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marmolady · 19 days ago

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Fever: Part One (Estela x F!MC)

I'm still here. I'm still writing Endless Summer fanfic (slowly).

Book/Series: Endless Summer

Main Pairings: Estela x MC/Taylor (f)

Summary: Post-ending (Endless Ending) Safe in its protective bubble from the fiery destruction beyond, La Huerta still has some cruel tricks up its sleeve for those who might make it a home. PART TWO

Word Count: 3724

Warnings: Coarse language.

Comments and reblogs are hugely appreciated! Honestly, I just love geeking out about these characters, so if anyone ever wants to just do that with me....

AO3

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The sun rose on The Celestial, its rays filtering through expensive curtains. Taylor was up too, fetching a coffee before facing the breakfast rush.

“Coffee, babe?” she asked sleepily, and put a hand on her wife’s shoulder. Estela’s skin was hot to touch… but it did get warm in these rooms without the air-conditioner.

Estela groaned. Her whole body ached. It seemed she’d overdone it; the day before, she’d been part of a group that ventured into a part of the island unknown to them, taking stock of yet another of Rourke’s facilities-- which had turned out to be a not-especially-exciting long-abandoned storage building. She hadn’t felt the trek to be ridiculously strenuous, not by her standards, but perhaps she’d let her fitness slide.

“Thanks, Taylor.”

Taylor placed the mug on the bedside table and perched at Estela’s side. “Are you feeling okay?”

It was difficult not to snap back with an automatic. ‘I’m fine.’ There was no room in Estela’s life for weakness-- not from herself. Rourke was long gone, as were Arachnid, and there was little threat from Vaanti corners these days, but this was still La Huerta, and the last thing Estela wanted was to be caught vulnerable. But there she was.

She frowned, assessing her own symptoms. The body aches were one thing, but she was clammy as well. Some kind of tropical fever perhaps?

“I think I’ve come down with something,” she admitted.

Taylor put the back of her hand to her forehead. “I reckon you’ve got a temperature. We should probably get you checked over by the healers to be safe, and let Michelle know.”

Yes… best to rule out anything nasty. Malaria immediately came to mind. It wouldn’t be her first time….

Estela nodded stiffly, and hauled herself up in bed. She wasn’t right. She definitely wasn’t right.

“Talk to her at breakfast, I guess. Bring something back up for me, though, I think I’m better off staying put.”

A concerned but loving smile warmed Taylor’s features, and she leaned in to kiss her wife’s sweaty brow. “Honestly, the lengths some people go to for breakfast in bed….”

Michelle had a busy morning, with Sean having stumbled down to breakfast looking like death warmed up… determined to brave face his sudden illness away. Hopefully, just flu, but on a tropical island, and especially this tropical island, there was no taking chances. Quinn and Grace were quick to volunteer for rushing over to Elyys’tel to bring back one of the healers-- and Aleister insisted he come along too. With no phones, any kind of urgent medical need was a nightmare. Michelle was on her own, not even yet a medical student but the best their tiny community had.

She took a single glance at Taylor’s worried face as she strode, alone, through the doorway and knew immediately. Estela was down too.

“Let me guess; a fever? Aches?”

Taylor’s frown deepened. “So, there’s something going around?”

It had only been a matter of time, really. The twelve of them lived in close proximity, and were no doubt exposed to exotic diseases as they went about the island.

“Seems to just be the guys who went to check out that old storage shed yesterday… and I don’t think La Huerta does coincidence. I haven’t seen Jake this morning-- do you remember his room number?”

So, Taylor accompanied Michelle to Jake’s room, but found no response to their knocking of the door.

“I don’t like this,” Taylor admitted, her brow furrowed. From the Endless’ memories, she’d seen friends die before her, struck down by sudden illness. La Huerta, even with Rourke gone, Arachnid gone, and most of Vaanti society welcoming, was a deathtrap. “At what point is it reasonable to force entry?”

Michelle was equally troubled. Something about the way Sean had acted earlier gave her a bad feeling. He’d seemed… lost, somehow. And he was jumpy.

“Iris…,” she said, “she can put a message over the speakers like it’s nothing.”

