#i thought i was making this project for me but apparently my cat needs to test drive it first

[uncanny-tranny]

I'm reblogging this with the addition that my cat is sleeping next to me as I crochet, and as I've been moving down the row, she's being swallowed up by the fabric and she looks so happy as she naps.

I wonder how many animals have slept near their person, just basking in each other's company. I wonder how many ancient people have invited their animal companion to be beside them, and I wonder how many animals have slept under the fabric their person is making. None of this is new - we have all loved in this same world.

And another thing that gets me about the human condition is how we weren't even meant to survive this world alone - humans with humans. We chose to trust certain animals, to nourish them, to be symbiotic with them, to love them like we love ourselves. I think a lot of people talk about how selfish it is for humans to take advantage of animals, but I think that's too simplistic. It's closer to friendship - if you do not foster the relationship, then it simply won't go anywhere, and I think the implication that animals can't ever know anything for themselves, for their survival, is also human-centric and selfish (selfishness not inherently being a bad thing).

It's just nice to know that we want to be around people - we want to be around comfort and security and safety so much that we now have animals by our side. Every time I cuddle with my cat, I think that we weren't meant to survive this world alone; she is shaped to fit in my chest, and my arms were made to wrap around her.

[these-posts-arent-real]

(masterpost link)

Aaand we have returned to the madness on a larger scale! What are these cats up to...

#sighh #i know i've been away from dash sim posting for a while #was dealing with my last few days of school #but #that is Over Now #i can return to fulfilling everyone's need for Warrior Cats But Tumblr

57 notes

🐦 s3afow1s--sc0wl Follow

PLEASE stop talking about the most recent TTDV slates without spoilers, it hasn't made its rounds to ShadowClan yet and I don't want to know what's going to happen before I read it!!!!

#ttdv discussion #ttdv:rp #through the desert vast #ttdv: rattlesnake path #ttdv #through the desert vast: rattlesnake path #especially since i heard the newest slates have seafowl in them a lot #he's my specialest guy...

9 notes

🔁 🛤 carnation-stem-02 reblogged

🍲 ex-thundrclan-kipper Follow

I think the worst thing about no longer being a Clan cat is that a lot of the time I have no idea what y'all over there are talking about. What is TTDV?

🦁 lionsight-x3 Follow

TTDV stands for Through the Desert Vast. It's a new slate series everyone's going bee-brained over... I haven't read it yet because I prefer for a series to be finished before reading, but I've heard good things. Queer rep within the first couple chapters of the first slate-set, a non-traditional setting and cast (a rogue group living in the desert), and complex characters... needless to say I'm excited for when it finishes and I can read it!

#it's been on my to-read list for a while #maybe this is a sign #it seems pretty cool #ttdv

2,070 notes

🔁 🐦 s3afow1s--sc0wl reblogged

⛰️ fc-rockpaint Follow

In honor of Through the Desert Vast becoming popular, I've decided to make a rock-dye project on all of the main characters. Today's character is... Seafowl!

Unfortunately I don't have the right paints to portray him accurately (I haven't been able to find any white herbs for his patches, but I'm still on the lookout!) but this is mostly accurate to how he is described in the slates.

🌠 nightshade-tast3s-yummy Follow

Pssst... @s3afow1s--sc0wl

#eeeek! seafowl! #i looove him so much... my precious boy... #art #ttdv #ttdv seafowl #thanks for the tag!

162 notes

🔁 🌻 l1llyst3m reblogged

🌻 l1llyst3m Follow

Aahhhh I've finally gotten into TTDV and... NOBODY was gonna tellme that one of the characters is heavily implied to be transfem? Nobody thought I'd find this interesting????

🌻 l1llyst3m Follow

SCRATCH THAT. IT'S CANON. PIT VIPER IS CANONICALLY TRANS.

🐚 hermitcrabfriend Follow

I had wondered if you were talking about Pit Viper when I saw this post a cople days ago! Apparently so ^w^ yeah, it's canon, gets confirmed in the second slate set.

🌻 l1llyst3m Follow

This makes me wonder. Why is everyone on this site talking about Seafowl saying he gives "egg vibes" when we have. An actual confirmed trans character. Right here.

Nothing against Seafowl but the only vibe he gives off to me is traumatized.

🏞 trouttail-prefers-bass Follow

He's your typical prettyboy cishet protagonist type and everyone is pissed off that he's a side character rather than ttdv's ✨️specialest boy✨️. So they're trying to make him special by claiming he gives off trans vibes when he clearly does not and is happy as a tom.

🌻 l1llyst3m Follow

#wait till op reads rattlesnake path

What do you mean by that-

#what do you MEAN by that— #im gonna need context #is this /pos or /neg #does something bad happen in rattlesnake path?? #help someone pls #through the desert vast #ttdv

103 notes

🔁 🥬 rxttencatmint reblogged

🥬 rxttencatmint

Im so fucking irritated... my mom wont let me read TTDV because it's "inApPrOpRiAtE." Which. Of course. Is because it has lgbtqia+ characters.

🥬 rxttencatmint

WONDEDFUL NEWS. MY MENTOR LET ME BORROW HIS COPY OF THE FIRST SET. AHHHHH!!!!! I GET TO READ IT!!

#YIPPEEEEE #òwó im so exCITED!!! #ive been wanting to read ttdv for a whileee #i love my mentor sm

5 notes

🪵 i-eat-moss Follow

My unpopular opinion (TTDV:RP SPOILERS INCOMING)

Keep reading

#ttdv:rp #ttdv #rattlesnake path spoilers #ttdv spoilers #ttdv:rp spoilers #nothing against pit viper!!! #i like her as a character #i just dont get why we got a whole book explaining her backstory

203 notes

🐚 hermitcrabfriend Follow

I LOOOOVE RATTLESNAKE PATH SO MUCH. IVE JUST GOTTEN TO READ IT AND IM SO EXCITED. OMG.

Not only is it a whole set dedicated to my favorite character !!! like a dream come true!!! It ALSO contains good intersex rep (Ball Python my beloved!!!). Over all just a FANTASTIC set in a fantastic series.

12 notes

🌱 dirtdigger-23 Follow

I'm... back?? I'M BACK ON CLANBLR!!!! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO

#i thought i'd never get back #stuck on Tumblr...

0 notes

🍽 the-post-maker

I hope y'all enjoyed this insight into what the cats do when they get fandom-y... and if you want to discuss TtDV further... well, there's a server for that ;) now back to your regular dash

[doe-eyed-fool]

Fallen {Chapter Three}

Alastor x (fem)Reader

Warning: Very ooc Lucifer (I made the first few chapters before the series came out)

"Redemption?" I wonder aloud. "Yes! This is my hotel, and here, me and my staff help sinners better themselves for a chance of being redeemed!" Charlie says enthusiastically. But it didn't make much sense to me. Why would sinners care about being redeemed? Could they even be redeemed?

That sounded impossible, unheard of even. But held my tongue, clearly this was a passion project of hers. I wouldn't want to spit on her dreams.

"How...nice." I say with a smile. "But may I ask why you would do all this?" Charlie's eyes lit up at the thought of me being interested in knowing more.

"I believe that everyone deserves a second chance to be good. Everyone has good in them, even if they don't believe they do. And I think, with a little help, we can shape them into the best versions of themselves as they can be. Then they can get into heaven after all their hard work on improving."

I almost couldn't believe the words coming from her. She seemed so kind, so, not demon-ish at all! I couldn't help but wish her luck. She really believed that the sinners and demons of hell could be better people. In some ways, I agreed. I do believe people can change and be better. But, a lot of those creatures out there were here for a reason.

"So, are you here to check in?" Charlie asks me. "Uh, I-" I was cut off by Alastor. "Why yes, she is!" I shot a concerned glance at him. "Wonderful!" Charlie claps excitedly. "Come on, I'll give you a tour and introduce you to everyone!" Before I could protest, Charlie grabbed my hand and began walking.

Before she left with me she turned to Alastor. "I'll be back to help. We mainly just need to fix the place up from our last extermination." Alastor nods his head. "Of course my dear. Take your time." Charlie gives him a thumbs up before walking me away.

What was Alastor up to? Charlie showed me different areas of the hotel, and even introduced me to the staff and guests. First I met Vaggie, who turned out to be Charlie's girlfriend. She was pretty abrasive, but Charlie told me it wasn't anything personal towards me. Other than that, she was a fine demon and she clearly loved and cared about Charlie.

Next I met Angel Dust, a spider demon, he was uh...Something else. Smug too. I tried to keep my eyes on his and not his skimpy clothing. Apparently he was a porn star. I felt bad for him. Mainly because I was concerned for his safety. But he looked like he could handle himself, hopefully.

Then there was Nifty. She was nice, and very hyper. Excited to meet me and become friends, her singular eye looking me up and down frantically.

Before I could finish talking with her and move on to the next person, she picked some lint off of my dress. A clean freak I suppose. I said my goodbye before meeting the last person on Charlie's list. His name was Husk, a cat demon. And a rather rude demon at that.

He had no interest in meeting me or even spare a glance my way. Charlie apologized for his behavior before leading me back to the lobby.

"We can work on getting you a room shortly. I just have to make sure everything is all set first. Things got a little out of hand after the extermination. Then we had some demon attack us right after, thankfully Alastor got rid of him. In quite the horrifying way..." She laughs weakly before clearing her throat. "Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your stay with us."

I only offered a false smile and nod. "So, I've been meaning to ask." Charlie begins. "How do you know Alastor? I mean, everyone knows him, but you seemed to actually be friends with him." My mind blanked for a moment as I tried to think of a explanation. "Uh well, Alastor kind of helped me out a bad spot." That seemed to have caught Charlie's attention.

"Really? What happened? If you don't mind me asking." She asks. Darn. "Well, he...Uh, I was lost. Yeah, I got lost and, he helped me. I'm sure you know how hell is. So...dangerous and and all that." Charlie nods. "Trust me, I know." She chuckles. "Being the princess of hell, I'm aware of a lot of things that go down on a regular basis. But not everything, my dad knows way more than me." My eyes go wide for a second.

Did she just say princess of hell? Does...does that mean her father is...

There was a knock on the front doors of the hotel. "I'll get it! Excuse me for a moment Y/n." Charlie says before heading for the front door. She straightens out her suit before opening the doors. "Welcome to...Oh, hey dad." Standing before Charlie, was a demon.

But not just any demon. This demon was known by all, in heaven, hell, and earth alike.

This demon, was none other than Lucifer himself. But could that really be him? He looked nothing like how I thought he would. For one thing, he was much...shorter, than I picture him to be.

Charlie's takes after her father's looks, as he had the same pale white skin, blonde hair, and rosy cheeks to bring it all together. They even shared the same eyes. When he spoke, it only sent more surprise and confusion through me. "Charlotte! How have you been?" His voice was a higher pitch than I imagined.

Not deep and masculine, but not feminine either. Somewhere right in between. "I'm fine." Charlie says with a weak smile. "What uh, what are you doing here?" She asks carefully. "I just wanted to check on my daughter. This year's extermination was no joke! The angels were relentless, I haven't seen so much carriage in a while." Lucifer walks past her into the hotel lobby, he looked around. "So, this is the hotel you've been working on."

Charlie follows after her dad, nervously fidgeting with her hands. "Yep." Lucifer chuckles. "Adorable." He says with a shake of his head. Suddenly his gaze fell onto me and I froze in place. "A new guest of yours?" Lucifer glances at his daughter for a moment. When she nods he looks back to me before approaching me. My breath was caught in my throat, my hands began to tremble.

He was but a step away from me, he looked at me with a grin. "What might your name be, little demon?" He asks. I couldn't bring myself to speak, my cowardice only seemed to have amused Lucifer. "Well? Are you going to tell me?" He smirks.

I glance over at Charlie, I don't know why, but I was hoping she could help me somehow. But she only kept her gaze on the floor, holding her arm close to her side with a nervous expression. I turn my attention back to Lucifer, who was still waiting for me to give him my name.

Finally I swallowed the large lump in my throat and speak. "Y-Y/n." I murmur. "Y/n." Lucifer repeats leaning in closer to me. His eyes bore into mine, his grin dropping slightly. "Strange..." He narrows his eyes. Suddenly Alastor's voice caught our attention.

"Lucifer, my good fellow! I had no idea you would be stopping by!" Lucifer looks over his shoulder before his grin returns to his face. "Alastor. Always a pleasure." He thankfully moves away from me and towards Alastor.

I could finally breath normally again, my heart wouldn't calm down as it thumped harshly against my chest. "I thought I might pay this place a visit. After all, it means so much to my daughter." He was far shorter than Alastor. Though, Alastor kept his same respectful demeanor when talking to Lucifer.

"Of course." Alastor nods. "It's quite the hotel. Very...Unique." Lucifer laughs at that. "You're right about that my good man."

