#if we were logging that shit the way we are now since day 1 it wouldve been well into the thousands

[hypovile]

My friends and I have a grand total of 694 pages of session notes for our Curse of Strahd campaign. And I think that’s beautiful

[ghettogirly]

Hello, is there gonna be part 2 of welcome to my world?

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 [𝟐]

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐒 𝐗 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 ’𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐒’ 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍

-> click here to read: 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟏

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

-> synopsis: entering Miami, the crew are now thrown into a dangerous world as a bounty is placed onto their heads. Is something blossoming between Armando and Malia?

-> theme: slow burn, action.

-> format: story

-> warning: use of n word, violence, mature language, suggestive themes.

-> authors note: you asked and you shall receive! this took me a while since it was so long. hope you enjoy! 𝟐.𝟑𝐤 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝.🌸

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝟐: 𝐁����𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒.

Footprints trailed behind the four as they ran through the forest. Trees hung over them, running in between, in attempts to throw those who were following them off. A glimpse of a sunbeam peeked through the huddle of trees showcasing the time of day. It was now dawn.

Logs and branches covered the wildlife below their feet, moss and grass poked up from the soil where the sunlight touched them, allowing them to photosynthesise.

Panting, the crew located a hut at the bottom of the hill, built next to a river. At the top of the mountain, they all looked at each other, signalling what the plan was.

“Deberíamos barrer la cabaña, una persona en cada ángulo.”

Marcus turned to Armando with a confused look on his face, “Armando I don’t even know what you said but i am not following your plan. You’re too crazy for my old ass.”

Giggling, Malia turned away from group as she found Marcus comment funny. Mike shaking his head, looked towards Armando. “We all just need to go together.”

“Says who?” The male stepped forward.

“I’m not asking you, i’m telling you. We are staying together!” Mike stood up, a scowl crawling across his face at his son’s stubbornness.

“Fuck out my way.”

Grabbing on his shirt, Mike pulls Armando close to him. Grabbing him back Armando put his head closer to his father’s, a vein appearing on his head due to adrenaline pumping through them. His fight clearly activated due to the hormone being secreted from the adrenal gland. Getting in between them, Marcus put both his arms out.

“I can’t deal with this hot headed bullshit! On 3! 1, 2-“

The two pushed each other back.

“There you go!”

Walking past the two, Malia slowly glided down the hill towards the hut. Stopping at the back before peeking through one of the windows, noticing someone was there, she slowly creeped around the opposite side of the house. The three men looked behind them and noticed how she wandered off, throwing their hands up in defeat they followed behind.

A wooden deck trailed along the coast of the beach, the waves crashed against each other causing a thin layer of foam to bubble on top. The sun slowly popped from under the shoreline as the orange, dazzling rays were emitted from the giant star. The brown skinned girl was in awe of the beautiful sight that was before her, causing the melanated skin to glow in the light. She embraced the warmth of the rays as they gave her comfort: peace.

The enigma of why heat and fire brought her comfort lingered in the air. Not only making her ponder but even Armando who eyed her curiously as she basked in the tranquility of the beach. Nevertheless, he shook his head and focused on the mission before him. “Necesitamos movernos.”

Running towards the boat, Armando quickly unravelled the rope that connect the vehicle to the bank. Mike and Marcus hopped into the boat with Malia following their lead. Pushing the boat away from the bank slightly in order to start the motor, the male was just about to step on the beach until a figure appeared before him.

“I know you ain’t stealing from me!”

Looking up, a hillbilly stood in front of him.

“We ain’t stealing your shit just because we’re black!!”

All the heads turned towards Marcus who looked at him with a confused look on their face. “Escucha, tenemos que irnos.”

“Listen boy, you either need to speak English or go back to wherever you came from, you-“

Quickly tackling him, Armando dropped the caucasian male to the ground. In attempt to fight back, the man tried to grab his neck, with no avail. Quickly getting back in his feet, Armando grabbed the smaller male and threw him into the building. Causing the others to look at him with a shocked look on their faces.

“What?”

“Nothing.” They all said in unison.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, the boat slowly sailed across the river bank. Armando controlled the steering wheel while the other three just laid down. By the time they got on the boat and started the engine, the sun started setting. Sailing for about 4 hours now, everyone was quiet as the tiredness hit.

A crackle and a pop came from below the boat. Suddenly, a flicker of light came from the motor of the boat causing smoke to then burst from under it. The controls of the boat was gone. “Controls are out.”

“We are not too far away from the beach, you think we can get there?” Mike suggested.

“How though?” Marcus asked.

The three men looked at each other and then looked towards Malia who was just there fiddling with her nails. “You guys do realise that there are oars right beneath us right?”

Slowly looking down, the men realise the flat, wooden blades that lie on the floor of the vehicle. “Así que eres útil para algo.”

“Excuse me?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇, the three exit the boat. Panting due to the energy needed to glide the boat against the upthrust of the waves, as the pressure of the water made it harder to move. Looking around, they observed the multi-coloured lights and the neon strobes that wrapped around the tall skyscraper buildings that was before them.

City lights were on that illuminated the dark streets with a dim light, creating a moody atmosphere within the city. Walking across the beach, the four stood before a road. “Yeah, we in Miami.” Mike confirmed.

“So what do we do now?”

“Necesitamos armas.”

“Vendôme is not too far from here, we just need to get there.”

“Aw hell nah Mike, that crazy ass lady Mila who runs that shit don’t even like me!” Marcus argued back.

“She likes me though.”

“You are a married man now with you freaky ass, christine wouldn’t like all that-“

Slapping his head, Mike cuts him off. “Nigga just shut up and let’s go!”

Jogging up the path, the neon sign illuminated from the building above. The brown skinned girl walked forward and pushed open the sleek black doors welcoming an eruption of loud rap music and people cheering.

Strolling into the building, Malia pushed through crowds with the boys trailing slowly behind her. Elevated stages and stripper poles were scattered across the nightclub with near-naked girls sliding and doing tricks on the metal structures. On the other side of the club was a bar, where a group of people were taking shots, allowing the alcoholic substance to slide down their throats.

Approaching an archway that had red, tiny pearls hanging down from it, a bodyguard put his arm out in an attempt to stop the four from entering. “Ay, we here for Mila, it’s Mike.”

The arm was then retracted and mike gave a nod of approval to the bodyguard, who led them inside the private booth. In the smaller room was about 4 girls, including Mila. She had black, sleek hair trailing down her tan skin. Her nails were painted neon orange while she wore a skimpy, neon yellow dress, promoting the theme of the club which was known for its bright colours. “Hey big daddy..”

“Nah, i ain’t that. Don’t already start Mila.” Mike jokingly warned who embraced the hug from the shorter latina woman who just walked up to hug him. The rest of the three sat down.

“So what do you need?”

“We gonna need some clothes, a car and some guns. Just something quick.”

“Okay i hear that.. but what you gonna do for me though?”

The other three looked at each other wearily before glancing back over at the two and their conversation.

“Listen-“

“Mila, he’s a married man. He can’t do nothing for you!” Marcus interjected, shaking his head.

“So, what does that got to do with me? All you gonna do is close your eyes, i’ll do the rest baby.”

A splutter is heard from within the small room.

“I mean, she ain’t wrong. You close your eyes and she can do everything else Mike.” Marcus whispered, reenacting the movements of what Mike would do in the situation.

“Mila you fucking with me bro, we don’t have anytime for your bullshit. Matter of fact, we outta here-“

Standing up the crew for ready to leave, before clicks were heard across the room. Guns were drawn as the 3 other girls that surrounded Mila stood up on the couch. Bodyguards now covered every exit while shouts were thrown towards the group.

“Y’all better sit your dumb asses down before i kill you!”

“Mila what the fuck are you doing?”

“¡Cállate la boca! Hay una recompensa de 2 millones de dólares por tu cabeza. Solo me estaba demorando, bebé.”

“You a crazy, broke ass bitch.” Malia interjected, mugging the older latina lady as she just laughed.

“Who’s going to be dead and who’s going to have 2 million dollars by the end of it? That’s what i thought.”

Before the brown skinned girl could say anything back, A group of guys entered the room. 5 black men drawn with guns swaggered in, the chains glistening from the strobe of lights as the main one approached Mike. Opening his mouth, his gold grills were shown to the group, highlighting his status.

“Bounty is dead or alive. Don’t do nothing stupid.”

Pushing Mike and Marcus along, one of the men grabbed Malia, wrapping his rough hands around the woman’s arm as he forces her to hurry up.

“Let go of her.” Armando warns, his smooth sultry tone echoing through the dark room which causes everyone to look at him. Including the man who continues to hold Malia.

“Don’t make me say it again.”

“Man just let her go so we can get this money!!” One of the gang members shouted towards the male who just stared at Armando. Huffing, he let her go; not before pushing her forward to get her to continue walking.

“This nigga wants to touch me so bad, what the fuck.” Malia whispered to Armando who just laughed. “quién no lo har��a?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎��𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 to respond the group was led outside towards a black van. Climbing into the van, a sudden series of gunshots was scattered towards the vehicle, killing the gang members that held them captive. Hiding behind the van, Armando quickly ran out to get one of the assault guns that was dropped by the dead member.

Jumping into the van, the four hid under the seats.

“Payday Payday! Yo Mike, i know you there with your tired ass!!”

Shaking his head, Mike sighed at the sound of the voice, recognising who it was.

“You know this guy?” Armand suggested, giving a knowing look to his father.

“Uh, i smashed his hand with a hammer a couple years back. Nothing crazy.”

Focusing back on the events going back on outside, the bigger male was still shouting. “I’m with the streets now! It’s my time!” Aiming his gun towards the van, the now identified male, Vincent starts shooting towards the vehicle.

In retaliation, Armando starts shooting back from within the van. Peeking his gun through a blind spot, spraying some of the other active criminals that were there with bullets. With precision and accuracy he successfully fired two shots that were part of vincent’s crew, his toned muscles popping out of the T-shirt he was in as he focused. Malia watched intently, now understanding the danger the surrounded the mexican male. Having a sense of danger yet cool aura to him, which honestly turned her on: slightly.

Marcus slowly crawls up to the driver seat, pressing the gas pedal, driving straight into Vincent whose eyes widen towards as he realises what’s going on. “Fuck!!”

Two more vehicles slide up, shooting Vincent’s gang in attempts to also retrieve the bounty for the bad boys. Jumping into the seat, Marcus pulls off and starts driving away, speeding down the roads in attempts to get away from the chaotic situation occurring by the nightclub.

A sudden flame rose from the cracks of the back door from the van, a molotov spraying a burst of fire around the ring of the entrance of the van.

“Don’t worry guys, the fire is on the outside!”

The cardboard boxes that were in the corner of the van was quickly lit on fire, the fire now reaching the inside. Swirling around Armando’s legs, the small flames create a hot sensation on his clothes as they slowly burn past the fibres, touching some of his receptors on his leg. Realising his legs were on fire, his eyes widened as he start yelling, patting the flames in attempts to extinguish them.

“Oh shit, now it’s on the inside!!” Marcus yelled.

Realising Armando’s current state, Malia quickly helped him out. Opening the door, she kicked the boxes out of the van. Instantaneously, a bullet shot right above the girl - just missing her as it hit off the top of the van. Back on his toes, Armando quickly wrapped his arms around Malia’s waist pulling her back and shutting the door.

“I was fine!!!” She shouted.

“No you wasn’t! Someone just fucking shot at you!”

“Guys, we need to jump out the van!!”

Quickly looking back at each other, the 2 younger ones jumped out of the back while Mike and Marcus jumped out each side. Speeding down the road, the van instantly blew up due to the overheating of the engine and the fire that surrounded it, now destroyed.

The crew looked at each other , panting as they get their breaths back.

“We need to get back to Dorn’s.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[🌸] 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒:

“Deberíamos barrer la cabaña, una persona en cada ángulo.”: We should just sweep the hut, one person at every angle.

“Necesitamos movernos.”: We need to move.

“Escucha, tenemos que irnos.”: Listen, we need to go.

“Así que eres útil para algo.” : So you are useful for something.

“Necesitamos armas.”: We need guns.

“¡Cállate la boca! Hay una recompensa de 2 millones de dólares por tu cabeza. Solo me estaba demorando, bebé.”: Shut the fuck up! There is a 2 million dollar bounty on your head. I was just stalling baby.

“quién no lo haría”: Who wouldn’t ?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[🌸] 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @milliumizoomi @shurisgf @armandosbabymama @wizewhispers @omg-mymelaninisbeautiful @deadpool15 @amplifiedmoan @5tarlan7 @thedarkworldofhananerea @sarcasticbitchsblog @dyttomori @tyneshaaa @yeahnohoneybye @believeinthefireflies95

[tevantarlos]

Feel free to ignore but I just have to get this out. I know this sounds mean but I´m happy that

a) Tim and Oliver lurk in fandom like no other and are seeing what people say about them and

b) Oliver had months of reprieve from the deranged people that make his following because they were turning all their guns on Lou. In fact he gained popularity because they convinced themselves (with his help, I add) that he is their champion and actually wants Buddie to happen. What does he think will happen now, when in a couple of weeks Buddie still has not happend? There is no Tommy standing in the way anymore and we will go right back to accusations of baiting and of people calling him fat and bald and almost too ugly for Eddie (yes, that happend). And when this happens and he has another whiny outburst on SM I will laugh until I fall over.

They droped the ball with every other LI before because they were to chicken shit to even try putting a stop to the endless harrassment. I think Megan West was the most egregious example of just leaving someone hanging and even encouraging the shit that went on online. They had a chance here, for the first time, to try to get out of this toxic Buddie brew they are in. If nothing else the way the relationship with Tommy was received, the way it garnered press by outlets other than glorified fan blogs like "Fangirlish" and gained them a new audience and the move to ABC all presented an opportunity to combat the toxicity by simply taking the fandom monopoly away from the crazies. But they just did not have the balls and now look at their pathetic attempts to make Brad happen on their IG. Engagement is low and what it there is the usual idiots screaming for Buddie and nothing else.

I hope it was worth it. I don´t see the show getting a 10th season, maybe not even a 9th. The spin off will be cheaper to produce, Peter talked about quitting before and the ratings trend downwards since S6. Not to mention the writing is absolute shit since Tim is back.

Maybe Oliver hopes that Callum Blue is the kind of guy that can get him a job after 911 gets canceled and is worth sucking up to. Last time I checked he couldn´t even get cast on a Hallmark movie so why not try, right? Buddie fans will not follow him either way, I hope he knows that.

Hey, hon. Thanks for the ask. Sorry I haven't posted this or replied before now. I haven't logged into my computer in a few days, have just been doing everything on my phone, and I didn't want to try to reply to this on my phone, that would takes ages.

I've been in the 911 fandom since two months after the last episode of season 1 aired. Oliver and 911 shot themselves in the foot by not shooting this Bvddie bullshit down from the very beginning. They've spent years leading Bvddie fans on, purposely having scenes with Buck and Eddie that cause the lunatics to see things that aren't there, because it gives the show more engagement.

Oliver and 911 know that Bvddie fans will never stop watching the show because they're so sure that at some point, 911 and Oliver will give in and make Bvddie canon because 'it's what they deserve'. At least, that's the bullshit I've read a lot of on Twitter and other places. What Bvddie fans don't understand, is they aren't owed shit.

I learned this the hard way when I was in the 100 fandom. I, and many other Bellarke fans thought that since we were loyal fans of the show, we'd be rewarded by getting Bellarke eventually. But just like Bvddie is never going to happen, Bellarke never happened. The writers and show runners had no interest in going there. They just liked to bait fans. Just like 911 does, with Buck and Eddie.

I personally feel like Oliver was relieved that all the hate was getting thrown at Lou and not himself, and he got a break from those assholes for a few months. But now that Lou and Tommy are gone, they're just going to go back to harassing him because Bvddie isn't canon and never will be, and those dumbasses can't cope.

Oliver knows that if he ever truly tells the Bvddie fans that it's never going to happen, he'll lose a large majority of his fan base. So, he just doesn't say anything. He encourages their twisted thinking and doesn't put them in their place when they're being assholes. Neither does Tim, so it's a monster of their own making. (The Bvddie fandom)

I can't speak on anything to do with the actresses of the other LI's. For many years since I started watching the show, I didn't interact with other fans much. The only time I did, was when I wrote fanfiction when I was a Bvddie shipper for 2 years, but after I found out what a bunch of toxic assholes they were, I ditched that fandom and am so glad I did.

Yeah, I check out the 911 IG page every few days because that's all I can stand. I can't look at it daily. All the Bvddie bullshit on every post claiming 'Bvddie canon, season 8!' It makes me roll my eyes so hard it hurts. Also, the way those idiots talk, like Buck and Tommy weren't in a relationship, like Buck is Eddie's one true love, and the other father of Chris.. God, I can't help but tell them how stupid they are for believing that. Especially since Ryan said in an interview that Chis has only one dad, and Buck sure as fuck ain't it.

