there's now closure for Gil but at the same time, since I thought his father was dead and non-existent, the writers just basically brought up a problem that no one really cared for imo. I think I would have enjoyed the route better if it was just fluffy romance as they thought about their future and whether Lili would go with Gil to America.

[jodilin65]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1998 Well, no wonder they’ve been behaving next door with the exception of a little music on occasion. They were hoping to go to court with me and yes, they do suspect I threw the bottle, cuz they are trying to “have me served.” The first thing that went through my mind was that someone had to have seen me (but God only knows how), or that they were just so desperate to pin it on me anyway. Tom says you can tell in which direction a bottle was thrown by the way it scatters. Yeah, I thought about that, but I didn’t think the sick fucks would have brains enough to figure that one out. I think it was the cops who did, in which case I should’ve known better and shouldn’t have thrown the bottle. And of course, God just won’t let me get away with shit. I have no pity, guilt, remorse, or feelings of concern for these sick fucks whatsoever, but I am ashamed of myself for letting my husband down. This is one hell of a husband I’ve got who still loves me, and who says we’ll deal with whatever happens together when he could’ve turned his back on me. It is for him that I feel the shame, the guilt, and the remorse. As for the freeloaders, they fucked with me. I fucked back. Tom says “getting even” should mean that we do our best to better our lives, etc. Well, that goes without saying, but I meant it when I said that I give what I get. Tom says I just have to accept the fact that the world isn’t fair and that some people are gonna get away with things while others can’t. We agreed not to open the door to anyone, but we’re not gonna change our lives by hiding or making up stories. Like he said, if we get served, we get served. If we must go to court, we will. Meanwhile, we agreed I’d deny knowing a thing about it, but again, no stories. If they ask if there have been any problems with these people, I’ll tell them about the music. As Tom pointed out, due to the fact that I’m not alone with nothing, I couldn’t get a free lawyer, but if it came to court, I’m not gonna pay a lawyer to defend me over a thrown bottle. I’d just represent myself if it came to court.

I don’t know if they know yet that I haven’t been served, but there’s been a lot of door-slamming. Again, I don’t care if these people dropped dead and they can be happy, sad, rich or poor, but I guess I realized too late that the bottle was a bad idea. There were other things I could’ve done. Now I have to worry all the more, especially if I dodge court, that there’ll be more music problems and that they may even fuck with this house. Tom says that we’ll just have to live with whatever they do, but no way. I may have to pay for every little thing I do, but that doesn’t mean that they’re gonna get away with fucking with me. They can’t prove I threw that bottle. All they can do is suspect, but I disagree about us not being able to do anything if the letter we sent has a part in the music toning down. Even if it doesn’t, they still live in a house owned by the city and that’s a great advantage to us. Tom says maybe it’ll blow over, but that seems to be one stubborn bitch over there, so we’ll see. I asked God to please take it out on me. Meaning that Tom’s the one who works and whose name the house is in, so he could be the one to have to pay for this. In my little chat with God last night, I told him that if I must pay for what I’ve done, OK, but please let it be me to pay for it. I was the one who threw the bottle. Not Tom. I told him I didn’t want to go to court and have to have Tom pay for my actions, so please punish me. You know, 20 more pounds, continuing sterility, etc. Andy never had to go to court about the calls he made a few years ago to this customer and a detective said he’d have to, but he’s Andy. And God does favor Andy a bit more over me, even if there are others he loves even more than Andy. I’ve seen Andy get away with things I could only dream of getting away with. Scott never had to pay for his stealing his VCRs and I’d think that theft would be more serious than vandalism. Scott knew Andy was gonna have him served, so he didn’t answer his door, and they never went to court and Andy never saw his VCRs again. Again, though, that’s Scott and Andy. Not me. God’s standards for me are different.

Anyway, the court server left a card that said, “Jody, give me a call.”

Couldn’t even spell my name right. This card was face down on the ground, too, not taped to the door or in the mailbox slot. He came knocking again yesterday too, so who knows how many times he’ll keep trying?

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1998 Yuck, the weekend’s almost here. I haven’t heard any dog or music yet. My guess is that the dog won’t come till around the same time the last dog did. Probably between May and July, they’ll get a dog. I thought about it and realized that the reason they may not want to get a dog now, is cuz that’d show they were afraid of their tormentor, and they wouldn’t want that! My guess is that there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll act up this weekend. If they suspect me, they might, cuz they’d want to see if yet a third outburst from them brought another letter/bottle a few days afterward. If they don’t suspect me, they may be quiet, seeing that they just had a get-together.

I wasn’t here yesterday at lunchtime to know if he was a problem coming and going. All I’ve heard so far are car doors. The day they pulled in and up to the bottle, from what I saw, it was his car, so I think that he, she, the little one, and the teenage boy found the bottle together. Yesterday, though, I think she came in by some ride, like usual, then he came in later.

Later…

Today was like old times singing, in a way. I was congested and had to clear my throat a lot. God and his fucking compensations, boy I’ll tell you! Isn’t the fact that my nose is no better enough? Or the fact that I’m sterile? Or fat? Speaking of that, I haven’t been as hungry the last couple of days, and could that, and the fact that I’ve lost a few pounds, and have a slight good feeling about it, mean I’m gonna lose weight? Probably not. At least, it’s something I couldn’t believe unless I did lose weight.

In case I forgot to say - Tom says we don’t have to put off moving till after his mother dies. We can get to a place suitable for us that’d only take 15-25 minutes to drive into the city.

Tom was telling me he had a death dream where we were discussing dying, and what we’d do during our time left. He also said I was a rhinoceros through all of it. Yeah, I’m sure that dream was triggered by the loss of Spunky. I had some strange dreams, too, where Ma bought the Harley Hotel I worked at the Enfield, Connecticut/Longmeadow, Mass. line. She had it moved out here too (his ma). His father was in the dream, too, playing the harmonica on a screen in a theater that was apparently added on, then he jumped out in person to say hello to Tom and I. There were other bits and pieces of dreams I remember too, and in one of them, I saw Spunky and an all-black GP.

Tammy called just to say hi. Just to say hi. I couldn’t believe it. She usually never would call unless something was wrong or if she needed something. She says all’s going great. I’m so happy for her. She deserves to be happy for once.

Haven’t heard from my folks yet on AOL, but I’m sure I will soon enough.

We may not do any recording till Monday, which I’d prefer. This would suit his schedule better and I’d be less stressed out and worried that the freeloader may bang in. So, all that could really be noisy then would be dogs and car doors.

I took Tweety outside (in his cage, of course) and put him on the patio for some fresh polluted air (all those snowbirds are here). He didn’t really like this arrangement, though, cuz he was cornered on all 4 corners and very nervous. He had me in front of him, a cat to his left, a pigeon behind him, and a rabbit to his right. Tweety’s still very shy. Even my pigeons, especially Measles, are braver and less afraid of me.

The teeth cleaning went swiftly enough, and she said my teeth were less stained. I have another cavity that has to be filled in two weeks. Meanwhile, they’re gonna take care of this nuisance of an impaction, too. They’re gonna pull the baby tooth, but how they’ll walk the adult tooth up front, we’re not sure yet. We have two choices. We can get this retainer type thing for about $800 or go with braces and that’d be just over a G. Our insurance, of course, we’ll pay at least half of it. Tom’s gonna look at the price charts, but I was thinking I’d probably go with the retainer. As he says, if it costs $400 it’s still worth it cuz it’ll be a one-time deal and then I’d never have to worry about this shit again. I can go days without it irritating me, but then it gets irritated and bugs the hell out of me. It’s hard to clean in between it, too, and it’s coming down more. So, if I did nothing, the baby tooth would more than likely get pushed out and then the teeth that’d be next to the gap it left, would shift and want to fill in that gap.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1998 Got up at 7:30, fed the animals, had my coffee, took my shower, had my daily sneezing fit, tied my hair in a knot at the nape of my neck (a knot on top of my head’s too heavy when it’s wet), and now I’m ready to update.

This is going to come as a sudden shock, but Spunky’s dead. I’ve never seen anything like it. He just practically up and died. I don’t know if God’s compensating me by taking his life so soon cuz of how long Piggy lived, or what, but we think he may have had a tumor. It could’ve burst and poisoned him, and one side of his tummy seemed pretty distended, but we just don’t know for sure. His duties never looked right and he did get awfully big real fast, so given this, and the way he was so unusually timid and starving when we got him, tells us that maybe something was wrong with him from the get-go. Tom buried him out back.

In other animal news, Patch had her babies, but it’s hard to tell how many with 3-4 litters all piled together. The oldest are just starting to sprout their fur and are becoming more mobile. A couple of Patch’s babies were stillborn and she was bleeding from her crotch. I had been worried about her, but she’s fine and much smaller now. She had been fat! Spot’s next to deliver and now it looks like Bandit may have kids, too. The only one that may not be pregnant, for reasons I just don’t know, is Tanner. It’s too bad that if one escaped pregnancy it was Tanner, cuz she’s the only tan-colored one. If she had had a litter, there may have been a wider variety of colors.

And now I’m 127. I knew I’d gain weight when I quit smoking but does this no longer have anything to do with that? How is it that I’m gaining 2 pounds a week now? What’s going on? Well, all I can do is wonder, but I have to just accept it. There’s nothing I can do about it. Even the bra my ma brought out that was slightly big on me fits perfectly now. Where are these tits coming from? It’s like they’re not even mine.

Tom brought some really neat hand cleaner back from Ma’s yesterday. Bobby had brought it over from the mall. He’s the one who works at a bookstore and brings Mom boxes of books that don’t sell. This gel kills germs in 30 seconds without water and smells really nice.

Tom said the only thing that really bugs him about Ma staying at Mary’s is cuz they’re slobs. Filthy slobs, not just cluttered, unorganized slobs. Their bathrooms and kitchen are caked with dirt.

Today I go get my teeth cleaned at 1 PM

Later…

Tom just got in from work and we were checking out the babies. There must be 20 of them! He’s got a point when he says that it may be a good thing Tanner isn’t having babies, or else I could end up with those ugly white mice. As each litter gets old enough to be separated from its mom, we’ll take the males out and put them in their own cage till the youngest males are old enough to go, too, then we’ll take them to the pet store.

Tom says he didn’t hear anything, but I could’ve sworn I heard freeloader music at around 1 PM, then we both thought we heard car doors a couple of hours earlier, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he were coming in for lunch again, but I don’t know. This was yesterday that I thought that it was a freeloader I heard, but today I won’t be here at lunchtime to know if he acts up.

Tom said that the reason he was gung-ho about doing some songs with me, is cuz this is something that’s fun and that we can control. We can’t just go to the doctor for a magic pregnancy pill, though, that’ll give us an instant child.

I went off on Tom a few days ago and I feel bad about it. He says he understands, but whether or not I’ve had him figured all wrong, I’m sorry for yelling at him and calling him names.

I was utterly shocked at his suggestion, too. He thinks we should see a doctor within the next 6 months and get the ball rolling. That way we can figure it into our moving plans.

OK, what’s new in Freeloader Land… I was sitting in the living room reading, so I heard them come in at 4:45 (no music). I heard several car doors over a period of an hour. Maybe a little more. I also heard voices. The voices I mainly heard were those of kids and of the boy who lives there. At least I think that’s who it was. These things not only look the same. They sound the same. All I know is that the voice sounded black, close, and not under 15 years old. I didn’t hear the bitch yelling like I thought I would. There were people out talking from the time they came in; till the time I went to bed at 6:00. I didn’t hear how long they stayed out gabbing, naturally, cuz of the fan/noise machine. I don’t know if they called the cops, but I sure did hear something weird and that was this strange ticking sound. It sounded like a car motor as well and if it was, it wasn’t their car. Their car doesn’t tick. I also wondered if it was the cops with something to see if they could test for evidence, but wouldn’t they take the glass, bag it up, and then bring it to a lab? Besides, what with the way cops tend to brush things off, I wouldn’t think they’d bother over a smashed bottle. They’ve got too many murders to solve and killers to catch.

So, so far, it doesn’t look like anything will come out of this, but I’m going to definitely lay off as far as the vandalism goes. If there’s anything I and these bent fucks have in common, it’s that stubbornness and that resistance to intimidation. We don’t run away from trouble. We face it. So, this is gonna piss these people off and maybe they’ll wonder about it and have to live with being paranoid when they’re away from the house, but this would never be enough to drive them out of there. Also, these people are very sick individuals and they could do something to this house on just pure speculation that I had anything to do with it. It would take violence or some ongoing thing, like me depriving them of their sleep, to drive them out of here. The sleep thing’s debatable, though. If they were that stubborn, they may try to legally do something about it if that place is worth their staying in to them.

So that should sum it up. No more vandalism, although I may be very noisy at night, depending on what they do. This could cause them to act up to see if it’s me. Meaning if they have the brains to realize that the last two outbursts of theirs brought mail and bottles, they may want to try to bait me. They may also have a camcorder trained on the side/front of their house right now.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1998 It seems I can’t get caught up with the writing these days! Anyway, I’m making spag, but I thought I’d update while it was cooking and while I had a plateful.

They haven’t come to the door as of yet about the bottle, but God’s begun his payback for me. I actually woke up at 11:30 last night wheezing. No, it wasn’t anything like old times and how I’d wheeze when I smoked, and one shot cleared it instantly, then I went back to bed.

Tom says it was cuz the weather’s been warmer and that traps in the pollution and that’s another reason we have to move. Speaking of that, he says things are looking even better for that, although it won’t be this year, cuz interest rates have dropped even lower.

Then two hours after falling back asleep, I awoke with those oh-so-familiar hunger pains, so I got up, grabbed a piece of bread and a few swallows of water, then crashed till I got up at 5:30. I got up and was so hungry that I had a small TV dinner right away. I never used to do that. For as far as I can remember, I didn’t eat the first few hours I’d be up. Now I wake up so hungry that I’ve got to have something. And even then, I may still be hungry. But like I said, I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that there’s nothing I can do about it. My weight’s gonna keep climbing a few pounds a week till it decides to stop, and God only knows when it’ll decide that. I may have gotten my way as far as being able to not pick up a cigarette, light it, and smoke it, but God owns my body for the most part. Always has, always will, so it’s his to do as he sees fit.

Andy finally called and asked to come over this Saturday to take a half-hour out to tell me what’s been going on with him. I told him that’d be OK, but is he gonna pester me in person now that he can’t get me by phone as much? A part of it is Laura. He wouldn’t be coming over in the first place if it wasn’t to get her money, but can’t he ever associate with someone he can trust? Even he says he has to “hide” things from her. How can he live like that? If I felt I had to hide my stuff from whoever I was living with, I’d have a real problem. And he’s talking about lowering himself to going out with Quinn again, too. He also says God’s answered all his prayers for this year so far. Well, I’m glad God answers all of some people’s prayers.

