#if youre sending your kid because you dont want them to be subjected to bad influences or something. youre severely mistaken

[llegato]

listen man i get the feeling of wanting ur muslim kid to be around other muslim kids so they dont feel isolated or something but dude. islamic schools are not worth it

[hella1975]

mha is suchhhh an unserious anime yeah welcome to my hero academia u get a fun little magic power that without fail will have SOME silly factor to it and u get to go to the magic power school with a bunch of genuinely lovable teenagers and together through the hashtag power of friendship u help each other succeed and u all just want to be amazing heroes and be good and who wouldn't want that and the headmaster is literally some sort of rodent thing and ur homeroom teacher regularly naps on the clock you get taught english by Presentation Michael it's all so so so unserious and silly and the Good Magic Power School is kinda leaning into authoritarianism and the government body that oversees the magic power heroics is explicitely corrupt in fact one of the coolest most impressive heroes of your generation got child trafficked into his career and subject to incredibly rigorous training as well as a highly policed lifestyle that ultimately led to him stabbing a man on national television just bc the government told him to but he's really cool dont worry about if he got a trial or not he can fly really really fast and anyway he's second to a known child abuser it's all so confusing thank GOD there's such a strict, enforced distinction between 'good' and 'bad' to the point even the magic powers u biologically have no choice over and are given before the age of 4 hold moral value and determine ur success in society and if that didnt clarify things enough u also have villains to personify these bad morals for example the son of aforementioned child abuser who was manipulated and trained since birth to have his sole purpose in life surround his success at heroics and when he was unsuccessful he got thrown away and replaced by his little brother who also got abused by their super heroic father and it all upset the older brother so much that he blew himself up at age 13 like some sort of maniac and now he's severely injured with a vendetta against his dad and he is soooo so evil for wanting revenge bc uhh hello his dad is literally a hero but he's not even the worst of the villains because get this his boss is some 20 year old video gamer with eczema whose entire existence was masterminded by some evil immortal fuck who manufactured every bad thing ever to happen to this kid so he'd be vulnerable and he got picked up off the streets and groomed into the perfect weapon who literally does not know anything else yet still cares about his friends in spite of it all goddddd he's so so evil and scary and bad thank god u have a class full of teenagers that u can send onto the battlefield to mutilate themselves killing these awful villains instead of attempting to rebhabilitate them or even mentioning the justice system!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh and the art history teacher is a dominatrix

[luvism333]

the maze runner maze diversity ideas directly inspired by this @petrichor-idyllic post!!

ive literally been thinking about it nonstop since omg okay BASICALLY its confirmed in the scorch trials movie that there are a bunch of other mazes aside from the glade and group b. since these other mazes are never touched on there are one million and one ways people could go with them in fanfiction in terms of layout, weather conditions, etc. so i wanted to share some!

petri had tons of great ideas (go follow them right NEOW) and im just here to expand on them. 4 the sake of simplicity im gonna call the “gladers” subjects/mazers since we dont really know what theyd call themselves, and im gonna call the “glade” the centre. i am gonna keep calling new kids greenies bc i think its a funny little name + DISCLAIMER i have not read the books and i also do not have the time or energy to rewatch the movies so if any information is off my bad fr

NOT PROOFREAD

MONSTER IDEAS

a maze with birdbox style monsters so they have to navigate the maze blindfolded

a maze where the monsters are deathly afraid of some sort of metal that wicked wont send them enough of to make clothes or armor (at least not enough to keep every mazer safe) so all the people are heavily pierced. greenies come up piercingless and have to sit in the piercing hut (where they keep the metal) for however long it takes them to let the maze piercers do their job because absolutely no shot are they letting any dumbass teenager go anywhere with their rare life saving metal without it being fused to their bodies. the maze record for time a greenie has spent in the piercing hut is 3 full days and the less time you spend in there when you first arrive the more street cred you get

^ the piercer would probably be the maze leader, im picturing someone who at the beginning was the only person that could talk greenies into getting the piercing over n done with and as more came up the maze just filled with people that would only listen to the one person they trusted enough to pierce them straight out of the box.

a maze with underground monsters. you drop something heavy enough and something shoots out of the ground, jaws wide open. they have treestyle type houses, floating bridges connecting buildings. they dont have runner equivalents bc theyre working on building bridges through the maze and its like a no brainer that they cant go anywhere without a bridge. instead of “someone should try surviving the maze at night” its “we should climb the walls” and everyone thinks hes just as nuts

^theyd have a box but wouldnt it be fucking funny if their greenies just fell out of the sky?? they have a little platform right underneath where the greenies and supplies land (they call it ground zero) picturing wicked somehow forgetting to cushion the platform at first and patient zero falls out of the sky and dies on impact

a maze where the monsters arent giant teen eating beasts but deadly insects. one bite of that one and youll vomit up your internal organs, breathe in gas from that one and your entire body will be paralyzed. accidentally step on that one and your foot will swell to the size of a bowling ball and fucking explode. experiment with how your mazers cope with this - maybe everyone wears layers and layers of bee keeping style clothes outside and all the buildings are netted. do they have disinfecting rooms? do they have some sort of poison that takes the insects out? how to they distribute this poison since they cant just pierce it on like the metal maze?

a maze with the hunger games mutt type monster-mutations made out of fallen mazers

a maze where the monsters arent monsters or a threat at all but contain clues or keys thatll help the mazers get out and are notoriously impossible to catch

MAZE IDEAS

on the wiki page for group b it says their maze went vertical at one point - a maze that is completely vertical, their centre (creatively named The Hole) being like a tube just walled in by heaven high maze structures. you look up and at some point the walls give way to an abyss. most of the mazers have given up hope of getting out because it looks endless - or does it? nobody really entertains the idea that the top of The Wall is closer than they think, that the creators have put in a fake ceiling to fuck with them, but the people theyve sent up dont come back down and when the hole is quiet enough they can hear something alive up there and nobody can say for sure that their little village is any worse than what theyll find if they try to leave

hunger games quarter quell type maze where different sections of it have different monsters or obstacles. the sections with the easiest to bypass obstacles have the most complicated puzzle, the sections that are the easiest to navigate have obstacles 10x as deadly

PEOPLE IDEAS

a maze where 2 people come up in the box at a time (inspired by this thomas fic). theyd have names like box-mate or smth for whoever you come up in the box with (i.e thats jeff, he’s clints box-mate) and everyone is really close with their box-mate, platonically or otherwise. i feel like theres alot of cute potential for this idea, like an alby-equivalent talking to aggressive mazers like why dont you go find your box-mate and chill out. go cuddle or something. greenies often feeling weird about their connection w their box-mate (bc who wouldnt??) and long time mazers teasing them about it “oooooh somebodys making eyes at their booox-maaate muah muah muah”

unisex maze (although all these ideas can be unisex) where the number of boys and girls is slightly or very uneven at any given time. people have bets going around that time of the month every month about whether theyre getting a boy or a girl w things like chores and food being traded like currency. the bonfires on greenie day are just celebrations for the winning party

got this idea from petri but someone alone in a maze!!! just completely isolated for however long, not being expected to survive but making it out somehow. have you guys ever read an article or paper on the long term psychological effects of solitary confinement in prisons? of course itd be different but isolation is literally used as a torture method in some places. humans are not supposed to be so alone!! a lone mazer that sleeps by the thinnest part of the walls at night so they can hear the monsters, have some sort of connection to another living thing. a lone mazer that only survives their maze because they know their monsters like the back of their hand after spending endless nights well hidden in the maze just OBSERVING the creatures because it becomes a comfort to them, seeing something outside of themself move by its own free will. a lone mazer that never stops talking once theyre out of the maze because long silence makes them feel like theyre all alone again, a lone mazer that doesnt talk at all once theyre out of the maze because they cant stand the sound of their own voice anymore.

^ petri had the idea of an animal companion and i think that is a wonderful idea!! they have this fic where the reader had a dog and theyre really cute together. go full on disney princess & give your character a bird or a chameleon or a tiger if youre a jasmine guy. a dog or any predatory animal can conceivably help your character escape the maze - give your character a sloth or a koala or just a really lazy cat. give me a lone mazer whos animal companion is dead weight but they dont have the heart to leave them, who keeps their fat cat strapped to their chest like a baby as they fight for their life. 

person alone in a maze with a baby. ik this sounds so random but wicked wanting to see the effects of growing up in the maze so they send in a carer, someone that looks after the mazers before theyre sent in. the carer raises the kid angry at whoever has trapped their now adopted child in this torture chamber come to find out they used to be one of them

maze where the subjects are supposed to get injured in some way to force them to rely on one another. a subject being deafened by a banshee type monster, a subject getting a limb amputated by medjack equivalents after getting suddenly and suspisciously sick. they dont spend so much time mapping the maze as figuring out how to get all of them through to the very end because they quite literally cannot make it without every single mazer

a maze where the subjects keep their memories but theyve all been altered. some remember wicked as saviours providing shelter for them as orphaned children, others remember being restrained, poked and prodded, a vague feeling of grief and betrayal that they cant explain. others dont remember wicked at all and insist that the maze is a paradise compared to desert wastelands filled with zombie people and viral disease.

your mazers can react to this in any way shape or form. maybe factions/cliques of people with similar memories form. nobody wants a leader from a different group in charge of the entire maze so they dont have one, there not being any rules that apply to every group in the maze because nobody will listen to eachother. everyone thinks the ones that dont remember wicked are crazy and the anti-wicked group have the most reason to become violent, have been the most violent in the past so everyone thinks theyre psychos. it takes them longer than other groups to get out despite having memory because they all take over different parts of the maze and refuse to share information.

mazers that have access to technology. they can make things like recordings and audios but no way of connecting to the outside world and no information aside from what they put in themselves. they learn to program things and make robots/drones to navigate the maze for them, make intro videos for greenies so they dont have to deal with them. instead of track hoes and medjacks they have groups of people that work on different kinds of technology because theyve learnt to automate most of the stuff the gladers do by hand. some work on exploring the maze, some make weapons, some study the monster corpses theyve managed to get, etc etc.

CULTURE/TRADITION IDEAS

the different ways people commemorate dead mazers!! in the glade they cross out their names on the maze walls and in group Bs maze they like sculpt their faces into the ice. give me a maze that tattoos the names of their fallen, whos oldest mazers have the most ink so it kind of goes without saying that the more tattoos you have the more authority you have. greenies being able to tell clearly whos been around longer based on which names they have tattooed. give me a maze that mounts the weapons of the dead on a wall, a maze with a regular graveyard that the mazers visit on slow days

greenie events!!! give me greenie celebrations like the bonfire we see in the glade, parties or games, feasts to welcome newcomers. give me a maze where the arrival of a greenie is grim, one more mouth to feed, one more lost soul trapped. a maze where everything dims down around that time of the month because another person means another month theyve failed to get out. give me mazes that test their greenies to see if theyre of any use to the group because those that arent are dead weight. a maze that holds Greenie Trials, where you have to complete an obstacle course or survive a night in the maze or complete some obscure challenge and if you cant youre tossed to the monsters.

^bonus points for a gally-equivalent getting to say ominous shit like The Last One Didn’t Make It

TATTOO SUBGENRE

because i dont know what else to do with these

maze where wicked programmed the monsters to respond to some basic specific kind of symbol and the people have it tattooed in very visible places, painted on every hut and wall

maze where the monsters are deathly allergic to some sort of liquid so the subjects tattoo themselves with it

maze where you have to be incredibly light on your feet when navigating the maze so people tattoo maps on themselves.

GROUP B

i know im supposed to be talking about maze ideas not mentioned in canon but group b has so much potential their wiki says that group b doesnt have runners, they literally all just go out into the maze in a giant group, AND that their monsters are out day and night PLUS their maze is a frozen wasteland. i imagine any girls that arent strong enough to withstand everything are like pretty quickly weeded out and only the hardasses that adapted quickly enough were left omg the cultural norms that would form?? theyre all absolutely jacked and if a greenie dies nobody bats an eye cause tough shit. no introduction no transition period you come into the maze with us and dodge airborne monsters or you stay here and freeze to death. the creators do send them medical supplies but over time they start to notice the way the group interacts w eachother so they start sending less to see if they can push it even farther, make the girls have to ration their medical supplies. it works tenfold oh you broke your arm and you want a sling, aris?? rachel got her arm CHEWED OFF by a FLYING MUTANT PTERADACTDOL and didnt ask me for so much as a BANDAID

this is like evidenced on the wiki too multiple girls suggesting they just leave aris to freeze to death or get eaten by monsters in the maze because theyre SUSPISCIOUS of him?? like absolutely unprovoked too thomas had a stung glader accusing him of being at fault for the maze an unconscious girl who came at the wrong time who is apparently going to be the last greenie they ever recieve feverishly gasping his name just so much ammo for the gladers to toss him out and it takes the death of like half the glade and an insane gally to get him where aris was upon arrival. they literally punch aris square in the face immediately after they decide not to kill him bc “its the fastest way to remember your name” like how did you guys realise that??? "fastest way” so you admit there are other ways??? why are you giving all your greenies concussions

GEN

because i dont know where to put these

explore the concept of failed mazes. a desert maze where the subjects couldnt survive on the monthly supplies because they couldnt farm any food on their own because, well, desert. a maze where wicked did something like the memory altering maze, purposefully dividing them but they went too far and the mazers killed eachother off hunger games style

test mazes! have you ever wondered why the mazes operate the way they do? why do they send people up once a month? why are the mazers of all different ages? why not make the centre already stocked with food and buildings so the subjects can spend more time cracking the maze instead of learning how to grow crops?

a maze where they sent all the people up at once and without guidance from more experienced subjects they pretty quickly killed themselves off. a maze where the subjects were too young and werent organising themselves or mapping the maze fast enough, a maze where the subjects were too old and lost hope faster and easier. a maze where the mazers had everything they needed upon arrival and nobody wanted to leave.

AND MANY MORE!!!

IN conclusion make ur own mazes people!!!!! get creative w it there are so many different directions you can take it in!! pls feel free to use any ideas thats what theyre here for i dont need credit but PLEASE tag me id love to see anything that comes from this nonsense!!! nd lmk if anybody wants a pt2 because i had a million half baked ideas that didnt make the cut i am filled to the brim with Thoughts

[anxiously-sidequesting]

Hiiii

I'm curious what you think about Pirate101 - specifically, if you think there's a distinction between "young pirate" and "young wizard".

In both games the protag is referred to as "young" by lots of characters, but in Pirate this was already old enough to be (infamously) arrested for brawling/smuggling/treason/dueling/hoodoo, as well as lead their own crew. Personally that feels like an indication that being called "young" doesn't make them a kid, or at the very least it feels very older teenager/young adult-ish. In a similar vein, I feel like the wizard wouldn't be elementary school age or anything (although no matter how old they are they're still under-equipped to be saving the world but that's not really the point).

I hope I don't offend you, and you're free to headcanon what you like of course, since they will never have a canon age so to speak. But personally given that context I just can't see the wizard protagonist being as young as everybody says that makes what they're being put through so much worse.

HIIII THANK YOU FOR THE ASK and please don't be afraid of offending me!!! Literally the only way to do that is to break into my house and kill my family so you're good 💖

So first thing's first my first answer will disappoint you because I don't play Pirate101 and so I know fuck all about it HALANDIEKE I get the general gist of the tutorial (i played through that) and everything but I could not tell you anything about what I think about how the YP interacts with people or how they feel or what the general vibe is because I dont know that. Like at all. Feel free to send me stuff about canon I'd love to read it and form my own opinions 💖

As for the ambiguous age of the wizard yeah it can be confusing. Because since the game is primarily designed to have the protagonist be You instead of any set character there's no consistency as to what the canon age of the wizard is. It really just all depends on what you WANT the Wizard's age to be; whether that's your age when you started, your current age, a separate age for a separate OC, etc. Like you said other than the prefix "Young" we really have no idea just how "young" young really is

So yeah I've heard that the Pirate is arrested for crimes and is in jail, and you're right it's hard to imagine someone like 5-11 being in jail for organized resistance of the Armada. And like, in my opinion, that's only because a little child would most unlikely have that intelligence or be cognizant enough to do things like that. So yeah a teen or young adult would work better in my opinion

But like here's the thing, and this is my personal opinion - I don't consider P101 and W101 protagonists to be parallels. Like just because the P101 protagonist may be in the adolescent stage doesn't mean the W101 protag couldn't be any younger, or older.

Especially since there's a difference between the canon protags already. While the Pirate was canonically organizing and participating in the resistance by themselves or with a skilled team, the Wizard was just all of a sudden poofed there. The Pirate has prior training and homeland advantage. The Wizard does not.

I don't really like comparing traumatic experiences between people personally (even though these charas are fictional) but I feel like. Subjecting someone to a war when they've had war experiences vs. someone who has never been in a war before/has no idea how to practice magic is a HUUUGE difference. Not like the former isn't bad by itself but yeah. The Wizard came from Earth, INVOLUNTARILY, and without their permission is thrust immediately into a bad and dangerous situation with no prior experience, training, or preparation. It seems like the Pirate, to me, chose willingly to fight in the Resistance and knows how to defend themselves. There is a huge difference there

And whether or not you headcanon the Wizard to be a child or not I do half agree with you that subjecting such a young person, OR ANYBODY for that matter, into a situation as dangerous as war is a terrible thing to do I get it. But, and this may be unpopular, I'd have a bit more sympathy and alarm for someone who was forced/pressured into it, someone who was unprepared, rather than someone who was already used to it, training for it, organizing plans for it.

So yeah regardless of age, there's a huge difference between both canon protags of both games. I personally feel what the Wizard has to deal with is much worse. Their only "support" system to start out with is a complete stranger who (in post-update) gives them no choice, decides their fate FOR them, and expects them to HURRY UP about it. The Pirate AT LEAST has a crew and other people who literally care about them and back then up and fight WITH them. The Wizard starts out with no one by their side.

So yeah that's just my personal opinion. And this isn't to like bash anyone on the head who thinks any different or has a different story than canon at all 💖💖💖 this is just how I feel. BUT THANK YOU FOR THE ASK IT WAS A VERY COOL ONE TO ANSWER!!!!