Lucifer glances back at me as still talks with Alastor. "I thought this place would be in shambles after that extermination. Turns out my daughter can fend for herself after all." Charlie's expression fell at his words. "Anyhow. I should be on my way. Lots of work to be done, and business to attend to." He walks past Alastor and back towards the hotel entrance. "Oh, I almost forgot." He stops just before the door.

"Alastor? You haven't seen anything out of the ordinary lately have you? I ask because I know how attentive you are when it comes to anything new and unusual."

"Hm. Afraid not. Why? Has something occurred that I should know about?" Alastor asks. Lucifer shrugs. "I can't be sure. But I could have sworn I saw something quite strange fall from the sky early this morning." I noticed that Alastor's smile tightened slightly. "A new sinner?" He asks.

"Perhaps. Though, I've yet to see a sinner with such unordinary wings." Lucifer said lowly. My heart dropped down to the pit of my stomach. "But then again, I am so very overworked." He sighs. "Must have been my imagination."

"Maybe so." Alastor says calmly. Lucifer's smile turned sinister. "I'll be seeing you around, Alastor." He says before stepping out and closing the door behind him. I stare at the door unblinking, my hands trembling.

I look over at Alastor, despite his smile, I could tell he was upset. I would have asked if he was alright, but Charlie walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry about that." She sighs. "I didn't know my dad would ever come here. He's never been interested in my project, I guess I shouldn't have let my guard down. Are you alright?" She asks me.

I nod my head. "I-I'm ok." Charlie offers me a small smile before taking my hand. "Let's get you to your room. You can relax for a bit."

[sanjoongie]

𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚏 & 𝙽𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚣

🐍Pairing: Snake Familiar! Seonghwa x Witch! Reader (f) x Cat Familiar! San

🐈‍⬛️Genre: Fluff, angst, adventure

💧Au: witch au, supernatural au, fantasy au, familiars au, shapeshifter au, magical au

🐍Trope: savior love

🐈‍⬛️Rating: PG-13, MDNI

💧Warnings: mentions of familiars bonded against their will, escaping from an oppressed warlock, magical abuse

🐍Word Count: 2,147

🐈‍⬛️Summary: when a seemingly random cat and snake show up at your front door, you're pulled into a whirlwind story that poses you as the hero for the two

💧A/N: to my dearest Haru @stardragongalaxy. I hope your birthday can be a good one. You are my strength when I am feeling down. That's apparent with this tiny plot bunny that's been alive between us for almost a year now. Floof and Noodz have always been there to comfort me and that's because of you. I'm finally breathing some life into that story so that we can both share in the comfort of them. Happy Birthday!

You stepped out of your humble cottage by the sea and breathed in deeply of the salty air. You stretched for a moment, enjoying the tranquil morning before heading towards your tide pool. Inside was coral, kelp and mini sea creatures. You frowned when you saw your seahorse in the top right quadrant. Why did your tidepool project that you were going on an adventure when the most you planned to do was shuck some mollusks?

Then you saw the most peculiar thing while peering over the stone wall of your land. A very black cat was making its way over the black sand dunes surrounding your home. You thought perhaps he was lost but his path appeared very determined. Must be someone’s familiar out and about. You confirmed such when you spotted a pink collar around its neck. 

Satisfied that there was nothing wrong with the world, you went to your shed to acquire your sturdy boots and some strips of cloth to tie back your sleeves and skirts, and grabbed a basket you had weaved of dry grass. 

You made your way to the cliffs that always had a good amount of mussels clinging to the rock, swinging your basket and humming a pirate’s ditty under your breath. Thinking of how you also needed to resupply your storage cupboard of the pretty black mussel shells, you aimed to pick big ones, hoping that the insides provided for a good supper later as well. 

Oddly enough, the black cat you had spotted early chose a spot high above you on the rocks, watching you with dark eyes. You tipped your floppy hat in greeting and went back to your work. You found an awful lot of mussels, huge ones, a better haul than you had ever acquired and started to get suspicious. 

You stared at the black cat, unblinking and licking its paw, a little too casually. Every witch knew black cats were bad luck. You froze in alarm when the pink collar around the cat’s neck began to move but that’s when you realized that it wasn’t a collar. In fact, it was a tiny pink snake that had wound itself safely and securely around the cat’s neck. It slithered until its small head was on top of the black cat’s, tongue slithering out, scenting the air around it.

Curious but well aware the pair were none of your business, you made your way back to your cottage. You worked on the outside water pump, luring fresh water to wash most of the salt water from the mussels you had gathered. You shrieked and fell on your ass when the same black cat from the rock’s was suddenly on top of your pump.

The black cat raised its hair and hissed back at you. “Well, that’s not a very nice hello,” You muttered under your breath. 

The snake and cat exchanged a look. Suddenly, with a poof of golden starred smoke, the black cat changed into a human. “You’re the one that screamed because of me,” the man pouted when he spoke.

The snake was still in snake form, around the black-cat-now-man’s neck still. He was dressed in a flowing white shirt and tight black pants but he didn’t like he was in the best of shape, the clothes quite shabby and bags under his eyes. His dark hair was long and he shook it out of his face. He sported a chain that connected from his ear to his lip, piercings in both parts there. He was quite handsome. You shook your head. That was besides the point. 

You brushed yourself off of sand as you stood up. “And you, sir, are on my land, without permission.”

The man stood a bit straighter at the formality. “Mistress Witch, with your permission, my companion and I are seeking refuge. Would you allow us a day and a night on your land and in your cottage? Allow us to break bread and drink merrily at your table?”

You sighed. It was a harmless but formal request. The fact that he had responded in kind to your language meant that he was definitely a familiar and knew of the laws that governed all the witches and warlocks. 

“A day and a night is granted,” You agreed. You sent a dirty look at your tide pool and you could have sworn your mini dolphin sassily flipped in the water in response. 

The black cat introduced himself as San and the snake was Seonghwa. San immediately hauled the collection of mussels inside, aiding in shucking them while you chattered about a few recipes you contemplated cooking them into. 

The silence lulled and your eyes were drawn to the sparkly eyes of the snake around San’s neck. “Will your companion be joining us?” You wondered.

San ran a fond finger over Seonghwa’s scales. “He’s…shy. He’ll probably stay in his snake form for our visit.”

Seonghwa raised his head off of San’s collarbone and flickered his tongue at you. Then he slithered down San’s shirt, into his sleeve, and stuck his head out from the cuff of San’s sleeve. His tongue flickered again and then he looked back at San.

“Seonghwa says you taste like good magic,” San supplied. 

You laughed abruptly. “Do I?”

San frowned, unsure if you were mocking him or not. “You could say we’re not used to that.”

You tilted your head. “Wait. You’re truly seeking safety? You weren’t just offering a formality?”

San scratched the back of his head, avoiding your gaze. “It’s just for a bit. We won’t inconvenience you longer than we agreed on.”

If San wasn’t going to supply the reason for needing safety, you weren’t going to pry. You’d had your fair share of people passing through. So you cooked up the mussels in a wonderful white wine and ate in companionable silence with San. You were about to wash up the dishes but San insisted on doing that too. He was quite polite for a guest. 

Then as day turned into evening, and there was only the snap and pop of the fire while you sat in front of it, you found yourself lulled into a sense of warmth by the fire and fell asleep. You woke up to shouting from San and it was not a nice way to wake up.

“Seonghwa! Stop eating that right now!” San protested.

You blinked your eyes clearly and found that Seonghwa was three quarters of the way through chomping down on your imbued narwhal horn that acted as your staff. You stood up quickly, magic sparkling from your fingertips. 

San stood in front of Seonghwa immediately to stop you. “Wait, I know how this looks!”

“Like I offered you safety stupidly and now you’re stealing my staff!” You growled.

At this point, there was simply the tip left to consume and you took a step forward. “Either he stops or I’m about to suck you both into such a strong, magical maelstrom you won’t know up from down.”

“He can’t stop once he’s started, I’m sorry,” San apologized, “We’ll help you replace your staff.”

You watched with a heavy heart as the pink snake finished consuming your staff and shrunk back to his teeny tiny size. Then he slithered up San’s leg and found his place back around San’s neck. You narrowed your eyes at the offending creature. 

“That staff has been passed down from generation to generation. I use it to push away big storms or to help wrecked ships! There’s no way--”

“There’s a warlock after us who is looking to suck away all our power for himself!” San shouted suddenly.

It took you a moment to process this information and still it didn’t quite hit home. “What?”

San sighed heavily and took a seat in one of your wonderfully constructed, ‘filled with sea-foam’ chairs. He wiggled until he was comfortable and then began. He spun a tale of how Seonghwa and he were powerful familiars. They had not bonded with any witch or warlock. Then one day they met a warlock with a charming grin. He introduced himself as Hongjoong. The warlock was indeed powerful, but with a familiar already. The hawk Hongjoong held on his arm was Yunho but he didn’t look good; his feathers weren’t healthy and Seonghwa sensed something wrong with the hawk. San and Seonghwa both declined to agree to a bond with Hongjoong but as it turned out, Hongjoong didn’t need them to agree. He was capable of twisting familiars to be his without an agreement. The two had been fleeing from Hongjoong since they fought with the warlock. 

“Is that why Seonghwa ate my staff?” You demanded tiredly.

San nodded. “I’m sorry. It was like an instinct for him. I had fallen asleep too after the yummy meal you made us.” He sent you an apologetic smile. 

You stood up, unable to sit down any longer with the energy inside of you. “I’ll have to cast a spell. Perhaps a magical fog to suppress your auras. That will keep you hidden for a bit, at least. But you’ll have to stay here.”

San frowned at you in confusion. “Why would you help us? Especially when Seonghwa just ate your staff?”

“I… I will not stand for anyone to be bullied,” You said adamantly, “This Hongjoong must be stopped.”

San raised his hand to run a reassuring finger down Seonghwa’s head but found that there was no snake around his neck. You both looked around in alarm but as it turned out, Seonghwa had slithered to your chair and was hovering on the arm of it. You inched your hand forward, pulling back when Seonghwa’s head reared back, but when you offered your hand palm up, Seonghwa slithered until he was coiled up in the palm of your hand. 

You brought him up to your face, still not pleased with your staff being eaten. “You, sir, are going to have to do a lot of apologizing.”

Seonghwa, whether in response or simply to taste if your magic was still good, flickered his tongue out at your nose, almost kissing it. “Seonghwa!” San scolded him.

You glanced towards San. “Did he… say anything?”

“He says the narwhal horn tasted yummy and he was wondering if you had more for him to eat,” San admitted.

You couldn't help but laugh despite the situation. You shook your finger at Seonghwa. “No more magical item consuming, please. If you want me to help you with Hongjoong, I’m going to need all the help I can get!”

You went outside, about to pass Seonghwa back to San but instead, the snake wound himself around your wrist instead. You lifted your eyebrows up at San but he shrugged, not sure what Seonghwa was intending. 

You raised your arms and called upon your powers to summon a fog that could cloak everything it touched. The fog appeared along your ankles and swirled around the sand until finally you couldn't see the sea or anything outside of the limits of your land. When you were done, you looked down to see Seonghwa was shining, iridescent and neon pink. You looked over to San, whose eyes were now shining a bright purple. You checked your inner well of magic and it was like you hadn't cast a very large spell at all.

“Did you help me?” You took a shot in the dark.

“It’s the least we could do,” San smiled, showing some dimpled cheeks. 

That night you slept in your hammock, hanging up a spare for San in the sunroom of your cottage. But when you woke up the next morning, from a tickle on your arm, you found that San had turned back into a cat and had curled up on your chest. You stretched for a yawn, holding San very carefully and depositing him into the hammock where he remained slumbering as a cat.

You moved into the kitchen and found a very tall, pink-haired man standing there. He turned around and shot a pink beam of magic at you, which you very quickly ducked out of the way. 

“Oh--no! I’m so sorry! That was instinct! I didn’t mean to harm you!” The large man’s eyes began to shake in worry. 

“At least I didn’t--” Your mouth shut when you saw the hole that was now in your fireplace. “Oh, Seonghwa.”

The black cat bound into the kitchen, meowing loudly and entwining around your ankles in comfort. Seonghwa smiled painfully, “We’ll help you with that too.”

You rubbed your temples in worry and tried to smile back. It was going to be a bit before the two of them trusted you but perhaps a few fumbles on the way would build a rapport between the three of you. Only time would tell and you hoped you had plenty of that before Hongjoong descended on you all.

[project-sekai-facts]

if you have enough to type a full post about it, could you make one on how project sekai could be a psychological horror if you thought hard enough about it?? it sounds super interesting

Okay like, first off the SEKAI are kinda. Creepy if you think about it. Like yeah this is the embodiment of your feelings. Or a feeling. School SEKAI is a school because a lot of their issues surround school (Saki not being able to attend, the other three distancing themselves during middle school, etc). MMJ gets stages and VBS gets a city because those are good places for them to perform. None of those are too creepy honestly but then you get to Empty and Wonderland and it’s like. Yeah.