The show will be lucky if it gets a season 9. This season is just not good, and I mean that honestly. Putting aside the BuckTommy of it all, it's crap. They focused too much on that Brad character which was a fucking waste of screen time. They traumatized Henren and their kids, had a plot that ended like within 5 minutes with Ortiz, had a decent start for Gerrard being a bad guy and dropped him for BRAD! Who the fuck cares about fucking Brad? No one.

When it comes to the IG posts, the first few days and maybe weeks after the BT breakup, both fans and GA made their feelings about the out of the blue breakup known, but after fighting the stupid Bvddie fans in the comments for a few days, most people backed off. I've gotten messages from people on IG who are BT and GA fans, who said that just like a lot of my comments on the IG page, their comments were removed for supporting BT, and for dishing out some of the bs that the Bvddie's have been doing for years.

Which once again shows that the people who man the 911 IG page, are catering to the most toxic assholes in the fandom. Every fucking post on the 911 IG has bullshit about Bvddie going canon, but people who talk about BT, or who even dare to criticize, in a nice way even, who criticize the plots being cut off, making no sense, the characters doing things that are out of character, they get deleted. But yet the lunatic's comments remain on the posts.

IF the show gets renewed for season 9, I'm betting it will be the last. This season so far has just been a shitshow. In terms of the writing for the show, and in terms of the Bvddie fans taking being complete assholes, to the highest degree imaginable.

I don't give a shit about Brad the character or his actor. I hate the character, he fucking annoys me. I didn't find any of this plot funny, just irritating and I want him gone. The mains were pushed to the background this season for Brad, some dumbass that's not some great character, but some idiot.

Also, Oliver is like a child. He only cares about praise and ass kissers. He says what will cause him to look good. I remember there was one time a few years ago, where he had some contact with a Bvddie fan and when the fan said that he was a dick for leading people on about Bvddie if it's not going to happen, he snapped back and said that he was just an actor doing this job and to stop being so mean to him.

In my opinion, he's a fucking moron who did it to himself. Him and Tim. As I said above, they could've gotten the assholes under control or even gotten rid of them from the start by being honest and just saying their stupid Bvddie is never going to happen. But no, they're too worried about ratings dropping, so they throw in Bvddie scenes every now and then to keep baiting those fans and they eat it all up.

Every time Buck and Eddie share a scene, those idiot's are all, "It's happening! Bvddie canon, y'all!" And then nothing ever happens, and those assholes get mad at being baited once again. It's been 7 1/2 seasons. If Bvddie were ever going to go canon, it would've happened by now.

[medlarmeadows]

The Best of Us, The Worst of Us (The Last of Us)

q!Charlie Slimecicle x fem!reader

Synopsis: In the midst of the zombie apocalyptic world of The Last of Us, you and Charlie stumble upon a little girl who became the light of your lives for the rest of her life.

Warning(s): blood, swearing, violence, mild gore (descriptive scenes of wounds and blood), main-character (?) death, HEAVY angst, mild-suicidal ideation, physical threatening, panic attack, bittersweet ending

Word Count: 6.6k

A/N: The last sentence in my notes for this fic was “This is angst we ball”. I am so sorry.

masterlist

Surviving in a zombie apocalyptic world was tough. If you weren’t fighting off zombies or other survivors, your next problem was finding food and shelter.

Luckily for you and Charlie, you both knew how to be resourceful.

You’d both done things you weren’t proud of. Between sneaking up on survivors and picking them off one by one so you could loot the bodies and the location, and savagely tearing apart the bodies of the undead without even blinking an eye, you could safely say the apocalypse had changed you both.

Whether that turned you into the worst versions of yourselves, you couldn’t say.

“Hey Charlie,” you had asked him on a rare day when you had simply relaxed by a brook. It had been a peaceful day, one without any scavenging runs, or even run ins with zombies or other survivors.

“Yes, my love?” he replied.

Despite yourself, you feel your chest warm. Ten years since the world turned to shit, but your boyfriend never failed to find a way to make you feel loved.

Too bad you would be the one to break that mood.

“Are we bad people?”

There was a beat of silence as Charlie registered your words. You see him frown from behind the old sunglasses he had picked up from an abandoned mall (“You can’t stop the drip, even if you might get bit!” “Charlie, if you wear that and we get ambushed, you are most definitely going to get bit.” “But I will look cool during it.” “And also dead.”), the sun reflecting off the lenses and shielding his eyes from your view.

“Sure, we’ve done questionable things,” he starts slowly, as if he was processing every word before he said them. “But I don’t think that makes us bad people. I think that just makes us survivors.”

It’s your turn to frown as you mull over his words. The dead leaves on the ground rustle as Charlie shifted, leaning over to hold the side of your face gently.

“We’ve been doing this for ten years,” he murmurs. “What’s got you thinking about this now?”

You worry your lip as you lean into his touch, his calloused hands bringing a striking contrast to his gentle hold. It grounds you in the midst of your busy thoughts.

“I don’t know,” you reply softly. “I guess, I’ve just been feeling a little sentimental recently.”

“Oh yeah? I get that too.”

You snort, before grabbing Charlie’s hand in yours and placing a kiss to the back of his hand. He responds by pulling you towards him into a cuddle on the forest floor.

“I guess that just shows we still have a little bit of humanity left over,” he murmurs as he places a kiss into your hair.

“I guess so,” you reply as the two of you drift off into a comfortable silence, interrupted only by the soft burbling of the brook.

-

Camping out in the forest was always a gamble, no matter how peaceful it seemed to be. Without four walls to protect you, you could be easily ambushed by survivors and zombies alike.

You were up the second you heard the sound of empty tin cans crashing to the ground. Charlie shot up from the bed roll moments after you, eyes wide and alert.

The two of you had set up camp behind a couple of large logs, large enough to obscure most of your view of where your campfire had been (Survival tip number 1: never sleep immediately next to your campfire, and always put it out before you sleep) so you couldn’t immediately see whoever or whatever had knocked over your trash.

Reaching for your shotgun that was always within arm’s reach of you, you mouthed to Charlie, “I’ll approach, you flank.”

With a thumbs up from him, you make your way to the source of the noise as quietly and quickly as you can. The moment you step out to face the culprit, you aim the shotgun at them, ready to fire if need be and –

“Oh my god.”

The moonlight just barely illuminated the figure before you. Standing before you, in clothes torn, tattered, and muddied with both dirt and what must have been dried blood, was a girl who could be no older than eight years old. She was on her knees, seemingly having just tripped over the small pile of tin cans in the darkness, and you notice that one of her shoes was missing.

The girl is frozen for a second, eyes wide and staring at the shotgun. The pair of spectacles slips down her nose just a little, enough to draw your attention to it. One of the lenses was cracked.

Charlie appears behind her just a second later, moments away from tackling what he had probably thought was a lone adult survivor. She senses him behind her and turns, mouth falling open.

In a split second, Charlie has the girl in his arms, one hand pressed over her mouth to stop her from screaming. You drop the shotgun on the ground and run to them.

“Calm down,” you try as she wiggled in Charlie’s grasp. Her chest rose and fell in panic.

This wouldn’t do.

“Charlie let go of her,” you hiss at him, keeping your volume low to avoid attracting any potential threats.

“If I let go, she’s going to scream,” he hisses back.

You let out a deep sigh and try to put on the most kind and genuine smile you could muster.

“Hello,” you say gently. “I’m Y/N. We’re not going to hurt you, but we need you to calm down and not scream. If you scream, the zombies will come, and everybody is going to get hurt.”

The kid’s eyes widened just a fraction, darting around the darkness to look around. You reach for one of her hands and rub your thumb over the back of it in hopes to help soothe her.

“There’s no one here except for us, for now. You can relax, try to calm down.”

After a few seconds, the child’s breathing slows down, and she seemed to relax in Charlie’s arms a little. When he was sure that she wasn’t going to scream, he let go of her and moved to kneel beside her on the ground.

“Hey,” Charlie says softly. “Sorry for grabbing you like that, I’m Charlie. What’s yours?”

The girl raises her hands and starts to gesture shakily. Confused at first, Charlie turns to look at you, but you realise quickly that she was signing to the two of you. Your mouth opens slightly when you realise.

“– I – P – P – A. Juanaflippa? Did I get that right?” you ask.

The girl nods excitedly, a smile spreading on her face in contrast to the panic she had been in just moments earlier.

“It’s nice to meet you, Juanaflippa. What are you doing out in the forest?”

She starts signing again, but soon realised that you were reaching your limit of your sign language knowledge. You exchange looks with Charlie, who was equally lost. Then, Juanaflippa was gesturing again:

“Oh! Pen and paper!” gasps Charlie. “I think we might have scrap paper and a pen somewhere, let me find it.”

As Charlie rushed back to your bed roll, you move closer to Juanaflippa to help her stand up. She stumbles a little and leans a little into your side.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?”

She nods, lifting her foot with the missing shoe.

“You hurt your foot?”

As she nods again, you feel something in your heart shatter for her. Why was a girl so young out in the forest all alone? Why did she have to suffer in this world that would never be kind to her?

You almost whiplash. You weren’t sure when was the last time you felt compassion for someone other than Charlie.

Pushing down your bubbling, confusing emotions, you say, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you patched up. Come on.” And you gather her up in your arms and carry her over to where your bed rolls were.

The remainder of the night was spent patching Juanaflippa up. By the time you had finished wrapping her foot injury – which luckily seemed to just be a sprained ankle – with some bandages and wiped the dirt off her face, the little girl was sound asleep in Charlie’s arms.

Cradling her gently, Charlie looked up at you. His wide eyes met yours, and you immediately knew the question which was on his mind.

“Charlie,” you began softly. “It could be dangerous.”

“But – ” you wince when his voice cracked slightly “ – she’s just a child. God knows what she’s already gone through alone, we can’t – we have to – ”

“We won’t,” you say firmly.

You place a hand over one of Charlie’s which had started to shake over Juanaflippa’s shoulder. Intertwining your fingers with his, you lean over to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. Strong emotions start bubbling up again from your chest, this time towards your boyfriend with a heart of gold. Charlie had already set his mind on taking in Juanaflippa, and you knew you would follow his lead in a heartbeat.

“We’ll protect her, I promise.”

-

You and Charlie had only planned to camp in the forest for one night, so you were going into the nearest town in the morning. As per yours and Charlie’s routine, the plan would be to scope out a potential camp for the night, preferably in a secured building, then search around for loot. If you were lucky, you would be able to sneak around zombies and survivors alike. Most of the time, the two of you would be able to make it through the day without anything more than a minor scuffle.

Truth be told, you and Charlie enjoyed the adrenaline rush that came with a fight. You didn’t push you’re your luck often, but what was life without a little risk? However, with Juanaflippa to take care of, the two of you had to be more careful than you were used to.

The little girl was a good sport, even with her injury. But even then, the three of you moved slower than usual.

“We should probably set up camp, then one of us stays with the kid, the other goes and scavenges,” you had suggested in the morning.

“Are you kidding?” came Charlie’s worried reply. “We don’t ever split up. That’s like the worst decision ever. Besides, the kid’s gotta learn how to survive in this world.”

“Yeah, but maybe when she’s got some food and healed up,” you shot back.

“Fine, fine. But once she’s recovered, I’m gonna teach her how to shoot a gun.”

“Charlie, no – ”

“Hey, Juanaflippa! Wanna learn how to shoot a gun?”

That conversation had ended with Charlie and Juanaflippa jumping around you excitedly. You sighed exasperatedly, but it had been hard to hide your fond smile.

Luck seemed to be on your side because your plan for the day went smoothly. You managed to find an old video game store (“Oh my god, Dying Light! I loved that game!”) and secured it as your camp for the next few nights. Once that was done, Charlie had slipped out to gather some food and medicine, returning safely before night fell.

The three of you took things slow, slower than you and Charlie had ever done things in the past ten years. What was routine and almost second nature to the two of you became teaching opportunities for Juanaflippa.

And she had the best teachers.

“Okay, Flippa – can I call you Flippa?”

Juanaflippa nods at Charlie, bouncing on her toes excitedly.

“Awesome! Alright, here’s how you hold a gun – ”

Just at that moment, you emerge from the store to see your boyfriend and Flippa standing side by side, Flippa clutching Charlie’s handgun awkwardly in her small hands.

“What the fuck, Charlie – ”

“Don’t curse around the baby!” he exclaims, shooting you a look and covering Flippa’s ears dramatically. The young girl just looks at you innocently, eyes wide behind her cracked glasses.

Dumbfounded, you set down the water you had brought out for them.

“You’re admonishing me for cursing, but you’re teaching her to shoot a gun?”

Shaking your head at them, you march back into the store to retrieve your shotgun, coming back out to stand watch for them in case any runners or scavengers got attracted to the noise of a clumsily fired handgun.

-

A few days later, you find yourselves back in the woods after getting chased out of the town by some stray runners that had caught you off guard. The moment the sound of ambling limbs and uncoordinated footsteps drew near, Charlie had scooped Juanaflippa up in his arms and raced away while you covered their backs, occasionally letting a gunshot ring when a runner got too close.

After ensuring you were no longer being chased by the pack of zombies, you and Charlie decided to set up camp in the woods. Charlie insisted on bringing Juanaflippa with him to collect firewood (which you knew was a poorly disguised excuse for bringing her aside to teach her how to kill some small woodland animal probably) but you quickly denied the man, offering to teach Juanaflippa how to set up camp instead.

“So, Flippa,” you asked as you teach her how to set up the tarp for shelter, “how did you come to find us in the woods?”

Flippa worried her lip, setting down her side of the tarp to take out the notebook and pen you had managed to scavenge for her. After scribbling down a few words, she turns the notebook to you:

I was left behind. We were attacked. I couldn’t find anybody.

“Oh,” you breathed shakily.

Flippa nodded before hanging her head. One of her hand lifts to wipe at her face as her shoulders start to shake.

“Oh, baby,” you whisper, before gathering her up in your arms. Her arms come to wrap around your neck, squeezing you back tightly as she buried her face into your neck.

“Flippa, I’m so sorry that happened to you,” you say as you rub circles into her back, “but we’ve got you now. Charlie and I will protect you, I promise.”

Juanaflippa takes a minute to calm down, and when she does, she pulls away slightly and brings one of her hands up to face. Opening her palm, with her pinkie facing you, she taps her thumb twice on her chin.

Curious, you tilt your head and ask, “What does that mean?”

A grin starts forming on Flippa’s face and she starts signing the letters to you. You feel tears well up in your eyes as you recognise the four-letter word as:

“Mama,” you choke on your words. Sniffling, you nod vigorously at the girl, gripping her tighter. “Yes, I’ll be your mama sweetheart. I can’t promise I’ll be perfect, but I promise that I’ll keep you safe.”

Charlie returns to see the sobbing mess that you are, and a grinning, slightly teary-eyed Flippa. Knowing it took a lot to get you to cry, Charlie drops the bundle of wood he had collected and rushes to your side, holding the two of you and barraging you with a series of questions:

"Are you alright? What happened? Are you both okay?”

Flippa interrupts him by signing at him, making the same gesture as before but this time tapping her thumb twice on her forehead. Charlie frowns, confused and worried.

“What does that mean, Flippa?”

She manages to wriggle out of your grip slightly to pick up the discarded notebook and pen to write down one word:

Papa.

If you were emotional, Charlie was downright inconsolable. The three of you sit there on the forest floor, wrapped up in each other both physically and emotionally. Juanaflippa is sandwiched in a hug between the two of you, content to just be between the two humans who had decided to love her unconditionally that night in the woods.

By the time you calm down, the sun is starting to set, and you and Charlie both get to teach your daughter how to start a fire.

(“Charlie, please control your pyro tendencies,” you plead with him out of Flippa’s earshot. All you get is a non-committal “No promises.” and a wink.)

-

You make a couple days trek out of the woods and into the next town to search for more supplies. By this time, Flippa’s ankle had healed, and she was wearing tightly laced shoes Charlie had found in the last town. She was armed with a small knife (you had refused to let Charlie give her a gun) and walked between you and Charlie at all times.

Given that Juanaflippa was better equipped now, you and Charlie decided to take the chance and go on supply runs together as a family. It was a hard-fought battle between Charlie’s insistence and your anxiety, but he eventually reasoned it out with you, proposing a game plan.

Whenever you entered a new area, Charlie, being at the head of the group, would keep an eye out for potential hiding spots for Flippa, signalling them to you. If things went south, one of you would shout “Flippa, hide!” and point to one of the hiding spots for her to go to.

It was a fair plan, and the only way for him to convince you to let all three of you go on supply runs together.