Later…

I can’t believe that Patch still hasn’t had her babies yet. Patch and Spot may be the only two left with babies, then we’ll have to segregate in a few weeks. I find it really unfair, though, that while we’ve been trying unsuccessfully for years to have a child of our own, these mice are having babies left and right. I sit here and just dream of a child and meanwhile, we’ve got to scurry like hell to keep more and more litters from coming. God, that’s insulting! That is just so incredibly insulting to know that God can find mice more deserving and more capable of having kids than I am.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1998 Ah, so we freeloaders are leaving for work now, instead of 7:00, huh? After they slammed me twice, I ran up front and saw it leave. It still isn’t coming in for lunch these days that I know of, but it just may have some glass to clean up when it comes in at the end of the day. I assume that the house is empty from now till around 4:00, but it’s OK if there’s someone in there. I can still go to the side of the house and hurl a bottle over the block wall and into their carport. So whether or not someone’s there, it’ll look like a drunk and or drunken potential burglar was stalking around. Whereas if something was thrown over in the middle of the night, it’d look more obvious that it’s me behind it and they can suspect me, but I don’t want them to know it’s me till after we’re gone, so they can’t fuck with our house. I don’t stand by all our windows 24/7, so if someone were to approach the house with bad intentions, I wouldn’t necessarily know it in time to stop them. Anyway, I’m not gonna hurl the bottle till around 10:00. No, I haven’t heard his music yet, but I know I will, so I may as well get this over with. I’ve been wanting to start carrying out some of my harassment/terror plans anyway, and I’m just so angry. I hate these motherfuckers, and it’s either this or my beating them up and Tom doesn’t want me to. A part of me is hoping that the bitch comes over to ask if I did it and maybe even threaten me too, so I can beat her ass and his too. Meaning that maybe they’ll give me a reason, and someone screaming in my face at my door seems reason enough. But this bottle and other things are well overdue. These people have thumbed their noses at me long enough. I mean, who the fuck do they think they are to come into this neighborhood like they own it and to harass me with their noise like they have? His music’s gonna come back and so is a dog. It may not be the same dog, but they’ll get one. Trust me.

I am absolutely blown away by the fact that Andy hasn’t called since I left him that message yesterday. This has to mean that something’s going on, but I’m sure he’ll call today. If he doesn’t, then something’s really wrong over there.

Tom brought the guys to the store yesterday and they lucked out. The store had no room for them cuz someone had just brought in tons of mice, but this employee who’s a mouse breeder took them. She says she’ll take them at any age. She breeds and trades mice with other breeders. It’s nice to know my mice will go with this woman to her home, rather than to wonder what became of them. In a few weeks, we’ll bring in the babies. She’s using my cage to transport the mice home, which she says we can pick up on Friday. I guess that’s when she’ll be working again, but I hope she doesn’t intend to keep the cage. You know me - can’t trust anyone. Tom says he doubts she’d want to get fired over a $12 cage. People are weird. You never know.

I changed the mice’s cages earlier since cedar is supposed to be bad for them. There are 16 babies currently.

A few days ago I had asked Tom if he’d want to do a simple arrangement to me singing a few songs, so I could maybe send tapes (if I wasn’t that disgusted with what I heard) to my folks, Tammy and Larry. He said he’d love to and was really gung-ho about it and to please pick out sheet music for a couple of songs (he reads better than I do and I play better by ear). I had forgotten all about it for a few days, but he reminded me in the message he left me before work, to pick out some songs for him to work on so we could do some stuff this weekend. He said he’s anxious about it and boy does he sound it! He’s way more anxious about that than the idea of seeing if a doctor could fix me. I mean, he could never be as anxious about the idea of us being able to have a child, as he could be about anything, meanwhile, he continues to put off, make excuses, and swear he does want a child, he isn’t afraid to go to a doctor, etc. He said the same old shit about getting a physical soon and hoping I will, too. I think that if he does get a physical, it’ll only be to encourage me to get one too, since it’s been a while for me. He says it’s best that we deal with my situation, though, cuz if we don’t, it’ll follow us wherever we go. True, but still, his actions and words don’t match, and we’ve got a double whammy on us here. We both have a problem. I’m sterile, and he won’t cum but once every 2-4 months. The first thing they’re gonna do is try to find out why he won’t cum much and get him to cum more. Then, I’ll have to go through all the shit of what’s wrong with me and what can/can’t be done, etc., and it’s a no-win situation here for sure. Nothing anyone can do can fix things so I can have a child. God’s just blocked every single avenue on me and has made it thoroughly impossible. I’d have a better chance at becoming president or an Olympic gymnast than I’d have of ever getting pregnant. God must really hate me and think I’m a hell of a wimp who can’t handle shit.

Later…

I threw the bottle at about 9:30 and my assumption was correct - there’s no one home, cuz I didn’t hear anyone come out to check around and there was no cruiser called over there. If he doesn’t come in for lunch, my guess is that it’ll be the bitch to discover the broken glass first (in the middle of the carport). I heard voices out back a little while ago, but that could’ve come from two yards down where they do daycare where the guard dogs are. Now all I have to do is hope that this doesn’t scare them into getting a dog, but like I said, they’ll get another one sooner or later. I also have to hope that they don’t automatically assume it’s me and fuck with this house or “have me served” as the bitch said she’d do if I shot her dog. I think it’s much more likely that she’ll come over here asking questions about it, but I won’t answer the door, so please God, don’t have Tom be awake if and when she comes to the door. Just like with the letter, I’d rather he not know about this now, cuz you know how paranoid he is and how anti-trouble he is. I also hope they weren’t on the brink of a breakup cuz this could end up keeping them together for a while longer, although they’ve been together an unusually long time, so they may not break up for 10 years.

Later…

Now this is a beautiful day we’re having. Larry and Tammy would be jealous for sure. It’s to be in the mid-70s today. In general, though, this is the coldest winter I’ve been here for. Even Tom agrees that it’s been a very cold winter. So, so far, that makes the winter of ‘97-‘98 the coldest for me and the summer of ‘92 the hottest.

We planted 6 cactuses that Ma gave us. Tom put chicken wire around them to keep Bunny from destroying them. I just don’t know how the hell that rabbit can chew up cactuses without the needles stabbing the hell out of him. I never would’ve dreamed that this rabbit could chew up cactuses.

I still haven’t heard from Andy! I can’t believe it. This is just totally amazing. If I don’t hear from him by tomorrow afternoon, I just may start to worry.

OK, gonna sign off for now and hopefully there’ll be no knocks at the door within the next few hours. They asked for trouble from me a long time ago. They got it now, though they should’ve had it much sooner than this.

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1998 I’m really in a shitty mood right now. It figures, huh? First, something’s going on even more fucked up and abnormal with my plumbing, I want to get the fuck out of this animalistic city, and my husband’s still too busy doing for others first, putting off our lives, and not seemingly interested in me one bit. I may have had an all-time low appetite, but just the thought of knowing that my husband doesn’t seem to want me in bed kind of stings a little.

Since the 21st I had a few measly little spots. Then last evening at 8:00, I had such cramps that I thought I finally had a full flow when all I had were a few good-sized spots (enough to prove my point about being sterile yet again, though). I still haven’t had a full flow, either, but maybe I will by the next time I get up. These are more than just little spots now and are bright red but are mostly stuff I’m wiping off and that’s not big enough in volume to hit my panty-liner.

Anyway, Tom was supposed to bring the males to the pet store and change the big guy’s cage, but what did he get tied up doing instead? Working on Mary’s car again. Can’t she see that he’s got to have a life too, and can’t she take care of her own damn car? Is this gonna be a regular thing here? Is she gonna have him work on her car every few weeks? What’s she gonna do when we move? I’m sure she’ll still call him for help and that’d be worse, cuz then he’d have longer to drive to get there, so that’d be more time doing stuff that we’d lose. If Dave and other family members were as smart as Tom, that’d be different, but instead, they have to come first. First off, I don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to go to a doctor just to be told they can’t help me have a child, but if I wanted to, I know I’m gonna have to wait till after Ma’s gone. It’s like she comes first, then I can maybe get on with my life. And I don’t care if this sounds selfish, cuz I have things I want and need to do, too. I’ve had it with this parent-care trip. In a sense, we had a boy and a girl. First we take care of daddy and now it’s mommy. Like I said, I’m sick of living for his parents and for his sister’s car. I have to put off what matters to me and let them be the #1 priority, like it or not.

I’m gonna go do some picture scanning for Bob. I got 9 of just me and one with Kim and I from when I moved into the Habitat building in S. Deerfield.

Later…

I called Andy and let him know that my schedule won’t be on nights when he comes to get the rent money, so it’s OK for him to go ahead and tell me about the convention/Quinn on the phone, which I’m sure will take 2-3 hours. I’ll just keep my hands tied up and maybe bang away at the computer. Anyway, I’m sure he’ll be very happy to leave me 4 messages about it.

I just got slammed and ran up front so I could hear better as to how he left but didn’t see him. So the freeloader either just came out for a slam or he flew out of that driveway.

Speaking of freeloaders, I hear he was a very bad boy yesterday. Well, 3 of his low-life, rude, selfish pals were. Yeah, he and his fellow freeloading buddies are one and the same. I’m sure that if he asked them not to come banging in, they wouldn’t any more than he wouldn’t if he were asked not to. Very fortunately for them, I slept fine, or else we’d have a pack of dead freeloaders here for sure. You start fucking with my sleep, you die. Anyway, I got up at 8:30 for an hour, then went back to sleep till 10:00. Meanwhile, Tom left a message just before 4:00 saying he should’ve known better but it’s Super Bowl Sunday, so there are cars parked in the driveway and hopefully no one will play ball. 3 cars came in next door, all playing music. He said it wasn’t too loud, but annoying enough. Then he left another message at 7:30 before heading out for work, saying the game was over and he expected some shouting. Oh yeah, I’m sure they really carried on like assholes. Not like they would’ve if it was hot out, though. And of course, everyone had to go to the freeloader’s house. The freeloaders couldn’t go to their houses. I can’t believe they don’t do Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve at their house. They do everything else there.

So, I only got up to take an Ibuprofen and listen to his message, but then I went back into bed. However, I was instantly aware of a slight, but sure bass beat, which wouldn’t have woken me up, but that I knew would keep me from going back to sleep. That did it. That’s when I told myself, “Look. You can’t kill the people who made these stereos and that has prevented this from being the otherwise quiet residential neighborhood that it should be, but you can set these freeloaders straight for once and for all and let them know how it’s gonna be from now on. Let them know you will not tolerate being a part of their lives, parties, or music anymore and that they cannot and will not trespass and invade this house with their music. Even if you do have to beat them into submission to get the peace that’s your right, you were here first and if they don’t like it, then they’re just gonna have to leave. Somebody’s gotta teach these freeloaders that you can’t expect to not know someone exists, while they know you do. You just can’t do that.”

So, I get dressed and go out there and all that’s there is one maroon car in the driveway that I’ve seen before, then I see Daddy’s car parked out on the road. It wasn’t even them. It was some asshole visiting the other assholes across the street. So now they’re no longer the respectful people they seemed to have been and now I got two houses full of shit to deal with. And all the while this guy’s sitting in the car with it blaring, Dan, I think his name is, is just standing there with someone else gabbing away. I don’t know how the hell they could carry on a conversation, but nonetheless, I asked them to turn it down and they did, but here’s my question - how often is this boy gonna come around? It’s obvious now that this Dan boy does still live there and I don’t know if he’s a high school or college kid, but am I gonna be back to old times with these assholes again, too? What if they decide to form a band again? They may respect me enough to keep their practice volume down, cuz they’re not 100% rude and selfish like the freeloaders are, but then I’d have to listen to several cars bang in and out once a week or so.

Fuck this shit and this fucking animalistic city! But like Tom said, though, just one or two more Super Bowls and yeah, maybe he’s right about there being just two more years that we have to stay here. I just wish Mom and Mary’s car didn’t have to come first, but they do. And if God really wants us to continue being #2 and to continue having things set us back from getting things done and from living our lives, he will. I have a feeling that we could suddenly be the only two people left in this world, but still, somehow and some way, he’d find shit for Tom to do to take our time away from us so things could keep on being delayed, etc.

So, what’s the bad boy’s punishment gonna be for his bad little visitors letting their arrival be known? Well, since it wasn’t Mr. Fuck himself that banged in (I saw him leave without music yesterday before his boy pals came), I’ll spare them a bottle, but that’s only for now. As soon as he bangs in and I hear it or am told about it, that’s when they’ll get the bottle and so much more. Meanwhile, I went out at about 3:30 AM and banged right back by dropping the steel rod on the concrete patio that was supposed to be for the security door to latch into. I just hope to hell that God let them hear it and that he didn’t interfere, and one of the wonderful things about this is that they’d never in a million years give me the satisfaction of complaining about noise from me and letting me know that I did something that disturbs them. Shooting a dog is one thing, but they’d never call the cops on me for bothering them with noise. Not even if they were sure it was me making noise and that it was in the middle of the night. Someone else could, but I’d just deny knowing anything about it. Like I said, though, hopefully they’ll hear it and put two and two together and realize that music means noise late at night from over here, but I still doubt they heard it. And if they did, they wouldn’t have the mentality to make the connection even if they could physically see me making noise. I’m not worried about my making noise becoming too obvious, but if I throw a bottle, I’ll have to do whatever I can to make it look like some passing bum staggered over there drunk and dropped the bottle, cuz that’s physical evidence and more of a crime than disturbing the peace is.

Later…

Well, my period can’t seem to make up its mind. It seems like it’s struggling with either going into a full flow or stopping. If it stops, then that’d be the strangest period I’ve had in years what with the 3-day spotting trip I went on before it became a cross between heavy spotting and a light period. If I have a flow where I need a few big pads which is usually the case, then that’d make it more normal, except for the 3-day spot deal. Still, it’s enough to prove my point. I am sterile unless pre-cum really does impregnate a woman very rarely. So if a woman’s chances of getting pregnant by pre-cum are lower but still OK enough, then I’m as sterile as a doorknob.

Later…

Apparently, we did a good job of sexing the mice, cuz I haven’t seen any screwing going on. They don’t know it, but the guys will be on their journey to the pet store later today. Again, I wonder what their fate will be. It kind of reminds me of when I was off to Brattleboro, or Valleyhead, or wherever. Will they ever have a wheel again and have all this space? Will they ever climb tubes again? Will they be happy? Or will they wish they could return here? Animals adapt better than humans in cases like this, I’d think, so hopefully they’ll be OK if they stay out of some snake’s gut.

Tom says Mary’s car is all fixed but trust me - she’ll need something done again within a month. And of course, Tom’s gotta be the one to move Mom into Mary’s, while the rest of the family just sits on their asses. See this is one of God’s many ways that makes absolutely no fucking sense to me whatsoever. Why not take Ma, who’s done her time here, who’s lived her destiny and life, has nothing more to offer this world, and reunite her with Dad? As much as we’ll miss her, I’m sure she’d be much happier with dad. Then, as God would know, we’d be in the position to move, and God also knows that we want to move, then why won’t he let us have a kid? Why can’t I live for a child of my own? Why must I always live for someone outside of Tom and I as a couple? We’ve got the wrong life here that’s going. He should take her life and give us a life. That life, being the child that we’ve wanted for so long now. We haven’t lived our lives for us much at all (I hope to hell there’s more to my calling in life than what’s been destined for me so far), but Ma has. Her life is over, so why not let us have lives of our own with our own family? We’re in our 30s and 40s and not 70s. Well, I know I can never have a child, but two years do go by faster when you’re an adult and she’ll be gone and then we’ll move. People will still need Tom, I’ll still be sterile, but we’ll leave this congested city and there’ll be no Mormons or freeloaders a few feet away.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 1998 I sure do have a lot of mouse updating to do but let me first get other things out of the way.