[nineliabilityrisk]

⭐ ( @ladyseidr )

[ send a " ⭐ " and i will list muses i would be interested in throwing at yours ]

[ asked by @ladyseidr ]

lets just go down the list here. theres gonna be a damn good few i have SO MANY muses i havent even gotten to play yet. this is going to be so fucking incoherent because i have so many thoughts in my brain. also i KNOW we have stuff pending im working on it i promise im just so all over the place im. yeah 👍

putting my answer under the cut bc this is gonna get LONG

[formatting is "your muse - my muse(s) i would like to see with them"]

funtime foxy - funtime freddy [+ bon-bon] or lolbit ofc!! my muses for them have been inconsistent as fuck lately but i WILL corral them into place eventually

henry emily - literally any of the animatronics. ive hardly gotten to play any of them i want to know how he would treat them. heavy HEAVY emphasis on the rockstars + lefty bc those are HIS bots and his kid and my versions of them are absolute sweethearts. or like. the puppet. or the original bonnie + freddy models. literally any of them. PLEASE god i need someone to come say hi to my fucked up little robots. (/nf) also of course i am shoving mikey and ciar at him thats a given, henry isnt mikes stepdad hes the dad who stepped up i need more content of them. and henry is also not immune to the curse that is ciarán dempsey. he WILL get a hold of him one day. its gonna happen (/lh)

roxanne wolf - cassie. are you kidding. i am picking cassie up and SHOVING her into roxys arms i need more of them literally always i dont care where or when or how. also "secret muse number 2" aka glambonnie who i never bothered to write a bio for. literally my only other actual sb muse because i wasnt interested in sb at ALL until ruin 😭 but i do have a sb verse for michael now too if you wanna have roxy pester him! scare the shit outta that cynical bastard! put some healthy fear of god into him that boy has none left after dying and being brought back to life twice! also if ur willing to wait i am actively working on a sideblog for birdie, my help wanted / sb era oc... i feel like she would get along with roxy REALLY well

michael afton - jeremy jeremy jeremy jeremy i will NEVER pass up a chance to play jeremy. also my henry is always here <3 ive stated this so many times before (including earlier in this post) but michael and henrys dynamic can be something SO personal. pizza sim era or pre-everything or what have you i dont CARE what it is i just want michael to have the caring father figure he was missing and for henry to have the chance to care for a child that he never thought he would have again. i want them to bond over what william did to them. they are everything to me i cannot state this enough. also im dangling all my animatronics in front of ur mikey ooooooh you wanna subject him to the Horrors so so bad. also i think he would like my oc josh theyre both tired minimum wage fazbear employees. also i would be offering evan but that little fuckers muse is GONE atm i dont know where he ran off to im so sorry

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

okay so. last night i scrolled past some random podcast video ad on my fb feed, where two women were talking about “i want to teach my kids to have a healthy relationship with money”; which of course is a great thing. but then one of them went on with the classic, tired tangent you see online about “oh so we learnt pythagoras’s theorem, but NOTHING about high interest bearing accounts and home loans etc at ALL in school!!! how dare they teach us about Pythagoras but absolutely NOTHING about life skills like saving for a home!!!???”

like effie or whatever your name is. we did learn about basic interest in school, specifically in year 9 & 10 maths and probs in senior general maths too- even though i dropped maths for years 11 & 12. we did learn about how to calculate double time & half pay in maths. we did learn about saving money and budgeting in maths. but lo and behold, you were 15. and so, like many 15 year olds (very esp myself back in 2010 for example) you ignored this stuff and didnt think that it was important. like what teenager goes to apply for a car loan with a low interest variable rate of 7.5%??? not one. what 15yo actually cares about interest and how to calculate it???? not many. but maths teachers, to the best of their ability, do try to teach these things to the stubborn kids who don’t want to listen or even do the work. but it’s because they’re abstract concepts, in many ways, to kids. they defs were to me. i didn’t want to know anything about them (or mind you i didn’t want to know anything maths based bc to quote 15yo me i “loathe, despise and detest maths. so therefore i don’t have to try at it!”). and i think many teenagers who struggle with maths think like that.

but then we latch onto the obvs memorable names like pythagoras or fibonacci or just the all-encompassing term of algebra, and totally dismiss it, when we’re older, as pointless. like yes. don’t get me wrong. algebra, even without my distinct lack of trying at it, did send me into deep confusion and to *sleep acting* sleep. but for fucks sake, you can’t expect teachers and the school curriculum to cram EVERYTHING into a school day like life management skills.

i think this is one reason why teachers are so burnt out. because people like this (and generally the internet at large now) keep spitting out these stupid as fuck lines about “WE DONT NEED ALGEBRA AND PYTHAGORAS!! we need life skills classes!!! why don’t schools and teachers totally disrupt core maths skills learning and teach life skills like how high interest accounts work?!” like no. that’s a parent’s job. or even an extension project for more engaged kids thing. or even, if a kid is interested in this stuff, they’ll research it themselves. high schools don’t need to jam “life skills” into their curriculum. especially when globally, it seems, teachers are burnt the fuck out bc of low pay, bad behaviour from both kids & parents and already overloaded class planning and admin etc etc etc that goes with being a teacher.

because although i still see maths as a complete mystery tbh, i can now appreciate that it’s there in school curriculums to try to teach logic and order and systems… in a way much different to english and other artsy subjects like drama and history, that i was good at, do. but this is always ignored, bc the underlying logic of maths is also devalued as being “unnecessary and impractical” all bc no one particularly enjoys or likes algebra…. and just also conveniently forgets that you are taught money skills in maths; albeit if it is annoying…. because why the hell would you buy 70 pineapples and then split the dividends of selling those 70 pineapples amongst you and 3 of your friends??? did you buy them with a 10% discount??? what is the profit and loss of those 70 pineapples??? how do you budget and save up to buy 70 pineapples???? who knows. no one knows. except if you show your working and reasoning- which no one (and not definitely not me both now at 27 and back then) wants to do at 15 years old- let alone at 30 or 40 or whatever other age.

just yeah. i am so sick and tired of people whinging and bitching about the “we should replace pythagoras with life skills in maths!! teach me about high interest bearing accounts and how to apply for a home loan when im 15!!” when teachers are already over-burdened enough already… and if you’d just bother to find your old year 9 maths textbook from whatever year, you’d find that you did learn basic money management skills, then and there. but it went over your head, like it should have when you were 15. and like. applying for a home loan is almost null and void at this point, with how real estate and interest rates are globally (or domestically here in aus) rn. shut the fuck up and let kids be kids, vicki. and let teachers be teachers, when they’ve already got enough on their plates as is, vicki.

and also. the above doesn’t really factor in how kids would feel about so-called “life skills” classes being forced into their already jam-packed class schedules. maybe some kids would thrive in a class that gives them assessments on how to set up a bank loan for anything- a house, a car, a boat idek. or do a report how insurance premiums are set up. or what the process is for working out your superannuation (here in australia) accounts and paying your taxes.

but on the other hand, i think many kids (like 15yo me for example) would resent and hate to have another class that’s scheduled between maths and geography- or maybe gives them an extra period at school some days (eg like the catholic school i was at from years 7 to 10 did on fridays until i was halfway through year 7, i think, in 2008). no kid wants a 7 period friday. no kid wants to have a mandatory life skills class on a friday afternoon about how to file taxes and how to apply for a bank loan. when they’re already up to their eyeballs in english, history, geography, PE, religion (since i was at a religious school) and whatever other subjects they’ve got in junior years assessments and/or exams. 

and if it’s in senior years: how would it be assessed??? would they try to stuff it into a year 12 end of year exam and cause kids to have mental breakdowns all because they can’t remember the difference between CTP car insurance and regular car insurance in a HSC exam in new south wales?? or remember the correct definition of variable rate home loan??? like if i had to sit through that as a COMPULSORY exam at the end of year 12 back in 2013 i would’ve had even more of a mental breakdown than i already had back then. and it would’ve sent me into a further panic attack mode around my ATAR (uni entrance mark).

just. i think all these comments people always throw around about “they need life skills classes in schools so you learn about home loans and taxes and wages and everything Adulting™️ at school… which is FAR MORE important than pythagoras in maths or shakespeare in english and/or drama class” is really not factoring in both the capacity of teacher workloads and also kids workloads at school when EVERYTHING has to be assessed, examined AND reported on these days. it would be a nightmare.

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

Hello, Kat! Hope you're having a good evening! Or morning wherever you are 😆 I would like to request 12, 16, 18, 24, 29, 37, 40, and 51!

hi cas!!! it's okay, today was weird because i woke up grumpy but i think it's finally starting to normalize lmao. i'm still over here trying to force myself to write and getting increasingly anxious about not being able to jdkfjdkf

12. have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

i dont think i ever reached the 48 hour mark, but i've come close!! these haven't happened since like very early college/high school though lol

16. how exactly are you feeling at the moment?

mmm, a little frustrated because i still can't seem to sit down to write. i'm still messing with this ai. or wanting to make a moodboard. or wanting to gif. ANYTHING EXCEPT WRITE and i can feel myself getting anxious because all anyone ever interacts with on this hellsite is my smut 😭

18. are you scared of spiders?

nah. while i'm not overly excited to see them, i leave them alone if i see them because they help get rid of the fruit flies or stray mosquitos. however they usually end up dead because my cats are little monsters and eventually eat them

24. what is/are/were your best subjects?

early high school? math for sure. i was the stereotypical asian kid late high school/early college? anything writing/literature related (definitely not related to exposure to fandoms and creative writing in general as a hobby jdkjfsk) late college/grad school? now i do well at the clinical-related classes but that's mostly because i'm interested in it and put in more effort and i kinda blow off the other classes dksfjksd

29. have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?

i made my husband cry once i think, but it was more like I "let" him cry iykwim? he had a fight with his parents and i told him it was ok to be upset and then it just kinda went from there lol

37. is it easier to forgive or forget?

probably forget? i'm not good at doing that either. ik its not healthy but i do think i have a bad habit of holding onto grudges as like fuel to keep me going. this is why therapy exists jdkfjdk

40. have you ever walked outside completely naked?

id rather die

51. favorite food?

this will change in a few weeks but as of now i'm really craving chicken noodle soup 😭

send me some asks!

[piinemarder]

Time to overshare and then delete later

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

Yeah, we get along well enough, pretty different people though

02: Who did you last say “I love you” to?

My friend Tae

03: Do you regret anything?

Many things, who doesn't. Nothing comes to mind immediately that is something that was in my control.

04: Are you insecure?

Maybe? I'm very uncertain of myself but I wouldn't say it bothers me too much.

05: What is your relationship status?

🚬🪱

06: How do you want to die?

OD in the forest

07: What did you last eat?

Speculaas

08: Played any sports?

Tried tennis, field hockey, football (soccer), basketball, ultimate frisbee. Nothing got my attention. Planning to start horse riding soon.

09: Do you bite your nails?

Yes but purely for maintainance reasons, i only ever bite them if they're annoyingly long and i dont have a way to cut them at the very moment.

10: When was your last physical fight?

Play fighting, probably in the last year. Actual fight, probably a decade ago.

11: Do you like someone?

I like many people (hah). Romantically? idk if i'm entirely capable of that.

12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

I think my max was a round 42, a decade ago. 30-40h waking periods were quite normal for me then, nowadays I usually dont let it go past 24h and drug myself.

13: Do you hate anyone at the moment?

Not sure i'm capable of true hate on a personal level. I do "hate" many people in the vague sense of they're shitty people doing shitty things (bigots, 'phobes, etc.) but in a more personal sense of people i actually know, not really, I dislike many folks but thats a me problem.

14: Do you miss someone?

yeah

15: Have any pets?

Yes, green cheek conure, jungle carpet python, rainbow stag beetle(? he's currently hibernating so idk if he's alive), multiple isopod colonies, aquatic snails, a single caridina shrimp, some kinda spider who just lives in my bathroom, currently caring for a moth pupae that was displaced while cleaning gutters.

16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment?

hopeless, anxious, dogshit

17: Ever made out in the bathroom?

probably

18: Are you scared of spiders?

somewhat, i can coexist with them just fine, but I'd prefer if they are arms length away from my face if they r moving.

19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?

For a little while, just to have more time with someone dear to me, but i feel i am more mentally stable now so I wouldn't want to linger. If i could retain my stability and go back i would in a heartbeat.

20: Where was the last place you snogged someone?

outside a hotel in Melbourne

21: What are your plans for this weekend?

send an email, survive

22: Do you want to have kids? How many?

absolutely not, I am not equipped to deal with them.

23: Do you have piercings? How many?

Yes, technically four but in my head its two because they're pairs. Snake bites and angel bites. Did have my bridge for almost a year but it kept flaring up due to a shitty pierce job, plan to get it redone next year.

24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)?

Before my mental state got too bad I was very good at math.

25: Do you miss anyone from your past?

Question 14

26: What are you craving right now?

watermelon jerky

27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart?

probably

28: Have you ever been cheated on?

probably, its not something i care about tbh

29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?

yeah

30: What’s irritating you right now?

where i live

31: Does somebody love you?

no <3 (yes, probably)

32: What is your favourite color?

brown, green, red, yelloworange

33: Do you have trust issues?

yeah

34: Who/what was your last dream about?

i dont remember tbh

35: Who was the last person you cried in front of?

my piercer technically, but that was not emotional and just a side effect of being stabbed in the face y'know.

emotionally, my mother probably, idk if she saw though because i just kept it to myself

36: Do you give out second chances too easily?

nope

37: Is it easier to forgive or forget?

forget

38: Is this year the best year of your life?

i guess?

39: How old were you when you had your first kiss?

idk probably like 4 or some bs, but actual memorable, consenting kiss was 18

40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked?

not that im aware of

51: Favourite food?

watermelon

52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

nah

53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night?

i am in bed, and before this i did medical aftercare

54: Is cheating ever okay?

relationship-wise, no, unless there is a an agreement of allowance.

In anything else, yeah

55: Are you mean?

yeah

56: How many people have you fist fought?

many, cbf counting, back went i was pretty unstable

57: Do you believe in true love?

Not in a traditional sense

58: Favourite weather?

overcast, foggy, cold

59: Do you like the snow?

yes

60: Do you wanna get married?

not in a traditional sense, i dont care about it

61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?

i dont want a boy or girl to call me baby. I do enjoy my partner calling me baby though.

62: What makes you happy?

nature, my parrot, my warm bed, driving

63: Would you change your name?

i dont really have a set name

i have changed my legal name previously, but it is generic and i dont like it, but it keeps me safe being generic so i dont plan to change it

64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed?

65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

uh nty, not interested in cis folks, thats the closest to "opposite sex" i have ig

saying that, I only have one cis friend and i would probably consider it so idk lmao, I can fix him, uncis him.

66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around?

again, only one cis friend, and yea.

67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to?

please no more opposite sex questions, i cant just dox my one cis friend

68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

Probably Aaron, idk

69: Do you believe in soulmates?

not in a traditional sense, i believe you can bond with someone on a deep-soul level but i dont think its predetermined

70: Is there anyone you would die for?

yeah

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

[erwinsvow]

What comes after seven? ATE🤭 Your fic (I can’t afford to actually become a jj girl you need to stop) and drabbles were a part of my self care/wind down process and I’m so grateful for your talent🫶

Work was so cute!! I have a few little side quests but today was tutoring (my favourite) he’s the sweetest kid and tries so hard I melt

What do you do? I thought I read you’re a medical student AND you work?? Is it a residency type thing? Either way thoughts and prayers to you that’s so impressive and amazing

On a more serious note maybe this is dumb but I just feel like you’re so kind and I’m sure very busy and you’re just always so quick to answer?? And I’m just always rambling and I feel so bad for clogging up people’s timelines and your page

Your kindness and hospitality (on your blog lmao) is so so appreciated but you really don’t have to!! I love chatting but there’s no need to feel obligated in any way shape or form to keep interacting or anything

I do love that I’m finally making friends in this fandom though so thank you💓

(I’m a cancer)

- 💓

you are SOOOOO SWEET omg. im so so so glad you liked it that genuinely means the world to me <3333and omg being a part of your winding down process stop. i write for myself but knowing others like what i write makes me feel so silly goofy inside. if u ever want a real fic for an idea you have and not just my conversation/drabble reply pls let me know id be more than happy to try and put it into words!

omg that sounds so nice! i used to tutor too we are so linked! im glad it was good😌he sounds adorable! what age do u tutor/what subject? i tutored college bio lol

also yes hahaa so im starting school in the summer and i updated it in advance because ik once it starts I probably wont write as much any more :( rn im a doctor assistant which is ~crazy~ and its 12 hour shifts so once im home it is me myself & i time (hence why i answer so quick, im always scrolling because i dont get to have my phone during work 😞)

you’re not rambling at all i am so glad you stop by to chat!!! it feels so sweet n personal there’s plenty of people following me here n now im getting to know one of them! i love seeing msgs from you! i have been using the tiny text so it takes up less space lol i be rambling talking to you!! & omg please don’t thank me srsly i love interacting🥹 like i said i was always the anon messaging wanting to chat n i just want to make everyone feel welcome. ur the best for sending me msgs! i 🩵 our check ins

also stop… im a cancer moon. SO LINKED. ik you probably saw but virgo sun & taurus rising. hbu??? 💓

also also i posted a bunch of rafe stuff today. would love to know ur thoughts!!!!!!🫶🏽

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Facebook algorithm boosts pro-Facebook news

Facebook is a rotten company, rotten from the top down, its founder, board and top execs are sociopaths and monsters, committers of non-hyperbolic, no-fooling crimes against humanity. They lie, they cheat, they steal. They are some of history’s greatest villains. Because Facebook is a terrible company run by terrible people, it periodically erupts in ghastly scandal. Sometimes whistleblowers or reporters reveal historic crimes, including (but not limited to) deliberately helping to foment genocide.

Sometimes, the scandals are contemporary: either Facebook blithely announces it’s going to do something terrible, or we learn of some terrible thing underway from leaks or investigations.

Thanks to a history of anticompetitive mergers — Whatsapp, Instagram, Onavo and more — based on fraudulent promises to antitrust regulators, Facebook has grown to nearly three billion users — except FB doesn’t have users, really — it has hostages.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/dont-believe-proven-liars-absolute-minimum-standard-prudence-merger-scrutiny

As Facebook’s own internal memos show, the company doesn’t just buy up competitors so users have nowhere to flee to, it also engineers in high “switching costs” to make it more painful to leave the system.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

For example, Facebook’s internal memos show that the manager for its photo products set out to seduce users into entrusting FB with their family photos, because that way quitting Facebook would mean abandoning your memories of your kids, departed grandparents, etc.

Everybody hates Facebook, especially FB users. The point of high switching costs, after all, is to increase the pain of leaving so that FB can dole out more abuse to its users without fearing that they’ll quit the whole enterprise.

FB’s mission is to increase the size of the shit-sandwich they can force you to eat before you walk away. But they’re not mere sadists: shit-sandwiches have a business model: the more hostages they take, the more they can extract from advertisers — their true customers.

The polite term for what FB has is a “two-sided market” (selling advertisers to users and users to advertisers). The technical term is “a monopoly and a monoposony” (a monopsony is a market with a single buyer).

The colloquial term?

“A racket.”

A scam. A bezzle. A blight.

Facebook gouges advertisers on rate cards, then lies about the reach of its ads (like when it lied about the popularity of video, evincing a media-wide “pivot to video” that bankrupted dozens of news- and entertainment-sites).

Facebook didn’t set out to destroy journalism by price-fixing ads, lying to advertisers and media outlets.

FB set out to acquire a monopoly and extract monopoly rents from advertisers and publishers, with a pathological indifference to how these frauds would harm others.

Having shown a willingness to destroy journalists and media outlets to extract a few more billions for its shareholders, Facebook has attracted a lot of enemies in the media.

If you’re a whistleblower with a story to tell, there’s a journalist whose editor will allocate the resources to report your story out in depth. The combination of a rotten company and a lot of pissed off journalists produces a lot of bad ink for the company.

But the fact remains that FB has a vast pool of hostages, billions of them, and it gets to decide what they see, when and how. I used to joke with my human rights activist friends that the best use for Facebook was showing people why and how to leave Facebook.

FB’s response was predictable. As Ryan Mac and Sheera Frenkel write in the New York Times, FB’s Project Amplify is a Zuckerberg-led initiative to systematically promote positive coverage of FB and its founder — including articles that originate with FB itself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-project-amplify.html

That is, FB staffers are charged with writing puff pieces about how great the company is, and FB’s algorithm will push these ahead of reporting by actual journalists who present detailed, factual, multi-sourced accounts of the company’s fraudulent and depraved conduct.

Project Amplify marks a pivot from FB’s longstanding policy of issuing insincere apologies for its scandals. Company sources told the reporters that everyone figured out these don’t convince anyone, so the company turned to pushing happy-talk quackspeak instead.

One of the leaders of this project is Alex Schultz, “a 14-year company veteran who was named chief marketing officer last year,” but the major impetus comes from Zuck himself, one of the most hated men on the planet.

Amplify is just one of FB’s strategies for distorting the discourse about itself. In July, it neutered Crowdtangle, an widely used analytics tool that showed that FB’s top posts were unhinged far-right disinformation and conspiracies.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/15/three-wise-zucks-in-a-trenchcoat/#inconvenient-truth

And Facebook has declared all-out legal warfare (accompanied by a disinformation campaign) to kill Adobserver, an NYU project that tracks paid political disinformation on the platform.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#quis-custodiet-ipsos-zuck

By shutting down Crowdtangle and Adobserver, FB hopes to control the academic findings about the company’s role in disinformation, hate, and harassment. The company runs its own research portal where academics are expected to access data about the platform.

But as with the journalists who report on it, FB has heaped abuse on the academics who research it.

Its portal data was bad, leaving PhD and masters’ theses are at risk of retraction. Mid-dissertation researchers have been set back to square one.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/2020-election-misinformation-distortions#facebook-sent-flawed-data-to-misinformation-researchers

In retrospect, Facebook’s decision to game its own algorithm to push pro-company quackspeak seems inevitable. It’s not just that no one believes the company’s apologies anymore (if they ever did) — it’s that the company seems incapable of hiring competent spin doctors.

Take the WSJ’s blockbuster “Facebook Files,” a series of reports detailing the company’s willingness to harm children, commit fraud, and allow millions of favored, powerful people to violate its rules with impunity.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-09-16/facebook-s-promised-to-gain-the-public-s-trust

FB’s response was genuinely pathetic. In a perfunctory blog post, its top flack — the widely despised British politician Nick Clegg, paid millions to front FB on the global stage — vilified the WSJ’s reporting without producing any factual rebuttals.

https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/what-the-wall-street-journal-got-wrong/

It’s the kind of ham-fisted policy advocacy that Facebook is (in)famous for. Who can forget the absolute shitshow in India over its Internet Basics program, when it bribed telcos to exempt FB and the services it hand-picked from their data-caps?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-free-basics-india-zuckerberg

This Net-Neutracidal maneuver, falsely billed as a way to bring the internet to poor people (something is absolutely does not do), was the subject of a consultation by India’s telco regulators.

FB pushed deceptive alerts to millions of its Indian users, tricking them into sending a flood of form-letters to the regulator urging it to leave Internet Basics intact.

But whoever drafted the form letter didn’t bother to check whether it addressed any of the questions the regulator was consulting on. That made these millions of letters non-responsive to the consultation, so the regulator ignored them.

FB lost! It’s almost as though people who are good at fighting policy battles don’t want to work for Facebook, and the only talent they can attract are the kinds of opportunistic blunderers that no one takes seriously and everyone hates.

Weird, that.

[dogydayz]

this is a whole topic im often very nervous about getting into, because i dont wanna sound like im tryna tell other autists to "just be happy with themselves".

