#hi main blog i finished ghost trick

[yuriprince]

draw ur babygirl like this

[bethanydelleman]

do you have any book recommendations beyond classic lit + Jane Austen? Love your blog by the way!

Thanks! I read/have read a ton of books. My favourite genre as a child was fantasy, but I read almost everything except true crime*, thrillers, murder mysteries, self-help, and biography. But I do sometimes read those, my favourite thriller is Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney. I'm going to start with children's books because honestly, I find so much imagination in that genre.

Children's/YA Books: Gail Carson Levine, specifically The Princess Tales 1 & 2, and Ella Enchanted, among others Jean Little/Kit Pearson - these authors have the same vibe to me. Willow and Twig is a favourite from the first one, The Guests of War trilogy and Awake and Dreaming from the other. They both write coming of age novels for girls, both Canadian. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - I loved the whole trilogy (haven't watched the movie). The story being based around real antique trick photos is my favourite part The Echorium Sequence by Katherine Roberts - a trilogy of books about magical singers with blue hair and their interactions with half-human magical creatures Margaret Peterson Haddix, specifically Running Out of Time, the Shadow Children series, and Double Identity. Margaret Buffie, who writes stories about teenage girls and ghosts. Also Canadian, which I guess isn't that surprising. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Re-read it last summer and it's as good as I remembered. Roald Dahl, I really loved Matilda as a child, it's been fun to read some of these novels with my kids. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar - and it's sequels. Amazingly quirky and funny stories about a class of students in a weird school

Fantasy: Mercedes Lackey, specifically the Five Hundred Kingdoms series and The Obsidian universe. I also loved the Elvenbane series, but due to the death of Andre Norton it may never be finished. I would advise caution if sexual assault is triggering for you, the ones I like are mostly free of it but that can come up in her other works. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - obviously. Also loved The Hobbit, have not read further The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin - the book opens with the triggering of an apocalypse. The world contains people who can control earthquakes A Baroque Fable by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - this book is so hilarious but I don't know if anyone has heard about it Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan - and it's sequels. This is a romance retold fairy tale series

Science Fiction: Michael Crichton - who spans a bunch of genres but I'll put him here. I've read everything he's written and I recommend most of it. State of Fear has not aged well. His books are very fast-paced and Timeline has one of the best enemies to lovers. Orson Scott Card - I am aware, but Ender's Game is a masterpiece. He also has this single novel called Magic Street that is a sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream. I also loved Memories of Earth but it's been a while since I read it. I, Robot by Issac Asimov - short stories about artificial intelligence and how it might go weird

Graphic novels: Astro City by Kurt Busiek - superhero, but more focused on how living in that world would affect normal people Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra - every male on earth dies, except for one, and his monkey Fables by Bill Willlingham - after being attacked by an army of wooden soldiers, fairy tale characters and creatures seek refuge in a non-magical world (ours) Nimona by ND Stevenson - a villain gains a shape-shifting sidekick, but she is not what she seems Scurry by Mac Smith - post-apocalyptic earth, the main characters are all surviving mice. Best artwork I've ever seen in a graphic novel American Vampire by Scott Snyder- vampires have different traits depending on their home country, this is about the new, American species. Asterix and Obelix by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - a small group of powerful Gauls defend themselves against the Romans using a magical potion

Non Fiction: Stephan Pinker, I've read both of his trilogies on language and the brain. Trying to get through his huge book about violence The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks - writen by a neurologist, fascinating book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick by Maya Dusenbery - what it says on the tin

Toddler/Young Child Books: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone - I give you a 100% guarantee that if you read this book aloud, the kids will be fascinated. It is literally always a hit Robert Munsch - most of his books are amazing, but if you don't want to cry, DO NOT read the backstory of Love You Forever. The Paper Bag Princess was one of my favourites as a child. Little Critter - only the older ones, the new ones are religious for some reason. Just for You and I Was So Mad were favourites for my kids. Early lesson in unreliable narrators. Phoebe Gilman - Something From Nothing, the Jillian Jiggs series, The Balloon Tree... so many good ones! Really good illustrations too Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal - a book about a pea who hates eating candy. This book is fun to read and my kids loved it (I have the box set) The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak - kids love when adults have to do weird things I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen - perfect opportunity to do a lot of funny voices The Mitten by Jan Brett - a whole bunch of animals squeeze into a mitten. That's the whole thing. It's great. The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland - and the rest of the series. These are fun to read because they rhyme. Jonathan Stutzman - my kids LOVE Tiny T. Rex and the Llama series. We haven't read the others An Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems - we have this entire series, they are a delight. An elephant and pig are very silly friends. Good drawings Dr. Seuss - be careful with him though, his books are quite long and can be hard to read, so I recommend waiting until your kids are a bit older. But The Lorax slaps and my personal favourite as a kid was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

Other: Still Alice by Lisa Genova - or any of her books really. She is a neuroscientist and her books are really interesting explorations of different disorders. Book is better than the movie Warm Bodies by Issac Marion - zombie Romeo and Juliet Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder - a novel that is also an intro to philosophy course Calvin and Hobbes - I own all of them, so excited for when my kids can understand them. I also love The Far Side, Zits, and the earlier Dilbert comics The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John - this book is absolutely charming. I saw the Netflix movie and then bought it right away.

*I avoid true crime because I have heard that the genre causes harassment to victim's families

General Note: I am aware that some of these authors are now considered controversial, some for more serious reasons than others. Sometimes flawed people make really good art. I mean, flawed people make all art because nobody on earth is perfect.

[pichlive]

Main

Hello! I'm Pichu/Peaches.

This is my liveblog-- currently liveblogging Lily's Well.

The way this will operate is I'll mainly focus on one media at a time-- if I want to explore said media more, or finish up extra content, I'll be putting those on separate blogs dedicated to said media. I'll still be using the tags I used here though.

I'll also review things once I've finished them, and give my final thoughts on them-- or at least as they're finished so far. Some stuff I'll play on here will be technically incomplete.

I'm always happy for suggestions! Just be patient. It can take me some time to get through stuff. Some things because of the category they're in or length may go onto a different blog-- more on that below.

My policy on any content that could be spoilery for a tag is that I'll put it behind a read more, and then after a month or so, it'll be unspoiled-- if it needs more time behind a read more, please tell me!

My tastes on this blog will vary a huge amount, and thus, i cannot guarantee that everything will be sfw (anything too nsfw/nsft will be warned and behind a readmore). Minors can follow, but at your own discretion.

I'm also going to say that if you don't like something that I'm liveblogging, that you either filter that particular tag or block the blog in general. Otherwise, for the most part, I'm not down to be bullied or lectured about for what I'm playing on here. There may be some exceptions here and there, but they're more likely to be very circumstantial (ergo-- more likely to be more indie projects wherein the creator is doing something extremely harmful and I feel like my liveblogging is spreading their influence further-- but again, extremely niche situation).

No strict DNI, will block if needed. Bigots blocked on sight.

Some content is segmented into different blogs-- usually because the length of said content would make it very hard to focus on other things on this blog, or because I just find that other blogs make it easier for me to focus on other content I'm also curious about.

They are as follows:

Archie Sonic

One Piece

Ultrakill

Slay the Princess

Undertale Yellow (other than True Pacifist)

Webcomics

Chao Garden

Past liveblogs (to be catalogued-- many of my past liveblogs are tagged in such a way that it makes it difficult to find them due to not using the tag systems I do now. I'll try and find and catalogue as many of them as I can)

Lily's Well

My tags are also as follows:

#pichlive is my general tag

My liveblogging tag for things will be #pichlive [name of media]-- if you want to filter out my content in the media tag, just blacklist that if you don't wish to block.

#pichlive answers is for answering asks

#pichtalk is, for, well, general talking

#pichreview is for whenever i review content, typically after i've finally finished it/done a general playthrough or whatever or whatever.

#pichstop is for any mid-reviews of what i've done so far of the media i'm consuming.

#reblog

more will be added as needed.

Current To-live-blog list:

immortality

The Heilwald Loophole

Memoralysis

in stars and time

great god grove

romance the backrooms

amanda's adventure 2

I cannot Drown

Lost Cartridge: Cold Read

penthos

shipwrecked 64

bastion

Catboi game series

dialtown

hi-fi rush

caligula effect: overdose

caligula effect 2

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

my friendly neighborhood

ghost trick

needy streamer overload

Milk outside of a bag of milk outside of a bag of milk

Oxenfree 2

chants of sennar

Ddlc +

Scarlet Hallow

Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms

spec ops: the line

utena

sorry we're closed

Paradise Killer

30 birds

american arcadia

pizza tower

f is for family

Infinity Train

Amphibia

Mob psycho 100

Will add as I find even more stuff I wanna experience

[commentaryvorg]

The Great Ace Attorney Final Trial Commentary: Day 1, Part 2

This is an ongoing mini-commentary covering the final trial of The Great Ace Attorney (Resolve) in line-by-line detail. It’s written from a perspective of already knowing the full truth of things, so there will be spoilers for facts that only get revealed later on in the trial. This is not a commentary to read along with one’s first playthrough!

(The commentary will update on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Check this blog to find any other parts currently posted, and if it’s not yet finished, follow to catch future updates!)

Now that we’re below the readmore, I can add that this isn’t quite a commentary for everything going on in the final trial. It’s focused specifically on Kazuma and what’s going on in his head, only covering things which are relevant to him in some way (for the most part). I already had a lot to say about him in a big analysis post over on my main blog – but I have even more to say about him during the trial in even more detail, so here we are!

We’re resuming just past the save point as we begin cross-examining the redheads whom Gregson was apparently investigating the day before his body was found – which is a line of questioning that was definitely 100% Ryunosuke’s idea and not at all something he was subtly led into proposing by a Kazuma who knows full well that it’ll result in a dead end.

--- Testimony 4 ---

This is irrelevant to anything else, but I need people to know that the university of Temsik, which the two redheads went to together, is a very clear reference to Ghost Trick. If you haven’t played Ghost Trick, please play Ghost Trick it is so good. It’s even out in HD now, so it’s readily available!

De Rousseau:  “It was a plan most elegant, non?” Kazuma:  “No, it was most dishonourable.”

Look at Kazuma making a point that underhanded deceptions like this are dishonourable. (And nobody think too hard about the fact that he’s been doing quite a few underhanded deceptive things himself lately, it’s fine.)

Kazuma:  “This confidential document was obtained directly from Scotland Yard. It records an entry from the inspector’s private diary dated the day before the incident. It reads, ‘Lime Street, Red-Headed League, Undercover’.”

Here is an actual reason, completely misleading red wig aside, to assume that Gregson would have been at Lime Park on that day. And yet, Kazuma didn’t bring that up before the recess, because he wanted to make it look like suggesting this line of enquiry was Ryunosuke’s idea and not his own.

Kazuma, of course, knows full well this diary entry is false… but he’s got to be genuinely wondering why Gregson had a diary entry claiming he would be here in particular as a cover story. He’s bound to be at least a little bit curious as to if anything’s going on there (even though he definitely does not know that Gregson outright had someone impersonate him as an alibi, based on his reactions to that reveal later).

Ryunosuke:  (There’s no question that Inspector Gregson was investigating the Red-Headed League.)

But at least Kazuma’s information has got Ryunosuke convinced that Gregson was definitely there in the park that day, and not at all anywhere else such as with Kazuma on a ship to France.

I enjoy the part where both Ryunosuke and Kazuma tag-team desk slam to intimidate the redheads into admitting what they just accidentally let slip. Both are equally exasperated by these dumbass witnesses’ shenanigans, and they’re almost working together to get the truth!

Judge:  “Counsel, no incognito inspector would offer his identification for inspection. It’s quite out of the question.” Kazuma:  “Definitely. Why would he expose his true identity?”

Kazuma looks deep in thought as he says this. On the surface, he’s happy to agree with the judge, because this supports his case that Gregson wasn’t there – but on the other hand, he’s got to be busy wondering what on earth was going on with this supposed inspector there that day.

Kazuma:  “Don’t be ridiculous. No Scotland Yard detective would allow his – or her – identification to be stolen.” Gina:  “Hold it! That… that… That IS the boss’s! …No question about it.” Kazuma:  “It can’t be!”

Kazuma seems confident as he’s trying to refute this idea, because he’s sure the truth is on his side – and then he’s very shocked to learn that the ID is the real deal. He knows that Gregson wasn’t there, but apparently his actual genuine ID was there, somehow, despite that?

Kazuma:  “Unable to… You’re, you’re not suggesting…?” Ryunosuke:  “Yes! It’s quite possible that he was killed before he had the chance to report his identification stolen!” Kazuma:  “No!”

Kazuma’s “No!” here is really intense, and there’s a lot he’s not saying behind it. He knows for a fact that Gregson could not possibly have been killed by these redheads, but right now the evidence is making it look like he was. This isn’t just a “no” of “oh no, this hurts my case”, this is a “no” of “No, that’s not what happened at all!” If things continue like this then van Zieks is going to be found innocent based on something completely false, and Kazuma is helpless to explain how wrong it is without incriminating himself.

Kazuma:  “But you will tell everything! …Or face the worst possible outcome.”

Kazuma’s getting very forceful at the redheads. He needs them to stop hiding things and tell the whole truth in their next testimony, so that it can be firmly established that Gregson did not die in their company that day like Kazuma knows for certain he didn’t but cannot say himself.

(He’s not saying it in so many words, but he is essentially threatening them with capital punishment here. This is not the only time Kazuma uses that as a threat to witnesses who are hiding the truth from him.)

--- Testimony 5 ---

Kazuma:  “It would appear then, that on the day before the incident… the man who visited the park on Lime Street posing as an incognito inspector… was not Inspector Gregson at all!” Ryunosuke:  “Objection! If that’s true, however, how do you explain the inspector’s identification?” Kazuma:  “…!” Ryunosuke:  “This is a genuine identification book, issued by Scotland Yard. It’s inconceivable that someone could have stolen such an important item from the inspector. The prosecution made that assertion itself!” Kazuma:  “…!”

Whoops. Kazuma was happy to make that assertion when it helped his case, to write off the redheads’ testimony as obviously nonsense, but it’s suddenly not so helpful now that it allows them to continue to think that maybe the man they kidnapped was really Gregson.

(Still, Kazuma is the one gaining ground here, since mislaid ID is easier to explain away than a disappearing bruise, and he’s definitely glad about that.)

Ryunosuke:  “…the person who these two red-headed men took prisoner that day cannot have been Inspector Gregson.” Kazuma:  “In other words, your whole argument up to now has been a waste of time.”

Wow, Kazuma did not remotely hesitate to point that out the moment Ryunosuke conceded this. He really was waiting for this all along, knowing that it would be proven sooner or later, so that he could make the court see just how pointless it was for him to entertain Ryunosuke’s conjecture that maybe van Zieks didn’t do it. Again: see why he wanted to lead Ryunosuke into suggesting this avenue, so that it would seem like Ryunosuke’s wasteful idea.

(And yet, who really wasted the court’s time by subtly leading us onto an entire line of enquiry he knew full well would amount to nothing, Kazuma?)

Ryunosuke:  “During his testimony earlier… I noticed something around the man’s neck: a red ring of bruising!” […] Kazuma:  “What?!”

Haha, Kazuma didn’t notice the bruise on Gossip, because Ryunosuke’s observation skills really are a lot better than his!

--- Testimony 6 ---

Ryunosuke:  (Ugh. Isn’t there anyone in this courtroom who thinks I might be onto something?) Susato:  “I stand steadfastly at your side as always, Mr Naruhodo!” Kazuma:  “………”

Aww, I enjoy the pan to Kazuma’s silence there. It’s not only Susato – Kazuma definitely also believes Ryunosuke must be onto something here, because his best friend always is.

Ryunosuke:  “The victim’s body was discovered… in your rented room!” Gossip:  “………” Kazuma:  “I suggest, sir… that you start talking!”

Kazuma’s getting worked up again here. He may be completely convinced that van Zieks did the murder, but suddenly here’s the man who’s renting the room that’s the Reaper’s hideout, so surely he’s got to know something important and be connected to all of this somehow.

Kazuma doesn’t noticeably react to hearing that Boone is in fact Daley Vigil, or even that Vigil used to work as chief warder at Barclay Prison. But…

Ryunosuke:  “Well, it’s been ten years since Mr Vigil worked at the prison.” Kazuma:  “Ten years?”