Still playing phone tag with Paula, who left a message saying she got my letter and knew we keep missing each other, but to try to get a hold of her. I’ll try in the morning, but if I call and get her on a Sunday, that means the kid’s gonna be there, unless this one’s been taken, too.

Got a letter from Bob, who really likes the different stationery that the new program we got can do. He wants more pictures of Kim and I.

No wonder Tom’s saying we can move in two years. He told me this before too, and it has to do with the fact that in two years is when we think his mother will die. With our share of the money she leaves, I guess we could move, but we’d rather she live. We’d rather she live and be healthy, but as sad as it is, that can never be again.

Tom told me about a wild dream Mary had. In the dream, Ma was told she had 4 months left to live and Mary asked her what she wanted to do with the time that was left. Ma said she wanted to go to Michigan to be with her sister. Then she also said, “Dad said he wants to go too, but I told him he can’t since he’s dead.” And Mary agreed he couldn’t go cuz he was dead. Then Ma said, “But he really wants to go bad. He says he’ll stay on the floor. But I told him no, he can’t, cuz he’s dead.” Then Mary said there were these “dead” mannequins that kept falling down all around her cuz they were trying to dance.

Pretty weird, huh? Tom says not to read anything into it. Oh, I won’t. I still strongly predict she’ll live to be 77.

Now for the mice news. First off, I may have miscounted. There may be 15 mice and not 16, but anyway, after all the calculations I’ve done, we should have about 30 lady mice if things go as we plan them. It’s a good thing we sexed/segregated them yesterday when we did, cuz right after we did, Ziggy and Cocoa had their babies. Between the both of them, there are about a dozen pinkies, as they’re also called, which is very appropriate since they’re just these little pink blobs. Males are also called bucks and females are also called does. So my mom, whose nickname is Doe, is nicknamed after mice. She’d be thrilled to know that. The soft, high-pitched squeaking sounds of the babies are so cute. We learned so much and I’ve really become quite the mouse expert, as well as the GP expert, etc. With what we now know, we can say that the original Gizzy that I trapped was definitely a male by how he acted.

More good news for me, and that’s that Tanner and Patch, my favorites of all the first sets of babies, are both females. Anyway, we’ve got 7 ready to go to Petco tomorrow and 8 ladies all by themselves, who can tend to the babies, and enjoy being free from being jumped all the time. It goes to show just how dishonest this store really is too, when their signs tried to claim they live for 5 years. Mice don’t live longer than GPs. More like 18 months, is the case with mice.

Boy, the guys are really depressed, I guess, what with not being able to screw like hell, cuz all they’ve been doing is sleeping. A part of me feels bad for these guys. They can resume their sex lives at the pet store if there are ladies in stock, but they’re not gonna have all this stuff. They’re not gonna have all these cages and tubes and wheels. Not unless someone like me or Mary gets them that’s really into all that stuff. They’re just gonna be thrown into a plain old little 5-10-gallon tank with nothing but water and food. There’ll be no tubes or wheels, which is unfortunate. They should at least be given a wheel. Then, they’ll have to deal with all the people and all the noise, and who knows if they’ll become snake food? Typically, that’s what they breed those ugly little white mice for, but you never can know what their fate will be. All they’ve known is where they are now, so hopefully they’ll go to someone who’ll love them and give them a good home.

Wow! Almost 24 hours have gone by without a call from Andy.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1998 According to Tom’s research, that guy really was way out of whack when he said mice don’t fuck for 5 months. More like 5 weeks, is the case, and they breed continuously like GPs do. So, every female is pregnant, unless God struck any of these ladies as sterile as he struck me. So I separated the sexes and I’ll have Tom double-check with me and make sure that I didn’t make any gender guessing mistakes. I’ll want to get rid of these males ASAP. Then, as soon as the litters are 2-3 weeks and done nursing and we can tell their sexes well enough, we’ll segregate them and off the males to the pet store when they’re old enough.

The good news is that this is more mice for me, now that I don’t have to worry about having a lot of mice that’ll smell, since the males will be out of the picture. According to what Tom read, only the males stink. This makes sense. Male BO is a hell of a lot more severe than female BO. A female would have to go several days without showering before she’d really stink unless she ran a marathon. A male could shower up, then sit down to read for a few hours, and then be stinking.

Later…

Well, it looks like I’m either gonna have to set Andy straight in a threatening kind of way, or just deal with his constant calls. He didn’t leave a message, but he tried calling twice yesterday and once just now. He said he met Randy who’s gross and he’ll tell me about it in person and he’s sorry he’s calling. Well, if he’s sorry he’s calling, then why’d he call? Why’s he such a selfish, pushy, opposite-doer? Why won’t he just give me a break? He has other friends.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1998 Heard a car door at 10:00 last night, but there have been no problems that I know of yet. By this summer, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had another dog.

I knew, upon going into this marriage, that our lives would revolve around his parents until they were both gone. It’ll be a while yet before we can decide what we want to do, if we want to do anything at all, about my little problem here, cuz we have to wait and see what’s gonna be going on with his ma. In the next few weeks, she’ll have a lot of appointments and testing. I don’t know if something wants us to wait till after she’s gone to deal with this, or what. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Like I said, I can understand taking care of such a sweet and generous lady (she offered to buy us a new heat/AC unit), but I feel like we’ve never been able to fully live our lives for ourselves and do what we want to do. I suppose I’ll always feel that way, though, no matter what. Nonetheless, she’s only got a few years left, but I’ve got 15-20 reasonable childbearing years left, not that that’s ever to be meant to be, as I said, but do I want to at least get tested? I just don’t know. It’s just so unfair. Haven’t I had enough problems without having to deal with this, too? People aren’t supposed to pay for nature. How can God do that to a woman? He’s made me such a defective, abnormal freak and I’m not gonna give in to any of it. If I let this work me to death, play on my emotions, etc., That’ll be giving him the reaction he wants. People are dead wrong when they say God doesn’t inflict pain. First I was hauled to Boston 100 times to work for a so-called normal ear, and in the midst of all this shit, I had to work for a so-called normal life, then I went through the shit with the asthma, getting the so-called ear canal that God was supposed to have given me for nothing, and now I’m supposed to go work for a normal reproductive system? I don’t know. I’ve had enough medically that I don’t know whether or not to undergo testing, do what Tom thinks is best, or just forget about it. If I begin this process, you’re talking about a 1-2-year ordeal with 20-40 appointments. I just don’t know if I want to put myself through a series of hell again for the 4th time. I consider the first time my trips to Boston, the second the asthma, the third the ear shit here, and it’d be series #4 if I went through fertility testing, etc. No one can make it so that I can have a child. So, knowing that that’s the bottom line, I don’t know if I should even exhaust and humiliate myself for no reason, while God gets a good laugh out of it. And what really happened with the two-week spotting I did in the summer of ‘96? Was that really a miscarriage? Questions and more questions! But never any answers and certainly never any solutions!

I guess God loves some of my mice more than me, cuz at least 5 of them are being allowed to be pregnant. Ziggy’s definitely pregnant and it looks like a few of the babies are, too. Patch, Bandit, and Cocoa look pregnant. I’m psyched to see more litters arrive, but what are we gonna do here? Get the males segregated as soon as they’re born? Or ditch some of the duller-looking ones and keep the population where it’s at? We just don’t know yet. I knew that dumb male that told me mice don’t become sexually active for 6 months had to be full of shit and I should’ve gone by what my gut told me, but it’s a little too late for that. Tom will do some research on AOL since he seems to be better at that than I am, and then we’ll decide. It’s my fault for not trusting my gut instinct and the vibe that said “liar” when the guy tried to BS me with the 6-month thing. Also, I should’ve realized the logical side of that at the time. Of course, pet store people are gonna tell you animals have babies later than they really do. That way they can hope that you’ll bring in the offspring so they can get free animals to sell and profit even more.

Ziggy’s gonna have her babies any time now (I wonder if she’ll have more than two this time?), so I tossed in computer tracking paper strips to use as nesting material. They love this stuff and it’s such a fun toy for them. They not only use it to nestle in, but they chew it and they love to run through and dive into piles of it. It was so cute watching Patch haul some strips up out of the aquarium and into the cage next to that one.

And again my vibes prove to be correct - no losing weight for me for sure, like I had said. It is not meant to be, and something up there really does want me heavy and I will keep gaining. I email Tom every so often for the hell of it and I told him I know he cares how I look (he said only sex is a mental thing for him) and that if he ever decides he doesn’t like how I look, I’ll see what I can do, but there are no guarantees that I could lose weight. That’s something some of us can’t fight/change. Anyway, it’s just a body. I can love him just the same, and I’m sure he will, too.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1998 I have quite a bit to write about. Most of it’s not too bad, but first, let me get Andy’s same old shit bitched about and over with.

I don’t know who’s worse of a rebellious opposite-doer. Him or Tom. Everything I tell him goes in one ear and out the other. He still knocks, rather than uses the doorbell when he comes over. I’ve told him a million times to ring the doorbell, but Andy’s gotta do what he wants to do. Same thing with the calls, of course.

He leaves me a message which could’ve waited a few days since we just left messages, and he says, “OK, I got something to say. I told Laura, I told Michelle and now I’m telling you, so please don’t be mad at me, but I got a date with Quinn tonight. He’s been really respectful to me lately, I still have feelings for him, and if I get hurt, I’ll get exactly what I deserve.”

So, then I leave him a message telling him that although I disagree with it, it’s his life, so why should I be mad at him? What I didn’t tell him, though, was that he was acting like a naïve teenager. It’s just a matter of time before the true Quinn returns and he will get hurt again by this sick fuck. I also implied that he’s selfish and can’t compromise by saying that he couldn’t have gotten the letter I sent, or else he wouldn’t call me again so soon. And yet again, I went through the 3 or so reasons why I only want messages every few days and a live chat once a week or so, etc.

Then he calls right back saying he’s sorry he’s so forgetful (which I doubt in this case) and tells me that he loved the letter, it was very dear to him and well written, it was the first real letter I’d written him in 15 years. Then he teased me about a spelling error I made since my spelling had gotten so good (I must not have used the computer’s spell checker). Anyway, I’m glad he loved the letter, but then what does he say in his next breath? He says, “Talk to you later!” and I’m like, no you won’t! You’ll talk to me in a few days. So, unless he sounds like he really needs to chat, I’m not gonna respond regularly to his messages. Maybe that’s the only way I’ll be able to get my point to sink in. I hope he doesn’t take it personally, it’s not that I don’t care, but he’s always there. He and his calls just won’t go away. He just doesn’t ease up on me. Maybe I should also not let him know how much it bugs me, cuz of how he is. He may not be as selfish as he used to be, but generally speaking, the more you tell him he’s doing something that bugs you, the more he’ll do it.

Now, onto a very nice talk Tom and I had. I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter what he thought or did, cuz I’m sterile and unfixable. I reminded myself that back when his parents were having kids, there was no birth control, they screwed as normally and as regularly as any couple could, yet it took Mom two years to conceive David after Ray was born, then 5 years to conceive Mary, then two to conceive Tom, then 5 to conceive Steven. And it took my folks 12 years to catch me after having Larry and Tammy. Then I tried to remind myself that I swore I’d never get married and how I just couldn’t “see” that as ever happening, etc. However, the bottom line’s the same no matter what anyone else’s experiences have been, and that’s that I’m sterile, and I am bothered by Tom’s not believing/accepting this.

Earlier, he could tell something was up and I finally came out and told him my period’s beginning and that he could go right on with his denial, though. But then to my shock, he said that it was very sad I got my period, he just wanted to give me that one-in-a-million chance to be wrong, but he does believe me. He says he doesn’t believe I’m sterile to the degree that I believe I am, but that he understands that it’s more than likely the case. I was glad to hear him say this as it makes me feel like he’s more on my side and like I’m less alone with this shit. I just hope he means it and isn’t just saying so to please me. He seems sincere enough. I told him I understood the natural urge to deny and not accept something. I used to be a very stubborn and arrogant person in that respect, and he admitted he was stubborn about it.

Then he told me we couldn’t do anything for a few weeks cuz of his mom, but maybe we can do something before his mother dies and before we move, and I’ll now explain all this.

His mother’s doing awful. Blood consists of 3 things: white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Well, platelets are what keep you from bleeding to death if you cut yourself and her platelets are virtually non-existent. We don’t know for sure if they can stabilize her condition, or if she’ll deteriorate, but we both feel she’ll live to around the turn of the century. Nonetheless, the next month or so is gonna be busy with her appointments and her moving into Mary’s.

As I told Tom, I think it’ll be better for everyone when mom’s with Mary, but I feel so helpless. I think we all do. This isn’t something that can be fixed. I also told him that if he felt it best to put off the testing till after she’s gone and after we’ve moved, that’s OK, cuz even though I wanted a kid yesterday, I’d still be young enough to have a child, but I still can’t ever “see” us with a child. Not in one year, or 5 years, or 10 years. I may have had very few dreams of this magnitude, but if God’s never let me have other dreams that were of this magnitude in the past, why should he start now? They may be able to answer my question of what’s wrong with me, but what’s really frustrating is that I may never know why. Did God do it punish me? Did he do it to protect me? Was it both? How could God do this to a woman? If God’s as loving as people claim, then is this the devil’s work? Anyway, I think the problem lies within my uterus and it’s cuz of the DES, but maybe we’ll find out it’s cuz of bad eggs, compliments of all the years people doped me up so they could control me into being what they wanted me to be.

I have so many theories and things I wonder, like, is this a test? If so, this is a hell of a test! Could God maybe intend to let us have a child after all, but not without a fight? Could he really want me to work for it and pay for it? His standards for me are higher than most others, after all. I wasn’t kidding when I said that the more normal and common something is, the harder I have to work for it. But love is supposed to be a normal thing and I didn’t have to work for that. I didn’t have to work for or pay to meet Tom. We just met. Although, most people aren’t loved. Not as loved as I am. Despite the things I’ve been suspicious of him for, whether I was right or not, no man’s as good and as loving as he is. I’m very blessed. Tom’s one in a million. So maybe I didn’t have to work or pay for him so much, in a sense, cuz he is so uncommon. I had thanked him for loving me even though I’m an abnormal, different, defective freak, and he said the same thing back, but believe me, he’s not even close. The only things that I’d say were different about him are his infrequent cumming and those screwy sandwiches he used to make with bologna, margarine, peanut butter and jelly.