Quietly, the three of you were sneaking into an abandoned grocery story in hopes you could scavenge some canned food, one of the supplies which dwindled the fastest now that you were a party of three and not two. The sliding glass doors were frozen half-open, allowing the three of you to slip through with no issue.

It was early in the afternoon, but the sunlight didn’t reach far enough into the grocery store for you to be able to see well inside. Electricity certainly didn’t work anymore, so after walking deeper into the store, the three of you took out your flashlights.

Too bad you didn’t notice the clicker first.

The sound of three flashlights clicking on at the same time was enough for the clicker to turn its gruesome, fungal head in your direction. The three of you freeze, breathing shallowly as the grotesque creature made its disturbing clicking noises. Charlie motions for the three of you to back away quietly, and so you do.

Too focussed on the clicker in front of you, you don’t notice the clicker that had crept up behind you until it clicks in your ear.

You side-step the clicker before it can take a chomp out of your neck, but not quick enough for you to avoid getting pulled down to the ground by it. There’s a high-pitched scream in the background, and you put all your strength into your hips and arms to quickly overpower the creature, rolling the two of you over and stabbing your knife into its neck. Mercilessly, you drag the knife, ripping it’s throat out in a spray of blood and gore to ensure it was dead.

The noise had prompted the clicker in front of your party to charge, and you could see Charlie engaging with it, dodging its arms, and slicing its jaw with his machete. Quickly, you turn your gaze to where Flippa was, ice seeping into your veins when you don’t notice her figure between yours and Charlie’s.

A second high-pitched scream rang out from your right.

Whipping your head further down the aisle, you notice a squirming mass on the floor, barely illuminated by the flashlights which had dropped to the floor. You sprint over to wrestle the third clicker off of Juanaflippa, yelling for Charlie to get Flippa out of the store. As your boyfriend scoops Flippa into his arms and runs out, you manage to climb onto the clicker’s back.

You’re briefly winded when the zombie knocks you into the shelf, but you quickly retaliate by plunging your knife deep into its chest several times, uncaring of how your hands were dripping in its blood. It finally drops to the ground, unmoving, and you sprint out of the store before any more unseen clickers or runners came looking for the source of the noise.

The first thing you saw was Charlie patting Flippa down, fussing over her and checking for injuries. You approach them after sheathing your knife, panic slowly dissipating seeing them out of danger.

“Are you both okay?” you ask, patting Flippa down quickly before turning to Charlie.

He pulls you in tightly and kisses you deeply, quickly pulling away when he remembers the small child watching. You catch his gaze briefly, noting his pupils still wide from adrenaline, before sweeping your gaze over the rest of his body to check for injuries.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly, “Adrenaline rush. I think that’s the most action I’ve gotten in more than a week.”

You nod in agreement. Your right hand shakes slightly from leftover adrenaline, and you glance down to notice it soaked in blood that wasn’t your own. Nonchalantly, you wipe it against your pant leg.

“It was a little fun,” you admitted, but turning to Juanaflippa, you feel a stab of fear in you again. “But Flippa, oh my god, I’m so sorry, we should have been more careful.”

You scoop her up in your arms, hugging her tight. You can feel the erratic beating of her chest against your own, and your squeeze her a little just to remind yourself that she was okay. Pulling away from her slightly, you check her again.

“Are you alright? Did you get hurt?”

Juanaflippa shakes her head, holding up an OK sign. Satisfied, you ruffle her hair and stand up.

After that run in, neither you nor Charlie were in a state to go on another supply run, so you found an abandoned house to set up camp in. In a stroke of luck, you managed to find some leftover canned goods in the kitchen.

As you prepared dinner, you notice Juanaflippa draw into herself, doodling or writing something in her notebook. Worriedly, you turn to Charlie who was checking how much ammo you had left.

“Charlie, could you check on Flippa again?”

He looked up from your supplies, eyes darting over to where Flippa was before looking back at you.

“I checked on her just now,” he assures you. “She’s alright, just shaken. Said she needed some time alone.”

You hummed, not quite content with his answer, but accepting it. You hear a sigh, then footsteps, and a pair of arms was wrapping themselves around your waist.

“You’re worried,” Charlie mumbles into your hair.

“Of course I am,” you bite back, your gaze remaining focussed on the beans you were heating up on a makeshift stove.

“Love, you know it’s not your fault, right?”

You give a heavy sigh, gripping the spoon tightly.

“But she got hurt. We weren’t careful enough.”

“She’s alright, we checked her over multiple time.”

“She could’ve gotten bit.”

“But she didn’t.”

“But she could’ve,” you shot back, mindful to keep your volume low so that Flippa wouldn’t overhear your conversation.

The arms around your waist hug you tighter, and Charlie presses a kiss to your hair (which was dirty and slightly bloodied from the fight, but of course your boyfriend had to be a sweetheart).

“She’s okay,” he insists. “We all got a little roughed up, but we’re all fine. We’ll be more careful next time. And if anything happens, we’ll fight our hardest to make sure she’ll get out of it unscathed.”

A gentle hand reaches for your jaw, tilting your head towards him and giving you a light, reassuring kiss. You revel in the safety of being in Charlie’s arms, and in that moment, you feel as though you were sheltered from every horror the world could throw to you, both physical and emotional.

A tug at your pants draws your attention to the small girl who had made her way towards you two, giving you a cheeky grin as though she knew she was interrupting a moment. Letting out a playful sigh, Charlie picks her up and places a sloppy kiss on her cheek, which she protests by batting at his face.

You shake your head softly at them, turning your attention back to the food to ensure it didn’t burn. Your attention, however, was split again when Flippa and Charlie start launching double attacks on you, trying to outdo each other on the number of kisses they can sneak on your face as you cook.

(Charlie has Flippa in his arms, giving her an unfair advantage as he purposely sways her closer to you. He doesn’t acknowledge this when she cheers and raises her hands 5 to 2, signalling her win, but you shoot him a knowing look.)

As the night drew to a close, you tucked Juanaflippa into bed, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

If anything were to happen to her, you swore you would burn the world to the ground.

-

Everything was going to shit.

The three of you had decided to make a supply run the next day. You had banked on the hope that things would be more chill after the scare the previous day.

Of course, luck chose to run out on you today.

You had made it barely ten minutes into stuffing cans into your rucksacks when gunshots were ringing in the convenience store. Semi-automatic gun shots.

“Fucking Fireflies!” hissed Charlie as the three of you took cover behind the counter.

Your eyes scanned around, looking for a way out that was not blocked by the Fireflies. You notice the glass-less window by the counter.

“Charlie, roll your pipe bomb the other way, then sneak out with Flippa. I’ll give cover,” you whisper frantically.

Charlie nods at you before doing what you say. The bomb goes off, clearly taking some of the Fireflies down by the sound of pained screams, and the three of you are off. You whip out your shotgun and fire on the Fireflies nearest to you, taking down another two more before following Flippa and Charlie out.

Another series of gunshots ring out as you’re pulled down behind an abandoned car.

“Why the fuck is a whole squad here,” you curse.

“Hell if I know,” Charlie shoots back. He peeks up from the car to fire off a few shots from the semi-automatic rifle he had, cursing when empty clicks come out after only a few shots.

“Fuck! I don’t have anymore ammo for this stupid gun,” he says as he swings the gun over his back, pulling out another pipe bomb and throwing it at the Fireflies.

Between the two of you, Flippa is crouched with her hands over her ears, eyes wide and darting around. You wrap an arm around her shoulder, squeezing and trying to offer as much comfort as you can to the distressed girl.

“We’re going to get you out of this, Flippa, I promise.”

There’s another spray of bullets, then the sound of thundering footsteps. Gunshots start ringing again, but this time directed away from the three of you. Poking your head up from the car, you realise that a hoard of runners was attacking the Fireflies, clearly having been attracted by all the noise.

“Retreat!” one of the Fireflies yelled.

“Let’s go, now,” hissed Charlie, taking advantage of the chaos.

You follow Charlie as he leads the three of you through the chaos, ducking behind another car. However, it seems that the hoard was much bigger than you had realised because stragglers were starting to approach you too.

With your cover blown, you aim your shotgun and take down as many runners as you can, ears ringing slightly. As you reach into your pocket to grab more shotgun shells, you curse when you realise your pocket was empty.

“Fuck! Charlie, I’m out.”

“Your handgun?”

“Ran out of ammo in the store.”

“Fuck.”

You share a quick look of panic before he tosses you his machete. Turning to Flippa, he grabs her hand in his.

“Flippa, we’re gonna get you out of this. I’m gonna put you in a hiding place, okay? Don’t come out unless one of us comes to get you, alright?” he says, before glancing over at you.

You give him a short nod, before turning your attention to the runners. By now, you couldn’t hear anymore gunfire and you presumed that the Fireflies were either all dead or had fled.

One less set of problems for you.

You lunge at the nearest runner, slashing at it with your machete. You keep yourself between the runners and your family, trying your hardest to stop them from getting anywhere near where Charlie was trying to hide Flippa.

You let your mind fall back into the routine of combat, slashing and hacking at the runners with practiced ease. While Charlie’s machete weighed a little heavier on your hand, it gave you better range than your knife did.

In the corner of your eye, you spot Charlie return to the fray. He’s firing at the runners, landing lucky headshots, and taking down runners quicker than you do with the machete. You refrain from asking about Flippa, too high strung and tensed from the combat to break out of your hyperfocus.

One by one, the runners go down, but not fast enough. Your concentration breaks slightly when you hear a yell from Charlie. You turn around in time to see him get knocked down by a runner who got too close for him to shoot.

“Charlie!”

You try to rush over, but a pull at your pants holds you back. On instinct, you swing your machete without looking, turning to look right after the blade hits flesh with a heavy crunch.

Your blood runs cold when your gaze drops below your eye level to make eye contact with Juanaflippa, her eyes wide with fear.

Your gaze drops lower.

The blade was lodged right into the crook of her neck, blood spurting from the wound at a horrifying rate. Her blood seeps into her clothes, and what isn’t absorbed by the fabric drips down her arm.

The knife she was holding drops to the ground, right before her knees give out.

“NO!”

You barely register the scream you let out, focussed on catching Flippa in your arms to bring her softly to the ground. The machete drops to the floor the moment you let go, causing the wound to gush even more. Frantically, your hands press against Flippa’s neck, desperately trying to plug the wound.

Your world tunnel visions to just Juanaflippa. You feel words tumble out of your mouth, but you don’t register any of it. You don’t remember how to breathe.

Someone is shaking your shoulders. Muffled words rise to your ears. The person stops shaking you and you see arms enter your vision, reaching for Flippa –

“DON’T TOUCH HER!” you scream, one arm pulling her closer while the other still tries to stop the gushing wound. The fog lifts slightly and you finally hear Charlie’s voice saying:

“We need to go! More runners are coming.”

“Flippa, oh god – ”

“Fucking move Y/N!”

With incredible strength, Charlie picks Flippa up, balancing her on one arm while the other pulls you to your feet and drags you along with him. You don’t register where you’re going until you hear the door close behind you, and you realise you’re in a building.

Charlie softly puts Flippa on the ground before rushing back to the door to barricade it, ensuring you were safe from the zombies. But you barely notice his actions, your focus tunnelling into Flippa again.

You drop to your knees beside her, hands shakily pressing into her neck once more.

“Y/N stop.”

“No – Charlie – she’s bleeding, I need to stop it.” Your words come out in stuttered gasps.

“Y/N – ”

“I need cloth, gauze, oh my god where’s my medkit – ”

“Y/N, she’s – ”

“Charlie shut up! Help me, please – ”

Hands grab yours and tears them away from Flippa’s body. You protest with a cry, wrestling in Charlie’s grip as he forces one of your hands to Flippa’s chest.

You don’t feel a heartbeat.

You stop struggling.

“She’s dead,” says Charlie.

Your mouth opens and closes, but no words come out.

You stare at Flippa’s lifeless corpse.

Your hands slip from her chest to her upper arms limply, and you notice a scabbed over wound on one of her upper arms. Lifting the sleeve, you finally notice the bite mark.

Suddenly, you’re shoved away from Flippa’s body.

“Don’t you dare,” hisses Charlie, his demeanour changing like a switch turned on in him as he scoops Flippa’s body into his arms, shuffling away from you. “Don’t you dare touch her, you fucking murderer.”

You think your lungs stopped working. You think you’ve gone mute. But all you can do is stare.

“How could you!” he screams at you, tears spilling over. “She was our daughter!”

Numbly, you try to crawl towards them, but you’re stopped when Charlie draws his knife at you.

“Don’t come any fucking closer,” he heaves, one arm tight around Flippa. “I’ll kill you.”

That snaps you out of your stupor.

“Charlie – ” your voice cracks. “I – ”

“You don’t get to make excuses. This is all your fault.”

His eyes are blown wide, his entire frame shaking. Before you wasn’t your boyfriend, it was the horrifying consequence of your actions.

“Flippa – ”

“Keep her name out of your fucking mouth!” he shouts at you. But his attention draws to the girl in his arms.

Flippa’s eyes were still open, devoid of life and the playful glint that never seemed to go away. Her body was limp in Charlie’s arms, which now curl around her protectively, knife forgotten on the floor.

“Flippa,” he wails, holding her close to his chest, uncaring of how her blood stains his clothes or the fact that her body was growing steadily colder.

You watch the two of them, your greatest loves.

You look down at your bloodied hands.

You want to cry, but you can’t.

You stare.

-

You and Charlie spent the night in the secured building, neither of you having the energy to move, much less fight through a horde of runners your dead daughter in your arms.

(“This was her hiding spot,” scoffed Charlie as he cradled Flippa’s body in his arms. “But I guess she wanted to come out and help”.

He glances at you from across the room. While you hadn’t moved from your spot, Charlie had shuffled himself and Juanaflippa’s body as far away from you as possible.

“I wish she hadn’t thought you worth helping,” he spits.)

The next day, once you were sure the runners had drifted off somewhere else, the two of you exited the building and brought Juanaflippa’s body to a nearby forest.

You buried her body by a tree, marking her resting place with a small stone that Charlie had carved her name into.

(Charlie finally notices the bite mark on her upper arm. You could see the gears turning in his head, questions welling up in his mind. But he heaves a heavy sigh, and you gather that he probably reached the same conclusion you did:

It didn’t matter anymore.)

You each speak your final words to Juanaflippa. Charlie casts loathing glances at you the whole time.

You camp near her grave for one night. You move on the next, survival instincts pushing the two of you back onto the monotonous routine of kill-scavenge-camp.

You and Charlie don’t speak to each other unless it was necessary, and even then, Charlie’s voice is laced with a poison you had never heard from your lover before. The animosity drives you to sleep apart from each other, never coming within two metres of each other.

Some nights, you wonder if you wouldn’t wake up at all.

Some mornings, you wish you hadn’t woken up at all.

Five days after Juanaflippa’s death, you’re taking stock of your shared supplies. As you pour out the contents of your rucksack onto the carpeted floor of the abandoned house, a folded note drops out along with the metal tin cans.

Unfolding it, you immediately recognise Flippa’s chicken scratch handwriting.

“Charlie,” you croak out, voice rough from disuse.

“Fuck off.”

You glance over to wear Charlie was laying by the opposite wall. You gesture the paper at him, knowing he could probably see it in his peripheral vision.

“It’s a note. From Flippa.”

He turns towards you slightly, and you can tell he’s debating whether or not to come over. His anger clearly trumps over any other emotion because he says:

“Read it, I’m not coming over.”

You open the note fully, and begin reading:

Dear Mama and Papa, thank you for being there for me. You saved me in that forest, and you taught me so many things. The past elaven ellen eleven days have been the best of my life. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the bite. I know what it means. I’m sorry that I’m going away soon. But I want you to know that it was not your fault. I love you both very much. Please live well. Love, Flippa.

You don’t realise that you’d begun crying until your tears clouded your vision. Shakily, you put down the letter, scooting away in case Charlie wanted to come over to read it.

You swipe your hands over your eyes, but nothing seemed to stop the tears from falling. You let out a whimper that turns into unbridled wails of despair you’d kept bottled up over the last five days. Burying your head in your hands, you shake and cry.

You don’t hear Charlie move until arms wrap around you. You flinch away from him, a warbled apology coming out from your mouth, but he holds you tighter.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you repeat over and over, hands shaking as you try to pry yourself from the man you know hates you.

“It’s not your fault,” he says, and you can hear him holding back tears.

“IT WAS MY FAULT. I promised I would keep her safe and I KILLED HER,” you yell back at him, hands reaching for your hair to pull and pull because you deserved all the pain from the same hands that tore Juanaflippa away from this world.

Charlie’s hands reach for yours, prying them away from your head and holding them by your side. You try to wrestle them out from his grip, but he holds your wrists tighter. His legs and arms cage you in, holding you close to him as he whispers apologies and words of comfort between his own tears.