Taylor’s eyes brightened. On edge and inclined to fret, she’d jump straight to getting Zahra to open doors. No… no need to go barging in. More than likely, Jake was just having a lie in anyway. He wasn’t exactly a ‘crack-of-dawn’ kind of guy anyway.

She nodded in agreement. “And if we get no response, she can tap into the security cameras so we can at least get a visual idea of if he needs help.”

Having had no response to ‘come out of your room so we know you’re all right’ over the loudspeakers, it came down to having a visual check-up.

Even fuzzy though the picture was, the sight was alarming. Furniture had been upended, a window looked to be broken, and a figure sat hunched over upon the bed. He was, at least, moving. An exchanged glance was all that was needed to ascertain that they would, in fact, be forcing their way in.

“Michelle--” Taylor reached for her friend’s arm as she started to walk. “Can you check in on Estela for me, just quickly? I don’t know how long we’ll be with Jake, and I’m starting to really freak out.”

“It wouldn’t hurt if we could get some more help along the way,” Michelle admitted. Jake was bigger and stronger than herself and Taylor; if whatever this sickness was caused him to be lashing out, they’d likely be up shit creek. “I’d feel better if we have someone with each of them until we know what we’re dealing with; seeing this… I don’t blame you for not wanting to just leave Estela alone.”

Estela made it to the bathroom in time to lean over the sink and vomit. The room spun. Someone had done this to her. She couldn’t pinpoint why, but she was sure of it. Had she been so blind to assume that just because Rourke was gone that his influence couldn’t still be the death of her? There was an impostor, and she had been poisoned.

She staggered back to the main room of the suite, and pulled Taylor’s obsidian dagger from the bedside table. She could feel her heart racing-- symptoms of her condition or just plain panic? She had to pull herself together, or this thing was going to kill her….

“It’s only me…. I’ve got Michelle here, too.”

The door opened, and Taylor was standing there. Someone who looked like Taylor.

It’s you.

Of course. What else but the cruelest of lies? This wasn’t Taylor; it couldn’t be, for this person-- if they were truly even a person-- was trying to kill her.

Taylor stepped forward, but hesitated as she glimpsed the knife in her wife’s hand. Something was wrong.

“It’s me,” she said again. Did Estela even recognise her? “It’s me, Taylor.”

The look she got back was icy, and Taylor rocked back on her heels, suddenly very nervous.

A cold whisper came back to her, a hiss dripping with venom.

“What did you do to her?”

“Estela-- it’s me. Sweetheart, I think you should lie down; you’re sick.”

“Where is she?” Estela demanded, louder now, and she lurched forward, only to need to be propped up by the bed-frame.

Holding herself upright-- or near enough-- Estela took in the figure who stood before her. Like Taylor but wrong. Everything about her was slightly off; it was a good copy, but this thing had no soul. It scared the shit out of her.

Estela was trapped. What was she to do-- stab this abomination to death? What if it had some physical connection to Taylor? Her legs shook and the room seemed to swim. If she could somehow incapacitate the thing… the Not Taylor… at least injure it enough to give the others a better chance.

But as she lurched forward, her vision blurred, and for the moment before she fainted, Estela knew it was coming. It was all over.

Taylor moved just fast enough to prevent her wife’s body from slamming straight to the ground.

“I’ve got you….” But would that even be a comfort? Estela either didn’t recognise her, or was seeing her as a threat. Why? “What the hell…. What the actual hell….”

She gently eased her wife into the recovery position.

“That’s right,” Michelle praised, clearly pleased that the first-aid boot-camp she’d insisted upon had made at least some impact. “Airway clear.”

Taylor looked up, shaken. “She was absolutely terrified of me.”

Michelle frowned, and continued taking Estela’s vital signs. “Whatever this disease is they’ve all caught, there seems to be some kind of psychotic element. Paranoia… maybe even hallucinations. Hallucinations aren’t that uncommon with a fever, but all three of them as severe as this? It’s got to be something specific to La Huerta.”

“So we’re stuck until the healers can make it over here.”

It wasn’t an attack, but all Michelle felt was her own inadequacy.

“We’ll treat the symptoms, even if we don’t know the cause. But most importantly, we can’t let anyone become a danger to themselves or others.” She shuddered to think how bad a turn things could have taken had Estela not been so physically weakened. And the way Jake’s room had been trashed-- what if someone had been caught up in that rage?

