#but I want to know if I should transfer them to the respective games before it expires or if I can just keep them in there

[sylusjinwoon]

{ 178 }

darling.

yandere!sung jinwoo x bi!fem.reader x yandere!cha hae-in

warnings: violence; ooc hae-in and jinwoo, i’m so sorry.

dedicated to @starzgaze

{ i want to ruin our friendship; we should be lovers instead. }

anonymous said: Helloo!! I don't know if you're willing to do a request but I was thinking an Jinwoo x reader x cha hae in since the reader is bisexual (I can't blame the reader if she's attracted to both of them Because I am too HUHU) although they don't know that they're crushes where Yanderes this whole time KABSKAKSJ :>

once you finished organizing all the reports for the chairman, you hear the older man thanking you for your time as he allowed you to go home for the rest of the day. you smile at chairman go gunhee, reassuring him that it was no trouble helping him at all as you stepped out of his office with a bounce in your step.

lately, the appearance of high leveled gates had become far and few in between. there seemed to be more peaceful days piling on as the hunters and healers alike were given little to do during such a time.

and the cause of this sudden decrease in raids?

a competition between the two most powerful guilds in all of seoul, korea-

the hunters guild vs ahjin guild.

despite being good friends with two of the most prominent members of each guild, (hae-in and jinwoo, respectively), you hadn’t the slightest clue why they were so competitive.

regardless of their reasoning, neither you or your fellow hunters and healers complained. after all, they were doing a great service, making all these gates disappear while restoring peace back to the entire nation within mere days.

as you were heading out of the association building, you felt the hairs stand up at the back of your neck. you had a strange sensation of being watched. your heart was felt pounding with anticipation… and before you could turn around to face whoever was watching you-

the sudden scent of vanilla fills your senses, feeling cha hae-in running up to you while letting out a soft coo of your name. “hello… i’ve missed you!”

her sudden affection and desire to be close to you was a bit out of character from how she usually was, you knew that as a fact. before you ever transferred to korea’s hunter association branch, she was known as being standoffish and aloof, never once getting close to civilians or other hunters since she had such a sensitive sense of smell.

you knew about her mana sensitivities and kept your distance from her out of respect the moment you transferred. however, it all changes when she actually came face to face with you. a dreamy expression would paint her features, and she would come closer to you, literally sniffing at your blouse when she giggles and says, “you smell so good… like sweet cinnamon rolls… just so sugary sweet…”

her comment about the scent of you and your mana makes you feel flustered as you simply thanked her, which was the moment she had proclaimed herself as your best friend.

hae-in giggles while deeply inhaling your scent, basking in it for a few moment before clinging to you. “hey, how about we have another slumber party! it’ll be my treat!”

“huh? hae-in, we had one just a few days ago… are you not tired of seeing me?”

“not at all! come on, the gates haven’t been appearing as much thanks to how well i have been doing, and i want to spend more time with you.” hae-in giggles while clinging to your arm.

you join her in her laughter, actually not minding having so many slumber parties with her since it was quite fun. whether it be having a movie marathon, or gaming with her while enjoying takeout and snacks, you liked spending time with her… maybe even as more than friends.

as you smile back at hae-in and ask about what she would like to get as takeout, you were unaware of the almost victorious expression on her face, her eyes glowing a bright golden hue as she sneered back at the hunter with startling, purple eyes filled with envy.

{ … }

sung jinwoo had tried to kill cha hae-in many times, seeing as though she were the sole threat when it came to obtaining your heart.

but unfortunately for him, the woman was persistent and powerful in her own ways. when she felt threatened, even feeling the tiniest chance of being ripped away from you-

that was when her claws were revealed to him.

he clutches the sharp dagger in his hand, knowing that if he just aimed the weapon slightly to his left, then he would be able to pierce through hae-in’s skull-

however, he did not wish to traumatize you.

it was ultimately the love he had for you that stops him from going through with his plans of killing hae-in right then and there-

you, being as innocent as ever, were completely unaware of the ongoing war he and hae-in shared. ever since he first caught sight of you, accidentally bumping into you as he helped you gather your belongings and get you back on your feet-

jinwoo knew that he was a goner.

he spent countless days and even hours following you, knowing that placing his soldiers within your shadow wouldn’t be enough for him.

(it was never enough for him.)

taking advantage of his powers, he made it his life’s mission to remain ever so close to you, doing all that he could to woo you with various gifts while taking you out on various dates-

however, she would always get in the way of him.

each time he purchases a nice bouquet for you, the next minute, he would find it sabotaged and ripped to shreds.

each time he would try to speak to you and ask you out on a date, hae-in would appear at the most inappropriate times and steal you away from him-

a feat that always manages to make his blood burn with hatred for cha hae-in.

he tried to get rid of her; tried numerous times to rip her heart out so that she could never breathe the same air as you ever again-

but he couldn’t do it.

the woman was far too strong-

and her love for you matched with his.

(a fact that he had to admit and accept in a rather begrudging manner.)

he hated how natural and easy it was for hae-in to get closer to you. being a naturally born woman meant that she was able to steal your attention under the guise of being your “sole best friend.”

whereas jinwoo had to use his shadow soldier’s eyes to watch you sleep-

that damn woman had the pleasure of sharing her bed with you each time she held a ‘sleepover.’ and jinwoo could feel such feelings of envy filling him to the brim as he had to bite down on his tongue to contain his rage, nearly tasting the coppery sensation of his blood from how close he was to biting his tongue off-

but he digressed.

despite all odds, sung jinwoo and cha hae-in were evenly matched-

and if he couldn’t obtain you by getting rid of her, then he’d just have to use the element of surprise…

{ … }

you were currently in hae-in’s apartment, laughing while telling stories with her as she began to paint your nails.

to be honest, she was awful at painting your nails, with each paint stroke of polish leaving an obvious streak against the skin surrounding your cuticles. when she finishes with applying the polish on your last nail, you had to fight back a giggle.

“ah, it seems as though i found the gorgeous and powerful hae-in’s weakness… nail polish.”

weak words of protests fall from her lips, but internally she was screaming with unbidden joy. you called her gorgeous! she’s gorgeous to you!

you continue to softly giggle and take her hand, not even bothering to wait for your own polished nails to dry as you slowly showed her how to paint nails in a more neater manner.

“okay, so always try to follow the curve at the end of your cuticles. it takes a lot of practice, but it’s so satisfying once such a perfect color is put on your nails!”

hae-in made tiny sounds of affirmation, seeming to give you random nods here and there. in all actuality, her face was darkened in a deep red hue, feeling ecstatic and on cloud 9 upon feeling your hand holding on to hers.

within just 20 or so minutes, you finished polishing hae-in’s nails, placing a top coat on it so that it could look shiny and dry faster. you admire your work for a few more minutes before letting her hand go-

only to feel your body being pushed against her mattress.

“eh…? hae-in?” your eyes go wide when hae-in looks down at you with glowing, golden eyes. she lets out a purr of your name all while framing at your face with her two hands.

“you know… we’ve been best friends for a while, right?” hae-in gently caresses at your features, her full lips inching ever so closely to you as you could feel her hot breath on your skin.

“ah, yes, we have…”

the gorgeous blond woman lets out a sigh before pressing a kiss against your cheek, an unexpected touch of affection that causes your heart to race uncontrollably in response.

your whisper of her name was filled with anticipation when hae-in leans closer to you. “best friends like you and i need to know each other’s tastes, right…? you would agree with such a sentiment… right my pretty little darling?”

“u-uhm…!” you couldn’t respond, your mind spinning as hae-in leaned closer and closer to your lips, ready to capture them as you clenched your eyes shut-

but the sensation of her kiss never came.

instead, all you felt was the way the air became much colder, causing you to open your eyes as a scream was heard coming from your parted lips.

a tall, looming shadow swiftly brings down a dagger against hae-in, but her senses were too sharp as she captures the weapon with her hand.

a flash of anger twists her beautiful face, her fury evident as she spat out his name “sung jinwoo, don’t you realize how close you were to hurting my darling girl?!”

“SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE HAD YOU STAYED IN PLACE!” jinwoo roars at hae-in, ripping her body away from you as he slams the woman down on the ground.

the polishes fall against the floors of hae-in’s bedroom in the midst of their scuffle, spilling various colors against the hardwood as it stains at them. your heart was racing, seeing the two most powerful hunters in all of existence fighting each other-

fighting for you.

fighting over you.

you kept seeing flashes of gold and purple clashing together, with jinwoo’s daggers trying to pierce at hae-in, yet she manages to parry each of his cuts with her sword.

you had to do something to stop this madness, but all you felt was an overwhelming sense of dread consuming you.

you adored basking in hae-in and jinwoo’s friendship, and you felt ashamed to admit it, but you developed feelings for both of them…

you never wished to lose either one of them, choosing instead to balance on the cusp of friendship and romance with them. it was hard, keeping them always at an arm’s length away-

and now, they were both going to kill each other-

you were going to lose them both if you didn’t do something now.

“jinwoo, hae-in, PLEASE STOP!”

the desperation was heard in your voice, and it echoes throughout the room. as if awakened from a trance, jinwoo and hae-in stopped their attacks on each other, eyes going dreamy as they moved away from each other. an almost longing sigh of your name was heard coming from them as they dropped their respective weapons and crawled toward you.

“oh no, my darling is afraid.”

“she’s so scared of losing me.”

“i love her, i need to comfort her and tell her that everything will be okay.”

“she’s so sweet and cute… i need to comfort her…”

your breathing becomes labored when jinwoo and hae-in both join you on the bed. they continue to whisper about their devotion to you, completely forgetting the fact that they had just tried to kill each other mere seconds before as they both surrounded you.

jinwoo places your body on top of his while wrapping his arms around your frame.

hae-in opts to remain behind you, practically sandwiching you between her and jinwoo as you shivered at feeling both of their bodies so close to you. unable to respond, you could only remain still when jinwoo and hae-in began littering your throat and neck with heated kisses, all while proclaiming their love for you.

rejoice, for you had captured the hearts of the two most powerful hunters in the world!

or perhaps… a warning for you would be more appropriate… since it will be difficult for you to escape from the intensity of their love unscathed…

a.n. - this is such a different story for me to write, but i figured i could pass time completing this story while waiting for my meeting. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ currently unedited, but once it’s posted and my meeting is complete, i’ll go back and make any necessary changes. but for now, enjoy!

all stories are written by rei; reposts, translations, and plagiarism are not allowed.

[dropthedemiurge]

Love for Love's Sake: Bоnus Stаge (spoilers!!)

Love For Love's Sake (Love Supremacy Zone): bonus stagе is a short spin-off story from the author of the original novel, released in June 2024 (after the drama series). It's about 19yo Tae Myungha (from Game World) being transferred into the future and him slowly realizing how 29yo Myungha has been living happy 10 years with Cha Yeowoon and friends.

I promised to keep talking about it and thank you, guys, for enabling me xD Before translating bits from chapters, here's the full summary of everything that happened in this story – for those of you who are not that patient and don't fear spoilers :] I'll put them under more anyway so those who don't want to read the summary won't read them accidentally!

Warnings: suicidal intentions

Let me know your thoughts about this spinoff *д*

Love for Love's Sake: Bonus Stage (summary)

"If your life was a book, what would you want it be about?" "How would the first chapter begin and what sentence would be the last one?" "I wish it was about love."

19yo Myungha (so before canon timeline) is playing games in PC cafe. He doesn't really have money but wants to spend time so he wouldn't have to live it

On the crossroad, he sees a child running before the signal changes, and he jumps to save them but instead of getting hit, he feels like falling. He sees sunbae who pushes him. Message [World has been changed] appears.

Myungha finds himself in the arms of a handsome man who knows him - but he doesn't know this man. Myungha runs away but the man is faster.

[Mission: Make Tae Myungha happy.] [Reward: Memory] [Clear until (0%) ♥♥♥♥♥] [Penalty: Can't return to the original timeline]

Myungha is diagnosed with amnesia. He should be 29yo now, so he just goes along. Yeowoon decides to start over again and introduces himself.

Yeowoon and Myungha have been living together for 6 years and dating for 10 years. 19-Myungha is shocked to know this.

Ahn Sia, Kyunghoon and Sangwon immediately run to check whether Myungha is okay, 19-Myungha is shocked that people worry about him and they've been friends for 10 years.

Yeowoon asked if Myungha would hypothetically date him - just to make sure - but he still wouldn't let Sangwon in before others come (he's sooo jealous)

Sangwon finds younger Myungha a lot of fun, Yeowoon wants to fight with him. Others come, so they try to figure out what's happening.

29yo Myungha is a teacher respected by kids. The girl in his class wanted to kill herself so she went to the rooftop, Myungha ran after her but ended up falling down, and Yeowoon caught him (19-Myungha)

Sia is a shopping mall CEO and a popular influencer now, Kyunghoon does photography/filming professionally, Sangwon introduces himself as 'the one who Myungha rejected when he was 18yo'.

Everyone wants to have chicken and beer but 19-Myungha is a minor so they have chicken and cola and a group sleepover at Myungha/Yeowoon's house :]

Yeowoon tried to sleep with Myungha in one bed but eventually ran away to the living room, flustered.

They all decide to do a trip down the memory lane, since Myungha is "having amnesia".

Yeowoon is a gold medalist now, and many kids go to Shinyeop school now because he made it prestigious.

They visit old Yeowoon's house, and Yeowoon quietly tells him they had kissed here for the first time (on the stairs) 19-Myungha is flustered because he feels feelings that he doesn't know the source of. But he never had his first kiss, never thought about ideal type or love so he's can't stop thinking about it. He tried to take Yeowoon's hand but ran out of time.

After this trip, in the car Myungha clears 20% of his mission and sees flashbacks from the 10 passed years: how they were grilling meat at the rooftop, how they played at the sea.

Yeowoon went to the store to get ice cream, while Myungha and Sangwon were left alone waiting. Sangwon told 19-Myungha about precious memories with him (dogs!), how he was his first love and he kept regretting what if he made a different first impression on Myungha – and now he can.

So he asks for one more chance to start over but gets rejected because Yeowoon was faster once again. Sangwon accepts that his first love is finally over and walks away.

Yeowoon says he likes Myungha more anyway, but 19-Myungha doesn't know it so Yeowoon says he'll teach him. They go to amusement park (closed again) by the sea.

Myungha insists on going to the popular cafe, Yeowoon is hesitant but doesn't reveal the truth until Myungha meets his mom there. Yeowoon takes him away in a hurry as 19-Myungha wants to talk to her in anger. Myungha cries. He thinks if he didn't have Yeowoon next to him now, his mom's reaction would be his last straw.

Mission is cleared to 40%. 19-Myungha sees 18yo Yeowoon crying and being comforted by "him".

19-Myungha thinks the person Yeowoon fell in love with is nothing like him, so he runs away. Yeowoon catches up with him.

Suddenly, they meet his fans. 19-Myungha is confused to learn he's quite popular and has 100k followers on his YT channel where he's been posting vlogs for 10 years (Yeowoon made him do it). He's used to being widely hated as a Crazy Dog, and not widely loved.

19-Myungha doesn't want to restore memories because he doesn't want to return to his original timeline. But he also feels acutely that 29-Myungha is a very different person from him. So he openly tells Yeowoon about the game mission, and Yeowoon believes him.

They return home, and 19-Myungha notices that Yeowoon still cherishes him like they were new lovers and not 10yo couple that usually feels like a family. Yeowoon was testing his reaction to skinship. Myungha calls him to sleep and teases him for having dirty thoughts.

19-Myungha is scared to sleep because he fears to wake up from a good dream. Yeowoon comforts him, while Myungha teases again and asks whether he's going to kiss. Yeowoon responds he'll wait until Myungha does it himself, like the first time (I guess, it's a bit different from drama?)

In the morning, Myungha learns that his grandma is still alive in this timeline and is in the hospital with injured leg. He rushes there and cries a little seeing her alive. He pleads her to come live with them but the grandma is like 'wtf this kid gone insane'.

His memories are cleared until 60% and he remembers time spent with his grandma.

19-Myungha watches videos on "his" Youtube channel and he sees what kind of life 29-Myungha lived and what kind of person he was. He finds they weren't actually that different and he could become him. He sees how liked he was and what kind of person younger Yeowoon was too.

They go to get groceries, and suddenly 19-Myungha is surrounded by kids that claim he's their homeroom teacher. Yeowoon saves him from awkwardness, it seems like they don't know Yeowoon and Myungha are dating. The kids say that their entire class will always love their teacher Myungha, and 19-Myungha understands why he chose this job.

Mission is cleared until 80%. He sees flashbacks from teaching kids, he still keeps in touch with the ones that left. 19-Myungha starts to smile.

But he still doesn't want to go home, he's also scared that original Myungha comes back and he will disappear. He doesn't want to leave.

Yeowoon tells him he'll be waiting for him even if he goes back to his time. He tells him to return and find 18yo Yeowoon, because he exists there and he will definitely like and choose Myungha.

Myungha is overwhelmed with feelings and goes to kiss Yeowoon. This time he's the inexperienced one.

The timeline written down by Myungha: "First meeting at 19, first fight at 20, living together at 23, passing teacher's exam, Yeowoon breaking the world record, Myungha becoming homeroom teacher, having 5 anniversary trip".

Last 20% are still missing. He's waiting for Yeowoon to come home, he returns with the cake and flowers. It's their 10th anniversary today, so Yeowoon insists he still has to celebrate, despite the situation. Myungha feels bad that he always forgets about anniversaries.

Yeowoon proposes to Myungha. He gives him his wedding plan and prepared funds.

Myungha laughs (while Yeowoon is annoyed :D) and gets positive buff, as he falls in love. [Mission is cleared until 99.9%]. He witnesses more happy flashbacks.

Because it's legally difficult, Yeowoon still wants to get married. Myungha tells him if he proposes again in 10 years, he'll accept. And teases him for being in such a rush to speedrun the relationship.

He remembers all memories from 10 years of their life and love together, he tells Yeowoon 'of course' and finally decides to return home and meet Yeowoon in his own timeline.

But Myungha is scared because there's still 0.1% to fail. He remembers the sunbae who pushed him before the world has changed. He wonders who that was.

He sees himself talking with sunbae, who asks him what is happy life to Myungha and if his life was a book, what would it be about.

"If your life was a book, what would you want it be about?" Someone is asking next to me. "...love. I wish it was about love." I wished that this thing, which was so common that I could hear about it everywhere but have never really felt it, could exist in my life too. The sunbae smiled quietly. "I just decided on a title".

Sunbae tells Myungha that humans are made of stars and apologizes that he was so late. He asks him to live the way he wants to.

He pushes him again. Message [The world has been changed] appears.

29yo Myungha wakes up next to Yeowoon and immediately goes to hug him. He finally feels like his soul and body are perfectly aligned, and he remembers how lonely he was when he was 19.

He tells Yeowoon they'll go see stars on their honeymoon trip. But first, they want to take a trip to Taiwan and the grandma is bitter they're not taking her with them because she's convinced they're gonna secretly get married there. But Myungha and Yeowoon want to get married in Korea.

[Mission: Make Tae Myungha happy is completed with 100%]

29-Myungha goes to meet the girl in his class who he saved on the rooftop. They both talk about how they don't want to die anymore and they should never give up. The girl also says Yeowoon suits him well, and Myungha promises to invite her to their wedding.

