#but like the boarding and finding things is worrysome

[awkwardlyaaron]

Alright guys, it's my first time flying at the end of the month and I'm gonna be all alone and to say I'm anxious is an understatement.

What kinda fun tips should I know?

I'm aware of not bringing knives and it's a short trip with just a few things I'm bringing. My wallet (ID only it's in the country flight) , I wanna bring my crochet hook but im worried they might get weird about it?, and some fruit, like an orange or apple to eat.

But the fuck do I do, how do I find my gate, is it obviously posted like movie theature status? Will they yell when to board, I have a lay over what if I fuck that up?!

[lucimaaie]

dayum, i cant just not be liked by joel bro, its heartblade

petition to now make the ver. where u are like almost another daughter (almost because it'll be kinda weird 😝) to joel while dating/flirting his actual daughter

i got uu

the door swung wide open as you and ellie came in exhausted from patrol. it was still day but the cold had ran you guys from outside to the warm, isolated interior of joel's house.

ellie dropped her bag and flopped onto the couch. she stared at the fireplace longingly. "there's no way i'm sleeping in the garage tonight." she almost shivered at the thought.

"there's no way i'm letting you do that." you moved ellie's legs to sit on the bottom of the couch. "you could just sleep in my room." you said casually, slipping her shoes off and setting them by the couch. you lived with joel, but he wasn't your dad. not biologically, but after finding you almost freezing to death in a blizzard, he practically was.

ellie sat up. "grumps is not gonna like that," she tried not to show how your offer had peaked her interest. she barely got the time to be alone with you the way joel insisted on keeping the door open and being careful-all the trademarks of a dad speech.

"he doesn't have to." you said with a hint of mischief in your voice. that same mischief that ellie loved and joel most definitely didn't. "c'mon." you intertwined your fingers with ellie's, pulling her off the couch and up the stairs.

"you're gonna get me in trouble, just being in here."

you gasped. "now, i'm closing the door." the door shut with a soft click. " it's punishable by death. whatever shall i do?" you fell back on the bed dramatically.

"oh come off it." ellie smooshed your cheeks between her hands, hovering her face over yours. you could feel the developing calluses on her fingertips against your cheeks.

"never." you whispered, pecking her lips.

ellie would never get used to affection you shared now that you were dating. it took a minute to even realize that you weren't just best friends and another to get joel on board (luckily, you did with the promise that you'd be safe and never hurt each other.)

she wanted more. ellie chased your lips as you pulled away. her hands fell down to support her weight. she almost pouted. “we can’t kiss upside down.” you sat up, ellie did the same.

“why not? spiderman does it.”

“surprised you know who he is.”

“i’m gonna pretend that isn’t hurtful and kiss you.” and she did. it was as gentle as she always was, but not hesitant. she’d kissed you enough times to know you wouldn’t break if she wasn’t the gentlest person in the world.

so she let her hands roam. one on your jaw, like always. she liked being able to feel your speeding heartbeat there. the other was on your thigh doing nothing too crazy, just a slow rub across the skin.

not that she hated short kisses, but she found the extra time your lips across hers was usually the exact thing she needed. maybe that’s why did she didn’t notice joel’s voice yelling downstairs or his footsteps getting closer.

you were quick to split as the doorknob was turned. you had forced on your headphones and ellie had picked up a book on your nightstand.

“hey, you okay—” joel froze as he took in the sight before him. you were on opposite sides of the best preoccupied with things that weren’t each other, which let’s be honest, was never the case. he knew something was up. “huh.”

“hi pops.” you said in your best attempt to not sound outta breath.

“hey. y’know, i do remember saying something about keeping the door open-“

“heard.”

“loud and clear.”

joel felt placated. the whole reason he’d been hesitant on you two dating was just how close you were. that kind of thing, so young and fast, was worrysome for him. so yeah, he wasn’t ignorant to what two teenagers in love were doing behind a closed door. he would have words for that later, but seeing you both grinning like you held some secret he wasn’t privy to, made it okay for now.

thank you for reading!