As soon as he hears it was ten years ago that his employment there ended, he takes notice. Based on his reaction here, I don’t think he knew until right now that Daley Vigil was someone connected to his father’s execution.

Vigil:  “Yes, it’s true… I am Daley Vigil.” Kazuma:  “And you were the chief warder at Barclay Prison ten years ago…? ………”

And all of a sudden, that’s the only detail about this man that Kazuma cares about. His silence there comes with a screen shake, as if everything’s shifting itself around in his head as he realises that this man isn’t just some witness, just some guy who for some reason rents the room used as the Reaper’s hideout – he might well be the one who faked his father’s execution.

I did assume at one point, while I was trying to figure out Kazuma’s approach to this trial, that he’d already been looking into his father’s execution and already knew to look for a Daley Vigil. But this reaction of his pretty much confirms that he had no idea it was this man until now. Either he tried to look into it but couldn’t get Governor Caidin to reveal much to him (no surprise when his surname is Asogi), or perhaps, Kazuma didn’t want to look too closely into the part of the case where his father might have done something underhanded himself.

Vigil:  “I was to… impersonate the inspector.” Kazuma:  “What?! Impersonate him?!”

Kazuma is also very shocked to learn that Gregson personally asked someone to impersonate him. At that one point, I was also assuming that maybe Kazuma had learned about Vigil being Gregson’s alibi man from Gregson himself… but here it’s pretty clear that that is not the case. Which is fair enough, because that’s not something Gregson would likely tell anybody else if he could help it.

Kazuma:  “Well… it would seem this confession completely destroys the defence’s case.”

Yes, Kazuma. Sure. Completely destroys it. There is definitely not a single chance that van Zieks is innocent now, never mind the still-very-convincing argument Ryunosuke made about the scene at Fresno Street being a setup.

Kazuma:  “My learned friend’s assertion was as follows: The victim was killed at another location on the day before his corpse was discovered… at the hands of these two Red-Headed League men when they imprisoned the inspector.”

That wasn’t really Ryunosuke’s assertion. Mostly he was just asserting that Gregson was killed somewhere else by somebody. He never latched that strongly onto the idea that it was the redheads in particular. But, conveniently for Kazuma, there was that one point earlier on where Ryunosuke at least suggested that might have happened, to explain why Gregson couldn’t report his ID missing once it was stolen.

So clearly, that was the argument Ryunosuke was totally making the whole time, and since it wasn’t the redheads who killed Gregson at all, that must mean it was definitely van Zieks, no other possibility. Never mind the question of where Gregson really was on the 31st, which Kazuma is fully aware of. No. If Gregson wasn’t killed in a place he wasn’t even present at on the 31st, clearly it means he wasn’t killed on that day at all and Ryunosuke proposing as such was just wasting our time.

This is exactly the outcome Kazuma was expecting when he led the court – and Ryunosuke – into pursuing this redheads dead end, and he is doing a startlingly good job of making it seem like it matters to the question of whether van Zieks killed Gregson.

Still, as Ryunosuke freaks out about this (he doesn’t realise the obvious logical fallacy in Kazuma’s carefully-worded shut-down, because he idolises Kazuma and Kazuma wouldn’t be so obviously wrong, right?) and we get a wide shot of the entire courtroom… Kazuma’s pose isn’t confident; it’s thoughtful. This was supposed to be nothing but a diversion to manipulate the court into thinking his case held more weight than Ryunosuke’s, but… it unexpectedly brought him a very important lead about his father’s case, one he can’t let go without pursuing.

So, of course, as the judge is about to call an end to Vigil’s cross-examination, Kazuma interrupts.

Kazuma:  “I want to know… exactly what your involvement was.” Vigil:  “Oh!” Kazuma:  “Answer me, man!”

And of course he’s being especially forceful here. He has to know the truth of that execution. (Never mind the part where it might reveal that even his father was involved in underhanded dealings, just don’t think about that—)

Judge:  “Is this related to the current case?” Kazuma:  “……… Naturally. It is the prosecution’s belief that this case and the events of ten years ago… are inextricably linked.”

Kazuma’s not making this up. With what he knows about Gregson helping to frame his father, and about an exchange assassin mastermind – who is also bound to be the same person as the Reaper mastermind – wanting Gregson silenced, he knows that the real motive for this murder is inextricably linked to Gregson’s role in his father’s death ten years ago. He just… hasn’t got around to revealing any of that yet, not when he’s still going with the totally false idea that van Zieks’s motive was simply Gregson discovering his hideout. But he fully intends to reveal the whole story, in time!

Ryunosuke:  (Kazuma… You’re not yourself. You’re not as calm and collected as usual.)

Aww, Ryunosuke knows his friend, and he can just tell that Kazuma’s been a lot more forceful and desperate in this trial so far than he’d ever usually be.

Susato:  “Poor Kazuma-sama. No wonder he’s acting this way. Mr Vigil’s memories of what happened ten years ago… would tell the tale of Genshin Asogi’s final moments. His own father…” Ryunosuke:  “I know. I do understand that.” (But even so…)

And aww, both Susato and also Ryunosuke can empathise with why Kazuma’s feeling this way. But even then… Ryunosuke still has a strong sense of what’s appropriate in a court of law, and dredging up your issues about your father’s death in a seemingly completely unrelated trial isn’t it.

Ryunosuke:  “Kazu— Prosecutor Asogi.” Kazuma:  “…!” Ryunosuke:  “Do you genuinely believe… that this question requires an answer in order to learn the truth behind Inspector Gregson’s death?” Kazuma:  “I need you to trust me. …Please.” Ryunosuke:  “……… Very well. Then the defence has no objection.”

Aww! Kazuma asking Ryunosuke to trust him that this is relevant, because he really does have good reason to think so but he can’t reveal any of it just yet. And Ryunosuke, despite recognising how emotional Kazuma’s getting over this, does trust that his friend has some actual reason to believe this is connected!

Also the way Ryunosuke initially goes to call him “Kazuma” as if he’s trying to talk to his friend on a close, emotional level, but then stops and corrects himself to the proper courtroom language of “Prosecutor Asogi”, because what he’s really asking is for Kazuma to put aside his personal feelings for the sake of courtroom etiquette. Aaa, my heart.

Vigil:  “The, the truth is… I remember very little of that time.” Kazuma:  “You’ve forgotten?!”

Kazuma has another strong reaction to this. On the one hand he must be frustrated that the answers he so desperately wants might not even be accessible. But on the other hand, maybe this is also making him think that, huh, forgetting important things, he has a bit of his own experience with that, doesn’t he.

Vigil:  “As I said, I resigned from my role at the prison ten years ago. But for some peculiar reason… my memory of the events leading up to that moment is extremely hazy.” Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma’s also shown reacting silently to this. He’s bound to be thinking about what he knows it means, to have forgotten something so very important and likely painful.

Ryunosuke and Susato discuss between them that Vigil’s statement about resigning is strange, because they know that he was in fact fired. Kazuma does not have that piece of information as evidence – and yet, he’s already figured out exactly what’s going on in Vigil’s head.

Kazuma:  “The human spirit is a fragile thing. It’s broken all too easily. Which is why… we have a tendency to wrap it up for protection.” […] Kazuma:  “When we experience pain and suffering that we feel unable to bear… we block it out. Obliterate it from our memories. Seal it away. But it never truly leaves us. If the seal is broken, the memories resurface. And when they do… that fragile spirit may finally be crushed.”

Kazuma’s speech here is so heartbreakingly telling. The language he uses is so evocative, with “we” phrasings making it seem so much more personal. And the fact that he even realised, so quickly, that this trauma-driven amnesia is what Vigil’s going through also says so much. Kazuma’s amnesia was driven by trauma, too, and on some level, he’s realised that. But this is the closest he’s ever going to be able to get to admitting that. He’s talking about himself just as much as he’s talking about Vigil in these words.

Susato:  “Kazuma-sama…”

Susato is shown reacting to his speech, making me think that she’s picking up on how this is a lot more personal for Kazuma than he might want it to seem. She of all people has enough emotional intelligence and empathy for him that I can definitely buy her noticing this.

Kazuma:  “But if it must be crushed, then so be it! Because the truth will not stay buried! It’s coming out… one way or another!”

And yet, despite (or perhaps because of) his own experience with this, Kazuma is so fervently certain that revealing the truth is worth the pain it brings. He must have been in agony when he regained his own memories – but even worse would have been the realisation that he’d ever forgotten about something so very important. Nothing matters more than the truth – at least, to Kazuma, when it’s the truth about his father. No matter how much it hurts.

Susato:  “………”

Susato is still staring at Kazuma with tears in her eyes. I think she really does Get It about what he’s gone through himself. Bless Susato.

Ryunosuke:  “This is a dismissal notice ordering the immediate termination of a prison staff member’s employment.” Kazuma:  “A dismissal notice…?”

(Confirming: Kazuma indeed did not know about Vigil’s dismissal, and yet, he still figured out he had amnesia before anybody else.)

Even the way Vigil clutches his head and sways as his memories begin to come back to him is similar to what Kazuma briefly did during the cutscene when he regained his own.

Kazuma:  “Clearly… you did something.” [he slams his desk] “Mr Vigil! It’s time to break the seal and have you remember!”

Ugh, he’s still being so forceful about this, despite knowing exactly how much it’s going to hurt poor Vigil.

Kazuma:  “Seeing as you were in charge of overseeing executions at the time… you must know the truth about what really happened! It’s in your head! Somewhere deep down!”

Tragically for Kazuma, it isn’t – Vigil was not involved in the plot and knows little about how it was carried out. Kazuma’s going to cause this man so much pain in ripping the truth from his mind for almost none of the gain he’s expecting.

(Well, not completely no gain, since Vigil’s memories – particularly of a certain scarlet-penned will – do eventually come in very handy in solving the case.)

As Vigil recounts the story of what happened with the Professor’s escape and subsequent death, the camera pans around the courtroom – and Kazuma can be seen folding his arms, his eyes closed, listening quietly. I get the sense this body language is a sign of him retreating in on himself and doing his utmost to suppress any kind of emotion he might be feeling from hearing in such detail about how his father was killed.

Kazuma:  “I’ve reviewed the police records from that time extensively.”

Of course he has. He’d have been doing nothing else in the week after regaining his memories. By the sounds of this, he even did look a certain amount into his father’s faked execution, despite that this might reveal underhandedness on his father’s part. I suppose he just didn’t manage to find out about Daley Vigil in particular, one way or another.

While Kazuma was ruthlessly willing to drag the truth out of Vigil no matter the pain it caused, I suspect he wasn’t quite expecting the poor man to pass out from the sheer trauma of it. And even though he felt this was necessary, it’s not that Kazuma doesn’t care about the pain that resulted – he’s apparently very apologetic when he visits Vigil in his hospital room later, so he does feel guilty and responsible for the man’s suffering.

[monsterenergysimp]

Permanence

corpse husband x fem!reader 

summary: you meet corpse on a stream and you’re surprised when he reaches out to you 

warnings: cursing, mentions of tattooing

word count: 1.9k

notes: This is proof read but could have missed some stuff. This is my first corpse fic and my first time writing fanfic since I posted that super cringey book on wattpad when I was like 12 or something. I’d appreciate feed back so please reach out to me :)

main blog @itsmysleepover

read part 2 here!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You were cleaning up your station so you can get home and stream. You loved your day job as a tattoo artist but you also really enjoyed streaming. It started as a way to promote yourself as an artist and the shop you worked at but it eventually became a really fun way to destress at the end of the week (or day if you were really itching to stream). “Hey Y/N was that your last client?” your boss, KC, asked as she walked to the front of the shop and put new flash drawings on the walls.

“Yes ma’am!” You said back excitedly. You finished cleaning your station and tossed your black gloves in the trash. “And you can’t trick me into staying and taking walk-ins,” you joked with her. She rolled her eyes and walked back into her office “It was one time,” she said as you slid on your jacket. As you walked out your phone buzzed in your pocket and you checked to see who had texted you. It was a message from Sean asking if you were free to play Among Us with him and some other streamers. You replied that you were on your way home right now and totally down. You were excited to see who was playing this time around since their Among Us streams are super entertaining and have gotten really popular.

On your way back you tweeted and posted to your Instagram story that you’d be streaming soon and set up all your stuff once you made it home. After a few minutes, you had a couple of thousand people watching. You entered the discord chat and Sean spoke up. “Everyone this is Y/N she’s sensitive so be gentle.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you guys and I’m not gentle, I'm ruthless,” You say into your mic and notice the chat calling you a liar. Everyone was in the lobby waiting for the game to start. “You sound way too sweet to be ruthless,” Corpse said. The countdown started and you were imposter with Charlie.

“This should be fun,” you told the stream. Yout tried playing strategically but after such a long shift your brain was mush. You saw Poki in nav and killed her then vented into shields. Not long after the body was reported and you were sure you were going to get voted out or at least sussed.

“Where was the body?” Felix asked. “Nav and I didn’t see anyone near there so whoever is imposter must have vented,” Corpse responded. Felix spoke up again. “I think I saw Y/N walk that way and I haven’t seen her since.”

Shit, shit, shit shit. “I’m in shield right now so-” you said trying to defend yourself but Charlie spoke up. “I was doing tasks with her earlier and I saw her walk into shields so she’s safe but I’m still not sure about Rae.” Everyone discussed a bit more and some people, including Corpse, voted for you but Rae got the majority vote and was ejected. You released your breath and kept playing being extra careful.  

“Okay, guys that was super close. Corpse knows and is out to get me,” you said to the chat. You were eventually voted off but one round later victory was written across your screen with your ghost and Charlie’s avatar. “Good game guys,” Corpse said.

“I told you guys I was ruthless!”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You sat at your station doing nothing because a client had canceled a four-hour session. You were listening to music and sketching some stuff but you were bored out of your mind and you didn’t want to leave in case you got a walk-in. The music got quiet as you received a twitter notification saying someone had messaged you. You reached for your phone and saw you had gotten a dm from Corpse.

C: hey :)

You didn’t know what to respond. You were mostly confused as to why he decided to message you out of the blue. Did he want something? But what would he want?

Y: Hii! This is sudden

C: was i bothering you?

    shit sorry!

Y: Youre fine I wasn’t doing anything rn

C: how has your day been

    i dont usually do stuff like this

Y: Im glad you did im doing better now I was so bored

C: what were you doing that was so terrible

Y: NOTHING! thats the problem :(

C: im sure youll find something to do

You stared at his message. Unsure what to respond.

Y: Im gonna give myself a tattoo

C: what?

    NO!

You tossed the needles you used for your tattoo into the sharps box. “Oh my god you didn’t,” KC said. She noticed the wrap on your calve from the tattoo you just gave yourself out of boredom. “It’s not my fault I didn’t have anything else to do!” You said trying to defend yourself. She sighed and just shook her head. “Just go home business is slow today.” It was raining so the shop probably wasn’t going to get a walk-in anyway and you didn’t have any more clients for the day. It was only 2 pm but you drove home and after making lunch for yourself decided to stream. You weren’t expecting too many people so it was bound to be super chill. Your leg felt sore reminding you of the tattoo. You snapped a quick pic of the fresh jack-o-lantern on the side of your calve and messaged it to Corpse.

Y: [image] it came out nice!

C: thats  super cool actually

    i was concerned why you would just give yourself a tattoo but i found your instagram and       youre super talented

Y: Thank you!

For some reason, it felt strange to just have that be the end of your response.

Y: Im about to start streaming if you wanted to watch

    [link]

C: ill be watching ;)

What’s that supposed to mean?

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You sat in your apartment watching tv, hand lost in a bag of Doritos, and scrolling through twitter. You had stopped paying attention to the anime playing on the screen since you’ve watched it a hundred times and knew you wouldn’t miss anything. It was Saturday and you usually take those days off. Take the time to do chores or meet up with some friends but today you felt like not doing any of those things. As you continue your endless scroll (not helping the twitter addiction you told yourself you’d try to get a handle on) you got a message from Corpse.

C: wanna talk?

You looked down at the message unsure of how to answer. It was a simple yes or no and the obvious answer was yes. You and Corpse had started talking more regularly. You still didn’t have each other’s phone numbers but it was fine. Your conversations weren’t too big-- just you sending him memes, tiktoks, and telling him how much you liked the songs he would drop. Or him complimenting a tattoo you did. Sometimes he’d message you during streams telling you funny stuff his fans would say in the chat and you’d do the same. You learned a bit about each other but nothing too deep or serious. Like how you two lived a few cities away and you both really liked Donnie Darko. When Sean first invited you to that game out of everyone else there you were most excited to meet Corpse. He’s just so sweet and funny. Of course, you’d love to talk to him but you were also itching to talk to him and the last thing you’d ever want to do was make him uncomfortable.

