#i said i have a hard hard stop at 5:40 and i did what i could

[anonymusbosch]

if i have to redesign a part from scratch starting at noon in order to hit an "end of the day wednesday before thanksgiving" release date, the drawing will have the world's dumbest dimensions on it. badly. I'm sorry I don't make the rules

[matan4il]

Ahead of Eurovision 2024

I was listening to Eden Golan's song, Hurricane.

At first, it didn't seem to me like it stands out. I'm one of the people who prefers my Eurovision song less on the power ballad side of things, so this being in that genre...

But then I found myself haunted by the lyrics. By specific lines. Singing them to myself quietly, over and over again. I had to listen to the song again.

And it got to me, it really did, I haven't stopped listening to or singing it since, so I guess I needed to share a bit.

There's more than one hint that this is a song about mourning and survival. Lines like, "someone stole the moon tonight, took my light" can be interpreted in more than one way. But they become less ambiguous when combined with ones like, "holding on in this mysterious ride," when the mysterious ride we're all on is life itself. It makes it clearer that this isn't just a break up song. Then it becomes even more explicit with, "we shall pass, but love will never die."

The imagery in the videoclip is also telling, that ending when Eden is looking up, much like many do when talking to or thinking about a loved one that we have lost.

But the line that gets to me the most, the first one that took over my brain? "I'm still broken from this hurricane."

We all get what this song is about, in the wake of what happened here in October 2023, and since. And I am broken. So many Jews and Israelis are. As one survivor said (his words have haunted me first, then I heard them echoed in this song): "We are broken, but strong." That's exactly what the song is about, deeply feeling the pain and the tragedy, the loss, this impossible to accept grief, and still trying to find a way to live with it, to survive not just the horrors of a massacre, but the trauma that follows it as well.

The other line that affects me the most is directly related to this, "baby, promise me you'll hold me again." Because I have spent the last 5 months watching the news, seeing the funerals, and hearing people breaking down, as they say a variation of this to their loved ones, who are gone. Asking for a promise that can't be made, or fulfilled, and knowing that it can't, even as the request is being uttered. I hear their voices breaking around their words, whenever I listen to or sing this line.

The videoclip is also infused with imagery that's related to the massacre of over 360 people at the Nova music festival (and the kidnapping of 40 more from that scene), which is in a way very apt for music lovers. The images show dancers in what looks a lot like a nature party, just like Nova, and since the massacre happened when the music festival was meant to reach its peak, a long night of music and dancing climaxing around sunrise, that's exactly what we see, a move from the "moon light" throughout most of the videoclip, to the "sunrise" at the end.

But in the case of this "sunrise," Eden can smile, she can find comfort, she can sing a few words in Hebrew that reflect hope, about that little light that's left even when the moon's been stolen.

She's bringing the song to a beautiful, emotional closure.

Obviously, it can't be ignored that this is a re-write. The original song (which was called October Rain) was disqualified as "political."

You can read the original lyrics here. They're almost identical. I heard an interview with the song writers, who said they weren't even told what got their song disqualified, so they had to guess what the Eurovision Broadcasting Union had in mind, when they called an expression of our pain, and our strength at the face of that, "political."

I admit, I find it very hard to accept this disqualification. It's not like there isn't precendent for countries at the Eurovision expressing pain (including the kind originating from political circumstances) through their songs.

If you take the wildly popular Ukraine 2007 entry, the singer was quite obviously singing "Russia goodbye," with allusions to Russian interference in Ukrainian elections while wearing outfits reminiscent of Soviet uniforms. And that wasn't called political, because "Russia goodbye" was changed into gibberish that still sounds like it (and in recent performances, it was blatantly sang like that).

If you take the much talked about Croatia 2023 entry, it was about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and also criticized Belarus' tyrant kissing Russia's tyrant's ass, by referencing the tractor that Lukashenko bought for Putin, while the band members played with military weapons and uniforms on stage. And that wasn't disqualified for being political.

If you take the Ukraine 2016 entry, that was explicitly singing about their pain over what the Russians did to the Tatar population in Crimea in 1944, with clear allusions to what Russians did when they invaded Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014. And that wasn't called "political" either.

Even this year, we have the entry from The Netherlands being political, with both the lyrics and videoclip referencing the borderless Europe (which IS a political issue, as Brexit, if nothing else, had made clear). I've seen people pointing out online that the song isn't political, because the whole borderless Europe thing is a metaphor for the singer's grief for his father/parents. I have no problem with that reading, but let's acknowledge that there could have been many metaphors for that, and he chose a political one.

So why is Jewish pain treated differently? Why is our pain labeled "political," when the metaphors for it in the songs aren't that, there are no specific political mentions of people or organizations in the song (unlike the Georgia 2009 entry, which slipped Putin's name into the song's title) in either version, when there are no political statements being made in the song, there's just expressing our pain, and trying to find a way to cope with it?

This WAS the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and expecting Jews not to write about it, not to sing about it, not to try to process it through art... Our pain is not political. It's human. When Ukraine won in 2022 with a song that wasn't originally political, but became one, as it was adopted by Ukrainians suffering from a war that they did not choose, but had to fight, singing it wherever they were displaced (I remember the winners, Kalush Orchestra, coming to Israel to sing it for and with Ukrainian refugees who found shelter here), I thought it was quite obvious, even for people who don't like politics at Eurovision, why the song won, and why everyone overlooked the fact that it was only partly based on its qualities as a Eurovision song. I don't expect Israel to win, I very much expect that, even as Israelis embrace this song about our pain during a war, that we didn't choose, but have to fight, and while hundreds of thousands of us are still displaced, we will get a lot of hatred, instead of understanding and sympathy. But I still have to speak up. I still have to point out that treating Israeli or Jewish pain differently is wrong.

(as a footnote, I wanna get ahead of the usual, "Why is Israel allowed to participate in Eurovision to begin with? It's not in Europe!" comments, while I haven't come across the same ritual for certain other Eurovision participants, like North African Morocco, just-as-Asian-as-Israel Lebanon, transcontinental {despite some of these countries only being considered European culturally, while geographically speaking, they're fully Asian} Georgia, Russia, Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the one that's a continent all on its own, Australia. They all have the right to participate, because they all belong to the European Broadcasting Union. Just like Israel)

[crowleysgirl56]

The vast majority of people who work on a show are paid upfront for their labour

They don't get paid dependent on how successful a show is

They also don't do work that doesn't get paid- if they are working on a show that gets cancelled, they get paid for the work they did

All this 'stream GO for the hard workers behind the scenes' is bullshit

They work for companies are will be put on different projects

Just be honest that you want more GO (despite the message that it sends to studios- that audiences are ok with abusers! Just turn a blind eye to them! Yes that gives them more power but who cares because people will watch and make them money!)

Don't pretend your doing this for moral reasons

(And acting like you're doing this for Terry- for all we know he might want his work with an abuser completely destroyed- it's stupid to assume he'd want the series to be continued)

Like say this shit with your chest, you know?

Oh boy, ok. Gonna take a minute to answer this.

Firstly, I and a lot of the fandom, are heartbroken over what NG has done. Because we were duped into thinking he was a decent person. From the things that he wrote to the things that he said we thought that he was good person. And it is horrible that there are people out there suffering because yet another rich powerful white man decided he had the right to take advantage of them.

You seem rather angry and if that anger stems because you have experienced something similar yourself then I hope you have love and support around you so that you can heel.

If you want to talk about money, let me remind you that NG has already been paid for season 3. He will continue to get royalties, and thanks to the writers strike last year, he will now get more money for those royalties than before. If S3 doesn’t go ahead then hundreds of people will lose their jobs. Will they get other jobs? Sure, maybe. But any loss of job in this current economic climate is terrible and stressful (and I’m not talking about DT or MS here. They’ll get more work).

I don’t know if you understand how hyper fixation in neurodiversity works, but this is extremely painful for some people and takes a lot of time and energy and therapy to get over when a hyper fixation is threatened or taken away. Some people, like myself, need closure for things otherwise we can find it extremely difficult to move on emotionally. This obviously does not compare to someone trying to survive after SA, but emotional diversity can be extremely debilitating as well. They are apples and oranges to compare, but you can’t invalidate one person’s pain because you think another person’s pain is worth more.

As for the show itself, there is so little queer representation in media. There is a lot more nowadays compared to a decade ago, or even 5 years ago, but the little representation we have is so extremely important. Do you know how many people have found a truth to themselves thanks to GO? How many people discovered something about themselves that finally gives them answer to how they feel? How at the age of 40 I finally realised that I’m asexual and NOT BROKEN. That’s fucking important.

And this. ALL of this is why everyone, including me, are so fucking angry with NG. Because he has left us emotionally devastated. He has not just physically hurt these women. He has emotionally hurt hundreds of thousands of people. He is a stain.

I have spoken before when this all first happened about how I was angry that my one teeny tiny corner of the internet that made me happy was on fire. I left for a bit. I came back. I want to continue to interact with like minded people who love this fandom. I won’t stop that.

And frankly, and here’s the last I’ll say on this, the world is on fire. It is filled with a lot of fucking awful shit right now. I have suffered a very deep depression of late where some nights after I put the kids to bed I just stare and cry. You don’t know that about me because I don’t say those kinds of things on the internet, because our internet personas are facades. They’re not real. They’re not true life. I’m a real person and I’m aching inside about so many things. And these kinds of messages are just breaking me further. Seriously, when you send stuff like this do you even consider that?! So when I decide to hold onto one of the last bastions of entertainment that brings me joy, I’m not going to be guilted into dropping it because someone involved happens to be a monster. Because let me tell you if we did that every time someone turned out to be horrible, then we would never watch or enjoy anything ever again. EVERYTHING you watch or listen to or enjoy or like or cared about is connected to someone who is horrible or produced by a gigantic evil corporation (Nestle, Disney, Microsoft, Facebook, Google just to name a few). Every. Single. Thing. It’s the clothing you wear, the electronics you buy, the food you eat, the furniture in your house, and ALL the entertainment you consume. So if you gave up everything for some moral stance, then you would literally have nothing left.

Dropping Good Omens does nothing. It sends no message to anyone because the next really fucking awful person is about to produce the next big thing you might happen to love and care about. So what’s the point?

Let me have Good Omens. You don’t like that, then you can block me. That’s what the button is there for. You don’t need to send anonymous hateful messages. And if you want me to “say this shit with my chest” maybe you can send me an ask with the Anonymous off. So I can see your chest too.

I’m turning off anonymous asks now. Considering the only asks I’ve ever received is abusive shit telling me to kill myself or saying David Tennant is a paedophile or just telling me I’m a horrible person for supporting NG (when I’ve already stated before that I don’t anymore).

Sorry for those who’ve managed to get to the end here. Thanks for reading if you have, sorry it was so long. I hope you aren’t receiving the same type of messages. If Anonymous has read this far, I don’t know, maybe think twice before being horrible to random people on the internet?

[olivianyx]

WAKE UP CALL CUS Y'ALLS THICK ASS SKULLS NEED IT

⚠️ tough love rant, I prob won't be nice to y'all atp, swearing ⚠️

Y'all better stop asking others to manifest for you. Like wtf? You're the fucking creator. Tf are you asking to create it for the creator?? You're God. Just stop whining and complaining. Omfg just stop. Who said you can't manifest? Who said you can't have all the things you desire?? Nobody but you. Like aren't you stupid asshole just tired of that shitty life you're living?? How long are you gonna fucking live this life? It doesn't even benefit you, and you dumbass just keep complaining and thinking about the same old story again and again, and are repeating the same shit again in the 3d 🤦‍♀️ but still would go on complaining and complaining. Who's the ultimate power in here? YOU.

If you don't keep your thoughts in check and change your reality, who else will? You think a prince Charming or Flynn rider or Marilyn Monroe or mulan will walk into your life and change your entire destiny?? Gross. You're the one in charge and you should work on your mind set. You are the ultimate problem. And with this mindset you're never going anywhere but stay in the same loop until fAtE decides what's gonna happen to you. BULLSHIT. You only gotta work on your mindset alone. Like you don't have to climb the goddamn mount Everest or run 40 miles or do 1000 pushups a day to change yourself. Tf, you only just need to ignore unwanted thoughts and feed in thoughts which is favourable and live in the end, keep yourself fulfilled, that's it. No more bullshit.

Is it that hard?? Like just switching a thought with something favourable is hard? Bitch don't gimme that shit anymore. Trust yourself and move on. You are the only problem here. You don't focus on improving yourself and tell others to manifest or affirm for you. Like tf??? Why tf would you give free will to someone else that's not you? Why do you trust that person so much that you don't trust yourself? Nobody's gonna come with you till the end. Everybody and everything is a chapter and it'll keep moving forward, and you'll still be left behind still figuring out what went wrong.

STOP. JUST. STOP. STOP WITH THAT AND DECIDE THAT YOUR DESIRES ARE HERE AND EVERYTHING IS GOING ON IN YOUR FAVOUR.

Even if you're doing everything and nothing is working out, you haven't fulfilled yourself internally and just forcing the 3d to change. Wtf? You know the 3d obeys the 4d, then why are you inducing disgusting thoughts in the 4d and expect something like a miracle to happen in the 3d?? Make it make sense. You dumb dip shit, I'm gonna slap you in your dreams. I mean you're really dumb. Like just think whatever you want is already yours and it is. Cus the 3d should obey. Like whatever tf you want to happen is possible. Everything is possible. You ugly ass bitch just stop with that complaining and just go do whatever you want to change your thoughts.

Just fucking decide that whatever you want is already yours. It doesn't matter at all. The past doesn't matter at all. What you did 10 years ago doesn't matter. What you did 5 months ago doesn't matter. What you did 4 minutes ago doesn't matter. Only now exists. No past, no future. Just the present moment and that motherfucking concept called time doesn't fucking exist so stop stressing about that shit. Just decide. Bitch just decide that you just have what you want and the past doesn't matter. Just fucking be as if you already have it, don't stress about it. Suppose you have your phone with you, do you affirm for it everyday that it's yours? Or visualize? Hell no. Your phone is just yours. How do feel about it? Actually you'd feel nothing, you just KNOW it's yours. The same concept here you absolute idiot.

If you forgot to do sats, or you didn't affirm or if you wavered 3 minutes ago, or you had negative thoughts, like bitch those things don't matter as long as you come back to the track. It doesn't matter. Stop fucking stressing about methods or affirming. You already have it. Get that shit into your skull. I don't care what you do, I want y'all to start it today, start now. Just decide that's it. You're so dumb that you don't even make mental efforts that lead you to experiencing miracles dumbass. You're like really really dumb that I'm done. Like gimme a break.

JUST FUCKING DECIDE LIKE RN THAT YOU HAVE WHAT YOU WANT, AND WHATEVER YOU'RE STRESSING ABOUT DOESN'T MATTER.

YOU ALREADY HAVE YOUR DESIRES BITCH.

Like why would you assume that nothing is changing?? There's always movement and you dumbass don't notice it. Even if you see that there's no movement, that's because you idiot assumed there wasn't any. You gotta take matters in your own hand you dip shit. Don't fucking get triggered by the 3d cus it's just your older thoughts and nothing else. Your new thoughts that you focus on should also be reflected in the 3d like instantly. There's no time in between, like really fuck that shit. The minute you affirm, it's already manifested in the 4d bitch. You don't gotta stress at all you dumb ass. The 4d is the ultimate reality. You just gotta be fulfilled here. How? By LIVING AS IF YOU ALREADY HAVE IT OR LIVING IN THE END. The 3d will catch up as you remain fulfilled in the 4d, like almost instantly. Is this a harder concept to understand?? For example, you wear a green dress and look in the mirror, you see the reflection wearing green dress too. Cus it's a fucking mirror and it shows you what you wear. Suddenly you wanna wear a purple dress, and you change your dress and look in the mirror and the mirror shows you purple dress cus you're wearing it. THE SAME FUCKING CONCEPT HERE. THE GREEN DRESS IS THE 4D AND THE MIRROR IS THE 3D. YOU CHANGE THE 4D (DRESS) FIRST IN ORDER TO SEE DRESS YOU'RE WEARING IN THE MIRROR (3D). HOWEVER, YOU GOTTA CHANGE THE DRESS TO SEE THE CHANGE IN THE REFLECTION. What y'all do is, go fucking break or beg the mirror to show you that you're wearing a purple dress when infact you're still wearing the green one 🙄🤦‍♀️ and complain that it's not showing what you want. Like which planet are exactly from?? Like tf is wrong with your dumbass brain?? Make it make sense. Change the dress and go see the changed reflection of the dress.

Just fucking stop with that bullshit and go fucking have whatever you want. You're God. Like what validation do you fucking need?? You're the validation. Your validation is enough. If your desires don't manifest instantly or like in less than a day, then you aren't fulfilling yourself internally. You aren't fulfilled yet. Cus it's impossible for the delay. Time doesn't exist. There's no fucking delay. It should be instant. Like just fulfill yourself, do whatever you think works. Don't go so something someone posted on the internet and complain about not getting results dumbass. You already have it all. You're the main character, so stop behaving like a stray dog.

