#if i knew how to make gradient text i would

[likesummerrainn]

watch that poison blossom

Hangman Page Birthday Week 2024: ⤷ Day 6 - Favorite Feud: HangSwerve

[xxmcr05xx]

Glory Box | Albert Wesker & William Birkin x f!Reader

Summary: Albert gets very jealous seeing F/N get all close with his unit, so fucks her in his office - also, William Birkin is there.

Warnings/Contains: Smut, jealous sex (initially), exhibitionism, voyeuristic William Birkin, office sex, nipple sucking, fingering (f!receiving), hickeys, squirting, praise kink, masturbation, oral sex (f!receiving), lowkey bisexual William, unprotected sex.

WC: 2,573

Posted On: 20/06/25, also on AO3!

Title Song: Glory Box - Portishead

Author's Note: I finally figured out how to use gradient texts omg life changer. Also finally got to upload; I've had no wi-fi for the past week, it's been horrendous. Also I have 2 exams that I haven't revised for so yay.

18+ MDNI!!!

Divider by @kodaswrld

Albert knew that this was a bad idea.

He gave into the pressure of his team's begging and nagging to meet his wife that they didn't think exist. Now, Albert, with a frown on his face, was holding his dear wife's hand to the S.T.A.R.S's headquarters.

"This is going to be a really bad idea, F/N," Albert grumbled, using his keycard to swiftly make his way to their breakroom.

F/N let out a small laugh and looked up at Albert with sympathy. "It's gonna be okay, Albert. I'm sure they're nice kids," she suggested with an empathetic tone.

Albert sighed, shaking his head, "They're a pain in the ass."

Holding his grip a bit tighter on her now, Albert opened the door to the break room, revealing the members of his Alpha team.

The first to notice was Jill, who gasped and waved excitedly. The others followed soon after, swarming around the couple.

Albert noticed that Chris had his hand out to shake for F/N, the woman smiled and shook his hand, "You must be Chris Redfield, right?" F/N asked.

Chris nodded, "Does our captain here talk about us?"

"Oh, yes he does, very much," F/N replied with a smirk, looking over at Albert, "he really likes you guys."

Albert frowned at her comment and crossed his arms, "You get five more minutes to talk to her, then we're out of here." The blond felt anxious as his team swarmed her with questions, he didn't like it - he even caught himself anxiously playing with his wedding band.

He noticed that Chris and Joseph kept whispering to each other, he could hear them.

'She's too hot for him.'

'Man, I would not be showing her off to anyone if I was him.'

He wanted to leave now.

Albert looked over at the pair and glared at them hard, giving them a 'I know what you're talking about' look. This instantly shut the two up as they stopped whispering to each other.

His teeth were grinding together; he could practically see them ogle her.

"So, F/N, what do you even like about our captain anyway?" Jill asked with a small smile. The question snapped Albert out of his glare, now looking down at F/N.

F/N thought for a moment before answering, "Well, he's gentle, he loves cooking with me...." F/N looked over at Albert and smiled, "he's real lovey-dovey-"

"Alright, that's enough," Albert cut her off, he held her hand again and turned around, "Five-minutes is up, we've got-to-go."

The small arrangement of members sighed.

"C'mon," Albert told F/N in a hushed tone, F/N pouted but nodded anyway, she waved goodbye to the rest of the Alpha team and followed Albert out.

The blond man groaned and ran a hand through his hair once he left the breakroom, "What a group of rascals..." Albert sighed and looked down, "I told you, they're all annoyances."

"Don't be so harsh on them, Albert, they look up to you."

He simply shook his head and started walking again, "C'mon, let's get going to my office." F/N nodded and rubbed Albert's hand, holding it in hers as they made their way to his office.

"Y'know, F/N," Albert started quietly, "I really disliked how some of my men were looking at you. Like you were some kind of cake on display."

F/N raised her eyebrows but grinned mischievously, "You were jealous, weren't you?" she asked, her grip tightening on him.

Albert rolled his eyes, opening his office with his keycard, "Why do you say so, dear?" Albert asked. He quickly locked the door behind them and sat at his desk, F/N followed as she sat on one of the seats in front of his desk.

"Well, you were glaring at Chris and, I think his name is Joseph. I swear you were shooting lasers at them."

He wish he could have.

"Hmm, maybe you're correct, but I cannot help it; you are a very gorgeous looking woman."

F/N smiled at Albert's compliment, placing her left-hand over his right, "I was very right in marrying you, Albert; I only want you in my life."

Albert pursed his lips, he looked over at the windows of his office before looking back at F/N. "You know, dear, no one comes through this part of the building too much..." Albert muttered.

F/N raised an eyebrow as Albert gave her a small smirk, "Are you suggesting we fuck in your office?"

He nodded.

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed, darling."

F/N's widened a little before she smirked, "You are such a pervert."

Albert got up from his seat and stood behind F/N, "Just be warned, darling, I'm still gonna fuck you even if anyone comes in," he whispered. He grabbed F/N's arm softly, guiding her to sit on his desk, then kissing her.

The couple closed their eyes at the touch, Albert's hand moved to softly cup her face. He moved away from the kiss a minute later and stared down at her with lustful eyes, "Baby, I'm gonna ruin you here."

Albert smashed back down onto F/N's lips, F/N moaned at the sudden contact, her hands sliding down to his waist. The blond man started to unbutton F/N's blouse.

"Mm... God, FN...." Albert huffed out in-between kisses, "you... you look so... hot." His tongue prodded F/N's lips softly, indicating that he wanted to feel her mouth.

F/N did as he asked and opened her mouth slightly, Albert's tongue slithered its way inside. He moaned at the sweet taste; he could taste the strawberry latte that she had just an hour ago.

His hands trailed away from the middle of her blouse, then pulling it down and onto the floor.

Albert finally moved away from the kiss, a small trail of saliva connecting their mouths.

"Dear, you are absolutely ravishing," Albert growled out, F/N laughed a little, kissing his cheek softly.

He then pushed F/N into the middle of the desk; he noticed that she was wearing the lacey blue bra that he loved a lot. "You're gonna kill me..." Albert huffed out.

F/N let out a soft whimper as Albert pulled the cups up and over her chest, revealing her tits to him.

No matter how many times they have sex, Albert will never get enough of her.

"You liking the view?" F/N asked, running her hand through his hair softly.

Albert kept his eyes glued to her chest basically, but still gave her a small nod. His mouth latched almost instantly a second later onto one of her nipples.

F/N let out a small moan instantaneously.

Albert's eyes closed softly; he wanted more of her, so he moved a hand down, expertly unbuttoning her jeans button and unzipping them.

The woman helped him out by shimmying them down. Albert hummed a small thank you, hand now trailing down from her bellybutton to the side of her panties.

His finger dipper underneath, feeling the wetness of her cunt.

"Hhuhgh.. oh God, Albert..." F/N moaned out, "you feel so so good." F/N rubbed the back of his head as a reward - Albert basically purred.

The blond's fingers rubbed her clit at a slow pace, F/N's grip got a bit tighter now, her hands gripping the roots of his head.

He could sense that she was getting overwhelmed but he loved it.

His fingers now dipped lower, middle and ring finger slipping in her cunt with ease. "Oh FUCK!" F/N moaned out, her body tensed up at the pleasure.

"You like that, don't you, dear?" Albert panted out, deciding to move away from her chest which was practically glowing and slobbered.

F/N let out a quite loud moan.

Albert felt so turned on by her. His mouth latched on F/N's neck almost instantly, leaving heavy trails of his love-bites across it.

When Albert moved away he heard the door open, the fingers that were inside of F/N tensed up, but relaxed once he heard William Birkin's voice.

"You were answering your pager so I-" William, who was initially looking down at some papers, paused as he looked up, his face warmed up.

Albert was still fingering F/N quite slowly, turned around and now facing William. The woman gasped and covered her mouth, letting out a muffled moan as Albert's thumb started to rub her clit softly.

"Sorry about that, William, as you see, I am a bit busy at the moment."

William gulped hard, he looked away from the scene in front of him as the door closed behind him. "I- I can leave-" William was interrupted when he saw Albert shaking his head.

"You can stay and tell me what I have to know," Albert cut-in, he gestured to the chair that was off to the side of the desk.

William fidgeted with the paper, looking over at F/N, but she was too indulged in the pleasure to give him an answer.

"Oh, okay," William sat by on the seat, keeping his eyes glued to the paper, "ba- basically, we have a new assignment given to us..." he trailed off once he heard F/N's moans growing louder.

Her hand was gripping the table harshly as Albert's fingers fastened their pace.

"... and um..." William felt uncomfortable, feeling his erection growing.

"C'mon, William, don't let me be a distraction," Albert encouraged, he gave the flustered man a small smirk before looking back at F/N.

F/N gave Albert a desperate look, legs shaking, "I- I'm gonna cu- cum," F/N stuttered.

Albert huffed, but continued at the same pace anyway, "What do you think, William, does F/N deserve to cum?"

William's head shot up when he heard his name.

"Me?"

"Yes you, William."

The man gulped and shrugged, "I- I guess she can..."

Albert smirked, his thumb applied more pressure on her clit, "Hear that, dear? William here said that you could cum, what do we say?"

F/N let out a high-pitched moan and looked down at William, "Th- Thank you!" she moaned out.

Not even a moment later, she felt herself cum.

She squirted all over his fingers.

F/N sobbed out a choked moan, her head leaning back.

"Good girl..." Albert praised, he kissed her cheek softly before pulling her down to her knees, "I think you deserve to suck my cock after that."

F/N nodded mindlessly, she wasn't fully recovered from her orgasm before unbuckling Albert's pants and pulling them down.

The other man's eyes widened again, he should feel uncomfortable, but everything just felt so right.

All three of them noticed Albert's bulging erection, but it was just too good to look away from.

"Fuck..." Albert huffed out as F/N gripped his cock softly, indulging in the taste of the pre-cum that was leaking from his tip, "what- what else did they say?" Albert asked William.

The man gulped, re-reading the sheets of paper, "we have a meeting on Tuesday, 8:30 am..." William muttered, Albert nodded, he let out a small hiss as F/N started to take the full length of his cock in her mouth.

Her eyes were closed and her hands were holding onto his waist.

"Pretty girl..." Albert whispered.

F/N bobbed faster from his praise, basically choking on his cock.

But as soon as Albert felt like he was going to cum, he pulled F/N away from him. "I can't yet, dear, I want to cum in you," He explained to a disappointed F/N.

Albert looked over at William, "If you want to masturbate here William, neither of us will care."

William sat in the chair, nodding, he felt flushed at Albert's forwardness, but supposed it wasn't all that bad. He unbuttoned his pants, pulling them down along with his boxers just enough for his cock to spring out.

His hands gripped the base cock and slowly pumped it as he stared at the couple in front of him.

F/N got up on her feet, being helped by Albert to bend over the desk. The blond man let out quiet, shaky moan at the sight of her dripping cunt, he pulled her panties down to her ankles and spread her asscheeks.

"You ready, dear?" Albert asked.

The woman let out desperate nods, whining out and wriggling her ass softly - she wanted to be fucked so desperately.

Albert granted her wish, he held his cock, jerking it a couple of times before slowly penetrating her cunt.

The couple let out a moan in unison while William whimpered.

"Feels good, doesn't it, love?" Albert whispered in F/N's ear, she nodded slowly and leaned her head on the desk, huffing out small moans.

After a minute to adjust, Albert began to fuck into her slowly. William eyed them from a distance, making sure that his pace and strength matched theirs.

Albert's hands gripped each side of her hips, admiring her ass rippling as he fucked into her.

"So good for me, aren't you?" Albert asked, F/N nodded, her eyebrows furrowing in pleasure, letting out moans that matched the strikes his cock gave.

William bit his lip, letting out a muffled whimper, feeling so turned on from the scene in front of him.

Albert groaned out, he squeezed his eyes shut in pleasure - he could feel F/N's walls squeezing against him, he was overwhelmed but he didn't stop.

"A-Aahh... Albert!" F/N moaned out, she peered over her shoulder to look at Albert, occasionally looking at William, "I need to cum so bad... please!"

He kissed down her back slowly before looking back at her, "You cum when I cum, 'kay?" Albert suggested, F/N nodded desperately, sweat dripping down her cheek.

William let out a strangled moan, the sound of F/N's moans were overwhelming for him.

Before he could even blink, William came, white ropes of cum shot into his hand - he felt slightly embarrassed. Albert looked over at William's hand, chuckling a little.

"Look at that, seems like William here came first," Albert informed.

F/N whined out shaking her head, "Don't- don't fucking care, just let me cum!"

Albert frowned at her words, but he was a caring husband so he practically slammed himself inside her.

That rough pace was all it took.

F/N felt herself tingle, she let out a few short bursts of moans before cumming all over Albert's cock. Albert, overwhelmed as well, followed soon after and came inside of her.

"F-Fuck! You're so good F/N, holy fuck- your cunt is so tight against me."

He could feel his warm cum cover her walls.

A moment later, Albert pulled out and huffed, breathing heavily as he started to dress himself and F/N.

"That is all, William, you are excused."

William nodded, he panted softly and wiped his hands with tissues that were placed in a box on the table.

The scientist waved and softly said his goodbyes before walking out of the office.

F/N was too fucked-out to even notice that William left.

Albert kissed her forehead and helped her change again, "You did good, dear, I'll get some of that nice Chinese food you like, 'kay?"

F/N hummed a yes, her mind fuzzy.

"Good girl."

[theangeltopaz]

Would you write headcannons for Akutagawa, Chuuya and Mori falling in love with an ADA member male!reader?

“I CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU.”

SYNOPSIS. Various Port Mafia members fall in love with ADA male reader. WC. 1.2k

CONTENT. Contains headcanons for Mori, Chuuya, and Akutagawa, written with male reader in mind but gender isn’t mentioned much, mention of being a yandere and murder in Mori’s section, gets a bit angsty in Ryu and Chūya’s sections, Mori’s a bit arrogant because of course

AUTHOR’S NOTE. Yay!!! Thank you nonnie!! First ask that I’m actually writing something for!!! I’m not a Mori fan by any means, but I’m not going to turn down a request! Anon didn’t specify if they wanted sfw or nsfw, so I just went with sfw. Also my cat was sitting on my lap whilst I was writing this and I was just thinking about how she reminded me of Chūya cause she’s a small redhead. And also I’m sad now cause I can’t seem to put color gradient text on responses to asks.

RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA.

Ryu might fall in love with you and maybe would respect you, if you were good friends with Dazai, so let’s go with that.

He would fall in love with you during a confrontation between the ADA and the Port Mafia.

You were calm and strong and you knew your way around a fight, all traits he admired.

He would definitely deny his feelings at first, saying that he only admires your technique or something like that.

And if someone points out that Ryu got distracted during a fight? He would just pass it off as attempting to gauge your next move.

You would have to make the first move, as he’s definitely not going to.

It definitely catches Ryu off guard when you confess, and he would probably end up in a coughing fit out of surprise (poor bby 😭).

Once he calms down, he’d begrudgingly say yes. (Begrudgingly because he’s in the Port Mafia and you’re in the ADA)

Your first date together would be somewhere public and simple, maybe a walk in the park or a nice dinner?

It’s hard for him to accept that you actually love him due to his past and his own philosophies.

Since you’re good friends with Dazai, he might view you as better than him, so you’d have to get him out of that inferiority complex he has.

It takes a while to build up to your first kiss, because he’d want to trust and be sure in your affections.

It would also be very difficult to get Ryu to trust you. 

The difference in organizations wouldn’t help at all. He might end up thinking that you’re using him for information. 

Kind of like trying to coax a starving stray cat into your protection.

However, with enough love and care, you can get Ryu to accept your feelings and trust you.

Ryu wouldn’t talk about your relationship to anyone except Gin.

Cuddle sessions. CUDDLE SESSIONS. CUDDLE SESSIONS!!!!!

Seriously, give this man a hug. And some praise. And really listen to him when he starts opening up to you. And also be nice to Gin.

Ryu’s heart was already yours in the first place, but that’s how you fully win him over.

CHŪYA NAKAHARA.

Chūya might be the easiest one to have a relationship with out of all 3. He genuinely would not care about the difference in organizations.

He would fall in love with you during some sort of job that the ADA and Port Mafia had to work together for.

Your quick wit and casual bantering enrapture Chūya immediately. Also, if you managed to entertain him and not push his buttons, he likes that.

He wouldn’t necessarily deny his feelings to other people, but I don’t think he’d talk about in general cause he didn’t think people would need to know.

If someone teased Chūya about it though? He’s denying that immediately, just cause he’d get flustered.

He’d probably make the first move, unless you confessed fast.

I feel like Chūya wouldn’t be very serious during his confession? Like he wouldn’t be the “you’re the absolute loml, Juliet to my Romeo” he would be “you’re hot, wanna date?”