I think that the whole idea of "accepting one's own traits and characteristics as part of who they are, rather than those things being like unwanted leeches that only take from them" is something the autistic community sorta.... doesnt.... really talk about? I get why, I really do, it's super fucking tough to think that these struggles ARE here to stay, and people calling those struggles "flaws" doesnt help, because who wants to believe they're inherently flawed? But I think that's just it. People need to realize that "flawed" is a baseline, and there is no "perfect". Struggles due to autism aren't inherently bad traits, at least imo, even if they're annoying and cause issues. The fact of the matter is that, if humans just interacted better and helped one another more, they WOULDNT be such huge struggles. I wouldn't struggle so much with my sensory issues if people didn't constantly try to get me to do shit I know I can't do, I wouldn't feel so bad about my voice volume if I only had kids ask me to quiet down instead of the bullying and mocking I get, I wouldn't feel so bad about having special interests if special interests weren't treated as some sort of social "red flag" or some shit.

Having a character who DOES accept their traits, even ones that cause them annoyance, as a part of the whole that is themself is something we REALLY need. Often times I feel like autistic characters are portrayed as either so confident they're oblivious assholes, or lacking any and all self-confidence and subject to insults and bullying that wrecks them mentally, even if the media itself doesn't frame them as being bad or anything. I feel a lotta media also depicts disabilities in general, and self-deprecating humor acted out by disabled individuals, as not some sort of relatable thing aimed at similarly disabled people, but rather humor meant to make a general audience say "wow, damn, that MUST suck huh?". It puts disabilities in general in such a stupidly bad light, yet it's hard to point it out to others because they just wouldn't understand WHY it's bad unless they too are disabled.

But Shadow's ideal humor? Deadpan humor. Silly stupid quips from a guy who's insanely passionate about what he fights for. Slight absurdist humor in the form of him having no fucking clue why eating a bowl of coffee beans is considered weird. That's the shit you see posted on autistic forums or r/aspiememes. That's the shit you send your autistic friend to giggle at because it's so relatable. It's like seeing your autistic coworker fall for something that you absolutely know you'd fall for too if it were aimed at yourself, so you find your circumstances both humorous and somewhat charming. Secure. Safe. It feels like it's FOR you, not just ABOUT you, or heaven forbid AGAINST you. It doesn't feel like a jab, or like someone writing what they THINK a disabled person would think.

That's why I love the idea of it for Shadow.

I think one of my favorite parts of the "autistic Shadow" headcanon is the fact that he's designed to be the Ultimate Lifeform. I don't mean this in an annoying, "autism is a superpower" dumb way (even if I do find my own autism to actually be quite helpful at times, the whole concept of calling it that is stupid and used to hurt people like us), I mean it in a "Shadow was genetically engineered to be an Ultimate Lifeform, he's designed to survive and be able to do things no one else can, yet he still struggles with something that could be classified as a disability in his daily life." I dont know if im wording it properly, but there's something about how he's still viewed as that Ultimate Lifeform despite dealing with something that many people would immediately label as a trait that makes someone "inherently" less capable of survival. I know that many folks struggle with autism in way more severe ways than I may (though much of me saying this is kinda me repressing and refusing to acknowledge that it IS still a disability for me, but still, i recognize others DO deal with more severe aspects than I do), however I really just dislike how autistic characters get labeled as inherently "unable" to live "right". He's a character whose whole thing is that he makes his own path for himself, he fights even if the world hates him, he doesn't back down and even when it looks like he is, he's just playing it smart. Even if he does have these struggles, he IS able to find a life for himself, he isn't held down by expectations or what people tell him he is. In fact, that's ANOTHER whole part of him as a character, that he breaks free from what others say he should be. Even if he were confirmed to be autistic, he wouldn't be "the autistic character". He'd still be himself, he'd be Shadow, they'd be confirming that he has certain struggles, but he'd still be /himself/.

His story wouldn't change, he wouldn't be bound by the chains of what people think an autistic character in media should look like, he wouldn't be "the character who's autistic" (as if they aren't all already autistic, but that's a whole different topic lol), he'd just be Shadow, and Shadow would just happen to be autistic.

Again, I may be wording this wrong and if i am PLEASE forgive me, I'm trying so hard to put my thoughts into words,,,

I think this is coming a bit from a place of me seeing Prime Sonic and thinking to myself "holy fucking shit he's got ADHD but it's not shown as all of him". Of course they havent truly confirmed Sonic to be ADHD but like, i think they probably did do it purposefully here, but maybe that's just me? I just see him do stuff and think "wow yeah, I've done that before! And I do it because i have ADHD! and he has some of my struggles!! But his friends still love him even if they're annoyed by him at times, and he still isn't a bad person even if he did fuck up! Any they handle it with nuance that real people experience in life!!"

And that's how I'd see autistic Shadow being handled. He already has a lotta the traits, but they don't confirm it being based on things like sensory overload or whatever, despite the fact that they really could. And even if they did, he'd be handled just as if it were another trait. It wouldn't be some defining attribute to him, him being autistic wouldn't be some selling point, there wouldn't be any "look! There's now an autistic character in this media!!".

But back to the main point.... Basically, him being autistic doesn't make him any less of the Ultimate Lifeform, and I think that's about the most extreme way to get across the point of "being autistic doesn't make you any less of a person or any less important". He was GENETICALLY ENGINEERED. Yet he still is autistic and it was decided "yep we succeeded in creating the Ultimate Lifeform!", so much so that the military wanted to use him as a WEAPON. Nothing about his potential disability made him any less of a success, or any less of a protector to Maria, or any less of a wonderful creation to Gerald, or any less of anything else to anyone he knows.

Something about that is just... a really nice idea to me. Maybe not for everyone, but to me that's inspiring as fuck, and reassuring to, to think about...

[niko-jpeg]

WiP and Draft Post

All of the fics will be under the cut and there will be a brief description of each if you want to skip it. They will be organized from shortest to longest, and none of them are really heavily edited so if you find some mistakes, I apologize. Word counts are all estimates (except the first one). I didnt steal this idea from @psycho-chair you stole it from him.

Just comment which one(s) you liked and I'll write more! If you want any of these in a separate post for any reason, I will post them in separate posts.

Total Word Count: 17,659 FUCKING YIKES BESTIE

1: SOUL FUSED CHAPTER FOUR

Notes: Dont worry, SF is not cancelled. It is not discontinued. Its just on hold while I do Fail Boat stuff and get my life together.

Words: 59 (yikes)

Date: December 2021

____________________

Error had mixed feelings about Killer and Nightmare’s little gang of misfits. They were just kind of… there. He honestly had no idea where they came from or why they suddenly were a big part of his life, but he liked to think it was for entertainment value and not at all because he was getting attached to them.

2: UNTITLED 1

Notes: I genuinely dont remember writing this. I think it was supposed to be about Chara getting up to ghostly shenanigans or something, but I dont remember anymore.

Words: 100

Date: September 2021

_____________________

“Hey kiddo.” Frisk looked up from their book at Sans, who was sitting on the other side of the couch, just moments ago taking a nap. Toriel had asked him to look after Frisk (and Chara) while she went on a trip to Soia City, which was roughly a ten hour drive from the small town at the base of the mountain where they lived. She claimed it was so they wouldnt get lonely, but Chara suspected that the true motive was to make sure the two kids didnt burn the house down. Its not like Chara could if they wanted to, they mooched off of Frisks life force in order to even exist. They had even figured out how to momentarily manifest into a physical form, almost like a ghost for a few minutes.

A lot had happened since the monsters had resurfaced.

3: SPLATTERS OF INK CONCEPT

Notes: I have no idea where I was going to take this, but I guess it was just supposed to be a fun little short ft. some characters I have a very big soft spot for. Mew if youre reading this I am so sorry I have no excuses.

Words: 100

Date: November 2021

____________________

Before the Story: Basically just introducing the characters and how they were made. Airbrush is introduced the most as one of the Inklings who had a parental figure growing up. Airbrush asks Ink about the possibility of others like him existing. Ink vehemently denies it and changes the subject.

Reconnection (Airbrush): Airbrush was just sitting under a tree minding his damn business when a group of boys came and harassed him. He flees the situation and PJ finds him in the forest, looking to recruit him into a group called "The Splatters". The Splatters pick up after Ink and Error in secret, as well as get other "Inklings" to safety. The reason they hadn't been able to get to Airbrush was because Ink found him first. Airbrush says no and continues on with his day, though PJ doesn't leave him. They send Gradient in to try to convince but he has a breakdown halfway through his speech and gives up. Dizzy doesn't even try. It's Reimancy who gets through to him.

4: TRUST FALL CONCEPT

Notes: Okay so this one actually has a trigger warning! Mentions of eating disorders and a suicide attempt. Just an idea and excuse to write Dadmare lol. Of course, its at Cross' expense.

Words: 400

Date: December 2021

____________________

A set of three oneshots surrounding Cross and his time joining the bad Sanses. He's stuck with this idea that he needs to be perfect and any slip up he does is a weakness.

PART ONE: Perfect.

The first Oneshot is about how He develops this awful mental state where he starves himself and forces himself to throw up any food the others try to get him to eat, patrols the castle instead of sleeping, and takes any thing he does wrong personally.

One day, Dust or someone snaps at him and tells him he'll never be perfect and to just get over it after Cross starts venting to Dust about how awful he feels about not being perfect. Cross takes it the wrong way and tries to stab his soul, Nightmare stopping him at the last second.

Nightmare isn't negligent, he just hoped Cross would be able to work it out either on his own or with the others, since his relationship with his team was kind of… shaky to say the least. Nightmare forces him to fess up about his eating disorder and his various other issues and it's basically just pure fluff and comfort from there. Horror essentially force feeds him so at least he has something in his system, Nightmare officially places him under "Suicide watch" (meaning hes not allowed to be alone for about a week and if he's caught by himself then the watch time gets extended) and Horror goes mother hen mode on Cross.

PART TWO: Challenge.

The second one is focused on developing Cross' relationship with the others. Killer and Dust get into a fight and Nightmare forces them to do team building games like the flying hula hoop and the pillow pile game. Cross is still recovering from the whole ordeal the previous week but still participates because Noot Noot mom told him too.

Killer gets on friendly terms with Cross and the team gets to know Cross a little better than "Nightmares little weird guard dog".

PART THREE: Trust Fall.

Basically a big ol chapter full of fluff and Nightmare teaching Cross it's okay to trust others and that he belongs to the bad Sanses now and will always have a home with them no matter what. 5: ANOTHER SHOT PROLOGUE

Notes: This was a little Oneshot au I whipped up a few months back but never did much with because life. The idea was Niko moved to a big city and nearly forgot about the World Machine until they get back in contact through their phone and they go on another adventure. Also the Author is Niko's dad in this, though thats part of the mystery they're trying to figure out so shhhh ;)

Words: 1,000

Date: August 2021

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As the light faded away, Niko stepped out onto the plush carpet of their room, a triumphant smile gracing their features. They had done it. With the help of the Player, they had saved the world and given everyone the happy ending they deserved. The sun was back for good.

Niko blinked a few times, adjusting to the lower light levels of their room. Everything looked just as they had left it, tidy and neat. They always tried to keep it clean, it made their Mama happy when they did. It was the most they could do for her.

Niko flopped over on the neatly made green covers of their bed, situated in the far left corner of their room and glanced out the window. It appeared the sun was just beginning to rise in the distance, painting the skies a soft purple. They sighed and sat up, fidgeting with their scarf. It was weirdly quiet.

“Well, obviously. The Player isn't here.” Niko mumbled, a regretful feeling washing over them. They probably weren't ever going to talk to them again. But, they had their own life, as did Niko. They just dearly hoped they wouldnt forget the god of that world. Or the world itself, for that matter.

Niko jumped off their bed and ran to the desk on the opposite wall of their bed, an idea hitting them like a train. There was a way to remember. They pulled open the top drawer and pulled out crayons and some paper, flicking on the lamp and plopping themself down on the cream carpet and pulling the crayons out of the box.

They drew the first people that came to mind, which were (for obvious reasons), Rue, Proto, and Cedric. They drew themself golding the sun next to the siblings, all of them smiling. Niko wanted to draw the Player, but couldn't quite picture what they would look like, so instead they drew the World Machine. Well, technically they drew the reflection that the Entity borrowed to talk to Niko. It could contact the Player any time it wanted.

The rest of the colorful cast Niko met along the way soon followed. Kip, Silver, George, Calamus, Alula, even Prophetbot were down on paper by the time the sun was fully risen and Niko’s mother was knocking on their door and asking them to get up.

“Coming mom!” Niko called, springing up and flinging the door open to greet their mama. Their mama seemed surprised at their enthusiasm to start the day.

“Well someone seems excited. Have a good dream?” Their mother asked as Niko got up on their toes and nuzzled her. “Did you… sleep in that?” She asked, stepping back to observe in better detail what they were wearing.

“Actually, I didn't sleep! Well, very much. Instead, I went to a really cool world where the sun went out and I had to fix it, and I got help from the people of that world and a god named the Player and-” Their mother laughed awkwardly. “I’m sure you did. It sounds very exciting, my child, but please, lower your voice. You’re being awfully loud.”

There was something stiff and unnatural about her reply. Did she not believe that Niko had done all of that? But they had! They even had proof. “Why dont I make pancakes? You can give the extra leftovers to Mrs.Fideli later too. Maybe you can hang out with Sona while you're there too.”

“Yeah! That sounds fun!” Niko replied, brushing off their mothers strange behaviour. Maybe they could tell their mama all about the adventure they just had over breakfast! That would be the coolest!

____________________________________________________________________________

“...and then I said goodbye to the Player and walked back into my room!” Niko finished, taking another bite of pancake. Niko’s mama sat across from them with a weird expression on their face. It looked to be a mix of confusion and alarm.

“That's very… interesting, sweetie.” Niko’s mother got up and turned the corner, entering the kitchen and grabbing a few pancakes, placing them delicately on a ceramic plate, coating them in foil and handing them to the child.

“W-why don't you go give these to Mrs.Fedeli. Please be back by noon if you choose to stay with Sona.” Niko grabbed the plate and nodded, grinning and giggling. “Sure mama!” They jumped out of their seat and ran to the door, tossing it open and running though, shutting it less than gently on their way out.

Their mama sighed shakily and wiped her hands on her yellow apron, watching the door for a few seconds before going to Niko’s room across the house. It was a relatively small cottage, meant for a small family obviously.

She pushed the door open gently, stepping inside and looking down at the floor. Crayons and paper littered the floor, just as they had that morning. She picked one up gently as if afraid it would explode and took a closer look at it. Despite the fact it was an eleven year olds drawing, it was obvious what the drawing was of.

She sat tentatively on her knees and looked through all of the drawings. They were all exactly what her child had described. And before her, HE had described.

She placed the drawings back on the ground and pulled out a simple flip phone, dialing a number and holding it up to her face.

“Hello? Yes it's me, Shara. I was wondering if that apartment on the eighth floor was still open…”

“Niko?” Niko looked up from their book at their mother, a little concerned about the resigned tone in her voice.

“Yes mama?” Their mother sat on the couch next to them and folded her hands neatly in her lap, shifting uncomfortably. It was around one in the afternoon, yet the pancakes from that morning still sat cold and now soggy on the table.

“A recent… event had transpired and, because of said event… we…” Their mama’s voice wavered a little. “What does ‘transpired’ mean?” Niko asked.

“It means something has happened… and… I’m so sorry, my child, but we’re moving.” Niko tilted their head at their mothers words. “Moving?”

“Next month. To the big city a few hours away. Permanently.” Niko froze. It took a few seconds for Niko to truly process what she was saying.

“What?!” Niko shouted, confusion painting their face. Niko’s mama looked away, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sorry this is so sudden, but… we have no choice.” The perfectly good day Niko was having was shattered by this news. It was so sudden.

“B-but?! But mama, we can't just LEAVE!! What would Dad think?!” That small, innocent comment about their father caused their mama to burst into tears. “M-mama?” Guilt welled up inside them.

Their mother sobbed into her hands, ignoring the child's now frantic questions. "Mama?! Are you ok?! Mama!!"

"It's for the b-best…" Their Mama whispered, continuing to son inconsolably. Niko ran out of the room and out the front door to their neighbors house, knocking frantically on the door.

Sona answered the door and Niko did their best to explain what was happening. After failing, Niko dragged Sona's mother to their house. Now knowing that their Mama was being looked after, Niko booked it to the middle of a wheat field and broke down in a panic themselves.

They shouldn't have brought up their dead father. They really shouldn't have…

6: THE SILVER LINING PROLOGUE

Notes: This was supposed to be a reader insert a little bit like TGBM but with an actual plot lmao. I didnt get very far before I decided I had better things to do.

Words: 1,000

Date: September 2021

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You pressed your face to the glass of the window, staring out into the never ending sea of trees. You had seen nothing but them for the last few hours. It was starting to get a little repetitive.

You reminded yourself once again that this was now your reality. Why the new boarding school you were going to was in the middle of the woods was beyond you. The memories of the last few weeks played through your head once more, reminding you once again, that you brought this upon yourself.

“It’ll be worth it,” they said. “You’ll make lots of new friends and go on so many neat adventures!” they said. You somehow doubted their claims, but it's not like you really had a say in what your future held anyway. You were getting shipped off to this new school on an ancient looking bus regardless if you wanted to or not.

The chatter around you made a nice background noise to your thoughts. Every once in a while you could faintly pick up bits and pieces of people's conversations. There was a lot of talk about the new English teacher and plenty of excitement about the new term to go around. And then there were scrubs like you, huddled together to talk about what maybe to expect. You weren't sitting with them not because you were anti-social, but because you had no idea they were all sitting up front, and by the time you had made the realization that the newbies were sitting up front it was already too late to move.

“Attention all passengers! We will be arriving in five minutes, please be prepared to retrieve your things and report to the gymnasium in an efficient manner. Your dorm assignments will be posted on a wall in alphabetical order and you may pick up your schedules there as well.” Someone up front instructed. You sighed and picked up your bag, shoving your phone deep into a pocket in the front and pulling off your headphones. You had stopped listening to music when you ran out of songs on your playlist a half hour ago but didn't bother to take the headphones off. In hindsight, that probably made you look like an edgy anime protagonist, but oh well.

“Who do you think is going to go missing this year?” An older student asked another student behind you. You perked up and turned your head to hear better. “I dunno, probably one of the newbies.”

Go missing? You didn't read about people going missing in the little pamphlet they gave you before you got on the bus. You strained to hear anything more about the matter but the two guys behind you had already moved on to talking about the new teacher. Apparently getting a new teacher was a big deal? Why?

The bus skidded to a halt in front of the school building, which looked surprisingly normal. The students at the front of the bus timidly disembarked. You watched everyone get off, a few asking if you wanted to go first. Every time you decline, deciding you’d rather watch to see what the others would do first. You had read that this was a relatively small private school. It was supposedly a “second chance” school for people who had gotten kicked out of their previous schools. It was weird though, because they also noted it would not tolerate bad behavior. Even weirder was the fact that you were not in need of a “second chance”. You just moved a lot and your parents wanted to give you a consistent place to make friends and go to school. Even if said school was in the middle of the woods.

“Oh my god Stacy, LEAVE ME ALONE!” You jolted a little at the loud voice coming from two rows behind you. “But Cirrus, you're the only one here I know!!” Two kids about your age (you could guess the girl with long brown hair and pale skin was Stacy and the boy next to her with darker skin and white hair was Cirrus) hurriedly went down the aisle. Cirrus, the boy, seemed rather annoyed with Stacy.

“Yeah, only because you got us expelled last year from Foxfield! I don't want any trouble this year, ok Stacy?!” You got up behind them and followed, realizing you were now the only ones still on the bus. “It's not my fault we’re both freaks-”

You followed them off the bus and onto the gravel pavement below. You joined the crowd of people into what you could assume was the gym, given its size and the basketball hoops hanging from the ceiling. Cirrus and Stacy were still arguing in front of you, their conversation still centered around the topic of getting expelled from their old school, apparently for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and blowing something up.

The list of dorm assignments was on the opposite wall to the outside entrance. Cirrus, Stacy and you all seemed to have the same idea and casually walked over to the paper covering the wall with the other students.

You scanned the paper for your name and found it next to another name. Shit, guess you were going to have to put up with a roommate. You took a closer look at the name and blinked in surprise. “Cirrus Featherduster” was the name next to yours. You thought it was safe to assume that the Cirrus on the paper was the same one standing next to you. You checked the number and sighed. 305. Of course you were on the third floor.

“YES!! I’m not paired with you!!” Cirrus exclaimed, causing Stacy to jump. “Well, yeah. They would know better than to put us back together I hope.” Stacy spat, punching his shoulder. “I did get paired with… someone named ‘(Y/n)’ though.”

“That's me.” You said, poking Cirrus in a non threatening way. This time it was his turn to jump. “Dear god! Don't scare me like that!!” He hissed at you, swatting your hand away. “Nice to meet you and all, but geez dude!”

You grinned at him and he grinned back. Looks like he might be entertaining to mess with. “Hmph. I have a roommate too. What floor are you on?”

“Floor three I think?” Cirrus looked over the page again and shrugged. “I think thats what the ‘3’ in the number means.”

“Oh cool. If thats the case we’re on the same floor. HA! You cant escape me!!” Stacy laughed maniacally while you and Cirrus stood there for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Y-you done?” You asked after a solid minute. “Yeah.” Stacy snapped out of it and shrugged.

