#i think it should reveal what the person you reblogged it from voted

[adipostsstuff]

The 'Es is Mikoto's younger sister' crack-but-not-really theory post

@74n5n don't say I don't do things for you.

This is mainly a joke theory I thought of randomly but when I thought about it more there was actually a lot of evidence for it so I'm going to compile a list of it here.

They have similar appearances, doen to their ahoges. I reblogged a post earlier about this one.

Es is a similar age to what Mikoto claims his sister to be (early high school age)

Mikoto calls his younger sister brilliant. I don't know about you but I consider memorising large sections of law, psychology and philosophy to be pretty brilliant. They canonically "have a thirst for knowledge" and enjoy learning about new things and may possibly be the most learned person here despite having thr least amount of lived experience.

Es refers to themself as 'uchi' in his second voice drama, which a less formal and more childish pronoun rather than 'boku' like they usually do, which may indicate dropping their guard in front of him and becoming more comfortable around him. This is the only time they refer to themselves as that. (Credits to @/somokoto for pointing this out.) (Side note: it is somewhat amusing to me that the characters Es seems to be closest to are the ones voted guilty trial 1.)

The rest of this is mainly behavioural similarities which isn't actually evidence and more so parallels but I'm going to list them anyways.

5. Both are prone to overworking themselves.

6. Both are a lot stronger than they appear to be. Mikoto is "a normal man with average build" yet he is the 3rd strongest prisoner out of the lot. Es and Kotoko both point out that their physique is not very strong yet they fucking knocked Kazui off of his chair. Sure, he was taken by surprise, and they were quite panicked, but Kazui is heavy and Es is tiny. They should not have the muscle to do that from their appearance alone but they do. They could probably vault half of the prisoners across the room and they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

7. Onto the last point, both (well, John more so than Mikoto, but he is just a different aspect of him) have violent instincts, which is something they share with many others and is likely the result of forgotten trauma.

8. Both have identity issues and dissociate.

9. Also I believe in the "Es committed a murder in the past" theory so that in this context is very funny. Siblings who kill and then forget about it entirely separately.

Like, I do not believe thus will actually happen because I'm not sure where to fit that in narratively and it seems like a pretty big reveal to just gloss over, and also you would think Mikoto would recognise his own younger sister (unless he's been away from home for that long and hasn't been able to return, which, given his work situation, isn't entirely implausible), but it would be wild if it were to come true.

[kyluxtrashpit]

Thank you for the equally thoughtful and informative response as well!!

As I said in my first ask, I had just learned of genuine number concerns via your post; my only other notice of people being confused and a bit upset was through the reblogs of the promotional content. And I will admit I didn’t deep dive those comments or reblog tags either because I personally don’t like to delve into discourse if I can avoid it. I also had no reason at the time to think it went deeper than a little surface-level drama. Fandom is my comfort space for what I love, even if that might be the occasional venting of frustrations amongst likeminded friends, but definitely not about arguments and blaming. I just want to enjoy what I enjoy, and gladly let others do the same as they see fit for themselves and their own enjoyment. My reason for popping in was because botting would indeed be a real allegation of a committed attempt at purposely altering the results, which would ruin the fun of others as well as taint the image of that character’s fans (and subsequent pairings, i.e. kylux). As one who’s also been in the fandom about 9 years or so myself, I felt I could at least say what my thoughts were on why a botting rumor might have started. Especially if only to defend someone in our fandom, plus our fandom itself, simply trying to have fun, should that have been the origin of such a rumor.

And I will say I still believe that, whichever is true, this promotional content is likely what would have inspired someone(s) to start botting. Or feel they could get away with it in the first place. There are certainly always pockets of fans in every fandom that get a little too intense with how they engage and handle their interests. Perhaps that’s what happened here. I can only speculate.

Also, I do understand that you’ve been speaking about actual botting via fake accounts and not necessarily a large influx of fans and non-fans alike. I wasn’t intending to come across as disputing that, if i did; I was merely offering a suggestion for why rumors might have started about such a thing. However, as I also said, I didn’t know there were legitimate concerns about numbers that deviated too quickly and too highly from any potential norm even with the increased draw from the promotional edits, and were thus monitored more closely than a general viewing of percentage and vote total changes as the poll goes on. I’ve barely ever touched tech/programming, particularly since my school days, so I can only speak from observation gleaned theories, ones which I don’t operate on as though they’re fact. It’s all only me trying to see ways such a rumor could have come about. I always try to see potential hows and whys for any situation before deciding an answer or reasoning due to personal or social bias. (that’s part of what’s fun about kylux and similar types of characters too, knowing the hows and whys behind what made them the villains they are is, I find, more interesting to explore.)

From what you’ve said, you and your friends (who you are absolutely not obligated to reveal nor do I need to know names; no worries to you or them :) ) certainly have more knowledge than I regarding this poll chaos being more likely botting over simple misunderstanding. Not that misunderstanding can’t still be a possibility; there’s hardly ever such thing as impossible, only (highly) improbable. And I don’t believe that you nor those you trust are in any way lying. If you all have taken a more concerted effort to watch the numbers, then that’s more evidence than I have to provide toward a botting truth. My own take comes more, it seems, from how things might have led to a botting issue rather than there not actually being one. I never denied the possibility, and I don’t deny it still.

While I’m typically a confrontation avoidant person, I do agree that ignoring, burying, or letting go of something isn’t always the best course of action in these situations. But, as such a person, I can sympathize with not wanting to speak out and get involved, especially if it is indeed a misunderstanding. That would just draw unwanted fire, possibly from within one’s own community too, which is never pleasant to endure. Sometimes even the most genuine, calm attempts at mediation can be met with harsh and damaging responses.

So I would conclude, from what you’ve elaborated on, that botting is the more likely possibility than not. Without definitive proof or someone actually coming forward to confess doing such, it may have to remain speculation; although that doesn’t take away from other’s sincere observations to the contrary. Plus, a speculation doesn’t mean we have to ignore what could be happening. We can still say we hope that’s not the case and don’t condone the actions of whomever might have done so if it is. And we could also point out, whether it is or isn’t, to not go heaping blame on that character’s fans or ships as though an entire fandom orchestrated it rather than individual person(s).

It would be nice if, with these rumors flying, any further alleged botting comes to a stop, allowing genuine numbers alone to sustain him. If it doesn’t, well, I fear that character winning it all might be as close to evidence as we can get. An event that would be further detrimental to us all, I’d guess. For as much as I love him, I really don’t think he’s a strong enough SW character to be a real contender to do so. Or to have survived thus far, to be honest. It’s been incredible to have more fans pouring in to help, and some I do think he deserved to survive over for sure, but it is kinda surprising to have beaten out some of the other ones he did. But of course these are all my own thoughts on that particular matter, no one else has to agree with them!

Anyway, in the end, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Oh, and lastly, I do, again, appreciate the response (and for reading all this, as I know I can be, uh, a bit wordy...). I really hope you and your friends aren’t taking everything in too deeply and will be able to continue enjoying the fandom the way that makes you all happiest without this (potential) situation clouding that.

Listen, I’m always happy to have a discussion about anything I ever say as long as it’s civil and friendly lmao. I’m not afraid of being proven wrong, it’s healthy to be able to accept when you’re wrong, but I also don’t say things unless I’m pretty confident in it

Yeah that’s fair – a lot of people have mentioned the promotional stuff and just to reiterate to everyone, that is NOT what I’m against. I’m fine with it, I just black list stuff I don’t want to see. Leave people having harmless fun alone. But yeah, I totally get it – I really only made the initial post because I was upset, I honestly didn’t realize it would travel as far and wide as it seems to have lmao. Cause yeah, I just want things to be fair – that’s what keeps them fun

Eh, it’s possible, but ultimately if someone is botting, they’re the only ones responsible for it, the people creating promo are just doing their own thing. It’s not uncommon an occurrence sadly, so it’s very possible one person just went too far and thought it’s something the whole fandom would be chill with. Or that we wouldn’t notice. The one thing I’m really glad for is even those who’ve disagreed with me that there’s reason to be suspicious are soundly denouncing botting if it is happening. Honestly, it’s restored my faith in fandom quite a bit lmao. Disagreements on likelihood or not, we can at least say that the practice of mass cheating on polls is a shitty thing to do

No worries! I just wanted to be clear so there’s no confusion. But yeah, it’s totally fair to want to consider alternatives. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to make firm declarations without rock solid proof, but what I have seen (both what I’ve said publicly and things I can’t share for the safety of others) was enough for me to believe that there is reason for suspicion. It’s always possible there is another explanation and I have no problem with people who disagree with me, as I realize that without any real proof, there probably won’t be a true resolution

But yeah, I do appreciate your thoughts and that you were willing to listen as well. I love Hux, but I agree he probably shouldn’t have made it this far. If he does get a full win, well, I’m gonna say for sure there’s no way we pulled that off without bots lmao like I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to happen. He’s a side character. We may love him, but we have to accept reality

But thanks for the well wishes! And I send the same to you. I’m hoping things will calm down now, once I’m done answering these messages. My post did make some people upset and it seems there may have been some accusations thrown in my name, which I do NOT endorse. So I’ve been dealing with that. But hey, in my old fandom I used to get inflammatory hatemail all the time lmao, so the reasonable discussion is much more appreciated haha

[mantoosian-a-serf-in-mohmsville]

So I've been thinking a lot about this since the OpenAI debacle. tl;dr I'm in favor of anything that takes power AWAY from boards and c-suites and puts them back into the hands of democratic processes. I agree with some parts of the article @vaspider linked (re-linked for visibility). I'd love to see employee representation on boards, and it should be more than half so they don't get out-voted. But I think the final recommendation gives too much discretion to the board. I don't always see eye to eye with Patrick Boyle. But I agree with a lot of the points he made here about the pitfalls of stakeholder capitalism:

Firstly, the fiduciary duty to shareholders don't actually...have that much financial impact on management and definitely not the board. I saw a reblog from @mantis-lizbian (sorry to be tagging you, but since I'm quoting you I wanted to attribute directly, and I also wanted to hear your response. Let me know if I should remove the reference) that "CEOs, executive boards, anyone who runs a publicly traded company can be sued for any action or inaction they knowingly take that results in a forseeable drop in stock prices." I kind of wish that were true. Because that'd be able to hold so many boards and CEOs to account (cough cough WeWork, cough cough people still investing in Adam Neumann of WeWork, cough cough the entire board of fucking Theranos). But...I googled several companies that saw drops in share prices recently. Even when the share drop was clearly linked to some stupid decision like a big billions-of-dollars bet on the MetaVerse or NFTs, I couldn't find lawsuits that got enough traction to make the news. I'm sure some people do sue, you can sue anyone for anything, but it's really hard to get such a lawsuit off the ground. Shareholders do sue when there's fraud or gross negligence. Facebook/Meta got sued after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and when it was revealed they did basically nothing to stop child porn on their site. VW got sued after they defrauded the public about their emissions, and so on. This isn't because shareholders are kind souls that look out for the interest of the public. Suing takes a lot of money and effort.

So why are there less public lawsuits? Company shares drop all the time. First, winning is hard. There's a high burden of proof when trying to show that a company's management or board didn't fulfill their fiduciary duty. Shareholders need to prove that it is more likely that a reasonable person would not have made the same decisions management made if they had the shareholders interests in mind. That's why shareholders tend to sue when there's direct fraud or negligence because it's easier to show that a reasonable person would not commit fraud. Second, winning is kind of pointless. What happens when a shareholder sues a company's management for not fulfilling their fiduciary duty to shareholders? It tanks the stock because now there's proof to the share-holding public that the company's management isn't doing a good job. The lawsuit drags on. Now it tanks the stock EVEN MORE because the company is paying a lot of money for a public lawsuit about how bad the company is run. Death spiral. It's a lot easier and cheaper for shareholders to just cut their losses and sell the stock.

So why do CEOs do terrible, evil shit that seems to have no long term value and sometimes actively destroys the brand, if not for short-term stock bumps to appease the shareholders? My theory is that it's a lot of different reasons. I think it boils down to the following 1. Management bonuses and compensations are heavily-tied to short-term movements in stock during a set period, like the end of the year 2. Management / board don't go to jail. Even when their actions directly kill thousands of people. They generally don't even pay fines. 3. Management / board are generally people of average intelligence but much more egotistical, and totally out-of-touch. Sometimes they just do shit because they want to look and feel like a visionary.

Reason 3 is honestly the biggest reason stakeholder capitalism makes me nervous. Most CEOs are just as stupid I am. They also have no one to really tell them they're full of shit, and they generally have no idea what's going on. The board knows even less. We've seen through a lot of dying corporations that management / board can't be trusted even to prioritize the needs of one party, shareholders. How are they going to think about the tax-paying public and the consumers?

I'm not going to pretend there's no short-term, 'get the stock up right now at any cost' problem here. This brings me right back to Reason 1. C-suite bonuses are generally tied to stock performance, so there's a lot of incentive to do something big to give the stock a little bump before the ear end bonus. I've read some theories that that's why we've had so many sudden year-end layoffs (looking at you Etsy / Spotify). But plenty of boards structure CEO compensation so they only get the really big bucks if the stock stays up for several quarters to years. Management prioritizing short-term stock gains over long-term stability is actually a huge problem that boards are there to balance out and solve. This isn't due to short-term fiduciary duties. This is the board being stupid about how they structure CEO compensation. But now you have a group of people, so rich they think 'go into debt to hire a full-time cleaner so you can devote that attention to your job' is a good idea. They suffer no consequences for their action, and have no idea what's really going on. I firmly believe these are the last people we should ever trust to make decisions that's supposed to benefit the public. I'd like to see more focus on taking power back to the public (I don't care if they pay taxes or not). US regulations are written in blood. It doesn't have to be that way. There's already some movement to pass laws that will tighten food safety regulations and require that companies prove that the ingredient / process are safe, rather than the current framework we have where the government has to prove that a company's ingredient / process did harm. This is probably a pipe dream, but if you see related law proposals getting momentum, please tell your reps to vote for it. There aren't enough enforcement even on the regulations that do get broken. Theoretically, companies are supposed to pay to clean up environments after their operations devastate them. A lot of times they don't and NOTHING HAPPENS (link to npr article about the government needing to step in to clean up with taxpayer money). I DEMAND THEIR HEADS OR AT LEAST JAIL TIME. These are regulations and laws that already exist, so I think this is a more realistic ask. I worry that a lot of CEOs are advocating for stakeholder capitalism because the other solution, of taking power away from them and holding them accountable would have real consequences for their actions. So, conclusion: Let's send more C-suites and board members to jail.