I’m just so torn between wanting to fight for my dream and knowing I can’t fight God and win. I mean, I never have been able to in the past with something that meant this much to me. I guess it would, however, be best to seek as much closure to this issue as I can, and just let them test us and tell us to our faces just what the scoop is and if it’s hopeless or not, no matter what I think, feel or believe. I just don’t know if we’ll begin the process in a month or so, or in a few years. If it must be a few years, so be it then. I’d rather it not be, but if I’ve gone this long, it won’t kill me to go longer, even if this issue does play on my emotions on and off. I think our love is strong enough to go through with this together. I think we can both talk to these people and tell them the whole scoop, even if it’s something we’d rather not do. We’d rather have the normal sex and make the kid the natural way, but God’s just not gonna budge or make it easy for us if he makes it even possible at all.

At least I’ll always have Tom and will always love him no matter if we see a doctor or not or have a kid or not. It’s not that my life is bad but just incomplete, and it still breaks my heart to see the kids go to so many women who’ll just abort them or beat them to death.

Later…

God, that pest just does not give up!!! Andy said he had a great time with Quinn and now he can move on to the next relationship, he’s so different off drugs, he’ll tell me all about it in person, but by then he’ll have a million other things to tell me. Oh, I’m sure he will. And like this couldn’t wait? Geez! How can he have so much to tell me? All he does is work and gab on phones.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1998 Here we are already halfway through the week. This week’s going fast, thanks to the long damn weekend.

I just went out and made a dump in the recycle bin, which was empty, and boy was that loud! Especially with the glass bottles I dumped. Hope the shitheads enjoyed that, but I doubt it. I’m sure that as God would have it, no one heard it and if someone did, it wasn’t the freeloader. Still only hearing door slams from them.

I can’t wait till we move!!!

Tweety sure is chirping up a storm right now. It seems that noise makes him sing more. When I wash the dishes, or when the washer’s going, or when the fryer’s going, he really sings away.

I got some really nice cards from the HS today. Cats, dogs and ducks. I think I’ll use them for the next 5 things I don’t have cards for and that’d be Becky’s, Mom’s and Dad’s birthdays, and Mother’s and Father’s Day.

I guess Andy’s gonna do whatever he can do to get my attention and to get a conversation with me, although it’s not every day he runs off to Xena conventions. He left a message saying that he had a great time and would talk to me about it in person when he picks up Laura’s rent money, so I don’t have to deal with the phone and missing my smokes. So now he’s gonna come over more often and show up 2-4 hours later than we agreed on? Oh, brother!

I did not discuss what I wrote in last night’s entry with Tom. First off, there’s no point and it won’t change anything. Secondly, I’d rather let January come and go before I say he’s broken his promise and discuss it with him then. We got together before he left for work, but he just couldn’t get into it. I couldn’t really, either, but I did enjoy our time together just talking and cuddling, and that’s most important.

We’re both still having allergy problems and suspect it’s the mice, but soon, half of them will be gone. Then, we’ll decide what to do if they’re still a bother, but as we both agree, they’re so cute! Gotta pay for everything, though, but in the meantime, I’ll do a good dust and vacuum job in here.

Later…

I sure had the shit scared out of me earlier. Maybe I did wake the freeloader up and maybe God used the huge moth that was in here as a way to get me back for it. It just wouldn’t die, either. I kept spraying it with Raid, but the damn thing kept swirling around the room, and I lost sight of it. I haven’t seen it for hours, so hopefully it finally kicked the bucket.

Ziggy’s looking awfully chubby lately and I hope she’s not pregnant.

When I called Lisa to wish her a happy birthday, she said she did quit smoking. Tom says give her the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t know. I hope she’d never lie to me about that or anything. If it’s true that she did quit, I’m really happy for her and proud of her. I know how hard it is. Especially when you’re this young, stubborn, naïve kid who doesn’t think it’ll affect her.

Andy’s right back to his same old shit. He agrees he’ll cut his calling down, but what do I get? I get two messages on the same day.

Tom says that due to his being given such unpredictable hours at work, he’s gonna look for a new job within the bank. He said that now that his ma’s moving into Mary’s, he won’t have to worry about what hours he works. I’ve always wondered if his ma was a factor in our sex lives. If he can choose to get his job based on his mother, he can choose a sex life based on her, too. I wonder, though, if another reason he’s been afraid of a child is cuz of the time it’d take away from taking care of her, although he says he could take care of both. He feels obligated to take care of her cuz of all the years she’s taken care of him. I would feel the same way if I had had a mother like that, but sometimes I think he lives his life a little bit too much for her. I doubt, though, that her moving into Mary’s would change the sex. The sex is the sex, Tom is Tom, and Tom doesn’t want a child. If only he knew I was sterile, but he just doesn’t believe it. If he could know it, though, and not be afraid to accept it, he could relax more. He could at least have sex without worrying about his fears coming true.

That very subtle, yet obvious feeling has come on saying that my period is just a few days away. About 2-4 days away. So, whether or not pre-cum really can impregnate a woman well enough, I’m still sterile. I just know it. Every core of my woman’s intuition, my vibes, my feelings, my gut instinct, my 6th sense, my logic, belief, etc., tells me that. There is no doubt about it. I just don’t know if it’s cuz of bad eggs or cuz of the uterus, but I know it’s nothing as simple as clogged fallopian tubes.

This is a serious long shot, but I wonder if it’s at all possible that the dog not being there has any connection to the letter to the city? But then why’s he still in the picture? Maybe they came out in person to see her at a time when he wasn’t there and she claimed that he just visits. Meanwhile, they saw the dog and told her to get rid of it. Like I said, I doubt this, though, cuz then I’d surely hear about it. She’d be over here screaming or seeking revenge on me by dragging me into court. I still say that they didn’t like my yelling at them so early in the morning any more than I appreciated the music at any hour, but more so in the early morning, and so they got or borrowed the dog for my sake, then ditched it.

Later…

No naughty freeloader yet. I got up at 7 PM and saw the car out front and knew he wasn’t in for the night. I then went out to feed Bunny and the kittens and to chase off Mama Bitch and could smell food from over there and hear a voice, too. It was I female voice I’d heard before, but again, although a black voice is a loud voice, I couldn’t make out what was said. It wasn’t the bitch, though, and the person talking wasn’t so mad as she always is. But why would they open their windows on a chilly evening of 50-something degrees?

Then at 8 PM, he left quietly. Very quietly. In fact, the only way I knew he left was cuz of the motor starting, which I wouldn’t have heard if I weren’t in the living room with no fans or TV on. I didn’t even hear a car door. I guess they go to bed early cuz the lights were out at 9 PM. Well, they do leave early. At just after 9:00 I heard one car door parallel to the back room where I am now that wasn’t very loud at all, so I knew he pulled into the carport for the night, then wondered - maybe the door slamming is the bitch’s doing. Whenever the slamming goes on, it’s when there’s more than one asshole coming/going.

Anyway, as much as I can’t stand them and wish they’d get the fuck out of here, they’ve been behaving well enough not to deserve a bottle toss unless I gave them one for all the times they didn’t behave (but that’d take 1000 bottles and more). Another thing I wonder, though, is if a bottle would prompt them to get another dog for protective reasons.

Yesterday was the first day I went without any wine since I began having wine coolers every day.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1998 The fact that I can’t handle a kid and don’t deserve one is beside the point right now. The point is that this husband of mine has jerked me around about this kid shit from day one and I’m sick of it. I’m more than sick of it!

If I stood the slightest chance of being fixed, I can’t be cuz of his denial and refusal to cum much. He’s totally stolen even a one-in-a-million chance if there ever was one, and I meant it when I said I give what I get. His number one dream is to work at home and I’m gonna make sure he never has that. Never! He can’t just tell the fucking truth. Instead, when there’s something Tom doesn’t want to do or deal with, Tom denies it and makes excuses. What? Did he think his denial and his not doing anything to create a kid or fix me would make this all go away? He lied to me again. He told me he’d take the first step and make an appointment for a physical this month, but he hasn’t. Instead, he makes excuses about not having time, but he has time for other calls. If he wanted to make the appointment that bad, he’d set his alarm, get up and make it, then go back to bed if he had to. But he doesn’t want to see a doctor. And he can’t admit that, either. I also feel really angered and insulted over all the so-called remedies I’ve used for his so-called lack of cumming problem. He suggested I wear certain clothes, that we sleep together, that I quit smoking, and so much more since I’ve known him. I did almost everything he suggested I do to “fix” him and where is our sex life now? Right where it’s been since the summer of 96. Nothing I do is good enough for him. He’d rather lie, deny, and make excuses.

Here’s a classic example of how he won’t say no to something he doesn’t want to do. For nearly a year now, he’s agreed that he’d send my nieces letters and I remind him periodically, but does he do it? No. Instead of saying no, he says he’ll do it, but actions speak louder than words and when actions don’t go with someone’s words, that usually means that they’re liars. It could be cuz of fear or for some other reason, but it all comes down to the same thing and that’s not doing what you say you’re gonna fucking do! I’m tired of his not doing the things he says he’ll do and I’m tired of him, God, and this whole damn issue playing on my emotions.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1998 Now that the long weekend’s just about over, and now that it’s later in the evening, I can relax enough to write. Plus, I’m alone now, cuz he’s gone to work, so I can concentrate better. I don’t concentrate well with others around even if they’re quiet and not right near me. The weekend went surprisingly, but pleasantly quiet. There were weekend stereos cruising through, but all next door gave me were some door slams. I’m still blessed with there being no dog over there, and the music has yet to become a problem again. If the door slamming’s as deliberate as I think it is, they may assume, but they don’t know for a fact, that the door slamming gets on my nerves too, so maybe, like I said before, they suspect me and don’t want to do anything that they know may provoke me into harming them or the house. Or maybe the door slams were cuz they heard us talking out back when he was working on the old washer and they wanted to be heard back. One of the door slams they gave me was so fucking loud, the house shook. Then later, at 10:40 PM, the shithead went out and slammed me a few more times, so I went out and pelted back and beat an old waterproof radio on the side of the house by their house a few times.

Later…

I felt a bit warm and dizzy there, so I stepped out for some cool air and you know what? Unless they’re in bed early, they might not even be home next door, cuz there are no lights on.

Anyway, Tom fixed the old washer and we washed the new, big comforter that won’t fit in our stackables. It was pretty funny what with the washer being out on the patio!

The weekend may have been peaceful enough as far as any neighbors go, but some stereo, that you could tell was miles away, was a real annoyance for a good hour or more from out back. It could’ve been worse, though, since it could only be heard out back, but what a sick world we live in - knowing that someone’s stereo from miles away can be a problem. They’re that bassy, and bass travels that well. And like I said, people would cruise up and down our street with those fucking things that are so goddamn common now. Another way I can tell if it’s a freeloader that just bassed in or out is by the motion sensor security light in the carport. Cuz of the soundproofing material that’s in the bedroom windows, I can’t tell if it’s on or not, but from the window in the back room, I can as long as the back room is not too lit up. In the daytime, I’d have to go to the side of the house to see if it was on.

In answer to why dad’s not getting his legs taken care of now since he’s in pain, it’s cuz they’re busy at the store, and it’s not a life or death situation.

I’ve been appreciative of the cut-down in calls from Andy, but since it’s been several days, and since I’d like to hear all about his trip to L.A. with Michelle to see Xena, I left him a message.

As for my weight, once again, you really can’t fight fate and win. Yes, I must be compensated. My losing weight is 100% hopeless. I’m just not meant to be thin again and nothing I do can change that. These metabolism pills I’ve got are a bunch of bull. They’re probably just sugar or some substance like that that fills the capsules. And I’m just too much of a wimp to stop eating altogether. So I’ll be fat, but at least I’ll be a fat person who can breathe. I’ll use the money I save on cigarettes to buy new clothes as I keep getting bigger, and I will keep getting bigger. I just know it like I know I’m sterile and meant to be forever childless. You might say that’s got some good in it, too, after all the shit I go through trying to handle the not smoking, as well as for other reasons.

Tom’s still doing and is always gonna do what he does best - deny I have a plumbing problem, so he doesn’t have to deal with it. It gets more and more obvious each year that he doesn’t want a kid, or to go to a fertility doctor, so his way of dealing with it - there’s not a problem. I understand his ways, though, cuz I was once that way myself. If something was going on that I didn’t like or didn’t want to deal with, I too would deny it or I’d play it down.

Tom’s been passing a few tests I’ve set up and again, I know when he’ll do what I say he’ll do, and when he’ll do the direct opposite of what I said he’ll do. Due to my saying things that implied I didn’t want to screw when I was mid-cycle, he made sure we did. And due to my saying he preferred sex the most right before and after my period, he made sure he didn’t touch me all weekend, which is close enough. It’s due on the 25th. I don’t know if my getting so fat has a play in it, although he does tell me I’m beautiful all the time, but part of it is cuz he doesn’t balance things well. He either has to work or screw, but he can’t mix business with pleasure. I see it to my benefit as time goes on, though. If it were new, or if one of us was gonna die soon, or if we had a shot at a kid, then I’d still be bitching about the part-time sex we have, but I know that he likes it this way deep down, too. He could’ve asked for it any day, but he didn’t, so that tells me that he must think full-time is too much too, and I also understand it’s not in his nature to have a high appetite and that he’s in his 40s.

Anyway, after all the questioning I’ve done in the past about sex and Tom, now I question sex and myself. Just what has happened to my appetite? I know we’re not a new couple, we’re infertile, etc., but I thought women got hornier into their 30s. It seems that for the last month, month and a half, my appetite’s been much lower. This isn’t a complaint, though, but merely an observation. I kind of like it this way, cuz he couldn’t keep up with me when I’d want it nearly every day and it seems that the lower my sex drive is, the lower my desire for a kid is, too.

I scanned all my favorite drawings (about 40) into the computer. Tom created a new directory for me to put them in there. It’s similar to my directories for Gloria and Norah pictures and for my journals.

I love this thing called Media Manager, which lets me view my drawings, pictures, etc., on little icons.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1998 Today’s the day God killed my nephew a year ago. I just hope Larry and Sandy aren’t too depressed right now, but what can you expect?

Tom took the time to download this thing that lets me view and install/delete fonts, but it’s fucked up. It tried to tell me one wasn’t installed that really was installed. It wouldn’t let me delete any, either.

As hungry as I am, my diet’s working so far. I awoke at 118. Tom got an old-fashioned dial scale too, since digital ones fluctuate more. So, I know I can still begin the weight loss process by eating just a few bites, but the question is, will it keep going after I start eating again? Or will I just stay the same or gain the weight back? The trick is to manipulate the thyroid/metabolism enough to get it to learn to lose weight on its own and not worry about what I eat. Well, time will tell what’ll happen with it.

Later…

I realize now that Paula likes to play phone tag. I know she’s busy with that kid, but it’s become rather obvious, so I’ll just talk to her whenever I talk to her, but at least she doesn’t call me every day.

After listening to music, I looked out front and saw the car there. I said, damn! I didn’t get to hear how it came in. But I knew it wasn’t in for the night being parked up front, so I waited and heard him leave quietly a short while later. He hasn’t come in yet and I’m anxious to hear how that’ll be. I only heard one door shut softly, so he’s coming in by himself when he does come in.