Finally, you stop fighting him, and you sob into your boyfriend’s chest. Charlie lets you breakdown, lets you finally come to terms with everything that had happened, and comforts you through it all.

“It’s not your fault,” he repeats.

One of his hands comes up to wipe your cheeks.

“I’m sorry for the words I said.”

He presses a kiss to your forehead, and you can feel how his cheeks are wet with his own tears.

“I still love you.”

Charlie holds you until the tears run out. He holds you until you stop shaking. He holds you even when words start tumbling out of your mouth again. He holds you as he counters every self-deprecating apology with apologies of his own and whispers of love.

In the abandoned house that was once possibly home to a loving family, a broken one reconciles over the shared loss of a beloved daughter.

-

Weeks pass. You and Charlie heal together and move on together, but Juanaflippa is never forgotten, always held close to your memories.

As you lay by a brook, taking a break from supply runs to simply relax, you turn to your boyfriend and ask:

“Charlie, are we bad people?”

Your boyfriend turns to you, grasping your hand in his and kissing it, before pulling you into a warm hug.

“Maybe we are,” he says, holding you close. “But just for those twelve days, I think we were the best of people.”

The End.

[bu-blegh-ost]

How much time have passed since the beginning of Riptide? (up to ep. 115)

The blorbos have been together for ages, it seems like. And they have been, for years for us, but how long exactly has it been for them? Wanna find out?

So ages ago, @glo-katt84 suggested that it would be cool to count the exact amount of days that passed ever since the beginning of the adventure. And I agreed! So for a while now, alongside other data you may know me for counting I also have been recording a detailed log that describes each day briefly and adds it to the toll. I'm gonna very excitedly compress all this data now and put it in numbers, and have a lot of fun with it, so I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I do!

But first, few clarifications on how I was counting it all:

A single day counts to me as from one morning to another. So it must include a whole day and the long rest, unless they don't sleep, in which case the day ends when Grizzly says: "The new day/morning comes". Or something similar to that.

There are exactly three instances in which Grizzly simplified a certain period as "few days of travel,"/ "few days", both very early on. Aside from that everything else has been remarkably clear, which I'm very impressed by! For these three times however, I decided to count each period as 3 days. Not long enough to be a week, but somewhere in the middle, which is as accurate to "few days" as I can get in this case.

Since everything in the campaign has been counted from the Mana's perspective, the time they spent in Feywilde is counted this way as well. Even if for them it was like a day or two max, their own world did not stop for them. To most, the captains were gone for two weeks, and counting everything in Mana time, then switching to Feywilde time and then back to Mana time would simply create a mess and provide you with genuinely inaccurate number. So we stick by Mana rules. Also including Feywilde time is downright impossible casue they literally spent half of their day in Feywilde and then the other half of the same day in Mana, which creates a whole different clusterfuck of confusion. So Mana time only, trust me. Trying to break down this shit in any other way will make your head hurt.

Alright, so without further ado, the three Riptide captains spent together:

1 day at Zero, half of which already on Loffinlot

15 days on Loffinlot

3 (rough assumption, described as few days) in the Royal Blue Casino

2 days on Desire Island

4 days in Joaldo

3 days in Edison Kingdom

1 day at Duke's

3 days at the B.L.O.C.K

3 days in Allport (first time)

2 days at Noctis

1 day in Liquidis

14 days in the Feywilde (Mana time)

1 day in Allport (second time)

1 day at Zero (before Gillion needs to be emergency Featherbrooked)

1 day at Featherbrook

3 days at Zero (post dying fish crisis)

2 days in Onowa Country

1 day in Promised Bastion (and sea)

1 day (for now and not a full day yet) at the Hole in the Sea

63 days in total on the open sea

So there you have it! Of course, you gotta add a couple of days of Chip and Jay sailing on their own, but from the moment the main three got together, it has been, as exactly as I can feasibly estimate, about 125 days

This constitutes of 62 days spent in various differnet locations and 63 days spent on the sea alone.

This would also make about 4 months of travelling together. And hopefully, many more as the story progresses and comes back after the hiatus.

Anyway, hope you found it as fun to learn, as it was for me to count. Take care everyone <3

[thewebcomicsreview]

Oh hey, Hamsteak 2. Looks like Vriska's...back in Alternia? In a dreambubble?

they sent the thief here in search of power; the power to escape the containment i so painstakingly set up for them

Al confirmed as the Candy narrator. Also confirmed that the black hole is "containment" for the dreambubbles and non-canon worlds, and that all the ghosts falling in wasn't an accident of fighting Lord English.

the black hole could only ever shelter them for so long, and in their haste to shrug off my protection they have opened the door to something far, far hungrier.

This panel is a callback to Karkat about to open the door to the New Universe. Where there were interrupted by Jack Noir. Vriska is interrupted by-

Yoo! It's Davepeta! Who feel into the black hole and has been conspicuously absent ever since. They're the only Ultimate who is not connected to Dirk, and in some ways the only "true" Ultimate. Interesting that Al considers them such a threat, when Davepeta has never been anything but benevolent.

Looks like it's all the sprites, in fact. Why...are there two Nannasprites? Oh god, I'm being pushed to the endless limits of my ability to remember Homestuck Lore. Is one of them pre-retcon? I do not remember.

ERISOLSPRITE: wwe'vve been here for liike a miilliion fuckiin 2wweep2. DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < actually we just got here DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < this place didnt even exist until she popped in ERISOLSPRITE: gue22 ii'll fuck my2elf.

It didn't exist until a character arrived, at which point it retroactively existed the whole time, like how a planet works.

DAVEPETASPRITE^2: B33 < does that not sound insane to you fefeta? FEFETASPRITE: 3833 < 383

What? How are Davepeta and Fefeta coexisting? That definitely doesn't make sense.

Well, logic be damned, it's apparently time for a Vriska training arc.

Gah! Talksprites! Also, Vriska enters "Hell" on page 666 of Homestuck 2, which is I think the first time this comic has aimed at any kind of Meaningful Number.

God, we are full on visual novel here. I didn't know Ren'Py could export to web, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me. I presume/hope the save option is default and won't be needed here, it's 1:30am.

Tavros is here and, much more oddly, alive. I suddenly understand jack shit.

I have no memory of Tavros ever forgiving Vriska for anything...or, for that matter, Vriska even being aware she did anything that needed to be forgiven. I presume she's just lying here, though.

This line combined with this pose is the essence of Vriska

So, Vriska's being forced to "grow as a person" and her big idea to finish her character arc is to atone for her sins by getting Tavros to take revenge on her. Vriska thinks that the secret to gaining power is getting Tavros to kill her.

I wonder where she got that idea.

But that time she refused to mind control Tavros into killing her, she wanted him to grow from it, too. Now we're past that.

I felt smart for remembering the K8LL ME bit but we're being really obvious about it now so I guess they just assumed everyone would and I'm not special :(

Oh shit. Erisol wasn't kidding.

Davepeta roleplaying being a cat who dies horribly is kind of the perfect synthesis of Dave and Nepeta. What is this music. It's very toot-y.

Oh hey a text log. How convenient. So we're trapped in a time loop, then, explicitly recreating Groundhog Day. I guess that explains the infinity hourglass on the Plot Point machine.

Vriska's having a bad couple of years.

Davepeta is "countless" cool dudes and kitty girls, which I think is the first explicit confirmation they're an Ultimate Self, though that was pretty strongly implied at least. The only Ultimate to do so without Dirk's involvement.

Stop letting me intuit things and then immediately making them clear! I don't care if it's good writing, it's making my liveblog bad!

It's so weird to compare this Davepeta to the one in Homestuck OG. There Davepeta was presented as this wise sage mentor figure who'd achieved enlightenment, and here they're much more of "Dave + Nepeta's combined silliness as one character". It's a subtle difference, but go back and read Davepeta giving this same kind of talk to Jade back in Homestuck 1. I guess that's the difficulty of a character with so little screentime in the original, they're either very limited or they feel slightly off.

Oh my fucking god, a to-be-continued select screen. Shit, that takes me back in an unexpected way.

Also, from the associated news update, "the big flash" is apparently several months away (10/25?), and I have to say they might want to be careful about overhyping it, if they have small flashes and now Ren'Py novels that are just preludes. If it's anything less than a Cascade after months and months of hype it could fall flat where a surprise [S] Enter would've popped the fanbase hard.

[reigningqueenofwords]

For the Horde

Pairing: Dean x Reader Request: @fayemenelmir Hey there. Is it possible to get some more Gamer Dean? Or a Gamer Sam (With him MMO’s would be awesome)? Read the Gamer Dean Series a 3rd or 4th time now. Probably reader and Sam or Dean meeting in a game, she is a hunter as well and they really like each other and are desperate to meet, but can’t since they are afraid to drag the other one into the hunter life. Then they meet in a bar before a hunt and idk… she tells him about this “hot guy I’ve got to work with now”?

Part 1 of the Games We Play

You drummed your fingers on your desk as you waited for you character to load. Your headphones were on your ears, as you preferred to hear it that way. Barely on 10 seconds, and his name popped up, making you grin.

Theinastus- Well hello.  Kanestinia- Hey :)

You bit your lip. You’d been talking to him for quite a bit now, and seeing his name always made you blush. 

Theinastus- How was your trip? Kanestinia- Pretty good. Boring all on my own :( Theinastus- Poor baby. Want some company? ;)

Laughing, you shook your head and typed out your reply.

Kanestinia- I’m sure I wouldn’t get much driving done! Lol Theinastus- Probably not. Wanna do a random? Kanestinia- Maybe in the morning :( I just got on to do a couple dailies. I’ve been slacking…  Theinastus- 11? Kanestinia- Works for me.  Theinastus- Sounds like a date. I’ll bring the looks.  Kanastinia- You are such a dork. But, I’ll bring the DPS.

The two of you continued to chat while you did your dailies and he screwed around. You didn’t know his real name, and he didn’t know yours. It was safer that way. While you really liked him, you couldn’t drag him into this life. It wouldn’t be right. You were a hunter, and not in that ‘shooting Bambi’ kinda way. You hunted all the evil things that actually existed.

Dean groaned when he saw you go offline. You’d stayed on 10 extra minutes just to talk to him, but had a long day tomorrow. Sam came in, raising an eyebrow at him. “Isn’t that where I left you? Like…4 hours ago?”

“Pretty much. I got up to get a beer, and take a leak. That’s about it.” He shrugged.

“Why don’t you just meet her already? You went from watching too much porn to…that.” He motioned to the computer.

He laughed. “First of all ‘that’ is World of Warcraft. I can be, or do, damn near anything. I was playing this before I started talking to her, not the other way around. And, no, Sammy, I’m not meeting her.” He got up, grabbing his empty beer.

Sam sighed. “Why not?”

“We’re hunters!” He pointed out. “In case you haven’t notice, we lose people we care about in this business. Let her stay some virtual chick that is perfectly safe from the bad luck that comes from being near us.” He ranted.

“You love her.” He grinned. “Dude.” Dean gave him a look. “You’re in love!”

“So what. It doesn’t matter. Drop it.” It was obvious that it upset him, so Sam let it be.

The next morning at 10:50, you logged on to see him waiting.

Kanestinia- Awe. Were you anxious to see me?  Theinastus-  Shut up. Wench.  Kanestinia- Is that anyway to talk to the future mother of your virtual children? :P Theniastus- Fine. Miss Wench!  Kanestinia- Just invite me so we can get in queue.  Theniastus- Yes, dear.

You quickly accepted the invite and hoped you didn’t get a dickbag group again. A couple weeks before you ended up leaving the group because a couple of the guys in group didn’t know what they were doing.

Thankfully you got a pretty awesome group- laid back, but knew how to get shit done. You went through pretty quickly, and thanked them before leaving.

Kanestinia- Not a single upgrade, man.  Theinastus- Wtf you bitching about? I didn’t win a single roll.  Kanestinia- I rigged it. Lol Oops.  Theinastus- How do you rig it? Did you pay someone off? How much gold do you have? :O  Kanestinia- Are you trying to find out if I’m wealthy? Are you a gold digger? *gasps* You just want me for my booty! LOL Theinastus- I’m sure it’s a very nice booty ;)  Kanestinia- I think so.

A week later, a new motel. Another night hoping to see him on. Sadly, he was nowhere to be seen, so you sent him in game mail.

Theinastus-  Hope you’re having a killer Friday night! Don’t get too wasted on me. I need my DH :( I’ll be on tomorrow morning for a few before I need to run some errands. Hope to see you then! -K

Hitting send, you opted to quest for a bit before heading to bed.

Dean ducked as a fist came flying at him. “Son of a bitch!” He growled, running into the vamp’s stomach with his shoulder, taking him down.

Sam came running from another room, blood splattered on him. He was breathing heavy as he rushed to help his brother.

“Awe, man.” He sighed, seeing your name go offline just as he logged on. Seeing he had mail, he grinned. Reading it quickly, he went to reply.

Sam looked over his shoulder to read. “Awe. How sweet. She needs you.” He chuckled, slapping Dean on the back before walking away.

“At least there’s a woman in my life, Sammy.”

“Who you refuse to meet.”

Dean turned and looked at him before typing. “Look at us. We came back to the motel covered in blood. You think I want to bring her into that?”

Sam gave him a sad smile. “I know you don’t, Dean. Go on. Write back.”

K- I’m sorry I missed you. You can say I had a pretty killer night. Lots of action ;) I’ll be on and waiting for you.  Until then- T

[canaidliafail]

invite

ellie williams x f!reader 🌿

[ part 2 ]

Ellie invites you to a party which she comes all ready and strapped up for.

proof read by God and a prayer so Ill provide some holy water as an apology. so….theres mostly sexual tension but let me know if you want me to write a part two. idk. Was heavily self indulgent but if you enjoy it Ill be happy to know so

2k words

MDI

“what?” she laughed getting all coy and shy with you, her shoulders slightly rising to hide her face

“You look really pretty” you smiled and reached out to fix a stray hair that fell in her face neatly tucking it behind her ear

“Oh shut up” she said and gently shoved your shoulder. You pushed yourself away from the fence and walked back into the house writing down your entry

3 runners

1 clicker

Was a good day overall. You looked up to see her walk in, a hand around the nape of her neck while she looked anywhere but at you

“Yes, williams?” you teased

“We are having a party tonight. Will you join?”

“hm…” you pursed your lips and turned to lean against the table fiddling with the pen in your hand, tossing and turning it in your fingers

“Who’s we?” you asked playfully and she rolled her eyes

“Well Dina, and jesse and-“

she went on trying to remember and list every possible person who would come and you had to laugh at how seriously she took everything you said

“I'll come. Not for long since I'm out on patrol early tomorrow but I'll join you for a bit” you said and turned back to the book log to note down some notes.

Ellie looked your figure up and down. You insisted on wearing shorts over thick leggings for practicality though she knew you did it cause they accentuated your ass shape better than jeans. Your puffed up jacket with its fur giving you a positively roguish look and those dirty old combat boots

Rare to see a fashionista these days. At first it drove her insane

“You've gotta be shitting me. I'm not going on patrol with her” she tried to pull every string without getting anywhere till she settled on that well, some days just don't go your way

so she rode shimmer and let you take the lead being always a few steps behind. That was until she saw you in combat. Oh you know what stealth meant and you wielded that bow with a hawk's eye. Nothing could get past you

and that's when she understood that you dressed whichever way pleased you, because you were just that confident in your skills.

God she loved everything about you. Too much almost. It took her a good few months to come to terms with it but once she did she found herself looking at you like a lovesick puppy.

suddenly all those girl-ish things she hated became endearing and she was excited to see your name next to hers on schedule the same way she was boiling with rage when she saw you paired up with someone else.

“williams?” she snapped out of her thoughts and looked at you again standing a few inches away from her

“Ah there you are. Were you thinking of tits again?” You teased and Ellie gasped and frowned in shock unable to get used to your vulgar tone and freedom of lewd speech

“Shut up”

“what no shame in it. I do it all the time” you tossed the hint and she latched onto it harder than she held onto life these days.

She does too?

and that's when she bit her lip, ravenous. She was going to make a move at the party and she was going to make it matter

•••

You've had your eyes set on Williams for a while now. Ever since she dated that artist girl that gave her,her tattoo. You were content admiring her from the side as some unattainable type of college crush. Made your mornings fun and gave you something to think about occasionally.

That was until she broke up and you slowly noticed how she gave you more and more attention. How her scoffs turned into chuckles and her frown turned into soft wrinkles around her eyes when she laughed at your poor taste in jokes

You never knew that this is what it felt like to be noticed by her, because it was something else. The first time you wore shorts out on patrol was an accident. You overslept due to a date leading to an eventful night and so you left the house in a hurry. You played it off with false confidence acting as if you intended to look that way out on patrol but once you saw how ellies eyes were fixated on your thighs and ass, oh boy did that change the game.