Don’t get me wrong, he can be serious, I just don’t think his confession would be.

If you confess first, he might get a bit flustered, but he’d definitely say yes. Maybe gets jokingly frustrated that you confessed first instead of him.

But hear me out: ANGRY RAIN LOVE CONFESSION. For some reason you’re mad at each other, maybe something to do with work, and boom! He confesses in the heat of the moment. (I’m a romance lover at heart yall.)

Your first date is at the most expensive restaurant in Yokohama. You both get glasses of some fancy wine and you enjoy a romantic dinner. 

Afterwards, you go on a motorcycle ride back to Chūya apartment. (Please do not drive drunk. 😭) 

You guys drink more wine, get drunk that night, and that’s when you have your first kiss together.

He’d simultaneously think he’s deserving and undeserving of your love.

You might have to reassure Chūya that he is human and that he’s worthy of your adoration.

However, just loving you makes him feel more human, and your returned affections further that.

You may also end up in arguments because of his tendency towards arrogance and having to convince him that he’s human. 

Kōyō is for sure the first one to know about the relationship. If you ever end up in a fight, Chūya goes to her first.

You would go on so many romantic dates and trips together. You might have to remind Chūya that he doesn’t have to give everything in a relationship, even if he is rich.

Type of guy to bring you lunch at work, if he doesn’t steal you away from the ADA to go on a date during your lunch breaks. 10/10 boyfriend.

ŌGAI MORI.

For the sake of my sanity and also this ask, Elise is like a daughter to Mori.

I cannot promise Mori wouldn’t try to kidnap you or convince Fukuzawa to send you to him for some sort of aid.

He would fall in love with you after a show of intellect or strength or if you have a really strong ability.

It wouldn’t start as love for Mori, more so just a desire to get you into the Port Mafia.

He wouldn’t talk about his affections for you unless it benefited him in some way, especially since you’re an ADA member.

If someone noticed his sudden focus on a certain ADA member? No, they did not.

I think he wouldn’t actively pursue you unless he was sure he could recruit you.

He would make the first move. It’s not optional, he just would. 

If you SOMEHOW managed to confess first, firstly he would be flattered. Then he would accept.

Your first date would also be in the most expensive restaurant in all of Yokohama, but he would have rented the entire restaurant out just for you two. 

Your first kiss would be a few dates in, probably after he asks you to officially be his boyfriend.

Type of person to have a photo of you together with Elise on his desk, but facing him so nobody asks about it. 

Speaking of which, if you’re kind to Elise, or even act fatherly to her, that just makes him fall even harder.

He’s very sure of your love. Unlike the last two, he’s not the type to view you as greater than him.

In fact, in the beginning, he may view you as inferior or just a pawn in a much greater game, but as your relationship progresses that view changes.

Whilst you’re still in the ADA, he may also just try to get you to get Dazai back in the Port Mafia. Sorry, it’s just a fact.

I feel like he has the capability to be a yandere. He would kill for you or have someone killed for you if he was devoted enough, as long as it would end up benefiting him too.

He’s very much a romantic. I'm talking candlelit dinners, waltzing, giving you gifts, the shebang.

Speaking of being a romantic, I kinda feel like he would give you the prince treatment. You would take ballroom dancing classes together.

Hear me out, playing with his (greasy) hair whilst he does paperwork. Just a thing y'all might do on a quiet week night.

[mikelogan]

gif tutorial

i was asked to make a tutorial for this set i made, so let's get right into it!

first things first, i downloaded the music videos from youtube in 1080p using 4k video downloader. unfortunately, the quality of youtube videos always seems... not great, to put it simply. plus these music videos are from the 90s, so they've been upscaled to 1080p after the fact. all of this works against us, but i've definitely worked with videos of lesser quality than these, so at least there's that!

when i gif, i import video frames to layers rather than screencapping. this comes down to personal preference. after everything has loaded, i group all my layers together and set the frame delay to 0.05. i then cropped my gif to 540x500.

the next step in my process is sharpening. i did play around with my settings a bit given the quality of the footage and the dimensions of the gif. i compared both @hellboys low-quality video gif tutorial to my regular sharpening action and my vivid sharpening action and in this case, i preferred my normal vivid sharpening action. i used this tutorial to create the action for myself, and you can find other sharpening tutorials here. this action converts my frames to video timeline and applies sharpening.

once my gif is sharpened and i'm in timeline, i begin coloring. i wanted to simplify the amount of colors used in these gifs, again because of the video quality -- i knew it wasn't going to have the crispness i would normally like for my gifs. here are my coloring adjustment layers and their settings (not pictured: my first layer is a brightness/contrast layer set to screen) (explanation in alt text):

all of these layers and their settings will vary depending on your footage and its coloring (and obviously, feel free to make the gradient map whatever colors you like if you aren't going for this exact look).

pretty basic coloring, especially with just slapping a gradient map on top (my beloved), but at this point, i still didn't like the quality of the gif, so i added a couple textures/overlays.

i put the left one down first and set the blending mode to soft light and the opacity to 8%. depending on what look you're going for, you could increase or decrease the opacity or play around with different blending modes. i like using this texture with lower quality footage because even when it's sized up a bit, it adds some crispness and makes things feel more defined. for the second texture, i set it to overlay and 75% opacity. we love and respect film grain in this house.

now for the typography! sometimes i really enjoy typography and other times it's the bane of my existence for the sole reason of just how many fonts i have installed. anyway, here are the settings i used for this set:

make sure the color of your font is white and then set the blending mode to either difference or exclusion. i can almost never see a difference between the two, but for this set, i used exclusion. below are the blending options (double click on your text layer to bring up this menu or right click and select blending options).

now we have to add the warp effect. with your text tool still selected, click this icon at the top of your screen:

from the dropdown menu, select twist. these were my settings, but feel free to play around with different warp options and their settings. the ones i use most often are flag, fish, and twist.

this last step is completely optional, but it's an effect i use in most of my sets with typography. duplicate your text layer (select the layer and ctrl+j), turn off the layer effects (click the eye icon next to effects), and set the blending mode to normal. right click on the layer and select rasterize type. right click on the layer icon itself and choose select pixels.

at this point, you should see the moving black and white dotted line showing that only your text is selected. then go to edit > stroke. here are the settings i almost exclusively use.

this is what your text should look like now:

using ctrl+T, move the layer off the canvas so you can't see any of the text anymore. you should be left with only your outline. click anywhere on your canvas to de-select the text we just moved. use ctrl+T again as well as your arrow keys to nudge the outline over to the left 2px and up 2px. this is personal preference as far as the positioning, but i almost never move it any other way. you can leave it like this, which i sometimes do, or you can set the blending mode to soft light like i did for a more subtle effect.

and that's it! rinse and repeat for each gif in your set or use a different warp effect on each gif to switch it up! if you have any questions about this tutorial or would like me to make one for anything else, please feel free to ask any time!

[it-s-blue-ink]

I was made to love, but I never knew it was so hard (725 words)

@flashfictionfridayofficial

ID: "FFF311 TRUE COLOURS" written in black over a blue-white-pink gradient. END ID.

Fandom: Malevolent (podcast) Characters: Oscar, Noel | Charlie Dowd Warnings: Internalized homophobia, Referenced homophobia Additional tags: Pre-relationship, angst, pining, Canon Divergence

Summary:

Translating occult manuscripts together late at night is apparently the perfect time for Noel to make a realization about himself, and about Oscar, and about what their relationship is-and isn't. He doesn't want it to be anything more than this. He doesn't. He's learned his lesson. ...right?

Read on AO3 <- link to fic on AO3

Or under the Read More! Likes and reblogs are appreciated <3

---

“Detective?”

Noel looked up with burning eyes from the manuscript on his desk in his home office. He pushed the heels of his hands over his lids and groaned.

“I need coffee and a smoke.”

“We could stop,” Oscar offered, “it's late.”

“No, no, the boys need our help,” Noel groaned, cursing Arthur and John's penchant for unearthing occult bullshit. He sat straighter and looked to Oscar on the sofa, leaning over the coffee table. He looked exhausted, hair tousled and eyes shot with red. Noel should get him a coffee, too.

“Come look at this piece of text, Detective.”

“Noel.”

“Noel,” Oscar amended, the syllables smooth on his tongue.

“Hit me.” Noel sat next to Oscar who put his finger over a paragraph in red ink—or blood—and placed a sheet of paper with his handwriting over it.

“’To Create and Ruin, Hate and Love, the name of the truth of it must be spoken.’”

Noel searched his past investigations in his vault of memories, translating the vague and verbose verbiage.

“We have to know the true name of the damn thing,” he settled on, leaning closer over Oscar's English translation.

“Like all things, it cannot be truly known before we know that,” Oscar agreed and turned to him and Noel felt the tip of his nose against his cheek. “Sorry,” Oscar said and shifted aside. Noel dismayed at the new distance, and shame lapped on the shores of his mind.

He traced his finger over Oscar's sentences.

“Create, ruin and hate I get, but love? Seems out of place. Did you translate it right?”

“Yes,” Oscar moved the paper aside to point at another blood-red paragraph, “theres a story here, about… Let me just… Wait a minute.”

Noel watched Oscar frown and write new sentences on a different sheet. He felt… odd. Overtired? No. He knew how that felt.

His gaze traced Oscar's features softly, and he felt a smile come over him as he watched him write and chew on his lower lip. A curly hair was out of place and he wanted to fold it back.

Oh.

Oh, no.

Dread crashed over him, almost drowned him—he struggled to breathe.

Oscar was his friend, why did he have to be attracted to him? He would lose him too, their camaraderie would go stale and stiff and he'd stop calling and send him off to Egypt.

Maybe he was overtired or someone had drugged him earlier as he opened his mouth and said something terrible:

“My real name's Charlie. Charlie Dowd.”

Oscar stilled and looked curiously at him.

“Oh?”

“Made too many enemies as a private investigator,” he desperately tried to sound casual, to calm himself. “Took on a new identity.”

“And why tell me?”

“Just thought you should know my true name. If that's a requirement for knowing someone.” His joke fell flat.

Oscar looked down at the first sheet of paper under Noel's hand, and he frowned in confusion. Noel also looked down and realized he’d framed the word ‘Love’ between his pointer and middle finger.

Had he meant to do that? Surely not. It was coincidence. He didn't remember putting his fingers like that.

“Noel.”

Noel jerked his hand to his knee. It took immense effort to make himself meet Oscar's eyes, and even then he couldn't hold it, flitting to the side.

Idiot. Now Oscar was in danger by simply knowing that name, but he'd also hinted at his interest.

The moment dragged on. Or did it? How many seconds were in a moment? How many moments between his heartbeats?

Something is there, in Oscar's eyes.

No, it's not. He's imagining it. He's too tired to think clearly. Why can't he keep his expression in check?

Oscar's polite smile dropped as he searched and found something and— Oh, no.

There’s dawning understanding in Oscar's face, and fear flashed through Noel's body. He doesn’t want to see the pity like in Noel's face when he'd confessed, or offense like in Roland's as though revealing his leaning was a preposition to cheat on Delphine with him.

“Are you—”

He did not want to lose Oscar to this, this stupid mistake, too! He stood up abruptly and pretended this never happened and hoped Oscar was forgiving enough to play along.

“I'm getting that coffee. Do you want a refill?”

“… Sure.”

[whiterabbitweirdo]

A worker drone opens her eyes to two things; a memory corrupted alert, and oil pooling out of her right arm which had been severed at the elbow. Confused and scared, a million thoughts raced through her mind but she knew one thing for certain: she would die if she didn't fix this.

More of my MD OC Mal, who I introduced in this post. Before becoming how she looks now, Mal was just a regular old worker drone! Unfortunately she got into a pretty bad accident that she remembers practically nothing about. Not only did she lose half an arm, she also had other more mild injuries, and something happened that caused part of her memory to become corrupted and lost.

Poor thing went through a lot, but she came out in better shape than some other drones who were involved. Plus it eventually led to her experimenting with parts and limbs that she found, and if she hadn't done that she wouldn't be the drone she is today!

For this drawing I decided to do it totally grayscale other than the seafoam/mint color because I thought it would look neat. I also simplified some bits of her design, like not including the gradient in her hair or the logo on her jacket, because I thought it may interfere with or make the words a little more difficult to read. Speaking of, if you're having trouble reading it, here's what it says:

Main text:

·Memory corrupted

·What happened to me?

·I think I'm going to die.

Secondary text behind the main text:

·Why am I bleeding?!

·How come I can't remember anything?

·Where is the rest of my arm?

[diamondchili]

despite not being very far into ooo i've seen ankh's full greeed form, and tbh i kinda hate it,, so i redesigned him!! feat. some doodles of him not clinically posed and symmetrical :p

character design is a true passion of mine, so i infodumped broke down my process below the cut!! do note i'm not approaching this as someone who would have to consider fight choreo and stunts and whatnot. just a disclaimer lol

id in alt text as always! <3

The thing i immediately hated was how human-like his face looked?? or at least his mouth. yuck. while i get wanting to set Ankh apart from the other greeeds, there's a difference between uniqueness and breaking the rules of design you've put in place for a set of characters. Uva, for instance, has a very bug-like face, whereas Mezool has almost no face thanks to the orca's mouth framing it. That means there's two major ways for a greeed's face to look, and i think where they went wrong was trying to do something entirely different for ankh.

i kindof get what they were going for by making the bird face frame Ankh's *real* face, but imo they added too much detail to both. if youre making the big face's mouth frame the actual face, don't give the actual face a mouth lol, it crowds the design too much and looks confusing. Plus, he's a suit character, he doesn't exactly need a mouth to talk from!! So for this redesign, i made both faces much more simple and gave the primary face a sortof stand-in mouth.

Next thing was the hair. why, why, WHY on EARTH does the hair on Ankh's full form not match the hair he gives the people he possesses?!?!?!? that was the first visual hint we get as to Ankh's full appearance when he changes Shingo's physical attributes upon possessing him, and when he possesses Eiji it does the same swoopy thing. so. i made my design have hair that does that. this is basic shit yall come on 😭

Then i saw the dinky lil drab half-cape they gave him and i said oh no. oh honey. this is a BIRD. you've Gotta give him more drama than that. i kept the black to break up the ocean of red in the design (and i'll admit it is still a little red-heavy up top), but since he is a bird-based character with a triad color scheme, i made the back of it have that gradient. the tatoba/traffic-light/analogous color pattern is repeated all over the suit in Ankh's canon design, and i did want to stick to that so he's still recognizable as the same character.

Speaking of sticking to canon, i actually think the chest piece and waist armor is the only thing i didn't majorly change. i simplified the color placement, but tbh that can be chocked up to the quick-and-dirty art style i did for this, i was mostly just feeling the design out. But i did include the gradients down the chest, again to break up the red. not sure if i like it if i'm 100% honest-- it doesn't quite line up the way i want. The only other thing i added here were the bird claw pauldrons, mostly to make him match Uva bc i LOVE Uva's weird bug leg pauldrons, and I love when design elements are repeated across different characters in unique ways. not sure if you can really see them under his fluffy feather cape, but oh well

I kept the thigh pieces fairly simple, omitting the green from the gradient as it's present on the loincloth-like piece just between them. For the kneepads, i repeated the flying bird motif on the iconic forearm armor, because it's such a fun element and is the first thing we see of Ankh, so i knew repeating it somewhere on the design was essential, even if it didnt match exactly. i see they did this on the canon design, but the shape was just too different to solidify it. it weirdly looks like a face? and again this isn't practical suit design-- i'm sure having kneepads in this shape would Not Work from a stunts standpoint.

Lastly, i don't have much to say about the shoepieces honestly? Aside from the fact that in Ankh's canon greeed form his bird claws more resemble owl feet. which. i guess isn't incorrect? they're still bird themed. just looks odd with the tropical bird everything else. So i just made them a bit daintier lol. kinda wish i'd kept the green painted nails tho, thats cute.

ANYWAYS if you read this far, thank you!! i love getting to analyze character design-- what works, what doesn't, all that!! so this was a lot of fun. whether you agree or disagree with my decisions, i hope you enjoyed seeing my art and reading my ramblings!! <3

[my-plastic-life]

I did a thing... actually, I did several things. :D My ani-ME (anime doll version) needed manga in her house, so of course I had to make mini Inuyasha manga! I've done this before, but this time it's different... I didn't do miniature versions of the Viz BIG volumes. Nope, I did all 56 original Japanese volumes. Because ani-ME is in Japan, so she must have the original volumes!!! :D What a task this was - because the volumes are so old, it's hard to find high resolution pictures of them online. And even if you do, many times it's just the front, not the back and definitely not the spine. I found some, but then the front and back cover colors were completely different, some had text and graphics cut off from what was most likely a scanned image, the colors were inconsistent between various websites, some colors were clashing badly due to low quality resolution, etc.