Peace out <3

[kamii-2]

“you thought wrong”

this chapter has a teensy bit of angst in it, anyway all of the summaries for chapters are on the masterlist for this story

warning(s): cussing, angst, fluff

genre: angst & fluff

pairing(s): kk arnold x reader

“you thought wrong” masterlist

==================================

chapter 2: “you were right.”

==================================

when you woke up the next day it was 9:46 am, the first thing on your mind was kk. you tried hard to not think about her but damn it was hard as hell. you couldn’t help yourself.

symphony had texted you last night at around 3 in the morning asking if you wanted to go to a party, you obviously said yes and got out of bed to brush your teeth and eat breakfast. today was a lazy day so you had nothing to do until the party. you realized that symphony never told you what time the party was so you asked her and she said 6, it was still early in the morning so you decided to clean up your dorm. after you cleaned you took a short nap then after you watched tv. the whole time you were thinking about kk, you couldn’t get her out of your mind.

symphony texted you again at 4:30 saying she’s going to pick you up at 5:45, you replied with an ‘okay’ then got up off the couch to get ready. you took a shower then got out and found a cute outfit, a white tank top and a pink short, tight, skirt. you put on some mascara and lip gloss before grabbing your phone and wallet and putting on your white and pink air max 270’s. it was 5:40 so you just sat on your couch until symphony texted you she was outside.

you went out to the car and got in, greeting symphony with a hug. “so, i heard kk and her team are going too.” symphony informed you as she pulled out of the dorm parking lot. you smiled while thinking about kk and how you might be able to have an actual conversation with her tonight. “where even is the party?” you asked, symphony shrugged. “it’s a simple house party, i don’t know who’s it is though. i seen people posting about it on snapchat so i decided to go and take you with me as emotional support.” she answered, eyes not leaving the road.

“ooh, we should get ice cream before we go!” you suggested. “wait we should.” symphony agreed before finding the nearest ice cream place and going in. you two ordered your ice cream and sat down and ate. “the only reason i wanted us to get ice cream is because i don’t want us to be the first people there and look dumb.” you admitted, licking your ice cream. symphony laughed at this and continued to eat. when you were done you got back in the car and symphony continued to drive to your destination.

you guys arrived at 6:23 and the party was busy and loud, cars everywhere. symphony found a place to park a little bit of a walk from the house but not too far. when you guys got inside it smelt of alcohol and a hint of sweat. you and symphony went straight to the kitchen for a drink then to the dining room and sat down. people came and went from the dining room, a few greeting the two of you every now and then. you two talked about school and crushes and other life stories.

while you were telling symphony a story, kk came from somewhere in the house and sat in the chair next to you. “oh hey kk.” you stopped your story and greeted her, she smiled at you and replied with “hey y/n, how’s the party going for you?” “it’s lowkey a bit boring, me and symphony have been sitting here talking the whole time.” you replied honestly, symphony gasped, “wow so you’re calling me boring?” she held her hand to her heart and looked offended. “what? no!” you defended quickly, kk and symphony started to laugh.

“anyway, how’s it going for you kk?” you asked her, “it’s going good but talking to you has made it a lot better” she replied while looking you up and down, staring at you lips for a little while longer than anything, somehow you didn’t realize she did that. her comment made you smile and get a little flustered. “thank you.” you replied trying to hold composure.

it was obvious that the two liked eachother but you were both too dense to realize it. you two had been unintentionally flirting with the other for a good 30 minutes before kk left. you turned to symphony after kk left the room, “i actually don’t think i’ve met anybody stupider than you two. you both want the other but are too damn dense to notice, and you two somehow managed to accidentally flirt and STILL neither of you seem to realized you two were attracted to each other,”symphony lectured you while you just looked at her like she was dumb, “the amount of times she checked you out was actually outrageous, she stared at your lips more than your eyes. y/n shes clearly gay and obviously likes you, i seen it with my own eyes.” you had no words but after a few seconds you replied to her. “oh my God, symphony you don’t know that.” you defended kk, not knowing that soon you were going to find out some very interesting information. “you’re stupid.” symphony deadpanned.

“i’ll be back.” you told her as you stood up and walked to the bathroom to calm down. as you opened the door you seen kk and some random girl making out. you immediately slammed the door shut and walked right back down the stairs. the sight of her kissing another girl shattered your heart to pieces. you felt the tears well in your eyes as you went back to symphony.

“you were right.”

symphony stood up and took you outside. “what happened?” she asked when you two reached the car. “kk was in the bathroom with another girl, kissing her.” you cried out, reaching over the middle console to hug symphony in the drivers seat. “shh it’ll be okay. let’s go back to my dorm and watch some movies or something like that. sound good?” she suggested while running your back. you nodded your head and let go of her. she started the car and you two went back to the dorms, getting food before she dropped you off back at yours.

==================================

i’m actually so sorry for this taking so long to get out. i’ve been SUPER busy and i only write when i have free time, anyway i hope you enjoyed the 2nd chapter of “you were right” !! i hope you have a good day/night, love you 💋💋

[mlmxreader]

300+ prompts.

this prompt list will run from 04/02/2025 - 31/03/2025. if there are little/no requests, it will be deleted and a new one will not be made until potentially 06/05/2025 (if at all).

rules & guidelines - read BEFORE you request.

do not use as your own - this prompt list is ONLY for the use of @mlmxreader , @tokillamockingbird427 & @kaijubluu who have my explicit consent to use this for their own writing.

Prompts 1-300

1. "Nothing can stop us now"

2. "I tried to warn ya"

3. "I'm tired of pretending"

4. "I guess that makes me your favourite"

5. "If you put yourself in danger like that again, I'll..." "You'll what?"

6. "Where did you get all this?"

7. "Easiest choice I've ever made"

8. "I'm not going anywhere"

9. "I'm happiest when I'm with you"

10. "That felt like my first kiss..." "Is that bad?"

11. "Whatever it takes"

12. "I don't want to go if you can't follow"

13. "Can we please not talk about that?"

14. "Please?"

15. "Don't be scared"

16. "Is that how much you missed me?"

17. "Let me in before I get soaked"

18. "Do you have to?" "What? Your lap is my favourite place to sit!"

19. "I just don't know where to start"

20. "C'mon, you need to take a break"

21. “Would you answer my question, please?”

22. “I’ve got an hour exam tomorrow”

23. “You look stupid and rich”

24. “I wouldn’t go a single step with you”

25. “Well, that’s what makes you stupid”

26. “Why would I wanna go to a shitty little pub?”

27. “Because you always go where I go”

28. “I tried too hard, think I might have pulled something”

29. “I’m trying to concentrate, do you mind?”

30. “Hello, animals”

31. “I’m your roommate, if anyone asks”

32. “Oh, shove it right up your ass!”

33. “What would you say if I told you I think I’m in love with you?”

34. “Am I just anybody to you? Something to throw away when you get bored?”

35. “Are you jealous?”

36. “Did you at least make the other guy look worse?”

37. “Son of a bitch”

38. “Whose side are you on, exactly?”

39. “You don’t understand, you're not getting it”

40. “There’s no problem here, not with us anyway”

41. “You’re gonna end up working late if you sit there watching me all day”

42. “See, I think you’re scared”

43. “Admit you care”

44. “Aren’t you a good soldier?”

45. “That’s two outta three, not bad”

46. “We’re together, now, we’re happy”

47. “Don’t leave me”

48. “Who said anything about marriage?”

49. “I’m saying it now, before you can beat me to it”

50. “You wanna marry me?” “Yeah.” “Why?”

51. “My friends are gonna love you”

52. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise”

53. “Very casual, huh?”

54. “I didn’t think it’d be like this”

55. “This is too much for me”

56. “It’ll be a breeze”

57. “So far, so good”

58. “I… I’d like you to meet…”

59. “How can you see me, and still love me?” “That’s what it’s about.”

60. “Do not bullshit thy boyfriend”

61. “Yeah, but it’s home”

62. “Carry me across the threshold”

63. “Would you please say something?”

64. “Please, talk to him”

65. “Can’t you just do it for me?”

66. “You’re a heartless bastard”

67. “I forgot my key”

68. “I’m sorry”

69. “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”

70. “Don’t bullshit me, you were showing off”

71. “I got something important I wanna tell you”

72. “You got kicked out of the army?”

73. “That’s a mistake, it has to be”

74. “Can’t I take my fucking husband out to dinner?”

75. “I just need you”

76. “I believe you, I really do”

77. “Would you please hold me?”

78. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

79. “I want to help”

80. “I’m sorry”

81. "I never told you”

82. “You never asked”

83. “I’ve gotta say what I’ve gotta say, and then I'll shut up”

84. “Tell me everything’s gonna be alright, just... please say it's gonna be fine”

85. “Follow me, and do not let go of my hand”

86. “Are you proud?”

87. “What have you got to lose?”

88. “At least I can say I tried”

89. “I don’t know what to do about it”

90. “I never wanted anybody more than I wanted you”

91. “I want you, I need you, only you”

92. “I won’t let anybody take you away from me”

93. “Be mine, please?”

94. “Just love me”

95. “You deserve it after the week we've had”

96. “You’re sublime, you’re amazing”

97. “I’ve been with you all day, you know I have”

98. “I’m trying to stay calm, I really am”

99. “I’m gonna love you now, and then you can walk away and decide what to do about it”

100. “I won’t let you walk away”

101. “You got me, don't you?”

102. “My hands are fucking shaking”

103. “I think I know what’s going on here, with us”

104. “I know what it’s like”

105. “We could start over”

106. “Just look me in the eyes and say I’m wrong, say you don't feel the same”

107. “Is this what you want?”

108. “I can’t go back there again”

109. “You asked me to love you and I did! I still do!”

110. “Are you ready for the time of your life?”

111. “I beg your fucking pardon?”

112. “Show me your heart, come on, show me what you really feel”

113. “Can you help me with this?”

114. “I can handle everything, don't worry”

115. “If you love me, let me go, let me do this on my own”

116. “My heart is just too heavy to care about anything anymore”

117. “I don’t deserve to love you”

118. “I used to press your hand to my lips, remember?”

119. “I used to savour every single kiss, every touch”

120. “I couldn’t face a life without you by my side”

121. “I'm gonna keep my hand against your mouth so you'll be quiet, alright?”

122. “I think I made it very clear what I think”

123. “I only wish you weren’t my friend, then maybe I could say it properly”

124. “I never claimed to be a good person, you know that”

125. “You never needed any help, you just needed a little push”

126. “If you still care, let me know now because I don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive”

127. “If you want it come and take it”

128. “Let me tell you, man, when I said it, I meant it”

129. “I can rattle off a million other reasons why I love you and why I'll always love you”

130. “I don’t want to get back up, I'm tired”

131. “But I have to fucking say it already, so it might as well be today, right?”

132. “I’m in no shape to do this, my leg is completely fucked”

133. “Believe it or not, but it is true”

134. “Walk with me, please?”

135. “Don’t let this fucking bastard get to you”

136. “How could you forget about it?”

137. “To each his own, I guess”

138. “We can’t continue on like this, hiding all the time”

139. “It doesn’t matter what you say, I'm always gonna be here”

140. “I’ll show you what I’ve hidden”

141. “Where is your fight, my friend?”

142. “A little better than I would ever deserves”

143. “It doesn’t seem to matter”

144. “We were meant to be together”

145. “Know what I mean?”

146. “You made it work”

147. “I will never love another man, I can only love you”

148. “I’m so fucking pissed”

149. “I won’t let you disappear out there on your own!”

150. “Oh, fuck your intelligence! I don't want to think anymore!”

151. “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this to you, I think I'm still dreaming”

152. “So now, I have something to say, are you gonna listen?”

153. “This hasn’t torn us apart, so nothing ever will”

154. “It’s none of your business”

155. “I’m tired of this shit”

156. “I want to go home”

157. “Don’t waste my fucking time”

158. “But you know me”

159. “I better tell you everything”

160. “It’s been years since anyone could be a friend, I've... I missed it a lot”

161. “All you have to do is close your eyes, alright? Just close your eyes for a bit”

162. “But you can’t break me, I can't be broken”

163. “I was all that you wanted and more”

164. “I’d love to help you waste time today”

165. “I’m never gonna be enough”

166. “I guess it’s time to see”

167. “I haven’t felt like this in years”

168. “I know where I need to go”

169. “It’s a miracle you haven’t broken any laws, or any bones for that matter”

170. “You know just as much as I do, we were told the same thing”

171. “I am not the same”

172. “You really wanna know who the fuck I am? Are you sure?”

173. “It doesn’t matter ‘cause I know you’ll never listen to me, even if I screamed it in your face!”

174. “I swear I fucking give up”

175. “Tell me all about it”

176. “I’d love to hear you talk about it forever”

177. “I’m your friend, I love you”

178. “Do what you want”

179. “Just remember that I love you, and I want you to come back in one piece”

180. “I’ve always felt love this way for you”

181. “I don’t need you to do it for me”

182. “Don’t look away, look me in the eyes”

183. “I’m gonna show you how to do it”

184. “I fucking told you so!”

185. “I don’t wanna go to sleep, I'm... shit, I'm scared”

186. “I gotta know now, you better tell me”

187. “Would you hurry up and get inside”

188. “Isn’t this fun?”

189. “Don’t ask me how I am”

190. “I never learn, do I?”

191. “You always come to me”

192. “Couldn’t bear it if you leave”

193. “Is this wrong of me?”

194. “There it goes again, I can hear it louder - it's getting closer!”

195. “Why won’t you stop staring at me?”

196. “What the fuck is all this for?”

197. “Is this what you want?”

198. “Say something, anything to me”

199. “How do you feel?”

200. “Why does it have to be this way?”

201. “I don’t know how else to put this”

202. “I will give you anything, you just have to ask”

203. “Say you want to stay with me”

204. “I want to know I belong to you”

205. “I just want to be right by your side”

206. “I will give you everything”

207. “I gotta say what’s on my mind”

208. “Give me your hand”

209. “I’ll take you home”

210. “You are going to relax”

211. “Listen only to my voice”

212. “I’d cross the world for you”

213. “Where are my cigarettes?”

214. “I want the fucking truth”

215. “Is this the best you can come up with?”

216. “I can’t stay here forever”

217. “Is that an excuse?”

218. “Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again”

219. “I really love you, baby”

220. “You must be brave”

221. “Get out my way!”

222. “Just tell me I am yours ‘cause you are mine”

223. “What are you doing here?”

224. “I never knew you could dance so well”

225. “Thank you, so much, honestly”

226. “I can never repay you for what you’ve done”

227. “It’s rather good”

228. “I’m alive!”

229. “Open wide”

230. “Give me spark to light the world up in flames”

231. “Washed away with the tears”

232. “Inside your sleep, vile images creep”

233. “Hear the screams that haunt your soul”

234. “Tell me of the souls you have drowned”

235. “Losing control of your own”

236. “In time you’ll realise”

237. “Craft it to how you see fit”

238. “Recognise powers you hold”

239. “I swear by the blood I have shed”

240. “To rely on the hand that still feeds you”

241. “We’d be free to grow our wings”

242. “Untruth, is this my fate?”

243. “The world we know’s an abysmal hell”

244. “How can you just stand there and stare?”

245. “I’ll wait for you”

246. “If our world ended today, would you suffer or just sit there awaiting damnation?”

247. “It will take all you have held sacred”

248. “Stay here till the windows stop burning for your dreams”

249. “To feel this pain with you”

250. “You’ll feel better when you’re gone”

251. “First step in taking back your life”

252. “So you think you’ve won”

253. “Come take a walk inside”

254. “This enraged pissed off mind”

255. “Lusted for so long”

256. “How can this be for real?”

257. “It’s so beautiful”

258. “Make me swear if I see your face again”

259. “Fuck you”

260. “Tie you up, make you bleed”

261. “Just like me”

262. “They can’t take what’s in our hearts”

263. “They’ll never take what’s in our hearts”

264. “Did you forget something?”

265. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you don’t love me the same way”

266. “Another night wide awake, huh?”

267. “Don’t fucking torment me”

268. “I waited in the rain so I could assure that we’d be alone”

269. “I don’t think I can stomach another night alone in this house”

270. “Don’t be a dick”

271. “Would you be mine?”

272. “Take my hand, please, just hold my fucking hand”

273. “You chose me - above everyone else, you chose me… why?”

274. “What, did you think I was just happy to be your fucking toy all this time?”

275. “I keep telling you to take a coat”

276. “I have a door! You don’t have to keep using the window”

277. “There’s nothing out there, nothing to be afraid of, at least”

278. “You’ve been gone for so long…”

279. “Don’t tell me that that’s a fucking ring in your hand”

280. “I don’t care what anybody says, I love you, and I love being with you”

281. “It’s getting dark, don’t you think we should leave?”

282. “You’re different, I like it”

283. “Where the fuck did you find a dog?”