Y: Yeah id love to talk

Here goes nothing.

Y: Wanna facetime or something?

     No pressure or anything it could even be a regular call

     I think facetime is just my default lol

You sent those last two messages quickly after you had sent the first. You wished you could know what he was thinking. It was killing you to think you had turned him off from talking to you completely. You put your phone down on the couch and went to wash your hand of Dorito dust. When you got back from the kitchen you turned off the tv and tossed yourself onto the couch.

Still no message.

Why am I so fucking stupid?  

Just as you were standing up to stretch from sitting on the couch all day your phone buzzed. You reached for it fast and looked to see that it was him. You became super excited still not even knowing what the message said. It could have told you to never talk to him again for all you knew.

C: sure lets facetime

    xxx-xxx-xxxx

You had his phone number. You added him to your small but growing contact list and called. You sat on your couch waiting for a response when he finally picked up the screen was black. It didn’t upset you; you kind of expected it and didn’t care what he had to do to make himself more comfortable during this call.

“Hey,” he said. His voice was raspier than usual.

“Did you just wake up?” You asked and looked at the time. It was about a little past noon and you had only eaten Doritos all day. Shit, you should probably make a decent meal.

“Not that long ago but yeah,” he responded and giggled. That giggle.

“Well, I’ve eaten nothing but Doritos all day while rewatching Ouran High School Host Club, so you’re welcome to join me as I make myself something to eat.”

“Sounds like fun; what are we eating?”

“I don’t know yet,” You said as you stood up and made your way to the kitchen. You opened the pantry and looked. You noticed a can of diced tomatoes and reached for it then checked the expiration date. It was still good. On your counter were some onions and garlic. “How about some tomato soup?”

“Sounds delicious.” you smiled at Corpse and your phone screen not knowing if he was also looking at his screen or not. “You’re really pretty-- you know that?”

“Thanks, but you don’t have to--”

“I’ve already told you what an incredible artist you are so many times I bet you’re tired of hearing it, but you already know what a talented artist you are.”

“That is very kind of you Corpse,” you said to him bashfully as you chopped the onion and opened the can of tomatoes. “But once again you don’t have to reach so far to compliment me.”

“I’m not reaching you are talented and beautiful and--”

“I thought I was pretty.” You could hear him chuckle with a smile on his face. “You’re both,” he said. You could feel your face getting warm from blushing.

“Fuck you you’re making me blush. My face is all hot and stuff.”

He laughed at how flustered you got. “That’s the cutest thing ever.”

You didn’t know how to respond so you just put some olive oil in a pot and tossed in your onions. It became silent but it was a comfortable silence. You turned the stove on and watched the flame for a few seconds. “If it was dark we could pretend we were together and having a bonfire or something,” you said to the phone as you turned the camera to show him the flame (still not 100 percent sure if he was looking at you or not).

“I’ll put it on the list of things to do when you visit me someday.”

[sirthisisa-wendys]

(okay hol' up, i just followed you recently despite visiting your blog for over a month now, but you followed me back and i'm short-circuiting) Congrats on 1K! Thought I'd send in an idea for the event - something lukewarm for Priest!Toji and a Witch!Reader? I'm thinking 1600s trial vibes but I know whatever you write will be dope <3

You said 1600's trial vibes and I heard the ghost of Victor Hugo go "hey you remember that one book I wrote" and I said "uh wasn't that set in the 1400s, though" and he said "mmmkay, so? you gonna write this shit or not?"

So here I am.

Bewitched: Preist!Toji Fushiguro x Witch!Fem!Reader

wc: 1.1k

tw: NSFW

1K Follower Event Masterlist

"Recite verses from the Holy Book, take the sacrament, and I will let you go."

You turn your head away from the priest, who is holding out the cracker and wine.

"I cannot do that. It is a--"

"Against your religion!" The priest finishes for you, throwing the wine and cracker onto the floor. You flinch, feeling the wine splatter the tips of your bare toes. "And why have you given your soul to the devil? What does he hold over you that cannot be forgiven by God?" The broad-chested man reaches a hand out to touch your chin with his crooked index finger, but you step back, keeping your eyes on the stone floor of the chapel.

"I have not sold my soul to the devil," you reply, gripping your hands by your sides. "I am not a dark witch."

"Please do not tell me you think there good witches or bad witches," he laughs, stepping over the mess he just made and advancing upon you in the robes befit for a holy king. "A witch is a witch. And you will be hung or burned at the stake if I say so."

"Then kill me," you gripe. "But you will suffer the wrath of a thousand others if you do."

"You are ill," he pleads with you, his green eyes searching your face earnestly. "Come, be saved by the power of God and--"

"Your god does not exist," you retort, but you can't seem to catch the hand that strikes out at your face. You stumble against a pew, bringing a hand up to your face.

"Blasphemy! Repent, witch, or you will burn in Hell for eternity!"

I've got one last trick, you think to yourself. One last option. But I would be breaking my own rules to do it. The priest continues to advance on you, and you muster up the last bit of magic you can to cast a final spell. You don't even need to speak, the thought of the old words is enough.

At first, you don't think the spell has taken effect, but when the priest stops and blinks three times, you inhale deeply, hoping the effect of the love spell is strong enough to save you.

The priest stares at you for a long time before exhaling shakily, clasping his hands together. "I would be remiss if I did not permit you to take sanctuary here for the evening," he finally murmurs, mesmerized. "You are welcome to stay in the comfort of my chambers." He swallows hard, and you nod, silently thanking your magic for the quick solution.

_____________________________________________________________

"Shall I call for someone to light the fireplace? I would hate for you to catch a chill."

"I'm fine," you whisper, curling under the sheets in the large four-poster bed. "Thank you." The priest has changed out of his vestments, now clothed in simple pair of pants, and his black hair is visible, laying against his forehead as he settles into the chair beside the bed.

There are only three other women in your situation - witches who have bewitched priests who sought to murder them. You vowed as a young witch to never put yourself in this situation, for the risk of the spell not working was higher than the reward of it actually taking effect in the way you want it to. But it seems this priest already had wavering faith, which strengthened the hold of your magic on him. He looks at you with a lost puppy gaze, the scar on his lips parting as he drinks in your visage in his bed.

"Your scar," you whisper, reaching your hand out to touch it. "Where did you get it from?" The priest kisses your fingers, then murmurs,

"A witch scarred me as a child when she attacked my family." You hum, frowning.

"I am sorry to hear that. Such a malicious act for no reason..." The brutish man leans into your palm, and you stroke his face as he sighs.

"May I join you in the bed? Feel free to say no."

"You may." In the waning light of the sun, the priest climbs into the bed with you, wrapping a strong arm around your figure.

Before he blows the candles out, he whispers, "Goodnight, my love."

And the lights go out.

_____________________________________________________________

Your hips bang against the dresser as Toji rocks into you, his muscled body hovering above yours.

"Excellent... sermon today," you moan, leaning your head back. You don't really think it was an excellent sermon, but his infatuation grows stronger every single time you praise him.

"Enough about that," he whispers, leaning down to kiss you. "I love coming back to your embrace. You're so perfect..."

For the past three months, you've been living in the church and carrying on a relationship with the priest inside. And you have to admit, beyond his staunch and unmoved exterior, Toji is softer than you ever imagined he would be.

"I'm gonna cum..." he whispers, bracing himself for the sensation. "Oh, my--" The hiss Toji lets out is divine, and the feeling of his cock twitching inside of you is just as amazing.

"Toji, that feels so good..." you moan, and he laughs, kissing down your neck.

"You love it when I cum inside of you, huh?" You nod, kissing him again as he carries you to the bed, covering you with the sheets and smoothing your hair away from your face. "I love you."

"I love you, too," you admit, touching his face before curling up and drifting off to sleep.

But you awake in the middle of the night, and upon finding the other side of the bed cold, you sit up and look around the room. "Toji?" You slide out of bed, feeling the stickiness between your legs but ignoring it and wrapping yourself in a shirt discarded on the floor. You open the doors to your shared chambers and walk through the church, peeking around every corner and even daring to look in the confessional box. But there's nothing.

And then you hear a soft whispering, and you creep into the main sanctuary, seeing Toji kneeling at the altar. You hold your breath to hear him better, and you pick up the words,

"Forgive me, Lord, for lying with a witch... I cannot be parted from her, and she believes she has cast a spell upon me... and in essence she has. But I am sure if I remain by her side, she will be converted and--" You turn quickly and rush back to your chambers, sliding back into the bed, shaking.

No, you hadn't truly escaped. Your magic hadn't worked.

Toji had bewitched you, and now, you couldn't leave him.

[sibyl-of-space]

Leo’s Game Dev/ROMHack Projects Masterpost

(Most of my ROMHacking projects are on hold as I focus on Amadeus development... but I will finish them. Trust.)

~*~*~*~GAMEDEV~*~*~*~

Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee

Play as Amadeus, a young werewolf struggling to understand his condition, as he navigates a tale woven by Witches. In desperation, he sells his own memories for a notebook and a promise.

A linear narrative Visual Novel + Adventure Game I am solo developing. Inspired by Umineko, Professor Layton, and Final Fantasy VIII.

Linktree: linktr.ee/amadeusgame Tumblr Blog: Amadeus: A Fantasy Visual  Novel / Puzzle Game Main blog tumblr tag: #Amadeus Game

Robot Detective and the Case of the Automurderated Intern

Knockoff Ace Attorney made in RPGMaker where there's a robot detective. Written by me for Mystery Game Jam 2024.

Quote from Kinjo Goldbar, Mystery Jam Host: “This game is also an excellent example of how to design a fair mystery while intentionally breaking several fair-play mystery rules. At the risk of hyping up the game too much, it has what I can only describe as an Agatha Christie-like twist.”

Play in-browser here: Robot Detective and the Case of the Automurderated Intern

~*~*~*~ROMHACKING~*~*~*~

Ghost Trick:

Tumblr tag: Leo Tries Modding Ghost Trick Romhacking.net thread: [NDS] Ghost Trick “NG+ Mode” (Warning: Game Spoilers Discussed)

Tales of Symphonia:

Concept proposals: Tales of Symphonia ROMHack/Mod Ideas Tumblr tag: Leo Tries Modding Tales of Symphonia

Panel de Pon:

Concept proposals: Diving Into the Panel de Pon ROM Tumblr tag: Leo Tries Modding Panel de Pon

Tales of the Abyss (Complete):

Results masterpost: Tales of the Abyss BGM Game Data Tumblr tag: Leo’s Abyss Excavation

Documents and Other Resources:

Personal webpage: http://www.arcanaxix.com/Romhacking/

[snowdice]

Little Kestrel (Part 5)[Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted, look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Virgil sat as still as he could in the dark space he’d been put in. He could feel the warning tingle of the binding magic at his wrists telling him not to move too much or else. He was just lucky that they’d chosen to use metal instead of cloth to apply the potion and that he’d been unconscious until it dried. He knew from experience that there was no escaping the pain that type of potion brought until it dried no matter how still you were. Now, at least, if he didn’t try to struggle against his binding it wouldn’t hurt him. It sucked because all he wanted to do was move. He wanted to struggle and pull against the binding at his wrist, but he couldn’t. Even if it wouldn’t put him in crippling amounts of pain, he’d still not be able to get away.

So, instead he just shook. He was such a fuck up. He couldn’t even remember the right room and now he was going to die. No, he was probably going to be tortured and then he was going to die. His breath came quicker and quicker the longer he remained in the closet. He’d tried to murder their king. He’d come into their prince’s bedroom in the middle of the night wielding a knife. There was no way he wasn’t going to be made to suffer for that. It didn’t matter how gently the prince and his… person had treated him so far.

He heard the muffled sounds of people approaching the closet and curled into himself. Oh, god he was going to die. He had been breathing quickly, but now he couldn’t breathe at all. It felt like someone had poured tar into his lungs. The closet door opened, and he flinched, curled into a ball and choking on nothing.

“Hey, hey,” a familiar voice said. Patton, Virgil’s mind offered: the other guy with the prince. When Virgil managed to flick his eyes open, he saw Patton had gotten to his knees in front of him. He dully noted that the boy had reached out and touched his shoulder. “Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. Can you breathe for me?”

What was the point? He wondered, but after a few moments, he managed to suck in a couple of breaths.

When he managed to calm enough to look around, he noticed that instead of there being a bunch of castle guards standing around waiting to drag him off to some dungeon, it was just the prince and Patton again. He blinked up at them in confusion.

“There’s been a change of plans,” the prince explained.

“What?” Virgil asked dumbly. “What do you mean?”

“My father is going to be away for the next three weeks,” the prince said. “Considering you didn’t kill the guards and your only targets seems to be my father and perhaps myself, you are likely not a real danger to anyone if you escape and I’m willing to take the risk with myself. With that in mind, Patton and I have decided not to turn you in yet.”

Well what the hell did that mean? Was that good or bad? On one hand, it meant that he wouldn’t be executed yet, but what exactly did the prince want with him?

As Virgil began to freak out about the possibilities, the prince continued to speak, seemingly more to himself than to Virgil or Patton.

“We will need to figure out how to care for you in the interim. We’ll have to provide you with more food than just snacks as well as find you a place to sleep. At least one of us will have to be with you at all times, and with Father gone, I’ll have to attend to some royal duties. Luckily it isn’t strange for Patton to come into my quarters at will.” He considered Virgil with discerning eyes. “Also, your general health seems to be lacking, so I’ll have to account for preexisting conditions. First thing, first though. I imagine keeping you in those bracelets all the time would be impractical. We’ll need another solution, especially for sleep.”

Virgil did not like the sound of that. He assumed based on what the prince had done so far that he’d enact some sort of magical bondage. From Virgil’s experience, magical bondage ranged from unpleasant to legitimately agonizing.

“Patton, if you will watch him for the time being, I need to go work on a more precise binding potion then the one I’ve been using.”

“Sure,” Patton agreed, but the prince was wondering away before he’d even finished the word. Patton shook his head fondly before turning back to Virgil. “Wanna come out of the closet now?”

He really, really didn’t, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He curled his legs into himself as much as he could and waited to be dragged out into the room, but he wasn’t touched.

“Okay,” Patton said. “That’s fine. It’s a pretty nice closet.” Virgil said nothing but did breathe a sigh of relief about being able to stay. It wasn’t very rational because in actuality he was no safer here than anywhere else in the room, but the closet felt more defensible even if they could drag him out of it whenever they wanted.

Patton seemed content to sit outside the closet and leave him in peace for the moment. A few minutes later Patton made a sound and Virgil looked over to see him yawn. He smiled when he saw Virgil watching. “It was a long night for all of us, I imagine,” he said. “Hmm… actually. Wait there.”

Like he could go anywhere else. He couldn’t get a good enough angle to see what Patton was doing, but he could here him moving around the room and rustling through a few things. He came back into view holding a comical number of pillows and blankets.

“Here,” Patton said. He offered Virgil one of the blankets and then seemed to remember that Virgil could not reach out to take it. “Hmm…” He spread out the blanket next to Virgil. “Do you mind if I touch you?”

“Why are you even asking?” Virgil asked. “You can do whatever you want with me.”

Patton frowned and Virgil scrunched into himself at the expression, but it lightened the next moment. “I know it’s a bit of a bad situation and you are technically a prisoner, but I don’t want to hurt you or make you feel bad,” Patton said.

Virgil didn’t know how to respond to that. There was no way that it wasn’t some sort of trick, but he didn’t dare outright say that he thought that.

“Can I touch you a bit?” Patton asked once again. “Just to help you get onto the blanket.”

“Sure,” Virgil agreed.

The other boy smiled sweetly and grabbed his wrists with gentle fingers. Virgil let his whole body follow Patton’s guidance until he was situated rather comfortably on an unbelievably soft blanket.

“Head,” Patton said, holding up a pillow. Virgil lifted his head slightly and the pillow was shoved underneath it.

Another blanket was settled over him the next. Patton was weird. “There you go!” Patton said. “Now you can take a nap.”

Virgil blinked up at him in confusion. That was… not happening. What exactly about this situation did Patton think was conducive to sleep?