So I literally made a template in Photoshop of the real size of the original manga (obtained via Amazon) and rebuilt EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. from scratch. I was able to find a site with all the original cover photos, and then I found the most high resolution cover I could find to duplicate the pattern that's on all books (colors vary), recreated the logo for each book (the character symbols and the gradients are all different for each volume), redrew the SS Comics logo that's on all books, and I even replicated each individual barcode. Because I'm nothing if not a consistent perfectionist. :D

For the backs, I used the images I found and just copied and pasted the characters and Japanese text, and for the teeny tiny characters I used the brush tool to trace over them. Even though I knew you probably wouldn't be able to see them in such a small scale, no way was I leaving them out! Consistency, darn it! :D

For the spines, I found complete sets on eBay and used a photo of the spines from those auctions as a template. I redid everything on the spine except the character head at the top of each, which is copied and pasted from the eBay files. They're definitely pretty low resolution, but hopefully it's not noticeable at such a small scale.

And the volume numbers? Try as I might, I could NOT find a font that matched them. So I got the most high resolution volumes I could find and made number templates... so each time I needed one of the volume numbers, I'd just use a color overlay on it and plop it where it needed to go on the front and spine.

Then the fun part - resizing them all to 1/6 scale. They're a little over an inch tall right now. And because they're not very thick in the spine, wrapping the covers around foam board to mimic pages wasn't working. So I had to make pages... for 56 volumes LOL. I just took my cover template, sized it down, and made it a blank white with a black stroke so I could see where to cut. I could fit 11 mini pages in one row across a regular sized sheet of printer paper (I used cardstock for extra thickness and stability), and I could fit like six rows on a sheet. I was able to fit 11 pages in one volume to allow the spine room, so 56 volumes x 11 mini pages each = 616 total pages I wound up cutting, then stacking and gluing together. But, of course, that wasn't a perfect fit, as the pages, despite being sanded down to be completely straight and smooth, poked out of the covers. So I had to wrap the covers around the pages, mark where they hit, and use an X-acto knife to trim the pages down before gluing them inside the covers.

But finally, I was done! It was time-consuming, but I love how these little books turned out. They don't open, but that's totally okay. That would be way too much work, and every time I make a book that opens, it never closes again. I did, however, manage to find some pages from the original first volume (in Japanese), so I printed a second volume 1 cover and glued those pages inside. So now ani-ME has an open book she can read too!

So there you have it! My mini, 1/6 scale Japanese volumes of Inuyasha - all 56 of them! I made that bookshelf just for them, but I intentionally left more room in case I want to add more manga later. But of course we had to have Inuyasha manga on the shelf - it's the most important! :D And the poster on the wall is totally a tag from one of my shirts LOL.

Showing off her new bookshelf stocked full of all 56 volumes of the Inuyasha manga:

Relaxing in bed, reading from the beginning:

Why yes, she is reading the Inuyasha manga on an Inuyasha pillow :D

All 56 volumes on the bookshelf:

What do you do with an Inuyasha shirt tag? Make an instant doll poster, of course!

Front covers:

Back covers:

Volume 1 pages (glued in order, right to left):

Size reference (shown with American penny):

[neonmetro]

HII ive been a huge fan of your art for forever and i never get tired of seeing it in my feed. you have this very specific style of design and composition (the fonts, the colors, the symbols) that scratches my brain really hard and i'd love to hear about the thoughts behind them!!!!

AHHH THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!! ofc :D i hope you don't mind the rambling

i'll be very honest most of my compositions just follow the triangle rule (making poses follow a triangle) and filling up the page (with text, icons, etc) and lots of going back and forth seeing whether or not smth looks good 😭 like spending literal hours on the placement of sparkles

i REALLY like using text in my art and i usually have a certain phrase or highly specific vibe where i'll then go and look for a quote that'll fit that vibe and i'll usually place it somewhere midway through lineart

i kind of use the same few fonts and i think its pretty noticeable (kozuka mincho std h, hanmingwang mainly) but its mainly bc i can use it for both chinese and english words, i think it gives off a really cool vibe to use both languages with fonts that have serifs

i also just. make shit up as i go tbh i usually draw the pose first and have to work a background around it and maybe add some sparkles to fill some more space

the ahab piece i just knew i wanted waves at her feet and the composition to feel like its at sea, with her hair mimicking oceans. once i was done rendering the fullbody i just looked up vintage ships line art for the bg and thought maybe the white circle/halo would look cool) and the outis piece i only had the half body and chibi drawn out and kinda framed everything around it

i usually pick text that's kinda on the nose references, the ahab piece's chinese text is "moby dick" and "WHITE WHALE HOLY GRAIL" is from blood and thunder about. well. captain ahab. the outis is again just more direct references, w. corp, her trailer quote, and her own name. there was some extra space in between the chibi and the halfbody i wanted to fill and originally wanted to do a train icon but it wouldn't fit in such a small space, so i decided to go for sign icons instead (thinking about it, if i didn't do the exit sign i might've done a wet floor sign or smth but i like the little detail of adding the X on the arrow leading out, giving her no exit)

i always feel something is missing from the composition so i spend a long time trying things out since i usually don't have this planned out but also backgrounds are uniquely weird because i want the characters to stick out but contrast is very important to me

i remember trying to figure out how to make the background of this piece both cohesive with the rest of the art and also make it not blend in together (so i opted to add shading to the leaves while also doing another gradient from the right corner up), the sparkles were also there to fill in space

most of my colors are just slightly more saturated vers of the character i'm drawing's canon colors and then i slap 48762793832 filters on top to make it even more saturated lawl

like this is a sneak peak of art that's queued up ^ and there's a pretty massive diff before gradient maps/filters and after lol

[leonsleftbicep]

posting this while on the brink of falling asleep

@eepymonstrr i have finished the outline and stuff for the dnd x sleep token thing.

i put to much work into this and its not even drawn yet because i had to flesh out the characters first before drawing them.

this is is my notes in text form with some additions. enjoy this till i can actually draw, i do not have time nor energy at the moment. very sorry.

Elf Druid Vessel - 

White long curly hair, gray skin, smoke markings, freckles, some other markings, the deer womb tat, claws. Why a druid? He was abandoned in the forest by his elder. He seemed to be too quiet and almost depressed to the others, he was not attractive to the humans like all the other elves. It drove his elders to abandon him and call him a monster, a creature, not worthy of love. By anyone. He encountered Sleep as he shivered and slept on the moss covered forest floor. Sleep asked if they could be able to save him, let him be free. in return worship Sleep and spread his word and create a collective. After that vessel awoke in a cottage being taken care of by a smoke like creature that had tentacles and eyes in place of a face shrouded in a cloak. The same cloak he would adopt and add to in his worship of Sleep. 

Half-Orc Ranger II -

Blue undertone gray skin with red gradient on his fingers and toes, dark hair with gray streaks at the temples, 5’7, 180 - 200 pounds, tusks that are prominent. Lots of scars as well as Sleep’s marking as a scar on his chest. Why a ranger? Hes self taught main weapons are two Kris knifes his mother gave him before he was exiled from the quiet village he got thrown out for being loud and “spawn of the enemy”  He met Vessel after almost shooting Vessel with an arrow as he was hunting.

Tiefling Rogue III -

Red skin with a black gradient on his fingers and toes, white/pale blue eyes, long black warm tone hair (most likely curly). 6”7 - 7 feet tall (not yet decided). Claws because why not  Why a rouge? He met IV while on a heist with his old party (of people also on the run). The encounter with IV was in a tavern in the middle of the town he was in at the moment. He fell into IV’s arms and was baffled at spark feeling, like something that makes him want to leave all of this behind and just find happiness. Which he did, he went on a journey to find IV after that, running into him with his new party (Vessel and II). III felt a pull and knew he was on the right path.

Dragon-Born/Human Hybrid Wizard IV -

Warm gray scales with a red and gold iridescence that is stark against his skin, 5’10, stormy blue eyes with dragons slit pupils that act a lot like a cats, dusty brown blond long mullet mohawk, a tattoo somewhere, claws because why the hell not (starting to get sleepy while writing these up) Why a wizard? He was born to a human mother and a dragon born father who plans to retire from his wizardly duties once IV has found his magical spark and is of age. Little did he know that his son would find how spark and then decide to leave the royal life forever.

im now going to go to bed

[bcdrawsandwrites]

[ID: The first image Psychonauts fanfic banner on a black-to-gray gradient background. On the left in white text it says “Prompt #6: Organ Theft” On the right is a bright green animated figment of a brain in a glass case. The top of the glass case is labeled "PREZ" and the base is labeled "NO TOUCH." The figment is based on one of the images from the Milla's Adventures! memory vault.

The second image is a Bad Things Happen Bingo card. Various prompts are marked with a half-brain (prompt requested but not filled) or full-brain (prompt requested and finished) symbol, while the “Organ Theft” prompt specifically is marked with a full brain symbol. /end ID]

FINALLY WE'RE BACK!! This one took me WAY too long, but here's the next fic in my @badthingshappenbingo challenge!

I am currently NO LONGER OPEN FOR REQUESTS. I have enough to work on to get a bingo! I MAY decide to reopen prompts later if I want to keep going after finishing these fics, but for now, requests are closed!

This request is for @of-science-and-stars! Sorry this took so long, and hope you enjoy! Thanks to @jaywings and @pinkygrocket for beta-reading!

Prompt: Organ Theft Characters: Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, Ford Cruller Warnings: None

---~~~---

The doors leading into Sasha's lab slid open, and he trudged through them, making his way to his office, then all but collapsed down onto his couch. Automatically, he TK'd a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with pyrokinesis, and he tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. He took a slow drag, sighing through his nose and watching the smoke spiral toward the ceiling.

He truly enjoyed his work. But there were some days that made him wish he had a different job—one that didn’t leave mental and emotional burdens weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Soon the first cigarette was smoked down to the filter. Into the ashtray it went, and it was swiftly replaced with another.

It was days like this that made him wish that he had never taken Ford up on his offer to join the Psychonauts when he had run into him so long ago. Of course, deep down he knew it was the best decision he'd ever made, and that mental exhaustion was causing his emotions to behave irrationally, but right now, that knowledge did nothing to change how he felt. As the events of the past several hours played out again in his mind, he sank lower into his couch. Truly this was one of the worst days of his career.

It could not possibly get worse.

If Hollis would no longer allow him to wear what he chose, then—

Shoehorn, Dustpan, this is Grease Jar.

Sasha jolted upright, scrambling to TK-grab his dropped cigarette before it burned the couch.

Got an important mission that's slipped through the cracks. U.S. government's deemed it too unimportant, but the entirety of Country's future is on the line if we don't do something.

Rubbing his forehead, Sasha wondered if Ford had misspoke. Before he could comment, Milla chimed in:

Of course, Grease Jar. Shoehorn and I would be happy to help. What's the trouble?

President's been captured.

What? That had to be wrong—how could that have slipped through the cracks? Are you sure?

Do I ever contact you when I'm not? You gonna help or what?

Well, he couldn't argue with that. ...Yes, he replied. We're ready.

Great. I'm getting things set up on my end. Paperwork will be handled as usual. Gimme a minute and I'll get you ready for transport.

Very well. Just... warn us this time, please. You recall how last time went.

You were fine, son. I know how to use the heimlich, and I can do it again if I need to.

He could feel Milla's gentle laugh, and he couldn't be too upset.

For a few moments he sat in his office, putting out his cigarette and straightening his jacket. Ford didn't like to waste time, so he'd likely be here any minute. Sighing, he stood up to stretch—

—and just as he realized one critical error he'd made, someone abruptly appeared next to him, grabbed his shoulder, and with a yank, he was out of his office.

—-

Sasha stumbled in the sudden dim light. The beeps and chirps from the nearby consoles weren't unfamiliar to him, but the use of teleportation was always jarring.

With a rush of green psychic energy, Ford and Milla appeared next to him. Nodding in satisfaction, Ford clapped both of them on the back. "Good to see you two out here to visit an old coot again."

"You know you're much more than that to us, Agent Cruller," Milla said with a smile.

"Pshaw." Ford waved a hand. "I didn't bring you here to get all sappy on me, anyway." He glanced over at Sasha, then blinked, one of his bushy brows raising. "Didn't take you out here for a vacation, either."

Milla followed his gaze, then covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Meanwhile, Sasha looked away, shuffling his feet in his very comfortable pair of socks and sandals.

Shaking his head, Ford strode over to a console and tapped in a few keys, bringing up holographic images around the platform they stood upon. The first depicted a map of the globe, which zoomed in on a teeny tiny island. "So this here is Country."

"Which country?" Sasha asked, frowning at the image.

"It's not a country, it's a territory," Ford snapped, eyeing Sasha over his shoulder.

Milla exchanged a glance with Sasha before raising a finger. "You did just say it was a country—"

"No, I said it was Country. Keep up!" Frowning, Ford brought up a second map, which was zoomed a bit further out. "Country is a small island territory off the coast of Nation."

Sasha could feel regret creeping up his spine the second he opened his mouth. "Which nation—"

"The nation of—” He broke off into a sputter. “It's not a nation, it's a republic! Didn't you young'ns ever go to school?!"

Clasping her hands, Milla nodded. "Of course, Agent Cruller. What's going on there?"

Ford relaxed a little before bringing up another image—this one appearing to be a short, squat man with mint-green skin. "President's been found in danger."

"...The President?" Sasha asked, wilting.

"Yea—I mean, no!" Ford snapped, his body trembling in agitation. "His name's President—goes by Prez—and he's the Prime Minister of Country. He's been captured by terrorists and is being held captive in the Company Building."

Once again Sasha nearly opened his mouth, but Milla shook her head, and he held himself back. "So we'll head to this office building and—"

"It's not an office—it's a—a—" Ford broke off into sputtering once again, but this time shot a glare at the holograms around him. "Who names these things?!"

Milla laughed, and Ford rolled his eyes. "Laugh all you want, but I'd like to see you keep this stuff straight!"

Sighing, he brought up the layout of the fortress on the holograms. "Prez is being held somewhere in these walls. Now you'd think it'd be at the top of this tower here—" he pointed at a tower on the leftmost side of the building "—like some princess in a fairy tale, but the intelligence I've gathered shows he's most likely located somewhere around here." He indicated a number of smaller rooms in the middle of the building, then paused, indicating the tower again. "Or, if we're unlucky, he might be held there, where they apparently keep the gators."

The ridge of one of Sasha's lenses raised as he exchanged a glance with Milla. "Alligators?"

Ford scratched the back of his scalp as he glanced off to the side. "Or maybe it was crocodiles? Same difference. Anyway." Shaking his head, he pulled up another image that showed an aerial view of the building and its surrounding grounds. "Now, the authorities are camped out outside, and they’ve been notified that you’re coming. Hostage situations are delicate and all that, but if you can get Prez outside, they can take it from there."

"I assume these terrorists have a psychic on their side?" Sasha asked, examining the map. "Otherwise we would not have been called upon."

"Now that we're not sure," Ford admitted. "But one thing we do know is that they may have access to sneezing powder, which is going to complicate things. They may have some brains switched up."

"Ach, of course."

"We can handle it, Agent Cruller," Milla said, giving Sasha a nod.

"Good," Ford replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple photos as well as printed sheets of paper, which he handed to Sasha and Milla.

"Here's some pictures of our target, and some questions you'll need to ask him to verify his identity, in case they tried a switcheroo. Study 'em and burn 'em. I got the coordinates logged in the Pelican, as well as your disguises for the mission. I'll stay down here for now so you can reach me, and I'll give you more mission details along the way. Now git!"

With that, he waved his hands toward them in a shoo-ing motion.

"Tchau!" Milla said with a short wave.

"We'll be in contact," Sasha added, and the two of them headed for the tree stump exit. From there, the transport system brought them to the hangar. To his dismay, he found a bird's nest had been built atop one of the wings of the Pelican. "Ach... How do they keep getting in here?"

While Milla gently TK'd the nest off to the side, Sasha glanced around. While well-disguised on the outside, the hangar was above-ground, which led to... problems like this. At least the bears and cougars couldn't get in.

Milla gave him a playful psi-poke, and he shook his head. Right, they had bigger things to worry about right now. Arguably.

Once they had both levitated into the Pelican, a psychic message from Ford reached them: Once you're onboard, you should find your outfits on the front seats.

Nodding to each other, they approached their respective seats to find Milla's had one of her custom Psychonauts outfits folded neatly there, complete with the rarely-used hood. It also had a set of large, circular earrings on top, each of them transparent while giving off opalescent reflections. Sasha, meanwhile, found a fancy blue suit with a pin on the breast reading "Logan Smith - AquaSpark Amusement Parks.” Accompanying the outfit was a small briefcase with the fake company’s logo: a blue lightning bolt with a splash of water directly beneath it.