“Okay that was weird. Anyway…” You turned to Cirrus. “Since we’re roommates and neither of us really know what we’re doing, wanna get our schedules together?”

“Sure, why not?” Cirrus replied, grabbing your arm and dragging you along to the table to the left of the list.

“HEY!! Wait for me!!” Stacy called, speed walking to you and Cirrus all while complaining about how you were no fun.

7: CHAOS ENSUED.

Notes: I had a funky dreamand Error was there for some reason, so I decided to make something of my ability to remember my dream details very vividly. So I gave said dream a comprehensible plot and this is the result. I have no excuses.

This is supposed to take place in a multiverse where the XEvent was kind of… diverted I guess. Ink decided to opt out of the little “game” in favor of screwing with Error and forming the Star Sanses as an officially recognized group. Cross still is “not adopted” by Noot and crew, but they totally adopt him this time around. He's their baby brother lol.

The Reader is a creator who got pulled into the multiverse by an experiment gone wrong of sorts, but all that gets explained later. They gain the ability to do that stupid Gacha trope of their creations coming to life. There are a few other creators who got pulled in too, one of which is a big character in this. Reader is on good terms with both Nightmares Gang and the Stars, but more neutral than anything.

Sorry for the long explanation lol

Words: 2,000 words

Date: October 2021

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Ink and Error had made a truce ages ago. Well, less of a truce, more of an agreement. A truce implies that they started getting along. Despite everything, Ink was still insistent on annoying Error and Error was still insistent on being a baby over it.

The multiverse had adjusted well to said truce, despite the balance of Positivity and Negativity still a little all over the place. Dream was stubborn, but Nightmare was more so. But at least the Creation-Destruction ratio was somewhat balanced.

“G-GET BACK-K HERE Y-YOU LITTLE S-SHIT!!” A glitched screech echoed through the Doodle Sphere as a very pissed looking Error chased Ink, who was grinning like an idiot. Ink had, yet again, successfully broken into the Anti Void and stolen one of the various not voodoo dolls Error made. This one was of a human. Upon closer inspection, it was a human both of the gods knew very well. And Ink was threatening to show it to them.

“I’M GONNA TELL (Y/N)!! I'M GONNA TELL THEM YOU LOOOOOOOOVE THEM!!” Ink taunted, sticking his tongue out. Error screeched some more and shot some strings at him. The protector dodged with ease and continued running around and evading Error’s attacks. This was basically routine. Ink’s new purpose in life was helping Dream fend off his brother and his gang. Oh and also harassing Error. Just for fun.

Speaking of Dream, the golden demi-god himself teleported into the Doodle Sphere in hopes of getting a word with Ink. Following closely behind him was a human. That human being you.

You were one of the few people allowed into the Doodle Sphere, the reason being you were a Creator. A few years ago, you had been involved in… an accident of sorts that sent you and a group of others through time and space, landing you in the Omega Timeline. Core had discovered you and the others on the outskirts of the main town and offered you a home until you figured out how to go back to your home world. You had personally befriended Ink a few months into the stay and shortly thereafter made friends with all of his friends too. You even managed to get yourself off the “destroy on sight” list of the supposed bad guys, who kidnapped you by accident once or twice thinking you were someone else. Who that someone else was you never quite figured out though. You suspected that Error grew fond of you the first time you got kidnapped and set up a second time to talk to you again. How sad.

Anyway, you jumped through the portal Dream created and landed firmly on your feet. You grinned at the sight before you, stifling laughter in your hands. Error had Ink tied up and hanging from the ceiling by blue thread, gripping tightly onto a plush doll of sorts. From a distance you couldn't quite figure out what it was, but didn't really care. Dream sighed and facepalmed, mumbling to himself about how he should've known. “(Y/n), can you break them up please?”

You nodded and ran ahead to the pair.“Error! Ink!!” Error whipped around with a panicked look, hurriedly opening a portal and tossing whatever he was holding through it. “(Y/n)! W-what a lovely surprise!!” Error greeted in a strained voice, his cheeks turning a shade of yellow. It was no secret he was a respectful simp for you. Everyone kind of just knew.

“Nice to see you too! Um, can we steal Ink real quick? Dream wants to talk to him.” You asked, nudging the tightly contained upside-down bundle of chaos. Ink smirked evilly and giggled maniacally. You shot him a weird look and he continued cackling. “Error, you should SEE your face right now!”

Error’s face turned four shades yellower. He began glitching like crazy and buried his face in his scarf. He looked like an angry kitten. With a wave of his multi-colored hand, Ink dropped face first onto the floor. “Take him. I got what I needed from him anyway.”

The Glitchy god of destruction opened a portal and stepped though, glancing over his shoulder hesitantly. He looked as if he wanted to say something. You waved to him and he smiled, glancing at the floor and mumbling into his scarf.

The portal closed and you shrugged, offering your hand to Ink, who was just sitting there on the floor giving you a smug look. “What?”

“Nothin’.” He replied, taking your and pulling himself up, before promptly dragging you back over to a very impatient looking Dream.

“Ink, what did you do this time?” Dream asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. Ink smirked and nudged his best friend's side playfully. “I decided I was going to bully him into telling you-know-what to you-know-who.”

Of course, you knew what that meant. You weren't the oblivious idiot that Ink seemed to think (or hope) you were. He was trying to get Error to confess to you. For the last year and a half since you had met him at Nightmare’s Castle, he had done his diddly darn best to talk to you at every given opportunity. Both you and Ink had picked up on the fact that he got all blushy faced when you talked to him and he always seemed to be in the same general area as you at almost all times, and Ink was not gonna let him live it down any time soon.

Dream rolled his eyes and sighed like an annoyed parent. “Ink, you have to stop. He’ll let them know when he wants to. You shouldn't push it.”

Ink pouted for a second, his eyelights turning blue for a hot second before switching back to the usual combination of yellow and green and random shaped. “So what did you call me for?”

“Ink. My friend. My best friend in the whole world. The chaotic to my neutral. You’ve been

ignoring me for the last week. I am now forcing you to participate in an obligatory hang out session with Blue and I. (Y/n) can come if they want to.” Dream stared Ink down menacingly. Why did he have to say the nicest things in the scariest ways?

Ink cowered and nodded reluctantly as you smiled nervously. Were they really going to drag you into this? Dream turned to you for your answer.

“I… I think I’ll pass. I have some house work to do today. Sorry.” You apologized. Dream looked a little disappointed but nodded. “That's ok. We’ll have to hang out together sometime else though!”

You smiled and agreed, opening a portal to the Omega Timeline and stepping casually through, waving to your friends. The portal closed behind you and you began down the streets of the refugee timeline, waving to people you knew and making your way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and your homebound-

You arrived at your house and pulled your key out of your pocket, stuffing it in and twisting, the tell tale sound of the door unlocking greeting your ears. You pushed the door open and stepped in the paper cluttered house. It was small and only one room, but it was home. You had done your best to make it look like the room you used to have before the accident.

You plopped down at your desk and pushed aside some papers, pulling your laptop from the mess and opening it. Sure, you had house work to do, but more importantly you had some art to make. Digital art was your only way of making things and not having them spring to life. You had learned your lesson the hard way when you drew one of the inhabitants of the OT and you suddenly had a bitty sitting in front of you on your paper. You gave the bitty to one of Ink’s friends, Fresh, who promised to take care of it. Sometimes you wonder whatever became of it.

You opened your art program and began doing some warm up doodles, completely oblivious to everything that was about to go down.

____________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, halfway across the multiverse…

Error sat on his beanbag chair, holding the small plush doll that Ink had tried to steal. Thankfully it was unharmed. He stared at the little doll, a faint blush on his cheeks. God he was such a simp-

He tucked it safely in his arms, wondering what the human was up to. They were interesting, so if he had to guess something equally as interesting.

The god of destruction leaned back, thinking about the first time they had met. It had been when they and the others had arrived. It had been a regular ol day of sitting in the Anti-void, eating stolen chocolate and stalking whoever he deemed worthy. Ink had suddenly burst through a portal and landed face down on the ground a few feet away. At that point they had started visiting each other in their domains, normally just to annoy each other. While neither of them took it seriously anymore, at the time it really was kind of hostile. The ink stain had practically dragged him by the scarf to the Omega Timeline. There, standing shyly in the corner, had been (Y/n). They looked worried and sick, but when they started talking, Error practically crashed. It was the same voice as the creator that had just suddenly disappeared. Then again, there were 17 others with them, all of which matched the voices and descriptions of the creators.

Error had gotten to know (Y/n) a little bit better beyond ‘holy hell it's the creators’ when Killer kidnapped the wrong human. They had to stick around for a while as they sorted the whole thing out, and Error had actually grown quite attached to them. They were funny and not afraid to kick people out windows who needed it. That was the day Nightmares Gang learned how aerodynamic Killer actually was.

When they were returned safely, Error had actually been a little sad. They had become rather good friends by the end of the accidental kidnapping session. From then on he had made it a point in his life to drop by and say hello every once in a while.

Sadly, ‘every once in a while’ became almost every week and he realized he was kind of obsessed with the human. Respectfully, of course. Not in a weird or creepy way. There was just something about them that was so… endearing. And that was the moment he realized he 100% screwed.

Well not quite. It was Ink finding the doll he had made of them (so they’d always feel close by) and connecting the dots that really meant he was thoroughly fucked. Ink didn't let him live it down since.

A tug on one of his strings pulled him from his thoughts. He knew that tug. Nightmare was requesting his presence, once again. Error signed and planted a small kiss on the dolls cheek, placing it gently on top of the Bean bag next to the Ink plush and the plush he made of himself. He ripped open a portal and jumped through, wondering what Nightmare could want this time.

Inside the meeting room was Nightmare, Horror, and the newbie Cross. The latter was curled up on a chair and looking sleepy.

"Ah, good. You're here." Nightmare looked up from the first aid kit that he was rummaging through. "I apologize for calling you out of the blue, but would you be willing to do a favor for me?" At least he was being polite about Interrupting his train of thought. "Cross is developing insomnia again and we ran out of melatonin. Can you run to a random timeline and steal some?"

Oh yeah, hadn't Dust made a comment about Cross practically refusing to sleep because of frequent nightmares? Error had almost forgotten it had been so long. The glitchy god sighed and nodded, ripping open a portal before he could even question why they needed it in the middle of the afternoon rather than nighttime. He wasn't opposed to running errands for the gang, but sometimes he wishes they would do it themselves. Eh, maybe he could drop by (Y/n)'s side of the OT and see if he could catch them out and about. That would be nice. He wanted to ask them to hang out sometime soon anyway, so maybe now was his chance.

Meanwhile, Dream was thinking. That wasn't a very uncommon occurrence. He did most of the thinking for his team anyway, mostly because he was the only one who had more than seven brain cells. Well, none of them have brains, but that's besides the point.

One of the things that came to mind was how he wished that Ink would stop harassing Error. Sure, it was frustrating to watch him uselessly try to make moves on one of his ‘beloved creators’, but he really did need to lay off.

“DREAM, ARE YOU OK?” Blue asked, bouncing down the stairs and landing not so gracefully on his face. Oh. Right. The hangout session. He was sitting on Blue and Honey’s couch next to Ink, so was jotting something down on his scarf.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Dream smiled hurriedly in an attempt to reassure his friend. The blue soldier nodded and grinned, clearly glad to see them. “ALRIGHT, IF THAT THE CASE, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TODAY-”

“Lower your voice Blue.” Honey called from upstairs. Blue lowered his head and looked a little guilty. “We’ve been working on that for the last week. It's not going very well.”

“Maybe we could help you then!” Dream suggested, jumping up from the couch excitedly at the prospect of helping his friend. Ink looked up in confusion. “What's wrong with the way you talk?”

“My bro thinks I’m too loud, SO I'M GOING TO WORK ON IT AND BECOME THE QUIETEST IN TOWN!!!” Blue exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Well clearly you’re not trying all that hard.” Honey came down the stairs, looking tired and grumpy.

Shame danced across Blue’s face as he grabbed Dream’s hand and walked out the door. “Sorry bro.”

The protector jumped up to follow them, exchanging a worried look with Dream.

8: SECRET SANTA THING

Notes: This was made for the secret santa thing for @skyedancer2006 but I decided I didnt like it very much. So, uh, merry late crisis I guess.

Words: 2,000

Date: December 2021

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Another cold breeze swept over the hill and through the village, ruffling the grass and pages of Nightmares book. Nightmare shivered, pulling his legs closer to his chest and shuddering a little. All day, the weather had been nothing but overcast and ominous. Yet Dream had still insisted on going into that dreadful village.

Nightmare sighed, a puff of air forming where his breath met the cold air. He hoped Dream would get back soon. When he got back they could huddle together to share warmth and wait out the cold together.

The purple clad twin looked back down at his book, focusing on the words of the page instead of the chill in the air. Dream had brought back the book from one of his trips to the Village a while ago, but he never bothered to read it. It didn't seem too interesting, but now that he had started it he couldn't stop. Sure, the writing was a little questionable at best, but he was already invested in the characters.

He flipped the page, losing himself in the plot of the book. It was about a group of friends trying to track down a dragon and kill it so they could be famous. So far, the plot had been giving him the vibes that they were going to end up defeating the dragon brutally with the power of friendship, since that's just kind of how these things go.

Nightmare set the book aside, giving up on reading it in the pitch darkness that was the night. The lights from the distant village illuminated the distance slightly, casting a warm glow over the field in front of the twin’s tree. Faintly, he could see the silhouette of his twin hiking his way across the field separating the Village from the Tree of Feelings.

Nightmare waved, getting to his feet and wincing. His legs were numb with cold and he couldn't feel his toes anymore.

Dream waved back, making a gesture for Nightmare to come to him. Confused, Nightmare padded down to the base of the hill where Dream was standing with his hands on his hips and a grin across his face.

“Greetings?” Nightmare greeted, approaching his brother. The others' eyelights shone in the dark, as opposed to Nightmare's darker cyan ones.

Wordlessly, Dream grabbed his twin's hand and pulled him towards the village, a grin still plastered to his features.

“Wh- hey! Dream, what are you doing?!” Nightmare asked, trying to pull his hand from his brother's grip. Dream continued to pull him along without as much as a glance back.

Dream pulled him into the Village, the paths almost barren. In the distance, quiet music could be heard.

“Dream, what is going on?” Nightmare asked again, still receiving no definitive answer. Nightmare was getting a little uneasy about the whole situation, the Village was rarely ever almost empty. Then again, he wouldn't really know. He tended to stay away from the village.

Dream continued to lead him down the path, eventually leading them to the town square. Nightmares' eyes widened at the sight of the normally plain looking square now transformed into a bustling market of sorts, stalls lined up around the sidewalks and the music significantly increasing in volume.

“Okay for real, What is going on?” Nightmare asked, interest (and confusion) piqued.

“Well, today is the Winter Solstice!” Dream explained, wrapping an arm around Nightmare's shoulder. “They have a festival every year to celebrate it for some reason. Do you know what else is today?”

“No…?” Nightmare replied quizzically, shooting his brother a questioning look. Dream laughed and bonked him on the head with his fist.

“It's our birthday silly! And here's my plan on how we’re going to celebrate it!” Dream reached into his pocket and pulled out a large stack of G and thrust it into Nightmares hands. “I'm going to get you a gift, and you're going to get me one, then we swap at the end of the night or when both of us are done, since I know you aren't particularly fond of it here.”

Oh. So that was what today was.

“Wait, Dream, how did you get all of this?” Nightmare asked, staring down at the stack of G in his hands. It had to be at least 100.

“Why do you think I've been spending so much time here? I've been doing simple chores and things of the sort. Pays really well and they usually give me extra because I’m ‘sO dArN cUtE’. They treat me like I'm five sometimes and it's a little weird but whatever, G is G.” Dream explained, pinching his cheeks at the mention of him being cute.

Nightmare laughed, feeling bad for taking what Dream had worked hard to earn. But the logic checked out, so Nightmare went with it. “Okay… do you have anything in particular in mind that you would want?”

Dream shook his head. “Nope. See you in like, 30 minutes?”

Nightmare nodded and Dream sped off into the crowd, probably trying to lose Nightmares gaze. The cyan eyelighted twin sighed and skipped off, looking for something that would appeal to his brother. He had heard of birthday celebrations before, but never actually taken part in one.

Nightmare hummed along with the music being played by a group of musicians at the center of the square, the upbeat tune bringing the whole setting to life.

The stalls were selling an assortment of interesting things, ranging from food to cloth, and occasionally other random items. One caught his eye though.

A dimly lit stall in the corner was run by an elderly looking Rabbit monster. They were selling an assortment of blankets, some patterned, some plain. Nightmare considered for a moment, before continuing on.

“Child.” The Bunny called. Nightmare turned back to the bunny, confused. Was she talking to him?

“Yes, you. Come here.” The Bunny confirmed. Nightmare tentatively approached the stall, nervously fidgeting with his hands.

“Yes ma’am?” Nightmare asked politely, praying he didn't do anything wrong or offensive by just being here. The Bunny squinted at him and chuckled.

“You’re related to that other Skeleton child, correct?” She asked. Nightmare nodded, wondering if she was going to hurt him.

“Heh. He's a sweetheart. Here,” The Bunny reached over to a simple fuzzy green blanket, holding the folded fabric out to Nightmare. “Give this to him next time you see him.”

Nightmare took the folded blanket in his arms, admiring the fuzzy fabric. He knew technically the Bunny had given him it for his brother, but it was the first time anyone in the Village hadn't just looked at him weirdly and moved on with their lives.

“I- I will.” Nightmare promised, bowing to the bunny quickly out of respect. “Thank you.”

The bunny smiled as Nightmare turned to the crowd pushing his way through to look at the other stands. He stopped and bought a cupcake for Dream as well because while the cyan eyelighted twin did not like sweets, Dream had quite the sweet tooth. He still had a lot of G left but opted not to use it. He would give it back to Dream when they met back up.

Nightmare found the place they had started and Dream was already there, holding something behind his back.

“There you are!” Dream greeted, bounding up to his twin. Nightmare kept his gift behind his back as well, smiling at his brother.

“Wanna trade?” Nightmare asked. Dream nodded enthusiastically, declaring he would go first.

Dream pulled from behind his back a strange line of light cased in glass balls. Nightmare looked at them strangely and asked “What are those?”

“They're magic lights! You can put them on the tree and read at night! I saw them earlier today and knew that you would like them.” Dream replied bashfully, holding them out for Nightmare to look at.

“How do they work?” Nightmare asked, taking one of the warm glowing balls in his hand.

“Magic.” Dream replied smugly, wrapping them around Nightmare's shoulders. “And now I wont lose you in the dark!”

Nightmare smiled and pulled the blanket and boxed cupcake from behind his back, holding them out for Dream to see. “It's not much, but…”

Dream took the blanket and rubbed his face against it, purring. “It's so soft!” Nightmare smiled at his twin and took the blanket from him, carefully wrapping it around Dreams' shoulders and tying it like a cape.

“Now you won't be as cold as I was while I was waiting for you!” Nightmare smiled, petting the fabric one more time. “Holy cow that stuff is soft.”

“You were cold?” Dream asked, frowning.

“A little, but it's fine. Oh, here's your cupcake. I didn't really know which to get you so I got a vanilla one.” Nightmare gave the cupcake to Dream, who looked a little guilty.

“How about we head back now?” Dream asked, already taking Nightmares arm and pulling him away from the village at last.

They climbed the hill and Nightmare set up the lights, wrapping them around the banner they tied to their tree mom. It illuminated the area with a warm glow, making the area seem a little less lonely.

Dream had split the cupcake between them and wrapped them both in the blanket so they would both be warm. The snow had started shortly after, littering the ground in piles. Both of the twins were thankful for the blanket and each other to keep warm.

After all the snow had set, the skies were not so gloomy anymore. And with the help of the lights, Nightmare could finally read to Dream while they both tried to sleep. Maybe things were going to be okay.

9: TO THE LOST, FORGOTTEN, AND UNNAMED

Notes: This I plan on continuing and its based on a post Alex and I made because at this point we're just writing buddies and great friends. The idea is Nightmare has had 4-5 other teams that werent the Bad Sanses we know now. Cross wasnt aware of this and becomes invested in their now long past lives.

Words: 2,000

Date: January 2022

___________________

“Hey, can you do me a favor?” Dust asked from across the room. Cross glanced up from his phone and sat up, knowing Dust was likely going to send him down the hall again to get more pins. He had been working on a sewing project all afternoon and somehow STILL kept running out of pins. Thankfully for him, he had set up shop in the living room on a folding table right across from Cross, who had been mindlessly browsing Reddit or something.

“Sure.” Cross replied, shutting off his phone and standing. It may come as a surprise, but each member of the bad sanses had a sort of side hobby. Killer whittled, Horror cooked (though that was unsurprising), Cross played a few instruments, and Dust liked sewing of all things.

“In the closet there should be a clear box of thread. Might Have put it away in the basement though.” Dust informed around the pins he held in his mouth with his teeth, pulling a few out of the fabric he was working with. It seemed that he was making a sweater, but it was hard to tell from across the room.