“…Or rest comfortably at least,” Patton said after a moment. He arranged a pillow and blanket for himself and laid on his side, so he was facing Virgil. He yawned slightly again but didn’t close his eyes. They stared at each other for an uncomfortably long moment.

“What are we doing?” Virgil finally asked when he realized Patton was not planning to ever break the awkward silence.

“We’re resting,” Patton said, “and hanging out.”

“Hanging out?” Virgil asked.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton said popping up onto his elbow to peer at him. “Let’s talk some! We can get to know each other.”

Virgil looked at him suspicious about where this was going. “Talk about what?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

Patton hummed a quiet tune and his fingers tapped against the side of his face as he wiggled a bit back and forth. “Do you like cats?”

“Cats?” Virgil asked. “Uh… sure?”

“I love cats,” Patton divulged. “There are a lot of cats in the castle. Not all of them like people very much, but I like to try to pet them! I even made up a game where I get points for every cat that lets me pet it. The grumpier they are, the more points I get!”

“You… try to pet wild cats?” Virgil asked.

“Uh huh!”

Virgil thought back to the few untamed cats he’d met in his life. “Don’t they… try to murder you.”

“Sometimes,” Patton said with a shrug. He moved his arm suddenly and Virgil startled, but he just rolled down his sleeve so Virgil could see a large, fairly fresh-looking scratch on his arm. “This one’s from Mr. Calico Man. He does not like his ears touched apparently, but he will let me give him chin scratchies!”

This boy was insane.

“I think I’ve pet every single cat in the castle at least once, except for Ghost Kitty.”

“Who is Ghost Kitty?”

“Oh, Ghost Kitty is the prettiest thing in the world,” Patton gushed. “She hangs out in the gardens a lot, but no one can get anywhere near her. She’s completely black and only started showing up around a year ago. I can’t even see her for more than 2 seconds at a time let alone try to pet her, but I will someday and on that day, I’ll get 1,000 points!”

“How many points are they usually?”

“For ones like Mittens and Cleo who I’ve known since they were babies, only 1. For Sandra it’s 5 since she can get a bit tetchy, but usually won’t run away. Lily Flower and Red Hot like to run away but won’t try to scratch me if I do catch them so they’re 10. Ones like Mr. Calico Man are worth 100.”

“So, you are going to try to pet a cat that is 10x more feral than the one that slashed your arm?”

“She’s so pretty!”

“You have no survival instincts whatsoever, do you?” Virgil asked.

Patton smiled wryly at him. “I apparently have a couple,” he said.

Virgil blinked at him and thought back, connecting the dots. Only Patton and the prince knew he was here, and the prince had been in front of him when he’d came into the room… “You were the one to knock me unconscious,” he concluded.

“I’d say sorry, but you were coming in here with the intention of hurting someone I care about,” Patton said with a shrug.

Right. Virgil had almost forgotten amongst his soft tone and gentle countenance that the man laying docilly next to him definitely hated his guts and would probably relish in whatever the prince had planned for him.

Virgil let his fists clench, but otherwise didn’t let onto his distress as Patton softly brought the conversation back to the previous topic and continued to ramble on about the different cats of the castle.

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 6

[brightbeautifulthings]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

"'What if sometimes there is no choice about what to love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?'"

Year Read: 2014, 2020

Rating: 5/5

Context: It's hard to know where to begin writing a review for this book. I read it for the first time in graduate school in about five weeks (alongside everything else I had to do in grad school, so I don't recommend that), and it basically blew my mind. At the same time, it's hard to imagine tackling it any other way for the first time. Despite its difficulty, there are things obsessive and immersive and, appropriately, even addictive about it. Full immersion might be the only way to read it for the first time, and I obsessed about it for months afterward. Since I'm not on any deadlines, I took it more slowly this time (21 weeks) so I could enjoy the writing and the nuances without the pressure to finish. For my less coherent weekly updates in real time, see my blog posts. Trigger warnings: Everything, everything. Death (on-page), child death, animal death, suicide, suicidal ideation, rape, pedophilia, possible incest, child abuse/abusive households, graphic violence/gore, eye horror, severe injury, drug use, addiction, alcoholism, mental illness, depression, OCD, grief, racism, ableism, transphobia, sexism, inexplicable hostility toward Canadians.

About: If it's difficult to know how to write a review, it's equally hard to describe what Infinite Jest is about. It's about so many things, tennis, addiction, communication (failures), and entertainment among them, but I'll do my best. Beneath all the numerous characters, timelines, and subplots, the main plot is about a film so entertaining that it kills anyone who watches it, robs them of all desire to do anything but watch it until they die, and what a faction of Canadian assassins will do to possess it. The auteur is James Incandenza, a suicide whose son, Hal, is a prodigy at Enfield Tennis Academy. Next door to E.T.A. is Ennet House, a drug rehabilitation center where Don Gately, former thief and Demerol addict, is taking it day by day to stay sober. Though they don't know it, Hal and Gately are connected, and the deadly Entertainment and those who seek it draw their paths closer and closer together.

Thoughts: It's rare to find a book that is actually as smart as it claims to be, but IJ is--certainly much smarter than I am, despite all my attempts to make sense of it. It starts off strong and doesn't let up for several hundred pages, which is a huge achievement all by itself. Wallace excels at writing extremely polished sections that could almost function alone as short stories, and the first chapter is one of my favorites in all fiction. It's reassuring, I think, to start the book off on a strong note, in case we worried we were in for a thousand pages of tedious slog. It can be both, but it's often heartfelt, insightful, and funny as well, and the payoff is well worth the effort. I don’t know how Wallace manages to pack every page with so much meaning. Anybody can put tedious lists in their books or make reading purposely difficult (and I have attitude about writers who do this for no reason), but there’s nothing haphazard about this book, despite its size and varied focus. Everything seems utterly intentional. The conversations are really top-tier; Wallace has a great ear for how people talk, and it's a fascinating look at how communication works and doesn't work.

Thematically, I think the book succeeds on more than any other level, including plot or structure. If we could say this book is "about" anything, we would almost certainly start with the themes and not the plot, which is often secondary to whatever point Wallace is trying to make at the moment. It takes an in-depth looks at things like addiction, depression, loneliness, failed communication, sincerity v. irony, critiques of postmodernism and metafiction (while being very meta itself, at times), and the very specific selfishness of an American culture that insists on freedom even to the point of self-destruction. At times, it feels a little heavy-handed or like it was yanked right out of an intro to philosophy course, but I suppose something in a thousand pages has to be obvious if we're ever going to pick up on it. A lot of these themes resurface in his other work, from "This is Water" and "E Unibus Pluram" to Orin Incandenza's Brief Interview style Q and A (and he would be a perfectly fitting character in that book).

The characters are some of my favorites in literary fiction as well, particularly the Incandenza family and Don Gately, and to a lesser extent Joelle Van Dyne (although Wallace typically doesn’t write female characters very well, and she comes with some issues). Hal and Gately couldn't be more different; Hal excels at everything he's ever done, and Gately has a record that includes accidental homicide on it. Hal is the hero of non-action, since little that happens in the book is engineered by him, while Gately is closer to the more typical hero of action, who defends the undeserving at great cost to himself. Yet their struggles with addiction are similar, and they both manage to be incredibly sympathetic characters. In my opinion, the book is always at its best when we’re with Hal or Gately, but I’m strongly driven by good characters. Despite being dead, James Incandenza's presence is also felt all over the book, from the Entertainment he created to his haunting ETA and sticking beds to the ceiling (probably the weirdest ghost I've ever seen in fiction). He's a tragic character in a book full of tragic characters. The others are too numerous to name, from the other tennis players at ETA and recovering addicts at Enfield, to the various bystanders populating Boston. We get brief glimpses into almost all of them, and while they may not all feel relevant at the time, most are memorable or heart-wrenching or slapstick funny, or all three. It's a book that contains multitudes.

That's not to say it's always on point though, and it isn't. There are a number of very serious problems with representation in this novel, and they're as bad as its detractors claim. A lot of the 90s humor aged very poorly, but that's not an excuse for some of the unabashedly racist depictions of African Americans, the uncharitable descriptions of Steeply's and Poor Tony's cross-dressing, or--however much I love him as a character--the fact that Mario Incandenza’s descriptions are ableist in just about every possible way. Wallace thinks he's capturing "voice" when he's really encouraging harmful stereotypes. The humor of the novel often doesn’t depend at all on these stereotypes and would in fact, be a lot more funny if I wasn’t spending so much energy cringing at it. So many of the little racist and ableist asides could have easily been edited out of the entire novel to make it less offensive. There are also sections where he seems at pains to be as gross as possible for its own sake. There are plenty of things grim or uncomfortable or flat out distasteful about this book, but sometimes the graphic violence kind of jumps out and stabs you in the eye, say, with a railroad spike.

If there are times when I was totally absorbed in the little tragedies of the Incandenza family or Gately's struggles, there are plenty more where it's like pushing something heavy up a hill. No lie, some of it is slogging through tedious minutiae and various experimental writing styles (some more successful and less offensive than others). Wallace has a gift for purposeful tedium; it’s at its peak in The Pale King, but he gives it a nice warm-up round here. The novel is difficult and meant to be, since Wallace maintained that some of the best pleasures are the ones we have to work for, and he's not totally off base. There's something very satisfying about living, for a time, in a book that spans a thousand pages, that demands focus and perseverance, and manages to give back (almost) as much as it takes. The book is always structurally interesting, but it starts to get more complicated toward the end as various characters and plots begin to almost slide into one another. I forgot how frustrating it was to near the end and realize--again--that it wasn't going to wrap up with any kind of satisfaction; the various plots slide, but they don’t meet. I thought if I paid closer attention on a second read that I would pick up more of the plot things I’d missed on my first, but I think the problem is that those answers simply aren’t to be found in the actual text. Of course, they can point us toward various conclusions, and the novel certainly encourages us to speculate and make connections, but I don’t think the actual answers are there.

That brings me to some of my final thoughts, for now. There's no doubt that this is a hugely successful book, and I believe it accomplished exactly what Wallace meant it to do. He jokingly referred to it as a failed entertainment, much the way Jim considered his lethal Entertainment a failure, but I have the sense that Wallace, unlike Jim, failed on purpose. The book purposely pays more attention to structure and theme than it does to plot or character, yet the plot and characters are hugely compelling for what we see of them. Imagine the book it could have been if he had paid equal attention to all of them. Wallace attempted to create a book that people wouldn't want to stop reading. Reaching the end certainly encourages us to begin again, as the first chapter is actually the last in chronology, but that trick only works the first time. By my second read, I realized that starting over wouldn't help me fill in any of those blanks or answer any of my questions, and I was content to let it go. On the one hand, IJ depends upon its structure to tell the story it's telling. On the other, think of the book it could have been if it spent more time telling a story and developing its characters and less time belaboring a point. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and the tragedy is that I think it could have been even better.

[rhetoricalrogue]

31 Days of Halloween, Day 31

Prompt: Halloween Rating: G Words: 1,581 Characters: Unit Charlie, circa 2019 Summary: It’s Winona’s first Halloween outside the Facility.  The three senior members of Unit Charlie are determined to make it a memorable one. Note: And that’s 31 prompts!  Thanks for hanging out with me and Unit Charlie this October!  I compiled a masterpost that I’ve pinned to my blog.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

October 31, 2019

“I’ve never had a real Halloween experience,” Winona said, cutting open a bag of candy and pouring the contents into a large plastic bowl.  “What usually happens?”

Penny shrugged, spraying her hands with nonstick spray as she shaped sticky caramel popcorn into pumpkins.  “It’s been a few years since I’ve had a chance to do this outside the Facility.  Usually we’re on missions or no one really makes a big deal about it.”

“But this year’s different even though we’re on a mission.”  Winona adjusted the headband she wore with the cute black cat ears attached.  “I’m excited.”

“As you should be!  Look at you, piccolina!  You’re an adorable black cat!”  Nicky came in to swipe some popcorn, darting out just in time to miss Penny’s hand smacking his.  “Oh my god, Pen, this is fantastic!”

“And they’re for later!”  Penny made shooing motions with her hands, chasing them both out of the little kitchenette of the Agency safehouse they were in.  They’d been on a field mission to speak with a group of ghosts that were causing more paranormal activity than usual since thrill-seekers were on the rise around this time of year.  Normally, they would have been at the site to ward off would-be ghost hunters, but this was Halloween.  Cam had insisted on taking the night off to celebrate, and none of them were going to argue with their leader. Speaking with the ghosts and setting up physical barriers that made it look as if the road leading up to the place was closed for construction helped, and if that didn’t deter anyone, Penny had worked with a nearby coven of witches to provide wards that would make people forget the area was haunted, if only for a few days.  It was a temporary fix, but one that had pleased the local spirits enough that Cam had been confident that they didn’t need to hang out to provide an Agency presence.

It was a nice change from doing paperwork or security detail, and the three senior members weren’t going to miss it for anything, especially since this would be Winona’s first time celebrating it outside the Facility.  It was an unanimous, unspoken decision that they would make sure that this was the best party she’d ever been to.  Penny had set Cam and Nicky loose in the grocery stores to fill a cart with candy and drinks while she and Winona spent an afternoon decorating.  Cam won the rock, paper, scissors on making the main course or ordering pizza, so while they waited for delivery to show up, they scrolled though the local cable channels to see what sort of horror movies were going to be broadcast.

“I thought we were all supposed to wear costumes,” Winona said, brushing popcorn crumbs off her shirt.  She’d gone for the typical black cat costume, but had put an 80s spin on it, opting to wear an all black outfit consisting of a bustier, tulle skirt, and black fishnets with black leather ankle boots.

“This is my costume, piccolina.”  

She arched her eyebrow, looking him over.  “Nicky, jeans, a black t-shirt, and a white hoodie don’t count as a costume.”

He grabbed a piece of candy from the bowl she set by the front door.  “Uh, hello?  Assassin’s Creed?  Desmond Miles?”  He pushed up his hoodie’s sleeve and exposed a bracer he’d strapped to his left arm.  “Hidden blades?”

She shook her head.  “No, not ringing a bell.  Sorry.”

“Obviously we need to broaden your video game experiences.”

“Please tell me that’s not an actual spring-loaded knife strapped to your arm,” Cam said.  “You’re going to stab yourself on accident.”

“Not like I’d need to be taken to the hospital for it,” Nicky retorted, sticking his tongue out.  “Nice duds, Waldo.”

Cam tugged on a red and white striped beanie, pulling it over his thick, wavy hair.  “I’m just glad I could find the sweater on such short notice.”  He’d had the rest of the pieces to the costume, even the thick framed glasses that had been part of a disguise he’d used a while back.  “What do you think, Pen?”

Penny took one look at him and shook her head.  “Could you maybe not read my mind when it comes to costume choices?” she laughed.

“What do you mean?”  He looked at the pair of black leggings and knee height boots she was wearing, the sleeveless turtleneck not ringing any bells on what she was supposed to be.  

“I couldn’t wear the rest of the getup while making this, but the popcorn balls are done.  Be right back.”

Cam popped a few pieces of unused caramel corn Penny had left in a baking tray into his mouth and closed his eyes in appreciation.  It’d been years since the last time he’d had homemade candied popcorn and the sweet yet salty flavor was to die for.

“Five bucks she comes back as the perfect pair for a couple’s costume,” Nicky teased, scooting around Cam to the fridge to pull out a bottle of cider that Winona had insisted on buying because it felt more holiday appropriate than the beer Nicky had been putting in the cart.  He popped the top and offered it to Cam, who took it, before grabbing another for himself.

“Nicky…”

He snuck another piece of caramel popcorn.  “All I’m saying is that the two of you are basically a couple in every other way but one very important way.”  He took a swallow.  “I’m talking about -”

“I know what you’re talking about, Nicolo,” Cam said, taking a drink.  “And don’t start.”

Nicky held out his hands.  “I know, I know.  Don’t go poking around and being a meddling old woman.”

Cam rolled his eyes.  “Thank you. I appreciate…”  He didn’t finish his thought because Penny had come back from the bedroom she and Winona were sharing.  

“Well?  What do you think?”  She gave a little twirl to set the hem of her knee-length red trench coat fluttering and gave a tug to the oversized red sun hat she wore.

“You look great,” Cam said, giving her a lopsided smile before clearing his throat and awkwardly pushing his fake glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

She ducked her head and played with the yellow scarf loosely draped around her neck.  “I couldn’t find a wig in time, so Carmen Sandiego’s going to have to be blonde tonight.”