Later…

I had some popcorn today and fried up some French fries. This is cuz I’ve been stuck, and I know the grease helps with that. Those fries put a couple of pounds back on me, though, so I really have to watch it. I cannot believe how hungry I am and the appetite to which I’ve become accustomed. Something up there really wants me to have my share of starving bouts as an adult. It nearly starved me off just for letting me come out here. I mean, I really had to pay for coming out here by not having food. And now I have to sit and suffer through hunger pangs or keep eating and keep gaining weight. The bitch of it is that I can’t see myself ever getting lucky enough to just happen to lose weight without even trying. I think I’m gonna have to really starve the shit out of myself in order to lose it. Then after I get done doing that, I better hope the weight doesn’t come right back on.

Like I said, something up there insists I pay for every little thing. I still have a bad feeling that there’s no beating it and that if I want to enjoy the ability to breathe, I have to get fat for it. The missing cigarettes should be enough compensation, though, but no, I have to pay dearly for every little thing.

We screwed yesterday and he didn’t cum like I thought he would cuz of the time of month, but then again, that’s something he rarely does anyway. He thinks that a woman ovulates a whole week, but it’s more like 1-2 days. No wonder he cums so little if that’s what he thinks! Well, at least it keeps the sheets clean.

The werewolf (Randy) did get in touch with Andy after all. He said all he got was a frame, but no picture. He thanked me for trying, though, and says he’s gonna mail him a picture. Why? Why not just meet the guy in person?

Later…

If he came in next door, I didn’t hear him.

Last night, I contemplated throwing a bottle over there. I mean, I really thought about it good and hard. I looked out front to make sure that RV wasn’t visible from the front (they still come to see the old man, but they haven’t brought that whiny, shrilly dog of theirs since my note, thank God!). It wasn’t visible, but it was from out back and I don’t need any witnesses. They sleep in this thing, and someone could come up front for something where there are no curtains drawn and see me hurling the bottle. Another problem that could come out of the bottle-throwing idea, if I threw it into the carport, is that I don’t want it to hit the car and look too obvious (like someone doesn’t like its stereo). If I were to walk out into the street to see how deep in the carport it was parked so I’d know where to aim, and was seen walking out there and looking, that’d seem awfully obvious, too, not that it could prove anything. I intend to wash that bottle and handle and throw it with plastic gloves on. So then there’ll be no saliva or prints. So, I thought about different things I could do, but then I realized that problems could come out of these things. I’m not gonna worry too much about them, cuz if I’ve got something I really want to do to them badly enough, I’ll do it. However, the first thing they’re gonna do if I throw a bottle is come over here either with or without the cops and ask if I did it. If they didn’t do that, then they’ll go around to the neighbors and ask if they saw anything. So, there are some potential problems if I do something and if I don’t do anything. I don’t want to not do anything and have them end up thinking that letter was a joke. I want them to take that letter very seriously and let them know someone means business. Maybe they have and that’s why they’ve been quiet up till now. Maybe they really don’t want to take the chance of provoking anyone around here, in case it’s me that sent it, and I know my name has crossed their sick, selfish little minds. Or maybe they don’t want to look bad themselves if they ever get in any legal battles. If I go with the late-night banging sprees, and if they hear them, that will look obvious too, and it could also drag others into it, too, and wake them up. This is between me and them only, so I may go a more destructive route, obvious or not.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 1998 I called Larry, who has another cold, to wish him a happy birthday. The poor guy’s going through what I went through back there. Jen’s sick, too, but Sandy’s OK. He says they’re expecting 14” of snow and that it was a whole 23º! Wow! That’s actually pretty generous for January. But they just had their January thaw spell (a lot of people get sick now due to the temperature changes) and now it’ll refreeze itself again till spring. It’ll be close to 70º here today.

I can’t believe how much my sister and parents share with me these days. They used to tell me absolutely nothing that was going on with them and I know I said so in my first journals. My folks would talk to Tammy, but not to me. Tammy even told me how wonderful the sex is with this guy she’s seeing. She mentioned something about him measuring her Jewish nose and her measuring his Italian dick. Nobody’s dick is as big as my husband’s, and I told her so (I’m sure it’s true, too).

Mom also filled me in on her and Dad’s medical conditions, as I said earlier. I just asked her and am waiting for a reply as to why they’re waiting till the spring or summer to do something about my dad’s leg pain.

Ma said she’s been taking something called Synthroid for 8-10 years cuz of her thyroid. She said when it’s too low it can tire you down a lot and cause your hair to fall out. When it’s high, you’re overactive. And thyroids do control the metabolism which controls weight. However, some of what she said makes no sense. I’m still kind of hyper, yet my thyroid’s low and my metabolism is slow right now. I sure as hell aren’t tired a lot and my hair is not falling out either. Oh no, this hair’s still thick enough to fill in a few bald heads while leaving enough for me.

Yeah well, speaking of metabolism and weight, I’m now furious! Furious enough to do what I need to do now to finally get this fucking weight off of me. When I stepped on the scale and saw I was 125, I knew I was right when I said it’d just keep going and going and going if I don’t find a way to ward off fate. I’m tired of God and his compensations and his different standards, etc. I’m not gonna “pay” for my lungs back. Just cuz I can breathe now doesn’t mean I should have to get fat for it. So, I’m on a liquid diet. If I did it once, I can do it again. When I was 19, I didn’t eat for about 3 days. I just had liquids. It obviously did something to my thyroid/metabolism cuz I started losing weight the second day of not eating, then continued eating as I usually did, only to keep losing weight for the next year while I could resume eating as I usually did. I went from 140 something down to 100. Well, I may be 32 now and the hunger pains may be vicious, but I really think I can do this now and I’ve got to try my best. I really want to be thin again and able to wear most of my clothes again.

So I’ve basically made two personal decisions. I’m gonna lose weight and get back down around 100 lbs. And when I’m 35, I am gonna go to a doctor about my sterility. Not cuz I think something can be done to fix me or to make Tom cum more or to change God’s mind, but just cuz I want to know, out of curiosity, if I really do have a deformed uterus. I just want to know what it is that makes my plumbing not work.

I know another reason God stuck so many of other people’s kids on me and harassed me with their noise in the NHA and other places. What goes around comes around. My mom had to listen to plenty of my noise (till she’d slap me to silence), but he knew, though, that I’d never have my own kid to pay me back, so he went and used other people’s kids. That’s another sure sign of what’s meant to be and what isn’t.

Later…

God, I not only get the same stuffy nose I had when I smoked but my feet and hands still get so cold. That’s supposed to happen to smokers cuz their blood doesn’t circulate as well. Guess some of my body doesn’t realize I no longer smoke.

I had another hilarious idea as far as next door goes, but this one I’m not gonna do. Assuming they’re like most people, they wouldn’t be happy at all to see any mice in their place. I thought of dropping the male mice through their mailbox slot and into their house, but that’d be cruel to the mice. It’s still a funny thought and I bet she’d freak! He, on the other hand, is such a ditz that he probably wouldn’t even know what the fuck was happening.

I forgot to say that I don’t know how it came in yesterday. It may have come in while I was listening to music, so I can’t say for sure what went on.

I broke down and fried up two pork chops. Barely 40 minutes later, I was starving again. I’m just gonna have to tough it out, though.

Later…

I got my listening to music done and out of the way, so we’ll see how the freeloader comes in. I’d assume that if the dog isn’t back yet, it won’t be coming back at all (I hope!). That goes to prove my belief - that the dog was for me and that they never gave a shit about it. If I had a dog that I cared about that someone threatened to shoot, I’d either kill the person or get the dog in the house. They didn’t, so I think they made a deal with someone shortly after I yelled at them that July morning, to borrow the dog for a few months to harass me with it. Or they could’ve gotten it for free from some animal shelter, knowing they’d return it or dump it somewhere in the long run.

Got a letter from Bob. I dug how he said he was having trouble with a racist bitch of a guard and would like to shove his fists down her “throught.”

I got some animal cards with matching address labels from the Wildlife Federation and I also dug how they put “Phoenix Arizona, AZ” on the address.

God, how I dread this long MLK holiday weekend coming up! These assholes next door are literally MAKING me not like blacks. God, spare me, please! I’m sure his answer to that would be, yeah right! Like hell I’ll spare you their shit/noise! Let’s just say that once MLK’s Day gets here, I may not have the patience to slowly torture and toy with them. I may just want to kick their asses and get it over with.

I wish I could know for sure if they are gonna move in September. I think that if they don’t move by then, then we are stuck with them till we move unless I step up the action to drive them out of here sooner, but there’s also a huge advantage to being the first one out of here too, and I think it’s rather obvious what that is. Tom thinks we’ll be out of here in two years, but I think it’ll be 4.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1998 Jesus fucking Christ! You can’t even go out in this city without being screamed at! Just what I need when I’m still so tensed out from not smoking. I go to the library. That went OK. We get to Ross’s to pick me up slippers and hair ties, and there’s this fucking kid screaming at the top of his lungs a few feet away from me while we’re waiting in line. I came home so stressed out that I drank too much too fast and felt woozy and a bit nauseous. Fortunately, though, the effect didn’t last very long. Like I said, maybe a part of me is glad Tom’s in denial so that he doesn’t have to deal with what a doctor might be able to do, etc. The struggle with not smoking is hard enough right now that I’m just too overwhelmed to even think of kids. The missing cigarettes outweigh anything else and make everything else just not matter as much. I know Tom sure as hell won’t admit I’m sterile and decide he wants a kid and get down on his knees and beg me to see a doctor with him, so I’ll think about seeing a doctor myself after we move. I think that’d be a good time, cuz then I’ll be so used to missing my cigarettes and trust me, if I still miss them as much as I do, I always will. Also, it’s easier to move two people instead of 3 and if we had a kid in the picture, we wouldn’t be of any help to each other, cuz one of us would have to watch the damn thing. So, I’ll rethink the situation after we’ve moved, but that won’t mean that anything’s changed. I’ll still know a doctor can’t help me and that God said no to a kid. I cannot handle it and God knows it. But I would like to maybe know someday what makes me sterile. Is it a problem with the eggs? Or with the uterus as I think?

Speaking of the things this wimp can’t handle, I begged God to please make the ball player go away that came to play next door. He did, thankfully. Another rude, brazen kid just waltzed right up to the hoop as it was passing by and played for a few minutes. I got a good look at the hoop as we pulled out today and it is untangled, so someone did get the lock out of it as I suspected.

Sunday night is my tentative night for smashing a wine cooler bottle next door. I can’t say for sure that he’s back to his usual shit, but I’m sure he is and that it’ll be more than obvious that he is by the time the day’s out. Yesterday he had pulled in with no music and parked where I could see him up front. I knew he wasn’t in for the day yet since he was up front, and I heard 3 car doors (he doesn’t seem to blast off as much when he’s got the bitch and kid with him). I had to play fucking phone and favors with Andy again a little while later when I heard some music, but then when I looked out, the car was still there. Just a few minutes later, though, I heard voices and the car left, so that tells me that it could’ve been a passing car, but probably wasn’t. Then later, as I was waiting to fall asleep, I heard music 3 different times. Again - a passerby? Or the freeloader? One of those times was the freeloader, I’m sure. So now that we’re gonna be on one of his music harassment campaigns again, he’s gonna have to deal with my harassment campaign, too, and be made to wish he never moved in here. The reason I’ve decided on late Sunday night is cuz Tom will be at work, it’ll suit my schedule better, and it won’t look too obvious (this way I won’t be doing anything till the music’s been a problem again for nearly a week). Yes, I eventually want them to know it was me who terrorized them, but slowly. I want there to be some mystery and confusion for them while I toy with them before I jump out at them in whatever way I’m gonna do so. You see, nothing major’s gonna change over there till September. Meanwhile, that “major change” could be 3 more freeloaders moving in over there. So I have to start now with getting them to see that they’re not welcome here and that their living here is gonna create problems for them.

I just realized, though, that MLK Day’s Monday and that we’re in for a 3-day weekend. So Sunday night’s bottle tossing may have to wait. I know there’s gonna be some kind of shit from over there on Monday. Especially with him living here. Yeah well, they’ve got my shit to listen to, too. The bottle tossing isn’t my only idea of harassment, either. There are others, but I’ll get into it another time.

I thought I just heard some door slamming next door with no music, but I’ll be honest and say that due to these houses being so damn close, you just can’t always be sure who’s doing what.

Tom and I figured out how to sex the mice. It’s really pretty simple, but we’ll have the store people verify that we’ve brought them all males when we go to bring them in.

According to the email I received, both my folks are having physical problems. Ma’s dreading having to use needles for her diabetes, but it’s looking like she’ll have to. She’s got back, thyroid, cholesterol, and arthritis trouble too, and Dad has got to have a triple bypass done on his legs in the spring. It’s similar to open-heart surgery. He’s been having a lot of pain when he walks, and I guess this has to do with the arteries and blood vessels.

I hopefully set Andy straight once and for all about his calls and all that and I think he’s sensitive and understanding enough to my situation, and will back off and cut me some slack. He won’t be around from Saturday to Sunday, cuz he and Michelle are going to a Xena convention in Los Angeles. I was trying to write last night when the phone rang, and I saw it was Andy with yet another fucking call. I said to myself how I was so sick of his calls and favors, and the first thing I heard when I played back his message was, “Jodi, I need a favor.” He said he was afraid Laura would go into his phonebook and get my number and call me, wanting her rent money now for drugs. He said not to give her the money and that she won’t kick my ass or anything. I left him a message that I don’t want these druggies he’s associated with to have my number and that if she came to the door, I’d kick her ass. If he wants friends he can’t trust, fine, but I don’t want to get involved. Besides, we made an agreement a long time ago that we wouldn’t share friends. I also told him that I just cannot handle the daily calls and that I still associate smoking with phones.

So, he left a reply saying he was sorry to put me through Laura’s shit and that he won’t want the money till the end of the month as planned. He also said it “finally hit him” why I don’t like phones now that I “finally” said it. The cigarettes are just a part of it. Meanwhile, I’ve told him time and time again that I’ve outgrown my phoneaholic ways and that I can’t stand to sit still for very long like he does, on phones, while watching TV, etc. I told him not to take it personally and that it doesn’t mean I love him any less. It’s just the way I am, and I’d prefer messages every 3-4 days and a live chat once a week. Not messages and chats every day. And I also reminded him that this excludes emergencies. The only thing that could prevent us from talking if he really needed to talk bad would be if I were asleep or out. So, I thanked him for being supportive and understanding and I also filled him in on what’s up with my parents, Tammy and Lisa.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1998 Oh, that never-ending pain in the ass! Andy, who just can’t accept things that aren’t meant to be, leaves a message about how this Randy’s blown him off and the only thing he can think of is that he finally managed to download his picture and didn’t like what he saw. Well, I’m sorry for him, but what can I do? I told him yesterday that I really didn’t want to keep playing phone back and forth with him. I had things to do, and phones remind me more of smoking. But what does he do? Leaves me a long message to wake up to and says he’ll call me later as if nothing I said sunk in. Andy really does still have some of that old selfishness in him from back east.