She didn't say much but her eyes were devouring you out in the open. That night you were painfully aroused and wet and a one night stand seemed like a fruitless attempt to quench your thirst. tonight you prayed that the reason she invited you over to hangout with her friends was due to an ulterior motive

You wore a skirt you had attempted to re-style by mixing the fabric of your exs cargo pants and tucked in a baggy T giving you the effortless look you always strived to achieve . You'd have to be hung upside down and burned before you admitted to anyone how much time you spent on your appearance and how much it actually mattered to you.

with one final look you tested out your movements and expressions in front of your mirror to make sure nothing fell out of line and grabbed your backpack. You reached the house at the far end of the town and knocked. Dina greeted you with that warm smile she always gave everyone

she whistles and gave you a side hug “You have a way of making everyone stop to look at you” you chuckled “Oh you flatter me”

she took you downstairs to the basement where the true party was happening. Music, drinks and lights coming out of the fog from the weed. Oh Ellie really did mean a party.

“Come , make yourself comfortable. Think ellie is pouring herself another drink over there” she said and gave you a knowing look which you couldn’t entirely grasp considering you had barely talked with the woman before

You didn’t even want to know where the hell did they find all of these supplies or who and what they traded them for but you sure as hell was going to enjoy it all. You took your time greeting everyone, stopping a bit longer with a few to exchange more than a greeting and rushing your way through the ones you ghosted after a one night stand finally reaching your destination. The table with the drinks. You started pouring yourself one when you felt a very familiar set of arms wrap around your waist

“You did come!” you smiled, your cheeks heating up realizing how close to your face, ellies was. you turned around with an easy smile and cocked a brow

“Well how could I miss it?” You scanned her outfit and your eyes stayed a moment too long on her pants noticing how baggy they were, and then the rolled up sleeves of her oversized hoodie. Oh this was an entirely different Ellie

“What?” she said with a soft frown “Something about my looks?” she questioned and her head dropped to scan her clothes. You shook your head

“No. You look different. That's all” hot, would be the correct word but you restrained from coming on too strong this soon. You still were unsure of her intentions after all

“Well like a good different or..?” she tried and took a step closer one arm on the table leaning against you and surprisingly towering over you slightly. your throat was dry and you were sure the bass held nothing against the beating of your heart.

“Wouldn't you like to know” was the best you could say your voice not as confident as you wanted it to sound but she seemed more than pleased with what she got out of you. She pulled out a joint out of her pocket and tucked it behind her ear

“Ellie, you coming?”

“Yeah on my way” she said, not breaking eye contact with you. She pushed herself away from the table and with a smirk winked at you “I'll see you around” and went Dinas way to see what she needed.

You breathed out a sigh of relief and downed whatever you had poured in your cup in an attempt to gather yourself together. Oh this would be difficult

——

Card games weren't your forte so you settled for a quick round of beer pong, which mind you, hardly any of the cups contained beer alone. One round after the other and now you found yourself with enough confidence to join some other girls dancing to the music and lip syncing with them. It had been a while since you let loose like that and so you gave it your all trying to ignore the gnawing fear of the fact that Ellie was nowhere to be seen. You wondered if she had found someone else for the night and thus changed her plans of pursuing you. So you just did what you knew how to do best

Ignore your problems

The girl in front of you seemed cute enough to make a pass at and she did seem like she was expecting something more out of you given how she had her arms around your neck and grinder her hips against yours. You acted oblivious,indulging her provocative dance with moves of your own knowing that perhaps you were the main attraction of everyone else in the room at that moment. Not that it mattered. Half of these fuckers were zooted out of their minds probably, high on crappy weed or questionable alcohol.

She whispered in your ear calling you by your last name “You are gonna make a move or are you just gonna keep me high and dry all night?” And you barked a laugh not ready for a response, that thankfully you didn't have to give when you were yanked back from your waist by the star of the night

Ellie

“Sorry I think she had a little too much to drink” she said with a smile but her tone was more of a threat than anything. You glared at her for a moment unsure of why you were angry as she dragged you away by your waist and leaned against the wall

“Can I go now?” You tried but she pulled your body closer, your back flush against her chest. You found out a very dangerous piece of information in that second as your ass found her hips that should have been flat. But there was a delicious bump.

She came strapped

You turned in her embrace and realized if there was anyone who may have been drunk and needed fresh air that was her. Her lips were parted as she stared at you contemplating something seemingly lost in her own moment.

“Wanna go out for some fresh air?” You offered and she nodded, grabbing your hand and taking you out of the basement to the backyard. She looked around at the misty empty space and walked to one of the couches still not letting go of your wrist. She sat down and pulled you with no hesitation on your lap “So who was that girl?” She questioned you immediately, a slight warning in her tone that you ate up right away

“Ah, she was cute wasnt she?” You teased liking the idea that you made her jealous. Hell she had abandoned you for most of the night so you might as well take your revenge now

“Is that what you think?” She asked brows raised accepting your challenge. You knew she had the upper hand in this but you wouldn't dare let her know that

“I do, which is why I’m upset at you for so rudely interrupting us. Where the hell were you anyways, Williams?” You asked hoping your voice gave the jab that it intended and she just smirked pulling out the unsmoked blunt that was tucked on her ear

“Then by all means, you can go back in, dance and grind the night away” You felt like you would cry. This would be the first time a woman would’ve brought you to tears so fast and so quick but that thought faded away like smoke “Or…” she added

You quickly made yourself comfortable in her lap,sitting sideways,legs tossed over the armchair, excitement bubbling in your chest once again

“Or?” You urged her to continue and she took her damn sweet time lighting up the blunt and taking a long fat drag that she breathed out in endless waves and ripples from the side of her lips “Or you can stay here, and find out when being with a woman really is about” She said with booming confidence. Thank God you were seated cause your knees would’ve given out on you right then and there. She passed you the blunt like she was asking you to sign an agreement of choosing sides and you grabbed it,no hesitation to be found

“You sure do know how to make a girl feel special” You tried to hide how flustered you were and hoped your remark would avert her attention away from your thighs that you tried to close tighter to provide some kind of friction, or comfort to your aching now core

“Am I wrong though?” She continued and you stared at her long and hard while taking another drag and passing her the blunt again

“Wrong about what?” You felt dumb but you were glad to see her entertained

“You want me. It's why you’re here so willingly sitting on my lap. You never gave a fuck about that girl in the first place” She said reading right through you

“I-“ your throat was dry and your cheeks were burning. She moved her face closer to yours,one arm very loosely hanging around your shoulder, scratching leisurely at your back making you shiver. She cocked her head to the side slowly and her eyes fell on your lips.

“I knew your bark was worse than your bite” She said with affection almost and pulled you in for a long and hard kiss

Ellie was a good kisser you realized. Your mind strayed quickly wondering if she could eat you out that skillfully as well as she moved her tongue and lips on yours with such passion and hunger that made you elicit the most whorish and loud moans,drowned out by her mouth.

You have never been more turned on by this act alone yet you quickly switched positions and turned around to fully sit on her lap,legs on either side of her thighs, dry humping her crotch and grasping at her cropped hair needing more, not wanting to ever break away from this kiss. She ushered you further by bringing your hips even closer to the point where you were perfectly seated against her clothed strap on.

You whimpered and she pulled away for a second panting and looking down with a soft smile “somethings wrong?” You asked suddenly insecure and uncertain of what happened and she just shook your head “No just, You drive me crazy” She growled and dove back for another kiss determined to pull out more of those lovely sounds you made. She experimentally thrusted her hips up that made you gasp out loud breaking the kiss “I have to know” you tried to say between the continuous kisses that ellie showered you with “hm?” She asked not breaking contact from your skin and nibbling on your neck now, bruising it,decorating it with bite marks.

“Why did you come strapped? Who were you after?”

And she laughed, laying further down,her spine against the tilted back of the couch and with you almost laying on top of her. She spread her legs further and in queue you did so as well, almost whining at the loss of friction.

“Oh I knew I wanted to fuck you from the second I gave you that invite today morning”

She roughly bit your neck now and you moaned,loud and clear,praying that no one was at the upper floor of the house cause they would’ve surely heard that

“In fact I wanted to bend you over that table and take you then and there but I wanted to do this right. To be slow and gentle” she whispered against your skin, her fingers slipping beneath your hoodie and teasing the hem of your bra not quite giving you the much needed release from the desired contact.

“But fuck do you make it difficult for me to hold back”

She hissed and her hips, grinding against yours with more fervor than before as she went in for another open mouthed kiss, her velvet tongue stroking yours, almost spelling out her name, claiming you as hers.

“We can go slow from tomorrow” you said panting unable to bear any more teasing“Today I want you to fuck me like the animal in heat that you are Williams” You said and she grabbed your hair turning the two of you around in the couch with her on top of you and kicked your legs open

“Oh I will”

[thevegandarkelf]

Finding Myself, Finding You: Chapter Thirty

Masterlist

AO3 link

Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist <3 (18+ only, MDNI)

Please please please proceed with extra caution for this one & read the TWs for this chapter below. This is your warning. Take care of yourself first 🖤

Story is 18+ for mature content/themes, minors do not interact please

TW/CWs for this story--implied/referenced past rape, canonical violence, non-canonical violence, blood, gore, referenced past suicide, swearing, surgery, excessive drinking, nightmares, panic attacks, mention of scars, vomiting, amputation, medical procedures, non-con medical procedures, referenced past medical torture, referenced past drugging, attempted sexual assault, panic attacks, mental health struggles, referenced sibling death, referenced parent death, PTSD

Each chapter will have its own TW/CWs listed

This story, Lydia Vector, her family, her bestie, Jake, and Adam (c) me, TheVeganDarkElf

TWD & its characters (c) AMC & Robert Kirkman, the writer of the comic series

TW/CWs for this chapter--swearing, blood, violence, gore, vomiting, someone who was raped being taunted by their rapist (seriously, proceed with caution), guns are used in this one, memory loss around a traumatic event, victim blaming, a sex toy is used as a weapon, allusion to past rape

Word count: 3.3k

It’d been a few days since I came clean to Daryl about my past. He was out on a hunting trip for a couple of those days, which gave me a lot of time to think over 1) our relationship and 2) everything I had said in the follow-up, particularly about how I didn’t think I could ever go by Lydia again. I’ll admit, I didn’t totally hate the way my name sounded when he said it. But it wasn’t in the cards right now. Maybe one day, he’d have permission to call me that. Maybe. Or maybe I’d just go by Vec forever. I don’t think he cared either way.

But he was back now, and he had taken me out for another day of hunting practice.

We were somewhere outside the walls, far enough out that we had to take the car to get there. Daryl and I had to practically beg Rick to take it out for something other than a run. Why not the bike, Rick had asked. But after a series of stories from me about people I’d fixed up in the ER after a motorcycle accident, and me putting my foot down and refusing to get on the bike without a helmet, he obliged.

Hunting practice was still just target practice for me, but calling it hunting practice in front of the others did a number in terms of boosting my ego. My skills had certainly improved over time, and I was so damn close to being able to hit a target dead center. I was past the point of needing to balance the bow on a log or another surface to steady it, but Daryl always insisted on having a hand, or two, on me to help keep me steady. A need? No. A want? Yes.

I was on the ground on one knee, and the scrap of paper on the tree in front of me was my target. I’d hit close to the center a couple of times, but I was determined to hit the center at least once before we were finished. Daryl had his hands on my hips, “keeping me steady.”

“Think ya got this one,” he encouraged as I loaded the crossbow one more time.

“Know I got this one,” I said. I lined my eye up with the scope, balancing the bow on my shoulder and aiming center like I had so many times before. I took a deep breath, and on the exhale, I released the trigger. And this time, I hit the paper just off of dead center. The excitement coursing through me nearly sent me catapulting into the air like a cannonball.

“I did it! Holy shit, I did it!” I dropped the crossbow next to me and threw myself around to hug Daryl, falling into his arms and nearly knocking him over in the process.

“Knew ya could do it,” he congratulated. The tight embrace he had me in, with his perfectly sculpted arm muscles flexing and relaxing against my back, was better than any trophy I could receive for such an accomplishment.

I picked up his bow and handed it to him. “I’ve got the best teacher around. Of course I could do it.”

He got up to grab the bolt out of the tree, and I slung my backpack over my shoulders. We’d been out there for hours, the sun was high in the sky, and I was in desperate need of sustenance. Daryl twirled the car keys in his hand, the soft jingle echoing through the otherwise quiet wooded area.

“Gonna hafta start bringin’ ya on huntin’ trips,” he commented, “y’know, good luck charm ’n all that.”

“To be honest, my hunger was the primary motivation,” I confessed as we stepped out of the tree line near the car.

“Hey Vec?” Daryl asked. He grabbed me lightly by the arm to turn me around. He looked nervous, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. And his eyes were darting between mine and my lips.

Daryl had never looked at me like that before, but I knew exactly what he was about to ask.

“Yeah?” I replied, unable to keep a huge grin from forming on my face. I kept my eyes locked with his, and my cheeks were quickly changing from baby pink to an electric fire-engine red. He brought a hand to my face, his fingers lightly dancing over my cheek. I feared the heat radiating off my face would burn him.

“Can I—“

A rustling in the trees across from us followed by a figure stumbling out interrupted our blissful moment.

Daryl whipped his locked-and-loaded crossbow around. I didn’t have time to grab my spear out of my bag and unsheathe it, so I grabbed my gun out of my leg holster. It wasn’t loaded, but whatever just stumbled out in front of us wasn’t going to be around long enough to find out, I hoped.

Its back was facing us when it came careening out of the tree line. At first, I thought it was a walker, but it wasn’t making any of the typical moaning or groaning noises that were quintessential to walkers. Then it had to be a person, but the way they were walking was off, like they had two left feet.

Or like their feet were backward.

He stumbled around to look at us, and his horrifyingly familiar face came into view. Immediately upon seeing him, I recognized him. That evil smirk warped its way across his face, eyeing me up and down, realizing it was me. My body physically recoiled, and without even a second of warning, I turned into the grass and started vomiting.

“No, that’s how you’re gonna react after not seeing me for so long?” His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, and I covered my ears so I wouldn’t have to hear him speak. Hot waterfalls of tears began to flow freely, already clouding my vision.

This can’t be happening, I thought. It shouldn’t be possible. There’s no way he would’ve survived, and even if he did, his limbs…how was he walking?

Daryl’s crossbow tapping on my back pulled me from my spiraling thoughts. “Vec, you know this guy?”

I whipped around and held my gun up at the man, my hands shaking violently, unable to keep the weapon steady. I spoke through gritted teeth, afraid I would start vomiting again if I opened my mouth. “Daryl, look at him.”

“All I see’s some jackass—“

“No Daryl, I want you to really look at him.”

He stared at the man for a minute, looking him up and down over and over again, scanning over every small detail. I saw a shift in his face when it finally clicked. He didn't have to say anything. The look of realization on his face said it all.

The man who had raped me, whose wicked face and lifeless eyes haunted my dreams every single night, who should’ve died over a year ago, was here, alive and well, right before our very eyes.

“Vec, you’re shakin’, put the gun down,” Daryl instructed. He stepped around me towards the man, getting between us and blocking his view of me. “Ya gonna get one of us hurt.” He didn’t know it wasn’t loaded, but that didn’t matter.

“How is it possible?” I whispered, my jaw starting to ache from how hard I was gritting my teeth together.

“Put the gun down,” Daryl demanded. I could tell he was trying his hardest to speak softly to me, like he always did, but the rage was seeping through. The redness of his face and the bulging vein in his neck further corroborated that.

“Name’s Adam. Maybe you can help me,” he asked as he put his hands in the air, his face still donning that horrific smirk. That was the first time I’d ever heard his name. “I’m looking for a place called Alexandria. Supposed to be a safe zone. Just point me in the right direction and we can part ways peacefully.”

Every joint in my body weakened, and I was on the verge of collapse. The heavy dose of adrenaline pumping through my system was the only thing that kept me on my feet. I slowly lowered my gun, sliding it back into my leg holster and reaching for what was supposed to be my knife. However, in the chaos of that morning, it'd appeared I accidentally grabbed my most unique weapon, the vibrator, and put it in the holster instead. It was going to have to do. I pulled it out and held it in a way that hopefully, from his distance, would make it look like a knife.

“Peace ain’t an option for ya,” Daryl seethed. He was practically foaming at the mouth in anger now.

“You’re not g—getting anywhere n—near my p—p—people,” I snapped, my voice beginning to shake as violently as my hands were.

“Your people? Would you look at that. We can be together again.” Adam paced back and forth in front of us, hands still in the air. He still hadn’t pulled out any weapon of his own, and he didn’t look like he had any on him. It was as if he had a death wish. “Do you remember all the fun times we had? Though you weren’t conscious for most of them.”