There were, however, no matching shoes for the outfit.

Sasha curled up inside himself.

So, Dustpan, you'll be handling the sneaky stuff. Those earrings there are one of Egg Carton's inventions—supposed to give you more invisibility time.

Milla smiled, turning over the earrings in her hand. Oh, that's wonderful! So stylish, too.

Yeah, yeah, he's all about style. Now, Shoehorn, you'll be the distraction. You'll be Logan Smith, CEO of AquaSpark Water Parks. For some reason these terrorists are just nuts about water parks, so they'll be happy to see you there.

Wonderful, Sasha thought, looking over the outfit. They sound reasonable.

"I'm sure you'll do great, darling!" Milla said with a smile.

Sasha almost raised a hand to protest, only to stop himself, and placed a hand on his temple to speak to Ford. Ford, there seems to be something missing from my outfit.

Eh?

The shoes.

Didn't give Milla shoes either. Figured you'd both come dressed for work.

He almost argued that he was dressed for work, but bit back the comment; a man's life was in danger, and there was no time to worry about shoes. Tapping the button to open the hangar door and flipping a number of switches, he sent a message to both Milla and Ford. Very well. Starting up the jet.

Good, Ford replied. Course is already set, so you should be there in about two hours.

We will notify you upon arrival.

As the jet took off, they braced themselves, and waited until the plane leveled before relaxing. Sasha turned to Milla. "We may as well familiarize ourselves with our target while we wait."

“Good idea!” Milla replied, TKing out the papers Ford had given her.

Sasha, meanwhile, TK'd out the photo he was given of Prez. Looking it over, he found himself staring into the face of a man who looked well-meaning, if somewhat baffled. Recalling the glimpse he'd gotten of the picture Ford had shown earlier, he wondered if that was the man's perpetual expression. Or perhaps he was just not photogenic.

After studying it for a while, he switched to the document. Said document detailed basic facts about the man—his birth date, his partner's name, the date of their anniversary, the names of all seven of his Samoyeds, and various other factoids that could be useful to know, ranging from basic to obscure. Fortunately, Sasha was used to memorizing this sort of thing—it was standard procedure for when a brain swap was suspected.

After he studied the notes for some time, another copy of the document entered his vision, and he didn't have to look to know that Milla was TKing it to him. Without a word he TK'd it off to his other side, gave her a moment to look away, and lit it on fire with pyrokinesis, doing the same with his own paper shortly afterward. "Aside from the odd names, this should be a fairly standard mission."

Milla nodded. "It will be over soon enough, and then we can throw a party!" She gave him a grin. "Perhaps that would cheer you up?"

Sasha stiffened. "Ah... I had hoped that wasn't obvious."

"It's all right, darling." She reached over to pat him on the shoulder gently. "Now let's get ready. It looks like we'll be arriving soon!"

Milla retreated into the bathroom, and stepped out in her Psychonaut outfit, without the hood—understandable, as it would not be comfortable to wear for an extended period. As his partner settled herself in her seat again, Sasha took a moment to step back to change into his own outfit. The suit tugged at his shoulders, but otherwise he found himself able to move around in it well enough. He kept his Psychonauts badge, however, slipping it into his pocket in case he needed to identify himself. But as he stepped back out, he frowned down at his feet.

"Oh, are you worried about your footwear?" Milla asked. He gave a start to find her looking back at him with an amused smile. "I'm sure you'll find a way to roll with it, darling."

"Hopefully," Sasha remarked, taking a moment to straighten his tie.

By this point, the jet was slowing down as it approached the Island of Country. Milla carefully tied her hair back into a bun and pulled her hood over her head. Her earrings poked out from the hood, looking obvious against the dark outfit, but half a second later she turned herself invisible.

"So far, so good," Sasha remarked, nodding approvingly in the direction where Milla had been standing. However, he felt her presence just behind him, and turned to see her smiling at him beneath her hood.

"I'm glad you think so," she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

He gave a huff of amusement. "Even if Otto's new accessories don't work as advertised—which I'm sure they will—your stealth is unmatched."

"Naturally." Milla gave a soft laugh.

Looking down at the briefcase he’d been given, Sasha picked it up with his hand, and frowned. Well, this wouldn’t be enjoyable.

When the jet landed, the two drew their attention to a holographic screen near the cockpit. It displayed a map of the island, indicating where the jet had landed and where their target was.

"All right, listen up, cuz this recording's about to delete itself once it's done," Ford's voice crackled out of the speaker. "You've landed here, west of the target." The blip on the map indicating the jet flashed. "The authorities are gathered outside the building, and they've been made aware of your arrival. Dustpan, you're gonna sneak in through the side entrance here." The map zoomed in on the building, highlighting something on the western side. "The code to enter is 5002. Meanwhile, Shoehorn, you're gonna enter through the front, and make a show of pushing yourself through the cops. That'll get these guys' attention, and I'll leave you to figure out where to take it from there."

Sasha nodded grimly. Playing things by ear was not his favorite way to do things, but he could handle it when he had to.

"Remember, the fate of Country is on your shoulders, so don't screw this up. Grease Jar, out!" The screen switched off, and a dull bleep indicated that the message had been deleted.

Exchanging glances, Sasha and Milla gave each other a nod before exiting the Pelican, levitating onto the ground outside. With a wave of his hand, Sasha activated the jet's cloaking mechanism to hide it from view, and took note of his surroundings to remember where it was. They'd landed in a clearing in the middle of a forest, where enormous trees surrounded them. The air was thick and humid and alive with the buzzing of mosquitoes, and the sky was overcast. There was nothing really noteworthy here, but luckily, the building was a straight shot east of where they'd landed.

Also a straight shot east was a puddle of muck that Sasha had just stepped into.

His skin began to crawl, and he was certain about half a dozen regrets had spawned in his mental world.

"Watch your step, darling," Milla said, hovering gracefully over the ground.

Grimacing, Sasha levitated a few inches upward, telekinetically keeping hold of his sandal so it didn't slip off his foot and get devoured by the mud. He joined Milla in floating over the ground, but rather than the natural-looking hover Milla performed, he moved parallel to the ground as though standing upon an invisible moving walkway. As they traversed over the mud, he realized that this was more than just a patch of soggy ground—this was an outright swamp. He wished Ford had mentioned this.

Granted, it wasn't relevant to the mission, but it was relevant to his outfit.

Fortunately it wasn't long before they caught sight of a massive structure just beyond the swamp. It was a centuries-old fortress featuring a number of towers, giving the brief illusion that they had somehow stepped back in time. The illusion was shattered by the sight of modern police cars sitting outside, with various officers milling about idly.

Turning to Milla, Sasha gave a nod, and she faded from sight.

Let me know what's happening once you're inside, Milla said. I'll start scouting.

I'll try to draw their attention, Sasha replied, though he couldn't help but wish their roles were reversed.

Approaching the police, he TK'd his Psychonaut badge out of his pocket and flashed it at the police chief. It took a moment for the man to notice, but when he did, he did a double-take. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here," he spoke in a deliberate, dull tone.

As Sasha TK'd the badge away, the other cops looked at the chief, then at Sasha, before continuing the charade with little to no conviction. "Hey, get out of here. This is a police investigation!"

Sasha winced, but made his way toward the fortress nonetheless. "No," he said, also with volume, but hopefully more convincing than the police. "Let me through! I must speak with the men here!"

"Stay back. We have weapons." Several of the officers lifted batons (with a couple more enthusiastically raising guns).

Mentally Sasha prepared a psi-shield should the officers decide to attempt to be too convincing of the act they were putting on of keeping him out. "No!" he cried, raising his voice more with a rapid glance at the entrance to the fortress. "It is of dire importance that I speak to these people!"

To his relief, their plan seemed to be working—a few men wearing ski-masks were now staring at them from the other side of the iron gate that blocked the entrance. They looked at each other, then at him, and seemed to take notice of the logo on his briefcase. They gave a jump and their movements seemed to be growing more excited.

Unbelievable, Sasha thought. Shaking his head, he realized the officers were starting to close in on him (but not too much of course), and he redoubled his efforts to reach the fortress. "Let me through!"

There was a rusty screeching noise as the iron gate that blocked the entrance was raised. While a few officers turned to look at the gate, they looked away again, remembering the plan. With the police pretending to be preoccupied with Sasha, they “failed” to notice one of the men sneaking in their direction. Sasha continued to push his way toward the gate when the man suddenly rushed forward, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the fortress. The officers gave a half-hearted shout, a few of them pursuing before stopping at the closing gate.

"Bout time one of you guys heard about us!" the masked man said as he hauled Sasha through the courtyard. "Now we can finally be makin' some progress here!"

"I-indeed," Sasha stammered, wishing that this man would let go. His sandals were slapping noisily against the stone path and mud was flaking off of his pant leg. He noticed that the courtyard was filled with, of all things, inflatable water slides (many of which were deflated), but before he could comment on these, the man led him into the main building.

More people, these ones not wearing masks, hurried up to them, their brows furrowed in consternation. "Who's this bozo?" one woman demanded.

The man at Sasha's side yanked off his mask, and his expression was that of a child right before a birthday party. "He's with a water park!" he exclaimed, gesturing dramatically at Sasha.

Straightening his back and rolling his shoulder, Sasha nodded. "That's right. Logan Smith, Aqua Spark Amusement Parks."

The others' faces lit up. "Finally!" the woman cried.

"May I speak to...?" Sasha balked, realizing he'd never been given the name of their leader.

"Oh, yeah! Sure! Georg is this way." With a bounce to their steps, the people led Sasha further down the hall. Said hall seemed to be littered with trash, but on closer inspection, the mess consisted of small pool toys.

Something struck him, and he sent a telepathic message to Milla. I've entered the fortress. It was strangely easy.

To his shock, Milla's mental voice was slightly heightened in distress. That's great, darling, but I'm busy at the moment!

Sasha's heart jumped. Are you all right?

I can handle this. Try to find President!

Understood. Sasha frowned—in spite of Milla's insistence, he couldn't help but worry that they'd fallen for a trap. This group couldn't be that simple, could they?

As though reading his mind—can they? Sasha wondered in alarm—one of the men turned to Sasha with a raised eyebrow. "I've never heard of Aqua Spark."

Thinking quickly, Sasha replied, "We're a startup company looking for a place to build our first park. We believe that Country here is an untapped market."

To his relief, the man looked at his fellows with a wide grin. "That's what I've been saying!"

They continued to lead him further down the hall until they reached a doorway guarded by two women. They seemed cautious at first, but Sasha's companions hurried up to them to explain the situation, and they eagerly stepped away, ushering them into the room.

Stepping inside, Sasha found himself in a wide room that was probably once used for war meetings, which now had a banged-up desk shoved in one corner, misaligned with the wall, and a large aquarium in another corner, bearing a few cracks that were patched with duct tape. Said aquarium was devoid of fish, but a woman in a dark suit was bent over it, tossing in diving sticks with mild interest. One sank to the floor of the tank with a shower of bubbles and turned on its side, and the woman gave a cry of disgust, yanking it out of the tank and turning it over until she spotted a number of punctures in it. Hissing a curse, she turned to hurl the stick across the room, and Sasha had to stop himself from reflexively grabbing it with TK to avoid being hit.

Spotting Sasha, the woman paused. "Who are you?"

The first man who'd spoken to Sasha stepped forward. "This man is Logan Smith! He's with a water park!"

Rather than being ecstatic like her henchman, however, the woman frowned, looking Sasha up and down, studying him. Her gaze stopped at his feet, and Sasha stiffened, sweat trickling down the back of his neck. This was bad, this was going to end very badly, he should have told Ford to give him a moment to change his shoes before—

"Well, Mr. Smith..." she began, looking up into his glasses, as he gazed frantically around the windowless room for some sort of escape route. "It seems you share our enthusiasm for water parks! You've even brought your flip-flops!"

The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. "I—yes, of course." He gave a tight nod. "Hearing of your enthusiasm, we knew this would be the perfect place to launch our first theme park."

"That's great news!" the woman cried, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "We were hoping someone like you might show up!"

Please do not.

Realizing her forwardness, she backed off. "But where are my manners—my name is Georgette, but everyone here just calls me Georg." She held out her hand, and Sasha shook it uneasily. "It's great to have you here, Mr. Smith. Have a seat."

Before he could ask where she expected him to sit, one of the henchmen used a pump to inflate a chair, which was then propped up in front of the table. He stared at the chair for a long moment, almost debating remaining standing, before remembering he had a disguise to maintain. He lowered himself into the seat, which squeaked noisily against him. Likewise, Georg took a seat on the other side of the table, sitting on an equally squeaky inflatable chair.

"So!" she began, leaning forward. "Let's hear about your company. I'm all ears."

It took half a moment for Sasha to spin a quick story. "Right. Aqua Spark is a startup water park company in America. We're employing people who have experience building for other parks—Eight Flags, Oak Fair, Queen's Island..."

Georg nodded, her eyes and grin growing wide.

"Of course, there's a great deal of parks there, so we wanted to... make a splash—" Sasha repressed a shudder "—by building our first park here." He jabbed his finger just over the desk for emphasis. "We believe Country is an untapped market, and the perfect spot for a water park."

"Excellent!" Georg cried, clapping her hands together. "We've thought the same thing and have been campaigning for this for years now, but the government won't budge! But with our bargaining chip and with the backing of an amusement park company, there's no way they can turn us down again!"

One of the phrases made Sasha's ears perk. "Bargaining chip?"

"Oh yes, of course." She leaned forward, tilting her head. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, I assume."

"I believe so." Sasha mulled this over in his mind. "Though, I will say, it would look poorly on the company if we worked with you, and it turned out he were harmed."

"Oh! Goodness, no, we wouldn't do that!" Her smile went a bit too wide, her teeth biting down on her lower lip. "He's perfectly safe!" As she spoke, she gave a pointed glance at one of her lackeys, who hurried out the door. She rose to her feet. "But we'll get to that later! First, I wanted to show you some of our own ideas for the park we wanted—"

"Ah, yes," Sasha said, standing and taking a quick glance at the door. "First I'd like to make a quick trip to the restroom."

Georg sighed. "All right. Geoff, please show him the way, and then we can get right back to it."

"Sure thing! This way." The lackey, Geoff, waved him over to the door and began to lead him down the hall. As they walked, Geoff started to ramble. "So what kind of stuff are you planning?"

Sasha was only partially paying attention, scanning to look for the lackey who had left earlier. "We have a number of attraction concepts we're considering," he mumbled. He could definitely hear footsteps up ahead, and he hoped it was the woman who had been sent out. She must have gone to check on President.

"Like what? Oh, I really hope there's gonna be water slides—"

"Yes, of course. We’re planning a... ah... looping slide."

Geoff whirled on him. Sasha froze up, nearly expecting the man to attack, but instead he bore a huge grin.

"Like the one in Adventure Park?!"

Sasha relaxed. "Yes, but, uh... improved."

"Ooooooh man!" The lackey turned around again, continuing to lead him down the hall before stopping at one of the doors. "Here you are, Mr. Smith!"

"Thank you." Hastily, Sasha stepped inside, balking when he realized that the bathroom consisted only of a few reeking outhouses that had been dragged into the room. Steeling himself, he stepped into one, holding his breath, but did not quite close the door. Instead, he put a hand to his temple. Dustpan, this is Shoehorn. I have a lead on where President is.

Milla's mental voice sounded exhausted. That's great, darling.

Are you all right?

For now. Let me know when you find him, and I'll meet with you.

Understood.

Nodding, Sasha activated his invisibility and exited the outhouse, quietly shutting the door behind him. Relieved to be out of that germ-infested place, he crept out of the room, but froze when he realized his sandals were slapping against the stone floor. He was almost certain he had been caught, but he glanced at Geoff, who leaned against the wall. "Oh man..." the lackey was still muttering as Sasha shook his head.

He hated what he was about to do, but he could not levitate while invisible, nor could he risk compromising the mission any further. Reaching down, he slipped his sandals off his feet and held them in his free hand so his socks were now touching the ground, and continued creeping down the hall.

Sure enough, he spotted the woman who had been sent out of the room earlier. She was looking into each room frantically, as though she wasn't sure which room the captive would be in, which struck Sasha as odd. Frowning, he kept a short distance behind her, and at one point she opened one door only to close it with a yelp and lock it, hurrying ahead even more urgently. Sasha made a mental note to check that out later, if he had time—they would notice his absence eventually.

Finally, she turned a corner before reaching the last room in the hall. She opened the door with a key, and looked relieved. Sasha hurried behind her to find a man matching President's description blindfolded, gagged, and bound to a chair in a very, very cluttered room, full of old pool toys and several unlabeled tubs.

Noticing that the woman was about to shut the door, Sasha quickly CV'd into the man, only to bounce back immediately. His face went pale.