Together, they moved Estela onto the bed, and to their relief, she stirred in just a few minutes. Afraid to cause distress, Taylor quickly backed away so that she was out of sight.

Estela looked up at the face that blurred before her. Michelle. She seemed… safe. “It’s not… her. Not Taylor.”

Michelle remained cool and level-headed. “Are you saying that wasn’t our Taylor?”

Feeling relief at being understood, Estela let herself give in to the tiredness, her grasp on Michelle’s hand slackening. She nodded-- and the simple movement made her vomit again.

“It’s okay,” Michelle said gently, as she cleaned up with the efficiency of someone who’d dealt with her fair share of such messes. “I’m going to find out what’s happened. You just rest up-- I need you to trust me to bring the real Taylor home safe and sound.”

Estela didn’t risk nodding again, but closed her eyes, giving in to total physical exhaustion. Apparently trusting of her friend, she allowed Michelle to give her ibuprofen. Within a few minutes more, she was sleeping, and Taylor cautiously sat down beside her.

Michelle met Taylor’s eye, and reached to grasp her hand. “We’ll fix this.”

Uncomfortable though Michelle was in leaving Taylor alone with Estela, she didn’t see much choice other than to leave as briefly as she could to get help. Someone could stay with Taylor and Estela, someone could stay with Sean, and then they’d put some kind of a plan in place to deal with whatever Jake was going through. After what she’d seen in Estela… Michelle was nervous. She walked briskly to the elevator, and hoped help would soon be arriving from Elyys’tel.

That their ragtag group was far too isolated from Vaanti society hadn’t been missed; efforts had already been made to begin a dirt track along the coast for ease of access, and a pair of electric-powered all-terrain-vehicles had been acquired during one of the group’s explorations of Rourke’s remaining facilities. In time, it would get easier to connect to those in Elyys’tel-- especially in emergencies-- but for now, it so often felt that they were alone.

Michelle came into the dining area to find a blindfolded Sean being guided across the room by Craig, who had an arm around his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. “I thought I told you to wait for me in the infirmary ages ago!”

Sean snapped back at her, exasperated. “D’you think I haven’t tried? It’s like I can’t trust my own eyes-- if Craig hadn’t come back down for seconds, I’d be stuck.”

Michelle flushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a shitshow of a morning and….” And you always fight me? It wouldn’t exactly help. Instead, she came closer to look him over and gently probe. “You’re having hallucinations?”

“That’s what I’m here for!” Craig said. “Fighting off his imaginary sabre-tooths. And, you know, if he thinks the floor is literally made of lava again….”

Hands on her hips, Michelle nodded her appreciation to Craig. He would always have Sean’s back, no matter how stubborn he could be in accepting that support. When she spoke to Sean again, her tone was not so sharp.

“It could just be a symptom of your high fever, but this seems so intense, and it’s not just you, either. The ibuprofen should start to help soon; in the meantime, we’re getting you to infirmary and you need to rest. Please, Sean. I feel so over my head with this one.”

“I’ll bet,” he said, leaning against Craig and braving pulling the cloth up from his eyes for a few moments. He offered her a shaky smile. “I am relieved to see you. Losing faith in your own senses… it’s honestly terrifying.”

Michelle returned the smile and squeezed his arm, wishing her stomach didn’t flip-flop around him the way it did. Things had gotten so much better between them-- as friends they were close-- but heightened emotion always brought her back to defensive where Sean was concerned. The hurt just wasn’t done healing yet.

“I might get you to go with Raj instead, actually,” she said, and she put up a hand when Craig opened his mouth to argue. “I’m not sure what state Jake’s going to be in; it seemed as though Estela was having a full-blown psychotic break, so I wanna go into this with someone strong on my side. And I’ll need Zahra to open the door.”

Craig let out a long “Shiiii-iiiiit,” while Sean’s tired eyes filled with concern. “Is she safe? She’s not going to hurt herself?”

“Her physical symptoms are quite severe, but that means she’s at least not moving around and causing herself any harm. As soon as the others get back with help, I’ll have someone backing Taylor up.”