“We have a basement?” Cross asked, doing a slight double take. He had explored nearly ever corner of the castle and never run across a basement.

“Yeah, its just storage though. You have to go in the broom closet on the ground floor near the entryway and pull open a hatch to get in.” Dust replied casually, shifting the fabric.

Cross hummed quietly, trotting down the hall for the third time that hour and pulling open the linen closet door, pushing the various boxes of supplies aside. Fabric scraps, boxes of bobbins, a dead bug or two… no box of thread.

“I dont think the box is in here.” Cross called down the hall.

“‘Kay, check the basement. Oh, bring a flashlight with ya!” Dust responded, seeming unbothered by the delay in thread.

Cross sighed and patted his pocket, double checking he had his phone on him. Skipping down the stairs, the oreo found the broom closet with relative ease. As Dust had said, there was indeed a trap door of sorts embedded into the ground.

The monochromatic X pulled the dusty door open with ease, another flight of stairs greeting him. Now he knew why Dust told him to bring a flashlight.

Flicking on the light on his phone, Cross descended the stairs timidly, each step giving a painful groan with the sudden weight. It was pretty clear no one had been bothered to upkeep this place.

The basement was musty and damp, as one could usually expect with a basement. True to Dust’s words, it appeared to be mostly storage. Boxes of… stuff piled high around the relatively small earthen basement.

Cross raised his phone light to get a better look at the surroundings. He could assume that the sewing supplies were with the creepy ass mannequin and piles of fabric in the far corner.

Cross strode towards the fabrics and shuffled through the mess, ignoring the way that the lifesized doll was positioned to “look” (despite not having a head) in the general direction of where Cross needed to be.

The box was near the bottom of the pile, but easy enough to dislodge from the rest of the supplies. Checking that the lid was shut, Cross began to walk back to the base of the stairs, glancing at the boxes piled high against the walls around him. If he looked hard enough, it almost looked like there was names or words written on the sides.

Cross stepped on something that wasnt the earthy floor of the rest of the basement, jolting him from his thoughts. The oreo took a step back, sticking the box under his arm and picked up what he had stepped on. It appeared to be some kind of… book?

Cross tilted his head and checked the back, taking note of how old the leather bindings and cover looked. There wasn't a name written anywhere on it that he could see. He propped the book open in his hand and turned to the first page, holding the light to the page.

Property of Cappri

The text was faded and smudged, but eligible. Cross’ bone brow furrowed. Who was Cappri? As far as the X was aware, Killer, Dust, Horror, Nightmare, Error and himself were the only ones in the castle. Maybe it was stolen?

Cross climbed back up the stairs, shutting the trap door with his foot and shutting the book with a soft thump. He would look at it later, right then he had a… friend? to deliver a box of thread to.

Skipping up the stairs once more, Cross deposited the box of thread on the folding table that Dust sat at. He thanked the oreo quietly and continued to sew, the now evident jacket coming together nicely from what Cross could see.

Cross shortcutted to his room and placed the black leather book on his desk, shooting Killer (who was unsurprisingly sprawled out on Cross’ bed playing on his phone) a look and retrieving his sketchbook from the set of drawers next to his desk. Horror and Error had helped him decorate and customize his room a few months back after complaining about how sterile and hotel room like his room was. And ever since he had strung up fairy lights, painted the walls brown and filled the shelves of his once barren bookshelf Killer had decided that the oreo’s room was the place to be and sometimes would go as far as to spend the night. And somehow, even when Cross set up a space on the floor for him to sleep, the eyelightless skeleton would always end up snuggled up next to Cross and under the blankets. It was like having the worlds biggest and most infuriating cat.

The night went on as usual. Horror made soup for everyone and Killer had to practically drag Nightmare away from his paperwork to eat. Dust finished the sweater, Cross accidentally dozed off on the couch, and Killer thought it would be funny to pour ice water on him.

Everything went normal until about midnight, when Cross excused himself from the group to go make a feble attempt at sleep. Only then did he remember the book he had picked up earlier.

Flopping over on his bed, Cross gingerly pulled open the old book and checked the front page for any more details on who’s journal it was.

Upon finding nothing, Cross flipped to the next page and began reading.

Day 7

Wow. Ive been here for a week now. Cant tell if thats sad or what.

The next part was ineligible

--. That stupid human (I think their name is Tris??) got in that asshole from Underfell’s way and the other newbie and I ended patching them up. When will they just give up? Its clear he isnt interested in making friends. I wish t----

More smudged text.

Cross frowned. From the way it was worded, in the context of whoever these people were living in the castle would make sense. But who were they? There wasnt a date or anything written anywhere he could see, so he would just have to keep reading.

He flipped the page, reading on.

Day 8

That stupid eyeless freak wont leave me the hell alone! What the fuck did I do to get his attention?! According to the others, hes been here for a while but no one knows where he ----

He just sticks to our “boss” like glue and leaves us alone most of the time, but all day he just kept ---------

I hate this god damn castle.

Day 9

The entirety of day nine was crossed out and smudged. The next few pages were ripped out or stained with time, making them unreadable. Clearly no one had bothered to take care of the book.

Cross pulled out a notebook from under his bed and flipped to a blank page, beginning to take notes of his thoughts and the people mentioned. So far he had Capri, the journal’s owner, the guy from Underfell, Tris, and the eyeless freak. He put “Name Pending” next to the two without specified names, unwilling to just call them those names. How would he feel if someone just walked around calling HIM “XTale Survivor”- oh wait.

By four in the morning, he had gotten through the whole of the journal and even translated a few strange entries from Wingdings to English. Still no name on the Eyeless guy though. After entry 43 the entries just stopped. Very abruptly. It was a shame too, Capri had promised to follow up on Scarlet (the Underfell Papyrus)’s backstory and compare it to their own au. There also probably wouldve been name confirmation for the eyeless one. Cross was pretty sure Nightmare was their boss, but some confirmation would have been nice.

A knock at the door jolted Cross from his thoughts, and only then did he actually check the time. 4:38 AM. Oh shit.

Cross tossed his books back under the bed and flew across the room, tugging on the lamp string and bathing the room in darkness, throwing himself onto his bed and pretending to be asleep. The light might have not traveled through the door and he may still have enough time to pretend he was asleep before whoever was on the other side of the door did so.

10: THE GOOD, BAD, AND MULTIVERSE PART TWO

Notes: Based around a concept I made when I first joined the fandom! You can read it here if you want: https://www.quotev.com/story/13951119/The-Good-Bad-and-Multiverse

Words: 3,000

Date: July 2021

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Your smile dissipated as your throat felt like it was closing. Even though you didn't turn around or see the guy, you had a pretty good idea of who it was. Sonder stopped too, looking at the figure that now was behind you.

You breathed a sigh and turned on your heel, a hand sticking out from behind a tree. A very bony hand. With, naturally, a pink whoopee cushion tied to the inside. You wondered if you should pretend to fall for it for the sake of comedy but Sonder didnt give you that option.

“Hello sir!” He called, bounding up to you and tripping over his own feet. Sans jumped out of the shadows to get out of his way and you realized that Sonder had fallen intentionally. You turned to Sans who was now staring at the face planted raptor.

“Hey kiddo. Your parents were looking for you before I left. Where ya been?” Sans asked, looking around the forest. He jumped back up to his feet and tilted his head. “What? I don't HAVE parents. The closest thing I have is the great Dr-” You stomped on Sonder's tail in a panic to shush him. The last thing you needed was the already self aware Sans asking awkward questions. “As for you, I… think I've seen you before?” There was something in his voice you didn't like, a ‘have we met before’ tone. His expression remained neutral as he looked you up and down, a hint of familiarity dancing across his face. You shrugged. “We’re tourists.” It wasn't a complete lie, as your ‘job’ according to Gaster was to explore the multiverse but be home by 7 so your parents dont worry.

Sans gave you a disbelieving look and asked with an obvious wink “Then whatcha doing all the way out here in the woods? Visiting the town wood be better.” You snickered and Sonder sighed. Quickly regaining his composure, he turned to you and replied “Y-yeah! We got lost, ain't that right (Y/n)?”

“Yep. In fact, we were looking for town when we wound up here! Crazy how bad navigation apps are nowadays!” You took the lie and ran with it, even going as far as to pull out your phone as subtly as possible and just hold it so it looked more realistic. Sans shrugged and waved you in his direction, you and Sonder following him as he began to lead you through the forest. He didn't say much after that, seeming to be thinking about other things. The deep green trees got lighter and lighter until...

“Woah.” The three of you broke through the mass of trees, standing atop of a hill that overlooked a quaint and simple town, Mt.Ebbot towering in the not too far off distance. Monsters and humans mingled amongst each other in the streets, everyone looking a little apprehensive about the weather. The sky was darkening still, the threat of rain hanging above the towns head as the townsfolk tried to do their thing.

“If ya dont mind me askin’, what were ya doing in the forest sir?” Sonder asked as the three of you began down the hill. “...” Sans didn't reply immediately.“I was looking for something, that's all.”

Sonder looked up at you and you shrugged. You may have been able to help pilot Frisk through the underground, but Sans was an enigma outside of the few interactions Frisk had made with him. You only did a neutral and true pacifist run, so you never had to fight him. Thank god. You had as much of an idea as Sonder as to what he may have been looking for.

Sonder struggled to keep up with you, so you picked him up bridal style. Much to your surprise, he was pretty heavy. You began to notice small details about the town the closer you got. A lot of the monster owned shops you could see were marked with the Delta Rune, characters you recognized were milling about, tending to their new lives, and much to your surprise, humans and monsters getting along really well. You certainly did not expect that, as most of the time you imagined the humans putting a little resistance against the monsters moving into their town. But, they didn't seem to have a problem. You smiled a little at the thought that maybe this timeline was the perfect pacifist ending you had worked towards.

“Here we are.” Sans did a small jazz hand-like gesture and you set Sonder down. “I forgot to ask, what’re your names? I could give ya some heads up on where the best places are if you’d want.” You smiled at the skeleton as he shoved his hands back in his pockets sheepishly.

“Oh! My names (Y/n), and this is Sonder. He's my… travel buddy.” Sonder shot him a toothy grin and Sans narrowed his eyes. “That's funny. I knew a kid ‘round these parts with the same name. Looked an awful lot like you. You sure you're not pulling my leg-” He stopped himself and sighed. “Nevermind. Stupid question, given I cant even figure out what the kiddo’s name was. We’re ya from?”

“We’re from…” You thought of a random legitimate sounding town name. “Valerian City! It's a bit far from here.” He shrugged casually. “I know. I live there too. The name Sans. Sans the Skeleton. You must’ve done a lot of walking to get here. Even more to get THAT lost.” You bit your lip in panic. Was he messing with you? “Most of us live out there actually. Most of the underground residents went there since it was bigger. But mostly out of fear of agitating the humans already here some of us moved to the city. I’m out here assisting Dr.Alphys move her research. Even though that's what I did last month. And the month before that. And pretty much every month since we reached the surface half a year ago. Makes me wonder how much research she actually has. She must have a ton. A skele-ton.” Sonder sighed and you suppress a laugh. “That pun sucked.” You commented bluntly, regaining your composure.

“Really? Then why are you smiling?” He shrugged at you and sighed. “Whatever. I better find Dr.Alphys. See ya ‘round kiddos.” He took a shortcut and you dropped your semi upbeat facade. “Holy shit that could've gone south so fast.”

Sonder nodded and looked up to meet your eyes. “I think he’s suspicious. We should probably hope he doesnt connect two and two. Sans’ are normally the first to pick up on strange multi-universal events. Closely followed by Floweys and Chara and Frisk duos. We should probably lay low.” You wholeheartedly agreed to that plan, and what better way to lay low than to further cement the lie you had just told the self aware skeleton.

And by that, you meant to be a literal tourist. This was, after all, your first time in an Undertale AU, so it only felt fair. Even if this wasnt where the main cast was, it would still be interesting.

____________________________________________________________________________

“T-that should be the l-last of it!” Alphys sighed, shoving the last box of information into the back of a minivan that belonged to her human research assistant, Coley. She had volunteered to drive Sans and Alphys out to Ebbotton an hour away to collect the remaining research. In fact, the human scientist was very insistent on letting her drive them and overjoyed when they showed her the CORE. All in all, Coley was very VERY over the top, but no in the same way that Undyne was.

Sans leaned against the red van, staring off into the still ominous skies. It was well past 6 in the evening but those kids from earlier were still there down in the town. Heck, they were visible from where he was standing! They were sitting at a park bench in the local park talking to each other about heck knows what. For whatever reason, the human, (Y/n)’s presence… it felt familiar. It was like a mixture of how it felt to be around that inkstain and his group, but more intense. And there was something else there, something like… familiarity?

“S-sans? Are you okay? You're not making a pun about the obscene amount of research I have.” Sans snapped out of his thoughts and turned to the other two scientists. Coley was shutting the car’s trunk as Alphys approached the skeleton.

“Hm? Yeah, just thinking.” Hew replied, relaxing his shoulders and closing his eyes. “A-about…?” He opened one of his eyes to shoot Alphys a look, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. She was staring at the sky along with him. He sighed and replied “I met some really weird kids in the woods. Claimed their names were (Y/n) and Sonder. Except, not the Sonder we know. He looked… so familiar. Same with the human. I can't help but feel I’ve… maybe met them before..”

“W-well, maybe they're f-from the city?” Sans nodded. “They claimed to be, but I would have seen the monster kiddo when we brought everyone back. He wasn't accounted for.”

Alphys looked thoughtful. “That is weird. Do you think they have anything to do with that… oh what did you call him?” “Inkstain?” “Yeah, him and his gang?” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her snout.

“It's possible. Oh, speak of the devil. There they are.” Sans gestured to you and Sonder, who were hiking up the hill to where the scientists were. “Heya Sans!” Sonder called out, pushing his way up the hill with you slowly following behind.

“Hm? Oh hey kiddo.” The two of you made it to the top of the hill as Coley got in the car and rolled down the windows. “You heading back now?” You asked, watching as Alphys got into the front seat. “Yep.” He shrugged and pulled open the car’s door. Before he got in, he looked over his shoulder with a confused look in his eyes. “You kids should be getting home too. You have a ride?”

You bit your lip and shook your head. “No, we uhm, promised we’d call the person who c-came to drop us off! He isnt going to be here for a while, even if we do call now.” Yes, finally! All those years of lying to your parents about your sleep schedule and how much time you actually spent on the internet came in handy. It was a little rusty, but the lie seemed to convince Sans.

The driver of the car overheard you and piped up “Wait! Maybe we can give you a ride. Where are you going?” “Valerian City.” You replied simply, recalling your previous exchange with Sans. “Ohmygosh so are we! Would it be ok if we gave you a lift? I don't like the idea of leaving a bunch of kids here. There's room back there right?” ‘Bunch of kids’ your ass. You weren't REALLY a kid. Neither was Sonder. He was likely over 100 years old. You elected to not ask that right now, but keep it in the back of your mind.

Sans sighed quietly and replied simply. “Yep.” “Great! We better get out of here before the rain begins though. I’m Coley by the way, and this is Alphys, the royal scientist. And I take it you know who Sans is.”

You turned to Sonder, who shrugged despite being armless. Wow, you two sure did a lot of shrugging. That's what happens when you put two indecisive multiverse travelling weirdos into situations where they need to have a solid opinion on something.

You went around the side and opened the other door for Sonder, who gestured for you to go in first so you would get the middle seat instead of him. But you refused. He refused again. You gestured for him to get in. “Ladies first.” “Wha- children first!” “Im 200 years older than you.” And with that, you got in the middle seat, with the armless raptor getting the window (lucky bastard).

____________________________________________________________________________

A gold clad guardian, sky blue shaded warrior and what appeared to be an artist happened to witness the whole thing from a nearby tree, with the aforementioned artist looking highly offended.

“Inkstain?! Is that what they've been calling me?!” Pouted the artist, crossing his arms childishly and shaking the branch of the tree the three were sitting on. “Hey! Be careful.” The guardian exclaimed, gripping the branch tighter. “YEAH! NOT ALL OF US HAVE YOUR UNNATURAL BALANCE, INK.” The warrior exclaimed rather loudly, The artist named ink shifted his sash full of paint a little and sighed.

“Just be glad he's not calling you ‘overoptimistic ray of sunshine’ like he was doing to me

last week.” The guardian sighed. “OR ‘VIBRANTLY LOUD BLUEBERRY’.” The warrior added.

“I'm starting to get the feeling he doesn't appreciate our presence here.” Ink commented. The other two nodded in agreement.

“It's not that he doesn't appreciate it, it's just that he finds us a little… on the strange side. We should get going. It's going to start pouring rain soon.” The guardian commented. “Yeah.” The artist agreed, teleporting to the ground, the blue one following suit. The golden guardian was going to do the same but hesitated.

“Dream? What's taking so long.” Ink asked, gazing up at his normally bubbly and positive friend. Dreams' mind seemed to be elsewhere, his eyes off somewhere on the horizon. “Earth to Dream? Dream. DREAM!!”

That got Dreams’ attention real fast. Ink never yelled at him, and he jumped so hard he fell off the branch and onto the ground.

“OH MY GOD DREAM ARE YOU OK?!” The blue one was laughing so hard he fell over too trying to ask Dream that, and Ink followed in Blues footsteps, but snapped out of it fast enough to help Dream get to his feet.

“Hey, you good? Ink asked, a small smile lacing his face. “Y-yeah.” Ink squeezed his hand and let go, also helping the blue one stand as well. Shortly after, it began raining and the three teleported out of the AU, Ink thinking about the new AU jumper, Dream contemplating something, and Blue thinking about Tacos. Classic Blue.

For just a little while, everything felt warm. Like all your worries had passed on and the world at peace, even just for a little while. Sadly, you were being dragged out of this warm sensation by a couple of voices, all of which sounded familiar.

“...wake them up....” “....es…..” You felt someone shake your shoulder. Snapping awake almost immediately, you search for the source of the hand and see Coley leaning over you. “Can you wake him up?” She asks, gesturing to the skeleton you were leaning on for support. Wait hold up what-

You jumped to the other side upon realizing that the not so soft thing you had been napping on was Sans. Like you were minutes ago, he was fast asleep against the window. The sun was setting beyond the window and in the distance you saw Mt.Ebbot past the towering office buildings and such you find in cities, the skies turning a pale orange. Looks like the rain passed.

You unbuckle your seatbelt and shake the skeleton gently. He opens an eye to glare at you for a split second before realizing the context behind you oh so rudely awakening him from his slumber.

He sighed and sat up as well as you jumped out of the car, stretching your stiff limbs and taking a look at the city. It looked like any ol city, plain and simple. Just, rather than humans littering the streets, there was an even mix of monsters and humans. You could feel the tension in the air here, as opposed to the smaller Ebbotton. Just an overall sense of unease that seemed to not exist in the town by the mountain.

Sans crawled out of the car and pulled out a ring of house keys, picking through them until he found the one he was looking for. “You kids know how to get home from here, right?” Sans asked, approaching an intimidatingly large apartment building. “Yeah. We live not too far from here.” Sonder commented, seemingly more calm than when you had left. “That's good. Maybe I’ll see you ‘round then. Until then.” He shortcutted out of existence and Alphys sighed. Coley smiled and waved you two off, allowing for you to turn a corner, out of sight from the monsters and humans.

“Thank god that's over and done with.” You muttered to your apparently older, smaller friend. He nods and sighs in relief. “That was crazy.” “For real. We almost got caught.”

11: UNTITLED 2

Notes: Okay if you made it here youre a fucking champ. Like bro. Thank you for reading all of that! Now for the finale and the reason I had to put these in order of longest to shortest. A sort of High school au- y'know what Im gonna let it explain itself.

Words: 7,000

Date: December 2021

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Long ago, two races ruled the earth. Humans and monsters. The peace they shared was unmistakable and refused to fade with time. However, a new race began to emerge. The Supernatural, as they were called, possessed great power that many could not even begin to imagine. Everything from creation to destruction, controlling emotions, right down to controlling time. Of course, they were feared and respected as gods. But after a war broke out between a few of the creatures, the other two races plotted to keep them all in one place and never allow them to leave.

And so, they built a city. The city was fortified with magic and the Supernaturals thrown into it, leaving them to live out their own lives. But as with many things, people began to forget these abnormalities of creatures even existed and acknowledged them as myths, beginning to inhabit the very city they were trapped in. To this day, humans and monsters share the earth and the Supernatural remain in the city, waiting for the day someone may set them free to wander the earth once more...

CHAPTER ONE:

“SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GONNA ROLL ME-”

Cross jolted awake, gasping as he shot up from his comfortable position hidden among the blankets of his bed. He reached onto the table next to his bed and fumbled with his phone, turning the volume down on the alarm. Kai had promised that it was a good alarm and would get him up instantly. While normally it was safe to doubt Kai, this time he had been right on the nose.

Cross sighed and checked the time. 7:00 AM sharp. Just as it was supposed to be. Ever since he had transferred to the new school with Kai, he had needed to get up an hour earlier every day. It sucked at first, but after the month that had passed it had become relatively routine.

Pushing aside the blankets, Cross planted his feet firmly on the ground and forced himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His room was a mess as usual, sketchbooks and papers littered about with the occasional sock to go with.

Yawning, Cross threw on a pair of slippers and exited the cluttered room, walking down the relatively short hallway to the central area of the house. Xavier and Papaya were already awake and sitting at the table, 100% ignoring each other. The Penaloza family tended to do that to each other.

Xavier, Cross’ father, glanced up from his notes to smile politely at him. Papaya continued to pay no mind to him, staring down at the piece of toast as if it had personally offended him. Papaya was a year younger than Cross, but had a far bigger attitude issue than him. Don't get him wrong, he was a nice guy, but he tended to be a little impatient.

“He lives.” Xavier commented, looking back down at his notebook and tapping his pen to his chin. Papaya glanced up for a second before snapping his focus back to the toast.

“We leave in thirty minutes.” Papaya informed, finally picking up the food and taking a bite with a loud crunch.

Cross stuck his tongue out absentmindedly and wandered into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge and grabbing a bottle from the door. Cross sighed quietly at the ecru shaded liquid and pulled the lid off, pouring the foul-smelling, borderline paste into the measuring cup built into the lid.

Cross took a deep breath and took it like a shot, trying not to get it on his tongue. It never worked, but the effort was there.

The liquid was pure magic, intended to be absorbed by one's soul usually for medical reasons. Cross’ magic levels had always been a little low but the older he got the more easily depleted and naturally low they got. Last year, it had gotten so bad that Xavier had taken him to the hospital because he had collapsed and become unresponsive. It sucked, but it was better than being sick all the time.

Cross resisted the urge to gag and swallowed it, instantly feeling less groggy and dizzy. It worked like, well, magic.

Everyday had essentially been the same since Summer Break had ended. Get up, get dressed, still somehow nearly miss the bus, catch up with Kai on said bus, stumble through the day running on a sip of coffee Kai would sometimes let him have and the hope that art would be soon, nearly miss the bus again, come home, have dinner, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. And that was okay as far as the Penalozas were aware.

The Penalozas were a weird group to anyone who didn't actively know them. Three skeletons, two humans, no real parental figure (unless you counted Xavier, but no one really did) and a sketchy family history. But to the members of the family, it was all they had ever known. And they didn't really care enough about what a normal functional family was supposed to look like to try and change.

Cross meandered back to his room, still sleepy. Pulling off the oversized shirt, he pulled open a drawer and put on whatever his hand touched first, that being a long sleeved black shirt and similar black leggings meant to look like pants. He tied a scarf around his neck and shoved the textbook he had been reading the night before into his bag and slung it around his shoulder, grabbing a white sweater for some contrast and shoving it in as well.

He glanced at the mirror hanging on the closet door, staring unhappily at his reflection. Despite all of his attempts in the past, he still looked like a ragamuffin. He gave up around the time that Frisk, the youngest, made it to middle school a year ago.

Frisk was the perfect example of what a gifted child should look like. He had perfect marks in all of his classes and was very steadily building a resume and would surely become something great. Chara was a little tricky, but was also showing a lot of promise. Hell, even Papaya was starting to take going to college seriously. He had picked up a weird interest in engineering that Xavier had welcomed with open arms. Where as Cross? He was just plain ol’ Cross. The quiet eldest of the siblings who liked to draw and had only a few friends. Smart, but not that smart. Talented, but not that talented.

“Cross! We gotta go!!” Papaya yelled from the other room, pulling Cross from his thoughts. The oreo (what a shock it must be, but this name also came from Kai) shook his head and yanked open the door, meeting his younger brother at the front door. Frisk and Chara, the lucky bastards, started school at 9:30 instead of 8:00. And their school was closer and still in the town of Satellite rather than in the neighboring Yinmon City.

Yinmon city was a weird place. It seemed to have been themed completely on neon lighting and eyestrain disguised to look like your average city by day. A lot of strange myths and urban legends also arose from the city, none of them making very much logical sense.

Papaya opened the door and didn't bother to hold it for Cross, the two stepping out into the cool morning. Despite being September, the weather had begun cooling off early that year. Not that anyone was really complaining.

The bus stop was pretty far down the street from their house, and the bus’ arrival was a surprise usually. Sometimes early and the siblings would have to enlist on Xaviers help to get there (or if Xavier was busy skipping the day entirely), sometimes two hours late. But never on time.

Papaya walked ahead of Cross, leaving him to his own slow pace. He knew Papaya didn't mean to be cold or rude, but it was clear they didn't have the camaraderie they used to.

Cross shut his eyes and hummed a small tune as the pair walked down the bumby, sidewalkless road. It wasn't a poor neighborhood, but not close to a rich one either. Just below average, since the average had sidewalks.

The bus stop was relatively empty except for one person, who very energetically bounded up to Cross and swung an arm around his shoulder.

Kai had been Cross’ best friend since the empty socketed one declared it on their first day of school. Cross had been adamant against it, claiming not to associate himself with the other. Sadly, the determination in Killer’s protruding soul wasn't there for show and by the next week they were a very close knit pair. No, “Kai” was not his real name. No ones birth name is ever Kai. His very very dead name was, well, dead. Normally anyone outside of legal situations got clocked in the face if they called him his old name.

There were only two problems with having Kai as a best friend. One issue was the fact that he was in and out of hospital a lot thanks to his soul condition. The school board had almost not let him go to school because of how unstable his soul was. His life could go from dandy and fine to in a hospital bed in ICU in minutes sometimes. On the plus side, complaining about their soul conditions was a great bonding activity!

Second was the fact that he had no parents and was in and out of the foster care system a lot. Sometimes Kai would have to change schools mid year and he would always be moving a lot.

“Criss Cross! Long time no see~” Kai joked, nuzzling Cross’ face and smudging some of the dark liquid constantly pouring from his empty sockets on his cheek.

“Kai, you saw me yesterday. And the day before that.” Cross retorted, wiping the smudge off his face.

Kai dragged Cross under the awning, Kai grabbing his bag from the bench of the small bus stop and standing near the edge of the road, waiting for the slowly approaching bus in the near distance to arrive. It didn't take long for the cliche yellow bus to roll up to the stop and let the students on.

The bus was quiet, as usual. Two skeletons sat in the front and in the back (the one up front had a labrador service dog, Kai had him in PE and claimed he was a nice guy despite his scary appearance and hole in his skull) and a few humans here and there, as well as a group of bunny monsters that Cross knew from elementary school. Adi was the nicest by far, but they were not a bad group.

Kai and Cross took seats behind the scary skeleton, Papaya sitting across the aisle from them. Kai had taken the window seat, leaving the other with the aisle.

“Next stop, Elmore Street in Yinmon City.” The bus driver announced unenthusiastically, shutting the doors and stepping on the gas.

Kai pulled out a thermos full of coffee and offered some to Cross, who gratefully accepted. Kai liked his coffee how he liked his men. Very very hot and ridiculously sweet. It was always a shock that early in the morning, but not an unwelcome one.

The skeleton in front of them glanced back at them with one very large eyelight and watched them not so subtly. Kai began monologuing about how his night went, paying no mind to the scary skeleton watching them over his shoulder.

The scenery passed by peacefully, the relatively empty fields of the outskirts of Satellite subtly transforming into the wealthier housing developments of Yinmon. Kai continued to babble on, Cross occasionally engaging in the conversation. The neatly dressed skeleton watching them never broke his gaze, and inevitably Kai took notice.

“Hey pal, can we help ya?” Kai asked, stopping his tangent about basking sharks (why were they talking about basking sharks?). The other skeleton blinked a few times, then reached over the seat and grabbed Cross’ face.

Cross panicked, reasonably so, and tried to push the others enormous hand off his face. The other squished his cheeks with his fingers, mumbling under his breath.

Kai laughed hysterically as Cross shoved the others hand away and hissed.

“Your face is squishy.” The other commented in a low rumble. Cross withdrew into his scarf, face igniting in a blush. He knew he had squishy cheeks, but that didn't give anyone the right to squish them.

“What the hell?! Back off!” Cross snarled before the other could squish him again. The other looked a little surprised, but back to amused. Papaya glanced over at them and rolled his eyes, going back to staring out the window.

“The names Alex.” The bigger introduced, offering his hand to Cross. He took it carefully, not trusting Alex not to try and grab his face again.

“I’m Kai. And marshmallow cheeks over there is Cross.” Kai replied, reducing his laughter to giggles. Cross swatted at Killer playfully.

“Nice to meet ya’.” Alex pat the seat next to him and the dog jumped up next to him. “This is Ms. Fluffles. You may pet ‘er.”

Cross reached over the seat and patted the dog's head timidly. The dog licked his hand and wagged her tail. Cross smiled and scratched between her ears, the dog getting increasingly excited about the attention.

“She's a good girl, ain't she?” Alex commented, patting the dogs back. Cross nodded timidly and continued to pet her surprisingly soft fur.

“‘ad to get ‘er after I got this hole in my head. More of a seein’ eye dog than anythin.” Alex continued, nuzzling her face.

Cross muttered a thank you and withdrew his hand, remembering he was still holding Killer’s coffee. He took a small sip, the hot liquid burning his tongue.

Kai snatched the thermos from Cross and chugged, paying no mind to the fact he was probably not going to be able to taste anything for the next week.

Alex turned back around and leaned against the window, watching as suburbia turned into city. The school they went to (Elmore Academy) was in the center of the city. To some it may seem unreasonable, kids from Satellite had to go to the school, but because of weird zoning they were forced to go to the school in the city instead of the much closer local High School.

Cross pulled out his phone and swiped it open, pulling up messages and checking the one notification he had gotten. It was from Chara 10 minutes ago.

Chara: Hey nerd

Cross rolled his eyes and typed his reply.

You: What?

Chara began typing his reply immediately.

Chara: Frisk was wondering if he could borrow 10 G for a thing at school.

Cross wracked his brain for where he could have stashed his money. He trusted Frisk to have enough integrity not to steal his hard earned 15 G he got from chores (though if he did it really wouldn't be the end of the world).

You: Yeah, check inside the white blanket in the closet. Why does he need it?

Chara did not reply immediately that time.

Chara: He didn't say. But what he did say was “Thanks”. Don't die at school dearest brother, I would miss you.

You: You too, Poison Ivy Eater

Chara: please let me live that down

You: No :)

Cross shut off his phone and stared out the window. They were almost there, thankfully. It was inevitably going to be a long day, but that was fine. Once it was over, maybe he could talk Kai (and by extension Xavier) into hanging out after school in the city and catching a different bus home. Which shouldn't be too hard.

“Elmore Street up ahead.” The bus driver announced over the loudspeaker. Most of the people on the bus began shuffling about, grabbing their bags and preparing to depart.

Kai chugged the rest of the coffee and shoved the thermos into his bag. The pair looked over Alex’s shoulder at the oncoming bus stop in front of their school. The school doors were crowded with people of all different types, ranging from human to sentient fire. There were another one or two skeletons in there as well, if you looked hard enough. That wasn't hard to believe though, given skeletons were a surprisingly common kind of monster in the City. Legend had it that the princes of the country were also skeletons even though their mother was not. But, the royal family had long since died out after an attack on them hundreds of years ago leaving no survivors and the country began electing presidents instead.

Alex got off the bus first, followed by Papaya and the bunnies. The skeleton with his hood up sitting in the back followed at a distance, glancing over at the childhood best friends for a mere moment before continuing on. Cross led Kai off the bus and onto the sidewalk in front of the school, Kai grabbing hold of Cross’ scarf before entering.

Kai had been doing that since they ‘officially’ became friends (just as Cross had always been wearing a scarf). Kai found it easy to get distracted or lost even in a school as small as their elementary school, so holding onto someone who actually knew what they were doing was a big help in keeping Kai from running off and chasing squirrels.

The halls were crowded. As usual. The school was far too small for the amount of people in it. Cross squeezed through the crowd and approached the stairwell where Kai and Cross broke off. Cross waved to his friend and Kai let go of him, waving back. Cross ascended the stairs two at a time and stopped in the entryway of the slightly less busy and loud second floor. Mrs.Wells sat at her desk in the front of the class, grading papers by the looks of it. The other students in the class were doing their own thing, barely interacting with each other. The Oreo took a seat in the back corner of the classroom like the edgy wanna be protagonist he was.

Cross stared out the window into the wall of the building next to the school. It was a simple brick wall with absolutely no redeeming qualities or defining features. It was just a wall.

The bell rang eventually, spelling the beginning of the day. Most of the students had trickled in at that point, all of them pulling the text book out of their bag. Cross reached into his own, feeling around for the overly heavy book and pulling it out.

DRAFT SECTION: This will not be staying the same, as I think I'm going to save this whole interaction (s) for a later chapter so I don't overwhelm the reader.

Mrs.Wells stood and addressed the class, pulling out a dry erase marker and beginning to write the day's assignment on the board. She was a strong believer in textbook work and usually just made the students work on their own in the books. However, she was nice enough and let him draw during class. The only thing that kept him from liking her class was the fact that she was a transphobic asshole who refused to call him by his name.

Around half way through the class, there was a brisk knock on the door. The teacher got up to answer it and talked with whoever was on the other side for a moment, prompting Cross to stop reading about Passive Voice for a hot second to eavesdrop.

The teached closed the door and another student came in. Cross recognized him as the skeleton from the back of the bus earlier. He had his arms crossed and a mean smirk on his face as he surveyed the class.

“Dust, why don't you go sit in the back with the other skeleton, Violet.” Mrs.Wells pointed at Cross. Cross cringed at the mention of his dead name, but pushed his books to one side to make room for his new desk buddy. The closer he got, the more he realized how big the hoodie he was wearing was and how the only thing keeping his eyes from being covered was a hat underneath the hood.

Dust swaggered over to him and pulled a chair from an empty desk, and placed it on the opposite side of the desk, resting his head in his hands and staring contently at the textbook.

“So, Violet-”

“It's Cross.”

Dust seemed surprised for a moment, but continued.

“Whatcha readin’?”

Cross checked the cover of the book and showed it to the other. Dust seemed satisfied and studied Cross’ eyes for a moment.

“Dust, take your hood off.” The teacher snapped from the front of the classroom, sitting back down and going back to grading papers. Dust slipped his hood off and gazed smugly at the front of the classroom, still wearing the hat.

The teacher rolled her eyes and continued what she was doing, leaving Dust to continue staring at Cross. Cross continued reading, pulling out a notebook to take notes. He flipped to a random page, half full page and began writing a few things down.

Dust leaned forward and snatched the notebook away from Cross, reading the page. Cross panicked and tried to get it back, knowing full well what was on the rest of the page. Dust’s bone brows shot up and he held the book out of reach.

“Wow, you drew this? Nice.” Dust commented, pushing Cross’ desperate hands away. Mrs.Wells looked up from her work once more and scowled.

“Violet, Dust, behave!” She snapped at them, prompting Dust to argue.

“But ma’am! She drew this! Isnt it cool!”

“Its HE drew this and give it back!” Cross lunged for it before anyone could see the drawings inside. It was just a few simple drawings of flowers, but they still weren't meant to ever be seen by another (unless you counted Kai).

“Both of you, OUT.” Mrs.Wells violently gestured to the door and Dust grabbed Cross and dragged him out of the classroom, flipping off the teacher in the process.

Cross shoved Dust away once they got into the hallway and growled angrily.

“What the hell dude?!” Cross crossed (pun not intended) his arms angrily. He had never been in trouble with a teacher so bad to where they sent him out before.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Now we gotta go to the Principal's office. Oh what a shame.” Dust replied, handing the book back to Cross and shrugging.

“Wh- SORRY ISN'T GOING TO CUT IT BUDDY!” Cross all but yelled. What the hell was up with this guy?! He was already halfway down the hallway and at the stairwell, giving him an expectant look.

“Well, what are you waiting for, the flowers to grow? Get over here!” Dust asked innocently, beginning down the stairs. Cross chased after him and caught up to him, glaring at the others back. He hadn't noticed before, but the other was wearing a blood red scarf. Huh. Scarf buddies. To scarf or to not scarf, he was still pissed.

Dust tossed open the door to the guidance office and entered like he lived there, waving to the administrator at the desk. The administrator pursed his lips but waved back.

Cross pulled open the door a little more timidly, following closely to Dust, who seemed to know what he was doing. Maybe this wasn't his first time in the office.

He turned a corner and knocked on a door labeled “principal” and a goat monster answered. Cross had never actually met the principal and had desperately hoped he wouldn't have to.

“Dust? Why are you here again?” The goat monster asked, tilting her head in a confused manner.

“Teacher sent me and her out of the classroom.” Dust replied simply, gesturing to Cross.

“For the last time, I'm a dude! What part of that are you not getting?!” Cross snapped.

“Oh, a Penaloza. Come in, both of you.” She instructed, pulling open the door. Dust stepped inside confidently, leaving Cross to stumble awkwardly behind him. How did she know his last name? Had she met Papaya before?

The office was surprisingly cozy. Two plush chairs sat across from a simple wooden desk with a computer and name plate on it. The name plate read “Ms.Toriel”. Dust took a seat casually, as did Ms.Toriel. Cross awkwardly sat in the other chair, waiting for someone to say something.

“Dust, you know you can't just keep getting in trouble to be here, correct? It goes on your permanent record.” Ms.Toriel stated, leaning back in her chair and pushing her glasses further up her snout.

“As for you, I do not believe we have met. I am Ms.Toriel, principal at this school. As a random guess, are you Xavier Penaloza’s son?” Cross perked up at the mention of his ‘father’.

“Y-yes. How did you know?” Cross asked awkwardly. Ms.Toriel smiled warmly.

“We went to school and worked in a lab together for a while. He was a good soul. It really is a shame what happened though.” Cross stifined. What happened to Xavier's career as a scientist was never discussed among the family, but Xavier’s friends (the few that he still had) referred to it a lot.

“When I saw your name on the registration paperwork I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I had met you once before, but you were very young at the time. I was also surprised to see he seems to have adopted two other children. Human children, at that.” Ms.Toriel continued.

Dust listened intently, seemingly interested in what Ms.Toriel had to say about Cross’ family.

“Yes. Chara and Frisk. Chara is coming to this school next year I think.” Cross replied. Ms.Toriel nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall adjacent to the desk.

“I will allow you two to stay here until the next bell, and then you both will have to go back to your classes.” Ms.Toriel informed. “And yes, we can work on the puzzle if that is what you wish, Dust.”

Dust perked up and smiled, prompting Ms.Toriel to pull out a puzzle box and set it on the clear desk. Dust scooted his chair forward and Ms.Toriel dumped out the contents, the two beginning the puzzle. Cross sat awkwardly and pulled out a pencil from his pocket, pulling his feet up onto the chair and resting the notebook on his knees, flipping to a blank page.

He doodled a few random things as warm up and then began sketching the scene in front of him. Dust had pulled his hood back over his head at some point, making his face not clearly visible.

Cross’ stomach dropped, realizing he forgot his bag and books in his English class. Great. Now he was going to have to go back into the classroom and likely get yelled at by the teacher.

____________________________________________________________________________

The day passed by relatively quickly after the encounter with the principal. Kai and Cross luckily had art at the end of the day together (even though Kai wasnt a huge fan of art), so he got to tell his friend all about the strange start to the day he had. Kai himself had never actually met Dust, but had heard that he secretly did drugs under the table and slept around a lot. It didn't come as a surprise to Cross (since he had heard similar things), but what confused him was why he was so… adamant about going to Ms.Toriel.

“I dunno, maybe its because shes a nice person?” Kai suggested as they worked on their still life paintings of a pear. Cross shrugged and glanced back over at the table where the plastic pear lay. He must be really off his rocker, because the shading just didn't look quite right.

“Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. It was probably a one time thing. Both of you are gonna move on with your lives and forget the other ever existed.” Kai suggested, adding a few messy strokes of brown onto the table portion of the drawing and blending them with the lighter brown.

“He's on our bus. What if he tries to talk to me? He kept deadnaming me the entire time we talked.” Cross asked, sticking his brush in the water jar.

“Clock him in the face if he tries or something, I dunno.” Kai shrugged and speckled a few brown spots onto the pear.

“Excuse me, can I borrow some of your black?” A human asked from the other side of the table.

“Of course.” Cross replied, the palette he and Kai were sharing over to the human girl. She took some with her brush and put it on her own before sliding it back. Cross thanked her quietly and continued shading.

A sudden wave of dizziness rolled over Cross, causing him to hold onto the table for support for a second. Stools were never a very good balance keeper.

Kai glanced over at him, his soul flickering with concern. You could always tell how Killer was feeling based on the brightness and shape of his soul.

“I'm fine.”

The bell rang shortly after and they had to put their painting supplies away. Kai grabbed Cross’ scarf and they began heading towards the front of the school to hop on the bus.

“Hey, I was wondering, would you wanna stick around in the city for a bit? I heard the cat cafe just got some new cats that we haven't met yet.” Cross asked over his shoulder.

“Ask Xavier. I'm sure my fosters are fine with it, they forget I even live with them sometimes.” Kai shrugged. Cross nodded and pulled out his phone, quickly typing up a message and sending it, leading the two of them out of the school and into the sunny afternoon.

Xavier replied back quickly, giving the two the okay to hang around. Cross and Kai broke away from the sea of highschoolers and began to wander in the general direction of the cafe, passing the subway entrance.

“Welp. Wonder what the new cats are like-” Kai began, but glanced over his shoulder and stopped abruptly.

“Huh? Kai, what's the matter?” Cross turned and saw it too. Dust was very subtly walking in their general direction.

“Weird. I thought he took the bus home.” Cross pointed out.

“He DOES take the bus home. I think he's following us.” Kai hissed, pulling Cross by the scarf at a faster pace than before. “If he keeps following us, run.”

Dust barely acknowledges the fact that they sped up as the two rounded a corner and continued following the directions they had memorized to the Cat cafe. They may or may not have been there a few times.

Dust continued to follow them at a distance. It was unlikely that he had decided to go to the cat cafe that very day at that very moment as well.

“Okay, on the count of three, we start running and aim to be in the cafe’s back alleyway. Got it?” Kai hissed lowly, not taking his eyes off of Dust over his shoulder. Cross nodded and waited for the count down.

“One… two…. THREE!” The two took off in a sprint, dodging people and lamp posts and nearly colliding with a few people. They were close, they could tell.

Cross and Kai threw themselves into the alley, pressing themselves to the side of the building, panting.

“Is he gone?” Cross asked between breaths, clutching his chest.

The answer, as it turned out, was a no. Dust casually walked by the ally and stopped in the middle of the entrance. His right eyelight began to glow and he raised his hand.

Cross and Kai’s souls lit blue and they were thrown in the air by their souls. Dust approached menacingly with a cruel grin on his face.

“You should see the look on your faces right now.” Dust stated, lowering them closer to the ground.

“What's with the look? Did you REALLY think I was just going to let a cutie like you walk right by me without getting your number or somethin’?” Dust asked, marching up Kai and booping his nose.

Kai looked thoroughly confused, staring at Dust.

“What.” Dust stated more than asked.

“You have terrible taste is all.” Kai said matter of factly. Dust snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Leave ‘em alone, freak.” A voice from the entrance demanded lowly. Cross turned to see Alex of all people standing menacingly at the entrance of the ally, Ms.Fluffles right next to him with her tongue lolling out to one side happily.

Dust gave Alex a weird look before smirking once more, placing his hands on his hips and sticking his tongue out tauntingly.

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it?” Dust mocked. Alex seemed as if he were about to make a retort but stopped before it came out, his eye widening.

“What's wrong, big guy? You scared- Hey, what the hell are you looking at?” Dust waved his arms in front of the neatly dressed skeleton's face but Alex’s expression refused to falter. Cross turned to look over his shoulder curiously and his non existent stomach dropped.

“W-what is that?!” Cross exclaimed, struggling against the blue magic keeping him in the air. At the end of the ally, something that looked suspiciously like a dead boy lay. Blood was flowing from an open wound on its chest and a cloud of what looked like glitches covering one eye. Dust dropped the friends and took a step back, trying to process what he was seeing.

Kai made the first move and took a step forward and approached the person, nuding its side with his foot. Its eye shot open and it sat up suddenly, scowling at the empty socketed one.

“Can't you see I'm trying to nap?! Can you let a dude sleep in a suspicious ally way? For god's sake kid!” The seemingly skeleton yelled, pushing Kai away. Geeze, how many new skeletons was Cross going to end up meeting??

“Y-you're bleeding! We need to get you to a hospital- or something- what the fuck, I dont know, someone call an ambulance????” Cross stuttered, trying to organize his thoughts. To be fair, he had never seen blood that wasn't his own before.

“Im fine kiddo. Now fuck off before he gets back and ruins my nap oppertunities.” It said snarkily, rolling over and laying back down.

“Who?” Kai asked inquisitively, poking the person with his foot once more.

“He means me.” A voice said from above.

“Oh GOD DAMN IT REAPER.” The person shouted, taking a shoe and chucking it at the fire escape of the apartment next to the cafe. A figure moved to dodge it and caught it, tossing it back passive aggressively.

The person in the fire escape jumped down onto their level and stepped into the half light. They were yet another skeleton, but this one seemed different. Powerful, almost. They wore a strange black cloak with a hood over their head and a scythe rested on their shoulder. If Cross looked close enough, he could swear there were wings on his back as well. They looked like a stereotypical Grim Reaper.

“Who the hell are you?” Dust asked accusingly, stepping back and nearly onto Alex’s feet.

The newcomer rolled their eyes.

“Oh great, a bunch of teenagers. Who do you think I am?” The stranger retorted, pulling the scythe off his shoulder and leaning on it.

“A cosplayer?” Kai suggested inquisitively. The stranger stared blankly at Killer and sighed.

“Im the- y’know what, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you. Just get lost. I have a mortal to woo.” The cosplayer-strange-new-comer-person flicked his wrist and the group was sent flying back into the (thankfully) empty street. Cross landed on his butt in the middle of the street with an audible ‘oof!’, Kai landing beside him.

Dust and Alex had landed further back, both with confused expressions about what had just happened. Upon looking back at the alley, the two strange skeletons were gone.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“What the hell…?”

After a very very awkward bus ride back to Satellite, Cross had practically ran home and thrown the door open. He was 10 minutes past curfew and had a very high chance of getting grounded (because parents, am I right?). The Penalozas all sat around the table, generally quiet until Cross made his rather loud entrance.

“Ah, there you are. Why didnt you tell me the bus was late?” Xavier asked, his head placed on his hands.

“Uhh, things happened.” Cross replied, internally facepalming at how stupid he sounded.

“...I see. Well, come, sit. Your food is getting cold.” Xavier instructed, leaning back in his chair. The other children had clearly finished eating earlier and now just had to wait for Cross to pick at whatever was being served before being excused. Family rule.

Cross took his seat at the circle table sitting in between the kitchen and living rooms. Since their house was so small they had to keep the table small so they could all fit. The oreo glanced at what was on the table and sighed, dishing out a small helping of spaghetti. The less he took, the faster he could eat it and the sooner they could all go back to doing whatever they were doing before dinner.

Cross scarfed down the meal and pushed his plate away, signifying he was done. Xavier got up from the table first and sat on the couch, pulling out a notebook from what seemed like thin air and beginning to write in it. The other kids dispersed and headed to their rooms, the two humans sharing one and Papaya choosing to live in the basement as there was more room than if he and Cross shared a room.

Cross pushed open his door and stepped inside and around the sketchbooks littering the floor, flopping onto his bed on his back, subconsciously beginning to trace the jagged scar under his eye. He was still trying to process everything that had happened. It was such a strange day, having met two new possible acquaintances (well, maybe not Dust…) and then that whole thing in the alley. Who were those people? They seemed to know each other, and one had called the bleeding skeleton a ‘mortal’. Or at least that's what it sounded like. What had he meant by that?

Cross felt a soft buzzing in his pocket, alerting him of a notification. He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out, rolling onto his belly and turning it on.

He seemed to have a notification from a new group chat he didn't remember joining. He opened the notification and read the message.

516 - 689 - 3393: Are we all here?

Cross furrowed his bone brow and pulled his other hand out from under his pillow to type a response.

You: Who is this?

Kai, much to his surprise, was also there and began typing after Cross sent his message.

Kai: Idk, all I can see is C is here

The 516 number began to type back.

516 - 689 - 3393: Its Dust, from earlier. I added Alex, Cross, and Kai. Are we all here?

516 - 774 - 8976: how did you get the numbers

516 - 689 - 3393: Elmore School’s database is easy to hack

You: oh.

Cross saved both the numbers in his phone and continued conversing.

You: Any particular reason you’re reaching out to us???

Dust: Yes. We can't just pretend like what we saw didn't happen and I have a proposal to make.

Kai: And what is that

Dust: We meet up after school tomorrow and look for those two people and get answers through any means. I dunno about you guys, but I haven't stopped thinking about this since we got off the bus.

Alex: Dude we literally just met.

Dust: Exactly. We do this one thing, then forget it ever happened.

Cross considered for a long moment, weighing his options.

You: I'm down if everyone else is. Got nothing better to do anyway.

Several people began typing.

Dust: Fantastic

Kai: What the fuck Cross

Alex: Eh, I'm fine with it too.

Kai: God damn it now Cross is gonna peer pressure me into this new fake investigation squad

You: You know it lmao

Cross smiled down at his phone and awaited Killer's inevitable (probably reluctant) agreement. Sometimes, silent peer pressure was the most effective peer pressure.

“You looking at hentai or something?” A voice asked from Cross’ door. Cross whipped around and scowled at Chara.

“No!” Cross tossed a pillow in his brother's general direction, the smug little shit sidestepping it.

“Bummer.” Chara took and running start and flopped over onto Cross’ bed, burying his face in the soft plushness that was his blanket.

“What do you want?” Cross asked, exasperated. Chara propped his head up with his hands and kicked his feet back and forth.

“To bother you. Duh. Xaviers too absorbed in his work to give a response and Frisk is doing homework.” Chara replied, rolling onto his back and splaying his arms. He was now in 8th grade and had entered his rebellious teenager phase. 13 year olds could be scary sometimes.

“And what about Papaya?” Cross asked, his phone buzzing.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?” Chara did his best blanket impression and looked over Cross’ shoulder nosely. Cross shut his phone down and pushed him off, flipping him the bird.

“Nunya. Leave me alone.” Cross requested, sitting up.

“Whats wrong sour pants? Are you mad ‘cause you dont know how to make friends-”

“Get out.”

Chara blew a raspberry and jumped off the bed, likely going to bother Papaya. Cross sighed and reopened his phone, reading over Kai’s “Fine I’ll help” quickly and shutting it off. It was almost dead, but he was too lazy to get up and attach it to its charger.

Cross flopped back over and sighed. He was tired, but it was too early to call it a night. So doodling it was.

The oreo pulled out the sketchbook he had shoved in his bag and flipped to a drawing he had started of a cat, silently wishing he had a reference. The night ticked on and by the time Frisk had finished all of his homework and was coming to say goodnight, he was already asleep. What a strange day it had been…

[phantom-ellie]

The Art of (Smashing) Crockery Chapter 7: Welly Boots

Summary:  Mother Bonnet has news, and Stede must process it.

Click here for CWs/Full Chapter List

It’s junk day at Ed’s rage room, which means showing up at junk yards with a truck looking for things that could stand to have a lot more damage done to them. Procurement for the business can be surprisingly complicated. Junk is everywhere, but finding items Ed can legally take and use is harder. Ed is in his office, lazily browsing Craigslist and other social media sites for old fridges and items that people are willing to get rid of for free, if Fang and Ivan will go out with the truck and get them.

Ed’s end of it is boring as fuck. Luckily Ed has a new friend, and his new favorite hobby is blowing off work to text said friend.

Ed: taking the kids trick or treating this year?

Stede: No, the office throws a Halloween party every year and I’m obligated to go. It’s terrible.

Ed: just blow it off then man, never been to a fancy office party but it doesn’t sound very fun?

It would probably be fun with Stede.

Stede: Believe me, and I don’t mean this as a brag, but my absence will be noticed.

Stede: If I don’t show up, I’ll be in deep shit. They’re already going to be angry that I’m not taking my family with me.

Ed: they can control that kind of thing?

That's fucked up?

Stede: They can when your dad owns the company.

Ed: look at you, rich man. when you inherit you’ll throw a few ragers, right?

Stede: When I inherit I will set the building on fire with me inside it.

Jesus Christ.

Ed: harsh mate. you dont have any friends there with you?

Stede: Nope. It’s the definition of a hostile work environment. Just have to get through it. I’m not putting my wife and kids through it anymore, it’s awful for them.

Something tells Ed that it's a bad idea. There's no way he'll say yes, and even if he did it would be a disaster... but Ed keeps picturing Stede standing in a corner next to some shitty carpeted office walls, sipping a drink and avoiding everyone, and his heart clenches a bit.

Ed: well you know

Ed: if you need a friend there, or have a plus one

Ed: i could go, as emotional support

There is a pause of about thirty seconds where Ed spirals a bit. You scared him away, he isn’t going to want someone like you with his rich coworkers. But then Ed’s phone rings.

“What, you don’t want to text?”

“Ed, it’s nice of you to offer, and I would do anything to have an ally there, but there are some things you should know.”

What, everyone at the office are secretly lizard people? Ed wouldn't be too surprised.

“Fire away.”

“Remember that conversation we had last time I was there? About my last name?”

“Yeah, it’s the same as those assholes at- Oh, I see where this is going, you’re one of them.” He's a Bonnet Bonnet. Of course.

“Yes, I am. My father owns BG&E.”

“Your dad’s a fuckin’ murderer, you know that, right?”

“Believe me, I am aware. He’s a monster, you don’t know the half of it.” Stede sounds worn out. Ed tries to imagine what kind of thing Stede's dad would have to do to make him seem worse, before he remembers that he understands a little too well. “Anyway, you need to know that most of the people at the top of the corporate structure here are not good people. I’ve known a lot of them my entire life. I don’t want to subject you to that kind of thing without a warning. Racists, homophobes, you name it, they are there and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“That doesn’t sound too fun. I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

“Hold on, Ed, I’m getting another call, let me see what they want.” Stede leaves the call, and Ed decides that now is the time to think.

Honestly, his offer to go to the party was supposed to be a joke. I mean, he intended it to be taken as a joke, because in actuality it would be interesting to experience something outside of Ed’s business with Stede, to see the environment that sends him to Ed’s neck of the woods once or twice a week. But Ed is gay and indigenous. He could probably pass for being straight, but not white. And being at a party full of people he doesn't know where both of those things are a problem? He's attracted to Stede, but he isn't dating Stede. Every ounce of reason clattering around in his brain tells him it isn't worth it.

Stede interrupts his thoughts by returning to the call.

“I’m sorry Ed, I got a really weird phone call and I have to go meet up with someone, I’ll text you later!”

“See ya-”

Stede hangs up. Ed wonders what a “weird phone call” entails and whether his friend is going to end up in a dumpster somewhere. The quickness with which Stede hung up the phone causes him to wonder if Stede even wants him to go at all, or was just being polite.

---

“Mother?”

Sarah Bonnet places her hand on the bench, indicating that Stede should sit. He does. The bay spreads out before them. A nice view, but Stede has seen the bay many times. He can’t remember the last time he’s seen his mother outside of her home, unaccompanied by his father. Now she sits ramrod straight, a scarf on her head and sunglasses guarding her eyes, technically in public but still very much hidden, like she's always been.

“I’ve always wondered, you know.” She says. “Who would win.”

If people thought that Stede was weird, and many, many people did, he told them he got it from his mother. Who opens a conversation like that?

“Win what?” Stede can feel the tenseness between them, an awkwardness that has always been there. Stede knows it was his fault. He has never fit in with these people, this family. He always feels ten steps behind them.

“Imagine being a young girl, barely allowed an education or consideration, married to a man who should solve everything. Who should be everything. Imagine discovering the truth, that your future and identity are a sham. That love doesn’t exist. That you must hold a baby in your arms after hours of delivery and know that you must never love it, because it will have to suffer, and you can’t bear to see something you love hurt.”

Of fucking course.. “If he’s got you complaining about Mary to me, I’m not interested. Tell someone who cares.” Mary is strong. Mary has love. Mary loves their kids, and their kids are fine. Stede is so fucking sick of the comments about her.

“I was talking about myself.”

Stede pauses. He doesn’t know his mother. He’s never known her, despite the fact that she has always been around, haunting their lives like a specter. In public, she hangs onto her husband’s arm, turns on the charm in certain important company, but in private life is mute as a stone. Stede spent his teens and twenties angry about that, angry that his mother could fake charm and happiness for strangers and people who talked behind her back, but couldn't be bothered to even pretend to love her son. Of course, she's expected to do the former. No one has ever cared if she did the latter. No one ever asked Stede if his mother loved him. The fact that your mother loves you is taken as a given. It's taken for granted. It's assumed.

Stede could count the number of conversations he’d had with Sarah Bonnet on one hand.

“When I held you in my arms for the first time, I knew two things. The first: that I would never hold you again, because I had the first taste of what that love felt like and I couldn’t do it. I knew your father. I knew the families who raised us. I knew they would crush you. So I hardened my heart.”

Stede feels a pang somewhere deep, but years of numbing and acceptance keep it from growing. It would have been nice to have a mother to hold him. It would have helped a lot to have felt loved by one. But not this one, the one he is stuck with. She repels him. He can't look at her most of the time, doesn't want to touch her. The emotional shield he built as a child has become physical.

“The second was that I would never have another child, because harming one was enough.”

“Jesus Christ...” Stede glowers at the ocean. He should have never been born. He should have been an abortion. His mother would have been so much happier that way. But she had to make an heir, so she did. She popped him out and left him to his own devices. And, of course, he forgave her for that... at least he tells himself he's forgiven her. He tells himself she can't help it. It's a kind of neurodivergence, or maybe she had post-partum depression, or something in her brain that makes her incapable. But no, here she sits, telling him that it was a choice. His pain was her choice. He's jealous of the younger sibling he never had for not having to feel it.

Stede remembers his wedding to Mary. The way his mother smiled weakly at guests before touching Stede’s arm with a grimace.

“Love is a choice, remember that.” She had told him that. Love is a choice. And he had used that as a guide, a sort of lighthouse for his marriage, that loving Mary was a choice he could make every day, through action if not through feeling. He had believed that if he chose to show her love ever day, those feelings would develop, because love was a choice.

And yet, even so, it hadn't occurred to him that love could be easily revoked or neglected, that you could choose instead not to love. Who would choose that? Stede would have all of the love in the world, if it were up to him.

Sarah sits up straighter. "I believed that I was doing you a favor, Stede. I did."

“A favor? How could you believe that? Do you know what it's... you probably do, you probably know exactly what it's like, but you did it to me anyway. I’d tell you I hate you, but I’m just… fucking disappointed. In everyone. And everything.” Stede fixates his eyes at his wedding ring as he turns it back and forth.

“Not raising you with love is my greatest regret.” She is still faced towards the bay. “I always thought that if I married, it would be for love. When that didn’t happen, I held out that hope for you. My hopes were dashed on both counts.”

“Then it looks like we’re both disappointments to each other.”

“I called you because I'm dying, Stede.”

Stede looks at her sideways. “Dying?”

“Liver cancer. It’s terminal.”

Stede turns back to the bay. Absorbing this with two senses is too much. He has to reduce it to one.

“How long do you have?”

“A couple of months, now.”

Stede shakes his head. “And you’ve called me here for some kind of deathbed confession? So we can lie to ourselves for a few months before you’re… flushed down to hell and I’m left here even worse than before?”

Sarah huffs and adjusts herself on the bench. “If it were that, I wouldn’t bother. I’ve come to settle the score.”

“Look, believe it or not, I have a family that I haven’t completely fucked over yet, and I’d like to get back to them instead of… whatever is happening here.”

Stede knows that he isn't a good husband, or a good father. But he tries. He loves Alma and Louis, he wants them to know he loves them. He wants Mary to feel that he loves her. So why is he sitting on a bench with this soulless hag when he could be with the ones who are important to him?

“You’ll want to hear the rest.” Sarah puts her hand on Stede’s arm, which somehow exacts more control over Stede’s willpower than any amount of yelling from his father ever had. “Your father has tried very, very hard to make you into a man like him. I watched your strength of wills fight each other for over forty years. Sometimes they went one way, sometimes another. But I know who won.”

“Dad won.” Stede looks down at his hands. Edward Bonnet has won or stolen everything he ever wanted.

“No,” Sarah looks down at her own hands now. “It's worse. I did.”

Stede crosses his arms. “Well congratu-fucking-lations. We’ll throw a party.”

What does any of this have to do with him?

“You retreat into your shell more and more. You hide from your family. You don’t make friends. You jump at every shadow, and I can see how much of yourself you keep locked up.” A tear runs down from under her sunglasses. “I was terrified you would end up like Edward, but you are like me. You are my son.”

“I don’t know any other way to be. I could have learned to be myself, or could have been there for my family. I had to choose. Love is a choice I make every day.”

“No, it isn’t. It isn’t a choice. It’s been fifteen years, Stede. If you don’t love Mary now, you never will.” That bitch, that fucking hypocrite.

“You don’t know anything about me, Mary, or my family.”

“I know you very well. Maybe it is too late for you, Stede. But I don’t think so. If you don’t know how to love, it is because we never taught you. But who is going to teach Alma and Louis? Where will they be in forty years if you don’t show them?”

Stede feels that statement like a punch to the gut. He is miserable every day. That is his love, that is how they will know it. Because Stede drowns every day so they can have a good life. But that... isn't healthy, is it? Stede has no clue how to move forward. He's supposed to build a shelter for his loved ones, but he has never been handed the tools.

“I’m leaving it all to you. It’s my wealth, not his.”

Stede sputters, “M-mom, that’s not-”

“He can keep his company, but you are the only chance my family line has to be free, to love and be loved. You can leave your job, live your life, let your children live theirs. You can be the first one of us to be happy. That is all I can give you.”

Stede shakes his head. “Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

It doesn't buy love, either. She should know that by now.

“No, it doesn't. But it does buy freedom.”

---

The seventh time it happens, Ed looks up and begins with a smile and a wave before Stede interrupts it.

“I’ll pay you two-hundred dollars if you let me cry in your office for forty minutes.”

Ed rolls his eyes. “You money-solves-everything types.” He turns around and opens the office door, beckoning his new friend in, wondering if he should tell Stede to drop the rage room idea and just get a therapist. But then he won't come around here anymore, will he?

Stede tosses two-hundred dollars in cash on the counter and walks in. Ed grabs the money and follows him, shaking his head.

“You don’t have to pay me for this, mate, you’re my friend.” This will pay for a therapy session, you nut.

Stede nods, already seated at a table with his face buried in his arms. Ed sighs and sits down next to him.

“Want to talk about it?”

Stede sits up and rubs his eyes.

“My mother is dying.”

Ed whistles. “Shit, man. I’m so sorry. I know how that feels.”

Stede shakes his head. “If you loved your mother, then you definitely don't know how this feels. I don’t know why I’m so upset about it. She’s… awful. She told me she never loved me. And I already knew it, I've always known it, but to hear it confirmed…”

Telling your kid you never loved him on your deathbed? Ed would think that's crazy... but if his own dad had been able to speak while dying, he would have said the same thing, with harsher words. “She sounds like a real piece of work.”

Stede sighs. “I don’t know, I don’t know anything about her. She said that I am just like her. But she’s wrong. I love my family, my kids…”

“That’s good, mate. That’s all they need. That’s more than a lot of us get.”

“It’s never been enough.” He rubs his eyes and looks at the ceiling. “She said she’s giving me everything, all the family money. It’s mostly hers. She wants me to… I don’t know… quit my job and run away? Abandon everything I’ve built here and go fuck off and be happy somewhere else. As if it was that easy.”

“No offense, but that’s a first world problem right there.”

Stede laughs in response. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just a lot. I don’t want her money. I don’t want it to do to me what it’s done to everyone else in my family. And I’m worried it already has.”

Ed thinks for a minute. “What I’m hearing is, as soon as your mom carks it you won’t have a reason to work with your evil dad in his lair of secrets and lies. It sounds like she's giving you an escape.”

“I guess… I guess I didn’t think of it that way.”

“And if that’s the case, it sounds like you don’t need to spend all your time at shitty corporate events to stay in their good graces.” Cheer up, Stede. Smile that cute smile.

“I…” Stede shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know what else I would do. I’m not good at anything else, I don’t even have a degree.”

“Nothing wrong with not having a degree, man. A lot of us manage.”

“Yeah, but you… you think of awesome things like this.” Stede waves his hand around Ed’s dirty, dumpy office. “A rage room. I wouldn’t have thought of that in a million years.”

“It’s honestly kind of boring. A lot of waiting around and hauling junk.”

“I don’t know…”

“Are you still going to that party?”

Stede nods. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to make anyone at the company suspicious. I should at least show up for a bit and do some groveling. It might be bearable now, though. Maybe.”

Ed chuckles and puts his feet up on his desk. “It might be even more bearable if you bring a friend.”

---

Post from blog Hear Something Weird:

Hi all! Do you have children? Hold them tight and tell them you love them now. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

That should go for all loved ones, if you’re lucky enough to love and be loved. Today’s song is Welly Boots by The Amazing Devil. They are a modern folk band. You can tell it’s modern because they use the word “fuck” in many of their songs. The more you know…

Chapter 8

[vs-redemption]

Hi! Can i request a headcanon for Twice and Dabi where thier s/o dont want to have any kids and just be childfree but was a little scared to tell them?

A/N: Ok, I’m super nervous about this one😅I’ve never written headcanons before. I don’t know why but this format of writing is really intimidating to me. Hopefully they came out ok though.

Twice & Dabi x Reader who doesn’t want kids.

Twice

Jin is such a warmhearted person with so much love to give.

Of course you’re nervous about shattering any dreams he might have of starting a family.

When you finally find the courage to bring it up, he furrows his eyebrows as if ‘having children’ was a foreign concept to him.

Give him a second to process. He’s more concerned about the nervous energy coming off of you than the topic itself. He hates seeing someone he cares about looking so serious and worried.

When your words finally click in his brain, he’s quick to comfort and reassure you.

“It’s totally fine that you feel that way! I hate kids anyway!”

You have to ask him if he’s sure a few times because you know how selfless he can be for the people he cares about.

He pulls you onto his lap and explains that his idea of a family wasn’t restricted strictly to blood relations. The connection between people was the most important thing to him.

In his mind, you and the rest of the league of villains were his family. Just having those special people in his life was more than enough.

You try to tell him that having and raising kids had sort of a deeper meaning than just having a ragtag group of friends.

After that, he shyly admits there’s also a small part of him that thinks the trauma he suffered as a result of his quirk might make him an unreliable parent.

That wasn’t really the deal breaker though. Having kids just honestly wasn’t on his list of priorities. If you were happy, he would be happy too.

“If we decide we want to love and care for something together,” he tells you seriously. “We can adopt a cat or dog.”

Dabi

It takes you a while to decide whether or not to even bring the issue of not wanting kids up with Dabi because he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to want that sort of thing anyway.

What you’re really nervous about is his reaction to the topic in general. Just hearing the word “kids” “baby” or “children” might send him running for the hills. He’s not exactly the domestic type.

Being open and clear about these types of things is important to you though, so you have to tell him.

When you first broach the subject he visibly tenses, but not for the reason you think.

He doesn’t speak for a while because his mind is going on a whirlwind journey through every emotion in the book.

Of course he didn’t want kids either… right?

He’s shocked by the weird twinge of uncertainty deep in his chest.

He KNOWS it would be a bad idea and that there’s no way he should be responsible for raising another human being. Neither his lifestyle nor personality were suited to child rearing.

Maybe there was a tiny part of him though that always hoped to have the warm and loving family he never had growing up.

Don’t worry. He gets over the crisis quickly. He’s never really thought about having kids before so he just needs a minute to figure out how he feels about it.

Finally, he smirks at you and pulls you roughly into his chest for a reassuring hug.

He totally gets why you wouldn’t want kids and backs your decision 100%.

You were already all the family he needed, so why fix what wasn’t broken?

Plus, having no kids in the picture means he doesn’t have to share you or your attention with anyone else.

[leahseclipse]

An (un)usual surprise

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Gender neutral Reader

Category: Comfort

Warnings: Adoption, fluFf, onlY flufF

Summary: During the team’s usual dinner party at Rossi’s house, Reader and Spencer both have an exciting surprise to announce to the team.

Requested by @ontheoddoccasioniwritestuff​

A/N: I apologize ksksksksk, i dont know anything about adoption stuff- but here we go, my first gendEr nEutrAl fiC :D

Word count: 2.2 k

You had always appreciated Rossi’s dinner parties, he had been welcoming with you since the first time you had gone here with Spencer; it had been a long week, and since you haven’t been able to see him; he had thought it’d be a great occasion for you to see each other.

It had been two years since you had grown closer to them, they had eventually become family as well; you began to understand why Spencer liked them so much. 

It had taken him a bit of time to get you to introduce you to them, the team had apparently heard rumors of Reid having a partner, but other than that, nothing much; he was quite personal when it came to his private life; and with the job he was doing, he didn’t want anything to happen in case someone would attempt at harming you. 

Although the chances of this scenario happening were quite slim, he still preferred to be careful about it, no matter how many times you would convince him to think of the opposite. 

When he had decided for you to come with him, his coworkers apparently convinced him a bit after he had told, seeing how nervous and excited he seemed earlier in the day. He hadn’t stopped thinking of it: Spencer at thought that it could be the perfect occasion, and that with his work, it wouldn’t have been much sooner; so he had called you the day before; at 11pm, suddenly asking if you wanted to meet his friends, just like that. He hadn’t told you what he had been thinking about, but he probably was afraid that you’d decline because of whatever reason that could refrain you from attending the party. 

His call had surprised you since you were half asleep from the long day you had, but you had nonetheless accepted the invite, since you hadn’t anything planned that day. The next words had been nothing but an ocean of apologies when he had found that he had woken you up, resulting in you trying to get him to calm down as you had assured that it wasn’t much of a big deal. 

Even with your groggy state you didn’t seem much excited, you really were. It had been a while since he had begun talking about them, when they were on cases, at the office, whatever his mind contained, which had made you more and more excited at each of his words whenever you’d ask about them, or when he’d bring them in the conversation, whether you were at his apartment or on the phone.

You often were more on the phone than at your respectives homes because of how much time his work was taking, resulting in the both of you not seeing each other for a week sometimes, you had gotten used to it, even if it had made you a bit sad not to see him. You didn’t want him to know it, he had enough stress from his work, you didn’t need to add much worry than he already had; even if he insisted for you to tell whatever you felt like, even if you were in a bad mood while he was working, he always felt the need to know how you felt, in order to try his best to make you feel better as he couldn’t be with you. 

A year after you met the team, it was between two cases that he had decided to propose to you. He only had a couple days with you before another case would make him busy again. You both were in his apartment, watching whatever was on tv at 9pm. He had pretended to go to your bedroom to grab another blanket for you, but you didn’t find it suspicious, he often acted like this, he wanted to make sure that you weren’t cold, he didn’t want you to have a cold if he happened to be on a case.

When it had been a moment since he left, you decided to turn your head to the direction of the room, not seeing him in sight. Even if you didn’t want to, you slowly got up from the couch, stretching up for a bit, before heading to the room, expecting to see him asleep on your bed. 

But when you had gone into the room, you certainly didn’t expect to see him with a squared box in one of his hands, as his face turned into a worried and stressed mess. He had taken a deep breath when he had seen you, as you stepped further in the room.

Everything happened fast after that; you had jumped into his arms before he could even pronounce the question; but nonetheless, had accepted his proposal. 

You couldn’t have said no to the man you dearly loved, always here to support you, even if he only can talk to you for a minute or so, or sends a text when he’s at work. 

Your normal tv date night had turned out to be more surprising than ever. 

When you had gotten married, a flow of future projects had been included in your daily conversations, including the topic of having a kid.

But the worries about the matter would do nothing but increase on Spencer’s side. 

He kept saying that his genes wouldn’t be genes he’d want his child to ever have, he had been nothing but afraid of the moment the child would be born; his father had left him as a child, nonetheless, he didn’t know what it was like to have a father figure as he only grew up with his mother. 

On your side, you were completely lost on the whole parenthood stuff, and you always felt like you wouldn’t be ready at all to go through nine months, after you had heard other experiences from some friends that had children. 

You both were tied at point 0 on this subject, but as the conversation was brought up on a rainy day at a café; you had proposed an idea.

“Look, I know that we both are lost as hell about the ‘kid matter’, but when you left yesterday I got an idea, but I don’t know if you would be up..”

“Go ahead, I’m all ears.” 

“Well, um...what if we, adopt a kid?” 

“You want to...adopt a kid? I mean, are you sure?”

“Well, I think that would be the best option for both of us. You’ve always been worried about passing your genes to your child, and I’m not really enchanted by the idea of going through nine months so...I thought that would be a good idea that we’d both like, but if you’re not okay with this-”

“No, not at all! I just uh...asked, because if you really wanted the child to be yours or-”

“Biological or not, it will be mine, ours. It won’t change anything whether we’re blood related or not. We’ll love them the same. 

“Do you think we can really do this? I just...wouldn’t want the child to feel unloved, or anything else because I wouldn’t know how to act as a good father since you know, barely had a present father figure in my childhood.”

“You’ll be fine, no, amazing. I know you can do it, you’re amazingly caring, nice and the way you act when you’re with JJ’s kids, you’re made to be a dad, you know how to act with kids, and I’m sure that nothing could go wrong. Look at me, I don’t know anything at all about parenthood, but I do want to have a kid, and in this case, we’re gonna give a chance to a kid that didn’t get to have one.”

“I know, I’m just...afraid.”

“I know you are, I am too. But we can do this, I know we can. “

“Yeah, we can.”

“Hell yeah, we are capable of this.” You said, as you leaned in for a kiss, returned a few seconds after. You both had felt the other smile against the other’s lips to the wonderful journey that would change your lives; in a good way, of course. 

*

Who would have thought that a year later, the journey awaiting the both of you, that had you go through sleepless nights because of stress, planning everything in secret and almost getting caught a few times, would have been the most amazing thing that could have happened? 

You had both fallen in love with a little girl named Clara; she was about five years old, she really was full of joy, liked to talk with people of whatever went through a child’s mind, she really didn’t have any trouble socializing with people she didn’t know. 

But to Spencer and you, she was perfect. You swore that you could have imagined a lifetime of memories when both of your eyes laid on her. 

She also had Spencer’s hair, a detail that you didn’t fail to notice.

She really was everything both of you had wished for, and the love you had been ready to give her since you first heard about her would be unconditional. She wasn’t your biological child, but you would love her as she was, nothing could change that.

The adoption process would be long, but you both were determined to adopt her, no matter what. 

In the meantime, Spencer had decided to bring you to Rossi’s usual dinner parties after both of you happened to be free at the same time for once. You hadn’t told them anything about it, but since the adoption process had seemed to go well, you had thought that it would be a good time to announce the team. 

You had both stopped the car in front of the house, heading in the alley leading to the entrance of the house, as you had entered along with Spencer in the house , welcomed by Emily. 

The rest of the night had gone pretty well, from talking about cases to events that had occured, no one could get bored. 

Towards the end of the night, Emily, JJ, Penelope and Tara had stayed in the living room with Rossi, while Luke, Matt, Derek and Hotch had stayed in the back with you, as both of you had exchanged knowing looks, and without talking to each other, you knew what he meant. 

To your surprise, Derek had both caught you once, first thinking that it just was for whatever reason, but after a few times, your stares had happened to be suspicious. 

“Something tells me the lovebirds have a thing to say to everyone, or is it just me?” Derek had asked Luke, as Matt frowned, looking at you.

“Yeah, they got somethin’.” Matt joined the conversation. 

“Hey y/n, mind telling us? We’re curious now.” Luke asked, tapping your shoulder to bring your attention. 

“We...may have something, yeah.” You said, as you glanced at Spencer.

 “Yeah, we might.” He had answered, as you looked at him; like you wanted him to tell it instead of you. “You were the one that insisted on saying it now, so now you’re doing it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep, 100%.” 

“You’ve been exchanging looks with him all night, and now you’re shy? Come on y/l/n, go on.” Derek teased. 

“I...okay. We’ve been thinking about it for a while now and uh...we began looking into it, and filing paperwork so...okay,” you said, as you took a deep breath. “ we’re adopting a child.” You announced, as everyone became silent, apparently shocked by the sudden news. 

“But- s-since when? We uh...never heard about it, how come we never found out?” Luke asked, visibly confused about the situation. 

“We wanted it to be a surprise.” You said.

“So, we get to be uncles?!” Luke asked, eyes widening. 

“Yes, you get to be uncles.” Spencer answered, as Luke gave a high five to Derek and Matt.

“So, the kid is gonna be a father.” Hotch stated. 

“Is it a girl or a boy?” Matt asked.

“A girl, her name is Clara.” You answered.

“I don’t know how to react honestly, my mind is telling me to either jump out of joy or cry for an hour; but I’m gonna avoid embarrassing myself and avoid crying even if my whole mind is telling me to do it.” Luke admitted, earning laughs from everyone around.

“You can cry, it’ll stay between us.”

“Nah I’m okay, I’m okay.” Luke said, as it was kind of obvious that he was lying. The conversation had soon been interrupted by the sounds of various voices coming from the girls, and Rossi behind them.

“Are you having a secret party or what?” Emily interrupted. 

“No, they just announced that they adopted a child.”

“Oh, then it’s- WHAT?” She yelled.

“See? That’s us when they announced it.” 

“I- when, how?!”

“It’s been a month since we did it. We just waited for a great occasion to say it.”

“And they hid it from us without us even guessing anything.” Rossi said.

“I guess we’re prolonging the night then?” Emily asked.

“We are.” Spencer and you had both answered.

A lifetime worth of memories awaited the both of you, and you would never regret it if it meant to have someone to look to, give love and watch grow, all of this for nothing but never ending love,

forever.

----------

Taglist; @pinkdiamond1016​ ; 

[curious-menace]

Im not familiar enough with the fandom to know ships but pick a riddler u wanna ramble about the most and give me that sweet ship content (platonic or romantic)

I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL SO IM GUNNA DO 2: SCRIDDLER AND CURIOUS MEDIC

CuriousMedic in green

Scriddler in orange

-who cries when someone dies in a movie

Shepherd. She cries at everything. All the time. Even at not sad movies. Riddler def cried during Wall-e though.

No one usually. Neither will admit to being genuinely upset and disturbed by sad horror movies like Lake mungo but its safe to say they didnt really sleep that night.

-who wears the ugly holiday garb

Neither, no one likes christmas that much and both are usually stylishly dressed.

Jonathan. He likes to wear ugly sweaters year round. He has a load of them for all different holidays but obviously the halloween ones are his favorite. He has definitely made edward wear them too.

-who pays for the meals

Both. Edward does more dates and fancy restaurants, shep does more coffee, treats and takeaway.

Usually riddler. Jon “forgets” his wallet a lot. When its his turn to pay there is a lot of dining and dashing. Which would be fine but riddler hates running. He usually just pays after jon leaves.

-who slams the oven door and who plays the trombone

Shep slams the door, riddler plays the trombone.

Jonathan does both to annoy edward.

-who brings home stray animals

Both are equally bad for this. Shep brings home weird animals that make you think she’s stolen them from the zoo, edward brings home a lot of stray cats although they usually wind up with selina.

Its actually jon but only because he needs test subjects. If he cant find any he might use riddler. Edward will usually rescue the animals and send them back outside. Not out of some great morality, he just hates the sound of barking and meowing.

-who leaves the bathroom door open

Theyre both VERY particular about privacy so neither. Unless theyre both in there at the same time ;)

Jonathan leaves every door in the house open. It really annoys edward, since he’s always cold. Not only does he have to watch the straw man piss every time he goes past but now he’s bleeding heating money too.

-who tells the ‘dad jokes’

Do dad riddles count? Its fine, shep usually joins in when ed starts.

JONATHAN WILL NOT STOP WILL THE DAD JOKES. No man no god can make him give over when he’s on a roll.

-who wants kids more

NEITHER THEY BOTH HATE KIDS. although they are both great around other peoples kids. Defacto rogues babysitters.

Again, neither. They have a small soft spot for kids, will usually avoid endangering them with their schemes and usually humor them if a kid was to come up to them, curious, while they were in full riddler or scarecrow garb

-who travels more

Hmm. Riddler travels more often, for pleasure but shep travels the furthest usually for business.

Hmm. well riddler goes farther afield but jon is up and down to georgia fairly often. He preferes to drive too which riddler absolutely hates.

-who spends more cash

Shep spends most on other people, riddler spends the most oh himself.

Edward. Jonathan is a bit of a skinflint. Not like he HAS much money in the first place, no wonder hes reluctant to spend it.

-who buys the things in infomercials

Riddler has no impulse control at 2am.

Again, riddler. But scarecrow actually likes watching dumb infomercials when he cant sleep. Its like popcorn fodder for the insomnia brain.

-who draws in the dust on their cars

Riddler likes to write riddles in the dust.

Both. sometimes they like to leave little messages for one another on the back of jons truck. Riddlers car is far too clean for writing in the dirt.maybe writing WITH dirt.

-who starts the snowball fights

Shep, every time. Riddler is terrible at it but he’s good to have on team fights, he’s an excellent snow fort builder.

Is it still a snowball fight if all scarecrow does is get a bucket of snow and dump it on riddlers head while he’s sleeping?

-who throws away the directions to things

Riddler. He thinks he knows better and he’s USUALLY right. Shep is usually the one to go dig them out of the trash again.

I dont think Jon has ever thrown away anything in his life. Hes still got the instructions for a vhs recorder from 1993.

-who puts up holiday decor

Shep. she likes to put up halloween decorations on the first day of october.

I would say jonathan but he doesnt enjoy it persay. He does it because it needs doing for him to feel at home. Halloween is the exception, he loves doing the decor for halloween. It gets more and more outlandish every year.

-who is more likely to forget to bathe

Riddler. Shep likes to shower every morning. Sometimes she makes him come in there with her. Sometimes.

When theyre in a manic planning phase, theyre both equally bad at things like bathing and eating. Jon has definitely gone longer without both than riddler.

-who gets more obsessed about things

Edward wouldnt be Edward if he wasnt an obsessive nerd. Shep can hyperfocus on things for a while but its never so all consuming as edwards obsessions.

Im going to say riddler BUT scarecrow isnt far behind. Jons obsessions tend to be a little...healthier? Less detrimental to ones health? He obsesses over halloween and certain literature, which i think youll agree, is much less likely to get him punched in the face by a bat themed superhero.

-who sings in the shower more often

Shep sings louder and more often but if you press your ear to the door sometimes you can hear edward singing a little ditty.

Jon sings a lot and actually quite well, but usually when he thinks people cant hear him, he’s too embarrassed to sing in front of people. Unfortunately for him, Riddler has excellent hearing.