“Believe me, donna forte, Carmen’s never looked better.”  He gave her an appreciative whistle before grinning impishly.  “Though we probably should have talked costumes through.  Had we known, all of us could have had matching costumes.”

Penny blushed.  “This wasn’t planned beforehand, though I guess we should have thought about that.  I just wanted Winona to pick her own costume for the first time.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Cam slapped a hand on Nicky’s shoulder, looking all the world like he was clapping him on the shoulder in solidarity, but really he was subtly squeezing down as a silent request to stop teasing. “I’m sure there’s going to be more Halloweens in the future to figure out a group costume.”

Nicky was saved from further torment when the doorbell rang. “I’ve got it!” Winona yelled, all but jumping over the back of the sofa where she had been sitting and flipping through channels before settling on the original Evil Dead.  Penny grabbed the first batch of popcorn balls she had made and hurried over to the door to offer them to their first trick or treaters.

“What was that about not meddling?” Cam asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he leaned his hip on the kitchen counter.

“I wouldn’t meddle if I didn’t think that the two of you would be perfect for the other.”  Nicky took another drink from his bottle and shrugged in defeat.  “But okay, I hear you, I’ll stand down.  For tonight at least.”

Cam sighed.  “Thank you, my friend.”  He was going to head to the living room to claim a spot on the sofa when he stopped.  Digging his wallet out of his back pocket, he pulled out a five dollar bill.  “Not a word,” he told Nicky, waving the money in front of him.

Nicky grinned.  He opened up his mouth to say some smartalecked reply, but thought better of it.  Instead, he flicked his left wrist, the blade at his arm springing out and impaling the bill.  With another flick, the blade retracted, taking the money with it. 

“You’re going to put someone’s eye out with that!”

“Okay, Mom.  You’re just jealous that Waldo doesn’t have anything this cool!”

Cam sighed as he made his way to the living room.  The movie had commercials, so he brought his phone out and opened up apps, scrolling through until he found the horror genre.  The Agency had entertainment available to their agents, and he knew that he could easily connect his phone to the TV so they could enjoy things uninterrupted.

But first, to claim a seat for himself.  They’d ultimately end up in a big pile together like they usually did, but he wanted a good spot to start out at.

And if he happened to find a spot right next to the big floppy red hat sitting on a cushion, he wasn’t going to admit it to anyone.  He was down five dollars as it was, he wasn’t owing Nicky any more money tonight.

[hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis]

Caught In Between: 02. New Wolf, Same Problems

IMPORTANT!!! This is content from my original blog @hyperion-moonbabe​ . It’s being reposted here as this is now my main blog.

Summary: Athena Dumont has finally found a place to call home after many years of foster homes and traveling. She had finally tamed her supernatural side and just wanted to live a normal teenage life. She quickly discovers that there is nothing normal about her hometown, Mystic Falls and gets sucked right back into the supernatural world.

Post Date: 03.27.20

Word count: 4.1k

Based off: 02x07 “Masquerade”

Masterlist

The next morning I wake up next to a half-naked Damon Salvatore clutching my body as I lay my head on his chest. I look up at him, realizing that he wasn’t really asleep, “How long have you been awake?” I ask.

“I just woke up” He responds.

“Mmmhmm… How long have you been just lying here, letting me sleep?” I say.

“Maybe an hour or two.” He replies with a sheepish smile.

I get up, but he pulls me back down, pressing his lips to mine. I pull away and look at him, “ You know you are so darn cute with bed head” I say slightly sarcastic and get up from the bed.

“Why thank you,” Damon says from behind me as I make my way to my bag of clothes.

Damon vamp speeds behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, kissing my neck. “If you bite, I bite,” I tell him.

“I won’t, promise. I just kinda missed this.” Damon says softly. I turn around.

“Look. I…I missed this too. But you’re the one that left and I don’t really think I could continue with this…Us. It’s been two years, I moved on. It was honestly a mistake to stay the night here.” I say as I put on some clothes and start to walk to the door before I feel Damon’s hand grab my arm.

“I’m sorry that I put you through that. But just think about it, please. I miss you.” He responds. I sigh before I continue to walk out of the room.

I head down the stairs and grab an apple from the kitchen before I hear a knock at the door.  I open the door, to find Caroline standing in the doorway, looking like she saw a ghost.

“Oh. Hi, umm… Are Damon and Stefan here?” She asks.

“Yeh, I’ll go get them. You can just… wait in here.” I say gesturing to the great room as she steps into the house.

I head back upstairs and into Damon’s bedroom. “Hey, Caroline is here. It seems like she wants to talk to you and Stefan.” I say only popping my head in.

“I’ll be down in a sec. You good?” He says with concern in his voice. Which is very unlike him.

“I’m fine,” I say confused and walk out to go down the hall to get Stefan.

I knock on Stefan’s door, “Hey, Caroline is here. I think she needs to talk to you guys.”

“Alright, I’ll be down in a few.” He responds.

I head back down and sit next to Caroline on the couch. We sit in awkward silence until Damon comes in with a glass full of red liquid, blood I assume. He hands it to Caroline and she takes a sip. “I’m still shaking,” She says.

I look over to the sound of Stefan walking into the room, “ What happened?” He asks.

“Go ahead, tell him. You’re gonna love this.” I could hear the annoyance in his voice, probably from the conversation we had or what Caroline is about to say, “I saw Katherine today.”

“Where?” Stefan asks in response.

“At the grill. I just stopped by to gawk and… quasi-stalk Matt” She replies

“Sorry to interrupt, but who is this Katherine girl?” I ask confused and raise my hand like I’m asking a question in class.

“Long story short. She’s the doppelganger of Elena. And an old lover of baby bro and I’s” Damon says with even more annoyance. I just roll my eyes at him. Caroline then goes on to explain what happened at The Grill and that Katherine wants the moonstone tonight at the masquerade ball or she’ll go on a murder spree.

“She wants to do it in public huh?” I say.

“Killing Mason threw her off guard,” Stefan says following my comment.

“She’s running scared. What she did to Jenna was desperate. She’s out of tricks.” Damon says.

“We can’t underestimate her. We have to play this smarter than her.” Stefan replies.

“Can we just give her the moonstone so she’ll leave?” Caroline questions.

“No, Katherine’s not getting dick. I’ve had it. I’m gonna go to the masquerade ball and I’m gonna kill her, tonight.” Damon says annoyed at Caroline’s question.

“You’re not gonna kill her,” Stefan says sternly

“Don’t give me that goody-goody crap.” I just roll my eyes at Damon.

“You’re not gonna kill her.”

“Really?”

“Because I am, ” Stefan says and Damon smiles at his decision. We all just stand there surprised at Stefan’s response, I know I barely know him but he doesn’t seem like the type of guy to kill in cold blood.

“Hey, do you think we could talk for a bit? Away from prying eyes. And ears.” Damon says pulling me away from the group into the hall.

“About what? Plus, there are more pressing matters right now, Damon,” I say and walk back towards the group, leaving him alone. He soon followed after me.

“What was that about?” Stefan says curiously after I start to shuffle through a book.

“Nothing, just your brother being his typical asshole self,” I say trying to brush off the question. I continue to look at the book trying to find answers about the moonstone and the curse.

“It didn’t seem like nothing, I can tell he cares about you but…” Stefan starts to say before we’re interrupted by the front door opening. It was the witch, Bonnie.

Stefan walked towards the front of the house, “Hey, you brought the grimoire, thank you,” He says to her. She looks around and takes in the activity going on.

“What’s going on?” She asks, confused.

“We’re gonna kill Katherine,” Jeremy replies coming from the hall. I follow Jeremy to the table where Damon and Alaric were.

Alaric starts to explain how the weapons he had laid out works. He first describes the crossbows and then looks between Caroline and me explaining the smaller weapon that fits on the wrist. Alaric pulls the trigger and fake jabs like he’s taking a shot at a vampire, Damon just looks at him with a slightly concerned look.

“You wanted me to show you how to kill a vampire,” Alaric responds to the looks.

“Can we talk now?” Damon whispers into my ear. I see Stefan looking me out of the corner of my eye, knowing that he heard Damon. I walk into the hall and upstairs, to make sure we’re away from all ears. I walk into Damon’s room, he follows soon after.

“Athena, let me just start…”

“No, Damon. Look, I care for you. I really do. But I can’t just forget about the fact that you just left me,” I start.

“I mean I could,” Damon says under his breath, knowing that he was hinting at compulsion, even though I can’t because I’m a werewolf. I just give him a stern look.

“Last night was nice, but I’ve had my heart broken enough and I’m not letting you again, I moved on a long time ago. I can see the way you look whenever you see or hear Elena’s name. She looks exactly like Katherine, I’m sure that brings up a lot of memories and feelings. And I just don’t want to get caught in that. But I don’t want to ruin our friendship. I’ll still always be here for you” I finish, pick up my bag and start to walk out. Until Damon catches my arm and turns me to him, putting us face to face, close enough for our lips to touch.

“Athena, I understand. But just know I’ll always care for you and I’ll always be here for you too.” Damon says. I stand there facing him for a bit and then turn away.

I walk back down to the great room. Once everyone is gathered together, we finalize our plan. “Are you sure you guys don’t want me there tonight?” Alaric asks Stefan and Damon.

“No, I need you to stay with Elena. I don’t want her to know about this.” Stefan explains.

“Ok. Well, I’ll make sure she doesn’t leave my sight.” Alaric says.

“Alright, if anybody wants to back out, I’ll understand.” Stefan states.

“Yeh. Cold feet speak now. I don’t want this going wrong if someone chicken’s out. Caroline.” Damon says back to being his dickish self.

“I won’t. Look, she killed me. Fair’s fair. As long as there’s no werewolf running around. I mean besides you Athena, of course.” Caroline responds.

“Oh, I took care of Mason,” Damon says sheepishly.

“As long as Tyler doesn’t kill anyone, he won’t turn,” I restate about triggering the curse.

“Bonnie? Are you with us?” Stefan asks looking at her.

“But no one gets hurt.” She says after a few moments of silence.

“Except Katherine. Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart.” Damon says coldly.

I walk back upstairs into one of the many other rooms that I picked to stay in. When I walk in, I see a rack of dresses in the middle of the room and a display of masks on the bed.

“Assumed you didn’t have anything for the ball. So I took the liberty to find some dresses and masks for you, with Caroline’s help.” Damon says from the doorway of the room.

“Thank you,” I say and then he walks away to go to his own room to get ready.

I look at the many dresses lined up, feeling overwhelmed at the choices. After looking at each and every one of them, I chose a tight red dress and a lace black mask.

I walk back down to the great room waiting for Damon and Stefan to leave. Once we were all ready, we headed over to the Lockwood Mansion. We walk into the mansion, Damon and Stefan walk towards the backyard, but I notice Matt so I go up to him. Leaving the two Salvatore brothers to do what they need to do.

“Hey, Matt,” I said tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Hey, you look great,” He says turning to me.

“Thanks, you do too.”

“I’m heading to get Tyler and some other friends. Care to join?”

“Didn’t think I was good enough friends with you to be invited”

“Well, you’ve made an impression,” He says. I chuckle and look down.

I follow him to Tyler and two other girls. We go into another room, what I assume is like an office. We talk a bit while the other girls dance with each other as Matt pours some shots.

“We’re really not supposed to be in here,” Tyler says to us.

“Yeah, I know but we really need to turn this party up. Another shot?” Matt says handing Tyler and I shots.

“Hey, I want a shot,” The girl named Aimee says.

“Me too and then we have to dance,” The other girl, Sarah, says.

“You know, usually it’s me corrupting you. I like this.” Tyler says looking at Matt as we drink our shots. We leave the room to go back to the party. The two girls wander off somewhere, as well as Matt, Leaving just Tyler and me.

“So what’s your deal? You just kinda showed up out of nowhere,” Tyler says turning to me.

“You really want to know a damaged girl’s story?” I respond questioningly.

“Humor me”

“Ok, well, long story short. I moved from here when I was about 4 years old, my parents died at 5, Became emancipated at 15, traveled a bit and now I’m here.” I explain briefly.

“Wow. You’ve had an eventful life.” He responds.

“Yeh, you don’t understand,” I say. I notice Jeremy and Bonnie walking back down, “Excuse me,”  I say and walk towards them, they find a table outside to wait. I walk around a bit to see if there’s anything else to be taken care of before I make it over to the table.

“Everything in place?” I say and sit across from them.

“Yeh. Just waiting for the signal.” Jeremy replies back.

We sit in silence for a bit until Jeremy receives a text. He gets up to go approach Katherine, I follow behind him at a distance to keep him from any trouble. Even though I know he’d want to go alone. He approaches Katherine and delivers his message, they chat for a bit until I notice Katherine look at me, so I walk up to them.

“So is this your little bodyguard, Gilbert? Because she doesn’t look like much” She says giving me a devilish look.

Jeremy starts to speak before I interrupt him, “ Athena Dumont, and you must be Katherine Pierce. I may not look like much but I could tear you from the inside out,” I say, flashing my amber wolf eyes. She only chuckles and walks away.

“You don’t have to be like my sister and hover over me, you know that, right?” Jeremy says and turns to me.

“Oh, I wasn’t trying to hover. I just wanted to meet who we’re killing tonight.” I say but Jeremy only looks at me with disbelief before walking away.

He just seems to abandon me so I decided to wander around some more while I wait for them to finish killing Katherine. I hear screams coming from behind a bush near where Bonnie and Jeremy were. I rush over only to find Elena leaning over in pain with blood all over her shirt but no rips.

“She has to be linked to Katherine, guys,” I say looking between them.

“We have to stop them, Jeremy get them to stop! Now!” Bonnie says frustratingly. I chase after Jeremy after he starts running towards the house.

We get to the room where they have her, “Stop! You’re hurting Elena! Everything you’re doing is hurting Elena!” Jeremy says out of breath.

“They’re linked,” I contribute out of breath.

“You think you two are the only ones with a witch on your side? Wrong and something tells me that my witch is better than your witch.” Katherine says menacingly as we all exchange looks.

“Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she’s okay. Go!” Stefan says as Jeremy leaves the hall.

“Let’s all make sure poor Elena is okay. And your little wolf friend, here, is nothing against me, I’ve got 500 years on her. Just a little bit more pressure.” Katherine says cutting her hand with the stake. Stefan quickly hits it away from her.

“I’m right here you know,” I say waving my fingers, as Katherine gives me a fake smile and vamp speeds to pick up the stake, “This is really gonna hurt.” She starts to plunge the stake towards her stomach.

“Wait!” Damon yells and Katherine sits on the couch playing with the stake. “We’ve got this, Athena, just go check on everyone,” Damon says looking concerningly at me, but I don’t budge. Stefan just gives me a nod, telling me it’s fine, and I start to walk away.

“Okay. So, how about that moonstone?” I hear Katherine’s voice slowly get quieter as I continue downstairs.

I bump into Matt, who looks like he’s on a mission, “Sorry,” I quickly reply.

“You good?” He asks me slightly slurring his words.

“Yeh could use a drink, to be honest. Too many people talking to me and asking about my family.” I lie to him.

“Lucky for you I’m on my way to drink some more, wanna join?” He asks giving me a charming smile.

“Why not,” I reply and follow him as he leads me back to the office we were in earlier. I come in to see the girl Sarah and Tyler waiting.

“I hope you guys don’t mind Athena joining us,” Matt says picking up a glass and the bottle of alcohol and pouring me some.

“The more the merrier. So, what happened to Aimee, anyways?” Sarah asks after getting her glass poured.

“She’s probably drunk somewhere” Tyler responds.

“Like me,” Matt says and starts to pour the alcohol on the floor.

“Woah, don’t do that,” Tyler says with a slight tinge of irritation.

“What man? It’s a party.” Matt says and picks up the photo of Tyler and his family from the desk, “Right dad? You know, looks like your dad wants a drink” He says and pours the alcohol on top of the photo.

“Hey, that’s not cool. What’s wrong with you?” Tyler asks more hostile than before. I can sense that Tyler’s dad seems to be out of the picture and that this is just gonna get worse.

“Come on, the guy was a dick,” Matt says smiling and not having a care in the world.

“Come on, you’re being mean. His dad’s dead,” Sarah says quietly from the couch.

“Give me the picture!” Tyler says. He tries to snatch it out of Matts’s hand but he quickly pulls away, spraying alcohol from the movement.

“Matt, that’s enough. Just put the photo down and let it go,” I say from behind him and seeing where this could head. Tyler activating his curse. But Matt doesn’t wavier from my words.