Speaking of back east, poor Laura’s going through what I went through back there with him. I mean, I believe the things Andy’s told me about her and I know she’s no angel and neither was I, but he’s doing it again. They fight for a few days at a time and meanwhile, he’s on the phone bitching to me about his problems with her. He says he does go to her, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t discussed more of their problems with me, than with her.

What doesn’t remain the same, though, is that both of us couldn’t imagine living alone again, when for years, we swore we could never live with anyone. So, when he’s mad at her, he wants her out and to live alone again, but when he’s not mad, he likes the company of a roommate.

Later…

I have bad news pertaining to Tammy and that household, but for once, I actually have some very good news, too!

First, though, Tom and I discussed getting the materials to make my own journals, so I can really use and enjoy this graphics program.

Also, I guess the cock quit coming in for lunch lately, but here we go with God’s balancing act. There’s some dog across the street, about 3 houses diagonally from us, that just won’t shut up. Backyards come around to the fronts of houses out here, too, if you know what I mean. It can come from the back and up to the side of a house and be heard in front, too. That’s why any dog next door that’s obnoxious out back, is all the more obnoxious when it’s on the side, wedged in between the few feet that are between our house and theirs.

Now for the bad news. To begin with, well, I had thought a child would really help ensure I didn’t give in to the many urges to smoke that I still have, but since that can never be, I had hoped for another reason to keep going with it. Better health is enough of a reason, but the more, the merrier. Then I found out that Lisa started smoking 5 months ago. She said she was afraid I’d be ashamed of her for this and that I’d tell her mother. No, I’m not ashamed and won’t tell, I told her, but I am disappointed. I hate to see her have to go through what I went through, which I told her all about. I reminded her how we promised not to commit suicide if our lives got that tough, and I asked her to please not smoke with me and give me more reason to not go back to it myself. She said she would, as hard as it is and as much as she’ll miss them, but I agree with Tom. Initially, she won’t quit, but hopefully she will in time if she sees I’m still not smoking. She said she kind of likes them. Yeah, I kind of liked them too, and I was hooked after just the first cigarette too, but she just doesn’t get it. Just like I thought cigarettes wouldn’t hurt me and that if they did, I’d have to be really old, she doesn’t realize how much they can and will hurt an asthmatic. I started smoking at her age, too, and by the time I hit my early 20s, is when the trouble began. If she keeps smoking, she’s not gonna be able to sit down and enjoy singing without having to clear her throat a lot, either.

At Tom’s suggestion, I called Dad yesterday to see if he could give me any tips since I still have urges a lot. As a child, I hated being lectured by him, but now, I could use all the reminders as to why I shouldn’t smoke. He said everyone’s different as far as how long and frequent urges are, but that the bottom line is willpower and that no one should smoke.

Now here’s the good news in Tammy’s life. Good news for once! And I’m so happy for her. I haven’t heard her sound this happy in years. Maybe never at all. She is divorcing that self-absorbed, negative husband of hers and is seeing someone new and wonderful, she says. I don’t know if she fell in love with this guy Mark enough to know she wanted to be with him and that’s what prompted her to finally move on and ditch Bill, or if she ditched Bill, then realized her love for Mark. Tammy’s never lived alone, and she could never live without a man, so I’d bet it was her falling for Mark that made her dump Bill, but more power to her.

I think that the mistake she made marrying Dick was cuz she was young, naïve, and desperate to get out of the house and the mistake she made marrying Bill was cuz Ma pressured her so she could get her and Lisa out of the house. Ma’s favorite pastime was to get rid of her kids any way she could.

Anyway, she says this 47-year-old Italian guy that owns his own business, really treats her well both in and out of bed. She told me that with Bill, there was no foreplay and the sex was over in no time, but with Mark, she’s got the foreplay, etc. She says she can really talk to him and that he really listens and is into what she’s into, but Bill never cared about her interests. This is so true, too, cuz on my visits to them when I lived back there, Bill never asked me about my life (not that I had much of one to discuss) and he never seemed to give a damn about the things that mattered to me.

Mark and his wife Mary, who died a few months ago of cancer, knew both Tammy and Bill. I forget if they all met through Tammy’s job working with terminally ill cancer people, or if they knew each other before she started that work. Anyway, Bill doesn’t know they’re lovers. She’s staying at the house and she’s changed the locks, too. Hopefully, Bill won’t be allowed visitation rights, but with people being so into biology, versus what’s best for kids, I’d doubt that he’d be ordered to stay away from them.

Another wonderful thing about this guy is that Tammy says he’s good with the kids and really cares about them, too, whereas Bill and most guys could care less. He and Mary had two kids who are 18 and 21 and Mary had a few kids with her first husband. The neat thing about this is that Tammy’s described him a lot like I’d describe Tom, and you know how wonderful Tom is to me, with the exception of his not coming clean about wanting a kid, and his sloppy, disorganized manner. I’d constantly wish that Tammy could have a husband like mine and I always believed that she’d envy me had she known Tom like I do. Not anymore! I hope that this really is the right guy after all this time, and I get the feeling it is. I’m really happy for her, cuz she deserves happiness for once! If I remember anything else she told me about Mark, I’ll write it in.

MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1998 Andy, Andy, Andy! Him and his calls and his favors! Well, his favors aren’t nearly as frequent as his calls, but he really bugs me. He really bugs me! He’s on my nerves constantly, but he just doesn’t get it!

I scanned and sent a picture of him to this guy he could just meet in person if he really wanted to know what he looks like. Then he left a message asking me to rescan it for him cuz the dude couldn’t open the damn picture. So I scanned and sent it again and left the guy step-by-step instructions for viewing the picture. Then I had to play phone with him some more. You know, from now on, I’m not gonna check my messages when I first wake up. It’s too overwhelming to have to sit there and listen to 5-10 minutes of his babbling when I first get up. These are the things that should make me grateful that I don’t have a child smothering me right when I first get up, then all day long, too.

That’s a debatable subject as far as pre-cum impregnating a fertile woman. We screwed 3 days in a row. The days that are the most likely for a woman to conceive if she can. So, if I was OK, some would say I should be pregnant, some would say I shouldn’t be. It depends on who you believe. Some say that all it takes is one and pre-cum is enough to do the trick. Especially if there’s a few days’ worth of it. Others say it’s not enough and there wouldn’t be millions of sperm if just a few could make it. Well, whatever. The bottom line’s still the same - it isn’t meant to be whether I was fertile or not, whether he came or not, whether he came a lot or not.

It’s been the quietest it’s ever been next door with him there. There’s been no dog, no music, not even as much door slamming. Maybe the letter really did scare them into laying low-key and quiet so as not to provoke anyone. I love the peace they’ve been giving me, but now that I’ve got so much anger worked up due to the two years’ worth of shit they’ve given me in intervals (although sending the letter’s eliminated some of the anger), I kind of wish they’d give me an excuse to act up on my end cuz I’ve got so many things planned for them. In time, though. They’ll go back to their usual shit, at least music-wise, soon enough. Then I’ll be there to make them wish they’d never moved in there. They’re gonna really think they’ve got a crazed, hate stalker on their ass once I put my ideas into action! The first thing I thought I’d start with once the music cues me in, is to throw one of my wine cooler bottles over the block wall into their carport, or at the house itself, in the middle of the night. With my luck, they’ll sleep through it and not even come to investigate, but we’ll see. I’m gonna be provoked into action soon enough, so I’ll let you know what I do first, although I still wouldn’t be surprised if I kicked someone’s ass over there when Tom wasn’t around.

Still learning and having fun with the different cards, stationery, banner, envelope, programs and so much more. Andy really loved the Gloria border I made. Yup, I can print a bunch of tiny pictures of her for a border. I may do up these to cut out and glue into my written journals.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 1998 Boy, is it foggy out there. I can barely make out the nearest houses. It rained on and off all day yesterday.

I attached that scan of my hair I had made to my folk’s email as a joke. I got a reply back saying that was a cute picture, they know how those things work and are busy with business and doctors. I asked about the doctors, but who knows if I’ll get a response to that one? We’ll see.

Andy also wanted me to scan and send a picture of him to this guy he met on the meeting line. Of course, I know it’s another loser, but I’m amazed someone who’d call this thing would have a computer. So, I scanned and sent it and Andy said I could let him know if he was his type if he sends a picture back of himself.

I had a block on my email, blocking out mail from anyone who wasn’t an AOL member, but that’d mean I couldn’t get a reply from someone Andy wanted me to send mail to who wasn’t an AOL user. So, I typed in only those I selected to get an email from. A part of me wishes I never told Andy about AOL and the scanner, cuz now he’s gonna bug me to send this and that.

Yesterday turned out to be a very pleasant day. I only hope God doesn’t compensate me for it by having today be an uncool day cuz that’s how it usually works.

I did some more experimenting/learning with the graphics thing and made Tom up a calendar for this month. Every month I’ll make one up with a different border. I gave him basketballs this time.

I also made a really pretty ballerina banner that’s almost as long as I am.

The mice are so cute when they get all playful. They jump up and down and run around just like the pig and rabbit.

According to Tom, he’s seen some wild orgies and threesomes going on. He says that he doubts they’re actually screwing unless some of them are gay since one would screw one and then the one doing the screwing in the first place would get screwed. I suppose that if some humans can be attracted to the same sex, that rule could apply to animals, too, but I just hope that guy’s right and that in February all the boys will be gone and I won’t have any pregnant females. If I do, though, I’ll just bring them those batches, too.

White Feet is in the window now. The cats sit on the pool pump to keep warm. Tom forgot to turn off the pilot light after draining the pool so its flat surface is warm.

I was nervous as all hell about this, and wouldn’t have initiated sex if he didn’t, but I did get brave enough to screw with him twice yesterday. I got what I expected, and I didn’t get what I expected. I expected him to take advantage of his fears and tease me by not getting in there. He got in there, but as I did expect, he didn’t cum. He tried to tell me he did “a little” and that there was more in the way of feeling than juice. Of course, though, I know a guy can’t cum without letting out some juice, but still, it was fun and I hope his games and God’s interferences (although God did try!) can be a thing of the past. I just want to move on now. I accept I can’t have a child, am OK with it now, and am prepared to deal with it, but I don’t want Tom or God to insult me with a freaky sex life, either. Even though yesterday didn’t turn out to be Tom’s fun and games in bed, I’m still reluctant to screw today too, cuz like I said, things have a way of making up for themselves and I don’t want today to be the day that he decides not to go in there. I was shocked that I could get up, run to the bathroom to throw some KY down there for some dryness, return to bed, then resume screwing. In the past, he’d be so distracted by that, that he’d have to “clear his mind” and start all over again. He said things change and people progress, but I still see the fears/excuses. So that’s why I can go out of my way to not smoke, get a new bed, do this, do that, and it doesn’t really change things all that much, cuz the bottom line is his fear and wanting to tease. Nothing I can do can help with that. If our sex lives had started off with us using birth control, that’d be different. Then we wouldn’t have had the freaky sex nearly as much.

He says that not smoking has made a difference for the better right away, but it’s mostly a gradual thing that occurs over time. Yeah. Whatever. I don’t want no more shit. That’s all. He’s obviously never gonna come clean, so if I don’t mention a child and all that, he gladly won’t, and then this is the only way we can move on. I know the truth and that’s what counts. And also, his wants are more important to me than my wants, so even if I still really wanted a kid as bad, his not wanting one and his not wanting to go to a doctor is more important. So, I’ll try to keep the subject a closed chapter as best I can cuz I want him to be happy and as we all know, people won’t always say what’ll make them happy, cuz when someone loves you, they’re more self-conscious about what they tell you.

Later…

Except for the barking dogs that prevented me from even eating a bagel in peace in my own damn kitchen, it’s a damp, cold, dead-quiet day out there. Personally, I wish it could be like this every day till we move. Especially as long as we have the sickos for neighbors. However, I’m also sick of being cold and if they really wanted to irk me with noise, they’d find a way. So far, though, it’s been a quiet weekend. Is this cuz they assume the letter was from me and are just biding their time? Or are they assuming it’s from me and hoping to catch me doing something else? I hope that they are hoping to catch me doing something else (which they won’t do), cuz this would mean they’d have to behave. It wouldn’t look good for them to drag me into court complaining that I did whatever, all the while they’ve been harassing and bugging me with music, etc.

Well, the toys may be gone, the dog may gone, the music may be quiet at this time, and the cops may have been there, but they’re not breaking up or moving. I just know it. My gut tells me that if there’s to be a significant change of any kind over there again while we’re here, it’s not happening till around September.

Another thing we did yesterday that I forgot to mention, is that we played around more with those push molds. We used clay and plastic to mold roses, bunnies, and teddy bears.

We screwed earlier and today was a repeat of yesterday - got inside/didn’t cum. At least he’s a lot braver than he was last month. Last month he wouldn’t even stick it in there.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1998 It’s time for me to be all stressed out. The weekend’s here. According to Tom, the car’s been moving again. In other words, the asshole’s still there, as I figured, and will be up to his usual shit in just a matter of time.

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t written much lately, so I hope I can remember to cover all that’s been going on.

Andy got led on and blown off by yet another guy. It’s just not meant to be for him. He enjoyed Stevie cruising on the web and visiting with me.

Tom got a bottle of Metabolics and like I said, if this doesn’t work, nothing will. He said he talked to someone there and since it’s from a health store, it shouldn’t have any side effects. We didn’t see anything written about that, anyway. The person there said this is their most popular brand that I’ve got and should see results in two weeks.

Tom also got his new glasses. They’re a lot nicer. He wears contacts more often, though.

Now for my frustrating, yet wonderful new toy. Tom got a print studio program that lets you do so much in the way of graphic art. The things you can do with it amazes me. The possibilities are endless. I can make my own stationery by adding some kind of border design (including pictures of Gloria and Norah to border with), or by making a background page that I type over. And the thing I love about this printer is that the ink doesn’t get lighter and lighter till it dies like a dot matrix with ribbons does. It stays the same sharp colors till the ink runs out of its cartridges.

I’ll be getting a wire-bound unruled journal for sure, so I can insert clipart and graphics into my text and type over pages with designs on them.

The clipart and pictures this thing contains are amazing. There are so many. Everything from artwork to live images. There’s every subject imaginable, too - animals, food, textiles, floral, icons, woods, metals, fun designs, plants, etc.

It even has a card-making program and I made some really cool cards of a few different sizes that fold differently from one another. In a way they look just like something you’d buy in a store, only the paper’s not as heavy or as glossy. They have glossy paper you can get for inkjets that print pictures out of say, Gloria, Norah, anyone, in an even more realistic and higher photographic quality.

I made tons of samples up for Tom that I did to practice with and learn with. I also made up a card for his ma. It’s got pretty scenery on the front, ducks on the back, with a brief message saying that I made it special for her.