Mafuyu’s SEKAI is just fucking Empty. It’s an endless void with a few random objects here and there. And also a marionette that apparently spawned in when the SEKAI was made. Yeah the thing that triggers Mafuyu’s panic attack in Captive Marionette has been in her SEKAI this entire time. Made from her feelings so it’s justified but like that’s not the most pleasant thing. Also the fact that the embodiment of her feelings is a void and it doesn’t really change is just. Harsh.

And Wonderland like it’s just so full. All the plushies that express how Tsukasa feels and all of his childhood memories and feelings everywhere.

SEKAI created by a single person but shared by many aren’t the most private thing ever. But also just having a world dedicated to your emotions is fucked up in itself ESPECIALLY with the one-creator SEKAI. Because like, that’s you. Don’t like it? Fuck you I guess

On top of that there’s the fact that SEKAI don’t disappear after the owner dies. They’re just there now. Someone submitted this to me ages ago and it’s still sitting in my inbox because I want to wait for the 2nd anniversary fes cards to release because they go into more details about this but like. Yeah. That’s so fucked.

The Virtual Singers especially like they don’t age and don’t despawn ever. SEKAI owner dies or never accesses their SEKAI? Alone forever and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Even in school SEKAI it’s a bit unsettling that they are just locked at high school age when the L/n girls are getting older.

Also like the fact that the virtual singers are fully aware that they are different versions of the main virtual singer is kinda weird when you think about it for long enough. It could be really disturbing they should to into that.

And the environments they exist in. Street SEKAI and Wonderland SEKAI Vsingers are lucky because there’s a lot they can do and the SEKAI are really big. School SEKAI has a lot to do there, but it’s an enclosed space and I’m not sure if they can actually go to the outside areas offsite. It’s good that the Stage SEKAI vsingers like performing because it ain’t like there’s anything else they can do except sit in the backstage areas. And Empty SEKAI has nothing to do AT ALL and the girls have to bring in things to give the vsingers something to stimulate them.

Also like the fact they all take from the personalities and emotions of their SEKAI owners is so so disturbing if you think about it for more than three seconds. Like yeah this thing is based on you. It has your personality and will reflect you feelings at times. Like I know the point is that the vocaloids are basically counsellors but like. Damn. Especially for Mafuyu and Tsukasa because those Virtual Singers are just based on aspects of themselves (with a few things from their friends thrown in) which is genuinely really disturbing like I would not like that at all. Also Tsukasa has the plushies as well which are usually used to show how he feels about other people (eg: usachan being Saki as a child and him needing to cheer her up, the cat and dog recreating his and Rui’s conflict in Wonder Halloween).

(Someone sent an ask about the vsingers and who they are derived from in each Sekai hopefully I can finish it this week unless I run out of data)

The idea of the SEKAI changing and the vsingers changing to reflect your emotions and such has just always stuck out to me because sometimes they change to help you and sometimes they change to just copy whatever is happening to you and I think it does whatever it thinks is best for the situation but it’s kinda fucked to think about.

Oh and Miku can wipe your memory that’s definitely one of the creepiest things. Like the unit leaders have met multiple times at this point and never remember it. Minori and Kohane are best friends and have been repeatedly introduced to the concept that they both have SEKAI and repeatedly been mindwiped after that. They could do something with that. So how effective is this mindwiping anyway? If it’s used too many times on one person will it start to affect them (anyone here seen Gravity Falls?)

Also on the topic of memory. Remember in the WxS main story when Tsukasa straight up doesn’t remember significant parts of his childhood but Miku and KAITO do and then drop hints about these memories? Or in immiscible discord when KAITO dumps the truth about Mafuyu’s mother on her when Mafuyu wasn’t aware of it herself (also KAITO had barely been there for any significant time and this is his FIRST interaction with Mafuyu that he drops all this on her). The SEKAI seem to just know any feelings you repress or ignore or forget and I know the SEKAI is like a abstract realisation of thought and feeling so ofc it knows these but it’s still a bit. Weird, I guess. They should flesh this out more.

Oh supposedly you can die in the SEKAI. Possibly by force since there’s one card story where some of the WxS members nearly fall out the flying train and it’s treated as a genuine threat, but also we don’t know for sure. Heavily implied that you can die in the SEKAI from not fulfilling basic needs (eating or drinking), since Mafuyu considers disappearing into the SEKAI at one point and it doesn’t seem like she took those with her nor do they naturally exist in the SEKAI. Side note what happens if someone dies in SEKAI? Does it kick them out like it does when their phone dies or dows it just leave them there?

Don’t even get me started on untitled like it’s another embodiment of feelings is actually a bit disturbing thing but as far as we know you get one untitled. That’s it. Have you seen the lyrics on some of these (also out of universe note, the producers weren’t given huge amounts of information about the characters and story so like. Accuracy of the lyricw varies). Kuyamu to Kaite Mirai particularly. Like. What happens if Mafuyu actually does manage to make significant recovery? Is she just stuck with “I want to die, I want to disappear, there’s nothing left for me here” (did i get the lyric right?).

Oh my god I almost forgot about stage sekai. Endless void :( Of stages :). At least they have something to do there, I guess? Also can we talk about the audience that’s there let’s talk about the audience okay I think it might be an instance of the writing leaning on the 4th wall and maybe the audience is the virtual show audience with the little box avatar things or maybe there’s an actual audience and if so where the fuck do they go when there’s not performances? Oh and the fact that vlives are considered canon which means every sekai just has these little box people going in and out to watch them sing that’s just another weird thing.

And apparently there’s people in street SEKAI too like MEIKO talks about buying things in town and stuff even though most of the buildings look abandoned?

This isn’t even psychological horror but. Ghosts real. Only Mafuyu can see them. Okay maybe you could make that into more of a psychological horror thing.

Anyone remember when Akito’s fragment sekai gave him amnesia? Or the fact that characters have met themselves in fragment sekai.

Tl;dr I think sekai have untapped horror potential

[likeawildthing]

when i fnished grad school (which was actually 2022? new job was this year though!) my friends made me swear on a napkin to learn to relax and im happy to report the experiment has been a success and i have become a lesiure QUEEN.

what am i doing w/ my free time?

making miniatures! currently working on a dollhouse for my old coworker's daughters. will share pics! maybe i will finish a single project this year.

hanging out w/ my kids and their GFs because they're awesome. at the same time, trying to avoid becoming BFFs with said lovely GFs because i cannot take having another tragic breakup dollhouse rotting in my basement

i color in a coloring book every night which is not making my own art but it is relaxing w/out the pressure of making like work!

making friends in the most random places (mammogram screening, hospital emergency room, while white water rafting)

slowly watching my gardens die because my kids forgot to water them when i was out of town for two weeks and i've been sick for most of the summer (feeling MUCH BETTER now. who knew gallbladders could be such a nightmare!)

have been going to monthly craft meet ups with the old ladies at my library. they go multiple times a week and the tea is always piping (literally AND metaphorically)

at my prev WFH job the cat trained me to sit on the couch w/ him BUT at my new WFH job I need 2 screens so i've slowly been traning him to sit in a cat tree next to me. it's a WIP for sure. he s a king forever and i hate to ruin his life but mommy must have a job to pay the bills)

exercse? hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa no. i did buy a stair stepper when i was on morphine in the hosptal tho because i thought it would be KEY TO MY RECOVERY? ma'am. no.

rewatching derry girls once a month becase yes?

have become a NYT games feind. morning: wordle, connections, i am 50/50 on strands but am giving it a try. 9pm sharp: sudoku, the mini, crossword. spelling bee enrages me.

learning my own WFH fashion

getting myself grocery store flowers every week, taking flowers to other poeple every other week

i am so angry about this but...doing laundry on a weekly basis is actually good for my mental health? so now i do laundry on a weekly basis instead of holding for weeks and doing 22 loads in a weekend once a month. (no fear, i am not and never will be the type of functional person who does a load of laundry a day, or, god forbid, pair socks. sock basket or bust for life). i did by a cordless shark vacuum and it's lifechanging.

reading again! have read two books this week which is more than the last several months so that feels nice <3

apparently trauma dumping on tumblr again

venmoing my kids so they'll run snack-based errands

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s3 episode 18 thoughts

was thinking about my evening scullynmulder time all day… and here we are <3

to be honest, i'm not sure how i feel about this episode. it was just kind of okay for me. nothing to make me loathe it (well- one thing that made me angry, but it was small, and i'll talk about it), but nothing too compelling for me plot-wise. that being said, sometimes hearing an alternate viewpoint can change my mind, or i'll put together pieces later that didn't connect right away while watching, and the light in which i view an episode can change. so no hard and fast rulings here.

i’m reading the episode description, and it seems to be about archaeological digs, and sacred items being transported where they shouldn’t be!! this is actually something i feel really strongly about!!!

(in fact, i had to cut a LOT of this episode recap down because i kept going on about anthropological ethics... then i straight up realized i needed to stfu <3)

we begin!

we are in ecuador, at a dig site. oh, a pot! and pottery shards. how exciting! someone is yelling about something they found, and everyone comes to look. i do not speak spanish but i think they are saying that this thing is a bad sign? shoutout to cognates and closed captions, two of my bestest friends

it has since started snowing since they found this thing, which dr. roosevelt proclaims to be an amaru, which is a bold sign. there is a skull in there.

anyway, the archaeologists are saying that the body of a female shaman is sacred, and that it cannot be disturbed. and i would say, yes of course! but dr. roosevelt is not chill like me, and says they aren’t disturbing her, but saving her. okay, so this is the sort of thing that has sadly been incredibly common in real life, disregard for Indigenous opinions on the treatment of their ancestors by so-called academics claiming to fight for history. he orders the archaeologists to pack it up despite their insistence that it isn’t a good idea.

a shaman appears on the mountains in the snow... which is not an auspicious sign, i would imagine.

so this dr. roosevelt is listening to his classical music while the archaeologists from the dig are conducting a ceremony with the mountain shaman. they are sipping from a spoon and passing it around. ah, it is a hallucinogen. things get all green vision-y.

something is coming… A BIG CAT!!! HAS EATEN DR. ROOSEVELT!!!!!! JAGUAR BE UPON YE!!!!!!!

deserved.

intro time. how i have come to love this pair and their blurry lil spooky scenes…. <3 

so now we are at the boston museum of natural history. a guard is about with a flashlight in the dark and i think he sees some blood?? YES LOTS OF BLOOD. literally so much blood omfg. and then behind all the blood is the amaru!!!

is it agents time? is it agents time? YAAAAAS AGENTS TIME!!!! they are investigating. and someone scully is talking to thinks that the murder victim- craig- was killed because of the project he was working on. 

OH! scully has a letter in her hands from the Secona demanding the return of their artifacts. yes yes! i hope the museum does the right thing at this urging (even though i know deep down they will not)

“it was among the antiquities we rescued last month”, says someone from the museum <- ohhhh you're going to jail for that self-righteous language. scully catches onto the “rescued” description. they claim that the area was going to undergo construction. um so i would ask why reburying it in a place slightly to the left where it wasn't going to get smashed by a pipeline wasn't considered as an option, and why we jumped straight to giving it to some dudes in boston.

mulder asks about the curse, which he is apparently well-versed in. the jaguar spirit will attack those who disturb the bones of the woman shaman. but this guy says he will NOT return the remains. a stubborn fool... 

a phd candidate helps them look at the urn, and mulder rightfully points out that if someone messed with his bones, he would also want a curse to be placed upon them. which is tea.

the phd candidate's name is mona, and she agrees that this should have been left in the ground, that craig didn’t know about the danger he was in, and she is aware of SEVERAL letters of protest. she reveals that Dr. Bilac, who was the liaison to the tribe, either resigned or was forced out by the head of the project, depending on who you ask, because he believed that “the Secona have the right to determine the fate of their ancestral remains” AS HE SHOULD!!

going to this guy’s house. he was at the dig. and frankly, i do think he is very attractive. but he seems a bit... out of it, to put it nicely. 

his house is full of artifacts and images of artifacts. he’s asking scully "who told you i was involved", and scully says mona. okay... i think it wasn’t really secret knowledge??? no need to be so defensive!

he clarifies that he objected when he felt dr. roosevelt went too far. and he says “you don’t want to know what i think happened” so mulder sits RIGHT NEXT TO HIM and clarifies that yes, yes they really would. i was sensing some undertones there.

dr. bilac says "i think whatever happened is going to keep happening until the bones are returned" <- a reasonable deduction.

he says their investigation is a waste of time. scully seems to think he is “the suspect”, suggesting that he would kill for his cause. she describes his politics as radical but... they really aren’t.