“Remember how your dad used to slap you around?” Matt says and brings his hand up to slap Tyler on the left side of his face.

“Matt!” I say louder from the other side of the desk, but neither of them acknowledges me.

“Are you kidding?” Tyler says getting even more annoyed.

“Just having fun” He responds with an even bigger smile.

“Put the picture down, man,” Tyler says trying to keep his cool. I try to slip my hand near the photo to grab it, but Matt slams it onto the desk sending shards of glass flying in all directions.

I run over to Tyler’s side and put myself between them, “Okay, you need to calm down right now!” I say to his face before he pushes me into the side of the desk and then pushed Tyler who is right behind me.

“I’m not gonna fight you,” Tyler says attempting to keep his cool.

I help Sarah up and gesture for her to move away from them. Matt wrestles Tyler to the floor, Tyler tries to push Matt off but gives an opening to allow Matt to punch him in the face a few times. I try to intervene by pulling Matt off but he just elbows me in my face, leading to me knocking my head on the corner of the desk, and passing out.

I wake up to see Caroline standing in between them, with a confused look on her face, “I have to finish!” Matt says and it clicks, he’s compelled to make Tyler trigger his curse. I scoot out from under them and punch Matt in the face, knocking him out. Caroline walks over to Matt to check to see if he’s okay. Tyler looks over to me confused and I just sigh as I catch my breath.

“How did you…?” Tyler says looking at Caroline and me before being cut off.

“Matt failed. If Matt fails, I can’t” We hear Sarah say from behind us.

“Tyler, look out!” I say trying to push him out of the way. But Sarah was able to stab the knife into his shoulder, which led him to push Sarah and hit her head on the corner of the desk. I rush over to check on her and Tyler does as well.

“No, no, no! Come on, wake up! Sarah, open your eyes, wake up! This can’t happen, oh no, this can’t happen. This can’t be happening! Sarah! Sarah, get up! Sarah! Open your eyes! This can’t be happening! Not like this!” Tyler says frustratingly.

Caroline comes over and I check Sarah’s pulse, but I don’t find one. I look up to see Tyler gripping his head and grunting in pain. I slowly get up and so does Caroline, “Get away!” Tyler struggles to get out.

“What’s happening?!” Caroline questions. I just keep her back because I don’t want to see either of them hurt. Tyler looks up at us and his eyes turn amber.

After the pain from the activation was over I rushed over to Tyler, “Are you ok?” I ask crouching at his level and start to help him up.

“So what are we gonna do? I mean we have to tell someone, we can’t just leave her here.” Caroline sputters.

“Is there anyone we can tell? Are you guys good at telling lies?” I ask looking between them.

“We could just say that she was drunk dancing and tripped and then just wasn’t like alive anymore,” Tyler suggests questingly.

“That’ll work, I’ll go get Mayor Lockwood,” Caroline says and walks out of the room.

Caroline and Carol Lockwood enter back into the office. She explains what happened as I walk out to Tyler who’s waiting for the sheriff in the entryway.

“Here, are you good?” He asks handing me a towel. I’m guessing for my forehead.

“Thanks, I’m fine. It’ll heal.” I respond.

“Mom, the sheriffs here,” Tyler says as we walk back into the office.

“I’ll go prepare her, just don’t leave. Just stay here okay? She’s going to want to hear the story from you.” Carol says looking right at Caroline before she walks out to talk to the sheriff, who I learned is Caroline’s mom.

Tyler walks over to look at Sarah’s body once again, “Matt’s in the car, sleeping it off. I’ll deal with him. I don’t want him involved in any of this.” Caroline says with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“What are you doing?” Tyler asks walking right up to Caroline’s face.

“Why? I did this. I killed her.” Tyler states.

“You didn’t mean to Tyl–” I start walking up to them.

“But she’s dead. You guys don’t know what that means.” Tyler scoffs.

“Actually, Tyler, I think we do,” Caroline says quieter.

“No, you guys don’t,” Tyler says thinking that we don’t know about the curse.

“Has your wound healed?” I ask gesturing to his shoulder. Tyler unbuttons his shirt and feels where the knife was stabbed into him and makes a questioningly look at us.

“How did you guys…?” He questions. I pull my hair back a bit to reveal where my head was hit, showing him that my wound is gone. The sheriff and Mayor Lockwood walk back in and Caroline explains the fake story again.

Everyone had left the party except a few of us and they took care of Sarah’s body. “ Do you have a ride home?” Mayor Lockwood asks walking up to me.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to stay over at Elena’s, Mrs. Lockwood,” I respond knowing that Damon and Stefan had abandoned me here as I saw them walk out before I could catch them.

“Please call me Carol. Ok, be safe.” She says.

“Thank you, Mrs.–, Carol,” I say and give her a small smile.

“You’re welcome,” She says and walks away.

Tyler walks up to me to waits until Elena is ready to go. “So, are you uh, werewolf?” Tyler asks me.

“Yeah,” I respond as he opens the door.

“How long?” He asks.

“About two years now,” I tell him. He gives me a slight nod before Elena walks up.

Elena and I head to her house,  get ready to go to bed and are about to fall asleep, but I get interrupted by a phone call. “Damon Salvatore” lights up on the screen, but I ignore it. He calls two more times, I decide to pick up the third call.

“Ugh, I think I have to take this,” I say looking over at Elena and getting up to go into the bathroom.

“Yes” I answer annoyed.

“I’m sorry I left you. We had to deal with Katherine. I can come to get you now, wherever you are.” He said and actually sounded like he felt bad.

“I’m fine, I’m staying at Elena’s tonight. No need to worry. Now I’m going to sleep” I say annoyed and hang up.

“What was that about?” Elena asks as I emerge from the bathroom.

“Just Damon trying to be my protective, not boyfriend,” I say and roll my eyes.

“So you guys were a thing?” She asks me.

“If you count being his personal blood bag two years, that he seems to really care about, a thing. Then yes.” I chuckle.

“I am going to have to hear more about this, but we’ll save it. It’s been a long night. Good night.” She says.

“Night,” I say and pass out faster than I have in a long time.

A/N: Here is the second chapter of the story, based on 02x07 “Masquerade”. Sorry that it took a month for this part! I got engulfed in school and then with everything going on. My classes ended up being moved online so, I came back home, and I’m also in the process of moving houses. Please let me know what you guys think, any feedback is greatly appreciated. I hoped you enjoyed and Thank you for reading! Stay safe and healthy everyone!

[jaybug-jabbers]

All-Glitch Pokemon Blue Run Pt11: On the Road to Glitch City

June,

If you plan on experimenting further with hybrids, please inform me first. One wrong step and you could wind up with an entire box of hybrids by mistake, everyone a huge, fused mess. That said, I’m glad you find utility with your new Parasect.

On to a new topic, there’s a very exciting new destination I have in mind for you. Tell me . . . have you ever heard of Glitch City?

In Fuscia City, there is a gateway to this place. I’m attaching directions you’ll need to follow in order to get there. I’d like you to explore and try to create a map of this place. Very little is known about Glitch City, and what secrets it might hold. Be sure to watch your step and keep your wits about you.

-Professor Gingko

---

Professor,

After I cleared the Snorlax out of the path and reached Fuscia City, I followed your instructions. I entered the Safari Zone, then saved the data on my Glitchdex and rebooted the system, and went back to the Safari Zone’s main gate. I have no idea how the man working the front counter didn’t recognize me, as he only let me in a few minutes ago. I also can’t begin to imagine how he was trying to charge me for entering the park when I was already inside. But I poliely declined his offer to charge me for re-entering the park, and so he guided me instead to the exit.

Once out and on my own, I poisoned the sole pokemon in my party and then took 499 steps as you described, and ended my final step hopping over a ledge. Just as you predicted, the Safari Zone man intterupted me to drag me back to their central gate. They apologized for the confusion, and told me that my allotted time had passed and my Safari Zone game was now complete. You were right-- the staff here are pretty incompetent, as it turns out. 

But I did not leave their front gate immediately. Instead, I waited until my poor pokemon fainted from poisoning, as you told me to. Then I felt the familiar blackness descend upon my consciousness as I blacked out in sympathy for my own pokemon.

As unpleasant as all that was, when I woke up again, it was with the newfound powers you predicted I would have: the ability to walk through walls. This wasn’t like before, with the glitch item you called “Rival’s Effect.” This was far more powerful. I could walk anywhere, without limits. It was crazy! How could messing about with the incompetent staff at the Safari Zone lead to the ability to walk through walls?

I wandered for quite some time in this state, until I ended up back in Cerulean City. I have to say, with this new ability, some discoveries were pretty disappointing.

Bill’s Garden, for example. I heard the locals whisper all sorts of rumors about it, about the place being huge and lush and absolutely filled with rare pokemon. I even heard one person claim Bill had a private runway and a jet parked back there, which he used to fly to exotic cities full of powerful, rare pokemon. Yet . . . when I snuck back there, all I found was a very small and almost barren backyard.

That said, not all discoveries were disappointments. Because as I was exploring Cerulean, I came across the very thing you wished me to find: Glitch City.

My starting point was right here, beside the Nugget Bridge. All I did was begin walking right. And kept walking. After a nice long jog across plain rock and dirt, I reached some water; the moment I did, I began to jog south. And, with enough walking, I finally reached the city.

The city was full of vast tracts of what I guessed were apartment complexes, spanning for what seemed like miles. However, I could not enter these buildings, as they were all locked up tight; and there was nobody to be found. Glitch City seemed to be an enormous ghost town. Growing among the flowers were strange plants that looked like letters or numbers, and the paths and roads were often torn up. I would sometimes come across small pools of water, and other times I would find cave entrances, but the caves were sadly always blocked with rocks, preventing my access.

I would even, at times, find patches of taller grass growing. Now, you would expect that in a place like Glitch City, it would be teeming with glitch pokemon. Indeed, I might even guess the origin of all glitch pokemon might be this place. Yet, when I searched the tall grass and fished in the pools of water, and I did encounter pokemon, they were all seemingly normal. I captured them just fine, but they seemed no different from the ordinary, everyday pokemon you can find. Considering their twisted, distorted surroundings, and the almost haunted looking landscape, that felt very counter-intuitive.

I began to make a map as you suggested while I travelled, and I soon realized that Glitch City is absolutely enormous. What’s more, it’s incredibly easy to get lost there. The land will even sometimes shift and mutate on its own. Despite this fact, I am sending you my best attempt at a map. Just follow this link here. It meant snapping many, many photos, but the end result should give you an idea of what Glitch City looks like. As you can tell, the sheer number of buildings is incredible. Glitch City is a packed metropolis, only occasionally interrupted by ponds, plantlife, caves, and the fields of strange numbers.

Yet I still cannot find any people living in this expansive city. I don’t know what to make of it. Do you have any ideas about this, Professor? Where might I find the locals of this place-- and the glitch pokemon, for that matter?

-June

---

June,

I must praise you for your efforts in mapping out the Glitch City you have explored. The map is both detailed and very extensive. Excellent work.

What we know of Glitch City is that it can be found when there is a disturbance in our universe. When you passed through that disturbance near the Nugget Bridge, you ended up in a parallell universe of sorts. I cannot say where the denizens of that universe are and why their city seems abandoned, but I can tell you there are multiple Glitch Cities that can be found. The one you explored is but one of many.

If you’d like to find some people who seem to be native to a glitchy universe, though, I might have a solution for you. Instead of finding them in a Glitch City, you might find them in our world, after performing the Ditto Trick. I will send further details for you soon, but for now, I recommend finishing your Glitch City explorations.

-Professor Gingko

---

Professor,

Thanks for the insight. Actually, I have something else to report now.

I teleported back to somewhere familiar and began a new exploration, still with my walk through walls ability. I just had to return to Pallet Town and see something for myself.

The last time I tried to reach the fields of grass outside of Pallet Town’s walls, I had passed out. I wasn’t going to repeat that mistake. Instead, I went to this point in Viridian City. Then I passed through this wooden fence and walked south.

And I did it. I was in the fields. For some reason, approaching from this direction was a lot safer. I have to say, though, there wasn’t actually anything all that scary out there. The pokemon in the grass were the usual low-level Pidgeys and Rattatas and such. All the same, it felt good to finally know for sure.

But then I decided to walk east. And things got a little weird. As I walked east, I found a town . . . exactly like Pallet Town.

There was nobody there. It was just an exact clone of my home. Down to the very last brick, just entirely empty. I can’t begin to explain how creepy it felt. Why was there a ghost town out here that looked exactly like Pallet Town? I kept walking right and found another one . . . and then another one. Each town seemed to be shifted up a little as I walked through them, but otherwise, they were all exactly the same.

Are these . . . parallel universes, like you said, Professor? If so, what happened to the people?

-June

---

End Notes

* How to set up the Walk-Through-Walls glitch

* Detailed video about walking out of bounds

* You can also access a Wrong Warp Glitch City by wasting your Safari Zone steps on a route with no valid ‘warp 4′ points, and thus immerge from the Safari Zone gate into a glitched version of that route. This is a bit easier to set up than the WtW version, but it also means you’re very limited in how much you can move around.

Click for the next part of the series! 

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Dec 6, 2019.

[gromvillage]

all odd numbers. do it coward

jesus fucking christ i love you

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

probably one of my friends when we went to the mall the day before homecoming?? it was a while ago

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

i can’t wait to see my cousin again but i also have this one really cool uncle that i’d like to see again. actually i’d like to see a lot of my family cause they live far away but i don’t know when i’ll see them next

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

i never want to be drunk but i think they definitely would 

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

i’d like to say yes because i’m a thirsty bitch but the answer is prolly no

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

negative ghostrider, my friends are tired of hearing me talk about me being thirsty

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? 

me yelling at my friends about how i want to be on bear grylls’ show, cause i think him and i would have a great time hanging out

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

oh hell yeah, my friends got acrylics a couple months ago and i was literally begging them to play with my hair and scratch my head

15. What good thing happened this summer?

lots of good things happened this summer! i went to scout camp, went to washington/canada with some friends, and went to europe for the first time!!   

17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

i’d like to think so! but also,,,,i think it’s probably not like little green dudes sadly, prolly just like microscopic shit that happens to be alive

19. Do you like bubble baths?

i haven’t taken a bath since i was really young, the idea of sitting in your own water is gross

21. What are you bad habits?

oh lots...picking the skin around my nails, i can be really lazy, not tidying up my room as often as i should which then makes me feel weird, the list can go on and on

23. Do you have trust issues?

oh you bet baby, i don’t really have reason to cause no one has done anything absolutely horrible to me (yet) but i am constantly questioning the intents of the people i’m close to

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?

my face but also the fact i have no thighs and my arms are super scrawny 

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?

darker, i have such a hard time tanning and i’m high key pale

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

h a h a have to have been in a relationship to have has an ex 

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?

yeah one tiny one on the top of my head

33. Spell your name with your chin.

paigved

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

ohhh tough...probably tv though cause i stay listening to music all the time

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

hi welcome to chili’s

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?

rei or any outdoor store really, small independent stationary shops, target kinda slaps, really any little shop that’s along the main street of a smaller town

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

negative ghostrider

43. Do you smile at strangers?

not really, i’m super self conscious about my teeth and also think i look kinda creepy when i do it

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

the fact i have to go to school sadly but my goal is to one day get out of bed and be excited to do a job i love

47. Have you ever been high?

negative ghostrider, that kinda shit freaks me out

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?

yeah there’s a couple things

51. Ever wished you were someone else?

all the time, i stay wishing i was an olympic skier or pro mountain athlete or literally anyone more interesting than me

53. Favourite makeup brand?

i don’t wear makeup!

55. Favourite blog?

@friendlydinosaur of course but also big fan of @perpetualpatchwork and a bunch of bon appetit blogs

57. Favourite food?

bread/pasta/sweets

59. First thing you ate this morning?

really lame breakfast sandwich thing on a piece of toast with cream cheese and lunch meat cause i’m lazy

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

no but i kinda wish, i have too much of a fear of authority/my parents

63. Ever been in love?

not yet

65. Are you hungry right now?

not super hungry but i could go for some ice cream

67. Facebook or Twitter?

twitter, i’m not a 40 year old lady jesus christ

69. Are you watching tv right now?

nope

71. Craving something? What?

someone to hold me but also really wanna go skiing or on an adventure in general

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

that’s gonna be a no

75. Favourite animal?

ohhh i stay being a closet horse girl but also think elk are pretty cool! also just generally love dogs

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

chocolate (but vanilla if it’s the really good shit)

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

maroon! i stay wearing this color all the time

81. Favourite tv show?

i still haven’t finished turn but i do like it a lot! also i just think i finished watching something on netflix but i can’t remember what?? but i feel like i liked it?? thinking is hard

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

never seen either sadly

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

see above

87. First person you talked to today?

my mom

89. Name a person you hate?

there are a couple but i’m not bouta drag em on tumblr

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? 

oh i could come up with a few people....