Tom was right when he said I’d like it for letters, but not for journals. The word processor it has is really one fucked up program. It’d be very hard for me to describe why that is. You’d have to know a little about computers and know the different programs I’m talking about, but it’s bad. It does have a spell checker, but you can’t tell what line you’re on, selecting is a bitch, you can’t change fonts, sizes or colors easily, and the page doesn’t move as you type.

Later…

I saw that they’re up next door, cuz I saw a light on 15 minutes ago. I guess the freeloaders mainly leave at 7 AM. I’m waiting to hear how he leaves. It’s when he comes in for lunch that’d give me an idea of what he’s up to at the moment, but I’ll be asleep through it. I don’t think this weekend will be a problem as far as any parties cuz they’re out of season. The company, outside chats that last more than a minute or two, and bopping around the carport, won’t escalate till it warms up. And you can only have so many birthdays. There wouldn’t have even been a party all winter if it hadn’t been for him being around (the kid’s party).

I still can’t believe the dog’s gone! I just can’t believe it! She must’ve got caught with it. I can’t imagine she’d give it up voluntarily. I don’t miss that thing barking for 2-3 hours a day and sometimes more, but how’s this gonna affect the music situation if this dog stays away and isn’t replaced by another dog?

I wish these fucking freeloaders would just move on. I may not get anyone any better over there, but still, they’ve been 3 feet away from me for too long. They’ve got to go. I just don’t want them there anymore. I was here first and I’m saying it’s time for them to move on. So, as soon as they act up and I know about it, I’ll make them wish they never moved in there. As I said before, there’s something I could do about the music quickly, but it may just be worth my time and effort to slowly terrorize them. If I began harassing them on February 1st, for example, I’ll have them out of here by June 1st. I drove those Mormons out of here. I mean, I know a part of their moving probably had to do with the city, with a house that was too small for them, and other things, but I think I was a part of their moving. I didn’t mean to drive them away; I just didn’t want their kids screaming 3 feet away from me. I would take that and a dog over the music, but I’d rather not have to deal with anything as far as other people’s noise. I’ve had enough of it. Someday, though. Someday we’ll be out of here and won’t live where we and the neighbors could reach out from our windows and practically be holding hands. When you live where your bedroom is closer to the neighbor’s driveway than your own, that really sucks.

Later…

El cocko left just after 7:30. It didn’t play any music. It didn’t even slam its door that hard. Just someone saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

I decided that since Tom’s so against me doing anything violent or scaring someone to their face, I’d compromise with him. I won’t deck them, but I will be heard, too. God may see to it that they don’t hear me, but I will do everything in my power to not only be heard when I hear them (when I hear a lot more of them than what I just heard, obviously), I’ll make them want to move. Haven’t heard those sounds coming from their yard, so I’d guess that those scraping sounds I heard were the dog nosing and pawing its bowl around. It did sound like it could’ve been plastic scraping concrete after all. I’m surprised he’s still parking in the carport at this time of year with the dog gone, but then again, I’m not. It’s easier to see someone that may mess with your beloved car stereo when they’re in the carport, versus just outside of it. After that letter, I doubt he’ll park outside the carport much.

I realized something that this letter could’ve ensured, unfortunately, and that’s their staying together. She may use this as an excuse to keep him under her wing and he may want to play big, tough man and stay with her cuz of this. Anyway, enough freeloader talk for now.

What the fuck was that? I just heard this really loud bang that was even louder than their damn car doors, but I can’t blame this one on them when they’ve already left. Maybe it was a big truck, but all I hear right now is the guard dogs. Thank you, God, for not having me be asleep for this big bang!

Speaking of God and noise, though, he sure does have a way of balancing things out. It makes me wonder - if we move to where it’s remote, will he give me other problems, like having me be bothered by some unknown source of noise that Tom and I won’t be able to identify? Or will I just start waking up a lot for no reason? Not that I’ve had a problem sleeping around here cuz 97% of the time I’ve been here I slept just fine. It’s the disturbances I get when I’m up that are the issue, but that’s better than having my sleep be an issue like it was in the NHA. If these freeloaders ever stole my sleep, I would kick their asses in a heartbeat.

This winter, so far, has produced less of other stereos blaring by. I’m sure God figured he’d spare me the drive-by stereos this winter, knowing that the stress of Mr. Fuck next door would compensate for it and any shit I may get from him.

Tom’s passing his test with flying colors. What I mean by “passing” is that he’s doing just what I knew he’d do. Not that this was a lie on my part, but I made it clear to him enough that I wanted to just accept fate and move on, so to speak, and I figured he’d take that to his advantage. I had told him that if having a kid meant that much to him, he could let me know and ask me to make a doctor’s appointment. I know he thinks I’m fertile, but he had said he was gonna take the beginning steps and get a physical “just in case” once we got our new medical cards (our insurance is now Intergroup), but he hasn’t made a move yet to make an appointment. He’s had the time, too, but he hasn’t read their brochures or anything. That’s some motivated guy! He really wants that kid!

Anyway, since you either have kids or life, I really appreciate my sterility/freedom when we get new programs like this graphics thing that provide hours of fun that I couldn’t have had with a child. I also have nothing to worry about as far as our getting together this weekend (prime time) so he can have an attack of amnesia and forget how to fuck me. I’ve dropped enough hints about how many things need to be done this weekend, so I don’t think the scaredy-cat will bother. He knows I’m uncomfortable about it, too. He hasn’t said so, but I just know, and I know where his true feelings lie, so I’m sure he’ll be happy to forget about sex till next week. Unless he really wants to play games and tease me. Also, my schedule’s gonna be on nights, and he’ll probably be working on Mary’s car. Mary always needs work done on her car.

Paula left a message last night, but once again, we’re playing phone tag.

Andy left 3 goddamn messages Wednesday, tried calling twice yesterday, so I’m sure I’ll get 2-3 messages today of the same old.

I called to see what was going on with Tammy and she was on her way to her second home - the doctor’s office.

God, these freeloaders have really scarred me, so to speak, with their fucking bass. Just like the NHA scarred me with other sounds. If I hear anything, like a big truck that resembles a bassy sound, I totally tense up. Thanks, freeloaders. Thanks a fucking lot! Well, hopefully the nasty, hateful things I said in my letter to them will make the lasting impression on them that they’ve made on me. Speaking of lasting impressions, though, as much as they’ve stressed me out and made my life miserable on and off, when we move, I won’t remain so scarred as I did after leaving the NHA. After leaving the NHA, there were still similar sounds and the same sounds that triggered that old familiar tension in me and that brought me right back there in my mind. But when we leave here, there’ll be no kids, bass, dogs, slamming, banging, screaming, and all that shit that I had to live with, to remind me and to stress me out.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1998 I am waiting for Andy to arrive. He’ll be late, as usual, but he has to leave by 10:30 when I get Tom up, cuz we have to go to the store. We’re looking into something they’ve got that’s supposed to speed up your metabolism. I’m now 122 pounds and it’s getting hard to just accept my weight as it is. Unfortunately, though, I have a distinct feeling that something up there does not want me to lose weight. Therefore, if this doesn’t work, nothing will, and I’ll really be forced to just deal with being fat.

Later…

Andy miraculously showed up when I completed my last sentence. He’s on the Internet now.

Anyway, I hope I can find a way to speed up my metabolism, cuz that’s the key to weight loss/gain. People think it’s all diet and exercise. A good diet will keep you healthier and exercise will keep you more fit, but that’s not where it’s at for me right now.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1998 Tom scanned a picture of me which he cut to fit in one of his little picture frames that my folks sent. He put it on his monitor.

David and Evie sent me an email that I didn’t get cuz I have a block on mail from those who aren’t AOL members. They’re gonna resend it to Tom, who’ll forward it to me. I think it’s Evie who sent me an email. She’s home alone all day with two kids and probably feels she has no life. We have nothing in common, though, so I don’t know what I’d write about when replying to her, but I’ll think of something.

Something insists I deal with junk mail for sure. There’s no escaping it. First it was just mail from other AOL members and now AOL itself is sending it. Are they ever gonna set up junk mail controls for themselves? Of course not! They’re so fucking annoying, though, cuz every time I go into something, I have to wait for this form to come up for some bullshit item they’re selling, be it encyclopedias on CD-ROM, etc.

It is freezing out there! I just went to empty the recyclables and it’s cold. It had only been getting down to around 55º but I’m sure it’ll get close to 40º out there tonight.

My TV dinner’s just about ready, so I’ll return after.

Later…

It’s a good thing I have an eye for detail. When we went to the hardware store a while ago, I saw a light identical to the one that Tom put up in the back room. Now those two old, ugly ceiling lights/fans are gone and now there are two nice-looking fluorescent lights. These ones, though, aren’t too bright.

The new king-size comforter we got is nice and I love how it’s colorful, but I could never get it into this small washer to wash. Tom says that the old one’s easy to fix and that it’s the same problem we’ve had before, so he knows how to fix it. So, we’ll just run a hose to it when we want to use it in the garage where it’s at now, drain it in a tub, then dump it out back. This way I can do big things like that. He doesn’t have to worry about a hookup to where there’s hot water either cuz we can wash things like a comforter and curtains in cold water.

The mice’s cage is in 5 sections, so to speak. There are the 3 Play City cages, the maze, and the aquarium. I created a new setup that both of us really like. I cleared some of my stuff off my little worktable and ran a tube down from the house that sits on top of the aquarium, to the maze that now sits on my worktable. So as I write by hand, the mice are just a few inches away. Some of them are, anyway.

Everyone’s making babies around here (except for us, of course) and we’re gonna have to get rid of that bitch of a mother cat somehow someday soon. She’s gonna have more kittens for sure, cuz Daddy Cat’s been hanging around like crazy. Tom says he hopes that Mama Cat will leave when she gets pregnant. Not a chance. Naturally, she’ll stay where the food is and where she already knows she’s safe. I still wonder about these mice, too.

Tom and I have been getting along better lately. I tell you, it’s cuz we haven’t had much sex and cuz we haven’t discussed this child we can never have that he doesn’t want. As soon as that’s the topic of discussion and as soon as there’s more sex than once a week or so, there goes the fights. Sex and relationships really don’t mix too much better than oil and water.

MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1998 I just did some singing and now I’m back to write some more.

I hope to hell the guy at the pet store knew what he was talking about when he said that mice don’t become sexually active till 6 months, cuz I’ve been seeing a lot of screwing. I hope it’s just a case of instinct taking them through the motions like with a puppy dog and nothing that’s reproducing. If it is, though, we’ll just do what Tom said and take in boxes of mice. Lots of mice.

Later…

I ended up scanning some pictures for Kim and Bob, too.

I’ve decided that if I don’t hear from Anne and Harry in the next few months, I’ll do what I did with Shelly and write no more. Remember, I don’t want any 1-sided relationships of any kind.

I asked Tom if Ma was getting cold feet about moving cuz I thought by now she’d be in with Mary and have the house up for sale. Tom told me that she’s decided on March 1st to be moved and I guess that’s when she’ll place the house up for sale, too. I hope to hell it doesn’t take a year to sell. Then poor Tom will have to mow it and have the responsibility of that house for even longer.

As soon as that house sells, though, God will fill Tom’s time with other stuff. I really believe that he’s always wanted us to screw part-time and not have much time together for another reason, along with the ones I’ve already mentioned. He (God) that is. Well, due to us not being able to see each other much or screw much - it makes it more special when we do. However, things have changed as far as the sex goes. We seem to be the opposite of what we were towards the beginning of our relationship. Now he seems to want sex more than me. Thankfully, it’s not that his appetite’s that much higher than it was, but the sex has really “died” for me, so to speak. The only reasons for it that I can think of are that it isn’t new anymore (we’re not newlyweds), and all the shit/teasing he’s pulled.

If I could have my way, I’d never screw again during prime time, as sterile as I am! I don’t ever want to be the source of his teasing, lying games ever again! I’m going to make an excuse to get out of sex from the 9th to the 11th or so, and he knows it. I can tell he knows that I’m gonna want to bail out of bed then and I’m afraid he’s gonna try to lure me to him at that time so he can play with me yet again. And suddenly “forget” how to get inside me. And act as if he’s never fucked a woman before in his life. But I see right through Tom S. I see the real fun in it for him. And the fear, too. I asked myself time and time again - why’d he cum the 5-7 or so times he came during prime time? That’s the one and only thing that contradicts my belief of his being too scared/not wanting a child. The only thing that comes to mind is that he took the chance to see if he could create a cover for the truth.

Later…

Tom and I went to the store earlier so I could pick up the next few months’ worth of birthday cards, although there are no March birthdays. For January, I got cards for Larry and Lisa. For February, I got cards for Jen, Sandy, and Andy.

While I was at the store, I also got a couple of refrigerator magnets with cactus/desert scenes. They also had scorpions embedded in round plastic domes, not that I’d ever get one. David and Evie had plenty, though. Some construction work that was going on near where they live stirred them up and they were finding them in their drawers in their clothes and everywhere. Evie wanted to move. Instead, though, they got a scorpion expert to come out and exterminate them.

God and his fucking compensations, I swear! Now that I can breathe, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t fucking sneeze! Tom and I both think we’re allergic to the stinky mice, but they’re worth it.

Anyway, some days may be easier than others, but I still miss my cigarettes every day. It’s still a lot like trading in one misery for another. You either smoke and suffer from lung trouble and pay the cost of it, or you quit and suffer the cravings and the weight gain.

Remember how I said that now that the holidays are over, and as we get closer to Ma’s house being sold, God would give Tom other jobs? Well, he’s trying. A crazy woman that Evelyn knows called looking for Tom to tutor her on some project she’s working on. She said she had surgery and wondered if the anesthesia killed her brain. She reminds me so much of Ellie and Ma’s crazy sister Margaret. Ma has a lot of half and whole sisters. There’s Opal, Geneva (Neva), Evelyn, Margaret, and Betty, who’s passed away, as well as a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Nonetheless, Tom told the liar who said she called only once when she really called twice according to the caller ID box, that he was too busy.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 1998 I hear noises every now and then outside and am like, is it the cats or the freeloaders? You never know with the freeloaders, who are mostly night people. Tom says, though, that the car hasn’t been moved. Then I either saw wrong when I thought I saw it out front, or he parked it in the same exact spot. If that car’s still there either way, then they obviously aren’t broken up. If he isn’t there and isn’t driving something else, then where are he and the dog? It shocks the shit out of me that I haven’t heard the dog or the music, but I know it’s just a matter of time. Especially when it comes to the music. I wonder if the beast could’ve turned on and attacked him and laid his ass in the hospital, or if he could be in jail? We heard a car door or two in the early evening, then a short while later, we heard a kid cry and car doors again.

Well, the cats are definitely making noise now. I can hear them banging on the back door. I open the door and offer to let them in for a while, but they either just stand there and stare at me, or come in and walk around for a few minutes, then they’re all anxious to split.

Tweety chirps on and off, but there’s something about running water. He really loves to chirp to the sound of that. Also, I was playing a CD by Linda earlier and singing along and there was just one song, out of the 5 or so I played, that Tweety must’ve really liked, cuz it’s the only one he sang to.

The kittens love to sit outside the back room window and swat at bugs that are drawn to the light that’s just inside it.

