#gyp-step

[aqours]

pssst you! yeah you!!! person who is probably seeing this through looking up Ravenloft related tags!

do you like the Vistani? do you want to expand on the Vistani but also you aren't sure of what to change other than the Obvious Really Bad Problems They Had To Errata And Still Didn't Fully Fix It? not 100% satisfied with the direction they went in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft? want to expand on Vistani culture and ideas but not 100% sure if you want to create a ton of homebrew or not? you interested in seeing Van Richten's 2E character growth where he was a prejudicial man who was a victim of a horrible crime but realized he can't just blame an entire ethnic group for it and gradually learned to overcome that prejudice into becoming a better man?

please consider giving Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani a read, and here's a free link! consider it me just sharing the pdf given i bought it legally so even if you for some reason don't like piracy i'm just sharing what i bought!

it's an old 2E supplement that's completely about fleshing out the Vistani. it's not a perfect guide: it's for 2E so pretty much anything it adds gameplay wise doesn't work with 5e/5.5's mechanics, some of it is still pretty dated (it says gyp*y a few times still). but it still delves a lot into Vistani culture and stories (including some of their origin stories they claim is responsible for the Vistani becoming who they are), and the Tasaques: essentially the three large ethnic clans among the Vistani and the tribes that make up said Tasaques (i say the main group of Vistani in Barovia during CoS are Kaldresh Vatraska), and some other stuff!

nothing's perfect, but if you're looking for a step 1 for fleshing out the Vistani more and you don't want to do a complete homebrew from scratch route, consider giving it a read and see if you can build off of it if you want!

[infantisimo]

hello hello, you beautiful bird

[kazewrites]

Submission for @inklings-challenge 2024. Wanted to put this through another round of editing, but I'm running out of time here. Hope it looks okay and it's not too confusing. (@ w@);

Tick. Tick. Tock. Tick.

Elyse stared at her reflection in her cup. It had sat here long enough it was starting to get cool, but now and then wisps still traveled up. Ordinarily this would have incited her appetite, but the sick feeling in her stomach prevented any such thought of enjoying her cocoa.

All she could think about was Kokuen. How her awful teacher had gypped her of a proper Taming education. How she hadn’t been able to assemble the team she liked. How she was forced to use a Fire Lumikin against her will. She liked Flame, but… it was hard to acknowledge him as her own,  especially with all that happened with Moki. She couldn’t help but feel like she was still just hanging onto Flame until Moki came and got him…

She picked up the green, grooved cup and sloshed the contents around. She turned it to take a look at the snowflake pattern on the back. Lico had gotten a set of these for her last spring. It was funny now how many things from his culture now decorated the house. She knew her mom had a few similar things, so in a way it was a familiar sight. Still. It was nice to have a little reminder of him all the way out here…

Her stomach was growing sour again. If cocoa wasn’t her favorite, she might even consider pouring it down the drain. She sighed. No, she couldn’t do that…

She propped her head up and her gaze roved over the kitchen counter. To her right was the oven, its door decorated with little clay snowmen. The pots and pans still sat on the stove-top, awaiting cleanup. The range hood vent was well-worn from years of use… She let her gaze drift further to the left. The dishes were stacked neatly in the dish rack in front of  her.

She stood, fingering her cup. Maybe she’d place this on the coffee table in the living room and play some games. Her reflection in the cup caught her eye again. The sour feeling was back.

It would be easy enough to just forget this. Her Taming Journey was over now. And yet… what had she become?

She shook her head. Worrying over a cup of cold cocoa wasn’t going to fix the past. Was there anything she could have done? Would having a different teacher have fixed anything? Maybe she should have been more supportive of Moki…

She took a step towards the living room, then remembered her cup. She turned back to get it, fingering the rim. Every time she picked it up, she lost her appetite. She should be happy, drinking cocoa out of a special cup like this. And yet… the feeling didn’t seem to want to linger.

Which was why she was going to play a game. Forget all this. It was in the past. She might not ever see Kokuen again. Why bother? Why get so worked up?

And then she remembered.

She had plenty of reason to hate her teacher.

To be fair, some of it wasn’t Kokuen’s fault… Or was it? Was every time those Pyramid psychos attacked them her teacher’s fault? Was Creme right about Kokuen still being in cahoots with those yahoos?

Lightning strike. A crazed smile on a gray-red face. Light fading from the eyes of a fallen Birdkin.

She shook her head. Really. It couldn’t be her teacher’s fault they ran into so much trouble… Or was it?

‘Damaged goods.’ Kokuen had called her damaged goods…

Elyse shook her head and headed for the door, throwing on her coat. She needed a walk. Maybe that’d clear her head.

She put her good boots on and started walking downhill. On a slippery night like this, the boots with spike treads were essential. She’d be all the way down by the plaza in a hurry if she wore something with any less traction. The spikes crunched into the ice. She could feel the icy layer atop the snow splintering and fragmenting in her wake as she made her way down. She considered if she wanted to go somewhere else once she reached the bottom or if the bench would do.

She missed her cocoa… Guess it took the cold for her to start hankering for it, huh? She shoved her hands in her pockets, shrugging her shoulders as she descended the hill.

At last she made it down to the park. The cold caught up to her with a sharp bite. Really was colder once you got down to the bottom, huh? Or maybe it was because she’d stopped moving…

She headed over to sit on the bench she’d been eying from the hill, leaning forward in a crouch to spread the heat around.

Everything was frozen and covered in snow. Which wasn’t too surprising for this time of year. The lampposts cast a yellow-orange light over everything.

This spot at least was clear, save for a little frost and a few icicles hanging down from the bottom of the bench. Elyse could feel them when she moved her legs.

She leaned back, taking everything in. …Ahh, she had to start moving again. She was thinking about Kokuen… She shut her eyes tightly. She let out a breath, feeling it wisp up and away without even looking.

She opened her eyes again, letting her gaze sweep over her surroundings. Beyond the Lumikin ring and the rest of the park, the trees rose up again, standing boldly as if to show everyone whose territory the world beyond the park’s was.

She looked to her left, watching the houses that rose up on slopes beyond the plaza. She wondered if any of the Snowdrift Crew was still up… Dela was out on her Tamer’s Journey still, right? So was Sandra and Jimmy… Johnny too, right? Hmmh… And Dela had brought her brother Danny, too… She could talk to their folks, but… eh. She pulled up one knee on the bench, knocking loose a patch of fresh snow. Even if she had her TD, it was too late to text any of them… but maybe she could leave a message? …Eh. She still wanted to brood out in the cold. Maybe later.

…Pointless to get so worked up about stuff… It was just jealousy at the end of the day, right? She remembered that first day she got her Journeying License. How those two kids had lucked out with such a nice mentor… Sometimes it felt like she was being played some big joke on. Some sick joke. People died…

She pulled her knees in, letting it play all over again. Being captured by Pyramid. She winced at the memory of the gunshot. Anubis’s eyes… She’d never forget those eyes… She felt a shiver fly up her spine, but it wasn’t from the cold. Too bundled up for that. Not that she ever really got cold-cold anyway…

…But she couldn’t blame Kokuen for any of that, could she…? If Kokuen had just been nicer—! Elyse stood up, clenching her fists. She kicked over a bit of snow and started walking again. Ticked her off every time she thought about it. What was with that woman that she always had to egg Moki on? It was a wonder she’d even survived Kokuen’s training. Sometimes Elyse really did want to believe all the Pyramid attacks were her teacher’s fault, if only because she was ex-Pyramid. Or was Elyse the crazy one for sticking around and not thinking it was a problem? …To be fair, she had other agendas, especially when it came to traveling with Taffy’s team… She sighed, listening to the crunch underneath her boots again. She kept going down the path beyond the park, into the dark. Maybe she’d check if the ski lift was open at this hour. She just wanted to keep moving.

As she reached the bottom of the slope and came under the whiter lights, she was starting to have second thoughts. Maaaybe heading all the way down the mountain at this hour wasn’t a great idea… She could go back to the park? Maybe do some training..? Maybe… mm, the Mamokin tundra was far. As much as she wanted to visit Mamo in his natural habitat, it wasn’t the kind of journey to make this late at night.

She headed up back to the park anyway. She’d need her TD if she wanted to take anybody out, anyway. And… after thinking about how Kokuen forced Flame on her… She shook her head. Ugh. She ran a hand through her hair. Kokuen was the fire expert. Why did she have to bear Flame…? She’d just wanted to train Mamo. Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, had to know ice’s weaknesses… It was stupid! She didn’t want it! She kicked up more snow. Ughhh.

She kept marching up. May as well check out the stable while she was up here. It’d be nice just to see some Lumikin…

Though… they were asleep. She probably shouldn’t disturb their rest…

But in the morning, everyone’d be hustling and bustling. Would she get a chance to resolve this?

She was running out of places to go. She wasn’t heading down the mountain, it was too dark for the forest…

She came to the barn anyway. Maybe she’d just sit here for a bit. It wasn’t as bright out here, but… whatever. She needed a new brooding location.

She settled in, leaning against the trunk of a tree outside the barn. Sounded like the foxkin were still up. Made sense…

A little black nose sniffed at her from behind the fence. A pale, glowing eye peeked out from between the slats.

Aaand, there one was.

Elyse smiled, catching glimpses of its ice blue fur. She walked over to the fence, reaching a hand in to pet it.

The creature yap-laughed, play-biting her hand and wiggling. It smiled up at her.

“Hehe.” She tried again to pet it and it kept playing with her hand. Silly fox…

Eventually it darted away back to its feeder.

Elyse watched the creature for a bit, listing her head to one side. Ah, she was getting tired. Maybe she would head home now.

Besides… it wasn’t like she could get her Tamer’s Journey back now. It was over and done with. As much as she wanted to rewrite it. As much as she wanted to bring Moki back… She shoved her hands in her pockets and headed home.

—

It was her mom who had gotten her thinking about this. And it was her mom who stirred her head about it even before bed.

Forgiving Kokuen… Could she even do that? Could she just… let it all go? On the one hand, she wanted to forget it all. She wanted to forget Kokuen. Pretend the thing with Pyramid never happened. That Kokuen never treated her badly. Never pushed her head and tried to force her to recover when she was down. Didn’t keep preaching to her about how hard reality was and how she’d die being soft. Man she wanted to kick Kokuen’s head in sometimes. Not hard. Just. Just a bop. Enough to hurt. Not… not more than that. It’d feel good, she bet.

The next day, she went out to help her dad take care of the Mamokin. If she’d wanted to, she probably could have taken the teleporting ring last night to the tundra, but. It was dangerous out this way at night. Just as well she visited during the day.

The moment Mamo saw her coming, he rushed over, beating her to the punch and shoving his trunk on her face.

“Mam—”Oof. She laughed and pulled his snout off her. She rubbed his fur and leaned into him. Ahh, this was her favorite.

Mamo gave a stuttering trumpet as if laughing with her. He poked the top of her head with his trunk.

“Mmh.” Elyse buried her face in his fur. She didn’t wanna move…

He made a small, concerned noise.

Elyse gave his fur another pat. She was okay.

He blew a bit of ice at her.

Elyse laughed and threw a snowball at him. Two could play at this game!

Mamo made a happier sound and scooped up lots of snow with his trunk. He threw it at her.

“Oh no!!” Elyse ran and managed to dodge his snow spray. And this was why you didn’t challenge an ice mammoth to a snowball fight! They didn’t play fair!

Mamo scooped up another load and tried to get her with it again.

“Missed me!” Elyse said. Missed her by a mile, was he even trying to hit her?

Mamo scooped up a heftier load, waiting for Elyse to get close. He saw her trying to dart past him and covered her in snow this time.

“Dwah!” Elyse collapsed in a heap of snow. “Okay, you win.” Not like she could beat Mamo in a snowball fight of this caliber…

Mamo pawed at the snow with his trunk to dig her out, concern etching his mammoth-like face.

“I’m okay, I’m okay…” Elyse pushed herself out and sat on the heap. She rested her chin in her palms.

He blew snow at her again.

“Mmmh.” She covered herself with her hood. No more.

Mamo gave an indignant ‘bark.’

Elyse sighed. She just… mmmh… She pulled her hood up a bit to look at Mamo.

Mamo patted her head with his trunk again, then let it rest on her shoulder. He tilted his head slightly.

“Thanks for understanding, buddy…” She got up and hugged him again. She should probably get to work instead of playing around…

Mamo’s trunk bobbed curiously, but he made no more noises.

“What do you think of holding grudges?” she asked, leading him over towards the tree line where the other Mamokin were feeding.

Mamo made a curious sound in reply. Was that ’go on,’ ‘what do you mean,’ or ‘I don’t understand you’? Lumikin were pretty smart when it came to commands, but… well. Mamo was a good listener anyway, even if he couldn’t reply back like a human could.

“I mean…” She looked at him. “Remember Kokuen? Of course you do. Hang on, I’ll imitate her.” Elyse crossed her arms and looked off sullenly.

Mamo only blinked.

Elyse’s shoulders sank. She guessed he wouldn’t understand what she was doing. “Well… remember MistyKo? The…” She wiggled her hands and made a ‘wshh’ sound, trying to make an impression of a cloud of mist. …Was it working?

Mamo just blinked again.

…No. At least not with Mamo. She sighed. Maybe she’d talk to dad about it…?

—

“What do you do about grudges?”

Her dad paused his work. He hummed to himself. They both worked in silence for a while.

“That mean you have one? Look, if it’s about stealing your leftover cocoa last night—”

Elyse smiled and shook her head. “Well, actually…”

“Oh, now you’re gonna hold a grudge, huh?” He dumped out the bin of greens he was holding for the Mamokin. “Knew I shouldn’t have touched it.”

Elyse looked down, smiling still as she emptied her own bin into the growing pile of frostbitten plant matter.

“Is this about your teacher?” he guessed next, dusting off his mitts, grabbing up the empty bin and heading over to one of the sheds.

Bullseye. She guessed nothing got past her dad. Felt silly to bring up though. She sighed. “I try not to think about it too much, but…” She looked away. “Mom keeps hinting about forgiving Kokuen, but… where do I even start?” She looked up. “She was a jerk to me from the start. It’s her fault Moki ran away. She keeps going real world this, real world that… and she’s so immature!” Elyse kicked snow. “And yet she lords it over me like I’m 12! Ticks me off…”

Her dad shook a new load of frozen pine boughs into the bin in his hands. Elyse followed suit grumpily. She sighed, hefting her bin as they headed back towards the tree line. Her dad followed after her at a slower pace.

“Forgiveness comes in parts,” he finally said. “Even if someone’s only wronged you once, sometimes, it’s like… what they said hurt you in different ways.” They bustled in silence for a bit. “S’hard to forgive someone when you’re still mad at ‘em…”

Elyse kicked another patch of snow with her boot, flinging bits of it into the air. “Got that right…”

“Alright, settle down there, tiger.” He rubbed her head with his elbow since his hands were still full.

“I know it’s not right to hold grudges…” Elyse said, slowing down. “But I can’t help but feel like I was cheated out of a proper Tamer’s Journey. I want to think not all of that was her fault, but then… then I get to thinking, what if it is? She’s done so many other things to me, somehow, it feels logical for everything wrong with my journey to have been her fault,” she said, scowling.

“Well… why don’t you tell me all about it? I know I’ve heard the gist of what happened on your journey, but not what your teacher’s done to you specifically.”

“Okay…”

Once they made it back under the cover of the trees, they set their bins down and sat on one of the snowbanks.

“Some of it’s really silly… before I was assigned to Kokuen…” Elyse went on to describe the scene. An old man instructor taking out his new students for ice cream. It got her hopes up, dumb as it sounded, only to be rewarded with Kokuen. It felt like some cosmic joke.

“Moki only made things worse,” she continued on, chin resting on her palms again. “Maybe I could have stood Kokuen if it weren’t for Moki… Not that she really did anything wrong just by not getting along with Kokuen. Yeah, she was headstrong and didn’t have the best ideas, but…” She sank. “It was just one big crud show. Everything Kokuen did just added gasoline on the fire. Moki would make a bad decision, Kokuen would come down on it hard. And she’d do it trying to convince you this was some sort of ‘tough love,’ but couldn’t she read the room?” Elyse leaned back against the snowbank. She blustered. Yeah, Moki had been an amateur, but.. ugh…

Her dad listened, digesting all she had said.

“I just think if Kokuen had been nicer, things would’ve been better.” Elyse crossed her arms. “She has this high and mighty attitude and it’s really grating. I tried to be the better person, but…” She shook her head. “At a certain point… it just got worse and worse. Especially when she forced me to take on Flame… It’s like, yes, I know I need to understand ice’s weaknesses. But… mmh.” She kept trying to force her to be someone she didn’t want to be. It was annoying! “And then there’s the whole thing with Pyramid… I really want to think that wasn’t her fault. Really. But… they just kept showing up?” She shook her head. “And… mmh.”

“Why do you want to think it was her fault?” her dad asked. “Just because you had a hard time with her in so many other ways?”

Elyse squinted. There were… other reasons, but it would get into gossip territory… “There were reasons…” she said simply. Her dad was looking at her, waiting for her to go on. She closed her eyes. “But it wouldn’t be fair to say.”

“Hmm.”

“I know I shouldn’t use it against her, but…” She looked off. “Even if it wasn’t… on purpose, still… Maybe Pyramid was following her and we were just extensions.” She looked down. “It probably would’ve been responsible for her to try and get us a substitute mentor or let Taffy train us after things went down in Desa… Or maybe irresponsible. I don’t know. Surely, if she thought they were following her… I don’t know.” She sank again.

“Hmm. How old did you say your teacher was again?”

Elyse thought. She wasn’t sure exactly. “I’m pretty sure she’s only a few years older than me.”

“Hmm.” Her dad digested this information. “You had trouble respecting her. Felt like she was close enough to your age and immature enough you shouldn’t have to kiss up, right?”

“Took the words out of my mouth.” Was that wrong?

“Sometimes we have to respect people who aren’t worthy of our respect,” her dad said, propping his elbow up on his knee. “It’s just the way of the world.”

“Kinda hate it though.” Besides. Kokuen hadn’t come down on Elyse for treating her like an equal until way later. It set a bad precedent.

Her dad sighed. “Gotta turn the other cheek sometimes…”

“Don’t like being slapped at all.”

“It’s more about… putting the mirror up to what she’s doing,” her dad explained. “I’m not telling you to take hits lying down. But… don’t fight fire with fire. If you sink to her level, then… that’s what she wants, isn’t it?”

Elyse huffed. “What do you mean? Putting the mirror up to her…?”

“Well… when she gets into a tailspin, you can gently point out what her methods are doing,” her dad said, “instead of snarking back or having an attitude about it.”

“Gentle…” That was the trouble. She shook her head. “It’s all over and done now though. I can’t take back anything I said and neither can she.” Elyse slumped forward.

“And yet you’re still hanging on to every wrong thing she did to you.”

“It’s stupid. I kind of hate it. It’s like an addiction.” Elyse covered her face. “It feels good to have something to be mad at for everything that happened. Especially when it was Kokuen’s fault!”

“Mm…”

“Does that make me an awful person?” Elyse asked. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s just because I’m bored…”

“Well. No more awful than the rest of us.” Her dad cracked a smile.

Elyse gave a half-smile back. “Thanks…” She guessed that was true…

Her dad offered her a hand. “Wanna offer it up?” he asked.

“I gotta, right?” Elyse put her hand in his.

“No… you could just keep hanging onto it and chewing on it if that’s what you’d really like.” He gave her another wrinkled smile.

Elyse considered for a moment. He was right. It would be the easy way out. But… she’d probably drive her folks crazy complaining about it and being sullen all the time. Worst case scenario, she’d become just like her rotten teacher.

… “I don’t know if I can,” she finally said.

“Shall we, then?” He closed his fingers around hers.

… “I don’t know.” Elyse slipped her hand out of his. “It feels like I’m taking the easy way out…”

“Hm…”

Elyse knew he was right. She knew this was something she needed help with. But also… it was a weird source of entertainment. Almost like a toy. But… she knew it wasn’t good for her. As much as she wished things were different. As much as she wished she’d had a nice teacher, that Moki hadn’t run away, that her Tamer’s Journey hadn’t been full of so much running, pain and strife. But she knew deep down that most of it wasn’t Kokuen’s fault. To some degree at least, Pyramid themselves being awful had more to do with it than whatever Kokuen had done wrong on her part… She knew that. She knew that, best of all from the thing with Anubis… She slumped over again.

… “S’not bad to need a little help sometimes.” He slapped his knees and brought himself back up. “Well. Ready to get back to work?” He offered her a hand.

Elyse looked at his hand. She knew she shouldn’t keep letting this control her life. She knew she didn’t want these bitter thoughts to turn her into her teacher. She had to be the bigger person. She had to be. But it was so hard. She just knew she wouldn’t get anywhere trying to pray about it. She had too many walls up. “I guess so.” Maybe she’d try tonight…

[loli-momo1908]

Nature Healers season 1 episodes ideas

Hey, everyone. I wanted to say that I'm happy to announce my full list of Nature Healers season 1 I've been thinking up with a few help of my friends in a past. So, here's what my season 1 episode would look like.

Episode 1. "A New Healer is Born” – 14-year-old Reina awakens a great power inside herself when she meets a mysterious creature that is being chased by evil monsters known as the Predatrons.

Episode 2. "Courage of the Silver Rabbit" - After promising Tilii that she should not reveal her secret as a Nature Healer, Reina tried her best to act her natural self. But her best friend, Ricky, suspects her strange behavior.

Episode 3. "Rumaldo's Burning Strike" - When Crotalus arrives to reek havoc while hunting Tilii down, Reina and Ricky tried to stop him but were outmatched. After getting himself involved, Rumaldo decided to help out.

Episode 4. "Graceful as a Moth"  - Transferred from Paris, a beautiful yet shy Sophia had trouble making friends. But then, Reina decided to step in and offered her friendship.

Episode 5.  "The Wise Frog's Trust" - With 4 of the Healers gathered together, Reina and her friends were trying to find the 5th Healer. When Reina saw the school's vice president, Eugene, she wanted him to join the team for she believes he's the 5th Healer they're looking for.

Episode 6. "Healing Downunder" - Now with all 5 Nature Healers team completed, Tilii foretold Reina and her group of how she was sent to Earth by Mother Nature and their mission of saving the flourishing lands from the evil Predatrons. But their crests have alarmed that Ustura has returned to claim territory in Australia.

Episode 7. "Rainforest Mayhem" - Crotalus has started claiming parts of the Amazon Rainforest by taking away its flourishing life energy. Now, Reina and her friends must travel with a special teleportation spell being cast by Tilii to stop the slithering fiend and save the rainforest.

Episode 8. "Lost in Santa Cruz" - Wanting to explore parts of Bolivia, Reina invites her friends and convinced Tilii to use her special crystal that allows them to teleport them into the largest city in Bolivia: Santa Cruz. However, during their fun and exploration, Tilii ended up getting herself lost in the city and now, Reina and her group must fight her before another Predatron General named Gyps does.

Episode 9. "Egyptian Heatwave" - During a hottest summer of the year, Reina and her friends were trying to find a way to cool themselves down while on summer break. But Gyps attacks in Egypt to drain away the remaining Oasis and it's up to the Nature Healers to stop him.

Episode 10. "Vice President Blues" - Struggling to keep up with his role as a school's vice president and his duty as part of the Nature Healers team, Eugene tries to find his solution and ease away his worries of keeping his lifestyle in balance.

Episode 11. "Tilii's Bug Rescue" - When Tilii wishes she could play with the butterflies, her enchanted crystal suddenly glowed and got her and the Nature Healers shrunk into bug size. Now, Reina and her friends must find that crystal to grow back to their normal size while exploring the world of insects.

Episode 12. "Total Beached!" - After traveling down to Hawaii, the Nature Healers must find a way to save the tropical habitat from Crotalus, Gyps, and Ustura from claiming both land and sea, which would threaten the lives of every sea creatures.

Episode 13. "Greenland Rodeo" - Tilii wanted to make friends with the farm animals, so Reina decided to take her along as she went off to her uncle's farm for a visit. But danger arrives when Crotalus strikes the grassland parts of Texas and terrorizes innocent people with his bull Sabaku he has summoned.

Episode 14. "Rainbow Animal Burst!" - To take matters into serious action of defeating the Nature Healers, the imprisoned Lord Draconis has enhanced the Sabaku Orbs with the remaining trance of his evil power for his generals to use. When their hometown is attacked by Ustura, Crotalus, and Gyps, Reina and her friends must do everything they can to save their city. (This episode is going to be where Reina and her team will awaken their new group attack)

Episode 15. "Arach Attack!" - Reina has been acting strange lately, when it came to facing spiders but kept her fear from her friends, much to their worry for her. After witnessing this, Ustura has plotted an opportunity to destroy Reina by summoning a Spider Sabaku to strike.

Episode 16. "Ricky's Ghostly Challenge!" - On a day before Halloween, Ricky refuses to participate in the school's event called Haunted House Cafe due to his fear of ghosts. When Gyps invades the land parts of Japan, the Nature Healers must stop him while helping Ricky overcome his fears.

Episode 17. "Runaway Trejo" - Getting tired of his parents heated arguments and shocked that they would decide for a divorce, Rumaldo ran away from home, stole the teleportation crystal from Tilii's backpack, and transported himself away randomly into Italy. Now, Reina, Ricky, Sophia, Eugene, and Tilii must find their troubled and saddened friend and help him resolve his issue he's having.

Episode 18. "Sophia's Goodbye?!" - Shocked after overhearing about her parents' discussion about moving back to Paris, Sophia has gotten so worried that she believes she may never see Reina or the others again. And to make matters worse, Crotalus attacks Paris to claim territory."

Episode 19. "Father Issues" - His estranged father returns home from his monthly business trip and Eugene has tried his effort to show him how much he has grown while he's been away. (This is the episode where Eugene's father will be the first witness of seeing his son's transformation)

Episode 20. "Artic Split" -Ramuldo, Eugene, Sophia, and Ricky were planning a surprise birthday party for Reina, but their different opinions and tastes costs them to argue. Just then, Gyps attacks the land of Antarctica to turn it into a desert landscape.

Episode 21. "The Mystery of the Black Wolf" - During the fight to protect Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, Reina and her friends were nearly defeated by the Predatrons' attack. Until a mysterious stranger with the black Healer powers saves the day? Is she a friend or a foe?

Episode 22. "Global Battle part 1" - While the Nature Healers were trying to find out who the mysterious wolf warrior is, Tilii informs them that the ruler of Emerald Floratina named Mother Nature is nearly regaining her strange. But unfortunately, so is the Predatrons' fearful leader as we speak.

Episode 23. "Global Battle part 2" - Turns out with all the stolen life energy from each lands that the Predatron Generals have collected, their plot is to corrupt such energy source and give it to their master, Lord Draconis, to revive his strength. Will the Nature Healers team be able to stop them in time?

Episode 24. "Global Battle part 3" - With the entire Earth being dominated and turned into a desert territory by the Predatrons alongside their newly revived master, it's up to Reina and her team to do whatever they can to save their planet. (This is where the Nature Healers will awaken their super form with the help of Mother Nature herself)

While I'm very proud of how it turns out to be, please let me know what you guys think of these episode summaries I've thought up for my Nature Healers series.

[blurredair]

1922, 158th Street.

--

Goodness, that trip was absolutely horrendous...

Honestly, I do hope I never have to step foot in that horrid, horrid town again! Gypped out of all twelve hundred dollars for private rooms! The cheek of them!

Oh, dear dear..

Ah, wait, what's this?

--

And if I put that there..

Ah. There we are.

Is anyone there? Can you lot hear me just fine? I must say, it's dreadfully boring around here..

[floridaenvironmentwatch]

⭐ Before you read further, please note that i am directly copy pasting from a trusted source (Matt Flemming) on Xitter. (Great guy, by the way! Please go give him a follow, he's mostly politics but he knows his stuff!) My first three posts on this blog will be from his page! I wanted his points to reach other platforms to spread the word as i felt it was vital information to know for the locals living in Florida like myself.

Phosphate mining in Florida is a huge problem. Radioactive roads, fish kills, toxic mountains, cancer, and sinkholes...think PineyPoint. There is ONE major company responsible for almost all of it, which is Mosaic, HQ'd in Tampa.

(Depicted above is a picture of one of the phosphate mines. As you can see, it is barren and dry. There are 27 phosphate mines in Florida, together they cover nearly half a billion acres.) Phosphate mining is how chemical fertilizer is mass-produced. It involves strip mining the surface of the land, and creating gigantic toxic waste piles called "gyp stacks".

This time lapse video shows the scale of phosphate mining in Florida's "bone valley" over the last 40 years.

PineyPoint was a massive ecological disaster. There has never been any evidence rendered to the public that it WAS leaking, and not just full and needing to be drained. The "gyp stacks" are these mountains of toxic waste filled with toxic water. A few years before PineyPoint, another one of these stacks had a sink hole open underneath it...and then they filled it up again. Radioactive? Yes. Your health is in active danger. "The waste that is left behind is called phosphogypsum. Most of the naturally-occurring uranium, thorium and radium found in phosphate rock ends up in this waste." So what happens during a hurricane? They drain them. Seriously. The Peace River, Myakka River, and Charlotte Harbor are where these stacks drained their waste to during Hurricane Ian.

Charlotte Harbour is one of the largest and most bio-diverse estuaries in North America. To call it a national treasure is accurate. To call it a sewer for phosphate mining and sugar farming is also accurate.

After the PineyPoint disaster/deliberate planned draining, the state realized it had to do something differently, because pictures and videos of massive fish kills rightly get national attention. Solution #1: pump the toxic water into the ground. That's bad, because also under ground is the Florida Aquifer. What is the FloridaAquifer? For starters, its where about 20 million people get their drinking water here. The solution to the radioactive mountains of crushed rock and sand? Build roads with it. Luckily the EPA currently bans this. "The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature approved the measure by a wide margin." But briefly, before a lawsuit was filed, that rule was overturned by the Trump admin. You can imagine what a DeSantis admin would do... "Bioaccumulation" happens up the food chain. As radionuclides/toxins/metals are absorbed into plants and microorganisms, smaller fish eat, then larger fish eat, and at each step up the food chain, the toxicity and concentration increases. That Bioaccumulation is likely why so many whales are turning up dead along the eastern seaboard. At least, it's a much more plausible explanation than ship collisions or windmill cancer from offshore windfarms.

Local communities have had little luck protecting their homes and environment...because of corruption. “I hope DeSoto County commissioners and residents recognize this workshop process for the meaningless dog and pony show that it is,”. Chemical fertilizer is one of the most ubiquitous and transformative innovations of the 20th century. But the Mosaic funded lobbyists, and gerrymandered republican Florida Legislature are passing laws that limit fertilizer use even on lawns, even the tiniest little bit. Who represents Mosaic? For starters, Holland and Knight, one of the biggest global lobbying outfits in FL...and they have done a fantastic job of scrubbing the internet of their connections to the fertilizer giant. Because there's been a lot of cases. Just like Florida firm Ballard Partners was Trump's number one lobbying outfit, Holland and Knight is aggressively vying to be at the head of the table in a potential Ron DeSantis admin. Its alum include MANY bureaucrats and elected reps in FL. One of their biggest success stories is State Democratic Party chair, Nikki Fried. Although she publicly claims she was unhappy as a corporate lawyer, she later worked as a Lobbyist for HCA, which is Rick Scott's infamous medicare fraud company. She pocketed a million dollars from the pot industry she was supposed to be regulating as Agriculture Commissioner, and that ethics complaint was somehow dismissed by the FL Ethics Commission which is vice chaired by Matt Gaetz' dad, Don Gaetz.

Activists have fought Mosaic for decades with little to no success, and considering the bipartisan corruption, its easy to see why. But that hasn't stopped ppl from trying to protect unique and valuable public natural resources.

Ending on the final and third post, a report from Jan 14th, 2023, finds that the sponsor of the insanely stupid "Radioactive Roads" bill, takes in big money from...Mosaic. Please reblog for reach everyone! The people deserve to know that their health is in danger.

[smp-archive]

Scott Mitchell: Manson's Broken Family

Scott for Guitar World, August 1997. Archived article courtesy of Daisy Berkowitz on angelfire.com.

Until now, He's been known as Daisy Berkowitz, former guitarist for Marilyn Manson. Now, prepare yourself for Scott Mitchell, solo artist with an axe to grind —in more ways than one.

Since being forced out of Manson at the end of the recording of Antichrist Superstar, Mitchell has been writing songs, amassing a 30-song catalogue of varied styles. Working with singer Tyreah Jaymes, the 28-year-old guitarist is shopping songs under the moniker Three Ton Gate. He's also been jamming with an outfit called R.O.D., to keep his live chops up.

"I felt a lot of creative freedom being out of the band," says Mitchell from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "Some of the songs have a psychedelic vibe to them —they seem kind of abstract and crazy, but there's a common thread running through them. I hate to compare what I'm doing now to Manson, but my new material is stark and exotic, and there's even a few acoustic, mellow sounds. There's a sense of humor, like there was in the old days of Marilyn Manson —before Marilyn and Twiggy started taking things too seriously. One of the songs is about people bugging me about the band and about what I'm doing now."

Another is about the ever-controversial Marilyn. But, Mitchell says, "That one won't be on the demo."

Mitchell, who wrote a dozen songs for Antichrist Superstar and saw all but one rejected by Marilyn, says he still feels "gypped" by the experience. But, he adds, he has no regrets:

"People are really eager to hear my new stuff, and I consider being in Marilyn Manson a good stepping stone. I did a lot of things I'd never done before. I can blame particular people, but I don't need to."

Instead, Mitchell says he's "been thinking about writing a book" about his experiences. What might the opening anecdote to such a book be?

"There was one after-show party in New York, when we were on tour with Nine Inch Nails, where we went to a very private, exclusive club. The people that were there, the underage girls, the way money was being thrown around —it was dark, but not in a good sense." —TOM GOGOLA

[vifetoile]

Snow White & The Seven Deadly Sins

Good Catholic girl, she didn’t mind the cleaning. All of her household chores, at first, were small And hardly labors one could find demeaning. One’s duty was one’s refuge, after all. And if she had her doubts at certain moments And once confessed them to the Father, she Was instantly referred to texts in Romans And Peter’s First Epistle, chapter III. Years passed. More sinful every day, the Seven Breakfasted, grabbed their pitchforks, donned their horns And sped to contravene the hopes of heaven, Sowing the neighbors’ lawns with tares and thorns. She set to work. Pride’s hundred looking-glasses Ogled her dimly, smeared with prints of lips; Lust’s magazines lay strewn–bare T’s and asses And flyers for “devices”–chains, cuffs, whips. Gluttony’s empties covered half the table, Mingling with Avarice’s cards and chips, And she’d been told to sew a Bill Blass label In the green blazer Envy’d bought at Gyp’s. She knelt to the cold master bathroom floor as If a petitioner before the Pope, Retrieving several pairs of Sloth’s soiled drawers, A sweat-sock and a cake of hairy soap. Then, as she wiped the Windex from the mirror, She noticed, and the vision made her cry, How much she’d grayed and paled, and how much clearer Festered the bruise of Wrath beneath her eye. “No poisoned apple needed for this Princess,” She murmured, making X’s with her thumb. A car door slammed, bringing her to her senses: Ho-hum. Ho-hum. It’s home from work we come. And she was out the window in a second, In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course, Who, spying her distressed condition, beckoned For her to mount (What else?) his snow-white horse. Impeccably he spoke. His smile was glowing. So debonair! So charming! And so Male. She took one step, reversed, and without slowing Beat it to St. Anne’s where she took the veil.

RS Gwynn, American poet

[ms3ox]

milky

Pairing: Akechi Goro/Reader

Rating: Mature, AU: Blood-Indicative Morality

Words: 4,763

Notes on on AO3, PLEASE READ: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40965519

TW: blood

“Ow! Ugh…” The battered first-year cradled his nose.

A group of three, likely upperclassmen, surrounded the poor boy, sneering at the milky-white liquid that deluged from his nostrils.

“What?” The tallest simpered. “You not gonna fight back, loser?”

He dug his hands into his pockets, churlishly towering over the quivering kid and relishing in the small pool of pellucid liquid that contrasted the dark black of his polished soles.

You pitied the boy.

The yellowed bruises that littered his stringy arms led you to believe that this was not the first time. Nor would it be the last.

Because your academy does not have the time to spare for such paltry matters as bullying.

They probably thought that no one saw how they picked the boy up by the scruff of his baggy polo at the end of the school day and dragged him by fistfuls of mangy hair into the small alleyway between two campus buildings. Or the way they reached into his tattered, blazer pockets and gypped his wallet for all it was worth.

But you did.

You liked to tell yourself that you were an average person; that the effulgent color that seeped from your knees when you tripped and fell the other day was a sign of your good-naturedness. It wasn’t hard, exactly— to be good. All you really had to do was avoid being “bad”. What you didn’t like was the fact that despite watching the kid get the light beat out of his amiable eyes for the past five minutes, you hadn’t stepped in to do a thing.

You wanted to.

But you supposed that your wallet was not nearly heavy enough to satiate their prodigality.

That, by all intents and purposes, was not good.

“Hey,” said a voice that made you jump. “Oh! I didn’t mean to scare you– my apologies.”

You shook your head, flashing a smile toward your confidant. “Don’t worry about it.”

In the corner of your eye, his head began to tilt. When he realized what you were looking at, his jaw wound tight.

“I’m going to go help him. Wait here.”

“Ah- Hey!” You reached a hand out to grab the frays of his peacoat, but the bullies had noticed him before you got the chance.

By the time you caught up to him, you caught the tail end of his abrupt introduction.

“What does the righteous ‘Detective Prince’ want with us?” The boy to the right of the tallest mocked, cracking his knuckles as if he were readying for a fight. “You gonna report us or something? Ha! You may care about ‘justice’ or whatever, but the administration sure as hell doesn’t.”

The detective remained calm, paying you no mind as you practically hovered over his shoulder.

“I am aware of our current administrative situation, and I assure you, where I will be reporting you is ‘sure as hell’ not them.”

The group faltered, the poor boy from before seemingly becoming an afterthought in the realization of what your friend had meant.

“Something like this would typically fall under ‘assault and battery’, which would mean, since all three of you are third-years, that you would no longer be tried as children.” A small, prescient smile decorated the detective's face. “I’m sure you know what I’m getting at.”

The tallest seethed between his teeth. “What do you know?! You think you’re so much better than everyone because you got a job with the police! I won’t take shit from pigs like you!”

The tallest lurched forward, fist brandished.

“Hrrk!”

Akechi stumbled back.

His briefcase took a tumble too, falling to the ground and cracking open at your feet. You rapidly crouched and collected the items– a pen, a pencil case, a wallet, and… a long, black, cylinder-shaped object?

You staved off your confusion, shoving all of his things back into the case and wobbling to your feet with it.

“Ah-!” You rushed to his side, peeking under the thick veil of his hair to see how bad the bruising on his cheek was. “Are you okay?”

The bullies made something of a snide comment that ultimately went in one ear and out the other. Akechi didn’t respond, but the steadying of himself on his feet was damning enough. It seemed the first-year had good enough sense to run away.

“Well–” he sighed, cradling his cheek, “I suppose I’ll have to add ‘assault of a law enforcement officer’ onto your growing list of crimes.”

The group snickered at his response, seemingly taking it as a joke before he whipped his phone out and began typing.

“Wait– you’re not–”

“I am.”

The tallest nearly choked on his own spit.

Once he finished typing on a screen you couldn’t read, Akechi tilted his head to the side, all twisted smiles and false innocuousness.

“Expect a visit from local law enforcement tonight,” he said, a pleasant edge to his tone that made a shiver run up your spine. “Your personal information is logged in my school registry and I’ve taken photo and video evidence of what has transpired here today. Not to mention that I could easily procure a warrant to check the security tapes.”

Akechi pocketed his device.

“If you have any sense left to spare, I’d be honest with the good officers.” He turned, waltzing away with a cockiness that he could barely hide. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be let off with an ankle monitor if you play nice.”

The bullies chose then to be smart and made no moves to even approach your friend following his venomous, foreboding, yet still somehow-amicable judgment.

Before they could do anything further, you raced to catch up with your friend. Tapping his hand, you gave him his briefcase.

“Well, that was…” Your mind ran through at least ten columns of adjectives. “Ominous.”

Akechi let out a soft laugh, utterly unbefitting the mood.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t actually report them.”

You made a small noise of confusion.

“Think of it as a mind game, of sorts,” he continued, “I pretended to report them so that they’d become paranoid of the idea of incarceration. A good trick, no? Besides, the Shibuya Police Department is far too busy with other matters than to deal with a couple of delinquents.”

“Trick” is putting it lightly.

“Though maybe I could gather a few officers and pay them off to do some rounds…”

“Yeah…” You let out a nervous laugh at the sadistic tendencies of your friend. “What of the boy though?”

“The boy?”

“The boy that was getting beaten. He was innocent, and once those boys realize that they’re not going to be arrested, they’ll probably gang up on him even harder.”

Akechi’s eyes, for the first time since you’d begun walking home, had met your own.

“How do you know he’s innocent?”

Here we go.

Exasperation choked your sigh. “Must you question everything, Akechi?”

He tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. “Such is my nature.”

You hummed incredulously, shaking your head.

“His blood was white, Akechi. Not gray, white. Whiter than probably yours– and that’s saying a lot.”

The detective’s chest bounced harder than it should have at your quip.

“And how do you know my blood is white, hm?”

Your retort lodged in your throat. It appeared as if he were joking, but you couldn’t help but linger on the weird look in his eyes. Shaking your head, your gaze focused on the sidewalk ahead.

“I mean, isn’t that the assumption?” Wow, you sounded super unsure of yourself. “You’re always talking about civil service and upholding justice… I think it's kind of a given.”

Even on the off-chance that Akechi wasn’t just trying to relish in the look of you second-guessing yourself, there were only a handful of crimes that could completely mire a person’s blood. You highly doubted that someone like your righteous detective friend had the capability of murder.

“I’m not so sure,” he teased, “investigative work does have a tendency to land me in some unfavorable positions from time to time.”

After seeing the heavy look of concern etched onto your features, he promptly assured you that he was only joking and that everyone in his precinct gets blood tests annually for that exact reason. To which you responded with softened shoulders and a content smile.

His brows furrowed, and he tilted his head questioningly. You felt the beginnings of a philosophical rant lick at your ears.

“But what is ‘justice’ anyway? How does one define such an abstract topic? I’ve seen some contend with the law because ‘justice is blind’, but is it really so black and white? My own justice is purely oriented from said legal perspective, but there are other definitions for ‘justice’, no?”

He was so cute when he verbally lost himself in his own head.

“All right, all right, Aristotle,” you giggled, giving a playful smack to his shoulder, “let’s patch that bruise up first and then deliberate the subjectivity of justice.”

“Well, this is certainly going to be difficult to cover up…”

Akechi hummed solemnly, pulling gingerly at the skin of his cheek and analyzing the vaguely knuckle-shaped mark.

You wrapped a bag of ice in a thin towelette. His face wasn’t too marred, but it was a tad swollen.

“I could always take you to get some concealer,” you answered, handing him the makeshift ice pack, “or you could try some of mine.”

He muttered a small “thanks” before daintily pressing the bundle on his face, then drawing his arm back and hissing at the touch. You leaned in closer to his side, inspecting the injury.

“Does it hurt?” With a small “oh!” you raced to your medicine cabinet. “Here, I’ll get you some painkillers.”

You snatched the small pill bottle and turned around. Then you saw his face.

“A-... Akechi?”

His nose was bleeding.

“Hmm?”

His nose was bleeding a thick, ichored black.

With confusion laden in his furrowed brow, he turned to the mirror and was horrified with what he saw. He gasped through his teeth, and scrambled for something to cover up with, the inky fluid already beginning to stain his palm.

You couldn’t even bring yourself to care that the ice had spilled all over the floor– not with the way your mind reeled. Should you run? Call someone?

—No, Akechi is your friend! He would never…

You gnawed your bottom lip. Maybe it was just the lighting?

You were promptly corrected by the blackened stains that sprinkled his white undershirt.

Your brain was teeming with words, flickering between different questions every nanosecond– but even then, the only thing you managed to stutter out was: “...How?”

His eyes raked over your form. You were unmoving– bullets of sweat burgeoned all across your body, you could feel your heartbeat in your ears, and your eyes began to sting from how long you’d forced them open. Akechi swiped his tongue over his lips, the gears in his head turning before realizing that he was, in fact, still bleeding and required a tissue.

His mired hand dropped uselessly at his side as the cloth muffled his words.

“I know I said I was joking earlier…” he mumbled, “b- but–”

“No!” Your screech caught you by surprise. “No, no… this doesn’t… make sense…”

The white tissue had begun to poison with the amount of blood it soaked up.

Black pants, black gloves… how could you not have seen it sooner? And…

“That was a silencer in your briefcase… wasn’t it?”

His bloodied hand shot up, doing a poor job of looking defensive. “Let me exp–”

“When you were hit, you dropped your briefcase,” you continued, posture straightening, “Some of your things fell out of it.”

Between tissues, Akechi’s eyes widened.

“That long, black thing was a silencer, I presume.” You really didn’t like where this revelation was headed toward. “Why on Earth do you have that in your briefcase, Akechi?”

Akechi’s adam’s apple bobbed, eyes finding more interest in the floor than you.

“So… the weird calls you’ve been getting… and the tendency you have to disappear at odd hours… and– and the bandages–”

You felt tears brimming on your waterline. “Oh my god!”

Akechi took a rapid step towards you, seizing your bicep in his muddied grip.

“You can’t tell anybody. Do you understand?”

His voice grew hoarse, growling after every syllable. The fear from before coursed through your nerves. You shrunk beneath him, knees weak and hands trembling. This was not your friend. Who had you been entertaining all this time?

…God, you don’t want to be alone again.

“Let– Let go of me!”

Monster.

His grip softened.

“Monster?” His voice trembled just above a whisper. Somewhere along the altercation, Akechi’s newest tissue had fallen to the ground, exposing the smudges of dried ichor beneath. He withdrew, head bowed and fringe hanging just below his eyelashes.

“Promise me,” he muttered, “Promise me you won’t tell a soul. I… I can’t…”

He wiped the dried blood away with his sleeve, adding to the already morbid miscellany of stains on his shirt.

The world seemed to hate you. Making friends was difficult enough. You found solace with Akechi for that precise reason. But of course. Of course, fate would do this to you. Of course, fate would reverse the order— flipping the Star only to reveal the Tower licking at its heels. Hope, followed by complete turmoil.

Of course, fate would have it that the only person in the world you could securely call a friend would be a murderer.

“We should… wash that…”

He looked at you oddly– disbelievingly. “What?”

You gestured at his shirt. “Your clothes– they’re-uh-.”

Stepping forward, your fingers laced in his tie, pulling it loose from his shirt. You weren’t sure if the noise that came from his mouth was a breath or a gasp, but he clearly wasn’t going to kill you… so long as you didn’t tell anyone, right? You could… do that. You could. He’s still your friend. He wouldn’t have poured so much of his apparently valuable time into hanging out with you if it didn’t mean he cared, right?

It’s not like anyone would believe you even if you did go to the authorities. The Detective Prince? Murdering people? Ha! What a farce. They’d laugh you out of the building before you could say another word.

Your hands stabilized themselves on his shoulders, then glided down to his chest. Your stare nearly burned a hole through the juncture of the bottom of his neck and his clavicle.

“I’ll try to find a shirt that fits you. Keep… icing your cheek.”

You left him in your bathroom, trusting– hoping that you wouldn’t end up on the other end of that silencer tonight. The search for clothes was mindless. You touched the fabrics, ran your fingers over the textures, but it felt like touching air. Your nerves had worked themselves into a slump.

In a blur, you ended up finding an old hoodie your father gave you, which had always been three sizes too big.

Akechi’s shirt was fully unbuttoned by the time you returned, and it seemed that you still had the nerve to fluster. He turned with a languid impetus, keeping his movements short and stiff as he let you place the shirt onto his hands. He was treating you like a skittish animal.

You felt his gaze on the tops of your eyelids, but you refused to make the connection, instead finding purchase in the small divot between his pectorals.

“I’m going to order some food,” you droned, dropping the weight of the fabric fully into his grip, “do you have any preferences?”

How silly– treating a criminal with such respect.

But he’s your friend! He’s not just some stranger!

He’s killed people. Why do you think his blood is so dark?

But he’s always been kind…

He lied to you.

Your face scrunched up at your internal polarization. How do you even go about this? You’ve already concluded that reporting him is a fruitless endeavor, so how do you navigate this mess? Maybe the best option was to completely cut him out of your life… but then you’d really have no one to turn to. You don’t even remember hearing of a serial killer on the news but–

Wait… who has he been killing then?

The tension sunk your features.

“Whatever you want is fine with me.”

If you weren’t so tired, maybe you’d have seen the saddened smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Exiting once again, you tapped listlessly at your phone, placing an order at a local ramen shop. You remembered eating at a ramen shop with Akechi once and being offered a drink by some sleazy patron whom Akechi quickly shut down with one of his witty remarks that he always seemed to have tucked into his back pocket.

You only realized you were smiling when your face sagged back into a frown.

The T.V. might be a nice distraction, you thought and found fleeting mental peace by listening to the pantomime characters and their juvenile drama.

A pleasantly wrong voice interrupted your trance. “I hope you don’t mind me using your laundry machine.”

“No,” you answered meekly, “go ahead.”

In the corner of your eye, Akechi lingered before slinking away with his bundle of tarnished clothing. The subtle hum of the machine nearly drowned out his tentative footsteps, making him almost undetectable until he appeared beside you and joined you on the sofa.

“For what it's worth,” he began, sounding a little too unsure of himself, “I did derive genuine enjoyment from our conversations in the courtyard.”

Your sight fell out of focus, and you couldn’t bring yourself to force it back to clarity.

“And the study sessions at the diner… and…” His voice trailed off at your silence.

“Why did you lie to me?”

Your head turned to face him, taking in his malaise.

“I didn’t want to lose you.”

“That could mean many things.”

“It does.”

Whatever expression you gave made him visibly disconcerted, but he understood your silent plea for elaboration.

“At the most basic level, it means that I feared your reaction if I told you. Or that you’d get wrapped up in it somehow and I’d lose you that way.” He leaned on his forearms. “Truth be told, I’ve never gotten this close with anyone before… Can you really blame me for wanting to preserve what little I have?”

You huffed. “That’s rather oxymoronic.”

His eyes narrowed at the carpet. “It’s as I said before– I grew up lacking in a lot of areas. Money, safety, friendship… I thought that after my mother died I was fated to be alone. And… well, I figured if that was the case, then I’d at least make myself someone I, alone, would be proud of.”

You gnawed at the inside of your cheek. “So you’re proud of being a murderer?”

He made a small noise, apprehension pulling his limbs taut. He wiped his palms against his pants.

“It may sound a little morbid, but the murders themselves aren’t what I take pride in– but rather, what lies at the end of them.”

“So you have a goal then?”

He huffed, turning his gaze to meet yours. “Do you remember what I told you about my father? How he abandoned my mother?”

You nodded.

“All of it is to get revenge on him– to make him atone for raking my mother’s name through the mud so deep that she drowned in it.”

You could see the veins pumping fresh blood through the skin of his hand from how hard his fist had clenched. You didn’t have all the pieces to this puzzle, that you were sure of, but the memory of Akechi’s eyes stricken with a pain so deep, lips upturned in disgust, and knuckles so pronounced you could see his skin through his gloves back when he initially told you about his mother all those months ago gave credence to the idea of not getting in his way.

You didn’t agree with his methods, but abandonment seemed to follow you wherever you went. The feeling of your heart strings reaching out for a person who wasn’t there was something you were well acquainted with.

“If you’d like to stop being friends because you know the truth about me, I won’t be angry,” he finished, despondently sinking in on himself.

“I won’t”

His head snapped toward you.

“I can’t say I agree with what you’re doing… but I won’t stop being your friend.”

He outwardly appeared shocked, mouth hanging open and eyes wide, but his irises held the stars in them. They disappeared just as quickly as they appeared, much to your chagrin, when they spotted the bloodstain on your sleeve.

“Ah- I’m sorry for grabbing you like that earlier. I… panicked.” He rose to his feet, giving you a hand. “Cold water should do the trick. I’ll do my best to wash it off.”

You took his hand, wobbling to your feet and standing still for long enough that Akechi quirked a brow at you.

In a decision that never really crossed your mind to begin with, you wrapped your arms around his waist, nuzzling your head into his sternum. He still looked like your friend– felt like him too. And he smelled like he always did; like that–sometimes permeating– waft of absinthe and sandalwood with a note of marine. Comforting, soothing, usual.

You weren’t sure what you expected. Maybe you thought that something about him would change with this new information. Something about him that would make you want to hiss and reflex away like you’d put your hand into a boiling pot. But it didn’t. Akechi had not changed a bit between the time you didn’t know and the time you did. Maybe that was terrifying, or maybe that was assuaging.

The security you felt after his arms wrapped around you confirmed the latter.

Everything could go back to the way it was– no, nothing had changed at all to begin with. You wouldn’t be alone anymore. You could overlook a few things if that’s what it took. It wasn’t hard to be good. Just avoid being bad.

Upon pushing yourself away, you tried to search for the malice in his eyes, but the harder you looked the more empty-handed you came up. That familiar lidded, russet stare held your gaze softly, lightly twitching from place to place as he studied your own face.

A hand came up to cradle your jaw, ink still faintly nestled between the cracks of his palm. You’d only realized you were leaning completely on him when his grip around your back tightened to accommodate. Akechi’s thumb swiped across your bottom lip, fingertip settling in the middle of your lips and coaxing them open. His gaze had stilled.

You puckered your lips, giving the pad of his thumb a feather-light kiss and entangling your fingers with the hand that rested on your cheek in a silent affirmation of it’s okay. His eyes were so pretty up close.

Akechi sucked in a breath, physically wavering between wanting to push away or get closer. You pressed his stained hand harder onto your skin. His impulsivity would decide.

And it did.

You couldn’t see his eyes anymore, but his lips collided with yours– an equivalent exchange.

Your other hand traveled up the length of his shirt, settling on his nape and curling into his baby hairs. You closed your eyes for a better taste. Bubbling from his throat was a weak sound that made your nerves tingle. Your face grew warm under his palm, savoring the cloudy feeling of breathlessness between kisses. In fact, he hardly let you breathe at all. When you separated for a modicum of air, he grunted, angry that you were apart, and forced your lips together once more.

You groaned, tilting your head to the side and deepening the kiss. If you weren’t allowed to breathe, neither was he. You audibly smacked your lips together until the room began spinning and silently agreed that okay, maybe breathing is necessary to survive.

Akechi leaned his forehead on yours, heavy breathing filling the silence. Once your heart stopped beating the oxygen from your chest, he dove forward once more, ensnaring you in a searing, passionate–

Ding! Ding!

Ah.

Ding! Ding!

“The food. Right.” You reluctantly pulled away, praying that the delivery man wouldn’t notice the healthy rouge that tinted your face. Or the black bloodstain on your very white uniform shirt.

Shit.

You hid partially behind the door, accepting the bag with a dry smile. You flashed Akechi an even more awkward smile upon turning around. He seemed to reciprocate, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as you thought.

“I got you beef ramen. That’s what you got last time, right?”

He padded over to the kitchen. “I’m surprised you remember.”

“Of course I did,” you replied, taking out the bowls and grabbing utensils.

You opened your bowl and took it to the sofa, lounging between the cushions and grabbing the remote. Akechi, meanwhile, appeared as if he weren’t sure where to put himself. You beckoned him over.

“C’mere. Let’s watch a movie.”

He wordlessly joined you, carefully placing his own bowl on the coffee table and hunching over to eat it. You mindlessly clicked through a sea of suggestions before picking a random romantic comedy that appeared decent enough to entertain. Neither of you said a word while you ate. The movie was a nice distraction from your thoughts.

Yes, you were going to shove this information down into the deepest parts of you so the darkness there could chew on it and spit it out, never to be brought back to the surface again unless it was impossible to avoid. Akechi very plainly stated that he didn’t want you involved, so “involved” you will not be. Simple.

Healthy? No. Neither was the ramen.

You slurped up the last of the broth and set your empty bowl on the table. The arm you extended reminded you of the fact that you were still wearing your soiled shirt, and cleaning a bloodstain from your couch cushions was not something you felt like doing. You thumbed at the buttons of your uniform, undoing them casually and untucking the bottom from your skirt. You also casually forgot that you were not the only person in your apartment. Looking over, Akechi’s gaze was dutifully averted, but the tips of his ears shone bright red, making you giggle. He cleared his throat awkwardly, unsure of where to direct his gaze as you handed him the shirt.

“You said you’d wash it. I hope you haven’t forgotten.”

A devious grin tugged at the corners of your mouth as you watched his eyes flicker nervously between your chest and your face. You wanted to tease him more– play it up a little. You leaned on your arms, biceps pushing the mounds of your chest closer together. The action made his blush crawl from his ears down to his neck.

Akechi gulped, nodding along as if he didn’t look like a chaste deer-in-the-headlights.

You leaned in with a sultry chuckle, giving his lips a short peck before skipping off to your room. The confused noise he made replayed in your mind as you pulled a sweatshirt over your head.

After you were comfortable, you returned to your living room, spotting Akechi hunched over the sink and scrubbing at the stain. You walked over, leaning into his side. The stain seemed to be mostly gone; the only evidence that it had existed in the first place was the small, grayed outline.

“Thank you, Goro,” you purred, taking the shirt and wringing it out, savoring his shocked expression in your peripherals.

You carried the damp shirt over to your dryer and haphazardly threw it in. You could see Ak– Goro’s reflection in the metal.

He spun you around, caging you against the machine. He dove down onto you, shoving his lips against yours with a hungry grunt. You kissed him back with a passionate fervor, fingers hooking around his belt loops and urging his body onto you. He groaned your given name into your mouth.

“Can I stay over?”

He gave you little time to respond before capturing your lips once more. Your fingers played with his belt, steadily undoing it until it came undone with a clank.

“Of course, Goro,” you whispered, breathing his air, “Just don’t forget your tie.”

His fly was quick to unzip.

[isa-ah]

*coughs up blood* i just sent the message to my mom that im cutting contact lol for people who are nosey

I'm about to start a new chapter in my life, so it's time to tie up loose ends with people who will not be turning the page with me.

This begs the question; how patient should you be? How long do you give someone to learn, to make the choice to grow, and to find their respect for the people around them? Days, weeks, months, years? Because I've been waiting for nearly a decade and I'm tired of it.

I thought for a long time that tolerance was the best I could hope for. Gritted teeth and being allowed to sit at the table with everyone else. Not being openly mocked. I thought, when I was a kid with no self worth, that that was the best it could ever be. But I'm older now. I'm an adult, I'm getting married, I have mature peers, and I've started to realize how absolutely bullshit that is.

I deserver unyielding support and love. I deserve respect. And I'm getting it- from Lo's mom, from Lo's family. They've shown up en masse to celebrate with us. Not a single person has questioned my identity, has made me feel disgusting or unwelcomed or decieved. They're ecstatic to be involved in the planning and execution of our union- and it's lead to questions not about me, but about YOU.

They want to know why YOU'RE not involved. They want to know why I cried so hard I nearly threw up when Drew told me he would never support us. They want to know why I don't have a SINGLE family member in attendance. And when I tried to explain it, how it happened, the resurgence of disbelieving disgust I was met with made me realize they're right to feel that way.

These strangers have shown me more compassion and understanding than you ever have. You've had nearly a decade to figure yourself out, to step up and become a better person. To not just tolerate, but to LOVE me. And you haven't. And I've lost any expectation for you to. It's 2022 and you've done nothing to unpack your internalized homophobia.

And the funniest part is, it's not just you! You've made my brothers into bigots as well.

I tried. I fucking tried. I pressed for family dinners. For outings together. For conversations between us, between you and my soon to be husband, so you could understand that we're not monsters. We're just people. We love and support each other, and we were trying to establish something of that with you.

What we got in return was consistent homophobic and racist commentary and jokes over the dinner table. Rape jokes, Holocaust jokes, and your daily usage of the word "gypped"- an anti Romani slur coined as part of the genocide of Lo's ancestors. We tried to grin and bare it, under the assumption that with time you'd learn, but fuck. Why are we the ones left holding the bag?

We put up with your nasty bullshit, and you can't even make an appearance? You can't even say NO? You ignored me when I tried to ask you to come to our wedding. To my FACE, you IGNORED me. You did NOT even RESPECT me enough in that moment to say NO. I gave you THREE chances. And you could not even be bothered to say no.

And so, why am I still trying? Why am I holding the line, keeping communications valid, when after so long you've done nothing but regress? You're a worse person now than you were when my grandparents died. You taught me the foundations of anti racism and that gay people were just normal people. So why are you so unbearably nasty now? What happened?

Well. I don't know how to tell you this, but it's a line you've chosen to cross. You are, and I mean this genuinely from the bottom of my heart, a religious extremist. You've chosen the white person's guide to colonization over your own child- again and again and again and again. And for the last time. I won't keep asking you to pick when I know I'm only going to lose.

I hope that in time you'll find your humanity again. That you'll start to unpack and understand how far beyond any level of tolerance or compassion you've swung. How much you've not only hurt me, but damaged my brothers world views. They're going to struggle to ever settle into any space that isn't unambiguously straight, white and religious. They're going to internalize things deeply- DEEPLY- about their own worth and the worth of people who aren't exactly like them. And it's going to hurt when the day finally comes that they have to confront the knots on knots on knots that you've allowed to be tied up within them.

I know, because I'm nearly twenty-six and I'm still dealing with the fringes of what I was taught as a child.

It's not too late for you to grow and change. I'm not writing you off. But I'm not going to keep channels of communication open for someone who thinks so lowly of me and my husband. I love you. But I'm done.

[loli-momo1908]

"NH: Crotalus reference sheet"

 a reference sheet of 2 of 3 Predatron Generals from my first anime concept I'm planning to make a tv series out of one day: Nature Healers.

Name: Crotalus Age: 37 Species: Blue Speckled Rattlesnake hybrid Personality: Sadistic, cold-hearted, self-centered, arrogant, aggressive, conniving, simply evil Likes: Seeing humans suffer, fighting, desert lands, insulting the Nature Healers by pointing out their flaws, winning, live mice to eat, terrorizing the citizens for fun and chaos Dislikes: Gyps's tomfoolery, anyone who gets into his space or step into his part of his territory, losing to the Nature Healers, being called a failure, getting his aggressive anger flaws pointed out Theme color: Blue, slate blue, white, black, and dark gray as sub colors Weapons: Sabaku monsters Bio: Crotulas is one of the 3 Generals of the Predatrons who stands by Ustura's side with Gyps to serve their dark master is to exact his vengeance against Mother Nature for banishing them by taking over Earth as their global territory. When Crotalus first appeared after the time Ricky became the second Nature Healer member to join along with Reina (let's say in episode 3), he started terrorizing the kids' hometown with his Sabaku monster he had summoned while hunting for Tilii to prevent her from finding anymore chosen ones to become Nature Healers, Reina and Ricky transformed to stop him, However, due to Crotalus's slippery speed of a snake, he manages to gave the kids the upper hand until Rumaldo stepped in to save Reina and Ricky after he unintentionally witnessed their transformation into magical warriors. Thanks to Ramuldo's fiery courage and willpower to fight alongside his friends and save the town, a third Rainbow Gaia Quartz awakened and allowed him to transform into Healer Red Hawk, the third Nature Healer chosen one. After his Sabaku being defeated by Ramuldo, this angers Crotalus with his tail rattled before vowing that he'll one day get those chosen warriors before retreating to report to his two comrades.

Fun Fact: Everytime Crotalus gets angry, his tail rattles like how aggressive rattlesnakes would do. And for him to slither fast, Crotalus has the ability to change his legs into a lower body/tail of a snake as he can use such speed to avoid incoming attacks and coil around his enemies in his constrictive grasp. And with his two legs, he can run as fast as a velociraptor. 

Nature Healers, Crotalus (c) me

*DO NOT STEAL MY ARTWORK OR MY CHARACTER*

[funkypoacher]

Trying 2 get back into it

The Cliff's Edge Hotel matched what he'd heard. It was ostentatious, modern, and chewed up like molerats had mown through soggy gyp board, although the pests in this instance were slightly higher in the pecking order. Deacon could spot the blood-muddy claw-marks of feral ghoul fingers smearing walls and windows; the place had their stink all over, however, as he'd been told, a lot of the ferals had cleared out, so this salvage mission wasn't entirely a fancy suicide attempt. It leaned more towards a humbler, simpler assault on his senses, the thick darkness finding his sunglasses tucked in his jacket pocket, and his stomach rolling every time he sucked in stench while taking a breath of rationed oxygen.

Yet, as they say, it's all about attitude, and even Deacon's jaded outlook found itself convincing his nose to smell roses with his next surprised gasp.

"Oh, we've gotta check this out."

Through glass windows gone all the way to the vaulted ceiling, Deacon could see the hotel's beauty parlor. There was a wall of old wigs on mannequin heads, rows of cosmetician's stations and hair dryers, and tall mirrors in which to admire the end product. More important than the opportunity to score a new disguise was the fact that all of it appeared protected by a layer of dust. Ferals hadn't burrowed their way, and neither had looters broken in. Like a couple of the hotel rooms they'd come across, it was as good as any time capsule: a window into the past. If, y'know, the maid service was only semi-late to their shift rather than blown sky-high by the bombs.

"Bigs." Deferential to the possibility of ferals, Deacon hissed after his partner in crime. "Bigs, come here."

Dragging her feet, the woman hefted her pack up her shoulder. It was nowhere near as full as it should have been with the electric doohickeys they were haggling with hotel ghosts over. And by the look on her face? The woman didn't seem to think a quick stop to get their nails did would do much for the weight on her back. But it was precisely the weight she was carrying that Deacon hoped to deal with. In that room. Where, fingers crossed, they could breathe for a second.

"Seriously?" Big Mama, having dropped the codename and preferring 'Dawn' these days, came to his side. Glancing through the streaky glass, her jaw set. "We aren't going to find anything in there."

"Think so?" Deacon tsked across his teeth. "Can't even see footprints in the dust. We'll be the first people to step foot in there in forever." Seeing he wasn't convincing, he added, "bet if we dig into those hairdryer seats we find some of the wiring we're after."

Huffing, Dawn nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

And, pulling hard at the disused door, thankfully unlocked, Deacon followed her in.

[carrotcakecrumble]

Little extract from my lucy fic bc I remembered suddenly I was writing it🤘

———

Their eyes met, silence, which was then broken by the click and pant of Gyp limping over to her. He settled by her knees, the arthritis making his movement stiff and mechanical, and then fell at her heel with a deep sigh. The warmth of his affection and his loyalty made her feet begin to sweat and she shuffled them out from under him, taking a step away, ending up at Gareth’s side. They watched the collapsed dog together, quietly, laying by the fireside, back turned to them in total trust. She took Gareth’s large hand in hers, and her own trust chose it’s side.

“Laurie will never forgive me.”

[eastwoof]

Joisey Boisey: Local Homestead Edition

Hi again everyone. Mod Spit here. Uhhhh, guess who has two thumbs and ended up seeing Jersey Boys again? This guy! So, in honor of the complete and utter bullshit I did last time as a means of filler, here’s my ramblings on a local production of Jersey Boys.

Friendly disclaimer like last time: Please know all these silly comments are said with as much love as humanly possible. I respect all these actors and the hard work they put into performing this show each night. Any seemingly negative opinions/commentary are in no way meant to bash the actors as they do not reflect their actual talents and abilities. So without further ado…

Pre-Show:

I dressed up for this event. Why did I do this.

And by that, I mean I walked in with a red blazer and tie because I wanted to be immersed. IMMERSED, I tell you.

Also wow, they’re gonna perform on a stage that I did community theater on. That’s crazy.

Oh my god the set is so cool. (I wonder how they’re gonna do the lamppost.)

Edit: There was no lamppost :(

Why do people bring their little children to this show they’re going to start calling you an asshole

Act I:

OH MY GODDD.

“CES SOIRÉES-LA” WAS SO SEXY AND BRIGHT. I WAS HOOKED FROM THE START. AMEN

For a local theater, the set is really, really good!! For example, there’s no giant screen agressively telling me the season (nor a gregariously big lamppost), but wow. Top tier professional production.

Tommy is the most stereotypical Italian man I have ever seen. I want him to spit on me and murder me with a spoon. Please.

He’s also the tallest out of the four of them?? Which is something I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I do.

Frankie is so bubbly and animated!! He’s so cute. AND he’s tiny!! I love him.

But oh my god please,, stay still,, a bit sir. You’re sweating so much. Sir. You must be so tired. SIR. CALM DOWN--

It also seems to be causing a bit of strain on his voice. I hope he’s okay :(

On the bright side his guy liner is 😩👌

BOB IS SUCH A COCKY AND CONFIDENT PIECE OF SHIT. THEY REALLY SAID “FUCK UWU BOB. HE’S TALENTED AND A HOE AND HE KNOWS IT.”

Also his tone? So smooth. I wish my skin was that smooth. “Cry for Me” was so hot. When I pray, that’s the voice I wish I had.

NICK. OH MY GOD. A GOOD NICK. I... I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. I’M-- HAVE I DIED?

His comedic timing? Magnificent. Do I pity him? No. Do I want him to step on me? Absolutely. Does he beat Mark Edwards though? I’m sorry, but no. (The day someone changes my mind about Mr. Edwards, I’ll make a whole separate post, and the world will probably implode. Despite that, I prefer this Nick a million times more than Blonde British Massi™️.)

“I Go Ape” was so awkwardly funny for absolutely no reason. I love it. Hank went, “..HAHA YEAH!” as he handed everyone the suit jackets.

Gyp’s mic tape came off during “My Mother’s Eyes,” and I loved watching it dangle from his face during his aggressive sobbing.

“AN ANGEL CRIED”. HAL TOOK THE OPTION UP AT THE END. AND. ALSO. DURING “OH WHAT A NIGHT”. WHAT. THE HELL. HOW IS HIS VOICE NOT BROKEN. IS HE OKAY? HE IS SO GOOD. MURDER ME.

Loraine’s actress is very cute. I’ll update y’all.

Act II:

They all did their own special pose during the beginning of “Big Man…” and tbh I thought I was watching an anime opening.

OKAY. I LOVE NICK. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. aaaAAAAAHHHH—

HIS MONOLOGUE. It gave me secondhand embarrassment in the best way possible. Everyone’s trying to talk about the IMPORTANT MATTER, and he’s over here WHINING about Tommy being a little BITCH.

His monologue just gets increasingly louder until he shouts “TEN YEARS.” then he pauses and delicately plops into his chair to sit all politely. He looks like the cat meme. It’s so goofy.

Also, Nick being on the brink of tears when he mentions how he can’t see hotel soap.

The audience loudly groaned once Tommy said “half a mil,” and it made my heart happy.

Bob was the only one with a toilet during the jail scene, so seeing everyone dramatically draped over their chairs while he’s all scrunched up on the can was hilarious.

Okay, so Frankie being a hyperactive beyblade was definitely necessary here. He needs a place to put all that energy. HE RAN WITH IT.

“Beggin’” had sexy spins. “C’mon Marianne”? Exquisite. But then he starts doing whole ballet turns during “Working My Way…”??? Like, okay, Nutcracker and Swan Lake. I see you.

Bob’s smirk when he says, “What makes you think they liked you before?” 🥴✨💕

LORAINE. SHE IS SO CUTE. AND INCREDIBLE. I usually don’t pay as much attention as I should to her character, but this time my eyes were practically GLUED to her. Her leaving Frankie broke my heart into pieces. She deserves the world.

Oh, and sickness is cured. They all enunciate so hard, that they’re constantly spitting like camels. I love theater.

And now, the cast:

Frankie Valli: Ben Bogen

Tommy DeVito: Alec Michael Ryan

Nick Massi: Matthew Amira

Bob Gaudio: Michael Notardonato

Joe Pesci: Gianni Palmarini

Barry Belson: David Lamarr

Gyp DeCarlo: Peter McClung

Lorraine: Madeline Canfield

Mary Delgado: Abigail Sparrow

Francine: Hannah Jane

Norm Waxman: Rhys Williams

Bob Crewe: Aidan Cole

Hank Majewski: Jack Baylis

[wehatejulietsimms]

Romany American here. THAT word is not okay for outsiders to use. It’s different in various places but the history of the Gypsies in the US is not the same as the Uk or other places. There isn’t a supportive culture here for usage of that word other than by hippie mystical white women. So please step off. Getting “gypped” ripped off has been used by most people in the states and it comes from the Roma phobic idea that you can’t trust a Gypsy. Andy’s dad often speaks workout kindness or thought.

.

[topsytervy]

Kooky Pogues

Blurb: Your two friend groups don't really get along...until they do

*I'm literally only tagging this as Rafe since it mostly focuses on Rafe but it does involve a good chunk of the others so yeah*

Word Count: 5,414

Warnings: semi-canon Rafe, mentions of cocaine, mentions of drinking, mentions of abuse if I remember correctly, swearing, grammar/spelling mistakes, I think that's it

Little notes real quick:

-we're pretending gold is not a thing here, Peterkin is still alive and has not been murdered, and Sarah didn't cheat on Topper.

-I'm from Wisconsin so I chose Wisconsin cause I know Wisconsin and I don't have to really do research on it so I'm sorry if you hate Wisconsin. Believe me, I do too sometimes.

-And last is this came about cause I feel like if the kooks and pogues didn't hate each other, they would be like that one group of friends in high school that everyone just knows. They would be THAT group.

I was originally going to do something like this as a Christmas blurb where everyone was friends and they and the reader all go get a tree and decorate and shit but that obviously never got posted.

Lowkey kind of want to write more things about them as an entire group of friends though.

Anyway, enjoy :)

~~~~~

You moved to Outer Banks from Wisconsin your freshman year of high school and it was...different to say the least.

The weather was the main thing.

In all your entire sixteen years on earth, you had never experienced a hurricane. Snowstorms were common in Wisconsin so those you didn’t mind, minus the shoveling that your parents had you doing afterward, and you were still a little iffy on tornadoes considering you experienced maybe three in your whole life, only one hitting the town you grew up in and the other two just being warnings.

Hurricanes though were an entirely different category and it was safe to say that you were freaking out because you had never personally experienced one yourself.

And here was the entire town of Kildare knowing what to do and being pretty calm about it.

So, naturally, you stuck out like a sore thumb when you were in the store and trying to figure out what you would need.

It just so happened that three boys would be in the same aisle as you and one of them would be way too observant for their own good.

“She looks confused,” Kelce said from his place next to Rafe who was currently figuring out what soup he wanted.

Rafe and Topper glanced over to see who he was referring to and saw you, scanning shelves as you fiddled with a hair tie on your wrist.

Rafe shrugged, turning back to look at the soups. “Or she’s just a little nervous about Agatha. Believe it or not Kelce, I’m pretty sure some people still get nervous when it comes to storms.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I recognize her.” Kelce squinted, trying to get a good look at your face which caused Topper to sigh.

“Maybe she’s a touron and now she’s stuck here because of the storm.”

Kelce looked at his two best friends. “Well, the least we can do is help her.” And then he began walking towards you.

Rafe and Topper looked at each other before making their way after their friend.

“Need some help?”

You jumped slightly at the voice and whipped your head to see three boys standing beside you. You placed a hand over your heart and closed your eyes. “Sorry. You startled me.”

“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have crept up on you like that.” He apologized before repeating his question. “Do you need some help?”

You hesitated before nodding. “Yeah. I’m not exactly from around here. I’ve never really dealt with a storm like this before.”

“Where are you from?” Topper asked.

“Wisconsin.”

It’d be a lie if they said they weren’t a little taken aback by your answer, expecting it to be a state at least somewhat nearby. Not necessarily in hurricane territory but certainly somewhere closer to Outer Banks. Not a state from up north.

“Wow, okay. So this must be different for you.”

You nodded in response and Kelce smiled. “No worries. You’ve got three of the best people here to help you out.”

You chuckled before introducing yourself. “I’m Y/N.”

“I’m Kelce, that’s Topper and that one’s Rafe.” He pointed to each one who did a little wave.

Your smile didn't falter as the names of the three boys rang a bell in your brain.

You were warned about those three when you met the pogues a couple of weeks ago.

“Trust us, Y/N. They look nice but that’s just cause of their nice ass clothes. They’re the spawns of Satan.” John B had told you at The Wreck after school that day.

He, JJ, and Pope met you at school earlier that day and had told you that you needed to meet the other member of the group, Kie, and that you would love her.

Kie came around with some food and she rolled her eyes at the boys before turning to look at you. “They’re not the spawns of Satan per se. They just act like spoiled brats and like they’re God’s gift to everyone.”

“No. They’re spawns of Satan.” JJ sided with his best friend, grabbing a couple of french fries and shoving them into his mouth.

“No, JJ, you’re the spawn of Satan.”

“The point is,” Pope interrupted before an argument could break out, “not exactly the best people. Specifically Rafe.”

But now, there you were, standing with the three boys you were warned about as they helped you grab things that would prove useful in the storm. They even helped you load everything into your car.

“Thank you, guys. I probably would’ve been stuck in there for way longer than necessary if you three didn’t help me.” You smiled as Topper closed the trunk to your car.

Rafe shrugged. “No problem. You better hurry back home though. Don’t want you getting caught in Agatha.”

You looked towards the sky and grimaced at the darkness before saying thanks once more as Kelce opened your door and you climbed in, waving goodbye to the boys as they waved back.

Before you could pull out of your parking spot, Topper was holding his phone screen up, his Snapchat on display. You quickly grabbed your phone and typed in his snap username before adding him and he added you back. “Let me know when you get home or I’ll be watching the news like an old man for the next week.”

You shot him a thumbs up before reversing out of the parking space and driving away.

“She’s sweet,” Rafe commented as they watched your drive out of the parking lot.

The other two nodded in agreement before heading to Kelce’s car, Rafe and Kelce both telling Top to send them your username.

You thought the same thing about the three kook boys because, in your mind, if they thought they were so high and mighty of themselves, they wouldn’t have helped you out the way they did.

Now here you were, two and a half years later and still friends with two groups that hated each other. Both groups were incredibly confused at the fact that you were friends with the other and neither group liked the idea of sharing you with the other but you told them that they wouldn’t have to mingle with each other.

As much as you wanted to be able to hang out with all your friends at once, you knew that wouldn’t happen without a fight breaking out and you didn’t want to deal with that.

The only issue you had with your friends was Rafe and his relationship with coke, knowing damn well that him being high didn’t help anything in the least when it came to the pogues, especially JJ.

You had learned that at a party when Sarah had found you and informed you that JJ seemed off and he wasn’t talking to anyone. You decided that you would try to talk to the blonde and excused yourself from the kook boys, telling them you wouldn’t be long, before following Sarah to where the pogues were.

Sure enough, there was a lively conversation going around but JJ wasn’t really participating, just nursing a beer as he stared at the sand underneath his boots.

You sat down next to him and bumped your shoulder against his, causing him to glance at you and send him a small smile. “What’s up, J?”

“Nothing.” He shrugged and you nodded.

“You sure?”

JJ looked at you and noticed the concern in your eyes, sighing as he turned to face you. “It’s nothing I can’t handle, Y/N/N.”

You frowned at his answer, not liking what that could mean. “JJ, are you in trouble?”

“See this is where the line gets blurry for us cause you and I have different definitions of trouble.” JJ took a sip of his beer as you stared at him. It didn’t take long for him to break underneath your gaze. “It’s just my dad. Like I said, nothing I can’t handle.” He mumbled, finishing off his drink.

You immediately placed your cup on the ground and wrapped your arms around the blonde in front of you. He placed his head on your shoulder and you heard him sniffle. “Wanna go somewhere away from here and talk, bud?” You felt him nod and you whispered an ‘okay’ before unwrapping your arms from around him and leading him away from the party and farther down the boneyard.

You spent the next hour listening to JJ before wiping his tears and pulling him in for another hug, rubbing his back as you did.

And that was when Kelce, Topper, and Rafe had decided to go look for you. Rafe had had a line or two during the time you were with JJ and was already slightly on edge, thinking that maybe you got swept up with some touron on your way back and they were getting a little too handsy without your consent, when he spotted you holding JJ.

Before anyone could stop the oldest Cameron, he was storming over to you two, not amused with the fact that he, Kelce, and Topper were getting gypped out of their Y/N time. After all, it was their turn to have you for most of the night since the pogues had you the entire day yesterday.

“Alright, Maybank, you’ve taken up enough of her time!” He hollered, Kelce and Topper behind him just in case they needed to be there to drag their friend off of the younger boy.

JJ, however, misread this action as a threat when he turned to look at Rafe and he immediately went into defense mood, standing up as he let go of you and put on his tough-guy act.

You stood up and stepped between Rafe and JJ to serve as a barrier of some sort to make sure no fists would fly.

“Rafe, I promise that I’ll be back soon but I gotta help JJ with something first.” You told him gently, suddenly aware of how quickly this situation could escalate considering this was a party and there was definitely some alcohol consumed by both boys.

“What? Do I gotta get hit by my dad too so I can have some time with you?” Rafe spat.

Your hand came to your mouth as your eyes widened. You couldn’t believe Rafe would say that.

JJ stared at Rafe as he kissed his teeth before turning to look at you. “I don’t think you should be hanging out with Rafe for the rest of the night, Y/N. He’s high and he’s enough of an asshat when he’s sober so god only knows what the hell is going to go down when he’s higher than a damn kite. I don’t want to risk you being around that.”

Your gaze shifted to Rafe and saw his expression flicker from anger to hurt for a second before shifting back to anger. “Maybe she shouldn’t hang out with you ever again JJ considering all the trouble you get into. I don’t want to turn on my tv one day to find out one of my best friends is dead in a ditch because you decided to do something stupid and drag her along.”

JJ laughed. “Says the guy who is friends with Barry, the most dangerous drug dealer in town. You put her life at risk every time you screw him over.”

You sighed and rubbed your temples. “Please stop.” The two arguing boys looked over at you as Topper and Kelce kept observing the situation. “JJ, We’ll talk more tomorrow. I’m going to take Rafe home.”

JJ looked between you and Rafe before sighing, running one of his hands through his hair before nodding. “Yeah. Alright. Be safe and text me when you get home so I know you made it back safely.”

“Yeah. Of course.” You wrapped your arms around his neck and his went around your waist for your goodbye hug. “Everything's going to work out in the end, mkay?” You whispered. He nodded, squeezing you a little before letting go. You turned towards Rafe and let out a breath.”Let's get you home, Cameron.”

You held out your hand for the keys to his truck as you, Rafe, Kelce, and Topper all made your way back to where the cars had been parked. “Do you two need a lift back as well?” You asked Kelce and Topper, trying to tell them that you and Rafe needed to have a one on one conversation.

And by some miracle, Kelce seemed to pick up on that because he immediately turned Topper into the direction of the beer pong table and went “Hey, isn’t that Chrissy. I still owe her a beer pong match.” And ushered the slightly confused blonde towards the direction of this person named Chrissy.

You walked to Rafe’s truck and climbed into the driver’s seat as he climbed into the passenger, both of you feeling strange sitting in the seats the other would usually sit in.

You weren’t going to lie, you were a little scared to drive Rafe’s truck considering your car was a 2002 Chevrolet Prizm and, let’s be real, there is quite the size difference between a truck and a little old car like that, but you would rather drive a vehicle you weren’t exactly used to than let Rafe drive while under the influence.

You started the car and carefully pulled onto the street, making your way towards your house since your family was on a weekend trip on the mainland, one that you politely declined because you did not want to share a hotel room with your two younger siblings and your parents, and you especially did not want to either share a bed with your siblings or sleep on one of the chairs like you had done countless times before.

About ten minutes into the twenty-minute drive, you heard Rafe mumble something.

“I’m sorry?” You asked, glancing over at him.

“I said you missed the turn.” He repeated, slightly louder this time and referring to the road you needed to get to Tanneyhill.

“I was thinking we could stay at mine tonight, bud.”

Rafe tapped his finger against his thigh as he nodded, becoming nervous at how quiet the ride had been thus far and how you hadn’t even yelled at him on his behavior towards JJ. At how he completely ruined your night just because you were checking up on one of your friends like you always did.

You were there for Topper and Sarah both when they broke up, JJ when things got bad with his dad, Kie when she felt so overwhelmed with the kook life and the expectations, John B with DCS, Pope while he was stressing about his scholarship, Kelce when he felt like he wasn’t good enough and, of course, Rafe with his drug habit.

You should be pissed at him right now for getting mad at you helping out a friend.

You were five minutes away from your house that sat on the edge of the Cut when the silence became too much for Rafe and he snapped. “Can you just fucking yell at me already and get it over with!”

You jumped slightly at the sudden outburst before glancing over at him. “Why would I yell at you?”

You had yet to yell at any of your friends, even when they were being childish and very anti-pogue or anti-kook.

“Because we should still be at the boneyard, dancing, getting drunk and whatnot but instead you’re here, driving me back to your house because JJ and I had a spat.”

You shrugged. “Am I upset that you dragged me away from a serious conversation with J? Of course. But if you think I’m going to yell at you for it, then you really must be high.”

“I’m not that high. JJ was being dramatic back there. I had two lines, that’s it. Two lines barely does anything for me anymore.” He muttered.

You pulled into your driveway and parked his truck next to your car before turning off the engine, turning to face Rafe. “Why did you say that, Rafe?”

A confused look crossed his face. “Cause it doesn’t…” He replied slowly, thinking you were talking about his comment about the lines.

“No. Why did you say, in front of JJ, that thing about having to have your dad hit you too in order to get some time with me?” Rafe’s gaze dropped to the floor and he fiddled with his fingers, shrugging in response. “You do know, Rafe. It wasn’t just to get under his skin this time.” Your voice was soft as you spoke, scared that anything louder would spook him and put him on defense. “What’s wrong, bud?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing if it’s bothering you.” You unbuckled your seatbelt and turned your entire body to face him.

He sighed. “I just feel like every time I need to talk to you about something that happened with my dad, something else always comes up with JJ and his dad that involves you having to go patch him up or something. I’ve maybe talked to you twice about something that went down with dad.” He whispered.

“Rafe, just because I go to help JJ, doesn’t mean you can’t text me to come over after and talk to me about your problems.” You explained.

“I just don’t want you to get overwhelmed with everything. I feel like everyone goes to you for their issues and I don't want to add on to whatever stress you're already dealing with."

You sat there in silence for a few seconds.

"Is that why you turn to coke? You feel like you can't talk about your problems to anyone or you feel like a burden if you try to?"

Rafe shrugged. "I don't really know. It's an escape from everything, I guess."

“Oh, Rafe,” You leaned over his center console and wrapped your arms around him.

That’s all it took for Rafe to lose any composure he had, breaking down and letting out everything he had bottled up right there in your driveway.

You sat there in his truck, stretched over his center console as you hugged him, listening to him as he spoke through his sobs, your hand rubbing his back in soothing circles.

"I wish I wasn't such a fuck-up." He sniffed when he had finished.

"You're not a fuck-up, Rafe."

"Yes, I am."

"Stop talking about yourself like that, Rafe. I hate it when you put yourself down.”

“Sorry,” He mumbled, “I just wish I was better. Is that better? I wish I was more like Sarah. I wish I was the son dad wanted."

You pulled away from him. "Everyone has their flaws, bud. You can always get help and I'll always be here for you through the ups and the downs. You know that right?" Rafe nodded. “Feel a little better?”

“Yeah.”

You smiled at him before opening your door and hopping out. “Let’s get you to bed then.”

Rafe followed your actions and as he stood behind you, waiting for you to unlock the front door, he spoke so quietly you almost didn’t hear him.

“Can you come with me tomorrow? To get help?” He was staring at the ground, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

You looked back at him as you opened the door. “Absolutely.”

****

You stood outside with Topper and Kelce, nervously fiddling with the ring you had with your finger as you waited for Rafe.

Three months had passed since he entered rehab and you had visited him a couple of times during his stay but not as often as you had liked considering you still had school and work.

Your head whipped up when you heard footsteps approaching your small group and you grinned when you saw Rafe

You let Topper and Kelce greet him first as you took in the small amount of stubble on his face and his slightly longer hair. Rafe pulled away from the two boys before walking over to you and engulfing you in a hug. You immediately reciprocated the action, smiling as you did. “You look pretty damn good, bud.” You told him. “I feel pretty damn good.” He answered back, pulling away as he held you an arm’s length away. “Any girls or guys I should know about that have magically appeared in these past three months?” You laughed as you shook your head. “No. No girls or guys you need to worry about.”

Rafe made a noise of approval before turning to face the entire group. “Just so we're clear… I call shotgun.”

You and Kelce both groaned as you all walked to Topper's car, Rafe grinning as he yanked open the passenger door. As you buckled in, Topper started the car. “Alright. What are we doing so I know where I'm going?” “As much as I would love to join you, I promised my parents I would watch the twins while they went out shopping for my birthday present.” You stated. Kelce made a face. “Shouldn't they go with your parents to get you a gift?” “Here's the thing about my brother and sister, they get distracted easily and have to constantly be reminded by my parents that they are not here for them, so mom and dad have found it easier to leave them at home with me and just find a gift that they can just say is from everyone.” You explained as Topper headed towards your house. Rafe shrugged. “Fine by us. That leaves us alone to discuss your gift.” He smirked as he looked back at you. You rolled your eyes. “You don't have to get me anything.”

“We know but we want to.” Topper’s eyes met yours through the rearview mirror. “Fine but if I end up spending my birthday in the hospital, you three are paying the bill.”

Kelce, Rafe, and Topper all saluted you, causing you to roll your eyes once more before the conversation turned to catching Rafe up on everything that had happened while he was gone.

The three boys all waved goodbye to you before waving to the twins who were looking out the window.

“So where are we going? The mall? That little boutique she likes?” Topper reversed out of the driveway before glancing at his two friends. “TanneyhillWheezie. I need to grab my wallet and I'm hoping Sarah's there.”

Kelce and Topper stared at the older boy in shock, never having heard those words come out of Rafe's mouth before. Kelce leaned forward and placed the back of his hand on Rates forehead. “You feeling okay, man?”

Rafe swatted his hand away. “Just drive to Tanneyhill.”

Topper did as he was told, driving the route he knew all too well. Rafe was out of the car before Topper had fully stopped, heading straight into the extravagant house and up the stairs. He stopped in front of Wheezie's door and knocked on it, only for it to open seconds later. “Hey,” He greeted. Wheezie's face lit up at the sight of her brother and she tackled him in a hug, causing him to stumble a little. “Damn, Wheezie. Did you join the football team while I was gone?” he laughed, wrapping his arms around her. “Did you get my letters?” She queried, looking up at him. He nodded. “All thirty-six and a half of them.”

“I sent you thirty-seven.”

“Didn't anybody tell you that if you send someone a letter and it only fills half the page, it only counts as half?” Wheezie rolled her eyes. “Whatever. The main thing is your back and now I don't have to write letters anymore. I can just text you.”

Rafe laughed as he let go of her. “Fair enough. how are you? Has dad been giving you a hard time?” he dropped his voice down, not knowing where his dad was. “Not really. He didn't like it when I asked about you though. I once asked if we could visit you and you would've thought I told him I was pregnant and dropping out of school.” Wheezie casted her gaze down to the floor. “I had to have Topper or Kelce send out the letters for me because dad ripped up the first one I wrote you. It was like he wanted to wash you from everyone's memory. He even yelled at Sarah when she told him that it was pretty fucked up to rip up the letter when I was just trying to stay in touch with you through a hard time.”

“I'm sorry, Wheeze.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine. At least you’re back.”

Rafe gave her a small smile. “Is Sarah home or out?”

“Her room. Kie’s over though.”

“Thanks. I’ll catch up with you later. We’ll watch a movie or play a game or something.”

His half-sister nodded before heading back into her room, closing the door behind her.

“That was the cutest thing ever. She almost makes me wish I had a little sister. Almost.” Topper said from behind Rafe, causing him to jump a little.

He pushed past his two friends to head towards his sister’s room, knocking on the doorframe as he peeked in.

Sarah and Kie both looked towards the door from whatever show they were watching and Sarah gave him a smile. “Howdy, howdy. You’re back.”

“Yeah and we all need to talk. That means your boyfriend and his friends too.”

“Cutting straight to the point, I see. Why do we all need to talk?” Sarah questioned.

“Because it involves Y/N and her birthday.”

“We already got her a gift,” Kie stated, turning her attention back to the tv.

“That’s great and all but I think she’d like to have all her friends together on her actual birthday than have to spend it splitting the time between her friends cause she’s scared they’re going to turn it into a battle of who’s the better friend group.” Rafe looked between the two girls.

“Rafe, buddy, I love you and all but what the hell is bringing JJ, John B, and Pope over going to do? It’s going to end horribly.” Kelce spoke up.

“We’re all going to have a nice little chat and sort out our differences even if it takes all night and watching a movie with Wheezie.”

Kie sighed. “She did once tell me it’d be nice if she could hang out with everyone at once, she just doesn’t want to make things worse between the two groups.”

Sarah picked up her phone. “I’ll call John B and tell him I need help moving something and that he should bring Pope and JJ to help."

Within twenty minutes, three sets of footsteps were sounding throughout the house as the three boys thundered up the stairs.

"Alright, we better be getting lunch for doing this." JJ stopped in his tracks when he saw the three kook boys. "And I'll be leaving now. I'll just have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch instead." He said, turning around to leave.

"Oh no, you're not. You three are going to join this therapy session whether you guys like it or not." Sarah stared at them as she stood up, beckoning them inside.

"I would just like to point out that any 'therapy session' with him, usually ends with fists." John B pointed towards Rafe.

"Believe it or not, Rafe suggested this," Sarah informed her boyfriend.

"And that's not the least bit suspicious to you."

"If you three want to do something nice for Y/N/N this year for her birthday, you'll sit your asses down and participate." Kie glared at her three friends. The pogues exchanged looks and Kie snapped. "Sit!"

"Sitting." JJ flopped onto the desk chair as Pope and John B filed in, Sarah closing the door behind them.

***

A week later, you waited for your parents by the door, your younger siblings next to you as you three slowly grew hungrier waiting for your parents to make sure they had everything they needed.

"By the time you two are done, the day's going to end and we'll have to wait until next year to celebrate Y/N's birthday," Sammy called out.

"Yeah. And then you'll need to have two cakes. One for her seventeenth birthday and one for her eighteenth." Alex added.

You rolled your eyes but couldn't help complaining yourself. "Seriously. Can we go? You said that if we didn't leave now then everything would go to shit and that was ten minutes ago!"

"Okay, okay!" Your dad and mom came rushing out and you all exited the house. "I thought I raised you three to have some patience."

"Well, when you say 'don't have any snacks between now and dinner' and your kids listen for once, your children aren't going to have a lot of patience." You patted his back before taking your spot in between the twins in the backseat.

As you drove to The Wreck, you continued asking what the surprise was.

"Is the family visiting from Wisconsin?"

Your mom shook her head. "Just wait and see."

Alex leaned over. "Trust me when I say that you wouldn't guess it in a million years." Your brother grinned.

"Welp, here's high hopes but something I wouldn't guess in a million years, did you get me a Ferrari?"

"Hell no. I'll get a Ferrari before you do." Your dad shot at you as your family pulled into the parking lot of The Wreck.

You followed your family inside, Mr.Carrera wishing you a happy birthday as you passed him, and just about passed out from what you saw.

Gathered around the table, laughing and chatting as if they were all old friends, were your two friend groups.

"Oh my God. I think I'm hallucinating. Dad, you might have to take me to the hospital."

"There she is! The birthday girl. Welcome to the seventeen club!" JJ hollered.

You rolled your eyes as you walked over, your family following as you went around and hugged everyone. "What the hell got all of you to hold hands and have a civil conversation?"

"You'd be surprised how therapeutic hitting someone with a pillow can be," Pope commented.

"You will also be surprised at how quickly a bunch of teenagers will bond together to make sure a thirteen-year-old doesn't win monopoly," Kelce added.

Your brows furrowed in confusion and Topper smiled. "The point is, we all have reconciled and you do not have to worry about someone bouncing someone's head off a wall on purpose."

You nodded slowly before taking a seat in between Pope and Sarah. "I think I've entered an alternate universe."

"Trust me, you haven't." Mr.Carrera reassured you as he brought over the cake.

The group sang happy birthday and you smiled before blowing out the candles, your dad and Mr.Carrera beginning to slice the cake after the candles were removed.

"Alright, so who was the mastermind? It has to be one of the reasonable ones." You took your plate from your dad as you looked around the group, grabbing a fork. "Unless it was one of these two which I wouldn't doubt if they managed to lock you all in a pantry or something one day." You motioned to your brother and sister with your fork.

"Actually, it was Rafe."

You looked at Kie before turning your attention to the guy across from you who shrugged. "It was nothing."

You shook your head. "Well, I'm just going to say it right now, don’t be offended if I don't love your gifts cause all of you together takes the cake for the best gift."

"Wow. Cheesy much." John B teased.

You went to respond but heard a whistle cause the whole group to turn towards the noise. Your mom stood with a camera in her hands, a smile plastered on her face.

"Alright. All of you together for a picture now because two groups have become one and this must be documented or no one will believe it."

You all moved around slightly so everyone could be seen and smiled, listening to the click of the camera that told you the photo was taken.

You leaned across the table towards Rafe. "Thank you."

"No. Thank you."

~~~~~