93. How many sweatpants do you have?

sadly only two pairs but i want more

95. Last movie you watched?

part of ratatouille with this girl that’s kinda like a little cousin to me

97. Favourite actor?

i don’t really have a favorite but i’m big on timothee chalamet at the moment

99. Have any pets?

a sickly beta fish i inherited from my brother when he moved

101. Do you type fast?

i’d like to think so

103. Can you spell well?

oh hell no

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?

a couple, though none recently sadly 

107. Have you ever been on a horse?

a few times!! again, closet horse girl

109. Is something irritating you right now?

the fact i’ve left some major work till the last minute, this one really painful pimple on my face, the way i stay wasting my time

111. Do you have trust issues?

this is a repeat from 23?? but the answer is still yes

113. What was your childhood nickname?

paigey, but a lot of people still use it! also foo foo the snoo was something my mom called me as kind of an inside joke rhyme thing

115. Do you play the Wii?

not anymore, though i was big on wii sports resort and the wipeout game when i was younger. oh also the lego harry potter, cause i liked to collect all the coins while my brother did the Actual Gaming for the levels

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?

not really, the noodles are always super mushy and i just don’t really like the flavor

119. Favourite book?

i sadly haven’t been reading a ton lately and have forgotten literally every book i’ve ever read but i really enjoyed on jon krakauer’s  eiger dreams that i read this summer

121. Are you mean?

sometimes, yeah

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?

i kept a pair of white slip on vans pretty clean for a while! the trick is to use scotch guard

125. Do you believe in true love?

i haven’t thought about it a lot but i guess? 

127. What makes you happy?

oh lots of things! nice weather, spending time outdoors, good food, time with good friends, ice cream, exploring, creating things

129. What your zodiac sign?

sagittarius (almost my birthday!!)

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

now that i think about it i don’t think i have a best guy friend?? but if i did i guess if i didn’t like them i’d try and be nice about it cause i’ve had a crush on close friends and know it sucks when they don’t feel the same way

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

“but if i get my shit together this year maybe i’ll be a ten” -10/10 by rex orange county

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?

oh i’m sure i told some dumb lies when i was a kid but i can’t remember any right now

137. How tall are you?

barely 5′1″

139. Brunette or Blonde?

brunette

141. Night or Day?

depends on the mood

143. Are you a vegetarian?

i really should be for the earth but meat bruh

145. Tea or Coffee?

i don’t drink either!

147. Mars or Snickers?

snickers

149. Do you believe in ghosts?

not really but the other night i woke up to my waterbottle falling off my nightstand and that was some freaky shit

love you dude, i really needed this tonight

[phandomphightclub]

The Lexxpocalypse: Prelude

(AKA, Dots seeks shelter in the Denny’s as she begins the hunt for the Lexx blogs’ true identities)

“...You know we’re supposed to be closed, right?”  Tali asked the lone hooded ghost who sat at the bar of the Denny’s.  Yes, the Denny’s has a bar now.  No, they don’t sell alcohol, because too many of the ghosts are minors and aren’t allowed, but they does sell a pretty legit sea-salt soda, which Tali can’t seem to get anyone to try for some reason.

“I know, I know.  But this is the only place I could go.”  The ghost side and pushed back her hood, revealing the face of the Denny’s own infamous cook, @d-o-t-s.  “I can’t take it anymore.  They’re conspiring against me, Tali.”

“Who is?”  Tali frowned.  Dots leaned over the counter, seizing the neck of her jacket.

“The Lexx blogs,” she hissed, eyes wide.  “They’re everywhere, all over the ghostzone!”

“Lexx… blogs?”  Tali asked while polishing a dumpster-shaped glass.  “Sorry, I was with Technus on a trip to the human world this last week.  Did something happen?”

“Something?  Tali, everything happened.  This is even weirder than the Phight Club.”

“Really?”  She raised her eyebrows.  “I mean, I know the phandom’s been dead so long we’ve all lost our sanity, but I thought it would be tough to beat that.”

Suddenly something banged on the doors.  The dim diddles-piddles lights flickered ominously.

“Don’t take my word for it,” Dots said, yeeting herself over the counter to hide behind it with Tali.  “I think you’re about to find out.”

Then the door burst open, revealing a flood of Lexosaurus duplicates.  They swarmed the Denny’s, laughing and snoring and meming so violently they destroyed half the fidget-spinner shaped tables in under five minutes.  One Lexx even yeeted an avocado that exploded next to Tali’s head.  

“O-kaaaaaay… I’m officially concerned,” Tali said.  “When did Lexx learn how to duplicate?  I thought Bug was the only phighter who did that?”

“That’s the thing!  They’re not Lexx!”  Dots replied, gesticulating wildly.  “These are all other ghosts who’ve changed their appearance to impersonate her!”

“Wow.  That’s some dedication right there.”

“It’s not dedication, it’s – it’s madness is what it is.”  Dots crossed her arms, dodging a door that got thrown behind the counter.

“Hey, repair staff is on break!  Gah…”  Tali shook her head, patting the floorboards fondly.  “The Denny’s wasn’t ready to handle another giant phandom shenanigan so soon.  She needs her rest.”

“Rest is very important to all growing buildings!”  One of the Lexxes said brightly before launching into a lecture on the importance of sleep.

“That one would be Lexosnorus,” Dots explained to the shell-shocked Tali.  “Each incarnation of Lexx has a different theme.  I’ve categorized over twenty-five different species.  I have theories that some may actually be duplicates of the same ghost, but it’s all still in the early stages.”

“...You’re starting to sound like Wes.”

Dots sighed.  “I get that a lot.”

“Hey, it might not be such a bad thing.  You’re going to need his kind of dedication and skill to figure out who all these Lexxes are.”

“Dang right I am.  But I can’t do it by myself.  I’ve got agents across the ghost zone, but no place to base my operations.  You mind if I use the Denny’s?”

Tali shrugged.  “Once we get these Lexxes out of here, it’s all yours.”

“Thanks!”  Dots beamed.  “But… how are we gonna do that?”

“She’s got a few tricks,” Tali said with a smirk.  “Denny’s, engage intruder defense system!  Mark ally D-O-T-S!  Protocol zero-three-YEET!”

As soon as the command was finished, a fierce wind swept through the building.  Several of the Lexxes called out in confusion and chaos as they were blasted off of the premises. “Huh.  That was surprisingly easy,” Dots noted.

“Wind core.”  Tali tapped her chest with a fist.  “Some of the security staff helped set up the link before they went on vacation.”

“They didn’t do a good enough job, apparently,” a mysterious voice said from the other side of the counter.  Tali and Dots both jumped, peering over it carefully.

“Another one?”  Tali whispered, seeing the remaining Lexx clone.  “Why didn’t my security system take them out?”

“That’s their general,” Dots whispered back.  “See the ectoplasm dripping from their mouth?  That’s @lexovorus.”

“Lexov– ugh.”  Tali smacked her forehead before emerging from behind the counter to confront the Lexx.  “Look, we don’t serve vore here, bro.  Besides, we’re closed.”

“I’m not here for you, Tali.  I’m not even here for the Denny’s.  Not this time.” Lexovorus smirked, and Tali frowned.

“Then what the heck do you want?”

“Oh, you’ll see.  But more importantly, Dots will see.”

“I will see!”  Dots shouted, bursting from behind the counter.  “I’ll find out who you are, Vorus!  And all your Lexx friends too!”

Lexovorus chuckled darkly.  “I look forward to seeing you try.”

And with that, Vorus vanished into the shadows.  Dots’ eyes darted around, as if expecting them to reappear at any moment, but the Denny’s was still.

“Sheesh, I leave for one week and everything explodes.”  Tali sighed.  “But you know what’s going on?”

Dots nodded.  “I explained most of what I know.  They’re going around confusing everyone in the ghost zone.  Some of them seem innocent enough, but others…” She shook her head.  “Well.  They all need to be exposed, by the end of this.”

Tali nodded.  “One Lexx is about all the ghost zone can handle, if you ask me.  Do you have a plan for how you’re going to find out who they are?”

This time it was Dots’ turn to smirk.  Her white eyes glowed brightly.

“Oh, I’ve got more than a plan.  Those Lexxes are going down.”

The Lexxpocalypse has been going on for a while, and after some discussion with Dots and some of the Lexx blogs, I’ve gotten permission to make a fic of it a la the Phight writeups!  The other installments will feature Dots herself as the main character as she takes on the Lexx blogs one at a time.  Each post following this one will reveal the identity of one Lexx blog.  The goal is to get at least one installment up per day, but this may vary depending on my schedule.  Posts will be tagged #lexxpocalypse and #lexxpocalypsefic so feel free to blacklist those if you were only following for the Phight!  

[smashmusicideas]

November 30: Smashing the Wait: Rocky & Bullwinkle

When we last left our hero, Woflman Jew was careening down the slopes of Mount Martagon, attempting to finish typing his blog post with his hands while simultaneously attempting to use his feet to drive his promotional refrigerator, which had been bisected by an industrial...

Oh, right. Rocky. Well, let’s start.

Only originally lasting from 1959 to 1964, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends - though if you’re interested in looking it up, the show was first titled Rocky and his Friends on ABC from ‘59 to ‘61, then The Bullwinkle Show from ‘62 to ‘64 on NBC - is one of America’s more bizarre cartoon staples. The most famous show by animation legend Jay Ward (though the characters were co-created by his then-partner Alex Anderson, who got shut out of the franchise), it’s a show that aggressively, often hilariously defies easy explanation. But at its core, it’s two genres - a variety show and a breathless radio serial - and two characters. Rocky the Flying Squirrel (June Foray) was diligent, heroic, committed, and loyal to the American Way. His pal, Wossamotta U. alumnus Bullwinkle J. Moose (Bill Scott) tried but could only match the last of those qualities; he was incredibly strong but painfully thick (like, “actually one of the dumbest characters in American TV history” thick). And the two of them would invariably get caught up in shenanigans that’d take them from their home in Frostbite Falls, MN to the ends of the earth. Though they were often blissful to most of it, America was constantly in danger from the evil machinations of those Soviet Pottsylvanian spies, criminals, terrorists, scoundrels, con-artists, and nogoodniks Boris Badenov (Paul Frees) and Natasha Fatale (Foray).

The first (and probably most iconic) story should give a good idea. Bullwinkle’s grandmother’s fudge cake recipe turns out to be a powerful rocket fuel; the two animals then get recruited into the U.S. Army’s Department of Guided Moosles, suffer threats from moon men scared that cheap space travel will fill their home with tourists, accidentally evade Boris’ many attempts to kill “moose and squirrel,” and go across the world - and into Pottsylvanian territory - to grab a recipe necessary fruit bush. But all of them are like this, really. Bullwinkle inherits a mysterious mountain which turns out to contain the world’s only supply of the gravity defying upsidasium. Boris and Natasha’s fearless leader, Fearless Leader, tries to trick Bullwinkle into finding the magical derby hat that turned Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Elvis into the smartest men in the world. After armies of giant metal mice eat the nation’s TV antennae, Americans threaten to emigrate en masse to nations with better reception, a plot which would leave Boris and Natasha as the only people left. Another time, the two almost destroy the world’s economy by drastically inflating the world’s boxtop supply with counterfeits, and Bullwinkle (who saves all his boxtops; why wouldn’t he?) gets arrested as the culprit. Every plot save the conclusion had a cliffhanger, with the heroes in peril from dangers as simple as a guillotine and as complex as a robotic super-whale.

But Rocky isn’t just that; it’s a five-part variety show, with the main “Rocky the Flying Squirrel” portion taking up the first and last segments. The second was for the classics; either “Fractured Fairy Tales” or “Aesop and Son” would tell an ironic story about incompetent witches, damsels, princes, animals struggling through, upending, or railing against fairy tale tropes. The middle one let Bullwinkle incompetently explore the finer things through “Bullwinkle’s Corner” or “Mr. Know-It-All,” a poetry slam in the former and “advice” on things like “how to teach a mean bully a lesson at the beach” or “how to disarm a live 5000 megaton TNT bomb in your own workshop in your spare time to amuse your friends” in the latter. The fourth would show one of the other two main parts of the franchise. In “Peabody’s Improbable History,” the eponymous Renaissance dog and his pet boy, Sherman, would travel through time in his “WABAC Machine” and aid the great men of history, all of whom are too incompetent to do whatever it is they’re famous for without being guided by the nose by a painfully smug pooch. The silent film inspired (but still very talkative) “Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties” serials told the travails of 19th century Canada’s most incompetent mountie, who’d almost accidentally defeat the vile Snidely Whiplash and save the damsel Nell, who only had eyes for Dudley’s more talented horse, Horse. Then it’d be another “Rocky” and its cliffhanger ending before the two stars credited “some of the people who made this show impossible.”

I used the word “incompetent” three times in the last paragraph, and the repetition is arguably necessary. Rocky is not necessarily mean or cynical, but it takes great pride in knocking virtually everything it sees down a peg or two. The asinine spies of the Soviet Union are more threatening to each other than it could ever be to us. The world’s military leaders are boobs (one recurring “Rocky” character was Capt. Peter Peachfuzz, genetically wired to be incorrect about every subject and decision but too high ranking to not get constant promotions anyway); the same is true for the useless “heroes” of history. Smokey the Bear is one act of hypnotism away from turning into a violent pyromaniac. Marlon Brando’s method acting is an absurd joke, and Charles Atlas was a con man (okay, those two are kinda true). It’s even got a metric ton of morbid jokes: about suicide, being frozen alive or decades, Soviet gulags, executions (Boris on Fearless Leader: “he's doing a guest shot in this sequence. [BLAM!] There goes a guest now!”), and a nigh endless supply of violent murder plots by the two spies. One arc even ends with a bound Boris shaking with fear and forcing a smile before being shot offscreen by a firing squad, though thankfully he’d return with no explanation. None would ever be needed.

The thing, though, is it’s not at all aggressive like some channer edgelord, and it doesn’t take the self-satisfaction South Park takes when it does the same thing. It’s just that in this world, there is nothing above being deflated by a pun, finger point, or morbid joke. Pottsylvanian society isn’t just evil and surreptitious, it’s dementedly so; all phone books are blank and newspapers nothing but ads due to all information being a commodity, their anthem glorifies literal badness, and words used to describe moral traits are harsh language. Thinly veiled pastiches of real people and midcentury TV producers go by so fast it’s almost impossible to catch them, and the show is inundated with stupid puns. One “Rocky” arc about a commandeered WWII fortress is is titled “The Guns of Abalone,” each ���Peabody” segment ends with him making a joke so bad the show plays a tuba note off key, and almost every single “Rocky” segment has not one, but two terrible puns for titles. It’s a devil-may-care attitude that even extended into the real world; to promote a storyline involving “Moosylvania” (an island the U.S. and Canada disputed over, as neither wanted it), Jay Ward had the staff rent an island between the border and started a “campaign” for its independence. Unfortunately, his short-lived plan reached its apex on the first day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The dumb jokes hide an intense brilliance that shines from some incredible writing, frenetic plotting, and especially an ear for dialogue (sadly, the show’s intelligence doesn’t extend to a pretty ugly depiction of race, especially when Chinese Native American characters get involved in the plot).

See, what makes Rocky special isn’t its visuals, which are great in their low end roughness but were a target of mockery even from its inception; in the 2000s, Looney Tunes’ Chuck Jones once described it as a bunch of people who could write great scripts but didn’t want to animate them. It’s the voice. The show had many, all excellent narrators, most famously Edward Everett Horton as himself for “Fractured” and William Conrad for “Rocky.” And they also weren’t above reproach, at times getting in fights with the cast (Boris at one point threatens Conrad with a gun; in another he rewinds the episode to hear narration that could harm Rocky). That emphasis on narration was a product of the show’s interest in radio drama plotting, a distinct and energetic style of storytelling that it put on laughing gas. The cheap animation was ultimately just a pleasingly cruddy avenue for putting out as many weird plots, dad jokes, and goofy ideas as possible. The actors, Foray especially, are amazing; the voices are so instantly iconic, memorable, and influential that even if you’ve never watched an episode or heard the actors, you probably know them. And that’s really true in general; despite being this oddity that never matched the grandeur of Disney (also an occasional target of some elbow ribbing) or the ubiquity of Hanna-Barbera (which unfortunately escaped the same elbow), it’s endured forever in the U.S. After it was cancelled, NBC still played it in syndication for decades, something done later by Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the Nineties. It’s an obvious influence on a huge swath of American animation, and I’m a pretty certain Homestar Runner counts within that. And throughout a litany of critically and commercially failed reboots or adaptations, the original version, dated as it is, has endured a surprising amount. It’s deserved.

Why Should Super Smash Bros. Fans Watch it? This might just be me, but there’s a part of me for at least the last two iterations of Smash that’s felt like I’m aboard a train careening off its rails. Not in a bad way, mind; there's just always a sensation that some game mode or feature or...something is going to backfire, or shock in a way that’s not meant as intended. I talk about this all the time, but it’s that surprise and sense of insecurity that make these games so exciting. What’s Sakurai gonna do next?

Rocky & Bullwinkle was essentially built on that, possibly nothing but that. Just in general, the entire show feels like it was made on a breathless race against inevitable cancellation; even if the middle and later episodes didn’t have the occasional gag about how they were about to be cancelled, the demented pace gives it away. But the plots are wild, the stories bizarre, the puns beautifully strained, and the sense of abandon reckless. If you like that part of Smash the way I do, it’s not a bad idea to check out some Rocky episodes. Hell, you don’t even need to see them in order. But it’s there for when you’d like a bit of happy, blissful chaos.

Well, that’s all the time we have left. Be here next time, For: “The Ghosts of Macho Pichu,” OR “Villager Chops to It.”

(Link to my writings on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

[glamoursarusrex]

Mama Dick feat. Titans: Red Hood and the Outlaws Jr.

Grab your popcorn, Kids! It’s another longun’. Thank you to @raventrigonsdaughter for the prompt of “To be clear, I wasn’t the one who thought this would be a good idea”. Focusing on the escapades of Gar, Raven, and Jason if left to their own devices. If you want anymore stories surrounding the Titan’s family, feel free to fill up my asks! Without further ado, enjoy this fic!

“Dude, you sure this is a good idea?” Gar asks his companions as they creep along the roof of a warehouse. The building overlooks Gotham Harbour. Raven, Jason, and Gar stick to the shadows as they make their way across the roof.

“Gar, this thing’ll work like clockwork. We steal a fuck ton of drugs. Send them into the river. Lose Black Mask about half a million dollars worth of product and boom! Get back home before anyone misses us!” Jason explained.

They find the roof entrance and crouch by it as Jason works on the lock.

“Rae, you’re alright with this?” Gar questions.

“I find it all rather thrilling.” Rachel says with a ghost of a smile on her lips.

“Won’t Kori and Dick get mad at us that we snuck out?”

Jason scoffs, “furious. Beasty, if you’re really so worried that our moms are gonna rain hell on us, you can just head back. I really only need the witch. You’re just the third wheel.”

Gar stumbles, “I-I’m not scared! I just… wanted to know the logistics is all.”

Raven laughs, “Liar, you’re pent up with nerves.”

“No one asked you, Birdie!” Gar exclaims.

The roof door clicks. It opens slightly. Jason pumps up his fist beaming. He puts his fingers to his lips and whispers, “From here on, it’s quiet. We’re just flies on the wall.”

In response Gar turns into a fly. Raven rolls her eyes. Jason chuckles and whispers, “See, he gets it!”

The teens slink into the building. Raven covers herself and Jason with a layer of shadow. Gar flies behind them. They slowly tiptoe down a couple flights of metal stairs before they reach a catwalk running over the main warehouse floor. The find some large pipes running through the grated floor and hide behind there as they watch the scene below them.

On the ground is a table with road maps and notes strewn all over it. In the center is duffle bag stuffed with benjamins. At the head of the table is a burly man in an italian suit and wearing a gold necklace and several gold rings. There are about six other men standing around the table wearing black hoodies or faded leather jackets.

“Those guys look like they can beat our ass to next Tuesday.” Raven comments.

“Well it’s a good thing they aren’t our targets,” Jason states. He points to the far end of the warehouse where a pile of boxes and two semis are stationed. The semis are being guarded by burly men with machine guns. “Those are.” he finishes.

“Dudes, those guys have big guns!” Gar exclaims.

Jason rolls his eyes, “You truly are Dick Grayson’s protege.”

Gar ignores that comment, “So how are we supposed to get past them?”

“We can’t. So we’re just gonna have to make them move. Which’ll be your job, milady.” Jason says looking pointedly at Raven.

A smile tugs at Raven’s mouth. “I think I have a couple tricks up my sleeve!” She declares pridefully. She turns to Gar. “Watch my back, okay?”

Gar salutes with one of his fly legs, “Ya got it , Rae!”

She turns to Jason, “wait for my signal!”

The boy mockingly pouts, “What? No goodbye kiss?”

Raven blushes, “Maybe later.” She nods towards Gar. “When Lord of the Flies isn’t bugging us.”

“Hey, Nivana! Puns are my trademark!” Gar exclaims.

“Please. They’re more like rip offs!” Jason scoffs.

He turns and sneaks along the catwalk towards the cargo. The other two teens study the conversation below.

“My boys on crime alley are pulling double the weight to satisfy everyone else’s lack of sell. I should be getting double the cut!” One of the men at the table exclaims. This earns a barrage of protests from rest of the table. The man in the Italian suit, their leader, shoots his pistol in the air to call order.

“I hear your complaints, Markov,” he says in false sympathy. “Unfortunately, Black Mask doesn’t give two shits about who pulls the larger load. All he cares is that the job gets done. You’re lucky enough to have your share to begin with.”

This starts another string of protests. Gar turns to Raven, “So what’s the plan?”

“There’s this mind control ability I’ve been wanting to try out.” Raven explains.

“You mean you’ve never done it before?”

“Not to this scale. But I was able to mind control the server at Big Belly Burger into giving me a second helping of fries.”

“Careful! We gotta a badass over here!” Gar mocks.

“Can it, grass stain!” Ravens eyes glow as she concentrates on one of the men at the table. His eyes glow slightly. It calms to a purple iris before any of the other men could notice. Raven smiles. “Let the puppet show begin!”

The men continue to shout and throw insults at each other. One of the men calmly starts counting, “five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two…”

He continues counting until the guy next to him catches on, “Floydd, what the hell are you doing?”

Floydd looks to the man blankly. “What?” He asks in a distant voice.

“Why are you counting?”

Floydd smiles goofily, “Oh! My therapist told me if I’m ever under too much stress and feel like lashing out, I should breathe and count.”

The men at the table look to him in confusion. He continues, “I’ve also taken up yoga, thai chi, and therapeutic grass dancing.”

“Grass dancing?” Markov asks.

“Yes! It’s cleansing for the soul. You, my friend, could use at least ten sessions. If you want, I have a blog that explains everything.”

“Grass dancing?” Gar asked.

Raven chuckles, “I have no clue what that is. I just pulled it out of my ass.”

The leader glares at Floydd. “Is this some kind of joke?”

Gar gasps and quickly whispers in Raven’s ear. She giggles.

Floydd giggles, “No, but your fashion sense is.”

The leader looks down at his expensive suit. He looks up to Floydd and growls, “Are you looking to be taken out?”

Floydd shrugs, “I’m more into girls myself but if you wanna…”

A couple of the men at the table try to suppress their laughter. Their leader fumes and cracks his fists when Markov interrupts. “Dude, what happened to your eyes?” Markov asks, squinting. “Are they purple?”

Gar whispers in Ravens ear and she nods quickly.

“Yes!” Floydd states with a melodramatic flair. “I got them from my mother’s side. But she is an honorable and strong woman. I am proud of her!”

Floydd straightens up. “But you? Your families are shit!”

He points to Markov, “Your father’s a Nazi!”

He points to the Leader, “Your sister’s loose!”

He finally points to the largest man at the table, “Your grandmother’s quiche is second rate!”

The man starts forward with fury blazing in his eyes. “You’ll pay for your words Floydd!”

Floydd backs away with his hands in a surrender position. “Okay. Okay. Maybe I went too far. Sorry!” He says smiling and shrugging. As the group continues inch towards him threateningly, he throws his hands up in exasperation. “Fine!” He pulls out his gun and fires it into the air. “Come at me, bitches!” he screams.

Raven severs her connection with Floydd as chaos erupts below. Fists are flying between the table men. As she hoped the gun men leave their positions from around the semis to help their respective bosses.

She felt a twinge of guilt when she heard Floydd screaming in confusion as everyone ganged up on him. The one solace is that he is known to peddle to kids and murder his underage sellers if they didn’t meet his quota. So, in a word, he got what was coming to him.

Raven sees the familiar shape of a teenage boy flip down the rafters and land behind one of the trucks. She turns to Gar. “Take the money and meet us at the rendezvous!” She teleports away.

Gar morphs into a large Hawk and exclaims, “Yes ma’am!” He swoops towards the duffle bag.

Jason peeks into the back of the truck. His shouts of happiness are drowned out by the shouts and the firing of guns. The back was filled to the brim with cocaine. Soon, it was all going to be at the bottom of Gotham River. He climbs the back and quickly pulls the door down.

He races to the front. He climbs into the driver seat and begins hot wiring. He had to work quickly. It’s only a matter of time before the drug posse found them out.

As if on cue, someone shouts, “That green eagle’s taking our dough!”

“I’m a hawk, dumbass! Basic biology!”

Jason looks up and sees a familiar green hawk circle around the men carrying a black bag in his talons. The hawk heads towards the entrance the kids snuck in from. Jason beams at his stupid friend. He looks across and his smile goes away as one of the men looks directly at him.

“Hey! Who the hell’s guarding the trucks?” the man shouts.

“Shit!” Jason exclaimed. He successfully turned on the vehicle. To his dismay, the side view mirrors reveal that the bay doors behind him are closed. Great! Now he’s caught between a wall and a bunch of Schwartzeneggar stunt doubles with assault rifles. “Please! I need an angel!” He cries.

Suddenly, Raven falls from a portal and lands in a crouch on the hood of the car. She sends a wall of shadow towards the men knocking them off their feet. She then places a glowing hand on the car. Jason felt like he was going through a flash freezer. Just as soon as the feeling was there, it was gone. He could see a row of warehouses outside of his windshield.

Raven falls forward with fatigue. She pants heavily. She hears the truck horn and looks in at Jason’s stupid grinning face. He yells through the driver window, “Get in loser! We’re going shopping!”

Raven rolls her eyes and smiles. She quickly hops off the hood and climbs into the passenger seat of the car. She rests back against her seat and breathes heavily. She’s grateful for the moment of rest even if they are still on mission.

“Good news is, we’re not swiss cheese! Thank you for that. Bad news is, you dropped us at the furthest point on the pier from the water!” Jason exclaims.

Raven sighs, “Look it was either we live or we’re conveniently close to the water!”

“I don’t suppose you have enough mojo in you to port us closer?”

Raven rests her head in her hands, “negative.”

“That’s okay we’ll just do this Mad Max style!” Jason says shifting gear.

“Do you even know how to drive?”

“I’ve nicked cars plenty of times. This is my first semi. So, this’ll be fun for both of us!” Jason beams with a hint of madness in his eyes.

Raven sinks into her seat and grabs onto the door handle and dashboard with a death grip. “Mother of Azar, give me strength.”

Jason floors it sending the truck lurching into motion. He takes a sharp turn and follows a long drive in between two lines of warehouses. As he picks up speed he squeals with delight. Raven can’t help but also feel elated by the adrenaline and speed. She doesn’t recognize her own voice laughing with mania at the thrill and the adventure.

Their elation is short lived as they hear gunshots in the echo behind them. The cabin jerks. The truck loses some speed. Jason growls, “they took out one of the tires!” Raven looks in the side view mirror and sees three men on motorcycles tailing them. They are each holding guns.

Another shot rings and takes out the side view mirror startling Raven. “There’s three and they’re getting closer!”

“Hang on!” Jason orders. He jerks the truck into a sharp turn. The cargo hold slams into a pile of wooden boxes. The boxes cascade down in its wake. Two of the cyclists maneuver past the obstacles. The last one gets knocked out by a falling box.

Raven looks out the window and announces, “One down! There’s still two on our tail!”

“Not for long!”

Jason takes another sharp turn. One of the cyclists keeps up with the truck. The other slams into the wall of the warehouse with a fiery explosion. The final cyclist fires at the truck. The bullet skids along the cargo hold with a horrific screech. Jason exclaims, “Come on man, I just got my new ride and you’re keying my paint job?”

Raven grins wryly, “I’ll teach him some manners!” With that she rolls down her window. She sends a shadow blast at their pursuer knocking him off his bike.

Jason looks at her beaming, “That’s what I’m talking about! Shoots and scores!”

Raven smiles back at him. They lock eyes for the briefest moment of pure joy. Something catches Raven’s eye and she quickly glances out the windshield. Her eyes widen in horror. “Jason, look out!”

Before he could register what’s happening, the cabin lurches. He could feel his stomach shift as the truck free falls over the edge of the pier and into the river. In their excitement, he forgot to keep track of where they were.

The water fills up the cabin through Raven’s open window. Quickly undos his buckle. He looks over to Raven and sees her head tipped forward the impact must have temporarily disoriented her. Jason tries to quickly undo her buckle. To his horror, it’s jammed.

Thinking fast he quickly feels around for anything of use. He feels along the folded mirrors and to his delight he finds a stashed pocket knife. Though criminals, these guys know how to carry useful tools. When he looks back at Raven he sees her head is almost submerged. He quickly saws away at the tough fabric binding her to the seat.

He takes a deep breath and goes under. He’s so close. Just a few more good saws. Jason sticks his head up and takes one more swig of air. It’s now or never. The strap finally gives and Raven floats up. Jason wraps his arms around her waist. His lungs are burning but he was too close to give up.

He pushes at the door. It doesn’t give. He tries harder but still no budge. His lungs are now on fire. He finally let go of Raven and slamming his whole body against the door. It finally opens. He quickly grabs Raven and pulls them both through the opening.

He kicks with all of his might against the current caused by the sinking vessel. His muscles are fatigued and he’s seeing spots dancing in his vision. Up above he sees the light of the moon. This gives him the strength to push past his pain. He kicks harder and faster with all of his might.

The pressure around his header gets lighter  and lighter until he finally breaks the surface. He gasps lungfuls of sweet delicious air. After a second of catching his breath, he hoists Raven heads above the surface. He rests her on his front so that her head is resting on his shoulder. He performs an underwater heimlich on her desperation. “Come on, Rae! Don’t drown on me!” He begs.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally spits up water and gasps. Her ugly coughing is like music to his ears. Jason finds himself enveloping her in some kind of awkward underwater hug. It didn’t matter she was alive. He gasps, “Bird, I can kiss you right now!”

After a few deep breaths she says, “Slow down, boy blunder, it’s only our first date!”

He laughs, “It is not!”

“It is too!”

“This is at least our second! I would go as far as to say our third.”

Raven rolls her eyes. “Once we get back to dry land, get into warm clothes, and get in our dry beds, I will tell you how wrong you are!”

“Will that be our fourth date?” Jason asks.

“Second!” Raven groans.

“Keep telling yourself that!” Jason mocks.

Luckily they broke surface near the pier. Despite Raven’s protests, Jason carries both of them towards shore. Which is a small beach that rests along the embankment wall. Once they were able to touch the floor, they practically crawled the rest of the way out of the water. Once they were completely on land, they collapsed into the sand.

“Hey, dudes!” they hear. A little green dog comes bounding over and licks their faces with his tail wagging happily. Raven groans. Jason absentmindedly scratches the dog behind his ear.

“Gar, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m so happy to see you. You will not believe the adventure we had.”

“I’m sure Dick and I would love to hear all about it.” says a female voice.

Jason, Gar, and Raven quickly look up. Nightwing and Starfire stand over them. Their glares drill holes into the teens. Their whole demeanor screams that the three kids are in deep trouble.

Gar quickly morphs into a human and holds his hands up in surrender. “Dudes, just to be clear, I wasn’t the one who thought this would be a good idea!”