I turned to the grass beside me and began vomiting once again. My face was soaked with tears, and my vision was so blurry, I almost couldn’t see anything. Fun times, with an S? As in plural? As in more than once? My head was spinning, and I was sure I would pass out at any second.

Daryl reached into his pocket and absentmindedly threw the car keys back in my direction, not taking his eyes off Adam for even a second. The jingle of the keys landing at my feet cut through the thick tension that lingered in the air. “Vec, get in the car.”

“Yeah Vec, be a doll and get in the car,” Adam taunted, “let the men talk.” I wasn’t sure what I hated more—him calling me ‘doll’ or him calling me Vec. He turned his gaze to Daryl, gesturing to me. “This your woman?”

Daryl and I hadn’t made anything official yet. I expected him to say ‘no’, ‘none of your business’, or nothing at all. But he didn’t say any of those things.

“And if she is?”

Under different circumstances, I might’ve had the energy to ask what he meant by that.

“Did she tell you? She’s damaged goods, buddy.” Just when I thought I’d emptied my stomach of all of its contents, I threw up in my mouth, the acid singeing my teeth and tongue. I leaned over and spat it on the ground, coughing and gagging as my stomach heaved, attempting to pump more acid up my esophagus.

“Vec, get in the damn car!” Daryl ordered. Though I didn’t appreciate being snapped at, I knew he was just trying to protect me from Adam’s vile words and soulless eyes. He probably still felt guilty about what happened with Jake and didn’t want me to have to go through the same thing again.

I slowly knelt down and grabbed the keys, keeping my eyes locked on Adam, though I don’t know why I bothered. My vision was so clouded with tears that everything before me was a blur of vague shapes and colors. I put the keys in my pocket. Thankfully, I hadn’t accidentally thrown up on them.

“You two are cute,” Adam teased, far from complimentary, “you got him whipped, doll?"

"Ya best shut the hell up 'less you wanna get whipped, doll." Daryl took a few steps closer to him, his crossbow aimed at the center of his forehead. I shakily walked up and stood next to Daryl, the sex toy in my hand poised and ready to knock him upside the head if he so much as leaned further in our direction. This wasn’t Daryl’s fight to be had—it was mine.

“I’ll f—fucking k—kill you,” I threatened. My trembling voice made the threat seem far from credible.

“Couldn’t do it the first time, you coward,” he taunted. He was eyeing me up and down, and I could only imagine what sorts of thoughts were swirling around in his sick and twisted mind. It made me queasy.

“C—c—could a coward f—fuck up your limbs that b—badly, y—you f—f—fucking incel?” I swallowed hard and tried to control my rapid breathing. If it got out of control, I was going to start hyperventilating and pass out.

“Oh yeah, these,” he acknowledged, holding his hands up in front of him and lightly kicking his feet up one at a time, “took some getting used to. Learning to walk again took ages. You’re a pretty good doctor.”

Didn’t matter how good of a doctor I was—they never should’ve reattached in the first place. But we now lived in a world where the dead were walking around with the living. Stranger things had happened.

“Pretty good at a few other things too,” he taunted. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel him undressing me with his eyes.

My body couldn’t handle the stress any longer. My knees gave out, and I dropped to the dirt road, catching myself and falling on my butt. Tiny pebbles dug into my hands and the back of my legs. The jagged dirt particles scratched my skin, the heat from the road bathing in the sun all day adding to the pain. I wrapped my arms around myself, like I was giving myself a hug. In reality, I hoped that if I squeezed tight enough, I would shrink down so small that I’d vaporize and disappear.

If I was with anyone other than Daryl, the embarrassment coursing through my veins surely would’ve killed me.

Daryl had decided that that was enough, and before I could say or do anything to stop him, he launched himself in Adam’s direction, tackling him and sending them both flying back and onto the ground a few feet away. Daryl started wailing on him, and he wasn’t holding anything back. Blood was flying, but thankfully, none of it was Daryl’s. He alternated between punching him in the face or chest and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and slamming him into the ground. I’d seen Daryl angry before, but I’d never seen him this angry. I didn’t witness him beat the shit out of Jake, but if I had to guess, this was worse.

“I’ll fuckin’ kill ya!” Daryl screamed, once again grabbing him by the collar and slamming him into the ground head first.

I knew Daryl was going to keep that promise. If I let him continue, Adam would be dead in minutes, if not sooner. But something came over me. Whatever little fight my body had left in it came shooting to the surface, swelling in my chest and dancing across my fingertips, making them tingle. A small, almost non-existent glimmer of hope flickered in my eye.

This was my opportunity to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.

“Daryl!” I cried out. He ignored me and kept swinging. The only sounds echoing through the quiet forest were the man’s cries and groans of pain and Daryl’s fist making contact with him. I shakily brought myself onto my hands and knees, calling out to him again. “Daryl, let me do it!”

I got myself to my feet, my legs shaking like a baby deer as I stumbled my way over to them. Daryl was holding him up by the collar of his shirt, his legs straddling the man and keeping him pinned in place. As I approached them, Daryl took his eyes off of him for the first time since he’d shown up. He looked back at me, and even though I couldn’t see his beautiful face through the waterworks, it brought me some comfort to have his eyes on me.

“Let me do it…I wanna do it,” I choked out. A set of fingers touched my boot. It had to be Adam’s, so I stomped my foot onto his hand and twisted it back and forth, causing him to cry out in pain once again.

“Ya sure?” Daryl asked. I nodded and swallowed hard, my throat bone-dry from all my vomiting and heavy breathing.

“I need to,” I iterated, “I should’ve done it before. Let me do it.” He nodded and let go of Adam’s collar, his body and head hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Daryl got up and grabbed his crossbow off the ground, handing it to me. I took the stealthy weapon in my hands, which were still trembling ever so slightly. Daryl’s fingers touched mine, offering little strokes of encouragement. I turned my attention to the bloody pulp of a human on the ground, his moans and groans further evidence of just how much pain he was in. I stepped forward and stood over him, one leg on each side of his body.

“Shut up,” I ordered, bringing the crossbow up and striking the side of his face with it. He screamed, and based on the breaking of his voice, he was on the verge of tears. I dropped to my knees, using them to keep his arms in place. I brought the crossbow up again and struck the other side of his face. Y’know, to even it out. Daryl stood behind me, occasionally patting my shoulder, making sure I knew he was there to back me up.

“Fuck…you,” he seethed. He attempted to spit on me, but he was so weak that it just dribbled out of his mouth and onto his chin. I held the crossbow up, the bolt centered on his face.

"There's a special circle of Hell designed just for you,” I sneered. I aimed for his face, but not his brain. I didn’t want this to be the fatal shot. I had another idea for that.

I placed a quivering finger on the trigger and lined the bow up with his mouth. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pulled the trigger. The bolt hit the back of his throat at point-blank range, causing him to scream the loudest he had so far, followed by a string of sick, twisted cackles. I expected him to start crying at this point, but he didn’t—he started laughing.

I tossed the crossbow beside me and rubbed my eyes with my fists, clearing my vision for the first time since the waterworks had begun. I saw his face, crystal clear on the ground in front of me, covered in blood and dirt. There wasn’t a single sparkle of life behind those cold, dead eyes. He was smirking, but not smirking like he did when he was undressing me with his eyes or recollecting the day he assaulted me. He was smirking like he was pleased with me, delighted by my actions even. I grabbed the vibrator, which I had tossed on the ground earlier, and held it up to his face, ready to deliver the fatal blow.

Taking my rapist out with a sex toy felt fitting.

“Well look at you,” he coughed, spitting blood up onto me. The tone of his voice was that of a proud parent. “You got it in you after all, Vec.”

I brought the vibrator up, pointed end facing him, and used every ounce of measly strength I had left to force it into his eye socket. He howled in pain as blood poured from it, his howling becoming slightly gurgled as some of the blood pooled in his throat. I pushed it in slowly, as I wanted to make sure my voice would be the last thing he heard before death scooped him up in its arms. As it penetrated his brain, his screaming began to die down, and his body went limp underneath me. Before he faded completely, I locked eyes with him and hissed the final words he’d ever hear as I pressed it all the way into his head.

“My name is Lydia.”

Taglist: @raddydaddydude @lovenormandixon @angeldemoncrowley

[kanmom51]

Genuine question?

Has Jungkook promoted the others albums the same way he’s watched and listened to jimins. I haven’t watched all his lives as I don’t have the time and genuinely don’t know or don’t remember if he had or not. Like I’m like 50% sure he listened to wildflower or atleast played it on his live in like Jan-Feb but I don’t really know. Has be mentioned or played or watched any of SUGA’s recent album? My memory is really bad.

Like is it normal behaviour what he did for Jimin or a bit more compared to the others, has he played or interacted with the other members albums at all? I’m pretty sure if I remember correctly he may have played songs from Indigo + Jack in the Box but idk outside of that or if I’m right at all.

Like does anyone have the full rundown of what members projects he’s played + watched on Live since Jack in the box. I literally only remember him coming by Jimin’s practice & Hobi’s photoshoot/release party & playing Set me free MV and other jimin videos.

The answer is no.

He did watch Hobi's song way back in a live in 2022.

He also talked about Yoongi's concert and how he's seen it and wants to go see it live (which he did).

I'm not even sure he played songs from Indigo now that I'm thinking about it, maybe Flower-works. Yeah, I think he watched Flower works. I'd have to go back check, and forgive me, but I just can't be bothered, lol.

And I'm not just being a shit here. I don't feel like checking cause even if he did listen to a song that's exactly it - a song. Perhaps a couple of words about how cool that member is. And that would be a wrap.

What he most definitely did not do for the other members, and this is carved in stone:

Did not watch or listen multiple times to the same songs.

Did not watch interviews and shows with other members.

Did not watch compilations centered around the other members.

Did not repeat this continuously over several lives.

Did not plan ahead, set up scenarios (the guitar for instance) and give us spoilers for other member's songs or album or clips or choreos.

That, my friend, is JM exclusive.

And that is also why it was so damn loud.

And got many knickers in a knot in the fandom.

More so while folding JM's tiny red Calvin's.

And why so many in this fandom are yearning for a MV with JK 'proving' (this is where I link George Michael's careless whisper) he ain't into JM.

Cause, as you know already, JK ain't no gay, I have a whole expose series to prove it.

Just for funsies, here's my Jikook in Vlives (those were the days) masterlist.

Go and see just how much JM overload we got from JK starting on White day (previous Feb and Mar lives had him melt over JM comments, but the spoilers and JM promotion love fest started on White day with his "something very exciting is happening in half an hour" and fly away spoiler - oh, and maybe even an Angel pt. 1 spoiler too, let's not forget about that one).

Yeah-nah, no precedent to the way he promoted JM.

JM was and is his one and only.

Period.

[nintendoduo]

Playing the Super Nintendo's Forgotten Home-Made RPGs of the '90s (Part 2)

Continuing our look at that brief period in human history when people were creating RPG Maker games on the SNES and posting them to the ancient internet (1998-1998). So far, we've seen four-armed gangstas, a turd-infested dungeon, characters randomly disappearing or turning into other characters, and so, so many instances of the words "talk to the king." Check out Part 1 here or over at Dreamwidth, because Tumblr has been a dick about letting logged-out people read posts lately.

Note: These games can be downloaded at archive.org or rmarchiv.de (or archive.org's archived version of rmarchiv.de, if it goes offline again).

"Ductarr: The Rise of Rebellion" by j0e f0lts (05-20-1998)

Original description: The young mage Eoj Stole tries to recover clues to his fathers mysterious death that leads to a global adventure.

This one has an opening text crawl! Fancy. Sure, two out of the five words in the title are misspelled, but the effort is appreciated.

Sadly, the main character isn't a problematic music conductor named Lydia Ducktár but a guy by the equally bizarre name of Eoj Stole. Eoj is a "troubled young mage" who enjoys standing on tall mountains and taking psychedelic drugs, based on the trippy light show that ensues after the intro crawl is over.

We're told that Eoj is thinking back to "the events that took place just days ago." Then he says "It all began when I was only 8 years old." Does that mean he was only 8 years old a few days ago? Is this another game starring a swole adult-sized little kid? Either way, we then flash back to little Eoj being late to some sort of church event, but can you blame him? He's 8!

Then we find out that the thing he's late for is his dad's funeral. So yes, you can and should blame him.

(Is the mom sobbing or insulting her son/herself?)

The priest says that Eoj's dad was "a master of the magic arts," but evidently not that much of a master if he's dead now. After lots of singing in another language (meaning a single caption that says "lots of singing in another language") the priest abruptly announces that the funeral is over. He probably needed the church for bingo night or something.

We cut to ten years later, when Eoj has just turned 18. His mom celebrates this important milestone by kicking him out of the house as soon as he wakes up.

But don't worry: you can still sleep in your old room... if you pay your mom, because she spent no time in turning that shit into an Airbnb.

"Resting is important! But you know what's even more important? Paying up, motherfucker."

Your mom is at least kind enough to let you ransack the treasure chests in the basement before you leave. She also tells you to "go visit your father," which could be a polite way of telling you to go to hell. If you take that in a more literal sense and stop by your dad's tomb, your clumsy ass somehow causes the hilt of his sword to fall off and you notice a letter inside. The letter reads:

(Note that there's no closing quote mark, which means that technically all of the rest of the text in this game is part of the letter.)

Eoj takes these semi-nonsensical words to mean that there might be a clue to his dad's mysterious death at a place called Moi Island, so he decides to head there. He also decides to steal his dead dad's sword, possibly so that his mom won't notice he broke it and charge him for it. You get to try out the broken sword pretty fast, since as soon as you step out of the safety of Eoj's town, you're attacked by adult mutant warrior dogs. Luckily, they may look intimidating but they only deal 2 damage, the puny little bitches.

Getting to Moi Island involves going through a place called "Slime Cave," which is full of treasure chests. Treasure chests... full of slime? Nope, some are empty but others actually have useful items and money in them, which is a nice surprise (unless you're a big slime enthusiast). After exploring for a bit, you come across a blue M&M-looking creature called "Meanie" sitting on a throne, who immediately proves his name right by delivering a Tarzan-like death threat:

You're then thrown into a fight you can't back out from. If you defeat the Blue Meanie (don't let the Beatles' lawyers hear about this game), he says "You no more treasure! Unn......." and disappears, as does every single treasure chest in the cave, including the ones you haven't gotten to. Hope there wasn't anything important there! Apparently, the correct course of action was to ignore the blue blob sitting on a throne and just continue pillaging the chests.

Next, you take the stairs to exit the cave, only to realize that you've exited the game itself too, since this is the end of the demo. And we never even met Duck Tár (woo-oo).

A final message from the developer prompts us to check the KanjiHack website for the finished version of the game (just checked; still nothing) and asks that you "E MAIL ME AT THERE PAGE W/FEEDBACK." He also informs us that "THIS IS MADE BY JOE YOU CAN NOT USE THIS WITH OUT MY PERMISSION." Uh, please don't sue us for screenshotting your game 26 years in the future, Joe.

"Evilion" by Shadowtext (05-21-1998)

Original description: Two young people set off to restore peace to the world.

You start with two characters in the middle of a map, right next to a castle. Hmm, wonder what you're supposed to do in there.

It was "talk to the king"! Never could have guessed it. Once you do so, he asks you "How fared your adventure?" What adventure?! We just started playing. Your character, Karel, replies that monsters are planning to "destroy everything," which in the king's opinion is "terrible news!" He commands you and your friend, Ochal, to go to a place in the south called Oderell. Guess the king also had to go somewhere really bad, because as soon as he finishes saying that, he vanishes. (That, or this is a Tyler Durden-type situation and you were talking to yourself.)

If you head south from the castle, you run into a town called Ojarel. You might think that the dev forgot how to spell "Oderell," but no: if you talk to one of the town's residents, he tells you that Oderell is to the west. So, you go to the town's west exit and...

...oh, whoops, that's not an exit, is just a dead end, haha. Okay, let's go out the way we came in. Except...

...that's a dead end now, too. So is the town's only other exit-looking path. It's at this point that you notice that every shop in this town is eerily empty. I-Is this some sort of psychological horror game?

Other than the guy who gives you directions, the only other residents in the town are a little girl who tells you she owns the forest and a woman who claims that "even though our town is small, we are happy." They are both exactly as convincing.

"And now you'll be happy too. Forever."

The only way to exit the exit-less town is to abort this cursed timeline and go back to an earlier save state (good thing you've probably saved like twenty times in these 5 minutes of gameplay because this game tends to crash a lot during enemy encounters). Doing so lets you reach a town to the west that's probably Oderell, but we don't know for sure due to the shocking lack of signage in this kingdom.

