#i'm losing my mind i'm so sorry lol

[xarrixii]

Chapter_34 : "In the Nowhere" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CW: previous chapter | beginning | masterlist

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Garry Roy clicked the butt-end of a pen against his cheek, staring at the monitor absentmindedly. He chewed on his bottom lip, eyes occasionally darting at the black phone screen on the desk.

With a low sigh, Garry reaches for the phone and unlocks it, sloppily punching in the numbers and putting it up to his ear to ring.

After the fifth try, he almost throws the thing back onto the desk, setting his head in his hand. “Damn it. Old hag.” Then he starts bouncing the clicker on the pen on the metal, staring again into the monitor.

“You okay in there, Roy?” Chief Kepler called from outside the office.

Sometimes he forgot they’d installed glass walls/doors for people to look in. Said police couldn’t have any secrets.

“Fine,” he replied a little too gruffly.

As fine as having your kid go missing could reasonably be. A kid with police training who got caught up in their mother’s mess.

Garry rubbed his eyes, hitting the call button on the phone again and hitting speaker, to no avail. He tried to look at anything but the report on the screen, the one he’d written up himself about his own damn kid.

“Where the hell d’ya go, Al?” he whispers, slumping over further in the chair.

He shouldn’t have waited half a month. He should have just called Urban, should’ve called Amaterasu sooner than he had.

After a long pause, Garry uploaded a file into the empty space where it was meant to be on the report. The clearest photo with just Alph they had—kid always took pictures exclusively with others—their senior photo.

Alph had spent so much time arguing with the school to let them pick one with Urban in it, one that wasn’t a joke. School (and Urban) had insisted on a serious one though. And like hell was Garry about to put… they called it a meme, right? on a missing persons file. Which meant Alph was resting, smiling, against their first motorcycle. Garry still remembered the jokes they’d tried to crack for an honest grin. In the end, it was just letting Urban smile disappointedly, shaking his head, that got them there.

The glass door cracked open, Kepler strolling in with his arms crossed, nodding at the computer. “You’re free to go home. I’ll finish it.”

“I still got a whole day of work ahead of,”

“Non-negotiable. You got a little boy at home yet to take care of. We’ll call you if we need ya. Get outta here.”

Garry’s mouth pulls taut, slowly rising from the chair and pocketing the phone. “You’re sure?”

“If I say it’s an order as your chief rather than a worried friend, does it help?”

He responds with only a grumble.

“We’re all worried about your kid, Roy. Whatever mess they’ve gotten themselves into, whoever pulled them in’s coming out fucked up.”

“Encouraging violence?”

Kepler only shrugs. “Some people deserve it.”

Damn straight, Garry thinks, mind drifting to Amaterasu again.

“Seriously, get outta here. Go home. Take the little guy out for ice cream. Just get your mind off of this. Your job is being a father right now, not a cop.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Garry groans. “I’m leavin’.”

Upon seeing Alph’s truck gone from the lot, Garry had made a mad dash to the elevator, finger jabbing into the call button several times.

“Don’t make it come any faster.” Someone said from behind him.

“‘Kid called it a psychological trick once. Damn me if I don’t wanna believe it right about now.”

The guy snickered lightheartedly. “Guess so.”

When the elevator doors pulled open, Garry had practically pried them the rest of the way just to get back into his apartment on the 34th floor a little bit faster. All the rooms had access to one set of security camera codes: the parking lot. To watch their cars without having to come up and down all the time. Alph had been a big advocator for it when the building had voted on it.

Damn was Garry lucky for it right about now.

“Ty?!”

“You’re home early!” Ty exclaimed, poking his head out from the game on the TV. Garry was just relieved Ty was still here.

“Al come home yet?”

“No. Hold on, Dad, I have a game to finish.”

“It’s okay, kiddo, I gotta check somethin’ really fast here.” He continued into his bedroom, pulling up the laptop with silent come on, come ons. He rummaged through one of the drawers, getting out the sticky note with the security login key.

Garry had to type it three separate times to get it right, clicking the keyboard too fast.

He didn’t know what he’d expected to see. Someone coming back and taking Alph’s truck out of spite or whatever nonsense, Alph coming back themselves for it, Amaterasu, or what. It definitely wasn’t Urban.

Garry licked his lips, taking in a deep breath. Knowing the guy, he’d return it and try to pretend he’d never taken it at all. Had probably been banking on Garry being at work yet. He’d just have to catch him when he came back with it.

“Dad!” Ty hollered from the other room. “You gonna pick up the other controller?”

Your job is being a father right now, not a cop.

He took the laptop back to the living room with him, and before he knew it, it was dark, and he saw Alph’s truck re-entering the lot. With Urban in it.

“I’ll be back,” Garry got up, patting Ty’s shoulder with the kid’s mumbled affirmation. “Don’t let my little character die.”

“Kill Reichler? The badass one that runs on walls and shit? Never.” Ty flashes a toothy grin before his focus returns to the game.

The luckiest part was that Urban focused so much on small details, they were still trying to park the truck the way it had been that morning to notice Garry’s car sitting there. Or Garry walking up, “Hey.”

Urban practically jumped hopping out from the driver’s seat. “Hi.”

“Where’s,” Garry had to think for a second to remember the name. “Where’s Raiden?” Urban’s mouth was agape, swallowing down hard. He said nothing, arms just falling limp to his sides and looking down at the concrete, shaking. A little gentler this time, “Where’s my kid?”

With tears stinging his eyes, “I don’t know.”

next chapter

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[roguemonsterfucker]

I'm rewatching hbomb's plagiarism video and oh boy he really did predict every single trick Somerton pulled in his new video.

Like. People want hbomb to make a followup video, a response to the 'apology' and... he doesn't need to! Just rewatch the Filip section of his video and he covers pretty much everything James said!

The excuses, the deflection, the not addressing the truly egregious things he did because it would make him look worse...

Which really does make it feel like James Somerton didn't actually watch hbomb's video. Some people have voiced their doubts that he saw it and I can't help but agree, especially since some of his claims are debunked directly in the video (the part about getting Sean Griffin's permission).

[that-was-anticlimactic]

The only thing that could possibly quell his anxiety, his brain decided, was holding Sokka’s hand again.

Well, they’ve only held hands once before, and that time it was because Sokka was about to fall to his death.

… well…

Uncle once described Zuko as “stupidly impulsive”, so he may as well live up to that description.

[or, zuko likes holding sokka's hand but they only did that when sokka fell off the gondola, so zuko decides to fall to make sokka catch him]

🍃5,287 words | for @zukkabigbang2024 🍃

🍃beta by @beachytablecloth and AMAZING art by @britishmuffin!🍃

you can find the lovely art here!

[oodlezsinbin]

Day 12, Space Station! Conway's belly pressed the button to turn off the gravity and they floated away before they could turn it back on

[dollypopup]

y'all can all cancel me (again) for this, but if there's even a SHRED of 'who should I pick?' from Penelope in season 3, I am tuning out SO fast because like. . .sorry not sorry, there IS no choice. Debling is some crusty OC suitor she barely even knows and Colin is a man who she has been so supposedly in love with to the point where she'd ruin her entire family's reputation to have a potential love story with him. Penelope and Colin have background, years of knowing each other, intimacy that few people in the Ton can boast of having (letters, conversations about purpose, fights and arguments and makeups) and her and Debling have. . .a dance or two at a ball because he's a rebound for Penelope's broken heart. he means nothing. he has no nuance, he has no weight to the story, he is such an afterthought to me. either I wanna see Penelope going 'you know what? I don't even LIKE this dude. he's. . .fine, but I don't care about him even a shred as much as I care about Colin' or the INSTANT Colin's like 'you know what? we should get married' if it's not an immediate 'say less, you're already my husband, try returning me without the receipt, Debling whomst?' then I don't want it!

like. . .it's just so frustrating to see all the 'I hope Debling sweeps her off her feet and she rejects Colin's proposal and she makes him work for it and and and-' nonsense from the fandom and it's always tagged and no matter how many times I block it, it just keeps popping up. I go into the Polin tag for POLIN. I don't give a SHIT about a male love interest other than Colin. Not one. Not a shred. Not an iota.

and also. . .Debling has the 'benefit' of not having depth, or character traits, or HISTORY, so peeps can project onto him however they want, but I'm calling it now, there is NOTHING he could do or be that would make me like him more than Colin. Colin will always hit different, and I will always love him more. and if Pen's not on that same page? lol bye

you want me to believe Penelope and Colin are soulmates and it's romance for her to hem and haw about how difficult a decision it is for her to marry a stranger who knows barely anything about her. . .

when Marina was out here dropping banger lines like 'You were the only man with which I could see myself being happy' and 'I do not care about any of these men, where is Colin?'? like hello??? and she wasn't even fully in love with him!!!! but we'll demonize her until the cows come home in our fandom and make her the villain in Polin's love story for DARING to get in between Polin, yet Debling, a white man, is a darling dear perfect prince for getting in between Polin? existing in our fandom solely so Penelope can be like 'lol, Colin ain't shit, let me entertain any and everyone else'?

if that's the direction it goes then, ten toes down and on my mama, she doesn't deserve Colin and she can move because I'm on my way to court him my damn self

and that's that on that

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Gambling Apocalypse Tenma AU

As I rewatch Kaiji I inevitably end up wanting to combine show I like with other show I like and stuffing fav characters into show. So here we are.

This was uh going to be a short summary type thing but I accidentally wrote a novella about it sorry

This AU starts off with a much more depressive Tenma. After Tobio's death, rather than immediately pour his grief into developing a robot version of his son, he recedes into himself, psychologically paralyzed, likely turning to alcohol to drown out his anguish.

His mental state is taken as an opportunity within the Ministry of Science to have him ejected from his position; Tenma was never the most well-liked director, and there were those with ambition to usurp him that would jump at the chance. Not that he especially cares in his state.

He's eventually dragged out of his stagnation by Ochanomizu - who, inadvertently, becomes the very catalyst pushing Tenma to develop a robot replacement to his child. This was not what he meant by encouraging Tenma to fill the void left by his son.

...But, well, he is no longer the director of the Ministry of Science. His access to limitless government funds and resources for "scientific research" has been cut off, and this is a project he cannot finance on his own. He can't ask Ochanomizu for help, but...interestingly...a representative of a certain shady organization known as the Teiai Corporation reaches out to him, offering to finance and support his project. A sane and well-minded Tenma might think better of it, but grieving and desperate, Tenma accepts their offer and is able to create a robot in the image of his beloved Tobio. For a while, there's joy in his life.

But the bill, as ever, comes due: Tenma must pay up, and the very resources that had been at his disposal will certainly ensure that he will, or else. Of course, he doesn't have the money; instead, he is given a choice. He can relinquish the robot Tobio in order to wipe out his debt - the child is a sophisticated and powerful robot, after all - or he can participate in a certain illicit event hosted by the Teiai Corporation.

It's nothing major...just a four-hour gambling cruise with a collection of desperate, damned souls that were also swept into debt with Teiai. The conditions are simple: Those who choose to participate are given a chance to clear their debts wholesale should they win. And should they lose...?

Well...no one really knows what happens to the losers seized by Teiai. It's said that they labour away their debts under Teiai's watchful eye and are freed once their work has covered their debts, though it's rumoured that most perish before they reclaim freedom.

There's only one answer Tenma can give, of course; he's not willing to lose Tobio again.

Thus is Tenma's debut into the Gambling Apocalypse, where he must become cutthroat in order to survive; if he wants to see his son again, he must make choices that will doom the hapless to miserable servitude, with a nonzero chance it ends in their death.

He survives the cruise, but of course, it was hardly enough to clear his debt; the cruise was never going to be the end of it. Teiai doesn't let go of its victims that easily. He will be called on again: this is a weight that hangs over him, all while he returns to his son Tobio. The same hands that have pushed innocents into hell must now be the hands that can embrace his child.

He wants to protect Tobio from the truth and enjoy what peaceful moments he's allowed with his son, but it's difficult. It's difficult to be the parent of a child who cannot understand the danger that looms ahead; this "happy" home is not to last. Tenma angers quickly and easily. He turns that anger onto Tobio.

As Teiai's games become more and more vicious and unrelenting, as his conscience holds onto the last vestiges of thread that remain, Tenma even threatens, once, to give the boy in: it would all end, then; the debt would be clear and no longer would he have to endure Tobio's childish annoyances, his ungratefulness.

The next time that Tenma is beckoned, Tobio takes matters into his own hands. He does understand, now; and he would have, if only Tenma had bothered to explain sooner. If it's a debt that needs clearing, he will work. He will help his father clear his debts however he can. Of course, it's difficult to find work as a child; but a circus troupe finds amusement in the idea of a child robot, and takes him in. He is whisked into a certainly unpleasant working situation, but he remembers his father, and what he must be enduring. Tobio, also, will endure.

When Tenma returns, Tobio is gone.

All that held Tenma back from becoming something monstrous has disappeared. All that kept him going has disappeared. When he is called upon by Teiai, there is no knowing what sort of person might come out the other end; whether a monster clawing his way to freedom regardless of what actions he must take, or a desolate husk surrendering defeat.

There is still a light, however dim: Found by Professor Ochanomizu and rescued from the circus, Tobio - now Atom - is able to shed light on the situation which Tenma took great pains to keep hidden from his old friend. With time running out, Ochanomizu and Atom must do what they can to save Tenma - from Teiai, and from himself.

-----

UHHH and that's a wrap!!!! I couldn't quite decide which way Tenma would go after hitting Rock Bottom in this AU, and tbh it would really depend on the kind of mental state he's in at the time. On the one hand I like the narrative of Ochanomizu and Tobio racing to prevent Tenma from crossing a line (actual outright murder probably) - or having to pull him back into humanity (and yknow, his ensuing penance)

But on the other hand having him get sent to Teiai Evil Hell Prison would be interesting because a) there's a lot of narrative potential having Tenma faced with what Teiai is doing with the people that lose the games and b) need him to decimate the foreman at chinchirorin Kaiji style

Tenma's whole character is definitely a much different guy in this AU, he starts off pretty sympathetic, the guy you wanna root for, he just ends up having an inverse character arc where he gets worse instead of better. His conflict with "Tobio" is also kind of reversed, less about being unsatisfied with Tobio as a son and more not being able to handle the fact that he probably has intense PTSD now and isnt capable of coping with it in a way conducive to being a parent (or like, coping at all)

Anyway that's gambling apocalypse tenma!!!

[hadrianblackwaters]

!! DRUMINDOR SPOILERS IN TEXT AND TAGS !!

Listening to Drumnidor as a Hadrian girlie is not easy. My god they're assassinating his entire character and taking away his life purpose right in front of us! They're reducing him to a stupid comic relief character with no depth and no real influence on the people around him (to a greater degree than they ever did before) and they're taking away all his greatest achievements and attributing them to someone else to fit the plot! His main character status has been revoked and he's now apparently merely a supporting character in someone else's story. Please, everyone, a moment of silence for my blorbo 😔🙏 Rest in peace mr. Blackwater. At least they let you pull some impressive-arse sword moves, you looked really cool... but I am so sorry they did not let you be a practising hoe in this one ����

[fitzselfships]

WHY did I just now get a notification for a message I got last friday

[lustyargonianmaid]

wait orin is a product of incest????

[forseungwan]

babiest

[light-miracles]

hi! um, excuse me— what bellice fic is that? 👁️ (in reference to the killer bella, nm au)

Hello! I think it's How To Be A Latin Lover

In short:

Bella accidentally meets María de Monterrey two weeks after the Cullen leave and she teaches her to be a Proper Vampire™

Alice is in Biloxi having a gay awakening existencial crisis and slowly going insane over the possibility of losing Bella, since someone is trying to steal her away.

And Rosalie accidentally starts a newborn war.

[yohankang]

i’m so tired and angry i can’t believe it’s just the beginning....

[nancywheeeler]

it would be incredibly funny actually if both rune and ruud went out in the first round. but not as funny as it would be if djokovic did. manifesting.

[fitzfunnymoments]

holy shit I’m actually about to start crying I may have just helped a lost Little Robots movie get on its way to being found

there’s even a review for it that reveals what it’s about oh my god https://web.archive.org/web/20071020225634/http://kidtoonfilms.com/reviews/lr_tbs.html

[mooodyblue]

ignore me lol

[selfinflictedgunshotwound]

this might sound bad but it is comforting to know that suicide is always an option