Dustpan, he said, exhaustion dragging at his mind, we've got an egg missing from the carton.

Oh dear.

That was putting it mildly. Still, Sasha steeled himself and made a mental map of where he was, projecting it to Milla. Dealing with a debrained target would be difficult, and he'd need all the help he could get.

For a moment he considered following the lackey who had locked the door so he could grab her keys, but his invisibility was already starting to wear off. Instead, he waited for her to turn the corner and psi-blasted the lock, catching it with TK before it could hit the floor. Now that he didn't have to hide it, he transferred his suitcase and sandals to TK as well.

Carefully opening the door, Sasha poked his head in. "President?" he whispered.

"TV...?" came the dreaded, muffled reply.

Sighing, Sasha squeezed into the cramped room and shut the door behind him. Though he knew he wouldn't be understood, he went on, "My name is Sasha Nein. I'm here to help you." With a few quick tugs of telekinesis, he undid the ropes that bound the man to the chair. Another few tugs and the blindfold and gag fell to the floor.

President stared at him seriously. "Puppy."

"Yes, we'll return you to your spouse and dogs as soon as we've found your brain." Sasha regarded the man for a moment—he was somehow more serious-looking than when he had a brain. Otto would have had a field day. "But where to find your brain?"

President continued to stare at him, then pointed a finger in his face. "Prime Minister."

"No, that's you," Sasha said, TKing the man's hand away. "Now, where—"

The doorknob rattled.

Sasha went invisible, ducking behind President's chair. If they'd been caught, then hopefully whoever opened the door to find this scene would assume that the ropes had fallen off of President on their own. Regardless, Sasha prepared for things to go south, placing a hand to his temple.

The door opened slowly, and Sasha tensed.

And then it shut, and before Sasha could wonder what happened, Milla came into view.

"Thank goodness," he breathed, ridding himself of his invisibility again. "It's good to see you again." But when he studied her closer, he frowned; Milla's outfit was roughed up, a few tears visible on the legs. It was rare to see her in such a state. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, darling," Milla said, pulling down her hood partway. "I finally managed to get past those terrible alligators."

"Alligators?" he asked, eyebrows raised, then he shuddered when he remembered what Ford had said earlier. "It seems that bit of intelligence was accurate."

"Yes, they're everywhere." Milla moved some strands of hair out of her face, tucking them behind her ears. "But that's not important right now. Poor President!"

President looked her in the eye. "Dog treats."

"Yes, and we have little time to waste. They'll discover my absence soon."

"But how are we to find his brain? Where could they have put it?" Milla looking out over the mess of tubs of toys. "They don't seem very organized, and they let those awful alligators chew on everything!"

A thought struck Sasha as he recalled the information Ford had given them. "...The tower."

Milla nodded grimly. "Where they keep the alligators... Though it seems now they let those brutes roam everywhere."

Something’s not quite adding up… Sasha shook his head. "Regardless, we've no time to waste. Let's take him with us and get to the tower as soon as possible." He looked down at President and helped him up from the chair. "Time to leave, sir."

"TV. Puppies. Kibble!" the man said with increasing enthusiasm. "Dog treats!" And with no further warning he grabbed one of Sasha's sandals, which he had still been TKing off to the side, and began chewing on it.

Sasha winced back. "Aaaaach...!"

Milla placed a hand on his shoulder. "It will keep him quiet. Now let's go!" Putting up her hood again, she turned to open the door. "Hopefully we haven't been caught y—"

And the hiss of an alligator greeted them, the reptile opening its jaws wide as it sat in front of the door.

"Too late," Sasha grunted. He placed a hand to his temple and fired a psi-blast at the monster, knocking it back into the wall. "Come on!"

"Puppy!" President mumbled around the sandal in his mouth, reaching out toward the incapacitated alligator as Sasha plucked him up with TK.

Milla activated her invisibility, and Sasha led her down the hall, mentally mapping out the place. The tower they were headed for was on the western side of the building opposite of where they were, so they would have to be fast. Since their cover had already been blown, Sasha went into full-blown levitation, blasting down the hall.

As they passed one door—the door the lackey had checked and locked earlier—it began to rattle before bursting open off its hinges, and several more alligators scrambled out after them. "Doggies!" President mumbled in delight, while Sasha moved even faster.

Turning a corner, he spotted Geoff, still standing outside the bathroom. The lackey looked up at him in surprise. "Woah! Mr. Smith? What's going on? Isn't that Prez?"

Is he not aware? Regardless, Sasha did not answer, blasting past him. Before Geoff had time to question him again, the alligators turned the corner, and he let out a scream, bolting away.

They're afraid of their own guard dogs? Milla asked.

It seems so, but now's not the time to question it.

They continued through the building, any lackeys they discovered fleeing the second they saw the alligators giving chase, with some of the gators even pursuing them. Sasha was nearly relieved until another alligator burst out of a door ahead of him, its snout bearing a scorch mark, much like the one he'd psi-blasted earlier.

"What—how?!" Sasha cried.

As if on cue, several more gators suddenly appeared just ahead—literally, spawning out of mid-air.

That was it—they were teleporting. Perhaps that was why the people here didn't seem to be in control of them—the gators were as much of a problem to the criminals as they were to them.

Looking over the swarm of hissing alligators, Sasha frowned. We cannot teleport, but we can levitate! Get ready.

Ready when you are, darling!

The alligators continued to hiss before one of them charged, the others following suit.

NOW!

Sasha and the still-invisible Milla leaped into the air, levitating over the alligators. A few raised their heads and snapped at them, but they managed to clear the swarm, landing on the other side and resuming their charge through the fortress. Several of the gators hissed, giving chase, but a few more were distracted by the lackeys that stepped out of their rooms to panic.

Finally, Sasha came upon what he was looking for—a stairwell. With a motion to Milla, he hovered into it, ascending the narrow, spiraling stairs while the gators scrambled up after them. Milla and Sasha had the advantage here, and managed to reach the top before the gators could.

The room shouldn't be far from here, Sasha said, glancing to his side. He was somewhat surprised to find Milla visible again, but even with the equipment she had, it wasn't easy to stay invisible for an extended period, especially not when using other powers. Meanwhile, the alligators were nearing the top of the stairs, the one at the lead opening its mouth wide. With a well-aimed psi-blast, it was sent tumbling backward, knocking into the other reptiles and sending them all crashing down the spiral stairs.

That may or may not buy us some time, depending on if they decide to teleport again. Now to find...

This way! Milla cried, charging forward with a burst of levitation. Sasha followed, and they soon found themselves approaching another door, this one sealed with a giant padlock. One psi-blast later, the lock was smoldering on the ground, and they opened the door.

They found themselves in a circular room with a large circular grate raised up in the center. Sasha and Milla exchanged glances before grabbing it with telekinesis and heaving it up and off to the side.

As Sasha finally set President down, he leaned over the hole and opened his mouth. "Teeeveeeee!" he called, his voice echoing as the sandal he'd been holding in his mouth dropped down, down, down.

"No—!" Sasha cried, but before he could react, there was a splash, followed by the snapping of alligator jaws. He heaved a long, deep sigh, looking down. "More alligators."

There were two alligators swimming in the water far below, and in the midst of them was a small pedestal, upon which sat a glass covering. The pedestal had a large "NO TOUCH" sign attached, while the covering was labeled "PREZ."

And sitting within the glass was a human brain.

"There it is," Sasha and Milla found themselves saying together, and Sasha looked up. "I'll get it."

"No, you watch President," Milla said with a wink. "Leave this to the levitation expert."

"Fair enough."

With that, Milla raised herself up off the floor and down into the shaft, nearly upside-down as she reached out toward the glass jar. The alligators hissed up at her, swimming in circles beneath her like aquatic vultures, but she paid them no mind.

"Squeaky toy," President said, frowning down at his own brain as Milla TK'd the glass away.

"Stay put..." Sasha said, holding a hand in front of President as he watched Milla. She was raising the brain upward, drawing it closer to her hands.

At once there was a flash of psychic energy, and one of the alligators from below was up in the air in the middle of the shaft, snapping at Milla as it fell down toward her. She let out a startled cry, backing up against the wall of the shaft as the alligator teleported again, this time falling closer.

"Milla!" Sasha cried. His fear and fury took the form of raw psychic energy, blasting forward into the alligator. It slammed against the wall, skidding back down into the water. Before either of them had time to celebrate, the second alligator teleported higher up in the shaft, jaws focused on President's brain.

In a sudden stab of frustration, Sasha took his remaining sandal that he'd been TKing off to his side, and chucked it into the alligator's mouth. The reptile's jaws snapped shut, and it began to wheeze and choke as it plummeted back down into the water. Eventually, it spat up the mangled sandal and swam down into the water with an indignant flip of its tail, its slightly-scorched companion following suit.

With a sigh of relief, Milla levitated the rest of the way up the shaft, landing next to Sasha. "Thank you, darling."

"Thank me later," Sasha said, already opening up his briefcase and pulling out a funnel. He turned to face President. "Stay still, sir."

President was still frowning at his own brain. "Chew toy," he said with a look of disgust.

Sighing, Sasha took the brain from Milla and TK'd the funnel over to President's ear. "Hold him still, please."

Milla held the President with TK as Sasha forced the brain into the wider end of the funnel, shoving it inward until it slipped into the Prime Minister's empty head.

President staggered back as Sasha removed the funnel, the man's eyes rolling and blinking several times before coming into focus. "Wh... where am I?" he stammered, looking at Sasha and Milla in bewilderment. "Where are my dogs?!" He looked all around the room, his movements becoming more and more frantic. "Spot? Daisy? LEONARD?!"

Sasha grit his teeth, looking out the door to make sure they weren't going to get jumped on, while Milla bent down, shushing the man. "It's all right, Prime Minister President. You've been kidnapped and debrained, and we've just recovered your brain."

"Is... is that true?" Prez asked, rubbing his head. "That would explain my headache... Also, just Prez is fine."

"There's no time for questions. We're bound to be discovered at any moment, and we need to get out of here." Looking up and down the hallway, Sasha noted that any windows he could see were barred. "Milla, where was the entrance you came in from?"

"Not that way," she said. "It was crawling with alligators!"

Prez chuckled, and Sasha frowned. "Noted. We'll have to go back through the main entrance. Hurry!"

With that, the three charged back toward the stairs they'd ascended. The stairwell was empty, but to save time, Sasha grabbed Prez with TK once again as he and Milla levitated down the stairs.

"Woah!" Prez cried, eyes wide. "You're some a' them psychics!"

"Indeed, and it seems the alligators here are, too," Sasha replied, and Prez's brows knit in confusion. Once Sasha touched down on the floor, he took off in a burst of levitation down the hall, which was deserted. "We're nearly there. We just need to make it outside!"

The courtyard was in sight. Sasha and Milla both put on a burst of speed, feeling a great relief that their mission was nearing its end.

And with several puffs of green psychic energy, a dozen hissing alligators filled the courtyard, surrounding them.

"Not this again!" the three of them said simultaneously, and Sasha and Milla briefly gave Prez a look of confusion.

"I'll need all concentration on my psychic powers," Sasha said, dropping in his levitation to the ground in a psychic attack pose and setting Prez down. "Stay between me and Milla!"

As the alligators pressed in closer, Sasha and Milla both fired blue and pink psi-blasts respectively at the reptiles. While he could hear one be struck by Milla's attack, the one he'd fired at disappeared again. Whipping his head around, he searched for the missing gator, only to realize a shadow was falling over him. With a cry, he staggered out of the way, only for his feet to slip against the slick grass and send him crashing down on his back. The alligator landed in front of him, hissing, and more were closing in behind him and to the sides.

Before he could do anything else, however, there was a deafening chorus of barking from somewhere behind him. All the alligators looked up, and began to scramble away as a pack of enormous white dogs came charging into the courtyard. They howled and snarled as they chased the reptiles away from Sasha and the others, until the gators gave up, disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.

"Daisy!" Prez cried, holding out his arms. "Spot! Leonard! Barkley!"

Any other names he called were drowned out by the sound of elated barking and whining as he was surrounded by the pack of dogs, who all jumped over each other at the chance to lick his face.

Milla pulled her hood back, wiping at her brow. "That was a close one..." With an invisible psychic hand, she helped Sasha to his feet. He dusted himself off, for all the good it would do.

"Indeed," he said, looking back toward the entrance. "I presume these aren't K-9 units..."

"Nah, those are probably on gator duty," Prez said, squeezing his way out from the swarm of samoyeds. "C'mon, let's get out of here!"

With that, the group stepped out of the fortress, the dogs cheerfully surrounding them. Milla couldn't resist the urge to pet one of them, and it leaned into her touch, tongue lolling.

Outside, the police seemed preoccupied with handcuffing a number of criminals, including Georg and Geoff. The former looked furious, while Geoff looked out toward Sasha with his lower lip wobbling. "N... no looping water slide?" he whimpered, eyes shining with tears.

"I'm afraid not," Sasha said, replacing his name tag with his Psychonaut badge. "This place seems ill-suited for water parks regardless."

"How did you capture them all?" Milla asked, looking toward the chief officer. "How could you have known we'd already rescued the Prime Minister and his brain?"

"We didn't," the officer said with a shrug. "These guys came runnin' out 'cause of the gators."

Prez let out a hearty laugh. "That's a real shocker!"

"Prez!" Another person came bolting through the crowd—someone Sasha identified as the man's spouse. They threw their arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're all right! We were so worried about you, and I couldn't leave the dogs..."

"I'm fine! Thanks to the dogs, actually. And these guys too, of course." He waved a hand at Sasha and Milla.

Something had been nagging at the back of Sasha's head, and he hovered over to Prez, frowning. "Please excuse me for interrupting this moment, but I must ask." He waited for Prez to step away from his spouse and face him before continuing: "You seem to have a very serious problem with psychic alligators here. Why have you not called upon the Psychonauts for help with this?"

Prez, his spouse, and several of the police officers turned to give him bewildered looks. "Yeaaah, you mentioned that before," the Prime Minister said, crossing his arms. "How do you know they're psychic, though?"

Sasha balked. Had Prez been blind to what had just happened moments ago? "They can teleport, sir."

The man's face broke into a smile. "Yeah, and fish can swim! What's your point?"

Sasha glanced back at Milla, who was laughing. "Alligators don't normally have that ability."

Prez began laughing again, but stopped when Sasha did not join in. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Indeed," Sasha replied, suddenly feeling even more tired than he had before. "We can arrange to send a zoolepathy expert here to begin work on this issue, if you like."

"Uh. Yeah!" Prez blinked. "Yeah, that'd be great! Honestly, they're sorta the reason we couldn't build a water park here in the first place."

"WHAT?!" Georg cried some distance away, as a police carted her off with the rest of her lackeys.

Meanwhile, the police chief nodded. "If that's true, we'll send for one of you again."

As Sasha rubbed his temples, Milla stepped forward. "As for us, it looks like our work here is done."

"Right!" Prez rushed up to Milla and shook her hand before repeating the gesture with Sasha. "Thanks for your help!"

"And with that, we must be on our way." Finally, Sasha began hovering away from the crowd, back toward where they'd parked and cloaked the jet. Milla followed suit, waving to Prez and the others as they went their separate ways.

Once out of view of the crowd, they both dipped slightly in their respective hovers. Milla gave Sasha a tired smile, and he returned it.

"This has been quite the day," he admitted.

"Yes, but at least it's over now, darling."

Soon they were back onboard the Pelican and en-route back to Whispering Rock. While Milla stepped back toward the restroom, Sasha tapped a few buttons on the console and leaned back in his chair.

"This is Grease Jar," Ford's voice crackled over the radio. "What's the word?"

"The criminal group has been apprehended and Prez's brain and body rescued."

"Excellent work!"

"That said, it seems the Psychonauts are not yet done aiding Country. They seem to have an infestation of psychic—"

"ALLIGATOR!" Milla cried from the back.

"Pretty sure there's supposed to be an 's' at the end for the plural..." Ford grumbled, but Sasha was barely listening, rushing to the back to find Milla backing away from the bathroom in horror.

An enormous alligator stood over the toilet, where a large clutch of rubbery eggs sat within.

It was going to be a very, very long flight.