(and this was the part i mentioned objecting to in the beginning, her referring to "his politics" like that. however, i am reminded that some scientists, historians, and anthropologists genuinely take this position- that ancestral remains ought to be studied, wishes of their communities be damned- and therefore it is not entirely out of character for her to think like that, but it is something we'd get in a heated fight about)

and mulder does that thing where he puts his hand on her back. don’t think i missed that!!!!

they’re bickering about what really happened and i'm thinking, well no one knows yet, maybe it WAS a jaguar spirit.

OH! mona is on the phone saying someone is lying. and someone else is listening in. it’s dr. lewton who is eavesdropping. mona was on the phone with dr. bilac!!! so what was he lying to the agents about?!?

so lewton is saying that they have a responsibility to history and that they were doing the right thing and to ignore “the politics”... again with the politics comment. this is real-world rhetoric here that some people actually believe, but isn’t there something despicable about asking for respect for people's ancestors being called “politics”?

OH! dr. lewton is threatening mona's career…… oh! okay so he might be evil.

NO, THE DOOR CREAKS OPEN. MONA NO!! 

oh it’s just a dog :) his name is sugar :) yay i was scared for nothing :) hiii sugar ur really cute!

dr. lewton in the car. car isn’t starting!!!! that’s suspicious…. that’s weird…. he lifts up the hood. and we hear a heavy breathing and see stuff from a blurry green point of view....

the hood is full of BLOOD??? which he touches btw... NASTY! but what is even nastier is the dragging and screaming and ripping we hear now going on to him... and thus is the end of dr. lewton

(hmm are they gonna say bilac is transforming into the jaguar? and that’s why we heard a man breathing?? <- no they will not, past me, but it was a compelling guess)

scully plucks a dead rat from inside the car. “label that”, she says to a police officer, placing it in a bag. “as what?” “partial rat body part” <- i don’t know why this is making me cry laughing 

mona is being questioned. she lies and says lewton didn’t mention dr. bilac last night. LIAR. anyway! scully gives her her card and says to give her a call if anything comes to mind

mulder in the woods with the police. and the green vision-y thing sees him!!! from in a tree!!!

but then scully comes in bearing news of rats in the museum and in his car. she thinks mona knows something and is trying to protect bilac. which is also what i am thinking. perhaps scully's entrance saved mulder from the green visioned being pouncing upon him.

GASP! a drop of blood falls upon mulder’s face whilst still in the woods, and he thinks it’s rain. she wipes it off and looks up to find… ENTRAILS IN A TREE!!!!!! icky.

and is there tenderness in wiping a strange blood from an unknown source off of your partner's face while they kneel in the woods? yes.

mona is at dr. bilac’s place. he isn’t answering. oh, she calls him “lonnie”... so are they chill or something? anyway, he doesn’t seem to be in there.

EXCEPT HE IS! he was in the dark and yelled at her for trying to touch the windows. behaving like a vampire.

he has no reaction to learning that dr. lewton is dead, but he sure is sweaty and gaunt. he said he told mona not to come. aggressively.

OH! he has the stuff on the floor he had taken with the tribe with the shared spoon at the start of the episode. which he calls “vine of the soul”. she knows what that means- yaje- and does NOT like that. she grabs it and tells him he is sick and needs help. but he yells at her to get out :( and she is crying :( why are you hurting her....

AUTOPSY TIME ft. doctor scully!!! it’s a human intestine. LMAOOOO she found sunflower seeds in it and mulder says he is “a man of taste” 

oh! she says it looks like rats did the biting. love when she says unsettling stuff like that.

phone call time now. it’s mona calling scully. she’s crying at the museum, and the dog is barking as she says she feels she isn’t alone. scully deploys mulder to the scene.

there is a box that says teso dos bichos which is the name of the episode. google says it translates to "i have two bugs" but i don't fully believe that. anyway, as she goes to touch the urn the dog keeps barking. it’s a very very cute dog. 

she hears something going wild in the bathroom. like an earthquake in the toilets. and the toilets are full of RATS who are climbing OUT AT HER AND SHE SCREAMS AND YES ME TOO I AM ALSO SCREAMING????

scully at dr. bilac’s house. very tense music is playing and his door is wide open!!! she finds the bowls of the stuff while mulder is at the museum looking for mona or any sort of clues. 

mulder bumps onto the security guard, who tries to take him to mona. pls don't hurt my girl i'm rooting for her to get that phd.

scully is reading from dr. bilac’s journal, which describes a jaguar climbing from the trees, and mulder thinks well maybe that is how the intestines got up there, but she says he’s been tripping. two things can be true!! 

she says he has been invoking the curse. but as she says this, mulder rounds a corner and sees a LOT of blood. he enters the bathroom with a flourish of his gun. and finds dr. bilac! who only says “she’s dead” 

they bring him in for questioning- very suspicious for him to be in the bloody bathroom- but he claims he doesn’t know where mona is. 

oh, very very tense exchange. “i did not kill her” “then why do you have blood on your clothes?” scully is NOT messing around

he claims he was afraid for mona and tried to keep her away from this. she says point blank that he did it, but he is like no, you are dealing with a spirit. and he doesn’t know where her body is. 

mulder is troubled. he notices that all the toilets overflowed. oh! the rats were still in there. “rats. in every toilet” <- very serious show we are dealing with 

NO!!! mona's dog died :( the dog ate a cat that ate a rat that ate poison. mulder thinks this is suspicious. she says a lot of old buildings have rats. again, two things can be true!

he thinks the rats were trying to escape. and SOMEHOW bilac is gone. mulder seems to think that perhaps bilac animorphed into a rat? or he was dragged down into some old tunnels. because they did find blood!!!

tunnel time tunnel time! he tries the ladies first card but it does not work. oooh spooky dark tunnel. 

there is a creature down here!!!! with the green vision!!! a cat hisses. i mean if there are a lot of rats this is a banger place to be a cat but i’m still suspicious.

they follow a rat deeper into the tunnels and find a door. scully goes in the door but mulder went the other way. WHY DID HE DO THAT!!! NEVER SEPARATE IN THE TUNNELS.

mulder is looking at a rat. cute little dude. then calls for scully. HE HAS FOUND ALL OF THE BODIES!!! AND THEY HAVE BEEN GNAWED EEEW 

and the green vision thing sees them! oh! it is a cat. but just a little one. not a big scary one. 

OH!! a LOT OF CATS!!

NO!!! they are GETTING HER!!! LIKE SO MANY CATS!!!! and there is blood pouring from her face. despite this she finds bilac who is very dead. 

a large army of cats is trying to break in while they try to get out. he pulls her up and guides her out. 

aww her face is all scratched up :( pls test her for rabies this is soooo evil!!!

oh! the ecuadorian ambassador is coming to collect the urn. so success but at what cost.

mulder wraps up the episode. the archaeologists are reburying the urn. we see the shaman’s eyes go all green like the cats did!!!

so it was her doing the stuff!!! well. she needed to be returned home.

collecting my thoughts on the matter. 

well, first off, an ecuadorian jaguar spirit turning into a mass of wild rats and cats in boston is so funny so let’s establish that. 

second of all. i’m always hesitant to comment upon episodes that use indigenous people and beliefs as a plot point/scary thing of the week. so i’m going to have to admit i don’t know enough to comment on that. 

what i can comment upon is the very real trafficking of antiquities, destruction of archaeological sites, and above all, blatant insensitivity of academics historically thinking they are “saving” what they are plundering. it is a very real thing. and i talked about it a LOT more in the original draft of this but realized i ought to spare you. dm for reading recs tho

overall, i thought the episode was okay. i wasn’t really sure what they were doing with bilac, but i guess he was summoning the curse? but it kept going after he died. so i’m a little unclear on the rules of the curse here tbh. 

honestly not enough scully and mulder time for me, which is why it wasn't really a stand out to me, even if i thought the concept was fascinating.

but sometimes my opinions change and i'm open to hearing thoughts on the matter slash things i missed! like i'm still not fully getting the episode title so pls feel free to explain that.

[aflo]

Not me being fandom hatecrimed and passive aggressively dog piled on THE fandumb website tumblr dot com by a dumb bitch with a cowboy url and an even dumber bitchass OP with Gigi Studio Ghibli Icon and even stupider tacky shitass tungle.hel pride badge that this self proclaimed "cunt" OP of a shitty tumblruniversitycore shit post willingly put on her blog to match and you two wanna act like you're the ones who better than me for daring to vague about Hazbin Hotel on tumblr dot com on a post that was already about some dumb fandumb discourse about a tungle.hell demon show and feeling safe enough to just tag what I was talking about because I thought that I could trust an even more basic bitch than anyone, not to try to be a fucked up little snobby bitch acting like they hold some kind of higher fandumb ground than anyone else on a post where that bitch OP with a fuckass anime icon is whining about apparently dragging her musty, crusty, ugly, greasy, McMemeShitPoster skinny Leah Michelle Gleeky (since you fave poor taste enough to actually like Supernatural That Much) Funny Tumblr Girly ass to a musty crusty Supernatural Convention that was probs just dashcon (because you know you be suckin' tumblrs whole blue veiny dick when you willingly put a tumblr badge on your blog cause you're that basic), to get willingly hatecrimed by your favorite Live Action Tumblr Blorbo TM, Mr. Jensen Fucking Under House Arrest Stubbed His Toe on Rusty Nail and Died Trying to Remove His Ankle Bracelets or Whatever...

Gurl I could never have taste that mediocre I'm sorry you ether don't eat, or don't eat anything but McDonald's cause you thought that meme was so funny.

And to think I wasn't gonna put this shit on my blog or try to add anything I just knew I was gonna get some nasty, hypocritical, passive aggressive tag typing, shitty memed up response to my addition because originally my only knee jerk response in my head when I saw this was "... Not the #Supernatural Discourse, though...Be kind to yourself.... Don't even lower yourself Sweetie ... Don't look, don't even look at them ... You know Hazbin already has a much sweeter, saner, queerer, kinder, safer fandom environment than the Death by Rusty Nail CW Show.... Just don't!"

But I did... And now I guess I can say for certain that Supernatural Fans TM are just as Mean Spirited and Crusty as their Infamous Shows ending! But It was probably like your entire personality for a while there so what more could I expect? :D

Like I'm sorry your own fandumb etiquette needs an oil can and you're obvi limegreen jelly because vivziepop fans have the power of Mara Wilson, Jinkxx Monsoon, Kesha Rose, John Waters, and probz soon Lady Gaga on our side and all you have is your anime cat icon from an overrated studio and that tacky ass tumblr badge while you forgot what it was like to have your fandom be everyone else's punching bag for a hot minute and you're feeling insecure and treating me like you must've been treated, just for adding to your post about an obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom, sharing my own obnoxious experience with an actor in a tumblr fandom. which ultimately was a harmless thing for me to share on a post on the fandumb website that means nothing ...

But it turns out having a much happier fandom experience than yours is what I get when my shows have an actually queer show runner and a bunch of queer icons doing actual queer representation, and admittedly annoying and well meaning alleys that show actual passion about their projects like I'm sorry that your taste is so poor you actually wanted to fuck Dean Wince Emotionless or were queer baited by him or whatever but I'm different, and apparently, the only Actual Cunt on this post right now is me, being brave enough to have The Nerve.

So OP, the next time you feel so holier than thou to make fun of a person on tumblr dot com talking about their experience with a show about demons, while you're also talking about your experience with a show about demons, please consider closing out the Cringe Fandumb Website we're both using right now, touch your feet to the grass, and while you're on that grass, please touch your feet to the same exact rusty nail your Precious Ankle Fuckboy did and die. :D

And if you're too lazy to do that much, at least get your little cowgirl over yonder in the tags who mumbled at me for demon fandom discoursing on your post about demon fandom discourse, to have her little Striker Helluva Boss Moment and try and track me down and assassinate me for you by feeding me cookies with rusty nails in them. Since you'd apparently like me to disappear so badly. ;)

Because I think that's the only way to get me Shut The Fuck Up Hazbin Hotel Fan TM. Us Hazbin Hotel Fans aren't gonna be shutting fuck the up anytime soon. Not sorry. ;)

Also not sorry to break it to you OP, honey.... But you know being a Supernatural fan making fun of a Hazbin Hotel fan is like you're Toby McGuire Spider-Man and I'm Tom Hardy Venom over here, right?