[END OF THE GAME.]

[LOADING]

19yo Myungha gets back to his conscience on the street, as someone asks him if he's okay. He is surprised to see Yeowoon, while Yeowoon is displeased that Myungha knows his name since they never met before.

Yeowoon walks away, but Myungha starts running after him.

[ENTERING THE LOVE SUPREMACY ZONE]

That's it 🥺 Of course, there are many amazing and touching moments in the story itself but I wrote down the main points. Aren't they precious?!

Tag list: @pickletrip @bunni-bun @illuminutiae @kaleidoskuls @delesaria-blog @maybe-boys-do-love

[daggerfall]

M's Updated New Player Guide for Elder Scrolls Online

I have to simplify a great deal of this information since the intended audience is people brand new to ESO looking to get into it for questing (not pve or pvp), so if anyone thinks bits of this are a little wrong or lacking nuance, please understand it is likely intended. Credentials: trust me.

Top 3 Important things to know before you get started

Character creation: You pick your class during character creation and this can never be changed. Trust me, people miss this. Your race, appearance, and name can all be changed but for a cost (crowns, the in-game micro transaction currency), and little bits of your appearance can be changed with cosmetics that may or may not be free. Any class can quest just fine, some will be better at solo content than others, but don't sweat this. Some classes are also DLC (warden, necromancer, and arcanist). All classes are capable of all roles for the purposes you, a new player wanting to quest, care about. Make the character you want and can stick with, as you will need a Main for purposes of crafting, and crafting knowledge can't transfer to other characters you may make. Also, plan for them to deal damage primarily. Supports are not needed in questing and you'll often be alone anyway - save yourself the pain of killing enemies at a snails pace and invest in damage with a smidge of survival.

Alliances and the Main Quest: The start of the game for new players should always be the base game main quest and your respective alliance's main quest. Unless you started with the expansion that unlocks any race any alliance, your alliance will be tied to your race. Bretons, Orsimer, and Redguards: Daggerfall Covenant. Dunmer, Argonians, Nords: Ebonheart Pact. Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit: Aldmeri Dominion. Imperials are DLC but any alliance. This can be changed later for crowns, but only affects what alliance you fight for/against in PvP zones, minor dialogue interactions, certain cosmetics, and which version of certain quests you get during the main quest. The starting city/zone for each alliance is as follows: DC: Daggerfall, Glenumbra. EP: Davon's Watch, Stonefalls. AD: Vulkhel Guard, Auridon. When you leave character creation, you'll be sent through the Coldharbour tutorial and spat out on your starter island (DC: Stros M'Kai. EP: Bleakrock Isle. AD: Khenarthi's Roost). Finish those storylines until you hit your starter city, and the main quest will progress again with meeting the Prophet at the Harborage.

DLC, Chapters, and ESO+: Depending on the version of game you got, you may be pushed or tempted to play the newest DLC (chapter or smaller zone DLC). This is a trap. ZOS advertises the game as play how you want and in any order you want, and any longtime player hates this marketing strat. Functionally, any DLC can be played at any time in ESO, but you will miss certain bits of dialogue and story by playing out of release order. Characters will remember previously meeting you if you play in order, but not out of order. They may drastically change their appearance to the point of the story making no sense if it happened in that wrong order, or even die and reappear with no acknowledgement of their death. If this is your first time playing ESO, I Highly recommend playing everything in the intended release order at least once, and then decide for yourself what stories you think work as independent stories for other characters you wish to play. Don't listen to the devil telling you to play some random dlc because you like dunmer or vampires. Listen to me, some guy on the internet instead.

The intended order is (without listing every single dlc) the Coldharbour main quest and your alliance's main quest at the same time ➡️ Cadwell's Silver and Gold (the other two alliances' main quests) ➡️ Imperial City (PvP zone with a solo storyline, but can be skipped/played at any point) ➡️ Craglorn ➡️ all dlc in release order (including dungeons, zone dlc, and chapters). Dungeons can be done in any order (base game I and II dungeons should be done in the numeric order) up to Wrathstone, which is when year-long story arcs began and included dungeons in the plot, and more returning NPCs appear in dungeons.

The Infamous "ESO DLC flowchart" can advise you the order of when you should play certain storylines (base game and dlc), but it's just the release order and natural flow of the storylines. It updates too often for me to post the image here, but you can easily find it by searching those terms. Another good ESO starter guide I like is this one, that explains which story points to hit and when.

The base game alone is good and contains hundreds of hours of content. Get through the base game's main quests and decide for yourself if you like the game enough to continue on. And if you do want to continue, then the best way to play DLC is to buy the subscription ESO+. Among many other things, the main use for the sub is access to every single DLC in the game* while the sub is active. If you play consistently, you can play through the dlcs faster than it would cost to buy them individually, and you can end your sub whenever you want/need. The sub also gives free crowns each month which can be used to purchase permanent access to specific DLC for if/when you end your sub. Or spend them on a cute outfit. Up to you. You might get addicted to the craft bag in the meantime and keep the sub forever.

*ESO+ does not give access to the newest chapter, until the next one comes out usually a year later.

ALRIGHT big stuff out of the way. More advanced stuff for once you're already in the game and playing now.

Avoid any quest that goes into your journal as a Prologue - delete it right away. Prologues are like introduction/teaser quests for zone DLC and chapters. Doing prologues out of order should also be avoided. Once you're onto playing DLC, there is a prologue for each starting with the Morrowind chapter.

Start researching item traits at crafting stations ASAP. The timers for research grow exponentially with each trait, so an early start is good. This is necessary for crafting later on, and everyone should have A crafter (ideally their main for resource reasons)

Find the stable master early on and begin "training your horse" each day for 250 gold. Also buy a mount there. It takes 180 real life days to fully complete on each character, but you'll notice the difference with your mounts speed and stamina, and to clarify, inventory means YOUR inventory. That's 60 more inventory slots! And mount training affects all mounts on that character!

Speaking of mount speed - once you reach level 10 on a character, you should do the Cyrodiil tutorial quest (I promise there's no PvP required for this). Use the alliance war tab to queue into a campaign (any works but go for one that isn't all that busy. Under 50 ideally), and complete the tutorial IN FULL. Do not accept the option to skip parts of it because you know what you're doing. You'll reach rank 3 in the assault and support skill lines and gain a few skill points, all while never having to do any actual PvP. Take the first passive in the Assault skill line to gain access to Major Gallop for faster horse speed. You want this on all your characters.

Find the bag merchant in town and spend your gold on maxing out your inventory space when you can afford it. Bankers can also be found in each town and you can store a lot of items in your bank with them FOR FREE. No other player has access to your bank. Your bank space is shared across all of Tamriel and all of your characters as well, to allow for easier item transfer to alts

Back on crafting, don't worry about materials or crafting your own gear for a long time. You pretty much need ESO+ to be a crafter due to the craft bag. Just put on random gear you loot off enemies or get as a reward, and replace it as you level up and outlevel your old gear.

As a quester, you can use any gear and any skills you want - with a few suggestions. Don't use heavy armor as your primary armor type (a few pieces are okay), ice staves, 1 hand and shield, or restoration staves. Those are primarily support armor types and weapons. Also, read your tooltips and skill descriptions, and don't use skills that state they will taunt the enemy. ESO's aggro system works differently than you may expect from other MMOs. Anything else is free game. Though I will advise this isn't Skyrim, and using skills will deal far more damage than spamming "basic attacks", or light and heavy attacks. Stealth archer isn't a thing here, sorry.

DON'T fall for the crown store trying to sell you respec scrolls, werewolf and vampire skill lines, etc. You can redo your skills and attributes at any point for gold in a capital city, other players can give you lycanthropy or vampirism for free upon request. Merchants and banker assistants from the crown store I don't consider a scam. Those are good uses of crowns once you're further into the game.

The build advisor for each class/role is painfully out of date as it hasn't been changed since launch, and entire skills/morphs have changed over the years to be entirely different. With no nuance to avoid it getting complicated, stick to either investing in magic or stamina as your primary resource, and most of your skills costing that same resource. Skills scale their damage with your highest offensive stat, so splitting evenly doesn't do anything besides make your pool bigger, but you can use both stam and mag skills and they will deal similar damage. You just might run out of your "off" resource faster. Light armor benefits magicka users better, medium benefits stamina users better, generally speaking.

And if you mess up your build or change your mind about wanting to play mag or stam, you can respec whenever. There are shrines to respec skill points/morphs and attributes in any base game capital city or chapter big city. It costs gold, scaling with how many skill points you have. Additionally, you can use the free armory station (from the crown store) to save builds and revert back to them for free. A good use for this is to save your generic PvE/questing setup and a second different setup for PvP or playing another role like healer. Currently it saves everything except scribing setups.

Join the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild ASAP in your starter town. Regardless of RP, they have storylines you'll want to complete, as well as skills and passive abilities you may want, and it's better to get a head start on this leveling process. Undaunted is related to dungeons and can be skipped early on, but if you start doing dungeons, make sure you join! It has no respective storyline.

Weapon and class skill lines progress by having those skills on your bar upon gaining experience while On that bar, not with each cast of the skill. Individual skills rank up and can morph into other skills by gaining experience with that skill on your bar. Guild skill lines have their own unique progression requirements - read your tooltips!

Main quest marker icons appear slightly fancier than generic quest markers, and I would advise to avoid taking them out of order. Most main quests will guide you to the next quest giver easily, so if you find yourself going far out of your way, you may be getting lost or starting a different storyline. Blue quest markers are for repeatable daily quests.

Delves are public instances and can be done solo. Public dungeons are public instances and may be able to be soloed depending on skill. Dungeons/group dungeons are for 4 people, not public instances, and you should not try to solo them. Trials are raids for 12 people, not public, and you very much should not attempt to solo them.

Depending on what DLC may have come with your version of the game, you may be pushed to try the various DLC features added with each chapter. This includes psijic order, antiquities, companions, tales of tribute, and scribing. All of these individually (except psijic) can be started/done early without spoiling yourself on future DLC. But there's no real need to rush through getting access/completion of them right away either.

There are daily login rewards that reset each month. Most of them are bad, but it's good to keep up on them for the monthly cosmetic or big reward. Sometimes they give AP which can level the PvP skill lines without PvP, sometimes gold, sometimes crafting materials, could be anything. There are also daily tasks to gain "seals of endeavour", currency that allow you to purchase things that otherwise can only be gambled for in crown crates. Keep up on them, and about twice a year, you can buy the most expensive mounts in the game. Golden Pursuits happen every few weeks/months, with multiple tasks to unlock a specific reward. It's a brand new system from when I'm writing this. These are the daily tasks I recommend keeping up on sooner rather than later.

Add-ons (PC only) are allowed in ESO, mods and macros are not. The application Minion is how most of us download and update our add-ons for various UI and QOL features.

Once you reach level 50 on a character, you start gaining levels in Champion Points, which are shared across all of your characters. Once you hit CP 160, you will stop out-leveling your gear and can start making gear you plan to keep. CP goes up to 3600, but you'll hit the cap on effectiveness around 1500 (role dependent) I think.

The fashion system in ESO is either using the outfit station to apply motifs (purely cosmetic) you've learned to that character to your outfit, or costumes you can get with crowns or other means (questing, collectables, etc). Motifs learned on one character allow any character to use that motif in the outfit station, but only that character can Craft an item in that style.

There is no auction house system. There are guild traders instead - storefronts that guilds bid on weekly to gain ownership of and use for their guild to sell items to other players, for a small cut of the profits. Anyone can buy from them, only guild members can sell. Most of the junk you find in questing is worthless to other players, and most players use add-ons to know the marketplace average worth of any item in game.

Speaking of guilds, joining guilds is a good way to get access to free wayshrine porting for easier movement across Tamriel, and more. Porting to another player is free, even if you're not at a wayshrine. Many guilds also have a "guild hall" (player owned house open to all that has many resources depending on the owner). No one will enforce being social or else, but this is an MMO. Being social can be a good thing!

If you're looking to just make enough money to get by, you can sell all the random gear you loot to merchants. It will despawn from their inventory with enough time or items being sold. Once you get ESO+ and the craft bag, daily crafting writs is the best way to make easy money with little effort. Get certified in all 7 professions and do your daily crafting writs for about 5k gold per character per day. With enough skill point investment in hirelings that send materials in the mail daily, you never have to spend any gold to do writs.

Thieving is mildly good for making gold, but it has a cap on how much you can sell a day. Sell or launder at outlaws refuges in each city. Thieves guild and dark brotherhood are DLC content so don't look for them in the base game.

Before you start doing dungeons, at any level of difficulty, you should understand how ESO dungeon etiquette works. People here aren't as friendly as final fantasy, but hear me out before you say we're all mean. ESO does an extremely poor job of keeping the casual questers from the sweaty endgamers, and forces them to share the same dungeon queue when they're in that queue for entirely different reasons. Endgamers need transmute crystals quickly, questers just want to see the quest, and each person needs the other to achieve their goal, but you can't do both at the same time. Both are valid reasons to do dungeons. Quests can't be repeated on the same character, so they can't even do the quest with you if they already did it years ago. Quests also give a skill point for completing, which is another valuable endgamer resource. In general, if you plan to use the group finder to find a team for a dungeon, do not expect them to sit around and wait for you to sit through dialogue. At best they will wait for you to spam through it for the quest completion, if you warn them in advance. Randos aren't going to be overly social, even a "hi" at the start may be ignored. It's to be expected, but not intended rudely. If you want to see a dungeon's quest in full, this is the time to find a friend to group with you! It's an MMO! Be social! Many ESO dungeons are unable to be soloed unfortunately, for strange mechanical reasons.

Also, you need to know your role before queueing, and that includes knowing how to actually deal damage as a damage dealer. You don't need to be amazing, but please don't just spam light attacks. Don't queue as a tank unless you actually understand the basics of ESO tanking, same for healing. Look into resources online for beginner builds. If you don't want to learn your role or how to git gud, then I'm sorry but doing dungeons with strangers is not for you then. It's a team effort, and their time should be respected too.

This isn't meant to be the most strictly followed list of all time, but things that I end up inevitably telling people or wish I had learned sooner. It's meant more as something to refer back to and to gently guide you in the right direction, as well as get you in the right mindset for character creation when planning a character you'll play for Years of quests.

Related, if you get to the point of wanting to try the trials (which do technically have a repeatable quest), normal difficulty is less scary than you may fear, but still requires coordination and a group. Ideally you come above 160cp in full sets of gear and a basic understanding of your role. Checking Craglorn zone chat or the in-game group finder for normal PUG (pick-up group, just sorta grabbing anyone that wants to come, versus an organized run) trials is the best way to find a group without using discord or joining a guild. But I do recommend finding a social guild that does casual normal runs! Just please read if they're doing normal runs or vet hardmodes runs, or if they want specific classes/roles. And of course respect the raid lead's requests and requirements

Be cautious looking for advice regarding builds. The top result when searching for a solo build is not necessarily the best build - it is the most Search Optimized build. And it's most likely intended for crazy strats like soloing vet dlc hardmodes dungeons for views. You do not need any of that!!! You at most need to learn how to block, roll dodge, interrupt, sneak, and walk out of damaging areas. When you hit cp 160, all you need is gear at your level, start looking to complete set bonuses, and some kind of self heal.

For your purposes of leveling, you should not need to grind out levels. You get various buffs as you level that scale your damage to the enemies around you within the base game. You shouldn't race to level 50 or CP 160 on your first go-around. Enjoy being a baby. You will hate the game if you spend your first hundred hours listening to sweatlords telling you that you need to pay them to level you to 50, and then pay them to make you gear.

I am willing to offer specific advice in dms or asks if people have build questions, but I prefer to not use Tumblr for this. Join my friends discord server in my About Me (pinned) if you want detailed answers!

[preservationofnormalcy]

Hey there folks! Dr. Saltpeter here. I figured I'd see if you had any advice on a real hum-dinger of a headscratcher we've got goin on. See, I'm in charge o' a project over at [REDACTED] and we got sent this set o' rune-carved bones some of the boys dug up over in [REDACTED].

Obviously we set to doin the standard safety stuff with it, but wouldn't ya know it, we comes in to work today and now we got two doctor Johnsons and no sample!

It's real emberrasin', ain't my face red, but we was wonderin' if you fine folks had any input on how we could figure out which of the doctors johnson we got here is the real one so's we can all go home. [REDACTED]'s a real stickler for not lettin' anybody out when this kinda thing happens doncha know?

We've got a pack a playin' cards if that helps ya out any! I think I remember hearin' that kinda thing can be useful!

As thanks in advance I attached a recipe for chicken casserole down below!

[REDACTED]

Oh hey, Doc. How’s the kids? Still at AbSci? Let them know Uncle Norm says hi and they should swing by Social Media. Especially if AbSci is working on anything. They know how Norm likes to keep tabs on that. Because I have the utmost respect for AbSci, who are definitely not mad scientists. I’d get in trouble for saying they were!

And yeah, you know how it goes with unexplained doppelgängers. You’re probably already in lockdown, both Doctors Johnson in solitary confinement until we can sort it out. Remember: we don’t shoot until we know the nature of the doppel! We want to avoid “I’m the real” scenarios.

With the playing cards, you probably know the drill, but for our readers - a deck of playing cards is a great tool for determining if something is a cognitive construct. It’s at least a good first step, for two reasons.

One is a sociocultural context. Often, a lot of human-replicating entities or constructs will be pretty okay at passing a sort of organic Turing test, but lack any sort of context for what they’re saying. You can try and play poker with one, and they might of might not be technically good, but ask a construct whether two black Aces and two black eights is a good hand and they’ll usually not even mention the infamous Dead Man’s Hand.

Two is familiarity. Playing a card game is a good activity to gauge whether the thing before you is in fact Doctor Johnson. Memories typically aren’t transferred, small quirks are lost in the shuffle. It’s not about playing the game, it’s about gauging the people you’re playing with.

I’ll still see if we can get O-Sec down there with doppel procedures. Jenny, could you-

One sec, Norm. Hi! Im planning an event for my workplace and was wondering, how short of notice can you get me the rainbow flower arch from your online catologue? ...Sure, I'll hold.

[happytroopers]

Bad Idea, Right? // Fives x Reader // song fic

Insp: Bad Idea, Right? by Olivia Rodrigo // listen here on Spotify After a messy breakup, Five's reaches out again, much to all of their friends chagrins. You both know you should show some restraint... fuck it it's fine. Tw: alcohol consumption, broken up, steamy make out, friends don't approve, implication of hooking up, implications of previous toxic relationship, open to interpretation at the end more of pg13 but just to be safe: 18+ only, minors dni you can't tell me Fives didn't have a frat boy era. starts with him fairly fresh into being an Arc trooper.

I want to make it clear that this is not supposed to read as being too drunk to consent. Things that happen in this fictional work are meant to be taken as consensual acts.

--

79's was loud and crowded, which was exactly why you weren't there.

Ever since you had pointedly transferred out of the 501st after your break up, hookup, make up, breakup, hookup, give or take five more ons and offs, and a final very public break up with Fives, you had wound up back on Coruscant working odd jobs, bouncing around the GAR shipyard, Jedi Temple, and barracks.

It had been a pointed resignation from the 501st, a spiteful statement, the final taunt to your ex to let him know that you were done- for real- this time. No one had been able to talk you out of it, and with dead eyes and a smug smirk you had signed the holopad. It had been a little over two months, and 79's had become your usual after work haunt.