Oderell has 66.6% as many residents as Ojarel, meaning two people: a guy who tells you about "five magi" who defeated the "evil horde" that once attacked this town (unrelated to the evil horde promised at the start of the game, which hasn't shown up yet) and another guy who promises to sail you anywhere if you defeat "the monster in the sea." That monster turns out to be a dragon called "Serpent," who has insta-kill attacks and seems unbeatable unless you're cheating by using dev mode to deal 9999 damage each time. Good thing you're doing that, then.

After defeating the dragon/serpent, a text box tells you that "Ochal and Karal faint in the crashing sea" and everything goes black. Apparently the excitement of defeating their first boss was too much for them and they died on the spot anyway. There's no "END OF DEMO" or implied threats of legal action in this one, just an empty void at the end of it all, so in that sense this is the most realistic game so far. At least the next game couldn't possibly be lazier than this one.

"Alamar" by Tim Maj (05-22-1998)

Original description: A boy sets out on a mysterious quest to destroy evil and avenge his parents with a magical sword.

This one drops you in the middle of a castle, with no preambles or explanation, and trusts that you'll find your way to talk to the king without any hand-holding. It's always nice when a game respects your intelligence like that. So you walk up to the king and... oh.

No king. No gods either, presumably. No nothing, in fact, because this whole castle's empty and there are no exits, again. There's nothing to do in this game... unless you reset it and load the mysterious save file that comes included with it, which spawns you outside the castle with no doors. Can you guess what's out there?

If you guessed "more nothing," you are correct. Just empty fields with no towns or even a single dog person to beat up. Peeking under the hood reveals that the dev spent some time making attacks and spells, but no time whatsoever placing enemies to use them on. Does this qualify as an early example of one of those artsy "walking simulator" games where nothing happens? You were ahead of your time, Tim Maj.

"The Dragoner" by Wing (05-24-1998)

Original description: A knight embarks on a quest to reclaim the world for humans.

You start next to two guards who call you "captain" and wish you a good day. At this point in the game it's fun to go back and forth between the two, imagining they're getting louder and louder each time to try to out-"good day" the other.

That door up there leads to the interior of the castle, most of which seems to be off-limits to you. If you try to go through any more doors, you're emphatically informed that there's "no enterance" because they lead to the king and princess' rooms and they are "pravate." How are you supposed to go talk to the king if you can't even see him?!

What you can do is go down some stairs, which leads to a hall where you meet... the king? Wasn't he just yelling at you from his room? Does he have a slide pole in there leading directly to the throne?

The king tells you that "this city was built on an island in the center of the world," which suggests that he had his door locked because he was getting baked. There used to be a portal connecting the city to the rest of the world, the king claims, but it was sealed off when said world was destroyed by "an evil sprite." Now that portal has become un-sealed, for some reason, but fear not: the king already sent Jenny the Sorceress to find the cause of this "anomany."

(Obviously that's a misspelling of "anomancy," meaning the art of reading one's future via the wrinkles in your butthole.)

The king sends you off to find Jenny and help her in her mission. Before that, you can stop by the shop outside the castle and buy weapons from a guy named Raymond, who assures you that he only sells "good weapons, unlike Tony." You could technically buy weapons from Tony, too, if for some reason you like owning dogshit weapons.

Since you can't afford Raymond's weapons at this point, you elect to go fight monsters with your bare hands rather than bear the social stigma of using Tony weapons. Oh, you can also stop by the "discount store," but before you can even browse, the attendant tells you "Umm... you can't afford to buy anything." Some discount store.

Having stocked up (on nothing), you can go to that portal the king mentioned, where you meet the good sprite Cathine, who seems to be a sort of door lady or bouncer for this mystical pathway. Before letting you go through the portal, Cathine tells you, unprompted, that "only the dragon and its rider can save the world" and that "you are the dragoner." Based on your reaction, this is all news to you.

Cathine gives you a key and tells you to "go search for the dragon" so that "one day, the earth will be alive again!" If you have no clue WTF any of that means, don't worry, neither does your character.

Cathine vanishes without really explaining much. With nothing else to do, you go through the damn portal, at last, and reach... another empty field with no enemies and nothing to do. Wait, is this a crossover with the previous game?

Alternatively, you can take this to mean that Jenny the Sorceress destroyed all the monsters and brought peace to the land while you were busy not buying weapons and talking to possibly high people. Mission accomplished!

That's it for Part 2 of this series. Coming in Part 3: games that actually take more than 5 minutes to play through! (In fact, we had to stop here because the next one requires more screenshots than Tumblr will allow in this post.)

[mediocre-shark-tales]

Qsmp x Streamer reader (5)

Summary - Prison Event Day 2

Warnings - In Game/lore- Mentions of abuse/torture, Violence, and swearing.

There is a chance for this to turn into a love trope of some kind but for now there is focus on fluffy platonic-ness

This series will not be 100% lore accurate, but it will be pretty close to it.

Masterlist

I had just turned on my live video, watching as everyone slowly began to join. I smiled seeing them chat amongst themselves about if I will drop more lore. Others putting dancing emotes in chat, dancing to a few of my current favorite songs. I was currently messaging Tubbo, reminding of him to get on at the right time. NO way would I let sunny get left out today. Finally I the timer on my starting screen ended and I clicked start on my face cam. "Hey guys! we are getting back at it today! Let's go ahead and get started right away since it should have just opened."

I quickly logged in and found myself in my lonely fish cell. I was in Shark mode in the fish tank. So I turned it off and headed out into the rest of my room. Outside the cell, I saw others were already on and getting to work on fighting the mobs outside. I saw Bagi's cell, so I called out to her. "BAGI! HELLO!" She turned around and looked around for me. Once she saw me, she quickly began got yell back. "HI Y/N!" Seconds later they began to let us out of the cells. I saw tubbo join and bolted to go say hi to him.

He was yelling and screaming at the guards by the time I got over there. Fit joined us as well telling tubbo how they were roommates now. Once their conversation was over, that when I basically shattered Tubbos ears. I had turned on my voice changer so I sounded like a god. You know the overly echo-ed voice with slight increased pitch change. I had already pre-warned my chat.

"TUBBO! You bitch! left your fucking daughter alone without notifying your free babysitter!?" Tubbo yelled back. "Holy shit you are loud! what the fuck!" I laughed and turned off my voice changer. Without another word, I left him and pulled out my little diamond knife. Finding the first round of mobs to fight, while I waited for others to join.

Now that everyone was on, I knew any second now they would pull me away for my 'torture lore'. Currently we had been moved to a hallways with a lot more mobs to fight, or clean I guess. Tubbo showed up with sunny, this made me smile knowing she had someone to watch her now. I was chatting with Phil while we fought mobs. "So we getting another escape plan set up today?" I asked. "Yeah we have a few ideas, fit and I." He told me. "Cool what ide-" I was cut off as I got teleported away. When it loaded, I realized I was in the torture cell. Great.

In chat I saw Phil typing, trying to understand where I went. However I could reply as I was now stood in front of Guard 1, they were quick to hand me a book. I read it aloud again.

So, Do you want to give up the information we asked for yesterday?

Do you want to confess your crimes? Tell us where and what your master is? Give us the information we want.

Only then will all his stop, no more pain, no more questions. Give us the information and we let you go.

I returned the book to them and stared them down. I sighed and then spoke with as much determination as I could. "Once again, I will tell you that I have NO clue what you are talking about. Trust me if I knew what you were talking about, then I would most likely tell you to keep my friends safe. However, you only continue to prove to me how useless and stupid you are by not listening to me. So I know you have already stopped listening to me now. So go ahead, rip open my skin, beat me into your idea of a submissive civilian. I don't care, my only master is Poseidon, he will one day grant me the power I need to enact my revenge on you and your mindless drones. So go ahead, spill my blood however you see fit. Just remember that karma is a motherfucking bitch, you coward."

They stared at me for a few more seconds, then they pulled out a sword. This one was shaped like a katana, the blade was a shining silver with reds outlining. The base a black with red detail. This is what he used to mercilessly kill me over and over again. As the voices returned along with it. This time not only did I hear that dreaded male voice, but they could also hear mine responding to it. Almost as if I was hearing a memory.

"You will fight with us little shark, this is our home!" ~Him

"If any of your words were true, then yes! You know I would fight to the last man standing. But this is all a huge lie! YOU CHOSE A DEMON and you refuse to see the mess you created!" ~Me

"I am saving our home! all you and the others are expected to do is follow my lead, that's how this works! I saved you from those sinners!" ~Him

"You were the one I depended on the most, Yet you've let me down in ways that I can't even- (sigh) I can't keep forgiving and forgetting what you have done!" ~Me

"I never did anything to you, you don't get to say that." ~Him

"You have caused so many different problems for me, you have ruined things I loved, and hurt those I cared for. Yet I was convinced that maybe you were right. But a long time ago I realized the truth, that you were just a coward hard riven on your ways. You won't relent to allow new prosperously hopeful ideas to exist, so you tear them down inch by inch. I won't live by that anymore." ~Me

"Wait Little shark! Don't go out there!" ~Him

The voices ended with the sound of a huge explosion, at the same time that I was killed for the last time. When I respawned, this time I looked a little worse overall. More rips to the clothing had been added, and more bruised looking skin placed around my character. They then teleported me back to the group, who were now outside getting ready to build as a game.

I sighed and tried to put back on a smile as I walked over to the group. "Hi guys I'm back." They all looked at me then at Phil. Who walked up to me with Fit and the eggs. "You come over here right now." He spoke really close to his mic to sound more intimidating. "Okay." I said with a smaller voice, following right after him. Once we got to a more hidden area where only Phil, Fit and the Eggs could hear me.

"You need to explain what is going on right now. Why does guard 1 keep stealing you away to kill you million times and you come back looking worse than when you left!" Phil asked. "You have to tell us y/n, we know something is going on and we want to help you." Fit said. I sighed. "But it really doesn't concern you guys, it's just bette you don't know, so I can keep you and the eggs safe. You don't need to become potential confidants in my problem." I told them trying to get across that it's better this way.

The two looked at each other before trying again. Fit speaking first this time, "You don't have to protect us y/n, we can do that ourselves just like we have before you came to the island. Trust us we have seen the worst of the worst." I looked to him. "But this is starting to look like a lot bigger than you may have ever fought. You know about my past as much as I do, You know I can't remember anything from before the day the pirates capture me. Now things are changing, Now I can't recognize fat from fiction. I can't allow my burdens to become yours." Phil spoke next sounding a lot more sympathetic this time.

"Awe mate, you can't let yourself fight this alone. Let us help you. Give us a chance to help you, to keep you safe." This broke something in me, of course what came next was all part of my lore. "I know you want to help me, but after what I have remembered? I can't let myself trust someone so much again. It's for the better that this is how it must be. I'm sorry guys, but I just can't risk it." With those words I walked away. Hearing their voice get quieter, however I did hear a few things before their voices were too quiet. "She remember something from her past?" fit asked. "I guess so, it must have hurt her a lot for her to be this way now, she would have told us if it wasn't that bad." Phil replied to him.

I glanced at Chat, seeing them yelling that I should have told them. Angry and exhausted from the way my lore was falling, they were hilarious to read. However, I held my self back from smiling to much.

When I returned to the building area, I found out my group to build with was Tubbo and Bagi. However they were already done, mainly giving up on trying to build whatever it was. "What is this y/n?" He handed me a book, reading it I smiled. "Have you guys seen Cars 2?"

They both said they had seen it. "Well this name belongs to the red, green, and white formula FB1 car. He was the car that lightning McQueen was genuine rivals with. The one who had angered McQueen enough at the beginning of the movie to convince McQueen to sign up for the big race?" After my explanation, both seemed to have finally dawned who I was talking about. Tubbo scoffed. "Of course the American gets it." I laughed. "Hey in 5 years I while be a citizen of the UK." This made Tubbo gasp. "Wait you're staying here after your schooling?" I smiled. "Well I'm just getting stuff ready to make that decision. If I do end up finding the right connections or main job here while in schooling, then yeah might as well stay and get citizenship. BUT if somewhere back in LA was to contact me with a better job option then I'll move back home. For now, I'm living here as an international student until I decide."

Tubbo made a sound of understanding. "Well I hope you stay, it will be so nice to have you around with the rest of us." We were now running around for a free time while others finished their builds. That was until we saw some one new join the server. Charlies name popping up. I looked at Sunny, who immediately saw me and placed down a sign. Once she finished I read her sign, "Oh my god! That's my other pa!" I smiled. "It is isn't it! Hopefully they will bring him to us soon! Just stick with papa tubbo and I. Once we seem him we can go meet him." She nodded to agree with my plan.

For now we followed tubbo around as he looked for things to steal. Of course I joined him in looking for things. But soon we got bored and went to find out if we could go back inside ourselves. However right when we got to the door we ran right into Charlie. "TUBBO!" He yelled as the man in question responded with an equally happy hello.

While they chatted, I ran and brought sunny over. "Come on sweetness, time to go meet your pa!" But she stopped crouched down before placing a sign. She told me she was nervous and scared. "You hold on over here, I'll get Tubbo's attention and he can hold your hand while you meet Charlie." She gave me a small slow nod. While Charlie was in a conversation with fit and Ramon for a second, I hit tubbo who turned around questioning me. I quietly looked right at sunny then back at tubbo, whispering for him to go to her. That's when Charlie saw me and yelled. "Holy Shit! Y/n?! What are you doing here!? Since when did you join?!" I laughed "I joined like a fucking week ago man!? Somehow they already wanted to arrest me. I don't even know what I did." He laughed and then looked right at fit, talking about the crimes we are in for and how long we are in for. Finally when he walked off towards the eggs again, Tubbo spoke up. "Hey Charlie do you want to say hi to sunny?" I watched as slowly tubbo was able to drop that sunny was also his new daughter.

That's when all hell broke loose, Charlie trying to understand how he had a new daughter and why. Once sunny asked me if Charlie didn't like her or something, that's when I went into my own parent mode. I hit both boys and whisper yelled to them. "First tubbo, get back over there and explain to sunny that Charlie just needs a second to take all this in cause he just woke up from a long ass coma and is in a prison. She's over there doubting herself because of how you both reacted." Tubbo quickly walked off to support sunny. Then I stared down Charlie, giving him another hit. "And you, get yourself together, she's your kid whether you like it or not. Though I'm sure she will grow on you just as much as she has for me. Anyways, you get over there and start acting like a dad, or so help me-" He cut me off. "Okay don't worry y/n! I wouldn't be a dead beat dad, let me meet this sunny." With that he walked over and began to chat with sunny again.

I smiled and left them to interact before returning back to the rest of the gang. We were now being taken to a new room, apparently it was language class time. Entering the "Classroom" It looked almost like a mini version of the movie theater, just with the addition of a big stage. I found myself a chair at the front of the room, with a little easel in front of it. Other began to pile in, the small space quickly becoming louder and louder with everyone talking. Suddenly there was a small duck in front of me. Taking in the accessory and voice of the duck, I knew this must be Baghera. I smiled as she quacked before speaking. "OH hello! You must be y/n!" Baghera and I had never really met before. "Yep, the one and only!" She giggled. "Do you want a gift!?" Her high pitched voice changer made everything she said just a little funnier. "sure!" she giggled like a little evil duck. "Well I am the duck of love cause I love love, so you have to kiss someone to get this gift!" This caught me off guard and I looked around the room. "But no one here is really single and those who are would never!" Thinking harder, the only one who would do it for the shits and giggles was Wilbur, but that bitch was in the middle of tours and other shit. Baghera, wait I mean Quacki's giggling brought me back from my thoughts. "Don't worry, I'll find someone and give both a gift." With that she ran off and I laughed lightly before paying attention to the front again.

However almost a full minute later, right as Charlie, tubbo and fit were just entering the room. I heard a hello to my left. Standing there was Foolish. "Hey Y/m, I was told by Quacki here that If I want a gift I had to kiss you." I scoffed. "She told me almost the same thing, but I told her no one here would do it. Guess she convinced you huh?" He laughed, "Wow glad to know that's the only reason I got a chance at a free gift." I laughed with him. But Quacki walked us both, yelling "Hey, Now you kiss! on the lips! Then I will give you a gift, I am the duck of love so kiss!" I giggled a little at her with Foolish. "Okay okay, alright come here foolish." I stood up and crouched my character, he did the same thing slowly coming closer. We both made a kiss sound before quickly turning to Quacki. She laughed loudly like a school girl, spinning around in circles. "Okay! here is your gifts!" She gave Foolish and I both diamond swords. We quickly hid that into our inventories, chatting for bit before Charlie overheard something he said. Thus Charlie took his attention away and I returned to my seat waiting for class to begin.