284. “Y- you weren’t in bed, and it was so cold…”

285. “You’re not seriously staying up all night to play video games”

286. “I would never hurt you”

287. “I came all this way just to ask you… if you’d go on a date with me”

288. “It’s starting to fucking hammer down”

289. “Stop pretending to give a shit”

290. “Just stop it!”

291. “You can’t go all that way on that horse”

292. “You have to be joking, you couldn’t have come all this way in the middle of a fucking storm”

293. “I would do anything for you, for love”

294. “Tell me what you want”

295. “You can’t keep handing me little notes all the time”

296. “Perhaps one day, we’ll be together properly”

297. “Oh, shit”

298. “I’m your huckleberry”

299. “We could’a had a good fuckin’ life”

300. “I missed feeling your hand in mine”

301. “C’mere, dance with me - there’s a slow song on the radio”

302. “I made this for you”

303. “I never did thank you for that.” “A kiss would be a good thank you”

304. “I know you wanted me to stay”

305. “Don’t cause a scene”

306. “It’s where I belong - at your side”

307. “What? I don’t like it when people look at you like that”

308. “What have you done this time?”

309. “Don’t be so sour - I’m just having fun!”

310. “You will always be my first choice”

311. “I will always love you”

312. “You’re always on my mind, you know, always”

313. “What you waitin’ for, cowboy? An invite?”

314. “I like the direction you’re going, so if it’s okay, I’ll stick around”

315. “I don’t want to be, y’know, casual anymore - I wanna be serious”

316. “You two are almost joined at the fucking hip”

[hannahbarberra162]

hOrnithology for Beginners, Chapter 5

The jig is up. This is the angsty chapter, so skip to the next one if you don't wanna read some hurt feelings. It'll end well though, it's HEA.

18+ MDNI on Ao3

Link to all chapters

Marco POV

Marco had kissed many, many people over the course of his life. After all, he was over 40 and had been traveling the seas for most of his life. He’d met and left hundreds if not thousands of lovers over the years. But he’d never had to work so hard for one little kiss. And that made it all the sweeter. He put his arm behind your back, bringing you closer to deepen the kiss. He could tell you were less experienced but no less enthusiastic than he was. He gently bit your lower lip, which made you moan softly. You tried to wind your arms around his neck but were too short. That wasn’t unusual, Marco was exceptionally tall. Marco broke the kiss and pulled you along to a nearby rock, trying to even out your heights. He sat down and you straddled his lap facing him. He was a little surprised at your forwardness - you were blushing, which was a cute look for you. Marco was already hard, and he was sure you could feel it through his thin pants. 

“More,” was all you said to him, cupping his face in your hands. As demanding as always, he thought amusedly. You leaned in to him, he felt your soft breaths on his face. He licked the seam of your lips and you opened up for him, greedy to continue kissing. As your tongues entwined, you ground your hips onto his, giving you both needed friction. You were moaning as Marco held your head in one hand, biting and kissing your neck. You were sensitive, needy, and open, nothing like you were when he’d first met you. 

You were riding Marco like a lazy cowboy and he felt like he was going to burst in his pants, like a teenager. Marco put his hands under the hem of your shirt, touching your lower back. He started to ruck up your shirt from the bottom when you stopped him by putting your hands on his forearms. 

“Nah, that’s enough for now.” 

“Are you sure yoi?” Marco wasn’t trying to persuade you if the answer was no, so he kissed your jaw as his last kiss.

“Yeah, I think that’s far enough for today. Or did you think I was going to have sex with you on a rock ?” 

“I’ve done it in worse places yoi.” You huffed at him, but your lips quirked up a little. He pressed one final kiss, really the last one this time, to the corner of your mouth.

“I have to work tomorrow, but if you’re still around the island after my shift, you can come over to my place.” You weren’t looking at his face as you invited him over, shifting your gaze to the ground near you. 

“I’ll meet you at your restaurant yoi. What time?” Marco made plans with you as you hopped off his lap. Yes, he was still hard, but that wasn’t his fault. He noticed you make eye contact with his tented pants and your expression was priceless. He wished he was the artist so he could capture your perfectly surprised, turned on, and nervous face. You flushed again as you noticed him watching you. You bade your goodbyes and made your hasty retreat into the forest. Marco had never seen anything more adorable.

Your POV

Just as all good things had to come to an end, so too your little excursion into the woods was over. After two days off, you felt relaxed and refreshed, which would continue up until the moment you set foot into the restaurant tomorrow. You’d tried camping out the night before work before but it wasn’t a great idea. You needed to shower and sleep on a bed to prepare yourself for the mental drain of serving customers.

You were still riding the high from kissing Marco as you packed up your campsite. It wasn’t fair that pirates could be so attractive and sexy, you thought to yourself. As you were putting your things away, you caught the sight of blue flames out of the corner of your eye. You perked up a little, eager to see your friend. You waved as the phoenix made swooping circles in the sky. You were excited to see him, but something in you was pulling at your heart. You realized you felt guilty . You felt like you’d betrayed your phoenix for some quick kisses. You didn’t feel guilty for kissing Marco himself - once you made your choices you stuck with them without regret. It was more that you were always so adamant in your hatred for pirates, so dedicated to your goals of conservation, and yet you threw them away for one ( very ) good looking, smart, bird-oriented pirate.

The phoenix landed softly in front of you, extending and ruffling its feathers. You wondered about the mechanics of having fire feathers, but the phoenix hadn’t been interested in answering your questions previously and you didn’t want to ask again. You couldn’t help but stare with adoration at the bird, no matter how low you felt in the moment. 

“Hello, you,” you said, sitting down near the legendary bird. You weren’t sure what it would do, but you suddenly felt drained. It had been a long day for you and you were tired. Watching the phoenix was like watching the most beautiful fire in the world, relaxing and mesmerizing. You hugged your knees, thinking over your day. It had been fun and exciting, you hadn’t felt like that in a long time. For whatever reason, it had always been hard for you to make connections with other people. Etta was the exception, not the rule. Your attitude had evolved from constant social rejection, not the other way around. But being with Marco was so easy and entertaining, you’d lost sight of what you thought you held dear. The phoenix tilted its head, looking at you closely.

“I’m sorry, I’m just feeling a little guilty. I…met up with that pirate again. And I had a great time. I just - I don’t know. I feel like I betrayed you. Lost sight of what’s important.” Even you weren’t going to tell a bird that you’d made out with a pirate like a horny teenager. The bird walked over to you while you watched cautiously. You lowered you knees as it got closer and sat with your legs crossed. When the phoenix was about a foot away, it perched next to you. You opened your eyes as wide as they would go. This was the closest it had ever been to you in its entirety. Before it had extended an enormous wing from a few feet away. You didn’t dare move for fear that it would fly away. It slowly extended its neck, laying its head in your lap and closing its eyes. Maybe you had died and went to heaven? You weren’t sure what you’d done to deserve such a wonderful turn of events, but you weren’t going to look a gift bird in the mouth. 

“Can I pat your head?” you whispered. The phoenix opened one eye and trilled. You extended two fingers and ran them over the soft downy feathers on the top of its head. While you marveled at the softness, small blue flames flickered on your own hand. It didn’t hurt, so you just watched intently. As the blue flames receded, you noticed that all the small scrapes and cuts on your hands that you’d gotten over the course of the last week had been healed. You wanted to cry - it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for you. And it had come from a bird. 

“Can I, um..hug you?” you asked tentatively. The phoenix nodded and wound its long neck over your shoulder, allowing you to hug it. You felt like it was healing your soul, not just your body. You hugged it for a long time, reveling in its power and warm flickering flames. It felt like the sun itself had given you a personal hug. You felt a shiver of recognition through your body as you embraced the bird, though you couldn’t say why. 

“Thank you, for everything.” You weren’t sure if you’d see the phoenix tomorrow, or ever again. So you wanted to say goodbye, just in case. You’d never forget it and all the incredible experiences it gave you even if you never saw it again. The phoenix nodded and put its beak on your cheek. With that, it moved backward and flew away. You looked with unrestrained longing as it fled from your vision in the sky.

~~~

Marco POV

Marco rushed to his cabin to finish himself off from thinking about you. He practically mowed down his siblings in his haste to get to privacy. The way you’d been astride him and rocking your hips, your complete devotion to enjoying the moment had been playing on a non stop loop in his mind. His Phoenix side had been just as delighted with you, taking the sexual offering somewhere between supplication and surrender. The Phoenix didn’t always make its opinions known, but with all your fawning and ornithological knowledge, you’d quickly become a favorite.  Both man and Zoan had been turned on, which hadn’t happened in a very long time. He stroked himself thinking of you riding him without clothes between you, your head thrown back in passion. In his fantasies, you were loud, moaning and saying his name, crude language spilling from your lips.

“Oh god, Marco! Right there, ugh, oh fuck Marco please, more…Marco…” He spilled himself over his stomach with a groan. Marco was hoping for the best tonight on his third date with you, but would be content with just kissing if you didn't want to go further. He cleaned himself up and laid back on his bed, arms resting behind his head. 

Now through the rush of coming to the thought of you riding his cock, Marco thought about the last conversation you’d had with him. It was so honest and direct, so sweet and affectionate, that you thought you’d betrayed the Phoenix. Now he felt even more guilty for continuing his deceit. You’d let both him and the Phoenix into your confidence in different ways, and he couldn’t see a way out of it without betraying one or the other. He sighed and hoped he’d be able to keep it up for just a few more days until they set sail.

~~~

The next day, as you said, you were working. You had an afternoon shift, ending in the early evening. After working in the morning, Marco and his siblings decided to go to your restaurant for lunch. All the restaurants on the island were shitty, but yours was the best of the worst. Ace was back to normal and wanted to see Etta again, so between the two of them the choice was made easily. Thatch, Izou, Vista, Ace, and Marco all made their way into town, with Marco walking alongside them.

“Brother, why aren’t you flying there? I haven’t seen you walk so far in years,” asked Vista. Ace glanced at Marco with a smile but didn’t say anything. 

“Feel like walking with my brothers is all,” Marco replied with a smile. Ace’s smile got wider. Marco shot him a warning look. Izou clocked the interaction with a raised eyebrow. Making their way to the restaurant, they were seated in Etta’s section. Marco watched you shuffle around the busy restaurant, taking orders and bringing plates of food from the kitchen. It was kind of depressing. Now that Marco had seen the real you, watching you stuff yourself into the box you needed to in order to make money was kind of sad. He knew you needed freedom, intellectual stimulation, and creative liberty. Someone who drew and studied like you needed to be outside, exploring and learning. Not telling people that the orange juice was made from oranges and getting yelled at for forgetting a lemon wedge. When you saw Marco in the restaurant, you gave him a small smile.

“Whoa, what magic did you work there? Did you see that? She smiled at you.” Thatch was impressed. And he should be, Marco had spent a lot of effort trying to get on your good side. He hadn’t told his brothers that you’d kissed, he didn’t think you’d want them to know. 

“I’m telling you, she’s nice yoi. Leave her alone and let her work.” Etta had been by to take their orders, her normal flirty self. She and Ace had enjoyed each other’s company a lot over the past few days. Ace had introduced her to the other Commanders when they came to pick him up from her house. She was chatting as much as she could while still on the clock, evidently still charmed by Ace and his antics. 

“Alright, boys, I gotta keep working. Making that money to replace all the food Ace ate at my house.” Etta grinned at Ace, who seemed slightly embarrassed. 

“I was hungry! And besides, you’re a good cook, I liked those skewers.”

“Oi, you wanna break my heart? Just stab me in the back?” Thatch was pretending to be dramatic, making Etta giggle. Marco watched them with his usual calm demeanor, enjoying the banter. Etta picked up her tray of drinks, carrying it to the bussing station. On her way, she turned her head to laugh at something Ace said and tripped, spilling the load onto the tiled floor. Ace got up to check on her, but she waved him off.

“I’m ok, I’m ok. Nothing hurt but my pride.” Etta got up, picking up the glasses and some of the ice and putting them on the tray. “I’ll get a mop to clean the mess.” While she was gone, you made your way towards the pirates, looking at Marco. As your foot stepped on the tile Marco saw what would shortly happen but wasn’t fast enough to stop it. You slipped on the spilled drinks, falling to the floor. And unlike Etta, you did get hurt. Marco was up in an instant and by your side, helping you off the ground. Etta heard the commotion and came back hurriedly to your side, mop in hand.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I was on my way to clean it up, I swear. Are you ok?” Etta was fretting over you while Marco helped you to your feet. You leaned on him for physical support and he picked you up and put you on a chair. Bending down to inspect it, Marco elevated your ankle on his knee, moving it around while you winced. Marco had to use a considerable amount of concentration to restrain his Phoenix from instantly healing the injury. The Phoenix was clamoring to heal its dear friend, angry at Marco for stopping it. Etta was still talking to you, asking how you felt. 

“Ow,” was all you said. But being a doctor, Marco knew this was more than an “ow.” You’d either sprained your ankle or fractured it. 

“What’s taking you so long? Why aren’t you just healing it for her?” Thatch asked loudly from the table. You looked at Marco’s face with confusion, biting your lip. Marco didn’t have time to answer - with his concentration broken by Thatch’s yelling, the Phoenix took the opportunity to heal your fractured ankle in a blaze of healing flames. You watched the flames engulf your lower leg. Marco could see you finally putting everything together. You noted his tattooed chest, the flames, the glasses. He could almost feel you shuttering him out of your life. He looked at you apologetically, but for once didn’t know what to say. It felt like the restaurant had gone silent, watching the scene unfold.

Your POV

How could you be so stupid? So blind? So desperate? You’d finally understood - Marco was the phoenix you’d been seeing. Or The Phoenix, you supposed. He’d told you he was a devil fruit user, but you’d never asked which one. Now that you saw the same healing flames that had healed your hands the previous day were the ones that had healed your ankle. It all made sense - how he knew where the waterfall was, how he made all those bird calls, why he was the crew’s doctor. And everyone else already knew, clearly. Even Etta was looking at you with pity. 

‘Don’t touch me,” you hissed, taking your foot off his knee. You felt completely, utterly, and totally humiliated. You knew you were flushed and could feel your eyes filling with tears. This wasn’t even the first time someone had pulled something like this on you. The same thing had happened once when you were a child. Asked on a date, only to be told it was all a joke as the boy’s friends laughed, joining in on the joke. This felt even worse than before since Marco had clearly orchestrated this and you'd fallen for it. He wasn’t laughing in your face, but that didn’t matter. He had all his friends behind him, watching you. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

“Did you get what you wanted? Was I amusing enough for you?” You were enunciating every word, wanting to make sure he knew how you felt. You weren’t loud, but you didn’t have to be. Everyone was listening. You wanted to kick him in his stupid face, but he was a pirate on Whitebeard’s crew. 

“No, it’s not like that yoi, I -” He stood up and tried talking to you. You didn’t want to hear whatever it was that got his rocks off.

“It’s exactly like that. Or is there something I’m missing?  When were you gonna say something? You let me swim in front of you naked - did you all laugh about that afterwards, too?” you looked at his crew mates. They were looking at each other with uncomfortable looks on their faces. 

“Did he tell you I fucking bowed to him? Or that we kissed? Or that I invited him over tonight? How many laughs did you get out of that?” You laughed humorlessly. 

“Wait I-”

“No. And you even got my friend in on it! Amazing, you’ve actually lowered my opinions on pirates, which I didn’t think possible. Hope you fucking drown.” You got off the chair, able to walk on your healed foot, and started taking off your apron. Fuck this job, fuck this island, fuck all these people. Etta reached for you, and your lip started to wobble. You didn’t want to confront her in front of these pirates. 

“Don’t, Etta,” you whispered. Her betrayal was the most painful part of it all. If you talked to her here, you’d be bawling your eyes out. You thought you’d had a true friend but she abandoned you for some pirate who’d be gone in a few days. You put your apron down on the table and walked out of the restaurant. No one stopped you. 

[homestuckreplay]

The Final Homestuck Update of 2009

(page 1082-1088; some general Dave and Rose thoughts)

I can’t believe Dave would pour some apple juice out for Cal. That’s his favorite drink, the king of juices, and not easy for Dave to come by. But Dave sucks unfortunately, and I was such a hater reading this update for the first time, because this absolute idiot is more concerned with his relationship with a torn up puppet who he only pretends to like than with his actual close friend who is in danger. Dave is okay in the small doses of pesterlogs and flashes, but I genuinely think part of the reason I’ve loved Act 3 so much up til now is because I haven’t had to deal with Dave’s bullshit, and I really hope this isn’t the start of an extended Dave section.

It’s good to get a glimpse of Rose on page 1088 – and Vodka Mutini, the tiny sleeping void – right at the end. She’s spent this entire comic so focused on getting people to play Sburb, helping John play Sburb, and finding ways to reconnect to John in order to play more Sburb. She’s basically always doing something and trying to solve a problem, and seems happiest when she’s busy, even if being busy involves actually making things worse (see: ripping out crucial parts of John’s house or dropping them into the abyss) and now suddenly she seems hopeless. There’s more she could do – it would be smart to create defined spaces for the cruxtruder, totem lathe and alchemiter, and mark them out for Dave, for example – but this feels like a moment where when she stops crisis response for even a second, the reality of the situation sets in and she can’t spring back into action.

The thing is, having seen Rose work really hard for hundreds of pages to at least try to help John, Dave on the surface looks really bad by comparison. And I’m trying to figure out how much of that is real – how much is Dave messing around with his sylladex, thinking about his possessions, and texting his friends more than Rose did – and how much is just their self-image. Rose definitely wants to seem like she’s smart, competent, level-headed, and capable of saving people from world ending threats, so she plays up those aspects of herself, and it’s easier to overlook a moment where she plays the violin for 40 seconds of the two minutes she has left (p.222) or reads her grimoire for no practical purpose (p.301-5) or considers passive-aggressive ways to get back at her mother (p.373-4), etc.

Conversely, Dave wants to seem like he’s cool, detached, ironically self-aware, and like he’s not overinvested in his friendships, so a scene like today’s where he’s fucking around with his sylladex reinforces this, and works like confirmation bias. It’s easy to skim over the fact that Dave just put himself in danger of physical pain and social ridicule from an authority figure, just to get these games for Rose, just on her word without evidence of her situation. Dave said ‘if you ever find yourself in the position where your life depends on me playing that piece of shit game, then ill play’ (p.333) and he didn’t say that ironically, he meant it when the time came. So it’s frustrating that he’s still talking about his bro’s ‘mysterious ways’ (p.1085) and that he wasted so much time gathering weapons that he didn’t end up using, but looking back, I don’t think Dave is actually handling this situation worse than Rose is. She was just more attuned to the specifics and urgency of the situation.

I think that all four kids have their surface image, and that Dave and Rose consciously construct theirs while John and Jade don’t realize they’re doing it. I think all four have a deeper layer to their personalities that is specifically intended by the author, although different readers might make different inferences about what that is. And I think that all four kids are really convincing with their surface image a lot of the time – they fool each other, they fool their guardians, and they fool the reader, because so much of Homestuck (including the narrative text) is written in their voices without much external commentary. I know I’ve fallen into the trap with all of them at times where I take them at their word and I’m sure if I was actually friends with them, I’d do it even more, so it’s a clever reflection of actual social relationships and the disconnects that actually exist between people. Especially when those people are young, traumatized, and have such different lives that it’s hard to fully comprehend each other’s.

And I can remind myself of this stuff all day but it does not change the base emotional response of: I love Rose and I don’t like Dave.

So overall, this is not my favorite way Homestuck could have ended 2009, but there’s always going to be disappointing updates and characters that I like less; we can’t get a page 1073 every day. And I know that some people love Dave and are thrilled to see him back. Even so, tabbing to the next page in Homestuck and getting Dave feels to me like biting into a delicious looking cake and getting mayonnaise instead of frosting, and holy shit, now I’m wondering if Dad did that to John as a prank once and that ties into his bad experience with cake. That’s totally an Egbert style prank.

> Dave: Make an April 14th’s Resolution to be an open and honest person.

[sevenpoyo]

school headcanons for because i only got 3 more weeks

margo’s is so long even tho she got like 2 minutes of screen time bc i love her so much and she’s my gf

Margo Kess, 1610Miles, 42Miles, Gwen Stacy, Pavitr Prabhakar

margo kess / spiderbyte

ain’t shorty on zoom in the movie?

my girl dont attend class, she once shut down the entire blocks power so she would have an excuse to not be in class

eats in class all class everyday, only shares with you

takes really good notes and never studies them

like???? ma’am??? share???

all her electives are programming related and she pretends to busy while playing centipede all day

sends you 50 links to stuff you might like while ur in math

she got papers that let her opt out of gym

no matter how much you beg ur gonna be alone in gym and she doesn’t feel bad about it

popular with no friends type

like everyday 50 ppl stop you both and say hi

she only knows like 5 of their names she can’t stand half of them niggas

empty ass backpack like she got one notebook and one binder

all a’s and b’s like bitch how

her memory is absolutely ass but she can remember every story you told her or stuff that happened when y’all hang out

don’t ask her what she did in her class

don’t ask her if her class also has a history test

she don’t know

she don’t care

but she do know that when you were 8 your cousin burned ur thigh while y’all were playing iron vs knife fight

(u were dumb as hell for picking knife everyone knows iron always wins)

i looked it up on her word everybody uses those virtual avatars

she’ll shit on your class choices so damn hard

she just likes making fun of your choices fr

like half of ur conversation go;

damn i’m tired

u was up doing stupid shit last night you don’t get to complain

stfu that’s why ur a bitmoji

that’s why ur granny beat ur ass for something your brother did when you were 9

i hate telling u shit

then stop telling me shit

(i have no clue how accurate this is to her character but i need to write about her i’m in love but damn it’s long)

1610 miles / spider-man 2 lmao

book bag full locker full but never has a pencil

writes notes assignments and homework in paint pen ink don’t ask this nigga for notes

(he gets nigga treatment but not my queen margo bc i got favorites)

he miss mad classes but somehow still solid attendance record???

somehow always present in the record he miss 40 days and get caught on like 6 of them

unless his mom make breakfast and lunch on her day off for him he eating the most random shit from the bodega closest to visions

like what do you mean you got a cosmic brownie and a cold chopped cheese from last night ? it’s literally 7 in the morning no i don’t want none

makes you hype him up every time he slap boxes people and he’s so ass at it

he be ashy with no lotion atleast 5 times every month it’s embarrassing

he calls visions his white people school to his parents and his friends

once he said it to gwen and they sat in literal complete silence for like 10 minutes

prolly took music theory because he thought it would be easy and switched out of that shit so fast

i’d be so mean to him for enjoying physics

like this nigga trying to make something of him self

lil einstein ass nigga

he understands color theory but can’t explain it

12 half full sketchbooks but at school he literally draw on computer paper he don’t let the sketch book leave his bag

i know he’s ass at watercolor, he always spills shit, the colors always end up brown

try’s to be interested in your class choices bc he wants to know stuff he can talk about with you

when you first meet he can’t take meaner jokes bc he thinks that you mean them

but one day he’s gets comfortable, and brutal

no one in your life is safe when he looses a video game

except your mom

rio taught him better than that

42 miles / the prowler

comes to school with no school related supplies in his bag unless you count art stuff

finds a pencil on his way to class

has a change of clothes, rat tail comb, 3 bottles of water, a camera, a flashlight, lotion and cocoa butter.

like bro ur going to Ap Art not a camping trip

once he pulled out a griddle and and pancake mix and y’all started making pancakes in class

forgets his metro pass every day and gets so pissed ab it

runs into people in the hallway bc he’s never paying attention

idk if he goes to visions but if he does he calls it his white people school with his full chest to anybody even if they’re white

he be leaving halfway through the day all the time like bro you miss algebra 2 every damn day

uncle arron always talking him out of school with some bullshit reason

bro’s had his tonsils out 8 times on the school’s records

He will get ur parents to put his uncle on ur pickup list and you will be out of there with him

he will YELL if someone step on his shoes no matter what the situation like the school could be on fire and he fighting in the burning building

also his uniform is so pristine

his pants stiff

that button down is bleached ironed pressed and allat

this mfer is an online shopping addict u just know he be on amazon in class

will offer you the weirdest food combos like no i don’t want to put tajin mangoes on my beef patty i’m sick of you nigga

not school related but he’s super good with kids (both miles fr) but he’s the #1 little cousin defender and apologists

he ride for them always one of ur little cousins could sucker punch u and he be like

‘they just want u to play with them’

he takes a preforming arts class for fun prolly

loves sports but doesn’t play one understands the stats well and would help if you played one

wakes up at the asscrack of dawn on weekends

SICK ASS COSTUME FOR HOLLOWEEN IK THIS NIGGA LOVE HOLLOWEEN

plans costumes for school spirit weeks but always checks to seen if he’s gonna be the only one wearing a costume for it

never eats lunch unless his mom makes it he be hungry all day and be complaining

his socks are never in uniform (yes some uniform schools have sock rules)

gwen stacy / spider woman / ghost spider

idk what to call her

she has every snack you could ever want in her lunch bag

hates her music theory teacher

she literally has the most pristine locker with a calendar and a mirror and all that shit will write down test for you and important dates for the both of you

goes to school plays and shits on the story, like she ain’t pay 5 dollars to be there

some of her teachers hate her

like ma’am ur beefing with a whole 16 year old rn

she hate english teachers but love creative writing teachers

she keeps all her books in her locker never brings them home never brings them to class

always comes through with an extra pad no matter what

she also always has hand sanitizer

in like 4 extracurricular after school things and complains so bad

ur starting to hate that shit to ur sick of hearing it like girl quit then

10/10 cameraman she has every fight and every drama in 10khd and she will share them if you ask

she chews her pens and nails

has her drumsticks out always teachers have banned her from taking them to their classes

can watch tv on her phone but look focused you think she’s paying attention but then you look over and she’s watching good luck charlie

pavitr prabhakar / spider-man india

always late for class never in trouble

always eating and sharing food and never in trouble

how is he blessed like this? it ain’t fair

eats from the school vending machines or begs other ppl to share

will always have and share the homework answers no matter what he’s an angel

his sock always have holes in them like sir please get that shit together

gym try hard ik goes insane in football/soccer

very encouraging for shit u don’t wanna do he believes in you

you him and Gayatri talk so much shit but are somehow all well liked

he tells you what teachers are dating (he can just tell)

he has toothpaste in his bag for some reason?? i can just feel this one

his aunt will let you come over after school she’s so sweet to you.

always got a job at school assemblies

he’s reading poems or shaking hand or leading in the school pledge or something

Pav’s is short because i have no fucking clue if school in India is different form america and Barbados

[lightasthesun]

Dialogue Prompts (Taylor's Version)

1♪ “You are the best thing that's ever been mine.”

2♪ “I will never leave you alone.”

3♪ “I'm captivated by you, like a fireworks show.”

4♪ “How's life? Tell me how's your family?”

5♪ “I'm sorry for that night.”

6♪ “Run away now.”

7♪ “Run as fast as you can.”

8♪ “They are the lucky ones.”

9♪ “Have we met?”

10♪ “Who do you love?”

11♪ “Remember this moment?”

12♪ “Remember this feeling.”

13♪ “Life makes love look hard.”

14♪ “I love you. I loved you from the very first day.”

15♪ “Meet me tonight.”

16♪ “You are not the exception.”

17♪ “I can't stop thinking about you and I.”

18♪ “I'm setting you free.”

19♪ “It's gonna be alright.”

20♪ “It's in the past.”

21♪ “Heaven can't help me now.”

22♪ “No one has to know what we do.”

23♪ “Are you insane?”

24♪ “It's been a long six months.”

25♪ “You're my best friend.”

26♪ “It might blow up in your pretty face.”

27♪ “Come here.”

28♪ “I said 'I love you', you say nothing back.”

29♪ “I knew it all along.”

30♪ “How'd we end up on the floor anyway?”

31♪ “She's laughing up at us from hell.”

32♪ “I don't remember.”

33♪ “The end is coming.”

34♪ “You should be doing more.”

35♪ “You have to trust more freely.”

35♪ “Love is a lie.”

36♪ “It's time now, let go.”

37♪ “This is it. I've had enough.”

38♪ “I swear I'm gonna change.”

39♪ “I still love you.”

40♪ “It's been you all along.”

41♪ “I need you.”

42♪ “Look at you, worrying so much about things you can't change.”

43♪ “I'm sorry, too.”

44♪ “Don't get attached.”

45♪ “Everybody knows that.”

46♪ “Why?!”

47♪ “Go out and have some fun.”

48♪ “Why did you let her go?”

49♪ “It's not just a phase I'm in.”

50♪ “Believe in one thing, I won't go away.”

51♪ “I'll wait for you.”

52♪ “Do you know how much I miss you.”

53♪ “All's well that ends well.”

54♪ “Fuck the Patriarchy.”

55♪ “It's supposed to be fun turning 21.”

56♪ “I keep waiting for you but you never come.”

57♪ “I don't know what to think.”

58♪ “You look beautiful tonight.”

59♪ “Forever and always.”

60♪ “I'm in love with you.”

61♪ “There's nothing you can say.”

62♪ “Too late.”

63♪ “Did you ever think of me?”

64♪ “We're still friends.”

65♪ “Take my hand.”

66♪ “I think he did it.”

67♪ “They all want to be you.”

68♪ “What's a lifetime of achievement if I pushed you to the edge and you were too polite to leave me?”

69♪ “Dancing is a dangerous game.”

70♪ “I survived.”

71♪ “What a sad sight.”

72♪ “Yes.”

73♪ “Who knows what could've been.”

74♪ “Are you sure?”

75♪ “This is me trying.”

76♪ “Fuck you forever.”

77♪ “Sir, I think he's bleeding out.”

78♪ “Doc, I think she's crashing out.”

79♪ “Get in, let's drive.”

80♪ “I'd die for you in secret.”

81♪ “Give me a reason.”

82♪ “Im fine.”

83♪ “I love you (ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?)”

84♪ “Where we gonna go?”

85♪ “I rent a place on Cornelia Street.”

86♪ “I don't know.”

87♪ “I'd die for you.”

88♪ “Damn, it's 7am.”

89♪ “Are you ready for it?”

90♪ “Don't thrown away a good thing.”

91♪ “You're gorgeous.”

92♪ “Go, go, go!”

93♪ “That's a lie.”

94♪ “Does he know?”

95♪ “Get your shit together.”

96♪ “Nothing is gonna change.”

97♪ “You made us proud.”

98♪ “Don't leave me here alone.”

99♪ “I know you don't.”

100♪ “We always walked a very thin line.”

[rogueshadeaux]

Chapter Forty-One - Love Me Normally

“Impossible choices,” Garrett hummed, still looking down at the tile. “A soldier faced with terrible orders, the only Conduit who could prevent genocide…” They looked up to meet my eyes, stare pointed as they said, “A parent, trying to cure their child.”

9.6 k Words | 40 min - 1 hr read time | TRIGGER WARNINGS: death, unreality, experimentation, child neglect/endangerment, mind...control? poisoning, torture, canon typical violence, erosion typical violence. Angst. Reveals :D

⚠ AUTHOR'S NOTE: the second half of the Garrett chapters and my excitement grows stronger, as now, I get to move on, finally, to what I imagined Erosion to always be—and that's thanks to Garrett and their amazing creator, @neverdewitt. Yet again I have to give credit where credit is due and thank him for the amazing character and the chance to let his OC be the one to pull the wool from Jean's eyes, and force her to stare the beast that is the past in its broken, bloody pupils. Thanks for letting me have Garrett, and again, sorry babes for having you wait this fucking long, love. I adore you!

Also....thank you @inhumanghostlight for the permissions. :) I love you as well!

“Dad!” I called out into the night, the sound bouncing back from the waters and ringing in my ears. No. This wasn’t him. This wasn’t him. I stood, rushing to the edge of the rooftop and trying to summon my water to help carry me down. Trying being the keyword.

But it never came.

And I couldn’t stop.

My feet skittered against the concrete of the rooftop, failing to find traction and instead making me slip, falling flat on my back and hitting my head against the hard floor. My legs flew past the edge and went further still, not giving me the grace of letting me get the stars out of my vision before the momentum dragged me off.

I shot out a hand and barely managed to grab the edge of the rooftop, slamming against the side as I held on for dear life. I choked, the hit knocking the wind out of me—but I couldn’t let go. I wasn’t enthused at the idea of plummeting 5 stories without my powers.

Hissing, I blinked back the tears from my pain, swinging my body to get my other hand to the ledge and try to pull myself up. But just as my hand came up, a black converse settled in the place I planned to grapple.

“Shit—“ I gasped; with nowhere to grab and no way to stop my momentum, I teetered hard, fingers on the hand that was holding me up beginning to slip. I wasn’t sure what Garrett was putting me through right now, but I knew I could feel. I knew pain was possible. And that drop was going to hurt a lot.

My fingers kept sliding, and I couldn’t find the advantage to get my other hand back up no matter how hard I tried. In fact, all thrashing around did was make me lose my grip further. I glanced up at whoever blocked me from grabbing the ledge with a scowl, blood freezing when I saw they were staring right back at me—and that wasn’t Garrett. Red pleated skirt, almost like the school uniform Linus Pauling used to make us wear before getting rid of the requirement. Ablazer, black hair pulled back into an immaculate bun and…a mask. A pure white, geometric mask of a rabbit.

I grunted, trying to keep a hold of the ledge as she just stared down at me. “Who—” I cut off, the weight of my entire body now on three fingers. “Who are you?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, the words came with another breeze, their airy tone familiar. “Mother’s favorite child,” Garrett’s voice whispered in the back of my mind.

I didn’t have time to mull over the words—I felt the knuckles of my last three fingers sliding, and I choked out “Help me,” to the girl, who just stayed glaring down at me. “Help me!”

She didn’t. She watched the breeze take me, not even flinching when I screamed as I fell.

There’s this strange dilation that comes with freefalling; it felt like time both sped up and slowed down all at once. Everything became so concentrated until the blood pounding in my head roared in my ears like a seastorm, and all I could hear were the war drums of my own heart rate.

I should have known it was too loud to just be some internal beat.

The fall was far shorter than it should have been, and I wasn’t at all where I should have been; I didn’t meet the dock nor sidewalk, but concrete, slamming so hard into the epoxy coating on top that I half-expected it to crack under me. I writhed in pain as my spine lit up, taking a moment to blink through the tears and will oxygen back into my lungs as I registered that I was, once again, surrounded by concrete.

And that steady beeping became prolonged and harsh as it hit a crescendo, holding its last note.

I propped myself up on my elbows, looking around; this…I think it was Curdun? To be fair, I didn’t know enough about Curdun to safely say so—but the dark concrete on all four walls, the ceiling and floor suggested as much. But this wasn’t like that cell from before, not at all. Everything was too pristine.

I shifted to my stomach, trying to push myself up off the ground as the steady note stopped, some sort of doctor fiddling with a machine in the room. He was staring down at a body strapped to a metal table with disappointment on his face, like he was more inconvenienced that this person just died on his table instead of the horrifying fact that they just died on his table. I shakily got to my feet in time to see the doctor pull EKG pads off of the Conduit’s chest, his pale skin adorned with red blood oozing from every orifice in his face and dripping back into his stark white hair. He was riddled with holes and gaps, tubing being pulled from him one by one as the doctor scowled down at the patient.

The test subject.

I heard of testing done in Curdun Cay long before I knew Dad was Delsin. Everyone did. It was one of those blemishes the history teachers would breeze over in class and you’d have to learn after seeing a survivor’s interview on television or some post on social media. I learned about it from a Wikipedia rabbit hole when writing a report on Delsin Rowe’s tag art and importance of civilian empowerment. Before then, I hadn’t known more than them being locked up. Even then, it was something disconnected from reality, or it at least felt like it.

There was something different in seeing the doctor rip a catheter out of this man’s veins like it was nothing, meant nothing. Like deboning a chicken.

“Shame.” A voice behind me said, making me spin in place. Augustine stood  mere inches away in her classic Director uniform, staring through me at the corpse in disappointment. “I had hoped it would work this time.”

Being in front of her, so close to her, felt unnerving; every fiber in my being was telling me to attack first or suffer the consequences, and I would have had water already surrounding my hands if that was even a viable option here in…whatever this mental charade was. But she didn’t acknowledge how I bristled in place, how I backed up until I leaned against the same table the corpse was on—she acted like I wasn’t there. I guess, in some way, I wasn’t. If this was a memory, I was a spectre—like I was Ebenezer Scrooge and this was my fucked up A Christmas Carol.

It didn’t keep me from scooting sideways and away from her glare, though.

As I did, I realized Augustine wasn’t alone; just off to her right and three steps behind her, Garrett stood, just a year or two older than the last memory with them in it. Their hair was longer and the ends were colored in pink that stank of permanent marker, the closest they could get to a salon. They only glanced at the corpse before screwing their eyes shut and looking away, turning their head my way as their free hands clenched into fists at their sides.

 The one closest to me, though, reminded me of Mei; short black hair cropped just before it could touch the shoulder, high cheekbones that made her monolid eyes defined and deep. She looked down at the body of the young man with her head cocked to the side, face curious. Her hands were free as well and constantly moving, playing with her fingers as she stared on.

“Initial signs were promising,” the doctor said, looking at Augustine. She was nearly 6 inches taller than him and seemed even more so, with the way he withered under her critical gaze as he delivered the news. “The device was implanted successfully, and initially was suppressing the subject's powers within expected parameters—however, prolonged exposure to the inhibitor was deleterious to the Conduit’s condition. The body began to experience threatened homeostasis, which made its HPA axis respond. Lack of power expression makes the Conduit gene continue trying to develop rayacitin, which in turn is prohibited by the device. The extreme stress caused hemorrhaging and cardiac arrest in this subject, which—with our direction to not intervene to see the device’s effects on the Conduit’s physiology…”

The doctor motioned uselessly at the dead body, like that was enough to excuse killing someone in the name of science.

Augustine looked displeased. “That’s unfortunate. I trust I don’t have to stress to you how much is riding on the results of these trials, correct?” She asked the doctor, eyebrow raising on an otherwise cold face.

The doctor nodded. “Yes, Director, I’m aware—but I need you to grasp the gravity of the situation: attempting to ‘switch off’ the Conduit’s powers is like playing with the delicate balance of their entire body. It's not just about controlling abilities; there's a real risk of their entire body breaking down. No Conduit can survive long-term with this device even if we adjust the model’s RFI abilities.”

“She knew the risks then. Before.” Garrett hummed in their youthful body, standing still behind Augustine with their hands still clenched into fists as their eyes raised to meet mine. “There was no real way to disable a Conduit’s abilities without pain.”

“Without results, I'll lose everything I've built here.” Augustine hissed. “There’s too much pressure from above to find a long-term solution to Conduits. I lose funding and the government takes over, all because you can't do what I need you to.”

Solution to Conduits?

“I know,” The doctor promised. “But Dr. Wolfe’s preliminary notes are rudimentary at best. We’re having to build more on his assumption that a Conduit’s power can be controlled via manipulation to the corpus callosum, but this is a science we simply don’t have access to. There’s no possible way to exploit the channel without having severe effects on the subject.”

Augustine took a step forward. “I didn’t ask about impossibility. I am not scrubbing DUP files and handing you Conduits just for you to tell me you cannot commit to the challenge, Bennet. This implant is the only reason we haven’t heard calls from the defense branch to defund Curdun Cay. Without results, we’ll lose everything we have here and these Conduits will be left in the hands of the military.”

“She was trying to figure out a way to get rid of Conduits?” I asked, looking over at Garrett. RFI abilities in an implant? It sounded like she was trying to cure them of their abilities, or whatever she considered curing.

They sighed. “She was trying to find a way to make Conduits safe enough for other humans’ comfort. To find them a freedom the government wasn’t willing to hand over loosely. But,” Garrett drew off, stepping out of place in formation behind Augustine and turning to another table on the opposite wall. They walked across the floor and hopped up to sit on the metal, crossing their ankles. “Mother had another motivation.”

The room got brighter, the sudden shine making my head throb yet again, and I cringed, screwing my eyes shut. Was that all outside stimulus making my head hurt, or was that Garrett playing with my brain matter?

Guess it really didn’t matter either way.

What did matter is by the time the pain subsided and I could open my eyes without cringing, the entire room had changed save for Garrett; the girl with black hair was gone, the guy with white hair no longer laid out on the other table and the doctor, Bennet, no longer hanging over him. Garrett was a little bigger now, hair just past their shoulders and tucked behind their ears as they stared blankly at the floor, face a controlled, blank canvas. There was a new doctor at the end of the table, conversing with a much-less stoic Augustine.

“—trace aggregated forms of alpha-synuclein. It’s practically unheard of in someone of Jorrer’s age, but with the family’s history of degenerative brain diseases, there’s cause for concern—”

“If it’s not common in their age, then what is causing the issue?” Augustine said tersely, the last few words punctuated at each syllable. Her hand was on Garrett’s knee, shoulders back and tense, and I swear for a moment I caught a flash of Dad in the same position just an hour ago. A parent trying hard to keep it together as they heard something devastating regarding their child’s health.

The doctor swallowed thickly, nervously stumbling, “We need to consider the possibility that Jorrer’s abilities are having an adverse effect on their cognitive function. We’ve yet to figure out how they drain for their consciousness powers. There’s a chance it’s…taking from their own synapses.”

I couldn’t believe it. “The implant was…was to help you?”

“Impossible choices,” Garrett hummed, still looking down at the tile. “A soldier faced with terrible orders, the only Conduit who could prevent genocide…”

They looked up to meet my eyes, stare pointed as they said, “A parent, trying to cure their child.”

I did not like the comparison there. 

Garrett let me stew in the symmetry between our stories, continuing, “At some point, like all well-timed coincidences, the lines between the two blurred. The truth is, Jeanie—in a world like this, there are no heroes and villains. There never will be. Just impossible choices, and their effects.”

Garrett broke eye contact to instead look at Augustine, a strange sort of forlorn bleeding into their irises. “Her attempt to muzzle me was out of mercy as much as it was fear.” They said, and something in the corner of my eye moved. I spun around as screaming rang in the room, turning to see Augustine’s face go slack as Garrett glared at her, their gazes meeting. Blood began to trickle out of her nose as Garrett moves like they’re trying to sit up, one half of their head shaven and spliced, still bloody from the staples holding the skin together.

“Turn it on, turn the damned thing on and cover their eyes!” The doctor, Bennet, screamed, ripping off his facemask.

“Although, I think in my case, one fed into the other,” Garrett’s voice rang in my head as Augustine’s snapped back, a nurse using a face mask as an impromptu blindfold on Garrett. Augustine fell with the movement, dazed, collapsing on the ground before beginning to convulse as a seizure took hold of her. “The implant was insurance as well as treatment…but you heard the doctor. The hypothetical Wolfe explored in the past wasn’t a long-term solution.”

There was a scuffle behind me and I turned, instinctively raising my hands and waiting for the water that never came. Not that it mattered—the people there didn’t see me. “I don’t understand,” Augustine growled. Garrett was sitting slouched on the table, power cuffs on—and a black blindfold over their eyes. The metal of their cuffs chimed slightly with every small kick of their leg as they sat. “What do you mean the implant is failing?”

Bennet scowled, showing Augustine the screen of his small laptop. “It seems their powers go beyond mental. The device is showing degradation akin to someone who’s had an implant for decades. Attachment to the Substantia Nigra is nearly severed. With this sort of damage, it explains why the minuscule access they had to their powers has been augmented.”

“Augmented is an understatement,” Augustine hissed, “They managed to get three guards to kill each other.”

“The first time my mother tried to restrain me didn’t last,” Garrett uttered, head still hung. “Halfway through the second year, I’d managed to fix what she tried to break. I had nearly freed myself. Though…” Garrett trailed off, inhaling deep, “Not without paying a price.”

“The implant’s degradation may also be causing their worsening condition,” Bennet added. “Disruption of dopaminergic modulation is known to cause an increase in symptoms like theirs—the tremors, the seizures. Director, I’m advising immediate removal. We need to perform a thorough examination to figure out when exactly it stopped suppressing their powers, and why.”

Augustine looked displeased—and yet a hand reached out to run through Garrett’s hair. “Their disease worsens the more they use their power,” Augustine pointed out, sounding tense. Worried.

Bennet rolled his eyes as Augustine looked at Garrett, but tried to appear sympathetic when she glanced back up. “I’m aware.” He said. “But they’ll get worse if it stays in.”

“Impossible choices.” Garrett hummed yet again. Augustine’s hand left their hair and hovered by their blindfold for a moment before falling to her side. “Her attempt at mercy did nothing but make me worse. In some strange way, I like to imagine she carried guilt over her actions. That perhaps this was her sign that it wasn’t to be. That meddling with nature like this would cause more harm than good.”

Garrett’s head rose and turned towards me, seemingly able to see me through the blindfold. “She didn’t listen. Especially when the universe gave her the perfect opportunity.”

There was a loud and terrible grinding noise and fissures began to spread in the wall to my left, rocks clattering to the ground as the crevice extended, chipping away at the walls of Curdun Cay to reveal a hidden gem; the sight of Mount Rainier and the Seattle skyline outside of the clerestory window was just on the other side of a glass wall meeting room, the sort of ones that were in fancy office buildings where passerby could peek in as people gestured to the projector's images without disturbing the meeting. The concrete wall continued to collapse until there was a space large enough for me to climb through, and I glanced back to see if Garrett wanted me to go on when I realized I was alone in the room now.

Well. There really was nowhere else to go.

I moved over the concrete on the floor and up to the hole, ducking and stepping through the proverbial looking glass to whatever waited for me on the other side. The standstill of the office seemed to switch on from its frozen point; rain began to patter against the window to the meeting room, blurring the blue bruised sky of the settling nightfall. 

I stepped into the office and the motion sensor lights immediately flickered on, the bright buzzing from the fluorescent lighting searing my eyes. That’s all it needed to force the rest of the scene to change as everything in my mind pulled together, the pulsing of my throbbing head the worst one yet. God, it felt like something in there was going to burst. I audibly groaned, pressing my hands into my temples to try and counteract the migraine, pushing against the swell in my mind as I doubled over. My nose began to run, and nothing I did to sniff it back worked. It was only after the worst of the pain began to ebb away and I wiped it that I realized it was blood.

“We’re running out of time,” Garrett’s voice whispered in the back of my mind, making me shiver.

“—here in Seattle will ensure the DUP will be funded for the foreseeable future.” Augustine’s voice said. I rose from my place, looking around the room; the walls on either side, the same ones I could have sworn were empty seconds ago, were now covered in notes, print-outs and stickies and printer paper covered in sharpie all mapped out like a conspiracy theorists’ daydream, tied together with that same red string. Pictures, all things I knew. Some of things I had seen before; DUP memorandums, surveillance photos of people who definitely did not know the photographer was there. There was one that was more pink than anything else, Mom forming from the neon streaks to kick a drug dealer in the chest. The image shifted, warped around a bit with that shimmering magic of Garrett’s power until it was Mom in DUP pants and a white shirt, brown hair tied back as she positioned the same way over Garrett to try and strike them down. “This will allow me to expand our facilities abroad. We have made excellent headway on establishing a permanent science facility in Australia.” Augustine continued, her voice coming from somewhere behind me.

I tried to turn my head and found that…I couldn’t. I willed it to, tried to tense my muscles—but nothing happened. A bubble of panic rose in my chest as I heard the footfalls of Augustine’s steps behind me and yet my body wouldn’t fucking move. Everything about this suddenly made me feel like I was trapped in a nightmare, unable to do a thing as the monster approached and I was trapped in my body.

“The work we’ve already done there using Dr. Sebastian Wolfe’s notes on the Conduit are, well, awe inspiring. Even to me.” Augustine hummed into one hand as the other settled on my shoulder. Electricity shot up my spine that my body refused to heed, the flinch inside not translating to my stature as Augustine sighed, moving to stand beside me. She lowered her other hand from her mouth, pressing a small red button on the device in it before looking at the board. Half of me wanted to run, dash away from this memory or vision or whatever the hell it was Garrett was doing…but there was another half that was overpowering that one that felt content. Calmed by Augustine’s touch.

“With Delsin Rowe taken care of, and this newfound discovery, we have everything we need for restoring the DUP to its full power.” Augustine hummed.

Unassured. That’s how I felt, or some part of me did, at least. My mouth opened without my consent, the words forced through my throat not sounding like mine at all. “You’re sure he’s gone?”

That wasn’t Garrett’s voice, either. Whose head was I in?

“He fell with the rest of the island in Elliot Bay, and hasn’t been seen since.” Augustine said reassuringly. “He’s no longer going to be a thorn in our side.”

My head lowered, the feeling registering two seconds after the movement was already happening for me, like my brain was rushing to catch up to whatever my body was doing. Those hands crossed at my abdomen weren’t mine. This body wasn’t mine.

But it was hard to repress everything I felt when I was in it. Every sensation, every thought. I was slowly losing me the longer I marinated in this person’s mind, and it became we with a stipulation that I was in the passenger’s seat, nothing more than a witness.

“Dr. Mathis has been able to confirm the status of the Conduit.” Augustine continued. Her hand came up to play with the hair of whatever body I was trapped in, tucking a loose strand behind my ear. “The ability to negate another’s powers’ effects. Merely being around a Conduit is enough to weaken their influence.”

My head raised as Augustine’s hand fell, a conscious effort going into correcting the posture of the body I was trapped in. “What are his attacks like?”

Augustine inhaled deeply. “Seems there are none. No physical ones, at least. His power extends to his being, and what he can touch. Nothing more.”

That doesn’t mean much of anything, I found myself thinking. Unsure whose thought it was as we melted into one. We didn’t voice that, though. “That’s a strong ability…” we drew off instead, leaving the end free floating and loose. Allowing Augustine to fill in the space, choose the narrative—as she always did.

She agreed, at least. “Which is why I’m giving approval for the detainee to be sent to our research facility in Purcell. If we can find a way to harness that ability? The DUP would never fall. We’d be a necessity for every government in the world to control their Conduit populations.”

Control. How we hated that word. “But the Conduit has no attacks—”

“Yet.” Augustine stressed. Her voice was sure enough to force us to look at her; she looked tired, a slice in her eyebrow healing steadily as we met her eyes. “I authorized compatibility testing to find a viable source to channel his power.”

Giving the Conduit attacks. Two powers. Not many were lucky enough to be given such a generous gift. “And if they find one?” We asked, looking up at Augustine. “What then?”

“Then the world knows nothing about this Conduit, and only sees results.” Augustine’s tone was set. Serious. Unwavering. “With no knowledge of how, they’ll be forced to accept our why. Why they need us, why the DUP cannot be unfunded.”

“You plan on using the ability on other Conduits.”

We weren’t asking. We were sure.

Augustine sighed. “It’s a necessity—”

Liar.

“A human would allow a wild animal into its home if it were defanged—”

Traitor.

“And it would be a stepping stone to ensure our kind’s safety.”

Our silence. Our extinction. They’d never be satisfied.

Our face stayed stoic as the angry thoughts rampaged through our head, screaming about how this was less fighting back and more complacency. Giving up our rights, our beings, to placate people who meant nothing. And eventually, those thoughts spilled over, and we spoke out of turn. “We’ve seen how dangerous suppressing a Conduit’s powers is. How can you be sure it wouldn’t lead to more instances like Jorrer?”

Augustine immediately bristled. “Do not mention them,” she hissed through gritted teeth. She never liked when anyone brought up her failures, and this was the brightest splashing of red in her ledger by far because of how deep the shortcomings ran.

We hung our head, staring down at our black and white shoes. Properly acted remorseful. “I’m sorry,” our lips uttered, holding the apology in the air like an offering. Waiting for her to take it.

Augustine’s exhale was shaky. “If this Conduit is able to give us a way to deactivate others without adverse side effects, then Garrett will be free from their burdens. So many others will be, too. This is vital to regaining control of the narrative. Giving the government proof that we have such capability now will buy us time.”

It would do more than that. It would lay down expectancies. Conduits would have to be disconnected from their abilities to gain a semblance of rights. To exist beyond four walls made of double-paned and bulletproof glass. There would be nothing beyond the announcement but the choice of imprisonment or inactivity, forced to mold into the ideal person, human, in order to earn the right to be alive. A right snuffed out. A gift thrown away.

“If we can find a physical element to match the ability,” Augustine continued, taking our seething silence as a cue to add to the conversation, “Garrett’s implant may hold merit. The aura of this Conduit is enough to mitigate abilities. Perhaps storing a piece of him in every Conduit would be enough to weaken their abilities.”

Every Conduit.

And we wouldn’t be spared.

Every second that passed without a response forced more tension into the room, against the dewy glass and the pinboard until something else, something louder, sliced through it: sirens. APC sirens that echoed loudly through the silence of curfewed Seattle, dozens of them. Augustine’s head snapped towards the foggy window as the siren sang its song, drawing her away from the conversation.

She wasn’t even three steps away before new footfalls echoed; the heavy stomps of boots. That familiar sound that would be followed by cuffs and commands and constraints. “Director,” The voice greeted. Augustine spun around to look at the DUP Soldier. “Rowe’s been spotted. He’s making his way through the north island and was last seen in Paramount.”

“What?” Augustine hissed. We turned to look at her, and caught the end of the glare she threw around the room before facing the soldier fully. “It’s been hours since he was last seen. That’s impossible.”

“We think he’s following Daughtry to the Marina,” the soldier continued.

Augustine inhaled deeply, clenching her fists. “Alright. Thank you,” she eventually growled, anything but thankful.

The soldier nodded and left, Augustine moving to the meeting table and leaning her palms against its flat surface, hanging her head. Her shoulders sagged, then tensed, and then she straightened, turning slowly to look at us. “I want you to track Rowe. See where he goes, what he does.”

“Do you want me to engage with him?” We asked, head tilting slightly.

“No.” Augustine interrupted before the sentence was fully out of our mouth. “Rowe is still a danger, and I don’t want to put you in his crosshairs.” She fixed the buttons on her jacket, trying to force her hands to still before looking back up at us, face softening.

Taking a step forward, her hand left her jacket to settle on our shoulder, squeezing it gently. A rush of discomfort blossomed from the touch as our mind ran a million miles a minute. “I need you to stay safe,” she reassured us. “We both know Rowe’s capabilities, but with his fury, he’ll also be a danger. After what happened in Elliott Bay, he’ll be on the warpath for revenge.”

She released us and stepped away towards the door, and we watched her with narrowing eyes. “Wh–where are you going?” We asked.

Augustine stopped in the doorframe, gripping it. “To prepare. He’s going to want a confrontation. I’m going to give it to him.”

That managed to calm the storm in our mind, everything sputtering to a stop. “What?” We balked. “You’re going to give him the chance to defeat you?”

Something flashed behind Augustine’s stare, and her jaw set. “You assume I’m going to lose to him,” She fumed, turning around to face us fully. “Rowe is a danger, but with this new Conduit? He could be an asset. We both understand what hangs in the balance if he’s allowed to continue.”

“You’ve seen what he can do,” We interjected, taking a step forward. Trying to be insistent towards that piece of her we hoped was still there, if it ever was more than an act. “If he overpowers you—”

“He’s strong in the abilities he’s gained,” Augustine agreed. “He’s not strong in mine.”

She must be joking. “You’re going to let him take your power?”

“You said yourself he’s incompetent as a Conduit with a new ability.” She stressed. “You’ve watched him fight for the most basic abilities. He’s unnatural in his source, and it’s that weakness that we need to exploit. If we can corner him, and use this other Conduit’s ability to control him further, we’d accomplish our mission. We need to create the perfect chance to capture him, he’s too dangerous to keep free.”

The way her shoulders squared, her face steeled, told us all we needed to know; she wasn’t going to change her mind. She was going to structure the ideal confrontation with Rowe, and try to take control of the situation once more. She could sense our hesitation, and added, “Follow him to me. Let me tire him with a fight, let him take my power, and be there as my lieutenant. Help me ensure we will accomplish this.”

We searched her face for a crack, a waver in the idea she’d already constructed in her mind—but she was too far gone. All we could do is nod and watch her rush off without farewells, knowing in our heart it would be the last time we saw her.

We had come to that crossroad the moment Rowe made himself known—and with this new risk, the threat of permanent impairment to placate the masses that would prefer our death, there was too much to lose. We could not idly wait for freedom. We could not win by painting ourselves the villain and inspiring distance. A road continued here would lead to our demise.

We couldn’t follow this path. Not anymore.

Opening an extension. Surpassing the log in requirements to access the DUP’s internal site. Typing in case file codes perfectly and setting their PDFs to download. Waiting until things were transferred to pull out the USB and pocket it, zipping the secrets against our hip like a loaded revolver to use against whatever forces chased for us after Augustine’s inevitable demise.

And just as she did, we turned and left the meeting room, leaving unspoken goodbyes hidden among the conspiracies. 

Every step down the hall echoed back softly on our well-trained light heels, the electricity to the building short-circuiting and plunging the hall into darkness. Thunder rumbled outside, the lightning that followed it illuminating the grout between the tile until it mimicked her concrete, the pores staring back like dozens of judgmental eyes as we abandoned her.

But she was looking for compromise while we needed freedom. And we would only find that by force.

Lightning struck again, the flash illuminating differences in our surroundings; the flooring was now vinyl, lined with a dark baseboard that snaked along with our steps, the hems of our blue scrubs almost black in the darkness. The walls looked different, less bright, and the whispers in the rumbling thunder seemed to grow until they had audible syllables. The sirens of the APC sang in beats until their siren song sank into staccato, the bass rising into even beats that trailed behind every one of our steps.

Lightning never strikes the same place again. A myth proven by centuries of steeples turned to ash and pyres made from the remains of home. It strikes, relentlessly, leaving markings like blooming scars in its wake. But do the bolts truly strike the same spot twice, if those very atoms are irrevocably changed by their first meeting?

Perhaps it was their first interaction with us all those years ago that caused our disillusionment. It felt fitting to come say goodbye.

The last flash of lightning stayed, the brightness temporarily blinding us as it stayed in the hall, shocking the rest of our surroundings to life as we walked down the melancholic halls. Past the nurses station, past the pictures up of patients and their nurses, praises of their care plastered against the hospital walls. The sterile smell of disinfectant and latex-free gloves made our skin itch, and the beeping of monitors was enough to make us want to rip out our cochlea as we briskly walked down the hall to their room. 

The sign on the door got a precursory glance, a warning we were all too used to—don’t peer into Medusa’s gaze or you’ll meet a fate worse than being turned to stone. We glanced back to ensure our lonesome before opening the door and slipping through it, ensuring it latched silently behind us. 

We didn’t raise our eyes—we learned our lesson last time, when the Dream Eater forced us to confront them on a stage they had power in. Our eyes stayed pointed down, hands rising into our vision as the edges of our palms vibrated, like the epidermis itself was trying to separate from the rest of our skeleton. And in a way, it did; our pale skin got paler, shreddings of it shaking off in large layers and fluttering around our wrists like birds dancing in murmuration before coming to conjoin where we directed, folding against each other into a masterpiece. Sharp corners and pristine edges that bent into cheekbones and tall ears, the mask a welcome sight after years of the persona hiding in its burrow. 

But there was no need to hide anymore, now that our plan was finally coming to fruition. 

We fixed the mask to our face before lifting our head to see Dream Eater resting in their bed, face blanked and empty as they stared off towards the window. Was this truly what they amounted to, in the end of it all? A shadow of everything they could have been, something barely even remarkable now? 

A shame. Baku would have made a formidable partner, if fate had written our stories differently. 

But they were a victim to Purotekutā and the lengths she would go to sell a thousand souls for her own goals, molding others into the cobblestone beneath her feet in order to take another step towards what she wanted. Forcing everyone but herself to sacrifice. 

We moved closer, footsteps calling back in echo despite how lightly we tread. They made no move to flinch, to even look in our direction, but ever so slightly their brow twitched, drawing closer as we paused next to their bedside. A part of them, possibly deep within their core, knew of our presence. 

“Hello, Baku,” We greeted. They’d grown to look more like her in their age—lines of stress cracking across their face like it had in Purotekutā’s hardened façade, their hair showed proof of relation now that they couldn’t dye it in protest of being the apple that did not fall far from the tree. We found our place in the chair at their bedside. “It’s been a long time.” 

We paused for a moment, searching Baku’s face for some kind of recognition, proof that they were still there, in some way. We didn’t receive it from their direct recognition, but by their brow twitching, the slight acknowledgement that they were processing something. Did they do the same studious glare she did, when they were still cognitive? Did their brow come together just enough to make an Eiffel Tower-shaped wrinkle reach up from the bottom of their forehead to the heavens? 

“I always wondered what became of you, in the end. For a while, I had watched before giving you the privacy you deserved,” We admitted to them, watching as their hand flexed and unflexed, like they were testing that they still had control over the appendage. We had seen them in those fleeting moments of mollified life between the point where her reign ended and the disease’s reign began, where the remains of everything before forced Garrett to grapple with the person they’d become, and the memories of who they were. Truthfully, there was no moment of peace for any of us, even long after the dust settled. “We all had things we were healing from—scars that were still rough and raw.”

We looked around the hospital room, adding, “Though, in your case, I suppose they’re still gaping.”

Our eyes scanned the room corner to corner, taking in the additions to the sterile white that made it feel liveable. Blush pinks and lush greens coming together to drown out the memories this smell brought them. Us. Anyone who had grabbed Purotekutā’s interest. 

Purotekutā. “I envied you, you know.” We hummed soft, like we were sharing a secret that could damn us. “Long ago, when I was still an ignorant child. First it was simply because of your relation. Though, later, I learned how little any of that meant to her—she wasn’t looking for a progeny, she was looking for a companion, she was looking for a spear. For something that would help her achieve her goals.” Our tone became bitter and dark as we thought about every bit of falsity that made us hope that somewhere, we would find love. That helped us play right into Augustine’s hands as she manipulated that yearn for family. 

We inhaled deeply, shaking our head. “You realized that far sooner than I did, and in my ignorance, I thought you were a fool. She called for you first, compared my actions to you. I truly thought you were throwing away your one chance to stand beside our mother and make her proud.” 

Baku’s hand clenched into a fist at that, the white knuckles far paler than we’d ever seen before. They had become a shell of themself because of what Purotekutā did to them. A shame, truly. 

Our hand snaked up from our lap, hovering over theirs for just a moment before taking it, trying to ignore how papery their skin felt against ours. “In a way, I have you to thank for showing me the truth,” we said sincerely, hoping they understood how deeply our thanks ran at their interference. Without the seed of doubt they had planted in us, we would have never blossomed into what we were now. “It was only because of you that I learned to take off those rose-colored glasses and see Purotekutā for who she really was—a coward. Bowing to the whims of the humans to placate them enough to allow us to live.” 

We hesitated, the flash of a strong nose and harsh gaze entered our mind. Our favorite plaything. “Well, you…and Fukushū.” 

Fukushū…our doubt was sewn deep by Baku’s warning, but it was Fukushū’s intervention that made that seed grow into more. Helped us realize life could not continue the way it had those seven years, if we ever hoped for more than morsels of understanding from those that weren’t like us. 

We moved, laid another hand over Baku’s until we were cupping their hand gently, like perhaps one with mercy would a baby bird. “I realized, a long time ago, that Conduits will always somehow be at fault for a life they didn’t choose. We will never know peace, will always have to pay for the circumstances we were a product of so long as they have a say. The humans, those people that see us as pests to be exterminated.

“I had hoped that these past few years would show promise.” We said mournfully, the sadness in our voice tinged with anger as we thought of how volatile the world was against Conduits still, all these years later. “That the world would’ve let go of theater hatred and allowed us to live as we are. I hoped I was wrong in my fears and that I was just carrying the remains of Purotekutā’s anger with me, what she raised me with. But I’ve come to see that Purotekutā was right. Nothing’s going to change if left to the humans. Nothing that will actually benefit Conduits—and it’s time to stop relying on hopes. Dreams. Fallacies.” 

Baku moved, shifted like they wanted to react, to say something that they couldn’t, being trapped in themselves as they were. A pang of pity shot through us and we gently patted their hand before releasing them, averting our sad gaze from their face and out of the window on the other side of the room—they would hate to have that pity concentrated on them, they always did. We instead moved to look at the sunset-illuminated skyline of this unfamiliar city from the windows, finding envy in the dozens of people below that simply meandered about their daily life like it was the easiest thing to do. Like there were not pressing issues at hand that needed their constant attention. 

But the likelihood was that they didn’t care. That no one did. “We can’t keep waiting for the world to decide when we’re allowed to live,” we said, our voice low as we shared our sentiments with a sibling who couldn’t respond, gripping the windowsill in an effort to contain our rage. “We cannot keep letting them decide how we’re allowed to live. Badges and borders and branding the entirety of our kind for a sin they didn’t commit, forcing them to carry the blame for a single man.”

Our gaze fell from the busy streets to the windowsill, to the various succulents and knickknacks that cluttered the space in an effort to cover up the sterile simplicity of being victim to fates worse than death. We reached out, gingerly taking the well-loved and very worn toy fox from its place, holding it gently in our hands. “I don’t think any of us will escape this world blameless,” we hummed, thumb running over the orb of the fox’s black eye to clear the fur from its sight. Baku had come to Curdun with this same toy, a token from a life far easier than what they lived now, inherited in some way by the parents that had raised them. “A life is made of wrongs we inherit, and the humans seem intent on bestowing these wrongs to us the moment we show we’re not like them. Maybe Purotekutā was right about one thing—the world needs someone to blame.”

Purotekutā had made herself infamous to the world in an effort to be the shield they bashed their swords against in anger. The point of contention to everyone, a dam to keep from either side spilling over too high for her own liking. But that stronghold came with a price—the cost of our people’s rights, their freedom. Baku was proof of everything she was willing to give up for that aforementioned peace. “I’ve spent the last eighteen years hoping things would change,” we told Baku, carefully replacing the fox in the corner of the windowsill, angling it so its back was basking in the warm sun as we scowled. Eighteen years. Eighteen spent hoping for a fate better than what Purotekutā saw for us, if Conduits were left without someone to intervene. Eighteen years spent preparing, holding our breath with our forefinger on a trigger, waiting to see if we needed to pull it. 

And unfortunately, between the world’s strife and our own, there was no longer a chance to wait. “But time has run out, and so has my patience.” The world had waited too long, and so had we—we had no choice but to move forward now, to put our plans into motion. Years of careful planning and deliberate secrets all amounted to the loaded gun now in our hands, and it was time to pull the trigger. “I’ll become that person for the world to blame, but I can’t stand by and watch our people suffer.” 

We turned to face them fully—they hadn’t shifted much in the time we were away from their bedside, but there was effort to how they were positioned now, like some part of them was yearning to connect in a way that was impossible for them now. We crossed to their bedside once more, grabbing both their hands in ours, surprised by the death grip Baku held us in. Despite it all, they were still a fighter, even as weakened and fragile as they were now. We gave them a squeeze back in the same manner, promise in the grip as two victims, two siblings, connected in a final goodbye. “Once the dominoes begin to fall, it will be too late to stop,” we told them. “In some way, the world will not be going back to how it was. I refuse to allow it to. It’s time we take what we deserve, and show the world it cannot keep pushing us aside. We are the product of eons of evolution, and cannot be ignored any longer.” 

Something on our side buzzed, and we released one of Baku’s hands to reach into the pocket of the scrub set we’d put on to sneak in here undetected, pulling out our phone. Right on time; the clock was closely approaching five in the afternoon on the other side of the country, and progress on our plan was due. 

‘Now we wait’ the message said, in full lowercase. An image followed soon after, a picture of the back of a gutted out van with a picture of her. 

Of me. 

The one way we were sure it would draw him out, so the rest of our plan could begin. 

Holy fuck, that’s me. Back in Portland! When those Russians tried kidnapping me!

Fukushū would stop at nothing to protect those he cared for, we learned as much before. 

That’s me.

“I’m not sure if I believe in any sort of god,” we—they—said, the voice sounding far away now. “But I hope, if there is one, that they can forgive me for what I must do.”

That’s me, that’s me, that’s me. 

This wasn’t me. 

Something in the illusion I was trapped in became harsh, my vision dilating and constricting as the edges became fuzzy like I was no longer recalling  a memory, but a dream. “We’re out of time,” a voice realized in the back of my head, and I wasn’t sure if it was Garrett’s or mine or whoever’s body I was in. The hand holding the phone lowered the device down on the bed, its movement stuttered with the most confusing motion trail that made one hand look like thirty. It hesitated for a moment before raising to place itself close enough to our—their, my, whoever’s—eyes to pull down the mask and set it aside before reaching out to Ba–Garrett, gently cusping their chin. 

And the person lifted Garrett’s head to meet their eyes. 

I wasn’t prepared for the situation to burn as everything rippled like a mirage, or the gross slimy feeling after as the perspective became wholly my own and I was freed from whatever mind I was passenger to. I wasn’t ready for that pain in the back of my head that followed every change Garrett implemented to throb like my mind was going to explode, or for me to suddenly be the one with my back pinned to a bed, Garrett cupping my face. Something about the entire room shook, edges of the room glistening with that magic Garrett could wield as they dematerialized, turning into nothing but burning white and absolute void. The Dream Eater’s kingdom was collapsing. 

They were the Garrett from before, when I first started this rabbit’s hole of a dreamscape—that green silky shirt, hair bright and pink and pulled back. “There’s no time,” Garrett said. They perched over me like a vulture, or maybe the Grim Reaper, eyes wide and wild and worried as they realized they couldn’t tell me more. 

Or that, they shouldn’t have been able to. But it seemed they weren’t going to let that stop them. 

They unceremoniously yanked my face closer, the entire room feeling like it was shaking now as it fell apart. Succulents that sat on the windowsill fell until they burst into glittering nothingness, overtaken by that blinding white as it all inched closer to the bed we were in. Their eyes bore into mine, that diamond blue glint in them multiplying until it felt like it was enveloping the part of my brain that didn’t burn, pushing in on it until everything began to flash. 

Glimpses. Visions. It reminded me a lot of the flashes of everything I could do that hit when Dad accidentally sent the full power of the Core Relay through me, only far less organized and with none of my questions answered. The ruins of a bodega encased in ice, the New Marais air uncharacteristically chill for spring; A burn that felt like being cooked alive, and the soothing balm that spread from between the shoulderblades, staring up at a being far more godlike than anything we were taught. The back of a cell and an extended hand, whispered promises of greatness and righting wrongs. 

A lifetime of flashes from the moment the Beast activated this person played in my mind; the coldness of Curdun, the training. Ruthlessly being pushed to the brink of everything she could do in order to train her to be that weapon Augustine needed. How she stalked Dad, from the moment he entered Seattle. Sleeping in hidden alcoves on the rooftops, trying to help those trapped by the DUP and threatened with being sent to Curdun. A hospital bedside, Aunt Sia bandaged and bruised; a dock just a quarter mile away, hearing his blood-curdling scream as he lost his grip on his brother. A corpse in DUP detainee orange, eyelids gently closed by her hand with a final goodbye and a promise made. That moment in the Sky 6 News tower where a different path was chosen, and Augustine was left to fight alone. 

That’s where the story should have ended. 

But it didn’t. 

My mind burned, felt like it was being stretched and compressed and iced and kindled as everything Garrett wanted to show me was shoved into my frontal cortex at once. A personal thank you to Dad, left behind in a studio apartment that reeked of rotting flesh; the outcrops of Salmon Bay’s shoreline, a house that slowly became a home and an open window that stank of paint as the nursery was built. 

A late and anxious night that bled into an early morning and the return to Seattle; a hospital room, hospital masks and pandemic preventatives, a perfectly obscured face that kept Dad and Mom none the wiser as she slipped into labor and delivery. A vial just like the one I nearly dropped at Garrett’s bedside and another of blood, one traded for the other. A large machine that pulsed with the power of a thousand reactors, and the all-enveloping feeling of a hand too small to fit in her own. The warehouse we rendezvous with kingpins, offering something better than drugs. Revenge. A man seeking her out for the same purpose. Glimpses of the sins she witnessed and the efforts it took to get to this point, years of planning that led to this precipice, all to the image of me in the back of a van. 

She did this. The rabbit face-masked one, she did this. Everything! My kidnapping, Mom’s death, her illness. 

That white around the room grew as I was suddenly shot back into my own consciousness, Garrett’s eyes meeting mine. I’m sure I looked feral in their grip, but their stare was steeled as they slowly nodded, like they were finally satisfied with me knowing everything I did. That white overtook their silhouette and my vision burned like I was staring at the sun, chest hollowing out in a gasping pain as it felt like I was kicked in the sternum, pushed out of wherever Garrett had me.

“Jean! Can you hear me?”

Unfortunately, I could.

Everything was too loud, too bright. My head throbbed so hard I was sure other people could see its pulsing and the first thing I did when I came to was gag before having to hold back a nice stream of bile. Someone yanked me back by my shoulders and I fell on my ass. I felt disgusting, lightheaded and somehow full of lead. I tried to speak, to tell someone, anyone, of what I just saw, but I couldn’t speak. Something between my brain and my mouth failed, like I was here and yet, once again, a passenger in my own mind. My vision was tinged pink and could barely focus on anything beyond it, and when I tried to wipe away, I saw my hands came back crimson. “God, that’s a lot of blood,” Dad muttered, his own hands going to wipe my eyes. He moved in front of me and crouched low, trying to force eye contact and holding me hard by the shoulders. “Jean, are you okay?”

“I covered their eyes!” Aunt Sia called from somewhere off to the side.

“What the hell just happened?” Brent demanded behind me.

Tell them what you saw, their voice still rang in the back of my mind. I flinched, feeling like they were permanently impressed in the centerfold of my brain and I would never be rid of their touch—especially as I moved despite how leaded I felt, heeding their command. 

I let the directions guide me, thankful I didn’t have to put nearly as much thought into the movements as I usually would have as I laid my hand against the ground, water sluggishly crawling down my arm as I pressed my blood-stained palm to the white floor. The two mixed, droplets taking on the red until it lightened, the rinse draining away the blood and using it as ink. I could barely recall how to use my powers, and for a moment, the slick blood stayed a sad puddle before it started to shift, separating into lines.

The color drained in places, strengthened in others, building and bending into sharp lines and deep crevices until it took the form of that rabbit mask and I felt Dad’s grip on me tighten. “Jean,” he said, voice tense, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

My head lifted, lolling slightly on my neck as I met Dad’s eyes. Something in me, the thing tugging deep on the puppet strings that were my muscles and made me move without input plastered a weak smile on my face, the blood from my eyes and nose dribbling into my gums. “Celia, Delsin. Don’t you wonder where she went after it all? Are you so dense in your age you don’t remember her? Find her. She has the key you seek, the person behind the curtain. Trust your friends, trust your children. There’s no time left to dawdle. We face the end.” 

The words ripped through my throat without my permission, something in my mind squeezing as they were spoken, like my ability to speak was choked out of both my mouth and my cerebrum. The laugh that followed was sardonic and crude, the sort a villain gives up before they keeled over. 

Which, I promptly did, as soon as the imprint of Garrett released my head, the sudden lack of a death grip on my mind making it spin. Lights got 80 times brighter, everything sorta shifted like it was a mirage atop water, and the floor rushed up to meet me as I blacked out.

Want more from Doot? Go read more about how he tortures Garrett in All's Well That Ends:

Follow the tumultuous life of Garrett Jorrer, a Curdun Cay enforcer, experiment victim...and child of Brooke Augustine

Told through memories of what was and wishes of what could have been, read through the out-of-order retelling of Garrett's experiences and how life led to this moment...and how it ends. Now with every Erosion chapter added!

I'd also like to take a moment to point you towards something a good friend of mine, @infamoussparks, made. You may remember her as the creator of Dr. Hutch from two chapters ago: 

Dissipate

Dying is a heavy burden to carry but Fetch is doing her best to balance her fate while spending time with her new family. Acceptance is hard in the dead of night but it's also the best time to shine as bright as neon.

A tender moment from Fetch Walker as she grapples with the fate of her illness, and the small children she will never get to see grow old. It genuinely had me sobbing when I first read it. It's heart wrenchingly evil.

I love it.

[imaginationofzara]

Things I’ve said at work or have been said to me told in discord . Send x for a randomized sentence starter.

1. “This is why your father is in jail!”

2. “I will burn this whole building down.”

3. “NO I can’t be responsible for another human I can barely take care of my damn self”

4. “Because I’m the dad of the group and ____ is the mother”

5. “ and ___ is the mom of the group.”

6. “And if I did murder her no one would know but you”

7. “So far I have refrained from violence.”

8. “So good luck snitching yall are accomplices”

9. “Right like damn a good shot and a gorgeous man”

10. “I can’t believe I have to go to work when I left only 12 hours ago.”

11. “ the only person who checks up on me is my manager and it’s because I’m a reliable employee.”

12. “I swear to god I will end it all today.”

13. “Sadly I’ve lost all will to live.”

14. “Sadly I can’t find a fuck to give about it so they can do their own shots today.”

15. “I thought it would be fun to shove it in my nose.”

16. “Do I look like someone who gives a fuck?”

17. “Date was good until he drop the fact he’s impotent idk why he did.”

18. “Clearly she/he was dropped on their heads as a child.”

19. “I’ve heard of being dropped as a child but were you slammed against a wall?!”

20. “I’m living the dream..it’s actually a fucking nightmare.”

21. “I don’t like it but I’ll be brave about it.”

22. “ I can’t have chlamydia I’m up to date with all my vaccines.”

23. “I don’t like this.”

24. “ Sometime I rub my two brain cells together and get a good thought.”

25. “Other times I say choose violence.”

26. “Is hardworking in the room with us?”

27. “ fuck that jobless man child.”

28. “You know very well is this usual behavior for me.”

29. “ sometimes I pick fights with my mom because I’m bored..it doesn’t work out well.”

30. “Humans are horrible I regret not being born a stray alley cat.”

31. “ it’s not that hard just stop waving the fucking needle in my face.”

32. “Jesus fucking Christ ..”

33. “I wanna go home.”

34. “I hate it here.”

35. “Stop talking stupid to me.”

36. “I will walk into traffic right now if you give me any more responsibilities.”

37. “I’m so glad I took my birth control today.”

38. “Listen I’ve been taking birth control for over 10years so there should be no reason for me to act like your mother.”

39. “The gas station attendant called me broke.”

40. “What part of I don’t speak Spanish do you not understand?”

[writing-yarn-goblin]

I’m here to post shit and have fun!

In honor of Halloween! Here’s some stories to have fun with!

Anime: One Piece

Character: Crocodile

Monster: Gargoyle

Warnings: Crocodile’s rizz

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Alright…he said ‘Baratie, 11 PM.”

You wanted to scream. This man you’ve been dating, your so called boyfriend, had told you that he wanted to go with you to Baratie.

Here you were- in a shimmering black dress with a slit that went up your thigh, black high heels and a small clutch- waiting at your assigned booth for this man to appear.

For about 40-50 minutes now.

You had received a text from him saying that it was over and confirmed the fact that he was cheating thanks to a photo he posted with his tongue down another woman’s throat. You felt sad but then decided that your evening will not be spoiled thanks to that useless prick and his cheating tendencies. You texted him he had 24 hours to leave your apartment and that you’d give him consequences if he didn’t.

Thankfully you’ve known the owner of this establishment and after talking to him and explaining the situation (you were good friends with him and his partner), he slid a few drinks on the house for the unfortunate evening.

As the club changed its scenery, you changed as well.

Your hair turned to life as the little snakes that adorned it yawned and changed from laying down to curling up on top of your head. Almost like a top bun. You aided them by putting a soft thin silk scrunchy on your hair, sorta like a pillow for the little ones.

As a Gorgon- you needed to be careful.

Thankfully technology has gone a long way and now you could wear specially made eye contacts for a monster of your particularity.

Going out with Gorgons was a little hard with the whole ‘I’ll-turn-you-to-stone-with-just-a-glance’ detail. History managed to make sure that the Gorgon line went past its supposedly imminent demise after Medusa was slain.

Making it its own subspecies of society welcomed gorgon women. Not all of them had the same power but very few, like you, could do all of what Medusa did and more.

“Excuse me, but is this seat taken?”

You whipped your head to meet with this person but you felt your throat go dry.

A man that almost doubled you in height, broad chest and shoulders. A man so incredibly handsome that seemed to be the epitome of elegance, poise and a connoisseur of beauty.

Height, build, stare and tone of voice had you entranced and, honestly, it was intimidating.

“Might as well sit down, my date is late anyway.”

The soft chuckle that came from his throat was caught by your ears, earning a pink tinge on your ears.

“A woman as exquisite looking as yourself shouldn’t be sitting by her lonesome. Especially one that got stood up by an imbecile.”

He had you swooning and it’s only been 5 minutes.

“I hope you find me to be good company Mister…-“

“Crocodile. Call me Crocodile.”

‘More like big Daddy.’ You thought, taking the last sip of wine and about to order more but you were stopped.

“Waiter-“ he managed to stop a young employee before he zoomed past them. “I’ll have an Old Fashion and bring the lovely lady anything she desires.”

‘Holy shit, that was hot.’ You thought.

“Miss?”

“Oh-erhm- Whiskey. House sour mix, please.”

Once the waiter left, you were received by a a raised brow from Crocodile.

“You like spirits?”

“They kill the ghosts that haunt me- I’d say they are easily my favorite.”

The words kept being exchanged and the evening had progressed into a lovely one.

Until it was time to leave.

You felt a little empty on the inside when it was time to leave…at 4 in the morning.

“Well, Miss (L/N), I believe that this concluded our evening. I hope you found everything to your liking.”

“More than that. I had fun regardless the initial 45 minutes of waiting for a failed relationship. He was a waste of time and space, to be honest. But at least I had the pleasure of dining with someone of your caliber, Mr. Crocodile.” You said, whispering a secret that he so gingerly lapped up.

“Indeed. If you’d like, we can arrange another outing. One where you wouldn’t have to hide those beautiful eyes of yours.”

You sighed. Now at the door of your car and unlocking the vehicle in order to get in.

“If I let you see my eyes, you’d be petrified.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. You’d find that we might have something in common.”

This poked at your brain.

“How so?” You asked, earning another low gravel chuckle from him.

“You turn men into stone. I am stone.”

You tilted your head and gasped when you saw it. When he took out his coat, wing could be seen clipped right in his shoulders. They looked Bat like but at the same time- thick to carry his weight. His slanted eyes shifted the pupils into slits and a bit of silver lined against the pupil. To differentiate where his eye and a let started. The skin of his hand was now heavy and soft, like polished stone.

“You’re a Gargoyle.” You mumbled, cheeks warm at the interesting development. You felt him push a little card against your hands and felt like you were a pile of goo on the inside.

“Here’s my card. Feel free to call or drop in. I hope to hear back from you, Miss (Y/N).“

With that you saw how his wings opened and flew off to his lair.

You had waited a few days to call him and set up a date.

To which he replied-

“I’ll come and pick you up at 10 PM. And Miss (L/N)? No contacts. I want to marvel in your raw beauty.”

[idkwhatever580]

Agatha All Along Commentary

⚠️WARNING⚠️ AGATHA ALL ALONG 1x6 SPOILERS AHEAD

you’ve been warned

Im late again guys 😣 alright. Here goes nothing. I’m seriously considering taking my anxiety meds before these episodes because atp that might help.

Started watching at 3:00 pm

I stg I stg I stg I stg if this turns out bad I’m gonna throw up. And that says a lot considering I have emetophobia

Ooh fancy he’s Jewish

I’m not familiar with the Jewish religion but seems pretty cool.

Okay so we have established that this is Billy Kaplan which idk how y’all dug so deep to figure it out but I guess it was common knowledge and I do not have common knowledge so it adds up

Ooh now there’s a party funnn lol

I wish I had parents that were proud of me

Lmaooooo “you’re both disgusting” is so fucking real

4:25

ARIANA WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???

She’s kinda hot guys. I have daddy issues but I’m a lesbian lmaoooo

5:14

WTFFFF I CANT DO THIS SHIT I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BUT SHES TOTALLY LYING TO HIM IN THIS

5:42

wtf does the tower reversed mean bitch

6:14

Hearing her say baby is so fucking hot I’m gonna nut everywhere

Oh lord guys I seriously have problems… but don’t say you weren’t thinking it too 😏

6:51

WTF IS THAT THING A PROTECTION SPELL OR WHAT?!?!

DID SHE PLACE THE SIGIL?!?!

Omg if she placed the sigil on him that would be insane

7:46

If y’all out there with the theories about Billy maximoff’s soul taking over Billy kaplan’s body im kms because that’s so valid

——id like to let y’all know that I know nothing about the marvel comics and I do not intend on learning or digging that deep kk? I also don’t know what Wiccan is but I guess it’s Billy maximoff? Not looking for someone to explain it tho lol——

IM SCARED J DONT WANNA SEE MY BABY

NO WANDA NO WANDA I DIDNT NEED TO HEAR HER VOICE

8:34

Holy shit.

8:39

Watching it disappear is so sad. Like I know she’s hurting and saving the rest of them

9:00

OH MY GOD THE PARENTS STAYED ALIVE I THOUGHT YALL SAID THEY ALL DIED OR LIKE TWO DEATHS

9:33

NO FUCKING WAY THIS SHIT IS ACTUALLY TRUE

Y’all playing too hard

9:52

No fucking way. I’m actually so done right now. I’m so fucking done I need to scream at someone and it needs to be the fucking producer

10:15

That must be so fucking scary to go to “sleep” as Billy Maximoff and wake up in someone else’s body. Like in Disney shows when they switch and shit they have a moment where they look in the mirror and scream but this is def more realistic

Also I thought someone said there were two deaths. I don’t see no dead people up in this bitch

10:55

wtf is this?? inside out?

11:06

Noooohohohoooooo I forgot that Billy M can mind read and shit

12:33

That dog knows

Why is it always the dog that knows?

13:44

Having to call her mom must have sucked balls

15:22

Damn he already trying to fit the part bro. Moving on too damn fast

Him and his mom with the lying bro ✋🙄

Stop I sound like Agatha 😭

16:02

SHE DID PLACE THE SIGIL ON HIM WTFFFF

16:26

Okay I see you little emo gay kid having more piercings than me and having kissed more people than me and I’m older than you 🙄

17:26

Damn that’s crazy. He actually is telling this dude his shit

18:40

Damn that’s so fucking crazy his smile is creeping me out bro

Also I totally knew little Billy M was meant to be a little gay baby

19:24

Damnit all of these hoes have connection with him. Of some kind

19:57

You found a guy on Reddit. And you’re meeting him? That sounds like you’re getting killed.

OMG WHO IS IT TELL ME WHO IT IS

ITS RALPH NO ITS RALPH POOR RANDALL SORRY RANDALL ITS JUST WE KNOW YOU AS RALPH

21:06

Damn he went kinda crazy from being with Agatha all that time huh? That means the only one that can handle her is rioooooo

21:42

Don’t take my wife’s name in vain hoe

lol I’m kidding

I also apparently have multiple wives

Lmaoooo please ask about Agatha harkness

24:06

YOU FUCKING MURDERED SPARKY I WILL NEVER EVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS I DONT CARE IF SHE MADE YOU DO THAT SHIT I HATE YOU

24:19

Omg I can’t do this shit

Does this mean that Tommy is also in someone’s body?

25:27

I seriously do wanna know what kind of crazy that lady eats for breakfast. And I hope it’s me 😏

26:24

Yeaaaahhhh this song eats me up.

27:20

HOHOHOHHHHH THAT PICTURE IS THE IMAGE OF A FA- a gay woman. A gay witchy woman…. 👀

27:36

OH YEAH THEY BROUGHT MY GIRL DOLLY INTO IT

DOLLY PARTON FOR PRESIDENT 2024

Ahem… excuse my political views ✋😭

28:20

Omg omg omg he’s going on the road to find Tommy I’m gonna cryyyyy

29:43

Oh he’s so emo with his eyeliner and his black heart boyfriend and his belt chain and his witchy witchyness

…okay maybe im jealous

29:55

Ugh mommy. They’re both so hot. I know we only see Agatha in this part but I’ll nut to the thought of Aubrey Plaza

30:06

You’re seriously using a fucking house lamp you idiot ✋😭

30:29

You tell me to stop I’ll do it mommy

OH LAWD I HAVE ISSUES

I have to shit bro 😭

31:07

Hooligan is so fucking funny 😭

31:33

Guys I’m nutting everywhere from her sitting like that she’s soooo gayyyyyy

The producer really said “gay” and Kathryn Hahn said “yes”

32:16

I think if I was in that situation as teen, I’d say I want to. I want to poke that damn bear and see if she’ll throw me on the desk and- oh. Right right. Not the point ✋😭😏

I ALSO JUST REALIZED THAT SHE IS WEARING A SHIRT THAT IS RALPHS RANDALLS? Idk anymore bro

32:59

Wait… this is so fucking funny bro 😭😭😭

33:45

OMG SHES LIKE IN THE INTERROGATION TABLE AND ITS ACTUALLY HER HOUSE BRO

I NEVER MADE THAT CONNECTION 😭😭😭

34:21

HOT HOOOTTTTT SHES SO HOT RIPPING THAT TAPE IS SO HOT

34:28

THATS SO FUCKING FUNNY BRO

34:46

Hold on these side swipe things are going too fast I’m so lost. 😭 I hate having a horrible memory that makes me not be able to remember every single detail when we’re going back to something from a different pov

35:10

STFU SHE COULDNT HEAR EITHER TIME AND BOTH TIMES HE SAID SOMETHING DIFFERENT I WONDER WHAT HE SAID ON THE ROAD WITH THE OTHER WITCHES

35:19

YEEESSSSS IM SK GLAD WERE BACK TO THE ROAD

35:28

Yes! Pull yourself out of that mystery goop!!!

36:11

FUCK YOU BITCH FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU DONT BREAK THE SIGIL PIECE FUCK YOU

37:53

Wait. I am so gullible I like her being nice bro ✋😭

38:00

COVERED IN MYSTERIOUS ROAD GOOP OR NOT THAT POSE IS FUCKIGN HOT

38:09

I can’t tell if she’s crying because she’s happy the SIGIL is broken and she’s right or if she’s crying because she actually liked the kid

38:33

FUCK SHES BEING EVIL AGAIN I NEED A GOOD AGATHA AND I KNOW IM NOT GETTING THAT BUT A GIRL CAN DREAM

38:45

I’ll kill someone for you Agatha

39:05

Wait when she’s like don’t feel guilty about your talent I feel like she’s trying to be evil but it’s kind of endearing. Like. Shes so strong about it which means so many witches have felt guilty about their talents before and she doesn’t want that to hinder him. Even if she is evil that’s pretty sweet.

39:53

OH FUCK YOU BITCH KYS KYS HAHA THATS WHY YOU CANT USE YOUR POWERS BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO BE GOOD GOOD NOT DECENT GOOD

40:43

Stfu Agatha. Don’t mess with our bitch.

Robo papa? BAHAHAHAHAHAAA

she knowsssss

41:34

BAHAHAHHAAHAAAAA

42:02

“Got it” not her being serious for once ✋😭

42:25

DONT I KNOW IT BITCH YOU DIDNT HAVE TO TELL ME IM WATXHING YOU LITTLE MAXIMOFF BITCH

Post watching notes:

I seriously needed some Agathario shit and I didn’t get that and I’m mad. IM SO MAD THAT THE INTIMACY COORDINATOR WAS FOR TEO LITTLE BOYS I NEEDED MY MIDDLE AGE WOMEN TO MAKE TF OUT THEY ARE TEASING ME 😖😖😖

[radiance1]

I cANNOT believe this thought has escaped me for so long.

Okay so, you know my phoenix Vlad au I created, where he's the Duke of the Black Flame and by extension, one of or THE Duke of the Ghost Zone? (Honestly haven't decided yet heha)

Yea, ok so.

I don't know how it escaped me for so long, but y'know how Phoenixes are immortal right? By how they get reborn anew from ashes, yes?

(Idea territory btw)

So, I'm just gonna say that Vlad experiences that, because unlike Danny, he didn't stop aging at the ripe age of (really can be anything, but for the sake of this specific idea I'mma go with with) 40. He's envious of this, because he didn't like the brittleness and fragility of the human body when it's reaching its last legs.

Not even his ghost form was safe from the effects of aging, which baffled him, truly, it did. Probably had to do with his status as a halfa, which he disliked but what could he do about it, really.

So when he was finally on his last legs age wise, he practically welcome full death with open arms, ready to fully die and not be impeded by his human body.

No longer would his bones be break so easily! No longer would he need to use a cane as a walking aid in human form! No longer would his back scream at him from the slightest of inconveniences!

He would miss the ability to spawn candy from out of nowhere, however. That was nice.

So when he died, he was fully at peace with it and was ready to embrace full ghostly hood.

Then fate just decided to do a "FUCK YOU" with all caps to him in particular, because when he reopened his eyes, he was not met with the being a full ghost, no.

He was met with short limbs, a high-pitched voice, and the appearance of a 5-year-old.

You have got to be kidding.

He did NOT outlive Jack Fenton (out of spite, really) and Maddie Fenton just to have to relive his child years all over again.

He was a Duke for Observants sake, he couldn't be seen like this. The reputation he worked so hard to build, the respect he clawed into his talons and the awe he stole would go down the drain if this got out!

So he discreetly made his way over to the Master of Time and demanded he age him up to a respectable degree!

.

Perhaps he should reword that.

He politely requested the Master of Time to age him up back to adulthood, it didn't even have to be him in his forties! He would take even a goddamn 20 for Ancients sake!

Clockwork said no.

Breath Vlad. You cannot burn away the literal manifestation of time itself. You cannot burn away the literal manifestation of time itself. You cannot burn away the literal manifestation of time itself.

Then he noticed Clockwork's cheeky grin.

.

The more logical, sensible side of himself told him that no, do not try and fight the literal Master of Time, he would lose, and he still needs something from him.

But the more irrational, noticeably more feral part of his brain demanded that time burn for its insolence.

And, well.

The irrational side won out.

So of course, of course as soon as he acts undignified.

One Danny Fenton has to appear at the exact moment.

This was not a good day for him.

And of course, being the worst brat on the planet and the entire Ghost Zone, he had to make fun of him. Now, normally he would not react as strongly as he did, because of logical thinking and how he was just better than the brat, but was he feeling as logical then?

No, not really.

For the last time, he did not throw a goddamn tantrum, he's above that.

So of course, what two braincells he currently had access to came up with a solution to this current problem he was facing. The solution?

The Observants.

Appearances be damned he was not going to be taking jokes related to his current age any day of the week. So he flew over to them, dragging both the Master of Time and the Ghost King (yes, shocker I know coming from me.)- both of which, much to his charging seemed to be humoring him like one did a child- and demanded they do something to fix this.

And their solution was that he, now as a young child, would have to be taken care of due his current situation.

Vlad bluescreened.

Then calmly rebooted, and when he finally did so. Well, he very not so subtly decided to burn the Observants to the ground.

Unfortunately, Danny- who was practically his total opposite in nature due to his ice- put a quick stop to his attempts to burn those floating eyeballs to the ground. Then they had the absolute gall to act as if what he did wasn't at all reasonable and proceeded to use it in evidence for why he needs a guardian of all things.

He didn't need such a thing, he was perfectly capable of making logical, rational decisions as he was before his... 'rebirth'. Unfortunately, his statement apparently wasn't enough for them, because they very obviously, and very physically showed their doubt for such a thing.

And then, and then they did the absolute worst, most utterly reckless decision they could have possibly made in his decision.

The Ghost King (who was very smoothly made king after the previous one stepped down to live on a farm) was made to be his 'guardian'.

He's doomed.

The man wasn't even able to take proper care of himself on a good day, what do you mean he's going to be the one to (forcibly) take care of him!?

Ok, breath Vlad. He is the smartest (now that Maddie's dead), most logical and persuasive person he knows, surely, surely, he could find a way to get himself out of this predicament like any adult would.

Some small, tiny part of his brain, one not run by logical and getting increasingly bigger, whispered that he could always just. Run away.

The thought was getting more and more tempting the longer this went on with him not getting away, so you know what?

He did just that.

And now he's wandering the streets of some random world where goddamn heroes roamed about, living the life of an orphan and wondering how the hell he managed to fuck himself over so bad.

...He blames fate. It's always fates fault.

Also, what the hell is a meta and what does his wings have anything to do with being one???

[georgies-ftts]

my thoughts and opinions on this weeks episode as someone who didn’t have time to watch last weeks episode, has never watched live american telly before and has discovered a new found hatred for your adverts. Also i swear a lot.

let’s begin

(spoilers obviously don’t be a knob)

1. he cannae be captain he’s only got two stripes on his epilette why are we focusing so much on this man

2. Bobby eyeing up that gun I like that (the acting)

3. this guy is giving me uncanny valley and i don’t like it

4. hehe dongle

5. i mean fair enough… in and out just like he said

6. Hen love of my life where the hell have you been loca

7. “and you won’t be anymore either” that’s actually dead funny to me

8. husbands that saw together survive trauma together <3

9. “everyone survived” i know foreshadowing when i see it

10. there’s a lot of drunk driver hatred (as deserved) somethings gonna occurr

11. oh he’s dead… lol karma fuckhead

12. Hen, i love you but why can noone on telly give me actual realistic CPR… break them ribs girl

13. christ these american adverts are weird

14. let me tell you advertising prescription medicine isn’t actually a normal thing to do

15. I don’t know boss man am no a dr but that’s an awful lot of blood are you sure you should still be breathing????

16. “Are you happy” “Yeah, Yeah I am” i have a feeling that’s all about to change buddy

17. just me or can anyone else not see a fucking thing that’s going on this episode why’s everyone in the dark for?

18. moving on from that i love the lighting in the office scene… chefs kiss

19. EXCUSE ME SHE WAS DOING HER JOB, NEXT YOU’LL SUSPEND HER FOR CODLING THE DRUNK DRIVER AND GIVING HIM TEA AND CHEEK KISSES PISS OFFFFF

20. Why do American comm’s systems always fail whenever you actually need them

21. They were axed to pieces. I will let you off -_- this time…

22. “I didn’t shoot him” honestly… same i hope you get yer pay out boss

23. Athena please for the love of god pop a paracetamol or a codeine and chill the fuck out

24. cause it has never been hard enough for them you just had to add a bastard bomb

25. ITS BEEN 5 MINUTES WHY MORE ADVERTS

26. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ADVERTISING TO YOUR CITIZENS

27. The Rookie ad i love it carry on

28. If he wasn’t under the influence then he was just being a cunt and hen had every right to react as such thankyou very much

29. Oh my fuck what is happening - don’t tear them apart i’ll start crying

30. Bitch you’re taking on water stop being a pussy and help

31. “Don’t test me.” Queen, you rag his arse

32. “port stabilisers are gone” surely you should be tilting like a bitch right now or did i miss a frame

33. MORE FUCKING ADVERTS????

34. why’s that lizard from london?

35. WHY ARE YOU ADVERTISING DEMENTIA MEDICATION THAT IS LITERALLY ADVERTISED ALSO AS A DEATH PILL WHAT DO YOU MEAN COMA AND DEATH THATS NOT HELPING

36. “i didn’t save him either” he quite literally refused your help despite being detained

37. didn’t get that SS Menow reference… try the Mayflower next time

38. “Saving the ship” “course she is” GIVE THEM ONE MOMENT OF PEACE PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU

39. okay good they are tilting like a bitch i will shut my mouth

40. NO STOP TILTING LIKE A BITCH I DONT CARE ABOUT REALISM I TAKE IT BACK NO

41. HOW MANY MORE ADVERTS DO YOU NEED

42. i don’t know but all your meds just seem to be doing the opposite of.. you know… keeping you alive.

43. woah therapy flash back get me one of those

44. you forgot to mention imminent death in your therapy session Mr Sir

45. “We did what we had to do” YOU’RE ALLOWED TO LIVE TOO.

46. “I couldn’t save my first family and I can’t save you either” and what if that was my last straw Robert Nash

47. ABC you can tone down the writing now i’m fucking sobbing

48. FUCK YOU AUSTRALIAN MAN I WAS CRYING MY EYES OUT

49. glad the us also have those Haribo ads

50. first time in my almost 20 years of life where i’ve seen an ADVERT for ANTIDEPRESSANTS that also actively make you MORE DEPRESSED

51. Hen i knew you were slaying you’ve never not slayed <3

52. no need for it was there mr boss man? no didn’t think so

53. You have no jurisdiction past the Gulf of Mexico??? ummmm??? distressed cruise ship full of your citizens???? idk??? do something????

54. oh. welp. no surviving that one, have fun with poseidon my loves

55. i don’t know about you but once i’ve been capsized like that in anything bigger than a kayak im giving up…