Until, one of your friends had heard through the grapevine that the 501st was planet side after a sweeping victory in the outer rim. Which meant that the entirety of the blue painted legion would be celebrating at the clone bar- including the one soldier that all your friends were telling you to avoid. Fives.

You hadn't spoken since you'd signed your resignation. Which was odd, because Fives was never known for his silence. In the months without him, you'd started missing his loud laughs, terrible jokes that never failed to make you laugh as well, his cheesy grins, soft eyes, wandering hands, and... okay, well maybe you just missed him all together. But really, this time it was really over. Truly.

The bar your friends had chosen, on the other side of Coruscant and completely different level than 79's, wasn't bad. It was full of cool people who were probably interesting, decent looking, and most importantly very not Fives. So, your private comms unit buzzing on your wrist shouldn't have stolen your attention so quickly. The holo projector flashed the contact name, and you instinctively turned so none of your friends would see, you already knew it was a bad idea and they would disapprove.

Fives out of Ten DO NOT ANSWER. SERIOUSLY DON'T ANSWER HIM.

You stared at the contact flashing, debating, teeth toying at your glossed lip. You'd played this game before, you knew where this path would lead, but... your eyes flashed up to your friends. Most of them seemingly very interested in respective conversations or sabacc games, or some of them already lodged down someone's throats. Your drink had gone warm in your hand, so you downed the rest of the cocktail to block out your more logical thoughts. blah blah blah... yeah you probably should not... but this night wasn't going anywhere and you deserved some fun too.

So, you slipped into the muggy Coruscant night air and clicked the comm on, steeling your voice to sound cold even if your interest was piqued, "What do you want, Fives?"

"Hello to you, too, Beautiful." The trooper was seemingly unaffected by your cool greeting, and even without a hologram to confirm, you could imagine the shit eating grin growing on his face and you wanted to say the thought didn't make you smile as well, "Torrent Company is on planet for a couple days."

"I heard. What exactly does that have to do with me?" You scoffed, you weren't going to cave. And even if you did, you weren't going to make it easy. You heard that familiar laugh through the tiny speakers, and to keep from laughing with him, you rolled your eyes, "I'm out right now, so get to the point."

"Didn't see you at 79's." He didn't answer your question. Stars, he knew how to press your buttons. You huffed, considering hanging up on him, finger hovering over the button but instead you snarked back.

"There's other bars, Fives, and I'll have you know there's other men here, too, that are buying me drinks and talking me up." That last drink was catching up to you, and the words were tumbling out of you, partly true and partly a taunt, "Seeing you tonight, would be a bad idea right?"

"And yet you're still talking to me? Besides, I remember you always loving my terrible ideas." His voice was irritatingly smooth, ending in a gravely chuckle, and you could envision the exact smirk he wore, the glint to his eyes. The undertones that he had you right where he wanted you, he wanted you and knew you wanted him. His taunt worked better and it was infuriating.

"Ugh!" Your little outburst, complete with a stamp of your heeled foot, was somewhere between a growl and a whine, "I knew this was a bad idea."

Fives only laughed some more, the last thing you heard before you ended the transmission and stomped back into the bar. You tried, really tried, to get back into the headspace. You flirted and took drinks that were bought for you, let someone run hands down your back and dance with you, but Fives's laughter and words played through your head like an annoyingly catchy song.

It was as the burn of another shot slid down your throat, that your wrist buzzed again. This time you were grateful that you were sitting at the bar as a picture popped up- a piled of familiar blue painted armor in a corner by a GAR bunk, an open bottle of Pantoran wine in the background of the shot. Under the photo, with no other words but new room assignments. Curious... new bunk. The photo was obscured by the countertop so your friends couldn't see, and you weren't proud about how long you stared at the holo-pic trying to pick apart any details you could. When you looked up, the man you'd been flirting with for the last hour was gone, flirting with a tall trandoshan woman who was way more into the attention than you had been. Sighing, you flagged the bartender for another shot as typed and erased a coupled different responses. Flirty remarks, harsh refusals, prying questions... Nothing sounded quite right, so you closed the holochat in favor of downing the liquor placed in front of you.

Fact: He was your ex. But, things had obviously changed, it'd been months and during war time, so much can change so fast. Can't two people reconnect? Even before you were together, you'd been friends first, right? Surely, a friend could visit another friend... late at night, in a pretty little outfit... after a few drinks. You could be just friends, right? Even after the shots multiple kinds of liquor, you could hear the lie you were telling yourself. But you peeked at the picture again, remembering all the other times you'd seen his armor discarded like that and all the contradictory voices went silent.

Fuck it, it's fine.

It was embarrassing how fast you flagged a cab, not even bothering to tell your friends lest they figure out where you were heading. You knew you'd get scolded in the group chat for wrecking plans, and that you should probably turn around and stop, but the you'd made up your mind. It was also embarrassing traipsing through the GAR barracks (your workplace come morning) in the sparkly ensemble you'd picked for the night on the town, fortunately any troopers that would have had the off time to be in the barracks were out and about. As you crossed through a courtyard, you looked up to the area you were heading. And there, second floor where the semi private rooms were, leaning against the window with smug grin looking down at you approaching was Fives.

You consider turning around, walking back out and flipping him a rude hand gesture, but your legs kept pushing you forward, into the barracks and into the lift, but instead of letting your friends well timed reminders warn you offAnd when it opened, Fives was waiting there for you. From the waist down, he was still wearing his armor. New Armor, you noted, swallowing thickly. The painted leather of a new Kama swayed around his thighs, accentuated by the holster straps of duo dc-17 pistols. From the waist up, he was in his blacks. Basically a second layer of skin, the material left little to the imagination as it stretched over his chest and across his broad shoulders. He'd taken off the gloves and pushed the sleeves half way up his muscled forearms. Fives, since you had last seen him, had updated the stick and poke tattoo on his temple to an actual temple and cut his hair accordingly, even his beard had been trimmed up nicer than before.

You were sure, positive, that at some point you'd seen someone better looking, a hotter man. Surely, you had...But for the life of you, you really couldn't recall when. Your jaw clenched, nostrils flaring slightly as you tried to come up with something to say other than, "Ahhh" or a slew of curses (Because, of course, he got hotter over the past two months because the force hated you).

"Was starting to think you weren't coming, beautiful." Fives smirked at you, and you wished you could take the credit he was facetiously giving. The little shit knew you weren't going to ignore his blatant unspoken invitation. The soldier whistled lowly, "Glad I waited though, kriff, I'd fight another five campaigns for that dress."

Heat flared to your cheeks, and to elsewhere, as you shifted self consciously on your heels. Your brain was still short circuiting, part of it reveling in his praise and the other reminding you every reason you broke up and even more reasons as to why this was a bad idea. So, even you were surprised when your voice was surprisingly cheeky, "Yeah, I heard a lot of similar sentiments tonight, this dress made me very popular."

The soldier seemed shocked at your snark, eyes first flashing in jealousy before his smirk turned to a grin, "Is that so?"

His bare hand reached up experimentally, and you knew you should pull back, prevent the contact, that it was a bad idea to let this go on, but you stayed still. Eyes fluttering shut as a warm thumb crossed across your flushed cheek, his gaze noting how you swayed a bit, the slight smudge of your makeup, and how your outfit was just slightly disheveled. With his other hand, featherish finger tips started at the peak of your shoulder trailing in a teasingly light graze down your arm before making their way down to play with your fingers, noting how they trembled slightly with anticipation. His smirk grew when your breath caught in your throat. Fives pressed a slow kiss to point of your jaw, smelling the remnants of your perfume, the slight smell of sweat from dancing, and the lingering smell of bar smoke and liquor, "I can tell."

Your eyes shot back open to glare at him, "Did you call me all the way down here just to comment on my outfit?"

"Of course not, but it'd be rude not to tell a gorgeous woman just how good she looks." He flirted shamelessly, a reminder of how you got here in the first place, leading you further into the barracks with the fingers he'd tangled into yours. He easily walked backwards, quietening the angel on your shoulder with kisses starting at your jaw and working his way down your neck. You were so engrossed in watching him, how easily he slipped back into this routine, that you barely noticed when he pulled the two of you into his quarters. The door sliding open and swallowing the two of you before swishing shut again, leaving the room in the dim orangey light of the streetlights outside the window, the light made his skin glow like coper.

Just as in the picture, the top half of his armor was piled in the corner by one of the two beds, open bottle of wine sitting on a foot locker. What the picture hadn't shown, was the ID printed on the foot locker. Not CT-5555, but ARC-5555. At the foot of the other bed was ARC-1409. ARC troopers Fives and Echo, things really had changed.

"That's new." You breathed, free hand tracing over the letters. Fives chuckled into your neck, coming up for air and to joke.

"Try not to sound so surprised, gorgeous." He breathed, nose resting against your cheek as his hands fell to your waist. You knew all clones were the same height, and he was done growing, but the way his half lidded eyes were staring down at you... seriously, had he gotten taller? His boot subtly shifted between your feet, placing one of his thighs between your own, "Without you around to distract me, had to find something to occupy myself with."

"So you became an Advanced Recon Commando trooper?" You almost laughed, of course he'd brag in such a blasé (flirty) way. And if his thumbs hadn't started rubbing devilish little circles at your hips, you would have admitted to being proud of him. He laughed again, leaning back in, his voice a teasing whisper before his kissed right at the base of your ear where you dabbed on perfume earlier.

"Impressed yet?" He teased, finally catching your lips. It was then, his lips against yours, your hips canting up against the plastoid of his armor, that it was like you'd never stopped kissing him. All those reasons you'd broken up, all the red flags, all the arguments, faded into a buzz in the back of your mind as your arms wrapped around his neck. Your reaction made him smile against your lips, pulling you even closer, once again kissing down your neck as his hands started to gently swipe the straps of your dress down your shoulders, exposing more of your décolletage. His hands went down your arms, leaving goosebumps despite his perpetual warmth, pausing at your comm unit which you suddenly noticed was vibrating erratically on your wrist, flashing through your friends' content names at an insane speed. With a mischievous look, he smoothly unclipped it before placing it in your palm. While you contemplated answering the messages, his beard scratched and blazed a trail ahead of his mouth, moving down your jaw and neck, no doubt leaving marks that would serve as a reminder of your bad ideas for days to come. The slight nip of his teeth cemented your decision. You sent the comms unit sailing onto Echo's bunk before leaning back into Fives's embrace, and as he went, he subtly guided you towards the door until your half bare back pressed against the cool durasteel of the wall. You hadn't realized how heated your skin was until you gasped at the sudden difference, nails digging into his shoulders in shock, "God, I've missed those little noises you make."

"Stars, this is a bad idea, right?" You groaned, tangling your fingers into the ends of his hair that were just long enough to start curling, his knee pressed between your legs so even the slightest movement made your breath catch. To your utter dismay, Fives stilled completely, hands freezing where they had settled at the hem line of your dress ridden up on your thighs, his lips halting their trail down to your cleavage to look up at you with sincere eyes.

"Do you want me to stop?" His voice was genuine, teasing and taunts gone, reminding you that as bad as your relationship might have been at times that he was, above all, a good guy. Such a little thing, a thing that should be basic decency, shouldn't make your lip quirk up in a smile just as genuine. You should have thought about it, really, but all your could think about was the growing heat in your very core, the way you slotted together perfectly, and the way that even after all the drama no one knew exactly how to press your buttons quite like Fives did. Still, his ego didn't need to hear those sentiments so you let your head drop to his shoulder, nose prodding at the neckline of his blacks as you shook your head against him, rocking your hips against his armored thigh. One of his hands held your hips in place, his voice now half serious and half teasing, "Need to hear that pretty voice, mesh'la."

I should... probably... probably not, I should... probably... probably not. Your mind was flipping rapidly between ideas. Was it better to recognize this was a bad idea and still go through with it? Should you pretend you didn't know this wasn't your best decision? You were already here though... fuck it, it's fine. Which was becoming an increasingly common sentiment lately.

"Ah-" You started, cutting off the embarrassing whine his actions brought out of you, "-I don't want you to stop."

Fives just laughed quietly, catching your lips again and pressing himself further into you as his hands wandered from your thighs, up your hips, over your ribs, and across your chest. One of his skilled hands explored the fabric of your dress until he found the zipper, deftly unzipping it without unzipping the dress without even pausing the way his other hand squeezed the softest part of your thigh. Force, what were they teaching him in ARC training? You moaned into his mouth and he breathed it in like oxygen. The shimmering fabric fell into a pool around your waist, the hemline hiked above you waist, leaving the dress like a belt and your undergarments exposed. Fives pulled back for a moment, eyes roaming the skin he'd exposed like an artist looking at their favorite piece. Eyes dark and adoring as they roved your body, fingers occasionally grazing across the marks and curves that made you so you. His eyes were so intense that you had to look away, lest your bad ideas turn into the wrong ideas. You were done and through, this was a one time thing... right?

With his stare just long enough to make you squirm, you hardened your resolve, hooking your fingers under his belt and using the grip to pull him back into you once again. Not as deftly as his zipper skills, but you managed to fairly smoothly unlatch his belt as the same time you deepened the kiss. You were rewarded with a deep groan vibrating through his chest, making your own smile turn greedy.

Fives, never one to be outdone, put both hands on your waist, easily lifting you slightly as he lifted a knee and pressed it into the wall. Your legs had no where to go other than wrapping around his unfairly slim hips. He supported most of your weight, but let a delicious amount of pressure fall onto the plastoid encasing his muscular thighs. You didn't mean to grind down like you did, nipping at his lip as you went and letting one hand wander to his hair again to tug slightly, earning another low moan at the same time you pleaded his name.

You reward was short lived though, a curt knock at the door halted the way his hands slid down your thighs. Fives groaned, slowly retracting his thigh and holding you until your legs were steady enough to lean you against the wall. The sudden change pulled a keening mewl from you, and if you weren't so lust drunk (and regular drunk) you'd be offended when Fives's hand covered your mouth. His warm palm centered over your mouth gently pressing you against the wall just out of view for when the door opened. Fives, tall and broad, used his body to take up most of the doorway, his hand over your mouth making it look like he was just leaning against the door frame. His form was the picture of relaxed, while you stood with jelly legs and clenched thighs, heaving chest and shaky breaths through your nose as your own hands flew up to cover his, gripping at his fingers like a lifeline.

"Can I help you, vod?" Fives's voice was cool, though you knew him well enough to hear the impatience there. You didn't dare turn your head, afraid that even the slightest turn of your head would alert the new comer to your presence. So, out of the corner of your eye, you stared at Fives the best you could. His side profile gave you no clue as to the visitor, but unfortunately the voice was familiar. Your already hot cheek felt like the went aflame, but the lewdness of the situation didn't escape you as you squirmed slightly.

"You Fives?" The voice- Jek... Rys maybe? Since working so much on Coruscant and so closely with the Coruscant guard, the shock troopers had become good friends of yours. Good enough that they'd heard the saga of your relationship with Fives, and were firmly on the 'keep you away from him' train. Had they not been on patrol that night, they would have been out with you making sure you didn't end up exactly where you had.

"Yeah..." Fives's voice wasn't quite hesitant as he drew out the word, "You are?"

"Jek."

Of course it was, he was the more confrontational of the two. You wondered if your friends had gotten ahold of him, sent him on the hunt for you. Fives didn't seem bothered.

"What can I do for you, Jek?"

Jek said your name like one might mention a weapon, with an underlying threat, "You know her, right?"

"We go way back." You could see Fives's grin from the corner of your vision, making you roll your eyes. Boys. The grin elicited a similar reaction from Jek if his scoff was any indication.

"You seen her around?"

Fives made an exaggerated show of leaning into the hallway and looking both directions, the action pressing you harder against the wall.

"Nope, don-" He started smugly. You smirked against his palm before turning your face, slipping two of his fingers in your mouth and running the tip of your tongue over the line where the fingers pressed together. Fives's voice cracked slightly before he smoothed it back out, "She doesn't really run with torrent company anymore."

Jek was silent for a long moment, most likely staring at Fives like the Arc trooper had grown another head before forcing an edge to his already gruff demeanor, "Good, you should keep it that way. Stay away from her."

Fives's fingers pulled from your mouth, now wet fingers gripping your chin just hard enough to make you gasp. Your eyes widened and stomach dropped as you went perfectly still. Had Jek heard you? Would he be able to tell it was you? Embarrassment flooded your nerves along with the exhilarating thrill of being almost caught.

"I'll keep it mind, have a good night, brother." Fives didn't skip a beat, though his lackadaisical confidence had gone cold. Jek scoffed once more before his footsteps turned and retreated. The door once again swished shut, and Fives had you wrists pinned so fast you barely registered until his eyes were only inches from yours.

"Didn't realize you'd get me in so much trouble. Maybe you are a bad idea..." He trailed off, taking your wrists in one hand and hooking them around his neck. His hands went back to their favorite resting spot at your waist, pushing the ridden up fabric finally the rest of the way down your legs so it pooled around your ankles and heels. He had followed the material, briefly kneeling at your feet and looking up at you with dark, ever mischievous eyes as he pressed a kiss to the inside of both knees, fingers kneading into the plush backside of your thighs, "I love bad ideas."

He rose quickly, meeting you lips with a ferocity that hadn't been there before. Fives, as always, was a dizzying spiral that drew you in and you stood very little chance of escaping. Especially in the heels you were wearing still. So, really was it your fault when you just tripped and fell into his bed?

---

Later, sweaty and exhausted and sated, you stretched to reach your forgotten comms link. You settled into the bunk, barely big enough for the soldier it was meant for which meant you were on your side, puzzle pieced into Five's chest with a heavy warm arm against your bare midsection keeping you in place.

You scrolled through the messages, trying to be offended that most of them guessed where you ended up. You never thought you were a liar until you texted back, "Sorry, I was asleep <3!"

You pointedly didn't mention where you'd fallen asleep or more accurately whose sheets you were tangled in. And with the aftershocks of everything Fives had done to and with you, you couldn't even hear the thoughts of what tomorrow would be like.

"Really? Your ex? Again?" Was the only response. You ran a hand through your mussed hair. You wouldn't outright lie to your friends, besides you weren't the only person to ever fall into old habits.

"Is it a crime for two people to reconnect?" You typed back, feeling Fives stretch slightly behind you, his chin nuzzling further into your neck and his thumb rubbing comforting arcs at your hip, "I only see him as a friend."

"Just a friend?" Fives's voice was gravely as he pressed a kiss against your neck, where the column of your neck met your spine before he chuckled, "Didn't know you were such a liar, beautiful."

Your stomach fluttered at the same time your brain tried to remind you just how final your last breakup had been. Still, you scooted further against him as his hand drifted lower again. Force this was a bad idea...

----

bad and about a song thats not even popular anymore. Unedited obvi First clone fic ive actually written in years lol. Originally, this was going to end with reader sneaking out and bumping into Echo and possibly other coworkers, but that was going to take another two hours to write and im lazy.

[masquayla-the-splendid]

How Splatoon makes a controversial Fnaf theory work better in their universe, and other parallels. (Really.)

[Side Order spoilers]

I beat Side Order in 3 hours on my 3rd try at 3am. No I am not joking. I used a slosher. I currently have 9 lockers yet to open, so if anything important comes up, I will update.