While I'm writing things that I've been intending to write for a while... one of the things that I think that a lot of people who haven't been involved in like... banking or corporate shenaniganry miss about why our economy is its current flavor of total fuckery is the concept of "fiduciary duty to shareholders."

"Why does every corporation pursue endless growth?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

"Why do corporations treat workers the way they do?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

"Why do corporations make such bass-ackwards decisions about what's 'good for' the company?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

The legal purpose of a corporation with shareholders -- its only true purpose -- is the generation of revenue/returns for shareholders. Period. That's it. Anything else it does is secondary to that. Sustainability of business, treatment of workers, sustainability and quality of product, those things are functionally and legally second to generating revenue for shareholders. Again, period, end of story. There is no other function of a corporation, and all of its extensive legal privileges exist to allow it to do that.

"But Spider," you might say, "that sounds like corporations only exist in current business in order to extract as much money and value as possible from the people actually doing the work and transfer it up to the people who aren't actually doing the work!"

Yes. You are correct. Thank you for coming with me to that realization. You are incredibly smart and also attractive.

You might also say, "but Spider, is this a legal obligation? Could those running a company be held legally responsible for failing their obligations if they prioritize sustainability or quality of product or care of workers above returns for shareholders?"

Yes! They absolutely can! Isn't that terrifying? Also you look great today, you're terribly clever for thinking about these things. The board and officers of a corporation can be held legally responsible to varying degrees for failing to maximize shareholder value.

And that, my friends, is why corporations do things that don't seem to make any fucking sense, and why 'continuous growth' is valued above literally anything else: because it fucking has to be.

If you're thinking that this doesn't sound like a sustainable economic model, you're not alone. People who are much smarter than both of us, and probably nearly as attractive, have written a proposal for how to change corporate law in order to create a more sensible and sustainable economy. This is one of several proposals, and while I don't agree with all of this stuff, I think that reading it will really help people as a springboard to understanding exactly why our economy is as fucked up as it is, and why just saying 'well then don't pursue eternal growth' isn't going to work -- because right now it legally can't. We'd need to change -- and we can change -- the laws around corporate governance.

This concept of 'shareholder primacy' and the fiduciary duty to shareholders is one I had to learn when I was getting my securities licenses, and every time I see people confusedly asking why corporations try to grow grow grow in a way that only makes sense if you're a tumor, I sigh and think, 'yeah, fiduciary duty to shareholders.'

(And this is why Emet and I have refused to seek investors for NK -- we might become beholden to make decisions which maximize investor return, and that would get in the way of being able to fully support our people and our values and say the things we started this company to say.)

Anyway, you should read up on these concepts if you're not familiar. It's pretty eye-opening.

[stayndays]

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓...

𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆

A Stray Kids Murder Mystery AU

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆!

This series contains the following:

Gore/Blood

(Attempted) Murder

Corpse(s)

Very Brief Mentions of Suicide

Knives

Foul Language

Physical Violence

Very Slight Mentions of Food and Alcohol (Mentions of Drunk People)

And More!

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

You’re at the bottom of the pit next to these famed men and women, only a noble secretary assistant to your elite boss. Feeling out of place, you quickly excuse yourself from the conversation your boss is currently in, sliding through party guests left and right to enter the bare living room.

Except it isn’t bare. It isn’t empty. You aren’t alone.

You let out a piercing scream at the sight below your feet.

The mansion owner is on the floor. Arms spread. Eyes closed. 

A slit on his throat and his stomach gushing blood.

15 minutes later, and you’re suddenly a detective. Eight suspects, downpours of evidence, a mansion full of liars.

Can you escape the Killer King?

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓

This is an interactive series, with many choose-your-own-path options. You, along with the rest of the participants, will make a decision between the two choices laid out after each part. The majority vote wins. (Think of it like skz purge on Twitter!)

Because some participants do not have Tumblr accounts, and because some votes may not go into my inbox, you will vote through a Google form. If you are still not able to vote for any kind of reason, feel free to DM me or send me an ask.

On rare occasions, when the vote is extremely crucial, the first person to vote will be the only vote casted, and will decide which direction the story will go. Fate will literally be played directly into your hands.

I highly recommend that you join the taglist in order to never miss out on a vote. Please DM or send me an ask if you’re interested.

Any questions about how this’ll play out? Don’t be afraid to ask me!

𝐰𝐧𝐈𝐝𝐥𝐎𝐟𝐧𝐞𝐄𝐫

wjJbwbdnaPunoJwbO...hello?

Oh, how wonderful! You can hear me!

The original one was having second thoughts on whether she should bring me out or not, but i think the participants should decide on that, shouldn’t they?

Well, here’s my offer to you.

15 people on the taglist, 15 reblogs on this post. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m heavily promoting this series. But the original one has worked too hard on this series for it to fail, yes? All of those restless nights would go to waste!

If you can accomplish both of those by October 1st, two weeks from now, I’ll do three things for you.

I’ll provide a lil’ something to help you figure out who the murderer is. Of course, you won’t know what it is unless you meet the goal.

There will be more options to choose from. For example, one poll might have two choices only, but if you meet the goal, you’ll get three choices instead! This choices could heavily benefit your chances in defeating the killer.

I’ll reveal my name, of course! And I’ll be talking to you through all of October. More info on that... if you meet the goal.

That’s all from me, lovelies. I really hope you can bring me out.. I’ve been trapped here for too long.

𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝐬𝐭.

taglist (aka people who are already too excited for this series): @desertofdessert @crscendoforsung @cotccotc @poeticallyspaghetti @skzctnightnight

[goodomensblog]

Afterward - Part 17

A Good Omens Choose Your Own Adventure Fic

Here’s how it works:

I’ll write a scene.

At the end of each scene, you’ll be presented with 2-3 options for what the characters will choose to do next.

Comment or reblog to vote for your choice. I’ll count all votes after the first 24 hours after each update is posted.

Read: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16

(#2 definitely won - but #4 was a pretty close second, so we’re doing the classic punch and run!)

Afterward - - - Part 17

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Entropy, rising up, tilts its head and smiles a wide, infinitely deep grin. Pale, ephemeral tendrils squirm where the creature’s head and neck are rapidly reconnecting.

Gabriel has picked up the sword and is twisting it up.

Beelzebub, however, beats him to the punch. Literally.

“Mine,” is all Beelzebub manages, a low, rasping shout. Pushing roughly in front of the archangel, Beelzebub winds a bloodied fist back and strikes.

Their knuckles smack between its eyes - and with a wet sounding squelch, the head which hadn’t yet fully re-attached, flies off Entropy’s shoulders.

This time, however, Entropy seems to retain consciousness, and the head screeches in outrage as it careens across the room.

“Shoo, bitch,” Beelzebub spits.

“My angels,” the head shrieks, rolling across the floor. “Your master commands you! Attack!”

From the top of the courtyard, where tiled roofs curve above stone carved archways, movement draws Beelzebub’s gaze up.

Angels line the tile rooftop, their formidable white wings spread wide. In the place where the angels’ eyes should be, dark, sunken pools hauntingly stare.

From behind Beelzebub, Gabriel makes a low noise of distress.

Beelzebub scans the faces. There are none they readily recognize - Michael and Uriel, at least, are absent. But surely most of the dark eyed angels are - or were - under Gabriel’s command.

“No…” the archangel breathes.

Forcibly ignoring the pain they feel radiating off Gabriel in cold, nauseating waves, Beelzebub shakes their head and, squeezing their hands into fists, cracks their knuckles one by one.

“What are they?” Aziraphale asks, horror lacing his words.

The first angel steps from the rooftop. Where it lands, stone splinters around its feet. From its eyes, black ichor drips, trailing like tears down its pure, celestial skin. It takes a second step, and the floor cracks anew.

“That,” Crowley says, speaking up from the back, “looks like an angel on steroids. Bloody evil steroids.”

Another angel drops. Then another. Gray dust from pulverized stone rises in an ominous cloud.

“I - I have to-” Gabriel is muttering, and Beelzebub can feel him moving behind them, probably making up his mind to do something stupid.

“Yeah,” Beelzebub says, surveying the hoard of freaky angels. “Fuck this noise.”

Turning right the hell around, Beelzebub grabs Gabriel roughly by the arm. 

When he doesn’t move - like the absolute asshole he is - Beelzebub grits their teeth and yanks, violently hauling the lead-limbed archangel with them. When they look up and see that Aziraphale and Crowley are still standing there, waiting, they yell, “Oi! Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum! Fucking move!”

Crowley and Aziraphale retreat through the doorway, but go no further.

Beelzebub is panting, blood from a cut they didn’t even realize they had dripping into their eyes, and the room is tilting as a frankly annoying whine picks up in their ears - but this is no time to pass out, so Beelzebub doesn’t. 

At least Gabriel is finally moving; Beelzebub, all too happy to release him, shoves the archangel through the door. 

Upon crossing the threshold, Beelzebub is hastily elbowed out of the way by Crowley; Aziraphale, bracing a hand on the wall, traces glowing symbols on the floor.

“What’s-”

“That’s why we were waiting,” Crowley snaps.

Beelzebub reflects that if the room were spinning any less, they would have happily smacked that smug look off his face.

Instead, they crouch, bracing their hands on their knees.

Aziraphale straightens up with a satisfied nod. “That’ll do the trick.”

Then Crowley is swinging the door closed. Hand on the handle, he melts the lock. 

“If Aziraphale did what I think he did, we do not want to be here when they cross that threshold,” Crowley says.

“I did,” Aziraphale says with a grim smile.

Gabriel, who Beelzebub thinks is looking more like his usual insufferable self by the minute, claps his hands together. “Then let’s fucking go!”

“Right!” Crowley crows, pointing at Gabriel, “Your illicit sneaking out of Heaven door!”

Beelzebub and Aziraphale turn to look at Gabriel.

“Okay it’s really not as weird as he’s making it sound.”

 “It doesn’t matter-” Aziraphale says with a wave, but Beelzebub isn’t listening.

Blinking rapidly, they frown at the black dots blossoming across their vision. They immediately blink harder because they are not going to pass out; It is a fucking bad time for losing consciousness - and besides, they’d honestly rather die than look weak in front of these morons.

Crowley is turning, leading the way, and Beelzebub starts to step after him - when everything takes a sharp and sudden dip. 

And shit - Beelzebub thinks, consciousness slipping as a roaring white noise fills their ears. Blackness is spreading, sweeping across their vision.

They see outstretched, reaching hands - and then darkness swallows them whole.

Reality narrows to individual, isolated moments.

The press of fine, soft as silk fabric against their cheek.

A long hallway lit by a single flickering light.

Aziraphale, pale with purple bruises beneath his eyes, pulling a tapestry aside - pushing a doorway open.

Crowley’s hands cupped around that strange, blue flame.

Then white light - at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

Beelzebub stiffens, crying out in protest - because they know the saying about light and tunnels, and they straight up refuse to let that prick Death lay those frigid hands on them now.

This is followed by the soft, hesitant brush of fingers over their forehead and a whisper-soft murmur. “Don’t worry. It’s not that kind of tunnel.”

Again, darkness.

And then Crowley is exclaiming, shouting excitedly, and Beelzebub squints their eyes open to glaring sunlight - and a sleek black car, parked on what appears to be a random London street corner. 

When someone swings one of the rear doors open, Beelzebub has a sense of deja vu as they are laid down on black leather seats.

Voices drone, someone shifts beside them, and the car awakens with a reassuring purr; Beelzebub’s tired eyes close.

- - - 

Brushing his hands over the steering wheel, Crowley sits in the Bentley, taking a moment to enjoy the car’s energetic rumble. She doesn’t handle long periods of idleness very well. And though Crowley hasn’t been gone all that long, he imagines it must have been rather demoralizing to have been abandoned on a lonesome countryside road. He’ll have to make sure she’s still in working shape. 

“Just cause I gave you a little vacation,” Crowley says, tapping the dashboard admonishingly, “is no excuse for any slacking off, you understand?”

The car rumbles, and Crowley sighs, rolling his eyes. “See? I leave you for half a day and now I’m getting back talk.”

“Can we please just fucking go?” Gabriel snaps.

A glance in the rear-view mirror reveals the altogether unpleasant sight of Gabriel’s frowning face. 

The archangel is pressed up against the door, his large arms folded impractically in front of him. 

Beelzebub, in the few minutes after they’d been set down, had somehow completely rotated, and now they stretch out, arms flung out in either direction. Their booted feet are kicked up - one jabbing Gabriel’s side and the other shoved up against his face.

The archangel glowers.

From the passenger seat, Aziraphale clears his throat.

Crowley’s attention is immediately diverted.

Aziraphale is battered. Deep scratches scatter over the entirety of his person, and a bone deep exhaustion shows in his overall pallor and the bags like dark bruises gathering beneath his light eyes. 

Crowley has the impulse to stroke a thumb beneath that gentle gaze and burn a miracle to soothe some of the exhaustion marring his skin. 

He doesn’t.

Because he filled Aziraphale’s veins with demon blood, and Crowley isn’t entirely sure Aziraphale won’t come to resent him for it. 

The desperate transfusion had worked. Aziraphale is here. That is what matters. But the fact that the cost of this gamble - the cost of mixing that which was never meant to join - has yet to reveal itself, leaves Crowley deeply on edge. 

“Dear,” Aziraphale says, mercifully interrupting Crowley’s rapidly spiraling thoughts. “We fled the bookshop earlier because we believed we were dealing with a threat who knew us, personally. Entropy does not know us. And I presume that it does not know where I live.”

“...you want to go home, don’t you?”

“Yes I want to go home!” Aziraphale says in a rush, hands folded, his fingers twisting together. “It’s been a really long day.”

Crowley considers, drumming his fingers on the wheel. “I suppose we could ward the hell out of it.”

Aziraphale is eagerly nodding, “I already have a good few around the foundation as it is.”

“Is it defensible?” Gabriel asks.

“Better,” Aziraphale replies. “It’s hidden.”

“Though adding a few defenses wouldn’t hurt,” Crowley adds.

“As long as we get off the damned street,” Gabriel says with a weary sigh.

“That, we can do,” Crowley says, shifting the car into drive. 

“Wait!” Aziraphale says, grabbing Crowley’s arm. “First, we need food, Crowley.”

“....right this second?”

“As soon as possible. You do realize that we should avoid using powerful miracles at the moment, right?”

Crowley glances in the rear-view mirror, only somewhat mollified to see that Gabriel is also staring at Aziraphale with an expression of blatant confusion.

“Er - yes? I mean, we don’t want to go around putting beacons on our heads,” Crowley replies. “But what in the world does this have to do with food?”