Same Thing. Same Concept. Almost cut from the same cloth. Only my cloth is a little bit more high quality, a little more flashy, a little more fashionable, certainly more explicitly queer fashion, and again, just a little more comfortable to be in because it's made by people who actually have a heart, soul and passion to put into their work. Too bad the people cutting your cloth didn't have a heart and neither do you or your friends now . ;) ♥ X.O

😨

[angelphone1]

CHAPTER ONE - THE KICK

hiii this is my first time posting my own writing and to be completely honest i'm absolutely terrified! this is my first time trying to figure out a whole project like this and so i am being so hecking brave about it. i'm not sure how much of this counts as whump, but i can promise that there's a loooot more to come :)

if you want to know anything more about the characters or anything then just ask i'd love to talk about them!

there will never be any explicit nsfw in this series, but there is suggestion. it's always a read-at-your-own-risk sort of deal, and there'll be a list of the content at the front of each chapter letting you know if you need to avoid it! i'll try my best not to miss anything

CONTENT: manhandling, violating physical boundaries (not sexual), weird touchiness, dubcon kissing, forced to drink (alcohol)/forced to relapse, (brief) emeto, carewhumper, the mc is a depressed wet cat, lady whump, toxic relationship

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

"Hey, you doing okay?" ASTRID asks.

ESMERALDA stares down at her mocktail, watching the ice float around. It's melting. It's already too watered-down to really enjoy; or maybe that's just the nature of the thing. There's no kick. There's no burn. It's just.. juice. ESMER brushes a lock of hair out of her eye.

"Yeah," ESMER says, or maybe lies. She isn't quite sure how true it is. She stirs her drink with the straw. "Yeah, I'm fine."

ASTRID raises her eyebrows, then looks up from her table around the room. ESMER notices the way her gaze lingers on some other girl, with dyed blue-white hair, dressed in a letterman jacket she must have created herself. ESMER can't help but feel a little jealous, as she stares into her melting drink. How come you never look at me like that? She wants to ask. She doesn't.

"Well, you know, I thought this would be, like, fun, but it doesn't look like you're.. having fun."

"I'm fine," ESMER repeats. "Just.. recharging. It's nice. Thank you for bringing me." The words are awkward and stilted. There's a silence. ESMER stirs her drink. ASTRID nods.

"Well, you're welcome. But you shouldn't just.. watch the whole time, you know? You gotta.. put yourself out there."

Put yourself out there is one of ASTRID's favorite phrases. It must be, from how often she says it to ESMER. ESMER might recommend that ASTRID put herself in there, but she doesn't say anything. That doesn't even make sense. ESMER frowns, and brushes a lock of hair out of her eye.

ASTRID excuses herself to "get another drink", but she will not be returning to ESMER's table. She will be putting herself out there, probably talking to that girl, in some sort of illusion that she is prepared for such a relationship, and then they will talk and talk and get on well together, because ASTRID is good at that sort of thing, and then the other girl will lean in for a kiss or say something suggestive, and then ASTRID will get uncomfortable and push away and then they will stop talking, and things will end faster than they ever began, because ASTRID is bad at this sort of thing.

It happens every time. The difference is that ESMER sticked around, for whatever reason. ASTRID is her best friend, but they are too far apart. They are too distant. Her family is nice, but they are even more distant.

ESMER should have stayed home, alone, in her lonely apartment. At least then it wouldn't be so loud. There are too many people here. Who the hell is visiting a non-alcoholic bar on a Friday night? These people, apparently. Well, maybe that's just what people do on Friday nights, but isn't there something they'd rather be doing? Sleeping? Drinking something worth drinking? These places are the worst. If they want to be a bar, they should serve real drinks, and if they don't want to serve real drinks, then what's the fucking point of serving drinks at all?

Sort of sad and angry in a very lonely way, ESMER stands up and abandons her awful drink, and grimaces as she has to walk by so many people. Some of them look at her. Most of them barely glance at her. Thankfully, the bathroom is vacant; at least this place has the good sense to use single rooms.

There is nothing drawn on the tiles. The lights in here are too bright. It makes ESMER want to peel her skin off. She doesn't even really need to use the bathroom, she just.. wants to be alone. She wants to be somewhere else.

It all makes her heart sick. Just sick. She can only imagine who ASTRID is currently with, and then somehow, somehow ESMER is expected to go with her back home, to her lonely apartment, or maybe spending the night at ASTRID's, and then she will have to wake up in the morning alone and walk to work at the cafe alone and go through another twelve-hour shift alone and then walk home alone and then do it again and again and again for the rest of her life.

She loosens her grip on the sink, her knuckles aching, trying not to look at the mirror, brushing a lock of hair out of her eye.

ESMER opens the door, rubbing her eyes, only to be met with an unfortunately familiar face.

"Hey, baby," HEATHER says, slipping inside the bathroom.

ESMER stares at her with wide, wide eyes. "What — the hell are you doing here?"

HEATHER is wearing a sleeveless outfit of black leather, her curly blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders, her massive green eyes boring into ESMER's own. Her mascara is too thick. Her lipstick is jet black. She really looks at ESMER, and then she smiles.

It goes like this:

HEATHER locks the door.

HEATHER takes a step forward.

ESMER takes a step backward.

HEATHER takes another step forward.

ESMER's back hits the wall.

HEATHER presses herself up against ESMER, smiling in a way that makes ESMER's heart ache, even as it attempts to pound out of her chest. HEATHER should not be here. HEATHER was two years ago. HEATHER should not be here.

HEATHER places both of her hands against ESMER's face, wiping away a stray tear. Her breath smells like smoke and strawberry soda.

ESMER finally regains control of her senses, and pushes HEATHER back, still trying to walk further backwards into the wall, like if she tries hard enough it will envelop her and she will not have to be here anymore.

ESMER: "What the hell?"

HEATHER: "Glad to see me again?"

ESMER stutters. Yes. No. Of course. Absolutely not. Fuck no. Fuck yes. She is suddenly, awkwardly aware of her tongue in her mouth and its current failure to cooperate.

HEATHER smiles. She is very pretty. It is hard to look away.

ESMER eyes the door.

HEATHER: "Don't be like that, baby."

ESMER: "Are you fucking drunk?"

HEATHER laughs. "Oh my God. You look so freaked out right now. Oh my God, you're like a little deer in headlights. Just as cute, too."

ESMER isn't sure what to do. Or say. She wants to scream for help. She wants to kiss HEATHER and beg at her feet. She wants to jump off the edge of a cliff. She wants to take a knife and hack away at something. At her stupid heart, maybe, feeling like it's about to explode and take everything in this building with it, feeling like its beating is instead a timer, or a blaring alarm, telling everyone around to get the fuck away right now.

HEATHER steps forward again.

ESMER lets her.

HEATHER, like she's comforting a small child: "Hey." She places her hands on ESMER's hips, pulling her forward into a warm hug.

ESMER clings to her, recognizing that she needs this, just as much as recognizing that she needs to start screaming and running away right now.

HEATHER kisses her on the cheek. (ASTRID has never kissed her. Not even once. Not even on the forehead.) HEATHER looks at her and smiles. (ASTRID has never looked at her the way she looked at the girl with the blue-white hair.) HEATHER brushes away her tears again. (ASTRID has never even gotten close.)

HEATHER pulls away, grabbing something from on top of the open baby-changing apparatus. (ESMER wonders, why the hell is there a baby-changing station in a bar?) It is a clear bottle with something pink inside. She holds it out to ESMER.

HEATHER, smiling: "Look what I brought."

ESMER looks at it. It's alcohol. Of course.

ESMER: "I'm.. not supposed to drink that. I mean — I'm not fucking drinking that." That's better. She should take more initiative. She's not a deer in headlights. She is a grown woman who is currently saying no.

HEATHER: "Awhh, but I brought it just for you. Strawberry lemonade. Your favorite."

ESMER: "Just — why are you even here? I —"

ESMER attempts to get to the door.

HEATHER keeps her from doing so, still holding the bottle out.

ESMER does not take it.

HEATHER marches forward, pressing ESMER back against the wall.

ESMER pushes back.

HEATHER shoves her arms out of the way, getting uncomfortably close.

ESMER opens her mouth to start screaming.

HEATHER shoves the open bottle into ESMER's mouth, pouring the liquid inside. It is sweet and awful and it burns as it goes down. After a few gulps, ESMER gets her senses together and shoves the bottle away, grabbing it for herself, breathing heavily.

HEATHER steps back. She smiles.

ESMER looks down at the beer in her hand. She should throw it away. She should run away. She doesn't want to go back to the way it was. Doesn't she? She needs to get to ASTRID. ASTRID will help. ASTRID will fix this. ASTRID will protect her from HEATHER, like she once did. ASTRID will..

ESMER takes another sip. Her hands are shaking so badly it takes a couple tries to actually get the bottle into her mouth. Just one more. And then another. And then all the liquid in the bottle is gone. ESMER drops it. It clicks, but doesn't shatter. It should have shattered. That would be more thematically resonant.

HEATHER puts her hands on ESMER's hips.

HEATHER: "See? Doesn't that feel nice? Better than that shit that's basically just water, right?"

ESMER: "HEATHER, do you have any fucking — "

HEATHER: "Shut the fuck up."

HEATHER leans in to kiss ESMER.

ESMER lets her.

ESMER kisses back.

HEATHER: "See, baby? This is how things were meant to be. Me and you. Not you and that.. trust-fund yuppie bitch."

ESMER: "ASTRID's not —"

HEATHER: "That's the problem with you, baby. You never learned how to shut up."

ESMER shuts up.

HEATHER laughs. She pulls away, turns, opens the door slowly.

HEATHER: "Wasn't that fun, baby? Aren't you bored?" She smiles. "You know where I live. Come around sometime."

HEATHER leaves without another word.

ESMER sinks down to the floor, beginning to sob. Numbly, she brushes a lock of hair out of her eye.. What is ASTRID going to say about this? She's angry at herself for letting that happen, and angry at HEATHER for being such a jackass, and angry at ASTRID because all ESMER ever seems to think about is disappointing her.

Slowly, she crawls to the toilet, and sticks her fingers down her throat to vomit everything back up. She hasn't eaten in a while, but she doesn't want to deal with ASTRID finding her drunk, when she's supposed to never drink again. It burns just as badly coming up as it did going in. ESMER composes herself, rubs her eyes, trying not to look in the mirror in how badly she ruined her makeup. She'll make up some excuse for crying that isn't technically wrong, like she was just feeling very lonely and fragile, and then ASTRID will apologize and still won't kiss her, and ESMER will continue being alone.

[buzzdixonwriter]

Writing Report December 13, 2024

I’ve been a smidge sporadic on this blog recently, missing a couple of Friday posts due to family obligations.

Nothing serious, all good, just…time consuming.

My first scheduled 2025 project isn’t going to start on January 1st as planned…

…because I already started working on it November 18th of this year.

It was one of those things when the project just said, “It’s time!” and I found myself facing no other option than to just start writing.

Work on it has been sporadic; I’m at 7,600+ words right now but I haven’t had a real chance to write two days in a row on this project due to aforementioned family obligations.

This one is an indirect offshoot of my previous WIP, a story set in the very earliest days of the film industry in Hollywood.

When working on that novel, I needed to do some research on prostitution in the Old West since one of the supporting characters in the story is a real cowboy of mixed ancestry. 

I was pretty sure his backstory was possible based on what little I knew at that time about prostitution in the Old West, but admitted the exact circumstances of his ancestry did sound a bit farfetched.

I figured no harm, no foul since no matter how unlikely the circumstances, they weren’t flat out impossible and besides, his ancestry wasn’t a main point in my story.

But when I stumbled across a copy of Michael Rutter’s Upstairs Girls:  Prostitution In The American West at our local Open Book outlet, I figured great, now I can double check my assumptions and make sure my character’s backstory isn’t completely impossible.

Well, in the book Rutter mentions a real madam who possessed a backstory of her own that was so oddball it got me to wondering how she ended up where she ended up.

So I started noodling around ideas for a completely fiction story of a character like the real madam and how she might have found herself involved in the trade back in the day.

Originally I thought of doing this as a stage play, with most of the action taking place in the main parlor and all the shenanigans going on out of sight upstairs.

Problem : While a great set-up, I had no real story, just some interesting characters.

Again, a supporting character came to my rescue.  If I set my story in a specific year, I could place in the sporting house a then brand new technology that virtually nobody would know about except a small ground of people such as saloon keepers and madams.

If the ladies of the house didn’t know about it, it could be used to hide a crime by providing a criminal with an apparent alibi.

Great!  Now I knew my plot would be a mystery.  Act One would be my main character arriving to take charge of the sporting house, Act Three would be her figuring out how the crime was committed using the then-new technology.

What goes on in Act Two?

Well, we know the answer to that one, don’t we, boys and girls?

More research!!!

So now I’m delving into a whole bunch of books and history websites, not just on prostitution in the Old West but also on mining boom towns (because the ladies who serviced cowboys at the end of a long cattle drive were a different breed of cat from the ladies who serviced miners because the former customers would blow through town in a few days but the latter were regulars and as a result the mining town ladies needed to be something more than just passive, anonymous partners).