[fundmydeathowo]

flufftober day 1, lost Pet Meet Cute

first time posting flufftober on tumblr ToT, can be read on ao3 under fundmydeath, that's my user :D

pairing: gradient sans/angst sans

gradient wasn't exactly overjoyed at the moment, he had trusted his older sibling pj to watch over his black cat meowmers and pj lost his cat.

how did he lose it?? he left gradients bedroom window open to air out the house. and instead of just shutting the bedroom door and making sure the cat wasn't in there pj just left the door open.so gradient was putting up posters and putting things online as well to see if anyone had seen or even had his cat. it was stressing him out, his own dads couldn't even calm him down and ink could always do that, fresh not so much. error couldn't even help because he was with his spouses at a scientist thing in Germany. that didn't mean error wasn't harassing his friends to force their kids to help gradient, it was known gradient was errors favorite.

so sitting in his living room being forced to take a break by palette gradient heard his phone go off, getting up and grabbing it he saw a text from an unknown number.

unknown: hello this is angst, my mother nightmare is friends with your father error. I've come across the cat you are looking for, I will send an image shortly.

okay, nightmare, gradient wasn't very familiar with her but he knew she was dreams twin sister and was dating swap and ccino, and swap was inks best friend so. gradients phone went off again.

unknown: [image_cat]

unknown: this is your cat correct?

gradient could cry right now

me: yes! it is, thank you so much! do you want me to go over and pick her up? or would you want to come to my house?

unknown: I'll go to you

me: okay! this is my address xxxxxx

unknown: you don't live far from me, I will be there in 25 minutes

gradient quickly put his phone down and ran into the kitchen where pj and palette were. both looking up at gradient when he almost ran into the wall.

“what-”

“MEOWMERS WAS FOUND”

gradient quickly cut off whatever pj was trying to say and threw his hands up in the air. palette immediately started jumping up and down while pj made he way over to gradient and patted his back.

“that's good”

“thank God I thought I was going crazy”

palette also fell over from jumping and pj rushed over to him

“damnit pal”

“sorry sorry!! just so happy!!”

while the three of them finished up talking the doorbell was rung letting out an annoying bird squawk, causing gradients brothers to look at him.

“what the fuck is that doorbell”

“my emotional support doorbell”

gradient stood up and walked over to the door, fixing his green hoodie to look semi presentable.

he opened the door and had to stop himself from slamming it in the person's face, he was so pretty, he had dark brown skin with dyed black-purple hair that was pulled into a braid with multiple smaller braids making up the big braid. he wore a light purple silk button up shirt (who owned stuff like that??) with black slacks and black dress shoes.

the guy held a hand and gradient got the memo to shake his hand, quickly doing it and pulling his hand back.

“Uh, I'm gradient! thank you so so much for finding my cat”

the guy shook his head, angst he said his name was angst when texting you, remember that, don't be like dad.

“it was nothing, she is very well behaved”

angst held out a cat carrier and meowmers was just inside sleeping her little life away.

“didn't even put up a fuss going in the carrier”

gradient took the carrier and smiled brightly at angst

“she's a emotional support animal, plus she helps with my eyes sometimes because I deal with episodes of blurry vision!”

angst gave a nod of his head

“that explains it, it was nice meeting you gradient, I do hope you will keep in contact with me, you make for a wonderful conversation partner”

gradient felt like his face was on fire, God if you are out there strike him down!

“o-of course!”

angst gave another swift nod of his head and walked off, gradient quickly shut the door and slid to the floor.

oh my god,, that was horrible.

---------

prompt by: @flufftober

[chinzhilla]

i was tagged by @sandushengshou @khaotunq @baek1nho and @chickenstrangers to post my top/favorite creations from each month of 2023! thank you all so much for thinking of me <33

doing this loosely and with director's commentary bc i can never resist

january: my top set is this winteam hugs one. man i struggled so much with maintaining quality while trying to do that yellow to blue gradient coloring down the set. i definitely remembered it as looking worse than it does though, so i was pleasantly surprised to see that no it looks pretty good actually. probably also my favorite from that month since the others are very basic but honorable mention to my chinzhilla set cause i gotta shout out my beloved namesakes

february: top is jimbo the gogurt cat 😻 february was a slow month for me gif-wise so there aren't that many to choose favorites from, but it's probably my eclipse rewatch ep4 for the coloring

march: well uhh march was even slower than february i have two whole posts from that month and they're both eclipse rewatch sets (this was when my old laptop died and i spent like 3-4 weeks without photoshop). top and fav for this month is the eclipse rewatch ep5

april: top is akkayan in the first our skyy 2 trailer and fav is .... akkayan in the second our skyy 2 trailer (the quality of these is so much better how did i manage to make those first gifs look so bad 😅). honorable mention to my coloring in the eclipse rewatch ep8

may: ahh the our skyy 2 days...take me back..... top is every akkayan kiss as it should be. which i think is also my top post on this blog. as it should be. fav is vegas x it's about time (tw for glitch effect/flashing). there's some stuff there that i would go back and change cause i don't think it comes across great in retrospect, but i'm still really pleased with all the technical details

june: top was minoru's heart eyes part 3 (a gif series i WILL come back to shortly - i think the bleak midwinter is the perfect time for an odt rewatch). fav is akk x identity, but god would i go back and redo the typography and layout of the lines/text boxes (iirc i was like. minutes away from missing the deadline on this event so). still very pleased with the blending and what the set actually conveys though

july: oh look another gif series i've put on hold.... top is word of honor rewatch ep1, fav is tied between kp pretty boys (a set which is very pretty itself, if i do say so myself, and was very fun to make) and lomfontien kiss details (truly one of my all time favs on this blog even though it's so simple also everyone please go watch la pluie right now thank you)

august: bombastic side eye: the series takes the cake this month, which was SUCH a fun set to make (as was its spiritual companion, objectifying him to filth, which trailed by only about 30 notes). fav was charn vs wkx quotes. i honestly think i nailed it both conceptually and aesthetically

september: top is the first kanaphan drinking straw cinematic universe which continues to delight me whenever it shows back up in my notifs. fav is tied between cursed sandray parallels (tw glitch) (because it was one of those where as i was making it and inflicting emotional damage on myself, i knew it was going to be delightful inflicting that damage on others, and it was) and sandray x it will come back (mostly for the neon text and its reflection in the first two i just think it looks really good)

october: top was sandray love scene details (tw flashing) which was basically a rip off of my lomfontien kiss one from july but this one was much more successful lol. favorite is only friends x shameful company (tw flashing) (which now i can't look at without thinking of the sign skdjfds). really happy with the cards gif in particular

november: the guynawa kiss won november and they deserved it. my favorite was jim x loss which took me foreverrrr and i redid the last two gifs like three times but it was worth it. also shoutout to my dan x shadow post for all the 'wait there's actual monsterfucking in this show' reactions it elicited

december: top is phayatharn ep1/ep2 parallels and i have to take back what i said about every akkayan kiss being my top post - this one beats it by three notes! which surprised me but i'm glad we're all in this madness together with these two. fav has got to be morkday x come closer (tw flashing) if only for how much i beat my head against a wall over it during the creation process skdjfskj. although i also really love this set of tharn's sexy dream (nsfw) specifically because i added an offset pink layer and i'm OBSESSED with the way it looks with phaya's tattoo

if you read all that.. thank you and also i'm in love with you. anyways it was super fun to look back on everything i made this year! and interesting to realize i'm not nearly as prolific as i thought, especially in the first half of the year. here's to many more gifsets in 2024!!

tagging a few people i don't think have done this yet, apologies if you already have! and as always no pressure

@i-got-the-feels @pharawee @markpakin @difanghua @junghaesin @krystaljungs @firstmix @khaotunqs

[pbandjesse]

Today was a pretty awesome day. Honestly I don't have too many complaints except I was tired and it was hot. A lot of today was great.

I fell asleep really fast last night which was really nice. And I wish I got to sleep longer but I was pretty well rested. But I was very tired when I got up. I woke up at 7:15 and I did not want to get out of bed at all but I knew I had to. Last week Ann had said I didn't have to come this week if it was too hot if I didn't want to but then she texted me yesterday that she wasn't feeling well and that she was wondering if I would take over today and of course I said yes because I care about her and I want to make sure that the market is going well. And so I got up and I got dressed and I wore this jumpsuit which is great except for some reason even though usually women's clothings have fake buttons this one all the buttons down the front are real and it gaps like crazy so 5 seconds before we needed to leave I took the whole thing off and I ran it through the sewing machine. I did not change the thread on the sewing machine so there's just black stitching going down the front now. I'm going to rip it out at some point and put something that matches a little bit better but it has to be sewn down or it would drive me insane. And I really like this jumpsuit so I want to make it work.

I was not in the best place emotionally because I was so tired. But James got us out the door only a few minutes late and we didn't forget anything which was nice. We stopped for breakfast and everyone who was working in the McDonald's was literally a teenager and was so confused at every question and it was a little funny. But we got our food and it was fine even though the hash brown was a weird shape. And then we were at the market.

James helped me set up. It was already very hot and Anne was not feeling great and was going to be leaving by 9:00. But she stayed for setup and everything was going okay. No big disasters. No one being terribly annoying with their vehicles. I got all set up and then I just started knitting.

And I would finish my ball of yarn. I still need six more squares to finish the whole thing. So hopefully I'll have that done tomorrow and then I can start sewing the rows together. And I'm really excited. Just think the gradient looks very cool and I'm excited for this project to be done and to start working on my next one. I have no idea what that next one will be but I'm excited.

And I'm surprised at how good I did today at the market. Because I was not feeling it. I tried my best to stand because I always do better when I stand. I don't know why that is but standing up makes me sell more things. And people were really nice and I had some really nice interactions. A child from last year and the year before, Rosie, who had bought a bear and named it Farmer Bear, came back for the first time this season and I was so excited to see her because she's going to be turning four next month and her mom and her dad and her little brother and it was just so nice to see them. And while she wanted to buy the other bear that matches her farmer bear, except farmer beer has a pink nose and this one has a black nose, mom said no bears this time. Which is understandable. Instead they bought a sticker and she's going to put on her water bottle for her first day of school and I could cry that's so cute.

And I also had that nice family that always comes and buys things from me bring two of my frogs back that needed slight repairs. They tried to pay me for it but it took me literally 2 minutes to resew the legs So I said it's fine and then they bought four stickers anyway. I really appreciate how much they support me and they made my day very bright by telling me how much they love the things I make.

It was very hot though and all of us were suffering. And we decided that we would close the market early at noon. Bob came out and we had a really nice long chat about metal casting and getting sunburns from welding and just he's such a nice guy. I used to be so intimidated by him but I think he's great. Though he did get upset with me later in the day when he found out we were closing early and I didn't tell him. But I thought he was standing right there when we had the conversation so I feel bad. But it's not my fault!

I'm just glad he still was able to come out and get his lunch before everyone closed up.

James did come out to get baked goods with me. I got my peanut butter pie and a caramel brownie which is excellent. And James got a couple donuts and a cheesecake bar and a key lime pie for liter this week. And eventually they would go and buy a burger from the food truck because apparently they promised on Thursday that they would buy lunch there with them today.

And James said it was really good.

One of the other really nice interactions I had was towards the end when a family came by, a white woman and an Indian man, and then all of their parents. And the white woman picked up one of my bears and was gushing about how it reminded her of her and her brother's childhood toy and she loved it so much but she couldn't decide which one was the closest. So I told her go for a walk do the loop come back. And she did and when she came back her mom was with her and she showed her at her mom was like oh my god it does look like your guys's toy, who was named lammy and Barry. And then the husband was like I'll buy it for you and so I was like okay but then all of a sudden his mom throws her credit card at me and she's like I'm going to buy it for my daughter, her daughter-in-law which was so cute. And then the Indian guys dad who had an amazing turban on goes hey you're only supposed to swipe your credit card 30 times a month! And she said more like 30 times a minute lol! And it was so silly. And it was just such a sweet interaction and I just really loved it.

And then I had someone buy three bears from me for their nieces and nephews and that was great. And I was just having such a nice day and people were great and I was very happy even though it was incredibly hot.

The other real problem was that it wasn't super hot in the pavilion. We were getting a really good breeze. It was warm but it wasn't unbearable but as soon as you left the pavilion It was like so hot that I was worried for everyone in the parking lot even though they were under tents. Like it was painful. The wind though was keeping us cool in the pavilion but was also knocking everything over. I kept having to chase papers and then my stuff was going everywhere and I had to put some stuff away because they just would not stay still. And honestly it made me so tired. I was pretty okay until I had to start running around.

So I was really really happy when noon came around. I took my time putting things away. Jose came over and told me I could take peaches because he had a bunch of leftover. And then Helen gave me a bouquet of flowers to say thank you for introducing her to CJ. And it was just so beautiful and everyone was so kind today. Just a lovely group of people.

After I packed up I went inside to sit with James and give them a break so they could run to the bathroom. And I talked to Deborah who I haven't seen in a while and it was nice to see her. And then I decided that everyone was packed up enough outside by 12:30 that I could leave.

I went outside to tell Stanley that I was heading out and told him not to tattle on me that I was leaving a half an hour early and he said he didn't see anything. And then I left. And I was so happy to go home.

On my way home there was so much traffic in the opposite direction on MLK because of the baseball game tonight so I made sure to note that so when I came back for James at 4:00 I would go a different way. And then I saw a guy asking for change and I gave him one of the peaches after asking if he would like one. And he got the biggest smile on his face and he was like Yes I absolutely would love a peach. And it was just very nice and he had such a nice smile. I hope he's doing okay.

I got home and I brought everything inside and I put things in the fridge. I had bought guacamole again and was very excited to eat that later. I cut the bottoms of the flowers and I broke the bouquet in half because we were going to go to Jessie's graduation party tonight and I would give her half the flowers. And then I took a quick shower and changed and got in bed and slept for almost 2 hours.

When I woke up I was so delirious and so sad that I had to get up. I did not want to go to this graduation party I did not want to drive I was so upset but I made promises and so I had to make it happen. And so I went and had some of that guacamole and a little bit of my brownie and then drank a whole lot of water and headed out.

I had to drive through the city and while there was no traffic people were driving so stupid and I had to be so aggressive to deal with them. And I hate being an aggressive driver but I am also very good at it. And so I was trying not to scream at people and swerve my car around other cars but I safely and in one piece made it to the museum before 4:00.

I got James and switch seats so that they could drive and then we went to Jessie's gathering.

The sky looked very dark for having a 0% chance of rain. And almost immediately after we parked the sky opened up and it stormed for about a half an hour very hard. But we were safely inside and honestly it was a really nice little time. We were only there for about an hour But it was really good. When we got there they were just about to do toasts and little speeches for Jessie and the other graduate, Edgar, and it was really nice and everyone was really sweet and just clearly cared about them both so much. And when they asked if anybody else had anything to say if something was on their heart I was like hey I know I don't know any of you and none of you know me but walking in the space just feels like it's filled with so much love and that's just very lovely and I'm glad that all of you are friends and we were all joking for the next hour about how I just wandered and off the street because I didn't know anybody. But it was really cute and I just loved listening to it and honestly because I'm so emotional right now I could have cried a few times because they were being so sweet to each other but it was really nice.

And then somebody brought ice cream so I got to have an ice cream cone and there was watermelon. There was also a feta orzo salad that I was coveting but I did not have any of because I didn't really want to eat any more salty food but I love federal orso salad so I told James that and they said they will make something for me.

And I did get to talk to a couple people and make a couple little friends. And I'm at another non-binary James and had a lovely conversation with them and I got to talk about camp and a couple other like goofy things about kids being super out and LGBTQ friendly and how it's just beautiful to see but also how goofy they are about it and how I had that weird conversation last year where a child told me that a football player at their school was queerbating because they weren't actively out of the closet. And I'm like it was just you can't queer bait in person that's something that media does. So it was just really nice to be in such a queer space with so many beautiful people that were all clearly just so smart and kind. Plus there was watermelon and that was great.

We left right after the rain stopped. And I was in a much better mood and a much better place emotionally. Tony let us know that he was on his way with Leon and Billy to bring them to our house and we had one more stop so we headed out after saying goodbye. And went over to Jessie's house because she had a new bike for me.

When I say new I mean she found this bike in a free pile on the side of the road and it's small so she thought that it would work for me. And it's about the same size as the bike I have already And it's very cute and it's a Schwinn. It's caliente Schwinn. I'm not sure what I'm going to name it I'm leaning to hot tamale or cherry bomb. But it's very cute and I'm excited to see if it works for me. So James took that off of her back porch and took the wheel off because it's got a quick release and we got it in the car and went home.

We beat the boys there by less than 10 minutes. And I was happy to see them. I got to show off my apartment just a little bit. I knew that they were going to be leaving very soon but it was cool to get to show them some stuff and then they talk sports with James and James gave them jerseys and hats to wear to the game if they would like to and then they were off to the light rail.

As soon as they left I got right into cleaning. I vacuumed I cleaned the kitty litter I cleaned the fish tanks I sprayed down the bathroom I wiped all the surfaces and I was having a great time even though it is entirely too warm in here. I had both air conditioners going but I take forever to really cool down the space. It seems to finally be working though. And I just spent like an hour and a half cleaning and making it nice in here and then I got to work laying out all of my squares.

I decided to do this kind of gradient of the three colors with the black. So it's like a checkerboard gradient and I really like it. I made one too many red squares and I still need six black squares. I'm frogging and old panel that I made with the black yarn that I never used for anything. I have a whole box of stuff that could be frogged honestly but I just grabbed that one and started doing that but then I got distracted and I didn't want to work on it anymore so I pinned all of the rows so that I can just grab them and start sewing them together and hopefully I will have all of that done by the end of camp. Honestly I don't think it's going to take me that long but it is time consuming. So we'll see what happens.

After I did that I chilled for a while and then I decided I needed to set up the beds for the boys cuz I didn't know what time everyone was coming back from the game And I was surprised to find that we don't have very many sheets. I don't know where they all are. I know I got rid of a couple but I didn't think I went crazy. So that's annoying. But I set the beds up best I could. And also we don't have a lot of like cooler weather blankets so I put the ones out that I could find but most of our blankets are made of fake fur so they're very great for the winter but not great for right now.

Hopefully the boys think it's fine. I also put teddy bears on both of the beds so I hope that makes them feel cozy.

Once I finish that I got into a project in the studio fixing my rainbow sandals. I thought maybe since they're basically ready for the trash I could try patching them. Which is something I've never tried before. I have some leather scraps so I cut squares to put around the ball of the foot area because it's cracked on both sides and then I glued and clamped the backs. I don't know if these will be usable at all but I love having just a pair of flip-flops I can throw on when I need to walk down to the car. Which is something I had to do to get the air pump for the air mattress. And that's when I was like I'm going to do this next project. And it was fun even though I got glue literally everywhere including on my stomach somehow.

So then I knew it was time to take a shower. And I took a very excellent shower and it made me feel a lot better. And I put on nice vanilla lotion. And then I did my eyebrows and now I am laying in bed with sweetp.

James just texted me about how bad the Orioles are. I don't know why they're shocked the Orioles have always been bad. But I hope they're having fun. And now I'm going to go back to watching my video and maybe working on my knit squares for a little bit longer.

I hope that you guys had a good day and that you are not somewhere where it is incredibly hot. I hope that you are being grateful and kind. I love you all. Be safe and tell your mom you love her.

[fmp2ocatherinek-g]

Adding the text and other details onto my poster

Much like how I picked the font for the dialogue in my comic, I went onto Defont and looked through the different styles of font they have. The categories I looked at where "Destroy", "Horror" and "Distorted" as I knew I wanted the title to have a ruff/ sketchy feel.

Font ideas:

This is the font I went with and I found it in the horror section. It's name is quite ironic as my project has heavily referenced werewolves/ lycanthropes but that not the reason why I chose it. I like the jagged and uneven outline on the letters and how the tips of the letter go into a sort of point. What I didn't know was that Dafont has this feature that lets you preview the your text in that specific font so I was able to see if my title would fit before I even download the font.

This is what the font looked like when I had just typed it onto the cover. To add the font I had to move from Clipstudio Paint (which is were coloured the illustration) to Photoshop because for some reason I couldn't import the font into the Clipstudio program and use it.

The solid black text was quite hard to see on the cover so tried out ways to make it look more unique and add colour. I first thing I tried was highlighting the o's in blood at then decided to do that to all of o's in the title but it looked stupid so I got rid of it.

After that failed attempt, I made the whole title red and added a thick stroke to it to help it stand out and to give it that vintage/old comic look. I also added blood drops on the o's just for some unique flare as well as a gradient for more visual interest.

Once I had finished modifying the font, I started adding all the extra details that would make this illustration look like an authentic comic. I first started by creating this sort of boarder on the top of the cover as I've seen it on some of comics I've looked at. The Dark Horse Comics logo was then added it because I thought my book would be the kind of thing that company would publish. I next added an issue number in the corner as well as a bar code (which I found on the internet) and finally, my name.

After getting some feedback on how title obscures The creatures shadow, tried moving the text so it doesn't but I didn't like how it looked so I just raised the shadow layers opacity to make it a little darker and stand out more.

[zyafics-recs]

reblogging comment review from @zyafics

first and foremost, the color scheme for this series is GORGEOUS, the purple pairs well with the angst of the series and i’m so ready for it (also so proud that u learned how to get the gradient function!! ☺️)

secondly, how DARE u not tag me i am flabbergasted, heartbroken, overlooking the golden gate bridge rn

ANYWAYS, i have seven minutes before lecture starts so here’s my lousy and incoherent annotations below ⬇️

You’d always known Rafe wasn’t the easiest guy to love. He was complicated, angry, reckless—but so were you. And in some messed-up way, that’s why you two worked. Or at least, why you thought you did. You were just as stubborn, just as damaged. But now, as you sipped your drink and looked around, something felt off. Your gut was tight, and that nagging feeling that’d been growing restless under your skin since the breakup only grew stronger the longer you stood there.

i’m so ready to see how toxic this can get

You pushed yourself off the railing, discarding your drink on a table before moving through the crowd, past people you knew but didn’t bother with. Your mind was set on one thing—Rafe. You were done with the break. You had your space. It’s time to get back together. It was never even really a question. It was just the way things worked with you two.

love a reader who knows what she wants and goes after it

You only caught glimpses of empty rooms along the way. You hadn’t seen him since the break, and part of you didn’t want to admit how much that messed you up. How much he messed you up. Your steps slowed as you neared the hall that led to the back of the house, the sound of voices filtering through the air. You recognized some, laughed at the drunken ramblings, until one voice cut through the noise. Rafe’s.

oh god

You didn’t stop. You couldn’t. You told yourself you just needed to see him, just talk to him, tell him this break had gone on long enough, that you were done with the games. That’s when you heard it again—her laugh. It was light, flirtatious, the kind of laugh that made your stomach turn into a million different directions because you knew exactly what it meant.

my stomach is doing flips

She was smiling, laughing softly at something he’d said, her fingers brushing through her hair as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Your breath caught in your throat as you watched his hands move, tying the knot in her bikini with such gentle precision like he’d done it a thousand times. The kind of softness he used to have with you. And then he said it, his voice teasing, amused like this was some kind of inside joke between them.

"God, this is just landing right in my lap, isn’t it?"

i would need a gun

He laughed quietly, his lips brushing against Sofia’s shoulder as he tied the last knot, and the way he touched her—like she was something to be savored—sent a rush of pure, burning humiliation straight through your chest.

i would crash out so hard rn

After everything you’d been through together, after all the times you had to pull him out of his own darkness, after the nights spent in his arms when you thought you couldn’t breathe because your whole family was gone—after years of being his and him being yours—how the fuck could he move on when you’d been rotting away in self loathing for pushing him away?

SICKENING

Without a single warning. Not a text, not a stupid call, just pure indifference. No respect or regard for you. Nome of them. Everything you’d just seen replayed in your mind—Rafe, her, the way he touched her like she meant something to him.

i support women’s wrong to do mass destruction

With someone else. You pressed a hand to your stomach, your head hurting. The idea of Sofia, of Rafe being with someone else in ways that only you knew—ways that had always been yours—made you feel like you were being torn apart.

THIS IS MAKING ME UNBELIEVABLY SICK

You could still remember the night your life changed—the phone call, the horrible, gut-wrenching moment when you learned that your family’s private plane had gone down. Your parents. Your sister. Gone. Just like that. And Rafe had been the one to pull you through it. He was the one who had held you as you cried so hard you thought you were going to die, who sat with you in silence when you couldn’t bring yourself to speak, who stayed with you every single night because you were terrified to be alone in a haunted mansion that now felt like a mausoleum.

this paragraph is so beautifully-crafted i had to highlight it - okay back to our regularly scheduled program

A connection, a bond forged in shared pain, in the kind of trauma that no one else really got. Maybe that was why you were so obsessed with each other. Maybe it was fucked up, but you couldn’t imagine anyone else understanding you the way Rafe did.

TOXICITY’S FINEST COUPLE

You could still feel the weight of his head on your shoulder that night, years ago, when his mom passed. The silent sobs that shook his body, the way he’d held onto you. That was the real Rafe—the one he hid from everyone else. The one who was lost and broken underneath all the anger. And you’d seen him, really seen him in ways no one else ever could. Not Sofia. Not anyone.

exactly he’s YOURS (mine…?)

His face twisted with frustration as he looked over his shoulder, something catching his attention. He started waving, yelling at someone, his voice cutting through the night, “Rafe! Dude, get over here!”

you fucking NARC

“God, what is wrong with me?” you muttered, your voice quavering as the words tumbled out. “Why the fuck am I crying over him? I shouldn’t be crying over him.” You slammed your palm against the steering wheel, angry, disgusted with yourself.

she’s so me

“Fuck,” you hissed, tears streaming down your face. Your throat burned as the memories came flooding back, memories of all the nights you’d spent together, of him holding you while you cried yourself to sleep, of the way he’d pulled you out of the gloom when you thought you’d never get back up again. You thought he’d always be that person for you, the one who understood your broken pieces because he had his own. You’d always fit together perfectly.

oh my god i fear i need her to do the best revenge arc

The sliding doors let out a grating beep as you entered, and the air inside was stale and heavy, reeking of floor cleaner and cheap perfume. You adjusted your grip on your purse, strutting past the aisles with your head high even though everything inside you felt like it was falling apart.

again, i’m always in awe of ur descriptions it makes me so giggly and excited to see how well u constructed ur setting

“I don’t know what the fuck that was but save the fucking dramatics, okay?”

should’ve bought a glock w those pregnancy tests - i would start TWEAKING so hard

💌 — this fic is BEAUTIFUL (ohmygod my professor arrived, let me make this QUICK) i absolutely love how u created this atmosphere of anger, resentment, desperation and neediness. because u captured the angst incredibly well, and how u built up to it—the aches, the emotions—were well-paced and made you feel everything on a deeper, more slowburn way. i also LOVE how the interconnectedness of how topper and rafe are best friends, and she’s his COUSIN, and how this man SNITCHED to rafe when she was driving away. i love-hate that scene bc it builds so much more tension, but i would be fucking pissed at topper. lastly, as always your descriptions are one of my favorite parts of your writing and i highlighted them for my annotations. so so PROUD of u for starting this series and i will make u complete even if its the last thing i do 🔪

LOVED YOU AT YOUR WORST - r.c series - ONE

pairings: ex!sweethearts; rafe x thornton!reader; rafe x sofia. chapter warnings: none (angst)

The bass from the speakers rattled the glass in your hand as you leaned against the porch railing, eyes scanning the backyard for him—Rafe.

It had been a long month.

Longer than you thought it would be. Usually, when you and Rafe had your little “breaks,” they lasted about a week, maybe two at most. It was always something stupid, a screaming match that ended with slammed doors and his truck peeling out of your driveway. But it never lasted. It couldn’t. You’d known each other too long, been through too much, and deep down, there was this unspoken truth—he’d always come back. Or, you would.

But this time was different.

This time, he wasn’t calling or showing up at your window in the middle of the night, eyes tired and sorry, pulling you into his arms. The space between you had been growing wider since his dad died. And sure, maybe it was your fault for what you said after Ward’s death—But it was the truth.

Still, you hadn’t expected him to shut you out completely. Two months. Two months of silence. And the only thing you’d heard about him since was through Ruthie, Topper’s new girlfriend, of all people. A random comment at Mase’s place—something about how Rafe had been hanging around some pogue girl named Sofia.

You’d rolled your eyes at that. Rafe? With some Pogue? Yeah, right. You’d pretended not to care when she tossed it out like it was nothing

You weren’t stupid.

You’d always known Rafe wasn’t the easiest guy to love. He was complicated, angry, reckless—but so were you. And in some messed-up way, that’s why you two worked. Or at least, why you thought you did. You were just as stubborn, just as damaged. But now, as you sipped your drink and looked around, something felt off. Your gut was tight, and that nagging feeling that’d been growing restless under your skin since the breakup only grew stronger the longer you stood there.

You pushed yourself off the railing, discarding your drink on a table before moving through the crowd, past people you knew but didn’t bother with. Your mind was set on one thing—Rafe. You were done with the break. You had your space. It’s time to get back together. It was never even really a question. It was just the way things worked with you two.

But then there was Ruthie—blocking your path, her wide smile dripping with the kind of smugness that set your teeth on edge. She looked like she was reveling in your misery and that little giggle she let out only made it worse.

"So glad you could make it!" she sang out, her voice too sweet, too bright. Her eyes flickered over you like she was sizing you up, taking stock of every inch of your perfectly put-together outfit.

You forced a smile, “Yeah, well, wouldn’t miss a party like this,” you said, keeping your tone casual.

You weren’t in the mood for whatever game she was playing.

“Oh, I just bet,” she replied, her smile growing wider. She stepped closer, her breath reeking of cheap wine, and you had to resist the urge to roll your eyes. Ruthie always drank too much at these things.

What the hell was her problem? She always acted like she knew something you didn’t, like she held the keys to all the dirty little secrets in Kildare, and she loved dangling them in front of people just to watch them squirm.

“Ruthie, I swear to God—” you began, but she cut you off, her grin widening.

“Oh, honey,” she cooed, her voice dripping with fake sympathy, “don’t get mad at me. I’m just the messenger. You should really be talking to Rafe about this.” She took a step back, still smiling, and glanced over her shoulder. “He’s around, you know. You can go find him yourself. See how cozy he’s gotten with her.”

You bit your tongue, jaw, forcing yourself to stay calm. She was trying to get under your skin, like the snake she’d always been. You couldn’t believe Top was lonely and horny enough to finally fall into her claws.

“Thanks for the tip,” you gave her a tight lipped grimace, brushing past her, didn’t try and wait for her reply.

You only caught glimpses of empty rooms along the way. You hadn’t seen him since the break, and part of you didn’t want to admit how much that messed you up. How much he messed you up. Your steps slowed as you neared the hall that led to the back of the house, the sound of voices filtering through the air. You recognized some, laughed at the drunken ramblings, until one voice cut through the noise. Rafe’s.

And then you heard hers. No fucking way.

You didn’t stop. You couldn’t. You told yourself you just needed to see him, just talk to him, tell him this break had gone on long enough, that you were done with the games. That’s when you heard it again—her laugh. It was light, flirtatious, the kind of laugh that made your stomach turn into a million different directions because you knew exactly what it meant.

She was there, with him.

You moved forward, the hallway barely lit as you reached the half-closed bathroom door. Your breath hitched, hands trembling as you peeked through the small crack, unable to stop yourself from looking.

There they were.

She was smiling, laughing softly at something he’d said, her fingers brushing through her hair as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Your breath caught in your throat as you watched his hands move, tying the knot in her bikini with such gentle precision like he’d done it a thousand times. The kind of softness he used to have with you. And then he said it, his voice teasing, amused like this was some kind of inside joke between them.

"God, this is just landing right in my lap, isn’t it?"

You froze.

He laughed quietly, his lips brushing against Sofia’s shoulder as he tied the last knot, and the way he touched her—like she was something to be savored—sent a rush of pure, burning humiliation straight through your chest.

You stumbled back, your heart pounding in your ears as Rafe’s words repeated over and over in your head. Landing right in my lap. What the fuck was this?

Your heart clenched, vision blurring as what you were seeing slammed right into you. You backed away, your hand flying to your mouth to stop the sob from escaping. But it didn’t help. Not even à little. The tears burned, and you turned quickly, practically running back through the house and out the door before anyone could see the humiliating mess you were becoming.

It was real. He moved on. In two fucking months.

That’s all it had taken for him to replace you. To be done with you. He was over you. Just like that.

After everything you’d been through together, after all the times you had to pull him out of his own darkness, after the nights spent in his arms when you thought you couldn’t breathe because your whole family was gone—after years of being his and him being yours—how the fuck could he move on when you’d been rotting away in self loathing for pushing him away?

Your head spun as you stumbled down the steps, out to the street where your car was parked. You couldn’t breathe. Your breaths were coming out too fast, too shallow, and your hands were shaking so hard you had to press them against your knees to hold yourself up.

What the hell was wrong with you? You hadn’t even had anything to drink.

But your stomach was rolling, twisting in knots so tight you could barely stand straight. You leaned against the side of your car, the cool metal grounding you to reality for a second before a wave of nausea hit, forcing you to double over and retch onto the pavement. Tears stung your eyes as you coughed, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand.

You felt dizzy, disgusted even, everything you thought you knew, everything you thought was yours, had been ripped out from under you.

Without a single warning. Not a text, not a stupid call, just pure indifference. No respect or regard for you. Nome of them. Everything you’d just seen replayed in your mind—Rafe, her, the way he touched her like she meant something to him.

“Look who’s still standing!” Topper’s voice. He was laughing as he strolled over, hands shoved in his pockets, that same carefree grin on his face that he always had at parties. “Jesus, what did you have to drink? You look like you’ve been hit by a truck.”

Normally, you might have had something to say back, maybe a fiery insult or a roll of your eyes. But right now, everything felt like too much. You couldn’t say a word. You could barely breathe.