Aziraphale is staring at him like he might be stupid - which he’s not. Right?

Crowley checks the rear-view mirror again.

Gabriel is squinting at Aziraphale. “Aziraphale. What are you talking about?”

Aziraphale looks between them, mouth agape.

From the backseat, Beelzebub groans. 

“Angel,” Beelzebub says, cracking an eye reluctantly open, “They’re both idiots. Don’t… strain their brains.”

Aziraphale glances back, relief evident. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“Of course I know what you’re talking about!” Beelzebub replies, and the other eye opens to a menacing slit. “Food strengthens your bloody corporation. You. Are. Living. In. It. So fucking feed it. The stronger your corporation is - the stronger you are.”

Aziraphale is nodding vigorously. “And we are all very injured. Beelzebub especially. A good meal will help kick start our angelic - and demonic - healing.”

“Ah,” is all Crowley manages.

“Honestly, dear. You really didn’t know that?”

Crowley, who will frankly never admit that he played hookie during the body orientation seminar to check out the strange angel he’d seen walking up on Eden’s wall, adjusts his glasses and shrugs. “I’m a demon. What’s the archangel’s excuse?”

“Corporeal bodies are not my department.”

Beelzebub blows a raspberry.

“Since you’re awake, your highness - mind moving your foot out of my face?”

Beelzebub’s only reply is a long, deep snore.

Crowley shuts both of them up by jerking the car into motion.

Food it is!” Crowley says, foot sinking satisfyingly down on the gas pedal. “And I know just where to take us.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The angels and demons have managed to escape Heaven and flee from Entropy. Before holing up at Aziraphale’s bookshop and deciding their next move - Aziraphale insists they get something to eat. Crowley decides the best place to get a couple of angels and demons lunch is….

The grocery store! Crowded around a single cart, they will shuffle round the aisles of the local grocery mart, exploring the strange wonders of fluorescent illuminated human cuisine. 

The Ritz! Sitting elbow to elbow around a pristine white tablecloth, they will be sipping at champagne and making awkward small talk. Probably nothing will catch fire.

The drive thru! Packed in the Bentley, Crowley will drive them all to the greasiest of fast food establishments. With all three speaking at once, Crowley will attempt to order.

Please comment or reblog to vote! :)

Part 18

[undertale-in-writing]

Undertale In Writing: Page 2

You feel as though years have passed while you stood there, staring at the flowers. Though it's only been one heavy moment.

You take a deep breath and kneel down to pluck a flower from the ground. You tuck it behind your ear. You stand and turn to gaze into the darkness. Something warm fills your chest, not entirely unlike when Flowey revealed your SOUL. Just to be sure, you look down. There's no glowing, only calm... fullness. Stubbornness. DETERMINATION.

You felt something like this when you woke up before, but it was uncertain, confused. Now, it's fully taken root. You turn and begin to follow the path you took previously. Not like there was any other path.

Flowey appears again in a blink of light. You take note this time. He seems to be glowing. It's magic. All magic has a slight glow, and all monsters have magic. I can't think of any flowers down here that glow like a monster, though; echo flowers glow, but those are bioluminescent. And he doesn't smell like a normal flower.

The familiar face is still for a moment, then he breaks into a grin. “Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower! Hee hee hee...” He tilts his head slightly, humor in his voice now. “Why'd you make me introduce myself? It's rude to act like you don't know who I am. Someone ought to teach you proper manners.”

You frown, because you're still not sure what happened. He killed you, didn't he? Was he the reason you were placed back at the start? I feel like it's more than that, but how come he remembers you?

No time to dwell on it. The golden flower begins following the same script as before. He opens the battle stage, refers to your heart. “That's your SOUL,” he says, as if you hadn't heard this before. He introduces LOVE, and he pulls out his bullets. “Down here, LOVE is shared through... little white... 'friendliness pellets.'”

You frown. Why is he telling you all this again? You know it, and he knows that you know it, and he should see from your expression that you know he knows you know it. Your lips purse. You want to say something, but you can't bring yourself to speak in this moment. The energy required is currently being used to prepare for what comes next.

“Catch as many as you can!”

You jump the side. The bullets dart by you and dissipate in the air a few feet back.

Flowey's expression changes. He holds onto the smile, but now it's challenging. Almost taunting. “Hey, buddy, you missed them. Let's try again, okay?”

You ready yourself, mind racing over how you might get out of this. Maybe you can outlast him?

The bullets shoot into you, and this time you can hardly react. They make contact. Your heart pulses, your feet slide back an inch, there are holes in your sweater and blood and bruises and it hurts.

But you're not in pieces. The wounds are shallow. You try to stand tall in defiance, but there's a pain in your shoulder that makes you wince, and you realize that you're very weak.

Flowey laughs. His face contorts into an evil smile that frankly does not belong in 3D space. “You idiot,” he cackles.

Your mouth opens in protest; a sound comes out—a soft, “I'm not—!” but you have to clamp it shut. Your face reddens.

Flowey continues. His voice is different. Somehow, he's made it sound like he's speaking through a crackly intercom. He says, “In this world, it's kill or BE killed. Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?”

A chill runs down your spine. This flower... isn't a monster. Monsters aren't like this. Monsters aren't evil.

“DIE!”

A ring of bullets form around you and come flying at your tiny torso. All you can do is yelp and curl into yourself. You're going to die again. You're going to hurt again. He's going to tear you apart.

There's a crackling sound, and a fwoosh. You glance up. A ball of white-hot fire hits the flower in the back of the head, and his roots are torn from the ground as he flies off into the darkness with a small “eep.”

Suddenly, you're alone. It's dark. You're confused. Disoriented.

Annoyance floods your brain. You'll probably be nonverbal all day now.

You push yourself to your feet, flinching when a shallow cut on your stomach pulls sideways. The battle stage is still there, but you can't feel Flowey's presence anymore. Something else looms from where the flame originated. Fiery red eyes bore into you from the darkness. A shape emerges, tall and fuzzy. A pair of small, sharp horns curl up from the top of a long-eared head. A snout exhales with annoyance.

You see the monster's dull claws at eye-height. The sleeves of a strangely familiar robe fall over one paw as it's drawn to the monster's hip.

“What a terrible creature,” she scolds, “torturing such a poor, innocent youth.”

Her voice is gentle. Familiar. Comforting. Motherly. You tilt your head again to look into her eyes, and she bends down to bring herself on your level. Now that you see her face head on, she doesn't look scary anymore. Her ears are soft and floppy, her horns small, her smile friendly, her eyes kind. She looks like a concerned goat mom, if goats were... What's the word..? Anthromorphic?

“Do not be afraid, my child,” she says softly. “I am Toriel, caretaker of The Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down.” She pauses, and you realize that the battle stage is gone. There's color in the world again, and your heart is in your chest where it belongs.

Toriel smiles and stands suddenly. “You are the first human to come here in a long time.” Her robe flows loosely as she reaches down with one paw. “Come! I will guide you through the catacombs.”

You don't take her paw. Toriel isn't fazed by this. She turns ninety degrees and gestures into the darkness. “This way.”

Page 1 — Page 3

 [End page]

We made this blog almost two years ago and never followed up, so here’s page 2. We’ll try to continue it indefinitely, even if it takes a while. It’s still very much something we’re interested in.

Rules:

This is an interactive Undertale adaptation, not an AU. All actions taken must fit into the game. Obviously I’m taking little liberties with the reset system, but nothing is changing. If you want your response to be included, it shouldn’t change the plot. It’s about informing a player character’s decisions and, to an extent, Frisk’s personality.

You don’t need to follow some kind of format or command system. Your response can be in a comment, a reblog, a reblog of another’s reblog, a comment continuing another’s comment… It can short or long. It can be a suggestion or a narration.

The readers, together, are the player character.

Some time will pass, and we will take all responses as a vote. Common actions will become “canon,” and the story will continue. Influential commenters will be tagged, and anything we directly quote will have credit immediately after the section.

Commenters last round: @thesuperduckling24​, @finallycrawledoutfromundermyrock​, @thepotatoreader, and @arireblogthat​

If threads form of various players writing out their own alternate timeline, that’s fine too! There are no restrictions in how you respond. No need to limit yourself to what you think I’ll write down.

Headcanons that we’re using to include as much flavor from the game as possible:

We’re running with the Chara as narrator interpretation, because the tone of the narration is a major part of the experience. It may come out more in the future, but we’ll never name them. We will also adhere to the canon that their personality going forward is influenced by the player character’s decisions.

The one thing we’ve decided about Frisk up front is that they are semi-verbal autistic. Nothing extra will be inserted; it’s just a framework we’re using because it’s a consistent guide to explain some very video-gamey behavior -- like the sparse implied dialogue, the fixation on smells, and apparent disregard for low HP. (We’re autistic ourselves and will be pulling from our experiences.)

I’m adding these under each page so that you can use these narrative frames if you want. Happy writing.

[hopeshoodie]

Season 3 Re-write Challenge

So I’ve been working on an outline of how I would re-structure S2, but it’s really long and complicated because so is S2. I think it’d be super fun to do a much shorter one on how we’d fix S3. I’m sooo curious what other people would do.

If you have complete creative control of S3, how would you change it? The only rules are that you only have the 12 days and that you can’t use assets that don’t exist (i.e. make up a completely new islander).

Here are my thoughts, but please!!! make your own post/reblog/tag me or whatever with your ideas I’m so curious!!!

Day 1:

Everyone’s said this, but we want MC to come in as a bombshell. That justifies the fewer days and is a novel concept we haven’t explored before. So MC come in on day 15. I was debating having her be a girl that comes during CA, and while that would be interesting I like the dynamic of not really knowing what’s going on that being directly dropped into the villa creates. 

MC comes in and everyone’s friendly but she notices tension immediately. The girls are a little suspicious of her (rightfully), with Viv being the most openly friendly, and most of the guys are fawning over her notably Camilo and Harry are very interested. 

Lily, Tai, Ciaran, and Yasmin are already in the villa. Bill has already been voted off the island for being the first single as I don’t think he brings much to the story. Nicky hasn’t come in yet, he and Rafi will be the final bombshells later in the season. The couples are: Elladine/Tai | Ciaran/Iona  |  Camilo/Yasmin  |  Lily/AJ  |  Seb/Miki |  Harry/Viv

They either play an icebreaker game or have a party to welcome MC in. She has the choice to go over and talk to Elladine, Miki, Iona, and AJ or Viv, Yasmin, and Lily. Whatever she does, the other group of girls are really pissy about it and basically shun MC. 

We go to bed with MC single and getting a chance to flirt with whoever she wants. Seb, AJ, Tai, Miki, and Elladine won’t be receptive to it. Viv, Yasmin, and Lily will be neutral towards it leaving you unsure if they’re interested. Harry, Ciaran, and Camilo will all be very enthusiastic about it and mention recoupling.

Day 2: 

They do a couples challenge where MC runs it, and it’s very clear there’s a lot of issues. I think this should be the sandcastle challenge- and the top three castles get a secret prize but the producers don’t specify what it is.

Iona is really competitive and enthusiastic and Ciaran keeps apologizing on behalf of her, which visibly bothers her. 

Harry and Viv argue about the best way to do whatever it is and lose pretty badly. Harry wanted to make a massive castle and Viv just wanted it to be detailed.

AJ is really invested in the game and Lily’s pretty quiet about it. AJ eventually accidentally ruins the castle by putting too much water in a moat and Lily tries to reassure her it’s okay. 

Camilo is vocally irritated with the direction Yasmin takes theirs and he throws his hands up and lets her do it on her own. 

Seb and Miki do pretty well but MC notices there’s not much of a spark that she can see. 

 Elladine and Tai seem to be pretty into each other and do very well.

MC gets a text, whichever three couples she declares the winner, she can pick one person from them to go on a date with.

MC can pick anyone, but people get mad at her if she clearly picks people who should have lost. Then it’s revealed that it’s for a date, and the partners of the people she picked get upset because they were working so hard to give their partner away to someone else. If MC picks one of the girls from the group who’s icing her out, the girls will be SUPER salty.

On the dates it becomes clear who is romancable and who is not. Seb, Miki, Elladine, and Elladine are all not LIs. MC susses out that Viv, Lily, Tai, Iona, and AJ all could be LIs if she builds the relationship and can distract them from their partners. Camilo, Harry, Ciaran, and Yasmin are all basically ready to recouple with her now, so they’re clearly LIs. 

MC gets back from the date and Miki’s going off about how MC just came in here and manipulated the challenge and is disrupting everything. I kind of want Miki and Elladine to be this season’s antagonists. Even if you were friendly towards Miki’s friend group, Miki starts yelling at MC in front of everyone. MC has the (gem) choice to tell her off, apologize, or sulk off. 

Day 3:

The day STARTS with a recoupling. God I love the drama of the islanders all being woken up and sent outside in their PJs when MC is standing by the fireplace dressed and full face on. 

MC has to pick someone to couple up with (the non-LI characters are not available to pick). The partner of the person she took is now single, but they are safe. No one else gets the chance to recouple. 

Viewers have been voting for their least favorite couples, and it’s revealed that the couples are: Iona/Ciaran and Harry/Viv (or Yasmin/Camilo if MC chooses Iona, Ciaran, or Harry) 

The couples now have to vote for ONE girl and ONE boy to stay, but it doesn’t have to be a couple. All the couples go aside to figure out who they’re voting for.

MC either has the choice to waste time talking to her new partner about why she picked them and if they’re happy or who they want to vote out.

If they discuss, the LI wants to keep Harry and Iona but will defer to MC’s judgement. If MC wastes her time, when they get called back to vote the LI will just say they voted out Viv and Ciaran and defend themselves to MC by saying ‘we didn’t really talk about it’. Whoever goes home will depend on how MC/her LI vote.

If Viv leaves, Lily and Yasmin will be very upset and disappear up to the terrace to talk. MC can only join them if she was friendly to them on day 1. If Iona leaves, Miki flies off the handle and is accusing Lily and Yasmin of being petty. 

Camilo breaks the fight up and everyone awkwardly walks away. 

We get a map choice to go and talk to the different parties

MC can go flirt with her partner, crack on/ask non-involved people what’s happening, go talk to Miki and Elladine, or go talk to the girls on the roof. 

She doesn’t really get the full story but learns that the girls are pretty split and don’t like each other. She also learns that most of the guys are on Lily/Viv/Yasmin’s side because they don’t like the drama- with the exception of Harry who genuinely likes the intense girls, and Tai/Seb who feel like they have to support them out of obligation.