Rutter came to my aid again with another volume on the history of prostitution in the Old West, Boudoirs To Brothels (and dude, I am eternally grateful to you for all the detailed research you did but gawd, with a name like that you were pretty much doomed to make this topic your life’s work, no?).

And boy howdy, did Rutter ever supply me with a wealth of ideas to make Act Two work.

It mean abandoning the idea as a stage play and turning it into a novel, but by that time it was chompin’ at the bit and there was no denying it so…

…I started typing.

My previous WIP -- the Hollywood novel -- completed, I really didn’t need to do any more research on it. 

But in Boudoirs To Brothels Rutter included the story of one sex worker in the Old West that not only showed me my cowboy character’s backstory was one hundred percent plausible, but what actually happened was even more outrageous than I imagined.

And while my current WIP will not include the real historical person, I was glad to see she enjoyed a real life happy ending.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mrs. Polly Bemis.

  © Buzz Dixon

[mybookof-you]

I found the above article to say some important things worth consideration. It is a serious matter, and, while it is fun to post memes, there are some somber issues to think about.

I have hesitated to point out the dangerous plans laid out by Project 2025. There is no direct way to prove Former President Donald Trump is in favor of the plan. The plan has inconsistencies, direct contradictions, and seems like something out of a fictional novel. Surely, it can't be. It is plausible for someone to frame me as a doomsday prophet drudging up fear where it isn't warranted should I make the claim that this is indeed the direction former President Donald Trump plans to carry out.

Yet, we have seen the results of the majority in the Supreme Court, a majority created by the appointments of the Trump Administration, which dismantled freedoms we took for granted. Those freedoms have been defended by Donald Trump as state's rights from what I understand. What it looks like to me is the states have been granted the freedom to trample the rights of its citizens. You know, those rights we so highly value which allow individuals to live as they believe. As has been reported, the rights given to citizens has been so egregiously crippled as to cause people to lose the ability to have control over their own lives. The outcomes, set in play by the former Trump Administration, have taken us backward and seem to support Project 2025 goals.

There are other examples which are worthy of consideration. I don't know the heart of Donald Trump. I don't know why he will state one thing in very clear terms to one audience and, then, turn around and contradict that statement to another audience. He has a bit of explaining to do. Meanwhile, I am permitted not to trust what he says. I need more transparency and more clarity. What does he really stand for? I value the rights of all people, and I do not wish to see any of us hurt by an administration which would seek to diminish those rights.

I appreciate what has echoed through social media recently in that we really need to do our research. No one can tell you how to vote or what to think. How will you know what to think if you do not research, check out opposing opinions, and weigh the facts? We can only do what we are able to do. What a tragedy it would be if I voted for someone without examining information available to me, and that person turned out to oppose everything I believe in. If the President of the United States is allowed to have so much power as to turn the F.B.I. into fodder, restrict anyone or any agency from balancing his power, grant pardons to those who violate laws designed to protect its citizens, etc., I have basically shot myself in my own foot.

Terry Pratchett wrote something to that effect. You know, if you seek to restrict or oppress certain peoples and rights, what makes you think you won't be next? Something more brilliantly said, but you get the idea.

Ask yourself what you really want. Do the research. Vote.

What I say in private is my own business. I don't always mean what I say. Sometimes, I blurt things out in anger or sorrow or pain. Feelings are your own, and they do not define your character. Your actions define who you are, and you always have the opportunity to change if you do not like who you are. That is your business. The first thing I thought when Trump was an "apparent" victim of a second assassination attempt was, "Geez, they keep missing." I don't really want to see him assassinated. That is not a true reflection of how much I value human life. Though, I am sure some of you get the feels.

Sure, you can wonder what people say in private if they are willing to say certain things in public (like Project 2025's website). I don't really care what Donald Trump says in private. I can't speculate about who he really is in his private life or in his heart. I do care about what he says in public, however. What he does in public demonstrates who he is. Maybe he means what he says. Maybe he doesn't. His actions while he was in office show that he means it when he says he believes he can be friends with Putin and Orbán. He may think he can prevent World War III. I don't know, but I am pretty sure I don't want to find out how he plans to ensure that, given his affiliation with authoritarian governments. I don't know about you, but I think that doesn't look good for us, peoples.

I am willing to bet that if you currently support Donald Trump for President, you want certain things to happen that you believe in. Consider the whole picture beyond those hopes. Consider what that means for others and what that might mean in action. It just might not be what you bargained for. Only you can decide. So, I won't preach the end of the world. The world always seems to go on, but, please, I urge you to consider the kind of world you want to live in and how that can be accomplished.

SRS 2024.09.18

#personal #opinion

[blurredcolour]

Okayokayokay, now that I've digested and reread the chapter approximately 5000 times, I'm ready to talk about it.

PART 6 WAS PERFECT AND I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS OVER CRIES IN TRUST SERIES

I can't even imagine how jarring it must have been to the reader to be back stateside after years in the war effort. And so suddenly too. One day you're sitting in briefing, discussing war strategies, and the next you're helping your mom grow cucumbers. Literally, how do you even cope with that?

I love that reader is keeping up with her knitting though 🥰🥰 Very insensitive of Zig Zig to be born in the summer and making her mom wait six months before she starts using the warmer wool garments smh.

I KNEW HER FATHER WAS BUILDING A NURSERY IMMEDIATELY!! A little project to distract him from the loss of his son and the impending arrival of his granddaughter. Love that for him. Also, I just know that he narrowed his eyes every time he saw Bucky's portrait in Clara's room like "your days are numbered if you don't do the right thing, Major >.>"

As usual, the letters were perfect. "Please let her know I'm thinking about her" aka not Bucky already wanting to make a good impression on the in-laws. "All sorts of baby animals" & "some have theirs in the summer" aka the army is so lucky these two are not codebreakers, they are so bad at this LMFAO. Alan Turing would have been in tears if they had been assigned to his team at Bletchley Park. And reader underlining "safely" in her letter? Please, she knows him so well. And him wanting to know how SHE is like stop, I love them. ALSO "film has always failed to properly capture the radiance of the sun" aka the moment I ✨ died ✨

And I love love love how reader keeps him informed of how his team is doing in the MLB. This is true love, people.

But let's take a moment to thank modern technology because like, six weeks to get a letter?? Letters are romantic, sure, but I don't know how these people cope with living in this Schrodinger's Cat situation. Couldn't be me.

Baby Clara "Zig Zig" Mae Egan, a trailblazer from birth. One of the first GI Bill babies? Please, this girl is set to conquer the entire world while her parents clap and encourage her in the background. I love how reader only sees Bucky in her because I BET that aside from the "Dumbo ears", Bucky only sees reader in Clara. I love this little family so much.

AND WE WERE BLESSED BY A BUCKY POV MOMENT AGAIN, THANK YOOOOOOU!! I just know Bucky went around camp showing everyone the pictures and the footprints like "this is my famous doll and this is our perfect daughter." And the pictures were always in his pocket for the harder times at camp. He also immediately went to Alexander in "draw me like one of you French girls" fashion. Poor guy thought Bucky was going to ask for a map of all the guard towers in the stalag, but nope. He needed a portrait to send back home to his girls.

A round of applause to Buck who apparently has a gift to scare reader shitless at any opportunity. Girlie for sure complains about this to Marge, who finds it utterly hilarious.

I have no words for them seeing each other again after almost two years. It was so sweet, and so tender, and sooo perfect.

But honestly reader's family is soooooo unserious. I died when they were like "Bucky can't sleep on the sofa, he doesn't fit there" like, babes, what are you talking about?? I thought y'all would say he couldn't take the sofa because he just escaped The Horrors™️. "He's simply too long" like dndiashdisohdio

BABY EGEN #2 WAS MADE THAT NIGHT ON READER'S CHILDHOOD BED THIS IS CANON.

I hope that morning reader pulled her little baby album and showed Bucky all she documented from the first months of Clara's life. And my headcannon is that Bucky planned Clara's first birthday party himself to make up for the time he lost in a way. Called Buck like "you and Marge have plans for the 22nd. If that's the day of your wedding, postpone. The fact that you haven't come meet my kid yet is frankly insulting. See you soon, bye." And just like me, Clara will take her first steps on the day of her first birthday, I'm speaking it into existence.

I love how reader and Marge started a friendship already. How did they find each other? And the other girls (Vi, Mary, Beth, and Myrtle)?? Has reader told them all about little Clara too?

And as I told you in the DMs yesterday, baby Clara will be the star of Buck and Marge's wedding. All the guys that were in the stalag with them will act like they're meeting a celebrity as a way to poke fun at Bucky for always showing them her picture.

I loved this series so much (will soon reblog all the parts to my sideblog, so warning for notifs lol). Thank you for sharing it with us ❤️❤️ I'm keeping my eyes peeled for that POW Camp fic you teased 👀

Beatrizzzzz your incredible asks are one of my favourite parts of posting a chapter hahahah

But honestly I cannot imagine the whiplash our dear reader went through after her ‘medical evacuation’?!

Like she’d never even been on a plan before and all of a suddenly she’s flung across the world in roughly one day, ripped out of Wycombe Abbey and plonked down into her childhood home to do quaint home front things and gestate her baby - incomprehensible.

Hahahaha I mean Clara didn’t really get to pick her due date, that was definitely Bucky and the readers doing 👀 but yes! So many baby things were knit! And skills were perfected!

I adore the thought of reader’s dad threatening Bucky’s portrait 😂 totally tracks with her fear that he might murder the man in the tool shed

I’m SO PLEASED you loved their letters - they were the first things I wrote in this part hahah

Wrote the narrative around them. But yeaaaaaah subtle as a heart attack these two. And she really really really didn’t want Buck to write her and say “your boy got shot running away to see you” hence all the underlining.

Of course we needed a Bucky POV the instant that reader finally came clean and laid all her cards on the table! Absolutely required!!

Poor Buck really means well he just doesn’t really know how to go about sharing news without almost making her heart stop first 🤣 never gonna live it down

Hahahahahha reader’s parents are practical people ok?! Boy showed up unannounced typically that means he gets the couch. They don’t really get what he’s been through, it’s all so removed for them - but he got a bed anyway!!! And his doll for a pillow 😏

You bet there’s another baby in that oven, honestly I think reader is gonna have a hard time NOT conceiving…her poor body

That baby book is definitely thoroughly combed through once Clara is taking her nap that day don’t you worry

And Bucky will refer back to it frequently when he finds sleep difficult to hold onto in the nights to come

The birthday party, the wedding, all very big events all within days of each other down in Texas

Reader and Marge’s friendship is based on an ask where she probably got Buck to forward reader’s address and they get along like a house on fire. Reader definitely has a wide circle of friends to send letters to including Ruth, Vi, Mary, and even Myrtle who might be opening her heart to a handsome RAF man.

And most definitely little Clara is the most popular girl at Marge and Buck’s wedding but thankfully Marge is kind hearted about being upstaged by a precocious one year old.

It has been such a joy to share this story with you all and honestly?! Already up to my eyeballs in research for the next fic!!!!

[late-adajimer]

Adajima fic (romance companion to "Lost in the arms of destiny") - part 2

The day after is awkward, starting with Ryotaro almost attacking his husband, because he had changed into his god form to sleep, which was far more intimidating, and unknown to the human. Ryotaro also doesn't know how to act (and process everything that has happened), and magatsu-Izanagi feels smug as a cat when he watches the human's skin, all the bruises and marks he has etched on his wife to claim him. In the morning, Magatsu-Izanagi presents to Ryotaro the two kitsune that will be his guides and maids while he's adapting, and will help him with more mundane tasks as well.

After he was given leave to clean himself and dressed in more understated silks (though still far too luxurious for his taste) meant for married women, Magatsu-Izanagi guided him through the castle, pointing out places of interest, the logistics of what he would be responsible for. Most of it was similar enough to what he had done on Inaba for him to not feel too overwhelmed, though that changed when magatsu-Izanagi showed him his personal study, and where the god stored all the petitions he received for the punishment of mortals and humans especially.

"I don't think you need a wife to deal with this, you need a whole harem, and enough time without new complaints to be able to make a dent into your archives," Ryotaro said, observing how more scrolls simply popped into existence, multiplying easily, and how the room seemed to grow to accommodate it.

"I told you I disliked humanity, do you now understand why? Every minor or major God sends their grudges to me, wanting humans to suffer for their transgressions. The only way I would have been able to clear this would be if I was able to bend reality and time, but those are not within my purview. Even if I worked every day and night here and at the start I did, I would never be able to dispatch everything." his husband's voice was low, a thread of irritation becoming apparent in his posture.

Ryotaro asked if anything there could be thrown away, considering some humans would have surely died, and it didn't make sense to keep requests he couldn't really fulfill, and learned most of servants had given up trying to classify the scrolls, because they couldn't keep it tidied, and no matter how they much they tried, there was always more.