Anyway, Tom says my singing was excellent as usual but better in the way that it’s clearer. Yeah, I definitely don’t have to clear my throat every other line anymore, but it’s still rather nasally.

Later…

Boy, have I been having fun with the new scanner! Tom showed me a few little tricks to make scanning, enhancing photos, and printing them, much easier. I showed him a thing or two myself. Things I stumbled upon while exploring/experimenting with the program.

We scanned and printed out a larger version of a couple of small pictures I had of Gloria, and even a journal cover of mine, too! I want to have a picture of the cover of each of my written journals at the head of each of their typed versions but I’ve got to wait till I update my old word processor first. Tom thinks Mary can get us a copy from where she works.

I also scanned several photos of Tom and me for Paula, Larry, and Anne & Harry. I even sent a couple to Tammy. I am amazed at the quality of what they printed! They’re almost as good as the original photograph.

I was dead wrong about Andy’s new roommate Gary. He is not a druggie. According to him, all he does is smoke cigarettes. I was shocked.

It figures - we pump more water out of the pool and what does it do? It rains.

I was right on what I saw after all. Tom said he saw the car in the same spot, only it was parked facing the street. Yeah, I knew the fuck was there. He was gone all day and asked if I slept OK since he knows how they can be with slamming car doors. I slept fine fortunately for them and won’t do anything more to them till they make their next move with their noise. They haven’t been heard yet, but one of us will hear the music any day now. But I don’t know what I feel more of - shocked or thrilled, that the dog’s still not back yet!!

FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1998 Phoenix, AZ Age 32

I better get writing before I get any more backed up.

The last few days have brought us pleasant daytime weather. Even warm weather. Before that, it was chilly in the day and freezing at night, but that will return for another month and a half or so.

So far, I’m doing well with my New Year’s resolution. As I said, there is knowing you can’t change something, and then there’s learning to live with that fact. So, I’m bound and determined to have this be the year that I learn to live with and accept the things that just cannot be changed. If I try not to let things get me down and eat at me, maybe I can have a happier and even more productive life.

Now let me get the neighborhood animals out of the way first. I had worried that the freeloaders would be a part of our New Year’s Day, but guess who decided to be a part of it instead? Someone I haven’t heard from in years - the lonely, wanna-be-heard-and-noticed college boys across the street. It wasn’t by them playing music in their little band they used to form but by their car stereo. Leave it to them to have a car with this kind of stereo. However, God was on my side with this one as he was when I told them to shut their band up. I asked once to turn it down and they did so. They didn’t have selective memory loss and not give a shit and blast it again a few hours later.

So far I haven’t heard the freeloaders, but Martin Luther King Day is later this month, so I know I’ll hear them on MLK Day. That brings me to another part of my new year’s resolution and that is that 1998 will not include their shit and their noise. As soon as he steps out of line with the music, I’m either gonna put him in his place and beat him into utter fear of fucking with me, or I’ll terrorize the shit out of them and drive them out of here. I was here first, and I don’t want these freeloaders to be an on-and-off part of my life anymore.

Every time I think I’ve got a handle on just what they’re up to next door, they throw me a curveball. I don’t know if the pigs had anything to do with me, with him, or what, but they can’t be broken up. Not with the way his car sat there for days and how they were talking earlier. I’d say that yes, there was no one there on New Year’s Eve and the night before, but they’ve been back since yesterday. I know the car has finally moved, cuz it was out front when I heard the mad bitch. Amazingly, the dog hasn’t returned yet, but anytime now I’m sure it will. His music hasn’t been a problem yet, but like I said, when it is, I’ll either put a final end to it, or I’ll dish back some shit of my own and really play with them like they were toys. It might be fun to make their lives a living hell and be their worst nightmare. However, kicking his ass would be a quicker solution.

I haven’t been a member of Gloria’s fan club in years now, but they’re still sending stuff. There was a holiday postcard with her photocopied handwriting that said she designed the front of it on her computer. A boring design it was, and her handwriting’s sloppier than mine.

Tom set up the VCR/computer so I could capture more Norah pictures than just the one I’ve been using all along, for my random screensaver/wallpaper collection. This was a lot of fun to do.

We got a new color inkjet printer and a color flatbed scanner, and I love them! I re-printed my old Norah pictures and some of Gloria’s and they’re so much better! They’re almost of photographic quality for sure. The scanner’s pretty sophisticated and now I can just scan any drawings for my folks or for Tammy and attach copies with my email to them, or print out copies for Larry, but there’s a catch. So far, I’ve been teaching myself how to use the stuff. The printer’s pretty easy, but there’s so much entailed within the scanner and each procedure seemed to take forever. I scanned in an old, small picture of Gloria. Then I tried to enhance the quality, but it took forever. I’ll have to ask Tom some questions about this, but boy did I shock the shit out of myself last night! I did things I can’t believe I did on my own without being taught.

I had taken a break from my video captions project, then went back to it later, and forgot to put them into my wallpaper file. So, it took me a while to find them, which I amazingly did. Then I had to figure out how to cut/paste them into my wallpaper file, then dither all the colors. I couldn’t believe I figured all this out myself! I’m sure if I kept poking at the scanner’s program I could learn more, but I’d rather wait for Tom for now.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 1998 Tom just got back in from working on Eileen’s daughter’s computer and what did he get for it? Cupcakes. Just cupcakes. He says Eileen will make it up to him, but I just knew it. I knew that as soon as that house sold the users would come crawling out of the woodwork again. Not that I’m not glad the house sold, but if I had business pals, I’d expect to be paid up front.

Tom said my doll could come on Tuesday since mailmen typically don’t deliver packages on Monday, unless they’re first class, cuz they have a higher volume of regular mail those days. It seems I spend more time waiting for dolls than I do enjoying them.

Tom read in an ad in a magazine, that John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles was a TV miniseries. It was? Since when?

Last night’s movie was great, and no one was pregnant or gave birth! I couldn’t believe it.

I heard not one stereo blast by all weekend. I was shocked. I really thought Halloween would bring out those bangers.

OK, here’s our freeloader’s behavior report - first off, no one was dumb enough to knock on our door last night, and there were a lot of people out this year. I saw more adults out there than kids, too.

There was no music all weekend. At 6:30 yesterday evening, I came out of the bedroom where the fan had been blaring and where we were lying together reading and talking, and I saw the white car out front. I figured they were out making their rounds, although Tom said he doubted they trick or treated in this neighborhood. Yeah, that’d make sense. I’m sure they have enough enemies around here. It looks like they did, though, unless they came out of their house and not from the streets at 8:00. All I know is that I suddenly heard a car door that I knew was next door and was thinking, the car’s leaving. That was easy enough. Then the reality of how they operate came through again and I told myself, they’re not gonna just leave. You know them. They want to be heard. Especially by you. They’ve got to slam some doors, honk some horns, and do some yelling before they leave. You know that. So, there weren’t any honks, but there was a good 5-10 minutes of door slamming and yelling. That bitch was furious about something and was yelling at what sounded like some other woman.

Today, Tom reported a small white car that he’d never seen before came to get the bitch at 7:30 and then brought her back later. She must’ve snuck out unnoticed at some point, cuz at 3:00 I saw the white car, the bitch, and a black boy that looked too young to be the one I spoke to when I threatened to shoot the dog. It jumped up and swung off the basketball hoop, which I hopelessly prayed would break while it was doing so, then they both disappeared from view, and the car left. It didn’t look like the bitch or boy left in this car, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

I think I figured out why that bitch goes to church. Well, it obviously isn’t because she’s so kind and believes in being all nice and loving and wonderful and non-selfish and all that good stuff. The church may preach hate against gays and against those who are different than them, but they do give to and pity the poor. That small white car could’ve been from the church she goes to and I’ll bet you the only reason she goes to church is to see what she can get.

I asked Tom if he felt that there’d have been nothing we could do about the music if they were owners and not renters at risk of losing the house, short of beating the shit out of them, and he said no. People can still complain and people still get citations for breaking the law. Yeah, but I think going about it the legal way would’ve been much harder, and taking illegal action would’ve been much more necessary.

When I see Bill, I see a bit more sense and maturity there, so I’d think, I’d hope that he’d try talking some sense into his daughter and her cronies, and say, “If all they want is for your noise to be kept out of their home, give it to them. That’s no big deal, and it’s a reasonable request, so just shut up and leave these people alone. They didn’t do anything to you to start all this and to deserve it. It was only after you so selfishly and rudely ignored their reasonable request that they fought back. They gave you enough chances to quiet down before going to the city and I’m sure they didn’t want to and I’m sure they didn’t want trouble any more than most people, but when you shit, you get shit on. You get treated how you treat folks.”

She’s just lucky I didn’t severely maim her that day she took her tantrum on my doorstep, and Mikey’s lucky, too. If it weren’t for Tom, I’d have beaten the shit out of them a long time ago. No doubt about it. So they have him to thank.

Speaking of good ole Mikey, I haven’t seen him. When he moved out late ‘96 - early ‘97 he’d still come around on weekends, but I haven’t seen his car in weeks. Does he pick her up in the mornings? Bring her back at night?

Tom still believes that they’ll stay as good as they have been till we move and that we’ll go first. If they’ve got to say hello with the music every 3 months, fine, but they don’t have a choice but to be as they have been. He still feels June’s a likely time for us to move, but admits that anything could come up to stall us. If something can come up to delay it, it will. My June vibe’s weakened and now I’m wondering about August. I do strongly vibe that that was our last Halloween here, so that’s good.

Damn, bitch! You really get out and about on Sundays, don’t you? I just heard a car door, looked out and saw Bill’s car, then someone was reaching into the backseat, then they shut the back door, then Bill left. I assume this someone was the bitch, even though it’s dark now. I could tell by the aggressive manner in which her shadow moved and by how hard she slammed doors. Anyway, I’m sure she’s tucked in for the night now. And in just 12 hours she’ll have to leave for quite a while again. Yuck! I can tell she’s not the homebody type.

If there are two things I could ask this bitch, one thing would be, are you ever in a good mood? Secondly, do you always have your hair in a ponytail tucked under at the nape of your neck? I only saw it down once.

Now for my best news. I’m so proud of myself, too! I didn’t eat a damn thing yesterday. Just a good 500 calories worth of drinks. I felt OK, too. Just a little weak and shaky in the heart, but my fast-beating heart was probably due to having to be woken up too soon. I had Tom wake me up with caffeine coffee since I’d have slept all day otherwise. After I’d had a TV dinner and had been up a few hours, I felt fine.

I still don’t know what I’m gonna do about the eating, though. Do I want to go hungry and stay around the same weight? (I woke up 4 pounds lighter today at 113) or do I want to satisfy my hunger and get God only knows how big?

Tom and I didn’t end up screwing yesterday, but we spent time together, so that was nice. We made an attempt today, but he was too tired, so he’s napping now and I’ll be getting him up in 20 minutes. He has to go into work at 8:00.

Tom’s decided he’s gonna do the roof.

Later…

Jesus fucking Christ! Is that bitch’s day gonna end yet? Doesn’t she have to go to bed early and get up early? I guess she snuck out unnoticed again, cuz I was just distracted from proofreading when I heard yelling. A boy of about 8 years of age was yelling, and I could hear an adult voice, too. Only the freeloaders could be out screaming at the top of their lungs at 8:00 on a chilly night. So I went and spied out of the music room window and sure enough, the voices were coming from there. Somebody was bringing that bitch back, but I couldn’t see any vehicle. Just its headlights as it pulled out. Joebitch, Joebitch, Joebitch! If you can’t get my attention with music, you do it with screaming, huh? Yes bitch, I know you’re there. I know you’re there, OK?

Later…

Nighty night, bitch. Yeah, it’s lights out over there now.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 13- Part 9

Cradily’s gonna launch Smack Down on the next turn, no doubt- how about it? One more boosted Icy Wind for the road?

And now to deal with those pesky Defense boosts. Caldera’s moment to shine, now!

With Cradily’s Speed lowered so much, Caldera should have no trouble with this before getting stoned to death: Clear Smog to reverse the stat changes!

And…now I’m starting to remember why I wanted to use Glare and Paralysis to slow down Cradily- so the Speed drop wouldn’t get removed by Clear Smog. Well- too late now.

And as the mist clears again, it’s time to bring in the Pokémon that will actually bring this down: Glare, for real this time!

With Cradily’s Defenses back to normal and Glare likely being faster anyways, Crunch seems like the best option for the most damage! One or two should do the-

Its fourth move is Recover!? OH, YOU CHEEKY, PREHISTORIC SEA PLANT! Alright then- we’ll just have to deal more damage than it can heal, before the sandstorm damage (yes, it put Sandstorm back up) takes too much of a toll on Glare. Stockpile your way out of Screech, why don’t ya!?

C’mon, Crunch did so good before even without the Defense drop, this has to work! It can’t keep healing!

IT CAN’T KEEP HEALING! More Screech, less Defense, even more damage!

IT CAN’T!! KEEP!! HEALING!! YOU CAN’T STOP ALL OF THE DAMAGE!!

AAAAAAAAAAAH-

YOU AGAIN! We’re finishing it off this time- time for Decibel to come back out!

You know what I’m about- Air Cutter, let’s bring it down!

…Oh, right, I forgot about Spore. Well…I’ve only got one Sleep-healing item left, but I can’t waste it only for Decibel to be put back to sleep right away, I still need to slow this thing down.

Here’s what we’ll do- bring Glare back in (after healing her a bit), paralyze Breloom first, then heal Decibel and send her back in. Glare can outspeed a Breloom, right-?

She can! And now we bring in Decibel, who should be faster now…

And as long as Air Cutter doesn’t miss, this should be it, right? It’s a strong-ish Flying-type move against a Grass/Fighting-type, that should be instant KO?

It was! One Air Cutter was all it took! 

And now…Florinia’s final Pokémon…what could she possibly be hiding in the back of her party after all this?

…Well, that’s not a Rotom, definitely. It’s part Fairy-type, which is bad for Decibel, but Glare’s asleep and I’m all out of Sleep-healing items. Guess we’ve got no choice but to give this a try- hopefully it doesn’t know any Fairy-type moves.

Air Cutter or Wing Attack…? It’s Sp. Defense is a bit worse, isn’t it? So Air Cutter might be better, but Wing Attack is more accurate…I think I’ll go with Wing Attack, just to be safer.

Alright, Decibel’s been hit with Leech Seed, which is annoying, but it’s nothing terrible. I’m certain this has Prankster, so whatever powder move it has is likely to go first…as long as it’s not Sleep Powder, we’ll be good.

Ah! Aha! Poison Powder missed!! That’s even better! Just a few more Wing Attacks, just a little more- c’mon, we’re so close!!

IT KEEPS MISSING! ABSOLUTE CRINGEFAIL! JUST A LITTLE MORE, DECIBEL, LET’S FINISH THIS!!

AAAAAND THAT’S ALL, FOLKS!

Hah…haaaaah…whoa…we actually did that on the first try again…wow…

Wow, that’s a huge gap between now and the next Badge- what on earth are we gonna be getting up to in the next few sessions?

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