Day 4: 

Tent challenge happens like normal

MC gets the opportunity to corner one of the girls and ask what’s up. This is informally choosing her best friend. They explain that Miki (or Elladine) were coupled with Camilo on day one and really liked him. Then Yasmin picked him without telling any of the girls (and lowkey Camilo was okay with that) and so there was a huge row. Viv and Lily defended Yasmin, then Miki got really riteous and ‘rallied the troops’ against them.

If MC picked AJ or Iona to be her bestie, they’ll basically say that they don’t care much about it they just don’t want to be involved (even though they’re lowkey letting Miki think they support her). It’s gotten worse when Miki and Seb won most popular one week (because the audience loves Seb) and Miki let it go to her head- Miki’s now openly trying to build a coalition to ‘vote out’ Yasmin/Lily/Viv. 

MC has to decisively pick where she stands on this- she can go apologize to Miki and say she supports them, or go to Viv/Lily/Yasmin and agree this is all ridiculous. She can still be apathetic towards it all, but needs to do one of those two things. 

Harry/Camilo pull MC aside and say they really want to couple with her. Chance to reject them.

Day 5: 

Today we do the ‘dares’ challenge that for some reason we did twice in S3. But instead of the girls all being in on it, they’re each issued their own dares. MC is dared to give Tai a lapdance, trade shirts with AJ (or Lily, depending on who MC’s got more relationship with), and kiss Seb. 

She either throws the challenge in the name of friendship or pisses everyone the hell off (but if she’s romantic with Lily or AJ they’ll both admit they’re not super happy in their couple are are more into MC)

Either way, someone snogs MC’s partner and MC gets the chance to call them out for it.

Regardless of if MC does all three dares, her partner will refuse to do two. Elladine and Tai will win the hideaway. 

Day 6:

Start with a beachhut. MC gets to say what she thinks about the girl drama, what she thinks about her LI, and how she’s feeling in general. 

Her LI is avoiding her after the beachhut and she can’t figure out why. 

It’s a chill no-challenge day, so we have some laid back bantering and goofs.

Then there’s a recoupling. It’s boy’s choice.

MC’s LI doesn’t pick her. She’s either taken by Camilo or Harry. 

Some of the other couples change but the most notable one is that Seb doesn’t pick Miki, he chooses either Viv (if she’s still here) or AJ. He makes it clear it’s just a friendship couple.

MC finally corners her LI and they admit that Miki/Elladine told them they overheard her in the beachhut saying she was going to pick someone else. MC points out that you can’t overhear in the beach hut, the LI admits they were being stupid. Depending on their relationship level, the LI either says they want to properly try it on with their new partner or stay loyal to MC. 

Day 7: 

Miki comes to MC first thing in the morning angry that MC told Seb to leave her. MC insists she didn’t do anything like that. Miki doesn’t believe her and storms off.

This is a fun detective game- if MC talks to the right people, she finds out that Harry’s the one who told Miki that and that he’s been manipulating the situation to try and win the whole season. If MC’s romancing Harry, then it’s Iona who’s doing that. If she doesn’t talk to the right people, she either has no idea or gets a few clues. 

Her game is interrupted by the spin the bottle challenge. MC either has to kiss Tai, Yasmin, or Lily/AJ (again depending on which one she likes best). The waterfall scene happens- but whoever MC kissed convinces her to sneak away to the terrace. 

Afterwards, they basically say ‘I want to couple with you’ and MC has to agree or disagree. 

Day 8:

Guess who’s here? It’s Tim. And he’s being especially annoying. He’s tasked with getting the islanders to plan the 90s party. MC gets to choose if she wants to make food (Iona, Camilo, Elladine, Tai), decorate (AJ, Seb, Miki, Lily) choose music (Yasmin, Ciaran, Harry). Her LI will follow her to any of the stations and be really cute/loving (which is either a reward for being faithful or making her guilty)

They make the party up and start it. It’s fun or whatever.

Then it kicks off with Miki arguing with Yasmin over the music, and it gets ugly really fast. 

Ciaran sits everyone down to try and ‘diffuse the tensions’, which Tim is awkward as hell about. MC gets the opportunity to accuse Harry openly of lying. If she does it’s basically revealed, if she doesn’t he gets away with it and Miki insists it’s all MC’s fault. 

Day 9: 

We’re dealing with the aftermath of last night’s reveal. Everyone’s really drained from all the fighting. 

If MC revealed Harry, her LI will come up to her and confront her about cheating. Depending on what she says, they either forgive her or break up. If MC didn’t reveal him, she gets the opportunity to confess to her LI. If she doesn’t it’s a really cute scene. 

MC gets to confront Harry about telling her LI she cheated. He says she shouldn’t be a hypocrite. 

Recoupling time babey. If MC and her LI broke up, they won’t be an option to choose. MC can recouple with who she cheated with, stay with Camilo or Harry if she didn’t cheat or didn’t tell them, or recouple with the other single person. 

Cute scene after that of them getting away from the drama. 

Day 10: 

Rafi and Nicky come in. 

If MC is still with Camilo/Harry after cheating on them, Nicky will call her out for that. If MC switched, Nicky will call them out for cheating regardless. 

Everyone’s reaction to that is generally.... okay whatever... other than the partners involved everyone’s tired of the drama and not invested at all. 

But Camilo/Harry definitely have a scene of being upset about it.

MC can escape with her LI, but if she’s still coupled with Camilo or Harry they’ll force her to sleep on the daybeds. 

Tai asked Elladine to become official, and Ciaran reacted?? really badly for some reason. 

Day 11:

The last recoupling. MC can choose to switch to Rafi and Nicky or choose her final LI. If she cheated on Harry or Camilo, they won’t be a choice. 

The big takeaways from this recoupling is that Lily and AJ officially broke up, Seb and Viv become romantic (if Viv’s still here), 

They go on their final date. If MC has already been coupled with her LI, they’ll ask her to be official. If not they’ll just be really cute. 

When MC comes back she shoots the breeze with her bestie, hangs out with the guys, whatever. 

Later, she finds Tai alone on the terrace crying. Depending on their relationship, he either tells her to go away or confesses that Ciaran came to him and said he has feelings. Tai thinks he also has feelings but didn’t act on them because he thought Ciaran was straight. He doesn’t want to break Elladine’s heart. MC can advise him to break it off with Elladine, to romance Ciaran in secret, or to just suck it up and finish the season with her. 

Two couples get voted out. Idc who, but we gotta cull the herd. 

Tommorow’s Prom!!! MC’s LI asks her to go before they fall asleep.

Day 12:

Prom shenanigans.

Miki approaches MC and apologizes, saying that now that the season is almost over she wants to make amends and not leave on a sour note. MC can accept that or not. 

If MC encouraged Tai, he’ll announce at prom that he wants to date Ciaran. They’ll kiss, Elladine will cry.

Choice to comfort Elladine. 

Sexy time with LI. 

Day 13:

Finale goes basically the same, but with a more interesting recap. 

MC wins, obv. 

[i-am-a-closet-fanfic-fiend]

Yours for the Taking ~ CEO!Bucky x Reader

A/N: Hi my lovelies, so this is not the story I teased the other night, but this one demanded to be written. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to complete something, so hopefully more from here on out. 

Now, why CEO!Bucky? Because I’m participating in @captainscanadian​ CBC 1K Writing Challenge  Go check it out and join if you wanna! I hope you enjoy this, AJ. Congrats on your milestone! More CEO!Bucky coming soon. 

Summary: You’ve been working for James Barnes for 5 years, and a position opened up that you want to apply for. Are you gonna ask for it? Or better yet... take it 

Characters/Pairings: Bucky x Reader, Natasha 

Rating: K+

Warnings: light angst, like seriously basically zero

Word count:  1565 

“I can do this. I can do this,” you mumbled as you paced in front of your boss’ office. But the pep talk wasn’t enough to boost your confidence. “I can’t do this,” you moaned quietly. Turning on your heel, you made a beeline for your desk and plopped yourself behind it, determined to busy yourself with paperwork for the rest of the day.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Natasha asked as you sat in the cafeteria with your mid-afternoon coffee.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“You’re a terrible liar. Your brow is all furrowed and that’s the seventh time you’ve sighed into your mocha.”

You sighed again and she quirked an eyebrow, making you groan.

“It’s nothing. I just, you know how I was going to apply for the manager position.”

“Yeah. Did Barnes turn you down? Do you want me go tell him he’s an idiot?” she offered, already halfway out of her seat.

Tugging on her arm, you guided her back to her seat.

“No. I couldn’t even talk to him about it. I tried to work up the nerve and every time I do, I chicken out.”

“Why? You’re perfect for the job.”

“I’m just a PA.”

“You’re not just a PA. You don’t just fetch coffee and take phone calls. You’ve helped run this company for the last five years. There’s no one better to be our new operations manager.”

You smiled at her encouragement, but it still wasn’t enough to send you marching into his office.

“Maybe I should just stay where I am. He needs me.”

“Y/n, honey, you’ve worked your butt off for the last five years. You’ve kept him going when I really thought he was going to burn out.”

“See,” you started to interrupt, but she waved you off.

“But that’s not a PA’s job. That’s what family and friends are for.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the way you support him isn’t an employee/employer relationship. You have feelings for him. And I think that’s part of why you’re scared of leaving.”

“I’m not scared of leaving,” You scoffed, but failed to meet her gaze.

“You put yourself through school and got your MBA so you could do more than be a personal assistant. You owe this to yourself. And hey, if everything goes well maybe you’ll get a promotion and a boyfriend.”

“Nat,” you hissed.

“I’m just saying, it could be a win/win. You should go for it. What’s the worst case scenario?”

“Umm, he laughs in my face. Realizes I was serious and then fires me for being so ridiculous?”  

She arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow in what could only be described as bored disbelief.

“Really?”

“You said worst case scenario.”

Rolling her eyes, she took a sip of her drink before continuing.

“The worst case scenario is that nothing changes.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Because it isn’t,” she reassured you. “Promise me you’ll talk to him today.”

“I promise.”

She grinned and patted your hand.

“Good girl. I better get back. But I’ll talk to you later okay?”

“Okay. Have a good rest of the day.”

“You too. Good luck, honey.”

Taking one last pull from your drink, you hurried back to your desk.

The first thing you saw was a note on your keyboard that sent your newfound determination skittering away.

Please come to my office. – JBB

 Making sure that you looked presentable, you knocked on the imposing oak door.

“Come in.”

“You wanted to see me.”

The CEO smiled and waved you in.

“Yes, please close the door and have a seat.”

His tone eased some of your panic, but you still felt your stomach churning.

“So, what did you need to talk to me about?” he asked as he leaned back in his chair.

You did a double take.

“Uhm, James, you asked me to come in here.”

He chuckled at your obvious confusion.

“Well, I just figured since you’ve been pacing outside my office a few times an hour all day, you might want to talk to me.”

“How did you-”

“I can see your shadow on the floor. And you would have told me if anyone else was pacing so, I put two and two together.”

“This is why they pay you the big bucks.”

Now or never, Y/n.

Taking a deep breath, you folded your hands in your lap.

“Yes, I did want to talk to you about something. I would like to apply for the office manager position, but I wanted to speak with you first.”

“I see. Are you unsatisfied with your current position?”

“No, of course not. I love my job, I love,” you hesitated, biting the inside of your cheek. “-working with you. However, I believe that the company deserves to have the best person in the position.”

James’ face was unreadable.

“And you believe that person is you.”

You sat up a bit straighter in the face of a challenge.

“I do. I know this company inside and out, and with this expansion, you will need someone as the common thread, who can see all the moving parts, and work closely with you. I believe that I am the most qualified. I have worked directly with every department in this company, and I am skilled in organization, detailed planning, and clear execution within and often ahead of deadlines. I’m also well acquainted with your preferences on how to do business.”

“Among other things,” he agreed with a smirk.

“I respectfully ask that you allow me to apply for this position,” you finished, proud of getting through without stammering.

“That was a good speech. Did you practice?” he asked, crossing his arms, causing the fabric to stretch around his muscles.

“What do you think I did while I was pacing?” you laughed, returning to the easy familiarity you enjoyed with James now that you’d said your peace.

“Well, I must admit, you make a compelling argument. And I really wish that I could let you apply for the position, but the position has been filled.”

“I see.”

The momentary soaring hope crashed, and you shoved down tears. At least you could still work with James.

You were so caught in your internal despair you didn’t notice him stand and round his desk until he stuck his hand into your line of vision.

“What are you doing?” you stared at him, bewildered.

“I’m congratulating our new operations manager,” he grinned, blue eyes twinkling.

“That’s not funny, James.”

“I’m not joking.”

“But you said…”

“That the position has been filled. By you. No application necessary. The job is yours. The board approved it last week.”

“What?”

“You were our first choice. We always wanted to promote internally, and when I put your name in for consideration, it was an easy, unanimous vote. Congratulations, y/n.”

“Oh my god. Thank you, James.”

Without thinking, you popped out of your seat and threw your arms around his neck. He froze for only a moment before wrapping his arms around your waist and tugging you closer. When your brain caught up with your actions, you squeaked and took a step back.

“Sorry. I got caught up.”

Your eyes were on the ground and you missed the faint blush across his cheeks.  

“Please don’t be sorry.”

“I can’t believe this is really happening. Thank you for believing in me, James.”

He smiled and rested a hand on your shoulder.

“You deserve it. It’s amazing how hard you’ve worked. You’ve been so much more than my PA for so long. I couldn’t let you waste your talent.”

“I’m going to make you proud.”

“You already have.”

  It took a month to find and train your replacement, and for you to fully step into your role. But Shuri was doing a great job keeping James on track, and you were eager to get started.

You’d just finished decorating your office, when there was a soft knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door swung open to reveal James. He grinned as he strolled into the office, evaluating the new décor.

“I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t remember this being on your desk.”

He picked up a triptic frame that held a picture of you and your family at the beach; one was just after graduation; and the last one was a picture of you and Bucky from the company picnic a few years ago. You’d just won the wheelbarrow race, but the second you’d crossed the finish line, you’d tripped and went sprawling. Both of you were on the ground laughing in the picture. It was one of your favorite memories.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Heat flooded your cheeks as you saw him linger on the photo of the two of you.

“I like it a lot. Now, how’re you settling in?”

“Good. It’s weird though, I know I report to the board and all, but it’s strange not really having my day bound to anyone else’s. I kinda miss you. I mean it.”

James’ expression softened.

“I miss you too. You’ve become such a big part of my life, I don’t know what to do not seeing you every day.”

You were stunned by the admission.

“So I was thinking. Since I’m not really your boss anymore, would you like to get dinner with me tonight?”

“I’d love to, James.”

Bucky beamed.

“I’ll pick you up at eight.”