Ryotaro had the idea to ask for a moratorium from Izanagi — if Magatsu-Izanagi was free to not work during the first period of their marriage, it made sense to ask the other God for a break from the scrolls too, so they could try and make a difference.

"Well, it's better than nothing. I will ask my brother later today. Will you coordinate efforts? It is only right for you to do so, wife, considering the idea is yours" his husband (and how strange that is) says, and Ryotaro has to agree. 

The project goes slowly, and Ryotaro in the mean time learns more about the types of Yokai his husband has as subjects, their habits, names and positions in their lands, and how to act as the 'lady' of their country.

Sometimes, at night, his heart constricts at the idea he left Nanako alone — even if he knows the villagers would do their best to care for her in his stead, it should have been his duty, and his pleasure, and how much time he lost with her, because of his grief...

And he can't change anything.

His 'husband' is less than enthusiastic about letting him go anywhere outside their lands, and Ryotaro can understand some of it —they are barely married, it would reflect badly on him if they parted so soon, but he is human, not a Godly being, and the days passing mean something to him, knowing he has left so much behind.

The only thing he can't really complain is his husband's talents at bed play, nor his attentions — it had been a long time since he was touched so much, or had received pleasure constantly, learned so much about his body and what it could do — more than once, he thought it was the God's way of occupying his time, when he wasn't ordering about an army of servants in his husband's workroom or trying to learn the intricacies of behavior in a Godly court.

It takes the equivalent of three months, and an almost literal army of workers to clear the room of every outdated and worthless scroll.

In the meantime, he has survived four assassination attempts, saw his husband destroy one of the assassins, body, mind and soul while in his God form, and had to become used to it, because Magatsu-Izanagi refused to sleep in his human form after the second attempt.

It would be easier, if he didn't know exactly how powerful magatsu-Izanagi was, nor felt the malice directed at the spirit tasked with the assassination. He hadn't been able to sleep during the night, because of the God curled around him, clawed fingers he had seen cut through matter and energy as if paper around his waist, the echoing tortured scream of pain ringing in his ears still.

The only consolation he had was that if Magatsu-Izanagi wanted him dead, he would already be.

[sesshy380-rp]

(continued from here)

The next couple of days were fairly uneventful, and filled with just lazing around and playing games. Bakura complained about the heat during one of those days and mentioned that their future house definitely needed a pool. That, of course, led to the two spending a few hours just talking about their future dream home.

Unfortunately, they weren’t exactly swimming in money, which meant that when Bakura was called in for help at the docks early one morning, they begrudgingly had to go. This left Kat to her own devices for the day.

She didn’t have any mending to do, and when looking through all of her other little projects that she’d started but had yet to finish, she found herself not really wanting to do any of it. She turned on the Switch, loaded her game, stared at the screen for a few minutes, then turned it back off. She knew she wanted to do something, she just didn’t know what. She found herself surprised when someone knocked on the door and she discovered Kek standing on the other side.

Apparently Ryou also had to work today, and Kek was also bored just sitting around so he decided to pay her and Bakura a visit. Seeing as it was just her, he suggested that they could go check out a few places instead of staying cooped up inside. She was very on-board with that idea and left him with the kittens for a few minutes while she got ready for going out.

*****

“I can’t believe you introduced me as your cousin,” Kat said dryly.

“I panicked, okay,” Kek stated in defense while popping a gummy shark into his mouth.

They’d stopped for some boba before heading over to the park. The duo had unfortunately come across the Pharaoh’s former vessel, Yugi, during their ventures. When he’d asked Kek about his new friend, Kek had made up some weird story that ‘Sanura’ was Marik’s (and by that extension, his) cousin from a different branch of the tomb keeper clan (while pretending to whisper to Yugi not to mention that he wasn’t human, because his ‘cousin’ thought he was Marik’s twin).

“Out of all the names you could have picked, though, you went with ‘Sanura’?”

“I. PANICKED. It was the first thing that came to mind since you’re…well…a cat…”

“What was wrong with, oh I don’t know, MY ACTUAL NAME???”

“...It’s not Egyptian. He would have asked questions.”

Kat rolled her eyes and took a sip from her straw. She felt no inclination to admit that Sanura was also her name, seeing as she viewed it more as a persona. In her eyes, Kat and Sanura were two sides of the same coin, with only one being her true self. The other was nothing more than a farce.

“You…are an idiot,” she grumbled. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t run into Ryou, or gods-forbid Marik, and start mentioning the ‘cousin’ that he met.”

“Ryou will play along,” Kek said dismissively. His eyes then went wide. “We’re fucked if he runs into Marik. He won’t mention Bakura or that you’re not human, but he’ll definitely put a hole in the story and make Yugi suspicious.”

Kat groaned and was about to suggest that they go track down the other blond to fill him in on the lame story Kek came up with, when she felt a familiar presence that made her eyes grow large and sent a chill up her spine.

“Kek. I need you to go get Bakura and Ryou and take them back to your place. Now.”

Kek gave her a confused look, then followed her gaze to straight ahead, seeing a red-haired man staring straight at Kat while wearing the biggest grin like he’d just caught an annoying pest in a trap.

“Who is that? I can help-”

Kat held out a hand in front of him and stepped forward like someone protecting their charge.

“Just go. NOW.”

Her tone made it clear this wasn’t something to argue.

Kek gave a small nod, then walked off to somewhere hidden so that he could vanish into the Shadows without being seen.

The red-haired man approached.

“For someone in exile, you appear to be enjoying yourself.”

Kat scowled.

“Let’s skip the bullshit. Why are you here, Set?”

((@nb-lesbian-tkb))

[dee-in-the-box]

thinking. about the way i write Dee.

like, think about it: she probably spent the most time around Jack when she was alive, since we know Peter moved out at some point, and that means that Jack would've been the main guy taking care of her. we all know how Jack is. who's to say he didn't rub off on her a bit?

(also thinking about how she said "I didn't go down easily the first time, either!" and "To call my death clean would be to call Fredbear "big-boned."" because. It Gives Me Thoughts.)

like. i always project onto her a little bit. she gives off the vibes that she would've been a "weird girl" (read: autistic) when she was alive. like, she's generally off to herself, she's generally off doing odd things during recess, like watching cool bugs move around or swinging by herself while humming. sometimes she just kinda. stands around and watches everyone else. not because she's trying to be creepy, she just finds it fun. (< i did the "Stand To The Side And Watch Everyone Else Play" thing when i was little. also the swinging.)

she'll stare off into space for several minutes, and it concerns quite literally Everyone else besides Peter and Jack ('cause they Also do that). she'll just sit down and happily draw cats and Nothing Else for like an hour and she'll be like "ooo that was fun! :D"

she fidgets with her scarf when she's overwhelmed or nervous. she kicks her legs under the table. she hums various nursery rhymes.

and now, onto Dee being Chaotic As Hell!

i think Jack lets her swear. with permission. i mean, canonically speaking, she has sworn before, and has no problems with others swearing around her. like, imagine this five-year-old girl, all dressed up nice, just talking to you about cats like "so yeah, I think cats are cool as FUCK-"

given that this was still during a time where young girls were taught/expected to be nice, polite, quiet, and just generally not draw attention to themselves. Dee fits most of these...but she has to remind herself to be polite, because dear lord, is it hard to not call people assholes to their faces sometimes-

Jack would sometimes take her to work at the Diner, and she'd have to (as nicely as possible) make it clear to Henry that she wanted to be left the fuck alone. she doesn't trust this man, and she doesn't want to interact with him more than she has to.

(also, fun fact! my headcanon is that Dee fought back hard as she was being murdered. we're talking kicking, scratching, and biting Henry. and when i say bite, i don't mean she gives a moderate-strength bite that leaves a temporary-ish mark, i mean she bites him hard enough to break the skin.)

and i think this would extend to after her death! Dee knocking stuff off of tables like a cat while making eye contact with Henry and/or Dave! her just causing general chaos as a ghost!!

like, didn't Henry basically say that he was trying to trap Dee because she was causing so many problems? how much trouble was she causing in the short time between her death and when Henry basically forced her to possess the Puppet? apparently enough to where he went "Yeah, we need to take care of this, like, as soon as fucking possible."

like!! give me chaotic Dee!! she deserves it!!

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Shattered Identity.

Chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter four. Chapter five. Chapter six.

Chapter seven: (Not) Gone, but not forgotten.

After the cats were fed, the packers stuff was sorted away, the office was cleaned (rebuilt), Dani went down to the labs to do the final chore she could; Build the hologram. She had been putting this off for several reasons, the biggest being that she didn't want to go into the lab ever again. It might have been her birthplace, but it was also where she found out her family as she had knew it was a lie. Where she discovered she was nothing more than a stepping stone to a 'better' goal, like a child made just so their parents could harvest their organs to replace the failing ones in the body of the parents' “real child”.

The thoughts made her feel angry, disgusted, and… sad.

She wondered if this was why her 'cousin' never told his parents about him being half ghost. Did he fear that they would treat him how Vlad planned to treat her if they knew he wasn't fully human? That they would treat him as… disposable..?

She shuddered and opened the door to the lab, each step feeling heavier and heavier as she descended.

It was cleaner than how she last saw it, no ectoplasm on the floor, the cloning machines were either destroyed or put away, almost no sign that she and her 'brothers' who didn't make it were ever created…

Almost, except for three urns that caught her eye, they were labelled “Aster”, “Brutus”, and “Clav”.

Morbid curiosity led her to open them, finding glowing ashes like she was half expecting. Underneath the urns themselves, there were files labelled 'Deceased'.

'Attempt 23, First cry of “life”. Using my own DNA to fill in the gaps that Danny's left was a terrible idea. The chimera had a case of Ectoplasmic necrosis that was so severe that all the flesh melted off his body almost instantly as soon as he exited the artificial womb. At first I thought he would be like the previous attempts but thankfully, he managed to stabilize himself as a ghost. Although incapable of taking a human form, he is stable and with proper training could be a valuable asset.' Clav's file read. 'Further testing revealed that he is capable of human thought, speech, and even dabbles in the act of creation, all promising signs for the outcome of this project in spite of the many failures.'

'Attempt 46, Et tu, Brutus? Playing it safe, I used Jack's DNA to fill in the gaps. The resulting hulking brute is unfortunately (or fortunately in hindsight) incapable of taking a ghost form and is mentally on par with a violent beast. While his strength and endurance far exceeds normal human limits, It might take weeks before he can learn the difference between food and people, let alone learn English. While a bitter reminder not to repeat my mistake of relying on Jack, a bitter fruit of my labor is better than none at all. Holo-Maddie recommends that I stop, that every failed attempt that melts away into nothing puts me through roughly the same amount of mental anguish a miscarriage does. She doesn't know that while this is painful, it is nothing compared to what I already endured because of Jack ruining my life.'

'Attempt 64, Star survivor. I couldn't stop myself from laughing as this one melted and re-stabilized as a fraction of its intended size. I was so close only to watch perfection melt away before my eyes. SO CLOSE. I held him in my arms as he melted, I do not know how he survived nor do I care at this point. He is here and stable, he is proof that I can make a perfect child, despite all these failures I CAN make that perfect son… I just need a few more tries and after I succeed, I will make Jack feel the pain he forced me to feel, a mere fraction of it, but something that will make it through that thick skull of his. Unfortunately, my work had to be put on hold due to an incident regarding the police being called on me by Holo-Maddie for a 'wellness check' apparently.'

Dani shoved the files back under their perspective urns as if they were on fire, his disregard for himself was… there was no other words she could think of to use for it other than terrifying and insane. He was completely insane, sane people don't… they don't put themselves through this type of thing over and over and over again even if they do get different results.

Close to them, she found a fourth file, one labelled 'MIA'. She bit her lip as she internally questioned whether or not she wanted to open it. On one hand, this was how she could find out if he really cared for her as his daughter, even the slightest bit but on the other hand…

She took a deep breath in, and opened the file.

'Attempt 97, Darling Princess. She's perfect, the closest one I've made that came to being a truly perfect child. At first I was concerned that I had unintentionally used foreign DNA in the gaps again but under closer inspection, double checking her strains, as well as investigating the Gene Donor's past, I discovered that she is indeed my most successful attempt. In hindsight, how did I not see this before?! The other surviving male clones are not true clones, but chimeras; one made with my DNA in addition to Daniel's, one with Jack's, and the third with foreign DNA that I strongly suspect is Skulker's. She is younger than intended by two years, but her testing proves that she is far above and beyond my expectations, she even appears to have similar interests as Daniel does, which was unexpected as I hadn't made those neuron connections in her mind, but happily welcomed. With her creation, I can finally stop. Thank the Ancients, this has been the most exhausting project of my entire life.'

She turned the page, knowing that this wasn't the end.

'I spoke too soon. The day after I had thought it was finally time to stop, I discovered her in her room half melted. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong! She was perfect! She was supposed to be perfect! I can't do this anymore! I admit it, I'm too weak! It's over!'