Masterlist

[captain-hawks]

i'm sitting at the airport terminal in the middle of the night and something wild just happened to me and my first thought was "is this miya twin coded?" so i popped over here because 1. you're one of my absolute favorites. 2. i was just re-reading your kita piece for all the glorious emotional smut. and 3. you also <3 the miyas. please excuse me as i process this.

in senior year high school i went to a weekend-long statewide competition and met these twins in the elevator. one of them definitely had more swagger, more teasing confidence (the kind that guys who are usually successful with ladies have) and the other one was a little quieter, seemed a bit more sincere even though he talked less. we hit it off in conversation and they asked me and my friend if we wanted to grab food with them. i wasn't entirely sure but i thought maybe they were flirting? i was pretty sheltered up until that point and didn't want to assume incorrectly. towards the end of the comp the quieter twin asked if he could come visit me in my city and i, confused, asked "why??" spoiler alert: i ended up dating him for ~2 years.

i found out early on in our relationship that after our "casual dinner" that night when they got back to their room, Swag twin wanted to try his luck and see if he could get with me, but Quiet twin said that he would FIGHT HIM because Quiet really liked me and genuinely wanted to ask me out and he said he wouldn't let his brother ruin that by trying to hook up. Swag was apparently used to usually getting his way, so he realized how serious Quiet was to threaten to beat his ass so i guess he backed off. I didn't find this out until after Quiet and i started seriously talking/dating.

I went out of state for college but we maintained the LDR until halfway through my sophomore year. classic breakup reasons: growing pains/long distance was taking its toll/i wanted to explore life. but we remained on good terms and consider each other friends! we rarely talk, but he still let me use his netflix login for the past 11 years. when he was moving into a corporate role a couple years ago i helped him with interview prep, and when i was looking for a new job he sent me reqs he thought were a good fit.

he's had at least a couple relationships in the near-decade since we broke up (we don't talk about dating but i had seen on social media at some point). i've dated and had a few situationships and am now in a 4 year relationship with my bf. however, he most definitely doesn't know this because we don't chat often, i'm rarely on socials these days and my bf is a very private person.

i'm so sorry for how long this has been. all of this context is to say...i am chilling in the airport on my way home and I GOT A CONFESSION FROM QUIET?? something about i'm the one that got away, he feels he'd won the lottery by meeting me and having me in his life, he referenced the fight he had with his brother all those years ago and said he'd fight the same fight TO THIS DAY. i am flummoxed. i think it is a sign from the great spaghetti monster in the sky that i need to log off tumblr because my very first thought was "what in the fanfiction trope is this?" does this shit actually happen irl? now i need to go deal with this.

anyways thank you for reading this if you got this far! idk if it's just because it's twins and their dynamic is vaguely similar to osamu and atsumu but i was like...have i been isekai'ed into a miya twin fanfic? the sleep deprivation may be catching up to me and i may be entirely unhinged idk

first of all, ily and i’m so flattered you thought of me and ran over here to share this story. i literally read this while brushing my teeth because i was running late for work this morning, but i was so invested i had to read the whole message before i left.

anyway, EXCUSE ME????? i actually can’t get over this. how does it feel to have lived in a real life miya twins fanfic? are you taking interviews at this time? HE SAID HE WOULD FIGHT!!!! HIM? THE ATSUMU/OSAMU DYNAMICS i cannot believe. somewhere an author is on their knees (it’s me, the author). AND NOW THE CONFESSION???? OVER A DECADE LATER? i almost choked on my toothpaste. (i feel like there’s also irony to be found in the inherently symbolic nature of getting that message in such a transitionary, liminal space like an airport in the middle of the night.)

nonnie, i hope you have safe travels home and can get some much-deserved rest after that absolute bombshell. if there ever happens to be a future update or footnote to this story………..you know where to find me.

[valeriefauxnom]

i just caught up to your post canon dragalia fic in one day and hollyy shit dude. i am on the edge of my seat!!!! its so enjoying and well versed and i cannot wait for the next chapter

Ahhh! I always am ecstatic to hear reviews or even just random thoughts of any kind regarding my work, but hearing people like my work on Scaling enough to binge it is even crazier! I will forever be more and more amazed people have done that as the length increases, like don't they say an average novel is like about 50k words?? That would mean you've just binged 3 novels of my crazy assortment of thoughts on a possible post game scenario for a dead game in 1 day, which is nuts!

With Scaling in particular having such long chapters I worry sometimes that I'm getting a bit too lost in all my thoughts for it and getting too wordy, so it's always nice to see people are still enjoying it after it has grown increasingly complex, even if we are starting to get closer to a more definitive break in the case, were it a proper mystery novel.

You're the first person to send anything on Tumblr about it (or anything in general really), too, so this message is precious in another way! I'm always glad to field questions (though of course would shy away from spoiling my own works) or explain more about why x decision was made because boy I think I should just make 'overthinking' my hallmark at this point!

As a treat for how much this makes my week, here's a little snippet of a dragalia fic in progress that will probably be a long time in the making yet if it ever does see the light of day on AO3 properly, (so I don't get distracted by yet another thing instead of working on Scaling and/or finishing Control). It's a tentative collection solely based around the concept of the siblings finding out just how weird the Halidom is, especially Leonidas and Chelle since he was in charge of it for all that time and she's always poking about for info.

---

But when he looked back up to the expenses log, all the expenses listed were sky-high as well. The food expense, dragon expenses, aid expense, equipment expense, everything was all exceedingly high for such a small nation (as they should be, given what he knew about Euden’s governance). But to still draw a profit if expenses weren’t being understated meant an even more ridiculous income. 

Sure enough, the few categories under income were even more egregious. Tax revenue was relatively moderate, but other revenue sources like ‘precious gems/mining products’, ‘gifts’ and ‘tourism income’ were far, far beyond what was rational in a kingdom engaged in war for its entire history. 

Just as he was about to start demanding explanations for the inflated income, he spotted yet another egregious, incomprehensible bit to the income column. “Pipple?” He said, almost hostile, “What exactly is a pipple, and why is it on the income statement, let alone for such riches it is supposedly bringing in? No, no, I think I understand now.” Not waiting for an answer, Leonidas began to speculate. He’d never heard of anything sounding like ‘pipple’ before, and Leonidas boasted quite the vocabulary as crown prince. He was expected to have a suitably verbose and eloquent bank of words with which to communicate with foreign heads of state and domestic nobility alike. That meant this was likely something of a new invention in language.

A new invention, and something that brings in exorbitant funds…something very well hidden, if Chelle did not report on its trade or presence in a service business when we made joint moves on the Halidom, and it’s that sizable of an industry in New Alberia…Ah. 

Quite devious of you, brother. I never expected for you to become so involved with such a shady industry, but it explains a great deal of their surprising shadow wealth.

There was only one thing this ‘Pipple’ could be: some sort of newfangled illicit drug his brother was putting to market as a supplier, raking in rupies hand over fist as people learned the effects of whatever potent cocktail this Pipple was composed of.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and a new nation in war against a vastly more powerful, established land was desperate indeed.

---

So yeah, thank you again for your message! Not to toot my own horn too much, but if you're eager for maybe a bit more dragalia fic from me as you wait, I've got another fic up on AO3, though it's not connected with Scaling or even canon in general as a bad-end au what if! It's also likely not quite as polished, being written in like 2 days, but hey I'm just too happy about the two artworks my best friend made for it and now am legally obligated to try and show the art off at any given moment!

[animehouse-moe]

Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers Episode 1: Rage Against Akihabara

So, how can you explain Magical Destroyers? A critical parody and mocking of conformism, religion, and even Otaku culture? Maybe it's as simple as leaving it at the fact that it's Jun Inagawa's vision extrapolated to an anime. But is it worth watching? Well, do you like it when things are made fun of? When at every turn expectations are upended and pushed to the side to make room for something totally different? Do you like things that are just the right amount of insane or unhinged? If so, then you'll like Magical Destroyers for quite a few reasons, though it's not a series without caveats.

So let's get the bad out of the way, it's restricted. Bibury isn't a masterclass studio that can make something out of thin air. I mean, counting Magical Destroyers they have a total of 5 anime that have aired so far. They're.... not good, to say the least. Not necessarily in terms of story or anything, but they're very limited in what they can do in regards to animation. That in and of itself is pretty apparent in this first episode through quite a few conservative scenes and ample use of slapdash CGI, like this almost comically out of place log.

As long as you're aware of the limitations, I think the better moments really do shine quite well. The environment art can be really stellar sometimes, the visual comedy is rock solid, and there's still a good share of Sakuga in it too.

So what about the story? For those that read my breakdown on the opening, I think it's rather self-evident about the core of what Magical Destroyers is about, but I probably should give a proper explanation.

So, the whole idea is that the government of Japan have been rounding up all of its Otaku under the guise of "protection". Putting them in jails, taking all otaku product with them, effectively eliminating them from the Japanese public. In a single week in 2008 the majority of Otaku were rounded up for "protection", aside from a handful that center around Otaku Hero. Since that day, Otaku Hero with the aid of Magical Girls and fellow Otaku has waged war in a resistance against his forceful "protection", and that's where we find ourselves now.

Essentially, up shit creek without a paddle. Though you'd nearly be a fool to take that sentiment at face value as first and foremost this is a farce. It's a story that's incredibly campy as it continually pokes fun at almost anything and everything, while mixing in moments so serious that they come off almost comical.

It screams of the writing skills of a first timer that thinks they can write a story for the ages because they're "not like other writers out there", and in the context of Inagawa's history it's a hilarious and well thought out approach that punctuates the already ridiculous setup and story.

The part that is clearly the most honed though is the comedy. It's well timed, expressed wonderfully through character acting, and is perfectly situational and unique to the characters that act it out.

There's a lot more that I feel I could get into, like the storyboards or overall direction to help sell that campy feeling, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory and not really anything out of this world. Magical Destroyers it Jun Inagawa's vision, simple as that. If you love the idea of acting out, of raging against the machine to preserve your individuality and right to existence as you are, then you'll like this show.

[lord-pigeon]

The thing you're not getting about why genshin is worse is because events are not meant to be the primary source of quartz in fgo. It comes from your weekly log in, live streams, 50 day ten pull, ascending servants to their second last ascension, story quests, free quests and the ten quartz you get from doing ten of them, rank up and interludes and the quartz you also get for doing ten of those, and special occasions like anniversary and new year. If you do ten rank ups you get a ten pull and you can do this in maybe an hour or two, now try grinding a ten pull in genshin. It'll be a lot more time investing and taxing considering you're just pressing buttons in fate. Also genshin's odds are just lower and it bleeds whales way harder by making constellations do more than just damage and they make modern 4 stars suck without them. Yes genshin has a better pity but that isn't the be all end all, you need to get 5 copies to max a 5 star in fate where as genshin its 6 AND 5 copies of their weapons. I could keep going on about ways that it's worse all day long, especially when genshin has way more micro transactions and predatory practices like battlepasses and resin but take that fate is worse is utterly baffling tbh

Oh boy let's get into the math here because this is where the fun begins.

Don't get me wrong, I'll never defend Genshin's dogshit practices, but I have a personal grudge against FGO fans sucking on it when it's literally the bastard of the mainstream bunch. This argument is me pitting garbage against garbage to say which one is stinkier.

This gonna be long so I'm putting this under a cut:

Alright FGO dailies list (I'll use NA for FGO, since Genshin is a global server schedule):

Day 2=1 SQ, Day 4=1 SQ, Day 6=2 SQ and Day 7=Ticket (3 SQ equivalent)

Total: 7 SQ

Needed for a tenfold: 30 SQ

Weeks needed for a tenfold via Log-In alone: 4 weeks and 4 days. 32 days total.

It should be noted that if you miss a single day, it resets from the very start. You must log in no matter what. It might take but a few moments, but note, you have to.

Genshin dailies list:

10 Primos per Comm/action, total of 40, and a 20 Primo bonus for turning into Katherine

Total: 60 Primos

Needed for tenfold 1600 Primo

Weeks needed for a Log-In alone: 26 days total.

Genshin's big detriment is that while you never lose your place, you need to spend time on Commissions. It can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes, which is a bit of a serious timesink. It's a bit better with the Fontaine update but it's still a pain in the ass for those on the go.

Alright, but Lord, that's just raw Log-In, what about monthlies?

Monthlies are the same, since both give you 5 tickets/fates to use. Genshin is at the disadvantage here since you need to spend the stardust you get from summoning on it, but Fate also requires you to spend Mana Prisms. Fundamentally similar, it's just that Fate wins out by the small margin Mana Prisms are slightly easier to obtain.

What about pity?

Eat my ass, Fate's pity system just happened cause they were getting this ass beat monetarily and they gave up and did a base-tier QOL update. Six FUCKING years we waited for pity and its over 900 SQ??? ((330 pulls btw))

I saved a whole year and a half back for Musashi's inital release and I just barely had that shit. And that was events, dailies, so on and so forth. (I got her in three tickets so nobody come at me with the fact I'm just a bitter old bird who didn't get my cute girl.)

While there's the 50/50 mechanic with Genshin, that levels the idea of 180, and that's going to hard-hard pity. No matter what, you can, and will, at least get the character you want.

Now what if we include Weapon Banner, since people assume Weapons+Characters *must* go together rather than it just being BIS and disregarding the completely different game mechanics of turn-based FGO and action rpg Genshin (<bitter).

Weapon Hard Pity is 240 pulls. You get a Fate Point for 80 pulls if you don't get your directed weapon, and you get another one if you get screwed again. Two Fate Points guarantees the next 80 is what you want.

Now, that might equal 420 pulls, but there's a catch few people acknowledge: Soft Pity.

Genshin has a system that, the closer you get to that hard pity, the higher the rate goes up. Therefore, it's not often someone actually goes to the hard 80 or 90. I'm just using the hard numbers as a point.

FGO is a hard pity, nothing about the rates changes from Summon 1 to Summon 330. Plus no guarantee you actually even get something from those 330 pulls--at least in Genshin you get a Basic Banner character who has some measure of utility you can use to make progress.

Also FGO pity doesn't carry per banner, but Genshin's does, so if you get fucked over and wanna wait a few months, you have another shot instead of wasting all of it cause you got close but no cigar.

But what about upgrades? Constellations?

NP-bonuses are rather minor and not as key as say, Xiao C1 or Hu Tao C1, so FGO has the edge there. However, that leads me to the side point of:

Weapons.

Reasonably, everyone talks about how the 3-star weapons suck, yadda yadda. You get so many weapons from the game as welfare that are good and can be used by multiple characters. You don't need a 5-star weapon, just because you aren't hitting 300k a hit doesn't mean shit.

Genshin has a lot more versatility in team building than FGO tbh, since a lot of FGO's boils down to "Do you have Merlin/Skadi/Chen Gong/Waver/Tamamo/Castoria/Support Caster.png" that you can then use with any other character.

Not saying Genshin doesn't have that too with Qinqiu and Bennett, but due to the nature of Spiral Abyss, people have gotten smart about using others instead of just them cause it's a split up team system.

Citation: I didn't get a single 5-star Weapon until Year 2.5 of Genshin. Fun fact, I also didn't have a single DPS 5-star either (all I had since launch was Diluc and Venti), until fucking Cyno came out. I managed to play the game just fine.

Now in FGO NA, I was also there since Launch, and I didn't get my first SSR until the Solomon raids, in which I finally got Florence Nightingale. I was playing the game carried by Kiyohime, Salter, and throwing SQ at revives. And guides, christ, so many guides it made Arknights look elementary.

What about general SQ/Primo flow (the Anniversaries and whatnot mentioned)?

FGO, the year of 2023, had, according to a Reddit post which I can link if people want the source, is: 2571 SQ, tickets included.

This Reddit post involved Servant NP Ascension Quests, Events, Chunked Log-In Bonus, Live Streams, Bond Stuff, ect ect (also, stuff you can't do if you didn't roll them, the post was being generous with people getting what they rolled or had)

That is about 85.7 tenfolds. So, if you don't spend a penny and not miss a day of logging in, the average joe might get about 2, 3 hard pities on who they want. Presuming I'm doing the math right on that.

Genshin, in the year of 2022, had, according to another Reddit Post, roughly 100k Primogems.

That equals about 62.5 tenfolds, or over 620 Fates. Now, tossing that into the system with someone with the worst luck imaginable that wants a character, that's about the same amount of 3 to 4 guaranteed pities.

One might note that the numbers are about the same, and yeah, that checks. However, there's a lot of variables, such as Spiral Abyss for Genshin, and actually having the characters to do Interludes on.

Half-baked conclusion

FGO is a money sink, Genshin is a time sink. They both sink your serotonin. Nobody wins.

Look, I play both, I have grief with both, I have fond memories of both. I wouldn't have a stupid expensive Okada figurine sitting next to a custom Cyno plushie if I hated these games.

But they're gacha, they're both out for your money, it's just that one is just a raging cunt about the whole affair.

Reddit Post Citations: