#cuz its about pretending youre someone cooler

[clottedscream]

Hello! I absolutely love love love your nell vance art...I was wondering if it would be alright if I used it for a nell vance spotify playlist cover with credit? Thanks, and love your art!

Sure! also omg send me the playlist!

[serxinns]

HAII MOOTIEEE I HAVE AN IDEA

platonic yandere class 1a (+teachers if u feel like writing them) with an idol reader. to be a bit more specific, the reader is kinda like a jpop idol and they're also a hero, but they fight very brutally like someone in mortal Kombat would.

and the class is like very concerned cuz reader is pretty young and they shouldn't do all this hard idol work (I imagine that they found out they're an idol before they found out they were also a vigilante). Plus it would be kinda funny if the reader's fans were kinda weird and liked how they dealt with villains and ask to take pictures with them while they're all bloody n stuff cuz they think they look "cooler" or whatever.

also i feel like the reader would still be very happy-go-lucky as they absolutely decimate someone's face in mere seconds :3

A bunch of fans were crowding around UA waiting for you all because they heard a rumor that the famous jpop y/n l/n was the new student of UA it got all over the news headlines and social media everyone all over the Japan talking about it wherever you go when your In disguised even the Ua students themselves thinking what class you were going to be in

As you skipped through the halls a bunch of fans were crowding around you want to get your autograph you tried pushing them away but the crowd was too think You kept being shoved from one person to another trying to get a hold of you until a very loud whip cackle made the crowd quiet and immediately looks towards sensei midnight looking pissed than ever "alright people back around l/n San they got class to attend to lets go"

They all groaned as they soon backed away slowly heading to class but midnight wasn't satisfied just yet "Or unless you want extra training if you're saving that much energy~" thats when the students panicked and quickly went to their assigned classrooms, you ran up to midnight in a tight hug "thank you Sensei!" you smiled as Nemuri giggled and patted your head "your welcome desert now run along to your next class you don't wanna be late?"

You quickly ran into the halls hurrying up to not get late the the 6:59 hit 7 you knocked down your classroom door making it on time "I'm here!" You panted slowly trying to catch your breath everyone in the classroom, stood silently noticing your presence they all looked at you in silence for about a min until one girl with the pink hair screamed "its (idol name)!!!" The students were about to trample you down untill Aizawa glared at them with red glowing eyes demanding them to sit

Once seated Aizawa cleared his throat "Class this is our new student y/n l/n do you have any questions for her" a bunch of hands went up spouting all types of questions and that was how each of your bond started

They treated you like you were their siblings each of them wanted to spend time with you heck even the teachers!

The girls would invite you to a sleepover every other week or have a spa date with their idol spoiling you at the chance they get

Momo and iida were like your older siblings always helping you out the best way they could helping you with your grades and ofc spoiling you

Shoto and Bakugo would always compete with each other over for your praise and try out one another whether be fighting, playing games anything they'll do anything to win your attention

Tsuyu and Tokoyami were your calm besties pretending that they were normal even tho they wanted you just as bad Tokoyami and you would watch mystery movies together and Tsuyu would occasionally join the two of you and try guessing dark shadow would joined as well making it interesting while tokoyami watched happily

Izuku would rant all about his favorite heroes to you while you rant about your interests and put them together and thentwo of you would be ranting for hours and hours at the time

At training, it's WW2 fighting over who gets to train with you 1st and Aizawa had to stop them and decided that you were gonna train with him while the rest of the class groaned while he restrained himself from, smirking knowing he won

One day a villain was attacking and everyone's priorities were fixated on getting you safe but before they turned to look to see if you were you took off launching yourself towards the villain and beating them mercilessly the class watched as You were taking down the villain with mixed emotions, mostly admiration, some shocked, most concerned, and the bakusquad hyping you up

At the end of the day when the monsters got taken down you were met with a bunch of fans who wanted to get your autograph and a selfie with you but you were worried since you were covered in blood but the fans surprise thought it was badass, so your fans started taking a lot of photos with your while your class watched in jealous but that's fine

(They were gonna plan getting your merch anyway)

Sorry if it was rushed 🥲

[furrbbyx]

M👹NSTER March Day 8: Lake

Ok this little shortie was inspired by some tumblr art of a slutty, fish-stealing scalie. Look, I made y'all a cover image!

Croc-Manxafab!reader (Black)

Sfw-ish, no seccs but much horn.

cw: bratty behavior, mentions organs, mentions a dead fish, snark

Do not copy, do not reproduce.

Approx 600 words

You take the fresh trout you'd bought on to your hook and toss it into the lake. The familiar zzzzsh of the unwinding reel feels like its zinging through you body. You wait for your bait to be taken with a giddiness and a growing creaminess between your legs

It doesn't take long. You can see a large figure swimming out of the lilies, towards you, from the far side of the lake.  You squeeze your thighs tightly and try not to fall off the rock you sitting on and humping slightly.

You wait to feel the pull on the line, but it doesn't come. Instead a big hulking croc rises up out of the water before you with a terrific splash.

You squeal and kick your legs pretending to avoid the water as it soaks through your flimsy crop top and bikini bottom. 

"I don't know what kind of beast you take me for. I must have really lost my mind taking a dead fish off a line." The thickly scaled anthropomorphic croc-man growls, causing your heart to flutter.

He sounds bored, annoyed and utterly bratty about the fish he's holding in his clawed hand like a ...well like like it was a dead fish.

You grin widely and take in his dripping wet, powerful body, his bright reptilian eyes and his tail cutting  lazily through the water beside him.

"Oh come on." you purr" "Didn't anyone ever tell you to be nice when someone gives you a gift?"

"Cheap gift." He scoffs

"Nuh uh! I paid a pretty penny for that trout."

"Yeah cuz you can't catch your own."

"Or somethin steals 'em" You grumble turning away with a smirk.

He yanks on the fish and you suddenly find yourself face first in the lake.

"Awk!"

Your big, sexy croc-Man crush plucks you out of the water and holds you against his broad smooth chest so that your shirt rides up, exposing a generous curve of underboob flesh. You wrap your thighs around his trunk of a torso and squeeze him.

"If you don't want it" you splutter "Give it back!" You grab at the fish but he holds it out of your reach, above his head.

"No way, I'm hungry" With two snaps of his fang filled jaw he devours the fish to your delight. Bits of the fish, scales and blood splat on your cheek causing you to squeal again.

Watching him annihilate the food you'd brought him makes a hot little feeling squirm in your belly, and watching him swallow in big gulps that distend his throat turns your nipples into stiff points.

You roll your eyes, pretending to be the annoyed one now.

"Ugh, gross!" you exclaim, but you reach up to wipe a bit of organ meat off of his chin and narrow your eyes in pleasure when his long rough tongue snakes out to curl around your fingers.

"You better have more where that came from." he demands. 

"Mmmph, I thought bought fish was too good for you." you sass him.

"Maybe if you feed me by hand I wont notice."

"Hmm, I've got some squid and shark in the cooler"

His eyes light up.

"I've always wanted to try shark. But I imagined gutting one in battle."

"Oh wow, you're impossible to please."

"I can think of a few ways you can please me." He coos and lowers his head to nuzzle your neck. You revel in the the touch and the feeling of your crop top slipping further up your breasts as he crushes you tighter against his side.

You roll your hips in encouragement and wrap your arms around his shoulders. He begins to carry you toward the shore and you lean in to say quietly

"I wanna feed you while you split me open"

He just grins and makes his way towards the shore.

[autisticangus]

anyway im so out of the loop on the mcelboys

i pretty much only keep semi-up to date with Sawbones at this point, not cuz i dont still LIKE everything else, just a lot has been goin on in my life

if anyone wants a long and rambly update on All Of The Bullshit im gonna stick a read more down here, asks are open and its cool to message me abt any of it if u want cuz i have some really nice and cool followers/mutuals here that make me comfy talkin abt that shit

as far as the future of this blog goes i wanna start using it more again! the mcelroys have gotten me out of some really dark places before so i hope having more connection to this community and the people here and their content again will help me like it has in the past! ill probs post more general mcelroy content here than previously rather than just taz btw i just gotta fuckin uhhhhh,,,, catch up on a bunch of shit again before this blog is even semi active lmaoo but im like alive and on tumblr regularly again!!

Wow u clicked on this and wanna hear me talk? Ur awesome and sweet, thanks for caring!

These past two years have been extraordinarily tough. This is gonna be a pretty long and detailed post that deals with the sensitive topics of emotional abuse, abusive relationships, and alcoholism. Please read on with caution.

Back in March of 2019, so this was about 3-4 months after i left tumblr, I got a new boyfriend and things started out really good, he was kind of a "bad boy" and it was fun at first. Im kind of a goody-goody so it was very interesting for me at first to be with someone so different who had such different life experiences than me. I liked hearing his stories of living in a traphouse, and running with gangs, and selling drugs, and knowing people who had killed people. I assumed a LOT of it was lies, obviously, who just brags about that shit u know? I just rolled with it, didnt take it seriously, and found the imagined scenarios interesting to listen to. So much of it was obviously played up to make him seem cooler, and I shouldve seen that as the red flag it was, and all my friends did but I didnt. 

He had a serious alcohol problem, I mean I had coffee in the morning and he had 2 four lokos before noon. it was bad. about 6 months into the relationship he decided i was cheating on him with my ex who i had recently reconnected with, we missed being friends and things were really going well talking and being friends again, he was really important to me! but my boyfriend saw this as yet another thing i was doing wrong. when he decided i was cheating, that become his focus of alcoholic rage. nearly every time he got drunk, which was several times a week, he would accuse me of things, he would yell and scream, he would call me horrible names and make me cry for literal hours, he never hit me but that shouldnt even matter, i was emotionally battered and mentally bruised and everything hurt. he gaslit me into believing i said and did things i never said or did, i admitted to things that were not real, and then i was yelled at for admitting them. i didnt know what to do.

he was threatening my ex too, he would get drunk and say he knew where he lived (he didnt) or he knew what car he drove (he didnt) and explained to me many times that although he had never killed someone, people had been killed before at his command. he said a bullet in the back of my ex’s brain was just a phone call and $500 away. somedays he would tell me he was just going to do it himself, with a hammer, or a kitchen knife, or whatever weapon he could get his hands on during his explanation of how he would do it. my only option was to agree, to say it didnt matter to me what happened to him, i had to pretend my on

/ly concern was him going to jail for the crime, if i showed any sign that i didn’t want my ex murdered, it clearly meant i was cheating on him. 

i pretended to block my ex on social media to get him off my back and it worked a little bit but he still brought it up. and even if he didnt directly mention him, he would always tell me when he was drunk that i was the cause of all his problems, i was why he was so self conscious, i was why he drank so much, i was why he had to work so hard, i was why every single issue he had was happening. logically i knew it was wrong, but i was so conditioned to it by then that i just went with it. i knew that agreeing and apologizing made the fighting end quicker.

things spiraled this past summer. his job needed us to relocate so we moved like 4 states away, away from all my family and friends, and lived in a tiny hotel room for a month. during this time, his drinking was somehow worse. he was drunk literally every night but he was passing out so we didnt fight and i was relieved. i was depressed being stuck in the hotel room all day alone, but thankful i wasnt being abused at least. then he started getting into drunken fistfights with his coworkers in the hotel parking lot. one day he came home just in time to find one of his drunk coworkers trying to break into the room with me there desperately trying to keep him out. i was terrified and wanted to go home but he convinced me to stay. a couple weeks after that we travelled for his work again several more states away. his drinking got a little bit better here, but i was so depressed and lonely, i was so isolated, he was all i saw day in and day out besides his coworkers and i was nervous around them. one day the guy who tried to break in on me, purposefully, while drunk, hit another coworkers car and totaled it and tried to run the guy over and i saw the whole thing. a week later my boyfriend was also fired because he got so drunk he passed out in the hotel parking lot and the company needed to save face with the hotel after the whole car incident. 

so we travelled back home, but not my home, to his where we lived isolated on a mountain with no phone signal or wifi. the house was old and not well kept from being empty for several years, half the appliances didnt work. i was more isolated than i have ever been in my life. for 4 months i stayed there and just dreaded him coming home because i knew he would be drunk again and he'd yell or accuse me of things or otherwise belittle me. it was horrible. my friends all said to leave and my parents said to leave but i was so brainwashed into thinking that if i was just a good little housewife and if i just stayed home and did the dishes and the laundry that he would be nicer but he still found things to point at and say i was cheating. he was also becoming really controlling about my food intake and weight and i already struggle with an eating disorder so that just made me feel even more like i had to stay, my brain felt like if i wasnt under his watchful eye id gain weight again, like somehow it was thanks to him i had lost weight and not my own choices.

one day last week i expressed to him wanting to leave, saying how unhappy i was, i told him how sad i felt and how i didnt think we were such a good match. he didnt take me seriously, so the next day when he got sloppy drunk before 5 pm i packed a small bag and went to my moms. i was just gonna stay for a night or two but he called and screamed at me for leaving without telling him, i told him he just didnt remember me telling him because he was so drunk, and he accused me of not caring about his feelings and made me sound like the bad guy for leaving without his permission. i told him it was just for a few days but the angrier he got the more i knew i was in the right and told him i was done. i told him we were breaking up and id come get my stuff soon.

i got my stuff while he was at work this past weekend and moved in with my best friend. im safe and happy now. things are looking so much better for me and im so thankful to my friends and family who supported me all the way to the end.

i just wanted to make this post because, i know its not mcelroy related, and a lot of ppl probably dont care for stuff like this on this kind of blog, but i think its important.

its important to friends and family of people in abusive relationships to be steady. dont give up your ground. even if the person keeps pushing back and wont leave the person, keep being there for them, it can take a long time, it took me almost 2 years to leave, it takes some people even longer, but just stay there for them and be there for them when they finally make that step. dont give up on them.

and to those who have been in these kinds of relationships, and especially those who are there right now: it is not your fault. it is so, so hard to leave, i know, but please try to find help and support and resources to do it. if all your friends dont like someone, theres a good reason for it. please dont fall into the trap of thinking your friends dont have the best intentions for you. there are so many things you may overlook in the moment that others can see from a mile away are horrible. especially if you have been abused in the past. its incredibly hard to tell what is a red flag when your gut instinct is that anything and everything is a red flag. surround yourself with people who you can trust and listen to them

and trust me, i know how hard it is when youre stuck in that spot of KNOWING you should go but fearing that first step away. its scary. its difficult. but it is worth it. find someone safe you can be with. and if you arent sure, find a reason to leave for just a few days, an excuse, anything. give yourself space from the abuser, tell yourself youre going back in a couple days, just get out from under the thumb long enough to clear your head and things will make more sense with the fog lifted.

when i first got in my car and put my kitten on my lap and told her we were going to my moms for a couple nights, i didnt know if that was the truth. i planned to come back and i knew i didnt want to. i only took enough stuff for a couple days. i couldnt imagine my life changing so drastically. where would i live? how would i make money? who take care of me? i had no clue about any of those things. but after a couple days away I realized i would take care of me. i remembered that i had worked jobs before i was with him, i could do it again. i remembered that i had options of where to live. all of those things were so clouded when i was with him, they felt like impossibilities. once i was away, even just for a short time, things were so much easier to parse.

and i know i had many privileges in this journey not everyone is afforded, and my heart goes out to those who read this and are in this situation and the options i had just arent accessible to you, i am so sorry, i wish i had something more to offer you but all i have is my story, and a wish that it gives you some hope at the very least, and a promise that if you need someone to talk to, im here, i will listen, and you will be heard and loved.

i just want everyone who reads to take something small but important away from it. love your friends, love yourself. please stay safe. please dont give up. remember love should not hurt.

[fishmech]

DaNcInG-iN-yOuR-dUsT.nEt

.x.Welcome.x.

Welcome

to Dancing-in-Your-Dust.net. The name comes from the AFI song Paper Airplanes (makeshift wings). This is just a place to express my thoughts and ideas, if you don't like it..simply leave. If you do however, stick around and enjoy =D

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Lizzy. Arizona. sXe. Vegetarian. Sarcastic. AFI. Tiger Army. Nekromantix. <3 <3 Davey Havok. Make-Up. Music. Movies. <3 Johnny Depp. HUGE Dork. Despair Faction. TNBC. Lock, Shock & Barrel. Jack Skellington. Halloween.

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This is the 9th layout for DIYD. It features the Movie Sleepy Hollow ! =). The pictures are from

johnny depp online

and google image search.

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Hiatus (Be Back Soon)

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<3 Sadey

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<3 Cristal

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<3 Alyssa

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<3 Carol

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<3 Ashley

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<3 Stacey

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<3 Krista

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<3 Karla

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.x.Current Events.x.

08-11-03: My B-Day 09-09-03: Jeanelle's B-Day 09-10-03: Work @ Merch Booth 4 the Starting Line 09-20-03: EdgeFest 03' 09-24-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Fresno 09-26-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Las Vegas 09-27-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Utah 10-13-03: Kevin <3 <3 & Ashley's Birthday 10-14-03: Nightfall 10-30-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Universal CA for Halloween Eve show 10-31-03: Halloween AFI'S Halloween Show??

.x.Playlist.x. Smile--AFI Jack of all Trades--Hot Water Music Unstoppable--Death by Stereo The Power of Moonlite--Tiger Army True Romance--Tiger Army Who Killed the Cheerleader--Nekromantix A Single Second--AFI Darkangel--VNVNATION Dirty Magic--The Offspring Anabelle Lee--Tiger Army The Man Who Sold the World--David Bowie Can I Say?--Dag Nasty .x.CD Player.x. Art of Drowning--AFI Sing the Sorrow--AFI Shut your mouth and open your eyes--AFI Moonlite--Tiger Army Can I say?--Dag Nasty Empires--VNVNATION War of all Time--Thursday .x.Stalker.x.

DancingInUrDust

E-Mail:

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.x.At the Moment.x. Date:October 1, 2003 Mood: Tired Eating: Nothing Drinking: nothin Watching: nothin Hearing: Transplants Wearing: Night of the living dead Shirt and duck pj's Thinking: AFI IS ONLY 28 DAYS AWAY!!!!!!! Talking to:  nobody Drooling over: Davey Havok Wanting: The 30th to get here! Surfing: Nothing .x.Tagboard.x.                                      Name:               URL:              Message:                      

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I believe in ¤

Aliens, Ghosts, and Magic

Horror Movie

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The Lost Boys & The Bride of Frankenstien

REAL men paint their nails.

AFI is my obsession

Morningstar by AFI is MINE

My Song::Morningstar

MORE??

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October 6, 2003

Hello all..thought I'd write in here since I have pretty much nothing else to do. I've been up to pretty much nothing. Sadey and I went to the mall and bought our AFI limited edition Art & Artisha dolls..which cost an arm and a leg. We also talked to kevin..just him tho cuz Bobby-o wasn't there today. It was hilarious because when we were leaving I go to hug kevin and I accidentally hit his nose...he's all like "oh great she's trying to beat me up too!" good times man, good times. Anyway in other good news, Sadey's mom is thinking about opening a store sorta like Hot Topic @ the mall..and it's gonna be hella rad cuz well, I can work there =D We'd carry much more cooler things than Hot Topic..I mean I like that store at times but, they never really carry anything that cool now. Speaking of HT im gonna start working there prolly in mid november. Im putting my 2 weeks @ Target in tommorow. Anyhoo while I was at HT I saw this rad velvet black dress with like flared sleeves and I want it for the show in Universal but I checked the price and its like 90 bucks so I was like hell no..so Im gonna have my mom make one for me and im adding shit on it like red laced trim...its gonna be so super awesome =D Im trying to think of what else that has happened..Oh I was sick this weekened and I called in for work and Nickey (the LOD) got all pissed and told me im not taking my job seriously anymore and all this other BS and she hung up on me...so she basically called me a liar....and im telling you, I was really sick! So I woke up the next morning and it was already like 11:00am and my shift was supposed to start at 9 and I was like shit...they're gonna fire me. So I called Nickey and she apologized for hanging up on me and that she doesnt wanna lose me as an employee and that she values me and shit..I was just like yea, well you're in for a rude awakening cuz im quitting haha..no I didn't say that but I was thinking it..so she told me to just take the day off. I was like cool ok. So I guess thats all that really happened...I went to this wedding party thing on Saturday night w/ sadey a whole bunch of Italians from brooklyn...awesome as hell im in love with their accents..lol. There was this annoying kid there that was trying to impress Sadey and I by acting all drunk and telling us how much he had to drink when in all reality he wasn't really drunk he was just pretending because all his mom would let him have was one drink..little does he know we're sXe..haha loser. Alright anyhoo I guess thats all for site news.. my wonderful katie (rapturous voice davey fansite) is leaving me ::cries:: she bought a domain,

davey-havok.net

Ill miss you much Katie =D Go visit her now BTW. But the good news is that I got a new hostee,

Barbara

. She's gonna open the fanlisting for AFI's

Morningstar

which I am very happy about..it's about damn time someone decides to make a fanlisting for that song cuz it is such a beautiful song =D Alright so..enough of my rambling im out, later =D --Lizzy--[Deadjournal] | [Plug]

(8) are dancing in the dust

October 1, 2003

[EDIT]

Ok Im taking my blog down because it was wayyy too long and for some reason my ftp is not letting me write anything else on to my notepad sorry kids..if ya wanna know what happened just drop me a line on AIM @ dancinginurdust or email me at lizzy@dancing-in-your-dust.net and ill be sure to tell you everything...you can still click the pics and look at those if you like =D

[/EDIT] Happy October..new layout in spirit of Halloween..ill have loads more halloween ones than this..being as this is my fave holiday =D

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17, 18,21,  22,  23,  24,  25 click here for autographs =D --Lizzy--[

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(7) are dancing in the dust

[tomswifty-fr]

(Explanation: this was for a forum thread where you were supposed to have your dragons tell stories to a story-ghost, but the original poster stopped responding and I’m not about to let 2300+ words of dumb teen adventures go to waste.) 

(My greatest apologies to mobile readers)

“Well, it started with me and Ithaca. We were bored. Square Toe is a dumb place to live, y’know? It’s so small and there’s nothing to do! They won’t let us into Habitat or Leo’s, ‘cuz we’re too young. The desert is just the desert. It’s boring and hot and everyone says it’s full of ghosts, but I’ve never seen one. I wish I had. Ithaca wanted to go flying, but I’m bad at flying. My wings are too short.” She stretches one out to prove it. “My uncle says they’ll get bigger, but I don’t think so. Everything else on me stopped growing a long time ago.

“Ithaca’s my best friend, by the way. She’s good at everything, and she’s really brave and stuff…. We spend a lot of time together. I told her I didn’t want to fly, and she suggested some other stuff. Hang out at the library, sneak into Tom’s workshop, go over to the orchard and climb trees until we got caught and chased out. I guess I was in kind of a crummy mood and kept saying no, I don’t want to do that, that’s dumb. I felt bad about it, but I kept saying no. I could tell she was getting annoyed too, so when she said we should go explore the old part of town I said yes, even though we’ve done it a jillion times before.

“Okay so, Square Toe’s a really weird town. I said it was small but there’s actually a lot of it. I guess there used to be a bunch more dragons living here a long time ago, so the city itself is really big and there’s a lot of empty buildings and stuff. Everyone lives close together though, so the old town is empty and really worn out. I used to think it was creepy until I started going there. You can find cool stuff sometimes, like old graffiti, and once I found a little carved hainu. Ithaca heard there was an old statue garden with lots of weird sculptures and that’s what she wanted to go see…”

Riley sneezed again. It was cooler in this cellar, sure, but there was so much dust it was impossible to see anything. She guessed Ithaca had given up on the statues by now; there’s no way they’d be someone’s old basement.

“Hey, check this out!” Ithaca was bent over the remains of a desiccated wooden crate, her feathered tail wagging fiercely and raising even more piles of dust. Riley stifled another sneeze and came over to look.

It was full of paper masks. Tundras with furry fringe, Guardians with drooping horns, Imperials with yarn whiskers, and even a Talonok with cutout beak. “That one looks like you!” Ithaca laughed, pointing to a Mirror mask with four eyes but only two eyeholes. “I could wear it to the library and check out books on your account.”

“And stick me with all the late fees? No way! I should pretend to be you, so I can eat at your house every night. Harry’s a lousy cook.” Riley snatched for a Wildclaw mask in faded purple, intending to hold it up and perform a scathing imitation of her friend, but the ancient paper crumbled in her claws. “Ugh.”

Ithaca made a half-hearted attempt to force the crate closed, giving up with the lid still open at an awkward angle. “Okay, one more basement? If we don’t find anything good, we’ll give up.”

Riley nodded. “Sure, next building?”

“I was thinking that.” Ithaca pointed, drawing Riley’s attention to an empty doorway on the other side of the room.

“That’s just a closet.”

“No, I bet it’s a connected basement. Feel? There’s air!”

Riley concentrated, then gave up. “I don’t feel anything, but I believe you. What are we gonna do about- ” She instinctively caught the small object Ithaca tossed her, then looked down. “Oh. Where’d you get these?”

Ithaca waved her own small lantern and stuck out her tongue mischievously. “Borrowed them from my mom. I told her we were going camping tonight. They’re magic, so we don’t have to worry about them going out. Don’t drop yours though, okay?” There was just a tinge of worry in her otherwise carefree tone; magic items were expensive.

“What do you think I am, a hatchie? I’m not gonna drop it.” She switched hers on with a sigh. “Let’s go.”

*

“How far apart are these basements supposed to be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Shouldn’t we turn around?”

“You can if you want.”

Riley turned her head, looked at the black tunnel behind her, and turned it back to look at the black tunnel and snappish friend in front of her, who was just as nervous but trying to hide it. “Nah, I’ll stay.”

The so-called ‘connected basement’ had turned into a too-long trek down a crumbling stone tunnel. It wasn’t quite cramped, but she and Ithaca were travelling single file. The only saving grace was that there didn’t seem to be any spiderwebs or even a lot of dust, but the slight dampness under Riley’s feet took away any reassurance she could have got from that fact. Flash floods were a fact of Highland Scrub life; thunderstorms were more common further south in Lightning territory, but rushing water could travel miles and miles and be just as violent with the distance.

Wouldn’t that be a stupid way to die, she thought. Drowned in a stupid tunnel with my stupid friend. At least we won’t have to pay for ruining the lanterns.

After another little distance of silence and worrying, the corridor opened up into another chamber. The two teens almost breathed sighs of relief, before noticing one crucial fact.

“Ithaca? This isn’t a basement.”

It was a large, natural looking cavern, with a ceiling towering dozens of feet above them (Riley realized, a little too late, that the tunnel they’d been going through had been a downward slope). Their lanterns didn’t illuminate very far but were able to reveal a few details: stalagmites jutting up from the floor, water droplets sparkling on the walls, and scuff marks on the ground behind them. The humidity was much higher than either of the desert-dwellers were used to; Riley’s scales itched, and she could see Ithaca’s headfeathers starting to poof up.

Ithaca reached up to scratch her feathers, her eyes getting bigger all the time. “This is so cool.”

“What?”

“No, it’s really cool! It’s a whole cave! And we found it! Do you think it’s connected to Square Toe Cave?”

There was a slightly manic tone to Ithaca’s voice, as if she were overcome by the potential of their discovery. It made sense; Square Toe Cave was the life of Square Toe; almost literally. The underground reservoir was the only thing that had let the original inhabitants build everything they did. Even in its diminished present state, it was all that let the current residents live lives of (relative) comfort in the desert.

“If it is, we didn’t really discover it though, we just found another entrance. They’ll close it off and put another guard up.”

“Ok, so we don’t tell anyone. We keep quiet and have our own cave.”

Riley was trying to match her friend’s enthusiasm, but it was hard. “We’d better not tell anyone. We’d get in trouble just for going through that tunnel.” She mimicked an adult voice, deep and monotone. “Stay out of the tunnels, they’re dangerous, they’re unexplored, they’ve got mimics in them- ”

“That’s for the tunnels in the library. And they just do that because they think they connect to Square Toe Cave.”

“They won’t care. I mean, your dad works in the Cave and he’s always going on about how dangerous it is underground, with floods and stuff and the risk of it collapsing and everything.”

“Yeah, but- ” A scraping sound stopped the argument in its tracks. Suddenly, both teens were extremely aware that they were in a weird cave they didn’t know anything about. Nobody knew they were here. There was something in here with them.

“A mimic?” Ithaca whispered.

“Probably.” Riley breathed back.

It made sense. Mimics lived anywhere they could. The library would have been infested with them, if it wasn’t for constant searching and pest control. This place? Dark, quiet, empty? It would be perfect for them. Mimics were harmless anyway. If you tried to open a mimic book you might get your claws nipped, but that was all. They were scared of dragons. Kimball even kept one as a pet. If it was mimics, it was fine.

The scraping sound appeared again.

They froze.

They waited.

They relaxed.

And suddenly a shape loomed up in front of them. It was large and dark and blue, and smelled like metal and water. Riley didn’t know any more details because by the time she registered the thing, she was already running back up the tunnel, the lantern beam bouncing wildly, strobing the blank walls. Something was running behind her, and she hoped hoped hoped to the Eleven that it was Ithaca.

After what seemed like a long time, too long, she emerged from the tunnel. It was Ithaca behind her. Immediately, in an unspoken agreement, they grabbed the crate of masks and pulled it to the opening, tipping it over and scattering masks across the floor. Neither paid attention to the paper disintegrating under their claws or the sequins and yarn bits bouncing around their claws. It didn’t block the entrance perfectly, but having it there made them both feel a little better.

Outside, Riley wrote ‘BEWARE’ on the building front with a piece of chalk Ithaca found in some pocket of hers. “What do you- what do you think that was?” She was babbling, but tried to concentrate on thinking and writing to soothe her pounding heart. “I’ve never heard of a mimic that big, and it couldn’t have been a dragon. It didn’t- I mean- ” Instead of talking, she pointed to her front eyes, the heat-seeing ones. “It was cold. It didn’t smell like a dragon either. I don’t know what it could be.” Turning to give back the chalk, she saw Ithaca, pale behind her feathers. She was shaking.

“Hey, hey?” Riley took her claw as she handed the chalk back. “We’re okay, right? It didn’t follow us.”

“No, it’s not that.” Ithaca looked sick. “I lost my light.”

“Oh.” Riley paused. “That sucks.” It seemed inadequate.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s head back.”

“And it really just seemed dumb. We just escaped some kind of cave monster and it’s still there under the old city and we can’t tell anyone, or we’ll get in big trouble. I know we should, but I don’t want to. What if we just imagined it? But even if we imagined it, there’s still a cave down there. And losing the light was stupid too. It almost felt worse than, than, whatever happened down there. I mean, it felt more real, you know? But that’s not the weirdest part.

“Ithaca slept over with me that night, because it was already late, and she told her parents we were going camping anyway and she didn’t want to tell her mom she lost one of her lanterns. When she went back the next morning there wasn’t anyone home- she told me this part, I wasn’t there. I guess her dad was at work and her mom and her sister were somewhere, which is pretty normal. But the lantern was lying on the kitchen table. It wasn’t broken or anything. So she gave them both back and didn’t get in trouble, but it was really weird. The whole thing is just weird.

“Anyway, that’s what happened. I guess nothing really bad came out of it, but it was a couple of weeks ago and it’s still weird. Creepy, even. I’m gonna be thinking about it for a long time. She gets up, stretching her legs. “I just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for uh, thanks for listening, I guess.” She leaves, in that same loping run as before, not bothering to wait for a response.

*

Some time passes, and another form fades into view. This one is paler and transparent, and if it ever was a dragon, it sure isn’t anymore. “This isn’t even a story, but something strange happened to an acquaintance of mine a little while ago.”

“His name is Davy, and he was alive until very recently. Death’s been a hard adjustment for him, especially since the person he’s haunting moved very recently, so he has to get used to a whole new place as well. He likes to stay underground, in caverns and cellars and so forth. I think he finds the darkness comforting.

“Well, he told me that the other day he finds a couple of kids spelunking, goes over to say hello, and they start screaming like they’ve seen a ghost- which I suppose they had!” She laughs. “He noticed one of them dropped something, so he went to ask if I could return it since I’m more familiar with the town. Been around it longer, so to speak. Well, I recognized the description, there’s not that many kids around that age in town, so I returned it.

“Later, Ripper tells me- he’s another, well he’s not quite a ghost.” A frown. “Well, we stick together, all us not-quite-dragons-anymore. The one kid, the feathery one, has started asking Vince about ghosts. She didn’t tell him what happened, just acting curious, but I just had to laugh. Vince calls himself a ghost hunter, but his idea of trying to catch us is a propped-up box with a string and a peanut butter sandwich! And all the while she’s sitting there, soaking all his nonsense in, Mike is puttering by right in asking distance. Mike knows miles more about ghosts that Vince does; he’s dating one!”

She shakes her head. “Well, maybe that’s not funny either. Time can warp your sense of humor, I’ve heard. I just think it goes to show. I’m not sure what it shows, but it shows something.”

[crimezdeamour]

hmm./

yano what pisses me off? when ppl pretend to like shit they really dont care about just so they seem cooler. like why waste time like that doing something u dont wanna do just to impress other ppl? i know we’re all guilty of this to some degree consciously or not, but it just upsets me when i see people constantly doing it, completely aware that they’re doing it for attention. like maybe its just me cuz ive been like really close to death personally or watching someone else close to me almost die, but i really feel like not being your truest self or at least trying to be is such a luxury. by that i mean you never know when youre going to lose the ability to live or live fully and wasting that on trying to make other people validate you is so unfulfilling in the long run but whatevr