#at least try to start the paper and then we'll see I guess

[raksh-writes]

Oh my god, I just got hit with Such a hardcore urge to do a fresh reinstall of Skyrim and rebuild my mod list from the ground up that it's making it Impossible to focus on anything else and I was supposed to be writing a paper for one of my uni classes today, like why, brain??? Why NOW??? 😭😭

Feels like Im not gonna be able to get my hands on anything else until I do it and it might as well take the whole day ahhhhowpghhiulaergnilaengnalg the fuck is this, help 😭😭

[artemismatchalatte]

I have no idea what I'm going to do for NaNoWriMo this year. I feel very uninspired lately.

I just want to do well in my class and my energy has been low lately (season change on my new medicine, I'm guessing???). I need some energy because it's Shakespeare and I need to keep my grades up to stay in the honors society (no pressure lol).

Much More in the tags as per usual... :P

[rubysunnday]

can we always be this close

requested by anon: Congrats for reaching 6k!! I feel like such a proud mom, i've been following you since you had around 2k and you deserve this so much!! Could i please request a jesper x reader fic with the fake dating trope?

summary: from strangers to friends, friends into fake lovers, fake lovers into lovers

Kaz held a piece of paper out to Jesper. "Here's your invite."

Jesper took it between two fingers and flipped it over, unfolding it to its full size. "Mr and Mrs Leonard," he read, his brow furrowing.

"Oh, why do we have to be married?" Y/N grumbled, snatching the paper from Jesper's hands.

Jesper tutted, trying to snatch it back. Y/N slapped his hand away and, reluctantly, Jesper backed down.

"Because I need both of you for this job and it was easier to have one invitation than two," Kaz replied. "Now, here's the plan."

"Jesper and Y/N, you two are going to pretend to be guests of Van Delnik. Once inside and the party has started, one of you will cause a commotion."

Surrounded by big skirted dresses and expensive champagne, Y/N had never felt so out of place. She gripped Jesper's arm tightly as they walked through the corridor to the giant spherical ballroom.

"Ready?" Jesper asked, lowering his voice enough so that only Y/N could hear.

She nodded. "Yep."

"Inej, you'll be disguised as one of the maids. Once you see the commotion, head to the roof. I'll meet you up there."

"What are we stealing, again?"

"We're not, Jesper. Inej and I are staking out the building - Van Delnik is hiding his treasures somewhere and I for one want my DeKappel back."

"It wasn't yours in the first place, Kaz."

"Semantics, dearest Inej."

Y/N took her arm from Jesper's and took a step to the side, bumping into one of the men nearby. When he grunted and turned to tell her off, Y/N pretended to stumble, knocking the man's champagne glass onto her, and fell into Jesper.

"Sir, watch where you are going!" Jesper exclaimed, standing Y/N up on her feet. He dramatically whipped out a handkerchief and started dabbing at Y/N's chest and the bodice of her dress.

"Your wife bumped into me!"

"Because he tripped me up!" Y/N replied, pointing at a random man nearby.

"Once Inej and I are on the roof, we'll go in through the side window into Van Delnik's office. Jesper and Y/N, you need to give us at least ten minutes."

"I think we can manage that, can't we wife?"

"Oh, I am going to regret being married to you."

Once the commotion of who had tripped and spilt champagne on Y/N had calmed down - she'd managed to convince the men it'd been their fault - Jesper had whisked her away over to the buffet tables, out the way of the crowds.

"Saints, this chicken is to die for," Y/N muttered. She licked her fingers, wiped them on her skirt and picked up another piece. "I need the recipe." Y/N wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin. "Saints my face is a mess."

"I think it looks beautiful," Jesper replied, smiling at her.

Y/N returned his smile.

"How do we know you're done?"

"Trust me, Y/N, you'll know."

The entire ballroom shook as something exploded outside the doors. Glasses wobbled and smashed onto the floor. People screamed. Guards rushed forward from their hiding spots.

"I guess that's the signal," Jesper muttered. "Now to get out of here."

"Where do we meet you?"

"Out the front - you'll be one of the many screaming guests if all goes to plan."

Jesper grabbed Y/N's hand and she clutched on tightly as they joined the throng of people trying to get out through the double doors. They both held on to one another, determined to stay together and not be split up by the crowd.

Once they'd squeezed through the double doors, the crowd spilled out into the street. Some ran away, some stood their, overwhelmed and shocked. To the right, a fire burnt away inside s store room, flames licking the glass of the windows within.

"Found them," Jesper muttered.

He pulled Y/N to him and they moved through the crowds, weaving over to the left and away from the fire. Kaz and Inej had both changed into servant uniforms and were blending in with the shrubbery and shadows.

"We were spotted," Kaz said as they walked up to them. "The bomb wasn't the plan."

"Oh, we thought it was," Y/N said. She absent-mindedly ran her thumb along the back of Jesper's hand. "Do we need to go?"

Kaz shook his head. "No, we'll wait -"

"There they are!"

Four heads shot up and turned sharply to the right. A disheveled looking guard was stood on the steps, pointing directly at them.

"Yes, we need to go," Kaz amended. "Meet at Black Veil."

As the Stadwatch and Van Delnik's personal security began to come at them, the four of them split up. Kaz and Inej going one way, Jesper and Y/N going the other.

Y/N gathered the numerous layers of her dress skirt and ran down the cobbled streets, wind blowing through her hair, tearing it out of its intricate up do.

"Split up," Jesper said, letting go of her hand.

Y/N darted right as Jesper went left. The pursuing guards stumbled to a halt and then quickly spotted them and their plan, splitting up themselves and chasing after them.

The street lamps had been left on in this bit of town - a sign of the rich who lived there. They could afford to burn the oil. Y/N saw an open public garden to her left and quickly pushed open the small iron gate and ran inside, the trees obscuring almost all of the street light. She ran through the bushes and the trees, the heels of her shoes sinking into the damp ground.

Eventually, she emerged out the other side. Y/N glanced behind her as she came out onto the street and ran into someone.

"Oh, saints!" Jesper exclaimed, his hands catching Y/N's waist and pulling her forward and into him.

Y/N put her hands on his chest, stopping her face from smacking into it. "I thought you'd gone the other way!"

"I did, it looped to here!"

"Oh my -"

"There they are, shoot them!"

Jesper grinned at her, taking her hand in his. "And off we go again."

They broke out into a sprint, running down the street once again. Bullets began to ricochet off the floor and the walls around them as the private guard began shooting at them.

Y/N giggled, the adrenaline running through her. Her laughter cut off abruptly as something hit her back and side, a searing pain shooting through her entire being, She stumbled forward, Jesper's going around her waist and holding her up.

"Ok, ok, come on," Jesper said, looping his arm through Y/N. "We need to keep going, Y/N, I'm sorry."

Y/N groaned in pain, pressing the palm of her hand against her side. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other and trying to breathe through the pain.

At some point, they lost the private guard - Y/N wasn't sure when - and entered Black Veil Cemetery. Jesper was on auto-pilot, walking down the headstones until they reached the mausoleum.

Jesper and Y/N all but fell through the doors and down the stairs, startling person who was already inside.

"Saints," Nina swore, her arms reaching forward and catching Y/N as she fell forward, her legs folding beneath her. "What happened?"

"What do you think happened?" Jesper muttered, all but ripping the buttons off his jacket in an attempt to get it off. "Kaz and his ridiculous plans."

"I'm fine -" Y/N cut herself off with a yell of pain as Jesper pressed his jacket against her side.

Nina sighed, tutting to herself. "I'm -"

"Not a healer, we know, Nina," Jesper and Y/N said together.

"Alright, saints," Nina muttered. "Come on, down the stairs."

Somehow, Jesper and Nina managed to get Y/N to her feet and down the stairs. Together they lifted her up and onto the empty tomb that often became a table.

"I'll be back," Nina muttered, guiding Jesper's hands further over Y/N's side. "Try not to die."

With a bustle of skirts, Nina disappeared back up the stairs, leaving Jesper and Y/N alone, in almost complete silence.

"I'm sorry," Jesper whispered.

Y/N looked up at him. "What for?"

"I... I don't know, it just feels like my fault because I came back to you and they followed me and -"

"Jes, breathe," Y/N said softly, placing her left hand on his cheek. Her thumb trailed over his skin gently, catching the few tears that managed to escape his eyes.

"I'm sorry." He dropped his head, breathing in deeply.

"Talk to me, Fahey," Y/N said, putting her hand under his chin and gently lifting it up until he was looking at her. "I'm listening."

It took him a moment to gather himself enough to speak. "When I was young, my mother tried to help this little girl. The girl had been poisoned and my mother, being grisha, went to help. She drew out the poison from this girls body into her own - saving the girl's life but ultimately killing her.

"This... you bleeding out on my, frankly, rather lovely jacket and coming close to dying it's just..." He sighed, shaking his head. "It just brought back those memories."

Y/N nodded. "I get it." She paused. "I'd miss me too."

Jesper laughed. "Nicely done."

The sound of Nina returning gave them both precious seconds to compose themselves - even though the heartrender had probably sensed something was going on.

But Nina didn't say a word. She walked in, moaning about Kaz, and shooed Jesper away, demanding space to work.

Jesper didn't leave. He helped Nina get Y/N out of her corset and held the hem of Y/N 's shirt up. He held her hand as Nina began to heal the wound. It didn't hurt as much as a needle would have done, but it still felt uncomfortable and weird. As soon as Nina was satisfied, she patted Y/N on the shoulder and disappeared back up the stairs, muttering something about Kaz and a knife.

"Do you think -"

"No," Jesper said, "no I don't think she did."

Y/N looked up at him, smiling. "Would you -"

"Of course."

Jesper picked up a roll of bandage. He moved closer to Y/N and she shifted, letting him standing in between her legs. They'd been in this position numerous times before - but it was only ever flirting and only ever for a job.

But now, something had shifted between them. A new understanding had emerged - one that could only have happened when someone came close to losing the other.

"My hands are cold," Jesper warned.

Y/N nodded, smiling. "It's fine."

Jesper's fingers brushed against her side and he held the bandage firmly against the wound. He then unrolled the bandage and wrapped it around Y/N's middle, keeping it tight. Y/N leant against Jesper's shoulder as he fiddled with the bandage behind her back, resting her head against his.

"You know," Y/N began, her voice soft, "I really enjoyed pretending to be your wife tonight. Even if it was just pretend."

Jesper stood up, having finished tying the bandage. He looked down at her, his legs brushing against hers. "It doesn't have to be pretend."

Y/N felt her heart skip and her breath got caught in her chest. "No," she said, reaching a hand up and combing her fingers through the hair on the nape of his neck. "It doesn't."

Jesper lurched forward and pressed his lips against Y/N's. The force of Jesper's kiss meant that she had to brace herself against the tomb with her hands, barely catching herself before she fell backward completely.

"Is this ok?" Jesper asked, resting his forehead against hers.

Y/N could feel his breath against her skin. She opened her eyes, immediately getting lost in Jesper's gaze. "It's perfect."

She leant forward and pressed her lips against is neck, trailing down to his shoulder. Jesper pushed her back and Y/N let her arms fold down until she was lying on the tomb, Jesper on top of her.

"I really hope Nina has had the common sense to go outside," Jesper muttered, resting his head against Y/N's chest.

"Either way," Y/N arched her back as Jesper pressed a kiss against the side of her neck, "she will do soon."

[echantedtoon]

Until Death Do You Vow Ch6 Roses And Zinnias And Violets- Oh My!

(Warnings: Elias has a panic attack.)

"....I dunno. We'll think of something. Right now it's the only thing I can think of."

"Maybe we can also solve why the Gallagher's were cursed?", you suggested instead reaching out a hand to rub one of your ankles. "While we're here we might as well get some answers."

"Unless he really was a mastermind and hacked off the rest of his family."

"I doubt it. Elias might have been the only survivor but he doesn't really seem like the murderer type. If anything he's more of the excited lonely guy."

"Looks can be deceiving you know!," Taylor grumbled and you could picture him facepalming. "Alright. But maybe we can look for the treasure too. If Elias was the sole survivor then maybe he knew where it was hidden. We'd be solving an entire century long mystery! We could even be famous for solving it!" He sounded happy again at least.

"Let's be tactful about this though. My entire single life is on the line here, Taylor."

"Right, right. For now let's go along with his ceremony idea. That would buy us some time to be able to get a good look around here. Where in the mansion are you right now?"

"I think this is a study. It sure looks like an office."

"Great place to start! Offices are usually where you do paperwork so maybe there's some old documents laying around there. Take a look around and see what you can find before Elias comes back."

Not a bad idea but your feet were killing you. Sigh. Oh well. Honestly you were now invested in this new crime solving take and if it'll help you get out of this mess, then you'd take the chance. Your foot lowered again, and you stood back up. The scent of the chamomile tea and stale vanilla scented biscuits from the silver tray on the table mixed in with the slightly stale air and smell of old paper no doubt from the books Elias left on the table and the ones still stacked up on the shelf. You decided to start there. Seemed as good as a place as any to start. The echo of your heels clicking filled the otherwise silent room as you approached the shelf. F/c eyes scanned the shelf. Ok. What were you looking for? A date book? Maybe a diary? Maybe if you pulled one of the books out a secret passageway would appear like in those movies? You decided to try it. Going about pulling back any and all random books..but nothing happened. No dice there. Stumped and a little disappointed, you settled for just scanning the book spines. Some were pretty faded so you had to pull them out and flip through them to make out what they were. Most were just old novels with yellowed pages and faded ink. No help to you. The next one you actually recognized. 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain. One of the most popular old forms of literature you thought-

"Dearest?" The voice made you jump and whirl your head around to come face to face with Elias. He blinked at you from the doorway holding a second teacup in his hands. "What are you doing?"

"I was looking at your books," you answered him truthfully holding up the book in your hands. "I didn't know you liked Mark Twain.

Elias quickly smiled. "Ah. So you are familiar with the author?"

"A little bit. I only read one of his books a long time ago when I was really little but he's a pretty famous author." You casually placed the book back on the shelf. Guess you had to wait until you could look through the desk. "Why do you have another cup?"

"Oh, I thought perhaps you'd be thirsty after you slept." He smiled floating forward and placing the teacup next to the rest of the teaser. "I know you probably haven't eaten anything either yet. Surely you'd need to eat for strength as you still need to sustain your body."

You were surprised. That...was actually a really nice gesture of him. "I..Thank you but I'm not thirsty right now." Well might as well enact this plan. "Hey. I think you mentioned wanting a ceremony right?" Immediately his attention seemed to perk up more. "I was thinking about that actually. Neither of us really got the chance to really have one, even if it's not the one we had in mind, maybe it would be nice to at least experience it."

Immediately Elias's face lit up in possibly the happiest expression you've ever seen on the ghost so far. His hands clasped together happily. "Oh, my darling. My dearest, you have no idea how happy that makes me! There's no time to waste them. The arrangements shall be made post haste."

You slowly nodded.  Had to admit, he was kinda cute when he was happy. "So, Elias. What do we need for the ceremony? I'm a bit rusty when it comes to wedding planning."

You watched him think a moment tapping his bobbing chin. "Well, there's the room to prepare but I can take care of the decor fast and simple. There's also a matter of the cake, but I require my grandmother's recipe book first. Then of course there's your bouquet. I'm afraid your old flowers were trampled outside-"

CRASH!!

You again jumped looking up at the ceiling as more thunder sounded and the rain finally started to pour down through the sky and began to beat against the roof of the mansion. Ah. Now it was truly an environment for a haunted house mystery complete with a spooky moon and rain on Friday the Thirteenth with a ghost and curse mixed in with that mystery. 

"..They also seemed to be getting soaked," he added after also looking up briefly. "However the flowers in my greenhouse are more than capable of becoming a beautiful bouquet for the occasion."

"The green house? Doesn't like there's any clues there but it might be worth checking out just in case. If not then to get Elias in a good mood," Taylor pondered in your ear. 

You agreed. No stone left unturned as the saying goes. "Let's start there. That seems like the easiest thing to take care of first."

"Very well. Come. I'll escort you there."

He turned and as like a gentleman from his time, stuck his arm out offering for you to take it. Not wanting to upset him and going with the plan for now, you proceeded to loop your arm with his and off you both went. Guess you'd come back later to continue searching.  Elias escorted you back the way you came and only now you realized that the stairs were the opposite way you came from. Mentally you facepalmed yourself. And cursed yourself as you had to lift your dress just to walk down the long flight of stairs in heels, thankfully Elias slowed his pace and steadied you until the danger of falling down the stairs had passed. At one point you were back in the foyer which to your surprise also looked so much better. Guess whatever Elias was doing to the place was really working. He guided you across the mansion all the way to the other side until he stopped in front of two double glass doors before detaching from you and just phasing right through them. He paused on the other side turning the lock with a click and pulling open the door to allow you to come through.

"Come right in!"

"Thanks!" You walked right into what must've been his greenhouse and paused at the sight of rain battering hard against all the glass around you and water sliding down it's sides. The place was half filled with little or dried, dead plants. But overall didn't look too bad. "Wow. Sure is big. So, you said there was flowers here?"

"Yes. Of course. Behold!" Elias raised his hands and you watched in amazement as the soil moved as something moved as something pushed up from under the soil and a moment later so many color flowers sprung out from beneath the soil. You gazed in awe at them all. "Voila. My dear, your flowers."

"Elias .. That's amazing. I didn't know you could do that!" He chuckled sheepishly. "There's so many."

"Yes. So many varieties for you to pick. Why not start with a base flower first?"

"There's so many. I don't think I could make just one bouquet." A thought crossed your mind as you stared at all of them. "Why don't we make two?"

Elias blinked. "Two?"

"Sure. There's so many pretty flowers. We can make a flower arrangement to decorate the altar and then another one for my bouquet and then we can pick some to decorate the entire room." Elias seemed to light up at the idea of decorating the entire room in his flowers. "After all you're supposed to decorate the alter for a ceremony right?" Maybe you were getting too into this idea for a ceremony but it was starting to get fun.

Elias also seemed to light up at the idea. "Yes. An arrangement we made together for the alter where our ceremony will take place. It sounds wonderful. Shall we make the centerpiece first or your bouquet?"

"Let's do the centerpiece first." Your eyes scanned the many, many flowers available for you to chose from. Eventually f/c landed on a few roses. "How about these for the base? Red means love right?"

Elias stared at the roses before nodding. "Red on a rose means true love. Undeying love. Eternal love."

"Seems about right for a wedding. You got anything to put them in?"

"Of course!" You blinked as he simply held up his hands and a moment later, a nearly see through glass vase flew from somewhere and right into his hands before presenting it to you. "Acceptable?"

You nodded. "Yeah! Perfect!" You reached out to the roses..but stopped. Wait. If a rose pricking you got you into this mess, then you didn't want to risk it happening again. "Um. Could you maybe get these? I don't want to prick myself again."

"But of course. You shouldn't have to endure your hands again. Allow me, Dearest." With a flick of his wrist, at least a dozen roses snapped from their stems and floated up and into the vase. "How does that look?"

"Great! You have amazing powers!"

He smiled wider at you. "Splendid. Now did you have thoughts on accouterments? Accent flowers if you will."

Ah right. This wasn't a whole bouquet yet. Crap. You didn't know flower arrangements. "I.. don't have a lot of ideas. What do you think? After all we're making this together."

"Of course. First some baby breaths." He then turned to you assumed add the flowers to the vase. 

"Fake the flower languages," Taylor suggested in your ear. "If you're right, he's happy. If you're wrong I'm sure Elias will be happy to correct you."

Why not? You're supposed to be into this right? "Those have something to do with youth right?" You were guessing based off the word baby being in the name.

"In this bouquet, more a symbol of innocence and purity." He carefully made a point of painstakingly and carefully plucking each white flower and looking at it closely before ticking it into somewhere between the red petals. "They work stunningly when used sparingly. One may expect that their small size must be bolstered by great numbers, but that simply isn't true." To make a point he tilted the vase to you as he placed another in. "Do you see how that little bit of elevation gives the whole bouquet dynamism? Personality?"

You nodded. "It looks really pretty, Elias. Do you wanna add anything else?"

He nodded. "Yes. I think so. What would you say to lemon balm?" He asked after a moment of looking over the base in his hands. 

"I'd ask how closely they were related to lemons."

You ignored Taylor's sarcastic response. "Those mean sweet right?" Lemon balm sounded close to lip balm and most lip balls come in sweet flavors.

"Sympathy and compassion although bringing up sweetness, they do make a nice tea," he corrected already reaching for another plant. "Only some leaves, green and small. Perfect for filling in the gaps and adding a nice aroma."

"Sounds wonderful."

Elias patiently finished adding the leaves along the gaps and crevices before smiling and looking at you. "How about one more flower? I have chosen two more than you have."

"Sure. Um." F/c eyes carefully examined the many, MANY flowers blooming before you. You didn't recognize a whole lot of them outside the roses and baby breaths, mostly due to you having them at your own failed wedding. You shook your head pushing away any bad memories before just randomly pointing at a flat petaled yellow flower. "How bout this one?"

Elias followed your hand. "Ah. The yarrow."

"Is that what it's called? I'll admit I have no idea about this one."

"A symbol of everlasting love."

...You chose everlasting love twice?? "Again?" Taylor mirrored your thoughts.

You didn't say anything else but chose to pick a few yellow flowers and add them to the vase which Elias tilted forward to allow you easier access to tuck them in between the red and white flowers. Not the most average bouquet but you had to admit it sure was a pretty centerpiece. A centerpiece that meant too many meanings. Too many promises. You shook your head. Snap out of it. It was only silly flowers meant to look pretty. Soon you were done and Elias smiled joyously at something the both of you made together. You almost felt bad for him.

"A truly gorgeous centerpiece my dear, but no where near as gorgeous as you." He looked you straight in the eyes as he said that and you felt again your face lighting up before you looked away. 

"Thanks..*ahem* L-Lets pick some for around the room now. T-They should be different than the alter piece do it stands out." You quickly changed the subject back onto the flowers to which Elias agreed to with a nod. Ok. All you gotta do is chose another base flower for the decor right? You looked around the flowers until stopping on one that was bright orange. "How about this one for the base? Do you think orange would be a good base color?"

"Heck yeah! Orange is a great color AND flavor!," Taylor once again piped up and you expected as much from him. "Are you actually good at flower arrangements? I wanna see this now!"

Elias took his time looking up from his pretty vase of flowers, fonding over them. "Ah, zinnias." Elias regarded them for a long pause before closing his eyes and nodded. "They're quite sentimental flowers, and I suppose neither of us can drop sentimentality so easily."

"True." You kept remembering that horrible day. It still hurts. "Otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"And you either. I trust you understand the significance." He smiled watching before adding. "Now what accoutrements would you like to add? There are so many and I want to see what you choose."

What would go well with bright orange? You ignored Taylor's suggestion for something bold and instead browsed the many, many..MANY options eyes falling on the white ones. ...Why not the white and pink ones? White goes well with anything, and pink looks nice with orange. Kinda reminded you of spring time. You pointed at them.

"How about the white ones with the pink stripes and those with the pink insides?," you suggested as again Elias looked.

The ghost regarded your two options with a cock of his bobbing head. "So much pink!" He exclaimed but didn't sound against it more as an observation. "But the Peruvian lillies are certainly eye catching, and the pear blossoms do add a particular gentleness." That wasn't a no.

"Hey! When you get a chance send me a picture? Wait.. Aren't they like ghost flowers? Can you even take a picture of them? Or do they only pop up at night?"

"Elias.' he perked up at your questioning tone. "How long do these flowers last anyways?"

His expression became softer if that was possible. "For as long as we desire and tend to them. But you must learn to listen to them as well."

You blinked back to him the weight of the flowers suddenly seeming heavier. "Right. Flowers have different meanings." Fc eyes skimmed the combo of mostly orange and white. You hoped you didn't pick more everlasting love again. "What do these mean now?"

To your question he did another take at your options the same way someone would read a book... before a small frown replaced his smile. "Collectively that your loneliness leads you to needing...A-A friend."

"A friend?" He nodded and you looked back to the flowers. "...Well that's not entirely a bad thing. Everyone could use a friend right?" Elias only hummed in agreement and you got the impression that he felt a bit down.. was he upset that the flowers were signalling you two just be friends? Quickly changing the subject you pointed out another random flower. "Can I add this to it?"

He perked up. "Queen Anne's Lace? An interesting choice."

"Interesting? Why? What does it mean?"

"There is a desire for sanctuary deep within you." You stood there stunned by it but you were even more shocked when he looked you dead in the eyes. "The pain you hold..It runs deeper than just one sad day doesn't it?"

You fell silent staring at him for a long while before you sighed through your nose and looked back to the flowers to just silently pluck out a few of the new ones you pointed out. Only adding them to the ones you wanted as decor. The silence seemed to have Elias worried as he just looked at you working with a guilty expression.

"My dearest, I apologize profusely. I shouldn't have pried into your tragedy so carelessly like I did." He tried to apologize but reaching out to squeeze your hand making you involuntary shudder from the cold his body gave off. "Why don't we pick out a few more flowers? Your bouquet will look lovely I'm sure." Quietly you nodded. "Wonderful. What shall you pick?"

Well considering that the centerpiece and bouquet were all different types of flowers, why not pick more different ones for the bouquet? But something that still matches well with the centerpiece. So maybe some more roses? Although you should still made sure it matched the theme of an actual wedding. Your eyes scanned the many selections still presented to you before you pointed out the roses again. 

"Maybe more roses?"

Elias happily nodded. "Yes. That sounds quite quaint. It would match the overall visage without taking too much away from the center alter. But pray tell, what other flowers should be added to it?"

"Well if it's going to be roses then something that goes along with them." You mumbled still  looking over a few until spotting a few long stems sticking out and hanging from them was a few heart shaped petals. "How about these?"

His eyes lit up. "The lyreflowers." Was that what they were called? "I see. They may be delicate but they're passionate. They're also known as bleeding hearts, lady in a bath, and Venus's cat. They're representative of a kind soul."

"Sounds like a perfect match for a rose and what better thing to go with a rose then a couple hearts?" He nodded in agreement. "How about some white ones too? I mean white is usually the color for a wedding right?"

"Of course. The pink and red would be a bit too bold on their own otherwise." You pointed out the first white flower you saw. "Ah. White poppies. They live in the realm of dreams, kindness, and consolation."

You nodded again looking at all of the flowers again. "...I think I want some white roses for the bouquet instead of the red ones. It'd go better with my dress, plus it'll help the bleeding hearts stand out."

"Ah. Flowers of purity, reverence, and secrecy." 

Again that wasn't a no so you gathered up the three flowers up in your hands, careful with the roses and with enough of them to create a big bouquet. There. That looked pretty but it seemed a bit too..white. Your eyes caught sight of some cute little purple flowers and started grabbing them. Pink and purple looked cute together and it'd add color to the bold white colors. Elias watched as you plucked a few up to add to the spaces between the white.. before his face slowly turned into a frown.

"The stonecrops are tranquil, serene...A cure for a broken heart." You stopped in the middle of it all to look at him again. And noticed his concerned look.

"Oh. Is that what they mean? I just thought they were pretty. Are you ok with them?" His eyes looked away nervously as he nodded. "You don't look sure."

After a few seconds a sigh left his lips. "They're very familiar choices to me, and perhaps familiar to you too. Tell me, what bouquet did you carry to the alter before?" He looked back to you with a stern look brows furrowing in concern.

The sudden look made you blink taken aback by his change in demeanor. "Well the mini one I brought with me was just like five roses-"

"No. I mean your actual ceremony, not the ones you lost outside hours ago." He corrected you. "You mentioned that you were stood up upon the alter two years ago correct? What flowers did you have then?" 

"Oh..Well, to be honest I just had a whole bunch of roses again." You shrugged at the memory. "I mean lots of people have roses and it wasn't a bad option so...It was sorta just expected I guess. Look, Elias. If these flowers upset you we can choose something else-"

"No, no." He was quick to hold up a hand. "It's your choice. I won't make you feel like you can't have what you want in a bouquet. If that's truly what you want then I-I won't stop you-" he nearly dropped the vase in his arms when you grabbed his outstretched hand sternly.

"Nu uh. Obviously these make you uncomfortable and I only choose them because I thought the color was pretty. I'll pick a different one."

"Dearest, you don't have to." 

"I know I don't have to. I WANT to. This ceremony is for you just as much as it is for me. You deserve to be comfortable." You let go of his hands and began pulling the purple stonecrops from the bouquet in your hands. "We'll do this instead. Let's take out the white lilies and the bleeding hearts and add them to the decor instead of the zinnias. That was all the decor will be white and pink which would match up better. And I'll just keep the white roses as a bouquet. It'll still match with everything else, and there won't be anything to make you uncomfortable." You looked at him when he didn't say anything. "...What?"

"I-..Nothing." He shook his head as you continued removing all the excess flowers besides the white roses. "I-I just wasn't expecting you to just insist on compromise is all. Especially for my own sake."

"I'm serious. I'm not going to make you uncomfortable just because I don't know how flowers work."

"I still insist on you having a bouquet you want regardless."

"Ok. Then I want just white roses... I'll add some zinnias too. Orange and white will still look good together and the roses could use a friend too."

"See? I told you orange was the best choice," Taylor added.

Elias didn't say anything but he sighed in what sounded like relief. "If that's what you want dearest. I'm sure whatever you want will be beautiful." He hesitated for a second. "..Thank you."

You only nodded continuing to work the other flowers out until you started to put the orange zinnias in. There. Maybe not the first choice of a bouquet but it was still pretty. And with all the decor chosen that knocked that out of the way. You smiled at the flowers in your hands and paused a moment more to look at the flowers. A bluish one you didn't see before catching your eye.

"Elias, what are these flowers?" He turned in question and froze as you picked one up. "I don't think I've seen this one before." Silence. "Elias?"

You froze at what you saw. Elias seemed to be fading in and out. A look of pure terror on his face. Eyes directly on your hand holding the tiny blue flower.

"Hey! What's going on over there?! I-I'm getting nothing but static again! Answer me, Y/n!," Taylor shouted out static-y.

"I-I don't know. Elias? Are you ok?"

Only one word escaped his trembling mouth. "Vi-......Violet."

Something shatters to the ground like a meteor striking the mansion, shining a spotlight on your face and...the sun is out? Impossible. Wasn't it in the middle of the night and storming outside just seconds ago? The sharp light shown harshly through the glass and all you could see was white haze. Something is very wrong.

Eventually a shadow outside of the nearest window pane caught your eyes as you looked.

An archway- A gazebo baking in the hot sun surrounded by a lush garden with sickeningly sweet scents in the air. What the- How'd you get outside?! Everything seemed to be fogged in by a harsh white light that didn't go away even when you said a hand up- Until a woman walked by. You jolted up as she just walked by blatantly ignoring you but it was too haxu to make out who it was..Even if one name came to mind.

Violet.

She walked along the shadows of the trees under the archway and through the gazebo. And somehow she's still next to you despite being so far away. The wind nearly blows her hat off and the hazy light shines on a single shiny object hanging around her throat. A... necklace? It was a red gem (maybe a ruby?) on a chain of little pearls. Pretty to look at and somehow familiar. 

"Elias?!", you tried calling out to the haze.

No one answered but the woman turned to see who disturbed the peace of the garden around you both.

And then everything went black-

[ordinaryschmuck]

Full Family AU Part 12

Hours just flew by as Camila and Vee spending their time watching nature documentaries together, this time on the couch as the floor felt too rough on Camila's rear. She glanced down at Vee, still snuggled up in Manny's jacket but looking far more comfortable than she did the night she arrived.

The little creature looked adorable. Wholesome, even.

The next thing Camila knew it was three o'clock, which was easy to guess by the seven year old running into the house screaming, "I'M HOME!"

"Three already?" Camila asked once Luz ran into the living room, pieces of paper in her tiny hands. "Where does the time go?"

"Forward. Teacher said so," Luz said innocently before smiling wide at Vee. "I've got a surprise for you~!" She sang.

"Surprise?" Vee asked.

"She means a gift," Camila explained.

"Gift?"

"It's...a thing you give to people that you care about."

"And here's a special gift for you! TA-DA!" Luz lifts up the paper revealing crayon drawings of what looks like human girls. At least, that's Camila's best guess, as they were each just different kinds of stick figures with different colored squiggles for hair.

"You like them Vee?" Luz asked as she held out the drawings. Vee slowly and carefully took them all. She gave the paper a sniff, looked at Luz, and then looked up to Camila, a underlying question in her eyes. Camila just gave an encouraging nod, hoping Vee would figure out the right thing to do on her own.

And so Vee held up one of the drawings and, out of nowhere, started nibbling the corner of it.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Camila exclaimed as she took the drawings from Vee all while Luz sincerely giggled.

"Those aren't for eating silly!" Luz explained. "They're for inspiration!"

"Inspiration?" Now Camila was confused as she looked back at the stick figures.

"Yeah! Papi said that it'd be hard for Vee to fit in because she's a snake! But because she can shapeshift, she can look like anybody she wants! So I drew people Vee can look like so she can be human and go to school with me!"

"...Manny!" Camila called, her voice having that 'You're in trouble' tone to it.

"I also explained that it wasn't that simple," Manny said as he finally entered the room. "There was other things to consider like what do we do if a person asks where Vee came from."

"Those are future things to worry about!" Luz said. "Mami says to solve a problem one step at a time! Making Vee look human is the first step!"

"Mija, it's more complicated than that," Camila told her, handing the drawings back to Vee. She then got off the couch and knelt down to Luz, meeting her at her level. "It's sweet that you want to help Vee, but we can't just simply say that some girl belongs to us. They'll ask questions, they'll want to see proof."

"Like the birthday proof and the documentaries?"

"What?"

"Proof of birth and documents," Manny added in quickly. "Sorry, that's my bad. I forgot I was talking to a seven-year-old."

Camila rolls her eyes before focusing back on Luz. "Well, yes, we will need those things if we want people to not...question the random child we have in our custody. Legally, we will need evidence and I'm not even sure we can do that."

"Right," Manny agreed. "We can't just walk up to a government building and ask if we can just go to some place and ask if we can fill out a form to adopt a child...Wait, can we?"

"I...have no idea. Might actually have to look into that..."

"You see?! It's not impossible!" Luz cheered. "Vee can be a part of us if we try!"

Camila and Manny share a look, a silent conversation passing between them of whether or not this really is possible. And, if it is, can it be something they can really do?

"...We'll talk about it," Camila decided. "At least, we'll figure something out this weekend. Until then, while what you did was sweet, I don't think Vee can just transform herself based on your drawings. She's probably going to need something a little more--"

As she was talking, Camila turned around to look at Vee only for her words to die down. The tiny basilisk was no longer the one sitting on the couch. Instead, it was a little girl, no bigger than Luz, with tan skin, round cheeks, wearing a yellow dress, and had a mop of dirty blonde hair with bits of blue in it. The little girl held up one of Luz's drawings that looked like a crude version of herself.

"I liked this one," the girl said, her voice exactly like Vee's. Because it was Vee, and that realization stunned the whole Noceda family into silence.

Luz was the first one to make a noise, which was an excited little "Squee!"

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.199 thoughts

[The Master Rules Strike Back]

[Contents: analysis/speculation - Gods/Master Rules]

I want to start this one with a quick note about last week's review: when Soul said that Luna gave people "potential," I assumed that was a built-in aspect to Soul's Rule. Based on what Soul says this week, though, it seems that human potential is a direct result of Change, not Soul. Perhaps there's still more to it that I'm not quite getting, but is it possible that Soul isn't the only UMA created by Luna? That would kind of reduce the impact of Soul's revelation, but I guess we'll find out sooner or later

The big event for this chapter is definitely the beginning of Language's offensive, but that's more of a transition into next chapter, so unless I want to speculate on where this is going, that doesn't give me a lot to work with (and I don't want to do that, you all know my predictions are always wrong)

Instead, what stands out the most to me this chapter is what Soul tells the other Master Rules as they mourn Beast: "we need to usher Beast into a validated world." I'm sure this ties back into what Beast said about God wanting the "greatest life of all." What exactly is the end goal? What interest does God have in creating a world with set rules?

I've talked about it before, but if God just wanted to torture humanity, there're definitely better ways to do that than to have a game with a set win/lose condition. I've long since believed that God (or at least Sun) is not doing any of this sadistically. UMA being ordered to make humanity suffer and Negators experiencing tragedy upon selection have both only fed into the Negators becoming more determined to fight and grow their abilities, suggesting that this is a calculated effort to groom them into worthy enemies for the Master Rules, trials to help them achieve their full potential

So what happens when the final world is created? When Sun has proven to Luna that humanity cannot reach the Gods and no longer gives them any means of fighting back? Will the Rules simply run rampant, killing humans for fun for all eternity? It's been made quite clear that Sun would one day grow bored of that, so what happens then?

I think that Sun has really just been experimenting with the Rules to see which ones make the most sense, which ones help the world run the most smoothly without simply giving humanity unearned happiness. The final world won't be a paradise, but it will presumably be one with clearly defined order. Perhaps human autonomy will be erased and the world will continue to loop, like Heaven in JJBA, or perhaps Sun will simply abandon the final world and move onto create another, a failed experiment that failed to meet his expectations. Whatever it ends up being, I get the feeling it will be presented as something good at first glance, true happiness on paper, only to fall apart upon closer inspection

The fact that the Master Rules, the most human UMAs, have been fighting as long as the Union has tells me that they have a vested interest in creating this validated world. They aren't blindly loyal to Sun like Ruin is, their happiness is set to be found in that world. Perhaps they will inherit the world, and they will be the new humans, like the end goal of the Curses in JJK? They have goals of their own beyond just trying to beat the heroes because they were told to, and that depth is definitely the puzzle piece that was missing in the early parts of UU

I hope that we'll get more insight here with the Language fight, since Language seems by her nature to be less overtly antagonistic. If Beast, a creature of instinct, was the expositor of the bare circumstances, then it would make sense that Language, presented as an intellectual, would be the expositor of the philosophical motivations behind those circumstances. Perhaps not, though, but hopefully we'll find out soon

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[crystalsnow95z]

Two different 3am stories copy and pasted together to create this, apologies for any mistakes after doing so. I didn't reread before posting. It's been sitting for months now.

Sickie; Taehyung with snz/cough and fever. Green zone means vom, not important to story but its staying. Skip to next green line to avoid.

Caretaker: Jin (a bit of Namjoon)

"Heh'ehhitch!" The sound of Taehyung's sneeze echos throughout the hotel room, followed by a wet sniffle.

Jin bolts up right, startled by the sudden loud sound. "Taehyung-ah you scared me.." He yawns out the words. "That's the fifth sneeze Tae, I think you're coming down with something.."

"I'm sorry Hyung. I think it's something in the air here.. my nose has been bothering me since we landed.." Taehyung goes into the bathroom to blow his nose, loudly filling the wad of toliet paper with mucus.

"Did you take any allergy pills?"

"Jungkookie gave me some this morning.. I guess they..ah..ha..Heh'ehhitch!" Taehyung sneezes into the tissue with a roar. "Heh'ehhitchaaugh...!" Another sneeze follows, followed by a cough, his sneezes starting to leave his throat feeling raw. "Hyung it hurts.." Taehyung whines, returning to his bed. "Do you think Jungkookie is still awake?"

"It's two in the morning Vuu, and he was super jet lagged. I don't think he'd be up and he's a super heavy sleeper." Jin tries to call him anyway when he sees Taehyungs eyes water. "Okay, okay I'll call."

"No its not that.. I just..hehtchii!" Taehyung muffled his sneeze with his arm. "Ah..ahchtich..!"

Is that Taehyung?

Namjoon sends a text to the group chat. His room was right next to theirs and he could tell Taehyung's monstrous sneezes anywhere.

I think I'm allergic to something here.🥺 do you have any allergy pills? Or maybe Hobi-hyung?

Taehyung sends a text back to him, trying to ignore the itch building up in his nose, but to no avail. "Aa..attchetu..! Ugh..." Taehyung pinches the bridge of his nose. "Heh'ehhitchaa..mmm.."

Hoba is asleep, and I don't have any. Sorry Tae. I could see if there's any store open nearby for you.

Namjoon messages back.

No, it's okay.. I'll wait until morning..

"Jaykay didn't answer." Jin informs him with a frown. "Are you sure you want to wait until morning? Me and Joonah can go together."

"Do we at least have something for a headache? I'll be fine if we have tha..tha..." Taehyung stops talking feeling another sneeze coming, but this time it doesn't come leaving him with just the painful pressure."mmm..."

"I think I have something..hold on, I'll look." Jin gets up to check his bag, finding the small travel size packet he was looking for. "Here Tae, hold this while I get you some water.

Taehyung rips the packet open, taking the small tablet out of the package. "H..heh..tchu!" He drops it somewhere on the bed when he covers his nose his cupped hands covering in mucus.

"Taehyung-ah, I said to hold it, not open it..don't worry. I'll find it.." Jin puts the water bottle on the side table, going in the bathroom to get a washcloth, wetting it to wash Taehyung off.

"Euuh.." Taehyung looks at his hands with disgust.

"Let hyung wash you up." Jin dabs near Taehyung's nose, cleaning the yellow-tinged mucus from his face, then wiping off his hands. "There, all done. Now, don't move until I find where you dropped the pill."

Taehyung tries to sit still, but a sneeze snuck up on him without any warning. "Actichivvah...!" Taehyung sneezes on Jin, eyes growing wide. "I'm sorry..I'm sorry!" Taehyung bows in apology.

"Taehyung, I'm not mad. It was an accident. You can't help it if you don't feel well, just try to cover it next time,okay?" Jin says soothingly,holding the round pill in his hand. "Open your mouth."

Taehyung obeys, Jin placing the pill on his tongue, giving him the water to swallow it down, not letting him hold either in case another sneeze came.

"Good, now lay down and get some sleep.. we'll get you feeling better in the morning." Jin pulls the blanket over Taehyung.

"Jinnie-hyung?" Taehyung asks softly, coughing under the blanket.

"What is it Tae?"

"Will you sleep next to me?"

"I'll lay with you for a bit, but then I'm going to my bed okay? It'll be hard for me to sleep with you sneezing and coughing.."

"Then nevermind. It's okay." Taehyung tries to sound indifferent about it, but Jin could hear the disappointment in his voice.

Jin puts in his earbuds to tune out Taehyungs sneezing, turning off the light. "Alright, I'll sleep next to you, but try not to sneeze on me."

Taehyung nods, hugging his pillow to his chest to cover his face as another cough comes. Jin wraps around Taehyung's small frame, hugging him from behind. "Good night, Tae."

Jin woke up feeling uncomfortably warm, trying to push the blanket away, still half asleep. Why is it so hot? Only when his blanket started coughing did he fully wake. "Taehyung-ah you're burning up.."

Taehyung was still asleep,laying on Jin's chest, his leg pinning him to the bed. His cheeks were now flushed red like his nose and a layer of sweat covered his body.

"Oh Tete, I don't think it's just allergies..I think you're sick.." Jin whispers when he sees he's still asleep not daring to wake him. I need to tell the others. We were supposed to meet up in the morning..Jin moves Taehyung's bangs that plastered his face to behind his ear. My poor baby..you're definitely going to break out.. I need to try to get this sweat off you..

Jin gently pushes up Taehyung's shirt to try to get what he could off, using the blanket to dab the sweat off of him, noticing the hives have already started on his lower back. "Aiigo.."

Jin slowly rolls Tae off of him, only getting a small whine as a complaint. "It's okay Vuu I'll be right back.." He gets his phone off the bed and goes in the bathroom, calling Namjoon and putting it on speaker.

"Hyung you're up early. Did you sleep well?" Namjoon responds quickly to the call.

"Joon Tae is sick.. we need to find some medicine. I put you on speaker phone so i can look something up.." Jin gets right to the point when he hears Taehyung sneezing again.

"Heh'ehhitch...ahh.." Taehyung whines, sitting up slowly but falling back down on the pillow when vertigo hits him. . "Hyung...?" He looks around the room for Jin, but the dizziness blurred his vision. "Seok..ah..ah Heh'ehhitch.. Heh'ehhitxch.." Taehyung sneezes into the blanket. It feels like someone's trying to push my eyes out from the inside.. Taehyung whined miserably as he felt the itch switch from his nose to his throat a cough rattling his chest.

"Why do you sound so worried? We can get him some allergy medicine, and he'll be okay." Namjoon replies unaware of the situation.

"No, it's not that. He has a fever now, and it's not clear runny nose snot anymore, it's thick yellow goo, that means he has some sort of infection. He's actually sick." Jin's speaks quickly, looking up the difference on his phone.

"Calm down Hyung. Even if he caught a cold we can get him some proper medicine. Is he still asleep?"

"He was asleep when I left the bed to call.." Jin quickly wets a washcloth and goes back to the main room, dropping it when he sees Taehyung coughing uncontrollably into the blanket, eyes streaming with tears. "Aiigo, Taehyungie don't cry.. Hyung here.." Jin places the phone down on the bed to wrap around Taehyung.

"Oh sh*t.." Namjoon speaks in English. "I'm already out and about right now. I decided to get some fresh air before we got ready to practice on stage.."

"The concert.." Taehyung feels his heart shattering. The reason why they flew there is that they were going a three day concert. I can hardly breathe, how will I be able to sing?

The tears flowed harder, leaving Taehyung gasping for air.

"Namjoon-ah be quiet! Don't talk about it right now." Jin scolds him the usually carefree vocalist glaring at the phone.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so stupid.." Namjoon didn't mean to upset Taehyung. He wanted to tell him he had time to recover, but he didn't want to bring his hopes up."We'll figure this out okay?Seojinnie Hyung keep your distance so you don't get sick too.."

"Namjoon, hang up the phone." Jin speaks in a serious tone when Taehyung quickly pushes him away from him.

I already sneezed on him and had him hold me all night. There's no way he's not going to get sick, too.. Taehyung sobs into the pillow. I don't know if we can do the show with two missing members..

"Vuu, baby come here. You didn't know and I should've been more careful, so it's my fault too. It's okay. No one's upset at you." Jin pulls Taehyung close, but his words weren't getting through to him. "Taehyung, Tae you have to breathe.." He says in a panic when Taehyung starts coughing without any signs of stopping. "Please Tae, it's okay, I'd rather be suffering with you than see you like this, it's breaking my heart.." Jin pries the pillow away from Taehyung's face feeling his chest tighten as he pulls him to his chest, just stroking his hair.

Taehyung takes a few deep breaths to try to slow his breathing, hearing Jin's accelerated heartbeat. "I.i'm s..sorry.. i..I didn't mean to sc..a. ah..etchiuu!" A sneeze stops him mid-sentence, sneezing into his arm. "I..I'm sorry.." Taehyung sniffles.

"Hey Tae?" Jin asks suddenly. "What do you call an apologetic fruit?"

"Huh..?" Taehyung is taken by surprise by the sudden question.

"What do you call an apologetic fruit?" Jin smiles when he sees Taehyung's breath becoming more steady. "

"Oh..I think you told me the answer before..wait.." Taehyung sniffles. "Heh'ehhitch..ahh.. It was sagwa!"

"Well what did zero say to eight?" Jin asks before Taehyung could go back to worrying about the future events.

Taehyung just looks at him with a confused expression, scratching at his belly. His mind was fogging from the fever. "I don't know.."

"Nice belt." Jin laughs at his own joke, getting a small smile out of the young vocalist. Jin continued to tell him jokes until it looked like Taehyung forgot why he was crying, stopping when Taehyung's giggle turns into a cough.

It worked.. but he still isn't looking good... Jin sighs. "Are you feeling a little better?"

"I'm calmer now.. but Hyung.. it hurts.. to breathe.." Taehyung's breath comes out in short gasps, his throat swollen and his nose completely clogged. "What am I gonna do..?"

"I know, Namjoonie will bring you some medicine to help.. We need to worry about getting you better before anything else." Jin goes in the bathroom taking the roll of toliet paper from the roll and bringing it to him. "Here Tete."

Taehyung tries his best to clear his nose, but no matter how much came out, it was like more magically appeared. "Heh'ehhitchii." Another round of sneezes come, his constant rubbing to try to keep it from dripping, irritating it further. "Heh'ehhitch..Heh'ehhitxch!..a..ahh.achtchi...!" Each sneeze was louder than the one before it, jolting his body. "Mmmm..." Taehyung sniffles whining softly, the drainage into his throat causing him to cough. He rubs his hand across his chest to try to ease the pain. Now, not only does my head and throat hurt, but my ribs too..

Namjoon knocks on the door, Jin jumping up to answer, peeking through the peep hole before opening the door for him.

Namjoon enters, spilling the contents of one of his shopping bags onto the desk, finding his new thermometer, using it to scan Taehyung's temperature. "We gotta get it down, it's on the borderline of being a high grade fever.." Namjoon frowns at the orange flashing number.

Jin was already cracking the seal of the cold medicine Namjoon brought. "I'll get him in the bath."

"I don't want to get up..my head feels all floaty.." Taehyung says in a rough whisper. "My voice..."

"Shh..don't talk, you'll make it worse.." Jin hands him the medicine. "Here Vuu, take this for me."

Taehyung swallows the medicine down, reaching for the water to wash it down. "Hyung.."

Taehyung falls forward, Namjoon putting out his arm to catch him. "Woah, Tae. I got ya.."

Taehyung closes his eyes tightly waiting for the dizziness to fade, nausea swirling in the pit of his stomach. "I.." Taehyung tries to convey his needs to Namjoon, but his voice breaks off into a cough. I'm going to be sick.. "Nam.." His stomach sloshed painfully, pushing up his dinner from last night. Taehyung wraps his hand around himself with another bout of coughing, unable to get the words out, letting out a whine in frustration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sh*t..Seokjin get a waste bin.." Namjoon finally understood what he desperately wanted, quickly jumping onto the bed to anchor him onto the bed as he doubled over the waste bin Jin brought him.

Taehyung gagged on the thick mucus mixed with bile that filled his throat. His body trembled with effort as he heaved everything in his body, burping up mouthfuls of mostly digested pork belly and rice.

"It's okay, it's okay.. I got you.. just let it all out.. You're okay.." Namjoon strokes his hand across Taehyung's back, drawing shapes.

Taehyung didn't feel like he would be okay. His body was being pushed past its limits, even after he had nothing left he couldn't stop the dry heaves.

"Vuu.. Try to take deep breaths for me okay? Deep breaths baby.." Jin strokes his hair and he speaks softly to him. Taehyung tried to be obedient to his eldest hyung, but when he tried to breathe in, it caused him to cough.

"I know it hurts, but please.. keep trying okay Tae?" Namjoon encourages him, gently holding the youngers swollen throat to ease some of the pain.

Taehyung manages to take a few breaths, the gagging dying down, leaning into Namjoon. He tried to speak, but his throat was so raw nothing came but a breathy whisper that just looked like he was mouthing the words.

"Here, wash out your mouth Tae.." Jin gives him a water bottle, holding a small cup. Taehyung takes a mouthful of water, swishing it in his mouth before spitting it out in the cup.

"Is your stomach feeling any better now?" Namjoon asks, rubbing his hand across Taehyung's stomach.

Taehyung nods, then makes makes a gesture for telephone.

"Good idea. You can text instead. "Jin searches for it, finding it on the table. "Here Tae."

Taehyung types in a note app.

I got realy dizzy, and it made me feel sick to my stomacj, I'm okay noq.. I think it's just stress.. I just want to lay down for a bit..I still feel bad..

Taehyung's hands shook when he typed, making him hit the wrong keys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Namjoon gently moves Taehyung to a laying position, leaving the bed when he hears his phone vibrating in his pocket. "I'm sorry, but I got to take this.." Namjoon frowns looking at his phone.

"It's okay if you need to go. I'll take care of Taehyungie. Thanks for going shopping for me."

Jin whispers as he hears Namjoon talking to one of the directors on the phone.

Namjoon bows apologeticly before nodding, leaving Jin alone with Taehyung again.

"I have to bring down that fever.." Jin evaluates the situation he's in, watching the sleeping figure on the bed.

I could carry him to the bath, but he's so weak right now, I don't even think he could keep his head above the water.

Jin opts to use a wet cloth, gently stripping Taehyung down to his boxers.

"Heh'ehhitch..!" Taehyung sneezes when his shirt brushes against his nose.

"I'm sorry Tae-yah. I didn't mean to wake you, go back to sleep Baby.."

Taehyung curls into a tight ball, shivering from the cold sweat that coated his body. It's cold..

"I know, I know..please just wait a bit and I'll hold you. I just need to try to cool you off a bit. I'll be right back."

Taehyung reaches for Jins hand before he walks away, but underestimates how far he is grabbing at the air. Jin uses the hotel ice bucket to hold water, bringing it to the table to gently wipe off the sweat that covered Tae's body. Taehyung shiveres, trying to push it away.

"Now, now please don't fight me, it's for your own good. Stop it. The faster i can do this the sooner i can give you cuddles." Jin holds his hands still, continuing his sponge bath, making gentle circles, humming softly.

"Heh,'ehhitchew!" Taehyung's sneezes were also starting to lose their power, becoming quieter. That didn't stop them from being messy, though. Jin wipes his face clean again, relieved when he notices the vocalist had fallen asleep again.

Using the opportunity to escape to the best of his ability, he goes to check his arsenal of supplies. Cold Medicine, vitimins, two boxes of tissue, ginseng tea,cough drops, cooling cloths,water bottles, pain killers,a whole bag full of food...

Jin's stomach rumbled at the thought of food, pulling out a pack of instant ramen.

I'll eat while he's asleep.. I need to get him to try to eat when he wakes up..

Jin takes a break from taking care of Taehyung boiling some water. His nose started developing an itch similar to Taehyung's a quiet sneeze escaping him. "Hehtigh.." I sure hope that's the only one..

[kobblefort]

Hoistedworked: Origins

Alright, okay, yeah. Back on the wagon, right here in the woods. It's still plenty remote, cold enough to teach a Dwarf to speak in clicks, and it is actually capable of sustaining life. Sure it's no glacier but the glacier was always a shitty idea. We can at least carve something out here. Like some ideas are actually just bad. Like too bad to manage. This one though is basically fine. We can do this.

See? Look at this shit, it's beautiful. Plants. Trees. Actual solid ground. Since I never introduced the actual decapods before, let's pretend these are all just the same guys, okay? Just for convenience's sake.

Cikuti Worthoars, who likes bobbit worms for their knobs and angles. Oh yeah and suddenly the snow cleared up. Don't ask me, I don't know why.

Cutichi Strengthtown, AWESOME name. He likes to eat seahorse meat and loves two-grain wheat beer.

Chetek Boattrussed, who likes kangaroos for their pouches. 🤔

Cukikuki Townriddle. Big fan of eating giant Brown Recluse spiders, even though she hates cave spiders. I'm not going to ask.

Scukikik Denttongs. Big beak dog fan.

Retuti Livingwheel, groundhog fan and mead drinker. Wonder if we can actually get a bee colony set up here.

And finally Cikuki Prisoncrafts, goat eater. Well, please forgive me if I kind of breeze past the "starter base setup" phase here.

Or, well, I would, but... nobody wants to work. That's not some boomerism, nobody will just pick up the tools to chop wood or dig holes. They gather plants fine, and took apart the wagon without any trouble, but now they're just... gawking...

Reading about it on Reddit, it seems the solution is to just retire the fort and then immediately un-retire it. So we'll try that I guess.

come on... come on... YES!!

We don't even make it all the way down 10 stories before discovering the cavern this time. And before you ask:

yep, fucked up normal grass again. Whatever. It's not as big of a deal this time. One day I really ought to properly ask how that even happens, but for now, I'm just rolling with it.

Up above, all that happened in the two weeks the game makes you wait whenever you start fortress mode again is that the crabs spilled all their prickleberry wine. What a tragedy!

After about a season, we've got a pretty nice setup coming together. All the stockpiles are hidden away under the big main meeting area, the aquifer drains into a cistern, things that rot are kept safely away from the average crab's path, and walls are being built up top to make a more secure entrance. We've eaten a boar and silky sea slug while food stocks were low, and the giant leopard we brought with us "went missing" some time ago - which probably just means it's dead. Giant raccoons have been harrassing us up on the surface, but that's the point of setting up our defenses. It's a much more auspicious start than our first expedition, and with self-sufficiency actually taken care of, we'll be able to get our paper economy and library off the ground sooner than later. We've also found a bit of native platinum quite high up in the earth, but once you start the metal economy, it feels like you just sort of become a metal economy fortress. So we'll hold off on that for now. Also, the giant wolves keep wandering into our meeting hall. Don't worry, they're ours, but they'd probably suit us better outside fending off the raccoons... Oh, and nobody has bedrooms yet. Nobody's too pressed about that, though. One time a really drunk guy came over to my house and when I said "alright that's it for the night" he was like for sure, peace out, slapped my hand, fistbumped me, grabbed his things and walked 5 steps out the front door to fall asleep sitting up on the stairwell of my apartment. So people can do that, people can just sleep on stairs. My roommates found him and were like "what the fuck" and I was also like "what the fuck" because I figured he'd just go home. I think they just let him sleep though. I would've heard it if he fell down the stairs and he didn't. So you can do that.

There's not a lot to say right now. We're not making a ton of money, but we're sustaining ourselves fine.

Defenses are coming together fine, too. Our giant wolves had pups and the pups have the zoomies. It's wonderful.

There's a quantum stockpile now to make woodworking a lot easier. For those not in the know, a "quantum stockpile" is a 1x1 stockpile that gets filled by having a minecart dump into it. The cart races down from the surface, and is just long enough that it doesn't crash at the end, though also just too long to auto-dump - so instead, the solution is to make whoever finishes filling the cart hop in and ride it down so that they can push it the last couple tiles. Or at least, that's the plan; at first crabs just kicked the cart down the ramp, but since I changed it to be ridden instead, everyone's been too busy putting a ceiling over the main "courtyard."

Here's our "administrative wing": counter-clockwise from the top, it houses our expedition leader Worthoars, production supervisor Boattrussed, and sheriff Channeledchain. We've got a hospital set up earlier than we need it for once, but nobody's been appointed chief of medicine yet. I ultimately had to run DFhack drain-aquifer just because the "mist generator" started overflowing, but I've set up "ponds" where any crab with nothing better to do will chuck a bucket of water down from the top of the stairs. The result is the same, so it should cheer everyone up. They'll need it, since...

Roofing the main area has everyone caught in a snowstorm, and though nobody's particularly miserable at all, it's still dragging some crabs down. Oh, and I like this.

Efficiency be damned, I wanted a cool bedroom setup, and looking down into the great hall right when you wake up seems pretty cool to me.

An agitated giant raccoon attacks, but it's put down pretty quickly by the giant wolves. The bigger threat is our own lack of forethought.

I wanted to put grates up above the farm plot there, because I'm not actually sure whether you still need outdoor plants to get sunlight and rain or whatever, or if a tile that was directly exposed to the sun at any point just counts as "outdoors" forever. I honestly think it's the latter but you know what they say about eggs and baskets and all that type of shit.

The problem is that crabs kept trying to put floors down on these tiles, which was possible because they could walk over the grates to reach them, but didn't register to the game as structurally sound, so the floor just instantly collapsed every time they tried to do it. Well, at least nobody died.

Except for just now. I tried to make the quantum stockpile also include rocks, and it worked! But people keep walking out in front of it and getting hit. Somehow, a shrimp survived just fine, but this metalsmith fucking died. It seems obvious to like, not walk on minecart tracks, especially if they're set to the "no" traffic setting, but it's apparently not. A bit of judicious wall use seems to fix it, though. We also make probably the ugliest fucking graveyard I've EVER set up.

Right off to the side of our main noble quarters for whenever we either get a mayor, get elevated to a barony, or whatever else, I just made... I don't know. This spaghetti nightmare. I don't care. If crabs were dying in battle, then you know, I'd take it serious, I'd make a big whole thing out of it or at least plop down the quickfort windmills. But what am I supposed to feel about a guy bashing himself with the fucking minecart? Like... you get what you paid for. And now the next poor saps to die in this fortress get what you paid for too.

Our first artifact is created! Its name translates to "Slippants." Ok. It just has an image of a decapod in it. Not even any particular kind of decapod in specific. But it instantly makes Hailcloistered, or jesus christ how am I supposed to remember this, Ricikikikitikik into a legendary armorsmith. Which is, you know, cool. Yeah, we could probably get some armor going. I neglected to mention I set up a metalsmithing business; I didn't want to, but there are so many metalsmiths in this fortress that they started a guild, and I always wanted to try actually placing workshops in a guild-relevant area instead of just having all the workshops in one place and guild halls somewhere else, so it's a little inefficient, but it looks cool, so who cares.

...and that right there is the last thing I wrote before I stopped playing for 8 months.

I feel like the reveal was always coming: "I was just doing this as a weird cry for help cloaked dick-deep in 69 layers of irony." Like on the surface it looks like it is just a person freaking out but then one layer lower it's actually just a guy fucking around but one more layer it's freaking out again and on and on and on. I don't know what to say besides that. I'm in the first really healthy relationship of my life and trying not to mess it up. I'm still soul-crushingly poor with no real skills or job prospects. I do still play the greatest simulation game of all time Dwarf Fortress, though much more rarely - I often boot it up with big ambitions to make some Content for The Tube, actually, but I'm simply too good at the game, so nothing interesting happens in my forts, and I end up with twenty gigabytes of footage and ten pages scribbled in a notebook covering six years of fortress management where the most interesting thing that happens is like, I set up a milling industry.

I'm not really interested in Daarunbay Detevay anymore, I'm sorry. It's not like I've deleted it, I keep pretty extensive backups of all my worlds and saves for the greatest simulation game of all time Dwarf Fortress, even though I rarely actually use them, so it's not really going anywhere. If there's any interest I could probably like, put the world folder on pixeldrain or mediafire or whatever and try to compile a mod list, but I'm not making any promises and I doubt anyone really wants that very bad anyway.

...and that right there is the last thing I wrote before I forgot about this draft for 2 months.

In that time, the Adventure Mode beta appeared. I stayed up all night waiting for it to come out, but it was still rough enough that I didn't dive all the way in just yet. However, I realized something after playing as a cockatiel man who got viciously killed for starting random fights with innocent dwarves in my own half-abandoned fortress which went to hell because apparently the AI lets all of the animals out of cages and unlocks all the doors when you retire a fort. There might still be much more to do in Daarunbay Detevay. Rat World may be doomed but there's no reason we couldn't make a party of Rat Bandits. Better yet we could embark from Rushsly on the mission of a lifetime: to kill Vakeek Malignreasons.

So I don't know. Maybe we're going to do that. Maybe I will actually make some YouTube Content and I'll never reveal there that I was the Kobblefort guy but you could see a video and recognize my loquacious schizotypal affect, and you'd be like "dude, aren't you the guy who did Kobblefort?" and I wouldn't respond or maybe I'd be like "what is that" but you'd know. You'd know it was me. But just for the record please don't go around asking Dwarf Fortress YouTubers if they're the Kobblefort guy. Because either they don't know and you have exposed a YouTube person (much more normal than Tumblr people, on the whole) to Kobblefort or you have put me on the spot. So yeah, just forget you ever read any of this, except for during the time where you're reading it. I'm trying to do the exact opposite of "death of the author" here. This is "death of the reader." No that sounds fucked up. This is "life of the author." Sure. See you soon

[raaorqtpbpdy]

The One

For the Phic Phight prompts: Soulmate Au where after your soulmate  dies, you can only see in black  and white. As in you see normal colors  until they die and then only in  black and white for the rest of your  life, so you only ever know if you  had a soulmate once it's too late.  Except Character A's (up to you who  you want it to be) soulmate is  Danny. While Danny is in Phantom form,  character A's vision is in black  and white, but returns to normal color  when Danny is Fenton. Character  A is going crazy trying to find their  soulmate who keeps dying and  getting resurrected. (from @ghostboidanny) and Wes is the first one to find out Danny's secret. No One Knows AU. (from @murphy-kitt)

Chapter 4: A Burst of Red

AO3 Link

[Warnings for minor violence]

This ghost hero shit was not easy. Hiding it wasn't easy either. Honestly, Danny had no idea why Sam and Tucker hadn't called him out on his bullshit excuses already. He wanted so badly to just come out and tell everyone what had happened, that the portal hadn't just spontaneously turned on, that he could turn into a ghost now. But then his parents had threatened to tear him apart—molecule by molecule.

He was never going to let himself go through that again.

So he hid. He told no one about what he could do. He spent more time making up excuses than doing homework. Schoolwork and friendships and family fell by the wayside as Danny was forced to dedicate more and more time to fighting the ghosts that came through the portal. He hated it. But if he didn't fight them, there would be no more school, or friends, or Fenton Works because the ghosts would destroy it all. If he didn't fight them, there was no one else who could.

Day after day, Danny had to fend off these invaders from the Ghost Zone. They weren't even especially malicious, Danny had come to think, but they just did not care about the consequences of their actions at all, because it was only the humans who had to deal with those consequences. On top of that, even though Danny was the one who was keeping those consequences to a minimum, he was still being lumped in with all the rest of the ghosts.

At least most of the people at school appreciated him, but adults were so ungrateful. They blamed him for everything, made him look bad in the papers, and even gave him the God awful moniker of Inviso-Bill. It was horrible.

"Some upperclassman was asking me about you earlier," Tucker told Danny in bio one day, tearing him out of his ruminations. "I don't remember what his name was. Tall, red-headed guy. He said he wanted to recruit you for the school newspaper because he heard your grades were good, and I told him he had the wrong Fenton."

"Why would I want to join the school newspaper?"

"I dunno." Tucker shrugged. "Apparently you get extra credit."

"Well, it's not like I couldn't use the extra credit. That purpleback gorilla project did approximately jack shit for my GPA."

"Alright class, please take out your homework and go over it with your lab partner before handing it in," their science teacher said, and Danny reached into his backpack for the lab sheet.

"Anyway," Tucker said as he did the same, "I just figured I'd warn you about that in case he comes to bother you again."

"Thanks man," Danny said. He frowned at his lab sheet. He hadn't had time to finish filling it out because he'd had to take care of a swarm of ghost mice that had infested his house the night before. "Speaking of my grades..." Tucker sighed.

"Yes, you can copy my answers. Just be sneaky about it or we'll get caught."

"You're the best, Tuck."

"I know." Danny started frantically scribbling the answers down, keeping one eye on the teacher to make sure she wasn't looking their way. "What I don't know is why your grades took such a dive when we started high school. Seriously, dude, is something going on I don't know about?"

"Nah," Danny lied, offering his best friend a pinched smile. "I just got lazy, I guess. You know I'd rather play video games than do homework."

"Oh! Did you check out the mods I sent you for Doomed?" Tucker asked, happily jumping on the change of subject. "The second one is freaking hilarious!"

"I only had time to look at the first one, but it was pretty sweet," Danny responded, and the subject of his suddenly poor grades was out of mind completely. 

Shortly after that, Danny started to feel eyes on him. Maybe it was a ghost thing, or maybe he was just being paranoid, but it felt like he was being watched. Whoever or whatever it was, it didn't set off his ghost sense. Hopefully, he was just being paranoid, and there was nothing dangerous following him around, but it put him on edge. It made him even more careful about keeping his identity secret. 

Nearly two weeks passed and that feeling rarely went away, and never for long.

Danny was fighting the Box Ghost again, and he actually had things pretty well in hand. After a couple months it was about time for him to get the hang of things. Now if only he could catch the Box Ghost without the grocery store's entire stock getting ecto-contaminated or destroyed, then he'd really be getting somewhere.

"Danny!" a voice shouted and Danny turned his head instinctively to see a red-headed teenager he'd never met before in his life, looking right at him. "I fucking knew it!" he shouted triumphantly.

"Who the hell are you?!" Danny shouted down to him.

"I'm—Look out!" he cut himself off, pointing behind Danny, who turned around just in time to get a face full of canned beans as a box of them was flung his way. "Ooh," the stranger cringed. "Sorry! How about we'll talk after you deal with this guy?"

"Don't even think about going anywhere!" Danny told him, hoping that he'd sounded threatening enough to actually keep the guy from running away, but not so threatening as to make the guy freak out and then run away. He got a thumbs up for his efforts, so apparently it had worked.

Returning to his fight with the Box ghost with renewed vigor, Danny started shooting off ghost rays, cutting off escape routes and keeping him away from anymore boxes until he had the Box Ghost cornered and captured him in the Fenton Thermos. As soon as he capped the thermos he whipped around to make sure that random ginger who somehow knew his name was still standing in the empty parking lot waiting for him. The ginger waved.

"Who are you?" Danny demanded as he flew over to the guy.

"Wesley Weston, but everyone calls me Wes," the stranger answered. "I'm your soulmate."

"What?" Danny's face wrinkled in confusion. "How can you possibly know that?"

"You're Danny Fenton, aren't you?"

"N-no."

"You turned around when I called your name, I know you are," Wes pointed out, looking supremely unimpressed. "I and I know you're my soulmate because I stop seeing color any time you're around, and when the colors come back, Inviso-Bill is nowhere to be seen." Danny groaned.

"Do not call me that, okay? It's Phantom, none of that Inviso-Bill garbage. That name is so stupid."

"Agreed. Phantom is much better." Wes nodded. "So how can you turn into a ghost? Are you dead sometimes and alive other times? How does that work?"

"I don't know, really," Danny shrugged, then realized what he'd just admitted to. "I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. No one can be both a ghost and a human."

"Come on, dude, take the L."

Danny held out for another few moments before Wes' smug expression wore him down and he sighed in defeat. "Guess it's time to give up the ghost, huh?" Wes snorted softly at the pun, and shielded his eyes from the bright white flash of those rings when Danny changed back. "So how'd you figure me out, anyway? Even if you knew Phantom was your soulmate, how'd you figure out I was him?"

"A lot of groundwork," came the answer on a heavy breath that spoke to just how much effort it had been. "A lot of comparing records. I talked to your friends, and I followed you around for a bit to see if I could figure out how you did it."

"It was you!" Danny realized, pointing an accusing finger at the other boy. "You're the one who's been watching me the last couple of days! I thought I was going crazy!"

"Sorry about that," Wes apologized sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and offering an awkward smile. "I wanted to be sure I was right before I confronted you."

"So... you're my soulmate, huh?" Danny looked the boy up and down. He was tall; he had a good seven or eight inches on Danny. His skin was pale with a light dusting of copper freckles that matched his hair, and his eyes were emerald green, darker and richer than the sickening glow of ectoplasm that haunted Danny's nightmares. "I guess that means there's one good thing that came out of this whole disaster then."

"So... you wanna go get something to eat?" Wes offered. "Nasty Burger's not far from here. I'll buy."

"Sure," Danny agreed, and they walked side-by-side down the street.

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[basedkikuenjoyer]

If Only There Were a Word to Describe the Enormity

Big doesn't quite cut it. So things went a different route, but walking a line along what our less recent arrivals did. This is a big, huge (no that isn't it) chapter for the Nika mythos. Sets the stage for a divine presence to cap off the end of another's story. I definitely feel that vibe with Bonney's role in all this, what a turning point and one that definitely reminds me a lot of little Otama. We've been here before with trying to predict Egghead. Opting for repetition of core themes, doubling down on what we had and making it bigger in scope over moving towards resolution. Interesting crossroads. This could swiftly turn towards that surface-level resolution but honestly I wouldn't be surprised at this point if we spin our wheels for a little more then go into that third cutaway, ending up with an arc around WCI-length.

The hook is an idea we're familiar with. Keep your eye on Luffy. Never see his eyes, how he just kinda leaps back in leaving this little gap about being fed and ending up downstairs unresolved. Mostly though, he's full-blown teeheemaxxing in a dire moment. Which is on brand for Nika but our whole idea is there's an undertone based on the notion the drawback to G5 is losing control. It all goes back to that observation our finale could be constructed a little more like a YuYu Hakusho type series than other shonen; you've gotten your ultimate power a little early because our ending will be more about learning to control it.

Oh hey, these guys. Seriously...nice. The Giants are very important to my fandom. Y'all know how much I love Miss Goldenweek and by extension Little Garden. Oimo & Kashi are where I caught up the first time. I remember being about two weeks away from starting freshman year of high school at the tail end of a summer binging the hell out of so many anime thanks to this newfangled DSL high speed internet. The way that came up again blew my mind, and seeing Dorry & Brogy almost twenty years later is so damn cool it makes me forget all about the not being the Grand Fleet aspect.

I mean, that was always just a specific and early guess. They still have sprinkled into these cutaway segments though. This pair just saw the paper and hurried over. Maybe they were expecting Luffy to head to Elbaf next after his time in Wano? Which is a very interesting concept when we've talked about Egghead being a somewhat "lateral" move with no clear goal set to advance our main progress through the Grand Line.

It's also pretty interesting to blend two long-running threads through this Nika lore. How do Bonney/Kuma & the giants intersect? Does it reinforce the need to pop the mystique of the spectacle? Does Luffy jump from one legendary story to another? The Fleet was the way to end it here. The giants tease it out more. At least as long as Shanks isn't following. But there's one last little element that makes me interested in the undertone like always, as we started off pointing out how that's still very much an element if you watch for it:

Robonosuke! Interesting how he's finally coming back around. It does look like he's reacting to the heartbeat but I'd point out we did let most of the chapter roll before showing this when Luffy went G5 at the start. The idea was always asking if that's a potential blip of something weird. The kicker with the Giants to me is how Dorry and Brogy seem to both be coming for Luffy and for the Sun God. We'll talk a lot more about them tomorrow and especially a titanic (oooh, yeah that's the stuff) wrinkle all around our beloved Strawhat Sniper Usopp I feel silly for not thinking of already. It's justified through what we learn of Elbaf in the Big Mom flashback.

Oddly enough, gets me right back to where I felt about Bonney right around the time this arc started. Remember? We're puzzled about Kiku's odd ending to Wano and all of a sudden Bonney picks up those threads in a big way. Now moving into more of that alternate protag space a lot like Yamato. Never forget, we know there was a rewrite behind that hiatus for a reason. So now...even if it's not the Fleet I can't help but notice how Dorry and Brogy specifically amplify the same ideas.

Either way, Robonosuke is coming online. We still have a little weirdness in the gaps. I'm curious as hell were it's all leading so bring on the big bois.

[noelle-holi-gay]

Teenage Dess and Asriel at a summer camp their families make them attend every year (it's a church camp because of course it is, have you met their moms?). Azzy still enjoys it, Dess is over the whole thing. Kris and Noelle are also there if you want.

Asriel sat towards the back of the pavilion, in a white plastic folding chair. The very back row, in fact, because that's where Dess wanted to sit, and even if it meant Asriel couldn't see very well, he wasn't going to not sit next to Dess. She had her arms crossed as she chewed bubblegum loudly (the kind of loud one can only achieve through conscious effort), and was looking anywhere except the camp counselors at the front of the pavilion.

"And here at Camp Angel Hearts, we like to always follow the Five Pillars!" The speaker, who was the head of the camp, gestured to a large poster where the word 'Angel' was written vertically. A long strip of white paper extended to the side of each letter, covering up the rest of the poster. "As you can see, the first letters of each pillar spell out 'angel', because while these pillars are important, the Angel is always first in our Hearts."

Dess scoffed and rolled her eyes.

The speaker went on. "Now, to our returning members, can anyone remember what the first pillar is? Shout it out!"

"ADVENTUROUS!" called out a smattering of the younger kids.

"Yes, very good!" The camp head ripped off the paper next to the 'A', to reveal 'Adventurous'. "It's important to be adventurous and try new things! Don't be scared to expand your horizons!"

"This is all so stupid," Dess grumbled.

Asriel nudged her. "Aw, come on. It's not that bad. I know it's cheesy, but it's good for the younger kids, you know?"

"How about the second pillar?" the speaker continued. "Shout it out!"

"NICE!" came the response.

"I guess." Dess didn't look convinced. "But they could at least take the stupid 'Angel' bullshit out."

"D-Dess!" Asriel hissed under his breath. "You can't say that here! We'll get in trouble…"

At the podium, the speaker clapped and ripped off the next piece of paper. "That's right! It's always important to be nice to your fellow campers!"

"I don't even care any more," Dess said. "I told Mom I didn't want to come here any more. I'm sick of all this fucking Church of the Angel propaganda."

"Dess..."

She only smirked. "Like, people can practice whatever religion they want, but keep it to the bedroom, you know? Don't shove that stuff down my throat!"

Asriel snickered despite himself. "Okay, well��"

"Keep it going now!" called the camp head. "What's the third pillar, everyone?"

"GENEROUS!" came the response.

"Gay!" Dess called out.

Her voice got lost in the crowd, for the most part, but a few of the kids sitting nearer to them giggled and glanced over at them.

As the camp head ripped off the next piece of paper and started talking about the virtues of generosity, Asriel was caught between laughter and terror. "Dess, no, don't—Dess!"

But she was smirking in that way she did whenever she decided to plow headfirst into trouble. "Come on, Azzy, what are they gonna do to us? Kick us out? As far as I'm concerned, that's a win."

"Our moms will kill us!"

"Oh, like my mom doesn't already want to kill me." She paused for a second as the crowd shouted out the next pillar—EMPATHETIC!—and then gave Asriel a flat look. "Come on, Azzy. Is this really how you want to spend your summer? We're in high school now. We're basically adults. We shouldn't be stuck in some crummy church camp."

Asriel frowned. "I, uh, I don't know…"

"And that brings us to our final pillar," the camp head was saying. "L for…"

"LEARNING!"

"LESBIANISM!" Dess screamed at the top of her lungs.

The pavilion went dead quiet. Every head turned towards the two of them.

"Um. Dess?" Asriel tried to shrink in on himself. "Maybe we should…"

"Run," Dess said, grabbing Asriel's hand and sprinting towards the woods.

[enchantedblackrose]

Holding On

Part 1 of ?

Gif credit @haileyupstead

Jay Halstead/Fem Reader

Summary: Your marriage to Jay is crumbling. You have to do what's best for not only you, but your young daughter.

Warnings: hints of alcohol abuse if you squint, um idk kinda angsty, bad writing.

Holding On

Part 1

Jay does his best to be quiet, gently closing the door behind him. The whole house is dark. It appears you haven't bothered staying up for him, not that he blames you; it was late. He slips off his shoes, stepping into the living room. He suddenly holds his breath, because even in the darkness he senses your presence. You sitting downstairs without the lights on was never a good sign.

You stand from the couch, arms slightly raised in front of you, attempting to deescalate things before they even start. "I really don't want to fight. I just need you to listen. You didn't call, Jay. Again."

"I-"

"No, just listen. You promised me. You're a detective in Chicago and that's terrifying and you never check in anymore to say you're okay, that you're just running late. I'm tired of worrying about you. It's not just us anymore. And it hasn't been for almost 4 years," your hand unnecessarily gestures upstairs, referring to your daughter who is asleep in her bed. "I'm done. Mia and I will move out."

Jay lets out an inaudible scoff, "Y/n."

"I told you. Begged you, even. Then I warned you Jay. You don't talk to me anymore. You don't call, or text, you don't come home on time, and tonight? You can't even try to tell me it was about a case. Sylvie called, mentioned seeing you at Molly's. How many times is that just this month? You go out after work, never bothering to let me know. I understand; I get going out sometimes. But I don't get not letting me know. What's worse is, you're never with us. Not just physically. When you are here, you're not present. It's not fair. I'm done. Papers are on the kitchen table."

"Papers?" He asks brows furrowed.

"Divorce papers."

He turned, though he can't see them, enough light from the lamppost outside the dining room window trickles in to cast a gleam off your rings.

Jay swallows hard. "Y/n. Can't we talk about this? This is-"

"We have talked.  Or at least I have. For months I've been asking you to let me in," you sigh, hating that it had come to this. "Listen, I'll sleep down here tonight. Mia has a play date tomorrow morning. You can have breakfast with her, then we'll talk. Figure out some things. But this is happening."

"No. I mean, yes. But I'll take the couch tonight. And you and Mia should stay here. This is her home and we...I....messed this up enough. No need to upset her life more than we're about to.

"This isn't all on you, Jay," you say softly. "And I am sorry. I do love you. But this isn't a marriage anymore."

Jay nodded vigorously to keep from crying. 

"Can I-?" Your arms tentatively opened for an embrace.

"Always," Jay steps forward. His strong arms wrap around you. You hold onto him tightly, ignoring the doubts that start to creep in just from being near him. You cannot and will not allow even a moment of second guessing if you're doing the right thing. You both cry.

"I'm sorry y/n. I'm so sorry."

//

"Daddy, daddy!" Three year old Mia plops down onto a barely conscious Jay's stomach. A small oof escapes Jay's lips as he suppresses a groan. 

"Daddy did you sleep on the couch? Why you not sleep in bed?"

Jay wipes the sleep from his eyes and shifts Mia so he can sit up and have her on his lap. A quick glance at you tells him this isn't the time. He ruffles Mia's head affectionately. "I got home really late, baby girl. I didn't want to wake Mommy so I stayed down here."

"Oh. I want chocolate cereal to eat!" She slides off his lap. You and Jay look at each other, marveling at the ways of toddlers.

Jay swoopes her up and she giggles. "How bout Daddy makes you pancakes?" He places her in her seat at the kitchen table as you follow in.

"No I want chocolate cereal."

"Not today, sweetie."

There's a small pause. "I want pancakes!"

"Good choice," he chuckles.

Mia happily chats to you both as Jay fixes pancakes and you slice some bananas and strawberries. She has a lot to say. Some of it is nonsensical, but it's clear she's happy. Jay listens contentedly knowing there might not be another morning like this in his near future.

After breakfast, you get Mia ready for her playdate. You change her clothes, help her brush her teeth, braid her hair and pack a bag with snacks and toys she wants to share with her friend. Jay finishes cleaning just as Mia returns downstairs.

"Daddy, look at me!" She twirls around to best show off her outfit and points to the large bow in her hair.

"You look pretty, baby. Come here." He scoops her up. "You wanna play while we wait for Liv and her mommy to pick you ?"

"Yay! Play!" Mia squirms out of Jay's arms only to take him by the hand and lead him to her toys.

The two build towers out of blocks until there's a knock at the door. A shrill squeal of delight escapes your daughter as she runs for the door. 

"Not so fast," you laugh as you pick her up before answering the door. Your close friend, Vicki and her daughter, Olivia stand there with smiles. You let Mia down after instructing her to say bye to her dad. She gives him a big hug and a kiss, before running back to you. You make sure to grab her bag before you take her hand, leading her outside. You get Mia settled into her carseat and give her a kiss, while reminding her to behave. Vicki hugs you and reminds you that you can call if you need anything. You haven't even told her everything, preferring your marital problems to stay between you and Jay,  but from what you have shared with her, she knows that you needed to hear it. You thank her, wave goodbye and return back to the house. 

You close the door behind you, trying you're absolute best to mentally prepare for the conversation you're about to have.

//

"So," Jay awkwardly draws out the word, shifting his weight to the other foot. "This is what you want?" He has a duffel bag across his shoulder and a box in his hands.

"Of course not. But something has to change."

He sighs. "I'm going to stay with Will for a bit. Just don't give up on us, yn. Don't give up on me. Please?" His green eyes, shining with tears, bore into you, pleading.

You exhale slowly, then open the door for him...

//

TBC

Goes without saying, but please reblog and please, please lmk what you think!

[pub-lius]

RAAHHH AMERICA (lafayette pt.3)

welcome back to this i guess. i can guarantee you the whole revolution will take several posts because this is by far the longest part of my notes (obviously) soooo there will still be quite a few more of these posts for @thereallvrb0y because i still have Hamilton to do after this! that will be fun im excited. so anyway, if you missed pt. 2, here you go, and lets get right into it

Arrival in America and Becoming a Major General

Lafayette and his posse landed on the shore of North Island off the coast of South Carolina, and they were... lost! They couldn't find anyone, so they rowed further inland to try to find any sign of civilization, and they found enslaved black men fishing for oysters, and they brought them back to the plantation house.

From there, they traveled to Philadelphia. There's a common theme throughout the Frenchmen's accounts: everyone fucking loved Lafayette. Like literally everyone was so happy to see him, but literally hated the other French guys with him, so everyone else was really uncomfortable but Lafayette saw nothing wrong with what was going on.

The reason why the Americans were so hostile to the other Frenchmen was because of Silas Deane. I mentioned in pt. 2 that Deane did not do any research into whether or not Lafayette had qualifications, and he did that with every other French officer he sent over. and he sent. a lot. There was one particular incident where he sent some French engineers that ended up being completely incompetent, and when the public (and Washington's staff) heard about that, they were like "okay, we're done with the French"

But Lafayette was different because, again, he was so fucking rich. Everyone saw him as a symbol of French alliance, and a sign of hope that maybe, with foreign assistance, they could win the war. Of course, they didn't know Lafayette was there illegally, but yk. it was something.

By the way, literally everything went wrong on every journey this group went on. From North Island to Charleston saw several of the party getting sick, losing horses, risk of being mugged, and having to walk BAREFOOT through the woods at one point.

Then, on the 650 mile trip from Charleston to Philadelphia, it got. worse. They started out with 12 officers and servants in open carriages. The carriages broke after four days, they had to leave behind their luggage, and continue on horseback. Over the next 10 days, their horses collapsed, they got sick again, and everything continued to go horribly wrong.

“I started out brilliantly by carriage… we are all on horseback, after having broken the carriage, in my usual laudable fashion, and I hope to write to you in a few days that we have arrived on foot.” -Lafayette to Adrienne

The trip began on June 26, 1777, and they arrived in Philadelphia on July 27. The principal driving force for them to not give up and turn back was how enthusiastic, optimistic, and determined Lafayette was. The entire time they were literally passing out from exhaustion and exposure, Lafayette was having a grand ole time. He wasn't immune to all the horrible shit they were experiencing, he just acted like he was. He was just. so happy to be there.

So, they arrived in Philadelphia, the current seat of the Continental Congress. And they thought "oh, okay, we'll just go to the president, show him our papers, and we'll be given a command! right?"

Wrong.

They arrived at John Hancock's house, but he was like "what the fuck are these homeless french dudes doing at my house dressed in rags, get them out and take them to Robert Morris" (bc they had to get rid of their luggage and it was the summer they were kinda wearing the least amount as possible and were covered in filth)

Also btw the reason Hancock referred them to Morris was bc Morris was a member of the Committee of Congress for Secret Correspondence, and so he handled Deane's illegal bullshit, one of which was Lafayette being there

So, the French Gang (tm) went to Independence Hall to meet Morris, but didn't even get inside (James Lovell was also there because he spoke French). Lovell explained what happened with the engineers, basically telling them "yeah sooo we don't really trust French people anymore whoops"

The French Gang was like "what ze fuck" and they were like "okay goodnight!" so they went back to their accommodations, but the next day Lovell and WILLIAM FUCKING DUER showed up and were like "uhhhh hey guys so we actually made a mistake, but if you're willing to negotiate, Mr. Marquis de Lafayette, you could be a major general!" And Lafayette didn't question the sudden change, and went into negotiations.

By the way, the reason they changed their minds overnight was PROBABLY because Benjamin Franklin's letter of recommendation had arrived telling them "that Lafayette guy is RICH. AS. FUCK. do whatever he wants that you realistically can because he is literally so rich, you want this guy to like you." They literally just wanted an in with Versailles.

Alsooo this really only benefitted Lafayette, like Congress didn't make any offers to Lafayette's comrades, so most of them went back to France. so. that kinda sucks.

George Washington and His Staff

General George Washington was um. in a rough spot. Stationed in Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, he had a lot on his hand, namely worrying about whether or not the British were going to try to attack the seat of Congress. This is the pre-Laurens era for the aides de camp, so we got Alexander Hamilton, Tench Tilghman, Richard Kidder Meade, Robert Hanson Harrison, John Fitzgerald, Joseph Reed, Caleb Gibbs, and another guy that was so sick I can't even remember his name, for Washington's staff.

One big issue being faced by Washington's staff was the issue of French officers.

"We are already greatly embarrassed with the Frenchmen among us... It were to be wished that our agents in France, instead of courting them to come out, were instructed to give no encouragement but where they could not help it... Be assured, Sir, we shall never be able to satisfy them [The French]; and they can be of no use to us, at least for sometime. Their ignorance of our language, of the disposition of the people, the resources and difficiencies (sic) of the country, their own habits and tempers—all these are disqualifications that put it out of their power to be of any real use or service to us." -Alexander Hamilton to William Duer, May 6, 1777

These sentiments were shared by General Washington. I mean, Washington's staff had dealt with the French engineers problem, and so they definitely were under the impression that all the French guys being sent over from Deane's office were just underqualified noblemen who thought they were better than everyone else. They definitely thought this about Lafayette at first.

On the complete other extreme, Lafayette was amazed by Washington the first time they met at City Tavern in Philadelphia on July 31. He thought he was absolutely incredible and an amazing leader. Pretty soon, Lafayette integrated himself in Washington's office, which was actually on par with orders from Franklin who basically told Washington "this guy CANNOT die because he will be FINANCIALLY FUCKED if he does", so they put him in the safest possible place in the army.

And that lasted about a month, until the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777.

Active Military Service

Prior to Brandywine, British General Howe had somehow disappeared, until he arrived at the Head of Elk, Maryland in late July with 17,000 British and Hessian troops under his belt, making their way northeast towards Philadelphia.

Blocking the British troops from reaching Philadelphia, 10,500 Americans were positioned along Brandywine Creek, knowing the British would likely cross at Chadds Ford. For his protection, Lafayette was positioned at the rear with General Sullivan's division, which, they thought, would see the least amount of action.

The battle began by late morning, and it was very foggy out, which was always a recipe for disaster. Contrary to their expectations, they ended up facing only half the British troops at Chadds Ford, while Howe lead a second column further north, attacking the Americans at the rear, where Sullivan was stationed.

Everything quickly devolved into chaos as the Americans were taken by surprise, and couldn't really see clearly because of the fog. Lafayette was trying to rally the confused troops before he was shot in the left calf with a musketball. He attempted to continue fighting, but an unidentified aide forced him off the field.

This was literally the best possible thing for Lafayette's PR. Everyone was so pleasantly surprised by the fact that a French nobleman had taken a bullet for the American cause, and it would be key to Lafayette getting his own command (finally).

Lafayette was put in a small Philadelphia town called Bethlehem to recover from his wounds. He spent a lot of his time learning about the local religious sect, the Moravians. This is the first instance I can find of Lafayette's interest in anthropology. (btw they almost convinced him to join this religion and im like. not convinced that this isn't a cult. keep that in mind, lafayette almost joined a possible cult).

He also spent his time writing letters to French relatives and officials, advocating for the American cause. While he wasn't successful necessarily in the specific endeavors he was attempting, but this established himself as an intermediary between France and America! which is super cool!

Lafayette would rejoin Washington's troops on October 9, and would soon be named the commander of his own division on December 1, right before the Continental Army would go into winter encampment at Valley Forge *epic clifffhanger sound effect*

[faustquillpen]

Apollo Justice x Reader from Apollo's POV, writing style to emulate the game

Warnings for death mentions, injury mentions, pretty much what you would expect from the game. Let me know if I need to tag more.

[There will be a dog mentioned in the story, but a cat or other pet can fit too if the reader desires!]

Chapter 1: Ruff Day (sfw)

|Prev| |Next|

Apollo: Red

Apollo's thoughts/muttering: (Red with parentheses)

Trucy: Blue

Reader: Purple

-----

N - No! Get away from me!

Heheh, I'm just tryna get a lookacha

Fuck off!

Augh....!

Crash!

Is he... Dead?

Someone call the cops, I saw them push that dude!

No! He must've lost his footing or something, please...!

----

April 18th, 7:00 AM

Wright Anything Agency

New case, Apollo! But you miiight not like it...

(It's been a bit since the last case... Whatever it is it's better than cleaning this place for the 100th time) Oh yeah?

Yeah... They denied it at first, but now they're saying it was them! Daddy thinks they're hiding something... And Daddy usually is good at guessing!

(Hiding something by taking credit for a murder? That doesn't seem right.)

He was some sorta creep anyway, the "victim" I mean. Known for harassing people of all genders. A sleezeball with a record.

(Sigh, I guess it's better than nothing.) I'll at least talk to them I guess. Your Dad better be right about this though.

He's always Wright! ... Eh? Eeeh???

Shut up. You've used that joke before.

----

April 18th, 7:35 AM

Detention Center

Visitor's Room

Well, we're here.

I wonder where the defendant is?

....!

(Oh!! It's... I-it's)

You're that sweet guy I met last week ... Apollo I think?

(They remembered my name!!!!!) OH hey!!! (oh no oh no oh no I am not prepared for this!!!)

Ummm...

(Oh yeah! This must seem weird) Oh! I'm a defense attorney!!! Defense attorney Apollo Justice that's me hah

You mean Jupollo Astice...?

(shut up shut up shut up shut up)

*Giggles*

(Oh no, they're still really cute...!)

Ah-em. I'm Trucy, the best assistant and magician, and we're gonna defend you!

(Wait I hadn't agreed to that yet!!! I... Can I defend someone who I feel this way about...? It's so hard to focus when they're around... Augh!!! They're looking at me again!)

But I uh... I really did it. Yeah.

Hmmmm kinda sus to me, bro

(They won't look me in the eye, there's something extra going on here... How can I show them I know for sure they didn't do it?)

[Present Paper Ladybug]

Take That!

Huh? Oh! It's...

Do you remember this?

Y... Yes

You cried when you thought you killed a bug. I really don't think you'd ever be able to kill a person.

Okay... *Sigh* I'll tell you the truth. It happened at around 3 in the morning at my apartment, I had invited him in since he was the landlord and said he needed to fix something. He started to try to touch and flirt with me... It was.... It was my dog... They were protecting me! The police will kill them if they find out!!!

(The... Dog...?)

Awww, so you're trying to protect your puppy!

I don't want [Dog name] to be punished!! They were protecting me from that creep!!! But he fell over from the momentum when they bit him on the arm... Plus...

Plus?

I heard... There was a witness walking past my open door who said I pushed him into the table on purpose...

(Liar!!!)

Woah Apollo, you look really intense right now! Like you're gonna rip off a chunk of the table!

Oh-uh... S-sorry (I guess I just got really mad for a second...)

Woah... Cool...

(... They think I'm cool!!!!? F-face... Flushing... I think I hear Trucy snickering at me...)

So... You're going to defend me then?

YESOFCOURSE IfYoullHaveMe... You don't have to say yes or anything ahah...

... I.. I'd really like that...

OKAY!!! *cough* Okay. We'll uh... Start on the investigation and... See you tomorrow!!!! Aaaah!!!

Well... There he goes... Well! Goodbye [name]! Don't worry, we'll get you an innocent verdict!

I... I trust you guys. Thank you. Oh and uh... Will you go to my apartment please? My poor dog is probably hungry and confused....

Sure thing!

----

April 18th, 9 AM

[Name's] Apartment Complex

So... Why exactly are we here?

Well, you'd know if you weren't such a dork and ran off!

... I... Had a thing I had to do, okay!!!

Apollo, I found you holding your chest trying to calm your breathing down right outside the detention center.

... Shut up.

Heheh, whatever you say.

(Why me...)

Okay, we're here! They said the food was on top of the fridge...

(Food...? I thought we were watering some plants of someth-- EEK)

Woof

(That's the murder dog!!!! And it's... Licking Trucy's face and wiggling)

Wuf wuf!

Hehe! They said you were sweet as long as we were friendly. Good dog!

(I guess I'll keep this in mind in case I need to "defend" the dog too...)

Snooping time!

Wh- Nonononono we can't!!!

Ooh, a diary~

Put it down put it down put it down put it down

C'mon Polly, maybe it'll give us info on the night of the murder! If could be important! We'd of read it during any other investigation! If you didn't have a crush on the defendant.

IDONTHAVEA--

Awww, the night of the murder is blank. Hmmm....

Trucy. Seriously. It's not right to go through it

Relaaaaax, I'm just looking for one particular day... Ah! Here it is

Trucy....

April 6th....

...!

Went to the art fair today, got some cute dog sculptures.... Blah blah...

We really should put it down--

... Aaaand today I met a really cute guy!

WHAT?! LEMMESEE!!!!

Oh yeah?? What about it being wrong? Heheh

Well-- it is but I... ugh

Hahaha! Your face is soooo red!!! Anyways I was joking, this is a completely blank notebook.

Oh.

Aw, now I feel bad. You look like you just deflated. ... Just kidding it's hilarious.

Mehhhh...

[End Chapter]

Next chapter will be a nsfw fantasy/dream so I have an excuse to do nsfw before you two actually have time alone together!!! WOO!!

[prince-of-pleasures]

Zira's Journal - Entry Two

Image IDs below cut.

Pictures 1-5 A journal entry on yellowed paper written in neat, thin, elegant cursive. The pages are numbered six through ten. They read:

"Day Two

We spent the day in the grove, where a group of tiefling refugees have taken shelter, much to the displeasure of the druids' current leader, Kagha. The grove was nearby where we camped. Had we kept going yesterday and reached it before sundown, we could have been inside the walls when the goblins attacked this morning. As it stands, we had to help some returning adventurers out of a sticky situation when we got there. As much of an annoyance as it was, I have to admit that the pile of corpses and pools of blood did put a smile on my face. I had flashes of memories as I was looting the bodies. This wasn't the first time I had been in that situation, covered in gore and rummaging through pockets, and I know I feel the same every time. Not only that, but there was a tiefling girl being kept captive by the druid woman for stealing their holy idol. She tried to run, and the druid's pet snake struck her down. She died choking on her own bile, and I only barely kept a smile off my face. I must be truly wicked indeed, to find joy in such suffering, but the death of a child is always a beautiful, timeless tragedy, that the girl's fate seemed only fitting. And I can't help but imagine the rippling effect this will have. Will her parents want vengeance? Surely. Will they take revenge on the grove? I can only hope so. I'll fall asleep tonight to thoughts of that place burning, the scent of smoke sickly sweet in my nose, burning my lungs. Maybe I'll have sweet dreams tonight. I doubt it.

As for the stowaway in my head, I can only say that the healer we found in the grove attacked us when I refused to take her poison. We were forced to kill her. She may have been no help, but there is another. The druids' true leader, Halsin, who went with the adventurers to the goblin's camp and didn't return. He knows about the tadpoles; if he's alive, he may be able to help remove them. That reminds me - there was a drow in the grove. Before she attacked us, the dwarf told us that he also had a parasite. Apparently there are a lot of us around. I spoke to the corpse, and it mentioned a place that sparked the barest echo of a memory. Moonrise Towers. And Baldur's Gate, which is where the tieflings are heading, if they can get past the goblins. I've been to Baldur's Gate. I know I have. I think I've been to Moonrise Towers, too, though the more I try and remember, the more my head pounds and what little I can remember starts to slip away. I can only hope that little things keep popping up to jog my memory.

Another joined our merry band. Wyll, the Blade of Frontiers, who just so happens to be a hunter of devils. Lucky me. It's only solidified the need for a disguise. I guess I'll be a tiefling for a while longer. He agreed to help us with our parasite problem - which he also has - if we help him hunt down a devil named Karlach. I myself have no love for others of my kind, so I agreed. We'll see if that actually comes to pass. There are more important things to worry about at the moment.

Earlier this evening, after we'd returned to camp and while Gale was making dinner, Astarion stopped to talk to me. He showered me in praise and compliments and too-sweet-smiles. He can try and manipulate me all he wants. I'm doing the same to them, after all. Maybe, if I can make him think he's succeeding, I can get him into my bed. It shouldn't be hard. Something tells me he's used to using sex as a means of manipulation. I'm starving. I don't know when I last fed, but it feels like it's been a few weeks, at the very least. At first, I assumed it was the parasite making me feel so tired and dizzy, and it may be, to some extent, but there's a certain gnawing pain that only comes from having not fed enough. It's a feeling I'm used to, I think. If the vampire is resistant, I may be able to persuade him with my blood. I'm curious to know what effect it would have on him. If not him, then I'm sure I could seduce one of the others, or even someone from the grove. I'll need to eat soon, whatever the case. I need to be strong if I'm going to win the battles to come, many of which I believe will be psychic attacks, and those won't be easily won if I'm starving."

Image 6 A rough drawing of Astarion in charcoal on the same yellowed paper. It's a 3/4 profile, with Astarion looking to the viewer's left.

Image 7 A map of the grove in ink and watercolor on the same yellowed paper. There are numbers on the map that correspond with the key of locations beneath. The key reads:

Battled goblins

Graves

Trader

Refugee camp

Storehouse

Makeshift prison

Secret passage

The Grove proper

Harpies

Portal

Chamber

There is an ink splatter in the bottom right corner.

[game-boy-pocket]

Well, I just finished the donkey Kong 64 randomizer. I thought I got everything but I see i'm only sitting at 100 percent rather than 101. Wonder what I missed? But I'm not so fussed about it, i'm definitely calling this run finished. I think 100 percent doesn't really matter quite as much on randomizer runs.

The randomizer seems to have a few QOL features that the original game could use, the ability to turn off homing shots in case you don't want to waste it, a sign on Cranky, Funky, and Candy's buildings letting you know if they have something you need or not, black outlines on crosshairs, and.. I feel like mini games like beaver bother and others feel a little more fair? I want a vanilla edition of DK64 with these improvements.

It also has the "swap Kongs anywhere" feature, but I still say this feels so unnatural and needs at least a flash effect or a puff of smoke. Still, I'm using it for the randomizer purposes.

Once I got all the abilities, it started to feel a little bit like vanilla DK64 but there were still a few things here and there to keep it fresh, mainly the fact that all the enemies were kind of shuffled, even enemies you'd only see in mini games, like those security guards that make you instantly lose if they see you. That's something I wished the Zelda randomizer did. On the other hand it made finding the last Kasplat in Fungi Forest a nightmare. He ended up being in the water around the giant mushroom.

I had a great time with the Randomizer, some levels were still a pain in the ass, but given this is like, my fourth go around with DK64, I'm starting to get the hang of navigating some of the levels that tend to confuse me. I actually breezed through Crystal Caves, which is normally the point of the game where I start feeling burnt out. Being able to randomize the music also helped, I was pretty eager to see what song I could hear in the DK64 soundfont next, some of them were surprisingly fitting.

Definitely want to try this again some time, though I think next time I play DK64, I'm going to try and use the randomizer to make a QOL version of the vanilla game, pretty sure I can turn off the shuffling. We'll see.

The only other randomizers on the agenda at the moment is Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, I guess I got put in a real N64 mood again, I also still have a run of Paper Mario to finish, we'll see where I end up though. I might take a break for a bit.

Anyway, this makes five games I've played and one TV series this year in an attempt to summon a new DK game announcement in 2024. PLEASE let us get some news this summer.