I couldn't help but notice the parallels right at the beginning, freeing Marina from Order's control. I went neuron activation, VANESSA.

But then they started talking more about Octo Expansion lore, which made me get all giddy, because 14 y/o me had the biggest fascination with the Sanitized Octolings, and how Commander Tartar built up his scheme to the point we encounter him.

They referred something or other about the color chips/pallettes as "souls" which caught my attention. They're like broken soul pieces? Alright. We already know a comically large kitchen utensil blends octopuses into life goop. What exactly happens to the ones that look like this?

Why are you green?

Marina's logs read:

So okay. I, personally, despise Molten MCI. I think it takes away of a ton of character's individuality, and makes more things confusing, all to explain some old man's rambling in a non-canon ending.

It works for Splatoon's case, because we already had no information about any of the octolings before Sanitization. (Aside from Acht.) We didn’t have time to make that up for ourselves, because we never knew about any of this beforehand, like how we filled in the gaps with underwritten characters for fnaf.

However I'll keep reading and see what else can line up here.

This is leaning into TFC territory. So for less Splatoon knowledgeable readers, Marina is trying to take, essentially what is the Freddy amalgam in TFC, and trying to deconstruct it with each animatronic having everything from their respective endoskeletons. That's best way I can explain it. (For a reader more knowledgeable with Steven Universe, she's trying to fix the forced fusions like Yellow.)

Except the difference here is that the products of Kamabo are, well, orderly, and not animalistic.

The logs that sold it for me:

So in fnaf speak: From a Molten MCI perspective, (blech,) melting down the infused metal, transferring it into data, and putting that data gloop into playable avatars in an arcade game where they can choose the bits of remnant that belong to them, putting themselves back together.

However, with my neuron activation Order=Mimic, that would mean Mimic MCI, but WAIT COME BACK. IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE.

I have yet to get the rest of the lore bits, but as far as I know, Order, (I'm not calling him Smollusk,) is an AI with the generalized ideals Kamabo has programming into the Sanitized Octolings. (I swear he's just leftovers of Tartar. I know it in my heart.) Mimic copies everything it sees, and learns incredibly fast. It learned the tragedies and rumors of Fazbear Ent, and according to Tiger Rock, he's running most of the Pizza Plex, which makes profits of said tragedies he's learned. Did Mimic orchestrate everything? No. He probably has no understanding of anything he's doing, he just does it because that's all he knows. The company started it.

Basically,

Kamabo Co.= Sleazy NewGen Fazbear Ent.

Order=Mimic.

How ever this ends, I'm using as evidence for how I predict the SteelWool plot to resolve/hj

Conc1usion: Marina and Henry should meet up. Well maybe not, if Marina wants permanent results.

I find it telling that with a plot so similar to a Fnaf theory that I hate, I actually really like this idea. And I think it's because it's not Fnaf. It's almost the exact same concept, but it makes much more sense and flows better in Splatoon's world. Probably because it was intentionally written that way, and is supposed to be shamelessly absurd and scifi. I like that I'm able to enjoy a concept I hate.

Analogy: Chocolate is good. I like when a pre existing food item I enjoy has an added chocolate exterior. Like strawberries. Sometimes, there are instances where that is not the case, like bacon. It exsists, and you either love it or hate it. I like both base consumables, and I like the additive, but it works better for one than the other.

Literal speak: I like the scifi horror concept of brainwashing with the actual person person being trapped or lost in a specific state, while their body is just another puppet for the main antagonist, and it takes some Cyber Chase shenanigans to free everyone. That's a rad concept. I just like it better when it's applied to a world that is planned for that kind of take, rather than to a world I already enjoyed, but scrambled to cut itself to fit that shape because it almost fit. It works better for a wacky scifi dystopia, not a campy paranormal horror.

Conclu2ion: Some things are best left for other stories.

Oh and both franchises have a known history of bangin soundtrack.

[summerlycoris]

Is it really a birthday party if you wake up in a hospital?

Chapter 7- Are you waiting for a moment to leave?

Previous chapter- tumblr link

Current chapter- Ao3 link

Chapters in chronological order- tumblr link

There's mentions of suicide in this chapter. Nothing major, but if you want to skip it, start at 'His eyes were wide.' And finish at 'He didn't seem to know what to say, either.'

Turns out, what Mom had left to talk about, was whether Cassie should get a therapist to talk to about everything. That's why the physio had packed it in early- so Mom could go to see Cassie's case manager about this.

Cassie found this out when Mom took her into a little office a few days later, to introduce a ‘lovely lady’ to Cassie.

And Cassie was sure she was lovely. She looked lovely- except for the bags under her eyes- with her bright green eyes, short hazelnut hair, and sun-damaged face. But Cassie couldn't talk to her. Not about any of the stuff that was really bothering her.

Cassie pasted a smile on her face, and lied through her teeth- "Hello, I'm Cassie. It's nice to meet you."

The lady smiled, and introduced herself back. "Hello, I'm Ms Tyrian. It's a pleasure to meet you."

“Ms Tyrian…” Cassie had to fight not to giggle. “That's an interesting name.”

She’d seen that color, while looking through fabric swatches in the past. Technically purple- but it was really more of a red color.

Mom didn’t understand, but still seemed disproving. “Cassie?”

Meanwhile, Ms Tyrian seemed to take it in stride. “Yes, I know. It’s probably not the best color name for a therapist. Especially one who works in Hurricane sometimes- luckily, most people don’t put two and two together- no relation to the purple guy, trust me.”

“Although…” she grinned conspiratorially. “I won't lie- I respect his ability to keep kids quiet, when mine are bouncing off the walls.”

Now Cassie really couldn’t fight off her laughter. While Mom shook her head. “Too soon, Sophie…”

“Marcela, it’s been fifty years. And I’m not talking about the real missing kids anyway.”

Okay, maybe this won't be so bad. Cassie thought.

"Anyway, jokes aside. This meeting is mostly to, well, meet you today. If you've got anything on your mind, you can ask me about it, as well." She turned to Mom. "Marcela, did you want to step out for a bit and have a coffee? It'll be good for Cassie to have some privacy here."

"Oh, of course." Mom came up, and gave Cassie a quick hug. "I'll see you soon, okay." Then she was gone. And it was just Ms Tyrian and Cassie.

This room was set up with two lounge chairs that were set up like the chairs on talk shows. They were at a ninety degree turn from each other. There was a coffee table, with a cute plant on top in between the chairs. They looked comfy- but Cassie was in her own chair and couldn't transfer by herself yet. Instead of sitting near Ms Lavender, like intended, Cassie sat facing her head on. It felt odd, like she was being studied.

Ms Tyrian seemed content to just lean on the armrest of her chair, and fiddle with her cropped hair. All the while, watching Cassie. Cassie wasn't sure how this was supposed to work- was she supposed to speak first, or the counselor?

Ms Tyrian answered that question herself, by asking Cassie a question. "I'm guessing you like those games, what were they called? Freddyworld?"

"Oh no, they have a different name. I've never played them- but my dad did! He said they had a 'morbid sense of humor.' He'd let me watch him play them. My favorite was Sister Location. It, um, it wasn't my dad's favorite." She could remember her dad screaming at the screen, after the twentieth time failing Ennard Night. But Cassie had loved Circus Baby. She was so red, and cool, and cute. Circus Baby had been her favorite, before Roxy was introduced.

Ms Tyrian continued. "Your dad. I heard about what happened to him. It must've been difficult for you."

…and now they were getting into uncomfortable territory. Cassie did not want to deal with this today.

"Could we talk about something else, please." Cassie said.

Ms Tyrian seemed to get the hint. "Well, in that case, I have a question for you- do you have any goals you would like to achieve while here?"

Cassie really didn't know. "Um, mostly getting Mom off my back? I don't know… This wasn't exactly my choice." Cassie whispered that last sentence. But Ms Tyrian had heard it.

"I guess your Mom is a little worried about you. How have you been feeling, recently?"

I thought this session was ‘mainly to meet’ me?

Cassie was tempted to roll her eyes. "I've been feeling great, never better."

Ms Tyrian looked at her strangely, tilting her head. "Well, that's good news! Though, I heard you had a visitor a few days ago. An old friend of yours?"

Cassie couldn't keep looking at her. "Yeah, I did. There isn't much to say- Mom's already given you a crash course on this?"

"She did tell me that you had a best friend named Gregory, and that he'd gone missing over a year ago. Is that correct?"

"Yes. That's correct." She didn't want to talk about this. She really didn't want to talk about this. She could feel herself clenching her skirt in her hands, messing up the red sequins and turning them blue.

Ms Tyrian sat in silence for a bit, to see if Cassie would continue. When Cassie didn't, she asked a question- "What's your favorite memory with him?"

"My favorite- huh?" This threw a curveball for Cassie. She thought the next question would be something like ‘Do you really think he was here?’ Or ‘were you just so lonely, you were imagining him?’

(I'm not crazy I'm not crazy.)

"Um. I guess my favorite memory was just... His Mom was often busy, and his Dad couldn't take care of him at home anymore. He'd gotten too sick. Gregory would sometimes stay at my house.

"One day, my Dad took us all out to Sand Hollow State Park, for a weekend camping trip. Me and Gregory got to go to Jumping Rock for a swim. I was scared to dive in- I'm not good with heights… but he held my hand as we cannonballed into the lake. We all got to go fishing together- I didn't catch anything, but we had fun- we got to cook marshmallows on the campfire, tell spooky stories with Dad and Andy… it was really nice."

Cassie smoothed out the sequins in her skirt, turning them back to red. "It's not much, but I like it." She fought to keep her voice level.

Everything was silent, as Cassie kicked her legs and looked at the floor.

"That was a really nice story, Cassie. He must've been really special to you."

Cassie nodded. And no one said a word.

Until they did.

"Did you… want to talk about how you felt when he went missing?"

Cassie shook her head. She wanted out. Now.

But she didn't want to go back to bed, just to lie there thinking. She didn't want to go for a walk with Mom, who would ask her about everything. She wanted to just. Play, or draw, or do something.

"Could you take me to the playroom please? I don't want to talk anymore." Cassie asked.

Ms Tyrian thought about it. "We've only been here for about ten minutes. I can take you there, but I'll need to let your Mom know where you're going first."

She got out of her lounge chair, and went to go find Cassie's mom.

________

The playroom was nice.

It was colorful. It had toys. It had coloring sheets and drawing supplies on a table in the middle of the room. It had a tv set up against the far wall, with a couch (with a plastic cover on it) and an old video game console. Two boys were playing a racing game, and occasionally trash talking each other. A few girls were in a group, chatting. Two smaller kids were playing with dolls on the floor.

Cassie had come here a few times previously. But mostly played by herself. All the other kids seemed to already have friends.

Cassie was at the table, trying to draw something cool. She wasn't very good at drawing. She'd never been good at it. But she was determined to draw something cool. Like a motorbike with flowers all over it. The kind of bike she'd like as an adult.

But it turns out drawing a motorbike is really difficult. Especially when you don't know how. She gave up, scrunching up her attempt, and just stuck with the flowers. Anyone can draw flowers- just four petals around a circle.

She could hear Ms Tyrian and her Mom talking near the entrance. It was distracting.

She'd already heard that she would be having another session with Ms Tyrian when she got home from Salt Lake City.

Her flower only had three petals. Warped and misshapen. She scrunched up that paper too, with a frustrated growl.

Her right leg kicked under the table. Her left one just twitched and hurt.

She needed a different plan. She could color in but none of the coloring sheets looked cool enough.

Then Cassie had an idea- she could draw Roxy.

Could I?

She could! She remembered Roxy's face like the face of her hand. And she'd drawn Roxy okay in the past- or at least her head.

First, she started with big eyes, and beautiful, long eyelashes. All the better to put eyeliner on. She drew a snout underneath, making sure to add Roxys lipstick in the correct color. (She wouldn't be caught dead wearing orange! It needs to be purple!) Cassie added in Roxy's ears. And drew in her mane of hair, making sure to add the green forelock in, well, green. Afterwards, she drew in the face around her features. Then polished the picture off by adding in the stripes.

It… it wasn't perfect. Cassie had made a mistake with Roxy's snout and hair, and there was no eraser to fix it. Her face was also wonky, it had a Picasso-esque quality to it. Except this would be lucky to get fifty cents if I sold it!

Still, it looked like Roxy. Cassie was proud of her work.

"That's a really cool drawing." A boy's voice came from just beside her. Cassie nearby jumped out of her chair- she'd been so focused on drawing, she hadn't heard anyone approach.

She collected herself, and turned her face to the boy. He was also in a wheelchair, but his was not one of the hospital ones. It was dark green, and looked like it had two metal wheels on the left-hand side. Probably just to look cooler? He could move around by himself. She wasn't jealous at all.

He'd pulled up to the table, and grabbed a sheet of paper to draw on.

One of his arms- the right one- didn't seem to work right, it was bent up towards his chest, and didn't look like it could move much. He had curly black hair, brown skin, and dark brown eyes that looked like they were sparkling with joy.

Cassie broke her gaze, telling herself off for staring. And for not introducing herself. "Umm, thank you. My name is Cassie, what's your name?"

The boy looked up from his drawing. He'd drawn some stars over the paper, and what looked like a big, wonky snout drawn in green pencil in the middle. "Hello, I'm Lawrence. It's nice to meet you."

Cassie needed to pay attention when Lawrence spoke- she'd nearly missed his name, because he spoke kind of quickly, "it's nice to meet you too." A few seconds passed, as he continued drawing.

Cassie had some conflicting thoughts going through her head. On one hand, she could make a new friend. On the other, Lawrence could be like most of the other kids on the ward- gone tomorrow. Just recovering from sedation used in planned surgery, then going home the next day.

One day is hardly enough time to know anyone. "Hey, um, Lawrence? How long are you gonna be here for? I'm stuck here for another 10 days." She hoped her question wasn't too weird.

He looked up at her. "I've got about… a week here? I think? That's what Mom said. They had to fix up my leg, and want to keep me here to see if it worked."

"... Did it work?" She felt silly immediately after asking that question.

"Hopefully!" He said with a big grin. "Wanna see what they did?"

"Um, yeah. Okay." If this was surgery, he would probably be showing off a scar on his leg.

He wheeled backwards with his left arm, and spun towards her. Cassie pushed against the table to go back a bit. She couldn't turn well, so he pushed one side of her chair backwards, so she was facing him.

"Look at this!" He pulled up the leg of his shorts a bit, so Cassie could see the start of a big plaster on his upper thigh. "That's where the place they cut me open is." His right leg was held out straight, with the footrest extended.

"You broke your femur too? I've got a scar there, as well. From when they had to put a nail into the bone to hold it in place."

He scrunched his face up. "Kinda? I guess it's broken now? It hadn't been broken before the surgery."

Now Cassie felt bad. "... Did something go wrong?" She couldn't imagine how badly surgery must have gone, for a bone to get broken during it.

"Oh no, they needed to break it." He pointed to his right knee. It had a brace around it. His left knee looked slightly bent inwards. "My knee was facing the wrong way. It was getting really hard to walk. So they cut the thigh-bone" he indicated this with a chopping motion of his hand. " and straightened it. Then they put a plate in to keep it straight."

Cassie nodded. "Then, why didn't they fix this leg too." She pointed to his left leg.

"It's getting better by itself. It used to be worse on that side." He pointed to the left. "But the other leg-" he pointed back to his right leg now. "wasn't getting better- it was really bent. Here's where my toes used to be." He indicated it, by tilting his hand so that his fingers pointed inwards.

"What about your cuts?" He asked. "You said you have one too- do you still have a plaster?"

Cassie leaned away. "I can't show you mine! It's too high up- and I'm wearing leggings." Then she thought a bit more. "Actually, hold on. I've got one near my knee. Wanna see it?"

He nodded.

Cassie could hear an ‘a-hem’ noise from Mom. She turned, and both her and Ms Tyrian were looking at her.

Well, that's embarrassing. "We're just comparing scars, Mom! It's nothing weird!" Mom just tilted her head in response. Cassie turned away and rolled her eyes.

She needed to pull off her left moon boot, first. Then she rolled up the legging on that side carefully. Her leg still hurt, though. She grit her teeth, and got it over her knee. "There it is. I have one on my hip, and one here." She said, pointing out the areas. He leaned in close to see her knee scar. It looked faded, but still visible- they'd taken the stitches out while she was still in PICU. "They had to put a nail through my tibia- that's one of the big bones in the lower leg." She felt smart for knowing this- and thankful she'd read the pamphlets a few weeks ago.

"Wow, mine's gonna look like that? Once the plaster's off?"

"Um, probably? They may have to take the stitches out, first." She rolled her legging back down, and strapped up her moon boot again.

He nodded, and asked. "What happened to you? I got surgery because my knee was bent. But what about you?"

Cassie sucked in a sharp breath, as she tried to figure out what to say here. Keeping it simple was probably the best solution. "I fell from a high place. Broke both my legs- one worse than the other- one of my wrists" She held up her left wrist. It was still in a brace, so she probably didn't need to, but… "and I broke my back. I can still move my legs… kind of. But I can't walk yet."

His eyes were wide. He looked around, then leaned in close and whispered. "Did you… did you jump? My brother did…"

Cassies face would've gone white, if it could. "No no no- I fell. I would never- ummm." How do you answer a question like that? "I was in an elevator. A really old one. The wires snapped, and it fell."

He didn't seem to know what to say, either. "We-were you okay? Afterwards?"

Cassie saw the perfect opportunity to lighten the mood. "Nope- I died! You're actually talking to my ghost right now. Bet you didn't know you had the sixth sense before this moment, huh Lawrence?"

He looked at her with confusion and horror for a moment, until she couldn't keep her face straight, and burst into a cheeky grin. Then he shoved her shoulder- "Don't scare me like that!"

They both burst out laughing.

It took a while for them to calm down, and it took a bit for Lawrence to say something. "I like your skirt. It keeps catching the light."

Cassie grinned, and said "Thank you. It's got sequins all over it- red on top, blue underneath. If they're ruffled, the skirt changes color."

She ruffled it up, to showcase this, getting a "Wow, wish I had a shirt like that." Out of Lawrence. She felt proud of this skirt- she'd sewn it over the summer break, using sequin fabric. it wasn't the… easiest to coordinate with other clothes. And she knew that Mom wouldn't let her wear it to school- it was delicate, and distracting.

But when she pulled it off, she pulled it off.

"Thank you! I'd do a twirl, but I'd definitely fall over right now." She looked at his drawing, back on the table. "I like your drawing so far- is it Monty?"

"Yeah!" He looked really happy that she knew about it. "How did you know? I just started it."

"You were using green. And the snout is kinda wonky, like Monty's is in the cartoon."

"You like the cartoon too- who's your favorite character?" He asked. He was sitting on the edge of his seat in excitement. Honestly? Cassie was feeling the same way- it wasn't often she found someone else who liked any of the Freddys cartoons.

Cassie held up her Roxy drawing. He nodded. "Who's your favorite?"

"Mine's Monty!" He said, tapping his in-progress Monty drawing.

How can Monty be anyone's favorite? She thought. "Oh- what's your favorite episode?" She asked.

"I like all of them- but the best was the one where they all went to the beach, and Monty was teaching Bonnie how to surf. It looked like so much fun! What about yours?"