“I can’t wait.”

 A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. The creative juices have been slow, so it feels good to get this out. Will reblog with tags 

[seizethesam]

Ode to an Angel-Chapter 3

A/N: Hello guys!!! Chapter three is here... I am so thankful for your comments, likes, and reblogs for the story. You cannot imagine how happy I am to be sharing my works with you. Please let me know what oy like or don’t like about the story, or this chapter. Thank you for all people who wanted to be tagged in the story! And please let me know about the songs!!! Do you like them? Xx

This chapter's song is "The Puppeteer" by Sleeping Pulse, one of my favorites.

Spotify YouTube

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Then…

“Hey, she’s waking up,” the younger man said. He looked like he was in his thirties and had dark wavy hair that he had swept back. His sounded cautious. Next to him was the older man.

“Where the hell am I?” You asked the older them; your voice was croaky from sleep.

“Good morning, my name is Hershel.” The man talked, he was much older than the other man, his hair was whiter than the snow. You did not know these people. The last thing you remembered was the sunset, the pain and a person carrying you in the dark. Maybe you did find what you were looking for all this time.

Now…

The room looked like an average suburban house room. The walls were light colored, and it had two tall and narrow windows on the opposite wall to the bed.

“What is this place?” you asked. You didn’t want to talk about yourself—no, you wanted to learn about them.

“This is my farm, we live here with my family, and this man found you in the woods.” Hershel spoke while the younger man was silently watching your every move. Hershel was cleanly shaved, making you think that they had a system here. “Your wound wasn’t too deep, but it still needs to be tended.”

“How long was I out?” you continued your questionnaire. Was there a chance that these people helped you out of the goodness of their hearts? Or did they look for something in return? The constant dilemma and the heaviness of distrust made your head feel dizzy.

“Almost a day.” Finally, the younger man spoke. He was wearing a dark brown shirt that matched his curly hair. “My name is Rick Grimes; you were pretty beat up when I’d found you. You were lucky…” He said, not knowing your name.

Lucky… What a funny thing to call someone these days.

“Y/N” you said, and Rick nodded.

You tried to get up on the bed but the biting pain on your waist didn’t allow you— not to mention the nausea. That was when you realized that neither your gun was strapped to your thigh anymore nor your knife was hanging from your belt in its rightful place.

“Where are all my stuff?” you asked both of them as Hershel let out a sigh and Rick took a step forward.

“I’ll let Rick explain.” Hershel said and left the room with sluggish steps.

He sat on the chair in the corner of the room and rested his elbows on his knees. He turned his head to you before he brushed his nose with his thumb. You were looking eye to eye.

“Like Hershel said, this is his place, his rules apply. He is good people,” his tone was persuasive, “he doesn’t want us to carry our weapons around the house, he is the one in charge... I took a risk bringing you here, and he looked after your wounds. In the time that you’re here…you have to follow his rules.”

“I won’t be staying long,” you said.

You did understand why he was strict about the weapons; he did not trust you. Well, likewise. You still didn’t know if you could trust them either. Yes, Rick had saved you, and yes, Hershel had tended your wounds. But still, you didn’t know these people.

“You got a group out there?” his tone was sharp, making you startle with the sudden question. He was looking for the right answer.

“No, I—I broke off with them,” you said, which was true, thoughts of them made your heart pound faster, pumping blood to your ears.

“Why?” Rick asked. You were being interrogated.

“They, umm,” you looked for the right words. They were assholes, and they killed my brother. No, he didn’t have to know that, “they weren’t my kind of people,” you finished.

“How do I know I can trust you?” you asked.

“You don’t,” Rick simply answered before he got up from his seat. He walked across the room and opened the door. “Your stuff is safe with me; you can take them whenever you decide to leave.” He said before leaving you alone in the room.

You didn’t know what to do with yourself. A throbbing pain was spreading around the wound. You lifted the skirt of your top and saw the bandage red with blood, your face grimaced.

You looked for a weapon that you could defend yourself with, just in case…

You checked the glass cabinet against the wall, but there were nothing but blankets and towels. Then, you checked the nightstand and saw a first aid kit bag next to the novel Great Expectations.

You opened the first aid kit in a rush and found a pair of surgical scissors. You took the scissors and placed them under your belt where no one could see.

You heard footsteps approaching your way, getting closer with every step; so you put the first aid kit back, took the book and closed the drawer jut in time the door opened.

The door of your room opened to reveal a short grey-haired woman. She was holding a tray in one hand.

“Hi,” the woman said with a warm smile on her lips, “I heard you’d woken up.”

“Hello,” you said awkwardly enough. She seemed…nice. If that was the right word.

“I brought you some food, and painkillers.” She said, laying the tray on the nightstand next to the bed.

“Thanks,” you said. you honestly surprised how genuine people were—so far. On the plate, there was a relatively large piece of meat and small amount of vegetables.

“Daryl hunts for the group, the one with the crossbow,” she said, “you’ll meet him soon.”

Your mind went to the man who helped you at the cottage. You did a quick math on how many people still used crossbows for hunting. It was low. Maybe it was him, then again maybe not. Why did you even care?

You stepped your feet on the ground, sending a wave of pain through your body.

“You should lay down. Your stitches are still fresh,” the women said.

“Thank you for your concern but I’d rather eat outside,” you said hoping that you didn’t sound too harsh, even though you didn’t know her.

You knew you needed to rest and allow your injury to heal faster, but you also wanted to see the other people of the group as well. You wanted to see if they were okay.

You grabbed the tray from the nightstand continued your steps to front door, the woman following you behind.

“I’ll leave you alone,” the woman said, apparently, she didn’t know what to do with herself either.

“I’m (Y/N) by the way,” you called out after her.

“Carol,” she replied and left.

You sat on the stairs of the front porch of the large farmhouse. Hot summer sun was shining in the middle of the sky. Just a little further across the field were an RV and a couple of tents and on the other side of the field was a barn. You spotted a tent that was further away from the others.

You watched and ate as the people of the farm went about their jobs. Some of the women were cooking near the RV; some of the men were doing more heavy jobs. It looked as if they had it all figured out.

And there you saw him; the man with the crossbow who helped you at the cottage. Daryl. Except he had angel wings on his back this time and you smiled at the contradiction. He was sitting underneath a tree, sharpening wooden sticks as arrows. You wondered if he could use those as bolts for his crossbow.

His face was serious and so still, almost like he was made out of stone, completely focused on sharpening his sticks. He must’ve felt your gaze on him as he lifted his head and looked at you. You raised your hand and waved at him, but he didn’t seem to bother. Rude.

You finished your meal, took the painkillers, and tried to get up from your place, but as you were fully standing a sharp pain hit your belly like punch, making your face flinch. You put your hand on your wound as a reflex.

“You shouldn’t be walkin’ too soon,” a female voice said from the verge of the front door, making you jump on your feet.

You turned around to see who it was and saw a young woman who was around your age and had a short dark hair.

“It’s Maggie.” She introduced herself.

“Wanted to see outside,” you said, you weren’t lying.

“I get it, not many good people left out there,” said she.

“Yeah, that’s right,” you replied.

“Our feelings are mutual; we don’t trust each other—” she paused for a second, “but we can always make room for new people.” She smiled.

“Guess so,” you said. You were amazed how people were so nice so far.

You continued your day in your room. Hershel came every once in a while, to take a look at your wound and left. Maggie came once to give you spare clothes as yours were still covered in blood and dirt.

You heard the whole group filling the house when the sun began to set. You heard them talking about deciding what to do with someone named Randall. You didn’t want to get involved with their business, but you were also curious about what was going on.

When you got in front of your door, an old man with a Hawaiian shirt was talking with Daryl, “this group is broken,” said he. You didn’t understand what was going on.

When the night had fallen, Rick and couple of men were headed to the barn, and you were back in your room. You knew they had voted for something, but you didn’t know what for.

You were sitting on the bed, adjusting the scissor hidden behind your belt when you heard a knock on your door. You quickly, lowered your top and said, “come in.”

The door opened slowly to reveal Maggie. She was holding half a glass of water and a napkin.

“Hey,” she said smiling, “dad said to bring you antibiotics.”

“Thanks,” you smiled back. You took the glass and the napkin from her. Your mind kept wandering back to the earlier meeting. “Umm, can I— ask you something?” you said just as she was about to leave, not sure if you wanted to know.

“What is it?”

“Earlier, tonight… you guys were voting. What was it for?” you asked.

She didn’t respond right away. She was deciding whether to tell it or not.

“There is this boy, Randall,” she paused, “Rick brought him here a few days back, he was hurt pretty bad. They don’t trust him ‘cause he was with a bunch assholes,” she said.

“And,” you urged her to continue.

“They were decidin’ if they were gonna let him go,” she said finally.

They didn’t trust him. They didn’t trust you. What you made from it was that they were either going to let him be, or they were going to kill him. The resolution was still a mystery. You opened your mouth to ask Maggie what they decided on, but you were stopped when you heard a scream outside the house.

Maggie looked at you before rushing to the front porch, you were following close.

“What was that?” an Asian guy appeared out of the darkness. The scream was coming further away.

“I don’t know, go!” Maggie shouted, pointing to the direction of the scream.

You made your down the stairs and tried to make out what was going on but the only thing you saw was darkness. The screams stopped a few seconds later.

 Taglist:

Then, a sonorous gunshot sound filled the darkness.

Chapter 4

@spidergirla5 @twdeadfanfic @kamieshep @sophia-gwendolyn @jodiereedus22 @purplebtsmagic @itsmanillablog  @302rocks 

[rhysand-vs-fenrys]

What makes you ignore an ask or answer it (asking because you haven't answered mine)

Let’s see, the reason I have deleted rather than answered asks lately::

Violates the “no-negativity” rule-- a lot of people in the past have been surprised that I also apply this rule to asks bashing ships I don’t hold. Yes, I’m an Elucien shipper but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow asks that shit on the Elriel ship or those shippers. We’re all (mostly) here to enjoy what we enjoy, that doesn’t have to include making others feel bad for things they enjoy too. Within this vein I’ve also deleted asks that are like “Everyone hates ______ what do you think about that”. I think it’s drama I’m not involved in because I choose to enjoy stuff. I answer ONE of these and I’m inviting people to treat me like the defense squad for a character or book. Stuff like “What do you think of the characterization of ___” I’ll put through, but if I think something will invite drama I just ignore it.

“Oh honey no” // Witness Protection-- This applies to asks as well as replies on posts. It means the thing was so stupid I’m deleting it to protect the person who asked it from being bullied. I don’t address it in any way, I don’t like DM the person who sent it (if it’s off anon), I just like help the person hit *ctrl + z* on that mistake. If I don’t agree with something I don’t agree with it, these are only the truly dumb things. An example of this from a while ago (to give you the flavor of what I mean here without anyone recent feeling bad) was back in earlier 2020 when Maas posted a call either for people to be sure to get their votes in for the primaries or perhaps like “don’t forget to register to vote” kinda thing (one of those) I shared the IG post and someone commented saying that because Maas’ followers aren’t all from the US and/or eligible to vote she shouldn’t be posting stuff like that because “we’re not all from the US you know” (so Maas should only post stuff that’s 100% relevant to every individual follower). And that’s just... dumb.

Posts as asks-- Sometimes people send me things that aren’t asks so much as their own post fully formulated, sometimes with a little “what do you think” tacked on. Stuff like that generates discussion which leads to more asks in the vein and new followers who interacted with the post, etc. That’s fine and all but I’d rather the person who sent the ask make that a post on their own page so that they can get those asks and discuss that topic as they’d like and gain followers who are like-minded and want to discuss this. It doesn’t mean I don’t, I just think if it’s already a fully formulated post the person should put it out there and own it. You can always @ me in the post or replies/comments if you’d like me to see it. I’m not reblogging posts that are huge blocks of text lately (*awkward smile at the asks I can’t seem to answer in a succinct way including this one*), but if I think one of my mutuals would like it I’ll forward it over to them.

Repeat Asks-- You guys don’t know what is in my inbox, how could you? Lately there have been a few times where I open up my inbox and I have what is more or less the same ask, just from 2-3 different anons. Feel like my answer to an ask labors on a point that isn’t the focus of the specific ask I’m answering? It’s usually because there’s a second ask that covers almost the same ground and I’m including the variant in their ask in another.

Those are the only things that come to mind. I won’t reveal what the “Oh honey no” ask was, which is why I reached so far back for an example of what those look like, but yeah.

I hope that answered your question!!

[ohshcscenerios]

Beach House

Chapter Twenty Six - Choose Your Own Adventure

Result of previous poll: Read to find out ;-)

Hikaru and Kaoru arranged the fireworks in neat rows in the sand, twisting the cardboard tubes into the sand to make them stand on their own. One by one they lined their grand finale beneath a dark sky, commemorating their wonderful weekend at the beach with an explosive display. 

Haruhi sat upright with her arms supporting her leaned postured on a beach towel, watching the twins laugh and tease each other in the distance coaxed a smile. She enjoyed watching her friends behaving as their real authentic selves, no matter how silly or foolish or even conniving they truly were. She always respected those who valued themselves over other’s opinions, who stuck to their own guns despite what they heard whispered behind their back. 

Haruhi had her fair share in ignoring the whispers when she was young. Her classmates couldn’t - or wouldn’t - understand her father’s profession as merely a profession and it in no way negatively reflected his character. He may favor women’s clothing and fashion but he was the only father God gave her and she would never sneer nor betray that. 

Her friends may have been raised in luxury and blissful ignorance but they were also genuine, curious, and most of all accepting of others. When she joined their group all those years ago she never expected the six young men parading across a dark beach to become such essential figures in her life and yet here she was, depending on them just as much as they depended on her. 

She loved them, respected them, and wished nothing but health and success for them... and yet she felt her heart yearning for one in particular. 

She couldn’t say when she first noticed her growing feelings. Years ago? Months ago? This very weekend? She couldn’t say. Her feelings felt brand new and yet they weighed heavy in her heart as if she had carried them for a long time without knowing. It was so foreign and yet... it felt right. 

She watched Kyoya and Tamaki bicker a few feet away, arguing if they should quickly buy more fireworks. Tamaki was not quite ready to say goodbye to this weekend and Kyoya knew he was trying to use his anxious energy to stall for more time. Kyoya insisted they bought enough and they couldn’t risk disrupting the locals. They couldn’t end this weekend with a surprise visit from the police. 

To her left Takashi and Mitsukuni were building a sandcastle throne for Usa-chan to rest in during their firework display. Mistukuni was cheerfully giggling as Takashi playfully kept knocking down the same sand tower. They were technically men, functioning citizens who contributed to Japan with their earned degrees, and yet they could reach into their inner child to enjoy a sandcastle. 