Shivering all over in spite of the fact that he was wearing nothing but a thin pair of shorts, Jake shuffled out the door of his suite. He’d heard voices from outside not too long ago. And voices over the hotel-wide speakers. But voices… he was hearing a lot of voices. Lundgren. Jeanine. Mike.

Can’t you give me some fucking peace?

Maybe he didn’t deserve peace.

Shifting shadows caught the corner of his eye. He never knew where to look; the movement, the telltale rippling of the air, it was there one second and gone the next.

No one could’ve survived that fall. And La-Huerta-raptor. Jeanine was dead and gone.

But where was the damn body?

He inched along the wall, though his legs could barely hold him up. With no drinks left in his room, he’d have to seek out something strong if he wanted to blot this out.

Was alcohol a wise solution to his splitting headache? Hell naw. But that wasn’t about to stop him trying.

“’f you’re gonna kill me, Jeanine, might as well come out and do it…,” he muttered, to no response. All in his head, or toying with him? Torturing him. Hell, she would get a perverse kick outta that.

He punched out at a wall and hollered. “What’re ya waitin’ for?”

Taylor stroked Estela’s dark hair. It was soft. She could run her fingers through it all day, quite honestly, and feel her beautiful wife, so staunch and strong, just melt into her. She placed a cool, damp flannel over Estela’s forehead.

It had been hard to let Michelle leave. Taylor didn’t know what she could do if Estela woke in distress… likely it would have been better if Michelle stayed and Taylor left, but she simply didn’t have it in her to walk away.

“I don’t know what dark place you’re in right now, but I’m with you.”

Whatever good that would do.

The door creaked. “Knock, knock?”

It was Diego, Varyyn right behind him.

“You can come in,” Taylor called. If they’d made it back from Elyys’tel, chances were that the group seeking out the healers would be with them. And answers, if they were lucky.

Varyyn strode forward, his amber eyes kind but serious. “Taylor, my people are familiar with this blight. I know you must be very afraid, but we have a very effective cure.”

Taylor exhaled with her whole body, almost slumping right over. “Oh, thank god!”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she hastily wiped her nose. “I’m sorry. I think I pretty much blocked out how scared I’ve been. It feels like I’ve been holding my breath since I came up from breakfast and Estela was just about ready to pull a knife on me.”

With a wet croak, Estela rolled forward and retched, still unconscious. Taylor grabbed the bucket just in time.

“She’s not looking so good,” Diego said gently, and he sat on the edge of the bed, concern in his eyes. “I guess… at least she’s sleeping through it now.”

Taylor frowned. “She’d hate this. Being so vulnerable. Honestly, it makes me feel vulnerable… having her out of action. Jake and Sean too. You don’t realise how much security some people give until they can’t give it anymore.”

“You know,” Diego said, “Iris is gonna sound the alarm if anything dodgy comes anywhere near the resort. And I know we can’t all be Wonder Woman, but the rest of us have gotten pretty badass.”

“Yeah. I know that. This has all just shaken me-- the sooner the healers can at least start putting her right, the better.”

“They are going over everything with Michelle,” Varyyn said, “then, I suppose, they will come around to administer the medicine. If I remember correctly, it makes the patient very sleepy.”

“Taari actually had the same thing when I was, uh, a guest of her majesty. Poor little kid seemed like he was living a waking nightmare, but then whatever it was they gave him, it just… settled him. It was like he had a normal flu after that-- a bad flu-- but it was manageable. Within a few days, I never would have guessed he’d ever been sick.”

“We call it, in your tongue, ‘screaming fever’.”

“I guess that’s apt.”

“It is an affliction that comes from contact with the leaves of a poisonous plant. We are careful to remove this plant wherever we find it, but it persists, and children especially are at risk as they do not recognise it.”

“Children and humans….” Taylor sighed. They simply couldn’t keep up with everything La Huerta had to throw at them, even with the knowledge Varyyn shared. “But this won’t happen again. We need a crash course in dangerous plants-- edible ones too, while we’re at it. We’re too far away from Elyys’tel’s healers to not be prepared for things like this.”

Estela would be furious with herself for getting into this situation. But how could they know everything there was to know about all the hundreds of species on this island? It wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just something they’d grow wiser around over time.

Taylor swallowed past a lump in her throat. “I’m still so worried about her. This might be something Vaanti understand, but for us, it’s new. And I know it’s serious, because Estela doesn’t show weakness, she just doesn’t.”

Diego shuffled closer and pulled his friend into a hug. “I know. There’s something so wrong about a weak Estela.”

“I know we’ve not even known each-other long, but I’ve never seen her physically vulnerable. Except… visions.”

“This isn’t like that, okay? This is just a blip.” He gave her a little nudge. “Like you said-- it hasn’t been long. You two were U-Hauling it before you even had a chance to experience one another puking your guts out.”

Taylor chuckled darkly. “I’ve never even known her with a sniffle. All we’ve been through, and the everyday stuff… you just don’t even think about it.”

Suddenly, Estela stirred, thrashing for a moment in her sleep before opening her eyes. She grasped the bedclothes with clenched fists.

Taylor froze, but her wife seemed to stare right past her.

“No… no…,” Estela muttered. Michelle had wanted to help, but there was no resting when that voice called to her… taunting.

‘Now that I’ve seen how well you turned out-- so strong in every sense-- can you imagine what could be achieved producing another natural heir with the Omega Specimen herself?’

Estela squalled, writhing as she tried to get up, to get to him, to rip his disgusting hide limb from limb. Something was holding her back-- what the hell? It was all out of focus, and then… Taylor. Not Taylor. The impostor had her… it had sold out Taylor-- her Taylor-- to Rourke.

Taylor would never have imagined the hatred she saw flaming in Estela’s eyes could be turned toward her, and for something burning so hot, it was like ice down her spine.

“It’s me--”

Nobody present had noticed the door swung open. In strode a tall and imposing Vaanti woman, her hair tied back in a tight bun, and clothed in brown garb. Michelle followed behind her. The Vaanti woman calmly approached, and without missing a beat, plunged a needle into Estela’s bicep.

“This will make her sleep.”

“Taylor, this is Ravyya. She’s head of the healers in Elyys’tel.”

Ravyya turned to Taylor, expression sharp. “You are clearly making the patient’s fits worse. Leave the room until she is sleeping. We will not administer the antidote to wake her until the fever subsides.”

She was making it worse. And it hurt like hell. How could she be so selfish to risk getting Estela into this state again? Anyone else could have watched her instead….

Diego put an arm around Taylor, walking with her to the door. “Hey… Varyyn will stay with her. It’s going to be all right. I promise it’s going to be all right.”

And they walked away. Backs turned so as to not make things worse, but Taylor could hear Estela behind her, struggling. Fighting. The both of them-- well, all of them, really-- they were just along for the ride.

“La Huerta,” Taylor growled as she fought back tears, “is a fucking bitch.”

#endless summer #playchoices #estela montoya #estela x mc #estela x taylor #diego soto #michelle nguyen #sean gayle #jake mackenzie #endless summer fanfic #es fanfic

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normal-thoughts-official · 2 years ago

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no one look at me but im gonna make an endless summer meta post about sean and craig while vaguely high on sleeping meds if yall dont mind

anyway. sean's whole thing as a character is that he never lets anyone take care of him. he even says at some point that the only thing he's ever been good at is taking the punishment so someone else doesn't have to. when him and MC go to the waterfall, he tells them that he feels better when he's not relaxing because he needs to feel useful. he constantly puts himself in danger for others. he refuses any help when he's nearly dying of hypothermia. he gets shot and says he was "grazed" by a bullet. he walks on it and doesn't let anyone notice that he's lagging behind. michelle says he once played with a broken femur. his ember of hope is just his mom telling him that no one's indestructible and it's ok to ask for help. you get it. it's his thing

and I've always been kind of fascinated by how 1- craig is the only person he seems to be able to accept help from; and 2- craig hides so much from sean and has this whole dudebro thing going on but still makes the most balls to the walls declarations of devotion for sean like it's the most normal thing in the world ("if you're gonna put your life on the line, I'll be there clearing the way. always, dude"; "i was put on this earth for two reasons: helping sean on the field and smashing things with pipes"; having a picture of sean on his desk in the ember of hope; etc). even his rourke inc file puts "intense loyalty to his QB sean gayle" as his main trait in his psychological profile. frankly, what the fuck

anyway. the point is that im just now realizing that these things might be related ["related" in italics]

and like don't get me wrong, im not saying sean is emotionally constipated or something (far from it, honestly) but I've replayed ES 74363839 times and just started my first ever run where i didn't romance sean yesterday, so i can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that he struggles to even let his real actual husband take care of him

sean's the caretaker. he's the provider. he sees himself as an armor and a protector to those around him. and he doesn't allow himself to ever crack or fail or slow down and breathe, because he needs to feel like he is able to help them the way he wishes he could've helped his mom sooner

and then there's craig. craig is actually pretty similar to sean in that regard, except instead of trying to protect everyone, he's trying to protect sean. i mean, he outright says it several times. and if it were anyone else, sean would immediately step back and say that he appreciates it, but he's fine, or whatever. but sean seems to be able to accept being taken care of when it comes from craig

he doesn't push craig away when craig says lines like that, despite the fact that they're so outright devotional i think even someone without sean's issues would be taken aback. he smiles and says "thanks man" and just. accepts it. he lets craig come with the explicit purpose of protecting him in the wilderness expedition, without even a token protest (and he protested with literally everyone else and even tried to convince people to let him go alone). we know of course that it's still hard for him to accept help from craig when the time actually comes (the flashback about them playing where sean scrambled, sean trying to pull everyone when they nearly fell off a cliff, sean's death in the catalyst idol, and don't even get me started on how both of them canonically died for the other at least once), but the hypothetical idea is something he can accept from him. does it naturally, even. and as someone who's been romancing sean and who was all but BEGGING him to let me take care of him, it was wild

and im just now realizing that one of the reasons why sean is able to let craig take care of him is exactly because craig has this very unique way or being super emotionally open and vulnerable while making it sound like he's offering to do a keg stand at a party, or something. the words and the honesty behind them are obvious, but the "always, dude" and "and smashing things with pipes" and the other stuff he always says along with the declarations are so... flippant and casual and even funny, and it kind of takes away the blow because he makes the most intense possible feelings sound completely casual. it's like breathing for him

and i genuinely don't even think it's a defense mechanism to hide his vulnerability or something, i think it's just that it really is natural for him. we saw what he's like when he's trying to hide his vulnerability when he was talking to zahra before they got together. he'd turn away, deflect with jokes, pretend to be fine when he wasn't. actually, he did it with sean too, when craig was trying to hide from him that he didn't get drafted

but this stuff? this is second nature. he is just perfectly comfortable saying that he would protect sean with his life, and that is that. i don't even think he sees it as particularly insane to say or anything. it's just a fact. and so sean kind of has no choice but to accept it because craig makes it sound so normal. he's not hiding that he's helping and protecting him, quite the opposite; but he makes it sound so natural and casual i don't think sean even realizes the extent of what craig is saying at first

and idk i just love their relationship because it's like. sean has always given and given and given to everyone and never allowed himself to take. and craig WANTS him to take. he wants to give back to sean all the care and devotion sean has been giving everyone else his whole life. sean can't really allow himself to accept that, but the one who comes closest to making sean comfortable enough to let himself be imperfect is undoubtedly craig. craig feels like he's stupid and can't express himself right but it's precisely the way he does it that makes it work with both sean and zahra. sean and craig both see themselves as people whose inherent value is in their ability to help others. they both feel like they're not good enough for them. neither of them wants the other to keep defining himself by this metric, but neither know how to make it stop other than by trying to care for the other as much as possible. at the same time, neither can imagine a future without the other. craig probably feels like he's letting sean down by not getting drafted, because sean is clearly so sure that craig will, has a whole future together planned for them. craig probably feels that he won't be able to repay sean anymore. sean doesn't even realize how badly craig wants to care for him. sean is so confident in craig's abilities and so set on his me-and-craig-living-the-dream-side-by-side fantasy that he completely fails to see the obvious signs that craig did not get the draft. they understand each other but they also clash because both want to be the one who's only giving and not receiving. but at the same time they somehow fit because they can allow the other to give in ways they can't allow others. who's screaming

#playchoices #im pretty sure this is only like 60% coherent and that ill be embarrassed by it tomorrow #but for today yolo #might make a decent polished version of this later. idk im in my insane era #endless summer #es #sean gayle #craig hsiao #craigsean #meta

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