"My favorite one was 'The Big Race.' When Roxy was introduced. She had this snazzy racecar, and Foxy took everyone to the raceway to cheer her on… it was so cool!"

They continued gushing about the show for what felt like ages to Cassie. They talked about when Mangle was reintroduced, about the differences in the Portuguese dub and the English original, about the Easter special that only aired once, and was now only aired in Europe and South America. (They'd made a joke that people thought was referring to nine/eleven. FazEnt had to make an… interesting apology after that snafu.), about how the writing changed after they fired all the creative and got an AI to write the episodes…

("Ugh! They really screwed up the characterisation! Especially Chica's- making Chica into a health nut."

("Chica? Really?"

("Yeah! They only did it so that they could advertise Mazer-cise. You should have seen the arguments on the forum about it…")

But this conversation came to an end when Mom came to grab Cassie- "Cassie, we've got to get going now. You've been up for nearly an hour."

She looked between Mom, and Lawrence. Then back to Mom. "Do I have to go?" She whined.

Mom nodded. "You can't sit up too long- or you might hurt yourself. Cassie couldn't help but slump- I'm not a baby. But it's hard not to feel like one, when I'm constantly being put down to rest.

Lawrence helped make the situation a bit better, by saying. "How about I see you again tomorrow? We can keep talking about that Christmas special then!"

She perked up a bit. "Yeah, that'd be great. I'll see you then."

They waved to each other, as Cassie was wheeled away, back to her bed. But at least now she had something to look forward to- seeing her new friend again.

________

The next few days were quite fun.

Sure, she'd had to spend time doing her physio exercises, laying in bed, and waiting for glowing orange eyes to appear next to her while she's asleep…

But she also spent time with Lawrence. And that was enough to make up for all the other, bad things.

Scream-cryer had been discharged yesterday, so Cassie had an uninterrupted sleep last night. She also got to meet Curly for real- turns out her name was Alison. Alison had hung out with Lawrence and her for a bit two days ago. She'd also been discharged yesterday as well, which sucked. But at least they'd got to meet. She'd also been a fan of the Freddy’s cartoon, and they'd all swapped handles to the Fazfans forum. Cassie had also swapped phone numbers with Lawrence that day.

Right now, Cassie was in the cafe with Andy and Mom.

Andy had just gotten out of ‘being grounded’ (Having her fake ID confiscated and destroyed, and having her dad told what she'd been up to.) She still looked a little salty about it.

Cassie had learnt from last time, and ordered a grape soda. Andy had a milkshake, (‘Had’- she'd drank it all within ten seconds, and then got a bad case of brain freeze.) and Mom had her usual coffee.

The TV on the wall was, as usual, on the local news station. Cassie had asked them last time if they could swap to cartoons. But they didn't have cable here.

"I've been talking to your case manager last night- they'll probably be in to talk to you later- they said you've been doing a good job with your exercises, and they've confirmed you will be attending that clinic in Salt Lake City. They think you'll be able to go there in about a week, if you keep up the good work." Mom said, talking to Cassie.

Cassie grinned at that- she had been putting in a lot of effort into her physical therapy, and was glad she was getting results now. They'd even asked her yesterday to sit on the edge of her bed, and put some weight through her legs. ("This'll help strengthen the bones, while they're healing. If you do this, it'll help prepare you for weight-bearing when you go to rehab.")

"Lucky you, getting to skip out on school for another month." Andy said. Cassie stuck her tongue out at her while Mom was looking at the TV. Andy flipped her off in return.

"You say that as if you're not also skipping school- when are you going back to college?" Cassie asked.

Andy lay her head in her hands, and leaned on the table. "Tomorrow, actually. I'll be flying back for a bit, sorting out some things-" She got cut off when Mom shushed her, and pointed to the TV.

They both turned to look.

On the screen was a newscaster, standing outside the Mega Pizzaplex. In the corner was a girl's old school photo.

She had red hair, tied up with pale pink ribbons, tanned skin, and a smattering of freckles.

It was a picture of Janet Faraday.

Cassie knew, because they'd all had school photos done last year. For the yearbook- it was their last year of Intermediate school.

Her mouth went dry, and she couldn't take a breath. She didn't need to hear what they were going to say about Janet. It was already clear.

"Late last night, police found the remains of a local middle-schooler, Janet Faraday, age twelve, at the abandoned Mega Pizzaplex."

She didn't want to hear the rest. She looked at Andy. Andy's eyes were wide open, like a deer in the headlights. Cassie was sure her eyes were the same.

Instead of looking at the TV, or Mom. Cassie looked at the table and sipped her grape soda.

She didn't know what to say. Or what to think. She tried to block out everything, but still caught snippets.

"Potential copycat killer" "No known motive" "hacked communications through an old fan forum" "anonymous report a week ago" "police are investigating."

"Hey, Mom? I might head back home." Andy said, pushing back against the table.

Mom turned to Andy- "Wait, why? It's your last day here."

"Feeling kinda sick. I guess lactose intolerance, a big milkshake, and child murder don't make for a happy stomach. Cassie, I'll see you again soon." She said as she walked away.

"Andromeda, please-" but Mom's plea fell on deaf ears. Andy was gone, before Cassie could even wave goodbye.

Mom stared after her. "If she keeps behaving like this, people will think…" She whispered, then shook her head. "Cassie, do you want to have your drink elsewhere? There's that garden, it's quite quiet there."

Cassie started. She hadn't expected to be addressed suddenly. Her mind was miles away. "Yeah, that'd be great."

________

In the garden were a variety of plants. Most of them, Cassie didn't know the names of. Though she spotted a lone plumeria tree in a pot on wheels. They'd have to bring it back inside by December, before the weather got too cold. There were also some pink and white flowering hibiscus along the fence. They looked beautiful, but Cassies wished some of them were red.

Mom wheeled her over to a quiet place, near the hibiscus. There were some wooden benches there. Mom took a seat on one.

She looked really uncomfortable, smoothing out her pants legs.

"Cassie. You're going to have to be very careful." Mom said, worry lines running through her forehead. She looked older than she was.

Cassie nodded. She knew that- she would never fall for that trick again, that's for sure…

Mom sighed. "You don't understand. When you come home, I can't let you use the computer without supervision." She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure what to do about your phone…"

This surprised Cassie. "What? You're going to take away my phone? And the computer? How am I going to talk to Lawrence when I leave here? Haven't I been punished enough?"

"It's not about punishing you! Didn't you see the news report? They tricked that little girl through messages, like you. But they've also tried copying people's voices digitally, and leaving voice-mails telling people to meet them."

Cassie was dumbstruck. It's really moving quickly…

"... it was a miracle that the little boy's dad was home, and heard his own doppelganger trying to lure his son first…" Mom clenched her pants legs with her fingers. Cassie couldn't help but fidget, too.

"I just… I don't know what to do. I can't let them trick you again. But what's to say they won't turn up at our house to target you there? Should we go into witness protection? Would taking your phone even work? Or would it make it more likely you'll get stuck somewhere, unable to call for help…"

Again.

They sat in silence for a bit. Cassie bit the inside of her cheek.

"Mom, I… I think if it was after me, it would've… already found me."

She didn't want to think about what would've happened if it had "found her." But she kind of had to, now.

"It's not like hospital records can't be hacked. I've been here for weeks now. If it really wanted me dead, it would've just hacked their way into being considered my parent. Then came in while I was on the ventilator, and disconnected it."

Heck, It could've pulled out the ECMO tubes, and watched me slowly bleed to death…

Mom sobbed, burying her face in her hands. Cassie regretted saying anything. She wasn't physically close enough to grab Mom's hand, or give her a hug. She just whispered out "I'm sorry."

Mom let out a few more hiccupy sobs, then wiped her eyes and said "God, I feel so useless." She sniffled, eyes looking red.

They sat in an awkward silence for a while. Cassie wasn't emotionally close enough to her Mom, to know how to make her feel better. She just felt bad.

She sipped on her nearly forgotten soda.

Eventually, Mom stopped sniffling. "Well, you'll need a phone for Salt Lake City. So I can call you. Just… don't believe me if I say something like 'I'll meet you downtown', will you? If I come visit, I'll come meet you at the rehab center."

Cassie nodded frantically, and Mom stood up. She just looked miserable. It made Cassie feel miserable to see her like this.

But she didn't know what to say.

"I'll keep thinking about what I can do while you're away." Mom said. She grabbed Cassie and started wheeling her back inside. "I'm sorry for unloading all that on you."

"No- Mom. It's okay. Don't worry. I get why you're scared."

Cassie left her half finished drink in the cafe. Honestly? She didn't want it anymore.

Then Mom took her back to her room.

________

It was a day later. Cassie had been doing more work with the physio. More strength building. More working on her legs.

She'd gotten better at using her right leg again- she still needed the Moon Boot, and couldn't walk. But now she could put more weight onto her right leg without risking hurting it- as certified by a weight-bearing x-ray.

Her left leg was still useless. Slightly less useless, but still useless. In theory, she should be able to put weight on it- the bones should be healed enough. But she couldn't do the weight-bearing x-ray with it. Because it had buckled and nearly sent her to the floor, gasping in pain.

The physio was working on her left leg- moving it up and down with their hands, while Cassie sat on the edge of the bed, and kicked out the other leg. Mostly to have something to do.

She wasn't sure what she could do.

About that monster, anyway.

She'd talked to Andy about it over the phone last night, brainstorming different ideas on how to be safe in a post monster-escape world.

They'd come up with a few suggestions.

If it's an unknown number, it's not your friend calling.

If they ask you to a weird location, ask if you can bring an adult or a different friend. If they get weird about it, reconsider going.

Ask them something only you and them should know the answer to. If they can't answer or redirect, hang up.

Ask for a selfie. Check the dates if they send it, to make sure it's current. If they don't send one… you know the drill.

The main benefit Andy and Cassie had was that they knew what this thing looked like, and some of how it worked. It mimics people to lure them in. Then it kills them.

Other people- staff at the hospital, Mom, other parents and kids, had no idea how it worked. Only that someone was trying (and succeeding) to kill kids, was able to hack, and could maybe mimic voices? People were speculating it to be the same copycat as the recent bout of missing children- but that had stopped six months ago, with six total missing. Around the same time of that earthquake. Cassie and Andy were fairly certain this monster wasn't behind those missing kids.

("Gregory said it'd been down there for 'a really long time', and it'd been stuck behind concrete before I let it out. If it had managed to lure other kids down, it would've already been free, right?"

("Eh, maybe? They could've all got mangled by Monty before reaching the sinkhole. You said it yourself- you nearly died six ways from Sunday."

(Cassie had hummed into the phone, thinking. "I remember seeing video footage, while wearing the V.A.N.N.I mask, of a lady wearing my mask and chasing Gregory. He was one of those missing kids. Maybe she's the one that did it?")

They'd had no solid proof though. That conversation got them nowhere.

Her phone vibrated in her skorts pocket, just after she had finished up her usual weight-bearing exercise. It was too early in the day for it to be Andy- she should still be on her flight.

"Is it okay if I answer this?" The physio nodded yes, and Cassie checked if it was an unknown number. It came up with Lawrence's name. Thank goodness.

"Hey Lawrence, how are you?"

"Uhh, yeah. I'm good." He doesn't sound good. "Hey, Cassie. Did you want to meet in the garden for a bit? I just need to talk to you. In person."

This raised a bit of suspicion. "How about you come meet me here? I can't travel as easily as you can, and I'm supposed to lay down for a bit, anyway."

"Okay, but… where is 'here'?"

It took a second for Cassie to understand him. Oh, I've been to visit him once in the boys ward with Mom, and have seen him in the playroom. But I've never seen him in the girls ward.

"I'm in the girls ward. It's just two doors down to the right from the boys ward. Look for the pink butterfly on the door. If you see the operating room, you've gone too far."

"Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes, Cassie." Then he hung up. She apologized to her physio, for holding her up, then took off her back brace for a bit. She really only needed it when she was sitting, or moving. Or walking, but I can't do that yet.

The physio left, and Cassie kept her eyes peeled on the windows. They were a little tall- so she'd only be able to see the top of Lawrence's curly hair as he wheeled by them. If he looked like he'd miss the door, she'd yell out to him.

Soon, she could hear the familiar squeaking of his wheels, and see the top of his hair through the window. He didn't miss the door- coming through and spotting Cassie on her bed. She was just glad it was him.

He grinned when he saw her, and came over. She waved back, but felt a little… silly? Lazy? I should be sitting up for this.

"Hello Lawrence, sorry for being rude- I'm not supposed to sit up for a bit. Just got done with physio-stuff."

He shook his head. "That's not rude- I'll come up and join you."

Cassie quickly looked to the nurses station. It was between the girls ward, and the boys ward, and had windows facing into both wards (though, Cassie had never been able to look from the girls ward through to the boys ward- the nurses station was set up in a way where that wasn't possible.) All the nurses inside were chatting, or focused elsewhere. Still…

"I think if you do that, the nurses will get the wrong idea." She said.

He tilted his head. "What idea?"

Oh no, his parents haven't given him the talk yet?

"Umm, well, you see…" How should she word this? "Only moms and dads lay in bed next to each other." Saved it. She didn't want any weird rumors of them floating around. She didn't want to deal with Mom's sideways glances, or Andy's ribbing about it, either. She had to deal with enough of that when she and Gregory were friends.

He blinked a few times, and Cassie got really worried he'd ask something like "why?"

Instead he said. "The beds are too small for that- I meant, I'll sit at your feet. Hang on."

He pushed down the bed rail on his side, to get more room. Then stood up on his left leg, and used his left arm to pull himself onto the bed. He doesn't need a transfer board? Lucky… He then dragged up his right leg, so it could sit flat on the bed, with his left leg crossed beside it. "Ta-da! These beds are longer than they are wide, and you're short, so there's plenty of room."

"I'm not short!" She cried.

"Yes you are- you're shorter than I am." He replied.

She pouted for a bit, before saying. "Well, that's just because you're so tall!" Checkmate.

Lawrence tilted his head. "Am I?" Then thought for a bit, putting a finger under his chin. "Do you think if I jumped up, could I touch the ceiling?"

That got Cassie's brain turning too. She looked up at the ceiling, and tried to figure this out. "Hmmm, I don't know about the ceiling, but you could probably touch the top of the doorframe?"

He hummed as well. "I might try that…" then he remembered something, and his face fell. Cassie remembered how he'd sounded over the phone.

"Hey Lawrence, are you okay? You seemed really sad over the phone." She asked, keeping her voice low. Most people were out of the ward right now- only having someone down the other end playing on their phone- but it was still good to keep this private.

His eyes went wide, like a deer in the headlights. "It's just. Umm. You know the forum? One of the admins posted about a murder." Cassies face fell, too. "It was Janet. Do you remember her from school?"

Cassie remembered her.

They'd never really been ‘friends’, as much as ‘acquaintances.’ Janet and Setia had been best friends since forever- and they weren't looking for a third wheel. They didn't hang out with Cassie after school, unless they were working together on a group project. And that was different to hanging out as friends. Cassie had invited her to her birthday party last year. But Janet had been honest about not being able to go- she'd been signed up for summer camp, and it'd be running at the same time. Janet only got back from her camp the day before school started. Cassie's birthday was a week before then. So she'd never held a grudge against Janet.

They'd worked together frequently during Intermediate school, on group projects. Cassie, Janet, and Setia made a good team. No one would slack off, and they'd usually get an A on their work. Especially in drama class. When they performed an (admittedly pirated) version of Jack+Jill. It got featured in the school newsletter as an example of going 'above and beyond.' Cassie had done backstage work for that performance- making sure the music they'd made played at the right time, making the costumes. (They could have just used their regular clothes. But Cassie wanted their outfits to be special.) and helping the group paint the backdrop prior to the performance. While Janet played Jack, and Setia played Jill.

"Yeah, I knew Janet. We were in a lot of the same classes. What about you?" She'd never seen Lawrence in her classes before, but he lived in Hurricane and they were in the same grade, so he must have attended her intermediate school.

He looked a bit… embarrassed. "I… mostly had different classes than you guys do. But I know Janet from Band practice. She was amazing with the saxophone. She liked jazz music, and probably could've been part of a big, pro band after school… She was nice to me."

He fidgeted with his hair, twirling a loose coil around his finger. "I heard from one of her friends, they said she'd run away, to go to New York. So that she could chase her acting ambitions. Then later, on the news, they got a tipoff about a girl at the Pizzaplex. The police didn't believe it at first, a lady talking about a killer robot that chased her- but when they ran out of things to check, they checked there…"

They sat in heavy silence for a bit.

"What happened to her, that was nearly what happened to you too, right?" He asked. It was a rude surprise- Cassie had not told him about going to the Pizzaplex.

"How did you know?" She whispered. Her face hadn't been in the news, when discussing her case. Nobody should know yet.

He backed up a bit. "I didn't know- my Mom thought it was you, in the news. They'd talked about a different young girl getting lured in by her 'friend', falling and getting really hurt in the Pizzaplex. She would've been the same age as you, so it was probably you."

Her shoulders slumped. Great. So everyone's gonna know I was the silly girl who nearly killed herself at the Pizzaplex…

"... Yeah, that was me."

He didn't look at her, just down into his hand. "Did you see Janet there? That night?" He asked in a whisper. Cassie could hear the unasked question behind it- what happened to her?

Cassie hesitated before answering. Lawrence and her were friends, she hoped. But they'd only known each other for a few days. Would he run away screaming, and never talk to her again, if she told him what happened?

"Cassie." She looked up at him. He was now looking at her eyes. "Please tell me. I'm not stupid."

So she did. She told him about what happened to her, in low whispers. And told him that Andy had found Janet's body, and reported it to the police. She didn't need to tell him the details. No one needed to know that.

He couldn't look at her. She couldn't look at him. She could hear him sniffling.

"I can't believe it… just can't believe it…" he sobbed out, wiping tears from his eyes.

Cassie's heart broke, hearing him like this. He was usually so bubbly, bringing comfort to anyone who needed a friendly ear. But now he needed comfort.

She pushed herself up, so she was sitting. It was still hard to do by herself- part of the muscles she needed had been paralyzed, the rest were weak. But she did it anyway. She reached over to him, and put her hand on his shoulder.

He didn't say anything, just scooted closer to her. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug, which he returned. She could hear him quietly sobbing against her ear.

They stayed like that for a while, until Lawrence's alarm went off, and he had to go back to his dorm.

________

It was two days later, and things were still a little awkward. Mainly, because they hadn't talked about it. She and Lawrence had been texting each other. But not about that day, and not about Janet.

It was Lawrence's last day in hospital. And Cassie would be going to Salt Lake City in three days. So, if they wanted to talk in person and clear the air, they needed to do it today.

Cassie had already made some plans- texting Lawrence, asking if he'd meet her in the garden. Asking Mom if she could take her to the garden, and leave her there for a bit. Mom had raised an eyebrow at this request, but had said she'd do it.

So now Cassie was waiting, in the garden. Near the benches at the Hibiscus trees. The plumeria tree sat nearby, waving in the breeze.

She'd had a lot of time to think- soon, it'd be time to act. She could hear Lawrence's wheels crunching over some lost leaves.

"Hey Lawrence." She said, waving to him. He pulled up nearby, and waved back. Which was kinda useless at that point- they were within arms distance.