[digicyswrites]

Just a Visit (pt 1)

The Dread Wastes, as the lesser beings called her home, was sprawled around Jik’xil like a grand sea. Deep blue grass quivered in the chill breeze, only staved off from her own carapace by the thick cloak she wore, pulled tightly around her body. She had to drop her abdomen to fit everything inside and her claws clung firmly to the soft fabric as she walked, listening to the plants crunch beneath her feet.

Vyrixx, her scorpion, kept pace behind her. She could ride, yes. She had ridden in the sha-scarred stretches, but here it just felt like a waste. Even if the flowers wilted in the cold, she wanted to feel the familiar ground under her feet, feel something that wasn’t the hard, dry dirt of durotar, or the creaky boards of the temple library. 

She kept her gaze high, antennae perked in anticipation as she scrambled down hillsides and weaved through groves of young kypari trees. A single sapfly divebombed her head, no doubt angry at her intrusion. A single sapfly ended up in her mouth, probably regretting its decision. Jik’xil didn’t bother to gather her cloak back up, letting it wave in the wind like a hero’s cape.

Instead she ran the rest of the way to a single amber door, neatly set in the wall of a cliff. The pale mantid bounded up to it, clicking a command back to let Vyrixx wander as she stretched out her forelegs, rapping at the door. No response. She struck the door again, more forcefully. Still nothing. With a quiet chitter to herself, she leaned in. Listening.

The whirrs and clicks of machines whispered to her from within, distant as if behind another door. A sharp crack shot through her ears and she jerked back, almost too soon to hear the muffled words that followed.

So he wasn’t even going to let her in, huh? She approached the door again, first trying the usual way to open it. When it didn’t budge, she drew back. Either the door was somehow barricaded from the inside (which wouldn’t be much of a surprise), or...  Jik’xil began to hum, gently edging her voice into the range sonic casters used as she opened her mouth, using her mandibles to direct the sound.

Click.

The door slid open and a small spiderlike machine dropped onto both the ground and its back, flailing its legs in the air. Her mandibles pulled into a grin as she stepped over it, into the utter mess beyond. She called out, “Cricket!”

“Back already, are you?” Cricket’s voice echoed from a nearby room, and Jik’xil wasted no time in stepping over. The red mantid was seated at a desk overflowing with little bits and pieces of things, some half built projects and even a mostly completed prosthetic foreleg. His focus remained on his work as she entered, only an antenna twitching to acknowledge as she nearly tripped over a piece of metal on her way in.

Jik’xil tugged off her bag, sweeping a pile of parts on a nearby table aside to set it down there. She plopped herself onto a nearby stool and busied her hands with undoing her cloak. “Of course. Someone has to help you clean up all this mess.”

Cricket let out a huff, finally peering over his shoulder to look at her. “It’s good to see you’ve survived long enough to come do my... ‘organization’ for me.” He looked back down to the delicate looking contraption in his hands, simply gesturing with a foreleg to the precariously stacked piles of things about the room. “I’ve already done so, can’t you tell? The piles are sorted by material now.”

She chirped in amusement, mandibles clicking against her carapace. “Obviously.” Her cloak was neatly folded, and she laid it into her bag. “What are you ma-”

A jerk of Cricket’s antennae silenced her in a wingbeat. “It is unimportant. What have you been doing on your travels? You reek of the lesser ones, even after your journey here.”

Jix’xil tilted her head, sweeping her antennae down over her face. “I suppose I do.” In truth, she had long since gotten used to the scent. She had been unaware it still clung to her so strongly. “I joined a guild!” Her antennae flicked right back up, held high in enthusiasm. “The Delvers Society. They collect a bunch of artifacts and things. It’s the best chance I’ve found yet that I could find something to help!”

“Chrrrrr.” The sound was one of acknowledgement. “That is good. But remember, swarmling-”

“I’ve passed a cycle!”

Cricket continued, unperturbed, “that your amulet is not infallible. You can’t spend too long around that guild, or it’s going to fail eventually. And if it fails...”

The tinker left the sentence unfinished with a hiss, evidently trusting Jik’xil to come to the conclusion of consequences on her own. And to that... she remained silent for a while. She was well aware that most would be inclined to kill her on sight, buuuut... “I think it should be alright. I mean, two of them have already found out.”

The very moment those words left Jik’xil’s mouth, Cricket froze. The tinker slowly set down his work, and the stool he was on swiveled to face her with a soft whrrrrrrr. He stared at her, mandibles dropped and unmoving and eyes narrowed in a judging stare.

She may have had a little bit of regret.

After several minutes of being judged, she blurted out, “H-hey, I’m still alive! Look, not a cut on-”

“Jik’xil.” Cricket spoke with astounding calmness for the way he was looking at her. “You’re a reckless fool sometimes.” He sighed, letting it out in a stream of clicks. “Tell me about these two.”

“...Actually?”

The other mantid nodded. His antennae pointed forwards, and his expression had now faded to one of merely exasperation.

Jik’xil took a deep breath and began to speak. “The first is a little goblin who's half night elf and also has a bunch of prosthetic parts. I... I told her, first, but she knew anyway. Something about her goggles.” As she spoke, Cricket stood and plucked one of his mechanical creations out of the air, a little wasplike thing. He placed it on her and it began to move about her body, scaling her carapace with its tiny little legs. She could feel its metal antennae poking at her.

“I don’t think she’s going to tell anyone, just because she doesn’t want her own secret out. The other one... the other one is an elf. One of the ones who served the Klaxxi during the dread swarm.” Jik’xil purposefully neglected to mention Cartian’s involvement in the siege of Orgrimmar. The wasp crawling around on her was weird enough already.

Cricket nodded, waiting a few moments more before calling off the wasp. He fiddled with it, seeming satisfied once done. “You haven’t been harmed, it would seem. How do you know the elf is to be trusted?”

Jik’xil could only shrug. “He seems to like us... mantids. And I fought him in a duel. He could’ve killed me right then and there... I couldn’t even hit him!” She swung her forelegs, miming the maneuver she had failed twice and nearly swung herself right off the stool in the process. Cricket placed a hand on her chest to steady her.

“Oh. Oh! Also. He gave me this.” She pulled away from the tinker’s hand, reaching into her bag. She rummaged around for a few seconds before pulling out the small amber mushan figure that Cartian had given her on New Years Eve. “He said it was a peace offering.”

Cricket reached forwards, pointing a claw to the figure. “May I see that?” Jik’xil handed it to him, and he slowly turned it over in his hands, inspecting it. His mandibles clicked in thought, and he eventually spoke. “You said the elf gifted this to you? As a ‘peace offering?’”

“Yes, Cricket. You aren’t going to try and take it apart, are you?”

He simply handed it back. “Curious. Worrysome, as well. Are you sure you wish to return there, Jik? I have no qualms about letting you stay here for as long as you need, though I’m sure you are aware of that.”

She shook her head, forelegs raised in further disapproval. “I can’t just quit, not when I’m this close. And I left a lot of my stuff there.”

And if I can’t learn to beat an ELF, what sort of mantid am I?

Jik’xil closed her eyes, reaching up to sweep her antennae back in a sort of mind clearing motion. When she opened them again, the other mantid flicked a concerned antenna at her. Hers went back. She’d prefer not to talk about it.

“Yeah, right... my stuff.” She slipped off the stool and grabbed her bag. She still had to look up at Cricket, even when she stood. “I just came for a few things, I should get those and-”

“And go to sleep outside tonight, halfway across the wastes? Absolutely not. You should stay here. I just brought in a yak’s worth of meat yesterday, so there is more than enough for both of us.”

She sort of stared up at him, her bag awkwardly half supported by her forelegs.

Cricket put a hand on her shoulder, spinning her to face the interior of the house through the door. “Go on, we both know you're not making it back to your own residence in four hours. I haven’t moved anything of yours from the last time you were here, so go get yourself situated.”

As much as she didn’t want to admit, he was right. She could also go for some yak, especially over chasing things around in the undergrowth for hours because she poisoned her only good weapons. And so she went along, a smile starting to return to her mandibles before she tripped over yet another pile of parts.

By the Old One, Cricket MAY have been older than her, but he was absolutely awful when it came to managing his... hoard.