Your cousin stopped beside you, his grin dropping as he finally looked at you. “Hey, what’s wrong?” He leaned down, trying to catch your eyes. “You good? You look kinda—"

You cut him off, the question was heavy, like a lump lodged in your throat. “Did you know?”

He blinked, the confusion spreading across his face. “Know what?”

You swallowed, your heart hammering in your chest as you forced the words out, your voice shaking. “About Rafe and Sofia.”

You hated saying her name.

Hated that you’d been forced to know it by heart. Topper’s smile dropped, his expression changing.

He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, you knew him well enough to read his micro expressions. You clenched your fists, it felt like you were the only one in the island who’d been let out of the secret.

Surely, your friends, your only family would’ve told you something right? It’s not like you were on a remote island away from them. You’d spent the last month in New York, not in the fucking jungle. You visited occasionally. You were a call away.

“Did everyone fucking know?”

Topper exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, we didn’t think it was serious. You know how it is with you two—you’ve done this before. Played with other people…”

Played with other people. Like you and Rafe were just some game, a revolving door of heartbreak and hookups. It didn’t make sense. You’d always known how it worked, understood how these things went—sure, you’d had your minor flings, and he’d had his, but it was never real.

You stumbled back, feeling like you might collapse. “Oh my God, I’m going to be sick again.”

He reached out, obviously concerned since he hadn’t seen you in this desperate state in years, “Hey, hey, calm down. Look, it’s not like it means anything. Rafe’s just—he’s going through a lot with his dad dying, and he… he’s just messing around. You know how he gets.”

But the words did nothing to soothe you. They only made it worse—how everyone knew. How they’d all watched Rafe move on, while you were stuck, still reeling from the breakup, thinking he’d come back like he always did. And he was just out there, with her.

With someone else. You pressed a hand to your stomach, your head hurting. The idea of Sofia, of Rafe being with someone else in ways that only you knew—ways that had always been yours—made you feel like you were being torn apart.

Topper was still talking, still trying to rationalize it, but his words were like static now, blending into the noise of the party behind you. “It doesn’t mean anything,” he was saying. “You know how it goes. You always end up back together. He’s just doing whatever to distract himself.”

That word. Distract himself. Like your entire relationship could be boiled down to that—a series of distractions until you decided to come back to each other, to pick up the pieces and pretend everything was okay.

You could still remember the night your life changed—the phone call, the horrible, gut-wrenching moment when you learned that your family’s private plane had gone down. Your parents. Your sister. Gone. Just like that. And Rafe had been the one to pull you through it. He was the one who had held you as you cried so hard you thought you were going to die, who sat with you in silence when you couldn’t bring yourself to speak, who stayed with you every single night because you were terrified to be alone in a haunted mansion that now felt like a mausoleum.

You had been seventeen, and losing them all at once had killed something inside of you. But he was there. He wasn’t perfect—far from it—but he knew what it was like to grieve.

He knew loss. He understood. Because you’d been there for him two years earlier, when his mom lost her battle to cancer. You could still see the look in his eyes that day—fourteen years old and already drowning in so much anger and sadness, like the world had ripped something essential out of him.

The way he cried at her funeral when he thought no one was watching, and you’d found him, sat beside him in the cold, letting him cry without saying a word. You hadn’t started dating yet, hadn’t crossed that line, but something had changed between you two in those moments.

A connection, a bond forged in shared pain, in the kind of trauma that no one else really got. Maybe that was why you were so obsessed with each other. Maybe it was fucked up, but you couldn’t imagine anyone else understanding you the way Rafe did.

How could it all come down to this? To you standing here, feeling like the world was ending while he moved on, laughing and touching someone else like nothing you had ever been through mattered?

Was that it? Did that one moment, that one argument about Ward, erase everything you’d done for him?

All the times you’d been there, the way you had comforted him when he felt like his life was spiraling? You remembered exactly what you’d said a month after the funeral, when your boyfriend blamed everyone but Ward for his own death. "He wasn’t a good person, baby. I know he was your dad, but you can’t pretend like he didn’t fuck you up."

You hadn’t even said it to hurt him, not really. It was just the truth. Ward had been a terrible father, controlling and manipulative, and you’d spent years watching Rafe try to live up to some impossible standard, chasing his father’s approval like it would ever be enough. But that didn’t make it easier for him to hear. You should have known better. You should have known how raw he was after losing his dad, how complicated his feelings were.

But instead, you’d been brutal. Honest, but brutal.

And now, two months later, here you were—staring at the empty street, wondering if you’d pushed him too far. If that one moment of honesty was enough to make him forget everything else. Now you were just the ex, the crazy one who didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.

“Fuck, why did I say that?” you whispered to yourself, voice shaking. Why couldn’t you have just let it go?

But then another clarity of anger took over you, pushing away the guilt that had been building inside. So you’d been too harsh about Ward. So you’d said what everyone else had been too scared to say. It wasn’t like you’d been wrong. Ward had messed Rafe up.

Everyone knew it. He knew it, deep down.

You gritted your teeth, staring out at the dark street, the low hum of the party still buzzing faintly behind you. You were never going to get that picture out of your head. Like they hadn’t just met, like you hadn’t spent years learning how to calm Rafe when he spiraled, how to hold him together when he couldn’t hold himself.

Your chest tightened again, a bitter taste rising in your throat.

You could still feel the weight of his head on your shoulder that night, years ago, when his mom passed. The silent sobs that shook his body, the way he’d held onto you. That was the real Rafe—the one he hid from everyone else. The one who was lost and broken underneath all the anger. And you’d seen him, really seen him in ways no one else ever could. Not Sofia. Not anyone.

"Look, you're emotional, okay? I get it. Maybe it's that time of the month or something. You know how you always get when your hormones go crazy."

The words got to you, but not in the way he probably thought they would. At first, it pissed you off, like it always did when people tried to downplay your emotions. Everyone always said you felt too much. That you were out of control.

But then…

You stopped moving, blinking rapidly as his words spiraled around in your brain. ‘Time of the month’, he'd said.

Your heart started doing summersaults, your stomach dropping as the idea settled in. You grabbed your phone, hands trembling like leaves as you opened the calendar app. You scrolled, trying to think, trying to remember when you’d last…fuck.

You hadn’t had your period in… so long.

Almost two months. No. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. It had to be some kind of fucked up joke.

You felt light-headed as you reached for your car again, your body shaking so badly you could barely stand against the door. "Shit."

How could you not have noticed?

Topper noticed the change in you instantly, his brow furrowing. "What’s wrong with you?" he asked, his tone softening a little. "You okay?"

You couldn’t even form a sentence. Your brain was too full of what-ifs. Two months late.

You hadn't even thought about it until now—everything had taken so much space in your head that you hadn't noticed the most obvious sign. This wasn’t possible. Your hand flew to your stomach, almost instinctively. You had no idea what to do with the panic creeping up your throat.

“Shit,” You hissed, this time louder, trying to push the growing dread down. But it wouldn't go away.

He was still staring at you, “What? What’s going on? You’re freaking me out.”

But you were already backing away, shaking your head, “I—I need to go,” You mumbled, barely hearing yourself.

Your cousin moved quickly to block your path as you tried to make your way toward the door. That kind of protective streak only made you want to shove past him even more.

"You’re not driving in this state." he warned you, voice firm, his hands up like he was trying to physically stop you.

You just glared at him, “Fucking watch me.”

He didn’t budge. "You get in that car and I'm calling Rafe," he said, sounding dead serious.

You couldn’t believe it. Your head was already spinning, and he was trying to guilt-trip you like this was some kind of helpful thing to do? You threw your hands up in frustration, voice rising, cracking. "He’s too busy fucking Sofia. Knock yourself out."

The words felt like venom in your mouth, the bitterness rolling off your tongue. You didn’t care how harsh they sounded. You didn’t care about anything anymore except getting away from this suffocating stupid place. Before he could say anything else, you made your move. You pushed past him with all your strength, chest hurting with the urge to feel something other than this suffocating mess of emotions and confusion.

Your hands shook as you fumbled for your keys. You managed to unlock the door, sliding into the driver’s seat, the cool leather biting into your skin.

You needed to think. But all you could think about was that one, terrifying realization: you might be pregnant.

Your breath hitched, terror swirling around your chest. The calendar app was still open on your phone, the dates staring back at you like a flashing red warning sign, daring you to confront the truth you’d been ignoring. Two months. Two months without a period. And you hadn’t even noticed. You pressed a hand to your stomach again, heart pounding as if it was trying to escape your chest. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not like this.

You weren’t thinking clearly—shit, you weren’t thinking at all, but you couldn’t stay here. Not with Topper trying to baby you, not with him out there, living his best life like you didn’t even exist.

You turned the key, the engine roaring to life, and just as you gripped the wheel, ready to peel out of the driveway, Topper bolted in front of the car, planting himself right there like some kind of human roadblock. Fucking idiot. His arms were stretched out wide, like he could somehow stop you by sheer willpower.

“You’re not doing this, I swear to God, you’re not!” he yelled, his voice frantic, echoing off the dark street. He looked panicked, pleading even, like he was convinced you’d actually go through with it.

You gritted your teeth, eyes narrowing on him through the windshield. “Top, I swear, you have three seconds before I run you over.”

“Are you serious right now?” he yelled, his voice cracking with disbelief. But he didn’t move. “You think I’m letting you drive like this? You’re out of your fuckin’ mind!”

Your fingers gripping the wheel so hard it hurt. You weren’t bluffing. You were too wound up, too out of control. The only thing keeping you from flooring him was the fact that, deep down, you knew your cousin didn’t deserve it.

You just needed to get out of here.

“Move!” you screamed, “I’m not joking’, Topper. Get the fuck out of my way!”

His face twisted with frustration as he looked over his shoulder, something catching his attention. He started waving, yelling at someone, his voice cutting through the night, “Rafe! Dude, get over here!”

Your brain stopped. It was like everything had been sucked out of you. Your hands froze on the wheel, your entire body locking up as you looked to your right and saw him—Rafe. Right there in the yard.

And she was with him. He had his arm draped around her casually, like she belonged there.

Like he belonged there, just standing in the open, so stupidly comfortable in his new life. His head turned when he heard Topper call out, and your eyes locked for a less than a second. A moment too long. A moment that broke something inside you.

While Topper was distracted, his attention on Rafe, you made your move. You slammed your foot on the gas, tires screeching as the car lurched forward, swerving just enough to dodge Topper’s stunned figure. You heard him yell after you, but his voice faded into the background noise as you sped away.

You didn’t look back. Not at Top, not at Rafe.

The only thing you could hear was the sound of your own heartbeat pounding in your ears, drowning out everything else. You hated this. Hated that you were crying. Hated that you’d let yourself get to this point.

“God, what is wrong with me?” you muttered, your voice quavering as the words tumbled out. “Why the fuck am I crying over him? I shouldn’t be crying over him.” You slammed your palm against the steering wheel, angry, disgusted with yourself.

You’d told yourself you were stronger than this—that after everything you’d been through, you didn’t need him or anyone else. But here you were, falling apart like some pathetic excuse of a mess because of him. Because he had always been there, hadn’t he? After the crash, after you lost everything, he was the one constant, the one person who kept you from completely losing it. You’d relied on him so much. Too much.

“Fuck,” you hissed, tears streaming down your face. Your throat burned as the memories came flooding back, memories of all the nights you’d spent together, of him holding you while you cried yourself to sleep, of the way he’d pulled you out of the gloom when you thought you’d never get back up again. You thought he’d always be that person for you, the one who understood your broken pieces because he had his own. You’d always fit together perfectly.

You pulled into the parking lot of the nearest drugstore, your hands still shaking as you put the car in park. The tears had dried up on the drive over, replaced by a cold determination. You didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to even think about what you were about to do.

The moment you stepped out of your car and into the harsh fluorescent lighting of the drugstore, you felt completely out of place—like a stranger in your own skin. You hadn’t even thought about how ridiculous you must’ve looked until you caught your reflection in one of the store’s glass windows. Your hair, still perfect from earlier, framed your face in soft waves, and your makeup was flawless, despite the crying. The designer dress you were wearing—sleek, red, and worth more than half the shit in this store—with its sticky floors and white lights, it made you feel like an alien. Like you didn’t belong.

You caught the eyes of a couple of people loitering outside the entrance as you walked in, their stares lingering a little too long, murmuring to each other behind smirks. You knew they were talking about you. They always did, kook queen, overdressed, out of touch, bitch, whatever they wanted to call you.

The sliding doors let out a grating beep as you entered, and the air inside was stale and heavy, reeking of floor cleaner and cheap perfume. You adjusted your grip on your purse, strutting past the aisles with your head high even though everything inside you felt like it was falling apart.

You always did this—dressed to kill, head up, like armor. But there was no real glamour in buying pregnancy tests from some random pharmacy in the middle of the night. No way to mask the deep, growing hysteria in your bones.

The girl behind the register clocked you the second you stepped up to the counter, her eyes dragging over your like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. You could almost hear her thoughts: What the hell is someone like you doing here?

You didn’t even look at her. You just wanted to pay and leave without a scene. But of course, people always found a way to make things worse. She hesitated before scanning the tests, looking like she might say something. For her own good, you prayed she didn’t.

You threw the money on the counter before she could open her mouth, two crisp hundreds on top of the total. The cash hit the counter with a sharp thwap and you gave her the bitchiest look you could muster. “Take it. Keep your fucking mouth shut.”

She swallowed hard, her hand trembling as she slid the bills into the register. You didn’t care that she was young or nervous. You weren’t here to make friends. You weren’t here for anyone’s sympathy. The extra money would make sure she didn’t talk, that was all that mattered.

You walked out, your heels clicking against the linoleum, head high, even though every nerve in your body screamed for you to disappear. You slid into your truck, slamming the door shut, the silence finally hitting you. For all the designer clothes, the makeup, the money—none of it meant shit right now. You felt so small. So scared. Terribly lonely.

You sat there for what felt like forever, staring at the stupid bag in the passenger seat like it had the power to ruin your whole life—which, to be fair, it kind of did. You didn’t know what the fuck you were going to do. Not about any of it.

Your foot tapped nervously against the floor mat, the sound too loud in the quiet car. The bag crinkled as you glanced at it again, your stomach twisting all over again. A bunch of pregnancy tests. How had it come to this?

Rafe. You squeezed your eyes shut, willing yourself not to think about him, not to picture his face when he found out. If he found out. Shit, what the hell was he going to do? He was with Sofia now, right? So was this going to ruin his life too? Did he even deserve to know?

It was probably nothing, you told yourself. Maybe the separation anxiety had gotten to you. Maybe your body was just fucked up from all the stress. Maybe your period was just late because you’d been so all over the place lately. There could be a million reasons. You didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it wasn’t nothing.

You didn’t want to cry anymore. Not after all of this. Not over Rafe. Not over your life turning into some fucking soap opera you didn’t even want to be a part of.

The second you were inside your house, the walls closed in around you. Your perfectly decorated place—the one you’d spent so much time making into a refuge, an escape—it didn’t feel like that anymore. Every designer pillow, every carefully chosen piece of art, mocking you.

Your phone buzzed in your bag, you reached for it. Of course, it was Rafe.

“I don’t know what the fuck that was but save the fucking dramatics, okay?”

The nerve. The fucking nerve of him to act like he was the center of your universe, acting like you were some inconvenience. Months of silence and this was the first thing he decided to text you? Knowing how much you despised when people called you a drama queen? Fucking piece of shit.

Your fingers hovered over the screen, a thousand different responses running through your mind. You wanted to tell him to shove something up his ass. But you did the only thing that felt right in that moment.

You blocked him. You stared at your phone, half expecting it to buzz again, half dreading that it wouldn’t. It was done. You cut him off, at least in that tiny, virtual way. You sat there for a minute, gripping the phone, trying to remember how to breathe.

This was supposed to feel empowering, right? You told yourself it would. That cutting him out would help you get back some control. But your mind wouldn’t settle. Those damn pregnancy tests were sitting in the bag next to you.

You were tired.

Exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with how late it was or how emotionally spent you were. You kicked off your heels, letting them clatter against the hardwood floor as you sank into the plush couch. Your house felt cold and unwelcoming tonight. Like a showroom. No comfort to be found. Not here, not in the muted tones of beige and white. Not in the sleek lines of furniture that were supposed to exude elegance and sophistication.

Maybe tomorrow you’d feel differently.

Maybe you’d wake up with a clear head, ready to take the stupid tests. Maybe you’d be strong again like you’d been so many times before.

Tonight, you were just tired. You leaned back against the cushions, closing your eyes for a moment, willing the noise in your head to quiet down. Sleep. That’s what you needed. Just a few hours to clear your mind, and in the morning, you’d deal with everything.

All of this would go away.

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