Even though she'd been thinking things through, worrying about it for ages, the words still stuck in her mouth. "Umm. I'm sorry. For Janet. If I hadn't let it out, it couldn't have…" the last bit got caught in her throat. "I can understand if you don't want to be friends anymore."

He looked at her as if she was talking nonsense. "Why are you sorry? You're not the one who did it- that weird robot thing did."

"But I let it out-"

"If you hadn't, it would've just got Janet to do it. You know that, right? It would've kept fishing for people until someone ate the bait." He crossed his arms, as best he could.

The weight in her chest lifted slightly. "... I guess so."

"And I still want to be friends. Hannah and Chris don't like hearing me talk forever about cartoons. But you listen- and talk back about them. And we go to the same school- once you're back, it'll be great."

She smiled slightly, and said. "It'll be great to see you again too- I wonder if I'll have any classes with you this year? You could do really well in art class."

"Maybe? I have the same art class as normal kids. We might be in the same one? And you might be in my PE class now."

Cassie hadn't thought about it- but she couldn't see herself doing PE. Not like this, anyway. "Maybe, I don't think I'll do well with dodgeball this year. What is your PE class like?"

"It's only a small class- there's seven of us in it so far. Split between grade eight and nine."

Her eyes went wide. "That is a small class. How'd that happen?"

He looked a little embarrassed. "Um, it's because I can't walk good. I nearly broke my hip doing PE in Elementary school. The teacher asked me to run cross-country. Mom got really mad, and now they keep me in a different class."

"Oh, that makes sense." She said. She wanted to lighten the mood again. "Well, if you don't have to do cross-country in that class- I'm in!" She'd always tried to play sick on cross-country days in the past.

He laughed slightly. "I only got to be in middle school for a few weeks before surgery. You haven't even been this year, huh?"

"No, not yet. I've heard it's supposed to be hell. But it can't be that different from intermediate school, right?"

"No, most kids are just the same kids they were last year. If you liked them, you'll like them. If you didn't, you won't."

Cassie nodded. Well, maybe middle school wouldn't be that great for her…

"... Even if we're not in the same classes, we should still be able to hang out at lunch, hopefully. We're in the same grade." She fidgeted awkwardly. "I'm gonna miss you. When I'm away. It's gonna be so weird being up in Salt Lake City by myself…" because she would be by herself- Mom would have work. Andy has college. And Lawrence lives down here. She wasn't a baby- she wouldn't be homesick or anything- but she would be lonely.

Lawrence came up, a bit closer. "I'll miss you too. But you'll see cool things up there- there's the Zoo! If you go there, you might see a real alligator!" He had a huge grin on his face.

"If I go and see any alligators, I'll send you a photo of them, okay." He nodded at that. Cassie could hear the sound of footsteps over the lost leaves on the floor, before she saw who was coming. It was a lady, with brown skin and straight black hair, walking over to them. This has to be Lawrence's mom.

Cassie pointed her out to him, and he turned to face her. "Hey Mom, is it that time already?"

She nodded, and asked. "Is this your little friend you've been telling me about?" She seemed to smile with her eyes. Which fitted exactly how Lawrence had described his Mom- a warm, bubbly person.

Lawrence nodded, and Cassie introduced herself. "Hello Mrs Smith. I'm Cassie."

"It's nice to meet you Cassie, I got talking to your Mom just inside."

Her eyes went wide. "She didn't say anything weird about me, did she?" Mom was full of embarrassing stories that she loved to bring out when talking to other parents.

"Well, she did tell me a story about how you used to draw yourself with a pink pencil." She said. Cassie groaned and covered her face with her hands. "She let me know you two were out here."

"Oh, do I get to go home now, Mom?" Asked Lawrence. Cassie heard nothing. He turned back to Cassie audibly- wheels crunching over leaves. Cassie pulled her hands away from her face. "I'll see you again soon- have a great time up in Salt Lake for me!"

"I will! Have a great time in school!" She said. Then Lawrence followed his Mom out, out of the garden and out of the hospital. Cassie waving behind him.

She wished she could follow him. But her arms weren't long enough to reach her wheels.

She sat there, wondering what it'd be like when she left, until Mom came back out to collect her.

~~~~~~~~

Authors note- this chapter title is also from Frente’s Labour of Love.

[nasuversekinkmeme]

Weekly Roundups: Prompts

Mahoyo

Aoko x Alice but neither of them know what they're doing and it's really messy and awkward but still sweet

Kara no Kyoukai

something with Kirie Fujou, either with her using her powers on someone, or something about her disabilities

Smut, Shiki pegging her loving malewife Mikiya. It's so good that mikiya cries

Tsukihime

Incest tw, I need some respectful, reciprocated Kohaku/Hisui. I generally see it as Hisui being more forceful when it comes to engaging/starting, but leaving it to Kohaku to take the lead once they actually get intimate - of course, if the filler has a different take on the dynamic, I'd love to see that too! The main requirement here is fluff.

Fate/Stay Night

Smut, dubcon, Rin decides to end her rivalry with Luvia by having sex with her. Dubcon that quickly becomes consensual due to Rin's tongue game

Rin/Luvia, body swap

Smut, Artoria watching Lancelot and Guinevere have sex.

Kirei giving a present to Gilgamesh, trying to justify doing something that is good for another person.

I'd like to see Medea on a date, can be with Kuzuki, or Jason, or Master, or anyone really, i just kinda want to see her having fun and experiencing some of the youth she lost

medea and kuzuki crossdressing. not forcefem just a man wearing a pretty outfit his wife picked out for him because he loves her

Smut, Artoria Bimbofication followed by her getting gangbanged

I come humbly asking for Saber to be hairy as FUCK.

Smut, ok but the idea of having Gilgamesh having the random dream of the Artorias loving him so much that it becomes a artoriasome.

This world needs more trans Shirou being doted on ny the other members of the Emiya house, be that in a fluffy or smutty way. Bonus points for including Saber!

Smut, Shirou/Issei public sex, I wanna see Issei try and stay quiet

Shirou has a wet dream and accidentally projects Kanshou and Bakuya as very cute girls

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

I know that Bazett had Cu for maybe a week or more, but I want just them get together for one night outing and have them act like a normal couple just before the holy grail war. I want it to be very sweet and hopeful. It doesn't have to end in sex. I wish there was more stuff cubaz stuff out there. ;3;

Fate/Zero

Fed up of "Jeanne" refusing to remember who she really is on her own, Gilles Prelati's Spellbook to see if he can find a spell that will make her "remember". Aka - Gilles de Rais brainwashes Artoria into thinking she's his heavily idealised perception of Jeanne de Arc

Fate/Extra

Hakuno is summoned in chaldea and they have a tea party with Alice.

Fate/Apocrypha

Force masc Semiramis, either with Amakusa or another Apocrypha character.

Fate/Grand Order

Smut, Tiamat wants more children, and thus is the duty of the master of Chaldea to fulfill her wishes by doing marathon mana transfer until they pass out

NTR, Yu paisen and Gudako have a (accidental) romantic date after all the crypters flake at their reunion post lostbelts

Smut, Tiamat/Raikou competing to see whos the better momther, only to end up screwing each others brains out and ending up dating.

Smut, Gilles de Ray, having sex with this man until he passes out

i want to see gudao/ko rayshift to emiyas gohan and make friends maybe they deserve to go on a 1 week vacation (real not clickbait)

tiamat turns BB into a lahmu after finding out what she tried to pull during summer 3.

Since we know that Baobhan Sith and Ritsuka have movie nights every once in a while i would like some fluff between them in one of those nights

Gudao walks onto Medea and Jason having sex, a multitude of excuses coming from the both of them soon after.

Smut, Siegfried fucking Kriemhild until she passes out

Tiamat interactions with Morgan & her knights . first off , Morgan should get the shovel talk from tiamat.

Smut, Itty Bitty Titty Committee hot springs meeting! Complete with hands on testing to make sure the current members can stay. (To clarify I do mean the adult women who are flat chested, like Shuten, Helena, Altera, and so on)

Chen Gong meeting Castoria, and she seems to really like him, and everyone is worried how she’ll react when he has to sacrifice her for the first time. Only for it to turn out that Castoria is massive masochist and she begged Chen for the opportunity.

Smut, Nightingale giving Gudao a very extensive and sensual prostate exam in her Trick or Treatment outfit.

Avicebron/Medea. I think of them either exploring their shared passion for creating or their tragic lives. Maybe both. Maybe these should also kiss.

Smut, Anyone willing to shove a cock up Gudako's ass? Consentual, dubcon & noncon are ok, but I insist she gets pleasure out of it.

Gudao telling dad jokes to Fuuma after he starts dating Danzo.

Grunhilde, pissed that Bloodaxe still hasn't convinced Guda to summon her, kindly through force makes Eric ask Medea(or Circe but I find it funnier Medea) to use her body for a short while. Medea agrees and they go on a date where Jason sees them and then shenanigans ensue. I would also like to add this is not a Jason/Medea fic but if whoever decides to do it goes in that way I have no reason to object.

Smut, Chiron getting fucked by redhare and/or Xiang Yu

Smut, Futa Tiamat fucking Gudao with spoiling and aftercare.

I am mad to say nobody has suggested this, but I wanna see Hijikata finding out about Okita’s tuberculosis one day when he repeatedly hears her cough daily and she’s all like, “WAIT I CAN EXPLAIN-“ cue Angry Pickle Man trying to help Okita despite the fact she is insisting she is fine.

I guess something where castoria realizes she’s in love (can be with gudao, oberon, or somebody else). the only problem? It seems that there’s a time loop. So now she has to find a way to break out of it and confess.

nobu decides to prank gudao with a trap, and she fails miserably because her girlfriend okita got in the way and accidentally activated the trap. so now she finds a way to fix her bullshittery

(rarepair hell) Something with Salieri and Kijyo Koyo, either fluff (him listening her play the Koto) or Smut (third asc on third asc)

Maybe something with ritsuka actually being selfish for once and taking up hajime saitous offer to run away with him? Or any servant really, he was just the first to pop to mind.

I’ve recently gotten into Mash/Tonelico (thanks to a certain unnamed writer) but I’m also into Guda/Morgan because of the whole “I’m your wife” thing. So in essence what I’m saying is: Mash: This is my girlfriend Tonelico and her spouse Guda.

Kinda of a Crackship, but i think King Hassan and Tiamat would make a cute pair

Tiamat's having a 24 hour session of her spoiling her children.

Kintoki gets trapped between Ibuki's and Shuten's fight for who gets to "play" with him

an epilogue were all the crypters and Olga are alive and they just hang out with Guda like normal friends

Xiang Yu breaks down in a way that he can't fix on his own. With no way out, he asks his wife to please help him out. As smutty or not as smutty as you would like

Smut, futa Koyanskaya forcefems Gudao, fucks him, rims him, edges him, and fucks his weak human cockhole with her superior knotted cock

Sieg and Castoria ending up dating because they spend so much time farming together, and everyone else being shocked/surprised

Smut, I would love a fight to death turns into breaking the bedroom sex (battlefield?) between Alter Ego Bazett and Alter Cu Chulainn. I want them both to wake up the next morning limping away while swearing that they will fight again, but then they just have sex again.

Ritsuka has a Big Massive Trauma moment and it's going badly. Morgan, a noted veteran of having Big Massive Trauma sees this, doesn't feel anything, doesn't like that she doesn't feel anything, and then goes to help Ritsuka intimately. And when I saw intimately I don't necessarily mean they fuck (Though they could), but I want the raw emotion shit. I want Ritsuka to cry and scream into Morgan, I want them to aggressively cuddle, I want Morgan to give the bone-crushing hug she never had.

Back during the FGO universe's holy grail war, Marisbury needs to give Solomon a good old mana transfer

BB gets bimbofied & made to dress like gudao by the koyan twins.

Ereshkigal/Guda (either gender,) aftermath of sex pollen. So your buddy got hit by the curse of Fuck Or Die, and you fucked it out of their system. Great! How do you handle the aftermath? You just fucked your bff (and/or crush) how do you deal with the awkwardness? do you talk about it? do you just kinda ignore it? i wanna know!! (you can write the sex pollen too if you want but i mostly want the aftermath)

There was a wacky theory Miss Crane is Demon Pillar Naberius. Would think it would be neat if there was a fic that explored that idea.

Smut, Nymphomaniac Ibuki, Barghest and Kukulkan plowing Gudako into a mindless puddle? Dicks and excessive amounts of cum are optional.

Smut, Gudako and Yu Paisen worshiping Xiang Yu's horse cock because there is no way a single person can satisfy him

Bradamante being bimboified by Merlin

Kadoc witnessing an event. can be a real event thats happened since or make one up tbh. (bonus content: kirschtaria gets to be there for the event too. how is he alive/in chaldea? u decide! i just think he'd get way too into it and have fun.)

nobu makes a bomb that self-destructs when she flexes how AWESOME it is. now she’s on the run because everybody is gonna get her. Even her master, but Gudao is… well, at the least to say, ‘loving’ to help her… mana transfer seduction.

lb5.5 kintoki/guda... platonic or romantic and even nsfw is fine!! id like for them to get along tho!

i feel the need to karmically balance out some of this guts rearranging. crackfic of shuten opening the world's most ethically dubious surgical clinic in chaldea

Smut, Caeneus x Gudako/Reader, Caeneus fucks me senseless with his horse cock

Smut, Ibuki/Raikou fucking

master of chaldea becomes a beast

FGO Bee Movie parody, starring Oberon as the titular bee.

Crossover

Local funny vamp Arcueid Brunestud and World's Most Annoying Man Gojo Satoru team up to affectionately annoy the hell out of both Tohno Shiki and Ryougi Shiki

Through a comedy of errors shiki ryougi and shiki tohno meet and come to believe the other shiki is the split personality they had kicking around their skull escaped and somehow having obtained a body

crossover in which fate/stay night illya adopts(kidnaps? stalks?) john wick as father figure pre-fsn because he kind of reminds her of kiritsugu

Any fandom

Smut, Hoi, Could I request some Grand Order Futa Somnophelia? Dont mind whos involved!

Suicide tw, Kinda fucked up, but i want to see a character having a mental breakdown and killing themselves

Smut, Anything where someone has a non-human cock. Artoria with a dragon cock, Tamamo fox knot, Shuten with a big blunt demon cock, anyone you can find an excuse to give a horse cock with a horse cock. Something like that

Can I have some furries? Can I PLEASE get some furries? Werewolf aus or dragon saber or anything you want just furry these bitches up pls thks

hnnngggrr Force-feminization is cool and all, but force-masculinization is comparatively rare. I'd love to see a fic involving some. Levels of explicitness, actual forcefulness, and characters all up to writer's discretion, but bonus points if involving characters who already have an unconventional relationship with their genders in any way.

Futa

creative uses for mystic eyes

I just want some fluff with rare pairs and crackships

Kohaku or someone else messing around with the carnival phantasm "true self" tea to different results than happened in the show

[zahri-melitor]

Ok, I have now mopped up every extraneous storyline in my reread and I HAVE to start War Drums and War Games (and then I’ll do Identity Crisis afterwards, because goddamn is 2004 the start of the Grim Times)

Last thing I finished today was Nightwing #91-#95, so you know, I have been having some thoughts about Devin Grayson as a writer.

I’m very fond of Devin Grayson’s run on Gotham Knights, putting aside #16-17 and #20-21, the four issues focused on Dick Grayson only. I…don’t think that’s unusual; I think it shows the issue at hand.

I don’t think she’s a bad comics writer. She has objectively written clever, interesting comics that I have enjoyed reading. Most people would say GK Transference and 24/7 are great comic stories. After some thought, I think the issue for many DC fans is primarily that Dick Grayson is her all time fave but her headcanons about Dick long since departed from what other writers were doing with the character and she’s largely a fan of the secret Dick Grayson who lives in her head. And then she was handed the Dick Grayson book to write. It was a situation doomed to cause issues.

I’m not having a go at anyone for having “secret better version of a character who lives in your head”, we’ve all fallen foul to it on occasion. But the test case for whether letting someone who feels this way about a character write their comics is “are the fandom willing to go along with this”. Sometimes they are (please see Wally West’s backstory and supporting cast reappearing by sheer stubbornness of the fans and a handful of writers). Sometimes you’ve just pissed off your entire fandom while writing a whump storyline because you want to torture your favourite before getting to the catharsis (Devin Grayson).

Heck, if you look at what was the probable pitch for Grayson’s run up to #95, it’s…just a break the cutie whump run. Dick’s life falls apart, orchestrated by one of his nemeses, as his entire rogues gallery get the chance to attack him. We’ve all read this before. It’s the plot of Knightfall. The Maxine Michaels plot is supposed to be a Vicky Vale/Vesper Fairchild style story. We’ve seen these stories work and enjoyed them; the major difference is that they had resolutions. Devin Grayson never got to the redemption/catharsis bit of the story. I don’t know why.

The EXECUTION of the whump run however went far too hard in killing off supporting cast members and became egregious in parts (no really, why are we blowing up Haly’s Circus. And the apartment block. Why) and then, you know, #93-95 happened. But the starting idea wasn’t necessarily bad.

There’s even two issues in Grayson’s run up to #95 that I really like (#76 and #81) and I think that entirely comes down to the fact the storytelling picks up immediately when Devin Grayson is focusing on a character OTHER than Dick (Amy Rohrbach and Cass, respectively).

The issue isn’t so much “Devin Grayson is a bad writer”. The issue is that “Devin Grayson should not have been allowed to be Dick Grayson’s primary writer” and she should instead have been given books about characters she’s less obsessed with and worked out her desires to make her fave suffer by writing more fanfic.

[cult-of-the-gundead]

Foot Lieutenant and Brute Headcanon dump post

I just have these two in my head constantly, and I need to get my thoughts on them down somewhere.

(A lot of these have to do with the world ignites with you, a lyricfic i made detailing my interpretation of their backstory)

TW: Cults, Manipulation/Brainwashing (please tell me if i need to add any more tws)

General Anatomy

At first glance, they just seem like purple skinned, wrinkly humans with yellow eyes, pointed ears, and weird flaming footprint markings over their face... but closer inspection reveals more little details.

Their finger and toenails are clawed, their teeth are all sharp, their tongues are thin and long with rings lining them (akin to a Krang's), and they lack any sort of hairs on their body. Should you manage to dissect them, you would discover that their organs are quite different than a normal human's. All of this leaves one single question: What are they?

The answer? Krang-human hybrids, born human and, for lack of better words, mutated into their current state around when The Shredder's reign of terror happened.

This was very, very painful, and they do not wish to have anyone else go through that same agony. Besides, how would they get the required stuff for the procedure, anyway?

Brute is the only one with pupils. They're slits, and yes, they can widen.

Other than increased durability, agility, and strength, along with a healing factor (rendering them able to quickly heal from cuts and being pierced, but blunt force and bone damage isn't factored into the healing.) and immunity to effects of aging... they don't really have any sort of fancy powers other than "unable to be mutated via ooze/mutagen". (This does not transfer to immunity to mutation via direct Krang biomatter)

I kinda lied with that last point. Lieutenant DOES have weird lightning powers... but they exhaust him quickly, and he prefers to not use them. At least he's more mystically inclined because of it. (based off these screenshots from a chinese rottmnt gacha game)

Origins

Long, long ago... they were two normal men in the Foot Clan, before The Shredder, known as Tatsuya (Lieutenant) and Daisuke (Brute)

They were rather close to Saki and Karai, and he even trusted them with the safety of the clan, should something bad happen to him. As if that would ever happen!

It did happen.

Oh lord did it happen.

War broke out, the clan faced utter destruction, and.... Saki was desperate. He made a deal with what he believed was an Oni, and acquired the Kuroi Yōroi, and... yeah we know what happened next. Armor took hold of him, swallowed his soul, and The Shredder came into being. All while everyone close to him could only watch as a man they loved and respected slowly turned down a dark, dark path.

The Shredder viewed those working for him as tools, and this included Tatsuya and Daisuke, who he slowly convinced to give up their names, to become mutated, and be perfectly "marked" (aka more or less branded). All for his sake.

Yeah those footprints on their faces? Those are, for lack of better words, brands. And they still hurt, still give them searing, unending pain. The concoction used to brand them was modified over the years, so newer Foot Clan members have the pain lessened, but they aren't so lucky.

Now, years later... they can't even remember their old names, and a good chunk of their lives before Shredder. To them, they are the hands of him and his heralds (aka the Krang). And that is all they need to be. Hell, they can't even really remember Oroku Saki or Karai, with them only remembering the latter as an enemy, as something to be killed.

Yeah they have memory issues!! This is kinda self projection whoops.

If you were to call them by their real names, they would kinda... space out for a moment.

By now, they follow the teachings of The Shredder and his heralds to a T, and all members of the Foot Clan must follow them perfectly if they want acceptance, too. It is as it should be.

Did they love Cassandra as if she was their own child? Yes. Did they also see her as an extension of The Shredder, as with every other Foot Clan member? Also yes.

Speaking of Cass... she reminds them of Karai, but they don't really remember her, so they get faint memories of her as a kid that fade shortly after sometimes when they're with her.

Other Notes

They are in love. Yeah this has to do with little but. Look at them and their in-show interactions.

Brute is very good with kids and younger people in general. He's just a caring dude.

Lieutenant has ADHD, and Brute has Autism. Is this more self projection? I dunno they just feel that way to me.

Lieutenant is the kinda guy to just buy everything at a store, while Brute always sticks to a list.

Lieutenant's favorite season is Summer, while Brute's is Fall.

Lieutenant is rather verbally affectionate (and verbal in general), while Brute prefers simple gestures and gifts.

[player-1]

To anyone that's somehow still alive in the Micromon fandom, do I have some news for you. For just the simple price of $0.99 (or just looking in the wiki), the game already gives away plenty of hints about the state of Pixekai and how much of a impact Black Root plays in the story (among other things).

Major spoilers for Micromon (and slight spoilers for Nexomon 1) and enjoy the typical rants/theories below:

First up, Pixekai as a whole and the Growtown Accident. While Nexomon mentions in passing that Pixekai (Project) was a digital doomsday bunker for humans should Omnicron be revived and destroy the world (mainly uploading their minds and creating digital avatars), the only people that are aware it's a digital world are Malk, Leah, Zeth, Cyborg, and that random guy Edward who gives you a side quest about player costumes (also the Legion members, but that'll be mentioned later). Besides that, everyone else the MC meet are all happy and cheerful (to an extent) and go about life just like any other person despite a vast majority being fabricated humans.

But of course, not everything was sunshine and rainbows before. While the exact date/year when Vaithe destroyed Growtown is unknown (a town known for Micromon breeding and was the original entryway for humans to be imported into the program), its impact on Pixekai led to a blockade only accessible to S-ranked tamers and even a firewall cutting off the (clearly irradiated) forest wasteland known as Ground Zero. Despite the obvious assumption that everyone in Growtown was killed from the disaster (literally half of Pixekai's population lore-wise), it is later revealed that Cyborg was one of Growtown's residents 1-2 years pre-incident; and even when she wasn't in the blast zone, her avatar and voicebox was badly damaged and was hunting down Black Root for being a possible cause (which is true, but for a completely "normal" reason). Another survivor is Lavinne ("The Punisher") who vowed to kill Vaithe for destroying Growtown (not true) and Malk for essentially creating the hostile environment that currently plagues Pixekai (rampaging Micromon, natural disasters, and making the Growtown residents destroy themselves with a power source that drains their own energy); but it's somewhat implied that he was cut off from Pixekai all that time that since he only shows up after MC repairs the bridge to Ground Zero. But while the bleak humor of Malk playing dumb about his involvement in Growtown's fallout with Leah (since they used to be scientists before and possibly worked together situating ported humans into Pixekai), looking back on his extremely thinly-veiled hints show a terrifying amount of foresight to not say too much and kept stringing the MC along about becoming a S-rank tamer and (possibly) planning ahead on silencing the two known victims that might reveal too much about the real truth.

Malk: It's such a shame Growtown got destroyed like that. While we have some rumors that Vaithe was the cause, there were no survivors to tell that harrowing tale in full. MC, later meeting Cyborg: But what abou- Also Malk, wiping out Growtown's stragglers to create a world-ending digi-nuke: -Like I said, there were no survivors...

While I'll give the game credit for fleshing out the Legion instead of making them pseudo-Elite Four, it's kinda interesting knowing that they're the beta players of Project Pixekai (ie. the first humans) and had their own dreams fulfilled in the digital world, possibly with their own input on what they wanted they couldn't be fulfilled in real life. Even their respective region might connect to their previous life in Nexomon too, though their past may be foggy depending on how long they've been in the program (or Leah tampering with their memories after their "rebellion" (re: trying to stop her from destroying Pixekai from the inside-out)), but they also mention being unable to return the real world either from their original bodies dying from the transfer or years after until the main story, or they were supposed to be erased when the project was patched out (implied/mentioned in battle gauntlet). Slider (Navia): Slider was ported into Pixekai when he was 4 (mentioned by npc at Navia arena) and has a older sister Angelica to reign him in, but he mostly spends his time goofing off or napping, likely lived in Palmaya but (obviously) lived most of his life in Pixekai. Lethar (Magma): Was suffering from health problems at a young age (maybe lived at Ignitia, mentions similar pollution problem in Magma), but was given medicine by Moonborn to heal him (also has a absent father, but it's not fully explained); was known as the rough-and-tough leader of Magma with his trusty Dinoto and Diroaster. Moonborn (Aera): The wife of Aera's chief and adoptive grandparents of the Tornado Twins Aria and Aaron (different to Captain Aaron); possibly lived in Khan's Jungle or Hidden Village due to her magic abilities, spirituality, and skills in medicine. It also might be implied in the gauntlet that her human husband might've died when she was younger so she wanted to have a family for herself in Pixekai (Also her husband giving/making a special incense the first day they met and reminding her of her younger days falling in love with him T_T). Jade (Mineralia): The daughter of head miner Lincoln and rival to lover/fiance to the headstrong goofball Aiden, also considered the strongest Legion member and is obsessed with Micromon battles and protecting the peace with brute force (might've lived in Frozen Tundra or Solus Deserst since they also specialize in mining too). While the initial age when she was ported is iffy, since Lincoln mentions her past mom naming her after the most precious jewel in their lives (and her hair being all green when younger), but she also mentions how "Our time ran out a long time ago, but we (the Legion) loved being here. We had lives here that we couldn't have back in the real world"...So I'm guessing she was in Pixekai when she was a teen/mid-teen and Lincoln was implanted with false memories about her childhood. Ouch :'(

While I initially thought the main antagonists (and Cyborg) were the only ones aware of the real world, it turns out all of Black Root knew that Pixekai isn't as it seems...To varying results, of course. While most of the grunts were either too brainwashed from diving into the Mainframe on Leah's command (or Captain Aaron knowing more as second-in-command), I kinda like the added context that they can freely teleport around because they exploit Pixekai's code (which is rarely shown from non-BR characters or Legion members) as opposed to Malk programming B002 to teleport to specific points in the world (with a fee of 300 coins one way). Also cool to know that Black Root got the name because of the root folder/root directory of Pixekai's mainframe to have nearly absolute power in the program and cause crimes on purpose. But with that revelation also gives way to Leah's motivations for escaping Pixekai: to live a free and fulfilling life outside of code and to give her son Zeth a happier life that she worked so hard to provide...After creating a rogue organization from the ground up and going crazy from evil Mainframe experiments, of course. But even her execution of the plan is still lacking, since she has no real information on why humans created Pixekai in the first place (same for Malk), and her main plan of capturing Vaithe from the Mainframe requires a pure organic human (ie. the MC) "for some reason" since they're the only one that won't get their brain fried and turn into a braindead husk.

Despite all the lore dump, it brings me back to the whole twist of Malk being self-aware since the beginning and plotting to destroy Pixekai and escape into the organic world for vengeance...Again, he and Leah had no idea that they were coded into a bunker program and have little to zero info on how much shit humanity are in right now cause of Omnicron and his kids. While there's not a specific date/time when both of them became self-aware, but Malk later learned the truth about the project in full after he escaped and adjusted to real life (see Malk's revenge rant here and here), already plotting to destroy the real world too so his vengeance will finally be complete since all humans are corrupted in his eyes.

And what better person(?) to turn to for more information about humanity's weaknesses is Metta/Nexolord; eventually becoming mentor and student to learn about the world around them (Malk learning about Nexomon and Metta w. human behavior/psychology), while also preparing a massive middle finger in the form of a world-ending doggo for giving both of them a shitty life in general.

And you know this kids game was made in 2014, right?

[englass]

You know what I want (that I don’t think has been done but please correct me if it has)–

Genshin Impact, but School– like a Twisted Wonderland AU sort of school thing.

Now, I’ve not played TW (*cries in EU*) but from what I know I don’t think it would actually affect potential story stuff too much; it’d be a relatively clean merger. I’m literally more just thinking in terms of: the elements or countries are different houses, the Archons are their respective Head of House and MC/Reader has been Isekai’d here via wishing means despite lacking a vision (means of enrolment?).

Now just some random brainstorming thoughts because the idea consumed me–:

As a general thing, either GI is already a TW sort of game in MC’s world or it’s not changed from how it already is and this is just an alternate world to the one MC and we know and remember. Maybe they play both games and this world is a weird merger of the two (not that MC is imagining this or has any influence over it; it’s just a weird coincidence, but that would probably muddy the waters so likely not)?

Because of Zhongli being a hidden/retired Archon I could see the dorm being more so run democratically, maybe having Ningguang being voted/recommended for the position by her fellow classmates while Zhongli chills out (read: slacks off) in the local gardens (boi still probably gets straight A’s in everything except Business & Personal Finance/Economics).

In regards to the Fatui and how they’d fit into this… I think it’d depend on how the Houses are set up. If the Houses were represented via Country then they could just be fellow students, but aged down where appropriate. If the Houses were represented via Element then I’d be tempted to make them teachers, or students from a rival school. The problem with the Element option is the Tsaritsa; I wouldn’t know how to keep their connection with her while keeping her as the Head of House. Something to think about maybe.

Aether and Lumine could be transfer students? Or just not in the story at all? Or maybe from a different school? Up for debate; depends on how much you’d want them there I guess so it’d be up to the writer. Paimon could literally just take Grim’s spot regardless lol, but again that’d be up to the writer.

Acts/Chapters wouldn’t change much, both games are similar in that each Chapter and Act is set in or revolves around a different Country/House (to my limited understanding of TW at least). So A/C1 (not constellations) is to do with Mondstadt, A/C2 is Liyue and so on and so forth. How you’d transfer the actual story to this world’s format though is… ehhhhhhhh—

- For Mondstadt, the idea of Dvalin being a little chibi version of himself is too adorable to pass up and so maybe the stuff with him still happens, being corrupted and saving him before he goes on a massive rampage (either the stuff with the Abyss/Khaenri’ah isn’t a thing here, or it’s one of two options: 1. Rival school that dabbles in the “darkness” element or 2. Is the old school that the current school was built on top of (what the story would be here though I don’t know; I’d need to brush up/know more about the lore)) and by the end he continues to be a sort of cute familiar to Venti that occasionally makes an appearance. Should note that he’s still normal sized/a big boi when corrupted, but after MC frees him he takes on a smaller and more approachable form (please don’t ask me how that works in this world, I don’t know—)