As their weekend came to a close Haruhi was forced to think about what would happen next. Next week. Next year. She tried to illustrate her five year plan in her mind’s eye but could only paint out a lonely office stuffed away in a gray building. 

She had always worked hard to achieve her goals and even now she wouldn’t slow down but thanks to this very interesting and revealing weekend she also considered what she was working hard for. She couldn’t waste her years satisfying a boss and her clients. She needed someone to truly make it all worth it. She needed to come home to someone to talk about her day, enjoy a relaxing night in with, share a few laughs, and receive a sense of purpose from. 

She decided... she needed him.

Because in the end it would always be him. 

Hikaru ran towards the group with Kaoru close behind, carefully running a corde along the sand. As they got closer Hikaru waved his hands while flashing the biggest smile she’s ever seen spread across his face. 

“We’re ready! Everyone take your seats!” He shouted excitedly. 

The twins dove into the sand, piling atop each other just inches from the beach towel they lied down as their spot. Mitsukuni finished patting down his sandcastle and propped Usa-chan in the make shift seat and situated his blanket beside it, sitting crossed legged nest to his stuffed friend. Kyoya opted in sitting in a wooden patio chair instead of the cold sand and Tamaki fluffed his beach towel right beside him. 

Takashi took out a lighter and clicked a flame to life, shielding it with his hand. Carefully he brought it to the cord and lit the fuse. Instantly lively sparks danced about and raced down the long fuse toward the long row of fireworks. 

“Here we go!” Kaoru cheered, throwing his hands in the air. 

Takashi took his seat behind Haruhi and gently slid her backwards between his spread legs so he could hold her close. She welcomed his embrace and rested her head against his naked chest, momentarily focused on the rise and fall of his lungs. 

One firework shot into the sky with a whiney whistle before exploding in the night sky, spreading neon green flares across the beach. Before the flares could disappear into the darkness another firework whistled through the air and exploded bright pinks and purples above them. 

Haruhi had to admit it was a very fitting way to end their vacation. Their wacky, confusing, thrilling vacation. The vacation she would come to remember as one of the most important moments in her life. 

The sky above them lit up in brilliant colors. Blues, greens, purples, reds, and blinding whites littered the night sky, veiling them beneath a a ceiling of light. 

Takashi leaned forward and kissed her cheek once- twice- and a third time for good measure. Maybe to convince himself that she was really here with him, in his arms. Maybe to further express how much he adored her. He didn’t know and he didn’t care. 

He hovered by her ear and spoke loud enough for only her to hear, “Haruhi, I love you.”

She turned to face him with a sheepish smile that quickly grew more confident once she met his happy gray eyes. Even in the dark of night she could see his beautiful eyes. The fireworks reflecting off his dark irises, teasing the idea that a person’s eyes truly were a window into their soul. 

She knew his soul to be beautiful, kind, loyal, gentle, and above all loving. He best expressed himself through actions, not needing to rely on words to illustrate his thoughts, and yet he had just spoken three very important words to her. 

Haruhi decided to respond in a way he understood best. She leaned into him and pressed her lips against his, slowly tasting the remnants of mint toothpaste and the salty air mix together for a unique flavor. He pressed back, placing his hand on her nape to draw her closer - if it were possible. 

He softly snared her lips between his, gently tugging at her supple skin as he kiss her. He slowly savored her, taking his time in tasting her unique flavor. He wanted to burn this memory in his brain, remember every touch and sensation that sparked through his body whenever she kissed him back for years and years to come. 

He never expected their weekend to end like this but he thanked every higher being for his golden chance to win over his love. 

A forced cough brought the couple back to reality just before the big finale, or as the twins named it. They said the Americans bundled together multiple fireworks to be set off at once as the show ended. Kyoya could only pray the locals didn’t send a policeman to their front door. 

Haruhi glanced at Kyoya and had to do a double take, almost missing a very interesting development. Hidden underneath his chair’s arm rest Kaoru rested his hand on Kyoya’s. Although they weren’t necessarily holding hands Kyoya didn’t move to jerk his away. 

Haruhi smiled, happy to see love sprouting in more ways than one. Perhaps she and Takashi weren’t the only lucky ones. 

The big finale was nearly deafening but the twins were right, the display left them in awe. Everyone’s jaws hung open as they watched the fireworks chaotically overtake the night sky. 

Takashi tightened his hold her waist and kissed her head before resting his chin on her head. Yes, this weekend would be remembered as a very important vacation for years and years to come. 

This concludes our Choose Your Own Adventure story! Thank you to everyone who liked, commented, and reblogged. You made this experience so much fun for me and for others around you! I hope you enjoyed this story and it’s ending. 

The poll asking if you’d like to experience another Choose Your Own Adventure story again had an overwhelming response and it was a landslide! Everyone but one voted yes! This means you can look forward to another interactive story in the near future. 

Until then, have a good night!

[honeymoonjin]

day 13

I have come to realize the weight of your warning all those weeks ago in regards to the contestants remaining at the villa and how it might very well be a double edged sword rather than a blessing. You can see that slowly coming to fruition throughout this chapter. And as much as I want to tackle that potential mess of a final scene (because golly do I have feelings about that bit!) I want to talk about our lady first. 

It feels as though you are determined to write her into becoming my favorite character in this entire story. I’m sure by now, it’s rather apparent how much I love how you portray her with such complexity so instead I would like to take the opportunity to talk about how some aspects of her personality is drawn out in different scenarios that she is presented with in this chapter. For example, given the scene in the kitchen, she was the voice of rationality and the most empathetic of the three characters present. The scene stood out to me because this is the second time that Jungkook had snapped at her without provocation and it seems that she is determined to keep a cool and level head despite the fact that it is so clearly hurting her. It’s an interesting choice. I wondered as I kept reading the chapter if you had chosen for the scene to not escalate beyond that because it’s not in either Taehyung or our lady’s nature or if you had decided that there would be no need for it to escalate because Jin was going to defuse Jungkook in the next scene anyway. I don’t think I recall our lady being confrontational in any scene prior so perhaps it wouldn’t have happened either way. Still, I don’t know why but it just seems as though the words that Jungkook said should have elicited more of a reaction. Hmm, there’s a chance I’m simply projecting… haha! 😅 This is not to say the scene was not good; quite the contrary. I’m just trying to work through my feelings for the scene by breaking it down. 

Which brings me to Jin and Jungkook trying to break down their feelings in an impromptu counseling session. Jin gets such a wonderful chance to shine in this scene. I really love his vulnerability and candidness. It feels reminiscent of Yoongi confiding in Jin or Namjoon confessing his feelings for our lady to Jimin; each of those scenes offered the members a chance to get in tune with what they were going through internally but also offers a glimpse into their stance with the other members of the house. I was surprised when it’s revealed that Jungkook may have become attached to more than one person in the house; I can’t help but wonder if all the hard work Jin had put in to calm Jungkook down would go up into smoke if he were privy to the pact that the threesome had agreed to at the end there. 

When I said that that final scene could be so potentially messy I mean in the sense that when the other occupants of the villa were to find out (because, let’s be real, we all know that “keeping a secret’’ is just a smoking gun waiting to go bang) things are bound to get ugly. And all this is with characters who are 1) very aware of the potential consequences of their actions and 2) the nature of the show going into this scenario. And yet against better judgment they do the most human thing and give in to their desires. It’s heartbreaking thinking about the train-wreck this could lead to. I’m worried, scared, anxious, and any other synonym you can think of for “feelings of trepidation” for the days to come. (And, yes, I said “days” as in, there is no way that these 3 are gonna be able to carry this on for more than a ½ week at best! The proverbial shit will hit the fan before the week is out; I’m calling it now! There’s too much tension built up, especially after the elimination round!)

That being said, I had a wicked fun time reading this chapter! 🤩 I know I made some hard stances this time around (something I typically don’t like doing because if I’m wrong, my reviews don’t age as well) but maybe I’m in the mood to play devil’s advocate. Because as much fun as it is to theorize, nothing is more gratifying than when I don’t see something coming. Your ability to surprise me has always been one of your strongest attributes and I hope I will be proven wrong. Not for sake of shock value but for the chance to see the story being pushed to places I could never imagine myself. I have not been disappointed yet, and I don’t expect to be anytime soon, if your track record is anything to go by. Thank you once again for your continued hard work. Your confessionals this week might be some of my favorite to date (Yoongi’s rant session, Jin’s “non-existent” items on the grocery list poor Sejin, Lady Mango’s new tricks, Jin’s full denim ensemble for Y/N, members’ sleeping habits). The quality of this series continues to blow me away and I am just grateful to be a part of it (aka off to vote!). Thanks for weaving your magic. 💜 Jan

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ooh i was supe curious to see how everyone took this chapter, so you don’t have to worry about taking hard stances. i was absolutely expecting it ! 

we’re starting to, after almost two weeks, enter the stage where people’s flaws, poor judgement or clouded emotions are beginning to seriously impact their time on the show, and so i know for sure not everyone will be happy with the character’s choices, or the way things pan out.

that being said, i can’t help but enjoy writing some of this angst or the setups, because even i don’t exactly know where they’ll end up. fan favourite and elimination change a lot, and so it’s exciting turning on a ticking time bomb with yet no concept of how long it has til 0:00. 

it’s really cool to hear your interpretation of yn !! i think to a huge degree her non-confrontational efforts come from her being very aware that they’re all stuck together, and the guilt that she’s already going to have to systematically vote them out (jk certainly gave her quite the reminder). will that last? who knows. but for now, she’s doing her best to make room for the fluctuating emotions of the others. It’s also very very funny that you note about wondering what would happen if things escalate bc of a future chapter i have planned but shhh you didn’t hear that from me

that jinkook scene is perhaps more important than it initially appears, but we’ll see why in future chapters ;)

once again thank you for writing such a thoughtful review!! and extra thank you, because i saw the confessional ask you reblogged w those tags you absolute sweetheart ;;-; i hope you’re keeping safe and healthy, and i’ll look forward to posting a new chapter either on saturday or tuesday (most likely tuesday)

[ask-de-writer]

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : Part 24 of 83 : World of Sea

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

Part 24 of 83

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2020

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users   of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may   reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information   remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in   my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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“We understand, Kurin.  May we talk again?”

“I would love to.  Could we go aboard the Dark Dragon or the Soaring Bird?  Your ships are so different from ours, I would enjoy seeing how they are built.”

“It shall be so.  You will see both ships to your heart’s content. Until we meet again, Dragon’s Gift.”

Chapter 7: Betrayal

After a few inquiries, Kurin found the man she was looking for.  “Captain Mord!  Someone is spreading Ship’s Business to sailors of other vessels.  Some Fauline deck-hands interrupted me while I was talking to Captains Sula and Huld about Cat.  They asked about feeling the bottom and they were rude to me.”

“This is very serious.  Are you sure that they knew our Ship’s Business?”

“They asked me to teach them to feel the bottom.  Then they asked if I knew where the crabs were because they pinched.  It means they know that I map the bottom and they connect that with our crabbing.”

The Captain’s eyes hardened.  He cupped his hands and called out, “All Longin officers, to me!  Now!”

Folk materialized like magic.  In few words Captain Mord relayed what had happened.   They fanned out to search for the one who was spreading tales.  

It was not long before they caught him in the act of giving a comic but unfortunately accurate description of the deep-sea crab fishing. First Officer Kotance and the Officer of the First Night Watch grabbed him and removed him by main force.  They asked three of the listeners to come with them as witnesses.  All of the Longin’s crew were recalled to the ship.

Their booths were shut.  It was an almost unprecedented event.  

Before the assembled Officers and crew of the Longin, the witness were asked what they had heard and who they had heard it from.  Two of the three did not know the person by name, but had no trouble pointing him out. The third not only pointed him out, but named him.

“It was him, there.  That Silor fellow.  Has a great way with a tale.  I near split when he told us about trying to hang onto those big crabs as was trying to scuttle back over the side.  And there was that bit about what a pain the big crab traps was to handle, before the boat-wrights fixed up the boats with lifting tackle and special transoms.”

“Don’t forget about the maps!” put in one of the others.  “He told us how the white-haired girl, he said he called her Current ‘cause she should flow away and not bother him any more, tied up the entire ship for over a full Wohan making pictures that she claimed were the bottom.”

“Yes,” said the last, “and don’t forget how she says that the sea ‘talks to her’ and tells her where she’s at and what the bottom’s like.  Said, if it’s true, then that’s witchcraft — — maybe Dragon magic.  He says that the Captain is under her spells and that’s why his lead deck-hand job was taken from him.”  

The witnesses were paid for their time and inconvenience, and courteously returned to the market.

Silor’s defense, that all he had done was tell a few harmless tales to entertain friends fell on deaf ears.  The deliberations were short and to the point.  Seeing the possible damage to their own profits inherent in his indiscretions, even Silor’s friends abandoned him.

His mother and father, stone faced with shock, anger and sorrow, cast their votes against him.  Silor tried to reach out them.  Tears on her cheeks, his mother did give him a brief hug.  She pushed Silor away from her and his parents turned their backs to him.

Silor was given ten minutes to get his possessions on deck.  There, they were searched, to be sure that what he had was his alone.  He was bound, arms behind his back, and taken, duffel and all to the bazaar. The Longin’s crew made a lane through the throng, to the central square, in front of the Council Pavilion.

A tocsin drum beat “general quarters” to get attention.  Captain Mord Halyn strode sternly back and forth as he addressed the throng. “Silor Elon Longin stands before you.  He was tried and convicted by the Articles of the Longin, for the crime of willfully revealing Ship’s Business.  Disclosing the business in question was voted as an expulsion level offense.  He was physically present at the meeting of the ship where that vote was taken.  He knew the penalty.  

“From this hour forth, we expel him from the Longin.  He has no place with us, now or ever.  If he is found again on the Longin or any craft belonging to the Longin, he will be summarily executed.  If he enters any booth of the Longin or its crew, he will be stripped and thrown out.  We are done with Silor Elon, and take his Ship Name from him.”

To the slow tocsin drum beat of the ‘Funeral Farewell’ the crew dispersed to reopen their booths and get back to business.

Silor was still in shock.  He was standing, arms bound behind him, in front of the Council Pavilion.  The only people talking to him were taking great delight in saying dreadful things.

What was been said to him was bad enough that he got Captain Sarfin’s attention and found to his horror that the rumors were true.  He might die.

His mind was racing with questions.  No Ship Name?  It could not be! How did the little Dragon-witch do it?  How did she turn my whole ship against me?  It was my life!  Why does she hate me so?  There are Elon Clan folk everywhere!  None of them have ever been so dishonored.  What will to happen to me?   As the Council drums began summoning the Captains of the fleet, he had a chilling premonition.

Chapter 7a: Exile

The Captains, by ones and twos, filed into the Council Pavilion, by necessity, walking past the frightened Silor.  Some of them looked at him with pity, and some with disdain.  Captain Mord Halyn, who had been his captain for as long as he could remember, the person that he had trusted more than any other, save his father and mother, stalked by him, face averted.  Even Captain Barad Maks, of the Grandalor, who had bought him many meals in the past, walked by with studied disinterest.

What occurred inside the pavilion would have surprised Silor, if he had been able to overhear it through the multiple layers of cloth, meant to prevent just such eavesdropping.  Captain Sarfin, of the Dorton, whom many called ‘the Wise,’ held up his hands for order, in the time honored way of the Naral fleet.

When the Captains had quieted, he said, “This Council was called by Captain Mord Halyn Longin.  As it is his Council call, I turn the meeting over to him.  Captain Mord.”  He graciously stepped away from the Place of Honor, yielding it to the Captain of the Longin.

Mord stepped into the Place of Honor, unhappiness written large on his face.  He turned to the assembled Captains, paused to gather his thoughts and began,  “I have called this meeting to discuss the fate of the young man outside.  We cast him out as the Articles required us to.  It does not mean that we do not care.  In fact, we are heartsick at this turn of events.

“Only rarely has a man been cast out of his ship in the Naral fleet.  Most times, no ship would take them.  Men have drowned when the rafts and anchorage floats were returned to the sea floor.  Nobody on the Longin wants to see that happen to Silor.

“The Elons have a long and illustrious service with this fleet.  I know that two of you here are of Elon blood.

“We, of the Longin, have asked you all here in the hopes of finding him a berth.”

As the other captains squirmed, Barad stood up for attention.  Mord, having little choice, pointed to him.

The Grandalor’s Captain pretended both concern and caution. “You have cast him out.  Are you not afraid that he will reveal your Ship’s Business to others?  That is the offense for which he was cast out, was it not?”  He was thinking to himself, Silor must not know much, or this plea would not be happening.  Still, one who hates, and knows even a little, can be useful if properly handled. This will have to be done carefully, most carefully.

Mord replied, confirming part of Barad’s suspicions, “It was the offense.  Most of our Ship’s Business that he is privy to, he has already told, and it is now common knowledge.  For the rest, he at most knows that a thing can be done, but not how.  He was a lead deck-hand.”

Barad scratched at his bearded chin, then scratched behind an ear, buying time, it was something that he’d heard — — —  “Lead deck-hand?  I thought I heard something about that — ” he trailed off looking innocently at Mord.

Mord was alarmed at this exchange.  He was afraid for Silor’s life but he was bound by oath to tell only the truth in this Council, “He was one of the youngest lead deck-hands in the long history of the Longin.  At only fifteen, he held that post for over a Gathering.  He only lost it over a matter of discipline, less than a Wohan ago.”

“Oh, what did he do?”  Barad asked in mock curiosity.  He was well aware of the answer.  He made it a point to know all could be known about the Longin because of his hate.  Silor himself, for a bit of sympathy and some free food, had been a steady source of information for five Gatherings.  

Barad did not hate the Longin for its success.  His grudge had a different, and far older source.  Barad had become a laughing stock in trying, unsuccessfully, to get back at the Longin by attempting to cheat them over the course of many Gatherings. Oddly, that did not bother Barad particularly.  He could admire the skill with which he had been meshed in his own nets.

Mord replied stiffly, “He fell asleep while on watch, putting our live cargo at risk.  Instead of trying to hide the problem, he sent for aid.  It took eleven more men three hours to remedy the problem that developed.  He volunteered to, and did, stay on watch and help until it was done.”

“I see …” said Barad, pretending hopefulness.  “Perhaps he has an apprenticeship?  He is of a good age for starting a Craft.”

Mord was forced to admit, “None of our Crafts would take him.”

“Then I’m sorry,” said Barad actually managing to sound so, in spite of inner jubilation, “I don’t see how the Grandalor can take him. We do have standards.”

He sat, to a wave of sniggering from the other captains over his remark about the Grandalor having standards.  He did not care.  Only one more thing was needed, and he hoped it would come from someone else. He had done what was required.  Silor’s fate was sealed.

Mord could see it too, and he was crushed.  He had done all that he knew how to do.  By the terms of the expulsion the Longin could do nothing more to help Silor.

As Barad hoped, Sarfin stood up.  In a sudden hope, Mord pointed at him. Sarfin had many times earned his nickname of ‘the Wise.’  “There is a way out of this for both you and the lad, but it won’t be cheap.  By your Articles, you are forbidden to help that young man or even acknowledge him in any way whatever — but the fleet can.  We can give him a good fishing boat with a day cabin to protect him from the weather, a small still for water, a few week’s provisions and some reasonable fishing gear.  The nearest fleet is the Pallant, and they’re only about a thousand miles away.  If he just generally heads west he should be OK.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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[colourfullsims]

Big Brother Challenge: Casting Call

I’ve been dying to do a challenge myself after watching everyone else doing Bachelor/ette and Love Island challenges, and since Big Brother has become a recent obsession curiosity of mine, I thought I would give this a try. I will be accepting 10 sims for my Big Brother Challenge! For those who have never watched Big Brother (definitely read the rules under the cut), the objective is to be one of two remaining houseguests at the end of the summer and be voted Big Brother. Houseguests get voted out each week after playing competitions and voting people out. The twist is that you never know what your fellow houseguests intentions are; someone you thought was on your side can be secretly convincing the house to vote you out for the week. Will your sim be able to keep an invisible hand on the houseguests’ puppet strings, or will they lose their chance at half a million simoleons?

I’ll be picking 5 male and 5 female sims to enter the Big Brother house. I’m aiming to have the houseguests come from all walks of life, so try to make your sim unique! Great info to include in your submission is:

Basic bio information (name, age, gender, sexuality, race, hometown, occupation, etc).

Personality type (outgoing, shy, serious, goofy, friendly, mean, etc).

Any relationships they may have at home (parents, siblings, romantic partners, children, etc.)

Their gameplay strategy going into the house (will they try to win competitions, will they focus on social game, would they get into a showmance?)

Any random facts that you’d like to share (I may work them into the posts if they’re relevant!)

Also, I’ll be accepting young adult aged and up sims, so don’t be afraid to make elder sims! The more different the cast is, the more interesting it will be to watch their interactions with each other! 

Please keep any CC used on your sim (besides skin details) limited to their everyday wear, and Maxis Match or Maxis-ish. Dress all remaining categories with DLC (I have all packs except for MFPS so go crazy), that way I have a sense of their style! 

I’ll be keeping submissions open until Saturday, July 6, 2019  at 11:59 PM EST, or until I have enough submissions if I don’t get ten in time. Tag me in your entry so that I can check it out, and if I haven’t reblogged it within a day, just message me a reminder (it may have gotten lost in my notifications). Below the cut will be my version of this challenge’s rules for anyone who wants to try this too!

Big Brother Challenge Rules

I’m following a modified version of these rules for this challenge. The setup will be similar to the US version of Big Brother: houseguests will be placed into the house and left to their own devices. Only the basics for survival will be placed into the house; beds, showers, toilets, fridge, seating space, etc. There will be no access to the outside world in the house, so radios, tvs, computers, books, and phones are off limits (unless needed for the week’s task). Each week will follow the same schedule:

DAY 1 - 3: HOH COMPETITION 

The Head of Household competition takes place during the first three days of the week. During this time, the skill building object of the week will be placed in the house for the houseguests to interact with. Some houseguests may decide to neglect this weekly task and will suffer for it later. At the end of day 3, the houseguest who has the highest level in that week’s skill will be made HOH, granting them immunity for the week, access to the private HOH room, and the power to nominate two houseguests for eviction. Runner-ups from the competition (top 30%) will be allowed to sleep in the nicer of the bedrooms. Middle of the pack (mid 30%) will sleep in the average bedroom. The worst performing houseguests (bottom 30%)  will become that week’s Have-Nots, forcing them to sleep in the Have-Not room on uncomfortable beds, cleaning up after the other houseguests, and only allowing them to eat slop for the week (for this challenge, I’ll be using fruitcake lol).

Houseguests cannot be HOH two weeks in a row, so the winner of this week will have to sit out next week’s HOH competition.

DAY 4: EVICTION NOMINATION

Day 4 will be used as time for the HOH to decide which two houseguests they would like to nominate for the week. All skill building items will be removed from the house to encourage the houseguests to socialize. Nominations will be determined by relationship; the two houseguests who have the worst relationship with the current HOH will be nominated for eviction at the end of day 4. Nominees will lose 10 points of relationship with the HOH.

Nominations can be further influenced by any potential alliances the HOH may have (see more info on alliances below).

DAY 5: VETO COMPETITION 

The Power of Veto competition takes place the day after nominations. During this time, the HOH, two eviction nominees, and three randomly drawn houseguests will participate in a skilled task following the theme of the weekly task. The random draw is done in correspondence with the HOH and nominees, and in the event that the HOH or nominee pulls “Houseguest Choice” they will choose the houseguest with whom they have the highest relationship. All six sims will be directed to complete the same task. Whoever completes this task the fastest or with the highest quality will be awarded the Power of Veto.

DAY 6: VETO MEETING

The Veto Meeting is an opportunity for the Power of Veto holder to take one of the nominees off the block. Immediately after the POV competition, skill building objects will be removed from the house again to encourage socialization. During this time, the POV holder will autonomously build or deteriorate relationships with the other houseguests. At the end of day 6, the POV holder will decide whether or not they will use the veto on either houseguest. 

This is not always straight-forward: if the current POV holder has alliances, they may vote in their group’s favor, which could override their personal preferences. In the case of 3 or more high relationship alliance members having a low relationship with one of the nominees, the preference of the POV is overridden to stay in the good graces of the group (this is only canceled out by showmances and bromances, see more below).

If the POV holder decides to use the veto on a nominee, they will come off the block and are safe for the week. The HOH must then nominate another houseguest as a replacement, again choosing who they have the lowest relationship with out of the remaining eligible houseguests (no one who was just taken off the block or who was granted immunity elsewise is eligible). If the veto is not used, nominations stay the same.

Nominees will lose 10 points of relationship with the POV holder if they were not pulled off the block. Conversely, nominees gain 10 points of relationship if the veto was used to save them. Any houseguests nominated as a result of a veto nomination (aka, being backdoored) will lose 15 points of relationship with the HOH.

DAY 7: EVICTION VOTE

The majority of the last day is used for houseguests to socialize. This is the nominees final chance to build better relationships with the houseguests, and potentially sway them to not vote them out of the house. At the end of the day, both nominees will be allowed to directly interact with each houseguest to plea their case (I’ll be having them do one friendly interaction with each houseguest). After that, the votes are given in the diary room. Neither nominee is allowed to vote, and the HOH will only vote in the case of a tie. Houseguests will vote to evict the nominee they have the lowest relationship with (or in preference of their strongest alliance, see more below). The house guest with the most votes will be evicted from the house.

If a houseguest’s favorite alliance member was voted out of the house, they will lose 25 relationship points with the HOH and POV holder. The next week starts up with a brand new skill object, and rinse and repeat!

JURY

Five house guests will be kept around to participate as the jury for the final two houseguests. These will be the last 5 sims to have been evicted from the house (during weeks 4 - 8), who will live in the jury house until the finale. During their time in the jury house (1 week of play time) their relationships with the other evicted houseguests may sway their final vote (if they have little to no relationship with either of the final two, they may vote in the preference of their favorite jury member).

END GAME

When the final three sims are in the house, they will battle in a three way competition for the final HOH. HOH will then have to decide which houseguest to evict, based upon relationship. The final two will then be put up for judgement by the jury (see above). All five jury members will have one final chance to interact with the remaining houseguest they like the least (to ask why they think they should win). After each jury member have given their final question, they will submit their votes in an envelope. One by one their votes will be revealed until the vote is at least 3 in favor of one houseguest. The winner will receive 500,000 simoleons, and runner up receives 50,000 simoleons!

ALLIANCES

Alliances are one of the staple ways that houseguests determine how they play the social aspect of the game, and they can be formed in several different ways.

Showmance

This is the strongest of the alliances. If two houseguests become romantically involved, they become a showmance. Showmances will do anything to keep one another in the game; they will never nominate each other for eviction, will always use the power of veto on the other if they end up on the block, and will always vote in their partners preference for the eviction vote, especially if their partner is HOH or has a bromance member on the block. However, showmances make you a target, and each week a showmance remains together results in houseguests losing 5 relationship points with the couple at the start of the week. Will override any other alliance.

Bromance

Bromances are formed by strong friendly bonds; if two houseguests have a high friendly relationship status (high enough to perform the “Become Best Friends” interaction), they become a bromance. Bromances will vote in their partner’s favor for eviction votes and will never put one another on the block. Unfortunately, bromances will not use the Power of Veto to save their bro if they are both on the block. Bummer. Being in a bromance also places a target on your back, and each week the bros stay together results in houseguests losing 5 relationship points with the partners in crime. Will override group alliances.

Group Alliances

Group alliances are different from the other two alliances in that you can be in multiple group alliances at once. If a group of 3 or more sims is caught hanging out for extended periods of time and becoming friends, they are considered a group alliance. Being in these alliances doesn’t guarantee any type of safety from nomination or eviction, though. Groups flip all the time and alliance members can be caught playing multiple sides of the house. 

When nomination time comes, an alliance member can potentially put up a group alliance member if they are more invested in another group alliance (have stronger relationships with a different group alliance, bromance, or showmance member).

Group alliance members might not take an alliance member off the block if their relationships with another group is stronger.

Group alliance members may vote an alliance member out of the house if their relationship with the other nominee is better, or their showmance partner’s friend is the other nominee.

VIEWER INPUT

There will be opportunities each week for the viewers to vote for certain twists to be released upon the houseguests. These twists can make the game more challenging for the houseguests, or even save them for that week if used wisely. I’m still working out the actual rewards and punishments, but each week you can vote for:

Viewer Favorite: Viewers can vote for their favorite house guest for the week and grant them a power up. Power ups will give the sim an advantage in the game, possibly extending their longevity.

Viewer Villain: Viewers can vote for their least favorite house guest for the week and curse them a punishment. Punishments are designed to attack the sims game and put them at risk of eviction.

And that’s it! This is definitely a more complex version of the challenge, but I think that it will make the overall storyline of the competition more entertaining to watch, especially because elements of these rules will push houseguests into bad moods and make some enemies. I’d love to have one of your sims as a contestant in the challenge, so send those entries in!

[spacevikingdeathstar]

I Am Angry

I don’t usually do this, posting about myself or my life. I’ve been lurking in the Tumblr realm for years but only actually started interacting properly a few months ago - and only to reblog other people’s posts, with and without my own commentary. However, I felt the need to rant and, given my area has just shut down because of the shitstorm going on globally, my only option is screaming into the void here on Tumblr. 

A little background you may need to make sense of this rant: I am a 29 y/o full-time college student living in the American Southeast (smack in the middle of the Bible Belt, ugh). I’ve suffered from severe depression and socia/general anxiety 20+ out of those 29 years and have only just begun to heal and interact with other human beings in the last year or so.

Last night I was taking about what’s going on in the world both locally and internationally with my mom. I was kinda ranting about how badly the US government has dropped the ball and all the ways in which our so-called leaders are making everything worse for us lowly peasants. When I get upset, I get loud, my voice raises in pitch, and I tend to rage-cry. These are all things my mom knows about me, this isn’t new information. Yet once again, as always, when I got upset, when I got loud, she told me to calm down and don’t yell at me and I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. For the record, I wasn’t yelling at her. I wasn’t really yelling at all. My voice did get loud, I will admit, but rather than admit that this was an upsetting situation, she told me to stop. Stop being upset, stop being emotional, stop trying to connect with her. 

I know this isn’t what she was trying to do; she was trying to calm me down. However, for as long as I can remember, every time I’ve gotten upset and shown that to her, she has shut me down. When she says don’t yell at me or calm down all I hear is your outward show of emotion is inconvenient to me and I want you to stop. It’s always been like this and it always has the exact opposite effect of what she wants - I just get more upset and more loud. Recently, I’ve taken to not talking to her at all when I’m upset; if I need to convey information I text because you can’t hear volume or tone in written form. If I get upset in the middle of a conversation, I cut that conversation off and leave. This, in turn, upsets her because she feels like I’m cutting her off and distancing myself from her. And I am, I admit it. But that’s only because every time I try to connect to her, I - and more importantly, my emotions - get dismissed. And I have no idea what to do with this.

I have a large-ish extended family, but my mom is the only one I’m close with or even interested in being close with. She’s a very warm and accepting person - normally - but is totally unable to connect with me or accept my emotional life if it at all inconveniences her. Maybe she’s just too empathetic and my being upset upsets her in turn and she’s trying to stop that from happening. Maybe she’s just not used to having to deal with me being emotional (I was dead inside for most of my childhood and adolescences on top of being an Aspi and so not taken to frequent emotional outbursts). She was mostly emotionally absent most of my teens but we’ve been building a better relationship now that I’m an adult. However, I don’t know how close I can be to someone who systematically shuts me down every time I try to make a connection in any way other than fluffy positivity. 

I just don’t know what to do.

As for the reason I was so upset - the Covid19/Coronavirus bullshit - I feel like I am absolutely in my right to be angry! We should all be angry! We should be furious about how our government has failed us and seems set to continue to fail us in the future. The fact that so many people are ambivalent about it outside of if or how it affects them personally is disgusting - though probably a function of just how inured to catastrophe we all have become. Our so-called media is designed to actively brainwash the population with lies and propaganda - it’s all sensational entertainment, not real news - and so many Americans drink it all up like mother’s milk, letting it dictate to them what they think, what they do, who they vote for. 

We’re running head-long into apocalypse and no one is pumping the breaks. The failure of our government to successfully handle this crisis is not the cause of impending country-wide collapse, it’s a symptom. This crisis has shined a spotlight on just how little our “democracy” cares for the people (hint: little to none). Covid19 has destroyed what was left of the illusion of governmental competence to reveal the man behind the curtain and shown him for the ineffectual clown he his. And I don’t just mean Trump - everyone (or at least everyone with two brain cells to rub together) has known how much of a clown he and his administration is, was, and has always been for a while now. Unfortunately, it seems as though not everyone has those two brain cells and, so long as his ineffectual “leadership” didn’t personally effect them, a lot of Americans were willing to ignore it. That’s beginning to change as the country begins to shut down and the masses start pointing fingers and questioning who to blame. Maybe this’ll be the wake-up call America needs to make mass, overarching, and sweeping change to all aspects of our governance and public policy. 

I hope so, yet still I am angry.

I sit here and read about Italy, I read about Britain, I read about China. Then I look outside and watch the hundreds of cars driving by on the interstate and know we aren’t doing enough. We aren’t taking enough actions to stop this pandemic from spreading - and our entire country is going to pay for it. I watch the news and see our government bailing out big businesses and banks to the tune of 1.5 trillion while letting it’s citizens suffer. In a capitalist society corporations are people, actual people are just commodities to be used up and discarded and nothing highlights this more than a government demanding everyone stay home while simultaneously denying them any help with bills, food, rent/mortgage, healthcare. I see posts of individuals begging for help because they’ve been laid off but their landlord remains unwilling to work with them. I see people posting from the hospital with an oxygen mask over their face and having every single symptom of the virus - yet unable to get tested - and can only conclude the systematic denial of tests is in effort to keep the “confirmed” cases lower than they are in actuality. I read about the Trump administration resolutely cutting 700,000 people from their access to food stamps - despite the growing number of people losing their jobs as the country shuts down and the lack of employment opportunities country-wide. I read about how some people are wanting to organize a general strike - but fear it being ineffectual in a economy where so many are desperate for jobs. What’s to stop these corporations from simply forcing their striking employees back to work like it’s 1890 and the Pinkertons have been hired? Whats to stop them from simply firing anyone who dares to go on strike - en mas, if necessary - and hiring any one of the tens of thousands of people who will be desperate for a job at that point? Nothing, that’s what.

And I am angry. 

Maybe it’s a function of the belief that all negative emotions are bad - that people shouldn’t show anger, feel anger, express anger. Maybe that’s why every time I give voice to what I feel, I am shut down. Maybe that’s why I am told “maybe you should stop reading/watching the news” rather than “maybe we should do something about this”. Maybe everyone else is too numb to be angry, or to apathetic to do anything about it, or feel too disempowered to know what to do. 

But I am angry.

I am also scared and feeling powerless, like so many others. I am doing my damnedest to not allow this imposed isolation and the abject horror of our situation negatively effect my mental health - the last thing I need is to fall back into depression. But every time someone tells me to stop watching the news, stop following what is going on across the world, stop researching how the political candidates for American presidency are reacting to this crisis - I want to yell NO! No, I will not stop. No I will not put my head into the sand and ignore everything around me to make myself feel better. No, I will not stay uninformed. 

I didn’t vote in 2016. I’m ashamed to admit it, but there you go. I was in a really bad place that year and trying to follow the political debates took a chisel to my already fracturing mental state. So I did what everyone told me and stopped reading the news, stopped following the candidates, stopped getting upset over “politics”. And when November came around, I didn’t vote. I didn’t know anything but hearsay about Trump or Clinton and so couldn’t make an informed decision - and I was unwilling to make an uninformed decision. I was told this was the best option given my mental health; that when the planes are going down you need to put your own oxygen mask on first before concerning yourself with other people. This is sensible advice, as far as it goes, but I don’t think that it’s wholly applicable these days. Given the state of the world and the people who propose to run it, I think the advice to stay away from politics because it might upset you is the absolute wrong one - at least for myself. Going back to the downed plane metaphor, such advice more closely reads as: stick your fingers in your ears and sing real loud while the plane goes down in the hopes that it will all go away. Ignoring it won’t change a thing and, given everything going on right now, getting upset about “politics” is the most sensible reaction there is. 

So, I am angry. 

And I will not stop being angry just because it is inconvenient to others. I will not stop being angry because my emotions make others uncomfortable. I will not stop being angry because I was told to. I will not stop being angry by ignoring the world around me. 

I will not stop being angry until our government - the so-called world leaders of freedom and democracy - get their collective shit together and begin treating their people with the respect and dignity we all deserve. Until the richest country in the world starts acting like it and providing their people with the basic rights afforded to all other peoples of first-world countries. Until public policy is created for the betterment of all people, not just to pad the pockets of the ultra rich. Until the foundations of our crumbling democracy are rebuilt to truly create a government for the people, by the people. 

I am incandescent with rage.

And I will not calm down. 

[sometimesrosy]

Hi Rosy, I didn't want you to get involved in a other drama but it seems to me that you've been in this fandom for a while, and there's something I don't understand. First, what do you think of the Ship Alliance created by S*chin? Is it a good idea ? I don't doubt that it starts from a good intention but with this fandom nothing is easy. [1/3]

[2/3] Then why do I see a lot of people on twitter say that the cast hates B*llarke? I've been watching the 1oo since 2017 and maybe I missed things, but even today except R*chard who was not cool with fans in a convention, L*ndsay who said bc would be boring, E*iza with his "b*llarke sh*t" and T*sya who just defend the ship in which her character is part of. I don't understand no, it's just their opinion, you don't have to agree with everything.

Hi Rosie, I didn't want you to get involved [3/3] Regarding J*son I don't read interviews and i don't take seriously his tweets or reblog whatever but I don't think he hates bc either. I'm just trying to understand why there is this generalization, I know that with the ship war in 2016 things were awful and everyone evolved feel miserable and that now many have lost hope and are disappointed but well. Hope you doing okay, love your meta about the show !

Yeah, I’ve been around. And I used to get involved and look for everything they said and all the tweets and interviews. I don’t anymore. And more than not getting involved in the cast and crew’s social media presence I really don’t want to be involved in the FANDOM’s interaction with cast and crew’s social media presence, because fandom keeps trying to draw the cast and crew into their shipwars and other nonsense. Fandom won’t LET anyone be positive, because the problem is, if they are positive about one thing, someone else will feel they are being slighted, and turn them into the enemy. If Sachin loves Tasya and tweets about how great she and her character are, it’s seen as being against Bellarke. Because fandom HAS to pit themselves against whoever is “against” their ship. 

When I first saw Sachin’s initiative, I was like cool. Go for it! Then I read the comments and I was like. Oh God. Not again. You Fucking ASSHOLES. 

The cast does not hate Bellarke. They don’t hate bellarkers. They might very well hate the people who harass them. That is not just bellarkers, for sure. People are pretty awful to other people in this fandom, maybe in all fandoms, maybe on the internet, maybe irl, too.

I have personally been involved in multiple fandom initiatives to be positive and spread positivity in this fandom. You know what happens when you make a concerted effort to BE positive here? People come out of the woodwork to attack you and make you miserable, to hurt you, to call you names, to destroy you. Every single time. 

This is why I gave up on the bulk of fandom and just retreated to my geeky little corner here and stopped interacting so much, or debating, or reading reviews, or twitter. 

I actually DO take Jason’s tweets and interviews seriously. Remarkably, he’s the one who’s statements are actually the most revealing of the coming story. He doesn’t hate Bellarke. At all. He’s a big fan. That’s the story he’s telling, but fandom doesn’t like the pacing of his bellarke story, and they don’t like the journey of it, and they don’t like the various obstacles, and they don’t like the genre of it, and they especially don’t like that he’s FINE with it the way it is and is not concerned about making Bellarke bone right now, because he’d rather spin out the story, keep the tension going, than give in to a fandom that acts like toddlers having a tantrum. He is more interested in his show and his story and his vision of bellarke than he is in fandom… and for a fandom that thinks the story is about THEM, that is an offense. And makes him the enemy.

As for everything all cast members have done “to” the bellarke fandom… I think we should remember that the cast members are all human beings. They relate to the show not through shipping, but through their jobs, their colleagues, the characters they bring to life, the people they work with, the intensity of filming, the scripts, their scenes. The show is actually not just about bellarke, and if the actors relate to the story through other characters and other ships, it is offensive of the fandom to demand that their otp gets all the attention.They have other concerns in their life than fandom and one particular ship, whatever ship that is.

Sachin defended Tasya because Tasya was being attacked by fandom. This is not an offense against fandom. This is not Sachin causing division. This is fandom behaving badly and harassing people. Now he wants to reconsider the way he relates to fandom and start this initiative, and people are attacking him as a villain.

He’s not a villain. He’s an actor. And not a big one. He’s just a guy with a minor role on a cult tv show, trying to use his small realm of influence to do something positive. 

I never should have read the comments on his tweets. Because what I saw was that it’s not the cast and crew that are the bad guys in this fandom. It’s the fandom. And fandom refuses to consider their own biases, actions and choices in the drama that we keep getting drawn into. They continually blame other people for their own behavior, justifying the harm they cause by saying other people are responsible. This is not true. Fandom is out of control. And none of us can control the rest of fandom. We can only control ourselves, and what we allow into our fandom experience. Jason and the cast are not evil because they tweet something shippers don’t like. Starting a war because someone tries to be positive and create the fandom they’d like to interact with is NOT the role of a good guy. 

We don’t DESERVE to get the ship we want to bone just because we love them. We did nothing to earn that deserving. Just existing and watching a tv show, even voting in polls or tweeting about it doesn’t mean we DESERVE our otp to be endgame. We are not entitled to it. It is not ours. This story belongs to someone else. Jason. And the rest of the cast and crew. It’s THEIR story. They are creating. We’re an audience. They are not owed our praise, our attention, or our love. They have to earn it by telling a good story. We are not owed the story we think we should get. 

I actually got an ask about Sachin yesterday and didn’t want to answer because I would be negative after seeing the fandom reaction. But I’m sure you all saw the negative reaction on your own now. Sachin is not a bad guy for wanting to be positive. We are the bad guys for seeing someone wanting to be positive and then turning around and tearing him apart for wanting something better. And this is what keeps happening in fandom, again and again. It is exhausting.

I am honestly surprised that I have not lost any followers, but have continued to gain, steadily, because I pretty much hate 75% of fandom now. And I’m not particularly quiet about it. I’m rude. I flat out insult fandom and refuse to be drawn into their nonsense. I’m sick of the meangirls and the burn books and the shipwars and the pettiness and immaturity and the gossip and ignorance and self involvement and entitlement. Oh my god the entitlement. As they accuse JR of causing all the division and bad feelings in fandom while completely ignoring their own actions and dismissing their own aggressive, disrespectful, demanding, cruel, relentless, entitled attitude.

No one should be allowed to comment on any tweet or post without first asking themselves, “what role do I have to play in this? am I doing the right thing? how have I contributed to this? am I correct in my thinking?”

ugh. i rant. this is all the same bullshit we’ve been dealing with the whole time. fandom disgusts me.