'After this project is done, I will be removing Holo-Maddie's access to emergency phone numbers.'

'Danielle appears to have no memory of the events after her first emergence out of her chamber, it is unknown whether this is because of memory loss induced by both enduring one traumatic event and witnessing another imminently after or because her reconstructed brain simply didn't make those neuron connections. Either way, I wont make the same mistake I did last time by getting too attached too quickly, while the best case scenario would involve getting to save her, it seems that the most likely scenario is that she will destabilize and fall apart once again, except this time she might end up unsalvageable..'

'According to Holo-Maddie's data, I need a mid-morph sample of Danny's DNA to complete this. Now that I have all the puzzle pieces in place, now that I finally know everything I need to to make the perfect clone of Danny, I can restore and complete my family.'

Dani put the file back on its shelf where she found it, not sure how to feel. She now knew that it was true that Vlad really did love her deep down, that he loved all of them to an extent, instead of forgetting her brothers altogether, he named them, he mourned them even if she didn't see it, he gave them their own urns… But if she listened to Vlad, if she overshadowed Danny and forced him to morph and if she survived, would she have been happy with this family Vlad wanted…? Whether she was loved or not, Vlad was mentally unstable and despite his well-groomed exterior, he took better care of his cats than he did himself. Could she handle the stress of knowing that her father was on the brink of taking himself out and taking other people down with him almost all the time? And could she handle the guilt of knowing that he took Danny's life not just to save her and the perfect brother that was never meant to be, but to hurt somebody else..?

At the very least, she knew that she had to give Vlad an ultimatum after the funeral: While she will give him another chance, he has to go to therapy or she's leaving him on his own for good. Regardless of if he had regeneration-induced amnesia or was a clone with more than the typical amount of his donor's memories in tact, it was very obvious to her that he still has major issues.

But first things first: The hologram, she's stalled more than long enough.

The only light in the hallways and other rooms was the soft pinkish glow of the ectoplasm encasing Vlad's left arm in some sort of makeshift weapon. It wasn't the charged beam of an ectoblast, but rather some sort of crystalized, spear-like structure ready to impale any intruders the on-edge halfa spotted.

He noticed the much barer looking walls of the estate (proof to him that he had been robbed), he noticed that the cats were fed before he could feed them (the robbers might have bribed Carmella and Maud for their silence as the former would've yowled like no tomorrow and the latter would've sought him out and gotten his attention otherwise.), he passed by the office and saw it's repaired state, that caught him off guard for a moment, he couldn't see the point of robbers going out of their way to fix this, he doubted the strange semi-living ectoplasmic creations of his was capable of doing this either, Danny and his friends surprising him with this might be a nice thought, but they weren't the type to help him out just because they could…

…Except for Danielle, who saw him as a brother like this and felt remorse over destroying the office.

The makeshift weapon on his arm faded to nothing as he continued to put pieces together, unless he was targeted by the second-biggest packers fan in the world, it would've made no sense for the thieves to only steal his packers related stuff (and the packed boxes that seemingly came out of nowhere that he wasn't paying attention to before did have the familiar colors of green and gold in them), his cats were too picky to be easily swayed by any ol' bribe… Dani stayed must've stayed in the house and decided to help out.

No… no betrayal to his knowledge, no reward that he was aware of that she wanted… she was just helping him out because she saw that he had a lot on his plate regarding the situation and wanted to help.

Because they were family, and… family helps each other.

KKKKKKSSSSSSHHHHHH…

His ears perked as he noticed light coming from the door to the lab. That's strange, packing up things, feeding animals, and fixing broken things were obvious things to take care of, but what on earth was she doing down there?

He opened the door and made sure his footsteps were light as to not grab her attention too soon.

Carefully,

carefully…

When he made it down to the lab, he was greeted with a strange sight: his older self made out of flickering filtered lights.

“I spoke too soon…” His older doppelganger spoke with a somber tone. “The day after I had thought it was finally time to stop, I discovered her in her room half melted.” His breathing hitched as both of them covered their faces, the hologram holding his head in his hands while the living halfa covered his mouth in shock 'his' voice getting louder and louder as he was losing it. “I just don't know what I'm doing wrong! She was perfect! She was supposed to be perfect! I can't do this anymore! I admit it, I'm too weak! It's over!”

He didn't say it out loud on that day, but if he did, that… would've been how he would've said it. And the way he lost his composure… While it also matched up with his actions on that day, seeing it through an outsider's perspective was chilling. He really was that far gone… At the time he was irritated that Holo-Maddie called the police reporting an attempt, but now he could see why she did it.

It was terrifying…

He was terrifying…

As the hologram flicked off, Danielle noticed the gobstruck older teen still mentally processing what he just saw.

“Jack! I uh… I overheard that you needed a hologram and I figured 'why don't I take a shot at it?' I mean… Holo-Vlad doesn't have a proper AI yet, or a Plasmius form, but it's a pretty solid first draft!” She smiled nervously at him, internally wishing that he didn't walk in on that emotion test given from what she could see of the older ghost's expression.

“A really good one!” He smiled at her, genuinely impressed. Existential crisis from witnessing himself from an outsider's perspective be damned, she really did a good job. “We don't need an AI as advanced as Holo-Maddie or Holo-Jack for him, an AI designed just to read out given scripts and emote as needed is perfect for the job! You did great!”

“Really?! You think so?”

“Yeah! It was like looking in a m- -er, a recording of security camera footage! And you didn't even use the spare Holo-generator! You made your own!” He gestured to the machine that the hologram came out of which he knew for a fact he did not build.

“Holo-Maddie helped.” She admitted.

“Yeah, but you still built it, stop downplaying yourself, squirt.” He ruffled her hair playfully before scooping her up. “In short, great job, great progress, but also, it's 2am and both of us need to go to bed.”

“Hey, are we at a point in our relationship where both of us can insult each other and know that it doesn't come out of a place of malice but affection displayed in a playfully rude way?”

“Eh… Sure, I guess.”

“Okay good.” She nodded before squirming in his grip. “Now put me down cheese-face!”

“Yeah, yeah, your human half will thank me.” he rolled his eyes.

“And what about my ghost half?” She smirked

“Will also thank me, doesn't matter if sleep is a placebo for ghosts, a well-rested ghost is a ghost who's a lot less likely to pass out from exhaustion and get jumped by ghost hunters.”

“Coming from the guy who hasn't slept since he was made.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I never said it was a good thing that I did.” he shrugged and took her to her room, putting her down right by the door. “Holler if you need anything, okay? I'll be either in the master bedroom or the guest room by the kitchen.”

“Okay.” She nodded as Jack left.

The room was in pristine condition unlike how she had left it, not even a speck of dust accumulated; a bed with star patterned blankets and a moon themed stuffed bunny, models of spaceships left half finished on her desk, a bookshelf with comics and video games neatly stacked on it, the TV mounted to the wall was replaced as the first one was blown up. It was welcoming, yes, but didn't feel like home. She never thought she'd see this place again willingly, but it seemed that fate was a weird thing at times.

She did her nightly routines and got in bed, the exhaustion of the long day finally catching up with her and the bed nice and comforting.

“Mwarh?” Maud 'honked' as she jumped up on the bed and started kneading the blankets on her legs. “Mrrp.”

“G'night, Mauddy.” Dani muttered as the cat curled up on her leg and started to drift to sleep. … The clock on her nightstand read 10:03 am when she woke up to the absence of a cat on her and the faint sounds of someone tinkering in the kitchen. Still groggy, she stretched and got out of bed, valuing breakfast above the other morning routines for now.

“And lets say that the ghost in question is one that you want to keep alive and conscious while extinguishing its fire. Would the… 'Fenton heckfire extinguisher' try to also extinguish the ghost or just weaken it?” The older halfa asked over the phone. “Oh hold on, I'll have to call you back.” He hung up. “Morning Sleepyhead” Jack greeted her as the blanket-wrapped girl walked into the kitchen. “Ready for a lot of errands?”

“Mph.” Was her incoherent reply as she sat at the kitchen's island, still mentally waking up before realizing that the older teen was cooking the breakfast of eggs and sausage by holding the pan like how a waiter would hold a plate, the hand underneath the pan glowing a bright magenta while the eggs and meat sizzled away. “YOU HAVE FIRE POWERS?!” She gawked at the casual use of supernatural abilities, something that normally in the Masters estate would've been the norm.

“No, right now this is just heated ectoplasm. It's a whopping 150 degrees Fahrenheit, sure, but no fire involved. However, this could become fire powers overtime with the right training…”

“I've never seen Vlad use fire powers before! Do you think that this means clones could develop different powers from their genetic donors?”

Sure, she didn't forget that Jack might not be a clone, but there had to be enough overlap in their situations to warrant asking.

“We both have- had fire cores but -I'm pretty sure the elemental aspects of his was stunted- …Due to… something… That's probably why you didn't see him use them. He couldn't even if he wanted to.” Vlad took a plate out of the cupboard and shook the eggs and sausages out of the pan and onto it. “But from what I saw of the notes of some of the other clones, Clav had a 'void core' whatever that is, Brutus had a neutral or elementless core that he was unable to use at all, and Aster had a metal core. I don't know what your core is, but considering how you and Danny didn't come into existence as halfas with the same method, I think that you developing powers different from his is less a question of 'if you will get different powers' and more a question of 'when will you get different powers'.”

“Really?!” she beamed.

“Yeah, after we get the errands taken care of we can even screen your core to figure out what type it is and stuff like that.”

“Thank you!” She pounced on the older teen in a hug.

“Careful! I'm still using myself as a stove!”

“Sorry!” She got off of him. “…So when did you find out you had these powers?”

“…When I accidentally set my bed on fire.” He sheepishly muttered. “Don't worry, I put it out before it got out of hand.”

Carmella hissed at him as if to say 'before it got out of hand my tail! look what you did to my beautiful fur coat!' before going back to grooming a singed patch of fur, the rest of the cat herself thankfully unharmed.

“Sorry…” He picked at his bath robe sleeves while the cat groomed herself and 'glared' at him.

Dani got herself some of the eggs and a waffle from the fancy waffle maker, drizzling the former in ketchup and the latter in strawberry syrup.

“So after this are we going to work on Holo-Vlad?”

“Nah, I'm going to get the documents taken care of and get some funeral preparations taken care of. You're free to come along or stay, but its not going to be fun.” He shrugged. “But if there's something you want to add to it, you can either come along, tell me what you want, or give me a call if you think of anything.”

“What would I want to add?”

“You know, flower types, food catered at the event, stuff like that.”

“Oh right.” She hummed in thought.

She knew that Vlad was a little… unstable to put it lightly the last time he thought he was left alone, but he might do better when he had tasks to occupy his mind and an image to keep up going out and about in public, but just in case, she might want to keep an eye on him, just to make sure he didn't have another breakdown but at the wrong place and time.

“Sure! I'll come!”

“Alright, get ready after you finish eating.”

She gave him a thumb's up and the two focused on their breakfasts.

___

Vlad was by no means a movie critic or anyone who made a living off of watching films and discussing them, but he did see enough to familiarize himself with the troupe of someone attending their own funeral, be it by strange or supernatural circumstance. Maybe if the doctors back then got their way, he also would have attended his own funeral as a full ghost twenty years ago.

Without foresight that troupe typically doesn't involve the deceased planning out their own funeral, getting all of the arrangements and documents done (a task which was semi-interrupted by the box ghost), going to morticians to ask about details, getting the police called and an investigation which unexpectedly turned up with nothing except a stirring pot of buzzing rumors among Amity's townsfolk.

It was strange to him, to be only one of two people planning out the funeral for himself. A sickening reminder that while he died as an important man, he did not die genuinely loved by anyone, not even his own living daughter. (He doubted Dani would go out of her way to do this if she alone would do it.) Even his 'sons' who the world would see as mindless animal-like ghost minions didn't get this fate. They died loved by their father even through the vitriol he felt for them at the time, watching so many failures time after time after time felt like madness…

He felt weird emotions looking at his own future tombstone that was waiting to be engraved. In those tangles of emotions he could name a sense of sorrow, bitterness, anger, and a strange peace, something sobering and tranquil. Like watching natural disasters destroy everything you known and loved, and watching them all fade away. The life you had known and cherished before was gone, but the chaos, the pain, the loss… that was over too.

Something that made his situation more… real. That after this was done, even if there was a way to somehow reverse this irreversible situation, he couldn't take it even if he wanted to, not unless he wanted to raise a lot of unnecessary questions.

He wasn't dead, at least, not entirely, but at the same time he was. But this time not in the sense that he was a halfa.

From this point onward, Vlad Masters was dead and gone for good.

"So Kid, what's the stone going to say?"

"Here lies Vladimir Masters; Gone, but unforgettable."