- Liyue would be… not too different from the original? Actually, maybe this is how Ningguang becomes the new Head of House? The whole of Act 2 was orchestrated by Zhongli wanting to see if Liyue could continue without him in canon, so maybe this is the same? Maybe the identity of this Head of House is a secret that only other HoH know about (as well as Childe; he and Zhongli are maybe surprisingly good friends and so the latter gets Childe to help him “step down”). So they do something really stupid and summon Osial— which could be an obnoxious rival of Zhongli’s from another school that’s come to ruin the House’s reputation or something, or is straight up some sea monster they’ve summoned to up that stakes. I kinda like the first idea, especially if you did a twist of him owing Zhongli for whatever reason so he’s only here to help in order to remove Zhongli from his long-standing position (I’m thinking just keep the fact that Zhongli is actually a dragon a thing and that he’s only still here because he can be, likely because of ageing differences or because despite him being a great student he deliberately flunks the important exams to get held back; fully up for debate though)

- For Inazuma… I don’t know dude, it’s just a dictatorship? Maybe something happened with Makoto and she either left or sadly passed and Ei has no idea how to run her House so just straight up takes full control of it in a negative way? And MC shows her the power of friendship or something— I don’t know, I really don’t know. All I do know is that Yae Miko would be a menace; personal space? What’s that, she’s never heard of it. Girl be overtly flirting with MC every step of the way regardless of gender; fingertips trailing across their shoulders as she circles behind them, tipping their head back with a gentle pressure against their skin, leaning way too close to their ears and space as she talks to them… yeah, other students would not be too happy about that (tbh Yae got me bad lol; not my favourite character, but she’s fun and I’d definitely give her the waifu title– anyway!)

Is it too late to mention this is intended to be a “romance game”?

And considering my love of yandere’s— fuck it, throw a load of them in here too if you want; take your pick.

- Sumeru— I don’t know, going through these is kinda exhausting. All I will say is that this is the tech House and that Dottore has to be involved with whatever happens here. Maybe it’s still an experiment he’s running and has roped the kids into (if he’s a teacher, though I doubt it’d be much different if it was a student either) or something else, but he has to be there. My bias for him is really showing lol, but he has to be; he needs to be the villain of this Act/Chapter. Plus it’d be kinda funny to see him the next time MC went to class and have them freak out as to why he’s still here when he should probably be in jail (man totally either has some sort of dirt on the headmaster (Heavenly Principles?) to keep him in the school or he’s kept as a teacher to better monitor him and his movements).

Naturally we can’t talk about Fontaine at the moment, so I won’t go into it (—except for the fact that I am weak for Neuvillette; what is it with tall, sophisticated dragon (alleged/theorised) men that completely knock me off my feet 😭 urg, I want him and Zhongli to passively-aggressively battle for the right to court me, is that too much for a girl to ask??)

Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything else I want to add right now. Just throwing thoughts out into the aether, so to speak--

[datguytv]

We want you to now think like they say they were thinking -

Playing they say but was played in a game that they can't stop if they wanted to - that took lives - and their playing was that they loved - and didn't hate us?

They were saying Playing.

And you now think of how stricter the sentences should be because you tried to cover up HATE Crimes with a Lie That The White People were Playing - in those case with black men in bed.

The hate crimes was all over America about a black equal man choosing to be gay if he wanted to be. A right of the individual. And the first most indicative lie is "let's make him military" to apply the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" Military Rules that He can't be gay openly in freedoms he has already as a civilian American. That is the LIE that was uncovered by the voice Wilma Gave the Terry Dwayne Ashford.

He was going to lie and impose by law a rule that doesn't apply to me - after telling me at the killing of Wilma that In Dave's House - we don't have gay FAGGOTS that aren't killed. Carlos Ashford told me That before Killing and trying to Kill ME! Having Killed WiLMA - to my response - Terry Dwayne Ashford said to him "Who Said So of grown people" having no belief his son had gotten hold of world protections given to Dave as an associate of Wilma.

The Hate Crime that they didn't want anyone to see - just like the HATE Crimes of the Thugs, that Terry Dwayne Ashford has seen as hidden disasters in classrooms all over the world in special Ed classes - wasn't learning fighting all over the school yards.

Now they are with me. Wanting to be picked up - after seeing them literally hurting people like Terry Wayne Richardson, Audrey Newsom, Bobby Loveberry Harold Scott, Anthony Frost and other blacks who were as equal as the whites that those like Shongo chased and sexed in the faces of everyone. Even hung with em proudly even sat on the seats of public transportation with em.

But the blacks by the blacks of the Black Faggits - were to shun and be shamed to even sit with or Speak to the black counter part to the white male ballerina the Black Male Basketball team adores.

Seeing and Studying it from childhood until adulthood - I am supposed to respect a N8GGER FAGGIT and a N8GGER woman. Not knowing the N8GGER woman that the child until adult felt sorrow for - moving out of her way to get the Black Man for anything that Terry Dwayne Ashford saw hurting black men to fuck white men - when the black men came to Terry Dwayne Ashford - he defied them and sent them to a black woman as he has done nowadays.

I was giving the black man to the black woman defying the racist N8GGER FAGGIT ButtFucker Ploys of the Whites. And I didn't know that.

When I told the black men "Are You Straight? Go get that girl over there" They went and got the white man just like that of Shongo all my friends look at black smut face Derecks and Fat Ass Derrick of Takoma Park tennis followed me over there - look at the poor trash hoping mocking would get them something all jailbirds - them and all the black Faggits had told me - they were straight defied by choices to even choose of them - lying that is inexcusable.

That's why to see a black N8GGER in a professional attire of anything is a black N8GGER who has been successful at prostitution for some honky. I don't talk to even the kids growing up seeing the N8GGERS being abused and seeing the HONKY being a Freak of nature as the most deliberate disguised Freak shit eater maliciously that the world would ever see- shared with its women.

A deliberate disguised Freak who has a system set up to pick which shit turd he would go back pick up and eat for his whiter Honky N8GGER pleasures - serving all whiter men of Blackness that has shamefully accepted their Bese ape roles by white people's outlawed Jim Crow Laws that has been transferred to black N8GGER Slit Women and to the white men's Whiter Women to pick of the dog shit left on the grounds to eat of the day.

There is no way I would look at a N8GGER FAGGIT - who is proud of that.

Who accepts that if themselves and in their minds - you don't talk to me - you as N8GGERS are to ME - the prisoners uprising from the cells having stormed America like Trump.

Trump saw it and stormed America like the prisoner broke into the Prison Warner's office and took the prison captive same as the slaves brought from the fields to uprise against Modena's heirs and KILLED WiLMA! Through ex slave given rewards named even Obama as Michel hoped to have enough footage to mock Wilma.

Of a woman named Wilma who wanted her son to remain humble for the people given the the most important parts of the plantation that made them internationally famous. She wanted me to have that being her humble son in humility as the remaining slave owners of Mississippi. Tried mapped by The pushers of Juan Spencer - stalking trying to swap Mississippi for Missouri. So was Juan the Mafia too.

This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen heard and even fanthom in my creative mind ever before in anyone's life.

I now start my day asking spirits and God's to help me relax knowing what I am seeing. That is why mom, I believe, didn't want them or anyone to tell me. She had me roaming living line as a normal person protected - having all those people close to my body like such as Jon Caudle and those Sissies snarling preying on me - playing they say. And murderers and Killers of mankind.

The sisters wanted me to be as famous or act as famous as I had already knew been and seen and even handled it.

You see I was so popular from a child because, as I thought, I was perfectly good at everything I was to be. From a child on into my adult hood - that is where I felt all those people loved me. Everything I touched turned into gold - I saw it and felt it and humbled myself to it and even hid it - so the others wouldn't get jealous.

Come to find - they were already jealous when Ms. Pitts eas lashing out at my brother and he was having to follow me - saying why can't your brothers be like you - and my humbled loving response was "ahhhhhh miss Pitts - he is just caught up in the world ways too weak to live in his skin trying to get along with those that means him no good" same as Carolyn - she was too scared by the N8GGERS to talk the English language in the correct way MOM told her to speak it. Mom gave them education to and this girl was dick pecked by black fuckery ploys kf black thug men who mim said do not bring that into our house - like the hen pecks of slaves the littke black Pussy Car Whore waa dick pecked and brought Thug N8GGERS into WiLMA's Home met Wayne her brother who Put Them Away.

He's thanking God today. Amen

Next time a Black Slit's Pussy Gets Hot And Jumpy in Your panties BITCH - and you have a little nice brother who doesn't know his saying no to a ButtFucker N8GGER shit chaser black Faggit - was not giving to his adorable little sister for godly adherence to find her a husband - you little black N8GGER pussy cat Hopper Grass in your pants need to calm down - because the whiter man butt hole was getting all the benefits of a pussy right then.

None of you talk to me ever having defied me by lies aimed at my body aimed at my mental welfare aimed at abusing LOVE.

You are a set and entire city of abusive N8GGERS in slavery hoped to have been kept even Caked By Whiteness who came to DC to take over the city and create more new world plantations!

That is all you see in the poor man poor things of alleys and whores.

Look at everything this Black Cocksucker has done - through the black man who hated Wilma and Wayne as much now as when Dave Told them to born from WiLMA Body.

That's why we tied up the litter and buried you in the waters of rivers all over the World 🌎.

We gonna tie you up in a croger bag hang it from a tree and Burn it from the limbs of the tree all the way down to the tree bark with your ashes raked up and made of it - Mulch - to grow Better Trees with.

This Honky FAGGIT placed N8GGER FAGGIT unqualified in office to mock ME - to make Way for Honky Shit Eating being badgered by News. Me. BITCH - StreetNOW News.

Look! He's a Shit Honky Eater who set up a system to eat N8GGER FAGGIT Shit for trading.

He picks and chooses by coming back after the thoughts were that he wasn't even watching at all. And everywhere Terry Dwayne Ashford went turned to Gay Haven for HONKYs Eating Burnt Black Shit Of N8GGER FAGGIT Men who conspired with Honkies as done on the movie Queen. The Black Man sat in a meeting with HONKYs and traded Their boys asses to the Honky Empires of whiteness all over the world.

The black fathers told their boys to Fuck White Men - as Dave told Carlos and as Wayne heard them saying Carlos was Dave's and Wayne Was Wilma's. Nita was Dave's and Joyce was Wilma's and Dave tried to take them all from Wilma. Carolyn was Dave's and Sherry was supposed to have been WILMA's and then Dave the Thug Black Man went against Wilma and tried to take Wilma's and Newton even told Wayne that Dave was supposed to have taken Me From Wilma. What ever that meant then as a child - had no clue. And that was told to me at the returning from being placed in the Mississippi State Capitol with National Representatives and Senators of the State of Mississippi. By N8GGERS this was to have been transposed to The State Of Missouri by way of Juan Spencer Dancing with Terry Dwayne Ashford from the time when Terry Dwayne Ashford was a stats person at airway Blvd in Memphis Tennessee at FedEx where that FedEx employee id was found in the house of Terry Dwayne Ashford's dead Mother. Missing as would have been the state ID of the State of Maryland due to the SPICKs and the breaching security guard at the Maryland State of Motor Vehicles. The More than Two Year Old Identification Card mapped to the ID.Me 🆔 identification card - number 77583 - is shown below 👇 found at moms house with a gune right there beside it - found in year 2023 - during eviction from the Extended Stay America Hotel in Tysons Corner Virginia where Scott Horsley seemed to not have known what to do as didn't Terry Dwayne Ashford - paid a bus ticket to the Hill of WiLMA in Mississippi - where Terry Dwayne Ashford's still reporting was sent to safety only to have been attempted kidnapping by the sisters there. The neighbors saw it. Everyone saw it. As Terry Dwayne Ashford screamed all over the land for no one to hear me.

Then came Kesha - who was to help Terry Dwayne Ashford get back to some safer places and sent me another ticket to get to some urban place to mingle and hope - hope that ended with the police department wanting to take me as the next nelson Mandela doe DC.

Then came the food stamps and the harassing altogether from inside the houses of the plantation shacks of DC & Tina then brought Bobbie to have been the bigger monster and got ME with a message for the ape that was to have hung from the empire State Building on the thieving. Then came June 30th and the airline and the chosen "not gonna deal with this" N8GGER shit - and there left on July 1st 2023 - having arrived back to DC on January 20th - when Tina was fixing Foods and would not allow Terry Dwayne Ashford Reporting to fix his own food purchased by EBT then to have maintained his own safety. The food fixed my Tina that was seen as poisoning mapped to a eak tossing the Tina's Food down the

Drains when heads were turned.

Moved on June 30th when the only gay friend Terry Dwayne Ashford knew defied due to police department instructions - named Golden of back in the day a Whore met when Terry Dwayne Ashford left Tina Then that brought the airborne African diseases to America ebola when Ebola was the name of the tennis hitting guy from Banneker tennis courts then.

Yeah you remember? Not putting it all together then - but the hitting partner name was Ebola that was at the same time when Tina acted out and sent Terry Dwayne Ashford to a blacker guy to NE who introduced Terry Dwayne Ashford to Golden as a Whore Then.

Golden defied Terry Dwayne Ashford's safety on the night of June 30th 2023 and sent Terry Dwayne Ashford to the stranger on July 1st to an apartment as a roommate to a man that Terry Dwayne Ashford woke up to being stabbed with a 12 inch butcher knife only to have found Terry Dwayne Ashford had seen him planning days before and slept softly in the night inside the apartment of suspecting and caught the man rushing toward his body in the living room laying on b the sofa with the butcher knife over Terry Dwayne Ashford head who was then supposed to have been asleep.

What was in bed with Terry Dwayne Ashford seeing it says before was a Bat that could have smacked the African straight to hell then but chose to get the footage and we have that right here.

The police not called - was walking to check to see if the job was done and it was done in the opposite.

Right Here -

https://youtube.com/shorts/dLcqxsVB6F8?si=rpjpQsL_N8R68i9B

I wanted the footage before I smacked him to hell to protect myself of the Mafia who I knew was in charge of another OJ Simpson attempt that StreetNOW News had planned to beat of the government.

[starwrittenfates]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 & 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞! -- 𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐢 & 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐚

transferred over from my old Lara blog @elderbloodcarrier And also because I have too many thought and feelings about Lara and her descendants. Thanks.

THE SEAGULL AND THE SWALLOW ⟫ A PARALLEL

In The Lady of the Lake and the games (specifically Wild Hunt), as pointed out by other characters, there are similarities between Lara and her descendant, Ciri. It’s mostly from

the same green eyes

and the elder blood they share.

Lara and Ciri are princesses from respectable families

They are also named after birds (Seagull & Swallow) which share the symbolism of freedom, resilience, and hope. 

So maybe there is a reason the elder blood is described as being so fiery…

Does Lara have the same ability as Ciri, being able to visit other worlds & times at will?

I like to think she does, although Lara doesn’t know about it at first because she was raised to believe her ‘special child’ would have that trait. The only places she had traveled to before was between her home at Tir na Lia and the continent world of the Aen Seidhe. 

It only makes sense for Lara to have the same abilities. After all, she was the first carrier of the Elder Blood (at least that we know of), and Ciri only got her abilities because of her gene. I’d honestly love to imagine Ciri and Lara traveling different worlds together like two girls shopping at a mall. 

“What do you think of this world?”

“Eh, let’s go back to the ones where they have metal heads.” 

Lara, hugging Ciri protectively: Leave my descendant alone. 

I have no doubt that if Lara was alive in the saga, she would have been protective with Ciri. The moment that girl steps foot in the world of the Aen Elle, she would have pushed Avallac’h and Eredin out of the way, telling them to go away with their plans and taking her under her wing.

This means that Lara would also take over Avallac’h’s role in TW3, having helped to train Ciri. She has no hidden ulterior motives with her descendant. She just wants to help her understand her power and doesn’t plan for her to do something she isn’t comfortable with. Lara just wants Ciri to be herself, not a copy of her.

Lara doesn’t want Ciri to have to follow in the same shoes of destiny as she did. She knows how suffocating and draining it can be. 

Lara has many regrets, and one of them is having her descendants be hunted down or dying over carrying her Elder Blood. 

Lara would get along well with Ciri's adoptive parents

And while I’m still on the note of Lara protecting Ciri, I feel Lara would get along well with Geralt and Yen because they love and care for her. They don’t treat her like a tool or something to posses like everyone else. They ARE her adoptive mother and father and I feel Lara would honestly be grateful to them for it and HIGHLY respect them. 

Lara does also think of Ciri as a daughter so...

#TeamProtectCiri

Okay, but now I started to make myself cry because I started thinking about how Lara and Ciri could find healing with each other, realizing they relate with one another on SO MANY things (being a princess, having elder blood, and all the expectations/trauma with it, etc.) and I just have too many feelings towards Lara and her descendants. 

Alexa play Alone part ii. by Ava Max.

“'Cause you are that someone That gets me like no one else Right when I need it the most And I’ll be the one you rely on A shoulder to cry on A friend through the highs and the lows”

How would Lara react to what Auberon did in the books? Or the Aen Elle's plans for Ciri?

Appalled, and livid. And also disappointed, but this is mostly targeted towards her own father.

Of course Lara isn't too surprised about it either. In fact, she knows she should have expected them to force the same things upon her descendant, just as they did once upon her.

It was one of the reasons she originally ran away….

But for Auberon…her own father, to be so desperate for the pre-destined role that his daughter averted to play out that he would even consider such…intimate relations with her descendant --- Lara wouldn't stand for it. In fact, I'm still highly full of belief that if she had somehow survived and was witness to the events of "Lady of the Lake" that Lara would call Avallac'h, Eredin, and Auberon out on all they are trying to do to Ciri. (I actually want to write a oneshot on this happening now because I'd love to see Lara do that!)

Ciri isn't a test subject. She's not just another dh'oine. She is her descendant -- the last living being that shares a connection to her and Cregennan and the love they had. She is family. The elves refer to Ciri as "Daughter of Lara Dorren", and although biologically it isn't true, for beings who live centuries, it isn't further from the truth. Ciri is like a daughter of sorts to Lara, but not in the same way it is with Yen and Ciri.

[recreatusamor]

GUIDELINES // READ BEFORE INTERACTING!

O1. my name is rose! 31, my pronouns are she/her, and persona 3 is my life blood rn. this first one isn't really a rule, it's moreso an introductory thingy to me the writer. the persona franchise has been my life blood for a super long time and persona 3 reload really lit a fire on my inspiration. honestly i've been away from rp for a super long time. like 5-7 years. so bear with me while i get back into the swing of using tumblr cause it's been that long for me.

O2. ooc does not equal ic and vice versa! i am not my muse so if a post is tagged as ooc that means that's coming from rose, not my muse. the reverse is true. anything you feel towards the character i'm writing should not transfer to me as a person. i've had people make romantic passes at me before based off of my character ( and i don't mean in a flattering way either ) so please keep this in mind. this also means that i do not hold some of the same beliefs as some of my muses do. please keep that in mind.

O3. this blog is not spoiler free! persona 3 is almost as old as i am so i'm gonna assume if you follow me you at least have some understanding of the game/plot. some characters REALLY hard characters to play without spoilers cause they're connected to a very big portion of the game.

O4. do not godmod! if you don't know what this means i'm honestly shocked but i'll lay it out. do not control my character, unless i have given you express permission or it's been plotted out. i chose to write my character and you chose to write yours so do not write out my muse's actions or dialog to control them.

O5. some of these characters have dark themes! i will do my best to tag all triggers. if you need something tagged please let me know. due to the dark themes of persona 3 it's unavoidable. the following themes that will be present are suicide, self harm, and guns ( even though they're not ' really ' guns the symbolism is still there ). i am only stating this so you know what you're getting into as i also want to respect future writing partners boundaries. if you want to interact and there's a theme in particular that bothers you please let me know. unless it completely goes out of character for shinji and some other muses but i'll try not to focus on those themes when we write if you know it's an issue for you.

06. no lewd for my characters that are minors! kissing and stuff is fine but i'm not going to be doing any nsfw threads with them. end of story.

O7. be respectful! at the end of the day we're all here to have fun. i am not a stranger to the block button. i do not have to interact with you. if you are disrespectful/hateful/racist/homophobic/etc i do not want anything to do with you. as long as we treat each other with respect and kindness then i'm actually a pretty easy going person.

[taiblogcomics]

The Big Unfair Data-Share In the Air Scare

Hey there, deerstalker caps. Well, we're finally here. It's the last issue of Avengers Undercover. This won't be at all satisfying, will it? I sincerely doubt it.

Here's the cover:

…Oh, right. I was confused by the symbolism here until I remembered that Zemo kicked off this thing by very blatantly offering the kids an apple. Okay, I guess that makes sense now. Very confusing if you don't recall that detail, though. But also, now her knife's radioactive! That can't be good! I guess this cover is at least moderately spooky enough to warrant the season. 4/10, see me after class. Except don't, because never seeing this comic again can't happen soon enough for me~

So! Let's recap everything before the final issue. Eternal loser villain Arcade got magic nanite powers and set up a Hunger Games for teen superheroes. After a month, they eventually escaped, whereafter they found society difficult to mix back into, due to the leaked footage of the event. With them being painted as potential bad seeds, they're targeted by the Masters of Evil for recruitment. Most of them aren't stupid enough to go for it, and plan to turn it around on Baron Zemo and pals the first opportunity they get. Three months later, they're still hemming and hawing at making a plan, leaving Zemo to spring his own trap instead…

So, speaking of three months ago, we jump back to six months ago, where Arcade is bragging to Zemo, wanting an invite to the Masters of Evil for his exploits. Zemo asks exactly what amazing deeds he should be exalted for. Kidnapping? Child abuse? Video editing? The only thing impressive about what he did was the tech. Which is why they're co-opting it, thanks to Miss Coriander. They make a dupe of Arcade, transferring his nanites over to the robot. And that's how the kids murdered Arcade, only for him to turn up in Constrictor's prison later~

Back in the present, the present Avengers are trying to blast their way through the giant rock blocking the entrance to Supervillain City. The kids apologise, they didn't know it was a trap. The Avengers believe them, assuring them there's no worry. They'll be sure to trip Hellstrom's magic seal in a few minutes. And how much trouble can the world get into in those few minutes without them? Meanwhile, we see Sabertooth and Mystique sacking the Tower of London, demons burning down Roxxon's oil fields, the Young Masters bullying SHIELD Academy recruits… Okay, maybe the last one is kind of on the lesser side, but still.

Of course, as mentioned, all of that is just a smokescreen for Zemo's real plan. He asks Deathlocket for a progress report, and she's almost 83% done whatever she's hacking. Constrictor and Madame Masque go do another sweep for straggler SHIELD agents. And what do you know, they happen to run into Cammi. She's trying to smash up whatever she can before whatever's going on can happen, but they zap her and carry her away, chiding her for picking the wrong side. They respect her cleverness in escaping prison, but it wasn't enough.

Suddenly tech everywhere cuts out, and Zemo appears on camera. He asks for everyone's attention, then lampshades how he's the big scary villain making threats by hacking into everyone's communications network. Except no: he's hacked into SHIELD's communications. SHIELD has access to everyone's data and is monitoring all your communications. They know what you watch on TV, who you call on the phone, and the contents of your email inbox. Oh no, all my spam! Big Brother is alive and well. So, like, who's the real bad guy here?

Guess what, it's still the Nazi in the purple ski mask. And Cammi demonstrates this by throwing Constrictor into Zemo as he talks. How is she so tough all of a sudden? Well, she's been transferred Arcade's godmode nanites, through Miss Coriander being attached to SHIELD's systems. Now Cammi has the godmode. And she just embarassed Zemo while he was on-screen to the entire world's communications. Cammi, the character who was left out of most of the story due to being locked up is ultimately the hero of the day.

And she couldn't have done it without her prison buddy, Arcade! He turns up, having just escaped with her from prison and given her the permissions to use the nanites. Except, no. Fuck that guy, he doesn't get credit for this. Cammi decks him across the face too. And since the Helicarrier is still broadcasting to everyone, she shows the world that Arcade is still alive, and the plan to defect to the Masters of Evil was always fake.

She explains everything to everybody, so there's no longer any confusion regarding her and her friends. They're all in the clear now. Having now been the superhero, though, Cammi doesn't think she's cut out for it. In fact, she's not cut out for any of this. And using her new powers, she goes rocketing into space, leaving Earth behind.

The comic wraps up with a few epilogues. The remaining teens now have SHIELD's trust. They just want to be kept in the loop a little bit. Cullen Bloodstone having willingly joined up with the Masters of Evil is never brought up, so I guess he changed his mind after Hellstrom mind-controlled him? Either way, the kids reunite with their other friends who were smart enough to be left out of this adventure, and just have some fun being teens at some stupid lake somewhere.

And the villains… Well, whatever their plan was, they at least got second place: keeping the Helicarrier. It doesn't have access to SHIELD's systems anymore, but it's still a cool ship. And it's got a great new hood ornament: Arcade, who starts screaming as the Masters of Evil rocket off to do more villain shit. I told you he'd finally get his comeuppance~

Okay, so! In conclusion, Avengers Undercover is garbage. I think we've conclusively proven that. Now, Arena is still worse, in my opinion. Arena existed just to kill off some C-list teen heroes like Mettle and Juston, and I will forever hate it for that. Say what you will about this series--and we've said plenty here--but at least nobody died, yeah?

Let's talk about Zemo's "plan" for a moment, yeah? Coz, like... What was his plan? Okay, he's hacked into the communications of the entire planet. Except it's really SHIELD's comms, and his big plan is to... reveal this? Like, to sow mistrust? What was your next step, sir? People mistrust the quasi-militaristic espionage group policing the world's superhumans, and... then what? The regular people go over to your side? Like, not to get political, but I think everybody already would mistrust such an organisation, just like in the real world. Was this a statement about our current hellscape of data-sharing and so forth? Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't know what he hoped to accomplish with this. I do know I'm going to use this image again, though~

In summary, this series was already very rough and built on an already stupid preceding series. The rush to the end to conclude it before cancellation certainly didn't help much. If you want a much better story about what might make a teenager fall into the temptations of supervillainy, check out the YA book series Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain. It is way better than any of these comics, and I highly recommend it.

Wow, we're finally done with this whole arc! It was tedious and downright unpleasant at times. Thankfully, I just got a shipment in a couple weeks ago, so we can clear the air and do a bunch more My Little Pony comics as a palate cleanser. Doesn't that sound nice~?